Faux-Curry and Genuine Stir-fry

After almost a month of local eating, we are still discovering new tastes and directions in cooking. I think we must have been missing eating the "exotic" tastes Indian and Chinese cooking. This probably has something to do with not eating out for almost a month. So, I set out to create a faux-curry, something that sounds pretty hard without spices like cumin, turmeric, coriander (not yet!), ginger, cloves, cardamom, etc. etc. etc.

The result was this:

















Let me try to remember all that was in it:

potatoes (yukon gold fingerlings)
edamame
beet greens and stems
onion
garlic
butter
almond butter (with honey)
tomato sauce
cayenne pepper
cilantro (frozen in cubes)
salt
served over wheat berries cooked like rice

I guess it was kind of a spicy chunky stew/stirfry/sauce, or, just maybe, a curry. I give full credit to the almond butter-cilantro-tomato combo. And the garlic and cayenne probably didn't hurt.

The wheat berries were good too, although they were much more chewy that rice. Actually, I burned some of them and these crispy wheat berries taste really good with milk as cereal. One day I'll make a cereal or granola mix with crispy baked wheat berries, popcorn, and almonds.

Then, the next night, Julie made a delicious edamame-corn-and more stir-fry served over breaded, fried eggplant that tasted like it had soy sauce on it!

















I had never made a successful stir-fry, or even known that there was a specific technique(s) associated with it. At the beginning of this month, I was afraid I might be eating the same omelet or vegetable stew, day after day. I was wrong. I think I like vegan cooking and local cooking for the same reason--the more limited selection forces you to be creative.

Red Herring Local Day Recap

The Local food day at the Red Herring Vegetarian Restaurant was a big success. Many thanks to Chad and Lisa who made the idea a reality, and to Amy who did some great last minute publicity for the event. (Channel 3 news WCIA showed up and did a story on the event).

For us, the best part was eating food that wasn't made by us! In the picture is the basil stir-fry, cornbread, and mashed sweet potatoes with green beans, all local.* There were also two local soups, butternut squash and potato leek.

The other best part, was seeing labels for all of dishes, which showed where every ingredients came from. How great is that? Full traceability. Some people don't want to know what is in their hot dog or chicken nuggets. Give me all the nitty gritty details! Here are pictures of the ingredients' places of origin:

(click for larger versions)









Wouldn't it be great if all restaurants did this? Each dish would be a story of soil, water, sun, farmers, trucks, trains, or ships, distance, freezers, cans, microorganisms, and so on.

*the corn for the cornmeal was grown in ohio but milled in illinois. see the ingredients lists for the rest of the exceptions.

The beginning

Well, our month of local eating began on Tuesday, September 4, 2007. At this point, it doesn't really seem like a huge deal, or even a challenge. I'm on the last chapter of Plenty, a book written by a couple in Vancouver, B.C. who ate local (100-miles) food for a whole year. Our month-long challenge seems like small beans compared to that. I mean, this is September, the peak of the harvest; the farmers market is overflowing with produce--and yet there are challenges, which I'll be writing about in the coming weeks.

We have been planning and preparing for this month since June, transitioning away from our comfortable tofu, Earth Balance buttery spread, and nutritional yeast to eggs, real butter, and real cheese. I had been preparing for a month without flour--without bread, pasta, pancakes, pizza crust, muffins, cake, but most importantly, TOAST. When I found out that our food co-op has been selling flour milled from wheat grown in Illinois all along, I thought that the month would be a piece of cake.

So far, it hasn't been too tough--just a bit of time involved. Meals have been:

Day 1
Breakfast: Toast with butter, tomato goat cheese spread, muskmelon
Lunch: Spicy Sage Butternut Squash Soup, Michigan Spicy Stew, Peaches
Dinner: Eggs with or without Jalapeno and Roasted Poblano Pepper with "Prairie Burn" Goat Cheese
Snacks: Roasted salted butternut squash seeds

Day 2
Breakfast: Toast with butter, muskmelon, eggs
Lunch: Spicy Sage Butternut Squash Soup, Baked Potato with cheese, butter, and chives, peaches
Dinner: Pizza with spinach, peppers, garlic, caramelized onion, and a tomato sauce
Dessert: Raspberry Muskmelon Honey Popsicle

Day 3
Breakfast: Fried Potato-Onion Balls, Scrambled eggs, Toast with butter and almond butter
Lunch: Michigan Spicy Stew, Baked Potato with cheese, butter, and chives
Dinner: Rosemary-scented Polenta with spinach, eggplant, orange tomatoes, and shallots; with a tomato sauce
Snacks: Honey sticks, roasted salted butternut squash seeds

Coming up next: recipes; making sauerkraut, pickles, and wine; and spices!

Month of local eating begins!

The purpose of this site is to document our experiment with eating local--within 100 miles--of Urbana, Illinois. The "official" experimentation period will be one month, September 2007, but learning and research starts right away and will carry on after the experiment is over. The goal is to become more informed about where our food comes from and how we can establish connections with local food growers, processors, and sellers.

We'll document here our experiences searching out flour, butter, and oil; preparing pizza, pasta, and polenta; making sauerkraut, pickles, and wine; and the day-to-day challenges and rewards of eating local food for one month.