Stop Blogging and Cook

Life is messy.  Clean it up! ~Tag line for a paper towel

DOES ANYONE LIKE TO CLEAN?
I loathe it.  But as I try to move away from using harsh chemicals, especially in the kitchen, I find that what inevitably replaces toxic substances is good old-fashioned elbow grease.  Those stains that get baked onto the gleaming white stove become harder to remove the longer they are allowed to bake, egged on by the heat of the burners.  The best alternative to extensive clean-up exercise is to get spills and spatters as they occur.  How much easier it is to clean up with just a damp sponge,  than any chemical or brawny alternative (no pun intended).

The best motivation for keeping the stove gleaming is a gleaming stove, so I’m endeavoring to clean up as I go.  It’s just easier, less time-consuming and more economical, requiring fewer cleaning products.  And I avoid going into a crazed last-minute cleaning because someone is visiting.  I may hate to clean, but I don’t want to telegraph that to my friends.  An added clean-as-you-go bonus:   thwarting creepy crawling little intruders’ efforts to snack on your leavings, starving them right out of existence.  No free lunch in my kitchen!

THOU REALLY SHALT . . .
This month’s issue of GQ has Alan Richmond’s 10 Commandments of Ethical Eating.  The famed food writer extols his top food ways to sustain health habits in a pithy slide show we would do well to heed.  On that note, #1 . . .

CAN’T BEAT BEETS
At the green market you will find beets.  Not only those deeply purple wonders that add color and flavor to your dinner or salad plate.  Golden beets can be had as well, bringing yet another color to the table.  I discovered the chiogga beet.  Pink on the outside, golden pink striated on the inside, this tastes just like a red beet.  Alternating it with reds makes it pretty on the plate.

Of course, you cannot color your seltzer, or hard-cooked eggs with cooking water from the chiogga beet.  For those you’ll have to revert to its ruddier cousin.  But beets of varying colors add variety to your table which your guests will notice and appreciate, and maybe be inspired by your experimentation.

So what do beets have to do with Alan Richmond’s Commandments of Ethical Eating?  If you have something like Marinated Vegetables awaiting in your refrigerator, you will always have a salad close at hand for those meals-in-a-hurry we’re all so fond of.  I put some cooked beets into the marinade to see what would happen.  Not only was it a delicious addition, a friend who was steadfast in his “I don’t like beets” assertion said, “These are good!”  And that, my friends, is culinary satisfaction.

Beets take a while to cook, but they also hold up in the fridge and are good any number of ways:

• Toss beet slices with a vinaigrette salad dressing and a lettuce leaf or two, add a crumble (feta, goat, gorgonzola) or grating (Reggiano or Pecorino) of cheese and a handful of nuts (pecans, walnuts, pine nuts or sunflower seeds) and you have a quick, light meal you’ll never regret eating.
• Raw or blanched beets can also be peeled, shredded and added to salads.
• Greek yogurt, seasoned with fresh dill, green onion and lemon juice, is a creamy dressing for cold beets.  Toss just prior to serving so that the red of the beet won’t run into the white of the yogurt.
• Use water from cooking beets to color seltzer water or peeled hard-cooked eggs.  Nutrients from the beets enrich while the pink color delights.

To paraphrase Mr Richmond’s tenets:

No one ever regretted eating a salad.

Keep clean greens handy in your refrigerator, and buy fresh produce whenever you go shopping.  Cherry or grape tomatoes are sweet  for snacking any time of the day or night.  Keep them in the fruit bowl.  Ditto for unsalted nuts.  If peeled carrots make you want to eat more of them by all means buy them frequently.  Mix up a vinaigrette dressing to have at the ready, or just use olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Without sugar or salt, you can have as much as you want.  Any meal that begins with a homemade salad and dressing is a good one.  Ordering take-out?  Whip up a huge salad while awaiting delivery.  You’ll be glad you did.

Here’s a thought:  let’s make salads the new fast food.  It can’t hurt.

Tags: gluten-free, good for you food, healthy choices, raw food, real food, salad, vegetables, vegetarian, yogurt