A little break...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!!