Bacon Love

There were quite a few meat-tastic couple of days for this vegetarian last week. I went on both the Belmont Butchery and Brookview field trips, and I had the best time talking with the meat hawkers at each place. Strange? I don't think so, though I have noticed my vegetarianism becoming quite a hindrance to my likely life adventures. Because I won't eat meat, I will never be a food critic, nor a Peace Corps member, not to mention a Survivor cast member. Yet I loved talking with both Tanya of Belmont Butchery and Sandy and Rossie Fisher of Brookview. They all have such depth of understanding regarding the human place in the food chain, I can't help thinking that this is the way eating should go.

Sandy pulled us aside at his farm market last Saturday, willing to disseminate not only recipes to go with his meat, but advice on composting and stories about cattle breeds. He laughed when he told us that he and his wife Rossie would soon be on the cover of the Goochland phone book, (which, he laughed, "used to be about 26 pages long") and that they had recently signed over their land to agricultural conservation. Hundreds of acres of Virginia farmland are preserved thanks to them. Go out sometime- they want to tell you what they know. And go early- in winter, the eggs sell out by 10:00 a.m.

Brookview Farm's Omega 3's Eggs

Yesterday RFC made a trip out to the beautifully bucolic Brookview Farms to check out there Saturday morning market. I think we all agree that the experience of shopping here for free range, grass fed meats and fresh eggs was ideal and we look forward to returning to the Brookview Farm market in the future. But I am here this morning just to talk about their eggs.

Brookview farms supplements their chickens organic grain diet with organic flax seed which they say produces "an egg packed with omega-3, while being lower in saturated fat and high in vitamin E, a powerful cancer-fighting antioxidant." (Brookview Farm brochure)

This morning I cracked open two Brookview Farm's eggs to make myself a tasty frittata. The eggs were quit large and the yokes were almost the color of an orange marigold. I made just enough for 1 since my husband will be eating his later with a side of Brookview Farm's uncured and nitrate free bacon...a real treat for him.

I wanted to be able to taste the eggs so I went with a milder medley then I might otherwise.
These eggs came out wonderfully and were some of the best tasting eggs I've ever had. Try them and this recipe. I Hope You love it as much as I did.
I had this with Flax seed and Oat bread, and a Fruit salad of walnuts, Granny Smith Apple, and Raisins covered in Honey from Bob Stapleton.

Shan's Breakfast Frittata
2 eggs with water whisked ( I used to measure this out by filling one half of the cracked open shell with water . A half shell of water per egg. Now I just eyeball it.)
Course Salt and Course Fresh ground Pepper to taste
4 Mushrooms, destemed and sliced
1 spring onion sliced, omitting most of the green
1tbsp goat cheese,crumbled
1tbsp butter

Turn on Broiler in oven and make sure to use a high heat, oven safe pan
Rinse and slice the mushrooms and onions
Wisk the eggs and water
Heat a non-stick pan on med heat add the butter once pan is warm enough to melt the butter
Add the mushrooms and saute for about 3min
Add the green onions and saute a another min. or two
Salt and pepper your egg mixture and wisk up again. Pour over mushroom mix in pan.
Cook eggs running wooden spoon through gently exposing more liquid to the bottom of the pan as the eggs cook.
Once eggs are about half done crumble the goat cheese on top stir it in a bit and place pan under the broiler to finish cooking from the top down. This will cook fast so just keep checking it over the next minute or two until the eggs are cooked through.

ps. I realized too late that my pan had become too hot from sauteing the mushrooms causing my eggs to cook to quickly for my usual fritata method. The recipe above would be ideal, but what I actually ate this a.m. was a very delious scramble... O well. This could be rectified by just getting the eggs off the stove top and into the oven more quickly.

Environmental Film Festival, February 9 & 10

We at the Richmond Food Collective are all about sustainable agriculture. Keeping our environment healthy is key to maintaining our sources for delicious food. Naturally, we support all things environmental, and we will be attending Richmond's first Environmental Film Festival! Definitely consider attending this event, entitled "The Biggest Picture," which was "created to raise awareness about urgent environmental issues such as overpopulation, pollution, deforestation, global warming, open space destruction, corporate profiteering, and mountaintop removal mining."

The event was organized by a group of VCU students called "VCU Ecodefense," and will take place at the Byrd Theater in Carytown. Over two days, February 9th and 10th, the event will "showcase 8 films, live music, and noted environmental speakers, including Ralph Nader, who will speak for an hour and a half followed by a book signing." You can get tickets at quite a few locations, including Ellwood Thompson's and Ipanema Cafe, two of our favorite places. Tickets are $15 for the weekend, $10 for a 1 day pass. See you there!

RFC Visits Belmont Butchery

This week we paid a visit to the Belmont Butchery, a butcher shop located on Belmont Avenue near Carytown. Since we love to support local small businesses, we were eager to find out if this was a place where we could get quality meat. We were looking for keywords ("grass-fed," "free-range," "organic"), and a sense of soul. As it turned out, we found a lot of both.

During our visit, we were privileged to talk with Tanya Cauthen, the owner of the shop and an experienced chef who has been in and out of the Richmond restaurant community for years. When we arrived, we watched as Cauthen and her two assistants chatted with customers, helping them choose their cuts of meat and wrapping their purchases in clean white paper. Large pieces of beef looked luscious and red inside the glass cases, placed next to chicken and coils of sausage. On one side of the store we noticed a map of Italy marked with the words "Chris is Here" and a small indicating arrow. Along the opposing wall sat a small collection of cheeses and wines, and on one shelf I noticed a cookbook called The Cook and the Gardener. We also saw the latest issue of Edible Chesapeake. It was with a sense of eager anticipation that we asked Cauthen if she’d chat with us for a few minutes. She finished ringing up a customer, and asked us if she could talk while she worked.

A wide selection of meats, including poultry.

Before we could even ask, Cauthen told us that she is all about supporting "pastoral" style farming – places where pigs wallow in mud, cows roam across hills munching grass, and chickens peck at the ground in ample yard space. We were thrilled when she said she gets a lot of her meat from farms in the area, and the rest, if not local, is as natural as possible. Cauthen emphasized that she is all about finding a “happy medium” for her customers. She supplies them with meat from a variety of sources, hoping to promote organic, sustainable farming with the promise of quality. If people like the meat they get from these sources, they will continue to seek them out.

A big blackboard explains meat cuts and extolls the quality of Belmont Butchery's selection.

Cauthen wants the Belmont Butchery to be a "forum for awareness," a place where people can develop a preference for good foods and an understanding of where they come from. We quickly realized there was a lot we could learn here about natural foods and sustainable agriculture. One interesting discussion was about "certified organic" products. Cauthen told us the certification process is lengthy and expensive – financially impossible for some small businesses to undergo. She said she isn’t always focused on organic certifications, instead searching for local farms with agricultural practices she finds appropriate. While she feels some standards are important, Cauthen is truly focused on the quality of the meat.

We were also interested to learn the "Prime" designation for cuts of beef (i.e. the 'best' cuts) are actually impossible to get from grass-fed beef, because 'prime' quality beef has intermuscular fat, or marbling, a phenomenon that results from the corn-based diet characteristic of industrial cows.

How can we, as consumers, support Virginia farmers? Cauthen tells us to "Go to the farmer’s markets. Talk to the farmers." Personally asking these people when and where to obtain their produce will help you create a year-round method of obtaining food outside faceless stores. "I don’t like big conglomerates," Cauthen says. We agree.

Cutting meat for a customer.

Right now, Cauthen tells us, a Butchery employee is in Italy, working as an intern at a butcher shop there. She points at the map. He will eventually return, ready to teach his co-workers how to cut meat Italian-style. Cauthen seems proud as she describes her employees and customers. Throughout our conversation, there has been a tangible sense of community – somewhere out there exists a diverse group of people connected to good food, moving in and out of the butcher shop and around Richmond. Cauthen is vocal about the personal relationships she maintains with other local businesses, and the farms who supply her with meat. Clearly she values solidarity and trust above financial gain. We felt distinctly reassured that the mission of the Butchery was to draw its customers into a community of good eating. “Food should have a face,” Cauthen said, whether it’s the humanely-raised animal you are eating or the people providing you with a meal.

Wine and cheese round out the selection of artisanal foods.

Finally, we had heard the Belmont Butchery was involved in the Richmond chapter of the Slow Food movement, which you can read about here. When we asked, Cauthen said there hasn’t been much activity lately – the holiday season is, as always, intense – but she wants the group to move forward. We volunteered to help, so look for more information on Slow Food in upcoming posts!

Shannon's Recipes For a week in Late Janurary

Okay, I am right this second writing my very first ever blog post!!! I am a gardener, and gardeners and technology don't always go hand in hand, but I am braving this new world simply because my love of great, healthy food has driven me.

So I am starting off simple, with one simple recipe that makes me happy. This is perfect for this time of year, and perfect for a budgeted meal plan.

One, My newest discovery is that I LOVE Roasted Beets.... at least in this delicious combination.

Shan's Usual Beet Salad...a.k.a Orange Walnut Beet Salad
This makes a Beautifully colorful salad, great for everyday or a special occasion.
Cut Roots and tops off off beets. Roast small to medium beets wrapped individually in foil and placed in the oven at 350 on a cookie sheet for 1.5 hours. Pull the skin off the cooked beets once they have cooled just enough to handle safely. This will be very easy, but if you wait until they have completely cooled it will become more difficult to remove the skins.
Now, this salad has become a bit of an addiction so I usually buy one bunch of beets, Roast and peel them all and then store them in the fridge for 7 days (that's the longest they've ever lasted before being eaten up). Point is you can roast them all up and have an easy to toss together salad for the rest of the week.
I am usually making this salad up for one since my husband can only eat but so much of any one thing. So hear is the rest of the recipe for 1 and you can just double, triple etc to suit your needs.

1 Roasted, Pealed Beet. Cut in half and sliced into 1/8 inch slices
1 Clementine (or sectioned orange) separated into wedges, seeded,
lets be frank there are always seeds, and cut each wedge in half.
1/5 cup walnuts chopped coarsely
2 Tbsp seeds of pomegranate (I usually buy several in December and store them in fridge)
Mixed baby greens
Light topping of crumbled goat cheese

Dressing (Enough for 4-6 individual salads)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup OJ concentrate
1-2 tbsp dry white wine.
Shake it up

Variations:
To be honest, the goat cheese only makes onto the salad about 1/3 of the time. If I happen to have it, or am cooking for guest I would add it, but I love it just as well with out. The white wine is also a definite improvement, but again, I only use it if I happen to have a bottle already open. Finally, I often even omit both the mixed greens and the goat cheese and eat simply the beets, pomegranate, oranges, and walnuts with the above dressing like a fruit salad. All Yummy.

Breadmaking! Part 2: Baking

In part 1, I talked a bit about the ingredients that go into a loaf of bread. I hope were inspired to create your own healthy recipe using some interesting grains and good quality honey. This time, I’m going to talk about the actual process of making a loaf of bread.

A Good Recipe

As I mentioned before, the inspiration for these breadmaking articles was a weekend lesson I received from my parents. When we set out to make our bread, my dad used his vast cooking experience to estimate the amount of each ingredient – he literally just threw everything together without touching a single measuring cup. I knew I wouldn’t remember, so I asked my mom for a recipe. She recommended the following, which is based on the recipe for ‘100% Whole Wheat Bread’ in The Book of Bread by Judith and Evan Jones:


1 tablespoon active dry yeast
2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon coarse salt or 2 teaspoons table salt
¼ cup melted butter or oil of your choice (we used olive)


You probably noticed I didn't list a specific quantity for flour in the recipe! Why? Because one of the most artistic and important parts of breadmaking is the process of adding flour to the dough until the consistency is just right. Before you add the flour, though, you’ll need to mix the liquid ingredients. In a large bowl, mix together the water, the molasses, honey, salt, and butter/oil. A tip from my dad is to use hot water from the tap, because it will begin to cool the moment you pour it into the bowl, and by the time the yeast hits it the water will be the ideal temperature. Now add the yeast to the big bowl, and aggressively whisk it in. Allow a little time for the yeast to activate, as it feeds on the honey and molasses. Foamy bubbles should form on the surface of the liquid. A warm, yeasty smell should rise up out of the bowl.

Kneading

Now it’s time for the fun – adding flour. Begin with the whisk, and add about a cup at a time, thickening the liquid ingredients. We threw in our freshly ground buckwheat first (maybe 2/3 cup) then began adding wheat flour. My dad also put in a bit of white, to lighten up the bread’s consistency. When the dough begins to stick inside the whisk, switch to a big spoon and keep stirring. We continued adding flour until the mass was just doughy enough to be kneaded. It’s important to know when your bread is ready to be kneaded. It should still be sticky, but substantial enough to form a cohesive mass when you lift it out of the bowl onto the table. Kneading, I admit, is a bit of an art form. Fortunately, bread seems to be fairly forgiving, and even if you over- or under-knead your bread, it will probably still taste all right. I didn’t think to take a video of my dad or myself kneading our bread, but check out this video from http://www.epicurious.com/ .

Note the consistency of the dough when she dumps it out of the bowl: sticky but substantial. Also note the consistency as she finishes kneading, which is how you want your bread to look. Poke your finger into it – it should spring back a little. Kneading is the most enjoyable part of breadmaking.

Rising and Baking

When you have finished kneading, the time-consuming part of breadmaking begins – rising. We greased a bowl, so the dough wouldn’t stick to it as it increased in size, placed the dough in the bowl, and then covered it with a dish towel. You can warm your oven up just a little bit and put the dough inside, if you like – my mom suggested preheating it to a high temperature for about a minute and then turning it off, just to fill the inside with hot air. Rising takes about 1-2 hours, depending on the yeast and the quality of the bread you’re trying to make. After about an hour, check your bread – if it has nearly doubled its volume, you’re good. Remember, the lighter and airier you want your bread to be, the longer it should rise.

Now, punch it down! Give it a couple of good pushes with your hand – the big ball of dough will deflate into a more manageable size. This will help you to form loaves and create a better overall flavor and texture after the bread has been cooked.

This recipe should make two medium-size loaves of bread. You can put the dough in bread pans, or just do what we did, and form it into two circular pieces. We cut an X across the top of each loaf because it looks nice.

Now the bread has to rise again. My dad is the impatient type, so we didn’t wait very long for the second rising – about 20 minutes. However, my mom suggest letting your second rising go on for up to an hour, again depending on how dense you want the finished product to be. Several bread recipes concur. While this is going on, go ahead and preheat the oven to 350˚. When you have decided the bread is done rising (if you’re using loaf pans, the dough should have filled each pan), put it in the oven for 30-40 minutes. You know the routine – check it, poke in a knife or a toothpick and see if it comes out clean. Everyone’s oven is different, so just experiment a little bit.

Unceremoniously, we are at the end of our journey! Remove your bread from the oven and eat a freshly baked, steaming slice! This is the easiest part. Let's take a look at that loaf we made one more time:

It was great! The X shape on top ended up a little strange on this loaf, but that was just a small casualty. The second loaf was fine, but we ate most of it before I got out the camera. The bread was quite dense and tasted distinctly of freshly ground buckwheat. It was great with butter or cheese.

Breadmaking is a great way to get more involved in your food, and with a little practice, you can be making some amazing multigrain breads. You may also be interested in exploring bread machine cooking, but wouldn't you miss doing the kneading? In my opinion, making this recipe once a week would yield plenty of bread for sandwiches or snacks. Remember, just as Erin says, play with your food! I think the point of making your own bread is to enjoy the smells and the textures of the ingredients, and to participate more deeply in the process of creating a food that is satisfying and good for you. Part of that is making the bread your own by playing with the recipe and enjoying the process without rushing or frustration. Enjoy the journey. Make bread with heart!

Play with your food

Winter has turned me into a homebody. This winter in particular has, and I think that perhaps now that food is becoming a proper obsession for me, I always want to try new things. This weekend I wanted to get a few things ready for the business of weekday life, so I made up an egg salad which is more appropriate for the winter than your regular picnic variety. This recipe is inspired by the French potato salad that I love to eat in the summer (ahhh, summer...) which uses grainy mustard instead of mayonnaise. I used a little of each in this salad and it turned out pretty well- but I think that is mostly due to the amazing eggs in it. (Seriously, the yolks are nearly orange!) The eggs are from the Virginia Organic Farms (sold at Ellwood Thompson).

One caveat before we get started- I am not an exact type person, especially when I cook. Sometimes this works out for me, sometimes not. So, measurements are not exact, but that is all part of the adventure, right? I hope these work for you.

Egg Salad
6 gorgeous eggs (hard boiled and chopped)
a spoonful of grainy mustard
2 spoonfuls of mayonnaise
1/4 chopped fennel
1 chopped green onion

I plan on eating this egg salad for lunch this week on cracked wheat bread, toasted and spread with grainy mustard with local spinach.

Which brings me to one of the other wonderful things to love about winter cooking- making stock for soup.

I get so excited when I have a reason buy fennel because I love it and because I can use the tops for stock. No waste! Today I just threw the leafy fronds and the outer layers of the fennel bulb into some water, added some garlic, salt and peppercorns (I used both green and long black) and let it simmer for 20- 30 minutes. If you have leftover carrots, celery, potatoes, onions- any vegetable or herbs which need to be eaten, you can throw them in as well. I am vegetarian, but bones from meat make very flavorful, rich stocks as well. Basically, don't throw it away- give it another incarnation!

After all of the flavors have blended and the stock is a tan color, strain the liquid into a plastic container. (Those 32 ounce yogurt containers are so great for this.) Just mark the contents and the date on the container and put it into the freezer. I think the stock I made today will make a great base for a curative soup. (Read: loads of garlic.) Homemade stocks also add a lot to risottos, too. If you go through the (very simple) work of making some stock, undoubtedly someday you will be glad you did.


And then, sometimes a girl just needs chocolate.

These cookies were full of mistakes and mishaps- a bit like love (and life) itself. Because they turned out beautifully in the end, I can tell you that they really will make all of your troubles disappear. For a little while, anyway.

Chocolate Love Cookies

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter at room temperature
1 cup 'white' sugar (Sugar in the Raw or turbinado)
1 cup brown sugar
a large dash of vanilla- (I couldn't find mine, so I used the bourbon where I keep spent vanilla pods- either way... I think that since these are SO chocolatey, you could use another extract as well to give it dimension- mint, coconut, hazelnut- what ever you have. I just happened to have bourbon.)
2 eggs at room temperature
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
a large dash of salt
About 10 oz. of finely chopped chocolate (mine had peppermint in it- really good)
1 8oz bar of dark chocolate, (I used one that had 77% cacao) coarsely chopped

Oven to 350 degrees
Cream butter and sugars until light-(one of the mishaps in making these was that my mixer, which I bought for about five dollars right after I graduated from college, finally collapsed. I mixed everything with a big paddle spoon instead. More love that way, I think.)
Add vanilla and eggs (one at a time.) Mix well.

Fully incorporate cocoa.
Mix rest of dry ingredients together and add to mixture one part at a time- do not over mix this step.
Stir in chocolate.

Spoon dough onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

I made my cookies really big, so I cooked them for about 15 minutes. However large you choose to make your cookies, remember that they will look underdone- take them out when the chocolate has melted and the cookies have flattened out.

Let them cool on the pan (they will continue to cook a little).

Now, go on, make someone happy...

Breadmaking! Part 1: Preparation

This weekend, I learned how to make bread. At my request, my parents took it upon themselves to pass on to me ages-old cooking knowledge and a revelation: making bread is easy. Well, sort of. We set out to make a couple of pretty basic loaves, nothing fancy, just a good old slab of brown bread for eating with honey or some delicious yogurt cheese – and we succeeded! For the most part, I was pleased to learn that bread is an extremely simple cooking endeavor, as long as you understand a few crucial points. In this first half of my two-part breadmaking article, I’ll discuss preparation and the ingredients you’ll need for a great loaf.


Here it is – the final product of my breadmaking experience. This star specimen (though the crust is a little saggy, I must admit) was made using a combination of whole wheat, white, and buckwheat flours. I think one of the most important parts of making bread is deciding what grains you would like to incorporate into your recipe.

White vs. Wheat

Since this article is about making wheat bread (as opposed to cornbread or sourdough or some other type), you will first need to decide between using white or whole wheat flour. Whole wheat is just what it sounds like – unmolested grains of wheat harvested directly from the plant. Wheat grains naturally contain plenty of beneficial nutrients, such as dietary fiber, antioxidants, protein, vitamins B6 and E, and minerals. In the Middle Ages, people began processing their wheat because grains in their natural state were susceptible to mold and fungus, therefore leading to the impression that processed grains were much healthier. Unfortunately, removing parts of a whole wheat grain removes some of those important nutrients. Now, most processing companies go through a process called ‘enrichment’ by which they add those nutrients back into flour. You might think that since nutrients have been added back in, there should be no ‘penalties’ for using white flour. As you might suspect, though, the form these nutrients take is fundamentally different from their natural state as part of a wheat grain, meaning that your body can’t absorb them in the same way. White flour isn’t all bad: in bread making, one of the benefits of using white flour is a lighter, fluffier texture in the body of the bread, and a different taste. White flour is always used for airy, puffy breads, like pizza crust or pastries. The basic understanding you should walk away with is that white flour may not be bad for you, but it is less nutrient rich and tasty than whole wheat.

Grinding

Since I wanted ours to be a mutt bread, we went to Good Foods Grocery in Bon Air and bought some raw buckwheat and oats to add in addition to the whole wheat flour we had chosen as our base. Luckily enough, my parents happen to own a grain grinder.


Grinding your own grain is amazing. Warm, fresh flour emerges from the smaller compartment to the right, and of course you can make any kind you like: oats, buckwheat, amaranth, rye, millet, whatever you can find in those self-serve bins at Good Foods Grocery, Ellwood Thompson’s, or Ukrops. There is also a setting by which you determine the coarseness of the final product. We only did home grinding for the buckwheat because we had bags of whole wheat flour on hand, but for a really delicious loaf we could have also made fresh whole wheat flour. Please go here for a guide to some of the grains you can add into your own special loaf. This is really where you can get creative! If (like most people) you don't own a grinder, look in the bins for pre-milled grains.

Other Ingredients

I was surprised to find out that not much else goes into a loaf of bread. You will need yeast in order to make the bread rise. You can choose either ‘rapid rise’ yeast, or the more traditional slow-moving kind – naturally, if you choose ‘fast’ yeast, you can cut down on the overall cooking time. In either case, you are encouraging a dormant microorganism to become active, releasing bubbles of CO2 into your dough, meaning that you will need to give it some kind of food. Yeast loves to eat sugary things, so honey and/or molasses are key ingredients in a loaf of bread. You will also need a bit of oil or butter to create a smooth consistency and salt for flavor. Naturally, the higher the quality of these basic ingredients, the better your bread will taste: local, organic honey, fresh yeast, sea salt, and good olive oil will all help to make your bread just a little better. In general, local honey can be found in Ellwood Thompson's; I also highly recommend honey by Robert Stapleton, who has been instrumental in the development of the Beekeeping for Beginners classes available at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. His honey is for sale in the LGBG gift shop.

Check back soon for Part 2!

Garden Update- January

I know, I know. It is winter. The season of beautiful rest for the gardener. As we all know though, eating well and gardening well requires planning. So winter is a great time for- AMENDING!

Amending is an essential step in successful gardening, and a principle of responsible behavior as well- basically put back what you take out. There are many sources for soil amendments- compost, organic fertilizers, and well, manure.

I will admit, this is not my garden. It is my father's, and it is one of my favorite kitchen gardens ever. I do not have enough sun to grow vegetables in my yard, so I visit his whenever possible. So, it was not out of the ordinary to get a call from my dad yesterday, "I am at my friend's horse farm- I got the most amazing composted horse manure from him. You HAVE to come see it."

So, I did, and it was- amazing, that is.


So, we worked this wonderful, organic, nitrogen source into his soil, and put the beds to sleep for a little while longer.

We Love Food.

Welcome to the Richmond Food Collective! We are all about eating local, organic, whole and sustainable in the Greater Richmond community. We are Richmonders, passionate about nurturing the landscape of our town. While studying the way farming practices affect all of our lives, we decided that it was important to share the wisdom we uncovered. Changing the way we ate changed the way we saw our community--for the better.

We are each organic gardeners, cooks, bakers, activists, adventurers and writers, hoping that we can inspire you to love food too. We believe that food can change the world, and indeed, that there is no more blissful, celebratory way to go about doing so.