Matador Life » Cooking and Recipes

The No Nonsense Guide to Food Labels at Farmers’ Markets

Megan Hill — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:36:14 +0000

Ever wondered what the difference is between cage-free, free-range and farm-raised food? Megan Hill helps make sense of the labels you might find at farmers’ markets.

Farmers’ markets today can present quite a challenge to conscientious shoppers. There are so many different labels used to describe produce and meat – local, sustainable, free range, cage-free and so on – that the process of shopping can become rather daunting.

This no-nonsense food label dictionary will help you work out what it is you’re really buying.

Cage-free

This is an unregulated claim. It generally means the hens who laid the eggs were allowed to live outside of cages, as opposed to conventionally raised chickens that are stuffed into high-density cages (and probably fed animal protein).

Cage-free birds don’t necessarily have access to the outdoors, though. It’s best to ask the farmer how he or she raised the birds.

Certified organic

A farm must be chemical-free for three years, meaning no synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, or chemical herbicides can be used. Organic meat, eggs, and dairy products must come from livestock that have not received antibiotics or growth hormones, and were given only organic feed.

Photo by anemoneprojectors.

The farm has to pay for the organic label. Most certifications in the US are handed out by the USDA, and any other certifying bodies must be approved by them.

Farm-raised

Fish or other seafood deliberately grown, rather than caught wild. Many environmentalists object to farm-raised seafood because the farms often have the same environmental impacts as other industrial farms. They may use antibiotics or other chemicals, and can cause water pollution.

It’s generally better to buy seafood that has been caught wild and comes from a well-managed source that isn’t over-fished.

Free range

This can apply to meat, dairy, or eggs. The USDA only regulates this claim for chickens and eggs, and it means the birds were allowed access to the outdoors. Whether they were actually outside, or for how long, is not regulated. When in doubt, ask the farmer how things are done. Free range livestock generally roam freely outdoors.

Grass-fed

Grass-fed cattle eat what cattle have evolved to eat: grass. They are allowed to graze naturally, and the meat can be up to six times higher in healthy omega-3 fatty acids than conventionally raised beef.

Grain-fed or conventionally raised cattle are forced to eat corn, and probably animal waste products too. Because cattle haven’t evolved to eat this way, they are plied with antibiotics to keep them from getting sick. These antibiotics end up in the manure, are transferred to water sources and can then enter the entire food chain.

Grass-finished

Can mean one of two things: that the cattle were fed grass their entire lives, or that they were fed grain until they approached slaughter, at which point they were switched to grass. To find out which it is, you’ll need to ask the farmer.

Photo by Ed Yourdon.

Heirloom

These plants have never been hybridized (bred for specific qualities) by humans, a process that reduces biodiversity and results in fewer varieties of produce on the market. Heirloom plants are often considered to be varieties grown during earlier periods of human history. They are sometimes bizarre colors and shapes, like purple cauliflower or blue potatoes.

Heritage

This is the animal version of heirloom. Heritage breeds have been pushed out of the food chain in favor of the few livestock breeds that do well in industrial agriculture. Heritage breeds are often centuries old. Farming them helps promote biodiversity, and their meat can be healthier and more flavorsome.

Local

Usually defined as food grown within a one hundred mile radius. Advantages of buying local are that the food is fresh, its environmental impact is less, and you are most likely supporting a small farm and making an investment in the community you live in.

Natural or All natural

These labels are unregulated and have no agreed-upon meaning! Be sure to ask or do some research to find out more.

Organically grown

Some small farmers can’t afford to pay for the organic label, but they subscribe to the same – or stricter – organic practices and so use this term instead.

Photo by Chris Runoff.

Pastured

Pastured livestock and poultry are raised outside in fields and allowed to eat a natural diet. Meat, dairy, and eggs from pastured animals generally have higher levels of nutrients.

Sustainable

Some farmers have opted out of the certified organic label, recognizing that it is increasingly meaningless as big farms figure out ways to meet the bare minimum for certification.

They’ve chosen instead to practice what was really at the heart of the organic movement when it first started: farming practices that minimize impact, forgo the use of chemicals, and embrace a more holistic approach to growing food that recognizes biodiversity and animal ethics. For specifics, ask the farmer.

Transitional organic

A farm currently practicing organic farming that hasn’t reached the three year mark needed to become certified.

The most important piece of advice

Whenever you are in doubt about what a label means or exactly how some food was produced, just ask the farmer. That’s the beauty of a farmers’ market: you should be able to get reliable information right from the source.

To find a farmers’ market near you, visit Local Harvest.

For more information on these topics, check out The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, and To Buy or Not to Buy Organic by Cindy Burke.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Any other food labels you are still confused about? Ask Megan in the comments below.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like Going Organic: 6 Reasons Why You Should (Or Shouldn’t) and A Matador Guide to Joining Your Local CSA.

Delightfully Delicious Campfire Desserts

Susan Greenwood — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 13:48:21 +0000

Photo by Cameron Cassan

Sweet recipes to cosy up with under the stars.

Summer is almost here and what comes immediately to mind is one of life’s most simple pleasures: camping. Sleeping underneath the stars, cooking with an open fire, and of course delicious campfire treats. Here are some delectable delights that will warm your tummy and satisfy that sweet tooth we always get when bonding with the great outdoors.

Peach Cobbler Campfire Style

Old fashioned cobbler that even mom will love. This idea was adapted from a recipe found on http://www.lovetheoutdoors.com

Canned peaches in heavy syrup
Approximately 1 ½ cups Bisquick

1. Drain peaches, but save ¼ – ½ cup of syrup and add to Bisquick mix. Leave peaches in the can.
2. Stir until a batter forms.
3. Pour Bisquick mixture into can with peaches.
4. Cover peach can with lid and place into hot coals. Cook until batter forms a hard toasty pie crust over peaches.
5. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Apple Pie Angel Food Cake

This is my personal apple pie filling recipe, modified for the campfire.

Pre-Made Angel Food Cake
8 – 10 apples
¾ cup butter
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
1 ¼ cup flour
Chopped pecans (if desired)

Photo by Zeusandhera

1. Peel and slice apples.
2. Place in Dutch oven or other deep pot over fire.
3. In separate bowl, combine brown sugar, flour, oats, and pecans. Cut with butter. Mix with apples.
4. Spread mixture over apples and cook until apples are soft.
5. Pour hot apple mixture over Angel Food Cake.

Old Fashioned Smores

This favorite never goes out of style. Who doesn’t love chocolate, marshmallows and Graham crackers?

Hershey Bars
Graham Crackers
Marshmallows
Long sticks or forks

1. Place marshmallow on stick or fork and toast until golden brown over fire.
2. Place Hershey bar and toasted marshmallow on ½ of Graham cracker, cover with other half of Graham cracker – think sandwich.
3. Eat and enjoy!

Smores with a Nutty Twist

Taking an old favorite to another level.

Hershey Bars
Graham Crackers
Marshmallows
Creamy Peanut Butter
Long sticks or forks
Aluminum Foil

1. Spread peanut butter on ½ of Graham cracker then place on sheet of aluminum foil.
2. Place marshmallows on stick or fork and toast over fire until golden brown.
3. Place gooey marshmallow over peanut butter-covered Graham cracker.
4. Put Hershey bar on top of marshmallow and cover with other half of Graham cracker.

Banana Boat

Add some ice cream to this one and have a banana split right in front of the campfire. Source: http://www.allrecipes.com

Banana
Hershey’s chocolate bar or chocolate chips
Marshmallows or mini marshmallows
Heavy duty aluminum foil

1. Cut your banana down the middle. Leave it in the peel.
2. Stuff with chocolate and marshmallows.
3. Wrap in aluminum foil and place in hot coals for about 5-10 minutes. Turn and rotate often.
4. It is ready when chocolate is melted and marshmallows are gooey.

Monkey Bread

Photo by techbirmingham

This childhood favorite is courtesy of my Aunt Kate. A yummy dessert that can be served for breakfast.

5 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons corn syrup
Pecan halves
2 x 8-ounce packages biscuits (refrigerated)
Cinnamon
Sugar

1. Combine 3 tablespoons butter, brown sugar and syrup in pie pan. Heat to bubbly on hot coals.
2. Sprinkle with pecans.
3. Melt rest of butter.
4. Dip one side of each biscuit in butter. Put on waxed paper, butter side up. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
5. Place 2nd layer of biscuits that have been dipped in butter mixture over first layer.
6. Pour butter/syrup mixture over both layers of biscuits. Cover with 2nd pie pan. Seal pans with double strip of foil.
7. Cook over coals for 15 minutes on each side.

Fried Camp Pies

Imagine individual little pies that everyone will gobble up with gusto. Both Paula Deen and Giada de Laurentiis have made this recipe, but never over an open campfire.

1 can apple, cherry, or blueberry pie filling
1 can large biscuits (like Grands)
Margarine, butter, or cooking oil
Cinnamon Sugar

1. Roll out one biscuit, place large spoon of filling in center of dough, fold over, and dab edges with a bit of water.
2. Crimp edges tightly to hold in filling.
3. Fry in margarine, butter, or cooking oil on low to medium heat until golden brown, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar as soon as you remove from heat.
4. Eat carefully, the fillings get hot!

Enjoy, and happy camping!

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Got any sweet campfire recipes you want to share? Let us know in the comments below.

A Matador Guide To Joining Your Local CSA

Claiborne Milde — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:12:47 +0000

Photo by NatalieMaynor

Claiborne Milde gives the lowdown on how and why to join your local CSA.

So you’re thinking of joining a CSA?

Or maybe you’re just scratching your head right now, wondering: “A CSA? What’s that?” The answer, community-supported agriculture, is an arrangement in which customers pay up front for a share in a local farmer’s harvest, which is then distributed over the growing season.

The farms are generally smaller ones, often using organic or sustainable growing practices. Personally, because they’re a motivating factor in my cooking, I can’t get enough of CSAs and belong to–count ‘em–five: veggies, fruits, eggs, frozen produce in winter, and a “quarter hog” share.

How it works

The farmer sends whatever is ready and ripe, perhaps picked that morning, so you have little to no control over what you get (though a few CSAs now work on more of a “market” model). A meat share includes a variety of cuts, sometimes with specialty items such as charcuterie. Some areas even offer seafood shares.

Some CSAs deliver a box to your door, while others use a central pick-up point; ours drops at a neighborhood church and displays the produce to be collected via an honor system. The simplest, most direct arrangement might be if you live in a rural area and fetch your share from the farm. The farmer organizes the details, whereas in urban programs a volunteer team usually handles logistics and distribution.

What are the benefits?

Photo by Darius

You support local farmers by investing in a portion of the crop in advance and guaranteeing them a customer base.

In return, you receive a basket of sparkling produce, fresher than what’s offered in most stores. You probably end up eating more veggies, too. The connection between farmer and consumer becomes closer, and you get to know the person growing your food. This is a great lesson if you have kids.

We receive a regular newsletter from our farmers, including recipe suggestions and invitations to visit the farms. At the season’s end, members may be encouraged to provide feedback: helping to shape, over the long term, what will be grown.

And there’s the matter of savings: by essentially buying in bulk, you save over buying comparable quality produce at the farmers’ market.

What do I have to lose?

The lack of choice may be a deal-breaker if you like your options (or, say, detest zucchini). And, since you reap the harvest along with the farmer, you also assume the risks. Last summer, for example, our region was hit with late blight, which all but wiped out tomato crops in the northeast. As a result, the usual plump, sweet tomatoes were no-shows. Loyal customers who had pre-paid for an extra “pantry share” of tomatoes opted to forfeit the money in solidarity with the farmer, instead of getting reimbursed.

How do I find my local CSA?

Many urban areas these days have food advocacy networks. In NYC it’s Just Food, which organizes neighborhood CSAs and links to local food happenings. The nationwide network Local Harvest allows you to search by zip code for farms across the U.S. offering shares, and includes farm profiles. If you’re in a rural area, try asking at your favorite local farmer’s market booth, either at the farm or at the neighborhood farmers’ market. More and more small farms offer a CSA in addition to selling produce through a stand.

Curious, but on the fence?

Arrange a trial by finding someone who is already in the network and offering to buy back a week’s worth of produce while he or she is on vacation. If you don’t know anyone with a share, contact the coordinator and ask if it would be OK to put the word out to CSA members: many of them, over the course of the season, will at some point be unable to use their shares and would be grateful for someone else to pick up the slack.

Photo by nedrichards

You can also send out a message mid-season offering to split a share, which might be a welcome prospect to someone who has discovered it’s not so easy to keep up with the rising tide of veggies in August!

They’re sold out!

This is a common complaint in urban communities like mine in Brooklyn, NY. People are keen on the whole idea of eating seasonally and locally, but supply hasn’t yet caught up with demand. Be tenacious and stay in contact with the CSA coordinator. Persistence pays off, as it did this year for two of my friends who had been trying to get in on the action for years.

Also, you may score a share from a CSA dropout, as did a friend of mine who is now a die-hard fan (she received word of mouth that someone was trying to unload her share).

I signed up! Now what?

Now get cooking! It took me a couple of seasons to hit my CSA stride; now I know what to expect and detail my kitchen time in a seasonal cooking blog. In planning my recipes, I do a triage of each weekly delivery: what needs to be used right away (lettuce)? What can be stored (roots), or dried (herbs)? Try your hand at pickling and canning, to preserve the overflow.

The internet contains a wealth of ideas. Some sites with impressive catalogs of recipes include: Epicurious, food52, Cook’s Country and the Food Network, all of which offer ingredient-based searches.

Some cookbooks I find useful:

Mark Bittman, How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian
Eugenia Bone, Well-Preserved
Elizabeth Schneider, Vegetables From Amaranth to Zucchini
Alice Waters, Chez Panisse Fruit and Chez Panisse Vegetables

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Are you a member of a local CSA? Please share your experiences in the comments below. Feel free to share links to your favorite recipe websites too!

How I Escaped the Hungry Husband & Learned to Love Cooking

Neha Puntambekar — Fri, 07 May 2010 16:33:24 +0000

A traditional Indian thali (plate). Photo by Shahoo

Matador intern Neha Puntambekar shares a few kitchen stories and her favorite Indian food blogs.

Most of my life, I hated the kitchen.

Indian kitchens are for women. Cooking, along with assorted kitchen activities, is what women do. Women cook, set up the table, clean up and make chai, while men eat, chat and watch TV.

The kitchen was a cage that I had to stomach just because I was a girl. I decided I’d rather not.

The Hungry Husband Argument

“How will you find a husband if you can’t cook?” concerned aunts asked. When this shattering question didn’t move me, they insisted I (at least) learn how to make soft chapattis and hot curried vegetables. When I did get married there was much exclamation and astonishment in the family. They then made it a priority to pull me aside and offer advice: learn how to make things he likes; don’t let him go hungry; get your act right.

A New Kitchen

Cooking turned from chore to a creative exercise, adventure, a stress buster, a thing we do together. The food may not be as good as that of my mom’s kitchen, but it is full of possibilities and much laughter.

We moved to Croatia soon after. Away from home and other Indian kitchens, my kitchen suddenly turned gender neutral. I no longer had a reason to hate it, but I (we) didn’t know what to do with it either.

The first few weeks we ate out or we ordered in. Then we got bored. Then, there was no other option but to give the kitchen a shot. Of course since we didn’t know how, our first few attempts consisted of boiled vegetable in tomato puree with lots of garam masala, and rice. It tasted awful. We loved it.

Inspired, we decided to figure it out how the damn thing worked.

Six Indian Food Blogs That Taught Me To Cook

That first year, we cooked with the help of anonymous bloggers plus additional help from YouTube and God-bless-Skype. Through them, we stumbled on hidden flavor, finally understood cumin and coriander and uncovered what it meant to ‘salt to taste.’

I’d like to share with you six of my favorite blogs. They are simple, rich and absolutely yum. If something is cooking in my kitchen it probably started off as a post here:

Awesome Cuisine – This is my go-to Indian food blog. It has everything from food recipes and videos to how-to articles, and I credit it for taking my cooking from atrocious to edible.

Dosa. Photo by InfoMofo

365 days of Pure Vegetarian – I grew up in a vegetarian household, so trust me when I say being vegetarian isn’t all salads, tofu and unhappiness. It so isn’t.

A Mad Tea Party – You know how some food blogs just scream delicious? Anita’s blog is one of them.

Aayi’s Recipes – No matter how much you love Indian food, you can’t eat Tikka Masala every day (seriously kids, don’t try this at home). What you need is simple homemade food like ‘Aayi’s Recipes’ (Mother’s Recipes).

Eat and Dust – When I grow up, I want to live Pamela’s life. Her ‘Eat and Dust’ is more than just a food blog; it’s a space for food adventures, and about the people you meet along the way.

Malabar Spices – I dare you to walk away from this blog.

Right, so my kadhai is making all sorts of the-food-is-cooked noises, I have to run before my lunch spills over. Be sure to let me know what you think of these blogs and the recipes you try out.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

For more food fun, stop by Matador’s Cooking and Recipes collection.

No time for browsing? Try these recipes to celebrate Holi, the Indian Festival of Colors.

Three Bizarre Food and Sex Combinations for Your Next Dinner Party

Candice Walsh — Tue, 04 May 2010 16:08:30 +0000

Photo by Villain Media, LLC.

Food and sex compliment each other, but some people are taking the combination to a whole new level of weird.

Food sex immediately brings to mind strawberries dipped in chocolate, flavored body paint and whipped cream. Sometimes mayonnaise and cold cut meats. No? Just me?

But there are a few questionable examples of food and sex combinations that leave me wondering how people make these discoveries in the first place.

Semen as the main ingredient

There’s a whole cookbook dedicated to cooking with semen. The description says that semen is nutritious, has a great texture, and is “commonly available in many, if not most, homes and restaurants.”

“Pan full of manjuice.” Photo by dogbomb

The book covers drink, desserts, appetizers, sauces, and main courses. This means you could host your very own ejaculate dinner party, with Man Made Oysters to start, Roasted Lamb with Good Gravy for the main dish, and top it all off with Creamy Cum Crepes.

Bonus: invite guests over early to “lend a hand” with dinner preparations.

Placenta lasagne, anyone?

Placenta recipes relate more to what happens as a result of sex. It’s practically a delicacy – how often do you get to eat your own placenta, the mass which connects your baby to your uterus? Put a little salt on that thing, pepper to taste, and voila. First class meal.

Or why not try a placenta cocktail? Take a ¼ cup of fresh placenta, some V-8 juice, two ice cubes and ½ cup of carrots, throw it all in a blender and blend at high speed for 10 seconds.

There’s also placenta spaghetti bolognese, and roast placenta.

Semen is commonly available in many, if not most, homes and restaurants.

Or instead of cooking it, you can dehydrate your placenta and just add it to any meal.

Simply cut off the chord and membranes, steam the placenta, and add lemon grass, pepper and ginger to the water. Test if it’s done by piercing it with a fork: if it doesn’t bleed, it’s good. Then cut it up, and bake at low heat until it’s dry and crumbly. You can then crush it into a powder, if desired.

Your mouth is watering, isn’t it?

This is a photo caption with a phil denton

Chocolate vaginae

Moulding a chocolate vagina might just be the best way to express love for your vagina, or your partner’s vagina. Did anyone else not realize that the plural of vagina is “vaginae”? Thanks, Twitter followers, for looking that one up.

The kit comes with everything needed, just add water! Plus everything’s been medically tested, and it’s “completely safe for the novice moulder.” Perhaps the more experienced moulder would prefer a complex recipe, dress it up a bit with sauces and candy.

There’s no description of the directions though, but the site stresses that it’s strictly for the outer portion of the vagina.

Ladies, nothing speaks romance like having your man unwrap a giftbox containing your carefully placed chocolate vagina.

Community Connection

For more chocolate romance, check out these gourmet creations, or learn why sushi is the perfect foreplay food.

Matador Life Food Week Begins With A Lovely Bolognese

Mary Richardson — Mon, 03 May 2010 18:53:30 +0000

Photo byDbgg1979

Welcome to Matador Life’s Food Week. This week, we’ll cover everything from food sex to food beauty and food politics then round off with some recipes all the way from India. Now let’s kick it off with a recipe for bolognese sauce — everyone should have a solid bolognese fall back recipe — from Mary Richardson that showed her why, just sometimes, it’s important to take a break from traveling solo.

A few summers ago, I took a dream solo trip to Italy. Like many independent travelers who prefer going it alone, I reveled in the ruins in Rome, museums in Florence, and trattorias of Venice all by myself. In short, I loved exploring on my own agenda. Not once did I miss companionship.

My daily experiences felt indulgent and free, but after a few weeks of blissful wandering, I found myself in a typical dilemma. I was broke. Trying at all costs to avoid an early departure, I stretched my Italian adventure a bit longer.

Through one of those “friend of a friend” encounters, I moved into a small flat near the University of Bologna. I stayed there for several weeks with 5 Italian female college students, sleeping on the floor and adjusting to constant companionship. Introverted by nature, this new arrangement was not how I envisioned the trip.

The best part about discussing food customs and recipes is that they are more than just lessons about sustenance and taste, they represent culture and tradition

But during that time, I engaged local Italian culture more than I ever did as a solo observer. My unexpected roommates and I spent countless hours discussing our lives, debunking cultural stereotypes, preparing meals together, and making nightly pilgrimages to a neighborhood gelateria.

Some of my favorite conversations dealt with Italian food. Specifically, they taught me:

1. Cappuccino is never to be drunk after dinner
2. One never ever eats tomatoes and cheese together for breakfast
3. In some Italian foodie circles, garlic and onion are never mixed.
4. Olive oil and red wine are the secrets to everlasting youth.

For an unenlightened cook like me, accustomed to making spaghetti sauce from a powdered spice packet, these talks were truly educational.

Moreover, the best part about discussing food customs and recipes is that they are more than just lessons about sustenance and taste, they represent culture and tradition. While admiring architecture and visiting museums are certainly worthwhile as a solo traveler, I recognized that interpersonal connection takes the pleasure of travel experience to a deeper level.

One of the recipes I learned in Bologna is an authentic Bolognese Sauce. This sauce certainly challenged my previous notions of what meat sauce should be as it contains the most unexpected ingredient: Milk!

I know many pasta lovers out there are partial to their own recipes passed down family generations, but I encourage you all to give this one a try. I promise you won’t be disappointed by the savory creaminess of it.

Ingredients

3 tbs butter
4 tbs chopped onion
2 tbs chopped carrot
2 tbs chopped celery
¾ pound ground beef, or ¼ pound each of beef, veal, and pork
1 cup whole milk
1 cup dry white wine
1 can diced tomatoes with juices
Salt to taste

What to do

Melt butter in a heavy pan and sauté onion, carrot, and celery in the butter until brown, about 5 minutes.
Crumble the ground meat and add to the pan with ½ tsp salt.
Cook for about 3 minutes.
Add milk and bring to a simmer until it evaporates and there is only clear fat residue, about 10 minutes.
Add wine and simmer until it evaporates, about 10 minutes
Add tomatoes and juices and bring to simmer.
Reduce heat to very low and simmer slowly until the liquid is gone, about 3 hours.

Even now, I must admit that my travel tendencies lean more towards lone treks around the globe. Still, I think back to Italy and fondly remember my roommates in Bologna and our many conversations about onion and garlic.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

There are many reasons to experience life on the road solo, and no better way to come together with others over a table of food you cooked together. For more on about food and culture, check out our Cooking and Recipes collection.

Welcome to the Food Revolution

Candice Walsh — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:56:52 +0000

Photo by skippyjon

We’re all a little tired of hearing about how obesity rates are soaring these days.

We turn on the TV, and there’s a new diet regime. Some movie star is strutting around in a bikini for Jenny Craig. Pie charts and bar graphs show us that heart disease is the deadliest killer in the USA. Is any of this getting through?

Some people, like Britain’s Jamie Oliver, feel a revolution is needed now. Food Revolution is his reality show, and it takes place in Huntington, West Virginia where obesity runs rampant. The approach is simple: expose the truth, shock people and educate the masses.

Changing how we see food

Jamie points out that people have been manipulated by media hype such as colorful ads from both fast food restaurants and food packaging companies. Food is a vital part of our lives, for more reasons than the obvious. We use food to entertain guests, to discuss business matters outside the office, and simply for indulgence and pleasure. It’s also a beloved part of travel. These social habits quickly become a part of our daily routine and a source of comfort.

But when we start enjoying food in excess, it becomes a problem. Like Donna Simpson, a controversial woman whose sole ambition is to become the fattest woman in the world. Seriously, that’s her ambition. People actually pay money to watch her eat.

Food should be a part of your life, but not your whole life. Work with it. Meals don’t have to take a long time, anyone can cook, and fast food is not as cheap as you think it is.

So how do we start the process of change?

Photo by jonfeinstein

Food education starts with our kids

Jamie’s biggest winning point is education, beginning with kids. In his TED talk, Jamie stuns the audience by showing clips of him asking young children to name the vegetable he’s holding. One guesses that tomatoes are potatoes, and another has no idea what cauliflower is.

He stresses the fact that kids cannot possibly make healthy choices when they have absolutely no idea what good food is. We learn everything in school except nutrition and how to cook healthy meals. Why?

Later, Jamie meets with the school cooks to discuss the food being prepared for the kids. The cooks get defensive, insisting they just do as they’re told, but are unable to really identity any of the ingredients used in their meals. He also sits down with parents who feed their children a constant flow of junk food, emphasizing that for the first time in history, children will live for a shorter amount of time than their parents. Ten years.

If we’re leading this kind of example for our kids, what else can we expect?

Shock value, as proven by Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation, is another educational tactic. During his TED talk, Jamie unloads a wheelbarrow filled with sugar cubes: the amount a child consumes in one year just from drinking flavored milk. We’re used to thinking milk is a wonderful thing, but just because it says “milk” doesn’t necessarily mean its healthy.

Making healthy decisions about food is the answer

Absorbing this knowledge is fine, but then you have to do something about it.

The best part about Jamie Oliver’s ambition is that as a professional chef, he’s able to offer real advice and recipes for a healthier lifestyle. He provides interaction for even viewers at home. All you have to do is log onto the ABC website and track down whatever dish tickles your fancy. How about a broccoli and squash medley, or some chicken chow mein?

That being said, a simple Google search for “healthy food recipes” returns enough results to keep yourself busy for weeks to come. Bon appetit.

Community Connection

What do you think? Are our food choices really as bad as we think, and can we start a revolution?

This Is My Day: Maple Sweetened In Istanbul

Leigh Shulman — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:43:43 +0000

Last week, we made a call for submissions asking you to tell us about your daily life. Anne Merritt’s lovely photo — complete with recipe — is the first in this new series.

Photo by Anne Merritt

Nick’s mum came to visit two weeks ago and brought Vermont maple syrup in her luggage. Since then, we’ve been giddy and liberal with the stuff; pancakes, fruit parfaits, and a big batch of our collaborative granola. Usually, we’re on different ends of the cooking spectrum. He makes healthy, hearty dishes, curries and soups. I make the unnecessary stuff, the pies and cookies and buttery comfort foods. But we come together to make granola, and I do believe our maple nut recipe is perfection.

After a week of granola gorging, our huge batch shrank down to some crumbs in a jar. Today we passed it back and forth between us, eating handfuls, wiping crumbs on our jeans, happily planning the next recipe. Cashews instead of hazelnuts? Raisins this time? It’s an amazing recipe, but there’s always room for change. I love that.

Want to try it for yourself? Here’s the recipe!

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup sliced hazelnuts
3/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/3 cup brown sugar

Combine all of the above in a large bowl.

1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 tsp salt

Combine the above, then pour onto the dry mix. Pour the mix onto a cookie sheet and bake for 1 hour at 250 F, stirring every 15 minutes.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION:

You can see more of Anne’s writing and photography and hear about her travels on her personal profile in the Matador Travel community. And if you’d like to submit a photo of your own, take a look at submission guidelines.

Want to be a successful travel photographer?

Grab Matador’s Free Report 15 Publications That Pay For Travel Photography and kickstart your new career!

Recipes to Celebrate Holi, the Indian Festival of Colors

Sejal Saraiya — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:29:56 +0000

Kashmiri Rotis by Unlisted Sightings

Today marks the celebration of Holi, a Festival of Colors celebrated in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan. You know the holiday when you see people throw brightly colored powders and colored water at each other. Like so many holidays world wide, food finds its own important place in the celebration.

Preparations begin days in advance, preparing special dishes and sweets like the malpua, mathri, Puran Poli and Dahi Vada. Learn for yourself to make the sweet, salty and intoxicating tastes that help make this festival so lively.

Puran Poli

Filling :
1. Boil 1 cup chana dal or yellow gram (1 cup) with little water until it becomes soft and paste-like. For faster results, cook it in a pressure cooker.
2. Drain it thoroughly, add approximately 1 cup jaggery flakes. You may want to adjust the amount depending on how sweet you want it to be.

Bags of dal, photo by paulswansen

3. Cook the mixture in a heavy saucepan while stirring continuously. You know it’s ready when the jaggery blends with the dal, and a soft paste forms.
3. Add 1 teaspoon cardamom, nutmeg, a few strands of saffron. Set aside to cool.

Rotis:
1. Mix 2 cups refined flour, 1 3/4 cups water or milk to make the flour into a soft dough, and 1 teaspoon refined oil (1 tbs).
2. Knead the flour into until the dough forms.
3. Make small balls of the kneaded dough. Take a ball and use a rolling pin to flatten it into a thick small roti.

Assembling the Puran Poli
1. Put the chana dal paste as a filling in the center and seal the roll.
2. Reroll it gently. If the paste slides out, use flour to seal it.
3. Roast the poli on warm griddle till golden brown on both sides.
4. Apply a teaspoon of ghee on it and serve hot.

Dahi Vada, photo by Ron Diggity

Dahi Vadas

1. Soak 2 cups urad dal mixed with 1/4 cup moong dal for about 6 hours.
2. Grind the soaked dal.
3. Add salt, ginger, 2-3 finely chopped green chilies and little water to make smooth batter.
3. Beat this batter well or blend the batter in a blender so that there are no lumps.
4. Heat oil in a pan. With the help of the slotted spoon, drop the batter in the form of balls into the oil.
5. Deep fry the balls (vadas) and remove excess oil using blotting paper or paper napkins.
6. Let the vadas rest in cold salted water for a few minutes to extract the oil.
7. Squeeze out the water from the vadas and keep them aside in a deep-bottomed dish.
8. Add 1 cup milk, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, 1/4 teaspoon red chili powder and salt to taste to 4 cups of curd and whip the mixture.
9. Pour the seasoned curd onto a bowl of vadas.
10. Keep it in the freezer for half an hour. Serve chilled with tamarind chutney.

No meal is complete without drinks. For this, try a milky thandai made from bhang, which is distinctly associated with Holi and sold by government approved merchants.

Photo by Tom Maisey

Bhang:
1. Crush 2 tablespoons sugar and 1/4 cup bhang, that is cannabis leaves and buds together with the pestle.
2. Put the mixture and 1 tablespoon of ghee in a heavy bottom pan and boil it. Turn down heat and let it steep for 15 minutes.
3. Let it cool to room temperature.
4. Make a fine paste by processing it in a blender. Strain it to get rid of any woody fibers.

Thandai:
1. Boil 1 liter milk and allow it to cool.
2. Grind 1/4 cup almonds, 2 tablespoons poppy seeds, 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds, 1 teaspoon cardamom powder and 7-8 white peppercorn to taste.
3. Add the grounded powder to milk and mix well.
4. Stir in the bhang. Add sugar and 3-4 strands of saffron.
5. Refrigerate the mixture for 3-4 hours. Serve chilled.

Here’s wishing you a happy Holi day filled with flying color, bhang thandai and all the vadas you can eat!

COMMUNITY CONNECTION:

For a look at how the holiday is celebrated outside the kitchen, check out Brave New Traveler’s photo essay on Holi.

How To Bake Your Own Amazingly Easy, Incredible Bread

Susanna Donato — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:30:50 +0000

Photo by quinn.anya

Susanna Donato joined the artisan bread revolution for the way to really make the easiest and best bread.

Yes, it’s simple. You just need the right recipe. This one comes from the Artisan Bread In Five Minutes A Day cookbook, and this is how I do it.

Mixing day:

1. Get a container that can hold several quarts of dough. My container’s square dimensions mean it takes up little space in the fridge.

Photo and Feature Photo by author

Add ingredients as follows:

* 3 cups of warm water (about 750 ml)

* 1 1/2 tablespoons of yeast (about 37 ml)

* 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt (about 37 ml)

* 6 1/2 cups of flour (about 780 g).

The recipe calls for all-purpose flour. I usually bake bread with bread flour, which is a higher-protein flour that typically makes longer strands of gluten, and I like a little bit of whole-grain tooth. For this recipe, I’ve generally been using 1 cup of whole wheat flour (ours is stone-ground and quite rough), 1 1/2 cups of bread flour, and 4 cups of all-purpose flour. Experiment with mixtures you like.

2. Stir up the ingredients until everything is damp. If you live in a dry climate and your flour seems exceptionally dry, add a little bit more water (a couple of tablespoons). Don’t worry about being super thorough — overmixing isn’t necessary. This should take about 2 minutes.

3. Leave it on the counter for a couple of hours if you want to bake immediately. If not, put it in the refrigerator. Overnight is good. A full day is great. Up to a week or two should be OK. This is what it will look like after it’s been chilling and rising:

Note: For those with small refrigerators, you can divide the recipe in half, let the dough rise on the counter, and bake it immediately so you don’t give up valuable refrigerator space to the dough. Or collaborate with neighbors and share a big batch!

Baking day:

1. Get the dough out of the fridge. You’ll want a nice, peaceful, nonstick surface for your dough to rise on. I like to use a Silpat mat — it is nonstick, nontoxic, reusable, heat safe, and flexible for easy dough-dumping. (I got mine 10 years ago at New York Cake & Pastry, which is stamped on the mat, making them a useful souvenir of my time cooking in NYC.) If you don’t have a Silpat, you can use the counter, a towel or a small plate or cutting board.

2. Dust your rising surface with a good coat of flour. Any kind will do.

3. Pull off a hunk of dough. Some guidelines: A piece the size of a grapefruit is about a pound (450 g). A piece the size of a cantaloupe is about 1 1/2 lbs (675 g). I use a piece probably closer to 2 pounds (900 g) — the size of a really big cantaloupe, or maybe a somewhat petite honeydew. You can use a knife, too, but mine usually tears easily and doesn’t require cutting.

Set the dough on the floured surface. Flour your hands. Shape the wad of dough into a round loaf just like this:

4. Cover the dough with a towel and let it nap for a while. How long it rises will depend on how warm your kitchen is. An hour is sufficient if it’s warm (75-80F/25C and up). My kitchen is usually freezing (60-62F/16C), so I leave it out 2 to 3 hours.

5. About 25 minutes before you want to start baking the bread, put your covered heatproof pan in the oven and turn the oven on to very hot (450F/232C). (My pan is a Williams-Sonoma covered cast-iron Dutch oven skillet that my co-worker Jill, God bless her, gave me in 1992.) I like to put the pan in the oven when I start the bread rising, long before I turn the oven on; otherwise, I am prone to forget it and just heat the oven sans pan.

6. When the oven is preheated, uncover your dough. It doesn’t look too much different — just a little bit taller, softer and more refreshed after its rising “nap.”

7. I bend the edges of the Silpat around the dough to shake as much flour close to the dough as I can to minimize the mess. Take the pan out of the oven (careful! It’s SO hot) and remove the lid.

Photo by ansik

Carefully dump the dough into the pan. What was the bottom will be on top, with some rough edges showing. That’s OK! It will all work out in the end.

8. Bake for about 30 minutes. Then open the oven, take off the lid, and let the bread keep on baking for about 20 minutes longer. (Those rough edges have made a gorgeous crown on the bread.) Check it after that initial 30 minutes — if your oven is hotter, the bread might not need as much time. It will be done when it is fairly brown on top, quite brown (but not black) on the bottom, and sounds hollow when tapped.

9. It comes out of the oven brown and amazing!

10. Gently (and carefully! — it’s hot) tip the bread out of the pan and let the bread cool completely on a rack.

11. Slice it and enjoy the texture. It should be moist, chewy and crusty — perfect for toast, sandwiches or just scarfing down with butter.

Please note that it has probably taken you almost as long to read this post as to make the bread!

COMMUNITY CONNECTION:

For more recipes, tips and tricks check out Matador’s Food and Travel page.

Don’t Throw Them Away Just Because They’re Old

Leigh Shulman — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:03:34 +0000

Photo by kaktuslampa

Here’s how to turn those soggy, old vegetables into something delicious.

It happens to all of us. You go shopping with the best of intentions. Then a week passes. Two. Maybe even three, and you find yourself with a drawer full of old vegetables. They’re still edible, technically, but no one really wants to dig into their soft wrinkly skin.

Some ideas of what you can do with instead of throwing them away.

Pickling

From kimchi to kosher dills, pickling has been preserving food for centuries. You can read about the science of pickling and compare notes with other picklers at the Exploratorium: Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception.

Pickling works best as a preemptive strike. Say you went to the market, got all excited and ended up buying more than you need. It’s simple, quick to prepare and has a long shelf life.

A Simple Pickling Recipe

Photo by biskuit

3 cups distilled white vinegar
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
¼ cup salt

Then add whichever spices appeal: dill, whole allspice, whole raw garlic, celery seeds, mustard seeds, whole black peppercorns.

Use this liquid to preserve just about anything from tomatoes , cucumbers, carrots and peppers to fruits like mango and peaches. Store in the refridgerator.

Boil It Into A Jam Or Sauce

Chutneys, preserves and sauces provide ample opportunity to hide imperfections.
Sautee garlic, onions and spices before adding your old tomatoes. Cook them until saucy. You can also throw in any other vegetables or even fruit pureed or whole for additional flavor. Jams are also easy in that you simply heat your old fruit with water and sugar and cook until thick.

Chutney, a more savory type jam, works on a similar principle as pickling except where pickling is cold, chutney is heated. Throw in fruits like mango, apples and peaches with vinegar, sugar and spices and cook.

Spicy Apple Chutney

Photo by Clara S.

4 apples, peeled and quartered
2 tbs vegetable oil
Whole mustard seeds
1 onion, chopped
2 tsp finely chopped garlic
1 tsp fresh ginger
1-2 chillies of your choice, sliced. Include seeds for a spicier.
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup red wine or apple vinegar
1 cup water

Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add mustard seeds until toasted. Then add onion, and salt and cook until onions are translucent. Add garlic, chile and ginger and cook another minute. This releases the flavor of these last ingredients.

Add remaining ingredients and cook over moderate heat until everything is soft. Takes between 30-45 minutes depending. Stir occasionally to keep from burning.

Roast Them

Salvage your root vegetables – potato, yam, carrot, turnip and the like – by roasting.

Batatas Bravas

Chop whatever you have into bite sized pieces, coat generously with olive oil, salt and powdered chile pepper. Bake for 30 minutes at about 375F/200C until soft. Then turn oven to broil and let cook until everything turns crispy. Add more oil if you see the pan drying out.

These are incredibly spicy and go perfectly with beer.

Hide It All In A Soup

Again, the boiling principle comes to the rescue. Just about any vegetable can be salvaged by a pot of water, vegetable stock cubes or tomato sauce and spices.

Vegetable Soup

Photo by rusvaplauke

3 tbs olive oil
4 cups of whatever vegetables you want to add, chopped into bite size pieces
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tsp rosemary
1 16oz can of crushed tomatoes
2 16oz cans of water
4 tbs dark soy sauce (also called sweet soy sauce)
4 tbs regular soy sauce

Heat oil until it runs like water in the pan. Add onions and cook until translucent. Add garlic and rosemary and leave on heat for another minute. Add rest of vegetables and cook.

When the vegetables just begin to soften, add crushed tomatoes and water and cook covered for half an hour. Pour in both kinds of soy sauce and cook uncovered for another ten minutes. You may want to add additional soy sauce depending on your preference.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION:

What are your favorite food preservation recipes, tips and tricks? Share them in comments below. Then check out Matador’s Food and Travel page where two favorite past times unite.

How To Eat a Chicken Wing the Easy Way

Leigh Shulman — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:06:09 +0000

Photo courtesy of MickRheault!

I’ve never liked chicken wings. It’s all a bunch of bones, skin and impossible to eat. Really makes me feel like I’m gnawing on a tiny bird arm. I even lived in Buffalo for a while. Yes, Buffalo, NY. Home of the ever famous Buffalo chicken wing from Anchor Bar, and I never even tried them.

But this isn’t about vegetarianism. This is about how to make your bowl of wings that much easier.

Behold. Food Wishes blog shows this video on the correct way to at a chicken wing.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION:

I love these little tips that allow me to see or eat food in a way I hadn’t before. Share your own ideas in comments below.

Five Recipe Blogs That Will Change the Way You See Food

Leigh Shulman — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:41:09 +0000

Those of us who love food, know the internet is the best place to go when we want to expand our minds and palates. Here are five websites that will take your culinary imagination farther than perhaps you even wanted to go.

Food As Porn

Photo by Shannalee T’koy. Feature by Theilr

Not since Georgia O’Keefe has one woman made inanimate objects seem quite so sensuous and alive. Shanalee T’Koy of Food Loves Writing fills her blog with soft, warm, tasty photos of fruit, bakery buns, brunches and the people who lust after them.

In spite of her fantasy-provoking and mouth watering photography, Shanalee’s writing and recipe style is down-to-earth and easy. She makes you feel like you’d just love to sit down over a plate of blueberry waffles and spill all your dirty details.

Food As Frugal Philosophy

Daniel Koontz’ Casual Kitchen is about cooking more, thinking more and spending less. There, Daniel presents easy to make, healthy and unique recipes that work easily within a budget while simultaneously offering thought-provoking food related philosophy links around the web.

First, brush up on Daniel’s glossary of Casual Kitchen memes before diving into discussions of ways to help the environment from your kitchen or new ways to think about rising food costs.

Food As Fashion and Art

Luxiraire, without a doubt, presents the most jaw-dropping and awe-inspiring creations I’ve ever seen.

Photo by Sean McGrath

The most difficult avocado recipe ever first caught my eye. Then I became distracted by a parfait. I’m not usually much for parfaits, not to mention finding the word silly, but Luxirare’s method of creating solid caviar-like bubbles out of a juice to use as a layer in the dessert simply won me over.

Food As Culture

Laylita grew up in Vilcabamba-Loja, Ecuador. Her recipes have been inspired by her mother’s New Mexico cooking, the Ecuadorian market food stalls and street snack carts and from the food she ate made by her Texas grandmother.

I found Laylita’s website while searching for a good humita recipe. Humitas are fresh corn cakes served traditionally throughout Argentina, Peru and Ecuador. The corn is ground, cheese added and then wrapped in corn husks and steamed. They can be made dulce or salada, sweet or savory.

Food As Obscenity

The food creations on This Is Why You’re Fat will make your stomach turn and churn, yet you won’t be able to look away. In fact, don’t be surprised if you find yourself marveling in disgust at photo after photo of the most horrendous, artery clogging, sickening food combinations you’ve ever seen.

Photo by Alexik

Ok, maybe the Oreo S’more doesn’t look so bad, but the bacon maple hot dog drizzled with chocolate sauce?

Or how about the infamous Widowmaker? Any food that begins with 1.5 pounds of ground beef, continues to a whole package of bacon and not one, but TWO entire packaged pepperoni pizzas has got to be worth a mention.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Have you made or eaten anything spectacular, disgusting or amazing? Share your favorite recipes and websites in the comments below.

For some of our own Matador food porn, be sure to take a peek at our tasteful beefy centerfolds or read our guide to seven decadent New Orleans desserts.

In Search of the Swedish Companion – Tunnbröd‏

Lola Akinmade — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:29:35 +0000

The French have got croissants. Greeks, pita bread. And Swedes? Photojournalist and Matador Goods editor Lola Akinmade travels to Northern Sweden to find out.

Emma Lundmark shows off some tunnbröd dough.

My first encounter with Tunnbröd (thin bread) came in the form of local street grub I’d quickly grabbed after a day at Vasamuseet a couple years ago. The concoction I’d ordered – soft thin bread rolled up funnel-style and filled with sausage, mashed potatoes, onions, mustard, lettuce, and other dubious condiments – was called Tunnbrödsrulle.

Integral to most meals in Sweden, I would later be introduced to varied and crispier versions of Tunnbröd. Thin bread topped with cheap caviar squeezed from a tube and cucumber slices adorn tables across the country. Crispy thin bread heavily smeared with butter regularly accompanies lunch and dinner. Crushed tunnbröd is eaten with sour milk and lingonberry jam cereal-style in a fashion called bryta (also known to Northerners as smolanedi).

Tunnbröd also plays supporting role to Surströmming (fermented Baltic herring), of which I have firsthand experience sampling.

While spending last summer up in Norrbotten (Northern Sweden), we’d convened at the local neighborhood joint for lunch – a small convenience store/pub/restaurant/bakery – all rolled into one in the small village of Klöverträsk; population – 260.

The only item on the menu that day – a pasta and meatballs with brown sauce dish – also happened to be the lunch special.

Young Emma Lundmark serves us our meal.

“You know Jonny makes his own tunnbröd,” someone chimes in just as we dig into baskets of freshly baked crispy bread.

I immediately set up a date with Emma, Jonny’s oldest daughter. She agreed to take me the very next morning behind the scenes of their bakery – Klöverträsk Bröd – an icon in the village for the last 40+ years.

1. Located in the village of Klöverträsk, The Lundmarks run their small one room bakery right next to the equally small convenience store where they sell groceries and toiletries. Their attached pub/restaurant is just a door away behind the store.

2. “It’s fun to work with your hands,” shares Emma as she kneads and prepares dough early in the morning. Each batch makes roughly 40 kg of tunnbröd so two batches are made per day.

3.A grooved roll pin is used to aerate the dough and to give it its texture look.

4.The bread is passed multiple times through a “kavelmaskin” – a machine that is used to stretch out the dough into a near paper-thin layer.

5.Once the dough has been stretched to the right weight, it is sliced into manageable pieces for baking.

6.The sliced up dough is then flash-baked for 20-25 seconds.

7.The baked crispy bread is cut into stackable pieces while still hot, and piled into boxes to continue their cooling down process.

8.Each box is weighed to make sure they meet the 400g (800g for larger boxes).

9.Simple clear cellophane tape is applied to seal the boxes up.

10.The freshly baked tunnbröd is ready to be delivered to local stores, including the Lundmarks’ own convenience store.

11.Another Lundmark specialty is cardamom-infused biscuits called Bettans Biscuits.

12.It takes about 20 minutes to mix and prepare each batch of dough.

13.The dough is left to rise for 45 minutes before baking for another 45 minutes.

14.Once the bread cools down and edges are cut away, they’re left to dry out for about two days. After that, they are put in a cutting machine to continue making smaller pieces which are baked one more time for close to two hours to give them their signature crispy taste.

15.Once ready, the biscuits are bagged and ready for sale. The Lundmarks also sell breadcrumbs accumulated from the baking process so that these cardamom-flavored breadcrumbs can be used for other baking purposes.

16.The finished products end up in the backyard pub and restaurant for guests.

17.The boxes and bags of thin bread and biscuits also end up in their convenience storefront for local customers to buy. The store is literally a door away that leads from the bakery.

18.Twice a month, the Lundmarks deliver tunnbröd and cardamom biscuits to roughly 60 local stores and supermarkets all across Swedish Lapland and in neighboring towns of Luleå, Piteå, Älvsbyn, and Boden.

More on Klöverträsk Bröd (Bread)

For more than 40 years, Klöverträsk Bröd has remained a family-owned business, providing fat free, sugar free, and milk free tunnbröd. The bakery was purchased roughly five years ago by The Lundmarks – Jonny, Monica, and their five children – from previous owner Robert Öhman who, after 18 years of running the business, was ready to move on.

In addition to Klöverträsk Bröd, the Lundmarks also purchased a 20+ year old recipe for old fashioned cardamom biscuits called Bettans Biscuits, which originated from a little village called Niemisel.

Since both purchases, Jonny has expanded the bakery’s offerings to include the following four products:

• Bettans Biscuits
• Bettans Breadcrumbs which can be used for baking
• Smaller 400g boxes of Klöverträsk tunnbröd
• 650g boxes of regular breadcrumbs

22 year old Emma continues to tend the bakery, shop, and restaurant alongside her parents.

Contact Information

Klöverträsk Bröd
Klöverträsk bya väg 21
975 91 Luleå
Phone: (46) 0920-85200
E-mail: jmltrading@telia.com

Falling for Autumn: Magic, Poetry and Adventure In Your Local Farmer’s Market

Claiborne Milde — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:04:52 +0000

Above photo by author. Feature photo by infomatique

Winter days bring thoughts of long, dreary boredom for many. Find out how professional cook Claiborne Milde finds inspiration to warm her winter nights from her local farmers market.

Every year, I resist autumn. For one thing, I don’t do winter well. I hate the cold, despise being stuck indoors, and dread the daily struggle to don jackets, scarves, hats and gloves. But that’s the least of it.

Fall has always meant endings for me: end of summer. End of sweet, formless days outdoors. End of roaming. During peak tomato time, when berries still hold the sun’s warmth but back-to-school ads are inescapable, I begin to mourn the summer.

Then, A Shift Takes Place

Around the time humidity lifts and light slants a bit lower, fall wins me over with the lovely assortment of foods I find at local markets.

Photo of quinces by author

Some may find eating with the seasons stifling, particularly when local produce options seemingly limit the palate. I see it as an adventure. When there is nothing but root vegetables and rugged greens on the horizon, you’re challenged to be creative or else become bored.

No cans this year for pumpkin pie. I scored the perfect cheese pumpkin – resembles the Halloween variety — at a farm stand in Connecticut. I’ll roast it with cinnamon and cardamom and invent my own pie recipe.

A paper bag full of quinces from a Connecticut orchard perfumes the kitchen with their lemony-floral scent; they’re awaiting their appearance in a lamb tagine with saffron and ginger, recipe courtesy of Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse Fruits cookbook. If I have any leftovers, I’ll poach them with honey produced on a rooftop up the street.

Crazy, extra-terrestrial kohlrabi used to befuddle me. Now I love it julienned and dressed raw, with apples.

Finding Inspiration In the Flawed Hold Outs From the Past Season

Tomatoes that didn’t grow well and will never ripen make a mean green pickle or fried green tomato. Frost-blemished peppers blister sweetly over a flame, and summer arugula turns feisty and red-veined after a couple of cold nights. Both perfect for winter salads.

Photo by Bunnicula

Winter Spices Warm Your Home

Roasted root vegetables or winter squashes practically beg for spices such as cloves, nutmeg, and even vanilla bean, too often overlooked in summer. These fall dishes require longer cooking which means you must stay indoors as these wintry aromatics fill the air.

By the time winter arrives in a few weeks, I won’t be so afraid of the frigid months to come. Instead, I’ll find comfort in the magic of a parsnip and a stalk of Brussels sprouts, as they take the frost and the weakening light and transform them into something delicious.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

What are your favorite winter recipes and farmers markets? Share your tips and ideas in comments.

How to Be Your Own Chai Wallah

Susanna Donato — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:42:09 +0000

Above: Various spices used in chai. Photos by Susanna Donato.

Learn the skills of a chai wallah by creating your own delicious, homemade blend of chai masala. Just follow these directions.

In our temperate North American climate, October means crisp blue skies, the sweet dusty smell of leaves piling up beneath trees, and of course, a burning desire for warm, spicy food and drink.

Nothing says “you’re home” in fall like a pot of something to warm you up. I love to draw that warmth from around the world: Fall is for chai masala.

“Chai” means tea in many languages, and “masala” means mixed spices in some Asian languages. In the world’s biggest coffee chain, a place where the littlest drink is “tall” and mixed lingos rule, “chai latte” is the international term for spicy tea with milk.

A warm cup of chai

In India, the person who makes and serves chai masala is known as a chai wallah. In areas where no master of chai is handy, you can do the job yourself.

Of course, you can stop into a café or buy a boxed, condensed version of chai. If you do so, expand your horizons by asking about locally available brews. (In Colorado, where I live, some cafes carry locally microbrewed Bhakti Chai, a fiery, spicy variety.) Or you can save money and gain insight by brewing your own.

Brew in Bulk

For years, my husband has made chai in large batches — about a half-gallon (2L). The recipe is flexible and easy to personalize: add more pepper and ginger if you like it spicy; more cinnamon and vanilla for a smoother, sweeter style. But the basics are:

Put a large pot of water to boil.

Toss in spices (refer to leading image): About 1/4 cup (approximately 30) green cardamom pods, a cinnamon stick or two, 3-4 star anise, about 12 cloves (too many will make it numbing), a few slices from a ginger root or a teaspoon of ginger powder, a teaspoon of black peppercorns, and a piece of nutmeg and/or a vanilla bean if you like.

Boil for 30 minutes to an hour. Your house will be infused with the good smell.

Tea brewing

Turn off the heat, add tea — 1/4 cup of tea powder, or about six black tea bags. Cover and steep 5 minutes.

Strain into a pitcher. Stir in a spoonful of vanilla extract and sweeten to taste.

To serve, heat gently with milk to taste.

The whole process takes about an hour, largely unsupervised, and you can keep the pitcher in your refrigerator for a few days, reheating as you like. Explore local markets to find spices in bulk — you’ll have a travel souvenir or a new local haunt, and you’ll save money, too.

Authentic Style

You can also boil the mixture together with milk for a strong, creamy drink that is much closer to real Indian chai masala. Caveat: India is still on my travel wish list, so feel free to chime in with your own recipes or tips if you know better! But I can guarantee this tastes fantastic.

You can crush or grind the same spices used above. Out of curiosity, I recently picked up a packet of masala chai mix at our local Indian market. The word online is that these pre-packaged spices might be stale, but this shop is well-regarded and busy.

This style is best made to serve immediately. Double or triple the recipe if you’re serving more than one.

Bring 1/2 cup of water to a boil.

Masala chai mix

Add 1/2 teaspoon chai spice mix (or to taste — our mixture’s ingredients begin with black pepper and ginger, so it is very spicy). Boil 1 minute.

Add 2 teaspoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon tea powder (powdered tea reportedly holds up better and produces better flavor than tea leaves when boiled vigorously like this; we had some Ethiopian tea powder on hand). Boil 1 minute.

Add 1 cup of milk. (Some swear by using only half-and-half or whole milk to be really rich and creamy.) Bring close to a boil.

When the mixture is almost boiling, remove it from the heat for a few moments. Then put it back. Repeat this process — a dance of almost boiling, removal, return close to the boil — 5-7 times.

Steep, covered, off the heat for two minutes.

Strain the mixture and enjoy.

Boiled chai masala is richer in taste and more expensive to make, with the milk or cream, not to mention the personal effort. You can make it while doing other kitchen chores — I’ve been known to brew it up while emptying the dishwasher — but it’s also wonderful to be contemplative about it. Mixing up this spicy goodness can be nourishing to the soul, as well as the body. Breathe it in, connect and enjoy. Namaste!

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Do you have a recipe for chai? Share it below in the comments.

Making Gallo Pinto With A Crazy Costa Rican

Leigh Shulman — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:51:15 +0000

Feature photo by Leigh Shulman. Above photo by Arvindgrover

There’s no better way to start the day than with cup of strong, excellent coffee and a plate of gallo pinto, rice and beans made the Costa Rican way. This is the recipe I learned from my fabulous friend Randal when I surfed his couch in San Ramon.

We’re all relaxing around the kitchen, chatting and drinking coffee at Ran’s place in San Ramon, a suburb just outside of San Jose.

“You’re making the pinto this morning,” Ran informs me.

Yes, gallo pinto, the classic Tican breakfast of beans and rice.

Then he turns on the loud Ritmo, because reggaeton makes him feel like cooking, and starts swinging his hips.

He helps me assemble the ingredients:

One onion, chopped
Three garlic cloves, chopped
Oil, butter or animal fat
Two stalks Celery, chopped
Half a Sweet Pepper, chopped
Handful of chopped Cilantro
1.5 cups Black Beans
2 Cups Rice
Your choice of alcohol, beer works well.
Salsa Lizano Unlikely to be found outside of Costa Rica but is similar to mild green salsa found elsewhere)
Salsa Inglese aka Worcestershire sauce
Salsa China aka soy sauce
Salt and pepper

We’re all inside opening our first beer of the day. Yes, it’s first thing, but we woke up late, so it’s more like lunch than breakfast.

Begin With A Hot Pan, Garlic and Onions

First things first. I sautee garlic in olive oil, then add onions.

While I’m at the stove with the onions, Lila’s leaping and giggling in Ran’s bedroom, turning Noah into a jungle gym and Ran’s sweet dog Drunk – pronounced dronk with a fully rolled r – is in the backyard humping a towel.

Ran comes up behind me, takes my arm and gently rotates the spoon in the pan.

Photo by Randall Arias

“How’re those onions coming, honey?” His other arm encircles me, and we dance a little together, before he gives me a kiss and heads off to see who’s at the door.

Another friend arrives. There’s clearly some drama going between the two, so I focus on the pan in front of me. The onions have caramelized nicely. It’s time to add the celery, peppers and cilantro, keep stirring over heat until everything is cooked.

Now it’s time for the rice and beans.

There are two ways to make pinto. The first, comes from the Guanacaste province. They put the rice in first, and it makes for a drier, crunchier pinto. The other originates in the central valley, where the beans go first and the final dish is moister, mushier. We’re making Guanacaste today.

In goes the rice. Ran tells me to “fry it as much as I want,” although I’m not entirely sure what that means. I let it go about five minutes before adding beans, salt and pepper.

Final Touches

Then top with alcohol, salsa Lizano, soy sauce and a bit of Worcestershire sauce. Mix and you’re ready to eat.

Serve with naitilla – sour cream if you can’t find it — cheese, fried sweet plaintain, any kind of meat or eggs. You really can’t go wrong.

6 Online Resources to Satisfy Your Inner Locavore

Adam Roy — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:51:50 +0000

Looking for the most experienced travelers in town? Check the produce aisle.

Photo: karindalziel

Groceries get around more than you might realize. From farm to fridge, odds are the pineapple in your fruit bowl or the milk in your cereal has racked up even more frequent flier miles than you have.

That’s a lot of fossil fuel burned on our food’s account.

The local food movement is out to change that. By only eating foods produced in their community, region or country, adherents, known as locavores, aim to reduce pollution and support ethical farming practices.

With more and more people defecting from supermarket to farmer’s market, a number of websites have appeared to help users find local food in their own communities.

Photo: acnatta

If you’re thinking of going local, these sites can help you make the switch:

1. LocalHarvest

The Google of local food sites, LocalHarvest seems to have everything. Want to find farmer’s markets or farm subscriptions near you? Just enter your ZIP code into the site’s search engine.

Looking for local food-inspired recipes? LocalHarvest has that too. The site even has its own online marketplace, where shoppers can buy locally-grown produce from the comfort of their own homes.

2. Sustainable Table

A collection of resources for conscientious eaters, Sustainable Table provides information on issues ranging from local food to genetically modified (GMO) crops. The site also provides links to a wide selection of U.S. and regional local food guides.

For a good laugh, check out the animated parody “The Meatrix,” in which a group of livestock don trench coats and sunglasses to do battle with Big Agribusiness.

3. FoodRoutes

Photo: Natalie Maynor

A local food website for the activist in you. FoodRoutes, a national non-profit with the goal of “reintroducing Americans to their food,” advocates sustainable farming practices and provides consumers with information on the local food movement.

The site is also home to Buy Fresh Buy Local, a locavore organization with chapters in 28 U.S. states.

4. Eat Well Guide

Eat Well Guide is a spiffy, simple search engine that allows residents of the U.S. and Canada to find organic and local food shops and restaurants in their area, and the site’s guide to organic butchers and locally-raised meats should be especially helpful to the carnivorous crowd. In addition, the site hosts The Green Fork, an award-winning local foods blog.

5. Foodzie

Foodzie is an online marketplace for small-batch and artisan foodstuffs that’s all about craft, offering such delicacies as pumpkin-spice granola from Maryland and smoked sea salt from Maine. Customers can search for products by either name or location produced. However, some vendors are more local food friendly than others, so die-hard locavores might want to double-check before making their final purchases.

Plus one for our European friends:

BigBarn

An interactive map of local food markets around Britain, BigBarn’s Google Maps-based interface is easy to use and packed with information. The site also includes a searchable recipe database, where visitors can learn to make dishes like apple pancakes and wine-braised beef.

Community Connection:

Matador’s archives are full of recommendations about how you can eat local while traveling. Check out Slow Food, Slow Travel: Italy and Munching Montana: A Road Trip Guide to Montana’s Most Unique Local Food just for starters.

Want to volunteer with an organization that places a strong emphasis on local food? Read our profile of the Culinary Corps.

Interested in a more philosophical take on locavorism? How Local Self-Reliance Will Overthrow the System and Do we need industrial fertilizers to weather the food crisis? might be right up your alley.

A Beginner’s Guide to Cold-Brewed Iced Coffee

Theodore Scott — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:02:06 +0000

Being a coffee drinker in the summer can be a sweaty habit. About a month ago, I switched from my regular hot coffee ritual to cold-brewing iced coffee every day. It’s cold. It tastes great. It also takes 12 hours to make.

Photo: mynameisharsha

Why Cold-Brew?

Chilling hot coffee is a common way to make quick and easy iced coffee. Cold-brewing takes several hours. Why bother?

Cold-brewing extracts the flavor and caffeine of the coffee grounds, but less of the oils and acids. Without heat, you get great-tasting iced coffee without the bitterness. Try the two side-by-side sometime. You will be converted.

The Recipe

Fill a glass container with 6 tablespoons of ground coffee.

Add 2 cups filtered water.

Cover and let rest for 12 hours.

Strain the coffee through a filter.

Fill two glasses with ice and add coffee.

(Optional) Add cream and sugar to taste.

Develop Your Caffeine Habit

Photo: findfado

Twelve hours is a long time to wait for coffee. To make cold-brewed coffee regularly, you need to plan ahead.

First, get a French press. They are easy to use for brewing both hot and cold coffee. Each night, around dinnertime, fill the press with coffee grounds and filtered water.

It will be ready at breakfast.

After you try it a few times, experiment with the amount of coffee grounds and the timing. I like the portions in the recipe above, but you might want to adjust the strength. Also, some people prefer a 24 hour brewing. On the other hand, you can cut it down to as little as four hours – make it at breakfast and enjoy it with lunch.

Cold-brewing Tips

Photo: thebittenword.com

To get great coffee flavor, buy good whole-bean coffees. Look for fair trade. Make sure it was roasted recently.

Coarse grind your coffee. The mesh screen on the French press will do a better job of filtering.

Add a little cream and sugar if you want, but try it plain first. It is smooth and probably won’t need as much extra stuff added as you are used to with hot coffee.

For variety, add a bit of honey or cinnamon to the coffee grounds. Or try adding some peppermint loose leaf tea. Flavored syrups will work as well.

Use filtered water.

If you drink iced coffee all day, you won’t be able to make them fast enough with this recipe. Consider purchasing the largest French press you can find. Multiply the recipe to make large batches. You can store the extra coffee in your refrigerator. It will keep for days and it won’t get that nasty old coffee taste.

Community Connection:

Travelers looking to make coffee on the road should check out Matador’s Coffee Gear for Coffee Fanatics. Also, don’t forget how your purchases affect the lives of coffee producers. Read more at Fair Trade for Beginners.

Five Recipes That Require Brains

Tom Gates — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:38:13 +0000

Photo by youngchung

Who doesn’t crave a little bit of animal brain, from time to time? Here are five recipes that show you how to cook with cranium contents.

Fried Brains

1 calf’s brain per person 
1 cup all purpose flour 
2 cloves garlic minced 
1/2 bunch italian parsley chopped 
1 lemon 
1/2 stick salted butter salt and pepper

Pick the blood vessels and film off of the brains and soak in cold water overnight. Change the water every few hours. When they are properly soaked the water will remain clear.  Blanch in boiling water for two minutes and remove onto a rack to thoroughly drain.

Season with and pepper. Roll through a pan of flour to coat evenly. Melt butter in a skillet on medium high heat. When it is frothy and begins to turn a nut brown color add brains. Sauté until golden brown, constantly basting with butter to evenly brown.

Remove and keep warm. In another skillet melt 3-4 Tablespoons of salted butter and quickly saute parsley and garlic. Remove from heat, squeeze lemon into garlic / parsley mixture, stir, and pour over brains.

Courtesy of msglaze.

Filipino Fish Head Soup

Photo by chanmelmel

1 fish head (salmon, lapu-lapu, maya-maya, tanguigue)
1 whole garlic, crushed and peeled 
2 thumb-sized pieces of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced 
2 onions, peeled, halved and sliced 
6 c. of boiling water patis
2 tbsps. of cooking oil 
a bunch of sili leaves

Heat the cooking oil in a large deep saucepan or casserole. Saute the garlic and ginger until fragrant. Add the onions and cook, stirring, for another 30 seconds. Pour in the boiling water. Lower the fish head into the hot water. Season with patis. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for about 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the fish head.

Courtesy of Pinoycook.

Lamb/Goat Brain Curry

This chef is hilarious. “I forgot the oil. My brain is not functioning, thinking about this awesome brain curry today.”

Brain Soup (Hirnsuppe)

A traditional German recipe that is surprisingly simple, if you have some brains around the house.

1 calf’s brain
2 tbls butter
1 qt beef Stock
1 egg yolk
1 cup cream
flour

To wash brain clear of blood, soak in cold water, renewing water several times. Skin and chop fine. Melt butter in pan, add brain, sprinkle with flour, and saute 10 minutes. Add beef stock and simmer 20 minutes. Just before serving, stir in egg yolk and cream.

Courtesy of recipehound.

Salted Fish Head Curry Recipe (Kari Kepala Ikan Masin)

Photo by matahati67

1 tbs oil
2 onions, chopped
4 shallots, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
¼ tsp mustard seed
¼ tsp fennel seeds
¼ tsp fenugreek
¼ tsp black pepper
3 tbs fish curry powder
200ml fish stock
1.5kg salted fish head
1 litre low fat milk
300g orange and apricot yoghurt
3 eggplants, quartered
3 tbs tamarind paste

Heat oil in awok over medium fire. Stir fry garlic, onion and shallots until fragrant, about three minutes. Add mustard seeds, fennel seeds, fenugreek and black pepper. Mix well for 1 minute. Add fish curry powder and fry for another one minute. Pour in fish stock, stirring all the while. Add salted fish head, milk and yoghurt. Allow to simmer over slow fire fore 5 minutes. Add eggplant and cook another 5 minutes. Allow the gravy to reduce before adding tamarind paste. Mix well and bring to a boil. Serve hot, garnished with chillies and coriander leaves.

Courtesy of Pickles and Spices.