Ubergrun Chili

One thing I love about the German language (and subsequently the English language, though we don't do it nearly so much these days) is that new words are incorporated all the time just by smashing some together that already exist. Here I've used the adjective "ubergrun" to mean "intensely green," referring to the fact that five out of the seven whole food ingredients in this chili are of that persuasion.

While fighting off the cat in order to lick my bowl clean, I was uberpissed to learn from my husband- the Orlando Weekly's calendar editor and social butterfly extraordinaire- that there will be a chili cook-off this weekend. Why pissed? Because just when I finally invent a chili I'm proud of, and just when a chili cook-off finally happens in my neck of the woods... we won't be in town. On Friday, we hop a plane to Colorado and pay an off-season visit to some of the farms at which we've applied to intern. (That, or sit around in the airport all weekend waiting for a plane that's been delayed by an uberblizzard up in Denver.)

Joking aside, I'm ecstatic about this trip! If you'd like to read about the places we'll be touring, please pop on over to Doveland Farm and peruse some of my husband's recent posts.

I know, I know... enough with the blog plugging already. Bring on the uberdelicious chili recipe!

Ubergrun, Uberdelicious, Geez-I'd-Better-Stop-Saying-Uber-Before-I-Offend-a-Real-German Chili

Ingredients

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 yellow onion, diced large

1 stalk celery, sliced

1 Anaheim chile pepper, diced small

2 large cloves of garlic (or 3-4 non-ubercloves as pictured... gah, there's just so many appropriate places to say uber!), chopped

3 tsp. dried cumin

1 3/4 c. broccoli florets

1/2 c. cilantro leaves, chopped

Salt 'n' pepper to taste

1 1/4 c. black beans, cooked

2 Tbsp. sherry vinegar

3 medium to large green tomatoes, diced (approximately... I used two big ones from the farmer's market and five little ones my mom gave me from her garden)

2 tsp. orange blossom honey

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan on medium-high. Add the onion, celery, chile, garlic, and cumin. Saute 2 minutes.

Add the broccoli florets and saute a few minutes more, until the onion is translucent and the broccoli is tender.

Add the cilantro, salt, and pepper; seasoning to your preference as if you intend to eat it as is. (Yes, there are still some ingredients to add, but when the water contained in the vegetables evaporates, you will be left with perfectly salted chili). Saute one minute more, then stir in the black beans.

Pour in the sherry vinegar and deglaze the pan.

Stir in the tomatoes, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cover the pan. Simmer 40 minutes. Add the honey and taste one more time to see if you need any more salt. Simmer, covered, 10 minutes more. Serves 3-4 (number of servings can be augmented to a solid 4 if you ladle it over rice, potatoes, cornbread, meat, etc.)

Don't get me wrong, the flavor of this chili was amazing; but in case you hadn't noticed, it's quite mild. I got an ubercramp in my wrist from shaking hot sauce into my portion. If I were to enter it in the cook-off, I would add a couple jalapenos for heat.

Okay, gonna stop saying uber now...

Dang, just said it again.

Okay... NOW!

Addendum: Huh, looking back on this, I'm not sure what all I'm counting as a "whole food" ingredient here... I didn't count my black beans because they came from a can, but there were no salt or preservatives added, so... meh? What do you guys count as whole food?

Beat the eggs. Whip the cream. Show no mercy.

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Playing Catch-up

I spent last week apartment hunting, job hunting, and Green Flamingo-ing. The fruit of my labor in the apartment department (heehee, it rhymes) is a ridiculously cheap studio just around the block from my present amazing location. Now, I know that being culinary types yourselves, you probably see the word studio and think, "Uh-oh." But this one boasts a kitchen area- complete with appliances- that may have more counter space than my current house. So even though I'm garage-selling off about three quarters of my life before the second of next month, I couldn't be happier. My only two stipulations were must be located in a low-traffic area where I can let my cat outside and must have a workable kitchen. This pad has both those covered, and at such a low price that I instantly looked at my husband after seeing it and said, "We'd be idiots not to do this."

In the Green Flamingo department (aw man, that one doesn't rhyme!), we finished digging our aquaponics pond- affectionately dubbed The Hole- this past weekend. I hope to have pics up on Doveland Farm later today. I will also have more shots from the New Smyrna Beach Farmers' Market, where Liz and Mary of Green Flamingo sell both raw vegetables and canned specialties like the pickled okra at the top of this page.

But for now, to pursue an aspect that is more specifically cooking-related, here is the Green Flamingo kitchen...

...in which we made this:

It's a spicy pasta dish with fresh-caught sheepshead and veggies grown on the premises. My husband's and my Sunday morning fishing trip yielded nothing big enough to eat, so we obtained the sheepshead from a local seafood co-op. Seagoing meats are my favorites, and though I don't normally eat fish for environmental reasons, I will eagerly make an exception if it's locally and sustainable caught.

Macaroni el Diablo with Sheepshead and Broccoli Rabe

Ingredients

2 Tbsp. butter

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

1 habanero pepper, de-seeded and chopped

8-10 large leaves of broccoli rabe, roughly chopped

3 sheepshead fillets, cut into bite-sized chunks

6 servings dried macaroni

1 24-oz can unsalted tomato puree

Salt, pepper, and dried Italian herb mix to taste

Directions

Salt and pepper the sheepshead chunks and set aside.

Cook macaroni according to package instructions and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat the butter and vegetable oil in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. When the butter has melted, add the onion and habanero. Saute about five minutes or until the onion is translucent. Toward the end of cooking time (when you have about a minute left to go), add salt, pepper, and Italian herbs to taste.

Add broccoli rabe and continue sauteing until it has wilted. As before, add salt, pepper, and herbs toward the end of cooking time.

Reduce heat to medium-low. Add the sheepshead and cover to cook, stirring only occasionally so that the chunks don't fall apart.

Add the tomato puree and macaroni. Stir. Let it warm through for a couple minutes, then stir again and taste for salt, pepper, and herb content. Add a little more if needed. Let simmer fifteen minutes. Serves 6.

This has been dubbed a Chickenless Chick Cooperative recipe, as the ingredients (other than the sheepshead and butter) were suggested, gathered, and in large part cooked by Green Flamingo intern Steve. The reconstituting of the macaroni can be attributed to my great sport of a husband, so turns out all I did was come up with the idea for "spicy tomato-y fish pasta thingie" and do the prep work. A valiant team effort with superb results.

Who else is excited about Turkey Day?! I'll be spending it with friends here in Orlando. What are your plans?

Beat the eggs. Whip the cream. Show no mercy.

Home Again!

I promised pictures from Virginia. Above is one of a tractor. You can find more at Doveland Farm. Hint: If you love animals, it's worth taking a peek.

We had a great time and feel indebted to our host, Sandra, who barely made us raise a finger. She housed us, cooked for us, showed us around the area, and even taught us the ancient mystical art of buying stuff at auction and flipping it. We got a 40s era radio and record player for forty bucks and are commissioning our engineer buddy to turn it into an MP3 player. I'll put pictures up when it's done so you can bask in its vintage elegance and get in touch if you're interested... though I'll tell you right now it may challenge my husband to part with it when the time comes.

On to more food-related matters!

Here in FL we have to solarize our soil to keep nematodes from latching onto our veggies' roots and sucking their little veggie lives away. For months I've been meaning to start a small herb patch that wouldn't need such extravagant treatment. On Monday, I finally got around to planting some parsley and chives. Hooray!

I've been reading up on home permaculture, and the number one point every author makes is that nothing will look like you think it should. There are no nice, neat little rows in this type of gardening. If your yard looks like a forest, you're doing it right.

So, am I doing it right? In the picture below, do my parsley and chives look planned, or like they just sprung up?

I know I promised to update you on the mystery project taking place in our yard. All I can tell you is that the site of said project has moved- it will now be located nearer the house. We'll probably get started on that tonight when my husband gets home from work. Exciiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitedddddddddd.

In the meantime, we dug a few beds at the old site of the mystery project. Like my herb garden, there will be no discernible rows, just lots and lots of symbiotic foods growing close together. We are currently solarizing the beds:

Solarization involves turning the earth a bit, then laying sheets of opaque plastic over the exposed soil and weighing it down to keep weeds from creeping in at the edges. As you can see, my husband and I can't afford to visit Home Depot right now, so we cut up garbage bags and weighed them down with everything from scavenged planks to beer bottles. That fence you see in the background? Yup, you'd better believe our neighbors just put it up today. The instant we have enough mature veggies to fill a gift basket, they're getting one on their doorstep. Thanks for not demanding that we clean up our hillbilly mess, neighbors!!

One last update: we're spending this weekend at Green Flamingo. Probably fishing and barbequing, in addition to volunteering on the farm. I get to eat fish again! (As mentioned previously, I seldom buy fish at the grocery store.) It's gonna be sweeeeeeet. Will have pics Monday.

Beat the eggs. Whip the cream. Show no mercy.

The Chickenless Chick: Volunteer Farmer

The non-wussiest place that I get food is Green Flamingo Organics. In order to grow this parsley and many of my fridge's other contents, two chickenless ladies named Liz and Mary toil daily in the Florida sun, surrounded by Florida bugs, sacrificing Florida indoor plumbing, to achieve their dream of a sustainable farm life. As of a few weeks ago, so do I, as a volunteer; and I encourage every cook to seek out a similar experience. I could extoll the benefits of supporting local agriculture, but my husband talks many of your ears off about this on a daily basis. So here's a motive that has more to do with the theme of this blog: You'll develop a new appreciation for weird food. Allow me to demonstrate.

Do you know what this is?

It's Malabar spinach. That's right, spinach. I had no idea spinach grew on a vine like that. Now, when I got it home, I learned that this particular type releases a gelatin-textured substance into your mouth when you chew it. A few weeks ago, I would have been grossed out. But because I worked on this spinach myself, crushing the berries in my hands and scattering the seeds on the ground, I wanted to like it. I pictured how idyllic it was out there on the farm, how the landscape would have missed it if it were gone. So yesterday I brought home more. And if I don't like what I do with it this week, I'm going to bring home more still.

Palette-expanding, no? I'm rather proud.

I believe that creamed spinach or another more gelatin-textured dish may be in order. If you have any ideas, feel free to let me know. And be sure to visit Doveland Farm for more pics of Green Flamingo.

Beat the eggs. Whip the cream. Show no mercy.

Down-Home-Style Thai Chicken Soup

Some of you on Doveland Farm may remember this picture:

It's called Down-Home-Style Thai Chicken Soup. I invented it after the lovely Elizabeth and Mary of Green Flamingo Organics gave me an SUVload of okra that I had no idea what to do with. Of course, since this blog is all about inspiration, I won't be offended if you don't follow the recipe verbatim. I encourage you to play around with the concept and email me with pics of your results!

Down-Home-Style Thai Chicken Soup

Ingredients

3 Tbsp. butter, divided

1 white or yellow onion, diced large

2 c. sliced okra

3 carrots, peeled and sliced

1 celery rib, sliced

3 cloves garlic, chopped

Generous handful Thai basil leaves, shredded

10 ripe tomatoes, cored, seeded, and diced; or 1 24-oz. box No Salt Added diced tomatoes (I prefer Pomi)

2 c. chicken stock

Juice of 1 lime

2 chicken breasts cut into bite-sized pieces

1 c. pre-cooked rice

1 12-oz. can coconut milk

Salt-n-pepper

Hot sauce to taste (check out www.aefoods.com for some excellent all-natural varieties)

Directions

Melt 2 tbsp. of the butter in a stew pot over medium heat. Add the onions, okra, carrots, and celery. Sauté until the onions are translucent. Salt and pepper.

Add the garlic and basil to the pot and saute 2-3 minutes more. Add the tomatoes, chicken stock, and lime juice. Raise the heat and bring to a vigorous boil, then reduce heat to medium low. Let simmer 35-45 minutes. (Add more broth or water a couple tbsp. at a time if it starts to get low.)

Meanwhile, melt the remaining tbsp. of butter in a separate pan. Season the chicken pieces generously with salt and pepper, then brown them in the pan over medium heat.

Add chicken and rice to the pot. Cook 10 minutes more.

Add the coconut milk, and salt to taste. Cook until heated through and serve. Remember to pass hot sauce around at the table. Serves 6 as an entree.

Beat the eggs. Whip the cream. Show no mercy.