Sustainable Eggs

When I think of seductive foods, some of the things that come to mind are Pasta Carbonara, a gorgeous Caesar Salad, blanched asparagus spears and toast points dipped into a barely soft-boiled egg, or a small guilty pleasure like sneaking a spoonful of raw cookie dough.  When I think of these foods, I think of the luxurious feeling on my tongue, the delicious saltiness playing against the rich creaminess, the deep satisfaction of the complex relationship of the act of eating, tasting, smelling, and yet providing for basic physical nutritional needs.  What I usually don’t think of is the potential for illness with the possibility of hospitalization or even death.  However, all of the foods just mentioned have a common ingredient that could lead to such an outcome:  undercooked or raw eggs.  

Most cooks are very careful when handling raw chicken, being aware of potential salmonella contamination.  They typically cook the chicken to 160 F – the USDA’s recommendation to kill the salmonella bacteria – wash their hands, surfaces and utensils carefully after handling raw chicken, and keep everything separate.  Some cooks are even cautious of eggs.  However, most cooks are not likely aware that the USDA also recommends that eggs be cooked to 160 degrees.  This would essentially preclude not only the above-mentioned foods, but also most breakfast egg dishes, Hollandaise sauce, homemade mayonnaise, and even many eggnog or ice cream recipes which call for little to no cooking of the eggs.

While this may seem like heartbreaking news to many food lovers, there are several ways to accommodate many of these classic dishes while minimizing the health risks associated with salmonella contamination.  One of these ways is in the selection of the eggs you purchase.  Current industrial farming practices are geared towards maximizing output while economizing on inputs.  Inputs in egg farming include, amongst other things, feed and space.  As a result, the egg-laying hens are often housed in extremely cramped enclosed quarters involving small, stacked cages with very little exposure to sun and low-cost grain to feed them.  These conditions work toward creating an environment that is conducive to sickness, virus and bacteria that are spread easily.  While the regulated industrial farms take steps to lessen the spread of disease through regimens of antibiotics and other additives, some farmers take a different approach through more sustainable farming practices.

Sustainable egg and chicken farms are rising in popularity.  Most of these farms have gotten rid of the compartmentalized cages and give the chickens more room to roam, sunshine, fresh air, and a more varied diet, including grasses, bugs, supplemented by organically grown grain.  The outcome of these free-range, organic practices is healthier chickens that are exposed to less disease and producing far superior eggs.  Further, sustainably raised eggs are richer in nutritional values such as folic acid, vitamins B6 and B12, calcium, zinc, sulfur, magnesium, carotenoids, and choline, to name a few.  Additionally, these eggs have a richer flavor with a firmer structure that makes for a far different experience with even the most delicate dish.

While purchasing sustainable eggs is not an absolute guarantee of preventing food borne illnesses, it goes a long way towards healthier and tastier menu.  Moreover, you can further reduce risk of contaminated eggs by washing the outer shell off first before cracking them open, since that is where most of the salmonella bacteria live on eggs.  So, find your local organic free range chicken farm and eat that creamy Caesar salad, have your velvety Eggs Benedict and enjoy a luscious Pasta Carbonara.

Date Night Pasta Carbonara

Carbonara is a great date night food – particularly when trying to make an early… *impression*.  It’s silky, rich, opulent, sensuous, and satiating.  I made this early on for my husband while we were dating; I’m pretty sure it was what sealed the deal for us.  My husband has been cooking professionally in restaurants for more than 20 years, so I knew I couldn’t just slap together any old pasta dish on a plate and bat my eyelashes (although this had worked on dates in times past).  I need something downright luxurious.  So, carbonara seemed to be a really good option for my Midwestern, pork-loving guy.  It has bacon – an aphrodisiac in and of itself.  Then add the egg, cheese and some fresh black pepper and you have a little piece of heaven on your plate.  Carbonara is a really classic dish and it seems like almost everyone has their own way.  I have tried a thousand different recipes, and had pretty well settled on Nigella Lawson’s recipe, that incorporates dry vermouth (or white wine) that is cooked down with rendered pancetta.  It adds an extra depth to the dish. My version uses bacon ends cut into pieces (that I talked about in my Lentils and Rice post), which works just as well.

I made the dish during one of my first, ahem, “weekend” dates with my husband.  He loved it.  Since it fared really well, I have added this into our dinner rotation every few months for a nice date night dinner.  However, being from the Midwest, my husband finally confessed that the carbonara seemed incomplete without peas.  As a California girl, I had never heard of such a thing.  Peas in carbonara?!?!?!  Apparently this is a very essential Midwest regional addition that I was unaware of.  But, to appease my husband’s tastes for comfort food, I have since added peas to my recipe, as well some fresh parsley.  This has strayed from the simplicity of Nigella’s original recipe, but it is still a luxurious and sensuous date night dish.

The eggs in this recipe are cooked through residual heat of the pasta, so use good eggs.

Carbonara with Peas

• 1 lb spaghetti
• 1/2 pound bacon
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (or vermouth)
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (freshly grated)
• black pepper
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2/3 cup frozen peas
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
• freshly grated nutmeg

Directions

• Fill a large pan with salted water and bring to a boil. 
• Cut the bacon into ½ inch cubes.  Coat a large pan that will fit the pasta later with oil and heat over medium low heat until the oil starts to shimmer.  Cook the bacon in the oil until crispy but not crunchy.  Add the white wine or vermouth and reduce by almost half until the wine bacon mixture is syrupy. Take the pan off the heat.
• In a bowl, beat together the eggs, Parmesan, cream and some pepper. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package, but start to check it 2 minutes before the indicated cooking time and drain when al dente, reserving about 1 cup of the pasta water before draining. Put the pan with the bacon back on the heat and add the drained pasta, tossing well to coat. Add a little of the reserved pasta water to lubricate if necessary.
• Remove the pan from the heat again and add the eggs and cheese mixture, quickly tossing everything to mix.  Add the peas and grind more pepper to taste.  Toss and cover pan with a lid and let sauce thicken and peas warm through with the residual heat from the pasta.
• Add parsley and grate fresh nutmeg over the pasta just before serving. 

Blog Reboot!

When I first conceived of this blog, I was a single woman who had just finished a Master’s in Sustainable Business, and very involved in various food-related organizations.  I also liked to cook.  I wanted to share how I cooked sustainably for myself as a party of one, and friends and family. 

Then life got busy.

I embarked on several branches of my career path – consulting, teaching, and writing educational programs.  I dated.  I started dating one person in particular.  I got married, had a child, and continued to work.  And cook.  (How do you think I got married?!)  So, what was once the Sustainable Food and the single girl morphed as life happened. 

Now I’m back.  I’m still cooking and fully committed to sustainability, but I had to refocus on what the term “sustainability” meant to me – and my family.  “Personal sustainability” took on a whole new meaning as I started to experience things like career ups and downs.  Moments of prosperity, and moments of austerity.  But one thing has been a focus – I love to eat.  And often I need to eat and cook within a budget; and the tighter the budget, the more planning I found I needed to do.  This will be the lens that this blog will start to take on – sustainable food planning on a budget.

I also am dismayed that it took SIX years to pick this blog back up.  I am recommitting to myself and to this blog to produce content.  My plan is once a week.  I figure if I state this commitment publicly on the internet, I am more likely to follow through.  So, I will focus on trying to update somewhere around Mondays.  (Maybe Sundays, maybe Tuesdays, but early in the week.)

Okay, so, with that, here we go!

Introductory Post

Few things that have shaped the many days of my life as love (or the pursuit thereof) and, importantly, FOOD. Food has gotten me through some very difficult and some very wonderful times. Food has been shared with family and friends and has just been enjoyed alone. Food has been sensual, nourishing, comforting, energizing, soothing, fueling, and always the perfect accompaniment to life. I cook often. I cook for those I love and to show my love. I cook when I know what to do and when I don't know what else to do. I cook for others and I cook for myself.

I know what you're saying: "ANOTHER food blog? How many of these can really populate the internet?!!" Well, sorta. As a woman in my *cough* 30's, I have led an adventurous life - frequently with a mate, mostly with friends, but always with myself. And during some recent conversations with some very good friends, we all agreed that pretty much every scenario in life has a wardrobe, a soundtrack and a menu. This blog while at times explore all three, will focus always explore the menu that goes along with my life. The layout will be in three sections. The first - a story in the life of, well - ME. The second will be why the menu fit, and the third will be how the foods in the menu are sustainable. The menu will either focus on dining out experiences, or have accompanying recipes. Either way, food will be my main lense.

Oh yes - and let's not forget the sustainability part. My passion is food. But it also focuses on how the food is cultivated and ends up on my plate. Fresh, organic, local, fair, nutritious - the way the earth intended for us to eat. Sustainable and conscious eating doesn't mean inaccessible or un-affordable. Quite the opposite. Conscious choices around eating means healthier community, healthier economy, healthier planet, and healthier you. Explaining some of the factors that go into my food choices to a friend one night, he said "don't you ever just eat for the taste?" Um, hello - are you new here? Have you just met me? (I was actually surprised since this friend has known me for well over a decade and been to many of my dinner parties.) I explained that conscious eating was less a sacrifice as much as it was more of a reward.

So, bear with me, relax and have fun.