I taught a cooking class yesterday as part of unclasses.com.  The theme of the class was learn how to keep your kitchen/pantry stocked so that you can cook stuff without making extra trips to the store.  The class was a lot more work (mainly in preparation) than I thought it would be, but it was fun and I think I’ll do it again.

unclasses is a really cool concept, I hope it catches on.

Peggy Curry from the Growing Great organization let me use her fantastic designer kitchen and coached me through the syllabus as well as helped me during the class. She is a superstar green entrepreneur, I’m looking forward to working with her again.  If you live in LA plan to make it to her Living Healthy Festival on Sunday May 17.  Thanks Peggy!

Thanks to Stephen Henault for taking some great photos.

Here is what we made and ate:

1.    Hot garlicky olives
2.    lemon vinaigrette
3.    classic pesto
4.    Braising – Coq au Vin
5.    Roast Vegetables and Roast Chicken wraps
6.    Stock and simple red sauce
7.    Pressure cooker risotto
8.    Pasta – Perciatelli with Artichokes
9.    Lemon bars

My syllabi:

Cook More Often, Eat Better Part 1 – Free Legal Forms

Cook More Often Eat Better Part 2 – Free Legal Forms

Posted: April 5th, 2009 under food.
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I was interested to read in the LA Times yesterday that the United Nations is now urging wealthy nations to make a dramatic shift in eating habits, saying the best way to curb climate change is for people to go at least one day a week without meat.  Maybe they are reading my blog.

If you are thinking about doing I’d recommend skipping the fish course as well and go completely vegetarian or vegan to the extent you can.  It’s not just about greenhouse gasses – the world’s fisheries are stressed as well, and even farmed fish require an inefficient conversion of feedstock.  There is some good information on the Environmental Defense Fund’s website about which species of fish you should be choosing when you shop that you can print and carry in your wallet.

Nine months later I’m thinking about adding another meatless day per week.

Photo by Mary Edwards

Posted: September 10th, 2008 under food, politics.
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Jen’s garden is going off this week.  We’ve got abundant herbs, chilis, cucumbers and tons of other stuff.  But the tomatoes are the star of the show.  We are probably getting 2 or 3 pints a day out of it right now.  We’ve got big purple heirlooms, perfect red Romas, then 2 kinds of cherry and some yellow grapes.  I’m not very much help with gardening itself, but I love preparing them as they come in. Here’s what we’ve done so far.

Sliced with salt – During July August and September eat as many raw, freshly harvested tomatoes as you can: as a snack, in salads, on sandwiches.  It’s hands down the best way to enjoy them.  We’ve made gifts to some friends and neighbors, which is good karma any way you look at it.

Caprese – fresh mozzarella, basil, ripe tomatoes, olive oil, salt.

Gazpacho – This is a great recipe even without the seafood, basically substitute in whatever veggies are best in your house that day (and don’t feel like you have to run to the store if you don’t have everything – improvise, its about the fresh tomatoes).  Cucumbers, fresh chilies, zuchini, grean beans and lettuce would all work well.

Sun Dried – I threw about 15 halved and salted cherries in the oven on low for 6 hours and dried them out – it’s a welcome variation and fresh tomatoes really make a difference.  I made some fresh pork sausages with them that were sublimely tasty (a lot of fresh basil and oregano, some red wine.  Don’t forget the back fat.)  We’ll probably take 3 or 4 pints of our remaining harvest and dry them then store them under oil for the winter.  I may even try to dry them using the actual sun.

Quick sauce – Some people claim they don’t make sauce with fresh tomatoes (cause raw are much better), but Jen and I really look forward to August and a quick simple sauce from fresh tomatoes, run through a food mill over fresh wide pasta.  Olive oil, a little onion, an herb, salt and pepper.

PS Get well soon to my Dad, whose garden is defnitely bigger than your dad’s garden.  He had his hip replaced Friday and is recovering well, although he isn’t the kind of guy that likes to be cooped up in a hospital room in August.  I made my first dollar when I was six or seven selling tomatoes from his backyard plot to a local restauranteur.

Posted: August 10th, 2008 under food, wine.
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The world’s food system is highly stressed. And it’s unhealthy for people. And cruel to livestock. Over the holidays while on vacation with my family I read Michael Pollan’s incredible book An Ominivore’s Dilemma. It was nformative and inspiring. The general thesis is that human beings in the 21st century have lost track of our food chain – we really don’t know what we’re eating most of the time. Where does it come from, who produces it, who processes it, at what cost?

It being the holidays, the subject of food was on my mind when it came time to formulate my 2008 resolutions. I’d never seriously confronted the idea of vegetarianism before. Lots of friends and family members are vegetarians, but seriously? In the words of Vincent Vega “Yeah, but pork chops taste good. And bacon tastes good“. I’m a foodie. Some of my favorite places and things are…. meaty. Making the leap all the way to vegetarianism just wasn’t realistic.

But I did want to do something. So I came up with 2 things that I thought could be personally meaningful.

1. Give up fast food. Pretty easy – sort of a no-brainer. Those places are really bad on so many levels. Hasn’t been hard.
2. Practice vegetarianism on Mondays.

I haven’t told too many people about the second one, and when I do, the usual reaction is nervous laughter. Like I’ve just told a not too funny joke that doesn’t really make sense. In fact for the first few months I didn’t really tell anyone – even Jen – probably because I thought it was somewhat nonsensical myself. My semi-coherent rationalization(s):

• If everyone in the US cut out 1/7 of their meat consumption, the environmental and societal impact would be radical.
• I’d probably enjoy the foodie challenge of learning to cook meatless.
• Most importantly, what I was searching for was a way to make a lifestyle change. Not to change the world, but to change my own personal behavior. Sometimes that requires baby steps.

After 4.5 months of keeping these resolutions, I have to report that I’m really, really, happy with the results. The biggest unintended consequence of the Monday plan is that I eat way less meat now every day of the week. Fewer meals contain meat, and the portions I eat are smaller. I crossed some psychological barrier I didn’t even know was there – every meal doesn’t have to have meat as a focus. Another outcome is that I have become a lot more curious about the provenance of the meat I do eat. Researching the food chain, buying the $15 chicken at the farmer’s market instead of the $5 Purdue broiler. Now the goat-cheese guy sells eggs and ducks too, not produced ag-biz style. And Candido the butcher is getting pasture-raised beeves from the Central Valley and calling me to see if he can put anything aside for me. It costs more, but I eat less. Changing the lifestyle.

Maybe “Meatless Monday” isn’t right for you. But read the books and articles, and find a realistic change. See where it takes you.

photo from Flickr by phitar

Posted: May 15th, 2008 under food.
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I’m really disappointed that I didn’t have this idea first. The blog not martha has some step by step directions for making salad bowls out of bacon. I am doing this for sure next chance I get.

Posted: February 28th, 2008 under food.
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LA’s best pizza

Originally uploaded by steveray.

Is Joe’s – it opened last week, a transplant from Greenwich Village.  Far and away the best pizza I have had outside of NY or Chicago.  We are eating it like crazy here cause its on the next block.  We are seriously concerned about our long term health and weight  prospects.  This photo is the buttery cheesy garlicy white pizza.  I just hammered 2 pieces and I’m eyeing another.

Posted: November 20th, 2007 under food, work.
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