Hoisin Sauce

In my twenties, after about three years being an ovo-lacto-vegetarian (no meat but I ate dairy and eggs), I started craving chicken. After some soul searching, I decided to heed the cravings. I told a good friend who was also a sensational cook about my dilemma and my decision. She understood the gravity of the situation and wanted to help me rejoin the ranks of omnivores with ceremony. She offered hoisin chicken as the solution.

I bought the chicken and she made the dinner. I ate one small succulent leg. The outer bite was crispy, slightly sticky, the juices savory and sweet. That chicken was mouthwatering and every bite was gratifying. Almost thirty years have passed since that dinner and my memory of it is palpable.


Wondering what hoisin is? It's a thick brown sweet pungent sauce also called Chinese barbecue.

Recently, after rejecting almost every bottle of marinade in my local grocery store because most of them contained high fructose corn syrup, I started to wonder about the bottle of organic hoisin sauce in my refrigerator. It's definitely sweet. What were the ingredients? Organic everything...including cane sugar which was listed fourth on the label.

I make other marinades so I decided to check online for hoisin sauce recipes. The range was interesting. some were made with peanut butter, others black bean paste, still others with fermented soy bean paste. Recently I found a hoisin sauce recipe in a beautiful new cookbook, Food to Live By, by Myra Goodman. I used her recipe as a spring-board for my own.

Her main ingredient is azuki beans, beautiful tiny terra cotta colored beans. I was excited. I had never prepared azuki beans before. I found them at Whole Foods. I adjusted the ingredients and changed the cooking techniques to suit my kitchen. The results are sensational, better tasting than any store bought version.

I have a large jar in my refrigerator and two small containers in my freezer. I use generous amounts as marinade for skinless chicken. The recipe makes about 2 cups but I go through it fast.

Home-made Hoisin Sauce

Ingredients:
1 cup dried azuki beans
3 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp minced garlic
3/4 c light brown sugar (add more if you like a sweeter sauce)
1/2 c cider vinegar
1/2 c unseasoned rice vinegar
2/3 c tamari sauce (premium soy sauce)
1/4 tsp Asian chili sauce

1. Soak azuki beans overnight in water. Drain soaking water and place beans in a pot and submerge in fresh water. Simmer until very soft for about 45 minutes to an hour.
2. Drain cooking liquid in a colander and allow the beans to cool.
3. Rinse out the pot and place sesame oil in it. Lightly cook minced garlic and set aside.
4. Place beans, brown sugar, vinegars, and tamari in a blender. Blend at slow speed until everything is smooth.
5. Pour blender ingredients into the pot with the cooked garlic and warm to a simmer. Stir frequently. Allow sauce to cook down to a nice thick consistency. Add chili sauce to taste and allow sauce to cool before refrigerating or freezing.

Use refrigerated sauce in a week. Frozen sauce is good for a few months.

To make hoisen chicken, arrange skinless washed chicken pieces in a pan. Pour generous amounts of hoisen sauce until chicken is coated on all sides. Bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Turn chicken over in the sauce halfway through the cooking cycle.

Chicken can also be grilled after marinading in sauce. Watch carefully for burning and brush frequently with sauce to keep moist.

Simplest Dessert

I have a sweet tooth. I frequently read dessert recipe ingredient lists for the perfect dessert...something with a few vitamins and minerals, that's low fat, with good carbohydrates and a little fiber. The ingredient list for this dessert is short, and frankly, it blows me away.

When I was in Boulder a couple of months ago, I had lunch at a funky little restaurant attached to a food coop. I got the best felafel sandwich...actually, it was a "to die for" felafel sandwich. When I ordered I got to choose something to go with it. I picked an apple. I felt proud, virtuous ....."yeah, I'm eating healthy today."

Eating the sandwich, I had to stop myself from moaning out loud . Felafel sandwiches, especially perfect ones, are rare treats for me. Then I started in on the apple. I don't remember what kind of apple it was, but it was cored and the skin was still on and it was cut into razor thin slices. It was wet, crisp, sweet and... simply apple: it was extraordinary.

After lunch, I went to the coop and bought a Fuji apple and an Asian pear and took them home "to fix" with the dinner I had planned. I cored and sliced them thin, peeled and sliced kiwi fruit and made a pretty arrangement on a plate. I scattered pomegranate seeds across the top. My dinner companions loved dessert.

Now, I eat most apples that way. All it takes is a good piece of fruit, an extra sharp knife, a pretty plate and a little time and energy. Sometimes I add chopped peanuts or minced toasted almonds, sometimes I add a dusting of cinnamon. It's the perfect dessert, so simple, and so good because it tastes extraordinary.

Do you hate Brussels sprouts?

According to Wikipedia, Brussels sprouts won the distinction of being the "most hated vegetable" in a 2002 survey in Britain. Surprised? But they are so good for you!

These dainty cabbages are loaded with vitamin A, vitamin C, folic acid, fiber, and lip smacking phytochemicals. They are cruciferous vegetables, the vegetables nutritionists are always recommending.

I like broccoli, cauliflower, even cabbage... other cruciferous vegetables, but Brussels sprouts? Yikes. They taste bitter, downright caustic when I steam or boil them. I want to like them but I can't get them down. It's something about the sulfur that gets released when they are cooked.

Someone I love cooked them for me a while back. "For me" is the operative phrase here. She found the recipe in a magazine and decided to try it. She knew I was a cruciferous zealot (she is not). The smell of Brussels sprouts wafted through the house....that unmistakable smell...oh joy. Then there was the unveiling. I was surprised when she opened the oven door. They were deep walnut brown. Oh great, I thought, not only are they Brussels sprouts, they are burned!

I tried one. The outside leaves were crisp and the inside was smooth, chewy, almost nutty in flavor....no bitterness! I couldn't believe it...they were delicious! She thought so too. We finished the whole serving in one sitting. I couldn't believe I was loving Brussels sprouts.

A few weeks later I asked for the recipe. She admitted she lost it. She wasn't sure what she added to the Brussels sprouts.."you know, the normal things." I didn't know. Brussels sprouts were never normal for me.

So I set out to replicate the memory of that treat. Here are the results of my research. Key to the good taste is to incinerate the little darlings. Something magic happens in that extra hot oven.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Heat oven to 450 degrees.

Wash a pound of fresh Brussels sprouts in a colander and trim the stem end with a sharp knife. Peel any dried or unclean leaves from the outside.

Cut them in half if they are small or quarters if they are large.

Transfer cut Brussels sprouts to a plastic bag and add a tablespoon of good olive oil and up to a half teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper (less if you like light pepper). Close the bag and shake the contents until the oil and pepper are well dispersed through the vegetables.

Pour onto lipped cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Stir the vegetables and return to the oven for another 15 minutes until Brussels sprouts are dark walnut brown (really, incinerate them). Salt to taste and serve immediately.

Edamame in the shell

I laugh as I type in "recipe" as a label for this entry because the instructions are so simple. Guess this is a typical American recipe.

• Buy a bag of edamame in the shell in the frozen food section of your grocery store, Asian market or health food store.
• Open the bag and pour the amount you want to eat into a dish you can put into the microwave.
• Read the bag and follow the microwave instructions.
• Enjoy!

How did I get this far in life and NOT know the joys of edamame in the shell. I sit cross legged on the sofa with two bowls..one full of hot edamame and another empty one for the shells. I pop open the end of the shell with my fingers, then I bite and suck out the contents of the shell... two or three nice warm nutty flavored smooth green beans. The work involved eating edamame makes it the perfect snack for me. I have never enjoyed shelled edamame in the same way. I would just as soon leave it as eat it. Funny how that works.

Never heard of edamame? It is pronounced "ed-dah-mah-meh" and it means soybean in Japanese. "Oh yes," you say. Everyone has heard of soybeans. Edamame in the shell are an entirely different experience however. Nature's perfect snack food in my mind....they taste great and they are good for you.

If you haven't had them, definitely give them a try.

White bean and escarole soup

White bean and escarole soup is a favorite in my household. It is so easy to make and delicious on a really cold day.

Ingredients:

Big bunch of escarole or chicory endive
Large sweet yellow onion
Olive oil
Large can of small white beans
Parmesan cheese
Fresh ground pepper

Directions:
Wash the escarole or chicory endive. Cut it into 2 to 3 inch lengths by cutting off bottom of head and making several cross wise slices through the head. Set aside.

Dice a large sweet yellow onion and saute in a tablespoon of olive oil in a hot skillet until the onion is caramelized (slightly browned).

Pour in complete contents of canned white beans (including juices). Add a little water to make mix a little more soupy if desired. Mix well.

Add escarole or endive and cover skillet. Allow to cook a few minutes until the greens are wilted. Stir until greens are incorporated into the soup.

Add fresh ground pepper to taste. Add a little grated parmesan cheese after serving if desired.

Sleek?

I'm not talking smooth and glossy or elegant and stylish, I am talking delicious!

I spent my twenties in Pittsburgh where there were quite a few Lebanese restaurants. For a good price, I could enjoy feasts of baba ghannouj, hummus, tabouli, freshly baked pita bread, and sleek. I see the first four menu items as regular fare at the grocery store these days, but I don't see sleek. As a matter of fact, when I mention it, most people don't know what it is.

If you like beans or greens you will like sleek. It's easy to make and good for you!

SLEEK
large sweet yellow onion diced
good bunch of kale
1/2 c bulghur (cracked wheat available at Whole Foods)
1 can black-eyed peas
tamari (higher quality soy sauce, try to get low sodium)
plain non-fat yogurt

1. In a small skillet with a tiny amount of olive oil toast the bulgher until it is golden brown. Add a cup of boiling water to the bulgher and set aside.
2. Wash kale and remove stems. Cut or tear into big chunks. Set aside.
3. In a large skillet, saute onion in 2 tsp olive oil until caramelized.
4. Drain black-eyed peas and rinse in colander to get rid of excess sodium.
5. Add bulghur and black-eyed peas to onions and mix. Add kale to mixture and toss gently. Place lid on skillet and allow mixture to simmer until kale is cooked down and shiny. Add a tablespoon of tamari and stir.
6. Serve with a large dollop of plain non-fat yogurt and a sprinkle of tamari sauce on top of the yogurt. Enjoy!

Chocolate Heaven

I die for chocolate...the good dark stuff. I go through periods when I can eat it in "the good form"...real blocks of dark chocolate candy that I dissolve slowly in my mouth savoring every molecule of joy this magnificent stuff brings. I buy the best, Scharffen Berger or Lake Champlain and carefully break off half an ounce every few days.

Chocolate contains a storehouse of antioxodants so tiny quantities of dark (70%) are actually good for you. Tiny is the operative word here. Half an ounce of slow melting ecstasy delivers about 80 calories.

Sometimes cravings kick in though and I have trouble enjoying just one half ounce. The chocolate siren calls and I visit the block several times in a given day. "Chocolate Heaven" is my response to chocolate cravings during periods when I lack control. I get my chocolate full force but without the sugar and fat.

In a blender put 1 tablespoon of unsweetened high quality cocoa (like Ghiradelli or Lake Champlain) for each cup of cold skim milk. Add a sweetener of choice: sugar, stevia, honey, xylitol, or Splenda. I just add a tiny amount for sweetness. Also, you can add ripe frozen banana slices (for sweetness and bulk). Blend until smooth and frothy. Serve immediately.

It really does the trick. I find it satisfies my love of chocolate at 15 calories and 1.5 grams of fat a tablespoon and gives me milk.