2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 24,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 9 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

A revolution is NOT a dinner party…but a dinner party could start a revolution?

A Revolution is Not a Dinner Party
- Mao Zedong

Alarmists decry the “secret Farm Bill,” although the failure of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction has now rendered it moot except possibly as an example of the surprising notion that politicians can occasionally work in a bi-partisan and bi-cameral fashion on America’s own version of the Five-Year Plan. Optimists note the increasing numbers of young people going back to the land and re-learning the simple arts of growing, cooking, and preserving food. In Fair Food: Growing a Healthy, Sustainable Food System for All, Oran Hesterman writes that the fair food movement may be the movement of this young generation, much as the anti-Vietnam War movement engaged the youth of the late sixties and early seventies. Can it be that America is indeed entering into a good food revolution that moves beyond the elitist foodie-dominated dinner party?

It was with a sense of serendipity, then, that I read about a new Chinese cookbook: just in time for the holidays, The Cultural Revolution Cookbook, by Sasha Gong and Scott D. Seligman, is available from Earnshaw Books. Full of colorful socialist realist art and notes and stories from the Cultural Revolution, this book has accomplished what few memoirs, histories, and movies about the era have done – present a reflective, thoughtfully balanced view of what has largely come to be viewed as an experiment that my ‘tween daughter’s generation would label “an epic fail.”

Sasha Gong and Scott Seligman; photo by Alice Thurston

Sasha Gong was herself one of the many youth who were “sent down” to the countryside during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976, removed from city life to work and live with (and, Mao hoped, learn from) the peasants. There are plenty of accounts of this era that dwell on the horrors of life in poverty, of stretching flour with sawdust to make enough bread to survive, of the government manipulating the media to cover up famine statistics. Ironically, wasn’t there just a piece about American fast and processed food industries using cellulose – AKA wood pulp – as a filler and binder in their products, and  wasn’t there a take-down notice on another site that posted the story?

But back to The Cultural Revolution Cookbook, which takes the stance that while in retrospect, many of the sent-down youth came to view the era as “a tragic waste of their productive years and an unmitigated disaster for China,” the truth of the matter is that many of these young people went willingly and enthusiastically, ready to do Mao’s bidding in whatever project would build the new socialism. And in fact, these youth learned a great deal about life skills, particularly about cooking.  The ability to make do with what was available created a generation of cooks able to turn what was local, fresh, and seasonal (if scarce) into dishes that provided enough nourishment to get them through the arduous physical labor required of them.

This, then, is the starting point for the recipes in this book – a limited number of readily-available ingredients, simple substitutions, and straightforward instructions – and in this the authors have been highly successful. Anyone intimidated by the idea of cooking (much less cooking something as exotic as Chinese food) will find this cookbook invitingly simple, and I am all for cookbooks that reintroduce the average American to the kitchen! Additionally, with its colorful art, entertaining and informative sidebars, and attractive food photography, this book would serve equally well as a cultural artifact and coffee-table book.

On to the cold hard facts: with a friend’s help, I tested 11 of the book’s 60 recipes twice, served them to dinner guests, and have the following comments:

• Nine of the 11 recipes were resounding successes – they delivered exactly what the authors promise: simple foods simply prepared with tasty and attractive results. It was heartwarming to hear my leftover-averse ‘tween promise her friend that she’d bring the leftover “Sweet and Sour White Radish” (enough for both of them!) for lunch on Monday. Only one dish, the Vinegar-Glazed Chinese Cabbage, earned the comment, “Well, if my mother made this, I would eat it, but I wouldn’t like it!” (My Chinese-born husband, however, says that the dish is “the real thing.”) And only one dish, the Minced Pork and Scallion Cake, was much more problematic: the instructions omitted mincing the scallion, the amount of water added is truly excessive – it would seem 1 T is more appropriate than 1.5 c), and even an estimate of the amount of time to steam was not provided. This recipe, however, seems to be an exception: while I did not test more recipes, reading through all of them as someone who has studied culinary arts, I got the sense that they would largely be successful.
• The ingredients are wonderfully limited in number, and most of them are whole, close-to-the-source foods (the only minimally processed items were soy sauce, vinegar, canned stock, and tofu). I was a bit taken aback by the amount of sugar used and reduced it in all recipes the second time around.
• The substitutions suggested are mostly helpful, although I think telling the average American home cook that “any wine will do” may result in some Cabernet replacing what really should be more of a sherry-type wine.
• The instructions are simple to follow, particularly if you read the prefatory sections on utensils and portions. I would have liked to have seen a bit more clarity on procedures that can make or break a dish, such as “boiling” when “simmering” would be more appropriate, and I was surprised to see the microwave called upon a few times – not because it’s an anachronism, but because there are other, simpler ways of heating tofu and making it easier to handle. Completely as a matter of personal preference relating to ease of use, I would rather the instructions be presented as a numbered list than as a paragraph. In general, it’s as though your mother or grandmother is teaching you to make a family favorite (including, sometimes, the sense that you should do it that way just because she says so!) A more curious student might wish for a bit more explanation of the “why” alongside the “how.” And while I followed the recipes exactly as written the first time through, I balked at the all-too-frequent instruction to heat the oil to smoking – while it may be the way Chinese cooks have done it for centuries, my American sense that heating the oil to the smoking point may render it unhealthy overruled my desire to follow the directions.

In summary, from professional chefs (who will likely make tweaks as they go) to the average or aspiring home cook (who follows recipes to the letter), this book has a lot of food for thought as well as for cooking and enjoying with family and friends. I would not hesitate to recommend it, whether it’s for your own use in the home kitchen, as a gift for a fellow or aspiring cook, or for someone who has an interest in the Cultural Revolution period of modern Chinese history.

Thanks to the authors for providing the photos!

Simmered Chicken Livers

When our daughter was very young, we were fortunate to have a series of wonderful Chinese caregivers for her – they loved her as one of their own and spoiled her rotten: multi-dish hot lunches were the norm (is it any wonder she can’t think of a cold sandwich as lunch to this day?), and one of her very favorite dishes (although she’ll deny this vociferously now) was simmered chicken livers. One day she asked for this for dinner, so off to the store we went, only to find that the chicken livers were not available. A loud wailing ensued, and an older woman bent over the stroller: “Oh, honey, won’t your mommy buy you a cookie?” She totally did NOT believe that the tears were being shed over chicken livers….

Not a lot of people seem to eat liver these days, but my husband and I do like it, so we took advantage of some extra turkey livers being available at the farm where we buy our Thanksgiving turkey. This dish is quick and tasty (if you’re a fan of liver) and can be served hot, at room temperature, or cold.

ingredients

• 1 lb chicken (or duck or turkey) livers
• 1/4 c dark soy sauce
• 1/4 c light soy sauce
• 1/4 c Shaoxing cooking wine
• 1 T brown or raw cane sugar
• 1/2-3/4 c water
• 2 scallions, cut into 2″ sections
• 3 slices fresh ginger root
• 2 cloves star anise or 1/2 tsp anise seed
• 1/2 tsp peppercorns

method

1. Boil 4 c water, then pour it over the livers in a bowl. Give it a gentle stir, then drain and rinse the livers in cold water.
2. Combine the remaining ingredients in a small pot, add the livers, and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Immediately reduce the heat to low and simmer 10 m.
3. Turn off the heat and allow the livers to sit another 5 m.
4. Cut into bite-sized pieces and serve hot, drizzled with a bit of the liquid.

variation

You can remove the livers from the liquid and reduce it at a rolling boil, then use the resulting syrup as a drizzle on the livers.

do ahead

This dish can be made up to 3 days ahead of time and either served cold or gently reheated. Store the livers in the liquid in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator.

 

Paying the farmer’s asking price…and increasing the farmer’s share

Rural SCALE recently released a study on the affordability of local food for the average consumer, collecting data from 24 farmers’ markets in 19 communities in 6 southeastern states. The study concludes that

Overall, farmers markets in the Southeast and Appalachia are highly competitive with mainstream supermarkets in their pricing on a range of commonly consumed foods, including produce, meats and eggs. (Emphasis in the original.)

Naturally, one might draw different conclusions from similar studies of other regions, but there are some interesting statistics (and generalizable conclusions?) about size of community and prices at farmers’ markets that sell to moderate- and low-income patrons, those who might believe that the local food movement has passed them by.

Then consider this graphic by the National Farmers Union: Farmer’s Share of Retail Food Dollar. I’m not so interested in the startling figures on processed foods (soft drinks, potato chips, bread) because few of the raw ingredients are actually supplied by a farmer. Far more disturbing are the figures on whole, minimally processed ingredients. Take the produce section of a conventional supermarket (think Safeway, Kroger, etc.), for example: farmers receive anywhere from 10.3 cents on the dollar for lettuce to 30 cents on the dollar for carrots.

Now think about buying this produce at a farmers’ market or directly from a farmer: if it’s true that the prices at the farmers’ market are comparable to those of the supermarket for comparable items, the farmer will suddenly have $4.59 (instead of $1.38) in his pocket for 5 pounds of carrots; $3.08 (instead of $0.27) for a pound of tomatoes, etc.

Buying local food at the farmers’ market certainly seems like a win-win for farmers and consumers.

 

Spice-braised Chicken

This recipe results in a chicken with a spicier, less neutral-flavored chicken than the Simmered Chicken, but after you serve it on its own, you can still use the leftovers in a variety of ways: cold as an appetizer, sliced over noodles, mixed into fried rice. The addition of Sichuan peppercorns gives it a truly authentic flavor, but if you can’t find them in an Asian grocery or in the Asian section of a conventional store, you can substitute some other peppercorns – black, green, red, pink, or a mix.

ingredients:

• a 3-4 pound chicken, cut up (try to buy local, sustainably raised birds – your mouth, your body, your environment, and your local food economy will thank you!)
• 3 slices fresh ginger root
• 2 scallions, cut into 2″ sections
• 2 star anise (available in the spice section of most stores, but much cheaper in Asian markets)
• 1/2 cinnamon stick
• 1 T Sichuan peppercorns
• 1/4 c dark soy sauce
• 1/4 c cooking wine
• 1/4 c sesame oil

method:

1. Rinse and pat the chicken dry. Place in a heavy-bottom pot with the remaining ingredients. Add enough water to cover up to 1/2 of the chicken.
2. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook just until cooked through, approximately 40 m, turning at least once to ensure an even color.
3. Remove the chicken to a cutting board. You can serve the pieces whole, cut the meat off the bone, or serve Chinese style: using a heavy cleaver or very sturdy chef’s knife, cut the chicken into “chopstickable” pieces, bones and all.
4. While you cut the chicken, bring the sauce to a rolling boil and reduce slightly.
5. Place the chicken on a plate, pour a little sauce over it, and serve hot.

Irene, farmers, loyalty and gratitude

Having grown up in Vermont, I have been following the post-Irene news out of the state with horror. Pictures of washed out roads (difficult for someone to understand the gravity of that when there is no concept that it may be the ONLY road in and out of a town), flooded fields, crops laid waste. What can you do to help, if you’re inclined to do so? There’s the always-welcome local Red Cross donation, a number of tshirt companies are donating proceeds from sales (check out Vermont Clothing Company and the Vermont Strong Store), and not surprisingly, a number of benefit concerts and similar events sprang up – it’s hard to keep Vermonters down for long! And I saw some truly original ideas floated by my Facebook friends: how about a produce “round-up” day at the farmers’ markets, where buyers voluntarily round every purchase up to the next $5 or $10? But isn’t there a bigger picture, one that will last beyond the news headlines and the desire to help in a time of need?

Vermont, of course, wasn’t the only state affected. Grist.org had a brief roundup of news from farmers throughout the swath cut by Irene. And if the producer end of our food system has suffered, the consumer must also pay the price – literally! And how I dread hearing (most) people complain about the price of food….

I recently watched a series of short films by Nourish, and I was once again struck by a statistic mentioned: in the last 50 years, Americans have gone from spending 18% of our national income on food to spending 9.9% on food. (In same time period, we’ve gone from spending 5% of national income on health care to spending 16% on health care.) Yes, there are those who truly cannot spend more on food, but what about the vast majority of us, who can?

As someone who tries to buy local and sustainable food whenever possible and one who is fortunate enough to be able to pay the premium often demanded by organic, this recent crop devastation, coupled with what seems to be a weird growing season nationally, has given me a lot to ponder. My first thought about the affected farmers was, “I hope the majority of them run CSAs!” Those farmers who run CSAs (community supported agriculture programs) charge a flat fee per share at the beginning of the growing season, then provide an equal amount of produce to each shareholder throughout the harvest season. If the farm does well and the harvest is good, the consumer gets a bountiful share each week. If there is bad weather or a natural disaster, then the harvest is poor or nonexistent, and the consumer supplements the share with food sourced elsewhere. So in a sense, it’s a gamble for the consumer, but how much less of a gamble for the farmer who produces our food? And in this age of disappearing small and mid-size farms, isn’t it important for those of us who can afford it to stack the deck in the farmers’ favor?

Now is the time to start thinking about next year’s crops and signing on for a CSA with a local farmer – out of loyalty, and because we can. And now is also the time to start supporting measures in upcoming Farm Bill legislation that will help small and mid-size farmers with crop insurance for situations like the one caused by Irene.

The LocalHarvest blog has a wonderful post about eating locally in a poor season that was supposed to be the height of harvest bounty. Erin Barnett concludes,

Ultimately, the thing that supports this loyalty and flexibility and acceptance is a sense of gratitude. Things change when we find the space within ourselves to feel thankful for what the land is providing, even, and perhaps especially, in challenging seasons.

Kohlrabi!

For some reason, my kids find the name “kohlrabi” hysterically funny – they even invented a creature called the kohlrabi monster that lived in our basement and attacked little children who went down there alone, particularly those children that didn’t eat their vegetables. (Now that the basement is finished, he rarely makes an appearance, though.)

Kohlrabi comes from the brassica family, which also includes broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, and collards, and is the swollen stem of the plant. As you might expect, it has a slightly cabbage-y taste, but in its younger forms it is mild and sweet. It can be slice thinly and eaten raw, but I prefer it cooked. It makes a great substitute for broccoli stems  – try it in Broccoli Stem Stirfry and Stirfried Pork with Bamboo Shoots & Broccoli Stems.

Better yet, kohlrabi makes a great substitute for water chestnuts – an ingredient that I often omit from my recipes because I prefer not to buy ingredients that are processed and/or imported from too far away. Try adding some finely diced raw kohlrabi to the filling for Pork & Cabbage Dumplings – it will remain slightly crunchy when the dumplings are cooked.

20 Hoops in 20 Days

No, we’re not talking basketball here, but something much more exciting: a fabulous local organization, SELMA Cafe, raises money and volunteers to help area farmers put up “hoop houses,” which are basically long plastic-covered greenhouses that enable the farmer to use passive solar energy to extend the growing season to 10-12 months of the year  – even here in Michigan!

On June 15, SELMA started a project to construct 20 of the houses for 20 different farms in 20 days. Most of our gang at Fair Food Network signed up for a team work day, and I decided to lend a hand in a more concrete way – not by sitting in the office working on food systems projects in the abstract but actually helping to build a hoop house. And so on day 1 of the project, we (including my 11-year old daughter – honest, teachers, it was a worthy, educational project!) found ourselves out in Stockbridge performing hard labor.

I wanted to share some photos of the day – not much else to say, except that it was truly inspiring to see the approximately 20 volunteers, led by builder-in-chief Jeff McCabe (who ought to write the Hoophouses for Dummies book), put this thing together. We had to leave before it was done, but K’s conclusion (again, sorry teachers!): “I learned much more today than I would have on the last Wednesday of the school year!”

How it looked at 9:00am

Looking more like a hoophouse by 2:45pm

To view all the photos, go to my Facebook album.

Grilled Scallops with Cilantro

Another invention of mine, totally NOT Chinese but using some ingredients common to Chinese cuisine and very appropriate for that ever-popular summer activity: grilling! Fish sauce, a very salty concoction made from anchovies,  is a predominantly Vietnamese ingredient but is widely available in both Asian markets and many well-stocked conventional grocery stores (in the Asian food section).

Serves 6 as a main course, 8-10 as an appetizer.

ingredients:

• 1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
• 1 T finely minced onion – red, yellow, or white
• 1 T rice wine vinegar
• 1 tsp fish sauce (optional)
• 2 T oil – preferably high-heat sunflower or safflower oil
• 2 T sesame oil
• 1 tsp sugar, preferably brown or “raw”
• kosher salt & freshly ground pepper to taste
• chili sauce (such as Sriracha) or chopped salted chilies to taste – start with a modest amount! (optional)
• 2.5 lb sea or bay scallops

method:

1. Combine all the ingredients except the scallops in a bowl and let the mixture sit at room temperature for 1-2 h.
2. Rinse and pat the scallops dry, removing the small muscle that sometimes remains attached to the side – this can be very tough but makes wonderful seafood broth or stock when combined w/ fish bones, shrimp shells, etc.
3. Mix the scallops gently with 1/2 the sauce until thoroughly coated.
4. Refrigerate 1-3 h, turning gently 1/2 way through.
5. Thread the scallops on skewers and grill over a medium flame, approximately 2 m for sea scallops, 1 m for bay.
6. Brush with the reserved sauce, turn, and grill approximately another 2 m for sea scallops, 1 m for bay. Do not overcook, or the scallops will be tough and the sauce will burn.

variation:

• Grill the scallops ahead of time and serve them warm or at room temperature as an hors d’oeuvre.
• The scallops are also excellent served cold in a salad.

do ahead:

You can make the marinade up to 2 days ahead – best to leave the vinegar and chili sauce out until the time you plan to marinate the scallops.

These are Turnips?

I have tried to like turnips for a very long time, but I just can’t seem to find a way to cook them that is pleasing. But just recently I realized it’s not the cooking method I should change – it’s the turnip! I’ve recently discovered Hakurei turnips (read more about them on Kitazawa Seed Company‘s site).

Turns out these turnips are great just scrubbed, sliced, and salted (thanks to Jennifer at Capella Farm for that advice!) or added to a green salad in place of radishes.

But the great discovery was that you can use them anywhere you can use daikon: try them in any of the recipes on this blog that use daikon – the spicy daikon and carrot salad is great with this substitution!

The greens can also be stirfried – try the recipe for stirfried greens – they have a nice radishy bite!

ETA: Rumor has it you can also use them as a substitute for water chestnuts – I’m always happy to find a locally-grown substitute for an ingredient that I would otherwise have to buy in a can!