From EcoCentric

I don’t recall eating kale for most of my life. It’s not that I didn’t know what it was it’s just that I didn’t  buy it, cook it or know that it was edible. As a teen, I can recall the salad bar at Sizzler (a family favorite) being decorated with its curly leaves stuffed into the ice – not something that would have been mistaken as a crudité and piled onto your plate. It must have slipped quietly into my diet when I started studying nutrition. Even then, I was taught about its superfood properties, but didn’t think much about those hardy, dark, green leaves.

When I talk to people about kale now, most of them know that it’s good for them and feel that they should be eating it, but still they don’t. Typical comments include: “I don’t know how to cook it,” or “It’s tough and bitter, isn’t it?” or “It’s too healthy for me.” Basically, people are afraid of it and like me, many people didn’t grow up eating it. Now, people are curious.

Can you shift your knowledge of kale from an ornamental plant that lines driveways in the suburbs and brings color to the White House Rose Garden in the fall? Can you get over your fear of this intimidating green and instead welcome it onto your dinner plate?

Preparing for a recent road trip with a kale-fearing friend, I decided to sneak some of this immune-boosting superfood, hopefully unnoticed, next to our traditional road trip foods. I made kale chips, a salty, crunchy favorite of mine. The night before our departure, I turned a big bunch of kale into bite-sized morsels. My friend sat in the kitchen talking to me while I packed other snacks and taste tested my kale chips until they were crisp to my satisfaction. “Taste this for me.” I said, as though I were talking to a child who doesn’t like to eat vegetables. I didn’t mention that it was high in vitamin C, B6, manganese, calcium, copper and potassium. “Yum,” he mumbled as he reached for another. “These are tasty. Can we eat them instead of popcorn while we watch the movie?” The chips didn’t make it to the car the next morning, but I think I helped him conquer a fear of kale that night.

Learning about kale’s nutritional value might boost its image in your head, but ultimately it’s the taste and versatility that will win you over.  While kale can boast reducing cancer risks, increasing cell detoxification, fighting belly fat and promoting immune systems, if you don’t know what to do with it, you aren’t going to eat it. You will find a few varieties in the store, including curly, dinosaur and purple, but my personal favorite is the basic, curly leaf kale. You can bake it, sauté it, boil it, add it to soups, spice it up or even sweeten it. To make that first step towards allaying your fears, I suggest making kale chips. It worked for my friend and it can work for you…

more here
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See also Organic Green Smoothies
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From GRIST

A recent article in the New York Times documented the growing competition among New York chefs for the highest-quality food from local farms — whether it’s heirloom cabbages or pastured poussins. Opining that “top chefs can’t be lip-service locavores any longer,” writer Glenn Collins offers this mini-food fight as evidence of a “farm-to-table revolution” among restaurateurs.

These chefs’ approach fits nicely into the haute cuisine concept that the chef’s job is to hunt down the absolutely perfect ingredient. The fact that more chefs are looking in their relative backyards may somewhat be a testament to the fact that globalization of the food chain has reduced the variety and diversity of food. It used to be that chefs would explore the farthest reaches of the globe for the obscure and the delicious. But now, the obscure and delicious is more likely to be grown in a peri-urban farm than on a tropical plantation.

I recently spent a morning with a Philadelphia chef who takes the concept of farm-to-table a step further. Mitch Prensky has contracted with nearby Blue Elephant Farm to produce exclusively for his well-regarded restaurant Supper under his direction. In turn, Prensky will limit the fruit and vegetables he uses to the output from Blue Elephant — pickling what he doesn’t serve fresh to his customers. He fully intends to continue cooking from the farm all through winter — Philly has an almost perfect climate for year-round hoophouse growing. What he can’t get from Blue Elephant, he gets from other local providers — including beer, which in Philadelphia results in a fabulous selection of microbrews. The seafood he serves, while not local, is sustainable — a lamentable rarity in high-end restaurants.

A graduate of New York City’s French Culinary Institute who’s cooked at New York’s famed Lutece and Provence restaurants (and an early stint as kitchen assistant for Jacques Pepin), Prensky hasn’t gone locavore to make a political point. As he likes to say, “I’m just here to make you dinner.” Working with a single farm has enabled him to achieve something that all chefs desire: total control. And he’s not stopping with fruit and vegetables. He’s working with the farm to add meat and poultry (Prensky makes his own charcuterie), and ultimately expects to produce cheese and other value-added products off the farm. He even is toying with the idea of his own CSA for a few select customers; included in the box might be his own pickles or other “homemade” products.

Some may wonder about the benefit to the farmer from this arrangement. Luckily for Prensky, Blue Elephant is not your typical farm. Organic in spirit if not certification, it’s in some ways a hobby farm, owned by a wealthy couple who keep a low profile — Prensky wouldn’t tell me their names — but Prensky’s ambitious vision may result in this “hobby” becoming a booming business.

This unconventional partnership represents an alternative model for high-end restaurants and small farms. Take a closer look, through this slideshow:
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From GENE LOGSDON

How many slick tricks have you learned about farming and gardening more or less by accident? My favorite example happened because of laziness. I didn’t clean out the roof gutter on the barn for over a year. I have a longstanding prejudice against roof gutters anyway. Why not just let the water run off the roof onto a layer of gravel or stone along the wall? The gutters plug regularly and the water overflows anyway. This is especially true of my barn which sits in the woods. All sorts of tree leaves, twigs, and seeds end up in the gutter. Five tree leaves can plug a downspout no matter what kind of contraption you install to prevent it. And those screens that are supposed to keep debris out of the gutters become clogged and the water cascades right on over and down to the ground. That is, in any event, how I justify my laziness. Water running off the barn roof (as opposed to running off the house roof) is certainly not of any consequence as far as looks are concerned. In fact that water off the roof keeps the whole barnyard lawn nice and green all summer.

Now the plot thickens. Last year I decided to turn one of my pasture plots into woodland as you know if you have been reading this website. I figured I would just scatter all kinds of tree seeds over the plot and by and by some of them would sprout and grow. That does work, but I could see right away that nature’s way was going to be too slow for this old man. So I started transplanting seedlings. That too has proven not to be as easy or automatic as it sounds. Digging up seedlings is hard work and some of them die no matter how careful I try not to disturb the roots.

I was thinking about this situation one day in June when I happened to be walking past the barn. I looked up at the gutter and was startled to see that it looked like one very elongated pot of plants. All sorts of things were growing ludicrously out of it. But of course: maple, oak, ash, elm and wild cherry seeds had been washing into it for over a year. Some of them had sprouted and were growing with the abundance of rain that had fallen. I could lift them out with all their roots intact without straining one muscle, carry several dozen in a bucket at once, and plant them with only minimal effort.

Sometimes laziness pays. Happy happenstance farming!

Another example of learning by accident is something my sheep taught me earlier but never more graphically than this summer. more

From GREG ATKINSON

Tarragon is one of those herbs that takes some getting used to. Before it became familiar to me through repeated exposure, I found its taste jarring. Now, its redolence is reassuring. A hint of anise, a note of basil, the simple fresh green of parsley, all these flavors and more are reflected in what I now consider the queen of all garden herbs. Poached salmon is another acquired taste. The first time I tried it, it seemed insipid compared to the rugged flavor of browned salmon off the grill or out of the sauté pan. Now, I appreciate the unadulterated taste of plain salmon cooked in a gentle bath of its own stock. Here, tarragon and fresh salmon play a nice duet. The flavors are highly complementary and uncomplicated.

4 skinless salmon fillets (about 8 ounces each)
1½ cups Salmon Stock (see below)
2 tablespoons organic butter
2 tablespoons flour
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ cup organic cream
3 tablespoons fresh organic tarragon leaves or 1 tablespoon dried tarragon
Sprigs of tarragon, for garnish

In a large skillet with a close-fitting lid, arrange the salmon fillets, skinned side down, in a single layer. Pour in the stock and place the pan over medium heat. Cover and let the liquid come to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Poach the fillets gently for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer the fillets to a warm platter. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the flour, salt, and pepper. Stir until combined. Add the poaching liquid, the cream, and the tarragon. Bring the sauce to a full rolling boil, whisking to keep it smooth, then pour it over the poached salmon fillets. Decorate the salmon with sprigs of tarragon and serve at once.
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Salmon Stock

Many cooks feel that salmon broth is too strong for classic preparations calling for fish stock, but I do not count myself among them. Salmon stock is a rich and satisfying stock with many of the same fine properties that make good chicken stock a kitchen staple. It becomes gelatinous when refrigerated and a layer of bright orange oil forms at the top. This oil is rich in omega-type fatty acids, which medical authorities tell us will prolong life by preventing heart attacks. Certainly the stock and the rich oil that forms on top constitute a wonderful medium for poaching salmon or making salmon stew. In a pinch, fish bouillon may be substituted for homemade fish stock.

Bones, tail, fins, and head of an 8- to 10-pound salmon
1 organic onion, unpeeled and sliced
2 stalks organic celery, roughly chopped
½ teaspoon fennel seed
½ teaspoon whole or coarsely ground black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
1 cup white wine
8 cups water

With a large chef’s knife, cut the bones, tail, and fins of the salmon into pieces that will fit easily into a stockpot. Cut the head lengthwise in half to expose more of the interior to the boiling water. Put the pieces into a heavy stockpot and add the onion, celery, fennel seed, peppercorns, bay leaf, and wine. Pour in the water and cook over high heat until the mixture comes to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and press the contents of the pot with a wooden spoon to submerge any fish parts rising above the level of the water. Simmer for 20 minutes, or until the pieces have just begun to disintegrate. Strain the stock into a clean pot and discard the solids. The stock may be used immediately or refrigerated or frozen for future use.

Makes about 2 quarts.
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Image Credit: © Casejustin | Dreamstime.com
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From JEFF COX

Preventing Skewer Twirl

Skewers are a fun and fast way to grill all kinds of food, but unless you spear each chunk of food exactly in the place where its weight is equal in all directions (unlikely), it can have a tendency to twirl on the skewer. This means uneven cooking—the heavy part may get all the heat and the top part little or none.

There are ways to prevent skewer twirl. The simplest is to use two skewers. If using bamboo skewers, soak them for ½ hour in warm water by weighting them down under the surface with a plate. Then they won’t burn on the grill. Metal skewers simply need to be clean.

Push the first skewer through one side of the food, and the second through the other side. For instance, the first skewer might go through the head side of six shrimp, the second skewer through the tail side. Now they can’t twirl. And having two skewer handles instead of one makes them easier to flip.

While we’re at it, traditional shish kebabs call for grilling different foods on the same skewer, which often mean the tomatoes turn to jelly before the potato chunks are even half-finished, while the chicken breast meat is dried out and overcooked before the pork chunks are much past medium-rare. What to do?

The answer is to grill the same foods on their own skewers. The different meats go on their own skewers; the vegetable chunks each on their skewer. Time your cooking by starting with the food that will take longest to cook. Then continue by adding the other skewers in descending order of cooking times, with the quickest-cooking food (such as shrimp) going on last.

By following the recommendation above, the skewers should then come off the grill at approximately the same time. You can then slide the food off the skewers into separate bowls, with a plate of clean skewers off to the side, and let guests choose their own combinations. Or serve everything in one big bowl, as a grilled medley.
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Grilled Fish Kebabs

Makes 4 servings

Firm-fleshed fish such as cod, Chilean sea bass, escolar, ahi, and swordfish make the best kebabs, as they don’t disintegrate into flakes when cooked. Chunks of nectarine cut to about 1-inch cubes, the same size as the fish, make a tasty match on the skewers and take about the same amount of time to cook. The recipe below calls for swordfish, but feel free to substitute any of the firm-fleshed options mentioned here.

8 bamboo skewers, soaked in warm water
Canola oil
1 pound swordfish steaks, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 pound ripe nectarines, halved, pitted, and cut into 1-inch chunks

1. Preheat the grill to high for 15 minutes. Scrub the grates with a wire brush, and brush them down with some oil. Reduce the grill’s heat to medium.

2. Use 2 skewers to spear 4 chunks of swordfish alternating with 3 chunks of nectarines. Brush the kebabs all around with oil.

3. Place the kebabs on the grill and cook uncovered for about 4 minutes. Turn them over—be careful when you lift not to pull off any fish that might be stuck to the grates; if you feel resistance, run a spatula blade gently under the kebabs along the grates to loosen. Cook for an additional 3 to 4 minutes, or until the fish is thoroughly cooked through. Serve immediately.
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