Life without Salsa

By now you may be getting tired of hearing about the Bonner County Republicans’ decision to protest the County Fair theme of “Fiesta” by naming their booth “Celebration”, but I’m still flabbergasted. I understand that they wanted to make a political point of siding with the new Arizona immigration law, but did they really think that they could eliminate all Spanish-derived words from our language? Where would it end? Would they stop going to rodeos? Would all the alpaca breeders in the area need to send their animals south? And would we have to stop barbequing and just grill instead?
Our language is so full of words from other languages we don’t even notice it anymore. It would be sad if we lost all those colorful words and had to go back to speaking Shakespearean English instead. Luckily, our language is constantly evolving and is influenced by new ideas and different cultures on a regular basis. It would be very difficult to rid ourselves of all those “non-English” words.
Would the Bonner County Republicans stop at just eliminating Spanish words? I wonder if Cornel Rasor wants to try to eliminate Latin American and Spanish influenced food from our county as well. I fear this would be even tougher than the language problem.
Where would they start? Would they get rid of all the New World foods that were discovered in Mexico or further south? I know I’d be resistant to living without chocolate for the sake of someone else’s political agenda. Life without vanilla, potatoes, tomatoes, peanuts and chili peppers would be a sad existence. Our entire packaged food industry would be lost without corn.
Let’s say they didn’t want to be so extreme, it would still be hard to draw the line. Latin American food is as diverse as the people and has itself been influenced by different cultures. It is has been developing for thousands of years and been affected by native populations, African slaves, Spanish explorers, and white settlers.
If you did want to rid our county of any trace of Latin American influence, it might be easy to get rid of tacos or empanadas, but Latin American food has so thoroughly infiltrated our cuisine you might miss a few items if you didn’t look closely.
Take the tortilla for example. This simple flat bread made from corn or wheat flour is now ubiquitous and not just in Mexican restaurants. It’s used to wrap up all kinds of different foods into easy to carry little bundles. The goodies inside can have a Hispanic influence or they can be as “All American” as turkey, cranberries and gravy.
One look at the chip aisle in a grocery store would convince you that fried tortilla chips are a staple in our diet. Although they haven’t overtaken the potato chip as the U.S. favorite snack, they might be difficult to eradicate. And Texas would have to find a new official state snack.
Barbequing has it’s origins in the Caribbean not in Mother England. The Spanish introduced pigs to these islands, while the native people provided the technique for slow cooking meat with indirect heat. Today the southern states are the ruling kings and queens of BBQ but it will never lose its Spanish beginnings.
And what would you do about hot, spicy foods? Although the chili pepper has spread to many cuisines across the globe, it truly shines in Latin American food. With many thousands of years of a head start, it’s no wonder that they’ve got the hot food thing down.
The thought of eating bland, boiled vegetables and organ meat for the foreseeable future is a bleak vision, but that’s what we’d be in store for if we ate only English food with no other cultural influence.
Whether or not the Republican Party in our town wants to deny us the vast and delicious array of Latin American cuisine makes light of the more important food issue here. Illegal immigration reform does need to happen, not so we can keep all those Hispanics out of the country but so we can keep some of them here.
Much of the food grown in this country is picked by undocumented farm workers. The current laws make it difficult for them to be here legally. The work they do is work that most legal citizens don’t want (if you disagree and want a job in the fields, the United Farm Workers has a Take Our Jobs campaign going on right now and I’m sure they’ll be able to hook you up). If we deported all illegal farm workers, the agricultural industry would collapse. Undocumented workers also make up a large percentage of slaughterhouse labor. There is obviously something wrong with the system that wants its food cheap but doesn’t want the cheap labor that makes it all possible.
There must be a better answer to this difficult question. Not being a political wonk, I’m not sure what the answer is, but I’m convinced changing the theme of our fair and displaying some out-of state license plates isn’t it.


Tofu Fajitas (in which only 2 ingredients are English in origin)
Serves 4

1 lb Spicy Small Planet Tofu
1 T. + 1/8 c. mild chili powder (divided)
Juice of one lime
1 c. beer
4 T. canola oil or other neutral oil, divided
2 medium onions, cut in half and sliced into 1/4” thick rings
2 red bell peppers, sliced into strips
2 t. cumin powder
¼ t. cayenne powder (optional)
1 c. fresh salsa
Salt and pepper to taste

Accompaniments:
Lettuce, shredded
Tomatoes, diced
Cilantro, chopped
Jalapeno, finely chopped (optional)
Additional salsa or hot sauce
8 Flour or 12 corn tortillas, warmed

Cut the tofu into ½”x ½”x3” strips. Mix 1 T. chili powder, lime juice, and beer together in a shallow pan. Place the tofu strips in the marinade and let sit, turning occasionally, for 30 minutes.
In a large frying pan, heat 2 T. of oil on medium high heat. Add the tofu, reserving the marinade, and lightly brown on all sides. Remove tofu and set aside.
Add remaining oil. Add the onions and peppers and cook for 15 minutes or until soft. Return the tofu to the pan and add 1/8 c. chili powder, cumin, cayenne, salsa and remaining marinade. Continue cooking and stirring the mixture until the liquid has reduced and thickened a bit. Adjust the seasonings. Serve in a bowl accompanied by individual bowls of lettuce, tomato, cilantro and jalapenos. Assemble fajitas in your choice of tortilla.

Raw and Cut into Bite Sized Cubes

My brother bought me a cheese making kit for my birthday. I opened it up immediately and got all excited about making my own cheese. The kit came with everything I would need to make thirty batches of cheese, except the milk. And because of that exception, it sat on my counter and teased me for two months. I made no mozzarella, ricotta, paneer, queso blanco or chevre because I didn’t have the right milk.

Now I know what you’re thinking, how hard would it be for me to run down to the store and buy a gallon of milk and make the damn cheese already? And you would be have a point if I wanted to make my first ever cheese with just plain, old, ordinary, store-bought milk. But I’m not a store-bought milk kind of a girl.

In truth, I’m not much of a milk girl at all. I use a small amount in my baking but rarely have fresh milk on hand. When there is milk in the house, it’s organic and ultra-pasteurized. It’s organic because I can’t stomach the idea of drinking all the antibiotics and puss in milk from cows treated with rBGH (recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone) , and buying organic milk insures that I don’t have to. It’s ultra-pasteurized because I don’t use it very fast and the high heat treatment makes the milk last longer although it kills lots of the nutrients and enzymes.

But ultra-pasteurized milk doesn’t work for cheese making and it’s hard to find plain old pasteurized organic milk around here. Besides, I wanted to make my first batch of cheese with real milk, straight from a cow that lived in my neighborhood, because real raw milk makes the best cheese.

Now there is some serious controversy about raw milk. Raw milk enthusiasts claim that not only does the milk taste better, but it’s better for you. Pasteurization and homogenization change the structure of the milk and kill all bacteria naturally found in milk, including good bacteria. It’s thought that whole raw milk from pasture-raised cows contains more nutrients and enzymes and is better absorbed by our bodies and may even help alleviate some diseases.

Critics of raw milk claim that it’s dangerous and can kill you, especially if you’re young, elderly, or have a compromised immune system. Raw milk can harbor some nasty bacteria including campylobacter, tuberculosis, and e-coli (but then again we know that there can be plenty of e-coli in those grade A burgers you buy at the grocery store).

The data I found about the risks of drinking raw milk weren’t too scary. From 1998-2005 there were only 39 outbreaks of illnesses related to raw milk. 831 people were sickened, 66 ended up in the hospital, and only one death was associated with drinking raw milk or eating a raw milk product in those seven years. Drinking raw milk appears to be safer than eating industrial produced beef or chicken.

Drinking raw milk from a local farmer, whose farm you can visit and whose cows you can meet might actually be the safest way to go. Since the farmer has to look you in the eye when she sells you your milk and knows that you won’t come back if the milk is in anyway contaminated and that you will probably tell your whole neighborhood about how her milk made you sick, she’s got a vested interest in making sure her operation is spotless and her milk is contaminant-free.

Lucky for us, Idaho is one of the 39 states in the US where it is legal to purchase raw milk. In fact, the legislature just clarified and improved the law that allows raw milk sales. Unfortunately, it’s still not sold in stores.

There are two ways that you can obtain raw milk in Idaho. The first is from a farmer with 3 or fewer lactating cows who obtains a permit from the state and meets certain labeling, testing and sanitation requirements. That farmer can then sell you as much or as little milk as you want, you just need to find her and figure out where she’s selling her milk. I’ve heard rumors there is such a farmer at the Farmer’s Market in Sandpoint but I don’t know who it is.

The other way to obtain raw milk is to own your own cow, or at least part of one. The herd share program allows farmers with 7 or fewer lactating cows to sell shares of those cows, provided they obtain the correct permit from the state and meet the same testing and sanitation requirements as the small herd farmer. The shareholders get a certain amount of milk each week, depending on how many shares they own. The farmer does all the hard work of feeding, housing, and milking the cows and the shareholders just pick up their fresh milk each week from the farm.

Heritage Farms (www.naturalheritagefarms.com) has a herd share program. They had one in place even before the new law went into effect. Since it has always been legal to drink raw milk from your own cow, Luana and Wilber Hiebert, the owners of Heritage Farms, have been selling shares of their cows for years.

This is one the cow my milk came from!

When I mentioned to Luana that I wanted to try making my own cheese, she generously offered to give me some free milk to try. Two months later I finally had the time to: a) pick up the milk in Cocolalla when both Luana was home and I could drop it right back at my house without it having to sit in the car all day and b) make cheese before the milk went bad.

When the planets aligned this past weekend, I stopped by Heritage Farms to pick up the milk. Luana was more than generous and there was a giant (and quite heavy) 4 gallon bucket of fresh milk waiting for me when I arrived. I drove it home and had to clear off a shelf in the refrigerator to store it (which I did with my fingers crossed so the whole shelf wouldn’t collapse under the weight).

The following day I spent hours watching curds and whey separate. It never ceased to amaze me (but then I’m easily entertained) although it was only the mozzarella that got me giggling and calling to Jon to hurry and come look. By the end of the day I’d made ricotta, mozzarella and paneer and had eaten generous samplings of each.

I’m happy to report I’m still quite healthy and all the cheese tastes delicious, even if it needs a bit more salt. I may be the proud owner of (a share of) a cow in the not too distant future.

Paneer Kabobs
makes 4 servings

1 cup coconut milk
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp sugar
Juice of one lime
1 tbsp. grated ginger
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 lb paneer, cut in ½” cubes (preferably homemade from raw milk)
2 red pepper, cut into 1 inch squares
1 med onion, cut into quarters, separated into small chunks of two to three layers each
10 Cherry tomatoes
Bamboo or metal skewers, at least 12

Mix together first 7 ingredients in a large bowl. Add the paneer cubes, toss well, and let marinate for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.
Start a charcoal or gas grill. Allow charcoal grill to burn down to a medium heat or set gas grill to medium. If using bamboo skewers, soak in water for 30 minutes.
Alternately skewer a piece of paneer, red pepper, onion and tomato onto skewer until skewer is full. Make sure to leave some room between each piece. Continue filling skewers until all the ingredients are gone. Grill, turning frequently, until all the ingredients are cooked through. Paneer should be crisp on the outside but soft on the inside. Don’t worry, it won’t melt completely. Serve immediately over a bed of basmati rice.