Enchanted Broccoli (Thanks to Moosewood)

ENCHANTED BROCCOLI CASSEROLE OR MEXIAN GREEN PEPPER CASSEROLE

Whole (broccoli, onion, garlic, spices, eggs)

Inexpensive (buy cheddar in bulk, and grate yourself)

Slow (sauté, bake)

Equitable)

Sensible

Tasty (as long as you don’t smother with cheese)

The Mexican Green Pepper Casserole is one of my favorite Moosewood recipes – I’ve used my own wan green peppers, and it’s really not as flavorful. But with luscious ones, and in the one oval ceramic casserole dish I use for baking, it is divine. Still of the Moosewood era of loads of cream, cheese, and butter.

1 lb. broccoli – tops and stems, steam until firm.  Rinse in cold water.

2 C noodles whole wheat and spinach, cook past ala dente (firm)

1 T butter

1 C chopped onion

1 Large clove crushed garlic

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. Dill weed

Black pepper

Cayenne to taste

Sauté all of these together over medium heat stirring until the onions are translucent.  Combine with noodles.

3 Large eggs beat together well

¼ minced fresh parsley

1 ½ packed cups of mild cheddar

Mix in the above and broccoli.

Combine everything in a casserole dish, sprinkle with juice from 1 lemon and 2 tablespoons melted butter. Cover gently with foil.

Bake 30 minutes. Serves 4.

Recipe--salmon and cheese pate

SALMON AND CHEESE PATE

Whole (garlic and lemon)

Inexpensive (heck yes, with the canned pink – the way in which most people used to eat salmon in the lower 48)

Slow (actually, this is pretty darned fast)

Equitable (use family-fished salmon, if possible)

1 (7 oz.) can pink salmon (of course you could substitute fresh, see the difference in fat content below)

6 oz. full fat soft cream cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed

Juice of ½ lemon

2 oz. melted butter

1tsp. powdered gelatin (substitution: stiff-beaten egg whites)

1 Tbsp. hot water

oiled molds – I use Northern California Chaffin Farm olive oil (I organize a buying co-op so as to get this oil as fresh as possible; this mid-season is the moist flavorful and the oil itself is lovely with saturated and polyunsaturated fats, but mostly monounsaturated)

I use a lovely glass heart-shaped mold – I save especially for this delicious pate.

            Put canned fish, undrained, into a bowl with the cheese, salt, pepper, garlic, and lemon juice. Pound together until quite smooth. Stir in the melted butter. Dissolve the gelatin in the water and stir into salmon mixture. Once mixture starts to stiffen, spoon into 6 oiled heart-shaped molds or into small soufflé dishes or 1 large mold.  Chill 2 to 3 hours until set. Unmold. Serve with toast or hot bread or crackers.

Popular Types of Salmon Trans(g) Mono(g) Poly(g) Sat(g) Total Fat(g) Salmon Varieties (1/2 fillet serving) Pink - 1.49 2.15 0.89 5.49 Wild Atlantic - 4.16 5.03 1.94 12.55 Farmed Atlantic - 7.66 7.78 4.32 21.48 Wild Coho - 4.23 3.94 2.50 11.74 Sockeye - 8.17 3.72 2.96 16.95 Chinook - 8.71 5.54 6.14 20.65 Chum - 3.05 1.78 1.66 7.46 Canned Salmon 1 small can (3.25 oz) - 1.71 1.86 1.42 5.78 1 regular can (7.75 oz) - 3.29 3.58 2.72 11.12 1 large can (16 oz) - 6.85 7.47 5.68 23.17 Smoked Salmon 1 piece - 0.41 0.20 0.19 0.86 1 oz - 0.57 0.28 0.26 1.22 1/4 cup flaked - 0.69 0.34 0.32 1.47

http://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/food/salmon/fat

Mushroom hazelnut pate (nutrient-rich)

My recipes are nutrient-dense.Recall that foods that typically contain saturated fatty acids are butter, red meats, coconut oil, and palm oil. Unsaturated fatty acids are found in plant foods; examples of monounsaturated fatty acids are olive oil and peanut oils. Examples of polyunsaturated fatty acids (two or more carbon bonds along the carbon chain) are corn and safflower oils. Fat is involved in the protection of vital organs and metabolism of  all other energy nutrients, metabolism of cholesterol, and synthesis of Vitamin D and other fat-soluble nutrients.

Thank you to one of my favorite students (for this recipe)

MUSHROOM HAZELNUT PATE

Whole (mushrooms, preferably shitake but button or crimini are fine)

Inexpensive (substitute less expensive mushrooms and cream cheese on sale for Neufchatel)

Slow( comes from the sauté and chilling time)

Equitable (hazelnuts, buy local)

I love the taste of this recipe – if you can afford to make it with all the fresh ingredients listed. A student brought it to a potluck once. He was a geographer, it was the first potluck food he had ever made. It was devoured by the class and became a favorite potluck recipe for all time.

Here is the hardest thing: timing the gelatin just right

Substitutes: Use agar-agar instead of gelatin (buy in a food co-op)

4oz. shiitake mushrooms 

3 Tbsp. butter

1 clove garlic, minced

¼ c. toasted hazelnuts

3 oz. Neufchatel cheese  (saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, including the essential linoleic and linolenic acids)

Different disciplines, different ideas, different foods

Different disciplines of study can combine to spin a story that is elegant in terms of confronting convention wisdom -- in this case, regarding saturated fat. Certainly, journalists like Gary Taubes are tirelessly writing about this, advocacy organizations (like the Westin A Price Foundation,), too. And just what kind of voice is palatable enough to offer alternative stories? The consequences of privileging certain common-wisdom foods over others in this country are staggering for U.S. agriculture and consumers. We demonize cholesterol and saturated fat, and elevate convenience foods (high in PUFAs, sugar, and refined salt). We become obese (due to deficits of fat) and lose our memory, our ability to think. Whither that cultivated life? 

Personally, and it probably is no secret, I like the saturated-fats-are-good argument. In my world of critical consumers, I’d emphasize traceable saturated fats and deemphasize sugar of all sorts. So less soft drinks and Twinkies, more sun, be open to taste and smell, and slow down. But finding affordable, healthy saturated fat is not necessarily easy. We are talking livestock products folks, and land for pasture and feed is not cheap.

Saturated fats are unpopular in our highly processed foodshed. We are inundated by polyunsaturated fats, and can easily find some of our favorite monosaturated (like olive oil), but saturated fat is illusive – for its cost, if nothing else. For dairy, consumers lust after non- or low-fat products. For meat, they tend towards lean. Butter has been margarinized (pun intended) for decades. Certainly, American agricultural production is dominated by the production of cereal and legumes (unsaturated fats). Further, few these days have experience cooking with good, saturated fats – artisan, and otherwise.

More grate-full-ness on my birthday!  Months of good food...good to eat and good to eat......my most awesome pictures (in my humble opinion)