Mark Bittman Does It Again – Three Recipes to Change Your Life

Posted: January 5, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Recipes | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Photo: “Rice and Beans” – Carlos Porto, FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Three recipes to change your life.  I originally came across the concept in this past Sunday’s New York Times. The Week in Review section contained a series of articles with the theme “Sustainable Life.”  In one piece, Mark Bittman offered a compelling argument for cooking at home (it’s cheaper, healthier, and sometimes faster than eating out), along with three recipes that he believes can change the way we eat and live.  It’s a simple premise – cook and eat real food.  And Mr. Bittman shows us how to start.

The three recipes are: Broccoli Stir-Fry With Chicken and Mushrooms; Lentils and Rice With or Without Pork; and Crunchy Cabbage Salad.

Each includes an extensive list of variations and substitutions so that, should decide to embark upon a cooking adventure, you’ll be able to stretch three meal ideas into a few dozen.

As Mark Bittman said to Meredith Viera on this morning’s Today Show, “What you need is not so much a diet as a way to eat.”

Amen to that.

******

Broccoli Stir-Fry With Chicken and Mushrooms

Published: December 31, 2010

Yield: 4 servings.

2 tablespoons good-quality vegetable oil

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

4 scallions, chopped

1 pound broccoli, trimmed and cut into bite-size pieces, the stems no more than 1/4-inch thick

8 ounces button mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed and sliced

Salt

8 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into 1/2- to 3/4-inch chunks or thin slices and blotted dry

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Freshly ground black pepper.

1. Put a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. When it’s hot, add half the oil, swirl it around, and immediately add half the garlic and ginger. Cook for 15 seconds, stirring, then add the broccoli, mushrooms and all but a sprinkling of the scallions. Raise heat to high, and cook, stirring, until mushrooms release their water and broccoli is bright green and beginning to brown, 3 to 5 minutes.

2. Sprinkle with salt; add 1 cup water. Stir and cook until almost all liquid evaporates and broccoli is almost tender, another minute or two more, then transfer everything to a plate.

3. Turn heat to medium, add remaining oil, then remaining garlic and ginger. Stir, then add chicken and turn heat to high. Cook, stirring occasionally, until chicken has lost its pink color, three to five minutes.

4. Turn heat to medium. Return broccoli, mushrooms and juices to the pan, and stir. Add soy sauce, sprinkle with more salt and some pepper; add a little more water if mixture is dry. Raise heat to high and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced slightly and you’ve scraped up all the bits of chicken. Taste and adjust seasoning, garnish with remaining scallion and serve.

Notes

Stir-fries work with virtually any combination of vegetables; protein-dense food (meat, poultry, fish, tofu, etc.) is optional. Use pork (like shoulder), shrimp, beef (like sirloin), or tofu instead of chicken; slice the meat thinly or the tofu into cubes.

Use cabbage, cauliflower, asparagus, green beans, snow peas, carrots or spinach in place of either the broccoli or the mushrooms or both. Or use other mushrooms.

Use fish sauce instead of soy sauce and finish with a squeeze of lime to give it a Southeast Asian flavor.

Use olive oil, skip the ginger, use onion instead of scallion, and substitute 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary or thyme to give it a Mediterranean flavor profile.

Use coconut milk instead of stock; 1 tablespoon curry powder instead of soy sauce to give it an Indian flavor

An Innovative Massachusetts Program Prescribes Produce for Better Health

Posted: August 16, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Innovative Ideas | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Photo: br3akthru / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I came across an enlightening piece, “Eat an Apple (Doctor’s Orders),” in the Food section of last Thursday’s New York Times. It describes an innovative nutrition program being run in Boston, “in which doctors write vegetable ‘prescriptions‘ to be filled at farmers’ markets.”  Program participants receive coupons to be redeemed at the markets for fresh fruits and vegetables.  The idea is to provide low income families with the means, and the incentive, to try out fresh produce and prepare more meals at home.  The goal?  To show that healthy eating is good preventive medicine.  “Doctors will track participants to determine how the program affects their eating patterns and to monitor health indicators like weight and body mass index.”  The hope is that the families will reduce their consumption of unhealthy, salty and sweet snacks as they increase their consumption of healthy produce.

The clinics administering the project are sponsored by a foundation called Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited (CAVU).  A non-profit, Wholesome Wave, based in Bridgeport, CT, and the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture each provided $10,000 in funding.

And, apparently, Massachusetts is not the only state taking the initiative.  “Thirty-six states now have such farmers’ market nutrition programs aimed at women and young children.”  Which is a good thing.  Because the very real cost of what we’re eating goes like this:

Childhood obesity in the United States costs $14.1 billion annually in direct health expenses like prescription drugs and visits to doctors and emergency rooms, according to a recent article on the economics of childhood obesity published in the journal Health Affairs. Treating obesity-related illness in adults costs an estimated $147 billion annually, the article said.

Pay now or pay later.  That’s the choice.  And that does not even factor in the most important outcome of programs like this, the positive impact on quality of life … priceless.

Eat well.

Nicholas Kristof – The Man With A Conscience

Posted: March 7, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Need to Know | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

On The Epicurean I’ve written about the Common Sense Man, author and The New York Times Op-Ed Columnist, Thomas Friedman, and about the Renaissance Man, Bill Gates.  Now it’s time for the Man With a Conscience, actually our conscience if we allow him to be, author and The New York Times Op-Ed columnist, Nicholas Kristof.

Today I’ve posted on Food, Seriously because Mr. Kristof’s Op-Ed column “The Spread of Superbugs,” relates directly to the method by which most livestock are currently raised in North America.  What he has to say should be ringing alarm bells.

Low-dose antibiotics are used in animal feed on the majority of factory farms in order to increase the growth rate of cattle, poultry, and hogs.  Indeed, according to Mr. Kristof, “A study by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that in the United States, 70 percent of antibiotics are used to feed healthy livestock, with 14 percent more used to treat sick livestock. Only about 16 percent are used to treat humans and their pets, the study found.”

This overuse has created a problem: the rise of infections that cannot be treated by conventional antibiotics, for example ESBL E.coli and Acinetobacter.  So why on earth are antibiotics still being used as the standard in the production of our meat?

Routine use of antibiotics to raise livestock is widely seen as a major reason for the rise of superbugs. But Congress and the Obama administration have refused to curb agriculture’s addiction to antibiotics, apparently because of the power of the agribusiness lobby. … Legislation introduced by Louise Slaughter, a New Yorker who is the only microbiologist in the House of Representatives, would curb the routine use of antibiotics in farming. The bill has 104 co-sponsors, but agribusiness interests have blocked it in committee — and the Obama administration and the Senate have dodged the issue.

Hum – I don’t know about you, but, unless I’m missing something beyond the profits of agribusiness, what are these people thinking?   Sure it would mean the cost of meat would rise, but I would take that over the cost of our health.

Wouldn’t you?

Crop Mob – Sustainable Help for Sustainable Farmers

Posted: February 28, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Innovative Ideas | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

There’s an encouraging, inspirational piece in last Wednesday’s New York Times, “Field Report: Plow Shares,” about an innovative group of landless, wannabe farmers who lend their hands and, often expertise, to help small, local farmers with land.  Meet Crop Mob.

The group is based in the Triangle Region of North Carolina where “the sustainable-agriculture program at Central Carolina Community College draws students from across the nation who stay put after graduation,” and, according to Crop Mob, “there is a surge of new sustainable small farms. These farms are growing diversified crops on small acreage, using only low levels of mechanization, and without the use of chemical pesticides or fertilizers. This is a much more labor intensive way of farming that brings back the need for community participation.”  The movement recalls the collective involvement of entire towns in agricultural activities prior to the migration to more mechanized, factory farming processes.

Once they’ve descended on a farm, the Crop Mob of 40 to 50 volunteers can accomplish more in an afternoon than the farmer could in weeks.  The day New York Times reporter Christine Muhlke visited the group was working on Bobby Tucker’s Okfuskee Farm in Silk Hope, NC.  “In five hours, these pop-up farmers would do more on his fledgling farm than he and his three interns could accomplish in months. ‘It’s immeasurable,’ he said of the gift of same-day infrastructure.”  The cost to the farmer?  A meal for the Mob.

The group started out as mostly young, twenty-somethings with a desire to pursue a simpler, more community-oriented life.  However, it seems that the interest has expanded beyond that one demographic.  More people of all ages are pursuing a passion for farming, for “getting their hands dirty.”

This initiative has the potential to give small-scale farms a leg up, a chance to compete.  I wonder about the likelihood of this catching on in other areas of the country.  That would truly be a movement: sustainable labor helping to meet the goal of sustainable farming.