Civil Eats

Ann Gentry is the creator and founder of Real Food Daily (RFD), a mecca for organic, vegan cuisine in Los Angeles, where she and her staff serve up delicious, plant-based food to celeb devotees including Alicia Silverstone, Ellen DeGeneres, and Conan O’Brien. The executive chef to Vegetarian Times magazine, and star of her own cooking show, Naturally Delicious, Gentry is also the author of The Real Food Daily Cook Book. Her new cookbook, Vegan Family Meals: Real Food For Everyone, just out this week, offers more than 100 tasty recipes. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Gentry about cooking for families, raising children vegetarian, and why she believes in feeding people whole, natural food.   Read More

Many people consider Thanksgiving a marathon. For my large family who entertains all year long for the Jewish holidays, it’s more of a brief jog around the block. When I was a kid, my family of six often cooked and ate meals with my aunt, uncle and my four cousins who lived across the street. In my world, cooking a turkey feast for 20 is called Sunday Dinner.

You may think we are a family of trained chefs or, at the very least, had some extra help. But neither was the case. The adults realized early on that they had a crew of sous chefs already in-house. They may be barely three feet tall, but kids are often an incredible source of energy, creativity, and assistance in the kitchen. Read More

As a long-time regular of Angelica Kitchen restaurant in New York City, I’ve come to consider it a “second kitchen,” a place I feel good about supporting because it shares the values I keep in my own kitchen: High quality ingredients that provide a fair income to farmers who are working to protect the environment–and which provide nutrition without sacrificing any of the flavor–all for the reasonable cost afforded by buying direct.

And I am not alone. Since it opened its door in 1976, Angelica Kitchen has cultivated a loyal following, and their sustainable business model–maintained without serving alcohol (you can BYOB)–is a case study for success outside of the mainstream restaurant industry. Angelica’s is also one of the most popular vegetarian restaurants in New York City, precisely because it attracts a clientele that includes many non-vegetarians. In honor of Vegetarian Awareness Month, I spoke with owner Leslie McEachern–who is being awarded for her long-time advocacy of small, local farms by the Northeast Organic Farming Association this month–about running a restaurant built on relationships. Read More

With summer here, and the influx of both wild and planted harvestables gaining momentum, I am taking pause to compare season’s past with now.  Aside from what we’ve chosen for our garden, my typical food foraging generally takes place on my own property, harvesting native wild blackberries, volunteer plums, and miner’s lettuce and wild arugula for supple spring salads.  We’re also fortunate to have access to some prime mushroom hunting, and usually pull in a few pounds of porcini and chanterelles each year.

But this year is weird. Read More

I made a decision in early April that has improved my quality of life immensely: I broadcasted hundreds of lettuce seeds throughout two, 2 ft. x 6 ft. raised beds on my rooftop. Read More

Kyle Cornforth was up for a challenge. So when the founder of a cooking school in the outskirts of Chiang Mai asked Kyle, who was working at the Edible Schoolyard at the time, if she’d like to come on board as director of The Prem Organic Cooking Academy and Farm, she leapt at the chance. She wanted to share what she’d learned about local, sustainable, organic cooking at a public school in north Berkeley with students and staff at an international school in northern Thailand. Read More

For my entire food love life, which is basically the number of years I have been alive, I have been plagued by conflict. Raised by one vegetarian parent, whose meal-making repertoire spanned the Whole Earth Catalogue, I was taught to consider carob chips as a very special treat. My other, carnivorous parent reveled in the rare opportunities to spoil me with “Home-Fried Taco Shell Night” and sly donut stops on the way to the dump. This devil and the angel phenomenon now haunts my kitchen time—one voice whispers to steam veggies and substitute stevia in my whole grain baking projects, while the other yells to go ahead and make that traditional coconut cream pie. I grapple constantly with being “healthy” or using the “real thing,” striving for purity of body or purity of original flavor. But in the end, can’t these two food philosophies converge?

Yes.  I think the solution lies in simply trusting in the nourishment of whole, fresh ingredients.   Read More

It was a blessing in disguise, one of many construction zone disasters that actually resulted in triumph.  One recent morning I walked into the only room that remains somewhat set up for day-to-day activities during our total DIY home remodel, sectioned off by hanging canvas tarps, gutted walls, electrical wires, naked bulbs and lots of dust, and on the floor lay splinters of wood and scattered index cards.  It looked like a crime scene from the movies, someone looking for my secret papers, but instead was my old, neglected recipe box that had tumbled off its absent-mindedly placed location on the highest shelf. Read More

Although it is hardly a novel technique, our new, modern wood-burning stove has opened up a whole world of culinary experimentation to me. Before now the click of a knob or turn of a dial seamlessly preceded any cooking task, but with the crackling wood and cozy smoke scented aromas that fill our living space, I feel inclined to utilize the raw heat for more than warmth. It has defined true slow food, really driving home the concept of weaving time, energy, labor, and craft into a wood fired meal while consolidating our resource consumption instead of compiling it. It is the ancient practice of hearth cooking in today’s modern America, and anyone who still heats their house with fire can easily incorporate it into their daily food preparation plans. Read More

My kitchen has been whittled down to about 50 square feet.  Standing room only to say the least is our new cooking protocol, making collaborative meals a thing of the past. The kitchen counter is rapidly shrinking as more and more household items get piled onto the rare space, along with the dirty dishes in our bus tub that have to get washed outside. My elbows tuck in closer when chopping and I have to set the toaster oven on the floor by the power strip that reaches the single outlet in operation. The large vintage Viking range, a mere foot away, makes for a hot and sweaty prep station if cranked up during the dinner hour, so even on these chilly autumn evenings our faces flush with any kitchen task. What has restricted our game, you might wonder? Read More

So last summer, my husband and I bought a quarter of a cow. Hung, butchered, wrapped, and frozen, it filled our entire chest freezer. Most of it wound up as ground beef, but a few less-than-choice cuts come with the territory. Thus far, we’ve tackled beef liver and beef tongue.

The liver was, to put it succinctly, a bust. We soaked it in milk for a few days, on the theory that this would dull some of the, well, livery taste. (It’s a good theory, since, as Matthew Amster-Burton explained in his column on milkshakes, the fat in dairy can flatten out sharper flavors.) Then we pan-fried it, ate a few bites, looked at each other, and gave the rest to the cat.

It was just too strong a taste for us. And, heck, we like liver, at least the kind that comes in poultry; we’re happy to pan-fry that stuff and spread it on bread any day. But this? This was overwhelming.

At least, until I unwrapped the beef tongue. Holy cow. Holy cow. Read More

On the menu: : Ragout of Fresh Shell Beans, Cipollinis and Chanterelles with Grilled Flat Iron and Pimenton Butter.

Fresh shell beans, those wild Italian onions, cipollinis, and chanterelles are spontaneously everywhere. The grow together/go together axiom holds mighty tight here. This dish is a no-brainer as far as mutual affinities go.

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The great stakes and pains of planting our mini farm does not escape one day in our minds. Gigantic effort, sweat, sometimes some tears, all to ensure the bounty we see rolling in like tidal waves at this height of the season. Far from unappreciated, the bags of tomatillos, buckets of pears and plums, and fat bunches of basil bombard our tiny kitchen that has recently been cut in half in the midst of home construction. Every spare minute is now spent canning, pickling, seed sorting, drying, and pretty much always eating, just to make sure nothing goes to waste. The ironic thing about some of the products rolling in and out of our kitchen is that we never lifted a finger in their creation. Amazingly, a large portion of these preserving projects I find myself immersed in has a foraged subject. Mysterious appearances of wild edibles are being recreated into highly enjoyable farm goods and menu items here at the homestead. I will share a few with you. Read More

This post is part of a series called Roof Garden Rookies, which explores my attempt, as an amateur gardener, to grow a garden on the rooftop of my building in lower Manhattan. Check out my roof garden in a recent feature in the New York Times.

Cukes are twisting and turning their way up the stakes as I’m training them to, and green tomatoes and baby eggplants abound. With nearly three weeks of rain behind us (which made the broccoli and the beans happy, but not so much the squash) the garden is verdant and overflowing its boxes.

And six weeks after planting, the garden is sharing more and more of her bounty. Read More

As much as New Yorkers love the city, there’s nothing we love more than a getaway. That’s why when I found out that the launch of Huffpost Blogger Cathy Erway and Akiko Moorman’s supper club Hapa Kitchen was going to be a benefit dinner for the Queens County Farm Museum, I could not hold myself back from buying a ticket. And convincing four friends to come with me. Read More

In response to some of the worst economic times since the Great Depression, I’m excited to present my “Grow. Cook. Grub.” series.  With unemployment climbing, diet-related illnesses increasing, and health care costs sky-rocketing, more and more people are looking to feed themselves healthfully, simply, and cheaply.  Using my family and community as an example, I will show readers how easy it is to cook health-promoting, delicious, and inexpensive meals year round using food from my home garden, CSA, and local farmer’s markets. Read More

Last year we built a fortress, created to deter deer, raccoons, skunks, squirrels, and wild pigs from our own little slice of edible possibility. Today we are in the middle of planting our spring garden in this enclosure, now just a blank, dark dirt slate of bumpy rows and discarded piles of weeds. Shaping the earth is like frosting a chocolate cake, at least to this baker’s mind, and has inspired my next birthday party creation. Right now, though, it is time to focus on what plants will grow.  Read More

I’m a huge fan of soup and stew. In fact, I make one every weekend with my pickings from San Francisco’s Alemany Farmers Market. A weekly soup is the perfect healthy option for a busy single gal about town like me. I want to eat at home, cheaply, wholesome food, every day. But, of course, I’m running around – there are meetings to attend and friends to see, yoga classes, sunsets. So, I rely on my soup to get me through. Refrigerate a little, freeze the rest. Eat it when I need the nourishment. Read More

“I do not pretend to give such a Sum; I only lend it to you. When you… meet with another honest Man in similar Distress, you must pay me by lending this Sum to him; enjoining him to discharge the Debt by a like operation, when he shall be able, and shall meet with another opportunity. I hope it may thus go thro’ many hands, before it meets with a Knave that will stop its Progress. This is a trick of mine for doing a deal of good with a little money.”

-Benjamin Franklin in a letter to Benjamin Webb, 1784

These are normally the times when I cook, when days start to lengthen just enough to give one hope. I have noticed some things about how it is I always can, even when money is tight, and I don’t skip joyfully to the market daily. I think cooking well and simply without worrying about costs relies on the same hard-to-swallow concept as the most trusting kind of charity: you must pay it forward. Read More

Seventeen years ago, I left a great job teaching at a prestigious northeast culinary school to move back to Iowa and be an executive chef at a Holiday Inn. It was difficult to find people, in Vermont or Iowa, who did not think I was certifiably insane. Those who thought they knew Iowa claimed, “There’s no there, there!” And those who did not asked, “Iowa? Isn’t that where they grow potatoes?” Read More

There’s nothing New Yorkers love more than a secret, but best things in this city you can’t find, you have to just stumble upon. And boy did I just fall into something amazing.

I’d heard about “secret” supper clubs. The basic concept is that it’s an under the radar local, organic foodie evening seasoned with camaraderie, where you pay a (usually low) flat fee for a dinner in someone’s apartment cooked by seriously talented chefs. Read More

In response to some of the worst economic times since the Great Depression, I’m excited to launch my “Grow. Cook. Grub.” series.  With unemployment climbing, diet-related illnesses increasing, and health care costs sky-rocketing, more and more people are looking to feed themselves healthfully, simply, and cheaply.  Using my family and community as an example, I will show readers how easy it is to cook health-promoting, delicious, and inexpensive meals year round using food from my home garden, CSA, and local farmer’s markets. Read More

In case you live somewhere where the cold doesn’t rattle your bones, we’re in the dead of winter.  Even if you live in sunny San Diego or Key West, we all are simultaneously experiencing the shortest days of the year.  It is a time of transition, a pause, as the sun just starts to stay a little longer every day and bring warmth and light to our days once again.
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Few things in life give me as much pleasure as clearing out the refrigerator and finding tasty dishes to make using just what I have on hand. I love the challenge of creating a resourceful meal and often stumble upon new flavor combinations because of my fierce determination to use up all of the perishables before they are relegated to the compost bin.  Sometimes, though, the great fridge sweep leads me back to classic dishes that are both simple and delicious. With some leftover chicken, summer’s preserved tomatoes, wilting spinach and a bag of masa (a pantry staple) I conveniently have all the fixings for enchiladas—a dish that is not only easy but feeds hungry friends on the fly as well. Read More

No single food has been insulted more than fruitcake. Perhaps because the original concept of a fruitcake (ie: Crusader road food) was perverted in its modern context. I understand the disgust at your aunt Edna’s leaden weapon catchall version, using Dots soaked in Wild Turkey instead of real fruit. But I was convinced that it didn’t have to be this bad.

What used to serve as essentially a granola bar is now a decadent holiday cake; and as such, deserves to be delicious. So I decided to challenge the old thinking and create a fruitcake more representative of the version long forgotten, employing dried fruit and nuts in their original states, but also satisfying a holiday sweet tooth. Read More

Nothing could be simpler (or more affordable) than making apple butter for friends and family this holiday season.  I had thirty apples of varying sizes and types on hand from my CSA, and needed to make space in my crisper for Thanksgiving vegetables.  This led me to thinking about what I wanted to do with all of that fruit.  Indeed, making use of so much fruit for preserves means a lot of preserves, and a lot of preserves means having a great personalized gift. Many people are surprised when they taste homemade goods, and give the cook a lot of credit for her labors (little do they know, its not that hard!). Read More

Pickling is one of the ancient arts of preservation. It is known in the United States largely for the eponymously named pickles, or pickled cucumbers. Pickling remains a high art in much of Asia, however, with many regional variations for every kind of pickled food you could imagine. Read More

As we look to incorporate ways, as individuals, to live the change that many of us voted for, let’s start by thinking about Thanksgiving. Lately, I can’t stop obsessing about three timeless holiday classics which will surely be under consideration during this year’s meal: leftovers, the economy, and cranberry sauce. Read More

Each year, after the summer sun has warmed us through and rain has once again begun to fall, my friend Charlie shows up in my office with a paper bag. It’s one of my favorite moments of the year, and I’m never quite sure exactly when it’s coming. Charlie is a mycologist with a generous streak—he studies truffles (another wild Oregonian favorite) but makes an annual foray for Boletus Edulis, and brings a trove of these meaty, beautiful mushrooms to share. Read More

Halloween is an amazing blend of history, superstition, tradition, and culture. It is simultaneously a time a celebrating life on Earth while honoring those who have passed beyond Earth’s shadowy borders. People have been using pumpkins as a symbol for this holiday for centuries – carving and lighting them as a symbol of the transition between fall and winter, life and death. Read More