Organic Seasonal Ingredients

[Zucchini Mama]

Okay, so I am making a concerted effort to buy more organic food. I want to know what organic ingredient you focused on, where you bought it, the cost, and what you made with it.

I have been trying the sausages at ALKA Gourmet Meats 3642 W4th Ave. I bought two caribou with juniper berry( $6.45) and one venison orange and fennel ($2.53). The sausages are very lean, and braising them wasn't that successful. I ended up putting them in a tomato-based ghoulash with some kidney beans and savoy cabbage, which was better. I liked the caribou better than the venison orange-too much like an orange popsicle flavour to it.

I asked him about rabbit-he said he's waiting to get some in that isn't frozen. The shop also sells things like preservative free organic deli roasts and sausages.

I also discovered a spooky little cheese shop around the corner in that Jericho Centre mall. It smells kind of like cheese and roses when you go in, because they must try to mask the cheese aromas with a rose air freshner. It's very dim, and everything's covered with heavy plastic. The shop keeper reminded me of Mr. Bean-very sweet. He wanted me to sample everything-seems to focus mostly on British cheeses, but I bought a lovely soft Asiago from him-good for cheese and avocado bagel snacks. I didn't ask if he carried organic products, but I will, the next time I go.

The East West Market is selling bags of organic lemons for $2.99, but the ones he had in last week were much nicer.

Zuke

[annanstee]

Does Alka Meats have all organic meat? And where is the Jericho Centre Mall?

I noticed that Armando's has organic beef

for about 25per pound. What are the prices at Alka like?

[butter]

Last fall, I ordered $100 worth of meat from Jay's Spring Lamb and received packages of chops, a roast, sausages, a shoulder cut, and more. This week I simmered the bratwurst in a pot with onions, butter, and beer for about 20 mins and then grilled them on the barbecue. Very Yummy! Here's their website if you are interested.

www.jayspringslamb.ca

[Zucchini Mama]

All the meats at Alka are naturally or organically raised. As for prices, I'll have to check on the ground beef the next time I go in.

The mall-is it Jericho Village(?) is on the SW corner of Alma and W4th.

Mmm, Butter, I like the Bratwurst in beer idea. I'll have to try that.

Zuke

P.S. There is an organic forum at organics.bc.ca.

[organicgoddess]

I'll take that seguay.....speaking of organic message boards, I've just set one up for my business here. It's new and I haven't launched it yet...feel free to check it out. I have a grocery produce review section which I'm quite excited about.

It's great that you are making an effort to eat more organic, Zuke. About those sausages, it sounds like they are grass fed, which is much leaner than grain fed. With the ground beef that we sell, you have to add oil to the pan to get it cook properly. If you are looking for well priced certified organic beef, give Pro-Organics a call- last I heard they were selling beef from the same farm that I get mine from and at good prices at the Saturday sales. Not sure if they still are- they were pricing every cut the same price per pound.

Pretty much all of the produce I eat is organic, since that's my business. This week's picks for me:

-the fava beans from California are very nice right now. Last night I had them simmered in a bit of water, just on their own.

-the fennel is great now- I made a nice salad with it, celery root, beets, and carrots the other day.

eta- the kumquats! They've just started coming in- they are so good, I can't get enough of them! Literally though, which sucks.

Edited April 16, 2005 by organicgoddess (log)

[Zucchini Mama]

Organic Goddess,

Your site looks great. I'm glad you've started a forum on how to get kids to eat healthy food, because I struggle so much with that issue.

What do you do with kumquats?

I thought we might as well also use this thread to announce eco-food related items of interest. The Necessary Visions series at the Central Branch of the Vancouver Public Library is screening Deconstructing Supper by Marianne Kaplan on May 13 at 7:30 P.M. This is the documentary featuring John Bishop. I don't have cable, so I missed it when it first aired.

Zuke

[organicgoddess]

Thanks! I love the forum- I just launched it to my customers this weekend. I love message boards period, they are such a great place to share info.

Kumquats- I usually eat them raw, just make sure to eat the skin too because that's the sweetest part. They are great snacks because the strong flavour is very satisfying. They do have a few seeds but nothing major.

You can cook them, just very, very briefly, like 30 seconds. Slice them in quarters lengthwise, so you get long strips. Let the pan get hot with a touch of oil it in then add kumquats and saute. You'll be able to tell when to stop as they get soft and kind of translucent- remove them from the pan immediately. Puree half and make a salad dressing, then toss the remaining cooked ones in with the salad. Very nice with spinach, toasted nuts, and goat cheese or asiago. You can also use a cooked kumquat puree as a sauce for meat or especially fish. I think cooked kumquats with sauteed sliced fennel bulb and fish would be a great dish. I'm not a meat eater so I haven't tried it but I know the flavours would work. Lamb I'll bet would be good too.

[Zucchini Mama]

Goddess, that kumquat salad sounds delicious!

Organic bananas are 97 cents a pound at East West. For brekky I made a fruit salad with mango and Hawaiian papaya and served in over reduced fat ricotta. I drizzled buckwheat homey steeped in thyme over top.

I bought some more sausages at Alka Meats today-spicy duck. These had a good amount of fat, so were juicy and tender. They had chili and orange in them-this time the orange worked.

They didn't have ground beef. They had ground buffalo at $5 a pound. I bought a frozen Mexican-style buffalo meatloaf for $6. I noticed they had frozen duck confit and fresh Magret.

I went to the cheese shop in Jericho village and got some pecorino with an herb called "Rucolla" in it. I can't really taste the herb. Maybe I will try melting it on a wee piece of toast.

Zuke

Edited April 19, 2005 by Zucchini Mama (log)

[organicgoddess]

Up this week we have more fava beans, yum, yum! Mustard greens are very nice right now too.

Tonight I'm going to have the favas simmered in a bit of water with butter and salt, just the same as the other day.

I'm going to make curried greens with the mustard and spinach.

[Zucchini Mama]

Mt Boucherie Estate Winery 2004 Semillon

I asked at the Village Wine store what would go with salmon and this is the wine the clerk came up with. Since wild salmon "doesn't do drugs", I guess it counts as organic. I baked it with a gomashio crust, and served it with reheated potato slices and a green salad. I don't know about the pairing. The salmon made me crave something like a Gewurtz. I served the leftover salmon cold over soba noodles with organic Asian salad greens, sprouted lentils, beans, and chick peas for lunch the next day. This was about 11$ worth of salmon (from Stong's), which works out to be a very good value and it's one of the few foods my son loves.

Anyway, we had the rest of the Semillon tonight with a pear and Oka pizza which was a much better match. The wine has an elegant grapefruit taste with a definite herbal finish, and it just seemed to come into its own with the pizza. (A bottle costs about twelve dollars.) The Oka cheese just happened to be in our fridge, but next time I would use gorgonzola or pecorino. The pesto I used is organic homemade pesto from Tognina's deli near 25th and Main, which is where I get my pizza dough as well. (Note that the pesto is not salty-you may want to season it to your taste).

Also, I've been doing lots of cheese tasting lately. I find almost all cheese taste great on a slice of organic B. C. gala apple or a slice of Anjou pear. I bought a handmade Saltspring Island goat cheese called Juliette at Mainly Organics that is worth the $8 for 185 grams. It's a soft runny style-not the chevre style, and it's got flava!

However, TO DIE FOR is the Lemon Peel Stilton from Forster's Fine Cheese in Kerrisdale, which is even more dear, but with a slice of Anjou is better than cheesecake. I think it may be something to pair with a Sauterne, or a Quail's Gate Optima. So do try it darling, and tell me how it goes. Well...maybe a really well-aged Late Harvest Riesling. One can dream.

Oka tastes like bare feet in the grass. I don't know which wine goes with that? Beaujolais?

Zuke

Edited April 27, 2005 by Zucchini Mama (log)