As a chef, making sustainable choices for fish can be confusing. Is farm-raised better than wild? Is cod on or off the Monterey Bay Aquarium seafood watch list? And can you even trust the Seafood Watch list as Paul Greenberg, author of Four Fish, questions. Your customers demand Chilean Sea Bass, but you know it's not a sustainable fish option.
I have heard arguments for and against farm-raised fish. Farm raised fish can be considered more sustainable and environmentally friendly because this practice does not deplete stocks or threaten extinction by overfishing. However, they pose a threat to the environment by spreading disease when the fish escape. Additionally, farm raised fish also rely on wild-fish for fish-meal… a prime source of nutrients.
Further complicating the issue, consumers seem to latch onto each new fish. First it was salmon and tuna, then Chilean Sea Bass. Now even the lowly cod has such high demand that wild stocks of the fish are being depleted.
Here are a few tips to help support sustainable seafood sourcing:
1. Incorporate low cost fish and seafood on the menu. The higher demand fish command a higher price, and typically these are the same varieties that are being over-fish.
2. Maintain diversity on your menus. As more consumers adapt this practice, the impact of over-fishing a single type of fish is reduced.
3. Consider supporting a Community Supported Fishery as a way to incorporate diversity into your menu.
Subsequent crops of garlic are generated from the previous year’s harvest. Farmers reserve the largest cloves and then plant them in mid-September. The following July, each clove will have sprouted a new bulb.
When I decided to grow garlic for the first time last year, I didn’t have bulbs which I could replant. I didn’t trust supermarket garlic as I know that some commercial varieties are bred to *not* sprout: fine for long-term storage, not fine for growing new garlic. Instead I ordered 3 bulbs from Seeds of Change for $15.
The yield was decent: about ½ pound of scapes and 20+ bulbs. Some of the bulbs were decent sized, but many were small-ish. Was this a result of inadequate sun and fertilization? Perhaps, the smaller, internal cloves produced smaller bulbs? Or maybe it was just the variety of seed I bought (it was rather random how I chose). I’m not sure the cause but I’m hesitant to replant the smaller cloves. And I don’t have enough of the larger bulbs to yield a sufficient crop for next year.
Yesterday, I walked over to the Central Square farmers’ market. I really didn’t need any veggies as my backyard is bursting with tomatoes, cucumbers and kale. But I was having guests for dinner and thought perhaps I would supplement my bounty.
A Dick’s Farmstead, garlic bulbs spilled out from the display. At $1.50 per bulb, this seemed like an economical solution to getting seed garlic. I confirmed with the farmer that his garlic was suitable for planting. I will store it in the basement until the timing is right in September. I put several bulbs (a bag of peaches) in my bag.
Feeling good that I supported my local farmer, I went home otherwise empty-handed. I decided to make do with what I already had.
Roast Salmon with Tomatoes and Potatoes
4 salmon fillets 1 tsp. aleppo chili powder 1 cup balsamic vinegar 1 tbs. honey 3-4 medium sized, ripe tomatoes 2 scallions 1 small chili 4 medium sized Yukon gold potatoes 3 tbs. butter large fistful of fresh basil 1 tbs. olive oil 1 tbs. canola oil salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste
1. Season salmon with salt, pepper and aleppo chili powder. Set aside (in the fridge) until ready to cook.
2. In a small stainless steel pot, reduce the balsamic vinegar until 1/4 cup remains. Mix 1 tbs. of balsamic reduction with honey. Brush glaze on top of salmon.
3. Dice tomatoes. Mix with basil (not all of it), scallions, chili and olive oil. Season to taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
4. Cut potatoes into a dice. Put them in a pot with cold, salted water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for 5 – 10 minutes more. Timing depends on how small you cut the potatoes — smaller potatoes will cook more quickly. Drain the potatoes. Set aside until just before serving.
5. Put salmon on a sheet tray. Place under broiler for 10 minutes or until it the salmon begins to brown. Switch the oven to bake (375F) and cook for 5 minutes more.
6. Just before serving, reheat the potatoes with the butter. Toss in the remaining basil and season with lemon juice.
From the garden: tomatoes, scallions, basil, chili
After the long road-trip from the farm in Southern Maryland (for my annual canning pilgrimage) back to Cambridge, I usually take a gander through the garden before unloading the car and making my way inside. Have the tomatoes started to blush? Did I have a cucumber explosion? How many eggplants grew to full-size?
When I left the soil was dry and the tomatoes were floppy. Try as I might, I couldn’t get the tomato cages to stand up straight, the weight of the plants was too much. My neighbor Craig, who I entrusted to water the garden, did a yeoman’s job. Not only did the plants look well hydrated, but he brought in new stakes and garden twine to ensure the tomatoes flopped no more.
The cucumbers had already sprawled across the back fencing. I discovered several cukes that were so overgrown they turned yellow. I was curious if they’d be palatable, so I cut one open. The seeds were large and fibrous and the skin was tough and bitter – definitely not salad material. I could scoop out the seeds, peel them and then use them for a chilled cucumber soup. I will save the seeds for next year as I think they are sufficiently mature.
The lettuce finally succumb to the heat. As soon as I dig it up, I will add compost to the soil and replant for a fall harvest.
And the eggplant plant produced 3 beautiful specimen.
I returned from the farm this year with 68 jars (not as impressive as last year’s 72). But given that I still have 20 jars left from last year, it would seem I have enough for this year as well. I decided to use up a jar of last year’s stash with my dinner.
Eggplant Parmesan “Parmesan” dishes derive their name not from the namesake cheese but from the region where the dish originated: Parma. In fact, the tradition dish has a layer of Parma ham (prosciutto) and is traditionally made with veal. Breaking fully from tradition, I served this with shrimp. Any self-respecting Italian would never serve fish with cheese, but clearly I’m not Italian.
1 eggplant, sliced into ½ inch rounds
1/2 tsp. salt
½ cup flour
1 egg
1 cup bread crumbs
2 tbs. olive oil
1 tbs. canola oil
1 ball fresh mozzarella, sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 small chili, minced
½ pound shrimp
¼ cup white wine
2 cups stewed tomatoes
Basil, salt and pepper
1. Toss eggplant with 1/2 tsp. salt and let sit for five minutes. Brush off excess salt.
2. Prepare the breading: in 3 separate bowls, put the flour, egg and breadcrumbs. Beat the egg with 2 tbs. of water until homogenized. Dip each eggplant slice first in the flour. Shake off any excess. Then dip into the egg to completely coat, and finally coat the eggplant in the bread crumbs. Repeat this process until all eggplant slices are breaded.
3. Preheat the oven to 375F. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tbs. olive oil and canola oil. Fry the eggplant slices until brown on both sides. Don’t worry if they are not cooked all the way through.
4. Remove eggplant from skillet and put on a cookie sheet. Top each slice with a slice of mozzarella cheese. Bake in the oven until the cheese is melted and bubbly, about 10 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, wipe out the eggplant pan. Add the remaining olive oil, garlic and chili and return to heat. Add the shrimp and cook until they begin to turn pink. Add the wine, and then add the tomatoes. Remove the shrimp from the pan as they are cooked through, but continue cooking the tomatoes until they reduce to a desired consistency (I don’t like thin sauces). Season to taste with salt, pepper and basil.
When I pick a sprig of basil from my garden, I usually don’t think much about throwing a leaf or two into the compost bin if I don’t use it. After all, the basil plant benefits from a consistent snipping to increase its production. But when I’m visiting my friend Brett at his farm, Even’ Star, he berates me. Brett uses every last bit of food.
I went down to the farm this week for my annual tomato canning extravaganza. When I arrived, Brett had set aside tomatoes for me to use – cases and cases of #2 tomatoes. These are the tomatoes that have blemishes – slightly bruised, bug-holed and perhaps a little moldy. If you cut away the bad parts (and give those to the chickens), the tomatoes are perfectly wonderful – just as sweet and flavorful as the more perfect looking #1s. Because the tomatoes are cooked down and pureed into sauce, their initial appearance becomes irrelevant. He tries to sell these tomatoes to his customers at deep discounts, but he still has cases more which are destined as chicken food if I don’t use them.
The same philosophy of utilizing every scrap holds true at meal time too… even though the walk-in cooler is bursting with fresh produce to be sold at the farmers markets and through his CSA, we still use the #2 veggies to cook our own meals and meals for the work crew. In addition to using the #2’s, I try to use up all the bits and pieces of leftovers.
After canning my stewed tomatoes, I still had a little sauce left. I also had some leftover corn from the chowder. I foraged in the refrigerator and found rice, Monterey jack cheese and a Ziploc bag of blemished Cubanelle peppers… all the fixings for stuffed peppers!
Because cubanelle peppers are more tubular than the standard-stuffing bell pepper, they require a roasting before stuffing. This softens the flesh and makes stuffing much easier. Their smaller size also means the stuffing will heat/cook more quickly, so a pre-roasting of the peppers, means the final roasting will only take 10 – 15 minutes, tops.
Roasted Stuffed Cubanelles
8 cubanelles
1 tbs. plain oil
1/2 cup cooked rice
1 cup raw or cooked corn kernels
½ cup grated Monterey jack cheese
Optional additions and flavorings: jalapenos, basil, scallions, black beans, leftover cooked chicken
Tomato sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Toss peppers in oil and lay out in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Roast peppers at 400F for 15 minutes or until the skin starts to blister and turn light brown. Take them out of the oven and let cool.
2. Meanwhile, mix together the rice, corn, cheese and any other desired flavorings. Check seasoning for salt and pepper.
3. Cut the tops off the peppers and scoop out the seeds. Stuff the filling into the cavity of the pepper.
4. Return the stuffed peppers to the oven and bake for 10 – 15 minutes.
5. Serve with tomato sauce.
For all the malign commercial corn receives from the sustainable agricultural community, sweet summer corn is literally a whole different beast… and savored for its sweet, crunchy flavor. Sweet corn growers limit their production to varieties meant for eating “unprocessed” – fresh off the cob or frozen. The corn of “Food, Inc infamy”, dent corn, deserves all the flack. The more starchy varieties get processed for corn starch, corn syrup, and animal feed. Dent corn, treated with lye, is used to make masa harina and tortillas.
You can still be a self-respecting sustainable agriculture advocate and enjoy sweet summer corn. I do!
Fresh picked corn needs little adornment, just barely a hint of salt or butter. Its peak flavor is best appreciated with 48 hours of harvesting. After that, the sugars begin converting to starch – even the texture deteriorates.
Recipes abound for corn chowder with all sorts of seasonings and flavors. But when corn is super fresh, I like mine very simple.
Corn Chowder
6 ears corn
2 tbs. butter
1 tbs. chopped garlic
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
¼ cup white wine
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup cream
Salt and pepper to taste
3 small Yukon gold potatoes
2 scallions or one cubanelle pepper, diced
1. Shuck the corn. Cut the corn kernels off the cob. Save the corn cobs.
2. In a large pot, over medium heat, melt 1 tbs. butter. Add ½ the corn, ½ the garlic, and the onion. Let cook for about 3 minutes before stirring. Add the wine, corn cobs and chicken broth. Let simmer for 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile… cut the potatoes into a medium dice. Toss them with salt and let sit for 5 minutes. Rinse off excess salt.
4. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add remaining butter and potatoes. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. When potatoes are al dente (timing will depend on how small you cut the potatoes) add the remaining garlic and corn. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and stir in cubanelle peppers and/or scallion.
5. Finish making the corn chowder… fish the cobs out of the broth and scrape all the juice out and back into the pot. Puree the broth in a blender – be careful with the hot liquid – and be sure to take the center plug out of the center of the blender top to let the steam escape.
6. Return the corn stock to the pot and stir in the cream. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
7. Serve the soup with the corn and potato garnish. Top with a dollop of romesco sauce or sun-dried tomato pesto if desired.
At the peak of summer, local tomatoes burst with juicy, sweetness. Their bright acidity calls out for the rich, creamy taste of fresh mozzarella. Now-a-days, you can find so many varieties of heirloom and hybrid tomatoes at the local farmers’ markets and kitchen gardens – and when they are truly vine-ripened, they have a wonderful texture and chin-dripping juiciness. It almost doesn’t matter what variety you pick – they are all delicious! Taste around and pick your favorite. I prefer lower acidity and sweeter flavor.
Why can’t you get a good tomato in February, even if they’re labeled “vine ripened”? Tomatoes go through several phases of development and ripening. Once the fruit has formed behind the flower they go through the green stage, when the tomatoes have a matte sheen and the ripening state when the skin has a more shiny gloss. Tomatoes picked in the green stage will never ripen. On a commercial level, these green tomatoes are treated with ethylene gas to commence the ripening process. Unfortunately, the USDA does not regulate the definition of “vine-ripe” and many commercial producers of tomatoes use the term at their marketing convenience. Because tomatoes are shipped across the country and around the world, producers rely on these tricks to stabilize tomatoes for shipment and increase overall shelf-life. And this is why a February tomato is sometimes referred to as No-mato and can be used in a game of baseball (see video on this page – it’s funny and sad!)
Now that we’re in peak tomato season, I’m savoring them in all sorts of preparations… sauces, pasta and a quintessential summer caprese salad. To do justice to these fine summer jewels, I made my own mozzarella cheese. Sort of. I purchase the curd and then pull it by hand.
Mozzarella curd can be purchased at Armenian markets or through a restaurant wholesale distributor. If purchasing in bulk, I recommend cutting the curd down into 1 pound blocks, wrapping it tightly in plastic and freezing it. The curd will last for 2 years this way.
Mozzarella
mozzarella curd
milk
salt
1. Bring large pot of heavily salted water to a boil
2. Break curd apart into small pieces in a stainless steel bowl.
3. When water is just below a boil (about 190-200F), pour water over curd to cover.
Stir just a little, and let sit for 5-10 minutes. Keep remaining water hot.
4. Meanwhile, fill a bowl with ice, milk and water. The milk bath will be the final storage place for the freshly made mozzarella. The ice will quickly cool the cheese so that it will hold its shape. The milk will keep a balance of flavor in the cheese so that the flavor doesn’t leach out into the storing liquid. The ice bath is all crucial for your hands – to help cool them before stretching the hot curds.
5. Drain water off mozzarella curd. Cover a second time with hot water.
6. Using wooden spoons to grab the curd, pull it out of the water and let it stretch back in… this will smooth out the curds.
7. When there are just a few lumps left in the cheese, grab about a ¼ pound lump and stretch it into a ball. As you’ll be using your hands at this point, it helps to briefly cool your hands in the ice water before grabbing the cheese.
8. When the balls are smooth and round put them in the ice bath to cool and store. Slice and serve.
Every summer of my childhood, my family drove to Rehoboth, DE for a week-long respite from the Washington, DC heat. About an hour from the shore, we’d stop at Elmer’s Farm Stand. We’d load up on tomatoes, corn and cantaloupes. The corn was boiled for dinner. The tomatoes were slathered in mayonnaise and sandwiched between two slices of toast for lunch. And the cantaloupes were cut into wedges for breakfast. If we were feeling frisky we’d sprinkle blueberries on top.
Though cantaloupe shouldn’t be cooked, it’s certainly more versatile than my childhood experiences would suggest. Their firm texture is juicy and definitely sweet, but less cloying and floral than honeydew, making it perfect for savory preparations, where just a touch of sweetness is desired. Classically, it’s paired with prosciutto for an Italian style summer appetizer. Alternatively, you can puree the melon with mint for a refreshing soup to start a meal.
Even Star’ Farm grows the varietal: Edisto. It was named after the island off the North Carolina coast, so famed for its cantaloupe. It’s extremely aromatic, very sweet, with good texture. It has a florally perfume, almost like a gardenia.
You can tell it's ripe when the skin underneath the outer "netting" turns from green to yellow-ish.
When serving melon in a savory preparation, it’s easy to peel the melon whole.
First, cut off the ends.
Stand it up on one of the newly flat edges. Cut around the edges with a large knife.
Cut the melon in half and scoop out the seeds.
Last night, we made a cantaloupe salsa to serve alongside seared tuna.
Cantaloupe Salsa
½ cantaloupe
1 cucumber
1 small onion 1 tsp. fresh ginger, chopped
1 tbs fresh mint or cilantro – of combination of the two
1 lime juiced
Salt and pepper to taste
½ tsp sriracha or 1 small chile
1. Peel cantaloupe and cut into a fine dice. If large cucumbers with tough skins (or commercial, waxed cucumbers), peel cucumbers. Scoop out the seeds. Chop fine. Dice the onion, and herbs.
2. Mix cantaloupe, onion, cucumber, ginger and herbs together. Season with lime juice, salt, pepper and chili paste if desired.
I hope you’ll forgive me as I add another dish to my already full list of Ten Favorite Restaurant Dishes. Just because I’m an accounting professor doesn’t mean I can count.
I’m not really a dessert person – I don’t like making them and I’m not a particular fan of eating them either – though there are a few I enjoy. Last night, I made an exception in honor of my friend’s birthday.
We were eating at Hungry Mother in Cambridge – an interesting blend of traditional southern flavors prepared with local New England ingredients, served in a causal, fine dining atmosphere. They’ve received many accolades and are booked solid every night of the week.
The limited dessert menu had the usual suspects – chocolate, fruit and cake. What stood out was the Salted Caramel Cake served with Anglaise and Candied Bacon. They put my two favorite ingredients, salt and bacon, and turned it into dessert. How could I not order it???
And how could I share it? Given that it was David’s birthday, the polite thing to do would have been to offer a bite. But I found myself inching the plate closer to me, a spoon in my left hand and my right arm draped around the plate creating a protective barrier from anyone trying to get a taste.
The salt infused into the caramel perfectly, adding depth to the burnt sweetness. And while it was sweet, it wasn’t cloying. The layers of cake were yellow and moist. And a sweet, smoky, salty slice of bacon was the proverbial cherry top.
Thanks to David for indulging me my piggy behavior and for taking the photo.
I don’t scare easily – and certainly not when it comes to food. I’ve eaten snails and made my own rice paper. I’ve even milked a cow.
But for some reason, the thought of making kale chips scared me.
I didn’t believe that something so simple and straightforward would really work. I even laughed at the recipe on Epicurious.com… underneath the ingredient “list” of kale and olive oil was a clickable button to for printing the recipe. But everybody was doing it, and I didn’t want to miss out.
Given the abundance in the kale patch, it seemed worthy of a try. What’s the worst that could happen? The seeds in total cost me $2, and the portion of kale required for the recipe was probably less than a dime.
The technique is quite simple. Cut the rib out of the kale leaves. Toss them in olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread them out on a single layer and bake at 250F for 30 minutes.
And that’s what I did.
Sure enough, it worked! The leaves dried to a translucent, deep green and showed no sign of gray – which I worried would be the case after 20 minutes in the oven. The chips are surprisingly light and delicate. And for the most part, they weren’t greasy.
The recipe from Epicurious recommended dehydrating the leaves for 30 minutes. Perhaps it was my oven or the lighter texture of my home-grown kale, but they were ready in 20 minutes.
Recently, I was reading the autobiography of an entrepreneur. He described the demise of his gift catalog business: “Finally, after the program grew so that it produced revenue of three-quarters of a million dollars and only cost us approximately $750,000, we decided to drop it.”
As someone who loves a good excel spreadsheet, this statement left me wanting to know more: Was $750,000 sufficient revenue to support a catalog business in general? Did they need to manage costs or increase revenues?
The only way to know would be to evaluate the revenue and cost structure… and to do this, we need to have benchmarks, a standard by which performance can be measured. Did they appropriately mark-up catalog prices? Were their shipping and handling costs in-line with industry standards? If they answered yes to these questions, then perhaps they needed to increase revenues to support the fixed costs involved in maintaining a warehouse and printing the catalogs.
We could apply these same principals to a restaurant or farm.
If you look at your bottom line and realize you’re not making as much profit as you’d like (or need), then you can look at the benchmarks to see what areas of your business need improvement. Is your food cost between 25% – 35%. Is your rent less than 10% of sales? And for farms, is your labor less than 35% of sales?
You can set your benchmarks to industry best practices or to a customized goal that is suitable for your business. Not all businesses fall into the same mold; only you can judge if these are appropriate for your business.
Here a few industry-standard benchmarks for restaurants and farms:
Restaurants Food Cost: 25-35% of food sales Labor Cost: 20% – 40% of total revenue Occupancy: 8% – 12% of total revenue
Farms: Labor Cost: 35% of sales Operating Expenses 40% – 50% of sales Capital Improvements: 2% – 7% of sales
For further assistance in evaluating the financial health of your business and ways you can improve your bottom line, send us an email.
