Julia was a spy.

(Julia Childs 4, originally uploaded by luckyds.)

The National archives released records today identifying personal for the WWII era spy network "Office of Strategic Services" managed by Franklin Roosevelt. Julia was on the list.

Good for her, I want some more details...

(Event) Michael Pollan

With rock star like presence...


Michael Pollan spoke to a full house, in a small, hot, sweaty hall at Public Farm 1 in Long Island City over the weekend. After waiting in line for close to an hour and being turned away as I was 2nd in line to the door I was furious. I took matters into my own hands and used alternate measures I'm not at liberty to discuss to gain access to this event.

Public Farm One is beautiful space, part art (moma), and part urban farm project. The roof top terrace is utterly gorgeous with sleek modern designed tubes housing plants. The farm project is 100% sustainable by use of solar energy and rain collection barrels for irrigation. There is even a small chicken coop tucked away built with recycled materials.


Michael Pollan's theme for this particular lecture was on taking the plant's perspective. He spoke of how grass wants to be cut; it wants more sun and more room to breathe. He spoke of the relationship between an orchid and a bee and how the bee thinks it is stealing the nectar. The plant is actually seducing the creature into the flower where pollen from the plant will attach itself to the leg hairs of the bee and thus the bee will do the work and pollinate the flowers.

Mr. Pollan touched base with some topics covered in The Omnivores Dilemma. He spoke of his time on Polyface Farm with Joel Salatin. He discussed farming methods used by Joel making his farm 100% solar & sustainable and beyond organic. Grass fed cattle are penned by easily moved electric fencing. The cattle eat the grass in this patch; the cattle are moved to another section of pasture. The "cowpies" are left behind to sit for three days before bringing in the chickens. Three days is just enough time to let the maggot grubs get nice and fat. The chickens have free range at their favorite food while also scratching and spreading manure around which in turn helps the grass and earth. Basically Michael was stating it's time for a change, we know how to do this, and Joel is leading the way.

The most exciting part of the evening actually came during the Q&A at the end of the evening. Michael announced that no he does not have another book in the works but he is taking it upon himself to write a manifesto to the next President of the United States declaring the food system needs to change. (see video below)



Get this guy in office already.


I was disappointed with the number of people that did walk out both during the lecture and during the q&a.

It was a great evening and I was more than excited to bear the heat and listen to Michal Pollan's gospel. This guy is motivation alone to change the way you look at what is on your plate.

Eat food!

Cannoli deconstruction.

Maybe?


I had close to a cup of left over ricotta from the stuffed zucchini blossom recipe and couldn't let it go to waste.

I made a quick deconstructed cannoli.

1 cup ricotta
~1/4 cup confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest for garnish

Tasted great like a lemony cannoli filling pudding, but would have worked much better with an anise wafer or something crunchy to complete the idea.

Maybe next time.

(Stuffed) Zucchini Flowers

Fiori di Zucca


Sometimes it pays to be late. The vendors at the Union Square Greenmarket were packing up just as I arrived. I saw these zucchini flowers being tucked away and knew I had to act fast. I lucked out, the vendor gave me her 12 remaining flowers for $2.00 which is a great bargain. These lovely flowers are usually the highest price starters on most respectable menus.

I used The Fat Red Baron's (ahem, Batali) recipe for this. The Baron did suggest goat cheese ricotta which sounds delicious but, I opted for some fresh, local, farm house cow's milk ricotta instead.

12 zucchini flowers
1 cup ricotta
1 egg
2 scallions (thinly sliced)
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
sea salt & black pepper to taste

Mix thoroughly & get ready to stuff. Each flower took about 1 tablespoon of filling.


A second set of hands is suggested in stuffing these flowers. A pastry piping bag would have also done the trick. Be sure to inspect inside each flower for renegade insects that may be attracted to the sweet pollen.


These baby's were fried in OO on medium high heat and do need to be served immediately. A quick tomato salad was served along side, inspired by a dish had at Il Panino, created by the lovely & talented Marissa Iocco.

3 field tomatoes, rough dice
1 cucumber, half moons
1 tablespoon of capers
handful of fresh basil, cut chiffonade
juice of half a lemon
splash of unfiltered good GREEN olive oil
sea salt & black pepper to taste

Let the juices mingle at room temp in a nice bowl. After a few minutes you'll have some really intensely flavored red juice which I saved to drizzle over the hot zucchini flowers. I grilled the rosemary focaccia which was a most excellent choice to sop up the salad juice.

The stuffed zucchini flowers came out wonderfully. The flowers had nice caramelization with the cheese oozing out, making them really out of this world. We were popping these in our mouth like candy.

An excellent meal served on the balcony with some bubbly Chistalino, a Prosecco style rose wine.

Biker's Bounty

Over the Williamsburg bridge and through the woods...

I mean through the boroughs.

Just thought you might like to see the bounty. It's a nice 10 mile ride round trip by bike to the awesome Union Square Greenmarket. Unbeatable selection of freshness from upstate.

I had one casualty on the ride back, I lost one egg, which isn't bad considering I'm carrying a stuffed messenger bag bombing down the Williamsburg Bridge. Also picked up a bag full of delicate zucchini flowers, jersey field tomatoes, a bag of carrots, rosemary focaccia, and fresh ricotta.

Save gas, ride a bike.

蕎麦! (Ice cold summer squash & soba on a hot summers day!)

Ice ice baby...

Is the buckwheat soba noodle under appreciated because of it's bleak brown color? Maybe it's not as bright and lively as it's brother Mr. Udon or as common as it's cousin Mr. Ramen but Sir Soba does have some advantages.

I think they have a bit more flavor than other noodles with the slightly nutty undertones. They are also gluten free, if that is one of your needs. Most importantly though, buckwheat soba noodles are better for you nutritionally, with higher sources of fiber, iron and protein. I also really like the texture of them, fully cooked they are a bit chewy and sticky, it's nice trust me.

Phase I

You'll want to either start this dish in the morning or the evening before hand as these soba noodles will need to marinate in this dressing to achieve their full taste-tacular potential.

For the dressing:

1/4 cup light olive oil

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tbs honey

3 tbs rice wine vinegar

3 spring onions
1 tbs chopped ginger

2 tsp black pepper

I really recommend purchasing the mini Cuisinart processor if you want to get serious about making great creamy homemade dressings, it's a magical tool.

Pulse all the dressing ingredients in your processor until you have reached a smooth consistency. In a large bowl have ready 1 package of Buckwheat Soba noodles cooked, ready to be dressed with said dressing. Mix thoroughly because these noodles like to stick together. Cover and leave to marinate in your fridge as long as possible.

Phase II
About an hour before you are ready to eat.

Quick Asian-inspired pickles
1 farm fresh summer squash

I first made some quick Asian inspired pickles for this. Slice 1 cucumber into thin half moons, salt and let sit for 10 minutes. Wash off salt, in a small bowl add 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar, a dash of sesame oil, 1 tbs sugar and 2 tbs water. Mix well, add half moons to soak it up while prepping the rest of the meal.

Cut the squash into a thick julienne and let steam until just cooked.

Phase III
Assembly + Eat

toasted sesame seeds
1 sheet of seasoned seaweed laver
1 spring onion

Plate your dressed noodles with your quick pickles and summer squash. Garnish with your toasted sesame seeds, thinly sliced spring onion and matchstick sliced seaweed and enjoy.

Fresh, filling and lots of bright flavor.

Raw shell pea and balcony mint salad

Plain simple & dead tasty.


Shell peas
Very finely ribboned home grown balcony mint
Minuscule diced red onion
Sea salt & black pepper

Toss with good olive oil & give a squeeze of lime juice to brighten the flavors.

This went well with some vintage cheddar and Riesling.
Raw & vegan (minus the cheddar) too.

Factory Fresh

Tortilleria Los Hermanos...with out factory tastes.


Behind the unassuming factory doors of Bushwick's, Tortilleria Los Hermanos, lies something special. Not only are they pumping out case after case of homemade tortillas for purchase and distribution regionally and possibly nationally, they are also utilizing these ultra fresh tortillas at their in-house taco stand.

For gringos like me in this neighborhood, Los Hermanos is a gift from above, meeting and exceeding most of my picky demands:

• proximity to my home (less than a 5 minute bike ride)
• fresh and clean (lets just say I've seen a few questionable establishments in this general area.)
• $$ ($2 tacos- COME ON!)
• honest food (a nice lady was owning the grill with her daughter bringing the tacos over to everyone at the communal table on the factory floor)

I pigged out for less than $10, 2 tacos will fill you up. I had three out of sheer excitement and was completely stuffed.


LOS HERMANOS TACO AWARDS!

Simple two tortilla tacos, seasoned with a squeeze of lime, a drizzle of sour cream, sliced lettuce and cilantro and your choice of homemade red or green sauce.

3RD PLACE: Spicy Pork

Great pulled pork, just spicy enough, dripping with a bit of red oil with a good bit of heat depending on who you ask.

We like things hot, because we're hot to trot.

2ND PLACE: Salty Beef

Not sure what cut this came from, I'm assuming it was a braised shoulder stripped and seasoned. There was something about the overly salty meat that just melted in my mouth and made me smile.

1ST PLACE: Chorizo

I'm awarding the gold ribbon to the chorizo taco because I feel it represented everything that's great about the 2nd and 3rd place winners. Salty, spicy and simple.

Honest food, be sure to wash it down with a Mexican cane sugar coke.



Tortilleria Los Hermanos
271 Starr St.
Bushwick, Brooklyn, NYC
12-9 p.m. Monday through Friday
Leave your plastic at home

Little Moscow by the sea

So I'm coming to the conclusion that there is nothing better than having fast and cheap public transportation that will take you from your door to countless destinations including many beaches within an hour. After a rather disappointing trip to rock, rock, rock-a-away beach I decided to see what other seaside destinations the silver bullet could take me.

Just past Coney Island lies Brighton Beach with clean sand, and a tight knit Russian community with many cheap eats possibilities.


M&I International Food at 249 Brighton Beach Ave in Brooklyn is one of the largest eastern European markets this side of the Kremlin. Hosting endless displays of smoked fish & meat, pickled goods, breads, cakes, lots of great fresh produce and a nasty selection of Kvass.

Some Russian tough guy started speaking to me IN Russian as I was holding a big ol bottle of Kvass. I have to assume the rough translation to English went something like this:

"That bottle will grow hair on your chest, do you think you can handle that little man?" Followed by an awkward wink.

Upstairs at M&I is where to go, there is a small cafe with a hot food bar, everything is $5.99 a pound. I got a plate full for under $5.00. My favorite was the golumpkie, it reminded me of my grandmothers Polish golumpkies she use to make for my grandfather and I. There were some mystery meat filled "tortellini" dumplings, potato pierogies and also a strange ground chicken pattie which was saltier than the dead sea.

There is a lot to choose from at M&I, most of it was pretty good and very reasonably priced. After soaking in some rays head over to Brighton Beach Ave to fill up.

Learn some Russian phrases before you go to better enjoy your trip to little Moscow by the sea.

pocket change.

Let's just say you go to see a show, it's late, you're hungry, you've got some coins flopping around in your pockets, you stop.

I don't want to know what rogue ingredients were in this $0.63 biscuit and gravy combo.

The biscuit did taste surprisingly like a home made bisquick biscuit. The dipping gravy, oh the gravy, I couldn't quite place it as chicken or beef but it did taste somewhat like chicken a la king sauce.

1 Biscuit

Calories: 240
Fat: 13
Sodium mg: 490

I don't think we need to research the gravy...


Let's not stop there again.

Creative Spaces

A garden grows in Brooklyn...

Totally Tropical Pork Mojo

With summers heat and humidity creeping in the desire to eat or even cook inside seems to fade.

Start with a pork tenderloin, you may have to trim the excess fat and pull off the "silverskin" before this is ready to marinate in the MOJO baby.

The Mojo sauce or marinate is a very common in Cuban cuisine. It's simple as pie to make and is lip smacking good.

Tropical Mojo

• 1/2 cup olive oil

• 8 garlic cloves thinly sliced

• Juice of 2 limes & half an orange (traditionally a sour orange is used in place of the orange and lime)

• A bunch of fresh oregano & cilantro chopped

• Salt and pepper to taste

• Splash of vinegar
• 1/2 cup of water

Heat the oil over medium high heat; throw in the sliced cloves till lightly browned. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a quick boil.

After the Mojo has cooled allow tenderloin to marinate in this for at least 24 hours.

This totally tropical pork mojo was served with the following!

• Grilled onions
• Grilled asparagus
• Grilled plantains mmm
• Black beans with cilantro, cheese and grilled onion

Nicely washed down with a DOUBLE IPA homebrew from two good friends. Very malty, sweet and high in booze. Tasted like a cross between a Sam Adams and a Dogfish 90 min..

Damn fine.

Parisian Loaf Pizza

Who are we kidding this is just french bread pizza. Just because you're a food blogger does it mean you have to be some swanky haute cuisine endorsing fool?


At the same rate when we do something we do it right. This nice snack was a callabro with our like minded foodie amigo "The DMB."

Nice crusty loaf rubbed with garlic and oil, sweet sweet caramelized super star onions, extra sharp cheddar, crispy buffalo chicken sausage rounds, drizzled with home made buttery buffalo sauce and pepper jack ranch.

Paired well with a refreshing, easy drinking Allagash White to numb the heat.

Disgustingly good.

Apple Celery Tomato Soup!

Hello there lovely, loyal TSC fanatics.

I am currently on tour right now, and I am writing the bulk of this blog from our van driving across Ohio.I made this soup before I left, and I really wish I hada bowl of it right now (but most of it is in my freezer waiting for me to get home).


This Apple Celery Tomato soup has a light, refreshing taste that makes it a killer side dish or first course. Its notsubstantial enough to satisfy on its own, if you're hungry like a Lumberjack. Like most of my soups, it's pureed which automatically makes it soup-erior.


Ingredients

4 Tbs butter

4 ribs chopped celery

2 chopped granny smith apples with skins

2 large plum tomatoes

1 medium white onion

4 c water

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 large piece of parchment paper, cut to fit just inside the pot

Heat butter over medium heat, and sweat out the onion. Then add chopped celery, apple and tomato and nutmeg. Allow these to cook for a few minutes and get a nice coat of butter. Add water, and turn heat down. Place parchment over simmering soup and leave on low heat for about an hour.

Blend soup in small batches. Now comes time to strain out all the bullshit: those celery stringsand apple seeds really can ruin your day.

Note: You want a sieve with the smallest holes imaginable, a regular wire sieve didn't do the trick for me on the first pass through. I used my yogurt strainer and it worked perfectly. I suppose lining your wire sieve with some cheese cloth or somethingwould be cool too.


I hope you enjoy this one, I love the light flavor, and I seemingly always have these three ingredients in my house...

-T, T.S.Q

New England Real Ale Exhibition 2008

Cask conditioned beer is real beer.


Cask beer is unfiltered and unpasteurised, secondary fermentation is done directly in the fermenting vessel. These style beers are served in the 55 degree range and have much smoother carbonation due to the secondary fermentation period. CO2 and Nitrogen are not added to draft these beers, handpumps and gravity spigots are used.

I was lucky enough to make it in the door at the 12th annual New England Real Ale Exhibition. I was actually the last person let in, the thirsty mob behind me was kind enough not to attack me. Inside the small hall offered some of the worlds finest cask beers available to you for a mere $5.00 door entry, refundable $5.00 glass fee (our take the loss and keep the glass.) Tasting prices were as follows: pint $5.00, 1/2 pint $2.50, 1/4 pint $1.50.


Some highlights included:

Wachusett Brewing Co: Ryde
Very smooth, extremely drinkable or session-able as they call it, this beer is also flaked with rye for a slight rye flavor. Very nice.

Rogue Ales: Brutal Bitter
refreshing, floral, hoppy.

Moat Mountain: Spruce Tip Brown
This was the most unique of the day, a malty brown ale which was dry hopped with SPRUCE TIPS. It wasn't overpowering like pine sol, it was strange but did work well.

Gwynt y Ddraig: Haymaker medium cider
This was my favorite of the day. I am a huge cider fan and this was the best farmhouse style cider I've ever had in my life period. Oak conditioned, such a ripe, fresh, apple taste, not overwhelmingly sweet, almost herbal undertones. I went back for seconds and was proud to say I got the last one.
Incredible.


Put down the bud light and drink a real ale.

Rogue Sap

Rogue Sap, this is my new favorite roadside refreshment.

Straight from the maple tree the sap drips into the bucket waiting to be boiled down into nice amber syrup.

Clear, just sweet enough and slightly sticky to the lips. I’ve never heard of anyone drinking straight sap before but I’m not one to ever turn down tradition. It was tasty and refreshing; it honestly tasted like simple syrup. You want to be careful though as I was told that raw sap should only be consumed in small quantities otherwise you may give your self an upset stomach.

Maple sap is better used to make maple syrup as it takes 40 gallons of maple sap to make just one gallon of maple syrup. A single tap can produce around a gallon of sap in a day during optimal weather conditions.

The Salted Cod does not condone stealing any hard dripped sap from maple farmers. Luckily I was in “Wheeler” county where they have the rule of the land.

Leaving Behind the Trucker Hat

The New York Times ran an excellent article yesterday on the young farmers movement. The Times interviewed the two young farmers who left life behind in Brooklyn to start the The Hearty Roots Community Farm in upstate New York. I found this article to be quite inspiring as I've thought about doing this myself for some time.

It's nice to see some of my peers finding success in this field...

Click here to continue to the New York Times article.

Happy Johnny Appleseed day

Johnny Appleseed was a very well liked man. The apple variety he planted generally grew fruit that was too sour for eating and baking. Most of his apples were turned to hard cider. Therefore people were excited to see him because he was the guy bringing the booze. He was one of our country's leading conservationist responsible for many plantings and he was born in Leominster MA.

In celebration of this special day I’ve posted the lyrics for all of you to sing the “apple picking song.”

"Picking apples, picking apples,'Til we're done, 'til we're done, Picking all the apples, Picking all the apples,'Til we're done, 'til we're done.

Climb a ladder, climb a ladder,In a tree, in a tree, Hello everybody; Hello everybody, Look at me, look at me.

Making applesauce, making applesauce swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish
Pouring the applesauce, pouring the applesauce in a dish, in a dish.

Eating applesauce, eating applesauce,Yum, yum, yum; yum, yum, yum. Eating all the applesauce, eating all the applesauce. Now we're done, now we're done."

Artist unkown

You could also visit an orchard to celebrate…

Norway’s Doomsday Vault

NORWAY DOOMSDAY VAULT
Originally uploaded by a1e2000

This week Norway has opened the "doomsday" seed vault built to protect millions of food crops from climate change, wars and natural disasters. The vault has been built deep within an Arctic mountain in the remote Norwegian island of Svalbard which lies only 600 miles from the North Pole.

The International Herald Tribune has a great in depth article on this.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/28/europe/seed.php?page=1

Tuscan Beet Green Soup

I wish I knew of this simple soup this summer while I was still receiving my CSA share from Parker Farm. I received so many nice beets with the greens but I never really had anything to make with them that I enjoyed.

I received Mario Batali's "Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at home," as a gift this Christmas and have adapted this recipe form there.

1/2 cup of olive oil
1 onion, sliced
2 gloves of garlic, chopped
2 medium russet potatoes, diced
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
4 cups beet greens, cut into ribbons
3 cups water
3 cups chicken stock
1 can cannelli bean
1 bay leaf

In a large pot add your olive oil and bring to high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened, add remaining ingredients and cook over low heat for 45 minutes to an hour.

I topped this soup with Pecorino Romano cheese. I was also lucky enough to have potatoes in cold storage from my CSA for this soup, they really absorbed a lot of great flavor making them extra tasty. A nice thick slice of great homemade oatmeal bread for dipping made a wonderful accompaniment.

Enjoy your greens.