Do You Grow Ignore-ganic Produce?

Posted on by Ryan
Toddler-Made Apple Pie

Toddler "App Pie" copyright The Spinning Cook

Ignore-ganic Produce: Fruits and vegetables which are chemical-free simply as a result of you doing nothing. They’re my personal specialty. Case in point: this lovely bowl of undersized, pockmarked, misshapen apples from our yard that my toddler decided to make into “App Pie” one morning in a brief moment unsupervised. At 20 months he’s got the general idea, but these are seriously ugly apples.

Apples and the Dirty Dozen

Apples are the new king of the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen list. If you haven’t seen this resource, it’s perfect fridge-front material, telling what things you should buy organic since they are so pesticide-laden, and where you shouldn’t waste your money (the “Clean Fifteen”). So if there’s one thing to buy organic it’s apples. Maybe I should put our uglies up for sale?

Keepers of the Perfect Fruit

I must say I have a lot of respect for people who keep up a yearly schedule with sprays, many of which are quite harmless. My father-in-law marks the months by suiting up like a jetpacked warrior, defending his trees against pests and disease with all the strategy and vigor of Bill Murray after gophers. And the results are impressive. Our own apples get no such love. Yet they come back year after year as if it never hurts their feelings. If they were a variety we liked, we’d pay more attention, which is why we’re phasing out McIntoshes (with apologies to Apple Inc) for Honeycrisp and Golden Delicious. In the meantime we let the pockmarks come, and in the end there’s something beautiful about getting something for nothing: no watering, spraying, pruning…just some creative carving to get around the bad parts.

Wild blackberries are the same way around here – open for the picking (and pricking) around any public park or school, but seedy as anything so only good for jelly the wife says. Don’t tell that to my six-year-old who wants to put them in everything, or my toddler who’s ready to make more “pie.”

Your part, please don’t ignore

What grows near you without any help at all? Do you wish you gave it more love? Have you ever passed someone’s yard, fully-loaded with ignore-ganic fruit raining to the ground, and wanted to knock on the door to see if they’d let you clean the tree? Next time I’d say do it – knock and see if you can get something for (almost) nothing.

Posted in Food Articles, Philosophies, Raw Food

Ultimate Brown Butter Stovetop Popcorn Recipe

Posted on by Ryan — 10 Comments ↓

Brown Butter Popcorn

There are times for moderation, and then there are times to just come out and say “my stovetop brown butter method is the best popcorn recipe anywhere.” The only way to improve upon it is to add more butter. A bold claim, so please let me explain. Try it, test me, and may the best method win.

Ultimate Reason 1: Stovetop

For all its healthy perfection, air-popped corn can’t quite compete with the stove on flavor. Stovetop methods raise the bar by browning the corn before and after popping, and coating it with a light even layer of oil or butter as it pops. Microwave popcorn barely deserves a mention. There. We’ve used each method a ton over the years, but after I rediscovered the stove method, I’m here to stay. Do you agree? Why or why not?

Ultimate Reason 2: Brown Butter

Popcorn Closeup

When browned, butter about doubles in flavor, while adding a nutty complexity and even a hint of sweetness. Of the few popcorn recipes I’ve found which use brown butter, none pop in the butter like this method. Separating the butter once browned, allows the clarified portion (which is mostly pure butterfat) to cook the kernels at hot temperatures without burning the proteins in the browned portion which settles to the bottom.

Ultimate Reason 3: No Overkill

With all due respect to other recipes I have seen, popcorn does not need elaborate embellishments like Bourbon and Bacon (though someone will go try this now, I know). Proper popcorn can be pretty surreal all by itself. Caramel and Cheese corn are separate categories, they’re not part of this.

The Ultimate Bottom Line

To summarize, you get a delicious whole grain snack in minutes, practice useful techniques, and celebrate a food that’s uniquely American in both culture and origin.

Try it, love the flavor, hate the extra step, search for something better like I have, whatever. Just tell me why it does and doesn’t work for you. The only problem I’ve had here is the family fighting over the last helping.

Last note: drink pairing, very important. Serve with juice for the kids, Mike’s Hard Lemonade for adults. That ought to get some debate going…

Recipe: Ultimate Brown Butter Stovetop Popcorn

Summary: Once practiced, this recipe should go very quickly despite the step of separating the butter. And I sincerely hope it is the best basic popcorn method you ever taste.

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • additional salt to taste

Instructions

  1. Melt the butter in a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Continue cooking until foaming has subsided and the butter separates and turns a medium brown (tilt the pan occasionally to check color). Remove from heat, and pour into a small heat-proof pitcher, scraping the pot with a rubber spatula.
  2. Return the pan to the stove, reducing heat to medium, and slowly pour the clear top layer of the butter back into the pan, stopping when the browned bits start to enter the stream. NOTE: This is not an exact science, you don’t have to pour in every bit of the clarified portion, and you shouldn’t have to wait first for the layers to separate.
  3. Immediately add the popcorn kernels to the pan, sprinkle the salt over, and cover with the lid slightly ajar.
  4. Continue cooking, shaking almost constantly, until most all of the kernels have popped. Pour the popcorn immediately into a large bowl and set the hot pan aside.
  5. Stir the brown butter which remains in the pitcher, then drizzle it over the top of the popcorn. Stir with the spatula, add additional salt to taste, and serve.

Preparation time: 10 minute(s)

Cooking time: 10 minute(s)

Diet tags: Gluten free

Number of servings (yield): 4

Culinary tradition: USA (General)

Posted in Recipes, Snacks

Pan-Seared Green Beans and a Tipping Point

Posted on by Ryan — 11 Comments ↓

Contrary to what you’d think, the main ingredient in the recipe below is not green beans, it is heat. A simple dose of high heat adds huge flavor, has no calories, requires no shopping or refrigeration, and is available year-round in your kitchen. Now for something unexpected.

“You know how when you’re sitting in a chair, you start pushing against the floor and tipping the chair backward on its rear legs? And you keep pushing until, if you tipped the chair back just another fraction of an inch, you’d fall over? I feel that way all the time.” -Steven Wright

Green Beans according to Steven Wright

What do green beans have to do with Steven Wright? Besides him being a great comedian and this being a great green bean recipe? Something about “deadpan”?

Green Beans with Bell Peppers

Pan-Seared Green Beans, photo by The Spinning Cook

The key thing is learning to control the heat, riding that line between the chair tipping backwards (blackness, smoke detector, shame) and the safety net of lower temperatures. I like to turn up the heat and take my chances. It feels more dangerous which I like. And the kids tend to eat all of theirs and some of mine, which sets a better tone at the table than my “Shut up and eat your kale” T-Shirt.

Will you tip your chair back and try it with me? Why or why not? Is there someone at your house who likes to set off the smoke alarm? Let me know in the comments.

Recipe: Simple Pan-Seared Green Beans

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 tablespoons Olive Oil
  • 1/2 pound fresh green beans, trimmed and snapped
  • Half of one medium red or yellow bell pepper, cut lengthwise into thin strips
  • 1/4 cup chicken or vegetable broth
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed skillet over moderately high heat, until the oil is very hot and shimmering but not smoking. To make sure it is hot enough, add one piece of bell pepper to the pan, which should sizzle immediately. Add the beans and bell pepper slices to the pan and cover.
  2. Cook for exactly two minutes, then turn the vegetables with tongs or a spatula. Carefully pour the broth over the top, and cover again, reducing heat to medium. Continue to cook until the beans pierce easily with the tip of a sharp knife, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes more. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

Preparation time: 10 minute(s)

Cooking time: 15 minute(s)

Diet type: Vegetarian

Number of servings (yield): 4

Posted in High Heat, Recipes

What Does “Spinning” Mean in The Spinning Cook?

Posted on by Ryan — 3 Comments ↓

I’m so glad you asked. To me it’s three things: a bad state of crazy, a good state of flow, and the process to get there.

Struggles feel like spinning

On bad parenting days I feel dizzy and disoriented, bored of the repetition, tired of the speed and incessancy of needs and requests, and dying for a break.

The other day my six-year-old described an illness as feeling “wobbly,” which is another way of saying “spinning wrong.” Food-wise, on a bad day I’m bracing myself for bad alternatives like: (1) whining if I cook something new, (2) boredom if it’s mac and cheese again, or (3) guilt if I break down and make chocolate chip pancakes for dinner. Being The Spinning Cook is acknowledging the struggle, trying to claw out of it, and promising not to not take myself too seriously.

Victories feel like spinning

The other side of this coin is life in a groove. That same repetition is a chance to get it right, make every turn more practiced, more dialed.

Spinning Girl

In terms of dinner, great execution for me used to be about long lists of ingredients and Bon Appetit cover recipes. These days it’s mostly about speed, nutrition, and whether they actually eat the stuff. These are the recipes and techniques I can’t wait to share, and which I hope will work at your place too.

Spinning new thoughts

“Spinning” is lastly about the thought process of improving, letting the gears spin on problems until answers appear. The strength of blogs is the interaction, the group think. I’m looking forward to lots of two-way sharing ideas and issues, all towards the goal of less wobble and more flow.

So I’ve tried to explain the brand. Does it make sense? It’s not self-evident, but hopefully a bit curious/intriguing at first impression. Do you like it? When have you felt in the groove or sick of the merry-go-round? Please tell me in the comments.

Posted in Food Articles, Philosophies

Math of a Lifetime: Spinning with the End in Mind

Posted on by Ryan — 9 Comments ↓

Match strikeAt last the blog begins. It’s all about cooking for kids, a brand new journey that I hope you’ll share with me and get real value from, especially if you are feeding little mouths on a daily basis.

So to start with the end in mind I have to ask, how should we measure success for healthy family eating? Is it the amount of nutrients we get the kids to eat, the extent that we avoid the bad stuff, the amount of local organic produce we consume, the speed with which dinner flies onto the table, or reduced levels of whining? Those are all good things, especially the last. But if I had to pick one goal, it’s establishing positive food habits. This is because of math.

Key point: I expect my kids will live outside my home for 2-4 times longer than they live with me, and if we can teach them to appreciate food, make good choices, love vegetables…those habits will carry over into all those years, and even beyond as they influence their own families and friends.

Does my math make sense? Are my numbers right? Or is math part of the Axis of Evil, as Will Ferrell once claimed (in character of course)? What goals matter to you, either for your own kids’ health, or for your own? Please let me know in the comments below.

NOTE: Since parents are busy (don’t I know) my posts will be short. Please don’t be afraid to click in and read.

Posted in Food Articles, Philosophies

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