Save Your Fork… There’s Pie

We headed out in the cold last night to attend an 8-course Chinese New Year Banquet at a local seafood restaurant. Hosted by local foodie walking tour guide, Shirley Lum, the evening was both delicious and informative, as Lum explained Lunar New Year traditions and discussed various aspects of the Chinese zodiac as we ate.

Seated at a table of nine people, I must say, the evening, while festive, wasn’t especially banquet-like. Dishes didn’t come out in order, and for the $50 per person charge, we certainly didn’t leave as full as we normally might have if we had gone on our own. it was an opportunity to try many new dishes, however, and Greg even made a new friend.

Because we were at a large round table with a lazy susan in the centre, I wasn’t able to get shots of all the dishes as they arrived, but I did my best.

Each place setting had two kumquats and two candies. The candies represented the red and gold packets of money traditionally handed out at Chinese New Year, while the kumquats also represented wealth and life.

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Further to my “Chicken Out” post from yesterday, this article by Mark Bittman in the NY Times illustrates my point in much more detail.

If those trends continue, meat may become a treat rather than a routine. It won’t be uncommon, but just as surely as the S.U.V. will yield to the hybrid, the half-pound-a-day meat era will end.

Maybe that’s not such a big deal. “Who said people had to eat meat three times a day?” asked Mr. Pollan.

Exactly.

I’m not saying we all have to stop, but as Pollan points out in In Defense of Food, when it comes to meat, less is better. So all those folks complaining that they can’t afford the free-range chicken need to rethink their view of food as a whole. We don’t need as much meat as we’re eating; it’s bad for the environment, it’s bad for our bodies and it’s not so great for the animals either. We need to get over this sense of entitlement and look at the bigger picture.

As a huge fan of British TV, and an openly honest stealer of television shows on the Internets, I was likely one of a small number of North Americans to view the series on Britain’s Channel 4 called Hugh’s Chicken Run in which food journalist and farmer Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall tries to get his entire town of Axminster to switch from intensively-farmed (and cheap) chicken to slightly more spendy free-range chicken.

In a three-part series, HFW sets up a chicken farm in which he raises half a barn of chickens as they would be in an intensive farming operation (no poultry operation would give him permission to film on their premises, so he was forced to create his own), and the other half as free-range, with more space, access to the outdoors, toys and activities, etc. He also trolls the aisles of his local supermarket to try and convince customers to purchase the free-range birds.

This is the point where Greg and I looked at each other and went “Waitaminute!!! Whaaaa???”

That you can get free-range chicken in UK supermarkets at all is a huge step up from here in Canada, where you’ll need to visit a speciality butcher to find free-range birds. They are available to restaurants, and can be found at some of the vendors at St. Lawrence Market here in Toronto, but at a chain like Price Chopper or Loblaw?? Not a chance.

In conjunction with the Chicken Run series, UK chef Jamie Oliver did a show called Jamie’s Fowl Dinners where he not only looked at chicken production, but egg production as well.

Both shows got a lot of flack for their use of shock tactics - Oliver gassed live male chicks, just as they would have on a regular chicken farm. Male birds are useless in an egg production facility, and the breed doesn’t make good meat, so males are disposed of as soon as they can be identified. HFW nearly broke down as he was forced to cull birds from his intensively-raised flock.

Throughout both shows, and in much of the criticism that has been levied in the past few weeks since the shows aired, the continued refrain seems to be that Britons can’t afford the more expensive free-range products. Cheap factory chickens go 2 for 5 pounds at most chain supermarkets, and lower income folks seem insistent that they can’t afford anything more. And more importantly, that they need these cheap chickens to feed their families.

Which was cause for my second “Waitaminute!!” moment while watching these shows. How about, people, if you just ate less meat??? I’m not saying stop eating meat, but seriously, do you really need two chickens a week? I’m not buying the protein excuse, either, because if people are truly on a budget, other sources of protein such as beans and legumes are far cheaper than chicken, even at 2fer.

So while I’m fully in support of the efforts made by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver, maybe the real key to success is not just in teaching people how to make their free-range bird go further via dishes like soup, risotto and stock, but in showing them the alternatives. Britons eat an exceptional amount of chicken per capita, mostly because it’s cheap. If these chefs spent an equal amount of time showing people how to meet their daily nutritional requirements via other, cheaper, means, perhaps it would be easier for those folks to occasionally justify the cost of a more expensive free-range bird.

For more information on Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Chicken Out campaign, check out the website.

Some random thoughts about Barbara Kingsolver’s book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life…

• I think it should be a rule that books about food should be written by fiction writers as opposed to scientists or even journalists. Kingsolver is just better at describing everything, and she has the skill to make it all interesting, as opposed to dry and clinical. In terms of inspiring people to eat locally, or grow a garden, it needs to be about more than food miles or vitamins. Kingsolver makes it a spiritual quest, and I think there needs to be more emphasis on that.
• However… lady sure can get preachy, which, after you’ve read a dozen or more books all espousing the eat local philosophy, sure can get annoying.
• OMG - y’all discussed eating locally while on vacation in Montreal, but drove back to the US via Niagara Falls with nary a peep about Niagara wine? For shame!!!
• Inspirations - to bake bread at least a couple of times a week (although not with a bread machine as Kingsolver’s husband does), learn to make my own cheese, and stock my freezer and pantry with the summer’s bounty to last throughout the winter. Join a CSA if I can figure out how to get to one to do my required work time given that I don’t drive.
• Annoyances - yet again, someone who preaches eating locally but won’t give up her coffee. Makes her daughter’s friend feel bad for wanting a banana. We can’t just back out of global trading patterns without it having a repercussion on the economy, both locally and internationally. Yes, we need to keep local farmers in business, but there are lots of other local jobs that would be lost if we stopped importing produce. The answer just isn’t that easy.
• Loved the chickens, and the chapter about the turkeys not knowing how to nest and take care of their eggs. Not so much the chicken slaughter bits, but that’s life on a farm and Kingsolver is honest about the experience.
• Loved the seasonality of their menus, and their delight and joy at each new item as it came into season. This is something that everyone can and should be able to relate to.
• Ultimately, while really well-written, with a few gems of inspiration that will translate to the average person, the idea of leaving behind city life and living on a farm where you grow all your own food is really quite romanticized. Who doesn’t have that dream? It’s great that Kingsolver’s family managed to do it, more power to them. But it’s not a realistic option for the majority of the population, and as such, this fiction-writer’s non-fiction book will come across as more fiction than reality.

Two recipes, two different cookies. Which one will reign supreme?

I’ve been on a comparison kick lately, taking recipes with similar ingredients and making both to see which one is better. Of course, better is relative based on your own likes and dislikes, but it’s interesting to try the many variations and permutations of a particular dish.

Most recently that was a shortbread-based cookie flavoured with coffee. One comes with chocolate and nuts, which will undoubtedly win the vote of the chocoholics, although despite my obsession with chocolate, the biscuit-style cookie won my favour. The chocolate cookie was slightly dry and crumbly, whereas the biscuit was much more the consistency and flavour of shortbread.

Coffee Crisps

1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp instant coffee granules
1 egg
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Cream margarine and sugar together. Add egg and coffee granules, stir well. Add flour and stir until fully blended.

Roll dough into 1-inch balls and arrange on a cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Flatter balls with a cookie press, the bottom of a drinking glass or any other flat, object.

Bake at 350′F for 10 to 12 minutes or until bottoms are golden. Makes 6 dozen.

Based on a recipe from Company’s Coming - Cookie by Jean Pare

Espresso Balls

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tbsp coffee liqueur
1 tsp vanilla
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups ground hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 325′F.

Cream butter and sugar. Add cocoa, coffee liqueur and vanilla. Add 1/2 cup of the ground hazelnuts and the flour.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls and roll balls in remaining ground hazelnuts. Place balls 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes or until the bottoms are lightly browned. Transfer cookies to wire racks and cool completely.

Based on a recipe from Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Cookie Recipes 2007

I am constantly amused by the extent people will go to adhere to what we’ve sarcastically dubbed in our house “the religion of local”. Because while I support local businesses where and whenever possible, it’s obvious that there are people out there wringing their hands over the lack of local flour, rice and mangoes. In an article in the Globe and Mail over the summer, writer Sasha Chapman tried the 100-mile diet and was bemoaning the fact that she couldn’t get 100-mile peanut butter for her kids. Which made me cock my head and emit an annoyed “oh, FFS!” This gal wins journalism awards, but apparently cannot use the intarwebs to track down local peanuts.

Because yes, Virginia, or should I say, Vittoria; in Toronto, there is such a thing as local peanuts. Kernal Peanuts is the only peanut producer in Canada, and they’re just a couple of hours down the road past Brantford and Simcoe.

I came to know Kernal in an roundabout sort of way. In the early 90s I was dating a guy whose family hailed from the Simcoe, Ontario area. His uncle and aunt lived in a house made from an old tobacco kill next door to the Kernal farm. Every visit home included a trip to the Kernal store to stock up on peanuts, peanut butter and candy. We walked the fields and pulled the green legumes from the soil, we watched the peanuts get dumped into the roasters and be poured into the grinders for peanut butter. When the boyfriend and I broke up, I didn’t miss him much. But I did miss my trips to Simcoe and my shopping sprees at Kernal.

Fast forward fifteen years or so. I was at an event for farmers and chefs at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in November and noticed that Ernie and Nancy Racz of Kernal Peanuts were listed in the programme. After the panel discussion everyone got up and I turned around to find the couple seated directly behind me. After reacquainting ourselves, Nancy handed me a sample bag of those gorgeous Valencia peanuts, and I jumped up and down with glee.

The light sandy soil of the area had traditionally been tobacco farms, but as the tobacco industry began to experience a downturn, farmers like Racz looked to other crops that would do well in the same soil. When you think of tobacco, you think of Virginia, and when you think of Virginia, you think of peanuts, and Racz discovered that peanuts did incredibly well in southwestern Ontario.

To expand their sales and add value to their products, the Racz’s run a shop attached to the main processing building. They sell their peanuts in the shell, as well as the traditional Valencia redskins in a number of flavours that include hickory, cajun, barbeque and garlic. They also offer peanut brittle, praline peanuts (the maple is to die for) and an evilly addictive little product called Buttercrisp which is a chocolate-covered peanut toffee - I only buy a small bag of this at a time, because it’s really difficult to have just one piece. And of course, their signature peanut butter in a variety of options, including with the skin.

For the first Christmas in a decade and a half, I had a gift box of Kernal products. As soon as I could after that meeting at the Royal Winter Fair, I called up Nancy and placed an order for a big box of goodies. I even bought enough to send some down east with the Christmas gifts, and there were some very happy folks who remembered those peanuts from Christmases past.

Now that I’ve become reacquainted with those salty, and slightly sweet Canadian-grown Valencia peanuts, there will always be some in my house. This is one local business that is truly a delight to support, and I urge any Torontonians who are peanut lovers to check them out. Their products are only available from the Kernal shop, but they are happy to do mail order.

For more info on Kernal Peanuts, including videos of the peanut harvest, a product list and mail-order info, check out their website.