Go see Food Inc.

Food Inc in theaters now.

More folks are buying food from the farm

At least they are according to this article in The Packer.

"“To me, what it shows is a recognition of value there is in having a relationship with a farmer,” said Miller, who works for an advocacy group that represents farmers markets on state and federal levels."

Amen to that.

Michael Pollan feature in Newsweek

One of my favorite authors, Michael Pollan, discusses US food policy with Newsweek.

4 year olds are funny

I got home from work later than usual on Tuesday. I hadn't give any thought at all to dinner, and folks were hungry. I had some ground sausage leftover from the weekend that I had to use up, and some ground beef.

I wanted something fast and easy, so I made spaghetti and meatballs. I made the meatballs on the smallish side of ping pong balls, and they were done by the time the spaghetti was cooked.

As an afterthought and with 5 minutes to spare I made some ghetto garlic bread out of some older hamburger and hot dog buns spread with butter and a shake of garlic powder under the broiler.

My daughter was fascinated by this new type of bread.

"What kind of bread is this?"
Garlic bread, sweetie.
"Are you going to take pictures of it??"

Slate article on HFCS

Slate has a remarkably balanced article regarding high fructose corn syrup.

Dark Sugar - The decline and fall of high-fructose corn syrup.

"High-fructose corn syrup first started trickling into our food supply about 40 years ago; by 1984, it was flowing from just about every soda fountain in the country. These days HFCS accounts for almost half of all the added sugars in the U.S. diet, but the corn Niagara may soon be over. Last week, PepsiCo became the latest manufacturer to turn its back on America's sweetener, introducing three new soft drinks—Pepsi Natural, Pepsi Throwback, and Mountain Dew Throwback—sweetened with a "natural" blend of cane and beet sugars."

So is it really the end of the line for HFCS? I don't think so. It'll be a game of Whack-A-Mole; get it out of soda and it'll pop up somewhere else.

Agribusiness mad at Obama's organic garden

I keep reading this thinking it has to be a late April Fool's day joke.

Some PAC named MACA ( Mid America CropLife Association) has sent Michelle Obama a letter asking her to use regular pesticides in the White House Garden.

No - I'm not making this up!

"Did you hear the news? The White House is planning to have an "organic" garden on the grounds to provide fresh fruits and vegetables for the Obama's and their guests. While a garden is a great idea, the thought of it being organic made Janet Braun, CropLife Ambassador Coordinator and I shudder. As a result, we sent a letter encouraging them to consider using crop protection products and to recognize the importance of agriculture to the entire U.S. economy."

Read all about it here.

Hummus and flatbread.

I love hummus. I love fresh bread. Why not have both for dinner?

The hummus started as dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and then boiled for about 40 minutes.

Strain them, put them in the food processor and add tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic.

I like mine drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with sumac.

The bread is also brushed with olive oil, and then sprinkled with a spice mix called za'atar. It was cooked directly on the ceramic tiles of my oven.

Babyback ribs

You know who makes a decent dry rub? McCormick. Shake a good coating onto the meat side of a slab of baby back ribs. Rub it in. Let it set for a while, bring it up to room temperature, then into a 250 degree oven for 4 or 5 hours covered with some foil.

Slather on some sauce and then onto the hot grill for 20 minutes. Not exactly low fat; but live a little.

Sushi!

The North Carolina roll. Aldi imitation crab, Harris Teeter wasabi sauce, cucumber and red pepper.

Pan fried flounder with leeks

Everything here with the exception of the leeks came from Aldi. That's a $6 bottle of Pinot Grigio in the top right corner. I use it all the time for cooking, and it's not terrible as a table white either.










Gotta clean those leeks, grit likes to hide between the layers.











Leeks in the pan with olive oil, salt and pepper.













After a few minutes on high heat, back it down to medium. Add white wine, lemon juice, a knob of butter and garlic.












Cover and simmer.












Time to dredge the fish. Pan is hot, this goes quickly - butter and olive oil in the pan. Dredge each side of the fish and knock off excess flour, you're going for a thin coat.











Into the pan.












Doesn't take long with fillets this thin...maybe 90 seconds?












How's the sauce? Add tomatoes and olives.











Ready to serve.

Wonton soup

Found a great Asian market; picked up some wonton skins. I'm thinking I can make these on my own next time; seems to be a simple pasta recipe.

The filling was thigh and leg meat salvaged from a dismembered chicken in my freezer. (I had used the breast meat earlier in the week for chicken piccata.) Added a chunk of ginger, panko and soy sauce and put it all in the processor until it was a pate.

The soup base was a fabulous chicken stock I made with all the wing tips left over from making a huge plate of Buffalo Wings for a superbowl party, diluted and seasoned.

I boiled the wontons separately then added them to the soup base with some scallions. Very pleased at how it turned out.

Cincinnati Chili - For Dummies

I was born in Columbus, OH - a mere 2 hours from Cincinnati, yet I grew up blissfully unaware of Cincinnati Chili. So when when I went away to school at The University of Cincinnati, it didn't take long to figure out that this town was crazy for chili.

There are the big 2 chains; Skyline and Gold Star - but there are bunches of smaller players and countless Mom and Pops that sell the stuff too. I don't think you can travel anywhere in Cincy without being less than a mile from a chili parlor.

At this point in my life, I had got no problem with chili, it was a fine dish - but I just couldn't understand how a town that wasn't even anywhere near Texas could get so worked up about chili.

So one day, at the University Plaza near the Kroger, I walked into a Goldstar Chili. (It later became a Blockbuster Video store). The menu made no sense...3 way? 4 way? Huh? What;'s a cheese coney? Why would I eat that if you sell chili, right? So I ordered what I figured was something easy - a bowl of chili.

Right now anyone that has actually HAD Cincinnati Chili knows exactly what's wrong with this scenario. Because when I was handed a bowl of watery brown liquid that tasted of cinamon...well, my mind was blown. This was NOT chili; it was disgusting and the whole town was INSANE.

It took me about 2 years to try it again.

Let's get it out of the way right now - it is chili in name only. Approach it as you would a dish you've never heard of before and this gets a lot easier.

Cincinnati Style chili is a sauce. You'd no more eat a bowl of it than you would sit down to eat a jar of Ragu. We don't eat bowls of it; we eat it over noodles. In the case of Cincinnati chili, the noodles are thick spaghetti. It is spooned on top of the noodles, and topped with finely shredded cheddar cheese in 3 distinct layers; cheese, noodles, sauce. That's a 3 way.

A 3 way is the most popular configuration for eating Cincy chili, but you can upgrade to a 4 way or 5 way by the addition of beans (red kidney) and/or diced onion. (A 4 way has onion by default, but you can switch for beans if you like).

You don't twirl it around a fork like Italian spaghetti though - this dish you cut pieces off with a fork and scoop, like a casserole.

As I found out that day, while you can order it by itself in a bowl, hardly anyone actually does that. The texture is very runny. The meat is ground very fine. The savory spice mixture is heavy on cinnamon and has a Greek heritage.

It is also a hot dog sauce; thus the cheese coney.

So me and N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler are like, buds now.

One of my new year's resolutions was to try to get to know Steve Troxler better. So when I saw the News and Observer was having an "Ask Anything: 10 Questions with Steve Troxler" feature, I was all over it.

And my question was selected and answered.

9. A December 2006 article in Rolling Stone magazine painted a very ugly picture of pollution and cruelty perpetrated by the Smithfield Foods corporation in North Carolina. Smithfield refutes the claims, and I know we've since passed Swine Farm Environmental Performance Standards Act. What is your position on so-called CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) and their role in North Carolina agriculture? Do you see CAFO's as the future of hog farming? – Matt McCann, Durham

By and large, North Carolina hog farmers care about the environment and care about humanely treating the animals on their farms. It doesn’t make good business sense for them to think, or do, otherwise.

Raising hogs indoors allows farmers to properly care for and feed their animals. And hog farms are held to strict standards regarding manure storage. Currently, there is a moratorium on construction or expansion of any hog farms with more than 250 hogs.

Well - there ya go. Thanks Steve.

Hummus

The whole family has a cold, no one was really hungry enough for a full dinner. I had a feeling that might happen, so before I went to bed last night I left half a bag of dried garbanzo beans to soak overnight.

When I got home from work, they had doubled in size.

The first time I tried to make hummus, I put them directly in the processor after soaking overnight. Ick. Don't do that.

They need to cook, and for quite awhile at that. I'm going to guess it took about 25 minutes until they were squishable under light finger pressure - and that's the stage you're looking for. Drain the beans and put them in the processor. Give them a good spin.

To that I added a a couple of cupfuls of concentrated lemon juice. Fresh would have been way better, but use what you have is my motto. A good pour of good olive oil, some garlic, a lot of salt and of course tahini. Someday maybe I'll try to make that from scratch too, but for now I used a jar. How much? Eh, 2 big spoonfuls? Mix it until smooth.

I top mine with a pour of olive oil, a big pinch of za'atar spices, a shake of sumac and some kosher salt.

Would have been nice with pita slices, but we had tortilla chips.

Slow cooked pulled pork

A Boston butt is actually a shoulder. You rub it down with spices and stick in in a cast iron dutch oven and let it cook on 200 degrees for about 5 hours and it becomes something else entirely.

I'm not going to call it BBQ. Around these parts; what I made might be close to BBQ - but missing some key things; smoke and the rest of the pig.

But it is good eats. When I took the lid off of the pot I was amazed at how much fat had turned to liquid. There must have been between 3 and 4 cups of it. I didn't keep it (I've got a whole jar of bacon drippings in the refrigerator for all my pork fat needs). Once you can pull the bone right out and you can break up the roast into smaller chunks - it's ready to drain and shred.

Some folks like it just like that. I added some cayenne pepper, cider vinegar, a squirt each of ketchup and mustard and a good pinch of Kosher salt.

I served it up with home made baked beans and slaw. No corn bread though...maybe next time.

How did your Thanksgiving meals go?

Ours went very well. This year we decided to stay at home, and shared cooking duties with our next door neighbors. They hosted the event and provided the turkey, stuffing and some sides.

I brought:
Appetizer - a small rack of lamb, herb crusted. This was probably my proudest moment; the lamb was tender, flavorful, perfectly cooked and the herb crust had a really nice texture. They were a hit across the board.

Side dish - curried sweet potatoes. Meant to be a compliment to the lamb. I was very happy with the dish but I didn't get much feedback on it.

Side dish - Pickled beet salad. Hand pickled roasted beets with frenched red onion, julienned and topped with blue cheese and chopped walnuts. I love that dish, but it wasn't a huge hit. Beets still scare people I guess.

Mashed potatoes - flavor and richness were spot-on, but I missed some lumps. Could have used another round with the beater.

2 breads; hand made dinner rolls and an asiago cheese boule. Many compliments on both.

I'm glad it's over; it was nice not having to cook everything, and I'm delighted with the decision to stay home this year.

Hey y'all. Buttermilk buscuits are harder than they look.

We've been in North Carolina a full year now, and I hadn't perfected buttermilk biscuits.

Do we like biscuits down here? Oh yes, we do.

And this should be simple...a quickbread - no yeast; mix it and bake - couldn't be easier right?

As it turns out, yes and no. They're one of those things that once you've mastered, you wonder how they ever gave you trouble, but man did they give me the business.

I think this is batch 5. Batch 1 was inedible. 2 and 3 were improvements, 4 was a setback and then there were these...yes, 5 batches.

I really think the key to biscuits is not as much about doing things right as it is about avoiding a few critical mistakes; so with that in mind here are the pitfalls:

Not too dry. I tried to make a dough that was much closer to a bread dough and I didn't use near enough liquid. I got a great tip for cutting biscuits out of the rolled dough that also works great as a measure of if your dough is too wet. You use a rocks glass to cut them. (I used a glass that came with a bottle of Macallan scotch several years ago.) You push the glass straight down into the dough, not twisting, and lift. The vacuum holds the biscuit until you tap it out on your baking sheet. Your dough should be just stiff enough to do this.

You have to work fast. I used self rising flour from Aldi. This particular SR flour contains both baking soda and baking powder. Once the buttermilk hits the sodium bicarbonate, it begins releasing CO2 bubbles, so you don't want to waste any time. When you pour the buttermilk, the clock starts ticking. The sooner you get them in the oven the better. Of course this means your oven is already at....

500 degrees. Hot and fast. Took mine under 10 minutes.

Beans so nice we fried 'em twice.

Looking for something cheap and delicious? Me too. Here's a good one - last night I made refried beans starting from a bag of dried beans. (.59 cents at Aldi) Very easy, economical and tasty.

Just a warning from experience - I always make too much. Just remember that your beans are going to more than double in size by the time you're done. This holds for just about any dried bean I've used with the possible exception of lentils.

The only tricky part of making this dish is that unless you have a pressure cooker (I don't) you have to soak the beans overnight in a bowl with plenty of water. Then you boil them with salt and some fat for half an hour, or until they're tender to the tooth. As far as which fat to use, I saw recipes calling from vegetable oil to lard and different things in between. I halved the difference and went with vegetable shortening, but I think plain old vegetable oil would work fine, and bacon fat would just be incredible.

When they've boiled up and are nice and tender, you're going to have to gauge if you have enough water. Are the beans covered? Just covered, or is there a couple of inches of water over them? Mine were just covered, and that seemed to work out pretty well. Hit them with the immersion blender. I guess you could use a regular blender, but ugh -no, you really need an immersion blender. If they're too soupy at that point you can always cook them down for a few minutes.

For spices; garlic, chili powder and cumin.

I served it up with a Spanish fried rice, simple pico de gallo and tortillas.

Just ate the leftovers for lunch, and it held up really well. This feeds a family for a couple of bucks and tastes great.

Bread and soup.

That's what I had for dinner last night.

Sounds like a prison menu. Wonder bread and Campbell's? Not so much.

The soup - chicken with rice. Started with a lovely chicken stock I made 2 nights ago, diluted, seasoned and added rice and carrots. Very simple, very easy and really good.

The bread - this one turned out really nice despite taking almost no effort. It's the same slack, no-knead recipe I usually use, but I had half a can of tomato paste left over from a shrimp risotto, and I added it to the dough with some rosemary. Went perfectly with the soup. Could have used another 8 minutes in the oven, but everyone was hungry and it was still excellent.

Pasta

One of the cooking forums I visit featured a fascinating post regarding the Italian dish spaghetti carbonara. This post took offense to the way the term 'carbonara' is applied at some "Italian" chain restaurants like Olive Garden to describe sauces made with cream, peas and other bastardizations to what is supposed to be a very simple dish with sauce made from egg.

For true carbonara, eggs are mixed with parmesan cheese and then poured over spaghetti that has been cooked, then put into a pan of rendered pancetta and tossed to coat. The residual heat from the pasta cooks the eggs just enough. I actually temper the egg with some of the pasta waster, and use my infrared thermometer to make sure the pasta is no higher than 155 degrees before pouring on the egg. Too hot and the egg will scramble.

For what it's worth I use bacon in mine, as I tend to have it around a lot more often than pancetta, but otherwise I followed his instructions and the dish was fabulous. It's a great comfort food as well as being quick, easy and inexpensive.

While all that is interesting and all, that's not what I'm writing about. The point is that in this post he also described making his own pasta; something I had never done until today, but as I read his description of the process I instantly wanted to try it. I picked up a very reasonably priced pasta rolling machine to make the job a little easier.

The basic pasta recipe is pretty simple; flour, eggs and salt. I used this guy's technique.

As far as flour, I made the fettuccine with AP and the ravioli with bread flour. As I suspected, the bread flour worked significantly better than AP. I couldn't tell a difference before they were cooked, but after cooking the bread flour maintained better tooth.

The fettuccine was just tinted with food coloring, but next time I'll use some spinach for color. The food colors looked OK when the pasta was dry, but once cooked it got much lighter and just looked silly.

The ravioli were really fabulous, I made 2 varieties; acorn squash and mushroom.

Acorn Squash filling:

• Roasted a halved acorn squash, peeled the meat.
• Into the processor with a splash of olive oil, some fresh pressed garlic, a healthy pour of Parmesan cheese and a dash of ginger and nutmeg.
• 6 pulses in the food processor, scrape the sides down and repeat.

Mushroom filling:

• White button mushrooms sauteed in butter with 2 cloves of roasted garlic.
• A pour of olive oil and grated Parmesean.
• About 6 pulses in the food processor.

The acorn squash filling was really good, but the mushroom was outstanding. I could eat that all day long.