I'm No Harold McGee

But man, do I work hard with what I have.  

On Monday, I walked down to one of the fish markets on 30th Avenue, looking for bay scallops.  The first market I happened upon was selling the baby scallops, for a paltry $5.99/lb.  Yes, you read that right.  I paid a scant $3.00 for my half pound of bays.  

Next door, I hit up the vegetable market, allowing myself to succumb to whatever looked fresh.  That afternoon, it was baby bok choy, tiny yukon gold potatoes, green beans, fresh shitake mushrooms, and one hearty leek.  

At home, I made foil packets and chopped the veggies (minus the green beans, which I steamed separately, and the potatoes, which I boiled until fork-tender) and tossed them with toasted sesame oil, salt, pepper, ground ginger, tamari, olive oil, and rice wine vinegar.  I sliced the cooked potatoes and added them to the mix.  Finally, I seasoned the scallops, divided them between two packets, and added them to the veggies with a healthy pour of sake.  I sealed the pouches and put them in a 400 degree oven for just under 30 minutes.  

Here's the thing: the veggies steamed perfectly and the scallops were cooked through and just short of turning rubbery.  And the veggies tasted good, though I should have added more salt at the start.  But the scallops?  They were terrible.  Inedible.  So fishy that I couldn't understand why I hadn't noticed it before I'd cooked them.  

Bay scallops are generally sweeter than divers, but these reeked of bad and still salt water.  I had to throw the half pound away to salvage the vegetables, which, now lacking protein, didn't provide as satisfying a meal as I'd originally hoped.  

Well.  You can't win them all.  Last night, I opted for foods that were already in my refrigerator.  I mixed ground chicken (leftover from last week's stuffed peppers) with worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, minced onion, and minced garlic and formed them into two patties.  I cut two russet potatoes, skin-on, into thick fries and tossed them with olive oil, kosher salt, and fresh-ground pepper.  I put the patties and the fries on a baking sheet and in a 400 degree oven and left them for 15 minutes.  In the meantime, I sauteed wide rings of Spanish onion in a little olive oil, allowing them to char on the bottom.  Then, I added ketchup, Frank's hot sauce, and molasses.  Cooks beware: tomato products burn on high heat, but this was what I was looking for, a variation on a barbecue sauce replete with the burnt taste of actual barbecue.  

I flipped the chicken burgers and fries and kept them in another 10 minutes or so, long enough for the juice to run clear from the burgers' center (you can't cook ground chicken to medium-rare; it has to be cooked through).  I ate the burger atop a whole-wheat English muffin with those ketchupy onions and a half-sour pickle. 

I'm not blaming myself for the fiasco that was scallops-gone-bad.  I honestly believe it was quality of product that marked this dish's failure.  Next time, I'll hit up a different fish market.  As for the chicken burgers, I'll keep that fly-by-night recipe for later low-fat use.  

Cooking 101 For One

I like to go to the grocery store and feel inspired. Feeling inspired, however, at the junky Key Foods near my apartment remains difficult. It isn't like being in the Union Square greenmarket, where everything feels vibrant and fresh. I'm never blown away by the array of colors, the unbruised produce, the diversity of food. I take what I can get.

The one thing about my neighborhood, though, is that it's ethnically diverse. This means that the local grocery stores house products--both grown and packaged--that would probably never appear in the bright and antisepctic aisles of the suburban American supermarket. Key Foods may not be known for their produce, but they sell Queso Fresco, a Mexican cheese. They sell fresh Greek yogurt and all kinds of pickled and preserved fruits that I've never seen before and strange gelatin packets in flavors like chocolate and coconut. They sell the European-style nectars in tall glass bottles in flavors like Italian prune, apricot, and pear. They sell packaged chicken feet, which I would buy if I knew what to do with them.

They also sell tomatillos and slices of cactus and many, many different kinds of peppers. Habaneros, jalapenos, red and green bells, orange Dutch peppers--Key Foods has them all. Therein lay the moment of my inspiration when I found myself in the grocery store yesterday afternoon. I had been craving vegetables as it was and was trying to think of a way to make a dinner for myself that contained a fair amount of protein and very little starch. Right there in the vegetable aisle I decided to make stuffed peppers.

Back home, I gutted three peppers, one yellow, one orange, and one red. At the store, I had purchased two tomatillos, one fresh jalapeno, and one package of ground chicken meat. I browned the chicken, adding salt, pepper, cayenne, cumin, chili powder, and dried cilantro. The meat was very lean and started to stick to the pan after a few minutes, at which point I added a teaspoon or so of olive oil.

I put the browned chicken to the side. Using the same frying pan, I sauteed the chopped tops of the three gutted peppers (stems removed, of course), the jalapeno, one half of a Spanish onion, three cloves of garlic, the tomatillos, and half a cup of thawed frozen corn. I added to this mixture the same blend of spices that had seasoned the chicken along with a healthy dose of Frank's Red Hot, some worcestershire sauce, and a few tablespoons of ketchup. I sweated this mixture down until the peppers were soft (but not mushy). Then I added the chicken back in.

I stuffed my three peppers with the meat/veggie mixture and placed them in a Pyrex casserole dish. Over the top, I drizzled some olive oil to help expedite the cooking process. Into a 350 degree oven the peppers went for about 30 minutes (I checked on them in between). They were ready when the peppers felt pliable when stabbed with a knife.

On the side, I steamed a head of broccoli with red pepper flakes, salt, and course pepper. Unfortunately, I was out of chicken stock, or I would have steamed the veggies in stock. Stockless, I went with water instead.

Now, I am not a calorie counter, but it should be noted that this entire meal--I ended up eating half of the broccoli and two peppers--hovered around 400 calories. The chicken I bought came to 180 calories for a quarter pound; I ate about a third of a pound, or roughly 240 calories. I used about two tablespoons of olive oil in the entire meal and ate about 150 calories' worth of that oil last night. Veggies are virtually calorie-free, but are rich in fiber. It turned out to be the perfect meal.

I do wish I could do things like this more often, living off of vegetables and small amounts of lean protein rather than relying on starch or fatty meats to sustain my diet. The American belief that meat and potatoes provides the requisite heartiness for a healthy diet is an invention; humans can survive just fine without a daily intake of red meat or starch. All we need is the inspiration to change what we eat.