Holidays in Maine Means Lobster and Tree-Shaped Cake

Without addressing the theological and cultural implications of a Jewish person doing Christmas -- I do Christmas.

Rather, my family does (and always has); my mother is Christian and doing Christmas (having a tree, exchanging presents, eating special dishes) is one of the many ways we have integrated the traditions and memories with which my mom grew up into our family's life. Plus, Chanukah is kind of a stupid holiday.

BUT that's not the point of this post. The point of this post is that Jen and I hit up my home in Maine for Christmas. A total of five cancelled flights led to two extra days in Maine for me and four for Jen -- and a number of extra meals with the family.

Highlights!

My mom made her EPIC lobster stew on Christmas Eve. This is truly epic -- NUMEROUS lobsters, picked and cooked in a rich but loose tinned milk-based stew. My mom's famous for this stuff -- just don't ask her about the time TWO consecutive batches were ruined due to the tendency of regular milk to curdle when interacting with the residue from the rubber bands around lobster claws. Don't ask my dad, either; he was the one who picked all those damn lobsters. Now, however, my parents have perfected the process; the result is a tangy, savory stew bursting with claw and tail meat.

SO MUCH LOBSTER MEAT!

My mom also whipped up a pretty super roasted beet, walnut, and goat cheese salad with the meal, one totally worth mentioning:

That morning, we feasted on an incredible french toast souffle, one which had sat and soaked in its batter in the fridge overnight. It souffled so much that we couldn't get it out of the oven without the peaks scraping the heating elements on the oven's roof -- and though this photo came after the souffle began to fall, I think it captures how buttery and airy the dish finished. It looks a little weird, but at the end of the day, this is the fluffiest, well-spiced, mouth-wateringest french toast EVAH.

Finally, the last few years I've been the one to make our family's traditional Christmas tree coffee cake. You roll out your refrigerated-rised pastry dough into a 10" by 16" rectangle and cover it in a mixture of pecans, dates, sugar, melted butter, and cinnamon. The dough is then rolled (hotdog direction) and cut into 16 even rolls. These are then arranged on a cookie sheet in the shape of an evergreen tree, painted with a little more butter, and are allowed to rise for a while before baking. We always frost with a little green vanilla frosting, like so:

This is a coffee cake in only the loosest of senses, for in truth, it's essentially an arrangement of sticky buns with a Christmas flair. So damn good.

In my house, Christmas isn't a religious event -- after all, my brothers and I are Jewish. But the Christmas foods are a touchstone, one that helps to make Christmas real and traditional and meaningful for my mother. Giving my mom the chance to be drawn back into wonderful memories from her childhood and to continue to make memories with her family (and this time around, with Jen too) is what it's all about.

Do any of you have interesting Christmas/holiday traditions and foods? Share in the comments section!

When You Grocery Shop Hungry

I went grocery shopping last night hungry. Very hungry. It was...bad.

My hunger was compounded by having just worked out. My lack of self control was compounded by the snow. It's some sort of New England thing -- it snows, so you stock up on staples and you fill a pantry with dry goods and you prepare to batten down the hatches. I mean, there isn't that much snow yet -- but this same knee-jerk preparation is what got me through last year's snowpocalypse. (I sat inside and worked at my kitchen table and cooked chicken parmesan and chili for the week of epic snow.)

Maybe it's enough to say I was NOT capable of keeping to my grocery list. Or maybe you all need to see pictures. This is what I bought:

This is what I didn't need:

This is what I did need, the purchases for which I went shopping in the first place:

And this is, by NO MEANS, the most lopsided this ratio has ever been. I have been way more out of control in the past. This is just the most recent...incident.

Frying Potatoes, Sustainably

Latke's sizzling away...

Latkes. Delicious, greasy, fried potatoes smothered in sour cream and/or (definitely and) apple sauce. Runs contrary to the Hungry Sam healthy mentality, no? Well, yes, insofar as that mentality is absolute. It's not; treats are an important part of living a healthy lifestyle -- as long as they're infrequent indulgences and not an everyday thing.

But this post isn't about treats, it's about diving, spoons and graters first, into latke making with my ninth grade religious school class last night.

But wait, you ask. What sort of awesome curriculum has room for latke cooking?

The sustainability sort! See, my fellow teachers and I have been teaching our students all about sustainability this semester, how choices can be made to promote a future and a world that can sustain our children and children's children. 

The idea in doing a sustainable cooking program was this: Making the sustainable choice for all of our meals all of the time is hard. But making it SOMETIMES is easy, and doesn't necessarily impact flavor or price of the dish you're making.

Furthermore, cooking is a basic skill that facilitates making sustainable choices. When you're doing the cooking (as opposed to eating out or buying pre-made), you can control the ingredients, you know where they come from, how they've been prepared, what sort of carbon footprint they have, or at least you're more able to determine that information. (There are other good reasons to cook, outlined in Hungry Sam's new "Why Cook? A Guide" page.)

When you don't have a Cuisinart...

So, in order to inject some competition into all of this (of course), I picked up three sets of ingredients: a regular, non-organic set, an organic set, and a farm stand set. My challenge was to buy approximately the same quantities of each set of ingredients for about the same price. I did so -- at least in this case, buying ingredients from a variety of sources didn't need to impact the budget. For their part, three teams of students were to cook the best latkes possible, and our judges (the rabbis and high school program director) were to both select the best-tasting latke and try to guess the ingredients' source.

I have to hand it to them, my guys threw themselves into this, grating, peeling, and frying their way to crispy goodness. Some of our students had solid cooking experience, others had little or none, but the energy was absolutely there -- which of course, as a food enthusiast, I appreciated. These young adults wanted those latkes, and the victory.

In the judging process, our three judges each tried the latkes with their toppings of choice. Only one judge correctly determined the source of the winning batch, the organic latkes, but the judge's decision underscored our very unscientific conclusion: if organic is at all a more sustainable choice, it doesn't need to mean a more expensive or less tasty latke.

A photograph of the winning latkes, one which CERTAINLY fails to do them justice:

The "recipe" we used:
-Some amount of potatoes, like 2 lbs.-ish
-Half an onion
-An eggs worth of egg whites
-Two pinches of flour

Mix, make little latke patties, squish 'em flat and dry, then fry.

Delicious.

Spatchcocked Chicken (Hehehe)

It's official -- I WILL be roasting a chicken a week from now on. Why? you might ask. Don't interrupt me and I'll tell you.

Because it's AWESOME. And fun. And cheap, and delicious.

Tonight, BEE and I roasted a chicken, spatchcock-style, with lemon, thyme, and rosemary and young potatoes and fennel on the side. We snagged a 7.5 lb. chicken (a big sucker) for about $10 and now I have awesome food for at least 4 more meals (and a ton of high quality chicken stock).

Spatchcocking is a good choice for roasting a chicken quickly, particularly a larger one, because you're essentially spreading out the meat by eliminating the cavity. To spatchcock, flip your bird so the breasts are facing down onto your work surface. Using cooking shears or a heavy duty set of scissors, cut along the spine on either side, and remove it and the giblets. Turn the chicken back over and press down between the breasts so the bird is folded out.

We placed the bird on a foil-covered cooking sheet, then rubbed the skin with olive oil, salt, and pepper before covering it in dried thyme, fresh rosemary sprigs and thin slices of lemon. We surrounded it with quartered potatoes and diced fennel bulbs, drizzled them with olive oil, and sprinkled with salt, pepper, and some of the fresh fennel fronds. Prep took maybe 15 minutes, tops. So easy. Here's how she looked before she went in:

The chicken cooked at 400 degrees for about 50 minutes. Meanwhile, I threw the spine, meat attached, along with the giblets into a pot of boiling water, which I spiced with thyme, salt and pepper -- cooked for about two hours and I now have homemade, excellent chicken stock for the freezer. Win.

The chicken was incredible; I've paid plenty for worse at nice restaurants. The skin was perfectly crispy and spiced, not too fatty, while the aroma and flavor of the fennel filled the moist and completely tender meat. The potatoes were even better, buttery-flavored from the sheen of chicken fat on the bottom of the pan with just the right bite from the fennel fronds. Friends, the final effect:

I will do this weekly -- the whole meal was under $15 and even excluding the stock I have four meals-worth of leftovers. Plus it's fun, and reasonably fast if you spatchcock. Which is also a fun word to say.

Forays Into Thai

I am an equal opportunity eater; in my cook book, open immigration is a plus. I have never met a cuisine I have not liked and as my cooking has developed, there has been no one vein to my adventures. I have, at different times, experimented with Moroccan, Lebanese, Ethiopian, Greek, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Latin American, most European styles, and Southern food (which feels foreign to me).

I have never, until now, tried making Thai. Though I love Thai food dearly, it felt, somehow, as though there were some invisible barrier to cooking it. I thought there were perhaps too many exotic spices (false) or sauces (not really) or ingredients (maybe for SOME dishes). In short, I felt about making Thai food the way many people feel about making any food at all.

I decided to reject that notion. I believe in brotherhood through brunch, sisterhood through supper. Without experimenting with Thai food, how could I welcome Thailand into the family of nations the fusion of which informs my cooking?

Now, I would LOVE to make phat kee mao (drunken noodles) or phat see ew (or however you transliterate those sweet, stir fried noodles) but I can't find the wide rice noodles (help, D.C. friends!). I did discover thin rice noodles -- perfect for phat thai.

Phat thai is an extremely simple dish in terms of ingredients. Other than the noodles, which apparently are found in many grocery stores, the only exotic is the fish sauce (if you've made certain Japanese or any Thai you probably already have some on hand). I had some boneless chicken breasts already, and in an effort to make the whole thing more colorful and more wholesome, I decided I would throw in some broccoli and a red bell pepper. I wanted to use chopped peanuts, but Giant was out (I know!!!) and I forgot I had some. Whoops.

Vamping off the noodle package directions, this is how I went about fashioning my first attempt at Thai:

Pad Thai

3/4 of a package of thin rice noodles (about 8 oz.)
4 T. fish sauce
1 T. brown sugar
1 t. paprika
3 eggs
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (VEGGIES -- use tofu instead)
2 scallions, sliced finely
2 heads of broccoli cut into small pieces
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced thinly

Small handful of chopped peanuts

half a can of bean sprouts (just throw away the other half, unless you make a lot of asian dishes. Blech)
garlic
salt and pepper

1) Place the noodles in warm water, spreading them out as much as possible, and allow them to soak for 30-40 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk together the brown sugar, fish sauce, and paprika.

2) Meanwhile, split the breasts lengthwise into cutlets using a sharp knife (a process called "butterflying") and slice thinly. Saute on medium in oil (I always just use olive oil; I'm sure it would be more authentic with something else) and garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook through until no pink remains, but no further, then remove from pan.

3) Scramble the eggs in the bottom of the pan until done. Then, add pepper, broccoli, chicken and the (well-drained) noodles and stir fry over medium. After a minute or two add the fish sauce mixture and about a half cup of water. Continue stir frying, adding more water if need be. This is the tricky part, because underdone, rice noodles are inedible and overdone they're a sticky mass of noodles -- there's a window of perfection that I hit, but totally on accident.

4) When noodles are cooked through (lots of taste-testing required) but before they get too sticky, remove everything from the heat to a serving bowl and toss well. Top with chopped peanuts, scallions, and bean sprouts (which, despite their tinged look, actually have some health benefits -- Vitamin C most notably).

Enjoy!

Wherein I Eat Awesome Stuff in Atlanta

I was in Atlanta recently, visiting JHK and taking the LSAT -- it's a long story. WHILE I was there, I indulged in three particularly sumptuous meals, photographic proof of which I now will present.

1) Dinner on Friday night at Murphy's

I've now visited Atlanta thrice, and each time I have found myself at Murphy's -- but before this visit, only for brunch. (GET THE SHRIMP AND GRITS, DAMNIT. SO GOOD). This dinner menu, like Napoleon Bonaparte, is short -- but fully prepared to conquer my appetite and unify my taste buds into a single regime under its rule.

Awkward simile? Maybe.

Anyways, I resisted the urge to get shrimp and grits AGAIN (it's on the dinner menu too) and instead opted for classic dry-rubbed ribs. I don't get ribs often, but I think ribs such as these are my death-row-last-meal meal. They were so fall-off-the-bone, finger-lickin', bone-suckin', tender and flaky delicious that it was struggle to set a few aside for later. When you can't even keep the meat on the bone if you tried, that's when you know you've found a good ribs joint -- and Murphy's is, at that.

Here too I tried the mussels, which were good but nothing to blog about (oops). However, nestled next to the dish of mussels marinara were thick-cut handmade fries, which were pretty much worth it right there. Moist without being greasy, salty without overpowering the flavor of the potato, they were pretty much just how I like 'em. Another win for Murphy's. I'll be back.

2) Breakfast before the LSAT (at the ungodly and inhuman hour of about 6:30)

I'm not sure I need much commentary for this photo, except to say that if I did well on the LSAT (I find out Nov. 1), it's thanks to this breakfast of champs -- cheerios, leftover ribs, and macaroni and cheese.

3) Dinner Saturday night at Bistro Niko

My experiences with French restaurants are more than limited -- I think I've been to ONE in my life, on Key Biscayne in Miami, where I tried escargo. I know almost nothing about the cuisine, except that they eat frog legs.

SO I DID.

That's right; I tried frog legs. And you know what? Duh duh duh...

They tasted like chicken.

Except they tasted like the best, most tender, flavorful, and wonderful chicken you've EVER HAD. These were lightly breaded and pan fried with lemon juice and a little tomato with spices, and once I got past the fact I was eating something that looked VERY much like a frog leg, I could focus on how tasty it was. If you, my dear readers, think you have it in you, I highly recommend trying frog legs sometime.

For my main course, I had skate wing. For those unaware, skate is a cartilaginous fish, like sharks or manta ray, in fact, very much like a manta ray. Skate is a very tender white fish, markedly un-fishy tasting/smelling, and when cooked, flakes cleanly into large chunks. The skate I ate (hahaha) was pan-fried with lemon juice, white wine, and capers -- EXACTLY the same way MB an I cooked it during my only other experience with skate. It's an easy fish to cook, as the meat is thin and of uniform depth, but the tricky part (MB and I struggled with this) is separating the flesh from the cartilage structure under the wing without making a mess of the fish. Apparently, the trick is to be careful.

In my mind, as much as I love staples and favorites, there's nothing quite as exciting as trying the new and/or exotic; I give Bistro Niko two or three thumbs way up for presenting both in an excellent and perfectly executed fashion.

Next time on Hungry Sam: What I made for dinner tonight.

On the Menu: Tomato-Oregano Chicken and Four Bean Salad

Those who know me well know that I no longer have a real excuse to be remiss in regaling you all with my food adventures. The last six weeks have seen many -- Maryland Blue Crabs slathered in Old Bay spice; four separate takes on Shrimp, Grits, and Andouille stew; and the bounty of my home state, Maine -- is it weird to eat a total of 6 different types of shellfish and crustacean on about 10 occasions during a 4-day trip home?

This evening's post, however, is a bit more instructional. Perhaps you all were not yet bored with stories of my wild excitement at trying new foods and dishes, but I was becoming tired of sharing them. After all, I don't want to wear anyone out with my over-exuberant energy and passion for comestibles.

As a change of pace, then, tonight's post is...USEFUL. [Cue gasps from the studio audience.] We will be making Tomato-Oregano Baked Chicken and Four-Bean Salad. There will be a recipe, instructions, photos, and of course, Hungry Sam commentary.

On that note, it must be weird to cook in front of an audience. I digress.

Before we begin, allow me to say this: Everyone can make this dish. I know most of my readers, and I know some of you have poor chef-images (does that pun work?). have the urge to throw your hands up and forget about it. But really -- although some dishes are legitimate challenges, and although improvising, balancing complex mixtures of spices, and certain techniques require practice, these and many similar dishes are within your reach.

Where there's an appetite, there's a way.

Tomato-Oregano Baked Chicken and Four Bean Salad

Closely follows a recipe from Everyday Food magazine. I love this publication -- if you're a beginner, it provides easy recipes and lots of helpful background and knowledge; if you're a health nut, all recipes have per serving health facts; and if you're experienced, it provides inspiration.

The utensils/implements you will need:

-A good knife (For the love of God, do yourself a favor. Go out, and buy ONE good knife. Find a sale and get a decent Calphalon blade -- good Ohio steel -- or something, preferably a santoku or a simple paring knife. It won't break the bank.)

-A frying pan (9" or 12" will work, depending on the quantities with which you're working. Better if it's an oven-safe pan, because then you won't need...)

-An oven-safe pan or dutch oven

-A cutting board

-Tongs

-A largish stock pot, the sort of thing in which you'd make pasta

-A colander

-A bowl

-Something to prevent first degree burns when removing pans from the oven, like an oven mitt.

If you're not sure what any of these items are, click the links or Google them. If you don't own these things and want to, I guarantee you can get them all on the cheap online or at Target. Just please, please don't skimp on the knife. One good knife is all I ask. I only own four and I do better than fine.

Next, the list of ingredients you will need (in the order you will need them):

TIP: If you shop intelligently, this should be an inexpensive meal and many of the ingredients are staples that will keep in your cupboard for ages.

Chicken:

-5 or 6 bone-in, skin on chicken thighs (There's a temptation to go with a healthier cut. Don't, in this case -- the recipe just wont work. You'll be able to cut fat later in the preparation. This is also close to the cheapest cut; I buy the family pack and freeze the extra.)

-Olive oil (you should have this in your kitchen, always.)

-Salt and Pepper

-1 Yellow or Vidalia onion (I love Vidalias; they're super sweet and don't make me cry.)

-1 T. Garlic (I keep minced in the fridge)

-1 29-oz (large) can of diced tomatoes (Another thing I tend to keep on hand.)

-4 or 5 sprigs fresh oregano (Sometimes you can substitute for dried. Don't do it in this case.)

Salad:

- 1 lb. green beans

-4 T. cider vinegar (you could get away with red wine vinegar but I wouldn't use balsamic or white) and (the capital "T" means tablespoon; the lowercase "t" means teaspoon)

-4 T. olive oil

-1 T. finely chopped fresh oregano

-2 shallots (They're like onions but way better and cooler. If you want to be lame, you can use a wicked small yellow onion instead.)

-4 T. grainy mustard. If you want feel tempted to use the cheap yellow stuff instead, don't. Also, throw that crap away.

-3 cans of your favorite beans. I used 1 dark red kidney beans, 1 garbanzo beans (chickpeas) and 1 butter beans (my favorite)

-Salt and Pepper

Finally, the skills you will need:

-Literally, an ounce of patience. Lots of people think they're lousy chefs because they stop paying attention and take a nap. This leads to failure and possible oven fires. Just pay attention.

-A self-preservation instinct. As in, can you avoid cutting your fingers off? If not, stop reading. I don't want to be responsible for accidental amputation.

Last tip: Wash dishes and put things away as you go. I am not a super punctilious person when it comes to neatness; it honestly just makes your life easier and your cooking more efficient.

Here we go.

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. TIP: Never put anything in the oven while it's preheating. The oven preheats by applying LOTS of heat fast; things will burn.

2. Turn on a burner and set it to medium heat. Place your frying pan on the burner and add about a T. of olive oil.

3. "Season" (add salt and pepper, a reasonably small amount) to both sides of your chicken. Place your chicken thighs skin-down in the pan and cook until the skin gets golden and a bit crispy-looking, about 7 minutes. TIP: Watch out for spatter. Hot oil spatters, burns, and hurts. Think about long sleeves, an apron, and perhaps wearing something you don't mind get covered in oil.

4. During this time, slice your onion nice and thinly, open your can of tomatoes, and get out your garlic. No reason not to use down time wisely.

5. Flip the thighs, and cook for about a minute.

6. Remove the thighs from the pan and put on a plate. I put a paper towel underneath to absorb excess oil and fat. Pour out excess oil in pan, and BE CAREFUL.

7. Throw your onion into the pan and cook until it's soft -- it will become semi-translucent. Then, add your garlic and cook until fragrant.

8. Add the tomatoes and bring to boil. Assuming your frying pan is oven-safe, gently place the chicken back in the pan, skin side up, nestling the thighs into the sauce and distribute the washed fresh oregano springs around the chicken. If you need to transfer pans, go for it. Put the pan in the oven (which will definitely be preheated by now) and set a time for 25-30 minutes. TIP: Set a timer. Really.

9. Now the salad. Put the stock pot, 1/3-1/2 full of salted water, on a burner set to high and bring it to a boil. Trim the ends off the green beans and cut them in half. Open your canned beans and rinse them off in the colander, then transfer them to a bowl.

10. Once the water is boiling, toss in your beans and cook for 3 minutes. What you're doing is called "blanching" and it's a great way to make beans and a few other types of veggies a little sweeter and way crispier. After 3 minutes, drain in the colander and rinse them with cold water to bring the temp down.

11. Finely chop some fresh oregano (you'll have bought enough if you purchased a little package), about 3 or 4 sprigs worth of leaves ought to do. Finely slice your shallots. In a bowl or measuring glass (pyrex measuring glass is my go-to) mix together the vinegar, oil, mustard, oregano, shallots, and add a little salt and pepper. TIP: Taste it -- if it's bland, that means there's not enough salt. In this case try adding a scootch more vinegar and mustard.

12. Combine the dressing mixture, the canned beans, and the green beans; toss well.

13. Your chicken should be done. Remove it from the oven and let it cool.

14. Now send pictures to your loved ones to make them jealous of how awesome you clearly are. This step is vital.

15. Oh yeah, EAT.

As you eat it, think about the flavors and ingredients. Does the meal taste like something else you've eaten before? How? What were the ingredients or spices which made the earlier experience different? What's your favorite part about this meal? What would improve it? By asking yourself these questions, you can teach yourself how to improvise by combining the successes of various meals and drawing on that knowledge later.

There you have it: An easy, inexpensive, and reasonably healthy meal. As to the last point, although I've improvised a little, Everyday Food notes that each thigh with some of the sauce comes to 217 calories, 7.9 g fat (1.4 g sat fat), 19.3 g protein, 20.7 g carbs, 2.4 g fiber. The bean salad is tougher to estimate, given how I've altered the recipe, but it's beans and such -- high in protein and fiber. The only fat in the salad is the olive oil, which is heart-healthy monounsaturated fats and low in sat fat. Ok, there's some sodium in there too.

B'Teavon! Bon Appetite!