The Man Who Ate Everything

I'm currently reading The Man Who Ate Everything, and Other Gastronomic Feats, Disputes, and Pleasurable Pursuits by Jeffrey Steingarten.

I loved the premise of Chapter 1, which starts off:

"I, like everybody I knew, suffered from a set of powerful, arbitrary, and debilitating attractions and aversions at mealtime. I feared that I could be no more objective than an art critic who detests the color yellow or suffers from red-green color blindness... Suddenly, intense food preferences, whether phobias or cravings, struck me as the most serious of all personal limitations. That very day I sketched out a Six-Step Program to liberate my palate and my soul. No smells or tastes are innately repulsive, I assured myself, and what's learned can be forgot."

All of chapter 1 can be read online here.

Spicy lemon French beans with yellow grape tomatoes and chickpeas

Suggestion: serve on top of eggs fried sunny side up

Why? Because Saturday morning I had some left over French green beans from the farmer's market last week that I meant to cook but never got around to. Originally I had planned to cook them with lemon juice and zest and possibly throw in some almonds, but that morning I craved spiciness. I liked these because it was spicy but the grape tomatoes added sweetness which was balanced by the bright acidity of the lemon, grounded denseness of the chickpeas and the slight crunch from the beans.


green beans, stem removed
grape tomatoes, cut in half
chickpeas
1 dried red chili, cut into flakes
lemon juice
lemon zest
water
salt
pepper
olive oil
butter

I heated the saute pan on medium high, and then added olive oil and butter. When the butter bubbles, I added the beans, dried red chili, salt, pepper, and lemon zest. After a minute or two, I added about 1/4 cup of a mixture of lemon juice and water, so that I could steam them in lemon juice by covering the pan with a lid a few minutes to soften the beans. Then I removed the cover, and added the chickpeas. I added the tomatoes with the beans, but I think they should be added with the chickpeas so they don't disintegrate so much. I continued cooking for 1 minute more until most of the liquid had evaporated and the chickpeas were warm. I served the vegetables on top of two eggs, fried sunny side up.

Vanilla Souffle

I used Madame Saint-Ange's receipe, of whom Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks comments that, "Who is the Madame Saint-Ange, you might ask? She is meticulous, particular, technically masterful, a bit snobby, demanding, and trust me - you seek her approval. You can't help yourself. I spent the morning making souffles with only her words by my side. She comes right through the page - and she's not messing around. You better not either. . . I came to the realization quite quickly that the best way to introduce you to the Madame would be to introduce you to one of her recipes. There could be no recipe more fitting than the souffle - classic, technical, and iconic. Her instruction spans the better part of nine pages." The recipe is available at:
The Madame Saint-Ange's Souffle Recipe @ 101 Cookbooks
How to Whisk Egg Whites, Madame Saint-Ange's method

Twins