Food Matters: A Reverse Book Review

After a brief hiatus, I'm back with lots of new information and ideas to get more veggies into your life!

First though, I want you to go get yourself a snack and something to drink and settle in for an entertaining and enlightening half hour of Mark Bittman discussing his new book, Food Matters. Click here for the video. (If you don't have 30 minutes, you can also listen to selected bits of it, which run in roughly 5 minute chunks.)

Bittman, a longtime food writer for the New York Times, says that, "shifting the balance of what we eat is the top priority." The typical American eats half a pound of meat every day -- and an additional one-and-a-half pounds of animal products, such as butter, eggs, and milk. Taken together, this amounts to two-thirds of the American diet originating with animals.

With animal agriculture comes a host of catastrophic problems: increased emission of greenhouse gases; animal cruelty; and numerous diseases of over-nutrition, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. All are part and parcel of a society that eats primarily animal products.

To Bittman, the key to heading off these dire consequences is shifting the balance. Reducing our animal consumption by 10 percent, would reduce greenhouse emissions and diet-induced disease by 10 percent each. As I've said before in this blog, it's not an all-or-nothing. Big changes are the result of many, many small changes. Skip the burger once a week and replace it with a slice of veggie pizza and you're making a difference. Really.

Along those lines, Bittman promotes what he terms "less-meat-terianism." This means that you don't have to bite off more than you can chew, so to speak, of the vegetarian lifestyle. Do what you can, one meal at a time. Bittman himself follows a diet he calls "vegan-til-6;" that is, he eats vegan and eliminates the junk in his diet until 6 pm. In the evening, he eats whatever he wants.

Bittman is exceptionally articulate, easy to follow, and an entertaining listen. I look forward to reading Food Matters.

Haitian Remorse

I have found it debilitating to follow the coverage of Haiti's earthquake. How can we begin to comprehend the suffering and the sheer chaos of the situation? To raise funds for the recovery effort, I'm planning to compile an e-book of Haitian and/or Creole recipes, which are surprisingly few and far between -- at least in my cookbook collection. If you have any recipes, I'd love to see them. Don't worry if they contain meat; I'll find a way to veg-ize them.

The Ultimate Winter Salad

Salads in winter? Absolutely! But at this time of year, I don't base my salads on lettuce. Last night, I improvised a delicious, crunchy first course built upon a foundation of fennel.

Fennel is a delicious vegetable that looks and has a texture similar to celery, but is more fibrous. I love its mild licorice taste. The trick to fennel is cutting it paper thin -- think 1/16" or less. Much thicker and you'll feel like a cow chewing its never-ending cud.

The best tool for the job is the mandoline. Mine is an oxo and truthfully, I don't use it very often. However, when I need it, there is really no other utensil that can do the job. You can pay whatever you want for a mandoline, from about $20 dollars up to several hundred dollars. Because it isn't a high-use item in my kitchen, I'm wasn't compelled to go for the high end. My mandoline, which I received as a gift, retails for about $60 dollars

The salad couldn't be simpler. Here's the recipe:

Cyn's Fennel Salad

1 large bulb fennel

6 or 7 mandarin oranges

1 ripe avocado

1 T olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Use a mandoline or very sharp knife to cut the fennel bulb into paper-thin slices. You won't need the stalks or the pretty fronds, so put them aside.

Peel the mandarins and half-heartedly squeeze them into a bowl with the fennel. You want to express some, but not all of the juice because you put the sections into the salad, too, and you don't want tasteless segments.

So your bowl now contains the slivered fennel and the mandarin segments and juice.

Chop the avocado into small, 1/2" or so cubes. Drizzle the whole thing with olive oil, then season with salt and pepper. Toss and devour!

You'll never miss the lettuce!

First Farmer's Market of 2010

In California, the farmers' markets run at full tilt all year. Today's crowd was as dense as any summer

Sunday -- only the produce is different.

In January, you'll find citrus...







and mushrooms...

How about some nuts?

Fresh eggs are available all year. The green things to the right of the eggs are green tomatoes. Only in January would the farmers give up and pick the tomatoes before they were ripe.

Special Vegan with a Vengeance Dessert

Last night, a couple we like but with whom we have rarely connected, invited us over for an impromptu dinner. They asked if I would mind bringing dessert. Would I mind? I spend half my waking hours thinking about dessert, so I was thrilled!

I had just one evening to decide what to make and seriously considered picking up something at my favorite local bakery, Sugar, Butter, Flour. But then I picked up Vegan with a Vengeance. This is a terrific book written by the reigning queen of vegan punk-dom, Isa Chandra Moskowitz. It's filled with easy, appealing recipes and, so far, I haven't found a dud among them.

When I saw the recipe for no-bake black bottom peanut butter silk pie, I knew I had to make it. There's no dairy -- no cream, no eggs, no butter -- and you'll never miss it. It's a heady mix of peanut butter creme, chocolate wafer cookies, and semi-sweet chocolate (I used Scharffen Berger) that will send your taste buds soaring.

Here I am, the proud mommie...

And the Oscar goes to...

Gracias Madre

There's nothing like a new restaurant to perk up my day and I recently got treated to one of the best!

Gracias Madre is a brand, spanking-new vegan restaurant in the Mission District of San Francisco. Located on Mission St. near 18th, Gracias Madre is at the center of the Mission's hustle and bustle. But from the iron security grating to its spare but warm dining room, the place is an island of calm. At least, that's what we found when we arrived for an early lunch on the restaurant's second day.

The menu, which is the same at both lunch at dinner, offers Mexican food's greatest hits done up with the best ingredients and a vegan flair.

To start, we shared a plate of roasted cauliflower drizzled with a vegan nut-based cheeze and topped with crisp bread crumbs. Halfway through it, I was overcome by the desire to suck my thumb and curl up in a corner. Such comfort.

To go with it, we each had a mandarin orange aqua fresca. Gracias Madre's version was like drinking a ray of sunshine. Really. I was running very low blood sugar when we got there and this drink was exactly what I needed. Be forewarned: this kind of refreshment comes at a price, $7 dollars to be exact. If the world really, truly wants organic produce, then get used to things like a $7 dollar glass of juice. (Besides, it's no more expensive than a margarita -- something we definitely don't need in greater supply.)

My dish was a Mexican Christmastime favorite, a tamale. Gracias Madre's version was a handmade treat, filled with smooth butternut squash filling. Its mild flavor played well with the tasty pickled veggie salad, a Mexican restaurant staple that I usually avoid, but found irresistible here.

My husband, Mr. Veg, ordered his personal favorite, Chiles Rellenos. His take was two beautiful poblano peppers stuffed with a medley of fresh veggies and topped with a light-colored sauce. The mixture was delicious and mild in my mouth but left a spicy aftertaste.

I'd love to show you pictures of the meal, but -- nightmare of food bloggers' nightmares -- I was so caught up in the meal that I forgot to take pictures. 'Guess you just have to go there yourself to fully appreciate the attractive, unpretentious presentation (and the hand-pressed blue corn tortillas).

By the time we left, business had picked up considerably. Even when they're busy, Gracias Madre retains a sense of sanity -- something that's so often missing. The proprietors also own Cafe Gratitude, a terrific local raw-foods place with multiple Bay Area locations. Cafe Gratitude's positive vibe buzzes here, too, so on many levels, you'll be happy you came.

Waffles for Christmas Brunch

Christmas at our house is not generally a big affair. Aar and I exchange presents on Christmas Eve night and celebrate both Christmas and the day before with special meals. This year, that meant gingerbread waffles and winter fruit salad when we got home from the gym.

This is the first recipe I've tried from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's book, Vegan Brunch. If you've read the front matter in her other books, you know that she considers herself something of a legend for serving outstanding brunches to her friends when she lived in New York City. If these waffles are any example, her claims are true.

I'm no food photographer or stylist and even my best waffles look as though I studied at the Salvador Dali culinary school, but still, they're delicious.

The waffles are redolent of cinnamon, cloves, fresh ginger, and molasses. They're not quite as crispy as waffles made with eggs, but I can assure you that the texture did not deter me from inhaling more than four of them (that's where lost count). Aar made a spectacular winter fruit salad containing apples, persimmons, pomegranate arils, clemintines, and banana and of course, the whole thing was doused in maple syrup. On the side, Lightlife's Smart Links. Every bit as good as their porky counterpart without laying a finger on a single pig. No cholesterol either! The whole thing adds up to a very merry Christmas.