Make my own jerky

With this skill, I'm officially ready for any apocalyptic event to strike, for example the peak-oil crisis, maybe you've heard of it? I realize it may also put me in the same category as people who build out bomb shelters or try to survive on only foods they forage from the city park or something. But hey, these are all going to be textbook life skills in about 20 years.

All you need for this is a very low wattage heat source (100-watt bulb did the trick), a container that is vented above and below so that hot air rising from the heat source will push out at the top and suck cool air in at the bottom (cardboard box), skewers, and Google, because it never hurts to read forty-seven different articles on the risks of salmonella and e. coli. I made turkey jerky from pastured turkey meat and beef jerky from questionable supermarket meat. Neither made me sick. Neither also ever made me want to make jerky again.
 
Not because of taste. They tasted like the real deal. But because I don't need that hassle. I did a bare amount of seasoning, but I suggest marinating the meat in your favorite seasonings overnight. Freeze briefly for easier slicing. Slice as thin as you can manage. String them on bamboo skewers and hang inside the box. Close lid, turn on the light. My jerkey took maybe 18 hours to make. I think you can also do this in the oven, if you have one that goes down to 150º.

Good luck, let me know how it goes!

Weird Recipe of the Week

I was craving fish. And I'm trying to (literally) downsize the fish I consume by eating fish lower on the food chain (and giving large fish a chance to recover their populations). So I got sardines from that fish market on Metropolitan and Leonard which I hadn't been to in several years because I once got some bad salmon there. (The sardines were fine, fresh and wild caught.) And I had all my CSA ingredients.

So this is Grilled Sardines with a Corn Peach Papalo "Salsa."
Better I think side-by-side, not together.

"Salsa"
fresh-off-the-cob raw corn
ripe peaches and/or nectarines, cubed
papolo (or cilantro or mint), finely sliced
juice of one lime or apple cider vinegar
olive oil
salt

Toss all ingredients together.

Sardines
Brush butter on whole cleaned sardines. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place on hot grill. This is one fish that tastes better when it's actually cooked through so test for doneness after about 3 minutes on each side. But keep cooking until fish is flaky.

Environmental Side Note
I bet some folks are thinking I could possibly serve the fish population even more by skipping out on fish altogether. But fish are essential for a healthy brain and reduce risk of death due to coronary disease—outweighing even the risks of mercury and PCBs.

According to a study published by the Harvard School of Health "For infants and young children, the authors found that omega-3 fatty acids from seafood likely improve early brain development; children could obtain that benefit from pregnant or nursing mothers who consumed fish." And implies that it could offset depression or other behavioral problems.

So all my cranky friends, may I suggest more fish? Especially sardines, anchovies, catfish, lobster, mussels, and oysters—all of which are the least endangered and have the lowest environmental impact.

Worm Food

Ahhh, just finally harvested my first batch of vermipost. This tub was almost spilling over, but look how much room we have now! (With a good 3~5 lbs of fresh compost left over waiting to feed my plants.)

I started this bin about 4 months ago. And these guys (about one pound of red wigglers and their friends) have been steadily monching through all my veggie and coffee waste since—I'd estimate it to be about 3 lbs. a week. I haven't had any trouble with odor, a bit with flying insects...but mostly localized. And have kept it under my kitchen table just fine, even with my normally overly curious dog. Want to start your own? It's easy.

Materials
plastic bin (mine measures 12" x 16" x 9" deep)
1 lb red wigglers (available at these places)
old B/W newspapers, torn in strips (color inks are more toxic)
vegetable scraps, used coffee grounds, tea bags, etc. (avoid any fats, dairy, or meat)
soil

Instructions
Drill enough air holes all around the top and through the lid so the worms can breathe but can't crawl out (click on the second photo above to get a better view).

Toss in a couple handfuls of soil (just get some from your local park or backyard), then the worms. Cover with about 4 pages worth of newspaper strips. Dampen paper unless the soil is especially muddy.

Now whenever you have extra veg scraps, uncover the newspaper, throw in the scraps, then cover back with the newspaper. Even better, age the scraps for a week before adding to make it more readily digestible by the worms (instead of the flies).

Other species
After a while you may notice some other critters crawling around. Tiny (less than 1/8 inch long) white pot worms, little hard shiny brown mites, roly polies, fruit flies, and soldier flies. They all prove beneficial, feeding on different stages of the plant decay. You can use common remedies to catch the flies if they're a nuisance, but if not, they'll help speed up the composting.

You should also start to notice tiny yellowish, translucent pods. These are the worm babies, so yay, they're reproducing! A healthy colony of worms can double their population every two weeks.


Some common problems and remedies

• Mold/mildew: feed less
• Too liquid: drain, add more newspaper, air out by leaving lid ajar, or drill more holes to increase aeration
• Ants: Set bin on a tray of water to prevent access

Turn sour milk into delicious yogurt in just 8 hours!

I'm not sure where I picked it up, but as a child, I remember hearing that you could cook with sour milk. Once I got to cooking age, that no longer seemed to apply, and friends would be unsympathetic when I would tell them about drinking milk past its expiration date because it didn't taste sour—but was definitely past its prime as evidenced by my discomfort.

Well, finally, I get to say I told you so. Turns out sour milk is perfectly drinkable, albeit in its raw, unpasteurized form. (And it should go without saying, from a healthy pastured animal.)

In fact, leaving milk out to sour was a common way to preserve the milk before pasteurization became the order of the day. Soured raw milk actually tastes sour because of the increased amounts of acid—not an unpleasant taste, especially if you're accustomed to and enjoy the tanginess in sour cream, yogurt or goat's milk. But unlike pasteurized milk, where the sterility opens the floodgates for any number of harmful bacterias to proliferate, raw milk never spoils. It sours, then curdles and separates, but even then, it contains many beneficial nutrients and bacteria.

Which meant my week-old souring milk was just ripe for making yogurt.

Recipe for raw milk yogurt.

1. Heat the milk just before the point it's too hot to touch (you should be able to swirl your finger in it without discomfort), which is around 100˚ Fahrenheit.
2. Pour into a clean mason jar.
   
3. Add 1/4 cup of yogurt (I used Hawthorne Valley).
   
4. Cover and set it in the oven with the oven light (and pilot light) on. It needs to be maintained at about 95˚ for 8 hours. Or put it in a cooler with some hot water bottles.
   
5. Cool it in the refrigerator.
6. Mix in some fruit and honey for a delicious breakfast treat or enjoy plain.
   

And yes, raw milk is illegal to sell in New York. But you can join in a cow-share, or buy direct from a farm. Find more info at realmilk.com.

Trial and Error
I think I overheated the milk slightly and it came out a little chewy...more like a cottage cheese. But it's still pleasantly tangy and yummy.

hot dog salad

I'm busy! But I can still dream about my favorite author.

Borges loathed mirrors for their ability to reproduce realities. The puzzle I dreamed last night expanded on that idea. In the dream, a man was being interrogated for treason under a false name. The narrater spelled out the dilemma: If the man told the truth, there would remain two realities, the reality of the man and the reality of his alter ego, Nicolaus Krazinksy. And if he denied the truth, he would multiply the number of possible realities. My waking mind had to write it all down to decipher. 

The conclusion I finally came to: If  he lied, the realities number four. The reality of the man, the reality of Nicolaus, the reality of the man who lied about who he was, the reality of Nicolaus Krazinsky lying about who he is. 

A CSA Journal Entry

Saturday was the second pick-up from my CSA farm share and my first (and only) volunteer shift. (I split a half share with a friend which we collect every other week—although next year, I'm thinking it wouldn't be so bad to split a full share.)

This week's vegetable selection included two kinds of beets, summer squash, zucchini, kohlrabi, swiss chard (basically a top-heavy beet turns out!), mescaline mix, and arugula. Fruit included a quart of cherries, and a pint of plump little blueberries.

I also get an egg share (dozen every other week) and a flower share. I chose a bouquet of snapdragons and Sweet Williams. During the shift, I also picked up some knowledge on some other flowers I hadn't known the names of before. There were alyssum and the aforementioned Sweet Williams, as well as names I'd forgotten: cosmos, Queen Anne's lace, thistle, zinnia and black-eyed susans. Also cornflower, mums and wild grasses.

The challenge with a regular order of produce, of course, is to use it all before it spoils—which I didn't do as good a job last pick-up and ended with a quart of rotten strawberries and a sad, wilted rhubarb. So naturally I was determined to do some serious prep work at the beginning of this week.

Saturday afternoon, I trimmed, rinsed and packed all the greens. The berries looked like they would last as they were, so I just rinsed them to eat raw through the week. And I shopped and prepped around the ingredients I had. Over the past couple of days I picked up some sweet potatoes, pecans, sour cream, mint, a whole organic chicken, a hormone-free, vegetarian feed steak (the only option at the Greenpoint Met); and also cooked up a half bag of Rancho Gordo heirloom beans (which yielded maybe 3 or 4 cups).

Saturday was dinner at Wendy's. I made bean pâté with about a 1.5 cups of the beans. I fried up half an onion, chopped finely, half a pepper (which I inadvertently ended up macing myself with :( ), minced garlic, some salt, paprika, and black pepper. Then threw everything in a food processor. I used some of the reserve bean liquid to thin the paste, but it ended up being too watery, so threw in some chopped almonds Wendy had left over from making crumble topping. Came out pretty awesome and was even better on day two, with avocado.

Sunday, I separated the chicken parts, a leg, wing and breast meat for my dog Arlo. And made teriyaki chicken with the remaining limbs. I browned the chicken on medium high heat. Reduced temp to medium for glaze: equal parts tamari, mirin (I used half honey, half water), a spoonful of brown sugar, a couple drops of whiskey and waited for it get briskly bubbly. I returned the chicken to the pan and at the end also threw in some kale I had lying around. (And removed the livers and froze the leftover chicken carcass.) Served it with brown rice, beans, sweet potato. (Arlo had pretty much the same meal, less the teriyaki and oil). With luckily enough left over for lunch today.

Today, I started the brown rice as soon as I got home so it could cook while I walked Arlo. Then upon return, I scrubbed some sweet potatoes (lately the basis of Arlo's meals) and the beets (already trimmed the greens Saturday, remember?). I also started some garlic and onions cooking in a stockpot to make chicken stock from the chicken carcass. With the roots in the oven, and the chicken now browning, I sautéed some more onions in a separate pan for the chicken livers. Once the stock meat started browning, I added water, a few whole allspice, peppercorns, bay leaf, and maybe a quarter cup salt. After half an hour or so, I added all the leafy CSA cooking greens (Swiss chard and beet greens) which would add flavor to the stock as they cooked. And squash right at the end.

By this time, the livers were done, so I tossed them along with the garlic and onions in the food processor with a little sour cream. Didn't yield a ton from just a couple of livers, but enough for a quick snack tomorrow.

I also flash-broiled some of the beef for Arlo's dinner, and cut off a piece to marinate for tomorrow in some tamari, red wine vinegar (lacking rice wine), molasses, onions, garlic, miso and whiskey. Not sure how it'll taste, but I'll keep you posted!

Once the stock finished, I picked off the last bits of chicken—enough for a supermodel-sized taco, and will eventually strain and fill up a couple ice trays with it once it cools.

Total cooking time: 2.5 hours. Not bad for preparing two meals (four if you count Arlo's) and prepping for several more. Dinner was rice, greens, bean pâté, arugula. Arlo had half the beef, rice, whole beans, sweet potato, avocado and actually a few of the greens too.
(Total writing time, however, 45 minutes—not nearly as efficient.)

Tomorrow's lunch is greens, beets (to which I'll add sour cream and mint), sweet potatoes with butter and pecans, and rice.

Arlo has breakfast and dinner for tomorrow, and my steak will be ready to go tomorrow night—with a side of mescaline green, cherry tomato and arugula in a lemon-miso dressing (lemon, miso, honey, tamari).

Shew, ready for bed now.