Local, sustainable, delicious!

This week’s guest blogger, Melissa Graham, writes regularly about sustainability at her own blog, Little Locavores.

About five years ago, I left behind my first career as a big firm attorney to pursue a long time dream of working in the world of food. Giving up a comfortable income, I founded, with a small group of friends, Purple Asparagus, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing families back to the table by promoting and enjoying all the things associated with good eating. Our original intent was to be a kind of Slow Food for families, introducing children to the pleasures of the table through education and events. As time passed, however, our mission expanded to include advocacy and education in the schools. Over the last year, we have provided programming to thousands of parents and children at public schools, community centers, and farmers’ markets throughout Chicago and its surrounding suburbs.

Purple Asparagus’ education program is based on the simple notion that if you eat close to the ground, incorporating lots of diverse fruits and vegetables into your diet while getting the processed junk out, you’ll be well on your way towards a healthy lifestyle. At Purple Asparagus, we don’t view food as simply fuel to feed the body. Food can be, and should be, more than that. We believe that sharing food can strengthen family and community ties. I also find that teaching children about eating well can help them gain respect for the earth and for the diversity of cultures all over it.

The roots of this notion dig deep into my childhood. I inherited my love of cooking from my mom, a teacher who loved to entertain with entertaining friends. Through her and my dad, I was exposed to good food both in fine restaurants and in clam shacks. Growing up near the bounty of the Atlantic on Long Island instilled in me a respect for local and sustainable products. We clammed, caught crabs, and gathered beach plums that we transformed into jam. I loved our trips to the east end of the island returning home with bags heavy with local corn, peaches, and tomatoes. While my mother wasn’t a food snob and often used the tricks of the processed food industry, she also froze, canned, and dried the gifts of the growing season. Through food, we explored the world and connected as a family.

Having long since moved from Long Island and my parents, my husband and I continue these traditions here in the Midwest. My son, age six, is already an old hand at navigating the farmers’ markets. Our weekly, sometimes bi-weekly, visits have created so many wonderful memories, including trying his first strawberry plucked straight out of a pristine pile by the farmer, or his market play dates with the daughter of another farmer who lives in the same small Indiana town as my husband’s relatives. We too explore the world and connect as a family through food.

While we’re not perfect, we do our best to consume food that is good and clean, raised by farmers and producers whose practices replenish the earth. As a family, we also try to avoid any extremes in our diet. Our everyday eating is usually healthy, which allows us the opportunity to indulge, guilt-free, in “sometimes” foods. I’m no cupcake hater and a plate full of fries can make for a happy meal. It’s all about balance.

I was thinking of all this on Labor Day during a dinner that my family shared to mark summer’s unofficial end. My son started school the next day, moving, as he described it, into the grades (first that is) and out of the ‘gartens. To celebrate this important transition, I made a special meal of buttermilk-brined fried chicken. I paired it with the pride of summer produce: corn so sweet that buttering it would have been a sin and sliced tomatoes freshly plucked from our small urban garden. Homemade, puckery-tart, bread and butter pickles rounded out the plate. It was a meal to remember. Afterwards, we sat on our city stoop with watermelon slices, our bellies full, silently sharing our hopes for the coming school year. Reflecting on the many special occasion meals my mom prepared when I was a kid, the ones that comforted me and connected us as a family, it reminded me that a thoughtful and well-prepared meal can fill not just your stomach, but also your heart.

Because I didn’t think it appropriate to begin my blogging for Kiwi with my delicious, yet artery clogging, once-a-year indulgence, fried chicken recipe found here, I’ll instead share our everyday, heart healthy substitute. Parmesan Crusted Chicken is a delicious everyday dinner that both kids and adults love. Eat this now, so that you can indulge in that later.

Parmesan-Crusted Chicken Breasts

Serves 4

Of course, you could always buy bone-in chicken breasts for this recipe and remove the bone to use for stock. Since this is a regular dish in my after work repertoire, I often take the easy way out with pre-pounded chicken cutlets. I like to pair it with roasted, marinated, multi-colored peppers.

4 chicken cutlets or chicken breast halves, boned, skinned, and pounded between two pieces of plastic wrap or parchment

¼ cup all-purpose flour

2 large eggs

3 tablespoons water

½ cup whole wheat panko bread crumbs

½ cup grated parmesan style cheese (I use a Midwestern cheese called Sarvecchio)

2 tablespoons snipped chives, optional

Zest from half of a lemon

1 teaspoon kosher salt

5 grinds of pepper

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Place three shallow bowls side by side. Add the flour in the first, the eggs and water in the second, and the panko crumbs, parmiggiano-reggiano, chives, lemon zest, salt and pepper in the third. Mix together the water and egg in one bowl and then the bread crumbs, cheese, chives, lemon zest, salt and pepper in the other. Heat the olive oil in a non-stick sauté pan over medium high heat until hot but not smoking. Dredge the chicken first in the flour, then the egg mixture and finally the bread crumb mixture. Add each piece of meat into the pan and immediately turn the heat to medium. Sauté for approximately 4 minutes on one side, 3 minutes on the other. Serve warm with the following recipe for marinated peppers.

Mama Lena’s Roasted and Marinated Bell Peppers

Serves 4

4 bell peppers of various colors

4 garlic cloves

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

¼ teaspoon sherry vinegar

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

Grill, broil or roast the peppers over an open flame. Put the peppers into bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap until cool to the touch. Remove the skins and the seeds from the peppers. Slice into ¼-inch slices. Very thinly slice garlic cloves. Mix together the peppers, sliced garlic cloves, olive oil, vinegar and salt in a medium-size bowl and marinate for at least an hour, preferably overnight.

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