28 days of dinner at home- Day 1

Inside Out Pork Cabbage Wraps With Chili Spread, Warm Root Vegetables, and Home Baked Lavash:

Recently, while flipping through a magazine, I saw an article about a New Yorker who committed to dining only at home for 2 years. This I consider to be quite a remarkable feat considering the wealth of restaurants in the city, and the cultural tendency for New Yorker's to rely on them for nourishment. Most of the people I know who live in New York use their refrigerators mainly to store restaurant take out cartons and condiments (with the occasional appearance of a fancy cheese or some Looza juice). I was impressed by this woman's resolve to commit to cooking for herself. I brought it up to Christina. “Do you know what this woman did? It’s amazing, why aren’t we living that way!” Christina raised an eyebrow. “Do you want to do that?”

I thought about what it would mean to give up restaurants. There would be benefits. There would be no more driving around full parking lots on Saturday nights, slowly stalking people as they amble out toward their cars hoping that we can snag their spot. There would be no more interruptions during critical moments in our conversation by overly ambitious waiters. No more super salty food and puffy eyed morning after regrets. No more filling our stomachs to the point of pain because of not being able to decipher a normal portion size out of the mound of food which had been presented to us.

There would, of course, be drawbacks. What about our evening walks, where we sometimes find ourselves called by the fragrant wafts of onions grilling and bread toasting. Wouldn't we long for the leisurely ease of slipping into a cushioned booth and having delicious treats placed before us. What about the people watching in restaurants that Christina loves, and the menu reading that teases my taste imagination. Neither one of us has forgotten about our raw foods experience, and the dis-ease that comes from the act of restriction. “No, I don’t really want to do that,” I said. “but I do like the idea of doing more than soup and salad recipes…how about dinner?”

Lavash

Lavash is a type of Iranian flat bread. I found many different recipes for Lavash and modified them to fit the ingredients and the amount of time I had.

1 ¼ cups warm water

1 tsp active dry yeast

1 tsp sugar

4 cups all purpose unbleached flour

1 ½ tsp salt

1 egg beaten

2 Tbsp melted butter (I think this makes a crisp Lavash, so leave it out if you prefer something softer)

olive oil (to cover)

Poppy seed, sesame seed, and cornmeal.

Dissolve the yeast in the water and add the sugar. Let sit for 10 min. Add 3 cups of the flour, mixing well (about 5 min). Add the egg and butter. Knead the last cup of flour into the bread (using more or less if you need to). Cover with olive oil and plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour. Punch the dough down and separate into 5 balls. Let sit 5 min. Roll the balls out and top with poppy seeds or sesame seeds. Place on a hot baking sheet in 400 degree oven (sprinkle some cornmeal underneath the dough to prevent it from sticking). Bake for 10 min. on one side, then flip the breads over and bake for 10 min. on the other side.

Chili spread

Remove stems and seeds and simmer 1 dried Ancho chili and 1 New Mexico dried chili in 1 cup of water. Turn the water off and blend the chili's with 3 cloves of garlic in a mini food processor. Add 3 tsp sugar, 1 tsp red wine vinegar, 2 tsp olive oil, 3 tsp apple cider vinegar, ½ tsp soy sauce and 1 tsp Worcester sauce. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, or whatever else tastes good to you.

Pork

Pound out 2 pork loin chops by covering the chops with a Ziploc bag and pounding with a hammer (don’t actually put the chops in the bag, just put the bag on top of the meat so that there is some protection from the hammer). Paint one side of the chop with chili spread. On one side add some of the cooked vegetable mix (see below..you can add this even if the veggies are not quite done cooking yet as they will cook more in the oven). Roll the pork loin chop and place in an oiled baking dish. Spread some melted butter on the top. Bake at 350 for about 45 min. Remove from the oven, slice and top with chili spread.

Warm Root Vegetable Dish:

In a frying pan, heat 1 tbsp olive oil. Add 1 very small sliced onion and 2 cloves of minced garlic. Add ¼ rutabaga and 2 cups diced green cabbage. Add 1 Tbsp butter and ½ tsp salt. Add about 2 Tbsp water, cover and simmer until the water is gone. Add 2 diced carrots, and recover. Turn the heat off and let sit until the rest of dinner is ready. When dinner is ready, reheat the vegetable medley and season with a little rice vinegar.

Christina's vote: Couldn't ask for a better beginning. Five stars on the chili spread!