7:50 and the sun is long gone. Last night's full moon was briefly eclipsed. A winnebago just hit my house (yes, a winnebago just HIT MY HOUSE). I finally listened to Tommy McLain singing Before I Grow Too Old. In a sudden onset of capriciousness, I changed this blog's template. Stranger things have happened.
I haven't been this excited all summer folks. This week, my local meal featured....PIG!
I go up to LA at least once every two months, mostly cajoled by a group of friends who come up with one excuse or another to lure us up there. By default, I often end up crashing at a friends studio apartment in West Hollywood. Little did I know until my last trip up there that there is a Sunday morning farmers' market less than a mile from his house!
I was lucky enough to stay with some gracious family friends of a friend two weeks ago, who live in the Hollywood hills. Well into our Saturday evening, after a delicious dinner and a considerable amount of wine, they mentioned they were going to the farmers' market early the next morning, inviting anyone daring enough to wake up at 8 the next morning to come along. "Ooh, I'll come with you," I piped up. I think they were surprised when I held true to my promise the next morning.
The Hollywood farmers' market--the largest farmers' market in LA I'm told--puts any farmers' market I've gone to to shame. In size alone, it spans at least 10 city blocks, a size which is only matched by annual street fairs in San Diego, not weekly events. Giddy with delight, I quickly got lost in the myriad of booths, gladly accepting samples, stopping where ever I could to talk with farmers and vendors. Entering with $40 in my wallet--an amount I knew I could spend quite quickly--I decided to only purchase goods that I had not come across in San Diego. That ruled out most of the tempting, gorgeous produce, although it didn't stop me from looking and drooling. Then I came across Rocky Canyon Farms.
Three coolers sat in a row, each swarmed by crowds of people, looking through the frozen, individually vacuum sealed pieces of meat inside. A price sheet in front of each cooler suggested what lay inside--steaks, chops, ribs. I patiently waited my turn, eagerly digging my hands into the cold packages in each cooler. I emerged, delighted with two plump pork chops, a ham hock, a pound of shoulder bacon and a package of beef short ribs (the steaks, of course, all looked tempting, but would with my $40 budget would have put an end to my spending). Continuing down the line, I found another gem--dried beans. Armed with red beans and black beans, I continued on, grabbing a bottle of apple cider vinegar, and because I couldn't help myself, a basket of baby artichokes and another of brussel sprouts.
Unfortunately, I forgot the veggies in a fridge in LA. The meat and beans, however, gloriously made the drive home. I've gone all summer, disappointingly, without local meat, and this was cause for celebration. Inspired, here's what became of my LA farmers market finds:
Tie zest and peppercorns together in a cheesecloth bag. Bring wine, water, sugar, cinnamon and cheesecloth bag to a boil in a 1 1/2-quart heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil syrup until reduced to about 1 1/2 cups, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and reserve. When pork is done, remove pork from pan, add 1/2 tbsp butter, shallot and cook for 1-2 minutes, unitil soft. add reduction and bring to boil. Add figs, reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered 5-10 minutes. Remove figs and cheesecloth bag and stir lemon juice, honey and 1 tbsp butter into fig mixture. continue to simmer until spoon leaves clean trail across bottom of pan. Spoon figs atop pork chops and drizzle with sauce.
Pan Seared Pork Chops--This recipe is a classic--I simply followed the recipe in America's Test Kitchen Cookbook, which involves nothing than a good skillet, oil, and the chops (the flavor is in the sauce you choose to use). Simply heat oil on high, sear chops on one side for 3 minutes until browned; flip, reduce heat to medium, and cook until meat registers 135 degrees. Take the chops out of the pan, cover with foil, and make the reduction sauce in the same pan. By the time the sauce is done, the chops will have risen to 145 degrees and are ready to serve.
3 zucchini
1/2 red onion
1 small carrot
5 cherry tomatoes
2 ears corn
5 slices shoulder bacon, diced
1 tbsp fresh basil
1 tsp honey
salt
pepper
preheat oven to 375. scoop out zucchini, discard flesh. heat 1 tbsp oil, cook bacon over medium heat 3 minutes, add onion and carrot. add corn and cherry tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes. add basil, salt pepper, and 1 tsp honey. remove from heat. toss zucchini boats with 1 tbsp oil, salt and pepper, place on oiled baking sheet and cook for 10 minutes, uncovered. remove from oven, fill boats with corn mixture and cook for 15 minutes, covered. uncover and cook for 5-10 minutes more until zucchini is tender.
I actually prepared these baked beans as part of my local meal for week 8 (which I haven't had the time to post); a few days later I simply reheated them to accompany this weeks meal. The only unlocal ingredient for me was maple syrup--I couldn't resist (I have a bottle of the good stuff, from Vermont, in my pantry). The recipe is again culled from my favorite reliable source, the America's Test Kitchen cookbook--I hope to post it later this week.
I really respect Jay Porter of the Linkery. I don't know of any restaurateur who is as wholly determined to do things the right way. By right, of course, I mean consciously and ethically, mindful of consequences and causes. Since opening the Linkery, Jay has proven that things shouldn't be taken for granted--that meat doesn't have to be purchased from mega-distributors and that produce doesn't have to be trucked in from afar, that there are food products produced by people who care and that often these products are far superior to what we've been taught to think is delicious. His efforts are genuine and transparent, and there are many things he does that I admire.
That said, I was blown away when I came across this blog post on the Linkery blog This post has nothing to do with producers or purveyors--two topics which I scour the Linkery blog for often. It does have to do with eating, though, and is so sensible I felt like smacking myself in the head after reading it. I quote:
"Starting this weekend, we’re going to pack all our to-go orders in heavier, dishwasher-safe, reusable plastic boxes. These containers cost us about a buck each, and for each container in a takeout order we’ll charge a buck. If you like the container and want to use it at home, great. But if you don’t want it, just bring it back to us at any time and we’ll give you your buck back."
Can everyone just take a moment to muse over how brilliant this system is? And then another moment to ask why all restaurants, everywhere, haven't been doing this for decades? Well, I can answer that second one, but won't waste the space here to do it. Instead I'll take a moment to imagine just how many styrofoam boxes, tin trays, wax paper wrappers, and dare I say disposable coffee cups would be saved from landfills each year if just one franchised operation adopted this policy.
The first thing that popped into my head while reading this was coffee (it was the morning, and I hadn't had any)--the sheer popularity of Starbucks makes me cringe in this department. But if Starbucks adopted a similar idea--if you had to pay a dollar extra each time you neglected to bring a reusable coffee mug? I'll dream of the day.
Until then, I'll be very happy to visit the Linkery again very soon.
So, a few weeks ago, I was sitting down eating lunch on the steps of the NBC building, overlooking the Thursday afternoon farmers' market in Horton square, when I was approached by Kevin Leahy, an intern at KPBS, who asked if he could ask me a few questions about shopping at the farmers' market. Undoubtedly, he spied the three full bags of produce at my feet, (and maybe, I wonder, the colorful tupperware container full of One Local Summer leftovers that I was chowing down on?) and figured I was an easy target.
I wouldn't be surprised if I was the most willing interviewee he met--I went off for the next 15 minutes or so on why I was shopping there, what made produce from this market better than that from the grocery store, and why I hoped more people would join in on the trend. I was surprised at how easily the words came out of my mouth, how well-versed I had become over the past year or so on the issues that surround eating locally, and how adamant I sounded about why I was buying my food from these farmers and not from some nameless mass producer. I excitedly brought up politics, taste, farmers' well beings, and the environment, not necessarily in that order, (and not necessarily in that order of importance).
In the end, our conversation was cut down to about 10 seconds (for a 1 1/2 minute clip), but I'm still pretty glad to get my voice out there. Here's what Kevin decided to include in his project (click on "here's a taste" - I come up after the crying baby, about 1/3 the way through):
KPBS Local News: Local Farmers' Markets Get Boost from Farm Bill
The context, by the way, I'm clueless about--a friend heard me on the radio at 6:30 am today; the KPBS website neglects to include sound bites of how the clip was framed.
This week I realized that an admired owner of one of my favorite bars signs off all of his weekly emails with the line: "Please don’t forget to ask for local beer everywhere you drink or dine. I do." I'd like to adapt that--Please ask for local food everywhere you drink and dine. I'm trying to!!
There are times, I've come to realize, when life just doesn’t make itself conducive to blogging. Hence me not getting my meals posted in time to be included in the One Local Summer week 7 OR week 8 roundup (delinquent, I know). Luckily, while my past few weeks have been hectic and jam-packed, they’ve remained conducive to eating locally. But the business isn’t calming down, so for now I’m reporting things with a two week delay.
Week 7
This week, I found myself between travels, having arrived back from a trip to Virginia on Monday and planning to depart for Los Angeles on Friday. My four days in town left me not very much time to plan, procure, or prepare.
One conviction I've had about any sort of conscious eating habit is that it must not be unwavering. We eat not only for our own personal sustenance but to share an experience with those we choose to dine with. Never have I felt it appropriate to decline to dine with someone because of my own personal food preferences. (This is what has kept me away from vegetarianism, what makes me recoil at Atkins-esque diets, and why I will never decline homemade dessert after dinner). So this week, when I was faced with dining situations where eating 100% local just wouldn’t work, I improvised. Instead of one 100% local meal, I made two 80% local meals, sacrificing that other 20% each time to be able to dine with friends and to not subject them to eating only the limited local foodstuffs I had on hand.
I also realized something else for the first time this week: eating locally, for me, can also be convenient. Sure I've enjoyed the languid summer weeks when I've had nothing pressing on the agenda, allowing me to spend hours at several farmers’ markets throughout the week, exploring and procuring, and another several hours in the kitchen on Sunday afternoons whipping up elaborate, celebratory meals. But languid summer days don’t come around that often, while the need for a meal obviously does. Both meals I prepared this week were possible with only a quick visit to a farmers’ market, some surplus from my garden, and a visit to a local Henry’s, which surprised me with several identifiable local ingredients.
(If I may digress for a moment, Henry’s has tended to anger me for some time, proudly boasting “Eat Local” signs while neglecting to clearly identify the sources of products on the shelves, or worse—just last week I found three “Eat Local” signs posted above a bin of what was clearly identified as Maui pineapple—if only I had a camera. While this is a discussion for another time, the idea of “greenwashing”—boasting claims that a product has such “en vogue” traits as being organic, or local when it barely meets the sustainable criteria that these traits were founded on—angers me to the core).
The first 80% meal this week was made before I had a chance to visit a farmer’s market, relying only on what was in my fridge, garden, and grocery store. The result was linguini with sausage and mushroom-port tomato sauce, with the flour for the pasta, the organic leeks, and the sausage coming from non-local sources. The tomatoes, eggs, two types of mushrooms, shallot, garlic, and port were all local.
Home-made Linguini:
2 cups flour
3 eggs
4 tablespoons cold water, if needed
In food processor, mix flour and egg until dough forms a rough ball. Add water 1 tbsp. at a time as needed if dough doesn’t integrate. Remove dough from processor, combining any stray pieces. Turn out on clean, floured surface and knead for 5 minutes until soft. Let sit, covered, for 15 minutes and up to 1 hour.
Turn dough out onto floured surface and roll out with rolling pin, over and over until as thin as possible. If dough reaches size of surface and you need more room, slice dough into two or more parts and roll individually. When it can’t possibly get any thinner, slice dough into 1/8” strips using pizza cutter. Carefully place strips on a baking pan lined with parchment paper until ready to cook. Dough can be refrigerated at this stage for up to 2 days or frozen for up to a week.
To cook: bring 4 quarts water to boil. Add pasta and cook for 5 minutes, until al dente.
Sausage and Mushroom-Port Tomato Sauce:
2 sausage links
1 bunch leeks, white and pale green parts only
2 shallots, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
¾ cup button mushrooms, diced
½ cup oyster mushrooms, chopped coarsely
2 cups fresh tomatoes
1 cup port
1 tsp sugar
Salt to taste
Remove sausage from casings. Brown sausage in large, heavy bottomed skillet over medium-high heat, about 7 minutes. Transfer to bowl and cover. Drain any fat from the skillet, add 1 tbsp oil. Add leeks and sauté 5 minutes, until translucent. Add shallots and garlic, cook for 1 minute. Add mushrooms, stir for 2 minutes. Add tomatoes, port, sugar, and salt. Bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes, covered. Uncover, add sausage, and simmer for 10-15 minutes longer. Toss over just cooked pasta and serve.
The next meal was the quickest I've made all summer: Mushroom, Arugula, and Red Pepper Fritatta served alongside an arugula salad. The ease of this meal is its versatility—practically any ingredients for the filling will do, and after dicing all the ingredients for the frittata, I just tossed any leftovers into the salad. Since I toted the ingredients to a friend’s house to prepare just before hitting the road to LA, this worked out perfectly. The 20% un-localness in this meal was chicken—as my friend had several chicken breasts that wouldn’t make it through the weekend, which he opted to prepare rather than waste.
Mushroom, Arugula, and Red Pepper Fritatta:
8 eggs
1 small onion, diced
1 small carrot, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
½ bunch arigula diced (about 1 cup)
4-5 oyster mushrooms, sliced thin
¼ cup shaved sharp gouda or other aged cheese
Preheat oven to 350. In large, ovenproof pan, sautee onion and carrot over medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add bell pepper, cook for 3 minutes more. Add mushrooms, cook for 2 minutes. Add arugula, stir, and remove from heat.
Whisk together eggs, salt, and pepper in a large bowl until yolks are well integrated. Bring pan back to medium low heat , add eggs, and cook, slowly, pushing mixture gently with spatula to expose uncooked eggs to bottom of pan. Cook 3-5 minutes, until bottom of eggs are set.
Sprinkle grated cheese on top and transfer pan to oven. Cook 3-5 minutes longer, until top is gently brown and eggs are firm to touch. Carefully remove from heat, divide into 4-6 slices, and serve alongside salad composed of any unused vegetables (mine was an arugula, red pepper, and button mushroom salad dressed with local olive oil and non-local vinegar).
Whew! That makes me only a week behind…Week 8’s local meal to be posted shortly…
Wow, has it really been six weeks? I've enjoyed every meal of it, but I think this week's was my favorite. Unfortunately, this is also going to be a rather short post, sans photos, as I've just arrived on the East coast for an extended weekend....
The inspiration for this week came in the form of slender, white fruit: baby eggplant. It was the first i'd seen all season, and it was irresistible. Not only was it irresistible, but I knew what I'd do with it the moment i bought it: Caponata. Caponata is a typical Sicilian dish, one that I'd discovered for the first time during a restaurant visit a few weeks ago. Its similar to baba ganoush in that purees cooked eggplant, mingles it with garlic and spices and creates a bewitching spread. In the restaurant where I discovered it, it was used as a bed for a filet of fish to rest on, and I intended to reproduce the effect in this week's meal. Local sea bass--the last of the batch I had frozen from a few weeks ago--paired perfectly with the luscious caponata.
Always searching for local starches, I "cheated" a bit this week and used flour from Oregon to create homemade pasta--which although the flour wasn't local was immensely satisfying. I was surprised at the ease at which I was able to craft tiny orichette-inspired pasta pieces--my dough wasn't as thin as it should have been but the result was as good as any homemade pasta I've tried. I'll definitely be repeating this one.
And, because I can't get enough of the peppery, tangy arugula that's in season right now (the farmer that sells it to me is now reserving a bunch twice a week, because I'm so eager to buy it each time I go to the market), I made local arugula pesto, complete with local sharp gouda and local macadamia nuts.
Here's how I crafted my meal:
Sea Bass in Paper
Looking for an Italian recipe for the fish, I came across Sea Bass in Papillote on Epicurious, an easy variation of sea bass cooked in paper (this recipe uses foil). Using tomatoes from our garden, plus local lemons, thyme, and Italian parsley, I followed the recipe almost exactly (omitted the capers--don't have any local). It was a no-brainer, and delicious! The thinly sliced lemons imparted a delicate citrus flavor that was perfect for a summer evening.
Homemade "orichette" with arugula pesto
Pesto (partially inspired by a similar recipe from elise.com:
1 bunch arugula
1/4 cup macadamia nuts (or other nut--walnuts, hazelnuts, and pine nuts would all lend different, distinct flavors)
2 cloves garlic, unpeeled
1/4 cup sharp gouda, grated
1/2 cup olive oil
dice arugula
crush nuts, roast in toaster oven or over stove for 5-10 minutes, until gently browned
toast garlic in pan over medium heat, skins on, about 10 minutes until skin browns. Let cool and remove garlic from skin
puree all ingredients except oil in food processor until fine. Slowly pour in oil, pulsing to combine.
Pasta
I used a recipe from my favorite source --simply using eggs and flour. The secret was combining the dough in the food processor, which took seconds and integrated it perfectly. I used no fancy equipment other than a rolling pin--it worked just fine.
I then cut the rolled dough into 1/2 to 3/4" squares, pressing my thumb into each to form "little ears" (inspired by the orichette shape)
eggplant caponata with roasted red peppers
For this, I relied on two recipes, a simple one from epicurious, and one from Mario Batali of New York's Otto restaurant.
Here's my interpretation:
6 baby eggplant, skins on
1 red bell pepper
1 small red onion
one carrot
garlic
1 large heirloom tomato, diced
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp. hot pepper flakes
2 tbsp red wine
1/2 cup green olives, pitted and diced
3 sprigs thyme
slice eggplant lengthwise, salt generously and place in colander, beneath a heavy plate. Let sit for 30 minutes.
meanwhile brush red bell pepper with oil and roast over open flame of gas burner for 7-10 minutes, turning as needed, until skin is blackened. Transfer to paper bag, let cool, then gently peel off blackened skin and dice.
rinse eggplant and dice
heat oil over medium heat, add onion and carrot and cook for 5 minutes, until translucent. Add garlic, stir for 30 seconds.
Add eggplant, tomatoes, sugar, cinnamon, and hot pepper flakes. cook for 10 minutes. Add red wine and cook, covered, for 10 minutes more, until eggplant is cooked through.
Add red pepper, olives, and thyme and cook 5 minutes more, uncovered.
Let mixture cool slightly, then transfer to food processor. Puree and refrigerate, covered for at least 2 hours and up to 12.
Ooh, I wish I had photos because this meal came out perfectly!! I'll post some next week upon my return...
