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50-Minute Barszcz

December 10, 2014 By Lauren

beet-3

During these dark winter months, Geneva becomes land-of-the-dinner-party.  When the cold wind blows, when the sun straight up disappears, when night falls just before five o’clock, there’s no better way to see your friends than in your home, gathered around your table, tucking into something warm.  Just last week, we were hosts on Thursday, guests on Friday and guests on Saturday.  Phew.  And while I sincerely adore the new friends I’m meeting here, sometimes, and especially during these more reflective months, I can’t help but miss the old ones.

Like Kasia, who lives in Vancouver.  Kasia and I only met last year, but as we share a sign in the Chinese Zodiac (rabbit, in case you were wondering), were both born on the 28th (of different months, but that’s besides the point), and are both prone to a vata imbalance (the tell-tale sign being chapped lips [and too many parenthetical asides]), it’s safe to say that we’ve known each other a long, long time, karmically speaking. We met at school for holistic nutrition and it was love at first  alternately serious and silly conversation.  Much of the time we spent together was like one long dinner party for two (or three, or four, or six) where nourishing food and avant-garde dance moves were never-ending.

One grey winter day, we made a barszcz, which is a beet-soup for those of you who don’t speak Polish (everyone, except Polish people and Lu who learned it for fun).  I’d been making barszcz a lot that winter, as beets are one of my favorite vegetables and soup is my favorite food, but had yet to prepare it with Kasia, who hails from Poland and grew up on rye bread, liver pate and, of course, beets in all forms, including soup.

Kasia’s version of barszcz is her mother’s, only half-blended and served with a whooping spoonful of mashed potatoes.  As I prepare a barszcz for myself on this grey, winter day, I’m transported to that evening–beet-chopping, potato-mashing, faux-philosophizing, interpretative-dancing–and feel nourished not only by fibrous, nutrient-rich beet, but by friendship, old friendship, soul friendship which is a maybe one of the most precious nutrients of all.

The Bountiful Beet

Beets are chock-full of vitamins and minerals–folate for nervous system support , manganese for protein digestion and utilization, potassium for blood pressure regulation, copper for tissue healing and bone formation, magnesium for heart-health, vitamin C for immune system support, iron for hemoglobin production–and loads of fiber.  But, their nutritional value doesn’t stop there.  The beet does, in fact, go on as the pigments that give beets their robust colors–from raspberry-striped to plum-jam to golden-ochre–are actually antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds called betalains, which have also been shown to support our liver’s detoxification process.  A nourishing choice for the, sometimes overindulgent, holiday season, indeed!

Betalains are sensitive and can be destroyed by prolonged heat.  This is why I suggest making a 50-minute barszcz, where the beets are cooked for only 30-minutes or so in order to preserve these super-powers.

chiogga

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50-Minute Barszcz

Ingredients

  • knob ghee
  • 1 medium yellow onion, diced
  • 1 leek, diced
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 carrots, diced
  • 1/4 of a small savoy cabbage, grated or sliced thinly
  • 4 small-medium beets, or 2 large ones, diced
  • a teaspoon of black peppercorns, whole
  • 1/2 teaspoon of coriander seeds, whole
  • 2 sprigs dill, fresh
  • 1 liter broth; chicken, beef, or vegetable
  • a few pinches of salt

Directions

  1. Heat ghee in soup pot on medium heat. Once hot, add onion, good pinch of salt and let cook until translucent. Stir in leek and garlic and let cook for a few more minutes. Add carrots and cabbage, another good pinch of salt, and stir the pot so everything is distributed evenly. Turn heat down to low and let cook five minutes, stirring every so often.
  2. While you're waiting, wrap the peppercorns, coriander and dill in a cheesecloth and fasten. This will be your spice-sack.
  3. Add beets to the pot, and let cook for a few minutes before adding your broth. Add your broth and your spice sack, bring pot to a boil, cover, turn heat down to low and let simmer for 30 minutes.

You can either fully blend your barszcz like I did, or you can blend half of it, or none at all.

Enjoy with a side of fermented veggies, raw-milk sour-cream or a soft-boiled egg or a spoonful of mashed potatoes and a hunk of sourdough bread.

3.1

Filed Under: Dinner, Lunch, Recipes, Vegetable, Winter Tagged With: beets, bonebroth, dinner, lunch, soup, winter

Yin Rösti

September 14, 2014 By Lauren

This past weekend, I crossed the rösti divide.

Though the name may conjure images of narrow mountain-pass or swift-and-icy ravine, in substance it’s far less dramatic than that.  It’s the cultural border between the French-speaking side of Switzerland and the German-speaking one and also heaving plate of, what us Americans would term as, hash browns.

Shredded potatoes fried in animal fat, sometimes topped with an Alpine cheese, or an egg, or Speck (or, depending on the contents of your fridge, all three); a farmer’s breakfast that suits its mountainous terrain with assurance and compliments this transitional season with its comforting qualities.

Late summer’s shift toward fall, while characterized by abundance, moves inward: daylight wanes, the wind quickens, leaves and fruits fall, grasses dry, cows are taken down from mountain pastures, the last of the season’s crops are harvested and stored; the preparation for winter’s stillness begins and the desire for comforts–from what’s on our feet (hand-knit woolens, please) to what’s on our plates–deepens.

According to Chinese Medicine’s theory of the five elements and their corresponding seasons, Fall corresponds to the Metal Element, the lungs and yin energies.  Yin can be thought of as contracting energy, receptive and passive as the moon; it follows that foods with yin qualities are grounding–warming and deeply nourishing like slow-roasted beets or brothy soups.  The lungs are said to be negatively affected by unresolved grief and sadness and positively affected by yin energies including comfort foods like the dear potato.

Yin Potato

The shift toward Fall brings a shift in the Northern Hemisphere’s farmer’s markets.  The bright jewels–berries, apricots, tomatoes–of summer wane and are replaced by the substantial, soil-covered root vegetables of winter cellars.  With an ever-increasing variety of foods available to us regardless of region or season, many of these modest vegetables are overlooked in favor of something snazzier: for who among us would choose a regular potato when a sweet one is an option?

Not to belittle sweet potatoes but as they require a warmer climate than Geneva offers I’d like to sing the potato’s praises for a while.  The potato has suffered an unfair reputation in the health-conscious community due to its status as “comfort food“: the potato chip, the pomme frite, the double-chili-cheese fry.  We seem to have mistaken convenience for comfort and in the process have discredited one of the most nourishing, truly comforting foods around.

The potato, when eaten with its skin on, is high in fiber, B-vitamins–namely B6, B3 and B5, vitamin C, potassium, manganese and copper.  It contains a variety of phytonutrients–carotenoids, flavonoids and caffeic acid–that act as antioxidants, protecting against free radical damage.  The potato helps build and maintain body tissues, reduce bodily inflammation, promote healthy digestion and elimination, strengthen immunity and even ward off carcinogens.

My version of rösti forgoes the Alpine cheese and Speck for my favorite food-ally of the approaching season, another yin food:  wild-foraged mushrooms.  The turmeric-yellow, woodsy-delicate, butter-pat-softness of the Chanterelle, the smokey-black, earthy-dark-firmness of the Black Trumpet; to me, they are an emblem of the season. 

chanterelle

rosti

Das rösti ist tip-top!

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Yin Rösti

Ingredients

  • 3 starchy potatoes (shredded with skins on)
  • 1 handful small onion (finely chopped)
  • 2 Handfuls chanterelles (sliced)
  • 1 knob ghee
  • salt & pepper (to taste)

Directions

  1. Mix potatoes and onions together.
  2. Melt ghee in cast-iron skillet on medium heat. Once skillet is hot, add potato-onion mixture and distribute evenly across pan.
  3. Let cook 7 minutes, checking underside edges to see if it's browning.
  4. Use large plate to flip rösti--cooked-side up. Add more ghee to skillet. Slide rösti back into skillet. Let cook 7 minutes.
  5. Turn oven on Broil. Slide rösti out from skillet and onto a heat-proof plate and place in oven.
  6. Add more ghee to the skillet and cook mushrooms for 5 minutes,stirring until ghee has been well-absorbed.
  7. Take rösti out from oven, spread mushrooms on top and enjoy.
3.1

Filed Under: Dinner, Fall, Lunch, Recipes, Vegetable Tagged With: dinner, lunch, potatoes, switzerland, traditionalfoods

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