Friday 23 March 2012

Jumping on the Street Food (Band) Wagon


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As a European immigrant to America, I’m continually inspired by some of the little known ingredients adorning the displays of my local Windy City grocery store, where the avocados are always ripe and delicious, the watermelon seed free, juicy and sweet. Despite backpacking in Mexico some years ago, I never ate cactus or jicama, but filled up on street side tacos, quesadillas, pickles and oil drum rotisserie chicken with the occasional splurge on a restaurant meal which invariably wasn’t half as good as the street food.
The street vendor struggle is well documented in our city, where officially no one is allowed to prepare and sell food on the street for public consumption. There are a number of dormant food vans awaiting a change in the law to legalize the preparation and sale of food streetside. The culinary landscape in Chicago is already diverse, add this movement to our repertoire and it’s a new dawn. There’s been a burgeoning of artisanal businesses, a movement which in some cases reflects the food truck model.
Operating in a confined space with limited ingredients to produce quality, freshly prepared goodies for waiting customers can be best served by employing a refined and focused menu. Just as the spatial limitations of a food truck do nothing to hinder the quality of the output, the same applies to our small 8’ x 8’ raised beds in our garden Urban Community Garden. The smaller the space, the more resourceful you have to be, a lot of it is about the preparation.
The winter months put a stop to most growth in the raised beds, with the exception of some winter salad leaves grown under plastic. The augmentation of small scale street vendors of late correlates to that warm sun we've been feeling, and is the inspiration for this Mexican style chili-dressed salad, using the winter leaves which are available. It’s vibrant and refreshing, made more substantial with the addition of some sticky and salty Valbreso feta cheese and a chilli kick from mixed spiced nuts.

Mexican inspired crunchy, spicy salad

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Serves 4 as a starter
8oz spinach, washed and torn
1 cucumber, peeled and sliced into batons (no need to peel if using an English Cucumber)
½ / 8oz Jicama sliced into matchsticks
16oz watermelon cubed into 1cm cubes
4 salad onions sliced lengthways
7oz Valbreso Feta cheese, crumbled
3 limes, juiced
1tspn salt
1tspn mexican chilli powder
2oz spiced nuts (see recipe below)
1. Put the spinach, cucumber, jicama, watermelon, onions and feta into a large bowl
2. Mix the lime, chilli and salt and pour over the salad ingredients, toss together carefully
3. Sprinkle the salad with the spiced nuts and serve
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Spiced and candied Mixed Nuts

8 oz mixed nuts
2 tbspn confectioners sugar (icing sugar)
½ tspn of each of the following: cayenne pepper, ground cinnamon, allspice, cumin, salt, ground black pepper
2 tbspn vegetable oil
1. Place the nuts in a bowl and blanch in boiling water for 1 minute then drain.
2. Stir the confectioners sugar into the nuts to coat.
3. Mix the spices together in a bowl and set aside.
4. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed skillet (frying pan) and fry the nuts until they take on some color, about 1 minute.
5. Remove the nuts from the pan with a slotted spoon and toss into the spice mixture, making sure all the nuts are evenly coated.
6. Spread the nuts out onto a tray to dry out and store in an airtight container in a cupboard for up to 2 weeks

Sno-zone Layer

 
I recently took off from Chicago on an evening Trans Atlantic flight in bright sunshine and cloudless skies with not a flake of snow on the ground. We were greeted on our descent into London Heathrow at sunrise by a fresh blanket of snow covering the green and pleasant land: it seemed everything that should be normal is not normal. Things seemed to be upside down, inside out and topsy turvey (thankfully not the airplane): my unsynchronised bodyclock, the distant acquaintance with my homeland after a year of absence, and, on an inauspicious note, the disconnect between anticipated and actual weather patterns.
The reality of climate change appears increasingly obvious. The last winter Olympics in Whistler were characterised by a serious lack of the white stuff, and, going slightly off-piste, I am wondering what apres-ski fayre was on offer as sustenance for those ski folk going stir crazy from the lack of snow. Elk? Venison? Freshly landed Pacific Coast seafood? I’m not convinced that highly tuned Olympic athletes coming off the slopes would plump for such cheesy Alpine delights as Tartiflette, a staple of those chalet restaurants that dot the mountainsides of the Savoie in France. Potatoes, cheese, bacon and cream are baked together with a triumphant result.
The reality of this dish is the reverse of it’s delicate sounding name. It is rich, luxurious and homely. I recall groaning my way through a Tartiflette during the height of a heatwave some years ago while camping in the Savoie, being pig-headed about eating a regional favourite. A half Reblechon sits on top of the potato mixture so that when the cheese melts the rind is left on top. Delicious. Pickled vegetables or gherkins make a good acidic accompaniment washed down with a glass of cold white wine. Our garden potatoes were limited this year but in abundance they can be stored successfully over winter. Reblochon can easily be replaced by Ardrahan, an award winning Irish washed rind cheese with a distinctly earthy aroma and an equally good crust.

Tartiflette


Serves 6

  • 2 1/2 lb/1.1 kg waxy potatoes
  • 2 tbsp/28 g butter
  • 1 medium onion, sliced
  • 2 large garlic cloves, sliced
  • 1/2lb/225g slab bacon chopped, or lardons
  • ¼ cup/60 ml dry white wine
  • 1 cup/240ml heavy cream
  • 1lb/450g Reblochon cheese (Substitute with Ardrahan or Hooligan) 

Directions:


  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F/175 degrees C.
  2. Put the potatoes into a large pot, cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and cook for 20 minutes. (Use potatoes of similar size to ensure even cooking).
  3. Drain the potatoes and slice into 1 cm rounds when cooled.
  4. In a saute pan heat the butter, add the onion and saute until golden brown. Add the bacon/lardons and saute over a medium heat until crisp. Pour off any excess fat.
  5. Add the potatoes and wine to the saute pan and cook for 5 minutes.
  6. Add the cream, salt and pepper to taste. Stir all the ingredients together for a minute.
  7. Butter the inside of 10 inch earthenware baking dish. Add the potato mixture and smooth the surface.
  8. Slice the cheese in half horizontally into half moons. Use a sharp knife to lightly score the crust of each piece.
  9. Place the two pieces of cheese crust-side-up on top of the potatoes so that they form a circular cheese again. Bake in the oven until bubbling, for about 45 minutes.