Photo: HealthHomeHappy.com/Flickr

What do kefir, sauerkraut and kimchi have in common? They are all fermented foods.

Cathy Sloan Gallagher of this season’s Edible South Shore reports on the health benefits of “fermented edibles” (easy on the digestive track, nutrient-rich, and more) and entices us to DIY with two super-easy recipes: one for carrots, the other for chutney. All that’s required if you’re a novice are proper storage jars.

Here’s more food for thought, and for actual consumption. A quick search of the blogosphere yields recipes for Fermented Hot Chili Sauce from Nourished Kitchen; Kimchi from David Lebovitz; and, Yogurt, Buttermilk and Crème Fraîche from Nourishing Days. And there’s so much more.

Have you fermented? If so, what foods? If not — not yet, anyway — these recipes, above, might be the catalyst. We’d love to hear about it. Write us on Twitter if you tweet, Facebook or here.

Read Cathy Sloan Gallagher’s “Fermented Edibles: The Original Health Food.”

Photo: Flickr/Tavallai

I finally checked out Life Alive Cafe in Cambridge and was totally blown away; the combination of flavors, the great vibe– an excellent experience overall.

I ordered a delicious combo of grains and veggies, and my favorite part?

The beets.

When I decided to try and re-create the dish at home, I instantly doubted my own beet-making skills. So, in preparation for this post, I scoured blogs for an excellent “how-to.”

Here’s one for your veggie-making pleasure.

Jennifer Che of Tiny Urban Kitchen fame took on the golden-roasteds this weekend and shares her wisdom.  The secret? CARAMELIZING FIRST.  Check out her post to learn more.

Courtesy Photo, Random House

On Point takes on this topic–and goes behind the hallowed walls of the Culinary Institute of America in today’s second hour.   Here’s host Tom Ashbrook’s explainer:

In New York’s Hudson River Valley, there are two famed institutions. Both instill discipline, expect perfection and weed out the weak. The first is West Point. The second, is the Culinary Institute of America.

Tom welcomes Jonathan Dixon, author of “Beaten, Seared and Sauced: On Becoming a Chef at the Culinary Institute of America,” and chef and cookbook author Sara Moulton (another  Culinary Institute of America grad).  As always, Tom will be taking your calls.

Listen LIVE or catch the show later today HERE.

Photo: Andrew Currie/Flickr

Today’s Food Therapy comes from Boston blogger Lingbo Li. Her attractive blog with popsicle logo includes posts on travel, life and food. But that’s not the interest today.

Our interest is the webpage she described as this:

“We want this to be the pulse of America’s guilty obsession with food. To shine a light on a twisted cultural pysche. To expose guilt at the bacon-saturated grassroots.”

What could that be? Lingbo launched “Shouldn’t Have Eaten” in December 2010. The site is a place where users can go to strip-down their food secrets and post them for all to see. And, wow, is it funny!

You start out with a blank box with the lead-in words “I shouldn’t have eaten…”. To the right is a hilarious muffin overflowing from its paper cup jeans. With inspiration like that, and an option for anonymity, posting of gluttony is not so hard…

“I shouldn’t have eaten… a giant bowl of Ramen. Then a big hunk of peanut butter, straight off the knife. And a beer,” said one user.

Students, for one, are sure to have a long cathartic list for this website at the end of final exams. For example, I shouldn’t have eaten a cupcake for breakfast followed by eight shots of espresso on ice.

I could tell you worse things, but no, no. I will save that for the anonymous posts.

Photo: Josep Ma. Rosell/Flickr

LOCAL BITES

Nantucket Wine Festival
Featuring over 165 wineries, the Nantucket Wine Festival is coming up next week, May 18 – 22. The festival, held at the Nantucket Yacht Club, will also host culinary notables and events like vineyard-centric tastings and a harbor gala. Check out a list of highlights, and purchase tickets.

New It-Girl
Lower rents and cheaper liquor licenses are bringing more restaurants to Cambridge, according to Devra First of the Boston Globe. Cambridge has a “spirit of innovation and experimentation,” First claims, that inspires and appeals to many chefs. From coffee and ice cream to high-end eats, Cambridge might be ‘It.’ (To wit, see “James Beard” after the jump!)

The British are Coming
‘Ello Govnah, er, Consulate-General! EatBoston’s Will Gilson and Aaron Cohen are hosting a clever pop-up at the British Consulate-General in Kendall Square featuring signature British bites, May 20, 21. Among the dishes on the five-course menu are fish and chips, seared fois gras and crumpets, and sticky toffee pudding. Purchase your $70 ticket on EatBoston’s website.

One Fish, Two Fish
Did you know bluefish can be caught in Boston’s outer harbor? This fish is a sustainable, affordable choice, but many still avoid it. The key is to buy it really fresh and cook it right away. Read this bluefish primer from Jay Falstad of the Washington Post for great information and a recipe. Continue reading →

Short Rib Ragu

From right here at BU, blogger What Emily Cooks shares a short rib ragu that seems to burst with subtle flavors. Her recipe calls for a bit of hand-holding, but the results look well worth it. She calls for gremolata (teased parsley, garlic, lemon) as a condiment for the pork, served over a pasta or risotto. For the recipe, the how-to process and more of her gorgeous photos, click HERE. Start salivating.

Photo: puuikibeach/Flickr

Ugh – final exams week.

It has to be one of the most stressful times in a college student’s year. Me, I’ve been surviving on copious amounts of coffee – everything from high-end espresso drinks to a suspiciously easy drugstore cappuccino machine (which was disgusting, by the way – serves me right for going for the cheap and easy).

So you’d better believe this coffee cake – via My First Kitchen – looks like a dream come true about now. Mind you, it’s not your ordinary, cinnamon-crumble coffee cake – oh no. This is a cake actually made from coffee – from its dense, rich interior to the coffee-flavored buttercream.

Unfortunately, with exams flying at me from every direction (European Enlightenment! French! Media Law and Ethics!), I don’t think I’ll have time to put this thing together just yet. Instead, I think I’ll wait for a special occasion.

The start of summer vacation counts as a special occasion, right?

Parsnips (Photo: MJane Ross/Flickr)

As a child there were only a few foods that I couldn’t abide. Most were the usual suspects: liver, brussel sprouts, mushrooms, organ meats. But I also had a thing against that most inoffensive of vegetables, the parsnip.

Now, very belatedly, I have come around. With a vengeance. I can’t get enough of them, especially spring dug parsnips (oh-so delicate, oh-so sweet), which now abound in New England.

So this recipe for curry parsnip chips from Local In Season immediately struck my fancy, even if the author’s love of this pale root is a tad less ardent than mine.

Photo: Laura Bulgrin

It seems you can get any type of meal service delivered today – diet food, gluten-free, global cuisine, you name it. Until three months ago, however, one category was lacking. If you wanted prepared locally-sourced meals, the only options were to make it yourself or eat out.

Now there’s a third option, and it’s priced competitively. Personal chef JJ Gonson and her team at the Shared Food Program offer a weekly, prepared food service out of Cambridge. Gonson, the program’s founder, says one share equals about eight individual meals — meals, that is, cooked with healthy fats, farm fresh produce and proteins. The food is then delivered in an Earth-friendly way every Tuesday by Metro Pedal Power, if desired.

The cost? Roughly the same as your standard take-out. One week of Shared Food meals, with delivery, goes for $125. Customers may instead opt for a SFP membership for $20 a month; shares in this scenario cost $100 per week. The last option is to become a monthly member (four shares per month) at $450. (Hear JJ explain the program and the price comparisons in PRK’s video, after the jump).

Continue reading →