Organic Marin

Recipes from Land to Table

by Tim Porter, Marin Magazine, Farina Wong Kingsley

Price: $29.99
ISBN-13: 978-0-7407-7314-3
ISBN-10: 0-7407-7314-3
Format: Hardcover
Size: 10 x 9 in.
Page Count: 192 pages

Rooted in the fertile fields and rolling hills of Marin County, CA, the cradle of the organic food movement, is a belief that food fosters community. With beautiful photography and delicious recipes using seasonal ingredients, Organic Marin: Recipes from Land to Table tells the story of that connection between farmer and family, between land and table, between food and community.

Bungalow 44, Mill Valley

Bungalow 44 serves flat breads that reflect each season’s best ingredients. This recipe shows off the bounty of summer, with ripe tomatoes and fragrant basil. The dough may be made ahead of time and kept refrigerated for up to 2 days.

Dough
1 1⁄4 cups all-purpose flour
1⁄8 teaspoon baking powder
1⁄2 teaspoon sea salt
1⁄2 cup warm water
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Basil Oil
1⁄2 cup firmly packed fresh basil leaves
1⁄3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Fried Garlic
1⁄2 cup canola oil
6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1⁄2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1⁄2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
3 heirloom tomatoes, thinly sliced
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1⁄3 cup shaved pecorino romano cheese
Minced fresh basil for garnish

For the dough: Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Stir with a whisk to blend. Combine the water and oil in a cup and stir into the dry ingredients. Transfer the dough to a floured work surface and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes. Divide the dough in half, cover with a damp towel, and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.

For the basil oil: Blanch the basil in boiling water for 10 seconds, then drain and plunge into ice water to cool. Squeeze dry and place in a blender with the extra-virgin olive oil. Blend for 20 seconds and pass through a fine-meshed sieve; discard the solids.

For the fried garlic: Heat the canola oil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat to 325°F. Fry the garlic slices until just golden brown, 2 to 3 seconds. Drain in a fine-meshed sieve, then transfer the garlic to a paper towel to soak up excess oil.

Preheat an oven to 400°F with a pizza stone inside, if you have one. Flatten each dough ball into a disk and roll into an 8-inch round. Place the rounds directly on the pizza stone. If not using a pizza stone, place the rounds on a baking sheet. Prick the dough all over with a fork and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until just golden. Remove from the oven and increase the oven temperature to 425°F.

Sprinkle half of the Parmesan and mozzarella on each baked bread. Place the breads in the oven on the pizza stone or baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes, until the cheese melts and just starts to brown. Remove from the oven and layer each with the tomato slices in a single layer, season with salt and pepper, and drizzle evenly with the basil oil. Top each with half of the pecorino cheese shavings and return to the oven for about 5 minutes, or until the pecorino turns slightly golden. Remove from the oven and garnish with basil and fried garlic. Use a pizza wheel to cut each bread into 6 slices and serve right away.

Serves 4 as a first course

Bungalow 44

Tucked into downtown Mill Valley, Bungalow 44 draws in locals with friendly service and dining options to suit any mood. The restaurant’s main area is modern and lively, with an open kitchen and a popular bar where locals meet for specialty cocktails. The adjoining room is better suited for a quiet dinner, with a fire during the winter and removable panels that allow for a breeze during warmer weather. Like its sister restaurant, Buckeye Roadhouse, Bungalow 44 offers such homey favorites as fried chicken, Parmesan truffle fries, and a mean burger. For a lighter dish, try the chopped Chicken “44”: an anything-but-boring salad featuring avocado, pine nuts, and jalapeno-tomatillo vinaigrette.

“Our Marin County journey fades in the rear view mirror. But the hardcover book on my kitchen counter, “Organic Marin: Recipes from Land to Table,” keeps tastes, sights, and smells alive” ––Post Bulletin http://postbulletin.typepad.com/great_taste/2009/06/marina-few-more-words-and-pictures-.html

“Organic Marin includes profiles of 16 organic farmers from Marin County in California, as well as, delicious organic recipes contributed by local restaurants. The photos are absolutely exquisite and the seasonal recipes are very easy to prepare.” ––Organically Yours Reviews http://organicallyyoursreviews.blogspot.com/2009/05/organic-marin-recipes-from-land-to.html

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=view_from_the_bay/food_wine&id=6633761

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=view_from_the_bay/food_wine&id=6368313

It’s no wonder that more than 60 certified organic food producers can be found in Marin, an eco-literate county that aspires to be as sustainable as possible. And now, with heightened awareness of all things environmental, the county’s messages are reverberating around the globe and demanding a more thoughtful, less wasteful approach to life. Cooking and eating organic is no longer a trend but a way of living a healthy and sustainable life for people everywhere.

You can learn more about the history and the future of the nation’s organic-farming standard bearer in Organic Marin. Here’s some of what you’ll find inside:

• Sixteen of America’s most esteemed organic farmers share their stories and philosophies. Among them are Warren Weber, “the father of organic farming in California”; Albert Straus of the Straus Family Creamery, the first organic dairy west of the Mississippi River; and Kevin Lunny of Drakes Bay Family Farms, which produces the only certified organic beef in Marin County.
• 50 mouthwatering organic recipes organized by season, including Heirloom Tomato Flat Bread, Grilled Pork Tenderloin and Nectarines with Bacon Vinaigrette, Apple-Brandy Crisp, and Green Goddess Salmon and Watercress Salad. The recipes were contributed by 25 of the San Francisco Bay Area’s most popular organic restaurants, including Insalata’s in San Anselmo, Bungalow 44 in Mill Valley, and Fish in Sausalito.
• Breathtaking photos of finished dishes and Marin’s incomparable scenery by co-author Tim Porter

Readers everywhere will appreciate Organic Marin’s story as well as the simple and delicious recipes that can be made with ingredients grown in their own communities. As environmental concerns cause all of us to ask what we can do, Marin offers an answer: Buy organic, locally grown food, wherever you happen to live.

Dig into Organic Marin, and soon you’ll feel the warmth of rich black soil between your fingers, the taste of tender beef and juicy strawberries on your tongue. And like Marin’s growers, you’ll celebrate the belief that feeding good food to a community will make the world a better place.

Tim Porter is a photographer and a writer with an extensive background in newspaper and magazine journalism, with work appearing in The New York Times, San Francisco Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the American Journalism Review. Tim, an editor-at-large for Marin Magazine, is a former assistant managing editor for the San Francisco Examiner and the co-author of News, Improved: How America’s Newspapers Are Learning to Change. He lives in Corte Madera, CA, and Oaxaca, Mexico. timporter.com

Farina Wong Kingsley is a culinary instructor at Tante Marie’s Cooking School in San Francisco and a consulting chef for San Francisco’s Center for Culinary Development. She has written and contributed to numerous cookbooks, including The Essentials of Asian Cooking, The Aqua Restaurant Cookbook, and Food Made Fast: Asian. She lives in Tiburon, CA.

Marin Magazine’s mission is to create community while celebrating the people, places, and events of Marin County, from uncovering local history to exploring organic farming and discovering innovations in health, fashion, and home design.

marinmagazine.com

Cow manure can power a farm (as it does at Straus Family Creamery). A solar array can cut dependency on the utility grid (as it does at Star Route Farm). A horse ranch can provide fertilizer for a tomato farm (as it does for Allstar Organics). And blemished produce, good enough to eat but difficult to sell, can provide healthy lunches for twelve thousand schoolchildren a week (as it does in Marin County, under a program started by Marin Organic in partnership with local public schools and farmers).

“Let us come to work with a sense of amazing abundance,” says Helge Hellberg of Marin Organic. “If there’s anything you have, we’ll make use of it. Nature has provided more than we can ever use or ever need. The solutions to most, if not all, of our challenges are already out there if we can get away from consumption and waste and change our mindset.”

One of Marin Organic’s goals is to make Marin an organic county. That day may be a long way off, if indeed it ever comes. In the meantime, though, says Warren Weber of Star Route, “We’re trying to produce as sustainable a county as possible.

“Through this networking of public and private organizations, of producers and consumers, we have created a model for other areas. We have been able, all of us together, to create a system and environment for sustainable agriculture to have a successful role in the community.”

∞ Marin Organic ∞

An organization of more than forty farmers and ranchers, Marin Organic is the most visible voice of the Marin organic food community. Formed in 1999 as an advocacy group for organic farming, Marin Organic now offers tours of farms and ranches and consumer education programs, sponsors an organic school lunch initiative that feeds over 12,000 children a week in local schools, and runs a weekly summer farmers’ market in Point Reyes Station in which all the vendors come from within twenty miles of the market. (More information at www.marinorganic.org.)

MarketBar, San Francisco

This tapas-style appetizer is a simple and delicious start to a spring meal. MarketBar uses Marin Star Route Farm’s young, tender fava beans. Because of the simplicity of this dish, use a good-quality sea salt and extra-virgin olive oil.

1 pound fava beans, shelled
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ tablespoon minced fresh thyme
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus 2 tablespoons
½ teaspoon sea salt, plus more for sprinkling
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 sweet or sourdough baguette

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil over high heat. Blanch the fava beans for 5 minutes, then drain and plunge into an ice-water bath. Once the beans are cool, peel them by pinching off the skin.

Put the beans in a food processor. Add the garlic, lemon juice, and thyme and pulse for several seconds until the beans are coarsely chopped. With the machine running, add the ¼ cup olive oil until well combined. Stir in the ½ teaspoon salt and the pepper. Set aside.

Preheat an oven to 350°F. Cut the baguette into ¼-inch diagonal slices. Using a pastry brush, coat both sides of the bread slices with the 2 tablespoons olive oil. Place the bread in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until light golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Using a butter knife, spread 1 teaspoon fava bean puree on each toast. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and serve at room temperature.

Makes 30 to 35 bruschetta

∞ Peeling Fava Beans ∞

Fava beans, also called broad beans, have been cultivated in Southwest Asia and the Mediterranean for thousands of years. The beans are eaten fresh when picked early in the season, or as a dried bean when allowed to mature on the vine. To cook fresh favas, shell the beans from the spongy pods. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and blanch the favas for 3 minutes. Drain the beans and refresh with cold water. Peel the beans by pinching the dark green ridge on the round side of the bean and pulling open the skin. Slip out the bright green bean and discard the skin. One pound of fava bean pods will yield 1 cup of shelled beans.

Lark Creek Inn, Larkspur

The kitchen at Lark Creek Inn creates an incredibly tender lamb stew by searing and then braising leg of lamb with seasonal apricots. The leg of lamb may be roasted the day before, and dried apricots may be used as an alternative if fresh ones are not in season.

5 tablespoons olive oil
1 (3- to 4-pound) leg of lamb, bone out and cut into 2-inch cubes
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons olive oil
1 (3- to 4-pound) leg of lamb, bone out and cut into 2-inch cubes
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt4 anchovy fillets
2 large yellow onions, chopped
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
6 cups dry red wine
1 bay leaf
8 fresh apricots, halved and pitted

Heat a large Dutch oven or heavy ovenproof sauté pan over medium-high heat, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and sear 8 to 10 cubes of lamb in a single layer until lightly browned on both sides, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer the seared meat to a plate and sear the remaining lamb.

For the seasoning, use a mortar and pestle or mini-food processor to grind the rosemary, garlic, salt, anchovies, and 3 tablespoons olive oil into a coarse paste.

Preheat an oven to 275°F. Once all the lamb is seared, reheat the same Dutch oven over medium heat (do not wash the pan). Add the onions and sauté for about 10 minutes, or until tender. Stir in the rosemary-anchovy mixture and red pepper flakes and sauté for 2 minutes. Add the wine and simmer for 30 to 35 minutes, until reduced by half. Add water to the pan until the meat is barely covered and stir in the bay leaf. Bring the stew to a low boil and add the apricots. Cover the pan with a tight lid. Roast in the oven for about 2 hours, or until the lamb is tender. The apricots will disintegrate and thicken the sauce. Remove from the oven. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Serves 4 to 6 as a main course