Prepping for a long week

There are exam weeks, as I approach the end of second year, where I just don't want to spend time cooking. I stay at the library for long hours, and if I can make it through dinner I feel that much more productive. I try to anticipate these weeks by freezing meal-sized leftovers of soups or chili, but that's not always possible. And I refuse to eat in the hospital cafeteria because each meal there--while pretty decent--is more expensive, less flavorful, higher in salt, and includes fewer vegetables than what I would cook at home. Not to sound like a total snob.

On Sunday afternoon while home doing laundry and studying, I opted to roast a fennel and onion: flavorful, versatile, good to have on hand for the week, made my house smell good. Monday night before bed I popped half a cup of white beans into my pressure cooker, and for last night's library dinner I ended up with a tossed stew of white beans, fennel, and onion. It was homey, comforting, and healthy towards the end of a long day. For tonight I'll stir the rest of the fennel and onion into tomato sauce and serve it over penne. Pretty nice for such quick meals. Of course, the atmosphere contributes a lot.

Minimalist fennel, onion, and white beans:

• 1 fennel bulb
• 1 onion
• 1 cup white beans
• olive oil, salt and pepper

Wash the fennel bulb and slice it crosswise (on the horizontal if you have it standing up) into rings, removing the thick core at the base and discarding the celery-like stalks at the top. Peel and slice the onion. Toss together in a roasting pan with olive oil, salt, and pepper and roast at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, until caramelized. Toss every 10 minutes, checking to keep from burning.

Toss with white beans and adjust seasonings. Or: enjoy as a base for chicken or fish, toss into tomato sauce, etc.

More spice, less salt

As with cholesterol, learning about hypertension earlier this year really scared me. Controlling your blood pressure is not a theoretical recommendation: high blood pressure stresses blood vessel walls, increasing their risk of rupturing. Plus, your kidneys, which normally regulate body fluid volume and therefore blood pressure, readjust to whatever new blood pressure you set for them via your diet. I'd rather my kidneys not get used to anything too risky!

Not to sound snotty, but the best way to avoid salt is to avoid processed and prepared foods. As I think of it, restaurants don't have your best interests in mind! They want you to enjoy the food and come back. Only you, cooking at home, have your best interests in mind.

One way to cook with less salt is to seek out more flavorful herbs and vegetables. For example: fresh ginger and garlic instead of soy sauce; toasted instead of salted nuts; roasted vegetables. This means branching out a little, experimenting with some new vegetables and finding a way to use up a bunch of herbs before they go bad, but with practice anyone can get there.

Fennel is anything but bland. Why not try it as your experimental vegetable-of-the-week?

Braised fennel and white beans:

• 1 fennel bulb (sold in packs of two at Trader Joe's)
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 cup white beans, reconstituted, or 1 can white beans
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil
• dried red pepper flakes
• salt & pepper
• optional garnish for the end: chopped parsley, parmesan

Cut the fennel bulb in half, cut out the hard white core in the middle, and slice the fennel into thin strips (varied thickness is fine). Heat olive oil in a pan, add the garlic and pepper flakes, and cook at medium heat for 1-2 minutes before adding the fennel. Saute until the fennel becomes softer and the garlic is fragrant, adding water as needed to keep from burning (it's okay to let the fennel brown a bit -- it adds flavor and according to our professor is only marginally carcinogenic!). Add the white beans and about 1/2 cup of water (or no-sodium chicken broth) and simmer on low heat for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper and parsley or parmesan if you like. Maybe you're starting to notice a theme with these recipes.

This would make a great side dish for fish or chicken; being a poor, busy, carless med student, I'm going to eat it on top of barley or pasta. Looks pretty good, no?

The play by play:

Sunny salad for a Sunday morning

This week has been stressful in an unusual sort of way: there's no time crunch, we're not studying any tragic diseases or injuries, and yet preparing to dissect genitalia is stressful. It's unpleasant, and it can't be avoided. Friday evening we unwound a bit by attending "Grand Rounds," a parody show put together by the fourth-years celebrating their four years of med school, with all its pros and cons. The most notable feature was a long, long slide show of students napping at all times in all places: definitely humorous, but a little sad if you think about it. It's daunting to imagine what we have ahead of us, even if much of it is exciting and will bring our class closer together.

Another way to unwind, other than eating high-fat food and drinking and dancing, is to eat fresh and delicious food. Chopping vegetables is cathartic. I hated fennel as a kid, but now I've rediscovered it with a vengeance.

Mario Batali's recipe for fennel and citrus salad (Vitamin C, I just learned, enhances iron absorption in the gut, which is great for preventing anemia!):

• 1 fennel bulb (sold at Trader Joe's in packs of two)
• 1 orange or small grapefruit, or 2 clementines
• juice of 1 lemon
• olive oil
• pepper

Slice the fennel as thin as possible, cutting around the solid white stalk in the middle. Discard the center stalk. Section the citrus: for the orange or grapefruit, you'll have to remove the segments from their casings; clementines are fine as they are. Toss with lemon juice, a drop of oil (too much doesn't taste as good), and pepper.