Eating My Share (7.23.10)

Okay, so I skipped a week. My goal in this blog is to post regularly, so I feel that I've failed a bit these past two weeks. Granted, I've been madly job hunting and doing a lot more with my family (even working on my novel), so I have some good excuses. Yet, they are excuses, even if legitimate.

So, back to the food.

I have mentioned that I belong to a pork CSA with the Piggery. What I failed to mention is that I was a vegetarian for 18 years. My switch back to meat was prompted by a very demanding fetus with a penis: I was literally passing out while I was pregnant with my son, while stuffing my face, risking my health, and dreaming of beef. When I found out he was a boy, I gradually started bringing meat back into my diet, my pregnancy weight gain slowed considerably (I no longer felt I was starving to death), and my son eventually arrived big and healthy.

I relate this anecdote only so that the vegans/vegetarians out there know that I've walked that walk, but now I am an omnivore. That said, I have enormous respect for the family livestock farmers and responsible hunters everywhere. You need look no further than seasonsend.org to see that hunters are part of the solution and not the problem. The same goes for family livestock farms. Not to get political, but meat eating is as American as baseball. I believe that an effort to get Americans to eat a different kind of meat (i.e. "happy" meat, meaning that the animal had a good quality of life prior to a conscientious slaughter) will allow for more progress towards a greener planet and healthier food chain than protesting carnivorous leanings.

If you are a vegetarian, good for you. This week's meal will not be served on a plate near you. However, if you can find grass-raised pork, you know how amazingly different pork tastes when it was lolling about in the forest on hot days (as opposed to stressing out in a tin hut; I swear you can taste the panic in a corporate farmed pig!) and doing all things piggy before going on to feed its caretaker.

Thus, this week's recipe is pork chops and (nope, not applesauce) peaches! I received two lovely thick chops from the Piggery this week, which I sliced open to the bone (they cut easily; that's how tender this meat is!). I mixed together the stuffing with large croutons I purchased at the supermarket (everything else came from my CSA or the green market; of course, I could have made the croutons myself, but sometimes we all cut corners). As a side dish (borrowed from a fellow CSA member with a fruit share), I cooked up peaches with basil sauce, which required white wine. I learned from some friends that cooking wine is a terrible thing to buy. Get the good stuff and drink the rest. Considering the heat, I accompanied the dinner with white wine spritzer. The prep time was a bit longer than usual, but well worth the effort.

Dinner is served!

Stuffed Pork Chop, Peaches with Basil Sauce

Pork Chop (feeds 2-4)

• 2 pork chops, 1-inch thick or more, sliced mid-way to the bone
• 3 cups large croutons (made from day-old baguettes or purchased)
  
• 1 bunch fresh sage
• 1 whole white or red onion (medium-large)
  
• zucchini of choice (I used avocado squash)
  
• 4 cups chicken broth
  
• salt & pepper to taste
  

Preheat oven to 275 degrees; ideally, you want a clay cooker, but any covered oven-ready cooker will do. Lightly grease pan with oil or cooking spray (no need to add fat; this is just to keep your chop from sticking).

Chop sage, onion and raw squash. Soak croutons in stock. When thoroughly wet (it's fine if there is excess liquid), add in salt, pepper and veggie mix.

Put cold (i.e. room temperature) stuffing between sides of split chop. Place in cooker and roast for 30 minutes.

Cooking time may vary depending on thickness of chop; make sure pork is thoroughly cooked prior to serving.

Peaches Poached in Basil Sauce

• 6 large white peaches, halved and pitted (fairly firm peaches work best)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup white wine
  
• 1 bunch fresh basil

At medium heat, dissolve sugar in white wine. When completely dissolved, add approximately 2/3 of the basil leaves. Cook on low until boiling; boil two minutes.

Reduce heat and remove basil leaves. Poach peaches approximately five minutes on each side (skin will start to crack. Remove from heat.

With a slotted spoon, remove peaches to a plate. Add remaining basil (feel free to save a sprig or two for garnish, should flare be your fancy) to the sauce and stir gently until submerged in hot liquid. Let stand.

Gently remove peach skin. Serve with several spoonfuls of the sauce and basil. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream (if you like).

White Wine Spritzer

• White wine left over from peach recipe (any, although Pinot Grigio is nice on a hot day)
  
• Seltzer water (ginger ale or sprite can be used for a white wine cooler, for a sweeter beverage)
• Fresh mint
  

Combine one part wine to two parts seltzer (soda). Serve over ice with a fresh mint garnish.

Eating My Share (7.13.10)

It rained today.

While I am not the regional meteorologist, I note the rain because we have had one of the hottest, driest summers on record. If there is a polar opposite to last summer (when it rained 27 of 30 days in June and never got hotter than 75 degrees), it is this summer with record-breaking, triple-digit temperatures and no rain whatsoever. The downpour was so alluring that my son wanted to run around outside in it.

The heat belies the autumnal trees outside my window (it's so hot that the trees are shedding leaves they are incapable of feeding months early). Grass is brown. Fauna both animal and human move slowly through the haze.

Yet this is precisely what makes a CSA so amazing. The small farmer may not have to worry about blight (he plants a variety of crops each year), but he is at the whim of extreme temperatures. Just as last year it seemed all that would grow was eggplant and peppers, this year, it's herbs, herbs, and more herbs. Being part of a CSA means that you help the farmer through these extremes. It also means you may end up with a surfeit of one kind of vegetable.

My paternal grandmother died when I was quite young, but I remember how well she cooked (her baking was legend, and that gene skipped right over me and went to my sister). I recall the good ole days when kids disappeared at dawn only to reappear at dusk, hungry and dirty. A quick shower and dinner was served. Grandma always served us a hot dinner during the summer months. When my sister and I complained, she declared, "You eat nothing but cold food on summer days. You need something hot in your belly."

One of the crops that seems to thrive in all this heat is purslane (aka verdolaga). I actually exchanged my mint for an extra bunch with the intention of making a purslane chili. My kids aren't that into beans, and I thought the sweet, chewy texture would make for a nice substitute. As this week's share included fresh (i.e. crisp) carrots, I used up the end of the slightly soggy carrots from last week to add even more body and fiber to the chili.

I picked up tomato puree and diced tomatoes at Whole Foods, along with a mini-baguette and some garlic puree (I finished up my fresh CSA garlic awhile back). The groceries cost me $8. I had a pound of grass-fed beef that I had purchased some months ago (I get my beef every 4-5 months from Maple Avenue Farms in Earlville, NY; I buy 1/4 cow at my local farmers' market and load up the freezer for easy cow pickins). A few spices and some toasted garlic bread later, and...

Dinner is served!

Purslane Chili w/Garlic Bread

• 1 pound ground beef (turkey or meat substitute)
• 1 cup (or more) chopped carrot chunks
• 1 bunch parslane, leaves cleaned and plucked from the stems
• 1 whole green onion (large, if you are using leeks, 4-5 leeks)
• olive oil, seasonings of choice
• 28 ounce can tomato puree
• 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes (with or without spices)

Put 2-3 T of olive oil in a small stock pot. Chop onion and saute. Quarter carrots, chop and add.

Add spices (I used chili powder, sea salt and Saigon cinnamon).

Add one pound ground beef (or beef substitute). Cook until no longer red.

Pluck parslane leaves and add to mixture.

As this softens, mix butter and garlic and spread on two sides of bread; place on metal pan in oven at 350 degrees for 9 minutes.

Add tomato puree and diced tomatoes to vegetable/meat mix. Rinse cans with water and add to chili (approximately 4 cups total added liquid).

Cover and simmer. At 9 minutes, flip toast and heat for an additional 7 minutes.

After toast is done, serve chili with toast on the side.

Green Eggs and Ham

Perhaps one of the more startling effects of moving far far away from your food source is how we have demonized foods that are, in fact, good for us while replacing them in our diet with non-foods (high fructose corn syrup and industrial corn are not actual foods, for example, having been made - or perfected - in a chemistry lab rather than in nature). One such example is the incredible, edible egg (whatever happened to that campaign?).

According to the USDA's nutritional guidelines, one egg has approximately 70 calories, including 7 grams of protein. Said protein has an Amino Acid Score of 136 (the Amino Acid Score measures protein quality, with a score of 100 or more being a complete protein requiring no supplements). Where eggs have been most demonized is in their cholesterol content, but the evidence that eggs in and of themselves cause elevated blood cholesterol is spurious at best. In fact, one study, Balancing and Communicating Risks and Benefits Associated with Egg Consumption: A Relative Risk, "shows that eggs' contribution to coronary heart disease (CHD) is insignificant when compared to other CHD risk factors such as age, male sex, genetics, smoking, high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, physical inactivity, obesity and overweight, diabetes, alcohol and stress." [Tran N, Barraj L, Mink P, McNamara D. Abstract presented at Experimental Biology 2007.]

Other studies have shown that fetuses thrive when their moms eat eggs during pregnancy; and yet another study shows that elderly people can safely eat three egg a day.

In short, eggs are good for you. What's not so good is buying eggs from commercial hen houses where layers are maltreated and which are basically legendary in the animal rights' community for heinous farming practices.

I have an egg share that comes from the same farm (La Baraja) where I get my vegetables. Whether for breakfast or not, a vegetable frittata is quick, easy and delicious meal, low in calories and high in nutrients. You can put basically any vegetable into a pan, saute in olive oil (I do not like the way butter makes my eggs taste, but if you prefer, butter away!), add a couple of whipped eggs. Flip, and you have a frittata.

Personally, I like using up my greens this way. I take whatever greens I have handy - purslane/verdolaga, collards, chard, herbs - and I end up with green eggs (with or without the ham; in today's recipe, I used duck). Read some Dr. Seuss with your meal, and even your kids will be eating!

Green Eggs and (Ham)
aka Veggie Frittata

• 2 farm eggs
• 2 T olive oil
• 1/4 cup meat of choice (I used Duck Rillettes)
• 2-3 cups of green (leafy) vegetables, chopped into bite-size pieces

Place olive oil in saute pan, lightly grill vegetables until slightly soft. Whip two eggs. Sprinkle meat over vegetable mixture, add eggs making sure they spread to edges of pan. When solid, flip once. Serve hot!

Eating My Share (7.6.10)

Week 4 - What's for dinner?

Lunch. Lunch is for dinner. After what was possibly (and without hyperbole) one of the worst days of my life, I just couldn't bring myself to cook last night. I was probably the last person to pick up my share yesterday, and I went home and cried my eyes out before collapsing into bed at midnight and wondering when being an honest, hard-working, compassionate person became a liability. Although, considering that whole Christians and lions thing, I guess, perhaps, it has always been a liability.

But this is my food blog; my philosophical ravings are for a different medium (or at least a different section of my "news feed").

I believe that what differentiates talented cooks from the open-can-and-microwave-crowd is our willingness to experiment. You really have to have some imagination and daring, and your CSA can offer up opportunities not just to try new foods but to try out new recipes.

This week's veggie share came with squash blossoms. These twisted orange flowers are considered a rarity among food choices. Apparently (I didn't know this until I googled) they are so fragile that they rarely last more than a few hours up to a day or so. You can add them to a salad, but that seemed pretty obvious to me. Instead, I found a couple recipes that suggested stuffing and frying them. Wow! Really?

So, I took a walk on the wildside, peeling back the blossoms and stuffing them with pressed mozzarella (from the farmers' market), which was a lot harder than it sounds. Most of the stuffed recipes recommend chevre, and I understand why: You really need to "glue" the blossom around the cheese and chevre lends itself to this quite well. But my kids don't like chevre, so mozzarella it was. I compensated by using extra batter (egg/cream dip followed by copious amounts of whole wheat flour seasoned with Old Bay and sea salt).

Although the photo above doesn't do the meal justice (they came out looking a bit like deep fried mice!), the result was a slightly chewy sweet sidedish that was a flavor unlike any I had ever tasted.

As for the main dish, if you are a CSA member (and if I ever get any readers, I'm guessing they will know this), you probably have more than just a vegetable share. CSAs come in all varieties. I belong to two: Tribeca CSA, where I get my vegetables and eggs (we also have a fruit share option); and The Piggery CSA, where I get pork bi-weekly from June through Thanksgiving. This week's pork share included a smoked hock. I carved off as much of the meat as I was able, putting the bone in the freezer for a marrow soup that I'll make when the temperatures aren't in the triple digits. I chopped the smoked meat and sauteed (olive oil) with fresh herbs from my veggie share: chives, Italian parsley and sage. Since the meat was smoked, I didn't add salt. It was perfectly seasoned just with the fresh herbs.

I figure the total cost of the meal was less than $10. I didn't have to buy anything additional. I just ate my share!

Dinner (or in this case, lunch) is served.