Food Activism on the Move

I don't know if I can even begin to write down all of the work I have been doing lately. Amidst the new menu I finally got launched for Blue State Coffee (blog post coming soon), New Haven Food Policy Council work, a feast from the fields fundraiser for Common Ground School on their urban organic farm, (post also coming soon) a community meeting for the coming Elm City Market - food coop, parenting, and the first colds of the season, there has been more than too much to do, and an incredible amount of great local food activism going on. I don't have many good pictures from all of this since I have been far too busy being involved in it all, but wanted to share a little about this part of my food life, none the less. The sustainable food movement has been evolving and becoming more visible recently, so I thought I'd try and lay out some of the concrete ways this work happens on the grassroots level. 

Elm City Market 

a new food coop coming to New Haven, CT in the 360 State St building.

Photo credit: Thomas MacMillan, New Haven Independent 

community member Tambira Armmand speaking her mind at the community meeting

I had been hearing rumors of a new grocery store coming into the ground floor of this new high rise in downtown New Haven for much of this past year, but it wasn't until a few months ago that I knew anything concrete. I was invited along with a few dozen other community members, food folks, and community leaders to be part of a "core leadership team", a group of community members whose purpose is to help bring the community of New Haven into this new food coop, so that the store can be a resource to a wide cross section of New Haven and help to fill the needs of people of different cultural and economic backgrounds. I will do a whole post on this in a while, but if you want to check out some newspaper articles on the recent community meeting about the Market, check out the NH Register or the NH Independent.  There was  a great turnout at this meeting, and a fair amount of enthusiasm and healthy skepticism. Over all, my take is that it will be great to have a full service grocery store in New Haven and not have to drive to get to it, and I hope that a broad and diverse group of New Haven residents will shop there and become member/owners. If you care about food in New Haven, please get involved, and make this market ours. To become a member/owner of this new market/coop click here. There are a variety of ways to join, and it will help get the market open!

Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners and Smart-Cookin' Mamas

Mark Winne - national food and food policy activist

Mark Winne started the first Food Policy Council in the country in Hartford, CT. He ran the Hartford Food Systems organization, and now runs the Community Food Security Coalition, and consults nationally with food policy councils and similar groups.

Mark was in town as part of a panel on grocery stores hosted by the Yale Sustainable Food Project. The New Haven Food Policy Council also hosted an event at the main branch of the Public Library for the launch of his new book (pictured at right). We had a good turn out, and it was great to hear someone with as much experience over time as Mark has talk about our food system and it's successes and failures.

Mark also made time during the day to meet directly with the members of the New Haven Food Policy Council which I now chair. It was a very inspiring meeting, and we all came away from it with a lot of good ideas and inspiration about making the work we do more affective and visible. Thank you Mark!

CT Local Food Summit
Billings Forge & Wholesome Wave
Guest Speaker: Shira J. Gans, Manhattan Borough Presidents office

Following right on the heals of Mark Winne's talk, I headed up to Hartford the next morning for the CT local food summit hosted by Billings Forge and Wholesome Wave. It was a great gathering of about 50 of the key players in sustainable food in the state. Some good conversations and inspirational talks. It was great to make connections with people doing similar work in various parts of the state to share ideas and strategies. Hopefully some larger networks and change will come from it.

Shira Gans from the Manhattan Borough President's office was the keynote speaker, and hearing about all the forward thinking work they are doing and the huge staff they have was incredible. We are doing so much of the same work here, some of it inspired by NYC or other cities, and some of it emerging right from the roots of our own community. What is going on in NYC is pretty exceptional right now though, the leadership of the city is really pushing a good food agenda for all people.

Feast From the Fields

Common Ground School - dinner, fund raiser and auction

A wonderful fund-raising event at one of the most special places in town. For those of you who read this blog often, you have heard me gush about Common Ground School before: An urban charter school with an organic farm and tons of great community events and programs. Many Chefs came out to make the night a success. I had the honor of cooking the main meal together with Jason from Caseus and Rhonda from the Common Ground kitchen, using lots of produce from their garden. It was a thoroughly delicious night with a huge number of fabulous teens from the school who volunteered to work the whole party! And, we helped them raise $40,000. A blog post detailing the event coming soon.

Chefs Move to School and Health Heroes - TODAY - October, 20, 2010

A great event happening today, Wednesday Oct 20th. The launch of these two programs in New Haven will shepard in some great new energy into the schools to get kids (and teachers and parents) to eat healthier foods, get exposure to fresh veggies, gardens, and other healthy and delicious activities. I will be joining Chef Tim Cipriano for the local launch of the Obama's Chefs Move to Schools initiative in New Haven. For the simultaneous launch of Health Heroes in 4 New Haven public schools, we will be giving out 1,500 of the New Haven Cooks cookbook I developed with CitySeed to low income children and families as an incentive to enroll in the healthy living and eating program. If you are a chef, come down to the Barnard School Garden Wednesday morning at 10am, and wear your chef coat!  I'll follow up with a blog post soon...

Stay tuned for more on my crazy (but exciting) life in food. 

note: blogspot is messing up the post date and won't let me change it. This was posted on Wednesday morning October 20th. 

If You Have Pumpkins, Make Pumkin Pie

For me, living with a two year old and a six year old means that everyday I am negotiating between my wants and needs, and those of two wild creatures whose desires have no correlation to my exhaustion level or ability to actually fulfill them. It is the joy and challenge of parenting, especially as a working parent. This food project was one such event. A few weeks ago I took the kids on an after-school excursion to a little farm stand that had mums and pumpkins. I had just launched my new menu at work, and was in need of a recreational minute. The kids each picked out a pumpkin and my 6 year old (who has spent enough time with me in the kitchen to know that everything we do, some how comes back to food) instantly said, "mommy, can we make pumpkin pie?!" so a sugar pumpkin was purchased for a few bucks, and we headed home, illusions of fresh pumpkin pie fueling our ride back.

Now, I can't tell you exactly how many days it took me to actually turn this pumpkin into a pie, but let's just say, that by the time we made it, my boy had stopped asking, "mommy, when are we going to make the pumpkin pie". Life is busy, and as much as I'd love to just stop everything and make pumpkin pie, well, you know, it just isn't that simple.

So, finally, over the weekend we cut open the pumpkin, and brought it outside for the kids to clean out. I roasted it in the oven and scooped out the soft flesh. A few days later I managed to make some pie dough and put it in the fridge, and the next day, we actually got the pie in the oven. It was devoured for breakfast, dinner and dessert and gone in about 1 1/2  days. The fresh sweet pumpkin made a delectable custardy pie, very unlike the dense grocery store bought cousins or the pumpkin from a can versions. All in all, the effort of making a fresh pumpkin pie, spread out over a bunch of afternoons was actually totally worth it.

Fresh Sugar Pumpkin Pie
One 9-inch pie
Pie Dough
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (1 cup white flour plus 1/4 cup or more whole wheat flour or wheat germ)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/4 cup ice water
1/4 teaspoon vinegar (white or cider)


Filling
1 small sugar pumpkin (about 7 inches in diameter) equaling: 2 cups pumpkin puree
3/4 cup heavy cream, milk or soy milk
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice or clove

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

   1. Make the pie dough: Cut butter into 1-inch pieces and place in the freezer for 15 minutes. measure and sift all of the dry ingredients. In a mixer, food processor or using two forks,  cut the butter into the dough until it is the size of larger peas. Some larger sized piece of butter are good, just pinch them flat. Add the ice water and vinegar and mix dough till combined, dough should be tacky. If dough is too dry, add spoonful more water. It is better for the dough to be a little too wet, than too dry. gently form the dough into a disc, wrap with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for one hour or longer until well chilled.

   2. Preheat the oven to 375°. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to an 11-inch round about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer the dough to a 9-inch pie dish and trim the overhang to 3/4 inch; fold the overhang under itself and crimp decoratively. Prick the bottom of the pie shell all over and refrigerate until firm.

   3. Line the shell with foil and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until lightly golden around the edge. Remove the foil and the weights and bake for about 12 minutes longer, or until the pie shell is golden brown and cooked on the bottom. Cover the rim of the pie shell with foil when it starts to brown. Leave the oven on.

   4. Make pie filling: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Rub with a few drops of oil and place cut side down on a cookie sheet lined with foil or parchment. Pour 1/2 cup of water on the pan to help it steam a bit while it roasts. Bake for 45 minutes or longer until the flesh is very tender. Mash with a fork, a ricer until smooth. If you want a very smooth filling you can prepare the rest of this recipe in a blender or food processor, for a more textured filling mix by hand. Scoop 2 cups of the pumpkin flesh into a bowl and let cool, reserve the rest for another purpose (like soup). Whisk in the cream, brown sugar, eggs, butter, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg and scrape into the prepared pie shell.

   5. Bake the pie for 15 minutes at 375°. Turn the oven down to 350° and continue to bake for about 40 minutes longer, or until the filling is set. If the crust edge starts to brown too much, cover with the edge with foil. Transfer the pie to a wire rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature with yogurt or whipped cream.

Note: If you like sweet potato pie, you can use this same recipe and substitute, 3 pounds of baked, mashed sweet potatoes for the pumpkin.

To make ahead
The unbaked pie shell can be frozen for up to 1 week. The pumpkin can be baked and refrigerated for two days.

 please share any great pie recipes you have!

A Visit to the Boulder Farmers' Market

When I say that my life revolves around food, I mean it literally. If I have the good fortune to travel somewhere the first thing I do is hunt down some local food. Could be a cool old diner, a search for a special local dish, a walk through a grocery store,  or my very favorite: a street market or farmers market. The day after the lovely wedding we attended in Boulder, CO there was a farmers' market, so I piled the family in the car and dragged all three of their tired selves through a fairly large and wonderfully bustling farmers' market. What I especially loved about this market was how it was organized with a main street of primarily produce, a side street of locally prepared and packaged foods, a side street of food made to order by local restaurants and businesses under tents with live music and seating, and a smattering of other great things throughout: flowers, balloon animals, face painting, knife sharpening, and lots and lots of bread. Not all markets have this wide assortment of things, and for the Boulder market it really seems to work well.

 tortilla factory treats and late summer watermellons

 produce and pizza oven

knife sharpening! what a great idea for a market stand, and very large bread!

 When you show up in a new place, ask people about the food there. If you walk into a gas station or a park, or a restaurant, try asking the people who work there about the food in their area. Is there something special the town is known for? Are there any open air or indoor markets? what is their favorite local restaurant, food cart or bakery? Everywhere you go there is a food adventure to be had, you just need to be hungry enough to find it.

please please share some of your food finds by commenting below!

Wedding on a Farm - Boulder, CO

 As if the beginning of the Fall hasn't been busy enough, with school starting, a new menu to launch for work, the New Haven Food Policy Council to keep on top of, and a Feast From the Fields dinner at Common Ground High School to help plan and cook for next weekend. This past weekend, I hopped a plane to Colorado with my family for my husband's cousin's wedding (thanks to grandma PJ for the tickets!!).

Luck for me, the wedding took place on an organic farm just outside Boulder, Colorado.  The friends and family were kind, the weather was gorgeous, and the food was fabulous! I worked catering for more than 10 years, and it is a rare night when I get to actually go to, and enjoy a well catered meal myself. The farm-to-table food at Pastures of Plenty Farm, catered by The Big Bang was great, and made up for years of overcooked farm-raised salmon and bland chicken breasts at standard catered events. The thriving farm on the planes of Colorado was a sight for a north-easterner to behold. Dry flat beige landscape giving way to rows of greens, flowers, and vegetables, all used to prepare the night's meal.

After a personal and loving ceremony, we headed into a beautiful pagoda structure for appetizers. Artfully presented on large wood platters from Mexico, there were: roasted purple potato chips with olive tapenade, bruchetta with roasted tomatoes, goat cheese and pesto, prosciutto wrapped melon, marinated and grilled buffalo and shrimp skewers, wonderful local cheeses, and beautiful berries. As a written menu there is nothing so exceptional about this line up, but the execution of the menu was superb. The food was cooked and seasoned very well, and presented beautifully both on the table  and in the location. Dinner was wild caught salmon with sorrel pesto, flank steak, spicy quinoa salad, field green salad, and roasted root vegetables. Again, a fairly standard contemporary farm to table menu, but executed with finesse.

I was busy eating, so didn't get pictures of the food before all the guests attacked it, so you can't see the elegant display of appetizers, fruits and cheeses they put together, but this will give you a little glimpse at the selection.

 

 

the wood-fired oven and 12 foot long buffet table

Doesn't this look like fun!

Wedding cake: red velvet and a spice cake.  Kazoos made in the bride's home town of Eden, NY

Even the porto-potty got dressed up!

It was a wonderful day, finished with a gorgeous sunset and a full moon, and it more than made up for the 11 hours of travel it took to get there and the sleepless nights with 2 jet lagged kids. My son, had been concerned that this wedding wouldn't meet the standards of the last one he attended which had a table of crazy hats, wigs and instruments. So, it was a relief when he declared, "Mommy, this is the best wedding ever!". Indeed, it was lovely, (and delicious).

Rosehips at the Sea Shore

On one of the first windy fall like days of September we took a trip to the ocean up the coast at Hammonasset Beach and State Park. I went there a lot as a kid, but haven't gone much in recent years. It was beautiful and felt like we were on Cape Cod, very different than the urban beaches right in and around New Haven just a few miles south. Since it was too cold for swimming, I imagined spending the day collecting shells and drift wood and just wandering along the sand. As we arrived I had a sudden flash of memory of seeing rose hips along the beach there many years ago. I wasn't sure if it they really were rose hips and edible, or if I'd just made it up. As we walked up the sandy path, I started to see red and orange fruits along the low prickly bushes and my heart started racing as it seems to do when I am near lots of pickable fruit.

I was carrying a pink plastic sand bucket and started filling it immediately. The bushes were thorny and stretched over the edge of the beach in a close knit mass. Most of the fruits were a little hard to reach, and I fell onto the prickers more than once.  Seeing me immersed in picking, my kind husband took one of the kids and went to ask the ranger at the nature center near the parking lot if in fact they were rose hips and not  some poisonous berry.  Returning with a thumbs up just as I had finished filling the bucket, I smiled and started handing the softer of the fruits to my daughter who likes all things sour. I had a vague idea of rose hips from some herbal tea labels, and knew that they were very high in vitamin C, so since we are approaching cold season, I figured it was a good find, and we'd figure out something delicious to do with them.

My camera battery died just as we were approaching the beach, so the only pictures I have are from home, but they are a beautiful sight growing all along the beach, so you might want to head out and see them for yourself. I read up on some recipes for rose hips, and most say to pick them after the first frost, or a little later in the fall when the berries are more red than orange, and soft like a ripe tomato.

I'm thinking of turning mine into a syrup or jam, since I don't want to take the time to remove all the tiny seeds and hairs inside. If you decide to  go adventuring and make some great rose hip recipe,                                                                                           please comment below and let me know!

Here are two links for recipe ideas:
Recipe for rose hip syrup and cupcakes with rose hip meringue frosting.
Some general info on rose hips and links to a variety of recipes.

Sriracha

Sorry for the big gaps between posts lately, I've been really busy consulting at Blue State Coffee trying to get our new menu ready to launch. We had a big menu tasting this week, and the new sandwiches where a big hit. One of my favorites is the new Turkey Sriracha sandwich with shredded romaine, pickled red onion, avocado, and some sriracha spiked mayo. Sriracha hot chili sauce has been available in the USA at least as long as I've been wandering through asian markets, which is about 25 years. It is a great mix of chili pepper, garlic, vinegar, salt and sugar. You might also find Sambal from the same company, which is similar, but a little chunkier, more garlicy, and not in a squeeze bottle.  The Huy Fong brand Sriracha is certainly the most well know and easiest to find brand, available in the asian section of many regular super markets. To make the mayo for a sandwich, just mix a little Sriracha into some mayonaise and you have a delicious condiment. If you want to get fancy, you could add some lime zest or juice and even some sliced scallions, but those are extras, and the mayo is great with just the Sriracha. This hot sauce has flavor as well as heat and it doesn't numb your mouth, making it oblivious to any taste that may follow, like some other hot sauces who shall remiane nameless.  While I love the Sriracha mayo paired with the pickled red onions in this new sandwich, I also enjoy straight Sriracha on just about any meal, especially squeezed on a fried egg served over rice and sauteed vegetables.

I'll post a picture of the new sandwiches soon, but in the mean time, hope this inspires you to get some Sriracha and start adding a little heat, and flavor to your meals. 

Do you have a favorite hot sauce? which one?

25 Pounds of Peaches...Eaten!

On my last day of summer, I dragged my kids out to go peach and raspberry picking. Bishops Orchard's in Guilford, CT is about 25 minutes north of the city of New Haven, so it was a quick car ride, and a gorgeous, hot day. The first bunch of peach trees we approached were full and heavy with fruit, but most of it was a little too hard. One year, at another orchard, I'd picked hard peaches, and they never ripened properly, even in a paper bag, so I was hesitant to pick these. I found one slightly ripe peach and let my six year old squeeze it so he would know what to feel for. The two year old just wandered around eating hard peaches and hiding under the tree limbs. We tried a few more trees, thinking the sunny side of the tree might be riper, until, finally we found one great tree filled with ripe fruit. In a few minutes we had two full bags, 25 pounds of perfect peaches. We brought them home, rolled them out onto the counter and started scheming. 

Peach raspberry pie was declared first on the list. We made it with the few handfuls of raspberries I managed to pick with two tired kids after we were done with the peaches, and a few more from the bush in our yard. I made my favorite pie dough, rolled the crust and let my boy decorate it. He took the dough scrapes and turned them into a baking experiment, all rolled together with some rainbow sprinkles and chocolate inside, and a little egg and sugar on top (below left). He explained that we needed to test it before we made more to see if it tasted good. I remembered the time I'd spent playing in the kitchen when I was a kid while my mother baked desserts in out of our home for a local restaurant, and how it instilled in my the love of baking and creativity in the kitchen. He was equally excited by the pie and his dough experiment as they emerged from the oven.

My Grandma came to dinner so we made her a gluten free peach raspberry crisp, using oats, tapioca starch, brown sugar, salt and a little oil for the crumble topping. Herb stuffed roasted organic chicken, with with cauliflower and onions made it's way into the oven as well. It was a good night.

It has been one week since we picked  25 pounds of peaches. I had plans to  freeze or cook some of them, but it seems that over the course of this week, my family of four has managed to eat all but one of these luscious juicy fruits. And, late on this hot night, I'm thinking that that last peach is about to go the way of the rest, pink juice running down my elbows and all.

Peach Raspberry Pie
Best Pie Dough
1/2 pound butter
2 1/2 C Flour
2 T sugar
1 t salt
1/2 C ice water
1/2 teaspoon vinegar

1. Cut butter into 1-inch pieces. Freeze for 15 minutes
2. Sift or whisk flour. Dissolve salt into water and add vinegar.
3. In a stand mixer using the paddle attachement, or with a fork, cut the butter into the flour until it is large pea sived pieces. Pinch any large pieces flat. 
4. Add water mixture to flour while mixing on low speed just until the dough comes together. It should be tacky, not sticky. Do not squish or overwork dough. Gently pull the dough together. Divide into 2 pieces, wrap well in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or freeze up to 3 weeks.

Filling
peaches - about 3 pounds, enough to mound in a 9-inch pie tin
raspberries - 1/2 pint
3 T corn starch or tapioca
1/2 cup sugar (or more  to taste)

1. Peel the peaches either with a vegetable peeler, or by cutting an "x" in the bottom of each fruit and placing it in a pot of boiling water for about 10 seconds. remove the peach and place in ice water. Use a sharp pairing knife to peel the skin off. Slice peaches into 1/2 -inch thick wedges.
2. Roll out both rounds of pie dough to between 1/8 and 1/4 inches thick. Place in the refrigerator to chill. 
3. Place one chilled piece of dough in a nine inch pie pan and press into the bottom edge of the pan. 
4. Toss peaches with starch and sugar. Pour into prepared pie shell. top with raspberries. brush the dough edge with egg wash to help seal the pie crust. Remove the second piece of dough from the fridge and cut a design into it. Cover the peaches with top piece of dough and press into the edge of the bottom crust. 
5. Using scissors, cut the dough about 3/4" from the pan edge. Fold the dough under itself and pinch around edge to crimp, or use a fork to finish the pie edge. brush the top with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar if desired. Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes. 
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place pie on a sheet pan covered in foil or parchment to catch drips. Bake pie for about 50 minutes to 1 hour until the juices are bubbling rapidly and the dough is a dark golden color.

If you made any great pies this summer, please share by leaving a comment below!