Food
for Thought:
The
Slow Food Orange County Newsletter
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Welcome to the August Issue of "Food for
Thought"
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General
Membership Meeting and Potluck:
Caring for City
Chickens
When: Saturday, September 12th at 4 p.m.
Where: City of
Orange
Join Slow Food
Orange County Chair Heather (Stoltzfus) Westenhofer at her home in
Orange to learn the ins and outs of urban chicken keeping. If
you've been thinking about keeping chickens in the city, come meet
Chickadee, Kerfufle, and Drumstick and have your questions
answered. This potluck will also kick off the 2010-2011 calendar
year and you will not want to miss this opportunity to hear what's
in store for the coming months and give your input to help shape
the future of Slow Food Orange County. Please bring a dish to share
(labels on all dishes are great, too) and don't forget to bring a
copy of the recipe for the forthcoming Slow Food Orange County
Cookbook.
Please RSVP to
Ms. Wayan Kaufman. The address of the potluck
will be emailed to you when you RSVP. This event will be limited to 50
people.
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Simultaneous
Suppers Coming Up
When: Saturday, October
16th
Where: Slow Food Member Homes
throughout Orange County Cost: $65 per person, benefiting The
Grain Project
The third annual Simultaneous Suppers is here! It will be held at
four different Slow Food members' homes throughout Orange County.
Each plan to host a fabulous multi-course meal made from
locally-sourced and seasonal ingredients. Each dinner will be an
intimate gathering of like-minded people enjoying food and wine
together.
The cost is $65 per person and proceeds will benefit The
Grain Project (www.grainproject.org/), a non-profit
organization that promotes unified, healthy, sustainable
communities through farmers' markets, community gardens, and public
art. Menus and ticket purchase information will be arriving soon in
a separate eblast. If you would like to volunteer to help one of
the hosts cook, serve or clean or have any other inquiries please
e-mail
us.
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 National
Service Day of Action: Dig In!
Volunteers
needed!
When:
Saturday, September 25th, 9:30am-1pm
Where: Jerome CommUnity Garden, 2115 W McFadden Ave, Santa Ana, CA
92704
On
September 25th, thousands of people across the country are
connecting to where their food comes from at Dig In events. Dig In
events celebrate everyday people who are creating a world where
everyone can eat food that is good for them, good for the people
who grew it, and good for the planet. Slow Food USA seeks to
have 10,000+ people join this day of action, so let's join
in!
For this year's
National Service Day, we are going to give our time and effort to
The Grain Project based in Santa Ana. The "eden-like" environment
in which Grain runs their garden and produce distribution center is
truly a sight to behold. Their goal is to provide healthy food
choices to a community challenged by obesity, diabetes and poverty.
Incidentally, the beds in the garden have been raised high enough
to ensure wheelchair accessibility for physically challenged
gardeners. In addition to their twice-weekly food distribution,
they hold an Urban Gardening Workshop every 8 weeks or so. When
they lost their Farmer's Market because of never-ending struggles
for funding, the city got together and found them a garden. Now,
they need our support to help them take the garden forward by
creating for example, a satellite garden at the other end of Jerome
Park, complete with community cooking facility (where they can
generate revenue) and ultimately to hosting another Farmer's Market
in downtown Santa Ana.
There are 2 main goals at present: raising capital to continue on
as their funding ends at the end of September 2010, and raising the
$60,000 they need to re-open the Farmer's Market in Santa Ana. We
can help! Outreach Committee Chair Claudia Chapel will lead us as
we help them build a large raised and terraced bed in the existing
garden, followed by a lunch that we will prepare and share at the
end of the work session. Also, Claudia suggests we also help with
simple things like recipes on how to prepare some of the food they
are growing.
For questions and to RSVP, please e-mail Claudia Chapel. 15 total volunteers are
needed to build garden bed
and prepare the meal (and to help distribute food).
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Slow
Foodies win big at OC Fair!
  
The 2010 Orange County Fair celebrates another year of fun,
frivolity and FOOD. Among the fried butter and chocolate-covered
bacon, the OC foodie community came together to enter some
seriously delicious eats into this year's Culinary Arts
Competition. And naturally, Slow Food OC brought home some 1st, 2nd
and 3rd place awards. We are proud of all "Slow" participants in
this year's OC Fair culinary competition:
Claudia Chapel - Steak sauce and
worcestershire sauce (1st place winner!)
Patrick Jeannette - Sourdough and
brown bread (1st place winner!)
Heather Westenhofer - Jalepeno
jelly and canned peaches (2nd and 3rd place winner!)
Sharon McErlane - Apricot
jam
Joanna Fee - Chocolate orange
scones
As a special bonus,
Patrick Jeanette offers us his award-winning sourdough bread
recipe! Thank you Patrick for sharing!
 Sourdough loaf recipe by Patrick
Jeanette
Patrick's breads were made from a starter that he brought down from
Alaska some 24 years ago. It was given to him in 1986, and at that
time had been maintained for 105 years! The starter originated in
the Gold Fields of Ketchikan, Alaska.
Note: This recipe is for the
bread, not the starter, for anyone seriously interested, please let
us know via e-mail and Patrick will give you some of his
starter. To maintain starter- feed it once a day, equal parts of
starter, and filtered water.
To make a batch of bread, you'll need 3 lbs., 3 ounces King Arthur
All Purpose flour, 12 ounces starter, 1 lb. 7 oz. water, and 22
grams sea-salt.
Mix flour, water, starter and salt. Knead it all together and fold
it three times in the first hour. Let it continue to bulk ferment
for 2 more hours, then divide and shape and let rest for 20
minutes. At this point, let it rise at room temp for a hour and a
half. Retard (rest covered with a lightly-floured linen towel) at a
temperature of 46 degrees for 14 hours. Cover again with plastic or
put it in a plastic sack to keep the crust from drying
out.
The next day, you'll pre-heat your oven to 500 degrees with a 3/4
to 1 inch ceramic or firing kiln shelf. After an hour of
pre-heating, steam the oven* and just before quickly loading in the
bread, slash the top of the dough. Drop the temperature to 440
degrees and after 4 minutes in, steam the oven again. Continue to
bake for 40 minutes until the bread takes on a golden brown color.
Remove from oven and enjoy!
*How to steam an oven: either throw a half-cup water on the bottom
of the oven (first place a metal cake pan on the bottom to catch
the water) or a full cup of cubed ice. The bread wants to enter a
steamed environment to assist the final rise. *CAUTION* when you
re-open the door, step back to avoid steam burn. Also, be cautious
of any oven lights-cold water or even warm or hot water will
fracture any lights or lenses. Do not drop on the oven door glass
that is 500 degrees-you will end up replacing it at a hefty
replacement cost.
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Summer
Potluck in Laguna Beach
 Nearly 50 Slow Food
Orange County members and their guests gathered at the beautiful
home of Linda Lewis Elbert in Laguna Beach on July 18th to feast on
colorful summer salads, mouth-watering desserts made with ripe
summer fruit, and handmade pastas and breads. The array of dishes
was impressive and we would like to send a BIG thank you to
everyone who participated.
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Become a
Member
We
invite you to join the Slow Food movement! Slow Food OC is working
hard to preserve and protect local foods and food traditions. Our
convivium plans events and programs in places across Orange
County-anywhere from community gardens, taste education dinners,
and farm tours-join the network and become active in planning and
participating in these diverse initiatives.
Click here for
Benefits of Membership. Send us
an email if you have any
questions.
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