Good Eats in Kentucky

I spent last night in Lexington last night, doing a hotel mystery shop. I love these mini-vacations - just a few miles out of town in a different part of the world. I managed to find a couple of interesting places to eat while I was away. I've no intention of trying to become one of the multitudinous restaurant-reviewer-wannabe bloggers, but I'm happy to share a good place or two in the hopes of a) supporting local restaurants and b) sharing my finds so others can have a good meal too!

Billy's BAR-B-Q was my stop for dinner on Friday night. I am not a big meat eater, but when I do eat meat, I like it to be barbecue. Personally, I'm not fond of what passes for barbecue in Cincinnati, which tends to be some sort of meat (which doesn't ever have to be near a flame) doused in a thick, sweet, syrupy sauce. I like my barbecue smoked, and if it's sauced at all, it should be light and vinegary and spicy. Think Carolina style barbecue. That's what I found at Billy's. I had the mutton barbecue sandwich - I had to. It's the only time I've seen mutton on a menu anywhere. I loved it, it was smoky, tender and the table sauce was the perfect sour and spicy accompaniment . I also tried the Kentucky burgoo (I also had to try that, with a blog named Cincinnati Burgoo) and it was great. Meat, meat and more meat, with a couple of lonely lima beans and cubes of potatoes. It had a slightly sour edge to it - I'll have to look up some recipes for burgoo to figure out what that might have been. For a side dish I ordered 'sliced tomato with cucumber dressing'. I felt a bit silly paying three dollars for a tomato, but it was such a treat to see a simple vegetable dish on a restaurant menu that I had to order it. It was delicious - but local summer tomatoes at the beginning of September are truly a great reason to live in the midwest. Billy's is fun. I loved the stuffed fish and boar's heads on the wall - even the plastic ones. Oh! I almost forgot to mention the beer! On tap they had a couple of locally brewed beers from Kentucky Ale, including one that is aged in former bourbon barrels. Sublime.

The place I'd chosen to have lunch on my way home on Saturday was closed for business - permanently from the look of the it. I'd already decided I was going to take Route 27 home instead of getting on the highway, and I knew I'd be able to find some food on the way, so I didn't fret much about that. Sure enough, as I was passing through Cynthiana, Kentucky, I saw a restaurant downtown that advertised "Since 1894". Any place that has been in business for 115 years must be doing something right, so I stopped into Biancke's. I was late for breakfast and early for lunch, so I was one of the only people in the place. For my lunch I ordered fried green tomatoes, corn pudding and the vegetable of the day, which was tiny baby potatoes roasted with garlic. I felt like I'd won the lottery with my choices - it was all so very good.

I think it's always a good idea to order the thing on the menu that you don't see every other place you go - that's probably the thing the restaurant gets really right. It worked for me this weekend in Kentucky.

The Omnivore's Hundred

Here's a meme I blagged off of Serious Eats today. It's The Omnivore's Hundred by way of Very Good Taste. The items in bold font are foods I've actually tried.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht (and why not? I need to make some this winter)
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (Do fruit flies count? I've probably eaten dozens without knowing it)
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine

60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe (on my list now that it's available in the States)
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill (Yup, iguana and manicou in Trinidad)
76. Baijiu or shaojiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie (never again)
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant

85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers (nasturtiums, lilies, violets, zucchini blossoms)
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Garlic Scapes

Garlic Scapes
Originally uploaded by lilysecret42

One of the local farmers down at Findlay Market last Saturday was selling garlic scapes. I wasn't familiar with them but after the woman selling them broke off a bit and let me taste them I was sold. Very garlicky but not overpowering. She told me they could be cooked like a vegetable. Once I got them home I looked them up on-line and found a few recipes for scape pesto. I used about half of them to make a pesto out of the scapes using them and some fresh basil from a pot I have growing outside, Parmesan cheese, olive oil salt and pepper. It was too thick to puree in my mini food processor, so as I was planning on lathering a fish fillet with the stuff, I added some fresh lemon juice to smooth things out. Incredible taste.

I stir fried the other half of my bunch of scapes with local asparagus - olive oil, salt and pepper, finished with a splash of balsamic vinegar. Delicious.

Mother Earth News has this to say on garlic scapes:

If you grow your own garlic or have a good farmer’s market, then you can enjoy a new kind of vegetable — garlic scapes. The scapes are the flower stems that garlic plants produce before the bulbs mature. Growers often remove the scapes to push the plant’s energy toward bigger bulbs, and when harvested while they are young and tender, the scapes are delicious.

Local Food Resources

Epicurious has developed a great interactive map that lets you know what foods are in season in your area, then links to recipes for those foods. It's a nifty tool.

For Cincinnatians, the Enquirer posted a wonderful comprehensive list of pick-your-own-produce farms, community sponsored agriculture and farmer's markets in our area.

Color Me Intrigued...

Mangosteens:


How To Eat A Mangosteen


Now I just have to track them down. I imagine Jungle Jim's will carry them. I'm planning a trip there soon anyway - when I was getting my hair cut the other day, the owner of the salon was going on about how excited he was to have found dried squid in Cincinnati. He was disappointed he's not convinced anyone else to try it and I told him I loved squid and I wanted to try it myself. He went in back and brought out a pack of dried squid and I have to say it was delicious. It was slightly sweet, slightly salty with a nice seafood taste and the texture was more tender than that of beef jerky. He found it at Jungle Jim's in the Asian section, so I need to hunt some up myself. It would make a great snack to take along hiking or kayaking.

Weekend Report

Saturday morning I got up bright and early and dashed down to Findlay Market to see what goodies were available. I found (and brought home) asparagus, spinach, sorrel, eggs and a pot of thyme, all locally grown. I also found fresh fava beans at Madison's so I grabbed some of those as well. I'm going to make sorrel soup from the recipe I found on the Cincinnati Locavore blog tomorrow night.


I'd planned to spend the rest of the weekend at home finishing my spring cleaning, but today was just too nice outside and I dropped everything this afternoon to get in a quick two and a half mile hike over at French Park. I'm glad I did; I heard reedy calls of Gnatcatchers several times and I also heard the first Red-Eyed Vireo and Hermit Thrush of the season. Larkspur and Blue-Eyed Mary were in bloom as well. Unfortunately, French Park seems to be a bit sparse on native wildflowers and heavy in the introduced and problematic Garlic Mustard; there was scads of it blooming on the hillsides. I guess deer don't care much for its flavor.

Ramp Report

I cooked the ramps I purchased at Madison's at Findlay Market for Sunday breakfast. I cleaned the ramps by snipping off the roots, rinsing them well in cold water and cutting them into two-inch sections, green leaves and all. I sautéed a couple of pieces of bacon until they were nice and crisp, then set them aside. Then I cooked the ramps in the bacon fat until they were tender, which took about seven minutes. I seasoned them with black pepper and crumbled the bacon into them, then served alongside scrambled eggs. The taste was somewhat like that of a garlicky green onion. They were delicious, but probably not eighteen dollars a pound delicious. I don't think I'll be buying them again unless it's at a proper ramp festival in the mountains, but I'd happily forage for them if I'm ever lucky enough to find them growing in the woods.

Juniper Berries

I decided to cook the lamb shanks I've had in the freezer for a while now and I found a nice recipe for Greek lamb braised in red wine. The recipe called for juniper berries and I did manage to find some - at more than five dollars for a little jar! I purchased them anyway so I'll have to find some other uses for them. According to Chowhound.com they have an affinity for the following foods: allspice, apple, bacon, black pepper, boar, duck, goose, marjoram, onion, pâté, pork, sage, shallot, red wine, thyme, venison, vermouth.

The juniper is an evergreen tree native to Europe and North America and it produces small bluish berries (actually a tiny, densely packed cone) which take three years to mature. Juniper berries have been used since the times of the ancient Romans, Greeks and Egyptians. Pliny mentioned that they were used in place of expensive imported black pepper and juniper berries were found in the tomb of Tutankhamun.

Juniper berries are probably best known today for giving the liquor gin its characteristic flavor. The word "gin" is a corruption of genièvre, the French word for juniper.

Celtic lore tells us the juniper grown by the door will discourage thieves (probably because it's a prickly plant), while hanging strings of dried juniper berries will attract love.

The Evil Virus, how to construct a lodge and making homemade cheese

Since late Sunday night I've been battling an odd virus. My head feels like it's packed with cotton wool, I'm tired, listless, weak and my muscles ache. On the plus side, this particular virus doesn't come with sneezing, sore throat or coughing, but it leaves me with no symptoms that might elicit sympathy either. It has been a most trying week at work to boot and I've spent my evenings on the couch under a comforter, remote in hand.

I was flipping through the channels tonight when I came across a naturalist talking about how beaver lodges are constructed. I had always assumed that during construction the beavers left a hollow space within the pile of branches and mud that comprises the building material of the lodge. As it turns out they first build the dense mound of material, then working from below, use their claws and teeth to dig and chew the underwater entrance and the burrow.


I also came across instructions on how to make mozzarella cheese at home, which I may try once I'm healthy again. It looks like a good choice for a home cheese making experiment since it doesn't have to be aged. Although perhaps starting with something simpler might not be a bad plan - home made cottage cheese is supposed to be very good.

Go Local, Go Organic

As if I needed any more reasons to buy as much of my food as possible locally and/or organically produced, an article in the New York Times reports that pesticides used on food crops overseas are killing songbirds and raptors.

Did Your Shopping List Kill a Songbird?

Posole and Hominy

My mind has been on Mexican and Tex-Mex food since I returned from San Antonio. I came across a can of white hominy in the cupboard and so decided to try my hand at making posole for the first time. Posole is a stew, generally made from pork, hominy and chilies, served all across Mexico and the American Southwest. The first thing I discovered while searching for a recipe is that there are thousands of them. I chose a simple, reputably authentic recipe from Urban Farm Girl mostly because there were few ingredients and I had all of them on hand. I used an ancho chile along with the red chilies and I had to substitute dried, granulated garlic for fresh (I am unaccountably out of garlic and didn't want to run to the store for just that); otherwise I followed the recipe and it was delicious. I made it in my seldom-used cast iron dutch oven; I'm thinking this would be a good dish to make over a campfire.

Not only was it the first time I tried posole, but it was the first time I ever had hominy either. What can I say, I haven't spent much time in the American South. I really liked it and I'm sorry I missed out on it all these years. The texture surprised me somewhat. It kept its integrity throughout a rather lengthy cooking process - almost more like a bean; fresh sweet corn wouldn't have held up nearly so well after cooking for two hours in a dutch oven.

Hominy is dried maize which has been treated with an alkali to remove its tough outer hull, through a process known as nixtamalization. Nixtamalization has been practiced since at least 1200 BC, the earliest archaeological evidence having been found in Guatemala. The process is crucial to not only removing the tough outer hull, but to unlocking the nutrients within the large, starchy grain. Alton Brown's episode of Good Eats - Tort(illa) Reform talked about this process in some detail and a portion of the transcript follows:

Once upon a time in 1519, a certain Spanish businessman/adventurer named Hernando Cortez landed in what is today Veracruz, Mexico. Why? Because he had a serious hankering for gold, which he soon found heaps of in the Aztec city-state of Tenochtitlán, which was, at the time, probably the most splendid city on earth.

Figuring he would be a far better steward of all that wealth, Cortez aided by cannons, horses, smallpox, and a legend that made him out to be a returning god, captured the city's ruler, Montezuma, and set about decimating one of the greatest civilizations our planet has ever hosted. Had Cortez stopped just for a moment to consider how it was that such heathen savages were able to erect such a bling-encrusted metropolis, he might have discovered a very different kind of gold altogether ...

SCENE 4
The Kitchen
GUEST: Deb Duchon, Nutritional Anthropologist

AB: ... maize. You know, the average Meso-American diet was very corny indeed. But unlike the sweet field corn we modern North American Anglos know and love, the stuff the Aztec lived on was very very starchy and came with a very thick outer hull, or pericarp, okay? Now, probably 10,000 years or so before Columbus showed up, these early Americans learned that if they...
DD: ... if they soaked and cooked the maize in water with wood ashes in it, that the hulls would just slip right off.
AB: You notice how I don't even have to think "nutritional anthropologist" anymore, and she shows up?
AB: Okay, I'll bite. What's with the wood ashes?
DD: They're alkaline, of course.
AB: Ah. Well, that certainly explains why, last summer, when I left all those ashes in my grill, and it rained a bunch, the bottom of the grill corroded out.
DD: I remember that. But today's Mexican cooks don't use wood ashes anymore. They use cal.
AB: Oh, short for calcium hydroxide, a.k.a. slaked lime. It's used in the construction business to help concrete harden.
DD: But the really fascinating thing about it was that the Meso-Americans thought they were just removing the pericarp, but what they were actually doing was setting in motion this miraculous and amazing phenomenon.
AB: I sure hope you're not about to launch into one of your long soliloquies without the benefit of a visual aid.
DD: Well, check this out then.
AB: Okay.
DD: The miracle of nixtamal... [DD clicks a remote and a large cage descends]
AB: Whoa. Wow, what a sweet visual metaphor representing the many nutrients locked away inside a kernel of corn. Hah, think I'll have a little proline. Hey, what gives? I can't get any of them out.
DD: Nixtamalization is like a chemical key that unlocks all the wonderful nutrients that are locked inside a kernel of maize.
AB: So what kind of nutrients are we talking about here?
DD: Well, for one thing, amino acids like lysine and tryptophan. But most importantly, vitamin B3 better known as niacin. Now if the Aztecs hadn't had nixtamalization, they wouldn't even have the energy to build that magnificent empire of theirs. And once Cortez showed up, he probably wouldn't even have paid much attention to them. He certainly had no reason to destroy their empire like he did.
AB: Got it.
DD: But in a way, they got their revenge, because when Cortez and the other conquistadores brought maize back to the Old World, they didn't take nixtamalization.
AB: Yeah.
DD: So the countries and peoples that adopted corn as their main grain soon suffered from a terrible disease of malnutrition called pellagra.
AB: What's pellagra do?
DD: The three dreaded Ds: diarrhea, dementia, and death.
AB: Well, I guess that's Montezuma's real revenge.

Transcript courtesy of Good Eats Fan Page

Grocery Project

I completed the first half of my grocery project on Monday. I photographed all the groceries I purchased during the month of March. I'm also going to photograph the groceries I buy in July, because that's when the farmer's market will be in full swing.

March is a little skewed because I was on vacation for almost a week and every meal while away was eaten in a restaurant. I didn't bother to include those meals in my total since when I'm not on vacation I only eat out once or twice a month at best. I spent a total of $230 on groceries for the month and I think that's somewhat under my average monthly bill, which I figure to be around $300.

This project was inspired by looking at these photos and I simply was curious to see how my purchases compared. I think my spending is on par with the average American's spending. I'm not a terribly frugal shopper when it comes to groceries though. I tend to buy what I want without worrying about price, I try to buy quality stuff and I don't use coupons. This is probably balanced out by not buying many "convenience" foods, which are often more expensive and less nutritious than whole foods.

So if you find yourself terribly bored, you can have a gander at what my groceries look like for one month. If you've done a similar project, I'd love to see it too!

Restaurants, San Antonio

This is my last post about San Antonio, honest. Mostly I wanted to note the better restaurants I went to for future reference; I am planning a return trip.

Most of the food on the Riverwalk is mediocre at best, but happily there is one exception - Acenar. The guacamole made tableside by Ricardo was fabulous. For my entrée I had the Gulf Fish Tacos and my sister had Conchita Pibil and I thought they were both wonderful.

The Blanco Cafe at 419 N. St. Mary's Street was voted the best breakfast tacos in town by the locals. I think the most expensive taco on the menu was $1.89 and one taco was enough to keep me going until lunch. I had the potato and chorizo one morning and egg and beans the next. They were both great; I've been craving them ever since.

I had dinner on my own at Azuca, where I tried a Caipirinha (the national drink of Brazil) for the first time. The sugar and lime didn't disguise the fact the the cachaça, a sugarcane liquor, has some serious claws. I opted for a "light" dinner of a cup of black bean soup and the appetizer of Amazonian Tamal; both were delicious and I couldn't finish everything. I was served a mini-loaf of hot cornbread along side my meal which ended up being my breakfast the next day.

I already mentioned Harmon's Barbecue in my previous post, but I neglected to say that it was the only place I've ever been that has self-serve beer. Seriously. You pay for your beer at the counter and there is an ice bin in the middle of the floor filled with bottles of beer and you help yourself. Amazing.

For lunch one day I ordered a salad at a nameless Riverwalk restaurant just because it came with nopalitas, or cactus paddles. I'd never tried them before and I was curious. I remain curious, because they came pickled and really only tasted like a mushy pickled vegetable. They do show up fresh in the markets around here from time to time; I'll bring some home next time I see them and figure out how to cook them.

Digging out

It took me twenty minutes just to clear the snow off of my car this morning. There was a good ten inches piled on the hood and the windshield, somewhat less on the rear window. Once I'd cleaned the car I drove over to Hyde Park, one of Cincinnati's tonier neighborhoods. There are always joggers in Hyde Park and today was no exception, snow and ice be damned. I saw a man jogging down the street holding what looked like a pizza box at first glance. When I got closer I realized he was jogging with a box of donuts from Busken Bakery.

The reason I drove to Hyde Park this morning was to meet a woman from Mohr's Animal Acres in Urbana, Ohio. They are regulars at the Hyde Park farmer's market and in the off season they've arranged a pre-order system and they meet their customers in a bank parking lot to drop off the orders. I picked up some lamb for my traditional Irish stew for St. Patrick's day and some smoked ham to put into bean soup.

So since I've set out on my quest for locally produced food during a Cincinnati winter I've found an untended honor system store, where you write down what you took and leave payment in a lock box, I've picked up pre-ordered winter greens from a porch in Wyoming and bought meat out of a parking lot. It seems so very clandestine for some reason and I'm having so much fun doing it. I'm really looking forward to visiting farms that will be selling peas, asparagus and strawberries this spring. Those goodies are generally in season well before the farmer's markets open, but I feel sure they'll be worth the extra effort.

Grass Fed Beef

I decided to make some Pineapple Beef Curry from the ground beef I purchased at Red Sun Farm a couple of weeks ago. I tried today to determine the difference in number of calories per serving that would result from switching grass fed beef for the typical corn finished beef and it was no easy task! Even though I found many websites touting the health benefits of grass fed beef and many suppliers, virtually none of them posted a simple Nutrition Facts label. This wasn't due to unwillingness to provide the information, simply that it's not required for single ingredient items such as beef (or indeed, coffee) coupled with the fact that the nutritional analysis is very expensive. I did find several interesting facts along the way though, including:

• Grass fed beef has 1/2 to 1/3 the amount of fat as does corn finished beef
• Grass fed beef is two to six times higher in Omega-3s and other healthy fats and is much lower in saturated fat
• Grass fed beef contains more vitamin E
• The e. Coli count is much higher in grain finished beef than in grass fed

This information and much, much more is available at EatWild.com. After reading and weighing the pros and cons for a couple of hours, I had to come to the conclusion that there are only two reasons not to eat grass fed beef as opposed to corn finished; taste and cost. Some people find grass fed beef too gamy for their tastes. I'll reserve my judgment on taste until I've actually tried it, although I don't think that will be an issue for me; I mean, I've eaten moose and liked it. But grass fed beef is more expensive, mostly because it tends to come from smaller producers. For me, cost isn't much of an issue since I don't eat much meat (I've only had beef once in the past 5 months), so I can afford to splurge a bit.

At the end of the day, it's really very simple. Letting cows be cows, and doing what millions of years of evolution have honed them to do (eat grass very efficiently) is better for the cows, better for the environment and ultimately, better for us.

Still, after two hours digging, I didn't find a simple calorie count until I stumbled across the nutrition information for Wild Oats Organic Grass Fed Beef Burgers. Using that and some raw calculations from the information I did find, I've decided I'll assume grass fed beef has about 80% of the calories as the conventional stuff. That's good enough for my calorie counting purposes.

What a week's worth of food looks like

I keep revisiting these photos and pondering the various implications within. The trite observations are easy enough: Italians eat a lot of bread, Germans drink many of their daily calories, Americans hardly eat any real food whatsoever and people in Chad don't have enough to eat.

It's inspired me to photo document my groceries for two months. I decided on a month at a time because what I buy during any given week isn't necessarily what I'm eating that week; if canned tomatoes are on sale into the cart and cupboard they go. I also really don't know how much I spend on food. Although Quicken has a category for groceries, I put everything I buy during a food shop under that category, even if it's paper products, medicines or light bulbs. So I'll spend some time pouring over my receipts and figuring out how much money I'm spending on actual food. I'm also curious to know if I'm buying and eating as much fresh produce as I believe. Since we're coming up on a new month, I'm going to photograph my groceries for the month of March and repeat the process during the month of July (which is when the farmer's markets here are in full swing). I'll be posting the pictures on my Flickr account and I'll probably post a month end wrap up here.

I admit this is a way to keep the dining table free of books and sewing projects once in a while. I'll need somewhere to lay out the groceries.

Finally, Neil Gaiman has posted his novel American Gods on the web for your reading pleasure. As I understand it, it will be available for two months free of charge by way of his blog's 7th year birthday gift to his readers. Or something. Anyway, he asked his minions to spread the word and the link far and wide. Of course, I do his bidding. You will find the link in the sidebar to the right.

Winter Greens and Bird Behavior

Today I found out that the Wyoming Farmer's Market has a few items available even in mid-winter. The market sells locally produced goods and food and they've arranged a pre-order and drop-off system for the off season. I ordered a beeswax candle, some soap and hand salve, as well as arugula and corn mache. I know I've had arugula in salads before, but I've never purchased it separately. I've never had corn mache to the best of my knowledge. I have a couple of days to learn about both of these greens before I bring them home.

Oh look, I found a lovely recipe for an arugula salad and I just happen to have most of the ingredients on hand. Perfect.

After placing my order for the farmer's market, I happened to witness some fascinating bird behavior, although I'm rather ashamed to say it was on America's Funniest Home Videos. I tried to find it on YouTube; no luck on the original but the following video shows the same actions. The Green Heron drops bits of bread in the water as bait to lure fish into striking range:



It's not the only bird that uses its brain to get at food. Crows have been witnessed placing hard-to-open nuts into roads; after the nuts are crushed by a passing car the crows help themselves to the freed nut meat. I've seen Grackles steal dry dog food from pet bowls and carry the nuggets to a bird bath, where they dunk them until they are soft enough for the bird to swallow. Bird brains indeed.

Ramps

Clean Ramps
Originally uploaded by dano272

There's a native American seasonal delicacy I've not had the pleasure of trying yet - ramps. Ramps are a member of the onion family and occur throughout much of the Appalachian Mountains. Their potency is legendary; one meal of ramps is supposed to linger for days, the odor emanating from the skin of the consumer. I'm willing to take that chance. There are many ramp festivals held in the spring across the Appalachians. It looks like the nearest one to Cincinnati is held in Richwood, West Virginia. The town hosts the Feast of the Ramson each April. I may not make it this year but it's now on my list of places to visit and things to do. In the meantime I'm going to keep an eye out for ramps on my hikes. A college professor of mine told me they do occur in Ohio, but they are scarce. I have a notion of a place to check next month; I'll have to study some photos to be sure I get the identification right. Although I imagine the smell will be a dead giveaway.

Fava Bean Love

So, it turns out I actually like fava beans, when they're prepared properly. It seems I somehow missed the fact that the beans have a tough, leathery skin that needs to be removed before eating. No wonder I didn't like them before. I'm amazed that more recipes for fava beans don't mention this rather crucial fact and I feel a bit of an idiot for not figuring it out for myself sooner. I only cottoned on after I read a thread on Chowhound regarding favas. By the way, Chowhound is an excellent resource for anyone with cooking and/or food questions. Now that they've fixed the thread search function you can get all sorts of useful information.

I soaked the beans overnight in plenty of water, then removed the skins. They came off quite easily after soaking. After that I followed this recipe for ful medames and the result was quite delicious, in my humble opinion.

Fava beans are Europe's only indigenous bean and have been cultivated since the Iron Age. In ancient Greece and Rome, fava beans were used in voting; a black bean represented a 'no' vote, with a white bean indicating a 'yes' vote. The 6th century B.C. Greek philosopher Pythagoras (he of the Pythagorean theorem) reviled the fava bean and forbade his followers from eating them. He thought that the beans contained the souls of the dead. His superstitious dread may have resulted from witnessing favism, which is a hereditary disease. Individuals who lack the gene for producing the enzyme G6PD (which assists in oxygenating red blood cells) risk severe illness and even death by kidney failure and hemolytic anemia after eating fava beans. The genetic susceptibility to death by fava bean is most concentrated in Mediterranean populations; the vast majority of people have nothing to worry about when eating fava beans. Which is fortunate, as they are quite tasty when handled correctly.

Photo from benketaro on Flickr

Farms, Movies and Fava Beans

Yesterday I drove out to Red Sun Farm in Loveland to see what they had to offer. They had beef, pork, chicken (frozen) and fresh eggs for sale, as well as a small selection of organic cheese, honey and various other natural products. I ended up spending about $40 on bacon, pork country ribs, ground pork, stew beef, ground beef, a whole chicken and a jar of dried basil. That's probably enough meat for two months for the likes of me.

I cooked an egg this morning for my breakfast and I'm happy to report it was fantastic. The yolk was a deep, almost orange, yellow and the taste was wonderful. Plus, they were about a dollar cheaper than the organic eggs I've been buying a Trader Joe's; bonus. Tomorrow I'm going to cook up some of the pork ribs in a orange-garlic-chile sauce in the slow cooker. I have high hopes.

I did a quick mini-bird count for the Great Backyard Bird Count on the Kingfisher Trail in Winton Woods yesterday too. I totaled 12 species and 36 individuals, the most numerous being Carolina Chickadees. Nothing rare made an appearance, but I did hear a Barred Owl calling in the distance.

I also went with some friends to see The Spiderwick Chronicles last night. I enjoyed it; it was a good story and the movie was fast paced and action packed. I need to read the books now; it seems the entire fourth book was left out. Go, take the kids, you'll all like it.

I've been thinking about fava beans today. I have a jar of dried fava beans (called broad beans in the UK) and I was thinking about tossing them out. I cooked up a batch of them some time ago and I just didn't care for them. But I really hate to waste food so I'm going to try making ful medames (one of the national dishes of Egypt) before I give up on them entirely. I've heard that fava beans are best when they're fresh but they are only available for a short time in the spring here. I'll try to grab some this year. I also came across a tidbit of information which said that fava beans are the only bean native to the Old World, but I haven't had time to delve into that yet so I'll leave it for another day.