Orange Ginger Pancakes
All organic, not too sweet..
(Adapted from Magnolia Café)
this recipe will yield about 10 5-inch pancakes.
3 pastured eggs
1 orange, sectioned, chopped, seeds & pith removed
2 tablespoons minced crystallized ginger
2 tablespoons dried orange peel
1/2 cup piima yoghurt or plain kefir
1 teaspoon molasses (optional)
1/4 cup brewed coffee
2 cups whole wheat flour, soaked
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon nutmeg
1/2 stick pastured butter
filtered water as needed
Cook orange pieces in a little water in a stainless steel skillet until it begins to break down. Add minced ginger, orange peel and butter and cook until the consistency of melted jam. Set aside.
Mix together flour, baking powder, soda, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add eggs, yoghurt or kefir, molasses and coffee and stir well.
Oil a comal or griddle with 1 tablespoon walnut oil and heat to 375 degrees. Pour 1/4 cup of batter onto hot surface and cook for 2 minutes on the 1st side and 1 minute on the 2nd side. Transfer to oven to keep warm until the last pancake is ready.
Serve topped with pastured butter and reserved orange-ginger topping.
Cowboy Steak & Mexican Corn
1 1/4 inch thick grass-fed bone-in ribeye from Betsy Ross in nearby Granger, Texas. Mopped in homemade BBQ sauce (lacto-fermented ketchup, organic molasses, vinegar, chili powder) and grilled over cured mesquite. Served with roasted corn, green onions, red peppers, adobo seasoning, cilantro, cotija cheese and lime.
meat and vegetables delivered by http://awesome.greenling.com
Will Allen, Urban Farmer
Photo by Nigel Parry for The New York Times
“Will Allen is an urban farmer who is transforming the cultivation, production, and delivery of healthy foods to under-served, urban populations. In 1995, while assisting neighborhood children with a gardening project, Allen began developing the farming methods and educational programs that are now the hallmark of the non-profit organization Growing Power, which he directs and co-founded. Guiding all is his efforts is the recognition that the unhealthy diets of low-income, urban populations, and such related health problems as obesity and diabetes, largely are attributable to limited access to safe and affordable fresh fruits and vegetables. Rather than embracing the “back to the land” approach promoted by many within the sustainable agriculture movement, Allen’s holistic farming model incorporates both cultivating foodstuffs and designing food distribution networks in an urban setting.” –The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
“Like others in the so-called good-food movement, Allen, who is 60, asserts that our industrial food system is depleting soil, poisoning water, gobbling fossil fuels and stuffing us with bad calories. Like others, he advocates eating locally grown food. But to Allen, local doesn’t mean a rolling pasture or even a suburban garden: it means 14 greenhouses crammed onto two acres in a working-class neighborhood on Milwaukee’s northwest side, less than half a mile from the city’s largest public-housing project.
And this is why Allen is so fond of his worms. When you’re producing a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of food in such a small space, soil fertility is everything. Without microbe- and nutrient-rich worm castings (poop, that is), Allen’s Growing Power farm couldn’t provide healthful food to 10,000 urbanites — through his on-farm retail store, in schools and restaurants, at farmers’ markets and in low-cost market baskets delivered to neighborhood pickup points. He couldn’t employ scores of people, some from the nearby housing project; continually train farmers in intensive polyculture; or convert millions of pounds of food waste into a version of black gold.” –Street Farmer, NY Times
Grilled Watermelon
On a plate, mix together guajillo honey, adobo seasoning, fresh lime juice and a pinch of sea salt. Coat thick slices of watermelon on both sides, then grill over hot coals for a minute or two. Happy almost 4th of July, everyone!
“Guajillo honey looms large in the history, culture and economy of southwestern Texas, particularly in the development of Uvalde County, located about 165 miles southwest of the state capital, Austin. During the 1870’s when settlers were establishing farms and ranches in Uvalde County, they discovered caves and hollow trees full of bees and honey – a “bee paradise.” The land was nicknamed “brush country” because of the cat claw, kinnikinnick, white brush and Guajillo bushes. Guajillo was the main honey plant and the bees that fed on the Guajillo blooms produced a mild, light colored delicious honey” -Slow Food USA
Cookbook Giveaway: Dishes from the Wild Horse Desert
Contest is open until 10:00pm cdt Monday, July 6th
Dishes from the Wild Horse Desert, Norteño Cooking of South Texas is one of my favorite everyday cookbooks, but it really is so much more than that.
Melissa Guerra grew up in the fierce beauty of the Wild Horse Desert of Texas (the rugged desert area from the Nueces River south to the Rio Grande), where her family has lived (and cooked) since 1791. Working to preserve 8 generations of food traditions and techniques, Guerra offers the original versions of Texican standards such as Chile con Carne, Enchiladas and Chiles Rellenos, along with unique dishes such as Pumpkin Seed Brittle, Pineapple Wine and Point Isabel Stuffed Crab and another 100+ authentic recipes.
Full of stories, family anecdotes and evocative sepia-tone photography, this book will have you cleaning cactus and grinding cornmeal in no time. You may even find yourself preparing Lomito de Venado con Jalapeño one day.
So, here’s the deal. I’m going to giveaway a copy of Dishes from the Wild Horse Desert to one of you, but first you have to go on a little scavenger hunt. Nothing too involved, just enough to let me know that your interest is sincere. Cool?
To participate, just go spend a little time looking around at melissaguerra.com, then come back here and tell me (using the comment section below) something, anything about what you found there. Dig around a little- there’s more there than appears at 1st glance.
I’ll choose one eligible entry at random, and ship the book to the winner at any U.S. (only, sorry) address.
If you have a blog, you can earn a second chance by mentioning this article and linking back to it at http://ediblearia.com/2009/07/02/dishes-from-the-wild-horse-desert
This post is part of Food Renegade’s Fight Back Fridays
Show Me The Whey pt. 2
In an earlier post, I took at look a using yoghurt as a source of liquid whey, which in turn can be used to make all sorts of great stuff like lacto-fermented ketchup or raisin chutney. I also touched on some of the ways to use the solids that are left after the whey is removed.
In Show Me The Whey part 2, I take a closer look at some of the ways to use those solids, including a fresh cream cheese replacement and the traditional Middle-eastern labneh and oil-preserved, spice-coated dried labneh balls, all of which may be made at a cost of less than $5.
Once separated from its liquid whey, the solid labneh is ready for use as a replacement for cream cheese, including everything from a sweet or savory spread to crab & cream cheese wontons to cheesecake. In this form, it will keep in the refrigerator for up to about a week, a little longer if salted.
Here, I’ve spread labneh on some thin pumpernickel (made from whole-grain sprouted rye) and topped with lingonberries & rosemary, fresh chives & black sea salt flakes and homemade orange-ginger jam with red pepper. It would work just as nicely on a sprouted bagel with smoked salmon..
Another good use for labneh is as labneh balls, which are made by rolling the labneh into balls, removing the remaining water by air-drying on absorbent paper for a day or so, rolling in spices such as dried mint or za’atar (sumac, thyme, sesame seeds and salt) and then preserving in olive oil. Made this way, the labneh will last indefinitely on the counter (no refrigeration needed), or at least until it gets eaten..
This post is part of The Nourishing Gourmet’s Pennywise Platter Thursday
Follow me on twitter
