No Small Potatoes

Among some Americans, there is a presumption that British cuisine is…somewhat lacking. Frankly, based on my experience, nothing could be further from the truth. I have not gone grocery shopping frequently while visiting London, but occasionally we have.  Visiting food stores is one interesting way to experience a slice of culture in a particular country.

One of the first times we visited our daughter and son-in-law, we spent a fair bit of time in absolute delight at the Borough Market, which was near their flat at that time.  We loved wandering around the various stalls—in fact, I wrote about thatexperience.  The smells, the sights, the absolute sensual overload. 

On our most recent trip, I went grocery shopping with our son-in-law.  Our mission—procure all the ingredients for a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch New Year’s Day dinner: pork loin roast, potatoes, sauerkraut and applesauce.  The large grocery store we went in had lovely pork roasts, including some from free range pigs.  Really?  Thinking about shopping for meats in my local U.S. grocery store, I do not routinely find free range meats.

And as for potatoes.  Well!  I did recall the Borough Market shopping experience where the vegetable arrays were an absolute feast for  the eyes, with at least 10 different kinds of POTATOES.  Once again, the choices were far larger than I would find in a typical U.S. grocery store.  In the U.S., I might have a choice of ordinary white potatoes, yellow potatoes, redskin potatoes and baking potatoes.

In London, in a large grocery store, my choices were:  “essential” potatoes, “essential” baking potatoes, organic potatoes, organic NEW potatoes, baby potatoes,  Maris Piper potatoes, King Edward potatoes, McCain roasting potatoes, Red Desiree potatoes, Charlotte potatoes, Carlingford small new potatoes, Roseval potatoes and fingerling potatoes.  All of these were the FRESH potatoes.

Our shopping trip was successful—true, we had to go to two different grocery stores to get all the items.  The large grocery store was OUT of sauerkraut.  But, once we went to a grocery that stocked “American” goods, we got the sauerkraut AND the applesauce.

Our New Year’s Day meal was a success.  And my admiration is great for the dedication of English grocers, small and large, whether in supermarket grocery store or open-air market, to stocking a full array of marvelous foods.

Next time someone scoffs at English cuisine—I might just say “it is far better than you know.”  Why, in the U.S., you can only find a few kinds of potatoes.   And no small potatoes!

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 Note the dish with mashed potatoes in the foreground.

 

Saturday Soups-- Last Soup of Winter Season 2008/9

We come to the end of our soup recipes for the winter 2008/9 season.

Each day, the sun creeps a little higher on the horizon--the sunsets are a lovely coppery orange glow. With the promised return of spring, soup season (while not necessarily over) is winding down.

Last week, I suggested that I should have posted a RED soup, in honor of Valentine's Day in case you missed the reference. Well, here it is today--I know, I know--a week late, but hold on to the recipe until next year. Or, consider it comfort food for now. What can be more comfort food than tomato soup.

Classic Tomato Garlic Soup
Makes 12 servings.
This is an adaptation of a MOOSEWOOD recipe.

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup olive oil
10 garlic cloves, pressed (or very finely minced)
2 T. paprika
12 cups tomato juice (two 46 oz. cans)
2 cups water or homemade vegetable stock
1/2 cup dry sherry
3/4 lb. Fresh or frozen tortellini

HERBED CROUTONS:
6 cups small bread cubes pinch of dried thyme
3 T. olive oil pinch of dried marjoram
2 T. butter

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2) In a non-reactive soup pot, warm the olive oil. Add the garlic and sauté, stirring constantly, until sizzling golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Be careful not to burn the garlic!

3) Sprinkle in the paprika and cook for about 30 seconds more; be careful not to scorch the paprika or the soup will have a bitter flavor. Add the tomato juice, water or stock, and sherry. Cover the pot and bring the soup to a boil; then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.

4) While the soup simmers, make the croutons. Spread the bread cubes on an unoiled baking sheet and bake until crisp and dry, 10 to 15 minutes.

5) In a very small saucepan or in the microwave, heat the olive oil, butter, thyme, and marjoram until the butter has melted. Pour the herbed butter over the toasted bread cubes and toss to coat well. Let the croutons cool and crisp on the baking sheet.

6) Serve the soup topped with croutons, grated Parmesan, and parsley. Or for a different twist, add cooked tortellinis.

While in our household, I am unlikely to make this recipe with the garlic (my husband has an aversion to garlic) I have eaten this soup, and enjoyed it.

High on our list of comfort foods are tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches.

What are some of your favorite comfort foods?

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Credits--photo from http://thebarefootkitchenwitch.typepad.com/the_barefoot_kitchen_witc/2008/02/valentines-da-1.html

Saturday Soups -- # 3, Fall 2008

It occurs to me that as I start into a fall season of soups, I need to give credit where it is due. These recipes are NOT my invention in any way, shape or form. But, they have all been vetted. The recipes come from the annual fund raiser that my church has--we call it our soup Bistro.

On the first Sunday of Advent, my church hosts two seatings at Bistro. All the soups are made by members (and friends) of the congregation. In addition, people make breads, muffins, cookies and other Christmas goodies. For the seatings, we sell tickets. Everything is donated, and all the proceeds go to a local inter-church group that provides assistance to people in need.

The source of the recipes is a woman in our church, Alice Anne--she has professional training in cooking, and has worked in various food endeavors. So, all the portions have been carefully assessed for accuracy. She makes all the soups before she decides to include them in our soup offering.

Anyone have any requests for a particular kind of soup? Let me know, and I will search to see if we have ever made it.

Next up in rotation--a chicken soup. Perfect for fall evenings, and hearty too with the barley.

Chicken Soup with Barley
Makes 12 servings.

8 cups water
48 oz. canned low-fat chicken broth
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried rosemary
3 pounds chicken pieces, skinned
1 bay leaf
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup diced celery
1 cup potato, peeled and diced
1/2 cup diced yellow onion
1/2 cup diced green bell pepper
1/2 cup uncooked pearl barley

1) Combine water, broth, salt, pepper, oregano, rosemary, chicken pieces and bay leaf in a large stock pot. Cover and bring to a boil. Adjust heat to medium and cook 20 to 30 minutes. Remove from heat. Remove chicken and cool slightly. Remove chicken from bones and shred with two forks. Reserve shredded chicken. Skim all visible fat from the top of the broth.

2) Stir vegetables and barley into broth. Cover and bring to a boil, then simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Add shredded chicken to the pot. Discard bay leaf. If not serving immediately, cool and refrigerate.

Saturday Soups -- # 2 Fall 2008

I will try to remember this fall, as I post soup recipes, that I need to be mindful of rotating the soup type. Last week was a vegetable soup (and an orange one at that!). So this week, I will feature a meat based soup.

I hear tell that some places on the North American continent are having snow. Lucky. This hearty soup would go great on a snowy evening. And it has enough "other stuff" in it, should you not fancy meat too much. Oh, and it is mmm mmm good.

SAUSAGE & BEAN FLORENTINE SOUP
Serves 12

¾ lb. loose sweet Italian sausage
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, chopped
2 10 oz. packages chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 large can chicken broth (approx. 49 oz.)
1 15 or 16 oz. can Cannellini Beans
1 15 or 16 oz. can Light Red Kidney Beans
1 15 or 16 oz. can Dark Red Kidney Beans
2 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

Salt to taste, if you wish

1) Brown sausage in large stockpot, breaking into fine pieces. Sausage should be completely cooked through. Drain all but one Tbsp. fat off sausage. Add garlic and onion to pot and sauté 6 minutes.

2) Add thawed, drained spinach to pot and sauté 2 minutes. Add chicken broth, dried basil and pepper flakes to pot and simmer 10 minutes.

3) After thoroughly draining and rinsing each of the cans of beans, add beans to soup and remove from heat.

Garnish with parmesan cheese, if desired.

ENJOY!

You gonna eat that?

Food is a marvelous teaching device. I have three specific examples to illustrate this point. All three come from my church involvement.

When our daughter was in her middle school years, my husband and I agreed to teach Sunday School. No other teachers came forward, and since we wanted our daughter to have a good experience in Sunday School, we volunteered. So for two entire years, we taught every single Sunday. I took the lead in teaching, and my husband was the disciplinarian. Keeping 5th, 6th and 7th graders in line was far more challenging than teaching them.

I learned quickly that they respond well to food. I remember two wonderfully successful classes where the means to communicating the lesson involved food. On a particular Sunday, the basic lesson had to do with "gifts of the Spirit": see 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 for the full text.

I wanted to convey to each child that no matter what he or she might excel in, all their gifts blend together to the greater good. So, I passed around a bag of fruit. In the bag were individual pieces of fruit--apple, banana, grapes, peach, pear, orange, and lemon--only ONE of each. The bag passed from student to student around the circle. Predictably the lemon was left to last.

After each child had a piece of fruit, I asked what they could do with their fruit. Well, eat them, they all said, except the kid with the lemon. So, I then suggested we could do something for everyone if they would let me work with the fruit. I then began to peel and cut up the fruit, saving the lemon for last. I took the lemon, cut it in half then squeezed the juice over the entire cut-up fruit, now in a large bowl. Of course, I mixed it all together--and pronounced it FRUIT SALAD. Then, we all had a good size helping. I think the "different gifts" got through.

Another time, the message was focused on how important it is for us to care for the poor. That Sunday, we brought all the items for breakfast along: small cereal boxes, milk, orange juice, and bananas. Then we gave each child an envelope containing play money. We had divided the class into a mini-world. Arbitrarily, we had one child be rich, several children be "middle-class" and one child be poor.

We had put prices on each of the food items. The "rich" child could buy ALL the items, the "middle-class" children could buy one or another of the items. The "poor" child did not have enough to buy anything. He was crushed. So, with a little prompting, the children figured out that if they redistributed their money, even the "poor" child could buy breakfast.

The final food lesson came out of a different setting. I was the stewardship chair for our church's annual giving program. Now, if there's one thing I HATE to do it's ask for money. I just have a really hard time. But I did light upon a way to illustrate the need to give. When I gave my main stewardship talk from the pulpit, I had ten apples lined up. I said--God gave me ten apples to use as I needed, and only asked that I return one apple to God--a tithe. So, I put 4 apples aside to pay for my house, I put one aside to buy a car, I put another 2 aside to buy clothing, I put 2 aside for food. Then I looked at the remaining apple. It was a beautiful nice shiny red apple. I turned it around in my hand, and then said--I will just take a small bite out of this apple. So I took one, then another, then another. Finally, I was left with just the apple core. Then I said--I don't have one apple left to give to God, so I will just give God this apple CORE. And then I sat down and stopped talking.

No other words were needed to convey the point.

Food--it's a great way to communicate a message.

The Goose WAS Getting Fat. . .

Yesterday, we had our second Christmas dinner. Since we were in London for Christmas Day itself, we waited until Epiphany to celebrate a Christmas dinner with our son, his wife, and my father and stepmother. It was a wonderful occasion, and our meal was delicious. We had roast chicken, which was once considered a Sunday special dinner, along with the usual trimmings--mashed potatoes, broccoli, corn, crescent rolls and cranberry sauce.

Ah--the goose, you are wondering. What goose was getting fat? Well, that would be the goose we had for our first Christmas dinner. Before we traveled to London, our daughter asked if we would like goose for Christmas. Hmmmm--I could not recall ever having had goose, for Christmas or otherwise, so--sure, why not? After all, the song says "Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat. . ."

Getting the provisions for Christmas dinner is why we went to Borough Market (see previous post). In addition to the goose, which came from The Ginger Pig, the other foods included: brussel sprouts still on the stalk, and fresh carrots and parsnips looking as though they were just harvested.

My daughter and her fiance had done all the reading on preparing a goose. So, while one set about rendering the goose fat, the other salted and peppered the goose. Oh, and then filled the goose with mashed potatoes made with goose fat. All ready to pop in the oven.

It seems that there is practically a cult of goose fat in the UK. Read all about the benefits here. We didn't go to quite the lengths extolled on the Internet. No potatoes roasted in goose fat. But I was amazed at the lack of any odor from the goose fat.

With the Christmas dinner all prepared, and set out on the table, all that remained was for us to enjoy.

And we did!

To Market, To Market

Our daughter had planned many treats for us during our recent visit. One of those treats was our actual Christmas dinner (more about that later). In preparation for that dinner, we went to a wondrous place to buy various foods: Borough Market.

Think country market, think farmers’ market, think food, flowers, gee-gaws, think serendipity.

I suspect Borough Market is always festive, but shopping for Christmas foods made it wonderful. Of course, the Salvation Army band playing excellent all-brass arrangements of Christmas carols set the mood. The weather cooperated with a bit of a bite in the air. As we walked around there were several places selling warm mulled wine; other places selling fresh coffee (espresso or filter coffee)—instant ways to warm up. There were stands selling all manner of hot sandwiches, including venison burgers, and ostrich sandwiches.

And the cheeses! Oh, the cheeses. Wondrous wheels of cheese, so many kinds I had never heard of before. As we walked along the rows of cheese stands, it seemed every vendor had samples to offer. I would take a sample, say HMMMM, that’s good, then walk to the next stand and repeat the whole process.

There were bread stands with marvelous whole loaves, unwrapped, in all their crusty glory. There were stands with olives and olive oils, complete with neat little sampling dishes and small cubes of bread for dipping.

Of course, there were meat stands, including one place that had fresh game hanging for sale—I confess I gulped, looked quickly, then averted my eyes. While I am a confirmed omnivore, I couldn’t quite look at the brace of pheasants, and of mallard ducks. Nor could I really look at the rabbits, and a deer. (Truth is--I didn't have the heart to take of photo of the displayed game.)

Happily, there were other less guilt inducing stands—a charming fruit cake stand (yes, I do love fruit cake) complete with candles and a stand with mounds of cocoa dusted truffles. Well, maybe another kind of guilt pops up at these stands.

For me, the standout offering was a cheese stand selling hot cheese sandwiches made in a sandwich press. They also heated a wheel of cheese and then sliced away the melting cheese over baked potatoes (or jacket potatoes, as they say). Yum. Make that YUM!

I loved the names of the various places. Part of our Christmas meal was coming from a place named The Ginger Pig. I spotted various signs that included quotes from various English writers extolling the virtues of some of the foods we would partake on Christmas Day—what is Christmas without a feast?

One very enlightening part of the market was the ubiquitous labeling indicating origin of the food. BRITISH grown produce, or foods coming from pinpoint locations around the UK. Also, signs at cheese stands proudly proclaimed they were made with unpasteurized milk.

The most educational part of the market was the emphasis on goose fat. (More on that in a later blog.) I loved this straightforward sign advertising a place to purchase your goose fat for roasting potatoes at Christmas.

Such a great place; such a fun visit. To market, to market—oh, yeah!

The Dilemma of Bushmeat

When I teach English 101, the reading text we use has a photograph that shows a young man in an outdoor market somewhere in Asia. He is holding up a puppy, looking at it critically. It is clear in this photo that he is not thinking future pet—he is thinking dinner. I ask students for their reactions. Frequently the first thing they say is---ewwwww! So, I ask them why, and they say—it’s just not right to eat dog. So I ask them why—and they are stumped.

Of course, I try to get them to explore the cultural ramifications of what we eat. Why do we eat cows, pigs, sheep, various fowl—and not dogs or cats? The discussion can go many directions—being vegan, eating meat during travels that one does not traditionally eat, having religious restrictions on what meats we eat.

I had sort of settled this question of the cultural influence on what meats we eat in my own mind until a recent post by Julie Zickefoose on agoutis got me thinking again. While you can read her post for yourself, one of the things she points out is that she had not seen an agouti in the wild because of the “edible–animal syndrome: anything big enough to roast on a spit is pretty much extirpated wherever people live.” So that’s what got me to thinking. Is there anything wrong with eating bushmeat? If you say yes—what? If you say no—why?

I struggle with the implications for survival of species if humans have no limit on killing bushmeat for food. While I was growing up in Rhodesia, Africa, we occasionally killed local animals. Mostly our meat supply came from livestock on the mission station, such as cattle or pigs, but there were also various antelope such as kudus that missionaries killed. Such meat was never a staple, but the meat could be eaten and was used. That was the extent of my exposure to bushmeat in Africa.

Bushmeat now means something altogether different. One of the websites dedicated to education about this issue states baldly that “In Africa, the unsustainable bushmeat trade is wiping out wildlife including gorillas, chimpanzees, antelopes and many other species.” (Bushmeat Crisis Task Force) It is the permanent loss of species that haunts me. The dilemma is how do we balance the needs of humans against the existence of other animals?

For desperate people in some parts of the world, Africa for example, eating bushmeat is the one available means to stave off starvation. Here is a thought-provoking piece on the role of bushmeat in Africa.

photo from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushmeat

Of course, this practice is as old as humanity. Before humans domesticated animals, they killed game—this term is a far less objectionable one than bushmeat. Obviously, I am not opposed to humans killing and eating game that is plentiful. But I really shudder at some of the types of bushmeat that is now being sold in some African markets—for example, gorillas. The one photo that I include here is of an African porcupine being sold as bushmeat. There are far more graphic photos on the Internet of bushmeat for sale—particularly chilling are gorilla heads. The great apes are virtually our cousins, so how can we possibly eat them?

So, I wrestle with the problem—how can we humans co-exist with other animals on this earth. Humans eating other animals and in so doing possibly wiping out species is not the only way we threaten animals. There are so many ways that humans and animals clash. Another thoughtful blogger addressed one of these problems—humans encroaching more and more on habitat that displaces animals. Then when those animals come around where we live, we take action that sometimes harms them. See Natural Notes 3 thoughtful post on Birds or Bears.

We humans have to accept that we are part of all creation, that the destruction of habitat affects us, that the loss of species affects us, that the great web of creation sustains and supports us. Destroy it and we destroy ourselves.