Cooking with Karina Davidson

For years I have wanted to assist Karina Davidson in the kitchen during one of her cooking classes.  Karina has cooked and baked in many capacities here in Bellingham.  You may know her delicious fare at the Firehouse Cafe in Fairhaven or her work teaching cooking classes with the Healthy Connections program held by the Community Food Co-op.  I recently assisteed her at the State Street location where she taught "September in Paris" to a sold-out class.

Karina travels to France as often as she can and confesses that her favorite city is Paris.  The menu for September in Paris featured fresh ingredients that all complimented each other to make a delicious meal using techniques that most of us can master.  

Thyme leaves that Kate, the other assistant, and I plucked

crumbled Gorgonzola

pie crust,  "piece of cake" Karina makes it look quick and easy

she manages to chat with students while she works

perfect crust is ready

cheese spread across the bottom of the pies

sliced tomatoes on top

sprinkled with the thyme leaves to make the Provencal Tomato Tart

slicing lemons for the tapenade dressing

fresh garlic that I helped to peel

olives to be chopped into a tapenade and stuffed into salmon

fresh parsley to be chopped with garlic for on top of the salmon

Cauliflower for the gratin

gruyere and parmesan cheese to cover

will be the Gratin de Choufleur (Cauliflower Gratin)

slicing a pocket into salmon sections

opening the pocket being careful to not cut all the way through

opening the pocket

stuffing the olive tapenade into the pockets

finishing with olive oil, garlic and parsley on top

and more tapenade on top of that - gorgeous

one cake is ready while Karina shows the students how to make another one

whisking the coco

finishing with Julia Child's Chocolate Mousse Cake

I was too busy cleaning up to take more photos, but let me tell you . . . the rewards of assisting Karina in the kitchen are the delicious leftovers including a delightful glass of wine.  I may have a new motto, Will Work For Food. . . think that will fit on my license plate?

Links
https://www.facebook.com/firehousecafe98225

http://www.appleseedmac.com/firehouse/page6/page6.html

http://www.communityfood.coop/learn/classes/

A Month of Eating Local

Did you try to eat local in September?

It's hard.  I tried.

I buy a lot of my produce directly from the Farmers and I still found a large percentage of my food is not local because some of it does not grow here.  Here's how I did.  It was great fun.

Local Heirloom Tomato

Local tomato, local cream, local frozen peas

Local tomato, local kale from Terra Verde Garden

Local carrots from Lunaria Farm and Alm Hill Farm

Local beans from Terra Verde Garden

The prettiest pears I've ever seen from BelleWood Acres

Friend's backyard plums

to make my grandma Gertrude's Pflaumenkuchen (Plum Cake)

and used the leftover plums to cook up local Brussels Sprouts from Terra Verde Garden and BelleWood Apples

Washington apples, local kale, carrots from Sunseed Farm

for juicing to make up for all the ancient Einkorn wheat that I'm eating lately

the hens who lay the eggs that I eat really like the leftover fiber from my juicing, so they are eating local too

I juice ginger that has been in my freezer since last year, local from Terra Verde Garden

Nectarines from the Okanogan Valley in Eastern Washington in a skillet cake

local eggs, local butter

Ricotta cheesecake made with local eggs

cooked emmer (farro) berries from Bluebird Grain Farms in Winthrop, Washington, local cherry tomatoes, local basil

Local pizza made by . . .

 . . . local guy Russ of Gusto Pizza

lunch by local food truck JTs Smokin BBQ made from local pork from Farmer Ben's

JTs baked beans are the best I've ever had in my entire life.  These are destination baked beans.  If you love BBQ and baked beans, find this guy's truck (links below) and drive there for lunch.  Call me, I'll join you.

If you have never bought meat directly from a farmer, Jessica and Ben make it really easy and friendly in their farm store.  It's lovely, they are lovely and they treat their animals with respect and gratitude.

local distillery tour at BelleWood Acres

they distill their own apples to hand craft vodka, gin, eau de Vie, liqueurs, brandy, whiskey, pommeau, and ciders 

local eggs in my Tuscan wheat

local eggs

local eggs

When I put it all together, it sort of adds up.   I'm glad that we truck certain foods half way around the world.  I love my Italian wheat, Sumatran coffee, California citrus.  I don't always know where my food comes from.  I support my imports as much as I support my locally sourced food.  If I can't call myself a locavore - can I call myself a globavore?

What do you eat that is local?  Imported?

Links to a few farms and providers that I love:

http://myfarmerben.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Terra-Verde-Garden/73526016804

https://www.facebook.com/GustoWoodFiredPizza

https://www.facebook.com/lunariafarmfresh

http://www.sunseedfarm.com/organic/Welcome.html

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alm-Hill-Garden/104698329597870

https://www.facebook.com/JtsSmokinBbq

http://www.bluebirdgrainfarms.com/

http://www.bellewoodfarms.com/

Rustic Creme Scone with Ancient Einkorn Flour

I gardened in the rain the other day.  My clothes were completely soaked through by the time I came inside.  That's enough of a reason to bake, don't you think?

The recipe is from Peter Reinhart's Crust & Crumb: Master Formulas for Serious Bread Bakers.  I would like to become a serious bread baker now that I know I can eat ancient wheat.  This book and others from Brother Peter, who used to be a full time brother and is still a lay brother in Christ the Saviour Brotherhood, an Eastern Orthodox Christian service order, are very educational.  It's no coincidence, Peter is a full-time baking instructor.  He teaches at Johnson and Wales University.  When he wrote Crust & Crumb he was the baking instructor at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco.  He also founded Brother Juniper's Bakery in Santa Rosa and wrote a book about the bread there.  http://peterreinhart.typepad.com/about.html

Crust & Crumb was published in 1998.  He wasn't concerned about GMOs and toxic wheat, so to use his recipes with Einkorn might be a stretch.  But it's cold and rainy outside, so I'm going to take a chance.  I have written to Peter asking permission to reprint his recipe here.  In the meantime, I will tell you the ingredients and if you're impressed, you can check out his book, or buy a used copy.

Peter Reinhart's Master Formula for Cream Scones includes:
Unbleached all-purpose flour, I used Einkorn
Baking powder
Salt
Brown Sugar
Currants or other dried fruit, I used raisins and dried cranberries,
Heavy Cream, I used buttermilk
Egg wash on top before baking
Coarse sugar or crystallized ginger, I sprinkled regular sugar because that's all I had

Flatten the dough out on the counter to about one inch thick and cut into six wedges or more.  I made eight.

make an egg wash

beat it till frothy, foamy

Bake at 425 degrees for ten minutes.  Turn the baking pan around and bake at 375 degrees for another ten minutes.

Cool on rack for 20 minutes, I could hardly wait.

Top it with Creme Fraiche or mascarpone and this little gem is a satisfying meal.  It is dense and chewy with a little crunch on the outside from the egg wash and sprinkled sugar.  I doubt I'll be hungry for dinner and I attribute my satiety to the ancient grain.  I have never had a scone taste and feel like a meal.  This is worth making again and having for breakfast.  If you eat a scone this satisfying at tea time, you won't want dinner until tomorrow.

Quick, easy, delicious.  To your health.

Cooking Italian with Local Food

September is eat local month, but if you eat global recipes, it is impossible to be a pure locavore, "a person whose diet consists only or principally of locally grown or produced food".

I was in the mood to recreate a dish that my Florentine hostess cooked for me one night this summer.  But I want to challenge myself to eat as local as I can for the month of September.

As much as I tried, I think the only truly local food in this dish were the heirloom tomatoes from the Bellingham Farmer's Market, grown in nearby Everson.  That's okay.  Tomatoes are in season right now, and I'm eating local tomatoes.  

That's the basic idea.  If the local stuff is available, choose it over foods that are shipped from thousands of miles away.

This dish was served to me as risotto.  I used leftover Jade Pearl Rice that I tired for the first time yesterday.  My camera could not pick up on the subtle green tint to this delicate rice, so I am borrowing a pic that I found online, the credit is below.

It comes from south central China and is infused with a bamboo extract.  It smells faintly of green tea, which I do not care for.  It does not taste like green tea - it tastes earthy to me, like I am sitting in a tropical forest smelling the exotic foliage.

Gorgeous

I remembered that my Florentine hostess' dish was savory and creamy.  I had to improvise, because she did not give me her recipe.  I tossed a tablespoon of grass fed butter. . . 

. . . and a couple of glugs of cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil, from Italy . . .

. . . into a small pot and heated on a medium-low flame.  Then I added organic frozen peas.  They might be local, they are at least regional to my state.

I threw in the leftover Jade rice. . .

. . . see what I mean, I just could not get a good pic of this rice, but it is so pretty in person, don't be afraid to buy it.  I was encouraged by a friend who had already tried it, thank you, Irene.  It is available in bulk at the Community Food Co-op in Bellingham, and most likely in many stores around the world.

I chopped some domestic Swiss cheese. . .

. . . some organic uncured ham, easily omitted for vegetarian, kale would be a great substitute. . . 

and shredded and chopped pecorino cheese, from Italy . . .

I put it all into the pot with the rice and peas and poured in about 1/8 cup of pasture-raised cream.

Gently stirred and heated thoroughly.

Chopped my heirloom, local tomato

And topped a bowl of the rice dish with the tomato

It was creamy as if I had used risotto, the peas popped with fresh crunchiness as if I had shelled them myself, the ham was lightly salty against the fresh and cold tomato.  It tasted almost exactly like the dish I fell in love with in Italy.

I admire locavores and those who try to eat seasonally.  I am challenging myself this month to eat more local than normal.  I am happy when I can eat delicious food that is free of pesticides.  If, in addition, I have supported my local farmers I feel triumphant.  If what I cook is satisfying and tastes good, I will make it again.

I'll make this again.

Let me know if you try it, or a variation on this theme.

Sources:

(n.d.). Locavore. In Oxford American Dictionary. Retrieved from http://oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/locavore

Jade Rice images retrieved from https://www.google.com/search?q=jade+pearl+rice&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=cKsmUuK0KIK_igKZ-YHYCg&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1213&bih=706