Ginger Pear Sauce

Years ago while at Birkebeiner Brewry, I learned to make a BBQ sauce. It was a simple sauce with all the basics: ketchup, vinegar, worshishires sauce, and onions. This time I replaced the onions with fresh grated ginger and bartlette pears. The sweatness had a burning desire for chicken breasts and so we bought two free range and two organic breasts to see what the difference between these two labels. The free range breasts were bigger, but seemed to be pumped full of hormones. The organic breasts were small with a healthy looking color of fleshy white. This was not a serious research idea, more of a taste test. And the winner was--the sauce. Getting caught up into all the details of one's meat, causes a political conflict about what is better, based on all angles of how the chicken was raised, the feed eaten, to what kinds of chemicals still reside in your breast. Where is the love of the food that is here to be appreciated and eaten. We create eating disorders out of our constant infatuation with what we really want. What I want is bad, and what I need is good. My body decides much more than I do what it needs and therefore, I want to eat an organic breast over a free range. Two choices that are considered within any conscious food debate. The life of the chicken, becomes the life of me. How I relate to my food is how I relate to myself. If I am whiling to take in something less than my highest potential, then I will not consider the consequences of my diet. On the other side, if I am too far concerned with what I ingest, am I allowing myself to be a part of what and who is around me? I like questions more than answers. The way I create my world depends very much on what questions I have been asking myself lately. Right now, I would like to ingest a healthy and happy chicken. In the movie, Baraka, they showed a chicken factory, with all the little chickies being thrown around, with their beeks burnt off, and living within an overpopulated cage. I have been eating these chikcen my whole life. I am not ready to give up chicken, but will certainly look to support a more sustainably conscious chicken farm with its practices considerate of all that may be effected by the treatment of our food.

Chilli Cook Off

Yeah, it was my idea weeks ago. When I brought it up people laughed. Who doesn't like chilli I thought? After three reschedules, the day finally arrived and I wasn't prepared. My plan all along had been to make Black Bean and Bison Chilli, but time was running out and I didn't think QFC had the ground Bison. In my previous searches, I didn't see it in the meat cooler. I was beginning to worry that I would need to think up a new recipe when I asked my friend if she had ever seen the Bison and she told me that it was in the freezer section. The plan was saved and shortly later I was thawing and cutting onions. It feels so right when all the ingredients fall together without effort. I saged the Bison, cumined the black beans and carmalized the onions. I learned from a chef that if you cook onions on low heat, it breaks down the cell wall, but retains the form of the cut. It also takes the stress away from possibly burning them, so if you have the time, let them sizzle slowly.

The competition was fierce and creative. My good friend grilled pears with ground lamb. All the nuitrients the body needs are within these two ingredients. He would have definitely won the competition, if only he would have combined the two. All the other ingredients diluted the perfect marinate, as the flavor was spread throughout. There were a couple chicken chillis that were bland and before I went back for seconds, my chilli was gone. I was pleased and felt like I had provided everyone with a new chilli experience. Many at the cook-off had never eaten Bison, which I highly recomment. It is much leaner than beef and digests easier too. My belly has a wholeness, a connection to the rest of me that it makes me wonder what it was like a couple hundred years ago along the plains. Bison BBQ everyday, and then no more. It is sad, but if we could clear our obsession with beef, the buffalo would come back to their homeland.

I don't want to say that I won, because I am trying to be modest. I forgot the one ingredient that would have wowed them all, water chestnuts. I have found that the texture doesn't go limp and the crunch adds what the onions could not. Dice them and add them to anything that needs something different and people will exlaim what is in this dish. They probably won't believe that something so flavorless can bring such variety to a dish. Oh yeah, and always spice up your chilli, heat wise, or it will be a turn off for those enticed taste buds. Just enough, not too much or you will burn those buds into submission.

Friday Night

So I went to a dinner party last night. At first, I didn't really want to do much in the way of helping to prep. Earlier in the day I got head butted playing B-ball. I got a fat bloody lip, it actually made me look pretty tough. When we went to the grocery store, I checked out before everyone else, so I sat near the entrance, patiently. The people walking by me had all kinds of reactions to my face. It looked like I just left a fight. Some people shook their heads and others held a grin that put me at ease. Even the checker treated me with kindness. I was not angry at the person who smacked me, I let it all out by venting, no no screaming explitives. I positioned myself on a stool, at the kitchen counter, for it seemed an appropriate stance-much like a boxer between rounds. Once the cobb webbs cleared from my head, I set out to help cooking the meat. We were having beef, shrimp and fish tacos. My skills on the sautee' pan aren't to shabby, so I took over the task. I had forgotten how much fun it is to flip and toss the sizzling goods. Explaining to everyone there that the biggest mistake that people make is to over cook the meat. I realized that it wasn't a matter of cooking the meat until done, but the important thing was to cut the heat right before its done. This worked especially well with the shrimp. Those little curly creatures popped in the mouth and weren't rubbery at all. I don't always think of the temperature of the food when I pull it off the heat. That sustaining internal heat continues to cook delicate foods for a short time after. Things like eggs and seafood, need extra attention and the opportunity to blossom in their own goodness.

Something about Food

I like to eat food. It is good. It fills my belly. I eat more. Then, I eat until I am more full. Since this food is just passing by as quickly as my digestive system can process it, I must continue to eat, daily. What will I eat next?

Damn, this is a lot of work. I used to just eat food and now I write about it. I wanted to use this post to philosophize about our connection to food, but I need it to be more of a conversation. What do you think? I know there are foods that will make you turn in your grave for just one more taste, one more morsel of mouth feel. The saliva is dripping from the sides of my mouth and I haven't even said anything about a specific food.

If we could take this to a grade school level, I was wondering what is the one food that you could not live without?

My favorite food is the burrito. I worked at a burrito shop back in highschool. At the time I was working at a microbrewry named the Birkebeiner Brewry, I don't know about the name, but it was a great first job. The dirty dishes were plenty. One day I was riding my bike around town thinking that I had the day off and my buddy and I stopped by the brewry to get some of that crackrock-delicious Mr. Pibb. To my adolescent surprise, I was scheduled to work. I thought to myself, "you are fucking kidding-right?" Who knows, if I would have missed my shift, I might have been fired.

The owner was there this fateful afternoon. He walked up to me, while I was still in shock about having to put in eight hours of sludgery. As usual, I expected him to call me a slack-ass or some other confidence building words of encouragment and instead, he offered me a cooking/burrito making job at his new place, Slickrock Burrito. Of course I said yes and I even offered to do some recruiting at school. To help business, he wanted some pretty girls to apply. Without hesitation I offered to do some serious recruiting for him--ooo ooo, a twitter update, I just had a drink of beer, mmmmm, oh yeah.

He wanted me to find some girls that weren't afraid to get their hands dirty and clean out the grease trap every once in a while. I assured him that the girls I had in mind would get the job done. I was so full of shit. These girls wouldn't even touch a dirty dish, but they brought in the business and every time they smiled, that tip jar filled up. One of the girls wore shorts so short that when she put on an apron, it looked like she wasn't wearing anything at all. I think she is a lawer now.

We had our grand opening, advertising free buritos on the south hill. The line practically went around the block. This place was on the map instantly. The burritos were the best burritos in the universe at this time and people wanted more. Husbands were sneaking out to get a burrito fix. Minutes later, the wives of these same husbands were there, not to catch a fool in the act, but to get their fix too. I will give you all the details of the best burrito in a later post, for now I must finish this beer and chill.

A Brief Intro

Thoughts and feelings evolve around what foods we choose to put into our bodies. Have you ever been reminded of past connections with foods? I know I have. It is true that the smell of certain foods will take you right back to a memory of eating this food. Science has proven that the strongest trigger for memories, is through the olfactory nerve which controls our sense of smell. I am not trying to get into neuroscience, but the olfactory nerve lies directly above the limbic system, which is where we process our emotions. Visually, we are filtering a large portion of what we see, because otherwise we would be overwhelmed by so much stimulation. With our sense of smell, we cannot simply look away. Once the scent has triggered the limbic system, we instantly react to the memory, as if it were happening right now. Our bodies physiological response, thoughts and emotions, mirror that of the past experience. The smell of food takes us into a reality that is not really happening, but is being displayed, as a real time felt resoponse. Now imagine that there is a visual within your mind, almost like a film reel playing out in your head. Can you picture this memory developing? Now you are about to take that first, bite. Wait, where are you and how is this food going to heal you today?

My idea is that through our cravings and aversions to food, we are replaying part of our life and the mindbody does not know the difference. We experience emotions, thoughts, postures and maybe even personalities, that are a product of the past experience, just on scent alone. Our food is here and we are off in the past processing and in a way unconscious of what is happening now. Every meal is a healing opportunity. Establish new meaning to your life by being aware of what your connections to food actually do for you. Have fun creating memories based on the present experience, and watch as your world opens to the many possibilities of food, music and dance. Bring soul to your food and vibrate with the soulful rhythms in your life.