Pears!

Pears are now in season, or so my seckel pear tree informs me.  Every year at about this time it suddenly bursts forth with - you would think - more pears than one human being could eat before they go bad.  Every year I vow to preserve a portion of them somehow (pear butter, pear chutney, whatever) and every year I end up eating them out of hand.

Admittedly a big part of this problem is that my preferred pear ripening spot happens to be within arm's reach of my desk. You can just guess how THAT works out.

There are several different varieties of pears which are on the market now, or will be coming to the market soon.  Pears, less popular than apples or oranges, are not quite yet subject to the kind of year-round demand that makes for poor produce.  With some exceptions, pears are still a relatively seasonal fruit, which means when you see them in the store, you have to snap them right up!

Seckel pears are the most delicious pears in existence. Okay, that's just my personal biased opinion.  They are also called "sugar pears" and "honey pears," and with good reason.  Seckel pears tend to be small, and greenish yellow with a red blush.  Seckel pears are considered too smooshy (that's the technical term, "smooshy") to use in cooking, but they are fantastic eaten out of hand.

Bosc pears are as delicious as they are ugly.  A perfectly ripe bosc pear is an unappealing, "paper bag" shade of brown.  Boscs are very tall and thin compared to other pears, and one of the crispest variety.  I think of Bosc pears as being quintessentially French, but I have no idea where I got that impression.

Anjou or D'Anjou pears, which come in either red or green.  D'Anjou pears are tart, with a flesh commonly described as "creamy."  This is the classic green pear, which is often available year round at the grocery store.  Personally, I am skeptical of D'Anjou pears for this reason, but that's probably an unreasonable prejudice.

Bartlett pears are squat and turn from green to yellow when ripe.  I don't get very excited about eating Bartlett pears plain, but they hold up well to canning and cooking.

Pears are best purchased under-ripe, then ripened at home.  They are one of the few fruits which are never left on the tree to ripen, even by home gardeners.  The best way to ripen a pear is to set it in a brown paper bag.  You can close the bag and include a ripe banana if you're in a big hurry - the ethylene gas given off by the banana will ripen the pear more quickly.  Most pears are ripe when the stem end yields gently to pressure, although for some varieties you can rely on a color change to tell you when it's ready.

(Personally whenever I have done this, the pears ripened so quickly that they spoiled before I remembered to open the bag.  In fact, I have an "out of sight, out of mind" problem with produce in general.  I just leave my pears on the windowsill (beside my desk) and wait the extra few days for them to ripen on their own.)

“PETA-Like Discussion” – Where’s The Line?

Recently a forum thread I was participating in (not here) was deleted by the forum moderators. Not locked - deleted - and I trust you can see the severity of the difference. Outright deletion of threads is generally reserved for the "worst of the worst" offenders.  

The crime?  "PETA-like discussion."  

This is a forum with a  predominately rural demographic, a forum where several members have anti-vegetarian slurs and "jokes" permanently displayed in their forum signatures.  I have learned to tread carefully.  I habitually avoid passing judgment, and stick to simply stating facts.  I didn't say anything you wouldn't find inside the pages of Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" or Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma."

I am left to wonder what specifically I said that was "PETA-like."  Was it the part where I pointed out that the USDA allows downer cattle to be ground up and used for livestock feed, even though the FDA has ruled them unfit for human consumption?  Or when I said that battery hens spend their entire lives in a cage the size of a shoebox, and that most grocery store eggs come from battery hens?  

I bet it was the part about the battery hens. That always gets people.

But I can't help but wonder, when did a frank discussion of "where food comes from" fall into "PETA-like" territory?  Battery hens are a fact. Downer cattle being used in animal feed is a fact. Now tricking people into watching gory videos of downer cattle, or proclaiming that EGGS ARE TORTURE and throwing a bucket of red paint on the thread, I agree THAT would be "PETA-like."

When I hear the phrase "PETA-like," I think of two things: hysteria (in the running around throwing your arms wildly in the air sense), and of making morality an issue.  Personally I feel like the truth is bad enough, and trying to crank up the volume by taking a stand on animal rights is only going to push people away.  What need is there to elaborate on a (perfectly true) statement like "broiler chickens have been genetically engineered to grow so fast that by the time they're ready for slaughter - at about 16 weeks from the day they hatched - they have difficulty standing on their own feet."

PETA has also become associated with shock tactics.  And you have to hand it to their marketing directory - hardly anyone had even heard of PETA before she stepped into the position with a mandate to get PETA's name in the news by any means necessary. Whether that has been good or bad for the animal rights and vegetarian/vegan movements as a whole is an issue I wouldn't dare to pontificate upon!

Unfortunately, however you feel about PETA, the down side of their meteoric rise into the public consciousness is that they have sown divisiveness in their wake.  If talking about downer cattle being used in animal feed can be condemned as "PETA-like," I wonder what chance we really have to reform our industrial agriculture system?  

No one is going to say "battery cages are AWESOME," but people shrug and keep buying cheap eggs anyway, because what else are you going to do? As long as "PETA-like" is an epithet that can be effectively applied to even the most even-handed discussion of agribusiness practices, it's not likely that things will change.

DIY Cheese and Yogurt

We're all looking for ways to save money and eat healthier, and surely this is why the sales of Ball canning jars are up 30% this year over last year!  I recently stumbled across some information on line on how to make your own cheese and yogurt, and I have decided to give it a try.

Why make your own?  Aside from being a fun and interesting science project, homemade yogurt lets you control all of the ingredients.  If you have bought flavored yogurt at the store recently, you may have noticed that the ingredients list is… a little scary.  Skip all the chemicals and weird preservatives, and just put a spoonful of jam into a bowl of your own homemade yogurt!  

The case for homemade cheese is a lot more strong than the case for homemade yogurt.  Even I have to admit that making your own yogurt isn't going to cut into your monthly grocery bill by much.  But have you seen the price of fresh mozzarella lately?  Last time I checked, it was going for about twelve dollars a pound here.  And sadly (wonderfully) most recipes use a lot of mozzarella - it's not something where you use a little tiny bit as garnish.

There is a lot of advice about what kind of milk to use for your cheese.  Obviously you want to use the best milk that you can find.  Locally I purchase milk from Golden Glen Dairy, which is about 15 miles from my house.  They sell milk which is minimally processed, and also delicious!  If you have no choice but to buy regular milk from the grocery store, look for milk which is not "ultra pasteurized."  If you can't find any, then you may need to make the trip to your nearest health/specialty food store to find some decent milk.

(Traditional mozzarella cheese is made with buffalo milk.  I have yet to find a local source for buffalo milk, but you may have better luck!)

Most recipes also require either rennet or citric acid or both.  You can buy both of these things on Amazon, or scout around locally for them.  I found rennet near the pudding and canning supplies at Fred Meyer.  I was able to buy citric acid from a nearby homebrew store.  (Some people report having purchased citric acid from the bulk spices section of their local health food stores, but I haven't found it there myself.)

Lastly, when making cheese, be sure to use only "non-reactive" pans and equipment.  Proto-cheese is very acidic, and can do bad things to aluminum cookware.  Use stainless steel, Pyrex, or enameled cookware, and be sure to stir and handle the cheese with stainless steel, wood, or plastic utensils.

And a word to the wise: you WILL want to wear rubber gloves for the "taffy pull" stage of making mozzarella cheese!  It's important that the cheese be hot enough while you moosh it around in your hands, so it's best to wear some hand protection to avoid the ouchies!

 

Some DIY yogurt and mozzarella recipes:

Mother Earth News

Fankhauser - Mozzarella

Fankhauser - Yogurt

Cheesemaking.com - Mozzarella

Mmm... National Honey Month

Just thinking about sweet, sticky honey makes my mouth water. I’m a honey fiend, and will eat it on anything from toast to tea. All of my favorite cereals have honey in them, and lately I’ve been eating a teaspoon of delicious local, homegrown honey every day because a friend tipped me that it would help with my seasonal allergies. Has it helped yet? I’m not sure. If you’re doing the same thing and have some results to report, be sure to let us know!

But I don’t need allergies as an excuse to enjoy what I consider nature’s perfect food. In fact, honey has a lot of health benefits, including:

  • Aiding in fat digestion
  • Antioxidants that help protect the body
  • Help with athletic performance
  • Amino acids and complex carbohydrates
  • Various cures to health ailments when combined with other foods
  • A good source of vitamins and minerals
  • Helpful in the healing process
  • A possible cure for insomnia and acne
  • Antibacterial, antifungal, and great for skin care

For National Honey Month, try enjoying some honey every day for its health properties as well as its decadence…

  • Add some to your tea, favorite drink, or even alcoholic beverages
  • Use it instead of jelly on your toast
  • Make some gooey, yummy honey buns
  • Substitute sugar with honey
  • Treat your cough with honey instead of harsh over-the-counter means
  • Make some delicious honey syrups, such as honey lemon basil sauce and honey poppy seed dressing
  • Make some scrumptious honey bread or whole wheat honey bread and have it for breakfast—or for anytime
  • Create an apple honey shake as a fall treat
  • Skip the store-bought honey mustard and make your own
  • Drizzle a bit of honey over your favorite fruit for an extra sweet treat
  • Can your fruits in honey (remember Hugh Grant’s apricots soaked in honey in Notting Hill?)
  • If you eat meat, try honey in your recipe—such as Cardamom Honey Chicken

And for kids, be sure to…

  • Educate about where honey comes from (teach bee appreciation!)
  • Avoid honey for babies under one year of age
  • Treat them to some homemade honey gelato
  • Let them use honey as a dip for their chicken nuggets, apple slices or other finger foods
  • Read Winnie the Pooh books
  • Watch Bee Movie

Pad Thai

Pad Thai is one of my favorite meals, and delightfully abundant in the Pacific Northwest.  (Although not as abundant as teriyaki.  We have a weird thing for teriyaki restaurants out here.  There are at least as many teriyaki restaurants as there are Starbuckses, and seriously that is not an exaggeration.  I think most Pacific Northwesterners would be befuddled by the lack of teriyaki shops in the rest of the country.  I had to live in Atlanta for a year, and the entire time I was there I did not find a single dedicated teriyaki restaurant.)

Wikipedia describes pad thai as "a dish of stir fried rice noodles with eggs, fish sauce, tamarind juice, red chili pepper, plus any combination of bean sprouts, shrimp, chicken, or tofu, garnished with crushed peanuts and coriander."  It also adds that pad thai is Thailand's national dish.  (And for a classic Wikipedia distraction, see also this list of national and state dishes.)

This is the technical detail, but pad thai is one of those dishes which is more than the sum of its parts.  The dish is designed to balance flavors and textures - sweet, tangy, salty, sour; crunchy, smooth, noodle-y.  Pad thai is also somewhat unique among recipes in that it is completely customizable, so that each chef conceivably creates their own version.  

The mixture of the pad thai sauce is the first and most obvious bit of customization.  As Pim points out, IGNORE RECIPES THAT TELL YOU TO MIX SAUCES IN THE WOK.  Once you start cooking, you won't have time to stop and correct flavors.  The cooking of pad thai is a hasty and sweaty affair, and there is no time to dawdle.  MIX YOUR SAUCE AHEAD OF TIME.

The classic pad thai sauce has four ingredients: tamarind paste (sour), fish sauce (salty), sugar (sweet), and Thai chili powder (spicy).  I will even go out on a limb and say that pre-made pad thai sauce is honestly pretty good.  I would call it equivalent to pre-made store bought pie crusts: if you want to take the time to develop your own expertise, then the handmade version is going to be a lot better.  If all you want is to make your own pad thai, then save yourself the heartache and expense and just buy pre-made pad thai sauce.

That being said, it is not that hard to mix your own sauce.  I buy tamarind paste in a little plastic jar, which makes it easy to dispense.  I also go with regular white sugar rather than palm sugar - not as authentic, but much more convenient and affordable.  You can also substitute paprika for the Thai chili powder.  Mix equal parts tamarind paste and fish sauce, add slightly less than one part sugar, and sprinkle with a pinch of chili powder.  Pim suggests 1/2 cup of tamarind, 1/2 cup fish sauce, and 1/3rd cup sugar.  I prefer even less sugar than that, and would probably use something more like 1/4 cup.

I can't improve upon Pim's cooking directions, so I will send you there for the actual cooking of it. I would add that you should not be afraid to customize the recipe to your liking.  There is not one single thing about pad thai that you "must" include!  Personally I usually skip the peanuts, and double the amount of cilantro and lime, which would make some people gag.

Can a Health Drink Really Be a Meal Substitute?

I am not a Vegan or even a vegetarian, can not claim to be a health-food junkie by any stretch of the imagination, and am not always into "green food". I live in Seattle, so it is unhip and unwise to admit to liking any food that a foodie or health-conscious person would not approve of, lest my contemporaries judge me too harshly for my unethical, unhealthy, or uneducated eating. I am not a gourmand, and have yet to appreciate the reasons why a small bottle of truffle oil should cost more than a large bottle of olive oil (unless it is due to a world-wide truffle blight which I am not aware of) or why the cheeseburger I had yesterday in Ballard cost me $13.

To save myself some time in meal preparation and to give myself a filling meal for the fraction of the cost, I opted to buy myself some Vega, a nutritional supplement that that is reported to be a meal unto itself. Instead of a late afternoon snack of cheese and crackers, I thought I could instead enjoy a Vanilla Chai drink filled with all the nutrients I would need for a single day. Not so fast. The drink didn't taste too bad, but was really thick and took a long time to mix up, with the powdered sentiment filling the bottom of the glass despite my semi-frantic whisking attempts.

I drank it quickly and used my spoon to eat up the last of the "delicious" drink.  My friend has used it as a meal substitute on occasion for some time now, so I was really disappointed to find myself hungry again after 20 minutes and slightly sick to my stomach after 25 minutes.

According to the bottle, which I purchased in bulk on the recommendation of a friend, Vega basically has all of the minerals and vitamins a person needs for a day (although from what I understand the USDA recommended list of vitamins and minerals is considerably low-balled), plant based protein, omega fatty acids, and chorella.

I have yet to see if the drink's benefits outweigh the downsides.   Vega's "Complete Whole Food Health Optimizer" was  first developed by a Vegan for vegans, is reportedly excellent to digest for those with stomach conditions, and is gluten-free. I decided to take it not only to get rid of my afternoon snacking habit, but to give myself some added nutrition for dealing with stress and to increase my energy levels. Of course, after only two servings down the hatch, it is too early to report on either of those health benefits, but I'll keep you posted.  While it is difficult to get so many nutrients in one drink, Vega is not inexpensive. No one ever said it was cheap to be healthy.

Fried Fair Food

It’s amazing the types of foods that most Americans will eat, especially the fair going ones.  It is even encouraged at most fairs such as the State Fair of Texas to have the “Big Tex Choice Awards” where fried foods are the winning entries.  This year at the Texas State Fair (and Puyallup Fair in Washington State), the rumors are true; they will be serving “Deep Fried Butter”.  The creator, Abel Gonzales came up with this fat and full of cholesterol fried food that consists of 100 percent pure butter that is light and fluffy and sweetened with several flavors then surrounded in special dough and deep fried.  To me that sounds like a heart attack waiting to happen, I am curious to see if doctor visits go up after this years round of County and State fairs.

What happened to the normal (and still fattening) corn dogs and funnel cakes?  I suppose those items had become too boring for those committed fair goers.  Other items at this years State and County fairs will also include Deep Fried Peaches and Cream and of course deep fried candy bars such as Snickers, Reece’s bars and even Twinkies and deep fried cheese cake.  I even saw chocolate covered bacon at this years L.A. County Fair, but I did not try it.

I also hear that there is deep fried Coca Cola, but I have yet to see it.  Apparently it consists of Coca Cola flavored batter, fried and then cola syrup to drizzle over the fattening fried dough.  What I wonder is, who actually eats this and does it taste good and do you eat it just to say you have tried it or are you genuinely interested in eating these fried foods?

Other past questionable deep fried fair foods:

Jelly Bellys deep fried.  Who would have thought to deep fry Jelly Bellys? I mean they are one of my favorite candies, but I would prefer them not dipped in fattening batter and then deep fried, I will just eat them plain, thank you. 

White Castle Burgers.  I have tried White Castle Burgers and honestly I thought they were just as good as any other burger, nothing super special about them, but fair goers none the less will and have eaten a deep fried White Castle Burger (like you are not getting enough grease and fat from the hamburger already).  I do not even want to know what the calories would look like for a deep fried White Castle Burger, but then again, most fair goers (much like me) do not count calories at the fair, it is like a “free” day.  My boyfriend and I call it the one day a year Los Angeles residents will actually eat food without worrying too much about what they are actually consuming.

Fried Spam.  Who even likes Spam to begin with and then to have it deep fried… yuck.

Pop Tarts turned funnel cake.  That is right, some fairs have deep fried Pop Tarts and put them into funnel cake batter.  I once heard that if you want to gain weight you should eat pop tarts on a daily basis.  For some reason, that does not sound too appetizing to me.  If I were to try any type of deep fried fair food, it most likely will not be the deep fried Pop Tart, although much better sounding than the deep fried Spam. 

Ah, good old fair food… what is next, deep fried Crisco?

Labor Day: Pacific Northwest Style

I grew up in the Midwest, so a lot of my national holiday experiences were of such classic Americana that they veered dangerously close to Norman Rockwell idealism. When Labor Day rolled around in my Ohio town, hotdogs, hamburgers, ruffled potato chips and six-packs from the nearby Budweiser factory were basically compulsory. Aside from that last item, I don't have a problem with standard American grill fare, but sometimes a heart (and a stomach) wants something a little different. That's why I've decided to compile this Labor Day menu inspired by the best modern staples of my new home in the Pacific Northwest.

Salmon Pattie Sandwich with Sweet Chutney

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing quite like a classic hamburger. Unfortunately, it's a bit harder to find high-quality, reasonably priced beef in this corner of the country. I grew up enjoying that hearty grain-fed variety that came from just a few miles from my house. But one thing we get in the Northwest that you couldn't find in Ohio for any amount of money is good fish. That's why I suggest replacing that classic Labor Day hamburger with a fresh salmon pattie served on a whole wheat bun with a good, sweet chutney. I like mango chutney, but given that the central medium here is fish you can't go wrong with a citrus chutney. It's not terribly difficult to make at home, but any international market should have perfectly good chutney in stock.

 

Homemade Fruit Salad

The Pacific Northwest has a lovely selection of beautiful produce, especially in this mild transitional period between summer and autumn. Washington State is famous for its apples, and rightly so. Our honeycrisp crop are some of the sweetest, most refreshing apples I've ever tasted. Chop a few of those together with some of our plentiful, local blackberries, a few strawberries and a mild pear or two, squirt on some lemon juice to fend off discoloration and you've got a mighty fine fruit salad. It's simple to make, big on flavor and an impressive tour of the region's best produce.

 

Microbrew Selection

Name-brand pilsner is fairly ubiquitous east of the Cascades, which is a crying shame considering the tasty microbrews produced in Michigan and eastern Canada, especially Montreal and Quebec. As for what's west of the mountains, we have our pick of excellent hand-crafted beers. The Elysian Brewing Company in Seattle has a nice selection as does the slightly more southern Pyramid Alehouse. Some of best local beers come from the tiny but creative brewers at the Six Arms pub on Capitol Hill in Seattle. Their IPA is stellar and fans of the thick and heavy stuff can't do better than the Terminator Stout. Why drink watered-down Bud when lovingly crafted brews are just down the street?

 

Happy Labor Day, Northwesterners. Remember to enjoy the best of what your region has to offer. Even if you're from a different part of the nation, or not even local to the United States, there's no finer meal than the simple fare produced in one's own backyard. Fresh and perfected by years of careful experimentation, these dishes are what make a home more than just a spot on the map.

Rocket Doughnuts: Bacon Maple Bar

As far as I know, VooDoo Doughnuts in Portland, Oregon was the first doughnut heaven shop to create a bacon maple bar. But a local purveyor of paradise doughnut shop, the amazing Rocket Doughnuts, has now produced their own bacon maple bar.

Now, I need to stop and make sure you realize that I am a doughnut fiend expert. And when I tell you that Rocket Doughnuts are incredible, they really are. Plus, they have a life-size statue of Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still. But last week they surpassed themselves and they improved on their already stellar and yummy Maple Bar by adding bacon.

That's right; it's a bacon maple bar. It's a lot like like eating pancakes with bacon and maple syrup, only you can eat it with one hand while you're blogging.

Dorito Conversion

I have avoided Doritos brand chips for a long time. Even when I was just a young, impressionable consumer who was still impressed with the innovative-at-the-time concept of pizza rolls and drinks with questionably legal amounts of caffeine, my palate wouldn't let me indulge in a bag of neon orange snack food. The longest running flavor in the Doritos line is Nacho Cheese, which to me was always way too artificial tasting. I still think the heavy nacho powder generously dusting the chips is like a whole packet of cheap Mac n' Cheese minus the Mac. I'd have been happy to avoid those oblong triangles of tortilla for the rest of my days in favor of more grown-up kettle chips, or even other tortilla chips with light lime flavors or a salsa dip. That is, until a friend introduced me to some of the newer varieties.

First off, let's talk about jalapeno flavored snacks. In my opinion, this one ought to be an easy taste to replicate. Peppers dry exceptionally well and give up potent oils that provide the essence of their scent and flavor. For some reason, snack producers have deemed it necessary to smother the unmistakable joy of jalapeno with other ingredients. I don't want jalapeno ranch, jalapeno cheddar, or in the case of Doritos, jalapeno poppers. At least in principle, anyway. That said, the Jalapeno Poppers flavor is the less egregious of the two "Late Night" varieties of Doritos. 2009 is far from the first year that Frito-Lay has tried to make a taco flavored chip and it's not the first time they've failed to do so, either. It should be rather simple considering that tortilla chip + taco seasoning isn't exactly rocket science, but it just doesn't work out.

I'm a little more sympathetic to the Habanero Dorito because, like most things that have to do with habanero, it just tastes like heat. That's an unfair assessment of the real pepper itself, but I've come to accept that even the most gourmet concoctions use the word "habanero" interchangeably with the term "spicy version of whatever this is". I've had habanero beer, which just tasted like carbonated heat, and habanero chocolate, which just tasted like somewhat waxy heat. So, when I bite into a habanero tortilla chip and it just tastes like crunchy heat, I'm lenient because I knew what I was getting in to.

But somehow, maybe by sheer probability or maybe by a spark of genius, the Dorito R&D scientists Frito-Lay keeps trapped in some corporate basement made a chip that both tastes like the thing it's imitating and happens to be extremely delicious. I'm talking about the Spicy Sweet Chili flavor of Doritos.

Though we in the States haven't had access to the Spicy Sweet Chili chips for much more than a year, bags of these things have floated around other markets since 2005. Granted, Americans aren't known for being adventurous when it comes to flavors, especially in our salty snacks, but I think Frito-Lay could have brought Spicy Sweet Chili to the US market a long time ago. Why? Because they taste like General Tso's Chicken, that's why. It's remarkable to find a variety of Dorito that doesn't taste like some variation on the Nacho Cheese flavor, but more remarkable to find one that has such an interesting associative flare. After all, the popular Chinese takeout dish is little more than chicken in a sweet chili sauce.

The General Tso-esque taste of the Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos is almost certainly coincidental, but I don't care. When I want a chip with a different flavor than what I usually buy, I couldn't do much better than these tortilla Frankenstein monsters.

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