Battle of the (Coffee) Beans

I've previously made note of Dan's coffee habit and my opinion that everyone should make their coffee at home. The theory is that homemade is no more time consuming than stopping at your favorite coffee shop, cheaper (even accounting for high quality and fair trade beans), and far better tasting. To confirm the "better tasting" notion, A Peaceful Plate has conducted a blind taste test with six coffees intended to represent a broad spectrum of what folks out there may drink.

The Players
Myself and Dan along with Nescafe Instant, a Chock Full O' Nuts can, a medium roast blend brewed in a Flavia machine (for those of you with single-serving machines like Keurig), a regular coffee from Starbucks, Dan's fair trade Peruvian beans ground a week prior and stored in a plastic baggie, and Dan's fair trade Peruvian beans ground just before the tasting.

All coffees were tasted black, without added cream or sugar.

The Method
Dan and I served each other small pours of each type of coffee in random order; the drinker never had knowledge of which type they were given. The server took notes as the drinker reacted to each coffee and described it's aroma and flavor.

The Hypothesis
As with any good scientific study, we had a hypothesis.  You can probably guess what it was: the fresh ground Peruvian beans will taste the best.

The Results

	Katy's Reaction	Dan's Reaction
Nescafe Instant	bad small - terrible!!!!!!; too strong; could barely drink it	fruity smell; interesting; doesn't taste as good as it smells; doesn't make me want to drink more
Chock Full O' Nuts can	it's pretty and frothy; some smoothness but a bitter flavor	deep burnt smell; good round flavor in front; way too bitter at the end
Flavia (Medium Roast)	good smell; some sweetness; makes my mouth feel very dry and is too bold	sweet smell; disappointing; not bold or as strong as expected; tasted like it's been sitting in a paper cup
Starbucks (Regular Black Coffee)	watery texture; not a lot of flavor; like warm water with some bitterness	no real smell; finishes clean; good but not flavorful - middle of the road
Fair Trade Peruvian Ground 1 Week Ago And Stored In A Plastic Baggie	no scent; not bad; just ho-hum	very little smell, nutty?; some bitterness and some dryness; stale
Fair Trade Peruvian Ground On The Spot	burnt stinky smell; taste is SMOOTH; rich flavor; VERY GOOD	decent smell, richness; "aaaahhhh this is delicious"; good taste; very little bitterness

I must confess my biggest worry as a participant was that my novice coffee tastebuds would betray me and prefer Nescafe Instant just as a novice wine drinker might be over the moon about a White Zinfandel. I can recall drinking exactly five cups of real coffee in my life: four cappuccinos and one espresso during a trip to Italy in 2009. Tall, skim, no-whip lattes and mochas from Starbucks don't count as "real". While I did not enjoy the smell of the freshly ground Peruvian beans, it is clear that Dan and I both found the taste to be superior. I want to emphasize that word again, because it truly was superior - none of the others even came close.

Hypothesis: Proven.

An Adventurous Plate: Celery Root

There is a fabulous market in nearby Ellicott City once a month.  It's called the Second Sunday Market, and occurs on dates in accordance with it's name.  My first visit was earlier this October - I was attracted by the promise of "exotic vegetables" being sold by a local French restaurant and I was not disappointed! I left with a bunch of lovely golden beets and a handful of parsnips for roasting, but my favorite find was an oft-passed-up and underappreciated vegetable called celery root.

About Celery Root
The knobby celery root is not going to win any beauty contests, but like the very best ugly ducklings, it surprises us in the end.

A chef was presiding over the exotic vegetable stand and she so heartily recommended the celery root that I had to take it.  She encouraged me to take a pre-purchase sniff and I was overcome with the aroma, of all things, of celery.  Not of a watery, pale green stalk for filling space in soups, but of something much brighter. It smelled fresh, of the earth, and salty.  

About The Soup

I looked for a recipe to do justice to my celery root upon arriving at home and came up with a soup that looked promising: Butternut Squash and Celery Root Soup.  My recipe is below, followed more or less from whatwouldcathyeat.com.

1 butternut squash

1 celery root

1 large onion

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

6 fresh sage leaves

1 cup dry white wine

7 cups vegetable stock

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Peel and cube the squash and celery root.  Toss it in a roasting pan with a bit of the olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper.  Spread it in a single layer in the pan (use multiple pans if you are like me and don't own any giant ones) and roast it until it's tender and starting to brown, about 25 minutes.

Heat a bit more olive oil in the pot you want to make your soup in.  Sauté the onion, red pepper flakes, and sage until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add the wine and cook until it's reduced by half.  Add the stock and the roasted vegetables and simmer the whole thing for about 10 minutes.  Let it cool a bit and use your immersion blender to smooth the soup.  Season as you like, I would recommend a bit of pepper but no salt as the celery root has a salty taste of it's own. 

I enjoyed eating this soup so much, I actually felt a pang of sadness when we finished the pot.  And an added bonus?  No trash!  Save your vegetable scraps for stock, enjoy a glass of wine with dinner, and there is nothing to throw away.

About The Bread

You may have noticed a slice of bread in the picture above, and it should not go without mention.  It was part of a fresh-baked black olive and rosemary loaf from The Little French Market, a restaurant also representing itself at Second Sundays, and it was good. Good with olive oil. Good with Earth Balance. Yummy in the soup. Great by itself.  

If you attend the market, make sure to buy a loaf; at least take the time to snack on a sample (although you won't be able to leave without buying more).  Be aware that the bread stand is not for the faint-of-heart, as local bees seem to have caught on to the wonderful fresh-baked smells and told all of their bee friends.  

A Scrappy Plate: Vegetable Broth

My grandparents must have had vivid memories of "going without" during the Great Depression. They tended to squirrel away free napkins and ketchup packets from McDonald's to use with casual dinners. No screw, bolt, or twist-tie was thrown out. Junk mail and it's containing envelopes were saved for scrap paper, and gifts were unwrapped so carefully that the paper could be used again next year (if they had to be unwrapped at all - Nanny's technique was to wrap the box top only so it could be lifted off and the entire ensemble reused).  I remember these habits fondly.

What Happened?
American's attitudes regarding waste have changed dramatically in a mere two generations. According to the EPA, the U.S. sent 33 million tons (that's 66,000,000,000 pounds) of food to landfills in 2009.  This includes food we put on our plate but can't finish.  It's leftovers that spoil, fresh produce that isn't stored properly or used quickly enough, and it's also money.  Not eating the food you buy is literally throwing away your money. Most of us wouldn't pay for a new shirt and toss it, unworn, into the garbage two weeks later, but we are much more careless with food.

What Can We Do?
We can work on buying only what we need. Planning meals for the week in advance and having a list at the store can make a world of difference.  We can also practice storing vegetables and fruits so that they last longer.  Try putting them in an airy basket.  I have had success using green bags.  We can prepare food and freeze it before it goes bad if we find we have bought more than we can eat.  We can also repurpose would-be food waste and use it as compost.  Or, as I have recently discovered, we can sometimes use food waste to make new food.

Make Broth
I usually buy the quart-size low-sodium vegetable broth cartons at Trader Joe's, and I like to stock up (no pun intended) as winter - a.k.a. soup season - approaches.  Their list of ingredients is reasonable, but I wondered how homemade would compare. Dan and I were preparing a simple stir-fry, and I was also pre-chopping some carrots, celery, and parsnips for a dish later in the week so I had plenty of vegetable scraps handy.

The "ingredients" include:

- fresh (but limp) parsley that would have been thrown out otherwise
- ginger peel
- garlic skins and 1 odd-looking clove, smashed
- 3 bell pepper tops, stems, and seeds
- carrot ends and peel
- celery ends and leaves
- the skin and ends of a red onion
- parsnip ends and peel
- a handful of spinach that was about to go bad
- a handful of basil, oregano, and sage stalks from my herb garden
- 3 bay leaves
- a pinch of salt and pepper

The scraps themselves looked beautiful - so bright and colorful. I put them all in a pot, added enough water to cover them, and brought it to a boil.  Everything simmered for about an hour.  It smelled wonderful.  The broth turned out to also have a rich color and a very, very good taste.  The boiled vegetables will end up in our compost pile and used to nurture a garden in the Spring. I think Nanny and Poppop would be proud!

The Plate of the Future

The New York Times Food & Drink issue came out this week.  It is a great and informative read that I would recommend to others interested in food or it's impacts on the environment.  My favorite section of articles are those by Michael Pollan, author of "Food Rules" and "The Omnivore's Dilemma", which I will be adding to my reading list shortly.  One of his blurbs in Food & Drink questions what our food system will be like in 100 years.  He guesses, and I agree:

"...the present one is — in the precise sense of the word — unsustainable. It depends on fossil fuels that we can't depend on and exacts a steeper price in human and environmental health than we can afford."

 I have a few more specific predictions of my own:

• There will be significantly less meat on our plates. That's not to say we all have to become vegetarians, but, as Pollan notes, 9-plus ounces of meat per American per day is unsustainable.  It seems that we haven't evolved beyond the mindsets of our medieval ancestors - whoever has the most meat is the richest and most likely to survive.  Today, it's quite the opposite. People must become conscious about just how much meat they are consuming and how the farming practices used to support their meat habits negatively impact the environment.  
• Individuals will grow more of the food they eat.  I see this happening already among some friends. It can also be seen, however, in the surge in popularity of farmer's markets up 1000 this year over 2010.  People are developing a desire to be informed about where their food comes from and how it was grown or treated.
• The government, if government gets involved at all, will begin to start subsidizing organic food rather than feedlot meat, processed foods, and soda.  European governments have already made the switch.  Perhaps a a fat tax, as Denmark has instituted, will help buyers change their habits.

• While I think our food system needs to become simpler - "simpler" referring to a simpler time and eliminating feedlots and hauling food across the world - it also seemed destined that technology will play an increased role.  One company is already labeling their meat with QR codes so a simple scan via smartphone app will tell you where it came from.  Refrigerators are online. Software can help sustainable farmers use their land and water most effectively. I hope that technology is not used to manufacture or genetically modify more foods that could and should be grown naturally.

In the same way that we cannot rely on gasoline to power our automobiles forever, we cannot continue to use farming methods which demand finite resources.  Farmers and farming methods will adapt if consumers change their habits and preferences.  It is up to the consumer, whether via government regulation or self control, to eat responsibly, to be educated about the treatment of food both animal and vegetable, and to translate that education into conscientious purchases.

Another Colorful Plate

One of my favorite "I Love Lucy" episodes is the one where Lucy breaks the news to Ricky that she is pregnant by preparing a dinner including baby peas, baby corn, etc.  As I recall, it takes him a few comedy-filled minutes to get the point, but what a cute idea.  (Don't worry mom, that's not where this post is going!)  I was reminded of it when chopping my farmer's market finds this weekend for a pan of roasted vegetables.

My favorite stand at the market houses a friendly, self-titled "farmer dude" who never fails to throw a little something extra into my bag.  He was advertising baby beets and baby sweet potatoes this week, so that's what I got along with some of their super-fragrant garlic.

Sunday Dinner:  Porcini and Wild Rice Soup with Roasted Vegetables
The porcini and wild rice soup was inspired by WeHeartFood.com.  To this recipe, I added several stalks of celery and used three chopped carrots in the soup instead of grating one on top.

As I said, the roasted veggies came fresh from the farmer's market.  The deep oranges and purples of the dish evoked thoughts of Autumn, and Dan agreed that it tasted quite good.

1 bunch of baby sweet potatoes
1 bunch of baby beets
5 cloves of garlic (I would have used the whole bulb if I didn't need it for something else)
1 leek
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary (from the herb garden!)
1 lug of olive oil

Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into small chunks.  Cut the tops and bottoms off of the baby beets and slice them.  Peel and chop the garlic.  Chop the leek.  Pick the rosemary leaves from their stems.  Mix it all up in a casserole-style dish and drizzle with olive oil until glistening.  Salt and pepper if you wish.  Cover the dish with aluminum foil and cook at 375 for 45-60 minutes.  Check the dish periodically towards the end to see when the veggies get appropriately soft.

A Peaceful Plate Would Like to Recognize...
Lately, I've been giving one my co-workers - Gary, aka Garebear, aka Garie - a hard time about his particularly earth-toned diet.  I see him eat sandwiches often and drink a large can of Starbucks coffee energy drink most afternoons.  He came to work this past week with some fancy grape juice instead, made from wine grapes, and purportedly quite yummy. Way to go Gary!

A Traveling Plate: Greece!

Dan and I recently returned from a trip to Greece.  We were there for two weeks and explored Athens, Santorini, and 5 or 6 other islands of the Cyclades via sailboat.  What better way to summarize any experience than with a list of superlatives!

Most Crowded Ancient Site: The Acropolis.  Not even a sweaty day and a big hill can keep the tourists out.

Favorite Greek word: My keyboard is missing the Greek letters, but phonetically the word for "ferry" looks like "feree mbot".  Say that five times fast and you've got "ferry boat".

Best Greek Beard:

Best Trip Photo: They love their sunsets in Santorini.  Folks start lining up at about 5:30 for a good view of the 7:30 sunset.  Dan and I were amused on our second night there when people actually applauded as the sun went down.  "Great job, Earth!  Keep on rotating!"

Best Random Experience: Docking on the island of Aegina during their third annual Pistachio Festival.  Pistachio liquor, pistachio bread, pistachio cookies, candied pistachios, and the famous King of the Pistachios Jug Race*!

*I actually have no idea what this race was called.

Favorite Greek Food (and the point of this post): Santorini "Fava".

I enjoyed the food in Greece very much.  Very good bread, very good fruit, very good lamb, and a reasonable selection of very good vegetarian dishes.  At most restaurants Dan could get a roasted tomato stuffed with seasoned rice which turned out to be quite delicious.  A yummy food local to Santorini is something called tomatokeftedes, which is a bit like a spiced and deep-fried veggie burger where the main ingredient is tomatoes rather than beans.  My very favorite thing, the thing we kept ordering again and again, was the fava.

There are no fava beans in Santorini "fava", rather there are yellow split peas.  It is served mainly as a starter and we found it to be delicious on bread - served with every. meal. - or shoveled into our mouths by the spoonful.  It was the first thing I wanted to make upon our return, and here is the accurate-tasting recipe we followed.  It is a simple but tasty addition to dinner.

"Fresh" Defined

Apologies for not posting in a while!  I have been cooking, farmers-marketing, and hanging with Henry.  Lots of inspiration has been coming my way for websites and services that I think would be really useful and successful and I've been focusing on those things a bit more than food lately.  This morning, however, I was "inspired" by what I saw when I pulled up to work.

I suspect that the word "fresh" in this instance means "not yet expired".  Being someone who learns best by example, I'd like to quickly go over what does and doesn't count as fresh food.

Fresh:
The tomatoes and bell pepper from my garden I used in yesterday's dinner.
The farmer's market watermelon slices I ate with breakfast.
Baby carrots in my lunchbox.

Gray Area:
Yogurt and cheese from the grocery store.
Packaged soy milk
Hummus

Definitely Not Fresh:
Soda
Juice from concentrate
Frito's corn chips
Fruit snacks
Sticky buns
Everything in that truck