Saw a free screening of King Corn the other night at St. John's Theater. The place was packed and people were being turned away as the place reached over capacity. Curt Ellis co-writer of the film was also in attendance to speak afterwards for a panel discussion along with the Pres. of New Seasons, Guy from the Oregon Food Bank and Sauvie Island Organics as well as a local organic farmer from the Clac. The film was well done as far as documentaries and far better then the last documentary I watched. King Corn is about two friends who decide to grow an acre of corn in a small Iowa town and see where there corn ends up. They go into detail with only two products of corn; animal feed and corn syrup. I thought they could have spent some time going into Ethanol production as well but perhaps that is another documentary in the making.
Now I already new most things they brought up about corn production and animal feed when I am working in the ag industry. One thing I didn't know which was disturbing to me was that continually feeding cattle corn makes them sick that is one of the reasons why they give cattle antibiotics. In fact the feed lots have it down so precisely by the time the cow gets the fatal nail in the head they would have died anyway soon from there diet of corn. Grass fed nuf said.
In one scene they actually pull a couple ears from there field and take a bite. The look of disgust after they tasted it reminded me of the time when I was ten years old I was in Minnesota staying for a few days with my then step moms family on there family farm. There was corn everywhere and I had a hankering for an ear of corn. So one day I snuck off not wanting to be seen stealing there corn (like they would miss an ear) I remember going through these woods and on the other side there was another huge field of corn so I went in and selected an ear based on my knowledge from picking corn from our own small field (maybe ten rows) back home. I husked it back and took a bite and about gagged. I had no idea there was corn other then sweet corn we grew back home. I tried a few more ears just to be sure yup they all tasted like dried turds. I went back to the farm house confused on why they grew all this inedible stuff. They later informed me that they grew it strictly to feed there hogs. So it is pretty amazing to me when I am in Iowa or other states in the corn belt that there growing all of this corn and none of it is edible without processing or feeding it to animals.
The panel discussion after the movie was not as lively as I thought it would be but I stuck around anway to here what they had to say. If you want to check out the film PBS will be airing it on April 15th.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Loaves
I ran across the recipe my mom used to make homemade bread the other day. Instantly memories of being a child watching my mom make bread filled my head. She would use this huge no humongous green plastic bowl in which she would add the yeast, warm water, and brown sugar and let that sit for awhile to let the yeast come alive and start devouring the sugar. Next the flour (18 cups worth!) was added along with some salt and wheat germ. Then she would cut in the shortening and add more water.
Now the work started. She would flour the counter and her hands and begin working the dough kneading it for what seemed like hours. My mom did this bizarre thing where when she kneaded the dough she would lock her jaw so tight you could here her teeth creaking from the stress. After the kneading was done she would put the dough back in the bowl and cover with a towel and let the dough rise for awhile. I probably disappeared to watch Sesame Street or bust up my brothers Lego creation or something. After several repeated kneads and rises she would grease the loaf pans and form the dough into loaves and place in the pan except for one loaf which she just kept in a ball. This ball of dough is why I think I hung around to watch the process. After this ball of dough went through the final raise she would cut it into smaller balls and then roll them flat for what we called fried bread. This is basically what you get at the county fairs but they call them Elephant ears and there typically deepfried and covered in cinnamon. Anway she would poke holes in the middle of them and place 4 or 5 in a frying pan and fry them a nice golden brown. As soon as she took them out of the pan I was reaching for one I'm sure burning my hand more then once. I didn't put anything on them other then butter. These were some good eats. One time me and my brother ate too many and they made our stomach swell up from the dough rising from the inside. Don't ever do that. It hurts. Hmm I think there was an episode about that same thing on Emergency!
Her bread was fantastic and lasted the whole fam for at least a week or so. Here is the recipe in case you are interested. (the numbers in () is for tripling the recipe
(3) 1 cup warm water
(6) 2 teaspoons sugar Mix in a bowl, cover and set aside
(3) 1 pkg. Fleishmans dry yeast
(12) 4 cups whole wheat flour
(6) 2 cups white flour Measure in a large bowl, mix with hands, make well in center
(7 ½) 2 ½ teaspoons salt
handful of wheat germ
(3/4) ¼ cup shortening
(4 ½) 1 ½ cups warm water
Put in well, cut shortening with large spoon, mix slightly add yeast mixture, mix thoroughly with spoon, then grease hands and knead thoroughly.
Let rise in warm place free from drafts about 45 minutes.
Knead, let rise 30 minutes.
Knead let rise another 30 minutes
Put into loaf pans let raise 45 minutes
Bake at 375 degree oven for 40-50 minutes
Makes 2 or 3 loaves
(6-9 loaves)
I have been baking the shit out of some bread lately with on FMLA. We picked up a Cuisinart bread machine so I have been experimenting with some different recipes that was included with the machine. My fav thus far is the basic Rustic Loaf. This loaf uses the Artisan setting which does not actually bake the loaf but takes the dough on a magical trip of multiple rises and kneads for 5 1/2 hours. After the final knead the machine tells you to remove the dough by a series of annoying chimes. From there it is all manual labor of shaping it and letting it rise one more time before baking. This type of bread can be cooked in the oven but I prefer to use my gas grill with the awesome pizza stone my awesome wife got me. The stone is thicker then average to hold the heat better but also sits on an stainless steel elevated platform so the stone doesn't actually touch the rack but is a couple inches off the rack. This gives the proper air flow above so one side of the grill is cooking the top down while the side underneith the stone is cooking from the bottom. This is tricky to get the temperature adjusted just right especially with my cheap burners and temp controls but I think I finally got it dialed in.
Here is the dough after a few rises and kneads
Dough ready to be baked
Finished Product.
Now the work started. She would flour the counter and her hands and begin working the dough kneading it for what seemed like hours. My mom did this bizarre thing where when she kneaded the dough she would lock her jaw so tight you could here her teeth creaking from the stress. After the kneading was done she would put the dough back in the bowl and cover with a towel and let the dough rise for awhile. I probably disappeared to watch Sesame Street or bust up my brothers Lego creation or something. After several repeated kneads and rises she would grease the loaf pans and form the dough into loaves and place in the pan except for one loaf which she just kept in a ball. This ball of dough is why I think I hung around to watch the process. After this ball of dough went through the final raise she would cut it into smaller balls and then roll them flat for what we called fried bread. This is basically what you get at the county fairs but they call them Elephant ears and there typically deepfried and covered in cinnamon. Anway she would poke holes in the middle of them and place 4 or 5 in a frying pan and fry them a nice golden brown. As soon as she took them out of the pan I was reaching for one I'm sure burning my hand more then once. I didn't put anything on them other then butter. These were some good eats. One time me and my brother ate too many and they made our stomach swell up from the dough rising from the inside. Don't ever do that. It hurts. Hmm I think there was an episode about that same thing on Emergency!
Her bread was fantastic and lasted the whole fam for at least a week or so. Here is the recipe in case you are interested. (the numbers in () is for tripling the recipe
(3) 1 cup warm water
(6) 2 teaspoons sugar Mix in a bowl, cover and set aside
(3) 1 pkg. Fleishmans dry yeast
(12) 4 cups whole wheat flour
(6) 2 cups white flour Measure in a large bowl, mix with hands, make well in center
(7 ½) 2 ½ teaspoons salt
handful of wheat germ
(3/4) ¼ cup shortening
(4 ½) 1 ½ cups warm water
Put in well, cut shortening with large spoon, mix slightly add yeast mixture, mix thoroughly with spoon, then grease hands and knead thoroughly.
Let rise in warm place free from drafts about 45 minutes.
Knead, let rise 30 minutes.
Knead let rise another 30 minutes
Put into loaf pans let raise 45 minutes
Bake at 375 degree oven for 40-50 minutes
Makes 2 or 3 loaves
(6-9 loaves)
I have been baking the shit out of some bread lately with on FMLA. We picked up a Cuisinart bread machine so I have been experimenting with some different recipes that was included with the machine. My fav thus far is the basic Rustic Loaf. This loaf uses the Artisan setting which does not actually bake the loaf but takes the dough on a magical trip of multiple rises and kneads for 5 1/2 hours. After the final knead the machine tells you to remove the dough by a series of annoying chimes. From there it is all manual labor of shaping it and letting it rise one more time before baking. This type of bread can be cooked in the oven but I prefer to use my gas grill with the awesome pizza stone my awesome wife got me. The stone is thicker then average to hold the heat better but also sits on an stainless steel elevated platform so the stone doesn't actually touch the rack but is a couple inches off the rack. This gives the proper air flow above so one side of the grill is cooking the top down while the side underneith the stone is cooking from the bottom. This is tricky to get the temperature adjusted just right especially with my cheap burners and temp controls but I think I finally got it dialed in.
Here is the dough after a few rises and kneads
Dough ready to be baked
Finished Product.
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