Back in the Day

Basic Tomato Sauce

 

When I was a kid, spaghetti meant ground beef cooked with Ragu and a little bit of sugar. I'll never forget the first time my Italian neighbor and childhood best friend Cathy tried spaghetti at our house. "Sugar?!" she exclaimed incredulously, as she watched me throw in a generous handful of Roger's sugar into the saucepan. In retrospect I suspect that her willingness to eat something so grossly incorrect of Italian tomato sauce was motivated only by her unwillingness to eat Minestrone, which her mom would make occasionally in the summer afternoons. I remember having the impression that Minestrone was some unpalatable medley of vegetables cooked in a thin broth until I happened to try it and thought, "What's all the fuss about? This is great!". Ironically, somehow we almost always seemed much more interested in what was being eaten in each others' homes than in our own. "I could eat chinese sausages and rice everyday", she would proclaim, while I swore that if I could have a link of her family's homemade calabrese sausages I would die happy.

 
 

But of all the memories of food eaten at the Belcastro house at 334, there is one memory that stands above all (yes, even more so than those indescrible sausages), and that is of the distinct smell of tomato sauce that almost always filled the immaculate kitchen. When I got older I asked her mom how to make tomato sauce, and she told me the basic ingredients and said, "it's so easy!" Years later, I still can't quite capture the same aroma and taste as Mrs. Belcastro's bomb sauce, but I've grown to have a taste for my own tomato sauce- sans sugar, of course. Often I play around with the ingredients depending on my mood and cravings; extra carrots or whole roasted garlic cloves for sweetness, red chili flakes for heat, sauteed brown mushrooms for a touch of savory, a few splashes of red wine if I happen to have a bottle open.

 

1 can	Crushed tomatoes (I like to use Scarpone's)
½	Carrot, brunoise
½	Stalk celery, brunoise
½	Yellow or red onion, brunoise
1	Bay leaf
2	Garlic cloves, minced (I usually put 4 or five, but I love garlic)
TT	Chopped flat leaf parsley
TT	Chopped basil, fresh or dried
TT	Oregano, dried (I find fresh to be a bit overpowering, unless you strain the sauce at the end)
TT	Sea salt and cracked black pepper

1. Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium high heat.

2. Fry carrot, celery and onion until onions are translucent.

3. If using dried herbs or red pepper flakes, add to the pan at this point.

4. If using wine, turn the heat up a little bit and add wine. Allow the liquid to reduce by half.

5. Add crushed tomatoes and bay leaf, reduce heat to minimum and simmer for an hour.

6. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and if using fresh herbs, stir in at the last moment before serving.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ill always remember that pink winter afternoon, the three of us on the rickety deck in the backyard having a picnic of turkey meatloaf and red rooster rice with cream of chicken soup,a humble meal, a glorious feast, a gleeful token of days gone by...

Brown Rice with Swiss Chard

I love brown rice. Like most Filipinos, I grew up on white rice- fluffy, moist, and served in heaps with almost anything and everything. A lot of times this was because it was the "Filipino way", but also sometimes I rememeber that eating rice with our food was a way to "extend the meal" as my mom once said, because there were five kids in the family and one box of Tuna Helper wasn't going to cut it for dinner on its own.


It was only a few years ago that I decided to make brown rice at home and I immediately fell in love with it. It's much more flavorful, and I find that unlike white rice, I get full from eating a cups worth of it. It's also one of those foods that are full of good-for-you nutrients- vitamin B1,B2,B6, calcium, magnesium, and protein and fibre, to name a few. I always try to sneak it in to my dad's diet but unfortunately, he would rather eat his ulam with nothing than have to eat it with the tinniest bit of brown rice! I've heard some people say that brown rice tastes like cardboard, but I don't get that flavor at all. My favorite way to eat it is with some sauteed swiss chard and chopped hard boiled egg...mmm delish! You'll need to remove the stems from the Swiss Chard and (I like to) steam them to make them softer before adding it to the rice.

Brown Rice with Swiss Chard

1 cup brown rice
2 cups water

4 leaves Swiss chard, stems removed and diced and leaves
chopped.
1-2 tbsp butter (depending on your taste, or grapeseed oil if you prefer)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 eggs, hard boiled

1. Place rice and water* in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium high heat until water begins to boil. Cover pot and turn down heat to medium low until water is completely absorbed (around 40-45 minutes). You can also cook brown rice in a rice cooker if you have one.

2. While the rice is cooking, rinse the Swiss Chard and lay out flat on a chopping board (as in the above photo). Cut along the edges of the stem to remove the leaf. Fold the leaf in half and slice horizontally. You can slice the leaves as small or large as you like.

3. Cut the stems into 4 inch long sticks to make them easier to dice when bunched together. Dice the stems into small cubes.

4. Peel the hardboiled eggs and roughly chop. Set aside.
5. Heat some water in a pot (about 1 cup of water should do) and throw the diced stems into a steamer with a lid on top and steam the stems until they are softened- about 2-3 minutes.

6. When the rice is done, heat a frying pan with either butter or vegetable oil over medium high heat. Add the steamed stems and saute for a minute. Add leaves and saute until softened. Add brown rice, chopped egg and toss to mix all ingredients together. Season with salt and ground black pepper to taste.

*For extra flavor, you can substitute organic chicken stock instead of water to cook the brown rice.

The Importance of Being Idle

 I am sitting on the patio of Margaritaville in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. It occurred to me last night that my blackberry-free, 30-degree weather vacation in paradise is almost over, and I have since been plagued by the thought of returning home to snow, freezing cold, and work. Back to reality in four days- oh, the horror!

It took me nearly a week to detox from my addiction to time. During the first few days here, I kept asking what time it was, until finally one day Cory responded with, "why does it matter? You're on vacation!" Back home, I am checking the time almost obsessively. 10:30 am- time to drive to work, 11:00 am- time to open the restaurant, 2:15 pm- time to close up the restaurant and clean up, 2:30 pm- lunch, errands, possibly a nap on the couch at work, move my car off 5th street before 3:30 so it won't get towed...4:30 pm- time to set up for dinner, 9:30 pm (most weekdays)- clean up, close up, drive home, 10:30 pm- have the cats eaten? feed the cats, shower, Skype before its too late in Jamaica, sleep, repeat. On the weekends I add in time for banking, cleaning piles of laundry lumped on my bedroom floor, grocery shopping, cooking, etc., etc. These past few days have been filed with the joy of (not having to) do anything. It's healing.