Food Poem Fridays: Leslie Monsour's TIME & DISTANCE

Time + Distance
by Leslie Monsour

The tea you pour is black and strong.

It doesn't taste like tea to me;

I must have been away too long.

It isn't jasmine, spice, oolong;

It tastes like an apology—

This tea you pour, so black and strong.

Where's that old fork with the bent prong?

What happened to the hemlock tree?

Have I really been gone that long?

I think I hear the saddest song;

It has no words, no tune, no key.

The tea you pour is black and strong.

You're careful to say nothing wrong,

You seem too eager to agree...

Yes, I've been travelling far and long,

And now it's clear, I don't belong.

I watch you sash your robe, as we

sit, sipping tea that's black and strong.

I went away too far, too long.

Quotable Quotes (and Stats!)

Many Americans have lost, or never had, fundamental cooking skills.

"Even if home cooking is of the fried-chicken-and-mashed-potatoes variety, it rarely produces extreme obesity. Almost any kind of cooking you can produce in a kitchen is healthier than fast food. The decline of home cooking worldwide is an underlying cause of obesity." - Barry Popkin, a nutritional epidemiologist at UNC-Chapel Hill.

In 1965 American women spent a weekly average of 13 hours cooking. Women in the United States now report spending an average of 30 minutes a day preparing meals.

"Twenty minutes in the kitchen will save you three hours on the StairMaster." - Devin Alexander, a chef in Los Angeles who developed the recipes for The Biggest Loser cookbooks.

From In Kitchen, ‘Losers’ Start From Scratch, by Julia Moskin, NYTimes, Feb. 3, 2009.

On Valentine's Day, Be Good to Your Heart

I'm still fixated on all things Moroccan, so here's an idea for a heart-healthy Valentine's Day menu that Rick and Ilsa might have enjoyed.

Grilled Fish with Smoky Harissa for 2

1 red chilli
1 garlic clove, peeled
2 5- to 6-ounce firm white fish (such as halibut or mahi-mahi) fillets
1 large red bell pepper, quartered lengthwise, seeded
Olive oil for brushing plus 2 Tablespoons
1 teaspoon ground cumin, divided
1 teaspoon ground coriander, divided
1/2 a lemon

Prepare grill on medium-high heat. Thread chilli and garlic clove onto a skewer. Brush chilli, garlic, fish, and red bell peppers with oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sprinkle fish with 1/2 teaspoon cumin and 1/2 teaspoon coriander. Grill fish, bell peppers, jalapeño, and garlic until vegetables are tender and fish is just cooked through, about 4 minutes per side for fish and 6-8 minutes per side for vegetables. Grill lemon, cut side down, until charred, about 3 minutes. Transfer fish to plate and tent with foil to keep warm.

Peel charred parts of skin from bell pepper and cut stem from jalapeño, and transfer to blender, discarding peel and stem. Add garlic clove, remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, and 1/2 teaspoon coriander to blender. Process until coarse puree forms. Season sauce generously to taste with salt and pepper. (I like to add some soaked walnuts, too, for creaminess.)

Place 1 fish fillet on each of 2 plates. Squeeze grilled lemon over. Spoon sauce over fish.

Serve with a simple salad that should be made one day beforehand (so the wheat softens) of 2 ounces cracked wheat tossed with the juice of 2 lemons, 1 tablespoon olive oil, a tomato (peeled cored, seeded, and diced), a red bell pepper (roasted, peeled, seeded, and diced), two chopped scallions, a small cucumber (peeled, seeded, and diced), a diced celery rib, and add to taste chopped fresh parsley and mint, salt and pepper.

Sefrou abricot/galettes sucrees/mandelbrot (apricot cookies)
4 large eggs
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup olive or argan oil
3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup chopped pitted dates
1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Preheat the oven to 350° and spray a cookie sheet with grapeseed oil.

Beat 3 eggs with the light brown sugar. Add the oil, flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon, then fold in the chopped nuts and fruit.

Turn the dough out onto a floured board. Divide the dough into 2 pieces and form each piece into a roll about 14" long and 1 1/2" - 2" wide. Place the rolls on the cookie sheet, leaving an inch between them.

Beat the remaining egg and brush it over the dough. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake for 20 minutes on the middle rack. Let the rolls cool for 5 minutes. Using a serrated knife, slice each roll into 3/4" pieces. Lay the slices cut side up on the cookie sheet and return them to the oven for 15 more minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown. Let cool and serve with Moroccan mint tea.

Surprise: I repeat dishes and often make blog-unworthy food

What should I do about the fact that, in life, in reality, I make things that aren't worth posting about, either because I've already posted the recipes for them, or they're just too simple to seem to merit a blog posting?  Is it useful information to know generally what other people are preparing, even if they're not new recipes for you, dear reader?  

Sometimes when I read other food blogs, often whatever it is that's being featured is in my repertoire, but might be something I've forgotten about and not made in a long while, and it's good to be reminded.

Lately I've made:

- stir-fried greens to accompany lobster meat with ginger and scallions, another very simple stir-fry dish; 

- salmon biryani; 

- methi roti rolls -- thin omelets with cilantro and chillies rolled up with lettuce into rotis slathered with chutney; 

- spicy spaghetti with a red pepper-tomato sauce, shredded spinach, and a touch of goat cheese; 

- endive salad with honey-cider dressing; 

- spinach salad with lemon-ginger dressing; 

- black-eyed peas curry; and 

- uppama and coconut chutney (a South Indian breakfast dish, but I tried making it with quinoa instead of semolina, which made it quite unlike uppama texturally but like a whole other good-in-its-own-way thing).

Today a couple of friends came over for tea and we first had darjeeling (2nd flush) and then lemongrass chai, and we snacked on tomato tea sandwiches (homemade), molasses clove cookies (Dancing Deer), dark chocolate (Dagoba), and banana walnut bread (Whole Foods).

I have also recently been eating yogurt with fresh pomegranate seeds a lot.  Love that.

Feel like signing off with xoxo, so I will : ).

xoxo