How Different Are Adult Children of Parents Who Have Same Sex Relationships? Comment on a study

Posted on June 27, 2012 by Fairlington Blade

The starting point for this thread is a comment written by QB on the gay marriage thread. To quote: “Recently a study came out, greeted by a firestorm from the left, refuting claims that children do equally well raised by either a mother and father or by same-sex couples.”

I presume that QB is referring to M. Regnerus, “How different are the adult children of parents who have same-sex relationships? Findings from the New Family Structures Study”, Social Science Research 41 (2012) 752 – 7750. As my institution has a subscription to Elsevier journals, I was able to download the original article. This is copyrighted material, so I cannot post it in full here. I think it’s fair use to post the abstract as Harvard does that.

Abstract

The New Family Structures Study (NFSS) is a social-science data-collection project that fielded a survey to a large, random sample of American young adults (ages 18–39) who were raised in different types of family arrangements. In this debut article of the NFSS, I compare how the young-adult children of a parent who has had a same-sex romantic rela- tionship fare on 40 different social, emotional, and relational outcome variables when com- pared with six other family-of-origin types. The results reveal numerous, consistent differences, especially between the children of women who have had a lesbian relationship and those with still-married (heterosexual) biological parents. The results are typically robust in multivariate contexts as well, suggesting far greater diversity in lesbian-parent household experiences than convenience-sample studies of lesbian families have revealed. The NFSS proves to be an illuminating, versatile dataset that can assist family scholars in understanding the long reach of family structure and transitions.

This is an excellent example of something worth addressing in greater detail. That is, a non-specialist citing current research. [Edit. I recognize this post is doing exactly the same thing. I can drill down a bit further and have familiarity with the publishing process, so have attempted to discuss it in those terms.] One paper cannot simply refute such claims. Then again, the author doesn’t attempt to do so in this paper. Regnerus does raise some interesting questions.

In my science post some time ago, I discussed the pecking order of journals. SSR has an impact factor of 1.57, a bit on the low side. The author’s decision to submit to SSR rather than a higher profile journal may indicate anticipation of a backlash or that he had trouble getting it into a more highly cited journal such as American Sociological Review (3.7). Elsevier is a highly regarded publisher, so he didn’t just put it in a fly by night journal. The paper was accepted within 4 weeks of being submitted. Also, it usually takes an editor a week or two to assign a paper and get a referee to review it. I seriously doubt this paper had more than a cursory review. That doesn’t mean it’s bad research, but it raises a caution flag when it comes to drawing sweeping conclusions.

There are some legitimate questions that can be raised about this study. Principle among these is false equivalence. The comparison is between “intact biological families” (IBFs) and children who report a parent as having a same sex relationship. These are not directly equivalent. As a classic example, a case where a father comes out of the closet and divorces the mother. A better comparison would be with a failed, heterosexual marriage. The author concedes this point. Quoting from the paper: “Child outcomes in stable, ‘‘planned’’ GLB families and those that are the product of previous heterosexual unions are quite likely distinctive, as previous studies’ conclusions would suggest.” He did not attempt to draw this direct parallel or control for other factors (see below). He does make a strong point in that other opposite sex relationships (step parent, cohabitating) fail to achieve the same outcome as IBFs.

Much of the paper is a data dump. It’s useful as a starting point, but drawing conclusions is challenging. There’s a few oddities. For example, only 61% of children with a lesbian mother identify as heterosexual and 71% of children with a gay father. Only 82% of children of non-IBF or non-GLB parents identify as entirely heterosexual. [Note: this is adoptive, step, single parent or other.] Those are far higher numbers than generally accepted (probably 3% – 5%). Are we talking bi-curious? Having had a same sex encounter at some point? I’m a little suspicious. I don’t know if there’s some sample bias (the author worked very hard to get a large sample size, by the way) or something else is operative. If truly a random sample, a tenfold increase suggests a biological connection or there may be issues with the sample. I’d be interested in seeing how those numbers compare for children in which the parent with custody is homosexual.

Another number. 23% of respondents with a lesbian mother report having been sexually touched by a parent or other adult. This compares with 2% for children of IBFs. Contrast this with the overall estimation for the population of 10% or more. I’d like to see how this particular study compares with other studies, independent of the sexuality of the parent. Heck, 69% of children of lesbian mothers report having been on welfare. There’s some really surprising data there, but no follow through. I don’t think the author performed adequate control checks on his sample. That’s probably an issue of resources.

I’m not questioning the accuracy of Regnerus’s reporting, but rather the depth of the study. Overall, this is interesting work, but far from conclusive. The author makes a strong point that studies need to be performed with larger sample sizes. It does open the prospect to me that there may be statistically different outcomes between a planned GLB family and an IBF.

There are also some strong points for proponents of gay marriage in the study. Regnerus cites previous research that outcomes are better for children of a married, heterosexual couple than for cohabiting couples. I quote from the introduction:

“Social scientists of family transitions have until recently commonly noted the elevated stability and social benefits of the two-parent (heterosexual) married household, when contrasted to single mothers, cohabiting couples, adoptive parents, and ex-spouses sharing custody (Brown, 2004; Manning et al., 2004; McLanahan and Sandefur, 1994).”

Those opposing same sex marriage should consider this point. Opposing it apparently condemns children of those relationships to inferior outcomes, to the detriment of society. I suspect there will be interesting research in the decades to come, particularly when it comes to the outcomes of children of married gay or lesbian parents as opposed to those who can only cohabit due to the laws of their state.

BB

Filed under: gay marriage, homosexuality | Tagged: | 43 Comments »

Bites and Pieces: Perfect Chicken

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Fairlington Blade

I’ve mostly been on the road this week. My sons finished kindergarten (yay!) on Wednesday, which happens to be the day that my wife was starting a week long job for the US Forest Service. I’m transferring to a new job in July, so a family break seemed warranted.

I found a surprise along the way. There’s a pretty decent Italian place in Lewisburg, WV, of all places (Giovanni’s). I ordered lasagna for Secondo, pasta with greens and sausage for Primo (he’s on a health kick), and a roasted veggie salad for myself. I figured I could hoover up what they left behind. Well, the salad was terrific. A good balance of veggies and the roasted squash really added heart. The pasta and greens didn’t look like much, but looks can be deceiving. They used broccoli rabe for the greens and a mild sausage that balanced the dish. The pasta was penne and cooked al dente. The lasagna was simple–a couple layers of noodles with ricotta in the middle and marinara on top. I took a bite of it and got a surprise. The noodles were tender and the ricotta is as good as anything I picked up at the Italian Store in Arlington. Turns out they make everything in house. This is the kind of restaurant everyone wishes they had in their neighborhood. The total was $37, including two sodas.

But that’s not important right now. I’m writing about chicken. The day after I arrived at the lake, my brother made a beer can chicken. I’d never tried it before. It was quite good, but he misjudged the timing (we didn’t have a thermometer) and so the inner portions were undercooked. That’s the eternal problem with roasting a chicken. Undercooked meat or dried out breast meat (or in the worst of all cases, both). How to solve it?

One of my sons was wanting chicken and I know my parents enjoy it. So, what to do? On a whim, I decided to try a butterflied chicken. Cut out the backbone, flatten the thing, and roast it. As a bonus, you can use the wings and the back to make a nice mini batch of stock. I did a bit of hunting about and came upon Kenji Alt’s blog. He used to appear on America’s Test Kitchen. The method seemed straightforward and dispensed with turning the chicken. The ideal is 150 degrees for breast meat and 170 for dark meat. I was shocked when the meat thermometer registered the perfect temperature both times. And the chicken was perfect! 

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. Take a 3 1/2 – 4 lb. chicken. Brine it if you like (I do) and air dry. Cut out the backbone with some kitchen shears. Flatten the beastie. Spread a tablespoon of vegetable oil (sesame oil is tasty) over the top and season with salt and pepper. I shoved a couple tablespoons of butter between the skin of the breasts and the meat. It may be gilding the lily, but what the hey.

3. Slide up a half dozen small (1″) potatoes. Toss with oil and put in the bottom of a roasting pan. Put a flat rack on top and place the chicken on it. [Note: don’t use a V-rack for a butterflied bird. If you don’t have a flat rack, just put it right on the potatoes.]

4. Roast the bird for about 45 minutes, until the breast meat registers 150 degrees and the thigh registers 170 degrees. As I noted above, it worked perfectly for me.

5. Let the bird rest for 5 minutes and then enjoy!

 

BB

Filed under: Bites and Pieces, cooking, food, fun stuff | 4 Comments »

Bits and Bites: Stir Fry

Posted on May 26, 2012 by Fairlington Blade

My wife and I are fans of Cooks Illustrated. We bought a boxed set of the first ten years of bound volumes after getting back from our honeymoon back in 2003. Since then, we’ve added most of the individual volumes. I’ve always found their approach appealing as it strikes me as the way a scientist would go at a problem. Cooking as chemistry rather than art. It’s a good grounding in cooking. I’ve learned to indulge my creative side too.

One criticism of CI is that the recipes can be ridiculously involved. We have some vegetarian friends and so I make a vegetarian friendly stuffing for Thanksgiving. The vegetarian stock in CI is over the top. Two pounds of veggies and an hour of cooking to produce one quart of stock. REALLY??? I’ve simplified it a bit and double the amount of stock that I get out of it.

One of our favorite books is The Simple Recipe, from the same folks. The idea is to take the ridiculously complicated recipes and simplify them for every day cooking. It still takes time, but works for a weeknight meal. When it comes to throwing together a balanced meal, my most serious failing is in not making a side dish to balance out the meal. It’s too easy to just serve the main course with a starch. One pot meals have a nice way of handling this problem. Veggies included!

This brings me to my recipe of the week: stir fry. Everything is in one pan, so there’s no need to do anything on the side. Get some rice going, chop up some meat and veggies (or use a bag of frozen veggies), and you’re good to go. This does not, however, mean throw everything into a pan. Different veggies take different cooking times. Plus, if you crowd the pan, those veggies are going to throw off enough liquid to drown your meal. What I really like about the Quick Recipe approach is that it’s broken up so that everything has a chance to cook, not too much, and you throw it all together in the end. The meat marinates while you get everything else ready.

Here’s the general approach.

Step 1. Cut up ¾ of a pound of meat (or tofu) into bite sized pieces and combine with 2 teaspoons each of soy sauce and sherry. Not being English, I don’t often have sherry on hand, so I use white wine (if I don’t have it on hand, I’ll run over to Unwined).

Step 2. Combine a tablespoon of minced ginger, another of minced garlic, some chopped green onions (white parts), and a couple teaspoons of oil. Peanut oil is really good for stir fries as it has a high smoke point. Safflower and sunflower oils are a good alternative.

Step 3. Chop up 1 ½ pounds of veggies. They’ll need to be separated by how they cook. Spinach is going to get added in at the last moment. Carrots and onions go in early.

Step 4. Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a 12” nonstick skillet (another thing I love about this method—no wok) until smoking. Add the marinated protein and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned. It’ll probably take 2 – 3 minutes. Less for shrimp (unless you’re a fan of chewing polyurethane). Transfer to a clean bowl.

Step 5. Cook the veggies. Add a bit more oil to the pan and heat until shimmering (not smoking!). Add the slower cooking veggies to the pan and cook until nearly done (tender, but a bit crisp). Move the veggies to the side, add a bit more oil, and add the quick cooking veggies.

Step 6. Clear out the center of the pan and toss in the garlic/ginger mixture. Cook for about a minute, mashing a bit, and then stir all the veggies together. Add the protein back in and stir to combine. Toss in ½ cup of sauce and serve over rice.

It’s time for me to add a note regarding sauces. This should be step 2.5. But hey, there’s some decent sauces that you can buy in the supermarket. This is, after all, supposed to be a weeknight meal. Their sauces are pretty easy to put together. One common theme is cornstarch as a thickener. In case you’re obsessive like me, here’s a few of my favorites.

Garlic Sauce

3 T. dry sherry

3 T. chicken broth

2 T. soy sauce

½ t. sesame oil

1.5 t. minced garlic

1 t. cornstarch

½ t. sugar

Hot and Sour Sauce

3 T. rice wine vinegar*

2 T. chicken broth

2 T. dry sherry

1 T. soy sauce

1 T. chili paste

1 t. sesame oil

1 t. sugar

1 t. cornstarch

*You can sub other vinegars, but cut it back as the rice wine vinegar is pretty low in acidity

Lemon Sauce

Zest and juice from one large lemon

2 T. chicken broth

2 T. dry sherry

1 T. soy sauce

2 t. sugar

1 t. cornstarch

½ t. black pepper

I’ll throw in a couple of my favorites. The basic template is adaptable to whatever you’ve got in the crisper. Okie and I chatted recently. She had a few ingredients available, but was lacking in inspiration. That had me going stir fry!

One of my favorites is beef and broccoli. I didn’t realize until well into my 40s that broccoli stalks were something you should enjoy. I figured you cut off the florets and discarded the rest. Here’s a recipe that I hope might convince you likewise.

Beef & Broccoli in Garlic Sauce

¾ pound thinly sliced flank steak

1 ½ pounds broccoli—florets broken into bite sized pieces; stalks peeled and cut into ¼” thick pieces

¼ cup of coarsely chopped walnuts

Garlic sauce (see above)

All the other stuff I mentioned above

1. Combine the beef with soy and sherry

2. Combine garlic, ginger, scallinos and oil (see above)

3. Toast the walnuts in that same 12” skillet you’ll be using. Set aside.

4. Add 2 t. oil to the skillet, heat until smoking, and toss in the beef. Cook, stirring occasionally, until well browned and transfer to a clean bowl.

5. Add another 2 t. of oil to the skillet and heat until shimmering. Add the broccoli, ½ cup of water, and cover. Cook until the broccoli turns bright green , 1 – 2 minutes. Uncover and cook, stirring, until the water evaporates and the broccoli is ready, About another 2 – 4  minutes.

6. Clear the center of the pan, add the garlic/ginger mixture and cook for about a minute. Stir it all together, add the beef and combine with the sauce. Toss the walnuts on top and dig in!

Shrimp and Peppers in Garlic Sauce

You may notice a theme, as I love the Garlic Sauce

1 pound of large shrimp

2 med. red bell peppers, diced

1 cup of scallion whites, coarsely diced

1 ½ cups of scallion greens, chopped

Garlic sauce

Other stuff as noted above

Note: If you don’t feel like spending awhile chopping scallions, use a medium white or yellow onion for the whites and some spinach for the greens.

Pretty much, you follow the same protocol. Marinate the shrimp and prep the other stuff. Cook the shrimp in smoking oil until browned. I’d say shrimp require a bit more attention Don’t worry if they’re undercooked, because they’ll continue to cook while set aside and go back on heat later. Cook the onions/white parts, toss in the bell peppers, and then add the green parts (or greens). Make some space, cook the ginger/garlic mix, throw everything together and eat!

May you all have a Memorable weekend. I’m taking my sons to visit their great aunt’s grave in Arlington National Cemetery and then we’re going to watch Rolling Thunder going over the Memorial Bridge.

BB

Filed under: 2012, Bites and Pieces, recipes | 18 Comments »

Bites and Pieces: Build a Better Burger

Posted on May 12, 2012 by Fairlington Blade

Gourmet burgers have become all the rage in the DC area. The Five Guys burger chain has its origins at the intersection of Glebe Road and Columbia Pike in Arlington, not too far from where I live. Rays Hell Burger was locally famous before it became a favorite place for President Obama to take visiting dignitaries. Their burgers really are THAT good. BGR is another favorite of mine. The worst burger I ever ate was at a greasy spoon off campus of the University of Missouri. I was interviewing for a faculty position in the Physics Department. I ordered a burger for lunch, took one bite, and realized that the center was raw. My guess is that it hadn’t completely defrosted when they put it on the grill. My choices were to send it back, potentially causing an awkward moment, or to choke it down. I choked it down and probably was fortunate to not get sick. I didn’t get the job; they gave it to a former grad student of the chair of the search committee. On the plus side, we went to a wine dinner that night at a local shop that was worth the trip.

A good burger is a thing of beauty and a great base for whatever you want to do. In Santa Fe, New Mexico, it’s going to be topped by green chili. Treat it like a steak and top with bernaise sauce. When you come down to it, basic is best. Few things are finer than a simple cheese burger on a good bun. Perhaps some fried onions or ketchup. Keep the mustard and relish away from my burger, please. Waiter, if me and the boys wanted to eat a hot dog, we would have ordered a hot dog. [Credit to Humphrey Bogart]

So, why on earth am I going to waste a valued slot of Bits and Bites on burgers. We all know how to make a burger. Take some ground beef, make some patties and grill them. Simple, no? Well, it’s time for me to go all Alton Brown on you. I want to focus on the critical ingredient: ground beef. If you’re buying it from a supermarket, you are either paying too much or don’t know what you’re using. I’m not talk about pink slime, simply that the stuff sold as “ground beef” in supermarkets might as well be mystery meat. It’s all the trimmings ground together, adjusted for fat content, and thrown out there for $4/pound. Good for the bottom line, but not the making of a great burger.

I ground my own beef for the first time a few years ago. We were one of a half-dozen families who were getting together for a picnic and I was assigned burgers. One of our copies of Cooks Illustrated had an easy way of making ground beef using a food processor, so I decided to give it a go. The burgers were great, even if the picnic wasn’t. One of my sons had an extended crying jag and I had to leave around the time that enough people finally arrived for the grilling to commence.

Thereafter, there has been a repeated refrain when it comes to E Coli contamination: ground beef. Does anyone remember when E Coli hit Jack in the Box. I remember a suggested slogan for them after the scare. “Jack in the Box: We cook the shit out of our burgers.” The best way to have a burger is medium rare and the only way you can be sure of it is to know where the beef comes from or trust the source. As long as you’re going to make your own burger, why not take a bit of extra time on the most important ingredient?

What meat to use? I have two ways to make ground beef. Chuck roast is perfect for making ground beef, which is why you often see it listed as ground chuck. One gets about 20% fat, perfect for burgers. We have a Costco membership, so I pick up some chuck roast every so often. I can get it for about the same price as ground meat in the grocery store. Oh, but the quality is so much better. I sometimes use flank steak, which is flavorful, but quite lean. I pair the flank steak with boneless short ribs to get the right fat level. Other folks like sirloin. Hey, do what you want to do! I’ve read about using a cheap cut of relatively lean beef and adding in lard to kick up the fat level. You could go full gourmet and add duck fat.

How to make the ground beef? We bought a stand mixer a few years ago via Craigslist and the owner threw in a pasta making attachment (useless) and a grinding attachment (wonderful). So, I use that for making ground beef. A food processor works just fine. Cut the meat into 1” – 2” chunks, put it in the freezer for about 15 minutes to firm it up, and pulse it until you get the right consistency. It’s easy! Process it in batches and freeze the excess. I wrap the ground beef in plastic wrap, followed by a barrier layer of aluminum foil. It’ll keep and there’s no freezer burn.

How do you make a better burger? A great burger needs three things: ground beef, salt, and pepper. If you’re adding bread or onions or whatever else, you’re making meat loaf, not a burger. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good meat loaf. This, however, is about burgers. I do think that the salt and pepper should be mixed it. The entire burger should be seasoned. Otherwise, there’s a hit of seasoning on the crust, and nothing inside. So, mix in the salt and pepper. I like ½ teaspoon of salt and ¼ teaspoon of black pepper for a pound of ground beef. Once it’s mixed, divide the beef into about 5 oz. for each patty. Cook how you like. It’s hard, ok, impossible, to beat the grill. On the stove, I use a cast iron skillet. Avoid non-stick at all cost.

Now, sauce time. I can hardly fault the combination of grilled onions and cheese. I mentioned the New Mexico penchant for green chile sauce on burgers, so I thought I’d share my favorite salsa verde. It comes from Rick Bayless, the chef with a number of Mexican restaurants in the Chicago area, including Topolobampo and Frontera Grill.

1 pound of tomatillos
1 head of garlic, separated into cloves with skin on
8 Serrano peppers
1 lg. white onion
1 bunch cilantro
2 – 4 limes (depending upon how juice they are)
salt and pepper to taste

Remove outer wrap from tomatillos and wash. Rub with vegetable oil and put into oven (a toaster oven is great for this) on broil until skins blacken. Set aside to cool and remove skins. Don’t worry about getting it all. When skins are removed, toss into the bowl of a food processor.
Meanwhile, thoroughly coat Serrano peppers and garlic cloves with vegetable oil and put in medium sized pan. Cook over med-high heat, shaking occasionally, until skins of peppers blister and the garlic slightly blackens. Remove from heat, cover and let cool. Remove the skins from the garlic cloves and Serrano peppers. The steaming action while cooling makes removing the skins easy. Depending upon how spicy you like your salsa, you can remove some, all, or none of the seeds from the peppers. Toss the peppers into the bowl of the food processor.

Chop white onion and briefly blanch in hot water (I boil a bit, but very hot tap water works too). Drain and put in food processor. Rinse cilantro and coarsely chop. Keep the stems in as they’ve plenty of flavor. Blend everything and pour into a bowl. Add salt, pepper, and lime juice to taste.

I’m also moving Okie Girl’s tomato salsa as it’s a great ketchup alternative. [Hope you don’t mind me moving it up into the main post, Okie!]

ORIGINAL TOMATO SALSA

This recipe came via one of the old regulars at a neighborhood dive bar I used to frequent to play shuffleboard. His nickname is “Lumpy” as a result of a serious car accident in which his neck was broken. He published the recipe in a cookbook the bar patrons all contributed to many years ago. Another regular patron who owned a local restaurant then began serving it in his restaurant and reported it was a huge success. I made some modifications that I’ll describe after the original recipe and began giving it as holiday gifts. It has been so popular I am now up to giving away 4-6 pint cases every Christmas.

Ingredients

6 lbs plus 3 oz canned chopped tomatoes
¾ C dried onion
½ C sugar
1 ¼ C white vinegar
3-4 jalapeno peppers (to taste)
1/8 C pickling salt
¾ Tbs chili powder
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp cumin
½ tsp alum
1 small can green chilies

Preparation

Mix all ingredients together in large pan. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat. After it cools, pour into jars and keep refrigerated. Makes about 8 pints.

Modifications

I use fresh chopped onion instead of dried, reduce the sugar a bit, and use a mix of canned and fresh tomatoes. This tends to make a rather thin salsa, so I use half fresh tomatoes and half canned crushed tomatoes to add some body. I also add a couple of cloves of minced garlic, a large chopped bell pepper, and about a half bunch of chopped cilantro. If I’m going to be using the salsa immediately, I reduce the vinegar a bit (to about 1C) but leave vinegar as is if I’m canning it.

Since this makes a more liquid salsa than I typically prefer, I frequently strain off some of the liquid and use it as seasoning in other dishes (such as using it for part of the cooking liquid for rice).

So, what’s your better burger?

BB (for beef burger of course)

Filed under: Bites and Pieces, Bits and Pieces, food, recipes | Tagged: , | 26 Comments »

Bits and Bites: Here Fishy Fishy

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Fairlington Blade

I’m a fan of a recipe a friend of mine for sake steamed sea bass. It’s pretty simple. Reduce a cup of clam juice and white wine, toss in some ginger, put some white fish (halibut is wonderful) on a rack on top of it, top with sesame oil, soy sauce, sesame seeds and scallions. Steam for five minutes and serve. It’s particularly good served over sushi rice as the chew of the rice and the flavor of the sauce come together.

I had some mahi mahi in the freezer the other day and took it down with the idea of steaming it in a similar manner. I wanted to make it a complete meal, including the veggies, rather than making a side dish. I recently had the Hong Kong Style Sea Bass at the Carlyle, a favorite restaurant of ours in Shirlington. The fish that night was overcooked (don’t order a dish needing careful timing at 9 p.m. on a Friday), but the idea is great.

I hunted around a little on the web for ideas, using these two dishes as my guideposts. We had some all purposes veggies around that would work well: red onion, red bell pepper, carrots, ginger, scallions. The recipe is quite flexible in this regard as you can vary the veg to whatever you like. My one significant modification was that I wanted to make a proper pan sauce. Hey, it’s an excuse to use some butter. So, here’s what I fashioned.

Asian Steamed Mahi Mahi

 Ingredients:

½ cup white wine

½ cup chicken stock or clam juice

2 cups of thinly sliced root vegetables. I think you could also simply use a bag of whatever you like from the freezer section. Here’s my mixture:

½ lg. red onion, thinly sliced (use white or red if you prefer)

2 medium or 3 small carrots, peeled and thinly sliced (long slices, not quarters)

1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon of ginger, you guessed it, thinly sliced

Several cloves of garlic, finely chopped (just to mix it up a little)

One bunch of scallions, sliced lengthwise

Greens – I’ve made this recipe with baby bock choi and it worked well. The white portions went in with the root vegetables and the green portions on top. Spinach and  cilantro work well in this dish as well.

1 pound mahi mahi or other firm white fish

Sea salt (or whatever is your favorite)

1 – 2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 – 2 tablespoons sesame oil

Toasted sesame seeds to garnish

Butter!

Method:

1. Pat fish dry with paper towel, salt lightly and put on plate in refrigerator. I like doing this before starting to chop the vegetables. It gives the fish half an hour to season. Right before you starting cooking, heat the oven to 170 degrees. Put a large plate in the warm oven and turn off the oven. This is for keeping the fish warm while the sauce reduces. Alternately, you could probably put the fish on a warm plate and tent with foil.

2. Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil over medium heat in a heavy bottomed skillet. Once shimmering, add in the red onion and carrots. Once softened (1 – 2 minutes), add in the garlic and ginger and sauté for 30 sec. Add the bell pepper (and whatever other veg you want), stir, and add wine and stock. Simmer broth and vegetables for 5 min. over medium heat.

3. While the vegetables are cooking, take the fish out and cover with sesame oil, then soy sauce. Turn a few times on the plate so that it is thoroughly coated. Arrange fish on steamer rack and top with sesame seeds.

4. Place scallions, cilantro, and any other greens (if using) on top of simmering vegetables. Place steamer rack with fish on top and drizzle with remaining soy sauce and sesame oil.  Cover skillet and steam fish until opaque in center, about 5 min. for fresh fish.

5. Remove steamer rack from pan and place on warm plate. Empty skillet through a mesh strainer into a small sauce pan and set the vegetables aside. Reduce the sauce until slightly thickened. Stir in one to two tablespoons of butter. Monte beurre, as the French would say. It’s gooooooood.

6. Time to plate! Coat a plate with rice. Sticky rice or sushi rice is particularly good. I like doing a thin round on the plate as a base. Then place a portion of vegetables on the rice, followed by one service of fish. Coat the fish with sauce and serve.

Enjoy!

BB

 

Asian Style Mahi Mahi over Sushi Rice

Filed under: Bites and Pieces, food, recipes | 7 Comments »

Bits and Bites: Saag Paneer

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Fairlington Blade

I started making Saag Paneer when I started dating my wife. It’s cooked greens, principally spinach, along with paneer cheese (think cottage cheese with no liquid). I wasn’t that much into dishes based on cooked spinach, but I was in love. My Indian cookbook didn’t have saag paneer, but it did have a similar dish called Methi Chaman based on spinach and methi leaves. I doubled the greens, adjusted the spicing, and have been refining it ever since. I pretty much hit my standard batch by using half a pound of spinach, a bunch of chopped cilantro, and frozen methi leaves to fill out the pound of greens.

Then I went to a place in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland, called Mother’s India Café. I ordered Saag Paneer as a matter of course (I enjoy the dish and it’s useful research). Mother’s saag paneer blew mine away. First, it was chunkier. The recipe I follow calls for adding two cups of water to the cooked and pureed greens, bringing it to a boil, adding the paneer and then simmering down over an hour or two.

I much prefer Mother’s version as it tastes fresher. It also had a flavor to it that I can’t quite pin down. Not just ghee (clarified butter). I use asafoetida (hing) in my version, which adds a little hwang to the mix. I went to Mother’s three times in four nights, the last of which was a Saturday night. I decided to go with takeaway as the place is popular. I put in my order, went to a nearby place for a pint, and then came back. The line had grown amazingly by the time I returned. I happily took my curry back and even got my obligatory ride on the upper level of a double decker bus.

Once back in my hotel room, I decided that the rice and chana daal (lentils) would be adequate, so I treble wrapped the saag paneer and put it in the mini fridge. It survived the trip back to the U.S. and I shared it with my two favorite curry tasters. I also made a batch of my own, improved with some ideas I got. First of which is that I decided the long cook down was not necessary. The water I used to rinse the greens was sufficient for the sauce. Rather than pureeing the batch, I used an immersion blender to leave the batch a bit chunky. Finally, I adjusted the greens. In the past, I’ve used a half pound of spinach, leaves from a bunch of cilantro, and a half pound of methi leaves. I decided to add in some mustard leaves for a bit of a kick and kale for heartiness. It wasn’t really a blind taste test as I brown my saag whereas Mother’s doesn’t and it was my fresh made batch vs. four day old leftovers. Still, Mother’s forced me to up my game. Here’s my new and improved recipe.

Paul’s Improved Saag Paneer

Serves 4 – 6

Ingredients

1 pound of greens, coarsely chopped, rinsed, and drained

1 bunch cilantro, stems removed and chopped

1 pound of paneer cheese, cut into 1/2” cubes

¼ cup each clarified butter and vegetable oil

Spice Mix #1

1 tsp. Asafoetida (hing)

2 tsp. cumin seeds

10 cloves (or ½ tsp clove powder)

Spice Mix #2

2 tsp. turmeric powder

1 tsp. red chilli powder

2 tsp. chopped ginger

1 tsp. ginger powder

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 tsp. salt (or to taste)

Notes

Spinach is the base for the greens, but it helps to use a combination. I like ½ pound of spinach, a few mustard greens and some kale, and then methi leaves to fill out. If you don’t have methi leaves available, I’d suggest a combination of spinach, kale, and mustard leaves with at least half the weight from spinach.

Method

Cut one pound of paneer cheese into half inch cubes. Brown in a bit of vegetable oil and set aside.

Put ½ cup of F A T in a med. sized pot or dutch oven over med-high heat. I like using a combination of half clarified butter (it really is needed) and canola oil (because we don’t need it that much). Add in spice mix #1. No biggie if you don’t have any hing, but it really does add something to the flavor. Cook until the seeds begin to “pop”.

Add the chopped greens and cilantro, lower heat and cover until cooked. Add spice blend #2 and cook for a minute or two. There should be a bit of excess water. If not, add up to ½ cup. Partially puree with an immersion blender. If you don’t have one, pour mixture into blender and pulse a few times until partially pureed and return to pan.

Add paneer cheese and bring the mixture to boil. Serve over rice.

BB

Filed under: Bites and Pieces, food, recipes | 1 Comment »

Notes from a Small Island

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Fairlington Blade

I’m taking the title of this post from one of my favorite books, a travelogue of the UK written by Bill Bryson. Bill Bryson is a humorous writer, mostly of travel books, who is originally from Des Moines, Iowa, and who lived in the UK for many years. His family decided on a move back to the U.S. and so he had one last trip around the UK. The book pokes fun at various locales and people, not the least of which was Bill Bryson himself. It’s also a spirited defense of the way of life at the time. It says a lot about the ability of the British to laugh at themselves that this book was on the best seller list during my entire four year stay in the UK.

I arrived in Glasgow on a rainy Saturday morning three weeks ago. As it turns out, that was one of the few rainy days that I would experience. The hotel thoughtfully had my room ready early. Free use of the hotel lounge and free mini-bar were also much appreciated. A hot bath and a short nap later, I headed up to the lounge for a coffee and out on the no longer rainy Saturday morning.

This was my first trip to the UK since 2004. It felt like taking out an old pair of shoes from the closet that I don’t wear anymore. They’re comfortable, but in a different way. British cities have much less open space than their American counterparts. I felt back in my element. Much better, actually, as now I have the fuller life that I lacked back then.

I arrived at noon for the first of many Indian meals. There’s two places I should highlight. Mama’s Rasoi (kitchen) is a relatively new Indian restaurant on the back side of the St. Enoch shopping center. I hope they’re getting a good rent as there’s relatively little foot traffic. The place came recommended by the Indian students of my host. They know what they’re doing. The food was excellent. Service has a little work to do, but the place has promise. I hope it survives.

The other place I want to high light is Mother’s India Café. One big plus about food there is that it’s down “tapas style”. In this case, it means half size portions. That’s a big plus for the solo traveler as it meant I could try four dishes as opposed to one or two. This place has the best saag paneer I’ve ever had, including mine. I’m going to do this as a separate bits and bites item, but Mother’s was so good that I brought a batch back to the US.

I timed my arrival in Scotland to be in the middle of two big stories. The smaller one is Scottish independence. The Scottish National Party holds a majority in the Scottish parliament, a creation of devolution. They trumpet a policy of independence from the UK, though the referendum that its leader wants is multiple choice. Independence, continued union, or continued union with more (undefined) devolution. David Cameron, the Tory PM, has called his bluff and proposes an earlier referendum of Stay vs. Go.

The much bigger story is the Rangers going into administration (bankruptcy). There are two big clubs in Scottish football—Celtic and Rangers. The closest analogy that I can draw is Yankees vs. Red Sox. There’s a long history of competition between the two firms, including sectarian rivalry (Catholic vs. Protestant). Rangers were taken over recently by a businessman with a dodgy past. A tax avoidance case could cost them tens of millions of pounds. The administrators subsequently revealed that the takeover was funded by selling the proceeds of advance ticket sales to pay off a bank debt. It’s a huge scandal.

There are some definite highlights and lowlights to the trip. I had a few enjoyable side trips. My host took me to Glen Goyne distillery the day after I arrived. As I’d picked up a bad cold on the day I left (losing my voice in the process), a whiff of fermenting barley cut through nicely. We also went to Stirling castle on my second weekend and finished the evening off at the village pub. We went up to Loch Fyne my next to last day, enjoying a good lunch and then visiting a whiskey shop. I came back with a bottle of 12 year old Glen Goyne and a custom blend from the whiskey shop (plus some cheese, a few toys, and a batch of saag paneer).

The lowest point may have been realizing that I wasn’t going to accomplish my experimental goals. I was there to help them set up a particular experiment. Pete’s post-doc emailed me the equipment they had purchased for this work. It does everything but sit up and beg. Well, if you order the right accessories. They didn’t order this system, but inherited it from a professor who’d moved to Dublin. So, it didn’t have the mounts for characterizing devices nor the software options. In terms of the work I was supposed to do, we got next to nothing done. I got the system up and running and specified the machining to be done to mount one of their samples. So, there goes a few thousand pounds from the Queen’s treasury.

I did get quite a bit of other work done. We’re coming up on the deadline for submitting the oral program for a conference that I co-chair. It was helpful to have some time away from work to finish this off. A colleague of mine is a professor at St. Andrews University. He invited me to come up and give not one, but two talks. I was to deliver a colloquium for the department in the morning and a seminar for his research group in the afternoon. The latter talk is one that I plan to develop into a potential interview talk, so I spent quite a bit of time on it. Although I had to sing for my supper, I’m pleased to report that supper (and lunch) were very good indeed. Everything was capped off with scotch at host’s home and a room overlooking the 18th green at St. Andrews golf course. This might also develop into a sabbatical. I’ll be working on that in the near future.

I had one of the more interesting conversations of my visit with my friend. I’d put him as a stereotypical Tory (saying this without having explored his political opinions). He’s upper middle class with wife and family. I described Rick Santorum as a socially conservative politician and then had to explain what that meant. It would also be fair to say that movement conservatives have no analogue in the UK. The argument is about how to best run the NHS, not to eliminate it altogether. Until the thread earlier today, I was unaware of any sentiment to eliminate public education in the US. ATiM is an interesting place.

Overall, I didn’t get done what I meant to get done, but it was useful to spend time away thinking about what I really WANT to get done. I’m not sure where I’m headed, other than I’m probably headed away from my present job. Change isn’t a bad thing. A couple of weeks thinking about it isn’t either.

BB

Filed under: Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Yet Another Political Test

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Fairlington Blade

The Pew Research Center came out with what they classify as political typology. It’s a bit more refined than the political test in the other thread. It’s a more nuanced take than many I’ve seen. The full report and test are here:

http://www.people-press.org/2011/05/04/beyond-red-vs-blue-the-political-typology/

http://www.people-press.org/typology/quiz/

Mostly Republican

Staunch Conservatives (Highly Engaged Tea Party Supporters)

Main Street Republicans (Conservative on most issues)

Mostly Independent

Libertarians (Free market, small govt. seculars)

Disaffecteds (Downscale and cynical)

Post-Moderns (Moderates, but liberal socially)

Mostly Democratic

New Coalition Democrats (Upbeat, majority minority)

Hard Pressed Democrats (Relgious, financially struggling)

Solid Liberals (Across the board liberal positoins)

Bystanders

Young, politically disengaged

I scored as a post-modern, which feels about right. I’m clearly a Democrat, but have voted for the occasional Republican. [Note to NoVa – Sorry I missed your note the other date about Moran and his opponent.]

BB

Filed under: Uncategorized | 49 Comments »

Word of the day: Pettifog

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Fairlington Blade 
George Will cracked open his thesaurus again. Seems 
like a good word for the occasional comment thread.

pet·ti·fog/ˈpetēˌfôg/

1. Quibble about petty points
2. Practice legal deception or trickery.

That is all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5umGAwSEUw

Filed under: Uncategorized | 14 Comments »

Question of the night: Is the personal political?

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Fairlington Blade

Hi all,

We’re about an hour from debate time and I wanted to expand upon something that came up in an earlier debate. Rick Perry voiced what I thought was a dangerous line of attack on Newt. Here’s the quote: “If you cheat on your wife, you’ll cheat on your business partner, so I think that issue of fidelity is important.” It’s an interesting challenge and one worth expanding upon.

Let’s take fiscal conservatives as an example. I consider myself a fiscal conservative in both the personal and political senses of the world. We bought our house in 2005, when the real estate world seemed to have gone mad. People were getting all kinds of crazy mortgages, which really pissed me off as it meant I couldn’t afford the kind of home I hoped to have. We held to a firm rule. 10% down. 15 year fixed mortgage. It would mean sacrifices, but it made fiscal sense. I’m glad we were careful as despite our care, we had financial troubles. The place needed a good deal more work than anticipated and so we blew through our savings, I took out a $15k improvement loan, and we were still running a bit short. [I’m fiscally conservative, but also make mistakes.] We bore down, built up some minimal savings, and paid off that loan 7 years early. We’re working to pay off my wife’s student loans next year (way early after having consolidated), and I want to pay off the mortgage by the time the boys exit elementary school (that’d be about 3 – 4 years early). I don’t want to be in a position of needing a paycheck ever again. I’ll note that I’m lucky in that I’ve had a relatively secure position during the last 4 years and my wife’s freelancing has taken off.

I’m also a fiscal conservative in the political sense. For me, being a fiscal conservative means that expenditures should match income. Cutting taxes without cutting expenditures is the act of a fiscal fool. So is increasing expenditures without increasing taxes. So, Medicare Part D was reckless. Expanding Medicare to include a drug benefit? Great idea! Doing it without touching FICA rates. Terrible idea¡ If you want federal taxes to be limited to 20% of GDP, fine. Then propose a budget that meets that.

Now, shocks occur. I am horrified by the present fiscal situation, but it beats a second great depression. It flips my personal stance (short term pain for long term gain). Ironically, the opposite seems to be the case. Short term deficits and long term cuts. The alternative is Greece (or the UK, which slipped back into recession).

That’s a somewhat lengthy example. Let’s bring it to politicians. Example A would be Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Illinois). Owes child support, a condo foreclosure, and tax liens. How can anyone take such an individual seriously? I’ll also put Charlie Rangel in the same class. For all his tap dancing, the attacks on Al Gore for his mansion hit home.

I’m curious as to other analogues. Do apparent contradictions between a politician’s personal behavior and their political positions matter to you? Are there any cases of where your vote has been affected by a politician’s personal actions?

And most important of all. Would you like to grope Sen. Rand Paul? 😉

BB

Filed under: politics | 15 Comments »

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