Chivey Pasta

As heard on the Sagebrush Variety Show Farm Report, here’s the recipe for...

Chivey Pasta

This is a recipe Robert developed one early Spring day when the only thing growing in our garden was chives--lots of them--and nothing else. He rose to the challenge of finding a way to use large quantities of chives in an easy and delicious dish. It has become a household favorite.

1/2 to 1 C (or more) of chives, chopped
1 lb pasta
1/4 C Earth Balance spread
1/4 C unsweetened soy or rice milk
4 T soy sauce
1/2 C nutritional yeast flakes or powder
3 cloves garlic, chopped
dash olive oil
freshly ground black pepper

Cook the pasta until al dente and drain. In a large skillet, sautee the garlic in the olive oil till soft. Add the pasta to the skillet, along with the chives. Toss together for a moment and then reduce heat to low. Add the Earth Balance and mix until melted. Add the nutritional yeast and stir well, gradually adding the soy milk and soy sauce. Continue to toss ingredients together over low heat, until the soy milk is completely absorbed or evaporated. Add fresh black pepper.

Bucky on Deconstructing Dinner

Bucky Buckaw's Backyard Chicken Broadcast was recently featured on Deconstructing Dinner, a weekly one-hour radio show and podcast hosted by Jon Steinman. The show covers a wide range of food security issues, and the Sagebrush Players have long been fans of the show. If you haven't listened to it yet, we strongly recommend it.

Bucky's show will be featured again in upcoming shows in the Backyard Chickens theme in the larger context of the Farming in the City series on Deconstructing Dinner.

No-Chicken Soup Recipes

Mother's Garlic and Spinach Soup 2 heads garlic 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil 5 cups good-quality vegetable broth 4 cups chopped fresh spinach leaves, tough stems discarded.

Preheat oven to 425.

Remove the outer papery covering of the garlic (leave the inner skin). Slice off the top of each head so most of the cloves are exposed. Place on a square of aluminum foil for easy cleanup, or select the smallest baking dish you have. Drizzle 1 teaspoon oil over each head. Fold the foil over the garlic to completely enclose it, or cover the baking dish with foil.

Roast for about 45 minutes, until the garlic is completely soft and lightly browned.

When cool enough to handle, squeeze the garlic pulp into a medium-sized saucepan. Add the broth and stir well to combine. Simmer for 15 minutes to allow the flavors to blend.

Just before serving, stir in the spinach and simmer until wilted, about 4 minutes. Stir vigorously (the garlic has tendency to settle out.)

Serve hot. Serves 2 to 4.

Adapted from "The Roasted Vegetable," by Andrea Chesman (Harvard Common Press, 2002)

Simple and Clean Potato Soup (aka Flu Season Weapon)

6 to 8 big potatoes 2 to 4 large cloves fresh garlic salt to taste water

Wash, peel dice those potatoes. Peel & mince garlic.

Slightly warm the garlic in pan with something oily, just to get it going (don't brown it or the goodness is gone). Add potatoes, add water just to hover over the potatoes. Cover and cook until soft. Salt to taste during process.

Tip: if you work NOT to mash those potatoes when cooking (contrary to the theory of most potato souping) you end up with lovely shimmery broth.

Serves 4

Hot and Sour Soup

8 c vegetable stock and/or water 1 oz. dried Chinese black mushrooms 3 T dry sherry or rice wine c cider vinegar 2 T soy sauce 1 t salt 1 pound firm tofu, thinly sliced 2 T cornstarch 6 green onions, minced 1 t white pepper sesame oil

In small bowl, pour 2 c boiling water over dried mushrooms. Cover with plate and let sit 30 minutes. Drain and squeeze mushrooms, saving the liquid. De-stem mushrooms, discard stems, and slice caps.

Combine remaining 6 c vegetable stock with mushroom liquid and mushrooms. Bring to a simmer.

Add sherry, soy sauce, salt, and tofu, lower heat, and simmer 10 minutes.

In the bowl, whisk cornstarch into ? c soup until dissolved. Return this liquid to the soup.

Add green onions and pepper, cook another 2-3 minutes, and serve with a few drops of sesame oil on top of each serving.

Optional - If you live with chickens in your backyard and they are still laying eggs you can add 2 eggs, beaten, to the soup just before the green onions and pepper.

6-8 servings Adapted from Molly Katzen's New Moosewood Cookbook.

Subru Uncle's Delicious Spicy South Indian Rasam Curry for Curing Cold Cough Fever or Bad Throat

3 cups water 5 teaspoons salt 6 tablespoons oil 2 medium green chilies, slit 2 inches fresh ginger, peeled,washed and finely chopped 1 clove garlic, peeled,washed and finely chopped 5 tablespoons whole black peppercorns 1 cup of fresh curry leaves, washed and torn 1 teaspoon mustard seeds 1 teaspoon cumin seeds 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds (methi) 3 whole red chilies 2 medium tomatoes, washed, peeled and chopped into cubes 1/4 cup water (This is to be added to cook the tomatoes) 1/2 teaspoon red chili powder 2 teaspoons turmeric powder 1 1/2 teaspoons coriander powder 7 cups water (This is added to prepare the curry for rasam. You can add more or less depending on the consistency) 1/2 cup tamarind pulp 3 tablespoons fresh coriander leaves, washed and finely chopped (to garnish) 6 servings

1 hour 50 minutes 50 mins prep

Immunity-boosting miso soup

Half a cup wakame or kombu seaweed Three tablespoons miso paste (gen mai) Four shiitake and/or reishi mushrooms (dried or fresh) One and a half cups of chopped vegetables (leek, onion, carrot, cabbage, turnips, potatoes, yam) Half a cup of tofu pieces Four to five cups of water (or vegetable stock or seaweed soaking water) One teaspoom sesame oil One teaspoon ginger, grated One clove of garlic, minced

If you are using dried mushrooms, soak mushrooms in boiling water for one hour, discard the stems and soaking water.

Soak seaweed in water (wakame: 20 min, kombu: 4 min), keep soaking water. Cut seaweed into strips.

Sauté seaweed and vegetables in a pan with a little oil.

Add water and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer covered for 10 minutes. Then add tofu pieces.

Cream miso in a little broth and return to soup. Cook on low heat for a couple of minutes. Do not overheat miso as it will destroy the active lactobacillus (beneficial bacteria).

Garnish (seeds, toasted nori flakes, chives, parsley). Serves four.

Serves 4 Recipe created by Lisa Guy 'Art of Healing'

From Robert: Study Guide to Diarrhea Monster Skit

I really like this skit but I will admit that upon hearing it the night before its premiere air time I realized it may be one of the weirdest skits I’ve written for Sagebrush as well as the most difficult to understand without any background. So here’s the deal:

A company called Ventria really is developing a genetically modified rice that will be grown, not as a food crop, but as biological laboratories for medicines. The idea is the rice will produce two human proteins found in mother's milk, saliva and tears, which help people hydrate and lessens the severity and duration of diarrhea. The proteins are extracted from the rice after harvest and sold as medicine. Diarrhea really is a very serious problem in developing countries, where it is a leading cause of child mortality but as some of the characters in the skit point out there are cheaper and more sensible treatments and preventions already available such as sanitation and the cultures commonly found in yogurt.

Meanwhile, new studies have recently come out pointing to evidence that genetically engineered crops may produce herbicide while they are in our intestines. The health effects of this are unknown but some pretty terrifying possibilities have been put forth by credible scientists (although I’m the only one talking about people spontaneously exploding).

All this made me imagine a piece of fiction where the theoretically well-intentioned company rushes this dangerous product to market as a profit-generating solution to a global problem but it winds up creating new problems. For some reason, rather than thinking in terms of plausible speculative fiction I imagined it more as cheesy science fiction. Then we constructed it in "featurette" format with just the highlights telling the story - kind of like the audio version of a movie trailer.

For facts on the true stories this flash fiction are based on I recommend reading this article on Genetically engineered rice threatens safety of crops. A link to a piece on Genetically Engineered Crops May Produce Herbicide Inside Our Intestines. And, an overview on the GM industry that recently caught my fancy Seeds of Deception.

This Week's Essay

This Week's Essay is an unapologetic spoof on the Essay of the Week by Diane Josephy-Peavey (DJP) heard in Idaho on NPR affiliates. For many years, Idahoans have heard her romanticize and glorify ranching in the West through her radio essays, claiming that livestock herds are good for the environment and that ranchers are environmental stewards of the land. She is married to an Idaho sheep/cattle rancher whose family has been entrenched in Idaho politics for generations. The Peaveys graze their herds on public lands in some of the most degraded areas in the state.

This Week's Essay serves not only to ridicule DJP’s familiar reading and writing style, but also to bust some of the ranching myths she (and her corporate and lobbyist sponsors) perpetuates through these essays. It should be noted that Idaho tax dollars also support DJP's work.

We also use the This Week's Essay format to convey thoughts on issues of local interest. Last week you heard:

Weeds: This essay is the most obvious DJP spoof to date. Read in a similar voice, using similar clichés, discussing DJP’s favorite subject—sheep—this essay addresses just two of the many invasive non-native weeds spread by livestock across the West: Canada Thistle and Leafy Spurge. Joanne Sheepsley-Peasy’s delivery is just as cheerful and insipid as the real thing.

Homemade No-Knead Bread on the Farm Report

Ever since the NY Times interviewed a baker, Jim Lahey, who generously revealed his recipe for idiot-proof no-knead bread, there's been an international buzz about it. News got to Idaho, and we've tested the recipe and some variations with consistent results: amazing, rustic, artisan, old-world style bread.

On this week's show, we asked breadmaking first-timer Kevin Bayhouse to make a loaf. It turned out wonderful!

We're helping to spread the recipe to help you get off your dependence of corporate bread (puh!). It used to be that you could get a decent loaf from a local bakery, but nowadays they have either gone out of business or cater to upscale clientele with big bucks to spare for a fancy loaf to go with their foie gras. Here's a recipe for us lumpenprole:

Step 1:

3 cups flour
1-1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp yeast
1-1/2 cups water

Mix the flour, salt, and yeast in a bowl. Add the water and mix with your hand for a few seconds until the ingredients are combined. Cover the dough in the bowl and let it sit for at least 12 hours (we've tried up to 47 hours with success).

Step 2:
Remove the dough from the bowl onto a floured surface and fold over one or two times. Sprinkle what bran, oat bran, or corn meal on a kitchen towel and wrap the dough in the towel (the bran is to keep the dough from sticking to the towel). Let sit for 2 hours.

Step 3:
Preheat oven to 500 degrees F, and preheat an ovenproof bowl or pot in it. When it's hot, drop the dough into it and bake, covered (with lid or dish), for 25 minutes. Remove the lid after 25 minutes and bake uncovered for another 15 minutes. When done, allow the bread to cool before slicing.

Here's what Kevin's loaf looked like.

If you're fascinated and want to know more, here's a web site that has a huge online discussion about the bread, different things people have tried, and loads of photos. And here's a link to the video interview with baker Jim Lahey. He says this bread is better than any you could buy in a store, even when made by a 4-year-old.

We also came a cross a related report on the secret behind making baguettes on the fascinating Cooking for Engineers website. Looks like the slow fermentation approach is not such a big secret, after all.

Ever since we insisted that Kevin make bread for the first time ever - and it turned out great - he's become a breadmaking fiend. Here I have graphed his breadbaking activities. He's been baking, on average, one loaf every 2.5 days. He's even been photographing the outcomes. In the meantime I've been testing proportions with whole wheat loaves. For those who have been waiting, here's what I've found:

• 100% whole wheat loaf: use 1 and 3/4 cups water
• 50% whole wheat loaf: use 1 and 5/8 cups water

The basic formula is that for every 3 cups of whole wheat flour, use 1/4 cup extra water This, of course, is the recipe we worked out in the semi-arid climate of Idaho. If you're in, say, the Northeast, you might need less water.

Sagebrush on the Air in Olympic Penisula!

We're very psyched to report that KAYO-LP, 94.3 FM in Aberdeen, WA and Hoquiam, WA, and on their translator in Olympia at 92.9 FM, will be broadcasting the Sagebrush Variety Show twice a week: Wednesdays @ 9pm and Sundays @ 4pm, Pacific Time. And just to remind you, you can hear Bucky Buckaw's Backyard Chicken Broadcast on that frequency, too, Tuesdays 9:45am and Sundays 12:45pm PST. Since they play Bucky's show already, we aren't including it in their version of the SVS, but Carl Etnier's Peak Oil Check-In is still included. The UV-Eye-Opener is not included.