Slow Food For a Fast World

posted March 30, 2008
  by Amy Powell, Real Meals In Minutes

Your dinner tonight is going to be really “slow,” but you will have it on the table from start to finish in under half an hour. Sounds crazy, right?
Normally “slow” is not a word people want associated with their dinner recipes. But when you are talking about Slow Food, as in the Slow Food Movement, it is a word that you just might consider using for your next meal.

Slow Food is an international non-profit organization with a mission of connecting producers of traditional foods and the consumer to fight the prevalence of fast food in the modern world. Founded in Italy over 20 years ago, the group is now over 80,000 members strong worldwide. These members work together to put into practice their philosophy that food taste good, be environmentally friendly, and that producers be paid fairly.

At this point the Slow Food philosophy may conjure images of Birkenstock clad feet in a steamy kitchen stirring a pot of beans for a whole Saturday afternoon. Not so. It is possible to adopt some of the Slow Food philosophies into your weekday life and still get dinner on the table in a reasonable amount of time.

Fish is one food that no matter how “Slow” you cook it, it is nearly impossible for it to take a long time to go from kitchen to table. So the slow part of cooking fish relates more to where it is coming from to make sure your choices are both safe for the environment (fish is coming from sustainable and renewable sources) and safe for you (levels of mercury and PCBs are low). The Environmental Defense Fund has made it a little easier for us to navigate the murky waters of seafood selection with a pocket guide that you can download or have sent to your phone.

Wild Alaskan Salmon is on the Best Choices list in the pocket guide and this particular fish variety lends itself to another Slow, and that is slow roasting. Slow roasting salmon in a moderately low temperature oven does not take more than 25 minutes from start to finish, which is plenty fast by most people’s standards. Unlike pan sautéing the fish or roasting in a high heat oven which produces a crisp skin with a tender center, slow roasting not only leaves the flesh an orangey pink color, but creates a finished dish that is rich and silken all the way through.

Brown rice used to be the sort of food you would expect a Birkenstock clad, Slow Food loving, vegetarian to be the sole consumer of. These days the former red-headed stepchild of the rice family is enjoying a bit of a comeback. White rice is simply brown rice minus the bran layer, plus a polishing. Removing the bran layer results in a loss of some of the nutritional value as well as flavor. Brown rice has also been the nemesis of a quick kitchen as its cooking time varies from 45 minutes to an hour, versus the 15 minutes it takes to make a pot of white rice.

However, the process of parboiling (partially precooking) the brown rice dramatically reduces the cooking time. These days most stores sell par-boiled brown rice or you can do it yourself by cooking 1 cup of brown rice in 2-3 cups of boiling water for 15 minutes then draining. You can store the parboiled rice in the refrigerator for a couple of days. When you are ready to cook that final meal, just cook rice in 2 parts liquid to 1 part rice for about 30 minutes.

It is unlikely that most of us have time in a week, let alone many given days, to take up the Slow Food movement in its entirety. But adopting elements of it into the kitchen is a good reminder to take a minute in the kitchen to stop and smell the radicchio, or roses, or whatever. Making sure your food is as environmentally friendly as possible, maybe even going out of your way to get to know the producer by shopping at your local farmer’s market, and most of all embracing the pleasure of eating itself are easy ways to bring a little slow into this fast world.


Slow Roasted Salmon with Brown Rice and Cucumber Yogurt Recipe
http://www.cdkitchen.com/


Serves/Makes: 4
Ready in: < 30 minutes

* 3 1/2 cups chicken stock
* 2 cups parboiled brown rice
* 4 (4 oz. size) Wild Alaskan Salmon fillets
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* Salt and pepper
* 1 cup Greek yogurt
* 1/2 English cucumber
* 2 tablespoons minced dill
* 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
* 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
* 1 teaspoon sugar

Preheat oven to 275° F.

Bring chicken stock and rice to a boil in a medium saucepan. Cover with a lid and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 25-30 minutes or according to package directions.

Meanwhile using a sharp knife, remove skin from salmon (or have the market do it for you when you purchase the fillets. Drizzle olive oil evenly on the bottom of a non-stick baking sheet or casserole. Season fish on both sides with salt and pepper. Place in pan and into the oven. Cook for 10-12 minutes per side depending on the thickness of the fillet, turning fillets over once during cooking.

While fish and rice or cooking, make the yogurt sauce. Using a mandolin or very sharp knife, slice cucumber paper thin. Add cucumber to yogurt in a small bowl along with dill, garlic, vinegar, and sugar. Stir all together and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Fluff rice with fork. To serve place one salmon fillet on top of a cup of cooked brown rice and top with 1/4 cup of yogurt sauce.

©2008 CDKitchen, Inc. No reproduction of this article may be made without express permission from CDKitchen, Inc.

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