The Goods Are Odd

This summer took me from this tiny kitchen to this one:

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Actually, what I love is that it isn’t a tiny kitchen but a tiny house-kitchen. It’s nothing but kitchen. Which is my favorite place to be. (And…that big sloping ceiling is really just part of the giant roof of the big ole swallow filled barn in which this apartment is nestled and I walk up a gang plank to get to my front door).

It’s a temporary spot for now, and so I only came equipped with the bare essentials. It’s funny what I thought I would need and what I wouldn’t. Muffin tins came, pie pan went to storage- along with most everything else. But we did bring all three cast irons pans and when I came home to a table full of rhubarb from the Barn-Owner’s garden I figured I could use one to make a rhubarb pie. The internet confirmed that pie could be made in a cast-iron. This was the first mistake in a long list of poor choices that led to the worse pie I have ever made. The acidic rhubarb picked up the iron in the pan and made the whole thing turn brown and tinny tasting. Though I’ve gotten away with using sprouted spelt flour before with good results. But this batch was too coarse and even mixed with white flour turned tough (I also mixed it by hand because I am without my pastry cutter and I also was using the only large bowl I brought to soak beans so I made it rustic style right on the counter, which I think all made me handle the butter bits too much). I also used rapadura sugar which still has the molasses in it and with the rhubarb and the ginger I added (probably too much) it was really sharp. It boiled out of it’s crust, left burnt sticky blobs on the pans I had below (always a good thing to have under a pie) Okay, so it was a horrible pie and most of it went to the chickens.

But there is a huge crop of rhubarb outside my door that I think my landlord would like help eating, and I would love to be helpful. I was determined to make a really excellent pie. Somehow none of the cook books I brought gave me a good rhubarb pie recipe (except Nourishing Traditions, but following that recipe leads down the path I had already abandoned, sometimes her recipes just plain don’t work) so I did my least favorite thing and searched the internet for something that looked good. I had to post the results and the link because what I found turned out so beautifully and I found it I think eight pages into my Google search, and I want it to be first! Rhubarb custard!

I started with a trip to the thrift store in town and found a glass pie pan, to get my pie making back on the right foot. Then I made the dough, in a bowl and with a fork, with white flour and whole wheat pastry flour (I can’t resist, I like the bit of color and the flavor).

For the filling I mixed into four cups of chopped rhubarb a whole cup of organic cane sugar that was as white as I can stand, I think it’s called ‘evaporated’. Three tablespoons of arrowroot powder and a pinch of salt. Then the good stuff- two beaten eggs. For eight pages of Google I never saw eggs, and it’s wonderful! It basically turned into a lemon curd with rhubarb stuffed in it. And it stayed so beautifully pink. And it set, you could take out a piece with the side of a butter knife. The link above says it’s an old, 19th century recipe, and a commenter said it’s also the same as a Mennonite recipe. My process differed with the use of arrowroot and that pinch of salt. It also calls to top with dots of butter, which, incredibly I forgot to do. So it must be good either way.

The recipe is also clear in using a double crust. I was tempted to take the time to do a lattice (I never do) because it seems traditional with rhubarb, but I had this sense that maybe the eggs cook up better if sealed. I cut only the tiniest slits in the top, just to be safe.

I think I was so happy to have found this approach to rhubarb, because I’ve never really liked it. It’s never been my favorite pie because it never seems balanced. Even with a bunch of sugar it’s sharp flavor is still back there. But the eggs make it creamy, giving the tart some fat to go with, balancing it and even bringing it out in a way that’s really enjoyable instead of just masking.

I may still be stuck with the mini-sized oven, but at least I know I can still get a good pie out of it.

(That liquid set the next day, sometimes it’s better to let a pie rest longer, but who can do that?)

For the past year I have had the pleasure to spend 15 hrs straight each week in the lovely kitchen of the Marin Headlands Center for the Arts assisting Eduardo Morrell in the production of his naturally leavened breads, which are sold primarily at the Berkeley Farmer’s Markets as “Morrell’s Bread”. The video below was done to look at the science of sourdough and it’s a neat peek into the process of making artisan bread.


QUEST on KQED Public Media.

I felt the need to do a post along with the video because…well they left something out. Not just because they filmed on the Friday bake and I work the Wednesday bake, but because they focused only on the loaves of bread, which is what most people think of when something is described as naturally leavened or, especially, sourdough. But natural leavening, that is the ecology of yeast and bacteria we call a sourdough starter, can really be used to leaven any bready baked good, and does not have to be sour. Check out the strawberry scones I make for the Thursday and Saturday Berkeley Farmer’s Markets:

The dough is basically like a biscuit recipe with starter added. I roll out 4 lbs at a time, spread out the fruit (which changed seasonally of course), fold it up and slice out triangles and then toss each in flour. Then they sit by the brick oven and rise for about five hours.

We make another scone that is really a cookie recipe with starter added and then we make it super hearty with fresh coarse ground grains, spices, and raisins. I’ve been wanting to try at home to just make five hour proofed cookies.

The scones are very special, but I think my favorite is our bagels. I don’t know of any other naturally leavened bagel. These are shaped into tight rounds ( like the bread in the video) and then proofed for an hour at room temp an then another four hours in the fridge. (It would take less time if they were proofed only a room temp, we do the fridge proof so they can be made after all the bread is shaped). After they proof I boil them in water with a dollop of barley malt syrup for about 30 sec. each side, dip the tops in a bowl of seeds, and then bake. They are chewy and fantastic with a very slight tang. The power of sour goes way beyond the loaf!

While post Thanksgiving might be a funny time to bring up the merits of a roasted bird, it seems like a good time to point out the fact that this is anything but a special occasion-only dish. I roast a chicken almost once a week. This makes a meal that is always a wonderful dinner, then a very delicious lunch or whole other dinner, and keeps us stocked up on nourishing and tasty bone broth. The whole production is really three steps (one of them is eating!) and it makes the amount of money I spend on a pasture raised chicken go a long way. Find pasture raised chickens at the farmer’s markets or at specialty meat places. Organic/free range is okay if that’s the best you can find but there is more bang for your buck nutritionally if the chicken is certain to have lived outside, eating bugs and other wild chicken favorite foods. Remember, its good that organic chickens are not being fed industrial meat-packing waste, BUT chickens just aren’t vegetarians, so I don’t get sold on eggs or chickens when the package says they feed them as such.

I have used various recipes for roasting chickens and have finally settled on the simplest and most delicious (nice how it seemed to work out that way). I first started out with a Alice Water’s recipe in The Art of Simple Food. This recipe liberated me from the idea that I had to have a roasting pan. She said just to use a cast iron skillet and that’s what I do. She also guided my sense of improvisation when it comes to how to dress the bird, from filling the cavity with a lemon half and whole fresh herbs to putting garlic under the skin. Her instructions (and yes, I do like thinking of cookbooks as being guidance directly to me from the author) had me turning the bird from twice to move the juices around. This makes sense with a bird that is heavy breasted because it can dry out. But the birds I get are pretty proportional and tender so I appreciated finding another simple recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall a British farmer, writer, chef in his book The River Cottage Meat Book. A great resource! I now follow his recipe for herbed roast chicken that basically rubs the bird down with a mixture of butter, fresh herbs, salt and pepper, cooks it in a cast iron skilled at 400 for 15 mins then 350 for the remaining time (another half hour to 45min depending on the size). He also calls for basting and adding a half cup of wine to the pan when you lower the heat, but I’ve not done that and it still works fine. When you place the chicken in the skillet make sure there aren’t any gibblets inside (they are usually in a little packet) and place breast side up and open up the wings and fold the tips up and back so they are tucked under the back so they don’t burn.

Like with most recipes the words can be misleading and the first couple time I followed the Fearnley-Whittingstall guidance to “combine softened butter with herbs” I had chunks of butter all over my hands that seemed to be magnetically repelled by chicken skin. I could not get it to look like it did in the book, or in the picture above. I learned that “softened” really meant mostly melted (unlike “softened” butter for cookies). So I melt the butter about half way so it keeps it’s opaqueness, then I mix this with chopped herbs, salt and pepper and rub it all over the skin, wings, legs, back. This process is sort of why, if I cook chicken, I cook it whole. There is something more “aware” of the bird having all its parts connected, moving as something that walked around and flapped and pecked. I still have never killed a chicken myself, but at least working the the mostly intact body I have a greater appreciation for it’s chicken-ness.

Part of dealing with a whole chicken is learning how to break it down. This is also a good lesson for how chickens are built and makes me thankful for their life. I don’t know why this process makes me feel more thankful than with already separated cuts, maybe it’s just that same heightened awareness through doing the work. The carving and serving process given by Fearnley-Whittingstall was what really sold me. I used to carve the bird on a board (which makes for some significant clean up) and make gravy from the drippings. While delicious, it took time. Hugh said I can just cut it right up in the pan and serve it in the juices. Well, that one way to make the breast cuts more moist!

Super peasant style we serve ourselves from the pan. Potatoes or yams make a perfect side and a fresh salad with some lacto-fermented veggies and homemade yogurt dressing adds much needed enzymatic action. We make sure to keep all bones and when we’re done eating I take all remaining meat and put it in the fridge for another meal like taco night, curries, soup, or just cold chicken lunch. The dripping are saved. These are a boon to other meals. Re-heat chicken meat in the drippings and add to rice. I never made fried rice that tasted quite right until I added some drippings. Amazing! You can really see the gelatin power in the chicken dinner and that’s a very powerful thing for health and digestion. Cold, the drippings form into that old timey jello- aspic. You really could eat it plain, but I suggest making it your newest secret ingredient.

After we’re done eating all bones and the carcass get put in a pot, this would be a good time to add any heads or feet you managed to get from the farm. It’s all good for you and it the more of the chicken you add the better the stock (besides the feathers of course, or the liver…save that for something else). Fill the pot with cold water until just covering the top of the carcass and add a dash of apple cider vinegar. Bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer and let it simmer for at least 4 hrs or longer. You can also do this in a crock pot and leave overnight.

I have come to prefer stock made from a roasted chicken, versus raw which is what more recipes call for, because I like flavor and I don’t really love the texture of the meat from a stewed bird. I also don’t add any veggies. They get bitter from such a long simmer. You can add parsley in the last 10 mins, as this is very nutritive.

Let the stock cool and then pour in quart sized containers (I use all the Straus whole milk yogurt containers we have around). I don’t really even both straining it, I just pour or ladle straight from the pot. Keep these in the freezer and pull out for soup, rice, or just as a healthy drink that helps heal the digestive tract and makes all those minerals like calcium much more available for your body to use. For more on why bone broth is so great, go here.

Explaining why cod liver oil is so good for you sounds like a pitch for a miracle cure or for some snake oil* hoax. The Weston A Price Foundation, who considers the stuff a super food states: “There is hardly a disease in the books that does not respond well to treatment that includes cod liver oil”. Well, that may just be, and the WAPF site and journal has a wealth of information on health issues that have responded to cod liver oil which I recommend checking out if you’ve got something that ails you.

I started and continue to take a small dose of this old-timey medicine for three reasons: skin, stress, and sore joints. The magic of a good, high vitamin cod liver oil (and yes, like most things they are not all created equally and a good brand matters) is as follows:

“Large amounts of elongated omega-3 fatty acids [EPA and DHA], preformed vitamin A and the sunlight vitamin D, essential nutrients that are hard to obtain in sufficient amounts in the modern diet. Samples may also naturally contain small amounts of the important bone- and blood-maintainer vitamin K”

These four elements all need each other in the right balance to work properly. (This fact is why I appreciate this food-as-medicine over supplements-as-food approach because our bodies know how to work with whole food: once it’s broken up into these very special bits, the bits just don’t work as well. Here’s some food for thought on the issue of supplements generally.)
Both Vitamins A and D are fat soluble, so your body needs those fatty acids to use them at all. Additionally: “vitamin A protects against vitamin D toxicity in part by helping to properly regulate the production of vitamin K-dependent proteins. The most readily obvious benefit of cod liver oil is clear and healthy skin. Our skin is an organ that needs nourishment from the inside much more than it needs fancy creams and soaps. The most important skin nutrients are vitamins A and D. Vitamin A. When I was a teenager dealing with bad skin I was prescribed an anti-biotic and a retinol cream. Well those antibiotics did a number on my long term gut health, where skin health originates anyway. And the retinol cream worked well enough, but I don’t know what the effects of a synthetic version are and I just would have been better off getting that nutrient in food rather than on my face. A lack of this nutrient will result in rough dry skin that wrinkles earlier. For the skin to deal with sun exposure and damage from environmental toxins it needs vitamin A for the repair process.

Vitamin D and skin have a very important relationship as our skin is where the body captures Vitamin D from the sun. Vitamin D from the diet (and there are limited sources, probably because we used to get what needed from being outside) and the sun helps skin metabolism and growth. Our big brains are hungry for Omega 3 fats, specifically the DHA fatty acid. In fact, the brain gets first dibs anytime you consume foods with Omega 3’s. Julia Ross, author of the Mood Cure, explains why these fats are the key to good mental health:

By correcting fatty-acid imbalances in your brain (the brain is 60% fat), [Omega 3's from fish sources] can usher out low-catecholamine depression and increase concentration in a hurry…

[Catecholamines include dopamine and adrenaline...they provide feelings of zest and excitement , and also provide the energy needed to deal with stress]

…Your adrenals need plenty of both vitamin D and omega-3 fat in order to make their stress-fighting [catecholamines]. Many people report significantly increased energy as well as peace of mind when they take these two nutrients as part of their basic supplements.

We need these fats to protect and produce the chemicals our brain uses to deal with life, to stay positive, and to take life in stride. There is a lot of research on the use of Omega 3 fats in helping depression specifically, but it is necessary for a whole range of emotional and neurological needs on a daily basis. I seem to be person who tends toward worry and anxiety. I have made a number of changes in my life to help me avoid this tendency, from controlling my work life to the demands I take on generally. I am also getting more perspective and calm as I get older. All this likely goes hand in hand, but it’s been very clear that since taking cod liver oil I just feel more even keeled. I understand now why that is, but it’s encouraging to actually experience it. The omega-3 fatty acid EPA in cod liver oil don’t just go to the brain, but also helps the rest of the body. According to the WAPF article on this super food, “EPA is the precursor of important prostaglandins, localized tissue hormones that help the body deal with inflammation…” These prostaglandins are the biochemical messengers that control certain aspects of inflammation, rather like aspirin, which also affects the prostaglandin system. As a gardener, a baker’s assistant, a farmer’s market schlepper, and computer user my hands and body in general get worn out at the ripe old age of 27. Anything I can do to ease the inflammation of lots of physical work helps me continue to do that work. And the more I move this body, the more butter I can eat. win win!

When it comes to long term health and wellness I fully stand behind the statement that food is medicine. All the supplements and herbs and pharmaceuticals won’t get you very far if your daily meals are wearing down your system. However, even with all the time, effort, and money we put into getting nourishing foods at every meal, we live in the city and deal with all kinds of known and unknown substances; the city puts antimicrobials in the water, which might fix some public health issues, doesn’t really help all the little guys helping me digest my food; while most of my food comes from local, organic farmers, much of the soil is depleted and we likely don’t get as much nutrition in our food as we used to. So are all these reasons to line my shelves with this vitamin and that anti-oxidant to make up for it all? I’ve decided no. Mainly to preserve my budget for better food, to have a simpler and tastier relationship with my nutrition needs, and because most of stuff in bottles or drinks or bars or any other supplemented form just doesn’t work. Much of my effort in cooking goes into making sure the food I eat is useful to the body (soaking grains and legumes to avoid phytic acid, making sure I have good fats to use all the fat-soluble vitamins, avoiding the depleting effects of sugar, etc) I don’t like the idea of medicine that either has side effects or isn’t really prepared for the body to use effectively.

But I do take cod liver oil. And here’s how:

In a shot glass full of a nice thick juice, like tomato juice. (I use a black cherry juice because it aids in the need for something anti-inflammatory. This thick, sweet, and almost smoky flavored juice has the same compounds as medicines like ibuprofen). Fill the glass about three quarters of the way and then put about 2ml of cod liver oil on top. Shoot it back and have a chaser of some kind. It doesn’t taste good, but you get used to it. You can also get it in capsules. Not all cod liver oil is made with the same quality or has the right ratio to Vitamins A & D. We take the Green Pastures fermented oil, available here (this source also has other options that might appeal more)

*I always assumed the snake oil of old was always and consistently a con artist scheme to get desperate folks to part with their money. And it was, in the States anyway. In China it was and is a total legitimate topical remedy for inflammation. Pure snake oil is higher in eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) than other sources. EPA is the starting material the body uses to make the series 3 prostaglandins. (see explanation above of why these help inflammation, same as in cod liver oil) EPA can be absorbed through the skin and so pure snake oil could be very effective for aches. The stuff sold here by scammers was a combination of beef tallow, mineral oil, red pepper, camphor, and turpentine- so, no wonder.

It’s great that I can choose to spend the extra money on Organic food, so that I don’t have any conventionally grown food available in my house and so that every penny I spend on food (which is a high percentage of all my pennies- more like 20%, versus the national average of 9%) But my consumer role still doesn’t allow me to choose only organic air to breathe or tap water to drink or make sure that none of pesticides sprayed by conventional farms doesn’t reach the family and workers of the organic farm I am trying to support. Not to mention the fact that this choice is out of reach of most institutions like hospitals and public schools, both of which feed populations that need healthy food and are often lower-income. And of course we know that families can’t and/or won’t buy organic because of the extra cost.

Given two recent reports about the dangers of pesticides there really shouldn’t be a choice. But that isn’t a guilt trip to people who won’t fork over the cash to pay for safer products. It is to say no one should have to choose not to poison their kids or be forced to bring harmful chemicals into their system because the other options are more affordable.

The recent report by the President’s Cancer Panel reveals, finally, that the most important aspect of the issue of cancer is environmental factors. Factors that are have been grossly underestimated and under-regulated. The Panel’s report is called REDUCING ENVIRONMENTAL CANCER RISK: What We Can Do Now.

It is almost shocking how straightforward the report is about the harm caused by the chemicals and environmental factors of daily life. We are so used to hearing measured responses to “possible health risks” associated with much of the stuff we are exposed to and taking these risks seriously in a consistent way can even make you feel a bit like a paranoid wing-nut. But now there is enough evidence and acknowledgment of that evidence prove that efforts to avoid plastics and pesticides are not wacky…but there is the disappointment, that yes, it’s as bad (or worse) than you thought. So yes, it’s an overwhelming report, but in all reality it’s a refreshing report because it finally puts these causes of cancer out in the open, and asks that be addressed. It is something that everyone should read which you can do in this pdf.

The report should be read so that as many people as possible know the harm of the exposure to these chemicals so that these chemicals will stopped being used. Rather than having choices about what products we are exposed to, these products, given the evidence, should be banned. Then no one can make the wrong choice.

The Pesticide Action Network sent out an e-mail to ask for support for language in the Safe Chemicals Act that would give EPA more power to regulate persistent chemicals. You can contact your Senator through PAN here.

as this Washington Post report points out:

The panel said the country needs to overhaul existing chemical laws, a conclusion that has been supported by public health groups, environmental advocates, the Obama administration and even the chemical industry.

The current system places the burden on the government to prove that a chemical is unsafe before it can removed from the market. The standards are so high, the government has been unable to ban chemicals such as asbestos, a widely recognized carcinogen that is prohibited in many other countries.

About 80,000 chemicals are in commercial use in the United States, but federal regulators have assessed only about 200 for safety.

Chapter Two of the President’s Cancer Panel Report is “Exposure to Contaminants From Agricultural Sources” It opens with this uplifting observation:

The entire U.S. population is exposed on a daily basis to numerous agricultural chemicals. Many of these chemicals are known or suspected of having either carcinogenic or endocrine-disrupting properties. chemicals.

It goes onto explain the dangers of chemical use in agriculture to all of us, most especially the people who get their livelihood from the food system. Unfortunately the consequences of these chemicals are not limited to cancer. The other recent report that reveals the impact conventional agriculture on our bodies and brains is an investigation by a team of scientists from the University of Montreal and Harvard University, published in the journal Pediatrics, which found a connection between exposure pesticides and the presence of symptoms of ADHD. Lead author Maryse F. Bouchard of the University of Montreal Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and the Sainte-Justine Hospital Research Center says:

Our study found that exposure to organophosphates in developing children might have effects on neural systems and could contribute to ADHD behaviors, such as inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.

All this brings up that mantra of “Don’t panic, buy Organic”, which is more true than ever before. But again, it raises the issue of why this country has allowed this to be a choice. Sure we’ve carved out a market for those who are willing and able to pay the full cost of sustainably raised food but the remainder is too many people still being exposed to toxins, including those who paid to avoid it. We need to move beyond an organic certification to a certain market and apply those standards to all food. There is not enough evidence to prove that avoiding chemicals and feeding the people of the world are mutually exclusive goals, and remember that saying so sidesteps the issue that conventional farming isn’t feeding the world successfully either.

We are certainly in a better spot politically than we have been before to take these chemicals out of our system, and the more that people are aware of what is causing these diseases and disorders and choose, as much as possible to support practices and products that avoid them the better.

You can read more about the Organophosphate (OP) Pesticides addressed in there study here. You can also take a small action to, again through the Pesticide Action network, sign a petition to the EPA to ban Chlorpyrifos, an organophosphate insecticide.

I guess the message for now is, Be optimistic about Organic- choose it until you don’t have to.

I admit that the choice for the video below is weird because Don Imus is not well respected since his many rude remarks, and he and his wife (Deirdre Imus) are friends of Sean Hannity and all their media is through Fox, but that doesn’t change the fact that I agree with Deirdre’s approach and her information and that ultimately she is doing good work on these issues. It’s always good to look at common ground among often divided groups.