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Antipasto
Salsa 
 Outstanding
Yield
3 cups (serving size: 1/2 cup)
Ingredients
·
1 cup diced tomato
· 1 cup diced zucchini
· 1/2 cup chopped drained canned artichoke hearts
· 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
· 1/3 cup diced bottled roasted red bell peppers
· 1/4 cup minced onion
· 2 tablespoons chopped pitted kalamata olives
· 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2
teaspoons olive oil
Preparation
Combine all ingredients in a
medium bowl; cover and chill.
Nutritional Information
Calories: 39 (46% from fat)
Fat: 2g (sat 0.3g,mono 1.4g,poly 0.3g)
Protein: 1.3g
Carbohydrate: 5.2g
Fiber: 0.8g
Cholesterol: 0.0mg
Iron: 0.6mg
Sodium: 80mg
Calcium: 22mg
Steven Petusevsky, Cooking Light, JUNE
1999
It's fall and time to cook with potatoes
My autumn gene is starting to go from a
recessive to a dominant state. I can't help it. I'm ignoring
the 90-degree weather and humidity in South Florida during
early October. Instead, I imagine fall is happening, like it
is in most of the rest of the country.
I begin to read about stews, casseroles, simmering soups and
apples in food magazines. Every cooking show on TV turns to
squash, pumpkin recipes and slow-cooked foods.
This time of year, I feel homesick for the Hudson Valley
kitchen of my youth. I long for the smell of the over-ripe
fallen apples laying under the trees outside my bedroom
window, where an abandoned orchard once blossomed.
Caramelized onions, simmering barley and burnt sugar come to
mind.
Changing to cool weather ingredients is innate. I don't even
think about it anymore. It's like a culinary timer in my
head that goes off this time every year.
For some odd reason, I make more mashed and stuffed potatoes
this time of year too. I recently
experimented with alternatives to plain mashed potatoes, and
I came up with a couple of really flavorful combinations.
Using mashed potatoes as a base, I created a version with
cauliflower and another with spinach. The good thing about
both these mixtures is that they can be eaten as a side dish
or stuffed back into the potato shell.
You also can scoop the cold mixture using a 2-ounce ice
cream scoop, flatten it into patties, dust them with panko
breadcrumbs and lightly brown them in a nonstick skillet
sprayed with oil and set over medium heat.
Now if I can only find a way to lower the temperature
outside, autumn might be here after all.
Tiny seeds, big taste
I think about food most of my waking time. It's my job. I am
passionate about my profession, but also love shopping and
studying ingredients from all over the world. I am
fascinated with the ingredient itself, and how home cooks
prepare it.
But I find that there is a whole other group of ingredients
which often go completely overlooked, probably because they
are tiny. Consider seeds. Some small ingredients really
exhibit big taste. Poppy seeds, sesame seeds, coriander
seeds and mustard seeds all have intense flavor, but most of
us have no idea of what to do with these overlooked flavor
firecrackers.
Here are a few chefs tips to get some intense flavor from
some small ingredients. First of all, all seeds taste a
hundred times more pronounced when they are first toasted in
a dry saute pan for 1-2 minutes, moving them around
constantly until a strong fragrance is noticed.
Poppy seeds: After toasting, mix into cooked pasta,
rice, orzo, couscous or other grains. They are also
incredible in cookies, pound cake and even cheesecake. Try
mixing fresh berries with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar,
sugar and poppy seeds. This makes an incredible topping for
vanilla ice cream. Sometimes I mix toasted poppy seeds into
some olive oil and raspberry vinegar for a dressing for
arugula, spinach or field greens, then toss the salad with
blue cheese and walnuts.
Coriander seeds: Cilantro is grown from little
coriander seeds, so imagine how much concentrated flavor is
held within coriander. Make pickled vegetables with
coriander seeds by combining equal parts of cider vinegar,
about a cup with water and half as much sugar. Add a few
spoonfuls of coriander seeds, a pinch of red chili flakes
and bring to a boil. Pour this mixture hot over any sliced
vegetables, like cucumbers, zucchini slices, radishes,
carrots or a combination. Allow them to marinate over night
in the refrigerator and next day you have coriander pickles.
Mustard seeds: Typically used in Indian cuisine, I
like dredging tofu steaks in coriander seeds and a bit of
panko before browning in a non-stick pan with a bit of oil.
They are also wonderful sauteed with broccoli and
cauliflower with either olive oil or butter.
Sesame seeds: The cornerstone of Asian cuisine, I use
sesame seeds in so many recipes. First off, try black sesame
seeds for a varied look and flavor. You can also buy sesame
seeds which are flavored with wasabi, chili and cayenne. I
use sesame seeds as a breading, stir-fried with vegetables
and in my favorite dipping sauce, ponzu. I combine a
tablespoon of lime juice, with a quarter cup of soy sauce,
pinch of sugar and drizzle of sesame oil. I spice it up with
a bit of hot sauce or chili paste. This makes a great dip
for crudites or grilled vegetables. I also dip chunks of
tofu and tempeh in ponzu.
The warming
flavors of fall: Cardamom, allspice, ginger and nutmeg
Each season has its own flavors. And I've found that fall
and winter are filled with the warming flavors of cardamom,
allspice, ginger and nutmeg. Each of these spices has a
distinct and hard-to-describe taste.
Cardamom pods, used in Indian and Middle Eastern cooking,
are fragrant and spicy without heat. They are available
whole or ground in most supermarkets. Allspice, also called
pimento, is available in whole berries or ground. It is a
warming ingredient used in many Caribbean dishes.
In fact, the trees that bear allspice are used to create the
fires that cook traditional jerk dishes and their smoke fill
the air throughout Jamaica. Allspice is often a cooking
companion to cinnamon and nutmeg.
Nutmeg is usually found ground, but if you ever get the
opportunity to purchase a whole nutmeg pod and grate it into
a recipe calling for this spice, don't hesitate. It's
incredibly aromatic and flavorful.
Used in eggnog, rice pudding, pumpkin pie and many other
desserts, the taste of nutmeg screams holiday season.
Of course, grated ginger root is used in many Asian and
Indian dishes, but is also popular throughout the Caribbean.
Many of these ingredients are considered to have medicinal
properties.
For a tasty fall dish, simply top a butternut squash, acorn
squash or sweet potato with some melted butter, then
sprinkle with cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg along with some
brown sugar or a drizzle of maple
syrup. Then roast.
Or, try adding these spices to simmering fresh apple or
cranberry sauce, to rice or tapioca pudding, or to apple or
pumpkin pie filling.
I saute fresh carrots with allspice, nutmeg and ginger.
Butternut Squash and Apple Bread is a wonderful quick bread
that allows you to enjoy the fragrance of autumn spices.
Whole grains
are good for you, tasty, and easy to make
Americans love rice. We eat an average
of 25 pounds per person annually. But we are less likely to
experiment with other whole grains. And we should. After
all, they are an excellent source of complex carbohydrates.
Whole grains also contain important vitamins, antioxidants
and minerals.
In fact, you have a much better chance of maintaining a
healthy weight if whole grains are part of your diet because
they quickly satisfy your appetite making you feel fuller
after eating only small amounts of them. Many trainers I
know recommend starting the day with a bowl of oatmeal for
just this reason.
And studies show that regularly eating whole grains can
reduce the risk of developing diabetes and heart disease.
All whole grains are rich sources of fiber with 1 cup
supplying almost 15 percent of your daily requirement.
Whole grains are simply grains that have all their parts
intact — the germ, bran and endosperm. Refined grains
usually have only the endosperm left in place. Keep in mind
that whole grains can be sprouted to produce more grains.
Fortunately, it is easy to consume a diet rich in whole
grains as manufacturers are now producing cereals, breads,
muffins, desserts and snack foods made with them. Even
traditionally unhealthy crunchy snacks have been transformed
with whole-grain goodness.
I enjoy cooking whole grains from scratch. Most supermarkets
carry a variety of rices, rice blends, wheat berries, quinoa
and barley. I purchase most of my grains in bulk at natural
food markets. That way I can buy as much or little as I
want.
If you aren't used to cooking whole grains, you'll soon
discover that all of them are as easy to cook as rice. Yet
each has a unique flavor and texture.
The trick to cooking whole grains is to use just enough
liquid so that the grain becomes tender by the time the
liquid is fully absorbed. But each type grain absorbs a
different amount of liquid and thus needs to be cooked in a
different ratio of grain to liquid. For example, long-grain
brown rice needs to be cooked in three parts liquid to one
part rice. Quinoa should be cooked using equal amounts of
liquid and grains.
If you want to put your feet in the water slowly, try making
brown rice. You can find long-grain, medium-grain and
short-grain brown rice at most natural food stores.
The shorter the grain, the more starchy and soft the cooked
rice will be. I like the comforting texture of short-grain
brown rice to use in desserts and for making fried rice.
Long and medium grain are great in rice pilafs.
A guide for cooking brown rice:
Use a heavy-bottom saucepan that will hold all the rice once
it is cooked. Remember, brown rice triples in volume when
cooked so that 1 cup raw brown rice yields
3 cups cooked rice.
Add 2 1 / 2 cups water for each 1 cup raw brown rice you
want to prepare
Bring the rice and water to a boil. Cover tightly, reduce
the heat and simmer the rice without lifting the lid for the
first 45 minutes of cooking. After that time, check the
doneness of the rice. If it is still a bit hard in the
center of the kernels, add a sprinkling of water, cover and
continue to cook 5 to 10 minutes.
When the rice is cooked, remove the pan from the heat and
allow it to rest, covered, 5 minutes.
Then fluff the rice with a fork or spoon.
All the liquid should be gone.
Brown rice, like all other grains, can be cooked and then
frozen, or you can add vegetables and proteins to make fried
rice or pilafs.
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