Barley-Brie Risotto
March 9, 2010 by Kate Heyhoe · Comments Off on Barley-Brie Risotto
New Grain Cooking: Barley-Brie Risotto
By Kate Heyhoe
A One-Pot, Fast and Fabulous Meal
This is one of my favorite pressure cooker recipes, and was intended to be part of Cooking Green, but we ran out of space. So I’m sharing it now. It’s a good example of the types of recipes found in the book.
This is an economical, one-pot dish, but my family loves it simply for the way it tastes: rich with creamy Brie cheese and cozy with toothy bites of barley. As a bonus, it meets all my requirements for being green: it’s meat-free, use ingredients you can buy in bulk to reduce packaging waste, and requires little cooking fuel.
For the cook, it’s a model of carefree cooking, needing only 12 minutes of active prep. And if you keep a wedge of Brie in the fridge, most of the remaining ingredients are staples or pantry-ready, so you can whip up an easy, no-brainer dinner without planning or stress. There’s almost no chopping involved, so it’s almost as fast as waiting for take-out (and perhaps more nutritious and delicious). Try it. I think you’ll like it, as a meat-free main course, side dish, or lunch.
Barley-Brie Risotto
A New Green Basics Recipe
Serves 4 as a side; 2 as a main
Green Meter:
- Green Goodness: Pressure cooker saves fuel and time. Meat-free entree or side
- Prep/Cooking Times: 12 minutes prep +30 minutes unattended
- Prime Season: All year
- Conveniences: One-pot meal, little chopping, mostly pantry ingredients
Shrink your cookprint with this meat-free main course, which my husband even prefers to traditional risotto. Toothsome, tasty barley cooks in half the usual time with a pressure cooker, and stands in for rice in this robust risotto-style dish. Brie adds a cheesy spin different from the usual Parmesan (but feel free to gild the lily with Parmesan on the side, if you like). Unless the rind is hard or tough, I leave the rind on the brie; it falls apart with heat, but you may remove it if you prefer. Domestic Brie works fine in this recipe, or experiment with other types of cheeses made close to home.
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup pearl barley
- 1/2 onion, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2-1/2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce (or tamari)
- 2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, minced (optional)
- 1/4 pound Brie, in small chunks
- Freshly ground black pepper
1. In a pressure cooker, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Stir in the barley. Cook 3-4 minutes, shaking the pan or stirring occasionally, until toasted. Stir in the onion and garlic. Cook until the onion softens, about 2 minutes. Slowly pour in the broth and soy sauce (they’ll splatter at first) and add the rosemary, if using.
2. Lock the lid in place. Cook over high heat and bring the cooker to full pressure. Reduce the heat to medium-low, or adjust as needed to maintain even pressure. Cook 18 minutes, remove the pan from the heat. Let the pressure drop naturally. The barley should be tender but pleasantly chewy; if not done, add more broth or water and cook a few minutes without pressure, stirring occasionally. (If not serving right away, cover the pot. Reheat before adding the Brie, thinning with more stock if the mixture seems dry.)
3. Stir the Brie into the hot barley until melted and absorbed. Serve with a generous grinding of pepper.
Reviews, Interviews and More
July 7, 2009 by New Green · Comments Off on Reviews, Interviews and More
Cooking Green: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen—the New Green Basics Way
Fox News, April 21, 2009
Video of Kate’s interview
on Fox News in Austin Texas
Buy Cooking Green
Kate on The Splendid Table
Listen to Kate Heyhoe’s Interview with Lynne Rossetto Kasper on NPR’s The Spendid Table, August 1, 2009.
The Spendid Table: Complete August 1 radio show listing
Recent Reviews
“…when it comes to the green kitchen Kate Heyhoe is really the Green Goddess. A dynamic combination of Michael Pollan, Alton Brown, and Wonder Woman all rolled into one. After finishing this book you will definitely be convinced that you can help save the planet while preparing dinner every night.” —Heather Jones, ProjectFoodie.Com, July 9, 2009.
Read the full review.
“Best of all, it’s so well-written and informative that I can say confidently that it’s one of the few environmental book I’ve ever read that’s actually fun to read.
“Cooking Green’s key gift to readers, however, is its surplus of creative and counterintuitive thinking—and its absolute lack of junk science.
“Cooking Green is the kind of book you’ll want sitting on your shelf as a reliable resource for decades of intelligent kitchen decision-making, and it’s selling at a very reasonable $9.99 at Amazon. Use it to shrink your own carbon cookprint! —Daniel Koontz, Casual Kitchen, July 22, 2009.
Read the full review.
“Ever thought about the ‘cookprint’ of your kitchen’s pots and pans? What about the oven and microwave? A new book gives you the answers.”
Read Kate Heyhoe’s Interview with Leah Koenig on Mother Nature Network, July 15, 2009.
Washington Post, A Mighty Appetite, April 22, 2009
Earth Day Food for Thought: Shrinking Your ‘Cookprint’
by Kim O’Donnel
Excerpt:
Cookbook author Kate Heyhoe would like you to put down that organic avocado and chew on this morsel for a moment:
When it comes to being green, what you eat is not enough; how you cook it and what you cook with are equally essential to the green equation.
On the first page of her new book, “Cooking Green,” Heyhoe tells us right up that “appliances account for 30 percent of our household energy use, and the biggest guzzlers are in the kitchen.” (She refers to the oven as the “Humvee of the kitchen.”)
As we talk about reducing our carbon footprint on this Earth Day—and going forward—Heyhoe, who’s based in Austin, Tex., would like us to consider shrinking our “cookprint” as well – the energy it takes to prepare food every day. In the interview notes below, she explain what the heck that newfangled word means and how the electric kettle can be your new best friend.
Read the full interview at Shrinking Your ‘Cookprint’.
Consumer Reports 05/15/09
Buzzword: Cookprint
by Daniel DiClerico
What it means.
Cookprint takes the carbon footprint—the amount of greenhouse gas each of us generates through our daily activities—and plants it firmly in the kitchen.
Food writer Kate Heyhoe cooked up cookprint, defined as the energy needed to prepare the food you eat. That energy use encompasses the appliances and techniques used to prepare and store food, though the management of leftovers and food waste also factors in—you lower your cookprint by composting rather than tossing scraps into the trash. Low-cookprint meals should also be heavy on plant-based and locally grown, sustainable foods.
Why the buzz? A few new cookbooks—including Heyhoe’s Cooking Green: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen—the New Green Basics Way; Big Green Cookbook: Hundreds of Planet-Pleasing Recipes and Tips for a Luscious, Low-Carbon Lifestyle, by Jackie Newgent; and Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating, by Mark Bittman—have stirred up interest in eco-conscious cooking.
Besides food enthusiasts, appliance manufacturers are in on the cookprint movement, though it’s worth noting that cooking appliances as a category account for just 3 percent of a home’s energy consumption, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Whirlpool says that for its induction appliances, “90% of the energy [is] expended into useful heat to reduce utility costs. (With gas ranges up to 60% of the heat is normally wasted through indirect gas combustion.)”
Read more at ConsumerReports.org
2009 Green Book Festival Names Winners
LOS ANGELES (April 20, 2009) _ The 2009 Green Book Festival has named “Cooking Green” by Kate Heyhoe the top winner in the Cookbooks category.
Denver Post, April 22, 2009
Green day: Five ways to shrink your “cookprint”
By Tucker Shaw, Food Editor
Excerpt:
We’ve all heard about the toxic emissions spewing from our gas-guzzling automobiles. But according to Kate Heyhoe, author of the new book “Cooking Green”, the average single-family home accounts for twice as much greenhouse gas per year as the average sedan. And the kitchen is a hot zone.
There are hosts of products out there to help you turn your kitchen into an eco-friendly entity: Super-insulated refrigerators, induction cooktops, in-home composters, organic cleaning products.
These are all good ideas — if you have the money to spend on them.
But it doesn’t have to cost you much time or effort — or any money at all — to reduce your cooking footprint (or as Heyhoe calls it, your “cookprint”) and your utility bill.
All it really takes is a little common sense and a touch of elbow grease.
Here are five cheap, easy ways to make your kitchen greener and save cash…
Read Five ways to shrink your “cookprint”
The Providence Journal, April 22, 2009
Eco-smart tips and recipes help reduce your ‘cookprint’
By Gail Ciampa, Food Editor
Excerpt:
Cooking Green: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen the New Green Basics Way (Lifelong Books, $17.95) by Kate Heyhoe is almost two books in one. The first half is devoted to explaining why you need to make a green commitment
Author Interview
Kate Heyhoe answers questions about her new book…
Cooking Green
Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen
the New Green Basics Way
What do you mean by “shrink your cookprint”?
Your “cookprint” measures the entire environmental impact you make on the planet when you cook or eat—whether you cook the meal or someone else prepares it for you. In other words, your “cookprint” is the entire chain of resources used to prepare meals, and the waste produced in the process. So essentially, Cooking Green is a lifestyle manual for shrinking your “cookprint.”
The cookprint starts with food, in your garden or at the farm; it travels to your kitchen (or a restaurant kitchen) and takes residence in the fridge, freezer or pantry. The cookprint also includes the food’s packaging, transportation and refrigeration demands along the way. Then, the cookprint grows larger every time heat or fuel is added, from a cooktop, oven, or small appliance. Discarded resources, whether they’re organic produce trimmings, plastic packaging, or water down the drain, further color the cookprint. As do the implements you cook with and the way you store leftovers. Understanding your cookprint helps put the cook squarely in charge of just how big, or how green, that cookprint will be—in ways that include yet extend beyond buying organic or local, or eating meat or not.
Is this book just for cooks?
Cooking Green is for any one who eats. President Obama has committed to a green economy, and on every level, being “green” has established itself as a national priority. Adopting greener lifestyles doesn’t have to be tough, and this book focuses on ways to be green without feeling deprived. Chapters highlight which types of foods are lower-impact, and tips address water heaters, garbage disposals, barbecuing, shopping, restaurants and each link in the food chain, so it’s of value to every one who eats, even if you don’t cook.
And if you do cook, you’ll discover that the kitchen is ripe with opportunities for going greener. It’s the place where people can make real choices, and take direct control of their impact—without letting the family feel deprived, hungry, or stressed. In fact, everyone will feel better just knowing they’re helping the planet. With the book’s step-by-step model recipes, they can do it one bite at a time.
What inspired you to write this book?
Buying organic is a great green practice, and as a cook, I knew we could do more to combat climate change. Lots more. The result: A treasury of eating, cooking and shopping habits that are as simple as changing light bulbs, and integrate just as easily into daily life. Collectively, they’re a whole new approach to cooking the basics. They include fuel and water conservation, and the strategies go from farm, to food, to fuel, to fork. They push the concept of “green cooking” into how we cook, including cooking methods and cookware, appliances, and water usage.
What makes this book different from the rest?
Many green living books require such a major commitment to lifestyle change, I think they push mainstreamers away. They provide great advice on green construction and buying composting worms, but often they don’t address common day-to-day tasks, like cooking and eating.
My book connects the gap between buying greener foods and greener ways to cook them. What really sets this book apart from other culinary or green living books is that my message includes, but goes far beyond, organics, composting, and recycling—because it also scrutinizes the physical ways we cook. My book asks (and answers) such questions as:
- Can the way I cook my favorite meatloaf truly make a green difference?
- How can I be more fuel-efficient when it comes to baking, broiling, or doing dishes?
- Why is grilling with hardwood less polluting than using charcoal briquettes?
- Is it really so easy to be greener when I shop, cook, and clean? (Yes, it really is.)
So my book is about every aspect of energy-efficiency—shopping, cooking, eating and cleaning up. In ways not instantly thought of as “green.”
- …Like certain benefits of small appliances (including rice cookers and electic tea kettles, not just toaster ovens or slow cookers)
- …It’s about foregoing the bigger-is-better mentality (do you really need a double-wall oven in your next house? A toaster oven is a better second choice)
- …And making better use of the tools you already now (did you know convection ovens produce 30% less greenhouse gases than conventional ovens? Maybe it’s time to figure out how that convection setting works.)
- …It’s carrying an ice chest with freezer packs in the car so you can do a full day of errands at once, without the food going bad, thus saving on mileage, gasoline, and time.
- …Or neat tricks to keep lettuce and other perishables fresh an extra three days, so you can eat better and shop less frequently.
And it’s realistic: Baking and roasting in winter naturally make more sense, but sometimes a cook just needs to use her oven, no matter what time of year. So this book tackles summer baking with green options that avoid ratcheting up the AC. Eating lower on the food chain is also important, and the book recommends consuming less meat, but it also suggests greener meaty options, like stretching out portions of grass-fed beef, for die-hard committed carnivores.
What’s an “ecovore”?
Our planet’s food resources can shift in abundance amazingly quickly. A fish species that thrived last winter may be in short supply this year, or a plentiful crop (like corn) can inadvertently increase global hunger when it becomes a biofuel. Ongoing drought can limit what’s available and increase the prices we pay. I believe it’s important to be mindful of our food supply even as it changes. Food is impacted by climate, and also by our own actions, which can have both good and unintended consequences. An ecovore watches, reads, and pays attention to global food conditions, and makes choices based on what’s happening now. It’s conscious eating with a “to-the-moment” awareness.
You say this book speaks to short attention spans. What do you mean?
The opening chapters detail the concept of “New Green Basics” and preview the strategies. But overall, chapter-by-chapter reading of this book is optional—it’s meant to be absorbed in snippets, sidebars, and quick hits, ideal for new-media-minds. Flip through it whenever you have time, and you’ll find something handy to absorb. For instance, there are sidebars and tactics presented in lists, tips for water conservation, and a “Green Meter” introduces each recipe with bullet points on the basic green strategies being used, when the dish is most seasonal to make the most of local ingredients, estimated prep and cooking times, and special conveniences for the cook.
What exactly are the “New Green Basics”?
They’re the basic rules of everyday cooking, but updated with the planet in mind. How you cook is as important as what you cook. Without abandoning your favorite recipes, you can bake, roast, broil, grill, and fry in vastly greener ways, saving fossil fuels, reducing greenhouse gases, and shrinking your carbon footprint. Cooking Green (the book) shows you how, and you’ll find more recipes and strategies here at NewGreenBasics.com.
For other interviews with Kate Heyhoe about Cooking Green, check out Celebrity Chef Chat at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel online and, in print, It’s Easy Being Green in the April issue of Austin Monthly (Austin, TX).
Buy Cooking Green
Cooking Green:
Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen
the New Green Basics Way
-
Recipes
Book Praise from Green Leaders
March 22, 2009 by New Green · Comments Off on Book Praise from Green Leaders
“I love Cooking Green! Kate Heyhoe’s thoughts are right on target and offer many ways for all of us to pay attention to conservation and be conscientious with food, cooking, and waste management.”
—Jesse Ziff Cool, founder of CoolEatz restaurants and catering, author of Simply Organic, www.cooleatz.com
“Brimming with fresh ideas and down-to-earth recipes, Kate’s new book covers everything from eco-food shopping to haybox cooking. You’ll never look at boiled water the same way again.”
—David Joachim, coauthor of The Science of Good Food and Mastering the Grill, www.davejoachim.com
“Cooking Green is the next logical step for chefs and cooks who think local, organic, and sustainable. Take the ‘cookprint’ test and become an ‘ecovore’—the future of cooking may just depend on it.”
—Ann Cooper, Director of Nutrition Services, Berkeley Unified School District, author of Lunch Lessons, www.lunchlessons.org
“I founded a children’s cooking school 20 years ago and am thrilled to incorporate the new term ‘cookprint’ into all of our classes thanks to Kate’s vision and knowledge. With this clever and resourceful cookbook we can teach thousands of kids (and their parents) new ways to keep their bodies, minds, and their world a safe and healthy place to learn and live!”
—Barbara Beery, children’s cooking expert and best-selling cookbook author, www.batterupkids.com
“Cooking Green breaks new ground, deserving a place in every environmentalist’s library. In simple language full of do’s and don’ts for mindful cooking and eating, author Kate Heyhoe gives you all the information you need to shrink your cookprint, along with more than 50 recipes to get started. Not only does it thoroughly and thoughtfully present the new green basics of cooking, it provides the reasoning behind the recommendations, so as the climate changes, you can too, and so can your personal habits.”
—Linda Mason Hunter, author and pioneer in America’s green movement, www.hunterink.com
“Let’s save the planet one bite at a time! With Cooking Green, Kate Heyhoe gives us eaters the tools we need to preserve our natural resources while improving our dinner.”
—Sherri Brooks Vinton, author of The Real Food Revival, www.therealfoodrevival.com
“Best of all, it’s so well-written and informative that I can say confidently that it’s one of the few environmental book I’ve ever read that’s actually fun to read. Cooking Green’s key gift to readers, however, is its surplus of creative and counterintuitive thinking—and its absolute lack of junk science. Cooking Green is the kind of book you’ll want sitting on your shelf as a reliable resource for decades of intelligent kitchen decision-making, and it’s selling at a very reasonable $9.99 at Amazon. Use it to shrink your own carbon cookprint! —Daniel Koontz, Casual Kitchen, July 22, 2009.
“…when it comes to the green kitchen Kate Heyhoe is really the Green Goddess. A dynamic combination of Michael Pollan, Alton Brown, and Wonder Woman all rolled into one. After finishing this book you will definitely be convinced that you can help save the planet while preparing dinner every night.” —Heather Jones, ProjectFoodie.Com, July 9, 2009.
Buy Cooking Green
Cooking Green:
Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen
the New Green Basics Way
-
Recipes
Greek Citrus-Honey Cake
March 22, 2009 by Kate Heyhoe · 1 Comment
Serves 12
From Kate Heyhoe’s Cooking Green
Green Meter:
- Green Goodness: Bakes in slow cooker using almost no fuel; kitchen stays cool
- Prep/Cooking Times: 15 minutes prep +2-1/4 hours unattended
- Prime Season: Year-round
- Conveniences: Quick ‘n’ easy dessert; small slices serve many
- New Green Basic: Use as no-oven, slow cooker template for other quickbreads and cakes.
This rustic and distinctive cake can be addictive with tea at breakfast, with cheese at lunch, and after dinner with grapes and fresh fruit. It’s inspired by a cake in Lynn Alley’s book The Gourmet Slow Cooker, and it’s like the sweets served at Mediterranean cafés and coffee houses—moist with lemon-honey syrup, fruity with olive oil and oranges, spiked with cinnamon and yogurt. Cornmeal and almonds give it texture you can taste. And unless you mention it, no one will guess it’s made in a Crock-Pot.
For easy mixing and one less bowl to wash, measure the wet ingredients starting with the yogurt into a 4-cup measuring cup, then add the eggs and whisk.
- 1/2 cup olive oil (mild, or mix of mild and fruity), plus extra for greasing
- 1-3/4 cups sugar
- 1-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cornmeal
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder (double-acting)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 8 ounces (1 cup) plain yogurt (regular or low-fat)
- 2 teaspoons orange oil or 1 tablespoon orange extract
- 6 large eggs
- 1/2 cup slivered almonds, or pine nuts
- Syrup:
- 1/4 cup honey
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1. Grease the bottom and sides of a 5-quart slow-cooker insert (crock) with a small amount of olive oil. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the bottom. Set in the paper and grease it.
2. In a mixing bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cornmeal, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon and salt. Separately combine the yogurt, remaining olive oil, orange oil or extract, and eggs, beating with a wire whisk. Pour the yogurt mixture into the bowl holding the dry mixture and combine until uniformly mixed. Stir in the nuts. Pour the batter into the crockery insert.
3. Lay a folded dishtowel across the top of the crock (covering the batter without touching it), cover with the lid, and cook on high 2 hours and 15 minutes, or until the edges turn brown and pull away slightly from the insert, and a wooden skewer poked in the center comes out clean. Lift the insert (using potholders) out of the cooker and let it rest, uncovered, 15 minutes. Loosen the sides of the cake with a knife or spatula. Place a plate over the top and, holding it securely (it’s hot: use potholders), flip the crock over, so the cake falls onto the plate. Remove the parchment. Let the cake cool slightly.
4. Stir the honey and lemon juice together until completely combined. While the cake is warm, poke holes in the top with a fork, about 20 times. Spoon the glaze over the top and sides, letting the glaze seep in slowly before adding more. Serve in thin slices.
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Cooking Green:
Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen
the New Green Basics Way
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Recipes
Toasted Garlic Trout with Lime
March 22, 2009 by Kate Heyhoe · Comments Off on Toasted Garlic Trout with Lime
Serves 2
From Kate Heyhoe’s Cooking Green
Green Meter:
- Green Goodness: Sustainable fish, often local; use of preblanched garlic saves fuel
- Prep/Cooking Times: 5 minutes prep +10 minutes cooking
- Prime Season: Year-round
- Conveniences: Quick ‘n’ easy; healthy, high in omega-3s
- New Green Basic: Use as a basic recipe for skillet trout; use the blanched, toasted garlic method in other skillet recipes. Substitute fillets for butterflied trout.
Rainbow trout is often overlooked but has a wonderfully mild yet distinctive flavor. The Environmental Defense Fund rates farmed rainbow trout as an “eco-best” fish because of its minimal impact on the environment. In this recipe, garlic cloves, mellowed by blanching, toast in the pan for a sweet crunch that harmonizes well with trout and lime. To save fuel and water, blanch the garlic whenever you’re boiling water for another use, up to four days earlier. If you increase the number of trout, you’ll probably need two skillets.
- 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 2 rainbow trout, cleaned and butterflied (3/4 to 1 pound)
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- Salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 8 large cloves blanched garlic, halved lengthwise (see Note)
- Lime wedges, for serving
1. Pour the lime juice into a shallow dish. Dip the trout into the lime juice, coating on all sides. Sprinkle the inside (flesh part) with cumin and a generous pinch of salt. Close the fillets (as if closing a book) and sprinkle cumin and salt on the skin surfaces.
2. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil starts to ripple, gently place both trout into the pan, keeping them closed. Add the garlic cloves, pushing the garlic to the sides of the pan. Cook the trout about 5 minutes, flipping the pieces over when the skin is crisp and golden. Cook another 5 minutes or so, until the inside flesh is cooked through (it will flake when gently prodded). While the trout cooks, stir the garlic pieces occasionally, until the edges become slightly crisp and start to color. (If garlic browns too much it turns bitter, so remove it when golden, and set aside.)
3. Remove the trout from the pan. Spoon toasted garlic on top of each piece, and serve with lime wedges.
Note: To blanch garlic, place whole unpeeled garlic cloves in boiling water and leave in for 2 minutes. Remove from the water and peel (the peels should slip off easily). Refrigerate up to four days.
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Cooking Green:
Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen
the New Green Basics Way
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Recipes
Potatoes and Green Beans
March 22, 2009 by Kate Heyhoe · Comments Off on Potatoes and Green Beans
One-Pot Prep
Makes 1-1/2 pounds each of potatoes and green beans
From Kate Heyhoe’s Cooking Green
Green Meter:
- Green Strategy: One pot and precooking save fuel and water; passive boiling saves fuel
- Prep/Cooking Times: 5 minutes prep + 5 minutes active cooking +20 minutes unattended
- Prime Season: Year-round for potatoes; green beans in summer and fall
- Conveniences: Shaves off cooking time later in other recipes; can be made in advance and keeps up to 3 days; less equipment to wash; adaptable to other vegetables
- New Green Basic: Plan ahead and cook multiple vegetables with about the same amount of water and fuel as one vegetable; use the basic passive method to replace continuous boiling.
Use this method to save fuel, water, and your own time. It’s a handy template for boiling potatoes and blanching vegetables together, even if you don’t serve them in the same dish. Eat the vegetables separately or together, as in a Nicoise potato salad. Enjoy them right after cooking with a little butter and salt; or refrigerate and serve later in a salad, gratin, casserole, soup, Spanish tortilla, quiche, or omelet. Besides green beans, you can blanch a sequence of vegetables, assembly-line fashion, like carrots, broccoli, and asparagus, for example.
You’ll need a large pot, a skimmer (like a Chinese spider or a large slotted spoon), a colander, and a bowl of chilled water (with ice or ice packs, or prechilled in the fridge) for shocking the beans. Shocking stops the cooking process and helps set the color. If the vegetables are cut in small pieces though, cold tap water works almost as well as iced water. (Capture and repurpose the cooking and chilling water, for a greener cookprint.)
Smaller potatoes cook faster and don’t get waterlogged like large, halved potatoes. Use any variety (Yukon Gold, red, russet, white). A wealth of nutrients lie just under the potato skin, so eat the peels, and put potatoes at the top of your organics list.
- 1-1/2 pounds potatoes (2–3 inches in diameter, about 7)
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 to 1-1/2 pounds green beans
1. Scrub the potatoes but do not peel. Place in a large pot with the salt, and add water to cover by 2 inches. Cover the pot and bring to a boil over high heat. While the water heats, trim the stems off the green beans. Prepare a bowl of chilled or ice water.
2. When the water boils, add the green beans (they’ll float above the potatoes) and push them down to submerge. Cook 2–3 minutes, until crisply tender or until desired degree of doneness.
3. Scoop the beans into the bowl of chilled water until cool. Drain in a colander. Leave the cold water in the bowl if blanching other vegetables, and add more ice or chill packs if needed.
4. The potatoes will not be done. Cover the pot, turn off the fuel, and let the potatoes passively cook 12–15 minutes, or until a skewer penetrates to the center. Scoop the potatoes into the colander to drain. Use now, or refrigerate the beans and potatoes separately (will keep 3 days).
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Cooking Green:
Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen
the New Green Basics Way
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Recipes
Shrink Your Cookprint
December 22, 2008 by Kate Heyhoe · Comments Off on Shrink Your Cookprint
New Year Resolutions with Green Solutions:
Six Ways to Shrink Your Cookprint
by Kate Heyhoe
Chill out. Hard times can lead to stress, but they can also illuminate the best in us, like compassion and empathy. People will understand if you can’t afford that over the top birthday or Christmas present. This year, my resolutions come with a proactive tint of green compassion.
1. Share Your Harvest: Free Up Your Fruits and Fields
Got fruit or nut trees in your yard? Or a bountiful garden or field of crops? When the time is ripe for the pickin’, you probably have way more fruit, veggies or nuts than you can use.
Solutions: Don’t let the harvest rot: find a way to match it with people (or animals) who need it. Invite families or schools to harvest by hand. Let the boy and girl scouts harvest the food and take it to the local food bank (many food banks now accept fresh food). Invite the 4H Club to harvest suitable fruits and other foods for rescued livestock, including horses. In downtimes and when global warming impacts grain prices, many farmers can’t afford feed for their animals. In my local area, after the row crops are harvested mechanically, there’s still lots of food in and on the ground; some farmers open their gates to people in need, to let them harvest by hand what would otherwise be plowed under. With imagination and a few phone calls, you can probably find plenty of ways to put your bountiful excess to use.
2. Opt for Re-Useable Over Recyclable
Ironically, goods manufactured from recycled materials can actually cost a few cents more to make than ones made from virgin raw materials. And with the economic crisis, the demand for all goods is down, including recycled ones. So these days, even if you recycle, your best intentions may be piling up in landfills. We’ve simply got more recycled materials than demand for them.
Solutions: Instead of using plastic wrap, store leftovers in glass containers with lids (Pyrex and other brands make ones, and they glassware can be heated in ovens and microwaves, too.) In the bulk aisle, bring your own bags, jars and bottles. Instead of disposable plates, cups, and forks made from recyclable materials, use the real thing: you can pick up cheap, sturdy plates and other eating-ware at thrift shops. Reuse, reuse, reuse.
3. Cook Fresh, from Scratch: Share Cooking Skills
Fast food, prepared meals and frozen foods save time, but they’re not the greenest choices. Stop adding to packaging waste, and greenhouse gases from frozen foods and their transport, by cooking at home, preferably with fresh, local, and organic ingredients. Knowing how to cook should be a life skill as important as driving or working the Web. (By the time you’re old enough to drive a car, you should at least be able to feed yourself, and not by cruising the drive-thru lane.)
Solutions: If you’re a skilled cook, share your knowledge and teach your kids or cooking novices of any age the basics. Encourage them to adopt fresh food habits, good for their health and the planet’s. If you don’t know how to cook, dive in; you’ve got resources everywhere, from cookbooks to TV and websites. Ask a friend to show you how to make their favorite home cooked dish. The bonus: A tasty meal and a good time.
4. Commit to Cooking with Less Fuel
My book Cooking Green shows hot to conserve fuel in the kitchen, and still cook your favorite meals. It’s a whole new approach to the basics. The biggest step is to scale back oven use. Ovens waste up to 94 percent of the fuel they burn.
Solutions: Instead of oven braising, you can save fuel by cooking in a heavy pot on the stovetop. Or in a Crock-Pot. Or in a pressure cooker. And stretch the fuel by cooking in larger batches, freezing portions, and enjoying them another day.
5. Try a New Fresh, Local Food
Crop failure happens. With climate change comes drought, extreme heat and cold, and crop damage. So familiar fresh food options may be limited. Or not.
Solutions: Get acquainted with what’s plentiful and sustainable. If you’ve never eaten turnips before, and they’re local and plentiful, buy them and test them in a simple recipe. Try unfamiliar fish that’s sustainable, too, and avoid species that aren’t. Open wide to open doors.
6. Drive Less: Stay Committed
Whoopee! Gas has dropped to below $2 per gallon. But don’t turn that ignition over just yet. With gas prices falling, you may be tempted to drive more miles. Don’t do it! The environmental costs of fossil fuels don’t change, even if the price at the pump does.
Solutions: We all found ways to conserve fuel when it was $4 a gallon, now let’s stick to that plan, until better options come along. (Chances are these low prices won’t last long, either.)
Find more ways to shrink your cookprint in Kate Heyhoe’s book:
Cooking Green: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen—the New Green Basics Way (Hundreds of tips and over 50 energy- and time-saving recipes to shrink your “cookprint”)
Green Monthly Planner
December 22, 2008 by Kate Heyhoe · Comments Off on Green Monthly Planner
“Be the Change”:
A Green Monthly Planner for 2009
by Kate Heyhoe
Adopt one new green habit once a month, and keep it going all year long.
“You must be the change you want to see in the world,” said Mahatma Ghandi. Even if the journey starts with baby steps, walk forward. Both Obama and McCain ran on platforms of “change.” If change is what you really want, take ownership: start making changes at home and in your own life.
Sound tough? Rethink your strategy, reduce it to something manageable. “Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win” is an oft-quoted bit of wisdom from author and educator, Jonathan Kozol.
Living green isn’t something occasional. It’s something to do every day. Try adapting month by month, like this:
January: Eat less meat. If you’re not a vegetarian, switch to meatless meals several times a week. If you’re already a vegetarian, invite your carnivorous friends to meat-free meals, and let them help make them.
February: Improve water heater efficiency. Insulate the pipes from heater to tap. Adjust the water heater thermometer to a low or medium setting (the high setting is usually overkill).
March: Plant seeds or trees. Preferably with edible benefits, like produce, nuts and fruits. Tend to them organically.
April: Capture water. Keep a jug by the tap, to water your garden. (Think of all the water you waste just waiting for hot water to reach the tap.)
May: Switch to low-impact brands. These are ones with less packaging or less water. If you drink Gatorade, for instance, buy the powdered version. Bottled versions require more fuel to transport. Ditto for laundry detergent: powder beats liquids in the good green race.
June: Skip the electric rush-hour. Run dishwashers and laundry machines late at night, or at times of off-peak consumption (avoid 5:00 to 8:00 PM.)
July: Dispense with disposables. Pack re-usable plates, cutlery and cups for picnics and barbecues.
August: Run ceiling fans. They use less electricity than air conditioners, and generate fewer greenhouse gases.
September: Hold an appliance swap. Or organize a rummage sale for charity. Let someone else make use of what you no longer want or need. Every appliance you reuse saves another unwanted appliance from entering this world.
October: Clean with vinegar. Instead of dangerous chemicals, use white vinegar. Never use anti-bacterial products, which kill the good bacteria with the bad.
November: Redistribute the freebies. Grocery specials can include 2-for-1 or buy-this/get-this-free deals, especially around the holidays. Even if you don’t want the freebie, accept it and donate it to a food bank.
December: Do good. Buy holiday gifts from charities, or choose a service or donation as your gift to others. One gift idea: Enrollment in a CSA, Community Sponsored Agriculture, program where recipients get a box of fresh, locally grown produce every month or week.
Find more ways to go green gradually in Kate Heyhoe’s book:
Cooking Green: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen—the New Green Basics Way (Hundreds of tips and over 50 energy- and time-saving recipes to shrink your “cookprint”)
Cookprint: A New Green Buzzword
February 26, 2008 by Kate Heyhoe · 2 Comments
Plus: Refrigeration Storage Tips
Consumer Reports picks “cookprint” as one of the top buzzwords of 2009
What do you call the impact you make on the planet when you cook?
It’s your “cookprint”— the entire chain of resources used to prepare meals, and the waste produced in the process.
The cookprint starts with food, in your garden or at the farm; it travels to your kitchen and continues in your fridge, freezer or pantry. The cookprint grows larger every time heat or fuel is added, from a cooktop, oven, or small appliance. Discarded waste, whether it’s organic produce trimmings, plastic packaging, or water down the drain, further colors the cookprint. As do the implements you cook with, the way you store leftovers, and how you dispose of food waste.
In short, the cookprint measures every meal’s entire environmental impact. It’s the total amount of energy (from farm to fuel to fork) used in creating a meal. And it puts the cook squarely in charge of just how big, or how green, that cookprint will be—in ways that go far beyond buying organic or local, or eating meat or not.
Why “Cookprint”?
In writing my next book, I couldn’t find the exact term I wanted, so I created “cookprint.”
I was having a tough time with the term “carbon footprint.” Not because of what it stands for, but because it’s such a cold, negative term, and my world revolves around upbeat, positive and inspiring ways to integrate food and cooking into our lives. Food writing should be mouthwatering and inviting, and “carbon footprint” was not.
Nor is the new buzzword “foodprint” exactly right. Coined by Cornell University researchers led by Chris Peters, “foodprint” is defined as the amount of land needed to supply one person’s nutritional needs for a year. It makes conclusions about meat vs. non-meat diets, but pivots mainly on agriculture land resources.
I wanted a word that was vested in personal actions: how we can each make a difference, every day. Even if you don’t cook, someone cooks what you eat, and that contributes to your personal cookprint.
Moreover, I wanted a term that involved a verb, not a foot or a food.
The “cook” in cookprint is a word of action. Just think of all the decisions, and all the physical steps, that go into answering the age-old question, “What’s for dinner?”
Understanding your “cookprint” is about questioning the things we take for granted, and making greener choices with every meal. Sure, a “cookprint” includes ingredients—where they come from, how they’re grown, and how they’re packaged. But there’s more: it’s how you cook your food, the type of energy used, the amount of fuel consumed, the amount of water you use—and the amount of fuel and water you waste.
A cookprint covers even the smallest details. It’s about storing food in ways that use less energy, without sacrificing nutrition or flavor. This means making the refrigerator you already own more energy efficient, storing fresh fruits and vegetables in ways that make them last longer (meaning fewer shopping trips and less spoilage), saving leftovers in glass containers rather than plastic ones or zipper bags. Frying with energy-efficient skillets. And hundreds of other tips.
“Cookprint” is the foundation of this website, and what I consider the New Green Basics of Cooking.
Boiling Down Your “Cookprint”
Recipes and traditional cooking methods are also targeted when it comes to greening your cookprint. In places and times when fuel is scarce, people never take fuel consumption for granted. Neither should we. Does that mean giving up slow roasted foods or big, boiling pots of pasta? Absolutely not! But there are plenty of ways to stretch the fuels we use, every time we turn on the oven or fire up the burner, and green our cookprint by doing so. It’s time to stop being mindless energy hogs when it comes to cooking methods. It’s time to green our cookprints.
Cookprint Q & A:
Refrigerator Temperature
From time to time, as I write my current book, I’ll be posting tips and articles intended to color your “cookprint.” To start, here’s a question that makes better use of your refrigerator.
Q: The refrigerator is the kitchen’s biggest energy hog. What’s the best temperature setting for your refrigerator?
A: When fresh foods are stored properly, at their specific optimal temperatures, they’ll last longer, meaning fewer gas-guzzling trips to the store. Use a refrigerator/freezer thermometer to monitor your setting. In general, 37 to 40 degrees cools sufficiently without wasting electricity. Keep dairy products at 33 to 38 degrees, meats between 31 and 36 degrees, and eggs at 33 to 37 degrees. Store fresh vegetables and ripe fruits at 35 to 40 degrees. To stash foods in the coldest sections of the fridge, store them along the freezer wall (in a side-by-side) or in the back of the fridge, and never in the door. Some refrigerators come with programmable storage bins, so you simply set them for meats, produce or citrus. Tip: Place a freezer pack in your fridge or its bins, to chill down the immediate area (place it under meats or milk, for instance). The freezer pack will last several days, and you can refreeze it when it thaws.
