July 2010 | Healthy Delicious

Cajun Jambalaya with Okra, Andouille and Shrimp

The other day, I was thinking about the way I used to eat. Back when I was in college and shortly after I graduated. Let’s just say it wasn’t very healthy or very delicious. Looking back, I think there was a period of time where I just completely forgot that I knew how to cook a decent meal. Plus, I couldn’t really be bothered. Like a lot of people, I had the misconception that cooking a real dinner out of real ingredients would be too expensive and take too much time. So we’d boil a box of pasta and mix it with a jar of sauce and some sausage. Or we’d try to be “healthy” and make a chicken stir-fry, but we would totally ruin it by using store-bought marinades that were loaded with sugar. For a special treat, we’d buy a box of zatarain’s mix and make jambalaya.

I don’t miss the other stuff at all, but I do kind of miss the jambalaya. And with Foodbuzz pledging to donate $25 to the Greater New Orleans Foundation (helping fishermen who were effected by the oil spill and their families) for every Gulf-Inspired post this weekend, it seemed like the perfect excuse to make it. Of course, I wasn’t going to resort to using a box – I know better than that now! (And a quick look at the back of the box confirmed my suspicions — 21% of your RDA of sodium? MSG? Sodium dioxide?? No thanks!) No, this jambalaya is 100% real food and 100% real flavor. Sure you have to spend a few minutes chopping vegetables, but other than that it really isn’t any more difficult or time consuming than the boxed stuff. And the final product is so much healthier and so much more delicious that there really isn’t any excuse to take “shortcuts”!

Looking for more Gulf-inspired flavor? How about a nice, steamy bowl of gumbo? Gumbo is very similar to jambalaya, but it’s prepared as a soup enriched with a roux. In gumbo, the rice is cooked separately from the other ingredients and added in the final step instead of cooking along with everything else and absorbing all of the flavors.

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Orichette with Caramelized Fennel and Summer Vegetables

It’s no secret that I love fennel, but I’ve been absolutely obsessed with the thought of making caramelized fennel ever since I first read about it over on The Tipsy Baker’s blog months ago. I requested a copy of Ad Hoc at Home from the library and patiently waited for what seemed like forever to get the recipe. And then I had no idea what to make with it. I mean, I’m not exactly a meat and potatoes kind of girl. I don’t do side dishes. And as presented in the book, caramelized fennel was most definitely a side dish. But then I had an idea: pasta. When I’m short on recipe inspiration I always turn to pasta, throwing in a combination of whatever looks good at the grocery store and whatever I have in the fridge. Caramelized fennel seemed like it would be a great jumping-off point for a summery vegetable pasta. And it was.

In addition to the fennel, I used a combination of eggplant, summer squash, red onions, and peas. I tasted the vegetables on their own and they were so delicate and fresh that it seemed like a shame to cove them up with a heavy sauce so I decided not to, and instead dressed the pasta with a little bit of ricotta and a touch of pesto (I had originally planned to use garlic and olive oil). It was perfect! I really liked the creaminess that the ricotta added — when you stir it into the hot pasta it melts and creates a light coating that reminds me a little of mac and cheese. The pesto perked the dish up without taking it over; you could tell it was there, but it certainly isn’t a “pesto” dish by any means. Really it’s just… good. Good when you first make it. Good the next day. Good hot. Good cold. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this one!

Click to get the recipe for Orichette with Caramelized Fennel and Summer Vegetables –>

How to Roast a Chicken on the Grill

It’s hot. I mean, I love summer and all – sunny and 80 is perfect if you ask me – but days and days of weather that’s approaching te triple digits? It’s disgusting. And I’ve had enough. The thought of standing in my non-aire-conditioned kitchen making a dinner that’s it’s basically too hot to eat anyway makes me want to cry. There’s absolutely no way I’ll be turning the oven on any time soon. And yet for some strange reason I’ve been craving roast chicken. Apparently the heat has made me lose my sanity.

Luckily, I have discovered a technique for making perfectly roast chicken on the grill. Crispy, crackly skin. Some of the juiciest breast meat that I’ve ever eaten. No need to turn on the oven. Does it get any better than that? Give it a try and you’ll immediately see why this has been my go-to recipe this summer.

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2010 NASFT Fancy Foods Show

I spent last weekend down in New York City, living it up foodie-style. It was awesome. On Saturday, Christine and I went to the Food Truck Drive-In, which was a ton of fun and will be featured in another post. This post is about my real reason for making the trip down – the 2010 NASFT Fancy Foods Show. The show is an amazing event that brings members of the specialty food trade together with restaurants and retailers who might be interested in purchasing their products – and its a great opportunity to scope out new and exciting products. With over 2,500 exhibitors showcasing over 180,000 products, it was a little overwhelming: I kept forgetting to take pictures, and there was a point where I realized everything was starting to taste the same and I simply didn’t feel like eating any more. But I did find some great (and some not-so-great) new products and got some insight into emerging food trends. I’ll mostly let the pictures do the talking on this one…

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