Ben Cooks Everything

Remember the frozen pesto from before? It met its delicious end this weekend.

20 Quick and Easy Ways to Spin Fast Tomato Sauce, #12. Stir in as much or as little pesto as you like after the sauce finishes cooking.

New favorite.

Last week I went back to Philly to hang with Carly, Rob, and their daughter Lily, who’s now 9 months old and by far my cutest cousin (sorry, Lev). When I arrived, Carly asked me if I could do anything with a squash that their neighbor had given them. It was one of the craziest looking squashes I’ve ever seen, like an enormous bright green pumpkin.

Some research on the Serious Eats boards led me to believe (I’m not 100% sure this is correct, so feel free to chime in below in the comments) that the mutant vegetable was a kabocha, also referred to as a Japanese pumpkin. Bittman’s advice in How to Cook Everything is that even though winter squashes are all different, they’re interchangeable in recipes–they may need a bit more or less cooking time or liquid as they cook, but you can feel free to mix and match. So that’s what I did: I took the recipe for braised and glazed winter squash with soy variation, and used this enormous green pumpkin instead of the usual butternut, which Bittman warned me would be better because it’s “easier to deal with than the others.”

That’s probably true. Peeling this thing was a pain in the ass, and I tried roasting its seeds thinking they’d be just like pumpkin seeds. They were not. They tasted weird and cooked really unevenly, so some ended up soggy and others were burnt to a crisp.

For the squash, you cut the vegetable up into cubes, then heat some oil in a pan with garlic. After the garlic starts to cook, you add the squash, some water, and some soy sauce and salt and pepper. Let this simmer, covered, until the squash is tender. Bittman says this takes about 20 minutes, but with the green pumpkin, which I suppose is much more dense than butternut squash, it took over an hour and still wasn’t as tender as I would have liked. It was pretty tasty though.

My camera died before dinner was ready, so there’s no photo of the finished product this time; instead, I give you this picture of Lily playing with a pumpkin.

After work, my pal Melanie and I decided to make pizza for dinner. We got some dough from Whole Foods (more on that later) and picked up a bunch of toppings, to add to things I already had in the house, as well as a healthy amount of wine. Talia and Ryan came by and we had a veritable party of pizza on our hands.

So, we originally planned on making 4 medium sized pies, but the dough from Whole Foods was way too cold to work with, so Talia (she’s a professional, y’all!) broke the dough balls up into smaller pieces and put them on top of the oven so they’d proof faster (she also taught me the term “proof”). After a while they were warm enough to roll out, stretch, top and finally bake.

I’ve made the dough myself before, and I’ve also bought it from my local pizza place. This was the first time I tried the dough at Whole Foods. It’s the same stuff they use for their prepared pizza in the store, and it’s very good. But it was more expensive (only by a dollar or so but still), and it was not immediately ready to work with, a huge problem as we were just off work and really starting to get hungry. When you go to a pizza place, their dough is proofed and totally ready to go. And it’s cheaper. And it’s probably more convenient than Whole Foods. Win-win-win! Glad I tried the Whole Foods dough, but probably not going to do it again.

So, on to the pies. First up, we had Caramelized Onions and Vinegar (which I’ve made before). For this, you make Bitty’s (can I call him Bitty? I saw Mario Batali do it on that terrible show they were on together and I kind of love it, but I’m not Mario Batali, so…) recipe for caramelized onions, and then stir in a tablespoon or so of good balsamic vinegar. This goes on the pizza, and the pizza goes in the oven. Do not underestimate this simple topping–it’s addictive.

Next was a more traditional pizza, at least by my provincial New York thinking. I had some tomato sauce with turkey sausage in it leftover from pasta dinner the night before, so we put that on the dough along with some smoked mozzarella. This was good. Very good. The smoked mozzarella was something I was not certain about, but it’s now going to be a fixture at every pizza party.

Then, a pesto pie. Once again, having pesto in the freezer ready to go is a godsend.

I just defrosted it, spread it on the dough, and then topped it with some sweet yellow grape tomatoes from the market. And some more smoked mozzarella. Again, delicious. What’s not to like?

The last pie was olives and rosemary and a bit of olive oil. It was good, but certainly not the favorite of the night. Following that one, we started experimenting, making one with just olive oil, and another with a bit of parmesan and the leftover smoked mozz. Really, the main thing here is that you can’t really go too wrong, and you should try anything that suits your fancy. There’s about 30 variations in How to Cook Anything, and many more than that if you’re feeling creative. Have a pizza party today. If you buy the dough pre-made, it’s actually a pretty quick meal, and you don’t need all the crap everyone tells you that you MUST have, like a peel and pizza stone.

It’s fall, and I had a hankering last week for soup. I made a ton of stock, froze most of it, and used the rest, thinning it with some water, to make the Leek and Potato Soup from HTCE. This is such a simple soup, but just three ingredients make a hearty and rich broth. It’s easily going to become something I make all the time.

Potatoes (preferably a starchy kind, since you want them to thicken the broth), leeks, olive oil go into a large pot and cooked until they soften. In goes stock or water (or a combination) to cover. You bring that to a boil and let it simmer until the potatoes are breaking up and getting really soft. At this point, you’re pretty much done. I pureed the soup at this point, but it’s not necessary, I just prefer it that way.

Oh, and I added sausage. That move, while perfectly alright, didn’t really add much to the soup, and I’d probably leave it out next time.

Served it with some homemade croutons (i.e. a piece of toast I cut up), salad with ricotta salata on the side. Delicious.

Part of the idea of the Ben Cooks Everything project is to see what’s worth making from scratch. Some things, I’ve found, are totally worth it, save you money and store in the freezer for reheating at the perfect time (chicken stock, pesto, tomato sauce). Some of them aren’t worth it at all, I’ve always thought.

Take beans. Canned beans are fine! Bittman himself has said so, and every bean recipe in the book can work either with cooked-from-scratch beans or canned beans.

They’re certainly cheaper than canned beans–a pound of uncooked black beans cost me $1.86 and yielded 4 cups of cooked beans. And if you store them with some of the cooking liquid, they freeze and keep just as well as canned, but presumably, they taste better. I don’t know, I’ve never cooked my own.

To cook them, Bittman provides three methods: Quick-Soak (boil, turn off heat, let soak 2 hrs, return to heat, simmer til done), No-Soak (boil then simmer, til done), and Long-Soak (soak in cold water for 6-12 hrs, drain, simmer til done). Regardless of the method you use, the type of bean makes the cooking time vary greatly. I opted for Quick-Soak, Bittman’s favorite: place beans in water to cover, bring water to a boil, turn the heat off, let sit covered for 2 hours. This is the soak part of the recipe (I suppose the idea of “quick” is relative). Then you add a bit of salt, pepper, and let the beans simmer, tasting every 15 minutes until they are done. I also added a bit of stock to the cooking liquid as the water evaporated, after one of Bittman’s suggestions. It took over 2 hours for the beans to finish cooking, but most of them went into the freezer with cooking liquid to cover so that they’ll be ready to go when I need them down the line.

So, what does everyone think I should do with the beans now that they’re done?

P.S. Bittman’s list of 5 beans to always keep on hand (p. 413): white beans, black beans, pinto/kidney beans, chickpeas and lentils.

So, this dinner was held at my parents’ last month, during the hottest days of August, when we really didn’t want to turn on the oven. So, salad party! With an essential assist from Sullivan Street Bakery’s pizza bianca.

First up was the Bean Salad. At first glance, it’s not the most exciting recipe in the world. Sitting there on p. 215, it’s just onion, salt, pepper, cooked or canned beans, olive oil, vinegar (or lemon juice) and some parsley. There’s a list following, “7 Simple Last-Minute Additions to Bean Salads” that has some good ideas. But it’s not until you make your way to p. 216 that the variability really hits you: here we have a full-page chart of variations (eight in all) of Bean Salad. You think you can go either way on bean salads, but what about a Spicy Black Bean Salad? Chickpea Salad w/ Chutney? Meditteranean Stlye White Bean Salad? Yeah, I thought so.

The latter is what Mom decided on: white beans with tomato, cucumber, a bit of shallot, and lemon juice for the acid. This salad was delicious and I imagine the leftovers tasted even better after the additional soak time.

Next up was Tomato, Mozzarella, and Basil Salad, also known as the Caprese salad. This is one of those recipes that is so simple it’s almost sitting there on the page, mocking you. “You really need me, asshole?” it seems to taunt, complaining to its recipe friends what an idiot you are.

Cut up some tomatoes (using good ones is important). Cut up a ball of mozzarella. Tear up some basil leaves. Layer it all on one plate. Salt, pepper, drizzle with olive oil (I like a splash of balsamic, too, though Bittman omits this). Done. A combination that’s as common as PB&J;, and with good reason.

Next up was Bittman’s Chicken Salad with Olive Oil and Fresh Herbs, a lighter alternative to the usual mayo-heavy chicken salad. This recipe is free of any mayo–it’s just shredded chicken, shallot, olives, lemon juice and zest, and a whole lot of any type of herbs you like (fresh, not dried, if possible). You can also add a bunch of torn greens, though we declined to do so.

This recipe, like the Bean Salad, is really just a matter of throwing everything into a bowl and mixing it up. It’s delicious, and it’s nice to not have all that mayo–makes the salad a lot more chickeny.

Finally, we made a salad not from How to Cook Everything, but rather from Bittman’s list of 101 simple salads for the summer. This one (#48!) was simply sliced fennel and plums (hello food processor!) tossed with a cider-ginger vinaigrette. Simple, interesting, refreshing, this may have been the star of the table.

It may have been, if we hadn’t served it all with the Sullivan Street Bakery’s pizza bianca, which very well may be the most delicious bread in the world. This meal was one of the best of the project so far. Salads: who knew?

I’ve done the steamed clams thing before, and it’s becoming something that gets easier and tastes better every time.

In Bittman’s recipe, you just sautee some shallots in olive oil, add the clams and some beer, white wine, or water. The clams do all the work from there, releasing their juices into the delicious broth until all of them are open. Then you’re done. This time, I used wine instead of beer, and I added leeks and celery to the shallots. Although I think I like the dish better steamed in beer, I will say that I was drinking the broth from the serving bowl by the end of dinner. My guests were horrified and amused, respectively.

Another recipe that’s become a new favorite is pizza dough. I’ve made pizza twice already, and I decided I’d try out the rosemary focaccia recipe, which is basically the same as the pizza dough, but you let it rise in a pan and drizzle it with olive oil, salt, and rosemary (some olives would work, too). Then you just bake it until it’s golden brown. It’s really good.

And Bittman says it freezes well–wrap the finished focaccia in plastic wrap, then a layer of tin foil, and then just reheat in the oven wrapped in another sheet of tin foil (after you remove the plastic wrap, of course).

Also, for no other reason than they were super cheap at Fairway, we enjoyed a pre-dinner snack of fresh green figs topped with a soft goat cheese.

Not something I necessarily got from Bittman, but I’m sure he’d approve.

This blog is first and foremost about cooking, and I would never try to make it a soapbox. But sometimes, politics and food intersect in ways that are hard to overlook. What we eat is often a more political issue than we care or wish to consider.

Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma (which everyone should pick up and read, stat), has an op-ed in today’s New York Times about the link between healthcare and big agriculture, and how the healthcare reforms currently being debated can, if they make it through congress intact, have a huge effect on the industrial food industry.

The moment these new rules take effect, health insurance companies will promptly discover they have a powerful interest in reducing rates of obesity and chronic diseases linked to diet. A patient with Type 2 diabetes incurs additional health care costs of more than $6,600 a year; over a lifetime, that can come to more than $400,000. Insurers will quickly figure out that every case of Type 2 diabetes they can prevent adds $400,000 to their bottom line. Suddenly, every can of soda or Happy Meal or chicken nugget on a school lunch menu will look like a threat to future profits.

When health insurers can no longer evade much of the cost of treating the collateral damage of the American diet, the movement to reform the food system — everything from farm policy to food marketing and school lunches — will acquire a powerful and wealthy ally, something it hasn’t really ever had before.

Yet another reason we need healthcare reform so badly.

Big Food vs. Big Insurance [nytimes op-ed]

This one’s a variation on Bittman’s Fresh Tomatillo Salsa recipe, where you replace the tomatillos with 2 cups of fresh corn kernels, roasted quickly with a bit of olive oil (two recipes with one stone!).

I used four ears of corn for this, roasted them briefly in the oven and then cut the kernels off the cob. To that, you add some fresh green chiles, chopped scallions, and minced garlic (I just threw all of this in the food processor and let it do the hard work for me), plus some chopped cilantro leaves and lime juice. I added some chipotle and ancho chili powder for good measure. This stuff is delicious, and it’s one of those dishes that gets tastier the longer it sits in your fridge–this definitely peaked on day three. Next time, I’m making this for taco night.

This looked like a yellowish goopy mess, so I’m sparing you the pictures. It’s pretty easy–chiles, garlic, shallots, turmeric, and secret weapon lemongrass get pureed in the food processor. Then that puree gets sauteed in a bit of hot oil and mixed with peanut butter, lime juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, and a good amount of coconut milk. That’s pretty much it.

I served this on Chinese egg noodles, which was pretty good, but I think it’d be better on meat. Slathered on a broiled or grilled chicken would be pretty good, I bet.