B
Monday, October 21, 2019
The Observer & Baker City Herald
BOB’S
THOUGHTS
Lower-Salt Recipes
BOB BAUM
Why I’m so
glad to be
back home
The story begins in June of 1969
with a call from The Observer offering
a one-month internship.
I was 17, pushing a broom and
bagging groceries in Union. Of course
I said yes. It was the beginning of a
half-century in journalism — mostly
in sports — a journey that would take
this small-town kid around the world
— to 10 Olympics, four world track
championships, three Super Bowls, one
great World Series, a handful of Final
Fours and college football champion-
ships.
And a front-row seat one summer for
the odd saga of Tonya Harding.
I was born at St. Joseph’s Hospital
— now the Union County Courthouse
— and grew up in Union,
Most of my youth my dad drove a
truck, winding up gravel roads to pick
up cream from farmers, always with a
stick of gum for the kids, then return-
ing to the old brick creamery in Union,
where the cargo was transformed to
smooth Darigold butter.
My mother was a secretary for my
uncle David (Sr.) at Baum Insurance
Agency. Her maiden name was Gekeler,
a pioneer family in these parts.
The Observer gave me a scholarship
and I stayed and attended then-
Eastern Oregon College for two years,
abandoning my original plan to pursue
a law degree (thereby depriving the
world of yet another lawyer named
Baum). I did a little bit of everything
for the paper, which then published
six afternoons a week, and learned so
much. I became sports editor at 18.
Since I was young and dumb in so
many ways, I would get into rodeo are-
nas to shoot photos of bull riding. Then
there was that day during bull riding
at the old Blue Mountain Rodeo.
The clown asked me to shake my
knees like I’m nervous, then he would
goose me with a broom handle and
everyone would laugh. I did, he did and
they certainly did.
What followed was ominous advice.
He told me I could get even closer to
the bulls, that they never faked one
way and went the other. They just go
whatever direction they’re going out of
the chute.
So I crept closer. The chute opened.
The cowboy was bucked off immedi-
ately.
And — I swear on a Bible — the bull
faked one way and took aim at me. So
I ran. The arena was encircled with
billboards so there was no easy place
to climb. I fi nally just leaped to the top
and slid head-fi rst down the other side,
my legs slowly disappearing from view.
The crowd roared.
Then there was my fi rst aircraft ride.
Interstate 84 was bypassing La Grande
and The Observer rented a helicopter
to take a photo. It was one of those
“Whirlybirds’’ type helicopters, small
with no doors. As we hovered above the
freeway, the pilot asked if I wanted a
better angle, then tilted the thing side-
ways. Facing the abyss, so thankful for
the security of my seat belt, I managed
to get the good photo of that momen-
tous day in La Grande’s history.
I transferred to the University of Ore-
gon, working part-time at The Register-
Guard and covered track and fi eld for
the school paper. Dan Fouts and Steve
Prefontaine were classmates.
After graduation came two years at
The Bulletin in Bend, covering fi rst
county government, then the U.S. For-
est Service. I was with Forest Service
honchos on an overnight hike through
a new section of the Pacifi c Crest Trail
and, when I returned, I learned I’d been
offered a job with The Associated Press
in Portland.
Less than two years later, I covered
the Trail Blazers’ 1977 run to the NBA
title.
See Home/Page 2B
Hillary Levin/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/TNS
Pork chops with gastrique
C UT THE S ALT , D ON ’ T
S ACRIFICE THE F LAVOR
do hearty herbs and the sharper-tasting spices.
I used these ideas to create three entrees
This is actually true: If you go to the Food
without using any salt at all, and each was bet-
Network website and look for low-sodium
ter than the last.
recipes, you will fi nd one for Instant Pot Corned
OK, the salmon actually could use a little salt
Beef and Cabbage.
on it, and that’s fi ne. Everyone needs sodium to
Corned beef? Low sodium? The word “corn”
survive, even people on low-sodium diets. The
in corned beef actually refers to the salt that is sauce on the salmon is fl avorful enough that
used to cure it.
it only needs a minimal amount of added salt.
The dish that Food Network promotes as be- You’ll be fi ne.
ing low in sodium contains 2,172 mg of sodium.
It occurred to me that the best way to perk
That’s almost as much as the recommended
up a pork chop without using salt would be to
amount of sodium for an adult in an entire
serve it with a gastrique. In all modesty, I’d have
day (2,300 mg). Someone on a low-sodium diet to say that was brilliant.
should aim for more like 1,500 mg for a whole
A gastrique is a reduction of vinegar and
day.
sugar or honey that turns into a sweet-and-
There are plenty of reasons to adopt a low-
sour syrup. You can pump it up with fruit if you
sodium diet if you need it: It’s better for your
want, but I made an exquisitely simple version:
heart, it’s better for your blood pressure and it
nothing more than honey and cider vinegar
lessens the chance of a stroke.
that, when reduced, brings out the apple fl avor
There is only one reason to not adopt it: Food of the cider vinegar.
just doesn’t taste as good.
I also cooked the pork chops simply, with
In my mind, those two considerations are
butter, slices of apple (to play off the tart apple
of equal importance. So I set out to cook a few
taste of the gastrique) and onion. I used bone-in
dishes that are low in sodium but still taste
pork chops because they taste better and cooked
great. Corned beef did not play a part in any of them for only a few minutes on each side in
them.
the mixture of apples and onion. I wanted the
The trick to cooking with little sodium is to
gastrique to be the star in this dish, and it was.
use strong fl avors that aren’t salt to excite and
It absolutely was.
stimulate your taste buds. Acids work particu-
Next up was lemon chicken, a dish I often
larly well, such as lemon juice or vinegar, and so make using salt. Typically, I marinate the chick-
By Daniel Neman
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
en for an hour or so in a lemon-based marinade
and then I grill it. Less frequently, I bake it.
But I wanted to make my salt-free chicken on
the stove top, so I decided to braise it. It’s one of
my favorite ways to cook chicken.
All you have to do is sear the chicken on both
sides in olive oil or butter infused with garlic
and thyme or rosemary. I usually pour off the
fat, which can be considerable, and then add
enough liquid to come up about 1 inch in the
pan.
Usually, I use chicken stock, but that has salt
in it. So I added water, along with the juice of
two lemons. Then I covered the pan, simmered
it until it was done and used a cornstarch slurry
to turn the braising liquid into a zippy, salt-free
gravy.
That brought me to the salmon. I decided to
poach it as a way of imbuing it with plenty of
low-sodium fl avor. My poaching liquid was full
of goodness: carrot, onion, celery, the juice of a
lemon and that lemon’s peel. The fi sh only took
a few minutes to cook.
What made the salmon such a low-sodium
treat was the sauce I served it with, a kind of
simplifi ed tzatziki. I started with plain Greek
yogurt (less sodium than regular yogurt) and
stirred in some lemon juice, chopped cucumber
and salmon’s favorite herb, dill.
See Less Salt/Page 2B