Author: Isabel Montclaire

Recently I was at County Flowers in Condon and ordered a grilled vegetable burrito and it was beyond delicious. Flavor burst with every bite! Why this delicious taste, I wondered? After all, it was just vegetables and cheese in a burrito shell. Would the chef tell me what was in this mysterious burrito? I couldn’t help myself. I was filled with curiosity and needed to know.

Putting my hesitation aside, I tracked down Jeremy, the chef. Fortunately for me he was gracious and disclosed the culinary secret. “It’s all in the sauce and the sauce is so simple to make,” he said.  So how in its simplicity could it be so extraordinary?

After pondering that question for several days, I concluded that with simplicity comes a certain spaciousness. Each unique ingredient is free to fully express itself without the competition and overcrowding of many flavors.  Each little flavor can be the star of the show.  Never overlook the enormous power of simplicity. 

A Simple Sauce

1 part mayonnaise
1 part ketchup
1 part dill pickle relish

I like to use Best Foods mayonnaise, after all, there must be a reason the company has been in business since 1912. I couldn’t find any dill pickle relish in our local stores so I added some sweet relish along with a few minced dill pickles.

Now that I had the recipe, I was anxious to try it out. I sliced some red, yellow and green peppers, onions and mushrooms, lined a cookie sheet with foil and tossed them with olive oil and kosher salt. Turned the oven up to 400⁰ and roasted them for about 25 minutes. I took a large burrito shell, sprinkled it with sharp cheddar cheese, and melted it in the microwave. Then I spread a couple of tablespoons of the sauce on it and added the grilled vegetables. It was as good as Jeremy’s, well . . . . almost.

Then I made fish tacos using some breaded fish. I chopped some green cabbage, cilantro, and tomatoes. I spread some of the sauce on the burrito shells, added the fish and filled them with the vegetable mixture, then sprinkled on some capers. Yum! Delightful!

This sauce could go on almost any kind of sandwich. A Reuben, a hamburger of course, grilled cheese, and I’m guessing tuna fish.  The recipe is close to a thousand island dressing so I imagine it would be good on a tossed green salad too.

Having a simple sauce on hand is like having a magic wand. The wand adds sparkle and joy. Don’t let the sauce’s simplicity fool you. Leonardo Da Vinci once said “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” I bet he would have loved Country Flowers veggie burrito.

I was at the Condon hotel a few weeks ago and had a lovely conversation with one of my readers, Dorothy Schott. Did she have a favorite recipe to share? One that has few ingredients, is simple to make, and leaves few things to wash? She pondered for a moment then told me about a foolproof chicken recipe. Well, actually it is her husband Dan’s recipe:

Chicken
Paprika
Garlic Salt
or any other seasoning

So I bought some chicken and tried it. Chicken can be difficult to cook to the just right doneness. It’s either undercooked and slightly raw, or overcooked and tough and dry. Getting it perfectly cooked so that it is juicy and succulent can be like babysitting; it needs to be checked on constantly. I made this recipe three times, in three different ovens. It came out perfectly every time, and received rave reviews from everyone who ate it. Here’s how:

Prepare chicken pieces, any kind you like. Trim off the fat and the skin too if you don’t like to eat it. Rinse and pat dry, but not too dry, as it needs to be moist to get the seasonings to adhere to the chicken. Put a wire rack on a rimmed cookie sheet or a jelly roll pan, lined with foil to make cleanup easy. Preheat the oven to 400⁰. Cook for exactly 25 minutes, then turn the pieces over and cook for another 25 minutes. That’s it! What could be easier?

Dan seasons his chicken with paprika and garlic salt. For some reason, I started pondering on the Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe and searched the internet to see if the recipe was public knowledge. Apparently a lot of other people have tried to crack the code on this secret recipe too. I looked at a few; I didn’t have all of the herbs and spices the various recipes called for, so I used the ones I had on hand in equal measurements of one tablespoon: Italian herbs, dried hot mustard, paprika, garlic salt, ginger. I mixed them in a bowl big enough to add one piece at a time to thoroughly coat. If you don’t like spicy, eliminate or reduce the hot mustard.

I cut up some small red potatoes, tossed them with olive oil and garlic salt and put them alongside the chicken in the oven. They went in at the same time and came out at the same time. When I pulled them out of the oven they had a lovely caramelized brown color and were slightly crunchy.

The total preparation time was about fifteen minutes. I can’t wait to tell Dorothy about my mock KFC recipe with Dan’s way of cooking chicken.

These days, the whole subject of food has become so complicated. The number of choices available is absolutely crazy. I once went to a big supermarket and counted the wide array of canned tomato products. The grand total was 144. There were whole peeled tomatoes. Crushed, pureed, chunky, diced, petite diced, pureed, plum, stewed, sauce, and paste. Tomatoes flavored with Italian herbs, or basil, or fire roasted. Add to this the whole array of organic canned tomato products. All these options made me want to crumble into a heap and pull my hair out.

Then there was the time I went to Safeway to buy a one-pint container of plain Greek yogurt. I estimated the refrigerator case was about 11 feet long. I literally stood there for ten minutes trying to find what I was looking for. I had no idea there were so many different kinds of yogurt, especially now that plant-based is “A Thang”.

We have too much choice and it can lead to paralysis where we have so many choices, we choose nothing at all. We just run out of mental energy and can’t sort it all out. The term “decision fatigue” has been coined to name this syndrome.

Overtime, I’ve dialed back the number of foods I keep in my pantry and believe it or not, this simplicity leads to remarkable creativity and ease around food. There is surprising freedom in limiting the number of options. For example, in the alphabet, there are only 26 letters. Those letters combine to form 171,476 words in the English language according to the Oxford dictionary. For example, I’ve reduced my number of canned tomatoes to just three: whole plum tomatoes, sauce, and paste. With whole plum tomatoes, you can puree them, or cut them up anyway you like. I also like to use tomato powder.  It’s like magic; a tablespoon added to any tomato dish will concentrate the tomato flavor.

My friend made spaghetti with homemade spaghetti sauce and introduced me to a herb and spice blend that streamlined my collection of seasonings. It’s called “Tones Italian Spaghetti Seasoning Blend” (it’s not just for spaghetti). This incredibly versatile seasoning works like magic to add concentrated flavor to any dish, from vegetables, soups, beef, chicken, pork, rice, noodles, you name it. Somehow the flavors swirl around your mouth and the taste bursts. It’s amazing! I’ve tried other brands of Italian seasonings and they just don’t work as well as this one.

By condensing my pantry to items I use the most, and simplifying my cooking, I have avoided the craziness of supermarket decision fatigue. That leaves more energy to think about other things like trying new recipes with friends.

My friend Denise recently came over to visit and showed me how to make a simple soup base; it was so enjoyable to spend time in the kitchen with her – it felt like an adult playdate!  This recipe will spur your imagination because you can add just about anything to make a delicious and hearty soup. Mix and match the ingredients with freedom and ease to your heart’s delight. And you won’t have to spend much time cleaning up since you can make it in one pot. You can make any quantity of this as long as you use the recommended proportions and have a big enough pot.

Simple Soup Base

One 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
One tablespoon Italian herbs
3 cans water
3 big cubes or 3 tbs. of beef or vegetable bouillon concentrate
1 diced onion

We cubed some steak and cooked it along with the onion until the meat was browned. Then we added a 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes and using the can as a measure, added three cans of water, the bouillon and the Italian herbs. Then a 12 ounce bag of mixed frozen vegetables. After it came to a boil, we reduced the heat, and added a package of frozen egg noodles and simmered the soup on the stove for about an hour. The noodles made the soup a bit too thick, so we added some V-8 until it was the right consistency (don’t dilute the soup with water because then you will have watery soup). The flavor needed to be kicked up a notch so we added a Maggie vegetable seasoning cube and then it was exactly right. You can adjust the seasonings to suit your tastes.

The possible combinations are endless and you can make this soup any way you like it. If you want to add noodles or rice cook them first. Other additions could be potatoes, couscous, beans, or lentils. For the protein you could use beef, pork, chicken or even tofu. Maybe even try Asian style with shrimp (make sure to add them at the end instead of at the beginning to avoid overcooking them); shrimp would taste yummy with peas, carrots, water chestnuts, and rice noodles. Or, make classic minestrone. I like to call these basic recipes that serve as a springboard for enormous creativity “un-recipes”. Maybe another name for this could be “the-one-pot-anything-soup”. Try it!

Cooking with a friend was so pleasurable. Women often cooked together like this in the “olden days”, didn’t they? This recipe came from Denise’s mother-in-law. I wonder where she got it. Perhaps a good friend gave it to her when she went visiting one day.

In my life I’ve done a lot of housesitting and it was fun to cook in different kitchens. I always took a good look at the herb and spice cupboards. Were the herbs and spices in airtight containers and closed properly? Often, they were half opened. Sometimes I was horrified to see that they had expired years ago; one was even decades old! It was cinnamon and it tasted downright nasty. Hmmm . . . how would cookies taste if I used this rancid spice? Overtime I referred to these old collections of herbs and spices as “Spice Mausoleum.” They just sit there year after year going stale and lose their vibrant colors and complex aromas. Why? Because most people don’t like to waste them since they are expensive and cooks do not understand that they have a limited shelf life.

One of the easiest ways to improve your cooking is to keep your herbs and spices fresh. When I developed the “Plenty Method” described in my book, I found a way to keep herbs and spices fresh without breaking the bank. I made a list of the herbs and spices I used on a regular basis. I found the perfect glass spice jar. It had a 100% airtight lid, contained two ounces, and fit nicely into my spice drawer. I located a company that sells bulk herbs and spices by the ounce and placed an order including labels. When they arrived, I filled the jars and labeled them.

I discovered that the solution to “Spice Mausoleum Syndrome” was to replace the entire collection every two years. I place an order and when it arrives, I empty out my jars, wash them, and refill. Doing this procedure guarantees the colors stay vibrant and the flavors are robust. The cost savings are dramatic so it’s easy to start over every two years.

Herbs and spices have different levels of quality and freshness. In the highest quality, the flavors and aromas are concentrated and multi-dimensional. I order my herbs and spices from Market Spice in Seattle. For example, I can buy bulk ground cumin for 92 cents per ounce. In the store it costs somewhere around $3.50 per ounce in a glass bottle. Basil is $1.38 an ounce and sells for an average of $10.00 per ounce. Buying basil in bulk is an over 7x savings. I found two ounce airtight hexagon jars with gold lids at Specialty Bottle in Seattle for $1.52 per jar including shipping.

Making the change to buy herbs and spices in bulk with airtight jars will keep your herbs and spices from becoming a spice mausoleum. Your herbs and spices will be fresh, flavorful, colorful, and alive. Your everyday cooking will transform into fabulous masterpieces.

Recently, I’ve been alarmed by the dramatic increase in food prices and my friends have noticed this too. Everyone wonders “How can I continue to eat well”? Buying food in bulk is one way to offset food inflation. In my research, I discovered that bulk buying reduces food costs by about 40% on average. But in order for the cost savings to occur, the food needs to be properly stored, otherwise it goes to waste.

There are many ways to prolong the shelf life of food. But it all comes down to one simple thing: airtightness. Using containers with 100% airtight seals increase the life of food because air rapidly deteriorates food. You can avoid wasting a lot of food, time, and money by using airtight containers. Food seems to last longer in glass than plastic; plastic is porous. Putting food into a zip lock or a plastic bag with a twist tie will not work to prolong the life of food.

How can you tell if a container is airtight? My friend Michelle, who is an engineer, showed me this simple test. Fill the container with water, put the lid on tightly, and give it a vigorous shake. If water droplets come out, it isn’t airtight. Or fill a sink with water and submerge the container; if bubbles rise to the surface, it isn’t airtight. This is because air molecules are smaller than water molecules.

If any of your containers test negative for airtightness, recycle or find another use for them. Airtight containers preserve freshness and protect your food from exposure to air, mites, bugs, and mold. They will be a one-time investment.

I was shocked to discover that most containers are not airtight, even when the wording on the package claimed they were. I once ordered jars from a spice company and they were not even close to airtight. Using those jars would have quickly turned fresh spices into a spice mausoleum. I accidently conducted an experiment that demonstrated the importance of using airtight jars. I bought eight ounces of parsley from a mail order bulk herb/spice company. When it came it was in a bigger bag than I expected. I put the extra in a swing top bale jar, the kind with the metal clasp and the rubber gasket, and a plastic reusable food container. I put them both in a dark cupboard. Then about a year later, I came across them and the parsley in the glass jar was a vibrant kelly green color and the parsley stored in the plastic container was a dull grayish color. It didn’t look appetizing and I had to throw it away. So much for saving 40%.  Oh well, I tried!

I have kept this vinaigrette salad dressing recipe that I created a long time ago as a secret. My friends try to guess the ingredients and beg me for the recipe. I once gave it to my friend Michelle for her fiftieth birthday, handwritten on an elegant card with azure blue ink from my fountain pen and presented in an envelope lined with gold paper. She was beyond thrilled and said this was a thoughtful and priceless gift.

Once you taste this not-so-secret-anymore recipe because I’m giving it to you,  the salad dressing you buy at the grocery store will pale in comparison. I buy high-quality vinegars and oils instead of buying store bought dressing. It takes just a few minutes to whip this up and the extraordinary sensory pleasure you’ll get from eating this makes the time spent worthwhile.

½ cup vinegar (l like aged-sherry, champagne, white, and red balsamic)
1 tablespoon sugar (I use raw cane or demerara)
1 tablespoon mustard (favorites are stone ground, Dijon and spicy brown)
Pinch of salt (any kind but iodized. It tastes terrible!)
1 shallot (if you don’t have one, use about two tablespoons diced any kind of onion)
1 clove garlic
1 ½ cups oil (my favorites are olive, walnut, rice bran)

Puree the first six ingredients in a blender. Then slowly add the 1½ cups of oil and blend some more. Pour into a glass bottle. This salad dressing will keep for up to two months in the fridge.

Lately my favorite version of this is made with aged sherry vinegar and half olive/half walnut oil and stone ground mustard. In the past I’ve used blood orange champagne vinegar. White wine vinegars are better with neutral oils, like rice bran oil or grapeseed.  Dark vinegars are better with olive oil. What’s nice about this recipe is you can mix and match the ingredients to suit your tastes. I call these kinds of recipes “un-recipes’.

My favorite oil to use in this recipe is rice bran oil which you probably haven’t seen since it’s not commonly available in most grocery stores; the exception to this is Asian markets. Most restaurant supply wholesalers do sell it because its high smoke point makes it ideal for frying. It’s quite versatile and is excellent for baking. This oil behaves differently than other light oils; it’s difficult to explain.

Now you have a little gift from me to you – Isabel’s salad dressing. Look at what you have on hand and whip up a batch! Maybe you can keep it a secret and give it to a friend someday.

Have you ever heard of white balsamic vinegar? I hadn’t until a friend gave me some as a present a few years ago. Being unfamiliar with this, I experimented with the vinegar and made one of the best salads I had ever eaten. It was so delicious that I named it “Out-of-This-World Salad,” made of chicory (an unusual leafy green similar to romaine), Comice pears, kiwi fruit, blueberries, walnuts, a sprinkling of blue cheese, white balsamic vinegar, and extra virgin olive oil. That’s all. Simple!

I have an “un-recipe” for it, which means that you use the ingredients I suggest and make it according to your own tastes. Think flex salad. You can make this salad to accompany a main meal or beef it up a bit to make it a meal itself. You may not think of a salad as a wintertime dinner entrée, but it is surprisingly refreshing. This salad takes just a few minutes to assemble so it’s good for those nights when you don’t want to stand in front of the stove. The main ingredients are salad greens, fruit, olive oil and white balsamic vinegar. The secret here to extraordinary deliciousness is to pair the white balsamic vinegar with some fruit. The tart and tangy flavor of the vinegar mixes with the sweetness of the fruit and it becomes a third thing all its own and it’s, well, out of this world.

My favorite combinations are: baby greens or butter lettuce, oranges, radishes and a small amount of minced red onion. Or butter lettuce, pears, blue cheese. Romaine with kiwi and blueberries. The dressing is always one part white balsamic vinegar to three parts extra virgin olive oil. I tend to use one tablespoon vinegar to three tablespoons oil. Add in a few nuts and/or seeds and you’ll have a salad substantial enough to make the salad into a light meal. I use chopped pecans, walnuts, or hazelnuts. A few tablespoons of hemp seeds add a delightful texture and some protein too (13 grams per ¼ cup). Those are my favorite combinations; use your imagination to discover your own.

If you’d like a roasted vegetable to go from ordinary to extraordinary without having to expend much effort, melt some butter and add some white balsamic vinegar using the three to one ratio. Using a pastry brush, spread an even coat on the vegetables a few minutes before the vegetables are finished cooking and then sprinkle them with coarse sea salt.

Next time you need a present for that cook who seems to have everything, consider white balsamic vinegar. You can buy it from $5.99 to $30.

When I was a young child, the only salt available to home cooks was Morton’s, the one in the round blue container with the girl and the yellow umbrella on it. Their slogan was “When it rains, it pours”. I didn’t quite understand what that had to do with salt, but I still remember the words. Then when I was a teenager, the health food movement had begun and with it came “sea salt”, but it was typically generic and sold bulk in clear plastic bags.

Fast forward to now.  Salt is definitely a “thing” and there are so many varieties it can make your head spin. Salt from the coast of Normandy, the Himalayas, salt from . . . Salt Lake.  Black salt, pink salt, yellow salt, red salt, smoked salt. Plain ol’ salt has indeed become quite fancy as if it’s all dressed up in party clothes.

Over time, I have tried many of them. I became somewhat of a salt fiend. The subtle differences in flavor mystified me. After all, salt is just sodium chloride. Why the differences in flavor then? I’m not sure, but overtime, one in particular stood out and became my “go to salt”, the one I put on or in almost everything. It’s Maldon Sea Salt Flakes, from the southeast coast of England and made by a family that has been in the business for 140 years.

Why is this one different? It seems to not only have a taste, but a feeling too. This is very difficult to describe but the closest I can get is “completeness”. Sprinkle this on and the food goes into full bloom. Somehow it unifies and magnifies all the flavors as if they spin around and whoosh the taste comes out just right.  Food goes from good to great to fabulous to joy. And it does this without tasting overly salty.

Not only does it have magical ability in the flavor department, it also adds texture. The salt is made of little pyramids, small chunks that go crunch when you eat them (this salt is a finishing salt, for use on or in food after it is cooked).  Just a tiny pinch can make a huge difference. Try sprinkling some on chocolate chip cookies just a few minutes before they are done baking and you’ll see what I mean.

Just the other day I examined the box and noticed the Royal Warrant of the Queen of England on it. That’s it! This salt is the Queen of Salt. Try some Maldon Sea Salt Flakes and be amazed with the flavors of your creations. You too will discover the taste difference.

Many kitchens are full of single purpose, occasional use gadgets that tend to reside in the dark corners of cupboards and drawers. They are forgotten about until you look for something else and then . . . there it is. You use it once or twice and then back it goes into hiding. Oftentimes, the gadget is flimsy, rattles loudly, shakes then falls apart. Maybe it is difficult to clean or complicated to setup and in the end you don’t save any time. Perhaps it is large and takes up too much storage space. Whatever the reason, these items can end up as clutter.

There is, however, one gadget worth owning: the Vidalia Chop Wizard. It’s sturdy, well designed, and easy to clean; just use a toothbrush. A little effort produces a gigantic result. This gadget truly saves time and makes the task of chopping much easier. It chops or dices onions, peppers, celery, zucchini, carrots, tomatoes, apples, and other firm vegetables and fruits (nuts and eggs too) into perfect little cubes of uniform size. This uniformity makes your creations look as if you are a talented professional chef who has superb knife skills.

This gadget seems more like a toy than a utilitarian workhorse. It’s FUN to use! You put pieces of the fruit or vegetable on the cutting surface, then slam the top down and it makes this very satisfying loud “womp” sound, and then – abracadabra! The thing just got chopped as if by magic. These little moments of perfection where everything is just right, even for fleeting half second, are quite precious and add so much delight to life.

My little friend Katie, age 6, loved to help me in the kitchen. I taught her how to use the Chop Wizard. She would stand on the stool next to me and cut up vegetables, place them on the grid, and with both hands and the full force of her tiny body slam the top down. Wham! And then she would get a very smug and satisfied look on her face that was cute beyond words.

Efficient as this gadget is, it does take a bit of practice to get the hang of it. It works best when the pieces are extra-large bite size. It helps to stand on a footstool to get additional leverage. This would be the perfect gift for a cook who has everything, including a cupboard full of single purpose, occasional use gadgets.  Take a look . . . www.chopwizard .com, $27.95, including shipping.  Or, for $32.95 get the Chop Wizard Pro Max that also slices potatoes into fries.

Do you have a favorite time-saving gadget? If so, I’d love to hear about it.