Say Yes to Salad

Last night I made a porgy for dinner. I also made a half of a salmon neck. Here is the porgy recipe… I would say it’s macrobiotic. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong though. Maybe it has too many spices.

First, this is a porgy. I get mine in Chinatown.

Source.

Cumin-Tahini-Miso Grilled Porgy Recipe

Ingredients (1 serving)

• 1 medium porgy
• 1 tablespoon tahini
• 1/2 tablespoon miso
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

1. Make the marinade. Mix together the tahini, miso, vinegar, cumin, chili, and pepper. If it’s still very thick you can add a splash of water.
2. Prepare the porgy – cut off the fins, the tail, and cut out the gills. I usually have my fishmonger do this, but if he didn’t, it’s actually simple. Use scissors to cut off the fins and tail, and use a small knife to cut out the gills (they are red looking). Rinse the fish and pat it dry.
3. Cut 3 slits (all the way to the bone) on each side of the porgy and coat it (inside and out) with the marinade. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour, turning it once in the middle so that both sides get to sit in the marinade.
4. Preheat your broiler. Broil on each side for ~8 minutes. When you put it on the pan and when you flip it make sure to brush on some more marinade. I try to use it all up.
5. Serve with a grain (white rice pictured here).

You could easily use my Tahini-Miso dressing recipe in this marinade!

I also served a salmon neck – recipe coming soon (so simple). I had most of the salmon and a little bit of the porgy; I wanted Bobby to have most of the porgy because I already knew it would be a great recipe. It was so tender and so perfect. If it weren’t for the bones, I think it would convert a non-fish person.

I forgot to mention that I first learned about porgies in my cooking class with Auntie Jo last week (still have to post about this…). The recipe we did that night was also grilled/broiled, but very different from this aside from the cumin. I honestly think mine is better

Onto my daily rambles…

This morning I went to a macrobiotic talk at Souen in Soho. I did not eat there afterwards because I was meeting up with friends for brunch (at The Mudspot on 9th Street and 2nd Ave – it was really good! The coffee was fantastic). I am so glad I went to this talk (speaker – John Kozinski). He told a new story of macrobiotics that I hadn’t really heard before. I had always focused so much on the macrobiotic diet specifically, but he expanded to talk about balance in life overall.

Some things I learned…

• The only foods you should really “eliminate” from your diet are the ones advertised on TV (from Michael Pollan’s book).
• Even meat is okay, if you balance it out. It should be naturally raised, organic, etc…
• Fish is great. So are beans. Try to have 1 cup of beans at lunch and dinner, or a serving of fish (fish 3-6 times a week). Some good fish are cod, scrod, sardines, small salmon, flounder, and red snapper. Ocean fish are better than lake fish, which tend to have PCBs.
• Most supplements are totally pointless.
• Eat seasonally. Eat natural foods. Eat whole foods.

Oh so many more… I’ll try to keep giving little tips I got from the session.

After the session I met up with my friend, her boyfriend, and Bobby. After brunch Bobby and I headed down to Chinatown again for some cheap veggies and fish. We came back, and now we have a friend over. My dinner was a very macrobiotic meal – steamed kabocha, broccoli, purple sweet potato, burdock, daikon, and lotus root. I put some miso-tahini dressing on top, and finished off the rest of my cornbread from yesterday.

For some reason I’m really feeling the macrobiotic thing. Especially after today, when John emphasized fitting it to your own needs and way of life.

I like rambling. But now I have to go do a bit of work. I’m trying to cut back on my hours, but there are some things that need to get done! Hope y’all had a good weekend.

I have been blogging for 2 years and 3 months. It’s kind of crazy. I can look back and see exactly what I did on various days. I’m going to make it a point to write more about my days… I may or may not include food. I don’t like getting obsessive!

Today I will include food, or at least mention it. I am on a Souen kick (macrobiotic, vegan and vegetarian – but has fish restaurant) and I cannot get enough. For brunch Bobby and I went to Souen in Union Square. I got the Brunch A ($8.50, the best deal ever) again:

• Kenchin-Tofu Drop Soup  - tofu, shiitake, burdock, carrot and watercress in kombu kuzu broth
• Corn Bread (you can also get Spelt Bread or Sour Dough)
• Steamed Vegetables (carrot, daikon, kabocha squash and greens)

Bobby got the Scrambled Tofu with Salmon ($10.50) – Served with brown rice, bread and yam and mesclun salad. You can also get this with Tempeh Bacon for $2 less, but we are not really fans of tempeh. Here is my crappy phone picture:

I shared my soup, took most of my cornbread home, and ate Bobby’s yams. I also had a lot of their miso tahini dressing, which I posted a recipe for the other day.

When we got home we needed to relax, so we went across the street to a spa called Enliven. We got a Couples Massage – 60 minutes for each of us and we were next to each other (screen between us). It was really nice. The spa is very Traditional Chinese Medicine-y and I know they also offer acupuncture and other cool services. They have good reviews on Yelp.

For dinner I made a salmon head/neck that I got in Chinatown (I just boiled it with veggies and dill and miso, but I will post a more official recipe later… when I feel like uploading pictures). I also made a Porgy that I learned to cook at last week’s cooking class (which reminds me that I still need to post about that). And kabocha. I’m kind of giving in to my kabocha addiction again. I fully expect to regain my orange glow.

Now we are sitting on the couch. We watched this week’s Biggest Loser (I am getting a little bored of this show, which seems to be one big long commercial) and I don’t know what else we’ll do for the rest of the night. I think I see more kabocha in my future (sad, but it makes me happy).

Tomorrow’s plans? I am going to try to get down to Souen in Soho at 10am for a talk with John Kozinski, who is apparently some famous macrobiotic dude. Then Bobby and I have a brunch double date with a friend. I think we’ll go to The Mudspot. (Anyone been there?)

What did/will you do this weekend?

(Okay, this is not really a recipe. It only has 3 ingredients and I don’t actually measure anything.) This is macrobiotic, vegan, vegetarian, and basically awesome.

Maggie’s Miso Tahini Dressing (based on Souen’s dressing/sauce)

Ingredients (1 serving – multiply as needed – I usually make 2x this)

• ~1 tablespoon tahini
• ~1/2 tablespoon miso (I use red)
• ~1-2 tablespoons water

Method

Mix everything together with a fork or chopstick. Add more tahini to thicken, or use less water.

I had this on a few things. I think it was best drizzled over my macrobiotic lunch of steamed kabocha, broccoli, daikon, and burdock…

But it was also lovely (though this batch was a bit too watery) atop of a veggie stirfry. This was cauliflower, eggplant, frozen corn, watercress (yum!), and burdock. I used coconut oil and butter to cook it.

Another yummy thing (which would probably also be good with this dressing) was an egg puff (inspired by The Fitnessista). I mixed 2 eggs (whole eggs) with some salt and pepper, then microwaved them in a flat dish for about 2 minutes.

I topped my puff with nooch (nutritional yeast) and agave nectar.

Have you ever made an egg puff? What’s your favorite dressing/sauce?

I had a really wonderful chat with one of my best friends tonight (Kate, who I’ve known since I was 10 – we were recently reunited after I moved back to the east coast). Kate and her mom and I went wedding dress shopping and then out to dinner by Times Square (at Trattoria Dopo Teatro; I got a Caesar salad with chicken – it was pretty good). We started talking about women’s work (and what that means). I thought this was particularly relevant because yesterday was International Women’s Day.

I don’t consider myself a feminist. Or at least, I didn’t until yesterday when I read Gena’s post and then today when I had this particular discussion with Kate and her mom. I am not a feminist in the traditional sense; I don’t think that women should have high-powered executive jobs and I don’t think that women have to have wonderful exciting careers to prove that they are just as capable as men. No. I just think that the work women do for their families should be considered just as important as the work that a CEO does (if not more important, actually). I think the feminists of the 60s and 70s got it wrong, and I think they actually made life harder for women of my generation.

I actually have a lot to say about this, but I am saving it for something – you will just have to wait and see what it is! I promise; it’s exciting. Kate is in on it.

Here are some things I might do if I could do whatever I wanted all day:

• Review a macrobiotic diet plan (this was such a fun experiment).
• Make new creations with PB2… (PB2, where are you?? I ordered a new box over a month ago.)
• Experiment with rice cooker recipes (I’m on this weird mailing list for recipes – I don’t know why they send me recipes all the time, but I’m actually kind of glad for it!)
• Bake more! I have been meaning to make these black bean brownies that I made a long time ago.

In an effort to use my womanly baking skills and show off a bit, I made these cookies for my office last night (Monday was a rough day; baked goods are always good for cheering up) and took them in this morning. I think they worked. I enjoy baking even if it’s not as “important” as working in an office.

Quinoa Flake Cookies (Gluten Free)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup quinoa flakes
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• dash of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg

Directions

Preheat oven to 375F.

Mix everything together. You can mix the dry together and the wet together separately if you want, but I didn’t and they still came out good.

Drop onto a baking sheet – heaping spoonfuls – and bake for ~15 minutes. Make sure they don’t burn! Soft yet crispy – see:

What would you do all day if you could do anything you wanted? I forgot to mention I would also play with my fats…

Fat cat in a bag (we didn’t put him in; he just likes it).

Fat cat on a couch.

Anyway… What would you do all day if you could do anything you wanted?