Menu:

 
Its June! The world's best looking athletes by far have congregated in South Africa and are sweating in the sun while chasing after a small checkered ball. All this gawking at the television has me wanting one thing...strawberries...and watermelon!

There's nothing like the start of summer. The pools are open (at least on the weekends), although the water is ridiculously cold and you can buy a cut up watermelon on the street. As well the New York City farmers markets are all a twitter with my favorite start of summer fruit...the strawberry.

When I grew up on Long Island, I remember the third week of June hosted a strawberry festival in my town. Strawberry shortcake, strawberry pie, rides, attractions, music, merriment, people really celebrated the arrival of the strawberry. Today, I just wake up early on a Thursday or Sunday morning and head over to the market 10 blocks from my apartment and plop down my $4 ($3 later in the day if there are any left!) for a pint of the most amazing strawberries I have ever tasted...and sometimes, when I am really lucky, they sell some at Fairway.

These strawberries are amazing. Sweet, succulent and no methyl iodide here.  I'm still kvelling from the asparagus, whose season is almost over. This past weekend I got my first taste of summer zucchini and eggplant...on the grill, with lamb. Oh my god, to die for. Summer is upon us...all the best to Algeria...oh yeah and the United States/Britain who both have to play Algeria. Hope they are eating some strawberries too!
 
 
I have been making turkey chili  at Luscious Organics for at least three years professionally. Every time I make it, I make it a little differently and I hope a little better. I've made three variations this week alone for three different clients and each one was better than the next.

I made some today for a client using chipolte peppers, a little of the chipolte sauce, tomatoes, onions, oregano, cumin and just a drop of cocoa powder (unsweetened). This evening, I made some for myself. I just had two bowls since it was so good.  Tonight I added some mole sauce, chili powder, curry powder, tomato sauce and of course those chipolte peppers. They are amazing, hot and sweet, just like I like my men :)

Here's a recipe of sorts, although its constantly changing.

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small onion

4 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 lb ground turkey

2 chipolte peppers chopped with the sauce they came in (I used Roland brand in a can)

1 12 ounce bottle dark beer (I used black and tan yueling)

2 tablespoons chocolate powder

1 tablespoons sesame seeds

3 tablespoons chili powder

3 tablespoons curry powder

A few hearty shakes of good quality oregano

1 can of diced tomatoes (about 16 ounces)

1 can kidney beans (organic, no salt if possible)

Directions:

Saute onion in olive oil. After 5 minutes or so, add tomato paste and chile. Break up ground turkey into onion and paste/chile. Brown turkey with olive oil. After turkey has been seared/browned, add beer. Allow to simmer with beer for about 8 minutes. Add spices and diced tomatoes continue to cook for 12-15 minutes. Add beans cook 3-5 minutes more. Serve with low fat (or non-dairy) sour cream, chopped cilantro and sharp cheddar cheese.
 
 
In the snowdrift that is Long Island and taking some time off from private clients this week and next, I decided to cook some turkey meatloaf for my mother in a way she’s never had it before.

In my life and times studying and eating food, I have always loved meatloaf. However, I can’t put meatloaf and healthy in the same sentence. Usually, because the “meat” used for a traditional meatloaf was the cheapest and fattiest cut ground up with whatever leftover vegetables there were and shaped into a loaf. It was gourmet even back when it surfaced in the 1950’s kitchen, but it was cheap and easy to make.

So I bring you a slightly healthier, slightly more elegant version of my mother’s meatloaf, made with her by my side, doing what she always does – direct and nag me that I’ve dropped onions and peppers on the floor. She doesn’t care that Julia Child did as well. I could only imagine how mothers have influenced the great chefs. I wonder if Bobby Flay had the same relationship with his mother when he was inventing things as a kid in her kitchen. Love, take it any way you can!

So, here’s the recipe. I bet your mouth is watering and your heart full, the way you should always approach cooking.

An elegant Turkey Meatloaf

Ingredients:

1 small onion, diced small
1 shallot, chopped small
3 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped fine
2 carrots, peeled and diced small
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 lbs 97% lean ground turkey
1 28 ounce can of crushed san marino tomatoes (imported from Italy – organic is best)
2 eggs (organic, cage free are best)
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
Herbs de Provence (2 teaspoons)
Fresh rosemary chopped (2 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon paprika (ground)
pepper to taste (there’s enough salt in the tomatoes)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix turkey, tomatoes, bread crumbs, eggs, and chopped rosemary in a large mixing bowl with a wooden spoon (your hands are better – make sure to clean them thoroughly first!) and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a 12 inch frying pan with high sides and add onion, shallot, garlic, carrots, herbs de Provence and paprika once oil is hot. Saute 10 minutes until carrots are soft.

Add vegetables to the meat mixture. Stir to combine.

Place mixture in 13X9 baking pan and bake at 350 1 hour. Check at 1 hour for doneness with toothpick to see if comes out clean and top is set.

If you like, mom adds ketchup and breadcrumbs on top to form a crust. I would never do this, but sometimes, mom’s way is best and traditional! And traditions are important. I might also add reserve some of the tomatoes and add to the top with additional fresh chopped herbs for the same effect, but mom won this time

Enjoy the snow!
 
 
 
I write today after being awoken by the distinct sound of a snowblower. Ah, I wonder what we did in the years prior to the invention of the snowblower and the truck plow. I often wonder how much time goes into strategizing how to clean up snow. We're so inpatient and paranoid that we might miss something, that we might need to spend an extra minute at home with our families (or by ourselves!) reading a book, cooking a meal or just hanging out.

I myself spent yesterday cooking dinner for my mom. It was my holiday present to her. On our menu:

Roast lamb marinated in red wine, shallot, garlic, rosemary and mint served with a mushroom sauce with the reduced marinade

sautéed kale in soy, broth and garlic

Savory buckwheat with lemon zest and walnuts  

We had mint tea for dessert. After the adrenal whirlwind of finals and the need for all of us to take better care of ourselves we forewent dessert.  Though I could have easily made some chocolate pudding or something else. It was a meal at home, the dessert seemed unneccessary.

In reading about things to do for the holiday season in Manhattan online this morning, I was saddened to read about the closing of one of my favorite Manhattan restaurants, Chanterelle.  Chanterelle was one of the first restaurant picks I made for my family for my birthday. I couldn't have been more than 22, working and living on my own in the west village for less than a year. The restaurant was divine. Tribeca was an odd part of Manhattan back then and not one I ventured to before.  But being that I had only lived a mile or two north (I get lost in lower Manhattan - but it never seemed that far), it was time to explore. My boss at the time, an irreverent foodie, concurred the choice, even though I had made the pick myself.

The space was unusual, simple, unadorned, but truly elegant. Across the street, was a three floor loft with a magnificent staircase...and oddly no window shades. A young man walked up and down the stairs. I eyed him. He waved. My mom's friend's husband said, "Wouldn't it be wonderful if he came by with a rose?" Then his girlfriend/wife showed up, dressed and ready to go. The lights went out. We enjoyed the rest of our dinner, each element, each course more divine than the next. I had never experienced synchronized service before. The dinner choices were odd as I remembered. We decided against the tasting menu for some reason I can't remember. There were four of us. Two shared a monkfish (something neither had tasted or heard of before) the other two chose steak with some sort of tarragon mustard sauce with Gruyère. Three tastes I have used in my cooking ever since. I believe I fell in love with tarragon at that meal and have since not stopped using it.

Chanterelle closed its doors this August for "renovations" and announced a few weeks back that they would be closing permanently. I am sure that there are several New Yorkers that share my pain and feelings of loss as a piece of their life, a truly memorable evening and dining experience died along with Chanterelle. I fondly remember my evening and its possibilities as well as the divine food and truly exceptional service. As a long time Manhattan resident, I have not experienced service on that caliber since. These days, I'd most rather eat in than dine out unless I feel someone can truly treat me better than I could treat myself, isn't that what dining out is all about?
 
 
Hi my loyal readers!

I’ve been away for sometime, mostly because I’ve been writing for another blog on examiner.com. http://www.examiner.com/x-10896-Manhattan-Healthy-Food-Examiner.  Inspired by the movie Julie and Julia I wanted to revive this blog and have something out in cyberspace that was purely my own. I’m cross posting my reaction to the movie and one of my favorite torte recipes.

Every day is a food experiment for me and I always test my recipes for changes in my energy and passion levels! In this post is an original recipe altered and changed many times from a recipe I learned while at the Institute for Culinary education. Like Julia I never finished cooking school, but I learned many wonderful things and have developed my own unique style. Julia has always been a great inspiration to me – from about the age of 11 when I watched Julia on PBS with my Aunt Ida and tried to make chicken breasts in butter and cream sauce on my own. How my mother let me do such things I will never know. By age 12 I was stir frying shrimp and by high school I was coming home for lunch with my friends and preparing “gourmet” meals for them. It all started with Julia.

Now of course, my interests have shifted toward the health value of food. But I will never sacrifice taste for health value. I believe they can be linked!Healthy food is always thought of as boring, plain and lacking butter. Perhaps, but what if it was just small amounts of truly delicious food with natural sugars and enough butter to fill you up. The truly two bite dessert. Jeff Goldblum apparently orders desserts, savors one truly decadent bite and sends it back. Not all of us have this kind of self control, but I was inspired enough by Julia Child to write this post. But first, I want to talk about the inspiration.

I am not a woman who cries often. Since Saturday night I have cried twice…from movies no less. The first: the time traveler’s wife. A story of love that overcame the test of time…literally and tonight from Julie and Julia, a story of love, sex, food and writing…and of course, success, money and everything else! But first came, the love, the sex…and of course the food…and the writing! Two stories that are ever so vivid, real, whole and round. Stories that rip through you to the very core and remind you why we live. Ah, to think, the power of a boeuf bourgonuine to transform the senses and the miracle of tricking your own husband who had just gotten a vasectomy into getting you pregnant by cheating with a younger version of your time traveling husband before he got the procedure done.
I am dreaming of cassoulet, duck steak and tarte tatin. The first time I had duck steak, which is some part of the duck (I’m going to go with the breast) without a drop of fat on it – just the meat – its simply seared and its nearly raw inside – but its so delicious I can’t even explain it! When I was at the Institute for Culinary education and also again at Tocqueville I concentrated on pastry, which was so strange considering I am by all means a food chef. I did excel at pastry and I do enjoy making desserts. I’ve made a few tarte tatins in my lifetime and even bought a special pot to make it in because you need to be able to make the apples on the stove, cover it with the pastry and then pop the thing in the oven. You need a pan that has an oven safe handle, which is hard to find these days. An ex-boyfriend once made eggs in the pan without using butter and to this day despite several cleanings and soakings there are still scrapes of egg in the pan. The pan lasted longer than that relationship! Damn though, I was very much in love with the pan. Will have to butter it up but good the next time I want to make a tart.

But the piece de resistance in my culinary abilities and one of my all time favorite desserts is a dark chocolate torte I learned to make in a French cooking class at ICE. The cake is made with grand Marnier and two sticks of butter. Julia would be proud. Somewhere I have the original recipe, but I’ve altered it over the years to make it completely my own.
Ingredients:
10 ounces of the darkest chocolate I can find (my favorite is Valhrona 85%)
4 eggs
2 tablespoons grand mariner
1/3 cup of agave nectar
Waxed parchment paper
8 inch round cake pan

Cut a round in parchment to line bottom and sides of cake pan. Set aside with a weight. Preheat oven to 350.
Whisk eggs together with grand mariner in a large bowl. Don’t beat, just whisk them with the liquer until it is combined and the eggs turn yellow. Chop chocolate into chunks on an angle with a chef’s knife. Gently melt it in a double boiler with a little bit of agave nectar (maybe 1/3 of a cup). When the chocolate has just melted, remove from heat and stir to make creamy. Add two sticks of butter. Cover and let the butter melt completely. When melted, remove cover and stir. While whisking, add the chocolate mixture in a stream (almost like you’d add oil to egg yolks to make mayonnaise) to the egg mixture and continue whisking lightly just until all the chocolate combines.
Remove weight from pan and pour in batter. Place cake pan in a larger pan filled with two inches of water so cake pan floats in other pan (bain maire).
Cook 40 minutes until top has set. Cool for 10 min or so and pop in refrigerator at least 12 hours. This piece is crucial!!! The next day, turn cake over onto a plate and unmold by removing parchment. Decorate cake with either powdered sugar or my favorite – sifted raw cacao powder (not Dutch processed cocoa, please!) and raspberries. Serve slices with real whipped cream that has not been ultra pasteurized (just regular pasteurized is fine, it whips better, usually comes in a glass bottle) if you can find it.
 
 
 I am teaching an exciting new class with renowned sex educator, Eric Amaranth, protege of Betty Dodson, PhD, author of "Sex for One". Here are the details: visit http://passionfood.eventbrite.com to sign up!
Rev up your sex life with delicious mouth-watering food! Yes, you read it right. Let Meredith Sobel, local food expert and natural nutritionist, and Eric Amaranth, sex educator and blogger introduce you to foods that will enhance and prolong your sexual stamina, and learn about foods that you should avoid to save yourself from a food coma. Couple this with intriguing information on optimal positions that will increase both male and female pleasure and endurance and you’ve got yourself equipped with the right moves for the real afterparty after the party! So come spend an afternoon learning and discussing in an open, supportive, non-judgmental and most of all dignified environment – everything you have always wanted to know about the relationship between food and sex. You never know, after this event, you may find yourself in a match made in heaven too! You do not want to miss this! Advanced reservations and payment required. No refunds if reservation cancelled within 5 days of the event. At the desk downstairs ask for Suite 1107 on the 11th Floor. Please call 212.222.8187 if there is a problem getting in.