Debunking Some Myths
Cooking is easy. Cooking like food matters is really, really easy. There are no special techniques or equipment. (In fact in most cases you only need one pot or pan.) And the recipes—which are flagged with icons that alert you to those that are particularly fast or can be made ahead—contain common ingredients that can be found in any supermarket. (Though if you want to expand your options, I’ll tell you how.) All you’ll be doing is cooking with more vegetables. Ordinary vegetables, for that matter.
Whenever I speak in public, someone asks me if they must buy organic, locally raised food to eat like food matters. The answer is an unequivocal No. By reducing your consumption of animal products and junk food and increasing the amount of fresh produce in your diet, you’ll be eating in a way that’s better for you and for the planet. Period. That is the critical step and, fortunately, the easiest one. You can buy everything you need to eat sanely in any supermarket.
But since changing my diet, my awareness of what I’m eating has increased dramatically. And this will happen to you too, especially if you’re simultaneously cooking more. You might also see your food choices as a way to “vote with your mouth,” in an effort to change our food system. And since you’re eating less meat, fish, and poultry, you’ll probably have a little extra money in your grocery budget. So maybe you’ll start spending more on higher quality food.
Here’s the main point: Whatever the degree of your enthusiasm (or advocacy), anyone can cook like food matters. In fact, you could skip directly to the recipes on page 35 and begin now. But if you want to know more about specific ingredients, stocking your pantry, making simple substitutions, generally cooking with more plants, and using the recipes here, read on.
What Ingredients Matter
To cook delicious, fresh, and nourishing food, you’re going to have to start with good ingredients—real ingredients. That doesn’t necessarily mean expensive ingredients—fancy techniques and equipment are not my style, nor are they particularly useful for cooking like food matters—but it does mean unprocessed food.
Processed ingredients dominate supermarkets, but real ones are easy enough to find. There’s a wide variety of shelf-stable staples at supermarkets—grains, beans, spices, produce, of course, and more. There is way more than even a few years ago, and farmers’ markets—often the best option—are increasingly widespread.
The recipes in this book all give specific instructions for which items to buy or substitute in any given dish. But here’s some general information about how to shop for good ingredients, category by category:
Produce
The more you buy fresh produce, the better you’ll get at judging freshness and quality. Start taking some time to look for obvious flaws, rotten spots, mold, or discoloration. Though visual beauty doesn’t necessarily translate to flavor (as anyone who’s ever bought a ruby-red but wooden-tasting tomato knows), damaged produce rots faster.
Whenever possible, find out where your produce was grown. (As of 2009, most supermarket foods must be labeled with the country of origin.) Even if produce that travels long distances can be less expensive (and even more energy efficient, though that’s a topic of debate), it will almost never be as fresh as something grown nearby. I also try to eat fruits and vegetables when they’re in season, which helps minimize how much imported produce I buy. Learn to be flexible: whenever something on your shopping list doesn’t look fresh or isn’t in season, be willing to change your plans; with a few tips for easy substitutions (see page 18), swapping ingredients in recipes is easy.
If you’re concerned about consuming pesticides—and who isn’t?—you may want to buy organic produce at least some of the time. Produce being sold as “pesticide free,” especially from someone you know and trust, is another option, though this distinction isn’t regulated. It’s especially worthwhile to buy organic when it comes to fruits and vegetables with thin, edible, or no skins, like apples, berries, leafy greens, and potatoes. (Conventional bananas, avocados, onions, and shell beans are less likely to contain traces of pesticides. To see how the most popular fruits and veggies rank for pesticide residue, see http://www.foodnews.org/fulllist.php.) But, again, the important thing is to buy more vegetables. I still believe that in most cases, local, fresh produce trumps industrially grown organic, in large part because buying local usually means encouraging sustainable agriculture and supporting growers within your community. And buying industrially produced organic products—especially processed junk food—is still buying industrially produced food.
In winter it often makes sense to buy frozen vegetables, especially peas, “fresh” shell beans like favas and limas, Brussels sprouts, okra, and corn, all of which retain much of their flavor and texture when frozen. I also buy canned tomatoes for cooking during that part of the year when fresh are not in season.
When you eat like food matters, you go through loads of fruits and vegetables, so keep them handy. A bowl of fruit is a start of course, but you might also set aside a little time every day or two to prepare vegetables for snacking. If, for example, your refrigerator is stocked with a spinner full of salad greens, a container of celery and carrot sticks, and a bowl of steamed broccoli or roasted sweet potatoes, I guarantee you’ll eat them.
The Case for Gardening
Gardening is hotter than it has been since World War II, when 40 percent of America’s vegetables were grown in our backyards. Today, about a third of all Americans are growing some of their own produce or herbs. When the Obamas planted a vegetable garden on the White House lawn in the spring of 2009, it served to confirm what was happening—a full-blown, homegrown renaissance.
Most people say they garden for “better-tasting food,” and that’s as good a reason as any. And if you grow food instead of grass, you’re using land productively; you can even restore nutrients to it instead of relying on artificial fertilizers.
Anyone with a little time and a little space—even a spare ten square feet or a windowsill for potted herbs—can garden (www.garden.org is a good place to start, but there are literally hundreds of reputable resources). If you can’t garden at home, you might consider a community garden, or a cooperative agreement with a neighbor or two.
Substituting Seasonal Produce
Cooking with the seasons allows you to focus on what’s available locally and regionally and helps minimize the use of long-hauled fruits and vegetables. This chart—which you can read left to right or vice versa—is half inspirational and half practical, with ideas for exchanging ingredients within a season, or back and forth between seasons. For example, if you want to make a corn recipe in January, I suggest using frozen; but in the dead of winter, you have plenty of options if a recipe calls for cabbage.
Beef, Pork, and Lamb
Almost all supermarket meat is industrially raised—the animals are confined, fed an unnatural diet, then slaughtered and packaged in factories. That said, there are other options, though none is perfect.
Again, don’t think “organic” is an automatic solution: These animals may or may not be treated well or spend much time outdoors (for example, see “Poultry,” below). And, of course, eating 5 pounds a week of organic meat and poultry isn’t going to help reduce the environmental or moral impact of raising animals for food.
If you want meat from well-treated animals that are fed what they were born to eat and drugged only when they’re sick, you can find it. It’s expensive, it’s not sold everywhere (and it may taste different from what you’re used to!), but it’s out there. And increasingly, both in cities and out, you can buy such meat from local farmers, which is really the best of all worlds. Visit farmers’ markets, local food stores as opposed to chains, and co-ops, and talk to your friends. Since you’re going to be eating a lot less meat, paying more for it may not be so painful, and it will raise the overall quality of what you’re putting in your body.
No matter what kind of meat, poultry, or fish you buy, cooking with less takes a little practice. Since meat is so often sold in large quantities, the simplest thing is to buy what looks good, then divide it up when you get home and freeze what you don’t need for another time. (If you’re dealing with a butcher or fishmonger, just ask for smaller portions.) A kitchen scale is a handy tool until you get used to visualizing what 8 or 12 ounces of meat looks like.
In this book, the recipes that call for beef, pork, or lamb usually suggest the most full-flavored cut that is appropriate to the cooking technique. If more than one cut is an option, I’ll say so; if not, stick to the recipe for best results.
Poultry
The pitfalls of the USDA’s labeling guidelines are most evident with chicken. (See the paragraphs that follow.) I avoid mass-produced supermarket birds, since, even more than beef and pork, they’re a product of factories and an even worse eating experience. Recently, several major chicken producers have reduced or in some cases eliminated the routine use of antibiotics with their birds, though this change does not translate into better conditions for the chickens—or a better-tasting final product.
So-called natural labels don’t guarantee humane conditions or a lack of prophylactic drugs, so you’ve got to look for (and try to verify) whatever claims are made on the label. A “premium” distinction means nothing—some premium brands produce decently raised, decently flavored birds, but others are little more than factory farm chickens with a heftier price tag.
Kosher and organic chickens are at least produced according to well-defined rules. Birds labeled with the USDA organic seal must live free of cages, have access to the outdoors (usually quite limited), not receive antibiotics or other drugs, and eat only organic, non-GMO (genetically modified organism) feed. Kosher chickens generally start with better breeds than conventional chickens, have been slaughtered according to religious law (which may or may not be somewhat less horrific, depending on the company), and are presalted, which helps boost both flavor and texture.
“Free-range” chicken can be a bit of a scam—the terms “free range” and “free roaming” are regulated by the USDA, but all they mean is that the birds had some access to the outdoors. They might still spend most of their life in a tiny cage.
Again, your best bet is usually a locally raised chicken, available at farmers’ markets, specialty stores, and even some regular markets. Though more expensive—sometimes incredibly so, I’m sorry to say—at least you can find out how the bird was raised. And the price will remind you that meat is a treat and something that cannot be taken for granted.
For what it’s worth, ducks and turkeys are subject to the same labeling distinctions as chickens. Supermarket turkeys—and chickens and ducks and geese for that matter—are bred to grow abnormally large breasts and are, therefore, nothing like the birds that used to grace our holiday tables. But as with chickens, there are other options available.
Seafood
Eating fish is no longer the simple pleasure it was for millennia. Although wild fish is by far the healthiest animal product you can eat, there’s simply not enough of it to go around; we must see it as a treat, so I advocate choosing seafood that’s not only safe (uncontaminated with lead, mercury, or other pollutants) but also sustainable.
Farmed seafood may become a viable alternative to wild fish, but the impact aquaculture has on the environment and safety is not what we’d want it to be. And most of it still tastes bland at best and muddy at worst. (One notable exception is the time-honored tradition of farming mollusks, like clams and oysters; this is not only sustainable but also yields a good product.)
Fish is a fast-changing field, so it’s worth an occasional visit to the websites of the Blue Ocean Institute http://www.blueocean.org/home, Monterey Bay Aquarium http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.aspx, and Environmental Defense Fund http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=17694. But the specifics you need to make truly informed decisions are difficult to come by. For one thing, the species susceptible to overfishing change constantly. For another, we’re at the mercy of supermarket labels, restaurant chefs, and fishmongers to tell us the truth. And they may not even know what they’re really buying or selling.
The seafood recipes here represent a new approach for me. In most cases, the ingredients list (for example) “sturdy” or “firm” thick white fish fillets or steaks, in which case I’m suggesting you choose something sustainable—and, ideally, local—that will stand up to turning in a pan or on a grill. What I’m saying is that the name of the fish is less important than either the qualities the recipe needs or the practicality of finding the fish. If I call for “cod,” there’s both a chance of your not finding it or of it being overfished, or imported from 10,000 miles away. If I call for “thick white fillets,” you have a better shot.
When recipes call for specific seafood like shrimp, crab, clams or mussels, scallops, mackerel, or in rare cases salmon or tuna, it’s best to choose American-caught or -raised over their foreign counterparts, which tend to be less well monitored and regulated.
Fish and shellfish have a short shelf life, so check out as many fish counters as it takes to find one that’s spotlessly clean and sells the best-cared-for seafood. Though superfresh is ideal, whether the fish is “fresh” or frozen matters less than how it looks and smells now. Trust your nostrils; good fish has little or no smell other than that of seawater, and firm, unblemished, nongaping flesh. Try to avoid prewrapped fish; it might look nice, but you can’t really know how fresh it is until you smell it.
Once you get seafood home, the best way to store it is in a pan packed with ice. If that’s not possible, keep it in the coldest part of the refrigerator (usually at the back of the top-to-middle shelves) and cook it as soon as you can.
Substituting Seafood, Poultry, Meat, and Dairy
Although beef and pork have many differences, they—and other meats, fish, and poultry—are (to beginning cooks at least) surprisingly interchangeable in recipes. Just use your judgment when seasoning, so you don’t overpower mild or subtle flavors. That said, here are some suggestions for making simple swaps:
| Foods | Easy Substitutions |
| Shrimp | Scallops, squid, or crawfish |
| Lump crab meat | Cooked lobster or shrimp |
| Mussels | Clams or oysters |
| Tuna | Mackerel, swordfish, or sardines |
| Salmon | Trout, char |
| Boneless chicken breasts | Boneless chicken thighs (they generally take a little longer to cook); pork, turkey, or veal cutlets |
| Chicken (cutlets, boneless parts, or cut up for stir-fry) | Pork (chops, tenderloin medallions, or cut-up shoulder), or turkey |
| Ground beef | Ground pork, turkey, chicken, lamb, or shrimp |
| Short ribs | Lamb shanks, beef brisket, or bone-in chicken or turkey legs |
| Beef roasts | Lamb shoulder, pork shoulder, or boneless chicken thighs |
| Boneless or bone-in pork shoulder | Boneless or bone-in fresh ham, beef chuck, or lamb shoulder; or beef chuck or brisket |
| Butterflied leg of lamb | Flank steak or tri-tip |
| Bone-in leg of lamb | Pork rib roast |
| Sour cream | Yogurt (drained if possible) |
| Parmesan cheese | Pecorino Romano, grana Padano, dry Jack, Manchego, or Asiago |
| Heavy cream | Half-and-half (unless you’re whipping it) |
| Crème fraîche | Heavy cream, lightly whipped |
Eggs and Dairy
Organic standards are the same for laying hens as for chickens raised for meat, and many of the same misleading claims are made about eggs. But neither “free range” nor “cage free” tell you much about how the hens were treated. Other popular egg labels include “omega-3” (the hens were fed an omega-3 rich diet to increase the amount of supposedly beneficial fat in their eggs—a marketing ploy) and “vegetarian” (the chickens weren’t fed animal products; this isn’t nationally regulated). There are also a few third-party egg labeling groups interested in animal welfare; “Certified Humane,” “Free Farmed,” and “Animal Care Certified” all refer to the chickens’ living conditions regarding air, water, food, noise, stress, and living space.
Note that egg grade, as determined by the USDA, is based on appearance, shape, and quality of an egg. AA and A are nearly identical; B eggs are lower grade but are generally sold to industrial kitchens, not individual consumers. The USDA also judges eggs based on size; extra-large and large are the most common and fairly interchangeable. I assume you’re using large eggs in the recipes here.
It boils down to this: If you can, buy eggs from a local farmer whom you trust.
When it comes to dairy products, though, local is not necessarily better; real Parmesan cheese, for instance, comes only from Italy. But there are many burgeoning cheesemaking regions in the United States, and fresh dairy products from small, independent dairies are widely available at farmers’ markets. Sometimes local milk isn’t homogenized, so the cream rises to the top; this is great if you want to make your own yogurt or cheese.
You can also buy national brands of organic milk at most supermarkets, but be skeptical. On many large-scale organic dairy operations, cows are confined in feedlots no different from those on conventional dairy operations, and organic milk might actually be reconstituted from powdered milk shipped from across the globe.
I use primarily whole milk and yogurt, which give you the best flavor and texture, though you can substitute reduced-fat (2 percent) or low-fat (1 percent) milk if you feel it necessary. (Fat-free, skim, and nonfat—which all mean the same thing—tend to be insipid and watery.) In baking recipes I sometimes call for buttermilk, which is a thick, cultured liquid that’s easy enough to find in supermarkets. Yogurt is a perfect substitute, or you can sour milk by adding 1 tablespoon white vinegar to 1 cup regular milk and letting it sit for a few minutes.
Cream and half-and-half are valuable ingredients in the Food Matters kitchen, since a tiny amount can make a huge difference in flavor and texture. Look for brands that aren’t ultrapasteurized and don’t have any additives or emulsifiers. Butter is another irreplaceably rich ingredient that you’ll often want in small quantities; buy unsalted (also called sweet) butter—since salt acts as a preservative, unsalted butter tends to be fresher. (This also means that you get to control the amount of salt you add to recipes.) Many European-style, higher fat butters are now available; they tend to be of good quality. (You can freeze butter if you like.)
The Basic Food Matters Pantry
When I say basic, I mean basic—these are the handful of ingredients you should always keep around for quick, easy, Food Matters meals. As your repertoire and interests expand, you’ll want to start adding unfamiliar foods (see The Advanced Food Matters Pantry, below). In general, it pays to buy items in bulk when possible; they tend to be cheaper and are often of better quality than their prepackaged counterparts (they also require less packaging). That said, here goes:
Grains. Buy an assortment of whole and ground grains. My short list: short- and long-grain brown rice, medium- or coarse-ground cornmeal (which can serve as grits and polenta), rolled and/or steel-cut oats, bulgur, and whole wheat flour. Whole grains, because of their natural oils, tend to go rancid faster than those that are processed and milled to remove their fattier outer layers. So if you won’t go through them quickly, store them in the freezer. (For more about specific grains, see the sidebar on page 268.)
Beans. I cook my own beans 90 percent of the time (there’s no need to soak them), though canned—more expensive and not quite as good—are undeniably handy. I store both and recommend you do too. (It’s worth noting that there’s concern about the safety of bisphenol A or BPA, the plastic used to line most canned foods—see the “Canned tomatoes” entry on page 27.) When you cook your own, beans become a convenient pantry item since after cooking, they can be refrigerated for days or frozen for months. Cannellini or other white beans and chickpeas are good ones to start with (if you like red beans or black beans, by all means start there), as are lentils, which cook in a half hour, sometimes less.
Dried pasta and noodles. The best dried pasta comes from Italy (why wouldn’t it?). I use both semolina (white) and whole wheat pasta but now reserve regular pasta for treats. Buy whatever shapes you like; it’s nice to have some variety. Asian noodles are also extremely useful; I like soba, since it’s either all or part whole grain, and brown-rice fettuccine is starting to win me over, but thin white rice noodles are also great to have on hand.
Extra virgin olive oil. Your go-to fat for cooking, roasting, pan-frying, and drizzling. Don’t worry about country of origin or price, unless you’re an aficionado with a big budget. Since it goes rancid in sunlight or near heat within a month or so after opening, keep only what you’ll use in a couple of weeks on the counter; store the bulk of it in a dark cupboard or in the refrigerator. (It will become cloudy and thick when chilled but will revert to its normal texture and color at room temperature.)
Other oils. For high-heat cooking and most deep-frying, or when a dish calls for non-Mediterranean flavors, you’ll want something other than olive oil. My recipes call for “vegetable oil,” meaning you can use any neutral-flavored oil, like grapeseed, sunflower, safflower, corn, or peanut, which is best for Asian dishes. (I don’t like the taste of canola oil.) Look for minimally processed, high-quality, cold-pressed oil whenever possible.
Long-keeping vegetables and fruits. There are vegetables you’ll use almost daily, especially those known as “aromatics”: onions, garlic, shallots, carrots, and celery. Others—cabbage, root vegetables, potatoes, of course, and winter squash—also store well. It’s not a bad idea to keep a few frozen vegetables on hand, too—spinach, peas, and corn are good, providing they are not processed with any chemicals (most are not). Citrus and apples keep in the refrigerator for weeks, which makes them infinitely handy.
Dried fruit, nuts, and seeds. Excellent both for snacking and for cooking. Because of their high fat content, nuts and seeds go bad quickly, so store them in the fridge or freezer if you’re not planning to use them within a couple of weeks. I include unsweetened coconut and nut butters in this category, too, especially peanut butter and tahini, both of which can become the foundation for excellent sauces. Dried fruits (including but not limited to raisins) add a nice touch to pilafs, bean dishes, and desserts.
Fish, meat, poultry, and dairy. There is obviously a place for animal products in the Food Matters pantry. These are the most important:
Eggs: Possibly the most useful of all animal products.
Parmesan cheese: An expensive investment but not bad per serving (it lasts forever) and grated over almost any salad or pasta dish, just killer. It absolutely must be genuine Parmigiano-Reggiano; don’t waste your money on anything else.
Bacon: Keep a hunk in the freezer or fridge and use it an ounce at a time for seasoning. Prosciutto, guanciale, and other cured and/or smoked meats serve much the same purpose.
Butter: As an occasional alternative to olive oil in cooking or flavoring, a real pleasure. Often just a tablespoon makes an impact.
Canned tuna and anchovies: Preferably packed in olive oil.
Canned tomatoes. In most parts of the country, good fresh tomatoes are a summer luxury; luckily, canned and boxed are a truly decent (not to mention easy and inexpensive) substitute. Diced tomatoes make life a little easier, though I usually buy whole canned (preferably plum) tomatoes, which are more versatile, and chop them myself when necessary. (Stay away from crushed or puréed, which are too watery.) Tomato paste—especially from a tube—is also a boon. Always look for canned tomatoes with few or no additives and seasonings. And because there is growing concern about the safety of the plastic coating used to line the inside of most cans (known as BPA or bisphenol A), you might want to seek out processed tomatoes that are packed in boxes or jars, or look for cans that are labeled BPA-free.
Salt and black pepper. With good ingredients and simple cooking, these gain importance. Invest in a grinder and buy whole black peppercorns; the difference is huge. For salt, kosher (which is not iodized like table salt) has a pure flavor I love (I like the feel of it for cooking, too). Sea salt is marginally better than mined salt. Trendy, expensive salts are unnecessary.
Fresh herbs. If you were to buy a bunch of every type of herb you see whenever you went to the store, you’d be wasting your money—and a lot of herbs, since it’s impossible to use that much. Instead, buy a couple at a time—the ones that look best—and use them until you need more; many are interchangeable anyway. Parsley is the most useful (and best in winter), but basil, mint, dill, rosemary, thyme, and cilantro are also great to have around. Rinse the entire bunch and put them in a cup or vase of water—like flowers—then cover with a plastic bag for even longer keeping, and refrigerate.
Spices, chiles, and dried herbs. For the most part, these are inexpensive, last a long time (I figure a year, but many keep them around longer), and don’t take up much room, so buy as big an assortment as you can. Primary spices (for me; you may feel differently): cardamom, cumin, fennel seeds, pimentón (smoky Spanish paprika), cinnamon, coriander, ground ginger, nutmeg. Dried herbs are trickier, because other than sage, thyme, rosemary, oregano, and tarragon, they’re generally way inferior to fresh. It pays to have a variety of chiles on hand, too: hot (like Thai), mild (like pasilla), and perhaps smoked (like chipotle). For blends, you’ll want curry and chili powders. Ethnic markets and online specialists (like Penzeys, www.penzeys.com) are great resources for all these items.
Vinegar. If you buy only one vinegar, make it sherry vinegar, which is the most versatile and most flavorful and the best buy for the money. Keep in mind that genuine sherry vinegar has “vinagre de Jerez” somewhere on its label. My next choice is rice vinegar, which is low in acid and extremely useful for Asian-style dishes. If you like acidity as a seasoning or eat a lot of salads, good balsamic, red wine, and white wine vinegars are also handy. And when vinegar appears in a recipe here, feel free to add more to taste.
Soy sauce. Look for brands that contain no more than soy, wheat, salt, water, and bacteria, and avoid those that contain textured vegetable protein (TVP) or caramel coloring.
Other condiments. Good-quality coarse and/or smooth mustards; ketchup if you’re a fan (I am); mayonnaise (you can make your own, of course). Barbecue sauce, hot sauce, salsas, pickles, relishes—these are all optional but, unless they’re loaded with sugar, completely fine.
Sweeteners. Sugar is fine in moderation, but it’s a little one-dimensional; maple syrup and honey deliver both flavor and sweetness. (See Refined Sugars and Other Sweeteners, page 554.)
Baking soda, baking powder, instant yeast, and white flour. Requisite for most baking, obviously.
A Quick Guide to Changing the Seasonings in Virtually Any Recipe
You know you’re becoming an intuitive cook when you start changing recipes, and one of the easiest ways to do that is with basic flavorings. Here are the basics:
Herbs: Fresh herbs will always have a brighter flavor than dried. Use stronger herbs like rosemary, thyme, tarragon, sage, and oregano more sparingly than their tamer cousins (parsley, basil, cilantro, mint, dill, chives). As a rule of thumb: In dishes that serve four, it is rare that you’ll need more than a tablespoon of the strong herbs (a teaspoon of fresh tarragon is usually enough for most dishes) and one-quarter to one-half cup of the mild ones. For dried, use even less.
Aromatics: Garlic, onions, shallots, scallions, and fresh ginger can be swapped for one another or used in combination. Increase or decrease the quantity to your taste: For some people, a clove of garlic is garlicky enough for a whole dish; for others, ten cloves aren’t enough.
Spices and chiles: If you’re new to improvising, spice blends (like curry and chili powders or other specialized blends) add the most bang for the buck and are easier (and less risky) than experimenting with combining single spices. Fresh hot chiles, dried and smoked chiles, and canned chiles can all be switched for one another, added to almost any dish, or omitted from any dish if you don’t like things too fiery.
Sweeteners: Hardly compulsory, but a teaspoon or more of sugar, honey, molasses, or some chopped dried fruit can complement and enhance many savory dishes.
Nuts and seeds: Consider virtually all nuts and seeds interchangeable—and remember that almost all varieties taste better if you toast them first. (Heat them gently in a dry skillet, shaking occasionally, until fragrant.) Adding nuts to a dish as a garnish adds another layer of texture and flavor, as well as a little bit of protein.
Acids: Many dishes—especially those high in fat—benefit from a little acidity to counterbalance the richness. Just be careful not to overdo it. Balsamic vinegar, sherry vinegar, red wine vinegar, and lemon juice are used often in European dishes; rice vinegar and lime juice are more common in Asian recipes; orange juice can be used in either.
Fats: Oils and butter have their own unique flavors (see pages 26 and 27), so when in doubt, go with a neutral-tasting vegetable oil. Melted butter, of course, adds creaminess (don’t use butter in dishes that are going to be served cold, or it’ll congeal). Cream and coconut milk are also good substitutes—in small doses—for oils and butter.
Salty additions: Cheese, cured meats, olives, capers, anchovies, and soy or fish sauce can add a nice hit of saltiness (as well as a rich texture); when replacing one with another, remember that a little goes a long way.
The Advanced Food Matters Pantry
If you have the room, the money, and the curiosity, you’ll soon want to add to your pantry; most of these foods keep for long periods of time, so it’s easy enough to give yourself more options, all without frequent shopping. My kitchen has most of these things in it most of the time:
More grains and beans. Some of my personal favorites: quinoa (perennially underappreciated, and really fantastic), farro, hominy (with all the flavor you love in corn tortillas), and whole wheat couscous (actually a pasta, but used as if it were a grain). For beans, try pintos, black beans, or black-eyed peas; frozen favas, lima beans, edamame, or other fresh shell beans. Red lentils and yellow and green split peas are great for dals and soups. Check out, too, the pretty, flavorful (and generally expensive) so-called heirloom beans, which are available at natural food stores or by mail order.
Dried mushrooms. Soak them in boiling water until they’re soft (anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on how dehydrated they are) and you’ve got two super-flavorful ingredients: the mushrooms themselves and the soaking liquid. Porcini (cèpes) and shiitakes are the most versatile. Buy the first in bulk and the second in Asian stores; do not buy little tiny (overpriced) packages at the supermarket.
Bread crumbs. It’s easy to make these yourself—just put stale bread in a food processor and crush—but if you must buy, panko (Japanese bread crumbs) are best. (Some are even made with whole wheat flour now.)
Capers. Packed in vinegar or salt, their briny flavor and subtle crunch are incomparable. Especially valuable for people who don’t like or won’t eat anchovies.
Miso. Few single ingredients are more complex than miso paste, which is made from fermented soybeans, rice or barley, and salt. Stir it into soups for instant complexity, or just add water for a quick sauce, marinade, or dressing. White, red, and brown are virtually interchangeable as long as you keep in mind that darker miso is stronger in flavor.
Sesame oil. Made of roasted sesame seeds and sold in Asian markets and many supermarkets. Adds a smooth, fragrant finish to stir-fries and other Asian dishes.
Sea greens (seaweed). Flavorful and high in protein, vitamins, and minerals. Hijiki, kombu (kelp), and nori (laver) are particularly fun to use in salads and stir-fries. Soak in hot water until pliable (from 5 minutes for the thin types to 20 minutes or more for kombu and other thick leaves).
Coconut milk. Unsweetened coconut milk (even the “light” or reduced-fat kind if you’re worried about extra calories) adds flavorful creaminess to all sorts of dishes, but especially curries.
Tofu. Refrigerated bricks come packed in their own liquid and will keep for a few weeks. Bulk (unpackaged) tofu must be kept in water in the fridge; change the water every day or two and use it as soon as you can. (If it starts to smell sour, cut a slice from every side before using.) Some tofu is sold in shelf-stable boxes, doesn’t need to be refrigerated, and keeps for months. Pressed tofu also keeps a long time.
Interesting Asian seasonings. Fermented black beans, nam pla (fish sauce), hoisin sauce, tamarind paste, curry paste, mirin, and sake are all worth your consideration if you want to make a lot of Asian dishes. If you start getting enthusiastic about spices, buy them whole: they’re cheaper and keep longer and have better flavor than ground. Toast lightly in a dry skillet (see page 29), then grind them in small quantities in a (clean) coffee grinder or with a mortar and pestle.
Other flours. If you’re a regular baker or someone who wants to explore the world of sweet and savory baking, you’ll want brown-rice flour, masa harina, buckwheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, chickpea flour, and maybe more. (See page 518 for some specific descriptions.)
Wine. If you drink it, you already have it; a splash in place of water or stock is rarely a bad idea.
Making Meals Vegan
If you were a full-time vegan, you probably wouldn’t be reading this book. But maybe you’re interested in taking even more animal foods out of your diet. The recipes here are a good place to start, since the focus is always on vegetables, grains, or beans and the substitutions are relatively easy.
Where vegan dishes often disappoint is not flavor but texture. It’s tough to mimic the cooking characteristics of eggs, butter, cream, and meat. But as long as you pay attention to include foods that deliver some crunch, chew, heft, and creaminess, you can cook very well without using any animal products at all.
Commercial meat substitutes—those patties, burgers, “riblets,” and sausage links made of processed soy protein, industrial seasonings, and who knows what else—always taste like, well, fake meat. In my world, they’re a small step above junk food, and I come down—as always—on the side of real food.
But tofu and tempeh, and to a lesser degree, seitan (a sliceable food made from concentrated wheat gluten), can serve as good stand-ins for animal products: You can stir-fry strips of firm or pressed tofu or seitan, for example, just as you would chicken, pork, or shrimp, and crumbled tempeh is a fair approximation, texture-wise, of ground beef. Beans, of course, when mashed and mixed with vegetables or grains and spices, make excellent burgers.
There are decent vegan substitutes for other animal foods, too, but they’re nowhere near perfect. (Eggs are nearly impossible to replace, and without them or butter you’ll never be able to duplicate the magic of most baked foods; but you can get some surprisingly good results, as you’ll see with the desserts on pages 571 and 579. Here’s a quick rundown of direct substitutions for vegan cooking:
A Word About Technique
Cooking is cooking. I don’t use any techniques that everyone else doesn’t use (in fact, I probably use fewer and I tend to use simple, visual terms like “cook” and “bubble” instead of “sauté” and “simmer”), but you’ll be amazed how efficiently meals come together when you free yourself from the American convention of putting meat at the center of the plate with a starch and a vegetable on the side.
I do increasing amounts of one-pot cooking, building dishes by, for example, searing a little meat or poultry in a skillet, then removing it once it’s brown, adding some aromatic vegetables to the fat and cooking them until they’re fragrant, then tossing in more vegetables, grains, beans, spices, liquid, and so on—finally, I add back the meat and heat it through a minute. This fluid style combines various techniques, saves time, and results in full-flavored, nice-looking dishes that don’t take a lot of work. Other dishes come together in a roasting pan, under the broiler, on the grill, or even on the plate.
I’m also keen on serving dishes at room temperature, since many plant foods don’t need to be piping hot to be thoroughly enjoyable. (The recipe directions indicate which dishes work best this way and how long ahead of time they can be made.) This takes the pressure off of timing everything to be ready simultaneously and makes the cooking experience more enjoyable.
Using The Food Matters Cookbook
The Food Matters Cookbook is a little unusual; it contains nine chapters, none of which focus on meat, poultry, fish, eggs, or dairy. But this is by no means a vegetarian cookbook. Rather, it’s a cookbook that—like the entire Food Matters concept—encourages you to think about food proportions differently, by considering grains, vegetables, and legumes as the center of your meal and animal products as garnishes, flavor enhancements, treats, and treasures. This means setting aside preconceived notions of a square meal consisting of a serving each of meat, starch, and vegetables. Instead, you’ll find all these components integrated in (I hope) interesting, novel, and appealing ways.
With the exception of desserts and other dishes that take extra time to make but store well (like some bean dishes, for example), the recipes in this book generally serve four. This estimate is based on the assumption that you’re serving the dish as the main focus of a meal, with perhaps one or two simple sides—like plain steamed vegetables or a salad—and that the people you’re serving are hungry. If you’re serving a dish as a snack or appetizer, or alongside several other equally hearty dishes, any recipe might easily stretch to feed six to eight.
To build feasts around these recipes, serve a soup or appetizer first, and add cooked vegetables or salads on the side (there are recipes here for those, too, of course). Or cook several dishes from different chapters and put them all out at once. This is an especially nice way to entertain since (as I mentioned above) so much of the food here can be served at room temperature.
Onward. Remember the seesaw!
Key to the Icons.
Fast. If you have even a little experience, you can make these dishes in 30 minutes or less.
Make-Ahead. You can prepare the dish, either in full or to a certain point, and store it (usually in the fridge) before finishing or serving it, or serve it warm or at room temperature.
Pantry Staple. These are the simple grain, bean, vegetable, and condiment preparations that I consider basic and essential. I suggest that you make pantry staples frequently and in large quantities, so that you’ll have them at your fingertips when you need them. (For lists that sort recipes by their icon, see pages 589–603.)