Foodist Page 13

  COCONUT MILK

  Cans of coconut milk are an excellent way to mix up a stir-fry, soup, or sauce, so it’s worth keeping a can or two in case you get inspired to make something a little different. These days I can often find the little half cans, which are the perfect size for most dishes. If full-size cans are all that are stocked at a grocer near you, remember to freeze whatever you don’t use.

  DRIED CHILIES

  My dried chili collection is almost as impressive as my bean collection. I have dried dragon peppers, ancho chilies, Thai chilies, cayenne chilies, you name it. Dried chilies have a more complex flavor than fresh chilies, and you can amplify this by toasting them a bit in a pan before using them. If you are among the capsaicin intolerant,* remember that not all peppers are spicy, so even you can benefit from keeping a few in the pantry. I usually dry fresh chilies myself in a low oven during the peak of chili season, but even if you buy predried chilies, they’re great to keep around to add depth to any dish.

  DRIED MUSHROOMS

  Similarly, dried mushrooms have a different flavor from fresh mushrooms and can turn a boring broth or sauce into an amazing one. You don’t need a lot. I like to keep a small supply of dried porcini mushrooms for Italian dishes and dried shiitake mushrooms for Chinese cooking. Mushroom broth is also an excellent substitute for beef broth if you’re looking to make a recipe vegetarian-friendly.

  ANCHOVIES

  Another misunderstood ingredient, anchovies are more than just small, salty, tangy little fish. Think of them as a seasoning, like salt or bouillon. Rather than adding a fishy taste, they bring depth, complexity, and of course saltiness to a dish. Italians really know how to use them, so if you’d like to explore what anchovies are capable of, find a good Italian cookbook and enjoy. Trust me, you’ll love them.

  SARDINES

  Sardines are less of a seasoning and more of a main ingredient than anchovies. I keep sardines and other preserved fish like smoked mackerel and trout in my pantry for snack emergencies. I find that a can of sardines is a great source of instant protein when I’ve been unable to make it to the grocery store and have run out of eggs and yogurt. They’re an acquired taste, but delicious. If you’re a little squeamish about the idea of fish in a can, look for the boneless, skinless sardines. They’re a little less alien for first-timers.

  PARMESAN CHEESE

  Forget about those green cans of processed goop and go directly to the cheese aisle for a slab of fresh parmesan. Like so many other items on this list, you should think of parmesan cheese less like a single entity and more like a seasoning to enhance an already excellent dish. Parmesan is another way to get that salty, umami flavor into drab meals, and just a couple of slides across the cheese grater can transform meat and vegetable dishes alike. A block of parmesan lasts virtually forever in the fridge (small mold patches can be scraped off and the rest of the cheese is still good), and you can even use the rind as flavoring in broths and soups.

  PRESERVED LEMONS

  Though not as easy to find as the rest of the items listed here, preserved lemons are one of those ingredients that can trick everyone into thinking you’re a brilliant chef. Like anchovies, they bring a tangy, salty flavor, but their added spices also create a rich complexity. Use them like a condiment in soups and stir-fries, and on fish and meat dishes, and be amazed. There are many great resources online to make your own if you can’t find any in your town. Store them in the fridge.

  CAPERS

  Capers are another way to fancy up a dish without much effort. They’re easy enough to store that I always have some in the pantry or fridge, and they’ve been known to save the day on multiple occasions.

  OLIVES

  Although expensive olives are nice if you can get them, I find that it never hurts to keep a jar of pitted kalamata olives in the pantry for olive emergencies. They happen. If you have tomatoes, garlic, anchovies, capers, olives, and chili flakes around, you always have a puttanesca sauce available for dinner. What more could you ask for, really?

  EXPANDED SPICES

  Chinese five spice, turmeric, smoked paprika, star anise, cardamom, mustard seeds, and ground cloves are all spices I cannot live without. Though I don’t do it every day, once a week or so I like to make a dish inspired by some of my favorite ethnic cuisines—Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Thai, or Vietnamese. Of course, these kind of kitchen experiments aren’t a requirement, but they can make your time in front of the stove more fun and less monotonous.

  ESSENTIAL GROCERIES

  A stocked pantry is half the battle in building a foodist’s healthstyle, but to make tasty meals you’ll also need a few fresh grocery items in your fridge at all times. Most of these store well, so if you pick them up every week or two, you’re in business. Once you’ve got these basics, you’re ready to start shopping for dinner.

  SMALL ONIONS

  I rarely buy the big yellow onions (unless I’m making soup, chili, or something similar), but I always have some more delicate onions on hand. There are lots of options to choose from, including shallots, leeks, green onions (scallions), cipollini, ramps, and chives. Unlike their big yellow or red cousins, these have mild flavor and will not overpower a dish or make you cry when you cut them. I rotate through my different options depending on the season. Spring is my favorite time for onions of all denominations.

  GARLIC

  I don’t use a ton of garlic, because too much of it can mask the subtle flavors of the delicious ingredients I buy. But I always have garlic in the house, and I use it almost every day. One clove can absolutely transform a bunch of kale until even kids and teenagers are begging for more. I’m not picky about my garlic; whatever you can find will probably work just fine. Just make sure it’s fresh.

  LEMONS OR LIMES

  The finishing touch of a dish is often what turns it from something good into something great. Sometimes this is a sprinkle of good sea salt or a drizzle of fancy olive oil. But oftentimes it takes a squeeze of lemon or lime juice to get the flavors perfectly balanced. They store well in the fridge, so it’s worth picking up a lemon or lime on most of your shopping adventures.

  PARSLEY

  I don’t know when exactly parsley got relegated to garnish status, but it’s a tragedy that must be remedied. Flat-leaf, Italian parsley is the most versatile herb I’ve ever found. Its flavor is fresh and bright, and just a handful of chopped parsley makes any dish taste better. Another bonus is that, unlike some of the more delicate leafy herbs, parsley stores incredibly well in the refrigerator for well over a week. It’s the best.

  FRESH HERBS

  For all other fresh herbs I use a different strategy. Since a little goes a long way, I usually only pick one or two to have in my kitchen each week (in addition to parsley). Which I use depends on the other foods I’m buying. For example, Mexican food thrives with cilantro and oregano. French vegetables are beautiful with thyme. Roasted meats and potatoes go best with rosemary. Mint is wonderful on Vietnamese and Moroccan food. Basil makes almost everything taste amazing. Experiment. Fresh herbs can change the way you approach cooking.

  EGGS

  Eggs are my number one go-to easy meal or snack. Scramble some up with those green onions we mentioned earlier for a quick two-minute breakfast or lunch. Add an egg to anything to make it more substantial and extra tasty. Boil some eggs and bring them to work for a filling, satisfying snack. I adore eggs. And, no, they do not cause heart disease.

  PLAIN YOGURT

  Though I go in and out of my yogurt phases, I think it is a great grocery item to keep around for a quick, filling snack. It’s great for breakfast with a little muesli and cinnamon. Plain yogurt is also a wonderful condiment and garnish for dishes that can be a quick substitute for sour cream or crème fraîche. Just don’t get the sugary fruit (or vanilla) kind that is often closer to dessert than a healthy snack.

  CONDIMENTS

  My fridge is never without mustard (for salad dressings and marinades), tahini (sesame paste that makes vegetab
les taste amazing), a tube of tomato paste, and kimchi (spicy fermented cabbage) or sauerkraut (nonspicy fermented cabbage). Though there are a few other miscellaneous condiments in my fridge, these are the ones I find indispensable.

  THE PRICE IS RIGHT

  Now is as good a time as any to address the biggest misconception people have about cooking healthy foods: price.

  Healthy food is affordable, and I am living proof. I developed my foodist healthstyle while living as a grad student in San Francisco, one of the most expensive food cities in the country. The cost of living there is so high that I was spending over 30 percent of my monthly salary on rent alone, without including utilities, transportation, laundry, or any of the other major expenses of city living. During this time I did the bulk of my grocery shopping (not just occasional special items, but literally breakfast, lunch, and dinner) at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market—known to be one of the more expensive markets in the city—and opted for heirloom and organic ingredients whenever possible.

  How did I do it? I was selective with my purchases. I focused on vegetables and made fruits (which really are more expensive) my splurge items. I relied heavily on beans, lentils, grains, and eggs, saving pastured meats and wild-caught fish for weekends or as a supplement to other satisfying ingredients. Most important, I cooked at home far more often than going out.

  The reality is that even organic vegetables are affordable at a farmers market. I’ve never seen a bunch of kale cost over $2, even from the most high-profile organic farms in the Bay Area. And this isn’t unique to San Francisco. A report published in 2011 by the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont showed that national farmers market prices are competitive with and often lower than supermarket prices for conventional produce. For organic produce, farmers markets were cheaper than supermarkets in every instance.1 Though the results surprised a lot of people, they shouldn’t have.

  Supermarkets are middlemen. Cutting them out and buying direct from farmers means lower prices. What’s remarkable is that it often means higher-quality produce as well. Since local farms are more likely to be selling fresher, seasonal produce, it will taste better than anything shipped last week from the other side of the globe. Farmers market produce is one of those things that everyone assumes costs more than it really does, which would have made my organic broccoli an excellent ploy for fooling people on The Price Is Right.

  But if farmers market food is so affordable, how did it get the reputation for being an elitist tool of oppression? The answer is fruit. Shoppers rarely buy vegetables, and most people who attempt to increase their fruit and vegetable intake for the sake of health do so by eating more fruit, and only more fruit. Vegetables are an afterthought and are usually ignored. Though I haven’t seen any data on why this is the case, I’d wager that it is a combination of ignorance (what the heck is kohlrabi anyway?) and a lack of cooking skills (Mom, do you know what “blanch” means?). Fruit is easy to eat and full of sugar. Consequently, everybody loves it. Vegetables are a little trickier and more mysterious, and I’m guessing this is why most of us don’t bother.

  Fruit at the farmers market is unlike anything at the supermarket. It’s fragrant, it’s soft, it’s heavy, it’s ripe, it’s seasonal, it’s delicious. All these things make it expensive to transport, because even with all the extra packaging required to keep it safe,* there are still a good number of casualties in each crop.* Supermarket fruit, in contrast, is designed for mass production and transport. It’s often picked green and ripened later with gas. It’s usually lightweight and hard as a rock to prevent bruising. Industrial fruits are also harvested year-round, whether they are in season or not. This brings down the cost substantially, but as you can imagine it pretty much annihilates any flavor the fruit may have possessed. To combat this reality industrial fruit growers select for breeds higher in sugar, hoping the sweetness will mask the lack of flavor and complexity. These fruits can sometimes taste okay, but they pale in comparison to the luscious seasonal gems I find at my local market. For these reasons, I think the pricing of fruits at farmers markets is fair. That doesn’t mean I can always afford it, but it does mean that when I do decide to take home a sweet O’Henry peach or two, I cherish every juicy drop.

  The problem ordinary supermarket shoppers have when they walk into a farmers market and see the price of peaches is that they have no idea why these fruits are so much more valuable (and cost so much more) than anything they could get at the grocery store. They then take a look at the tags on the strawberries and melons and conclude that farmers markets are for elitist yuppies, but not for regular folks on a budget trying to feed their family well. What they don’t see is that the humble zucchini sitting next to those peaches are sweet, crisp, and rich in earthy complexity, and that they will completely change the way those shoppers think about summer squash and have them looking forward to zucchini season for years to come. They also won’t realize that they can get enough to feed their entire family for a few dollars, and even the kids might start liking vegetables if they shop here regularly.

  I have seen the graphs showing that it costs more than seven times as much to get your calories from carrots than from potato chips, but I’ve never understood why this comparison was relevant. Obesity is most prevalent among the poorest socioeconomic classes. Clearly getting enough calories isn’t what most people—even very poor people—need to worry about. Not to mention the fact that obesity itself comes with a tremendous price tag. It seems to me that the most important question is how much nutrition we get per dollar, and by this measure a foodist’s diet wins every time. Moreover, vegetables and other nutrient-rich, calorie-poor foods tend to take up more volume on a plate, and research has shown volume to be one of the most important factors for feeling satisfied after a meal. I’m not making the case that everyone has the time or ability to shop for and cook healthy food (though I will help you as much as I can with this book), and I think it’s a tragedy that for so many people it’s easier to get foodlike products than real food in this country. But I do want to make it clear that most of us can afford to eat healthy, delicious food if we care enough to make it happen.

  SEASONAL SHOPPING

  Keeping my rant about farmers market prices in mind, when you’re deciding where to buy your food, it’s important to keep perspective on why foodists make the choices they do. Life should be awesome, and investing a little extra time and money into getting high-quality, seasonal vegetables that actually taste good should be one of your top priorities. We’re talking about more than a financial transaction here—this is about quality of life. The quality of your life. It’s about how delicious food, feeling well, and looking amazing contribute to your state of mind. Never forget that you’ll only achieve your goals if your elephant is happy. This means that the more shopping and eating experiences you enjoy every day, the easier it will be to succeed.

  FARMERS MARKETS

  Ideally you will find a local farmers market that you can call your own. I understand that for many of you it isn’t feasible to go to the market every single week for groceries, but even going on occasion can deepen your appreciation for truly excellent agricultural products and where your food comes from. Farmers markets are popping up all over the world at an incredible rate, so there’s a good chance there is one near you even if you do not know about it. Localharvest.org is a fantastic resource to find the markets closest to you.

  COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE

  Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a wonderful alternative if time or location is keeping you from a farmers market. CSA is a kind of subscription to local farms. In exchange for a precommitment to buy from a particular farm, the farm will offer weekly or monthly produce or agricultural products at a discounted rate and often even deliver them to your house. Though a CSA subscription may not be able to cover all of your grocery needs, it will definitely get you a step closer to local, seasonal eating.

  Like farmers markets, CSAs can vary greatly in quality and how
they operate. I recommend finding a few options in your area using localharvest.org and then looking for reviews to see what might work best for you. The biggest complaint I’ve heard about CSAs is that during certain months the offerings can get repetitive. Some people like this (if you’re into canning and food preservation, this is your ticket), and some people don’t, so you should make sure that any CSA you pick is a good fit for you. For those of you in colder climates, CSAs can be a good answer to the dearth of produce during winter months. For instance, Foxtail Farms in Wisconsin stores some of its summer produce to supplement its CSA box during the winter. Pretty clever, right?

  PRODUCE MARKETS

  Don’t worry, there’s plenty of great produce out there even if you can’t buy direct from farms. I’ve never been in a town that didn’t have at least one dedicated produce market. Though all their offerings might not be organic, smaller establishments are still likely to get better-quality produce than giant supermarkets. They are often more affordable as well. If you can’t find one in your immediate neighborhood, check Google or browse any ethnic neighborhoods that may be in your town. Cultures that still rely on real food can usually find it somewhere, even in the smallest U.S. cities.

  SUPERMARKETS

  Although supermarkets have their uses, I generally consider them a last resort for buying produce. The number one reason for this is that the industrial produce purchased by supermarkets is bred for durability, mass production, and ease of transport, not for taste. As a result, the food is often flavorless and doesn’t do you any favors in your quest to eat more vegetables. Giant industrial farms are also more likely to use genetically modified (GMO) foods and large quantities of pesticides. Even if you do find yourself in a supermarket for produce, I’d recommend getting as many organic options as possible to avoid pesticide exposure, which has been linked to Parkinson’s disease, several cancers, and other nasty things. As you’ll likely find, supermarket organics won’t taste much better than conventional produce, but will be substantially more expensive. This is why farmers markets are the better option.