CityMama™

Cleopatra Dressing (a lighter Caesar Salad dressing)

My whole family loves Caesar Salad, kids included, but since I've been on Weight Watchers (for the past seven months), I've had to learn to modify many of my old stand-bys to cut the fat and calories.

Okay, let me just say that every time I mention Weight Watchers, I worry that you'll think I'm turning CityMama into a diet food blog.  I promise I won't, but I could start a whole new blog about the funny things I hear at my weekly meetings.

In any case, this isn't a diet, it's just a way of eating better. A healthy lifestyle change, if you will. And minus 40 pounds later, I'm really glad I'm doing it and I wish I'd done it sooner.  I don't deny myself anything. I still eat all the yummy, salty carbs I used to eat before, just in moderation. And, no, I am not being paid by Weight Watchers although I certainly would be open to hanging out with Jennifer Hudson because I LOVE her. Nothing made me happier than to hear she's now counting points, too.  Or at least her assistant and personal chef are.

So back to Caesar salad.  Normally full of oil and cheese and croutons. Not exactly a healthy salad, but after tweaking a lighter recipe, I think I hit on a winning dressing that will let me enjoy them on a more regular basis.  I call it:

CLEOPATRA DRESSING

It's light and lemony and full of flavor. Also, it makes A LOT of dressing.

• 2 large eggs, warmed in a bowl of very hot water for 3 minutes (or coddle for 1-2 minutes)
• 1 generous tsp of anchovy paste (less or more as you like it) Note: If you don't like anchovies you can substitute a tsp of capers.
• 5 tbsps of fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1/4 cup of chicken broth
• 2 tsps of Dijon mustard
• 1 clove of garlic
• 3-4 drops of low-sodium Worcestershire sauce
• 3-4 drops of your favorite hot sauce (I like Sriracha)
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
• 4 tbsp of shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Place eggs, anchovy paste, lemon juice, chicken broth, Dijon mustard, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce in blender or food processor.  Whiz until well-combined. Salt and pepper to taste.

Turn on blender or food processor and add olive oil in a thin, steady stream until dressing is blended.  Add in cheese and stir to combine.

I like this dressing on butter lettuce.  Instead of croutons I like to add crunchy veggies like peppers, onions, and carrots.

I served this on Bunny's birthday and she loved it.

Potato-Mac Salad [or an ode to my love of Best Foods mayo]

photo: ohioandoakley.com

Hawaii is equally famous for it's macaroni and potato salads (okay, maybe just "island famous") so it only makes sense that two great tastes would taste great together, right?  For those that are skeptical (and I know you are reading), I say, you just have to try it once and you will be a believer. 

By now you probably already know that Hawaii consumes more Spam per capita than any of the other 49 United States, but I would venture to say that Hawaiians also consume more Best Foods mayonnaise.  When making mac or potato salads, there is just no substitute. There just isn't so don't try to argue with any islander. You won't convince her otherwise. Best Foods FTMFW!

This salad was a huge hit at our Memorial Day barbecue where it was made by my sister.  I love tuna in my macaroni potato salad so I include it here (in a recipe adapted from the excellent cookbook, The Island Plate), but you can omit it if you are a purist. Don't balk at the amount of mayo used. You want the salad to be very white and creamy.

POTATO-MAC SALAD

If you don't want to make chili pepper water, you can subsitute Tabasco sauce.  Potato-Mac salad is a plate lunch staple in Hawaii where it is usually served alongside--you guessed it, MORE STARCH--two scoops of rice.

• 1/2 lb macaroni
• 2 white (waxy) potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 1.5 cups Best Foods mayo
• Chili pepper water* (recipe follows)
• 1 6-ounce can of tuna, drained and flaked
• 3 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
• 1/2 carrot, peeled and grated
• 1/2 cup minced celery
• 1/2 cup minced onion
• chopped black or green olives (optional)
• chopped parsley or paprika for garnish (optional)

Cook macaroni in salted water according to package directions. Drain, but do not rinse. Set aside.

Cook potatoes in gently boiling, salted water until just tender, about 7 minutes.  Check at the 5 minute mark to make sure they aren't too soft. Drain.

Place macaroni and potatoes in a large bowl. Sprinkle with chili pepper water, salt, and pepper to taste, and let sit for 10 minutes, then toss with 1 cup of mayonnaise and refrigerate until very cold, at least 1 hour. Add remaining ingredients and refrigerate. Just before serving taste for salt and pepper and toss with remaining half cup of mayonnaise so salad looks creamy and fresh. Garnish as you wish.

Chili Pepper Water

Recipe adapted from The Island Plate.

• Water (or some use gin or vodka or a combination of gin or vodka and water)
• generous pinch of coarse sea salt, Hawaiian preferred
• 2-3 small, hot, red chili peppers, stemmed and sliced in half. Since Hawaiian (nioi) peppers are virtually impossible to find outside of Hawaii use small Thai chilis instead.(Available at any Thai or Vietnamese grocer.)
• 2-3 cloves of fresh garlic, peeled and smashed

Fill an old, cleaned glass 8 oz. bottle (i.e. ketchup bottle) 3/4 full of water then pour water into a pot along with Hawaiian salt. Heat water until just boiling; turn off heat and throw in chilis and garlic. Allow to cool and pour into ketchup bottle. Keeps for 3 months in the fridge and gets hotter as it ages.

Hot sauce lovers: Pure Habanero Red Savina Hot Sauce is BOSS

I love spicy foods but I am veryveryvery picky about how I like my hotness. For example, I prefer my Mexican food to be accompanied by whole, grilled jalapeños rather than the sliced pickly ones. The canned ones (like Herdez) en escabeche are a close second. I like smooth salsas as opposed to the chunkier pico de gallo style.

I ask for raw jalapeños to grill alongside my kalbi when I go out to Korean BBQ.

I prefer Sriracha to Tabasco because Tabasco is too vinegary. But sometimes the garlic in Sriracha can overwhelm a dish while sometimes the vinegar in Tabasco is a welcome addition to a Bloody Mary or Caesar salad dressing. (Just keep it away from my eggs.)

I eschew red pepper flakes and instead crumble up whole dried chilies onto my pastas. I wish my kids liked spicy foods as much as my husband and I do because one of my favorite pasta is oil-anchovy-garlic and chilies, but I rarely make it.

I looooove Frank's RedHot sauce and could drink it by the quart but only because it's not hot enough for me. Not even the extra hot version.

I do make my own chili pepper water which has vinegar in it, but that's a Hawaii thing and is so yum over pork or greens or potato or macaroni salad.

I want my hot sauce to be HOT so I am teetering on the edge of uncomfortableness but not so hot that I can't take another bite of my food. In other words, I want it to hurt so good.

My brother shares my hot chili love and over Christmas he gave me a bottle of Pure Habanero Red Savina hot sauce. It's everything a hot sauce should be: fiery-hot but with a perfect balance of vinegar and salt. Spicy on the tongue when you first eat it, but dissipates. It doesn't overwhelm a dish but rather ads a spicy kick without all the unnecessary sugar and spice.

I am in love with this hot sauce and am treating it like the liquid gold that it is. It's the perfect hot sauce in a cute, little bottle. Trust me on this one.

What's your favorite hot sauce?

You inspire me: Bibimbap

When I read Kat's post this week (and saw the pictures), I knew exactly what I was going to making for Friday night's picnic-in-the-living-room dinner: Bibimbap (Korean mixed rice bowl). (This is why I always ask you guys what you are cooking!)

A quick trip to my local Korean market was all that I needed to collect ingredients for my bibimbap, but it can also be made with ingredients you find at your local grocery store. It's a rice bowl topped with a little meat and lots of veg and can really be tailored to your fancy. Want it completely vegetarian or vegan? That can be easily arranged. 

One thing I would recommend, however, is that you seek out the vinegared chili paste (kochujang) that give the dish its spicy kick. If you don't have a Korean market near you, you can find everything you need at kgrocer.com or koamart.com. (for example: vinegared kochujang or kimchi--I've tried it, it's very good)

Chicken Drumsticks Two Ways

I can't resist a good five pound pack of chicken drumsticks. I prefer dark meat anyway, so scooping up a pile of chicken for around five bucks is no big whoop to me (and easy on my wallet).

Drumsticks (and thighs) are the best for shoyu chicken anyway, and once cooked they make great additions to a lunch box or are yummy to munch on at midnight while standing over the sink. Because they are so versatile, I like to cook them all different ways, some fancier and more time consuming, some completely the opposite.  If I'm going to cook a whole package and I am short on time, I will often do two super-easy preparations at once. Like this.

You'll need:

•five pounds of chicken drumsticks, thighs or wings

•1 bottle each of any of the following *two* sauces (I used barbecue and garlic black bean sauce):

• barbecue sauce (my preference is Noh's Hawaiian because it doesn't have that fake smoky taste)
• teriyaki sauce
• chipotle-raspberry sauce
• Jamaican jerk sauce
• oyster sauce*
• hoisin sauce
• garlic black bean sauce* (super yum!)
• chili-garlic-black bean sauce* (delicious mixed with equal parts honey and spooned over chicken)

*These are salty and very flavorful. A little goes a long way, so use sparingly.

Make a couple of shallow slashes through the meaty part of each leg or thigh (not too deep, do not cut all the way to the bone). This helps to speed cooking and allows the sauce to work down into the meat.

Place half the chicken in to a pan and slosh some of your chosen sauce onto it. You could shake it up all together in a bag, but I don't even bother.  This is a very forgiving technique and great if you are in a hurry. The chicken still tastes great, even when the sauce doesn't evenly coat the chicken.

Place the rest of the chicken into another pan. Slosh some of the second sauce onto that. For the saltier sauces like the garlic-black bean,  I spoon 2-3 tablespoons of of the sauce into a bowl. Then I spoon/shmear the sauce onto each chicken leg, applying sparingly. (Put the sauce into a bowl so you don't dip our raw chicken spoon back into the jar.)

Bake at 325º for 50 minutes to an hour.  Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serves four with plenty of leftovers for lunches, or 6 without leftovers.

Pappardelle with Tartufata (Truffle sauce)

Tonight's dinner was a meal that came together in about 5 minutes once the pappardelle was boiled. 

Tartufata is definitely not something we eat everyday, but it makes such an easy and delicious pasta sauce (or bruschetta topping) that it's a no-brainer when you have guests or just want to cook something special for no reason.

I wanted tonight's dinner to be special because I had just been gone for 3 days at BlogHer and I wanted to make something yummy for my family (esp. after eating all that conference food.)

I used to bring tartufata back from Italy, but you can now find it in Italian specialty shops here in the states. To make the pasta:

• Cook 2 8-oz. packages of pappardelle until al dente. Drain and reserve about 2 tbsps of pasta water.
• Toss pappardelle with 3/4 of a stick of butter and 1/2 to a full jar of tartufata (depending on your taste).
• Use the pasta water to loosen the sauce if needed (using warmed cream is good, too.) Season with sea salt and fresh ground pepper.
• Top with grated pecorino romano and a sprinkling of finely chopped parsley. Serve at once.

Serves 4-5

Views from a barbecue-filled weekend

Can I just say, I love the afternoon light in our backyard? I never ever take photos with flash and afternoon is my favorite time of day for the beautiful, golden light.

On Saturday it was burgers, BBQ kosher chicken, and cupcakes (Wallie and cupcake crumb mouth).

Then on Memorial Day, we brought out the big guns. Schaub's "black meat" aka marinated bottom sirloin (which my husband likes to refer to as "baby seal')...

And sangria (which I drank way too much of):

I made some sides (grilled chicken pasta salad with red peppers and fresh baby spinach, broccoli salad) and bought a side (rosemary orzo with golden raisins)...and people brought more sides.

Chicken kebabs off the skewer.

The condiment tray (I love me some condiments).

"Healthy" crudités with non-healthy dip and salt and pepper (Italian-style).

...and despite me giving away "meat carepackages" to everyone who came (we also cooked up about 2 dozen sausages and a slab of salmon) we have enough food left over to last us through until Labor Day, it seems.

God, I love cooking outdoors. It really can't be beat.

Local Goodness: Three things I'm enjoying this week

I rarely buy ready-made salad dressing, but I lately, I've been buying Annie's Naturals Woodstock dressing two bottles at a time. It has just enough creamyness and tang without being overly "tahini'd." So good on a chopped salad full of crunchy veggies like cukes, peppers, radishes, and carrots that stand up to the assertive dressing. The corporate headquarters of the Vermont company located in Napa, CA.

GoRaw Flax Snax Crackers. Amazingly tasty and full of flavor. Hits the spot when you need something crunchy/salty. Made in Mountain View, CA.

Home Craft Breads' raisin walnut cinnamon rolls. Dense and soft, and wonderful when toasted in a toaster oven. Not overly sweet. Not sticky. Made in Redding, CA.

All available at Country Sun, Palo Alto.

Impulse Buy of the Week: Maya Kaimal's Tikka Masala Sauce

My mom gave me a couple of cookbook author Maya Kaimal's Indian simmer sauces as a gift when she visited last week. I made the Tikka Masala tonight and it was unbelievably delicious. I'm not an Indian food expert, I just know I love it, and the Tikka Masala was zingy with lemon and silky from the real cream.  I would definitely buy this and make this again. I used 4 chicken breasts and a couple of diced potatoes and it made enough for my family of four plus leftovers. I served it with fluffy basmati rice and sauteed asparagus on the side.  Highly recommend, and the kids asked for thirds.

Friday Night Roti Party

My chef sister just got back from a 4-week stint cooking for a fancy safari/spa outfit in the middle of Kruger National Park in South Africa. (Before that it was a year at Arzak in Spain.) She came home raving about the beauty of the park (she didn't want to leave), and about the roti (a tortilla-like flat bread) that she and the other kitchen help used to eat at the end of the night or for casual meals.

She tells me that there is lots of Indian culinary influence in South African cooking, and though none of the cooks she worked with were Indian, they taught her to make roti. And tonight she taught me. We made lamb curry, some sambals and condiments, and the roti went with it. It was a party, and I wanted to share it with you.

The sides tomato "sambal" with vinegar, salt, and chilies; banana, toasted coconut, cilantro, and yogurt; cucumber raita (cukes, Greek yogurt, lemon juice, cumin seeds, salt):

The bananas and coconut before adding the yogurt and cilantro leaves:

You can google a recipe for roti, but it's basically flour (about 3 cups) and water (about a cup). My sister also added salt, pepper, and a little baking powder. Mix it, then knead it and let it rest. Then roll it out flat.

Spread the flattened dough with butter.

And roll up into a log. Divide the log in half and then chill it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before frying.

Cut pieces from the log and roll to form cute little swirls if you so desire. This is to further incorporate the butter into the dough.

Then fold the piece in half to make a little ball or mound and let those rest.

Roll those balls out until they are the shape and thinness of tortillas then fry on a griddle or in a cast iron skillet until browned but not crisp.  You want them to be soft. Wrap them in a cloth dishcloth or napkin to keep warm.

A little four-and-a-half-year-old helper.

The final product, filled with curry, and ready for eatin'!