pitchfork diaries

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Scallions: Eating within a 10 foot radius

DIY Scallions: 10 days (background) and 36 hours (foreground) of growth.

Full disclosure: in season or not, I use a lot of scallions. I love their subtle oniony vibe, pop of color, and exotic feel. I love their tubey shape and making thin cuts on an extreme angle for geometric garnishes. I love that they are equally useable raw or cooked. I LOVE them in my Homemade Scallion Pancakes and David Chang's Scallion Ginger Sauce from his Momofuku cookbook.

So, each summer I faithfully devote an entire garden bed to growing my own scallions. And each year it is wildly unsuccessful. The seeds are microscopic, making it insanely difficult to evenly distribute them in the ground. When they do start to sprout up, in awkward clusters, they are the tiniest green threads, impossible to see and differentiate from the weeks that are intent on choking them out. But every year, I try, try again.

So, cut to me on the subway a couple of weeks ago, overhearing a conversation between two adorable twenty-something hipsters, waxing poetic about the treasures on pinterest.

Now I have not really explored pinterest, other than to see some referring pages that have come into my blog. And I have some mixed feelings about it from first glance. However, what I heard the DIYers going on and on about was the "growing scallions thing" on pinterest.

Ok, I was curious and googled as soon as I got above ground.

Apparently the scallion thing that has swept across the pinterestsphere, is the lesson that you can regenerate whole, perfectly edible scallions from the bottom tips that are usually cut off and tossed away.

Yep. And I tried it.

And yep. It works!

Just place the root ends of scallions upright in about an inch of water and put in a sunny spot. In twenty four hours you will see some growth, and in just under a week they'll be full grown again. The only upkeep is to change the water every other day or so, which also helps cut down on any oniony smell. You can repeat the process three or four times with the same scallion tip.

So excited to have a much more successful way of growing my own. And thrilled to add another vegetable to my eating local list--all year round. My apologies to the national scallion growers council.

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chew on this.

“One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.”

- Luciano Pavarotti

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anuary

new beginnings.

Food stylin'. A dendrobium orchid garnish on my tray of hospital food--my first solid meal after giving birth a few weeks ago. And yes, that is a bacon cheeseburger. Don't judge. It was a very long night.

Well, I wouldn't have had a sudden long hiatus of blog posts, particularly through the biggest food holidays of the year, if I didn't have a very good reason.

I gave birth to my first child, an astonishingly cute baby boy, in mid-November. Since then, time with both hands free to type and test recipes has been scarce. And I'm so enjoying taking some time to really relish all of these new beginnings.

However, I am missing blogging for all of you a great deal, and will be back very shortly.

In the meantime, you can also check in with me on twitter (@pitchforkdiary) and facebook (www.facebook.com/pitchforkdiaries).

And I have my first (!) food piece in print in the winter issue of the gorgeous Green Door magazine. It is a tutorial on how to make preserved lemons, and this recipe for Pumpkin Tagine.

I'd also love to hear any questions you have or what you'd like to see coming up.

Please check back soon--great things are coming. Happy 2012!

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Chew on this.

"Food is our common language, it's important for people to pay attention to food, it's not so much what we're eating, as where that food comes from; people find money to buy anything they want, but when it comes to food it's their last priority, and it should be their first"

- Alice Waters

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Little Neck Clams with White Wine Cream Sauce

Here is an elegant meal or appetizer, that takes not more than minutes to whip up. Warm, rich and creamy, it is a great recipe to keep in mind for winter holidays. Serve it with crusty bread for soaking up the outrageously good sauce left behind, or serve the whole thing over pasta for a more substantial dish.


	Little Neck Clams with White Wine Cream Sauce by Catie Schwalb Makes four appetizers, or two main courses, or four main courses if served on pasta. 3 dozen little neck clams, cleaned (see information on how to clean clams here) 2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons olive oil 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced 2 shallots, minced ½ cup dry white wine ½ cup heavy cream, reduced slightly ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped 1 tablespoon lemon zest -no salt- (the clams should be plenty salty) Heat butter and oil together in large, lidded, heavy bottomed pot. Add garlic and shallots and saute until fragrant over medium-high heat. Gently add clams and white wine, and cover. Allow the clams to cook in the wine mixture, in the covered pot, until opened, about five minutes. When all, or the majority, of the clams have opened, carefully remove them from the pot with a slotted spoon and cover them to keep warm. Discard any clams that have remained closed. Add the reduced cream to the wine clam broth in the pot, and continue to reduce a bit for a couple of minutes, over medium-low heat, if the sauce feels to thin. Return the clams to the pot and gently mix to evenly cover with the sauce. Sprinkle with fresh parsley and lemon zest. Serve immediately, either with bread or add cooked pasta to the pot and portion out dishes.

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Catie Baumer Schwalb is a chef, food writer and photographer, who splits her life between the city and the country. Not too long ago Catie was a New York City based actress and playwright for more than a decade. She has her Master of Fine Arts from the National Theater Conservatory, and her Grand Diplôme in classic culinary arts from the French Culinary Institute in New York City. ... Read More ≫

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