January Garden Soup

Sunday, January 13, 2008

While last week’s frugal winter soup focused on ingredients frozen from our summer garden, this weekend’s soup used some fresh stuff I picked yesterday thanks to the disturbingly warm winter temperatures we’ve been having.  I meandered out to the garden to dump some compost scraps and was a bit surprised to see that the kale plants had a lot of young leaves on them.  I guess a week of temperatures in the 60s got the plants going again.  I grabbed some scissors and snipped a bunch of the leaves to add to my baked potato soup along with fresh parsley, rosemary and thyme from my kitchen garden. 

Since my soups are usually improvised, I didn’t write down the exact measurements.  I started with some melted butter and sautéed celery, onions and garlic.  I then added about ¼ c. of spelt flour from Small Valley Milling (see story about the farm here from Farming Magazine [available at the Fair Food Farmstand], about 4 cups of veggie broth and some milk.  Then, I added some baked potatoes that I had mashed and some that I diced along with the fresh herbs.  In the last ten minutes, I added the chopped baby kale. 

Because my husband is a big guy that isn’t necessarily satisfied with just a bowl of soup, I try to bake up something to go alongside.  This time, I found a recipe for wheat germ muffins in one of my favorite cookbooks for practical, frugal cooking using whole foods:  American Wholefoods Cuisine by Nikki and David Goldbeck.  I understand that there is a second edition of this cookbook, but my copy is one that my husband found for me at a used bookstore a few years ago.  I’ve gotten many basic vegetarian recipes from it.  I substituted the spelt flour for half of the whole wheat flour called for in the recipe with good results.  I’m going to keep experimenting with this flour, but so far it’s been great.

All in all, it was a simple supper.  I’m glad I happened to spy the kale because I’m sure the forecasted snow will kill the plants. Then again, who would have thought that they’d be alive and producing in January?

Michael Pollan at the Free Library

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

If you’re looking for something to do tomorrow night, Michael Pollan is speaking at the Free Library of Philadelphia.  Pollan is the author of a book that influenced many of us, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, as well as The Botany of Desire.  He’ll be discussing his latest book In Defense of Food.  You might know Pollan’s treatise: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Pollan’s talk is scheduled to begin at 7:00 pm at the 1901 Vine branch.  Pollan will also be speaking tomorrow morning at the White Dog Cafe, but that’s been sold out since mid-December at least (trust me, I tried to get in).  If the White Dog event is any indication, the Pollan event at the library will be packed!

Going green

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Environmentalism is hot right now.  I’m certainly glad to see it, but I hope that it’s just not something trendy that people do for a while and then move on to the Next!Big!Thing!  The same can be said for the idea of eating local.  Many of us have been trying to eat seasonally and locally as often as possible for years, but now that ‘locavore’ is the New Oxford American Dictionary’s word of the year, well...I worry that it’s going to get overplayed and that people will get burnt out on it.

It seems that foodies are already being saturated by the message.  Bon Appetit’s latest issue, The Green Issue, is filled with information about eating seasonally and lists of ‘eco-friendly restaurants, even a brief interview with Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon (the 100 Mile Diet folks).  I thoroughly enjoyed the issue and found lots of great recipe ideas, but other readers are not so excited.  They want something new, and eating local is old news.  ‘Green’ style has been the topic of nearly every food, decorating, design, and clothing magazine in existence over the last six months.

The good news is that it does not appear that Philadelphia’s wide variety of farmer’s markets and farmstands are a trend.  Many people have spent years building the network and going through a lot of trouble to make locally grown produce from ethical growers available here in the city and its surrounding areas.  That’s some comfort, at least. 

Good food tastes good

Monday, December 31, 2007

This is going to sound weird coming from someone who is constantly talking about food, but I don’t think about what eat that much.  I mean, yes, I’m fixated on food, but I don’t think about the nutritional benefits other than very general things like “an apple is good for you” or “a Twinkie is bad for you”.  I’m more focused on making sure food tastes good.  I’m more than willing to eat full fat milk, butter, eggs, etc....as long as it’s good quality food that tastes good.

Carol Hart, Ph.D. - a local writer from Chester County - recently wrote a book advocating that premise.  Good Food Tastes Good takes the attitude that being too focused on the nutritional content of food can rob you of the joy of eating...and it can also lead you to make some bad food choices.  Is better living through science - food enhanced with nutraceuticals and genetically modified foods - really better living?  Or is it really just making us second guess ourselves when it comes to making the right food decisions?  Since I’m focused on eating locally grown food for various reasons, I read this book as an argument to eat locally grown foods, even though Dr. Hart does mention that she doesn’t find eating locally necessarily a better option if the available produce is substandard (an issue I’ve never really run into).

When I first started reading Dr. Hart’s book, I felt it was an amalgam of information otherwise available in What To Eat by Marion Nestle and various other food books I’ve been reading over the last year.  And the idea of listening to your own common sense and allowing yourself to enjoy good quality, good tasting food seems to be a popular topic lately - even Michael Pollan’s upcoming book, In Defense of Food seems to take on the topic.

Of course, after I got past the first chapter I ended up really liking the book.  Dr. Hart gives a really good breakdown of various animals’ lives on corporate farms (which, to me, is the best argument for buying local - knowing who you’re buying your meat from and how the animals are raised is incredibly important to me), and talks about the different ways in which industry lobby groups have an impact on what the government and what the studies say is healthy for you.  The arbitrary egg and milk recommendations, for instance.  But what I liked best about Good Food Tastes Good are the little bits of trivia that I didn’t know.  A random sampling:

1. The typical food product (from a factory farm) is handled 33 times before you buy it at the grocery store.
2. The pound of ground beef you find in a grocery store typically contains beef parts from about 1,000 cows.
3. The most common commercially grown broccoli variety is 28% less nutritious than it was in the 1950s.  This is as a result of tinkering to make the broccoli grow faster and higher yielding.
4. Chick peas contain tiny quantities of nerve toxins called lathyrogens that can cause partial paralysis if you eat a ton of chick peas over a long period of time.

Even thought Dr. Hart doesn’t particularly advocate for locally grown food (she talks about it being a social cause that doesn’t “stir many appetities”...and she talks about how disappointed she’s been by locally made cheese), she sort of does.  To combat the loss of quality in vegetables that have to be trucked in and then dispersed to grocery stores at a central location and then sit on the shelf, Dr. Hart does admit that “buying local produce brings a realization of just how much quality and taste have been sacrificed to breed varieties hardy enough to withstand machine harvesting and packing and long-distance shipping.” But she does warn that buying produce at a ‘farmer’s market’ doesn’t necessarily mean that the person you’re buying from grew it.  Obviously, if you’ve been down to the Italian Market, much of the produce available is not even remotely locally grown.  The real issue at hand, though, for Dr. Hart seems to be this: it doesn’t matter if lettuce is organic, locally grown, or commercially grown - eat the lettuce that looks the best.  Of course, chances are that the locally grown lettuce is going to look the best since it hasn’t been traveling.

This is where being a smart consumer comes in.  Shopping at places where you know the farmers or know exactly where the produce is coming from, asking questions, and just generally being more educated about food and how it’s grown makes a big difference in getting the best quality for your dollars.  Like Dr. Hart, I would rather eat something that tastes good then something the food companies say is good for me.

However, I would urge Dr. Hart to give locally made cheese another try.  The Shellbark Hollow sharp goat and Green Meadows Farm raw milk cheddar, in particular, are delicious!

Go Green for Thanksgiving

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

A chilly Sunday evening calls for some nice warm comfort food. So last night we tried the Ray’s seitan that I picked up at the Fair Food Farmstand. I made a seitan strogonoff from Nava Atlas’ Vegetarian Express. It was really tasty and, as promised, was on the table in thirty minutes. I was able to make it pretty quickly while the real star of the table was in the oven: Chard & Kale Gratin. The recipe is based on one in Deborah Madison’s cookbook called Local Flavors, which is a beautiful and thoughtful ode to the diversity of food sold at farmers markets. (This would make a lovely holiday gift for any aspiring locavore!)

Madison’s recipe uses Bright Lights Swiss Chard and crumbled feta. I used a mixture of Bright Lights and kale because I had both in the garden. I also substituted Hendricks Telford Tomme cheese because I was picking up a few things at the suburban mega-grocery store Hennings when I saw a woman from Hendricks offering samples. I’m a sucker for free cheese! Turns out that Hendricks is now going to be carried at Hennings.  Good stuff.  Anyhoo…the Tomme was great in the gratin. I may make this dish for Thanksgiving because it always elicits rave reviews and it’s nice to have some greens on the table with all the starchy side dishes.

Here’s the recipe:

Deborah Madison’s Chard Gratin
From:  Local Flavors

2 lb. chard (coarsely chopped), including half of the stems (chopped) [I often mix chard and kale]
4 T. butter
1 onion, finely chopped
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 c. fresh bread crumbs
1 garlic clove, minced
3 T. chopped parsley [lots of different herbs are good in this]
1 T. flour
1 c. milk or cream or a mixture of cream and stock
1 c. crumbled fresh goat cheese [or another cheese or your liking]

Melt 2 T. butter in skillet over medium heat.  Add onion and chard stems and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion begins to brown.  Add greens, sprinkle with 1 t. salt, and cook until wilted and tender (less than 10 minutes).

Preheat oven to 400 and lightly oil a 2 qt gratin dish. Melt 1 T. butter in small skillet and add bread crumbs, garlic and herbs. Cook, stirring, for one minute; scrape into bowl and return skillet to heat.

Melt 1 T. butter, stir in flour, then whisk in milk.  Simmer for 5 minutes, season w/ salt, and add to the greens. Add the cheese and season.

Pour into dish and cover with bread crumbs.  Bake until heated through and golden, about 25 minutes. Let settle for a few moments before serving.

The Greengrocer

Thursday, August 09, 2007

(from Bay Area Radio Museum)

Some of you may remember Joe Carcione, the Greengrocer. When I was little, watching his spot in the local news was a treat, precocious foodie that I was back then. He talked about produce that was in season, and what to look for, emphasizing using all your senses in determining fresh fruits and vegetables. He often introduced things that weren’t commonly known-- my parents were particularly tickled when there was an episode on daikon, back when it was only available in Asian food markets.

A couple years ago, I picked up The Greengrocer Cookbook (ISBN 0-89087-176-0, Millbrae, CA: Celestial Arts, 1975) at a used book store. I immediately loved the format-- the book lists fruits and vegetables in the season when they are at their peak, and gives recipes for them. For example, for the month of August, there are recipes for bell peppers, beets, carrots, celery, nectarines, and peaches. I haven’t yet tried any of the recipes, but most of them seem simple and highlight the natural flavor of the produce.

Moreover, in his Foreword, Carcione writes,

In addition to using the general guide this book will provide, take a few moments to look over what is available in the produce department when you are doing your shopping. You will quickly learn from the abundance and from the prices what is in-season and available locally in fresh fruits and vegetables. Then take advantage of that knowledge by serving your family those foods at their finest, when they are ripe and full of nutrition and at their least expensive, in-season price.

I think those are good words to live by, in any decade. As the Greengrocer would say, there’s your “tip for the day.”