Dare to Bake: I Kinda Can Believe It's Not Butter

Who doesn't love the luscious, flaky, buttery layers of goodness that is a croissant? Or better yet, a twice-baked pan amande or pan au chocolat? Oh la la. And while there are pretty spectacular vegan versions of many dairy-laden, egg-heavy desserts, butter croissants tend to pose some difficulties. For September, I was given a chance to let vegan croissants shine...I failed pretty miserably.

The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child! Check out the real recipe here (pdf).

I decided to consult one of my favorite cookbooks, Blood Root Volume 2. It has guided me through some pretty fantastic scones and cakes, not to mention the 'real' food! But the croissant recipe, I found, had a few quirks that yielded rather disappointing pastries. Using water and mixing coconut oil with flour are the main culprits for a baked good that resembles more of a crescent roll than a croissant. Looking back on a prior successful attempt at flaky wonderfulness, I've tweaked the recipe in a way that will hopefully yield some more decadent treats. Beware, though, this version is much messier...I would not recommend wearing something you would hate to see covered in grease stains!

A Not-So-Buttery Croissant (based on recipe from The Best of Bloodroot Volume II)

1/4 cup warm water (100F)
1 tbs active dry yeast
1 tbs sugar

1/4 cup coconut or almond milk
2 - 2 1/2 cups all purpose or white whole wheat flour
1/3 cup oil (canola, safflower, sunflower, or nut)
2 tsp salt
3 tbs sugar

1/2 cup solid coconut oil
1/4 cup olive or canola oil
2 tbs coconut milk

1. Mix warm water, yeast, and sugar. Let sit until starts to bubble.
2. Combine milk, oil, flour, salt, and sugar. Knead until no dry bits remain. Add flour if stick. Wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Mix together coconut milk and oil and vegetable oil. Place in refrigerator for 20-30 minutes until firmed up again.
4. Roll out half dough on a floured surface into a rectangle about 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick. Slather oil mixture all over, leaving about 1/4 inch around the edges. Fold into thirds, pinching the edges. Roll out again and spread oil again. Fold pinch and place in refrigerator for 45 minutes. Repeat with second half of dough and oil mix (if you have leftover spread, you can use it in the next round).
5. After refrigerating, roll out again into a rectangle, fold into thirds, roll out, fold and place back into refrigerator. Repeat with second half. And repeat this step once more.
5. Roll out dough into a parallelogram from which you can cut triangles to roll up into crescents. You can add fun things like cinnamon sugar, almond paste, and chocolate slabs. Shape and place on a cookie sheet. Allow to rise for 1 hour.
6. Bake at350F until just starting to brown. Brush with coconut milk or oil and continue to bake for another 5-10 minutes. Allow to cool or eat right away!

What a scrumptious challenge. I'll be back in business for blogging after this weekend...and my imminent move...so stay tuned for the upcoming Vegan Month of Food (MoFo)!

A Frugal Foodie

First of all, let me apologize for the infrequent and sporadic postings...this should improve once the craziness of life in September calms down. In the meantime, let's talk about eat healthy, while not spending an arm and a leg.

Today, Slow Food USA is challenging people to gather friends and family in order to cook a healthy "slow food" meal for under $5 per person - Take Back the Value Meal. This is the average price of a fast food value meal. A fast food deal like that also costs you about 1200 calories, and the cheeseburger alone (for example) emits about 13.4 pounds of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gases - driving an SUV for a year is equal to eating about ten of these. Bigger challenge: less than $5 per day?  

But cheap, healthy, homemade food is not only possible but quite enjoyable! Being on a budget myself, I've learned a few tips and tricks to spending little for a lot! Take a gander and add your own in the comments section:

1. Buy in bulk - and not the type of bulk that you carry away from a Costco. There is a time and a place for that type of purchasing. I am talking about bulk bins of dry goods: oats, rice, grains, legumes. A pound of dry beans costs under $2, is equivalent to nearly four cans, and does not contain all the added preservatives and salt. You can make a delicious and nutritious meal complete with protein (beans or lentils) and whole grains (brown rice, barley, etc.) for a pittance!

2. Make your own - this follows along with buying in bulk, since both lead to less packaging and waste. But most times, making your own food rather than buying it ready-to-go is cheap (barring things like granola bars, sadly). Instead of going out to lunch, dropping $5-8 on a sandwich, pack leftovers from the night before. If you want a cheap snack, microwave some popcorn kernels you bought from those bulk bins in a paper lunch bag for 1.5 minutes! Making your own yogurt is simple, too, and a fraction of the cost of individual yogurt containers (1/2 gallon soymilk ~$3.60 = 8 small jars yogurt).

3. Grow your own - you may not have room for a full-fledge garden (I don't), or even some raised beds, but odds are you can find space for a pot or two of herbs. Basil, thyme, oregano, mint, and chives make for easy herb gardens and cut costs of the dried stuff. You can also check your local surroundings for community garden space, and get your hands a bit dirty. Beans and lettuces are good starts!

4. Buy only what you will eat - we squander nearly half of our food annually, most of it thrown away! Think of the wilted lettuce mush or that moldy ol' tomato. Often we toss the remains of meals or let food spoil because our eyes are bigger than our stomachs - whether that occurs when purchasing the produce or cooking a dish. Give some thought to what you buy and how much you make before getting carried away!

5. Eat seasonally - bet you haven't heard that one before! But if you think about, when does your food cost the most? Are those strawberries in December really worth the pretty penny they cost? Seasonal sales at grocery stores may be the time to capitalize on certain produce items. Yes, you can get a banana all year long for 29 cents (sigh, I do too), but that doesn't hold for everything. The first apples tend to be more expensive than those during the middle of the fall, and when you are selling the last blueberries of the season, no matter how decrepit they look, you can charge whatever you want!

6. Looks aren't everything - try hitting up your local farmers market for "seconds", or blemished, fruit. Particularly during the height of a season, farmers often have more of certain produce items than they know what to do with. I usually get pounds and pounds of slightly-less-than-perfect peaches, nectarines, and tomatoes during the summer bounty. These either end up frozen, as smoothies, baked into pies, or even eaten straight up.

7. Indulge every now and then - none of us are saints, and if we try to be, at some point we might just crack! So, in the word of Michael Pollan, "eat food, not too much, mostly plants" ... but pick your treats. I usually go for chocolate. A good quality, dark chocolate bar, is not cheap. But, it's worth a splurge every now and then for a treat. Perhaps it's a nice dinner, a glass of fancy wine, or that fabulous heritage variety of beans you've been eying at the grocery store (what? did I say something?) Food should be enjoyed and not be an austerity measure, so it's worth going a little crazy every once in a while to change things up!

How do you save money while being good to your health and that of the planet?

4. 

Empty Fridge Quickie

An empty fridge does not an empty belly make. A week and a half ago, I returned to DC from nearly a fortnight in the Pacific Northwest. Though I had enjoyed an array of delectable eats while away, I dreaded returning home to an empty refrigerator. What had I left behind? Would I be reduced to eating peanut butter and carrots as I had a few years back in college? (note, I didn't actually have any peanut butter in the fridge...) In fact, located in the chiller was a head of cabbage, a beet, and a couple of carrots. What luck!

After a little bit of chopping, a little bit of food-processing, and a little bit of whisking, I had myself a tasty cabbage salad. Of course, my friend berated me for bringing only a pail of slaw for lunch, but in my defense, I was severely limited in terms of resources and time! Anyway, it is a surprisingly filling, very refreshing end of summer salad. And just for reference, a 'slaw' is any salad composed of shredded cabbage!

Slaw:
1/2 small head of cabbage (red or green)
1 medium beet
2 medium carrots
handful raw sunflower seeds (optional)
handful dried raisins or cranberries (optional)


Dressing:
2 tbs olive oil
1 tbs orange muscat vinegar
1 tbs soy yogurt (or tahini)
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 tsp coarse grain dijon mustard
1 tsp agave
salt to taste
sprinkle garlic powder

 It also seemed high-time I posted something to Ricki's Wellness Weekend roundups!

Lessons from Chocolate with a Soul

For the past couple of months, we have been exploring the practices and stories behind some bean-to-bar chocolate makers. While these chats have been quite enjoyable, they have also been extraordinarily illuminating. Several key themes surfaced during my chocolaty conversations, and I thought we might take some time to explore this further.

1.     Labels aren’t everything – while eco-labels have become very handy indications for us lay-folk in distinguishing products that strive toward the greater good, they are not silver bullets. In fact, most of the chocolate makers with whom I spoke were more inclined to work directly with farming communities to determine the most beneficial arrangement, rather than purchase cacao from a fair trade organization. Moreover, workin

2.     More bang for your bean – bean-to-bar operations that complete the whole production cycle within the country of origin retain much more value for the local, regional, and national economies. Keeping the jobs of growing, processing, and packaging within the country of origin also keeps the economic benefits there. Similarly, skipping the middlemen and working straight with the producers to improve their practices and the quality of their beans results in not only a better bar, but more money staying in the community and going to the farmer.

3.     Where there is passion, there is a way – each of the companies I interviewed started from a small seed, a passion for chocolate, and for some a love of a place. Artisan chocolate is a niche market, so there are huge challenges to overcome when bumping heads with the big guys like Hershey’s and Nestle. The passion and drive of the founders seems to have kept the businesses on the map.

4.     Think systems – without even overtly acknowledging this, each chocolate maker approached their business considering the entire system. It’s not just about the integrity of the ecosystems; the access to training and markets to earn a decent wage; or even what happens on the farm itself. Every point on the chocolate value chain is important.

5.     Savor, don’t stuff – like many tropical imported commodities, a $1 bar of chocolate does not reflect the true costs associated with making the treats. But we are talking about the food of the gods here! The strength of good chocolate is that there are complex flavors, subtle notes, and a richness that the other stuff lacks. I know (believe me, I do) it’s difficult to just each a piece or two, but consider the complex route that chocolate took to get to your mouth, and really savor each bite. It will be all the more enjoyable!

I guess the message from this is very similar to Michael Pollan’s food rules: eat chocolate (with a soul, hehe), not too much, mostly dark, from a company you know and trust.

This was so much fun, that I want to explore more! If you have suggestions for other environmentally/socially responsible chocolate companies (and contacts?), please let me know. Also, I’m toying with ideas for some other commodity crops and will gladly take requests.

Ode to a Bike Basket

Ode* to a Bike Basket

It had only been half of the day,
but post-market there seems like no way,
to get myself up the hill,
with no frightful bike spill,
and my produce still fit for display.

With six pounds of ripe peachy loot,
and another of tomatoes to boot,
some eggplant and greens,
squash, taters, and beans,
carrying it's quite a pursuit!

So how did I get home, you ask?
The answer I will gladly unmask.
For lo and behold,
a bike basket so bold,
Stepped up and completed the task.

Though my balance was off quite a bit,
and my bags from the day barely fit,
the basket stacked high,
in attempt to defy,
the gravity acting on it.

So now you see how essential this crate
is for my ability to haul market freight.
Bring it home without loss,
to make dinner and sauce,
no denying that it must be fate!

Much thanks to my spectacular bike basket for delivering me, and my bounty of veggies, fruits, and canning jars, to my apartment safely and in one piece. It is truly a wonder how much stuff fits into one of these baskets, and I can't count the number of times it has saved me from certain failure. This is for you, bike basket. May you see many more miles ahead of you!

*I am aware that this is in fact limerick metre, but that's just how I roll...

A Cherry by Any Other Name...

“What is this?” a lady asked a market vendor. A raspberry, was the slightly exasperated response the woman received, but not at all what she had hope for. She was interested in the particular variety of raspberry for sale. Perhaps this woman at the Portland Sunday farmers market is indicative of a growing awareness of the diversity within our food system. However, the fact remains that we have been trained to think of foods as apples, oranges, beans, lettuce, garlic…often done without recognizing that there may be tens, hundreds, even thousands of varieties of each.

If I asked you what is your favorite fruit, how would you respond? Would you tell me that you love Sea Breeze strawberries? Or Red Haven peaches? Or Lapin cherries? Or Brown Turkey figs? Well, most people would just say apples or pears, plums or bananas. But the multitude of playful, and sometimes comic or witty, names opens a whole new world of market produce fun. I’ve sold Music garlic and Spartan apples, sautéed some Red Russian kale, and enjoyed a Mortgage Raiser tomato and Rattlesnake beans.

But there is more to agro-biodiversity than fancy names. From an evolutionary perspective, our agrarian ancestors had the right idea. Cultivate crops suited to different climates, available at various times during the year, resistant to certain pests. For example, usually you will see strawberries in June and July, and then they are done. But an ever-bearing variety will actually produce in May, June, August, and September, albeit smaller fruit spread out over the seasons. Ultimately, diversity builds resilience in the agro-ecosystem and tempers what would otherwise be very lean years. It’s our insurance policy; eggs spread out over multiple baskets; a diversified portfolio; you get the picture.

And then there is taste. When we are talking food, let us never forget taste. Fruits demonstrate the beauty of diversity very well, so let’s  examine my love affair with cherries. Sadly, this fruit is not so prevalent on the east coast (and the season ended nearly two months ago), but I had a run-in with these pitted wonders last weekend in Portland. I am sure you know the Bing variety – dark purple, juicy, deep – and you may be familiar with the Rainiers – tie-dyed yellow and pink, with a light summer flavor. But have you heard of Lapins (maybe…)? Or the Staccato? Or Tulare? Each has its own distinct flavor profile, not to mention staggered growing seasons and ideal weather/soil conditions. What I didn’t realize until my east coast move is that those are just the sweet cherries; sour cherries seem to be big around here and have there own extended family tree.

So, here’s a challenge: as fall approaches swear off your typical fuji or gala apples that everyone knows, and seek out their interesting cousins. If you are still basking in end-of-summer fruit bounty, have a blind peach or tomato tasting. Oftentimes farmers will advertise the varieties they grow, but if they don’t, just ask!

To find some interesting varieties of your favorite fruits and veggies, check out Slow Food International’s Ark of Taste and its US catalogue.