arts & entertainment
F
un ••• And HealthYNew ChopChop cookbook,
with easy family-oriented recipes, is due out in time for the new school year.
I
Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer
preparation at home to accommodate
those choices.
"I started to cook, and I loved it. When I
would sit down to dinner with my family, I
hopChop is a quarterly healthy
cooking magazine published in
supplemented my own meal with my own
both Spanish and English and
cooking. I stayed a vegetarian until I was
geared toward families. It is filled with
25 and was at the house of someone grill-
nutritious, great-tasting, ethnically diverse ing steak.
and inexpensive recipes, as well as fun
"It smelled so good that I tried it and
food facts, games and puzzles, and inter-
stopped being a vegetarian. I'm not a huge
views with "healthy" heroes. The maga-
meat eater. My diet is high in vegetables:'
zine has stirred up ideas for a new book,
Sampson's cooking career launched with
ChopChop: The Kids' Guide to Cooking Real a small takeout shop in Brookline, Mass.
Food with Your Family (Simon & Schuster; She did that for about 10 years and decid-
$19.99). It goes on sale
ed she wanted to write
a cookbook. Primarily
Aug. 13.
The book isn't intended
known for making soups,
for kosher kitchens,
stews and chilies, she
but most of the recipes
decided to write a soup
certainly can be used in
cookbook.
them, explains magazine
"I decided I liked writ-
developer and cookbook
ing better than having the
author Sally Sampson in a
restaurant so I decided to
phone conversation from
change careers:' recalls
her home outside Boston.
the author, whose books
"Ninety percent of our
include The $50 Dinner
recipes are completely
Party, Throw Me a Bone
appropriate for the kosher
and The Olives Table.
cook," says Sampson, who The ChopChop cookbook, on
"Instead of cooking for
a living, I moved more
is Jewish. "We have very
sale Aug. 13, features 100
little meat so we're not
into writing about cooking
healthy and tasty recipes.
mixing meat and dairy."
for a living. I worked on
There's even an easy
articles as well as books:'
recipe for matzah balls,
After marrying and
and "easy" is the key word
having two children,
IRATE SUMM
for n-RiPeneD E
in all of Sampson's dishes.
Sampson had to adapt
"It's food for people
meals to accommodate
who aren't fancy cooks,"
her daughter, diagnosed
• ,N‘,1 ,
says Sampson, whose own
with a chronic illness that
home-prepared lunches
required a low-fat diet.
tit 114 ,0
and dinners generally
That involved Sampson
■ 1111, 110,
consist of a core salad
with healthcare.
tMt;f'
Me bs aido
an • . 5' )•'..;)a,' 111;
Tt
with tidbits that change.
"The natural exten-
nti St
"We don't look at these
• sion was to use my skills
as kids' foods. We look at
as a cookbook writer to
This summer's ChopChop
these as foods for people
help address [childhood]
quarterly magazine focuses
who don't know how to
obesity:' she explains. "I
on sun-ripened produce.
cook yet. We go from the
started the magazine as a
most basic recipe through steps that are
nonprofit because we started out distribut-
ing primarily to pediatricians.
more and more complex but still keeping
it all simple:'
"If we had been a for-profit, I don't
The book, which boasts the world's
think anyone would have taken us seri-
quickest tomato sauce, also has the
ously. I don't have to answer to advertisers
author's versions of hummus, cornbread
or investors. We do what we think is right.
and variations of chicken stew among a
"Now, 50 percent of the copies are dis-
variety of choices according to meals of
tributed through doctors' offices. The rest
the day.
go to schools, after-school centers, Indian
"It's got all the great qualities the
reservations — wherever you find kids.
magazine has but more in depth," says
We also have newsstand sales:'
Sampson, whose interest in cooking
Sampson, who goes to many sources for
started when she was a teenager, turning
recipes, has connected with White House
vegetarian and being brought into food
chefs.
C
1,611,1.1.4
32
August 1 • 2013
JN
"We've done a couple of photo shoots in
the White House, and I was there in July,"
Sampson says. "We did an issue that had the
main White House chefs working with kids
in the kitchen. They gave us recipes, and we
also got information from the Obamas' per-
sonal chef'
The magazine, this year chosen
Publication of the Year in the James Beard
Foundation Awards, builds its recipes
around subjects,
In September, for example, recipes will
have to do with what can go into lunch-
boxes. The winter issue has been planned
around international soups and will fea-
ture many countries represented through
accessible ingredients.
A variety of recipes are available on the
website, chopchopmag.org.
"We're starting to do curriculum around
the magazine so that teachers will be able
to use the ideas," says Sampson, divorced
and accentuating her own health interests
by running and biking. "Everything for me
is an offshoot of the magazine. I really like
to garden, but I don't have a ton of veg-
etables growing."
Cookbook author Sally Sampson
In her book, she tells budding cooks:
"Like algebra, history and the other things
you're learning, cooking skills build on
themselves; once you get a solid founda-
tion, the rest becomes easier.
"Have the courage to try, on the one
hand, and the patience to learn what makes
food taste good, on the other. And also
consider some basic principles about what
you're doing in the kitchen and why."
❑
FISH TACOS
Ingredients:
For making the tacos:
2 Tbsp. olive, canola or vegetable
oil
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
1 /4 tsp. kosher salt
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
or chopped or put through a
garlic press
1 1 /2 lbs. firm white fish, including
halibut filets
8 6-inch corn tortillas
purple slaw or shredded
cabbage
1 /2 onion, finely chopped
1 cup chopped fresh tomato
1 cup diced avocado
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
leaves
lime quarters
hot sauce
plain low-fat Greek yogurt
1.Put the oil, spices, salt and garlic
into medium-size bowl, and mix well.
2. Cut the fish into 1-inch strips, put
them in the bowl and use your fingers
to coat them with the spice mixture. Set
the fish aside.
3. Put medium-size pan on the stove,
turn the heat to medium and heat the
pan for 3 minutes. Put the tortillas in
the pan, one at a time, and warm them
on each side for about 30 seconds. Wrap
the warm tortillas in a dish towel to
keep them warm.
4. Put large nonstick pan on the
stove, and turn the heat to medium-
high. When the pan is hot, add the
fish and cook for 3 minutes, then use a
spatula to flip the pieces over. Cook on
the other side until the fish breaks eas-
ily into flakes when you poke it with a
fork, for around 2 minutes.
5. Give each person 2 tortillas, and
let everyone assemble their tacos with
whatever ingredients they like.
Recipe and photos from ChopChop: The Kids' Guide to Cooking Real Food with Your
Family by Sally Sampson. Reprinted by permission of Simon and Schuster Inc., NY.