BostonZest

Entertaining? Wrap It Up!

From the most casual burrito to Julia Child’s elegant “Salmon en Papillote,” food in wraps, of one kind or another, can be a great solution for entertaining.

Here's one of our favorite wrap-ups – a Vietnamese crêpe using lettuce to create the perfect bite!

On the casual side of the world of wraps, many food cultures have their own version. Think of the Italian piadina, Greek gyros, Vietnamese lettuce wraps, Mexican tacos, Indian roti, Japanese sushi, Chinese moo shi, dumplings and the list goes on and on. Many of these began as street food and the wrapper made it easy for someone to eat as they stood or walked along.

On the elegant side, we have a world of food wrapped in paper (in the case of Julia’s “en Papillote”) or in pastry as in Beef Wellington, Camembert wrapped in pastry, savory strudels, and pies enclosed in hot water crust, pizza dough, puff pastry, phyllo, or dozens of other coatings.

Quesadillas are another wrapped food.

Create a Wrap Bar

For easy entertaining you can create a wrap bar which is nothing more than a table filled with an assortment of good things to tuck inside another good thing. You can have a theme using any of the cultures mentioned above.

For example: a taco table could have tortillas, salsas, avocados, pickled onions and cabbage, meats, chopped lettuce, crema, and lime. You can offer non-meat options like sautéd zucchini, scrambled eggs, seasoned potatoes, or for a very authentic taste nopales – otherwise known as cactus paddles.

By letting everyone select and prepare their own meal, you can accommodate friends and family with many food preferences.

 

Here is another favorite of ours, Salmon en papillote with carrots, ginger, chives, and lemon zest peeking out of its parchment paper wrapper.

En Papillote

In Jacques Pépin’s “New Complete Techniques,” this master of cooking skills writes, “When you see ‘papillote’ on a menu in a French restaurant, you can safely assume that it describes a dish served in an envelope of parchment paper …” He goes on to explain, “When the papillote is folded correctly (it is sealed so that none of the aroma and steam can escape) it browns nicely, inflates, and the dish inside bakes in its own juices. The papillote is served directly on the serving plate and the guest opens it himself.”

If this is the only dish you learn to cook for company, you will be a relaxed chef with happy guests. You can prepare the packages hours in advance and tuck them into the refrigerator to wait for their trip to the oven.

Change-ups for different guests are easy. If salmon is on the menu, just substitute a piece of chicken for the person who doesn’t like fish. You can make a vegetarian option or one without a specific ingredient.

Your main item in the parchment paper package is topped with a selection of vegetables, herbs, and seasoning that enhance the flavor and complete the meal. With today’s prepared vegetable options in the marketplace, you don’t even have to do all the chopping and prep work. Just select your main ingredient and shop for some spiralized vegetables to add to the meal. 

If folding the packages is more than you care to do, there are even parchment paper bags to make that part easier.

Most versions take less than half an hour in a hot oven and are ready to slide onto a dinner plate and present at the table.

Crêpes are another lovely wrapped meal.

Some dinner party entrées, such as Beef Wellington, take a bit of skill and cheffy work to succeed. If you have the time and the skills, this dish can be fun to make and very impressive to serve. However, there are other options that can begin with a package of pizza dough or frozen puff pastry and your imagination. So the next time it’s your turn to entertain, think about how you will wrap it up!

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2017 Penny & Ed Cherubino
(Adapted for BostonZest from one of our Fresh & Local newspaper columns.)

In Sickness & In Health We Love Our Companion Animals

You have to admire veterinarians. They have to know how to care for animals of all types from pets to exotic, wild, and working beasts. Their patients can’t tell them exactly what’s wrong and must depend on information from those who provide the day-to-day care for the animal. 

We’re fortunate to have a healthy dog in Poppy, but when the time comes that she needs care, we’ll be ready to provide it.

They also depend on us to follow through with the care they prescribe. That makes you the most important caregiver of your animals. Yet, for many of us, there is a steep learning curve especially in the case of a long-term illness.

When you learn that friends are dealing with a sick pet, offer them the same support, and perhaps respite, you might give to someone caring for a sick person. They are under the same physical strain, restrictions, and stress that all caregivers face.

Here's a photo of our dear, little Maggie Mae in her younger and healthier days.

Tips for Sick Pet Care

Over the years we’ve built coping skills that are useful when a dog is sick. We have shared the work. This included sleeping on different shifts as we dealt with our Maggie Mae’s cognitive dysfunction and sleeping in street-ready clothing so we could get her outside fast, if needed.

If you are not able to share the responsibility with a family member, consider hiring someone to give you time away from the situation. Ask your veterinarian if a vet tech might be available to sit with your sick animal for a few hours. You could also check with your groomer, dog walker, or ask a friend or neighbor you would trust with the task.

Disposable puppy pads and washable incontinence pads are great stress relievers. If you can avoid cleaning up a mess, that is one less stress adding to a difficult situation. (We also used disposable dog diapers for Maggie.)

If a dog was vomiting, we placed open pads in every room, ready to be quickly positioned under the dog as it began to gag. If you are not quick enough, the pads are great tools for clean up since they are designed to absorb liquids quickly.

Written records of all medications given; temperatures taken; symptoms noticed; changes in behavior, eating, drinking, and elimination are key to helping your veterinary team provide their best care. Since the days when our Sassy developed a seizure disorder, we have kept notebooks for all our dogs.

It is so nice to watch a group of healthy dogs play together in the park. 

For Healthy Dogs and Cats

For all of us fortunate to have healthy animals, deciding what symptoms require a call to a vet is a prime caregiving responsibility.

The American Veterinary Medical Association publishes this list of animal emergencies that require an immediate veterinary consultation:● “Severe bleeding or bleeding that doesn't stop within five minutes

• Choking, difficulty breathing or nonstop coughing and gagging
• Bleeding from nose, mouth, rectum, coughing up blood, or blood in urine
• Inability to urinate or pass feces (stool), or obvious pain associated with urinating or passing stool
• Injuries to your pet's eye(s)
• You suspect or know your pet has eaten something poisonous (such as antifreeze, xylitol, chocolate, rodent poison, etc.)
• Seizures and/or staggering
• Fractured bones, severe lameness or inability to move leg(s)
• Obvious signs of pain or extreme anxiety
• Heat stress or heatstroke
• Severe vomiting or diarrhea – more than two episodes in a 24-hour period, or either of these combined with obvious illness or any of the other problems listed here
• Refusal to drink for 24 hours or more
• Unconsciousness”

Get to know all of our Sunday Dogs at Boston Dogs.

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2017 Penny & Ed Cherubino 

(Adapted for BostonZest from one of our City Paws newspaper columns.)

Acid Is a Good Food Word! Learn More from Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking

Since the publication of “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking” by Samin Nosrat, more attention is being paid to acid as an essential aspect of the cooking arts. It’s a tool that most chefs and many good cooks use to bring into focus the final flavor of a dish.

 

You already know that you like acid in connection to food if you add a squeeze of lemon to your fish or your favorite BBQ sauce is a North Carolina style with a vinegar base. You may have a preference for wines with a good acidity or feel pickles are essential when you have a sandwich piled high with pastrami.

Around here we had an ongoing editing duel over the word acid. Penny would use the word in a draft of an article and Ed would try to replace it with a “friendlier” word, e.g. tartness. To him the word acid was unappealing.

To Penny it was exactly what she meant to say. It represented the range of flavor balancing agents she used including citrus juices, vinegars, wines, beers, fermented vegetables, and dairy products like yogurt and crème fraiche to create our favorite dishes. Our duel ended as we explored the acid chapter in “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat” and we both gained a greater acceptance of the word acid as a positive part of cooking.

Exploring Acidity

The illustrations are an important part of this book. Penny thinks they should be sold as framed posters to add to kitchen decor and serve as references for cooks as they work. For example, as you can see above, acid is presented in a series of circles that lets you quickly explore the world of acid. The instructions say, “Use this wheel to help you choose which cooking acids (inner circle) and garnishing acids (outer circle) to use as you cook food from around the world.”

 

To add Vietnamese zest to your meal, you would cook with lime, rice wine vinegar, rice wine or beer, and garnish with fish sauce, hoisin sauce, or pickled shallots. The salad above took that Vietnamese route.

In Greece they cook with beer, wine, vinegar, or lemon, and finish with tomato, olive, yogurt, feta, or halloumi. Just knowing these selections for culture-after-culture can add excellent variation to something as simple as grilled chicken. The salad above took on that Greek character.

Recipes and Tips

In the “How Acid Works” section, you will learn how the chemistry of acid impacts things like color and texture along with tips for avoiding acid missteps. Next comes a recipe for Pasta Alle Vongole (spaghetti with clams) that demonstrates how acid works in a dish. That is followed by tips for using acid both within a dish and within a meal.

In addition to all of this, you are offered many variations. The recipe for Chicken and Garlic Soup has instructions for turning it into one of our favorite meals. Pho Ga or Vietnamese chicken noodle soup.

Remember, this is only one of four basic aspects of cooking that are explained in this book by the woman who taught Michael Pollan, New York Times bestselling author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, to cook.

In his foreword to the book Pollan wrote, “... I honestly can’t remember the last time I read a book on cooking that was this useful or unusual. I suspect that’s because reading SALT FAT ACID HEAT feels less like being in the pages of a cookbook than at a really good cooking school ..." We highly recommend this book to both experienced cooks and those who are just beginning to explore the culinary arts.

SALT FAT ACID HEAT is available as an ebook, hardcover, or audiobook.

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2017 Penny & Ed Cherubino cover artwork courtesy of Salt-Fat-Acid-Heat

Save the Zest...Orange Zest That Is!

If a nice selection of citrus is around your home this time of year, you may be tossing out something that others pay good money to obtain – the zest of the peels.

We save some of each citrus as dried zest in a collection of little spice tins. The one above is from the Cara Cara oranges that Penny likes for snacks.

Using her favorite Kuhn Rikon Y peeler, she takes the thinnest strips of zest she can, leaving as much of the white pith behind. 

Penny piles them on a plate to dry completely before tucking them into a tin with the last batch. 

The zest strips will be used in teas, in beef stew, ground up into spice blends, and for other times when the cook is inspired by their great aroma. 

Of course, if you want a supply without the work, you can buy organic orange peel, organic tangerine peel, or organic lemon peel. We just like getting them for free along with our citrus purchases!

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2018 Penny & Ed Cherubino