What's in Your Quarantine Kitchen?
These challenging times have had us hunkering down, seeking solace in what we know. For Slow Food Vermont, that means comfort food, pantry staples, and lots of chocolate chip cookies!
Living slowly has also meant finding time to experiment with new recipes and techniques. We asked the Slow Food Vermont Board to share what they're cooking, eating, and shopping for lately. Hopefully you'll be inspired to try something new or put a new spin on old favorites.
As our regional NEK captain Stephan Cantor puts it: "In this very difficult time, may we find new and slower ways of nurturing ourselves and our spirits. Being more mindful of our food, taking the time to prepare it and enjoy it with our families — these are the tenets that Slow Food has always promoted."
Share what you're making in your quarantine kitchen! Comment on this Facebook post or email us: VermontVT@slowfoodusa.org. Here's what the Board is cooking:
Barrie Silver (Events and Social Media): Our college-aged kids are home (yay!) so we've been focusing on recipes that can feed a crowd. That means lots of soups and braises: corned beef and cabbage, chicken soup, carnitas, three-bean chili. All satisfying (and brought to you by the letter C?), but old favorites vs. anything new.
I placed an order with Maple Wind Farm in Richmond recently, and I look forward to trying them out.
Becca Brown (Co-Chair): We roasted a goat leg last weekend weekend that we got from Flatlander Farm in Starksboro. We have been cooking a lot from the pantry and freezer, and in larger formats than usual so we can rely on the leftovers to feed a family of four for a second meal and help save some time. We also got a whole pig from Snug Valley Farm; farmer Ben delivered it right to our door!
Editor's Note: Becca was interviewed in Seven Days last week about her pandemic pantry essentials, along with 6 other Vermont food pros. Among her recommendations: Meat from Vermont farmers. And frozen peas.
Chris Howell (Treasurer): I've been lunching on quesadillas and cheese sandwiches a lot lately. Cabot's Alpine Cheddar is my everyday cheese. It's delicious and lasts months in the fridge. All Souls Tortilleria (a Snail of Approval awardee) makes an heirloom corn tortilla and we've put stacks away in the freezer. Red Hen's Miche is a big, beautiful loaf of bread that I quarter and freeze. Now I just need to find an everyday hot sauce. (Anyone making a sauce with habanada!? It provides the amazing fruity and floral flavor of habanero without the heat.)
Francesca Arato (Snail of Approval Coordinator): I was shocked when a few weeks ago I went to do some grocery shopping and entire shelves of products were empty, including flour. So I started thinking about recipes I could make with different types of flour, and I remembered one of my favorite recipes as a kid growing up in Turin: gnocchi alla romana made with semolina flour. Find great recipe videos here and here! (Image from BBC Good Food)
Lindsey Berk (Regional Captain - Addison County): We made these awesome wrinkled chocolate chip cookies the other night, and they're nearly impossible to stop eating. They're also REALLY FUN to make because you slam/drop the tray down really hard to create the wrinkles (get out that COVID angst!). They unfortunately use a lot of butter which seems to be running low on our store's shelves, so only make them if you have access to a lot of butter!
We also had sourdough pancakes this morning using frozen black raspberries from last year's garden and maple syrup we boiled last weekend in our backyard. These are the little things that are definitely keeping us in good spirits.
Mara Welton (Slow Food Vermont Governor): We have pretty much been making pizza on repeat, enjoying making sourdough crusts! Been also poking around in my garden enjoying all the waking up of my plants!
Editor's Note: Mara has also been busy starting up her brand new food truck, Chile Colorado, which is serving up Instagram-ready Southwest food from the Weltons' home base in Burlington, with delivery to nearby areas. Find menu here.
Margaret Woodruff (Membership): My at-home-from-college daughter has been happily making sourdough bread and will expand to pizza now, I think!
Sara Jean Whelan (Co-Chair): I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting with baking different cookies and cakes and cooking a ton of recipes out of the Moosewood Cookbook. I'm also getting jazzed about World Disco Soup Day. This year, we're collecting recipes from the elderly community to be made into a global cookbook! Submit yours here.
Stephan Cantor (Regional Captain - NEK): It's sugaring season here in the Northeast Kingdom, and the sap is not self-quarantining, so we are very busy! It's even oddly normal until you think about going somewhere.
I must say I have been a little inspired at dinnertime by the necessity to stay home, and also by the need to feed hungry sugarmakers... so a few of my meals have been a bit more ambitious than usual (at least for a weeknight). The other night I made Eggplant Parmigiana for the 1st time in my life!!! And it was amazing!
But I am also falling back on a lot of our favorite comfort foods, which at my house means a lot of rice and beans in various incarnations - tacos, burritos, quesadillas. (Speaking of which, when I couldn't find regular flour in the stores I bought a big bag of corn masa and I've been making tortillas. Yum. I hope that's a habit I can maintain after the quarantining is over.)
Stephanie Gomory (Newsletter and Communications): I'm loving a new cookbook I got, When Pies Fly, which is an ode to hand pies ranging from galettes to empanadas. So far I made some savory pop-tarts with an Indian-spiced meaty filling; next up are potato knishes. I also can't get enough of Smitten Kitchen's grapefruit yogurt cake, which I like to make into muffins, and with all types of citrus (not just grapefruit).
We signed up for two CSA shares this week from Snowberry Farm in Brookfield: a summer vegetable share and a pork & chevon share. Farmer Jesse Poe has been growing vegetables and making canned goodies for our family for over a year now, and we're looking forward to trying his meat products as well.
Vito Forte (Secretary): Several weeks back, with the fear of the impending doom, I made about 20 pounds of sauerkraut & another 5 pounds of daikon/cabbage kimchi. I have been steadily scrapping away at them and had a few meals of fried sourdough starter with cheese & greens on top (think of it as a pita).
My partner made a big pot of ox tail stew that lasted several days, too. Might come out of the pandemic looking for a bigger pair of pants. I gotta say it's a stressful time. Worried about family, friends and all the people I know in the food world & agriculture. The world of real food is in a very fragile state right now.
Share what you're making in your quarantine kitchen! Comment on this Facebook post or email VermontVT@slowfoodusa.org.