Spanikopita & Black Eyed Pea Stew

The Food Nanny
March 31&32 2009
Meal 1: Spinach and Chevre Spanikopita, Lemon Cous Cous Salad & a Macaroon
· Heat the spanikopita in a 450° oven until golden brown, about 10 -15 minutes, but watch it, they go fast at the end.
· Serve the salad at room temp, and enjoy the dessert
Meal 2: Black Eyed Pea Stew with Collard Greens, Multigrain Rolls, & Spinach Salad
· Stir a decent amount of water into the stew and heat it in a sauce pan or a microwave until it simmers and the collards turn bright green. Adjust the seasoning and serve immediately with the warmed roll and dressed salad.

Spinach Soup and Tamales

The Food Nanny
March 24&25 2009

Meal 1: Spinach Soup and Roasted Garlic Potato Rolls, Baby Lima Bean Salad
· Heat the soup in a saucepan or microwave until just hot. Try to not boil it.
· Warm the Roll and serve the bean salad at room temp.
Meal 2: Squash and Pepita Tamales with Refried Beans and Yellow Rice Salad
· Heat the tamales by either steaming them in a vegetable steamer basket or in the microwave. If you have neither simply place a small glass bowl in the bottom of a sauce pan. Next, place a ½ “ of water in the bottom of the pan. Now place a plate atop the glass dish and position the tamales on the plate. Cover the pot. Bring the water inside to a boil and steam the tamales for about 5 minutes.
· Stir a little water into the beans to thin them a bit. Warm the dish in the oven for about 10 minutes or use a microwave.
· Serve the rice salad at room temp or pan fry it with some oil to get it hot.

Miracle Max's Spinach Soup
Local Notes:
Kate thinks this soup is the epitome of March,, and with its Shamrock Shake appearance, I don't disagree. This soup features Jon's super spinach which has been coming in to us all winter too. But the real backbone to it is the tail end of the potatoes I put up from him. March cuisine is a tail-ends cuisine. The asparagus is not yet here, nor the seasons mushrooms etc. But the alliums and herbs are coming back along with the leafy greens. So we use them to embellish and brighten the last of the hearty roots that have so thankfully kept us nurtured this last cold winter. How lucky we are to have such quantity and quality of comestibles within our reach during the non-growing season: sweet turnips, vigorous onions and garlic bracing all subsequent flavors, rich potatoes - a new variety for each purpose, unparalleled carrots just ringing with the vital mineras of Earth. I imagine what hardship, war, and oppression bring to living, and I think of those whom I know this very day are enduring such, likely for no good reason, and I shiver at the tenuousness and shame of our precious good fortunes. When I think of justice I think of full bellies and lively homes, and the opportunity for us to make them so.

Technique:

What makes this soup so uniques is that it stays very green. Most green vegetables turn that military shade of green that is anything but appealing - except to some philistines who will sadly never know really how to eat. I do not know what makes is so...that Max just has a gift. Max Hanson, of Max & Me Catering was one of my mentors and I remember the day he told me how to make ths soup.

You just make a white mire poix, and add thinly sliced potatoes, and then stock. Let it simmer until the potatoes are cooked and brittle. Then puree in batches with handfulls of raw spinach. Voila! Brilliant green soup positively brimming with the sweet flavor of that beautiful fresh, local, sweet spinach and loaded with everything you need to brace you for the season ahead. Enjoy with the very aromatic roast garlic rolls and look out tastebuds.

The master wrapper at work.

Spinach and Pesto Galettes & Thai Noodle Salad

The Food Nanny
March 17 & 18 2009
Meal 1: Spinach and Pesto Galettes, Red Cabbage Salad With Balsamic Reduction, & Wild Mushroom Risotto
· Heat the galettes at 350° until warm, 10-15 minutes.
· Serve the cabbage salad at room temp, but be sure to season it with salt as we omitted this ingredient to prevent excess wilting of the cabbage.
· Heat the risotto in a sauce pan with enough water, stock, milk, or cream to loosen it and bring it to a simmer. Stir in some butter, parmesan cheese, or additional cream if you desire and adjust the seasoning and serve. The risotto should have enough body to not run, but it should not be a stiff porridge. Enjoy!

Meal 2: Thai Noodle Salad with Egg and Tofu & Curried Sweet Potatoes
· Heat the curry in a pan or microwave.
· Serve the salad at room temp.

Sloppy Joes & White Bean and Roasted Red Pepper Soup

The Food Nanny
March 10 & 11 2009
Meal 1: Sloppy Joe with Artisan Rolls, Roasted Potato and Carrot Hash, & Wilted Spinach
· Heat the hash at 350° until hot and lightly sizzling, about 15 minutes.
· Warm the Joe in a sauce pan with a little additional water if necessary. Warm the rolls in the oven too.
· To wilt the spinach: heat a little olive oil or butter in a saute pan over medium heat. When nearly hot, add a little minced garlic if you like and then the spinach. Stir it immediately and add perhaps a splash of water. When the spinach has wilted and become bright green (less than 3 minutes) it is ready to be served immediately. Alternately, dress the spinach as a salad.

Meal 2: White Bean and Roasted Red Pepper Soup, Pesto Fusilli with Chevre, and Broccoli Salad
· Warm the pasta in the oven at 350 until just warm – about 10 minutes.
· Heat the soup in a sauce pan with some water to thin it, we prepared it in a concentrated form. Adjust the salt and pepper seasoning.
· Serve the broccoli salad at room temp.

Local Notes:
"Fresh is always better..."
"Chevre this week, and last ? But Prairie Fruits, our local/ only cheesemaker isn't producing yet. How did you get some ? Did you compromise ? Did the local thing break down ?"
No. All is well. The chevre is from Prairie Fruits. You see we did the unconventioal manouvre of planning ahead for our members. We asked Leslie to let us know when their last batch of the season was going to be made and we ordered a winter's supply worth. Then, we froze it. It freezes beautifully, nearly perfectly. Like so many of our local foods, besides innate characteristics of the cheese that allow it to freeze well, the initial quality is so high that freezing it is really no compromise at all. I have excavated chickens from my freezer that had been there for 2 years and still have them roast up beautifully ( though I do try to do better). Ideally I try to use meats within 6 months, and vegetables within 1 year.
More restaurants should do this. I would if I had one. I welcome the challenge. The difference in quality from frozen local to fresh industrial would be shocking enough to fuel a meal time revolution in this country. Oh look, it already is...
Vive la resistance!

Technique:
I am So-fritto...

Soffrito is an essential substance, literally. It is not only essential to Italian cooking, but it is the combination of the gustatory essences of onions, garlic, spices, and salt-cured pork.

We forgo pork here at F.N.-HQ for our members prefer kosher-style and vegetarian based cuisine. But not at home. I have been making bacon and pancetta, and now guancale at home for use in our soffritos. A soffrito is the foundation layer of flavor in Italian cooking upon which the rest of the dish is built. It is a technique, a fundamental one; and, as such it has more to offer than any recipe ever will. The essence of the procedure is this:

Dice your pancetta or guancale. Guancale which is pork jowl cured in the manner of pancetta. Also there is a divine product called lardo*. Guess what it is. Bacon is not really a good substitute. Bacon is sweet and a soffrito is decidedly savory. Uncured pork belly would be a better choice. I cure my jowls and bellies with fennel, garlic, corriander, juniper, red chile, etc. and salt. Very aromatic, vegetal, savory flavors. But I digress.

Fry the diced pork in a little olive oil, as these salt cured products do not render easily. When the cubes are rendering and mid-browning, add your onion and garlic, and perhaps some sage and red pepper flake.

Wow, I definitely made that sound harder than it is. To summarize: just fry up some special pork fat, and garlic, onions, herbs and spices. Cook till it looks nummy ( Yes, nummy. You know what I mean.) and then add what ever else you are cooking. Add tomato product and get - tada-tomato sauce for pasta, pizza, what have you. Add white beans, veggies and broth-tada- soup. Add fresh zucchini, eggplant, and tomato with some basil-tada- summer on a plate. But we are hardly to spring yet.

So, what did we do about omitting the pork for the soffrit so important to translating the essential flavors Italian umami (deliciousness) into our soup this week? We upped the olive oil content. But we also made a special spice mix that helped to assemble those essential flavors and get them into the onion, garlic, and oil. Additionally the oil was guarded from excess heat during the soffrito process so its more delicate flavors would not be ruined by the cooking process. Ordinarily olive oil is avoided for the pan roasting of foods as it burns at a low temp and its flavor values are lost. Best to buy good olive oil and use it to finish dishes. So, we tried to honor the basic technique and flavor objectives with slight substitutions and variations. We hope you enjoy it!

*Lardo
I am becoming an afficianodo of fat. I have a fat collection. ( I also collect salt for those of you wondering what to surprise me with). It includes the regulars like bacon fat and schmaltz, but it is recently enhanced with this amazing slice of heaven called lardo - savory, cured fatback.
More importantly, this lardo, an incredibly gracious gift from our beloved Eric, is cut from Berkshire hogs raised or finished on acorns. Yes, acorns. Their effect is beyond belief. The fat is rich and nutty with a sonorous mouth feel that just reverberates powerful sweet salty savory notes across your palate. It is one of the best things I have ever tasted and it is being produced by an artisan in Iowa under the name La Quercia.
This is world class stuff, literally. I have tried the famed Iberian jamon imported from Spain and retailing for $160/ lbs. This blew that out of the water ( granted the retailer may have mishandled it, or the product could have suffered during export). And while not cheap, is a good value at $15-$30/ lbs. I think $60 worth of mixed goods like some lardo, some guancale, and some copa, would last you 6 months to a year. Its efficient, potent stuff.

Frittata and Miso Hot Pot

The Food Nanny
March 3 & 4 2009
Meal 1: Spinach, Roasted Red Pepper and Chevre Frittata, Mini Baguette, and an Early Spring Salad
· Warm the frittata gently at 350° until it is warm through, about 20 minutes.
· Warm the baguette, and dress the salad – enjoy!
Meal 2: Miso Soup Hot-Pot and Futomaki Salad
· Take the noodles and vegetables out and allow them to come to room temp if you have the time.
· Heat the soup to a near boil and allow it to hold at that stage for a few minutes. Transfer the noodles etc. into serving bowls or a central tureen and pour the hot broth over them. Allow the soup to steep for a few minutes so the vegetables cook. Dress the soup with soy, or sesame oil, or hot sauce, or whatever you prefer.
· Serve the rice in side bowls – at room temp.
It is wonderful to know that even in March when most things are dwindling in storage and greens are starting to grow, you can still get local eggs. And what better hope that spring is around the corner than celebrating with the seasonal egg.
We do raise our own chickens here in town, both layers and broilers (eggs and meat) but only enough for home use. These beauties however were produced by Moore Family Farm, whom you may visit for your own eggs, this coming Spring.
In defense of Spring, and despite todays 31 degree high, we do in fact have some crocuses and even daffodils just poking their noses above the soil - so here's to harbingers!