CSA Week 6 Haul. July, 2008. photo Jenonymous.
Exhausted and Ready for Bed
Back once again, dear readers—and true to form I'm exhausted and ready for bed, except that this week, I am going to make a major jump and try to start bringing my lunch to work at least a few days a week, especially during the peak produce season here. Yes, it means lugging Tupperware and those stupid little ice pack thingies to work and back, but I carry so much crap with me that taking all that stuff home with me each night won't be a huge stretch. I think for tomorrow I am going to use up all the greens left from last week, along with what's left of my sugar snaps and some other stuff. I've already ordered a totally overpriced-but-well-designed salad keeper thingie from Amazon, along with a lunchbag (yeah, I know they make cheapass ones available at Duane Reade for $4, but I figure I'll buy one good one and use it forever). Whilst at the drug store buying my liquid load weight in Kaopectate this past Monday (more on that later) I also scored some of those re-usable hard-sided Rubbermaid blue-ice thingies for only 75 cents each (I don't trust the softsided ones NOT to break), and they allegedly will fit in a little pocket in my lunchbag or something like that.
Anyway, so when I'm done with this posting, I'm going to go figure out a salad option of some sort. Having said that, last week I took delivery of:
This week, my cup truly ran over as I was due for an herb share, we got triple fruit to make up for an eh fruit showing the past few weeks, and my CSA meat/cheese/etc order was due in.
Today I got:
Now, you'll have to wait until NEXT week for the money shots on those. In the meantime enjoy the explicit, uncensored story of what I did with LAST week's share (but please DO send along suggestions as to what to do with this week's huge, freaking enormous bounty—running out of space in the fridge AND the freezer).
Okay, as I hinted last week, the fava beans were destined for immediate greatness. Now, some of our readers have correctly complained that fava beans are a pain in the ass, and they usually are. Fresh, you have to first take off the outer shell, and then freakin' peel a SECOND skin OFF OF EACH INDIVIDUAL BEAN. Bought dried, you have to soak them to get the stupid skins off. That automatically put fava beans in the "not in my lifetime" and "only if Goya puts em out ready to go in cans" categories for me. Until about a pound of them showed up with my CSA share.
So, my homework project for that night was to find a way to prepare them that took as little prep time as possible. Did I mention that I've been working fucking nuts hours these days? All hail Teh Power of Teh Google and its progenitor Teh Intertubes! Behold the best recipe ever for fava beans; meant for the grill but I used my broiler and an aluminum pan (my version here):
Fire up the broiler pan. Wash off the fava beans, whole, real good. Dry. Pour some high-grade olive oil in the pan and swirl to coat. Add more oil. Toss in fava beans in a single layer. Add lots of kosher salt and toss. Put under broiler. After they start to blister and blacken on one side, use tongs to turn over each pod and do the same to the other side. When the pods are soft and blistery, take the pan out and cover lightly with aluminum foil until beans are cool enough to handle. You can pick up the whole pod like giant edamame and pop the huge beans out of the pod right into your piehole, or you can take em out with your fingers. NO NEED to take off the inner skin—it will be soft enough to eat and TASTY.
Sinful confession: I ate ALL my grilled fava beans and half a bottle of white wine while prepping the next recipe. That pretty much became dinner that night along with some greens from the prior week. And a smidgen of peach ice cream. I was naughty.
Next up: What to do with the cabbage? I still had a few small golden beets from before, and some of the feathery fronds from the fennel, so I concocted the following stew/cold salad (see picture):
CSA Week 6 Veggie Saute. July, 2008. photo Jenonymous.
Cabbage, Beet, and Onion Earlyish Summer Simmer
Take some olive oil (I used the winter savory oil from a while ago) and heat up. Sautee a few of the spring onions, sliced thin. Add cabbage, lemon juice, salt, and pepper and let wilt. Deglaze with white wine (come to think of it I went through a lot of that on that particular night also). Put in the sliced beets, cover, and let cook down for a bit. When it's about ¾ there, put on some fennel frondage and a few branches of dried winter savory. If you want, sprinkle on a little lemon thyme and lavender. Add more wine or water if necessary. Cook until done.
This was great both hot and as a cold antipasto item. Yes, it's very seasoned but there's also a LOT of cabbage and beet in it. Adjust to your liking and use whatever fresh herbs you want.
More on those fava beans though. I remember reading some translation of a ribald Italian writer from the Renaissance and he referred to the head of the, um, (METAPHOR TIME!! SHARE YOURS IN COMMENTS!!) aroused male appendage (as seen on an uncircumcised unit) as the "broad bean" aka fava bean. Well, when you get a fava bean out of the pod with its little skin on, it really does look like the end of an uncut dude's padoodle at playtime. Just saying. On a more, uh, culinary note, I think I'll try smoking the fava beans in the smoker that Gilly got me next time. We'll see if they make an encore.
Saturday I caved in and got some Bisquick to make peach pancakes with. Ashamed to say that in my efforts to halve the recipe, I fucked up the milk quantity and made the batter too thin. So, I made a slow-cooked one-pan-sized pancake in the Dutch style. It still came out great and the fruit cooked up to be most gorgeous!
Otherwise I didn't do much too special; lots of salads and using the various vinegars, oils, and a tiny jar of savory and thyme vodka (amazing very cold, as-is).
Oh, so back to why I was buying Kaopectate. After spending Saturday doing absolutely nothing except sleeping in my gloriously air-conditioned bedroom and sweating in front of the computer, I got motivated on Sunday. Unpacked and put away two loads of laundry, turned in my sheet and towel laundry, and decided that I was going to make a recipe from my signed copy of Gordon Ramsay's latest cookbook—Sticky Lemon Chicken. It's actually an amazing recipe. So I even got off my duff to go shopping on a very hot day; I even cooked that recipe and my previously-listed oven-roasted potato wedges. In a heat wave. Dinner was delicious. I had sugar snaps to round out the plate, and it was all good.
Having said that, not only did Gordon NOT come over to my place after dinner to make me dessert and carnally gratify me, but I came down with a hell of a case of food poisoning. About an hour after eating I felt more exhausted than usual. Around dawn I woke up out of a deep sleep, two hours before my alarm, with severe cramps. Then I was jolted out of that deep sleep further by that horrid sensation of…must…get…to…toilet…NOW. We're talking projectile shitting, folks. Now, when I had cooked the chicken, I DID notice that the chicken had leaked right through the plastic bag I had the guy put it in at the store and had gotten on some other stuff. My guess is that I had cross-contamination on something. So, after a very rude awakening (thank G-d I made it to the john; remember, my other main set of sheets was at the Laundromat), I waited for the cramps to pass, spent the next two hours pooping, and had NO breakfast except for some Kaopectate left over from last year when I thought I might be getting an ulcer (I was). I went to the office as I had a shitload (all puns intended) of work and teleconferences and let's just say I want to keep an eye on the place right now. I lasted through the subway ride and the trip to the office, and figured, hell, if I made it here without crapping my pants I may as well make a full day of it. I DID warn my boss that I may have to leave early and why. After another pit stop I went to one of the 8 zillion Duane Reades in Midtown and got a big ol' bottle of Kaopectate and those ice packs. Drank about half the bottle at work. Lunch was a SunnyField Farms yogurt drink (acidophilus is good) and soy milk. I forgot that I had a thing of orange juice in the fridge also; someone probably stole it by now. Anyway, as the day went on, my colonic dry heaves died down. I went home and was actually hungry.
My Mom of course phoned in with grave warnings to only eat rice and bananas, but I didn't want to set up the rice spaceship and no bananas. So, I followed my craving and took a whole-wheat flatbread, coated it with fat-free cream cheese, added a pile of clean Italian parsley (of COURSE I bought two bunches and I get more this week. Go figure), added salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon, folded it in half, and ate it. With a shelf-stable acidophilus chaser for good measure.
All that chlorophyll must have done me good, because today I was…fine. Thank G-d.
Preparing my food tonight, I was grateful that I was healthy enough to eat the great spread in front of me, and grateful that I am able to participate in my CSA. I did get sad though when I looked at this week's huge haul and though, I should bring some of this over to Gilly's. And then remembering that I can't. It's too late to tell him to eat his vegetables. But I'm glad that I can eat mine.
EAT HEALTHFULLY AND BE WELL. Take care. Until next week,
--Jen
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
CSA Week 6—More hot, uncensored, amateur food porn with action shots!
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
CSA Notebook Week 5
CSA Week 5 Haul. July, 2008. photo Jenonymous.
Delivery Day
Okay, once again it's delivery day and I'm nearly psychotic (and tipsy) by the time I sit down to write. You have to realize, readers, that when I get home with my haul, my first order of business is to break down, cook, preserve, dry, store, or otherwise make best use of my weekly share. This week it turned out to be rather time-intensive, but I'll get to that next week. Then I finally get to eat, usually with some wine worthy of the produce, and then write.
Also, apologies for the double-lateness. It's Tuesday PM as I write this, and I realize that anyone with admin privs to post this is busy either networking, enjoying nom-noms (hopefully), networking, or writing at The Convention. Having said that, it's 9:30 PM, and I'm full, cranky, PMSing, and writing. I'm also fighting off the urge to ditch my duty and go play Conan: Hyborian Adventures so that I can level up my Dark Templar to 40 so that she can use the War Mammoth and War Rhino that I won on Ebay (got the Collector's Edition so I already have the drinking cape and the ring, as well as some other crap that I got from a magazine code and my geeky Zboard, but I digress. In fact, the only item I don't have is the lame-ass Amazonian Bow from guess which vendor. Actually, now that I checked Ebay, I got ripped on that fucking rhino—how could the mean price go down $10 in two goddamned days? OTOH I seem to have made up for it with the War Mammoth, which at first was somehow deemed Less Useful and Cool, but now is apparently more desirable. Anyway….).
Back to food. Last week, I took delivery of:
Yes, last week was a little paltry, but that's the risk you take when you join a CSA. Apparently they sold out all of the promised fruit share before we got any, and promised us double fruit this week OTOH, it gave me a chance to "eat down" the prior week. Anyway, here is a rundown, with recipes, of what I chomped last week that was CSA-related:
Once again, Minstrel Boy wins top billing in this post for his amazing suggestion of roasted fennel. Here's how I did it and what I did with it.
Preheat oven to Really Damn Hot. I used 400F about (I say about because I have a flakey gas oven, and my oven thermometer is fogged over). Take an ovenproof (duh!!) pan and grease it good with medium-grade olive oil; I used a mix of Greek "best eating grade" and Greek "best cooking weight." If you're in an apartment, cover over your smoke detector 'cause it's gonna smoke a little. Trim feathery bits off of fennel bulbs and save for later use. Cut cleaned bulbs in half. Drizzle balsamic vinegar on cut surfaces. Toss everything with more olive oil and drizzle on more vinegar. Stick in oven. For the first hour leave it uncovered and stir once in a while. Then when the edges of the smaller pieces get brown and you start to get scared, cover with foil and give it at least another hour until the bulbs are fork-soft. Eat hot with bread, and/or cold as part of antipasto or as a salad item.
I also made winter savory olive oil (heavy grade for dipping/dressing) and lemon thyme vinegar.
That night, after having the fennel on whole-wheat flatbread, I had some of the prior week's cherries with lavender vinegar sprinkled on them — a riff on the overdone strawberries-with-balsamic combo. Perfect.
I also used some of the snow peas and made a frittata with them (using the next to last of my eggs from the Harvard-educated CSA chickens), which I put over saute'd tatsoi.
Another standout item was an amazing salad that I made the other night. I was in "use stuff up from last week" mode, so I started with a bed of the last of the lettuce. I snipped on chives and some of the cleaned fennel tops. I then put on raw snow peas, some of the roasted fennel, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and some of the oil from said roasted fennel. For protein and carbs, I put some high-quality aged bleu cheese on a whole-wheat flatbread and threw it under the broiler. When it was almost totally hard/crispy, I took it out and ate it with the salad. Perfect.
Oh, yes, and as mentioned last week—the rest of the cherries and the strawberries made it into a Cherry Berry Smoothie. Cherries, strawberries, milk, honey, and nothing else. In a blender. In your tummy. Summer in a glass.
I also seem to remember huevos rancheros over greens at some point, with my dried herbs.
Oh, and I hung up the rest of the winter savory and lemon thyme to dry—see pix! I tried to take a pic of the roasted fennel but my camera has been acting up in the hot apartment lately so it came out looking bad so I thought I'd spare you. :)
CSA Week 5 Winter Savory and Lemon Thyme to Dry. July, 2008. photo Jenonymous.
Today, I took delivery of:
Let's just say that the favas and cabbage are a done deal at this point (wait till next week!) but still welcome any and all recipes, as I'll probably see repeats of these!
So, anyway, I need to get this out and get to bed soon. As always, GOOD EATING AND GOOD HEALTH. Please keep your recipes coming!
--Jen
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
CSA Post Week 4
CSA Week 4 Haul. July, 2008. photo Jenonymous.
More Good Stuff with Recipes
Hey all. Jen here. I'm exhausted, I'm getting up extra-early to catch up at work tomorrow, and I can uniformly say that the Monday after a 4-day weekend most definitely sucks a blue whale's nether regions. On top of that, the employment situation is precarious, and the CVS on my block had to order one of my usual scrips, which means I have to remember to pick it up on Friday (after I went to my Doc in the Box and spent an hour hanging around CVS looking at shampoo). Meh. I just had dins, and I'm drinking a Syrah that's so unapologetically cheap that they call it "stained tooth syrah."
Having said that, I'll get straight to the good stuff.
Tomorrow, I am slated to pick up:
Veggie Share:
fennel
lettuce
snow peas
chives
tat soi <-- wtf is this and what do I do with it anyway?
Herb Share:
winter savory <-- not sure what to do with this
lemon thyme <-- this also. I've never cooked much with either herb. Fish stuffing with the fennel?
Fruit Share:
TBD, possibly raspberries <-- was hoping for more cherries but whatever
Last Tuesday, I picked up, as per the picture:
- Cherries
- Strawberries
- Beets (heirloom golden--orange on the outside, gold on the inside)
- Snap Peas
- Sorrel (yet more)
- Mizune
- Oakleaf Lettuce
Before I get into that, as this thread is partially health-related, let me say this. On the upside, I've gone down almost a size just by letting, as the nutritionists say, "letting the good food push the bad stuff off the plate." I used to eat out at least 2 days a week; now it's once in 10 days or so. Downside: You know that Crystal Gayle song "Don't it Make my Brown Eyes Blue?" Well, my Big Brown Eye is...sore. Not used to so much roughage. Really. I think that part of it is that no matter what, some organic stuff is just plain old less clean and needs more washing. When I can taste the soil on washed veggies, I know that at least part of that is cow shit. There have been days where I was sure I had mild food poisoning, but I'm actually OK with that--in a few more weeks I'll have a degree of resistance.
Now that I've grossed you out, let me get to the recipes:
My first priority was to use up the stuff from the prior week, so a star of the show was a frittata.
To refresh, last week I picked up:
- 4 local Honeycrisp apples (and they really are crisp and smell like honey)
- Snow Peas 2 helpings of Strawberries (a quart for the fruit share and a pint for the veg share)
- Two big bunches of lavender, each one slightly thinner than my wrist (one for the veg share and one for the herb share)
- Romaine Lettuce Sorrel (part of herb share)
- Purple Swiss Chard
- A dozen super humane organic free-range no-cage eggs from chickens that were fed from hand-made feed, who also went to Harvard and got massages
- Honey, from bees that live in a condo and can program Cobol apparently
- Liver from an Angus grassfed cow (came frozen along with the mutton)
- 3 lbs. (!!!) of very very lean organic happy mutton (the order page said it came in packs between .75 and 1.5 lbs and I ordered two packs with the stipulation that they be bigger rather than smaller so that's what I got)
- A raw sheep's milk cheese not unlike Baby Swiss or Ementhaller
- A raw cow's milk cheese like a soft cheese/almost like cheddar or Monterey Jack
But, I had to use up the rest of that week's good stuff, so for dinner that night, I made a fritatta. I sautee'd down (in a mix of olive oil and that herb butter from Week 1) the rest of the snow peas, the rest of the sorrel, the last Jerusalem Artichoke from the first week, sliced thin (yeah, it really hung in there), and the rest of the radishes, sliced thin. Once they cooked down, I dumped in 2 of my Special Eggs whisked with some milk and poured it in. Salt and pepper were the only other seasonings needed.
The next day, I got into the beets and made a bowl salad--one grated beet, strawberries, snap peas, sorrel, beet tops (which were lovely and fresh), and mizune dressed with a dressing made of lavender vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and a dab of that organic honey. Croutons were a piece of whole-wheat pita torn up.
My lunch on the 4th of July was a nod to the muggy weather and an ice cream craving. I call it a "Berry Cherry Smoothie." In a blender combine:
- large handful of pitted ripe cherries
- large handful of hulled strawberries
- sugar to taste
- milk to cover fruit
- fistfull of ice and one more splash of sugar and milk
For dinner that night, after the fireworks, I had a very bad Chinese food craving but was too cheap/lazy to order in (also, Dragon Gate, the one decent place near me, closed). So, I did a riff on Vietnamese hot noodles/cold greens:
In a small cup, combine about a tablespoon of fish sauce and a teaspoon or so of heavy sesame oil (smoky oil). Cook a pack of ramen noodles and if you really have PMS and/or an MSG craving, mix in the dubious flavor packet once you drain the noodles. Set aside. In a bowl, tear up greens--I used mizune and lettuce. Poach or coddle 2 eggs to semi-done-ness. Dress greens with fish sauce and oil (you can add garlic and scallions but I didn't). Dump noodles on greens. Tip eggs on noodles. Eat and feel every salt/fat/MSG receptor in your brain ringing. If you are motivated snip in scallions if you have them.
I also cooked up the liver. For that, I consulted an all-American post-WW2 (1948) cookbook. I present to you: French Fried Liver.
Take good breadcrumbs. Season with salt and pepper (and whatever else you want) and set aside. Beat 2 eggs in a bowl and set aside (I used my Special Eggs). Heat at least 1/2" of oil in a pan--I used olive oil with peanut oil to temper the oil from smoking. Cut liver into bits about 1/2" thick and an inch square, roughly. Dip in egg and then crumbs. Fry, and turn, until done. Put on paper towls to drain.
That night, I had those liver bits on a mixed salad of lettuce, mizune, whole wheat home-made croutons (courtesy of my broiler), toasted cashew nuts, and home-made garlic vinagrette made with some of my herb vinegar from week 1 (I have about one more salad's worth left).
Tonight I had a liver sandwich with small-batch locally-made ketchup, with lettuce and mizune on the side. Tomorrow, I will fry the rest of last week's greens and snap peas and bring my co-worker his share of the Navajo Green. If he's really nice I may bring him tortillas. :)
I also put away the rest of the lavender and made more lavender vodka.
Off to bed. Happy eating and GOOD HEALTH. ---Jen There's more...
Thursday, July 3, 2008
CSA Week 3: Pt. 2
CSA Week 3 Haul. All photos June, 2008. All photos Jenonymous.
Click on any photo for LARGE.
This one's a Biggie, Folks…
Okay, so I'm a day late…I realize this and gave Jesse the heads-up. Basically, shit is hitting the fan at work so on top of everything else, I had to do double duty while keeping my own act together on the homefront.
Now I'm in a better place and I can write. My office shut down at 2ish and turned off the AC for the weekend. I worked until almost 7. It's Wednesday night, and I'm going into a 4-day weekend. A glorious four-day weekend, with an added bonus—I finally gave in to the Great Satan and opted in to Amazon Prime, which meant that I was able to get a Zboard Gaming Keyboard and the matching Age of Conan overlay delivered overnight on a whim. I keep hoping that they'll make a Hellgate London overlay, but I digress. I schlepped that home today, along with a 6-pack of mixed wine that I had ordered over a month ago, home from the office via a taxi in rush hour today. Of course, I got a cab that hadn't done the credit-card conversion kit yet, but I was so zonked I didn't care and didn't even get my receipt so I could report his law-non-abiding ass. Got home so tired that my two options were to change into comfy clothing and get food OUTSIDE of the apartment or sleep immediately. I opted for the former, so now I'm sucking the remains of chuletas con chipotle out of my teeth and recovering from two mojitos and a fancy cocktail. I feel much better now. Having said that, I will probably spend the next four days playing Age of Conan, leveling up my character in Hellgate London, and dozing in a Xanax-and-Merlot-induced sleep. I need it.
Oh, yeah, this is a post about my CSA exploits. Well, as I said in the subject line, this past week was a BIGGIE. Last Tuesday I took possession of my usual share, which consisted of:
- 4 local Honeycrisp apples (and they really are crisp and smell like honey)
- Snow Peas
- 2 helpings of Strawberries (a quart for the fruit share and a pint for the veg share)
- Two big bunches of lavender, each one slightly thinner than my wrist (one for the veg share and one for the herb share)
- Romaine Lettuce
- Sorrell (part of herb share)
- Purple Swiss Chard
- A dozen super humane organic free-range no-cage eggs from chickens that were fed from hand-made feed, who also went to Harvard and got massages.
- Honey, from bees that live in a condo and can program Cobol apparently.
- Liver from an Angus grassfed cow. (It came frozen along with the mutton.)
- 3 lbs. (!!!) of very very lean organic happy mutton. (The order page said it came in packs between .75 and 1.5 lbs and I ordered two packs with the stipulation that they be bigger rather than smaller so that's what I got.)
- A raw sheepmilk cheese not unlike Baby Swiss or Ementhaller.
- A raw cow's milk cheese like a soft cheese/almost like cheddar or Monterey Jack.
First thing I did was tie up the lavender and hang it over my sink (see pic also.) Then I did the wash/dry/store routine for the greens.
I also then cooked down the Swiss Chard very quickly, using only a little oil and finishing it with a splash of herb vinegar from Week 1, with just a touch of salt and pepper. EXCELLENT, especially with a fresh fried egg on top of a helping and some whole-wheat flatbread on the side to sop up the juice.Then I took some of the lavender and made a jar of lavender vinegar (which is now truly a deep purple color) and a very small experimental jar of lavender vodka, which turned out to be most spectacular a week later when consumed with fresh grapefruit juice. For a killer Salty Dog (grapefruit juice, vodka, salt the rim) use this.
Then there was the issue as to what to do with the sorrel, aka soursop. Every person with relatives from West of Beijing, North of Cairo, and South of the North Pole knows about schav, a deep green sour soup made with sorrel. I didn't want to use it for that, but even the CSA staff and all 3 of my Greenmarket cookbooks (!!!) only had soup variations for this ingredient.
The Intertubes told me that it was a sour herb and (more importantly) safe to eat raw, so I did. I used it as part of a tossed salad that night—sorrell, romaine, snow peas, the last of the sugar snaps from last week, topped with two very fresh-boiled organic super-happy-chicken-eggs. I dressed it with a fast dressing of red wine vinegar, a bit of honey, a bit of olive oil, a dab of mayo, salt, and pepper. I'll note that the olive oil that I used was the very heavy green "eating and dipping" type, not the thinner "cooking type" which I also have. The sweetness of the honey put just enough of a dent in the sourness of the sorrel to make the whole thing work.Otherwise I munched down my backlog of greens during the week. In addition to eggs for protein, it turns out that my local supermarkets—both of them—have started carrying very affordable, VERY good canned smoked sprats from Latvia which are just magic on top of mixed greens.
The real star of this week's show, though, was the wonderful, authentic Navajo Bowl of Green Mutton Chili, recipe courtesy of our own Minstrel Boy. I had to make some modifications, so I hereby present his original with my notes. I made this last Friday—the mutton came frozen, so I defrosted it Thursday and cooked it after staying at work too late again on Friday.
Da Original:
Minstrel Boy's Navajo Green Chili and Frybread
1 1/2 pounds lean mutton, venison or elk, diced into 1/2 cubes
* 2 cups chicken broth
* 1 cup green chile sauce (las palmas is the best)
* 2 cups tomatillos, husks removed and coarsely chopped
* 2 roasted green chiles, seeded and diced (Anaheim or Poblano work well)
* 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and diced
* 1 medium onion, peeled and diced
* 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon cumin
* 1/2 teaspoon sugar (very optional i leave it out most of the time)
* 3 tablespoons oil
* 2 cups drinking water (i love it when a grandmother's recipe specifies something most folks aren't used to thinking about. on the rez there were several different grades of water)
* can of good beer (or red wine, or sherry)
in the bottom of a heavy pan brown the meat in a bit of oil, over high flame.
remove the meat and use the beer or other liquor to deglaze the bottom of the pan. add everything else in and simmer, covered, for at least 3 hours. for the absolute best, after three hours, remove from heat and refrigerate over night. then simmer two more hours before serving.
for a killer fry bread, use the recipe on a bisquick box for dumplings, but flatten it out into discs with your hands and deepfry until golden brown.
aal aal a'ahliiza!
(come and get it!)
First off, I doubled most items as I had 3 lbs. of mutton.
Secondly, I wasn't sure what he meant by "green chili sauce" as I couldn't find an exact match at my local small Food Fair (I didn't want to hike down to Steinway to the huge C-Town which no doubt would have had the exact brand). So, I got a 16-oz jar of Mexican-made green "chili salsa" as they called it ("medium hot") and for good measure bought an 8-oz bottle of hot-as-Hell Mexican green hot sauce (of which I only used half the bottle. So, for a double recipe, 16 oz of green salsa-ey stuff and 4 oz of liquid green fire. Still with me?)
I used one 16-oz can of Heinekin for the deglazing, and also used more oil to brown the mutton initially as it truly had no fat on it. Lastly, I didn't need to add the water, and only used one can of chicken soup, not two, as there was way too much liquid already. Also, I eyeballed the tomatillas and probably used more than just double. They were REALLY fresh and of all different sizes and figured they would all just cook down. Also, I did use the sugar.
Prep note: I fire-roasted the poblanos myself over my gas stove and didn't bother to skin them; I love the charred flavor. Also, I used the food processor for the chilies, onions, and garlic—but left the tomatillas in chunks.
After browning JUST the meat, as per instructions, I just dumped in everything else. And let it cook. And cook. And cook. Covered. I stirred it religiously every 10-15 minutes. For four hours. For the last two hours, I took the cover off and let it boil down—again with stirring—for another two hours. Then I put the lid on and let it cool for an hour so that I could put my heavy red pot in the fridge without totally fucking the compressor on my ancient, cheaply-made fridge.
That night, before going to bed, I put up to soak half of a 1-lb. bag of real-deal Goya white hominy corn. I've had hominy from a can—my Texan stepfather introduced it to our Viking Ashkenazi household—but we never made it from scratch.
After a good night's sleep, I had to try the chili. Even cold, it was AMAZING. So I decided to do it justice by eating it with hominy. This is where I really cheated.
Dirty secret, folks: If you soak hominy overnight and then drain it and rinse it HARD twice, you can dump the whole mess in your rice cooker, add one to two thumb-joints of water, set it to the brown rice setting, and FORGET ABOUT IT. It took my Zojirushi Rice Spaceship about two and half hours to figure it all out, but at the end of the process, I got perfect, almost milky-creamy and yet still chewy hominy, shining like opals and pearls steaming in the cooker bowl.
I had hot hominy with the chili dumped on it for a spectacular brunch. I had strawberries for dessert. That night, I had ANOTHER bowl of chili with hominy, this time with some of the milder cow's-milk cheese grated over it. WOW.
It made a HUGE batch. I have two meals' worth still in the fridge; the rest has been frozen in portions. At least one of these is for a co-worker of mine—one of my few office-buddies—who is from Cheyenne originally. When I told him I was making REAL Navajo Green, he immediately asked for some. When I told him that I wouldn't be making frybread (how could I bring HOT frybread to the office?) he pouted like a little boy who got the wrong color Power Ranger for Xmas. I may have to bring him a stack of the locally-made fresh tortillas to mollify him.
Minstrel Boy
More next week! Hope you like the pictures.
---Jen
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
CSA Week 3 Notes
CSA Week 2 Haul. June, 2008. photo Jenonymous.
“Closer to my reality” CSA Eating
Okay, this past week, I had what I’ll call a “closer to my reality” CSA eating experience. As mentioned, this past week’s share was:
Veggie Share
strawberries
sugar snap peas
butter lettuce
radishes
mizuna
Now here’s the rub—not only did I eat out one night during the week, but I was out of town Friday thru Sunday. So, how to eat all my stuff without wasting it? Well, I re-did the rinse/dry/store in lined bowls thing for the lettuce, and left the snap peas in their bag (and made a note to just eat them faster.) I left the strawberries uncovered in their little cardboard thingie and just set the radishes down in my crisper drawer, which once again I had lined with fresh paper towels.
Guilty TV Product Confession: I also went here:
www.greenbags.com
and got some of their stuff. The site is one of those TV product total rip-offs where they try to get you to upgrade shipping, but all kinds of other crap, and whatnot. However, I did also manage to get two of those things that open clamshell packaging, which I actually need.
www.packageshark.com
The irony is, of course, that they come in clamshell packaging. But I digress. Both lettuce and mizune are in those bags; let’s see how they work out.
And then it was off to the races with the salad thing again. This time around I had the herbed vinegar from week 1. So, it was time for salad with nice cheese on it, salad all by itself, and interesting things with radishes and the remainder of the Jerusalem artichokes (both of which I really had to take my veggie brush to—again, they didn’t just have surface dirt, but were really caked over.)
I was exhausted when I got home on pickup nite—mega-stress at work—but I did make a nice arranged salad which I just drizzled with some of that herb vinegar, heavy olive oil, salt, and pepper. Then I had strawberries for dessert. I also did a bunch of salads with either smoked or canned fish on it. If I remember, I’ll hard-boil some eggs and do those on greens. I should also probably try making herbed egg salad or something, or maybe crunchy egg salad with radishes/other crunchy edible root or rhizome in it.
I must say I’m happy about how much I have managed to replace my bought (high-fat, high crap factor) meals despite a nuts schedule. The way I see it, every little bit helps even if it’s only a few meals a week.
Note: The mizuna is great raw even though it is traditionally eaten steamed. For salad, I tore rough bunches into thirds so that the stems became manageable mouthfuls.
I still need to buy a lunchbox with one of those pocket-thingies for a coldpac—if anyone has a brand that they like, let me know!
Here’s what I am due to pick up on Tuesday:
Fruit Share
strawberries (1 quart)
honeycrisp apples (we got 4)
Veggie Share
lettuce
strawberries (more on top of fruit share)(one pint, so I get a biggie and a littlie)
Swiss chard
snow peas
lavender
Herb Share
sorrel
lavender (in addition to the first bunch from above)
In addition, my CSA lets you order meat, dairy, and so forth from a collective site online, with once-a-month delivery dates. In addition to my share, I ordered and got:
Beef Liver (about a pound)
Honey (a pound)
Raw-milk cheddar-style cheese (about half a pound)
Ground Mutton (making Minstrel Boy’s Navajo Green Chili) (about 2 pounds)
A dozen eggs
Swiss-style raw goats’ milk cheese (half a pound)
The game plan is to cook up some of the liver and freeze the rest. I have some really good breadcrumbs; may just slice it thin, bread, and panfry perhaps with an herb pan sauce.
Suggestions Needed For:
What to do with the lavender? Yeah I know, other than dry it and put it in with my unmentionables. I was thinking lavender cream for the strawberries and/or lavender vodka.
What to do with the sorrel?
I think I’ll cook down the mustard greens this time. Maybe have them with the liver.
Oh, one last thing—went out to Orient Point this past weekend in Long Island and stumbled across a jumble sale held by a local synagogue while walking to the train. Wound up getting two copies of the Temple cookbook for $15 for both copies (I always get super-local cookbooks when I can, and always get a copy for Mom) and…drum roll please…an almost brand-new, stainless-steel, American-made 2-quart food mill from the 1960’s in the original box for…wait for it…ONE DOLLAR. The thing is made like a TANK—one nut screws off to release a STRONG spring so that you can take it apart and wash it. The steel is at least 12 gauge—gotta go dig out my gauge-checker disc from jewelry class. Improved tomato sauce here we come! *cheers* I mean, it literally looks like someone got it, opened the box, took the original label off (there is still an old label on the main unit), washed it, maybe used it ONCE, washed it again, and put it away. Forever.
The rest of the sale was kind of sad because you can tell that it was all the crap out of old people’s basements that was taken out by their kids/grandkids after they died. If I was a circuit-bender, I would have had my full pick of various kid’s toys from the '70s. Ditto for interior decoration opps. Case in point: I also picked up a HUGE mother-of-pearl abalone shell—from one of the sized ones that’s been illegal to sell for years now. Unlike many of these that I’d seen in the past, this one had not been used as an ashtray. It was covered in a HARD coating of grey dust which took a soaking and scrubbing to get off, but now I have a nice place to put my little collection of nice pebbles and shells that I picked up on the beach for a grand total of $3. It’s the kind of thing that someone probably picked up on a trip to Hawaii or Mexico twenty years ago. All I know is that new abalone shells aren’t bigger than 6” or so (mine is almost a foot across) and start at $20 even in the smaller junk shops. But I digress…on to the recipes.
Here’s what I did with last week’s share that was new for me:
Recipes from the stuff from Week 2:
Sprat Salad:
Mizune
Butter Lettuce
Snap Peas
Small can of sprats (I used smoked sprats from Lithuania that were on sale)
Quick Mustard Dressing
Put down lettuce, then mizune, sprinkle with snap peas.
Put sprats on top.
Dress with Quick Mustard Dressing. Eat.
Quick Mustard Dressing:
In a small cup, combine a good splash of vinegar (I used about a tablespoon or two) (I used my herb vinegar) and stir in spicy mustard (a shy tablespoon).
Add some mayo (about 1/2 to 1 Tbs) and whisk very fast with a small fork until smooth and lump-free. Add black pepper and more salt if necessary. Use immediately.
Astorian Radish Rounds:
Take a whole wheat non-pocket pita—I used a locally-made brand. Spread with a thin coat of butter (I used my unsalted herb butter with oregano and sage). Slice radishes super-thin and put on buttered bread. Salt. Cut into 4 pieces and eat immediately.
Strawberries, Honey, and Black Pepper:
Clean and hull strawberries. Drizzle with good honey and add a grind of black pepper. Eat.
Herb Vodka:
Take home-dried herbs and the end of a bottle of vodka (or the whole thing if you feel adventurous) . You’re supposed to have another empty vodka bottle around to strain off the herbed vodka once it steeps. I didn’t do that and just use a small screen to filter the stuff when I pour. I used the bottom 1/6th of a bottle of vodka and put in about 1 tablespoon each of dried sage and oregano. I let it steep in the freezer. This was amazing as-is after three or four days but would probably also make a killer martini. Next time around I may buy the small hipflask bottles of vodka and make small batches of different herbal vodka. I will also try to get some cheesecloth and make a “teabag” that I can yank out of the bottle rather than mess around with filters and funnels and whatnot.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
CSA Diary Week 2
Well, folks, so far so good. As per last week's notes, this week's haul (as shown in the picture) was:
Veggie Share
strawberries curly peppercress
jerusalem artichokes (in the plastic bag in front)
spring onions
lettuce
Herb Share
flowering sage
oregano
Here's what I did with it the night I got home:
--Rinsed and spun out bronze lettuce and peppercress (which is VERY peppery), put them DRY in a covered bowl lined with paper towels in the fridge. This actually worked very well; by changing the paper towels each day everything stayed fresh and crisp and not brown and gross.
--Made sage/oregano vinegar in an old mayo jar (steeping in fridge until I need it). This turned out to be VERY mellow and almost sweet; not sharp or vinegary.
--Made sage/oregano herb butter (unsalted butter, no pepper--can always add that later)—this was really really good just on toasted bread.
--Made creamy herb garlic dressing (most of which I used for a slaw that I brought to a party on Saturday, which also used up the other 2 onions and was quite the hit).
--For dinner: Made big salad of bronze lettuce, peppercress, a few small (really teeny) sliced Jerusalem Artichokes, and one of the big spring onions. Poured on some of the creamy herb garlic dressing and ate with a fresh flatbread (my Key Foods sells whole-wheat nonpocket pita that is baked fresh right here in Queens-it's called the Astoria Pita Company and they literally are made about 15 blocks from my apartment by the water).
--For dessert (after I cleaned up every last thing in my kitchen): Fresh strawberries and a little teeny bit of aged goat gouda from Murray's and a bit of fresh raw-milk goat cheese also from Murrays (gotta have protein in there somewhere).
--Breakfast the next day: More bronze lettuce and peppercress; cut up a ripe nectarine on top of it and drizzled on some balsamic vinegar reduction that Mom gave me. Also took the rest of the herbs out of the water that I had them in, washed, and then tied into two bunches to hang to dry in my kitchen (I put two teeny nails in under my cabinets). When they dry I can bag them and just use them first (see before and after pix—pulling the leaves off tonite or tomorrow and putting in baggies. Hope my LL doesn't think I'm smoking them).
I ate LOTS of salads for breakfast in the past 7 days, including salads of peppergreens and strawberries with no dressing on them, just black pepper. I also ate more fish—I had some smoked vacuum-packed salmon that I ate on the greens. Next pickup tomorrow; I only have two teeny Jerusalem artichokes left which I will eat tomorrow. 
What I am picking up next:
Veggie Share
strawberries <---yay more strawberries!
sugar snap peas <--big yay also!
lettuce
radishes
mizuna
purple mustard
Note: herb share next week; fruit share starts June 24. I also pick up that meat and cheese drop on the 24th.
BTW, mizuna is some kind of interesting Japanese green, almost like a mini-cress but not as sharp. I assume that Purple Mustard is a spicy green, but I'll find out. I am traveling part of the weekend, so I have to find a way to eat as much as I can before it goes bad—may bring stuff to the office and/or pack lunch. I forsee more salads for breakfast. I also need to get a lunchbox with one of the pockets for a cold pack. In the meantime, I have de-bloated a lot just from one week of pretty much tripling my greens intake and cutting out a lot of the fat and starch that normally was a part of my diet. Let's see where this goes!
NOTE: I know that the produce was way fresh because it was admittedly FILTHY. I don't have a problem with that, but MAN I now have to have two dedicated bags just for the produce, and there was a film of dust on top of my stove after I did the glamor shot here. I didn't put any produce in plastic bags (the Jerusalem artichokes were bunched out in them when I picked them up); I just lined my crisper drawer with paper towels and laid things on them. That seemed to really work.
I am especially excited RE the Sugar Snap Peas; that's one thing that is a fortune at the market that I would normally be tempted to make a special trip to Union Square for. We were also pretty much warned RE an overabundance of radishes to come, thus, I am very happy to have found several radish salad recipes online. Vinegar-based salads (hello, herb vinegar from last week!!) abound, and I know that those in particular stay in the fridge well.
As always, looking forward to your suggestions, recipes, thoughts, etc.
UPDATE: We got to pick mizuna OR purple mustard; I took the mizuna. Just washed the greens and did the paper towel/bowl thing; about to go make a salad
Hugs,
--Jen
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Community Supported Agriculture
Produce, Virtual Farmer's Market, Westchester County, New York.
An Experiment in Health and Biodiversity with a Side of Crunchy Feel-Good Local Food Supply Promotion (CSA: Week One)
Hey there. Jen here. I haven't had much to say lately, but something fun worth sharing has started for me. Namely, after two years of trying, I have finally gotten into my local Community Supported Agriculture collective.
For those not in the know, a CSA is a sort of "next step" after local farmer's markets. Basically, it's like buying futures on the stock market but with fresh produce. Before the season begins, you buy a "share" at the CSA. There are only a set number of shares available for any CSA, depending on the size of the area serviced and how many farmers are participating in any one CSA. Some places have one flat share for everything that season (fruit, veggies, flowers, herbs, etc.) My particular CSA is the Hellgate CSA, which has lots of separate shares. I myself got the "full monty" of everything they offer this season: A veg share, a fruit share, a culinary herbs share, a basil share (4 drops of basil, I picked the weeks off of a calendar), and a tomato share (which I also chose the date for—let's just say that on 8/26 I'll be wondering what to do with 20 lbs. of mixed artisanal tomatoes—I see sauce). Once deliveries start, you show up once a week at an appointed time and place and pick up your share of…whatever the farmers collectively have in that week. Everyone gets an identical box of produce. The idea is that produce doesn't rot in the market if the weather sucks, and the farmers get their money up front. Lots of farmers now pre-sell most of their crop to CSA's and commercial versions for restaurants. It keeps small farmers in business even if the crops fail or don't produce as well as anticipated. In good years, everyone wins. It also encourages the planting of artisanal crops and heirloom varieties, as opposed to monoculture mass farming. So it's less likely that one farm's entire planting will fail if they plant 40 different things, even if it's 10 varieties of carrots, 10 of tomatoes, etc.
In addition to all of this, CSA members in my case get to order local meat, poultry, fish, dairy, bakery, preserved, and bee-produced products from a huge list of local providers on a special secure website that now (hallelujah!!) takes PayPal. Two Tuesdays from tomorrow I'll be getting some organic ground organic mutton (thinking real Navajo-style green chili) and a pound of raw-milk farmhouse cheddar-style cheese.
You have to pick up your own share; most don't deliver and won't hold a share for you. It's a commitment. In addition, many CSAs require you to work the distribution and sorting of at least a few distribution dates. (I was able to buy my way out of working 4 shifts, but I still have to pick up my stuff myself.) I see it as a commitment for myself to pick up my share each week (which means getting out of work at a reasonable time on Tuesdays no matter what, just like folks with kids and daycare arrangements) and to cook and eat it in a pro-health manner. If I can't squeeze out time for the gym, this is at least one step I can take which will force me to eat more fruit and veggies (and eat out less—more $ for important stuff like electronics, books, and perfume ;) .)
I first found out about the CSA 3 years ago when it was fairly new. I found out too late to join (all the spots were gone) but I got on the wait list for the FOLLOWING year (previous years' members are given dibs on a spot automatically; someone has to drop out for someone else to get in if no new spots are created.) Last year, I got a spot...sort of. Someone wanted to split a share, as some folks find a full share too much for one person. That meant paying a total stranger a largish amount of money and then counting on them to pick up the produce for us to split on "their" pickup day.
Then Gilly got really, really sick. I had better things to worry about—not my health, but his. His wake was two days after what would have been my first pickup.
I sent a polite email to the CSA management declining a half-share and explaining my circumstances; my spot was gone in 10 minutes. However, almost a whole year later back in April, some kind soul there remembered me and my story…and emailed me immediately when a spot became available for this year.
So, in a rush of enthusiasm, I dropped a fair bit of coin on six months of fresh produce—first pick up is tomorrow; last one is the week of Thanksgiving. I am dedicated to not wasting any of the goodness, even if it means brown-bagging it to work (which is probably a much better habit to get into anyway as the food at the office sucks.)
I already have a locally-published green market cookbook as well as a slightly tonier tome, both courtesy of Amazon's Z-shops. However I am open to suggestions and in fact am actively soliciting them. I'm going to try to send along what I'm going to get each week (apparently we find out on Monday) and what I wound up doing with the prior week's drop.
Here's what I'm supposed to be picking up this Tuesday—not sure what kinds of quantities we're talking:
Share for June 10, 2008
Veggie Share
strawberries (surprised that this isn't in the fruit drop but I guess they're ready now so here they are)
curly peppercress
Jerusalem artichokes
spring onions
lettuce
Herb Share
flowering sage
oregano
Fruit drops start in two weeks.
Here are my ideas so far:
Any other ideas, folks?
Also, I got (probably) ripped off ordering those special "keep your produce fresh" reusable plastic bags. Anyone got a favorite brand/maker of these or other "how to keep your fridge from eating your veggies before you do" solutions?
Thank you again everyone for your support and input.
--Jen
Monday, June 2, 2008
One Year Later
Gilly Bear on Steve Gilliard's hospital pillow. photo by Jenonymous Feb 25, 2007.
A Food Post for the Stomach and the Heart and the Mind
Hey everyone. This feels strange writing this right now. I tried for the past few weeks to try to think of something meaningful to write. At first I thought of a food piece, and then a political piece, and then a health piece. Then something happened that made me want to do all three. I got inspired over this past Memorial Day weekend. I couldn't help but think about what Gilly would have posted. I put off thinking about the post and kept pushing it to the back of my mind. Then, on Monday—after a four-day weekend—I got a surprise and very much welcome spur-of-the-moment invite to a friend's house to partake in a small family get-together and bbq. I had been out taking pictures at the park; I had been in all weekend sleeping and killing zombies online, and needed the fresh air. Then my cell phone went off, the invite came in, and I found myself running back to my apartment to grab a bottle of decent red and my jacket, then out to the bakery for some dessert, and then on to the subway to the far end of the outer boros.
On the train all I could think about was the Blog-a-Ques that Gilly and I would go to every summer. I thought of the dessert and the wine—would he have approved? We used to bring loads of food with us whenever we got invited to anything, and used to coordinate ahead of time. I remember grilling with him under the Brooklyn Bridge, on the Brooklyn side, the Labor Day before 9/11.
It's 9 PM now. I just got in; I'm typing in my work clothes. I'm going to go change and keep typing. Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares is in re-runs on BBC America. Gimmie a minute. I need to change and wash off my makeup and get a drink.
*aaah.* Better. Gilly actually "got" my infatuation with Ramsay; he said that if he ever wrote a book on management he'd buy it and read it. But I digress.
Back to food and memory. So, I was at this BBQ and towards the end of the evening, the hostess (who was familiar with Gilly's body of work) said something to the effect that "Gilly would have never supported Dem candidate X." And suddenly, the evening came into very sharp focus.
"No, we can't say what he would have thought NOW," I said.
And that, dear readers, is Important Point Number One I am trying to make with this post.
As much as we all love and miss him, we have to remember that nobody can say what he WOULD have done or whom he WOULD have supported.
HE'S GONE.
His troubles are over, but so is his active work.THAT is the tragedy here.His voice was silenced prematurely, and we will never know just what a strong voice he may have become, especially in this election.
We'll never read the book he was having me help him with the pitch letter for.
Still, these are selfish thoughts in a way.Gilly also missed out on all of the other things he wanted to do for himself.
I remember, before he went in for that second surgery, the one that he didn't get out of the hospital from, I was trying to give him a pep talk.I wanted him to envision himself as a healthy man, so that he could make real plans for the future and take some real care of himself. We talked about that on the day when I went to give him the bear in the picture.
"So what are you going to do, Gilly, once you get well and get that kidney?"
"I'm getting the money together from somewhere and going to England and seeing Manchester United play their home turf.First thing."
During the two times that I went to Europe while I knew him, he asked me for only one thing—home team footie jerseys from the city I was in.I still have a ManU knockoff from Thailand that Gilly gave me when he went and sprang something like $130 for the real item.
Here was a man who was so erudite, so well educated, so knowledgeable…and he hadn't ever even left the US. Come to think of it, I don't think he ever even went on an airplane. Really. I vaguely seem to remember him saying he'd been on one once ages ago, but that's it.
Imagine what he could have done had he taken that trip, seen a bit of the world?
We'll never know.
Which leads me to Point I am Trying to Make Number Two:
TAKE CARE OF YOURSELVES. IF YOU HAVE A HEALTH PROBLEM, DO NOT MAKE EXCUSES. DO NOT LOOK FOR LOOPHOLES. DO WHAT YOU CAN TO BE AS WELL AS YOU PRACTICALLY CAN BE GIVEN ANY LIMITATIONS THAT YOU HAVE.
Gilly got the proverbial memo too late; the first bout of open heart surgery just didn't sink in. It's almost impossible to Monday-morning quarterback someone's life when it's over, but I will say that had he pursued a little more exercise, a somewhat better diet, and (CRITICALLY) more aggressively pursued better diagnostic and preventative care, he'd probably still be here. I blame nobody, but the tragedy here is that even a slight improvement of any one of these things would have broken the "perfect storm" that sank him. Throw institutional racism and indifferent healthcare providers into the brew and it gets toxic real fast.
Having said that, Gilly and I both loved to cook, and to eat out together and with others. Somehow, a memorial post wouldn't be complete without a recipe or two. So, herewith, I give you a HEALTHY option that can be prepared in one evening after work, easily. Please enjoy:
Beer Can Chicken
Oven Fries
Garlic SuperSlaw with Garlic Dressing (adopted from the Wings of Life cookbook, alas out of print now)
SHOPPING LIST FOR THE WHOLE SHEBANG:
--One chicken, 3-6 lbs
--Waxy potatos of some sort; small, longish fingerlings are the best (enough for your crew-at least 2 lbs)
--Olive Oil (light grade)
--Spice Rub of your Choice
--Head of Garlic
--One Savoy Cabbage or bag of prepped shredded slaw salad mix
--One Medium Red Onion
--One Smallish Bunch Scallions
--Red Wine Vinegar
--Mayo Brand of your Choice
--Salt, Pepper (kosher salt if you have it)
--Heavy cream, or dairy substitute cream (ie soy cream) or milk
Equip and stuff:
--One can of beer or soda—if you have a tallboy beer can, use that—with the bev still in it
--Shallow jellyroll pan or baking pan
--High-sided pan to prop the chicken up in (or one of those chicken-beercan-cooker-sub thingies)
--Paper towels or clean dishcloths
--Blender (optional)
--Clean sink (really)
Instructions:
When you get home or get back from shopping, the first thing to do is heat up the oven. Put one rack in the middle and one on the bottom. Preheat to between 350 and 375, depending on how big your chicken is (use higher heat for a SMALLER chicken) and how flakey your oven is. You may want to put foil on the higher shelf to aid cleanup as oven-done beercan chicken tends to splatter.
Okay, now prep the slaw cabbage IF you are using the whole Savoy cabbage. Quarter and core the cabbage, and slice into slaw strips. Put the strips into the biggest bowl that you have and sprinkle the strips with kosher salt and toss very well. Cover in plastic and set aside to let it weep out.
Now prep the potatoes. Scrub and quarter the "long way" to make fingers—but don't peel—the potatoes. If they are bigger taters, cut into fat circle slices at least ¼" thick. Take the jellyroll pan and oil it very very well with the light grade olive oil (NOT the heavy stuff or it will scorch and smoke and mess up yer taters). Keep the olive oil out. Now, consider which spice rub you are going to put on the chicken—either a pre-done mix or seasoned salt or your own blend. Put the taters in the pan and add more oil. Now, add what my Mom calls "too much seasoning" and toss—use the same blend you'll use on the chicken if you want. Add more and toss. Add more and toss more. Make sure you also have enough oil as well.
Make sure that the taters have enough room and don't overlap if possible. Put in the lower level of the oven, uncovered.
Now go to work on the rest of the slaw. If you are salting the cabbage, keep letting it do its thing and save this for LAST. If you are using pre-cut slaw mix, start here. slice up the scallions, thin, up to about 3" into the green part (don't use the gross slimy ends of the scallions). Slice the red onion first in half and then into the thinnest crescents that you can.
Now onto the dressing. Only make this right before you're going to assemble the slaw.
Set up your blender. Peel at least 6 cloves of garlic. Proportions are suggested; I use 1/3 cup for each "part" here. Put in 2 parts mayo. Have the pepper grinder ready. Dump in the garlic and give it a whirl. Add in via a few splashes one part red wine vinegar. Whirl like HELL on the highest speed. Add a LOT of black pepper. IF you are NOT salting the cabbage (ie using slaw mix) add a LITTLE salt. If you are salting your cabbage, add NOT ONE GRAIN of salt. Then, pour in one generous splash of cream and whip like hell again.
Hand-toss the slaw mix (or the rinsed cabbage—see below) with the onions and scallions. Pour in the dressing and toss by hand, very thoroughly. Cover tightly and let hang out in your fridge while you work on the rest of dinner.
Remember the potatoes? Good. Don't worry, they are impossible to screw up. Stir them gently and go prep the chicken.
Take the chicken and rinse and dry well. Spray PAM or something on your pan and on your beercan chicken apparatus if you are using one. Season the chicken with lots of whatever you like on it. If you want, rub it down with some of the liquid from the can of your choice first—Gilly like using either Coke or beer—before you put the spice rub on. Now, either pour out half of the can's contents (or drink it) or pour it in the beer can apparatus. Stick the can or apparatus up the open wide end of the chicken, and balance the mess carefully in your pan. If you are using a can, GREASE THE CAN. CAREFULLY put the bird in the center of the upper rack of the oven.
Now, if you are wilting your cabbage, you can let it keep wilting for at least 15 more minutes. Go stir the potatoes again; if you need to, drizzle in a tad more oil. Now make sure your sink is CLEAN, especially if you rinsed the chicken in it. Fill sink with cold water and dump in the cabbage. Stir like a batch of laundry—rinse off that salt! Swish and drain in a colander, or just use a bunch of paper towels to squeeze out the water. Rinse again if need be. The cabbage should be wilted, and will taste salty—hence no salt in the dressing. Assemble salad as above.
Okay, now all you have to do is let the chicken cook. It should take around an hour. Do try to stir the taters at least once more. Towards the end of the cooking process, the oil will darken and thicken and the taters will shrink a bit and get a great crust of spicy goodness. If you need more time on the taters, you can always leave them in the oven for a bit more while the chicken rests.
Chicken is done when your favorite superstitious method for chicken doneness tests positive. I usually use the "if it smells done, it is" test.
If the taters are still in the oven, leave it on, obviously.
VERY VERY CAREFULLY and with GREAT CARE take the teetering chicken out of the oven and put on a stable surface. Use oven mitts.
Don't even think about getting the chicken off the can yet. Gently tent the whole mess with foil and let it rest for 10 minutes.
Get your cutting board or your serving pan ready. Using tongs and a mitt/glove, hold down the can with the gloved hand and use the tongs to pull the chicken off of the can. Or, if you have silicon gloves, use them to lift the chicken off the can. The can will be full of boiling hot liquid; you don't want 3rd-degree scald burns; they suck. Be careful. Put the chicken on your board or your serving tray.
If the taters are still in the oven, they should be over themselves by now. Give a stir, and take them out of the oil and plate.
Give the slaw a deep stir from the bottom. Use tongs to make sure that the onions and scallions are well distributed.
Serve.
Enjoy.
NOTE: The slaw ages well and is even better the next day; make a day in advance. It keeps about a week in the cold part of the fridge. Also, the oven fries make the ABSOLUTE BEST hash browns as leftovers and are also good cold believe it or not.
Hash Browns: Using a smoking-hot cast iron pan, melt down a tad of butter with some olive oil. Brown-crisp a yellow onion. Toss in diced ovenfries and some red bell pepper if you feel fancy. Add a dash of very hot hot sauce and let sizzle down. Serve with eggs or tofu scramble or whatever—would also be a great hot side with fish, etc.
ENJOY AND BE WELL.
It's almost 11 PM. I need to sleep. Take care, remember, and preserve yourselves so that we can all stay on and fight.
Thank you.
---Jen
Steve, One Year Later
Gilly Bear on Steve Gilliard's hospital pillow. photo by Jenonymous Feb 25, 2007.
Steve Gilliard (November 13, 1964 – June 2, 2007)
I can't stop crying.
One year since I got the email that Steve was dead.
An hour later The News Blog went black forever as the news swept out.
We'd lost Gilly.
I've been crying for a year.
Never know when it's going to hit.
- Reading a post.
- Riding my bike.
- Kissing my kids goodnight.
- I make a mental note, “Send this to Gilly.”
Without warning I burst into tears. Like right now.
I shove my glasses up, rub at my left eye and face. “Fuck”, I say. “God dammit.”
After a moment or two, I force myself to breathe. Once, twice, often a third time. And wipe the sneaky tear from my right eye as well.
“Bastard.”
I close my eyes and breathe.
I hold on...
...and am slammed back a year ago.
That last month, we knew what was likely. We spent it preparing everyone for the inevitable. We prayed for a miracle, even those of us who don't believe. But we knew.
People fall back on cliché when they're unable to be with life as it is. Many people told me, “At least Steve was blogging until he went into the hospital. He died having done what he loved to do.” Gods do I hate that cliché. People die. Steve died because he was in poor health, had long-term medical problems, was over-weight, and he failed to take his medical problems with the seriousness they needed.
He got decent care at the hospital, but yes, institutional racism played a role in his death -- and I'm not talking only about his medical care, but how everyone involved interacted with the system. That conversation isn't one I (or anyone on the inside) is going to talk about the details of now. (Ask me again in a decade.)
Racism is a fact of life, as real as dog-shit on the sidewalk. It just is. Sometimes you step in it. You might not even know you've got dog-shit on your shoe till you smell it. You look back and there's shit tracked all across the carpet. It was like that. The shit was everywhere. You can't blame the dog. Dog's shit; it's what they do. You shouldn't blame the people much; maybe they turned away for a moment and the dog did its business. It happens. And your attention was elsewhere as you walked and, well, it's a mess.
It was a mess for Gilly, and I don't blame anyone. Steve fought as hard as anyone could, but in the end too many systems were too messed up, and he died.
We're left, a year later with the fact of his death. Sometimes I know he'd be proud of all of us, and sometimes it's more than I can bear and I cry. Often both at once.
I am proud of our community. Of our bloggers, Hubris Sonic, Lower Manhattanite, Sara Robinson and myself, and The Littlest Gator and Evan Robinson. Of Jen, Steve's co-publisher and the heart of our community. And our readers, the few who comment frequently (regulars), the many who comment sometimes (lurkers), and the vast majority (in the tens of thousands) who simply read (*hi Mom*.) Among those who read us are the major blogs, political campaigns, national newspapers, networks and magazines, political parties, politicians and staff, and people in over 140 countries around the world.
Steve, my friend... it's one hell of a legacy you've left.
If only I could go a week without bursting into tears. There's more...