Recently the repression of local community dairies has reached a surreal frenzy. How do you feel about raw milk? Do you feel governments are really protecting OUR safety spending so much money to harass small local farms when the biggest killers come from mass production and industrial farming?
More info here about the US Food Crisis and your food freedom.
Earlier this summer, we got in some fishing with my brother and a very dear old friend up in Sullivan County, NY. It was extremely hot at the time, and the fishing was generally pretty rough. However, we ended one otherwise unsuccessful day with a bonanza of catches in a small, still pool that extended off of the Neversink River in Hasbrouck, NY. (Check out this great collection of photos from a Neversink River fly fishing trip).
Didn’t expect much since it was such a small “pond” (I believe “billabong” is a fairly accurate term for it), but we caught a bunch of decent sized chain pickerel and yellow perch, plus 1 bullhead catfish. Though it’s sometimes advisable to practice catch and release, I personally like to eat as many of the fish I catch as possible. No sense putting them through all that trauma and misery for nothing — unless of course they are endangered in the area you’re fishing in. Several of the pickerel we landed were big enough to keep, and there are no restrictions on taking perch or bullhead in New York State.
Pickerel and perch are considered “garbage fish” by some fishermen, and many folks describe them as tasting “gamey”. As far I’m concerned though, what they call “gamey” is just what most fish taste like, which I happen to find delicious. These fish can be filleted or just gutted. Fry them in butter with some onions (and garlic if you like), throw on some salt and pepper, and you have one of my favorite meals.
Hella D is an expert at filleting fish, but smaller fish can be pretty tough to fillet. Chain pickerel in particular are very difficult to fillet because of the “Y bones” on both sides of the fish. These bones are common to all members of the pike family (northern pike, chain pickerel and muskellunge). Pickerel being the smallest members of the family present the most difficulty.
Fortunately, nowadays you can find just about anything on YouTube, and we found several great videos on how to fillet pickerel, perch and bullheads. Here are our favorites. Many thanks to the uploaders for helping us out!
How to fillet chain pickerel
How to fillet perch
How to fillet bullhead catfish
Incidentally, fishing for perch and/or chain pickerel is a great way to introduce kids to the joys of fishing. Pickerel tend to live in shallow, weedy lakes (or ponds), and you can catch some very nice specimens just from the shore. They are also good fighters, making for exciting fishing. Perch are found just about everywhere and are usually very easy to catch.
"An Englishman teaching an American about food is the blind leading the one-eyed." -A. J. Liebling I have often heard it said that the Vancouver restaurant scene owes its bounty to our large Asian population, that the expansive palate of Asian diners mirrors that of the French. Obviously Asia ...
I first heard about guanciale on Chopped. It was a secret ingredient and for some reason I decided to look it up. Oh my goodness! Luscious pig jowl washed with wine and scented with black pepper and thyme. This was something I had to try.
The word guanciale comes from ‘guancia’, which means cheek in Italian. The jowl is the lower part of the cheek, the part that droops down, all fatty-like. Mmmmm… Supposedly the taste of the jowl is intensely porky, I would imagine because it gets a good workout from the pig chewing all day. I won’t know for another couple weeks though, when my guanciale is ready.
To make the guanciale I cobbled together several different recipes (see my reference list down below). My method relied on sensuality rather than strictness.
As I started writing up this article on sima I realized my timing couldn’t be be better. Vappu is only a week away. Just enough time to brew up my first batch of the year. It brings back a flood of memories of my time in Finland.
Sima is a Finnish homemade mead, and is the traditional drink for their Vappu holiday, which falls on May 1st. The holiday itself is quite a mix match of different traditions. Originally there was a pagan celebration at this time, involving the lighting of bonfires and the welcoming of spring. With the coming of Christianity the same holiday was used instead to honour a Saint Walpurga, while still keeping some of the old traditions. Later on it became a day associated with political, religious, and student activism, including marches, demonstrations and speeches. Today it is a mix of all these things, and the holiday typically involves music and picnic feasts in the park by day, and bonfires, partying and drinking by night. And so with that bit of background here is my recipe.
This is just a quick post because I have just discovered Susan Weed's site Wise Women Weblog and her radio show where she interviews empowering women. Sally Fallon has been one of my heroes ever since I first picked up her cookbook Nourishing Traditions in 2001. Reading her book finally made nutriti ...
I was given a special treat this year for my birthday--lunch out at the Sha Lin Noodle House in Vancouver, BC. They don't take reservations so we crowded into the doorway to get out of the rain and hovered hungrily over the nearest table, the wait wasn't long and we were soon seated with a great vie ...
I have just finished reading the incredible book Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts who escaped from an Australian jail and ended up in Bombay (Mumbai) where he got in to all kinds of crazy and dangerous situations. It is a huge chunk of a book, but written so well. Some parts of it are very hard to ...
I stumbled across this really practical and well done video on how to make water kefir. Although I have been reading about kefir for years, I hadn't had an opportunity to make it myself until this year when my sister brought some up to me from a friend who had given her some. This stuff is fantastic ...
Published August 2009 in Healthy Options magazine, New Zealand Recipe for homemade lacto-fermented dill pickles. Lactic Acid Fermentation: Symbiotic Man's Secret Ingredient for Health and Longevity Many years ago, I worked at the Inya Lake Hotel in Myanmar which also does catering and event ...
I finally got around to searching for the recipe to this amazing almond and honey energy paste that they eat for breakfast during Ramadan in Morocco. It started niggling at me a few months ago, but the truth was I couldn't even remember the name of it. I soon found results coming up that were point ...
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As I started writing up this article on sima I realized my timing couldn’t be be better. 
