Ham & Cheese kind of morning...

When you go to bed at 3 am after doing research you wake up with a craving for good coffee... Well, maybe not, but that's what happened to me this morning. I am not the kind of person who runs to coffee in the morning, and to me good coffee deserves good food, especially for breakfast, and suddenly I was dreaming of one of my new finds: the pretzel croissant with a salty ham, egg, and good cheese. This is a rare occasion and deserves respect, so I found myself at Giant - together with the rest of the town. I guess one day of snow makes everyone deplete stocks at home as I've never seen Giant so busy on a Saturday morning. Having a very specific goal, I headed for the deli/bakery department, and having found the pretzel croissant, I was ready to make a move on the rosemary ham and a proper cheese to complement it. Well, I must be a bit different than the rest of the people who shop here, because all my three requests (rosemary ham, vermont sharp cheddar, and asiago cheese) required the lady to look all over the shelves and then go back to find what I was looking for (they were all listed on the displays, so I wasn't making unusual requests). She was very nice about it, but I decided to leave the smoked gruyere to the next trip as I wasn't sure if I could take one more trip to the back to look for it, then the rituals of opening a new package etc. So, after about 20 minutes I was ready to head back home (sometimes following a craving is a curse, but generally well-rewarded) a bit longer than expected, but at least I didn't have to rush anywhere. 

When I got home, I quickly whipped eggs and chopped one leaf of red kale to make a very simple omelette, into which went the ham and the vermont cheddar as the croissant was warming up in the toaster oven (the pretzel croissant is not even worth a try if you are not going to warm it up.) While all these were happening, I squeezed my grapefruit juice and made a wonderful French Press with freshly ground Smokestack beans from Maui Coffee Roasters (well, you go to heaven only once, but can bring it to you as many times as you like!)

In the end, my creation looked like this... and tasted... ahem... heavenly :-)

P.S. I am normally not the one to eat lots of deli meat/cheese as my comparison point is proper Italian/Spanish or French versions. However, I had to go to Giant for the pretzel croissant, and Boar's Head does a very good job with the rosemary ham which is a rare treat for me. Frankly, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality and the taste of their cheddar and the asiago. One benefit of buying those things at the deli counter is, you can get them sliced thinly, and buy as little as you like. Otherwise, my slices are much bigger, and good cheese don't last too long in my fridge!

It's fre-e-e-e-zing! Time for Soup!

When the temperatures stay under freezing point for more than 24 hours, the only time you are really warm is  under the comforter(s) or in the steamroom. So today, looking at the snow and the wind which kept blowing the snow from the branches, I felt the need for a hot and satisfying soup I could eat by the spoonfuls. Not being one to follow recipes (except for baking), when I can I try to cook with my senses and desires. This time I knew I wanted to chew (pureed soups are great as an appetizer but they leave me hungry on their own), see multiple colors, smell a bit of the Mediterranean, and feel nutrition going to my cells to keep them warm and happy. A quick mental inventory of the kitchen led me to this luscious and wonderful soup which satisfied all the above...

CHICKPEA & KALE SOUP

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
dash of turmeric
dash of curry
2 roma tomatoes, chopped in small cubes or 1/2 can of chopped tomatoes
1 can cooked chickpeas, rinsed well
3 cups of water or stock
4 cups of kale, chopped
salt, pepper

To finish: Good olive oil, crusty bread, cayenne

Drizzle the oil or butter (I used rice bran oil because it is light and doesn't have flavor) in the soup pot over medium heat and when warm, add the onion, saute until translucent. Add the garlic and stir for about 20-30 seconds, add the tomatoes, curry and turmeric. Stir and cover until it comes to boil. Add the chickpeas, salt, pepper, and water or stock. Let it come to boil and simmer for about 5-10 minutes (this depends on how mushy you want your tomatoes to be, I like mine still visible and intact so I simmer only about 5 minutes). Add the kale, stir, and turn off the heat (I like my kale vibrant and slightly wilted as opposed to very soft, you can cook for another couple of minutes if you like but the color will fade a bit.) Serve in bowls drizzled with a good amount of fruity, pungent olive oil (I use Trader Joe's Sicilian Olive Oil) - this is a very important step that gives the soup a wonderful aroma and compliments the flavors of the soup, so please don't skip it. I sprinkle my soup with a dash of cayenne but you can leave it out for those who don't want the heat. Ideal accompaniment would be crusty bread toasted until crisp, and rubbed with garlic. Yum!

Update: This soup was exactly what my senses desired, so I had a second bowl and had a very happy afternoon :-)

This week's find...

PRETZEL CROISSANT FROM GIANT

I'd not been to Giant in a long time as it is not my favorite store (and I was in London), but I took a trip there this morning (enticed by the $8 coupon and the weekly specials) and was pleasantly surprised by the friendliness of the staff and the newly designed, wider aisles. Even though I normally don't spend much time at the bakery, being disappointed at Dawson's earlier (where I went for the cheese and scallion biscuit, but they sell it only in a pack of 8, and they didn't look that fresh) I decided to pass by the case where display the freshly baked goods. I'm not easily enticed by muffins, bagels, giant croissants, but the pretzel croissant caught my eye so I decided to give it a try (justification: it would make a nice treat while watching the inauguration) To my surprise, it was fresh, non-greasy like the typical croissants, and very tasty. It also wasn't as salty as a typical pretzel. When I got home, I had it with a swiss-chard and onion omelette, and then had a bite of it with raspberry jam and coffee, and regretted not having bought more. When warmed up at 250 degrees in the toaster oven, the pretzel croissant turned out to be wonderfully crunchy on the outside and beautifully soft on the inside, almost craving for butter (yes, that will happen, too, with the next one)... For now, I am dreaming of: zesty dijon or english mustard, smoked turkey or ham, and emmental or swiss cheese with a bit of lettuce or tomato in this crusty package. It will remind me of the French cafes, or even better the Sprungli Cafe in Zurich where they know how to make a sandwich beautifully so much so that you can't chose between the options in the case...

Update: See how I paired it with Ham & Cheese couple days later :-) 

This week's find...

BLUE GOAT CHEESE FROM TRADER JOE'S

Wonderfully tangy, but milder than cow's milk. Goes so well on crackers, and preferably with a nice glass of cabernet. Or you can have it with tea... It is so good, made me want to have a burger (combination of grilled red onions and good blue cheese on top of a grass-fed burger is the best umami explosion in my mind... and of course with a cold IPA preferably from CA... yummm!)

Update on January 17: I never got the burger as the Blue Goat Cheese package had only crumbs left in 2 days... I had it with tomatoes, with red wine, and with potatoes...and before I know... it was gone... Time to go back to Trader Joe's and a get at least a couple of packages as it is a special this month and may not be around for too long :-(

What is a "SENSORY EATER"?

I define myself as a "sensory eater" because whenever I can, I decide on what to eat with my senses, and I choose foods and beverages that appeal to the most amount of senses. I have cravings not only for certain foods but certain smells and feelings, and especially when I cook, I look to satisfy those. There are days when I open my eyes desiring a slightly grainy buckwheat pancake flipped over a still soft egg yolk oozing out when cut, coating the wonderfully salty ham in between, to be accompanied by a slightly sweet grapefruit juice and cafe au lait. Or a perfectly buttery warm croissant, slightly crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, topped with a good berry jam that still carries the aroma of the forest, and accompanied by a strong flat white through which you can feel the intense flavor of the tropics as well as the pasture where the cows were raised. I crave for earthiness of cumin, the smoky heat of a chipotle, or the fire of a habanero at times, combined with tender beans, slightly earthy grains, or luscious eggs bringing me a breeze from the desert, mountain, or ocean. Sometimes I crave for colors wonderfully combined in a soup bowl or arranged on a salad plate, and sometimes I crave for a more subtle dish beautifully dotted with specks of color (like risotto with peas) or adorned with combination of colors (such as pureed red lentil soup dotted with a dollop of yogurt, and finished by specks of smoked paprika and dried spearmint). 

Food is never just food for me, and unless I am terribly starved and ready to faint, I refuse to choose food in order to satisfy just hunger. It needs to appeal to all my senses, take me to places, and bring me closer to the moment I live in (very rarely, it can also stop the time) as well as nourish and enliven my body. It needs to stimulate my brain, and invigorate my senses. Otherwise, why bother? Life is too precious to eat bad food, drink bad coffee, and choose products that don't even come close to their original forms. And once you have the best, it is hard to accept anything less. This blog (in combination with my travel blog) is a documentary of the search for the best flavors, scents, and feelings through food and beverages, and when possible, at the best possible places.