Ingredient Spotlight: Ume Vinegar

I was exploring a new supermarket this week and spotted a new ingredient to try. I love vinegars and, aside from super-old balsamico from Modena, they are generally a very economical and fast way to add different flavors to foods.

Ume vinegar is made from the brine left over when plums (ume in Japanese) are pickled into umeboshi (pickled plums). As a result, it has a great deep fruity flavor. It's also hella salty (think pickle brine) so you should use it sparingly (Ask poor Beppo about the tablespoon he shot down last night. Well, ask him after he stops coughing, which should be any time now.).

So far, I have used it on a cole slaw (I diluted it with a little rice vinegar to keep things acidic enough without the salad getting super salty) and sprinkled it over some rice (for a sushi rice vibe). I have read that it's good for salad dressings, but I think you'd want to dilute it with more red wine vinegar (again, it's very salty). I think it would be fabulous on a potato salad (no mayonnaise, but with sesame, basil and mint maybe?).

Look for ume vinegar in the Asian foods section of your supermarket, health food stores or Asian markets. My 10 ounce bottle cost about four dollars.

Feeding My (Potato) Habit

I have a confession to make. I love potatoes. There. Said it. Ok, so it's not on the level of a heroin addicition, or a wicked bad scratch-ticket habit, but still ... in some settings, this carbohydrate-lovin' habit is harder to confess than ... well a lot of things.

I do love a french fry, so in order to be able to consume as much crispy-starchy goodness as possible, I have mastered the art of the oven fry (and other oven-baked potato yummies).

Oven fries are a great way to feed your french fry habit, without stinking up the house with the smell of frying oil or the stigma of deep fat frying. They don't take too long to prepare, and they are really easy to make.

The tricks are as follows:

• Russets (baking potatoes) or Yukon Golds will get crispiest. You can use these techniques with sweet potatoes too. They contain more sugar, so you will want to bake them at a lower temp (around 350-375).
  
• Get your oven nice and hot. Preheat it to 400 before you start cutting the potatoes up.
• Cut your potatoes into similar sizes. You can make fry-like batons, or wedges, cubes (large or small) - even matchstick fries. Just make sure they're all about the same size.
• Oil your potatoes, not the baking sheet. Put the cut potatoes into a bowl with some olive oil. Use your hand or a spoon to toss the potatoes around, you want them each to have a little coat of oil. You use less oil and it's easier than trying to drizzle oil on a buncha little pieces of potato.
  
• Season well. While you're oiling the potatoes, toss in some salt and pepper as well. You could also add other dry spices at this point (paprika, cayenne, etc.).
  
• Make sure each potato piece has adequate elbow room. For adequate browning, you want the hot air in the oven to be able to flow around the pieces. If you have a convection oven, use the convection setting for this.
  
• Turn the potatoes at least once (usually after 10 minutes or so) to make sure they get nice and browned from the hot pan. The only exception would be for the galettes (see below).
  

Here are two sets of pictures, showing different approaches.

First, for oven-fried steak fries, cut your potatoes (these are Yukons) into wedges. Depending on the size of the potato I get 8-12 wedges per potato. Toss them into a large bowl and drizzle on olive oil and sprinkle on salt and pepper. Lay the wedges on a baking sheet and bake at 400 for about 10-15 minutes. Flip them over to brown on the other side.

Make these oven fries by cutting the potatoes into fry shapes, or matchstick fries but cutting the potatoes into ... you got it ... matchsticks. With any shape, the principle is the same: toss with oil, bake spread out on a sheet.

For a super classy approach, make galettes. Cut potatoes into thin slices (a mandoline or V-slicer is good for this). Toss them with oil and salt and pepper in a bowl. Make little flowers with them on a baking sheet (I like to put them on a sheet that's been lined with a Silpat or parchment paper). Bake for about 20 minutes at about 375.

Ingredient Spotlight: Dry Beans

After I posted the recipe for Black Bean Soup, I was surprised by how many people told me they had dried bean anxiety. So, as I promised those folks, here are the ins and outs of cooking dried beans.

You can find a wonderful variety at your supermarket - in cooking, they are all treated the same, only some will take longer than others to cook. The different varieties do taste and behave differently, so experiment to see what you like. This variety (all but one) was all purchased at my local supermarket.

small red, soldier, pinto, black
black-eyed, yelloweye, navy, kidney
garbanzo (chickpea), lima, great northern, scarlet runner (grown in Ann's garden last summer)

The Basics: Picking, Rinsing, Soaking

Pick: When beans are processed and packaged, they can get a little dusty. Sometimes, depending on the size the beans, there will also be pebbles or small chunks of dirt in with the beans. So, the first thing you have to do is pick through the beans. This goes pretty quickly: put a handful of beans on a plate, pick out any pebbles or damaged beans, and dump the rest in the pot or bowl you're using. Repeat until all the beans are done. This is really easy if you use a plate that is a contrasting color to the beans.

Rinse: After you've picked through your beans, now you rinse them to remove any dust. Just dump them in a bowl or pot, run in cold water and swish the beans around. Pour off the water and repeat until water runs clear. Depending on your beans, they may need one to four rinses.

Soak: In my opinion, this step is optional. It does speed up cooking, but it requires that you think about soaking your beans at least 8 hours before you cook them. I seldom do it because I can never plan that far ahead. Cover the rinsed beans with 2-3 inches of water. Let them soak for at least 8 hours in the fridge. Soaking can cut cooking time in half. Drain the soaking liquid off before covering them with fresh water for cooking.

Basic Method: Cooking Dry Beans

• Prep your beans: pick, rinse and soak (if you'd like). Put them into a pot (they will DOUBLE in size, so plan accordingly) and cover with 2-3 inches of water. Add some large pinches of salt. Bring to boil and then simmer until done. Check them every now and then and add more water if needed. You want them covered with water the entire time they are cooking.



• Depending on your beans, they should take between 45 minutes to 2 hours to cook.
  


• Drain and add to chili, make bean dip, put them in your soup, etc.

Other Tips

Don't add acid to the beans until they are almost done. Acid will keep your beans from softening - if your recipe calls for tomatoes, citrus, vinegar, or any other acidic ingredients, wait until the beans are done. The nice thing is if your beans are starting to get too soft, the acid can help hold them together.

If your bean's skins won't soften, you can try adding a little baking soda (1-2 teaspoons) to the water. The soda does the opposite of the acid - it should soften things up a bit.

If you're going to add beans to a chili or a minestrone, or some such thing, it's good to cook the beans in a separate pot, then add them to the main dish. It be very stressful to wait for beans to soften while your minestra is perfect ... except for those damn crunchy beans!

Cooked beans freeze well. Cover them with a little cooking liquid and then into the freezer they go.

Storage

Most store bought beans are fine in the bags they come in. Keep them in a cabinet or cupboard - in a dry, dark place. It's very pretty to decant beans into jars to display, but unless you're planning on using them soon, leave them as decor and buy a new bag to cook.

If you are fortunate enough to have a source of fresh dried beans (not a complete oxymoron: these are dried beans that are only a few months dried) keep those beans in ziplocs in the freezer unless you are certain they are 100% dry dry dry (then store them like storebought beans). Otherwise, they can get moldy and you will be sad ... very sad, when you open your jar of furry blue beans.

Product Alert: Magic Microwaveable Brown Rice

Ok Mom, I feel you cringing from here. :-)

But, when you're coming home late and want some nice healthy brown rice to put under your stirfry (and fast!) this is a great option.

Trader Joe's Microwaveable, fully-cooked brown rice. Not cheap (if you have time to cook your own from scratch), but very reasonable at under $2.00 with enough for two good sized portions.

Heats up nice and fluffy - no gummy or broken grains.

Ingredient Spotlight: Lentils

After reading the Lentil Soup recipe, I got questions from a few folks on what lentilles du Puy are. So I thought I would put lentils in the spotlight so people could see how the types differ and what (and what not) to use them for.

Here's a photo of the four types you're most likely to see. They are described, left to right, below the picture.

Green Lentils
This is the traditional lentil that is most commonly used for soup. To be honest, I never use this type of lentil. Advantages: they're cheap, readily available and cooks quickly. Disadvantages: when you overcook them (easy to do) they fall apart and get mushy, and to me the flavor is muddy and not very pleasant.

So, with that endorsement, these are best used in lentil soup where the mushiness can dissolve into the soup. I brighten the flavor of a green lentil soup with lemon juice, sherry vinegar or balsamic vinegar.

Lentilles du Puy
These are a French lentil. They have a deep, rich flavor and have the advantage of not falling apart when you cook them. As a result, they can be used in soups and warm or cold salads. They are excellent in the Lentil Soup recipe on this site.

You can make a really warming dinner of warm cooked lentilles du Puy tossed with a mustardy vinaigrette, sauteed onions and black pepper. Serve this alongside browned kielbasa or other ham or sausage. Another nice thing to do is toss the cooled lentils with diced beets, crumbled goat cheese and a sherry vinegar and walnut oil vinaigrette. Serve over lettuces with some toasted rustic bread (walnut bread would be nice).

David Lebovitz has a really nice discussion of these lentils (and a good method for cooking them for salad) on his web site at this link: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2006/11/cheap_caviar_1.html

Black "Beluga" Lentils
These lentils are little smaller than lentilles du Puy. Cook them in the same way though. They are best in salads and they are so pretty on the plate. They stay very dark in color and look beautiful against roasted yellow peppers, white goat cheese, purplish radicchio and rich greens.

Red Lentils
These are for soups or purees only. Red lentils fall apart when cooked. This is a great advantage when you know what's going to happen. If the first time you met these and you were expecting them to behave like a green lentil, you may have learned this lesson the hard way.

I will be posting an Indian-style soup recipe for these later this week. They are also easily cooked for a side dish: For four people, use 1 cup of red lentils. Put them in a saucepan and cover them by 1/2" with chicken broth or water or both. Toss in a crushed clove of garlic, a pinch of cayenne, and salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. When they are done, the lentils will have turned into a soft orange puree. (To keep the color bright, add a pinch of turmeric when you start the cooking.) Season to taste with salt and pepper (white pepper is nice) and a squirt of lemon or lime juice.

What is a lentil? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lentil