Stuffed Fresh Tomatoes

Photo from Richmond-based food writer Tim Vidra's recipe for Aftertaste.

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The tomatoes are in!  While they've been on sale at Glade Road Growing's farm stands for weeks, they've finally arrived in sufficient quantities for the vegetable share, along with basil, garlic, summer squash, onion and a pepper (plus a beets or kohlrabi, which I'm not including in this recipe, as I featured them last week.

If it were cooler, this might sound like the perfect time for ratatouille.  But, arrgh, it was in the nineties this weekend and will still be high eighties now that the heat wave is "over."  Who feels like cooking?  I don't.  Last week, in her newsletter, Sally suggested grilling or using a crock pot in the evening to keep the house cooler, but I thought, why not something raw?

If the tomatoes in your bag are the large heirloom slicers, as shown above, great.  If not, no problem.  I'm not sure how many tomatoes you'll be getting, so, if there are fewer, enjoy what you get and use any extra stuffing in pitas or tossed with cooked pasta and/or beans that have been chilled.  The original recipe called for cukes and dill (and no squash, sweet pepper, onion, garlic and basil) so I made some changes.

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3-4  tomatoes, topped and cored with a paring knife
1 summer squash, stem and end cut off and diced
1/4  sweet pepper, stemmed, seeded and diced 
3 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons fresh basil, chopped, divided into two portions
2 teaspoons onions, chopped finely
1 garlic clove, peeled, smashed and diced finely
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

1.  Sprinkle the inside of each tomato with salt. This will pull the juices from the tomato and into the well.

2.  To make the dressing, combine olive oil, vinegar, garlic, onion and a pinch of salt and pepper, whisking to combine.

3. Dice the tomato top/core and add to the prepped squash, sweet pepper, crumbled feta and half of the  basil. Pour the dressing over the diced ingredients and stir to combine.

4.  Scoop the salad into the cored tomatoes and garnish with remaining basil. 

Roasted Veggie, Chickpea and Collard Salad with Tahini Dressing

Photo accompanied Rachel Schwartzman's recipe at  Lillian Zhao's site, Further Food.


The July 19 farm share from Glade Road Growing will include potatoes, onion, kohlrabi, beets and collards.  Here's a roasted salad inspired by Rachel Scwartzman's recipe (she had sweet potatoes, beets and collards to work with.)

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Serves 4

Ingredients:

Salad:
1 cup dried chickpeas
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 bay leaves
potatoes, washed and cut into quarters or eights, depending on size
beets, washed and quartered
kohlrabi, washed and cut into eights
1 onion, washed, peeled and cut into eights
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
collard greens, washed and  coarsely chopped

Dressing:
1/3 cup sesame raw sesame seeds
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup water

1 large garlic clove
1 tablespoon of orange  juice concentrate
1/2 teaspoon of cumin
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 tablespoon of cilantro leaves
1 teaspoon miso paste

Instructions:

1.  The night before, cook 1 cup dry chickpeas,  in a medium saucepan with a heavy bottom and a tight-fitting lid, cover with 2 cups water, and and bring to a boil.  Rinse.  Return to pot, add ½ teaspoon sea salt and 2 bay leaves and bring again to a boil again.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Let stand over night or for at least one hour. Rinse a second time two cups of water and bring to a boil again and simmer on low heat until soft, about 1 hour.

2..  Prep  potatoes, beets, onion and kohlrabi.  Toss in a bowl with olive oil, salt and pepper to coat.  Roast in 425 degree F oven for 15 minutes. 

3.  While the vegetables are roasting, chop collards.   Remove vegetables from oven, and when cool enough, peel beets and kohlrabi, discarding peel.  Toss in chopped collards and return to oven to finish roasting, 10 minutes more.

4.  While the vegetables cook, to make dressing,  toast sesame seeds in a hot, lightly oiled cast iron skillet, until they just begin to pop.  Reserving 1 TB for garnish, combine the remaining roasted seeds with  water, garlic, orange juice, cumin and cilantro in blender and process until smooth.

 3.  Toss vegetables and chickpeas in dressing and refrigerate.  Serve chilled garnished with roasted sesame seeds and cilantro. (In the winter, you may want to serve this as a hot dish.)



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As a bonus, here's Emily Horton's recipe for a raw (or lightly blanched) collard salad with potatoes and chickpeas  (photo by Deb Lindsey for the Washington Post.)

Fennel and Lemon Salad

Photo from Bistrot Cenisio 10, Milan, Italy

1 fennel bulb, sliced thin (use a mandoline, if you have one).
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped; can also chop 1/2 cups of fennel fronds, if they are included with the bulb and reserve the rest for another use.

Whisk olive oil, lemon juice, and cilantro (and fennel fronds, if available) in a salad bowl until blended. Add the sliced fennel and toss until coated. Let stand at room temperature at least 30 minutes before serving.

If you'd like you can also include 1 cup of fresh blueberries and top some shaved goat cheese or crumbled feta.

Creamy Coleslaw

Photograph by Samantha Fromm Haddow from her food blog, Carpe Cibus (Seize the Food.)

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The July 5 share from Glade Road Growing will include cabbage, kohlrabi, carrots, bunch onions, kale and golden beets.  Here's my recipe for cole slaw. The cabbages this week are green.  This also looks lovely with red cabbage.  Some folks like their coleslaw with vinegar.  My mother always made hers with lemon juice and I follow her example, substituting lime juice on occasion.

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Serves 6

Ingredients

2 cups of cabbage, cored and shredded
2 cups of carrots shredded
2 cups of Granny Smith apples shredded
1/2 cup of green onions, chopped
1/2 cup of cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup of mayonnaise or 1/2 cup of yogurt plus 1 1/2 tsp. corn starch
juice from 1/2 lemon or lime
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1.  In a large bowl combine cabbage, carrots, apples, green onions and cilantro with mayonnaise and juice.  Season with salt and pepper.  If you are using the yogurt, to keep it from separating first mix the corn starch with an equal amount of yogurt and then stir into the rest of the yogurt.

2.  Cover and chill for at least a half an hour to meld flavors.

3.  Serve cold.

Aloo Ghobi Chana Masala (Curry with Potatoes, Cauliflower and Chickpeas)

Photo from Cook's Illustrated

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The expected vegetables in the Glade Road Growing farm share for the week of June 28 will include cauliflower and potatoes.  Here's a recipe for one of my favorite Indian curries.

Serves 4




Ingredients:
1 cup dry chickpeas
1 cup raw basmati brown rice
1 onion. peeled and chopped
4 cloves fresh garlic, mashed, peeled and chopped finely
1 T fresh ginger, chopped finely
1 pound of  tomatoes chopped or cherry tomatoes halved or 1 can diced tomatoes
4 T of tomato paste
1 pound of potatoes chopped
1 cauliflower, separated into florets
1/2  pound of green peas (frozen will work)
1/2 tsp ground cumin 
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, reserving 4 for garnish
1/2 cup of plain yogurt

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1.  To cook 1 cup dry chickpeas,  in a medium saucepan with a heavy bottom and a tight-fitting lid, cover with 2 cups water, and and bring to a boil.  Rinse.  Return to pot, add ½ teaspoon sea salt and bring again to a boil again.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Let stand over night or for at least one hour. Rinse a second time two cups of swater and bring to a boil again and simmer on low heat until soft, about 1 hour.

2.  In a medium saucepan with a heavy bottom and a tight-fitting lid, combine 1 cup basmati brown rice , 2 cups water, and and bring to a boil.  Rinse.  Return to pot, add ½ teaspoon sea salt and bring again to a boil again.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.  Turn off heat and leave for 40 minutes until water is absorbed. 

3.  While rice is cooking, prep the veggies as described above.  Steam the cauliflower and potatoes separately for 5  minutes until slightly soft.  If you are using raw peas, rather than frozen, you can steam them also.

4.  Measure out the spices (except for the salt,  black pepper and basil leaves) and toast in a dry cast iron skillet and set to the side.

5.   Heat 1 TB extra virgin olive oil in the skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 4 to 6 minutes. Sauté garlic and ginger until soft. Add to the bottom of a lidded heavy-bottomed pot.  Stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste, cauliflower, potatoes,  spices, 1 teaspoon sea salt, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add 2 cups water and bring to a boil. Stir in the cooked chickpeas.  When the pot has returned to a boil, reduce heat and simmer,  covered,  for about 15 minutes. Add cooked or frozen peas and warm through.  Remove the curry from heat and stir in 1/2 cup of fresh basil leaves.

7.  Uncover the rice and fluff with a fork. Divide among four bowls and top with curry and a garnish each bowl with a dollop of  plain yogurt and  a basil leaf.

Come On Dems, (and R's) Let's Have a Smart Gun Bill

In the wake of the latest gun violence in Orlando, Democrats in House of Representatives--led by civil rights icon John Lewis--seemed to be rising up on their collective haunches as they staged a protest to demand gun control legislation.  The R's called the protest a "stunt" and "anti-democratic," blocked a vote and turned off the cameras (so that C-SPAN couldn't air its coverage.) The feisty  D's started broadcasting via cell phone. 

It turned out "NoBillNoBreak" was an empty threat when the R's adjourned in the middle of the night.  Lewis tweeted:

We got in trouble. We got in the way. Good trouble. Necessary Trouble. By sitting-in, we were really standing up.

A friend with a long history of civic engagement had "just called John Lewis' DC office to thank him for his acts of bravery and determination."  I went in search of media coverage on the content of  the Democrats' legislation.  I came up only with a June 22 post by Gawker's editor-in-chief Alex Parene, "The Democrats Are Boldly Fighting for a Bad, Stupid Bill.  Despite any reservations you may have with colloquial title and the site's  click-bait and copyright violaiton habits and its focus on celebrities, I'd encourage you to  read the piece.

Parene writes,

The no-fly list is a civil rights disaster by every conceivable standard. It is secret, it disproportionately affects Arab-Americans, it is error-prone, there is...no effective recourse for people placed on the list, and it constantly and relentlessly expands. As of 2014, the government had a master watchlist of 680,000 people, forty percent of whom had “no recognized terrorist group affiliation.” This is both an absurdly large number of people to arbitrarily target in gun control legislation, and far, far too few to have any meaningful effect on actual gun ownership, let alone gun violence.

To Parene's links to the ACLU,  I would add its critique of proposed gun legislation here and I've asked the organization, via twitter, for an update on the statistics on the watchlist. 

Also, watch Jon Oliver's brilliant video on gun control and the influence of the NRA.  (You'll need to watch it on YouTube, if it's disabled here.  It's at the head of the episode (S03E06).  The segment labelled NRA there is truncated.)  As he says, the NRA doesn't have very many members and its opinions are not popular, but they are persistent.  "If you want serious changes, you have to show up every f*cking day."

Parene his piece like this:

Since the San Bernardino shootings (or even before), an easy, cynical predication has been that the only form of gun control with a realistic shot of being enacted in the near future would be measures that would ban only Muslims from purchasing guns. As is too often the case, Democrats seem determined to prove cynics right.

Lewis tweeted:

This  is not over. We have more work to do. Keep the faith and keep your eyes on the the prize.

I'd ask Lewis to go after a better prize. Why channel rage about Orlando towards the No-Fly List?

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If you want to call, Congressman Lewis's number is: (404) 659-0116. His direct email is johnlewis@mail.house.gov.  You can also write his chief of staff, Michael E. Collins: michael.collins@mail.house.gov.

Call your own members of Congress (you can find their contact info via thepeoplegov.org. 

At while you're at it, call Paul Ryan (paul.ryan@mail.house.gov, 202-225-3031) and Mitch McConnell (senator@mcconnell.senate.gov, 202-224-2541), too. Ryan's Chief of Staff since last year, is revolving door lobbyist David Hoppe: dave.hoppe@mail.house.gov.  McConnell's is Brian T. McGuire: brian_mcguire@mcconnell.senate.gov

Roger May: Laid Bare

EDITOR's NOTE:  Photo and text copyright photographer Roger May for his current project, "Laid Bare," used by permission.  All rights reserved to the author.

Last night Roger posted on Facebook this photo and interview with the woman portrayed.  When I saw it this morning,  I found it eloquent and heart breaking: the last of the subject's  words evoke the Old Testament of Job-ian dimensions, the first echoes Esau being conned by Jacob: “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?" 

With Roger's permission I've combined part of his explanation of the project from his website with post from last night.  If you’ve been "impacted by mountaintop removal mining or worked in the fight to end it," he'd love hear your story and photograph you (nude) in your ravaged landscape.  And, by the way, before he asked ask anyone else to pose nude for him, he went first in this short video.)

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My point of entry as a photographer was an attempt to photograph the large-scale destruction of mountaintop removal mining in the coalfields of Central Appalachia. Overwhelmed and frustrated by the magnitude of what I was up against, the enormity of strip mining and the perceived threat of anyone speaking out against it, I stopped trying to make those pictures and moved on, but the issue was something I’ve never been able to move on from.

Now, I’m returning to the visual conversation of mountaintop removal mining with the series I’m tentatively calling Laid Bare, which introduces the nude form into the decimated landscapes left behind from this kind of mining. Framing form and land together to explore loss and vulnerability, I hope to collaborate in creating moments of beauty in the midst of vast destruction as a form of protest.

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This past Saturday, in Mingo County, West Virginia...[a woman] told me part of her story. I trust you'll find it as powerful as I do.

The lawyer for Hobet Mine Company called me to say that, by the time the home place was divided amongst all the living heirs, there’d barely be enough land for each of us to have space for our own graves. I was a newly-separated mother of three living far away in Texas, trying to scrape up enough money for daycare and my kids’ school lunches. I sold my share to Hobet for $178.

Twelve of my childhood summers unfolded in that holler, in the house of my dead daddy’s parents—the closest thing to home I knew. The last time I’d been there before the lawyer called, both my granny, grandpa and great-granny were already dead, and kudzu was snaking up the outside walls of their houses, threatening attic windows. That day, as I drove out of there, carrying photographs, old land deeds and one of my grandpa’s mine pay envelopes with a forgotten dime pressed into its corner, a gigantic construction crane loomed over the mountain like a creature in a Japanese sci-fi film.

That was twenty-odd years ago.

Now, on the King Coal Highway, time has been carved away from these mountains until there is too much space, too much sky. I find myself in another country, thinking that we are not meant to be navigating these mountaintops so effortlessly. We were never meant to be up here at all, so near the sun in restless, rarified air that has become a constant wind. It’s as if the churned up ground has surrendered it stories into an eternal sigh that worries the leaves of trees we cannot name.

Let me lie down in these trembling grasses. Let the scouring wind find my skin. I will let the harsh sun burn me. I will listen for the pulse in the wound and answer it with my own.

Chris Cook's: Organic and Agroecologic Farming CAN feed the World

According to a new report authored by journalist Chris Cook and staff members of the Friends of the Earth, scientific evidence of the last forty years shows that agroecological farming, including diversified organic agriculture, is the most effective way to promote future food security, given threats such as climate change, soil erosion, water scarcity and loss of biodiversity.

Quinoa and Chard Fresh Spring Rolls

Photo by my one of my favorite food photographers and stylists, Andrew Scrivani, for the New York Times' Martha Rose Shulman's recipe (which is different than mine, but also delicious.)

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Sally tells me that the Glade Road Growing bag share for June 21 will include  rainbow chard, broccoli, carrots, bunch onion, basil, and summer squash.  I thought I'd come up with a recipe for spring rolls that uses the chard as a wrapper rather than rice paper.

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Serves 8


1 bunch rainbow chard
2/3 cup of raw quinoa
4 hard boiled chicken or duck eggs, peeled and sliced into in half lengthwise, as you would slice them for deviled eggs.
1 summer squash, cut into matchsticks
2 large carrots, cut into matchsticks
fresh basil leaves, reserve 8 for garnish
2 green onions, sliced thin, reserve some of tops for garnish
1 tablespoons miso, thinned with water
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced ginger


1.   Make dipping sauce(s).  You will find the ingredients and recipes for a sweet  miso sauce here and/or a peanut sauce (with other nut substitutes, if you are allergic) here.

2.  Cook the quinoa.  You can find the directions here.

3. Wash and prep the veggies.

4.  Remove the large stems from the chard. Break the spine with a fork, Blanche chard for one minute. Set aside to cool and drain.

5. Mix quinoa, garlic, ginger, vinegar and miso in a bowl.  (If you have extra, you can refrigerate the excess tossed in salads.)

6.  On the large end of each large end of a chard leaf,  put a 2 T of the quinoa mixture in the middle of the leaf.  Nest half of a hard boiled egg in the center with the white side down.  Layer on matchstick veggies crosswise, green onions.  Top with basil leaves.  Fold in the sides and roll like a burrito.

7.  Refrigerate for  one hour before slicing in half, cross wise.   They will look something like this.   (If you prefer your veggies cooked, you could steam the rolls for six minutes and then refrigerate. If you do not have a steamer. you can use a pot of water with a colander and some foil for a lid. 

8.  Serve on plates garnished with extra basil leaves and green onions.  I like to put the dipping sauces in individual ramekins on the plates or you can set out in small bowls with a spoon for sharing.

Loundon Wainwright III's Sings of The Trumpster (with an official video by Judd Apatow)

Screenshot of Loudon Wainwright III from his video "I Had A Dream," produced by Judd Apatow for Funny Or Die.

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May 27, 2016, singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III  released his newest song on Soundcloud (of which I was the 31,880th listener) and as a single on Story Song Records. 

Initially I didn’t want to write a song about Donald Trump but sometimes in the course of human events things get so weird that you can’t look a gift horse in the mouth, especially if the horse has a real mouth on him. In the past, I’ve taken pot shots in song at political figures of fun like Jesse Helms, Newt Gingrich, Bill & Hill, Bush, Cheney, et al., but folks - this is serious. We hold some truths to be self-evident and apparently Mr. Trump does not.

Soon, his frequent collaborator, filmmaker Judd Apatow had produced a video, which Funny or Die released  June 13.  (H/T to Rory O'Connor for pointing it out to me via Facebook.)  According to Paste Magazine, Apatow explains,

I got involved because I love Loudon Wainwright as much as I don’t love Trump....Hopefully this song will not make sense in a year—when Trump is back to running his prestigious university full time.

Here are the lyrics:


I had a dream - I don’t know what it meant,
But I dreamed Donald Trump was our president.
There on election night, right by his side -
His flunky Chris Christie, along for the ride.
But it gets worse - just wait, there’s more -
He made Jeff Sessions Secretary of War,
And, just like he promised, he built him that wall.
He blew up Cuba and he carpet bombed Montreal.


I had a dream - I woke up in a cold sweat -
The Donald was elected in a huge upset.
He made a bad deal with Putin, a secret pact with Assad.
He told the pope where to go - I swear to God.
As for the Supreme Court, he got to choose -
He filled the vacancy up with lyin’ Ted Cruz.
His face was bright orange, and his hair was just weird,
But we were made great again, embarrassed and feared.


Yeah, I had a dream, and here’s how it went -
I dreamed that the Trumpster was the president.
His little finger on the button, he was doin’ his thing -
Our new national anthem was “My Ding-a-ling.”
We were bought and sold, like in Monopoly -
He had the most hotels in the land of the free,
Locked up the opposition, and the demonstrators, too -
That would be me, and it might be you.


I had a dream - I’m not sure what it meant
When I dreamed Donald Trump was our president.
And it wasn’t even close - he won it in a landslide.
Our new hot First Lady - she was beaming with pride.
If you think that’s cool, don’t fool yourself -
He made Ben Carson Secretary of Health,
And Sarah Palin Secretary of Stealth,
And If you think that’s scary, well just you wait -
He made Newt Gingrich the Secretary of State,
And Rush Limbaugh the Secretary of Hate!


Dreams come true, and there’s prophesy,
And sometimes a nightmare is a reality.

Split Pea Soup

Photo from a 2009 post to the anonymous student blog, "Fried or Sizzlin: America's Economy."

One of my favorite soups is split pea and this week's bag share from Glade Road Growing has many of the ingredients:  carrots, celery, bunch onions and garlic.  (There will also be bok choy and lettuce mix.)  All you need to add for my version is some bay leaves, potatoes and miso.

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Serves 4

Ingredients

1 cup of dried split peas
2 bay leaves
1/2 # of carrots, washed and trimmed and cut on a slant lengthwise
4 ribs of celery, washed and cut on a slant lenthwise (discard any strings that free themselves).  reserve some of the leaves for garnish.
1 bunch of green onions, washed, trimmed, separated into the bulb portion and the greens and chopped.  Reserve some of the greens for garnish.
1/2 # of potatoes, washed and sliced thin
4 garlic cloves, peeled, crushed and chopped finely.
Extra virgin olive oil
4 TB miso, thinned with a little cold water.
Freshly ground black or white peppercorns, to taste

1.  To cook peas, the night prior or at least two hours before serving, place dried peas into a pot with a heavy bottom (which comes equipped with a tight lid and a steamer insert.)  Cover with 2 cups of water.  Bring to boil, cover and turn down and cook for five minutes. Drain and rinse in cold water.  Refill with 2 cups of water and return to boil in a covered pot  Add bay leaves.  Cook, covered, over low heat, until the peas are soft. 

2.  Prep the vegetables as described in the ingredients.  In a well-oiled skillet, saute the bulb portion of the onions, the garlic and the celery.  Add the sauteed veggies to the bottom of the pot with the peas while they are cooking. Add another two cups of water and return to a boil. Insert the steamer to the pot and in the steamer, add the carrots and potatoes, and turn down to cook them  over the steam from the peas for at least 10 minutes until soft. Add the carrots and potatoes to the bottom of the pot and stir.

3.  I like to put about half of the soup through a blender and add it back into the remaining soup with intact veggies to thicken the soup.  When it has cooled a bit,  stir in the miso.  You can serve this soup hot or chilled.

4.  Divide the soup into individual bowls.  If you like, you can  top each serving  with a dollop of yogurt. Garnish with reserved raw celery leaves and chopped green onions.  Sprinkle with fresh ground black or white pepper.  I like to serve it with whole grain bread or you can grilled sandwiches made of  sharp cheddar or your other favorite cheese.

Fresh Lumpia (Filipino Egg Rolls) with Sweet Miso Garlic Sauce

Inspired by a recipe at Epicurious by Mark Bittman, food columnist for the New York Times.  Photo by Keith Ferris of the Culinary Institute of  America.

Serves 4

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Lumpia are Filipino egg rolls, similar to crepes.  I prefer them fresh.  You can also deep-fry them.  Some folks use pre-made wrappers, but the homemade ones are easy, I promise.

Ingredients:

Wrappers:
1 duck or chicken egg
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup water
extra virgin olive oil

Sauce:
1/2 cup of water
2/3 cups demerara sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 TB miso
4 T   roasted peanut, chopped


Filling:

extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves,
2 green onions minced
1/2 cup shredded carrot
1/2 cup shredded Napa
1 pound of roasted chicken or pork removed from bone and shredded or tempeh, sliced thin
2 teaspoons black pepper
2 teaspoons dry sherry
1 c. cilantro leaves, trimmed from stems and chopped

To make 8 wrappers:

1. Pre-heat over to 200 degrees F.  Whisk egg until slightly beaten.  Whisk in 1 cup water and 1 cup flour until very smooth. 
2. Heat an 8- or 10-inch well seasoned cast iron over medium heat. When a drop of water skitters across the surface before evaporating, add a teaspoon of oil and spread over pan.  Ladle 2 tablespoons of the batter into the skillet and swirl it around so that it forms a thin layer on the bottom of the pan. Pour the excess batter back in the bowl. When the wrapper is just cooked through and the edges lift away from the pan, remove it without turning it over. Transfer to a ovenproof plate, cover and place in the oven to keep warm.
3.  Repeat with the remaining batter, separating the  lumpia wrappers with parchment paper to keep from sticking and cover with large lid to keep from drying out.

To make sweet garlic miso sauce:

1. Stir sugar and water in a saucepan and cook over low heat until slightly caramelized and thickened, about 5 minutes. 
2. Remove from heat and stir in garlic and peanuts.  After it cools slightly, stir in miso. Set aside.

To make filling:

1.  Coat a large skillet in oil and turn the heat to medium.
2.  Heat a minutes and then add garlic and green onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until fragrant, 15 to 30 seconds. 
3. Add the napa and carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. 
4. Add the meat or tofu and heat through. Add the salt, pepper, and wine and remove from the heat.

To assemble:

1. Lay a lumpia wrapper flat on a work surface and place 2 tablespoons of cilantro leaves on top. 
2. Line 2 heaping tablespoons of stir-fry mixture on top of the cilantro. Fold in the sides and roll tightly, sealing the seam  with a few drops of water spread your fingertip. 
3. Serve two on each plate, garnished with more cilantro and accompanied by a ramekin of the  sauce.

Spinach-Feta-Quinoa Cakes with Lemon-Dill Sauce

Photo by Allyson Zea for her blog, Domestic Superhero.

Glade Road Growing will have its first farm share on May 31.  JP tells me there will be spinach and green onions and so I created a recipe, which is similar to one on Allyson Zea's blog.

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Serves 4

Ingredients:

2/3 cup raw quinoa
bunch of green onions
several spigs of fresh dill enough to make 4 tablespoons chopped
1 lemon
1 cup Greek yogurt
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic
10 ounces fresh spinach (You can also use kale, arugula, chard or a combination.)
2 slice whole grain bread, crumbled into soft crumbs
4 chicken or duck eggs
1/2 # feta cheese
Salt
Black pepper

To make the sauce:

1.  Finely chop 4 tablespoons of the green portion of the onions and 4 tablespoons fresh dill.
     Reserve 1/2 of the dill for the quinoa cakes.  If you have extra dill, do not wash the portion you are
     going to store.   Just shake the stems loosely and place them in a plastic bag with a piece of paper
     towel to absorb and condensation and store in the refrigerator.
2.  Squeeze the juice from one lemon and measure out 4 teaspoons and refrigerate the rest in a lidded
     jar for another use.  Zest the lemon from the peel. You will use 1/2 teaspoon of the zest from the
     skin for the cakes.  You can dry any remaining zest on a piece of parchment paper and then store
     in a small spice jar.
3.  Whisk 1 cup plain Greek yogurt and the lemon juice and add in the herbs.  Season with salt and
     freshly ground pepper.
4.  Cover and refrigerate the sauce for at least 1 hour to allow the flavors to
     meld.

To make the quinoa cakes:

1.  Cook the quinoa by bringing 2  cup of water to a boil.  Add the 2/3 cup of  raw quinoa and return
     to boil.  Take off stove and rinse well.  Add back in a scant 2 cups of water and return to stove and
     bring to a boil.  Turn down to low.  Cover.  Cook 15 minutes.  Let stand for five minutes and then
     fluff with a fork.
2.  While quinoa is cooking, finely chop the white portion of the onions to make 1  cup and the four
     cloves of garlic.  Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add onion and garlic, stirring
    often, until softened, about 4 minutes. Chop the spinach and cook, stirring often, until wilted, about
    3 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a medium-size bowl.
3.  Beat the eggs lightly.  Add to bowl with the onions, garlic and spinach mixture, along with the
     cooked quinoa.  Crumble in the feta cheese and bread crumbs. Stir in the remaining tablespoon of
     chopped dill, the 1/2 teaspoon of the lemon zest and 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper.  Let
     mixture sit for a few minutes to allow the bread crumbs to absorb the moisture.
4.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
5.   Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Form quinoa mixture into cakes about 2 1/2 inches in
      diameter and 1/2 inch thick and place on sheet.
6.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until the bottoms are brown.  Flip with a spatula and bake for
     another five minutes.
7.  Serve warm with the lemon-dill sauce.

Dear NPR: Clinton is Not Within 200 Votes

All along, Sanders supporters have been complaining that the mainstream media had annointed Clinton as the Democratic candidate for US President in 2016.  There had been calls for him to drop out, even a story in the New York Times that he was dropping out.

Sanders win last night in Indiana didn't put a stop to this trend. While NPR's Ron Elving (Senior Editor and Correspondent, Washington Desk) gave Sanders "another round," he went on to say that "Clinton is within 200 delegates of a majority" which, of course, counts her superdelegates, which are free to jump ship at any time, unlike the pledged delegates from the primaries.

Meanwhile, there seems to be some difference in the pledged count, as you can see below:

Guest Post by Will Kaufman: Woody Guthrie, ‘Old Man Trump’ and a Real Estate Empire’s Racist Foundations

The above illustration by Nick Lehr accompanied the following piece from The Conversation written by Woody Guthrie's biographer, Will Kaufman, Professor of American Literature and Culture, University of Central Lancashire.

The Conversation is a collaboration between editors and academics to provide  news analysis and commentary that is free to read and republish using a Creative Commons, no derivatives licence.  Kaufman (bio and contact information) is the author of Woody Guthrie, American Radical (Illinois, 2011)and Singing for Peace: Antiwar Songs in American History (with Ronald D. Cohen, Routledge, 2015).  He has received two Woody Guthrie Research Fellowship from the Broadcast Music Industry Foundation and was consultant to Johnny Depp and Douglas Brinkley for the publication of their co-edited edition of Guthrie's recently discovered novel, House of Earth (2013). He has two books coming out on Guthre in 2016: Woody Guthrie's Modern World Blues (Illinois) and Woody Guthrie: Down, Up or Anywhere (Reaktion).

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In December 1950, Woody Guthrie signed his name to the lease of a new apartment in Brooklyn. Even now, over half a century later, that uninspiring document prompts a double-take.
Below all the legal jargon is the signature of the man who had composed “This Land Is Your Land,” the most resounding appeal to an equal share for all in America. Below that is the signature of Donald Trump’s father, Fred. No pairing could appear more unlikely.

Guthrie’s two-year tenancy in one of Fred Trump’s buildings and his relationship with the real estate mogul of New York’s outer boroughs produced some of Guthrie’s most bitter writings, which I discovered on a recent trip to the Woody Guthrie Archives in Tulsa. These writings have never before been published; they should be, for they clearly pit America’s national balladeer against the racist foundations of the Trump real estate empire.

Recalling these foundations becomes all the more relevant in the wake of the racially charged proclamations of Donald Trump, who last year announced, “My legacy has its roots in my father’s legacy.”

A champion for equality

By the time he moved into his new apartment, Guthrie had traveled a long road from the casual racism of his Oklahoma youth.

He’d learned along the way that the North held no special claim to racial enlightenment. He had written songs such as “The Ferguson Brothers Killing,” which condemned the out-of-hand police killing of the unarmed Charles and Alfonso Ferguson in Freeport, Long Island, in 1946, after the two young black men had been refused service in a bus terminal cafe.

In “Buoy Bells from Trenton,” he denounced the miscarriage of justice in the case of the so-called “Trenton Six” – black men convicted of murder in 1948 by an all-white jury in a trial marred by official perjury and manufactured evidence.

And in 1949, he’d stood shoulder to shoulder with Paul Robeson, Howard Fast and Pete Seeger against the mobs of Peekskill, New York, where American racism at its ugliest had inspired 21 songs from his pen (one of which, “My Thirty Thousand,” was recorded by Billy Bragg and Wilco).

A postwar housing haven – for whites

In the postwar years, with the return of hundreds of thousands of servicemen to New York, affordable public housing had become an urgent priority.

For the most part, low-cost housing projects had been left to cash-strapped state and city authorities. But when the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) finally stepped in to issue federal loans and subsidies for urban apartment blocks, one of the first developers in line, with his eye on the main chance, was Fred Trump. He made a fortune not only through the construction of public housing projects but also through collecting the rents on them.

When Guthrie first signed his lease, it’s unlikely that he was aware of the murky background to the construction of his new home, the massive public complex that Trump had dubbed “Beach Haven.”
Trump would be investigated by a U.S. Senate committee in 1954 for profiteering off of public contracts, not least by overestimating his Beach Haven building charges to the tune of US$3.7 million.

What Guthrie discovered all too late was Trump’s enthusiastic embrace of the FHA’s guidelines for avoiding “inharmonious uses of housing” – or as Trump biographer Gwenda Blair puts it, “a code phrase for selling homes in white areas to blacks.” As Blair points out, such “restrictive covenants” were common among FHA projects – a betrayal, if ever there was one, of the New Deal vision that had given birth to the agency.

‘Old Man Trump’s’ color line

Only a year into his Beach Haven residency, Guthrie – himself a veteran – was already lamenting the bigotry that pervaded his new, lily-white neighborhood, which he’d taken to calling “Bitch Havens.”
In his notebooks, he conjured up a scenario of smashing the color line to transform the Trump complex into a diverse cornucopia, with “a face of every bright color laffing and joshing in these old darkly weeperish empty shadowed windows.” He imagined himself calling out in Whitman-esque free verse to the “negro girl yonder that walks along against this headwind / holding onto her purse and her fur coat”:

    I welcome you here to live. I welcome
    you and your man both here to Beach Haven to love in any
    ways you please and to have some kind of a decent place to
    get pregnant in and to have your kids raised up in. I'm
    yelling out my own welcome to you.

For Guthrie, Fred Trump came to personify all the viciousness of the racist codes that continued to put decent housing – both public and private – out of reach for so many of his fellow citizens:

    I suppose
    Old Man Trump knows
    Just how much
    Racial Hate
    he stirred up
    In the bloodpot of human hearts
    When he drawed
    That color line
    Here at his
    Eighteen hundred family project ....

And as if to leave no doubt over Trump’s personal culpability in perpetuating black Americans’ status as internal refugees – strangers in their own strange land – Guthrie reworked his signature Dust Bowl ballad “I Ain’t Got No Home” into a blistering broadside against his landlord:

    Beach Haven ain't my home!
    I just cain't pay this rent!
    My money's down the drain!
    And my soul is badly bent!
    Beach Haven looks like heaven
    Where no black ones come to roam!
    No, no, no! Old Man Trump!
    Old Beach Haven ain't my home!

In 1979, 12 years after Guthrie had succumbed to the death sentence of Huntington’s Disease, Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett published a two-part exposé about Fred and Donald Trump’s real estate empire.

Barrett devoted substantial attention to the cases brought against the Trumps in 1973 and 1978 by the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department. A major charge was that “racially discriminatory conduct by Trump agents” had “created a substantial impediment to the full enjoyment of equal opportunity.” The most damning evidence had come from Trump’s own employees. As Barrett summarizes:

According to court records, four superintendents or rental agents confirmed that applications sent to the central [Trump] office for acceptance or rejection were coded by race. Three doormen were told to discourage blacks who came seeking apartments when the manager was out, either by claiming no vacancies or hiking up the rents. A super said he was instructed to send black applicants to the central office but to accept white applications on site. Another rental agent said that Fred Trump had instructed him not to rent to blacks. Further, the agent said Trump wanted “to decrease the number of black tenants” already in the development “by encouraging them to locate housing elsewhere.”

Guthrie had written that white supremacists like the Trumps were “way ahead of God” because

    God dont
    know much
    about any color lines.

Guthrie hardly meant this as a compliment. But the Trumps – father and son alike – might well have been arrogant enough to see it as one. After all, if you find yourself “way ahead of God” in any kind of a race, then what else must God be except, well, “a loser”? And we know what Donald Trump thinks about losers.

One thing is certain: Woody Guthrie had no time for “Old Man Trump.”

We can only imagine what he would think of his heir.

“Racial Hate at Beach Haven,” “Beach Haven Race Hate,” “Beach Haven Ain’t My Home” and Guthrie’s untitled notebook writings: all words by Woody Guthrie, © copyright Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc., all rights reserved, used by permission.

Bill Withers: Another West Virginia Treasure

Photo is a screen shot  of a video of Bill Withers at his induction into the 2015 class of the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, with Stevie Wonder.

Susan Haggerty sang her a capella version of the Bill Withers classic, "Grandma's Hands" last night at the BAM Jam in Blackburg (which I got to attend thanks to an invitation from Doug Chancy, who plays with his wife Betty Hahn and with Jamie Munn Simmons and Simone Patterson in Smart Mouth.) 

Editor's note:  I first published this piece on December 19, 2015 at 4:35 pm  and last edited it on January 15, 2016 to include the painting illustrating "Grandma's Hands" and links to the Withers bio at the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame and to the West Virginia Coal Towns entry on his hometown of Slab Fork, as well as tags.


*

If you don't recognize Bill Withers's name, surely, you will recognize his songs which, in addition to his 1971 hit "Grandma's Hands", include Grammy winner "Ain't No Sunshine," "Just the Two of Us," "I Wish You Well" and "Lean on Me."

Although it took until 2015 for the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame to recognize Withers, his native West Virginia recognized him, along with the likes of Hazel Dickens, in 2007, the inaugural year of its own Music Hall of Fame.    The Ernie Barnes painting which Withers commissioned to illustrate "Grandma's Hands"  in 2008, was Barnes's last major commission before he died in 2009.  It is part of the Hall's permanent collection.


Born in the Raleigh County coal town of  Slab Fork, Withers left to join the Navy before moving to California to work in an airplane factory and starting his musical career.
Withers stepped away from the industry in 1985, as he explained in this interview with Allison Glock, when

this guy at my record label who wanted me to do stuff like cover Elvis Presley songs . Get the hell out of here. I got tired of it. Most of my dreams came true and some of my nightmares, too. I had a pretty good run. And by then I had a family and some kids, so I went about trying to do a good job at that. Without even thinking about it, I just went ahead with my life.

Here is an extended bio from the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame where Withers describes growing up in West Virginia and his career.


Here's an interview with Withers about his induction from West Virginia Public Radio that year:

You can find Carl Wiser's 2004 interview, in which Withers talks about the inspiration for some of his lyrics in Song Facts. 

Roasted Carrot Salad with Toasted Sesame Seeds, Peanuts, Apples and Orange Juice

Photo by Lindsey S. Love

Sally asked me to have the recipe ready early for Glade Road Growing's last 2015 farm share on 11/24.  She says the share will be similar to last week with plenty of carrots and that maybe I could provide a recipe for Thanksgiving dinner, so I thought a roasted carrot salad would be nice.  Lindsey Love has such great photographs on her food blog that I thought I'd share this one, although her recipe (which only serves two) includes shallots and blood oranges and has fennel seeds rather than peanuts and parsley instead of cilantro.

*

Serves six


1.  Scrub and roast 1 pound of carrots and half a pound of peeled small onions with the root end cut off   at 475 degrees F for about 20 minutes either in a preheated oven on a cookie sheet lined in parchment paper or, as I do, on a countertop convection oven.

2.  While carrots and onions are roasting, squeeze one orange for the juice into a large bowl. If you like you can also grate about a half a tablespoon of the zest off the orange peel.  Wash two apples, cut in quarters to remove core and then slice thinly with a sharp knife.  Add apples to bowl and toss with the orange juice to keep them from turning brown.   Chop  1/2 cup of fresh cilantro and reserve for topping. 

3.  Smash and peel 4 cloves of garlic and chop coarsely.  Chop about a tablespoon of fresh ginger root. 

4.  In an oiled cast iron skillet toast 2 tablespoons of sesame seeds until they turn light tan and begin to pop.  Remove them from skillet.  Add enough extra virgin olive oil to coat bottom of skillet and saute the garlic and the ginger until tender.  Let cool a bit and then toss sesame seeds and garlic and ginger with apples.

5.  When the carrots and onions are finished roasting, let cool enough that you can handle them comfortably.  Split the carrots in half lengthwise if they are small.  If they are larger, you may want to cut them in half crosswise and then in quarters lengthwise.  Cut the onions in half and then slice thinly.

6.  Toss in the bowl with the apples and 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.  Top with roasted unsalted peanuts and cilantro and serve warm or at room temperature.

Arugula and Winter Squash Salad with Quinoa, Feta, Walnuts and Balsamic Vinaigrette

Photo by cookbook author and photographer Erin Alderson for her version of this recipe in her blog NaturallyElla.com

*

Sally tells me that 11/17/15 the farm share for Glade Road Growing will include butternut squash, carrots, arugula, salad mix, kale, garlic and a big hakurai turnip.  Since the arugula is sweet enough in the cooler weather to eat raw, I thought I'd make a main course salad.  Mine adds pomegranate seeds and uses walnuts instead of pecans and a bit of balsamic vinegar dressing, rather than honey, but this picture was just so beautiful, that when I found it, I stopped looking for something more representative.

*

Serves 6


1.  Preheat your conventional over to 450 degrees, unless you are going to use a counter top convection over, as I do.   Rinse the butternut squash and cut in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds and reserve to roast.  Put the squash cut side down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Roast in oven for about 40 minutes, until tender.  Remove and let cool enough to handle.  Pull the peel away and then dice the squash into 1/2 inch cubes.  (Some folks peel and cube the squash first, but that's not as easy.


2. While the squash is roasting, cook 1 cup of raw quinoa by bringing it to a boil in a heavy-bottomed lidded sauce pan with two cups of cold water.  Remove from oven and drain water and rinse well to remove the saponin, which coats the grain and can make it bitter.  Add 1 3/4 cups of fresh cold water, cover  and return to a boil and simmer for five minutes.  Turn off heat and let sit for at least 20 minutes. 

3.  While the quinoa is cooking, prepare the pomegranate by slicing 1/4-inch off of the stem end  and placing the fruit cut side down on the cutting board to stabilize it. The pomegranate's blossom end, the one that looks like a crown, should be on top.  Use the paring knife to a cut a circle around the blossom end, angling in and cut it out.  Make several cuts from top to bottom around the pomegranate just through the red part of the skin.  Working over a large bowl, gently pry open the pomegranate and pry away the seeds from the peel and membranes.  Discard the peel and membranes.

4.  Rinse the arugula in a basin of cool water.  Drain and wash a second time in clean water, then put in a colander to drain.







5.  To make the vinaigrette, combine the following in a bottle with a well-fitting lid:
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
4 tablespoon Balsamic vinegar or lime juice
Freshly ground pepper
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (for fat-free version, substitute either 1 tablespoon fruit juice concentrate--apple or white grape--and 3 tablespoons water OR 4 tablespoons wine)
1 teaspoon your favorite sweetener (honey, agave, demerara sugar)
2 peeled and crushed cloves free garlic and/or 1 T finely minced onion. 

 6.  Fluff the quinoa with a fork and toss with the arugula with the pomegranate seeds and the squash, 2/3 cup of crumbled feta and 1/2 cup of walnuts  in a large bowl.  Drizzle with the vinaigrette and serve.

Peanut Curry with Winter Squash, Mustard Greens and Garbanzo Beans

Photo by Paige Green of a mustard green curry and tofu recipe by chef  Bryant Terry of Oakland found in his 2014 cookbook Afro-Vegan.  

*

November 19, the farm share from Glade Road Growing is slated to include watermelon radish, lettuce mix, tetsukabuki squash, red mustard greens, garlic and green peppers.

Since Bryant Terry is an advocate of farm fresh food, I thought I'd modify one of his recipes this week to use the squash, mustard greens, garlic and green peppers. His mentor, Alice Walker, has said of him that “Bryant Terry knows that good food should be an everyday right and not a privilege.” He is a 2015 James Beard Foundation Leadership Award winner who is currrently the inaugural Chef in Residence at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco.  Maybe some of my lucky friends in that area were able to get a ticket for the (sold-out) November 15 reception and panel he is convening with Toni Tipton Martin, Gail Myers, Nicole Taylor, Caroline Randall Williams and moderator Psyche Williams-Forson to discuss the role that Black women have played historically and contemporarily in the production, distribution, and consumption of food.

Here's an interview with Chef Terry in the Washington Post and a video about his work as Chef in Residence.


By the way, when I was looking at food photos for inspiration, I found a tempting recipe by Emma D'Alessandro for a warm kale, citrus and watermelon radish salad, which for which you could substitute the mustard greens.


*

Serves 6


1.  The night or at least two hours before cook 1 pound of garbanzo beans.  In a medium saucepan with a heavy bottom and a tight-fitting lid, cover the beans with 3 cups water, and and bring to a boil.  Rinse.  Return to pot, add ½ teaspoon sea salt and bring again to a boil again.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Let stand over night or for at least one hour. Rinse a second time.  Add two cups of water and bring to a boil again and simmer on low heat until soft, about 1 hour with 2 bay leaves.

2.  I like to serve this over brown rice cooked with tumeric and olive oil, so at the same time you start the beans.  In a medium saucepan with a heavy bottom and a tight-fitting lid, combine 2  cups brown rice , 4 cups water, and and bring to a boil.  Rinse.  Return to pot, add ½ teaspoon sea salt, 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil  and 1 teaspoon of ground turmeric and bring again to a boil again.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.  Turn off heat and leave for 40 minutes until water is absorbed.

3.  While the rice is absorbing the water, roast the squash.  Unless you are using a countertop convection oven, as I do, preheat your oven to 450 degrees.  Cut  the tetsukabuki squash in half and scoop out seeds.  You can reserve them to roast separately.  Invert upside down on a parchment covered cook sheet.  Roast for half an-hour and then let cook long enough so that you can cut it into cubes.  I leave the skin on and it will get tender, unlike butternut squash.  If you prefer, you can remove the skin.  Set the squash aside. 

If you don't have this type of squash, the recipe will work with any roasted winter squash or even roasted sweet potatoes.

3.  While the squash is roasting, peel and chop one large onion or more to make about 1 cup.   Mince a piece of fresh ginger to make 1 tablespoon.  Smash, peel and mince a similar amount of fresh garlic cloves.  Remove the seeds from a green pepper and finely chop.


4.  Grind a cup of roasted peanuts in a heavy duty blender or food processor.  You will use 2 tablespoons for this recipe.  You can store the rest in a covered jar in the fridge.  You can substitute fresh ground peanut butter from the store.  The jars of peanut butter really are NOT a sufficient substitute, but if you need to, you could used about 4 tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter with no additives (avoid the "no-stir" versions.)

4.  In a oiled cast iron skillet, add 1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds and cook, shaking the pan occasionally, until they pop, 2 to 3 minutes.   Add more oil to coat, add the onion and sauté until soft, 5 to 7 minutes. Add  more oil and add the green pepper and sauté until soft about 2 minutes.  Add the garlic, fresh ginger, 1 1/2 teaspoons of ground tumeric, 1/2 teaspoon of cumin seads, 1/2 half teaspoon of cardomon, 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes and cook until fragant.

5.  In a large saucepan with a tight lid, 3 cups of water, one can of diced unsalted tomatoes, 2 heaping tablespoons of the ground roasted peanuts, the vegetable/spice mixture and the cooked garbanzo beans. Stir.  Bring to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

6.   While the mixture is cooking, cut the mustard greens into bite-sized pieces.  After the first twenty minutes, add to the saucepan, along with the roasted squash and cook for another ten minutes, stirring occasionally.  Serve garnished with cilantro over the cooked brown rice.

BTW, Chef Terry follows the Southern tradition and cooks the greens for the whole thirty minutes.  Mine will be brighter than pictured.

Pickled Daikon and Carrots

 Photo by Ariana Lindquist for Saveur Magazine

The 11/3/15 farm share from Glade Road Growing is slated to include lettuce mix, daikon radish, salad turnip, delicata squash, kale, garlic and peppers.

Daikon is a mild white winter radish, which I like as a pickled vegetable, served as a condiment with tofu or chicken, on a barbecue sandwich or added to a tossed salad.  Here's a simple recipe.

*


1.  Wash carrots and daikon radishes. Pat dry, peel and cut into matchsticks.

2.   In a bowl, combine the carrots, daikon,  2 tsp. kosher salt and 1 tsp. demerara sugar.   Let sit until the vegetables have wilted slightly and liquid pools at the bottom of the bowl, about 30 minutes. Drain vegetables; rinse and pat dry with paper towels. Transfer vegetables to a medium bowl.

3.  Whisk together 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup white vinegar and 1⁄2 cup warm water and pour mixture over the vegetables. Stir to combine. Set mixture aside and let marinate for at least 1 hour, then you can refrigerate, tightly covered, for up to 4 weeks.