a few thoughts on the cookie dough recall

It is a national story, but I read about the recent Nestle cookie dough recall as a local article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Six Minnesotans, between 2 and 18 years of age, became quite ill from eating raw dough. This is disturbing on many levels, and it seems food recalls are simply part of "what happens." Is anyone outraged? At some point people do eat at their own risk, but as a society we can surely do more to prevent the spread of tainted food. I imagine that warnings printed on labels often do little to prevent people from eating certain foods raw, and despite manufacturers' and public health officials' official concerns, people enjoy eating cookie dough. They also enjoy runny eggs, rare steaks, and bloody hamburgers. Even steak tartare has enjoyed a renaissance as of late. If sourced and handled appropriately, many allegedly dangerous foods can be safely enjoyed in a raw or lightly cooked state. Mass-produced, industrial tubs of dough do not belong on this list, but their existence influences how people, including public officials, view the honest, homemade variety.

It begs the question: how could there be such a huge market for manufactured cookie dough? Please tell me. The concept is absurd, but an insipidly clever marketing idea. Busy people, who apparently don't have enough time to measure more than four ingredients, can purchase this dough-like substance, press or cut it into shapes, and convince themselves that they are, in fact, baking. It's akin to serving microwave bacon. I have tears in my eyes.

Real cookie dough is a wonderful thing. The alchemical marriage of flour, butter, sugar, and chocolate chips is truly potent, an ethereal mix to be honored in its own right. Freshly baked chocolate chip cookies are wantonly desired by children and adults across this great country, and they are one of the few truly notable American foodstuffs. We don't have many. Must we desecrate them through food engineering and negligent mass production?

We have all heard the warnings. Do not eat raw eggs. Do not eat cookie dough, because it contains raw eggs. When was the last time you heard of someone dying from a raw egg that contained e. coli bacteria? I encourage you to read the Wikipedia entry for this bacterium, as it appears poop is the typical culprit. Yes, poop. Salmonella is most often the bacterium associated with raw eggs, so it is unclear how e. coli made its way into Nestle's cookie dough, but we could take a wild guess. Public health experts and Nestlé officials: please post a comment. I also recommend reading this article from the Today Show, which describes how e. coli is most often found in raw meat or unwashed fruits and vegetables.

What bothers me the most is the MN Dept of Public Health's first quote in the aforementioned article:

Health officials warned that eating any kind of raw dough creates potential for illness. "Cookie dough, whether purchased in a tub from the store or made at home from scratch, should not be eaten raw," said Carlota Medus, a foodborne-illness epidemiologist with the Minnesota Department of Health.

Rather than push Nestle to explain how such contaminants could enter their supply chain, our public servants simply cover Nestle's ass by implying that consumers may have brought this upon themselves by eating raw cookie dough. What a joke. If you care to make your own cookie dough, from the best ingredients you can find (organic butter, organic sugar, organic eggs, and chocolate chips), and store them properly, it seems the risk of contamination is very low, perhaps even nonexistent. Maybe I'm missing something here, but my family regularly eats sunny-side-up eggs, and spoonfulls of raw cookie dough. We have never been ill. My pregnant wife eats these things.

The warnings exist to cover the lowest common denominator, the lowest quality (but cheapest!) ingredients one could possibly procure from a discount, big box grocer. But even then it's probably a low risk. Only when our dough is manufactured on a massive scale, by assembly line workers with bad habits, is there such a risk. If your grandma doesn't wash her hands, your family may get ill. If the "dough mixing technician" at the Nestle plant doesn't wash his hands, an entire city may puke its guts out, literally.

I'll leave you with the list of ingredients for one of the recalled products: "Ultimates Peanut Butter Cups, Chips & Chocolate Chunks bar." I've highlighted the nasty/processed/synthetic ingredients in red, if e. coli isn't enought to stop you. Bon appetit!

INGREDIENTS: BLEACHED ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), SUGAR, MARGARINE (PALM OIL, WATER, SUNFLOWER OIL, HYDROGENATED COTTONSEED OIL, SALT, VEGETABLE MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, SOY LECITHIN, SODIUM BENZOATE, CITRIC ACID, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, BETA CAROTENE COLOR, VITAMIN A PALMITATE ADDED), NESTLE SEMI-SWEET CHOCOLATE CHUNKS (SEMI-SWEET CHOCOLATE [SUGAR, CHOCOLATE, COCOA BUTTER, MILKFAT, SOY LECITHIN, VANILLIN - AN ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, NATURAL FLAV0R]), PEANUT BUTTER FLAVORED MORSELS (SUGAR, PALM KERNEL OIL, PEANUTS, PEANUT FLOUR, LACTOSE, WHEY [FROM MILK], MILKFAT, NONFAT MILK, SODIUM CASEINATE [FROM MILK], BUTTERMILK, HYDROGENATED PALM OIL, SALT, SOY LECITHIN, ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS), PEANUT BUTTER CUPS (SUGAR, PALM KERNEL OIL, PEANUT FLOUR, NONFAT MILK, PEANUT BUTTER [PEANUTS, SALT, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED PALM OIL], PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED PALM OIL, SALT, COCONUT OIL, COLOR ADDED [RED 40 LAKE, YELLOW 5 LAKE AND BLUE 2 LAKE], SOY LECITHIN, TBHQ, CITRIC ACID), WATER, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, MOLASSES, EGGS, EGG YOLKS, BAKING SODA, SALT, SODIUM ALUMINUM PHOSPHATE, VANILLA EXTRACT, VANILLIN - AN ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR

P.S. The voluntary recall includes 43 varieties of cookie dough sold by Nestle. You can access nutritional information about each of them at Nestle's wonderful cookie dough site: http://www.verybestbaking.com/. Don't event get me started on the ridiculousness of that name. Very best indeed.

the humble frittata

Peasant cooking at it's best, many cookbook authors and magazine writers have touted the simplicity of this Italian staple. Nearly identical to the Spanish tortilla, the frittata is the ideal vehicle to dispose of leftover vegetables and other items languishing in your fridge. It is also an ideal summer meal, as it requires just a few minutes in the broiler and tastes great the following day, even served cool or at room temperature. Many variations exist, but core elements include sauteed vegetables, cheese and/or cream, and at least six eggs. The recipe below is a hybrid of several recipes that is easy to prepare and works well for me. I've listed some suggested ingredients but this dish is so flexible that I strongly encourage using nearly any ingredient that would taste good with eggs. Bacon is quite tasty, as well as leftover roast turkey or chicken.

Ingredients

• 6-8 eggs, depending on the size of your skillet and appetite
• 1/2 cup milk or cream
• 1/2 onion
• 1/2 lb mushrooms, quartered (or other vegetables)
  
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh herbs (parsley, basil, or thyme)
• 1 cup grated cheese (parmesan, mozzarella, or chevre work well)
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• kosher salt and coarsely ground pepper

Equipment

• large, well seasoned cast iron or stainless steel skillet (you could use nonstick but I don't recommend it because of new research regarding toxins) - make sure the skillet has a metal handle, as it will go in the broiler
  
• oven with a broiler
  

Technique

1. Preheat your broiler. Heat two tablespoons of oil in the skillet over medium-high heat. When oil is nearly smoking, add the onions and mushrooms. Sauté them until the mushrooms have released their juices and the liquid has evaporated from the pan (10-15 minutes).
   
2. In a large bowl, combine eggs, cream/milk, and herbs. Beat vigorously with a whisk or fork for several minutes (this will make the frittata fluffy).
   
3. Lower the heat to low, stir in remaining olive oil, and pour the egg mixture in the skillet. Lightly stir eggs to incorporate sautéed vegetables.
4. Once the eggs at the bottom have started to firm up, add the cheese and fold it into the egg mixture that is still liquid.
5. Put the skillet in the broiler and cook for 3-6 minutes or until the top is lightly browned and the eggs are no longer runny (but do not overcook).
   
6. Remove from broiler, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and slice into wedges.
   
7. Drizzle with additional olive oil if desired.

*Serves 4 as a main event or 6 as a first course

another way to make potatoes on the grill

Fried potatoes are delicious and fast, but the thought of heating up the kitchen on a punishingly hot day makes me want to vomit, seriously. Some of you might remember that last summer I posted a recipe for roasted potatoes on the grill. While that version is delicious in its own right, the indirect grilling method requires at least 30 minutes to fully cook the potatoes. In an effort to create a more weeknight friendly version, I developed another recipe inspired by a recent Mark Bittman article about grilling over wood coals, in which he describes how one of his friends uses a cast iron griddle to sear foods over hot coals.

I applied this technique to quartered new potatoes, and the results exceeded my expectations. A screaming hot skillet, combined with the ambient heat from a covered grill, resulted in potatoes that were crispy on the outside, creamy within, and subtly infused with smoky goodness.

ingredients

• 2.5 pounds small red new potatoes, quartered or cut into 1 inch pieces (I'm sure other small potatoes would work well)
• 8 large garlic cloves
• high quality olive oil (4 tbsp)
  
• sea salt
• black pepper

equipment

• large cast iron skillet
• a round metal tray, tin foil, or something that will loosely cover the skillet
• charcoal grill
  

technique

1. Ignite a full chimney of charcoal.
2. While charcoal is heating, pour olive oil into cast iron skillet.
3. Once coals are hot, pour them in a thick layer over 1/2 of the grill. Place the skillet on the grill grate, cover, and heat until oil is smoking.
   
4. Add potatoes, loosely cover the skillet, and cover the grill.
5. Cook for 10 minutes, then check potatoes for browning.
   
6. If the bottom sides are golden brown, flip potatoes with a spatula to brown remaining sides, and add garlic cloves. Cook 10-15 minutes longer.
7. Once potatoes are brown and crispy, remove from heat, toss w/ salt and pepper, and serve immediately.

*Serves 4 people.
*Cooking time is highly variable based on the amount of coals used, type of skillet, etc., but this is a good guide.

france post #3: blessed be the macro, and french flowers

As described in previous posts, we visited France in April, during a cool, wet part of the spring when many flowers begin to bloom. I combed through our photos and created this set of colorful snapshots, many of which were taken by my wife with our Canon Elph digital camera using the macro setting. We've found this setting to be quite powerful for taking cool close up shots of flowers, insects, food, basically anything you want to preserve with an extreme zoom.

more great reading about milk

Via the Atlantic Food twitter stream, today I discovered the rowdy food activism blog "Food Renegade." Just this morning, the site featured an extremely informative post deconstructing the benefits and drawbacks of different types of milk, as well as tips for purchasing raw milk direct from farmers. A great read if you like the other articles I posted.

this year's garden

My tiny plot has come a long way. When we moved into our small city home in 2005, there was a small rectangular garden containing poor, sandy soil and not much else. The first year we planted some tomatoes and a few herbs - with very little compost - and it fared pretty well. After a couple of such low intensity efforts, I decided to expand the garden by widening and lengthening the rectangle, nearly doubling the available space. We also started composting religiously, and the ROI was immediate - we could now grow numerous tomato plants, hot and mild peppers, eggplant, herbs, lettuces, green beans, and even some green cabbages on the shady side of the plot. I've also learned to do a bit of planning in early spring, to map out when I'll put each plant type in the ground.

By most accounts, the average "frost-free" date in the St. Paul area is May 15th. Since there are many hearty vegetables that can withstand a frost or two, I decided to get a handful of plants in the ground during the first week in May. These include:

• leeks (4)
• swiss chard (4)
• arugula (4)
• red lettuce (4)
• broccoli (4)

In addition to these seedlings, four heirloom green leaf lettuces sprouted in the garden during this same week - apparently from seeds that I planted last summer. Very cool.

During the third week of May I planted a host of warm weather veggies, including some heirloom tomatoes and peppers.

Tomatoes:

• "Northern Light" tomato (2): a fast growing, cold weather tomato that bears fruit in a mere 55 days (instead of 75-95 days for most types)
  
• "Dad’s Sunset" tomato (2): a very large, meaty variety.
  
• "Zapotec Pleated" tomato (1): a medium sized variety with irregularly shaped fruit.
  
• "Marizol Purple" tomato (1): an old German heirloom that is well suited to cooler climates.

Peppers:

• "Hungarian Paprika" pepper (2): the classic mild red pepper from central Europe.
  
• "Georgia Flame" hot pepper (2): a small red face-melter.
• "Purple Marconi" sweet pepper (2): a small Italian heirloom variety.

Others:

• Japanese eggplant (2): the long, striped purple and white eggplant.
• White cauliflower (2)
  
• Sweet basil (2)
• Rosemary (1)
• Mother of Thyme (1): a broad leaf variety.

Wow. That's a total of 40 plants, and doesn't include my garden perennials: rhubarb, chives, and two clumps of asparagus (still too young). That's almost 300% more than the 15 plants I watered exactly two years ago. I think the only remaining plants to install are some green beans that I plan to string up along the back side of the garden.

Sadly, I still haven't been organized enough to grow all of my plants from seeds indoors, which is a huge goal of mine. Maybe next year... But I do plan to seed a midsummer round of lettuce and cabbages, which will serve as a late season harvest in September and October.

good enough for grandpa: the case for whole milk

I live in a dairy state. To exist in Minnesota without an ice-cold bottle of milk in the fridge is sacrilege. For reasons of both pride and locavoracity, I am saddened by the "big milk" industry's shift away from the Midwest to California, currently the largest milk producing state (with a marketing campaign to match). Our vineyards need some work, but can we at least buy milk from Minnesota or Wisconsin? There are many small, organic producers selling delicious whole milk in our fine communities - try Crystal Ball or Castle Rock.

Despite our milk maid roots, it is always a bummer to discover that most people in this green pasture of a state prefer skim or 1% milk. We should know better, and exhibit better taste. For years we have been led to believe, by this industry and our own federal government, that low fat milk is better for us. Our fat phobic culture has skimmed the flavor and nutrition from the milk we drink, in a misguided effort to be healthy. I mean, what the fuck is non-dairy creamer, really? The thought of this junk made me so mad I looked up the manufacturing process and found some info here. No sir, it is not soy milk.

Now the facts. In the words of Nina Planck, author of Real Food for Mother and Baby:

Whole milk is what is called a complete food, because each ingredient plays its part. Without the fat, you can't digest the protein or absorb the calcium.

The body needs saturated fat in particular (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat can't do the job) to take in the calcium that makes bones strong. Milk fat also contains glycosphingolipids, which are fats that encourage cell metabolism and growth and fight gastrointestinal infections.

The all-important vitamins A and D are found in the fat. Historically, whole milk and butter were the best sources of these vitamins in the American diet, which had up to 10 times more of both vitamins than modern industrial diets. In skim and low-fat milk, the vitamins are removed along with the fat, so dairies add synthetic A and D. But Vitamins A and D are fat-soluble; that means they cannot be absorbed into the body unless they're taken in with fat. Thus, even fortified skim and low-fat milk are not nearly as beneficial as the real thing.

To debunk your own low fat milk myths, I encourage you to read two excellent articles about the undisputed health benefits of whole milk, as well as the virtues of its raw, farm fresh form. Nature intended it this way.

Whole Milk is Best, by Nina Planck
This article, which appeared in the New York Times, offers a factual look at the benefits of unadulterated milk, and New York City's efforts to promoted low fat milk in low income communities.

I should note that I found a link to this article on the website for Kopplin's Coffee shop in St. Paul, MN. The owner of this fine shop believes in local, organic whole milk so much he refuses to serve low fat milk in any of this coffee drinks.

Should This Milk Be Legal?
Another NYT piece, this article discusses the growing trend of drinking raw cow's milk. Oh no!

photo: jenny downing on flickr