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Community — 1 Comment
10
Sep 10

A kitchen, for the community.

(Editor’s note: Have you heard about the plans to build a community kitchen in Cambridge? They’re pretty awesome. On Sept. 14 at 7 pm there’s a meeting in Porter Sq to start the discussion on a broader level. We asked JJ Gonson, who helped coordinate the whole thing, to guest blog about it. Hope to see you there! visit www.cambridgecommunitykitchen.org for more details.)

In my culinary wanderings I have seen various solutions to the occasional need for a kitchen that is not a home kitchen.  In rural areas there are places like Grange Halls, where big community gatherings and dinners are held.

In Portland, Oregon, the reason there are so many food carts, is because there is cheap land, but the way they make it happen is that in the city there are multiple commisaries, or public kitchens that the cooks can rent by the hour, to get the food ready to go out on the cart.  Sometimes when caterers start out they share a kitchen, or rent from a restaurant, but there is no kitchen in the area around where I live where I can do that.

And that, pretty much is what I wanted to do.  In many cities and towns around the country there are kitchens, commisaries and public spaces where people can go to make food and share it with other people.  There is even one big building in Boston where developing businesses can go, but there is only one and the waiting list is long.

As I have worked for the past five years (as a personal chef) I’ve looked, seriously, for a kitchen I could use for the occasional really big job, and I know, pretty well what there is.  Or, more to the point, what there isn’t.  The trouble was that I knew that I did not want to own a kitchen, or I would just be a restaurant and stop moving things all the time. When I was approached by a young woman with an idea for a community space, focused on education around food and nutrition I knew that it was a project I wanted to work on.

The project is called Cambridge Community Kitchen, and is, most simply, a mission to build a certified kitchen that can be used by the community and is developed as an educational/community center.  In other words, you could throw a party there, or go there to can a lot of tomatoes and get help doing it, if you wanted it.  Or if you were starting a brownie company you could use it once a week to bake.  Or you could go there to teach a class, or to take one.  Or to hold a conversation about a community food project…

We will have a library, and resources, and we are very excited and quickly realizing that we are not the only people who want these things.  We do not yet have a space, but we have started filing the paperwork we need to get things going, and we are reaching out now to the community–to Cambridge and Somerville, Belmont, Arlington, Watertown, and Boston.

We do not want to own this, we want it to be a place where we can do what we want to do, and do it in a clean, safe environment, together.

The first big meeting to introduce the idea is coming up on Sept 14th. I am really excited about it, and the five of us who have started the ball rolling will be there to talk a little bit about it and, most importantly to encourage your ideas and open up some conversations.  We know that there are a lot of companies looking for kitchen spaces, and we know that there are people who want to take classes.  How do we get from here to there?

If you would like to attend, RSVP to cambridgecommunitykitchen@gmail.com.  Even if you can’t make the meeting, let us know if you want to be kept in the loop about the kitchen as it develops, and tell us if you might want to use it, or get involved later.

Hope to see you on Tuesday!

Meat — 4 Comments
30
Jul 08

I’m a meat eater, and that’s OK

EDITOR’S NOTE: Folks! Presenting JJ Gonson, local chef, local eater and now, a contributor to our blog. Consider this, as well, an invite to anyone out there who would like to blog about their Bostonish Localvore exploits but don’t want the commitment of maintaining their own site. We will maintain it for you. And the whole point here is to help each other source and devour sustainable foodstuffs in and nearby the city. So please, contact info@bostonlocalvores.org and participate.

One thing I really like about this local food movement, is that it has sort of made it OK again to eat meat.  I have lived through so many moments of vegetarian trends, vegan trends… I had a roommate who hated me because I fed the cats food with meat in it.  Say no more bout that.

Point is, that there are times I feel like I should say, “Hi, my name is JJ, and I eat meat. Please. Please, someone, help me!” But, like any good addict, I can’t seem to stop. I love meat. I love to cook it and I love to eat it. And because I love meat, I love me some meat farmers. The stars have aligned, and I’m going to take full advantage of it.

Now here’s how:

1.  Austin Brothers Farm’s steak tips
Marinate for at least 24 hours in lime and ginger, with some light oil and salt and pepper, and grill, hot and fast.  You can cut them into kebabs, or slices, as think as you want. They are very tender, and sweet.

2. River Rock’s flank steak.
You can’t get it, but if you could, rub it with a wet paste made of garlic scapes, rosemary, salt, pepper and olive oil.  Leave them rubbed for 12 hours or so, wipe off the rub, salt and pepper em and grill them, hot and fast, again.  Let ‘em sit for 10 minutes, tent them if there are bugs, and slice them thin, thin, thin.

3. Stillmans butterflied leg of lamb
Cut it for kebab, or leave it whole, and marinate it in a paste of ground cumin, salt, pepper, white vinegar and olive oil for as long as you can.  At least 24 hours, but if it’s four days that’s good too.  Grill it, yeah, you got it, hot and fast, and serve it with yogurt mixed with a bit of cumin and salt.  You could stir some chopped garlic scapes, or shallots, or mint, or cucumber or cilantro in there… You get the idea, I’m sure.

Tomorrow I’m serving spare ribs, marinated for 24 hours in a cider brine, with allspice, star anise, fresh ginger, cider vinegar, kosher salt, Sichuan peppercorn and black peppercorn, then dry rubbed in brown sugar, paprika, cumin and oregano, slow roasted for 8 hours at 200 (braised once an hour with the brine liquid, which is first mixed with white wine, then boiled and then triple strained) and then brushed with pomegranate molasses and grilled.

I got them from Lionettes, and I know they were from a pig that came from Vermont, but I don’t know what farm they were from. That’s OK. I love that Lionettes can do that consistently!

The only complaint I have is that I simply cannot get baby-backs this year. And they really are a superior cut for that recipe.  But really, I should just be happy that it is summer, the barbeque is in bloom, and for now, eating a healthy meat option has made it socially acceptable to be a carnivore!

Hooray for our team — I just know those old cats would be so proud!