Like NYC, but with Half the Calories

One of the magical things about the old NYC of my day (10-20 years ago) is that you could get a good egg sandwich everywhere, on almost every corner, from either an old diner or a bodega. None of this phony biscuit/English Muffin with American cheese fast-food crap either. Default bread was Kaiser Roll. (BTW, there is something kind of gross about the Starbucks fancified version of the McMuffin too… I can’t put my finger on it exactly but I think it has to do with the oversized English Muffin they use. Definitely not right. And the cheese too. IIRC it is too slimey).

Well, swimming–as reported on below–may seem like an effort at being healthy, but the flip side is that we just might come back from the pool hungry and feel like we’ve “earned” a hearty breakfast.

The other day just this happened and Laura and I began reminiscing about the old ubiquitous NYC Egg sandwich. We almost instantly realized that we could throw together a decent simulation right there in our kitchen.

We lacked for real breakfast meat, but we settled pretty happily for Morningstar fake bacon. This stuff has “only” half the fat etc of real bacon, which seems like an awful lot of fat for very flat tofu strips. Manolis, if you are reading, this is the stuff I made for you the other day that you didn’t like much. Problem? I followed the directions on the back. If you instead fry the stuff in a decent amount of olive oil, it is really, really good. Note the bacon-like grease under those yummy fried strips. It is in fact pure olive oil. Despite being surprisingly high in fat, the thing that actually makes these fake bacon strips good is their very intense smokiness. And, when fried, they are very satisfyingly crisp.

Laura did the eggs while I worked on defrosting and toasting the buns. Turns out see always ordered her Egg Sandwich scrambled in the city. I had no idea–I always got fried.

I assembled the layers of the sandwiches. Our buns were actually Organic Whole Wheat Hamburger buns from our Co-Op. Sounds lame, but they got the job done. Started with Cheese–supermarket extra sharp cheddar.

I covered the eggs with salt and pepper; a dash of Habanero for me, none for Laura. Perhaps the key ingedient is the salt: super-cheap and delicious Korean sea-salt. People often ask me what brand it is. Honestly, I have no idea. Consult the photo and tell me if you can figure it out. The stuff is delish and costs less than two bucks for a good-sized bag.

So I’ll end this photo essay with a picture of the salt and the habanero sauce, both from that miracle, Carbondale’s own Monah’s International Market, known locally as “international.” This shop deserves an essay of its own, and probably will get one soon. But suffice it to say that it makes Carbondale a much better place to live.

Oh, and the sandwiches were damn good.

Spaghetti Frutti di Mare

I feel this blog drifting toward food… As a guy who really wanted to have dinner with me in College and would not take no for an answer said, “a guy’s gotta eat,” so I should have some material. The odd thing about that guy is when I said I had to study all day, he proposed that I should roast a chicken for him as I wouldn’t be able to go anywhere anyway. So anyway last night I made a good dinner that was pretty easy and quick, although given that it is based on seafood and I was cooking it in Carbondale, I spent most of the time I worked on it defrosting the main ingredients. I used no recipe; it was very simple. I had this dish (of course it is just Spaghetti with assorted seafood) in Miami earlier this year, and it was good, but I thought “I can make that and it might even be better.” All the seafood was good at the restaurant, but there was a key flavor missing. When I got home, I called my Dad and asked him what herbs or spices he would use to cook this, and he said “nothing but Rosemary.” It works beautifully. I got shrimp, New Zealand Green Mussels, and a little piece of “Alaskan Cod,” all, alas, frozen.

I started the dish by heating Olive Oil and chopping a medium onion and a few little cloves of garlic. When they were going, I added canned whole tomatoes, about 1 and a half cans, and about two tablespoons of tomato paste. I threw in a handful of fresh rosemary. Once the tomatoes were simmering away, I started adding the seafood, starting with the shrimp, then the mussels, and finally the fish. The sauce remained a bit watery, so I removed the seafood in reverse order and simmered it down a bit. I also took the opportunity to shell the shrimp, hoping that I would get the best of both worlds, having the intense flavor of cooking shrimp in shells without the hassle of shelling them. I don’t mind shelling my own shrimp, but when the kids need me to help shell theirs too I don’t get much chance to eat while the food is still warm. The meal was a hit, particularly with my younger daughter whose two favorite foods are spaghetti and shrimp. She was even into the mussels. Sadly, my older daughter is very sick with a virus, and not only did she not get to eat this feast, but she kept waking up in the night complaining that the house smelled weird. At one point she said “Daddy, can you go take a shower so the smell will go away?” But I’m pretty sure it wasn’t me, it was the lingering scent of Fruitti di Mare.

Easter Feast Leads to World’s Greatest Sandwich

Seems like sandwiches are becoming a theme on this blog, even though I don’t actually believe in sandwiches. They aren’t real food, just snacks.

Ah, the good old days when I used to put my beliefs, like the above, into practice. Back then my slogan was “fat is flavor.” Now I am into reality-based views, such as “I am too fat.” And “I want to live long enough to see my kids grow up.” Oh well.

Anyhow, this weekend was Easter for Orthodox Christians, so we celebrated by eating a feast. I was proud of myself for preparing the whole meal in only 3.5 hours, which for me is a very brief feast preparation. I also was proud that I didn’t employ my normal “restaurant” method, which is to pretend that a clean-up crew will come in later and the mess isn’t my business. Of course, one reason for the relative brevity and the leisurely pace is that I didn’t take any pictures. Sorry.

I made a 7 3/4 lb roasted leg of lamb–the smallest leg of lamb available in town–roasted for about 2.5 hours at 375, with slivers of garlic and cinnamon stick poked into little holes all over the lamb, and then a layer of sea salt and oregano rubbed on.

I also made Greek roasted potatoes. For this, you slice potatoes into about 6-8 slices lengthwise. You then cover the potatoes with water, in a long pyrex dish, and squeeze half a lemon or so onto them, and then splash in some olive oil (and if you don’t do the next step, some salt). Only this time I made two dishes, and put the lamb over the dish (I switched the lamb from one dish to another and moved the lamb drippings between pans with a baster). Ridiculously delish, but very fat-is-flavor.

Then I made veggies: dandelion greens (ie leaves) that L collected from our garden; I washed and soaked and picked through them about 4 times each to get rid of dirt, grass, stray flower stems etc. Then I boiled them for over an hour in a full pot of water, chopped them thoroughly, and put them in a dish with lemon, olive oil, and sea salt. This makes very authentic Greek “Horta”. When they were done I cleaned the pot and boiled four large artichokes (I split them each in half and served them with vinagrette rather than butter).

Finally, I prepared what my family calls “shredded salad.” This is an all-green herb-based salad that is very authentically Greek. You start by carefully washing and drying a Romaine lettuce. You then shred it with a sharp knife into strips of less than a quarter inch. Then you prep and shred a third of a bunch of flat-leaf parsley, a big handful of fresh dill, and chop them both fine. Then cut four scallions into quarter inch or smaller bits. You throw ‘em all together into a decent sized salad bowl, drizzle with olive oil, and squueze in the juice of one very small lemon (or about 3/4 of a medium one), toss in a small palmful of sea salt, and toss vigorously.

This is where the world’s greatest sandwich comes in. The roast lamb came out beautifully. The top have was medium well-done, gray with streaks of light pink; the bottom half was cooked but entirely pink (not bloody or purple, but entirely pink). I cut very thin slices off the leftover roast–for me mostly pink but a little grey too, making sure to get bits of garlic and cinnamon in some slices– and then I layered some nice Feta cheese, four small slices of meat, and a final layer of shredded salad onto a good baguette.

And voila, the world’s greatest sandwich. With a small side of the potatoes (quickly warmed) it is heaven.

(yes, everything had lemon-olive oil-sea salt in it). The below is a stock photo; mine would have little bits of cinnamon stick poking out all over, but looked otherwise similar. The potatoes here look about right.