Eating green in the white house

Well, as you may have noticed I'm not a very big Daily News reader, but this article looking at the new assistant white house chef discusses the focus on eating locally and sustainably. Its interesting to me that this spot light on local food not only is an effort to green wash the new administration (who selected Tom Vilsack, aka best friend of industry, for secretary of agriculture), it also highlights the way in which eating locally is good for the economy (which I agree with on the local scale). Its not a very good article all in all - sort of short and superficial, but it does show how the concept of local food is continuing to rise to new levels of prominence in the contemporary discourse.
Any thoughts?

Root veggies and Chicken Pot Pie

I decided to use up some root veggies by making a chicken pot pie - and yes, I literally baked it in the pot, which made it pretty simple and easy to clean up. I think you can use just about any hearty veg in this kind of dish. I made this right before getting the second share from our winter CSA, so I was happy to use up the rest of my carrots (of course we got more) and some of the potatoes (help, I need more potato recipes!) in something comforting and hearty to help warm us up in these gloomy gray winter days.

This is sort of a conglomeration of lots of recipes I have read and a bit of improvisation. Use your favorite pie crust recipe - I pulled together a quick flaky pie crust using the food processor, and it came out just right. If you want to avoid the pastry making, you could also top this off with a sheet of puff pastry to make things simpler.

For the filling:
3 c of a mix of cooked root veggies of your choice (I used about 2 c carrot and 1 c potatoes)
2 c cooked chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
1/4 c butter
6T a-p flour
1 c milk
2 c chicken stock
fresh or dried herbs of your choice
salt and pepper to taste

preheat the oven to 425 F
in a 2 1/2 to 3 quart pot:
make a roux by melting the butter and whisking in the flour, cooking until mixture turns golden
whisk in the milk and stock
stir regularly as it thickens and comes to a simmer
add herbs and salt and pepper
stir in cooked chicken and let simmer gently for about 10 minutes so the flavors come together
stir in veggies and check seasoning
let cool a little
tuck the pastry over the top of the pot when everything is cool enough to handle
bake for about 30 - 40 minutes until bubbling and the crust has turned golden

The winter CSA

So this is my first year with a winter CSA share. Its exciting to have a steady flow of veggies through the winter, but I am a little concerned about the variety, or lack there of. I've heard lots of complaints from those in last year's winter share that there was just too much of too few a variety, and lots of heavy roots can get tiresome. I have to admit, though, I love the heavy, savory root veggies of the winter and I look forward to the challenge of finding new ways to use them. For me, soup is always a "go to" option to incorporate just about anything all year round, but in winter I especially enjoy a bowl of warming and hearty soup with a little crusty bread on the side. I really enjoyed incorporating sweet potatoes into this classic black bean soup recipe; it gave the soup a nice contrast to the black beans - with the sweet and toothsome potato cubes - while adding a nice splash of color in an otherwise gloomy looking soup. To do this just add peeled, cubed cooked sweet potatoes, from one or two sweet potatoes, to your favorite black bean soup recipe. If you can, boil the potatoes in the stock you are using before adding the beans, it will add even more flavor to the soup. Take half of the solids out (in this case it was onions, beans and the sweet potatoes) and puree the soup directly in the pot with an immersion blender, then return the solids to the pot and season with salt and pepper and bring back to a simmer.

NYT article: Regional food in VT

OK, so I have a little bit of an obsession with Vermont. I perhaps overly romanticize the New England ruggedness of the culture there, and maybe I'm just a sucker for the landscape, but here is a new thing for local food lovers to love - for real. It appears that there is a food renaissance taking place in VT, and these shining star restaurants feature local foods on the menu at their backwater venues. Its exciting to see that this movement can contribute to reviving (or creating) culinary culture in place both struggling with the depressed economy (I know we all are, but...) and not otherwise known for find cuisine. Read more about it here.

NYT article: Returning to the (small) farm

It seems like the interest in turning long suburbanized landscapes into productive landscapes continues to grow. Even out in Rockland county, which seemed very sub/ex urban on my last visit to Bear Mountain, seems to be rediscovering the value of small scale growing. This is more than just the continued interest in gardening, but growing for sale in places that have long since left their farming tradition behind in favor of luxury living outside of the city. It is really encouraging to see the activities described in this article. I feel like this movement comes from a good place; a place of awakening to the need to connect to our own production, to participate in fulfilling our communities needs without turning to the common convenience of industry to fulfill them like we have so much for the last several decades. I hope that this movement continues, and does not fizzle out like the previous "back to the land" movements of the 1960's. I guess time will tell... in the mean time, keep growing!

Getting into the cabbage

This recipe is probably not remotely authentic since I learned how to make stuffed cabbage from my Vietnamese mother... but it is pretty tasty. The cabbage is rolling in to the CSA now, and its nor really slaw time anymore, so I thought I would go for something warming and comforting like my mom's stuffed cabbage braised in tomato sauce. Our CSA also recently joined the Louis Waite Farm CSA which is a meat farm that is also sort of a farm co-op working with a bunch of other vendors in the area (upstate and southern VT) to provide other goodies like bread, honey, eggs and jams - yum! These week we ordered some ground beef among other things, and I thought stuffed cabbage would be a perfect thing to make.

This recipe is pretty simple and straight forward. I took the whole head of cabbage and submerged it in salted boiling water for a few minutes, until it begins to soften. I then strained it and cooled it under a little cool water to stop the cooking and make it easier to handle. Meanwhile, I diced an onion and began sauteeing it in a pan with a bit of olive oil. I peeled away the largest leaves of the cabbage - about 12 leaves in all - and cut out the tough base of the vein at the bottom. After the onions were cooked through I mixed in about a pound of ground beef (I think the package said 0.92), and a half cup of uncooked rice, with some salt and pepper. I scooped a heaping spoonful into each leaf and rolled it up, securing it with a tooth pick. I laid them in large, wide based pot and simmered them in about a cup and a half of red sauce which we had already made in the fridge, with about a cup of water or so to surround the cabbage about 3/4's of the way up, and add a little drizzle of olive oil. Cover and simmer for about an hour. It should be ready to go, but once you take the cabbage rolls out, if the sauce isn't as thick as you would like it, reduce it about until it is the desired consistancy. Enjoy!

The meanings of local

There is an interesting article on the meanings of local food posted on the USA Today website. It explores the concept of local using the narrative perspective of a farmer. The farmer considers the various uses of the label local found in grocery stores near him and in the region and points out the multiple interpretations (40 miles, 100 miles, on up) that are used to brand produce and other products as local, obviously in an attempt to capitalize on the rising popularity of this food trend. I've been really hesitant to frame local food as a trend, but it has reached a tipping point where there is clearly a cache to labeling products "local" and it is being used regardless of the other meanings and values many engaged participants in the "movement" hold. This is particularly interesting to me as these are the themes emerging from my own research. There are a whole set of practices involved in the broader notion of local that I (we) have a hard time matching up with the Wal-Mart notion of local (which is their new strategy post-organic). I think its important to continue this dialogue in order for "local food" to maintain some meaning, value (use, exchange and otherwise) and integrity.

So lets keep talking about it! What does "local food" mean to you?

CSA week 3...oh the bounty!

Well, another week has gone by and I find myself once again like a kid a x-mas, eager to dig in and see what is in this week's share box. I was so excited to see that it was even bigger than the first two weeks! Matt, our CSA farmer at Golden Earthworm, reported that this will be the usual size of the share from here on in - oh the bounty of the season...but what will we do with all this food? Dinner parties it is :) Nothing inspires me to cook for friends more than this overflow of fresh, local, beautiful food and that's just what we found we've been doing.

Really, what better way to use this bounty than to share it with people you love? We have a tiny kitchen, and a pretty small city apartment for that matter, but we manage to have a couple people over at a time, which has been such fun this past week. After all, the "c" in csa does stand for community, so go ahead, invite some people in and cook for them, or better yet - cook together.

And what a great weekly share to entertain with this mix of sweet and savory!


The garlic scapes were a big favorite this week. I made a quick pesto with them by adding a bit of sea salt, olive oil and raw almonds to the roughly chopped scapes. I just put everything into the food processor and adjusted for taste and texture as I went along. I tossed the pesto with chick peas and pasta with a little bit crushed red pepper, and served it along with a salad made from the beautiful head of crisp-green lettuce, for a tasty and filling vegetarian meal that left the two athletes I was feeding completely sated.

For dessert I just had to do something with the strawberries and rhubarb...

This strawberry rhubarb crumble is one of my favorite recipes. I have it written in an old notebook, so I'm not quite sure where the recipe originated, but it is a simple and delicious way to prepare this natural combination of summer fruit (although rhubarb is actually a veggie).

For the topping:
1/2 c oats
1/2 c unbleached flour
1/2 c of raw sugar
1/3 c of sliced almonds
1/4 t of nutmeg
pinch of salt
6T butter (cut into small cubes)

For the filling:
5 c rhubarb (sliced into 1/2 inch pieces)
2 c strawberries (hulled and halved)
3/4 c raw sugar
1/3 c lemon juice
2 T flour
zest of one lemon
1/2 t cardamom
1/4 t nutmeg

Heat oven to 375F, and butter a pie plate or 8x8 baking dish.
For the topping, mix together all of the dry ingredients and then rub in the butter with your fingers until it is evenly dispersed.
For the filling, combine all ingredients and let stand about 15 minutes to let the flavors develop and the juices to run. Put filling in the baking dish and sprinkle the topping on evenly. Bake until bubbly (about 25 minutes).
This is great served warm with a scoop of ice cream. Enjoy!

Yum...fennel pollen sausage pizza!

This is the perfect time of year for us to make pizza at home. Its not quite hot out, so it feels OK to crank the oven up to 550 degrees, which is what we do to bake our pies. The other exciting part is going to the Union Square Green Market to find fresh, delicious local ingredients to put on it. We recently had a little pizza party here, and our friend brought over my favorite sausage from Violet Hill Farms (see "local food resources NYC", in the side bar). This farm is located in Sullivan County and all of the meat is humanely and sustainably raised; just ask the farmer, Paul, he'll tell you all about it.

The sausage for this pizza is a pork sausage delicately seasoned with fennel pollen (admittedly and in seasoning at the moment), one of the most expensive spices in the world; and its worth it. This pizza was simple dressed with a little home made sauce and fresh mozzarella. On a well preheated stone in a hot oven, it bakes in less than 10 minutes. Its a really fun way to have a dinner party because it can be participatory (or not) and gets onto the table quickly.