Food, Wine, Life's Pleasures

To Roast A Beef

How to Cook a Wolf

M.F.K. Fisher's Wartime Classic - How to Cook a Wolf is an excellent place to begin thinking about roast beef. How to Cook a Wolf was printed in 1942 when wartime shortages were at their worst. The wolf in the title is the one who at the time was at the door.

 

We quote below from her introduction, “How to Be Sage Without Hemlock” followed by what we can only assume is a serious proposal for the cooking of beef.

 

"In spite of all the talk and study about our next years, and all the silent ponderings about what lies within them for our sons it seems plain to us that many things are wrong in the present ones which can be, must be, changed. Our texture of belief has great holes in it. Our pattern lacks pieces."

 

"One of the most obvious fallacies is that of what we should eat. Wise men forever have known that a nation lives on what its body assimilates, as well as on what its mind acquires as knowledge. Now, when the hideous necessity of the war machine takes steel and cotton and humanity, our own private personal secret mechanism must be stronger, for selfish comfort as well as for the good of the ideals we believe we believe in."

 

As beef is a traditional Christmas and holiday meal

"When I am a cook for the carnivorous, my true salute to them is a beef filet, of about four pounds. I turn it for at least three hours in a garlicky marinade, half olive oil, half soy sauce. I roast it on a rack for one-half hour in a very hot oven. I slice it one-inch thick, slip generous wedges of maitre-d’hotel butter between each slice, pour a good cup of red wine over the whole, and serve it in its various hot juices."

Eqq Nogg

The Beiers-Jones Egg Nog

Adapted from The Merrie Christmas Drink Book, 1984, Peter Pauper Press

Ingredients:

12 eggs, separated 8 ounces sugar (confectioners) 1 quart Heavy Cream 1 quart Milk 1 quart Rum whole nutmeg for grating

Beat Egg whites till stiff-add pinch or two of salt to taste and set aside Beat egg yolks with sugar until dissolved Add rum, milk, and cream to yolks/sugar and place in wide serving bowl. Fold/cut in the egg whites. Keep chilled till serving To serve ladle into cups and grate a dusting of nutmeg on top

Recipe states that it makes "40-50 servings" though we usually make 4 batches to serve about 80 people. KitchenAid mixing bowl is not quite big enough so the last mixing is in the serving bowl.

The Merrie Christmas Drink Book recipe uses 1 quart whiskey and 8 ounces of Jamaican Rum. The extended Beiers family maintains regional variation on the relative proportions of whiskey versus rum.

Egg whites will float on top so wide bowl is essential to thin the top layer out. Or decrease the amount of egg whites.

 Safety note:
We have made this every year for over 20 years with zero problems attributable to raw eggs. Keep the liquor content high. Headaches may occur and we know of one gall bladder casualty.

Stollen Secrets

Christmas Stollen

Of the many reasons we look forward to Christmas, one of the most reliable and satisfying is the opportunity to buy Christmas Stollen.

Stollen, also known as Christollen, Dresden or Dresdner Christollen after the city of Dresden, Germany where the bread originated. You can be forgiven for confusing stollen with fruit cake, as they both appear regularly during the Chistmas season and both include nuts and candied fruits.  But that is where the resemblance ends.

Chirstmas Stollen is delicious and all by itself is a reason to look forward to the season and be merry!

Stollen Sources:

Bower's Bakery

3545 SE Hawthorne Blvd (503 231-0017) makes probably the best, sweetest, crustiest but delicate stollen in Portland. We could not find a picture of it in time for publication so we borrowed one that suggests the idea.

 

Great Harvest Bakery

But for the healthiest, really really good stollen that you can eat like regular food go to Great Harvest Bakery - 540 SW Broadway (503 445-9908). Their stollen is made from whole wheat, has lots of nuts and comes with a plastic tub of brown sugar, butter and rum.

Gifts of Christmas Past

Concatenations of memory and expectation

... in which we disentangle the words of Christmas - sugar plums and plum pudding with hard sauce and discover le Réveillon in the oyster soup.

" One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six.

All the Christmases roll down toward the two-tongued sea, like a cold and headlong moon bundling down the sky that was our street; and they stop at the rim of the ice-edged fish-freezing waves, and I plunge my hands in the snow and bring out whatever I can find. In goes my hand into that wool-white bell-tongued ball of holidays resting at the rim of the carol-singing sea," ...
    - Dylan Thomas, A Child's Christmas in Wales 

The Christmas holidays bring forth such concatenations of memory and expectation that the holiday itself is a layered mix of the imaginary and the real, the anticipated and the sumptuous.

Disentangling the words of Christmas - in the 1911 Grocer's Encyclopedia sugar plums are "various forms of candy, especially those of small size and oval or round shape" - yields real but long past memories - plum pudding with hard sauce. And the holiday itself blends the dark and light of winter - solstice and snow with holiday festivals and the candlelit interiors of midnight mass.

This year - with the kids pushing past that age when magic is the natural outcome of Christmas - we are seeking new ways to blend the gifts of the holiday with understanding. For years now we have had oyster soup on Christmas eve - a soup some are not so fond of - which we have discovered is a traditional French celebration - le Réveillon and that in turn reminded us of that one Christmas  so long ago in Paris...

Plum Pudding

Traditionally puddings were made on or immediately after the Sunday "next before Advent", i.e. four to five weeks before Christmas. The Collect for that Sunday in the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, as it was used from the sixteenth century (and still is in traditional churches), reads:

  "Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen"

The day became known as "Stir-up Sunday". Traditionally everyone in the household, or at least every child, gave the mixture a stir, and made a wish while doing so.

1 cup sugar
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup milk*
2 eggs, beaten
2/3 cup molasses
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons baking powder
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour  plus 2 tablespoons
1 1/2 cups raisins, finely chopped
1 cup dates, chopped
1/2 cup nuts, chopped
3 tablespoons candied orange or lemon citron, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups chopped apples
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Boiling Water
Nutmeg Sauce

* 1/2 cup fruit juice and 1/2 cup brandy may be substituted for the milk if desired.


Grease two 2-pound coffee cans, two 2-quart pudding molds, or two 2-quart oven-proof deep dishes.

In a large bowl, combine sugar, butter, milk, eggs, molasses, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and flour; add raisins, dates, nuts, candied orange or lemon citron, apples, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

Fill each greased pan 1/2 full of batter. Cover tops of pans with lids or 2 layers of aluminum foil. In a large pot or roaster, place molds on trivets or a rack and add boiling water 2/3 up the side of the mold; bring rapidly to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover pot or roaster, and boil gently 4 to 4 1/2 hours (add more boiling water as necessary) or until fork comes out clean when put into center of pudding.

Remove from heat and cool. Store in refrigerator, covered, until time to serve. NOTE: These also freeze well.

To serve, steam for 1 hour before serving to heat thoroughly. Unmold and serve hot with Nutmeg Sauce.

Yields two puddings.

le Réveillon

After Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve (which is attended by fewer and fewer nowadays) people gather at home or in a restaurant for a feast called le réveillon.

This usually consists of oysters, les huîtres, snails, les escargots, seafood, les fruits de mer, smoked salmon, saumon fumé or le caviar as a starter, followed by goose, l'oie, or some other roasted bird for the main course, all washed down with wine, le vin or le champagne.

OYSTERS

Refusing an oyster on the grounds that it’s alive and looks like mucus is the French equivalent of refusing Christmas pudding because it’s dead and looks like landfill. Distinctly non-festive.
shellfish man Jean-Pierre Molina will tell you oysters don’t need sprinkling with lemon juice or vinegar. If they’ve got their own water, they’re good enough to eat straight. Grab a glass of local Picpoul de Pinet white, some rye bread, an oyster and. . . “Don’t gulp it down!” he cries. People who gulp are afraid of oysters. Chew it.”

FOIE GRAS

In Britain, admitting a taste for foie gras lumps you in with the snuff-movie fraternity. The French couldn’t care less. It’s their second Christmas course.

CHEESE

Roquefort is obligatory on the festive French cheeseboard. It’s rich, therefore Christmassy, but also sharp, so cuts through gluttony to the essential. The necessary sheep graze on the arid limestone plateaux at the southern end of the Massif Central. Below run the gorges of the Tarn, Jonte and Dourbie. The milk is made into cheese, which is then taken to the village of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon (pop: 800), near Millau. Both tradition and law require that roquefort be matured in the labyrinth of caverns that honeycombs the rock. Natural fissures ensure the right temperature and humidity to perfect the blue-green speckling.

DESSERT

In Provence, they’ll try to foist upon you their famous collection of 13 Christmas desserts. Resist. They’re less festive than muesli. More mainstream French tradition requires a Christmas log: rolled sponge, flavoured with vanilla, praline, coffee, Grand Marnier or similar, covered with chocolate and decorated perhaps with elves.

Relentless research hasn’t turned up a headline region for this item. In any case, the best French housewives (eg, mine) make their own. If you don’t have a French wife, find the leading patisserie wherever you happen to be, and buy your bûche there. Drink champagne: demi-sec if you want to complement the pud’s sweetness, brut if you care more about the champagne than the log.

The Thirteen Desserts of A Provencal Christmas

The desserts are part of a Christmas eve, pre-Midnight Mass gros souper at a table set with three tableclothes and three candlesticks. The starting courses of the meal include a bagna cauda (a kind of fondue), cardoons (a kind of artichoke), and a fish soup.

The first four desserts are the mendiants, representing orders of monks and the colors of their habits: hazelnuts (Augustinians), almonds (Carmelites), raisins (Dominicans), and dried figs (Franciscans). As someone who was taught by Franciscans, I have no comment on that pairing.

Next comes walnuts and another dried fruit, followed by either a quince paste or candied fruit. Then there's three fresh fruits, usually apples, pears, and one of grapes, tangerines, melon, or oranges. This brings us up to ten. (So far, this is sounding like a deconstructed fruit cake.)

Two nougats, soft white and hard black, make it twelve. The final dessert is a cake, pompe de Noël à l'huile d'olive, made with yeast, egg, sugar, and citron flavors, pulled apart and not sliced. This may be served with a vin cuit -- a sweet wine -- or a Carthagène, a combo of spirits and grape must.

All in all, they sound fairly simple to gather, except for the cake, and here's a recipe for that.

Orange and chocolate mendicants

Originally, mendiants are a specialty from the South of France, as one of the thirteen desserts found on Christmas Eve tables in Provence. The set of dried fruit includes almonds, figs, hazelnuts and raisins. It was believed that the color of each dried fruit symbolized the different robes which monks from the Order of the Mendiants used to wear, hence the name of this sweet food. Nowadays, Mendiants are commonly made with Chocolate, presented in small chocolate rounds topped with dried fruit and nuts.

Orangettes

You need:

    * Orange peels
    * Sugar, same weight as the orange peels
    * Water, same weight as the orange peels
    * Dark chocolate, 70 % cocoa

Steps:

    * Peel the oranges and cut the peels in sticks, 0.2Åçwide.
    * Blanch them 3 times in boiling water, for 3 mns each time (change the water each time).
  * In a small pot, mix the sugar and water to make a syrup, and bring to a small boil. Add the orange peels and simmer on low heat for 30 mns.
    * Strain and place them on a cooling rack to dry (overnight).
    * Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and dip the orange peels in it, using a fork.
    * Strain them and place them on a Silpat or special chocolate sheet (acetate sheet) to cool. Store in a metallic box.


      Note: Blanching the orange peels helps for the candying process as the orange peels soak more sugar in.

Dark and White Chocolate Mendiants

You need:

    * White chocolate
    * Dark Chocolate 70% cocoa
    * Nuts of all sorts such as walnuts, pecans, pistachios, pine nuts
    * Dried fruit such candied orange peels, dried apricots and cranberries sliced

Steps:

    * Melt the chocolate using a double-boiler.
  * Take a small spoon and form small rounds of chocolate on a silpat. When still warm, top with dried fruits and nuts, as you like.
    * Let cool and detach from the silpat when hard.

Christmas in the City of Lights

‘Vive le Vent’ - 'Jingle Bells'

Vive le vent, vive le vent, vive le vent d'hiver
Qui s'en va, sifflant, soufflant
Dans les grands sapins verts, Oh !
Vive le temps, vive le temps, vive le temps d'hiver
Qui rappelle aux vieux enfants
Leurs souvenirs d'hier !


Sur le long chemin
Tout blanc de neige blanche
Un vieux monsieur s'avance
Avec sa canne dans la main
Et tout là-haut le vent
Qui siffle dans les branches
Lui souffle la romance qu'il chantait petit enfant

Joyeux Noel

The Book Shelf

Books we hope to get for Christmas
( and others )

Unable to refuse a direct request, particularly when it is such a good idea, and moreover because it allowed us to discover and re-discover some of our favorite books, we present the following book recommendations:

Books we really hope to get for Christmas:

The Cambridge World History of Food

"Meanwhile the peripatetic potato, which had left the New World to become the "Virginia Potato" in the British Isles, returned to the Americas as the "Irish Potato", reaching Boston in 1718 with Irish immigrants. The following year, potatoes were planted in New Hampshire, although another century elapsed before they really caught on in North America. Elsewhere, the Spaniards and Portuguese had carried the potatoes to Africa and disseminated them throughout the East. By the middle of the seventeenth century they were grown in even the most remote regions of China and, along with sweet Potatoes were helping to fuel a population explosion. Because potatoes produce far more calories per acre than cereal crops, they were also to some immeasurable extent responsible for the population explosion in Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The Taste of Wine: The Art and Science of Wine Appreciation
by Emile Peynaud 

The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation
by David Kamp

More Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin
Les Halles Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain

Food Classics

The Physiology of Taste or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy
Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
The Art of Eating
M.F.K. Fisher

Books for the scientifically inclined cook:

Two books by Herve This:
Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor
Kitchen Mysteries: Revealing the Science of Cooking
( see also Brillat-Savarin and Emile Peynaud above )

Cheesy Books

Artisan Cheese Makers in the Northwest

Atlas of American Artisan Cheese
by Jeffrey Roberts

Literary Classics

Giving Good Weight  -  by John McPhee
Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris
by A.J. Liebling
The Belly of Paris - by Emile Zola

Link to Complete Post

There's a new equation going on

There's a New Equation Going On

We have met the enemy and he is us.
We have seen the future and it works.

Something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
   

Kenny & Zukes Deli - SW Stark and 11th (503 222-3354) - is as close to the real thing as we have seen in a long time in Portland. It is mostly a restaurant but because they encourage take-out we feel free to talk about the food you can and should bring home to eat in as soon as possible.

Of greatest interest to us was the long list of traditionally ‘Jewish’ foods – kreplach, knish and kugel, as well as the more commonly encountered blintzes and bagels and pastrami and corn beef that at Kenny and Zukes is simply as good as it gets.

Kreplach are small squares of rolled pasta dough filled with ground beef or chicken and folded into triangles. They can be boiled and served in soup or fried and served as a side. 

At Kenny & Zukes, the kreplach are meat filled and fried, but since we took ours out, we steamed them. They were both delicate and robust. The noodle was light and held up well under steaming ( Boiling them might be a bit risky. ). The meat filling was intriguingly spicy and mouthwateringly tender.

Kenny & Zukes opened in October at the corner of  SW Stark and 11th in what can be considered the Clyde Common, Ace Hotel, Stumptown, Kenny & Zukes complex.  The large busy interior is focused on deli fare and basic but fine foods.


Back to the Future – Too Late To Party

As usual of late here at Food, Wine, Life’s Pleasures there’s a back story to our understanding of what we like about Kenny and Zukes.

Twice now we have been late to the party. 

We got to clarklewis early - that of Naomi and Michael Hebberoy aka Pomeroy and Hebb –but were too late to attend the underground dining gatherings that preceded it– the ‘Family Suppers’

In the fall of 2006 we got to Le Pigeon but were once again late to the party and have yet to really get to the Jupiter Hotel / Doug Fir Lounge.

So we are pleased that we managed to get to the Clyde Common, Ace Hotel, Stumptown, Kenny & Zukes complex a mere six months after opening. Though admittedly our arrival was once again inadvertent if somewhat more timely.

What links these places is a style and a network we are tangential to, at best.  We hear about them, usually a bit late, but somehow they are just enough outside our daily haunts and natural paths to escape our attention, if not our notice. But when we finally get there we find ourselves thrilled to be someplace different – someplace clearly not catering to us, but just as clearly, genuinely creative and innovative.

What really got us started on this story was in 1999 when our nephew Kristian reintroduced us to Pabst Blue Ribbon - a beer we haven’t drunk since stealing it from our parent’s basement but which is iconic of what we are beginning to think of as our new place in the universe.

The simple take then and now on Pabst was that twenty-somethings were drinking it because they could more readily afford it than the then more ubiquitous and more expensive craft beers.  Pabst was classic alt-beer and soon became a trend to the point that by 2002, apparently inspired right here in PDX, PBR which had declined steadily since the 1970’s began to see a sales turn around – up 12% and growing.


As boomers we are accustomed to being the fashionable focus of almost everything new for the last 40 years. Like Al Gore we seem to have invented or at least been in on the birth of everything. We got our start on sex, drugs, rock and roll, (of course), but proceeded quickly to greed and green, only to find ourselves these days redefining retirement and refusing to relinquish the limelight. Having invented, of course, the generation gap, we are now in a sense unable or unwilling to go over the hill.

So, in short it came as something of a surprise to us that Pabst still existed to say nothing of people thinking it was cool.  Widmer is cool. Pabst is, well Pabst is like our father’s oldsmobile.

“Society is becoming accustomed to the 70-year old student, the 30-year old college president, the 22-year old mayor, the 35-year old grandmother, the 50-year old retiree, the 65-year old father of a preschooler, and even the 85-year old mother caring for ther 65-year old son.  Age norms and age expectations, thus, are diminishing in importanace as regulators of behavior,… we are moving toward an age-irrelevant society.
        - The Meanings  of Age, Bernice Neugarten

The echo boom - Its all about us

As if to prove our point, we have narcissistically named the current population boom after ourselves.  A boom that will last longer and bring more new births to the world than the ‘baby boom’ is understood as if looking in the rear view mirror only as “the echo boom.”  It is indeed all about us.



All of this center-of-attention clinging-to-relevance has reached the point, frankly, that we have become a little bored with ourselves and this boredom extends to the food and scenes with which we comfort and surround ourselves.

We look at the all too locally based Portland food scene, the all too numerous too good Portland restaurants and find it all seems too similar, too predictable, too upscale, too much featuring foods in phrases – Kabocha squash gnocchi filled with chanterelles, brown butter, sage and parmesan – too much, in short, like looking at ourselves in the mirror.

So it has come as a delightful and intriguing revelation to have seen the future or at least its birth – at Clyde Common and Kenny & Zukes, at the Jupiter and the Doug Fir Lounge, in the 3 or four blocks scattered around the rebuilding center on N. Mississippi, on Belmont Street and indie row on SW Oak St.

The food in these places is much more direct, somewhat less expensive, certainly more reminiscent of home-style cooking and generally comes with shorter stories.  It reminds us that as with wine – its easy to find at 30 or 40 dollars a bottle – the challenge comes in mixing the simple with the savory.

In fact, we are publishing the following list – much like a scavenger hunt – that we intend to follow.  This list comes to us from Kristian, our nephew come PBR augury:

Places
(Bars)
Clinton Street Pub
Shanghai Tunnel
McMenamin’s (esp. Ringler’s Annex, Barley Mill, Baghdad, Crystal
Ballroom)
Lucky Lab
Berbati’s Pan
Speakeasy Tavern
Laurelthirst

(Restaurants/cafes)
Hawthorne St Ale House
Dot’s
Crowsenberg’s Half and Half
Junior’s
Palio

Odds and Ends

What did you have for dinner today?

During the Cuba Missile Crisis of October, 1962, the world teetered on the brink of nuclear war. Do you remember what you ate for dinner? Here is what President and Mrs. Kennedy ate.....

October 23rd, 1962: President and Mrs. Kennedy dined with friends at the White House on the following; Rockfish Souffle Ambassade, Breast of Pheasant St. Hubert, Wild Rice, Green Beans aux Amandes, Salade Mimosa, Brie Cheese, Biscuit Glacee aux Peches, Petits-fours

Courtesy Oregon State University

In 1899 when just a few months shy of her 80th birthday, Queen Victoria had the following luncheon:

Potage aux huitres.
Oeufs brouilles aux truffes.
Côtelletes de Veau à l’Allemande.
Poulets decoupés à l’Anglaise.
Boeuf braise au Macaroni.
Faisans à la Casserole.
Chicorée à la crème.
Poulets rôtis.

Buffet.
Cold Rt Fowls. Cold Rt. Beef.
Cold Tongue Spiced Beef.
Galantine Game Pie.
Salade Normande.

Soufflés à la Circassienne.
Crème de Pêches à la Montreuil.
Petits Gâteaux Condés

Some of Her Majesty’s subjects who had the misfortune to be residents of a workhouse on that exact Tuesday in 1899 had, for their midday (main) meal:

Vegetable broth
Bread 4 oz
Cheese 2 oz
Dumplings 8 oz

( Courtesy The Old Foodie )

Kanpai!

Revelations and Misconceptions about Sake

by Tom McKenna

First misconception about sake: the toast is Kanpai, not Kampai.  The first of many misconceptions when it comes to drinking things Japanese.

'Masu' Sake Cup

Second misconception: sake isn’t a wine per se.  Even though the phrase “rice wine” will appear on bottles, in stores, let me repeat, sake isn’t wine in terms of how the stuff is made.

First revelation: the process of making sake is more similar to the process of brewing beer than it is to the process of producing wine.  Where wine is made from the single fermentation of a fruit juice, sake comes from the multiple fermentations of a grain, rice.

Second revelation: some of the best sake to be had whether one is toasting incorrectly or thinking they are sipping a fine, aged wine is made right here in Forest Grove, Oregon in the only American owned sake brewery in the US.

SakéOne is located in Forest Grove. The tasting room ( 820 Elm Street, Forest Grove ) is open is 7 days a week from 11- 5.  SakéOne was founded by a group of folks who simply loved saké and had a vision - to produce world-class saké in the United States. Although saké was traditionally made in Japan, they believed that premium ginjo saké could be produced in the United States. With water as one of saké's most critical ingredients, the east slope of Oregon's Coastal Mountains was identified as an ideal water source for its purity. And so Forest Grove, Oregon, became the home of SakéOne, producer of Momokawa and Moonstone, America's most honored sakés!

 
Overall truth: It’s a whole lot simpler to drink the stuff than it is to understand all that goes into making it.

From what I have gathered, the first sakes were made like this: interested consumers chewed cooked rice, spit their chew out into a large bowl, along with other half mauled items, and let it all ferment using their own enzymes as the fermentation agent.  The discovery of a mold called “koji”, the same mold that is used to produce soy sauce and miso, refined the process saved us from savoring someone else’s half eaten dinner.

Sake begins with polished rice.  A milling process refines raw rice down to almost half its original size removing all the protein and oils and leaving only the starch.  The starch is converted to sugar with the addition of the koji mold and then the sugar is converted to alcohol.  And this is where sake departs from beer. Sake’s multiple fermentations occur within a single step.  Beer’s occur within different, sequential steps.

And it gets more complicated from here on in.  But stay tuned, there will be more about sake including a trip to Momokowa to taste Forest Grove's finest first hand plus some easy primers about the wide variety of sakes available.

( Editors prerogative - Coming soon.  A Food,Wine,Life's Pleasures tasting journey to Forest Grove - all comers welcome )

Holy Whole Foods and Conagra

Have some Sympathy, for the Devil Eats Wolfe Ranch quail stuffed with chestnuts and pancetta, squash soufflé and Chino Ranch greens

Please allow me to introduce myself
I’m a man of wealth and taste
…
But what’s puzzling you
Is the nature of my game
I stuck around st. petersburg
When I saw it was a time for a change…

So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste

- The  Rolling Stones
                     Sympathy for the Devil

This post is a journey that begins with a brief contemplation about health and holiness that traverses quickly through our timeless and changing food preoccupations mingled with what to us are at least eye-opening tidbits about Conagra  - a giant of agribusiness.  This is then mixed with a tip of the hat to Bob's Red Mill, a local food favorite and finishes with some thoughts from Ellen Goodman, food stories, identity preservation and some menus from Chez Panisse thrown in to guild the lilly.  As our introductory quote suggests, it will all go down more easily if hummed to our favorite tune from the Rolling Stones.

We have been thinking about holidays, probably because, suddenly, as it almost always seems, the season is upon us. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chanukah, New Years – what have you – it’s time for feasting and festivals and fetes. 

We choose our words carefully.  Fete is French for holiday and so we go from feasting to holidays.  Holy days, of course.  Or should we say ‘wholly days’? 

Both ‘whole’ and ‘holy’ appear to stem from the same Germanic root “heil” ( Yes, think of the stiff armed salute to the fuehrer.) meaning “health, happiness,  - that which must be preserved whole or intact, that cannot be transgressed or violated.” (cf. O.H.G. heil  “health and happiness”O.E. hal "hale, whole;" O.N. heill "healthy;" O.E. halig, O.N. helge "holy, sacred;" O.E. hælan "to heal").

So serendipitous!  That we can be holy and whole at the same time allows us to both count and eat our blessings.

We have been eating whole wheat since coming of age under the influence of Diet for a Small Planet and the local health food store.  Over the years, we have made exceptions – for pasta, French bread and croissants, cakes, Thomas’ English muffins, you name it.  Before long, the exceptions proved the rule and while we were still believers, it took the USDA to remind us that we were not eating enough.

The Times They Are A Changin

In 2005 the USDA Dietary Guidelines for the first time made specific recommendations for whole grain consumption separate from refined grains.  The recommended allotment for those in our demographic is at least 3 and preferably 6 ounces per day – the equivalent of 6 slices of whole grain toast, or 3 cups of brown rice, or 6 cups of cold, whole grain cereal or 3 cups of oatmeal or any combinations thereof. Achieving these elevated totals takes a bit of doing, but our research - tasting and testing – allows us to report that both help and hope are on the way.

A quick trip to a few markets produced all of these – whole foods we eat and enjoy.

Our favorites include our favoirite pasta - Rustichella d’Abruzzo Whole Wheat Spaghetti; our favorite crackers - La Panzanella Whole Wheat Croccantini; our favorite toasting bread – anything from Gabriel’s Bakery

Of note are new products that have caught our attention - King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour ( made with Ultragrain – see below ) and Ronzoni Healthy Harvest brands.

BREADS: Gabriel’s Bakery Sesame Seed Bread, Dave’ Killer Bread – Whole Grains, Milton’s Whole Grain, Ken’s Country Brown
PASTA: Rustichella d’Abruzzo Whole Wheat Spaghetti, Casino Di Caprafico Farro Pasta, Trader Joe’s Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti, Ronzoni Healthy Havest Seven Grain Spaghetti, DeCecco Whole Wheat Penne Rigate
CRACKERS: La Panzanella Whole Wheat Croccantini, Pan de Luna Bruschette integrale, Carr’s Whole Wheat Crackers, Ak-Mak Crackers
TORTILLAS: La Tortilla Factory Lw Carb/Low Fat High Fiber, Mission Multi-grain Flour Tortillas
FLOUR: Bob’s Red Mill, King Arthur
LEGUMES: Timeless Natural Food Petite Crimson Lentils, Sabarot Le Puy Green Lentils

The truth is we eat all of the above and more and having done some research on the foibles of taste testing, we are hesitant to do a lot of shouting.  One thing of note as our subhead suggests – grains are not now nor, unless you live in eastern Washington, Montana or Kansas, will ever be local. The white whole wheat flour that we bought from New Seasons ( or Fred Meyer or Trader Joes ) is made from proprietary wheat Conagra  grows in Kansas. King Arthur, worse yet, hails from Vermont.  Even Bob’s Red Mill, one of our favorite local whole producers, has entered the export business and so what is local for some is an import for others – think Hood River pears and apples.

And when we look at it, the provenance of many of the other whole foods we are eating is not exactly local.



Sympathy for the Devil

Conagra is one of those companies like General Mills, Cargill and ADM that fills the vast interior of supermarkets – places we enter only on pain of death – with products like Banquet, Chef Boyardee, Egg Beaters, Healthy Choice, Hebrew National, Hunt's, Marie Callender's, Orville Redenbacher's, PAM, Swiss Miss, and many others.

3 New Products are described at the Conagra website: Ultragrain, Sustagrain and Ancient Grains.


"Ultragrain® - The Future of Whole Grains, Today

When ConAgra Mills launched Ultragrain whole wheat flour in 2004, it began positively changing consumer perceptions about whole grains. Combining whole wheat's goodness with the refined-flour taste and texture most mainstream consumers love, Ultragrain gave manufacturers a unique, best-of-both-worlds solution for formulating more nutritious products."



The only product we were willing to consume that included Ultragrain was King Arthur Flour. Since it has been some time since we made whole wheat bread our first attempt left something to be desired but we will continue and will report back.


Sustagrain® Barley: Whole-Grain Fiber in a Whole New Form
"Looking for a novel way to bring whole-grain goodness to your formulations? You can't beat barley for its appealing flavor and superior health benefits-especially when you consider its soluble beta glucan fiber. With ConAgra Mills' Sustagrain Barley, an identity-preserved waxy barley variety, you can deliver that whole-grain goodness with a flexibility and functionality you won't find in any other whole grain."

Ancient Grains
"Catch the latest wave hitting whole grain formulation with ConAgra Mills Ancient Grains. These 100% whole grain flours—milled from amaranth, quinoa, millet, sorghum and teff—combine high-fiber and taste-tempting flavor with the 21st-century functionality and reliability you expect from ConAgra Mills."

When it comes to grains - How local is local?

Grains travel – on barges, ships and in containers.

The Columbia River is the largest wheat export region in the United States. In 1922 approximately half a million tons of grain were shipped through the Port of Portland.  By 2006 that number had grown to over 4 million tons – most of which is wheat, almost half of which is shipped to China, most of that being soft, white wheat, used in China for noodles.

According to the World Bank, “Over the next 50 years, export/import, supply-demand imbalances in will grow in developing countries. Net cereal imports by developing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America are projected to increase to 265 million tons in 2030 from 85 million tons in 2000. This reflects continuing high import dependence in the Middle East and North Africa and sharp increases in imports in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.”

Bob’s Red Mill
( extracted from the Business Journal )
"The world is coming to recognize the value of nothing added, nothing removed."  - Dennis Gilliam, executive vice president of sales and marketing, Bob's Red Mill.

For Portland residents, Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods Inc, located at 13521 SE Pheasant Court, Milwaukie, is as local as it gets.  Founded in 1978 by Bob Moore, Bob’s is a closely held Oregon corporation with annual revenues exceeding 50 million dollars. ( The company does not disclose specific revenue numbers.)

“Looking to capitalize on growing global demand for healthy food products, Bob's is making a major push into international markets.

Although Bob's Red Mill products have been available in Japan for years, the company has not made a push elsewhere.

"There just seems to be a global realization that healthy eating is a preferable lifestyle and the Asians are really picking up on this," said Dennis Gilliam, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Bob's Red Mill. "The world is coming to recognize the value of nothing added, nothing removed."

The company last fall hired a food export firm to launch its products into places such as Guatemala, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Mexico, Korea, Malaysia and Hong Kong.”

"We're just happy that now everybody else is getting on the [whole-grains] bandwagon," said Bob's Red Mill Chief Financial Officer John Wagner.

"Before we were sort of evangelists on the street corner telling everyone about Jesus and very few listened. Now it's in vogue."

Bob's  Red Mill Visitor Center -  Oil Paint on Canvas by DuoArtand Design

Holly Cow! – there’s a hole in whole wheat.

Most of us know now that just because a loaf of bread looks brown and claims to be made from ‘wheat flour’ doesn’t make it wholly whole wheat. Au contraire. But alas, the situation is worse than we thought.

The whole grain, dietary fiber portion of genuine, honest to goodness whole grain products varies significantly. A single slice of whole wheat bread may have has little as 2 or as much as 5 grains of dietary fiber.  Ditto for whole wheat pasta. Ditto even for pure whole wheat flour. Differences appear to be related to the types of wheat and the milling process.

Wheat that is not ‘stone-ground,’ even if it is ‘whole wheat,’ is reconstituted.  The large scale milling of wheat always separates the wheat bran from the wheat germ from the white semolina or endosperm. After being ground the wheat is sifted – separating out the parts ( germ, bran, endosperm or semolina). Flour that is labeled ‘whole wheat’ has been returned to its original mix by miller manufacturers.

Croatian Millstone - DKImages

“Millers struggled for centuries to perfect a way to grind wheat so that white flour could be sifted out.  The Egyptians sifted or ‘bolted’ the crushed grain through papyrus strands.  George Washington was especially proud of the high quality of ‘bolted’ flour produced by his Mount Vernon mill and shipped it as far away as the West Indies. Today, white flour must pass through a sieve having at leasts 4,225 openings per square inch”
                 - Bernard Clayton Jr.
                The Complete Book of Breads

In Europe flour varieties are labeled according to the ash mass ( mineral content ) that remains after a sample is incinerated in a laboratory oven.

This is an easy way to verify the fraction of the whole grain in the flour, because the mineral content of the starchy endosperm is much lower than that of the outer parts of the grain. Flour made from all parts of the grain leaves about 2 g ash or more per 100 g dry flour. Plain white flour leaves only about 0.4 g.

Unfortunately the United States has not yet adopted ash labeling standards.  Absent ash content, for raw flour it is possible to make a judgment about the fiber content based on the protein content which will be on the label. But for breads and pastas too many other factors enter into the determination.  Your best bet is the ratio between calories per serving and dietary fiber

So not only do you have to read the label and the fine print but you gotta bring your calculator and even then you’re just guessin.


You Want A Story With Those Fries?
or
Chain, chain, chain… chain of Food
or
Identify-Preserved and Functional Foods

In “Farmer, Chef, Storyteller: Building New Food Chains” ( Manifestos on the Future of Food & Seed, edit. Vandana Shiva ), Michael Pollan, a “storyteller” who writes “so people can know where their food comes from” argues that “industrial food” – “food that is incom- prehensible without the help of a journalist” has broken the natural “food economy linking the species and the farmer and the eaters.”

Like victims of ‘identify theft’ we are fighting back – “Thanks to the work of people like Alice Waters, chefs – formerly servants of the rich – have become advocates for the farmers and foragers, shining the bright light of their glamour on the work they do and on the plants and animals they care for.”

Ellen Goodman reflects a similar sentiment when she says:

"My Thanksgiving prep began in one of those markets where, for a premium, you get a story with your food. Every vegetable, every creature and every jar of jam comes with its own pedigree and memoir.

The best of these tell how the farmer and his pigs, chickens or calves live in a sylvan idyll until the day when ... well, they skip that part. These romantic tales of the farm are directed at consumers like me, a slightly uneasy carnivore and committed free-range turkey buyer who prefers to imagine her Thanksgiving dinner roaming happily over the American landscape under a clear blue sky."

And so enter Criterion – “The Leader in Authenticity Management”

"Identity preservation is the key to unlocking the potential of agricultural products, opening many doors to value.   
 
The value is inherent in the grain itself, but often hidden due to commod- itized production, handling, and business practices. IdentityPreserved.com helps capture this value by providing information, products, and services that streamline and enable identity preservation."

"While American consumers ponder the merits of genetically modified foods, a small but growing number of farmers are establishing systems to keep such foodstuffs from showing up on kitchen tables.

Those farmers are commanding higher prices for going through the rigors of raising "identity preserved" crops and cattle - farm products whose chain of custody can be documented from beginning to end."
  -  from Biotech Info

Functional Food - Forensic Food?

"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food," - Hippocrates

Chain of custody and identity preserved supply chain management is an attempt to add value to food production by supplying the information, the stories and the confidence that allow the food we eat to play an expanded role in the lives we live.

We eat locally so we know where our food comes from. We eat organically to minimize the impact of pesticides on the planet and our bodies. We eat nutritionally. We drink red wine and eat whole grains. We take vitamins. We index our body mass and glycemic intake and worry about all sorts of fiber – soluble, insoluble and resistant starch.


Finis

If you have made it this far, we can only assume that your head is as dizzy as ours and so as a parting gesture we leave with this quote from The Devil Wears Prada and last week’s menu from Chez Panisse. - the restaurant founded by Alice Waters where for $85 a head ( not including wine ) six days a week one can find foods with both a name and a story

But what does the devil eat?

Photo Credit: Yoshke.com 

( For those who haven’t seen the Devil Wears Prada, the two main characters in the movie Andy Sachs and Miranda Priestly represent the extremes of fashion sense. Andy Sachs wears “lumpy blue sweaters” and neither cares nor, as Miranda Priestly explains below, knows what she puts on her back.  Miranda Priestly, of course, is the fashion maven whose character is modeled after Anna Wintour -  the iconic editior of Vogue magazine.

Andy Sachs: No, no, nothing. Y'know, it's just that both those belts look exactly the same to me. Y'know, I'm still learning about all this stuff.

Miranda Priestly: This... 'stuff'? Oh... ok. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don't know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean. You're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets? And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff.

Chez Panisse


Photo Credit: Amateur Gourmet

Monday, November 26       $55
Bob's leeks with mustard vinaigrette, beets, and pancetta
Gigot d'agneau à la ficelle: Watson Ranch lamb leg turned on a string; with herb-scented soufflé,
fall greens, and carrots Vichy-style
Pear and almond tart with muscat sabayon

Tuesday, November 27       $65
Marinated Monterey sardines and warm potato salad with herbs
Fall vegetable minestrone with basil and Parmesan
Grilled Wolfe Ranch quail stuffed with chestnuts and pancetta; with squash soufflé and
Chino Ranch greens
Cranberry-apple tart with candied orange ice cream

Wednesday, November 28  all-fish menu    $65
Dungeness crab salad with Meyer lemon and chervil
Risotto with clams, mussels, chorizo, and saffron
Grilled black sea bass with red wine sauce, fried Jerusalem artichokes, and celery root purée
Pecan meringue with bourbon ice cream and pear caramel

Thursday, November 29       $65
Wild mushroom tartlet with garden greens
Dungeness crab chowder with pancetta and herbs
Grilled Sonoma Liberty duck breast with green pepper sauce and fall vegetables
Meyer lemon, huckleberry, and vanilla ice cream bombe

Friday, November 30       $85
An apéritif
Fish tartare with olio nuovo, lime, and garden greens
Ricotta gnocchi with spinach and wild mushrooms
Grilled Paine Farm squab with balsamic vinegar sauce, squash purée, roasted chestnuts, turnips,
carrots, and parsnips
Poached Middleton Gardens Comice pear with late harvest Riesling sabayon

Saturday, December 1      
foundation benefit dinner with k.d. lang      
An apéritif and hors d'oeuvre
Dungeness crab toast with herb and fennel salad
Wild mushroom tortellini
Grilled rack and loin of Cattail Creek lamb with black olives, Chino Ranch vegetables and greens,
and potato and turnip galette
Meyer lemon soufflé

 

When Spending Up for Wine Makes Sense

Special Wines - for Special Times and for the Basement

We just bought two bottles of a wine that are a  steal. And as of 2:00 PM Sunday, there are at least 4 bottles left at Vinopolis - 1025 SW Washington (503.223.6002) - and they are worth the trip. We will not be able to determine until later in the week if and where there are others to be had.

Rudsen Stockade Shiraz 2005

The 2005 Stockade is a 1,000-case cuvee of 100% Shiraz that spent time in neutral French oak. It exhibits a deep ruby/purple hue, an opulent, fruit-forward personality, plenty of blackberry and smoky notes, a ripe, heady mouthfeel, and a nicely defined finish.
- Robert Parker, Wine Advocate

    

 

Rudsen Stockade Shiraz, 2005, Australia, Barossa Valley - 100% shiraz, deep red color, bright, currant and cherry overtones
Alcohol: 14.5%  Bouquet: Ripe, dark fruit   
Price: $17.50  Quality/Price Ratio: Very High

Spending Up

Two weeks when we recommended wines for Thanksgiving dinner, we broke our rules about recommending wines that cost more than $20-$25 a bottle.  Above that price, the wine had better be good, and most generally are - so the business of recommendations, in our judgment, is best kept in the affordable range.

Thanksgiving in particular is a special case because wine and turkey are an uncertain pairing. But any holiday or celebration is an excuse to spend a little bit more. So go ahead, every now and then, splurge.

Another, maybe better, reason to spend up for a bottle of wine is to put it in the basement for a while and forget about it.  Many wines improve significantly with bottle age - a lot of bottle age. 10 years is only the beginning for some varieties - cabernet sauvignon, nebbiolo, tempranillo, syrah - from places like the Napa Valley, Walla Walla, the Piedmont region of Italy (Barolo, Barbaresco),Bordeaux and the Rhone Valley in France, and the Rioja region of Spain.  Even our beloved pinot noir fares better over time.(Though we think French Burgundy may age better than Oregon pinot, but we're not sure.)

Buy and Hold: 
Think about it as an investment. Every so often, put a bottle or two away, forget about it for as long as you can, and watch what happens. The caveat here is that you have to buy a blue chip - a wine known for its ability to age gracefully, and blue chips don't come cheap.  You will probably have to spend upwards of $40 per bottle (or more).  But when you got to reap your investment it will have more than doubled in value. You will then have a real excuse for celebration - whenever you need it.

The other caveat concerns the basement.  Wine is ideally stored at 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Small fluctuations ( + or - 5 degrees ) will not make much difference.  But years at room temperature will not serve the wine well. Also the wine must be stored on its side. 

Because of our oh so temperate weather, Oregon basements, except for a few days here and there in August, are ideally suited to store wine.  You do not need a special wine cellar.  A closet or storage rack -  one that is generally dark - will do just fine.  We have been storing wine in a basement closet for years and are very pleased with the results.