Rebuilding with forks

the bottle: 2006 Haystack Needle Sangiovese

the movie: Wall-E, 2008

the (local) meal: Pan seared and roasted pork chop with cranberries, red swiss chard, and caramelized, spiced carrots, vanilla bean ice cream with fresh frozen berries

There is a powerful rebuilding theme permeating the air, whether it relates to the economy, Haiti, health care, or the Massachusetts political system, so this week let us chew on the idea of restoration and reconstruction.

Our movie selection is the quaint and charming Wall-E because it effectively seeds a hopeful message in spite of what seems at times like insurmountable odds. How to rebuild the broken economic system of a first world nation? How to rebuild the entire infrastructure of a developing nation? These are tremendous challenges, but with faith in our best qualities we know we can build something better next time. (This time.)

In Wall-E, a cute, rusty, old-school robot falls in love with a mission-driven, high-tech bot amidst a post-apocalyptic wasteland that was earth 700 years ago. If for no other reason, watch this flick for the lovable chirps, warbles and peeps that anthropomorbot this entirely original film character. He is there to clean up the mess we left behind, and she is there to unearth clues to its demise. Deeper within the obvious but heartening theme of human triumph over technology is the subterranean connective tissue that makes us work—we are essentially a feeling, loving and caring organism, and this is what will save us from ourselves. No matter how downtrodden, worn-out or broken a system may be, rebuilding it with humanity and responsibility will surely lift us to new heights.

One area that could use a little (!) rebuilding is our food system. It’s hard to argue that industrialization of our food and economies of scale have made us better human beings. In fact, haven’t we lost some of our soul? (And soul food.)

Buying foods from your local area is one way to start pushing this massive meatball up the mountain of spaghetti before us. So this week, in service to the movement to “buy local,” I’ve made a meal that taps into our “foodshed” here in the Pacific Northwest. Heck, if we can succeed in this assignment in the dark depths of winter, who knows how far we might go? (Can anyone say localized integrated micro ag systems?)

To help you through the meal planning and execution this week (and beyond), I need to introduce you to a new friend: the Seasonal Ingredient Map at epicurious.com. This easy-to-use interactive map helps you see what's fresh in your area at any given time of the year, find ingredient descriptions, shopping guides, tips—and best of all, really simple, delicious recipes. (No, I’m not on epicurious’ payroll.)

Because your food options will vary depending on your geographical locale, you will have to improvise on this week’s meal. Try and find the ingredients we use here, but by all means, ad-lib away. It’s the spirit of the recipe in our kitchen, not the letter.

We designed our meal around some Berkshire pork chops that we had in the freezer, left over from our last quarter-pig purchase from Shelley and Mike Verdi of Whistling Train Farm here in Auburn, just outside Seattle. If you don’t know where to get local pork, or other meats, try asking at the nearest natural or health food store. If that fails, or there isn’t one, try the local farm bureau, chamber of commerce, or just try asking around town. If all else fails, google it.

I pan-sear and then pan-roast these tender, thick-cut chops in my cast iron skillet, and then escort them with a runny, molten cranberry-brown-sugar glaze. And the perfect seasonal partner to these moist chops is a mineral-y, delicate, red swiss chard from Full Circle Farm here in Carnation, WA., very simply prepared in shallots and butter. And to extend the sweet tang of the porky, cranberry-brown-sugar flavors, I amplify it all with caramelized, spiced sweet carrots, using glorious reddish orange tubers from Jeff Miller at Willie Green's in Monroe, Wa. The flavor contrasts and complements abound here, but shouting out is the alliance of moist and salty, with sweet and tart. The lean, buttery, earthy chard, and the sweet, crunchy, spicy carrots are perfectly suited to stand up to the robust flavors of the chops. A true finger-mopping dish with stout flavors to perk you up and make you happy in the low leaning light of January.

For dessert, we’re going to keep it simple tonight. To round out the locavore lip lust, how about vanilla bean ice cream with melting blueberries, boysenberries and raspberries? The fruit is from Remlinger Farms and is picked locally and frozen, so we use it all year. Hopefully, you can find someone in your area doing this, because it’s a treat to have fresh, local berries in winter, even if they are frozen. The ice cream, too, is our wonderful local producer named Snoqualmie. They do fantastic, creamy, rich ice creams, and they do it with delicious conscience: Snoqualmie was the first business to receive official approval from the Snohomish County Sustainable Development Task Force for their environmentally-friendly operation. So it goes down really smoothly.

Staying on the local tack, our wine is a 2006 Haystack Needle Sangiovese, made in Woodinville near Seattle with grapes grown in the Columbia Valley. (The “sangee” grape is a classic Italian grape that is used in Italy to make Chianti and other Italian wines.) This could not be a better match. We needed: a) local wine, b) a lighter wine that would not overshadow the pork, and c) a wine that complemented the big flavors in the sauce. And we got all three. This round and supple wine not only captures some strawberry, rhubarb and raspberry aromas, but best of all, carries a distinctive dried cranberry base flavor—the perfect co-worker to the pork. Add in some balancing elements like earth, stone and leather, and you have an outstanding local pour.

Obviously, this wine pairing presents a challenge to those of you who aren’t fortunate enough to live near a grape growing region, so I would suggest nosing around to see if wines are made in your region, and if so, try one. If not, try this one. It’s another incredible find under $10! And if you can’t find it, any decent pinot will do the trick.

This week, as we reflect in our tidings of heartbreak and loss from Haiti, I would encourage you to seek the solace and comfort of friends and family, share in a healthy meal and conversation around the truly important things in our lives, and to quote Max Ehrman’s well-loved 1920 poem, “…be at peace with God, whatever you conceive him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham drudgery and broken dreams; it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.”

And if you are so inclined, an incredibly powerful, effective, and highly-respected organization to send help to the Haitian crisis is Dr. Paul Farmer’s Partners in Health: http://www.standwithhaiti.org/haiti

Recipes can be found here:

Pan seared and roasted pork chop with cranberries, red swiss chard: http://bit.ly/8k8QSI

Caramelized, spiced carrots: http://bit.ly/67TCnt