Gastronomic Alternatives

Mrs. O said, 'You mean for a brief moment you felt like you could change the world by riding your bike?'

'Yes! That's it!'

And, there were 2,499 other people who thought the same thing (or at least wanted to tour around Brooklyn en masse. This morning, Transportation Alternatives hosted their 7th Annual Tour de Brooklyn. 18 miles and 2,500 people. The goal of the ride is to raise awareness about cycling in Brooklyn, and boy howdy, does Brooklyn need it. Riding down the dedicated bike path on Prospect Park West is pretty similar to a 3D game of Frogger.

The ride was great until our traffic handlers abandoned us about 3/4 of the way through. Then it was a little hairy. All in all, though, it was a great way to spend the morning, and a fabulous excuse to chow down Huevos Divorciados (two eggs separated by different sauces) at Fonda, one of my favorite local restaurants.

Back at Casa Chris, the local hotspot that is my home, I decided I might also change the world by making dinner. And so, I'm announcing here and now to you, ladies and g's, the launch of Gastronomic Alternatives. As the beginning of Gastronomic Alternatives, I will only buy and cook local produce and meat at Casa Chris from now until deep winter makes this an impossibility.

I think that this is not only the way to eat the most delicious food, but it's the right thing to do. It's a way to be a better community member. In fact, I will be so bold as to say that it's irresponsible not to support local agriculture. What will happen to us if California does indeed fall into the ocean one day?

Now, there are a few things I will concede as advantages in this quest: 1) there is a Greenmarket five minutes from my office that runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday (Saturday too but why leave Brooklyn on the weekends?) 2) there is a Greenmarket about 1.5 miles from my house that is open every Saturday seasonally and 3) I can afford it (most of you can too).

This weekend I ate mostly local dinners both evenings, and I am nearly delirious with the results. Last night I had a local-beef burger which I seasoned with ramp pesto before cooking. I enjoyed it on a whole wheat sour dough roll topped with Stilton blue cheese and a mayo/sour cream concoction that included some more of the ramp pesto and a bit of truffle oil. I had sides of roasted asparagus with spring onions and potato chips anointed with the aforementioned truffle dip. Happy like a damn pig I was after that feast. (The pesto was left from a few weeks ago. I popped a small dish into the freezer when I made it.)

Like strawberries, asparagus is one of those items that, in my opinion, just doesn't taste good when it's out of season or imported. You have to eat it fresh to really taste it. It's fabulous tossed with a little olive oil, salt and lemon pepper and then roasted at 400 degrees. I threw in green garlic last week and spring onion greens this week, both of which were also very tasty when roasted.

Tonight I started dinner with a garlic scape soup, the recipe for which I found in Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking. I didn't buy enough scapes, so following the recipe notes, I swapped out spring onions. I also substituted collard greens for spinach (which required longer cooking time for the greens). By the way, this cookbook is beautiful and a great resource for eating a more healthy and whole diet.

My main course was two links of sage breakfast sausage from Wilklow Farms, a slice of morbier cheese (stinky, but delicious) and Chopped Kale with Hot Pepper Vinegar from Richard Blais, the recipe for which appeared in Food and Wine this month. Absolute heaven! It calls for caraway seeds, onions and garlic.

So, here's to home cooking with local ingredients! Get out there to your green market!

And until next week ponder this question: do I allow myself citrus, which is technically produce but cannot be found locally in any season and which is also a key ingredient in many a tasty cocktail?