Summer/Fall 2014

Look!  Pictures as promised!

There are probably more pictures I should upload but this is all I remember.

grilled chicken and stewed okra at Kareem’s (Watertown, MA)

tuscano kale in my garden

red kale in my garden

lobster and peach dish at Kareem’s (Watertown, MA)

Kareem’s is a place in Watertown that serves dinner on the weekends (otherwise, it’s dedicated for catering and cooking classes).  An entree is typically around $25, but the food is fresh and lovely.  Chef Ahmad is very talented.  He also makes delicious desserts.  Expect the menu to rotate with the season.

let’s talk about food festival swag

let’s talk about food 2014

let’s talk about food 2014.

I meandered through the Let’s Talk About Food festival by myself this year.  It’s not as fun when you’re alone.  It was smaller this year, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.  I found that having two demo locations last year to be overwhelming.  So, I’m glad that there was only one demo location, but the down side is that it meant fewer demos this year.

I had a lot of homework looming over my head that weekend, so I didn’t stick around for too long.

Farmstead board at the Salty Pig

Salty board at the Salty Pig

I still love the Salty Pig.  I was there on a Saturday with some friends for lunch.  Menu set up is a little different on lunch, than dinner or Sundays.  We ordered sampler boards instead of the normal charcuterie/cheese a la carte.   The Salty Pig board came with (I think):

Porchetta, SP Kitchen, MA Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder, Fennel Pollen, Rosemary
Stracciatella, SP Kitchen, MA Mozzarella Style Pulled Cheese Marinated Olives
N’duja Rillette, SP Kitchen, MA Smoked Pork, Calabrian Chili, Sea Salt

While I think our Farmstead board was:
Manchego de Corcuera, SPA Sheep, Aged 3 Months, Rich & Buttery
Pont L’Evêque, Normandy, FRA Cow, Washed Rind, Soft & Strong
Vermont Wildflower Honey
Marcona Almonds
Stravecchio, Veneto, ITA Cow, Aged 12 Months, Sweet & Nutty

I also ate a Broccoli Rabe pizza with Ricotta Salata, Lemon, Garlic, Chili.  No pictures because we devoured it so quickly, but it was delicious.  Definitely different, but no less awesome.  If you ever have a chance to visit the Salty Pig, I highly recommend it.

Let’s Talk About Food, 2013

(This post is being published later than I had intended.  Sorry!)

I went to the second Let’s Talk About Food festival last weekend.  This year, the festival was located in Copley Square.

(I bet you didn’t know why iceberg lettuce is called iceberg.)

And when a hurricane comes along…

I did a little bit of tidying up in the backyard on Saturday (but I realize now it was not enough) – things like moving the grill into the garage in preparation of a hurricane. While I was out there, I realized that my cherry tomato plant still had fruit. I plucked everything that was red or starting to change color, but I initially left all the tomatoes that were green. Further storm warnings encouraged me to pluck all the green tomatoes or risk losing them altogether. I ended up with one pound of green cherry tomatoes, more than I thought I was going to end up with.

summer pasta salad, for one

It’s that time of year when I start fretting over my container garden. So far, I don’t have much planted. I have two pots of rosemary, one pot of sage, one pot of mint, one pot of thyme, and one pot of tarragon – all plants from last year. My shiso plant from last year seeded unexpected well on its own. So, I’ve got baby shiso in a pot… and in a couple of other pots too. Not to mention, I found some growing on around the porch. haha!  I pulled the ninja seedlings, but I’ve left alone all the ones in the pots. They are growing very slowly. Hopefully, I’ll have more luck with these than the ones I was trying to grow from seed last year. Last week, I bought some parsley, basil, and two cherry tomato plants. Today, I put some seeds down for cultivated purslane, zucchini, and salad greens in dirt.

Going back to the basil plants, I thought the taller growth needed some pinching back already. And then with my small handful of herbs, I decided that it was time to make lunch.

What follows isn’t a caprese salad. There’s no mozzarella cheese, no olive oil. This isn’t a pesto salad either. It was heavier on the pine nut flavor, and I skipped the Parmesan cheese and the garlic completely. And, to reiterate, it had no olive oil.

I chopped up some toasted pine nuts with my bits of basil (smelled so lovely), and then I had the gall to mush it with 1/2 of an avocado (and a tiny pinch of kosher salt).

To this, I mixed in some halved cherry tomatoes and some cooked multi-grain pasta. It was good and it was just enough for one person. I wish I had some baked chicken or grilled steak to go along with it. Oh well, maybe next time. It’s ok. I followed my pasta course with strawberries and yogurt.  A happy tummy is of the utmost importance!  (^_^)b

Harvard SEAS lecture 11/7/11, Dan Barber

Subject – Reclaiming Flavor.

Much to my surprise, Harold McGee was around to introduce Dan Barber to the audience.

• Flavor molecules are actually a defense mechanism. Believe it or not, the flavor molecules are toxic to small insects and mold. It doesn’t seem toxic to humans, because we essentially dilute herbs by cooking. Physical/environmental stress to plants will cause the plants to boost flavor and antioxidants as a coping mechanism.
• You can take advantage of this.  For example, a component of mold cell walls is chitin.  Chitin also exists in the exoskeletons of insects and crustaceans.  You can pulverize lobster shells and introduce it to plants, purposely tricking them into stress mode and make the plants increase flavor and antioxidants.

That pretty much ended Harold’s bit, and Dan’s presentation started.

roasted eggplant puree for pasta

Early in the summer, I had experimented with a batch of garlic scape pesto only to find myself terribly disappointed.

Today’s pasta sauce was the antithesis of that.

I was home from work by 6pm, and I’m away from the office for the rest of the week. I went to visit the plants in the garden before heading inside, and saw that some of the eggplant my mother planted was ready to be picked. I had three pretty eggplants in my greedy hands, and didn’t know what to do with them. I knew I wanted to roast them in some manner, but not much more than that.

Then, I remembered seeing an eggplant puree recipe in one of my library books. On page 130 of Giada’s Kitchen by Giada De Laurentiis was a recipe for “penne with eggplant puree.” I used the method but didn’t follow the ingredients  exactly, and still I was very pleased with the end results.

Roasted Eggplant Puree for Pasta
inspired by Giada De Laurentiis

3 small eggplants, unpeeled, cut into one inch pieces
a large handful of sweet grape tomatoes (from the market… I wish I hadn’t eaten all my tomatoes. I pop ’em like candy if they’re sweet)
2 small onions, quartered (from my CSA)
1 small bell pepper, cut into medium slices (I had a purple one from the CSA)
garlic powder (I’m out of fresh garlic cloves)
salt
red pepper flakes
olive oil
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup basil leaves, torn

Heat your oven to 400F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a separate baking dish or sheet, spread out the pine nuts and set aside.

a simple summer lunch

I don’t have anything of interest from the CSA this time around – some greens, a tomato (my sister took the other tomatoes), onions, beets, and parsley. I trimmed the parsley and put it in a cup of water, but it’s not doing so well. I guess I should have stored it in the fridge.

But yeah, nothing for making a great meal. On the other hand, the basil in my yard needed pruning, and a couple of small tomatoes were picked. My shiso plant is insane. I need to prune that too. I’ve learned that shiso works pretty well in salad. However, it’s a tougher leaf than something like basil so I think next time I’ll blanch it before adding it to a salad.

But really, this post is about the basil and the tomatoes. It made for an amazing salad for lunch.

Two slices of whole wheat bread were toasted and then torn.
A large handful of basil was cut into small pieces.
Three smallish tomatoes were diced.
A small serving of turkey deli meat was shredded.
A handful of pine nuts were toasted.
Some vinaigrette was drizzled into a bowl. (My vinaigrette was made from about two parts extra virgin olive oil and one part Trader Joe’s orange champagne vinegar.)

Mix everything together gently with your hands or some salad spoons.

Serve.

The pine nuts, I think, is what really makes this salad go from “boring” to “yum!” I would have put mozzarella cheese in it if I had any, but now that the salad has been made and devoured, I think the salad was probably better without it.

Let’s Talk About Food, 2011

(I meant to post this yesterday but I didn’t finish it before I went to bed.)

Along the DCR Cambridge Parkway today, the Museum of Science and its sponsors held the “Let’s Talk About Food” festival.

I didn’t go last year. I had never even heard of it until about two weeks ago when I saw an ad banner for it inside a Red Line subway car.

The blurb on the official homepage says this about the festival:

We all eat. Rich or poor. Several times a day –– if we can. Food is the central feature of human society.  Food forms the basis of our cultural traditions, creates community, optimizes or sabotages our health, affects our environment, provides livelihoods, impacts our global economy, and nourishes the next generation.
Food has become a major focus in our society. And what we’ve learned is: People want to talk about it. They want to know. They want to learn. And they like to eat.
Launched in Boston 2010, in dynamic partnership with the Museum of Science, Let’s Talk About Food Initiative hopes to become a national, educational, event driven, organization that creates programs to increase the level of public literacy about all aspects of our food system – from sustainability, to cooking, to obesity and other food-related health issues, to fishing and farming, food access, food justice, food safety, environmental concerns, agriculture and nutrition policy, and at the same time celebrates the richness that good food brings to our world.

I went with my sister and my mom. After some discussion, we decided that we wanted to be there by 10:40a for the main stage demo called “In the Spotlight: Cooking with Honey” which was led by Chef Charles Draghi (Erbaulce) and Christy Hemenway (Gold Star Honeybees). Due to our bus schedule, we ended up at the festival at about 10:15a. Even though it technically opened at 10am, an early morning storm seemed to slow everyone down. We probably should have hit up more vendor booths at that time, most of them were set up, but it was so muddy that we just headed over to the main stage tent. Over there, we spent some time at the Whole Foods tent sampling a biscotti-looking snack made from dates, raisins, and other wholesome goodness. The Whole Foods tent was also giving out organic apples and re-useable Whole Foods backpack (it’s the kind of tote where you pull the cords to close it and then slip your arms through to cords to wear as a backpack).

During “Cooking with Honey,” we were shown a couple of ways to work raw honey into recipes. The first recipe was a Parmesan snack. First, you grate some Parmesan rind and fry it in a pan until it cooks into a wafer (and flip to quickly cook the other side). Then, you top the wafer with fresh apples or fresh pears (feel free to spice up the fruit with nutmeg or anything you’re in the mood for). Finally, spoon some raw honey on top to finish, and serve. Chef Draghi said that this snack would pair well with a nice rosé. The second recipe given (but not demonstrated) was a summer drink: 2T raw honey and 1 tsp lemon juice mixed into 16 oz fizzy water, served with mint leaves muddled/crushed.

I got to sample the Parmesan wafer. It was good but I’m not a huge cheese lover so I found the parm flavor to be a little too strong. Also, noticed that I was allergic to the raw honey since I do not consuming it regularly enough to build up a tolerance to the pollen inside it.

Next to take the stage was Chef Jody Adams of Rialto! She and Governor Deval Patrick showed us a way to serve lobster (which smelled divine even from the audience seats… trust me). They were a lot of fun to watch – friendly interactions and humor.

Here’s a photo of Jody Adams after putting a Rialto chef’s jacket onto Deval Patrick. Sorry it’s a crappy photo. I forgot to grab a camera on my way out so this is picture was taken with a phone.

shiso/wine/soy sauce chicken with steamed veggies

As for last week’s CSA, I steamed my baby turnips and kohlrabi. I peeled the skin off the kohlrabi but I should have peeled a little deeper. It was quite fibrous and hard to chew. Flavor-wise, the two veggies are very similar: very clean tasting and a sweet. I preferred the turnips over the kohlrabi. The turnips were very delicate in texture, while the kohlrabi probably could have steamed a minute or two longer. In addition to being more fibrous, the flavor of kohlrabi seemed duller to me.

edible garden, no. 3, 2011

First of all, no comments on my bad transplanting technique, if you please.  It’s the result of growing seeds in re-purposed take-out containers.  I realized much later that separating the babies was going to be impossible.  So, I plopped them down as is.  Next year, I will definitely invest in some biodegradeable pots for seedlings.  Plus, I think it’ll be good for experimenting with succession planting.

Anyway, let’s get down to the garden update!

These little things are zucchini!  I’m so happy.  I had two packets of zucchini seeds, one I bought last year of a faster growing variety and one that my mom’s friend gave me.  I planted the ones I was given just to see if they would grow – the packet was from 2008-2009.  I figured that my worst case scenario was being left with dead seeds and then planting the faster growing variety later.  I put down four seeds and two came up.  I suspect that I’ll snip down the one on the right next week.  Zucchini needs a lot of space to grow, but I am waiting to see which of the seedlings ends up being the stronger plant.  (err, yes there is a small hole in the dirt behind the right seedling.  I moved my plant nanny further out before any roots could start growing around it, and did not refill the hole before taking the picture.)

The little plant in the background toward the left is a random seedling of bak choy.  I didn’t know where else to put it.  I figure that it’ll grow up before zucchini does, so I stuck it in the same pot.  I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how fast they both grow.