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Good Food --Stories, Ideas, and Recipes
Yummy Mexican Dinner -- Your Kids Will Love This!Ground beef (and liver) with enchilada sauce
This delicious and easy recipe makes enough for a big family and your kids will never know that they're eating nutritious liver.
Ingredients 1 pound ground beef 1/2 pound beef liver, pureed with hand blender 1 1/2 cup enchilada sauce (see below) sprouted wheat flatbread sea salt and pepper, to taste
Enchilada sauce Ingredients two small cans organic tomato paste 1 medium onion 2 chile peppers, seeded (optional) 1 tablespoon cumin sea salt to taste 2 cups chicken or beef broth water to thin, if needed 1/4 cup olive oil
Enchilada sauce (taken from Nourishing Traditions)
de-seed and chop chile peppers, using gloves. chop and saute onion in oil, and when soft, add cumin until well amalgamated. Add chiles and broth, bring to a boil, and skim. Reduce heat and add tomatoes, and salt to taste. Simmer on low heat for about 45 minutes.
Prepare Meat Sauce While sauce is cooking, puree beef livers with hand blender. Livers should have a liquid-y consistency, sort of like a chocolate sauce.
Sautee beef in a bit of olive oil or butter, and quickly mix in the pureed livers. Add cumin to taste, and salt and pepper. When nearly brown, pour in 1 1/2 cup enchilada sauce, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. Serve with salsa verde, sour cream, and grated raw cheddar cheese.
Salsa Verde About 1 pound tomatillos 1 medium onion 1 large bunch cilantro chile peppers to taste (optional) 1-2 cloves garlic salt, pepper chop onion and saute 1 tblspoon olive oil ground cumin, to taste
Peel paper from tomatillos and slice in half. Place under broiler in oven for about 5 minutes, until darkened on top and softened. Place roasted tomatillos, onion, garlic, cilantro, and garlic in food processor and chop until everything is incorporated and it looks like a salsa. Add salt and pepper to taste, and perhaps season with a bit of dried cumin, if needed. Simplify with Good Food How about a list that simplifies the reality of caring for a family and helps make it easier for you to put delicious, nutritious meals on your table? Here goes:
1. Buy your food in bulk – if you’re like me, and you like to have organic vegetables, join a CSA and pay for your food up front. Or grow your own garden. You’ll save a ton of money over buying organic in a supermarket, and you’ll be supporting local farming, to boot. I’ve also found a good source of local raw dairy and grass fed meats from a farmer who delivers to my area. You can contact me if you live in the NY area, or search
www.realmilk.com
for sources in your area. The drawback of belonging to a CSA is that you don’t get a huge selection of vegetable, but this can also be a good thing if you know ahead of time what you’ll get. The satisfaction I get from increased independence from commercial food production is worth any extra effort.
2. Toss the processed foods. Choose breads that are truly whole grain, (looking in the freezer section is a good start and I’ve found a great organic sourdough that is affordable). Artisanal bakeries are good, but not cheap. The bulk of processed foods are snacks, and I’ve found that since eating a traditional diet, we snack a lot less. I attribute it to the fact that we are better fed and therefore more satisfied. If the kids are looking to graze about an hour after meal time, they probably need more fat in their meals – not trans fats, but good, wholesome fats from clean sources. Add a good-sized pat of butter to melt on their vegetables, and make sure they’re drinking whole, not reduced-fat milk. If you get rid of the snacks, they shouldn’t have a weight problem. If they must have a snack, try this: a glass of raw milk sweetened with about a teaspoon of blackstrap molasses.
3. Beans are a great way to cut back on the cost of meats. We have beans a few nights a week and they are nutritious and satisfying. Preparing them requires a bit of planning, but I designate Sunday evening as the time that I start to soak them, so that I can plan to use them on Tuesday for dinner. Canned beans are an inexpensive, good option as well.
4. Naturally fermented vegetables like beets, carrots, turnips, or sauerkraut are a great way to include vegetables at every meal, without having to always prepare them, and also greatly increase the probiotic-punch to your diet. It’s easier to prepare than you think, but if you don’t want to go through the trouble, you can buy lacto-fermented, raw vegetables online or at the natural foods market today.
5. At the risk of sounding like Betty Crocker, planning your meals out weekly saves a lot of trouble and helps your work week flow more smoothly. To ease your time and creativity, use your leftovers to make wraps or sandwiches. And scrambled eggs are delicious with leftovers and are an inexpensive way to provide protein and nutrients.
6. Simplify. Sometimes the most popular meals with my kids are the easiest for me to prepare. Like toasted sourdough rounds and delicious raw cheese, some toasted nuts, and sliced avocadoes – add some fermented ginger carrots, and you’ve got a mini-feast of finger foods that kids will love to indulge in.
7. Enjoy mealtimes. It’s tempting to get caught up in watching what the kids are eating but remember that mealtime is also the time for the family to connect and bond with each other. Food digests better when eating with a smile.
July 2008 Food, Sacred and Delicious Sometimes my enjoyment of
good food
is so powerful that it almost feels, well, sacred.
Is there anything better than the smell of fresh coffee brewing and butter melting in the pan for pancakes? Or the fragrant first slice of a brand new onion, juicy and summer fresh? Nothing says summer to me like the sublime beauty of ripe, sliced tomatoes on white china drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, mingled with the crisp, grassy fragrance of freshly sliced basil. A perfect winter’s day to me is a bubbling stew that’s been slow cooking for hours, thick and glossy with stock and starchy potatoes and eaten around a roaring fire.
I believe that food has tremendous healing power. It’s transformed my life in some not-so-subtle ways, and I’ve seen it transform the lives of others. Cooking meals is the activity that brings my focus back to my family daily, and I want the meal to be flavorful and nutritious, as a gift to them to show my love. It doesn’t always work that way, but I try. I’ve found that cooking has actually made me a happier person. By cooking and taking the time to prepare nourishing, healthful meals that are also delicious, I’m attempting to make art out of life, or at the very least, to beautify routine.
My husband loves bitter greens like kale or dandelions sautéed slowly with a little bacon fat and black eyed peas. When he makes this, the smell of the greens wilting, along with the garlic releasing its pungency simultaneously soothes and energizes me. Every member of the household becomes happier. My 16 month old begins pacing in the kitchen, shouting commands for dinnertime, while my finicky 5 year old stops whatever she’s doing to check out what’s going on in. This goes well with organic chicken liver pate on sourdough rounds, and we place it on the counter for everyone to pick at, because who doesn’t love a buffet?
My favorite dessert is a simple cake made of long-cooked rice, sourdough bread crumbs, and fresh, free-range eggs with toasted and chopped pecans, topped with fresh heavy cream and raspberry sauce sweetened with real maple syrup. Of course, all this food comes from clean, organic sources, but forget for a moment that it is actually good for you (and the many nutrients in foods like eggs and butter are actually protective against depression). Forget that it comes from local farms and is therefore sustainable and “green.” Sometimes I don’t think about all the good it’s doing for my health and for the health of my family, and allow myself to be selfish and simply enjoy how it tastes.
3 slices whole grain bread, crumbled by hand
1 cup piima cream or creme fraiche
1/2 cup raisins
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup crispy pecans, chopped
3 eggs
3/4 cup Rapadura (an unprocessed sugar)
grated rind of 1 orange
2 tblsp. brandy (optional)
Soak crumbled bread with cream. Using a wooden spoon, mix all ingredients. pour into a buttered 9-inch easy remove cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or more, if needed. Let cool before removing from pan.
1 pound chicken or duck livers, or a combination
1/2 pound mushrooms, washed, dried and coarsely chopped
1 bunch green onion, chopped
2/3 cup dry white wine or vermouth
1 clove garlic, mashed
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1/4 tsp. dried dill
1/4 dried rosemary
1 tblsp. lemon juice
1/2 stick butter, softened
sea salt
Melt butter in a heavy skillet. Add livers, onions, and mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally , for about 10 minutes until livers are browned. Add wine, garlic, mustard, lemon juice and herbs. Bring to a boil and cook, uncovered, until the liquid is gone. Allow to cool. Process in a food processor with softened butter. Season to taste. Place in a crock or mold and chill well. Serve with whol grain bread.
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