Poor Man’s Feast Is Food For Thought

By Nancy K. Crevier

If it is food for thought or thoughts about food, Newtown resident Elissa Altman is not shy about sharing her views, whether through her book Big Food: Amazing Ways to Cook, Store, Freeze, and Serve Everything You Buy In Bulk, published by Rodale Press in 2005, her articles on the Huffington Post website, or most recently on her blog, Poormansfeast.com, where her biting wit is whisked into reminiscences on food and life and served up with a dollop of shrewd observation.

A former cookbook editor, restaurant critic, and food writer for more than 20 years, Ms Altman started her blog in December 2009 on an experimental basis. “I wanted to see who would be responsive to the concept of who wants to learn to eat food on a simpler level; who understands that feasting is in the eye of the beholder,” said Ms Altman. “I now have somewhere in the neighborhood of 55,000 readers,” she said, including a large international readership.

At poormansfeast.com, readers are drawn into Ms Altman’s world of friends, family, and of course food, including recipes meant to entice one to get up and cook.

“I’ve always been fanatical about food, even as a child,” admitted Ms Altman. “I learned to cook in self-defense. My mother had a terrible relationship with food. She didn’t ‘get it,’ and to this day, doesn’t ‘get it’ about food.”

It was from her father that she gained a healthy respect for excellent food. “My late father was a terrific cook and was very comfortable in giving my mother a glass of wine and saying, ‘Get out of the kitchen.’ I grew up right outside of Manhattan, just when the food world was on the cusp of change. Food was a very big part of our lives,” she said.

Food continued to be a big part of her life, even after she left home. She studied cooking at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) in New York City, served as a personal chef, catered privately, edited cookbooks for Martha Stewart, and was an editorial director for The Taunton Press. She has written a food column and served as the food critic for The Hartford Courant — “There is a lot of bad food out there” — all the while listening, watching, and noting how food affected people, cultures, and politics.

People And Their Food

“Largely, there has been an enormous ground shift in the way people think of food,” said Ms Altman. “There are still people who think of food as ‘fuel.’ On the other side of the coin are those who, over the last few years, pay attention to the qualitative value of food,” she said.

The resurgence of farmers’ markets and community supported agriculture (CSA) programs that allow people to buy shares of locally grown foods have contributed to people’s awareness of higher quality foods, as has the trend toward slowing down and returning to the table for mealtime. “I see a high percentage of those people doing things like dragging out the slow cooker or blowing the dust off of the pressure cooker and making an effort to roast that chicken and get the family around the table. That’s a hard thing to do when two people are working and lives get busy,” she said.

Farmers’ markets have become a social event, she has observed, with people sharing ideas on what to do with produce purchased there or just talking about the food and food production. “The conversations there are very engaging, even if people don’t buy anything. That’s an enormous change from even seven years ago, and a really cool thing,” said Ms Altman.

Every day, the message is being passed along that organic and local foods are desirable, and some consumers are seeking ways to combine that desire with lifestyles that are crunched for time.

The postwar belief that easier was better than fresh, and perhaps even safer, is a battle still being fought, Ms Altman said. Fresh foods have always been out there, but city dwellers had to actively seek out a source of truly fresh food. Stores like Trader Joe’s have helped to bridge the gap for those people who find fresh, local foods desirable, but who need ease of preparation to accommodate their busy lives, she said.

And even as people flock to their couches to watch increasingly incredible Food Network shows, featuring elaborate meals prepared by a full staff, and utilizing foods that will never show up at the local farmers’ market, said Ms Altman, those truly committed to good food are turning to “real” foods to nourish the body and soul.

Very Good, Very Simple

“For myself, I’ve become far more interested in very simple cooking, with very good ingredients that allow the flavors to sing. Right now, I’m crazy about tofu from The Bridge, in Middletown, and those small white Japanese turnips,” she said. They are two examples of locally produced foods that are vibrant with flavor on their own and exquisite in the most understated of sauces or glazes.

The Food Network does not teach people to prepare food, she said. “The one thing that has concerned me for a while, is that food has taken on ‘airs.’ Food has become entertainment. The recipes are intimidating and complicated,” Ms Altman pointed out. The Food Network courts an audience of young men between the ages of 19 and 35, hence the great number of competitive or Man Vs Food-type shows, said Ms Altman. “The food on some of these shows looks like you need an architectural degree to deconstruct and eat it,” she laughed. Sandwiched in between those shows are a few that are actually instructional.

“I’m heartened to see that home cooks are refocusing their efforts on simplicity with good ingredients,” she said.

Good ingredients (and bad) are available because America is able to produce and deliver food in mass quantities, said Ms Altman. “More food is potentially available to everyone, than anywhere else in this world,” she said. “Who doesn’t love seeing gorgeous fresh fruit in our markets in the dead of a Connecticut winter?” she asked. It is difficult for New Englanders to eat ‘local’ throughout four seasons, she pointed out.

Wise Consumer Choices

The plentitude of food in this country, however, leads to what Ms Altman calls “the two-edged sword of plenty,” and to two huge issues afflicting Americans. “We have a raging rate of obesity and all of its effects, like diabetes and heart disease. Americans are not healthier than earlier generations despite our access to a wide variety of foods. There is plenty of food, but not all of it is good quality,” Ms Altman said. “You can go to any relatively decent supermarket and have a choice of nonorganic, corn-fed, hormone-packed chicken; free-range chicken; or organic, free-range — and often local — chicken. Likewise, produce.

“The choice is with the consumer. Choosing wisely is deeply personal, and is based in education and of course, what the wallet can withstand. The thing that most folks don’t realize is that if they choose cheap now, they’ll likely pay for it later, with the health issues that continue to plague so many of us,” emphasized Ms Altman.

That dovetails with the other problem she sees in the food world — a lack of knowledge among people as to how to cook fresh foods. “If people don’t know what to do with fresh food, they won’t do anything with it. There has to be practical food education, to get kids excited about good food, and that starts at the elementary school level,” she said.

Communities in lower socioeconomic areas especially must be attentive to educating the populations about fresh food and how to use it. Community officials must let people know of subsidy programs that support farmers’ markets and CSAs, and people need to take advantage of those programs. In the end, said Ms Altman, it is a choice to support quality food or not.

“My hero, Alice Waters [American chef and humanitarian, and owner of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif.], once famously said that choosing to spend more money on good food is simply that: a choice. Some people will choose to buy another pair of fancy sneakers instead of more expensive food that’s healthier,” she said. “It’s a broad generalization to say that those of us in a higher income area are going to be eating healthier foods. Busy lives and a trap of ease with prepared foods,” said Ms Altman, “and the ability to fill up our kids quickly on what they will eat, prevents that in many cases.”

Politicizing Food

For issues like juvenile diabetes and obesity, and educating the population about food choices that impact them personally and globally, she is frustrated by what she sees as the politicizing of food, which on one hand has raised the visibility of food issues, but has turned the issue into a political left vs right, “rather than putting their heads together to try to effect change. I want people to stop yammering at each other and instead find ways to keep our food safer, our children healthier,” added Ms Altman.

Her blog is just one way of reaching out to the public, sharing her love of food, and airing her grave concerns about society and society’s relationship with food, and perhaps fueling conversations about food. Poormansfeast.com includes interviews with notable food authors, links to other blogs and related websites, a column dedicated to breakfast time, and more.

“I want to keep giving people recipes that they will love, and tweak, and make their own, and really learn to understand that food is far more than fuel,” she said. She is currently working on a book, Poor Man’s Feast, based on her blog, and will be updating Big Food to include more information on farmers’ markets and creating meals with fresh foods.

There is no easy answer and the food industry and food politics are huge, said Ms Altman. “We have a raft of socioeconomic and health issues around food, but we all have to eat. Everyone needs to get into the kitchen and break bread together. And the sooner, the better.” It is hard, she pointed out, to fight with people “while you are feasting with them.”

Portuguese-Style Potatoes with Kale, Shrimp, and Chorizo

Elissa Altman, poormansfeast.com

Admittedly, this is a robust, cooler-weather dish. But if you’re using potatoes and kale from your garden, the flavors will be far less sharp, and much more refined than they are when you make it in the dead of winter. Fold the leftovers into a frittata the next day, and enjoy a perfect room-temperature dinner with a glass of cold Albarino.

Serves 4 or 2 with leftovers

1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

2 links smoked chorizo, or one 6-8-inch length fresh chorzio, sliced into 1-inch rounds

1/2 teaspoon pimenton dulce (sweet paprika)

1/2 cup diced onion

3/4 pound La Ratte potatoes (or other fingerlings), halved

1/4 cup water

1 medium bunch Lacinato kale, washed and roughly chopped

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/2 pound large shrimp, cleaned and peeled

1. In a medium, fire-proof earthenware dish (such as a cazuela, or similar casserole), warm the olive oil over medium heat until it shimmers. Add the chorizo, and cook for about eight minutes, stirring frequently, until it just begins to brown around the edges and releases its fat into the pan. Using a slotted spoon, remove it to a plate lined with a paper towel, and set aside.

2. Sprinkle the pimenton into the dish and stir well, until it is incorporated into the oil in the pan. Add the onions and cook slowly until translucent, about six to eight minutes, stirring every few minutes to keep it from sticking. Fold the potatoes in with the onions, add the water, stir, and cover for about seven minutes, until the potatoes begin to soften.

3. Return the chorizo to the pan, toss well, and add the kale. Stir briskly until the warm onion, potatoes, and sausage begin to weigh down the greens, and they start to wilt. Pour in the wine and add the shrimp, raise the heat to medium high, stir well, and continue to cook until the greens are completely softened, the shrimp are cooked through, and the potatoes are tender, about another six minutes.

Serve hot, or at room temperature on slices of grilled and garlic-rubbed whole-grain bread.