Be the rain

So much for the idea of more frequent postings…

One of the things that I’ve been doing other than actually working on this site has been cooking, and one of the things that’s been fun to be working with is the garnet yam:

• 1/2 Pound each: garnet yam, Yukon gold, red and purple potatoes. Dice to uniform half inch squares
• 1 Large celery stalk, finely diced
• 1/4 Cup shallot, finely diced
• 1 Small Jalapeno pepper, finely diced
• 2 Hard boiled eggs, peeled and diced
• 2 Pieces of bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
• 1/4 Cup champagne vinegar
• 1/3 Cup mayonnaise
• 1/3 Cup sour cream
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons coarse ground mustard
• Salt and pepper to taste

Put the potatoes in boiling salted water. Add The yams after the first few minutes of cooking time. Once done, drain and toss with the vinegar and allow to cool. Mix everything together in a large bowl. Add the mayonnaise and sour cream in small portions. You may need more or less, depending on how much moisture is in the potatoes. Allow to sit for at least two hours in the refrigerator. Adjust seasonings and serve chilled with fresh cut chives over the top.

I did a posting last year that talks a little bit about free food in the public domain (Harvest). This time though, I can get specific, and point out that right now you have a good chance to make one hell of a nice mulberry pie if you go up to 34 Crocus Place here in St. Paul. Plenty of ripe fruit hanging out over the street just waiting to be gleaned.

With spring firmly in place and all those fresh crops popping up in the fields, we should start seeing more frequent postings about food around here.

Today we have rhubarb. Fun factoid: stage actors in the early 1900s often repeated the word rhubarb to give the impression of general background crowd noise.

This little dice ended up becoming a hot and spicy rhubarb chutney served on a slow braised pork shoulder roast with mashed potatoes.

If it’s true that you are what you eat, then today I am 175 pounds of happy, synthetic, purple doughnut. This free pastry was our reward for participating in the St. Paul parks spring clean up (more on that later this week.)

Slow food? Yes.

Organic food? Yes.

Local food? Yes.

My purple pastry was none of that, but at the end of the day, you have to keep a sense of humor about the whole thing. You have to eat technicolor purple  “blueberry” doughnuts sometimes. Really, you do. Everything in moderation, including goodness.

Without fungi, we would have no mushroom risotto, no beef Wellington, no wine, no beer and no soy sauce.

And that would suck.

I hate the little stickers that get put on my fruit and veggies.

I found a dark passenger in my salsa the other day. Wish I could have moved it into a piece of cheese and served it with a pear on a bed of greens.

Alas, out it went.

A recent study done at the University of Arizona at Tuscon found that as much as 50 percent of the food grown  in America  is never consumed and goes to waste.