Thursday, March 27, 2008

Praise for Chipotle

This week the Chipotle Company, known for serving fast burritos, has made even bigger news for continuing to source and serve local ingredients. Their largest effort thus far, and most recent, has been to ensure that one small farm will supply most of the pork for its Virginia and D.C. restaurants.

Recently, with the massive exposure that “greening” methods have received, companies across the United States are finally working to ensure that their consumers get a better product. This may mean getting seasonal, local, and even organically grown produce and other supplies. This wave of “green” business, if just to save the companies money, is a huge stride in getting consumers to realize the purpose of eating locally; IT TASTES BETTER!

To read more about the ethical direction Chipotle and other companies are going read this article:


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/25/AR2008032500813.html

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Monday, March 17, 2008

Along came a Pom Pom

Every week I go to the farmer’s market on Sunday morning in Takoma Park knowing I will be learning something new. Each week I see a new vegetable, fruit, or grain I can learn about and make into a new recipe. One rainy morning in March I walked through the market to find a long table of assorted mushrooms. There were green cardboard boxes of 7-inch wide portabellas, shittakes, chanterelles, button mushrooms, and even yellow oysters.

A wired headphone set wrapped around the vendor’s head leaving her to conduct a very important phone call while we all vied for her attention on these odd mushroom varieties. The woman sneered and shouted into her phone while both taking and ringing up customers without having compassion to answer any of our questions. After asking her about every mushroom she was selling and how they grew and where they came from (her wooded farm in Pennsylvania of course), I took away a bag of gorgeous but very odd “pom pom” mushrooms (and I am sure she was not happy to take the time to explain o me all of them). The skin on the “pom poms”, which is exactly what they look like, are soft with a dirty white appearance. These, I thought, would be great on a menu. Too bad more chefs aren’t using them. But you can. She seems to have them every time I go.





Buttered Pom Poms with creamy angel hair and bay scallops



Ingredients

Handful of pom poms, sliced length wise
Salt/pepper
Parmesan cheese
Cream
Angel hair
Handful of bay (small) scallops
1c White wine
Butter

Instructions

DON'T WASH THE POM POMS!!
Sauté mushrooms in butter
Cook angel hair drizzle with little olive oil to keep it from sticking
In a pan with 1 tbs of butter, on medium heat, cook scallops to little color on each side till just tender on the inside. Open one to check if the inside is cooked.
Deglaze the same pan with white wine . Cook on low heat. After about 5 minutes add a little cream.
Remove scallops when done and reduce the wine/cream sauce more. (Sauce should be semi thick, but thin enough to soak up that pasta.)
Combine mushrooms, scallops, angel hair and season with salt or Parmesan cheese if you have
Serve in a bowl with some garlic bread!

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