I’ve always taken a sort of passive stance when it comes to my food radicalism.  I smile at my co-workers when they heat up a LeanCuisine.  I nod when someone tells me about a recipe using Campbell’s cream of chicken soup.  But at home, I’m rendering fresh lard, making sauces from scratch, grinding sausage, baking bread, making special trips downtown for grass-fed beef, and frantically googling for affordable sources of quality lamb.

I’m a food-psycho, I would say.  Nobody cares or would be interested in doing what I’m doing.  It’s too much work.

Not anymore.  I’ve become evangelized, and by a cheezy, Ryan-Seacrest-produced, probably-half-staged television show, nonetheless.  That’s right.  I watched Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, and it hit me deep.  Here’s one guy trying make some real change that can save millions of lives, and I’m hoarding my knowledge, however minimal it may be.

So, starting today, I’m going to be posting once a week on food.  Most of it will describe my long journey to effectively eradicate everything fake from my pantry and refrigerator.  What’s fake, you ask?  Anything that isn’t an actual food product.  My rule is that if I don’t know where to buy it, it shouldn’t be in my food.  Partially hydrogenated vegetable oil?  Never seen that on the store shelf.  Mono- and diglycerides?  Potassium sorbate?  Modified corn starch?  Nope.  Nope.  Nope.

This might seem like a huge pain in the ass, but I’m willing to bet you’re going to be surprised.  You’re going to be surprised when you combine good ingredients in a simple way to make great food.

Enough with the intro…

#1 – Start with traditional recipes

The problem I tend to have with most “quick & easy” cookbooks is that half of them are written by mega-corporations, and most of the recipes contain “shortcut” ingredients, which to me is like half cooking.

Luckily, people have been cooking for a long time.  Much longer than “food products” have been around.  So, go traditional, and you won’t have these cream-of-chicken type problems.

Chances are there’s a specific ethnic food you really like.  Italian?  French?  Mexican?  Chinese?  Indian?  Pick one, and buy the most traditional cookbook you can find (I’ve put some of my favs at the bottom).

Here’s a fast, easy recipe from Fuchsia Dunlop’s Land of Plenty which is the absolute best Sichuanese cookbook around.  This Kung Pao Chicken will be like no other rendition you’ve ever had.  All it requires is a few special ingredients that you can snatch up at a good Asian market.

Serve it with rice and plenty of stir fried vegetables (just pick whatever is in season, asparagus is good this time of year, and stir fry to crisp-tender, and then hit it with a little soy sauce).

Serves 2 with a stir-fried vegetable and rice

• 2 chicken breasts
• 3 cloves of garlic and an equivalent amount of fresh ginger
• 5 scallions, white and light green parts only
• 2 Tbsp. oil
• a handful of dried red chiles (I like to use chiles japones, which, ironically, I find in latin sections of markets)
• 1 tsp. Sichuan peppercorns (This is an intriguing ingredient, like nothing I’ve ever tasted.  You should find it in a good Asian market, although sometimes it’s given a weird name.  Take the picture of it with you, they are unmistakable once you know what they look like)
• 2/3 cup roasted unsalted peanuts

Marinade

• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. light soy sauce (this is like normal soy sauce, in contrast to dark soy, which is much thicker)
• 1 tsp. Shaoxing rice wine or medium-dry sherry (I encourage you to use the shaoxing, which should be easily found at an Asian market and lasts indefinitely in your pantry)
• 2 1/4 tsp. cornstarch
• 1 Tbsp. water

Sauce

• 3 tsp. sugar
• 1 1/8 tsp. corn starch
• 1 tsp. dark soy sauce (You should find this at an Asian market.)
• 1 tsp. light soy sauce
• 3 tsp. Chinkiang or black Chinese vinegar (Again, this shoudl be easy to find at an Asian market and lasts forever.)
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 Tbsp. chicken broth or water

Cut the chicken into 1/2 inch cubes.  Mix the marinade ingredients in a small bowl, and add the chicken, tossing to coat.

Mince the garlic and ginger.  Cut the scallions into pieces as long as they are wide, to “match” the chicken (this is a theme in Chinese cooking).  Snip the chiles in half and discard as many seeds as possible.

Combine the sauce ingredients in a small bowl.  Set next to your stove.

Ideally, you’d use a wok here, but a good saute pan will do the trick.  Add the oil and heat the pan over high heat.  You might want to disable your smoke alarm, not that I have any experience with that or anything. It’s important that everything is within an arms reach, because this will happen fast.

There’s basically 5 steps here.  When the pan is hotter than you think it should be, and the oil is giving off wisps of smoke (1) add the chiles and peppercorns to season the oil.  The danger here is burning the chiles and spices.  So you need to have the chicken ready and at hand, because we’re talking seconds here. When the oil smells fragrant (and your eyes are watering from the chiles) (2) the chicken goes in.  Keep it moving, and once you’ve lost that raw color, (3) add the garlic, ginger, and scallions.  Keep going for another couple minutes until the chicken is done.

Then, (4) add the sauce.  Keep tossing the chicken, and when the sauce is thick and bubbly, (5) add the peanuts.

Dump it out to a plate and serve.

Here’s some of my picks for a one stop traditional food experience for a few different cuisines:

Chinese

The problem with chinese cookbooks is that China is fucking big, which means lots of regional cookbooks.  Obviously, I think highly of Fuchsia Dunlop’s Land of Plenty, which is Sichuan, and I’ve heard good things about her Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook, which is from Hunan.  I’m also eyeing Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo, but it’s pretty new, so I’ll wait to see what cred it gets.

Italian

Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking is the gold standard here.  Although, you may find yourself yearning for something a little more Italian-American.  In that case, go for Lidia Bastianich’s Lidia’s Italian American Kitchen. Also, for quick and easy pasta dishes, my go to book is Giada De Laurentiis’s Everyday Pasta.

French

Most people don’t think they like French food, but it’s an unstoppable force in the culinary world.  French techniques have provided inspiration for countless cuisines.  But the real strength here is sauces. In my opinion, they could rip out the Sauces section from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and sell it separate, but the rest of the book is good too, so you should get it.

Mexican

Something near and dear to my heart.  You can’t go wrong with Rick Bayless’s Authentic Mexican or Diana Kennedy’s Essential Cuisines of Mexico.

I have a ton more that I haven’t bought yet on my Amazon wish list, which should be public.  Check them out.

Tags: food, Food Revolution, Jamie Oliver, traditional

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