Saturday, May 21, 2011

Potato Pancakes!

One of the easiest and tastiest local meals to date have been some crunchy-on-the-outside soft-on-the-inside potato pancakes with green onion. I first saw a variation of this on a Food Network special about left-overs, and have been making them ever since, changing the recipe and toppings according to what's available at any given time. Basically, It's a pan-fried hash-brown with some tasty vegetables cooked right into it. I really love this because they're perfect for when you have leftover potatoes and odds and ends of vegetables left that you don't know what to do with. I call them portable potato pancakes because they can easily become ideal picnic food, if you pack them chilled and bring toppings. Here's how I made them this time:

Start with: 
Potatoes (pre-cooked and cooled or raw) 
One green onion (finely chopped)
Olive or canola oil

From there:
Roughly grate your peeled potatoes into a bowl, and mix in the onions with your hands, being careful not to smush the potatoes too much. Heat a little oil in a pan at about medium, or a little higher. Next, you're going to want to make a potato-ball in your hand, about the size of your palm (but, once again, try not to smush it too tight. You want it to be a fairly loose ball). Now place the potato ball in the hot oil and press down with a spatula so that it becomes flatter, but leave it so it's about half an inch to an inch thick. If you're doing this with cooked potatoes, then you're  just going to have the watch the colour forming around the bottom edge of the pancake. When The edges have turned nice and brown, you'll want to check it. You can do this by flipping and checking to make sure that the colour is even. When the one side looks nice and brown and crispy, it's time to cook the other side, so flip it over so the not-browned side is on the pan. For people using raw potatoes, you'll have to watch the colour changing throughout the pancake. So watch for the brownness creeping up the side of the pancake, because even though the flat of the pancake might be brown, the inside might still be raw potato. When the pancake has cooked about halfway up, flip the pancake and watch it until it's cooked through. It's important to have a plate ready with paper towel to absorb the extra oil, because the pancakes will initially be pretty greasy when you take them out of the pan. So before you serve them, lay them on the paper towel and allow the grease to get absorbed. From there, you can top it with almost anything. Two of my personal favourites are topping it with sour cream, chives and smoked salmon or a simple soft-poached egg on top, with salt and pepper. Eating local is so good to me. Om nom nom.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Food Philosophy: The Omnivore's Dilemma

On a side note, I've started reading Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and it's blowing my mind. Basically, it's a piece of investigative journalism written about the food industry and all the implied questions (moral, political, environmental, economical...) that really go behind the question of "what's for dinner?" I'm about halfway through and so far I've had a peek at the evolution of the corn industry, the complicated dynamics of pastoral farm systems and been presented a lot of questions as to what seemingly simple terms like "industrial" and "organic" really mean, and how flexible they are. Right now I'm on the section about pastoral farming, polyculture (the practice of growing many symbiotic species together instead of segregating one species and growing it en masse-- monoculture) and the many advantages of eating local and knowing where the food you eat comes from. Honestly, reading this book makes me happy that I have the option to get my supplies from the farmer's market and chat with the people who grow my food about its production, the sustainability of their farming and the philosophy that goes behind it all. I have yet to read the sections on the hunter-nature relationship or the section depicting "The Perfect Meal" (a meal that Pollan hunted, gathered and prepared entirely himself) but I can't wait to pick it up again. For all the people who like to ask questions about the philosophy of their food: I highly recommend this book. 

Here's the link to the Amazon webpage

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Ludicrously Easy Pickled Lettuce

Hello again! Still don't have internet in the apartment, so I'm writing from the Wired Monk cafe and sipping some matcha (tea was one of the things we absolutely could not give up while eating local, along with salt, pepper and olive oil) So, last week Stu and I had our friends Torin and Anna over for dinner, and we decided to wow them with our mad culinary skills. So we got some fresh trout from the market, some arugula, some spinach, some rainbow carrots, some lettuce and some onions to make a tasty trout-topped salad. We were feeling pretty adventurous though, so we decided to step the salad up by pickling the lettuce! This seemed like a daunting task at first, pickling being somewhat foreign to Stu and I, but after a little brainstorming and experimenting, we found a seriously easy and delicious formula for perfectly sweet and tart pickled lettuce. Here's how we did it:

Start with:
A head of lettuce (we used iceberg, but other kinds would probably work as well)
A cup of water
Two tablespoons salt
Two tablespoons unpasteurized honey
Six tablespoons vinegar (we used apple vinegar for the sweetness, but balsamic or just plain white can also be used)

From there: Wash, drain and rip lettuce into desired size of pieces, and set aside in separate bowl. Mix all other ingredients in a pot and boil very briefly to make sure all the ingredients combine nicely. Allow the mixture to cool, then pour it onto the lettuce, mixing it all together with your hands, making sure every leaf is bathed in the mixture. Let it sit for about half an hour, then pour it into a jar or whatever closable container you have lying around. Stick it in the fridge. Optimally, you want to let it sit in the fridge for a day or two, because then the lettuce has time to really absorb the pickling juice. From there, use it on salads, in sandwhiches or really wherever you would ordinarily use pickles! My favourite part of this recipe is that once the lettuce is gone, the pickling juice makes a ready-to-use salad dressing. Om nom nom.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Fresh Start!

Welcome, and thanks for reading! I've just moved into my new apartment and decided that this would be a great time to start something new. So this week is my first week of eating strictly local, apart from what supplies I had left over (which, of course, I'm not going to waste) After combing various grocery stores in the area, I have a fairly decent stockpile of fresh and local produce that I can't wait to start playing with.  My first local meal was a delicious stir-fry, made completely of local ingredients!

Springtime in Halifax Stir-Fry:

A few handfuls of (leftover) chick peas
One whole onion, diced finely
Three leaves of ripped up baby bok choy
Few sprigs of parsley
A handful of (leftover) pasta
A spoonful of salted butter
Lots of medium aged gouda (flavoured with local herbs)

Cook chick peas until soft, if bought dry, and cook pasta al dente in a separate pot.  Drain and cool both when cooked. Heat up a pan to about medium heat (we don't want to burn the butter) and sweat the onion in the butter. When the onion has begun to caramelize, throw in the rest of the greens and cook them all down together, allowing the flavours to mix nicely. The best part about using baby bok choy with butter is that it absorbs the tasty butter flavour while still staying relatively crunchy, adding a nice texture as well as the pretty leafy look. Now, add in the pasta and chick peas to warm them. Ideally, the chick peas will lend a meaty texture to make the stir fry a little more satisfying. Toss the whole mix a few times, and serve in a bowl or large plate, with or without rice. I didn't use rice and it was perfectly filling. Generously grate in the gouda (or whatever salty cheese you have around) while the stir-fry is still hot and toss the whole thing a few more times. The cheese should be melty and delicious when you serve the stir-fry. Nom nom nom. Delicious.