We Want CLEAN FOOD! A Cook Book Review
“White flour and white rice and white sugar and foods stripped of their natural ingredients and goodness are NOT clean . . . we want Clean Food!” chef & author Ric Orlando
Years ago I was in a music shop in Albany, NY, fifty miles from home, reading the free newspaper while the clerk collected my order. An article about chef Ric Orlando, “Our Loss is Woodstock’s Gain” caught my eye. It was a sad account of the impending loss of a local eatery, how it was moving just down the road from my home, and how people in the Albany area would be disappointed to be without such great food. That was my first introduction to the cult-following this masterful chef has. His many fans were getting ready to charter a bus to his new restaurant!
Years later, after countless great meals at his local restaurant, New World Home Cooking, a catered affair or two, and many opportunities to confidently recommend his restaurant to my customers, Ric came into my bookshop. He was on his way to a booksigning at Mohonk Mountain House and needed more copies of his cookbook. He took the last three I had on my book store shelves and flew out, a busy man always in a hurry. I promptly forgot about it.
Last Monday, after a Chamber of Commerce gathering in one of the meeting rooms at New World, I bumped into Ric again. He remembered the three books he owed me and promptly signed three copies of his newly expanded “We Want CLEAN FOOD” cookbook. (I found out he’d borrowed mine because the first edition had sold out.) After looking it over I realized that I needed to tell you about this book!
First, this is the companion volume to the Public Television series “Ric Orlando’s TV Kitchen”, a really fun cooking show Ric hosts. He also cooks on WAMC Northeast Public Radio, but his antics and infectious smile come across better on the TV screen. CLEAN FOOD is subtitled: Great recipes from Ric Orlando, the “deliciously opinionated” chef! and it delivers in spades! It is filled with both his opinions and the recipes that have made him famous.
Here’s an example of Ric’s pithy and insightful quotes, which are peppered throughout the book.
- “White flour and white rice and white sugar and foods stripped of their natural ingredients and goodness are NOT clean. And we want Clean Food!”
- “White stuff is the killer - sugar, flour, cocaine, heroin - they’re insidiously addictive and they destroy your health.”
- “Try to avoid the intense marketing and misinformation of the multi-national food/chemical companies.”
- “The money we save buying bargain chicken is the money we spend on medicines and drugs later in life.”
- “I want you to think about where your food comes from; how meat and fish are raised, and what goes into the soil your vegetables and grains come from.”
- “Nature has figured us humans and our food out quite well, so trust her. Keep it all in perspective and in balance.”
As you can see, “Deliciously Opinionated” is right! But the real charm of CLEAN FOOD is his recipes. Ric is known for his spicy foods. Each recipe is given a RICter scale of from 1 to 10. (Ric even has a chapter on the Dried Chiles he uses!) The recipes are all about using organic whole foods, slow cooked and in combinations one doesn’t usually see on a menu, let alone on a plate. For example: Gooseberries & Tomatillos, Salmon & Tuna, Strawberries & Basil, Guava & Mushrooms, and so many other ingredients that are creatively combined in some of Ric’s signature dishes. Two of my favorites are Blackened String Beans, which started as an inspired afterthought when he ran short of vegetables while plating dinner one hectic evening, and Ropa Vieja, a beautifully braised beef dish with spicy Cuban roots. They are also the most ordered items on his eclectic menu.
The recipe I use the most, though, is for his simple black beans. He serves them as an aromatic side dish, not as the robust Latin-style main dish usually seen. I’ve been known to “beef” up this recipe with meat, usually ham or a smoked hock, and, without the sherry, I always use it as the base of my Feijoada. Once you’ve got the seasonings done right you can do anything with this great bean recipe:
Tia Sulma’s Vegetarian Black Beans
1 lb dried organic beans
1Tbs ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp Kosher salt
½ tsp ground cloves
1 tsp crumbled bay leaf
½ cup sherry
In a large pot, cover washed beans with 2 inches cold water and bring to a boil. Skim, turn off heat and let soak for up to an hour. Strain, rinse and return to pot with fresh water. Add other ingredients and bring to a boil again, skimming as needed. Reduce heat to low and simmer until beans are soft but not mushy, over a half hour or so. That’s it! There is no reason to open a can of beans again. You can make these ahead and freeze (or can) them to have homemade black beans with the convenience of canned! Ric includes a recipe for brown rice to serve with this - organic, naturally - and seasoned with a slice of lime. A simple, very tasty and nutritionally complex meal. Complete it with a salad. I could eat black beans and rice like this everyday!
Ric’s restaurant, New World Home Cooking, is a fun place to share a meal and a lifestyle. I enthusiastically recommend dining there, telling people about the organic, grass fed, humanely raised meats and all the locally grown ingredients. I’ve never had a bad meal there. Ric’s cookbook, CLEAN FOOD, is a bound version of his restaurant: funky, loud and filled with attitude -- and great food! It’s my bible when it comes to creative cooking.
Here's 5 of Ric's economical one-pot recipes for Chicken
available from my bookshop . . .
CLEAN FOOD
By Ric Orlando
8x10 200 pages b&w illus Paper $24.95
Richard Frisbie, FOOD Correspondent:
RICHARD FRISBIE is published twice a month to Gather Essentials: Food. It is a food junkie's take on growing, raising, preparing and - above all else - eating food. Together we’ll explore the trends, addictions, equipment and regional specialties that make up the sometimes mundane and sometimes sublime cooking and dining experience. You can keep up with my other postings and Gather activity by joining my Gather network -- I look forward to hearing from you.
You can read all of my articles http://rfrisbie.gather.com/ or find them with those of the other Food Correspondents, plus celebrity chef content and plenty of other Foodies at http://foodtalk.gather.com
BIO - Richard Frisbie writes culinary travel articles, is a columnist for his local newspapers, and is a regular contributor to the many Hudson Valley, Catskill Mountain and other regional New York publications. Online, he writes frequent articles for EDGE publications, GoNomad and Travel Lady, as well as Gather.
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Comments: 35
This book sounds interesting, and it sounds like my kind of food. Thanks for the heads up on this one.
My lemons are beginning to ripen now, Kathryn, and I love them. You're smart not to eat all that crap - thanks for stopping by.
Good to see you here, Gene.
Hey Dorine - I knew you'd like this! The restaurant tastes are fantastic, and Ric kindly shared his secrets and ingredients so anyone can recreate them at home. Now if he could figure out how to bottle and sell that atmosphere . . . .
Smart, Karen - it's the only way to go!
I rarely eat out too. There are only two local restaurants I will go back to, Cafe Tamayo and New World Home Cooking. Both are excellent - the first staid, the second funky - but I really can't afford dining out.
Thanks Marilyn - glad you like it.
Ina & Sandy - check out the New World link to see what I mean about the restaurant. If you were anywhere nearby you'd be eating there. The cookbook lets you recreate the food at home. It's a great resource.
Thanks for the kind words Gina & Heather.
Wouldn't it be a good idea to soak the black beans overnight over for a couple of hours before cooking? I do as it lessens the time it takes to cook the beans and sometimes they may never soften without soaking first. Of course you're the pro and I'm not but I was just curious about it.
I will try this lean recipe for black beans though as I do make them the old fashioned Cuban way myself.
I usually soak my beans overnight in a seasoned liquid (see a past FOOD BITES article for that info) but Ric's recipe doesn't call for it. They don't need it, and if I forget to put them down the night before, his method is perfectly acceptable to do before I leave for work in the morning. I like the heavier Latin influenced versions of black beans, but this taste is so simple and clean that it is refreshing as a side dish, or a snack. (Yes - I snack on black beans.) And once they're done - you can add them to anything - the same way you would canned. I often fry boneless pork steaks in onions & garlic, and season with cinnamon and a Louisiana pork rub, then pour a cup or two of these beans over them. Covered, simmering on the back of the stove, they smell great and make a hearty dinner over rice. Leftovers make great burritos for lunch! It's the versatility of Ric's recipe that I like.
And after the holidays, well, all that ham, squash, mashed, chocolate, wine, cheese, crackers, veggie dip - nothing really bad, but a lot of food.
This is THE cookbook for my husband! A marvelous review. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!