Wizard Recipes

What’s really in the foods we eat? It’s a question that seems to be asked more and more today. The news is filled with stories of foods that help to fight cancer, ward off heart disease or manage diabetes. So it’s tough to know which ones are truly the best.

The truth is-the right foods can do so much more than satisfy hunger. There are some foods that are so powerful they can not only fuel our body, pack our diets with nutrients and protect our health but also enhance it. And they really can help us fight disease. Below, we’re sharing the foods our experts consider to be some of the best.

Tomatoes

Vitamins: A and C
Minerals: Potassium
Also provide: Beta-carotene, lycopene and fiber
Benefits: Help protect against some cancers
Did you know? There’s more lycopene in cooked tomatoes than raw, so you can feel good about using canned tomatoes and paste, tomato juice and ketchup.
Recipe: Cherry Tomatoes with Choice of Herbs

Salmon

Vitamins: A, B6, B12 and D
Minerals: Phosphorus, potassium and selenium
Also provides: Omega-3 fatty acids and protein
Benefits: Increases heart health by lowering blood pressure and triglycerides. It’s also thought to prevent memory loss.
Did you know? Salmon is rich in the omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, which studies have identified as the most beneficial of the omega-3s.
Recipe: Baked Salmon

Blueberries

Vitamins: A, C and E
Minerals: Magnesium, manganese and potassium
Also provide: Fiber and beta-carotene
Benefits: Have cancer-fighting properties and can also improve memory
Did you know? Anthocyanins, the antioxidants found in blueberries, give the fruit its dark purple color.
Recipe: Blueberry Ice Cream

Spinach

Vitamins: A, C, K, folate, riboflavin and thiamine
Minerals: Calcium, iron, magnesium and zinc
Also provides: Beta-carotene, fiber and lutein
Benefits: Helps reduce the risk of cancer, stroke and heart disease
Did you know? The magnesium in spinach helps to lower high blood pressure.
Recipe: Spinach Salad

Oats

Vitamins: Vitamin E and thiamine
Minerals: Manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, selenium and zinc
Also provides: Fiber and protein
Benefits: Lowers cholesterol and the risk of heart disease
Did you know? Enjoying oatmeal on a regular basis may decrease insulin resistance and help stabilize blood sugar.
Recipe: Apple-Oats Casserole

Soy

Vitamins: Folate and vitamin K
Minerals: Calcium, iron, potassium and selenium
Also provides: Fiber, omega-3s and protein
Benefits: Reduces blood pressure and has cancer-fighting properties
Did you know? Soy is the highest-quality source of cholesterol-free, vegetarian protein.

Recipe: Soybean Burrito

Broccoli

Vitamins: A, C, K, and folate
Minerals: Phosphorus and potassium
Also provides: Fiber, lutein and beta-carotene
Benefits: Fights cancer and contributes to eye health
Did you know? Broccoli has properties that kill bacteria known to cause ulcers and some stomach cancers.
Recipe: Broccoli Souffle

Black Beans

Vitamins: Folate and thiamine
Minerals: Iron, magnesium and potassium
Also provide: Fiber, flavonoids and protein
Benefits: Combat free radicals, which can reduce cancer risk
Did you know? If you like the convenience of canned black beans but are watching sodium levels, try canned organic black beans, which tend to have less salt.
Recipe: Black Beans and Rice

Walnuts

Vitamins: A, E, folate, riboflavin and thiamine
Minerals: Calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium
Also provide: Fiber, omega-3s and protein
Benefits: Lower the risk of heart disease and improve cholesterol
Did you know? Walnuts are the only nut with a significant amount of ellagic acid, a cancer-fighting antioxidant.
Recipe:Caesar Salad with Roquefort and Walnuts

We all know that vegetables, whether edible or not, are part of plants-potatoes are enlarged parts of the roots, carrots are the roots themselves, celery is the main stalk, spinach is the leaf, artichoke is the flower and eggplant is the fruit. Mushrooms are exceptions. They don’t belong in the Plant Kingdom but are fungi.

Several parts of certain plant may be edible, such as the root and leaves of turnips and beets, while in some plants a certain part is edible, others may be poisonous. The enlarged root of the potato plant is perfectly healthy to eat but the poisonous leaves you want to eat only if you are contemplating suicide. Rhubarb has a wonderful edible stalk but the leaves can kill you.

All vegetables have fibers, a substance essential to human health, but some have more, others have less. Fibers give rigidity and shape to the living plant. We cannot digest fibers, which are organic substance called cellulose, so they have no nutritive values to the body. But we cannot digest our foods without them.

The vegetables that cook quickly, e.g. cabbage, have relatively low amounts of fiber, those that are slow-cooking, such as artichoke, are often high in fiber. Age also determines how much fiber a vegetable has. The older it is, the more fibrous. A young kohlrabi is soft and tender like a fresh radish, while an old one is hard to cut through with a knife, it is so full of tough fibers.

The root-end parts of plants have higher fiber content than the blossom-end part. The bottom portion of an asparagus is full of coarse, tough fibers while the young top velvety-tender tips have very little.

Cooking for best appearance

There are pigments that Nature uses to dye vegetables. Intensely colored vegetables on the plate give a great impact to our visual senses that translates to heightening appetites. Our early American heritage from English and northern European immigrants favored overcooked vegetables, a tradition that continued until relatively recently.

Overcooking kills flavor because the volatile flavor components escape with the steam, but it also kills color pigments. Compare the favor and color of overcooked green beans to crisp quick-cooked beans. Today’s tendency of vegetable cookery among the new foodies is crisp, but tender-brief cooking to the point of al dente. But such tendency is regional. People in the southern U.S., for instance, still tend to cook vegetables longer than their compatriots on the East and West coasts.

Green is the most common vegetable color. The pigment chlorophyll gives the green coloration and this pigment is sensitive to length of cooking and acidity of the cooking liquid. Both destroy the pigment and change it to another pigment that has a drab, unappetizing army olive-green color.

Never cook green vegetables in acidic liquid. Yet, all vegetables contain some acid and long cooking leaches those into the cooking liquid. As a result, the water becomes more and more acidic and the chlorophyll pigment disappears. Cooking green vegetables in uncovered pot is helpful because in covered pot water concentrates the acid, but without the lid much of it evaporates with the steam.

Older cookbooks suggest adding baking soda to the cooking water to make it alkaline and retain bright colors. More recently nutritionists found, on the other hand, that vegetables they cook in alkaline water lose much more nutrients than those they cook in neutral and acidic water. Hence, never add baking soda to the vegetable cooking water.

Yellow and orange vegetables owe their colors to pigments called carotenoids. Carrots, corn, tomato, winter squashes and red peppers carry these pigments. They are very stable in either long cooking or acids, but if you cook these vegetables very long, even these pigments transform and the vegetables’ color turn dull.

Red and purple color pigments are called anthocyanins. Beets and red cabbage carry these. They are very stable on long cooking but prolonged overcooking still destroys them, and your beet or cabbage turns colorless. But these pigments are extremely sensitive to acidity. Acid brightens the pigments, alkali changes them to blue or blue-green as you may have noticed when cooking red cabbage.

The change is not permanent-add a little acid (vinegar, lemon juice or cream of tartar) to the cooking water for your red cabbage that had turned blue, and it changes back to red.

White color pigments are the anthoxanthins. Potatoes, white cabbage, onion and cauliflower carry these pigments but also the white parts of leeks, celery, cucumber and zucchini. White pigments are stable on long cooking and remain stable in acidic cooking water.

Alkalic water changes them to yellow pigments. So if you want your cauliflower to turn dingy yellow for your dinner guests you don’t like, add baking soda to the cooking water. Otherwise a little lemon juice or other acid keeps white vegetables snow white. But prolonged overcooking or holding vegetables over heat too long also changes colors to dull yellow, grayish pink or any unappetizing shades.

Members of the mousse clan are creamy-sweet, velvet-smooth concoctions that we savor by each spoonful in gastronomic delight. They are pudding-like with no pastry base or topping and no flour other than as thickener.

The clan includes the familiar and homey puddings and custards, the stylish, elegant mousses, the less familiar creams (or crèmes), the old-fashioned fools, whips and the culinary tour-de-force, sweet soufflés. Although their preparation ranges from simple to difficult, they all satisfy your sweet tooth like nothing else.

Who is who

Puddings and custards are based on milk (or cream), eggs and sugar in varying combination as well as flavorings. The thickening agent is egg. Recipes may also call for flour, starch or gelatin to ensure a firmer structure. Although these thickeners are not essential, they reduce the chance of failure in case your eggs turn out scrambled instead of thickener.

There is a subtle difference between custard and pudding. Usually anything thickened with eggs only are called custards, while puddings also contain another thickener. The basic preparation for both is the same and both used to be more popular than they are today.

They are easy to prepare, nutritious and inexpensive, and institutions often served them to save on labor. When cheap instant pudding powders appeared on grocery store shelves, they made home preparation remarkably easy. Just stir the powder into water, heat and you have instant dessert. Today bakers still serve them as informal everyday desserts, though less frequently.

Gelatin desserts are also in this category.

Creams and mousses are closely related and similar to custards and puddings in consistency. Creams (the French call them crèmes) are heavy cream and flavorings whipped together without any thickeners.

Mousses are whipped cream and flavorings with added gelatin to give a firmer structure. If there are eggs in the mousse, they are not for thickening but for extra flavor. Some recipes fold in beaten egg whites for a cloud-like texture. Mousses today are especially fashionable desserts.

Fools and whips are always fruit based desserts. In case of fools (originally a British term of endearment from where the name came), you fold sweetened whipped cream into puréed or finely chopped fruits, while whips use a similarly prepared fruit with sweetened beaten egg whites folded into them, instead of cream.

Both are best when cold. Fools are uncooked but whips may be baked before serving. Just as easy to prepare as creams and mousses, they can also be just as impressive and delicious. For some reason they are not nearly as popular as mousses.

They are particularly good summer desserts when plenty of fresh, good-flavored fruits are in season, especially berries. Their frosty, refreshing chill is a welcome sight on a hot summer dinner table. Let’s not forget the most spectacular member of this family, dessert soufflés.

They demand far more preparation, attention and expertise than fools or puddings, but the basic ingredients are similar: mostly eggs and flavoring, often with milk and possibly flour or starch. The ingredients and their exact proportions are critical. So is the way you whip the egg whites, and the technique for making the basic sauce, as well as the temperature of the oven and bake time. Presenting a perfect soufflé as a finale to any meal is like serving a piece of art.

You make soufflés in two basic steps. First, you carefully cook and thicken an egg yolk based custard-like sauce. Add the flavorings after the sauce reaches the right consistency. The second step is to beat the egg whites to a soft-peak stage and fold the foam into the sauce. Pour the mixture into a vertical-sided soufflé mold and bake. Heat expands the beaten egg white, just like in a cake but the soufflé’s structure is especially unstable.

Soufflés can easily double, even triple in volume in the oven. Insert a paper collar around the inner edge of the soufflé mold to give support to the baking batter that rises above the edge of the dish. Otherwise you will end up with a giant mushroom shape with a large flat cap. Remove the collar just before serving.

When to remove the finished soufflé from the oven is also crucial. Pull it out a few minutes too soon, and you and your guests can watch your marvelous creation deflate before your very eyes.Leave it in two minutes too long and you end up with something that beginning to taste like a dry omelet thickened with sawdust.

Soufflés don’t hold well. You must serve them straight out of the oven, so you must keep the guests on schedule. To serve this masterpiece for maximum effect, place it on the table, cut into pieces and served while everyone is watching. An alternative is to bake soufflé in individual soufflé dishes. Either way, soufflé is best fresh. They don’t store well till the next day.

For all the time and effort you put into them, the risk of total disaster is high. Baking soufflés is for brave and experienced cooks but the results are spectacularly rewarding. Prudent cooks have a back-up dessert when baking soufflés.

Safe seafood

The old proverb, “fish and visitors stink after three days” has a lot of truth to it. Fish is the most perishable of all foods and, if you don’t store it properly, the smell reminds you in a few days. The reasons are both physical and chemical, and have to do with the way fish are built.

Knowing this can assure you that you always have safe and fresh seafood on your table. And if the meal doesn’t taste good, you can blame your cooking. Enzymes in different parts of the fish begin softening and breaking down the flesh immediately after it dies. Bacteria and oxidation join the enzymes almost at once to speed the spoiling process.

Cleaning and washing the seafood as soon as it is out of the water help to reduce bacterial spoilage, but it doesn’t slow down the enzymes and oxidation. The only thing works is to quickly reduce its temperature to near freezing, or even lower. This is the critical step that impacts the quality of all seafood more than anything else that happens from the time it leaves its native waters until it is in your hands.

The muscles in seafood stiffen very quickly after death. Quality is highest if the fishermen freeze it before this stiffening sets in, otherwise freezing can actually damage the meat. They harvest farm-raised fish and shellfish under ideal conditions, and if they designate them for the frozen seafood market, the freezing process is virtually immediate. This assures you the quality of frozen farm-raised seafood.

Seafood spoils so rapidly that it is unlikely you get sick from eating it. If it is well-past fresh, your nose gives you warning. It still may be safe to eat if well-cooked, but the flavor is likely to be bad. Once it develops a really strong odor, it is no longer safe to eat, but by then you are on your way to the nearest trash can.

How to store your seafood

The seafood industry’s motto is: Keep it Cold, Keep it Clean, Keep it Moving. Once you buy fresh seafood, give it the same treatment. If you are planning to use it the same day, you are keeping it moving. If you are planning it to appear on your table in a day or two, keep it as cold as possible short of freezing.

Have you noticed how seafood markets do it? If packaged, they keep it in their coolers with the temperature set to just above freezing, around 34°F (1°C). (If you want to check this, you can usually find a thermometer in a display case in a hidden corner.)

Most home refrigerators run closer to 40°F (5°C), a little too warm for seafood. Now look at the fresh seafood display. Everything is sitting on a thick bed of ice-the seafood is at the ideal near-freezing storage temperature. And that is easy to duplicate home. Just set the seafood on a bed of ice in a pan and cover it. This is the best way to keep it for the longest-lasting fresh flavor.

The back of the bottom shelf of your refrigerator is the coldest, best spot to store. Drain off melted water and replace ice daily. Fishing vessels keep their catch fresh with the same method for up to 15 days.

The only seafood you should not store on ice are live crabs, lobsters and crayfish. They prefer to be at 40°F (5°C), and they definitely don’t want to be set on a bed of ice. Live soft-shell crabs (since they don’t have their coats on) opt for an even warmer climate, if they have a choice. They should be between 50° and 55°F (10° and 13°C).

If you let seafood warm up above 40°F (5°C), the rate of deterioration increases rapidly. On a warm day the temperature of a nice thin fillet can rise above that magic number between the time it leaves the fish counter and when you tuck it into your refrigerator at home. Either take a small cooler along with ice in it when you go shopping, or buy a small bag or two of some frozen food that you can keep next to the fish on the way home.

To keep the seafood clean (the second part of the motto), handle it is little as possible and only with absolutely clean hands so you are transferring little or no bacteria.

Frozen fish is much less troublesome to handle and store. A solidly frozen piece is not likely to defrost much between the grocery store and home, even on a hot day.

Here your concern is to plan ahead so you can defrost the fish slowly in the refrigerator before cooking it rather than on the kitchen counter, under running water or in the microwave. If you raise the temperature too quickly, you lose too much internal moisture and the result is a drier piece of seafood on your plate, no matter how carefully you cook it.

You can freeze fresh or leftover cooked extra seafood, though you cannot duplicate the speed of commercial freezing so essential for good flavor and moist meat. The trick is too freeze it as quickly as you can to minimize damage to the cells that hold moisture within the meat. The worst way to freeze is to wrap up a large piece of fish and place it in the freezer.

It may take half a day or more before the center part is frozen, that is much too slow. Slow freezing causes large ice crystals to form inside the meat, the crystals pierce the cells, and when you defrost it, the cells leak their liquid.

Here are some suggestions:

¨ If you want to keep a large fish whole, place it unwrapped on a metal baking sheet and

put it in the freezer. It freezes faster without the wrapping. Wrap it after it freezes solid.

¨ A still better way is to cut the fish up into steaks, fillets or chunks and place the pieces

side by side on a metal baking sheet so they freeze rapidly, then wrap.

¨ Set your timer so you’ll remember to check the progress periodically. When wrapping, attempt to eliminate as much air as possible, label it and put it back into the freezer.

Ice glazing is an excellent method that eliminates damaging air pockets (inevitable in any packaging) and keeps the seafood from drying out in storage. To ice glaze, prepare a pan of ice water. Freeze the seafood the way I suggested and as soon as it is solid, dip it into the ice water for a few second until a layer of ice coats each piece. Put the pieces back in the freezer for 15 minutes then repeat ice glazing. Then wrap, label and store it in the freezer. If you defrost this slowly, it will be almost like fresh.

You cannot successfully freeze all fresh seafood. As a rule, the fattier the meat, the less amenable it is to freezing. Your chances are better with lean species. Nearly all shellfish freeze well, too. Lobster, crab and crayfish meat must be blanched before freezing to preserve their texture and flavor.

The longer you keep seafood in the freezer, the more flavor you lose. Provided it is well wrapped, and your home freezer’s temperature is 0°F (-18°C) (typical for a good home freezer), you can keep frozen seafood up to a year. But if your freezer is just ten degrees warmer, 10°F (- 12°C) don’t keep seafood frozen for more than two months. If you happen to live on the north slope of the Arctic at an average temperature of -40°F (-40°C) you can store seafood indefinitely.

Check your freezer’s temperature with an accurate thermometer and date every package you put into it.

You cannot easily duplicate ideal storage conditions for potatoes in your home so don’t buy more than what you can use in a few weeks. Thick-skinned potatoes keep longer than the thin-skinned varieties.

If stored above 50°F (10°C), potatoes begin to sprout, which makes them flabby and more susceptible to decay, even though most storage potatoes are chemically treated to delay (but not stop) sprouting.

If you store them in your refrigerator, potatoes turn sweet and taste unpleasant. Here is what happens. After harvesting, the still-living potatoes continue to breathe and to convert their starch to sugar at a slow rate, the way they naturally do. When you quickly cool them to refrigerator temperature, potatoes slow their breathing rate (because breathing slows at cooler temperature), but the reaction that converts starch to sugar continues at the same rate.

They cannot use up the sugar fast enough, it accumulates and refrigerated potatoes taste too sweet. The sugar converts back to starch if you return the potatoes to room temperature, but the process doesn’t reverse completely.

Because of the increased sugar, refrigerated potatoes are particularly poor choice for frying. The sugar caramelizes in the hot oil, the potatoes tend to burn and become bitter.

You should store potatoes under well-ventilated conditions so they can continue to breathe. That is one reason why the plastic bags in which they are sold always have little breathing holes.

For long-term storage, add an apple to the potatoes. The presence of apple preserves potatoes longer in firm, healthy conditions and discourages sprouting. Apple gives off ethylene gas and alcohol while it breathes that suppress sprout formation.

Cooking potatoes is one of the first thing a new cook learns. Not much to it but keep in mind a few points:

¨ use just enough water to cover (to leach minimum of nutrients)

¨ salt the water, otherwise you leach the natural salt from the potatoes and they taste flat

¨ don’t overcook or undercook, so keep testing with the point of a knife or skewer; cooking time is around 15 minutes for diced potatoes but varies with your location and how large the dices are. Average-size whole potatoes cook in about 30 minutes, large ones 45 minutes.

When baking potatoes, don’t cover with aluminum foil unless you like soft skin. In foil potatoes steam instead of bake. But oiling or greasing the skin before baking promotes browning and crispy skin. Pricking the skin with a fork or knife before baking is also a good idea to prevent a possible explosion in the oven that could happen if the potatoes have tough skin and the built-up steam inside cannot escape. It makes quite a mess in the oven.

French frying is a messy operation even with a home deep-fryer but properly-made French-fried potatoes are delicious. In deep-frying you reduce the high moisture content of potatoes from the original 78 percent to about 2 percent.

The moisture turns to steam in the hot oil, desperately trying to escape while spattering oil everywhere, creating a mess. As bubbles of steam burst when emerging from the surface of oil, they produce a small hissing sound. All the bursting bubbles together act like an orchestra to create that pleasing sizzle with its anticipation of that heavenly deep-fried taste.

The steam escapes first from the hottest part of the potatoes, the surface which is in direct contact with the hot oil. Then, as the center part of potato gets hotter, moisture starts turning to steam that escapes through the outside part. Eventually not much water remains in the potato and the sizzling dies down.

The outward pressure of escaping steam keeps the oil from seeping into the potatoes, but the steam also cools their surface to prevent burning (evaporating water cools, like your skin after coming out of the pool). When most of the moisture has boiled off, the potatoes become vulnerable to burning but also start absorbing more oil.

Oil temperature is critical. If the oil is too hot, the surface of the potatoes burn before the inside is properly cooked. If the oil is too cool, the escaping steam doesn’t have enough pressure to keep excess oil out of the potatoes. The correct deep frying temperature is 375°F (192°C).

Unless you have a thermometer or a thermostat on your deep-fryer, there is no easy way to judge that. Various home methods, such as browning a certain-size bread cube in so many seconds that some cookbooks suggest, are not accurate enough when oil temperature should be preferably within 15° of the ideal. For that reason the results of home French-frying is not often as satisfying as French-fried products in a good fast-food joint.

The best method of deep-frying potatoes is the two-stage method. In the first stage you cook the potatoes in oil at a lower temperature, 325°F (161°C), until they are limp but not brown, about 3 to 4 minutes. In this stage the oil is hot enough to gelatinize starch, in other words, to cook the potatoes. In the second stage the already cooked potatoes quickly brown at 375°F (192°C).

As I was looking for an interesting story to write, I found this wonderful article that I think everyone will want to read , at least the ones who have 9 to 5 jobs:

As much as I believe in the power of a midday pause, I’m often as guilty as anyone else of dashing out, grabbing takeout and returning to eat in front of the computer. When I’m not brown-bagging it, that is.

It’s not the most healthful approach, perhaps mentally even more than physically. I’ve read about Take Back Your Lunch, a movement started by the Energy Project that encourages workers to reclaim the lunch hour, and of course it makes sense to fuel creativity by stepping away and relaxing, even to see friends or to network. One colleague of mine is the king of the indulgent lunch, giving no thought to cabbing off to Alexandria for the prix-fixe special at Restaurant Eve or taking the Metro to Arlington for a hit of Ray’s Hell-Burger. And he’s plenty productive at work.

Even if I made the time, though, here’s a news flash: My office is nicely air-conditioned, and in the recent triple-digit heat downtown, I would rather do anything than step outdoors, especially around noon. When I head down to The Post’s cafeteria, trying to find something appealing at the so-called Around the World Bar, let’s just say that it doesn’t bode well for the rest of the day.

The compromise? I take the time to cook lunch myself. I should probably put quote marks around that operative verb, because compared with what I usually do at home, this might not exactly be considered cooking. Nonetheless, for someone like me who finds the kitchen the most meditative room in the house, it’s still almost as soothing to cobble together something in our office’s kitchenette as it is to chop, heat, slice and stir at home.

I’ve made a game of it. What ingredients can I bring to work and store in my dorm-size fridge or desk drawers that will last without quickly spoiling (or annoying my office mates); can pack enough flavor to allow me to forgo spices and seasonings; and can be made with the simplest of equipment?

Smoked, cured and/or otherwise fully cooked sausages, herb-brined olives and canned sardines go to the front of the line. Right behind is tomato paste in a tube, which, unlike its canned counterpart, is more convenient for single-serving recipes. Canned beans (I prefer the low-sodium or no-salt-added variety) are ready whenever you are. Instant couscous and angel-hair pasta nests are shelf-stable and cook in minutes.

Best of all, these ingredients can be prepared using the typical appliances in office kitchens.

Truth be told, I do sometimes employ a toaster oven at work, but in acknowledgment of the fact that many offices aren’t as well equipped, I resisted developing recipes for this column that way. Instead, my instruments have been the microwave and teakettle. At home, I use the former for two things: reheating and cooking a potato or sweet potato. At work, its job has been limited to “cooking” — really just heating — toppings for that pasta and couscous.

The teakettle does what teakettles do: boil water, a key step in making instant couscous. I’ve also taken advantage of the fact that angel-hair pasta is delicate enough that once boiling water has been added, its residual heat can get the noodles to al dente in a few minutes flat. I also have been known to “blanch” vegetables such as snow peas, sugar snaps and broccoli using the same technique.

At first, I was a little hamstrung by the kitchen tools, or lack thereof. What passes for a sharp knife in our office would prompt any culinary instructor to launch into a lecture about the importance of cutlery maintenance. And forget measuring cups or a big cutting board.

No matter. A dull paring knife can still handle olives, spinach leaves and sausage. Sardines barely need breaking up with a fork. The container of instant couscous comes with its own measuring scoop, and I found a plastic leftover-food container that has cup markings on the side for the water that will hydrate the couscous. Mostly, measurements aren’t needed; I boil as much water as possible to keep the pasta from getting gummy, and I eyeball everything else.

Preparing food at work comes with etiquette issues, the types of behaviors that prompt those “Your Mother Doesn’t Work Here” signs. I keep things clean enough, but I’ve been worried about those sardines. After all, I’ve been in some offices that specifically forbid fish in the microwave, because the device has a way of carrying the odor across time and space. But with a paper towel over the fish and just enough time to heat the small amount I use, I’ve avoided the wrath of others.

After several weeks of experiments, my pasta with sardines was pungently satisfying, but the couscous-and-sausage concoction was so simple it verged on boring. That’s when another crucial ingredient became mandatory. Now, one thing I always keep in my desk drawer is a little bottle of Tabasco.

I don’t think I’ll be completely satisfied with my workplace cooking, though, until I cross one remaining hurdle. Once the weather cools, I am going to try my darnedest, after I whip up something in our kitchenette, to carry the plate or bowl not back to my desk, but up to a roof-deck patio. And maybe even to invite a colleague to do the same

Scallops have firm, ivory-colored meat that can be divine if not overcooked. The flavor is sweet, nutty and delicate. They are readily available in seafood markets, but they must be absolutely fresh to be good. Everything between the two shells is edible, although in North America people opt for the single large adductor muscle only.

Unlike clam shells, the two halves of a scallop shell don’t completely close. They dehydrate quickly after harvesting and die if the fishermen don’t keep them in optimum environment. Because they are so perishable, processors often clean scallops on board the fishing vessel and keep them on ice. They are not as easily available for harvesting as shrimp.

The fishermen must catch enough to make it worthwhile to bring them into port, so those unfortunate ones they caught early may be shivering quite a while on ice before they haul the last ones in.

Storing scallops in fresh water improves the all-important appearance for marketability. Unfortunately for the consumer, this also increases weight and dilutes flavor.

Individually quick-frozen scallops retain their freshness, flavor and moisture well, and you often get a better buy and quality than fresh ones when you cannot validate just how fresh is fresh.

Distributors usually soak scallops destined to sell as fresh in a chemical (sodium tripolyphosphate) to retain moisture and improve appearance. They may look great but be wary-the chemical alters the flavor and you might think of wandering over to the frozen counter instead.

Stores commonly sell two major species of scallops, the small and more delicately flavored bay scallops and the larger, more abundant and nearly as good sea scallops, which are much cheaper. Tiny calico scallops from Florida are very uncommon. They resemble bay scallops but supposedly don’t have as good a flavor.

The scallops at the market are pure meat, you only lose the liquid it releases on cooking. Count on 4 to 5 ounces (110 to 140 g) per person.

Shrimp is without doubt our most popular shellfish and among the most popular of all seafood. With its firm meat (when not overcooked) and delicate, distinctive but not overpowering flavor, even diners who never choose seafood from a menu may order shrimp (provided there’s some juicy red meat on the plate next to the shrimp).

A dozen different species of commercially important shrimp grow in various parts of the world. With modern air transportation, we have access to all of them. Flavor has nothing to do with size, but restaurants prefer the large shrimp, because they are easier and faster to shell and look very showy on the plate.

Diners are also willing to pay extra for colossal and jumbo sizes. Sizes vary tremendously. Really tiny shrimp weigh less than one-tenth of an ounce (3 g) each (the weight of a clove of garlic), while the giant species weigh in at about half a pound (225 g), too much for one serving.

A significant amount of imported shrimp is now coming from Asian shrimp farms, where they harvest and immediately flash freeze them, then ship by air all over the world. Shrimp are so perishable that they must freeze them immediately after they leave the water. If the shrimp you brought home from the store turns out not very good, blame it on the handling somewhere between the water and your plate. (Or blame the cook.)

It is the underpaid retail store worker that knows the least about handling and storing to preserve flavor. Your best bet is to buy shrimp frozen, if you can find it packaged in the right quantity, and defrost it yourself. (See suggestions on storing later in this chapter.)

Retailers generally buy shrimp in four-pound boxes, that are only occasionally displayed, but you can request a full frozen box. Asian markets always have them in the freezer case. The fresh-looking shrimp on display at the fish counter are not fresh-the clerk defrosted them just a few hours before you arrived. Usually the only way you can buy fresh, never-frozen shrimp is from fishing boats just pulling in.

Don’t ever buy pre-cooked shrimp. Cooking shrimp is almost as easy as cooking potatoes, and you can do a far better job than the supermarket’s underpaid cook in the back.

We should not leave some of pasta’s close relatives unmentioned, even though they are relatively unimportant when it comes to North American menu items.

The overwhelming variety of strange-named Asian noodles intimidates most Western cooks who, until now, entirely disregarded them. But Asian noodles are “in” and we can no longer ignore them.

Even mainline supermarkets carry some of them, and one, ramen noodles became household name. Ramen soup packages are highly popular, inexpensive and most convenient, almost instant, reasonably flavorful soups that appear on many people’s pantry shelf.

Most Asian noodles are no different from our pasta products. They are usually long products made with wheat flour and there is absolutely no reason why you could not substitute similar-shaped pasta for them.

Oriental egg noodles are similar to Italian angel hair pasta, vermicelli or spaghettini (these are all long but increasingly thicker pasta) but the Oriental version includes a small amount of egg. For example, you can use vermicelli or angel hair pasta

when the recipe calls for thin Chinese noodles or ramen noodles.

The Japanese make similar noodles from buckwheat flour, giving a heavy, dark-hued pasta. Some Oriental cuisines even make noodles from mung bean flour. There is no substitute for these types in the Italian pasta repertoire.

Rice flour is the ingredient for rice noodles. They have different texture, color, appearance and mouthfeel than wheat flour noodles of the same shape but if you are stuck in a recipe, go ahead, substitute with vermicelli weight by weight.

You can also use a more commonly available Asian noodles for some odd-named variety a recipe calls for, just like you can substitute one Italian pasta for another in most recipes. The result may not be authentic but the dish will taste the same.

Spätzle is a somewhat more distant cousin, mostly in German and Eastern European cooking (it is called galuska in Hungary and kluski in Poland). Spätzle is really a fresh, homemade irregular-shaped egg pasta, the size of cherries, that look like tiny dumplings. Its blessings is in its quick preparation yet it also tastes good with a slightly chewy consistency of al dente macaroni. Spätzle is so rough and irregular in shape, that it holds sauces very effectively like many tiny little spoons.

With a little experience you can put spätzle on the table in less than 10 minutes. Put the pot of water on to heat and mix the flour, water and egg into a medium-stiff dough, something like a soft yeast bread dough. Form it into small chunks and drop into the boiling water. It is ready three minutes later. Drain and serve.

Experienced cooks can make spätzle with nothing but a small board and a spoon with which they scrape little pieces of dough into the boiling water. But if you are making more than 6 or 8 servings, a spätzle-maker is handy. I came across two kinds.

One is a flat, rectangular shaped metal tool with large holes that looks like a flat grater. It has hooks to hold it firmly on top of a pot. You place some of the dough on top of it while it sits over the boiling water, and scrape it back and forth with a spoon until you press the dough through the holes, then continue with the rest of the dough.

The second type is a food-mill-like tool with a handle that rotates a paddle on the bottom. The paddle presses the dough through holes into the boiling water. This also has hooks to firmly set it over a pot of boiling water. Both are efficient, easy to use.

Italian gnocchi is similar to spätzle but you make it with semolina instead of standard household flour. Italians, who like variations on a theme, add other ingredients besides the flour to cook cornmeal gnocchi, potato gnocchi, ricotta gnocchi to name a few.

In the last couple of decades, scientists have discovered more reasons (beyond vitamins and fiber) to pack your diet with fruits and vegetables: phytochemicals. All plants contain these compounds, which protect them from a variety of dangers-from harmful UV rays to predatory pests.

We take in phytochemicals when we eat fruits and vegetables and, as it turns out, they protect us too. Some act as antioxidants, mopping up unstable “free radical” molecules that can damage cells and lead to the development of heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s and other health issues. Others work by boosting the immune system.

What’s fascinating is that nature seems to have a way of highlighting these beneficial nutrients by giving them bright colors that allow you to spot them at a glance. For example, anthocyanins make blueberries blue and may help to keep your mind sharp. Tomatoes get their ruby hue from lycopene, a phytochemical that may help to prevent prostate cancer.

To get the maximum disease-fighting power that phytochemicals can provide, choose foods that represent all colors of the rainbow. The USDA suggests paying particular attention to orange (2 cups per week) and dark green (3 cups per week) produce, both good sources of vitamin A and other important nutrients.

Red

Red foods, such as tomatoes and watermelon, contain lycopene, a phytochemical that may help protect against prostate and breast cancers.

Guava
Pink grapefruit
Red peppers
Tomatoes
Watermelon

Orange

Alpha and beta carotene make foods like carrots and sweet potatoes so brilliantly orange. The body converts these compounds into the active form of vitamin A, which helps keep your eyes, bones and immune system healthy. These phytochemicals also operate as antioxidants, sweeping up disease-promoting free radicals.

Apricots
Cantaloupe
Carrots
Mango
Oranges
Papaya
Pumpkin
Sweet potatoes
Tangerines
Winter squash

Yellow & Green, part 1 (leafy greens)

Many yellow and green vegetables are good sources of lutein and zeaxanthin, phytochemicals that accumulate in the eyes and help prevent age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in older people. Leafy greens are also rich in beta carotene.

Artichoke
Corn
Lettuce
Summer squash
Wax beans
Arugula
Chard
Collards
Mustard greens
Turnip greens

Green, part 2 (cruciferous)

Cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli and kale, provide compounds called indoles and isothiocyanates, which may help prevent cancer by amping up the production of enzymes that clear toxins from the body.

Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cauliflower
Green cabbage
Kale

Blue & Purple/Deep Red

Blue, purple and deep-red fruits and vegetables are full of anthocyanins and proanthocyanins, antioxidants associated with keeping the heart healthy and the brain functioning optimally.

Blackberries
Blueberries
Eggplant
Plums
Cranberries
Grapes
Radishes (red)
Raspberries
Strawberries

Through culinary evolutions and revolutions, potatoes remain on the menus of western cultures. One reason is that the potato is hard to ruin. It is forgiving of your cooking errors and ends up edible even if you have the least cooking skill and pay minimal attention.

For people who know nothing at all about cooking and detest the kitchen, the food processing industry invented instant potatoes, which are both faster and easier to prepare than the real thing, though its flavor and texture resemble potato’s like a horse-and-buggy resembles the automobi

All the different kinds
The number of varieties of potatoes cultivated all over the world is huge. What farmers can grown economically, harvest effectively, transport without damage and store for a relatively long time without deterioration dictate the few choices available to consumers in the U.S. and Canada.

What consumers are willing to accept also influences farmers’ decision. Like everything else on the market, what is available in the produce section of your local grocery store is a series of compromises-not necessarily the best but always available (therefore recognizable), inexpensive and reasonably good.

Mealy or waxy

As cooks, we can appraise potatoes from two points of view-culinary use and appearance. For culinary purposes there are two broad classes. Which one you choose for what culinary purpose determines how the potato looks on your plate:

1. The dry, fluffy, starchy, mealy types which produce the most appealing and tasty baked potatoes. These are also good choices for frying and deep-frying as they absorb less oil. These potatoes tend to fall apart when you boil them.

2. The waxy, moist types with lower starch content that hold up well and firmer when you cook them in water. They are best as boiled and scalloped potatoes or in potato salads. These varieties still taste good baked, but sacrifice the dry fluffy texture.

The kind you happened to have in your pantry dictates how you should prepare them. But don’t hesitate to use one kind for a less suitable use, if that is all you have. They just won’t be perfect.

If you don’t know what specific variety you have, one of these quick tests will tell you whether they are high-starch or low-starch.

1. Cut the potato in half and rub the two cut pieces briskly against each other. If the potato has a lot of starch, you produce plenty of frothy, starchy juice as you rub.

2. Prepare a brine of 1 part salt to 11 parts water and drop a piece of potato in it. High starch potatoes are denser and sink in the brine. Low-starch potatoes float.

Appearance

U.S. and Canadian commercial growers cultivate about 33 varieties of potatoes, not including a couple of dozen specialty potatoes-8 to 10 of these dominate the market. This number changes as agronomists introduce newer, more promising varieties and abandon less desirable ones. The names, however, don’t mean very much to either cooks or consumers because they are not much in use in the retail produce departments. You are likely to find four types on display:

1. The russet, that is also called Idaho potato, no matter where it is grown. Two-thirds of all U.S. potatoes are russets. These are the ideal baking and deep-frying potatoes.

Russets are light brown or russet brown in color with a slightly rough, thick skin, a long oval shape and shallow eyes. The flesh is creamy white. Even though these are high-starch frying or baking potatoes, they boil well, too, and do well in salads if you

are careful not to overcook them, or all that high starch makes them fall apart.

2. Red potatoes became trendy in the 1980s. They have red-colored smooth skins and are round or oval in shape with quite a few deep eyes. They are waxy and have a firm

texture. Their low starch content makes them perfect for boiling or sautéing, or in soups, stews or salads. Because of their thin skin and attractive color, your best approach is to use them unpeeled, if peels are acceptable in your preparation.

3. Round white potatoes have an ivory or creamy-buff rather than white skin, as the name implies, a thin peel and low starch. These are also waxy and ideal for boiling, but acceptable fried or baked as well.

4. Long white, California long white and white rose are different names for the same variety. California and Arizona grow them commercially. This variety has smooth fawn-colored skin, shallow eyes that are barely visible, a firm texture, low starch

content and creamy-white flesh similar to the round whites.

Russets, white and red potatoes are often available year-round in most part of the country if there is local demand for them. Each of these three common types have a number of varieties but you never know what you get since they don’t label varieties.   Occasionally you may see the name of a particularly common type, like round white katahdin or red Pontiac or russet Burbank.

What about new potatoes? This name doesn’t refer to a specific variety, but is applied to any potato that growers pick young (when the plant is still green) and the tubers are immature.

Farmers only harvest mature potatoes when the plant dries and turns yellow. New potatoes have a wonderful flavor, thin skin and are relatively perishable, therefore higher priced. New potatoes tend to be small and available only fresh-they don’t go in lengthy storage. Distributors specially select and package creamers or baby potatoes for uniformly small size and are pricey. High-end restaurants, clubs and other institutions tend to buy these.

Storage

Freshly harvested potatoes are more perishable than retail producers like. So growers put most potatoes through a curing process which gives them a chance to develop thicker skins and to heal bruises and cuts they receive during harvest and transportation.

They do this by storing them for two weeks at 50° to 60°F (10° to 15°C) at high humidity. Then they slowly lower the temperature to between 45° and 50°F (7° to 10°C), the ideal long-term storage temperature.

Potatoes keep for as long as 9 months at this temperature if the storage space is dark, has good ventilation and high humidity. Potatoes stored all winter are still in reasonably good condition in the spring when the new crop is not yet on the market.