Seasonal Recipe: Spaghetti Squash

Where I live, pasta is one of the food staples that is hardest to find in bulk (one of my pet peeves). The closest bulk store with a pasta bin is 25 minutes away, and if I am in that area, I stop by to get some, but the opportunity does not present itself very often. So in the winter, when we run out, we turn to spaghetti squash as a great - and healthier alternative. This is a simple recipe that has had a lot of success at home.

Cut the squash in half and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until a knife can easily be inserted through the skin.

Scoop out

In the meantime, prepare a pasta sauce (I sautee sliced onions in olive oil, then add canned tomatoes, chopped oregano, salt and pepper)

Combine squash and tomato sauce and top with goodies (I used goat cheese and olives here)

Bon Appetit!

How Zero Waste are my ingredients?
Spaghetti squash and onions: Purchased loose from the farmer's market (sticker free) or grocery store.
Olive oil: Purchased from bulk dispensers, filling a jar or bottle.
Canned Tomatoes: Opened one of the jars that I canned this fall; how-to right here! 
Oregano: Grown on the side of our house; it's a transplant from a friend's plant. We water it with leftover cooking water.
Goat cheese and olives: Purchased respectively from the salad and olive bars, filling 1 quart and 1 pint jars.

Seasonal Recipe: Cream of Sunchoke

When we belonged to a CSA, our weekly box always came with a new recipe. Sometimes that recipe accompanied a new produce item. That's how I introduced sunchokes to my family. Also called Jerusalem artichoke, sunroot or topinambour, the root is a bit like a potato but sweeter and nuttier. Prepared as a soup in the middle of winter, it's a hit with my family. (Recipe is an adaptation of the one that I received from Eatwell Farm)

2 Tbsp butter

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 of an onion, sliced

1 lb. Jerusalem artichokes, washed and sliced

Water

Bones

1 cup milk

salt & pepper

herb of your choice, chopped (I used oregano)

olive oil (optional)

Melt butter over medium heat in a large saucepan 

Saute onion and garlic until soft and then the sunchokes for a couple of minutes

Cover with water, add bones and season with salt
Bring to a boil and simmer until tender
Remove the bones
Add milk and blend using an immersion blender
Adjust seasoning

Serve hot, with chopped herbs and a few drops of olive oil

How Zero Waste are my ingredients?

Butter: Purchased packaged, I use the waxed paper wrappers to grease my baking pans, then wash them for an art piece. I started my artwork this week; for a sneak peek, see my Instagram post!
Garlic, onion, sunchokes: Purchased from the produce aisle, using mesh bags.
Bones: Saved in a glass jar in the freezer after a chicken dish, then added to a dish as a shortcut to broth in the cooking process.
Milk: Purchased from the dairy aisle, it comes in glass and I return the empties to the store.
Salt and pepper: Purchased from the bulk aisle, using cloth bags.
Herb: Oregano, grown  on the side of our house; it's a transplant from a friend's plant. We water it with leftover cooking water.
Olive oil: Purchased from bulk dispensers, filling a jar or bottle.

Have you prepared sunchokes before?

Seasonal Recipe: Fennel Casserole

One of my favorite dishes growing up, was my mom's fennel casserole. Yet, I thought about making it for my family only recently when I found some locally grown bulbs. My mom included ham (the traditional way of making it), but to accommodate our vegetarian weeknights, I omitted it. The verdict? The kids loved it and asked for seconds (after all, what doesn't taste good in bechamel?) It has become a family favorite - for the taste buds and the wallet ;)

Rinse and quarter 2 fennel bulbs

In a large skillet, over medium heat, melt 1 tbsp butter and add the fennel

Cover with milk, season salt pepper and a pinch of nutmeg, and simmer for 15 min or until tender

In the meantime prepare a bechamel by melting two tablespoons of salted butter in a saucepan, over medium heat

When the butter foams, add two tablespoons of flour

Cook the flour while stirring until it starts to golden

 Add 2 cups of milk in small batches while stirring, until the mixture thickens

Pour the fennel in a greased baking dish, cover with the bechamel, top with grated cheese and season to taste.

Bake at 375 until golden

How Zero Waste are my ingredients?

Fennel: Purchased loose from the produce aisle
Butter: As mentioned here, butter is the only food that we purchase in disposable packaging. The box goes into the recycling; the wrappers get washed and added to my collection for a planned art piece. Three years later, I am about to get it started! I will post the resulting artwork when I am done!
Flour, salt and pepper: Purchased from the bulk aisle, using a cloth bag.
Ground nutmeg: Purchased from the bulk aisle, filling my spice jar directly.
Milk: Purchased from the dairy aisle, it comes in glass and I return the empties to the store.
Grated cheese: Purchased from the salad bar, filling a quart size jar.

Seasonal Recipe: Pickled Herring

Ever since I lived in Amsterdam, pickled herring has been one of my favorite appetizers. Today, I wish I could simply fill a jar of it from my grocery store's salad bar (the way I purchase similar items). But one of my mottoes is: If you can't find it in bulk, make it!

Herring is tough to find at the fish counter though. I learned that here, in the San Francisco bay area, the local fishermen use it for bait to catch the big (generally less sustainable) fish per consumer demand, and the herring boats send most of it to Japan for its roe. So when Kirk Lombard, a local sea forager/educator, invited Scott and Léo (see video below) to go fishing for them last Monday, my dream came true... 8 pounds of cleaned fillets later, we had a few jars of pickled herring.

If you, too, enjoy pickled herring and can put your hand on the fresh fish, here is how to pickle it. Note: This recipe will work for pickling other types of seafood. It is an adaptation of Kirk's recipe and I used it for eight pounds of fillets, so adapt it to your needs.

Cover the fillets in a brine of 1 part salt to 20 parts water (1 cup salt for 20 cups of water for 8 lbs. of herring fillets) and let sit in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, rinse.

Slice 3 red onions

In a jar (I used a couple of 2 liter jars), alternate layers of herring and onion

In a large pot, over medium heat, combine 4 cups water, 5 cups white vinegar, 1 cup sugar, 4 tsp allspice, 4 bay leaves (or 1 California Bay leaf), 2 tsp grated ginger, 1 tsp mustard (ground or seed), 2 tsp horseradish, 1 tsp peppercorns, a pinch of ground cloves. Once the sugar is dissolved, let cool and top the jars.

Refrigerate for a couple of days before eating. 

Serve on a slice of buttered baguette. 

Enjoy!

How Zero waste are my ingredients?

Herring: Foraged by Scott and Léo using a net and brought home in an open bin. During the cleaning process, we also removed milt (male roe) and eggs (female roe) and prepare them separately as appetizers.

White Vinegar: Purchased the brand packaged in a glass bottle, as I have not yet been able to find it sold in bulk.

Sugar, mustard (ground), peppercorns: Purchased in bulk, using cloth bags.

Allspice, ground cloves: Purchased in bulk, filling my spice jar directly (I use little and do not want to over estimate how much I need)

Bay leaves: Foraged from the neighbors branch that falls onto our property. California Bay leaves being four times as potent as the culinary kind, we use a quarter of what the recipe calls for.

Onions and ginger: Purchased loose from the produce aisle.

Horseradish: Homemade using a root sold loose in the produce aisle (recipe will be in the book.)

Oh and my two-liter jars were purchased from the local thrift store;)

How does pickled herring sound to you?

Pâté Recipe

Boy was my lunch delicious today. So good that I thought the recipe deserved getting shared with the world for others to enjoy. Looks like Nutella doesn't it? Well it's chicken liver pâté. 

Pâté is one of those things that until a few years ago, I was convinced had to be purchased in order to be enjoyed.

Well, I found that it is not true. The recipe is so simple, affordable and quick to make that it is a perfect picnic dish and cocktail appetizer.

Ingredients

Please refer below for more information on the origin of my ingredients

1 stick butter

1 lb. chicken liver

Couple rosemary sprigs

1 bay leaf

1/4 cup white wine or 2 tbsp. brandy (preferred)

Salt and pepper

Melt a 1/4 stick of butter in a large skillet

Add chicken livers and herbs and saute until thoroughly cooked (pink inside - 5 minutes)

Add a splash of white wine or brandy to deglaze 

Compost bay leaf, set aside rosemary sprigs, and blend chicken livers with the remaining butter 

and 3 tbsp wine or 1 tbsp brandy.

Season to taste, garnish with the rosemary sprig and voila!

Enjoy with baguette and cornichon (optional: a green salad).

How Zero Waste are my ingredients?

Butter: As mentioned before, I stopped making butter because of cost, and butter remains the only food that we purchase in disposable packaging. The box goes into the recycling; the wrappers get washed and added to my collection for a planned art piece. Looking at three years worth of wrappers... I realize how important butter is to this family ;)

Chicken liver: The meat counter at Whole Foods put them in my jar. Chicken liver is a discard of the meat industry and am happy to take it off its hands for a super low price!  (I bought two pounds that day, as seen in picture above)

Rosemary: As mentioned before, we do not have a vegetable garden due to the nature of our property (we are perched on an oak-covered hill). We do grow a few things on our deck, but not rosemary. I consider the wild my vegetable garden. So when I need rosemary, I take the dog for a walk and forage.

Bay leaf: California bay trees grow like weeds in our neck of the woods. They have even become invasive. Since they carry the sudden oak death disease, we have cut the ones that keep sprouting on our property. When I need a leaf for cooking, I pick the neighbour's branch that leans over our property (convenient foraging).

White wine: I have to say this recipe is good made with white wine, but fantastic made with brandy. I made this batch of pâté using wine from a local winery, Le Neebia, that refills our bottles.

Salt and pepper: I purchased fine sea salt and whole peppercorn from the bulk bins at the grocery store, using my cloth bags.

Cornichons: I fill a small jar at the olive bar of the grocery store.

What are you eating for lunch?

Simple jam making

With some time off between book edits this week, I was finally able to purchase the last remnant's of this summer's produce and tackle our family's canning needs before winter hits: 30 pounds of tomatoes and 20 pounds of fruit purchased from the farmer's market for $1/lb are now crushed, sauced, jammed and stored in our crawl space...  I never thought I'd get to it this season but now that I am all caught up, it feels so good to have it done!

Pretty, isn't it?

Some of you have asked for jam recipes. I follow a guideline rather than a recipe, but I thought I'd share it for those of you that have never tried making jam and are tempted to try. Jamming is an essential activity in our Zero Waste Home considering that we cannot find this sweet in bulk. With only two ingredients (no need for pectin or jelling additives), it is quick, easy, and simple - my kinda cooking ;). The only trick is to know when to take it off the heat: You want it to be neither runny nor overcooked (i.e, burned). 

Yum!

Jam Guideline

Heat equal weights of chopped fruit and bulk evaporated sugar in a large pot (it bubbles way up, so pick a container 3 times larger than the contents). Boil until jelled and pour into sterilized jars. And that's it!

To know if it has jelled, I do what I call a "Moses" test every so often. I run a drop of the mixture onto a cold plate and I strike it across with my finger. When the "red sea" stays open, i.e., the sides of jam do not close up on my finger's mark, it's ready. Cooking time depends on the water content of the fruit, but it always takes less than 30 minutes.

Sometimes I will also run the hand blender in the mixture before it starts boiling for a smoother jam (no pieces).

You can also use the instructions mentioned here to can your jam when you're done. I personally don't. I store it in a dark cold place and it keeps for over 6 months. Beyond that time, if mold grows on it, we simply scoop it up, and it's perfectly fine, but in our house, jam rarely lingers that long...

What will you be jamming?

Quince: the perfect Zero Waste Fruit

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Open Garden Project, a weekly garden exchange. I love the concept. I brought a couple of jars of homemade pickles (one of the jars was that of the vinegar mother) and came home with quince fruit.

Ah Quince, the mystical fruit.

Cored whole quince

The woman who brought them to trade, had a full tree at home but did not know what to do with them. I was happy to take them off her hands and work on the delicacies my mom used to make for us. It's amazing how much you get out of the (whole) fruit and cannot bear keeping the following recipes from you;)

QUINCE JELLY

• Wash and quarter the entire quince (I used 4 this time) Do not peel or core
• Cover with water generously (the width of a couple fingers as my mom would say)
• Cook until tender
• Stain over a bowl and let stand for 12 hours
• Weigh the strained juice and mix with equal amounts of sugar (putting aside the cooked quince for the recipe below)
• Add the juice of a lemon (optional)
• Cook until it gels
• Pour into sterilized jars (my four quince yielded the 2 jars pictured).

Strained cooked quince

Quince jelly

QUINCE PASTE

• Remove and compost the seeds from the above cooked quince
• Weigh the cooked quince and mix with equal amounts of sugar
• Blend using a hand blender
• Cook until thick (scraping the bottom of your pan will leave a line in the paste)
• Spread into plates (I used our picnic plates because they are deeper than my everyday ones)
• Let dry for about a week, flipping them a couple of times
• Cut and enjoy with Pecorino style cheese or roll in sugarfor a sweet treat
• Store in air-tight containers.

Quince paste drying

Quince Paste rolled in sugar

Both make great presents.

What seasonal delicacy are you working on?

Salt packed anchovies

Every summer, I learn a few new things from my mom. While the kids learn french, I learn homemaking. I even dream that these new tricks will eventually "offset" the carbon emissions of my trip over time ;).

Last year, my mom showed me how to salt pack (cure) anchovies. Under her direction, I proudly prepared my 1st jar of anchovies. A few weeks later, Scott was flying back to the US, the salt packed anchovies carefully wrapped in his undershirts, which I now understand to be a "no-no" for US customs. Once home, a nice surprise awaited him upon unzipping his suitcase ... You guessed it: The juice from the anchovies had leaked all over (and I was not there to wash my hubby's clothes).

This summer around, I turned down the anchovies at the fish market, realizing that my frivolous ideas tend to annoy my sweet husband. But a few weeks upon my return, I went to Fish, a local fish market, looking for them. The store happened to have just cleaned a whole bunch and did not object to filling my mason jar: I came home with the biggest smile on my face and went right to work recollecting my mom's teachings.


INGREDIENTS:

• Anchovies
• Coarse sea salt (I also had Himalayan, so I mixed them)

RECIPE:

• Remove the head and guts of the anchovies and rinse
• In a jar, pack alternate layers of salt and anchovies (start and end with a thick layer of salt).
• Seal and refrigerate for three weeks before consuming (some of the salt will melt and turn into brine)
• When ready to eat, reach for an anchovie, peel its flesh off the bone under running water (compost the bone and water your plants with the collected water) and soak until de-salted to your taste (a few minutes). We like them in our salads or on our pizzas.

That's it!

As you know it, I love recipes that call for only a couple of ingredients. I have found that homemade anchovies are not only easy to make, they also save on the transportation and recycling of the store-bought kind, avoid our exposure to BPA from lined cans, support local / sustainable business, and easily transfer the homemaking knowledge from my mom to my kids. Something, that is sadly getting lost through consumerism and our disposable society.

Progress!

I have had a very satisfying 10 days and I thought I'd share them with you. Over the past couple of weekends, we adopted a few sustainable ideas (I tweeted about them) that have been on my mind for a few years. Tackling them, feels so good.

Homemade Vinegar:

Since embarking on Zero Waste, I had tried and greatly failed at making fruit scrap vinegar (a cheap way to make it). I have therefore been solely relying on vinegars available in bulk. But when I tried my brother's yummy homemade wine vinegar this summer, I realized, that it was time for me to give it a try and make my own using a foolproof vinegar mother upon my return home. Last week, Scott bought a "mother of vinegar" from San Francisco Brewcraft on his way back from work, I was ecstatic to find out that they sell in a reusable mason jar, and got the concoction started immediately. Since we do not have a convenient/nearby source of bulk vinegar and we have extra wine (from our wine bottle refills), making wine vinegar at home, makes a lot of sense for us. I'll have to keep you posted on its taste when it's ready, in a couple of months.

Down to one car:

For the past three years, I have bugged Scott to sell his Mini Cooper to go down to one car. After all, we moved to a downtown to be close to amenities and use the car less - and we mostly walk or bike around here. We loved the versatility and cargo capacity of the Mini but it could no longer transport the four of us comfortably (the kids would sit with their legs crossed on their seats). Scott used it the to go to work a couple of times a week (he works from home the remaining days). I used my sedan for consulting work and once a week for errands/grocery shopping. We also used it for the longer family trips (including camping). It seemed that one, if not both cars, always sat in front of the house, and that with some planning we could share just one.

For the reasons mentioned, it made sense to keep the sedan. At the same time, Scott was reluctant to give up his beloved Mini, but with mounting repair bills (fly-wheel / transmission problems), last week he finally decided to take it in. Little did we know, that we'd end up trading both our cars for a used hybrid, giving us the comfort of my sedan, with even better cargo capacity (hatch-back) and gas mileage than the Mini (and one less insurance payment). The dealer even wrote us a check to make up for the difference ($12 ;) . We immediately created and shared a "car" calendar. It's only been a week, but Scott and I are super happy with our decision.

Bee Condo:

With the bee population decreasing, many sustainable organizations suggest building a bee condo to provide native bees a place to raise young bees. The first time I heard about the concept was three years ago at my friends launch party for Open Garden Project, and it had been on my mind ever since. With Max showing an interest in city planning and power tools, the project seemed perfect for him. I bought scrap wood for $2 at the hardware store and provided him with drill, drill bits, salvaged screws and hanger, and the simple online instructions. It took a couple days - he said he needed breaks;) but Max is very proud of completing his first ever building. He pointed out to one of the holes and said: This one will be the office;). He will be monitoring the bees' activity closely.

Organic Mattress:

A couple of weeks ago, Max fell asleep in our bed, next to Scott, so I spent the night in his twin bed. OMG what a horrible bed, I found out. I have read and cuddled in the kids beds before, but spending a whole night was a real wake-up call, so-to-speak. Springs stuck into my back all night and the lack of any-softness-whatsoever gave me a stiff neck the following day... as if I had camped out all night. I was really paying for the cheap mattress I bought 10 years ago, and realized that I owed my growing boys a softer nest. Scott and I both had always viewed buying a mattress as fun as buying a used car... But since our last car trade was not as painful as we had expected, we went mattress shopping for the boys this weekend. We went to The Natural Mattress Store, and after "sleeping" around, we fell in love with an Eco-Cloud mattress: 97% organic, made locally and with no packaging (on request). It was all we could have asked for! It was more expensive than the ones made in China, but after a few weekend rentals, the mattress will pay itself off. We had the option of sending the old mattresses to the recycling center, we chose to keep them instead: Stacked in the attic, they'll be perfect as a spare bed/couch for the playroom (our old plastic Coleman mattress/ spare popped a while back: I reused the plastic by sewing to the back of our picnic blanket for waterproofing).

Water Audit:

Last month, our church held a Sustainability Fair. I demo-ed a Zero Waste Home Shopping Kit, and the table next to me offered free water audits. I had meant to sign up for one of those in a long time and finally did. During lunchtime last week, a Marin Municipal Water District auditor came by. He looked at our yard, plants, watering patterns, interior water fixtures and machines. "I thought only 2 of you lived here", he said, when Scott mentioned the kids... "You only use half the water of a household of four." Wow, that statement sure made our day. Many readers have asked about our water consumption due to washing reusables. I don't how exactly much more water we use for that extra washing, but our minimalist wardrobes, and water consumption awareness seem to largely counter it.

We already know that little changes can have a big impact, but numbers prove to us how much and encourage us to do more. Future home projects now include setting up a grey-water system diverting waste water from our laundry machine to our ferns. I can't wait to have it done. And I hope that Scott can fit it in his schedule (maybe in the next three weeks instead of the next three years;)

What sustainable practices have you recently implemented that have been most satisfying?

Tomato Canning

Last week, as planned, I made a list of things-to-do away from the computer, and one of the items, which I procrastinated on for the last month, was digging out a portion of our crawl space to make room for canned goods (they store best in dark cold spaces). Well, guess what? Putting it on the list made it happen. Every member of the family pitched in (besides Zizou of course), the hero of the project being our 9-year-old who voluntarily carried 20 buckets of dirt down the 30 steps to the front of the house.

I am so happy to have that done, my canned goods now have a dedicated space and so do my reusable bottles and jars.

That said, I thought this week would be an ideal time to post about (crushed) tomato canning. Canning has a reputation of scaring the novice cook, but there really is nothing to it, as it seriously is not as difficult as one might expect. All you need here is canning jars (I use Le Parfait canning jars in this recipe), a large pot, a colander, a ladle, a towel, a rock, and tomatoes of course. Visit your farmer's market at closing time to get the best deal on a large amount. In my town, $5/5lbs is a good deal.

Every cook has his/her way, and this is how I do mine:

1 - Sterilize the jars: Dunk them in a large pot of boiling water and set them aside to dry on a towel.

2 - In the same hot bath, dunk the tomatoes for about 2 minutes (that's to make peeling easy), and pull them out one by one into a colander to cool.

3 - Peel, core, and hand-crush the tomatoes, one by one, into a large bowl.

4 - Ladle the crushed tomatoes into the jars (french canning jars have a fill line), wipe the jars rims clean, add a rubber gasket on the lids and clip the jars shut.

5 - Lower the filled jars in the same pot of water (you can also stack them up if you use a tall pot), push a towel between them and add a weight, such as a rock, on them (so they don't cling into each other and break during boiling).

6 - Add water so that the jars are submerged by 1-inch of water and bring to a boil.

7 - After 45 minutes of boiling, turn off the heat.

8 - Let cool and take the jars out of the water to dry.

9 - Test proper canning by un-clipping a jar. If it opens, the canning process failed. If you use Mason Jars (screw-tops), the lid should be depressed indicating a proper vacuum.

10 - Store in a dark, cool place, preferably a freshly dug crawl space ;) so that your canned treasures can last and taste as good as my grandmother's 1978 plums, which I tasted a couple of years ago. They were in-cre-di-ble. The eau-de-vie marinade might have had something to do with their tastiness though...

Just looking at that picture reminds me that we live in an earthquake prone region... it just added a new item to my TO-DO list: Secure shelving before next shake;)