Local Yokel

Top o' the morning to ya. Or, um, middle of the afternoon. I've been kept moderately occupied lately by a desperate attempt to scrape myself together into some illusion of professionalism. I'm trying to get organized, because wonder of wonders, I actually have been getting work. And I'd really rather not lose money on my catering endeavors. I'm going to dig through my packed-up boxes of culinary school memorabilia in search of the software that makes it a whole lot easier to organize, called ChefTech. I'm beginning to see why people have things like business accounts. It's a little overwhelming. Luckily, I never fold under pressure. (Kidding. I'm a bug under a sneaker. Squish. Gone.)

Since I frittered the morning away by sleeping, there's not much I can accomplish today. Story of my life, amigos. Instead, I'll meditate on my weekly menu and stir my sourdough starter.

I plan a trio of meals to cook for my family each week. On Tuesday I do the shopping at Whole Foods, and I'm usually able to get everything I need for around 80 bucks. For a five to seven person dinner and a multitude of leftover-meals, that's alright. (My mom and I have an odd dynamic when it comes to money. She's always trying to give me more, and I'm always trying to enforce frugality upon her. But when it comes to food shopping, she'll randomly buy some out-of-season asparagus from Mexico because it's on sale. I just shake my head and cook it.)

Tonight I'm making sea scallops, potato puree, herb salad. The scallops were wild-caught, which is something I try to look for. Last night was chili verde with chicken and spoon bread. The spoon bread was fun because I've never made it before, and it's really more like a souffle than corn bread. My parents don't have a stand mixer, so I beat the egg whites by hand. It seemed to take far too long... Reminded me of the time I accidentally tried to make whipped cream with half and half. If that's nonsense to you, sorry, food science. I'd explain it, but that would ruin the joke.

Anyway, Whole Foods isn't perfect, but they do label almost all the produce by origin. I like that. I'd really rather buy vegetables from the San Fernando Valley than from Ecuador. As mentioned in the preceding article, one cost of globalization is the concentration of produce varieties that can stand up to long distance travel. The other is the environmental repercussions of that travel. I live close enough to the SFV that I can justify the cost of traversing that distance. After all, oranges don't magically roll down the streets and into your shopping basket. Someone still has to load them into trucks and incur the accompanying environmental cost of shipment. Do I really need out-of-season produce so badly, that I require it to be shipped from New Zealand? I really can't say I do. Even worse are things that you can get right here, in perfectly good quality and quantity. Eggs. I'm pretty sure there's no egg shortage in California. But Whole Foods sells New Zealand eggs for just a few dollars more than, say, Petaluma eggs. Are New Zealand eggs so transcendentally delicious that I need them to be flown to my supermarket?

I guess you could call me a hypocrite, because if they stopped shipping French and Italian cheese to California, not only would I be very upset but my boyfriend would be out of a job. Oh well.

The other thing I mentioned at the beginning of this post was sourdough. I've tried once before to make a starter, the concoction of water, flour, fungi and bacteria needed to create epic sourdough bread. I ignored it for a little too long in the fridge and it grew a jaunty little cap of mold, so I tossed it. I'm trying again, with the help of Daniel Leader's book Local Breads, a fine and thoughtful Valentine's Day gift from my cheesemongering boyfriend. So in a sense I am attempting the most local food of all-- yeast and bacteria harvested from my very own kitchen! That doesn't sound tasty to you? If I ever can afford a digital camera, I'll chronicle my bread baking and we'll see how my deliciously infested colony of yeast performs.