It is with great sadness that I learned today that my friend Chihiro (Cherry) Enoki died in a climbing accident in California over Thanksgiving weekend.
Chi lived her life to the fullest, although it was far from a full life.
As long as I knew her, her "signature" on personal notes and whatnot, in lieu of her name, was a little cartoon Cherry-shaped swish of her pen on the bottom corner. But today I like to imagine her before she died as Cherry on top of the world, if only for a moment.
You can learn more about my longtime friend all over the internet. It takes no romance nor fancy words to portray her the way she was: smart, capable, energetic, hilarious, motivated and cool.
No pizza blog today. Seems way too small and dumb given how I am feeling.
Take a moment to read about Chihiro Enoki, her life may inspire yours to be lived with greater love and aggressive vitality.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Pittsburgh is Pizza
(sing along now, everyone!)...you are what you swallow, so the next time you feel hollow, don't fill up with just any kind of treat! This goes for every kid or six-foot ath-e-lete, what you really are is what you eat! (wahoo!)
Am I the only one who remembers the little singing paleolithic Spongebob dude who would sing little songs about nutrition between Saturday morning cartoons?
If you believe the cartoon dude upstaging Picture Pages with Bill Cosby, then you know that you are what you eat. From the myriad signposts, awnings, restaurants, menus, bars, and outposts offering pizza, I can say one thing with confidence: Pittsburgh is Pizza. At least more than a little bit.
(My hometown is a pizza loving place, too, so I enjoy this)
But, while there are many decent pies available near me, I am not yet in love. Can anyone suggest what the best pizza in town might be, and why? I don't need anything fancy or whatnot, just great crust, with great sauce, and great cheese, cooked with greatness. And I am not into deep-dish. Just a preference thing. It is still pizza, which makes it not bad, but I prefer a lighter crisper texture.
Tomorrow, if I finish other things and get moving on stuff in my real life: a review of Pizza Sola. The truncated version: tried it three times, didn't love it.
Am I the only one who remembers the little singing paleolithic Spongebob dude who would sing little songs about nutrition between Saturday morning cartoons?
If you believe the cartoon dude upstaging Picture Pages with Bill Cosby, then you know that you are what you eat. From the myriad signposts, awnings, restaurants, menus, bars, and outposts offering pizza, I can say one thing with confidence: Pittsburgh is Pizza. At least more than a little bit.
(My hometown is a pizza loving place, too, so I enjoy this)
But, while there are many decent pies available near me, I am not yet in love. Can anyone suggest what the best pizza in town might be, and why? I don't need anything fancy or whatnot, just great crust, with great sauce, and great cheese, cooked with greatness. And I am not into deep-dish. Just a preference thing. It is still pizza, which makes it not bad, but I prefer a lighter crisper texture.
Tomorrow, if I finish other things and get moving on stuff in my real life: a review of Pizza Sola. The truncated version: tried it three times, didn't love it.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
La Grande Citrouille
Veganism (well, nearly) in my kitchen...
I openly admit that while I tend to have an adventurous palate, quite often and depending on my mood, some meats can taste incredibly bad to me. That experience, in addition to my limited available time to locate great product, prep it, cook it, and eat it, as well as a growing belief that eating much meat is bad for body and planet, has yielded a great interest in vegetarian cooking. And I mean elegant, tasty, no-sacrifices cooking that is not of that 70's earthy-crunchy ilk (well, at least not all of the time). No mush, no chili, no rice 'n beans (well, at least not most of the time).
Just to complicate matters, a number of the usual vegetarian staples don't agree with me (I need to minimize dairy, eggs sometimes don't sit well, and I am allergic to avocados...), and my diet plan involves my eating about 60 grams of lean protein a day and very little simple sugars. Not all that easy without much meat. (Although I do eat a lot of Greek yogurt (which doen't bug my belly)).
So, I am still eating a serving of fish 1-2x a week, which I can rationalize by buying things that are more sustainable and aren't known to bioconcentrate mercury. I'll just admit it up front so that when you dine with me you don't think that I am a hypocrite. I also am still eating meat when I want it, particularly when dining out (still have a tough time resisting duck breast and bacon, but I don't need to keep them in the house...). And I loathe the sort of vegetarians (be they real, or, like me, not wholly committed) who preach their ethical crap to others, especially while eating.
Thus, the point of this is not to convert you to some religion in which even I do not believe, but to share with you tonight's feature in the ongoing saga: what I made for dinner.
My friend, Ross (shoutout to you, dude!), recently gave me the idea of using polenta as a vegetarian, fat-free "crust" for a quiche I often make. Likewise, my old pal and uber-carpenter Mike (shoutout atcha, too, baby!) has been giving me tons of higher protein, low sugar, low fat, still tasty, not mushblobs vegan cooking ideas, including the joys of silken tofu in lieu of dairy thickeners in recipes. So, guys, you (and the things going bad in my fridge) inspired tonight's recipe.
La Nuit de la Grande Citrouille, Charlie Brown!
(Aromatic maple pumpkin tart with sage-polenta crust and red wine laquered wild mushroom ragout with sage and brown butter)
(yes, I know the butter isn't vegan)
(and that that description is silly)
preheat oven to 350 degrees.
ingredients (all of this is rough, I didn't measure):
1/2 cup corn meal
1.5 cu water
salt
about a tablespoon of finely minced (back cut for dryness) fresh sage
one can, 15 oz., of Libby's pumpkin (just the plain pumpkin, not the preflavored pie mix)
3/4 cup of silken reduced fat tofu
about a teaspoon of finely minced Chinese ginger
a small dash of ground red cayenne pepper (I always put this in a pumpkin pie, as an aside)
a few shakes of five spice powder
one shake of nutmeg
salt
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 cups of mixed wild mushrooms (we had shitake, crimini, and oyster)
2 tsp of olive oil
1 tsp of unsalted butter
the red wine (a medium bodied cab) that was left in my glass (I think a dry chardonnay would have been better, but I wasn't drinking that)
some more fresh sage (this is just rolled up and sliced finely into the pan with kitchen scissors) - circa a teaspoon
salt
maple syrup (and a little Pecorino Romano as a garnish would have been good, but I didn't want the fat)
easy:
in a saucepan, put the water and salt it to taste (I think I used about 2 tsp). boil it. whisk in the corn meal, cook it until it is done over medium heat (maybe a minute or so), toss in the sage, whisk it all together, and remove from heat. set aside to cool a bit.
spray a nine inch metal pie pan or whatever you have around with some cooking spray. I just use the olive oil kind since I like the taste.
Press, using a hand rinsed in cold water (no sticking), the polenta into the pie pan, then put this in the oven and cook it for about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the filling: dump filling ingredients into a bowl and blend until smooth, then salt to taste. I used a stick blender. You use whatever you like.
when the "crust" is kinda set and dried a little, dump in the filling, smooth it out, and put it back in the oven.
I cooked it at about 350 (the oven in my apt is unreliable, but that is what my thermometer said. Incidentally, I set the oven to 390 F, so as ever, YMMV) for about 50 minutes whilst I accomplished other goals.
when it was done, I turned the oven off but left the pie in there while I made the mushrooms: put the olive oil in a skillet. get it warm but not super hot. put the mushrooms in, whole. toss in a pinch of salt. toss the mushrooms every so often to prevent sticking. when they're mostly done to your liking, toss in the sage. continue to cook. toss in the butter, let it brown very slightly, and lightly caramelize the outsides of the flat mushrooms. deglaze with whatever you were drinking at the time (kinda like a reverse monte au buerre), toss a bit more, the whole thing will thicken and be delicious.
to serve: cut a nice slice of your semisavory pie. put some of the mushrooms on top. pour on a teensy touch of real maple syrup, and finish with a sage leaf and a little Romano grana if you have it and are feeling fancy (or just eat it, if you are me, while watching William Shatner interview Jenna Jamison).
If you are a hungry person, 1/4 of the pie is a serving. roughly, this contains 14 grams of protein, 12.5 grams of sugars, and under 200 calories. plus the mushrooms, which, depending on how many you eat, are the source of fat in this dish.
Have vegetarian(ish) food ideas? a great recipe to share? tried this and it sucked? let me know!
off to Memphis tomorrow.
I openly admit that while I tend to have an adventurous palate, quite often and depending on my mood, some meats can taste incredibly bad to me. That experience, in addition to my limited available time to locate great product, prep it, cook it, and eat it, as well as a growing belief that eating much meat is bad for body and planet, has yielded a great interest in vegetarian cooking. And I mean elegant, tasty, no-sacrifices cooking that is not of that 70's earthy-crunchy ilk (well, at least not all of the time). No mush, no chili, no rice 'n beans (well, at least not most of the time).
Just to complicate matters, a number of the usual vegetarian staples don't agree with me (I need to minimize dairy, eggs sometimes don't sit well, and I am allergic to avocados...), and my diet plan involves my eating about 60 grams of lean protein a day and very little simple sugars. Not all that easy without much meat. (Although I do eat a lot of Greek yogurt (which doen't bug my belly)).
So, I am still eating a serving of fish 1-2x a week, which I can rationalize by buying things that are more sustainable and aren't known to bioconcentrate mercury. I'll just admit it up front so that when you dine with me you don't think that I am a hypocrite. I also am still eating meat when I want it, particularly when dining out (still have a tough time resisting duck breast and bacon, but I don't need to keep them in the house...). And I loathe the sort of vegetarians (be they real, or, like me, not wholly committed) who preach their ethical crap to others, especially while eating.
Thus, the point of this is not to convert you to some religion in which even I do not believe, but to share with you tonight's feature in the ongoing saga: what I made for dinner.
My friend, Ross (shoutout to you, dude!), recently gave me the idea of using polenta as a vegetarian, fat-free "crust" for a quiche I often make. Likewise, my old pal and uber-carpenter Mike (shoutout atcha, too, baby!) has been giving me tons of higher protein, low sugar, low fat, still tasty, not mushblobs vegan cooking ideas, including the joys of silken tofu in lieu of dairy thickeners in recipes. So, guys, you (and the things going bad in my fridge) inspired tonight's recipe.
La Nuit de la Grande Citrouille, Charlie Brown!
(Aromatic maple pumpkin tart with sage-polenta crust and red wine laquered wild mushroom ragout with sage and brown butter)
(yes, I know the butter isn't vegan)
(and that that description is silly)
preheat oven to 350 degrees.
ingredients (all of this is rough, I didn't measure):
1/2 cup corn meal
1.5 cu water
salt
about a tablespoon of finely minced (back cut for dryness) fresh sage
one can, 15 oz., of Libby's pumpkin (just the plain pumpkin, not the preflavored pie mix)
3/4 cup of silken reduced fat tofu
about a teaspoon of finely minced Chinese ginger
a small dash of ground red cayenne pepper (I always put this in a pumpkin pie, as an aside)
a few shakes of five spice powder
one shake of nutmeg
salt
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 cups of mixed wild mushrooms (we had shitake, crimini, and oyster)
2 tsp of olive oil
1 tsp of unsalted butter
the red wine (a medium bodied cab) that was left in my glass (I think a dry chardonnay would have been better, but I wasn't drinking that)
some more fresh sage (this is just rolled up and sliced finely into the pan with kitchen scissors) - circa a teaspoon
salt
maple syrup (and a little Pecorino Romano as a garnish would have been good, but I didn't want the fat)
easy:
in a saucepan, put the water and salt it to taste (I think I used about 2 tsp). boil it. whisk in the corn meal, cook it until it is done over medium heat (maybe a minute or so), toss in the sage, whisk it all together, and remove from heat. set aside to cool a bit.
spray a nine inch metal pie pan or whatever you have around with some cooking spray. I just use the olive oil kind since I like the taste.
Press, using a hand rinsed in cold water (no sticking), the polenta into the pie pan, then put this in the oven and cook it for about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the filling: dump filling ingredients into a bowl and blend until smooth, then salt to taste. I used a stick blender. You use whatever you like.
when the "crust" is kinda set and dried a little, dump in the filling, smooth it out, and put it back in the oven.
I cooked it at about 350 (the oven in my apt is unreliable, but that is what my thermometer said. Incidentally, I set the oven to 390 F, so as ever, YMMV) for about 50 minutes whilst I accomplished other goals.
when it was done, I turned the oven off but left the pie in there while I made the mushrooms: put the olive oil in a skillet. get it warm but not super hot. put the mushrooms in, whole. toss in a pinch of salt. toss the mushrooms every so often to prevent sticking. when they're mostly done to your liking, toss in the sage. continue to cook. toss in the butter, let it brown very slightly, and lightly caramelize the outsides of the flat mushrooms. deglaze with whatever you were drinking at the time (kinda like a reverse monte au buerre), toss a bit more, the whole thing will thicken and be delicious.
to serve: cut a nice slice of your semisavory pie. put some of the mushrooms on top. pour on a teensy touch of real maple syrup, and finish with a sage leaf and a little Romano grana if you have it and are feeling fancy (or just eat it, if you are me, while watching William Shatner interview Jenna Jamison).
If you are a hungry person, 1/4 of the pie is a serving. roughly, this contains 14 grams of protein, 12.5 grams of sugars, and under 200 calories. plus the mushrooms, which, depending on how many you eat, are the source of fat in this dish.
Have vegetarian(ish) food ideas? a great recipe to share? tried this and it sucked? let me know!
off to Memphis tomorrow.
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