Brandon Eats

In Between Days

In between winter and spring, we seem to still be stuck with winter—as far as vegetable choices go.

Wintertime sucks the resolve of good intentions dry. At least when it comes to your pledge to eat local food. Remember that one? You made it when the bounty of last summer had your kitchen overflowing with tomatoes, squash, green beans, and every kind of berry you could imagine? You felt so good about yourself, so virtuous, so pure, and yes, just a little bit smug.

Winter slaps all of that self-satisfaction right out of you. Not a lot grows around here between fall and spring. And the stuff that does grow is kind of funky: things like collards or turnips or cabbage, and of course, the ubiquitous winter squash. What kind of food is that?

It sounds a lot like the kind of food grandmothers used to serve. And although grandmother food is technically considered comfort food, winter vegetables don’t really do it for me. They’re decidedly unsexy and all of them seem to be pretty stinky. Greens have a lot of sulfur compounds, and they annoyingly billow out from the kitchen while you’re cooking, masking whatever little allure they originally might have had.

Guilt, however, informs a lot of what I do and what I don’t do. Over the winter, I managed to join three co-ops which have had me driving all over town each week. In order to justify the endless driving, I’ve been forced to figure out how to cook the available vegetables in a way that doesn’t drive them from the plate straight into the trashcan.

Pork fat is key.

Please stop screaming now, I can explain. Pork fat (otherwise known as LARD) is actually making a comeback. In some circles, it never even went away. Here's a link to reprint of a piece I wrote for Style Weekly's lovely, glossy, offshoot Belle a while back that goes into the particulars.

The short version is this: Despite recent reports,* more compelling studies have shown animal fat really isn’t all that bad for you.

Now, I’m not advocating throwing large amounts of lard or butter into everything you cook. I don’t, in fact, advocate throwing large amounts of olive oil into everything either (although it’s one of my very favorite things). All I’m trying to do here is preach a little variety along with moderation.

But I’ve veered off course. Back to the vegetables. Not too long ago, I looked with suspicion at a head of collard greens sitting on my counter. Most recipes call for a quick five to ten minute sauté, and I almost always end up with a lot of chewy, fibrous greens that make me feel virtuous because they taste so healthy.

Recipe after the jump

State of the Plate 2009

At long last, by dint of sweat and tireless effort, the latest, greatest Style Weekly Restaurant Issue is out and ready to fly off the stands!

I Say Potato

Sometimes I wonder if the potato is an evil mastermind-tuber bent on the destruction of all mankind. You've heard about how one bite will immediately mess with your blood sugar and your insulin? And how that kind of thing is really, really dangerous and leads to diabetes and a host of other bad, bad things I can't remember right now?

I'm tired of that trash talk. I love potatoes. I used to fix them for dinner five or six times a week. Excessive, yes--I admit that. Then, succumbing to all of the anti-potato propaganda, I cut them out of the menu entirely and discovered the great big world of grains. Although this was a truly wonderful, eye-opening journey, I missed my poor little shunned potatoes. Were they really all that bad?

One potato (with the skin) is 278 calories, has seven (count 'em!) bulgy grams of fiber and a whopping 48% of the vitamin C you need for the entire day. Granted, it has 63 grams of carbohydrates but there's also 7 grams of protein in there. That sounds like a whole lot of good stuff to me. And if you're worried, why not minimize carbs during the day, and eat a potato at night?

I mean, really, why not?

So, potatoes are back on the menu, but not nearly as often as before. I have too much spectacular quinoa, beautiful bulgur, and so many beans I can't name them all to eat as well. When I brought a bag of brand-new potatoes back into the house, I decided I wanted to avoid the old ways of mashing, frying, scalloping, and lavishing with butter and sour cream (although that's really a method that will stand the test of time, as far as I'm concerned) and get going with some newer, less familiar potato recipes.

Below you'll find one of my new favorites, inspired by The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper by Lynne Rosetto Kasper and Sally Swift. Like a lot of variations on recipes, this one was born of an all-to-common necessity around my house. I didn't have all of the ingredients, and with the clock ticking and my back against the wall, was forced to improvise instead.

The basics of Greek potatoes are there, however: the fruity tang of olive oil, the sharpness of lemon, and a screaming garlic base that together edge the potatoes into territory that is rapidly becoming happy, familiar terrain.

Greek Pot-Crushed Potatoes

5 garlic cloves

2 pounds potatoes (avoid Russet potatoes)

1 tablespoon olive oil

Shake of red pepper flakes

1/4 cup Italian parsley leaves

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt and plenty of black pepper

Bring a large pot of generously salted water to boil. Thinly slice potatoes and garlic with a food processor (or expertly wielded knife). Put the potato slices in the water and simmer for around six to eight minutes (or even ten). Save a couple of tablespoons of the water and drain.

In the same pot, add the olive oil and gently heat. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes,along with the saved water. Bring to a simmer and cook for about five minutes until the garlic is soft when pressed with the back of a spoon. Add more water as necessary to avoid burning the garlic.

Return potatoes to the pot and gently crush (NOT mash), along with the garlic. Gently stir in the lemon juice, parsley leaves, and salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 4 ardent potato lovers.

We're All Irish at Heart

I raise a glass of Guinness to all the Irish and all those who wish they were Irish today. Let's chase that down with a shot of Jameson's and take a look at the recipes I've been posting on RVANews for their big St. Patick's Day extravaganza of what to eat, what to drink, and where to go.

The Perfect Irish Stew

Colcannon

Braised Bacon and Cabbage

Guinness Ice Cream!

Fat is Back?

Originally published in the December/January issue of Belle but unavailable online. Someone was asking me about this recipe and I thought I'd give it another whirl.

I really love butter. And I hate butter for that.

But I can’t stop my foolish heart. I love butter cold and softly yielding to just the slightest pressure from my tongue on a hunk of torn baguette, and I love it slippery and hot, dripping down to my elbows from a piece of lobster almost about to drop onto my tongue. I love the way it smells as it melts, and the way it works equally well with savory as well as sweet.

But is butter going to stop my foolish heart for me? I don’t love the way it clogs my arteries and cruises through my digestive system seemingly straight into my adipose tissue. That’s fat to you and me, butter-lovers, and we all need to avoid accumulating any more of that than we need to.

However, a few people have been looking at animal fats with a critical eye lately, and the news might not be as bad as you think. Most of the studies on the relationship between fats and cholesterol were done without taking the nasty trans-fats we’ve all been hearing about into account. Later studies have pointed out that, in women at least, a daily diet that includes more than 30% fat doesn’t increase your risk of heart disease or cancer despite the kind of fat you eat, saturated or unsaturated.  The real danger comes from those mostly man made trans-fatty acids. Of course, once you veer up into the 50% range (and it’s kind of hard to imagine, actually), all bets are off, health-wise.

The earlier studies didn’t take fiber intake into account either. When patients at risk were put on low-fat diets, their intake of fruit and vegetables went way up. Exercise was usually added as well. And their cholesterol, heart rate, and blood pressure went down. The control groups, left to their own devices, skipped the exercise, and most of the fruit and vegetables. Was it the amount of fat that changed things or the addition of other lifestyle changes? “The conclusion of an analysis of the history and politics behind the diet-heart hypothesis,” stated the Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2004, “was that after 50 years of research, there was no evidence that a diet low in saturated fat prolongs life.”

Acacia Midtown

Acacia Midtown is my latest recommendation. Here's a link to my review, out today.