The Edible Emprise

From Edible Seattle: On eating local

2008-07-11T17:04:00.000-07:00

While cruising Metropolitan Market for upscale lunch eats, I found a nifty new magazine called Edible Seattle that features news, articles, and listings for local eaters.

So in addition to snagging some melt-in-your-mouth Washington strawberries, I grabbed the magazine. Very kewl! They also have magazines for other regional eaters, including Edible Lowcountry, which will soon be making its way to my mailbox. A taste of home!

Although you can pick up a copy at Metro Market, all of the articles for the spring issue are at their website. Check it out!

We should all want to know the provenance of our food, to have a traceable history of where our food comes from. Without a chain of custody, there is no responsibility for the safety and the quality of the product. That's how we get salmonella in peanut butter, e. coli in bagged spinach and meat recalls that total in the millions of pounds. The easist way to know the provenance of your food is to know the farmer who grew it, the fisher who caught it, the artisan that produced it. It's not that hard to do, and you can start making it a priority to buy local. - Alex Corcoran, Publisher of Edible Seattle

Week 5: Beat it, beets.

2008-07-10T22:48:00.000-07:00

When I went to pick up my share this week, my veggie buddy, Cindan, with whom I share my share of vegetables promised me there were no radishes in my bag, even though it might look like it. This is a good thing - we are still on a mission to find a good way to eat the ones that we do have.

When I peeped in the bag, I spied the radish imposters: beets. I have eaten beets on a couple of occasions, and once was the "lucky" recipient of someone's home canned pickled beets. The pickled beets were a disaster, and one gastric frontal eruption from eating these canned nasties was enough to put me off of beets. For a VERY LONG time.

Needless to say, the beets didn't make the bus ride home with me. They did, however, go home with Dave, who only has a quarter share of veggies and was beet-less.

Seeing as how we are mostly caught up, I am only going to post what we received in our share. If we've used the veggie, it will be noted.

Apart from the beets, this is what we got:

Week 5:

Green cabbage: a quarter of this was chopped for our pork stirfry. It was pretty tasty!
Butter lettuce: Added to the salad pot. We have a ton of greens from this week and last, and I know I will be taking salad to work in addition to eating a lot of it at dinner.
Green onions/scallions: One of my favorite things to do with green onions I learned when I was a bad food worker in charge of the Sunday Morning Buffet at Country Kitchen. In order to have a more upscale appearance, I would make mice out of pears. The whiskery ends of green onions were noses for mice, and the long, thin tapered points made great tails.

Green onions lend themselves to so many different garnish possibilities - I want to find something out of the ordinary to do with them. Ideas?
Chinese cabbage: This is one of those veggies that I have to investigate further...
Kale: When you're little and staying with gramma, daytime TV is a death sentence. One of the brighter points was watching cooking shows after lunch and in between the soaps and afternoon cartoons. I remember watching The Galloping Gourmet with Graham Kerr, and Good ol' Graham was loosing his mind over how delicious and tasty the kale was. I hope he's right.
Fava beans: The Celebrity Chef is "eyeing" up someone's liver.

We're going avoid jail time and go with the Chicken and Fava soup.

Note from Otis: I don't even know the last time I met a census taker. Besides, the soup kicks ass.

Week 4: Chop Chop!

2008-07-09T22:04:00.000-07:00

I lived up to my promise of being about as sharp as a marble after Tall Ships and Tacoma Freedom Fair. Being a defender of food safety is tiring. :)

And after Freedom Fair, Otis and I went to Idaho to visit family, watch fireworks and finalize the purchase of our espresso stand turned cabin. After an interesting trip from downtown Sandpoint across the long bridge to Sagle, the cabin is finally ours and on the property. Here we are, along with Otis's parents, Don and Janna.

*New for Week 4 - a group photo! It's hard to get vegetables to smile.

Snow peas and snap peas: Pork stirfry is going to claim some of these tasty treats, but we're working on using using them in other things. There's a tasty recipe in our CSA guide for glazed snap peas and carrots that we might have to try out.

Red leaf lettuce, radicchio and spinach: Salad, salad, and more salad. We all love having fresh greens for dinner. Even Otis.

In a funny aside, this is the first time that I've seen radicchio out in the "wild" - my only experience with the vegetable is hearing about it in a song by the group The Uninvited:
Starting off in aisle one,
fruits and veggies by the ton:
Hey check it out, raddiccio!
These red leaves, man, they almost glow!
And do they ever glow! They're quite pretty, and add a tasty twist to our salads.
Swiss chard: The leaves were turned into chiffonade and the stems chopped for stirfry. Otis can't wait to eat another pan of the Swiss Chard Mushroom Bake. Neither can I - the stuff is great!

Stay tuned for Week 5!

Week 3: Round up

2008-07-08T21:45:00.000-07:00

Here's what we got in the goodie bag for Week 3...

Week 3:

Snow peas and snap peas: Again, what didn't make it into our mouths straight from the bag, we stirfried!
Lettuce, spinach: Salad! We really love how awesome the lettuce is and eating salad has been our nightly staple.
Bok choi: This is a wonderful multipurpose vegetable. The stems were chopped for stirfry, the hearts used in braised bok choi, and the leaves were thrown into the salad pot.
Fava beans: These were shelled and stored. I have an awesome soup that I make with favas, fresh basil, spiced chicken sausage and sweet red peppers. Now that I finally have enough (thanks to Week 5), I'll be making it soon. However, according to our Celebrity Guest Chef, there are other options for our favas...

We've got the Chianti, but we're waiting for a census taker to come by.

Braised Bok Choi

2008-07-06T21:24:00.000-07:00

This recipe used the bok choi that we got in Week 2 and Week 3. The results were mixed - it was OK, but nothing spectacular.

I think I am more partial to the quick-cook, tender crispness of stirfried veggies.

Braised bok choi

Ingredients:

1-2 small garlic cloves, minced (We used the 5 called for in the recipe; trust us, less is more)
1/2 tbsp. olive oil
6-8 baby bok choi or hearts of bok choi, cut in quarters
2 cups chicken broth

Wash and rinse bok choi. Cut baby bok choi into quarters; cut bok choi hearts in half.

Heat oil and saute garlic, about 4-5 minutes. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. When boiling, reduce heat, add bok choi and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes on low.

Notes for next time:

I think that I will saute some portabellas, garlic and Spike first and then add smaller pieces of bok choi.

And I will also use less garlic.

Week 2: Round up

2008-07-05T21:08:00.000-07:00

Seeing as how I am behind in posting on our weekly haul, here is a brief wrap-up of what we got in the bag as well as its final disposition...

Week 2:

Peas: These were so sweet! The ones that didn't get eaten out of the bag were cut in half, quick steamed and added into stirfry, pods in all. Yummy!
Salad mix, spinach, endive: More salad. The salad pot runneth over and we're eating salads for dinner every night.
Baby bok choi: We saved these to eat along with the inner hearts and leaves of the bok choi we got in Week 3.

Radishes: Added to the bag 'o radishes. Thank goodness they keep. We're still trying to figure out what to do with them... We're thinking of throwing them on the grill because everything tastes better on the barbeque. Ideas?
Garlic scape: All of the recipes I have found for garlic scape involves grinding them up for pesto. What a waste of a visual delight! They are too pretty to grind up!

I am thinking of grilling the bottoms and then using the tops as garnish.

Have you used garlic scapes? Let me know!

Useful Stuff: Eating Seasonal Lists & Produce Washing Tips

2008-07-03T00:25:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of being helpful... wait, no, let's be honest...

Because my creativity will be at an all time low after doing inspections at Tall Ships and Tacoma Freedom Fair and in keeping with my job as a food inspector eating local, I am posting some canned content. The good stuff will return this weekend with a wrapup of our produce haul!

Give us this day our seasonal nosh...

In our last post, we wrote about eating seasonally. So how do you know what's really in season? If you're like us, we cheat and have a share in CSA to load our fridge with time appropriate goodies. Or you can also support your local farmers by going to a Farmer's Market and choosing fresh produce from local growers, which also means your food doesn't have more frequent flyer miles than you do.

If you want to know what's in season because it's NOT the season for Farmer's Market - like late fall through early spring - Sustainable Table has a listing of what's in season in your part of the country. Check it out!

Right now, 'tis the season for a lot of stuff in the Puget Sound!

This is the way we wash our food...

The inspector part of me wants you to know that washing your produce is one way to cut down on Foodborne Illness - the fun stuff like diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and generally feeling like death because of something you ate.

Our produce, even though it looks clean, really isn't clean. Produce can be irrigated with water contaminated with sewage, pesticides, chemicals or agricultural run-off (aka Cow Poo Tea), coated with waxes, covered with dirt and grime during transport, not to mention handled by growers and pickers who may not be the cleanest themselves.

The solution to all the funk on your food? Wash it!

Check out the FDA's tips on safe handling of raw produce and while you're at it, wash your hands too!

Our handwashing heroes - Super Scrub and Bubbles

10 Reasons for Eating Local

2008-07-02T23:46:00.000-07:00

I found this post at the blog Life Begins @ 30, and wanted to share. While choosing what you eat is important, knowing where it comes from and who you are buying it from:

10 Reasons to Eat Local Food

Eating local means more for the local economy. According to a study by the New Economics Foundation in London, a dollar spent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy. When businesses are not owned locally, money leaves the community at every transaction.

Locally grown produce is fresher. While produce that is purchased in the supermarket or a big-box store has been in transit or cold-stored for days or weeks, produce that you purchase at your local farmer's market has often been picked within 24 hours of your purchase. This freshness not only affects the taste of your food, but the nutritional value which declines with time.

Local food just plain tastes better. Ever tried a tomato that was picked within 24 hours? 'Nuff said.

Locally grown fruits and vegetables have longer to ripen. Because the produce will be handled less, locally grown fruit does not have to be "rugged" or to stand up to the rigors of shipping. This means that you are going to be getting peaches so ripe that they fall apart as you eat them, figs that would have been smashed to bits if they were sold using traditional methods, and melons that were allowed to ripen until the last possible minute on the vine.

Eating local is better for air quality and pollution than eating organic. In a March 2005 study by the journal Food Policy, it was found that the miles that organic food often travels to our plate creates environmental damage that outweighs the benefit of buying organic.

Buying local food keeps us in touch with the seasons. By eating with the seasons, we are eating foods when they are at their peak taste, are the most abundant, and the least expensive.

Buying locally grown food is fodder for a wonderful story. Whether it's the farmer who brings local apples to market or the baker who makes local bread, knowing part of the story about your food is such a powerful part of enjoying a meal.

Eating local protects us from bio-terrorism. Food with less distance to travel from farm to plate has less susceptibility to harmful contamination.

Local food translates to more variety. When a farmer is producing food that will not travel a long distance, will have a shorter shelf life, and does not have a high-yield demand, the farmer is free to try small crops of various fruits and vegetables that would probably never make it to a large supermarket. Supermarkets are interested in selling "Name brand" fruit: Romaine Lettuce, Red Delicious Apples, Russet Potatoes. Local producers often play with their crops from year to year, trying out Little Gem Lettuce, Senshu Apples, and Chieftain Potatoes.

Supporting local providers supports responsible land development. When you buy local, you give those with local open space - farms and pastures - an economic reason to stay open and undeveloped.

Thank goodness for big pots

2008-07-02T20:19:00.000-07:00

Since we signed up for CSA, we've been eating salads. A LOT of salads.

One of the nifty things about eating local produce is eating with the seasons. And right now, it's lettuce season. While I am totally guilty of hitting Cash 'N Carry in the middle of winter for strawberries, eating with the seasons has its merits:

By purchasing local foods in-season, you eliminate the environmental damage caused by shipping foods thousands of miles, your food dollar goes directly to the farmer, and your family will be able to enjoy the health benefits of eating fresh, unprocessed fruits and vegetables. Buying seasonal produce also provides an exciting opportunity to try new foods and to experiment with seasonal recipes. And it simply tastes better! - Sustainable Table

When I read the small note about what would be included in our share -

Reminder that the share starts off on the lighter side with lots of fresh greens and leafy vegetables and slowly builds through the season to slightly larger shares in the late summer and fall.

- it didn't really sink in that, for now, we're in good with the lettuce. But thanks to an awesome Henckel knife (thanks Mom & Dad!) and a big commercial stock pot (thanks Craigslist lady!), we can keep our lettuce crisp for a week.

On the days that our produce comes in, I wash, chop, re-rinse and then store our pre-cut salad in my big stock pot. Every night we have fresh green salads with endive, spinach, red leaf lettuce, and a chunk or two of renegade Cash 'N Carry Romaine. It's tasty and convenient!

View from the green...

Meatless Monday Stirfry

2008-06-30T16:01:00.000-07:00

We started Meatless Mondays as a way to eat less meat. Seemed simple enough, right? Surprisingly, by choosing tofu instead of tenderloin, we're doing a lot more than what we thought.

By choosing to eat lower on the food chain - plant and plant products like tofu - we reduce our carbon footprint, or the amount of emissions our food choices add to the atmosphere. To understand this concept more, check out these articles by Common Dreams and the International Times Herald.

When we add locally grown vegetables to the mix, we're doing what we can to become locavores - that is, people who eat locally grown and produced foods that support local growers - and reduce our food miles in the process. (See the post below on the value of eating local)

Onto Meatless Monday!

Today's stir-fry features our local produce from our CSA share - bok choy, swiss chard stems, and snap peas - as well as bean sprouts grown locally in Seattle. It's perked up with some yellow pepper, onion, and a handful of carrots slices. Served with Soy Vay's Veri Veri Teriyaki and broiled tofu pieces, it hit the spot for Meatless Monday!

Grog's Opinion (Reviews from Otis)

2008-06-29T15:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, so the techno illiterit is punching a blog on.

The Swiss chard was really good. Never knew a green combined with mushrooms would taste so good. I would recommend eating it warm and for breakfast on the go. It is not very good cold, but a microwave solves the problem.

That and on the Joe meter (food introduced to 5 random soldiers in my unit) scored 2-1/2:

2 absolutely loved it, one gagged, one described it as "not his cup of tea," and the other just shrugged. (Shows that the meter is broken possibly?) Any way, I liked it and I look forward to more.

More fer later. Me no likum computer.

Swiss Chard and Mushroom Bake

2008-06-29T15:10:00.000-07:00

Our swiss chard was given its day in this delicious dish, which can be made ahead and reheated.

I modified the original recipe which said to cook the chard for about 10 minutes. While I can see that this might help if your chard is tougher, ours was still young and tender and we were hesitant to have Snot Chard. Happy eating!

Swiss Chard and Mushroom Bake

Preheat oven to 350F.

Ingredients:

1 bunch of swiss chard
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp (or more to taste) minced garlic - about 2 cloves
6-8 caps of Baby Bella mushrooms, cut into small pieces
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 tsp Soy Sauce (We used reduced sodium Kikkoman)
3/4 c grated cheese (We used a monterray jack and cheddar blend) + 1/4 c extra
1/2 c crumbs
4 eggs, beaten
3/4 tsp Spike Seasoning (see note below), divided

Heat olive oil in saute pan. Saute onions over medium for about 3 minutes, add garlic, saute 2 minutes more. Add mushrooms, soy sauce and 1/4 tsp. Spike. Saute mushrooms until tender and liquid has evaporated.

While mushrooms are cooking, wash swiss chard in spinner or colander. Remove stems (can be used in stirfry or soup), and cut leaves into chiffonade. Put into large plastic bowl.

Add mushrooms mix, 3/4 c. cheese, eggs, and remaining 1/2 tsp. of Spike. Mix together. Add crumbs and toss until coated.

Grease a tart pan or 9 x 9 inch pan with olive oil or non-stick cooking spray. Pour in egg mixture. Top with 1/4 c. cheese.

Bake 30 minutes or until firmly set, but not hard, and slightly brown. Let cool slightly and cut into squares. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Can be refrigerated and reheated.

Note: Spike Seasoning is a salt and herbal seasoning blend that can be found in gourmet stores, health food stores , some grocery stores, and online at Amazon. Made in Kelly's home state of Wisconsin, its unique flavor is good on just about anything. Check out Perfect Pantry's article on Spike.

Week 1: So what do we do with this?

2008-06-29T14:38:00.000-07:00

So just exactly what did we do with all of our vegetables?

Some have long since disappeared, others are STILL HERE. Here's what became of our veggies:

Red leaf lettuce, Semi-savoyed spinach mix, Endive - These were all washed and chopped for a yummy salad mix. To keep our greens crisp, we kept them in a big stock pot filled with water in the fridge.
Daikon radish, Snow peas, Broccoli - Two words stir fry. The radishes made a nice addition and weren't as sharp as I thought they would be. The snow peas were sweet and crisp, and unless you overcook it, al dente broccoli is a staple of stir fry.

We do stirfry at least once a week for Meatless Mondays. See the following post for how we do it. :)
Swiss Chard - Swiss chard was a new one for us, and so we looked through a lot of recipes to see what people did with it. Most of the recipes suggested boiling it or cooking it for long periods of time. The didn't seem like a good idea nutritionally, and Otis didn't like the idea of eating something akin to cooked spinach. Kelly was in agreement, based on paternal information, that cooking might not be the best way to go.

(Kelly's grandma used to make her dad and his siblings eat cooked spinach on Halloween before they went Trick-or-treating - if you didn't clean your plate, no Halloween fun. To this day, dad will not eat it because he says that it looked and tasted like snot. )

We went with a Mushroom, Chard and Cheese bake. Recipe to follow.

Chamomile (herb of choice) - Drying for tea

French Breakfast Radish - Still here. We're researching recipes for radishes. We found one for grilled radishes that sounds promising.
Red India mustard greens - Still here. Again, all of the recipes say to boil the greens for a long time. Having eaten greens down in South Carolina, Kelly can attest to the fact that greens can be hit or miss, and are usually cooked with a lot of fat. Research continues.

Any ideas on how to cook non-slimey greens? Let us know!

Week 1 : What's in the bag?

2008-06-29T14:17:00.000-07:00

Seeing as how we are actually into Week 3 of the CSA share at Zestful Gardens, here is a wrap-up of what we got in our share bag for week 1:

Red Leaf Lettuce
Daikon Radish
French Breakfast Radish
Endive
Semi-savoyed spinach mix
Red India mustard greens
Swiss chard
Snow peas
Broccoli
Herb of choice - ours was chamomile

The first week was a lot of fun for us - Otis hadn't heard of many of these vegetables, and while I had heard of some of them, I wasn't sure what they looked like. I separated our share out on the dining room table and took my best guesses. Some were pretty easy - like the snow peas, broccoli, radishes, spinach and lettuce. The others, well, hmmm.

Google Images to the rescue!

We looked up all of the different vegetables so that we could tell what was what.

And then came the fun of looking for recipes!

So how did we use our veggies? Stay tuned!

Welcome!

2008-06-26T23:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to The Edible Emprise!

We're Kelly & Otis - she's the haphazard cook, and he's the reluctant veggie eater.

We've started this blog as a way to document our adventures with eating local produce through a Community Supported Agriculture program from Zestful Gardens.

Like many cooking blogs, this one will feature recipes, as well as our musings on eating local and some of the changes that eating local has inspired in us.

Seeing as how Kelly is the techno-savvy one, she'll be doing most of the posting, however Otis will probably be chiming in from time to time with his comments on meals that we've made.

We'll also try to get pictures of our dishes because the biggest problem with most recipes found on the internet is the distinct lack of pictures. And besides, Kelly's dad is always asking to see pictures that she's taken with her camera. Yay! Everyone wins!

As with all blogs, please be patient and watch for changes or reworking of the look and feel as we get settled.

Happy Eating!
Kelly & Otis

Just Say NO!

2008-06-07T17:43:00.000-07:00