And a Little Guile shall Lead Them

I recently spent three hours at a large conference table listening to more than two dozen people speak up about their work supporting local food. It was mostly enthusiastic talk of research methods, strategy development and comprehensive plans--the stuff of self-satisfied policy wonks who don't have boots in the ground. And it was all talk about the supply side of local food: getting, sustaining and distributing more of it.

Since we all know how wonderbar supply side economics and its trickle down is, I finally spoke up to point out the elephant in the room: demand. As long as local people remained enthusiastic consumers of canned goods, fast food and the industrial lettuce of gigantic supermarkets, strategies and plans to increase the supply of local food were simply feel good food for NGO fans.

A few people nodded in agreement, a few said things had changed. I'm still trying to find which ones. Yes, more people frequent farmers' markets now and more of them look local, but no, most farmers haven't ever changed what they grow to sell: large white potatoes, pumpkins, carrots and thick skinned industrial tomatoes. California people can eat a lot of local food because California small farmers grow a lot of different foods.

The sparse new organic crowd is coming up with kale, French baby carrots, Tokyo turnips and braising greens--a euphemism for bitter, spicy weedy plants. There's even raw milk. But states like Maine which seem to have nothing else to do are busy both trying to ban raw milk and trying to keep local food out of its school cafeterias where locals might learn about the braising greens and heirloom tomatoes visitors and vacationers who went to school elsewhere rush to buy.

It seems the education about nutritious, non-toxic food and the value of having it close at hand has for the moment to fall to farmers. They need to bravely plant more of what people need to eat: less large white potatoes and, say, more burdock, more mustard and collard greens, more fava and other beans. Now that we know how poisonous garlic coming from China is, why not double the crop to exploit the news? And dandelion greens? Hello.

Growing the same things over and over only solidifies the dangerously unhealthy habit of eating the same things over and over, poisoning the body by the overload. Lack of change also stunts economies. I know a very successful cheesemaker whose output has been drastically stymied because she can't find people to raise goats and supply the milk to her. "They're afraid to do something new," she said, "and if I spend more time raising and milking goats, I won't have time to make cheese."

We are now all part of an international network of news, commodities, hopes and hard facts. It's been the onset of immigrants from seemingly exotic places with seemingly exotic tastes that's led a farmer here and there in white bread places to start producing goat meat. Meeting growing demand by growing a supply was a good financial decision. No reason we can't also produce and eat pea shoots like the Chinese, fava beans like the Italians, the original purple potatoes from Peru and those very healthy dandelion greens.

Treasures for the taking

Welcome May and all the farmers' markets now out of cold storage. They may seem to have slim pickings right now but what they have could be life saving. Given the nasty news that keeps leaking out of the industrial agricultural complex, (and you can find references throughout this blog), your local farmers' market is the only place you can trust right now for these edibles. Happily these treasures are available even this early in the season:
Honey
Eggs
Chicken
Maple Syrup
Lamb and Beef
Milk
Yogurt

You may also find the spring tonics your body needs after the long sluggish winter:
Dandelion greens
Fiddlehead ferns
Nettles (be careful and don't touch until you've subjected them to heat)
Asparagus
Pea shoots

If you can't figure out what to do with these, the easiest way to enjoy them is to steam them with fresh lemon and put them over small pasta with olive oil, salt and pepper.  If you want to add pieces of smoked salmon, why not?

Chicken: Let's cry Foul!

Thanks to the intrepid and great food blogger Tom Philpott the secret is out. So we all know how not to play the game of chicken any more. Read my tips.

If you care at all about your own health and the lives of those you love, and you don't want to turn your dinner into Russian roulette--a form of the old game of chicken, you will no longer dare to buy a chicken or a chicken part from anyone but your local farmer or a friend.

It seems all Michelle Obama's noise about healthy eating has been nothing but window dressing to cover up the nefarious acts of her husband's corporate sycophancy. With little notice, Obama's changed the agricultural safety inspection rules to give the four megafirms involved in industrial poultry production in this country even more profits. At our expense of course.

Obama and the vile Vilsack who heads the Department of Agriculture have agreed by law to remove almost all the Federal health and safety inspectors at mega poultry processing plants--down from 4 to 1, and to simultaneously allow the processors to speed up the production line by 1/3. Ergo: more chickens, less safety. More money for Tyson, more bacterial infections for us.

Salmonella threats and feces splattered chicken are already running riot in the big plants, so we can now look forward to them running totally amok, bringing us ever more public health epidemics in 2014 when the new regulations or lack of regulations goes into effect. That's Obamacare in a new light.

There's nothing we can do about this new and revolting corporate handout except this: Don't buy industrially processed chickens. Boycott the big boys. Support your local farmer. The life you save could be your own.

And, hey, local farmers: cluck up and start raising more chickens. Opportunity just knocked. All the folks who aren't vegetarians need your help in this fight!

Hanging on thru April

Yes, April is the cruelest month, bringing nothing really new to market just when we're all ready for something new. And this year it has brought only the same old scary news about our continually corrupted industrial food supply. Monsanto has now succeeded in surreptitiously slipping into the critical budget bill a lovely little rider excusing/excluding it from any court rulings against GMOs. And since it has so far succeeded in preventing GMO labeling on supermarket packaging, I'd say we have even MORE reason to shop for all the food we can find at our local farmers' market. Shake the hand that feeds you. Transactions don't get more transparent, accountable and trustworthy than that.

California is of course ahead of the curve. Spring has sprung and its farmer's markets stalls are buried under piles of spring onions, green garlic, nettles, dandelion greens, pea shoots and other fabulous spring tonics like asparagus and rhubarb. These plants with go-go energy that propels them up bravely through thawing ground are just what our bodies need to spring energetically into the new season. 

But there is spring lamb. And fresh batches of chard. So here's a transition from winter to spring dish I've been playing with that uses them both. It's/was a traditional dinner for farmers in Palestine. (Those who lived/live by the sea ate mostly shrimp and fish.) The original recipe I saw, from old women in the Gaza Strip remembering the kitchen tables of free Palestine, called for medium grain rice. Not having that I used Basmati and didn't like the final effect. The next time I tried my precious Sardinian pasta, fregola, tiny toasted dots and it was perfect.  But I realize you don't want to go hunting down a rare ingredient, so I am suggesting barley, farro or a short, starchy paella rice instead. The cooking times will be wildly different. Note that, please. And enjoy.  This is wonderfully aromatic

Lamb, Chickpea and Chard Stew

an adaptation of Palestinian Fogaiyya

Serves 4

1½ -3/4 lb boneless lamb stew meat, lean if you can get it

2 tsp ground allspice

1 lg yellow onion, finely chopped

3-4 tbsp olive oil, 1tbsp reserved for the end

1 lg cinnamon stick

4 whole cloves

5 cardamom pods, cracked to release the seeds

½ tsp ground nutmeg

1 lg bay leaf

2 tsp salt, divided (1 tsp of coarse sea salt if you have it)

3½ -4 cup water or vegetable broth or combination of the two

½ cup paella rice or barley or Farro

1 14-oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 bunch chard, thick stems removed, washed, leaves chopped

Freshly ground black pepper to your taste

6 garlic cloves

½ cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed

Lemon wedges for garnish

Coat the lamb with the allspice.

Cover the bottom of a heavy gauge lidded pot with 2-3 tbsp of olive oil and warm over medium heat. Add onions and sauté 2 minutes to soften. Add the lamb. Sauté until meat is brown, 5-7 minutes.

Add cinnamon, cardamom seeds, cloves, bay leaf,  and nutmeg. Stir to blend.

Add the water/broth (use 4 cups if you plan to use farro), bring to a boil, cover and lower heat. Simmer 90 minutes or until lamb is tender.

NOW HERE IS THE DIFFERENCE:

If you are using barley, add it to the lamb after one hour of its cooking.

Once the lamb has cooked 90 minutes:

stir in 1 tsp salt, black pepper, chickpeas, farro or paella rice if not using barley.

Raise heat to bring to a boil, then immediately lower to simmer and cook until grain is soft. If you need more liquid, add water. (Rice will need 12 minutes but farro 15-20)

Remove bay leaf and cinnamon stick. Add chopped chard leaves, stirring them in as you go. Continue to simmer.

Mash or mince the garlic cloves with 1 tsp coarse sea salt.

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a small frying pan and brown the salted garlic, 1-2 minutes. Add to the stew and blend. (This seems to be a Palestinian kitchen custom.)

Remove the stew from the heat. When ready to serve, stir in the lemon juice.  Put a lemon wedge in every bowl.  

Serve with warm pita.

And think: Spring!

Egging us on

Spring is here but not much else is in a farmers' market. Except for that wonder of wonder foods: eggs! And wouldn't you know it: this is the moment we celebrate them in all their glory. The Easter egg.

There are many theories about why many cultures feast on eggs at the first sign of spring. The most obvious is that like spring, they represent new life. And like life they are round with no sign of beginning or end. (okay, roundish). Another theory dating to early Catholic Lenten practice is that eggs were considered a rich luxury food that had to be abandoned during the lean weeks of Lent, so Easter was the moment to splurge.  And the Mother Nature theory is that hens in colder climates weren't laying eggs in the snow but started again around the spring equinox.

As the symbol of renewal at this moment of spring fever, eggs get the royal treatment on a Seder table and in an Easter basket. They're roasted or boiled, dyed or painted, stuck whole (cooked of course) in the ring shaped Easter breads and cakes of Eastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. Chocolates are stuffed and molded to look like them.

This is not supercilious celebration. The egg may be our most perfect food. It comes in its own packaging straight from the source and can last a long time in proper circumstances. It can be boiled, steamed, fried, baked, even roasted. It's the critical binder for the delights of cakes, puddings and cookies. It's the key ingredient in genuine Caesar salad dressing, aioli and mayonnaise. It keeps the coating on the fried chicken.

It's a treasure chest of nutrients. The egg is perfect protein. It has the Vitamin D of sunshine that's hard to find in other foods. It's got calcium and enough magnesium to help us absorb it. It's loaded with trace minerals critical to our health: potassium, phosphorus, selenium, folate. And it's got the goods to keep our eyes from degenerating.

Yes, it's got some fat and cholesterol but by now science has discovered it's all good. Eat eggs.  Science has also discovered it's best not to eat industrially produced eggs which often come with their own salmonella and other horrible toxins. So get them from your local farmer whose chickens ate up the energy of your locale and purvey it back to you this way.

In lieu of all that messy egg dying, especially if you don't have kids, fill your Easter basket with elegantly marbled Chinese tea eggs. A recipe is in How to Fix a Leek...  Greet the morning of Resurrection with a frittata, an omelet you can bake in the oven in a pie pan and slice in wedges to serve 6 or 8 at once.

Greet any morning with a hard or soft boiled egg, a piece of seeded toast and some fruit for the perfect launch to a healthy day. Whip an egg into grated potatoes and onions to make potato pancakes for lunch (served with applesauce or sour cream). Lay a fried egg on a Spanish braise of chickpeas with garlicky greens for a meatless meal. Put yolks into rice pudding and whip the whites into meringues for dessert. Make an angel food cake. What you can do with a few eggs is joyously infinite.

Here's something I've been working on that uses eggs to advantage:

Leek Patties

 (Supposedly Bulgarian)

Makes 8, serves 4

6 lg leeks, white and light green parts only

1 tbsp fresh chives, minced

2 eggs, beaten

½-2/3 cup dried breadcrumbs

1 tsp coarse sea salt

½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp corn or canola oil for frying

1 lemon

Cut the leeks in half lengthwise and crosswise and rinse to clean.

Put leeks in a large saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil.

Lower heat to simmer and cook uncovered about 25 minutes, until leeks are soft.

Drain well. Wrap leeks in a heavy towel to squeeze out as much excess water as possible.

Coarsely chop the leeks. Put in a bowl with the chives, salt and pepper. Stir in the breadcrumbs. (Enough to take up any remaining moisture in the leeks.) Blend in the eggs. 

Make 8 patties that are about ½ inch thick.

In a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Arrange the patties in the pan so they don’t touch (you may have to do this in two batches) and cook until brown on the bottom side, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook another 1-2 minutes so both sides are evenly browned. Remove from the pan and drain on paper towels.

Serve with a squirt of lemon juice and a wedge of lemon.

Optionally sprinkle minced fresh flat leaf parsley on the plate.

Can be served warm or cold as an appetizer, lunch or side dish. It's as versatile as an egg itself.

Those Other Greens

Late March makes for slim pickings at the Farmers' Market but spring is here and hope is on the way. Very soon now, our local farmers will be putting out herb plants for our gardens, our kitchens and our bodies.  Don't overlook these medical marvels.  Buy a few and find room for them in your life.

Here's are brief, very brief, reasons why you'll want at least the most basic and commonly available potted herbs.

PARSLEY
This is the most common of all herbs and sadly, the one most frequently consigned to the side of a plate as garnish. No no. Parsley is incredibly nutritious and deserves to be eaten like any green vegetable, even its cousin, celery. It's loaded with hard to come by Vitamin K, full of Vitamin C and A, and even graced with a little iron.
Parsley contains oils that may inhibit cancer cells particularly in the lungs--just like kale and mustard greens. It's also packed with valuable antioxidants. Eat all you dare.

You can get curly parsley or flat leaf, also known as Italian parsley and best for cooking. When you see the words "green sauce" that usually means parsley based.  How to Fix a Leek and Other Food From Your Farmers' Market has two green sauce recipes, one for mussels and one for chicken, so I won't repeat them here. Lots of chopped parsley brightens any dish of beans. And don't forget, the perennially popular Tabbouleh is traditionally made with as much parsley as bulghur.  It's in there as the summer coolant, vitamin pack and breath refresher.

SAGE
Our word sage comes from the Latin for this plant, salvia, which comes out of the word  "save." That show the respect the ancients had for this very medicinal plant. It's one of the oldest known natural remedies. From the boondocks of history to our own time, sage has been used as a powerful antiseptic, astringent, anti-inflammatory and relaxant.  It appears particularly effective against night sweats and the hot flashes of menopause.  It's often brewed into a tea and the American Indians burn it to purify a room or a person's aura. The Medieval English included it in their famous song round: "parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme."

In the kitchen, sage complements that earthy plant, mushrooms. It's often pared in autumn with butternut squash. I think it adds an appealing mysteriously smokey flavor to turkey, sometimes even grilled chicken. And you can burn it instead of incense.

DILL
The helpful properties of dill were already known back in ancient Egypt, a lot of them for such a seemingly delicate plant. Dill magically removes a lot of the acid that causes heartburn, essentially by strengthening the esophagus that can send it straight to the stomach for processing. It helps fight insomnia and its seeds when chewed are an instant remedy for bad breath. Dainty as its fronds may be, dill contains a lot of dietary fiber, and even more crucially, magnesium, a vital mineral for calcium absorption and a powerful antidote for diarrhea. Speaking of calcium,  a tbsp of dill has almost as much as a tbsp of milk.

In the kitchen, the fresh taste of dill brightens omelets, green salads, green beans, grilled fish, crab meat, and anything with beets or cucumbers. The seeds are a key ingredient in pickling.

OREGANO
This is a gift to us from the Greeks who prized it for its anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties. It helps remedy indigestion and cure yeast infections. It reduces stomach gas and can calm a churning stomach.
Marjoram is a sibling.

Oregano is of course the key herb for traditional Italian tomato sauces, and therefore pizza and meatballs. It's liberally sprinkled on grilled fish in Greece. It's key for tasty corn chowder and does wonders for potato salad.

Layers

Well, as far as I can see, with one working eye, the blog news is that organic tomatoes really do have more nutrients, farmers' markets are a bargain priced alternative to low income families, most wine is contaminated by fungicides so if you can find organic go for it but don't stop enjoying wine with your meals, and eating grains with beans, lentils, vegetables, fruits, eggs and yogurt is really good for you. In a major medical study recently released, the so-called Mediterranean diets trumps our junk food red meat fiesta yet again.

So here's hoping our farmers are planning right now to plant all sorts of legumes and lentils, root veggies and greens galore to put sunshine inside our bodies.  And here's hoping markets share their wealth with the financially challenged too.

Meanwhile, as spring breaks through in warmer latitudes and winter continues to grip the north and challenge farmers to bring anything to the market, here is something I've been working on as a goodbye salute to the cold season.

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Polenta and Kale Layer Cake

Serves 6

2/3 cup polenta

3 cups water

1 tsp dried oregano

2 tbsp minced roasted poblano pepper

Pinch of red pepper flakes

¼ tsp salt

¼ cup shredded or grated mozzarella cheese

*carnivore options

2 bunches kale

1 med white onion, diced

5 garlic cloves, minced

3 tbsp olive oil

¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tbsp pine nuts

¼ tsp salt

½ cup ricotta cheese (fat free is fine)

2 lg sweet potatoes

¼ tsp salt

2 cardamom pods, cracked or ¼ ground cardamom.

2 tbsp mascarpone

¼ cup grated parmesan cheese

pinch of nutmeg

1 tbsp olive oil for the pan

Grease an 8 or 9” springform pan with 1 tbsp olive oil and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375º.

Peel and coarsely chop the sweet potatoes. Put in a pot and cover with water.

Add the salt and cardamom pods. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat slightly and cook until potatoes are soft, 12-15 minutes. 

Remove cardamom pods. Using a slotted spoon or spatula, put the sweet potatoes in a food processor. Add 1 tbsp of the cooking water and hold the rest. Add the mascarpone. Quickly puree.  Set aside.

Remove kale leaves from their thick stems. Wash and drain carefully.

Combine kale, garlic and pine nuts in a food processor. Using the pulse button, chop the kale into small pieces as though making pesto.

In a small skillet, heat 2 tbsp olive oil over medium/low heat. Add onions and black pepper. Sauté 5 minutes until onions are soft. 

Stir in the chopped kale mix. Sauté 3-5 minutes until kale is soft but still bright green. Remove from heat. Add salt and ricotta and blend well. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine 1 cup sweet potato water with 2 cups water. Add salt and bring to a boil. Whisk in the cornmeal and continue whisking until it is absorbed and the mixture starts to thicken, 5 minutes.

Add oregano, pepper flakes and minced poblano pepper. Continue cooking over low heat 2 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon. Add mozzarella cheese, stirring as you go and continue cooking 3 more minutes so all cheese is melted.  Polenta should be thick and creamy now.

Cover the bottom of the oiled springform pan with an even layer of the polenta.

Cover the polenta layer with an even layer of the kale mixture.

Top with an even layer of the sweet potatoes.

Top with the grated parmesan cheese and a sprinkle of nutmeg.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil. Bake at 375º for 30 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking 15-20 minutes until top is lightly brown.

Remove from heat. Cool in the pan 10-15 minutes. Remove sides of the pan.

Serve cut in wedges like a cake.

*Carnivores can add ½ cup chopped chorizo or pepperoni to the polenta or ½ cup chopped garlic sausage to the kale.