Cilantro-palooza

I get a little food happy on the weekends, since I usually pass through at least one farmer's market and start getting delusional about all the amazing meals I could make with pounds and pounds of organic vegetables.

This past week I took a cooking class, and the takeaway was that there is still so much that I have to learn, no matter how mad scientist I sometimes get in the kitchen. But, thanks in large part to the book project I've been working on, I've become quite aware of what's in food (get away from me, Yellow #5!) and am much more interested how things are prepared. Not that I was ever much a processed food kind of gal, but I've become much more mindful.

This weekend I ended up with way too much cilantro from the farmer's market. Seriously, what am supposed to do with all this? It's the size of my head. And it was only $1.50.

Since Saturday I have been trying to find things to do with it. I've mixed it in with salads and found a salmon recipe that uses it in the glaze. Then I remembered that years ago Tribe Hummus used to make a cilantro flavored hummus, which I loved. They've discontinued it, but I figured recreating it would be a good way to get rid of some of this cilantro.

Making hummus is relatively easy, but it involves constant tweaking. There's no need for a recipe (chick peas, blender, olive oil, and anything else you want to throw in there.) Pretty much every recipe online, though, will tell you to put in half a cup of lime juice into cilantro hummus, but I can assure you that is far too much.

This was my finished product. It's a little green, but in a good way. And it tastes better than anything Tribe ever put out. (Just don't spread it on graham crackers. That's the opposite of a good food pairing.)

It's important to make your own snack food, especially when this exists.

And...most important. According to the TED Talk below, cooking is what has helped the human brain evolve beyond that of other primates.

Sunday Funday Cooking: Quin-whaaa?

Breakfast is a tricky meal. So much of what the American diet consists of -- bagels, pastry, etc. -- is really bad for you. Egg and cheese sandwiches from the bodega are divine, but who needs all that grease? Cereals, even the healthy ones, are full of sugar and weirdly processed grains. And there is no way fruit has ever been able to hold me over until lunch.

So what to do?

This week I had a lot of quinoa lying around and the local fruit stand guys were selling strawberries three containers for five bucks, which is practically free.

Strawberries stay viable in the box for all of two days, so I had to do something with them, stat. I found this recipe on Pinterest and it seemed like a good place to start. I'm not the biggest fan of quinoa to begin with, but baking it seemed like a fun remix. So, a strawberry-banana-quinoa bake it was.

This is how it looked cut into little squares right out of the oven. Not too shabby.

A few tweaks, since I see recipes (and others rules in life) as mere guidelines:

1. Quinoa has no flavor to begin with (or at least I don't think so) so you cannot possibly put too much fruit into this dish. I used bananas and strawberries, but I think a berry medley would be amazing. Or, again, whatever your fruit guy has a special on. (Wait. What do you mean you don't have a fruit guy?)

2. The original recipe used chocolate chips, but it seemed an odd ingredient for a breakfast dish, so I just didn't use them. I don't think it made that much of a difference.

3. If you don't have maple syrup handy, no worries. You can't taste it. Almost every recipe for a quinoa bake includes it, and I'm not sure why.

4. This recipe says it should bake for 25 minutes, but you really need to bake for 50 to 60 minutes.

5. If you're gluten and/or dairy free, this is a pretty good breakfast option. And it's really filling. For one person this could last at least two days.

Sunday Funday Cooking: Whatever's Lying Around The House

So. Pancakes. It's a Sunday brunch staple, but I've never been the biggest fan of them. This past week, though, I was gifted a bag of whole wheat pancake mix from a fancy place here in Manhattan. They even used an old-timey font on the package!

I whipped them up this morning and two pancakes in I could tell it was total dreck. It seemed wasteful to toss all that batter, so I threw in some raisins and feta (because feta makes everything betta) and did what I always do with extra ingredients: I muffin-ized them.

Maybe I should have put the raisins and feta in first, but I like these little guys a lot better.

Later that same day I made more breakfast quiches, because they really made my life easier last week.

If anyone has insights -- Freudian, Jungian and otherwise -- as to why I seem to like making food the shape of flying saucers, I am all ears.

This strange pile of yellow and green is what happens when I have too many mangoes and cucumbers in the house. Most Pinterest recipes make mango cucumber salads with cilantro, but I only had scallions and they're practically the same thing, right?

I riffed off of this recipe, only squeezing fresh lime juice over the mix of cucumber, mango, scallion, feta and raisins. I also only had yellow rice and was not about to run out in the rain for white rice, simply for aesthestic purposes.

Over all, it's great right out of the bowl, but even better after being refrigerated for a few hours. The lime really pops.

Seeing Me In A Kitchen Is On Par With Seeing A Sasquatch

I am no foodie.

People are often flummoxed when they hear that I'm not into food and cooking. They wonder how I eat. Well, how do single men eat? They buy a sandwich or they have a few staple dishes that get them through the day. For me, it's couscous, cucumber salads, hard boiled egg whites and lots of fruit. I don't eat a lot of fast food or processed food, either. A meal for me meal pretty much involves chopping up some vegetables, fruit and drizzling on some rice vinegar. It's underrated.

For whatever reason, food is not a pleasure center for me. (Later today we will delve into what really gets me excited.) I eat so that I don't pass out. In New York City, to not be a foodie is on par with blasphemy. My eyes glaze over when people tell me about restaurants, or meals they want to cook. I'm not being rude, but it's akin to talking to a burly construction worker about your nail polish collection. I'm just not interested.

I'm also no sore sport, and this weekend some lady friends and I took a pizza cooking class at Le Pain Quotidien on Bleecker Street. This is notable because had they not suggested it, I never would have thought to do it. (Obviously.) In terms of a communal activity, it was great fun, even if when everyone starting talking about kitchen gadgets I felt as it I was listening to people speak in hieroglyphics. I'm not saying that I'm going to the dark side of food enthusiast, but it was a good time.

Le Pain Quotidien has all sorts of cooking classes. They fill up very fast, so be sure to get on their e-mail blast. Private classes are available, like the one we did, so book them way in advance.

P.S. I may not love the act of cooking, but those baker's hats were pretty cool.

When Cucumbers Are In Season, How On Earth Do You Eat Anything Else?

Some people are into sweets. Me, I can't get enough of cucumbers. This time of year I can get them two for a dollar from the sidewalk fruit guys. That's a deal.

I think the mistake that most people make with cucumbers is that they use them as an accoutrement in the meal, as opposed to centering the whole meal around cucumbers. For example, they make cucumber part of the salad, and not the base of the salad itself. (Who needs leaves? They get stuck in your teeth, anyhow.)

If I have a philosophy about cooking, it's that I like to be able to just cut things up and throw them into a bowl and see how they work out. This is why I like couscous. There are a lot of great combinations that come from just cutting and tossing.

These days I typically cut up a whole cucumber, toss in half a chopped apple as well as some yellow raisins. The secret ingredient, always, is peanuts. They add texture and just the right amount of salt. After exercising I like to cut up a whole cucumber and toss in cantaloupe or watermelon. With a side of hard boiled egg whites, it's quite filling.

Couscous As Chicken Quesadilla

I love chicken quesadillas. The Caliente Cab on East 33rd Street should be my branch office. The problem is that quesadillas are fried, and no one ever kept their girlish figure by eating fried food.

Ever the food pioneer, today I took all the ingredients for a quesadilla and mixed them into my favorite medium, couscous. Just chicken, red peppers, chick peas and scallions. (I wanted cilantro, but it was oddly overpriced at Gristede's.) Then I sprinkled on some lemon juice and shredded cheese and voila! a seriously filling dinner. You can eat it hot or cold. I suppose you could make this with quinoa as well, if you insist on eating that overpriced chicken feed.

By the way, this is not cooking. This is boiling couscous, opening a can of beans and chopping some vegetables. Anyone can do this and it will feed you for at least two meals.

My Couscous Brings All The Boys To The Yard

Couscous came back onto my radar because everyone lately has been raving about quinoa. Quinoa, while great, is terribly overpriced in Manhattan, and I won't pay ten dollars for a bag of grains that Peruvian farmers use to feed their chickens.

Right next to the quinoa on the grocery shelf is couscous, which you can get for much less money.

I'm not into cooking, and yet I don't like processed foods either. Couscous becomes a perfect food since, once prepared -- which take less than ten minutes -- it can be eaten hot or cold. You can toss whatever you want into it and it will always always taste good. If you can make boxed mac and cheese, you can make couscous in the same amount of time.

The bowl above has peanuts, cranberries, pears and lemon juice in it. It was cooked in olive oil. Make yourself some and count all the money you're saving by not buying quinoa.

Source: thekitchn.com via Jillian on Pinterest

This is brand that I get for $1.99 at the Gristede's on 29th Street and Second Avenue. The price varies widely among grocery stores, which is why I'll make the trip for some. Also, right outside Gristede's is a great fruit and veggie cart where I can get fresh ingredients to put into my creation. Red peppers and scallions are solid choices.

My Meatloaf Brings All The Boys To The Yard

I was back in the kitchen today, experimenting with what happens when you put meat in a muffin tin and bake it. The result was a success: meatloaf muffins. Perfect, bite sized servings of meat. I've been calling them meat bombs.

I made mine with ground turkey and topped with low fat sour cream. I garnished with real bacon bits. (Yes, meat as condiment. It can be done.) I filled it with red peppers, onions and skim, shredded mozarella cheese. Turkey dries out, so don't bake it for more than 45 minutes. I used this recipe as a vague guide. The beauty of meatloaf is that there is no hard and fast recipe for it, you just can't let it dry out. You can really put anything into it. I've added salsa in the past for a little extra kick and moisture.

Perfect Breakfast Quiches -- And I Don't Even Cook!

My kitchen is nothing but a decorative object to me. This week, however, I realized that I will be getting up early from now on and I can't eat a croissant every day en route to work.

A few years ago I had a roommate who would make breakfast quiches and eat them on the go. Tonight I made a batch and they came out perfectly.

This is the recipe that I kinda, sorta followed. I pretty much just put ham, peppers and cheese in the bottom of each muffin tin and poured egg over it. I baked until they looked done.

You can put anything you want in them -- but you should make them. They are easy, have no sugar and are all protein. I think all the ingredients were less than $10. These will feed me for a few days.

Gernius.

To Do: Engagement Chicken!

engagement chicken, originally uploaded by natalie's new york.

For years there's the recipe for Engagement Chicken has been going around.

Basically, if you make the meal for the guy you're dating it's supposed to inspire him to marry you. The only large-scale meals I've ever made for a guy was metloaf (I make a mean loaf) which explains a lot of things.

Someone needs to make the meal and tell me how it goes.