Cooking Subversive

#SuperPowersOfTheGarden/1

Wildlife, nature and the environment have always occupied a special place in Marlene’s heart.  This passion has led her to volunteer at a rare animal breeds conservation farm in Bulgaria and an organic and permaculture farm in the South of France to learn more about working with nature.  In this special mini-series edition, she discusses a piece of nature closer to home: the garden.  In 2019, Marlene’s garden was certified as a Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.  

It’s Spring and to continue celebrating Mother Earth,  I’m taking a little break from Cooking and Kitchen stuff to talk about gardening.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been starting seeds, preparing garden beds, planting bare roots and am in the process of reconditioning my backyard soil.  That’s a whole lot of information if you’re new to gardening, and later on, I promise to explain that in more detail.  So except for one surprising snow day a little over a week ago and a few blessed rainy days, I’ve been getting my hands dirty and soaking up a lot of sun. 

Instead of talking about how I got into gardening, or that until we bought our house eight years ago I had no interest whatsoever in plants outside of their utility as food or decor, I want to jump start and talk about a new kind of garden.

A New Kind of Garden

We all have ideas of what gardening is, and most of them revolve around growing plants for either food or aesthetics: vegetables, flowers and landscape planting come to mind.  Some grow plants for medicine—in a recent post, I mentioned some plants I keep that are useful as first aid for cuts and burns.  Others grow plants to serve particular functions: to prevent erosion, mitigate flooding, remove soil contaminants.  And then there are those who grow plants to help the environment—planting trees to reduce harmful gases like carbon dioxide, native species as food for pollinators, bushes as shelter for wildlife. 

Building a garden that does all of the above is not only possible, but is part of the solution to some of our biggest environmental problems: global warming and declining pollinators, particularly bees.  You might ask yourself, how does a little garden become part of the solution to such an overwhelmingly large problem such as global warming?  To answer that, we’ll need to understand the problems first, then get better acquainted with what makes up a garden.

Two Big Problems

Global Warming.  The last decade was the hottest ever in recorded history.  2020 tied with 2016 to be the hottest years ever, according to an analysis by  NASA.  Global warming is caused when certain gases like carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide block heat radiating from the earth, trapping it in the atmosphere and causing a greenhouse effect.  We know disasters like hurricanes, forest fires, and droughts are attributed to global warming.  It’s overwhelming to comprehend problems of this magnitude, and when problems are too big or we’re not directly impacted, there’s a tendency to become paralyzed with inaction.  So I’ll scale it down to something simpler and immediate, at least to those of us who live in New England. 

Global warming causes erratic weather patterns and disrupts life cycles as we know it.  For example, gardeners are guided by what’s known as the Plant Hardiness Zone map, so they know which plants are likely to thrive in their area.  The map is based on average minimum temperature and divided into 10 –degree Fahrenheit zones, from 1-13, with 1 being the coldest.  Eight years ago, I was on zone 5, now we’re at 6.  And the zone 7 anemones planted last Fall have blossomed.  On the up side, the warmer climate for my area has expanded the variety of plants I can grow; but it’s also caused a surge in ticks which prefer warm and moist conditions, and increased the risk for Lyme’s disease.  And it’s contributed to the next problem.

Bees and other pollinators are declining. Pesticides, habitat loss, nutrition deficit are some of the culprits killing pollinators.  Heat spikes caused by climate change have also been linked to the reduction of the bee population. Saving bees and other pollinators isn’t just some warm and fuzzy ideal.  According to Greenpeace:

“Seventy out of the top 100 human food crops — which supply about 90 percent of the world’s nutrition — are pollinated by bees.”

Honeybees in particular are responsible for 80% of all pollination worldwide.  And we’ve lost nearly 30% of our bees yearly the last few years.  In 2019, it was 40%. Simply said: no bees, no food. 

Garden Elements and their Superpowers

Nature is amazing, and not only for obvious ecological reasons.  It provides food and medicine.  It inspires beauty and awe.  It heals us, physically and spiritually.  Even if we don’t have access to forests and natural spaces, we can still recreate that piece of nature with all her gifts, in our homes.  And that is a garden.

Now a beautiful garden is a wonderful thing. Who isn’t cheered by a kaleidoscope of pansies, soothed by the green of pine canopy or awed by the splendor of rhododendrons?  And a garden that feeds a family, even partially, is inspiring: living off the land builds pride and independence.  And survival skills always get extra points. 

But confining the garden’s role to merely that of providing beauty and sustenance, while remarkable, is not recognizing the many gifts it can offer.  It’s like being a speedster (think Flash) and using your superpower only to run fast, because you didn’t know you could also pass through walls or travel through time. 

We have underutilized the magnificent and magical powers of a garden simply by refusing to understand its nature.  To re-imagine a garden that is not only aesthetically pleasing, but functional to both humans, wildlife and the environment, we need to get to know some of its superpowers.  Only then can we design gardens that are part of the solution to the big problems of global warming and declining pollinators.   So let’s get to know the elements of a garden a bit better so we can learn how to harness her superpowers. To clarify some ideas, I borrow many concepts from permaculture, a way of thinking and designing our natural space to work in harmony with nature.

The Good Earth:  Soil

A few years ago, I volunteered as a farm hand in the south of France to learn more about organic and permaculture farming.  One day, after many hours weeding a garden bed, I was proud to show my farm host the large heap of dandelions, fennel and other weeds I had painstakingly pulled out.  He picked one up, turned it over and with a gardening claw, gently knocked off the soil that still clung to the roots.  He looked me in the eye and with a solemn tone, instructed me to get as much of the dirt back into the bed, adding, “try your best not to disturb the soil.”

In that instant, I understood the meaning of the word terroir. In France, especially in the world of wines and vineyards, you hear that word a lot, but its literal translation of land never seemed to quite capture the reverence it seemed to invoke.  But I understood that day that terroir wasn’t just dirt.  Besides its particular geology it was also the accumulation past to present of the effects of the environment, climate conditions, farming practices, —in essence, everything that had defined this bit of earth and made it unique.  It was a living thing.  In my zeal, I rampaged through the garden bed with little thought to the soil structures that had taken years to build.  Embarrassed, I returned to my pile of weeds and went through each one again, this time gently returning the soil I had almost extravagantly wasted. 

In the US, we’re accustomed to purchasing compost from nurseries to amend soil.  I had n…

#GeekingOutSeries/Safety/KitchenDangerous/5

This post is part of the Geeking Out series which presents data-driven information on food and farming, safety in the kitchen, practical science for cooks, cooking techniques and processes and other relevant nerdy stuff that every cook should know.  This topic is from the chapter, Safety 101.

In parts 1 to 4 of Kitchen Dangerous, we covered fire prevention, what to do if a fire occurs, preventing burns from frying and other hot items, first aid using ingredients you probably have at home and Knife Safety guidelines. In this final installment of Kitchen Dangerous, we’ll talk about First Aid for Cuts and add to our arsenal of home remedies. At the end of the post, we’ll summarize the rules from all five parts of Kitchen Dangerous.  Read Kitchen Dangerous:  part 1,part 2, part 3 and part 4. 

First Aid for Cuts

Minor cuts and burns are occasional nuisances for every cook and are often treatable at home. As always, seek medical assistance if injuries are serious.  For minor cuts or scrapes, here’s what to do:

1.      Control bleeding by applying pressure for at least 5 minutes

2.      Clean and Cover

*  Wash hands then rinse wound with running water to remove dirt and debris.

*  Apply a topical home remedy (see below) or over the counter antibiotic to minor cuts and scrapes that do not need medical attention.

* Cover the wound with clean bandage, gauze pad or tape to prevent infection and further injury.

* Don't tie or tape the bandage too tight.

Seek medical assistance if the cut is too large or deep, is on the face or any area where scarring is a concern, or if you need protection from tetanus.

For more information, check out St. Luke’s Health System.

Home Remedies

In  part three of Kitchen Dangerous, we covered some of the natural remedies you may already have at home that you can use as topical first aid for burns.  The good news is, most of them can also be used for minor cuts and scrapes. In addition to honey, moringa, broadleaf plantain, aloe vera and tomatoes, here are a few more kitchen superstars to add to your first aid kit.

Garlic, generally believed to have originated somewhere in Middle Asia, was used as herbal medicine as far back as 2600 BC by the Sumerians. Its long history means it is universally known across cultures for its healing properties. It became known as Russian Penicillin during World War II because even though penicillin was already in use, the Russian Red army continued using it as a natural antibiotic.

Allicin, the principal phytonutrient in garlic is responsible for the antimicrobial and anti inflammatory properties that help in wound healing.  But topical applications aside, it is also a superfood for many reasons.  According to this study from the US National Library of Medicine:

The proven anti-oxidative, hypocholesterolemic, anti-thrombotic and anti-hypertensive properties of garlic help in the prevention of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and lessen the risk of development of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.     

In plain English, that means garlic prevents damage to cells by free radicals (anti-oxidative), lowers bad cholesterol (hypocholesterolemic) and high blood pressure (anti-hypertensive) and reduces blood clots (anti-thrombotic).  Pretty cool, eh?  It also has anti-carcinogenic properties.

Turmeric, the golden yellow cousin of ginger, is also a superfood well-known in Indian and Chinese medicine. The yellow in curry powder that we use to make Indian-style curries is from ground turmeric.  Curcumin, the yellow pigment, is a phytonutrient that:

“… has been linked with anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative, anti-diabetic, anti- cancer, anti-viral, and anti-Rheumatic effects.”[8]

Anti-proliferative is the suppression of malignant cell growth.   

Applied topically, turmeric reduces pain, inflammation and promotes faster wound healing.

How to use

Garlic and Turmeric - apply as a poultice.  For garlic and turmeric, peel first, smash or mince and apply directly to wound.  You can also mix with a bit of water to make it more like a paste and wrap a bandage around it.  If you only have turmeric powder, you will need to make a paste first.  For cuts and scrapes only; do not use on burns.

Note: curry powder is a spice blend which may include turmeric and garlic, but because of the unknown impact of other ingredients in the mix, it should not be used for first aid.

Broadleaf plantain and Moringa- apply as a poultice.  Wash leaves, mash to make into a paste/poultice, then apply directly to cut or burn.  While it may be easier to use a pestle and mortal to mash the leaves, chewing provides maximum efficacy as saliva also stimulates wound-healingHoney- apply directly to cut or burn.

Aloe Vera- cut a leaf and peel to access the gelatinous surface and apply directly to cut or burn.

Tomato- slice and apply directly to burn.  

Notes:  Broadleaf plantain, moringa, honey and aloe vera can be used topically for both cuts and burns. Data for turmeric or garlic use on burns is either insufficient or suggests that it is not advisable. While data is scant for tomato’s efficacy on burns, my personal experience and much anecdotal evidence suggests otherwise.  Not only is it good as first aid for burns, but as a superfood, its lycopene and vitamins A and C contents are proven to assist in wound healing.     Addendum to Rule number ten: Include cuts in your first aid plan.

My personal practice: As I mentioned when discussing burn remedies in Kitchen Dangerous part 3, I often default to a home-made salve of broadleaf plantain, a common plant that grows in my yard, as first aid to all skin irritants—from burns, cuts to insect bites and stings.  Not having used the other remedies for cuts, I can’t offer a recommendation of one over the other.  But it is always good to have alternatives in mind. You’ll never know when you might need it.On a final note,  the Kitchen Dangerous series might seem like a downer, discussing scary fire scenarios and kitchen accidents from cuts or burns.  I admit, it’s not sexy discussing rules either.  But cooking joyfully means we are able to face our fears (in my case, it was fear of frying) and having the peace of mind that our kitchen practices are safe not only for ourselves but for those we live with.  I have averted at least one fire disaster because of information I somehow knew.  My hope is that this series can help others down the line.  The other important take away is that mistakes and accidents will happen.  That’s integral to learning. But with some knowledge, not only can we minimize or keep them from becoming full blown disasters, but we’ll know how to deal with them too.    

Here’s a summary of Kitchen Dangerous safety rules to help you prevent and deal with fires, burns and accidents from knives and sharp objects.

Rule Number one: Keep on hand an extinguisher rated for grease and electrical fires AND a box of baking soda Rule Number two: Avoid a Fire!  Keep in mind guidelines for fire prevention

Rule number three: If a fire is small enough, try putting it out using the guidelines mentioned in rule number two.  If too large or uncontrollable, don’t be a hero, call for help.

Rule number four: Learn how to Minimize Oil splatter and avoid burns when Frying

Rule number five: Always use oven mitts or pot holders whenever you handle something hot.   Rule number six: Use tongs and long-handled cooking implements to keep your hand away from heat, such as when grilling or scooping out hot food.Rule number seven: Avoid wearing clothing and accessories such as scarves, neckties, long necklaces or blouses with long flowing sleeves that can catch on pot handles or dip into hot liquids and food.

Rule number eight: Keep pot and skillet handles turned inwards. Rule number nine: Be familiar with some easy kitchen science that governs hot things. 

Rule number ten: Have a first aid plan for burns and cuts; see a doctor if serious.

Rule number eleven: Follo…

Just sharing this beautiful song by the great Antonio Carlos Jobim. I’ve always loved this tune and it’s a fitting tribute to Spring.

These days I often look out my window so I can observe the flora awaken from their deep slumber. I think I know how they feel. It seems we’re also slowly awakening from a long pandemic year.

Spring is a time for hope and renewal. It teaches us that transiency is our most constant truth. The moments pass ever so quickly; let’s savor them. And let’s celebrate life.

Happy Easter!

#GeekingOutSeries/Safety/KitchenDangerous/4

This post is part of the Geeking Out series which presents data-driven information on food and farming, safety in the kitchen, practical science for cooks, cooking techniques and processes and other relevant nerdy stuff that every cook should know.  This topic is from the chapter, Safety 101.

In parts 1 to 3 of Kitchen Dangerous, we covered fire prevention, what to do if a fire occurs, preventing burns from frying and other hot items and first aid using ingredients you probably have at home.  In this installment of Kitchen Dangerous, we’ll talk about kitchen safety with regard to Knives and Other Sharp things.  Read Kitchen Dangerous:  part 1,part 2, and part 3.

Knives and Other Sharp Things

As a pianist, I’m particularly careful with my hands. While I may have an impressive collection of stories about averted fire disasters, knife mishaps are thankfully few.  If you know any pianists, I think you’ll find we’ve elevated finger-protection to an art form.  There’s a reason I was never great at sports.  If you throw a ball my way, I will run away.

So I’ve developed knife techniques that may not always be in step with what’s taught at culinary schools.  You know how chefs peel their apples with a paring knife, the blade very near the thumb? That’s not me. The idea of a knife slip to my thumb is not something I will risk.  I use a vegetable peeler instead.  Boring maybe, but safe.

So instead of talking about techniques I don’t actually follow, I will share general guidelines on knife safety and some of my methods.  What about celebrity chefs who look you in the eye while slicing and dicing at lightning speed explaining complex mathematical equations?  Okay, maybe not math equations exactly, but anything that requires cognitive effort, not watching what you’re doing and speed means less attention to keeping fingers intact. The razzle dazzle may be impressive but it comes at a risk. Speed and pizzazz are nice, but safety first.

For those of you beginning the journey as a lifestyle cook, you can be confident that repetition guarantees improvement.  That includes knife skills. Practice makes perfect.  When I handle sharp tools, I give it my undivided attention. And this is why in the twenty plus years I’ve been cooking, I’ve only cut myself once with a knife. Knock on wood!  

A few years ago, I was slicing parsley with a new Shun Chef’s knife I had gotten Jeff for Christmas.  It’s a knife with a beautiful hammered finish. If you remember in my overview on kitchen knives, hammered finishes, like granton edges, are supposed to reduce air drag so food doesn’t stick to the blade sides.  I concluded that I hadn’t found this to be true, or more precisely, that any difference the feature makes is not noticeable to me.  

I wiped away the parsley stuck on the sides of the knife blade, just as I’d always done whenever food sticks to the blades. This time, I gave myself a nice clean cut.  Setting aside shock and dismay, I was suitably impressed.  My Shun was a very sharp knife. The kind of knife every cook dreams of.  But I had underestimated its edge and was careless.  If you’re wondering why I’m waxing lyrical about sharpness being a great thing, then it’s time to discuss:

Rule number eleven: Follow Knife Safety guidelines.

Some of these guidelines might also apply when handling food processor and blender blades, kitchen shears, mandoline slicers, cork screws, ice picks and other sharp kitchen objects.

Knife Safety Guidelines

1.      Keep your knives sharp.  It might seem counter-intuitive, but excepting my Shun miscalculation, dull blades are what cause many accidents. It was my fault for underestimating the razor sharp edge of a knife handcrafted in the tradition of Samurai swords. With a sharp knife, the blade does all the work. A dull one forces you to compensate by exerting pressure, increasing the chance of a knife-slip on unwieldy surfaces like onion skin, for instance. Knives dull over time and need to be honed regularly.  Sharpening should only be done when needed. What’s the difference?  Honing with a honing steel or whet stone realigns the blade’s edge to make it sharp.  Sharpening is taking metal off the blade to improve sharpness.  The latter should only be done when needed through a knife whetter (professional knife sharpener) or with knife sharpening tools and appliances.  Note that some specialty knives like the ones from Shun may require a specialized honing steel or whet stone designed for its blades.

2.      Use the correct knife or tool for the job. In the overview on kitchen knives and cutting Tools, I emphasized the importance of  using the right tool for the job because: Using the right tool for the job= less effort = safety = a more pleasant experienceLarge knives like a Chef’s knife and Santoku make peeling fruits and vegetables not only awkward, but dangerous because they don’t give you the control necessary for fine movements.  A large knife makes it hard to negotiate the curves of an apple or ginger, but a vegetable peeler makes easy work of it.  And on a side note, I often prefer a spoon to peeling ginger over a vegetable peeler! On the other hand, trying to slice open something as large as a butternut squash with anything smaller than a Chef’s knife or Santoku is going to be difficult.  And anything difficult means you’re likely to exert more effort, which can lead to accidents.

3.      Handle knives correctly.       

* Get a good grip and hold knife firmly using all fingers. A tentative grip means tentative control-- the knife can easily be knocked out of your hand or move in directions you didn’t plan on.  I’ve seen many people hold knives so gingerly they probably would have dropped it if I said “Boo!” 

* Keep your fingers intact.  Use your knuckles as a guide to guard against the blade and tuck your fingers so they’re not splayed out ready for the guillotine. That’s a bit of bad news if you have long fingernails because it will be harder to tuck your fingers in with the nails in the way.  If you can’t live without really long nails, just be extra careful.

* Keep fingers and body parts away from the knife’s path.  I was demonstrating in class how to pit an avocado safely.  I had the avocado cheek with pit on my cutting board and drove my Chef’s knife into the pit, gave it a slight twist, yanked it out and then hit it against the side of the compost bin to dislodge. I was showing the participants how my fingers were nowhere near the knife’s path, unlike the method I’d seen where the avocado was held in one hand when slicing and de-pitting.  A participant chimed in to say that was how he did it, then admitted he had slipped once and the knife had ended up in the palm of his hand. 

* Slice or peel away from your body or body part. This is where I might depart from chefs’ paring techniques whether using knives or vegetable peelers. While I understand that the thumb pressed down is meant to provide control, I won’t risk nicks when I can achieve the same results, perhaps not as gracefully, with a vegetable peeler slicing away from me. 

* Be careful when using fingers to wipe off a knife blade.  Granton edge or hammered finish notwithstanding, food will stick to the sides of a knife blade.  While I should probably say, don’t use your fingers to wipe it away as I did in my knife accident, I’ll be the first to break that rule.  So while I sometimes brush off stuck food against the side of a bowl, I often use my fingers, but this time I make sure to wipe at an angle away from and not too close to the blade’s edge.

4.  When slicing, establish a stable and flat surface whenever possible.

* Slicing a moving target such as a rolling onion is not only difficult, but unsafe.  To establish a stable surface, slice off the poles first (the top and root ends) to create a flat top and bottom. Set the onion on one of the flat sides and slice down the middle to split. Peel the onion. Now that each half has a flat side, it will be m…

Mankind has designed tools for every purpose. And so it is with knives. There are knives made specifically for fish, meat, bread, tomatoes, oysters, cheese, butter.  You name a food item and there’s probably a knife designed for it.  They also vary by function—slicing, boning, filleting, hacking, chopping, paring, carving; and come in different sizes. There are also multi-purpose knives which combine many of the functions needed by most home cooks.  Why is it important to know about knives and their functions?  One of the important safety guidelines I will discuss in a post (Kitchen Dangerous: Knife and Other Sharp Things) is using the right tool for the job because:

Using the right tool for the job = less effort = safety = A more pleasant experience

Home cooks will do very well with just a few well-chosen knives. So here’s an overview to help you decide what you should have in your kitchen.

Kitchen Knives and Cutting Tools

Multi-purpose knives: Chef’s knife and Santoku The work horses of the kitchen, the Chef’s knife and Santoku are multi-purpose knives that are great for most slicing, dicing and chopping. A Chef’s knife has a curved blade and pointy tip.  A Santoku has a curved spine, straight-edged blade and dimples on the sides, reminding me of the front of a commercial airliner.

Besides origin, one European the other Japanese, the difference in blade shapes account for some specialty uses. Santoku, which means “three virtues” or  “three uses” refers to what it’s made for-- chopping, dicing and mincing, and particularly excels in thin slicing, such as for razor-thin beef found in Japanese cuisine.  While a chef’s knife may not slice as thinly as a Santoku, its tip gives it an edge (!) to separating meat from bones.  They also tend to be heavier, which I personally like. But Santoku manufacturers often tout being light as a point for ease of use, so weight is largely a personal choice.          

Both knives come in varying sizes. Chef’s knives are typically available at 6, 8 and 10 inches. Santoku knives vary from 5 to 7.9 inches.  Like weight, size is also a personal choice.  In my early days of cooking, I was afraid of large knives and a 6” Chef’s knife was my preferred size.  I didn’t know of Santoku knives then, and if I had, I would probably have gravitated to the 5” version. These days, I prefer larger and heavier, so 8” Chef’s knives get the most use in my kitchen. 

Some points of clarification: the terms Chef’s knife and Santoku,  refer to blade shapes and manufacturers often have both shapes in their lineups.  For instance, German manufacturers, Wüsthof and ZWILLING J.A. Henckels both make Santoku knives and Japanese manufacturer Shun makes Chef’s knives.

How about Granton edges and hammered finishes? Some knives have dimples or scallops on the blade side, often referred to as a granton edge, which provide air pockets to prevent food from sticking. You often see this in Santoku knives with the distinctive scallop markings that run across the blade.  And then there’s the hammered finish-- finer indentations also on the blade side which are made by hammering the steel manually, at least for the top-end Japanese manufacturers. They not only provide a distinctive aesthetic, but like the granton edge, are meant to reduce drag with air pockets that prevent food sticking to the sides.  My experience?  Food will still stick to the sides of the blade regardless of edge or finish.  If there’s a reduction owing to these particular features, I haven’t really noticed.      

While these multi-purpose knives are great for a majority of tasks, neither do very well with slicing bones, frozen food, bread or for precision tasks like peeling, so you’ll need  other knives for that.

Serrated knives: Bread and Tomato

Serrated edges are jagged or saw-tooth edges best for food that are too hard or squishy for regular knives to get a purchase on.  Have you ever tried slicing bread with a regular knife?  A straight-edge blade tends to slide across the smooth surface of the crust which can cause dangerous knife slips. And when you apply pressure to penetrate the hard crust, you end up breaking up the soft insides of your loaf.  It’s a messier version with tomatoes.  Though some really sharp knives with thin blades can cut it, literally, most straight-edge blades act more like wedges that squish tomatoes until they burst and you end up with a juice and pulp splatter to clean up.  

If your household consumes bread or tomatoes, bread and tomato serrated knives are useful tools to have. Note that they are not interchangeable.  Bread knives are generally available between 8 to 11 inches long to accommodate large loaves, while tomato knives are smaller—from cutlery size to around 5 to 6 inches long, making easy work of even petite specimens like cherry tomatoes.  On the cutlery side, some steak knives are also serrated for the same reasons mentioned earlier.

Paring knives

With blades 3-4 inches long, paring knives are useful for high precision tasks like peeling, where it can hug corners with more control than larger knives.  They’re also good for slicing garlic thinly, scoring tomatoes, and other tasks that require small and fine cutting movements. 

Utility knivesUtility knives are multi-purpose knives that are in-between the size of paring and Chef’s knives.  They’re versatile enough to do some of the functions of other knives, such as slicing, dicing, and scoring, and can substitute in a pinch. There’s also something to be said about portability—it’s easy to take table-side for carving turkey, for instance.  Where it excels though, are in tasks where a mid-sized tool has advantages.  When filleting fish or deboning chicken, I often prefer a utility knife because it’s small enough to control but large enough to go through food items larger than 3 inches.   

Other specialty knives

As I mentioned, there’s a knife for every food item and task, so if you’re new to the kitchen, you may want to start with the basics and build up your arsenal of tools as you discover what your predominant cutting tasks might be. Some examples of fairly common specialty knives: cleaver- for heavy-duty chopping of hard items like bones, squashes, coconuts; fillet and boning knives- sometimes used interchangeably for fillet and boning.

When a Knife is not always the Best Tool

Kitchen ShearsKnives aren’t the only useful cutting tools in the kitchen.  For food applications, kitchen shears can replace knives for snipping herbs, slicing through soft bones (chicken and fish), slicing dried fruit and other cutting tasks.  Absent a cleaver for instance (which I don’t have), I use shears to easily cut through the rib cage of a whole chicken.  I also like using shears for slicing dried fruits which seem resistant to all but the sharpest of knives.  Note that Kitchen shears are not the same as ordinary scissors.  While the latter is a useful tool to keep in the kitchen for non-food related tasks like removing labels, nozzle tips, cutting through package tape, kitchen shears are sharp heavy duty tools specifically designed for food functions. 

Vegetable Peeler

While not a knife, a vegetable peeler is a kind of cutting tool, but specific to peeling.  This is a tool used in place of knives for peeling vegetables and fruits.  Personally, I prefer using peelers over knives for safety purposes.  It’s also great for shaving cheese and chocolate. 

Graters and Microplane zesters

Again, these are not knives, but like peeling, grating is a kind of cutting as it shaves and shreds food items. Graters are tools whose angled-edged holes are rubbed against food, cutting or shredding them into smaller sizes. They come in a variety of shapes and designs, with the hole size determining the degree of coarseness or size of food shred.  …

#GeekingOutSeries/Safety101/KitchenDangerous/3

This post is part of the Geeking Out series which presents data-driven information on food and farming, safety in the kitchen, practical science for cooks, cooking techniques and processes and other relevant nerdy stuff that every cook should know.  For the next few weeks, we will be covering topics from the chapter, Safety 101.

Read Kitchen Dangerous:  part 1and part 2

In part 2 of Kitchen Dangerous, we talked about what to do when a fire occurs and how to avoid oil splatter burns from frying. In this post, we’re covering more hot stuff and first aid for burns using ingredients you probably already have at home. 

More Hot Stuff

Draining pasta noodles in the sink, pouring scalding liquids into containers, removing the lid of a simmering pot, touching the metal handle of a hot skillet, removing a baked dish from the oven, handling a metal spatula left in a hot sauce pan, bumping against the handle of a hot wok and causing it to tip over—these are some of the ways you can burn yourself.  But first, a few more rules.

Rule number five: Always use oven mitts or pot holders whenever you handle something hot.   Rule number six: Use tongs and long-handled cooking implements to keep your hand away from heat, such as when grilling or scooping out hot food.Rule number seven: Avoid wearing clothing and accessories such as scarves, neckties, long necklaces or blouses with long flowing sleeves that can catch on pot handles or dip into hot liquids and food.

Rule number eight: Keep pot and skillet handles of cooking vessels on front burners turned sideways or inwards.Pot and pan handles can easily be bumped or get caught in articles of clothing which could lead to burn splatter and spills. You also don’t want curious children grabbing exposed handles.  

Rule number nine: Be familiar with some easy kitchen science that governs hot things.  You’ll be able to come up with your own safety procedures when you remember some of these guidelines:

* Metal is a heat conductor.  That means anything metal connected to something hot—such as the handle of a skillet or saucepan lid or metal spoon left in cooking food, will also be hot.  Which also means,

* Don’t leave cooking implements such as ladles and spatulas in a pot or pan while cooking.  If it’s metal, you may burn yourself; if it’s not metal you may also burn or melt the implement.

* Hot liquids produce hot steam and hot air rises.  No, this is not a facial, it can burn you. So when pouring hot liquid into containers or into the sink such as when draining pasta noodles: avert your face, be gentle and pour away from your body. Get as close as possible so you don’t splatter.

* For hot food and liquid, only use containers that are graded for heat such as tempered glass, metal, bake or oven-proof ware.

* Extreme temperature changes can cause containers to break such as glass or ceramic bowls, even if they are oven-proof.  Before washing, make sure the vessels are allowed to cool.  Conversely, putting cold food straight into a hot oven may cause containers to break.

* Do not process very hot food or liquid in blenders and food processors.  High temperatures plus high speed processing increase pressure and may cause blender top to pop and splatter scalding food and liquid everywhere.  Allow soups or other food that’s been cooking to cool for at least 10 minutes before processing.  Follow capacity limit (do not overfill),  release steam by opening blender shoot, and start on low before building to desired speed.

Rule number ten: Have a first aid plan for burns.  See a doctor if burns are serious.

First Aid for BurnsKitchen burns though common are often minor, which means they are easily treatable at home.  The first step is to reduce the temperature of your burn by running it under cold water.  After making sure the burn surface is clean, apply topical home remedies like aloe vera, moringa, honey, broadleaf plantain (plantago major) or tomato to reduce inflammation, alleviate pain and/or minimize blistering. You can also use over-the counter burn creams or ointments.

Much anecdotal evidence exists on the efficacy of natural burn remedies.  I learned about the use of aloe vera, moringa and tomatoes growing up in the Philippines, but these are common herbal remedies found in many cultures.  Aloe vera as a medicinal plant was used as far back as 1500 BC in Greece and China, and many Filipino households, including my own, grew them.  We also frequently had moringa and tomatoes at home because they were part of our cuisine, even before anyone realized they were superfoods with a multitude of benefits.

There’s scientific data to back the healing properties of all these home remedies for topical treatments to burns, except for tomatoes.  While I have personally experienced the soothing relief of a tomato on a burn, I don’t have the studies to support it. Absence of western scientific data is not proof of ineffectiveness.  Either the studies haven’t been done or I just haven’t found them yet.  That’s not the case for consumption of the fruit, however.  While data may be scant for topical applications, there’s lots of evidence this South American native helps with burns due to its high vitamin, nutrient and Lycopene load.  Lycopene is the carotenoid responsible for the red pigment, credited with antioxidant properties, protection from infection and wound healing.  Lycopene production is increased by cooking and the most concentration can be found in tomato paste.

How to use:

Honey- apply directly to burn.  According to an article from the US National Library of Medicine,  “The free radical control by honey, due to its anti-oxidant effect, limits damage and subsequent multi-organ dysfunction. Honey's anti-bacterial action, low pH, high viscosity, hygroscopic effect, and its hydrogen peroxide content all play a combined role in honey's effectiveness in burns treatment. Honey provides a moist environment for optimum healing conditions.”

Though commercial wound dressings and products tend to use medical-grade Manuka honey, the report makes no distinction in efficacy among unprocessed undiluted honey from various sources.

Tomato- slice and apply directly to burn.      Broadleaf plantain and Moringa- apply as a poultice.  Wash leaves, mash to make into a paste/poultice, then apply directly to burn.  While it may be easier to use a pestle and mortal to mash the leaves, chewing provides maximum efficacy as saliva also stimulates wound-healing.

Aloe Vera- cut a leaf and peel to access the gelatinous surface and apply directly to burn.

My personal practice: I use all but the moringa interchangeably for burns, and only because moringa is not readily available where I live. Tomatoes, which provide immediate cooling and soothing relief can be messy to apply, so I only use it occasionally, as with honey which I’ve only used in the form of commercial wound dressings. For convenience, I often default to a home-made salve of plantain, a common plant that grows in my yard, as first aid to all skin irritants—from burns, cuts to insect bites and stings.  A salve is quickly accessible and easier to apply than poultices. Broadleaf plantain, well-known to Native Americans, has tremendous medicinal properties and deserves its own future post. I also grow aloe vera in pots and simply cut a leaf and rub the gelatinous juicy side to burns, including sunburns.

This is the end of part 3 of Kitchen Dangerous.  In part 4, we will cover Knives and Other Sharp Things.

Interested to learn more? Read companion posts on Cooking Subversive:The Kitchen Dangerous seriesPart 1: Liar, Liar Pans on Fire: Fire and All Things HotPart 2: Don’t Burn Yourself Part 3: More Hot StuffPart 4: Knives and Other Sharp Things Part 5: First Aid for Cuts (and Burns)

References:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6330525https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih…

#GeekingOutSeries/Safety101/KitchenDangerous/2

This post is part of the Geeking Out series which presents data-driven information on food and farming, safety in the kitchen, practical science for cooks, cooking techniques and processes and other relevant nerdy stuff that every cook should know.  For the next few weeks, we will be covering topics from the chapter, Safety 101.

Read Kitchen Dangerous part 1

In part 1 of Kitchen Dangerous, we talked about how kitchen fires happen and how they can be prevented by following simple guidelines. While accidents happen, a little knowledge goes a long way into keeping them from becoming full blown disasters.  In this post, we’ll cover what to do when a fire occurs and how to avoid getting burned by frying.  But first…

Another near-disaster

A few years into my Boston life, I decided to make chicken stock.  Stock is made simmering bones with aromatics and vegetable trims in water over many hours.  One morning, I put my chicken bones, onion, garlic, vegetable trims, spices and water in a large stockpot, planning to have it simmer a couple of hours until after lunch, when I had to leave for work. 

On my way home later that evening, it suddenly occurred to me that I may not have turned off the burner prior to leaving the apartment.  I couldn’t be sure, but it was past 8pm.  If I hadn’t turned off the burner, that meant my stock would have been simmering more than 10 hours.  I was on the bus just a few blocks from my stop when panic set in.  I mentally reviewed my actions earlier in the day, scanning for a recollection of having turned off the burner as a deep dread slowly seeped into my chest.  I could find none.  In my mind’s eye, I could see fire trucks on my street and strained to hear wailing sirens. I imagined the flames licking through the triple-decker; my roommates’ accusing eyes.

As soon as I reached my bus stop, I bolted out, ran the block home while looking for signs of smoke, sirens or neighbors congregating in excitement. Finding no fire trucks nor burning embers drifting in the wind, and the street looking as normal as I had left it earlier in the day, I gave in to relief.  I hadn’t burned down the apartment nor my neighbors!  I arrived home to find barely 2 inches of liquid left in my stockpot. Whew! Thank goodness I had left it on the lowest burner setting but more importantly, that I had sufficient liquid, having earlier filled the stockpot three quarters full of water. It also helped that my stock pot was partially covered, which slowed the evaporation.   I had averted another catastrophe.  Had the liquid dried out, my stock pot and who knows what else could have burned. And my roommates would have hated me. 

Things to remember if you have a Kitchen Fire.  Also known as:

Kitchen Fire Guidelines1. Never use water on a grease or electrical fire.  It will only cause the fire to worsen.  Want some proof? Check out this cool video from The Slow Mo Guys.

In this demo of what not to do, a pot of oil is heated over a propane burner until hot enough to burst into flames. A cup of water is quickly poured into it and the resulting explosion, which unfolds in slow motion, is a terrifying yet impressive pyrotechnic display. Awesome!2. If you have an electrical fire and the device causing it is found, unplug device and shut off circuit breaker.

3. Fire needs oxygen.  If your fire is in the microwave or oven, do not open the door. The oxygen rush may cause the flames to worsen.4. If your grease or electrical fire is small enough, you can extinguish 2 ways :

* Pour regular baking soda over the whole fire. Use the whole box!

* Use a fire extinguisher that’s rated for grease and electrical fires

5.  If your grease fire is small enough, you can also smother it.  For pans, use a lid or metal tray. You can also use heavy blankets or a piece of clothing.  Do not remove the lid/blanket/clothing until you are absolutely sure the fire has been extinguished.  Removing too early re-introduces oxygen and may cause flames to re-ignite.  If safe to do so, take the offending item outdoors and away from other flammable items.  6. If the fire is too large or uncontrollable, don’t be a hero.  Get out, close the door behind you (to contain fire) and call for help! You can find more comprehensive information on prevention and handling electrical fires on sites such as Fire Rescue 1.

Rule number three: If a fire is small enough, try putting it out using the Kitchen Fire guidelines mentioned. If too large or uncontrollable, don’t be a hero, call for help.

Don’t Burn Yourself!As a young child, I would sometimes watch my mother cook, which she only did on Sundays and special occasions.  It was not so much that I had any interest in cooking.  I just wanted to be near her.  So if I wasn’t playing, I hovered around mom.  Except when she was frying.  Frying terrified me.  I must have been hit by enough oil projectiles to understand the pain of the burn.  I would watch mom carefully drop a whole fish into the wok, but as soon as it hit the piping hot oil and the frenzy of bubbles and sharp sizzles ensued, I would cower behind her or bolt out of the kitchen. I was afraid of getting burned by oil splatter.   This fear was exacerbated when my mother had a frying accident and burning oil landed on a finger which donned a thick gold Taurus ring, her astrological sign. The finger blistered and swelled up so quickly she was unable to remove the band.  As the digit puffed up and the ring’s stranglehold steadily increased, it became clear she could lose her finger.  My mother was crying in agony as she was rushed to emergency.  She returned home many hours later much subdued but with fingers intact.  Her Taurus ring however, had been cut in two.  I resolved to myself,  I would never fry.

Many decades later I am doing all sorts of frying.  Most often it’s shallow pan-frying, which uses a small amount of oil, just enough to coat the pan’s surface.  But sometimes, like with fried chicken or panko shrimp, I deep-fry-- the process I once dreaded where food is partially to fully submerged in really hot oil of between 350-360°F.   Following many precautions, I had finally learned to overcome my deep seated fear. I even teach an Asian Stir Fry class.  Oil splatter can still raise my adrenaline level, but I’ve since learned a trick or two to minimize painful incidents.  Looking back, there are a few things my mom could have done differently (had the cooking science been clear or the gizmos invented) to avoid her accident.

Rule number four: Learn how to Minimize Oil splatter and avoid burns when Frying

1.     Remove excess moisture from food before frying. Oil and water don’t mix.  Oil splatter is caused by water moisture evaporating in very hot oil, shooting up and taking some of the burning oil with it.  Remember the Slow Mo Guys video earlier?  Oil splatter is a micro-mini version.   This is why it’s important to blot up (I use a paper towel) as much moisture as possible from food before frying.  Dredging or lightly coating in flour is another way to sop up excess moisture.  2.     Gently slide in or drop food close to oil to avoid a splash and quickly withdraw hand

3.     Use tongs or long- handled cooking implement to drop food gently in oil4.     Wear mitts, preferably the silicon ones (which are also liquid-resistant). The longer the better (mine reach to my forearms).5.     Maintain a deep frying temperature of between 350-360°F.  Much higher temperatures are unnecessary, can overcook/burn your food and will cause more active oil splatters.  If you don’t have a thermometer, keep the heat to the lowest setting where the food you’re frying still has a nice active sizzle and you see tiny oil bubbles emanating from it.        6.   Especially for deep frying, use a wok or other deep cooking pan so you can have some distance between the oil surface and the rim of your pan. You get more protection from the walls and it narrows the sp…

#GeekingOutSeries/Safety101/KitchenDangerous/1

This post is part of the Geeking Out series which presents data-driven information on food and farming, safety in the kitchen, practical science for cooks, cooking techniques and processes and other relevant nerdy stuff that every cook should know.  For the next few weeks, we will be covering topics from the chapter, Safety 101.

In January of 1999, I arrived in Boston to begin my new life as an adult student at the  Berklee College of Music. New to the area, I arranged to stay with a friend’s friend who lived in the posh Back Bay area until I could find accommodations of my own.  My new roommate was an avid cook.  I, on the other hand, had very little cooking skills.  So she generously cooked and shared her dinners with me.

One evening, my roommate went out to dinner and left me to fend for myself.  I looked forward to my first Boston cooking experience.  Back in Manila, I lived in households which employed a cook, so I wasn’t used to cooking, but had occasionally tried my hand at braising and pan frying. This wasn’t going to be a big deal except that I had always cooked with gas cook tops where the size of the flames clearly indicated how hot the burner was.  This American kitchen had an electric range.

I don’t recall exactly what was on the menu other than it was going to be pan-fried, but I remember setting the range indicator to Hi, placing a skillet on the stove top and pouring olive oil into it.  Within minutes, the olive oil in my pan was on fire.  Flames licked out of my skillet, several inches high.  Panic shot through my veins but not quick enough to stifle the little voice that told me to put the flaming skillet into the kitchen sink and grab its lid to cover and snuff it out.

Smoke set off the fire alarm, rudely piercing an otherwise quiet Saturday evening.  I’d never handled a fire alarm before and didn’t know how to turn it off.  Was my alarm triggering alarms in the rest of the building?  It was so loud, I couldn’t be sure.  I imagined the fire crew would arrive any minute and I’d have to explain the whole sorry episode while evacuated neighbors looked on.  Maybe I’d get kicked out of the country for wasting tax payers’ money.  Having averted a disaster, my chief concern now was preserving dignity.  I ran out of the apartment into the hall and banged on the nearest door.

“Could you help me please? My smoke alarm went off and I don’t know how to stop it.”

The neighbor came over, opened the windows to let the smoke out then disconnected the alarm.  Opening the windows hadn’t even occurred to me in my mental haze.  So if my neighbor thought I was a silly foreigner, I didn’t mind. I was just grateful and relieved.  It was my first week in Boston.

And this is how I learned that olive oil can catch fire.   

Another important detail in this story is that I smothered the fire with a lid.  Had I poured water, which may be instinctive to some, the story might have ended differently, if not tragically.  I knew somehow that water on a greased-based fire would make matters worse and that I needed to cut off the oxygen which fanned the flames. In a panicked state of mind, I was grateful I could recall this bit of knowledge.

And then there was the matter of my unfamiliarity with electric stoves.  With gas burners, you can easily see how hot your fire is.  With an electric stove I’d never used before, I didn’t know how hot Hi could get.  Now I do.

So what were my takeaways from this experience?

1. Know which cooking oils are for high and low heat and use accordingly.2. Kill a grease-based fire by smothering it.  3. If unfamiliar with an appliance, use cautiously. 4. Know your neighbor.          

You can bet I’ve learned these lessons well.

Today, the kitchen is a refuge for me, a place where I can be creative and have fun.  But to the uninitiated or uninformed, just as I was back then, the kitchen can be a dangerous place. By sheer luck and some knowledge I’ve managed to avoid full blown disasters, and needless to say, these lessons are now indelibly etched in my mind.   Making mistakes is a natural and inevitable part of the learning process, especially if you’re just negotiating your way around a kitchen.  But I hope I can help you avoid some of the bigger ones.

Liar, Liar Pans on Fire:  Fire and all things Hot 

Many things in the kitchen can catch fire: Cooking oils; toast too near the heating element in a toaster oven; faulty appliances and overburdened or problematic electric outlets; ovens from grease build up; paper towels or other flammable objects near open flame; unattended pots with insufficient amounts of liquids.  Before we cover all that, here is our first rule.

Rule Number 1: Keep on hand an extinguisher rated for grease and electrical fires AND a box of baking soda No matter how careful you are, accidents happen and it’s best to be prepared.  Kitchen fires are not uncommon.  You have only to read customer reviews for kitchen fire extinguishers (I had recently replaced an expired one) to be convinced that this is an essential item.  As to baking soda, I’ve not had to use it on fires myself, but pouring a box to extinguish fires is one of the recommended measures given by fire experts.

Though we plan for the worst, it’s best to note how we can avoid a fire in the first place.  So we come to our second rule.

Rule Number 2: Avoid a Fire!  Keep in mind the following guidelines for fire prevention

1. Grease is flammable.  Good housekeeping means regularly cleaning ovens, stove tops, hoods and surfaces that may accumulate grease.

2. Keep flammable items, think paper towels, oven mitts, napkins, clothing items like scarves and neckties—away from burners and open fires.3. Use only high-heat cooking oils for high-heat stove top cooking processes.

We use different kinds of fat for cooking.  Olive oil, butter, lard (think bacon fat), duck fat, are some of the examples. Each one has a smoke or burn point,  i.e. the temperature at which it starts to smoke and  fats begin to break down, releasing chemicals that cause a bitter or burnt flavor.  This also causes harmful free radicals to be released both into the air and food.  At this stage, it’s not yet a fire hazard, but your food may be destined for the bin and you’ve just inhaled some naughty free radicals.  But left unchecked, cooking fats can rapidly reach an ignitable temperature, the flash point, followed by the fire point, where it combusts.  From my recollection, my pan caught fire in a matter of minutes.  

Many factors affect cooking fat smoke points: its component, how they’re made— virgin or refined, cold or heat-processed, harvest conditions, even your pan’s surface area.  While smoke point charts abound on the internet, it’s important to understand that these are data gathered in labs and based on the specific samples used. They make good guides but are not absolute.  The cooking oil you use at home may have a different smoke point from what’s listed on the charts, so if available, it’s best to be guided by the manufacturer’s recommendation.  For instance, though avocado oil is listed in some charts as having a smoke point of 400°F or less, my brand has High Heat 500°F printed on its label, and this is what I use for high heat cooking such as when frying (pan fry, deep fry, stir fry) which reaches temperatures upwards of 350°F.  

It’s good to have a general understanding of smoke points so that you can safely match the cooking fat with the cooking process.  Butter, depending on which chart you use, has a smoke point of 300°F and 350°F according to UC Davis and Serious Eats, respectively.  The latter has extra virgin olive oil listed at 325-375°F.  Both cooking fats are not suitable for frying.    

A note on cooking fats: there are many types of cooking fats which vary not only by smoke points, but by flavor and health benefits, to be discussed in a future post.  As a personal choice, I use avocado oil for high heat; animal fats like lard and duck fat a…

Just sharing an old recording I did of My Funny Valentine with guitarist, Patrick Mottaz. This is one of my favorite Rodgers and Hart tunes.Love the last line, “Each day’s a Valentine day.”

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Valentine’s Day.  Beloved by lovers, dreaded by the unpaired; anticipated by retailers, shunned by cynics of commercialism.  It doesn’t matter which camp you belong to because this year is different.  It’s a covid Valentine year.  For lovers looking to celebrate in restaurants or other venues, offerings and seats are limited.  For the singles looking to be with friends, unless you’re in the same household or in a pod, gathering is ill-advised. If you’re a business that sells anything vaguely romantic, you’ll probably still get a sales bump and if you are a commercialism cynic like me, it’s a good time to take a break and be happy for once that businesses have this chance to recoup lost sales.

My being a Valentine’s day cynic has root cause in a less- than-active dating life during my college years.  To combat feeling pathetic about ourselves, my single friends and I formed the Sawing Palad group, which roughly translates to the Unfortunate or Unlucky, defiantly celebrating friendship over romance.  Every Valentine’s day during our four years at college, the Sawing Palad would gather for dinner,  bring booze back to party at someone’s home, rail against the stupidity of Valentine’s Day, wonder why we were un-loveable, and have a bloody great time doing it. 

And so I will celebrate Valentine’s Day this year, but not as a lover or someone unpaired (am happily married now), nor a business, since my gigs and in-person cooking classes are suspended, and not as a cynic either, because I’m rooting for the economy, but just because it’s February 14, Valentine’s Day.  

In a pandemic situation, we should look for any excuse to celebrate.   Were there no dates of distinction, the days would rapidly look like any other, especially since many of us now work from home and the lines between work and personal are blurred. Were it not for Valentine ’s Day, this Sunday, would just be another Sunday.

Special dates, events (it snowed!) and deeds (paid off car!) are markers of time.  It’s a way our minds remember and make sense of personal histories.  And when we celebrate these markers, they are imbued with a sparkle of the extraordinary. To celebrate is to express gratitude.  When we celebrate, we notice and acknowledge that something is amazing and elevate the positive over the problems and negativity that assail our daily lives.  And if we can make celebrations a habit, then we create a habit of gratitude. 

If you choose to celebrate Valentine’s Day at home, take note of what you plan to do.  As we talk more about lifestyle cooking, you’ll see that celebrating often is inherent to our journey.   And we’ll want to replicate that as often as possible.  For those of you at a loss on exactly what you can do, consider some of these ideas:

1.       Go for Beauty  

Our inclination towards beauty is not superficial.  Beauty gives us joy and feeds the soul.  Whether you’re cooking at home or doing take out; celebrating with a romantic partner, with friends, family or especially if you are alone, a few changes can make the day feel different from other days. And there are many ways to add a bit of beauty to your celebrations, and they need not be expensive.  

* de-clutter and make the dining space pretty.  Like many households during the pandemic where many work from home, the dining table now functions as office/study table.  In our house, Jeff takes the study and I work in the dining room.  It’s too much of a hassle having to move my laptop and paperwork for every meal, so when not in use, they just get covered by a lovely runner.

* use candles, flowers, special vases to dress up the table

* go on and use the table cloth, china and cutlery you’ve been saving for a special occasion; this is a special occasion!

* ditch the paper and plastic: use cloth napkins over paper napkins—it’s not only more refined, but better for the environment;  and if you’ve still been using paper or plastic cups, perhaps it’s time to invest in proper drinking glasses

2. Bump up the Ambience

* get your playlist together.  Play music you like when you’re cooking, dining and cleaning up.  Music is great for setting the tone whether you’re going for energetic and fun, romantic or soothing.  If you have kids, the latter might be great for calming everyone down and to encourage dinner conversation.  When washing dishes, I put on Earth Wind and Fire, Devo and B-52’s for a great groove.

* take a break from the gadgets.  Make dinner a gadget-free experience.  If you’re used to having phones or tablets on the table during meals, their absence is guaranteed to differentiate this meal from others.

* play with lighting.   Besides the candles, dimmed overhead lights and/or soft incandescent/off-white/yellow lighting from lamps are easy ways to soften up and make a space and everyone in it look more appealing.      

 3. If you’re cooking, cook the rainbow   

While the mechanics of how and what to cook is not something we’re covering in this post, you can always improve how a dish looks.  Plan to cook with colors.  We eat with our eyes, and a visually attractive plate is often colorful.  Think of a plate of chicken with gravy (brown) over mashed potatoes (yellow).  Now think of the plate of chicken with gravy (brown) over mashed sweet potatoes (orange) with sautéed spinach and blanched almonds (green and beige).  If you sprinkled red pepper flakes (red), you’re getting five colors on your plate, an aesthetic ascribed to the Power of Five,  Japanese pillars of culinary tradition that not only encourages the use of five colors in meals, but also the five taste groups, and the five senses—touch, smell, sight, sound, taste. This is something we’ll get into more deeply later on, but for now, going for colors in your meal is the easiest thing to do to prettify your plate.

And there’s a health benefit to this too. Vibrant colors are the visual cues of pigments that signify beneficial nutrients from plants and animals.  The orange in salmon and carrots for example, are carotenoids that are valuable anti-oxidants (the salmon get it from their food).  The deep greens in spinach (and your parsley garnish) are from chlorophyll, also associated with anti-oxidant as well as cancer-fighting properties.

How to add colors? If you can’t incorporate them in the food themselves, you can always add afterwards with garnishes like parsley, cilantro and chives (green).  Brighten up seafood and fried foods with something tart—a wedge of lemon (yellow) or sliced fresh tomatoes (red/orange), which also add great colors to the plate.  In Spring and Summer, I often garnish with edible flowers from the garden too.

These are a few simple ideas to make this Valentine’s day special--something we can all easily do this weekend to get started on the habit of celebrating.  Lifestyle cooking is not only about integrating cooking into our daily lives but also about cultivating gratitude, which doesn’t happen overnight. In a covid year, it’s about finding ways to celebrate life; to find good news despite the overwhelming bad. For Valentine’s Day this year, I’ll be celebrating life and love, and love of life.  Happy Valentine’s Day to you and here’s to celebrating well!

Author’s note: Share your celebration with us.  What did you do that was special this Valentine’s Day?