The Gastrocast

Okay, I caved and created a little store of some stuff I thought might sell. Some one somewhere asked for the poster of Paris, so I offer it here as well.
Until I can access my template and put a perminant link, you can things out here:

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Here is this week’s show. Live from one of my cooking classes. I also talk a bit about Slow Food, the IACP and Culinary History. We cook an Oatmeal & Whiskey Custard, and make Apple & Parsnip Soup.

Photo’s can be found here.

Thanks to everyone who is listening to the show and writing in.

Recipes will be posted soon. Hopefully after the cookbook is finished later this week . . . .

Technorati Tags: cookbook, podchef, gastrocast, cooking class, culinary podcast, slow food, iacp, apple parsnip soup, oatmeal and whiskey custard

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First the French, now the Greeks. . . .Countries in the EU are desparately trying to maintain their Gastronomic Heritage in the homogeniztion of Europe.  The London Times today reports about a Yorkshire Cheesemaker who is being forced to rename their cheese by the Greek Govenment. The variety of cheese, you ask? Feta, of course.

Now, I’m not too sure how I feel about this. I am all for a maintaining cultural food identity. Parma Ham, True Parmesan Cheese, Champagne–true, craft products linked to their source by a recognizeable brand. Again: Maldon Sea Salt, Breese Chicken,  true Kobe Beef–the name locates the source of the product and should mean that the standards of the place and product maintain sacrocanct no matter where you are consuming it. But Feta? It is a style of cheese, not a location. Are we all to stop consuming domestically produced Feta, and call it a "Feta-style" cheese, or a "Greek-Style Ewe’s milk cheese"? How about Kalamata or Greek Black Olives? Certainly the best come from Greece, but if I make Tapanade from them, will that eventually break some EU French/Greek ban on food trademarking? How about Cheddar? Will Americans have to stop eating the palad domestic variety because it is miles away from the original, and much better, English variety? Perhaps so.

As long as a product, ingredient of food is clearly not from the source of origin and is labeled so, then it should be allowed. "Yorkshire Feta" is clearly not trying to pass itself off as Greek Feta. If I make a proscuitto on my farm and then sell it as such, that should be okay. As long as I don’t try to pass it off as coming from Parma, or Italy in general. It is a style of meat curing, not the product itself. True Proscuitto di Parma or San Daniele should be and need to be protected. They are a specific realization of the proscuitto style and have developed due to the specific characteristics of the place of origin. But this shouldn’t mean I can’t develop my equally interesting Proscuitto di Podchef encompassing the salty tang of the air and scents of kelp and heather right here on Podchef Island. . . .The same, most certainly, should go for cheeses.

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The Scotsman reported the other day about France’s Defence of it’s Cultural and Gastronomic Heritage by declaring Foie Gras–the over fed liver of a duck, or goose–to be a matter of National Heritage, and therefore should never be banned. Huzzah!

I say that, not so much because I love to eat Foie Gras, or that I relish every chance I can get to stuff my face with this most bourgeois article at the expense of the proletariat. No. I do enjoy eating it once and a while–when someone else is paying. . . .No, I champion the French for having the balls to stand up and fight for their identity, their culture, and for Food–that is, to keep the choice before people: do we eat it or not. People should be able to choose what to eat of their own free will. If you don’t like fatty liver–DON"T EAT IT. If you do, source out the most humane and caring producer and support them so the others dry up and get the message.

If we allow Governments to tell us what we can and cannot eat, what farmers can and cannot produce then we are homogonising society at the expense of cultural identity and individuality. Of course regulating endangered species and fisheries needs to happen, as does regulation of the production of Foie Gras–but could you imagine allowing the banning of duck hunting, or trout fishing on the theory that the trout suffered too much with the hook in its mouth? If we allow Foie Gras to be exterminated, what next? Raw Milk is already on the endangered list.
We should ban factory farming–where the animals are penned up and cannot move, where everything is mechanized. Not the small free-holder who is raising geese and duck in a regulated and interactive, humane way. If force feeding is a crime, then perhaps food advertising and McDonald’s should be banned as well, because without consciously knowing it tens of thousands of Americans force feed themselves more than they should be eating everyday.

Beyond this, the French Ruling couldn’t have come at a better time. With the threat of Avian Flu and the witch hunt’s that will ensue, the French have positioned themselves to come out of the disaster with the possability of continuing operations. In any other scenario, the flocks of geese and ducks would be "culled" at some point and with the industry–dead or dying–the death knell would be tolled by the activists, making it impossible to start up again.

Healthy animals, well treated with freedom and space should be promoted during the possible pandemic. It is the crowded, already diseased, overly medicated birds which will fall first. Stock up now on your Foie Gras and buy a few extra turkeys for the freezer this year before the panic hits and poultry is 86′d from the menu.

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Just finished listening to a great Audio Communique with much to think about.
I specifically want to take up the torch which Mark lit with his statements about the Avian Flu. I care about the Bird Flu. One way or another it will be a seminal moment in our era. Whether more people actually get sick and die, or whether domestic poultry and untold wild species are erradicated matters a lot, both to the ecology and to our diets.

I agree whole heartedly with Mark and have alluded to it here and here–Bird Flu has been caused by Mankind’s Greed.  Herbavore animals should not be eating other animals no matter what sort of economic sense it makes.  Mad Cow, Avian Flu–the biproducts of methods to improve and streamline agriculture.

Where I differ from Mark is that I don’t believe Vegetarianism needs to be the answer. In fact, it could be a step in the wrong direction. If we continue to eat meat and demand that its quality improve–if we take matters into our own hands and raise some of this meat ourselves, or support local producers–then we can correct some of the wrongs created by Giant Agribusiness Machines. But we need to do it before it’s too late. Before the Milk Is Milk Blogs and the Center for Global Food Issues (I refuse to drive traffic to them by linking) of the world have us believe that Raw Milk will lead to the fall of the Empire, that Organic Foods will kill you with rampant Bacteria, that nothing short of the Globalization of the Food Economy will save us from things like the Avian Flu. We will soon see, as flocks of Domestic Fowl are moved inside for "protection" from the Flu–it will soon become Law that Free Range Birds be banned (they could kill us all). . .this is one more foothold for those who oppose an individual’s–a consumer’s–right to choose the products they buy–to try to ban Organicly raised meats because of the threat they might pose to the health of Mankind. (More likely a threat to big Industry’s hold on mankind).

So is it better to give up eating any and all meats and embrace the big Veggie in the Sky? Check this out. Big industry would love you to embrace their GM Soy. They don’t care about the health benefits or lack there of. They have led to the severe contamination of the meat system, don’t think your veggies are so safe. . . .Search on Soy and you will find plenty of valid arguments which prove it is untested and potentially harmful if too much is consumed. Some vegetarians I know will eat 3 or 4 soy-based products a day, comsuming grossly too much for comfort, without realising it. We have been duped time and again by the Profit Mongers.

We need to be thinking about what we as individuals can do during the potential crisis. Will we wait around for our Governments to tell us to cull every bird in sight, to stay in doors, to stop eating Free Range healthy animals and only buy  safe, indoor, protected, injected, and immobilised animals? Or will we demand that our suppliers change their practices, and only support those that do–those that have a plan now, about how to foil the potential disaster? Will we let the machine of fear overwhelm us until we complaicently do what the Government tells us too, because it is the best for mankind and industry?

Sure, we may have to give up eating poultry if things get bad. We probably eat too much meat as it is. All things in moderation. But after the plauge has passed, call me up and I’ll cook you that chicken dinner, with a side order of Duck Confit you’ve been missing.

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In this second half of #30 we make Roasted Pumpkin Ravioli.

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