Fast Food Fix the Slow Food Way: Curly Fries

I stopped eating fast food 20 years ago (that's right, drive thru's are not a part of my life), but I still get a hankerin' for some Curly Fries, so what's a gal to do?

I make them at home!  But using all organic materials, healthy fat:  extra-virgin olive oil, Himalayan sea salt, and this spice blend (all powders):

Cayenne 1 part
Onion 1 part
Garlic 1 part
Salt 2 parts
Turmeric 2 parts
Paprika 8 parts
Starch 24 parts

By parts, I mean any unit of measurement you choose.  If you choose teaspoons, you will have a total of 39 teaspoons of spice blend, or 13 Tablespoons since there are 3 teaspoons in a Tablespoon.  If you'd like more finished product than this, then enlarge your part, maybe a Tablespoon, or if you want to make a whole lot, maybe a 1/4 c.  You choose.  And you can eyeball the measuring if you wish, or add another spice you'd like to include...no rules.  This is kitchen alchemy not rocket science.  ;)

I like to make up more than I will use at once and keep it in a jar so it's ready to go for the next time.  Being an Herbalist I buy my spices by the pound as many I also utilize medicinally, and I simply use them often and in large quantities in my cooking.  :)

The starch can be any type, I have used Tapioca or a non-GMO corn starch.  This acts as a carrier and also provides a "coating" like "crust" on the fries.

I use a Spiralizer (also works great for all those Zucchini - I make Zucchini pasta - anyone who grows them knows what I mean), but you could just cut strips by hand.  Coat the cut potatoes and the baking sheet with olive oil (I just pour some on and use my hands to mix it all up), sprinkle with salt and the spice blend to taste and bake 400 degrees for about 40 minutes, turning at least once to get them evenly crispy.

Enjoy this healthy snack!  or even make it a meal - top with avocado and mix with some steamed Kale. 

I like to make a lot at a time and have leftovers; they're great on soup or in an omelette for instance...

Mea'n Fo'mhair - Mid-Harvest: Crisp Juicy Apples, Cricket Symphonies, and Recognition

from The Lord of the Rings:
“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

In the middle of what is forecasted to be a week of rain, I am getting a chance to write about harvest and share some pictures of recent harvests from the past few days before the rain began...  and to actually stop the outward harvest and look within at my personal growth.

Every day is a day of harvest, but this time of year, Mabon, the time of the Autumnal Equinox, is a yearly time of harvest.  A time in which we gather what we have sown as we prepare to go inward for the winter. A time to recognize and give thanks for what we have.

The Winter's Soups and Mash and Curries...

This is not simply garden talk, but life talk.  Our gardens and its seasons are a metaphor for life and while we may not all have a garden, we all have life.

What have you sown; what are you harvesting; how are you preparing for the coming dormancy?

Goldenrod and Asters:  The Bee's Current Harvest

Aw shucks...looks like it's time for some bingewatching of Bushcraft videos or something.  :)

Mathieu transplanting wild Tansy from the 'soon to be house site' to the orchard where it will attract beneficial insects.

How much of harvest is luck and how much of luck is what we did in the past?
We can be like the Mantis ever ready to seize the opportunity that presents itself at that precise moment when it is offered...

"You think that I am impoverishing myself withdrawing from men, but in my solitude I have woven for myself a silken web or chrysalis, and, nymph-like, shall ere long burst forth a more perfect creature, fitted for a higher society" . - Henry D. Thoreau

Milk Thistle in the Medicine Wheel Garden dropping its seed for next year's harvest...

What seeds are you dropping into the fertile ground of your soul?  Take advantage of this rain to water them in.

 Day and Night are equal right now at this balance point of the year as we go from the Yang of Summer into the Yin of winter.  We offer gratitude to the waning sunlight - the same sunlight that nourished the fruit we harvest and that will nourish us through the coming dark of winter...though hidden deep within it will be...

Sensual Magic - from seeds planted in April.

Enjoying the fruits of harvest.

Moussaka time!

What didn't come to fruition?  How will you ensure next year's harvest?  What seeds do you set aside?

First Year Teasel salvaged from the 'soon to be house site'...

...to be made into tincture for future use...

The summer sun captured in Goldenrod.  It smells like honey - or does honey smell like it?  Medicine for the winter.

Finish old projects, begin new ones...  All things come to an end and in the end is a new beginning.

Mourn the passing, celebrate your success.

                        Balance.                           

                                                                            

The last of the season's beans.

Great Ragweed along the Anacostia River from a recent plant walk I did in DC at Figment;
we sat and communed with this oft maligned plant.  It was magic.

"Go out, go out I beg of you
and taste the beauty of the wild.
Behold the miracle of the earth
with all the wonder of a child."
  - Edna Jaques

Wren says "hi!"

  'He who delights in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.' 

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Making Soup Stock: Bone and Vegetable - Nutrition from Kitchen Scraps

Strained Bone Stock with added Shitake and Seaweed for Flavoring and Trace Minerals.

You know those bits that many just throw away (or even better compost) when cooking...broccoli stem peelings, onion skins, chicken bones,....  well if you aren't putting them to good use, now is the time to start.  What I do is keep a gallon ziploc bag or two of each in the freezer going at all times, one for bones, one for vegetable scraps.  Once the bag is full, or sometimes I'll wait for two bags to be full, I make soup stock.  Sometimes I mix the bones and vegetables, but ideally you decoct the bones for as much as 72 hours; the vegetables are best just 24 hours max, so it depends.  The vegetables are mostly just a flavoring agent, something to use as a base or liquid in most any cooking.

Straining the Broth.

The bones on the other hand are one of the most nutritious foods you can eat and I believe no diet should be without the regular intake of bone broth, but especially anyone healing from any type of trauma, dealing with serious illness, or pregnant.  When I eat bone stock I can feel the goodness going throughout my whole body lighting up every cell, literally.  It's power packed with nutrients (amino acids and minerals especially) that enrich your body and make you feel good.

The strained Bone Stock; you can see it has good fat in it too.

To make this glorious golden liquid you just immerse the bones in water after breaking them open to expose the marrow if needed.  For instance, with chicken bones you want to use a mallet to break each long bone.  You can also buy larger soup bones at your local humane butcher (if you don't have one of these, look for one - know your farmer, know your food).  I often do this and just mix whatever bones I have; I even mix in fish bones.  Next add a tablespoon or so of vinegar per gallon of water used; this helps to leach the minerals out of the bones.  You may need to add water as you go, particularly for the longer times, or you can start with a greater amount of water.  Bring all this to a boil, then reduce to simmer with a lid and cook for 24-72 hours.  The longer you cook it, the more minerals you will get out of the bones.  72 hour decocting actually makes the bones mushy like a cooked potato.  Once your cooking time is up, strain it; you do not need to skim the foam off the top (it's high in amino acids).  I then put the cooked bones in my compost pile; I figure the garden will use any minerals left.

In this Vegetable Stock; you can see a Brussel Sprout stalk, Leek ends, Onion peelings, Carrot tops, and  rubbery Celery.

Now what to do with all this rich, luxurious goodness?  I use bone stock as a base for most any type of soup, mixed into any type of vegetable mash, as a broth when cooking meat, and even cook the occasional pasta in it.  It gives any dish a depth of flavor and mouth feel that is hard to beat.  You can also use it as the liquid needed when reheating a dish, or when creating a dish that needs just a bit more liquid to get the texture just right, or in making sauces and marinades.  Keep it for up to a week in the fridge, or freeze it in the right size quantities for your needs.  I have found that it does not work to cook dry beans in (even soaked first); I am guessing the minerals affect the ability of the bean coating to break down because the beans never soften.  So, cook the beans first separately, then mix with the bone stock.

Bone Stock with some type of Bean or Lentil and Garden Greens is a favorite staple dish around here.

For vegetable stock, use the same directions, but keep cook time around 24 hours, no vinegar needed.  You can use it in much the same way as bone stock, though it is more as a flavoring agent.  A great way to make something out of what would be waste otherwise.  Have fun in the kitchen!

~~~

Making Bone Stock

Lovely isn't it?  This is after cooking, during straining.

Why would you do this?  Because...

1.  It saves money; have you looked at the price of organic stock lately?  Mighty expensive when you can make it with just a little time on the stovetop.  Plus home-made stock tastes better and is more nutritious (less processed, less water).  Get nutrients in an assimilable form, cheaper than buying supplements!)

2. It'super nutritious:  Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus and other trace minerals; Glucosamine and Chondroitin and Gelatin- good for your bones, joints, hair, nails, skin, heart, and on and on...

3. It re-uses what would otherwise be a waste product.

This is what it looks like after cooking and straining.

How?
1. Collect bones as you get them in a ziploc bag in the freezer.  I mix all types of bones, literally from pork to chicken to fish (all humanely raised or sustainably wild-harvested, a prerequisite for me as factory farms are a true atrocity and serious ethical issue, on top of that, who wants to eat sick, tortured animals?  It matters.  We are what we eat.)

2.  Once you have a gallon bag full or so, use a hammer to break open any solid bones to expose the marrow and cover all the bones in a large stove pot (or crock pot) with water, add a couple tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar (this helps to leach out the minerals), and cook (bring to a boil, then simmer with lid) at least 24 hours, but as many as 72.  The longer you cook, the more nutrients you will get out of the bones.  72 hours makes the bones like mush.

3.  Strain and use.  You can fridge for up to a week, or freeze for longer storage.  Freeze in individual size portions, or use an ice cube tray.  You can use the stock for braising other meats, wilting vegetables, flavoring grains or legumes, making soup, reheating leftovers, etc.  I find a use for it almost daily.
Often I just make a huge pot of soup with it right after straining:

This is a soup to which I added right to the bone broth:  soaked and strained Aduki beans, Buckwheat Groats, Olive oil, Shitake, Kelp, Bay leaf, Thyme, Turmeric and Mizuna greens.

Mizuna, an Asian green from the coldframe

Greens Coldframe - with wild greens growing all around!

What?
Easy soup recipe guidelines (all measurements are approximate):
Add to gallon of bone stock:

- 1/4- 1/2 c. olive, coconut, sesame oil or saved oil from cooking fatty meats

- Kelp, small handful - I add this to all soups for it's salt, iodine, and other trace minerals.  Kelp helps to remove heavy metals from the body, so it's detoxing.

- 1 c. grains (cook in stock until done, different for each grain, can soak first overnight to initiate sprouting and improve nutrition)

- 2 c. dry legumes (**soak, strain, and cook them separately first.  There are so many beans and lentils
to choose from - lots of colors and flavors!  Soak  legumes 1-3 days before cooking with a rinse daily; this helps you to digest the beans, getting much more protein out of them, getting rid of the anti-nutrients that coat the beans so that you get more nutrition from the beans)

You can't go wrong with sauteed onions. 

- Greens of some sort:  bok choy, spinach, collards, etc.

- other vegetables and flavoring agents

- a dash of a couple spices (mix and match, experiment!)  I almost always add Turmeric for its anti-inflammatory effect.






Eat as soon as the ingredients are cooked, but simmer as long as you like.  Sometimes I leave this on the stove all day.  Then cool and put some in the fridge for sooner and some in the freezer for later.

These soups are so nourishing you can feel it; they make you feel good.

Another option is to mix vegetable scraps into the bone stock for making vegetable stock, or just use vegetables alone.  Vegetables only need an all-day or overnight (24 hour max) cooking time, so if I am mixing, I will usually cook the bone stock for a day or two first, then add the vegetable scraps.  By vegetable scraps I mean the peelings from carrots, the skin on the broccoli stem, the fibrous ends of the asparagus, onion skins, leaves off cauliflower, etc. - the parts that you usually compost, but are technically edible.  I save all this in a separate ziploc in the freezer.  I just keep re-using the bags, always keeping them in the freezer whether full or not.  Simple.  Keep in mind not to use tomato, pepper, or potato green parts as they are toxic.

Jujube dates

Another option is to mix herbs into your stock at the end of cooking time for their therapeutic effects.  Some possibilities include:
Astragalus, Jujube, Goji berries, Dong Quai, Codonopsis, Poria, Burdock root, Reishi, Dioscorea, He Shou Wu, Orange peel,
Lotus seed, and Lily bulb.
Go light at first so as to not overpower the flavor, and up the amount slowly. 

Soup-making:  a weekly ritual.  Warms the belly and the soul.