Sausage and Spinach

Let me tell you about Sausage, and not the spicy kind. First off, I want you to know that Safeway didn't pay me anything or give me anything to talk about their products, I just went out on a limb and truly enjoyed what I ate, I think you will too!

In a moment of desperation, after a ridiculously long day filled with work, homework, and errands, Dan and I began to feel the hunger pangs that come with low blood sugar. We had bought some interesting-sounding Chicken Sausages with Spinach and Feta, a new generic brand from Safeway called "Open Nature". Now, we are definitely not sausage people. We really only eat Hot Dogs and the occasional Bratwurst during summertime barbeques. But, the sausages looked pretty good and sounded pretty good... and it helped that they were something new that was on sale and would be a quick and healthy meal, easy to throw together.

First things first, I blanched some Spinach. (Because I have made a video tutorial and an upcoming post about this process, I'll let you Google that one in the meanwhile.) After getting the excess water out of the Spinach, I let it rest on some folded up paper towels while I went to work on the rest of the meal.

Next up, a good mise en place. If you didn't notice, I chop onions and put them in a baggie for use throughout the week; it makes cooking and prep-time a lot quicker and less tearful, and there is no difference between freshly chopped and chopped, as long as you use those onions within a week, and keep them in a very cold fridge. Also pictured: olive oil, the sausages, brown rice (in the cooker) and garlic. Not pictured: the Spinach.

Like I have probably mentioned so many times now, this meal is super quick and easy to throw together, and extremely healthy. For the cooking part of things, you are going to start by heating up a little bit of oil on medium (to medium-high, depending on how fickle your stove is) in your favorite, largest saucepan. If you only have a small saucepan, it is no big deal, but you may want to use less sausages or simply split everything in half and make two smaller batches. Once the oil gets somewhat hot (and is starting to get a slight ripple to the surface, along with your being able to smell its sweetness), you are going to put a big handful of the chopped onions in the pan and let them soften. We are onion people, so we love onions. However, if you hate onions, you do not need to add them. As the onions cook, you will have a few minutes to slice up the sausages. Thickness and thinness do not matter, just be aware that thinner slices will definitely cook more quickly.

Once the onions are starting to soften and become slightly translucent, you will add the sausage. When I made this meal, I added the garlic before the sausage and it gradually browned somewhere between the delicious stage and the burnt stage. It wasn't really either of the two, but I now know (and can tell you) to wait a bit before adding the garlic. Now give everything a good stir, getting the onion-infused oil all over the sausages while waiting for them to brown.

When your first couple of slices begin to turn golden-brown on one side, then it will be time to add the garlic. Again, this is something completely up to you. We also happen to love garlic, so I added about a tablespoon and stirred everything around in the pain again. After the garlic, a little salt and pepper can go in, just to add a little seasoning and heighten some flavors.

At this point, you can mostly leave the pan alone, coming back every few minutes to check it and move everything around, making sure all the sausage gets browned evenly. I took this time to put away the garlic and place the dirty knives and cutting board in the sink, clearing space on the counter for assembling our dinner.

After about ten minutes, when most of the sausage is browned, it is time for the Spinach. Because it was cooked previously, it only needs to be warmed through before being served. Using your hands, separate little chunks of leaves from the wrung out ball of Spinach, dropping them in the saucepan. This is yet another thing that will not need measuring, as it goes purely by personal preference. Say you hated Spinach and preferred Green Beans. This would be the time to drop some frozen green beans into the pan and  give it a little extra time to warm back up. Just be sure that after all the vegetables are added to the pain, it gets another stir to evenly distribute all of these delicious ingredients.

You will be able to get your preferred beverage together, as well as plate up the rice with a tiny bit of olive oil and about twice as much balsamic vinegar.

At this point, you should stay pretty close to your sausage and vegetable mixture, as it should be just about done browning (and thus, done cooking). Once it has been cooked to your satisfaction, and the vegetables are heated through, you will simply spoon the mixture over the rice.

With about one cup of Spinach, blanched, one package of sausages, and two cups of rice, the two of us were able to have four meals on the satisfyingly small side of things.

This is one of those meals that can be used simply as a guideline for this sort of thing; you can change up the vegetables, or the meat. You could even change up the starch and have something adventurous and new. You could use a spicy sausage if you wanted to kick it up a notch, or try using some beautiful Swiss Chard, which is in season right now, in place of Spinach.

You simply must try this recipe sometime this week... your heart and your belly will be thanking you.

Frankenfood Friday:: Sodium Tripolyphosphate

This is our first official Frankenfood Friday! Each Friday, I will pick a complex, weird-sounding/unnatural food additive and explain what it is and where it comes from. This week’s topic will be Sodium Tripolyphosphate, also known as STPP. I found this particular ingredient when I was looking at ingredients list of one of my favorite foods, Macaroni and Cheese; the one with the packet of powdered cheese instead of the pouch of cheese goop. If you didn't notice if before, it's at the very bottom of the list. (They snuck it in there!) 

According to chemical vendor CCNT, Sodium Tripolyphosphate is “one of the main auxiliaries for synthetic detergent, synergist for soap; water softener, tanning agent for leather making, auxiliary for dyeing.” The last sentence of the description of uses mentions food applications, and is exceptionally brief, saying that STPP is used in processed foods as a “quality preserver”, tenderizing horse beans (whatever those are), and canned meats, also serving as a “softener or densifier” in the food industry.

Interestingly enough, Food and Water Watch, an environmental advocacy group whose goal is to watching the safety of our food and water sources, has named Sodium Tripolyphosphate, “Another Chemical to Avoid”. In this report, it explains that Sodium Tripolyphosphate is used to treat seafood, making “expired [fish] appear firmer and glossier, and could dupe you into buying old or spoiled fish.” Unfortunately, the FDA doesn’t require food producers to label foods treated with this product, as it is “generally recognized to be safe.” I am not sure whether this is interesting or absolutely off-putting, considering that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which is part of the CDC, a government agency, is suspicious that Sodium Tripolyphosphate is a neurotoxin. It is also listed as a known pesticide with the Environmental Protection Agency and an air contaminant under California’s Occupational and Safety Health Act. (You can find all this information in a pamphlet I found here.

So, let’s get back to my Macaroni and Cheese. I eat it, along with countless thousands of families across the world. It comes from a familiar blue box, which is manufactured by a megacorporation. This one ingredient, which is a suspected neurotoxin, identified as a pesticide, and an environmental contaminant, a thing that is definitely not a naturally occurring substance, is something that children eat. It is something that you may feed to yourself and your family at least once a week without even knowing it.

delicious, delicious phở bò

On Tuesday, Danno and I woke up dark and early for a quick turn-around trip in San Francisco (I have a bit to share from that trip, but that's another post). We spent two days in one of our favorite places, and when we returned very very late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning, depending how you look at it, I felt pretty run down. All day Thursday, I braved twelve hours of classes with a slightly sore throat. Chalking it up to my being exhausted, I went to sleep Thursday night, thinking a good chunk of rest would fix me right up.

I was wrong. 

Sometime between the flight back to Phoenix and my time in studios all day, I came down with a nasty something. I spent a good part of Friday morning in a Doctor's office, and since then, I have been either resting or trying to rest. It's a weird balance between being hopped up on the pseudoephedrine in the Mucinex I was prescribed, and the utter exhaustion from the epic battle that is currently happening in my body right now. I sometimes don't know whether to go run a mile or take a nap.

Needless to say, I needed to eat something that was hot, comforting, delicious and not from a can.

I needed phở bò.
And I needed it to be made by my loving fiancé.

Surprisingly so, phở bò, or beef phở, is very easy to make. Most of the work goes into choosing and slicing ingredients, the rest of it is simply waiting for time to pass.

first up, the mise en place.

While waiting for the beef stock, garlic, and ginger to come to a boil and then rest, it was cutting time. He washed and chopped the scallions, cilantro, and thinly sliced the beef tenderloin.

During the two minutes in which the beef stock, garlic, and ginger mixture to come to a boil and the ten-minute resting period, he had plenty of time to chop the green onions and the cilantro, and slice up the beef tenderloin, wash the bean sprouts. He also had plenty of time to bring water to a boil and cook the rice noodles. The recipe does not make mention of this, but the noodle part of everything should come after everything has been prepped for quick and easy assembly.

 After the stock mixture has rested and everything has been chopped and sliced, he simply put everything together! Noodles first, then sliced beef, then cilantro and scallions, and then bean sprouts. Then, it gets topped off by the broth mixture. The recipe calls for two tablespoons of fish sauce to be divided between four servings. Since there are two of us, he simply put a couple splashes in each bowl and then a little bit of soy sauce and (of course) Sriracha.

After a total of fifteen minutes of preparation, I was served this bowl of delicious, hot phở.

It was amazing, perfect for this chilly weather, and a perfect recipe to throw together for a sick loved one... with that said, here is the recipe Danno used, adapted from the Photo Cookbook for iPad:

(ingredients)

8 cups beef stock
1tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
1 tsp chopped garlic (the kind that comes in a jar)

1 package of rice noodles (the recipe calls for 9oz, but we really like noodles)
approximately 1 lb. beef tenderloin or sirloin steak, thinly sliced (the recipe calls for 14 oz., but we used a little less and still loved it)
4 scallions/green onions, chopped
12 oz bean sprouts, washed and drained
3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
fish sauce (optional)

sriracha and soy sauce

(and the recipe)
1. Heat the stock with the ginger and garlic until boiling, remove from heat, and let infuse for ten minutes.
1a. While the stock is cooking and infusing, chop your veggies and slice the beef if you haven't done so already.

2. Cook the rice noodles in boiling water for three to four minutes, until just tender. Drain the noodles and divide them between the bowls you will be eating from. (The recipe actually calls for four bowls, but since there are two of us, we simply kept the leftover noodles in a pyrex container to cool and use for leftovers tomorrow)
3. Top with the sliced beef and scallions, then strain over the boiling stock.
4. Stir in the bean sprouts, fish sauce, and cilantro.
5. Serve the noodle soup, with Sriracha and soy sauce to taste.

new cookbook!

For Christmas, Dan gave me a new cookbook: The Silver Spoon, by Phaidon Press.

This is the essential authentic Italian cookbook. It does for Italian cuisine what Julia Child did for French cuisine; making extraordinarily wonderful food completely do-able for just a normal person. (like me! or you, for that matter!)

Opening to the first page, this is what I saw::

...and I couldn't agree more.

I haven't even made a single recipe from this book, and already I'm pretty excited. (now if I could only get over this nasty sinus thing so I'll have the energy to hurry up and cook!!!!!)

incanto san francisco

For our anniversary, Dan surprised me with a trip to San Francisco!!

The night we got in, we had a little bit of time to get settled in before walking to our secret dinner reservations...


at Incanto!!!


There's a three-month wait to get reservations at this beautiful Noe Valley restaurant... if you were to have to wait that long (and not be surprised by your partner), then the wait is definitely worth it!
This particular restaurant is owned by Mark Pastore with the menu headed by chef Chris Cosentino, known in the food world for his passion for offal. If you're an adventurous eater, and are visiting or living in San Francisco, this restaurant is a must.

When Dan and I went, we were so. freaking. excited. A little nervous, but mostly excited. We got to Incanto a little bit early, but our hostess was super friendly and seated us right away... we had the friendliest and most helpful waiter (who was rockin an awesome stache), and we went ahead and ordered the most adventurous things we could get in our tummies... along with a bottle of amazing wine.
First out was a beautiful bread plate with an olive tapenade::

 My favorite was the crusty, rustic loaf slices. The inside was silky and tender, with a crust that crunched like snapping twigs. Okay, okay, I had two favorites. The little breadsticks were addicting; crispy, crunchy little sticks of heaven. I don't know what in the world was in them, but if these were drugs, I would gladly be addicted.

Then came the appetizers... the Boccalone Salumi platter, and the Lardo with Pears and Walnuts.

 

The salumi was... amazing. We got the smallest amount served at Incanto (charmingly called the Piglet), and it was just enough cured meat goodness for two:: proscuitto, bologne, head cheese, and a simple pâté. When paired with a wine from the region in Italy from where bologne originated, it was taken to a new height. Did you ever think you could pair savory, meaty, slightly salty bologne with sweet, slightly fruity and slightly acidic and slightly carbonated red wine? ...well, you can. And it's heaven.

 

The lardo came out with the salumi plate, however we were advised to wait and allow the lardo itself to come to room temperature. In case you don't know what lardo is, think of butter... made out of meat. It's the fatty part of a pig's back (cured with herbs and spices, naturally), and it's glorious. Well worth the little uptick in artery-clogging cholesterol that made it into my blood stream... But then it was paired with seasonal, fresh, crisp pears. The creamy, almost bacon-y fat balanced by a juicy, crunchy and fresh pear that was perfectly not too warm and not too cold, and let's not forget the paper-thin walnuts slices that added an element of earthiness and a subtle meaty tenderness, and the little garnishes of fresh herbs to add a certain clean balance of flavor at the end of every bite. (Are you wanting to just have this in front of you to devour it? I am. Right now.)

By the time we had finished devouring our amazing starters, we had a bit of time to sit, sip at the large bottles of sparkling and still water served to our table (in between copious amounts of an amazing Italian red wine, of course), and nibble on more of that wonderful, fresh bread.

Before we knew it, the main courses had arrived. Dan had ordered an amazing pig jowl that was served with an amazing risotto, while I delved into the world of Bird Bits.

 At first, it had sounded like a great idea. Chicken combs, fry, and an egg over easy on a bruschetta, with fresh herbs and spices. The dish itself was beautiful. I had never tried combs before, but I can say that the texture is a little gelatinous, but also very tender and meaty at the same time. I would definitely eat Chicken combs again, no questions asked. However, the fry got me. Up until recently, there was only one kind of fry in my world: one made from a potato, with salt and maybe ranch or mayonnaise, depending on how I feel. That kind of fry, I adore. The crispy, greasy goodness is good for my soul. On this night, I learned of a second kind of fry, and I do not like it one bit. In layman's terms, fries are testicles. They are supposed to be slightly salty and slightly creamy, but the texture is what threw me over the edge (and it maybe didn't help that I felt absolutely stuffed from all the salumi, bread, lardo, pears, and wine we had been devouring); it started with being slightly creamy, but quickly turned into being a weird, slimy, almost mucus-y sensation that creeped through my mouth. I couldn't handle it, and instead picked at the delicious and wonderfully seasoned bruschetta and the combs I had yet to devour. I was very very sad to leave behind such an adventurous dish (which I could tell was created and prepared with care), but my little belly felt as though it would explode, and I was thoroughly finished with the horrid fry. (Dan tried a little bite of the fry with me, and decided that he really liked it, and in fact preferred it to his very rich jowl)

Washing down the weird flavors and textures with the last bit of a very expensive (but well worth it) bottle of wine, our waiter presented us with little glasses of a wonderful dessert wine, a 2009 Malvasia Rosetta, the restaurant's gift to us as we celebrated our fourth anniversary. It was fruity and sweet, a perfect end to a perfect meal.

Thank you, Incanto. We will definitely be seeing you again.

I spent most of the day cleaning, organizing, and wrapping gifts.

Dan and I are getting ready for our anniversary stay-cation.

tonight, Dan had Jimmy John's with a friend, I had garlic-y spaghetti with petite penne. yum!

new.

My name is ashley. I am an art student, about to graduate college, and I have always had a weird passion/talent with food. For awhile there, I did paintings of meat (after the obligatory fruit and glass still lifes one must do in any introductory painting class).

One of my favorite places to be is the Whole Foods produce department, seconded only to Farmer's Markets, though they are difficult to come by in the desert oasis called Phoenix.

I am by no means a food expert, but I do love food. I love ingredients, I love cooking, I love to eat.

that is all for now

a.