I am always pleased when I learn that more people are taking up hunting and fishing as activities. I have recounted here the difficulties the young squire and I had when we decided a decade ago to pursue those pastimes since we didn't have anyone to mentor us. Our young miss was the first person I ever heard use "Whole Food" speak to describe hunting; especially for acquaintances and co-workers that had difficulty envisioning her as a hunter let alone condoning hunting as an activity for someone with a college degree. But I have to say I get a particular kick from foodies being driven to hunt as recounted in this recent New York Times article.
There you have it - hunting, gardening and canning have come full circle and are now "hip" from a green standpoint. All I can say is "Spare me".
Update: For those that like to keep track of such things, our young miss, her young man and the young squire have taken six deer this season (two bucks and four does) as of yesterday. The freezers are filling up and the eating will be good for the foreseeable future.
for oatmeal: 1/2 cup steel cut oats, raw 1/2 cup steel cut oats, toasted 2 cups water 1/8 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup heavy cream
for compote:
1-1/2 cups diced unpeeled pear (2 or 3 pears should do it) 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 3/4 teaspoon toasted crushed coriander seed 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (for cinnamon sugar) 3/4 teaspoon sugar (for cinnamon sugar) pinch of salt 3/4 cup dried sweet cherries 1/2 cup Clear Creek Distillery Pear Eau de Vie 3/4 cup granulated sugar for flambe finely chopped hazelnuts for garnish
Directions:
1. Soak oats in water overnight, covered.
2. Bring water and oats to a boil in a small saucepan. Add salt and cream.
3. Cook 17-18 minutes, stirring. Remove from heat, cover and let set while preparing compote (below).
4. Sprinkle diced pear with lemon juice, set aside.
5. Mix ingredients for cinnamon sugar (the 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and 3/4 teaspoon sugar) together, set aside.
6. Melt butter over low flame in saute pan. When butter is just beginning to color, add coriander and let it perfume the butter for a few seconds. Add the pears, and give the pan a shake. Sprinkle 3/4 teaspoon of the cinnamon sugar over the pears, sprinkle salt over pears, and toss again to coat evenly.
7. Add cherries and toss to coat. Turn the flame up and pour in the eau de vie. Tilt the pan to catch the gas flame and let the alcohol burn off. (Note: This would be the "not for amateurs" department.)
8. Continue to let the compote simmer until the juices begin to caramelize. Add to the oats and mix in gently. Spoon into three small bowls, mounding the tops.
9. Garnish with granulated sugar. Flambe. (See, again, under "not for amateurs.") Add topping of finely chopped hazelnuts.
This map represents every McDonald's restaurant in the United States. From Stephen Von Worley at Weather Sealed: "As expected, McDonald’s cluster at the population centers and hug the highway grid. East of the Mississippi, there’s wall-to-wall coverage, except for a handful of meager gaps centered on the Adirondacks, inland Maine, the Everglades, and outlying West Virginia.
For maximum McSparseness, we look westward, towards the deepest, darkest holes in our map: the barren deserts of central Nevada, the arid hills of southeastern Oregon, the rugged wilderness of Idaho’s Salmon River Mountains, and the conspicuous well of blackness on the high plains of northwestern South Dakota. There, in a patch of rolling grassland, loosely hemmed in by Bismarck, Dickinson, Pierre, and the greater Rapid City-Spearfish-Sturgis metropolitan area, we find our answer.
Between the tiny Dakotan hamlets of Meadow and Glad Valley lies the McFarthest Spot: 107 miles distant from the nearest McDonald’s, as the crow flies, and 145 miles by car!"
Everyone in this family loves Sriracha chili sauce. We use it in everything from pho to scrambled eggs - basically any dish that you want to smack with garlic and light up with some heat.
Here is an interesting article from The New York Times about the Tran family that invented and produces Sriracha. The Tran's immigrated to the United States from Vietnam and are of Chinese ancestry. The chili sauce they make in the US is named after an area of Thailand. But the quote from the story which really made me think "Only in America" was this (emphasis added):
"In 1996, the company expanded, adding processing and storage capacity to meet demand. More than 10 million bottles of sriracha now roll off the Rosemead line each year. With the purchase of a nearby warehouse, the company has begun storing its peppers where Wham-O once manufactured those icons of pop culture, Frisbees and Hula-Hoops."
M'Lady walked out to the garden this morning and brought back some first year asparagus and new chives. We combined them with fresh eggs from our chicken coop and proceeded to make the most fantastic omelets I have ever eaten or expect to eat for that matter.
The difference in flavor and texture from store bought asparagus is astounding. And what better way to spotlight it than in a simple omelet.
I submit that it doesn't get much better than this.
IF YOU are frying a steak and mindful of your health, then marinate it in either beer or red wine. So say food scientists who measured amounts of a family of carcinogens found in fried steaks after steeping them in booze.
Cooking food increases levels of cancer-causing compounds called heterocyclic amines (HAs). Fried and grilled meat are particularly high in these compounds, because fiery temperatures convert the sugars and amino acids in muscle tissue into HAs. Various substances can reduce HA content: an olive oil, lemon juice and garlic marinade cut HAs in grilled chicken by 90 per cent, while red wine reduced HAs in fried chicken.
Now Isabel Ferreira and colleagues at the University of Porto in Portugal have looked at the effects of beer and red wine marinades on fried steak. Six hours of marinating in beer or red wine slashed levels of two types of HA by up to 90 per cent compared with unmarinated steak (Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, DOI: 10.1021/jf801837s).
For a third type of HA, beer was more efficient at reducing its content than wine, cutting levels significantly in 4 hours, while wine took 6. Beer contains more water-retaining sugars than wine and Ferreira says that may hinder the transport of water-soluble molecules to the steak's surface, where high heat converts them into HAs. Tasters also preferred the smell, taste and appearance of beer-marinated steak.
Speedy No-Knead Bread 3 cups bread flour 1 packet ( 1/4 ounce) instant yeast 1 1/2 teaspoons salt Oil as needed. 1. Combine flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups water and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest about 4 hours at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees. 2. Lightly oil a work surface and place dough on it; fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest 30 minutes more. 3. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6-to-8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under dough and put it into pot, seam side up. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. 4. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack. Yield: 1 big loaf.
Fast No-Knead Whole Wheat Bread 2 cups whole wheat flour 1/2 cup whole rye flour 1/2 cup coarse cornmeal 1 teaspoon instant yeast 1 1/2 teaspoons salt Oil as needed. 1. Combine flours, cornmeal, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups water and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest about 4 hours at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees. 2. Oil a standard loaf pan (8 or 9 inches by 4 inches; nonstick works well). Lightly oil your hands and shape dough into a rough rectangle. Put it in pan, pressing it out to the edges. Brush top with a little more oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest 1 hour more. 3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake bread about 45 minutes, or until loaf reaches an internal temperature of 210 degrees. Remove bread from pan and cool on a rack. Yield: 1 loaf.
Governor Sarah Palin pardoned a turkey destined for the Thanksgiving Day table on Thursday and then ignited a fire storm by giving a three minute interview while two other turkeys were being dispatched over her left shoulder.
Governor Palin should know better by now than to trust any form of media. While she is being flailed by the "candy asses" at the Huffington Post and MSNBC I don't think any of them have questioned the intentions. motivations or integrity of the camera crew. So score one for the media; Sarah Palin did what any number of politicians have done and will continue to do - say something "off color" into a live microphone or be filmed driving a tank.
This kerfuffle also points out a much deeper issue that becomes apparent when urban Americans encounter realities rural Americans take for granted - which often revolves around "food" and how it gets to the table. We are all hunters in this clan and during a recent birthday feast for yours truly our table was graced with elk and venison - a meal truly fit for a king. We are under no illusions about the efforts involved in bringing that food to table because it most certainly did not come shrink-wrapped in plastic from the grocery store. The unwillingness of so many to show even a basic level of understanding about where their food comes from or take any responsibility for what is being done on their behalf is, at best, hypocritical. But to be outraged by the "reality" of the situation is just intellectually dishonest.
Recipe by Alaska Fisherman Sarah Palin Wasilla, Alaska
1 can (12 oz.) tomato sauce 1/4 cup packed brown sugar 1/4 cup molases 3 tbsp. ketchup 2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar 2 tbsp. dried minced onion 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce 1 tbsp. mustard 1 tbsp. dried bell pepper dices 1/4 tsp. each cinnamon and nutmeg 4 to 6 Alaska salmon fillets or steaks (4 to 6 oz. each)
Blend all ingredients, except seafood, in bowl; let set 10 to 15 minutes. Dip seafood into sauce, then place on hot oiled grill, not directly over heat source (coals or gas). Cover and vent. Cook about 6 to 12 minutes per inch of thickness, brushing with extra sauce, if desired. Do not overcook or burn edges.
"For a long time, we were pretty dumb. Humans did little but make "the same very boring stone tools for almost 2 million years," he said. Then, only about 150,000 years ago, a different type of spurt happened — our big brains suddenly got smart. We started innovating. We tried different materials, such as bone, and invented many new tools, including needles for beadwork. Responding to, presumably, our first abstract thoughts, we started creating art and maybe even religion.
To understand what caused the cognitive spurt, Khaitovich and colleagues examined chemical brain processes known to have changed in the past 200,000 years. Comparing apes and humans, they found the most robust differences were for processes involved in energy metabolism.
The finding suggests that increased access to calories spurred our cognitive advances, said Khaitovich, carefully adding that definitive claims of causation are premature.
The research is detailed in the August 2008 issue of Genome Biology.
The extra calories may not have come from more food, but rather from the emergence of pre-historic "Iron Chefs;" the first hearths also arose about 200,000 years ago.
In most animals, the gut needs a lot of energy to grind out nourishment from food sources. But cooking, by breaking down fibers and making nutrients more readily available, is a way of processing food outside the body. Eating (mostly) cooked meals would have lessened the energy needs of our digestion systems, Khaitovich explained, thereby freeing up calories for our brains.
Instead of growing even larger (which would have made birth even more problematic), the human brain most likely used the additional calories to grease the wheels of its internal functioning."
M'Lady, the young squire and I picked wild blackberries this morning. We have a pie in the oven and one waiting to go in as I type. Hopefully, our blackberries will bear fruit next year so we won't have to go wading through the thorny wild bushes again. And our blackberries are thornless!
The recipe below is courtesy of Mark Bittman at the New York Times. I am adapting it to the Jim Lahey "bread baked in a pot" method so that it has a nice crisp crust without fussing around with water in the broiler pan. I like the idea that I can store it in the refrigerator and pull some out when I want freshly baked bread.
Recipe: Simple Crusty Bread Adapted from “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day,” by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François (Thomas Dunne Books, 2007) Time: About 45 minutes plus about 3 hours’ resting and rising
1 1/2 tablespoons yeast 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt 6 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for dusting dough Cornmeal.
1. In a large bowl or plastic container, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees). Stir in flour, mixing until there are no dry patches. Dough will be quite loose. Cover, but not with an airtight lid. Let dough rise at room temperature 2 hours (or up to 5 hours).
2. Bake at this point or refrigerate, covered, for as long as two weeks. When ready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on dough and cut off a grapefruit-size piece with serrated knife. Turn dough in hands to lightly stretch surface, creating a rounded top and a lumpy bottom. Put dough on pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal; let rest 40 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough or refrigerate it.
3. Place broiler pan on bottom of oven. Place baking stone on middle rack and turn oven to 450 degrees; heat stone at that temperature for 20 minutes.
4. Dust dough with flour, slash top with serrated or very sharp knife three times. Slide onto stone. Pour one cup hot water into broiler pan and shut oven quickly to trap steam. Bake until well browned, about 30 minutes. Cool completely.
Yield: 4 loaves.
Variation: If not using stone, stretch rounded dough into oval and place in a greased, nonstick loaf pan. Let rest 40 minutes if fresh, an extra hour if refrigerated. Heat oven to 450 degrees for 5 minutes. Place pan on middle rack.
Mark Bittman is a food writer for the New York Times and the author of several cook books. He is well known for his efforts to popularize no-knead bread which I have blogged about here. Mark also has a blog called Bitten which I can recommend as well. I recently made his version of "Chicken Under A Brick" that received high marks from our young miss when she made it. How bad can a whole chicken marinated with salt, garlic, rosemary and olive oil then grilled over charcoal be, I ask you? His recipes do manage to get the creative as well as salivary juices following.
Anyway, the cook book featured in the picture below sits within arms reach as I write this - and no, I would not be surprised if it contained a recipe for "Braised Infant With Spring Vegetables" or "Enfant Au Vin".
I don't bake bread - for any reason. M'Lady is the bread baker in our clan and she makes a wonderful sour dough French loaf when she has the time. But that's the point - who has the time to bake bread? There's all that kneading and letting the dough rise...
One of the small things we do not have readily available to us are the superior loaves we used to obtain at The West Side Market, at one of the many old neighborhood bakeries or one of the newer artisan bakeries. The bread you buy in the grocery stores around here does not deserve the name. So what is one to do?
Recipe: No-Knead Bread Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting ¼ teaspoon instant yeast 1¼ teaspoons salt Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.
1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.
2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.
3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.
Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.
Since I do not bake bread I decided that if I could make a loaf this good anyone could. And here is the proof:
The crust and texture of this bread is fabulous and it is very easy make. You will not be disappointed.
Update: Our young miss e-mails the following:
No Knead Bread – Optional Recipes
WEIGHT VS. VOLUME - The original recipe contained volume measures, but for those who prefer to use weight, here are the measurements: 430 grams of flour, 345 grams of water, 1 gram of yeast and 8 grams of salt. With experience, many people will stop measuring altogether and add just enough water to make the dough almost too wet to handle.
SALT - Many people, me included, felt Mr. Lahey's bread was not salty enough. Yes, you can use more salt and it won't significantly affect the rising time. I've settled at just under a tablespoon.
YEAST - Instant yeast, called for in the recipe, is also called rapid-rise yeast. But you can use whatever yeast you like. Active dry yeast can be used without proofing (soaking it to make sure it's active).
TIMING - About 18 hours is the preferred initial rising time. Some readers have cut this to as little as eight hours and reported little difference. I have not had much luck with shorter times, but I have gone nearly 24 hours without a problem. Room temperature will affect the rising time, and so will the temperature of the water you add (I start with tepid). Like many other people, I'm eager to see what effect warmer weather will have. But to those who have moved the rising dough around the room trying to find the 70-degree sweet spot: please stop. Any normal room temperature is fine. Just wait until you see bubbles and well-developed gluten — the long strands that cling to the sides of the bowl when you tilt it — before proceeding.
THE SECOND RISE - Mr. Lahey originally suggested one to two hours, but two to three is more like it, in my experience. (Ambient temperatures in the summer will probably knock this time down some.) Some readers almost entirely skipped this rise, shaping the dough after the first rise and letting it rest while the pot and oven preheat; this is worth trying, of course.
OTHER FLOURS - Up to 30 percent whole-grain flour works consistently and well, and 50 percent whole-wheat is also excellent. At least one reader used 100 percent whole-wheat and reported "great crust but somewhat inferior crumb," which sounds promising. I've kept rye, which is delicious but notoriously impossible to get to rise, to about 20 percent. There is room to experiment.
FLAVORINGS -The best time to add caraway seeds, chopped olives, onions, cheese, walnuts, raisins or whatever other traditional bread flavorings you like is after you've mixed the dough. But it's not the only time; you can fold in ingredients before the second rising.
OTHER SHAPES - Baguettes in fish steamers, rolls in muffin tins or classic loaves in loaf pans: if you can imagine it, and stay roughly within the pattern, it will work.
COVERING BETWEEN RISES - A Silpat mat under the dough is a clever idea (not mine). Plastic wrap can be used as a top layer in place of a second towel.
THE POT - The size matters, but not much. I have settled on a smaller pot than Mr. Lahey has, about three or four quarts. This produces a higher loaf, which many people prefer — again, me included. I'm using cast iron. Readers have reported success with just about every available material. Note that the lid handles on Le Creuset pots can only withstand temperatures up to 400 degrees. So avoid using them, or remove the handle first.
BAKING - You can increase the initial temperature to 500 degrees for more rapid browning, but be careful; I scorched a loaf containing whole-wheat flour by doing this. Yes, you can reduce the length of time the pot is covered to 20 minutes from 30, and then increase the time the loaf bakes uncovered. Most people have had a good experience baking for an additional 30 minutes once the pot is uncovered. As these answers demonstrate, almost everything about Mr. Lahey's bread is flexible, within limits. As we experiment, we will have failures. (Like the time I stopped adding flour because the phone rang, and didn't realize it until 18 hours later. Even this, however, was reparable). This method is going to have people experimenting, and largely succeeding, until something better comes along. It may be quite a while.
Since we are just sitting around this morning suffering from fairly serious tryptophan hangovers, I thought I would pass along this recipe. M'Lady and I tried it for the first time at yesterdays feast and it met with a considerable number of "Ooohs and Ahhhhs". We substituted butternut squash for the sweet potatoes since we still have quite a few left from the garden and it came out great.
You might also want to check out Pioneer Woman's blog - good recipes, wonderful photography and a great "how this all came to be" story to boot.
One of the fringe benefits our son has discovered while working at a local alpaca ranch during his summer college break is that the ranch has wild blackberry bushes! He brought home enough berries to make at least two pies and they were still warm from the sun. Guess what's for dessert tonight - does life get a lot better than this?
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."
-President Ronald Reagan
"All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope."
- Sir Winston Churchill
"Personal responsibility is the cornerstone of freedom."
"Over the years, I have come to understand a critical difference between the world of fear and the world of freedom. In the former, the primary challenge is finding the inner strength to confront evil. In the latter, the primary challenge is finding the moral clarity to see evil."
“Truth withers when freedom dies, however righteous the authority that kills it. But free individualism uninformed by moral values rots at its core and soon brings about conditions that pave the way for surrender to tyranny.”
- Frank S. Meyer
"Freedom is a possession of inestimable value."
- Cicero
"Freedom is one of the deepest and noblest aspirations of the human spirit."
- President Ronald Reagan (1911 - 2004)
"Liberty is the right to choose. Freedom is the result of the right choice."
- Anonymous
"The secret of Happiness is Freedom, and the secret of Freedom, Courage."
- Thucydides (471 BC - 400 BC)
"Americans are a free people, who know that freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation. The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world; it is God's gift to humanity."
-President George W. Bush, State of the Union Address 2003
