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Harvest Corn + Potato Chowder

September 12, 2015 By Lauren

brightcorn

We’re deep into late summer, the season where all is ripe, ready to be pulled from soil, stalk, vine.  It’s harvest-time and for me that means 2 things: #1. cramming as many summer activities (swimming in the lake and biking long-stretches beneath already-starting-to-fade green and eating as many raspberries/tomatoes/summer squash as possible) as I can into these ever-shortening days and #2. preserving, because this harvest season, like all seasons, is turning and for this Winter I dream of a cupboard lined w/ jars of home-canned tomatoes, a freezer-drawer filled w/ home-frozen berries and cracking open a jar of home-fermented dill pickles on some bone-chilling night.

In Geneva, we’ve already had a few down-right Fall-like days and I made this chowder one fresh evening with some frozen chicken broth from last Winter.  The recipe was adapted from Jessica Prentice’s Full Moon Feast, a beautiful book about what feeds us (and it’s so much more than just food, y’all) throughout the year.  Each chapter is named for each month’s full-moon–harking back to an age where time was so deeply interwoven w/ what was on (or missing) from our plates– and Prentice uses a mix of history, folk-lore, nutritional science, and personal anecdote to deepen our connections between ourselves and our food.

twopotatoes

The first full-moon of late summer was traditionally called the “Corn Moon”–corn meaning “grain” long before European colonialists encountered zea mays (or the corn in this recipe).  Prentice talks about agriculture–how it’s shaped our social, cultural and environmental landscapes–and about balance.  To paraphrase: yes, the way most grains are grown in the U.S. are corrosive to both our planet and ourselves and yes, many folks would agree that the rise of agriculture was, indeed, the starting point of this anthropocene epoch.  But also: grains have seen us through many a long-mooned night, and, when prepared properly, nourished us for thousands of years.

shuck

Like corn.  Corn was held, in many cultures, as something sacred–a symbol of survival and sustenance, something that could be stored to see one’s community through the barren Winter.  The corn that has nourished indigenous Americans for centuries has little to do w/ the majority of corn grown in N.America (and shipped elsewhere) now.  Genetically-modified, grown in petroleum-based fertilizers, sprayed with petroleum-based chemicals–this kind of corn is not a symbol of life, but of war and death.

Perhaps that’s why so many nutritional camps have sounded alarm.  Many foods have become controversial in these past years, but none more so than wheat and corn.  For me, these foods are prime examples of why nutritional guidance should be nuanced and not applied with such broad strokes.  The corn I used in this recipe is an old variety, grown in organically-cultivated soil from a neighboring farm.  If I wanted to, I could shell and dry its kernels and use its flour all Winter long.  Sounds pretty sacred to me.

When I say nutrition should be nuanced, I don’t mean complicated.  Sometimes it can be as simple as just eating the foods around you.  Like a corn and potato chowder on a harvest new-moon.

corn-chowder

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Harvest Corn + Potato Chowder

Adapted from Prentice's Full Moon Feast

Ingredients

  • 3 ears corn and the cob
  • 1 quart chicken broth
  • 3 tablespoons ghee
  • 2 tablespoons za'atar or dried thyme
  • 3 small leeks, sliced into rounds
  • 1 carrot, diced small
  • 4 handfuls potatoes, cut into chunks
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 3/4 cup raw sour-cream + 1 tablespoon for garnishing

Directions

  1. Slice the kernals of your corn into a bowl and scrape the corn "milk" into the bowl, as well.
  2. Heat your broth in a small pot with the corn cobs and simmer covered for 20 minutes.
  3. Meanwhile, add ghee to a heavy-bottomed soup-pot. Saute the leeks until translucent. Add carrots and cook and stir for another few minutes. Add potatoes and enough stock to cover (if you don't have enough, just add a little water). Add big pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, then simmer (covered) until the potatoes are well-cooked (about 15 minutes).
  4. Add corn kernels and simmer for another 5 minutes or until tender.
  5. Remove from heat and add sour-cream and stir. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  6. Garnish w/ a spoonful of sour-cream and enjoy w/ a slice of buttered rye-bread.
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Filed Under: Dinner, Lunch, Plant, Recipes, Summer, Vegetable Tagged With: chowder, corn, dinner, harvest, latesummer, potatoes, seasonal, vegetables

New Potato Potato-Salad

May 15, 2015 By Lauren

potatosalad

It’s mid-May and Summer is already afoot:

Dandelions have gone to seed, lilac’s in bloom, strawberries redden and branches grow greener and evenings stretch longer and submerge us in blue.

These blue nights of late Spring and early Summer–described so beautifully by Joan Didion in her memoir— always invoke major nostalgia for me.  Nostalgia for past Summers and the places I spent them in and the people I spent them with; and even, oddly enough, for this coming Summer–which I think about so often that it sometimes feels as if it’s already gone.

chop chopchop

Lately, I’ve been getting ahead of myself.  All the growth of this season brings a sense of boundlessness, infinite possibilities.  There’s so much space within these blue nights and I find myself wavering between projecting too far into the future and retracing the past, often missing the little details of the present moment.

The little details which become currency for nostalgia, what is cherished, held close: the nacho dinners Emulee and I would make after a long, hot day of weeding on the farm,  salted hakurei turnips by the lake, a pickled egg and a glass of cider at Tandem’s counter, the ride-home with Kasia after symphony-in-the-park with reggae turned up and windows rolled down, light scattered across a patch of tall nettles, the knick-knack shelf in my grandma Stella’s living room, a jelly doughnut cut in half, home-made potato salad in a yellow bowl.

My nostalgia for the past reminds me that while attending to the future is undoubtedly important, engaging in the present is vital, as these are the moments, the little details that give, dare I say, meaning to our days.

shallots parsley

Last Sunday, some peonies really drove that message home.  One of my favorite flowers, I realized I was taking home the first bunch of the season and quite possibly the last one.  Their flowering season is short.  If I’d been looking too far ahead–toward this coming Summer–or too far behind, I might have missed them altogether.

Like I might have missed these first harvest, or new, potatoes of late Spring.

honey/mustard dressing

This new potato potato-salad is based on the memory of my grandma’s potato salad–the one in the yellow bowl.  It isn’t her recipe–she used mayonnaise and celery and sometimes apple in hers–but it reminds me of her and the summers we shared.

In French new potatoes are called delicatesses, a fitting name for these earthy-sweet and tender tubers.  A handful of red-skins, some shallots, some sage, a whole fistful of parsley and a tangy-sweet dressing make a salad that is, in my opinion, the perfect compliment to these extended twilight hours and all the space for picnics by the lake, BBQs in the yard, and new found little details they provide.

potatoweb-26

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New Potato-Salad

Ingredients

  • For the salad
  • 1 kilo potatoes, mix new + red-skin
  • 1/2 bunch parsley, minced
  • handful fresh sage, minced
  • 2 shallots, minced
  • pinch salt
  • For the dressing
  • 1/2 olive oil
  • 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons mustard
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • pinch salt

Directions

  1. Scrub potatoes and chop into bite-sized pieces (in half for new potatoes, in quarters for red-skins). Place into large pot and cover with cold water. Add pinch of salt and place on stove on high-heat. Once water is boiling, reduce heat and let potatoes simmer for 15 minutes, or until tender. Drain and rinse in cold water.
  2. While potatoes are boiling, chop shallots and herbs and place in large mixing bowl. Make dressing by adding all ingredients to a jar, sealing and shaking like a wild-wo/man or until emulsified.
  3. As soon as you've drained and rinsed your potatoes, add them to the mixing bowl and pour over the dressing. (It's important to pour the dressing on while the potatoes are still warm). Mix everything together. Serve right away for the warm version or cover and keep in the fridge overnight for the cold-version.

Keeps in the fridge for 3-4 days, if well-sealed.

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Mes amis de Suisse:

Ce Samedi à Plainpalais il y a un évènement Art Sans RDV –c’est une expérience immersive à la rencontre de la plaine de Plainpalais et des oeuvres d’art qui l’habitent.  À 19h30 je préparerai le buffet pour l’inauguration de leur application mobile: des nori-rolls avec riz noir et pesto d’ortie/des betteraves/des carottes et des macarons de noix de coco et des amandes.

J’espere vous voir là-bas!

RDV

Filed Under: Plant, Recipes, Seasons, Sides, Spring, Vegetable Tagged With: delicatesse, newpotatoes, potatoes, recipe, salads, simple, spring, wapf

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