Oxford Word of the Year is Locavore

Oxford University Press: Word of the Year
November 12, 2007

All right, you didn't hear it here first, because Oxford University Press has its own blog ... the OUP Word of the Year for 2007 is....

Locavore !

"The past year saw the popularization of a trend in using locally grown ingredients, taking advantage of seasonally available foodstuffs that can be bought and prepared without the need for extra preservatives.

The "locavore" movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers' markets or even to grow or pick their own food, arguing that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better. Locavores also shun supermarket offerings as an environmentally friendly measure, since shipping food over long distances often requires more fuel for transportation.

"The word 'locavore' shows how food-lovers can enjoy what they eat while still appreciating the impact they have on the environment," said Ben Zimmer, editor for American dictionaries at Oxford University Press. "It's significant in that it brings together eating and ecology in a new way."

"Locavore" was coined two years ago by a group of four women in San Francisco who proposed that local residents should try to eat only food grown or produced within a 100-mile radius. Other regional movements have emerged since then, though some groups refer to themselves as "localvores" rather than "locavores." However it's spelled, it's a word to watch."

Recipes for Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are a ho-hum vegetable most of the time; dry, boring, and needing a ton of sugar to add flavor. However, the sweet potatoes our farmers have been bringing are just bursting with flavor – they are fresh, juicy, healthy and tasty. Here are a few easy ways to prepare them that are sure to please. The first recipe is for mashed sweet potatoes with pears, and I’ve included it because it’s a great reminder that we can mash most root vegetables with a variety of other vegetables and fruits with delicious results. Use the recipe as a starting point to experiment with mashing sweet potatoes with everything from cauliflower and romanesco to apples and pears….

Mashed Sweet Potatoes and Pears

Ingredients
5 pounds red-skinned sweet potatoes (yams)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
4 large firm but ripe Bartlett pears, peeled, cored, cut into 1/3 inch-thick slices
3/4 cup (or more) pear nectar or cider
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon (generous) ground cardamom

Preparation
Preheat oven to 400°F. Butter 13 x 9 x 2 - inch glass baking dish. Pierce potatoes in several places with fork. Place on baking sheet; bake until very tender when pierced with knife, about 1 hour. Remove from oven. Reduce temperature to 350°F.
Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pears; sauté until beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Add 3/4 cup nectar; bring to simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer until pears are very tender, adding more nectar if mixture sticks to skillet and stirring often, about 4 minutes. Transfer to processor and puree.

Peel sweet potatoes; place in large bowl of electric mixer. Add 4 tablespoons butter; beat until smooth. Mix in pear puree, sugar, cinnamon and cardamom. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to prepared dish (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)

Bake potatoes uncovered until just heated through, about 20 minutes (Bon Appétit, November 1994; serves 8). Epicurious.com © CondéNet, Inc. All rights reserved.

Oven Baked Sweet Potato Chips

Ingredients
1 large sweet potato

Salt and pepper and other spices to mix with the salt and pepper (see below)

Heat oven to 200°F with two racks and line two baking pans with parchment paper. Slice potato crosswise, as thin as possible. Arrange the slices on the prepared sheets, and keep them from touching as much as possible. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper or another spice mix. Cook for 50 minutes; slices will dehydrate and shrink - turn chips over, and rotate baking sheets if needed for even cooking. Cook until slices are crisped and fluted around the edges and the centers are still orange, not brown, 30 to 40 more minutes. Transfer to cooling racks, and cool chips on baking sheets. (Chips will be soft when removed from oven and will crisp as they cool.) You can store the chips in an airtight container, at room temperature, for up to 3 days. (From RecipeZaar: http://www.recipezaar.com/77009)

Additional spices: a great way to augment the flavor of sweet potato chips is with lime and salt (kinda like a non-alcoholic and healthy margarita!). Grate the zest from a lime and mix with a good quality sea salt or kosher salt. Sprinkle on the chips before you bake them. You might also want to try other spices such as cumin, cinnamon, thyme, oregano, etc. Use your imagination!

Recipes for Kohlrabi

You may have noticed the exotic looking vegetables available now from North Star Orchards, the kohlrabi. They are available in green and purple and are sold with the leaves (which can be cooked as a green) and resemble a somewhat flattened baseball. They are a root vegetable of real versatility, and here are two recipes that use kohlrabi and other fall vegetables and fruits available at the Farmers Market. These recipes come from Epicurious.com and were originally published in Gourmet Magazine.

Roasted Kohlrabi and Butternut Squash
Ingredients
4 medium kohlrabi (2 1/4 lb with greens or 1 3/4 lb without)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 1/2 lb butternut squash
Special equipment: a 17- by 12- by 1-inch shallow heavy baking pan
Preparation
Put oven rack just below middle position and put baking pan on rack, then preheat oven to 450°F. (If roasting vegetables along with turkey, preheat pan for 15 minutes while turkey roasts, then roast vegetables underneath turkey.)

Trim and peel kohlrabi, then cut into 3/4-inch pieces. Toss kohlrabi with 1 tablespoon oil, 1 teaspoon thyme, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 3/4 teaspoon pepper in a bowl. Transfer kohlrabi to preheated pan in oven and roast 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, peel butternut squash, then quarter lengthwise, seed, and cut into 3/4-inch pieces. Toss squash with remaining 1 tablespoon oil, 1 teaspoon thyme, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 3/4 teaspoon pepper in same bowl.

Stir kohlrabi, turning it, then push it to one side of pan.

Add squash to opposite side of pan and roast, stirring and turning squash over halfway through roasting, until vegetables are tender and lightly browned, about 30 minutes total (after squash is added).

Toss vegetables to combine and transfer to a dish.

Cooks' note: Kohlrabi and butternut squash can be cut 1 day ahead and chilled in separate sealed plastic bags. Epicurious.com © CondéNet, Inc. Gourmet, November 2006.

Kohlrabi and Apple Salad with Creamy Mustard Dressing
Gourmet | October 1992 Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. Serves 8.
Ingredients
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon coarse-grained mustard
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 bunches kohlrabi (about 2 pounds), bulbs peeled and cut into julienne strips, stems discarded, and the leaves reserved for another use
1 Granny Smith apple
Preparation
In a bowl whisk the cream until it holds soft peaks and whisk in the lemon juice, the mustard, the parsley, the sugar, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the kohlrabi strips and the apple, peeled, cored, and diced, and combine the salad well.
Epicurious.com © CondéNet, Inc. Gourmet, October 1992. All rights reserved.