The Soaked Bean

Seeking Nourishment, Finding Traditions

Papa Olive’s Pot-au-Feu

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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.

 

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Belated Imbolc Tidings & Squash Soup

By

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Lulu & I celebrated Imbolc this past Sunday with a loaf of sourdough poppy-seed bread and two bowls of this nourishing squash soup with three beeswax candles, a jar-full of fiery fringed-tulips and an almost-full moon beside.

For the uninitiated: Imbolc falls midway between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox, a celebration of fertility goddess brigid, a heralding of spring & all the fertile life and light it brings.

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Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Midsummer: though I by no means consider myself a pagan (okay, maybe just, like, a neo-neo-one), there is something so wondrous about celebrating holidays that are unabashed celebrations of the seasons.

I say unabashed because, of course, many of our American holidays are still guided by seasonal rhythms.  In fact, many have been derived from the pagan calender–Ostara (or the Vernal Equinox) has become Easter, Yule (Winter Solstice) Christmas, Mabon Halloween.  Even Imbolc has wedged its way into our culture through Groundhog’s Day (for which I am grateful solely because without GD, we wouldn’t have that Bill Murray masterpiece).

But while their pagan counterparts are centered around these seasonal transitions, I find American holidays take them for circumstance (See: Christmas in July), trading in traditions based on nature for (and I swear this isn’t turning into a [major] rant against commercialism) ones based on consumerism.  Not to mention the replacement of every single female representative for a male one, with goddesses Ostara and Brigid replaced by a male bunny and a male groundhog, respectively.  A bunny and a groundhog.  Shaking ma tête.

The celebration of Imbolc depends on personal preference.  Goddess worship, if that’s your thang, could certainly be apart of it, weather divination (like in the case of ol’ Groundhog’s Day) by a walk in the woods and a watching for creatures who have emerged from winter-den, a candle-lit dinner, a bonfire with friends, a jar of bright flowers, a bowl of squash soup. A way of celebrating the season, the moment at hand.

I’ve found this to be the brightest balm for late winter blues: a reminder that the wheel is ever-turning, changes are afoot, Spring is almost almost-here.

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I’ve made many versions of this soup before (with cumin and coriander, paprika and za’atar, lots of garlic and fried sage).  This is, by far, the simplest one. It’s also my new favorite as the minimalistic approach really lets sweet Kabocha shine.

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Imbolc Kabocha Squash Soup

Ingredients

  • 1 small celeriac, chopped
  • 2 carrots, chopped
  • 1 kabocha squash, gutted and chopped (leave the skin on! it's edible & full of fiber & nutrients)
  • 2 good knobs of ghee
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 pint beef bone broth
  • water (if needed)

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 350F. Chop celeriac, carrots and squash so that the pieces are roughly the same size. (Important, as you're roasting them together and you want them to roast evenly). Place on roasting pan. Melt knob of ghee and pour over vegetables. Add generous sprinkle of salt. Cover with foil and roast for 45 minutes, or until all vegetables are soft.
  2. When vegetables are almost through roasting, heat soup pot on stove on medium-flame. Add knob of ghee. Once melted, add onion and another good sprinkle of salt. Let onion cook until translucent, then lower the flame.
  3. Add roasted vegetables and ghee-drippings to pot. Cover with pint of bone broth, adding additional water if necessary. (Liquid should cover the vegetables so that your soup is velvet-creamy). Bring broth to a rolling boil, then take off of heat.
  4. Let cool for a few minutes, then use immersion blender (Important, as pouring hot liquid into a standing blender or food processor can lead to major leakage) to blend.

Enjoy with hunk of sourdough bread, spoonful of raw sour cream, lacto-fermented pickles,and/or drizzle of olive oil and squeeze of lemon.