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Recent Life Changes

As you may have noticed, posting has been less frequent lately. There are lots or reasons for that, but most of them are boring, so I won’t elaborate. I will, however, share some recent news: I was laid off from my job on Thursday, April 21. The company reorganized, and my position as community manager was reorganized out in that process.

I’ve learned a lot since that day about accepting severance pay, processing paperwork for student loan deferment, and applying for unemployment insurance. It has been a little surreal, but I’m proud of myself for completing the process for each of them in a timely manner. I’m normally a paperwork hater, but I must admit – the paperwork I have had to do hasn’t been bad at all.

I am pretty happy to be given a chance to head out on a new path, too. It’s exciting thinking about what could be the next step for me. I really do not feel very stressed about it right now, either. In fact, I feel calmer than I have in a long time.  I attribute the almost non-existent stress levels to eating a nutrient-dense diet, and limiting sugar (more on that in a future post).

Now, since I’m not currently bringing any money in, I’ve already fallen back into old habits of frugality; when I was a freelancer several years ago I had to be extremely frugal. However, I don’t feel like I’m really wanting for much; I have an already rich, wonderful life!  Plus, it’s spring, which makes life seem overly joyous.

That all being said, I’ve decided that I am not going to scrimp on certain things – these include raw cow’s milk, raw yogurt, pastured eggs, and pastured meats. The meats I will buy a little less of, though, and go with some less expensive protein like organic beans (I love black beans especially). This may be the perfect time to explore cheaper organ meats, too. CSA season is starting up in about a month, too, so getting access excellent local, organic vegetables will not be an issue.

Needless to say, I’m looking for work, so if you have any leads, send ’em my way! I’m a creative person, a talented writer, a trained classical musician, and I would love to work on something that is going to benefit the world in a positive way.

Here’s to amazing changes coming my way! In the meantime, here’s a picture I took of the park near my home.

The trees are beautiful. New growth for both of us.
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The Simplest Mayonnaise Technique

Last summer, I came upon a curious way to make mayonnaise. Described on the Seeds of Nutrition blog, it sounded incredible – it promised smooth, creamy mayonnaise that didn’t involve any tedious drizzling of oil, and it utilized a stick blender put it all together. It also claimed to do it in a flash.  Whoa.

I watched the video of the process and was truly amazed. I promised myself I’d try it out. Finally, eight months later, I gave it a shot… and was fully impressed.  I will never make mayonnaise another way, if I can help it.

One of the reasons I was so impressed by this method is that it is painfully simple in both concept and execution. I’ve made mayo a couple other ways, and both had their pitfalls. The first time, I did it by hand; it turned out just fine, but it sure was tiring.  I remember taking a number of breaks during the process because at times my upper arm felt like it was on fire!

The second time I made mayonnaise was with a blender. I thought the opening in the top of the lid would allow me to easily drip in the oil while the blades were spinning, no fuss no muss. My distinct memory is of how much splatter there was – all over the cabinets, counter, and even on the floor.  In my hair. Not a pretty sight.

So, when I was putting together things for the fermentation workshop I recently taught, fermented mayo came to mind.  I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone by making it – trying out this new technique and expanding my fermentation repertoire.  Why ferment this mayonnaise?  To preserve it, if course!  Fermenting it with whey will extend its life into months rather than weeks. It turned out perfectly.

I chose to use the mayonnaise recipe in Nourishing Traditions. I used a 50/50 ratio of extra virgin olive oil and expeller-pressed sunflower oil.  I also used dijon mustard, fresh organic lemon juice, sea salt, 1 egg and 1 egg yolk.  Everything was at room temperature, too (this is crucial).

Essentially, you put the mustard, lemon juice, salt, and eggs in the bottom of the stick blender vessel.  Let that settle for a couple of minutes. Then pour in the oil. Plunge the stick blender into the vessel, make sure it’s flush with the bottom, then start the blender, a few pulses at first, then let it go and watch the mayonnaise form into a creamy consistency (as if by magic!). Be sure to incorporate all the oil into the mayo by slowly pulling up the blender through the mass.  This should take about 30 seconds to blend.

Here are the amounts for each element in the NT mayo recipe:

1 whole egg plus 1 egg yolk
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 1/2 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs whey
3/4-1 cup oil (a mix of extra virgin olive oil and expeller-pressed sunflower oil)
a generous pinch of sea salt

To ferment it, just cover it and leave it out for several hours (I left it out overnight, as I made it around 9 at night). Then refrigerate it.

I believe that you could use any mayonnaise recipe with this blending method – I’ve seen other mayonnaise recipes that utilize the stick blender, and use slightly different ingredients (addition of vinegar, different oils, etc.).

I’m so glad to have such an easy recipe.  It’s so quick to make, and I plan to use it in my favorite chicken salad recipe (instead of Hellman’s or Kraft, which contain oils I don’t want to consume).

I’d love to know how this method suits you when making mayonnaise, so please feel free to share in the comments or send me an email. Good luck!

This post is participating in Fight Back Friday hosted by Food Renegade.

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Lacto Fermented Ginger Carrots

Lacto fermented ginger carrots is one of my favorite ferments.  It’s got the sweetness of the carrots, the piquant nature of the ginger, and the tanginess that comes with fermented foods.  Plus all that extra vitamin C and probiotics from the fermentation process.

The jar of ginger carrots in the photo was made during a fermentation workshop I taught a couple of weeks ago.  I decided on ginger carrots because they are easy to make and get one’s head around – a few simple ingredients, easy to mix, and easy to get a brine out of it. It was fun to prepare them as a group, too, with everyone contributing to the grating and mincing. And I learned how to peel ginger with a spoon!  It’s freakishly effective.

I enjoy ginger carrots on lots of things, from eggs, to roast salmon, and it’s a nice snack all by itself. It also goes great in a bean salad, the recipe for which I’ll share soon

The process is very simple – mix everything together and let it sit and ferment.  The ferment shown in the picture above – which was made during the fermentation workshop I taught a few weeks ago – took about 6 days to get to my liking. It continues to get better and better as it ages, too.

Lacto Fermented Ginger Carrots
4 c. grated carrots
1 T ginger root
1T sea salt
4T whey

Grate carrots on the large holes in a box grater (or use a food processor).  Peel the ginger and mince it. Mix the carrots and ginger in a non-reactive bowl (glass or ceramic) until well-combined.

Add the sea salt and whey, and pound it all together to release the juices, which will turn into a brine.  Stuff  the mixture in a jar – a pint jar should fit it all. As you’re stuffing the carrot-ginger mixture in the jar, be sure to firmly press down to further help release the brine. When you’ve stuffed it all in the jar, be sure there is a brine covering the vegetables.

Cover with a lid and let it sit for a few days in a warm dark space.  Check it to see what it tastes like – if you like it the way it is, put it in the refrigerator.  If you want a stronger fermented flavor, leave it out and check it each day for progress.

Regarding the salt you use for your fermentation: you can also use kosher salt or other salt as long as it has no iodine and no anti-caking ingredients. One caution about Celtic or grey salt – moist salt is sometimes known for carrying bacteria and mold that can ruin your ferments.

Makes one pint.

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Fun with Fermentation

To many of my friends, it’s no secret that I am fascinated with lacto-fermentation and fermented foods. It’s one of the coolest ways to preserve food, and requires no special equipment beyond a fermentation vessel (I’m using mason jars right now).  Fermented foods are nutritional powerhouses (high in vitamin C especially, not to mention probiotics for good gut health) , and taste delicious.

A few years ago, I took a lacto-fermentation workshop in Sunnyside, led by Andrew Faust and sponsored by Tri State Food Not Lawns (love that name).  It was my first hands-on experience with fermentation (not that I was unfamiliar with fermented foods – I’d eaten yogurt for years), and I remember being surprised at how simple it was.

I also remember getting lost while on the way, but did arrive in time, so it was all good.  I met some nice people there, some of whom I’m still connected with, which I’m really happy about.  And my fascination with fermentation has stuck.

This is one of my favorite images from that fermentation event in Sunnyside – all those gorgeous carrots and everyone working together to prepare the vegetables. It was so fun.

Everyone Grating

I’m going to be giving a talk on lacto-fermentation myself in a couple of weeks, for the Traditional Community Kitchen meetup group.  If you live in NYC and want to connect with other people who love real, traditional food, this is a great group to join.  I’ve been to a couple of meetups and they’ve been a lot of fun – friendly people and interesting subject matter for meetups.

Anyway, back to the lacto-fermentation talk.  I want to have some examples for people to try, so I’m doing some preparatory work now.  I’ve actually got some lacto-fermented salsa left over from the summer, and it’s amazing – still good and really tasty.  It tastes pretty much like it did back in August, except for being slightly fizzier now, thanks to the fermentation.  I’m so impressed.

I started a sourdough starter last week.  My first attempt was with whole wheat flour, and unfortunately it bombed… like a stink bomb.  Wow, did it have a foul odor – it smelled like overripe epoisses. I apparently captured some belligerent yeasts in there.

It’s too bad, because it had spectacular bubbles the second day and had almost doubled in size.  I was so excited to see it… until I smelled it.  My understanding is that whole grain flours are trickier to work with when creating a starter, and my nasty smelling starter confirmed that for me.  I dumped it after the second day of its existence.

So, I tried it again with regular white flour (Bob’s Red Mill unbleached flour).  What a difference – it’s behaving very much like what I’m used to seeing with sourdough starter, with bubbles increasing each day and a healthy sour odor. I’ve also got a nice warm spot for it, just above and to the left of the kitchen heater.  I’ll feed it every day for the next week, and hope that by this coming weekend I’ll be able to make a loaf of bread with it.

Eventually, I’d like to take some of this white flour starter and convert it over to a whole wheat starter.  I mean, the point of all this is to sour/ferment the wheat to disrupt the phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors, and to make it more digestable as well.  White flour has been stripped of pretty much everything, including the parts of the wheat that contains the phytic acid, so it’s unnecessary to soak or sour white flour from a nutritional standpoint. My guess is that mixing this starter with whole wheat (or spelt) flour and proofing it for at least 8 hours will assist in breaking up the phytic acid in that whole grain flour, though.  So, it’s certainly not a pointless task.

I’ve aso put together a couple pints of red cabbage-apple kraut, which is currently weighed down to extract a brine from the cabbage. By tomorrow evening, a brine should develop; if it doesn’t, I’ll create one and add it to the kraut (my cabbage may be a bit dry).  And with compression, this two pints may turn into one.  I love how it smells right now, and I am sure with the tanginess that will develop it will smell – and taste – fabulous.

It’s going to be gorgeous, taking on a rosy color from the cabbage, and should taste salty, tangy, and sweet all at the same time. Perfect for pork.

I’m really psyched about getting back into making fermented foods.  I’ve been tweeting about my fermentation projects – please feel free to follow me at @harmoniousbelly.  I’m using the hashtag #fermentation as well, so you can find me there.

Stay tuned!

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Homemade Bacon

They say bacon is a gateway meat for vegetarians, and I can totally see how that is. As a vegetarian I used to eat “Fakin Bacon”, that soy-based alternative meat product, something I wouldn’t touch now.  I enjoyed it then because the smoky, salty taste was highly appealing.  But it’s no comparison to the real thing.

Since I left vegetarianism 13 years ago, I’ve eaten a lot of legit bacon.  I’d recently heard that you could cure your own bacon, which was really intriguing, but a little daunting.  So when I caught wind of bacon curing as part of the Charcutepalooza challenge, I thought that this was the perfect time to dive in.

I looked at my main two sources for pork belly, but neither had them in stock, so I headed to The Meat Hook in Brooklyn.  They sell very high quality local, pastured meat that is extremely tasty.   When I got there, they were butchering what I think was a pig, with some hardcore knives, on a large table behind the counter.  The person that helped me brought out a whole pork belly and deboned it, and also cut off the skin.  I ended up with 2.71 pounds of belly.  It was gorgeous.

I cured it (using this bacon recipe from Michael Ruhlman) with salt and spices, plus I added some smoked paprika to the spice mix – this gave the meat a smoky flavor without having to actually smoke the meat (which I have no idea how to do anyway).  I also opted to not use pink salt.

The end result is some of the most delicious bacon I’ve ever tasted, if not the best I’ve ever had.  And the smoked paprika really worked!  The bacon is both savory and smoky at the same time.  I am just so impressed with how easy it was to cure and how well it came out.  I plan to cure bacon more often.

So, what did I do with the bacon?  Well, I cooked it on its own, in the oven, and had it with brunch. I find that cooking bacon in the oven yields a more pleasant slice of bacon, plus I don’t get spattered with hot fat like I do when I cook it on the stovetop. I also used the bacon in a braised red bean dish that I was really happy with.  I’ve also reserved the fat when cooking bacon on its own, and have used it to cook with.  I’ve been really happy with it, too – it lubricates my cast iron pan like nothing else!

I used the bacon in a dish I put together called a BST (bacon, spinach, tomato) sandwich in open-face form – it’s also a wet version because I used tomato sauce.  It was absolutely delicious – a very simple, homey, and comforting dish with lots of flavor.  Plus it’s really easy to put together.

BST (Bacon, Spinach, Tomato) Sandwich

1 slice sourdough bread (2 slices if they are small slices)
tomato sauce of your choice, hot
baby spinach (organic if possible)
bacon, cooked and broken into small pieces
parmesan cheese (optional)

Toast the sourdough bread and place on a plate. Spoon the tomato sauce over the bread. Top with a handful of spinach and the bacon. Sprinkle a little parmesan cheese over it if you like.  Eat with a fork.

More images from my bacon curing project can be found in my Charcutepalooza photoset on Flickr.

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Charcutepalooza and Harmonious Belly

One day in the not too distant past, I was reading Shauna’s blog post about making homemade yogurt, and toward the end she mentioned something called Charcutepalooza.  Now, with a name like that, I had to investigate.  Turns out, it is an extremely cool project.

200+ bloggers are going to explore the art of charcuterie together this year – one recipe per month – led by Cathy Barrow (aka Mrs. Wheelbarrow).  Here’s the list of the Charcutepalooza bloggers.  Impressive!

I’m looking forward to the monthly recipes, but also seriously enthused about the community surrounding the project.  I’ve already connected to people on twitter via the hash tag #charcutepalooza, and can’t wait to see the flurry of activity that will happen on the 15th of each month (when the communal Charcutepalooza posts go up).

When it comes to working with and preparing meat I am somewhat of a meat n00b, thanks to 13 years of vegetarianism, and then many years of general apprehension towards handling animal flesh. Also, I still am deeply connected to meatless meals, as that is where my core cooking skills lie, plus I just really like a lot of vegetarian food (falafel! kale! grilled cheese sandwiches!). Slowly, though, I’m getting more comfortable with the world of meat.  Charcutepalooza should help me with this.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had some troubles cooking meat during the Food Lover’s Cleanse. But by reaching out to my Facebook community, I connected with a friend who took me by the hand and taught me what she knows about cooking a steak. An informative and delicious lesson it was, too, which absolutely boosted my confidence in this area.  I am hopeful to find help with my charcuterie when I need it, too, from the community that has gathered around this project.  I will offer any help I can, as well.

I also mused that this year might be my Year of Meat – sure seems like it.  First it was the steak lesson, then the chicken carving workshop a few weeks ago, and now Charcutepalooza.  Oh, and I’m hosting a meatball making afternoon later in February, too. Fun!

I’ll be posting about the current challenge on February 15 – bacon.  Looking forward to that – now I just have to figure out in which recipe I’m going to use my bacon!

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Food-Lover’s Cleanse

While on twitter the other day, I came across a link (via @glutenfreegirl) about a “food lover’s cleanse.”  There was something about it that intrigued me – a cleanse that focuses on actual food, rather than just juice or some strange concoction of disparate ingredients. Sounds like it has potential.

I took a look and was really pleased with what I saw – 14 days of essentially whole foods eating, with lots of variety.  Makes sense to create something like that, as the holidays often focus on fractured foods – sugar, white flour, an excess in caffeine and/or alcohol.  I’ll admit I boarded that train from time to time during the holidays.  Time to hop back on the real foods wagon!

This cleanse has been put together by Bon Appétit (aside: I adore how easy it is to type accents on a Mac!)  magazine and the introduction is as follows:

Forget juice fasts and calorie counting. Start the year with a resolution you’ll actually want to keep: a fresh, healthful approach to cooking.

Amen!  Although my idea of healthful and their idea of healthful does diverge at certain points – the use of soy and low fat dairy, which I don’t partake in.  Still, I am encouraged by the use of whole grains, seasonal vegetables, grass fed meats, and eggs.  Apparently most of the dishes are gluten-free, too.  There’s even one recipe where they acknowledge that one might actually want to eat the chicken skin!  Nice.

I’m seriously considering trying this out, as I mentioned on twitter, but adjusting some of the recipes to be NT-friendly: use of raw, full fat dairy, and soaking grains (I handle grains ok), to start.  Oh, and eschewing all that canola oil.

I’d also probably not do everything in order – one of the dinner recipes takes hours to prepare (close to 4) and is slated for a weekday evening.  With my work schedule, that’s just not practical.  Dinner on one of the following days looks like it takes much less time, so I’d likely switch them.  I also have meetings some nights where I just won’t be able to cook; though one of those nights I’ll be at a chicken carving and bone broth making workshop!

What are some of the recipes?  Here are some examples (breakfast, lunch, dinner), which sound delicious:

  • Breakfast: omelet with mushrooms, thyme, and caramelized onions
  • Lunch: black-eyed pea curry; spinach salad with apples, sunflower seeds and vinaigrette
  • Dinner: five spice beets soup; seared grass-fed hanger steak; warm escarole salad with mustard vinaigrette

I’ll need to put in my orders with my CSA and buying club in the next day or so if I want to do this.  Thankfully, BA put together a shopping list (warning: pdf) with all ingredients on it, so that part is easy – just print and go.

I’ll definitely chronicle my experience with this cleanse if I decide to follow it!  But I’d love to know, have you ever done a cleanse before?