Meatless Monday Musings: Slow Food Compromises in a Winter World

One of the benefits of living in a “college town” is the opportunity to hear firsthand what visiting visionaries have to say. On February 2 I was in the audience that packed the Yale University Art Gallery auditorium to listen to famed restaurateur and food activist  Alice Waters’ thoughts on the “importance of slow food.”

Alice Waters is one of my heroes. Without Alice there would most likely be no Yale Sustainable Food Program, no Edible Schoolyard Project, no garden on the White House lawn, and certainly no Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. There would also be far fewer farmers’ markets. 

President Obama awarded her the National Humanities Medal in 2014. The citation read: “Alice Waters, for celebrating the bond between the ethical and the edible. As a chef, author, and advocate, Ms. Waters champions a holistic approach to eating and health and celebrates integrating gardening, cooking, and education, sparking inspiration in a new generation.”

I have a copy of her book The Art of Simple Food (autographed on an earlier stop in New Haven) and have gifted several others. 

And, on our very first trip to the Bay Area, my husband and I rode the BART (under the Bay!) to Berkeley in the hopes that we could show up for lunch at Chez Panisse without a reservation and get in the door. We were lucky. We chose the Fixed Menu and two Mt. Tam ales. It was a lunch I will remember forever.

I love Alice.

And I try to live by the Slow Food principles: GOOD, CLEAN, FAIR. But Alice lives in a land where fresh-picked produce is plentiful all year long, and much of what she espouses is just not possible during winter in the Northeast, particularly not when the temperature a few weeks ago plummeted to -2°F and felt like -25!

Strawberries at the Mountain View, CA Farmers' Market in February

Weather in CT, February 2016

Yes, spring is on the way and soon wild ramps and the first early crops will appear at the local CitySeed Market. But nothing nothing can survive the frigid weather unprotected, and there are not enough high tunnels and greenhouses to provide all the food CT residents need right now. What is available at my farmers market comes with a high price tag and the pickin’s are slim. 

I do not characterize myself as a consumer with the means to “purchase produce from small farms…to pay the true cost” and I yearn for variety. So this time of year I search for fresh produce from places in my hemisphere where the season is the same as mine, such as citrus from Florida or California. Usually this means picking up what I need in the produce aisle, but occasionally I will buy a quantity of something directly from a grower through Local Harvest.

When asked by a student after the talk what she thought about shopping at Whole Foods, Alice told the student that she should avoid the middleman and purchase directly from the farmer and that she was sure area residents could guide her to places where she could do so. I am sorry, Alice, but this is simply not possible in late winter in Connecticut, certainly not if you are on any kind of budget.

Particularly during these pre-spring days in New England we need Whole Foods, other supermarkets, and corner stores. Sometimes we have to compromise while trying to embrace Slow Food Principles. 

I hope Alice does not take offense. 

For I have another crisis crying out for her attention — the food that is being served to the nation's seniors in meal programs, assisted living facilities, and in nursing homes. If she can only accomplish for seniors what she has already done for schoolchildren… imagine locally prepared, nutritious, and tasty Slow Food Senior Meals. Farmers and seniors would all benefit. If anyone can get this moving, Alice Waters can!

Happy Meatless Monday. Have a great week!

On Mondays I often blog on food, food issues, or gardening in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Meatless Monday: Back to the “Farm”

Happy Monday everyone. Remember my mushroom farm? It yielded an impressive second crop last week. Check out the photo. Yep, we grew these babies!

What to make with this harvest? The answer came to me when I saw Alton Brown on Food Network drooling over a favorite crepe stuffed with mushrooms and Swiss cheese. 

I decided to wing it and create my own version of this delicacy. In Alice Waters’s The Art of Simple Food there is a recipe for buckwheat crepes I had been meaning to try — requiring the intriguing combination of milk, butter, eggs and beer. I had the requisite well-seasoned crepe pan, but I did have to make a run for a bag of buckwheat flour. [Note that this undertaking requires advance planning and a bit of time. The batter is best prepared a day ahead. And, lacking Alton Brown’s large crepe pan, I needed enough time to make the 30 crepes the recipe estimated.]

On Tuesday night I made the batter. On Wednesday evening I harvested the mushrooms. This time I did not supplement my crop with any purchases from the store. What you see in these photos I grew with patience and lots of misting. 

I first prepared the filling ingredients. I shredded 4 oz of Swiss cheese. I toasted 1/2 cup of sliced almonds gently for several minutes in a medium cast iron skillet and set them aside. I sliced the mushrooms lengthwise and gently sauteed them in 2 tablespoons of butter (using the skillet from the almonds). I washed some arugula and broke the leaves up into small pieces.

Then I made the crepes. It had been years, but making crepes must be like riding a bike: once you learn the art you never forget it. Once I got going each one took about 1 1/2 minutes. I stacked the finished crepes on a baking sheet in a 170° oven to keep them warm.

We placed a spoonful each of mushrooms and cheese on one half of a crepe, sprinkled almonds on top of that and then folded the crepe over. We topped these off with a bit of each of the fillings as well as some arugula to give some color and a little bite. We stuffed crepes until the filling was gone.

Crepes on the plate, briefly.

Done! [See photo.] They were delicious. The mushrooms, with a taste and texture reminiscent of the seafood for which they were named, imparted a subtle yet intense flavor.

Of course we didn’t eat all the crepes at one sitting. The filled crepes we didn’t eat the first evening were delicious warmed in the oven for lunch the next day. And the naked crepes made a great breakfast with vanilla Greek yogurt, syrup and fresh strawberries. 

Thanks Alice. Thanks Back to the Roots. I wish I still had leftovers…

Have a great week. And come back again soon.

I try to blog on food or food issues each Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Discoveries in the Produce Aisle

It is late January and snowing in New Haven, and yet another cold front is howling in.

I have turned all the apples we picked in the Fall into sauce. I have cooked all my butternut and acorn squashes. The tastes of Summer I had packed away in the freezer — poached peaches, ratatouille, and bags of Cape Cod cranberries — are dwindling fast.

CitySeed is running a Saturday market in Wooster Square, but only one a month. And the pickings are slim. By no means a locavore, I do try hard to keep my grocery list footprint small. Reasonably local dairy and bread are easy choices, fruits and vegetables much more difficult.

Late last Winter I gave myself a challenge: to scour the produce section of Shaw’s to try to find something from New England (CT is quite small, after all.) And find it I did. Next to the bright orange California carrots were stacked some one pound bags of what looked to be anemic carrot cousins. The something? “Sugar Mountain Fresh Parsnips,” “grown and packed by Manheim Farm, Whately, MA, USA.” (According to Google Maps, 91.4 miles from my address.)

Parsnips were on the short list of vegetables my family never ate. I was clueless, but resolute, and purchased a bag. I turned to The Art of Simple Food and Simply In Season by Cathleen Hockman-Wert and Mary Beth Lind for help. Alice Waters’s advice was to cook the parsnips in salted water until tender and then puree, alone or with other root vegetables. The Mennonites inspired me to try Maple Parsnip Soup — easy to make, thick and creamy, with a wonderful play of tangy mustard against sweet maple (a second New England product.) This success led me to develop my own improvisation— dicing a parsnip and a turnip, and then sauteing them in olive oil before adding to a batch of pea soup. What a nice kick these roots give!

I decided to learn more about these winter wonders. Parsnips, like carrots, are members of the parsley family. From the parsnip chapter of Root Development of Vegetable Crops, I learned that the parsnip has an amazing root system, with taproots commonly extending 8’ down. If you add that to the 17” height of the foliage, that makes a typical parsnip plant nearly 9.5 feet tall, a lot more impressive than what you see in a plastic bag!

Take some time to root around your produce section. Culinary adventures and botanical discoveries await those brave enough to leave their comfort zones.