Deluxe

I like leisure. This is probably not the best attribute for a medical student to have. But my day was so extravagant! I woke up at ten, ate a cupcake for breakfast, meandered to Bobst for a few books*, wandered downtown for awhile, and came home to execute a multi-component dish: charred octopus and squid over fresh orecchiette with a corn sauce. None of the pictures of the final dish recorded on my SD card, somehow, so you'll have to take my word that the charred seafood and lemon against the pasta with a sprinkling of green parsley is just gorgeous. I really wanted some big, thick octopus tentacles, but the gentleman at Fairway's fish section said that he could only sell me multiple baby octopi or one enormous 5-pound octopus. Maybe if I try the farmer's market fish stand or Essex Street Market I'll have better luck.

And then, the orecchiette. According to The Geometry of Pasta, these "little ears" are 0.68 in x 2.5 (at the thickest point) mm** in size and are best served with "scarce, oily sauces" containing "chunky bits." Their importance to me lies chiefly in the fact that I can handmake them without the aid of the pasta maker I cannot yet afford***. Here's what it looks like when done by an expert. Mine were less than perfect, but I improved from my initial attempts!

The pasta

The sauce

I'm really upset about that technological mishap! It took me ages to perfectly position those tentacles...

Recipe that I haven't thought up a good name for yet
Try fresh basil on this and let me know how it goes! I wish I'd thought to buy some before I started cooking.

10 oz orecchiette (Fresh is best. Recipe to follow.)
1 lb cephalopods of some variety
2 ears corn
32 oz broth: this needs to be good, and not too salty. If wine hasn't been used to make it, add a little white wine while braising the seafood. I used a homemade roasted vegetable and mushroom broth.
2 cloves roasted garlic,smashed
Optional: 1.5 tbsp butter
1 bay leaf
salt
pepper
toasted pine nuts
crushed red pepper
chopped parsley
5-6 olives, sliced
5-6 slices of lemon

Reserve a small amount of the broth. Bring the remainder--with added wine if necessary--to a boil. Add the cephalopods and reduce to a simmer. Cook, turning down the heat as necessary to prevent a frank boil, until the seafood is tender; the duration will depend on how thick the legs are, but 30 minutes to an hour should be sufficient. Drain immediately and set aside.

Meanwhile, make the sauce. Remove the kernels from one cob, scraping the cob afterwards to get the remaining kernels and liquid out. Add the reserved broth and puree with a stand mixer (or something). Strain and squeeze the solids to extrude as much liquid as possible. Heat the cherry tomatoes, smashed garlic, and bay leaf in the liquid, adding more broth or water as necessary to keep it from over-reducing, until the cherry tomatoes are soft and wrinkled; taste halfway through and remove the bay leaf when enough bay flavor has been imparted. The sauce should be starchy and creamy, but not too thick, by the time the tomatoes are done. Add the kernels from the second cob just at the end. Remove from heat, salt and pepper to taste (keeping in mind that you'll be adding olives later) and set aside.

These next steps should be coordinated such that all components are completed at vaguely the same time. Get a pot of salted water ready to cook the pasta. Heat a heavy skillet (e.g. cast iron) coated with a thin layer of olive oil. I put mine in the oven at 500 degrees first, then put it over high heat. Add the drained cephalopods and char on all sides; it will take 3 to 5 minutes to get a nice, brown crust. Similarly, char the lemon slices on each side. While this is going on, cook and drain the pasta; toss it with a tiny bit of olive oil.

Warm the sauce and as an optional step, monter au beurre. Slowly add the butter to the sauce, stirring just until it's melted. This will thicken the sauce and make it taste extra luxurious, because butter.

Put some pasta in a bowl and top with sauce, toasted pine nuts, and sliced olives. Add pieces of seafood and sprinkle parsley and crushed red pepper over it. Garnish with charred lemon, which should be squeezed over the whole dish. It really needs that zingy touch, so if you don't want to char the lemon, still be sure to squeeze fresh lemon over it.

Orecchiette
7 oz semolina flour
2.8 oz room-temperature water

Make a well in the center of the semolina and pour in the water. Mix with your hands until it comes together and knead until the dough is soft, smooth, and springy, but not sticky. This should take around 10 minutes. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes to an hour. When you're ready to shape the pasta, tear off about a quarter of the dough and keep the rest wrapped up. Roll the dough into a 1/2-inch-diameter snake and cut 1/2-inch-long chunks. Smear on the table with a knife (or your thumb) and invert over your other thumb to make the "little ears." Watch a video to see how it's done. Repeat until the dough is gone. Cook in salted water at a vigorous boil for 3-4 minutes.

*Wolf Among Wolves, A Better Angel, Illusion of Return, and Both Flesh and Not. Riven Rock was very good, although not Boyle's best. I'm excited for something different.
**I know, the mixed units annoyed me, too.
***The KitchenAid attachments are surprisingly expensive! To be fair, a cheap, one-diameter pasta maker runs around $30.

Oops

So yeah, the blog renaissance ended quickly. But I've had so much going on! For instance, glomus tumors had been on my mind for a whole week, and I despaired at never getting the chance to answer a USMLE question on such a minute detail. And then one fine, frigid day, one popped up in a question block! These are the stories of the USMLE Enterprise, ladies and gentlemen. Thrilling adventure! Mind-blowing exploits!

Really, though, it was mostly studying, punctuated by an exciting visit to the ER when Andy's thumb had a run-in with our mandoline and a good amount of junk food*, and not much cooking. Or vegetables. There were a few bright points, though. For instance, I made Japancini, or Japanese arancini, using forbidden rice and adzuki bean puree. The structural integrity of the egg-yolk ones was somewhat lacking, but I discovered that fried egg yolk is delicious! There aren't any pictures because they went straight out of the skillet into Andy's gullet, but here's some cool forbidden rice.

And then the biscuit sandwiches. Oh, buttermilk biscuits. With a few tricks, you are so fluffy and delightful, and then I can put veggie sausages and molded fried eggs on top of you for a deceptively commercial-looking sandwich!





I cannot tell you how delicious these were. Again, though, structural integrity was somewhat lacking. Next time I'm scrambling the eggs to avoid the yolk-soaked bread issue.



Finally, we come to things I actually made today, complete with a recipe for rosemary balsamic glazed almonds. But first, belated Valentine's cupcakes!





The toppers are red velvet cookies with white chocolate hearts.



And then a salad with romano, lemon juice, balsamic-glazed walnuts, and a perfectly poached egg thanks to PoachPods**.





*My mother-in-law sent us a care package containing, among other things, these Brookside dark chocolate pomegranate bites. Because they were from Costco, the bag was enormous. Andy and I polished it off in about two days. It's not candy if there's fruit juice in it, right?
**Andy's mom also sent us these. They're great. I'm extremely skeptical of this sort of $9.99-and-up type of cookware, but man, this is my new favorite space-efficient gadget.

Innovation

In the interests of showing Andy what he missed, I've been remaking a number of recipes I already posted here; thus the prolonged period between posts. Before the food, a little fun:

I did embarrassingly poorly on this.

This is amazing. I was on my obstetrics night float week at the peak of "Call Me Maybe"'s popularity. Perhaps New York City's Top 40 station figured nobody in her right mind would be awake and listening to the radio for more than 30 consecutive minutes at 3 a.m.*, because that song was on at least twice per hour. I got a little excited about some of the parodies. Baseball players be damned, this is the best by far.

And last but not least, Andy has come up with his wackiest and most entertaining get-rich-quick scheme** to date: Chopped: Philosophy Edition. Four unknown, poverty-stricken, aspiring young philosophers--likely from the New York metropolitan area--would go head-to-head to compete for $10,000. They would be provided with four "ingredients" that must be included in a philosophical argument, to be constructed within 20 minutes; the first item would be the principle or idea that the other three had to be used to refute or support. A library would be provided for references, but of course, the more the philosopher knows, the more time s/he has to construct an argument rather than look up ideas. Of course, philosophers could be criticized for insufficient use of the "ingredients" as much as they could for weak argument or oration skills. Andy's first combination was the Sartrian concept of judgment, Boethius's ladder of being, and pragnanz. A basket of pastry goes to the winner. Ready? Go!

Nearly a year ago--March 28, 2012, to be exact--my mother forwarded a recipe from a friend of hers. This friend, Myfriendnancyfrompittsburgh*** had obtained, from a book by a popular physician and diet guru, a recipe for cashew and date salad dressing. I am highly skeptical of most pop medicine, especially if it involves diets that purport to make diabetes vanish in 30 days (really, people? 30 days?), but it sounded delicious. So I fiddled with it a little bit, and this is what I ended up with:

Puree 2/3 cup raw cashews, 6 dried dates, 1 cup water, 3 small or 2 good-sized cloves garlic, the juice of 2 limes, 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard, and salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste. Soaking the nuts and dates in the water makes the dressing even smoother. That's it.

The recipe for the entire salad follows. It's actually quite pretty, but we were too busy making the guinea pigs jealous with our piles of arugula to take a picture. Instead, here's an adorable owl!

Salad
1 recipe dressing as above
2 red bell peppers
1 large cucumber
1 pound tofu
paprika and cumin
lots of arugula

Cut the tofu into 1-by-1-by-1 cm cubes. Toss with lots of paprika, a little bit of cumin, and the tiniest bit of salt. Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 325, tossing occasionally, until golden brown. Turn the oven up to broil. Halve the red peppers and lightly spray them with olive oil. Put them through red pepper hell in the broiler until they're devilishly blistered. Meanwhile, slice the cucumber. Toss the arugula with dressing to taste and top in pretty ways with the vegetables and tofu.

*They're sort of right. Night float was amazing, though.
**A number of you may be familiar with these. Another recent one: peddling left-handed jars to rich left-handed people.
***This is how Mom always mentions her. Every time.

Peroration

A friend and I recently had a study break conversation about doctors whose personal lives are featured on the Internet. This was in the context of a discussion about physicians who serve niche populations and whose patients would, if anything, trust them more upon discovering their shared interests; we agreed that in that context, an unusually public private life is not a problem. I could bloviate about this for too long... but it doesn't take particular profundity of thought to realize that in the vast majority of cases, if a patient searches your name, it is to your benefit to have only professional links available*. And that, ladies and germs, is why I'm posting a picture of someone else's calves on my beautiful brand-new foam roller.



These are used for post-workout myofascial release. The jury is still out** as to the benefits of foam rolling, but I am ignoring the wishy-washy evidence because it feels so very good (once you get over the fact that you're rolling around on the floor moaning in happiness).

Since I'm very, very tired and want to get through another question block before bed, here's the abbreviated food happenings of late:

Homemade pad thai with green beans and chewy tofu. Talk about restaurant food at home.

Lime and coconut pound cake, made with cornmeal for a little added texture.

Guinea pigs enjoying parsley al fresco.



Also, I just discovered that Picasa's online photo autofix tool is pretty decent and makes cakes look edible even after a photoshoot in bad lighting. Maybe if I'd used it before I would never have nauseated my loyal readership***.

 *Sure enough, a quick Google search of some NYU physicians revealed a number of Facebook profiles and other personal pages. Nothing offensive, of course! In fact, there were several very impressive triathlon finishes among the results.
**This is not the only article available, obviously. A number of studies have provided conflicting results on whether foam rolling increases the range of motion of various joints, recovery of various muscles, and so on.
***of ten.

Derivative

This past weekend, we went to a great NY Philharmonic concert that included Bruckner's sixth symphony*. Not to be all "get off my lawn," but what is with people leaving a concert in the middle of a piece? Yes, it's a long piece. Yes, it's not the most accessible symphony in the world. No, it's not acceptable to gather your things and shuffle out when you get bored. Kids these days**.

Studying all day and, at the end of the day, feeling like you haven't studied hard enough. It sucks, if you'll pardon my French. It's also creativity-sapping. If anyone wants to pop by my apartment with a roll of white butcher paper and some finger paints***, you'd make Graham Wallas dance in his grave, but in the meantime, I'll be following New York Times recipes verbatim.

Well, almost verbatim. I added lemon juice and premade veggie sausages. And it was delicious.

 

Our forks were dirty. I eat more slowly with chopsticks, anyway.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to coloring between the lines.

*This piece happens to be one of my iPod standards, but it will never again be on a jogging playlist after an unfortunate realization that it's stumble-inducing.
**And by kids, I actually mean the 50-and-over set.
***Or one of these!

More than is chewable

Clearly, the concept of "restart this blog and post with some consistency" is too much to grasp. In my defense, I've been very busy. Studying? What studying? I've been cooking!

First there was this, which, with a little tweaking, turned out restaurant-quality soup. I'm not bragging; it's a really good recipe.

You can see the delicious noodles and veggies without the
tofu slices on top. I love cellophane noodles.

Then I made this, which didn't need any tweaking at all. Okay, that's a lie; I made the dressing spicier and limier, and I crusted the tofu with sesame seeds. But other than that, no tweaking.

And last night, these!

They're quinoa cakes, inspired by something I ate in a Pittsburgh restaurant called E2. The risotto wasn't all that fantastic, but the "spicy gorgonzola mess" was something else. They actually give the recipe away as a raffle prize and so, perhaps understandably, weren't about to hand it over to me. I knew it had gorgonzola and basil in it, and I knew it was spicy, so I went from there. Gorgonzola dolce gave the closest texture, when blended with some olive oil, and sriracha, basil, and a little black pepper gave the closest flavor profile. There might be some parsley in there, too. Whatever it is, now it's in a convenient dinner form. To make it more substantial, you could try adding some breadcrumbs (maybe half a cup?) or panko.

I made a few other things, too, but they were boring. Speaking of boring, a friend showed me this excellent article titled "American's National Dish: the Style of Restaurant Menus," by Zwicky AM and Zwicky AD. It reminds me that writing about food is also boring, which is why I don't reread my posts. They make me cringe. But seriously, there is a limited vocabulary of food descriptors. Maybe from now on I'll write more about books and medical school* than about what I'm actually cooking.

Gorgonzola quinoa cakes
Makes about 15 in a regular cupcake pan

4 cups cooked quinoa of your color preference (I used red)
6 to 8 oz gorgonzola dolce (without the rind)
3 eggs (not jumbo or extra large; if you use those, cut it down to 2 eggs)
sriracha to taste
chopped fresh basil to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. If the quinoa is hot, mix the gorgonzola in until the cheese is thoroughly melted. If you pre-cooked the quinoa, melt the gorgonzola over low heat in a pot. Remove from heat and stir in quinoa until it's thoroughly blended. When the mix has cooled somewhat, add the eggs and mix until homogenous. Season to taste with sriracha, basil, salt, and pepper. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in muffin cups sprayed with oilive oil or nonstick spray, or lined with cupcake wrappers. They'll be done when the top is browned and just set. Allow to cool for a few minutes so that they can be handled and hold their shape.

*Although since right now medical school = 10 hours a day of studying for the boards, that's pretty damn boring, too. Unless, that is, you're excited by dirty mnemonics.

Studying induces Cheyne-Stokes breathing

Please see as evidence this transcript of a Gchat conversation, reproduced below:

(2:00:25 PM) Hannah: I think I want a pyruvate tattoo.
(2:01:21 PM) Andy: i think you are at that studying stage right before you hyperventilate for five or ten seconds

You heard it here first, kids.

This recipe posted on Tastespotting piqued my interest. It looks absolutely delicious, probably because it includes a cup and a half of cheese, a quarter-cup of olive oil, a cup of pecans, heavy cream, bacon, and jarred red peppers (likely packed in oil). Fats are as delicious as they are artery-clogging. For a regular weeknight meal, though, I prefer a higher delicious-to-artery-clogging ratio.

Roasted peppers. They were bright red in real life.

The sauce is a nice orangey-pink color!

Cashews have fewer calories per ounce than pecans, not to mention almost half as much fat. They tend to blend well, too. Home-broiling the red peppers doesn't take long (and can be done in advance) and cuts down on the oil as well. Finally, there's no need for the heavy cream, mozzarella, and large amount of olive oil as per the original recipe; thinning the sauce with pasta water works fine. I also didn't happen to have any fresh basil on hand, which is why I've included it in parentheses in the recipe below. I'm positive this would have been even better with it.

Penne with red pepper cashew sauce
3 large or 4 medium red peppers
1 cup raw cashews
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup packed grated Parmesan
2 cloves garlic
salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes
(1/2 cup fresh basil)
1 pound penne

Turn up your broiler to high. Halve and seed the red peppers and lightly spray or brush with olive oil. Broil until they're blistered.

Boil a pot of water and begin cooking the pasta. Meanwhile, in a food processor or blender or with a stand mixer, puree the non-pasta ingredients. When the pasta is done, drain it, reserving 1/3 to 1/2 cup pasta water. Thin the sauce to your desired consistency and mix with the pasta. Taste and adjust spices accordingly. Serve topped with additional grated Parmesan and chopped scallions or parsley.