So today is Saturday, all sorts of time, which means I can make two meals instead of one. And I spent the rest of the afternoon in front of my computer working in Dreamweaver so I was hoping to avoid getting hungry before dinner (nothing so unpleasant as crumbs in your keyboard). Also, I seem to keep pushing the boundary trying to figure out how much my boyfriend (who formerly lived off of pathetic white bread sandwiches) can actually eat.
So brunch consisted of:
home fries
-Russet and Purple potatoes fried in duck fat (left over from last weeks roast duck), cooked in the microwave for six minutes (thank you America's Test kitchen) to soften them up & then fried until golden brown which took about fifteen minutes turning them about every five. Then I tossed in some shallot & oregano on a lower heat to soften and then some garlic at the end (so it wouldn't burn). If you have a local farmers market it is time for new potatoes and they are wonderful & tender with a fresh potato taste you just can't get from something at the store. My grandfather grew potatoes and I had the privilege to have fresh potatoes as a child, if you've never had them find them. A few new Russet's roasted in the oven are an amazing thing.
bbq beans (legumes)
-I made these earlier in the week with fresh lentils. A great accompaniment to mashed celeriac and baked eggs, and homemade sourdough. Quick and easy and I can make them with more vinegar than those too sweet baked beans at the grocery store. I just cooked the lentils until tender, (then I usually add onion and bacon that I've browned seperately but I didn't this time) a little ketchup (I was out of tomato paste), some vinegar (I think this time it was apple cider), and salt, pepper, paprika, a little cayenne, and brown sugar to balance the acid.
wilted Russian kale
-Seriously just a small amount of water in a pan, put the chopped kale in and put the lid on. The temperature should not be high enough to brown the kale. When it's wilted just salt it and done.
So tonight I wanted pizza. And I didn't have any Mozzarella, but I did have creme fraiche that I made last week out of 1/4c of leftover buttermilk and a pint of cream (just let it sit on the counter about 24 hours or until it's thick and then stick it in the fridge). I myself am not a huge fan of pizza sauce, so I tend to use fresh tomatoes and fresh herbs instead. It's incredibly easy to make pizza dough but it's even easier to buy Trader Joes refrigerated dough and when I'm busy I buy that so I have it around (it has no preservatives just a very basic dough). I spread out the dough on a cookie sheet dusted with corn meal and then layered on a few leaves of fresh basil, then slices of tomato (I only had a green tomato that I bought for frying but it was nice and a little tart). Then I dolloped on creme fraiche in the center of each tomato slice, added some capers and salt and pepper. The cornmeal on the bottom of the dough made it easy to slide the pizza onto my stone (preheated to 450) and it cooked for 12 min or so.
This might be a little tart for some but I found that the acidity of the tomato was a great complement to the richness of the creme fraiche. After it came out of the oven I added some harissa (soaked dried chilis blended with olive oil and garlic) and a touch of olive oil. And now I'm going to go eat another piece.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
american eating is being redefined, again.
A few years ago I read a book called Waste and Want; A Social History of Trash by Susan Strasser. It may seem like an odd place to start when writing about food, but America's relationship towards food has been shaped by ideas about what is fresh and what is not, and what is not is never good to eat. Right?
The development of cuisine has historically been shaped at least somewhat by necessity. What is fresh now will not last through the months of winter. So preservation techniques developed, fermentation & drying, salt curing & immersion in fat.
Today I opened a jar of pickled green tomatoes. When I bought them I was so excited by finding them (I could never find them in San Francisco) that I didn't look closely at the jar. Across the front, written in large, excited lettering, "No Vinegar, No Sugar, No Preservatives!"...when did these things become a bad thing, and how the hell do you pickle anything without preservatives?
After years of highly processed foods with high fructose corn syrup, artificial preservatives, and so many ingredients with unrecognizable scientific names, it seems that at least some of the food industry is participating in a counter movement. But is the advertising now going too far the other direction? Are we denying the classic preparation techniques that have not just allowed us to survive, but have made food good?
The first ingredient in the tomatoes was filtered water which would be impressive if any water in the industrialized world were not filtered. They could have left out the "filtered" and I wouldn't have wondered about my likely exposure to cholera. Then of course, came the two different kinds of salt: salt & sodium chloride. When did salt cease to become a preservative?
It makes sense that those preservation techniques that came about in America because we could should not necessarily continue. I don't think Twinkies should survive just because they never mold...in fact if another biological creature will not eventually grow on a food item, I don't want to eat it.
But I like pickles dammit, and pickles are preserved. So are sausages, prosciutto, cheese, yogurt, kefir, creme fraiche, kimchi, vinegar, jelly, and beer; all through one process or another. The preservation of good quality ingredients with good quality preservatives can be a really good thing. Jam is tasty when made with sugar, there is not need for high fructose anything; the empty calories and the super sweet. We don't need to cut out preservation (or claim we're not preserving something when we are), we need to pick and choose, and we need to stop using things just because they're cheap and possible.
And part of that is redefining our attitudes towards waste, towards bacteria and fermentation & in the end towards what is good to eat.
The development of cuisine has historically been shaped at least somewhat by necessity. What is fresh now will not last through the months of winter. So preservation techniques developed, fermentation & drying, salt curing & immersion in fat.
Today I opened a jar of pickled green tomatoes. When I bought them I was so excited by finding them (I could never find them in San Francisco) that I didn't look closely at the jar. Across the front, written in large, excited lettering, "No Vinegar, No Sugar, No Preservatives!"...when did these things become a bad thing, and how the hell do you pickle anything without preservatives?
After years of highly processed foods with high fructose corn syrup, artificial preservatives, and so many ingredients with unrecognizable scientific names, it seems that at least some of the food industry is participating in a counter movement. But is the advertising now going too far the other direction? Are we denying the classic preparation techniques that have not just allowed us to survive, but have made food good?
The first ingredient in the tomatoes was filtered water which would be impressive if any water in the industrialized world were not filtered. They could have left out the "filtered" and I wouldn't have wondered about my likely exposure to cholera. Then of course, came the two different kinds of salt: salt & sodium chloride. When did salt cease to become a preservative?
It makes sense that those preservation techniques that came about in America because we could should not necessarily continue. I don't think Twinkies should survive just because they never mold...in fact if another biological creature will not eventually grow on a food item, I don't want to eat it.
But I like pickles dammit, and pickles are preserved. So are sausages, prosciutto, cheese, yogurt, kefir, creme fraiche, kimchi, vinegar, jelly, and beer; all through one process or another. The preservation of good quality ingredients with good quality preservatives can be a really good thing. Jam is tasty when made with sugar, there is not need for high fructose anything; the empty calories and the super sweet. We don't need to cut out preservation (or claim we're not preserving something when we are), we need to pick and choose, and we need to stop using things just because they're cheap and possible.
And part of that is redefining our attitudes towards waste, towards bacteria and fermentation & in the end towards what is good to eat.
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