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A Sustainable Wedding (and the recipe for Maple Mint Tea)

17 Aug

There is something profoundly sensible about a sustainable wedding celebration. After all, the idea that this unit of two (or in this case, three!) is meant to be self-sustaining, sustain each other, create a balanced environment where each member thrives…well, the symbolism is fairly obvious.

So when my dear friend Hatti, my classmate in my first year of college at The New School for Social Research in NYC (yes, I was always this bloody liberal and lefty, those of you who are familiar with the institution) and the first vegetarian-by-choice I had ever met, and Chris Moratz, inventor and climber and ceramics wonder, decided to get married, a sustainable wedding was in the works. We’re talking no waste, totally local, even the music was self-generated. It was glorious.

Stone Church

They live with Hatti’s daughter, Emma, in Gardiner, NY, near New Paltz, where the climbing is outstanding and the local agriculture is strong.

The view from the churchyard

Chris is German, so while the couple had married in a civil ceremony last year, they didn’t do the church wedding and the celebration until later, something done by many cultures around the world. They spent this past year doing all the house projects that needed doing in order to host the party at home.

The Stone Church up in the mountains in Cragsmoor was the ceremony site (Leandro and I were so very pleased with ourselves – not only did we get there without help from the GPS – Cragsmoor’s zipcode couldn’t be found! What is this? Brigadoon? — but we actually got there on time!)

Emma and Leandro

Yes, they really rode miles and miles home!

The party followed, later in the afternoon, once the happy couple had bicycled their way home (in 90 degree heat, mind you….I suppose it is zero emissions, but sweet Jesus, I couldn’t sustain that!).

The Party set up

The yard was quilted in tables and chairs and the odd tent, with local flowers in jam jars on every one. Folks arrived, many bringing local beers and wines, or food they had made at home. The buffet table was a massive spread of chicken and sausage from Old Ford Farm, vegetable and egg dishes from local farms (Oh My God, the coleslaw from Evolutionary Organics in New Paltz – coleslaw? yes, coleslaw – I had to pile my plate with it a couple of times, I kid you not). I don’t have too many of my own photos, because I was in charge of getting pictures onto Hatti’s camera while they mingled!

Lemon Raspberry Wedding Cake by Jennifer Vehaba

The lemon raspberry wedding cake was made by the caterer, Jennifer Vehaba, with ingredients from Wild Hive Farm, Clinton Corners, and again, Old Ford Farm, and it was just gorgeous all around.

It seems that every other person in their families and among their friends is some sort of a musician, so the jams sprang up all over the yard…

A note on the waste stream…all the plates and glasses were real, there was just one bag of trash at the end (and there were something like 150 people eating and drinking all night!), there was a bin for recyclables and another for food waste that the chickens would dispatch with.

The tea kept well overnight outside in this container!

The one recipe I came away with was for the astonishingly refreshing maple mint tea that Hatti and Chris invented. I must have drunk a gallon of it on my own, so I got the recipe and here it is, first as Hatti told me and then slightly more formalized.

“When I make the maple mint tea; I dry the leaves from the garden and then I make tea with boiling water and let it cool and I put in about a cup of maple syrup per gallon.”

Maple Mint Tea (remember that inspiration for drinking sangría out of jam jars? This was it)

Maple Mint Tea (Hatti Langsford and Chris Moratz)

1 Gallon peppermint/mint tea

1 Cup maple syrup

When the tea has cooled, add maple syrup. Mix well. Serve chilled over ice, and garnish with mint leaves, if you are so inclined.

Hatti and Chris’ tea was still delicious the next day, after spending a very warm day and night outside in a beverage cooler, so it’s safe to say that a smaller household amount will keep in the fridge a day or two. If it lasts that long!

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Party Snacks: Champiñones al ajillo (Mushrooms in Garlic Sauce)

14 Aug

Champiñones al ajillo (Mushrooms in Garlic Sauce) is a classic tapas dish from Spain. I can remember really digging these on my first trip to Spain, back when I was 18 and remarkably stupid and lucky and blessed with an exchange rate that got me lots of pesetas for my parents’ dollars. I’m still remarkably stupid, but everything else seems to have changed.

So it’s lovely to be able to recreate a dish that gave me much pleasure while I was realizing there was a whole ‘nother world beyond the confines of North America and to feel that, while change is inevitable, some things are good forever (at least in human understanding of forever).

Having said that, this dish is a bit different from what I had way back when. The sauce is more dense, the garlic more subtle. And instead of eating it standing up at a formica counter, with the funny afternoon light of old Madrid coming in the plate glass window, I eat the occasional forkful as I move around the kitchen getting the rest of dinner on the table. And instead of tossing the napkins on the floor for the owner’s son to occasionally sweep away from underfoot, I keep using the soggy paper towel by the sink until it is pretty useless. So I guess whatever I am trying to say is about as clear as mud, but hopefully it covers the ground.

Anyhoo, try this one. Enjoy it on a rimmed dish in the middle of the table, jabbing the mushroom bits with toothpicks and sopping up the sauce with crusty bread and drinking little stemless glasses of a rough and ready red, and have fun. Or use it to dress up a steak or burger. It’s easy enough to make, and the flavors may just transport you back to somewhere remembered or forward to somewhere you’d like to go.

Another Spanish mushroom in garlic sauce, with vegan option….

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil, plus 1 Tbs reserved

1 ½ Tbs flour

1 Cup broth (recommended – beef stock for carnivores, mushroom stock for vegans/vegetarians)

Pinch hot red pepper flakes

¼-1/2 tsp dried oregano (Or, more traditionally, 2 Tbs chopped fresh parsley)

1 tsp lemon juice (more to taste)

½ lb mushrooms, whole, sliced in half or in slices

Salt to taste

Heat garlic and 2 Tbs olive oil together at medium heat, turning down as soon as the garlic begins to color. Stir in the flour and mix to a paste. Cook one minute. Add the broth in a thin stream, stirring constantly to incorporate Then add the pepper, the oregano (or half the parsley) and lemon juice and stir until smooth and thick.

In a separate pan, heat remaining olive oil on high until quite hot. Add mushrooms and brown. Add mushrooms to the sauce and cook for five minutes. Add remaining parsley, if using, and serve.

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A Sangría Celebration (Three Varieties, One Delightful Party)

8 Aug

Robert Frost once said “Good fences make good neighbors.” He was absolutely correct; the better defined the boundaries, the easier it is to get along.

However, there are times when border crossings become extremely attractive and even critical to survival – such as when you’re home alone with a toddler during a hurricane, or when it’s been sweltering hot for days and on the other side of the fence there is a sparkling pool.

Fortunately for me and Leandro, our next-door neighbors have come through in the clutch on just such occasions. We spent a hurricane with them as well as a couple of heat wave days and not only were they lifesavers, but they were totally fun.

So it was time to show our appreciation. And what better way than to pass several gallons of several varieties of refreshing home-made sangría over the fence for an impromptu sangría-tasting pool party?

We did just that a couple of days ago, serving the sangría in honking big pickle jars (I was inspired to use them by a recent wedding in New Paltz that I’ll be blogging about soon, but the observant reader will quickly surmise that I have a lot of empty pickling jars because I haven’t been on the Ball about preserving and pickling this year…).

Each of the following three varieties had its fans among the tasters. My personal fave was the Pimm’s blend (Hail Brittannia), Allen and Lynne liked the tartness of the cranberry blend and Alyssa and Barbara demolished the white wine and Limoncello. Big plus about neighborly imbibing? No driving involved!

But I knew I had really made the grade when the college kids started sending instagrams of their drinks to their friends from their smart phones! A couple of said friends actually turned up at the house, having abandoned their barstools where they were actually spending their own money on sangría that was apparently not as good….

Red Wine and Pimm’s Sangría (a salute to Team GB and the London Olympics)

3 Litres light-bodied red wine (12 cups or 3 quarts) such as Pinot Noir or Chianti

7 Tbs mango orange juice

3-6 Tbs Pimm’s or orange flavored liquer like Grand Marnier

3 Tbs sugar

Mixed sliced fruit: apples, strawberries, peaches, nectarines, oranges, lemons

½ -1 Cup ginger ale or seltzer

In a large bowl or two pitchers, mix wine, juice, Pimms and sugar. Add fruit and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.  When ready to serve, top with ginger ale or seltzer, or let each individual top off their cup with their choice of fizzy drink. Use loads of ice!!!

 

Red Wine and Brandy Sangría (tart!)

1.5 litres red wine such as Pinot Noir or Chianti

4 Tbs cranberry juice

3 Tbs brandy or orange-flavored liquer

2 Tbs fresh-squeezed orange juice

1 Tbs sugar

Orange and lemon slices

¼-1/2 Cup ginger ale or seltzer

Mix everything except the orange and lemon slices and fizzy drink in a large bowl or pitcher. Add fruit, refrigerate for several hours or overnight. When ready to serve, top with ginger ale or seltzer, or let each individual top off their cup with their choice of fizzy drink. Use loads of ice…in the glasses.

 

Fruity White Wine and Limoncello Sangría

2.5-3 Litres dry white wine such as Sauvignon Blanc (I can’t drink Pinot Grigio because of headaches, but if you like it, it would work here)

4 Tbs Limoncello/limoncini

6 Tbs orange mango juice

Sliced peaches, nectarines, strawberries, apples, oranges, lemons

¼-1/2 Cup ginger ale or seltzer

Mix everything except the fruit slices and fizzy drink in a large bowl or pitcher. Add fruit, refrigerate for several hours or overnight. When ready to serve, top with ginger ale or seltzer, or let each individual top off their cup with their choice of fizzy drink. Pour over ice!

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Golden Tomato Pasta Sauce (freezeable! or make from frozen tomatoes…)

30 Jul

“Tis the season for the tomatoes to overwhelm. In fact, last year we were so overwhelmed that I had tomatoes in the freezer all winter. The texture isn’t as good as in the middle of summer, but the incomparable bright, fresh flavor is still there.

Yes, these icebergs are actually frozen golden tomatoes (yellow seems a bit more prosaic here). The freezer burn was minimal and the flavor was great!

So this is a terrific simple sauce that you can make from frozen or fresh. Instructions for blanching appear at the end!

Golden Tomato Sauce

Golden Tomato Pasta Sauce

¼ Cup extra virgin olive oil

1 Cup shallots, chopped

¼ tsp hot red pepper flakes

1 Tbs oregano (less if oregano is not your favorite; this is a pretty generous amount)

Pinch sugar

5 lbs golden tomatoes, cored, blanched and peeled*

10-20 basil leaves, chopped

Heat olive oil at medium-high in a heavy-bottomed soup pot until liquid and fragrant. Add shallots, stir to coat and lower heat to medium low. Cook, stirring occasionally, until shallots are soft and translucent. Stir in hot red pepper flakes, oregano and pinch sugar and cook one minute. Add tomatoes, bring to boil then lower to a lazy simmer and cook for an hour or until fat begins to separate from tomatoes and you have reaced desired consistency. Add basil leaves and cook for an additional five minutes. Serve over pasta, as pizza sauce or on bruschetta, or freeze in quart containers for another day.

*To blanch and peel tomatoes, set a big pot of water to boil. In the meantime, core the tomatoes and fill a big bowl with ice water. When the water is boiling, drop tomatoes in so they fit comfortably. They blanch in under a minute, generally. As soon as you see the peel start separating from the flesh, pull them out and drop into the ice water. You can leave the peel on if you are going to freeze them (in gallon freezer bags is fine) or peel once they have cooled to use immediately.

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Chickpea and Tahini Salad III (Perfect Picnic Salad)

21 Jul

I am forever putting together cold chickpea salads for the summer.

Tahini is, of course, one of my favorite condiments for this purpose. For the uninitiated, it is a sesame paste, very thick, that keeps for a long time in the fridge and is critical to Middle Eastern cuisine. A tablespoon adds a depth of flavor, a teeny bit on the bitter side, and a thickness or creaminess of texture to sauces and dressings that I like a lot. Try a basic dressing from a Mediterranean Buffet , a   version with soy sauce, or another with tomatoes and herbs. Which I guess means I should call this Chick Pea and Tahini Salad IV, but whatever!)

This time I had dill in the fridge needing to be used up so I figured I would try it. The result was fresh and good. Mint would be a terrific substitute or addition. You can really go in many directions with this one! You can mix it with rice or use it to top a green salad or just eat it right out of the mixing bowl with a spoon while standing in front of the fridge (not that I would ever do that. Uh-uh. Not me).

Light and fresh – perfect side for supper!

Chickpea and Tahini Salad III

1 Tbs lemon juice or red wine vinegar (start with half a tablespoon and increase to your taste)

1 Tbs tahini

1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

1 Tbs dill, chopped

28oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbs red onion (a quarter of a medium red onion), sliced thin

Mix or whisk lemon juice or vinegar and tahini together in a bowl. Add remaining ingredients and stir to mix well.

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Sauteed Golden Beets with Olive Oil, Garlic, and Parsley

18 Jul

If you are a glass-half-full kind of person, our beet harvest was great. If you are a glass-half-empty kind of person, then it pretty much sucked.

What happened was that each beet seed actually contains as many as eight little beet plants waiting to happen. We didn’t really understand that, didn’t thin them enough and ended up with fantastic, lush beet greens, but nothing at all in the root department.

Observe the only three actual beetROOTS we managed to harvest

Tiny, right?

If that doesn’t give you an idea, how about this comparison with our largest beetroot, and a golden beet from Restoration Farm (our CSA).

David and Goliath

But, the three little beetlets were very tasty…me, Pedro and Myrna each got a bite and what we got, we liked.

However, let’s go to the issue of the LARGE Golden Beets. We got a nice bunch from the farm and while I love my other recipes: with beet greens and orange, or with goat cheese, I wanted something new and easy. The beauty of beets is that you can roast them ahead (preferably in the cool of the evening) and make the dish a couple of days later. This was light yet satisfying and quite effortless. Pretty too!

Sauteed Golden Beets with Olive Oil, Garlic, and Parsley (inspired by Vegetables by James Peterson)

2 lbs beets, roasted and peeled*

2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbs finely chopped parsley

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Slice the beets into rounds, between  ¼ – and ½ -inch thick. Heat olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat until loose and fragrant.  Add garlic. When garlic begins to sizzle, slide in the beets and stir gently to cover. Cook for about five minutes, just to heat beets through. Sprinkle the parsley, salt and pepper over, cook for one more minute and serve.

*Beets are easy to roast. Preheat oven to 425°. Wrap unpeeled beets (with about an inch of stem) individually loosely in foil and roast for about an hour, until a fork goes through foil and beet easily. Allow to cool and then peel.

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Vegetarian Chili (or, yet another good bean recipe!)

16 Jul

I hesitate in summertime to do beans from dry because I don’t want to simmer anything for an hour in this heat! (I am sure a slow-cooker would be a solution, but I don’t have one and don’t have room for one). So, it’s cans for me, and if they have a pull-off top, even better. I want to minimize all movement in the Hazy, Hot, Humidity of a Long Island summer (Ditto for wine bottles…a screw top is high up on my ratings rubric right now; corks take too much work!)

In fact, I want to keep cooking to a minimum, so rather than season my ground beef or even have to defrost and simmer the pre-made stuff I have stocked in the freezer, my “chili” has gone vegetarian. I call it “chili” because I add chili powder, but I make no claims to authenticity. If you want to call it rice and beans with chili seasoning, by all means do. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” to quote a certain lovelorn 13-year-old from Verona.

Whatever you call it, it will be ready to eat in about 15 minutes, and I call that fast!

Vegetarian Chili (or rice and beans with chili powder!)

1 Tbs olive oil

½ medium onion, chopped fine (about 1/2 Cup)

½ medium red bell pepper chopped fine (about 1/2 Cup)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 heaping Tbs tomato paste

15.5 oz can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

½ tsp oregano

½ tsp chile powder

2 tsp chopped fresh cilantro

1 tsp thyme

Pinch red pepper flakes

1 bay leaf

Salt to taste

Heat olive oil at medium-high in a saucepan until loose and fragrant. Add onions, stir to coat and reduce heat to medium. Add red pepper and garlic and sauté for 5 minutes, or until vegetables are translucent and soft. Add tomato paste, stir in to coat and cook for a minute.  Stir in beans, oregano, chile powder, cilantro, thyme, red pepper flakes and bay leaf. Add ½ Cup water (more, if you want it more liquid) and cook for 15-20 minutes. Salt to taste and serve with white rice or wrapped in tortillas with cheese, shredded lettuce, salsa and all that fun Mexican restaurant-type stuff.

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Grilled Potato Disks (Like fries, only better!)

12 Jul

French fries are such a temptation, especially on the way back from the beach in the summer, when your mouth is salty, and the kids are encrusted with sand, and the sun is hot and you are tasting those carefree high school memories and suddenly you are driving past All-American Burger with all those crowds of similarly sand and salt encrusted summer folks lined up for their Quarter Pounder with Cheese and Fries…well, how could you not?

Well Pedro (yes, he of the crazy-ass diet) has come up with a worthy alternative that you can do on the grill at home. These grilled potato disks are crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside, and just seasoned enough to not need much else. They are my mom’s new favorite; sort of French fries with virtue. Because they are so simple, they go with virtually anything on the regular summer grill menu – burgers, steaks, fish, corn. Love it!

Grilled Potato Disks (Like fries, only better!)

1 Tbs olive oil

½ tsp Adobo powder

3 medium potatoes (Yukon Gold preferred), peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch rounds

While the grill is heating up, in a bowl, stir adobo and olive oil together. Brush the potatoes with the oil mixture and lay on grill, reserving  extra oil. Using tongs , take potatoes off grill when they begin to brown, about five minutes (as they will be spread over the whole grill, you will need to judge hotter and colder parts and shift potatoes accordingly). Dip them in the oil mixture, shake excess off gently and lay them back on the grill for another five minutes or so, until nicely browned. Serve sprinkled with salt, with ketchup or with mayo-chipo-ketchup.

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White Sangría (Finding a use for that sweet white wine you’ll never drink and can’t regift)

6 Jul

Disaster looms!

Sweaty, hot day, kids bringing up the blood pressure with the noise and the moaning and the constant warfare, and between you and your buddy, Beth, there is only one (big) bottle of sweet white wine for dinner prep.

I assume you realize that the wine is for the cooks, not for the cooking and that you know by now that sweet wine is not my thing.

This is a problem of great magnitude. A good cocktail between moms can do a great deal for a meal that is edible and thus brings us closer to World Peace.

The absence of anything worth drinking, however, is a problem. That still stops us (we have not yet crossed that line). Well, stops us temporarily. Only until we find some way to doctor up the unacceptable tipple into something that can properly take the edge off the day without getting us completely shellacked.

Fear not…with a minimum of ingredients you can transform that icky, sticky, sweet syrup into a pitcher of refreshing, well-balanced and pretty cocktails with a perfect harmony of sweet and tart. You might even share with Beth’s husband. See, now everybody’s happy.

Behold….White Sangría. Ahhhh.

White Sangría with Sweet White Wine

3 cups sweet white wine

1 orange

1 lemon

 five slivered strawberries

1/4 cup seltzer

Pour wine into pitcher (you can pour it over ice if you like, or make it straight up and then pour into ice-filled glasses, depending on how diluted you want it).

Wash the outside of the orange and lemon and take some of the zest off with a peeler and toss in pitcher. Reserve additional zest for your next pitcher. Peel orange and lemon, and cut in half. Reserve one half of each for your next pitcher. With the active halves, squeeze a bit of juice into the pitcher, then remove pith and chunk up. Toss orange and lemon chunks into pitcher. Stir, add strawberry slices, top with seltzer (club soda), give it a whirl and start pouring!

 

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Funchi: Polenta the (Easier) Aruban Way

20 Jun

You may know that my dad is from Aruba, One Happy Island.

If you are not familiar with Aruba, it is part of the Netherlands Antilles, about 13 nautical miles off the coast of Venezuela (18 or so regular miles), south of the Caribbean hurricane zone, and notable for its absence of rainfall and its white sand beaches and crystalline waters. With sunshine guaranteed year-round, it is extremely popular with honeymooners and northern folks from wet places who want to know their vacation dollars won’t be wasted on a week in a monsoon.

It’s a gorgeous little place – and I mean little – Aruba is about 30 km (19 miles) long and about 8 km (5 miles) wide. You can drive around the island and dispatch with most of your touristic cultural obligations in about half a day, and return in good conscience to your beach towel for the duration of your stay.

Mind you, the natives, while welcoming, may make you wonder what your own educational system is doing wrong. Virtually everyone in Aruba speaks English well, in addition to Papiamento – the local language-, Dutch – which they study in school, and Spanish – which most people speak and understand tolerably well. Yeah, four languages per person is par for the course. Just putting it out there.

Pedro’s always made Aruban dishes here at home, and one of my favorite sides in the world is funchi – a corn meal mush that gourmands will recognize it as a close cousin of polenta. Lazy – I mean pragmatic – cooks like myself will recognize it as a lot less work than said continental cousin. Rather than spending a sweaty half hour or more over a steaming copper pot busting your biceps turning it with a wooden spoon, this takes about ten minutes and the results are very satisfactory.

Grilled in slabs…yum!

Then you can pile any number of savory dishes on the top – fish with onion and pepper sauce (mojo isleno) is one of the most popular. I love slabs of it grilled; it makes the inside creamier and the outside crunchier, like  surullitos or corn fritters, without the grease.

Since Pedro decided to abandon his crazy-ass diet for lunch on Father’s Day (and then promptly wrote me out of the food prep), I decided to make him some heritage food. You can check out the original VisitAruba recipe I adapted this from by clicking the link (and troll around the page to learn more about this tiny paradise). Be it known that Pedro provided critical advice for this, so while it is made by a second-generation Aruban (me), it was supervised by an real-live authentic native. And it was a terrific success — dear old Padushi started speaking Papiamento right away. Dushi! Masha bon, danki……

Topped with grilled salmon – not quite an Aruban traditional dish, but delicious just the same…Funchi is as adaptable as any Caribbean Islander

Funchi (Aruban Polenta)

1 ¼ Cups cold water

1 ½ Cups coarse/stone ground corn meal

½ tsp salt

1.5 Cups boiling water

1 Tbs olive oil (plus a little bit for greasing a mold or bowl to turn the funchi into)

In a heavy saucepan, mix cold water, corn meal, and salt. When relatively smooth, with no big lumps, stir in the boiling water and oil and bring to a rapid boil. Lower heat to medium low and continue to cook, stirring continuously, for another five minutes, or until the mixture is stiff and pulling away from the sides. Turn the funchi into a greased mold or bowl and cover with a plate. Turn it over onto the plate and allow to cool slightly before scooping out and serving. Or allow to cool completely, cut into one inch slices, brush with oil and grill until crisp on both sides.

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