Fairburn Farm

I found myself on Koksilah Road yesterday afternoon and curiosity prompted me to turn off onto a side road and follow the signs to “Historic Fairburn Farm.”  I followed the road for quite some way, past the “No Through Road” sign and up to the end of the pavement.  I would have turned back at that point if it were not for another sign that said “You’re almost there.”  I followed the twists and turns of the gravel road to its very end, and there I found the farm.

I’ve rarely been in a setting as tranquil as that of Fairburn Farm.  Living as I do at the corner of a busy intersection, I tend to forget what quiet means.  The farm reminded me.  It possesses quiet in abundance; enough quiet that I could hear the breeze in the maple trees and take time to appreciate being surrounded by birdsong.  It’s very beautiful there and I was filled almost immediately with a sense tranquility.  It was wonderful.

Had I visited the Fairburn Farm website before making my impulsive visit, I would have read that they don’t encourage drop in visitors.  Despite its tranquil setting, the farm is a working enterprise.  They like to know when visitors are coming so that they can make room in their busy schedules to welcome them.  I did eventually find Darrel Archer (one of the farm’s owners) though, and he told me a little about the place.

Fairburn Farm was established in 1886 and has been in continuous operation ever since.  It’s been in the hands of the Archer family since 1955.  Since 1980, it’s been run by Darrel and his wife Anthea, as a mixed farming and guest operation.  Their daughter and son—Maryann and Richard—joined the business in 2008.

In 2000, Darrel and Anthea imported a herd of 19 water buffalo from Denmark. Sadly, shortly after the herd was imported a Danish cow was diagnosed with BSE (Mad Cow Disease) and, as a result, their entire original herd was slaughtered.  Testing of the slaughtered livestock showed that they were free of any infection so the Archer’s started over with the Canadian offspring of their original herd and, despite the terrible setback, they have established a successful dairy operation.[i]  

Water buffalo milk is extremely nutritious, with 58% more calcium and 40% more protein than cow’s milk.  It’s a rich source of phosphorous, iron, Vitamin A, and protein, and it contains the antioxidant tocopheral.  Its levels of oxygen are typically 2 to 4 times that of cow’s milk and its levels of cholesterol are 43% lower.  Buffalo milk is easily digested, even by people with cow’s milk allergies, and it’s high in milk solids so it makes excellent yogurt and cheese.  Pretty impressive. 

Fairburn Farm sells their buffalo milk to Natural Pastures Cheese Company in Courtenay, where it is made into Mozzarella di bufala.  This wonderful cheese is sold throughout most of BC and also in Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.  Look for it next time you are grocery shopping or visiting a farmer’s market.

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[i] Fairburn Farm notes on their website (http://www.fairburnwaterbuffalo.com/?what-is-a-water-buffalo,23) that there are no incidents of BSE in water buffalo anywhere in the world.

Fish and Chips

We went to the Fisherman’s Wharf in Victoria yesterday and, while we were there, stopped to have a late lunch.  The setting was wonderful but our fish and chips were both expensive and mediocre.  They weren’t terrible or anything,—no dripping oil or soggy batter—they were just unremarkable. 

Living on Vancouver Island, with Victoria nearby, it’s not surprising that fish and chips are on our menu several times a year.  Nor is it surprising that we’re picky about the way it’s cooked and served.  After all, Victoria can be more English than England and the island is surrounded by water abundant with fish. 

Still, yesterday’s meal got me thinking:  What makes a good plate of fish and chips? 

Local fish is an excellent place to start.  Depending upon where you are in the world, fish and chips can be made from cod, halibut, haddock, plaice, pollock, whiting, barramundi, shark, flounder, or even catfish.  Whatever firm white fish is locally available and in season can be pressed into service for this dish.  As long as it’s fresh, sustainable, and local, it’s likely to be a good choice.

The fat the fish and chips are fried in is very important.  The first fish and chips vendors fried their fish in either beef drippings or lard.  Lard still makes an excellent choice because it adds a fine flavour to the finished dish, but I don’t recommend buying it commercially processed.  The lard you find on your grocery store shelves is partially hydrogenated to extend its shelf life.  The same is true of most lard you buy at the butcher’s shop.  If you are going to fry with lard, take the time to render it yourself.  If this seems like too much work, then opt for more convenient (but less flavourful) canola or peanut oil. 

The batter used on the fish needs some consideration too.  Traditionally, fish and chip batter is either made from a combination of water, flour, baking soda and vinegar, or from flour and beer.  Either option will provide carbonation that serves to lighten the texture of the finished product.  The batter should be kept very cold and the fish should be dredged lightly in flour before it’s battered.

A correct cooking temperature is essential.  If the oil is too cold, the fish will be soggy and oily.  If the oil is too hot, the fish will not be cooked through.  If you start with your oil at about 360ºF, it will decrease to about 350º once the fish is dropped in.  That’s pretty nearly exactly right.  The fish should be cooked until it’s golden brown on both sides.

Proper seasoning is important.   Season the fish and chips with salt and pepper as soon as they come out of the fryer, while they are still slightly moist and will hold on to the seasoning.

Thick cut potato chips that are crispy outside and light and fluffy inside are the essential other half of your plate.  They need to be chunkier than American fries and they need to be soaked in ice water for at least an hour before they’re cooked.  When it’s time to cook them, you must pat them completely dry and then fry them twice:  First for 5 minutes at 350ºF and then again at 375º, to crisp the outside of the chips and give them colour.

In an ideal world, this perfect meal of fish and chips would be served wrapped in white paper and then in newsprint, both to keep it warm and to blot up any excess oil.  It would be accompanied by malt vinegar, tartar sauce, and crispy coleslaw and it would be eaten while still piping hot.  I can see it (and taste it) in my imagination now.

What’s your favourite fish and chips shop?  And where would you most like to enjoy that fish and chips meal?

Mad Scientist Meatloaf

Some time ago I bought a quantity of pastrami, planning to use it for one of my lunches.  When I got it home I discovered that although it tasted quite good, it was tough and a little dry; not up to my lunch service standards.  I’m way too frugal to throw meat out so I stuck it in my freezer with a mental pledge to find some way to use it later on. 

Today was “later on.”  I'm not working right now so I have some extra time to experiment in the kitchen.  (My husband calls these ventures into the unknown my “mad scientist experiments,” hence the name of the dish.)  I decided to find a way to incorporate the pastrami into a meatloaf.

To start, I ground the pastrami (about 400 grams) finely in my food processor.

Next, I added some foccaccia crumbs.

I added two eggs and a pound of lean ground beef.

Then I used my food processor to finely grind a red onion, some celery, and some bread and butter pickles.  I added the ground vegetables to the bowl together with some Worcestershire sauce, a generous amount of salt and pepper, and a little allspice.

When I mixed the ingredients together, I found that the mixture was too dry so I added about ½ cup of buttermilk and another egg.  I formed the resulting mixture into a loaf and put it in a preheated 350 degree oven.

While the meatloaf was baking, I made a glaze.  I combined 6 Tbsp. ketchup, 5 tsp. dry mustard, and ¼ c. of brown sugar.  I mixed it until it was smooth and then tasted it.  It tasted too mustard-y to me, and not quite deep enough, so I added another 2 Tbsp. of ketchup and 2 Tbsp. molasses.

When the meatloaf had cooked for 30 minutes, I took it out of the oven and covered it liberally with the glaze.  I put it back in to bake for another 30 minutes and then let it rest for 10 minutes before serving it.  It was yummy.

If I had to change anything at all in this recipe, it would be to add a little more fat.  Maybe some ground bacon?

This recipe made enough meatloaf for four meals for the two of us.  I divided the leftovers and froze them in three packages. 

I think that when I thaw the leftover meatloaf, I’ll slice it and then cook the slices on a griddle so they develop a bit of a crust.  I’ll put the griddled slices into toasted buns—maybe molasses, wild rice, and cranberry brown bread—with some red cabbage coleslaw.  That’s something to look forward to!

Barley

Some years ago, a neighbour of ours showed me how she used cooked barley to fill chard leaves, in much the same way cabbage rolls are made.  Until then, I really hadn’t thought much about this grain, other than as an addition to soup or as a component of beer.  I owe my neighbour thanks for showing me her recipe. It opened my mind to the use of barley as a whole grain component in our day-to-day meals.

You can find two kinds of barley in most grocery stores: Pot barley and pearl barley.  Pot barley is a whole grain.  Its inedible outer hull has been removed but its bran and germ remain intact.  Pearl barley is not a whole grain.  It has been steam processed to remove the bran.  Pot barley can take slightly longer to cook than pearl barley but, because it’s a whole grain, it’s better for you.  It’s the barley I choose to include in our meals.

Whole grain barley is a very good source of dietary fibre and of selenium.  It’s also a good source of manganese, copper, phosphorous, and B vitamins.  Including barley in your diet on a regular basis can help lower cholesterol, reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, help prevent certain cancers, and help to boost your immune system.  That’s pretty powerful stuff for such a simple and inexpensive food.

I like to cook my barley like risotto.  I start by sautéing some onions in olive oil, just until they're translucent.  Then I add the barley and stir it in, so that the outer surface of each grain can absorb a little bit of oil.  This prevents the grains from clumping together as the barley is cooked. 

Once the barley has been sauteed, I add stock to the pot bit by bit, stirring until the liquid has been absorbed before adding more, until the barley has reached the texture I desire.  I like to cook barley so that the grains have softened but still have a little “tooth” to them.  Barley cooked this way can be served as a side dish, just as it is, or it can be used as a component in other dishes—like my neighbour’s chard rolls.

Barley contains 14 amino acids so, if you wish to use it as an ingredient in a vegetarian menu and to attain a “complete” protein, you’ll need to pair it with nuts, legumes or dairy products.  I’ve adapted my neighbour’s chard rolls to accommodate this requirement by adding a béchamel sauce (or sometimes a cheese sauce) to the dish.  Instead of making individual rolls, I layer the components in a casserole, alternating layers of chard and barley, starting and finishing with the chard.  I top the whole thing with a thick béchamel that is not unlike the topping you would find on moussaka.  It makes a tasty, nutritious, satisfying, and inexpensive main dish.

Unless you have it in your fridge already prepared, barley is not an option for cooks in a hurry.  Like all whole grains, it takes a while to absorb enough moisture to make it palatable.  Its nutritional benefits and hearty taste make it worth the effort though.

Next time you’re in the grocery store, visit the aisle where the dry soup ingredients are sold and pick up a bag of pot barley.  You’ll be surprised at how tasty this old-fashioned foodstuff can be.

Dining Local

We went to the local farmers’ market yesterday and it inspired me to make a meal in which each of the components included at least one local ingredient (grown or made within 100 miles of our home).  Followers of the 100 mile diet would likely not approve of my menu because it includes ingredients from outside our area but I’m not a purist.  I think it’s okay to include other fine ingredients as well. 

I served a tasting platter and then a dessert.  Our meal included:

• Spinach salad made with spinach and kale flowers from Alderlea Farm, in Glenora.  The mushrooms were not grown here on the island but they are grown in BC, in the Fraser Valley.
• Cucumber and golden tomatoes from Gamboa Greenhouses in Cobble Hill.
• Devilled eggs made from Alderlea Farm organic eggs.  The mayo was made from them too and the green onions come from Alderlea Farm as well.
• Highland beef sirloin from Birds Eye Cove Farm.
• Cognac sausage from Ravenstone Farm in Qualicum Beach.
• Sweet tomato and jalapeno pickle made from vegetables purchased at the farm market last summer.
• Zucchini relish and green tomato relish also made from vegetables purchased at the farm market last summer.
• Red Dawn cheese, flavoured with blackberries and port, made by Hilary’s Artisan Cheese in Cowichan Bay.
• Foccaccia crisps (not pictured), that I baked myself using Sunset Bay honey from Nanaimo and dried oregano from Providence Farm here in Duncan.
• Rhubarb and apple crisp, made with Sunset Bay honey and rhubarb from my brother’s garden.  The apples are not from the island but they are from BC.  They were grown in the Okanagan.

All in all, it was a mighty fine meal.  Kudos to our local farmers; I appreciate their hard work.

Eggs

I posted some egg photos yesterday, from the Magnum Photos website.  (http://todayspictures.slate.com/20110516/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TodaysPictures+%28Today%27s+Pictures%29&utm_content=Twitter) These extraordinary images have got me thinking about how commonplace eggs are in our day-to-day life and how much we depend upon them.

There are, of course, many different kinds of eggs—chicken, duck, quail, caviar, roe and even ostrich, to name but a few—but I think that when most of us say “egg” we think of chicken eggs and we see in our mind’s eye the many shelves of them on display in our grocery store’s dairy section.

Eggs are nutritional power houses.  They are one of the few foods that naturally contain Vitamin D, they are a source of Vitamin A, B vitamins, and Vitamin E.  They are a rich source of iron, a source of calcium, and they contain all the essential amino acids.  Better still, they provide all of this nutrition in a package that is low in calories; only 75 calories in a single, large egg.

Many of the eggs we see in our grocery stores are battery eggs.  This is not some obscure reference to electrical charges but is, rather, a description of how the chickens that produce the eggs are raised. 

Battery farming, or factory farming, is the process of raising chickens in small cages, inside large buildings.  The cages do not touch the ground and hens raised in these cages are unable to engage in natural behaviours such as wing-flapping, dust-bathing, scratching, pecking, perching and nest-building.  They are often debeaked in order to prevent them from harming each other or engaging in cannibalism.  Several studies have indicated that a combination of high calcium demand for egg production and a lack of exercise lead to a painful condition known as cage layer osteoporosis, which increases the chances that hens in battery cages will break their bones.[i]

Free range chickens are given access to the outdoors.  While there is no specific standard for eggs labeled as “free range,” some eggs are “certified humane” or “certified organic.” Eggs labeled as “certified humane” are raised on farms with specific requirements for stocking density and cage-free keeping.  Eggs labeled “certified organic” are raised on farms where the hens must have outdoor access and are fed only organic, vegetarian feed.

Interestingly, the quality of life of the hen that produces the eggs greatly affects the nutritional value of the eggs themselves.  Eggs laid by free-range chickens that are allowed to forage for their own food have been found to be lower in cholesterol and fats while being several times higher in vitamins and omega 3 fatty acids than standard factory eggs.[ii]

As you can imagine, cooking as much as I do every day, I use a lot of eggs in the course of a week.  I use them in much of my baking and in many of my other recipes.  I also keep them on hand as a convenient and inexpensive main dish on days when I am particularly busy or rushed.  They form the centerpiece of many of our meals on meat free days.

I get most of my eggs from a local farmer, who raises a small number of hens in a coop where they have ready access to the outdoors.  When I need to supplement this supply, I purchase certified organic eggs from a local grocer. 

If you are fortunate enough to be able to buy your eggs from a local farmer, I encourage you to do so.  If not, please give consideration to how the hens who produce the eggs you eat are raised.  In the long run humane farming practices benefit us all, both in the quality of our environment and in the nutrition we receive.

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[i] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_cage

[ii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_%28food%29

First photo:  http://todayspictures.slate.com/20110516/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TodaysPictures+%28Today%27s+Pictures%29&utm_content=Twitter

Second photo:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_cage

Third photo:  http://www.thedailygreen.com/weird-weather/free-range-egg-farm-5009180911250694118 

On My Mind

The day snuck by me today without me writing a blog.  Although I spent much of my day preparing food, oddly it wasn’t much on my mind.  Guess we all have days like that.

What was on my mind?  Well, let’s see: 

The crummy weather was on my mind.  It was raining so hard that I actually got a chance to disprove the saying “lovely weather for ducks.”  I went to Quamichan Lake and saw nary a duck.  They were all hiding somewhere in the reeds or on the shore, sheltered from the worst of the downpour.  I did see some seagulls though, and a very wet woodpecker.

Spring was on my mind, especially spring flowers.  I worried some about how much the rain was beating up the rhododendrons in our garden, and how it had stripped the last blooms off the magnolia down the street.  I went to a garden center this afternoon and looked at pots and herbs for my balcony.  I was grateful that even though it is wet the weather is quite mild now.

Laundry was on my mind.  It seems to get away from me sometimes.  There are so many other things to do with my day.  Today, though, I washed the whole lot, folded it, and put most of it away.  (Some went into the ironing basket where it will sit ignored until I actually need it.)

Money was on my mind.  I sorted through a pile of receipts, did some filing, and some bookkeeping.  It’s my least favourite chore, but oh so necessary.

Friends were on my mind.  My friend Anna stopped by to visit.  I planned to phone several people but never got around to it.  Guess I’ll try again tomorrow.  I’m glad they understand that I’m just disorganized, not taking them for granted.

Family was on my mind.  I spent some time today being grateful for mine, both those who live nearby and those who do not.  They’ve been there for me both in happy times and sad.  I’m fortunate to have them.

While I was thinking about all this, my hands were busy, going through the steps of cooking almost automatically.  Despite my lack of attention, the veggies I brought home from the market got washed and stowed away, the bread rose perfectly, and the soup simmered along on the back of the stove. 

I find the process of cooking very calming.  Sometimes it calms me by keeping me totally engaged and sometimes it frees my mind to travel along other paths, as it did today.  Either way, I’m grateful to have the skills to do it, a kitchen that works for me, food enough to cook with, and friends and family to share my meals with.  I’m a lucky woman.