The knife: No other tool is so elemental, so representative of the cook than the well-honed blade. They are, in essence, the extension of a cook’s hand and in every culture a kitchen is simply not a kitchen without them. Yet few tools in the contemporary American home are treated so casually. If you’re one of those home cooks who has a handful of knives, purchased God-knows when, stored in a drawer with the can opener and that gadget they got for Christmas, it’s time to change your ways.

Let’s get over the first hurdle right off the bat: yes, good knives are expensive. I suggest, though, that unless you happen to be a carpenter there will be no tool in your life that you will use more often, and that your knives should command a certain respect, even reverence. A well-made knife, well-cared for, is something you will leave to your grandchildren and they to theirs – a once in many lifetimes purchase.

Read the whole story @ Nourish Network.

Tags: Uncategorized by Chef Kurt Michael Friese
No Comments »

By Columbia nutritionist and real food advocate Marion Nestle:

Pushback against food advocates

My latest column in the San Francisco Chronicle deals with an issue I discussed earlier on this blog: the ways in which agricultural and food interests are pushing back against advocates for a healthier and more sustainable food system.

Frank talk about food sometimes quashed

Marion Nestle, Sunday, November 1, 2009

Q: It must take courage to criticize the marketing practices of food companies. Doesn’t it get you into a lot of trouble?

A: Trouble? That depends on how you define it. Some pushback has to be expected as a normal consequence of advocating a food system that promotes better health for all and more sustainable agricultural production.

My latest experience with pushback occurred on World Food Day, Oct. 16. I had been invited by the U.S. Embassy in Rome to give the annual George McGovern lecture at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. After my talk, our new ambassador to U.N. agencies in Rome, Ertharin Cousin, thanked me but told the audience that the opinions they had just heard were mine alone and did not represent those of the U.S. government.

What did I say that required a disclaimer?

via Food Politics » Pushback against food advocates.

Tags: Uncategorized by Chef Kurt Michael Friese
No Comments »

Under the ever-changing Sonora Desert sky, straddling the Arizona-Mexico border, an unassuming little fruit called the chiltepin pepper has kept cool in the shade of cliff sides for millennia. And while it thrives in these protected enclaves of the high desert, it packs heat matched only by the noonday sun.

Last week I set out with friends to find the people who harvest the wild chiltepin and to sample its uses among the descendants of those who first picked the tiny berries thousands of years ago. We traveled south from Sonoita, Arizona across the border at Nogales to the tiny town of Magdalena, where the church of Santa Maria de Magdalena was holding its annual festival to celebrate the harvest. Just as many of these festivals have become north of the border, this one too has devolved over the years into a bizarre combination of sacred and profane. Nevertheless, thousands descend upon the little village every year for the food and the spectacle surrounding the humble little chile.

via Nourish Network » Stalking the Wild Chile: A Pepper Primer.

Tags: Uncategorized by Chef Kurt Michael Friese
No Comments »

It is often assumed that “organic” equals “expensive.” This is not always the case. Take for example the Ardales wines of Bodegas Arúspide. They make a red from Tempranillo and a white from Airén that are certified organic and retail for about $12 a bottle; $130 a case. Not bad considering it has to be shipped across an ocean.
Advertisement

Bodegas Arúspide is in Valdepeñas, in the southern part of the massive wine region known as Castilla La Mancha, home of the legendary knight Hidalgo Don Quixote. It is 120 miles due south of Madrid, at about the halfway point between the capital city and the Mediterranean port of Málaga.

All their wines are fermented using a method called carbonic maceration. Unlike the conventional methods, familiar to most through old “I Love Lucy” reruns, the grapes are not crushed before fermentation but rather are stored in a cool, carbon dioxide-rich environment where the juice ferments inside the grape without using added yeasts as a catalyst. The result is fruit-forward, friendly, approachable wines that are best drunk young. The most familiar wine that utilizes this method is the oft-overhyped Beaujolais Nouveau.

Read the whole post at Press-Citizen.com

Tags: Uncategorized by Chef Kurt Michael Friese
No Comments »

Even those of us in the hectic world of restaurants must occasionally take a break, and so it is that Inauguration Day found me in the High Desert north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. I took the train from my home in Iowa and am now enjoying the healing waters at Ojo Caliente and reflecting on the new world we’ve entered. Much has been said about the myriad ways this milepost in history marks profound change: in matters of state, matters of race, matters of politics and compassion; and rightly so. A new day is indeed dawning, and if you’ll pardon the mixed metaphor, joy cometh in the morning.

As a nation, though, there is an important aspect we still refuse to grapple with in its totality: food. Maybe because it is such an immense prospect to ponder — food is one of the very few things that we all share in common, and it touches nearly every aspect of our lives. We work in the daily grind each day, perhaps in part because of our love of the work (for the lucky among us anyway), but mostly in order to put food on our tables and nourish our families. Yet in our national discourse, the closest anyone gets to talking about food is either in considering the minutia of the farm bill or decrying the latest food-borne illness outbreak that is often brought about by that very minutia.

Read the entire post @ Grist.org

Tags: Articles, Grist.org, President Obama, Slow Food, Uncategorized, capitalism, food, food cost, food politics, food security, hunger, recipe by Chef Kurt Michael Friese
No Comments »

The latest Table Wine in the ICPC

Although Lady Spring held off as long as she could, bud break has finally arrived at Wallace Winery, the small vineyard owned by Dr. Ed Wallace on Herbert Hoover Highway just west of West Branch. Overall it’s been a good spring for Wallace, with no major late freezes and only a little damage from the rabbits this past winter. Seems hungry rabbits will chew the bark off the slumbering vines to get at the sap within when long-lasting snow cover hides their normal diet.

Bud break, the moment when vines seem to make their leap from potential to kinetic energy, is the point when the buds on the vines, which have been sitting teasingly for weeks, suddenly open up to reveal the first bright leaves of spring. It is a time of hope and expectation in any vineyard, and often the cause for great celebration in some of the world’s older, more traditional regions such as Bordeaux or Napa. The parties often are the first opportunity to taste the latest vintages.

Read the whole story here

Tags: Iowa, Table Wine, Uncategorized, wine by Chef Kurt Michael Friese
No Comments »