Indian spices are warming and good for the digestion. They lend themselves very well to the winter vegetables. Curry powder is a Western invention, though it can be convenient. Indian cooks use a selection of spices, suitable to the ingredients of each dish, though there are common elements. Commonly used spices include coriander, cumin, turmeric, ginger, black mustard seed, cinnamon, fenugreek, cayenne, cloves, black pepper, and cardamon. The word "curry" means a dish of vegetables cooked with sauce.
Simple curry spices: equal parts ground coriander, cumin, and turmeric, and cayenne about 1/4 as much (or to taste). You might throw a teaspoon of each of the three spices into your vegetable dish.
Simple garam masala: "sweet spices" toasted and ground together; used in chutneys, puddings, and many other dishes. One ounce each whole cardamon in pod, stick cinnamon, and cloves. Toast on cookie sheet at 200 degrees for 30 minutes. Then take seeds out of the cardamon pods, and put into a spice grinder with broken up cinnamon and cloves. Grind to a powder. Keep in a jar. For spice grinder, you can use a small cheap dedicated coffee grinder, or a mortar and pestle.
Now to the recipes:
The following is somewhat similar to the Spicy Parsnips dish in the Cresset newsletter, but uses the individual spices.
I have gotten very fond of parsnips this winter.
Curried Parsnip Soup
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced fine
1 pound parsnips, peeled and chopped
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
3/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock, or water
1 cup milk
Sautee onion, garlic, and ginger in olive oil for 5 minutes. Add the parsnip, spices, and stock. Simmer 15 minutes, until parsnip is tender. Run through blender until smooth. Put back in pan, check for salt and add if needed. Add milk and some freshly-ground pepper. If soup is too thick you can add some more milk or water.
Indian Cabbage and Potatoes
1 pound green cabbage, shredded
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon chopped fresh ginger
2 good-sized potatoes (about 1/2 pound), peeled and diced
3 tablespoons oil
1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon each turmeric, cumin, and coriander
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon salt
Either:
small tomato, chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Or: 1 teaspoon tamarind concentrate, or to taste
Heat oil, add black mustard seeds and onion. Mustard seeds will pop. When they have stopped, add potato. Saute 5 minutes, stirring. Now add cabbage and spices; keep stirring. Lower temperature and cook for 25 minutes uncovered, stirring every few minutes. When cabbage and potatoes turn to a golden brown, remove from heat and add tomato and lemon, or tamarind.
Spiced Milk
12 ounces milk (whole)
small cinnamon stick
one whole clove
1 cardamon pod
honey to taste
Heat milk, add spices, let stand for 5 minutes. Remove spices, add honey to taste, and serve. Or you could use the Garam Masala above, stirring a little of the spice powder into the milk.
Potato Bhaji
2 pounds potatoes
3 tablespoons oil
1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1/4 cup onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Boil potatoes, whole, until tender but not soft. Remove, cool, and peel. Cut into chunks. Heat oil, add black mustard seeds, onion, and garlic. When onion has browned, add potato pieces, turmeric, red pepper, and salt to taste. Stir, reducing heat, for a few minutes, then cover and cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Top with fresh cilantro if you have it, or sprinkle with coriander powder.
Now for a traditional Curry Powder dish. I remember this as the first significant dish I ever cooked for my family, as a young teenager.
Captain's Chicken
1 frying chicken, cut in pieces
2 tablespoons butter
2 onions, chopped
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup tomato sauce, or 2 tbs tomato paste thinned with water
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
Put butter, onions and garlic in kettle, saute onions until soft, then add cut-up chicken pieces. Continue to saute, turning occasionally, for 10 minutes. Then mix tomato sauce, curry powder, salt, lemon juice and 1/2 cup water, and pour over chicken.
Cover and simmer for 45 minutes, until chicken is tender. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking. If it becomes too dry, add a little water. Serve with Indian Rice.
Indian Rice
1 cup uncooked rice, preferably basmati
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup slivered onions
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup slivered almonds
Cook rice in 2 cups water with salt until tender, about 20 minutes. When rice is almost done, heat butter in small skillet, add onions and almonds. Cook stirring until onions are soft. Then add raisins and stir until they plump up. When rice is done, stir onion mixture in.
Happy Eating!
Monday, January 7, 2008
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Month 2: Challenges and Feasts
We finished our second month of 100-mile eating on December 31.
The holidays were a challenge. There are soooo many goodies out there, social occasions, gifts, and so forth. Jim asked to have Chocolate be an exception, only for two weeks ending New Year's Eve. This sounded reasonable, so we allowed it. I bought some Organic Fair-Trade chocolate and cocoa, and a couple of boxes of Whole Foods Organic Chocolate Truffles. I found that with six weeks of not eating any, I had pretty much lost my taste for it, so he ate most of it. We're off chocolate again now, not missing it. Food is a big part of holiday traditions, and going cold turkey (pardon the expression) would have been very difficult.
Jim gave me a Meyer lemon tree, in a big pot, for Christmas. It has a beautiful green lemon on it. I've also bought a variety of herbs in pots, to give us that fresh taste. Part of our Christmas dinner was roasted root vegetables (parsnip, carrot, and turnip, all from Cresset Farm) with a little olive oil and fresh rosemary and thyme. Yum.
I shared the rules of our 100-mile diet with my sister back at the first of November when we started our quest. One of them is that we can accept and enjoy unsolicited gifts of food. Well, bless her heart, she did not forget that. Our Christmas box from her was heavy. It had walnuts, pistachios, and hazelnuts, two grapefruit, six Meyer lemons, 2 tangerines, a pear, a large organic pomegranate, two organic free-trade chocolate bars, organic curry powder, a fresh ginger root, and a bag of tapioca. All things that are off limits for us. How very thoughtful.
We have been enjoying the fruit. (We've been enjoying everything, of course.) I dried two lemons, and juiced three (Meyer lemons are not good keepers). I took the lemon rind, and the grapefruit rind, and candied them by a recipe I found on the internet. That taste of citrus will be precious in the winter months ahead, nice for a little munch, nice cut up in cakes or ice cream. Here is the recipe: very easy.
Candied citrus peel
One cup citrus peel (lemon, orange, grapefruit)
1/2 cup sugar
water
Cut up the peel into strips. You don't need to strip off the inner pith, but remove the fruit part. Put in pan with water to cover, bring to a boil, simmer for 10 minutes. Drain, repeat two more times (to remove some of the bitterness). Drain again, mix the sugar and 1/4 cup water in your little pan, simmer the peels 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then set out on a rack and let them air-dry. When they are no longer sticky to the touch, put into a jar. (I haven't tried honey, but will for the second grapefruit; sugar is not local.)
I found a cute little gadget for making a pint of ice cream: Donvier (also comes in quart size). You freeze the central cylinder overnight, pour your mixed ice cream ingredients into it, and turn the handle every few minutes. Takes about 20 minutes, almost no work. We fixed nearly-local ice cream with Windsor Dairy milk, beaten eggs, honey, and a little vanilla. Delicious. Makes just the right amount for us. I was out of cream, but the rich milk made a lovely light ice cream just as it was. It's nice to know we don't have to give up ice cream for eating locally.
Now that the holidays are past, we are facing the dark days of winter. I did a little inventory of what we have: still lots of fruit (fresh apples in garage, dried fruit from yard, frozen berries I bought last summer); CSA vegetables (winter squash, root vegetables, cabbages and their kin) plus the occasional local hothouse tomato, and lactofermented pickles of various kinds; plentiful supply of meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy from local farmers (we won't go hungry). In the pantry, the tea selection is thinning out, the rice is half gone, still plenty of herbs and spices. I'm holding back on the rice, using potatoes more often.
Going critical: frozen lima beans and peas; tea. I'm saving my last Exception for some kind of tea, but it seems extravagant to say "all kinds of tea" so I won't do that. I have plans to plant beds of herbs this summer to dry for herb teas; most tea herbs grow here just fine: mints, chamomile, linden flowers (an unused resource), raspberry leaves, rose hips, etc. etc. No peas and limas until next summer some time; perhaps I'll plant some. It's made me think of foods I want to put up next summer, to prepare for the following winter.
I'm sure by March and April, we'll be craving fresh green leaves. Ursula at Cresset Farm picks the spring's first tender dandelion leaves, nettle leaves, and other wild spring greens for soups and salads that taste so good in the spring. I'll let you know how we fare with that, as it comes up.
Note: I have lost another four pounds, eating wonderful local foods and as much as I want. The food is just more satisfying. And avoiding junk food and fast food has also been contributing to my weight loss, I'm sure. (For me, weight loss is good. I have some more extra pounds I'd like to bid goodbye to.) When I said "100-mile diet", I wasn't thinking of losing weight, but it's been happening.
The holidays were a challenge. There are soooo many goodies out there, social occasions, gifts, and so forth. Jim asked to have Chocolate be an exception, only for two weeks ending New Year's Eve. This sounded reasonable, so we allowed it. I bought some Organic Fair-Trade chocolate and cocoa, and a couple of boxes of Whole Foods Organic Chocolate Truffles. I found that with six weeks of not eating any, I had pretty much lost my taste for it, so he ate most of it. We're off chocolate again now, not missing it. Food is a big part of holiday traditions, and going cold turkey (pardon the expression) would have been very difficult.
Jim gave me a Meyer lemon tree, in a big pot, for Christmas. It has a beautiful green lemon on it. I've also bought a variety of herbs in pots, to give us that fresh taste. Part of our Christmas dinner was roasted root vegetables (parsnip, carrot, and turnip, all from Cresset Farm) with a little olive oil and fresh rosemary and thyme. Yum.
I shared the rules of our 100-mile diet with my sister back at the first of November when we started our quest. One of them is that we can accept and enjoy unsolicited gifts of food. Well, bless her heart, she did not forget that. Our Christmas box from her was heavy. It had walnuts, pistachios, and hazelnuts, two grapefruit, six Meyer lemons, 2 tangerines, a pear, a large organic pomegranate, two organic free-trade chocolate bars, organic curry powder, a fresh ginger root, and a bag of tapioca. All things that are off limits for us. How very thoughtful.
We have been enjoying the fruit. (We've been enjoying everything, of course.) I dried two lemons, and juiced three (Meyer lemons are not good keepers). I took the lemon rind, and the grapefruit rind, and candied them by a recipe I found on the internet. That taste of citrus will be precious in the winter months ahead, nice for a little munch, nice cut up in cakes or ice cream. Here is the recipe: very easy.
Candied citrus peel
One cup citrus peel (lemon, orange, grapefruit)
1/2 cup sugar
water
Cut up the peel into strips. You don't need to strip off the inner pith, but remove the fruit part. Put in pan with water to cover, bring to a boil, simmer for 10 minutes. Drain, repeat two more times (to remove some of the bitterness). Drain again, mix the sugar and 1/4 cup water in your little pan, simmer the peels 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then set out on a rack and let them air-dry. When they are no longer sticky to the touch, put into a jar. (I haven't tried honey, but will for the second grapefruit; sugar is not local.)
I found a cute little gadget for making a pint of ice cream: Donvier (also comes in quart size). You freeze the central cylinder overnight, pour your mixed ice cream ingredients into it, and turn the handle every few minutes. Takes about 20 minutes, almost no work. We fixed nearly-local ice cream with Windsor Dairy milk, beaten eggs, honey, and a little vanilla. Delicious. Makes just the right amount for us. I was out of cream, but the rich milk made a lovely light ice cream just as it was. It's nice to know we don't have to give up ice cream for eating locally.
Now that the holidays are past, we are facing the dark days of winter. I did a little inventory of what we have: still lots of fruit (fresh apples in garage, dried fruit from yard, frozen berries I bought last summer); CSA vegetables (winter squash, root vegetables, cabbages and their kin) plus the occasional local hothouse tomato, and lactofermented pickles of various kinds; plentiful supply of meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy from local farmers (we won't go hungry). In the pantry, the tea selection is thinning out, the rice is half gone, still plenty of herbs and spices. I'm holding back on the rice, using potatoes more often.
Going critical: frozen lima beans and peas; tea. I'm saving my last Exception for some kind of tea, but it seems extravagant to say "all kinds of tea" so I won't do that. I have plans to plant beds of herbs this summer to dry for herb teas; most tea herbs grow here just fine: mints, chamomile, linden flowers (an unused resource), raspberry leaves, rose hips, etc. etc. No peas and limas until next summer some time; perhaps I'll plant some. It's made me think of foods I want to put up next summer, to prepare for the following winter.
I'm sure by March and April, we'll be craving fresh green leaves. Ursula at Cresset Farm picks the spring's first tender dandelion leaves, nettle leaves, and other wild spring greens for soups and salads that taste so good in the spring. I'll let you know how we fare with that, as it comes up.
Note: I have lost another four pounds, eating wonderful local foods and as much as I want. The food is just more satisfying. And avoiding junk food and fast food has also been contributing to my weight loss, I'm sure. (For me, weight loss is good. I have some more extra pounds I'd like to bid goodbye to.) When I said "100-mile diet", I wasn't thinking of losing weight, but it's been happening.
A Bountiful Harvest of Books
I am sure there are many other excellent books on local eating out there that I have not found yet. Local eating is catching fire everywhere. The Oxford Dictionary declared the term "Locavore" as the new word for 2007, representing the zeitgeist (spirit of the age). Anyway, here are some of my favorite recent books.
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. 2006. ISBN-10: 0143038583. Pollan traces the history of the foods we eat, from McDonalds to the cornfield, from Big organic, from feedlots, from the small farms and fields and forests. The dilemma, by the way: What shall we have for dinner?"
The problem: our "national eating disorder". Very interesting read.
Coming Home to Eat: The pleasures and politics of local foods by Gary Paul Nabhan. 2002. ISBN-10: 0393323749. Nabhan decided to eat foods grown in a 250-mile circle of his home in southern Arizona (his goal was 80% of his food). He took it a step further, to try to eat only foods that are native to his region. His writing is as spicy as a smoked jalapeno, as he tells his triumphs and failures. Here is a quote from the Epilogue.
"The real bottleneck to the revival of native, locally grown foods is a cultural--or more precisely a spiritual--dilemma. If we no longer believe that the earth is sacred, or that we are blessed by the bounty around us, or that we have a caretaking responsibility given to us by the Creator--Yahweh, Earth Maker, Gaia, Tata Dios, Cave Bear, Raven, or whatever you care to call him or her--then it does not really matter to most folks how much ecological and cultural damage is done by the way we eat.... Until we stop craving to be somewhere else and someone else other than animals whose very cells are constituted from the place on earth we love the most, then there is little reason to care about the fate of native foods, family farms, or healthy landscapes and communities."
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver, with Steven Hopp and Camille Kingsolver. 2007. ISBN-10: 0060852550. This book is a best-seller, and rightfully so. It is a joy to read her lucid, entertaining prose, telling the story of her family as they moved to a small farm in Southern Virginia and started trying to eat locally. They raised vegetables and fruits, and put them up for the winter. They raised chickens and heritage turkeys. They got to know their neighbors, and what their neighbors produced. The book's chapters go through the months of the year, from March to March, with the treasures and problems of each month.
Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally by Alisa Smith, J.B. Mackinnon. 2007. ISBN-10: 030734732X. This is the book that pushed me over the top into local eating. It is the entertaining story of a couple living in Vancouver, British Columbia, who decided to eat food produced within a 100-mile circle of their home. They also started in March, with almost nothing on hand, living in an apartment, and they were STRICT. They ate a lot of potatoes the first few months. Advantages: their circle included the ocean, and they could buy fresh fish off the boats; the climate in Vancouver is damp but not cold, so people can grow food for more months of the year than in Colorado. A real adventure; I could hardly put the book down.
Farmer John's Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables by John Peterson. 2006. ISBN-10: 1423600142. A cookbook from Angelic Organics, one of the largest CSAs in the country. Lots of good recipes for lesser-known vegetables. Sidebars on biodynamic agriculture, weather on the farm, and assorted other topics make this more than just a cookbook.
The Year of the Goat: 40,000 Miles and the Quest for the Perfect Cheese by Margaret Hathaway, Karl Schatz. 2007. ISBN-10: 1599210215. The two authors left a high-stress life in New York City to travel in their van for a year visiting goat farms and goat dairies all over the country, including our very own Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy near Niwot. More than a back-to-the land fantasy, their odyssey put them in touch with terroir, a French term meaning the taste of the land where you live, and it is an excellent introduction to this concept. Funny, quirky, very personal, a good book to while away some winter days.
For another, much more exhaustive list of interesting books on a wide range of topics, see Sharon Astyk's Casaubon's Book blog Best Books About Nearly Everything.
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. 2006. ISBN-10: 0143038583. Pollan traces the history of the foods we eat, from McDonalds to the cornfield, from Big organic, from feedlots, from the small farms and fields and forests. The dilemma, by the way: What shall we have for dinner?"
The problem: our "national eating disorder". Very interesting read.
Coming Home to Eat: The pleasures and politics of local foods by Gary Paul Nabhan. 2002. ISBN-10: 0393323749. Nabhan decided to eat foods grown in a 250-mile circle of his home in southern Arizona (his goal was 80% of his food). He took it a step further, to try to eat only foods that are native to his region. His writing is as spicy as a smoked jalapeno, as he tells his triumphs and failures. Here is a quote from the Epilogue.
"The real bottleneck to the revival of native, locally grown foods is a cultural--or more precisely a spiritual--dilemma. If we no longer believe that the earth is sacred, or that we are blessed by the bounty around us, or that we have a caretaking responsibility given to us by the Creator--Yahweh, Earth Maker, Gaia, Tata Dios, Cave Bear, Raven, or whatever you care to call him or her--then it does not really matter to most folks how much ecological and cultural damage is done by the way we eat.... Until we stop craving to be somewhere else and someone else other than animals whose very cells are constituted from the place on earth we love the most, then there is little reason to care about the fate of native foods, family farms, or healthy landscapes and communities."
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver, with Steven Hopp and Camille Kingsolver. 2007. ISBN-10: 0060852550. This book is a best-seller, and rightfully so. It is a joy to read her lucid, entertaining prose, telling the story of her family as they moved to a small farm in Southern Virginia and started trying to eat locally. They raised vegetables and fruits, and put them up for the winter. They raised chickens and heritage turkeys. They got to know their neighbors, and what their neighbors produced. The book's chapters go through the months of the year, from March to March, with the treasures and problems of each month.
Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally by Alisa Smith, J.B. Mackinnon. 2007. ISBN-10: 030734732X. This is the book that pushed me over the top into local eating. It is the entertaining story of a couple living in Vancouver, British Columbia, who decided to eat food produced within a 100-mile circle of their home. They also started in March, with almost nothing on hand, living in an apartment, and they were STRICT. They ate a lot of potatoes the first few months. Advantages: their circle included the ocean, and they could buy fresh fish off the boats; the climate in Vancouver is damp but not cold, so people can grow food for more months of the year than in Colorado. A real adventure; I could hardly put the book down.
Farmer John's Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables by John Peterson. 2006. ISBN-10: 1423600142. A cookbook from Angelic Organics, one of the largest CSAs in the country. Lots of good recipes for lesser-known vegetables. Sidebars on biodynamic agriculture, weather on the farm, and assorted other topics make this more than just a cookbook.
The Year of the Goat: 40,000 Miles and the Quest for the Perfect Cheese by Margaret Hathaway, Karl Schatz. 2007. ISBN-10: 1599210215. The two authors left a high-stress life in New York City to travel in their van for a year visiting goat farms and goat dairies all over the country, including our very own Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy near Niwot. More than a back-to-the land fantasy, their odyssey put them in touch with terroir, a French term meaning the taste of the land where you live, and it is an excellent introduction to this concept. Funny, quirky, very personal, a good book to while away some winter days.
For another, much more exhaustive list of interesting books on a wide range of topics, see Sharon Astyk's Casaubon's Book blog Best Books About Nearly Everything.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
News Flash! Local Whole Wheat Flour
I just discovered whole wheat flour, organically grown in northeastern Colorado, stone ground in Kersey (east of Greeley). The brand is Wheat Land Farms, and I found it at Whole Foods in Fort Collins, though it may be available at other stores.
They proudly say on the package that it was grown and processed without fertilizers, chemical pesticides, herbicides or fumigants. And since it is organic, it cannot be GMO. They grow the wheat themselves as well as grinding it.
I bought a bag, although I can't eat wheat due to celiac disease. I'm keeping it in a cool place so it will last. My DH can eat wheat, so I will use this flour to make items for him, such as Pizza (his favorite food) and bread.
In fact, I'm now all set to make pizza with Windsor Dairy's fresh mozzarella, pesto I made last summer with Cresset Farm basil and garlic, buffalo Italian sausage from Rocky Plains, and some tomato paste I have on hand. I can decorate it with rosemary and thyme from my indoor herb plants. My mouth is watering just thinking about it (I will make a gluten-free crust for myself).
NEXT year, I'm going to get a bushel of local tomatoes when they are ripe, and make my own spaghetti sauce, tomato paste, and salsa. My on-hand tomato paste and spaghetti sauce is almost gone. A bushel of tomatoes, and a good day of work in the kitchen, will produce all that we'll use over the next winter.
Not being able to just run to the grocery store for whatever you want makes you think: hmmmmm, next year I'm going to get ________ and put it up for the winter. And I'm definitely going to plant some peas in my garden.
They proudly say on the package that it was grown and processed without fertilizers, chemical pesticides, herbicides or fumigants. And since it is organic, it cannot be GMO. They grow the wheat themselves as well as grinding it.
I bought a bag, although I can't eat wheat due to celiac disease. I'm keeping it in a cool place so it will last. My DH can eat wheat, so I will use this flour to make items for him, such as Pizza (his favorite food) and bread.
In fact, I'm now all set to make pizza with Windsor Dairy's fresh mozzarella, pesto I made last summer with Cresset Farm basil and garlic, buffalo Italian sausage from Rocky Plains, and some tomato paste I have on hand. I can decorate it with rosemary and thyme from my indoor herb plants. My mouth is watering just thinking about it (I will make a gluten-free crust for myself).
NEXT year, I'm going to get a bushel of local tomatoes when they are ripe, and make my own spaghetti sauce, tomato paste, and salsa. My on-hand tomato paste and spaghetti sauce is almost gone. A bushel of tomatoes, and a good day of work in the kitchen, will produce all that we'll use over the next winter.
Not being able to just run to the grocery store for whatever you want makes you think: hmmmmm, next year I'm going to get ________ and put it up for the winter. And I'm definitely going to plant some peas in my garden.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Rocky Plains: Where the Buffalo Roam
One of the wonderful things about local eating is that you get to meet the people who grow your food. I found Rocky Plains Quality Meats on the internet, and found that they have a store at 207 South Washington Street in Loveland. There I met Steve Koch, one of the partners in a buffalo ranch (Phil Haynes is the other partner). They have a small buffalo ranch near Dacono, and a larger ranch near Grover, in the Pawnee Buttes area.
Rocky Plains store has their own grassfed buffalo, pastured pork from Kersey, chickens from Wisdom (near Sterling) and from Northern Colorado Poultry near Nunn (also fresh eggs), gluten-free oats from Powell Wyoming, and a number of other interesting products. Store hours are 9 to 4 Tuesday and Thursday, and 9-1 Saturday.
They make and sell Buff Bites (biscotti of liver), a healthy treat for dogs or cats made from buffalo liver and a very short list of healthy ingredients. Our cats love them. (If you check the ingredients list of standard cat treats, you can see that they are kitty junk food.) They try to use all of each buffalo they harvest, out of respect for the animal, which is one reason for the dog/cat biscotti. They also have skulls and fabulous buffalo robes available at their Dacono store (on the mini-ranch; hours 9-4 Saturday and 3-5 weekdays).
Rocky Plains was a wonderful find for me, and I have been buying food there since we started eating locally. We had an opportunity to go to their Dacono ranch and see the buffalo, including a bottle-fed buffalo calf, so we jumped at the chance.
This is Josey, an eight-month old female. Her mom got mastitis, so Phil's brother Robert bottle-fed her with goats milk, up to 10 gallons per day as she got bigger. Fortunately, she is now on hay and off the bottle, but she still regards the rancher as her mom and will happily come when called and suck his fingers.
The ranchers, partners in Rocky Plains, have been raising bison for seventeen years. I asked Steve why they started with bison, and he said "We thought they were cute". They started the store, and another store on the ranch near Dacono, to make it easier to get the meat to the customers. Their buffalo are strictly grassfed and are never given medications; it is a closed herd. The ranchers raise their own hay for winter feeding.
The Dacono ranch has some buffalo cows and calves, but not the buffalo bulls, since there are country subdivisions near them.
A buffalo bull (2000 pounds and up) can walk through nearly any fence, and could pose a danger to people. The main herd of 250 animals is up near Grover.
Josey was truly a charming young lady, with her little horns coming in. She liked being petted. There was one younger buffalo calf there, still with its red-orange baby fur. The buffalo cows seemed amazingly big to me; the bulls are much bigger. She and the dog Sheila are best friends.
You can stop by their store for wonderful local foods; please contact them before making a trip to the Dacono ranch. You can find more information and contact information on Local Harvest at Rocky Plains
Rocky Plains store has their own grassfed buffalo, pastured pork from Kersey, chickens from Wisdom (near Sterling) and from Northern Colorado Poultry near Nunn (also fresh eggs), gluten-free oats from Powell Wyoming, and a number of other interesting products. Store hours are 9 to 4 Tuesday and Thursday, and 9-1 Saturday.
They make and sell Buff Bites (biscotti of liver), a healthy treat for dogs or cats made from buffalo liver and a very short list of healthy ingredients. Our cats love them. (If you check the ingredients list of standard cat treats, you can see that they are kitty junk food.) They try to use all of each buffalo they harvest, out of respect for the animal, which is one reason for the dog/cat biscotti. They also have skulls and fabulous buffalo robes available at their Dacono store (on the mini-ranch; hours 9-4 Saturday and 3-5 weekdays).
Rocky Plains was a wonderful find for me, and I have been buying food there since we started eating locally. We had an opportunity to go to their Dacono ranch and see the buffalo, including a bottle-fed buffalo calf, so we jumped at the chance.
This is Josey, an eight-month old female. Her mom got mastitis, so Phil's brother Robert bottle-fed her with goats milk, up to 10 gallons per day as she got bigger. Fortunately, she is now on hay and off the bottle, but she still regards the rancher as her mom and will happily come when called and suck his fingers. The ranchers, partners in Rocky Plains, have been raising bison for seventeen years. I asked Steve why they started with bison, and he said "We thought they were cute". They started the store, and another store on the ranch near Dacono, to make it easier to get the meat to the customers. Their buffalo are strictly grassfed and are never given medications; it is a closed herd. The ranchers raise their own hay for winter feeding.
The Dacono ranch has some buffalo cows and calves, but not the buffalo bulls, since there are country subdivisions near them.
A buffalo bull (2000 pounds and up) can walk through nearly any fence, and could pose a danger to people. The main herd of 250 animals is up near Grover.
Josey was truly a charming young lady, with her little horns coming in. She liked being petted. There was one younger buffalo calf there, still with its red-orange baby fur. The buffalo cows seemed amazingly big to me; the bulls are much bigger. She and the dog Sheila are best friends.
You can stop by their store for wonderful local foods; please contact them before making a trip to the Dacono ranch. You can find more information and contact information on Local Harvest at Rocky Plains
Of Cabbages and Kings
Well, really about cabbages, but in another sense, cabbage is the king of the winter vegetables. Shown are two red and one green cabbage from our CSA. Cabbage stores very well in a cool place, and the green or purple leaves are a welcome addition to winter meals.
Raw Cabbage: Cole Slaw
Main ingredient: thinly sliced cabbage. If you have a mandoline or kraut cutter, you can use it. Otherwise, just use a sharp knife on a cored head of cabbage, cutting thin shreds.
Additions: choose from any combination of the following: finely slivered red onion, slivered apple, slivered carrot, raisins, finely sliced radicchio, chopped scallions or finely slivered leeks, or finely sliced cucumber pickles. (In summer, slivered bell pepper, celery, or zucchini could join the party.)
Dressings: You can go with a buttermilk style dressing, or a vinegar and oil dressing.
My Favorite Dressing: 1/2 cup kefir or yogurt (I make my own), 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, 1 teaspoon vinegar or pickle juice, one teaspoon or more dried dill weed, salt to taste.
Shake up and pour over the bowl of vegetables. We also use this on mixed salads and winter "chef" salads. You can sweeten it with a bit of honey if it's too sour.
Yogurt Dressing: one cup yogurt, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 tablespoon honey, 1/2 teaspoon caraway seed, 1/2 teaspoon celery seed, salt and pepper to taste, 2 tablespoons toasted sesame or sunflower seeds. This makes enough for a big bowl of vegetables.
Oil-vinegar Dressing: Mix 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, 2 tablepoons balsamic vinegar, fresh or dried herbs to taste, 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard powder. Shake well, pour over the vegetables, let sit an hour or more for the flavor to permeate.
Cooked Cabbage: so many ways
Don't feel you have to just boil wedges of cabbage. There is so much you can do with it. It improves almost any vegetable soup. You can put it in curries and stir-fries. You can saute red cabbage with onion and apple slices, a traditional German dish.
Here are a couple of my favorite cabbage recipes.
Colcannon
This is a traditional Irish recipe.
1 lb cabbage
2 pounds baking potatoes
2 small leeks or a bunch of scallions
1/2 cup milk
4-6 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon mace (optional)
Shred cabbage, cook in boiling salted water till tender.
Peel and cut up potatoes and cook in boiling salted water till
tender. Chop leeks or scallions fine, simmer in 1/2 cup milk for 8-10 minutes. Mash potatoes, mix in milk and scallions, drain cabbage and stir in. Season to taste with mace, salt and pepper. Stir in butter and serve hot.
Alternative: you can put the cabbage through a food mill or blender, and mash in with the potatoes.
Cabbage Baked with Feta Cheese (from Moldova)
2 1/2 lb head of cabbage, slivered finely
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons oil (extra virgin olive oil is nice)
2 eggs
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill or 1 tablespoon dried dill
1 1/3 cup crumbled feta
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1 to 2 teaspoons paprika
another 4 tablespoons butter, melted
Blanch cabbage in a kettle of boiling water for 2 minutes and drain. Then saute cabbage in the 3 tablspoons butter and oil for 15-20 minutes, stirring frequently, till nicely browned, but not burned. Cool slightly.
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix the eggs, sour cream, salt, pepper and dill into cabbage. Turn cabbage into a casserole or baking dish. Mix feta, bread crumbs, and paprika, and sprinkle over cabbage. Then top with melted butter. Bake for 15 minutes.
Lactofermented cabbage (aka Sauerkraut)
Yes, you can make your own sauerkraut. And it's not hard. You need a half-gallon canning jar (I find them at Ace Hardware), which makes this an easy process. You will also need a small plastic bucket or similar container. This is the process of lactofermentation, which improves the digestibility as well as the keeping qualities of the vegetables.
3.5 pounds green cabbage
1 tablespoon salt
1 small onion, cut into chunks (optional)
1-2 teaspoon your favorite seasonings: always caraway seed; you can alo add dill seed, mustard seed, a few juniper berries, a few allspice berries, etc.
Slice cabbage finely, using a knife, mandoline, or kraut cutter. Mix the cabbage and the salt well, in the bucket, and let stand for 15 minutes. Then start pounding. You can use your fist, the end of a rolling pin, or bean masher. You need to pound the cabbage until the juices start to flow. When you have pounded all the cabbage, and it is very juicy, you are ready to fill your jar.
Place about 1/4 of the cabbage in the jar, press down well, add
1/3 of the onion and spices. Pack another 1/4 of the cabbage, then another 1/3 of the onion and spices, and continue until your jar is full. Press down well to eliminate air bubbles. The juice should come up over the level of the cabbage. Put the lid on. Place the jar in a saucer on your counter. Let it work. It will probably take about 7 days. Now put the jar in your frig for it to mellow. It can be eaten at any time, but it's better after another few weeks have passed. It will keep for months in your frig; just use a clean fork each time you get some out of the jar.
If the cabbage develops a funny color, smells bad, or gets moldy, throw it out. I have made many jars of sauerkraut and never had any trouble. It is important to use organic cabbage which is still juicy and not dried out. Sauerkraut keeps best when made with the autumn cabbages.
IMPORTANT: DO NOT reduce the amount of salt. The full tablespoon of salt for the half-gallon of cabbage is necessary to prevent any unpleasant organisms getting started in your ferment. The lactobacillus bacteria which does the work gets along fine with the salt.
If you are interested in learning more about lactofermentation,
I recommend the book "Making Sauerkraut" by Klaus Kaufmann and Annelies Schoneck.
Loveland local people can contact Ursula at Cresset Community Farm to attend a pickling session. Ursula is a master of pickling, and makes a wide variety of lactofermented vegetables.
More Winter Treasures
Winter Squash
Now that we've moved well into winter from fall, the local vegetables and other foods that we have become especially precious. This is our season's supply of squash from our CSA, minus the ones we've already eaten. In previous years, I've often given away much of the winter squash we received, but this year... this year I needed to rethink. They are treasures of nutrition and I need to find ways to incorporate them into our diet.
Yesterday I baked the large pumpkin in the picture, which gave us over 5 pint jars of pureed pumpkin and a nice bowl of crispy roasted pumpkin seeds. The seeds are especially welcome since we're not eating any crunchy snack foods. The pumpkin can be used in soups, pies, or puddings, or the pumpkin waffles (see the Pumpkin post) which I'm going to fix for Christmas breakfast.
NOTE: If you are going to can pumpkin, you need to use a pressure canner to avoid the risk of botulism. Pumpkin is a low-acid food. What I did was to pack into wide-mouth pint jars and put in the freezer.
Other favorites:
Grilled Delicata: Cut a delicata squash in half the long way, scoop out the seeds with a spoon (and roast them; they are Delicious!) Now, take your big knive and cut the squash lengthwise into 10 to 12 long pieces. You can grill these in a heavy skillet in a bit of olive oil, adding herbs if you like. Turn every few minutes so each side gets roasted. The delicata cooks in maybe ten minutes this way, not needing the oven. It is done when fork-tender. The skins become tender when it is cooked.
Quick Southwestern Stew: Have some cooked beans on hand, pintos or anasazi or other type; they're good cooked with a little onion and garlic. Cut up a larger squash, such as buttercup, butternut, kabocha, or similar. Peel and cut into 1" chunks. Simmer in water to nearly cover until tender (only takes 10 minutes or so).
Stir in the beans and heat all together, stirring. The squash will partly break down to make the sauce. Serve with salsa and a little grated cheese. Yum.
Meyer Lemon Tree for Christmas
My dear husband bought me a Meyer Lemon tree for Christmas from Fossil Creek Nursery, in a large pot. The sweet thing has one large green lemon on it, and many buds coming. We plan to keep it in the house during the colder weather, in a sunny window, and put it on the patio in the warm days of summer. I think I will have to pollinate the blossoms myself to get fruit.
You can see the green lemon in the picture, behind a few leaves.
They also had lovely grapefruit trees in pots with grapefruit hanging on them. And I got a miniature tangerine tree too, not blooming at the moment but a beautiful strong plant.
It occurred to me as I ran out of lemon juice that citrus is one thing I'd miss: lemons in particular. So, now I have a little treasure: my own Local Lemon (with, hopefully, many more to come, each one precious).
Very Local Herb Garden
I have herbs growing outdoors here, thyme, oregano, rue, sage, and others. I usually did not collect them and use them, which seems strange to me now. Now, with new eyes, I decided to get some house-plant herbs. Why not grow delicious fresh herbs in my sunny window? They can go outside in the summer for a refresher course of sun. I can use them judiciously meanwhile, in soups, salads, vegetables, etc.
I went to Rabbit Shadow Herb Farm on Hiway 402 east of Loveland. I am now the proud owner of two nice Rosemary plants, two small bay trees, a pot of thyme, a pot of (baby) parsley, a pot of Doone Valley lemon thyme, oregano, and a 4" shrub of lemon verbena. Well, some of them will have to grow up a bit to be able to stand the harvest. The thyme and rosemary are big enough now. I will use a few sprigs each in the oven-roasted root vegetables we'll have with our Christmas dinner.
Here you can see one of the rosemary plants, with beautiful pale-blue blooms on every branch, and one of the baby bay trees. Behind these plants is the olive tree I bought last summer (maybe silly; I'll be surprised to see an olive from it), and a jade plant. The herbs integrate well with the other house plants. Why not grow something good to eat, in addition to the tropical shrubs we usually have as house plants.
As we move into the cold dark period of the year, my focus for fruits, vegetables, and herbs tightens in to what I'm growing inside, what we have stored in the garage and other cool places, and the dried fruit I have in the cupboard. There is a feeling of gratitude for these foods, which will keep us healthy and well fed during the winter, until next summer's bounty.
Now that we've moved well into winter from fall, the local vegetables and other foods that we have become especially precious. This is our season's supply of squash from our CSA, minus the ones we've already eaten. In previous years, I've often given away much of the winter squash we received, but this year... this year I needed to rethink. They are treasures of nutrition and I need to find ways to incorporate them into our diet. Yesterday I baked the large pumpkin in the picture, which gave us over 5 pint jars of pureed pumpkin and a nice bowl of crispy roasted pumpkin seeds. The seeds are especially welcome since we're not eating any crunchy snack foods. The pumpkin can be used in soups, pies, or puddings, or the pumpkin waffles (see the Pumpkin post) which I'm going to fix for Christmas breakfast.
NOTE: If you are going to can pumpkin, you need to use a pressure canner to avoid the risk of botulism. Pumpkin is a low-acid food. What I did was to pack into wide-mouth pint jars and put in the freezer.
Other favorites:
Grilled Delicata: Cut a delicata squash in half the long way, scoop out the seeds with a spoon (and roast them; they are Delicious!) Now, take your big knive and cut the squash lengthwise into 10 to 12 long pieces. You can grill these in a heavy skillet in a bit of olive oil, adding herbs if you like. Turn every few minutes so each side gets roasted. The delicata cooks in maybe ten minutes this way, not needing the oven. It is done when fork-tender. The skins become tender when it is cooked.
Quick Southwestern Stew: Have some cooked beans on hand, pintos or anasazi or other type; they're good cooked with a little onion and garlic. Cut up a larger squash, such as buttercup, butternut, kabocha, or similar. Peel and cut into 1" chunks. Simmer in water to nearly cover until tender (only takes 10 minutes or so).
Stir in the beans and heat all together, stirring. The squash will partly break down to make the sauce. Serve with salsa and a little grated cheese. Yum.
Meyer Lemon Tree for Christmas
My dear husband bought me a Meyer Lemon tree for Christmas from Fossil Creek Nursery, in a large pot. The sweet thing has one large green lemon on it, and many buds coming. We plan to keep it in the house during the colder weather, in a sunny window, and put it on the patio in the warm days of summer. I think I will have to pollinate the blossoms myself to get fruit.
You can see the green lemon in the picture, behind a few leaves.They also had lovely grapefruit trees in pots with grapefruit hanging on them. And I got a miniature tangerine tree too, not blooming at the moment but a beautiful strong plant.
It occurred to me as I ran out of lemon juice that citrus is one thing I'd miss: lemons in particular. So, now I have a little treasure: my own Local Lemon (with, hopefully, many more to come, each one precious).
Very Local Herb Garden
I have herbs growing outdoors here, thyme, oregano, rue, sage, and others. I usually did not collect them and use them, which seems strange to me now. Now, with new eyes, I decided to get some house-plant herbs. Why not grow delicious fresh herbs in my sunny window? They can go outside in the summer for a refresher course of sun. I can use them judiciously meanwhile, in soups, salads, vegetables, etc.
I went to Rabbit Shadow Herb Farm on Hiway 402 east of Loveland. I am now the proud owner of two nice Rosemary plants, two small bay trees, a pot of thyme, a pot of (baby) parsley, a pot of Doone Valley lemon thyme, oregano, and a 4" shrub of lemon verbena. Well, some of them will have to grow up a bit to be able to stand the harvest. The thyme and rosemary are big enough now. I will use a few sprigs each in the oven-roasted root vegetables we'll have with our Christmas dinner.
Here you can see one of the rosemary plants, with beautiful pale-blue blooms on every branch, and one of the baby bay trees. Behind these plants is the olive tree I bought last summer (maybe silly; I'll be surprised to see an olive from it), and a jade plant. The herbs integrate well with the other house plants. Why not grow something good to eat, in addition to the tropical shrubs we usually have as house plants.As we move into the cold dark period of the year, my focus for fruits, vegetables, and herbs tightens in to what I'm growing inside, what we have stored in the garage and other cool places, and the dried fruit I have in the cupboard. There is a feeling of gratitude for these foods, which will keep us healthy and well fed during the winter, until next summer's bounty.
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