From Jesse Cool

This dish is one of my all-time favorites. Slow-cooking cabbage and onion brings out a mellow, soft flavor that is further enhanced by a touch of brown sugar and vinegar. It is wonderful with smoked meats.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 head organic cabbage, cored and very thinly sliced
½ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup rice wine vinegar
Salt
Freshly found black pepper
4 smoked pork chops (about 5 ounces each)
4 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoons honey

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the cabbage and onion and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook, stirring often, for 45 minutes, or until very soft.

Add the brown sugar and vinegar and cook for 5 minutes longer. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Place the chops on top of the cabbage. Cover and cook for 20 minutes, or until the chops are heated through.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the mustard and honey.

Remove the cabbage mixture to a large platter and top with the chops. Drizzle the mustard mixture over the chops.

Makes 4 servings
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See also Jesse’s Organic Port-Braised Lamb Shanks Recipe
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Jesse Cool is author of Simply Organic: A Cookbook for Sustainable, Seasonal, and Local Ingredients and many others, is owner of CoolEatz Restaurants and Catering, and lives in Menlo Park, California.
Image Credit: Dave Smith
OrganicToBe.org | OrganicToGo.com
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From Rosalind Creasy

This recipe is a regular summer feature on the menu of John Downey’s restaurant in Santa Barbara when local farmers bring John luscious ripe tomatoes and fragrant basil.

For the dressing:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 garlic clove, minced
½ cup (20 g) coarsely chopped fresh basil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Garnish: green peppercorns (optional)

For the salad:
4 large ripe garden tomatoes, sliced
1 small sweet red onion, thinly sliced

To make the dressing: Combine the oil, vinegar, garlic, basil, and salt and pepper in a small bowl.

To make the salad: Place the tomatoes in a shallow pan. Pour the dressing over the tomatoes and let them sit for about 30 minutes, then remove them with a slotted spoon. Arrange the tomatoes on four serving plates. Divide the onion slices among the plates, garnish with peppercorns, and serve. Serves 4.
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See also Jesse’s Organic Tomato, Bermuda Onion, Fresh Mozzerella, and Three Basil Salad Recipe
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Rosalind Creasy is author of Rosalind Creasy’s Recipes From The Garden: 200 Exciting Recipes from the Author of the Complete Book of Edible Landscaping and many others.
Image Credit: Rosalind Creasy
OrganicToBe.org | OrganicToGo.com
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From Lisa Barnes

I was lucky enough to go to the Slow Food Nation event in San Francisco this weekend.  I was excited to hear about the lectures and panels and purchased tickets months ago.  I thought they would be interesting (especially the one regarding edible education and the state of food in our schools) but I had no idea how inspiring, exciting and educating they would be as well (not always the case in 3 hour panel discussions).  I spent the majority of my time in lectures but I did get out and experience the marketplace and see the victory garden in front of City Hall and it really was impressive.  The crowd was many and diverse  - all were happy, curious and interested in food, the environment and social justice.  I’m sorry it’s over.

I like to think I’m in touch with the shopping, preparing and eating of “slow” foods, but I really learned it’s so much more than buying organic, local, whole foods.  I didn’t realize how interconnected and political the issue of growing, buying and eating food really has become.  After listening to panels of scientists, authors, activitsts, farmers, poets, educators and more - I understand Dr. Vandana Shiva’s Indian proverb “Everything is food.  Everything is someone else’s food.”  I’ve always believed food is how we are connected to the land and each other, but it is also a history and future of those relationships and stewardships in taking care of ourselves, our neighbors, our animals, our land, our air, and our water.

Good, clean, safe, just food has never been so important and especially in this election year.  The message from the slow food movement is that the government needs to take notice and set an agenda.  With the high price of food and oil, and the energy and health crisis something needs to be done. A few on the panel were hopeful that change would come with a new President (sitting in the audience I felt like any of the panelists could run for office - and get my vote).  Alice Waters wants the incoming President to plant a vegetable garden at the White House - why not?  Journalists/Authors, Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser explained how food is interconnected to values and ethics and the treatment of workers and animals.  Founder and President of Green for All, Van Jones talked about the socioeconomic issues that surround food and the changes that can be made in individual lives and communities by having access to slow foods and creating new “green collar jobs.” Writer, Poet, Farmer, Wendell Berry eloquently outlined the need and honor in farming and his own experience of his slow food way of life and writing for past 30 plus years (he named our own Gene Lodson as being “out there” with him).  And Slow Food Executive Director Anya Fernald explained that we need to educate the educators in schools about food and nutrition.  And Alice Waters discussed the need to reconnect everyone to nature, which is always easiest with children (farming and agriculture education should be another excuse for them to get in the dirt).

There was a lot of discussion about the slow food movement and where the founders and board would like it to go from here.  Of course more events in more cities with more local chapters and more members are some the hopes for the future.  The final panel also gave ideas and suggestions for how each individual sitting in the audience could help further the movement and education about good, clean, fair food.  Spreading the word (thus this blog) is one of them.

I thoroughly enjoy Michael Pollan’s writing and discoveries in The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food. It has been a big eye opener for me, as to how and where we get our food.  At the event I purchased a letterpress text of Michael Pollan’s An Eater’s Manifesto from In Defense of Food, which I think should be adopted by the government instead of the food pyramid and calorie counting school standards that Americans are fed today.  If you haven’t seen or read it, here it is…

An Eater’s Manifesto

Eat Food. Not too Much.  Mostly Plants.

Eat Slowly.

Try Not To Eat Alone.

Have A Glass Of Wine With Dinner.

Don’t Eat Anything Your Great Grandmother Wouldn’t Recognize As Food.

Avoid Food Products Containing Ingredients That Are Unfamiliar, Unpronounceable Or More Than Five In Number.

Shop The Peripheries Of The Supermarket And Stay Out Of The Middle.

Don’t Get Your Fuel From The Same Place Your Car Does.

Pay More.  Eat Less.

Eat Well-Grown Foods From Healthy Soils.

Eat Wild Foods When You Can.

Cook And, If You Can, Plant A Garden.

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See also Lisa’s Getting Greener or Getting Fooled - Label Deception
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Lisa Barnes is author of The Petit Appetit Cookbook: Easy, Organic Recipes to Nurture Your Baby and Toddler, and Williams-Sonoma: Cooking For Baby, and lives in Sausalito, California.
Images Credit: Slow Food Nation’s website
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