I am the Resurrection and the Life

           Every year I dreaded Easter. Not because I have anything against bunnies, little chickies and pastel colors, but because we would be forced to go to our local Korean church.

            Yep. I was that atheist kid. Never got the God thing. Never got the prayer thing. Never understood why I reading some funny book would get me anywhere. And what’s the deal with Good Friday[1]? What’s so good about getting your hands and feet nailed to a cross and being left to rot? I would not exactly call it good for anyone, much less Jesus. For me, church was a waste of three hours in which I could be doing something else…ANYTHING else. 

            But that was all for naught. Like many other Korean families that immigrated to the United States in the 70’s and early 80’s,[2] I was stuck going to church. Not because my parents were particularly religious – mainly because churches had become the meeting ground for the Korean community. Between the Praise God sessions (which I never fully understood) and singing Amazing Glace, there were aborted Korean language classes (the American part of Korean-American kids was just too undisciplined for native born Korean teachers), rumor mongering (Korean mothers make Gossip Girl look like amateurs), and Dr. Lee & Dr. Kim yapping about Dr. & Dr. life.

            But when it came to Easter, the youth minister, Dr. Rhee, would attempt an egg hunt in the churchyard (which we had to finish in an hour before the people who actually owned the church, some white Methodist Church, wanted it back) and that was the end of it.

            This seemed in stark contrast to the rest of Chicago. The Ukrainians had batik painted eggs that beat the pants off of any Paas set. The Poles would bring baskets of food to be blessed by the pastor for Easter. Even Jews, who didn’t have Easter, got those macaroons, brisket and matzo sandwiches.            

Suffice it to say, we were pretty clueless about celebrating Easter, beyond gorging on bad chocolate eggs. In fact, I exclusively went to Passover Seders (I make a killer Matzo brei) for years because all my friends were Jewish. That Easter thing? Meh.

Until I met my current husband. My husband is European, and they are big on Easter. As soon as the Christmas decorations are gone, out come the Easter creep – bunnies, chickens, beer (yes, they have Easter beer). And starting around Palm Sunday, the entire continent takes the week off to be…uh…European.

And when it comes to Easter in Europe. It’s lamb. Yes, that cute fuzzy little lamb. While lamb isn’t very popular in the US[3], in Europe, especially in Europe, there is a great tradition of eating lamb due to the traditional pasture practices.

 But when it comes to sustainable eating…gulp. Lamb is really not very sustainable. In fact, it’s dead last in terms of environmental impact, according to Environmental Working Group’s Meat Eater’s Guide to Climate Change. This would seem counter-intuitive. Sheep has been used for over millennia as a source of meat and wool. They graze on grass. They don’t need much care beyond shearing.

Doesn’t seem to make sense, does it? Because sheep generate the same amount of carbon dioxide and methane (CH4) but are far less efficient in producing edible meat, they deliver pound per pound of meat, far more greenhouse gas emissions per weight.

So it’s worse to eat lamb than beef. So I should eat more beef, right? Wrong. It’s all about comparing the relative to the absolute. The problem here in comparing the two types of livestock lies in the overall statistics of livestock ranching and consumption of the two different animals. When it comes to the amount of sheep raised in the US versus that of cattle, the number of cattle in the US vastly outnumbers the number of sheep raised in the US. (2.5 million sheep vs. 96.3 million cattle in 2006.) Multiply that number with the amount of their total CO2 impact, beef is far worse to eat in absolute terms. How much worse? 216 million pounds of C02 equivalents total for sheep vs. 5.739 BILLION pounds of CO2 equivalents – basically beef beats the pants off of sheep by a factor of 27 times in the total number of CO2 equivalents.

But when it comes to husbandry practices, it’s a toss up. According to the USDA, 98.4 percent of all sheep farms have fewer than 500 heads.  Unfortunately, the other 1.6 percent count for about 50 percent of the sheep raised in the US in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO), aka, “Factory Farms.”[4] These farms, instead of raising sheep on grass, feed their sheep grain (usually corn, just like cattle) and predictably, have all the same husbandry, food safety and environmental problems that CAFO’s have: water pollution, decreased air quality, animal welfare concerns, antibiotic resistant bacteria, higher levels of diseased animals, and higher incidences of salmonella and E. coli.

So why bother eating lamb or any meat at all? Well, here’s the deal. People aren’t going give up eating meat. Even though there are several good ethical and environmental reasons for giving up meat, it’s not going to be possible for many – because people like it. Stupid, I know, but people like the taste of meat. The question then is how to make a better system that minimizes the environmental and animal welfare issues associated with industrial livestock husbandry.

What does this have to do with sheep? Even though the problems with concentrated sheep husbandry is just as bad as with cattle, unlike cattle, there is still hope to change the sheep business. First, as majority of sheep ranches are pasture-raised, the public health, disease and environmental impacts of CAFO’s are automatically decreased. According to several studies[5], grass-fed meat has less fat and more nutrients (vitamin E, beta-carotene, omega-3 fatty acids, lineolic acid) as well as being less expensive to produce (don’t have to pay for all that expensive grain). Secondly, because grass-fed sheep use less energy intensive inputs (e.g. grain) and are constantly moving across pasture, they not only help decrease the total energy needed for growth, but also encourage forage growth in spreading manure across a field. This field management system helps with carbon sequestration as well as preserving soil and local biodiversity.[6] Thirdly, and this is most important for many ranchers, the margins on grass-fed meat are huge. Consumers will pay for both the environmental and health benefits of eating organic or pasture-raised meat – as much as 200 percent more. One agronomist has placed the natural or organic beef market at $350 million dollars, with a potential growth of 1billion dollars in the next five years. Sheep is a ready-made market for this potential – it has already the land and some of the husbandry practices. The demand is there as well – the US is a net importer of sheep and lamb meat. By adding on the premium for pasture-raised sheep, CAFO’s could profit themselves out of existence.

But why isn’t this done? It’s not just a lack of political will, but also a question of economics. CAFO’s make money on volume. But ultimately, it is the consumer that has to do the hardest work. As the case of pink slime and Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB) has shown, consumers can and should demand a better food system. The hardest part is not convincing Congress or some Federal agency for more regulations regarding antibiotics, welfare standards or public health initiatives regarding livestock. The hardest part is convincing the American public to demand change with their dollar. By choosing NOT to purchase meat that is made in factory farms, we as a collective can get change. The FDA ain’t gonna do it. Neither is the USDA. It is incumbent upon us to make that change and resurrect a better food system for all.

Yangrou Paomo

            This is specifically a mutton recipe NOT lamb. Why? The likelihood that you can find an organic or pasture raised lamb in spring is very unlikely (or very expensive) due to the life cycle of sheep. Spring lambs were not born in spring…they were born in winter and probably never saw the light of day by the time they got to the butcher. Not very sustainable. Muttons, on the other hand, are about 2 years old, and if pasture-raised (and by now you should be convinced of buying as such), they are usually also used for wool and milk production – which I think is what the animal should be used for. In the taste department, mutton has richness that lamb simply does not. And for this recipe, that gaminess is needed to stand up to the complex spicing of this dish.

            As for the origins of this dish, this is specifically a Xi’an dish. Xi’an, the former capital of the Tang Dynasty (9 A.D.), due to its location on the Silk Road, brought Islamic religion and culture to China. This is not only reflected in the native Chinese Muslim population, but also in its food: Xian dishes often contain Arabic ingredients, such as mutton or cumin, as well as pita-like flatbreads common in the Near and Middle East.  I think it’s a nice antidote to the usual boring roast and the best part? You really don’t have too much. Dump in a pot and let it sit. The long braise let’s you spend your Easter doing other things…like looking for chocolate eggs. Happy Easter!

2-2 ½ pds. of mutton, in large chunks, trimmed of excess fat

large mutton bones

2 large onions, roughly chopped

6 cloves of garlic, finely minced

2 in. piece of ginger, finely minced

½ pd. glass noodles (can be found at any Asian grocery store)

1 dried red chili

10 white peppercorns

1 tsp. ground cumin

3 star anises

Cinnamon stick, about 3 inches

1 tsp. ground cardamom (if have whole cardamom, add 4 pods, crushed lightly)

¼ c. of Chinese Shaoxing wine or other rice wine

4-6 loaves of pita bread (try to get it at your local Middle Eastern specialty shop)

Salt

For serving

Chinese chili sauce (garlic chili sauce or Sriracha are both fine)

Chopped cilantro

Pickled garlic (Chinese if you can get it)

1.     Place mutton, bones, onions, garlic, ginger, chili, peppercorns, cumin, star anise, cinnamon stick, cardamom and wine together in a large stockpot. Pour about 10 cups of water (enough to cover everything) over the ingredients and let it come to a boil over medium high heat.

2.     Turn down the heat to a simmer and skim any accumulated scum floating on top. Simmer 3 hours uncovered or until mutton is soft. (If the broth appears to be too little, add more water to the pot)

3.     Remove spices and bones and keep stew hot while preparing noodles according the directions on the package.

4.     Add salt to taste and place noodles on the bottom of a large serving bowl. Add stew on top and garnish with chopped cilantro.

5.     To serve: Ladle stew into individual soup bowls. Have diners tear peanut size chunks of pita bread into soup and serve with chili sauce and pickled garlic on the side.

---

[1] In Danish, Good Friday is called Lang Fredag, which makes far more sense than Good Friday.

[2] Unlike the Chinese and Japanese, which had native populations in the US before WWII, Koreans were not a large Asian minority in the US until 1965, with the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act.  The act closed the previous quota system of previous immigration laws and instead determined immigration status upon skill level and family relationships. Thus, the joke about every Korean being a “Dr. Kim” or  “Dr. Lee” is due to the number of highly qualified professionals that were given admittance starting in the late 60s.

[3] Lamb makes up only 1% of all meat consumed in the US. While still popular amongst certain ethnic groups, mainly Muslims and Greeks, many Americans consider lamb too “gamy” for their taste.

[4] USDA defines CAFO as "a production process that concentrates large numbers of animals in relatively small and confined places, and that substitutes structures and equipment (for feeding, temperature controls, and manure management) for land and labor." MacDonald, J.M. and McBride, W.D. (2009). The transformation of U.S. livestock agriculture: Scale, efficiency, and risks. United States Department of Agriculture.  I have written an post on the problems with CAFO’s and cows in an earlier post. http://www.edo-ergo-sum.com/2010/11/wascally-wabbit.html

[5] Duckett, S. K., S. L. Pratt, and E. Pavan. 2009. Corn oil or corn grain supplementation to steers grazing endophyte-free tall fescue. II. Effects on subcutaneous fatty acid content and lipogenic gene expression. J Anim Sci 87:1120-1128.  

UCS (Union of Concerned Scientists). 2006. Greener Pastures: How Grass-fed Beef and Milk Contribute to Healthy Eating. http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/food_and_agriculture/greener-pastures.pdf

[6] Johnson DE, Phetteplace HW, Seidl AF. 2002. Methane, Nitrous Oxide and Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Ruminant Livestock Production Systems. In Greenhouse Gases and Animal Agriculture (eds J. Takahashi & B. A. Young). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier. http://www.agron.iastate.edu/courses/agron515/Johnsonmethane.pdfJohnsonFAO (Food and Agriculture Organization). 2009. The State of Food and Agriculture. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Rome. Accessed online 7/12/11 http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/i0680e/i0680e00.htm;

Pelletier N, Pirog R, Rasmussen R. 2010. Comparative Life Cycle Environmental Impacts of Three Beef Production Strategies in the Upper Midwestern United States in Agricultural Systems. http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/research/marketing_files/Pelletier_Agricultural_Systems_beef.pdf

Purim - A Soap Opera

"God may play dice with the universe, but not with Mrs. Schmalowitz’s lukshn kugl, nor especially with her latkes and hamantaschen."

-Michael Silverstein, University of Chicago Professor of Anthropology & Linguistics

            Waay back when I was in college, I was dating this guy. He was Jewish but in that Woody Allen way. Kinda nebbishy but with a sense of humor. A couple of months into our relationship, I asked him if he knew where to get hamantaschen in Cambridge.

             “What’s hamantaschen?”

I think he just lost his Jewish credentials right there.

            To those of you who don’t know, hamantaschen, literally translated as “Haman’s Pocket” in Yiddish, are the traditional triangular pastries for Purim[1]. To those of you (including my ex-boyfriend) who don’t know the story of Purim, it’s pretty good. If it weren’t a story of the impending extermination of the Jewish people, I think it would have made for an excellent soap opera, with Susan Lucci playing the female lead. The story goes something like this:

 According to the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible, Haman, an advisor to King Ahasuerus of Persia, plots to kill all the Jews in Persia by convincing the clueless King that Jews were a “… certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your realm. Their laws are different from those of every other people's, and they do not observe the king's laws; therefore it is not befitting the king to tolerate them." Esther 3:8.

Because the King is clueless, he tells Haman why don’t you do something about these supposed “certain people”? This is when Haman hatches a plot to kill the entire Jewish population.

             But why would this Haman guy do something this evil? Because he was once insulted by a Jew…some guy named Mordecai, who apparently refused to bow down to him. A pretty pathetic reason to kill an entire people, but don’t worry, Haman gets his due. What Haman doesn’t know is that Queen Esther, the super cute wife of the King is secretly Jewish, having been raised lovingly by her cousin…Mordecai.

            Mordecai convinces Esther to pipe up to the King about the upcoming massacre-not the wisest thing to do especially considering that the talking to the King without being summoned could involve death and she would be basically outing herself as Jew. A double no-go. But after starving herself for three days to get the balls to talk to the King Clueless, she decides to do it. Upon hearing this, the King finally figures out that he’s been a total fool and orders Haman and his ten sons (only in the Bible would anyone have ten(!) sons) to be killed.

            And there was much rejoicing…

            So what’s the deal with these Hamantaschen? Beyond the name Haman, there are various stories behind the pastry. One theory is that the cookies are supposed to resemble Haman’s tri-cornered hat. Possible, but not really convincing (like anyone really knows what kind of hat Haman was wearing). Another suggests that the pastry is supposed to resemble Haman’s ears, in reference to the defeated enemy. Plausible, but I’m still trying to connect the dots between ears and death. One anthropologist has suggested that Hamantaschen were to resemble the dice used by Haman to determine the date of the planned Jewish massacre. I’m going with this one because…it sounds scientific?

            Whatever the symbolic reasoning behind hamantaschen, they are crazy delicious. But after years of being able to get good hamantaschen, I never bothered making them. Why put in the effort when yummy bagel shop has LOADS of them? Bzzz. Wrong answer. It’s when you don’t have the deli, you realize that you should have learned to make them before you were S.O.L.

            After messing with a bunch of so-called “bubbie’s” recipes, I finally have gotten one that seems to the right balance between crumbly and chewy. As for the filling issue, I am partial to poppy seed, if not for the discreet thrill of maybe testing positive for heroin if I eat too many (that has yet to happen), but prune and apricot are also popular. But whichever you choose, you can’t go wrong. And you didn’t even have to starve yourself for 3 days to earn them.

Hamantaschen

This recipe is for the poppy seed filling. If you would like the fruit filling, you can easily substitute good fruit marmalade for the filling.

Dough:

Zest of 1 lemon

Zest of 1 orange

1 c. powdered sugar

1 ¼ c. white flour

1 c. whole wheat flour

2 eggs

1 c. (2 sticks) of butter, softened

Poppy Seed Filling:

1 c. milk

½ c. sugar

1 c. poppy seeds

Juice of ½ lemon

Juice of ½ orange

2 tbs. butter

1 egg, beaten

1.     Place lemon and orange zest, powdered sugar, white and wheat flours into a food processor to blend thoroughly. Add eggs and butter and process until dough forms a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 3 hours or overnight.

2.     While dough is chilling, make filling. Grind poppy seeds in a spice or coffee grinder. In a small saucepan over low heat, heat milk, butter and sugar until sugar dissolves. Pour about 1/4 of hot milk mixture into beaten egg and beat well. Return egg mixture into saucepan with the remaining milk mixture until the mixture begins to thicken and coats the back of a spoon (not unlike a custard or curd). Take off heat and stir in poppy seeds. Stir in lemon and orange juices to thoroughly combine. Cool completely before using.

3.     Preheat oven to 350F. To form pastries, roll dough to ¼ inch thickness. Use a cookie or biscuit cutter to make about 3 inch circles. Place a generous ½ tsp. of filling onto the middle of the circle. Fold up sides of dough into a triangle shape so that the last corner under the starting point, so each side has one underlying and one overlapping corner (like a pinwheel). If one of the sides has a 2 overlapping corners, you did it wrong. (Folding like a pinwheel makes sure that the flaps won’t burst open during baking.)

4.     Place cookies on parchment or silpat covered baking sheets. Bake cookies until brown, about 15 minutes. Cool before eating.

---

[1] The word “Purim” comes from the ancient Akkadian word for lots (same basis for the word lottery in English), referring to the lottery that Haman used to choose the day of Jewish extermination.

Getting Piggy With It

A sign from the 1970s reading "Danish pigs are healthy; they burst of penicillin"

    

     When I was a little girl, I was obsessed with the “Little House” series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, especially the first volume in the series, Little House in the Big Woods. Contrary to the moralistic cheese dripping form the TV series, the book described man and nature “red in tooth and claw.”[1] Bears were bears. Deer was food (they killed Bambi?!). And for god sakes, don’t ever go out in a Wisconsin blizzard alone!

      To a 6-year old suburban girl, the idea you could live in the middle of nowhere, and you could still eke out a living was very cool. Cheese, maple sugaring, butter churning…you could make that stuff? Yep, you could make that stuff. But the best part? The section about pig slaughtering (This was the age before Babe came out).

“It doesn’t hurt him, Laura,” Pa said. “We do it so quickly.” . . . It was such a busy day, with so much to see and do. Uncle Henry and Pa were jolly, and there would be spare-ribs for dinner, and Pa had promised Laura and Mary the bladder and the pig’s tail.”[2]

Yum. Spare ribs for dinner. The bladder bit was explained later (used to make a balloon…early lesson in anatomy for me). But the pig’s tail? What the hell were you going to do with that?

          “Pa skinned it for them carefully, and into the large end he thrust a sharpened stick. Ma opened the front of the cook stove and raked hot coals into the iron hearth. Then Laura and Mary took turns holding the pig’s tail over the coals.

          It sizzled and fried, and drops of fat dripped off it and blazed on the coals…At last it was done. It was nicely browned all over, and how good it smelled! They carried it into the yard to cool it, and even before it was cool enough they began tasting it and burned their tongues.”[3]

       Oh. That’s what you did with a pig’s tail. In a pathetic attempt to repeat this tasty project, I asked the meat guy at the local grocery store whether they carried pigs’ tails. All I got was a “Where is your mother?!” I also tried to suggest this to my Brownie troop leader. Needless to say, it didn’t happen.

      So much for my adventures in pioneer food-hood. I would have to wait 32 years later before I would get my chance at the pig’s tail. And no, I don’t live on a farm or slaughter pigs. That chance was at St. John Bread and Wine in London.

Smoked Anchovy with Roasted Beet and Hen's Egg

       To those of you living in foodie land, this should not be surprising.  Fergus Henderson and Trevor Guilliver (re)-invigorated “nose-to-tail” eating practices that were basically forgotten, thanks to urbanization, industrialization and commercial food practices. But when St. John first opened in 1994, this was not “hipster” or “haute” food. Fine dining was French – definitely NOT British. Times have definitely changed. With a menu that consisted of hare with lentils and pig trotters (pig’s feet to us Americans), oxtail tongue hash with a runny duck egg, braised lamb with potato and seaweed, roasted beet with anchovy, and a incredible local peach sorbet (with an icy shot of vodka), I didn’t care where those parts came from. They were delicious. 

Hare with Lentils and Pig's Trotter

       The food is not particularly complicated. It’s not foamed-up-the-ass. There are no weird agar particles. And the only suspension that’s going on in these foods is a suspension of disbelief that offal is really NOT awful – it’s really, really good.

When I talked to Lee Tiernan, the head chef of St. John Bread and Wine about the dishes, he said, “My uncle used to eat like this.”

What exactly is “like this”?

I seriously doubt that Tiernan’s uncle had a nice Bordeaux with his meal (or maybe he did, and if he did, he’s a really lucky man!), but this is food of Britain’s pastoral past, not the food of Britain’s post WWI[4] industrial factories. The hares were brought in that morning. The fish are from the British Isles and coasts. The pigs were not from the Tesco meat cooler, but from organic, free-range farms with breeds that most commercial farmers would eschew in a heartbeat.[5] And the pig…it comes WHOLE.

      But the thing I was most impressed was a particular philosophy at the restaurant. Yes, all their sourcing is at the heart of trendy locavore practices. Conservationists love the fact that the food helps support a genealogical past that would be otherwise lost of industrial breeding practices and agriculture. Foodies love it for its “integrity” to British food traditions. And for Anthony Bourdain, it is the last meal he would want to have if he were sent to the executioner’s chair.

       In fact St. John might be called a BoBo[6] wet dream. But for all the hype the restaurant has received (well deserved!), the most poignant statement came from Tiernan: “I’m a chef. I just cook and I try NOT waste anything.”

      And that, for me, is the most impressive part of this restaurant. In an age where the wealth of nations has allowed fish to be flown in from the Mediterranean, foie gras to be served any day of the week, strawberries from Morocco eaten in December, waste is everywhere.

     Not in Lee Tiernan’s kitchen. Pig tails are made into crispy snacks. Ox-tongue that got a little overcooked becomes ox tongue hash.  Pig feet get placed in any soup or stock dish for a little oomph. Bones are roasted for marrow and placed into salad. Veal tails are brined and bones are roasted for soup. Chitterlings[7] (that’s pigs’ intestines)? They’re served with turnips. Not to mentions kidneys, livers, brains and hearts. And when I visited the kitchen, there was a giant pot of assorted pig parts that were probably going into some delicious dish. 

Stewing Pig Parts at St. John Bread  & Wine Kitchen

Maybe this is the true luxury of modern day life: having the time to cook and eat food that does not come from a freezer, has been freeze-dried into pellets or packaged in swaths of plastic. Food that is honest because it has been honestly raised and made. That’s worth its weight in gold.

Crispy Pig's Tails (Pan is for presentation)

Crispy Pig Tails

While pig tails have now become all the rage in restaurants, Southerners (in the United States) have been eating them for years, mainly as part of Carribo-African-American food culture. Pig tails are tough to come by in any grocery store, so go to the most reputable butcher you can find and ask them about it. They can probably get them from you. Also, if you are near a good farmers’ market that sells pork products, you may be able to order them. And one more thing – make sure they are free range and/or organic. You don’t want to waste your time eating antibiotic laced crap.

8-10 pig tails (look for ones that are fairly meaty), rinsed thoroughly

8 cloves of garlic, peeled and halved

1 onion, coarsely chopped

2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

1 tsp. salt (you can also use a salt blend like Old Bay or any Cajun seasoning-it works nicely)

1.     Place pig tails in a large stock pot and fill to cover. Bring to a boil over medium heat, and cover the pot for 15 minutes.

2.     Drain pig tails and return to a clean stock pot. Cover with enough cold water to cover. Bring to a boil and then add garlic, onion, red pepper flakes and salt. Boil over medium-low heat for about 2 hours or when the tails are almost falling apart.

3.     In the meanwhile, preheat oven to 350F. Line a roasting pan with aluminum foil and grease with vegetable oil.

4.     Drain pig tails (save the cooking liquid for beans, stock or soup – it’s SO good) and place them on the roasting pan. Roast tails for 30-40 minutes or until skin crisps and browns (If the skin is still is a bit flabby at 40 minutes, you can broil them at bit until they do. But this shouldn’t be necessary.)

5.     Take out of the oven and serve immediately with beans, rice or cornbread.

---

[1] English nerds go gaga. This reference of course is to Alfred Lord Tennyson’s famous poem, In Memoriam A. H. H., from 1850 :

Who trusted God was love indeed

And love Creation's final law

Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw

With ravine, shriek'd against his creed

(From Canto 56)

[2] Wilder, Laura Ingalls. Little House in the Big Woods.  (New York: Harper Collins, 1971), p. 16.

[3] Wilder, 17.

[4] As much as British food gets knocked on as vegetables-boiled-to-a-blandness, a quick history of British cooking would tell you otherwise. 18^th and 19^th century England, due to its trade prowess, had spices galore from the West Indies, India and the Caribbean. Cakes and ices (ice cream or sorbets) were molded into decorative tins. Game meat was a regular in the fall. What killed it? WWI and WWII when food rationing and food industrialization came together in a pretty unholy alliance (at least for taste buds). Local cooking and food never quite recovered. Until about now.

[5] An excellent example of this is the pig breed “Middle White.” A pig well regarded for its meat in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, the breed has basically gone out of pig production due to industrialization and a preference for bacon and lard producing breeds.  Considered “endangered” by the Rare Breed Survival Trust, a conservation organization to preserve and protect native animal breeds, the Middle White numbers have bounced back.

[6] Just in case you are not familiar with the term, “Bobo” is a mash-up of the words “Bourgeois” and “Bohemian,” coined by the New York Times columnist David Brooks, in his book Bobos in Paradise.

[7] Chitterlings, contrary to what many Southerners (people from the South of the US) might thing, is actually a word from the mid-Middle Ages England, between the 11^th and 15^th centuries. While originally used to refer to pig’s intestines (and in the South they still do), they can also refer to any type of intestine, such as veal or cow.

Water Water Everywhere, But Nary a Drop to Drink

Image via Wikipedia

Sherif: He is dead.

Lawrence: Yes. WHY?

Sherif: This is my well.

Lawrence: I have drunk from it.

Sherif: You are welcome.

Lawrence: He was my friend.

Sherif: That!

Lawrence: Yes. That.

Sherif: ...You are angry, English. He was nothing. The well is everything. The Hasimi may not drink at our wells. He knew that. Sa'lam.

- From Lawrence of Arabia, David Lean, Dir. 1962

            I get a call this weekend from my mother-in-law. Usually they are quotidian affairs dealing with micro-managing our lives with baked goods, baby-sitting options and newspaper articles about violence in children’s cartoons. Not this weekend. Apparently there is an outbreak of Escherichia coli,[1] better known as E. coli, in the water supply. And luck would have it, it’s my neighborhood.

            And for 36 hours no water is potable. I go to the grocery store – no water to be found anywhere, except the pricey kind. Being cheap, I occupy all four burners with boiling water.[2] There’s a nice film of plaque on my teeth because the water is too hot to brush my teeth. Dishes have become a new organism. And it looks like my daughter might have the world’s most expensive bath - in Evian.

            And this is what it’s like to live in a 3^rd world country. No access to clean water. That means no drinking water. No washing water. No bathing water. No toilets. No sewage treatment. Although we in the developed world take it for granted, the availability of not just water, but clean, potable water is a luxury that many developing countries have still yet to obtain. According to the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) 884 million people do not have access to safe, clean water[3] – that’s nearly 1 in 8. And for you toilet flushing types – nearly 2.5 billion don’t have access to reliable sanitation services, including 1.2 billion who don’t have sanitation services at all.

Compare this to the United States and the developed world. Or think about it this way - a person taking a 5 minute shower uses more water than a person in an urban slum uses in a day (developing countries). The developed world uses about 500-800 liters per day per person (about 130-200 gallons per day). And then there are toilets. We Americans LOVE to flush.  Forty percent of a household’s daily water use is used for toilet flushing. This is compared to only 14% for cooking and drinking. And those showers add up.[4]

Why is this a problem? I think one statistic sums it up: Only 1% of water on this planet is usable. 1% of water for the ENTIRE planet. And considering the effects of climate change as well as population growth, that 1% is only going to get smaller. According the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 36 states are in line for water shortages in the near future. As in NOW.[5]

            Less water means more problems- not just for the third world. For children, this means dying from diarrhea, which kills 1 in 5 children each year. For economies, billions of dollars are wasted in lost productivity. For the environment, ecosystems are destroyed. For governments, lack of water security has and will continue to cause regional instability[6]. For food security, less water means less food.

                What to do? Luckily, there are some easy ways to conserve water (and save money!)[7] Use a low-flow shower head. Get a low-pressure toilet (Europe has been using them for quite some time). Run your washing machine or dishwater ONLY WHEN FULL! Repair leaky faucets. Have extra water? Use it for cleaning or watering plants instead of putting it down the drain. And please, please, please don’t flush toxic materials into the toilet. This includes old medications, cleaners, bugs, cigarettes and whatever else was not meant for toilets. Not only do they gum up the sewer works, they take more water to flush out of the system (and prescription drugs still are in the water after that). And for those suburbanites: Forget the grass. Get native plants that are adjusted to the natural weather cycle of your region. Las Vegas was NEVER meant to hold golf tournaments.

            Waterworld was probably one of the worst movies ever made (up there with Ishtar), but remember the peecycler? Well, if we’re not careful, we may peecycling permanently.[8]

           

Acqua Pazza

             Literally translated as “crazy water,” acqua pazza has been said to be the forerunner bouillabaisse, the famous French seafood stew. If you ask me, this is easier to prepare, and a lot more sustainable. Traditionally it’s made with cod or halibut, but use sustainable substitutes instead (see recipe).You don’t need to use fancy fish, just fresh, firm white fleshed fish. Serve with some rice and a salad, and you have dinner in 30 minutes. That is really some crazy water.  

Acqua Pazza

4 5 oz. filets of barramundi, black sea bass or Pacific Rockfish

1/2 c. water

sea salt

ground pepper

15 cherry tomatoes (or 2 large ripe tomatoes), chopped

2 tbs. of the best quality olive oil you have (extra-virgin)

2 tbs. of drained capers

4 tbs. chopped black olives (kalmata are best)

chopped flat leaf parsley for serving

1.     Lay fish fillets in a single layer in a non-stick pan. Add water on top. Sprinkle fish with a pinch of salt and a couple of grindings of pepper. Top with chopped tomatoes. Drizzle olive oil on top and sprinkle capers and olives on top.

2.      Bring pan to a boil and immediately turn down heat to medium low. Cover pan and simmer gently until the fish is cooked through, about 10-12 minutes (depending on the thickness of your fish). Remove fish to a dish and cover to keep warm.

3.     Simmer sauce in pan until thickened, about 10 minutes. Place sauce over fish and sprinkle with parsley.

---

[1] Escherichia coli is the name for a rod-shaped bacteria that are normally found inside the intestinal walls of most warm-blooded animals. For the most part, E. Coli is harmless to humans (there have been some studies suggesting that E. Coli colonization prevents infections in the intestinal tract). But the problem is the E. coli that some aren’t so friendly: the pathogenic kind. These are the ones that are responsible for most food-poisoning cases, such as the Jack-in-the Box cases in 1992 (E. coli O157:H7, most commonly found in cattle) and the recent cases in Germany (E. coli O104:H4) were toxin-producing strains.

[2] Most bacteria can be killed off with thorough cooking or boiling. The British never seem to get food-borne illnesses. I suspect it’s because they are boiling any vegetable literally to death…including any pathogens that are lurking about.

[3] United Nations Development Fund. 2006 United Nations Human Development Report-Water: A Shared Responsibility. (click here for full report).

[4] The biggest user of water is agriculture. In the US, 70% of water is used for agricultural irrigation. In Africa and Asia, that number rises to 85-90%. It’s a huge problem, especially in developing or 3^rd world countries that can not afford to waste water. Needless to say – a topic to big for this post – but it will be tackled later. Scout’s honor.

[5] If you are the type of person that needs pictures to say a 1000 words, click here to see pictures of the current drought in America’s Southwest. Caution: It’s not pretty.

[6] Water rights issues have been the source of so many diplomatic rifts across Africa and the Middle East, I can’t even count them all. One of the less cited reasons for the continuing conflict in the Gaza is the fight over water rights to the Jordan River.

[7] By some estimates, you can save 30% on your water bill by inserting water-saving devices in your home.

[8] By the way, this week is UN World Water Week. For more information about water, water conservation and public health, please click here.

Dog Days of Summer

    I am taking off for 2 weeks of summer holiday. And considering the heat wave that is hitting the US, I imagine most of you would like to take a summer vacation too – from your stove. So in the spirit of needing to eat but not wanting to do much, I have recipes that require minimal effort. MINIMAL. Remember to stay hydrated, keep cool, and if you have plants, water in the evening. Also, if you can stand it, try to keep your AC down – brownouts are a real threat considering the weather. Don’t be the idiot that broke the electricity grid by turning up the air-conditioning full blast.    
        Stay cool and see you in August!

1.     Tomato sandwich. Take ripe tomato (homegrown, farmer’s market, or heirloom). Slice thinly. Salt and Pepper. Place on good bread with mayo on it.

2.     Take carrot out of ground. Wash. Eat.

3.     Gazpacho. Take 3 tomatoes, 1 cucumber, ½ onion, garlic clove, glug of olive oil, and 1 tbs. of sherry vinegar. Blend smooth or chunky. Add salt to taste.

4.     Borscht. Take 2 cooked beets, 1 c. stock (any kind) and blend. Add salt to taste. Top with sour cream.

5.     Cucumber Sandwich. Take English cucumber, peel and de-seed. Slice thinly. Spread cream cheese or butter on bread. Add cucumbers with salt and pepper.

6.     Pick fruit off neighborhood bush or tree. Eat.

7.     Vietnamese salad. Take coleslaw mix. Add 2 tbs. sesame oil, 1 tsp. fish sauce, juice 1 lime, pepper, and 1 tsp. sugar. Toss.

8.     Beet salad. Take pre-cooked beets. Slice into ½ in. rings. Crumble feta, walnuts and 1 finely chopped shallot on top. Dress with lemon/olive oil.

9.     Ceviche. Take any fresh, firm white-fleshed fish (cod, flounder, etc.-about ½ pound). Chop into bite-sized bits. Mix in juice of 1 lime, 1 lemon, ¼ chopped red onion, salt, some chili (optional and to taste) and 1 tbs. olive oil. Sit in fridge for 3-4 hours. Eat with bread or tortillas.

10. Tuna Salad. Mix 1 can tuna (packed in oil), 1 tbs. chopped capers, some chopped olives, and chopped scallion with juice of 1 lemon. Serve with crackers or on top of greens.

11. Pesto. Blend 1 c. packed herbs (parsley, basil, chives, etc.), with ¼ c. toasted pine nuts, ½ c. olive oil and 1 clove garlic. Add this to any cold leftovers on bread or greens.

12. Marinated Chickpeas with pita. Take 2 cans of chickpeas and toss with 4 tbs. of olive oil, juice of 1 lemon, chopped parsley and shallot, pinch of sugar and salt and pepper. Sit for an hour. Stuff into pit with greens and crumbled feta.

13. Salad rolls. Soak rice paper rolls with hot water for 20 seconds. Fill with greens and pre-cooked shrimp. Roll.

14. Take leftovers. Place in microwave. Eat standing up.

15. Watermelon salad. Cut watermelon into bite-sized cubes. Crumble feta on top. Add finely chopped parsley and shallot. Dress with olive oil and lemon juice.

16. Spinach Salad. Take bag of baby spinach. Dress with 2 tbs. sesame oil, 1 tbs. rice vinegar, pinch of sugar, salt and couple drops of Tabasco.  Can add tuna or cold chicken for protein.

17. Have tortilla? Wrap whatever you have into a roll. Tell your kids to stop whining.

18. Greek Salad. Toss together chopped tomatoes, cucumbers and red onion with black olives (kalmata, etc), feta, cucumber olive oil and lemon. Serve with pita chips or on top of greens.

19. Jicama salad. Peel and chop jicama into matchsticks. Chop 1 mango into bite-sized pieces. Mince ½ jalapeno pepper and ½ red onion. Toss with olive oil, lime juice and chopped cilantro. You can add a can of black beans as well.

20. Caprese salad. Get the best tomatoes and fresh mozzarella you can find. Slice into rounds and layer with basil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar. (Leftovers are great between crusty bread for instant sandwich).

21. Crack open cold beer. It was considered food in the Middle Ages. And today in Ireland.

22. 1 boozy peach. Take ripe peeled, pitted and halved peaches (3-4 peaches), 5 tbs. of brown sugar, pinch of salt, 3 tbs. of grappa, and the juice and zest of 1 lime. Sit in fridge for about 2-3 hours. Serve with mascarpone cheese or whipped cream.

23. Courgette spaghetti. Cut 1-2 courgettes (zucchini) into long matchstick strips, using a mandolin. Dress with pesto (see above) or with olive oil, bit of lemon, Parmesan or pecorino cheese.

24. Grill anything you have in your house. Make your husband do the grilling.

25. Cucumber soup (for 2). Peel and de-seed English cucumber. Reserve ¼ of cucumber. Blend the rest with 1 pint buttermilk, some dill and scallions. Season with salt and white pepper.  Scatter with thinly sliced cucumber. Serve with brown bread and butter.

26. Smoerbrod. Take any dark brown bread. Smear with butter. Put pickled herring on top. Add a couple of raw red onion rings.

27. My Favorite Roast Beef Sandwich. Take a good white bread. Place slices of roast beef. Spread with remoulade and crispy onions (like the ones they have from Vietnam).

28. Pile fresh berries. Add cream.

29. Take ice cube. Add 1 oz. Pastis. Add bit of water. Drink. Drink. Drink – until you forget about how damn hot it is.

Enjoy your summer!

WTF?!! Or when recipes go bad.

Image via Wikipedia

“Science means simply the aggregate of all the recipes that are always successful. All the rest is literature.”
- Paul Valéry, French Poet and Literary Critic (1871-1945)

            Anyone who cooks, even on a semi-regular basis, has cooked with a recipe. For practiced cooks, they are great reference. For occasional cooks, they are a necessity. Even the simplest of dishes can benefit from a recipe. Imagine cooking a steak. Easy, right? WRONG. What kind of cut? At what temperature should your meat be? How much salt and pepper? How hot should the pan be? How long to cook it to desired doneness? How many times to flip? How long to rest? This may appear obvious and a bit pedantic to some, but for many cooks, these are important. It makes the difference between a perfectly cooked rib-eye, and a flabby, steamed, over-cooked grey mess.

            After years of cooking and testing recipes, I realized that not all recipes are created equal. Take enriched uranium. You wouldn’t expect a physicists to make atomic bombs out of chewing gum? There is a series of precise techniques, equipment and goods needed. This is science, not MacGyver. The same goes for recipes. A well-executed out dish is completely dependent upon method, ingredients, and to a lesser extent, equipment. If any of those fail, your dish will be the victim.

            So for today’s post, I will focus on what makes for a successful recipe. No matter how pretty that recipe looks (that’s another annoyance of late, food porn via Photoshop), a poorly written and edited recipe is only good for cursing. Before you say “bleeppity, bleep bleep,” here’s some signs of trouble.

           

1. If a recipe does not tell you precise measurements. Many dishes, especially those handed down orally, are not very keen on measurements. I should know. Most of the recipes that I have gotten from my mother involve a lot of “handfuls” of various ingredients. Lebron James’ hands or Miley Cyrus’ hands? Can’t tell? This is why recipes need measurements. This also goes for pan sizes.  Math will tell you that a 10-inch cake pan will cook more quickly than a 9-inch cake pan will. If they don’t give you sizes, then you’ve got problems.

2. Recipes that are not specific about their ingredients. For example, peppers. There are chili peppers, bell peppers (yellow, red and green), ancho peppers, pastilla peppers, paprika peppers… Recipes that do not explicitly define their ingredients are just asking for it. Using Spam for your antipasti is akin to dressing a redneck in Valentino. It won’t work.

3. Ingredients should indicate how they are to be cut. Ground Boeuf à la Bourguignonne? Large chunk of garlic in your salad? How about vegetable juice for ratatouille? You get the idea. There should be an indication in your recipe as to what size and shape your ingredients should be prepared. Diced does not mean rounds does not mean minced. Chunks are not strips are not cubes. Size and shape matter in terms of time and method used in cooking. For example, caramelized onions are dependent upon exposing the maximum amount of surface area to heat, in order to cook the sugars in the onion. Chopping it into half and asking it to caramelize is asking for a miracle. There just isn’t enough surface area exposed to heat to develop the sugars properly.

4. No temperatures-don’t bother. Recipes should tell you at what temperature a pan should be heated or on what setting. Pre-heated is exactly what it sounds like – pre heating. High heat is not medium or low – it’s the highest setting on your stove. And the oven temperature is not a suggestion – it’s an imperative. Unless you know that your oven has a problem, 350 is three hundred and fifty degrees.[1]

5. Time. Good recipes always give you an approximate time for how long things need to cook or bake. Until “fragrant” is not very precise. By nose is pretty sensitive, but I have a friend who is constantly stuffy. By the time it’s “fragrant” to her, it’s burnt. Times are not always 100% accurate, but they at least give you a guideline as to when to move onto the next step.[2]

6. Technique, technique, technique. Recipes should be clear about certain techniques, especially those involved in pastry or break making. For example, when making pie dough, recipes often suggest when cutting the flour into the butter that the dough should look like “peas.” My dough never seems to look like that. A picture easily solves that problem. Making croissants at home seems like a recipe for disaster. But if you have a picture, making all the turns required is a piece of cake.[3] A picture says a thousand words.

7. Just plain wrong. There are some recipes that are just flawed in concept. I just tested a red wine pasta dish for a nationally known food magazine and it was wrong on all levels. The ingredients were fine. The directions were good. But the results? Plain awful. Experimentation is a crucial part of cooking well, but sometimes experiments go bad. If you see the recipe and it doesn’t sound right to you, then don’t torture yourself for not trying it. If you can’t be enthused about making the dish, no matter how advanced, it will be a waste of your time.

There you have it. Some of my guidelines for sussing out that recipe before your hands get dirty. But the most valuable advice for any cook? Practice, practice, practice. Perfect homemade pasta is not because of some magic trick-it’s practice. Fingerspitzengefühl, as the Germans would have it. The more you cook, the better you will be. No recipe needed.

Perfect Tomato Sauce

OK, this sauce is foolproof. Really. Foolproof. But get the best quality ingredients you can and take your time. If want convenience, than buy a jar. If you want flavor, sit, wait and stir. And if you are one of those convenience people, than at least do this: double or triple the recipe, and freeze or can extra portions (I do it all the time). It also makes a great base for a cream of tomato soup or any minestrone. You will never go back to store-bought pasta sauce again.[4]

Yield: Enough for 1 pd. of pasta

2 pds. ripe plum tomatoes (see note)

2 heads of garlic, cloves peeled, and sliced thinly

¼ c. of extra-virgin olive oil

½ tsp. hot red pepper flakes (or more to taste)

½ tsp salt (sea salt is best)

15 large basil leaves, julienned

1.     Score each tomato with an X on the bottom, place into a large pot of boiling water for 15 seconds, and place immediately into an ice bath. When cook enough to handle, peel skins off, deseed and chop into ¼ inch chunks.

2.     In a small to medium non-reactive heavy pot (a Le Creuset pot is fantastic for this), heat olive oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, but not smoking (Place a garlic slice in there and see if it bubbles. If so, you’re at the right temperature.) place garlic slices into the pan and cook into golden, but NOT brown, about 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3.     When the garlic is golden, add red pepper flakes and sauté for 10 seconds. Add the tomatoes and salt and bring to a low simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 1 hour.  Taste and adjust add more salt as needed. Add basil leaves and serve.

Note: Now is the time to be thinking about using those plum tomatoes at the farmers’ markets. If it’s December in NYC, forget using fresh. Get a 28-oz can of whole, peeled San Marzano (traditionally used for sauce in Italy) tomatoes, and add it with its juices into the pot. Also, this sauce does cook down. You won’t get a lot of sauce – if you are going to take the time and effort to make this, I can’t encourage you enough to make large quantities.

---

[1] For those jet-setting transcontinental types, you should have a chart that gives you the precise conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit, or vice-versa. The same goes for all other metric measurements. There are a few online sources for this kind of thing. Just remember, weight and volume are NOT the same. A cup of sugar is about 250 grams, but a cup of basmati rice is 195 grams.

[2] When baking or roasting, the times are usually approximate- and that is for a reason. Certain pans will conduct heat more readily than others (e.g. metal versus ceramic). Also, convection ovens will often cook more quickly than conventional ovens. And there is also a difference between electric and gas ovens. The reason why ovens are pre-heated is to insure that the temperature is consistent when the said item goes into the oven. The shortest time is when you should start checking for doneness.

[3] The best examples of technique illustrations come from Cooks Illustrated and Julia Child’s classic, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Both the written instructions as well as the picture guides make sure that your recipe will be foolproof.

[4] By the way, have you ever inspected the ingredient list for most commercial pasta sauces? If you do, you might go into diabetic shock. The amount of sugar (or corn syrup) is unconscionable. And the rest of the ingredients are unpronounceable (even the “tomato” based ingredients). Just saying…