Top 10 Food Trends for 2010: All Breakaway Related!

Imagine my surprise when the folks at The Food Channel published their “top 10 food trends” for the year, and almost all of them were directly related to breakaway cooking! I’m borrowing their graphics here, and adding my own commentary; you can see their original posting here.

I’ve never considered cooking from scratch to be a trend — considering it was the ONLY way to cook throughout 99.9999 percent of human history — but hooray anyway! Using great raw ingredients in very simple ways is the very heart of breakaway cooking. Nothing very fancy, and never anything fussy, just simple honest food, prepared with a global perspective in mind.

It appears that, finally, Americans are getting more comfortable experimenting in their own kitchens. Hooray again! I’ve said it a million times, and let me say it again: it’s all about YOUR palate, not someone else’s. You can, and should, tweak away in any way you see fit. You’re the one eating the results. Every culture has a kind of culinary canon, but that doesn’t mean you have to follow it. Ignore what doesn’t resonate, and dive into that that does. Canonical dishes became canonical because they tend to work, and lots of people like and reproduce them, but seriously: experiment! The food tradition police aren’t watching!

More and better stuff in grocery stores, especially in the produce aisles. I would add to this: more ethnic markets! Don’t forget: for things like fresh spices, fresh herbs, rice, and of course global flavor blasts, ethnic markets are far superior to, and vastly cheaper than, the megastores like Safeway. If you think about it, this isn’t surprising: the majority of people who shop in ethnic markets (think Mexican, Korean, Middle Eastern, Japanese, Chinese, Southeast Asian, and Indian) actually cook a ton at home, and actually USE spices! This means turnover is higher, which means their supplies are ipso factor fresher and better. Take full advantage of these markets, people!

They said it so well I’ll just quote. It’s pure breakaway!

“This is all about flavor delivery. Immigration has come to the plate, and we are now defining a new Global Flavor Curve. Part comfort, part creativity, the latest flavors are coming from the great American melting pot. So, it’s about grandma’s food, but the recipes may be written in Japanese. American food is distinctive in its lack of identity outside of the hamburger—until, that is, you mix in our heritage. This is the year we’ll do it in a big way. The presentation of food, the flavor, and the experimentation is coming into its own in 2010.

It’s really a redefinition of “ethnic” to take it beyond even traditional thinking. Flavors from Africa and Japan and Asia are joining with Mexican and Italian as top-of-mind choices—“Let’s go out for Thai” is as common in many American cities as “I’m craving Mexican.” And, the menu in that Thai restaurant may well offer a side of French fries.

It’s not just about restaurants, of course. The true American ethnic is a merging of flavors at home. We’re taking those old recipes, and we’re applying our own cooking knowledge and available spices to make them “original” all over again. We’re pairing things differently, too—a little from this country, a little from that, and we have a new flavor and texture combination that is distinctly American. It’s a great time to be a spice.”

Vet your food, folks. If you eat meat, try to find a local farmer/rancher who’ll sell you a little; you really owe to yourself and your family to KNOW where it comes from. Small family ranches will often sell you a whole animal that you can share with some friends if you have a small, inexpensive freezer. And they’ll butcher it, wrap it, label it, and freeze it for you, too. Often for LESS than you’d pay for industrial meat, whose practices you really don’t wanna know about.

Sourcing local veggies and fruit is obviously much easier: you just have to go to your local farmers’ market. There really is no reason to do your main shopping for your food staples at supermarkets (occasionally, of course, convenience and circumstances dictate that we must, but it’s more the exception than the rule for breakaway-style cooking).

Sort of the same point as #5, but throw in packaging: buying your food from farmers and ranchers you meet in person necessarily means better — that is to say, less — packaging. Just bring your canvas bags!

To use Pollan’s phrase, “edible food-like substances” are necessarily concerning themselves more with boosting the nutritional values of foods — mainly because they sell better with messages like “more antioxidants!” — but we’re not concerned with that at all, since “nutritional” processed foods are largely still crappy processed foods. Avoid them like the plague. And stock up on the real nutritional superfoods (and breakaway staples) like matcha, pomegranate, blueberries, all leafy greens, wild salmon, turkey, squashes, beans, oats, walnuts, citrus ….

Well, need we say more! This was the most personally pleasing of the ten for me. Do a search on umami in the upper right corner of this blog to get a glimpse on how often we talk about umami around here. Boosting the umami levels of your home-cooked food will make you a far, far better cook, guaranteed!

I love trading cooking classes, private dinners, or anything else for services I need and can’t really afford (things like web design, web development, legal advice, accounting advice, etc.). If you grow some of your own food, and have more than you can use, you can even trade that! Check out Veggie Trader.

Not sure I quite get what they’re driving at here, except maybe that individual palate is king. And that many, many people these days are doing lots of DIY food projects like pickling, making jerky, making flavored salts, etc. Breakaway projects, all of them!

I’m loving that so many of the above fit so nicely into the approach we’ve been trumpeting here for years. So bravo to you, Food Channel!

Posted by Eric | 5:35 pm 01/13/2010 | Posted in Miscellaneous | 10 Comments »

Bitterly Delicious, Two-Minute Salad

Pickings are somewhat slim these days at the local farmers markets, so I was doubly pleased to find one of the most beautiful displays of winter greens I’ve ever seen at the stand of Jesse Kuhn’s Marin Roots farm. He probably had ten kinds of bitter lettuces and chicories, all surreally gorgeous and deliciously bitter.

“Deliciously bitter” may sound like a contradiction, but it’s not (it also sounds better in Japanese: “nigakute oishii” is high praise there). The trick to enjoying these beautiful, healthful salad greens (“salad purples” is more like it) is to introduce a tiny amount of sweetness in the dressing to offset the bitterness. So my two-minute prep of this salad went something like this:

Tear up enough leaves for your salad (Jesse washes his lettuces meticulously, so I often don’t even bother with rinsing and spinning)
Drizzle on your best fruity green unfiltered olive oil, along with a drizzle of something sweet. My favorite sweetener for this use is jaggery syrup (watch for a video on how to make this soon in this space), but you could also use agave, ginger syrup, simple syrup, or maple syrup). A brief squeeze of Meyer lemon or other citrus for acidity.
Toss on pomegranate arils, a few marcona almonds, and flowers, and dust with s&p (yuzu salt or tangerine salt are especially nice).
Declare victory, and get ready for an entirely different — and thoroughly pleasant — salad experience.

You could tart this up a million and one ways — with more fruit, smoked fish, other veggies — but sometimes the simplest salad is the best, provided your ingredients are top-notch.

Does anyone else here like bitter lettuces?

Posted by Eric | 2:06 am 01/05/2010 | Posted in Cooking ideas | 5 Comments »

Fantastic Breakfast: The Savory Sourdough Strata

I suspect I’m not alone in my breakfast rut: we have a decent rotation of morning dishes — killer oatmeal (made with persimmon goop this time of year), homemade granola over Greek yogurt and fresh fruit, poached eggs, fluffy herby eggs, baked eggs, orange yogurt pancakes, Dutch babies, and a few more — but I often find myself pining for something new.

So I was cruising around the web, hoping to find something good to make on Christmas morning, and happened upon something I had never heard of called “strata”: a casserole dish layered with aromatics and bread. The idea is to alternate layers of bread and veggies and to pour an eggy custard over them, refrigerate overnight, and bake in the morning. I don’t normally do much overnighting of anything, but I figured what the hell, I wanted out of my rut. You do have to have a modicum of energy at night to assemble it, but it only takes 10 minutes or so to prepare, and you’ll be glad you did in the morning: you just have to turn on the oven, take it out of the fridge, and plop it in the oven. It’s especially great as a stress-free way to serve a hearty breakfast to guests, along with a bowl of fresh seasonal fruit (it’s fantastic with fuyu persimmons).

I naturally wanted to up the overall savoriness of the dish, so I added my umami standbys of pulverized dried tomato, shiitake dust, and parmesan. All the recipes I’ve seen use milk, but I think it’s better with yogurt. I think it tastes better in a claypot, too. Here’s how I did it:

3 cups cubed sourdough bread
1 cup finely grated parmesan
¼ cup minced shallots
1 cup diced crimini (or other) mushrooms
4 eggs
1 cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon pulverized dried tomato
generous sprinkling of salt and pepper
1 tablespoon shiitake powder

1) Place half the bread into a large claypot or other earthen vessel, or casserole dish that’s been lightly buttered. Sprinkle in half the parmesan, half the shallots, and half the mushrooms. Follow with the rest of the bread, parm, shallots, and mushrooms (this creates the “strata”).

2) Whisk together eggs, yogurt, salt, and pepper, and pour this over the strata. Top it with the shiitake powder. Cover tightly and place in the refrigerator overnight.

3) In the morning, preheat oven to 325. Bake for 30 minutes, then crank up the heat to 425 for another 10 minutes, or until the top is nicely browned and crusty. Serve in the claypot, at the table, with some fruit.

Has anyone ever made a strata before? Does anyone have any can’t-live-without breakfasts you’d like to share?

Posted by Eric | 7:09 pm 12/27/2009 | Posted in Cooking ideas | 12 Comments »

Happy Holidays, Breakaway Cooks!

Christmas this year is oddly peaceful for us — having a newborn means you don’t have to do *anything*! No one expects any meals or much socializing … it’s pretty much Daphneluv, 24/7!

So a quick note of thanks to this cool community we have here. It’s a pure pleasure for me to write this blog, and I look forward to another year of good cooking with you all. Next year should be a banner one, I hope: we’ll roll out the video series, and I hope to have the Breakaway Vegetarian Cook ready by late spring/early summer. As many of you know, it’s going to be a digital book, complete with video sections, lots of great photography, and deep links to writing I’ve done over the years. We’re also rolling out a facelift for the entire website, including a new section we’re calling “gifts and gear” — a webstore with all kinds of products I’m enamored with and use on a near-daily basis. And, most importantly….. we’ll be documenting Daphne’s growth into hypercuteness! I can’t wait till I can start feeding her solid food………..

Happy holidays!

Posted by Eric | 9:38 pm 12/23/2009 | Posted in Cooking ideas, Miscellaneous | 5 Comments »

Umeboshi Duck With Persimmon

I think duck legs have to be one of the greatest bargains around. Eight bucks or so will buy you four delectable pieces of ducky heaven that keep on giving: you can render some of the fat for later use (potatoes fried in duck fat are one of life’s truly great pleasures), you get four wonderful entrees, and you can make a meaty, smoky stock with the bones. My method: place them in a large claypot or other earthen vessel and gently roast in a low-heat (275) oven for about 30 minutes, to render the fat. Pour it off into a clean jar for later use — you should get quite a bit (at least a small jam jar’s worth).

Heavily season with salt and pepper, put them back in the oven, and turn up the heat to 350, where they will roast for another 30 to 40 minutes. Check to see how brown they are; they may need a little more time. They should look pretty well done, with some visible separation of meat and bone. And finally, crank it way up to 45o for as long as it takes (typically 10 to 15 minutes) to get the skin supercrisp and well-browned, near black. During this last stage, pit and finely chop a few umeboshi, and smear it on the duck when it’s finally done. The piquancy of the umeboshi played against the superrich fat of the duck is one of the world’s greatest combos.

I thought about serving the legs with rice, but then, the giant pile of fuyu persimmon caught my eye: what if I just chopped up the persimmon in lieu of the rice? Some of the fat from the duck would drizzle down into the fruit, making the perfect dressing! It was lovely, served with some pickled fennel, superkraut, and avocado.

Does anyone else cook duck legs? If so, how?

Posted by Eric | 10:00 pm 12/16/2009 | Posted in Cooking ideas | 2 Comments »

Buddhacello

Our sweet neighbor Julia welcomed Daphne into the world with a gorgeous Buddha’s hand citron. My interpretation of this generous event is thus: make a delicious limoncello-like Italian cordial with it and propose a bottleful of toasts! This is my first foray into citruscello land, but I have it on good faith that it couldn’t be simpler: zest about a quarter-cup of zest from citrus of choice, let it steep in good-quality vodka for two weeks, then add sweetener of choice, along with some water, and freeze. If I like the buddhacello results, it won’t be long till kaffiracello, yuzucello, et cetera! I almost never drink hard booze — wine with meals and beer on a hot day keep my liver with plenty to do — but this is more like a tiny hit of boozy dessert than a slam ‘em shot of something hard … besides, they will make cool little xmas gifts in smaller bottles. Will post the results in a month or so.

I’m feeling pretty sleep-deprived these days, so not a lot of adventurous cooking. Hugely grateful to friends who are dropping off bags of both ingredients and cooked food. Even still, I feel there’s always time for a good, proper breakfast, heated-up leftovers for lunch, and simple dinners with lots of greens. Desserts, too, are in high demand. Not my forte or natural inclination, yet I’m enjoying making them — different tapiocas are showing up with regular frequency, so I hope to work up a post on tapioca experiments soon.

Posted by Eric | 7:57 pm 12/07/2009 | Posted in Cooking ideas, Miscellaneous | 2 Comments »

Guest Post: Healthy Persimmon Crêpes

I’m very happy to present the first guest post, from the talented photographer, blogger, and nutritionist Emiko Taki, while I tend to the fulltime job of feeding and caring for Delia and Daphne. I’m delighted that Emiko is part of this community. You can see some of work at her blog, KitchenEm.

By Emiko Taki

This is very similar to the Persimmons Grand Marnier in The Breakaway Cook, but was made rather spontaneously. Recently, I was working on a recipe involving lots of egg whites/meringue, and hated to waste all the egg yolks that were piling up in my poor neglected rice bowl.

So I decided to make some crêpes. But I didn’t want them to be another anonymous number on a crêpes shop menu.

One recipe I consulted called for a quarter-cup of melted butter — a half stick. Now, I do realize that butter is often essential for many, many desserts, but do I really need, or want, that much butter in my crêpes? I decided to replace the butter with some 1% milk, and added some cardamom and cinnamon to spice up the batter. (The nutritionist in me can’t help but say: people often mistake the percentage on the milk carton for the amount of fat, but it’s actually fat percent measured in weight. So, whole milk is about 50% fat and 2% milk is about 33% fat.)

The crêpes looked and tasted pretty good, much better than I expected. But then what? Do I dress them up by adding a blob of whipped cream and smearing on some chocolate fudge? That would totally defeat the purpose of making it low fat. I looked around the kitchen and found a few persimmons that I got from my colleague, still not quite so Persimmon-orange, and not ready to be eaten fresh just yet. Fantastic! I sliced it thinly, simmered in a little water, and finished with a little bit of sugar and bourbon. That’s when I thought of Eric’s book and there it was! Okay, my version is cheap – not quite the Grand Marnier, but it tasted great. I’m not too fond of overly syrupy, sugary desserts, yet the crêpes & persimmons just by themselves were a bit too dry; I added a tablespoon of Greek yogurt, which rounded it out perfectly.

Posted by Eric | 10:14 pm 11/29/2009 | Posted in guest posts | 3 Comments »

Happy Thanksgiving, Breakaway Cooks!

I think everyone can guess what we’re most thankful for this year . . . .

It’s incredible how important food has become, even more so than before — eating well means Delia’s happier and healthier, which in turn means Daphne is, too. Even one “off” meal of takeout seems to start a somewhat negative cycle, only to be corrected by something whole and homemade and whipped up with love. I did manage to slather a bird with mole (thinned with pickled fennel brine) and stuck it in a large cast-iron chicken fryer. It’s roasting away right now and is filling the house with great smells.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! We’ve got enough love floating around here to sate the planet!

Posted by Eric | 6:49 pm 11/26/2009 | Posted in Cooking ideas, Miscellaneous | 5 Comments »

Daphne Camille Gower — Irasshai!

We interrupt this regularly scheduled broadcast to bring you the breaking news of the arrival of Ms. Daphne Camille Gower, who parachuted into the world on November 18, all 3.3 delicious kilograms of her. Her father, a certain breakaway cook, managed to talk the OBGYN into letting him deliver/catch her and place her on the chest of her heroic, epidural-free mother, Ms. Delia van der Plas, to the great delight of everyone present. Ms. Daphne and her parents, who are getting used to the life without the precious commodity known as sleep, are now home, eating all the food prepared weeks before her arrival.

Her father is resisting, often quite mightily, the urge to drizzle a few drops of pomegranate molasses on her mother’s breasts to give her a direct foretaste of what is to come! He is also being kept wildly busier than he imagined, and is still accepting ideas/submissions for guest posts that can run in this space during these next few weeks. Ms. Daphne will likely make semi-regular appearances here; if you have any bubbly around, perhaps the collective CLINK of the glasses will reach her unbearably cute ears. Ms. Daphne gratefully accepts all well-wishers.

:^)

Posted by Eric | 7:25 pm 11/22/2009 | Posted in Miscellaneous | 31 Comments »