A Restorative, End-of-the-Weekend Dinner

Last night a big group of us went out to celebrate a friend's thirtieth birthday. You only turn thirty once, so it was without a doubt a raucous, colorful-cocktail sort of affair, and the night ended pretty late for us old-timers. Today has been spent somewhat recovering, and planning out the rest of my week's meals. I have big plans for the remaining Hatch chili peppers, and bought a big chunk of pork shoulder, which I'm braising for several hours to go into a New Mexican style green chili stew, which hopefully will provide several days worth of dinners throughout the week. Pork shoulder (also known as pork butt, weirdly) is a pretty inexpensive cut of meat, so a couple of pounds of properly raised pork from a good butcher isn't a bad way to go, and lends itself well to long slow braises in flavorful broths.

The process for the pork turned out to be rather involved, and I managed to set off both my fire alarms browning it, but now its simmering away in preparation for the stew. Tonight's dinner itself was a bit of a predicament, as I was in the midst of the pork project (which won't be ready to eat till tomorrow, sadly), and I'm on my own tonight, so I wanted something really quick, but also very clean and restorative after last night's indulgence.

Whole wheat pasta and green vegetables are my go-to standby in most situations like this, and tonight's turned out exceptionally well, if I do say so myself. I had some extra chicken stock leftover from the pork braise, and some week-old broccoli, Russian kale, and my last stalk of green garlic, all of which were still in great condition because of my handy reusable "green bags" (I should do a post on them soon, I think), that keep produce from going off so quickly. Additionally, I had some remaining chickpeas and anchovies from earlier dinners this past week.

While I boiled water for pasta, I quickly chopped up the green garlic, broccoli, and kale. After setting a frying pan on medium heat, I poured in some olive oil, sprinkled some dried red chili flakes, and a shake or two of mixed dried Italian herbs, and ground pepper. I threw all the vegetables in together, rather unceremoniously, and gave them a brisk stir to coat all in the oil. Once well coated, I poured in about a third to a half of a cup of chicken stock, and covered the pan. Then I chopped up my remaining anchovies and added them with the chickpeas to the pot. I worked on my pork recipe for a bit while letting the vegetables cook. At this stage, once the water boiled, I added a wee bit of salt and then the pasta to the water. Once the pasta boiled, I drained it in a colander, and tossed it into the pan with the vegetables and chickpeas. The timing was very approximate, as I had my eye on my pork recipe, but with some nice extra virgin olive oil drizzled on the pasta and vegetables at the last minute, it turned out surprisingly luscious.

It still tasted clean and healthy, but was rich and flavorful at the same time. I think cooking the kale and broccoli and chickpeas together in a little chicken stock really did something wonderful to them. Melting the anchovies into the hot oil didn't make it particularly fishy either, but just gave it a bit more umami depth. This was definitely one of those dishes that tastes more impressive than it looks, and I will be making it again for certain. Even better, it made enough that I have a couple of days of lunches prepared for the week now. With prep and boiling water, I think it took about 20-25 minutes to make.

I will keep you posted on the progress of the green chili pork stew. It's a big project, and I've never tried it before, so we'll see how it turns out!

What To Do When Tired, Mopey, and Out of Supplies: Bake a Sweet Potato!

Boy did I ever want to go get Thai food tonight. Sean’s away on a business trip, and my Wednesdays are pretty long and tiring, and I have been nursing a hankering for red curry for several days now. But I’m in money-saving mode, so I did my damnedest to resist. I felt a bit mopey on the long ride home from Santa Cruz, through thinking how bare my fridge is, and how much work I need to get done tonight, and how all signs were pointing to a lackluster dinner. When I got home, I rallied with some apples and peanut butter, and forced myself to work out, knowing my mood and energy levels are always better afterwards.

About ten minutes into my workout I had a sudden brain-wave, and remembered there was still a sweet potato down at the bottom of my vegetable drawer. The day immediately brightened! I paused the dvd and quickly preheated the oven to 375, while I cut the sweet potato into quarters, for quicker cooking. I’m not very experienced with sweet potatoes, having only recently gotten into them on the advice of Dr. Mao, slick L.A. acupuncturist to the stars (he has slightly cheesy but oh so procrastination-friendly video blogs on all the foods that are good for you according to Traditional Chinese Medicine). Sweet potatoes were never our thing growing up, and we never had them at Thanksgiving, so thankfully I didn’t develop an aversion to them, as many people seem to have. Sweet potatoes (or yams, I suppose) at Thanksgiving are traditionally made too sweet, in my view, because people add to their already significant sweetness, which takes them way out of balance. And balance, of course, is the key! It’s too bad, because sweet potatoes are an entirely different creature if you veer away from adding sweetness, and make it more savory. It’s worth trying out, even if you think you don’t like it. It is so good for you—really a powerhouse of nutrition for how little it costs.

Tonight, I slicked my sweet potato quarters with a healthy glug of olive oil, some grinds of pepper, and a generous couple of pinches of dried sage. I put them in a small roasting pan, along with a clove or three of garlic, covered with foil, stuck in the oven, and went back to my workout. This is fairly typical mid-week improvisation for me, unless I’ve gotten it together to make a truly epic amount of food for leftovers on Sunday afternoon. My approach to the oven horrifies my sister, a scientifically-minded baking enthusiast. In a single cooking session I turn the heat up, down, lengthen cooking times, change my mind about what should be in pan, and cause all sorts of havoc, but it seems to turn out all right in the end. Tonight, I took a couple of breaks during exercise to adjust the oven, and then just turned it to warm while I showered.

The only other significant produce in my vegetable drawer was an aging head of red leaf lettuce. When I’m alone, I seem to manage an odd balance of minimalist and self-indulgent in my cooking, so it struck me that the best possible thing to put on top of my lettuce was chopped anchovies. My abiding passion for all forms of preserved fish speaks to my familial roots along the North Sea…I love pickled herrings, anchovies, boquerones, all manner of smoked trout, salmon, mackerel, eel. It’s the puckering briny saltiness of it all…just, just …YUM! So, when I’m cooking for myself, I feel no need to fancy up a dish of chopped lettuce and anchovies.

Once my salad was put together, and sprinkled with olive oil and red wine vinegar, I grabbed my sweet potatoes, and was pleasantly surprised to discover the skins peeled right off, with out any fuss. If you’re not a huge garlic fiend like I am, you might be content to just redrizzle your sweet potato spears with the garlic infused olive oil. But if you ARE a garlic fiend, mush the roasted garlic into the potatoes and eat it all up. Yum. I took a photo, even though this was about at the bottom of the list of memorable meals I’ve made in my lifetime.

It wasn’t so heavy on protein, but I had just had peanut butter before exercising, so I wasn't too worked up about it. The salad and sweet potato didn’t go together well at all. So, I just took them in courses. I started with the salad, which was delightful in its sour, briny simplicity, and the sweet potato, on its own, was awesome, and just sweet enough to make me feel like I didn’t need dessert. I felt fully satiated afterwards, and pretty pleased with the unexpected success of my barely-there dinner. My students are lucky—I’m going to grade papers in a much better mood now! I will post the photo as soon as I’ve found my damn cable!

Eat well, everybody!