The End of Summer

(George Street, Chicago)

I always drag out each season to the last possible minute, and then some. I was still stewing dinners, warm and slow, when June came around. Even though by then winter was long gone. And now, at the last possible minute as the fall is inching it's way in, I finally managed to put together a gazpacho. Last of the tomatoes, the peppers, and the cucumbers for 2009 (at least seasonally speaking).


(I made this gazpacho with some Greek yogurt to cream it up a bit without leaving it heavy.)

As I was contemplating this transition into the orange and yellow glow of autumn, I came across a sunflower, flush with the sun's seeds at the farmers market. Nothing depicts the end of summer quite like a sunflower drooping heavy with it's seeds. I've been watching a patch of sunflowers in front of a lovely house on George Street in Chicago every time I peddle past on my bike and it was just today that I saw that they were not only well over 7 feet tall but that the bigger ones were starting to droop their heads and looked so human I almost expected them to yell hello as I zipped past.



And then I came across one of their cousins at the farmers market, nipped off at the neck with just it's head full of seeds - I've never actually harvested my own seeds out of a sunflower but I have to say it is one of the more pleasurable food activities I have partaken in. Popping each little seed out makes you relish it that much more when you munch it on your mouth. It also will never cease to amaze me how many little tiny seeds fill the smiling face of a sunflower!



When I lived in Beijing my roommate whom I still miss all the time, introduced me to the Beijing variety of sunflower seeds. There were all kinds of flavors and we would sit there for hours crack, open, crunch, crack, open, crunch, crack, open, crunch. It was soothing. It was a lovely way to chat endlessly. She of course had years of experience doing it and was about five thousand years ahead of me in the matter of the crack-open-crunch but I managed to fare well towards the end of my time living there. Crack open crunch. So lovely.

So, sunflower seeds in all their sunny glory - what are they good for? Well, they are very beneficial to the lung and large intestine according to Chinese Medicine. They are also very tonic for the stomach and nourish your 'essence' (all the good stuff: blood/yin, moisture, elasticity). Maybe those "good for you" explanations are too lofty for you. If you want to be more specific, sunflower seeds will treat hyperlipidemia, hypertension, arteriosclerosis, and they are great in cases of weak digestion where you still want to get some essential fatty acids into your system. Native Americans used them as a diuretic. They are the perfect antidote for all that good and plentiful summer living, full of grilling and chilling, it's time to substitute all that bounty with a little lighter yet still hearty fare.



While the fresh seeds tasted wonderful raw, I wanted to keep them for longer than a week so I soaked them in salted water for 8 hours, laid them out the next day on a baking pan with a sprinkle of salt, and roasted them for well over an hour at 250 degrees fahrenheit (you will need to test the doneness yourself if you do it at home). Enjoy.

What's in Season

Eating locally and seasonally: I've been thinking about this for quite some time, but I have not gone so far as to really delve into it daily and properly. I do love eating this way not only for the amazing flavor difference but also because yes, it helps the environment by reducing travel for food. However, I also love eating all the foods from the places I miss and call home which are warm and tropical and when it's winter in Chicago, eating a hot Thai dish filled with (un)seasonal vegetables, I don't blink an eye. Perhaps this is part of the reason we can find everything everywhere we go nowadays, with all the migrating and moving of people (and food) everywhere it's not so impossible to fathom finding Thai ingredients in supermarkets like it was in the early 1990's.

I'm not about to hop on a pedestal and deliver a manifesto here but the more I learn about and work with food and use it as medicine, the basic principle of eating local and in season is probably one of the healthiest things you can do for yourself. You are what you eat can not be more true here. I'd much rather be a carrot in season with all it's essence intact than a carrot from 3,000 miles away that tastes half like water, half like the memory of a carrot, though dressed up in it's fancy orange outfit. So, I'm going to be making a concerted effort to do this a little more (not dress like a carrot that is), bit by bit, and modify my Thai or Colombian food cravings to work with what's available here - but I won't lie, it will be difficult to give up cilantro in the middle of winter regardless of whether it can exist then! So, I probably won't go that far, but at least you can freeze chilies, ginger, and lemongrass to name a few without compromising too much flavor. Luckily there are all sorts of preservation methods for foods you have in summer than you might crave in winter, so I'll likely do an entry on how to preserve certain things and their medicinal quality. Here is a wonderful site where you can look up what is in season and local to where you live: the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). And here is Epicurious's link to a seasonal map with recipes.

Currently in Chicago area for early July (I'll be keeping tabs on the right side from here on if you are curious):
* Apples
* Artichokes
* Beans
* Bell Pepper
* Berries
* Cabbage
* Carrots
* Cherries
* Corn
* Eggplant
* Garlic
* Grapes
* Horseradish
* Leeks
* Melons
* Nectarines
* Okra
* Onions
* Peaches
* Peas
* Plums
* Potatoes
* Radishes
* Rhubarb
* Squash
* Tomatoes
* Turnips

Mexican Grocery

I ended up only being able to go to two of the three designated markets yesterday, and only one is worth writing about. The Sultan's Market (aka. the Lebanese purveyor I mentioned yesterday) was a small shop with prepared foods and not much else, I thought I'd buy olive oil there but it was kept on the bottom shelf, with dusty warm bottles, next to the food station - NOT good. So, nay to that market. But the wonderful news is that Cermak Produce (aka. the Mexican market) on W. North Avenue in Chicago is glorious and resplendent.



I spent $54 and bought food for at least 5 days.



The market had beautiful cuts of meat, an amazing variety of vegetables and legumes, and there was an endless selection of chili's available - I bought two in dried form: chile morita (in Spanish it is spelled chile and I usually do so as well but have been experimenting with the English spelled chili), and chile guajillo. All in all I probably counted about 20 different varieities of chili's (fresh, dried, or powdered) and I was in heaven. I also found "alligators tail" (as they refer to it in Thailand), or better known as fresh Aloe vera - many of you have used it in products or know that it is rich in vitamin E, etc, but it's hard to find it in the US fresh in it's original plant form. This was an exciting find for me! You can use fresh Aloe vera by slicing off the thin skin and applying directly to a wound/scar/burn or you can also use it in food though it's not something super tasty (as far as I've learned how to cook it). I also found fresh nopales and there was a variety of other cacti that I'll return to explore later. There were a few herbs I couldn't identify which I'm going to research and experiment with as well. The limes were 10 for a dollar and were juicy and lovely - this was also thrilling (they're usually 2 for a $1 in the large chain groceries and they're rather dry in the cheap Chinese groceries). The butcher section was also incredible, every cut known to mankind in terms of pork - I got ribs and ground (boring), but I really want to go back and get some pigs feet and cow tongue in the near future when I have a good partner in crime to eat it with. Alas, the fish section wasn't all that, I much prefer the Chinese grocery for this as everything was frozen in the Mexican one. I bought fresh corn tortillas, queso blanco, red beets, plain yogurt (they had the Greek variety), cilantro, garlic, white onions, garbanzo beans in their leaf covering, tomatillos, Jamaica flowers (for this lovely sour tangy sweet juice that comes from boiling them), cheapola avocados (another bonus!), fresh oregano, lentils, black beans, osso bucco, tamarind juice, bananas, ginger, watermelon, onions, strawberries, nopales, chili's (two kinds), ground pork, ribs, and fresh baguettes. All of these things have their place in medicinal cooking of course, as all food has it's value in TCM and is used for what those values are. The only things in fact that would not be "medicinal" are processed foods. In any case, I will be writing about black beans, flor de Jamaica, and nopales this week as I make dishes with them. Below are the pictures from the market.











Mmm, dried hot chili's!



Interestingly, they put together little packages for a good price (instead of buying all the ingredients separatly in bulk), for soups/stews (pictured as sopas) - brilliant idea!



Tomatillos (little sour green tomatoes), they also were selling mini versions which I've never tried but will next time. I once made a pickle, peanut butter, tomatillo sushi roll (my friend Traci can attest to this). It was good. Truly.



Mexican chayote, a tropical trailing vine which produces fruits, which are treated more like vegetables than true fruits.



Close up of chayote, there is also a smooth version.





Nopales



Aloe vera in the midst of all the plantains.



Scallions with bulbous bottoms.



A plant I have never used, it did not have a particularly strong scent (in fact, barely any at all) - it is an "Aztec plant with a flavor like broccoli, the tender tips are used for salads, cooked in butter with onion and garlic like spinach. Fine Mexico City restaurants use young tender seed heads dipped in batter and cooked. This was apparently an important crop for the Aztecs and the people who lived in Mexico before them. " (I got this excerpt from a plant purveyor but I will double check this info).



Pork, glorious pork!



Finally, just outside in the front of the market is a little stand with salsa music blasting, a grill for pork skewers, and soft luscious tacos.

Chitown Hunting

I'm going to be my own truffle pig today and sniff out three grocery stores in Chicago : a massive Korean store, a Mexican produce, and a small Lebanese market. I'm aiming to come back with ingredients from each to write about their medicinal value. Already my mind is dancing around the possible ingredients I'll find: Mexican cactus, or nopales, wonderful chipotle chili's or a nice dark chocolate base for mole, a magnificently marbled cut of short rib from the Korean store, delectable nourishing lamb from the Lebanese market...but I'm sure I'll be surprised and I'll let you know what it ends up being. Til' then.