Split Pea Soup and Sweet Potato-Meatloaves

Meal 1:Split Pea Soup, Semolina Rolls, Escarole and Spinach Salad• Warm the soup in a saucepan. Thin if necessary.

• Warm the roll and dress the salad.

Meal 2: Sweet Potato Loaves, Chic Pea Salad with Chevre, Roasted Cauliflower
• Warm the loaves and cauliflower in the oven. Allow the loaves to begin sizzling – the vegetarian ones will not, so heat to warm – about 10 minutes.
• Serve the salad at room temp.

NOTES:

• This roll is an homage to the bread from Sarcone's Bakery at 9th and Christian in Philadelphia's Italian Market. http://www.weblaunchsolutions.com/sarconesbakery/index.html Their bread is the best as they combine sesame and semolina.  My first memory of independence was being given the money to go and the bread one morning, and having enough extra to get myself a mini loaf.  It was a foggy, cool morning and the loaf steamed as I tore it open and ate the whole thing plain on the walk back to meet my parents.  Get there early or they sell out by 10:30am every day.

 Meal 1:Butternut Squash and Black Bean Empanadas, Red Rice with Pepitas, & Creamed Corn

• Carefully cut the wrap and open the empanadas. Warm them in the oven at 350 until hot and just crisp - about 10 minutes. Do be careful to not burn them!
• Warm the corn in a saucepan. Thin if necessary. It is dairy free, but feel free to add a little butter cream etc. to enrich it.
• Heat the rice in a sauté pan with a little oil and then a splash of water.

Meal 2: White Bean Florentine with Kale, Oat Flour Peasant Loaves, Green Oakleaf Salad
• Heat the stew in a sauce pan, thin is necessary. Heat to just simmering. Do not over-cook the kale.
• Warm the bread and dress the salad.

Notes:

• The empanadas are delicate so please be careful.
• I like the soup.  Good 'Italian' flavor.  The roasted red peppers are a nice counter point to the earthiness of the beans, kale, and carrot. I'm adding some Moore's sausage and our homemade meatballs to our own tonight.
• Summers hard work pays off in this appearance of both the peppers and the side of creamed corn.  The brothfor the corn comes from the white bean stock - adding protien as well as body.

Line 'em up and knock 'em out.

Roasted Roots and A Country French Dinner

Meal 1:Roasted Beet Borscht, Golden Pumpkin Crescent Rolls, Oakleaf Lettuce Salad

• Warm the rolls in the oven and dress the salad.
• Warm the soup in a saucepan and garnish with yogurt or sour cream.

Meal 2: Potato and Spinach Frittata, Creamy French Lentils, Roasted Carrot Medley
• Heat frittata gently in the oven at 300° until just warm ~ 15-20 minutes. Ditto the carrots, but maybe give them a 5 minute head start.
• Heat the lentils in a saucepan. Garnish with a little grated romano type cheese if you like.


Notes:

• Yeah, I know Frittata is a Spanish name but I refuse to call it 'Egg Bake" and its not a quiche, but its still country.  And really, the lentils say it all.  G-d I love them. Add some goose fat if you have it.
• The borscht is made from roasted beets and other vegetables.  Unfortunately a little parsnip goes a long way and I think the flavor took over on this one.
• I know not everyone likes to eat beets, but man are they pretty!  Just peeling and cutting them was an aesthetic experience, and roasted, they are divine.  No other vegetable combines earthiness with sweetness like beets.

Two Curries and Stuffed Flatbread, Plus Sweet Potato Pot Pie

Meal 1:Channa Dal, Aloo Paratha with Spinach, Blue Moon Carrots in Coconut MIlk


• Separately, heat the dal and carrots in saucepans, or in a microwave. You may enjoy these with some rice.
• Heat the paratha in a very hot oven for about 10 minutes.


Meal 2: Biscuit Topped Sweet Potato Pot Pie, Mixed Greens, Black Bean and Rice Salad

• Heat pot pie at 350° until just bubbling ~ 15-20 minutes. Place the biscuits on top and heat 2-4 minutes more.
• Dress the salad and serve the rice/ beans at room temp.

 
Notes:

• In addition to their great carrots, Blue Moon delivered us these sweet potatoes too.
• I know our paratha lacks the authentic appearance and smoke of a real tandoor bread, but it should still be quite good sopping up the curries, or on its own.

Big Fat Burritos & Pasta Fagioli

The Food Nanny

November 16/17 2010

Meal 1:: Black Bean Soup and Spinach-Pumpkin Big Fat Burrito

• Unwrap the burrito and place it seam side down on a cookie Tray. Warm it in the oven at 325 for 10 -15 minutes or until warmed. Or use a microwave.

• Heat the soup in a sauce pan, stirring it often until it simmers.

Meal 2 Pasta Fagioli, Red Pepper and Broccoli Fougasse, Mixed Greens
• Heat the pasta in the fougasse at 325° until just hot ~ 10 minutes.
• Heat the soup in a saucepan and thin if necessary, adjust the seasoning if you do.
• Dress the greens and serve.

Thai Curry with Broccoli and Two Bean Soup with Kale

Meal 1: Thai Curry with Broccoli and Baked Tofu, Spring Rolls, and Jasmine Rice with Chili Oil

• Heat the curry to a simmer in a saucepan. Add the broccoli and Tofu and steep for 1-2 minutes. Serve over the room temp rice immediately OR
• Quickly stir fry the rice with a splash of water to heat it through and serve on the side. It is fine on the side at room temp also.
• Carefully unwrap the roll from its plastic. Serve chilled. Drizzle with a little soy/sesame oil/ fish sauce if you like.

Meal 2: Two Bean Soup with Kale, Mixed Greens, and Whole Wheat Pasta Bake
• Heat the pasta in the oven at 325° until just hot ~ 10 minutes. Be careful not to let the edges brown.
• Heat the soup in a saucepan and thin if necessary, adjust the seasoning if you do.
• Dress the greens and serve.

Notes:
Very happy with the tofu - this is what I wanted to do last time.
The Kale is fantastic, we will push it in upcoming menues.

Meal 1: Herb and Chevre Risotto, Savory Brioche, Roasted Root Vegetables


• Warm the vegetables in the oven for about 10 minutes at 325°. Warm the brioche in there too.
• To heat the risotto heat some water or broth in a sauce pan. About 1/2 cup per portion. When simmering add the cold risotto and stir. Add more hot liquid as necessary to obtain a porridge consistency. When hot add some butter, milk/ cream, parmesan cheese, truffle oil etc. as you like. Definitely adjust for salt and serve immediately.


Meal 2: Caballero's Pie, Mixed Greens and Quinoa-Pepita Salad

• Heat the casserole in the oven at 350° until bubbly 15-20 minutes.
• Dress the greens and serve the quinoa salad at room temp.

 
Notes:
The brioch dough was new to me and took some working-out Luckily, their taste more than makes up for their trailing aesthetics.
Do not over-work the risotto.  The batch size got away from me a bit and the heat carried off the stove further than I like.  Ideally I would have sent you risotto 3/4 finished and needing about 5 minutes of stove time.  This is ready for heat and eat.

Miso Hot Pot and Smashing Pumpkins

Meal 1: Miso Hot Pot with Joi Choi, Hakuri Turnip, and Tofu & Soba Noodles with Yellow Carrots and Misato Radish

• Serve the noodles chilled, directly from their container.

• Heat the miso soup to hot but not boiling. DO NOT boil miso! When hot, tip in the vegetables and allow to steep for a minute or two and then serve immediately. Garnish with a little chile oil or sesame oil if you like.

Meal 2: Pumpkin Pan Roast with Seeded Whole Wheat Challah Knots, and Broccoli Salad

• Warm the pan roast in a sauce or sauté pan. Add just a splash of water if necessary.

• Warm the bread.

• Serve the salad at room temp, but season it with a little extra salt – we limited this to prevent wateriness.

 
Notes:
I'd like to cut, marinate and bake the tofu next time.
The pumpkin used is the blue Jarrahdale.  The one below it is called Long Island Cheese.  Both are great eaters, but the Jarrahdale is superiour b/c of fine texture and flavorful sweetness.
Misato radish sliced thin and dipped in soy sauce is a great, healthy 'crunchy-salty' snackfood.  Get one this week.

General Tso's Tofu & Kohlrabi Soup

The Food Nanny
October 19/20 2010

Meal 1: General Tso’s Tofu with Broccoli and Soy Beans, Fried Brown and Red Rice, Napa Cabbage Slaw
• Serve the slaw at room temp.
• Add some oil to a sauté pan and heat it until just smoking. Add the fried rice and stir fry for a minute or two to heat it through. Remove to a platter.
• Re- oil and heat the pan to just smoking. Add the broccoli and tofu then shake the sauce vigorously and add it to the pan. Cook and stir until the sauce is thickened and the entire dish is hot – 2-3 minutes. Serve immediately.

Meal 2: Kohlrabi Soup with Mixed Greens and Anadama Corn Bread with Quinoa
• Warm the soup in a saucepan.
• Toast the bread and dress the salad.

Potato PIzza and Curried Split Peas

Meal 1: Rosemary/ Potato Pizza, White Bean Salad, Mixed Greens

• Heat the pizza in the oven at 325° for 10-12 minutes, or until warm.
• Serve the beans at room temp.

• Dress the salad and serve.

Meal 2: Curried Split Peas, Brown Rice Biryani, Cabbage-Yogurt Pickle

• Warm the curry in a saucepan. Do thin with some water and adjust the seasoning.

• Heat the rice in a microwave or in a sauté pan with a little oil and then a splash of water to steam it through.

• Serve the pickle chilled.

Sweet Potato Loaves and Black Bean Soup with Tamales

Meal 1: Sweet Potato Loaves, Red Beans and Rice & Mixed Greens


• Heat the loaves in the oven at 350° for 10-15 minutes, or until hot.
• Saute the rice and beans in a pan with some butter or olive oil and a splash of water until just hot.
• Dress the salad and serve.


Meal 2: Black Bean Soup, Beef or Cheese Tamale, Yellow Rice Salad

• Warm the soup in a saucepan.
• Heat the tamale in a microwave or in a basket steamer for about 5 minutes to heat through.
• Serve the rice at room temp or heat it in a sauté pan as above.

A Marriage of Sweet and Savory

Meal 1: Savory Apple & Chevre Tart, Mixed Greens and Orzo with Broccoli

• Heat the tart in the oven at 325° for 10 minutes, or until just warm.

• Dress the salad and serve the pasta at room temp.

Meal 2: Equinox Stew, Savory Noodle Kugel, & Whole Wheat-Honey Knots

• Warm the stew in a saucepan. Check the seasoning, it may need some salt – sorry.

• Warm the kugel gently, in the oven at 300° for about 15 mintes or until just warm.

• Warm the knots too.

White Bean Koftas and Chili with Cornbread

Meal 1: Two-Bean Chili, Cornbread Squares, Barley Salad


• Warm the chili in a saucepan.

• Warm the cornbread in the oven.

• Serve the barley salad chilled.



Meal 2: White Bean and Eggplant Koftas with Cous Cous and Sesame Green Beans

• Heat the koftas in the oven at 350° for 15 minutes, or until hot.

• Season the green beans with salt and serve them and the cous cous at room temp.

What Is the Value of Artisanal Food

“We learn from our gardens to deal with the most urgent question of our time: How much is enough?”
Wendell Berry, The Reactor and the Garden. 1979

Please don’t be mislead into thinking that global warming is the most pressing ecological issue of our age. First of all, global warming is a projection, a guess at the future and thus left best within the care and credibility of astrologers. Global climate change however is a fact, and, having studied the discipline, not one we should welcome. Secondly, global climate change is a symptom and not a cause of our ecologic catastrophe.
What, then is the cause? The driver to desertification, rising sea levels, unprecedented species extinction rates, radically augmented atmospheric composition, contaminated surface and ground waters, crashing and mercury tainted fish stocks, epidemic cancer rates, rampant deforestation, and the overall decline in the capacity of self renewal (health) of our bios is: us. Not as a species inherently. But you and me. Us. Our consumption. I mean, if it ain’t mined, it’s grown. Right? And don’t blame the third world. That’s bullshit. I fault them for no more than their foolish willingness to adopt our consumerism so desperately, and with such glibness.
The main impetus for greed, destruction, the abortion of our progeny’s future is consumerism. It is THE environmental problem. And, it is entirely in our minds.
In this way, our environmental crisis is a spiritual problem requiring a change or heart more than anything else. To paraphrase my above quoted hero: The energy crisis in not due to a lack of fuel source, but due to a lack of moral fortitude, and a weakness of character.

*            *             *

One of the great constraints on artisanship is the juxtaposition of quality and quantity. These two, in this case, are inversely related, and the artisan too must be concerned with ‘How much is enough?’ Industrial food, and the ‘food service industry’ is entirely unconcerned with such a balance despite what any advertisement may claim. The investors and complicitors of these businesses see only growth and make sacrificial worship to the mythical beast Infinite Growth.
An artisan business is not necessarily growth driven. It may grow, and have growth incentives, but in reality it is in fact driven by the deep personal need to create and make. The business must be productive enough to produce a fair living, yet without the limiting control of quality the food falls from artisanal grace. Moreover artisanal food should not be consumptive of people and places; it does not destroy them in the wake of its own ‘progress.’ Rather, in its use of materials and talents, it should create opportunities, apprenticeships, and markets for others to explore and occupy from year to year and generation to generation. Akin to a garden, artisanal food makes people and places productive in a wholesome and productive way that “speaks powerfully of the abundance of the world” and also demonstrates that abundance is limitless, given moderated and responsible use.

G’ amar Yom Tov. May you all have a powerful and meaningful season.

Late Summer Bounty

Meal 1: Tortilla Soup with Kidney Bean Enchiladas and Arroz Amarillo


• Warm the soup in a saucepan. You may want to add some hot sauce.
• Heat the enchis and rice in the oven at 350° until just hot – 10-15 minutes.

Meal 2: Indian Summer Pot Pie with a Biscuit Top, Mixed Greens and Green Bean Salad

• Heat the pot pie in the oven at 350° for 15-20 minutes, or until just bubbly. Drop the biscuits on top and heat for 2 minutes more.
• Dress the salad.

• Serve the green beans chilled.

L'Shana Tovah

Meal 1: Moroccan Chic Pea Stew, Challah Turbans, Apple Tzimmus

• Warm the stew in a saucepan. Add some water if necessary and adjust the seasoning
• Heat the tzimmus in the oven at 350° until just bubbly.

• Warm the challah and enjoy with butter and honey.

Meal 2: Whole Wheat Ziti with Roasted Eggplant and Red Peppers & Mixed Greens

• Heat the pasta dish in the oven at 325° for 15-20 minutes, or until hot.

• Dress the salad.

The Food Nanny

August 31,32 2010

Meal 1: Stir Fried Chinese Eggplant with Garlic Sauce and Sweet Potato Noodles

• Rinse the noodles under cold water until they separate and become manageable. Drain. Warm them by: plunging in hot water, microwaving with a dash of water, in a steamer, or pan fry them in a hot pan with a little oil. Dress them with a little soy sauce and sesame oil if you like. Transfer them to a serving plate.

• Heat a sauté pan to very hot and add a little oil. Being careful to avoid letting too much liquid into the pan, add the vegetables and stir them around a bit. Now, shake the sauce very vigorously and add it to the pan. Add the remaining liquor from the veggies. Stir and let the sauce simmer until the eggplant are soft and the sauce has thickened. Add a little water if necessary to allow the eggplant the time to cook before the sauce becomes too thick.

• Serve atop the noodles.

Meal 2: Bouillabaisse Illinwa, Whole Wheat Knots a la Pistu & Mixed Greens

• Warm the stew in a saucepan. Add some water if necessary and adjust the seasoning.

• Warm the knots and dress the salad.

What Makes Food Artisanal ?

Continued from August 21, 2010

So, who is an artisan? An artisan sees the beauty in what they do whether it is writing computer code, day trading, or making chocolate from cacao. Artisanal work is a product of mind, body, and spirit: we consider it, we labor to make it, and it refelects something about our character be it aesthetic, idealogical, or perceptual. As you mature your works shape your character and your character influences your products. It becomes you.

Now, what makes food artisanal? Is it product quality, provenance,… packaging? I suppose the answer is all of these. Recall Dan’s bars: the labels printed from drawings onto heavy paper, a hand formed jacket of wax paper around the bar itself, and finally the chocolate – well made, consistent, true to form, and delicious. My personal favorite had the coffee beans studded into it. Moreover, I observed that the chocolate became a favorite item for people to give to others. Our first taste of Flatlander chocolate was from a gift bar. We received and gave others too. What a beautiful life of their own.

An artisan cook then is taking care of all aspects of their profession from conception to consumption – they have become or aspire to be, consummate. But also, their food is able to become something in itself, something perhaps beyond its creator’s intention. Maybe it becomes a symbol or a tradition or habit or a hobby or an inspiration for others. That is perhaps the ultimate expression of artisanship, for nothing is greater in cooking and eating than transformation, be it the communion of ingredient into food or death into life.

(The pits.

Sorry, low hanging fruit.

Again! Oh, somebody stop me...)

Back To School

August 24, 2010

"Back to school, back to school,
To prove to Dad that I'm no fool.

I've got my lunch, my shoes tied tight,

I hope I don't get in a fight.

Oh back to school, back to school."

 

Meal 1: Mac N’ Cheese, Cream of Tomato Soup, Blue Moon Mixed Greens

• Warm the Mac gently~300° for 10-15 until just hot.

• Heat the soup, grate some romano (Prairie Fruits Mollisol is great) on top for a treat.

• Dress the greens.

Meal 2: Nacho Grande

• Warm the beans/rice in the microwave or an oven (325° for 10-15).

• Flash (sauté quickly) the vegetables in a hot, oiled pan and season with a pinch of salt.

• Place the nacho’s atop the warmed casserole, add the vegetables atop of them and dress with a little fresh cheese, yogurt, or sour cream plus piquant condiments of your choice! Dig in.

Thinking About An Artisan

 

     The other night I shared a bar of Dan’s memorial chocolate with my family and some friends – the first I had eaten since the pieces distributed at the co-op memorial on July 28th. That night, he visited me in a dream. I recall clearly his face and the feeling of his arm as he placed it around my shoulders and inclined his face to my ear. He assured me and encouraged us. The sensation of this is still clear from the reverie. My cooking work is often solitary and there is a lot of time to contemplate; Dan, and his perspectives, are in my thoughts considerably these days. In particular: What is an artisan, and what makes food artisanal, and what is its value?

     First of all, I think, an artisan needs to be a professional. It is not enough for him to be just a talented amateur. His work and his livelihood must be intimately linked. The professional accepts the risk of the art; he may fail either in execution, or in business. Either way, their livelihood is at stake when they work, and that means something.

   

  Secondly, there is a prerequisite of practice and permeation. Despite being a professional the artisan practices even when not working; and, the degree to which they execute this balance (see the Razor’s Edge) will affect their style and proficiency. An example would be an artisan fishing guide who still fishes in his own time. He thinks about fish as well as fishing. He ties flies, and studies rivers in all times of day, through all times of year. His fishing is in his mind and work. His life is permeated by his work. An artisan farmer really loves good vegetables and loves to eat them. Her farm reflects her mind. Her food is both beautiful and potent. She knows that when she sits down to a meal of her hard work she feels it in her hands and back and heart, and she knows that she is privy to the delicacy of vivaciousness that few know.

     Inasmuch, a professional cook who loathes his job, and there are many, for good reasons, cannot be an artisan regardless of his talent. Can someone who doesn’t even like cucumbers grow and market them well? Well, an aficionado of pickles knows what to favor and cultivate in terms of variety, trellising, harvest maturity, and storage to ensure maximum pickling pleasure. Can we not assume that the antithesis would fare worse? And herein lies the rub: pleasure. The artisan is a professional who seeks above all to be pleased by his work.

Next Week: What makes food artisanal?

Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho & Veggie Burgers

The Food Nanny

August17/18 2010

Meal 1: Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho, Portuguese Broa, Chic Peas with Feta

• Serve the soup chilled.
• Warm the broa in the oven.
• Serve the chic peas at room temp.

Meal 2: Veggie Burgers on Challah Rolls, Mixed Greens, Melon Salad

• Heat the burgers in the oven until hot, about 10 minutes at 325°. Toast the roll.

• Dress the salad and serve the melon chilled

Guerrilla Food

I’ll never forget the summer that Max & Me transitioned from its rented retail space to a new catering only location. The lease expired before the remodel was complete and we had several major jobs in the interim. Max set up his home as kitchen central with a reefer truck (bummer of a misnomer BTW) and a small event tent in the side yard as a satellite outpost. I was stationed to the outpost with my favorite collaborateur – a wildcard artist with a Dutch palindrome for a name. We were charged with making a bouillabaisse. The first step was to manually dismember live lobsters, poach their favored appendages, and toss their still twitching cephalothoraxes into smoking hot olive oil to roast for rendering into an über-savory stock. The spattery, smoky, marine life/burning hair like aroma coupled with the dynamism of watching these animals die while their protinaceous exoskeleton denatured from mottled blue-green to cliché red is my fondest memory of geurilla cooking. You see – what we were doing was patently non-compliant, and like roasting a whole lamb, so wholly visceral and engaging as to be native to us, instinctual. Cuisine au natural. It’s hard to believe, over 10 years later, that the place or the man ever recovered.

The guerrilla kitchen as we came to call it was transitional and soon the new and present home of Max Hansen Catering was opened. Life returned from organized chaos to just abnormal. Those eventful weeks were during July and August of 1998 and they harken of the even more outdated summer kitchen’s of yore. Have you ever considered the divine irony in canning season? The year’s greatest glut arrives with the year’s most intense heat and somehow this is the condition that is supposed to inspire us to say “ Yes! Let’s fire up the whole stove so we can simmer, and boil, and steam great vats of produce and sterile jars!” Suddenly, the idea of having a kitchen located outside, vented by the breeze, sanitized by the sun, and equipped with the modern advances of running water and portable fuel, appears as a vision of loveliness to those inclined towards a kitchencentric life. It is in this vein that we are opening up the CSK and its many resources, including a soon to be constructed patio, to the public. We have giant grills and giant pots. We own a beast of a pressure canner and a commercial range plus a couple of portable propane side burners. We have a giant colander, bus tubs, three chest freezers, a pasta maker….basically, a lot of stuff that makes summer processing easier, plus know how to offer the neophyte. 

Please Join Us! On August 21, bring your own produce and containers to our home and join us in making the most of our resources to make the most of the season.  All people Welcome, the more the merrier, though we will be limiting numbers due to space. For More Details click the Kitchencentric Life Tab at the top and to reserve a spot email: foodnanny(at)gmail(dot)com

Heirloom Tomato Pizzas & Curried Eggplant

The Food Nanny

August10/11 2010

Meal 1: Heirloom Tomato, Chevre, & Rustic Pesto Deep Dish Pizza with Blue Moon Mixed Greens

• Warm the pizza gently in the oven at about 300° until warmed.

• Serve the salad dressed.

Meal 2: Curried Eggplant with Biryani and Grilled Summer Squash Salad.

• Warning: this food contains whole spices such as star anise. Look out for and avoid them! (The coriander and cumin are OK)

• Heat the curry on the stovetop.

• Warm the biryani in a sauté pan with a little water to steam it through – or in a microwave. Room temp is fine too.

• Enjoy this salad at room temp or heated in the same manner as the biryani.

Mystery

Please pardon the following brashness. I can’t claim to have known Daniel H. Schreiber very well; but, I cannot here again write without full pretense if I do not now take a moment to acknowledge and grieve his passing.

Some say once you're gone you're gone forever, and some say you're gonna come back.

Some say you rest in the arms of the Savior if in sinful ways you lack.

Some say that they're comin' back in a garden, bunch of carrots and little sweet peas.

I think I'll just let the mystery be.

-Iris DeMent “Let the Mystery Be”

Oh Daniel,

Your death is a mystery to me.
You knew so many of us. Yet you left us completely stunned. What had we missed?
What was paining you?

You looked worn, harried the last day I saw you. I assumed that it was the normal toll of business.
At our parting moment though, your eyes each looked into a different part of space.
Please pardon me for my shallowness, my self involvement.
I last saw you on Saturday the 24th. Your birthday I later learned.

I imagine the impossibility of knowing the depths of a person’s innermost self and then I consider knowing yours.
So, where does the blame fit?
Perhaps right next to the reason.

I looked around at your memorial.
We are the people who should apparently all know and work with each other aren’t we?
Did you perhaps bring us together for a reason better than sadness?

What I can do?
Be braver, for life is short, so make things happen, like amends, even when it’s tough.
Be active with others. Work hard, but also work with friends.
Be nicer. You were a helluva guy. 

Your death will always remain a mystery to me.
-Yours

P.S.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlaoR5m4L80&NR=1

Summer Squash Latkes & Big Fat Burritos

The Food Nanny

August3/4 2010

Meal 1: Summer Squash Latkes, Cucumber-Yogurt Salad, Persian Rice

• Mix the latke batter and season it with salt. This was omitted to avoid wateriness. Heat a generous amount of oil (not olive) in a sauté pan. When hot and nearly smoking add a dollop to the pan and flatten with the back of the spoon. Portion 3 latkes per share. After about 2 minutes flip the latkes and cook the other side. It should be golden brown. Serve hot.

• When the latkes are done add some olive oil to the pan and heat it to medium hot. Add the rice and quickly fry it to heat it up and make it unctuous.

• Serve the cucumber salad chilled.

Meal 2: Big Fat Burritos and Latin Cole Slaw

• Heat the burrito in the oven at 350° for about 10 or until just hot and toasty.

• Season the slaw with salt as this was omitted to avoid wateriness. Serve the slaw chilled.

Sweet Corn Spanikopita & Ratatoulet

The Food Nanny

July27/28 2010

Meal 1: Sweet Corn Spanikopita, Grilled Tofu-Cherry Tomato Salad, Red Lentil Dolmas

• Warm the spanikopiota in the oven at 350° for 5-10 minutes or until warm- careful to not burn them!

• Serve the other items at room temp.

Meal 2: Ratatoulet, Pain d’Epi, Mixed Greens

• Heat the casserole in the oven at 350° for 10-15 minutes or until just hot.

• Warm the bread and dress the salad

The Razors Edge

And the shark, it has teeth,
And it wears them in its face.
And Macheath, he has a knife,
But the knife cannot be seen.

"Die Moritat von Mackier Messer", full text, English translation

Contigencies
Owning your own business is frightening when you think about. Which most likely happens after you embark upon it. It is not just ‘being your own boss’; it assumes responsibility and risk with reward. And you need a contingency plan. What happens if you get sick or hurt? What if you get injured and can’t work for weeks? If that happened to me it could really scupper our business. What would happen to Food Nanny if we had to shut down 6 weeks for bone to heal?
For the prior let me say this: cooks are physically self deprecating when it comes to working while hurt: it always hurts. I once worked over three, 250K BTU flat top ranges that made my earring hurt my ear and probably helped to age my vision while melting my knees to gelatin – which is probably only fair (see demiglace). Cooks have assembled a persona to protect them from the irrationality of this behavior, and it amounts to a code of honor that drives them to get the food out no matter what. Simply put: If you can’t get dinner out the door each night then you have no business in this business. So we work when hurt, or worse, when ill. This is also done because most cooks make about $12/ hour and none are insured. I now have the luxury of a partner whose growing skill can allow me to bow out of a week or two each year when sick, as well as a schedule that offers recovery time, so I don’t cough and wheeze over your soup.
This past week Kate suffered from an evil spirit of some sort in her lower back. She was utterly incapacitated and is just walking again, and we realized that we need a contingency plan. I was solo parenting. I performed miserably I might add. Would she be OK? Was this a serious injury? Who should we consult? How will we work? Who can help us? But we never questioned cancelling the meals. Dinner would go on.
Mercifully, Kate’s mother Jane was willing to come down from Wisconsin (4 hours!) to hold the walls up for us. Friends volunteered extra day care and Jane expedited the shuttling, whipped our pathetic attempts at laundry into shape, and even jumped behind the line to manage container set up and meal pack out. I wish there was a gold star big enough.
The Razors Edge
But if not this then what? Kate and I both have extensive experience as environmental educators and workshop leaders. I am a baccalaureate geologist with experience at the state survey level. I have produced grant winning agricultural research. Kate is a professional manager with experience in budgets, personnel, and public programming. But you know what? FN is the first job I’ve held that has held me for more than 18 months, as far as I can remember. We’re tacking on year 3 and I love it. If not this then what? There is really no other option because there is nothing we would rather choose.
There is a risk to owning our own business, but for us the risk of NOT owning it substantially outweighs its antecedent. We are of the philosophy that what divides your life from your work, divides you from your life’s work. And for us, each week is a work (but food is NOT art – topic for another day.) We are synergists who strive to bring, for better and worse, all the disparate sections of our lives into tapestry with each other. To do this we walk a ‘razors edge.’ The razor separates success and failure, doing and ignoring, apathy and determination, independence and devotion. The price for this can cut deep, but the reward is happiness and contentment, and satisfaction with ourselves: of having lived up to our own expectations.
Do you know what a vision is? To me, it is a reason to be, and strive, and live, really. Even if your vision is not clear, or continues to change and evolve, just knowing you have one, feeling it there inside you is often enough. A vision is a personal formulation of what you desire and what you believe is your responsibility to achieve. Herein we each strike our individual balance and, pursuing it, grow as people. There are those who skew their visions, or lose it, or worst of all, are robbed of theirs. I believe that one of the greatest ‘environmental’ crises of our age is low self esteem. You see, for us to have lost the caring for ourselves, how can we be expected to care for an other? As a result we suffer from many lost visions. And, a great shame upon those who exploit our self images for their own profit!
That Nutty Noah
I would like to thank my parents for their unquestionably unconditional love. They also lavished us with support and opportunity. They are largely responsible for all the good in me.
But, they may not have always understood me, though not to any discredit on their part. What exactly does one make with an idealistic childhood, a 100K+ education in rocks, a penchant for fishing on Mondays, and a great affection for working for chump change in scullerys? Now add an advanced degree in chicken wrangling and the respectability of a home to maintain. Really, you can hardly blame them. I’m sure at times my life looked about as planned out as a Jackson Pollock.
So what is the CSK to us? It is a great summation of all we have been working on to this point. It is a manifestation of a vision. It is our edifice and our salvation; our providence. Our Ark. I knew about 18 months ago that if the CSK idea flopped due to my own simple letting it slip away, that I would have truly failed. Moreover, I knew that if we were fortunate enough to succeed, then we would have a real opportunity to make a fully legitimate venture of this thing, and to work on a model of operation that is both flexible for us and perhaps useful for others; and, the opportunity to create something potentially greater than ourselves is a great gift. Thank you again for the opportunity to cook.
I am happy to say that the situation seems to have pared out for the best. We showed resiliency to the recent economic shakeups and realized significant growth over the past year hitting the membership target that we set at our inception. Our summer numbers – usually less than the school year for obvious reasons - have held above the indicator level that I picked as a success criteria last spring. We are preparing to grow beyond our initial goal this coming fall and will make available up to 20 more shares. This is our life. This is our business. We walk the razor’s edge.

Sweet Corn and Chic Pea Cakes & Roasted Eggplant Ravioli

The Food Nanny

July20/21 2010

Meal 1: Sweet Corn and Chic Pea Cake, Millet with Currants, Cucumber and Tomato Salad

• Warm the cake(s) in the oven at 350° for 5-10 minutes or until warm.

• Serve the millet at room temp.

• Sprinkle the toms with some salt and toss the salad, serve.

Meal 2: Roasted Eggplant Ravioli with Heirloom Tomato Sauce and Mixed Greens

• Heat the sauce in a sauté pan.

• If the ravs are sticking to each other, gently rinse them with water in their container and then drain. Transfer them to sauce and simmer for a minute or two to heat through. Season with a little salt and serve.

• Dress the salad to accompany the pasta.

Rice Stick & Black Bean and Corn Empanadas

The Food Nanny
July6/7 2010
Meal 1: Rice Stick with Quick Pickled Vegetables, Curried Sweet Corn, and Tofu Satay
• Toss everything together and enjoy the noodles chilled. Chop some toasted peanuts on top if you like.( We omitted them b/c they get soggy and are a common allergen.)
• Heat the satay in the oven/ toaster for about 5 minutes.

• Warm the curry on the stovetop until just simmering. Thin it if necessary. Look out for the oval kaffir lime leaves, but eat the Thai basil like a vegetable in the mix.

Meal 2: Black Bean and Corn Empanadas, Two-Sisters Soup, and Quinoa Salad

• Heat the empanada at 350° until it begins to brown - about 10 minutes.

• Heat the soup or serve it chilled.

• Serve the quinoa salad at room temp.

Grilled Tofu Pita's & Biscuit Top Summer Pot Pie

The Food Nanny
June 29/30 2010
Meal 1: Grilled Tofu Pita’s with Hummous and Swiss Chard & Chilled Cucumber Soup
• Assemble the pita sandwich: warm the tofu if you like, and dress the chiffonade of chard with olive oil and lemon or etc. Spread the hummous to one side of the center of the pita and build everything else on top of it. Fold this onto the other side and there you go: Pita Sandwich!
• Serve the soup either heated or chilled, but why make things hot?

Meal 2: Biscuit Top Summer Pot Pie with Mixed Greens & Barley-Sweet Corn Salad
• Heat the potpie at 350° until it begins to bubble at the edges, 15-20 minutes. Place the biscuits on top and cook for another 3-4 minutes and serve immediately.
• Serve the barley salad at room temp.
• Dress and serve the salad.

The Green Green Grass of Home

If you know me and love me then you know what a kvetch I can be. And, there is a lot to bitch about when it comes to the aesthetics of East Central Illinois. I won’t pull any punches about the paucity of accessible beauty here. For the record, it’s not the ‘flat’ thing. The flat itself is an astounding remnant of continental glaciations that ground nutrient rich limestones into the parents of +12,000 year old grasslands of unparalleled productivity. It’s how the hands of our people have lain upon the flat earth here that leaves us poorer for the effort. If you know me, then you know that I pine for home.

The East Coast of America is a beautiful place, despite, but not invincible to, its population of 40 million. We visited the Connecticut coast of Long Island Sound, and faced the true Atlantic from a New Jersey barrier island. We sucked mountain air from Pennsylvania’s Poconos and visited my stomping grounds of Philly’s Italian Market and the greater Delaware Valley area. We ate seafood: sushi, mussels, fish and chips, fried clam strips, lobster, oysters, garlic crabs, and the piece de resistance: dayboat scallops. If you have never had any of these foods, I urge you: wait until you are out there to do so. Anything else is a facsimile.

We also visited farm markets, an incubating co-op, met an enterprising young couple managing an organic farm, visited with my culinary mentor and a beloved peer. What we learned surprised me. Contrary to that whole West Coast->East Coast->Midwest trend thing, our modest region appears to be a real leader in culturing local eating. For example, while we dished on seafood, we largely abstained from meat while out east. The farmers markets are nascent: two to three years old, but growing well. And, in New Jersey for instance, caterers can’t use eggs from a non-USDA approved site. Here several restaurants use local, state licensed eggs, as do we. We should consider ourselves lucky to have retained what will hopefully become the core of a resurging farming culture (agri-Culture, right?). Back home they have lost most of theirs by now; the valuable land was parceled into mini-estates, starter castles, fashion farms and outright sprawl. Those that remain face high costs of production augmented by limited access to farm resources like feed, tools, and supplies, congested distribution routes, and burdensome taxes. This combo of farm loss and high cost produces a double whammy for young farmers either entering or returning to farm work. It is uphill there (at least they have hills though, right!), but the populace seems willing to buy. Anchor Run CSA whose managers Derek and Dana joined us for homemade pizza one night, have 180 shares in their CSA! That is a massive responsibility. There remain some beautiful, productive holdings in easement or private care that could bring forth really artisanal goods. The professional culinary scene is full of great talents just hungering to get their hands into real food and to get that food in to the mouths of epicures and neophytes both. If you can get it to them, those 40 million souls suddenly look like a great incubator for the food culture that could precipitate so many beneficial changes in our land, home, and country.

In the mean time, I’ll be grateful for what we do have: world class ingredients and farmers without whom we could not do the work we do here.

Grilled Flatbread Pizza & Garlic Scape Stir Fry

The Food Nanny
June 8/9 2010

Meal 1: Grilled Flat Bread Pizza With Chevre and Asparagus, Broccoli Salad, Mixed Greens

• Warm the pizza in the oven, on a cookie tray, at 350° for about 10 minutes.

• Serve the broccoli chilled.

• Dress and serve the salad.

Meal 2: Garlic Scape Stir Fry, Fried Rice, Sesame Snow Peas
• Heat a sauté pan with a little oil to smoking hot. Add the rice and stir it. Add a dash of oil to steam it through and transfer the rice to a serving platter. Now heat the pan again and add the raw scape pieces. Don’t worry, they smell much stronger than they taste. Stir fry them for a m inute or two. They should pick up a light char color. Now, add the rest of the veggies, add a dash of soy sauce and serve atop the rice.
• Serve the peas at room temp.

Shoot Me

This past week's meals were fuled by produce imorted from Minneapolis.
"What about the local food jive you hypocrite !?!", you shout.
Well, I happened to be there for a wedding, so when it Rome...buy pea shoots.
Menneapolis, and the Upper Midwest in general has been well settled in recent decades by the Hmong people of Laos.  Many of them farm, and vend at the local markets; and, if you look during your drive you can see their rented plots tucked into pockets of larger, cash grain holdings.  They offer a variety delicacies, some of which may be novel to you.  The types of brassica/ chois for example is a study in varietal diversity.
One of my favorite items is pea shoots - flowers and all.  Honestly, they beat the pods in flavor, and yield.  I guess the protien is the kicker for the peas though, huh?  Anyway, they are just wonderful raw as a salad green or in a kick-ass sandwich, but their true delight is in being stir-fried, so I hope you gave 'em the high heat treatment, wilted their substantial structure a bit, and et 'em smokin' hot. 
Pea shoots have the great abitily to capture wok hay (breath of the wok) also thought of as wok chi.  If you have ever had truly good stir fry, you know what I mean - it is that charrish, rich aroma from stir fried foods delivered to you while the live heat of the pan is still in the food.  It is very hard to replicate at home without a 50,000 BTU pit style wok burner of you own.  But with a rocking hot, heavy saute ( NOT a wok!) pan gathering your flat flame onto its flat bottom, stir fried pea shoots will get you very close.  I don't know what it is , but there is something inherently etherial about peas: their blue/ green, their flavor, their season -and they seem to luff that vapor of life into your mouth when you eat them right out of the pan.  Do this and notice how, by the end of the meal the flavor of the shoots remaining will have changed.

Chic Pea Patties & Pasta Bake

The Food Nanny
June 1 & 2 2010

Meal 1: Chic Pea Patties on Challa Rolls, Kohlrabi Soup, & Pea Shoots

• Warm the patties in the oven, on at 350° for about 10 minutes. Split the rolls and toast them for the last 5 minutes.
• Heat the soup on the stovetop or enjoy it equally well as a chilled soup.
• The pea shoots can be either dressed and eaten as a salad or quickly sautéed until just wilted. Serve immediately.

Meal 2: Spinach & Shells w/Chevre Arribiata Sauce, Whole Wheat Italian Bread, Mixed Greens

• Heat the pasta casserole in the oven at 325° for about 15-20 minutes until it is hot through and the cheese is well melted.
• Warm the bread.
• Dress and serve the salad.

Spring Carrots and Asparagus Fougasse

Meal 1: Dal Makhani, Curried Spring Carrots, Grilled Naan

• Warm naan gently in the oven -300 for about 10 minutes.
• Heat the dal and curry on the stovetop. You may want to thin the dal a little. Finish it with yogurt, butter, and/or or cream if you like.
• Consider making some rice to serve with this.

Meal 2: Pasta Fagioli with Grilled Greens, Asparagus Fougasse, Mixed Greens
• Heat the fougasse in the oven at 325 for about 10 minutes – enough to just warm it.
• Heat the fagioli on the stovetop. Add a little water and adjust the seasoning
• Dress and serve the salad.

Asparagus Bisque & Big Fat Burritos

The Food Nanny

May18/19 2010

Meal 1: Asparagus Bisque, Savory Bread Pudding, & an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie

Warm the bread pudding gently in the oven -300 for about 10 -15 minutes in the oven.

Heat the soup.

Eat the cookie last!

 

Meal 2: The Big Fat Burrito and Blue Moon Mixed Greens

Heat the burrito in the oven at 325 for about 10 minutes.

Dress and serve the salad.

Ravioli Primavera and Stir Fry

May11/12
Meal 1: Swiss Chard Ravioli with Rapini , Sesame Bread Twists, Mixed Greens
• Warm the bread in the oven.
• Toss, dress and serve the salad.
• To heat the ravioli: Gently remove the ravs to a pot of simmering water. Its OK if they stick – they will separate. Plunge them only for a minute or so and drain. Heat the rapini mixture in a little olive oil and when hot add the ravioli. Toss to coat everything evenly and serve.

Meal 2: Stir Fried Vegetables with Toyko 5 Grain Mix and Asparagus Spring Rolls.
• Add the vegetables to a hot pan with a little oil in it. Toss once or twice to heat it through. Remove to a serving plate.
• Heat the 5 grains (millet, amaranth, quinoa, red and brown rice) in the same pan adding a little water to steam it through. Dress with soy sauce and serve.
• Serve the spring roll as is, chilled.

Batting 1.000

Well, it is the return of the baseball analogy season. Oh, and there are a bunch of adults running in circles and swatting sticks at leather wrapped wads of rag too.
The Holy Grail of any performer is ‘batting a thousand.’ The beauty of this goal is its impossibility, and what is more beautiful than a paradox? Now, while I do not consider cooking an art, nor myself an artist ( Food as Art: topic for another day ), I would call my aspirations artisanal. In essence I work as a craftsman to make meals to the best of my ability and with respect to the ingredients. These meals should convey the integrity of the styles and techniques employed, the season, and the captured but unencumbered flavor of the ingredients themselves. But I am not trying to make conceptualized statements about ideas, experiences, emotions, or things.
So, back to the topic: for the artisan, natural variation is a bitch.
When I was an apprentice I initially balked at the weight placed upon doing the same thing the same over and over again. ‘Be free, flaky, and inspired!’ my naïve ego countered to my master’s blunt “Do it like this. Now do it like this 500 times.” For years I cooked without recipes – by feel, instinct, and memory alone. And my goal is still to get home cooks to do without recipes. But, as I have begun to master my own craft, and craft my own style, I am becoming dogmatic about weighing everything, recording my efforts, writing my recipes, and annotating those recipes when I modify them.
Why? What is the impetus behind this shift. Well, for one thing I’ve got more on my mind these days. For another, my once photographic memory has been corroded into a crappy Polaroid from the bottom of an attic storage box. But really, the answer is this: natural variation is a bitch.
Someone told me this story: Alice Waters was speaking to a fundraising group. “Dinner at Chez Panisse will always be good,” she said. “Sometimes it will be sublime. Sometimes it will just be excellent, but it will always be good.” Get it? Natural variation just happens and as an artisan you want to minimize the amplitude within that variation – and consistency is the most effective tool to achieve that.
That being said, I was not happy with last week’s meals. Sure, E for effort but B- ,at best, for execution. That’s the risk we share and it underscores the CSK relationship of you and I. Some meals will be great, some will just be OK, but they will all be good. They will feature outstanding local foods. We will put our best effort into preparing them. But some ideas just don’t pan out. Some don’t transport or finish at home well. Sometimes what worked last time varies just enough to come out not quite as good this time. Often I can feel it – I can feel how the food will come out. It’s like taking a swing. Sometimes every hit’s a smash, and sometimes it’s just a dribbler off the end of the bat.
We once were given the very kind criticism that we do not repeat dishes often enough. There was too much variation in our meals. Home meals, they told us, should be familiar, consistent. We’ve taken this to heart and try to repeat dishes seasonally or quarterly, but in general I like the challenge of presenting you with new, inspired meals. Besides, menu redundancy seems like cheating. Membership is not for everyone and ultimately we have unintentionally selected for people who like the surprise every week, who enjoy the adventure of being “on the bus” with the Food Nanny. Nonetheless, it is like home cooking. Not everything will be your favorite, but it will all be done well, and it will all be good for you. Thanks for riding the wave with us.