biking, cheffing, and fall vegetables

Fall is one of my favorite seasons – the yellows, the oranges, the deep reds…yes, it describes the changing leaves, but also the wonderful vegetables available at the farmers market. I’ve been biking around new york every weekend (and some weekdays), looking at trees, life, its just heaven and its a wonderful way to burn off all the great recipes I’ve been testing and tasting lately.

Just this week, I made a fabulous roasted acorn squash. These vegetables (fruit really, they have seeds!) are so delicious and sweet all you need to do is split them open, scoop out the seeds and sprinkle with a touch of cinammon. Want a little extra richness you could spritz on some olive oil or melted butter in a water mister or you could just use a spoon. Roast them for 45 minutes and the skin will get soft enough you can just cut into pieces and pop the whole thing in your mouth. The skin is still a bit too hard for you? Just eat around it.

Also at the end of summer, beginning of fall, we’ve got pumpkins, butternut squash and tons of green vegetables still around. I tend to focus more on autumn soups like butternut squash and bean soups such as creamy black bean and white bean. A touch of white truffle oil and its heaven in a bowl.

So get out there on your bike, your feet and walk, run or bike around to see all fall has to offer. You’ll be surprised with its splendor!

Like these recipes? Contact me for a cooking class in your home or to learn more about my professional personal chef programs available to you in New York City. My website is www.sobelwellness.com. I can also do long distance consultations about what to cook and buy at farmers markets as well as general chatting about your health.

interesting new restaurant – fat hippo and my green meal service

So, one of my favorite health newsletters did a piece on a new restaurant in the home of one of my former favorite New York Restaurants. The restaurant is called Fat Hippo and it is situated in the east village at 71 Clinton Street, where 71 Clinton Fresh Food used to live. That restaurant has long gone out of business. Wylie Dufresne opened another place down the street WD-50 where I dragged my family for my 30th birthday – but they all hated it (I liked it – but some of the food was too out there even for me). I’ve not spent much time in the east village as of late, so I can’t say much about the new WD place, nor do I know if its still open, but when I saw the review for Fat Hippo I needed to make some comments.

Here is their website: http://nymag.com/daily/food/2009/02/a_first_look_at_the_fat_hippo.html

I just took a brief look at their website and although the burger fondue and pan fried cheese balls made me revolt, I was surprised to see a few healthy options as well like free range turkey meatloaf and a grapefruit salad. Hooray for restaurants even as decadent as Fat Hippo taking a step in the right direction.

I’ll miss 71 clinton as it reminds me of a different time when the east village had so much more unchartered exotic territory. Now it is any other yuppified cappuchino bar on every block losing some of its heyday character. There’s still a bit of anarchy left in the east village – but not enough to keep vox populis, my favorite anacharist cafe on the bowery, open. Vox had to close its doors in February and move to Brooklyn. This happened around the same time as I closed my cafe.

But rest assured – Luscious Green Home delivery and personal chef services are very much alive here in Manhattan. I operate out of the Upper West Side and can prepare health oriented, local, seasonal and sustainable cuisine and deliver to your door or cut down on delivery charges and carbon footprint by preparing the meals in your kitchen.

For more information, visit the website: www.sobelwellness.com/meal-delivery.html

this week’s greenmarket finds – blue potatoes

I’ve never before seen a blue potato. A few weeks back I saw them at the union square greenmarket. I fell in love with them. First of all they taste nothing like a potato. Not a white potato or a sweet potato. They are unique in flavor, like nothing I can describe. They are also blue. Incredibly blue. I guess I’ve seen blue potato chips, so they can’t be a complete mystery to me, but these potatoes – small in size and decadent to nibble are quite different than even the chips I’ve sampled so many years ago.

In my love affair with color I got some yellow and orange carrots (I was hoping for purple ones, but alas could not find any), burdock root – which is wonderfully cleansing for the liver, salsify (which is black, but white on the inside), celeraic and some chicken pieces. On my stove now simmers: the roots, chicken pieces, some lamb stock from a previous night’s dinner, dried figs and a melange of spices. I can’t wait for it to be done. I’m sure its going to be delish.

Your mouth watering yet? A recipe you demand?

Here’s the best I can do:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 white onion – local if possible, chopped

1 large orange carrot, chopped

2 stalks of local celery (hard to find in these rough NY winters – can skip), chopped

about 1 pound of chicken parts (I used breast and thigh meat, just a personal preference)

1 cup stock (chicken, beef, lamb, whatever tickles your fancy – I used half chicken (boxed) and half lamb – homemade)

1 yellow carrot

2 blue potatoes (small, the size of fingerlings, each quartered)

1 white turnip (quartered)

6-8 Brussels Sprouts, halved – little stem chopped off

2-3 tablespoons of fresh dill

black pepper

curry powder about 1 tsp

lots of love

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a cast iron stock pot. When smoking add mire poix (carrots, onion and celery) and stir 5 minutes until softened. Add chicken and sear on both sides until slightly browned (2-3 minutes). Add stock, root veggies, spices and other ingredients. Cover and cook 45 minutes to one hour until cooked through, roots are soft and your kitchen smells unbelievable. You will just know. I don’t cook with salt, but if you like salt, you can add some when you add the pepper. If you need a bit more spice – add some more curry powder. The dill and the black pepper and the taste of fresh vegetables in the stocks usually do it for me. I also added just a touch of butter when I put the vegetables in before I set the simmer.

Enjoy with someone you love!

visit www.sobelwellness.com to learn how you too could have meals prepared like these in your kitchen!

Advising the great chefs

I went to a fantastic dinner a few nights ago.  However, I was not full. There was no dessert. There was no meat and it was winter. The meal tasted delicious and I knew it was healthy…but I being a type O blood type was missing my protein. As well all the food was from local sustainable sources, but cooked for a long time where frankly much of the nutrition was lost through cutting the food finely and cooking. 

Last night I went to dinner at a regular, non-sustainable or locally sourced restaurant. Missing my protein, I went for the hanger steak. I haven’t had steak in months…the steak I usually have is grass fed and I know where it comes from. But coming from the meatless meal and practically a meatless winter where I’ve actually been craving meat, I wanted the steak. But it was a corn fed, fatty piece of meat. Hanger steak is usually leaner than most other cuts, but it wasn’t. I found myself bloated several hours later. I slept heavy and well, but too well. Something I always advise my clients is not to eat large amounts of protein.

Today I had a wonderful lunch, but no more than 20 minutes later I was hungry again.  Was it the flourless chocolate cake that sent me to the pantry for carbs or was it the miniscle portion of short ribs, even by health counselor standards?

There are many restaurants attempting to provide local, sustainable and organic food. Many do it well, but the plates aren’t necessarily balanced. As humans, in winter especially, we need some protein, not too much. It should be as “raw” as possible (or lightly cooked) and plant protein is effective, but doesn’t always “fill” us up. That’s because we often need fat to fill us up. I find I am most full when the fat, carbohydrates and protein come in a balanced package – usually from the purest ingredients possible.

3 ounces of steak doesn’t seem like a lot – but its pretty much a good portion 4 ounces would be an ideal portion. 6 times a week if you have that little, 3 times a week if you have 6 ounces. 10-12 ounces – 1x a week makes more sense. What do you eat? Vegetables. Its Winter, Meredith, what grows in winter?

Rutabagas, turnips, beets and other roots as well as many green things such as 3 or more varieties of Kale, Collards, bok choi, pak choi and its cousin tak choi. Apples and pears are bountiful at greenmarkets and citrus is in its prime in florida right now, but there are arguments as to whether we, not living in Florida, should be consuming it.

I had some wonderful rutabaga with buckwheat honey glaze, ginger and pak choi. The honey and ginger are bound to help alleviate colds and digestion. There’s much work to be done and great foods at your market. Balance it out!

If you find the job of balancing your plate too daunting, I can do it for you. I am offering a green meal delivery service that is inspired by New York City’s greenmarkets and local farm produce.  At different price points you can enjoy basic vegetarian cuisine that is local, sustainable and organic. For a few more dollars you can enjoy the best meats, cheeses and other delights 100 miles from New York City has to offer. I’ll use a few other health affirming items such as coconut milk and olive oil that might come from a bit further away. Check out my website: www.sobelwellness.com and click on the tab for meal delivery to find out more. I also offer customized chef services and catering in your home or rented studio space. Contact me for more information.

apples, restaurant consulting and poached eggs

Its so easy to buy gifts for me. I just asked all my family members to get me cookware. One my recent acquisitions was an egg poacher. Being a chef, I want to use as few short cuts as possible. One of my major challenges in cooking has always been poaching eggs. I could never got the vortex quite right, the vinegar always got into the flavor of my egg…somehow it just never looked pretty. But now, I have a lovely egg poacher. At first I didn’t like it because the cups were plastic and the thought of heating plastic didn’t thrill me. Also plastic is not non-stick (neither is non-stick cookware, completely non-stick). But I just take a bit of olive oil and paint it on the cups with a paintbrush and viola – beautiful poached eggs that come out of the cup.

I’m very happy now with my new toy. I make all kinds of poached egg treats but in natural healthful way. Now I can also bring poached eggs to you as part of my delivery service. Although I am not certain how long I would eat them and if I’d really want microwaved poached eggs…but I could certainly make them and bring them to you for breakfast or to your office. Certainly let me know and check out the catering services on my website www.sobelwellness.com .

I recently also bought some gala apples.  I made a mistake and bought some that were not organic. They were covered with this nasty waxy film. I have no idea what that is, but I really don’t want to be eating it. Also the apples are tremendous. They are not sweet. They sort of have this staid taste that tastes like apple – but almost as if it were canned and very old. Nothing like the crisp sweetness of a fresh organic apple.

I’m in the process of looking for work as a restaurant consultant. If you or anyone you know is starting up a restaurant concept and would like to benefit from incorporating whole, natural and local foods onto your menu as well as offer perhaps one or two dishes that are healthful, not just healthy in the classical boring flavorless sense, please let me know.

I’m also looking to establish myself as an expert to the media. I’m working on writing a book, but that’s a labor of love and not one I always have time for. Instead I am hoping to garner some media exposure now and gain the ability to be able to write as time allows. If anyone you know has any needs for someone to speak on Alice Waters-esque food preparation or restaurant/menu, home catered meals that are delicious and health balanced, let me know. If anyone has any connection to Alice Waters at all, I want to meet her more than I can breathe and would love to be able to expand her brand to New York.

Bon Appetit and Salud!

my vision for the world if money were no object

Someone asked me this question in an email a month ago and I just reread the email. I think its brilliant if I do say so myself and being the time of new years resolutions, here are mine for 2009…and it will happen!

If money were no object, I would want to prepare healthy food for people in their homes as a personal chef and also teach healthy cooking classes in people’s homes [for whatever they could pay] and lead classes as well as seminars on the health benefits of certain foods. I would maybe want a very
small cafe that I would hire a staff to cook at and I would design the menu.  I see myself more as a designer and a consultant. I’d love to consult to restaurants so that they use healthier ingredients -such as changing the oils, maybe that is something I should mention at BNI – does anyone here
know a restaurant owner or a caterer who needs a consultant to make their
menu or offerings healthier. Go from top down instead of individuals.

I’d love to transform entire organizations and corporate cafeterias as well as schools to only have healthy foods and make sure every airport had a healthy option for travelers.

I’d want to design some sort of healthy hot dog stand – like the dessert truck (http://www.desserttruck.com/) but with bowls of green vegetables and grains that were delicious, flavorful soups that were also healthy, an explosion of flavor – lots of ginger, garlic, tumeric, cilantro, lime, a bit of butter, coconut oil etc. Food that tasted GOOD but was also good for you…and get people excited about eating it because of how it is going to make them feel versus how they may feel now.

Eventually I’d like to be a partner (or two or six or 100) in a sit down restaurant like Alice Water’s Chez Panisse. A restaurant started by Alice and 100 of her closest friends. Who is with me. Let’s bring some Berkeley to New York City or at least to Long Island. I know just the place!

At the same time I’d want to design neighborhood healthy tours – to show people all the resources in their neighborhood to buy healthy foods and also the restaurants that have it. As well, even in a restaurant that is “not so healthy” there’s always a healthy option, but its a lot of pressure to go to a place and read a menu.  Its much easier to just know what to eat without looking at the menu. Something like – I’ll have whatever fresh fish is available, broiled with lemon and herbs, brown rice or wild rice if you have
it and any serving of steamed or lightly sauteed vegetables. For dessert – have the darkest, richest chocolate dessert and share it with 4 people, just don’t do it every day.

I know personally that for the past three months I have been neglecting my own diet and been so busy that I actually ate pizza a few weeks back. I am lactose and gluten intolerant and I ate pizza. I don’t know what I was thinking…but my body is so attuned to junky food that I actually have gotten sick again with my ADHD out of control. A few days of eating healthy again – eating only gluten free grains, no bread and as little cheese/dairy as possible (except last night) and no alcohol and I feel amazing…or at
least my digestion and my brain feel amazing.

One night in early December I made the following for dinner:
venison with coconut, peanut butter sauce with orange champagne vinegar (I just made it up, I don’t have a recipe, one day I will make it again and come up with a recipe to share with you all)
steamed asparagus, broccoli and cauliflower with a touch of herb butter
and quinoa/brown rice with mustard seed and a bit of curry
I had 3 squares of dark chocolate for dessert.

it was fantastic. not a drop of fat on the venison. the sauce was just the
right amount and mostly spices with a touch of coconut, stock and 1 tsp of
peanut butter for flavor, maybe I put an 1/4 of tsp of sesame oil in as well.

Last night I made grass fed lamb stew with sweet potatoes and carrots from the 4th street co-op.  The lamb was from whole foods…but I am starting to think that I want to get my meat from Dickson’s Farms which sells meat at Morningside Farmers Market. http://dicksonsfarmstand.com/ I am going to see if I can get some sort of account for the restaurant once I open it. There was some complicated recipe I didn’t have time for – so I modified it slightly slow cooking lamb with onions in water for 1 hour (boiling and slow cooking until the water evaporating and repeating this process) and then adding beef stock (2 1/2 cups) the rind of one blood orange, allspice and anise seeds (about 1 tsp each). I cooked the lamb for 1 hour and then added the carrots and sweet potatoes and some little blue potatoes at the end for 20 min – they got all soft and just incorporated into the stew. Best thing I ever tasted…delish!

These are the recipes I want to share with people and what I want to bring into their lives that healthy food is not boring and one doesn’t need to think of a diet as deprivation. Food should be good, strengthening, delicious but at the same time filling so that a smaller portion leaves you
just as satisfied. I had about 4 ounces of venison. Half the fat of a dry grilled chicken breast with a lot less of the cancer causing substances from the grilling time.

I am still struggling with how to work this into a 20 second elevator pitch.  If anyone has any suggestions I am open to them.  I just want anyone struggling with a food issue, intolerance or just simply wants to be healthier in 2009 to be excited about food and food that’s not only tasty but health supportive with all the great qualities that will keep me strong, lean, with high immunity and energy. This is the message I want to transmit.

I hope you are all having a great 2009 so far!

luscious organics cafe

I am excited that I just put my first press release together for my new cafe. www.sobelwellness.com/luscious-organics-cafe.html. I want to share a copy with you all and I’d love if anyone could help me get this into time out or other fun publications that are looking for health oriented restaurant and food options. I am hoping to kick off a lunch and dinner deliver service to wall street analysts (those who still have jobs) and other people in the downtown area that are looking for a healthy alternative to take out Chinese, pizza and sushi.

An enticing new healthy oriented organic café, juice bar and lunchtime take out opportunity has just come onto the downtown New York scene and diners throughout the city looking for an intimate environment that is more similar to a posh loft-like living room than a typical restaurant are invited to sample the unique sights, sounds and tastes of Luscious Organics, a vegetarian organic café and juice bar, conveniently located in the Atmananda Yoga Studio, at 324 Lafayette Street, on the border of SoHo and the Central Village one block south of the world famous Bleecker Street. The space is a downtown gem, an urban oasis for all things healthy and holistic offering classes, workshops and now an incredible new café and juice bar where you can have a juice, enjoy a full meal or order a healthy lunch to pick up or be delivered to your office.

From the moment you enter into the inviting surroundings at the newly re-managed restaurant, the holistic experience begins. Floor to ceiling windows, high ceilings, warm inviting lighting and the intimate environment of your living room and beautiful communal table are a beautiful complement to the subdued red-shaded lamps, elegant multi-colored floor to ceiling curtains and dark wood flooring throughout the studio that surround the open kitchen and juice bar just one block from SoHo, New York, NY.

Seated at either the juice bar or a real dining seat at one of Luscious Organics’ dark wood communal tables, accented with highly contemporary, white dishes, flatware and tall vases of fresh lilies, enjoying the scents of fresh herbs and spices wafting from the kitchen, you know you’ve come to the right place to sample the delicious fare of health supportive vegetarian organic cuisine. You don’t even realize after a while that there’s no meat, very little dairy and eggs and that everything coming out of this kitchen is fresh, minimally processed and wholesomely delicious.

The Luscious Organics menu embraces the culinary style of health and the yogic lifestyle. The menu highlights the bold fresh flavors of nearby Chinatown, the union square greenmarkets and other sources of local produce that support community agriculture and local farm eggs characteristic the New York Hudson Valley and surrounding farms in upstate New York and Pennsylvania. Savor such dishes as velvety butternut squash soup with local greenmarket pears, heartwarming lentil soup with fresh market root vegetables, lightly stir fried bok choi with black sesame ginger glaze, braised Brussels sprouts, sesame and honey accented Asian cabbage slaw, tarragon infused spinach quiche accented with local farm fresh goats cheese, coconut brown basmati rice, orange walnut quinoa with ginger and orange rind, lime-chili marinated tofu with fresh vegetables and many other delights. Complete your meal with one of the tempting hand-crafted desserts, many of which are gluten free and naturally sweetened without refined sugars prepared fresh daily in the kitchen. Top off your meal with a delicious cup of chef and owner Meredith Sobel’s proprietary “Creative”tea, a mix of teas, fruit flavors, fresh ginger and chai spices that captures the whimsical creative yet inspirational nature of her cooking and her personality. And as Meredith herself, the knowledgeable owner of Luscious Organics greets you with a warm smile, you are immediately captivated by Luscious Organics’ thoughtful, savvy service and the love that is freshly infused into each and every dish.

The relaxed sophistication of the dining room of this café in New York, NY flows into the adjoining yoga studio where you can stop by and take a class. There are classes in the early mornings, midday and many in the early and late evening to accommodate a variety of schedules. Take a class and stay for dinner or pre-order you meal to go and it will be packed and ready for you to take with you upon finishing your class. Our express yoga, chill and lunch service will be kicking off in the New Year and will include an express yoga class and to go lunch which you can enjoy at your desk after class. There are two showers in the studio to accommodate your midday needs.
Luscious Organics is situated off the living room of the Atmananda Yoga Studio in downtown Manhattan in the area of Soho. Luscious Organics is open Monday to Wednesday from 5:30 to 10 p.m. Juices and Smoothies available some Thursdays. Dinner is served at approximately 7:30pm-9pm. Selected weekend lunch service will also be available twice a month. A website will be available shortly with detailed weekly hours. Interested guests are encouraged to call 646-209-4519 for a recording of weekly hours or email lusciousorganics@gmail.com. Weekday lunch take out or dine in service is available by order only and all orders must be placed by 10:00am. To order lunch or to make a dinner reservation, please call 646-209-4519 or email lusciousorganics@gmail.com. Complimentary delivery service is available in the downtown area and will be expanded throughout Manhattan shortly. Call for more details. Seamless web service will also be available soon.

About the Atmananda Yoga Studio
Discover a beautiful New York oasis of all things organic, health oriented and focused on connecting your mind to your body. The calming, sophisticated space includes dramatic 14-foot ceilings. For more information or to make a lunch or dinner reservation, please call 646-209-4519 for the café directly or 212-625-1511 for the studio or visit http://www.atmananda.com. The studio and café are located at 324 Lafayette Street, between Houston and Bleecker Streets, on the 7th floor. Take the #6 train to Bleecker Street or the B/D/F or Q trains to Broadway/Lafayette and exit at Lafayette and Houston. Walk one half a block north to 324 Lafayette Street. The café’s website will be up and running soon. For immediate cyber-information, please visit www.sobelwellness.com/luscious-organics-cafe.html.