Do you want to eat arsenic and ammonia?

A large portion of my interest in food is rooted in the anger I get from discovering how corporate entities manipulate our natural food system in the name of profit while discarding any impact on human health and environmental health. By now many of us understand the underlying facts and have heard the basic framework: Corporations use their capital to impact legislation and purchase large tracts of land to produce food. The market is flooded with cheap food produced like goods in a factory. Throughout the process crutality is inflicted on animals, the land is abused, and pollution is omitted from the massive "soil to plate" route. The individual is a victim of images that instead hype false health benefits and hide the true nature of food production. In recent years the factory farming system has been shook by outbreaks of disease, bestselling books, documentaries, and the growing availability of organic and local food.

David Kirby's book "Animal Factory" provides an in your face account of the realities of this system for animals and humans alike. He gained impressive access to chicken and pig farms that revealed the horrid conditions the animals experienced even after business hours. He vividly recalls the sounds of pigs squeeling loudly while attacking each other throughout the night due to their overcrowded conditions. For those that often consider the poor treatment of animals as part of the food chain, there is ample evidence that factory farming is more than just a little bit of animal cruelty. The externalities of a factory farm extend into our drinking water, make us vulnerabile to infection, impact hunger in the developing world, and taint the nutrition in the food on your fork. His account makes vegetarianism an even more necessary path for the 21st Century. It helps your health, the earth, the animal population, our resources, and others.

Here is a clip from Democracy Now that gives a great summary of the impacts of factory farming and the challenge of ending it.

Foraging in Philadelphia Links

Last summer I lived in Portland, Oregon where food literally grows from the sidewalks in front of you. It was an incredible experience to walk through the city and find places to eat plums or easily spot an abundant patch of lavender to use in your home. The city itself is a fortunate recipient of the unique climate of the Pacific Northwest. Rainy, mild winters provide plenty of moisture while the summer days and nights rarely fall to temperatures that will ruin the lush vegetation. Since my experience in Portland, a few friends have been intrigued by the idea of foraging. Their knowledge is greater than mine in this subject. Fortunately, urban foraging comes as an extension of an individual's desire to cut out the corporate food system and attempt to live in a more sustainable way. Below is a pretty impressive Google mash-up with sites for foraging within Philadelphia. You can also check out a solid collection of research and links over at Wild Foods.

Credit goes to Aaron for sending the links.

View Philadelphia Food Harvest Map in a larger map

Super Simple Summer Vegetables and Tofu

Super Simple Summer Vegetables and Tofu
This is a simple summer recipe that does not make your kitchen a sweat room. The ingredients are a combination of cupboard staples and affordable summer ingredients. This can serve 2-4 people (or two people with plenty of leftovers). You will need to drain the tofu for about an hour before you begin preparing this meal. The actual cooking/preparation time should only take about 45 minutes. This is not a new or innovative recipe, but it is something that is healthy and enjoyable.

Ingredients:
Container of extra firm tofu
2-3 zucchini
Half of bunch of asparagus (1/2 pound)
6 oz of fresh spinach
1 Cup of Brown Basmati Rice
Trader Joe's Soyaki (or Soy Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki) - at room temperature
Extra virgin olive oil
Cracked Pepper (optional)

1. Before you start cutting your vegetables and boiling the rice you should drain your tofu. I usually drain the tofu for at least an hour. The best way to do this is to remove the tofu from the container and place it between two plates. Squeeze each plate together over top of the sink in order to remove some of the initial water. Make sure you do not split the tofu by pushing too hard. After the initial water is removed, keep the tofu between the plates and place in the refrigerator. Place a slightly heavy object on top of the top plate in order to put pressure on the tofu and drain out the remaining juice. I recommend using the teriyaki jar or can of peanut butter. Removing the water from the tofu will allow the tofu to hold a desirable form when cooking.

2. Start cooking the brown basmati rice while you are cutting the vegetables. One cup of rice usually will take about 30-40 minutes to cook. Follow the 2 cups of water to 1 cup of rice rule when cooking. Do not be afraid to add additional water if the rice begins to stick. There is no harm in extra moisture compared to the harm in burning the rice. Cutting the vegetables should be a 10-15 minute production. Cut the zucchini into medium size pieces that would be ideal for a quick saute in olive oil. Cut the asparagus into thirds (or halves) so that they can be placed nicely into steamer. When using whole leaf spinach it is a good idea to keep the spinach this size. The spinach will eventually cook down into a more manageable size.

3. Take a large pot and add a steamer basket with a small layer of water. The water should sit below the steamer basket. Turn the stove on medium-high heat so that the water should begin to boil and cause steam within 3-5 minutes. Add the asparagus to the pot and cover. While the asparagus is cooking, quickly take the tofu and cut it into cubes. A good idea is to cut the tofu in half through the center. Then keeping the halves stacked cut into 12 pieces. You should get 24 pieces of tofu from one container, give or take. Basically you are looking for pieces that can easily be steamed. Once the tofu is cut, you can add them above the asparagus. The cooking time should be differentiated by 5 minutes or so, with the asparagus taking longer. Keep the asparagus and tofu in the steamer for an additional 10-12 minutes (15-17 minutes total).

4. While the tofu and asparagus are steaming you should do a quick saute of the zucchini and spinach in a frying pan. Add a generous amount of olive oil and cook the zucchini on at least medium heat. Move the zucchini regularly in order to prevent it from sticking to the pan. Do not be afraid to add a little bit of a water once the olive oil is absorbed. After the zucchini is soft and ready to eat (about 10 minutes), add about 1/4 cup of water (2 ounces) to the pan. The liquid should give off some steam and stop the zucchini from cooking at its current rate. Now you can add the spinach to the top of the pan. The spinach should only take about 2 minutes before it is a good consistency to eat. Feel free to mix the spinach in with the zucchini as long as it does not stick to the sides of the pan. Drain any liquid that you do not want.

5. After the rice is finished add it to a plate. Top the rice with the zucchini and spinach mix. Use your judgment on how much liquid you want to be added to the rice. Once the vegetables are added, you can add the asparagus and tofu. Add the room temperature teriyaki to the top of the tofu letting it drizzle on to the rest of the ingredients. The teriyaki should replace any need to add salt. I find that it is most effective to add the teriyaki to the plate at the end of the cooking rather than adding it during the cooking process. This alleviates any possibility for burning or an unnecessary mess. Feel free to top with cracked pepper.

An Omnivore Forages in New Jersey

Foraging in Jersey: Hook-Caught Catfish with Greens

By Mike Benigno
for Eat* (like a vegetarian)

Last summer and this, I’ve been thinking more and more about foraging for wild food. Some time off, put away the watch, ditch the cell phone, live off the land. Or at least pretend to.

While it may have not worked out too well for Chris McCandless in Into the Wild and I haven’t read the Krakauer book that inspired the movie, I’ve been building a small library of “livin’-off-the-land” food books, with the centerpieces being two works by Euell Gibbons, Stalking the Blue-Eyed Oyster, and Stalking the Wild Asparagus. Asparagus is Gibbons’ guide to living off of wild, foraged food, identifying and proselytizing about close to 50 types of hunter/gatherer treats found right here in the northeast.

At and around Kittatinny Lake, my grandfather used to forage for cardone, a green, leafy weed that grew about as big as a large fern. Staring out the window of the car, walking to get the mail or while rooting around the yard, he’d memorize where plants were and when it was harvest day he’d be on his hands and knees, knife in the ground, uprooting the plants before piling them high on the backyard table. The stems were breaded and fried like chicken cutlets and came off the frying pan like stringy celery but milder and coated in fried goodness – pure, down-home comfort. They were usually gone or close to gone before anyone had ever sat down at the table.

Last week, the catfish were good for hooking. Over the course of the week with a friend, we managed to hook over 20 pounds of catfish, the biggest being a 4-pounder, with several that were over 3 1/2. On Tuesday evening I picked through one of two good worm spots I discovered, foraged the bait and got out to fish the sunset still-water between 6:30 and 8 (the best daytime action). I was on my way back to the dock when I thought I’d try a spot just off a house directly across from ours. Sure enough, I landed a high-3 lb. catty, came home, relaxed, dispatched the thing, then filleted it in the backyard. Last few years, I’ve gotten filleting down to about ten minutes for a catfish, much less for a bass.

I used a sharp knife, a pot of ice to keep the filets chilled and fresh, and proceeded to first cut the head off, pull out the guts, slit the bottom, then cut one filet off as close and even as possible. I got both sides off in two clean pieces, flipped them, skinned the outside, put them back into the ice water, then went back for the bottom flaps which didn’t make the filet cut (two fatty pieces near the pectoral fins). Inside, I washed off all, made an egg wash, coated them in what was meant to be a coating for fried chicken that I’d picked up (a kit from Ad Hoc, Thomas Keller’s simple California restaurant), and put them into about a half-inch of hot stove-top oil until golden brown. I sat down outside with the golden filets with some horseradish sauce, along with a side of mixed collard greens and red kale, cooked in some bacon with onion.

The result was a modern day forage. I turned a few backyard worms into a catfish into a meal on a plate and sat in the same yard where my grandfather would stack up his wild plants. To boot, as I ate out back near the lake, the fish carcass still stood on the cleaning block.

Hey, this is America, right?

Mike Benigno is a freelance writer and self-proclaimed omnivore. He lives in Brooklyn where he can be found fishing in nearby Jamaica Bay with his video camera. He is the author of Lines In the Street, a blog about fishing in urban areas. He can be reached at mikebenigo[at]hotmail.com

The Dilemma of "Local"

An article on the Portland local economy by William Yardley in the NY Times today caught my attention. Yardley presents the interesting dilemma of the desirability and chic surrounding the idea of local. In my native Philadelphia an aurora surrounds the brunch places that serve local food, or distributors selling cases of beer brewed two zip codes over, the venues with DIY local bands, and the craft fairs of local artisans. They're great, they're fantastic. I love them and support them whenever I can. But following the great idea of the local is the dilemma of popularity it can garner. Perhaps overstated before, but local can fall into the "environmental chic scene" or the "define your identity through consumption scene." The demands of business and popularity can often compromise the intentions of the original mission. In the case of Portland they have already made the local movement a reality, and are now in the second stage of discussing its further direction. For some people criticisms of the local movement provides the same impact as criticizing Al Gore and global warming because of his private jet travel. The fact that places are getting to a point of being able to cut out large scale manufacturing and massive energy use is what Yardley is highlighting. Its an exciting dilemma to have.

Another mission, another distraction.

I am beginning a new blog that will blend two of my loves - photographs and food. I consider myself an average photographer and an equally average cook at best. I have always bragged that my food choices are "functional" and "simple." I hide behind the idea that my photographs typically portray the anonymity that urban landscapes can produce. As an excuse to use my camera whenever possible I take pictures of the meatless meals that my hands and mind put together. I hope this can become a blog that I turn to when I feel inspired to advertise the vegetarian options that a cook with my "skill" level can put together. I hope you enjoy.