Locavore: Happy summer!

Happy summer! Summer has finally hit and the markets are in full swing with beautiful local produce beginning to overflow the stands!

Today Todd didn't have work so we decided to take a scenic drive to Driggs and check out the Teton Valley farmers market, specifically for the local cheese. Todd and I have both developed a love of good cheese and we were getting tired of the endless blocks of cheddar and mozzarella from our local dairy. We hit the jackpot in Driggs. There were two artisanal cheese makers there and the cheese was out-of-this-world good. We came home with a small wedge of mild raw blue and a semi-hard pecorino. I'm still blown away at how they can fit so much nuance and goodness into such a little wedge of cheese; the craftsmanship and quality is extraordinary.  I was making up songs about the glories of cheese all the drive home, much to Todd's amusement.

Also fruit has began to come to the market and we are ecstatic! One interesting thing that happens when becoming a locavore is the gratitude you feel when each new fruit or vegetable comes to the market. You learn to savor the season and enjoy it as much as you can. Such is the case for cherry season which is currently upon us! I have always liked cherries, and eaten them when I had them, but after a month of greens and more greens, seeing that first glint of sweet red cherries was one of the happiest sights I have had in a long time. A week and five pounds of cherries later we're not sick of them yet and we're looking forward to more tomorrow.

Here's one of our newest favorite recipes that use all the yummy snow-peas on the market.

Stir fried snow-peas with oyster sauce
1 pound snow-peas
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon oil
3 cloves garlic, minced

Wash the snow-peas and shake off excess water. (You want some water still clinging to the peas, as that will help with the cooking process.) Chop the ends off and set aside.
In a small bowl, mix the oyster sauce, water, fish sauce and sugar.
Heat a wok or large skillet over a high flame. Swirl in the oil. Add the garlic and stir briefly, until sizzling and fragrant. Add the snow peas to the pan and stir fry until bright green with a few charred spots, followed by the sauce. Stir and toss the vegetables frequently until the peas are coated. Serve hot with rice or fried noodles.

Art of color and texture

I have been slowly working on some oil paintings and it has been a lot of fun. Bethany has motivated me a lot along they way. She wants some fun, interesting paintings for the kitchen.

The first painting was done to explore mixing colors. To get different texture I used a plastic knife to do this painting.

The second painting was my attempt to use other things as my texture and just keep the paint as smooth as I could.

The Husband of a locavore

As this is a blog about the adventure of both Todd and not just Bethany.  I feel that I should add my feeling upon the matter of locavorism.  When Bethany started to talking about only eating local food this summer I first thought it was a just a thought and not one that would be implemented.  However, as Bethany continued to talk about it I soon found that she was full-heartedly planning on following her desire to eat locally I know there was no changer her conviction.  At first this did not bother me for I would only benefit from that task of eating locally for Bethany would make, as she always does, some delicious food.  But as the spring season come and the local farmers market would be starting I also became excited about the idea of eating locally.  And after talking with my wife about the culture behind eating locally I found that it is a family task and I wanted to participate in the task.  Being a student of horticulture I decided to participate by growing a garden.

Being students and living in an apartment building we do not have land to grow.  The year before we had rented a 10 by 10 plot of land through the school to grow but the soil is horrific and the area has no wind protection.  We were not planning on growing this year because of the conditions of the plot, but if we were going to eat locally I wanted to contribute to our summer goal by growing some of our own food.  And I would have to say this year is going a lot better in spite of the two late frosts that our garden has faced and the 30 to 45 mile per hour winds that we have had excessively this year.

I got stared this year on our garden by starting seeds indoors.  I was able to get a florescent light fixture from my dad and set up a germination bed in our extra bedroom.  Its not the best set up but it works for us.  I planted beans, peas, basil, bell peppers, broccoli, brussel sprouts, zucchini squash, and spaghetti squash.  The sad thing about this story is that we grew these indoors and then transplanted the beans, peas, and basil just a few days before a late frost come and killed them most of them.  Beans and peas are easy to grow so was not that bad of a lot but the basil as a great loss; lucky for us I only transplanted about half of the basil outside and the others I transplanted into window garden and they are looking beautiful and smell good too.  The basil is doing great in our window along with our rosemary, lemon thyme, oregano, sage, and chives.

Well now we are in the end of June and our garden is all planted and doing well.  I would have to say some of our plants are a little behind because of late frosts but it is looking good.  Compared to the other student gardens we have the most variety packed in our little 10 by 10 plot.  Starting from the top left corner we have brussel sprouts, four kinds of tomatoes, leaks, shallots, and yellow onions.  Second row we have bell peppers and fennel.  Third row we have green and red beans, and peas.  Fourth row we have bok choy, carrots and beats.  The fifth row we are trying to grow cilantro and basil and in the last row we have zucchini and spaghetti squash, and broccoli.  And I forgot that along the edge at the top of our plot we are growing sunflowers and along with them we are growing Asian beans. 

Locavore: AHHH! NO MORE GREENS!!!

Spring... the lovely green color comes back into everything. What I didn't realize about eating local is that this also applies to your food. We eat a lot of greens, and I mean A LOT. Currently in our fridge we have 4 types of lettuce, spinach, chard, kale, and bok choy.

But, while inconvenient, necessity is truly the mother of invention. I've never been very good at cooking with greens before, but I'm actually becoming quite proficient. Here is one of my favorite recipes lately adapted from the italian dish website, I make it in the crockpot.

• 1 cup dried cannellini or cellini beans or any combination of beans you like.
• 1/2-1/4 pound local ground sausage, turkey or pork
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced (I like garlic a lot, feel free to dial this down)
• 1 quart jar tomatoes
• 6 to 8 cups water
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• salt and pepper 
• 4-8 cups chopped greens (how green can you go?)
• grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese 

Instructions:

If using dried beans, place them in a pot, cover with cold water and let soak for several hours or overnight. Drain.

In a large pot, brown the sausage.  Remove from pot.  If there is a lot of fat left in the pot, pour this out but do not wipe out pot.  Add onion, and saute for 2-3 minutes until soft.  Add garlic and saute about a minute more.  Add the tomatoes, 6 cups of the chicken broth, thyme, bay leaf, some salt and pepper, the drained beans and the sausage and cover the pot. Cook for an hour over low heat, at a gentle simmer or for 4-6 hours on high in a crockpot.

If using dried beans, check for doneness at this point.  (If using canned beans, add the greens now.)  If the beans are not soft enough, cover the pot again and cook for another 30 minutes or until the beans are soft. Add the greens and cook, uncovered, until the greens are tender and wilted, but not dead looking and army green (no vegetable should ever be cooked to army green. Yuck!).  Check the seasoning and add more salt and pepper to taste.  If the soup is too thick for your liking, you can add more water.

Serve with grated cheese on top and an extra drizzle of olive oil.

Dinner at my grandmas or thoughts on food culture

For as long as I can remember my job at large family dinners was to put ice cubes in all the cups. My grandmother would pull the ice bucket from her ice machine out of the freezer and hand me a large measuring cup to scoop with; I would make my way around the table carefully making sure all the glasses had the same amount of ice cubes. As my brothers and sisters got older they would help with the ice and I got upgraded to table setting duty because I knew which side of the plate to put the spoons and knives.

These days I'm generally on kitchen duty at my grandmothers during holidays and family meals, helping her make gravy, juggle dishes as they come in and out of the oven, troubleshoot disasters, and plate dishes. I work next to aunts, uncles, parents, and siblings as my grandma runs around, directing traffic and trying to help with everything at the same time. After dinner we sit at the counter and grandma hands us dishes to dry as she washes them.

While the dinner is always excellent and the conversation good, I have found that the time we spend as a family in preparation of a meal together is just as rewarding, if not more so, than the actual meal.

For my family, during the holidays, food is not just another thing we have to get done in the Christmas rush, or a menial household task that must be completed to move on to what we really want to do. Food surrounds, encased, and is intertwined with our family get-togethers. Much of my best quality time is spend in the kitchen next to a family member I have not seen in months, becoming reacquainted as we peel vegetables, butter garlic bread, and skewer meat for the grill. Meaningful conversation seems to blossom when you work side by side.

While I was lucky to be raised within a somewhat healthy food culture in general American food culture is non-existent. Rather than eating to nurture relationships, enjoy others company, and appreciate our food, Americans generally eat to survive, and do so according to the principles of cheapness and convenience. We often eat alone, often while doing something else like driving or reading. Cooking is becoming a lost art and is viewed as a distasteful chore helped along by corporate America, which has used feminism to support the notion that emancipated women do not cook, but buy convenience food to feed their families.

The American relationship with food is in direct contrast to the Italians and the French, two peoples who eat some of the best food in the world. These people tend to eat socially, to enjoy their food, and they learn to cook. They value food, not only because they have to eat it to survive, but as part of their cultural heritage, and as a driving factor in their social relationships and family life. They spend time preparing the food and their meals are considerable longer- they are social occasions rather than fill-up stops.

 One of the most interesting things about these people is that they are much healthier than we are. One would think people who value and enjoy food would be suffering from an obesity epidemic and a people who is always suspicious of food, eats quickly, and is consistently dieting would be thin and healthy. The opposite is actually true. These people have created healthy relationships in regards to food-- relationships which have also influenced their health. It seems that our American epidemic is not only an issue of what we eat, but when, where, how long, and with whom we are eating.


What are your thoughts about food culture? Memories of your family and food? I'd love to hear it.

A bread for my family

My dad and I continually tease each other about our granola.  He prefers his with lots of flax, minimal sugar and oil, and a short baking time. I tease him that it tastes like horse feed. On the other hand, my granola is often greeted with a snarky "Hey look! Bethany brought us some dessert!"

My family has always had a thing for whole grains.  My dad would make heavy whole wheat cinnamon rolls, buckwheat pancakes, and whole wheat bread that he would devour, while the children would pick at it suspiciously. A little too healthy looking for our taste I suppose. For a long time we also had a hand turned wheat grinder and everyday we were required to grind one cup of wheat for my mom's bread making session. 

These days I tend to use more whole grain than any of them in my cooking and baking, but recently, in an effort to lower triglycerides and promote family heart health my mom's been learning to cook without processed white sugar and flour, and has been experimenting with other alternative grains-- specifically spelt. (She has also become an expert in honey within the past week-- and I now know where I learned my research skills from).

Anyway- on to the bread. I woke up this morning, and after cleaning my kitchen had an intense desire to mess it up again with bread baking. And not just any bread, a bread that would make my father and mother proud, a loaf of heavy-warm-whole grain-honey-sweetened-goodness. So here it is-- the bread of super heroes, supercharged with 8 whole grains and 5 types of seeds.

A bread for my family or Superhero bread
makes 2 large sandwich loaves or 1 large sandwich loaf and two rustic rounds.

1/2 cup of farro

1/2 of buckwheat groats

1/2 cup of oatmeal

3/4 - 1 1/2 cups tepid water

1 1/2 tablespoon active dry yeast

4 cups whole wheat flour (you could substitute some spelt here if you want)

2 cups unbleached bread flour

1 tablespoon kosher or sea salt

1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 cup honey

1 cup small grains- any mix of polenta, millet, quinoa, armeranth, teff, etc.

1 cup mixed seeds- any mix of sunflower, pumpkin, poppy, flax, seseme, chia, etc. 

1. Place farro, oatmeal, and buckwheat groats in saucepans with ample water to cover, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer, cover pot, and cook until not quite done through. They still want to be a bit toothy when you take them off the heat so that they retain their integrity in the dough. farro will take the longest, about 1/2 hour; oatmeal about 5 minutes; and buckwheat groats about 10. When done, strain off water, if you can, and allow to cool a bit before adding to the dough.
   
2. To mix dough, pour water into the bowl.. Add yeast and whisk to blend. Add all other ingredients, including slightly cooled grains. Mix with a spoon or your hands until dough comes together and looks homogenous. This will be a very sticky and fairly soft dough, but it should generally leave the sides of the bowl, so add some bread flour if necessary; just don't add so much that it is too firm.
   
3. When dough comes together, stop the mixer and wrap a piece of plastic wrap or towel around the top of the bowl. Let the dough have an autolyse for 20 minutes. This will allow the whole wheat flour to become fully hydrated, and also allow the water in the grains to settle down. If you over-knead this dough before this, you'll essentially start squeezing water out of the grains.
   
4. After the autolyse, remove the plastic and again begin kneading with your hands (though it feels more like playing in the mud than kneading, it will stick to everything and your hands will look like swamp monster hands). Within a few minutes, the dough should come fully together, leaving the sides of the bowl. Knead for 5 minutes, then test for a windowpane. It will not be as thin as what you'd expect from a dough without all the grainy content, but it will form a general windowpane.
   
5. Transfer dough to an oiled bowl large enough to contain it as it doubles. Turn dough over once, then cover bowl with plastic or a towel. Let it proof at room temperature until doubled in size.
   
6. Flour your work surface - remember, this is a sticky dough! Gently turn dough out onto it.  Divide dough in half, and shape each as you wish: either shape it for conventional bread pans, or shape as hearth loaves. Dust the top of each with flour (I love that rustic look!), then drape your piece of plastic or towel over them. While your bread is proofing again (and the second proofing goes faster, so keep an eye on it), preheat oven to 375 degrees.
   
7. Just before putting bread in oven, decoratively slash the tops a good 1/2" deep. Bake for about 30 minutes, rotating loaves halfway through. This bread is deceptive - it tends to look done before it is. When done, an instant read thermometer inserted in the middle should read 180 degrees.
   
8. Remove from oven and cool on a rack. Because of all those great, moist grains, and a touch of honey, this is an excellent keeper, and also freezes just fine. While it is still warm, cut a slice, butter it, maybe add some honey or your favorite preserves.