This was my first time at this “low-waste, alcohol free, pet free, smoke free and must have fun event.”  I went with my blogging friend Laureen Hudson, her daughter (Michael stayed in Petaluma with Miriam and Aurora’s big brothers), and Laureen’s friend Lisa.

Held at the beautiful and green Salmon Creek School (pause a moment to lament that we don’t live near enough for my daughter to attend a school with such clean air and lack of chemical stink), it was a mix of hippie aesthetic with practical advice, local businesses, and of course samples galore.

Fermentation roughly falls into two categories: dead and alive.  This event covered both.  Alcohol and bread are the two best examples of the former.  You can’t make them without fermentation (excluding things like crackers or tortillas) but we eat them for the taste and general nutrition (and they preserve foods without winter or electricity).  There are few to no probiotics.  Probiotics are what make ferments live.  You eat these for all the usual reasons but also for the nutritional powerhouse of the yeasts and bacteria.  Yoghurt, kefir, krauts, and pickles are the best known live ferments (though they aren’t always sold live).

As regular readers of my blog know, I make a variety of vegetable ferments (krauts and pickles).  And I long to make more.  I’ve tried my hand at coconut yoghurt and have plans to make water kefir next.  Another project on my list is dairy-free cheese (something pungent, like blue).

Many attendees lamented the lack of alcohol at a festival dedicated in part to its production.  But there were workshops covering spirits; my guess is logistical concerns kept out the samples.  Cheese (from cow, sheep, or goat milk) was another large component.  Since dairy and I don’t get along well, I had to skip that part.  No one there makes non-dairy cheese but I will make this my mission to find out how.

The Beverage People in Santa Rosa has classes and equipment/ingredients for sale for a wide variety of fermented products, but their specialities are beer, wine, and cheese.  My friend Gabe Jackson, who works there, even made us a case and a half of blackberry wine (picked from our garden–and yes, a post on that is coming!).  He’s promised to keep his eyes open for information on non-dairy cheesemaking.  His dairy cheese class at the festival was a big hit.

I attended classes on sauerkraut and pickle making, both with demos and fairly straightforward advice for beginners.  Kathryn Lukas, the owner of The Farmhouse Culture, demonstrated a simple cabbage ferment.  The woman next to me sounded peals of joy when Kathryn said don’t bother to pound your cabbage, just massage it a bit with salt to release the juices.  Since it had never occurred to me to pound my veggies, I just smiled, but now I wonder what I do that isn’t necessary or what little things I might be missing.  Kraut making is pretty easy, but there is a lot that can go wrong too.

Another thing that that hadn’t occurred to me was the sugar content of the vegetables.  Usually with ferments sugar is a good thing, even necessary, as it feeds the yeasts.  But *aha moment* what makes krauts go off often is the yeasts gaining control; krauts and pickles are a bacterial ferment, not so much yeast.

Most of our kraut is red onion.  Most of the time it comes out fabulous.  Once in a while we get an unwelcome surprise.  I asked Kathryn her opinion and she said it was likely the sugar in the onions.  Which can vary a lot.  I don’t know how to fix this…can I add some acid?  Can I measure the sugar to know which onions to avoid?  I don’t want to mix with large amounts of other vegetables.

Kathryn says to keep your vegetable blends no less than 75% cabbage so they come out well every time.  That works great for kim chee, which I also make, but sometimes you want something different.  I asked her if there was a chart of different buggies (desirable and undesirable) but she didn’t know of one.  I would find that very helpful, since I know what my off ferments look/smell/taste like and could match the bugs.

Jill Nussinow (the “Veggie Queen“) taught pickles.  These should be easy but even more can go wrong than with krauts.  I’ve made cucumber pickles and had one fantastic batch, a couple okay batches, and one batch we couldn’t eat.  Turnip pickles were so-so and tomato pickles were a total fail (though I sat near someone who said her green tomato pickles come out great, so I’ll give it another try).  Cool temperatures seem to be pretty important (you can get away with summer temps with kraut) and so is good technique.  Other than that, I’m not exactly sure why mine fail so often.

This very expensive crook was much touted at the festival.  What do the experts say? does it make better kraut or pickles?  The answer is no, but it does make it a lot easier.  You still have to weigh down the veggies (you never want them to contact air); this crock does come with weights.  But apparently when you fill the outside rim with water and put on the lid, you get a seal that lets CO2 leave without letting air in.  So less chance of trouble.

In addition to the pricey rimmed crock, Cultivate in Sebastopol had a variety of crocks and other equipment, at decent prices.

One ferment I’ve been wanting to make for a while is water kefir.  Dairy kefir is pretty common and makes a drink similar to liquid yoghurt, though the buggies are totally different.  Instead of using a bit as a starter, like you do with yoghurt, you strain and save the kefir grains, which are like tapioca.  You put the grains into your new liquid and go again.  The grains will multiply with time so there are plenty to share.

You can use dairy kefir grains in a non-dairy liquid and they will turn into water kefir grains.  It’s the same minus a few cultures that only reproduce with dairy.  So you can’t make dairy kefir with water kefir grains.

Water kefir is delicious and can be made fizzy or flat.  Apple juice is a common base, so is coconut water (not to be confused with coconut milk).  But you can make it with water too, as long as you add some sugar to feed the yeastie beasties.  Like with all ferments, the bugs eat the sugar and you’re left with a low (or at least lower) carb product.

The folks at Cleansing Ministries Rejuvenation Center in Santa Rosa gave a demonstration on making ginger root beer water kefir.  I can’t wait to make it.  Once I get my hands on some water kefir grains, I’ll blog the full recipe and my results.  Miriam adores kefired apple juice, which she had at a friend’s once, but I am allergic to raw apples and apple juice and found that the symptoms kicked in after too many samples of apple ginger kefir.

Nowhere could you see the hippie/mainstream dichotomy of the festival better than by looking at the water kefir demo and the “Fermented Foods and your health” talk. Karen Miller-Youst admonished us not to make kefir in a room where there had been anger and Dr. John La Puma gave us isolated sounds bites about the medical wonders of fermented foods.

John started us off with his credentials (part his resume and part the famous people he’s worked with), accompanied by a glossy flyer advertising his book.  The flyer was similar to the talk, filled with little tips like “cooked carrots and cooked tomatoes are better for you than raw” (something that is not only banal but wrong: soft or ground carrots make it easier to get the nutrients out but raw whole ones still have them and there is exactly one nutrient, lycopene, in tomatoes that is present in higher amounts when cooked, not exactly a reason to give up raw produce).

But onward to the talk.  What would you consider the number one reason to eat live fermented foods?  John’s was that probiotics lower the incidence of antibiotic-induced diarrhea (he even said it twice and had it on a slide).  Yep, it’s true, but…  His other reasons were about how probiotics are good for various gut conditions.  Also true.  But very allopathic.  You can’t be a doctor unless you treat disease, and all bodily workings are mostly separate from each other.  Right? Not really.

Granted, I left the talk before the end (the room was giving me a headache, the only problem I had in the building), but not once did I hear him say anything about the normal role ferments play in human health.  How every traditional culture has them in spades.  How they exist in nature as well and are part of non-agricultural societies cuisines.  How they work and why they are not just “healthy” things we can eat but essential to keeping our bodies balanced.

Fortunately, the organizers and attendees in Freestone needed no convincing.  The emphasis was on how to get more ferments in our lives, not why.  A nice playground and a butterfly ride for the kids, tons of samples (I could could have drunk Farmhouse Culture’s pickle juice all day), foods for sale, and live music rounded out the day.  I’ll be back next year!

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Challenge #1: Prepare a 30 second promo for what could be their new show. Unlike in previous versions of this, each promo was carefully scripted (including wardrobe) by the Food Network and the contestant had a fair amount of time to do it, with multiple takes, a director, and rehearsals. Each promo was broken up into 2 or more mini-scenes.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t done completely fairly. Aaron just had to walk down a hallway then he had to say something before throwing dice down a craps table. Adam had to stroll along a stage with a showgirl on each arm, with some closeups. But Lisa was harnessed to a rig where she went up a couple of stories, grabbed a bottle of wine from a shelf, and had to say her lines in multiple locations along the way. Needless to say, the quality of the promos was inverse to the difficulty.

Challenge #2: Prepare a buffet for 50 guests (the selection committee, hotel chefs, and Vegas performers). They had a reasonable 6 hours to cook and a $1000 budget. The buffet was supposed to be “over the top, Vegas style” and they had to do an “entertaining” intro before the service. Although they didn’t state any rules for the foods, each contestant appeared to have 3 main courses, one vegetable side dish, and a dessert.

How did things go? My favorite, Aaron, did the best with his promo but totally bombed at the buffet. His intro was embarrassingly bad and all three of his main courses were pasta (the reviews of the food were that it was okay but not great). Lisa did so-so with the promo (hard to do when dangling 15 feet in the air), fabulous with the buffet intro, and well with the food. Adam did decently with the promo, well with the buffet intro, and was the runaway favorite with the food.

It’s been obvious that the selection committee loves Aaron, likes Lisa but has reservations, and isn’t too fond of Adam. But because they traditionally gave immunity to the person who won a particular challenge, they couldn’t get rid of Adam. And they didn’t want to dump Aaron for having one bad week. So they wimped out and are bringing all 3 contestants to the final episode this Sunday. At least it’s in New York.

So, enough of that, what the heck would I make if I were feeding 50 people? The budget isn’t an issue, even with expensive items, because everyone ate all 3 buffets, so portions were small. $1000 is $20/person and you can do a lot with that (catering budgets include labor, not just ingredients, and they weren’t serving alcohol). I’d want to be true to my personal food restrictions, at least the basic ones.

Main Courses:

Sweet peppers stuffed with shrimp paste with a hoisin sauce (hot)
Grape leaves stuffed with fish (cold)
Vegan soup, maybe chickpea with Georgian Walnut paste (hot)

Vegetable/Side:

A beautiful raw salad (cold)

Dessert:

Mango sorbet topped with pine nut cream and toasted almonds (cold, but with hot almonds if possible)

The shrimp I envision is the kind you get in dim sum restaurants stuffed into tofu. You take raw shrimp and process it with some other ingredients. I’ve made it before but it was years ago. I’d add spice and something to bind it, egg or flax goo. Maybe peas or something like that for texture and a fresh flavor. Stuff into those gorgeous colored sweet peppers that are 1-2 bites each. Roast. Serve with a salty intense dipping sauce based on hoisin.

The grape leaves came to me as a great choice but, if I were really in a competition, I might swap them out since I don’t have much experience with grape leaves. I’d cook a mild white fish like halibut and mince (not process) it well with a lot of fresh flavors like parsley then either add chutney or use similar flavors.

I’ve made the soup before from one of my favorite cookbooks, Olive Trees & Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World, and it’s simple but really good. The walnut paste has a unique flavor and is used regularly within the country of Georgia.

The raw salad would have no lettuce but lots of carefully cut items to make it special. Lots of long thin strips like noodles. Avocado, some more of the sweet peppers, pea pods, bean sprouts, specialty mushrooms. I’d have to see what looked good in the store and went together. A variety of colors. Served either with a chimichurri sauce (lime juice, parsley, mint, cilantro, very good olive oil, and garlic) or something else with an intense flavor that would pull all the other ingredients together.

Mango sorbet is very simple, which is the best way to do it. Take very ripe mangoes, remove the skin and pits, and puree them. A touch of salt, a squeeze of lime, some vanilla is all you need. It’s plenty sweet enough. Most people would add simple syrup but mango doesn’t need more sugar and all that water will just dilute the flavor.

I’d serve it with some vanilla bean pine nut cream (because you don’t have to soak pine nuts) and some toasted almond slices on top. If the kitchen didn’t have an ice cream maker, I could freeze half the puree in ice cube trays and then blend it up and then freeze again (watching it carefully so it doesn’t get too hard).

My meal could be done by 2 people (each contestant got a former contestant as a sous chef) in 6 hours with no problems. Granted, it did take me a few days to come up with the dishes, instead of near instanteneously like the contestants are forced to do. And I might not be able to get every ingredient I needed (in January, in the middle of the desert…oh, they’d all be in the store, just not at their peak). But hey, I’m a blogger in front of a computer, not a trained cook trying to smile for the camera. I get to imagine success.

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Each contestant made their signature dish (something chosen in advance, though it’s unclear if they knew which of their signature dishes they were actually making until the contest) and also had to make (and improve on) the signature dish of the other contestant they were paired with.

Forget the Throwdown part…it’s not something I can do in 75 minutes (at least they were given recipes to work with) with dishes I knew little to nothing about.  When Bobby does a Throwdown on his show, he goes to his 2 assistants, who have already researched it, and they spend a few hours in the test kitchen.

But what’s my signature dish?  I’ve had a few over the years but I have to say, for now, it’s going to be sauteed tofu strips with vegan pesto, served over a raw salad with a light vinegar-based dressing.  Not only do I love eating this, but it sums up my point of view of eating very well despite dietary restrictions.

This dish is mostly raw, lowcarb, vegan, and free of gluten and a bunch of other common food intolerances (but not soy, can’t have everything).  I consider it a perfect meal.

I’m looking forward to seeing how this all turns out.  I’m rooting for Aaron.

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

There was just a single challenge, but it was a long one.  Each contestant was paired with a Brownie (a girl about 8 years old in the Girl Scouts) and had 10 minutes to plan a “kid-friendly” healthy dish with them.  Then the girls left and the contestants had 75 minutes to prep the dish using foods from the Food Network pantry.

The core of the challenge was to appear on Rachael Ray’s talk show and cook that dish in front of a live studio audience, using their Brownie as an assistant while being a guest on Rachael Ray’s show.  The segments were 4 minutes long.

My favorite contestant (from the beginning of the season) is Aaron.  His previous camera work was lacking but this time he really lit up the screen.  And he involved the girl far more than anyone else did.  They made pizza and she was rolling out the dough, with him right behind her helping to guide the rolling pin.

One contestant, Lisa, is an excellent cook who tends to do her own thing.  She’s a mom and related well to her helper but didn’t really listen to her.  She said several times that she doesn’t think “kid food” should be dumbed down versions of adult food.  I couldn’t agree more.  I don’t give Miriam typical kid food and I don’t serve it to other children either.

But “kid-friendly” means more than the food itself.  This was a cooking segment.  The best way, in my opinion, to get kids interested in trying new foods is for them to make it themselves.  I have a folding step-stool that lives in our kitchen for Miriam to stand on.  She knows how to use the blender and the food processor, how to cut food with a knife (right now she is only allowed to use butter knives), and is learning recipes.  Even before she was 2 she was able to identify condiments and get them out of the fridge at appropriate times.

Miriam is 3 now and does more cooking than all but one of those girls in the competition did.  Lisa talked about how the girl had a “sophisticated palate” but she didn’t involve her at all in the cooking (and only barely in the planning).  All that poor girl got to do was spoon some sauce on.

This was a hard challenge and I make no pretense that I would have done anything but bomb.  I’ve done live cooking demos before, but not with a child I barely knew, not with a famous host, not with a strict (short) time limit, and certainly not to a camera.  But I still have some food ideas.

One thing each contestant got right was to ask the girls what foods they liked and pick dishes based on their preferences.  But what I didn’t see anyone ask was what cooking experience the girls had and what they liked to do in the kitchen.

Miriam’s favorite dish to make is bean salad.  It’s super easy because we use canned beans (you could make it with dried beans but each one requires different cooking times).  Miriam can do everything except open the cans and dice the oregano.  She recognizes the oregano in the garden and can pick it.  She can empty the cans, add the other ingredients, and stir.  She doesn’t get amounts right and needs some physical help when it’s heavy, but she has the ideas down.  She even has most of the recipe memorized.

If I were preparing this live, I’d probably pre-open the cans and remove the lids.  But everything else could be done right there.  Dump the can contents into a colander and the colander contents into a bowl.  Add the oil and vinegar, stir and taste.  Make a point about the importance of tasting.  When the acid/oil balance is right, add the mustard, salt and pepper, and stir.  Taste again for salt.  Adjust.  Then make a point about how only grownups can handle the big knife and mince the oregano and let the child add it in.  If I were making another dish also, I would pre-measure the bean salad ingredients and put them into small bowls to free up some time.

Another good dish would be a wrap or taco.  The emphasis here would be on using leftovers that are already cooked.  I’d choose a protein (tempeh or fish would be my choices but you can use meat too) and bring it warmed to the counter.  And I’d have some sauteed veggies too.  Or, I could have cooked leftovers that were protein and veggies (like bell pepper strips, mushrooms, onions) and heat them in a skillet on the segment.  The tortillas can be room temperature or get a quick heat on the burner.  Spread the tortillas with some pre-made guacamole, add the protein and vegetables, add some shredded cabbage or lettuce or other fresh veggies, and (optionally) some salsa and it’s done.

If the child I was working with liked fish, I’d make some salmon salad from precooked salmon fillets which we would break up into a bowl.  Show some veggie cutting but mostly add pre-diced celery and red onion.  Add mayo and mustard, salt and pepper.  Serve on endive or small romaine lettuce slices.  Or roll into lettuce, serve on a salad, or put into a wrap.   Or just make a sandwich (to be ordinary).

Another favorite Miriam dish, and a real healthy kid-friendly food, is hummus.  Since I wouldn’t have time to prep dried beans, I would use canned.  But mention the option of dried.  It’s so easy.  You dump the canned beans into the food processor (drain 2 and leave 1 full), add the other ingredients, and push the buttons.  I would serve it with a salad, fresh veggies, olives, and carrots for dipping.  All while mentioning various serving options.  The problem with doing hummus on a short TV segment is the noise of the food processor for perhaps a total of 30 seconds.

If I wanted to use eggs, deviled eggs would be a great kid dish.  Or an omelet.  As an alternative to eggs, I would make a corn pancake with great fillings.  If there was masa in the pantry.

Another can’t go wrong dish is slushies.  Or popsicles if there was time overnight to freeze them (swapping out the freshly poured ones for done ones).  Of course the noise of the blender would be a TV killer, so maybe not.

Can you tell this was my favorite challenge so far?

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Challenge #1: Using a mystery basket with 6 ingredients, create a dish using them, and prepare to describe the dish on camera. The twist was that each contestant had to switch baskets with another, without being told what it was. Then they had 90 seconds from reveal to taste and describe the dish, focusing on conveying the attributes (taste and smell) that the audience couldn’t sense. I probably would have bombed like most of them did.

Challenge #2: Each of three pairs of contestants had to take one classic dish that normally took hours to prepare and create a version that a home cook could make in 45 minutes. Each team also made two side dishes.

I think this was a great challenge but, again, it was done with a very limited time frame. I just don’t see why. Anyone with a cooking show would plan this out and run some tests. These contestants had an unknown (but short) time to plan, 30 mins to shop, and then had to do everything, including plate for around a dozen people, in 45 minutes. Granted, they had two trained people to do it all vs one home cook, but it didn’t really make sense to force them to guess what would and wouldn’t work, when a 2 hour prep period could have done that. Then give them 45 minutes to actually prepare the dish (including prep work that would be done at home) and another 10 minutes to plate.

All three dishes were meat-based foods I have never cooked. Beef Wellington seemed the easiest (and, indeed, it not only was picked first but it won the prize of having the recipe featured in Bon Appétit magazine). It is a tender cut of beef, covered in a mushroom paste, and baked in puff pastry. The team constructed a seared beef fillet with mushroom paste (it has a fancy name but…) on top and all sitting on a puff pastry round. I would have done something similar (assuming I had someone to tell me what Beef Wellington was before I tried this) except I would have made a puff pastry turnover.

Their sides were roasted summer vegetables and creamed pearl onions. The veggies were perfect because they added color and had a fresh contrast to the heavy main dish. The pearl onions were too white next to the tans and browns of the main dish (the judges pointed this out but it was pretty obvious even to us amateurs). I would have blended some parsley into the cream sauce to turn it green, and mixed in some minced parsley too for texture.

The next dish was Coq de Vin, which is chicken in a wine-based stew. The team grilled boneless chicken breasts and topped it with a sauce that the judges loved but said had nothing to do with the target dish. I haven’t cooked chicken in over 25 years but I think I would have tried sauteing some flour dredged chicken cubes then putting them into a wine-based soup with stock and vegetables and boiling down into a stew. I don’t know if that would just remind people of the real thing too much (as a bad comparison) or if it wouldn’t work at all. Their sides were polenta and pasta. Where were the vegetables?

The hardest dish by far was Turducken. That bizarre thing some meat-loving folks go ga-ga for. Duck stuffed in a chicken stuffed in a turkey. The team did a dish with all 3 meats but it wasn’t a cohesive unit. I think I would have aimed for a lasagna. Or whatever you would call it when it’s all meat meat meat. You’d have to use pre-cooked meats so most of the 45 mins would be spent baking and blending. I don’t know what other flavorings are involved.

So, not Cyndi food this week either. They don’t make it easy to bring out your own style. You have to be a general cook to make it. One of the contestants was an Indian cook, who only did that style, but she wasn’t good enough to continue and left last week. Basically though, you have to know how to do everything, which means a focus on mainstream cooking. Not just “American” (which is fine as a base point) but meat, dairy, wheat. All those things I do without.

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Challenge #1: Demonstrate a “basic skill” to the camera in one minute. I remember a couple of seasons ago the contestants had to show they knew some basic cooking skills by performing tasks in front of a judge (without other contestants watching). Each had the same tasks to do. I think they were dicing an onion, filleting a fish, and julienning some carrots.

This time there was a single task, none the same, under a cloth. Position the contestant, lift the cloth, give a sentence description of what they are to do, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go. Some were insanely easy (cut up a pineapple) and some were insanely hard (clean a squid). Though of course, what was easy or hard depended on what you had experience with.

The judges actually didn’t care if you got it right. They wanted “authority” and camera skills. One of the ones they liked was from the guy who was supposed to open a coconut and instead didn’t manage to get a drop of juice out, because he acted like he knew what he was doing.

I would have done well with some (the pineapple, maybe the coconut) and with others I not only didn’t know how but couldn’t have even faked my way through it (cleaning the squid, shucking an oyster).

Challenge #2: Pick one of the offered whole fish (each a different kind) and one of the crazy ingredients (all sweet or odd things like white chocolate, fruit-loop-like cereal, or coffee beans). Fillet your fish and take it, plus 10 lbs of pre-filleted fish, and create two dishes. One is a dish that Red Lobster might put on its menu (the winner had that happen), so it had to appeal to a general audience. The other must use the crazy ingredient. Then plate for 30 people (the judges plus a Coast Guard crew) and give a presentation.

They had some prep time one day then the food was stored overnight and they had, I believe, 45 minutes to finish and plate.

I’m not totally sure what I would have done because I wasn’t familiar with a lot of the offered fish. I’d heard of most, but not cooked with them. One I’d never heard of was Arctic Char. But it was described as a cross between a trout and a salmon. So I wonder…is that Steelhead? If so, it’s one of my favorite fish. You just can’t go wrong with it. Grilled, pan-seared, or roasted. Very tender flavor, but not bland, without falling apart. It’s moist with a good fat mouth feel.

If I had gotten cod or a similar fish, I think a fish stew would have been great. And then a wrap or soft taco with some fried, lightly battered, chunks. The crazy ingredient would have to be in a sauce I think. Maybe on some shredded cabbage in the dish. Grape jelly would have worked, maybe even the chocolate. Coffee could have gone in the stew. I don’t know, this was a hard one. I’m real good on how to leave certain ingredients out. Don’t have experience with forcing certain ingredients to be in.

Others of my standby fish dishes could have worked out. Fish cakes (which I’ve never actually made on my own), ceviche (which I think would have worked out great, if I could have marinated it overnight…they didn’t go for another contestant’s fish tartar, but I think ceviche is mainstream enough to work, at least in California it is…even have it at the county fair), or some fish rolls would have been a nice mainstream dish (especially if I could have made them the day before and cooked them the day of).

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Challenge #1: Feature one special ingredient (the potato) in a single dish (45 minutes to make it…if I remember correctly).  Full use of the pantry for other ingredients.  Then hold the dish, face the camera, and speak about it for exactly one minute, telling a personal story about yourself in relationship to the dish.  The selection committee then tasted the dish in private.

Potatoes…oy.  They don’t make it easy to be a lowcarber on this show.  But at least it wasn’t wheat, dairy, or pig.  Although I haven’t cooked them in ages, I have several potato dishes I used to make.  Here are two that would have worked well.

Curry Mashed Potatoes

Dice potatoes small so they will cook quickly (unnecessary if not facing a deadline)
When done, drain and mash
Add raw egg, mix well to cook
Add curry powder and any other desired seasoning

The story would be how I lived in Nicaragua for 6 months 20 years ago and learned how to cook with very limited ingredients.  This recipe came from a Dutch woman volunteering at the same school where I volunteered.  (I’m trying to remember if this recipe has yoghurt or milk in it…I don’t think so, because those were hard to come by there.)

Potato and Egg Fry

Slice potatoes and onions, saute in oil until starting to brown
Add cubes of apple, stir
Turn off heat, add beaten egg, stir until done (I like undercooked eggs so perhaps I would have left the heat on longer to bring the eggs up to a more medium state of being cooked)
Add salt and pepper as desired

No specific story here, it’s just comfort food.  Maybe say something about how I made this dish a lot when I was in college and away from home cooking all my own meals.

If I wanted to do a vegan one I’d probably try to roast the potatoes (if I had time) with good olive oil, sea salt, and fresh rosemary.  Perhaps with some parsnips and carrots.

Challenge #2: Create a packaged food product that represents you.  Plan and shop for it quickly (half an hour to shop, not sure how much planning time but it was brief), cook/create the product and put into a couple dozen containers with printed labels (not much cooking time, an hour or two), and put aside overnight.  The next day, get 30 minutes to set up your table, including cooking all your demo items, and present your product to 50 food buyers (real people from places like Harry’s & David’s and William Sonoma) and one special guest, Martha Stewart.

I just don’t get these people.  Are they looking for great ideas or are they looking for grace under pressure?  I understand that they didn’t want people to take a week to source ingredients and do test runs, but do everything in a couple of hours?  One contestant, for example, needed cayenne pepper for his dish, but another contestant had taken it all.  It’s a common ingredient and he could have gotten it quickly from another store, but wasn’t allowed.

This is my dream challenge though.   I have all sorts of ideas for food products and I already have experience with organic certification, sourcing ingredients, knowing a lot about what is and isn’t available, pricing, and so forth.

If I had the money or the backing, I’d create a line of salad dressings, sauces, oils, and similar products that were all affordable and healthy based on my idea of healthy.  That means organic of course but mostly it means no junk food oils.  Have you ever tried to find a salad dressing with unrefined oil?  Even the organic ones at Whole Foods (including their brand) are based on refined soybean, canola, or safflower oils.  Yeck.  I get sick when I eat them.

If I were in this challenge, I’d make this dressing:

Olive tomato mustard dressing

Extra virgin olive oil
Raw apple cider vinegar
Sun-dried tomatoes
Olives (green and black)
Mustard
Hemp seed or sesame seed
Herbs, salt, etc

Blend together well in to a thick but pourable sauce.  It could even be made 100% raw if it were packaged for the refrigerated shelf.  Would still be healthy and good if steamed into a glass container.

I doubt I’d sell my concept well though.  Even for most people who are health conscious, unrefined oils aren’t on their radar.  They think of extra virgin olive oil as the expensive stuff you save for special occasions.  Rachael Ray has changed that to some degree, since she cooks with the stuff, but you still hear people like Alton Brown telling viewers not to waste the extra virgin on things like pesto (which is one food that really needs good oil).  When it comes to other oils, forget it.  Who cares about unrefined sunflower oil or untoasted sesame?  This is the era where refined, genetically engineered, pesticided canola oil is considered healthy.

Food buyers would take one look at my products and say, but there already are organic salad dressings (etc) out there, what makes yours different?  And I’d have a hard time answering without using the words “poison” “plastic” or “evil.”  That’s why I would make a complex one like the recipe above.  It tastes really good and it’s different.

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

This week there was one big challenge broken up into several parts.  The 9 contestants were randomly sorted into groups of 3.  After being woken up at 3am, their day started immediately after being given instructions.  With the clock ticking, they had to shower, dress, eat, and drive off.  To show character I guess, but I really didn’t see the point of it.

Each team visited 3 locations and had to answer a food-related question.  If they got it right, they could choose an offered ingredient and head off to the next location.  If they got it wrong, one team member had to waste time doing boring food prep before getting the ingredient.

The questions were a mix.  I could answer one third to half of the ones shown.  At least the first one was easy: which two components of wheat are left out of white flour? (bran and germ)…the team got it wrong.

The 3 locations were bread, cheese, and meat stores.  Each one had 3 ingredient choices and the teams got to choose in the order they were ready.  It was made out to be a big deal to get the last choice, but really everything was good.

When they finally arrived at the meeting point after the challenge, they found out that the prize for coming in first was simply to go first in the next challenge.  This was supposedly an advantage, though I didn’t see it that way.  Going later meant more time to think about what to cook.

Each team had a mere 45 minutes to plan and cook and plate brunch for 30 people.  On a moving train.  Each of the 3 ingredients from the previous challenge had to be featured, but there was a full pantry of other foods too.  Although I’m not sure this was part of the requirement, I believe each team made 3 dishes, each with one of the featured ingredients, and one team member made each dish.

So…bread, cheese, and meat.  Not really a Cyndi meal.  But sometimes cooking with restrictions means you have to use the foods you normally avoid.  The teams made French toast (2) and bread pudding, various salads (to use cheese or duck), fried eggs, a salmon sandwich (my favorite), and strip steak.

I think I would have made a frittata with cheese and meat and toast with a savory topping.  Or maybe eggs Benedict with the meat ingredient in lieu of the usual ham and the bread ingredient in lieu of the usual English muffin.  Then maybe a side salad (spinach would be nice) with the cheese ingredient.

Not the most exciting of challenges but at least the most boring contestant went home and my favorite (Aaron) was one of two to win the challenge and be featured in a magazine.

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

I’ve seen a couple seasons of this series before and it’s different each time. Sometimes the camera skills challenges (pacing a cooking segment, facing the audience (camera) as you do it, explaining things just so) start immediately (which means they expect some bumpiness because everyone’s new) and sometimes they come later (when they expect contestants to be more polished).

For one season, they kept emphasizing choosing recipes for the home cook, yet most of the challenges involved cooking for dozens or hundreds of people. Very odd. And pretty much always, they focus on fast fast fast. You’re lucky if you have a few hours to prep and cook (vs a few minutes) and the longest period I’ve ever seen for cooking is overnight (with no tending allowed). This rules out a huge percentage of dishes: bread, pickles, roasts, marinades, slow cookers, even beans. It’s an odd, but consistent, restriction.

Thanks to my trusty DVR, I’m a bit behind with the shows. I just watched the first one which aired June 1, 2008. Ten finalists were put through two challenges.

Challenge #1: Face the camera, with or without a prop, and state your culinary point of view in one sentence (or very quickly).

I know exactly what mine would be–I thought about it in past seasons too–though I’m still not sure how to articulate it succinctly. No props for me.

Vegetarian? food allergy? special diet? I’m Cyndi Norwitz and I’m going to show you how to turn a dietary restriction into an opportunity.

Challenge #2: The 10 contestants were randomly paired into 5 groups of 2. They had to present a 3 dish meal to 9 Food Network stars and producers (plus make a “beauty plate”). Each person in the pair had to make one dish that represented their culinary point of view, then collaborate on the third. The hard part was they had 10 minutes to plan their menu, a few minutes to shop, then only 30 minutes in the kitchen to prep, cook, and plate everything (with no help).

The time element made this one really hard. Just having a few more minutes to plan and another half hour to cook would have made all the difference. But I think I would have done this dish:

Chopped salad–lettuce, shredded root vegetables, avocado, and tomato–with an olive, sun-dried tomato vinaigrette (blended mostly smooth) and topped with seared salmon and mushrooms.

I would wash and slice mushrooms, sear the fish with mushrooms, then pop it in the oven (7-10 mins total, could save 3 minutes if I had pre-sliced mushrooms). Then wash and prep the salad veggies and blend the dressing (7-10 mins, assuming I had an electric shredder and a salad spinner, or I could save time with prepacked salad greens). The fish would be done in 10-15 mins, leaving a couple minutes to plate it all up. And with time to work on whatever dish I was sharing (as the fish cooked).

What would go with that dish? Let’s see…

Pine nut cream over fresh fruit (pine nuts can be creamed without any soaking, or they could soak for 10 mins if timed right)

Baked mushroom caps topped with vegan pesto and some toasted pine nuts (at last minute to warm them but keep from over cooking the pesto or making the seeds soggy)

Soup made with finely chopped butternut squash or carrot and ginger, cooked for as long as possible then blended smooth with plenty of spice and a boxed pre-made broth.

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

It’s an international list, with most subscribers living in the US. Monica lives in Los Angeles, and I got to meet her when I was in LA for Expo West last year. This year, we planned a potluck and invited all local Foodlab members. Unfortunately, there were some last minute cancellations, but we had a lot of fun.

(Miriam, Cyndi, Jessica, Monica)

Monica and Matt, and 3.5 year old son Donovan, hosted the event. Jessica came with 2 year old daughter Roxie. And Michael and I (Cyndi) were there with barely 3 year old Miriam.

(Monica & Jessica)

(Cyndi & Monica)

Our first order of business was to go through the several supermarket-sized bags of samples and literature I’d brought from Expo West to share.

(Jessica, Roxie, Monica)

Next we started cooking.

(Jessica making vegan curry)

(Jessica & Cyndi making tortillas)

And then we ate.

(Miriam, Donovan, & Roxie ready to eat, with Michael in the background)

All of the food was amazing. We banned any ingredient that none of us could eat (dairy, gluten) and anything that would cause a problem for someone if they got a trace (soy, canola, orange, egg, chocolate). We allowed but discouraged foods that one or more people had a problem with (reaction or a choice) but where a trace wouldn’t matter (meat, corn). And it was a given in this group that everything would be fresh and free of food additives.

(Jessica’s vegan curry)

Here’s what we ate:

Monica:

Olive bread
Crab cakes
Misc pre-dinner snacks (veggies & chips)

Jessica:

Keifer (non-dairy keifer grains fermenting apple juice)
Curry
Hummus with eggplant
Cashew cream with fresh strawberries (similar to my recipe)

Cyndi:

Pickled red onions
Corn tortillas (made on site with Jessica)
Halibut ceviche

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

French Meadow Bakery’s gluten-free tortillas are in that category. I eat them about 5 days a week for lunch (as wraps/burritos). They have two: Healthy Hemp and Women’s. Both are organic, vegan, lowcarb, and high protein. And they taste good too. The Healthy Hemp are also soy-free.

Except that they had two gluten-free tortillas. They are gone.

The problem was quality. They tended to spoil quickly (they shipped them to stores frozen but most stores wouldn’t sell them frozen; they’d put them in the fridge), they stuck together, and they’d sometimes fall apart during use (microwaving worked better than toasting or heating on the stove). I didn’t have these issues (except for spoilage) with the Women’s, just with the Healthy Hemp, but French Meadow told me they got complaints about both.

I emailed them in February, and got this reply:

Subject: Re: What happened to your tortillas!!!?!?!?
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:57:00 -0500
From: Dingmann, Emily <edingmann@frenchmeadow.com>

Hello Cyndi,
Thank you very much for your feedback, it truly is something we value here at French Meadow Bakery. I am sorry that these were some of your favorite tortillas, unfortunately they were not a top-seller, there were some quality issues and we are coming out with improved tortillas.

We have discontinued the Woman’s Tortilla and Hemp Tortilla but we are currently working on new tortillas:
- Improved Gluten Free Tortilla
- Improved Hemp Tortilla (this will have gluten in it)

These should be out sometime this spring; we are aiming to have them ready at Expo, so hopefully you will have the opportunity to sample our new Gluten Free tortilla.

Please feel free to contact me with any other questions.
Thank you for Supporting French Meadow Bakery,
Emily
Emily Dingmann
Sales Coordinator, French Meadow Bakery
2604 Lyndale Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55408
Phone: 612-870-4740 x 17; Fax: 612-870-0907
www.frenchmeadow.com

So I stopped by their booth the other week at Expo West and spoke to them again. The tortillas weren’t ready and there were no samples. It sounded like they hadn’t worked through the reformulations.Unfortunately, they seemed to have no commitment at all to gluten-free. One woman told me that the old tortillas stuck together so they “had to add some wheat.” In the same tone that you might tell someone you added some tapioca starch. I don’t think they realize the market they have. The gluten-free community didn’t really know about their tortillas, but the people I told thought they were great. Yes, the quality suffered and I’m glad they’re fixing it. But adding a bit of wheat means the world to someone who can’t have the slightest trace.

I explained to them that they had the only gluten-free tortilla on the market that wasn’t filled with carbs. Lowcarb tortillas exist but they use wheat gluten. Corn tortillas are easy enough to find, but not everyone can have corn and they have a lot of starch and no protein (and they’re small). There are rice tortillas but they are pure starch and taste horrible too.

I begged them to keep making gluten-free, lowcarb, vegan, organic tortillas. I also explained that, while I can eat soy, a lot of food restricted people can’t, and the Healthy Hemp tortillas were the only alternative for a lot of folks.

So what was their response? they proudly trotted out their new gluten-free products. Cookies and brownies. Oh boy. Don’t they understand that gluten-free cookies are a dime a dozen but real food is what we have trouble finding? Not that some folks won’t appreciate a new source of gluten-free treats, after all, theirs are dairy-free and soy-free too (but contain eggs and aren’t organic).

If you share my opinion of the matter, please contact French Meadow Bakery and politely ask them to reformulate their gluten-free tortillas to continue to be vegan, organic, and low in carbs (and soy-free, if that is important to you). Make sure they know there is a gluten-free customer base that loves their products and wants more.

2604 Lyndale Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55408
bread@frenchmeadow.com
612-870-4740 or 1-877-No-Yeast
Fax: 612-870-0907

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

She turned to me and asked: “Is it in season?”

Oh man I love that girl. I’ve been teaching her about produce being in or out of season and have told her that we couldn’t have the things she wanted much of the time due to that (price, quality, etc). I guess it’s rubbing off.

Yes, we bought the watermelon (she had some for her actual birthday dinner too). Local, organic, and in season are all important but we make some exceptions.

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Miriam and I went to Whole Foods today and found asparagus on sale, so we got a lot of it, because it’s good leftover. Then we went to the fish section to see what they had. There was some inexpensive coho (king) salmon (previously frozen from local catches over the summer). This was an uncut half salmon, so I did what I did last time and got the fish filleted with the leftovers in a bag for fish stock.

Then we went back to the produce department to pick vegetables that went with the fish. I decided to roast the asparagus then I talked out loud to myself for a while (confusing the produce worker) before deciding to make a raw marinated salad.

This is what we had:

Baked salmon

I bake salmon all the time. I love the stuff but it can get a little old to cook it the same way. So I decided to try something different. I lightly seared the fish skin side of the fillets in a cast iron skillet with some olive oil. Then I added sliced crimini mushrooms and turned the fish over to lightly sear the other side, adding more oil as needed. “Sear” implies browning but I didn’t do that; I just lightly cooked it so that it would seal in some of the moisture. Then I turned off the heat, turned the fish back skin side down, added a bit of salt and pepper, put some white wine in the pan, and stuck the whole thing in a 350*F oven. It came out absolutely amazing.

Roasted asparagus

Very simple. Rinse asparagus, remove tough parts of ends, toss in baking dish with olive oil and salt (I used coarse celtic salt), bake until done (turn every few minutes). I started off in a 350*F oven then turned it up to 400*F after the fish was out.

Fennel salad

Using my mandolin, I sliced a fennel bulb (saved the stalks for later), one red daikon radish (also called watermelon radish), and 1/4 jalapeno pepper (couldn’t taste it; I should have used 2-3 times as much). I added a bit of chopped fennel leaf and dressed the salad with the juice of 1 fresh lemon, olive oil, and some salt. Subtle flavors but a perfect complement to the rest of the meal.

Additional Foods

Lemon wedges, white wine, and strawberry ice cream for dessert.

As we ate this meal, I thought back to a comment a newcomer to an allergy list made today: how can I live without cheese! No disrespect intended to the poster; we’ve all been there with our additive foods and patterns. But here we are, eating this amazing meal with no dairy, no eggs, no gluten, no legumes, no grains, lowcarb and mostly all organic. Go on, ask me if I feel deprived

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Are there any requests? For specific recipes? For recipe categories or ingredients?  More pictures?
Any non-recipe requests?

All my web recipes are on one of these sites:

Vegetarian Lowcarb Recipes
Cyndi’s Recipes
Cyndi’s Journal

Please comment below and let me know!

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.