Today, Friday, June 5, 2009, is National Doughnut Day. Not sure why, exactly, but it is a good excuse to make an important decision: plain, sugared, or chocolate-covered. Get’em and eat’em fresh. (But just one. That’s enough. Stop.)

I had the pleasure this evening of photographing the most beautiful organic garden I have ever seen. Laura Simon lives in Wauwinet with her husband, Renaissance man Jim Gross, in an idyllic setting of fresh vegetables, beautiful flowers, tupelo blossoms and their attendant honeybees, squawking chickens, and inquisitive dogs. It’s early in the season and many seedlings are just setting their roots. But one bed is in full production. As Laura puts it, “the asparagus are at their peak rudeness.”

I doubt I will ever have the patience to grow my own asparagus. Instead of planting a seed and eating the harvest a few months later, you have to give an asparagus bed 3, or even 4 years, to establish a network of roots and store huge quantities of nutrients and energy in order to produce its delicate, nutritious spears. Even when mature, the bed produces a low weight yield per square yard, and for only 6 to 8 weeks a year. If I read Mrs. Simon’s book correctly, the asparagus bed I was photographing tonight is over 20 years old.

Unless you boil the flavor out of them (and it doesn’t take long to do this), it’s hard to go wrong preparing asparagus for the dinner table. You can steam them for 5-6 minutes and serve them with your favorite vinaigrette and some chopped, fresh chervil. Or you can dry-grill them in a grill pan until they’re nicely marked and then treat them with lemon juice, olice oil, and parmesan cheese. One of my favorite ways of serving them is to preheat the oven to 425 deg., wrap the stalks in pancetta with the tips poking out, drizzle with a little olive oil and roast for about 10 minutes (until the pancetta is crispy). Soft-boil some eggs in lightly salted water for about 5 minutes, cut off the tops, put the eggs back in the egg carton and serve with 2-3 spears per egg (for dipping) and salt and pepper.

Here are more recipes from the NY Times.

Here’s a link to Laura’s book, written in 1998, and still frequently showing up in Best Garden Reads lists online: Dear Mr Jefferson:  Letters From a Nantucket Gardener. I look forward to spending more time in her garden, as the season progresses.

We recently watched an old favorite movie and I want to offer it as a suggestion the next time you’re standing in front of the redbox and are not sure what to rent. Released in 1996, Big Night was directed by Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci, and starred Tucci and former Wings star Tony Shalhoub.

The film, presumably set in a small town on the New Jersey Shore in the 1950s, tells the story of two immigrant brothers from Italy who own and operate a restaurant called “Paradise.” One brother, Primo (Shalhoub), is a brilliant, perfectionist chef who chafes under their few customers’ expectations of “Americanized” Italian food. Their uncle’s offer to return to Rome to help with his restaurant is becoming more and more appealing to Primo. The other brother, Secondo (Tucci), is the restaurant’s manager, who is enamored with the possibilities presented by their new endeavor and life in America. Despite Secondo’s efforts and Primo’s magnificent food, their restaurant is failing. (VIA)

Here’s a classic scene from the movie.

Once you’ve seen the movie and you decide you want to make the Timpano Alla Big Night recipe, you can do so with the help of the similarly entertaining cookbook from Tucci’s mother, whose skills and stories no doubt influenced the movie. The book is called Cucina & Famiglia and it is available here.

It’s Sunday. And a holiday weekend. Time to bake. This cake started as a recipe in Gourmet magazine, June, 2009, as a raspberry cake. I found it on the excellent food blog Smitten Kitchen. (One quick word of warning, it you forget the name of this blog, and you Google it, and you absent-mindedly enter “smitten kitten” in the search field while your wife is half-watching, you will have some explaining to do if she looks over and sees the search results. I’m just saying.)

I decided to modify this recipe and use the fresh, fresh, fresh cherries that are in the local supermarkets. My experience with this cake (haven’t made it but once) makes me believe that you could substitute any round berry-like fruit.

Cherry-Berry Buttermilk Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1-1/3 cups plus 3 tablespoons sugar, divided
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (optional)
2 large eggs
1 cup well-shaken buttermilk
2 cup fresh cherries

Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour two 8-inch round cake pan.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 1-1/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about two minutes, then beat in vanilla and zest, if using. Add eggs and beat it up.

At low speed, mix in flour mixture in three batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined. Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Place cherries evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining 1-1/2 tablespoons sugar.

Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10 to 15 minutes more. Invert onto a plate.

One of my favorite food blogs is Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbooks. She recently posted a recipe for a vegetarian chili that she was very enthusiastic about, that she called Pierce Street Vegetarian Chili. Here’s my take on it.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 shallots, chopped
8 small/med garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon ginger, peeled and grated
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 serrano pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 chipotle pepper (from can or rehydrate), minced
1 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes
10 cups vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (canned is fine)
2 1/4 cups black, brown, and/or green lentils, rinsed and picked over
2/3 cup pearled barley or pearled farro
2/3 cup bulgur wheat
1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt (or to taste)

Instructions:

In a large stockpot pot over medium heat add the olive oil, onion, and shallots. When the onions soften up and get a bit translucent, add the garlic, ginger, chili powder and cumin. Stir well and cook for a minute of so, until everything gets quite fragrant. Stir in the serrano pepper and chipotle pepper, tomatoes, and 8 cups of the broth. Now add the chickpeas, lentils, barley/farro, and bulgur – stirring between each addition. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer. Take a taste of the broth a few minutes into the simmer – you can make adjustments for salt here – if you’re using water in place of broth, you can add a teaspoon of salt for starters and add more later if needed. Simmer away for about 35- 45 minutes or until the lentils and grains are cooked through. You will likely need to add the rest of the water, a cup at a time, if the chili thickens up too much. Before serving do your final adjustments – add more chipotle, salt, or whatever you think it needs and enjoy!

This makes a huge pot of chili. Would serve 12 (at least).

Notes:

We topped it with some crumbled queso fresco and a drizzle of olive oil, but you could top it any number of ways. Some fresh cilantro, feta cheese or goat cheese. Chopped onions. Maybe a little dollop of greek yogurt.

This is good. And, for chili, quick and easy. It has just the right amount of heat. I imagine this will be even better tomorrow. When I make this again, it will fun to vary it a little. Might be nice to add some finely grated carrots. Maybe substitute black beans for the chickpeas. I liked the idea of the ginger, thinking it would be a nice twist on the flavor of chili, but the truth is, I didn’t really taste it. Next time, I will either increase the amount a bit, or just leave it out. I imagine there are several ways to use this as a leftover. I look forward to putting some in a oven-safe bowl, making an indention on the top, cracking an egg in it, and then baking it until the egg is set. Would also be good used as in a burrito.

Nutritional data:

Here’s a link to Hospital Food, a new blog that collects pictures of healthy, healing meals from hospitals from around the world.

Nothing smells quite like bread baking in your own oven. But, other than a short-lived bread machine I received as a Christmas gift back in college, I have never really attempted to bake my own. A couple of years ago I saved a bookmark on Mark Bittman’s NYTimes blog “Bitten” for a recipe for “No-Knead Bread” that promised perfect, yet easy to make bread. Basically, it takes time, but little thought.

Today I baked my first loaf, modifying the recipe a little using some guidance from a Cook’s Illustrated magazine article.

And it will not be the last!

“Almost No-Knead Bread”

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (7 oz) of room temp. water
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (3 oz) of mild-flavored lager
1 tablespoon white vinegar

The secret to this recipe is using a pre-warmed cast-iron Dutch oven to cook the loaf in after leaving it to rise for 12-18 hours. The original recipe called for the flour, yeast, salt and water only. But some complained that, while easy to do, the flavor lacked a little complexity. Cook’s Illustrated modified the recipe by adding the beer–lager, specifically for reasons related to how this beer is fermented, contains flavor compounds similar to those in the dough starter, and boosts the flavor of the bread–and a little vinegar to add some tanginess.

You start by whisking the flour, yeasty and salt in a large bowl. Then you add the water, beer and vinegar and fold the mixture in with a rubber spatula until a shaggy dough ball forms. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature for 8 to 18 hours.

Next you lay a sheet of parchment paper over a 10″ skillet and spray it with cooking spray. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead it 10-15 times, shaping it into a ball. Put it seam side down into the skillet and cover it loosely with plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature again for about two hours. It will have doubled in size and won’t spring back readily when you poke it.

Thirty minutes before you’re ready to cook the loaf, put your oven rack at the lowest level, turn the heat on to 500 degrees and put in the Dutch oven (with lid) to warm up. Once the pot is nice and hot, you lightly flour the top of the bread and cut a 6-inch long, 1/2-inch deep slit in the top of the dough.

Here’s where the parchment paper and skillet does their trick. In order to get the dough down into the dangerously hot Dutch oven, you simply lift it using the parchment paper as a sling and lower the whole thing down into the pot. Replace the lid tightly, put it back into the oven, now lowered to 425 degrees and bake for 30 minutes. At this point, remove the lid and continue to bake until the loaf is deep brown and an instant-read thermometer reads 210 degrees at its center. This will be 20 to 30 minutes longer.

Finally, remove the bread carefully from the pot and transfer it to a wire rack to cool to room temperature, about 2 hours. All the while, standing around staring at it and holding a drool cup under your lips.

Swine flu or not, I love me some pig. However, the following graphic is amazing and speaks volumes as to our impact:

Here’s an interesting website I found today that shows in photos just how much sugar is in popular food items.

Maddux turns four this summer. He’s been our pickiest eater, by far. He would live on a diet of chocolate alone, if we were to let him. And we give in more then we should: chocolate chip pancakes, seemingly healthy chocolate-flavored “nutrition” bars geared towards kids, chocolate soy milk, or an “all natural” chocolate cereal from Trader Joes. Seems like chocolate is a frequently used to get him to compromise and eat something good for him.

What are we doing wrong?

Fussiness seems to be natural part of a child’s development. They distrust anything new. And it is a daily challenge to find something kids will eat. There’s a balance of concerns. On the one hand, obesity is a growing national epidemic, especially among kids. But most parents have an instinctual concern that kids will eat too little and end up with nutritional deficits. Most of us (parents) come from the “Clean Your Plate Before You Get Up From the Table” generation. We feel like it is our job to get the kids to eat, when really it is our job to offer the right foods for mealtime, exposing them to a healthy variety of foods.

According to Harriet Worobey, the director of the Rutgers University Nutritional Sciences Preschool, these are five mistakes that we as parents often make feeding the little ones.

Sending children out of the kitchen. We usually do not involve kids in preparing meals. With hot stoves, sharp knives, and boiling water, the kitchen doesn’t seem like the right place for them. It’s quicker and easier to cook when they’re in the next room and Spongebob is babysitting them. But studies suggest that getting kids involved can make them more interested in trying new foods.

Researchers at Teachers College at Columbia University studied how cooking with a child affects the child’s eating habits. In one study, nearly 600 children from kindergarten to sixth grade took part in a nutrition curriculum intended to get them to eat more vegetables and whole grains. Some children, in addition to having lessons about healthful eating, took part in cooking workshops. The researchers found that children who had cooked their own foods were more likely to eat those foods in the cafeteria, and even ask for seconds, than children who had not had the cooking class.

When children are involved in meal preparation, “they come to at least try the food,” said Isobel Contento, professor of nutrition education at Teachers College and a co-author of the study. “Kids don’t usually like radishes, but we found that if kids cut up radishes and put them in the salad, they love the radishes.”

Pressuring them to take a bite. I am often guilty of this. As an example, last night I made a healthy pizza of whole wheat dough, fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. It was excellent. Maddux likes pizza, but he saw a “piece of salad” (basil) on his slice and refused to eat anything. We have ice cream in the freezer and I, strategically, announced that whomever ate their pizza could have ice cream for dessert. Did it work? Well, it did for the other kids! Not Maddux.

Demanding that a child eat at least one bite, tasting something new, seems reasonable, but it is likely to backfire. Studies show that children react negatively when parents pressure them to eat foods, even if the pressure offers a reward. In one study at Pennsylvania State University, researchers asked children to eat vegetables and drink milk, offering them stickers and television time if they did. Later in the study, the children expressed dislike for the foods they had been rewarded for eating.

“Parents say things like ‘eat your vegetables and you can watch TV,’ but we know that kind of thing doesn’t work either,” said Leann L. Birch, director of Penn State’s childhood obesity research center and a co-author of the study. “In the short run, you might be able to coerce a child to eat, but in the long run, they will be less likely to eat those foods.”

What we should do is put the food on the table and encourage them to try it, but don’t complain if they refuse, and don’t offer praise if they taste it. Just try to frame the event as a normal, daily ritual. Have a “It’s just what we do” kind of attitude and just ask if they want some more and try to stay neutral.

Keep the junk food out of reach. If we buy chips or cookies or a questionable food item like fruit roll-ups, we try to hide them on the top pantry shelf in order to keep the kids from binging on this stuff, or filling up before dinner. This probably leads to two unwanted consequences: the kids longing for these items, and unnecessary head injuries as Maddux climbs from stool, to dog food bin, to lower shelves and falls trying to reach the Oreos.

In another Penn State study, researchers experimented to determine whether forbidden foods were more desirable. Children were seated at tables and given unlimited access to plates of apple or peach cookie bars — two foods the youngsters had rated as “just O.K.” in earlier taste tests. With another group, some bars were served on plates, while some were placed in a clear cookie jar in the middle of the table. The children were told that after 10 minutes, they could snack on cookies from the jar. The researchers found that restricting the cookies had a profound effect: consumption more than tripled compared with when the cookies were served on plates. Other studies show that children whose food is highly restricted at home are far more likely to binge when they have access to forbidden foods.

The lesson is to not buy the foods that we feel like we need to restrict and instead offer healthy snack alternatives and free access to the pantry.

Serving boring food. Trying to eat right myself, I’m likely to prepare some fresh, steamed asparagus, with just a little seasoning only. Tastes great to me, and is obviously very healthy. But when I was a kid? No way. There’s nothing wrong with dressing up fresh vegetables with a little butter, ranch dressing (Jack will eat his shoe laces if we were to serve them with “ranch”) or cheese sauce. The added calories are worth the tradeoff of introducing the new vegetable.

Giving up too soon. Eating preferences change, and often a child’s refusal to eat something at one meal may not be due to taste anyway. It might just be an attitude thing or a power struggle. So we should keep preparing a variety of healthful foods and putting them on the table, even if a child refuses to take a bite. In young children, it may take 10 or more attempts over several months to introduce a food.

Susan B. Roberts, a Tufts University nutritionist and co-author of the book “Feeding Your Child for Lifelong Health,” suggested a “rule of 15” — putting a food on the table at least 15 times to see if a child will accept it. Once a food is accepted, parents should use “food bridges,” finding similarly colored or flavored foods to expand the variety of foods a child will eat. If a child likes pumpkin pie, for instance, try mashed sweet potatoes and then mashed carrots. If a child loves corn, try mixing in a few peas or carrots. Even if a child picks them out, the exposure to the new food is what counts.

“As parents, you’re going to make decisions as to what you want to serve,” Ms. Worobey said. “But then you just have to relax and realize children are different from day to day.”