I belive in a wholistic approach to life and health. Our whole body works in unison to give us energy and health. Eastern medicine teaches us that one organ in our body cannot be looked at individually without considering the body as a whole and how all the organs affect eachother. Earth and her ecosystems are the same way. When our water gets polluted, it can disrupt the sea life, which can have far reaching effects on land and air ecosystems as well. On a broader scope, what happends here in Earth can indeed have an affect on a distant galaxy; everything in this universe from a atomic level to a cosmic level is connected.
    I cook because I love eating, being creative, and enjoying how it brings people together. The attitude of cooking from the heart, with love for the art, for the Earth, and for those we are sharing it with, will permeate into your life. Cooking can help us feel that oneness within the body, the planet, and the universe. I love the lessons cooking can teach us about life. When creating a dish we must balance flavors and textures to maximize the joy, vibrance, and nutrition that the dish can bring. In life too must we find that balance - the flavors are our spiritual practice, the textures our physical practice.
    Through my yoga practice I am finding how we must hone our inner warrior and our inner yogi in order to be in balance and harmony. To do this we must relinquish our control and accept that which we cannot change and improve that which we can. A balance between the passive and commanding aspects of our lives. Most suffering is caused by an inability to relinquish control. We can bring about an outcome through our actions and our meditation practice by tapping into The Source that runs through us all. We have the power to alter our reality through our mindset and through visualization. Yet we must be willing to accept the outcome and the path that we take to get there.
    I was making sourdough bread last week and was inspired with what it can teach us about the world and our place in it. Traditional sourdough bread is made with a starter rather than bakers yeast. I do not wish to vilanize bakers yeast, but it likely came about because of time constraints and our need for consistency, and control. Traditional sourdough bread teaches us to slow down and let nature take care of us. It will, if we simply listen and give up resistance. As we allow our starter to become innoculated with wild yeast around us, we are relying on that which we cannot see or touch to take care of us. The seed has been planted; now we must feed it and watch it grow. Like in gardening (and in life), it is not enough to simply plant a seed and walk away. Whether it is a goal we are working toward, or a habit we are trying to break, we must bolster, prune, and hone in order to acheive the desired outcome. With our starter (the first step in making sourdough bread), we must feed it flour and water daily until it becomes lively and strong. I relate making a starter to planting a seed, because once established, it will innoculate loaves of bread for generations to come. It's just like growing an apple tree will give you fruit for years to come if nurtured. Or learning a key cooking concept (like how to properly hold a chef's knife or how to braise meats) will greatly improve your culinary experiences for a life time.
    By not relying on baker's yeast, we relinquish control on the precise outcome of the bread. With patience, the bread will rise if you have planted a healthy starter seed, but the bread will "tell" you when it is ready. Listen to the bread because it will be different depending on certain environmental factors. We must be adaptable and accepting. Even after I had my starter established, my last batch of sourdough bread took 3 days of maturation before baking. But good things come to those who wait, and through patience, trust, planting, and nurturing, I was rewarded with a delightfully tart loaf of sourdough bread with a beautiful crust and an airy soft interior, loaded with flavor. In addition, natural fermentation (through lactic acid), helps break down phytic acid (a nutrient inhibitor found in wheat). This makes the nutrients in the bread much easier for the body to assimilate!

Recipe and pictures to come! 

Wild Mushroom Ragout Over Creamy Polenta w/ Beet greens, and Black Radish Salad

The beautiful thing about mushrooms is that they are extremely flavorful and "meaty". They give that umami flavor burst and they can often take center stage in a dish replacing meat. I love meat very much but in this tasty vegetarian dish, the meat isnt missed in the least. Mushrooms are also extremely good for you as they absorb and eliminate toxins from the body. The mushrooms pictured below were bought from a farmers market from a lady who specializes in cultivating and wild foraging mushrooms. The varieties below are Beech, Pearl and Yellow Oyster, Crimini, and Wood Ear, but feel free to use any three or more kinds of mushrooms of your liking for this recipe.

Mushroom Ragout Recipe

   2 T extra virgin olive oil

   1 small onion fine dice

   2 cloves garlic minced

   1 small shallot minced

   1 lb mushrooms cut into chunks (@ least 3 different varieties) washed and dried thoroughly

   few sprigs thyme and rosemary

   2 T tomato paste

   1 cup chicken stock

   1/4 cup white wine

   2 T balsamic vinegar

   2 T cold butter

   1 T chopped parsley

Heat half the olive oil over medium high heat in a large saute pan and sear the mushrooms in the pan taking care not to crowd them. Toss in the thyme and rosemary sprigs. Saute the mushrooms until they release their juices and then reabsorb most of them. Remove to a plate and saute the onion, shallot, and garlic in the rest of the olive oil, then add the mushrooms back in the pan along with the herbs. Next deglaze with the wine and then add the tomato paste and chicken stock. Simmer for 15 min until mushrooms are tender and sauce thickens. Finish with the balsamic, mount in the cold butter, and add the parsley. Season with sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. Ladle over polenta.

   

Beet Greens Recipe
   1/2 lb beet greens
   1 small onion julienned
   1 T extra virgin olive oil
   splash soy sauce, white wine, and chicken stock
   Sea salt and pepper to taste
Sweat out the onions in the oil over medium heat, and add the beet greens, saute until wilted then add the liquids and lower the heat. Simmer until all the liquid has been absorbed. Transfer to a plate to cool. Once cooled squeeze out most of the liquid in the greens and transfer to a cutting board to chop finely. This will give the greens a different texture and make them more incorporated into the dish. To serve, spoon a wad on each side of the plate.

Creamy Polenta Recipe
   1 qt chicken stock
   1 cup polenta
   a few dried mushrooms (I used porcini)
   1/4 cup cream (preferably raw and organic)
   2 T butter (preferably raw and organic)
   2 tsp hot sauce
   sea salt and pepper to taste
Simmer the chicken stock with the dried mushrooms for 10-15 min to flavor the broth for the polenta. Discard the dried mushrooms and bring the liquid up to a rolling boil. Pour in the polenta while whisking constantly. Turn the heat down to low and cook for 20 min stirring frequently and adding a touch of hot water if it gets too thick and starts sticking to the bottom. Next add the cream, butter, hot sauce, and season.

Lay a few scoops of polenta down on the plate and pour the Ragout over top. Serve the beet greens on the side and the finishing touch it Black Radish matchsticks tossed in a bit of lemon juice and walnut oil. Grate some parmesan cheese over top and serve. Carnivores and Herbivores alike will thank you.

Best Potato Latkes (with apple sauce and creme fraiche)

    Great breakfast dish, great appetizer, great snack, great any-time treat. Again, a lot of cultures have their own version of this traditional staple. Lithuanian bulviniai blynai, German kartoffelpuffer, Jewish latkes. This recipe yields a crisp flavorful "pancake" that holds together well and reheats well. My favorite way is to serve them with apple sauce and creme fraiche (very traditional...for a reason) but they are of course good with a poached egg on top, and/or homemade hot sauce or katsup (recipes in a later post). I've found that the best way to cook them is to shallow fry them in lard or bacon grease. If you dont have either, use extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil.
    Let me pause here and talk about the importance and relevance of fats and oils in cooking. The beauty of having different fats and oils on hand is that you can use the appropriate one (or more) to lend a helping hand to the dish you are creating via flavor and lubrication. In addition, a variety of quality fats and oils in your diet is vital for nutrient uptake, protecting and enriching your organs, keeping your cholesterol in check, and providing you with omega 3s and omega 6s as well as other nutrients. Obviously the fats in quality meats, eggs, and other proteins are valuable, but, they dont offer the full spectrum of nutrients that you can get from many other fats and oils (such as nut, seed, and fish oils)
   In regard to cooking, saturated fats (clarified butter, beef fat, chicken fat, bacon fat, lard, coconut oil) are going to have a higher smoking point than unsaturated so you would want to use them for higher heat (you never want to heat oil until smoking at which point it becomes denatured and carcinogenic). Some unsaturated fats you can use to medium heat such as extra virgin olive oil, unrefined sesame oil, unrefined peanut oil, unrefined palm kernel oil. Many polyunsaturated fats are delicate and cannot withstand any heat such as walnut oil, flax seed oil, avocado oil, cod liver oil. Use them for salad dressings or for finishing oils. Dont be afraid of the fat! Yes, use in moderation but as long as you are using fat from a healthy free range animal or other unrefined organic source, AND you get a variety of saturated, and mono and polyunsaturated fats, then it will greatly enhance you life and your health. I encourage you to read more about fats and oils in "The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia" by Rebecca Wood, and "Fat - an appreciation of a misunderstood ingredient" by Jennifer Mclagan.
ON TO THE RECIPE!!
   2.5 lbs of raw potatoes (preferably kenebecs, or russets)
   3 T creme fraiche (recipe follows)
   3 T spelt flour
   2 eggs
   starch from potatoes
   sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
   few grated of fresh nutmeg
Shred the potatoes on a box grater or food processor with a shredder attachment. Place the shredded potatoes in cheese cloth and squeeze out as much moisture as humanly possible into a bowl. Let the liquid sit for about 5 minutes, then pour off all the liquid and you should have a layer of white starch left in the bowl.. In another small bowl combine the eggs, creme fraiche, flour and potato starch and whisk together to form a batter. Pour over the shredded potatoes mix until thoroughly coated. Season with salt and pepper. Heat a generous amount of lard or bacon fat in a large skillet over high heat (the fat should be about 1/4-1/2 in deep). Form patties with the mixture about the size of the palm of your hand and 1/4 - 1/3 of an inch thick. Once the fat ripples when you tilt the pan place the patties in the oil and fry until golden brown and crispy on both sides. You may need to add a bit more fat between batches. remove to a paper towel or a wrack on a sheet tray to dry and cool.

I slopped some homemade creme fraiche and homemade apple sauce on em, garnished with pea tendrils, and had at it.

Homemade Creme Fraiche Recipe
   2 cups heavy cream (preferably raw and organic)
   2 T of cultured buttermilk (preferably raw and organic)
Combine in a sauce pan and heat ever so slightly over low heat to get it to about 80F. Careful not to heat too much and kill the bacteria cultures. Pour into a jar and cover it with cheese cloth and a rubber band. Leave it out on the counter at room temp for 24-48 hrs or until it thickens and sours to your liking.

Homemade Apple Sauce Recipe
   3 lbs of apples (preferably organic and of multiple varieties)
   3 cloves
   5 allspice berries
   1/2 cinnamon stick
   1 tsp sea salt
   1/2 cup cider
   1/2 cup dry white wine
Slice the apples, make a sachet of the spices (wrap in cheese cloth and tie), and combine all ingredients in a sauce pot. Boil over medium heat for 30 min until the apples are tender. Remove the sachet and pass the remaining apple mixture through a food mill. Return to the pot with the sachet and simmer to reduce to your desired thickness. If you are canning, sterilze the jars and pour the apple sauce in while very hot. Place the lid on top and tighten the ring slightly. Once the lid seals, tighten the rest of the way.

SourDough Crepes with bacon, goat cheese, apples, shallots, and pea tendrils

     Often times known as a french breakfast dish but a great deal of european cultures have their own variation on the theme and not always breakfasty and not always savory. Poland has their blintz, Russia has their blini, Hungry has their palascinta, etc. They are all slightly different variations on a very thin pancake wrapped up with some sort of surprise inside. 

     My girlfriend has her own bread sourdough starters adding to the fermenting vats around the house. This recipe uses those starters to create a sour slightly airy crepe dough. If you dont have starters going in your house they are a good healthy alternative to store bought bread yeast (see fermented steak sauce post). The premise is that you mix water with whole grain bread flour to form a watery paste-like consistency and leave it out for days on end, feeding it each day with more flour until the wild yeast start to develop enough to make the dough rise and aerate. This takes about a week to get it going but once you have a healthy culture living in your dough you can keep it in the fridge and feed it once a week and take it out to use it as needed. Grant it this is a difficult process to master and take a lot of trial and error, so for those who dont have starters laying around, I included an alternative crepe recipe taken from JOY of cooking, probably the best book for a beginner cook to read. 

For the crepe batter

   3/4 cup sourdough starter

   2 eggs

   2 T melted butter

   whole milk to consistency (about 1/4 cup)

   salt and pepper to taste

   1 tsp sugar

Mix ingredients together to form a batter. Melt some butter in a skillet over medium heat and ladle about 3 oz of batter in the pan and tilt it immediately so it evenly covers the bottom of the pan. Cook about 2 minutes until it firms up enough to flip with a spatula. Upon flipping add your cheese and other ingredients. After another 1-2 minutes fold/roll up the crepe and remove to a plate to let cool a bit and then devour. 

Alternate crepe recipe

   1 cup all purpose flour or spelt flour

   1 cup whole milk

   1/2 cup lukewarm water

   4 eggs

   1/4 cup melted butter

   1/2 tsp salt

   1/2 tsp sugar 

Mix ingredients, cover and let stand for 30 min before cooking. Follow same instructions as above. 

  For the filling

   thinly sliced sauteed shallots

   thinly sliced apples (I used the Golden Russet variety)

   cooked bacon strips (see Boogs Bacon post on how to make your own)

   pea tendrils

   goat cheese crumbled (I used aged gouda)

Pea tendrils are the shoots of the pea plant - they are tender, crunchy and delicious. Have fun with the fillings and be creative, crepes are a great template for building a meal out of stray veggies and a little cheese and whatnots you have laying around in the fridge.

Boog's Bacon

      Making your own bacon at home is one of the most useful, gratifying, sensible things you can do as a home cook. It is very easy and with a bit of preparation and planning ahead you can have delicious bacon stocked up for months. I encourage you to source a belly from a free range organic pig preferably wild foraging on nuts and roots. This results is a meat with much more flavor. Animals to a degree will taste like what they are eating. If you want pork with a nutty, rich, earthy flavor you'll take the time to source a quality hog. Feed a pig garlic and chestnuts and the flesh will reflect those flavors. The best place to source a large primal cut of meat as well as a quality one is of course your local farmers market. Most regular grocery stores dont offer quality meats, most organic ones dont offer large cuts, if they offer any meat at all. Butcher shops are a dying breed unfortunately and the ones that are left are of suspect integrity.
      I special ordered a whole belly a week in advance from Many Rocks Farm, a purveyor at the Baltimore Farmers Market, offering the Mulefoot breed of pig. The flavor was rich, and almost gamey from the wild diet they were raised on; one of the most flavorful breeds of pig I've tasted. Regardless of where you source your pork from, the factory farmed pig (offered at most "regular" grocery stores) is going to fall far flat in terms of flavor, fat content, and health benefits. If this is absolutely the only thing you can find and afford, homemade bacon is still worth the effort. My reasoning for spending the extra dough is that I want to know exactly what is going into my body - healthy animals means healthy meat which means healthy me. If you look at the ingredients list of a pre-made product and you dont recognize or cant pronounce the ingredients on the list, I would think twice about eating it. At the same time, if you shop for the cheapest version of any product, you have to stop and think "why is this the cheapest" - in most cases its because its the shittiest version or the quality is at least compromised in some way. Im not saying to buy the most expensive version of everything but to be aware of whats going into your body because what goes in, is going to manifest itself in some way or another.
      The beauty of making your own is obviously that you can hone the seasoning and salt content it to your own taste buds but furthermore that you can smoke it with whatever wood, guarantee freshness, leave out the nitrates and nitrites, and slice it however thick or thin you want (or even leave some as slab bacon). Like I mentioned in an earlier post, farmers markets are a great place to source any of your food because you can stand there and ask the farmer (or someone that is at least somehow involved in the process) all about the product in consideration (for meat for example: what was the diet of the animal, what is the breed, is it free range, is it organic, age at slaughter, how long was it hung) and perhaps make a special request for a primal cut.
 Now that you have your whole or half pork belly (they can range anywhere from 10-15 lbs so half might be a better start), its time to make your dry cure. Get creative and add what you want - you could make a sweeter breakfast bacon, an herbal savory bacon, or a simple pepper bacon. My recipe combines them all and works well for pretty much anything I use bacon for.

The Dry Cure
   8-10 lbs pork belly
   1/3 cup maple syrup
   140 grams salt (preferably sea salt) or a scant half cup if you dont have a scale
   1/4 cup sucanat or brown sugar
   2 T crushed bay leaves
   1 T toasted coriander seeds
   2 T course freshly ground pepper
   2 T juniper berries
   2 tsp allspice berries
   1 tsp cloves
   6 garlic cloves pressed through a garlic press or grated
   6-8 sprigs of fresh thyme
Rub the belly with the maple syrup. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and rub all over the top, bottom, and sides of the belly. Place on a half sheet tray or a nonreactive container large enough to fit the belly. Cover with plastic wrap, press with a weight on top and store in the fridge for 5-7 days depending on the thickness of the belly (most are 1-2 inches thick; the thicker the longer it takes to cure).

 

After the cure time, wash the belly thoroughly and place on a wrack and back in the fridge uncovered for another day or two to form a pellicle (dry shiny surface that smoke will adhere to). After a minimum of 12 hrs it is ready to smoke. Make sure to soak your chips/wood for at least an hr before smoking. I used applewood chips and chestnut shells that I had left over from making chestnut soup but pretty much any type of wood chips or nut shells will do the trick. Hickory I actually tend to stay away from because of their overpowering almost astringent flavor. Fire your grill up for indirect heat at 300-325 degrees. Once the grill is heated and at a steady temp add the chips and the belly. Cover as much as you can  in order to hold in the smoke and maintain the temp. Smoke for 2-4 hrs or until internal temp reaches 150 F.

 There you have it, your bacon is ready to slice once its cooled. Leaving some of the bacon as slab bacon allows you to cut it into chunks for soups and stews, strips for salads and sauces. The slices I cook on a rack rubbed with a bit of sucanat and freshly cracked pepper in a 375 F oven.

This helps off set the saltiness of the bacon and yields a nice crispy caramelized surface. Happy smokey bacon adventures. 

Parsnip and apple soup

Ahh the pureed soup, creamy texture without even needing to add cream, even distribution and marriage of flavors, easy to eat and add other accompaniments. Better yet you dont have to worry about your knife work! Ahh the parsnip, looks like a white carrot but so very different - buttery, sweet, and slight touch of spice. 

This soup is very easy to put together and has some nice fall flavors come together.

The Recipe

   4 parsnips peeled and chopped

   1 carrot peeled and chopped

   1 leek washed thoroughly and chopped

   2 shallots chopped

   2 apples preferably of different varieties (I used Braeburn and Jonagold)

   2 stalks celery

   6 cups chicken stock

   6 sprigs of thyme

   2 bay leaves

   1 cup of cream preferably raw and organic

   2 T olive oil

   1/2 cup white wine (I used Riesling)

   salt and white pepper to taste

Heat the oil and sweat out the vegetables taking care not to let them brown. Once vegetables soften a bit, deglaze with the white wine and reduce by half. Add the thyme and the chicken stock and simmer for 30-40 min or until vegetables are tender. Cut off the heat and add in the cream. Remove the sprigs of thyme and bay leaves. Transfer to a blender or Vitamix and puree in batches and pass through a chinois or other fine meshed sieve. If the soup is too thick add  a bit more chicken stock to your liking. 

One of the beauty of this, or any other well prepared pureed soup for that matter, is that its fantastic on its own, or if your feeling zealous, add some floating accoutrements such as roasted mushrooms and celery leaves, brown buttered dates and parsley leaves, parmesan croutons, toasted pecans, candied bacon, the list goes on. Have fun with it, explore the possibilities. 

Fermented steak sauce

     The American culture has largely shunned the art and science of fermentation. They have the idea that bacteria is a culprit that needs to be stifled at all cost - thus the over medication, over sanitation, over pasteurization, etc. I am of the opinion that we need to embrace bacteria and let them work for us - after all, the number of bacteria present in the average human outnumbers our number of cells 10 to 1 - which makes us wonder - who's controlling who? Obviously, most of these bacteria are beneficial and most of them are vital for our bodies to function properly. Throughout our evolution bacteria have thrived in our bodies and have perhaps even been the driving force of our own evolution. Scientists have found that bacteria in our stomach, gut, skin, and genitalia, that is largely passed on during birth, is necessary for digestion and defense against other harmful bacteria. Enough of the science lesson but the point is, including beneficial bacteria in your diet via fermented foods is a great way to stay healthy. I try to eat or drink something fermented with every meal - aids in nutrient absorption and keeps your vitality up. The list is huge starting with some obvious ones: yogurt (preferably organic and raw), raw cheese, creme fraiche, real sour kraut, soy sauce, miso, unpasteurized beer cider or wine, kvass, kombucha, real pickles, kim chi, gochujang, umeboshi, fermented salami, etc. The beauty of fermentation is that if you do it right, you can make a big batch and because of the beneficial bacteria/wild yeast, it will keep for a very long time. Now I'm not telling you to roll around in the dirt and never wash your hands - but I am suggesting that you stop taking antibiotics every time you sneeze, drinking pasteurized products, carrying spray-sanitizer in your purse, and being afraid of a little wild fermentation.
      On to the steak sauce. You can go ahead and throw that bottle of A1 in the garbagio because the flavor of this finished sauce is insurmountable. I got the inspiration for this recipe from old boy Chris Hastings - author of Hot and Hot Fish club and owner of the Alabama restaurant with the same name. I strongly suggest that you read the book and/or go to the restaurant if you ever get the chance.

For the sauce:
   2 medium onions chopped
   2 T sesame oil
   3 garlic cloves
   1 large carrot chopped
   1 6 oz container of tomato paste
   1 cayenne pepper
   1 bell pepper
   1 dried ancho chile pepper
   2 T tamarind paste
   4 cloves
   1 tsp  whole allspice
   1 tsp whole peppercorns
   1 whole star anise pod
   10 sprigs of thyme
   3 bay leaves
   1 1/2 cups molasses
   2 cups balsamic vinegar
   2 cups red wine
   3 cups chicken stock
Heat the oil and then add all the ingredients except the last 4. Once the vegetables soften add the remaining 4 ingredients and simmer for 1-2 hours or until the sauce thickens and becomes sticky. Let cool slightly and then puree in a blender and pass through a chinois. Once the sauce has cooled to 80 F add a tbl of whey if you have it - this will inoculate it so to speak with a live culture and keep other harmful bacteria from taking over. Alternatively you can use the pickling brine from other natural pickles or just leave it out and hope for the best. As long as you put it into a clean jar you may be able to get a strong fermentation on its own. Cover tightly with cheese clothe or a paper towel and let sit for 3-5 days. Once the taste as mellowed and matured to where you want it, put a lid on it and put it in the fridge where it will keep almost indefinitely.

 
 

Here I took a grass-fed ribeye steak and let it air dry on a rack in the fridge for 2 days until the surface gets shiny and a bit dry. I then dusted some sea salt and cracked pepper on both sides and seared the steak on a hot cast iron pan with a little butter and olive oil until medium rare. The brussels I blanched for 4 min and shocked in an ice bath before searing them flat side down in a hot cast iron pan until browned. Note: I reserved some of the raw brussel leaves when cutting them in half in order to make a raw brussel salad with a little lemon juice and olive oil to go on top. Ladle about a tablespoon of yee olde fermented steak shmigalidoo on top and dig in.

Sometimes I feel like my kitchen is a science lab....in a good way though, its rather comforting to have the bubbling vats of wondafuls around. Stay tuned for my homemade fermented katsup recipe.