Kitchen Conundrum

“Build a Better Lunch Box” Recipes

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If you are looking for something fun and meaningful to do, then you should join Loews Hotels and help kids “Build a Better Lunch Box”.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of its ground-breaking Good Neighbor Policy, Loews Hotels is helping families “Build a Better Lunchbox” to promote healthy eating habits and raise funds to support projects in local schools.

Beginning on October 24, 2010 at the Loews Regency Hotel in New York City and  running through December 11, 2010 at the Loews Annapolis Hotel, Loews Hotels across the U.S. will host fundraising events where children and parents will have the opportunity to learn how to build a healthier lunch together, and at the same time support community schools through DonorsChoose.org, Loews’ newest charity partner, a web-based not-for-profit that supports local school projects for individual sponsorship.

Loews Hotels has also partnered with Driscoll’s, the nation’s leading producer of fresh berries to develop recipes that focus on variety, balance, nutrition, portion control and that incorporates an added element of fun that all kids love.

Each event will feature chef demonstrations, hands-on food stations to create lunch and special play areas for children.  Also, each child will receive a specially created Loews Loves Kids lunch bag, an organic cotton lunch bag filled with a coupon for a nutritious berry smoothie at a Loews Hotels, healthy lunch and snack recipe cards, fruit-shaped silly bands, crayons and a $20 donation card for DonorsChoose.org.

Here are some recipes to get you started on Building Your Own Better Lunch Box!

Whole Wheat Turkey-Hummus Wrap

Ingredients
1 Large whole wheat tortilla
¼ Cup Hummus (see Hummus recipe)
¼ Cup crumbled Feta cheese
½ heart of Romaine lettuce
1 4 ounce package of sliced turkey

Method
Cut half inch strips of lettuce using all lettuce.
Warm tortilla slightly to make easy to roll.
Spread hummus over half of the tortilla.
Sprinkle feta on top of hummus.
Distribute cut lettuce evenly over hummus and feta.
Place sliced turkey over lettuce.
Roll the tortilla from the edge closest to you half way through, then fold up both ends and roll the rest of the way.
Hummus

Ingredients
1 16 oz can of chickpeas or garbanzo beans
1/4 cup liquid from can of chickpeas
3-5 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tbsp tahini
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp Chopped parsley

Method

Drain chickpeas saving the liquid from the can aside.
Combine remaining ingredients in blender or food processor. Add 1/4 cup of liquid from chickpeas. Blend for 3-5 minutes on low until smooth.
Place in a serving bowl; create a shallow well in the center of the hummus.
Add a small amount (1-2 tablespoons) of olive oil in the well.
Keep refrigerated.

Very Berry Smoothie

Ingredients
1 ¼ cup Driscoll’s strawberries and blueberries
¾ cup full-fat organic vanilla yogurt
½ cup freshly-squeezed orange juice
1 tablespoon wheat germ
1 tablespoon agave nectar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
Place all ingredients into a blender.
Whirl until smooth.
Garnish with a strawberry and serve with a fun curly straw. Makes 2 Cups.

Eat-‘Em-Up Fruit Kabobs

Ingredients
1 soft, unsalted pretzel cut into eight (8) cubes
8 cubes smoked Gouda (or a child’s specified favorite!)
8 Driscoll’s strawberries
8 cubes ham (optional)
8 Driscoll’s blackberries
8, 12-inch bamboo skewers

Method
On each skewer, thread one cube of pretzel, cheese, strawberry, ham and blackberry.
Repeat with remaining skewers.
Can be served with various dips, if desired.
Makes 8 skewers.

The next step is to enjoy all these healthy delights and to attend an event in your area!

Find a “Build a Better Lunchbox” event near you:

  •  Loews Regency Hotel (New York, NY) – October 24, 2010
  •  Loews Miami Beach Hotel (Miami Beach, FL) – November 13, 2010
  • Loews Lake Las Vegas (Henderson, NV) – November 6, 2010
  • Loews Portofino Bay Hotel (Orlando, FL) – November 7, 2010
  • Loews New Orleans Hotel (New Orleans, LA) – November 12, 2010
  • Loews Atlanta (Atlanta, GA) – November 13, 2010
  • Loews Coronado Bay (Coronado, CA) – November 13, 2010
  • Loews Philadelphia Hotel (Philadelphia, PA) – November 13, 2010
  • Loews Ventana Canyon (Tucson, Arizona) – November 13, 2010
  • The Don Cesar, a Loews Hotel (St. Pete Beach, FL) – November 14, 2010
  •  Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel (Santa Monica, CA) – November 21, 2010
  • Loews Vanderbilt Hotel (Nashville, TN) – November 28, 2010
  • Loews Annapolis Hotel (Annapolis, MD) – December 11, 2010

    For more information on local “Build a Better Lunchbox” events visit http://www.facebook.com/LoewsHotel#!/LoewsHotels.

Here are the details for the New York Metro event:

DATE:               Sunday, October 24, 2010
TIME:               11:30am-1:00pm
ADDRESS:       Loews Regency Hotel
540 Park Avenue (at 61st Street)
New York, NY 10065

COST:               $25 for advance RSVPs, $30 at the door (ticket price is for one child, accompanying adults are free)

CONTACT:         To RSVP to the Loews Regency Hotel’s Build a Better Lunchbox contact:  amandavargas@loewshotels.com or 212-339-4013

Go and help not only your kids “Build a Better Lunch Box”, but help schools in your community!

It’s Greek to Me!

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“Travel is like adultery: one is always tempted to be unfaithful to one’s own country. To have imagination is inevitably to be dissatisfied with where you live. There is in men, as Peter Quennell said, “a centrifugal tendency.” In our wanderlust, we are lovers looking for consummation.” Anatole Broyard (1910–1990)

Truer words have never been spoken.

I am suffering from severe bouts of wanderlust. I need to travel. I need to get away and be somewhere else, see somewhere else and learn something else. Some other culture. Some other language. Some other cuisine.

I love to travel. I often wonder if it’s because I moved so much as a little kid and a young adult. First, since my father was in the military, and second, since I lived in so many different apartments my first few years in NYC. I have lived in every borough except the Bronx and Staten Island and on every side of town, Upper East Side, Midtown, Lower East, Upper West Side, etc. You get the picture.I have moved around a lot. (Although I have lived in the NYC metro area longer than any other place I have ever lived.)

NY is my home, my home base. But out there, out there lays Paris, Rome, Barcelona, Athens, Sydney,Casablanca, and hundreds of other places that I need want to visit.

It’s gotten much worse after seeing Eat, Pray, Love and Revolutionary Road. Each main character desperate to go somewhere else. Be somewhere else and be someone else, or rather, be a much truer version of themselves. Each feeling trapped and hopeless, and desperate to change their situation. It’s hard and exhausting trying to be “in the box” of your current life sometimes. The politics of suburbia (and the endless gossiping!), the schools, playgroups, book clubs, PTAs, carpools, religious organizations. Sometimes it’s just all too much. All that mold fitting. You just want to be yourself for a while.

Its that terrible feeling of being trapped, and unable to breathe that sometimes precipitates an outburst of wanderlust. And it is insatiable unless you actually go somewhere, immerse yourself in a world not your own for a little while. And unlike the movie characters, (or maybe not!) return to home base, return home. Refreshed and vibrant. As though you are another crayon color. A Burnt Sienna rather than just plain old Orange.

To travel and experience the world gives you a new vision on life. Sometimes it makes you humble, especially when you travel to countries where people are far less fortunate. Sometimes it makes you angry and more aware of the war against the human spirit in countries where people are much more repressed and suffer abuse at the hands of their oppressors. Sometimes it can be sad, it is true. But most of the time, it’s the most glorious thing you can do for your soul. To find peace and calm in another culture. To find pure happiness and joy in one that appreciates siestas, and leisurely, lingering meals. One that enjoys archeology, art and history and one that values enjoying the simple things in life. Escaping the hustle and bustle and the oneupmanship that is prevalent in our society and just getting back to basics. Good wine, good food and good company.

And that is what I need right now. The peace and calm. The enjoying of the simple things in life. And to be a much more, truer version of myself.

So I began my quest for the perfect destination. Someplace that I could immerse myself in just those things and I believe I have found that place. Off the coast of Greece, on a small island in the Cyclades there is a hands on cooking program where, for five days, I can learn about the Mediterranean way of eating, entertaining, and living. I can hike, explore ancient sites and wander the beaches. But mostly, and more importantly, I can cook.

I have made my deposit, and G-d willing, I will be there in the late Spring of 2011.

In the meantime, to tide me over and to help build up my excitement (could I possilby contain more?) , I have been spending time in Astoria, Queens. It is the epicenter of NYC’s largest Greek population. I have bought phyllo and triopitas, spanikopita and dolmades. I have wandered Titan Foods, the best Greek grocer in the borough and tasted many varieties of Feta and olives. I have enjoyed talking with their cheese mongers, their cashiers (great restaurant recommendations!) and their bakery staff about all of their delicacies. I have taken the free Greek newspapers from outside the store in an attempt to learn some Greek. (May have to resort to Rosetta Stone!)

I have oogled the honey drenched, crunchy Cretan diples and the syrupy Baklava at Artopolis. I have sat, with sticky fingers, and eaten way too many soropiastas.

I have eaten a massive meal at Zenon Taverna, a cozy, kid friendly, family owned restaurant serving delicious Greek and Cypriot cuisine. The decor is charming with its mismatched Corelle plates, and earthenware jugs. There are large paintings of scenery on the walls luring you into them with their bold colors and the tables adorned in traditional blue and white.

You can order from three different meze meals for a mere $19.95 per person and taste over 16 items!  Or, depending on which day you dine, you can feast from the daily specials.  Start your experience with the sauteed Arnisia Keftedakia (Lamb Meatballs) and be sure to save some pita slices to sop up the velvety, savory sauce. Enjoy a cup of  the Avgolemono – Egglemon soup, a Chicken and Rice Soup with a robust lemon flavor.  Or try the Kria Pikilia (Cold Antipasto) and dive straight into the Taramosalada, the mashed potatoes with red caviar, extra virgin olive oil and fresh lemon juice .  For your entree, the sliced tender roasted leg of lamb spiced with fresh garlic, black pepper and oregano melts like butter in your mouth. Or indulge in the Kotopoulo Fileto Yemisto, chicken cutlets stuffed with spinach and feta and blanketed in mozzarella cheese. Each dish is served with large peppery, roasted lemon potatoes.  The meal would be complete right there, but save room! The warm, silky Galaktopoureko, with its custard cream wrapped in fillo dough is divine!

I have even ventured into smaller Greek delis just to look at the Greek touristy paraphernalia. It has been quite pleasurable experiening this different world, right here in New York, and it is doing its job to beckon me to the yonder land.

Thai- Simply, Fantastic Thai

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I really enjoy Thai food and have rarely dabbled in making it at home. It is far easier  just to order it in, or so I thought. I recently took a Thai cooking class given by the dynamic, Chef Phensri of Fantastic Thai that has forever changed my misguided views about difficulties of cooking Thai food.

The class was held at KITCHENNYC located at 306  W.51st Street in Manhattan. There is no sign and if you have never been there before, all you would see is an apartment building.  But look to the left and just before the entrance to the building  there is a stairway leading down and directly into KITCHENNYC.  It is a rather small space at just 450 square feet, which made for a very intimate class setting, but it is fully equipped and laid out very well.

Fantastic Thai is run by Chef Phensri and her husband Darien. Phensri (pronounced PENSI) was born and grew up in Udorn Thani, Thailand where she started cooking at home at an early age and learned everything there is to know about cooking  Thai food.  She then came to the U.S. and put her knowledge into practice by opening a restaurant in New Jersey. Not only does she have a restaurant, she also consults  for other restaurants who want to serve Thai food, she caters for various events, and she teaches Thai cooking classes in both New Jersey and New York. In addition to all of that, she has created her own line of Thai cooking sauces that make cooking Thai food extremely simple and nearly foolproof! She has quite an amazing entrepreneurial spirit! She is also an incredibly fun and patient instructor!

While English is not Phensri’s first language, she gets her point across and her husband Darien is right there to assist with anything you need. She has a small brass bell that she rings to get your attention if you become too distracted and are not paying attention. She doesn’t want you to miss a single detail!

The night of my class, there was wine flowing and we were all happily busy with the prepping of our meal. Each person had an opportunity to create a dish and also watch as the others prepared theirs. Since I went alone, I did not have a lot of opportunity to write down every step, but I was able to take a lot of pictures and at the end of the class, Chef Phensri gives out four laminated cards with eight of her recipes printed on both sides. Each of the printed recipes uses either her Fantastic Thai- Magic Sauce or her Fantastic Thai- Pad Thai Sauce.  These sauces make it very easy to recreate the dishes at home. But, if you wanted know what was in the recipes made without her sauce, you have to had been paying close attention in class! However, she is always willing to answer any questions after you leave the class, either by phone or email. You can also order her foolproof sauces here.

We made a total of five complete dishes in our class. First there was Tom Yum Koong Soup which becomes Tom Ka Gai Soup with the addition of coconut milk. This soup is made fragrant with the addition of whole lemon grass stalks and Kefir lime leaves that Chef Phensri brought from her own garden. (Have to try to grow lemon grass in my garden next year!)  There was also Galanga, a root much like Ginger, that gave off an incredible fragrance.  The smell was so amazing while  just the stock was simmering and even before any of the solid ingredients were added. Finished, it was a  nice, spicy chicken soup that could surely cure any cold.

I was tasked with making the Red Curry. First I gathered my mise en place.

We used the brand, Maesri Curry Paste, Red Curry paste for this dish.  There are many varieties and they all have different levels of heat and spice combinations.  This particular brand of coconut milk is the brand that Chef Phensri recommends using in the recipes. Chef Phensri thinks some of the other popular brands are too watery.

We used fresh cut vegetables, red and green peppers, bamboo shoots and fresh Thai basil. (Notice the cute brass bell that Chef Phensri used to get our attention!)

Among some of the ingredients was the Thai eggplant.  This small, round eggplant is about the size of a golf ball and doesn’t seem to depart much flavor, but it is quite pretty and offers a bit of a crunch to the stew.

Apparently, in Thailand, they only use them if they are fully white inside, but here, since they are much harder to locate, they are used even if they are brown inside. We cut them in quarters and soaked them in water to keep them from browning further.

This curry was magnificent! The spice from the curry paste, combined with the sweetness of the coconut milk was in perfect harmony with one another. It was also bright and beautiful while it was simmering.

I think this may have been my favorite dish of the night. The flavors were rich and complex, each bite sung with spice and sweet in a cohesive balance. Neither outdoing the other. It was perfect. I have made this at home a few times since the class and with a bit of trial and error (using too much paste the first time- OMG HOT!)  it is the stand out dish from the class and a new favorite in our house.

The Beef Basil recipe was made in two strengths of heat, inferno and mild. I sampled the Inferno by mistake and took a bite of what I thought was a green bean, finding out quickly that it was a green chili! I ate quite a bit of brown jasmine rice and drank several glasses of water after that along with the nice lady next to me who did the exact same thing!  We commiserate the heat, crying and sweating together. Once the fire was quelled, we both moved on to the mild version, the heat still resonating in our mouths. This hearty and quick dish was a hit amongst the classmates.

We also made two versions of Pad Thai, one with shrimp and one with chicken. It seems that among Americans, Pad Thai is the quintessential Thai dish. There are so many different recipes for Pad Thai, but this particular one was delicious and one of the best ones I have ever had.

 

 

Chef Phensri and Darien were kind enough to allow me to reprint it here for you to try at home. This recipe serves 2.

Chicken Pad Thai

 

Ingredients

4 tbsVegetable Oil

2 Egg

2/6th package of Rice Noodles (1 package can make 6 portions)

2 skinless boneless chicken breasts, diced into 1 inch cubes

2 tbs dry roasted peanuts, chopped fine

1 cup bean sprouts

1 lime, cut in quarters

8 tbs of Fantastic Thai-Pad Thai sauce or make your own sauce:

2 tbs Oyster sauce

2 tbs Fish sauce

1 tsp thin Soy sauce

1 tsp seasoning Soy sauce

4 tsp sugar

2 tsp Palm sugar

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp dark soy sauce

2 tsp tamarind juice (made from soaking 1 ounce of tamarind pulp soaked in 1 ounce of hot water)

2 tbs white vinegar

Method

About a half hour before you are ready to start cooking, soak the rice noodles in cold water until they are soft, drain and set aside.

If you are making your sauce from scratch, combine the ingredients now and set aside.

Heat your wok or frying pan over a medium high heat. Add the oil and move it around the pan to cover the bottom.

Once the oil is very hot, crack your eggs into the pan. As soon as the egg begins to set, scramble into small lumps.

Add the chicken and continuously turn it to cook through. Once chicken has cooked, add the rice noodles.

Stir in the Fantastic Thai- Pad Thai Sauce or the homemade sauce and stir-fry to distribute the ingredients throughout the noodles and chicken.

Turn off the flame, but while still hot, add the chopped scallion, roasted peanuts and bean sprouts.

Immediately transfer to a serving platter and enjoy!

If a more sour taste is desired, squeeze a slice of lime in your dish.

Note: This can also be made with shrimp, beef, vegetables and tofu. If you are using seafood or tofu, you should add them after you add the noodles and sauces, since they do not need very long to cook.

 

The class ended with a Classic Chicken Fried Rice.

Once all the dishes were made, we ate together and shared some wine and lively conversation. We had our fill and the leftovers were divided among any participants that wanted to take some home.  Then Darien gave a very informal pop quiz (you could cheat and ask the peanut gallery) about the different dishes we made and with the correct answers he presented us with personalized Cooking Class Certificates.

It was such a fun night out and I am happy that I learned how to make some Thai dishes with very authentic techniques. I would love to take more of Chef Phensri’s classes, especially with my husband. It would make a great date night.

Here are some notes and recommendations about the class:

  • Bring a small notepad and pen so you can write down each of the steps and ingredients.
  • Have some cash on hand to purchase some Fantastic Thai sauces and Kefir lime leaves.  They are inexpensive and well worthwhile to purchase.
  • You can bring your own wine, but you should bring enough to share!
  • Most importantly, just have fun!

Chef Phensri and Darien can be reached at (732) 416 9267  or online at Fantastic Thai.

(Disclosure: I paid full price for my class and I was not paid in any way for writing this post. I just happen to have really enjoyed my class and want to share it with you as something fun you can do!)

Pad Thai on FoodistaPad Thai