Hungry Sprout

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2009-07-17T10:40:00.001-07:00

Whoah, sorry I haven't posted in FOREVER! The end of the fellowship is nigh and life has been super non-stop. But that doesn't mean I haven't been cooking! I won't put everything down here but some of the highlights include: white wine & wild wineberry sorbet, blueberry muffin ice cream, and flan de coco!!

This weekend Rose and I will attempt to make homemade mozzerella! (we tried a few weeks ago...word of advice, lemon juice does not work as a substitute to citric acid when making mozz! you can use the juice if making farmers cheese but not here....its not pretty)

I hope to start posting more regularly again! Sorry for being MIA for a while!

Bananas Foster Ice Cream

2009-05-06T17:39:00.000-07:00

Bananas foster has always been one of my favorite desserts ever and so it was only a matter of time before I combined it with my all-time favorite! The first time I made actual bananas foster involved a tortilla chip...none of that this time :)

For this ice cream, I basically made the standard french vanilla ice cream and mixed it with with bananas foster! I took three ripe bananas, mashed them, and mixed them with 4 Tbsp brown sugar, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp nutmeg. Usually with this recipe, I slice the bananas in half and cook them, but I figured the mashed would work well with the ice cream. I melted two Tbsp butter and cooked the banana mush for about 5 minutes over medium heat. I then mixed the bananas and custard, cooled, and froze. A minute before the ice cream was finished churning I added a cup of walnuts.

This ice cream is really beyond words. I was going to add some rum to make it more like real bananas foster (which you then light on fire, hence the tortilla chip (?)...long story) but didn't have any on hand and it still turned out incredibly well!!

I'm sorry for the lack of posts over the past few months. DC has been keeping me super busy and I haven't had as much time to cook as much as I'd like. There will be another break for a week or two, since I am visiting Rose in Costa Rica!!! :D BUT this summer I promise there will be so much cooking, baking, and ice cream making!!

-e

Penang Tofu Curry

2009-04-16T16:33:00.001-07:00

At trainings for the Hunger Center, they always provide the most delicious meals. My all-time favorite was always the penang tofu curry from Thai Chili (in Gallery Place, I believe). Before this, I always ordered pad Thai from Thai restaurants, but now that has definitely changed. I have always wanted to reproduce this meal at home and tonight I finally did! (Thanks to all the help of Noopur, my co-chef)

We froze the tofu overnight and let it thaw out during the day. This makes the tofu drier and tough, so it sucks in more of the sauce. We then pan fried it before tossing it into the curry.

This is so freaking delicious and really really simple. Make immediately! :)

Penang Tofu Curry
Ingredients

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped shallots
2 tablespoons finely grated peeled ginger
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/4 cup organic peanut butter
2 teaspoons turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon hot chili paste (such as sambal oelek)*
1 cup water
1 13 1/2-to 14-ounce can organic light coconut milk
3 kaffir lime leaves or 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice and 1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lime peel
1 tablespoon (firmly packed) golden brown sugar
2 14-ounce packages organic firm tofu, drained, cut into 1-inch cubes 1 1/2 cups 1/4- to 1/3-inch-thick slices peeled carrots (about 3 medium)
1 1/2 cups 1/4- to 1/3-inch-thick slices peeled carrots (about 3 medium)
1 large red bell pepper, cut into 3/4-inch pieces

Preparation

Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallots, ginger, and garlic; cook until shallots are tender, about 6 minutes. Add peanut butter, turmeric, cumin, and chili paste; stir until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk in 1 cup water, then coconut milk, lime leaves, and brown sugar; bring to simmer. Season sauce with salt. Add tofu, carrots, and bell pepper; simmer over medium heat until carrots are tender, adjusting heat to medium-low if beginning to boil and occasionally stirring gently, about 20 minutes. Season to taste with salt.

Irish Carbomb Cupcakes

2009-04-12T11:33:00.000-07:00

This weekend I visited my lovely friends down at St. Mary's, and Saturday was dedicated to baking!! We made chocolate banana bunnie cupcakes, peanut, ginger, & sesame cookies, and irish carbomb cucpakes!!

I was on team cupcake, so I focused mostly on the irish carbomb cupcakes. We tried to make them vegan so half the house could eat them, but there really was no way. The amount of butter and irish cream in these thing...wow.

The recipe is from the website below. They used just chocolate and cream in their ganache, but since we didn't have heavy cream we decided to use half irish cream & half soy milk. What a good decision. We also used plain yogurt instead of sour cream, which is both tastier (in my opinion) and healthier.

The cake batter is baked with guiness beer, filled with chocolate and irish cream ganache, and topped with irish cream icing. It is needless to say, they were beyond incredible!!

http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/01/car-bomb-cupcakes/

You need to make these ASAP, but don't eat too many or your body will just stop working. Plus, any baked goods in the future will fail to be as good as these. Awesome.

Maztzah Dal Soup! (Happy (?) Passover!)

2009-04-10T09:24:00.001-07:00

Hey friends. Sorry for the slowing of posts recently. My work at the National Family Farm Coalition has been keeping me super busy. Plus, last weekend was my sister's wedding so I was in Baltimore for a bit. (Awesome food-filled weekend, I might add!)

With NFFC, my main responsibility is conducting a survey of farmers throughout the country to help identify barriers to local food marketing, credit & discrimination issues, and mentoring programs. I have conducted almost 50 surveys over the phone and they have been going well. I am almost done with the calls and analysis will soon follow.

I was unfortunately not able to go up to Baltimore for passover seder Wednesday night. I still wanted to honor my people's freedom from enslavement by those Egyptions *shakes fist* While in Tucson, Amy and Ami visited for a weekend and Ami told me of one of the most brilliant creations I have ever heard of. Matzah Dal soup!! It not only is an incredibly clever name, it also sounded like a delicious idea.

So on the first night of passover I decided to make Matzah Dal soup (also as a way to blend both my and Noopur's cultures together since we are roomies!)

I mixed a recipe for lentil soup from the Moosewood Cookbook and a recipe from Noopur's mom. I won't reproduce the recipe here because I dont know the english name of some of the spices, and since I kind of threw things together. I boiled the lentils, added in onion, garlic, carrots, and spices, and cooked the matzah balls in the whole concoction.

The soup turned out alright. I think next time I'll use veggie stock instead of water as the recipe called for, and stick more closely to the actual indian dal soup recipe. Plus, the matzah balls soaked up tons of the water as it was cooking so I needed to keep adding more water.

Either way, happy passover and easter!!! I hope everyone eats amazing food (which pretty much means no passover food...)

Apple Cinnamon Scones

2009-03-29T14:08:00.000-07:00

Tonight, there was another potluck and I decided to make apple cinnamon scones. I had some extra apples on hand from the market and a random desire to make scones, so this recipe seemed like a great idea. I found this recipe off my favorite recipe website ever, allrecipes.com
Apple Cinnamon Scones

Ingredients

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup white sugar
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 cup butter, chilled
* 1 apple - peeled, cored and shredded
* 1/2 cup milk
* 2 tablespoons milk
* 2 tablespoons white sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Measure flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, and salt into a large bowl. Cut in butter or margarine until crumbly. Add shredded apple and milk. Stir to form a soft dough.
2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead gently 8 to 10 times. Pat into two 6-inch circles. Place on greased baking sheet. Brush tops with milk, and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Score each into 6 pie-shaped wedges.
3. Bake at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 15 minutes, or until browned and risen. Serve warm with butter.

The scones turned out pretty well. I decreased the milk amount from the recipe and had to add a bit of extra flour to make the dough right. They are a little cakeier than I like my scones and could use a little more apple flavor to them. But overall I think they are pretty tasty. It would be worth playing around with this recipe!

Sweet Potato Ice Cream

2009-03-28T14:09:00.000-07:00

Tyler (who is in Nicaragua because he is a jerk) recommended (demanded) that I make sweet potato ice cream (because he is a jerk). So I made this batch of ice cream for Tyler, and I made it even more delicious than I normally would have so he misses out even more while being in another country.

Sweet Potato Ice Cream
1 1/2 C whole milk
2 C heavy whipping cream
3/4 C brown sugar
dash of salt
2 egg yolks
1 tsp cinnamon
dash of nutmet
1 C sweet potato (about 2 medium sized sweets)
t tsp vanilla extract

I started this off like all ice creams, but I decided to use brown sugar instead of white since it goes with sweet potato so well. I put the milk and sugar on low heat until it reached a simmer, tempered in the egg yolks and stirred for about 10 minutes until a custard formed.

While the custard was cooling I baked the potatoes (I will embarrassingly admit that I cooked the potatoes in the microwave since I didn't have over an hour to wait...but it will work all the same for this recipe, even though I rarely trust microwaves). Once fully cooked, peel off the skins (and eat them because they are delicious), and blend the potato flesh in a food processor (or blender, or with a hand masher. Whatever you have on hand). Once fully mashed, mix in slowly with the custard, and stir in the cream and vanilla. Chill for a few hours and churn in an ice cream maker.

This recipe turned out very well! I am glad I used to brown sugar since it gives it a bit of a different taste for ice cream. You will definitely need to mash up/process the sweet potato since it is so fibrous. I had some extra chunks of potato in my ice cream which I am glad about, so don't worry too much if its not mashed completely. This would be great with vegan marshmallows thrown in or pecans, but I had neither on hand. This is a delicious ice cream... and maybe somewhat healthier than normal ice cream since it has super-good-for-you sweet potato in...but I kind of doubt its that healthy once you account for all the cream and sugar :)

Mocha Ice Cream & Tomato Sprouts

2009-03-17T15:19:00.000-07:00

I searched for a while but failed to find a decent recipe for mocha ice cream anywhere...so I made one up! (a combination of coffee and chocolate ice cream recipes)

Mocha Ice Cream
1 1/2 C whole milk
3/4 C sugar
a dash of salt
1/4 medium-ground coffee
2 egg yolks
1/3 C cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 C heavy cream

Heat the milk, sugar, and salt to a simmer. Add the coffee grounds, take off the heat, and let simmer for 30 minutes. Strain out the coffee and return to a simmer. While this is heating, mix egg yolks with cocoa powder. Slowly, add the hot milk mixture a 1/4 cup at a time to the egg/chocolate mix until they are about the same temperature. Mix this for about 10-15 minutes over low heat, stirring constantly, until a nice custard is formed. Take off heat, add vanilla & cream, and chill in the fridge overnight before churning.

I used decaf coffee since any caffeine consumption after 6pm keeps me up all night...but it was Equal Exchange coffee which makes it all ok!

As I mentioned briefly yesterday, the first sprout of my garden, a cherry tomato plant, popped up yesterday! Today it grew even more and a second cherry tom followed! The picture is kind of hard to see and was taken from my computer. But still...yay!!! SPRING TIME!!!

First Sprout of the Season!!

2009-03-16T15:48:00.000-07:00

I came home from a long day of work (after a way too short weekend) to see the first sprout of my windowsill garden pop up, and it is a cherry tomato!! pictures to come soon :)

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip & Orange Cookies

2009-03-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

These are one of my all-time favorite cookies in the world! The recipe is originally from my friend Katie's mom. She sent the cookies down to St. Mary's in a package and I immediately demanded the recipe! I made these for a potluck dinner tonight and hope they go over well!

As the recipe mentions, they do tend to flatten out a good amount in the oven, and so a little bit of additional flour and oats helps some. The orange in these cookies is somewhat subtle but adds an amazing touch to my already-favorite type of cookie, oatmeal chocolate chip. Enjoy!!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip and Orange Cookies

2 Cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 Cups brown sugar
1 C butter, softened
2 eggs
1 Tbsp water
1/2 C oats - traditional
1 Cup Chocolate chips
1/2 C walnuts, chopped
1 1/2 tsp orange rind

Beat butter & sugar until creamy. Beat in eggs, water, and orange. Stir in flour mixture, oats, choc chips, and walnuts.

Bake on greased cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes at 375 F.

(add more oats and flour, were too flat)

Oh! Last night I went to a wine & cheese party with some fellow Fellows and I made crostinis to go with the cheese. They were incredibly simple and were a big hit! I used a loaf of stave garlic and parmesean baguette from Trader Joes, but any bread on the verge of going stale would be great. I cut the bread into very thin slices (maybe 1/4 inch?), drizzled them with olive oil and baked them in a 375 degree oven for about 10 minutes, flipping them over half way through. They were really amazing, especially topped with feta cheese and basil!

Back in Action (with cookies and ice cream)

2009-03-08T15:29:00.001-07:00

I have finally returned to a somewhat state of calm. I moved back to DC two weeks ago and was in training for the fellowship the whole time. The training is coming to a close and my policy site placement with the National Family Farm Coalition begins on Thursday. While my work plan is likely to be flexible, my main task is to research barriers to local marketing for farmers. I am thrilled to be placed at NFFC, the staff I've met so far seem amazing and I think I will learn a lot from them!

I asked Noopur (my new housemate!! yay!!) what the first batch of ice cream for our new apartment should be and she unhesitatingly said cookie dough. I had made vegan cookie dough ice cream before (that tasted an unfortunate amount like tofu...for obvious reasons) but never a dariy-full version. I was hesitant to make cookie dough with egg since I've been training to never trust raw egg (even though I eat cookie dough all the time), so I found the below recipe from my favorite vegetarian/vegan cooking website and used butter instead of oil (the same amount, at room temperate), since butter tastes better in cookies than oil in my opinion.

http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=6391.0

All but one cup of the dough I actually baked into cookies and the rest I rolled into little pieces for the ice cream. I made the basic french vanilla ice cream, churned it, and put the dough pieces in at the end. Awesome.

We also made cold brewed coffee to use for ice coffee this morning. This recipe is from the NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/dining/276drex.html?_r=1

(sorry for just posting links instead of the recipes, I figure instead of just copying and pasting the links would suffice since I didn't make any major changes worthy of notice)

Edit: my previous post said my soughdough starter has survived the past 6 months...lets just say it is in ICU right now and I am trying my hardest to keep it alive! More updates on that to come...

Back to regular posts. Thanks for all your patience!

Survival

2009-03-07T09:44:00.000-08:00

1) I survived policy training.
2) My sourdough starter survived the past 6 months in my parent's fridge.

Be back very soon.

A little break...

2009-02-24T18:32:00.000-08:00

I am back in DC and will be in policy training for the second half of the fellowship for the next two weeks, so my ability to cook & post will be limited for a while. I promise to return ASAP though!!

Baked Maccaroni & Cheese

2009-02-20T14:19:00.001-08:00

I realized that I never have posted about one of my all-time favorite recipes on the site! Thankfully, my father asked me to make it for his birthday dinner tonight so I have a reason to pass it on here. This recipe is from Alton Brown, one of my all-time favorite chefs/science nerds/food network stars. I have made this at least 10 times and while its a little bit of work compared to boxed mac & cheese, I promise you it is worth it!

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown

Ingredients

1/2 pound elbow macaroni
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon powdered mustard
3 cups milk
1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 large egg
12 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh black pepper

Topping:

3 tablespoons butter
1 cup panko bread crumbs

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and mustard and keep it moving for about five minutes. Make sure it's free of lumps. Stir in the milk, onion, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes and remove the bay leaf. Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.

Melt the butter in a saute pan and toss the bread crumbs to coat.

Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving.

My next post will be from my new apartment in DC!!! There won't be internet for a little while, so it may be a week or so, but I promise I'll be back soon! Thanks!

-Eric

Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Flavors Named After Bush

2009-02-06T20:18:00.001-08:00

I found this and thought it was the best thing ever. It mixes my two loves, ice cream & politics!!

http://www.lavidalocavore.org/showDiary.do?diaryId=921

Enjoy :P

Mango Lassi Frozen Yogurt & Rosemary Bread

2009-02-01T12:39:00.000-08:00

Tonight, I am having some co-workers over for the Superbowl (which is really one big excuse to play Settlers of Catan...a party I entitled "SuperSettlers!") There was a request to make ice cream, so I started brainstorming for some new ideas. I realized I had never tried to make frozen yogurt and then I realized that one of my favorite things ever is mango lassis! I can't believe I never thought of it before!! It is really spectacular, and takes a significantly less amount of time than ice cream (and is significantly healthier)

Mango Lassi Frozen Yogurt
2 ripe mangoes
2 Cups plain yogurt
1/2 Cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cardamom

Blend the mangoes with a little bit of water. Mix with the other ingredients, chill in the fridge, and freeze in an ice cream maker for 10-15 minutes.

Thats it! And it's so good! Although I would go a little bit less on the cardamom since it is such a strong spice and stands out a little more than I would have liked.

I also decided to make my favorite bread, a wonderful rosemary bread that I used for my first attempt at bread making a few years ago. Some of you might have tried this already since I've made it for a few dinner parties. This recipe is incredible and will give you a really light, soft bread.

Rosemary Bread
1 tablespoon yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons rosemary
2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Place yeast, sugar and water in large bowl or food processor and allow mixture to become bubbly.
2. Mix in 1 T olive oil, salt, and 2 cups of flour.
3. Add one tablespoon of the fresh chopped rosemary.
4. Knead for about 10 minutes by hand or in food processor about 5 minutes until smooth and elastic.
5. Add more flour if necessary.
6. Oil a bowl, put dough in it and cover with a towel.
7. Let dough rise in a warm place for one hour until doubled.
8. Punch down dough and divide in half.
9. Let dough rest about 5 minutes.
10. Spray baking pan or cookie sheet with cooking spray.
11. Shape the dough into 2 small rounded oval loaves.
12. Sprinkle remaining 1 Tablespoon of rosemary over the loaves and press lightly into the surface.
13. Let loaves rise again until doubled, about 45 minutes.
14. Preheat oven to 375° F.
15. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until lightly browned.
16. Carefully remove from oven, brush with remaining olive oil and sprinkle sea salt.

I usually don't separate the dough into two portions. I usually have one big ball and bake it free form. Today, I decided to bake it in a bread pan so we can use it for roasted veggie sandwiches!

This recipe has never failed, I highly reccomend it! It was originally based on the wonderful bread from Macarroni Grill, but I think this is even better!

Go Arizona! (?)

A Rant Against the Assumptions of Industrial Agriculture

2009-01-30T09:07:00.001-08:00

This article was passed along to me and I felt that I needed to respond in some way:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-perspec0104mcgovernjan04,0,1762931.story

I think McGovern & Matz bring up good points here. We cannot completely stop farming on a commercial scale at this time, and any change away from industrial agriculture has to be incremental.

Having said that, I do disagree with the unstated assumption in this article that U.S. industrial agriculture's goal is to feed the world. Agribusiness is just that: a business. When food is viewed as a commodity to be sold and purchased (not as a basic human right) it will go to those who can afford it. We can increase production 100-fold in this country, and the basic fact remains that only those who can afford it will have access to food, those that cannot afford it will go hungry.

The article quotes Norman Borlaug, the "Father of the Green Revolution," a revolution that significantly increased food production. But the number of hungry throughout the world remained either static or (especially more recently) has greatly increased since this "revolution." Yes, population has increased as well and I am unsure of the actual rates of growth comparatively, but I think we just need to question the assumption that more technology equals progress. The green revolution has brought increased crop yields but the number of hungry increases every day. The profits are not shared through equal distribution of food; rather, profits are concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. Monsanto, for example, dominates the GM seed industry. And while GM seeds have brought increased yields (in some, but not all instances) there has been no decrease in the total number of people without food worldwide. Monsanto has seen record profits (http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2009/01/05/daily36.html) for a while now, as a global food crisis continues to exist. At the same time, GM crops may actually be hurting U.S. agriculture significantly (http://www.organicconsumers.org/patent/exposed091702.cfm), and also has brought a dramatic rise in farmer suicides throughout the developing world, environmental damage due to increased pesticide and herbicide use, and unknown health effects that have yet to be tested on humans.

Another argument that is always used by industrial ag folks is that the U.S. is the largest donor of food aid, something that can only be done with our chemical and technological inputs. U.S. food aid is first and foremost a foreign policy tool & a way to help powerful interests at home. Legally, U.S. food aid must be purchased from U.S. sources and it must be shipped on U.S. ships. This often causes food aid to arrive anywhere between a few weeks and 6 months after it is first requested. U.S. packagers and shippers are often more expensive than foreign companies, causing up to 75% of all money spent on food aid to go to U.S. corporations, leaving only $0.25 to the dollar to actually buy food. Another problem is that once the food finally gets there, it is often sold by aid non-profits (to those who can afford it, not necessarily the hungry!) to raise money for their other programs.

In terms of aid undermining local farming, I recommend looking into the recent Niger famine. Basically, they had a surplus of food in the country that was stockpiled. People couldn't afford it so it just sat there. U.S. aid was shipped from the U.S. It took months to get there because U.S. food aid 1) has to be bought from U.S. sources 2) has to be shipped on U.S. ships. By the time the food got there, the famine was coming to an end. Farmers were able to grow again. But there was U.S. food aid sitting around that needed to be used, so they dumped it on the market, prices fell again, and farmers and the people suffered because of it.

Celia Dugger of the New York Times has really good coverage of U.S. food aid policy if you are interested in reading more. Below are a few articles that helped me understand the system a lot better:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/03/washington/03food.html?_r=1
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/world/africa/02malawi.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/29/world/29food.html

What I think the authors do not see if that, for many, creating a more sustainable, localized food system is about more than just crop yields and productivity. (Even so, organically grown crops have shown to be as productive if not more than industrially grown crops. The reasons for this are many and I would be happy to expand on them later on). Rebuilding our food system is about redefining how we see food. It is taking food as a commodity and turning it back into a basic human right - what connects us to the land, the environment, our communities, our culture, and our own nutrition. Business as usual may increase production, but at what cost? If the food is not going to feed the hungry but only helps to increase profits of the Monsanto's of the world, why must Americans support these corporations through our tax dollars in the form of billions of dollars in subsidies? If industrial agriculture continues to destroy our environment while being one of the MAJOR contributors to greenhouse gases and the climate crisis, is it worth it? (Climate change is going to hurt the people that are most in need throughout the world most, further damaging the land that is already being exploited for cash-crops to be exported to the West). We must ask, What is the bottom line? Is it corporate profit? Or is it human well-being?

In Case You Needed More Proof Corn Syrup's Evils

2009-01-26T20:26:00.001-08:00

This article is from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy:

Much High Fructose Corn Syrup Contaminated With Mercury, New Study Finds

Brand-Name Food Products Also Discovered to Contain Mercury

Minneapolis – Mercury was found in nearly 50 percent of tested samples of commercial high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), according to a new article published today in the scientific journal, Environmental Health. A separate study by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) detected mercury in nearly one-third of 55 popular brand- name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first or second highest labeled ingredient—including products by Quaker, Hershey’s, Kraft and Smucker’s.

HFCS use has skyrocketed in recent decades as the sweetener has replaced sugar in many processed foods. HFCS is found in sweetened beverages, breads, cereals, breakfast bars, lunch meats, yogurts, soups and condiments. On average, Americans consume about 12 teaspoons per day of HFCS. Consumption by teenagers and other high consumers can be up to 80 percent above average levels.

“Mercury is toxic in all its forms,” said IATP’s David Wallinga, M.D., and a co-author in both studies. “Given how much high fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the FDA to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply.”

In the Environmental Health article, Dufault et al. found detectable levels of mercury in nine of 20 samples of commercial HFCS. Dufault was working at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration when the tests were done in 2005. She and co-authors conclude that possible mercury contamination of food chemicals like HFCS was not common knowledge within the food industry that frequently uses the sweetener. While the FDA had evidence that commercial HFCS was contaminated with mercury four years ago, the agency did not inform consumers, help change industry practice or conduct additional testing.

For its report “Not So Sweet: Missing Mercury and High Fructose Corn Syrup,” IATP sent 55 brand-name foods and beverages containing HFCS as the first or second ingredient to a commercial laboratory to be tested for total mercury. Nearly one in three products tested contained detectable mercury. Mercury was most prevalent in HFCS-containing dairy products, followed by dressings and condiments. Attached is the summary list of the 55 products and their total mercury content.

In making HFCS, caustic soda is used, among other things, to separate corn starch from the corn kernel. For decades, HFCS has been made using mercury-grade caustic soda produced in industrial chlorine (chlor-alkali) plants. The use of mercury cells to produce caustic soda can contaminate caustic soda, and ultimately HFCS, with mercury.

“The bad news is that nobody knows whether or not their soda or snack food contains HFCS made from ingredients like caustic soda contaminated with mercury,” said Dr. Wallinga. “The good news is that mercury-free HFCS ingredients exist. Food companies just need a good push to only use those ingredients.”

While most chlorine plants around the world have switched to newer, cleaner technologies, many still rely on the use of mercury cells. In 2005, 90 percent of chlorine production was mercury-free, but just 40 percent of European production was mercury-free. Four U.S. chlor-alkali plants still rely on mercury cell technology. In 2007, then-Senator Barack Obama introduced legislation to force the remaining chlor-alkali plants to phase out mercury cell technology by 2012.

Chocolate Peppermint Ice Cream

2009-01-21T14:29:00.000-08:00

I had leftover cream that needed to be used, and while I still have coconut ice cream (and coconut curry) left, I decided to make some more! Going through my cabinets looking for things that needed to be used before I leave in a month for DC (working with the National Family Farm Coalition for the policy part of the fellowship!!...more on that soon) and I found coco powder and peppermint extract, so I thought hmmm...chocolate peppermint ice cream! i also used extra crushed up peppermint candies left over from the chocolate bark (and peppermint bark ice cream). I was going to use actual peppermint bark to make chocolate peppermint bark ice cream, but I forgot to crush up the chocolate pieces in time...but this still works!

I kind of combined two recipes for this. I mixed the basic fresh vanilla ice cream recipe and the chocolate recipe, since there were things I didn't love about the chocolate recipe itsself, mainly using more milk than cream (a big no-no I have found), and using more eggs than I normally use. So I used:

1.5 C whole milk
3/4 C sugar
1/3 C coco powder
3 egg yolks
2 C heavy whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 Tbsp peppermint extract
1 C crushed up peppermint candies

For the extract, I recommend going by taste here. I kept adding it in teaspoon at a time and it continued to need more! After a while, a good amount dripped onto my hand and then my skin felt an odd cooling/tingling/burning sensation for a good two hours. Try not to do that...But I would say after about 3 Tbsp, you could really begin to taste the peppermint and chocolate at a nice balance. (For ice cream making procedure, follow one of the other ice cream recipe posts!)

This was a really rich and creamy batch of ice cream. So good!!

Rosemary Crackers

2009-01-18T15:38:00.001-08:00

I went to a co-worker's b-day party last night and they had these delicious rosemary crackers. So I decided to make some myself! This recipe was adapted from one I found online, here.

Rosemary Crackers
1 C flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 C warm water
1/6 C olive oil
1 tsp rosemary, roughly chopped

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
2. Add in water and oil until a soft dough forms.
3. Knead in the chopped rosemary.
4. Spray or lightly grease a cookie sheet. Press dough and flatten to the edges of the cookie sheet. (at first it looks as if it can't be spread that thin, but it will cover a cookie sheet with enough patience)
5. Cut with a cookie cutter into desired size and shape.
5. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes, until dry and golden brown.

These were good but I would even go for some more rosemary next time I make them! Way more delicious than store-bought crackers and super easy!

Eating less, eating local and eating better could slash U.S. energy use, CU study finds

2009-01-18T08:36:00.000-08:00

This article was passed along to me. This is very important!

Eating less, eating local and eating better could slash U.S. energy use, CU study finds

How much energy we use to produce food could be cut in half if
Americans ate less and ate local foods, wolfed down less meat, dairy
and junk food, and used more traditional farming methods, says a new
Cornell study.

'We could reduce the fossil energy used in the U.S. food system by
about 50 percent with relatively simple changes in how we produce,
process, package, transport and consume our food,' said David
Pimentel, professor emeritus of ecology and agriculture in the College
of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell.

Pimentel's analysis, co-authored with five former Cornell
undergraduates who were in Pimentel's Environmental Policy course in
2006, is published in the academic journal Human Ecology.

Pimentel says that about 19 percent of the total fossil fuel used in
this country goes into the food system -- about the same amount we use
to fuel cars. His analysis details how changes in the food system
could reduce energy.

For example, the researchers recommend:

* Eat less and cut down on junk food: To produce the typical
American diet requires the equivalent of about 500 gallons of oil
per year per person, says the study. Americans, on average,
consume about 50 percent more calories than recommended by the
federal government for optimal health and get one-third of their
calories from junk food. Eating less and cutting down on junk food
would use significantly less energy, considering all the
processing, packaging and transportation costs saved.
* Eat less meat and dairy: We use 45 million tons of plant protein
to produce 7.5 million tons of animal protein per year, according
to Pimentel. Switching to a vegetarian diet, he says, would
require one-third less fossil fuel than producing the current
animal-based American diet.
* Eat more locally grown food: Food travels an average of 1,500
miles before it is eaten. 'This requires 1.4 times the energy than
the energy in the food,' Pimentel said. A head of iceberg lettuce,
for example, which is 95 percent water, provides 110 calories and
few nutrients. Irrigating the lettuce in California takes 750
calories of fossil energy and shipping it to New York another
4,000 calories of energy per head, according to the analysis.
Locally grown cabbage, on the other hand, requires only 400
calories to produce and offers far more nutrients, not to mention
it can be stored all winter long.
* Use more traditional farming methods: Pimentel's team also shows
how using methods to reduce soil erosion, irrigation and pesticide
use, through such things as crop rotation, manure and cover crops,
could cut the total energy now used in crop production.

The study's co-authors are Sean Williamson, Courtney Alexander, Omar
Gonzalez-Pagan, Caitlin Kontak and Steven Mulkey, all Cornell Class of
2007.

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug08/Energy.Food.html

Please Act to help Ensure the Future of Sustainable Agriculture!

2009-01-17T17:46:00.001-08:00

From Food Democracy Now:

"We've already got Tom Vilsack as the head of the USDA, but the Vilsack USDA will also be incredibly influenced by the Deputy Secretary. And I have bad news about that that requires immediate action by all progressives.

As you know, I've been advocating the "Sustainable Dozen" chosen by Food Democracy Now (go there and sign their petition!) as candidates for USDA Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary positions. Several of these Sustainable Dozen, including Chuck Hassebrook were being seriously considered. And then... a few conservative Democrats (Collin "organics are dumb" Peterson, Ken Salazar, Sen. Conrad of North Dakota) spoke up against him. What??? This election was a victory for CHANGE. So why are Senators like Conrad being heeded when they advocate an anti-change agenda??

The names now up for Deputy USDA Secretary are nasty pro-industrial ag, anti-sustainable ag people like the Big Bad Dennis Wolff of Pennsylvania. Wolff is known for unilaterally deciding that Pennsylvanians do not have a right to know whether their milk has artificial growth hormones in it or not (a policy that was thankfully overturned by the PA governor after much consumer outcry).

Furthermore, Joy Philippi, former past president of the National Pork Producers Council, co-chair the Rural Americans for Hillary is being considered for an under secretary position. The National Pork Producers Council is the lobby group for hog factory farms. That means we'd be installing the fox in the henhouse every bit as completely as Bush did during his eight years. Again, this is going against what Obama promised us, as he has promised to have an administration free of lobbyists.

Putting Dennis Wolff or others like him in as the #2 at the USDA would be an end to any hope for change in American agriculture during Obama's time as President. And if this election was a victory for Hope and Change, then choosing Wolff as Deputy Secretary (or another person with similar ideas as him) would directly violate what the people of this great country voted for on November 4.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Post about this on your blog.
Sign the petition at Food Democracy Now.
Write your Senator and Representative today. The best thing you can do right now is to send an email or a fax (as opposed to calling or sending snail mail). You can find your Representative here and your Senator here. Ask them to speak to the Obama transition team about this. Ask them to support reform candidates like Chuck Hassebrook or others in the Sustainable Dozen for USDA Deputy Secretary and to oppose anti-sustainable ag candidates like Dennis Wolff.
Email a link to this blog post to your friends and ask them to take action as well."

So Much Food!!

2009-01-13T14:39:00.000-08:00

Hey Friends! Sorry for the lack of posts the last few weeks. Rose was visiting me in Tucson, and while there were no posts, that does not mean the cooking stopped! I won't write about everything we ate, since there were over 20 meals involved, but I will share the highlights :)

First, I will share our experience having the best pizza in the world. No joke. Or at least according to Food Network and Bon Apetit magazine, Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix is the best pizza in the country. We made the two hour trip to phoenix just for this reason and spent the morning walking through the botanical garden there and their Chihuly glass art exhibit. So beautiful! So we showed up at the restaurant at 4:30opm and they opened at 5. I was told to expect a wait, but never did we imagine we would be waiting until 8pm before being seated! Thankfully we were fully equipped with books and playing cards to keep us entertained while we waited in the bar next door drinking cider and eating "gormet grilled cheese." We were eventually seated at the bar (the wait was long, but quite enjoyable) and ordered bread for starters. The restaraunt is small, holding maybe 50 people at a time, so the chef "Bianco" is able to make each pizza by hand. And he truly is a genius. I heard that he didn't like any pizza ovens...ever...and so he made his own! Rose ordered the margherita pizza with homemade mozzarella and I ordered the "rose" pizza with red onion, parmigiano reggiano, rosemary, Arizona pistachios. Oh. My. God. This pizza truly is one of the best things I have ever eaten. I can't say it enough. If you are EVER west of the Mississippi, go to Pizzeria Bianco. It was well worth the trip! And the pizzas were only $11 each!

Now, ice cream time. Rose had the wonderful idea of making coconut curry ice cream. We were unsure how this would work out so we made a batch of coconut ice cream and used 1/4 of the cream for the actual curry part. We used coconut milk and toasted coconut in the ice cream. While the coconut ice cream tastes wonderful, I put a little too much coconut in, making it more chewy than anything else...The good news is, the coconut curry ice cream is delicious and something I would make again! All we did was add curry powder to the coconut custard before churning and freezing!

For your New Years Eve dinner we made spinach-feta pastries, one of our favorites. This recipe was taken from the Joy of Cooking (since it is amazing. always.)

Spinach and Feta Triangles
Melt in a small skillet over medium heat 2 Tbsp butter Add and cook, stirring for about 5 minutes 1/4 C minced onions Add One 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained (about 1 C) Cook until the liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl and col. Stir into the spinach: 1 C crumpled feta (4 ounces) 1 tsp lemon juice 1/2 tsp black pepper Lay on a work surface 8 sheets phyllo dough, thawed if frozen Preheat the oven to 375. Melt in a small saucepan 1/4 C butter Remove 1 sheet of phyllo dough and brush it with melted butter. Lay another sheet over the first and cut the sheets lengthwise into 3 strips. Working with 1 strip at a time, spoon 1 Tsp of the filling into the bottom left corner of the strip. Fold the bottom end over the filling to meet the right-hand edge, making a triangle, then continue to fold as if folding a flag, all the way to the top. Place on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining strips. Brush the tops with melted butter. Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Serve hot.

These are surprisingly amazing topped with honey!!

Cinnamon rolls are one of my favorites ever, and was one of Rose and my first things we made together so we decided to make some for a New Year's Breakfast. The recipe is from here

Cinnamon Rolls
INGREDIENTS

1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup margarine, melted
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened

DIRECTIONS

Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.
After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
Roll dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes

We decided against icing the cinnamon rolls since we didn't have any cream cheese. Even without frosting, these cinnamon rolls were moist, soft, and delicious! We made them the night before and put them in the fridge so they could go right in the oven first thing in the moring.

Our greatest success would have to be palak paneer with homemade cheese! With the help of this palak paneer recipe we made a wonderful Indian dinner. I was frightened to make the paneer. Making cheese has always been a goal of mine and never did I realize how easy it is to make fresh cheese. After some research, I can safely say the process of making paneer is very similar (if not the same as) farmer's cheese and also possibly ricotta.

Paneer
4 Cups whole milk
2 Tbsp lemon juice

Bring the milk to a simmer. Turn off the heat and add the lemon juice. Wait 10 minutes, without disturbing, as the curds and weigh. Spoon into cheese cloth over a collander and let the weigh drain out completely (about half an hour). Then place a weight over the curds, still wrapped in cheese cloth, for another half hour or so. Fridge until the cheese firms up and it's ready to use.

Palak Paneer Ingredients:
Spinach - 1, 16oz pkt chopped, frozen (about 1/2 kg)
Paneer - 7 oz or 200 g
Oil - 3 tbsp
Onions - 2 med, minced
Ginger - 1″ pc, minced
Garlic - 4 cloves, minced
Water - 1/2 cup
Tomatoes - 2 large or 1, 14oz can diced (pureed)
Garam Masala - 2 tsp
Cumin Powder - 1 tsp
Coriander Powder - 2 tsp
Red Chili Powder - to taste
Salt - to taste
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
Heavy Whipping Cream - 8 tbsp or to taste
Milk - to taste (optional)

Method:

Cook frozen Spinach with 1/2 cup Water in a microwave safe dish for 7-8 minutes stirring in between.
Blend cooked Spinach to desired texture (avoid over-blending).
Heat 2 tbsp Oil in a medium non-stick pan on high heat.
Once Oil is hot, add in the minced Onions, stir, cover and let it cook for about 5 minutes.
Add in the Ginger and Garlic and mix. Cook for another 4-5 minutes.
Add in the Tomates, cover and cook till the oil seperates from the mixture.
Keep stirring frequently as the Masala (Onion, Tomato, Ginger & Garlic mixture) tends to burn very fast.
While the Masala is cooking, cube the paneer to desired size…1/2″ cubes work well.
In a non-stick frying pan, heat the remaining 1 tbsp Oil.
Once Oil is hot, add in the paneer cubes and let them cook till they are golden brown on all sides.
Remove from the pan into a plate with paper towel to soak the excess oil.
In a couple of minutes, pour the Paneer into a bowl of cold water. Let it sit for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, once the Masala is prepared, add in the mashed Spinach.
Mix and add the Garam Masala, Cumin Powder, Coriander Powder, Salt, Chili Powder & Turmeric Powder.
Mix well and cook for 3-5 minutes.
Add in the desired amount of Cream and /or Milk. Mix and cook for another few minutes.
Gently squeeze the water out of the Paneer and put the Paneer in the Spinach.
Mix gently and serve hot.
Serves 4 . Enjoy with Naan, Chapati, Paratha or Rice.

Unfortunately, we didn't have a non-stick pan so when we tried frying the paneer it stuck and wouldn't brown correctly, so we just put it in uncooked. It was still delicious. We also found that this recipe needed some extra salt, pepper, garam masala, and I also put in a few dashes of cinnamon, because cinnamon makes everything better. This was a wonderful dish and we had tons of leftovers for lunches throughout the week.

There was much more cooking and baking that occured over the two weeks (including a few tomato, mozzerela, and basil sandwiches - our signature dish- and some amazing brownies, hot coco, rose's coconut meringues, cookies, and a coconut curry dish, not just an ice cream) but those recipes might have to wait for another time!

Sweet Potato Latkes

2008-12-21T18:13:00.000-08:00

Remember that time the Jews beat the Romans? That one time? Hell yeah! We take what we can get and celebrate like hell because of it! Hanukkah is that special time of year where Jewish people around the world fry anything they can get their hands on! I guess the logic is, since there isn't a scarcity of oil to light our lamps like back in the day, we should fully utilize our stock...because we can.

This is my first Hanukkah away from both my family and friends and so I wanted to make a special meal to remind me of everyone I love back at home.

Note: I hate frying. I hate it more than words can say. But there really is no other way to make latkes, so I sucked it up and, surprisingly, walked away burn free!!

Sweet Potato Latkes
(from the Moosewood Cookbook, except they call them pancakes...gentiles)

4 Cups shredded sweet potato (I only needed one large potato, but 2 mediums would work)
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
black pepper, to taste
4 beaten eggs
1/3 C flour (i added a few pinches since my batter seemed a little watery)
Apple Sauce

1. Combine the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.
2. Heat a small amount of oil (i used too much...) on a skillet until very hot. It is ready when a small dollop of batter sizzles)
3. Use a spoon to scoop out and form thin pancakes.
4. Fry in oil on both sides until golden brown.
5. Let sit on a paper towel to drain excess oil.

Eat with apple sauce and enjoy! There are some of the best latkes I've ever had, I hope you like them too!!

Peppermint Bark Ice Cream

2008-12-21T13:56:00.001-08:00

It was about a year ago that I bought my ice cream maker and made my first batch of ice cream! The flavor was peppermint bark and little did I know the long and crazy path of ice cream making I was getting myself into! I had some cream and milk left from my last batch and needed to use it up and decided it would be a nice yearly/holiday tradition to make peppermint bark ice cream every year around this time! My first attempt I used store-bought bark but today I decided to make my own peppermint bark!

Peppermint bark is usually quite expensive, and you can save a good amount by making it yourself! Plus, it makes a beautiful holiday gift :)

Peppermint Bark 1 bag (11.5 oz) of white chocolate chips 1 bag (11.5 oz) of dark chocolate chips (i used bittersweet, 60% cacao) 1 tsp peppermint extract 6 oz peppermint candies

1. Melt the dark chocolate over a double boiler. (To do this, heat a pot of water to a simmer and place another metal pot that fits on top but does not touch the water on top. This will prevent the chocolate from burning as it tends to do over direct heat) Pour the dark chocolate chips in and stir until completely melted. Add 1 tsp peppermint extract.
2. Pour the melted dark chocolate into a pan covered with wax or parchment paper and spread evenly. Place this in the fridge until hard, about 15-20 minutes.
3. While the dark chocolate cools, crush the peppermint candies in a plastic bag with a hammer or other blunt object. I used a meat-tenderizer...what else would I use it for!?
4. Melt the white chocolate over a double boiler and pour on top of the completely hardened dark chocolate. Top with the crushed peppermint candy and let chill in the fridge for at least an hour. Once hardened completely, take out of the fridge, lift out of the tray with the wax paper and break up into desired size pieces!

The night before I made a custard for a basic french vanilla ice cream (recipe is on this blog at least 10 times so I wont repeat it!) After chilling overnight, I churned and added crushed up peppermint bark during the last minute of churning. It then went into the freezer for at least 4 hours before I was able to enjoy it!

Tonight is the first night of Hannukah, so be on the lookout for some good ol' jewish recipes! I have a few ideas up my sleeve!

Happy Holidays everyone!!!

Vilsack to be Secretary of Agriculture

2008-12-17T16:05:00.000-08:00

A few thoughts on the Secretary of Agriculture pick...

Vilsack is a huge proponent of corn ethanol, which has serious environmental and economic problems. Some studies show corn ethanol requires more energy to create per calorie that it actually releases. The plus heavy government subsidies plus, corn ethanol is one reason many believe food prices rose so dramatically in recent times...(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/opinion/19wed1.html?hp)

Vilsack is also very close to the BioTech industry and supports GMOs (genetically modified organisms) http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/113477/it's_vilsack:_obama_picks_pro-gmo_and_pro-biofuels_ag_secretary/

Here are a few more reasons from the Organic Consumer's Association:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_15573.cfm

While Vilsack is decent on land conservation and some environmental issues, overall I'm pretty disappointed with Obama's choice. As I mentioned on a recent post, there were other very real alternatives. A group from the Sustainable Ag movement created this petition which lists six highly qualified alternatives, and they received over 54,000 signatures in only a few weeks: http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/. I guess we will see how he does, but my initial reaction was something like "change?! what change is that?!" Hopefully he won't be more of the same pro-agribusiness as we've for decades, although his record doesn't seem to give signs he is going to be any real change we can believe in.

Here is an online petition by the Organic Consumer's Association opposing Vilsack's nomination:

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1783

Thoughts?

Meat Consumption and the Climate Crisis

2008-12-17T09:43:00.000-08:00

Below is a wonderful article from the New York Times about the direct link between meat consumption and the climate crisis. Everyone should read this article when they get a chance. Reducing meat consumption in your diet reduces more greenhouse gases than changing your car to a Toyota Prius!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/science/earth/04meat.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=as%20more%20eat%20meat&st=cse

Demand Sustainable Agriculture from Obama!

2008-12-16T08:04:00.000-08:00

A wonderful petition is going around the internet, organized by organic farmers, chefs, and policymakers. It asks President-Elect Obama to appoint a Secretary of Agriculture who will focus on sustainable agriculture, not a perpetuation of the current industrial mindset that has run ag policy in this country for decades! Please sign if you can!

http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/

Also, on a somewhat related note, below is an open letter from amazing poet Wendell Berry & environmental activist/author Bill McKibben asking people to join them in DC in early march in engage in a peaceful act of civil disobedience against a coal plant. Please read:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-brune/wendell-berry-and-bill-mc_b_149948.html?view=print

Honey Almond Fig-Swirl Ice Cream

2008-12-06T14:56:00.000-08:00

It has been on my list since the summer, and this weekend I finally made my honey, fig, and almond ice cream. This is probably my most "gourmet" ice cream to date and has definitely taken the longest to make.

I started by honey roasting the almonds. I had a little more than a half a cup of organic slivered almonds, and placed them in a 350 degree oven until they turned slightly brown. While they were baking, I mixed together 1/2 Tbsp water, 1/2 Tbsp honey, and 1/2 Tbsp veggie oil. I brought there to a slight simmer and mixed in the almonds right after they came out of the oven. I then stirred the almonds for a few minutes until all the liquid was gone and laid them out to cool on a piece of foil.

I was mixed about how to include the figs. I couldn't find any fresh figs due to the season, so settled for organic dried figs. I was going to cut them up into little pieces and throw them in with the almonds but wasn't sure if the fig flavor would come out this way. I decided on making a fig-cinnamon jam that would then be swirled into the honey ice cream with almonds about half-way through freezing like I had done once while making white chocolate raspberry-swirl ice cream. This would not only help make sure there is plenty of amazing fig flavor in each scoop, it would also look pretty awesome! I cut about 15 dried figs into quarters and mixed them in a pot with 1 C water (much more water had to be added throughout cooking to fully rehydrate the fruit), a couple tablespoons of lemon juice, and 3/4 cup sugar. This cooked over medium heat for a good while (45 minutes or so) until the figs completely broke down and made a nice jam consistency. To help break down the tough skins, I used a potato masher. The fig jam cooled in the fridge overnight.

Next came the ice cream! I used my standard recipe for the ice cream base but substituted honey for sugar and reduced the amount by about 1/8th of a cup since I didn't want the honey flavor to cover up the almond and fig.

Honey Ice Cream
2 C heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 C whole milk
2 egg yolks
5/8 C honey
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla

I heated 1 1/2 C whole milk and 5/8 C honey over low hear, stirring until the honey dissolves. Then, I temper the egg yolks into the cream mixture by slowly adding about 1/2 C of the hot mixture into the eggs before pouring the whole thing back into the pot. Next, I stirred the mixture constantly until it reached about 175 degrees and was thick enough to cover the back of a wooden spoon. Once at this stage, I took the custard off the heat and let it cool down for about 1/2 an hour before adding the 2 C cream and vanilla. The custard went into the fridge witha piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the cream to prevent a skin from forming.

The next morning I anxiously put the honey custard into the ice cream maker. After about 10 minutes, the ice cream was almost done and I added the honey roasted almonds and let it church for about 30 seconds.

I was torn about how exactly to add the fig jam. I wanted it to kind of swirl through the ice cream and have heard of two methods of doing this. The first is to freeze the ice cream in the freezer for a few hours, then add the jam and swirl it with a knife. The second is to add the jam into the ice cream mixer the last few seconds and let it churn before freezing completely. I didn't want the jam to completely fall apart and blend completely in the ice cream since I wanted the honey ice cream flavor to still shine through. Even so, I added dollops of jam to the cream during the last few seconds of churning. The jam did spread out through the ice cream pretty consistently, but my worries were unfounded. I tried a little before putting it in the freezer and the flavor was out of this world! The honey, honey roasted almonds, and cinnamon-fig jam could each be tasted a little on their own but blend into a wonderful ice cream.

By far, this is one of my biggest ice cream successes to date! I guess the 4 or so hours of prep time payed off!

No Thanksgiving recipes?!

2008-12-01T16:05:00.000-08:00

Fail. I wasn't able to cook anything for Thanksgiving. But I have a good reason! I flew home from Tucson to be with the family for the holiday and didn't land in Baltimore until about an hour and a half before Thanksgiving dinner. Even so, it was incredibly delicious! Who says vegetarians can't eat well on Thanksgiving?! My step-mother made a sweet potato casserole that was literally heavenly. There were a few veggie casseroles and about 4 types of stuffing. For dessert there was four types of pie. This is why Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday of all time. During the weekend I walked around Williams-Sonoma and Crate & Barrel with Rose and it took every ounce of self control to not buy anything in the store...thankfully I walked away and didn't spend my life savings.

What were some favorite thanksgiving dishes this year??

I will be back soon enough with some more food! On the way: honey fig ice cream with toasted almond! (this has been on my ice cream to-do list for some time, so I really hope this actually happens soon!)

Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies

2008-11-13T17:52:00.000-08:00

This weekend I am flying out to Austin, TX for the fellowship mid-field retreat. There we will get to see our fellow fellows, decompress from our experiences so far, continue some conversations that were started during training in September, plan ahead, and hopefully relax some as well! It is really hard to believe that the first half of the field placement has gone by!

We were asked to bring in something (creative) to help describe our life in our field placements. After much brainstorming (although it seems obvious at the time) I decided to bake something! I thought it would be great to use an ingredient that is pretty special to Tucson and I decided on mesquite flour. The mesquite tree grows throughout the Southwest and is everywhere in Tucson! It had pods that can be ground up into flour. Thankfully, our Mennonite friends had some extra mesquite flour lying around and I found this amazing recipe online! (it was from a random google search and I don't remember exactly where it was from, sorry!)

Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
1 cup mesquite flour, sifted if clumpy
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups natural cane sugar
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups rolled oats
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375°F, position the racks in the upper half of the oven, and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat the butter until light and fluffy, then beat in the sugar until of a consistency like thick frosting. Beat in the eggs one at a time, incorporating each fully before adding the next and scraping down the sides of the bowl a few times. Stir in the vanilla until evenly incorporated. Add the dry ingredients in 3 increments, stirring between each addition. At this point, you should have a moist, uniformly brown dough. Stir in the oats and chocolate
chips by hand, mixing only until evenly distributed.

Drop 2 tablespoons of dough for each cookie onto the prepared baking sheets 2 inches apart and bake for about 10 minutes, until golden on both top and bottom. Don’t overbake these; if anything, underbake them. Cool on wire racks.

Makes 2 to 3 dozen chunky, medium-large cookies.

The mesquite flour has a nice sweet and grainy taste to it, unlike any other flour I have ever had. It adds a really nice texture and flavor to these amazing cookies (it is also supposedly very good for you too!) I was unsure how all whole-wheat and mesquite cookies would turn out but I guess that ton of butter and sugar helps out! Hopefully they will be a hit with my fellow fellows!

There is a great group here in Tucson called Desert Harvesters, that has it's own mill and travels around Southern Arizona so people can mill their own mesquite pods. This is a really great thing because not only are people exposed to a healthy, incredibly local food (right from their backyard!), it has also been a way for people who have trouble affording healthy food to help feed themselves and maybe make a little extra income by selling the flour to their friends and neighbors.

My actual work at the Community Food Bank for the fellowship has been going great (and slightly exhausting) I have been traveling all around town (Phoenix 3 times in the last week!!) interviewing people for the document I am helping to write on Southern Arizona's local food system. I am focusing specifically on sustainable agriculture & government and community responses to hunger. I have interviewed tons of people already, including someone from Desert Harvesters, two organic farmers, a State Representative, someone from a WIC clinic, a teacher at a school garden, and many others. My job basically consists of talking to amazing, talented, bright people with tons of experience, learn from them, and write about it to share with the community. I can't really think of a better job than that! I expect the interviews to come to a close soon and then the writing will begin. If anyone is interested in reading what I write as it comes along, let me know. I will need editors!!

Pumpkin Pancakes & Apple Cider Syrup

2008-11-11T16:26:00.000-08:00

I think I have mentioned how terribly I am missing autumn before. I miss the cool breeze, the changing leaves, and the smell of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. Thankfully I have access to the spices since the first two are impossible to buy in the desert.

I had some extra pumpkin and had this urge to make pumpkin pancakes for a while, so on Sunday morning I made them for our lovely wonderful guests from CA! The recipe is from allrecipes.com, (one of the best recipe sites, btw!) To top off this delicious breakfast, I threw together an amazing apple cider syrup.

Pumpkin Pancakes

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1/2 whole wheat flour)
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons vinegar

Directions

In a separate bowl, mix together the milk, pumpkin, egg, oil and vinegar. Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger and salt, stir into the pumpkin mixture just enough to combine.
Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

There is no recipe for the apple cider syrup since I made it up on the spot! But all I did was pour about 1 cup of apple cider in a pot on medium heat with some cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. I then added a few tablespoons of flour (corn starch would have been ideal since you need 1/2 the starch to flour but I didn't have any) and whisked that in while over the heat for about 10 minutes until it thickened.

The pancakes were wonderful and fluffy. I was unsure what the wheat flour and pumpkin would do to the texture but they turned our really well. The pumpkin pancakes weren't very sweet so it was a good thing we had the syrup on hand! The combination of pumpkin, spices, and apple cider was really amazing. Expect some more pumpkin/apple cider combinations in the future!

Wine Tasting & Pumpkin Carving

2008-11-02T12:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon/night my friend Carmen & I went wine tasting in Tucson! We heard of one place from a friend, but when I looked online I could find nothing about it. But fate was on our side when I found out about a "Spooky Halloween Treats" tasting at CataVinos. How could you not go to that?! The owner, Yvonne, was amazingly kind and taught us all about how to taste wine and the reasons for doing the certain things. Like, did you know that when you swirl a glass of wine counter-clockwise you can smell the alcohol more, but if you go clockwise you can smell the fruit? I didn't believe it at all until I tried it, and whoah! Its crazy but true! The wine names and/or labels were all "spooky" in nature, like "Big Red Monster," or "Evil," and a reisling in a bottle the shape of a black cat! They were all delicious and I plan on going back there at least a few more times before I head back east!

So, I officially cant do anything political because of the fellowship, which is funded by the Congress in the Farm Bill. But I will just post this picture of a pumpkin I "found" (and..umm...didnt carve, thanks to the help of www.yeswecarve.com) because I thought it was awesome..and I will...umm...post a McCain pumpkin as soon as I find one...to be..fair and balanced? Yeah, thats it! On a completely unrelated note and an entirely different pumpkin! I baked the seeds with cinnamon and brown sugar, and saved some others for planting next year in DC!

The Weekend of Fixed Kitchen Disasters

2008-10-26T21:07:00.000-07:00

I have had three major disasters in the kitchen since I started cooking: Crème brûlée, gnocchi, and caramel sauce (I don't even want to talk about that last one...) But this weekend I inadvertently tackled and defeated the first two!

I first attempted to make crème brûlée last spring at St. Mary's. I had Amish cream and organic free-range eggs from the farm, the best of the best as far as ingredients go. I followed the directions in the Joy of Cooking to a "T" and I must say that this is the only time Joy has ever failed me. The recipe said the custard was supposed to be in the oven for half an hour. Two hours later, I still had a liquid in my little mugs/make-shift ramicans (which also served as make-shift wine glasses). I was frustrated and didn't know what I did wrong so I tossed them...Only later to find out that they often need hours in the oven!

A friend I met in Tucson happened to be an expert crème brûlée maker, and so on Saturday we set off to make a successful batch. I don't remeber the exact recipe but it was something resembling the below:

Crème brûlée 4 cups heavy whipping cream 1 vanilla bean, split 6 egg yolks 1/2 C white sugar 1/2 C brown sugar Heat the cream and split vanilla bean in a pot to a light simmer. Mix egg yolks and sugar before slowly mixing in hot cream mixture. Pour custard into ramicans. Place in a boiling water bath in a pan and heat in a 325 degree oven, covered with tin foil for 1 1/2 hours (although I wouldn't trust any time on this, check with a fork after 30-45 minutes. If placed in the custard and comes out clean, it is ready) Then let it chill in the fridge for a few hours. Once chilled, lightly cover the top with qhite sugar and caramelize with a kitchen torch (ours was out of gas, so we put them under the broiler for a minute or two until bubbly). The broiler won't give you a nice brown color, but you will still have the fun little crunch sound!

The crème brûlée was wonderful! It is great topped with berries too :)

Next was th gnocchi. As you may remeber, Rose and I attempted to make gnocchi this past summer. While it ended up delishious, the humidity of DC caused it to take 5 or so extra cups of flour and a few hours of kneading since the dough kept soaking in the moisture from the air! This time I made it in Tucson where the is no humidity and it worked out wonderfully!

Rosemary Gnocchi 4 medium potatoes 1 C flour 1 tsp salt 2 Tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped Boil the potatoes until soft (about 45 minutes). Keep the water for later use. Skin the potatoes and mash while hot. Mix in the salt and flour by hand until it becomes a dough. Kned in the fresh rosemary. Roll the dough out into 3/4" strips and cut 1 inch pieces. Boil the gnocchi in the (above) water until they float to the top, about 2 minutes. Serve with tomato sauce!

All I can say is never try to make gnocchi on the east coast during the summer! While the gnocchis tasted great before they were super-dense because all the extra flour. These were very light, fluffy, and delicious!

This was a very successful cooking-filled weekend. I overcame two of my greatest kitchen fears! Now, if only I will try the caramel sauce again...Unlikely since last time I ended up with 2 boxes of sugar down and 4 hours lost. Maybe sometime!

Chilean Squash Casserole

2008-10-18T15:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past few weeks. Work has been super-busy and I haven't had much time to cook anything special. Work has been going well though. I start interviews this coming week for the document on S. AZ's food system. I will be talking to a teacher in a school garden and a CSA in Tucson this week!

The garden is coming along pretty well. Gardening in the desert is tough work! I recently planted some kale and broccoli that was donated to us by the food bank's garden, and they are doing well. Our strawberries and sweet basil dont look like they will last much longer. The winter squash have been growing like crazy although I'm told they won't fruit since its so late in the season. Winter squash is a misnomer since they needed to be planted a few months ago. Lame.

Last night, we had a friend come over for dinner. I had some squash and corn I wanted to use before they went bad and much to my surprise, I found a delicious sounding recipe that used both of these things in the Moosewood Cookbook, one of my all-time favorites and the best veggie cook book I've ever used! The recipe below is slightly adapted.

Chilean Squash Casserole

4 Cups squash (I used 1 large butternut squash and one acorn squash)
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 C. chopped onion (about half of one large yellow onion)
5 medium cloves garlic, minced
black pepper, to taste
1 tsp. chili powder
2 C. corn
1 C grated cheddar cheese

1) Bake the squash in an oven at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until soft. Mash in a bowl once cooked.
2) Saute the onion over medium heat for about 5 minutes in olive oil. Add salt and corn, saute for 5 more minutes.
3) Add garlic, black pepper, chili powder, and saute for a few more minutes
4) Add the sauted veggies to the squash and mix well. Spread into an ungreased 9-inch baking pan; sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese.
5) Bake uncovered for about 25 minutes, or until bubbly.

Pictures are below (they aren't the best due to lighting and my continued refusal to use a flash, but it gives you an idea!)

Tonight for dinner I had leftover squash casserole, but I also had an idea. I put the squash in corn tortillas and had Chilean squash tacos. So good!

The casserole (and subsequent tacos) were quite delicious and made me miss autumn terribly! It is still in the mid-90s here in Tucson. We were tricked last week when the temperature dropped to the 60s and 70s, but now its back to the heat...So it was nice to have this autumnal dish to remind me of home, the crisp weather, and the changing leaves.

Avocado Ice Cream!

2008-10-03T13:46:00.000-07:00

Starting this past summer, I have been trying to branch out of the traditional ice cream flavor realm and move into more unique and complex flavors. My first experiment would have been the Mexican Chocolate ice cream, which isn't a new flavor by any means, but it definitely pushed the boundaries I had for what constitutes a "good" ice cream flavor. Spicy ice cream?! But it worked oh so well! With this spirit for adventure, I have felt the desire to start trying some more savory flavors. I have read about tomato and basil sorbet, garlic ice cream, and even cheddar cheese ice cream. While I'm sure I will eventually build up the courage to try those, I thought a nice stepping stone would be avocado ice cream!

Avocado is one of my absolute favorite foods. I read of avocado ice cream recipes and was always very hesitant about the idea. Avocado ice cream? Really?! Avocado has a subtle flavor and "dessert" is the last thing that comes to mind when I usually think of avocado. But avocados are relatively dirt cheap here in Arizona (compared to prices on the east coast!) and so I thought there would be no better time to try it out! I found the below recipe from my hero, Alton Brown, so I knew it was trustworthy:

Avocado Ice Cream
Ingredients:

12 ounces avocado meat, approximately 3 small to medium
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream

Directions:

Peel and pit the avocados. Add the avocados, lemon juice, milk, and sugar to a blender and puree. Transfer the mixture to a medium mixing bowl, add the heavy cream and whisk to combine. Place the mixture into the refrigerator and chill until it reaches 40 degrees F or below, approximately 4 to 6 hours.

Process the mixture in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions. However, this mixture sets up very fast, so count on it taking only 5 to 10 minutes to process. For soft ice cream, serve immediately. If desired, place in freezer for 3 to 4 hours for firmer texture.

To be honest, when I decided to make avocado ice cream, I thought it would be a fun novelty flavor. Little did I know that it would actually be INCREDIBLE! Even without egg yolks (which regular hungrysprout readers will know I always use 2 egg yolks in all my ice cream!) it is incredibly rich and creamy. Possibly due to the fats naturally in the avocado? And I was also surprised at the use of lemon juice, which I always knew would curdle milk. But much to my surprise, this recipe worked incredibly well. Alton was right in that it churned incredibly fast, taking only 5 minutes for me. I recommend everyone try avocado ice cream sometime in the near future. It will change your life. Or at least...no, it will basically change your life!

Peanut Butter Ice Cream

2008-09-27T21:02:00.000-07:00

After a rough day at the the food bank's farm, I wanted to do nothing else besides make some ice cream. I made the sorbet last week, but I haven't made an actual ice cream in weeks and was starting to go through withdrawal. That desire plus my never-ending addiction to peanut butter let to today's creation.

Peanut Butter Ice Cream
2 C heavy whiping cream
1 1/2 C whole milk
2 egg yolks
3/4 C sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 C peanut butter

I started by making the standard ice-cream base custard (read below to the post entitled I Love Ice Cream More Than Words Can Say to get a full description of the custard-making process). While the custard was still hot, I poured it into a bowl and added the 1 cup of peanut butter and stirred until it was totally melted and uniform. I then added the heavy cream and vanilla before chilling it in the fridge and putting it in the ice cream maker.

Anyone that knows me personally knows that I live and die by crunchy peanut butter. I believe you can tell what type of person someone is by the type of peanut butter they eat. But unfortunately I had to suck it up and use creamy peanut butter in this recipe for two reasons: 1) that is all that I had enough of (the people living in this house before us left an unopened jar, whereas my crunchy peanut butter is almost gone, and 2) While I have heard that adding peanuts to the ice cream makes it amazing, I had my concerns about the churning ability of this ice cream if it had crunchy peanut butter as opposed to whole peanuts.

This ice cream is very good! After the fact I thought of the idea of making peanut butter and jelly ice cream, but that must wait until another day. I have extra cream & milk left, so be on the lookout for another ice cream in the next week or so. My inclination right now is to try out avocado ice cream, which has been on my list of flavors to try for some time now. And avocados are so cheap here compared to the east coast that I feel obligated to give it a try!

Prickly Pear Sorbet!

2008-09-22T18:02:00.000-07:00

Internet has been installed in my house and I am back in business! Thanks for your patience, friends.

When I found out that I was moving to Tucson for my fellowship placement, one of the first things I thought of was how awesome it would be to make prickly pear sorbet. I shipped my ice cream maker all the way across the country with this idea in mind. When I landed last week and asked where I could find prickly pear cactus fruit, I was informed that most of the cacti around stopped producing fruit the week before. My dreams quickly came crashing down on me inside an hour of landing! I kept my eye out for some prickly pear fruits but none could be found.

Last week, Raquel (my field site partner) and I went to our Mennonite Volunteer Service (MVS) friend's house for dinner. They told me that their prickly pear cactus had fruit left, but when I went out to check they had all been harvested earlier in the day. Again, my plan had been foiled! So I asked if they knew of anywhere that still had some fruit growing and I was informed that the gas station by my house had tons left.

So I left the MVS house complete with a bucket and tongs in hand (the fruit has tiny thorns on its skin so you can't pick them with your bare hands) in the middle of the night (actually more like 8:30, but it was dark out and I was still on east coast time). And much to my delight, there were hundreds if not thousands of prickly pear fruits growing all over the cacti in the gas station parking lot! And we harvested those fruits like crazy...almost an entire bucket full!

Now to make the sorbet. I had to run each fruit under cold water and wipe the thorns off while wearing a rubber glove and then again into a dish towel. Once that was done, I cut a half inch slit into the skin length wise on one side and peeled the rest of the skin away.

The fruit was then thrown into the blender and then the seeds and flesh were strained out, leaving only the juice. I took a half cup of the juice and put it in a pot with 1 cup of sugar and heated it for about 10 minutes to make a simple syrup. The syrup was then mixed back in with the rest of the juice with a splash of orange juice (since I didn't have lemon juice which is usually added to sorbets to help with the flavor), chilled, and then went to freeze in the mixer.

The sorbet has a a very unique taste. The fruit itself has very little flavor so the sugar and orange juice helped a lot. Te taste really can't be compared to anything I have ever had. It is sweet and tart. The only bad thing is that it leaves a funky aftertaste in your mouth. But it is such a gorgeous color!

On another note, the garden we planted is coming along well. Much was added since my post last week. We now have three types of basil (sweet, lemon, and thai), rosemary,sage, two strawberry plants, a habanero pepper, and 5 green bell pepper plants. Our onion seeds started sprouting today, which is so exciting, along with some mesclun and winter squash. There are also carrot, cilantro, parsley, chives, spinach, kale, sugar snap peas, and a few other seeds we are waiting to sprout.

My field placement for the fellowship is at the Community Food Bank here in Tucson. This food bank is so amazing and incredibly progressive in the field! They don't only pass out emergency food boxes, but they have their own farm which grows for their own farmers markets, garden classes, home garden instruction, and little grocery store, and so much more. I am working in the Community Food Security Center and most of my work will involve promoting all of the amazing work of the Center and creating a publication about the southern Arizona food system to show people how their food choices have a large impact on the community around them. Before starting on my project, though, I have been working all around the food bank to get a better understanding of how all their programs work. I am also working with Raquel on a project to show people just how much food can be bought with a $10 voucher at the food store and recipes they can use with those food lists.

So overall, things are amazing here in Tucson. I miss my family and friends so much, but I have never felt like I am in the right place as much as I do now. I know that I will be doing work that will help the Commuity Food Security Center, the food bank, and the community around me while giving me such invaluable experience. I know that I have learned an unbelievable amount during the week and a half of training and my week here in Tucson. I am looking forward to seeing what else I will learn over the next 5 months!

So, does anybody have any ice cream flavor ideas? Let me know in the comments!!

Thanks for reading and thanks for your patience while I was training/moving/getting settled/getting internet!

-Eric

Pictures of my Tucson House

2008-09-15T11:10:00.000-07:00

There hasn't been any time for cooking yet, but I was able to upload a few pictures of my new house. They can be viewed from the link below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tyrannyofdistance/sets/72157607306017688/

My favorite part is the huge kitchen! (compared to any previous kitchen I've cooked in before). Raquel, my housemate & fellow fellow, and I also planted a little herb garden this morning complete with thai basil, lemon basil, sage, and rosemary. The soil is so dry here, but we will water them tons and hope they survive!

Be back again soon!

-eric

Alive & in Tucson

2008-09-14T11:58:00.000-07:00

Hello friends! I am alive and well. Fellowship training was intense but amazing and I made it safely to Tucson, AZ yesterday afternoon. My house does not have internet (although it has a HUGE amazing kitchen) so posts will continue to be infrequent until I get that fixed. I am currently using the free wi-fi at Safeway, which is not the ideal place to get work done on the internet...but alas.

What have people been cooking themselves Post recipes!

I shall return ASAP.

Slow on the Posts (+ Cinnamon Ice Cream)

2008-09-02T05:58:00.000-07:00

The recent lack of cooking posts on Hungry Sprout will continue for about two weeks. This past week I went to the beach, visited St. Mary's, and have been packing for training in DC and the move to Tucson!

I did manage to make cinnamon ice cream a few days ago, which turned out incredible well. Simply add 2-3 teaspoons of ground cinnamon to the ice cream custard once take it off the heat and add the cream (see the french vanilla ice cream recipe below). Sorry for a lack of full directions.

So I am off for fellowship training this afternoon and won't be able to cook again until I get settled in Tucson. But I will have my computer and will try to update while at training if I learn anything interesting!

Wish me luck!

Mango Saffron Ice Cream & Peach Pie

2008-08-17T10:18:00.000-07:00

As promised, I have made an ice cream flavor recommended by a reader! Thanks to a comment posted by “bite me,” I made mango saffron ice cream yesterday to give to a friend as a graduation gift. As with all my ice creams, I used my standard recipe for French vanilla while making a few changes.

I started by bringing 1½ C milk to a simmer with about ¼ teaspoon of saffron. Once small bubbles started to appear, to took the pot off the heat and let the saffron steep for 30 minutes.

Next, I strained the saffron out of the milk and continued with the rest of the recipe. I added ¾ C sugar to the milk and brought this back to a simmer. I then tempered in two egg yolks and stirred for about 10 minutes, until a thick custard was formed. The custard was then put in the fridge to cool for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, I cut and pureed two mangos. Once the custard had cooled some, I added two cups of heavy whipping cream and stirred in the mango puree. This mixture was then placed in the fridge to cool for a few hours before placing it in the ice cream maker for 15 minutes.

I was unsure how this recipe would work out and was pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out! You first taste the mango by itself, and then slowly the saffron comes in at the end. Both flavors are very subtle and nice. This ice cream mixes a pleasant amount of sweetness from the mango and savory from the saffron to create a unique and incredibly enjoyable dessert. Thanks so much to “bite me” for the recommendation!

That same afternoon I made a peach pie to bring to a dinner party at night. The recipe I used from the Joy of Cooking (a.k.a. the Bible) called for homemade pie dough for the crust. Normally, I avoid store-bought dough at all costs, but do to a lack of time (and a lack of shortening, which is required for any successful pie crust that is both soft and flaky, thank you Alton Brown) I bought a box of two rolls of pie crust. The recipe is as follows, changed slightly from the original to match my adjustments:

Peach Pie
Line a 9-inch pie pan with:
1 rolled out pie dough (store bought or home-made)
Preheat the oven to 425º F.
Peel, pit, and slice ¼ inch thick:
2 ½ pounds peaches (6 peaches for me)
Combine in a bowl with:
½ C sugar
3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon salt
Let stand for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pout the filling into the bottom crust and dot with:
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Cover the pie with a lattice made from a second piece of rolled out pie dough. Lightly brush this top crust with:
Milk
Sprinkle with:
2 Tbsp sugar
Bake about 55 minutes. Cool completely on a rack.

The pie was incredible and was better than any store-bought peach pie I have ever had. Making the lattice was easy, and was simply done by cutting strips about an inch thick out of rolled out pie dough, laying about half horizontally and then covering those with the other strips vertically. Brushing the top with milk definitely gave the pie a gorgeous golden brown color. Pictures are below!

Sushi Party!

2008-08-11T11:08:00.000-07:00

The last piece of meat I have ever eaten was sushi in Kobe, Japan. I thought it would be the most ceremonious way to end my carnivorous career and indeed eating raw octopus and some other unidentified raw fish (I can only hope they were some kind of sea creature) was an experience! I had always been a huge fan of sushi before, my favorite being shrimp tempura. In fact, shrimp tempura is one of the only meat-filled foods I ever crave anymore. I do love veggie sushi, particularly avocado rolls and asparagus tempura rolls, but it always seems like a very expensive meal to buy at a restaurant, seeing as it is only a small piece of vegetable wrapped in a palm-full of rice. I have always been tempted to make my own sushi, but never seemed to have the time to actually pull it off. So when Rose asked me what I wanted to make for my birthday dinner, sushi seemed like the perfect choice!

Neither of us had ever made sushi, nor did we do any research like we normally do before trying a new dish. We entered the kitchen with a pot of sticky rice, nori (seaweed paper), some veggies, and tempura batter and just went at it.

First was prepping all the veggies and cutting them into small, thin pieces. We started with carrot, cucumber, avocado, and red pepper. Next, we cut up some sweet potato, onion, zucchini, yellow squash, green beans, and mushrooms to be fried in the tempura batter.

We started frying the tempura vegetables until they were golden brown in a pot of hot peanut oil. I never fry unless I have to since I have an aversion to flesh-burning-hot oil for some reason…but I overcame this apprehension for my love of tempura. For the most part, the frying went well and there were no serious burns or other injuries.

After the cutting and frying was complete, we were ready to start rolling the sushi! Thankfully the nori package had directions and little diagrams. While sushi seems somewhat self-explanatory, once you are standing there in front of the sushi mat, the task seems slightly daunting that first time. We placed a sheet of nori on a sushi mat and then spread about a ½ cup of sticky rice over the nori. Starting with the end closest to us, we started laying the veggies in thin rows next to each other. I then started rolling the mat up, making sure to squeeze the sushi roll right throughout so that it keeps its form.

Once rolled, we cut the sushi into 6-8 pieces. After trial-and-error, we discovered that you have to cut the roll in the same direction that the nari was rolled. If not, the cuts become rough and the sushi pieces start to fall apart.

I was surprised to find how easy it was make the sushi rolls! We served the sushi and tempura vegetables with a side of soy sauce, soy & wasabi, and teriyaki. For about the same price of ordering a few rolls of sushi at a restaurant, we were able to make easily 50 pieces, enough to feed four people and still have leftovers for another meal.

This will be my last DC post for about 7 months, since I will be moving back to Baltimore for three weeks before I leave for Tucson, AZ! But that does not mean the end of posts! I will continue writing about my cooking experiences from across the country plus my experiences working at the Tucson food bank. I am sure there will be an increase in the amount of ice cream I make since I hear the heat can be atrocious.

So please leave some ideas for a fun/crazy/unique ice cream flavor for me to (try to) make!

Also, I added a little gadget to the top right of the page so you can subscribe and be told whenever I post something new. Or add the Hungry Sprout to Google Reader, a nifty new application I started using myself for reading blogs!

The Last Operation Frontline Class

2008-08-09T11:51:00.000-07:00

This morning was my last Operation Frontline class at the Ward 8 farmers market in Anacostia. The theme for the last class with other OFL lessons is usually something along the lines of “healthy baking,” but since we only have a single burner the ability to bake anything was nonexistent. So instead we made fruit smoothies and pancakes! I am a firm believer that this world would be a better place if people only ate more pancakes, so it seemed like a fun and delicious was to end the class.

The fruit smoothies were simply a mixture of ice, fruit, milk, yogurt, and a little bit of honey. We used two bananas, and a couple peaches, apricots, and nectarines. My favorite farmer from the market, Carl, (who’s farm is certified Naturally Grow in PA) gave us a bunch of seconds (produce that is bruised or blemished, not pretty enough to sell but usually still delicious after a few spots have been cut away) and so Ona & I talked about how smoothies were a great way to use seconds or even fruit that has been bruised or is going bad at home.

Fruit Smoothies
1 C ice cubes
1 C fresh fruit (berries, peaches, bananas, etc)
1/2 C milk (or soy milk)
1/4 C Yogurt (plain or vanilla)
1 Tbsp Honey

Add ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth.

Usually our technology for this class is limited to the portable gas burner and so we felt pretty adventurous breaking into the realms of a blender powered by a generator (kindly given to us by Virginia, one of the women in charge of the market). What seemed to be ice jamming the blender turned out to be the generator just not having enough power to blend anything! So Ona walked somewhere and found an outlet to blend everything together. She came back a few minutes later with delicious smoothies!

I was unsure where Ona went since I was preoccupied making a blackberry sauce that would later be used to top the pancakes. This is a sauce that I throw together pretty often making pancakes or waffles, and I usually use whatever berries I have on hand (strawberries, raspberries, or blueberries work very well in this recipe too. And while I’ve never tried it, I have no doubt a mixture of all of them would be great!)

Berry Sauce
1 pint blackberries berries
1/3 C brown sugar
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp water
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch (or 1 Tbsp flour)

Mix berries, sugar, and lemon juice in a pot and heat over medium heat for a few minutes, until the juice starts to come out of the berries. In a small bowl, whisk in water to corn starch and mix into berry mixture. Cook over heat for a minute or two to allow sauce to thicken.

Once the sauce was done, I took it off the burner and got started on the pancake mix. Instead of using a plain mix, I figured it would be fun and more nutritious to make multigrain pancakes. I threw this recipe together from the Joy of Cooking and a few I found online.

Multi-grain Pancakes
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup quick cook oats
1/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup flour
2 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
2 cups milk
2 eggs
2 T apple sauce (or vegetable oil)
2 T honey
1 t vanilla

Mix first seven ingredients in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, butter, honey and vanilla.

Add dry ingredients; mix well. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat. Spray with cooking spray.

When pan is quite hot, pour in 1/4-1/3 cup batter. Cook until bubbles pop, flip and cook until brown.

While the pancakes were cooking, Ona gave a lesson on healthy drinks and the dangers of soda, Gatorade, etc. She did a demonstration in which she held up different beverage packages (a Pepsi bottle, Gatorade bottle, and a Starbucks cup). For each, Ona would ask the class participants to guess how much sugar is in each of these drinks. She would then pull out sugar packets totally the amount of actual sugar found in these drinks all taped together. Needless to say, people were shocked and sickened to see just how much sugar is actually in these drinks! Its one think to see the amount of grams on the back of a label, but to physically see just how much sugar is in a drink is quite another thing! Ona continued by talking about the benefits of drinking water, so as not to get too many empty calories and sugar from all of these drinks.

Then we ate! The pancakes were a hit and the blackberry sauce lasted no longer than a few minutes! I was happily surprised that the pancakes weren’t as heavy and dense as I expected from a multi-grain batter.

Unfortunately, I had to say our goodbyes to the class participants, Ona, and Batina. The OFL class has truly been an incredible and invaluable experience for me. I am so thankful that I was given the opportunity to volunteer this summer by doing what I love and sharing my passion for food with others. I found that I learned a lot about nutrition from the classes and I learned how to cook in front of others. Most importantly, I was able to see malnutrition first-hand in my community while hopefully creating a sense of empowerment within the people we talked to, showing how they can create healthy and affordable meals for themselves and their famines, while using fresh, local (and hopefully organic as much as possible!) produce. I hope that when I return to DC at the end of February, I will be able to continue volunteering with OFL and the food bank, and hopefully teach this same class at the market again!

Healthy Snacks at OFL

2008-08-03T17:45:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday was the fourth Operation Frontline class and the lesson for the day was healthy snacking. One led a good discussion on what constitutes a healthy snack and how to shop for them. She drew a diagram of a typical supermarket and showed how shopping on the periphery of the store can help ensure that you are purchasing the healthiest, most fresh, and often cheapest food in the store.

My recipes for the day were hummus, guacamole, and tofu in a Chinese peanut sauce. I started by sautéing the tofu in the very begging of the class since that took almost 30 or 40 minutes for the tofu to fully cook. This was started before Ona’s discussion and went through the rest of the demo. While the tofu was cooking, I moved on to the hummus and guacamole.

Hummus

1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained, liquid reserved
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions:

Mash garbanzo beans with a fork (or blend in blender or food process if available). Add the garlic, cumin, salt and olive oil. Enjoy with pita, tortilla chips, or veggies!

I used a hummus recipe that did not call for tahini, like most traditional recipes, since it is quite expensive and often difficult to find at many grocery stores. We also did not have a food processor since there is no electricity, so we used a potato masher instead. The hummus turned out well and was a big hit with the class. It was eaten with cut up peppers, cucumbers, and tortilla chips. Next was the guacamole:

Guacamole

4 avocados - peeled, pitted, and mashed
1 lime, juiced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup diced onion
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 roma (plum) tomatoes, diced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 pinch ground cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions:

In a medium bowl, mash together the avocados, lime juice, and salt. Mix in onion, cilantro, tomatoes, and garlic. Stir in cayenne pepper. Refrigerate 1 hour for best flavor, or serve immediately.

The guacamole was by far the biggest hit of the morning! People kept coming back up for this dip and I can’t say I blame them. I am huge guac fan, and this one turned out so well!

After the tofu had browned nicely on all sides, I sautéed some pepper, onion, zuchinni, and squash in a little bit of olive oil while putting the peanut sauce together.

Tofu & Veggies in a Spicy Peanut Sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound firm tofu, cubed
¼ onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 small zuchinni
1 small squash

Sauce
1/2 cup good peanut butter
1/2 cup hot water
2 Tbs. soy sauce
2 Tbs. sugar
3 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. cider vinegar (white vinegar would work too)
1 to 2 Tbs minced fresh cilantro
cayenne, to taste
salt, to taste (if peanut butter is unsalted)

DIRECTIONS

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Saute veggies and tofu for 5 minutes.

In a small bowl combine peanut butter, hot water, soy sauce, sugar, garlic, vinegar, cilantro, and cayenne. Pour over vegetables and tofu. Simmer for 3 to 5 minutes, or until vegetables are tender crisp.

The recipe for the sauce was taken from the Moosewood Cookbook, one of my all-time favorites. I make this recipe once every month or so and use it on anything from veggies, pasta, rice, and even sautéed spinach. So good!

Only one out of the eight participants in the class had ever tried tofu. While there was some hesitation, everyone tried it in the end. I would say about half the people liked it while the other half pushed it to the side while eating the veggies. It took me at least 10 tires before actually learning to enjoy tofu, so I am impressed with the fact that everyone tired and that some even liked it! Even for those that weren’t falling in love with the tofu, they seemed to enjoy the sauce, which is another plus!

Ona surprised me at the end of the class by pulling out homemade muffins with candles on them to celebrate my birthday (the following day, the day of this post…please feel free to send cooking or other baked goods my way. I am also a huge fan of cheesecake. Oreo please. Thanks!) and had the class sing. She also gave me an awesome Capital Area Food Bank apron, which is so cool ☺ Thank you so much Ona. That was amazing of you.

This class had the most talkative participants of all the classes by far! Everyone was engaged, asking questions and making comments throughout the class. I think people really learned a lot this class, plus they tried some new foods! A few participants came up after the class to thank us personally and shake our hands, which was really wonderful. Next week, the final class: fruit smoothies and pancakes!

I also tried to make an apple cider sorbet this week. I didn’t have a recipe to follow and just played it by ear…It tastes awesome (since cider can’t really not taste awesome) but it needs some work to prevent it from turning into a solid block of delicious ice. Next time, though, I will use cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc and make spiced cider sorbet and hard cider sorbet. Yeah, I’m kind of in a cider kick. I think my body is craving autumn now that it is finally realizing I will be skipping autumn while in Arizona!

Breakfast Burritos & Bread

2008-07-28T06:22:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the third Operation Frontline class and we focused on protein and dairy. The nutritionist, Suzie, from the first two lessons moved out of state so Ona, the program’s assistant coordinator has taken the reigns for the last few classes. For the first half of the class, we discussed the benefits of low-fat proteins and meat alternatives.

Ona conducted a powerful demonstration in which participants were given a sheet with the typical McDonalds and Chipotle menu with the total amount of fat and calories per meal. She then asked people to count the amount of fat they would get from a meal at these restaurants. The amount of fat from a cheeseburger, small fry, and an apple pie were scooped onto a piece of bread in the form of Crisco to show visually just how much fat is in fast food. In the end, there were 13 scoops of Crisco in this “fatty patty.” Everyone in the class seemed disgusted and I heard a few people mention how they would think twice before going to a fast food restaurant again.

For the cooking portion of the class we decided to make breakfast burritos and yogurt parfaits. We received fresh tomato, onion, and pepper from the farmers market for the burritos and blueberries (the best blueberries I have ever had probably!) and blackberries. The recipes are below:

Breakfast Burrito
2 eggs
2 tbsp milk (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/4 red onion
1/2 tomato, chopped
1 tbsp vegetable oil or butter or margarine
1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
fresh cilantro
1 flour tortilla

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs together with the milk until well beaten and season with salt,pepper, and cumin.

Heat the oil or butter in a skillet or frying pan over medium-high heat. Saute the pepper,onion, and tomato on medium heat for 5 minutes. Carefully add the eggs. Cook, mixing frequently, until you have scrambled eggs of the desired consistency.

Place the scrambled eggs in the center of the flour tortilla, and top with cheese.

After cooking the eggs, we had the class come up and top the egg & veggies with cheese and salsa. I found this nifty guide online to show the “proper” burrito folding technique at http://howtowrapaburrito.com/ (the best part is the fact that someone actually bought the domain name for this…) The burritos were tasty and way better for you than a regular burrito at Chipotle! Pictures below are courtesy of the wonderful Ona (she is keeping an excellent blog about all of the DC Operation Fronline programs called A Generous Helping. It is also linked at the right of this page!

Yogurt Parfait
2 C vanilla yogurt
1 C granola
1 C fresh berries (blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries) or peaches

In a large glass or clear plastic cup, layer 1/2 of yogurt, 1/4 C granola, and 1/4 C fruit. Repeat layers

We used half vanilla yogurt and half plain yogurt mixed together, which cut the amount of sugar in half while keeping most of the sweetness. The class came up to the table to put together their own parfaits, which was fun!

The class had recent turnout and we decided to continue with the program for the last two weeks. Next Saturday will be healthy snacks!

On Sunday I made a loaf of honey oat bread to bring into the office. I used one of my favorite recipes that I found on allrecipes.com (a great site, by the way). The recipe can be found: here http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Honey-Oatmeal-Bread-II/Detail.aspx

Somewhat similar to the gnocchi experience a few weeks ago, the dough kept sucking in all the flour I poured in since it was so freaking humid! I was about to give up on bread making in DC for the summer, but eventually a dough-like thing was forming.

I somehow managed to get the giant loaf (since all the extra flour!) into my bag and biked it work this morning. Seeing as it disappeared inside the first hour of the workday, I would say it was a success! The bread was incredibly soft and delicious. I normally follow the recipe by brushing honey and dropping oats on top after baking, but I left that step out this time since I figured sticky fingers on work keyboards would be a bad idea.

Ginger Snap Ice Cream

2008-07-24T19:04:00.000-07:00

After my semi-failed attempt at peach cobbler ice cream I had to get right back into making a new batch since I had some cream & milk that needed to get used before going bad. Ginger snap had been recommended as a potential flavor and while I usually think of ginger snaps and ginger bread as more of a winter flavor I figured I’d give it a try.

As always, I started with the French Vanilla recipe from JOY and added things to it to make this batch of ice cream.

French Vanilla Ice Cream (aka, the base to every ice cream I ever make)
2 C heavy whiping cream
1 C whole milk
2 egg yolks
3/4 C sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp vanilla

After the custard was fully chilled (read below to the post entitled I Love Ice Cream More Than Words Can Say to get a full description of the custard-making process) I started by adding the spices. I found a recipe online that seemed similar to what I was going for and so I started by adding the recommended amount of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger but found that this was not nearly as flavorful as I was hoping for, so I just added tons and tons until the flavor seemed right. I also added freshly ground cloves to the mix.

Two minutes before the ice cream was done churning, I added crushed up ginger snap cookies. A handful of the best store-bought ginger snaps I have ever tasted were donated to me by Sally. They taste like real ginger and are incredibly crisp. I was worried that they would be too hard, but the cream softened them up a great deal and they scoop out easily with the ice cream.

The ginger snap ice cream turned out very well and I will be sure to make it again, regardless of the season.

Does anybody have recommendations for the next ice cream flavor? I am thinking bananas foster but am open to ideas!

The Past Week

2008-07-21T06:23:00.000-07:00

I haven't had time to post in a week but I have been able to squeeze in a little bit of cooking. I should mention that the peach cobbler ice cream tasted quite good but the texture…horribly icy and I’m not sure why. I think the peaches weren’t ripe enough or something, but I will definitely be trying again.

On Wednesday night, Rose and I had some leftover gnocchi to finish off so she made an incredible sauce out of ricotta, half-and-half, white wine, rosemary, and some other herbs. We made it up on the spot and there is no recipe, but it was delicious. We also made an omelet with tomato, mozzarella, and basil (possibly my favorite combination of foods ever, and one we throw together in one form or another at least once a week). Thursday was homemade pizzas with my fellow interns topped with tons of veggies while watching Clueless. The dough was from Trader Joe’s, which saved a few hours of waiting for it to rise, plus it had herbs & garlic in it, and you can rarely go wrong with herbs and garlic. Friday night I just sautéed veggies in tons of garlic and tossed it with whole-wheat pasta and feta.

Saturday morning was my second OFL class at the farmers market. At first no one was showing up and we were unsure if we were even going to go through with the class. Eventually a few people did show and we decided to start since we were there and had all the produce ready. This week’s lesson was on fruits and vegetables. I first made a corn & black bean salsa with the below recipe that I compiled from a few different ones I found online:

Corn & Black Bean Salsa
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 1/2 C corn kernels (about 4 ears)
1/4 C onion, finely chopped
1/2 C red bell pepper,chopped
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
4 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and Pepper, to taste

Drain and rinse the black beans in a colander. Cut fresh corn off the cob. Finely chop onion, pepper, and cilantro. Add all ingredients into a bowl; add salt & pepper to taste. Mix together with olive oil. For best taste, let sit covered in the fridge for at least an hour, but can be eaten immediately.

Since we don’t have a fridge, we let the salsa sit until the end of the lesson for the flavors to combine. I next made a “fruit salsa,” which was actually a fruit salad. I had a recipe but everyone forgot to print it out, so we just added everything we had: a few peaches, a mango, a few golden kiwis, papaya, blueberries, and a pineapple. We topped it all with a splash of orange juice and honey.

The two salsas were eaten at the end of the lesson, and they seemed to be a hit. I think the veggie salsa needed some more salt and cumin but besides that everything was delicious. Below are a few pictures taken by my fellow foodie intern, Julie (one amazing food photographer, by the way)

Unfortunately, only one person from the first week showed up to the class so much of the time was spent reviewing what we did the prior week (the food pyramid, whole grains). Even so, the people did show up seemed to learn some and enjoyed themselves. We decided to try one more class next week and determine if we finish out the last two weeks. The classes are meant to be a comprehensive nutrition cooking class and if people only show up for one or two classes they do not get the entire message and we have to spend time going back over everything we’ve already discussed. I mentioned that I am up for staying with the class as long as Operation Frontline wishes to keep it going. So we shall see how this Saturday goes.

Right after the class Rose and I went to Rehoboth beach! By far the most relaxing and amazing weekend I have had in a long time. On Sunday morning, Rose’s aunt made French toast for breakfast and so we caramelized peaches to put on top. To do this we melt some butter and mix in brown sugar, cinnamon, and a dash of nutmeg and cooked the peaches in this deliciously unhealthy mixture for a few minutes. So good.

Be on the lookout this week for a new ice cream (maybe bananas foster or ginger snap) and anything else I can think up! If anyone is reading and has an awesome recipe you should share it ☺ I will also try to start taking more pictures of the food to share with everyone!

Gnocchi and Peach Cobbler (Ice Cream)

2008-07-14T07:24:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, Rose and I decided to make homemade gnocchi. I have had some prior experience making pasta (spinach & mint ravioli, rosemary linguine, and spinach & ricotta ravioli), so gnocchi seemed like it would be a simple, quick task in relation to those daylong experiences. How little I knew…

The recipe was simple enough. We steamed 2 pounds of potatoes for about 30 minutes and then mashed them with a pinch of salt and about a tablespoon of freshly chopped rosemary. The recipe then called for 2 cups of flour to be kneaded into the potatoes. Unfortunately, an incredible amount of humidity mixed with my stubbornness in the kitchen when things go wrong is not a good combination. No matter how much flour I added the dough would keep getting sticky.

So, about after an hour or two and 6 to 8 cups of flour later, I finally gave up (with Rose’s insistence that everything would still work out). We rolled out the dough, which was 10x the size it was originally supposed to be, into thin rolls and cut them into 1” pieces. We then boiled the gnocchi’s in salted water for a minute or two until they floated to the top. Boiling all of this dough took a long time, but we were finally able to sit down and eat the gnocchi topped with tomato sauce with freshly squeezed lime aid while watching Monk (one of the funniest show ever btw, besides Arrested Development, Flight of the Conchords, and the Office).

While it took a few hours longer and much more flour than we expected, the gnocchis actually tasted really good! The fresh rosemary was a great addition, and now we will be eating gnocchi every meal this week and still won’t run out for a while!

Sunday I decided to make peach cobbler ice cream. The plan was to make a regular peach ice cream with cinnamon and then add toasted oats covered in brown sugar and butter, the cobbler topping. The peaches were not as ripe as they should have been to make peach ice cream so it is not as “peachy” as I would have liked. Next time, I will wait a few days after buying them until they are soft and juicy before turning them into ice cream. The oat topping though tasted delicious and truly made the ice cream. The recipe still needs a little work, but it is still quite delicious!

Operation Frontline

2008-07-12T12:31:00.000-07:00

This morning was my first class with Operation Frontline. Operation Frontline is a joint effort with Share our Strength and local food banks throughout the country, the Capital Area Food Bank in DC, in which cooking and nutrition classes are provided to people in low-income communities. The class focuses on teaching people how to make healthy & nutritious meals on a budget. Most of the classes are taught in community centers, schools, etc.

I am a volunteer chef for a new program that the food bank is trying out at a farmers market that focuses on using fresh, local produce. The class is at the Ward 8 market in Anacostia, a tiny market by the Congress Heights metro stop. I had been nervous about the class since I am far from a professional chef and have never had to run a cooking demonstration before. Even so, I thought this would be an amazing opportunity for me to help share my love of food & cooking with people who could learn a lot from the experience.

This class was focused on whole grains (each of the 5 classes has a different food group if focuses on) and so I decided to make homemade oatmeal and whole-wheat pasta salad. When we got to the farmers market we visited the tables and purchased some peaches & blueberries for the oatmeal and veggies for the pasta salad. Becky, the director of the program, started the class off and then handed the rest over to Suzie (the nutritionist) and myself.

The class went well and all of the participants seemed to be interested and engaged the whole time. There were 6 people in attendance, mostly middle age or elderly people from the community. After Suzie did the first part of her nutrition lesson, I began making the oatmeal. I talked about the health & economic benefits of using rolled oats over instant oatmeal while slicing up peaches to be added in. After the oatmeal was done, we divided up the pot, and everyone topped their cereal with fresh, local peaches and blueberries. The highlight was when one woman originally said she usually eats oatmeal with butter said, "This doesn't even need butter!" The recipe was the basic recipe from the back of the oat container, but I also added in about a tablespoon of honey and a few dashes of cinnamon.

I then started the pasta salad by boiling a box of whole-wheat pasta and cutting up the veggies. We used a cucumber, zucchini, pepper, cherry tomatoes, and feta cheese. The dressing was a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, honey, fresh herbs (we used sage, parsley, and leeks, all from the Capital Area Food Bank's organic farm outside the city), salt, and pepper. We were supposed to also put in Balsamic vinegar, but we forgot to bring it. The pasta salad was a hit and numerous people said how they were excited to try the recipe that week at home.

We gave out a box of whole-wheat pasta for all the participants and a $10 voucher for produce at the market. Everyone left with a smile on his or her face and a few people mentioned how they were going to bring a few friends to next week's class.

I was worried that the class was going to be a total disaster but overall it was a huge success. The class went relatively smoothly and Suzie & I seemed to work well together. It couldn't have been a success without the invaluable help of Becky and Betina (the class assistant). The participants seemed happy & thankful for the class and everyone involved seemed to have a good time and get a lot out of the experience. I am so thankful that it went so well and that I was given this opportunity to begin with.

Next week's lesson is on fruit and veggies featuring salsas of the fruit and veggie persuasion!

I Love Ice Cream More Than Words Can Say

2008-07-07T18:18:00.000-07:00

My absolute favorite thing to make is ice cream. This past winter I bought an ice cream maker with gift money from the holidays, and it was the best investment I have probably ever made! Since then, I have made a batch almost every week, if not twice a week. I have also dabbled in sorbets and gelato, but mostly I stick with ice cream. I recently made a list of flavors I have made over the half year while bored at work once, and here is what I could remember (in no particular order):

Peppermint Bark, Chocolate-Hazelnut gelatto, Chai, Berry sorbet, Pineapple-Orange sorbet, Pineapple-Orange-Strawberry Sorbet, Mint-Oreo, Birthday Cake (made by my old housemate, Sunny. She is amazing), Mango Sorbet, Strawberry, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, White-Chocolate Raspberry, Blackberry, Mint Chocolate Chip, Irish Coffee (also a Sunny creation), Caramel, Pumpkin, Pumpkin Pie, Chai Pumpkin Pie, Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Vegan Peanut Butter Brownie, Cookies and Cream, Maple Walnut, Thin Mint, Samoa, and my most recent flavors were Mexican Chocolate and Coffee Oreo.

I have spent a lot of time experimenting with different ice cream recipes, changing the proportions of cream, milk, and sugar and the use of egg. What I have found is that there is one recipe that tends to work amazingly well and it is this recipe that I use for 95% all ice cream I make now. Not surprisingly, this recipe comes out of the Joy of Cooking (or as I refer to it, the Bible), the single best cookbook for anyone to purchase in my opinion.

French Vanilla Ice Cream
2 C heavy whiping cream
1 C whole milk
2 egg yolks
3/4 C sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
2 tsp vanilla

Start by heating 1 C whole milk an 3/4 C sugar, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Then, slowly temper the egg yolks into the cream mixture (by slowly adding about 1/2 C of the hot mixture into the eggs before pouring the whole thing back into the pot. This will help the eggs heat up without curdling). Stir this mixture constantly until it reaches about 175 degrees fahrenheit. I use a candy thermometer, but if you don't have one, you can use a wooden spoon and when the custard gets thick enough to cover the back of the spoon, you should be good. Take this off the heat and let it cool down for about 1/2 an hour before adding the 2 C cream and vanilla. Let this chill in the fridge for at least 4-6 hours, but overnight is better. I put a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the cream to prevent a skin from forming.

Once the cream has chilled all the way, place it in the ice cream maker for 15-20 minutes. If adding solids to the ice cream (chocolate chips, broken cookies, nuts, etc) do this two minutes before the churning is done. The measurement for these is almost always 1 C. Once it had doubled in volume, transfer to a container and place in the freezer for at least 4-6 hours before eating.

For the Mexican Chocolate ice cream, I added 1/4 C coco powder to the egg yolks before tempering them into the hot milk/sugar mixture. Once it cooled down and the cream was added, I put in only 1 tsp. vanilla, and some cinnamon and ceyenne pepper. Unfortunately, I didn't measure the spices and just did it to taste, but it turned out amazingly well. You taste the cinnamon and chocolate, but then the spiceyness of the ceyenne comes at the end almost as an aftertaste. Awesome.

For the Coffee Oreo ice cream (technically Coffee JoeJoe, since I used the Trader Joe's version of oreos, which in my opinion are much better and they don't have high fructose corn syrup!) I added 1/4 C coffee into the milk/sugar mixture once the sugar disolved. I took the pot off the heat and covered it, letting it steep for 1/2 an hour before straining the coffee grounds out. I then put the mixture back on the heat and followed the rest of the recipe with the eggs & cream. Two minutes before it was done churning, I added 1 C of crushed cookies.

If you have any ideas for future ice cream flavors, let me know and I will try them out!

Cranberry Walnut Bread

2008-07-05T11:09:00.000-07:00

Last Monday, I decided to make a sourdough starter. A starter, or a sponge, is a technique that was used in bread making before the commercialization of yeast in which a mixture of flour and water ferments over a few days, collecting yeast from the air, which then multiply. All of my previous bread making has remained in the realm of instant yeast and I was intrigued by the idea of a starter. My fellow intern, Iris, talked about using starters for bread and I thought it was the coolest thing to have a living organism in your fridge that would be able to make bread indefinitely! I did research the night before and was overwhelmed by the commitment required to make a successful starter. By far the coolest fact I learned was that starters will live forever as long as they are taken care of, and that there are some in existence today that have been alive for centuries! How cool!?

I started Monday morning by mixing 2 cups AP flour, 2 cups water, and one package of yeast, and covering the bowl (having not made bread in this kitchen before, I was told there wouldn't be enough yeast spoors in the air and to add yeast to the mixture to get it started, the rest will grow from that). Every twelve hours or so, I would feed it with another cup of flour and cup of water. By day two, the starter was almost 8 cups and I was becoming a little concerned that this project would take over my entire room (I didn't force my experiment upon my housemates, and so I left the concoction in my bedroom). I learned from a website that you could actually dump half of the starter and add back the same amount in flour and water again so it doesn't end up filling the entire sink. After only a few hours of adding the flour/water mixture, the starter would start to bubble and become incredibly foamy, increasing some in volume.

I figured to give my starter a try on Wednesday night as a sort of test run for the actual loaf I was planning on making for the 4th of July. I made a simple whole wheat loaf by adding 2 C starter to 4 C flour (I used 2 C whole wheat flour & 2 C bread flour) I then let that mixture sit in the fridge for 12 hours or so to let it proof (fermenting the dough). I then took the dough out of the fridge and let it reach room temperature for about two hours before adding some more bread flour and kneading for about 10 minutes. The recipe called for 1/2 C flour, but I found I needed to add much more since it was humid and the dough was too sticky. After kneading, I shaped the dough into a ball and let it rise for two hours. I baked it in a 450 degree oven for 40 minutes with a tray of boiling water underneath to make a thick, crisp crust. The loaf turned out pretty well and was a hit at the office.

The real loaf that I had been planning on all week was made on Friday morning. I did the same steps as above, but added 1 cup of cranberries and 2 cups toasted walnuts to the dough. This bread was gorgeous and quite delicious! It was one massive loaf that weighted a few pounds Below are pictures of the dough while it was rising and right after it came out of the oven.

Overall, my sourdough starter was a success and I will use it (hopefully) for years and years to come. If anyone would like some starter, let me know and I can give you some of mine!

The Seed & the Sprout

2008-07-03T09:11:00.000-07:00

The Seed:

My interest in food and hunger issues has grown over the years from a mere interest to a lifestyle. Food has not always played a central role in my life; to the contrary, I was the pickiest child imaginable while growing up. I refused to eat half of the meals my parent’s made and so ended up eating lucky charms for dinner more often than I would like to admit. I didn’t even eat vegetables until I entered college and that was because the lady in the salad line forced them upon me! It is amazing to look back over the past two years and see how my relationship to food has changed so drastically and how that relationship has transformed me personally. People often laugh when they find out that I am a vegetarian who didn’t eat vegetables up until three years ago, and that my first mushroom wasn’t until a year and a half ago!

So I decided to start a blog. While I can only hope my family and friends read it once and a while, the main purpose is for me to have a place to think and talk about food, share my successes and failures in the kitchen, and to try and piece together my many thoughts on food, agriculture, the environment, hunger, and sustainability. The product will hopefully be something semi-coherent and something that will continue to grow and change as I grow and change.

Hungry Sprout will be a site where I talk about everything related to food. I will talk about adventures from the oven, recipes I’ve found, ice cream I have churned, bread I’ve baked, vegetables I’ve grown, and my attempts to try and give back to the community around me when I can. I realize this sounds very ad-hoc. There are cooking blogs, baking blogs, and social progress blogs. To me, cooking, sustainable agriculture, and fighting hunger must go hand-in-hand. If we are to build a sustainable food system, it must be rooted in an agricultural system that is healthy for the earth, our bodies, our communities, and the world around us.

I am no expert on any of these issues. My experience in the kitchen and on the farm is limited and far from professional. But food is my life and I love sharing with my friends and family. I hope these little posts will add a new dimension to my relationship with food and friends. If people do end up reading for some reason, please please please post and share experiences, recipes, etc! I promise to try them out!

WARNING: THIS FIRST POST IS TERRIBLY LONG, BUT I FELT I MUST WRITE EVERYTHING. ALL OTHER POSTS FROM HERE ON IN WILL BE SHORT AND TO THE POINT…I HOPE.

My interest in food and hunger issues began in the winter of 2006/Spring of 2007. That December I traveled in India for two weeks with a study tour from school. That was my first experience with poverty on such a large scale and I was unsure how to deal with it in any healthy and productive way. Every morning my group would walk out of our hotel and women begging for money and food would surround us. They could not speak English, but their body language was impossible to misinterpret. These women would take their right hand to their mouth as if to eat food, but they clearly hadn’t eaten in days. Most of these women had small children in their arms that were visibly malnourished, every one of their bones protruding through their skin. One friend on the trip told me of how one of these women tried selling her child to him in exchange for money to purchase food. A tour guide explained how many of the beggars actually drugged their children to make them look even more ill in hopes that it would help them to get more money from tourists. I had no way of processing this reality and found myself trying to shut it out of my mind and turning a cold shoulder.

It is not that I didn’t care (I was brought to tears numerous times a day), but I felt paralyzed. I didn’t know how I could possibly help these people who were so desperate to survive that they were willing to sell their child. Our group leaders explained how we shouldn’t give them money since that would just cause more and more people to follow us around and that giving money or food might perpetuate their poverty, that giving money to an organization when we returned home would better help the community in the long run. This thought helped some, but I still could not get over the terrible feeling I felt every time I saw someone starving to death because they couldn’t afford the plethora of fruit and vegetables that were being sold right down the street in a market.

I returned from India with only two weeks before I left to study abroad through the Semester at Sea program. I had no time to process anything I saw and tried to shove it in the back of my mind. Semester at Sea took me around the world in 100 days, eleven ports in nine different countries. For a detailed account of my semester and my trip in India, you can go to the travel blog I kept, which is linked to on the right of the page under “Food for Thought,” entitled the Tyranny of Distance.

While on the ship, I took the most influential class of my life, entitled “Food & Society,” with Professor Simon Nicholson from American University. The class went over many aspects of food, from the history of agriculture, industrial agriculture, sustainable agriculture, the future of food, and world hunger issues. It was this class that helped me to realize the power of food. It is over these few months that the connection between my passions, the environment & human rights became evident. I realized how food is one of the strongest relationships humans have with the environment, their body, their family, their community, and every living human being.

My experiences in port seeing hunger in a world of plenty in every single country strengthened my interest in food and hunger issues. From favelas in Brazil, townships in South Africa, a Dalit village in India, and on the streets of Beijing, everywhere I went I saw hunger and I could not escape it. And then I would step back onto my cruise ship and sit down to an all-you-can-eat buffet dinner where waiters brought drinks and dessert. The dissonance I felt was overwhelming and ever-present…

The Sprout:

When I returned back to the States I knew that I was changed beyond belief. For the first time, I knew what I wanted to do with my life, what I had to do with my life. I wanted to dedicate myself to helping to build a sustainable agricultural system and helping to provide those less fortunate with healthy, delicious food.

For the next eight months, I worked part-time on an organic farm while at school. I learned more practical knowledge during my time on the farm than my four years at college. I focused the rest of my non-academic energy on the environmental club at school, helping to bring food issues into our work. I spent the entire year writing my senior thesis entitled “America’s Failing Food Aid System & the Need for Reform.” (If you would like to read it, I would be more than happy to send it along, although I must warn you that it is long…longer than this first blog post).

I am currently living in DC and working for Food & Water Watch on their food team. The main project I am working on is related to labeling laws for rBGH, an artifical growth hormone in milk that has unknown and potentially dangerous effects on humans. I just received a volunteer position through Operation Frontline, a joint project of the Capital Area Food Bank and Share Our Strength. I will be a volunteer chef at a local farmer’s market (Ward 8 Farmers Market in SE), teaching people in the neighborhood how to use local, fresh produce in a cheap and delicious manner. That starts next weekend and I will be sure to update about that when it happens. I am nervous but incredibly excited, since it seems like the perfect opportunity for me, bringing together all of my passions and interests in a really fun way.

Starting in September, I will be a Fellow with the Congressional Hunger Center for a year. For six months, starting in September, I will be living in Tucson, Arizona working with the Community Food Bank. Then I will return to Washington, DC for six months to work on hunger policy through a governmental or non-governmental organization.

On top of all of that, I find time to cook constantly. I make ice cream every week and try making bread every week or so (I just made my first sourdough starter…more on that to come). I talk about food non-stop to my friends (thankfully most of them are just as obsessed over food as I am!)

So that is who I am and why I am here. That is why I am always talking about and working with food and what motivates me to get up every morning. If anyone read this far down, I applaud you. I will name an ice cream flavor after you or something in return! I feel as if I am always on a journey, learning new things about food, trying new flavors, and continually fighting industrial agriculture. I hope the Hungry Sprout will help me to make sense of this journey and will be something I can look back on for years to come.If people do read, I urge to always share your foodie thoughts, recipes, pictures, and experiences! Thank you and enjoy!