Big City Lamb Souvlaki

When I lived on Corfu, souvlaki meant skewers of grilled, marinated pork. But on a trip through Athens seeking out the best street food and mezedhes, we found this version of souvlaki to be utterly addictive. These Greek kebabs are moist and tender with just the right amount of spice. Serve these lamb skewers on platters with tzatziki, or in pitas with chopped tomato and onion.

big-city-lamb-souvlaki

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The Basics of Braising

As the days grow grayer the light inside glows a tad warmer and anything cooked over a slow, mellow heat seems to suffuse our very souls with comfort. These, my friends, are braising days.

How to Braise

Braising is a cooking method that breaks down tough, fibrous meat through the convective action of steam. After an initial browning on the stove top, meat is sealed in a pan with a small amount of liquid and cooked at a low, steady heat—often for several hours. The reward is meltingly tender meat and a savory, complex sauce with surprisingly little hands-on cooking time.

Ironically, tougher cuts of meat yield the most tender and flavorful braises. Shanks, ribs, legs, shoulder, and chuck or round roasts have ample connective tissue which breaks down and tenderizes meat during a long cooking time, while lean cuts like chicken breast or beef tenderloin simply dry out.

When braising, choose a heavy-duty shallow pot or deep, straight sided pan with a secure lid, like a Dutch oven, a doufeu or even a deep-sided oven-proof saute pan. It should be wide enough to accommodate the meat snugly in a single layer and deep enough so the lid fits tightly. You may need to brown in two batches in order to allow air to circulate freely around the food, but during the slow simmer, meat should be nestled as closely together as possible.

There are four basic steps to braising: browning the meat, deglazing the pan, slow cooking and finishing.

1. Brown the meat on the stove top. Heat the Dutch oven over medium-high heat and swirl in a minimum of fat. Then thoroughly brown the meat on all sides. Allow at least 1/2-inch space between the pieces so that air can circulate or the meat will steam rather than sear (brown in batches if necessary). Don’t rush this process; the more developed the crust, the deeper and more concentrated the flavor of the braise will be. Transfer to a plate when done.

2. Add aromatics like garlic, shallots and hardy herbs to the pan and cook until fragrant and golden. Deglaze the pan with wine, scraping up any bits stuck to the bottom. Then add the braising liquid and bring to a vigorous simmer.

3. Add the meat back to the pan, nestling it into a single layer, then cover tightly and move to the oven. Cook at a low to medium heat until meat is fork tender.

4. Remove meat from the pan and cover loosely with foil. Reduce the sauce on the stovetop over medium-high. Lower heat, add meat back to the pan and simmer to heat through.

There are dozens of variations on the basics, leaving the technique open to interpretation and imagination (like the Five Spice Braised and Glazed Beef Short Ribs below). The ultimate hallmark of a braise is the comfort it brings, both while in the oven and at the table.

Braised and Glazed Five Spice Short Ribs

Braising renders these Asian-inspired short ribs meltingly tender with relatively little hands-on cooking time (and the glaze makes the flavors even more intense).  The ribs freeze beautifully, so cook up this extra large batch and stash half away for a later date.

five-spice-ribs-recipe

2 teaspoons Canola oil
3 tablespoons five spice powder, divided
1/4 cup whole wheat white flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
6 pounds bone-in beef short ribs (roughly 12 ribs)
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped ginger
1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce, divided
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar, divided
1 cup beef broth
1/4 cup honey

Preheat oven to 300. On the stovetop, heat Canola oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat.

In a wide bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons five spice powder, flour and salt. Dredge each rib in the flour mixture, tapping off excess, and brown on all sides in the Dutch oven, 10-12 minutes total (in batches if need be to allow enough space between the ribs for air to circulate). Remove to a plate as done.

Add onion, carrot, garlic and ginger to Dutch oven and brown for 8-10 minutes. Deglaze pan with 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar and beef broth. Bring back to a boil, nestle ribs in the pot, cover and transfer to the oven. Braise for 3 hours and remove from oven.

While ribs are cooking, mix together honey and remaining 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar and 1 tablespoon five spice powder in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium and reduce glaze until a syrupy consistency, about 10 minutes.

When ribs are done, transfer them to a cookie sheet and turn the oven to broil. Brush ribs with half the glaze and broil for 3 minutes, until bubbly. Turn over, brush with remaining glaze and broil another 3 minutes.

Serves 10-12

Barramundi with Shallots and Chile

Barramundi’s meaty yet flaky texture makes it a good pair for dishes with an Asian flair. Like this one, with caramelized shallots and chile and a savory splash of fish sauce. You can find barramundi at many fish counters these days, or in the frozen section of several supermarkets.

barramundi-shallots-recipe

2 tablespoons peanut oil
1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots
2 jalapenos, thinly sliced
2 8-10 ounce barramundi fillets
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons fish sauce

Heat peanut oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Saute shallots and jalapenos for 2-3 minutes, until just amber.

Add fish to the pan and sear on one side for 3 minutes.

Flip the fish carefully with a spatula. Sprinkle sugar and fish sauce over top and cook another 3 minutes, shaking pan occasionally.

Serves 4

Go Meatless on Monday (or Tuesday . . . Or Wednesday . . . )

Here’s a nibble that falls under the “small change, big impact” category: designate one day a week where you take a break from meat. Why? Given that most of us fall short of our veggie quota and tend to eat more meat than we need, it’s a chance to even out the scales for a healthier body. And it’s good for the earth too; meat and poultry are much more energy-intensive to raise than vegetables. Cutting out meat just once a week (which adds up to 15% of your total diet, by the way) means your weekly meals have a smaller footprint on the planet.

Here are a few tips to help you go meatless any day of the week:

  • Choose Meaty Vegetables – Vegetables like mushrooms, eggplant and winter squash have a succulent mouth feel to them that mimics that of meat.
  • Experiment with Alternate Proteins and Whole Grains – Feature side dishes (like lentils or rice) and garnishes (think nuts) in more prominent roles. Lentils, nuts, eggs and tofu are all packed with protein and, paired with whole grains and vegetables, are surprisingly satisfying as a main meal.
  • Be Liberal with Your Healthy Fats – Since plant-based foods tend to be less calorically-dense than meats, there’s freedom to indulge a bit more than usual in healthy fats. Using a liberal amount of Canola oil to crisp up tofu slices or drizzling your best extra virgin over slow-cooked white beans, for instance, will add considerably to the dish.

This week, make a day of your choosing meatless . . . you’ll be surprised how satisfying it can be.

For more information on the Meatless Monday initiative, visit the website—thanks to Kim O’Donnel for bringing it to my attention!

Simplest Roast Chicken

I’ll admit it: When it comes to making roast chicken, I’m lazy. There are techniques that have you rotating the bird every few minutes so that it turns browns evenly, but I like to pop it in the oven and not think about it again (aside from swooning over the scent) until the timer goes off for good. And good—very good—is what we’ve found this bird to be. You don’t have to use an organic, free-range chicken, but we’ve found that it pays off in both flavor and juiciness.

simplest-roast-chicken-recipe1 (3-1/2 pound) good-quality chicken (take this to mean what you like: free-range, locally-raised, organic . . . just preferably not a brine-injected, mass-produced one)
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
8 thyme sprigs
1 lemon, halved lengthwise

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Gently work your fingertips under the breast, leg and thigh, and rub meat with salt and pepper (I like to fill a separate little ramekin with a mix of salt and pepper to do this so I don’t get my pepper grinder all chicken-y). Sprinkle more salt and pepper on top of skin and in cavity. Stuff the thyme sprigs under the skin and the lemon halves into the cavity.

Roast on a V-rack in a roasting pan, breast side up, for 60-75 minutes, until the legs pull away easily and the juices run clear. Let chicken stand at room temperature for 15 minutes (tent it with foil to keep it warm) before carving.

Serves 4

Know Why Organic Matters

As farmers’ markets shutter for the season and backyard gardens go to seed, many of us will retreat to the grocery store for the bulk of our food purchases. The question is, when “local” options dwindle, will you opt to buy organic?

There seems to have been a sort of backlash against organic in recent months. Some people say it’s too expensive, that in this economy organic food just isn’t relevant. Others say the complex bureaucracy of USDA Organic Certification shuts out small farmers who can’t afford the manpower to keep up with the paperwork. There’s some truth to both of those arguments.

But there’s another fact that’s been left out: The organic label is still consumers’ only institutionalized way of having a say in what kind of food they buy. When I buy organic carrots, I know at the very least they’ve been grown without chemical pesticides and synthetic fertilizers and that, ideally, they’ve been grown in a way that nurtures soil, surrounding ecosystems and community. When I buy organic cookies, I know they don’t contain genetically modified ingredients. When I buy organic meat and milk, I know they don’t contain synthetic hormones or come from cloned offspring. Whether any of these things factor directly into our health is still being debated, but there are enough reputable studies saying yes–or even maybe–to make me dubious of putting blind trust into the conventional food system.

Does an organic sticker mean that something is going to taste better? Not necessarily. Are organic standards the end-all be-all answer to fixing our food system? Probably not. Sure, “organic” may be flawed, but until there is another structure in place that consumers can trust, organic does matter.

This week as you shop, whichever way you pick, be aware of the role the organic sticker plays in protecting our rights to choose our food.

Book Find: ECO LOGICAL

ECO LOGICAL, by Joanna Yarrow (Duncan Baird Publishers, 2009)

As a writer, quite a few books and gadgets show up on my doorstep hoping for some sort of review. Some get one. Most don’t. But something recently came in that I thought would be perfect for the first review here on NOURISH Evolution.

Joanna Yarrow’s ECO LOGICAL is like a groovy guidebook for navigating eco topics. Where a DK book on Paris might give you a room by room breakdown of the Louvre, arming you with just enough information in an at-a-glance format for you to gain a working knowledge of the art within its walls, Yarrow takes us through various realms of green living. She uses similar boiled-down-to-the-essence graphics and info-bites to tease out the main arguments of a topic and help us understand what’s at stake on both sides, and then leaves us to choose how to incorporate the information into our daily practices; much as we strive to do here at NOURISH Evolution.

In the section on food (one of five other sections), Yarrow tackles the dueling views that “the planet needs to go organic” and “only conventional farming can feed the world” with simple, nifty graphics and summaries that speak volumes. She also looks at fair trade; the wide-ranging impacts of an omnivorous diet versus a vegetarian; sustainable seafood; and buying locally and seasonally.

This book is not an end-all-be-all treatise on how to save the earth, but what I love about it is that it doesn’t purport to be. Rather than trying to answer all the questions, Yarrow instead stirs the pot with ECO LOGICAL and asks us to think for ourselves. The book’s tagline says, “Join the debate—all the facts and figures, pros and cons you need to make up your mind.” While ECO LOGICAL may not offer conclusions, it does spark the questions that do eventually lead to choices that are right for each of us.

Note: My philosophy with books or any other product that shows up on my doorstep is this: if it ends up being heavily used on my own shelves and I enjoy it so much I get excited about telling people, I’ll most likely write about it at some point. If it’s something that I have no use for, I won’t put words to it.

Don’t Give Up on Healthy Eating

Sometimes life seems to conspire against our good intentions when it comes to healthy eating. Tomatoes don’t ripen. That bundle of herbs we intended to use wilts on the window ledge. McDonald’s ends up the only “food source” available within a very tight window of time (my experience recently when sprinting to catch a plane). We all have days where no matter how hard we try to eat well our efforts are thwarted, and it can be tempting to just give up. But if you trip on the way out the door, do you toss in the towel and conclude you’ll never make it down the street? Of course not. You straighten up, find your balance, remove any obvious obstacles and continue to put one foot in front of the other.

The truth is, it isn’t about the stray French fry or the well-intentioned vegetables that didn’t get eaten. It’s about the cumulative effect, the overall trajectory, of each and every choice we make about our food. We all have different schedules, budgets, priorities and responsibilities that pull us in different directions and sometimes those directions will lead to a meal we’re not so happy about. But if we intentionally make nourishing choices most of the time, then ultimately we’re on the right track.

If you find yourself in a bind this week that prevents you from eating the way you want, don’t let it send you into a tailspin. Instead, plan your next meal to be a more conscious one and notice how you differently you feel after each. That, in and of itself, is positive progress and the foundation of mindful, healthy eating for a lifetime.