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I’ve been two places: Dominican Republic and on my back on the sofa.
 Dominicans eat bananas with every meal The first place was definitely better: Santo Domingo, Puerto Plata, Santiago and best of all Casa de Campo near El Romano. The food …mmm.
I ate ’the dominican flag” ( a simple rice and red bean dish) every day. All the food was tasty. Lots of plantain and banana. By far my favorite food was the magnificent soup that I couldn’t get enough of: Sancocho, DR’s culinary treasure. It’s thick and concentrated. Takes lots of time to prepare and it isn’t vegetarian and certainly not macrobiotic. I couldn’t resist and sidestepped my vegetarian regime. I did avoid the big chunks of meat.
Second place I’ve been: on the sofa, because I had my meniscus repaired by Dr. Patel.
Dominican Sancocho
- 1 (10-ounce) package Dominican longaniza sausage (optional)
- 3 quarts plus 1 1/2 cups water, divided
- 1/4 pound bacon (4 slices), cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 (1-pound) beef shank (1 1/2 inches thick)
- 1 pound boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
- 4 chicken thighs with skin and bone Continue reading Where Have I Been?
 Arame draws toxins out of the body Dark, nearly black seaweed side dishes are particularly attractive on a plate next to orange carrots or bright green broccoli. In the photo here you see it in a pocket of spring green lettuce and purple raddiccio. It’s a virtuous food; when prepared and presented with grace, seaweeds can be quite tasty. ( If you would like to read more about how Japanese girls use seaweed to lose weight, here’s a link: http://wp.me/pmQ7L-5j)
A little goes a long way–in terms of flavor and nutrients. In our house we prefer arame to its stronger tasting cousin hijiki.
Sea vegetables are loaded minerals and possess scientifically proven nutritional benefits that span the range from weight loss aids to stress reduction to dissolving tumors. (I won’t get into citing all the sources here.)The Japanese restaurants up the street from our house, in Porter Exchange, promote their arame/hijiki dishes as natural remedies for sinitus and seasonal allergies.
We eat it to “pull out” excess dairy…meaning whenever we have a cheese day or a day when we’ve consumed too much fat, the next day we eat arame.
Arame and Onions with Peanut Sauce
- large handful of arame ( or about a third of a 2.1 oz package )
- 1/2 cup apple juice
- 1 t shoyu
- 2 t safflower or peanut oil
- 1 onion
- 1 clove garlic, sliced thin ( optional)
- 2 T peanut butter
- 3T sauerkraut
- Rinse arame and then soak it in a bowl of cold water for five minutes. Drain (use the water on houseplants, if you like). Put arame in a small saucepan with about 3/4 cup water, cover with a lid and simmer for five minutes.
- Meanwhile….Cut a baseball sized onion in half. Slice the onion halves into thin half-moons. Heat oil in a skillet, add the onion and saute for a few minutes. Add garlic and continue to saute until onions are transparent.
- If there’s any water left in the arame after ten minutes drain. Add 1/2 cup apple juice. Continue cooking arame without a lid for 3-5 minutes. Add 2 T of peanut butter and the shoyu. Gently stir until peanut butter has melted. Add sautéed onion and garlic to the arame and peanut butter mixture.
- Let cool to room temperature. Before serving, add sauerkraut.
Sprinkle leftover arame over green salad the next day for lunch.
 pasta:main line to a man's heart My husband jokes (or maybe not!) that he decided to marry me one summer day when we were driving around in my MG Midget with the top down. “We were on Soldier’s Field Road, about to turn off the ramp towards Harvard Square. With total confidence, you turned to me and announced, ‘I know 1,000 ways to make pasta’.”
You must understand: Not only am I a good cook who has travelled and lived in Italy, but also that I spent my childhood eating, studying and helping out in our family’s Italian restaurant.
Much to my husband’s pleasure, I’ve served him more than 1,000 different pasta dishes during our 22 years of marriage. And whenever I want to charm a fellow–make him feel good and special–I make him pasta.
Vinicius, a young man from Sao Paola Brazil, stayed with us for a month. For his farewell dinner, I made him this simple and tasty pasta, which is also one of my hubby’s favorite’s.
- 1 lb. spaghettini (spaghetti or linguine will also work)
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 cup fresh bread crumbs
- 4 anchovy fillets in oil or brine, drained
- Salt and pepper
- 1 T finely chopped parsley
- Bring a large pan of water to boil. Add salt and the spaghettini and cook until al dente.
- Meanwhile. heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the garlic; cook a few minutes. Add the anchovies; cook and mash. Add the breadcrumbs and stir until the breadcrumbs start to change color.
- Drain the spaghettini and add to the pan with a little of the cooking water.
- Toss over high heat for a few minutes. Check for salt. In most cases you will not need to add salt. Add fresh ground pepper to taste.
- Transfer to a warmed serving platter–unless your frying pan is a good looking one like mine. Sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately, very hot.
Serves 4, 175 calories a serving
 kewpie, miso and ume add Japanese touch My husband and I met practicing aikido, a Japanese martial art based on sword moves. Consequently, anything Japanese is golden around our house:guests, film, food.
We use Kewpie, a Japanese mayonnaise, instead of Hellman’s or other popular brands.
Kewpie mayonnaise, sold in a squeeze bottle, is made with rice vinegar rather than distilled vinegar. The rice vinegar doesn’t necessarily makes it healthier than American brands: all mayo contains fat. Kewpie is creamier, sweeter, saltier and thinner than the Americans. Thinner is what is important to me.
A small thin squeeze is simply delicious on a pile soba or udon noodles (add a dash of shoyu…yum). I use Kewpie to make this Japanese influenced Waldorf Salad, which also uses miso and a dash of ume vinegar.
Ingredients (chop and put in a large bowl)
- 3 apples (I use 2 macoun and 1 granny smith) cubed
- 3 stalks of celery sliced
- 3-4 leaves of Chinese cabbage, sliced very thinly
- 1/4-1/2 cup gently chopped walnuts
- 1/2 cup raisins ( or raisins and dried cranberries)
Dressing (blend together and pour over the ingredients. Stir well. Serve immediately or put into fridge until time to eat.)
- 3-4 T Kewpie mayo
- juice of 1/2 lemon or lime
- 1/2 t miso
- 1/2 t cinnamon
- 1 T brown rice syrup
- dash of ume vinegar
- Optional additions: 1/2 cup applesauce, 1/2 cup yoghurt, if you do dairy; 1/3 cup amazake
6 servings, 146 calories a serving
 "fun guy" soup We never figured out why our young daughter called Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup “Crown of Mushroom.” Perhaps in a dream she had seen her mother wearing a Warhol-esque headress of red &white soup cans; or a brown mushroom ear warmer. Maybe princesses ate Crown of Mushroom and she opted to dine in their company.Or maybe Campbell’s once had a flavor called “Golden Mushroom Soup.”
Whatever: This soup is so good it will wipe out your memory of Campbell’s. It’s completely cream free, yet very, very rich.
Bonus points: only 170 calories.
Crown of Mushroom Soup
- 2 T olive oil
- 1 onion chopped
- 14-16 oz mushrooms, chopped (the crown: a mixutre of crimini, white, oyster, shitake,etc. ) * Reserve the most beautiful cap for garnish
- 1/2 t shoyu ( soy sauce or tamari is OK)
- pinch sea salt
- 4 cup water
- 1 cup cooked oatmeal, brown rice, or barley
- 1/4 t tarragon
- 1 T white miso disolved in 1/2 cup water
- Heat olive oil in a heavy soup pot ( I use a 4.5 quart Creuset ). Add onions and saute until nearly transparent. Add chopped muschooms. Stir. Sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt.
- When mushrooms have gone limp and released their juice, add the shoyu. stir and cover the pot. Cook on low for about five minutes.
- Add the queart of water and cooked grain. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour. Check often and stir. Add the tarragon during the last ten minutes. Add the miso, dissolved in 1/2 cup water during the final three minutes.
- Pour everything into a Vita-Mix, blender, or food processor. Blend. Pour back into the pot and let the soup rest.
- To serve: Reheat. Season with fresh cracked pepper, if desired. Garnish with a sprig of parsel, or *reserved mushroom cap sliced thinly.
4 servings. 170 calories.
Optional: Add 1 T sherry or cognac.
 quinoa, a south american "grain" For dinner we’re building our own tacos. For filling I’ll section a big tray with chopped avocado, black beans, steamed carrot, and chopped purple onion, cilantro, and tomato. The non-vegans will find shredded cheese on the tray. I’ll put a big bowl of plain quinoa on the table as well as a jar of store-bought salsa and my own Mexican tahini dressing.
Quinoa is actually a seed, not a grain, but most whole food cookers consider it a whole grain. It goes with just about every cuisine and time of day: eat a bowl of quinoa with a dash of syrup and a handful of nuts for breakfast, toss it into a salad for lunch, or concoct a dinner pilaf by adding onions and peas.
Since it originates in South America, I like to use quinoa with black beans and corn. I add south-of-the border spices to food when I cook with quinoa & am providing a recipe for tahini dressing using those spices. Use the dressing on the taco, as a salad dressing, or over warm carrots as a side dish.
HOW TO MAKE QUINOA
- 1 cup quinoa, washed and drained
- 2 cups water
Wash the “kween-wa” and drain it in a fine-meshed drainer. While quinoa is drip-drying, heat up a cast iron skillet. When skillet is hot, pour the quinoa onto the hot skillet and roast it for a few minutes. Stir so it doesn’t burn. Heating the grain brings out a nutty flavor.
While quinoa is roasting in the skillet, fill a pot with 2 cup of water, turn on the heat. Add the roasted quinoa to the water. Add a pinch of sea salt. Heat to boiling. Turn down the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes–until water is absorbed and quinoa is fluffed up.
Mexican Tahini Dressing
- 1 garlic clove smashed
- 1/4 cup tahini
- 1/4 cup lemon ( or lime) juice
- 2 T olive oil
- 2 T hot water
- pinch of sea salt
- 1 T ready-made Mexican seasoning ( or mix together your own ratio of the 5 Cs–cumin, cayenne, coriander, cocoa, and chili powder)
Whisk together the garlic, tahini, lemon juice, and olive oil. Add the hot water to thin the dressing, add salt and spices.
1/2 cup serving of quinoa is 150 calories, 2.6 grams of fat.
1/4 cup dressing is about 85 calories
When I make baguettes this quote comes to mind: Every evening in Paris, as the sun sets and offices close for the day, the sidewalks become crowded with men returning home, bearing warm baguettes or bouquets.
 twin baguette I don’t know who wrote it (if you do please let me know), or if I have quoted it exactly but an appealing image, n’est pas? Men in berets, men in suits, men in work caps, men with grey hair, men on bicycles…men helping out their mothers, wives, lovers; helping to get the dinner ready and to make it complete. Men doing nothing out of the ordinary. Men doing their part.
Surely plenty of Parisian women are also walking home with baguettes tucked under their arms, but I prefer to let my mind wander on the images of men. My father –God Bless him–would come home in the evening with loaves of fresh Italian bread nestled inside bags of thin white paper. We lived in rural Pennsylvania Continue reading Easy Baguette
 no fat if you avoid the crust Anjula, the beautiful and smart Indian woman who lived with me 2006-2007 while she was at Harvard School of Education and who I traveled with on a goodwill mission in India adored this pie. So I made it for her today; she is arriving in Boston after a long flight from Delhi which had many mishaps and delays.
We call it No-Low & Slim on Sugar because the pie contains no cane sugar. The sweet is supplied by the fruit and a bit of raisin, maple syrup and a dribble of cognac. It’s easy to make. As you can see from the photo, not muss fuss done on the crust: just fold the crust over into the fruit without pinching the rim.
Purchase prepared crust ( in upcoming blog I will tell you about my no-fat low calorie crusts, but for now use Pillsbury or store brand.)
- 4 cortland or macintosh apples
- 1/4 cup apple cider, apple juice, orange juice, or pomegranate juice (whatever juice you have but….please, never V8 or tomato juice)
- 1 1/2 T flour
- 1/3 t cinnamon
- 1T Grand marnier, cognac, whiskey, or grappa. If you don’t have or believe in liquor, add an additional T of juice or water.
- 1 T raisins
- 1 T maple syrup (optional)
- 1/4 cup water
- Purchased pie shell
Preheat oven to 350.
- Place the crust into 9-inch pie plate.** I’ll post low calorie pie crust recipes in the near future.
- Wash apples and slice into thin wedges. I cut right through the Continue reading Slim-on-Sugar Apple Pie
Big Flavor. Big Beans. Big Complements. Little Fat.
 fagiolone My mom was famous in Pittsburgh for these beans; she prepared them for every family get-together: summer picnics and, in the colder months, for Thanksgiving, Christmas and February pot lucks. Her recipe included bacon, sugar and worchestershire. Here I cleaned it up and modifed for vegans. The result is equally if not more delicious than what my mamma made and has very little fat. The beans are very, very filling.
You don’t need to eat a large portion to feel satisfied and full. Good on a slice of bread for lunch.
Note in the photo: I use “fagiolone,” super-sized limas, which are impressive. Of course, please feel free to use normal lima or “fagiolini” (little limas) when you prepare this dish.
1.SOAK AND COOK THE BEANS Soak one-pound lima beans overnight, or while you are at work. They expand a lot so be sure to put them in a big bowl. After 8 plus hours, drain water. Put beans in a big pot; cover beans with new water. Add about one-square inch kombu to the pot and 2-3 bay leaves. The konbu and bay leaves help soften the bean skins and reduce gas. Bring to a boil. Skim off the foam. Allow beans to simmer 3-4 minutes without a lid to let out gas, which would go into you if you skipped this step. Put lid on beans and cook 1- 1 1/2 hours, depending on the toughness of the beans. Check often. Do not drain the beans.
Option: Wait until tomorrow to finish the recipe or continue. I usually boil the beans one day, bake them the next, and eat the day after baking because they taste very good and complex after a rest.
Whatever you do, do not toss away the bean cooking juice You will need it later.
2. SAUTE INGREDIENTS
 create your own "stove top oven" You don’t even have to light the oven to make this satisfying, simple, sweet side-dish that’s so good for you. Yams are high is potassium and low in sodium so eating them protects you from all kinds of unwanted imbalances, especially those that end up leading towards heart disease and osteoporosis. Plus, they’re good for women to eat when they feel a bit crazy before their periods.
Everyone in my family loves yams. When I eat them, I feel camaraderie with the yam growers of Nigeria, as timelessly depicted in the novel by Chinua Acheve, THINGS FALL APART.
Purchase firm yams that match in size, are without discolored dents, and have little corruption at the ends. Store in a cool place but do not wash them until you’re ready to cook.
Here’s how to prepare yams 1-2-3.
( You’ll need a cast iron skillet with a lid & a heat diffuser)
1. Set the skillet on the stove over a medium flam. Swipe the bottom of the skillet with sesame oil, or safflower oil.–about a teaspoon, or two. Scrub the yams well with a vegetable brush. Cut the yams across the middle into slices about 1.75 inches thick.
2. When the skillet is hot, place the yam slices in it. I like to use one of the yam slices to even out the oil at the bottom of Continue reading How to Roast Roasted Yams on Stove Top
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