wunderkind

Right now I am loving beets. They are sweet and very healthy and possible one of the most colorful vegetables of winter. I love how they go from being an ugly ordinary root vegetable

to making it look like you committed kitchen murder

to creating the most brilliantly colored and tasty lunch

Beet Curry Soup. A perfect rainy spring day soup. Not too heavy but still warm and filling. Topped with some good creamline yogurt. Also good chopped raw in a salad with some goat cheese.
I would like to learn to use beets as a dye both for fiber and some tinted lipbalm. I am completely enamored by the color of them.

"Eating is an agricultural act"

That's Wendell Berry. For those of you who have never read any Wendell Berry, you should. I have mostly read his agricultural essays. He wrote about what I now consider to be mainstream foodie topics (Thanks to Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingsolver and Alice Waters) 30 years ago. He is also a farmer who doesn't own a tractor. He has a team of draft horses and a collection of "archaic" non-motorized iron tools. Wendell Berry is my hero. if I could invite 5 "famous" people to my dinner table he would be one of them.

About a month ago I was privileged to travel to Monterey, CA for the Hazon Food Conference. Hazon is the largest environmental organization within the Jewish Community. I had never heard of them until I applied to receive a grant to attend the food conference. They are a worthy organization and worth checking out and getting involved with. I had never heard of them because most of their activity is based on the coasts, NY and LA, because their is an infinitely larger Jewish population there than in Chicago. The conference was a wonderful opportunity to connect with some wonderful like-minded people including my new friend Aaron Lerman, whose review of the conference you can read at the Jew and the Carrot, here. Other notable people worth checking out and supporting are:
Julie Negrin, a cooking teacher with a cookbook coming out in the spring. She lead the first of the sessions I attended and I am super excited about her book.
Abbe Turner, dairy goat farmer and cheesemaker extrodinaire. Her farm, Lucky Penny Farm, is located in Ohio. read LOCAL. A truly amazing person and I want to help her find a Chicago market and go visit her and the goats when it is a bit warmer out.
Anna Hanau, Farm manager at Adamah farm. This girl is intense when it comes to farming. in a really awesome way. She told us the best tractor story ever. I wish I could tell it but it will definitely lose something. I would like to be able to apply and work at Adamah this summer. We will see about that though there is lots going on at the moment.
Jonathan Silverman, farmer in the Bay area with lots of creative projects going on. My birthday fell during the conference and he sang happy birthday to me and presented me with a fancy chocolate bar for my cake/present.
Pesach Stadlin and Vivian Lehrer, husband and wife founders of the Eden Village Camp near NYC, Pesach taught a session on permaculture and incorporating it into your everyday life and was a wonderful teacher. Vivian moderated a Vegetable monologues panel of female farmers that included Anna Hanau and Abbe Turner. Eden Village Camp is in its inaugural year this coming summer and seems like a truly unique and dynamic opportunity for children. There are some discounts and scholarships available so if you know of some children who like to play in the dirt check them out!

I am still weeding through all the materials that I brought home and will probably say more as I do that. There is a group of us here in Chicago trying to get some projects off the ground for the community here and I also have a person project that I am going to use this blog as a platform for in the coming months as I start researching. i will tell you more about that in another post as this one has lots of info already!

Things that go sprout in the night, pt 3

haven't seen this in awhile, huh?

We found this guy when cooking the other day. I thought it was cute how the little sprout is peering out from under the skin.

I owe you lots of updates....

Since starting my Wardrobe Refashion Project i have been trying really hard to post once a week over at Dart and Hem and while i have still been sure to take lots of pictures for you for this blog I still haven't gotten around to posting them. i have also had some issues with my computer and external hard drive which just adds to the problem. So this is my attempt to catch you up a bit before I leave the country for 3 weeks and have even more for you.

First off, about our roof garden! haven't talked plants in awhile.



We also have Thyme, Oregano and Basil doing really well in the house and on the back porch. There are about a dozen tomatoes coming in, several sweet peppers and some beans. We have already made a decent sized harvest of our kale.

and in case you are wondering how it all got up there:


we lovingly call it the Mizzen top.

I have also been taking a botany class and have learned much about identifying plants and how they are classified. it makes me feel like Maturin. The class is at the Botanic Garden here in Chicago and our teacher is really great. He is really relaxed but he really knows his stuff and loves it too. The group of people in the class are really great too. I hope to be able to stay in touch with some of them.

next up, the road trip. Since that will consist of many many pictures I think it will be a separate post.

In honor of, in place of actual celebration of, Pesah (or Passover)...

I made macaroons.

The CRC would not consider these kosher for Pesah but there is no immediately recognizable chametz in them. Really simple and easy to make. recipe here. The coconut i used is flaked and not shredded. It is from Bob's Red Mill. I bought it at True Nature Foods, my local natural health food store. I bet Whole foods will have unsweetened coconut too.

A superior brunch...

"Welcome to the French Chef. I'm Julia Child..."

des oeufs en cocotte

I watched Julia make these last night. Molded eggs in a muffin tin.

Set a pan that your muffin tin will fit in on the stove with some water to simmer. Turn your oven on to 375. Thoroughly butter the muffin tins that you will be using. When water is at a simmer place buttered muffin tin in the pan of water. Crack one egg into each muffin cup. Salt and pepper the eggs being careful to only salt the whites as salt will discolor the yolk. Julia added some cream to hers but I didn't have any. I grated some cheddar cheese over the top, Julia uses swiss. I think the swiss would be better as it is less intense. I also didn't have any parsley so I used a bit of dried chives. Place in the oven, pan of water and all, and bake 6-7 minutes. I forgot to turn the oven on so mine took more like 10 minutes because it wasn't as hot. You want the eggs to be cooked but if you shake the pan they should jiggle a bit. Let rest a minute or two while you butter and/or jam your toast and pour your tea. Run a knife around the edge of each muffin cup and gently lift out the egg to unmold.

Note: French eggs would be considered undone by American standards, I think. If you want your eggs more "done" cook a little longer. My eggs were French. The yolk was just cooked and the whites still wet.
You can also cook these plain with just some salt and pepper, with cheese, or with just a blend of herbs. Click on the post title for more ideas.

Et Voila!

"This has been the French Chef. i'm Julia Child. Bon Appetit!"

For Da...

STEAK!

with a side of SEMI-LiQUID DEATH aka homemade prepared horseradish

SOOOO GOOD!

I would also have pictures of my fancy plating of the cake and caramel sauce but we kinda rushed the dessert since B had to go do a show so I forgot. BUT there is still cake left....

Things that go sprout in the night...

you can plant that....


thats what this was, except it was garlic.

Green Garlic is what you get when you plant garlic but instead of letting it mature over a long period of time so it can form a bulb you grow it for the green stuff above the soil line. You can use it like an herb. It tastes like garlic except more delicate and less intense. And you can't buy it at the grocery store. So plant it yourself whenever that garlic bulb that has been sitting for a while begins to sprout. Plant it with the pointy or sprouting end up and cover with about and inch of dirt. you can plant the cloves fairly close together since they won't be forming bulbs.

Menu

We are hosting dinner on Saturday (for my P's) and on Sunday (for friends). We don't host dinner very often and 2 in one weekend is kind of a lot. I would like to host more dinners for friends. Here are our menus for the weekend.

Saturday Early Bird Special:

Steak with homemade horseradish sauce
Roasted carrots with balsamic
Chard
Bourbon Chocolate cake
Caramel Sauce


Sunday Dinner:

Cauliflower Curry
Saag Paneer (that'd be homemade paneer)
Lamb with Lemon
Basmati rice
I was originally just thinking fruit for dessert but our fruit wasn't actually delivered this week. oops. So maybe leftover bourbon chocolate cake or I might make some biscotti. neither really compliments indian food but it'll be what we got!

Neither menu was really planned for a theme we just thought about what vegetable were in the CSA box this week and what we like to make and what else was in the fridge. The only things we have never made are the Saag paneer (i have made paneer before. it is super easy.) and the carmel sauce (which I think I can handle.)

vicars and tarts...

These are the tarts made from the leftover ganache. I kept eating the berries while we were making dinner so we had just enough left for the tarts. There were 4 tarts. The crust is store bought graham cracker mini crusts that were left over from the summer. The tarts came out well, it is hard to go wrong with putting fruit on some chocolate. B thought it would be better if the chocolate was semisweet instead bittersweet because it would match the sweetness of the berries better. I think I agree but i like chocolate and berries in pretty much any combination. The crust was a little flavorless, maybe a little stale. i think it would be better with a homemade crust. i also wish that i would have been able to just pick it up and eat it without a fork (the crust just crumbled). Either way it was a good way to use up some leftovers and by no means a failure in my book. it also makes you feel a little fancy to eat a special dessert once in a while. And since this is so easy it is perfect for when you need a little extra fancy!

Eggs that aren't white...

Mint Creek Farm Eggs

We bought these at the market. Yes that egg is green! and the other is pink! Aren't they gorgeous? The different colors just come from different chickens. This is the same farm that produces the ground lamb that B and I absolutely love. The eggs were mostly brown with a few white ones too. Why dye Easter eggs when the chickens will do it for you?

B and I also had a discussion about eggs. His mom always told him to crack eggs into a separate bowl when baking. She cracked eggs directly into a cake she was making only to find out the egg had been fertilized. Most commercial eggs come from industrial operations where the chickens don't have access to a rooster so that shouldn't be a problem these days for most people. My mom always told me to crack eggs into another bowl first just in case the egg is bad or if you get shell in it it is easier to get out.

She also tried to convince me not to eat raw cake or brownie batter. i always countered that with "Did you eat raw batter as a kid?" The answer was always yes followed by a lame attempt to convince me that things are different now. In reality she has a point. Commercial eggs are exposed and susceptible to many more dangerous afflictions than they were when most eggs were raised by farmers. That's why we buy eggs at the market.
Julia Child says whatever is left on the spoon or in the bowl is for the cook. Why shouldn't you have a special treat after all that work?

I agree with Julia.

Macarons!

Almond Macaron with Bittersweet Ganache Filing

I am obsessed with these tiny french cookies! They are supposed to be very persnickety to make since they are meringue based. I didn't find the actual recipe all that difficult. You just have to pay attention to what you are doing. They took awhile to make since I only have one jelly roll pan. The really fussy part is making them look good and getting even feet on them (that is the part under the smooth shell) and making sure your filing to cookie ratio is right. These came out practically perfect for a first try. I made these about 3 weeks ago. Everyone loved them and they look like little hamburgers.

The next week I made another batch. I thought it would be boring to make another plain almond batch but I wasn't ready to try anything too adventurous. So I decided on Chocolate chocolate. They were an example of Murphy's Law: everything went wrong! I was reusing the plastic baggie pastry bag I had used for the first batch and somehow it didn't zip closed all the way and burst open after squeezing out about 3 cookies. it was very messy and the bag wouldn't really re-close since all the batter was stuck in the zippers. I also had decided not to sift the flour and sugar since I had blitzed it in the food processor so they were a little more chunky. I borrowed B's jelly roll pan so I could cook 2 sheets at a time. This took a lot of juggling in my ridiculous kitchen and caused me to get a bit frustrated. toward the end of the batch they started to not cook well and wouldn't set properly in the center. I am not sure why but I think that they coked better with only one sheet in the oven at a time. The heat was more even since they were centered, even though i did rotate the 2 sheets and also because my oven door does not close evenly. They also didn't foot well and were the ugliest macarons ever. Laudree has rejected my application...

Chocolate Macaron with Bittersweet Ganache Filing

Even though they were ugly as all hell they were edible and very good. The consensus is that the almond chocolate ones are better than the chocolate chocolate ones and are also more fun because they look like hamburgers. Maybe the chocolate macaron would be better with say a raspberry jam filing instead?

And i still have leftover ganache... It is going to become a blackberry tart for dessert tonight. I have little graham cracker pie crusts left over form the summer and we have blackberries in the fridge.

I have taken some time off from the macarons but I have 2 more adventurous flavors waiting for an attempt. Saffron Macarons with Pumpkin Buttercream filling and Chestnut Macarons with possibly a Black Raspberry filing. I bought chestnut flour at the market yesterday and I think it is a wonderful flavor for macarons but I am still figuring out the filing part... Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Another reason to eat local...

This is an article that has a primary concern of addressing how our country responds to crisis and natural disaster. (Click the post title to read the article) It discusses the drought situation in California and what needs to be done by the government to better address natural disaster situations so they don't all wind up like katrina. This is a valid argument but what really caught my eye and made me worry was the following statement:

"Although few have yet noticed, this is a national crisis because California produces 50% of the nation’s fruits, nuts and vegetables, and a majority of the nation’s salad, strawberries, and premium winegrapes."

50%! That HALF of the nations fruit and vegetables that will not be available if the drought situation is not handled, lets say, well enough but that is HALF of the nation's fruit and vegetables are being shipped long distances, like to the other side of the country. Here in Chicago that is only half a country away but i can buy all those things at the farmers market and they don't come more than say 5 hours away. And they don't come from big companies that need to be bailed out by the government when the ways of the world are cruel to them. they come form small farmers, some of whom i know by name and i even know where they live in the city, who are used to the government not exactly working i their favor and when disaster hits, it hits and the only thing they can count on are their customers who know them and will keep buying from them even if this season is bad because next season will be better.

Know your farmer. Buy Local.

We should all stop relying on the government and the big corporations to baby feed us- that goes for everything, most emphatically food- because when it all goes south we can no longer support ourselves, we have lost all our survival instincts. all we can do is scream and cry for something that isn't coming.

Sorry if that is a little preachy. Its how I really feel. The emphasis has come down to quantity and how cheap you can get it not to quality and respect for the work that goes into making something or the special skill it takes to do it well. the average person doesn't have any of these skills and they are too blinded by convenience to even recognize and appreciate them when its right in front of them.

Its my blog dammit, i can say what i want. you don't like it. don't read it.