Dietary Changes
Also, two new kitchen gadgets!
As I get older, my ability to digest certain foods has been curtailed. Alas, one of my favorites, a grilled Rib-Eye steak leads to several days of discomfort. I will not burden this post with details, and will leave it as something that I assure you is unpleasant.
Fortunately, I had reduced big steak dinners to special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries or big holidays, so it will not be too much of a burden refrain from the big hunk ‘o beef in general.
But how has my diet changed? At least once a week fish is on the menu (that was extremely rare in the diet prior to about a year ago), and more often I am cooking and eating dishes with more vegetables and less meats.
One thing that I have begun to experiment with is Tofu. I remember in the way back my parents cooking Tofu (like when I was a wee tyke) and not liking it, but having spent plenty of time in Japan for work I got exposed to plenty of innovative ways to consume Tofu.
Tofu is soya bean curd, it is a soft, gelatinous consistency block that truly has almost no taste. A 12 ounce block (current cost $2.25) has a full ounce of protein (not far from red meat in protein density) and can be cooked in many ways. Some people make smoothies from it, or deep fry it, or sauté, or bake, it is rather flexible.
I am just at the beginning of learning to play with it, but so far I have made a General Tso’s dish, and a Tikka Masala dish. Both were pretty amazing, and easy to make.
One thing I did learn is that you need to press the tofu to rid it of extra water. And that gets me to the first of my new kitchen gadgets – a tofu press. Sure, many people use a cutting board and kitchen rags to press tofu to prepare for cooking, but that seems so … messy.
The Tofu Press
So, I browsed Amazon and bought the Tofuture press.
It is simple to use. You put the block of tofu into the sieve, insert the sieve into the outer container, and then use the lid with the elastic bands to squeeze out the excess water, and in a few hours voilá, you have the base material.
Rice Cooker
One thing that I have never been tempted to buy before was a dedicated rice cooker. Frankly, using my Le Cruset sauce pan, it has always been pretty easy to make rice. The enamel coated cast iron pan makes it pretty easy to make rice. 1.75 cups of water for each cup of rice (a little more water to be sticky, a little less to be drier) and simmer on the stove on low for about 25 minutes.
But, to make good consistent rice, requires keeping an eye on the pan and once all the excess water is absorbed or evaporated off, it is done. Timing it requires some finesse, and frankly, I was getting less good at that.
An article in the WaPo about the veritable rice cooker, a staple in Asian homes (where rice is served with almost all meals) they get well used, but in America they haven’t been as widely adopted.
So, I went hunting, and while there were a slew of Chinese options, I wanted to spend a few more bucks and buy a Zojirushi, who pretty much defined the segment back in the 1970’s. I bought the smallest, a 6 cup cooker, as with just my wife and I, we don’t need the bigger units.
It is stupid simple to use. You rinse the rice well (and pick off any husks that are in there, and there always are some), add the rice and water to the measure line (in the tub), add some salt if you desire, and turn it on.
A rice cooker is very simple. As I mentioned above, cooking perfect rice is a balancing act, you simmer it just at the boiling point until all the water is either absorbed, or evaporated off. A rice cooker has a simple bimetallic strip thermostat that is set to turn off the heat when the temperature in the pot rises above the boiling point of water (212F or 100C). Once the temperature gets above that, it shuts off.
The smallest one lacks a keep warm feature, but that is not something that is a concern to me. It is easy to make just enough for a meal, and not need to keep it at serving temperatures.
Sure, it cost about double what the Chinese knock off costs, but it isn’t that expensive. And there are higher end ones that will custom cook sticky rice for sushi, or to make custards for dessert, or other fancy uses.
But for what I need, this is perfect.
Summary
I am working to improve my diet, to eat healthier, and to streamline the meal prep. These new gadgets help, and I have a long exploration of cooking with Tofu, but in general I think I will get to where I am not vegetarian, but will be much closer to vegetarian than where I was.
And so far, it has helped with my digestion. The journey continues!