I Dream of Crabs and Iced Tea

This past Saturday, I woke up dreaming about Maryland's iconic blue crabs, which someone told me is a "new one" since "usually people wake up thinking about bacon".  Which kinda sounds like a euphemism for 'That's weird!'.  Which is actually not weird at all considering I'm pescetarian and crab benedict is absolutely phenomenal for breakfast.  Since everyone is so hashtag crazy these days, I'd just like that person to know that #MyPalateIsMoreSophisticatedThanYours  #CrabIsBetterThanBacon #MindYourBusiness #NoThankYouWouldHaveSufficed

On Sunday, it was iced tea.  The unfiltered, verbatim quote that I remember from my dream is, "If I have one more disgusting glass of iced tea up here!  These [northern] folks need to learn that it's okay to add a few tablespoons of sugar or honey or citrus to your tea while it's brewing."  Obviously, I was scarred by that unmemorable glass of orange blossom iced tea that I had at a local restaurant the day before.  Lol...

"Aha!  Why don't I try them together!" I thought.  Good idea.  So, yesterday, I made a proper glass of iced tea (see recipe below) and had steamed crabs for the first time.  I was in heavennnnnn!  The crabs were only $1 per crab (quite a bargain) and I even got a lesson on picking crabs at the crab shop.  The Old Bay coating was delicious and crab meat was divine.  Yeah, this is gonna be a problem...

A Proper Glass of Iced Tea

Ingredients:

• 1 cup water
• 1 tbsp honey
• 2 lime wedges
• 1 sprig mint
• 1 bag of your favorite tea

Directions:

Add water to a small pot and bring to a boil.  Stir in honey, squeezed lime wedges and mint.   Add tea bag.  Cover with a lid and steep according to package directions.  Allow to cool for a few minutes and then add to a tall glass filled with ice cubes.  

Eat More Oatmeal

I'll admit to being a little obsessive about oats.  I'm partial to oatmeal, granola, oatmeal raisin cookies, these, this, this, definitely this and occasionally this.  And, I absolutely dig this!  I love how even the restaurant's bowl sizes are baby bear, momma bear and pappa bear.  I'm totally bookmarking this for my next trip to NYC. I know one thing, too, Goldilocks should steer clear of my bowl.  Lol. It may be hard for you to believe at this point, but my love and fascination with oats might be totally outdone by this (be sure to stroll all the way down to the bottom of the page).

It was second nature to sleepily stumble into the kitchen this morning and whip up this super quick bowl of oatmeal on autopilot.  I tend to use ingredients I have on hand for my morning oats (missing those toasted, unsalted, slivered almonds right about now) and I advise you to do the same.  Feel free to add, substitute and omit ingredients to your liking.

FYI: 10 Awesome Health Benefits of Oatmeal & Making Your Own Homemade Oatmeal Packets: A Visual Guide and Cost Analysis & 3 Ways to Save Money on Quick, Convenient Breakfasts

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup rice milk
• 1/4 tsp pure almond extract
• 1/2 cup quick cook oats
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 2 dates, chopped
• 2 tbsp shredded coconut
• 1 shake of ground cardamon
• 2 shakes of ground cinnamon
• 1 shake of nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 6 oz container Chobani Low-fat Passion Fruit Greek Yogurt, well-shaken

Direction:

In a medium saucepan, heat rice milk and almond extract until hot and starting to bubble.  Add the next 8 ingredients and stir to combine.  Reduce to medium heat and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often.  Transfer to a serving bowl and top with Greek Yogurt for a healthy, delicious and creamy breakfast fix. 

Baked Crab Cheese Grits

Because every office bake off needs a savory dish.  As the only southerner in my office, I'm sure no one will be able to guess who brought the baked cheese grits.  

Ingredients:

• 3 cups vegetable stock
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 cup old-fashioned grits
• 8 oz sharp cheddar cheese, cubed
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 lb crab claw
• 4 oz extra sharp white cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions:

Butter a 2-quart casserole dish and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  

In a medium saucepan, bring the vegetable stock, white pepper and garlic powder to a boil.  Stir in the grits and whisk until well combined.  Reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for 8 to 10 minutes.   Add the cubed cheddar and whole milk and stir to combine.  Gradually stir in the eggs and butter, paying careful attention to the eggs to ensure they do not begin to cook.  Once ingredients are well-combined, add the crab claw and transfer to the buttered casserole dish.  Sprinkle the shredded white cheddar cheese over top and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until set.  

Green Eggs and Ham a.k.a. Leafy Green Frittata

[Exhale].  Let me start by saying how relieved I am to finally have a sense of normalcy back in my life after a busy first two months of the year.  Daylight Saving Time is on tomorrow and I'm anxiously awaiting my first opportunity to bask in the sun and open my moonroof for some much needed Vitamin D.  I finally made plans to visit the National Aquarium, and it only took me a year and some change. And, for the second time ever, my birthday falls on Easter this year.  Am I too old to have a grown-up version of my egg hunt birthday party of old?  As you've probably guessed by now, I'm pretty excited about the month of March.

Hopefully, things will be mostly uphill, weather-wise, from here on out, but we a couple more months of waiting to do before farmers' markets are back in full swing.  However, that doesn't mean you have to continue singing the root vegetable blues.  Thankfully, many leafy greens are in season year round, and they are a great addition to just about any meal.  You can check out this website to find a harvest calendar with fruits and vegetables currently in season in your state/region.

Over time, I've received numerous requests for quick cooking vegetable recipes and someone specifically asked for some gateway recipes for new pescetarians/vegetarians.  This frittata definitely fits the bill.  If you can beat eggs, saute vegetables, turn on your oven and set the oven timer, then you can make a frittata. The whole process takes about 30 minutes or less and consider this: frittatas are versatile enough to be eaten for any meal.  If you ever have a dinner party or some unexpected house guests show up and you need a quick fix, don't fret.  Frittatas to the rescue!

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1/3 cup feta cheese
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 lb baby asparagus, tough ended removed, and cut into 3-inch pieces
• 1 cup chopped lacinato kale
• 2 cup chopped savoy cabbage

Directions:

Preheat oven to broil setting.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the eggs, sea salt, black pepper, cilantro and feta cheese together with a fork or whisk.  Heat a 12-inch nonstick, broiler proof saute pan over medium high heat.  Add olive oil.  Then, add the asparagus, lacinato kale and savoy cabbage to the pan and saute for 3 to 4 minutes.  Pour the egg mixture into the pan and give the pan a good shake to evenly distribute the eggs.  Cook for 4 to 5 minutes or until the bottom has set and the top is beginning to set.  Place the pan in the oven and broil for 3 to 4 minutes or until fully set.  The frittata should be lightly brown and fluffy.  Remove from pan, cut and serve.   

Exploring the African Presence in Modern American Cuisine: Coffee, Cocoa and Black Bean Chili

Wow.  What a month!  February has been quite busy for me with work, traveling, blogging and trying to manage a social life.   

When I launched the Black History Month series at the end of January, I reverted to my 21-year-old self and recalled the searing enlightenment of my informative speech on soul food in my Persuasive Communication class.  I opened up the speech with a poem written by the phenomenal Pat Parker.  Then, I talked about the history and evolution of soul food, and I ended with some open-ended questions and a food tasting of collard greens and candied yams.   First of all, I must ask is it any surprise that I ended up with a food centric career?  Second, I was quite surprised how much I learned about myself and my culture by exploring a topic that seemed so obvious and familiar.   Life Lesson # 324:  No topics are off limits.  Depth is just as important as breadth.   Third, the professor, a legend in her field, gave me the highest compliment by saying she would never think of soul food the same way again after my speech.   When it was all said and done, my multicultural classmates had told me all about their cultural "soul foods" and one of the students in the class had surreptitiously tried to convince me to cook for a campus event.  Ummm... No sir!

Much like that speech some seven years ago, the Black History Month series has been quite eye-opening.  I've learned a lot and I'm better informed about foodways in the African Diaspora.  However, it has also been a major life adjustment restricting my food choices and having such a regimented meal plan for an entire month when my cooking style is pretty spontaneous and in sync with the time constraints in my life.  I had lots of ideas and not quite enough time to blog about peanuts (George Washington Carver), sweet potatoes, black-eyed peas, watermelons, patties, jollof rice, and injera.  I also didn't get around to organizing the Black Heritage Potluck that I dreamt about.    The fact of the matter is I have a full time job with a ridiculous commute.  I work out four to five days a week.  I travel a fair amount in the region.  I have a personal life.  This blog is simply a personal project where I let my creative juices flow.  So, the Black History Month series wasn't all that I wanted it to be, but I hope you enjoyed it and learned something new.  

The last food I will be featuring in the Black History Month series is coffee.  Ethiopia is widely believed to be the birthplace of coffee.  According to legend, a goat herder discovered coffee after noticing his goats were so lively and "spirited" after consuming the mysterious berries that they did not sleep at night.  The goat header confided in a monk who made a drink with the berries and subsequently extolled their virtues to other monks in the monastery.  Word of the "energizing" black beverage eventually spread near and far and coffee soon became a global phenomenon.   Hmmm... Quite interesting.  There's a conversation starter for your next cup o' joe.

I'm actually not a coffee drinker myself, but I decided to try my hand at this quick and easy recipe for Black Bean and Espresso Chili.  I halved the recipe, using two onions and 3 cans of black beans.  I also added 1 tbsp of cocoa powder, substituted dark roast coffee for espresso and substituted two diced chipotle peppers in adobo sauce for the chipotle chili powder.  I initially served it with these Pan-Fried Grit Cakes.  They were okay, but I much preferred it with cornbread.  In fact, the chili and cornbread combination was so tasty that I'd have to say this recipe is a keeper.  It's a breeze to make, loaded with fiber and protein, relatively inexpensive and quite tasty.   I'll just have to tweak the recipe some more to kick the spice factor up another notch for me.

Exploring the African Presence in Modern American Cuisine: Crawfish Mac and Greens

Baked mac and cheese is my favorite food.  Period.  It's the thing I most look forward to at holiday dinners (as long as there is no Velveeta, American cheese, cornflakes, ham, peas, tomatoes, Rotel, ground beef, fat free cheese or whole wheat pasta involved).  Just a personal preference, but don't mind me.  So, imagine my excitement when I saw S'MAC, a mac and cheese restaurant, in New York City this past weekend.  I stopped dead in my tracks, about-faced and studied the menu.   That's right, I studied the menu (and made a few mental notes, too).  Despite the serendipitous discovery and my overwhelming excitement, I decided to stick with the original plan and headed to Momofuku Noodle Bar for dinner.

Since we're talking about New York City and all, I'd like you to take a journey with me.  Let's leave the quirky East Village behind and head up to historic Harlem.  There's this eatery called Red Rooster that you might find interesting.  It's the brainchild of Chef Marcus Samuelsson.   He is doing some interesting thangs up there and his mac and greens are truly swoon worthy.  Trust me.  I mean I've even been convinced of the virtues of adding vegetables to mac and cheese.  Not to mention, the mac and greens at Red Rooster are made with rice milk, making them a light and healthier alternative to traditional mac and cheese.  I've been dying to replicate this dish for months so I figured it was finally time for me to take a stab at Chef Marcus' Mac and Greens.  And, of course, I put my own little spin on them.

Question:  So, how did mac and cheese become a staple of soul food cuisine?  Why is the cheesy pasta dished out at soul food restaurants across the country?   Why do my friends guard their secret family recipes so closely?  It's something I've always wondered, but I didn't know the answer until I started doing research for this blog post.  According to the Taste History Culinary Tours blog, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia is credited with introducing the dish in America upon his return from France, where he served as the American delegate.  While in France, President Jefferson supposedly "immersed himself in the art and cuisine of Europe and traveled to Italy".  In 1802, President Jefferson served a "macaroni pie" at a state dinner that is believed to have been prepared by slaves working as cooks and maids.  The slave servants would eventually take what was considered an upper-class delicacy and appropriate it.  "Thus explains the familiarity and duplication of the cuisine by African Americans."

You can find the recipe for Chef Marcus Samuelsson's Mac and Greens here: http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/marcus-mac-and-greens

I made the following substitutions and additions:

• One 17.6 oz package of Barilotti pasta substituted for 1 package whole wheat orecchiette
• 1/2 lb Quickes English Farmhouse Cheddar substituted for 1/2 lb low-fat cheddar cheese
• 1/4 lb Emmi Cave Aged Emmentaler Unpasterized Cows Milk Cheese substituted for 1/4 lb gruyere
• 2 cups sauteed baby kale and bok choy with mushrooms substituted for 2 cups cooked collard greens
• Added 1/2 lb of steamed and deveined crawfish tails along with the collard greens
• Optional garnishes: Squeeze the juice from the crawfish head over each individual serving of the mac and cheese or add a dollop of creme fraiche, 

Exploring the African Presence in Modern American Cuisine: Whipped Sorghum Butter

The topic of today's Black History Month post is sorghum.  Sorghum is a cereal grain that originated in Northeastern Africa.  The earliest known record of the crop has been dated at 8000 B.C. (1).  In Africa, the grain is often processed into injera, couscous, dumplings, beer, malt beverages and fermented and non-fermented porridges (2), and it is an extremely important subsistence crop, both in Africa (3) and developing countries such as Haiti (4).  It is actually the only viable food grain crop for many of the world's most food insecure people, who live in sub-Saharan Africa (2).

Grain sorghum made its transatlantic journey in the early seventeenth century when African slaves brought the crop to North America (5) and used it to make brooms, pudding and bread.   Another African sorghum variety--sweet sorghum--was later introduced in the United States in the mid-1800s, becoming the basis of the sorghum syrup industry (6).   Today, sorghum syrup production is concentrated in the U.S. South (7) and sorghum syrup (also erroneously referred to as sorghum molasses) is a staple of southern & soul food cooking (8).  The most common practice is to eat sorghum syrup with biscuits, pancakes or waffles.  However, it can be substituted for honey, molasses and sugar, and it's also thought to be more nutritious (9).  So, recipes abound.

Here, I use sorghum syrup to make a batch of whipped sorghum butter to eat with homemade sweet potato biscuits.  I plan to enjoy these biscuits and butter for dinner all week with glazed salmon, kale chips and caramelized purple cabbage and onions.

Whipped Sorghum Butter

Ingredients:

• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1/4 cup sorghum syrup
• 1 teaspoon ginger preserves

Directions:

Combine ingredients in a medium-sized bowl and combine well until whipped smooth and creamy.

1. http://www.sorghumgrowers.com/sorghum%20101.html
2. http://www.afripro.org.uk/papers/Paper01Taylor.pdf
3. http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=2305&page=145
4. http://chibas-bioenergy.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=43
5. http://tinyurl.com/asy3vb7
6. http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3743050?uid=3739704&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101791510917
7. http://nssppa.org/Sweet_Sorghum_FAQs.html
8. http://www.npr.org/2012/09/12/160946531/sorghum-travels-from-the-south-to-the-mainstream
9. http://nssppa.org/Cooking_with_Sorghum.html