My friend Janice asked me if I could post the recipe for this. It is a tasty, autumnal dish. The tartness of the cranberries plays the role that vinegar would usually take in a dish of greens, and the mushrooms add a layer of umami that helps bring the dish together. (check out these mushroom cooking tips)
I was talking to my mom about making sausage the other day and I mentioned how I like to add ginger into my pork sausage. “Is there anything you don’t put ginger in?” she asked.
Well, yes, but the reason I put it into so many things is that it is really a versatile spice. Matching equally well with the sweet and the spicy, it just works well in lots of settings. One of my favorite places for using ginger is definitely sauteed mushrooms.
Pictured here with a slice of Southwestern Sweet Potato Bake, a recipe I developed for Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, mushrooms sauteed with ginger are a quick and easy side for just about any meal of the day.
I always start with crimini mushrooms. In Pittsburgh, at least, these mushrooms are available in bulk from just about every grocery store at a lower cost and with more flavor than your typical white button mushroom, which makes them the better choice from both budgetary and culinary perspectives. Today, I also had some beautiful maitake mushrooms from Wild Purveyors and the mushroom share that they offer via Kretschmann Farms CSA.
Susan Stamberg always redoes her cranberry sauce recipe every year before Thanksgiving. I can do the same. I mean, why not… it’s my space and the chances of me annoying a reader by posting something old are quite low, seeing as I’ve posted so rarely over the last couple of years that the chance of me having any readers to irk is virtually nil.
Which also means that 100% of the people who read this are likely to use this recipe, because I’m about to go into the kitchen and make a batch of orange-infused cranberry sauce myself. If I’m wrong about no one reading this, feel free to follow this link to make some for your house as well. It will be a tradition you want to pick up every year, too:
http://corduroyorange.com/?p=1078
I haven’t written much lately. So I hope a few people swing by this page and see this before November 15. I thought you might be interested in a couple of views on proposed farming rules and how they will affect small farms in our region.
The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was drafted to update food safety rules that have been on the books virtually unchanged since the aftermath of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. In many cases, there is good cause for an update of the rules: especially in light of the mechanization of many aspects of the mainstream food system. The difficulty comes when small, local farmers are lumped in with megagricultural behemoths and when the proposed rules push small farms toward disposability and less sustainable processes.
The first link comes from Don Kretschmann, who operates a small farm in Rochester, PA. I personally get my CSA share from his farm; have visited his operation; and know the care and attention he puts into all aspects of his operation–and the emphasis that he puts on finding sustainable, reusable solutions for everyday problems. He and I share a belief that the disposable solution, while perhaps the easiest to implement, is perhaps the worst in the long haul as it creates a great deal of waste and requires a great deal of energy to implement. Here’s the link to his thoroughly researched views on what some of the proposed rules could mean for his farm: http://www.kretschmannfarm.com/all-hands-on-deck-your-fresh-food-supply-our-farm-is-in-danger.
The second link comes from Brian Snyder, who is Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture. I do not know him personally, but PASA is a fantastic organization that has done a lot to promote local food for local people. It was through their resources that, shortly after I moved to Pittsburgh, I discovered both regional farms and restaurants procuring and preparing local produce. Brian is also immersed in the world of small farming and has a great deal of insight about the potential for drastic and detrimental effects on small farms should the proposed rules go through as written. Here is a link to his essay on the topic: http://writetofarm.com/2013/10/14/fdas-culture-of-fear-threatens-food-safety/.
I plan on submitting public comments on the proposed rules: not just because I am well educated in issues related to food safety and because I believe strongly in the value of locally raised produce for my family: but because I know the benefit of locally raised produce for all of the families served by Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. GPCFB receives locally raised produce from many regional farms. We glean their fields and receive donations of food that they harvest themselves. They are our most important partners because they grow food. As the bumper sticker goes, “Know Farmers, Know Food; No Farmers, No Food.”
Please consider the opinions presented by these two well-educated individuals; and then consider submitting comments on the proposed FSMA rules to help protect locally grown food for everyone. Click here to visit PASA’s FSMA Action Center for more info on the proposed rules and how to submit your comments.
Dear Jesse,
I’m a cheese lover - in fact my entire food budget is arguably structured around how much money I can legitimately spend on new and interesting cheeses. Unfortunately I seem to be suddenly developing symptoms of lactose intolerence- and this at age twenty! While a medical diagnosis is still in the pipeline I was wondering if you’d ever heard of this happening before? Also, if the worst should happen, do you have any tips? I’m happy to switch to soy for my three-cups-of-tea-a-day lifestyle but I’m not exactly how to restructure my cooking if I have to knock out butter, cream, milk and my beloved cheese.
That’s pretty lousy. I know I would be devastated if I lost cheese from my diet.
As an initial disclaimer, it is worth noting that I hold degrees in neither nutrition nor medicine.
That having been said, I am pleased to tell you that if your problems do indeed stem from a lactose intolerance, there is, to my knowledge, a very good chance that you will still be able to enjoy sheep’s milk, goat’s milk, and hard aged cheeses without issue.
The form of lactose in cow’s milk is apparently not the same as is found in other species’ milk; and the aging process winds up transforming lactose chemically.
Unfortunately, that will not help you, for instance, to comfortably enjoy the sharp tang of a 5-year-old vermont white cheddar, but you can be consoled by the likelihood that a French sheep’s milk roquefort still may fit into your digestive capabilities.
With regards to cooking:
♦ I noticed that my fairly run of the mill grocery store stocks canned condensed goat’s milk and also powdered dry goat’s milk. The East End Food Coop (if you live in Pittsburgh) stocks fresh goat’s milk. You may be able to switch to this as an alternative for baking and creamy soups, etc.
♦ Sheep’s milk or goat’s milk yogurt can help substitute for sour cream or, potentially, even cream for baked goods (this may require some experimentation).
♦ I would suggest a switch to lard and coconut oil for a replacement to butter when you need a harder fat (like in a pie crust or for high temp cooking). Coconut oil, for instance, would likely work well for making a streusel topping or making a muffin or biscuit with luxurious mouthfeel. Lard (and other animal fats) are fantastic for sauteeing or roasting vegetables (mushrooms cooked in pig fat are delicious!)
♦ For other purposes, try stocking a wide range of oils and experimenting with their use. A nice olive oil (especially when seasoned by sauteeing some garlic in it) makes a nice dip for a hunk of good bread; grapeseed and walnut oil are both good for many cooking purposes.
♦ These substitutions will definitely impact your bottom line when it comes to grocery shopping. They all tend to be more expensive than butter. Check TJMaxx for cheap, high quality specialty oils; or your local Italian specialty shop for bulk olive oil (Penn Mac is a great choice in Pittsburgh, you can refill your jug each time you go back from their bulk section).
Best of luck!
Jesse
Believe it or not, I’m still reheating Thanksgiving…
Leftover leftovers:
Turkey Polenta Cakes, served with salsa and guacamole
A decidedly American take on the classic Italian dish
Happy Thanksgiving!
You may have noticed that another year has come and gone without me being invited to share my Thanksgiving tips on NPR. I can’t say that I blame them. I don’t have a book or a TV show, and it’s not like I’ve got a publicist or a manager booking high profile appearances for me. So what makes me think I might deserve an invitation to appear on All Things Considered? Because this pie is just the start of the meal.
Revolutionary Roasted Mushroom Pumpkin Pie capitalizes on the savory aspects of pumpkin and elevates your Thanksgiving appetizer course to a new level.
For the purpose of this recipe, I used a mix of crimini, oyster, royal trumet, and maitake mushrooms. I sliced them to roughly 1/2-inch pieces and seasoned them before the roast with salt, pepper, ginger, and a generous pour of olive oil, tossing them until they were coated with spices and oil. Their pre-roast volume was approximately 4-4 1/2 cups, enough to mostly fill a standard half sheet tray. I roasted them at 375 F for approximately 45 minutes, stirring them after 15, 25, 35, and 40 minutes; moving the pieces from the edge of the tray into the center to maximize caramelization and avoid scorching. Immediately upon removing the finished mushrooms from the oven, I tossed them with 1/4 cup minced rosemary.
Pie Crust
A homemade pie crust is always superior to a store bought crust, as it shows a level of care and pride that can not be matched with a manufactured product. Furthermore, you can determine the ingredients in a homemade crust. I like to season my crusts with the same spices that I use in the pies. I also use butter as the fat in my crusts. Should you choose to use butter, be certain to keep the crust entirely contained in the pan as butter is a soft fat and anything hanging over the edges will droop, drip, and drop to the bottom of the oven, setting off your smoke detectors and creating a mess that will need to be cleaned.
Whipped Cream
Beat 4 oz heavy whipping cream with 1/4 tsp salt and a sprinkling each of ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Please share this page with everyone you know (especially if you know Steve Inskeep and Robert Siegel). Just be certain to give me credit—I don’t want to hear Nigella Lawson giving this recipe over the air!
My friend Brett has been making lots of bread. His chocolate sourdough was the inspiration for one of the most delightful french toasts I’ve ever made.
Thanks to Hannah Edwards for this informative infographic, originally posted at www.LearnStuff.com
I’ve racked my brain trying to come up with some sort of food-related connection to make this fit in with the theme of Corduroy Orange. But I’ve given up and am posting this anyway, because this article by Matt Taibbi from the September 13 issue of Rolling Stone ought to be required reading for all voters in advance of the general election.
The reality is that toward the middle of his career at Bain, Romney made a fateful strategic decision: He moved away from creating companies like Staples through venture capital schemes, and toward a business model that involved borrowing huge sums of money to take over existing firms, then extracting value from them by force. He decided, as he later put it, that “there’s a lot greater risk in a startup than there is in acquiring an existing company.” In the Eighties, when Romney made this move, this form of financial piracy became known as a leveraged buyout, and it achieved iconic status thanks to Gordon Gekko in Wall Street. Gekko’s business strategy was essentially identical to the Romney–Bain model, only Gekko called himself a “liberator” of companies instead of a “helper.”
[...]Romney and Bain avoided the hostile approach, preferring to secure the cooperation of their takeover targets by buying off a company’s management with lucrative bonuses. Once management is on board, the rest is just math. So if the target company is worth $500 million, Bain might put down $20 million of its own cash, then borrow $350 million from an investment bank to take over a controlling stake.
But here’s the catch. When Bain borrows all of that money from the bank, it’s the target company that ends up on the hook for all of the debt.
[...]This business model wasn’t really “helping,” of course – and it wasn’t new. Fans of mob movies will recognize what’s known as the “bust-out,” in which a gangster takes over a restaurant or sporting goods store and then monetizes his investment by running up giant debts on the company’s credit line. (Think Paulie buying all those cases of Cutty Sark in Goodfellas.) When the note comes due, the mobster simply torches the restaurant and collects the insurance money. Reduced to their most basic level, the leveraged buyouts engineered by Romney followed exactly the same business model. “It’s the bust-out,” one Wall Street trader says with a laugh. “That’s all it is.”
