Dinner's On The Table – The Personal Chef & Home Cooking Resource

We went to the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck this past Sunday for Maple Weekend.  It was wonderful.  We got to stand in the evaporator and take in the maple scented air.  We sampled fresh maple syrup right out of the evaporator.  We took a walk through the grounds to see the tapped trees, and we had a yummy meal of pancakes, sausage and fresh maple syrup. 

There were many people purchasing honey and maple products from Remsberger Maple Farm and Apiary.  The question of the day is this…What do I do with the syrup and sugar now that I have a years worth?

There are a few really easy applications, such as top your ice cream or yogurt with maple syrup.  It’s delicious and when you use a good quality low fat unsweetened yogurt, you have control over what you’re eating.  Instead of a spoonful of sugar on your oatmeal, try maple syrup!  The next time you make an apple cobbler, replace some of the sugar in the topping with maple sugar. 

Here’s a nice way to incorporate maple into savory dishes, like salmon.

Maple Salmon on a Cedar Plank

Ingredients

4 4-6 ounce salmon filets (can be a whole filet or individual pieces)

Salt + pepper

1/4 cup real maple syrup

1 lemon, juice and zest

1/4 cup chopped parsely

At least one hour before you are ready to grill, soak your cedar planks in water.  This can be done in the morning for dinner tonight.  You need a good soaking inorder to get enough smoke to nicely flavor the fish.

Fire up your grill to 350-400. 

Combine maple syrup, lemon juice, some of the zest and parsley.  (Taste before adding all of the lemon, adjusting to your liking)

Place the cedar planks on the grill.  Close the grill for up to 2 minutes to allow the planks to start smoking.

Lay fish on planks, but be careful not to crowd the fish.  Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.  Brush some of the maple mixture on the fish. 

Cook with the cover closed for 15-18 minutes, until the fish flakes with a fork.  (The fish will be cooked through and will have a nice smokey flavor)

While the fish is cooking, put the maple mixture in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil.  This will concentrate the flavors for a final glaze.

Using a clean brush, baste with the maple mixture before serving. 

Garnish with a wedge of lemon and more fresh parsley.

No problem if you don’t have a grill or just want to cook this in your oven.  Place the soaked cedar plank on a baking sheet.  Set the sheet in a 350 oven for up to 5 minutes to get the plank heating.   These are the only changes to the grill instructions. 

If you don’t want to use the cedar plank, just place the fish in a Pyrex container and bake the prepared fish for 15-18 minutes in a 350 oven.

If you like your fish rare rather than cooked through,  start checking the fish after 10 minutes. 

Note: Only use cedar that is sold for cooking.  Cedar from a lumber yard has been treated with chemicals.

Maple Weekend continues this weekend, March 28 and 29 at the Fairgrounds.

www.remsburgermaple.com/

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     Both Jill and I were snow bound, sick bunnies last night. The first time in years we hadn’t spent New Year’s Eve with friends. And we found ourselves without a store-bought onion soup mix to make a dip with. (Shutter to think of it!)

     So, I hit the pantry. We keep brown gravy mix on hand when we get lazy and don’t want to make gravy from scratch for ourselves, check. We have dehydrated onion flakes on hand for many uses, particularly when making tuna salad. Why? Because you get all the delicious onion flavor without the strong onion taste that can overwhelm the salad.  Check. A little fresh cracked pepper, check. And my secret ingredient – mustard oil. Just a drop. It adds a cool little bite and an unusually interesting flavor.

     You don’t need any extra salt because the brown gravy mix has it already.

16 oz Sour Cream
3 Tablespoons Onion flakes, Dehydrated
1 Tablespoon Brown Gravy Mix (Or Powdered Vegetable Bouillon if vegetarian)
Pepper to Taste
1 Teaspoon Mustard Oil (optional)

     Always taste the recipe. If you feel you want more brown gravy mix, add a teaspoon, mix and taste. If you think it needs more, repeat. If you want to explore, look for other ingredients in your spice cabinet. Cajun? Dry Mustard?Chili Powder? Have fun with it. Now grab your chips and veggies and your set!

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     It’s days like this that remind me of my teenage years. Snowed in and nowhere to go. Granted today the car is in the shop and I have a doosy of a cold (thanks Jill!).

     Well, back when I was 15-16 years old, school was out due to snow and we didn’t have a car to cruise around in (it’s amazing how well a 10-speed bike worked for transportation back then), so I’d hang out with a friend at his house (Hey Pete Ruzzo, where are you!) watching movies and  scrounging through the cupboards for something to eat.

     Pete’s Mom had lots of Campbell’s Soup. And a full spice cabinet. So we experimented. We started off doctoring up one can of soup. Made it WAAAAYYY too spicy. I think it was split pea and ham. We would then stretch the soup with a can of something else. Was it Pepper Pot? Can’t remember. We went so far as to finally mix in one last soup and not overdo the spices. By the time we finished we weren’t eating dinner that night. This scenario repeated itself probably half a dozen times over a few years. It was a blast.

     And we got to catch up on a few movies too!

     My moral for this story is don’t be afraid to experiment with herbs and spices in your kitchen. If you are following a new recipe and you’re not happy with the outcome, explore your spice cabinet. Put a little in at a time, stir, wait a few minutes for the flavors to meld and take a taste. You just may have made that recipe even better! Most of all, please your own tastes.

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     Salt. You can’t escape it. It’s in almost everything we eat. And it’s also a necessary part of our body’s chemical processes, particularly hydration. You could say we have a love/hate relationship with the mighty salt crystal. On the whole, we need a minimum of 500 mg per day to be healthy. 2300 mg per day is the recommended maximum intake which is the equivalent of 1 teaspoon of table salt.

But the average American consumes 2-3 times more salt than needed on a daily basis.

     So how can you reasonably keep track of how much salt you’re consuming? If you eat at restaurants regularly there is no way to accurately estimate the salt content in your diet aside from keeping the rest of your meals low to salt free.

     Restaurants over salt your food for a number of reasons. First, they know we crave salt. It’s part of our physiological make-up. Second, because it makes food "taste" better, we are more likely to eat out at restaurants that hit our taste buds in the right spots. Third, restaurants that serve alcohol know that you are more likely to order more drinks if you feel thirsty. And alcoholic drinks are a very big money maker for restaurants.

     The inspiration for this post was the new Food Network program called, "Secrets of a Restaurant Chef" with Anne Burrell. In the episode in particular, Burrell was making Spaghetti Bolognese, a very popular Italian dish. We sat there in utter amazement as she grabbed handful after handful of salt and flamboyantly splashed it into the dish during the cooking process in Emeril Lagasse fashion. The only thing missing was the "Bam!"  

     She then went on to explain that it may seem like a lot of salt, but in "restaurants we properly season our food." Whatever that’s supposed to mean.

     Too much salt, is too much salt. And salt intake can be addicting just as with sugar. Our bodies and taste buds become used to a certain level of salt. And just as some foods require salt to bring out their flavors, too much salt can also mask flavors so you can’t taste them.

     Personally, we use a modest amount of salt in our food at home. I grew up with parents who needed to reduce their salt intake due to blood pressure and other reasons. Because we use salt moderately, we’re better able to judge the taste of dishes. Preparing foods with a minimum amount of salt, enough to make dishes taste great without being overwhelming, is very important to our clients who require a lower salt diet – and to us.

     So, back to accurately estimating the salt in your diet, the best way to do this is to cook your own meals and watch the amount of salt you use. If you must buy prepared foods, watch the sodium content. This, along with eating correct portions, will allow you to reduce your salt intake. The other option is to hire a personal chef who will work with you to build the right meal plan for you and who will adjust the seasonings in your food to help you build a healthier lifestyle. Actually, we’ve learned that herbs and spices offer a variety of flavors that, along with a modest amount of salt, create a flavor panorama that is more satisfying than just salt alone.

     And stay away from frozen TV dinners! Many frozen dinners can pack 2-3 days worth of salt and fat into one meal. Now you would need to eat plain fruit and veggies for the next 2 days to make up for it (if it were that easy!). Check out the 20 Saltiest Foods in America.

     Tip: Taste your food throughout the cooking process. With raw meat, wait until the meat has cooked through. Remember, you can always add salt to a dish, but you can’t take it out!

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My husband and I are on a hummus kick.  It's one of the healthiest dips out there.  What could be bad about chick peas, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and tahini?  Add some roasted garlic, olives, roasted red peppers or pine nuts and it's even better.  There are so many things you can do with hummus. 

Making it is easy.  If you have a blender or a Magic Bullet, now is the time to break them in if you haven’t used them lately.  The easiest way to make a batch is to drain and rinse a can of chick peas.  Put the chick peas into the blender with a few teaspoons of tahini, the juice of half a lemon, a few teaspoons of olive oil, a few cloves of garlic, a bit of cumin and add enough water to almost cover the chick peas.  Then blend them until you have a nice smooth paste.  Taste it to see if you have enough tahini, lemon juice, olive oil and to see if you need salt.  You can add just about anything to the blender for additional flavor.  Once you like the flavor, pour it onto a plate and stir it with the back of a spoon to make a groove.  Sprinkle your toppings, additional chick peas, pine nuts, roasted red peppers, carmelized onions, sun dried tomatoes, spices, you get the idea, then drizzle with really good olive oil.  It’s now ready to devour.  (If you don’t have the 5 minutes it takes to make a basic batch of hummus, Cedars is good, Sabra is great, but yours will be the best ever!)

The possibilities are endless as to how to eat hummus.  You can scoop it up with fresh pita, baked pita chips, tortilla chips, baby carrots, sliced veggies, a spoon,  your fingers.  Just don’t double dip!  You can make a sandwich by placing lettuce, tomato, cucumber and whatever other veggies you have on hand into a pita pocket.  Spoon some hummus in and enjoy.  If you have any leftover, spread it on bread instead of mayo for a roast beef or turkey sandwich.  I haven’t tried it for breakfast yet, but that veggie hummus sandwich sure sounds good.

We haven’t tried brushing our teeth with it, but the Zohan seems to like it.  (If you haven’t seen Don’t Mess With The Zohan with Adam Sandler, check it out.  He does some really strange things with hummus.) 

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How many of us can’t remember the last time we bought spices?

Go to your spice cabinet, open up a few jars and do a blind sniff test.  Chances are, more than a few people out there won’t be able to tell the oregano from the ground nutmeg. (If you can avoid it, never ever use ground nutmeg.  It loses flavor the instant it’s ground.  Get yourself a nice whole nutmeg and grate just what you need each time.  It should last a good long time and the last serving will have as much flavor as the first serving!)When you use fresh dried herbs and spices, you get far more flavor using less.  (You might actually be able to use just what the recipe calls for)  It’s also easier to add good flavor with less salt when your spices do their job.

The best advise on purchasing spices is to purchase only what you plan on using in a year.  Then label it with the date of purchase.  When you notice a year has passed, give it a good sniff.  If it still has a good aroma, continue using it.  If it smells more like sawdust than what the label says, pitch and replace it.  The exceptions to this rule are spices that are in their whole form.  Peppercorns, star anise, salt, cloves and nutmeg to name a few. 

Choose your spices carefully.  There are many good brands out there.  My favorite is Penzeys.  They aren’t available in grocery stores though.  My husband and I received a gift box a number of years ago and the spices were so fresh and bold that when we took a trip which brought us in the vicinity of one of their stores, we had to make a detour.  The place smells amazing!  Everything they sell is available for sniffing.  They have three stores that are driving distance for us, but since we try not to drive too far, we usually opt for mail order.  If you want to check them out, the next time you take the train to NYC, check out their shop in Grand Central Terminal.  It’s much smaller than most of their stores, but you’ll get a good idea of what they have.  Also, check out their web site www.penzeys.com

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