Complex Choices

“The more we know about our food system the more we are called into complex choices.” 

- Barbara Kingsolver

Wow! What a great experience and a fascinating conversation. I was so honored to be included in the discussion on the environmental impact of our food choices today on KCUR’s Central Standard. I learned a lot from the other guests, Tim Crews of the Land Institute and Mykel Taylor from KSU, and I appreciate the way that their specific perspective on agriculture really enriched my own take on things.

It is so true that we face very complex choices as Barbara Kingsolver says. And isn’t it fascinating that choosing what food we eat - which is such a personal decision - necessarily involves so many other people? But I hope that as individual consumers we can find a way to do a little bit at a time - to not bite off more than we can chew, if you will (pun intended). As we pay close attention to what kind of negative impact our choices have on the environment, I think we can also look for ways to have a positive impact on the world around us and on our KC community. Buying from local farmers means choosing to support the people who are taking good care of the soil and the land in and around KC. You can also keep more food dollars in our community rather than sending them to far-off companies and marketers and other entities. These are positive environmental and economic impacts.

As Mykel Taylor suggested - there may not be just one thing that will solve our problems. There might be a variety of solutions to address our great strain on the earth. I'm glad to know that there are groups that are laser focused on finding solutions for the parts of the system that they can impact. And I hope that the KC Food Circle can inspire folks to focus on what they can impact most directly - which is - what's on your plate.

Or bowl as the case may be. And speaking of which, here's my bok choi soup! 

BOK CHOI SOUP

I posted it once before but when I made it again last night I included lemongrass, which was a very nice touch. I also like to add a fresh garnish along with my sriracha. At lunch today I had scallions - tonight when I eat this soup again for dinner (because it's just that good) I'll add some very finely chopped radishes. I made a big batch of it last night since last night was CSA pick up night so I have plenty of soup to keep me going.

Baby Bok Choy and Garlic Soup

from 30 Bucks a Week

Ingredients:

7 c veggie broth

4-5 cloves garlic, crushed

1 piece of ginger, peeled

*a stalk or two of lemongrass! Hard outer leaves removed and just chopped into a few long pieces - remove before eating the soup.

handful of brown rice (between 1/4-1/2 cup; PS this is a great recipe to use up leftover rice)

1 kohlrabi or turnip, peeled and chopped
1 lb bok choy, trimmed and chopped
salt to tast
sriracha or other hot sauce, to taste
1-2 eggs

garnish with fresh scallions and or radish and or mint

Instructions:
Boil the vegetable stock and add the crushed garlic and ginger and lemongrass in a big pot. Let that simmer over low heat for about 5 minutes.
Add the rice and kohlrabi (or turnip); cover. Simmer for 20 minutes (unless rice was previously cooked.)
Add more broth if you need it and add the bok choy. Taste and season with salt and sriracha.
Cover and let the bok choy cook down - should only be 5 minutes or so.
Ladle a small portion of the broth out into a bowl and add the egg(s). Stir vigorously with a fork and then pour it all back into the pot. Give the soup a good stir and serve.

Stinging Nettle

"Stinging Nettle" - such an "Eye of Newt" kind of name

This is stinging nettle. It's a wild edible, I suppose, although you can't eat it when you find it in the wild. I didn't actually find it in the wild myself - I found it at the Eat Local and Organic Expo. It was my farmers who found it growing wild on their farm. I bought it out of curiosity.

It's stings your skin when you touch it (hence the name) but it's safe to eat if you cook it first. ("Really?" I asked the farmer. "Really?" Sergio asked me when I told him. "Really?" You might be asking yourself.) Really it is.

I followed this recipe which instructs you to steam it for 20 mins, which I did and which takes away the sting. This site also says that nettle puts kale and spinach to shame. ("Really?" I wondered, having long since been convinced that kale is the "valedictorian of vegetables.")

Low and behold it is rich in antioxidants. I wonder, are all those nutrients cancelled out if I cram my stinging nettle into a hot mess of eggs and cheese? Even if it's local/organic/free-range eggs and cheese? Maybe. Maybe not. But it tasted good. The recipe worked almost perfectly apart from the fact that I don't know how to make an omelette; any shortcomings of this dish were due entirely to my ineptitude. The stinging nettle was great. Spinachy-tasting in the omelette, though it gave off the most complex minty-potato-ish kind of smell while it steamed.

I wondered why it is I've made it this far in life and haven't learned how to make an omelette. I guess it's because I don't like them all that well.

But I liked this one for sure.

Looking forward to the leftovers tomorrow.

Stinging Nettle Omelete (or Omelette?) 

"Looking back, looking forward: Ten years of local food"

This article appeared in Cultivate KC's newsletter, Urban Grown, in March, 2015 in anticipation of their 10th anniversary. Happy Anniversary, Cultivate! 

Looking back, looking forward: Ten years of local food

By Emily Akins, Kansas City Food Circle

This year will be my 10th season with my Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm, which was my first step down a long and winding path of amazing people, delicious local and organic food, and incredible connections.

Along that path I found out about the Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture, which was renamed Cultivate Kansas City in 2011. I signed up to take a class at Whole Foods, taught in part by Katherine Kelly, co-founder of Cultivate Kansas City, which included a farm tour of what is now called the Gibbs Road Farm. By then I had already begun working as a volunteer for the KC Food Circle, a non-profit that connects eaters with local, organic, and free-range farmers and was beginning to find my way around the great resources available in Kansas City. And I had already learned to appreciate where my food comes from.

When I heard about KCCUA’s Urban Farms and Gardens Tour I decided to sign up to help. It was winter.

The days were short and the vegetable crispers in my fridge were empty, but I began meeting regularly with the amazing volunteers who were planning and preparing the 2009 Urban Farms and Gardens Tour. Before I knew it, it was a hot summer day, the growing season was in full swing, and I was driving around from farm to farm helping to keep the tour running smoothly. I was also enjoying my opportunity to learn about urban agriculture. I went to small farms, large farms, urban farms and backyard farms. Each one provided a wealth of food and information.

I wasn’t the only one who responded so positively to the tour. It has grown each year – as I think much of the local food movement has in Kansas City. With the KC Food Circle, we’ve seen a steady increase of farmers and eaters who want to become part of our organization, and great support from our volunteers and our community partners like Cultivate Kansas City.

I’ve learned a lot and enjoyed food so much in the years since my first season. And I inadvertently became much healthier. I hadn’t set out to eat more whole foods, but buying directly from our local farmers encouraged me to do so. I think this makes my family and me healthier but I also think it makes our community healthier.

This is the beauty of food grown so close to home -- I know the people who grow my food. They have taught me how to store, prepare, and preserve all the delicious produce that comes to me fresh from their farm every week. I can even visit the farms and see with my own eyes where my food comes from. Best of all they have provided me with confidence. I know that their sustainable farming practices both enrich the earth and make for delicious, fresh produce. And I know that each crop and each farmer and each urban farm is enabling Kansas City to grow stronger every year.

I am excited to see the growth that has already happened in Kansas City and I am even more excited to see where Kansas City will be in the next 10 years as more farmers farm, more eaters eat, and as the efforts of Cultivate Kansas City continue to fill our urban core full of delicious food. 

Bok Choy and Garlic Soup

bok choy blossoms

I am really pleased with the simplicity of this soup. It is humble and straightforward, but also rewarding in both flavor and nutritional value. The ginger and garlic - and of course the bok choy - provide a great boost, especially to one's immune system during the sickly parts of winter, which is when I found this recipe.

But now that my CSA's extended season has begun, the farmers markets are opening, and the bok choy is readily available again, I'm finding that this soup also goes well with spring.

You can amend this recipe in a lot of different ways - another reason it makes a great CSA recipe - so you can just use what you have on hand.

Baby Bok Choy and Garlic Soup
from 30 Bucks a Week
Ingredients:
7 c veggie broth
4-5 cloves garlic, crushed
1 piece of ginger, peeled
handful of brown rice (between 1/4-1/2 cup; PS this is a great recipe to use up leftover rice)
1 kohlrabi or turnip, peeled and chopped
1 lb bok choy, trimmed and chopped
salt to tast
sriracha or other hot sauce, to taste
1-2 eggs

Instructions:
Boil the vegetable stock and add the crushed garlic and ginger in a big pot. Let that simmer over low heat for about 5 minutes.
Add the rice and kohlrabi (or turnip); cover. Simmer for 20 minutes (unless rice was previously cooked.)
Add more broth if you need it and add the bok choy. Taste and season with salt and sriracha.
Cover and let the bok choy cook down - should only be 5 minutes or so.
Ladle a small portion of the broth out into a bowl and add the egg(s). Stir vigorously with a fork and then pour it all back into the pot. Give the soup a good stir and serve.

Root Veg: Two Favorite Recipes

One new recipe for beets and one tried and true standard for sweet potatoes...

Hope Julia appreciated my plating techniques.

I have never made borscht before, so I don't know how this compares, but I can tell you it was delicious. I served it as the starter for a meal of acorn squash stuffed with rice, mushrooms, and turmeric with a side of sautéed kale and white beans with a side salad featuring turnips, carrots, radishes - such a colorful meal. Talk about eating the rainbow. Oh, and Julia are two servings of soup! And spilled a bunch of it on her chin and shirt. She looked like a vampire with a belly wound. 

Red Soup

from Nigella Lawson's Feast

serves 4-6

(I love Nigella's writing so I'm including her preface to this recipe.) 

     This soup is so damn Christmassy it's ridiculous. Given the holidays, I wanted as much redness under my belt as possible (a rather childish approach, but there it is) and since, customarily, in borscht the sweetness of the beets is countered by some cooking apple, it made perfect, festive sense to use sharp, seasonal cranberries instead. The juice and zest of the orange, along with the cloves, make it even more of an evocatively Christmas feast. You can eat it with a supper of cold turkey and salad, or as an altogether sprightlier alternative on its own. It's the sort of soup you might choose for a solitary dinner in front of the tv to make yourself happy and to feel virtuously rewarded. 

     Normally, beets take hours to cook, which is why I suggest you just bung them in the processor first. Actually, I loved the soup as it was when I tasted it in the pan, unpuréed, but truly this works best as a deep-toned, deep-flavored, velvety emulsion. 

3 raw beets (1 1/4 lbs) 

1 large red onion

2 tablespoons olive oil (not extra virgin)

1 1/2 cups cranberries, fresh or frozen

juice and zest of 1 orange

pinch of ground cloves

4 cups vegetable stock

3/4 cup sour cream, optional, for serving

(Emily's addition: pomegranate for garnish!) 

     Peel the beets and onions (wearing rubber gloves unless you want a touch of the Lady Macbeths) and chop them roughly. Put the chunks in a food processor and blitz till you've got a ruby-glowing pile of shreds; no need to be too fanatical, you just don't want large pieces evident. Spoon the oil into a large wide-based pan and tip in the onion and beets, and cook them over a gentle heat for 10 minutes or so. When they have begun to sweat down and soften, add the cranberries (no need to thaw frozen ones), the orange zest and juice and the ground cloves. Stir everything around for a couple of minutes and then pour in the stock. Bring to the boil, then cover the pan and simmer the soup for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. It should then be cooked enough to purée or liquidize to divine smoothness, though you may want to do this in a few batches to spare your kitchen walls. (or use an immersion blender!) 

     Taste to see if you want salt or pepper, then pour into a warmed soup tureen and serve. If the idea appeals pour over a swirl of sour cream into each person's bowl as you hand it out. 

     option: Cook this in advance and leave it in its unpuréed state, whizz it cold then heat it up in a saucepan when ready to eat.

featuring orange and white flesh sweet potatoes

This is from Smitten Kitchen (whose cookbook is out - I've asked Santa for it for Christmas!). Her post is here. I make this recipe all the time and I have for a couple of years now. It never gets old. And even one devoted sweet-potato-hater can manage to eat a few of these spiced wedges. I've been using a mix of orange and white fleshed (O'Henry variety) sweet potatoes for a nice visual variation. I suppose you could also get away with throwing a regular potato or a turnip in there! (We found potatoes and turnips to be a nice combo in our new "mashed poturnips" recipe at Thanksgiving.) My farmers suggested mixing up the spices a little - sage, cumin, ground pepper, cloves. Although I am hell bent on sticking to this exactly as SK has written it. So much so that when I set out to make these this year for the first time and discovered that I was out of coriander (and didn't have time to run to the store), I sat down and painstakingly picked out every last coriander seed from my pickling spice mix. And I did this while I was nursing Clara. Who wiggles a lot. It was a challenge! But worth it. Just one whiff of these and you'll see.

Roasted Spiced Sweet Potato
from Smitten Kitchen

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes (the latter will make them quitespicy, so using according to your preferences)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 pounds medium sweet potatoes
3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 425°F. Coarsely grind coriander, fennel, oregano, and red pepper flakes in an electric coffee/spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle. Stir together spices and salt.

Cut potatoes lengthwise into 1-inch wedges. Toss wedges with oil and spices in a large roasting pan and roast in middle of oven 20 minutes. Turn wedges over with a spatula and roast until tender and slightly golden, 15 to 20 minutes more.

Braised (gasp!) Lettuce

transplants - before becoming full heads of lettuce and before getting cooked

I have cooked lettuce. It feels almost sacrilegious to have done so. Like a desecration of all that is sacred about spring and early harvests and newness and freshness and rawness. Perhaps. But alas, I have done it. Only one week into our CSA season and I'm cooking lettuce. Blasphemy!

But here's my rationale: There was a LOT of beautiful lettuce at Badseed on Friday. But I'd already gotten two beautiful heads from my CSA share last week. So even if I eat a salad every day - sometimes twice a day - I can only consume so much raw lettuce at a time. But (I thought) if I find a recipe for cooking lettuce then I can justify buying even more of it at the farmers market!

And that's just what I did.

The sweet little heads of lettuce at Badseed seemed like they'd be perfect for cooking as they reminded me somewhat of the "little gems" I saw Nigella Lawson cook in her Forever Summer series (Best Cooking Show Ever, BTW, IMHO). So I snatched up three of them to cook knowing that I'd have plenty of lettuce from Fair Share Farm - and "spice on spice" mix from The Herb'n Gardener (arugula and tiny mustard greens and sometimes kale) - to give me salad all week.

I found a version of Nigella's Little Gems recipe but opted instead for this Braised Lettuce and Peas recipe. And I'm pleased to report that it was delicious.


Braised Lettuce and Peas
Ingredients
• 1 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
• 3 medium shallots, halved and thinly sliced - I used skinny little leeks from the CSA share
• 1 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 medium heads butter lettuce, washed, core removed, leaves halved and thinly sliced crosswise (Boston or bibb) - I used two small heads of heirloom lettuce from Badseed - can't remember the variety name
• 2 cups frozen baby peas
• 3 tablespoons greek yogurt or sour cream (optional)

Directions
Heat oil in a medium frying pan over medium-high heat. When it shimmers, add shallots, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle flour over the top and cook until raw taste is gone, about 30 seconds. Add stock and bring to a boil. Stir in lettuce and peas, reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until lettuce and peas are tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in yogurt or sour cream, if using. Taste, adjust seasoning as desired, and serve.

Spring = Asparagus

The market season has barely begun, but spring has long since sprung. It's easy to appreciate the early crops that this nice weather have brought us (even though it's hard to ignore the fact that such unusual temperatures may mean stranger things as the season progresses). This year, early spring means asparagus in April. Our farmers at Fair Share Farm have a good crop of asparagus growing already and I had the good fortune to snag 3 pounds of it. 3 lovely pounds already and supposedly more to come in our first CSA share in just a few weeks.

asparagus keeps best in a glass of water in the fridge - or an unsightly tupperware of water in the fridge

Usually the first thing I do with asparagus is make this dish - Lemon Orzo with Roasted Asparagus. But I didn't have a lot of time this week, or lemon for that matter, so I started with a simple batch of steamed asparagus with salt and pepper. I ate it hot one night and then cold on a salad the next day. 

The OED defines asparagus in this charming, poetic way: "a plant cultivated for the sake of its vernal shoots, which form a well-known delicacy of the table."

Finally this weekend I had time for something more involved. And I had leeks, another spring treat. So I made this Asparagus and Leek Frittata, a recipe from my farmers at Fair Share Farm.

Asparagus and Leek Frittata - scrambled, sort of

I vary my method ever so slightly, which sometimes results in a very scrambled frittata. Scrambled or not, it is delicious. Especially with a side of spring greens.


Asparagus and Leek Frittata
Frittatas are a wholesome and easy dish, and are at their best when made with lots of vegetables. Essentially a quiche without the crust, they turn eggs into a main course.

This recipe calls for 2 cups of grated cheese. We use 1 cup of parmesan and 1 cup of Goatsbeard Farms Walloon aged cheese. Frittatas are a great way to take a high quality cheese like Goatsbeard's and spread its flavor over an entire dish. 

1 medium bunch of aparagus
1 medium leek
1 stalk green garlic (optional)
6 eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 cups grated cheese
1-1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp salt

Clean and chop the leeks, green garlic and asparagus. Saute the leeks and garlic in the olive oil and butter for 5 minutes over medium heat in an oven-proof pan. Add the salt and aspargus and cook 3 more minutes.

Beat the eggs and milk. Add half the cheese to the eggs, stir, and then pour into the pan with the leeks. Cook over medium heat for 3 minutes. The eggs should be cooked around the edges of the pan, and the center will still be soft.

Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and place in the broiler for 3 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes. Serve warm. Emily's variation instead of the broiler part: when the eggs are mostly cooked and only a little big wiggly in the center, turn the frittata upside down into another pan on the stove top. Spray the pan with oil first! With this method you get the nice browning on top and bottom. You may also get a little scrambling, depending on how quickly you can flip. 

Thanksgiving and The Flu. And Pink Eye.

Thanksgiving really is my favorite holiday. Such a simple premise - gratitude! - yet one so difficult to master throughout the rest of the year. I love a day meant to emphasize it. (And I love that we do so with food, although, this year, I didn't have the extra hands to snap photos of my Fair Share Farm vegetables or my delicious Badseed goods or that fennel and leek au gratin dish I made two years ago which is ugly in photos anyway, but that was just as tasty as I remembered it being).

Christy and her family used their hand prints for this adorable toilet paper roll pilgrim turkey

This year I geared up for Thanksgiving by watching a couple of holiday-themed shows on the Food Network at my parents house the week before. On those shows, chefs with poise and fervor made masterpieces in record time and wowed judges with their ability to be both innovative and traditional. Fast forward a week and my own version is a little more crazed. I spent Thanksgiving day in my kitchen making a pie completely from scratch (having never done so before!) as well as making ALL the vegetables for our meal (beets, potatoes, fennel, chard, salad). Sergio spent the day getting the flu. Which left him less able to help out than I had expected. Which left me performing the gymnastic stunts required to accommodate a 14 month old underfoot who is busying herself with pots and pans on the floor near her mama while her daddy fever-sleeps unexpectedly in the next room. How come they never show that on the Food Network?

"Primitos de Rayas" - Nina the witch princess (with striped leggings), Emilio the pirate, and Julia the coincidentally, impromptu pirate. Costumes at Thanksgiving: a new tradition? 

Poor Sergio. He made it through our decidedly delicious meal at Christy and Armando's that night; we all had a great time, even him with his fever. The next morning he went to urgent care and came home with a flu diagnosis and something to help with the pain. Then he slept for the next 48 hours. He missed the "recalentado" at Christy's on Friday (it's worth it to spend so much time in the kitchen cooking if the food you make lasts two days!), he missed the lighting of the mayor's Christmas tree at Crown Center, and he was about to miss small business Saturday when, late in the day, he mustered enough strength to go out and buy a few records. Then he came and slept for another day.

Julia and Mommy, missing Daddy, at the Mayor's Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony

By Sunday night he was starting to come out of it. And I was just showing my first signs. I was lucky though. The flu that knocked him flat on his back and sent him down for the count, just sent me stumbling. I was feverish and very tired, but all in all it only lasted a couple of days. (His lasted 5.) I was brazenly bidding the defeated flu "good-bye" and "good riddance" on Tuesday night - perhaps too brazenly, reveling in my victory. Because I woke up Wednesday morning with flu-induced pink eye. Spoke too soon I guess.

We are finally - just today - feeling like we're getting back to normal (although I won't really feel "normal" until my eye clears up and I can put my contacts back in). We're both back at work and we're going about our business and even though it felt like a big wallop, us both being sick like that, it occurs to me that a couple of cases of flu and a spot of conjunctivitis are actually wonderful problems to have in the grand scheme of things. And what's more? Julia has managed to avoid it all (knock on wood).

a happy Thanksgiving indeed

We are fully aware of how fortunate we are and I for one feel very, very grateful.

A Moveable Feast

Outstanding

Several years ago I heard of a program called Outstanding in the Field. The project of chef and artist Jim Denevan, this program hosts a farm-to-table dinner at farms throughout the country featuring local chefs in each place. I thought this sounded like a fantastic idea the first time I heard of it. But this year it got even more fantastic when our CSA farm - Fair Share Farm in Kearney, MO - got to host the event.

I jumped at the chance to join in and snagged 2 of the 150 tickets available, which quickly sold out. The chef for the evening was the famed Jonathan Justus of Justus Drugstore, which I know from previous experience to be absolutely superb. And his OITF dinner did not disappoint.

The evening started with hors d'ouvres and drinks and mingling around the farm. In typical Justus Drugstore fashion, the simplest of foods so expertly prepared were such a pleasant surprise. The server offered me a seemingly boring watermelon chunk topped with a foamy blueberry, but boring it was not. Watermelon + blueberry + black walnut + lemon = something else altogether.

"sweet pea," the Fair Share Farm van

Rebecca demo-ing the tractor.

After mingling, Jim Denevan gave a big welcome to all the guests and introduced farmers Tom and Rebecca, who then told a little bit of their story and shared about their farm before leading us all on a brief but informative farm tour which featured a perfectly quiet demonstration of their electric tractor, the illustrious 1948 Allis Chalmers "G."

The tradition of the plates.

After the tour we all filed back over to the long table that seemed to stretch to infinity and - on our way, picked up our plates. Guests were invited to bring their own plates to the event, the eclectic result of which adds to the charm of the whole evening. (Although I think I won the prize for The Most Boring / Least Charming Plates with my scratched up old white plates from Target).

"Spinach Cherry Limeade" spinach, cherry limeade, black pepper pecans, cherry basil rose sorbet, beets

The first of seven incredible courses commenced. Everything was served family style so the whole meal felt warm and friendly. My dinner date that evening was my sister-in-law and we enjoyed the company of some other members of the FSF CSA who were, for the course of this meal, our food-sharing "family." We marveled at the duck egg fettucini, the carrot gnocchi, the grilled romaine, the corn pastry. Outstanding, indeed.

I was so impressed with how smoothly the evening was run, how charming and beautiful the array was, how sharp the servers were, rattling off not only the intricacies of each dish, but the provenance of each ingredient as well. 15+ local farms contributed their local produce and products to the meal. Even the wine was local and extra local at that - from Fence Stile Vineyards right next door to Kearney in Excelsior Springs.

We lucked out with a less-than-scorching day on Sunday and to avoid the heat of the day, the dinner began an hour late. As best I could tell, no one melted over the course of the evening, although I can't say the same for the Shatto butter on the table. By the time the sun set, we were still holding out for the last two courses and finishing off our outstanding dinner by candlelight. Even in the dark, the food was divine.

Rapturous Radish Sandwiches

A few weeks ago I was making cucumber sandwiches for a potluck. I had a lot of radishes on hand and remembered hearing tell of radish sandwiches, so I thought I'd make some of those, too. I found this recipe, which was a good starting point for my own, more local version (see recipe below). They turned out to be delicious; I was delighted when, at the end of the potluck, there were still some radish sandwiches left for me to enjoy.

bread, sheep's cheese, and radish from Badseed; pea shoots from Brookside

I took my radish sandwiches to the next potluck I went to, hoping again that I would have left overs to enjoy for myself. Finally I realized I should just make my own radish sandwiches without feeling obligated to share. So for the last three days I've had radish sandwiches for lunch and I am still totally enraptured by them.

the mandoline is my friend

Speaking of rapture, I finally decided to blog about these divine sandwiches after Sergio came up with a clever name in honor of today being the supposed judgment day - "Rapturous Radish Sandwiches."

left behind

I think it's easy to bypass the radish as a thing you just put on a salad or some other sideline. But putting them on center stage like this enables you to appreciate their differences - each shade of pink, differing levels of spice, etc. For today's version I used some Cherry Belle radishes from our CSA and some ... I think they were Easter Egg radishes from Badseed. I also used plain sheep's cheese from Green Dirt Farm and incredible Sicilian bread from The New Traditionalist - the incredible new bread vendor at Badseed this year - which I was able to slice (Thanks, Wusthof!) relatively thin, to make for a more delicate sandwich.

tender pea shoot tendril

My pea shoots from the market two weeks ago are still holding up well and tasting wonderful. And the sesame seeds on top of the bread added another layer of flavor, distinct and delicious.

If today really is the end of the world, then I say - what a way to go.

"Rapturous Radish Sandwiches"

serves 2

- some radishes sliced super thin (How many radishes? 3? 6? I don't know - it totally depends on the radish. And you.)

- plain, soft, spreadable Green Dirt Farm sheep's cheese (although the nettle variety would probably be good, too)

- mayonnaise

- pea shoots (which are harder and harder to find the later we get into May, but you could also use arugula if you want to kick it up a notch)

- bread (a nice big loaf, sliced thinly, or I used Bread of Life Multigrain for my lunch on Thursday and Friday - a totally serviceable option for days that aren't special occasions like Judgment Day.)

Do you really need instructions for how to put together a sandwich? Surely not. I'll just say this. Don't skimp on the radishes. They are, after all, the main attraction. I do about 4 layers. Feel free to go crazy if you'd like. I do a good bunch of pea shoots, too, so the flavor really comes out. Um ... what else. I should mention that the sheep's cheese is easier to spread the closer it is to room temp. You can do all mayonnaise or all sheep's cheese - or one on each side of the bread. Be liberal with the cheese, too. Especially if it's the end of the world. What have you got to lose?

If I'm lucky, the world won't end today and you know what that means, right? Radish sandwiches for lunch tomorrow.

Join a CSA!

This week the talk is all about snow and ice and wintry mix and single digit temps, but instead I'm thinking about fresh vegetables.


As frozen as it may be out there, this is actually a good time of year to think about a Community Supported Agriculture program. The farmers are thinking of it, of course, getting ready for the season already. I put in my deposit for my CSA in December and I'm already looking forward to fresh veggies in May.

I love my CSA and feel like I've become CSA evangelist, telling anyone who'll listen about the marvels of local, organic vegetables every week. About new recipes and new vegetables. About finding out that I actually love tomatoes. About getting to know "my" farmers - heroes in my world.

This year the KC CSA Coalition is hosting a CSA Open House on Saturday, February 12 - an opportunity to meet CSA farmers directly, find out about their CSA programs and - hopefully - join! It'll be a great opportunity to secure a spot in a CSA program. You'll be glad you did when May rolls around and the weekly freshness starts flowing in.

2011 CSA Open House
Saturday, February 12, 2011
10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
600 Broadway, 4th floor, KCMO

click for more info, a map, and details on parking

• Meet your local CSA farmers ALL IN ONE PLACE!
• Find out how Community Supported Agriculture works with your life!
• Feed your family FRESH, LOCAL, ORGANICALLY-RAISED
veggies, fruits, meats, eggs, and more!
• Invest your hard-earned money in our local economy!
• Enhance your farm-to-plate connection!

Rosemary Remembrance Cake

Rosemary for Remembrance

This is an all time favorite of mine. The first time I made it I thought rosemary in a cake was strange. Now, I have made it so often and love it so much, that when I simply smell rosemary, at the farmers market, I immediately think of this cake. Not roasted potatoes or some savory application of the herb, but rather this sweet and sugar-coated cake.

I don't make it without occasion because it's big and I could eat the whole thing myself - but shouldn't. So while Julia's grandparents were visiting and lots of family were over at our place - and since I'd gotten a nice batch of rosemary in our CSA share - I decided to make this last week.

This was my best one yet. Usually I make it with whole wheat flour because that's often all that I have around. But for this one I used local Heartland Mills unbleached, unenriched all purpose flour. And I have to tell you that while there is nothing truly wrong with the whole wheat version, there is definitely something very right about the white flour version. This cake had perfect pound cake density and the crack along the top was just right. It rose well in the oven and each slice held together beautifully.

from Nigella Lawson's Feast
makes approximately 10 slices

1 eating apple (approx. 6oz in weight)
1 small sprig and 2 medium-long sprigs of rosemary (you could just use one long sprig - but I always use two)
1 teaspoon superfine sugar
juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon butter

FOR THE CAKE BATTER
2 sticks butter
3/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon superfine sugar
3 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

Peel, core, and roughly chop the apple and put into a saucepan with the small sprig of rosemary, the teaspoon of sugar, the lemon zest and juice, and butter. Cover the pan and cook on a low heat for 4-8 minutes until the apple is soft. How long this takes really depends on the variety of apple you're using. Leave to cook, and fish out the rosemary sprig when it is cold.

Preheat the oven to 325. Line a 1 lb loaf pan with a loaf liner, or butter and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Put the cooled apple into a food processor and blitz to a pulp. Then add the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, and baking powder and process to a smooth batter. Spoon and scrape into the loaf pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle the surface with the remaining tablespoon of sugar and then lay the long sprig(s) of rosemary along the center of the cake. On baking, the rosemary sheds its oil to leave a scented path down the middle of the cake.

Bake the cake for 50 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean, then leave to cool on a rack. Slip the paper-lined cake out of the pan once it is cool.

Some Summer Highlights

Amid the summer's festivities and activities so far, there have also been some noteworthy vegetables (and dishes) - three of which I found particularly worthy of capturing "on film."

Earlier in the summer (but still too late to be spring), I bought peas from Bigg Blue Farm at Badseed Market. I had been hoping I'd find peas somewhere; after seeing so many farmers sell pea shoots all spring long, I figured there had to be a comparable number of peas to follow. But they are rare. There are sugar snap peas a-plenty, yes, but regular old shelling peas are few. So when I found the Bigg Blue peas, I snatched some up. I wish now that I'd bought every last pea he had.

recently shelled peas

I spent a very peaceful morning sitting in the sun on my church pew, shelling these peas - a little bit of zen. I had no idea how I'd cook them. I can't ever remember cooking fresh peas. I was considering mushy peas, one of my favorite bits of Britishness. But it seemed kind of a shame to boil and mush them, so tender and perfect as they were. I thought I might also blanch and freeze them for later - but that also seemed a shame. Ultimately, I decided to steam them with carrots for a plain and simple peas-n-carrots side dish for a "meat" and two veg. This turned out to be a perfect way to cook them while still allowing them their maximum pea-ness. Now I am just waiting for more peas in the fall; if I find any, I'm going to buy them all.

chioggas

Next up on the list of memorable veg were these beets. We got them in our CSA share, I think ... or maybe I bought them at Badseed. I can't remember; we had an assortment. At any rate, by the time I pulled them out of the fridge to cook them, I'd forgotten that they were Chioggas. Until I sliced them open and found their psychedelic swirls. They were like peppermint candies, except that we drizzled them in olive oil, sprinkled them with salt and pepper, and baked them in a hot oven (425, maybe?) for quite some time. They were better than peppermint candies. By far. And so stunning.

Thomas Hart Benton zucchini

On my last shift at CSA distribution, a friend was complaining about how she'd run out of things to do with all the summer squash we'd been getting. True, there had been an abundance of squash at each CSA pick up and at Badseed. But I hadn't quite exhausted my options yet - and besides that, I couldn't turn away the interesting shaped ones so I had my share of an abundance, as well.

So one night I made zucchini burgers (a la these eggplant burgers of 31 Veggie Burgers fame). Those almost-perfectly-round, ball-shaped squashes lent themselves well for this (one medium squash, two burgers), but you could use any of the zucchinis that have enough girth. I don't have a recipe for this dish, per se; all I can tell you is that I sautéed each relatively thick (1/4 inch or so) slice in a skillet until it was nice and brown, with thyme on one side and chipotle chili powder on the other side. (A good trick to remember: make some slices through the skin around the outer rim of each zucchini "patty" so the skin breaks easily when you bite into it.) Oh! And I added some cheese while the slices were still on the skillet. Any burger fixings are right with this - in our case I tossed in some meat-free deli slices for added protein. They were delicious burgers but all too short lived.

Good thing squash is still abounding this summer; I have a fridge-full of them and I'm ready for more.

Strawberry Weekend

the first quart of 14

Last Saturday Sergio and I went to pick strawberries at the farm. There were more strawberries than the farmers had time to harvest, so they opened it up to u-pick and we took full advantage, coming home with 14 quarts - almost more than we could carry back to the car.



Christy, Nina, and Emilio came along, too, and enjoyed every bit. At first Nina picked indiscriminately but we intervened to show her which ones were ripe and then she proceeded to eat two for every three she put in the basket. Even Emilio, not quite ripe enough himself to pick strawberries, enjoyed the adventure, sitting with Tio Sergio and letting the grass tickle his toes.

our crew

We already had plenty of strawberries to go around at home, as I'd bought some extra at the CSA distribution on Wednesday. So to start our strawberry picking morning off before heading to the farm, we had a strawberry licuado and we finished what I thought was the last of the strawberry jam from last year (although I subsequently found another jar that I'd stowed away for safe keeping; the strawberry jam was our favorite last year and I wanted to make it last).

jam and licuado

The next day the strawberriness continued as Farmer Tom and I taught a Jams and Jellies canning class at Badseed complete with 20 quarts of strawberries. We also had oranges and mint, and by the end of the five hour class, me, Tom, and our 12 students had completed three full batches of strawberry jam (one batch no pectin slow cook, one batch with pectin and one batch of freezer jam), one batch of orange marmalade, and one batch of mint jelly.

jams for sampling

berries ready for jamming

I still had quarts upon quarts of strawberries to contend with at home so I froze 6 quarts for later. I had intended to take a picture of the berries in the freezer, but I seem to have forgotten. I had cleaned them of their green tops and laid them out upside down on a cookie sheet and left them in the top of the freezer overnight. The next day they were a beautiful flat forest of fat little red bushes with a dusting of frost on the top of each. I gathered them into zip lock bags for safe keeping. With some of the remaining unfrozen quarts, I made my own batch of strawberry jam (with pectin) on Tuesday. Then on Thursday we had some out of town visitors so we made dinner and - for dessert - the long awaited strawberry dumplings. My favorite.

dumplings (what's left)

I forgot to take a picture of the dumplings, too, before we devoured them, but to be honest, they're not all that photogenic. They are, however, delicious and all gone. Not to worry, though. Some of those 6 quarts of frozen berries in the freezer will be the next delicious batch of dumplings sometime this summer. Can't wait.

Strawberry Dumplings

Baked strawberry dumplings are similar to a cobbler, made with fresh strawberries and sweet dumpling dough.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 pint (about 2 cups) strawberries, hulled and rinsed
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Preparation:
In a saucepan, combine 1/3 cup sugar and the water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in vanilla extract.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together flour, the 2 tablespoons sugar, the baking powder, and salt. Cut in butter with pastry blender or fork until mixture is crumbly. Add milk and stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Place strawberries in a 1 1/2-quart casserole dish; pour hot sugar mixture over strawberries. Immediately drop dough evenly in 8 to 10 spoonfuls over strawberries. Sprinkle dumplings with the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar (and a little cinnamon, if desired). Bake at 450° for 25 to 30 minutes, or until dumplings are lightly browned. Serve hot with whipped topping or ice cream, if desired.

Makes 4 to 5 servings.