Meg Cotner – Page 9 – Harmonious Belly

January 24, 2012January 24, 2012

Salt Preserved Lemon Peel

Recently, I’ve seen a bunch of posts on the interwebs about citrus and citrus peel – since it’s citrus season, that makes sense. I’ve been preserving lemon peel in kosher salt for a few months now – yes, that’s just the peel, not the entire lemon (I’ve preserved entire lemons, too). It’s a way to reduce waste as well as turning it into something delicious.

Usually when I use preserved lemons, it’s all about the peel; more often than not I discard the pulp, though I’m sure someone could show me what to do with it (I’m interested!). So, I got the idea of just preserving the peel in salt – each time I juiced an organic lemon, I’d get rid of the leftover lemon innards and reserve the peel. I slice the peel into strips and store them in salt.

I use the peel in things like chicken dishes or with couscous. It gives a kind of North African flavor to things. I love it! And it’s super thrifty. Organic lemons aren’t cheap.

After the peels stay in the salt for a while, they start to change color – it goes from a bright yellow to a kind of yellow orange. I think it’s beautiful.

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January 23, 2012January 23, 2012

Sights and Sound: 2 Videos and 1 Podcast of Note

I’ve recently come across a couple of videos and a podcast that I’ve really enjoyed, and wanted to share them with you here.

For months, I’ve heard about Unique Eats, a show on the Cooking Channel, from my friend Tamara Reynolds. Tamara is the force behind The Sunday Night Dinner, a supper club in NYC – that’s where these bacon lollipops came from. She also works with Unique Eats as an “eating and talking head” – and rightly so, because she knows her stuff.

One of the UE episodes is all about Queens, which is my home borough right now. They highlight three of my favorite spots in the borough: Mombar (lamb cheeks!), an Egyptian restaurant, Tortilleria Nixtamal (carnitas!), a taqueria in Corona, and The Queens Kickshaw (Gouda sandwich!). I was unfamiliar with the Korean restaurant, Sik Gaek, but I must say – after watching a little bit about it, I want to check it out. Here’s the video:

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January 18, 2012January 15, 2012

Astoria’s Butcher Bar

In late December, I stopped by Butcher Bar, a new spot in Astoria focusing on local, organic, and grass-fed/pastured meats. It’s part butcher shop, part barbecue restaurant. The barbecue is pretty dang good, but I must admit that it’s the butcher shop aspect that excites me the most. I order most of my meats through my CSA or online, so it’s really cool to have a place I can just walk to if I want some fresh pastured meats.

While I was there, I got into a conversation with the owner, Matthew Katakis, about the shop and his reasons for opening it. Essentially, he came to understand that grass-fed/pastured meats are superior in many ways, and felt that now was the time to bring them to Astoria. I agree with him on all points, and am particularly happy to see someone who is so much a part of the community doing this. The people behind Butcher Bar are the same ones behind Pita Pan, a popular Greek spot on 30th Ave in Astoria.

They head upstate every Monday and visit the farms and pick up their meat. This allows them to have a closer relationship with the people that raise the meat, and since a lot of the farms are local, the meat fresher. They also work with Heritage Foods, and stock D’Artagnan products. Across the board, they are sourcing from places that humanely raise their animals, which is important to me.

The sell a number of cuts, some whole and some of the meat is ground up. I hear from very reliable sources that the “Bob’s Burger” is fabulous – 80/20 brisket and… bacon. The delicious smokey bacon fat melts into the rest of the meat and makes for a real taste sensation.

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January 17, 2012January 15, 2012

Food Lover’s Cleanse 2012, Days 5-8

I ended up taking several days away from the cleanse for various reasons, mostly due to social events and meetings with friends that came up. Connecting with the people I care about is important to me, so I take advantage of it when I can. Good news is that I didn’t over do it with sweets and I ate smaller portion sizes, not because of a conscious decision, but because my body is better regulated these days after eating mostly real food; I don’t feel the need to overindulge. The times spend with friends were so fun and I’m really glad I had those opportunities.

Day 5 (Thursday) started with 2 pastured eggs topped with a spicy fermented relish. I love this relish, and adore pastured eggs, so it was a great combination for me. And I get my fermented foods right off at the start of the day. I also had some pear ginger tea.

Lunch was leftover pumpkin chicken curry, based on the pumpkin shrimp curry for that week. I don’t care for shrimp and I had this lovely pastured chicken breast, so I made the curry earlier in the week, simply swapping one protein for the other. It worked out great! I also used coconut oil, which added a nice flavor. And it was delicious over the carrot brown rice pilaf. I soaked the brown rice in water and whey to deactivate the phytic acid.

Dinner was a spur of the moment trip to Adrienne’s, my favorite pizza spot in Manhattan. I was pleased to have comfortably restrained myself to two slices – they make something called an Old Fashioned, which is essentially a grandma pizza. It’s fantastic; we get it with pepperoni. We treated ourselves to a serving of their delicious meatballs and a glass of wine, with a couple of sweet treats at the end (I wasn’t able to finish my tiramisu, and I am a sucker for tiramisu).

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January 16, 2012January 15, 2012

Making Wine Vinegar

One of the things I wanted to explore this year, is making vinegar. Imagine my delight when I learned that it takes almost no time and starting it only takes a few ingredients: wine, water, and raw vinegar (for a starter).

Above is what I used to start my batch of vinegar – 1 cup of leftover wine, 4 Tbs raw apple cider vinegar, and a vessel in which to make it (wide mouth mason jar). I was sure to add very hot water to the jar and swirl it around to make sure it was a clean and sterile space. I also added 1 cup of water.

There’s now about 6 layers of cheesecloth over the opening, secured with a rubber band, and I’ve wrapped the jar in a tea towel. It’s now sitting on my kitchen counter in a far corner that gets no direct light.

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January 10, 2012January 10, 2012

An Afternoon of Fermented Foods

Last week, I went over to the my friend Denise’s home for a mid-afternoon snack and chat. Little did I know how awesome an afternoon it was going to be, full of fermented foods. We ate a number of kimchis, had some pancakes made with kimchi, and enjoyed a fermented soda. She did a great job making the fermented products, and got me all excited again about making ferments.

The first kimchi I tasted was a water kimchi. This is a lesser-known kimchi in the US (I’m really familiar with the cabbage kimchi), and is very light. She made it with primarily some kind of leafy green.

Next was a kimchi made from butternut squash. The squash was not cooked beforehand, but you’d never know it – the squash was soft but not without substance. It was a little sweet, a little savory. Really wonderful!

The final kimchi I tasted was the kind I’m used to – cabbage kimchi with ginger, garlic, hot peppers, etc, though not made with napa cabbage. It was very good. We used some of the juice in the mung bean pancakes.

Then I tasted a bit of this corn salsa she made back in the late summer. Wowza, it was delicious! I am going to make this next year.

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January 9, 2012January 9, 2012

Soaking Nuts Makes a Difference

One of the things I want to do this year is to get back to eating in a NT (Nourishing Tradition) style more regularly. It is this “template” that makes the most sense to me, and is the way my body prefers to be nourished. I already have incorporated raw dairy, fermented foods, healthy fats (pastured lard, tallow, olive oil, raw or pasture butter), and pastured meats into my diet, as well as adhering to the practice of preparing my grains properly – by soaking, souring, or sprouting them.

One missing link from all is this properly preparing nuts by soaking them in a salt water solution, then dehydrating them to increase digestibility. I must admit – I didn’t always think this was necessary. But now I think differently, thanks to the positive feedback from my digestive system – for me, it makes a big difference!

When I eat raw nuts (not roasted), I sometimes wouldn’t feel all that well in the belly. Kind of a sour stomach and feeling a bit nauseated. In short, I wasn’t able to digest them very well. Gassiness would sometimes ensue (TMI, but oh well). This was probably my digestive tract reacting to the enzyme inhibitors present in the nuts. Enzymes help start the digestive process, so anything that blocks that process puts a strain on the digestive system.

Soaking the nuts in salted water deactivates those enzyme inhibitors, and thus makes it easier for our bodies to digest them. According to Nourishing Traditions, “All enzymes are deactivated at a wet-heat temperature of 118 degrees F and a dry-heat temperature of about 150 degrees.”

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