"Climate silence" in the 2012 Presidential Election

The Presidential election is a week from tomorrow, and I'm writing this from my house in DC with Hurricane Sandy advancing outside my window. A hurricane that is probably partially caused by the one-degree increase in sea temperatures since the 1970s. So it seemed like the perfect time to ponder something that has confounded me about the campaigns of both Romney and Obama, particularly during the debates: the lack of discussion of climate change as a problem the US needs to address.

source: http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-hurricane-sandy-washington-20121029,0,3333190.story

Watching the second Presidential debate, I was thrown by the part of the debate devoted to energy. While I recognize that during an election climate change might not be enough of a hot-button issue that a candidate is about to include it as a major campaign issue, I had assumed that, in 2012, climate change was enough of a known global issue among voters that it would be awkward and backwards-seeming to not even acknowledge it in a conversation about energy. Instead, both Obama and Romney promised to enhance US oil and coal production. Which, seen through the lens of climate change policy, is a very confusing goal.

Some questions:

Is climate change usually discussed in Presidential debates? Interestingly, the "climate silence" of this election is somewhat of a departure from the recent past, as this is the first time since 1988 that climate change has not been mentioned in the series of Presidential debates. During the 1988 Presidential debates, the candidates were asked about climate change for the first time, following a famous Congressional testimony on climate change by James Hansen.

Why aren't Romney or Obama discussing it more? While Obama does mention climate change in public statements and speeches, both candidates failed to mention in any of the three debates. For one, candidates probably don't feel that they should give a lot of airtime to the issue because the economy is the issue that polls as the first priority to voters. Even when questioned about energy directly in the debates, Romney and Obama both seem to want to ensure that they will protect coal-related jobs and keep the cost of gas down during a recession. As has been documented in several news articles, neither candidate is willing to acknowledge the negative side effects of fossil fuel use when such a sentiment could suggest loss of jobs or rising household costs.

There is something surreal, though, about living in the era of climate change, and hearing candidates try and one up each other to be more of "friend to coal." As Will Oremus reported in Slate, during the debate, "when Romney accused Obama of not being 'Mr. Oil or Mr. Gas or Mr. Coal,' the president defended his record of opening public lands for oil drilling and fired back that Romney was no great friend of coal either."

While I don't want to diminish the economic concerns of those whose employment is based on fossil fuel production, or those for whom an increase in gas prices would present a major obstacle, left unaddressed climate change will likely have very significant economic consequences, especially for the poor. As the United Nations Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded regarding the impact of climate change, "It is the poorest of the poor in the world, and this includes poor people even in prosperous societies, who are going to be the worst hit."

Chorizo, egg and rosemary breakfast risotto

The weather has been autumnal here in DC, and as I was thinking about the weekend at the end of this week, I started to crave a really hearty brunch. After coming across a couple of recipes for savory breakfast risottos, as indulgent as that sounds (and is...), I couldn't resist. Colder weather + breakfast ingredients + risotto makes tons of sense to me.

I wound up combining two different breakfast risotto recipes, particularly because I wanted to make one that had a more autumnal flavoring, which to me means herbs like rosemary and sage.

The resulting flavor is interesting, because it's a bit like eating porridge, and a bit like eating a favorite comfort food, with the rosemary, roasted tomatoes and chorizo. I also love the addition of the egg on top - although it doesn't take away from the richness of the dish, the egg is such a different texture, and has such a bland (in a good way) flavor, that I think it makes it a lot more interesting. While it's rich, it's great for when you feel like something substantive for breakfast; it made a great post-run brunch this weekend.

 

 

This is also not the quickest of recipes. So make it on a weekend when you have some extra time, and want to dig into a cooking project. The reward is that it makes a pretty big batch, so you should have leftovers.

(Try to ignore the imperfect job I did on this sunny-side-up egg... which turned out to more of just a fried and slightly scrambled egg.)

Chorizo, egg and rosemary breakfast risotto

Adapted from the Smitten Kitchen and Jamie Oliver recipes

Serves: Approx. six

6 cups low-sodium chicken stock or vegetable broth
3-4 links of chorizo sausage
3-4 tablespoon olive oil
2 large or 3 smaller leeks, quartered lengthwise, cleaned of grit, and chopped small
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
2 cups arborio rice
1/3 cup dry white wine or vermouth
6 small Roma tomatoes or other small tomatoes
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 cup finely grated fresh Parmesan cheese, plus extra for garnish if desired
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
approx. 6 large eggs; one per serving

1. First, start the tomatoes roasting. Heat the oven to 350 F, wash the tomatoes, cut then in half, and place skin up in a roasting dish. Coat with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Throw in a spring of rosemary and cook for about 30-35 minutes. After tomatoes are finished, set aside to cool and then cut into chunks, discarding rosemary.
2. Place stock or broth in a small-medium saucepan over very low heat on a back burner and keep it heated until steaming, but not so hot that it simmers.
3. Heat a second medium saucepan (3 quarts) or skillet over medium heat. Add chorizo, leeks, and rosemary, and cook for 10-12 minutes. Leeks should be softened and mostly tender. Next remove all from pan and set aside, but leave pan with sausage flavoring. Transfer to bowl with bacon and set aside, leaving stove on.
4. Add olive oil to pan and cook onions until translucent and tender, about 5 minutes. Add rice and cook sauté until faintly toasted, about 4 minutes. Add wine or vermouth and cook until it almost disappears, about 2 minutes. Ladle 1 cup of hot broth into the rice mixture and simmer until it absorbs, stirring frequently. Add remaining broth 1/2 cup at a time, allowing broth to be absorbed before adding more and stirring frequently until rice is al dente, about 25 to 30 minutes.
5. From smitten kitchen regarding the risotto's consistency: "What you’re looking for in well-cooked risotto is a creamy but loose dish. When ladled onto a plate, it should spill into a creamy puddle, not heap in a mound. You might need an extra splash of broth to loosen it."
6. When risotto is the desired consistency, add the cheese and chorizo, leeks and rosemary mix, and then add the chopped roasted tomatoes.
7. Then, quickly, in a small skillet, heat a olive oil over medium-high and swirl it to coat the pan. Crack one egg into the skillet, season with salt and pepper and reduce heat to medium. Cook egg sunny side up. Cook one egg per serving of risotto.
8. To serve, garnish each serving of risotto with a bit of Parmesan cheese, and lay the egg on top.

Debate over Corn for Ethanol versus Food

 photo source: http://www.earthyreport.com/site/midwest-drought-worsens/

Summer is going so quickly and I can't believe that it's already almost mid August! I'm getting ready to go to Minnesota for my summer vacation at the end of this week, and but I wanted to do a quick post about an interesting article I just read on ethanol policy in the US, a topic that is especially relevant given what is going on in the Midwest this summer: massive droughts that are destroying corn (and soybean) crops.

The authors of this article in the New York Times argue that ethanol-supporting energy policies in the US are making the effects of the drought worse in terms of food prices and hunger, even outside of the US.

This is a complicated issue, since promotion of ethanol production has some attractive environmental rationals, mainly that they potentially lessen the US's dependence on gasoline and that ethanol is more environmentally friendly and lowers carbon dioxide emissions. This article, though, argues that ethanol from corn is not worth this diverting of corn from food, since corn yields less energy than other sources of biofuels, and also leads to fuel with less energy than gasoline.

The authors suggest that the ethanol standards (which require a certain level of renewable fuel production) are exacerbating the effects of the droughts. Corn prices would have likely already increased due to a smaller corn crop in the US due to the drought, but with a high percentage of that already small crop of corn going to ethanol production due to the ethanol regulations, there will be even less corn for food.

A detail I was surprised about were the statistics on where corn produced in the US ends up - according to the article, only around 15 percent of the US corn crop goes toward food consumption:

"More than one-third of our corn crop is used to feed livestock. Another 13 percent is exported, much of it to feed livestock as well. Another 40 percent is used to produce ethanol. The remainder goes toward food and beverage production."

The implications of higher prices for corn could be far-reaching, given the role that corn plays in global food markets, according to the article. The high price of corn, leading to a higher price of food, could lead to less food security more hunger throughout the world.

This isn't the most cheery summer subject, but I think it's a good example of the importance of looking at the trade offs with any "pro-environment" policy. I'm not sure exactly what I think of ethanol, and it's hard to imagine any alternative fuel getting a very good start without government support and intervention, since gasoline will probably always be cheaper at first from a consumer's perspective. Articles like this do make me wonder, though, if corn is the best biofuel source given its role in relation to food prices and hunger.

Make your own cold-brewed iced coffee

You might be thinking "an iced coffee recipe? What is there to explain?"

And on the part of the ingredients, you'd be right. Obviously iced coffee is... cold coffee and ice, and whatever else you want to add to it.

But I recently bought a cold press coffee maker, and it has been a definite win-win situation: better iced coffee, one, and also cheaper and more environmentally friendly (compared to buying iced coffee at a coffee shop).

It's hot in DC all summer long, and this week was our first hot, in-the-90's, gross week. At times like this, I end up buying coffee from coffee shops a lot more than during the winter, both because I don't like the iced coffee that I made at home as much, and also because the way I was doing it before (cooling down hot coffee by putting it in the refrigerator) took longer to do every day than buying it somewhere.

Process

I bought the Toddy T2N Cold Brew System for about $35 on Amazon. It's an interesting process to do the first few times: you put what seems like a lot of coffee (12 ounces with several cups of water) into the top chamber, which has a filter and a plug at the base, and let is sit for at least 12 hours at room temperature. After 12 hours, you take the plug out of the bottom of the chamber, and the water filters through into a glass carafe. That part takes a bit of planning ahead, but what is produced is actually a concentrate that you later add water to. You should be able to use the amount from one batch for at least a week, and it keeps for up to two weeks in the refrigerator. (I'm not going to write super specific directions for the process, since it comes with instructions, and if you buy a different brand the process is probably slightly different.)

After that, you have a carafe of the concentrate that you can keep in the refrigerator and make iced coffee all week, which is great. When I made mine, I mixed about 1/3 C of the concentrate with enough ice, water, and milk to fill a large pint-sized glass. I like a lot of milk in it without sugar, but you can add whatever you want to it!

The coffee itself is delicious. I think that iced coffee made from cooled-down hot coffee turns out fairly bitter tasting, and with the cold press it seems to be much smoother tasting.

Cost & Environmental Factors

The first time I did this, I wasn't sure if making iced coffee this way was going to be cost effective, because you use more beans per cup than you would for hot coffee. But after seeing how many cups you can get out of the concentrate, and shopping around for some cheaper coffee, I think that the cost is actually really reasonable, especially considering that I think it tastes better. I found a couple of packages of 12-ounce coffee for five to seven dollars that was still pretty good quality, and got around seven servings out the concentrate that that produced. (I didn't include the cost of the cold press in the calculation, but you can see how it would be pretty quickly recovered.)

Cost: About $4

Cost: $0.70 to $1.00 (plus milk/sugar if added)

Lastly, there is an environmental reason to make your own iced coffee: if you've been buying your iced coffee from a coffee shop, you have to throw away the cup after each one. By making it yourself, you're skipping out on the waste that comes from the cup! You can even find a travel re-useable iced coffee glass with a straw at a lot of places - I bought the one in the picture at the top of the post at Target last summer. As I wrote about in a previous post, avoiding using food packing as much as possible has multiple environmental advantages.

Restaurant review: Thai X-ing

I went to a Thai restaurant here in DC on Sunday night that I've been wanting to try for a long time, so I thought I'd break my long no-posting spell with a new type of post: a restaurant review!

Thai X-ing is a home-cooked-style Thai restaurant in the Shaw area of DC (http://www.thaix-ing.com/). The restaurant itself fits into some of the themes of this blog, mainly the idea of seeking out interesting and novel food experiences (seen in this prior post), since Thai X-ing is definitely one of those places not just to get something to eat but to have a food experience.

The restaurant is located in a row house that I believe the owners live in the top floor of. It definitely (and uniquely - I can't say I've been to a restaurant with the same feel) has the feel of being in someone's home. We sat in the first floor, where there were only three tables, all of which were unmatched and set right up against each other.

Magical entrance:

 

But really the main star is the food. I love Thai food, and went to Thailand for work in November, and this is probably the best Thai food I've had in DC. The downside is that you don't choose the dishes you eat (we went to the vegetarian night, which is Sunday, but I believe each night is a fixed menu). 

You will be very happily stuffed - for the vegetarian night, we ate spring rolls, green mango (I think) salad, and lemongrass soup for the first course, pumpkin curry (their specialty I believe) along with mushroom and tofu curries for the second course, Pad See Ew (again, I think) with some kind of green vegetable after that, and then sticky rice with mangoes for dessert. 

All of it was delicious. I was particularly impressed with the lemongrass and tofu soup, mushroom and tofu curries, and green mango salad. All of them had really complex and interesting flavors, and, not that I'm an expert, but everything tasted really authentic.

You might spend less if you were to out to another Thai restaurant and just ordered one entree (the meal is $30 or $40 per person, depending on group size), but the up side is that Thai X-ing is BYOB, so you are at least not spending a lot on wine or beer. And the other up side is that it's worth it.

In conclusion, go! It's a meal you won't soon forget.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Orange and Feta - end of winter Sunday night dinner, part 2

Although I write this with the windows open and after spending most of the weekend outside in the summer-like weather, I'm returning to my "end of winter" Sunday dinner theme, so that I can finally get to part II of the last post. This dish would actually work for almost any season, since it's so fresh tasting, so don't let the "winter" in the title scare you off.

To accompany the apple chicken curry, I roasted Brussels sprouts with balsamic vinegar, orange juice and zest, and melted in feta cheese at the end. Delicious. This is an incredibly simple dish, and I really like the roasting method, because it creates crispy leaves on the Brussels sprouts.

I think I used the adjective "earthy" at least once in the last post, but really, it's the best word for the combination of this dish with the apple chicken curry (and yogurt sauce if you make it). The citrus flavors in this dish work really well with the savoriness of the curry, and the whole thing is faintly fruity.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Orange and Feta

2 lbs Brussels sprouts
4 T olive oil
1 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1 T fresh orange zest
1 T plus 1 t balsamic vinegar
2 T orange juice
1/2 c crumbled feta cheese (could be omitted for vegan version)

1. Rinse Brussels sprouts and cut in half length-wise. Pre-heat over to 400 degrees F.
2. Mix Brussels sprouts with all other ingredients, except feta cheese, in medium bowl. Pour all into 9x13 baking pan.
3. Roast Brussels sprouts for 30-35 minutes, or until leaves of Brussels sprouts start to get brown and crispy.
4. Remove from oven and add feta cheese while still warm. Mix all together.

Apple Chicken Curry - end of winter Sunday night dinner, part 1

A couple of weeks ago, I had the craving for a big Sunday night dinner.  Something that took a little bit longer to cook and really comforting for the winter weather. My Swiss host Mom when I was studying abroad made roast chicken for Sunday dinner every single week, almost always with Brussels sprouts. Remembering this, I decided to make chicken and Brussels sprouts, but with curry and citrus flavors: apple chicken curry, and roasted Brussels sprouts with orange.

I'd been curious for a while about trying curry powder in a dish that isn't necessarily Indian by using it along with ingredients that could be used in a lot of other types of cooking, and in using it a less dominant way.

I ended up sauteing apples, ginger, and onions until they were almost caramelized, and then mashing them together with the curry powder (and a little chili powder) to make the sauce, and then adding the chicken to that.

I used a different method for the chicken than I usually would for a dish like this. Instead of sauteing sliced raw chicken to cook it, I boiled chicken breasts that still had the bone and skin on them until they were cooked through, sliced them after they were cooked, and then only briefly sauteed them in the sauce at the end to mix the chicken with the sauce (more below on this). I feel like chicken can easily get tough and chewy when it's sauteed, and so I was curious to try out a way to keep the chicken more tender.

And it ended up being really, really good. I think it's one of the best things that I've made in a while.

The curry flavor combined really well with the apple and ginger flavors, which left it really earthy tasting. I also think that the method I used with the chicken made a huge difference; it was much moister than usual.

I debated including this, because the dish is so good on its own, but I also ended up making a yogurt sauce to go with this the next night, partly out of curiosity. And out of having already bought the ingredients....

But it's a really simple sauce, and does go really well with the curry. It takes away from the apple flavor a little, but if you like yogurt sauce, it's really good mixed with the curry and rice. It's not necessary, though, so with or without yogurt sauce, the curry is still delicious!

I envisioned this as a winter mood dinner, and I think it turned out to be a farewell to winter one - see the blossoms on the tree in this picture I took walking home the other night (still in February)?

Apple Chicken Curry 
Makes 3-4 servings

About 1.5 pounds chicken breasts on bone with skin
1 onion, chopped
2 medium apples, peeled, cored, and finely chopped
1.5 - 2 T chopped ginger
1 T curry powder
1/2 t chili powder
salt and pepper to taste

1. Boil the chicken: put the chicken, still on the bone and with skin on, in a medium-sized sauce pan, and cover completely with water. Turn on medium-high heat, and bring water to boil. Once water is boiling, reduce to medium heat, and cook chicken for 10-15 minutes. Check chicken to see if it has cooked through, and remove from heat once it has. Remove chicken from water, and let cool on a plate.

2. While chicken is cooking, saute the onions and ginger on medium-low heat for 5-10 minutes, until onions are tender. Turn heat to low, add apples, and saute for 10 additional minutes.

3. Add the curry and chili powder, as well as salt and pepper, and mash all with a mallet or large spoon, continuing to saute over low heat. 

4. Once the chicken has cooled, take the meat off of the bone and remove the skin, and slice into bite-sized pieces. Add the chicken to the pan with the apple curry sauce, and saute only briefly, about three minutes, until all is blended and the chicken is slightly sauteed.

Remove from heat. Goes really well served with white or brown jasmine rice.

Optional accompaniment sauce:

Lemon-cilantro yogurt sauce

1/2 pint greek yogurt
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T fresh cilantro, finely chopped
1/4 t ground cayenne pepper
juice from 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in small bowl; serve.

Next: Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Orange for part two of this post...