new york fixtures

everyone has a couple of new york fixures in their life. these aren't items, they are people who are unique figures in the neighborhoods they occupy or in which they run their business. their regularity is comforting and they make people feel at home with their personality and quality offerings.


take ray, for instance, who works in a tiny hole-in-the-wall shop on avenue a. among my friends, he is known as the frozen yogurt man. others refer to his shop as the belgian fries place and still others refer to him more formally as ray alvarez of ray's candy store. when i lived nearby, in a shoebox apartment in the east village, my roommates and i would find any excuse we could to wander over for a late night/weekend afternoon/substitute for dinner treat. i would even trek over by myself during snow storms to get my froyo fix. after we moved away and into our own apartments boroughs away from each other, we would still meet there for froyo. because of my love for this shop and the memories i have, it scared me to hear recent news of ray's poor health and finances.

every time i loose one of these people or their livelihood is threatened, i feel as though the misfortune has happened to a close friend and someone who is actually part of my life. the news of joe ade's death this week was heartbreaking. if the name isn't familiar, he was the vegetable peeler man. you can probably recall seeing him sitting on a street corner, happily peeling away and belting out his sales pitch. he was one of those people who was a mainstay in the city-someone who was constantly around and made you smile every time you saw him. it isn't that ray or joe are taken for granted; it's just that you don't consider passing by without them being there. to me, it feel as though a part of my belonging to the city has been chipped away and i am forced to scramble to find a substitute.

"save ray" tshirts will be on sale at ray's candy store to benefit ray (or just go buy some yummy fries or froyo). a memorial for joe is planned for saturday. if you missed your chance to get a peeler, you can order them online.

back to the oatmeal thing...

there's nothing quite like oatmeal on a 12 degree morning. that's why I decided to use my $1 jamba juice oatmeal coupon earlier today. i realize that to an outsider it may seem that i'm a bit obsessed (see oatmeal post 1 and 2) but seriously everyone, oatmeal is great and jamba is kicking starbuck's ass on this one. these steel cut oats taste like just that. cooking them with soymilk gives them an additional creamy taste. and the topping! i'm usually not a fruit compote fan but in this case, my apple cinnamon topping had the perfect balance of tart apples and a sweet sauce. my vote is to omit the brown sugar topping. not only does it have wheat in it but the topping was sweet enough for me.

what's that? you want one of those coupons? okay, click here and scroll to the bottom of the page. you're welcome.

jamba vs. starbucks
jamba oatmeal (plain)
180 calories
3g fat
5g sugar
topping options: bananas (50 calories), berry compote (70 calories), apple cinnamon topping (70 calories), brown sugar crumble (40 calories)

starbucks oatmeal (plain)
140 calories
topping option
3g fat
0g sugar
toppings: mixed nuts (100 calories), brown sugar (50 calories), or dried berries (100 calories)
price: about $3

banana bread experiment

it's banana bread season. first, it appeared via the frozen brown bananas in my friend's freezer. "WHAT are those?!" i admit, i judged. what i did not realize was that they were bananas at their peak of banana breadiness (all nice and brown and squishy) and that this stage was being preserved in her freezer! genius! thinking of my own lone 1 brown banana at home, i wished i had thought of it myself. then, today, a friend at work brought banana bread to the office. it was not wheat-free and it made me cranky. again, thoughts of my lone brown banana. so when i got home, it seemed inevitable that my banana would take its journey to breadhood. the problem was, i only had one banana. your standard banana bread recipe calls for 2-3 of them. an experiment ensued.

i used a combination of a recipe from a baker friend, becky crocker, as well as another one that called for less banana. i thought i was home free but then it turned out that i was short on flour. so i threw in some oatmeal to make up the difference. and some walnuts and chocolate chips to compensate for the lack of banana. becky crocker is probably yelling about my lack of respect for baking chemistry but what could i do? i tried to call her...

since the bread is baking while i am writing, i must add that when i checked on the bread about 20 minutes into the baking time it had puffed way up. i poked it with a chopstick which seemed to let out some of the air. now (10 minutes later) it's lower and much more bread like. you may want to poke the bread to release the air halfway through cooking...

SUCCESS! my banana experiment was soft and crumbly with a caramelized crust on the bottom and a thin, crispy layer on top. deeeeelicious.



oatmeal chocolate walnut "banana bread"

• 1/2 cup of softened butter substance of your choice (i used 3 tblspns of butter and 5 tblspns of earth balance)
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 mashed banana (more if you have it)
• 1 tspn vanilla
• 1 cup flour (spelt here)
• 1/4 cup oats (not gluten-free but if it needs to be, omit the oats and go with 1 1/4 cups of gluten-free flour)
  
• 1 tspn baking soda
• 1 tspn cinnamon
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips

• cream butter and sugar
• add banana, eggs and vanilla and stir
  
• add flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and stir
• mix in chocolate chips and walnuts
• bake in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes--consider poking halfway through to release air if it's too puffy
  

friday night at whole foods

friday night, i concluded a rough week with an evening at whole foods. my surrogate big sister and blogger treated me to tea (jade cloud) and snack (gluten-free snickerdoodle). it was just what i needed to wrap up an otherwise stressful week. my cookie was delicious and it felt extra special because i rarely ever eat snickerdoodles. although gluten-free, the texture was good--light but not too crumbly. it was the first time i have noticed this brand but gilbert's gourmet goodies makes cookies and cookie dough without gluten, nuts, soy, milk, or corn. in addition to being sold at whole foods, they are also available here.

among other things, we ended up discussing soy. soy is controversial for environmental and health reasons, which is a complete bummer for those of use who are vegan, lactose intolerant, and/or insert other dairy free reason here. modern day soy consumption seems to have been revolutionized by silk, giving the soy milk market a delicious, readily available option. additionally, soy milk is the go-to milk alternative and is available in many restaurants and stores, so switching to another alternative seems intimidating. i drink and eat soy because of my lactose intolerance and other health issues. therefore, i have decided to switch my milk alternative at home to almond milk to cut back on the soy consumption, even if only just a little. a quick comparison:

silk light plain (1 cup)
70 calories
20 calories from fat
2g fat
30% calcium and vitamin d

almond breeze unsweetened original (1 cup)
40 calories
30 calories from fat
3g fat
20% calcium, 25% vitamin d

and if you're looking for a friday night hotspot, union square whole foods might just be the place.

the tortilla soup adventure

global warming has been spoiling those of us in new york for the past few years but the jig is up. lately (the past month) has been positively frigid. what does this mean for me? i want to crawl under the covers with all the fatty food i can get my hands on. resisting the urge to have an evening full of cheese fries and chocolate chip cookies, i decided soup was the way to satiate my craving. tortilla soup!

i recalled a recipe i had ripped out of the nytimes a couple of years ago and had been saving since. yes, i do this with newspapers and magazines. i have a small pile of recipes on the top of my refrigerator...this particular recipe looked so simple that it was time to try it. i ended up adapting a combination of 2 recipes from the nytimes: the saved one and a more recent one.

the consensus was that although the soup was good, it would be far better if it were blended. (i blame this on The Boy's aversion to tomatoes that are not in pureed form) so off we went, to find an immersion blender, of course. we were really stretching it on this one, running off to target at 9:00 on a friday night. i got distracted in the store (as i often do) and by the time we had discovered that THEY WERE OUT of immersion blenders, it was already 9:30. "bed bath and beyond," he declared. there were a few problems with this. 1) it was already 9:30 and bbb closes at 10. 2) if target was any indication of closing patterns at mass chain stores, they were actually going to be closing at 9:45, if not earlier. 3) target AND bed bath & beyond in one day?! 4) we couldn't quite remember where the bbb was ("it's close, i swear"). in the car we went. actually we ran. we ran to the car and sped off, multiple gadgets going, trying to locate the illusive bbb glowing somewhere in the distance. we navigated mostly by memory from the last time this happened (but that had to do with a britta filter). by the time we flew off the bqe, chain link parking lot fence in sight, it was 9:57. "pull the car up front and jump out," i screamed. but alas, it was the wrong giant queens parking lot and we had somehow missed the correct exit. back home we went, to our chunky tortilla soup. but have no fear, friends! the next day, an immersion blender was purchased, the soup was blended and it was delicious! definitely the way to go for this one...


tortilla soup (serves 4-6)

• 1-2 chipotle chilies in adobo depending on your preferred spiciness (or other chili of your choosing)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
  
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
  
• 1 large onion, sliced
• pinch dried oregano
• salt and pepper
• 4 cups stock (i prefer chicken)
• fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 avocado, sliced
• several corn tortillas, cut in strips
• grated cheese or crumbled queso fresco

• heat oil in a large pot. add garlic and onion and cook over medium heat until softened, about 10 minutes. add tomatoes and chilies. season with salt and pepper and oregano. add stock and adjust the temperature so that the mixture simmers gently. simmer for at least 20 minutes.
• while soup simmers, scatter tortilla strips on top of a paper towel on a plate and cook in the microwave 1 minute at a time until crisp.
• if you choose to blend, now is the time to do it.
  
• stir in lime juice and cilantro.
• serve in a bowl with the tortilla strips, cheese and avocado.

weeknight dinner: tofu shirataki

i spied this curious looking food (tofu shirataki) on a couple of trips to the grocery store and knew it was only a matter of time before it made it into my weekly dinner rotation. it's a food that seems too good to be true: tofu noodles. my thoughts immediately went to a plethora of guilt-free and gluten-free pasta dishes. i was quite excited to try a stir-fry noodle dish, since this is something i just can't find wheat-free in restaurants. my yakisoba and/or chow mein days are over.


definitely follow the prep directions on the package: rinse the noodles well, boil for 2-3 minutes, then dry. the package mentions an "authentic aroma," which i assumed would be slightly fermented soy smelling. not so. they smell awful, so don't skip the prep. to make mine yakisoba style, i heated up some vegetable oil in a large pan and then sauteed some celery, zucchini and onions. a few minutes later, i added the tofu shirataki and, as it says to do so on the house foods website, pressed the noodles down, to help them brown. after a couple of minutes, i added some homemade teriyaki sauce (garlic, ginger, soy sauce, mirin and oil) to the pan and let everything cook for an additional 2 minutes.

i was quite happy with the results. the noodles resist a greasy, fried feeling. the texture is a bit soft but not mushy. it definitely helps to have the vegetables with some crunch left to them. next time: tofu shirataki spaghetti style!

more tofu shirataki recipes are available on the house foods website.

chocolate coconut bread pudding

For those of you who may not watch the food network as often as I do, allow me to explain. I really prefer the cooking shows but granted that I'm not home all day able to watch them, I often catch prime-time food network. One show that I occasionally watch is throwdown, with bobby flay. I'm really not a huge fan of flay's and the show's premise seems to be flay running around in a pretentious fashion, thinking he can develop recipes overnight that are better than people who have dedicated their lives to certain dishes. This attitude was particularly on display during the episode I saw last week, bread pudding throwdown. Nonetheless, the chocolate coconut bread pudding that materialized from the episode looked pretty damn good--all gooey and chocolaty.

I figured that I should at least look the recipe up to see if it was doable. I was able to find the recipe on seriouseats.com (whether it's accurate, I guess we'll never know) and it did look complicated but not impossible. My friend's birthday was coming up so it seemed like the perfect excuse. On the show, flay's bread pudding has a slight twist--chocolate ganache mixed in it--and is served on top of a coconut creme anglaise and passionfruit sauce. I nixed the creme anglaise and the passionfruit, partially because I don't have enough pots and pans to get it all bubbling in my kitchen but mainly because it had to travel.

The first thing I needed to do was locate a quality loaf of bread that I could eat. I chose spelt (as I often do) and bought half a loaf at le pain quotidien, a chain with 17 locations in new york alone, as well as locations in LA, DC and connecticut. If you're gluten-free, silver moon bakery (upper west side) makes the best gluten-free loaf I have ever had although it's only available certain days of the week. It had a completely normal, non-gluten-free feeling texture. After the bread, the recipe was pretty straight-forward. There were 3 basic components and steps: the bread, the custard, and the chocolate ganache.

chocolate coconut bread pudding

ganache

• 6 oz bittersweet chocolate finely chopped
• 6 oz heavy cream

• Place the chocolate in a small bowl. Bring the cream to a simmer in a small saucepan then pour over the chocolate. Let sit for 30 seconds then whisk until smooth, keep warm.

bread pudding

• 17 ounces of bread (crust removed before weighing), cut into 1 1/2 inch dice--I used half a loaf of spelt
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 3 cups heavy cream
• 2 cups unsweetened coconut milk
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
  
• 4 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
  
• Chocolate ganache (recipe above)
  
• 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Put bread on a large baking sheet, drizzle with the butter and toss to coat. Bake until light golden brown, tossing several times, about 12 minutes. Remove and let cool slightly.
• Combine cream, coconut milk, sugar and vanilla in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over high heat, and whisk until the sugar is dissolved. Add the chopped chocolate and whisk until melted.
• Whisk together the eggs and yolks in a medium bowl and slowly whisk in the warm chocolate mixture.
  
• Place the bread cubes in a single layer in the bottom of a 9"x13" baking dish. Pour half the custard over half of the ganache and sprinkle with half of the coconut. Press down the bread to allow the liquid to soak in. Place the remaining bread cubes on the top, add the remaining custard and ganache, press down to submerge the bread. Top with the remaining coconut, cover, and let sit for at least 1 hour before baking.
  
• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Bake until the sides are slightly puffy and the center is slightly set (but still jiggles a bit), about 40 minutes. Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving. Serve warm, with vanilla ice cream.