So as promised, here's the story about my attempt at making a seasonal/regional dish for my ESF class. As I mentioned in the previous post, Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma has helped our class think about challenging the mass production/fast food industry. In his book, Pollan recounts his personal quest to make a meal solely from ingredients he hunted, gathered and grew himself.
Told in his often humorous and always deeply personal voice, Pollan describes his first hunting experience for wild boar in the woods of Sonoma County. With a few new friends as guides, Pollan ventures into the woods with mixed feelings of excitement and trepidation. He describes how being surrounded by nature and toting a powerful firearm gave him unexpected feelings of power and accute awareness. He felt like a hunter.
After a couple of failed attempts, Pollan finally shoots a massive sow. The adrenaline coursing through his veins gave him a feeling of such empowerment that he proudly posed for a picture next to his kill. However, this feeling of pride soon turned into disgust as he helped his friend gut and behead the boar. He began to wonder if he would ever actually be able to eat it. Fortunately, his friend stored the boar for him in his personal walk-in freezer for a few weeks before Pollan had to cook it.
The next step was to gather wild mushrooms. With all the media hype about dozens of American families dying from poison mushrooms, Pollan was a little hesitant to use them in his meal. He enlisted the help of a local mushroom expert, who helped him gather power fire morels in the Eldorado National Forest.
Another ingredient he tried to obtain locally was salt. As a Berkeley resident, he drove across the bay to the salt marshes at the base of the San Mateo Bridge. To his disgust, he discovered how much junk and litter there is in the salt marshes. Undeterred, he scraped some salt into a container and took it home. At home he tried evaporating the chemicals out of the salt by placing it over a fire. He tried to taste it and immediately gagged. The salt "tasted so metallic...that it actually made me gage, and required a chaser of mouthwash to clear from my tongue" (Pollan, 394). If that's not disgusting, I don't know what is. At least he tried though.
Finally, he used vegetables from his personal garden to add to the meal.
When the day came for Pollan's personally hunted/gathered/grown meal, he had to spend an entire frantic day in the kitchen. His menu included:
Fortunately by this time, Pollan was able to get over his disgust with the boar. He stopped seeing it as a dead animal, and saw it as food. In sum, Pollan managed to throw together a wonderful dinner for his guests, including his family and those who helped him gather his ingredients.
Unfortunately, my hunting rifle is in the shop, so I can't hunt and my garden is out of commission, so I'll have to use someone else's crops.
I don't consider myself a chef, by any means. So when I heard that we have to cook another meal, this time with seasonal/regional ingredients, I thought: fml. With the end of the school year just around the corner and finals, papers, projects piling up on me, I didn't have time to learn how to cook. What can I make that is simple, seasonal, regional and at least somewhat palatable?
And then it came to me: mom's famous fruit salad. There's only one problem, the ingredients. My mom's Filipino fruit salad is made with canned fruit cocktail, coconut, pineapple, condensed milk and cream cheese. Because I don't exactly have a grove of tropical fruit trees growing in my backyard, I had to improvise.
Thus today, I hopped on the 5 Muni to the Heart of the City Farmers Market in the Civic Center. I didn't exactly have a shopping list in mind. I just figured I'd pick up all the fruits that I can.
It was a gorgeous day and there were plenty of people there looking for some fresh and local food. I've been to the Farmers Market a couple of times before, so I knew that I was going to get some quality produce from bargain prices.
Not bad. On the way back to school, I dropped by Lucky (don't judge me) to buy something to replace the condensed milk and cream cheese in my mom's recipe. Finally, I found a couple of boxes of instant vanilla pudding. While it may not be seasonal, it is regional. It comes from Sunny Select farms in Lathrop. I also used milk from Clover Stornetta Farms in Petaluma.
2 boxes of pudding mix= $2
As soon as I got back to the residence hall, I rushed down to the kitchen. I washed all of the fruit and began to cut them up. I think the most tedious part was de-pitting the cherries. I put all of the cut fruit in a bowl. In another bowl, I made added the milk to the pudding mix and voila! Pudding!
So for $11.75, not including the milk which was paid for with my meal plan (therefore, not real money), I was able to make a vanilla pudding fruit salad. Can't wait to see what everyone else is bringing tonight!
I'll be sure to post pictures of other people's dishes later!
Michael Pollan
Pollan's MealTold in his often humorous and always deeply personal voice, Pollan describes his first hunting experience for wild boar in the woods of Sonoma County. With a few new friends as guides, Pollan ventures into the woods with mixed feelings of excitement and trepidation. He describes how being surrounded by nature and toting a powerful firearm gave him unexpected feelings of power and accute awareness. He felt like a hunter.
After a couple of failed attempts, Pollan finally shoots a massive sow. The adrenaline coursing through his veins gave him a feeling of such empowerment that he proudly posed for a picture next to his kill. However, this feeling of pride soon turned into disgust as he helped his friend gut and behead the boar. He began to wonder if he would ever actually be able to eat it. Fortunately, his friend stored the boar for him in his personal walk-in freezer for a few weeks before Pollan had to cook it.
The next step was to gather wild mushrooms. With all the media hype about dozens of American families dying from poison mushrooms, Pollan was a little hesitant to use them in his meal. He enlisted the help of a local mushroom expert, who helped him gather power fire morels in the Eldorado National Forest.
Another ingredient he tried to obtain locally was salt. As a Berkeley resident, he drove across the bay to the salt marshes at the base of the San Mateo Bridge. To his disgust, he discovered how much junk and litter there is in the salt marshes. Undeterred, he scraped some salt into a container and took it home. At home he tried evaporating the chemicals out of the salt by placing it over a fire. He tried to taste it and immediately gagged. The salt "tasted so metallic...that it actually made me gage, and required a chaser of mouthwash to clear from my tongue" (Pollan, 394). If that's not disgusting, I don't know what is. At least he tried though.
Finally, he used vegetables from his personal garden to add to the meal.
Pollan and his son, Issac, in their garden
When the day came for Pollan's personally hunted/gathered/grown meal, he had to spend an entire frantic day in the kitchen. His menu included:
Fava Bean Toasts and Sonoma Boar Pate
Egg Fettucine with Power Fire Morels
Braised Leg and Grilled Loin of Wild Sonoma Pig
Wilde East Bay Yeast Levain
Very Local Garden Salad
Fulton Street Bing Cherry Galette
Claremont Canyone Chamomile Tisane
2003 Angelo Garro Petite Syrah
Fortunately by this time, Pollan was able to get over his disgust with the boar. He stopped seeing it as a dead animal, and saw it as food. In sum, Pollan managed to throw together a wonderful dinner for his guests, including his family and those who helped him gather his ingredients.
My Meal
As I mentioned above, our class assignment was to make a seasonal/regional dish to share with the class and to publically/digitally document the process. So here it is.
Unfortunately, my hunting rifle is in the shop, so I can't hunt and my garden is out of commission, so I'll have to use someone else's crops.
I don't consider myself a chef, by any means. So when I heard that we have to cook another meal, this time with seasonal/regional ingredients, I thought: fml. With the end of the school year just around the corner and finals, papers, projects piling up on me, I didn't have time to learn how to cook. What can I make that is simple, seasonal, regional and at least somewhat palatable?
And then it came to me: mom's famous fruit salad. There's only one problem, the ingredients. My mom's Filipino fruit salad is made with canned fruit cocktail, coconut, pineapple, condensed milk and cream cheese. Because I don't exactly have a grove of tropical fruit trees growing in my backyard, I had to improvise.
Thus today, I hopped on the 5 Muni to the Heart of the City Farmers Market in the Civic Center. I didn't exactly have a shopping list in mind. I just figured I'd pick up all the fruits that I can.
Civic Center Farmers Market
It was a gorgeous day and there were plenty of people there looking for some fresh and local food. I've been to the Farmers Market a couple of times before, so I knew that I was going to get some quality produce from bargain prices.
I got:
A bag of ripe cherries= $1
White peaches= $3
Cutie mandarins and apricots= $2.75
A crate of strawberries= $3
Not bad. On the way back to school, I dropped by Lucky (don't judge me) to buy something to replace the condensed milk and cream cheese in my mom's recipe. Finally, I found a couple of boxes of instant vanilla pudding. While it may not be seasonal, it is regional. It comes from Sunny Select farms in Lathrop. I also used milk from Clover Stornetta Farms in Petaluma.
2 boxes of pudding mix= $2
4 cartons of milk= $4.80 (the cafeteria is a rip off)
As soon as I got back to the residence hall, I rushed down to the kitchen. I washed all of the fruit and began to cut them up. I think the most tedious part was de-pitting the cherries. I put all of the cut fruit in a bowl. In another bowl, I made added the milk to the pudding mix and voila! Pudding!
So for $11.75, not including the milk which was paid for with my meal plan (therefore, not real money), I was able to make a vanilla pudding fruit salad. Can't wait to see what everyone else is bringing tonight!
I'll be sure to post pictures of other people's dishes later!