Boeuf bourguignon

My book group's latest selection was My Life in France by Julia Child. We combined our discussion on Sunday with a potluck of dishes from both volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. As a meat newbie, I, of course, picked boeuf bourguignon. (Well, I was sort of volunteered...)

And as someone who tries to buy locally as much as possible, I was determined to get the beef at the Dupont farmers market on Sunday morning. (The carrots, onion, and bacon for the dish were also purchased from local farmers.)

Buying the meat from a local producer was certainly something Julia would have done. In fact, she was on a first-name basis with many of the vendors at the Paris markets. She learned a lot from them about when different produce was in season, how to use this or that ingredient, where to get the best of a certain item, etc. I would love to develop similar relationships with the farmers and volunteers who staff the markets in DC, though my personality is not quite as outgoing as Julia's!

I bought nearly three pounds of chuck roast from Smith Meadows Farm, brought it home, defrosted it, and realized there were several bones in the meat. Now, I have no experience cutting meat. In fact, yesterday was the first time I have probably ever touched raw meat. But with a very sharp knife and some patient guidance from my boyfriend, I was able to trim off most of the meat. The bones are in my freezer right now, waiting to be turned into stock. I think Julia would have been proud.

She also would have been proud that we made a delicious dish despite the many obstacles we faced, including an oven that wouldn't stay on (we had to keep turning the broiler on and off while monitoring the temperature), forgotten ingredients, lack of an ovenproof lid, minor burns, and a severe time crunch. We were only 30 minutes late to book group (never mind the spilled sauce on the way), where a feast of baguettes, spinach and cheese souffle, French onion soup, brussels sprouts with cream sauce, and asparagus with beurre blanc and Hollandaise sauces awaited us. The chocolate mousse we brought for dessert was also a big hit and included eggs from Ecofriendly Foods.

A Onetime Vegetarian

On Sunday, my boyfriend and I made fettuccine bolognese with three kinds of meat, all from the farmers market (ground veal from Smith Meadows Farm in Berryville, VA, and ground pork and bacon from Cedarbrook Farm in West Virginia). This was very exciting for me, since I recently ended an 18-year streak of vegetarianism (well, pescatarianism) for partly this reason.

I stopped eating meat cold turkey (pardon the pun; I can't help myself) in eighth grade after doing a report on animal rights and factory farming. I never really missed meat, though my family thought I would crack the next time a major holiday rolled around and my dad made ham (which, by the way, I ate last Christmas for the first time since then—I forgot how good it was!). But I wasn't even really tempted, until recently.

Two major factors influenced my decision to eat meat again. One was Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingsolver, and the similar writers who are advocating for a more sustainable approach to eating real foods, including meat, and in some cases growing them yourselves, or at least having a relationship with the people who grow your food and knowing more about where your food comes from. I was already buying much of my produce from the farmers market, and I started thinking it might be worth trying to incorporate a bit of humanely, sustainably raised meat into my diet.

The second factor was an increasing desire to try new things. I read somewhere in high school that the Japanese have a belief that every new food you eat adds 75 days to your life. I can't for the life of me find this on Google now, but it definitely stuck with me that I was choosing a very limited path by eschewing all meat. Over the past few years, when asked why I was a vegetarian, I would answer honestly: habit. Habit did not seem like a very compelling reason to avoid trying new things.

So, I started slowly trying various kinds of meat, starting with a bite of duck from a friend's plate at a Thai restaurant. And since then, I have tried a lot of different things. A. Lot. I would venture to say I will try almost anything (that goes for non-meat items too). Though I am qualifying the word "anything" to ward off absolutely ridiculous suggestions, I have already eaten head cheese, beef tendon, pig's ear, tripe, sweetbreads, and lamb brains, so I'm not sure what is left.

I haven't loved everything, but I have also not regretted trying anything. In fact, it's been really exciting having a whole new food world open up for me and gaining new favorite foods, not to mention winning the respect of hard-core foodies and/or adventurous eaters.

But to get back to the fettuccine bolognese, one thing I had not yet tried was buying and cooking meat that I knew for sure was raised locally in a way that was humane and environmentally sustainable. And I am glad that I did, because the pasta was delicious.

We basically used this Mario Batali recipe, though we added extra bacon, did not include ground beef, used extra carrots instead of celery (because we didn't have any celery), skipped the broth, and added extra tomatoes. The carrots and onions were also purchased at the farmers market, from Twin Springs Farm, one of my favorites.

Featuring winter vegetables...

Yesterday's snowstorm in the DC area felt like the start of winter, despite what the calendar says. So tonight I made dinner featuring two classic winter vegetables: sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts.

The sweet potatoes were part of a black bean chili from Eating Well. Usually I find their recipes too bland, but this is one of my winter standbys. (This might have something to do with my secret ingredient—hot lime pickle from the Indian market, instead of ground chipotle.)

I used sweet potatoes that I picked up on the last day of the Mt. Pleasant farmers market. (Unfortunately, everything else was from the grocery store.)

I also made brussels sprouts for the first time, using a Mark Bittman recipe. I had intended to roast them, but this was faster and, as a bonus, called for butter.

I actually halved the brussels sprouts, even though the recipe calls for them to be cooked whole. I thought they were better halved, but Bittman does warn they are easier to overcook that way.

The only thing I really changed about the recipe is that I threw on some shallot pepper from Penzey's. I'm not sure if it really added anything, but I forgot I had it and wanted to use it on something.

I thought the brussels sprouts turned out really well. I've never been a huge fan, but I've tried them a few times roasted and now braised, and I'm liking them more and more. This was a really easy recipe, too, that will definitely be added to the winter rotation.

Sweet potatoes and caramelized onions

Okay, I am going to come right out and admit that this is not the most appetizing picture I have ever posted. But this recipe for sweet potatoes and caramelized onions is so, so good. And, it takes full advantage of produce in ample supply at the farmers markets.

The recipe is from The Kitchn. Here are two things I did differently:

1. I used a mix of sweet potatoes, mostly because of what I had on hand. I used a Japanese sweet potato, a white sweet potato (is there a difference? The texture felt a little different when it was raw...), and a regular orange sweet potato. I couldn't tell a difference in taste or texture once they were all cooked though.

2. I used three onions (one yellow and two sweet) rather than the two onions the recipe called for because, well, I read the recipe wrong. But you know what? The more caramelized onions, the better. (I added a bit of extra oil to compensate.)

I served this with salad, but obviously it's a great side dish. Tomorrow I will be having it with brown rice for lunch.

Lunch on a day off

Wow. It has been more than a month since I last posted. While I certainly have been cooking during that time, I definitely have been slacking on all-local meals.

That's not to say I have not been using local ingredients. I've made roasted Japanese sweet potatoes (which I procured at the Crystal City farmers market) with miso-scallion butter. I've made sesame-garlic soba noodles with fried local eggs. I've made cannellini beans with local kale and garlic. But I didn't post about any of those, because I felt like they didn't really count.

As winter approaches, it is going to become even more difficult to make entire meals from local ingredients (especially since I did not try my hand at canning this summer like I had planned). So I plan to keep featuring local ingredients in my meals, but I'm going to give myself much more slack on using store-bought ingredients.

Which brings me to today's lunch. I have the day off from work, so I decided to take advantage of actually being able to cook at lunch. I had a bowl of local yellow cherry tomatoes slowly dying on my countertop, so I roasted them (halved lengthwise) with olive oil, salt, and pepper. When they were done (or rather, when I was hungry—about an hour), I added a bit more olive oil and some chopped chives (another farmers market purchase that needed to be used pronto). This became the topping for some homemade pasta from Radius, a great restaurant in Mt. Pleasant a couple of blocks from my apartment.

The results: delicious. I wish all weekday lunches could be like this.

Local farmers

Okay, this is not a post about me cooking anything local. In fact, when I recently had a chance to bring a dish to a potluck baby shower for a friend who is a farmer, what did I bring? Store-bought hummus and pita. Busy Labor Day weekend.

But I did want to mention that said farmer friend was featured on Serious Eats' "Meet Your Farmers" series. Check it out!

(By the way, much of the produce at the baby shower was from my friend's Frog Bottom Farm. And it was delicious.)

A simple local meal

Okay, it's been a busy couple of weeks for me, and I haven't had much time to cook, much less post.

But I was inspired by my friend Brianne. She just traveled all over the U.S. and Europe and blogged about what she did and, most importantly, what she ate.

Some of the meals she ate in Europe were so simple yet sounded so delicious, featuring local produce, cheeses, breads, etc. Very Alice Waters—local ingredients at their peak prepared simply.

So I made a very simple lunch of Russian banana potatoes (which I had to buy just based on the name), a freshly hard-boiled egg (still warm!), a sliced heirloom tomato with salt and pepper, some blackberries, and a few pieces of cheese. The potatoes were boiled and then tossed with some local butter, salt, pepper, and garlic chives.

The meal was delicious. If only I had eaten it in Paris.