book reviews

Beans, Lentils & Tofu–Oh My!

Nibbles

image via Amazon.com

On their own or with other heavy-hitters, beans, lentils, and tofu can make quite the filling meal. While they are the perfect comfort-food base for the cooler months, they also work well in Spring and Summer.

Because they are common sources of vegetable protein, you might expect 250 Best Beans, Lentils and Tofu Recipes: Healthy, Wholesome Foods would be all-vegetarian all the time, but there are plenty of recipes throughout the book that combine the headliners with meat, poultry, fish and seafood. I mean, with 250 recipes you’ve got to figure the match-ups will be pretty varied.

Even though Todd’s not the biggest fan of tofu, I figured this would be a prime time to try out some new tofu material on him and see how we fared.

The first try wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped.

Cantonese Noodles

Cantonese Noodles

I don’t think it was the tofu’s fault, though. I’ve made one other dish in semi-recent memory, a buckwheat polenta, and remembered it having an odd taste to it. Granted, I chalked it up to the anchovy sauce and didn’t think about it until we sat down to the Cantonese Noodles (p.219) and it all came back to me. It also doesn’t help that the soba noodles I used were 100% buckwheat and turned the sauce into a gluey, brownish-grey muck. Maybe using a mixed buckwheat/regular wheat noodle would cut down on that.

The small hand-rolls I made to go with them were tasty, though! Jasmine rice, sliced cucumber, and lightly steamed carrot and parsnip curls bundled into a narrow slip of nori.

The next experiment was much more successful.

Curry-Fried Tofu Soup

Curry-Fried Tofu Soup

Tofu is great for absorbing the flavors around it and dredging it in homemade curry powder and pan-frying it would be a hit with our curry-loving palates. The Curry-Fried Tofu Soup with Vegetables and Udon Noodles (p.41) was a complete meal in a bowl and perfect for a quick weeknight meal.

Bistro Lentils with Smoked Sausage

Bistro Lentils with Smoked Sausage

Switching gears to the Bistro Lentils with Smoked Sausage (p.190) we made a fabulous, filling supper and were able to use some locally made sausage to sweeten (or would be that be to savor) the pot. We had some parsnips in the crisper so decided to add them along with the called-for carrots and the additional color and flavor were amazing in this dish.

Another fabulous collection of recipes for the when you get stuck for something different to do on your average Tuesday night, or just for a bit of inspiration in general.

——————–

I was provided a copy of 250 Best Beans, Lentils & Tofu for purpose of review. The opinions express are entirely my own.

Nibble on This: When I MET Food

Nibbles

image via amazon.com

They say you can’t judge a book by it’s cover–which is why, perhaps, the presence of money on one side of the scale and a burger on the other, in front of the author, didn’t really register when I first picked up When I Met Food: Living the American Restaurant Dream by Kathy Sidell. And without knowing much about Ms. Sidell beforehand, a title like How I MET Food made me think this would be your average food memoir. And I just eat up (if you’ll pardon the phrase), a good food memoir.

So imagine my consternation as the early chapters flew through her early years with more mention of her family’s status in Boston society than food experiences. They were there, of course, but they weren’t expounded upon like you might expect. Or at least how I expected. From this life of privilege Sidell went not into food, first, but into film, producing commercials and movies, all while starting a family. As a reader I wanted to know more about these milestones in her pre-restaurant life but she flew through them with far more tell than show than tell–something even beginning writers are cautioned against and surprising from an English major.

It wasn’t until midway through the book or just passed that the title and the thrust of the book finally gelled for me: Sidell has made her mark on the Boston food scene with her series of restaurants all starting from the Metropolitan Club–shortened to MET–and it’s various expansions. When you realize that the book isn’t so much about food as about running restaurants from a business-centric point of view, things start to make much more sense.

Though if I hear the term “concept” any more I might just scream.

You see, as a former chef, it’s tough to look at the business side of restaurants without food being the primary focus. Even with my current experience being in business, and fully understanding a profit & loss statement, food is the reason for the restaurant–not the means to achieve the “concept” Sidell goes on about For instance, I sympathize much more with her staff than her when she talks about the “Aboslutely!” style of handling any and all requests–oh the fresh hell that much be every night!

That said, the writing and storytelling improve greatly once the author dispenses with the sweep of her background and can concentrate on the ideas, marketing, and a business decisions that went into each of her five establishments. And because this is truly the part that Sidell enjoys the pace slows and we get to experience more of the ups and downs of the restaurant business. Though few first-time owners are able to finance their tony first location without investors or, when the bank calls in the loan on the expansion, have the ability to pay off the note due to a recent inheritance.

It’s also interesting to note the slight disconnect when the author mentions the constant struggle with her weight and the guilt many women face with food, then pages later glorifies in the “generous” portion sizes at her flagship steakhouse. Restaurant portions are regularly double a healthy portion size, the idea of generous makes me think that even with her chopped salads and tartare duo, she’s not doing her patrons any favors in the waistline department.

If you’re more interested in food than front-of-the-house business, you’ll be happy to know that recipes from the authors restaurants and family pepper the prose. It’s best to read this book on a full stomach or you’ll be raiding the fridge before too long.

Bottom line: When I MET Food may struggle with it’s own concept in the beginning, but irons out the kinks and hits its stride leading us through the ins and outs of upper-tier American restaurants in a way many of us may never have the opportunity to experience. It’s a peek into a life the average restauranteur only dreams of, but paints a pretty picture of what many might aspire to.

It’s good to have dreams, even better to have the ability to achieve them.

——————–

I received a copy of How I MET Food for purpose of review. All opinions are strictly my own.

——————–

Nibbles ‘n Bites, along with all of the sites in the Helper Monkey Network, will be taking a break for the month of January to take care of some behind the scenes work. Happy New Year and Best Dishes to you all!

More Soups Than You Can Shake a Ladle At

Nibbles
300 Sensational Soups by Carla Snyder and Meredith Deeds

image via amazon.com

Though why you’d want to shake a ladle at anything, much less soup, escapes me.

Soup is one of those feel-good dishes that can be a meal on its own, a side to a salad or sandwich, or the first course of a larger meal. Soups can be hot, cold, or room temperature. While often savory, they can also be sweet; or sometimes both! Soups are also easily portable with a good insulated container and a tight lid, which makes them great for packing lunches or dining al fresco. Soups are also a healing food. A way to show someone you care.

There’s little that can replace a favorite relative’s recipe for Chicken Noodle or Creamy Tomato, but sometimes we need a new idea or 20, don’t you agree?

In 300 Sensational Soups by Carla Snyder and Meredith Deeds, you’re bound to find some inspiration to easily fill any gaps in your menu.

Potato Tarragon Soup from 300 Sensation Soups

This is comfort food at its best.

Potato soup is one of the standbys for many cooks–it’s warm, filling, and has a great texture when pureed. We tried their twist on the original, a Potato Tarragon Soup (p.72), and were happily surprised by the addition of the bright-tasting herb. As filling as it can be on its own, we opted to serve this soup (which, even with the tarragon, can be a little on the sedate side) with roast beef sandwiches.

Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup from 300 Sensational Soups

A glass of pinot grigio went quite nicely with this soup.

The next recipe we tried was the Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup (p.204) that starts you off by making the chicken broth before proceeding to the soup. Since wild rice takes just as long to cook as the stock, I opted to prepare the wild rice in plain water so that I could shorten the overall cooking time.

Spicy Sweet Potato Chowder from 300 Sensational Soups

Those flecks in the center are bacon–delicious!

Chowder is another one of those common soups, Snyder & Deeds propose a Spicy Sweet Potato Chowder (p.264) that sounded too intriguing to pass up. With bacon and chiles it reminded me of some of the other Spanish-influenced sweet potato dishes we’ve tried and was quite happy with the overall results. One thing I did that wasn’t in the recipe was to puree the soup–they intend the sweet potatoes to stay in cubes in the broth, I thought pureeing was the better option. It’s simply a texture preference.

Stracciatella from 300 Sensational Soups

Rich chicken stock makes this dish what it is.

When I don’t feel well, take-out egg drop soup is my feel-good food. Color me shocked when I came across what is, in essence, Italian egg drop soup: Stracciatella (p.316). Since it’s mostly stock, you want to make sure you’ve got good stock and the best way to ensure that is to make your own. I had the luxury of time, that day (it was a Saturday spent at home), so made the stock and then made the soup. I even made a little extra to use the following week. The leftover meat (unlike the Creamy Chicken soup, above, the meat was not used in this soup, only the broth) I shredded and combined with the leftover stock veggies and a little mayo to make a chicken salad to serve over spinach with the simple soup. Nothing goes to waste!

And don’t skip the croutons on this one, they really do make a difference.

Steak and Potato Soup from 300 Sensational Soups

Even without the cream this was a wonderful soup.

Another great fact about soups is that most can be made in a slow-cooker without much difference in the outcome. For the Steak and Potato Soup we put all the solid ingredients in the crock the night before, added the liquid elements that morning, and came home to dinner ready. When you have a soup that finishes with any sort of dairy (cream, milk, sour cream, yogurt, etc.) that you’ve converted for slow-cooking, you should hold off adding that until just before serving (which we forgot to add at all on this one, oops!), but otherwise no real changes need to be made.

As the temperature continues to drop I see many more soup-er suppers in our future.

——————–

I received a copy of 300 Sensational Soups for purpose of review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.

How Many Ways Do You Grill Your Cheese?

Nibbles
150 Best Grilled Cheese Sandwiches by Alison Lewis

image via amazon.com

A grilled cheese sandwich is pretty far up there in my book as a great comfort food. Toasty, butter bread; gooey, molten cheese; with maybe some brown mustard or a slice of ham tucked inside for variation.

Perfect for a quick supper, an accompaniment to soup, or a warming snack on a cold winter day.

You can change up your bread (white, wheat, rye, potato), you can change up your cheese (provolone, cheddar, gouda, swiss) but I’ll bet that’s as far as many of go as far as rethinking the humble grilled cheese sandwich.

So when I heard about 150 Best Grilled Cheese Sandwiches by Alison Lewis, I was intrigued.

Lewis expands upon the idea of, at it’s simplest, 2* slices of bread and a slice of cheese. Bread is not limited to sliced–tortillas, pitas, and bagels are all fair game–and cheeses are ranked primarily by meltability, though flavor does come into play, of course. and it’s not just for lunch or dinner, anymore! The grilled cheeses in this book will take you from breakfast to dessert, offer flavor combinations with meat, fish, seafood, and poultry, as well as more veggie-centric ones. Just take a look as some of these recipe names and tell me you don’t start to salivate:

  • Grilled Goat Cheese and Figs (p.20)
  • Strawberry and Marscapone Sandwich (p.26)
  • Grilled Cheese Sliders with Carmalized Balsamic Onions (p.55)
  • Open-Faced Spinach and Havarti (p.67)
  • Grilled Swiss, Artichokes, and Olives (p.88)
  • Pastrami and White Cheddar Grilled Cheese (p.108)
  • Grilled Turkey and Brie with Apricot (p.127)
  • Grilled Spinach, Pepper Jack and Bacon (p.141)
  • Muffuletta Grilled Cheese (p.150)
  • Crab Mushroom Melts (p.172)
  • Tiramisu Grilled Cheese (p.202)
  • Dark Chocolate and Banana Grilled Cheese ( p.208)

We decided to try out a few different sandwiches the week surrounding Thanksgiving. Incidentally, many of these grilled cheeses would be perfect for using up leftovers and a great way to stretch your budget!

jwalker_150gc_grilledhuevosrancheros

We started out with the Grilled Huevos Rancheros (p.32). In this case the bread was a flour tortilla and the cheese shredded cheddar, joined by eggs, black beans, olives, and other savory companions. Grilling was done quesadilla-style in a frying pan and, really, what more can you say about a flavorful breakfast burrito. Since it was so obviously a breakfast-inspired dish, we paired it with hash brown potatoes.

jwalker_150gc_broccoliheesepitas

The next recipe we tried ventured a little further afield. The Broccoli Cheese Pitas (p. 73) are part of the Light and Healthy chapter, using whole wheat pitas pockets and a mixture of ricotta and feta cheeses along with the titular broccoli. It made for a very filling supper along with quinoa cooked in chicken stock.

jwalker_150gc_grilledturkeyandbriewithapricot

Finally, in a fitting  tribute to Thanksgiving leftovers, we used some of our delicious turkey for a Grilled Turkey and Brie with Apricot (p.127) sandwich. I adore brie in pretty much any situation, but the combination of the brie with apples, apricot preserves, and turkey on a hearty sourdough bread felt like an indulgence rather than mere leftovers. Definitely our favorite, among the three, it was also the messiest to eat as the apples tend to slide around a bit and not meld with the creamy brie.

At least once a week we have a night where a quick supper is called for and a grilled cheese is definitely a great alternative to take-out. I have a feeling we’ll be delving back into 150 Best Grilled Cheese Sandwiches for inspiration on a regular basis.

*The earliest grilled cheese sandwiches were open-faced, almost more like cheese toast than what we’d commonly call a sandwich. The second slice of bread became the rule rather than the exception sometime in the 1960s

——————–

I was provided a copy of 150 Best Grilled Cheese Sandwiches by Alison Lewis for purposes of review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.

May I Offer You Some Plopp*?

Nibbles

image via Amazon.com

It seems so strange to be reviewing a book that’s not a cookbook here, but bear with me–there’s some juicy food content to be had.

In my reading list for an alarmingly long time has been Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World. Having finally started and finished it, all I can say is I’ve learned way more than I ever expected about translation and interpretation.

Well, maybe I can say a few more things.

You’ve probably heard the old joke about how the Nova never sold well in Mexico as, in Spanish, “no va” means no-go? Turns out that’s total fiction (the inflection between the two is different and the car actually sold well, there. But it is true that you could make an international meal of Bimbo, Bra, and Pee Cola.

As our collective inner 12-year-olds giggle, allow me to explain that Bimbo is a type of Mexican sandwich bread, Bra is a Swedish yogurt, and Pee Cola is a soft drink in Ghana (which I’ve yet to find out what it’s supposed to taste like–how can you not wonder?!).

Not that other countries are the only ones as the butt of the joke in the U.S.–many of our own cultural favorites face quite the quandary when trying to market their products in other, non-English speaking countries.

In addition to the amusing culinary foibles, movie titles, product marketing, and television interpretaion take their place among the weightier matters of national affairs, religion, and 911 translations. While it reads, at times, as here’s-why-we’re-important propaganda, perhaps the fervor is necessary. After all, unless you know a translator or interpreter personally, how often do you think about their work and how it affects your daily life?

Parts are serious, parts are scary (the 911 call where a woman, fearing for her life, with a weapon-wielding someone coming her way springs immediately to mind), and parts will make you laugh out loud. But all will open your eyes to an under-appreciated field. I think this book would also be interesting to those who appreciate the history of words (etymology) and a career guide for those who find learning languages a fun pastime.

*Plopp is, according to the authors, a Czech chocolate candy (though Wikipedia identifies it as Swedish).

——————–

I received a copy of Found in Translation for purpose of review. All opinions expressed are my own.