I also apologize to the vegans who read this blog about all the honey I use. We strive to eat as locally as possibly, and living lower on the food chain, for environmental, social justice, and other reasons means that for us, honey fits in with our principles more than agave from far away. I imagine most of the recipes I have that call for honey could have agave subbed in without too much problem. I do also still have some agave, so I plan on using that up too - so you will see some of that in the coming weeks/months as well.
This might seem like an intensive dinner, but I made this last night, after work. I think it took about an hour, but half of that time I did other things (I read more of The Shock Doctrine). When I told Brett what I was making, he gave me this look like "are you sure this is going to be good?" I wasn't of course, this meal was just an idea I had, but as we were eating it, all questions of whether it was good or not quickly faded away. It was good - really good - this is one of the best new things I have made in awhile. And I really think that I could just eat the glazed delicata squash plain like candy. It was just that good. Oh my!
Oh, and it made our apartment smell wonderful - just wonderful. This was a mostly local meal that even included some of the tomatoes we picked green from the community garden plot that have ripened. In fact, the only non local things in this meal are the chipotle chiles, the spices, the kidney beans, and the tortillas.
The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms
Honey Chipotle Garlic Glazed Delicata Squash and Kidney Bean Burritos
Honey Chipotle Garlic Glazed Delicata Squash:
1 delicata squash, halved, seeds removed, peeled, and chopped *
1/4 cup honey +
1 clove of garlic, grated (I used a microplane grater) +
2 chipotle chiles in adobo, sliced in half
Preheat oven to 400.
Combine honey, garlic, and chiles in a bowl. Toss with the delicata making sure to coat completely.
Roast for 30-35 minutes, or until tender. Be sure to stir a few times, and "baste" with any leftover glaze.
Remove chiles before serving the squash.
Kidney Bean Mixture:
2 cups kidney beans, cooked
1 orange bell pepper, seeded and minced +
2 Anaheim peppers (or Hungarian Wax, pasilla, New Mexican chile, etc), seeded and minced +
1/2 yellow onion, chopped +
2 cloves of garlic, minced +
3 Roma tomatoes, chopped ***
ground coriander
ground cumin
salt
Heat a few tablespoons of water in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the veggies and cook for 10-15 minutes or until soft. Add the beans and seasoning and heat through.
The Rest of the Schtuff:
tortillas
salsa (we used the local Hot and Smoky Tomatillo Salsa) +
Layer bean mixture and glazed squash in a warm tortilla. Roll up and serve with salsa.
Sadly, we only have two delicata squash left. I think I had mentioned it in an earlier post, but this is the first winter we are trying to eat as locally as possible. We wanted to stock up on as many things as we thought we could before winter, but didn't get a boiling water bath canner until quite late in the season, and also didn't know how much we would need to put away. After some discussion, we decided to just get what we thought might work, if we have to buy produce from the grocery store, so be it, we will try as hard as possible to source from at least within the US, and start getting a gauge on how much we need to put away. With all that said, it is looking like we will maybe make it to late January with the winter squash we have. I think we might be able to pick up a couple from The Root Cellar too though. We've been tearing through the delicata, the hubbard has been eaten, and we are working down all those many butternut squash we got from our community garden. We still have a few butternut, acorn, buttercup, and two delicatas. We haven't really had to break into our freezer "stash" yet as there have been peppers and such at The Root Cellar. Anyways, long story short, we are still learning, and when I looked at how low our winter squash stash was getting already, I realized that we are probably going to need more next year. But who knows, if we only eat one or two squash a week, we might make it longer than I think.
I don't know if anyone noticed the banner on the sidebar, but Brett and I are participating in the Dark Days Eat Local Challenge. This challenge entails eating and blogging about one 90% local meal a week. If you are up to it, please consider participating! Now, I actually seek some advice, by what criteria do we decide if something is 90% local? Brett and I thought of looking at it in terms of the number of ingredients (this didn't seem very good though as some of the ingredients are small and inconsequential really), calories (this would be incredibly difficult to figure out, especially since we work with mostly whole foods), and weight (this seemed like the best way to go about it, but even still, there are meals that have TONS of local stuff in it, but the weight is mostly comprised of rice, would this be a 90% local meal?). If you have any suggestions as to how to figure this out, please let us know.
I am going to consider this meal our weekly Dark Days "entry" as the local ingredients outweighed the non locals significantly.
Well, that's all I have for now. I will post tomorrow on the local booty I score from The Root Cellar after work tonight, and early next week I will post October's Garden Update - which I'm pretty excited about, I really enjoy the garden updates.
Anywho, have a great Friday!
'Til next time!
9 comments:
When you're used to just buying groceries every week at the store, it really is hard to gage just how much you eat (in order to set local stuff back). Veggies aren't an issue for us since we live in Texas and have access to our farmers market year round. Fruits are a whole different issue. We do have local fruits, but I'm not going to be able to eat nothing but citrus for 5 months. Not going to happen. And I've already found out I didn't put enough back (not enough tomatoes or corn either).
But the first year is the learning experience and next summer, we'll be canning pro's. Right? :)
Heather - I am glad you understand. We already had about 12 butternut squash from our garden, so when we purchased about that many more of a variety, I thought for sure that would be enough. You are so right though, it is really difficult to gauge how much you can use before it goes bad. I didn't want to get so much that we could eat them all - waste is bad.
You are lucky to have a year round farmer's market. I am hoping The Root Cellar and other local stores can keep me stocked with at least the basics. Fruit around here over winter is pretty much non-existent. We have apples for about as long as they stick around. So sadly, if I want fruit over the winter, I have to buy it from elsewhere. We only buy things grown within the continental US though.
It is, so true. And I hope you are right about the canning thing. I think I'm going to go nuts in that department next summer. If you make too any canned goods, you can easily give those away.
I meant "couldn't" eat them all :-)
no worries on the honey, Jennifer! i understand! sometimes i start feeling bad about the agave and its plastic bottle, the food miles, etc. - but then i think "sometimes you've gotta make an exception" - we feel okay with this because we make so much of our own - i feel like it kinda balances stuff out a bit. ;) at least that's what i tell myself! ahahahahaa!
i need to get some chipotle chiles, too. i always see them in the store and never think to pick any up. i see them canned & dehydrated - maybe i'll pick up some of the dried ones and see about making an adobo sauce that i can freeze up like we do with the tomato paste (i get kinda freaked out with canned food. as i am a paranoid plastic freak! ahahahaa!).
sweet & spicy sounds like a great combination - and i'm glad the winter squashes are so good with all the mexican yummies! this meal sounds absolutely awesome! i've already got our meal plan for next week worked out - but i'm thinking the week after next we're gonna have to make some squash & bean burritos! yay! and maybe i'll remember to pick up the chipotle peppers at the store! :)
i'm excited about the garden update - as i love them, too! it's always fun to see how everything's progressing (and the occasional cute kitty picture!)!
hope you & Brett have a glorious & fun weekend! superw00t!
OMG I'm dying this looks so good... Don't know whether to make this or Jessy's chili for dinner tonight... I do have a ton of squash though.
As far as the honey thing goes, I don't find it offensive. I admire how hard you guys work to stay local... I could certainly use some improvement in that department.
And one last thing: isn't The Shock Doctrine amazing?! I just gave it to someone as a gift yesterday... I think its the 4th time I've bought it. :)
That sounds like such a delicious meal! No worries about the honey; I never liked the taste of it before I was a vegan anyway, and I can't afford the agave in Montreal (maybe it's cheaper elsewhere? Here it is so expensive!), so I tend to either skip those recipes or try to use maple syrup. Your photo looks totally delish though!! And your bean recipe has me craving kidney beans, even though I just ate some in my leftover soup! I'm definitely copying that one down to try.
Have an awesome weekend!
I *love* delicata squash! After spaghetti, I think it is my favorite winter squash. I wonder if maple syrup would work in place of honey? I do have agave, but I am thinking the sweetness of the maple syrup might be nice with the spicy flavors...
Courtney
Jessy - We all do things for different reasons, and therefore, our exceptions will be different. I just realized somewhere along the way that I had to be consistent in living the way I live for the reasons I want to, and for me that means using honey and local eggs. I am happy that you all understamd.
Ooooh, homemade adobo sauce, now that would be awesome. Brett's dad has a smoker, and I always want to take a bunch of ripe jalapenos up there!
I love the sweet and spicy combination, it gives the meal some depth. And winter squash - oh beautiful winter squash - I think I love pretty much all of them. :-)
You SHOULD make squash and bean burritos, roast 'em like potatoes, fry 'em, roast and mash 'em, they are so good and so versatile!
I might be able to sneak a kitty picture in the update. :-) It turns out, a lot of stuff happened this month, so it might be a long one.
I hope you and Dan have a great weekend too!
T - Hahahaha, well thank you. Her chili looks really good, that is a tough decision!
Aw T, thank you so much, that is really kind of you to say. I went vegetarian to live lighter on the environment, and of course, I am lactose intolerant, so somewhere along the way, I guess I though it meant I had to be a vegan. I rethought why I even decided to do what I am doing in the first place and worked it out accordingly. You seem to do quite well, I don't see a whole lot of exotic ingredients used. You make simple, really tasty looking food.
It IS amazing. I want to give it to everyone I know when I am done reading it. I have to decide who I want to loan it to first. I may have to buy more copies myself.
Bill - Thank you. I bet maple syrup would work in this dish as well. The flavor wouldn't be quite the same, of course, but I think it could be good.
Haha, we are "bean people" since neither of us like tofu, tempeh, or seitan, we get our protein via beans and nuts mostly. You'll see a lot of beans here - probably more kidney too, as I just found some local ones the other day!
Have a great weekend too Bill, thanks!
Courtney - Me too. They are so good. I really wish I had gotten more. Speaking of spaghetti squash, there were some at The Root Cellar, perhaps next weekend I will pick one up, along with either a jar of locally produced marinara or the ingredients to make my own. I've been wanting to try it like this for a long time.
I think it would. Like I was telling Bill, I don't think it would taste quite the same, but I think the garlic and chipotle chiles would compliment the flavors of the maple quite well. If you make it like this, please let me know how it was, I might have to try it like that.
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