Brussels Sprouts

Is there a more maligned food item than the lowly Brussels sprout? Okay, well, I guess there's liver--it takes more abuse--but come on! Have you looked at liver lately? Judged strictly on appearance, liver's I'm-not-that -hungry" factor is far higher than that possessed by a sprout, which is basically a little round ball of green leaves. So why the animus toward something so inoffensive?

I'm guessing it's because they're usually prepared badly, and bad preparation can cause them to taste bitter. Well, that coupled with the general trend to look down on vegetables that seems to permeate much of the public. But anyway, here's an attempt to rehabilitate the Brussels sprout. Try braising it in cream! This is a traditional dish prepared for the Christmas holiday in Britain, and it's really good. It's also really easy, which makes it perfect for a holiday meal.

Brussels Sprouts Braised in Cream

1 lb Brussels Sprouts, stems trimmed and any discolored leaves removed
1 cup heavy cream (aka heavy whipping cream)
1/2 tsp salt
ground black pepper
pinch of nutmeg

Place Brussels sprouts in a large saucepan and add cream. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium low. Cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes, until sprouts are tender when you poke a fork into them. Remove from heat, add pepper to taste, nutmeg and additional salt if necessary, and toss. Place in a serving dish along with the cream you braised them in--it makes a wonderful sauce.

Recipe Request

I had a request to post the recipe for the German-Style Pork Ribs listed on the dinner menu last night. They're a family favorite here in my house, and the best thing is that they're great for week night cooking, because you pretty much dump everything in a slow cooker and let it simmer all day. Here's the recipe:

German-Style Pork Ribs

Country Style Pork Ribs (however many will fit in your slow cooker)
16oz sauerkraut
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp caraway seeds
1 tbsp salt
freshly ground pepper to taste

Add ribs to crock pot and put the sauerkraut (with any liquid it is packed with) on top of them. Pour the brown sugar over all, then add the caraway, salt and pepper. Cook covered on low all day. Good served with rice or noodles.

Review of "Gourmet" Magazine

This is the second of four reviews of cooking magazines. Review number one is already up and available. Reviews three and four are coming soon.

Next up under the microscope is "Gourmet" magazine, to which I purchased a subscription early this year for the bargain price of $12 annually. Now, to be fair, "Gourmet" isn't really a cooking magazine. Instead, it bills itself as "the magazine of good living". Fair enough, but the word "gourmet" carries undeniable connotations of eating fine food, and my experience has been that when there is fine food around, there's someone somewhere (likely in the kitchen) cooking it.

Even if we grant them their redefinition of the term "gourmet", however, and include other aspects of "good living" as being part of their purview, the editors of "Gourmet" seem to have lost their way. Rather than being the magazine of fine living, I'd characterize "Gourmet" as the magazine of socially-concious fine living for people who really wish they were living in New York, San Francisco or Hollywood. "Gourmet" does make references to cities and locations in middle America, but somehow they all feel as though they're written from the viewpoint of a tourist, who is visiting but would never want to actually live there. Articles about Manhattan, however? Now, that's home!

The editors apparently take their social responsibilities very seriously. My guess is that they've fallen prey to social guilt--after all, they work for a magazine called "Gourmet", and that's got to eat away at them inside. The word "gourmet" is usually associated with the Rich, and every right-thinking person knows the Rich are the root of all evil. Whole countries and governments do their (uniformly nefarious) bidding! The only acceptable sort of Rich person is one who uses their wealth and influence to better the lot of the downtrodden, the less fortunate, and lately, the environment. The editors of "Gourmet" wish to make it very clear that this last is the type of Rich person they cater to.

To accomplish this, they make certain to always include at least one or two articles that burnish their socially-concious credentials. In this year's October issue, there's a photo feature about artisan farmers who were brought to the "Citymeals on Wheels" benefit by famous chefs (the event, naturally, took place in New York). In the July issue there's a story on soil erosion and how eco-friendly researchers are trying to stop it, plus multiple stories that espouse the benefits of establishments growing their own food. In August's issue we see a story about farms in France that are all-organic or biodynamic. And the September issue is a special Latin-American issue focused on the pleasures of south-of-the-border cuisine and the industry of the immigrants who offer it. Everything from Dominican cuisine in New York City to taco trucks that serve up food right alongside the road across the south and west are covered. I'm afraid I find the timing highly suspect considering the ongoing controversy on illegal immigration and the uniformly complimentary tone of the pieces in the magazine. Am I being hyper-sensitive here? Maybe...and maybe not.

Considered solely as a cooking resource, "Gourmet" actually offers a fair number of recipes in each issue. The quibble I have with them is that most (not all) are complex, requiring more time to cook than a man with a family and a day job can realistically allocate. In addition, many of the ingredients fall into the difficult-to-find-at-the-local-Food-Lion category. For instance, the "Grilled Pork Loin with Quince Sauce" calls for quinces, naturally, plus juniper berries and veal stock. Now, I know I could trek on over to Whole Foods and find some of these (though I've looked unsuccessfully for juniper berries before), or make the longer haul to Balducci's and probably find all of these items, but it's just not convenient. There is a "Quick Kitchen" section that presents recipes that can be quickly prepared (generally in 30 minutes or less), but even there you're likely to run into ingredients like annato oil (never heard of it) or Sriracha sauce (okay, I have some of this in my cupboard, but I bet that's not true of most folks).

The best bet for using "Gourmet" as a realistic cooking resource is probably to save it for special occasions when you don't mind searching out hard-to-find ingredients and spending lots of time in the kitchen. Occasionally you'll find a recipe that is simple enough to cook on a week night, and when I've prepared some of these, they've turned out to be edible, though nothing special. If you happen across a recipe you like, though, it's a really good idea to copy it down somewhere, because that brings us to the other issue with "Gourmet"--the amount of advertising versus actual copy.

Most magazines suffer from this problem these days, I know. However, with "Gourmet", it's bad enough that I was actually surprised when I did the research for this review to find how many recipes each issue contains. They seem to get lost in all the ads. If you don't mark the recipe or copy it, it's liable to disappear among the pictures of beautiful (though no doubt eco-friendly) people smiling at each other, surrounded by advertising copy.

Despite what I said above, I confess--I do actually read "Gourmet" cover to cover. I keep issues in the bathroom off the kitchen, and find that it works well to occupy my mind when spending time in there. Idly flipping through pages, scanning ads and glancing over the odd recipe is just the thing for those quiet moments. Not exactly what the editors hand in mind, I'm sure, but even so, the publication obviously isn't totally without merit.

Okay, I think it's time to summarize. Gourmet is just the magazine for you if all your friends are tenured professors at NYU, you have a housekeeper who cooks most of your meals, and you host occasional dinner parties where guests drink Stags Leap Cabernet and discuss the merits of organic food and the horrors of chemical fertilization. If that doesn't describe you, you'll likely be less enthused. I think I'll stick with the same rating system I used last review...

Gourmet: The Magazine of Good Living

Recipes: 4
Cooking Instruction: 2
Product Evaluation: N/A
Advertising: 8
Socially and Enviromentally Conscious Viewpoint: 8

Comments from probably-not-repeat-subscriber Jake: This definitely isn't the best cooking magazine around. I'm on the fence as to whether to recommend it, though. The price is right, and it makes good bathroom reading material. Plus, it will impress guests if you display it prominently in the restroom. "Imagine what they must read when they're not in here," they'll think!

Do More, Watch Less

Yesterday's post focused very much on my outlook for the world. However, this blog purports to view the world through the lense of food, so with that in mind, today we're going to include more cooking. So I promise, if you read far enough down, you'll actually find some food talk!

About ten years ago I had a revelation. I realized that I was spending most of my life watching things, and not nearly enough time doing things. Think about it. How much time do you spend watching a movie, or a sporting event, or likely worst of all, a TV show? Do any of these things contribute to your life? My take is that they're all really "filler", a way to pass time in between periods of activity. Don't get me wrong--this has it's place. A good movie or a football game can let you escape from reality for a little while and relax, and that's a definite benefit. The problem comes in when you spend most of your free time on filler.

Historically, people haven't had much free time. There were fields to till and crops to bring in, food to hunt, and predators and enemies to fight off. Moreover, until artificial lights enabled more activity after sunset, active times were heavily constrained by the day-night cycle. After sunset, pretty much people just went to sleep. Today, though, at least in the US, Europe and other first world countries, the proportion of time taken up by work is less, the work itself is less backbreaking, leaving more energy for other activities, and the time available for non-work activity has been extended through lighting technology. Sounds like a good thing, right?

Sadly, many people don't seem to capitalize on this gift of free time. Escaping through watching the activities of others, real or fictional, doesn't actually get you anywhere in life. Sad as it is to say, it's a way of marking time, and as we all know, eventually we all have no time left. Doing something, however, no matter how small, is another story--it brings tangible rewards. So here's my advice (for however much that's worth): take advantage of your free time rather than looking for a way to make it pass.

There are lots of ways to take advantage of free time. Obvious ones include further education, starting a business on the side, playing (not watching) a sport, or even starting a blog! However, more routine things count, too. How about cooking, for instance?

When you cook, there is an obvious, direct benefit--you get a meal to eat! However, you also learn things along the way--cooking techniques, characteristics of the ingredients you use, and how different ingredients combined together taste. Cooking is a life skill--it can help you attract friends and romantic partners (a cliche, I know, but it's true--it certainly helped me attract girlfriends back in my single days), so it has value beyond the immediate meal. It's also something of a craft, or at its highest level, even an art form. When you cook a great meal, you get the same feelings any craftsman or artist gets when they create a great product.

It's also a good team activity. If you have children, cook with them! They'll be much more likely to eat what you make if they have a hand in its creation. And it gives you something that you can do together, teaches them a skill as described above, and demonstrates for them something to do with their free time besides watching life go by. I think that's an important lesson for children to learn--one of the problems I think we face today is that many people are unwilling to invest the work required to receive the rewards they desire.

Anyway, if you'd like a suggestion for a recipe to make with your kids, here's a good one. Macaroni and Cheese is a sure-fire winner. A word of warning, however--once you make this recipe from scratch, nobody in your family is going to be satisfied with Macaroni and Cheese out of a box ever again!

Macaroni and Cheese

1/2 stick (4 tbsp) of butter
3 - 4 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 3/4 cups milk
1 lb sharp cheddar cheese (the better the cheese, the better the dish will be)
10 oz macaroni (approx 2/3 of a 1 lb package)
4 hot dogs, sliced horizontally 1/4' thick (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large pot, cook macaroni according to directions on package.

In another pan, melt butter over medium heat. When it stops foaming, turn off the heat. Add enough flour to make a thin paste (about like thick gravy). Stir in mustard, then gradually add milk, stirring to keep the sauce smooth. Cut up all but the last inch of the cheese into small pieces, and add them to the milk mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring slowly, until cheese is melted and sauce is smooth.

Drain cooked macaroni and place in large, ovenproof dish. Add sauce and hot dog slices., and stir well. Grate remaining cheese over the top, and bake uncovered for about 40 minutes.