Miami Food Blog

image via yanealhoo's flickr

So you say you've gone green, but how committed are you to the cause? You wear organic flip-flops with your organic socks, don't use air conditioning, sleep in a tent in your neighbor's backyard, surf the web on a solar-powered computer and only bathe in organic water. Good start, but what about cooking, you traitor, we saw you zapping that burrito in a kwik-e-mart microwave.

Assuming you find the raw food lifestyle far too radical, you can take the slow food movement to a whole new plane with solar cooking.

Sure it rains almost everyday in Miami in the summer. Don't let that stop you. Summer hasn't even started yet. Thinking memorial day BBQ? Fuhgeddaboutit. Nothin'll make you appreciate a hot dog more than waiting a half hour for it to cook in an oven you made yourself out of a used pizza box and tin foil.

So grab your scissors, holler at a roll of Reynolds Wrap and get started. The sun shines brighter in Miami, but our population is wasting it on frivolities like sports, the beach, and shooting Burn Notice. A majority of "solar cooking miami" search term combinations on google return entries about Miami Country Day School, which start their students experimenting with solar cuisine at age 4. Don't be out solared by a 4 year old. Click here for solar oven plans.

image via paulandyoungron.com

funny in the morning

image via suavehouse113's flickr

A candy bar gives the impression of existing solely in its fully formed product state, hitting air for the first time when you unwrap it from its plastic home, but it's easy to forget that all food is either grown or fed right from this here Earth, not manufactured.

You can even grow things to eat yourself and use the waste from what you consume to do so more efficiently.

This month the Biscayne Times, owned and operated by former New Times editor Jim Mullin, features an article by Jeff Shimonski, a certified arborist and director of horticulture at Jungle Island, on home composting techniques.

Shimonski uses vermiculture, compost via earthworm, at his own home's vegetable garden. Shimonski writes "I purchased a small vermicomposter and a couple of pounds of earthworms online and got started." Sounds easy right? Vermiculture produces high quality compost from organic materials, even paper and cardboard, though it is unsafe to give your worms "meat and milk products, because of bacterial issues."

The food you throw can help you with the food you grow and those credit card bills can help you make something instead of lose it.

Read Shimonski's article at the Biscayne Times website or visit his website at TropicalDesigns.com

Fighting the good fight, one mug at a time

Run clean out of political causes to get fired up about, since the election of Barack Obama? Here's a burning issue that ought to scare the bejeesus out of us all: The plight of struggling US independent beer brewers. Tickets are on sale now for the one-night-only engagement of Beer Wars Live, Anat Baron's foam-spewing documentary, which follows the stories of small brewers, like the makers of Dogfish Head and New Century Brewing, as they take on the corporate giants ruling the beer industry. The screening on April 16th, at AMC and Cobb Theaters, will be followed by live video conferencing hosted by Ben Stein and a special panel discussion featuring Sam Calaglione of Dogfish Head, Rhonda Kallman of New Century, Greg Koch of Stone Brewery, beer historian Maureen Ogle, and beer activist Todd Alstrom (now doesn't that sound like your dream job?)

Go here to find your closest theater and buy advance tickets.

It was an afternoon filled with beer, beer, and more beer as Lake Worth's BX Beer Depot hosted its first Homebrew Fest, an intimate gathering where members of BX's Lagerhead Brewers Club shared their handcrafted creations with the public. There were nearly a dozen homebrew beers on tap at the tiled-topped bar behind the Depot -- from Belgian Wit to Imperial IPA to Hard Cider -- plus a booth where you could sign up for BX's homebrew classes, email lists, and club dates. And there was good company -- folks who care deeply about what goes into your pint glass and are willing to talk about all facets of the frothy stuff for hours on end. Basically, it was Beer Valhalla.

So how were the beers? Find out, plus get info on upcoming BX events, after the jump.

John Linn

This filet's seen better days.

I fancy myself an intrepid cook, one who strives to try out new ingredients and push my own boundaries on a regular basis. Every so often, I'll pick some dish I've never made before -- flour tortillas, berry sabayon, cote du boeuf -- and I'll set out to do it with a confidence in my abilities that perhaps borders on hubris. Well, a couple of weeks ago, hubris struck an awful blow as I managed to turn three whole, fresh Florida pompano into cat food. Before you ask: No, I was not making cat food.

Actually, I was making pan-seared pompano fillets with mango beurre blanc. Unfortunately, most of my $40 worth of fish never made it to that stage. We don't need to dwell too much on the how or the why; let's just say I had neither the tools nor the abilities to properly fillet the thin little buggers. I grew pretty frustrated, and I may have destroyed a couple of kitchen utensils in the process. But really, all was not lost. I decided to roast one of them whole, and it came out OK, and a couple of my fillets turned out decently enough. Still, I ended up with a whole load of mangled pompano that I couldn't bear to just throw away.

So I ended up roasting said pompano shreds, then pulsing them in the FP with some spices and folding in some whipping cream. And just like that: pompano mousse. I then sliced up some French bread, brushed with olive oil, and popped it the toaster for some cheap crostini. Top those with the mousse, a bit of that mango beurre blanc that wasn't going anywhere, some capers, slices of grape tomato, and a little olive oil, and voila: Dinner was saved.

John Linn

 It wasn't the finest thing I've ever made, but it did the trick. And it also proved a point -- sometimes your game plan just doesn't work out when you're cooking things you've never tried before. So you've got to adapt.

Anyone else had a cooking experience go catastrophic? How'd you recover?

Many of you probably spent a romantic Valentine's Evening at a fine restaurant, supping on foie gras and fine wine. And that's all good. But here's an alternate view of Valentine's Day - a less expensive option for leaner times. This simple meal of salad, cheeses, good olives, fresh bread, and wine involves almost zero cooking, very minimal prep time, and the flavors you get will rival the best of restaurants. It's what I did on Saturday evening, and it's a plan that by no means expires after February 14th. You could recreate this entire sensual experience -- for under $25 I might add -- any night of the year. Just add loved one.

Click any picture for a larger, more erotic version.

John Linn

Humboldt Fog goat cheese from Cypress Grove Chevre.