Who Knew Grocery Shopping Could Be Such an Ordeal?

 What’s cooking? Skillet Meatballs with Nectarines and Basil

My first time ordering after the “shelter in place” advisory, I used a service called Favor. It’s online, and once you enter your grocery list, they send an eager young person to the store with it, and the packages get delivered to your house. Because we were all in a fog about the virus and how you could catch it, I was so grateful for the service that the first couple of times, I tipped the young person $20 for a $30 order. Within a couple of weeks, though, the young people got a little less eager and the quality of the delivery started slipping – once, the eager young person actually decided he/she wasn’t interested in my order and I had to start over. When they did deliver, I’d get some of what I ordered, and sometimes an off-brand of what I ordered. You can imagine that when the Kitchen Goddess requests a brand, she expects to get that brand.

I tried going (masked) into the store, at “senior” hours, but the proximity to other people made me so anxious that the minute I walked back into the house, I’d have to take off all my clothes and put everything into the laundry. And shower and take a nap, followed by wiping down every item I bought. The process took pretty much the full day.

So I switched to a curbside pickup that my usual store offers, and even now, I am very grateful for that option. But – not surprisingly – the store likes to sell their house brands more than anything else, and I notice that they’ve gradually shifted the online offerings to skew in that direction. I know they have that other stuff – my beloved national brands – because I’ve purchased them in that store pre-Covid.

But I stuck with it until they started bagging things according to where they came from around the store: dairy, one bag; cookies/chips, one bag; cleaning supplies, one bag. And on and on. One curbside delivery I got had 36 items and they used 14 plastic bags! No matter how hard I try, I can’t get them to use paper and bag more efficiently.

Then one day, the Kitchen Goddess admitted to herself that she yearned – actually yearned – to touch the fruits and veggies she was buying. And it turns out that if you wear a mask and shop at off hours and are careful about the way you move around the stores, it’s not nearly as stressful as it once was. Of course, we’re still wiping down the packaged goods and rinsing the fruits (except the berries) in soapy water, but we’re happy to pay that price for safety. It’s a learning curve.

*  *  *

Even with all this shopping anxiety – and yes, the KG is still having shopping anxiety – I’ve been thinking more about what’s seasonal in this transition between summer and fall. I’m still seeing stone fruit in the bins at my grocery store. I bought some nectarines last week and they were a bit hard, so I put them on a plate in the window of my kitchen, where they got nice and ripe. Then, of course, I liked the look of them on that plate so much that I left them a bit too long for eating out of your hand. That didn’t stop me, though, because I’d found this very nice recipe that cooks them. So the fact that some of the diced pieces were a little less clean cut looking wasn’t a problem.

Stone fruits are really good with pork. Ok, lots of fruits are good with pork. But this recipe, which you can also make with any other ground meat, pulled together a perfect umami/sweet/savory combination of the pork and the nectarines and the basil in my garden. In fact, the original called for peaches, but you have to peel peaches, and the Kitchen Goddess likes to avoid peeling peaches. Nectarines don’t need peeling. Neither do plums, which would also be good in this treatment. Take a look at what’s available at your grocer. And in a pinch, the KG believes that frozen peach slices would work equally well. Once they get cooked, there’s not much difference in the flavor or texture.

I served this dish over rice noodles because it seemed like a fun idea. Having never made rice noodles, I just threw the whole package into the water, and ended up with way more than I needed. Really, a one-cup portion will do just fine per person. The dish would also work well over egg noodles or rice. Regardless of what you use, there’s a definite need for something to soak up that amazing sauce.

Kitchen Goddess note: Rice noodles have about 192 calories per cup; egg noodles have 221. So not much difference, and not much fat in either one, but rice noodles have less. And the fat in rice noodles is unsaturated, which is healthy for you.

Skillet Meatballs with Nectarines and Basil

Adapted from Melissa Clark in The New York Times

Serves 4.

Ingredients
1½ tablespoons fresh ginger, finely grated or minced
3 garlic cloves, grated or minced
1¼ teaspoons of ground cumin
1¼ teaspoons kosher salt
1 pound ground pork (or turkey, or chicken, or beef)
⅓ cup panko or other plain bread crumbs*
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil, plus small leaves for garnishing
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons wine (dry white, rosé or red – KG used a dry white), or broth
2 cups diced ripe nectarines (3-4), or peaches, plums, or frozen peach slices
¼ cup thinly sliced shallots (can substitute white onion or scallions)
1 lime
White rice, rice noodles, or egg noodles, for serving

*Kitchen Goddess note: Panko are Japanese-style breadcrumbs, which are made from crustless white bread in a process that produces a flakier crumb than regular breadcrumbs. If you don’t have any, use regular breadcrumbs, but know that the panko absorb less oil, so they produce a lighter and crunchier end product. Unused panko will keep for 6 + months in a Ziploc® bag in the cupboard. The KG loves panko.

Directions
In a small bowl, mix together the ginger, garlic, cumin and salt. In a large bowl, combine the pork, panko, and basil, and add the spice mix. Using your hands, gently mix everything together, trying not to squeeze or overwork the meat, to keep it tender. Form the mixture into meatballs about 1¼ inches in diameter.

Heat a large (not non-stick) skillet over medium-high, and add the oil. When the oil begins to shimmer, add the meatballs in one layer. Yes, they will stick to the pan at first, so place them carefully. After a minute or two, a browned crust will develop and the pan will get hot enough that you can turn the meatballs... to a position where they’ll stick again! Don’t try to turn them immediately after they stick. Wait a minute or two, then turn again. Once the meatballs have developed a sort of crust over most of their surface, you can easily shake the pan a few times to move them around, further developing a nice evenly crusty exterior. (This shaking the pan while you cook produces for the KG a cool feeling that she really knows what she’s doing. Maybe it will do that for you, too!) Cook the meatballs, turning and shaking the pan, until they are browned all over, 5 to 7 minutes.

Kitchen Goddess note on cooking protein in a skillet/sauté pan: The best way to cook any protein in a pan is to let it sit for a bit after you place it – even though there’s oil in the pan. Here’s what Cook’s Illustrated says about that: “Meat sticks during cooking when the sulfur atoms in the protein react with the metal atoms in the pan, forming a strong chemical bond that fuses the meat to the metal. Once the pan becomes hot enough, the link between the protein and the metal will loosen, and the bond will eventually break.” So now you know.

When the meatballs are sufficiently browned, pour the wine into the skillet and move the meatballs over to one side of the pan, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom (known as the fond – remember fond? It’s the magic ingredient in the sauce, and you don’t get it with a Teflon pan.)

To the empty side of pan, add the nectarines, a pinch of salt and 2 tablespoons of water. When the fruit reaches a simmer, cover the pan, lower the heat to medium, and let it all cook another 5-10 minutes, until the meatballs are no longer pink at their centers, and the peaches are juicy and tender.

Uncover the pan. If there appears to be more liquid than you like, let it cook down for another 1-2 minutes. The fruit should break down into a chunky sauce. If your fruit was less than fully ripe, you may need a few extra minutes.

Stir the shallots/onions into the pan for another 1-2 minutes, until they’re visibly soft. Squeeze the juice from half the lime over everything, then taste and add salt and/or lime juice, as needed. (Tart fruit will likely need less lime juice than sweet.)

Serve the meatballs over rice or noodles (or rice noodles!) with a wedge of lime, and garnished with small or torn basil leaves.

Bon appétit!