The Soaked Bean

Seeking Nourishment, Finding Traditions

Papa Olive’s Pot-au-Feu

By

veggiepile It’s March.  Hooray?

March may be home to the official start of Spring but, despite those handfuls of gorgeous, blue-skied days, it still gets cold, bitterly so (especially for those in the arctic zone formerly known as the Northern United States) and it certainly isn’t a month without its hardships.

I think this French proverb captures the mood of our current month best:
En Mars, quand il fait beau, prends ton manteau.
(In March, when it’s beautiful out, take your coat.)

Take. Your. Coat.

It’s a transitional month and one that can be confusing for mind, body, spirit and, as illustrated above, wardrobe.

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Perhaps these are the founding qualities behind Fun-a-Day, a March tradition created by the members of a sweet community in northern Michigan.  You choose a project for the month–haiku-writing, beer-brewing, bread-baking–that you do every day and at the end of the month you meet with the other participants and share your results.

I learned about this tradition in the summer, and, while I didn’t get to participate, I got to see some results of a few projects, and the sentiment behind this tradition–a way of combining personal new or challenging experiences with community and shared experience to cope with a month that can be trying–has stuck.

So much so that I’m declaring March a collaboration celebration on this here blog.  Every week, I’ll post an entry from a friend as well as my own weekly entries featuring a recipe from, or inspired by, a family member.

This weekend keep your eyes peeled for the first collaboration, an entry that celebrates the approaching arrival of Spring.

For now, I’m taking my coat and posting a last winter recipe for these last winter days: Pot-au-Feu, the traditional, broth-y, vegetable-brimming version.  It’s a simple recipe, one from Lulu’s father–Marco, or Papa Olive for those whom he gifts olive oil and honey to on the regular–, a wool-blanket-around-the-shoulders kind of meal, deeply nourishing and satisfying without a lot of fuss.

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Peel Yr Potatoes

In fact, the only fuss in this recipe is the peeling of a few potatoes.

While it may seem like an anathema to some holistically-minded folk, yes, I peel my potatoes.  Potatoes contain toxic compounds called glycoalkaloids, which function as a kind of natural pesticide, or protection, for the potato and are the reason why some folks avoid foods from the nightshade family (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant) altogether.

Glycoalkaloids are especially concentrated in the potato’s skin.  You’ve probably been told to avoid green-hued potatoes, or ones that have started to sprout.  This is because the glycoalkaloid content is very high.

Glycoalkaloids are why potatoes can be said to be inflammatory and I often wonder if those who report symptoms (like headaches, bloating, swelling) would find the experience of a peeled potato better.  (Anyone out there who can speak to this?)

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In any case, I hope this recipe lends some brightness to you during these oft-rough first weeks of March.

Merci Papa Olive!

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Papa Olive's Pot-au-Feu

Ingredients

  • 1 pound beef shoulder
  • few marrow bones
  • 2 carrots
  • 2 leeks
  • 2 onions
  • 2 parsnips
  • 4 potatoes, peeled
  • 1 celeriac, de-bearded and peeled
  • 2 turnips
  • 1 rutabaga
  • 2 teaspoons cloves
  • 4 bay leaves

Directions

  1. Slice beef shoulder into big chunks. Add meat and marrow bones to large stockpot and fill w/ cold water. Put on high heat and bring to a boil. Once boiling, take off heat, drain water and remove meat and bones from pot. Wipe pot clean.
  2. While meat and boils are boiling, cut all the vegetables, except the onions, into big chunks -- you want them to be roughly the same, big size (remember, they're going to cook for a few hours). Peel your onions and stick the cloves in the skin (the onion is your pincushion, the cloves are your needles).
  3. Add vegetables, meat and bones into stock-pot. Cover with cold water. Place on stove and heat on high until comes to a rolling boiling. Skim surface for impurities, then lower. Cover with a lid and simmer for 2-3 hours, checking every so often to see if your meat is tender. Once tender, serve!

Serve with lacto-fermented pickles, grainy mustard, course salt and a chunk of sourdough bread.

It will keep in the fridge for 4 days, if well-sealed. Otherwise, it freezes well.

 

potaufeu

A Beef with Beef-Broth + a Recipe

By

barebonesI’ve got a bone to pick with you, bone broth.  With a feature in the NY Times, a top position on many a “What’s Hot” list (yes, those still exist), and the success of a broth-centric shop in the East Village (to-go cups! of broth! for 10 US dollars!), it’s safe to say that you are having a moment.  And while I couldn’t be happier that more & more folks are coming to know your nutrient-rich ways, it’s just that, I feel like, you’ve changed.  The same way kale or Tibetan butter tea have changed (yep, I said it. #nutritionistproblems): not in actual, physical make-up, but in public perception, market opinion.  You’ve gone from most humble foodstuff that just so happens to be nourishing, to Super Food, with a capital S and all the ensuing connotations.

Our vision of health tends to be indistinguishable from our vision of attractiveness, of success.  And so, just as the kale smoothies of 2012 promised to make us healthier (skinnier) and as bulletproof coffee (a translation of butter tea) is currently promising to make us healthier (not only skinnier but smarter, too), bone broth is being marketed as panacea for all that ails, and especially those more prioritized ailments like spotty skin, thinning hair, and love handles.

Bones are being valued now, an undoubtedly positive development considering that they were once categorized as “waste” and disposed of accordingly.  However, this positive development is not without its complications.  Bones are, after all, a Super Food now, and, as with kale, the price of bones seems to rise according to the level of “health-consciousness” of the community.  In Geneva, most bones (even ones from grass-fed, consciously-raised cows) are free.  In Vancouver, a pound of bones (and not necessarily marrow or meaty ones) could cost up to 12 Canadian dollars.  Thus, (in a profoundly ironic turn of events) bone broth becomes a food, not of economy, but of privilege (10 dollar to-go cups!).  This is exclusionary and just not cool.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I love bone broth.  I more than love it.  I L-U-R-V-E it. (See this love letter detailing why).  Nothing brings me more joy than converting the uninitiated to the way of the bone.  I truly believe it plays an important role in a balanced, nourishing diet, as well as in a more sustainable system of animal husbandry.  Coincidentally, it’s also delicious and the addition of broth to something as simple as a pot of rice is nothing short of miraculous.

I’m just wary of our tendency to position certain foods within a kind-of exalt/abase cycle (See: soy, agave nectar, wheat bran, etc.).  Firstly, because it’s exhausting.  Secondly, because every person’s dietary needs are different according to their lifestyle, their physical, mental and spiritual constitution, and their geographic location.  And thirdly, because I believe that in order to really heal what ails us–yes, even love handles and spotty skin–we need to bring nourishment into our lives from many directions, not just from one to-go cup.

And so I leave you with my recipe for beef-broth.  One based on traditions, on creating something (a food) out of nothing (a formerly inedible substance); liquid sunshine from bare bone.

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This broth won’t make you skinnier, or smarter or “healthier” in our entangled sense of the word.  But it will, if you let it, nourish you.  And, alongside other nourishing practices like, for example, self-love, gratitude, 64oz of water every day, interpretative dance, it can, eventually, contribute toward healing in whatever form that takes for you.

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Beef Bone Broth

Notes:

The steps in making beef broth are quite similar to those in making chicken broth.  If you’re a broth beginner, I’d recommend reading through my post of chicken broth & broth-making essentials here.

As always, the goal here is to get your broth to gel.  Attending to steps #1 & #8 will ensure that all is gel-tastic.

#1.  Use cartilaginous bones.

Collagen, which is found in cartilaginous bones like the joints, neck, head and feet, renders gelatin.  For beef broth, if I can get my paws on one, I use a portion of a calf’s foot.  If not, other cartilaginous bones work (almost) just as well.

#2.  Use bones with some meat on them.

This won’t affect the gelatin content of your broth, but it will increase its flavor immensely.  I usually use a small portion of oxtail, as it can be quite meaty and is less pricey than ribs or the like.

#3.  Use marrow bones.

This also won’t affect the gelatin content of your broth, but it will add many nutritious delights.  Marrow is an excellent source of omega 3 fatty acid, which is essential for brain-health, of the amino acid glycine, which helps make and repair proteins, and is a complete form of vitamin A, which is an important catalyst for many, many biochemical processes and a powerful antioxidant.

#4.  Add vegetable scraps (if you have them) or even whole vegetables.

Bone broth is a great way to make use of kitchen “waste”–onion skins, garlic skins, ends of carrots, potato peelings.  If you’re making broth weekly, you can store these in the fridge.  Otherwise, freeze them for later use.

Whole cloves of garlic, halved onions, halved potatoes all add flavor to your broth.

#5.  Place the bones (except the meaty ones) in a large stockpot.  Fill to the top with cold water and 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar.  Let sit for an hour.

The vinegar helps to draw out the minerals from the bones.

#6. While the other bones are soaking, brown your meaty oxtail bones in the oven.

This will add complexity to your broth’s flavor.  I usually do this at around 400F for 15 minutes.

#7. Add meaty bones to the pot.  Turn heat on medium-high.  When the liquid starts to roll, turn down heat immediately to low. At this point, there will be a good amount of foam on the surface of your broth.  Skim, skim, skim.

This foam contains surface impurities and will negatively affect the flavor of your broth.

#8.  Simmer, simmer, simmer.

I usually cook my beef broth for 24 hours +.  You can keep it cooking for up to 72 hours, but I find that this can be tricky & my broth usually gels after a good 24.

#9.  Let cool in pot, then strain and pour into sterilized glass jars.

These keep in the fridge for 4-5 days.  A layer of fat will form at the top of your cooled broth.  This helps preserve your broth and can also be used to, say, fry an onion, or cook an egg.

You can freeze your broth for later use.  Frozen broth will last indefinitely, it would seem.  I’ve experimented with freezing in glass jars, but have had inconsistent results–with the glass shattering more often than not.  I now use plastic bags, letting the broth cool completely before transferring it.

#10.  Don’t waste the meat or marrow!

You’ve just slow-cooked oxtail for 24+ hours.  Save this & use it on a sandwich, or in a taco.

Same goes for marrow.  You can spread it on bread, mix it with butter, or top a baked potato with a spoonful of it.