Celebrating the Abundance of Local Foods, Season by Season Winter 2011 • Number 3
with winter cocktails
hoosier Thoughts edible Indy
Publisher Edible Indy, LLC
Dear Reader,
Happy holidays!
Welcome, Super Bowl fans!
Indianapolis is abuzz with activity this winter season. The holidays always bring a festive tone to our city, with the “tallest Christmas tree” alighted on Monument Circle. And with 2012 bringing us the “big game,” there will be lots to do, much to see and an abundance to eat!
If you are a visitor to town, I encourage you to visit our magnificent locally owned restaurants. There are many all across our region. Our magazine is dedicated to their success. We want you to experience the best that our local food scene offers, so please pay attention to restaurants whose names are not yet “household words.”
To our residents, we are pleased to announce that we are expanding our Edible Indy “territory” to include Monroe, Brown and Bartholomew Counties! We are delighted with these additions since the local food movement is highly charged in this area these days. Bloomington has one of the oldest food co-ops in the country (the oldest in Indiana) and its members are helping to establish co-ops in Columbus and Terre Haute. We are excited to follow their progress and write about their successes in the future.
Holidays mean family, and family means traditions! In our pages this season we celebrate several ethnic traditions and offer numerous recipes to brighten your holiday table with local food and drink. Because Central Indiana can be wet, cold (OK, frigid sometimes) and blustery during these months, we have proffered an array of comfort foods—soups, chilies and stews—to fill your tummy, warm your spirits and soothe your soul.
All of us at Edible Indy wish you a very happy holiday season!
P.S. Don’t forget to vote for our Local Heroes by December 16th. Directions are on page 20.
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Edible Indy publishes quarterly by Edible Indy, LLC. All rights reserved. Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring Subscription $32 annually. No part of this publication may be used without written permission of the publisher © 2011. Every effort is made to avoid errors, misspellings, and omissions. If, however, an error has escaped our attention, please notify us and accept our sincere apologies.
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notable edibles
At a
Food Swap, Baked Goods Speak Louder than Dollar Bills
How do you measure the worth of chocolate pecan lattice tart? At the Indy Food Swap, it’s calculated in cake pops, loaves of apple bread or jars of zucchini pickles.
The swap is a free event held every other month where food lovers trade homemade culinary delights. The next swap is Dec. 10 from 2 to 4 pm at Earth House Collective, 237 N. East St. in downtown Indianapolis.
Here’s how it works: Participants bring homemade or homegrown food to exchange with others in silent auction fashion. Swappers can hand out samples to entice bids, then they request even trades as a form of barter.
A jar of veggie and bean soup might garner a dozen whole-wheat biscuits or a few jars of grape jam.
This interactive approach to grocery shopping has spread across the country via social media, and Indianapolis resident Suzanne Krowiak organized the first Indy Food Swap this summer. Krowiak loves to cook and to share recipes, and she was confident that others in her community would be excited about the creative possibilities of a food swap.
“The only thing more fun than making something you love is talking about it with other people who are as crazy about food as you are,” Krowiak says. “So, not only do you walk away from a swap with great food, but there are real social and community benefits to it.”
There is no cost, but participants must register on the event’s website. For info: www.indyfoodswappers.com
—Joan Jacobs
Putting the Nog in Eggnog
There is eggnog, and then there is eggnog. We all know the difference. Traders Point Creamery’s variety is the latter: an organic, homemade-tasting nog that puts other store-bought concoctions to shame.
The secret to its goodness? Milk and cream from 100% grass-fed cows that roam Traders Point’s dairy farm in Zionsville, plus egg yolk, cane sugar, Madagascar vanilla and spices. For some, it’s just not the holidays until they’ve sipped it. Drink it with a splash of bourbon or rum, or combine it in a blender with vanilla ice cream for an eggnog milkshake.
Its quick stint on store shelves has begun—find the nog at Marsh stores, Whole Foods Markets, The Fresh Market and other select retailers through early January. Or, pick it up right at the creamery, 9101 Moore Rd. in Zionsville; www.tpforganics.com.
—Erica Sagon
Photos courtesy of Indy Food Swap
Photo courtesy of Traders Point Creamery
Taking the Meat Out of Mondays
Meatless Mondays—no matter what day you choose—are all about reducing meat consumption to benefit both personal and planetary health. It’s a cinch in the summer, but trickier in the winter when the choice of local produce is slimmer.
For inspiration, do what we do: Check out the blog A Couple Cooks, where 20somethings Sonja and Alex Overhiser of Indianapolis share their experiences pursuing a mostly vegetarian diet.
Their recipes and photos on www.acouplecooks.com can make the most committed carnivore salivate. Making meal prep fun and accessible is their primary goal. “We encourage cooking. It’s a lost art, especially in our generation,” says Sonja Overhiser.
In addition to sharing hearty and flavorful winter recipes, they point out which ingredients they’ve found at the Indy Winter Farmers Market and from other local sources.
Overhiser advises incorporating legumes, whole grains and cheeses in the winter to ensure the dish leaves you satiated, and using herbs and spices to add pizzazz. Round out the meal with bread and salad to leave the table satisfied.
Latin American dishes tend to be vegetarian-adaptable, and so do soups, pasta, pizza and sandwiches, she notes. “Even just going one day a week meatless can have a big impact…on the environment and your health.”
—Shawndra Miller
Roasted Winter Vegetables with Quinoa recipe found at acouplecooks.com.
Photo courtesy of A Couple Cooks
At the Table
Hoosier Holidays
We greet the season with a varied banquet of food traditions
By Marcia Ellett
Photos by Christina Richey
The winter holiday season means a diversity and abundance of food and related traditions to delight the senses. From vegan to kosher to turkey and stuffing with a twist, this time of year is abuzz with opportunities for family and friends to bond over a good meal.
Three Indianapolis cooks invited us to celebrate at their tables, in a way. Here, they share their holiday food traditions and favorite recipes that just might become part of your festivities, too.
Red lentil soup with curry and coconut. Recipe on page 9.
GREEK FOOD MEETS
COMFORT FARE
Katherine Haidar, owner of Cooking Greek in Carmel, is a first-generation American who enjoys mixing traditional Greek dishes with American classics for the holidays.
Born in Kentucky, Haidar crisscrossed the country growing up, spending time in Florida, Michigan, New York and even her parents’ native Greece for a time.
She started her first business teaching cooking classes at a kitchen supply store while living in Tallahassee, Florida. “There were no Greek restaurants in Tallahassee,” Haidar says. “We had to drive clear to Tampa Bay for authentic Greek food.”
Yet another move, this time for her husband’s job, brought Haidar and their four children to Indiana. She continued her business using other people’s kitchens until a year ago, when she moved into a space on Old Meridian Street big enough for her cooking classes, catering and a small restaurant area. She also stocks Greek supplies for the community.
Marrying the food of her forefathers with downhome fare just seemed to fit.
“We do a little bit of everything,” Haidar says of holiday meals. It’s a practice she employs in her catering business, too.
Her staple holiday meal is a turkey cooked with lots of sage, butter and wine, and plenty of accompanying Greek dishes such as stuffed grape leaves and pastichio (Greek lasagna). “But we stuff our turkey with a rice, beef and cinnamon mixture,” says Haidar.
“And, yes,” she admits with a smile, “we do fry a turkey, too.”
Dessert is an assortment of traditional pies, baklava and galaktoboureko, a Greek custard.
Her favorite tradition to go along with the food? Gathering people who don’t have family or friends close by and inviting them to celebrate.
Then she gets everybody involved in the meal preparation. “They want to feel like family, not strangers,” she says. “If they wanted to be served, they’d go to a restaurant.”
With a kitchen full of helping hands and the smell of both Greek and American spices permeating the air, Haidar relishes the chaos of the holidays. “It’s fun. Things are going to burn. Things are going to spill. What makes it perfect is spending time with your family and friends,” she says.
GALAKTOBOUREKO
Recipe courtesy of Katherine Haidar
This Greek dessert is the perfect finish for a holiday feast.
4 cups milk
6 eggs, beaten
½ cup Cream of Wheat
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons butter
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 package phyllo dough
2 sticks butter, melted, for buttering phyllo sheets
For syrup:
3 cups sugar
1 cup water
Juice of one lemon
½ cup honey
1.In a saucepan, add milk and beaten eggs on medium-high heat. Continue to whisk thoroughly.
2.When milk is heated, add the cream of wheat, sugar, 2 teaspoons butter, salt and vanilla, while continuing to whisk. Once mixture has thickened, remove from heat and let stand for a few minutes.
3.In a 13- by 9-inch buttered pan, arrange 10 phyllo sheets one at a time with some of the sheets hanging over the sides of the pan. Make sure to butter the phyllo sheets using the 2 sticks of melted butter.
4.Pour in the cream mixture and fold over phyllo dough sheets one at a time, buttering each.
5.Add additional phyllo sheets to top, continuing to butter each.
6.Place in fridge for 15 minutes and then score the top of the phyllo into diamond shapes.
7.Place in preheated oven at 350° for about 45 minutes or until golden brown.
8.Remove from oven and pour syrup (directions below) over the top.
9.Let stand for at least an hour and then place in fridge for an additional 2 hours or overnight. Cut only when completely cooled.
To make syrup: Place sugar and water in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Continue to stir until sugar water is clear. Add lemon juice and continue to stir until it thickens. Take off heat and let stand for a couple of minutes, then add honey. Mix thoroughly and pour over Greek custard.
A CELEBRATION TO THE FULLEST
Nancy Landman, who grew up in a Reform Jewish household in Indianapolis and owns the Great Cooks at Home kosher catering business, caught the holiday entertaining bug from her mother.
Mom used to throw elaborate parties, Landman recalls. “One time she was having a big party, and when she left to get one more thing, I decided to assist.” Then Nancy proceeded to move all the furniture to the wall on one side of the room, and when her mother came home proudly proclaimed, “I’ve made it so you can have a ball!
“I can only imagine how horrifying that was,” she laughs. “But at an early age I decided I was into parties and celebrations. The little nut doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
Landman’s first career was in urban education. She worked within the Indianapolis Public Schools system for a number of years, and food and party planning were just a hobby.
Realizing she couldn’t do food and school, this educator became a student again and studied culinary arts in Europe.
“I never really thought I would be a chef,” Landman says. “I just wanted to have the best dinner party in town.”
That, and she loves to travel. “When I was growing up, Indianapolis was totally meat and potatoes, and I knew there was more out there,” she says.
Though her mother didn’t come with family recipes, Landman says she did a great job of collecting them and passing them on to her five children.
“Mom made the best kugel,” a Jewish casserole most commonly made from noodles.
Landman was also influenced by a rabbi friend who kept a kosher home. “He said, ‘I want my home to be available for anyone to eat in,’ and I never forgot that,” says Landman, “because everyone can come together when it comes to food.”
So holidays in her household are celebrated to the fullest. The table presentation is as important as the food, and the dining room table is adorned with nature’s seasonal decorations, such as nuts, fruits and dates.
A dinner might include potato pancakes, salmon stuffed with a fish mousse, a kugel for something traditional and perhaps a squash soup.
In keeping with the act of remembrance associated with the observance of a number of Jewish holidays, the meal will often be served by candlelight. Of course, candles are a nice touch for purely aesthetic reasons, too.
NOODLE KUGEL
Recipe courtesy of Nancy Landman
A kosher kugel with a touch of sweetness is sure to satisfy.
Makes 12 servings
1 pound broad noodles
½ pound cream cheese, softened (be sure to use good quality)
1 cup sour cream
¼ pound butter, melted
4 eggs
½ cup sugar
1¾ cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup golden raisins (optional)
2 cups corn flakes, crumbled Cinnamon and sugar, to taste
1.Cook noodles as directed on package.
2.Blend cream cheese, sour cream and butter together. Mix in noodles.
3.Pour into 9- by 13-inch glass baking dish, greased.
4.Beat together eggs, sugar, milk and vanilla. Mix in raisins. Pour over mixture in dish.
5.Top with corn flakes. Coat generously with cinnamon and sugar.
6.Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes in 350° oven.
A HEALTHY TWIST
Chef Wendell Fowler, host of WISH-TV Channel 8’s Eat Right Now! and author of several books, including the cookbook The Dawning of the Age of Asparagus, has what some might consider some unusual holiday food traditions.
After a massive heart attack at age 40, he found his life’s mission and devoted himself to healthy living and teaching others about nutrition. For him that meant becoming a vegan and dabbling in rawism.
“Fifteen years ago people laughed at me when I mentioned the word organic,” says Fowler, who is all about fresh, locally sourced, organically grown food, “but what we put in this temple [our body] we have to evaluate.”
It also meant reimagining holiday delights into forms that he was willing to eat.
“Christmastime is always fun,” he says. He enjoys quinoa, which he often turns into a pilaf. He likes tempeh, a traditional soy product originally from Indonesia, as a protein source. He makes his own version of eggnog out of coconut milk, and he calls his lentil coconut curry soup “a beautiful soup for a beautiful winter evening.”
As sweets are a must for the holidays¬, he makes a chocolate fudge out of avocado. Fowler admits the holidays might tempt him into cheating a bit and eating something not on his approved list. “I’m as human as the next person,” he says, “but if I do cheat, the next day I atone.”
His bad food hangover cure is a vegetable smoothie.
This self-professed evangelist of food adores having his grandchildren over for a celebratory meal, but he admits one more thing: “I’ve got to get creative with the grandkids. Sometimes I feed them and then tell them what was in it.”
RED LENTIL SOUP WITH CURRY AND COCONUT
Recipe courtesy of Chef Wendell Fowler
For a healthy holiday meal to warm the heart and the body, try this savory soup.
Makes 4 to 6 servings
3 tablespoons raw, virgin unrefined coconut oil (divided use)
3 medium onions, coarsely chopped
4 cups water
1 cup red lentils, washed and rinsed
3 medium carrots, roughly chopped 1 14-ounce can coconut milk
1 bay leaf
3 garlic cloves, minced
1-inch piece of fresh ginger, grated 1 tablespoon curry powder ½ cup chopped cilantro
Sea salt to taste
1.In a medium noncorrosive saucepan over low heat, warm 1½ tablespoons of the coconut oil; add the onions, cook and stir for 1 minute.
2.Add 4 cups filtered water, lentils, carrots, coconut milk, salt and bay leaf. Cover and bring to a low simmer. Cook, stirring often, for about 15 minutes.
3.Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1½ tablespoons of oil over low heat. Add garlic, ginger, curry and half the cilantro. Gently cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add to soup.
4.Remove bay leaf. If desired, in a food processor or blender, puree in batches until velvety smooth. (Photos show the soup unprocessed) Taste and adjust salt. Serve hot, and garnish with remaining cilantro.
Chef Wendell Fowler enjoying his red lentil soup with curry and coconut.
A Wish List Filled with Food
Five gift ideas that you can make in your kitchen
By Shawndra Miller
Photos by Erica Sagon
If there’s one kind of gift that can bring cheer to everyone on your list—from hostesses and bosses to neighbors and the members of your book club—it’s the edible kind. At the moment, it feels right to roll up our sleeves, make food from scratch and hand over the delicious results as presents.
For inspiration on do-it-yourself foodthemed gifts, we turned to Terri Procopio of Indianapolis, the sort of intrepid cook who whips up homemade Worcestershire sauce just for the sheer challenge of it. Procopio especially likes to create gifts that began as seeds sown in her own soil.
“It’s fun to personalize gift giving, and it feels better than running out to the store,” she says.
Here, Procopio shares a few ideas that any home cook can borrow for the holidays.
Terri Procopio with a basket of her homemade gifts.
Lotsa pasta
Procopio mines her heritage for this Italian-themed gift basket overflowing with the kind of edible love you might expect from your grandmother in the Old Country. Generous portions of made-from-scratch dried minestrone mix, red wine vinegar, limoncello, marinara sauce, Italian seasoning and spinach linguini are snuggled in a salvaged basket. The red wine vinegar originated as wine produced by Procopio’s wine club, while the dried soup mix incorporates her home-dried veggies and herbs. This concept lends itself to a mix-and-match approach. Those short on time, skills or equipment can purchase top-notch pasta from Nicole-Taylor’s, sauce from LocalFolks Foods or vinegar and spices from Artisano’s Oils and Spices.
DRIED MINESTRONE MIX
2 cups dried kidney or cranberry beans
½ cup dried carrots
½ cup dried zucchini
¼ cup dried celery
¼ cup chopped dried onions
½ teaspoon thyme
½ teaspoon sage
2 bay leaves
2 cups ditalini pasta
Seal dried beans in a small Ziploc. Combine the rest of the ingredients and place everything together in a larger bag.
Attach these instructions for the recipient: Soak beans overnight in water to cover. Drain, add fresh water and cook until tender. Drain and combine with remaining ingredients plus 3 cups vegetable or chicken broth and one 28-ounce can of tomatoes. Heat and add salt and pepper to taste. Top with Parmesan cheese and serve. (Or: Soak beans overnight, drain and place in Crock-Pot in the morning. Add dried ingredients, canned tomatoes, salt and pepper during the last hour of cooking).
Secret’s in the sauce
Heat ‘em up with a Spicy Buffalo Wing Sauce: All your tailgater friends have to do is add chicken wings. This versatile sauce can also perk up a grilled chicken breast sandwich.
To make: Pulverize three diced habaneros, one coarsely chopped onion and three garlic cloves in a food processor. Combine with two 28-ounce cans of tomato sauce and one can of tomato paste on the stove and simmer 20 minutes. Add more tomato paste if a thicker sauce is desired. Add salt and pepper to taste.
For a more durable present, can the sauce. Or, place it in a jar and refrigerate; give within a day or two with a note to consume within the week.
Scrump-dilly dip
Dill and onion dip makes a zippy little stocking stuffer. Simply mix one cup dried dill weed with a teaspoon each of dehydrated onion and garlic. Mixed with a container of sour cream, these herbs will light up a cold night with the taste of summer.
Local jerky
For the carnivore in your life, try this preservative-free jerky. Any kind of meat will work, but local is always best. Procopio uses Indiana venison and dries the marinated meat in her trusty dehydrator. Dehydratorless? No worries: you can use your oven.
JERKY
1 pound meat (boneless venison roast, flank steak or other lean meat)
4 tablespoons soy sauce
4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons Liquid Smoke flavoring
1 tablespoon ketchup
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon onion salt
½ teaspoon salt
Slice meat into long strips, 1 inch wide and 1/8 inch thick, cutting with the grain.
In a large releasable plastic bag, combine soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, Liquid Smoke, ketchup, pepper, garlic powder, onion salt and salt.
Place meat in bag and seal shut. Refrigerate overnight. Knead occasionally to evenly distribute marinade.
Place in dehydrator with a tray on the level below and dehydrate for about 8 hours. (Oven instructions: Preheat oven to 160°F. Place a pan on the bottom of oven to catch drips, or line with aluminum foil. Place meat strips on a rack so that they do not touch each other, and dehydrate for 6 to 8 hours in the oven, or until desired consistency is achieved. Let cool and store in the refrigerator.
Don’t forget the dog
These bacon-flavored dog treats will make Fido’s day, if Procopio’s dog Marty McFly’s response is any indication. Local sources for most ingredients abound; Fields of Agape flour and cornmeal can be purchased at winter markets and Pogue’s Run Grocer.
ULTIMATE DOG TREATS
3 cups whole-wheat flour
¾ cups cornmeal
¼ cup milk
1 egg
6–8 bacon strips
2–3 cloves garlic
½ cup cheese
1 can chicken
1 cup molasses
Mix flour, cornmeal, milk and egg in a large bowl. Set aside. Fry bacon, then place it in a food processor with any grease left in the pan. Process, then mix remaining ingredients in the food processor. Add the contents of the food processor to the flour mixture and stir well.
Roll the dough out on a floured surface. Cut into bone shapes or squares. Bake 15 minutes at 350°.
Let cool completely, then store in refrigerator. The treats will get crunchier in the refrigerator.
Liquid Assets That’s the spirit
Celebrate the
holidays
with these winter cocktail recipes from The Libertine
By Erica Sagon
Photos by Kelley jordon Heneveld
With its old-meets-new look, The Libertine is a cocktail bar fit for any metropolitan city, and its drinks are inspired by another era.
But owner Neal Brown pulls everything together to make The Libertine feel like it belongs in Indianapolis, right now.
Inside downtown’s newest spot for craft cocktails, bartenders fix preProhibition drinks like the Sazerac and the Old Fashioned using regional spirits and Brown’s homemade ingredients. Brown, who also runs the specialty pizza shop Pizzology in Carmel, has a thing for brown spirits—think whiskey, bourbon and rye—and he’s stocked the bar accordingly.
You won’t find the usual suspects, like Jack Daniel’s, which Brown says is among his favorites but didn’t make the cut for his business. Instead, the selection highlights smaller labels and rising stars like Noah’s Mill, Willett, Kentucky Vintage, Bulleit and Four Roses, all from Kentucky; and Indiana’s W. H. Harrison Governor’s Reserve bourbon.
Gin, rum and absinthe concoctions round out the cocktail menu of 20-plus choices that change with the seasons. Even larger is the wine list, curated by Brown’s wife, Lindy Brown, a certified sommelier.
Meanwhile, the kitchen turns out what Brown calls “heightened Americana” bar food, including deviled eggs, lamb’s-neck rillettes and roasted beets with goat cheese. The menu is peppered with ingredients from Indiana farms such as Viking Lamb and Gunthorp Farms pork.
On the cocktail side of the menu, expect the likes of the Highlander, with smoky and a peaty Scotch, maple syrup and lemon; Aviation, with gin, crème de violette and lemon; Truth & Reconciliation, with tequila, Campari and vermouth; and the Seelbach Cocktail, with bourbon, prosecco, orange and lemon.
This summer, Brown preserved 200 pounds each of cherries and strawberries to use in cocktails.
“I love the idea of using preserved fruit,” Brown says. “As a chef, I am always trying to extend the season.”
Jars of the preserved ingredients are tucked into the roughly 200 cubbies that line the back wall of the long bar. Brown says the presentation is a nod to the general store that used to occupy the building, located south of the Circle and built in 1821.
Brown designed The Libertine’s interior—with deep grey walls, dark wood floors and the trunk and limbs of a white tree busting through the back wall—to foster the bar’s theme: “This idea of being a free-thinker, this innovative spirit,” Brown says.
Brown has plans to pickle, preserve or otherwise concoct more of his own ingredients. Homemade bitters could be part of the lineup. Meanwhile, he is tinkering with a homemade digestif, a sort of nocino, using green walnuts that he picked in early summer, blended with botanicals and vanilla. Though it’s not available to customers now, Brown says he hopes to bottle and sell it next year.
Brown, who was chef-owner of the now-shuttered L’Explorateur restaurant in Broad Ripple, says his inspiration to be creative behind the bar comes from spending time in the kitchen.
“It’s my chef mentality,” Brown says. “I just don’t know any other way to do things.”
Details: 38 E. Washington St., 317-631-3333, www.libertineindy.com.
Owner Neal Brown tending bar.
The winter months are full of celebrations and holidays—toast to them with these cocktail recipes by
CLOVE SMOKER
This earthy concoction is perfect for sipping near the fire. Allspice dram, an allspice liqueur, gives the Clove Smoker its distinct flavor—it captures the holidays without being trite. Brown combines the allspice dram with Batavia arrack, a Southeast Asian spirit, and aperitif wines Cocchi Americano and Bonal GentianeQuina.
For an extra wintery spin, Brown says to omit the egg white and add eggnog instead (Traders Point Creamery in Zionsville makes a local option).
1 ounce Batavia Arrack
1 ounce Cocchi Americano
½ ounce allspice dram
½ ounce Bonal Gentiane-Quina
1 small egg white
Shake all ingredients and fine strain into a chilled, but iceless, highball glass.
Neal Brown, owner of The Libertine:
The Clove Smoker.
ELDERBERRY SPRITZ
On New Year’s Day, a brunch cocktail with just two ingredients and one step seems fitting. Keep things simple, yet festive, by combining a berry liqueur and prosecco.
Brown makes his own liqueur from foraged elderberries and vanilla, but a variety of berry liqueurs from the store would work. Try using Huber Winery’s raspberry dessert wine, which is infused with raspberries grown on the Huber family farm in Starlight.
1 ounce elderberry syrup/cordial 4 ounces prosecco or sparkling white wine
Pour the elderberry cordial into a champagne flute and top with prosecco.
— Cover recipe — POLITICS AS USUAL
Looking for a signature cocktail to serve at your holiday party? Try this grownup punch. Muddled orange and Brown’s brandied cherries give this drink the right amount of fruitiness. The rest of the ingredients meld so well that your guests are guaranteed to ask for the recipe. Make a large batch and serve it in a punch bowl.
2 brandied cherries (or substitute Maraschino cherries)
1 orange wedge
1 brown sugar cube
1 ounce W. H. Harrison Governor’s Reserve Barrel Proof bourbon
½ ounce Dolin Rosso vermouth
½ ounce Four Graces Pinot Noir
Muddle the cherries, orange wedge and sugar cube in a mixing glass. Add the bourbon and vermouth.
Add ice to the glass and shake well until chilled. Strain into a champagne coupe and spoon the wine over the top of the cocktail.
The Elderberry Spritz.
From the Good Earth
Pork Star
Chefs call his farm out by name on their menus, but it wasn’t always that easy. Here’s how Greg Gunthorp’s spectacular pig products rose to fame.
By Dave Stephens
Gunthorp’s free-range Duroc pigs.
Photo by Kelley Jordan Heneveld
Gunthorp’s name dots the menus of Indianapolis restaurants such as Dunaway’s Palazzo Ossigeno, Black Market, 14 West, Mesh, R bistro, Goose the Market, and in Bloomington the food cart called Happy Pig, which sells $6 pork belly sandwiches to IU students.
As he walks across his LaGrange County farm in the northeast corner of Indiana, Greg Gunthorp says all he ever wanted to be was a pig farmer, just like his father and grandfather before him. He never expected to be called a rock star.
“No,” Gunthorp says, stopping to run his hand through his thick dark hair. “I don’t know about that.”
“Don’t listen to him,” said Jamie Staton, who helps Gunthorp run the family farm that has become an icon in the Slow Food and local food movements. “He doesn’t like to talk about it, but he’s a big deal.”
How big?
Chefs in Indianapolis, Chicago and Fort Wayne place his name on their restaurant menus as a selling point. Gunthorp’s pastureraised farming practices have made the news, from the front page of the Indianapolis Star to the BBC. And this summer, a Chicago magazine named him as one of the most influential people in that city’s food scene, even though he lives more than 150 miles to the east.
Today, Gunthorp’s farm—situated on 65 acres that he owns, plus another 82 that he rents from family and neighbors—generates nearly $1 million in sales annually. The flavorful, heavily marbled pork from his freerange Duroc pigs, a heritage breed known for its ability to withstand the harsh Midwest winters, now receives rave reviews from renowned chefs like Chicago’s Rick Bayless.
In Indiana, Gunthorp Farms’ line of meats, including pastured-raised chickens, ducks and turkeys, which are delivered the same week they are butchered in his on-farm processing plant, can be found in more than a dozen resturants.
At Goose the Market, owner Christopher Eley has helped to propel Gunthorp Farms’ fame in the city by tucking its fresh pork loins and chickens into the meat case. Eley cures
Gunthorp’s pork shoulder to make capocollo and charcuterie, too.
Gunthorp’s name also dots the menus of Indianapolis restaurants such as Dunaway’s Palazzo Ossigeno, Black Market, 14 West, Mesh and R bistro.
“Never in my wildest imagination did I ever see any of this happening,” said Gunthorp, 41, who runs his farm and processing plant with his wife, Lei, and their three teenage children. “I was just looking for a way to keep farming.”
To hear Gunthorp tell it, his story really begins in 1998, as a young farmer just starting out on his own, with a small farm a mile down the road from his parents. Nationally, large-scale confined hog operations were flooding the market with pork, driving down the price and pushing small farmers out of the market.
“I was selling pigs for the same price my grandfather did during the Great Depression,” Gunthorp said.
Fed up trying to compete with the big producers—and afraid he would be the last generation of his family to raise pigs—Gunthorp began exploring the burgeoning market for organic, free-range and locally grown food. Because his family had never expanded into mega-farming, Gunthorp said he still raised pigs the natural way, allowing them to pasture on his crop fields, never confining the animal indoors like the large-scale pig producers do.
Finding a market for his naturally raised pork wasn’t easy, Gunthorp said. But a chance phone call to the upscale restaurant Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago opened a door into a world Gunthorp said he barely knew existed. Soon, other chefs were asking if he could provide naturally raised chicken, turkeys and ducks. With each new animal, each new order, there came new challenges.
To meet the demand, Gunthorp developed his own on-farm processing plant, one of only 33 “very small” (meaning fewer than 10 employees) USDA-certified meat processing plants in the country. Gunthorp said he built the plant from parts bought on eBay and by memorizing the thick textbooks of regulations the government requires processors to abide by.
To get his freshly processed meats to market, Gunthorp started his own distribution business, driving a delivery truck weekly to Indianapolis and Chicago, where he also had to work as his own salesman, convincing restaurants that his locally grown options were worth the higher cost.
Today, after more than a decade as a leader in the sustainable food movement, Gunthorp said all that work—learning how to raise chickens and turkeys, building a processing plant, selling and delivering his product— has allowed him to continue what he’s always wanted to do: raise pigs.
And touring his farm is almost like stepping back in time.
Gunthorp’s chickens and turkeys spend almost their entire lives outdoors and they are
allowed to wander in pastures where their manure acts as fertilize. His Duroc pigs glean corn and soybeans from his fields after harvest, and sows raise their young in the protective confines of a woodlot, where the pigs can feed on acorns and other nuts in the fall.
Although conventional confined growing operations can produce a full-grown hog in five months, Gunthorp’s hogs take as long as eight months to reach maturity, producing a product unlike anything a “conventional” farmer can.
“They call pork the ‘other white meat,’” said Staton, who works in Gunthorp’s processing plant and oversees his distribution routes. “But real pork isn’t white, it’s red.”
Today, Gunthorp continues to innovate ways to keep his family farm competing with the mega producers. Last year, he built his own commercial smokehouse from a plan he drew up in his head, so that he could provide smoked hams, bacon and chicken legs.
The challenge, Gunthorp said, is to continue to find markets for his products, including making his meat accessible to the general public. Toward that goal, he recently began
supplying pork to a Bloomington food cart called Happy Pig, which sells $6 pork belly sandwiches to Indiana University students.
“If my goal was just to produce meals that only a few people in high-end restaurants can eat, then I wouldn’t be doing this,” Gunthorp said.
Instead, Gunthorp hopes that more small farmers, and even large producers, will begin looking at practices that develop better products in a more sustainable way.
“The demand for locally, sustainably grown food is going through the roof,” Gunthorp said. “If more farmers want to survive and compete against the big boys, this is the way to go.”
Gunthorp Farms: 0435 N. 850 E, LaGrange; 260-367-2708; www.gunthorpfarms.com
Edible Season
Fast dinners from the slow cooker
A local gardener turns the bounty from her urban farm into a product line to help busy families get dinner on the table.
The Crock-Pot is often forgotten in the graveyard of unused kitchen appliances. But Cara Dafforn is a champion of the slow-and-steady style of cooking, so much so that she’s built her business on it.
For her company, called U-Relish Farm, Dafforn makes carefully prepackaged nutritious dinners of beans, peas and lentils that are designed for the slow cooker. Mesquite Three-Bean Chili, Pizza Lentils and Garlic Paprika Chickpea are a few of the dozen-plus varieties in the line.
By Cassie Johnston
Dehydrated herbs and vegetables from her own garden go into each packet that Dafforn sells from her stall at Indianapolis City Market. Other ingredients are regionally sourced. Each $6 mix contains three servings.
She has nicknamed the mixes “meals in a minute” because they are as easy to make as adding water or broth to the cooker and pressing the “on” button in the morning.
“When you get home there is a slow-cooked meal that is preservative free, nutrient dense and delicious,” Dafforn says. Everything is vegan, gluten-free and soy-free.
Coming up next for Dafforn and U-Relish Farm are breakfast foods that can be popped in the slow cooker before bed. Think rice pudding, oatmeal and grits, in Dafforn’s signature healthful style.
Dafforn says the slow cooker is ideal in the winter because of its ease of use, convenience and ability to feed large groups of people for very little money.
The slow cooker has seen many highs and lows since it gained popularity in the ’70s; home cooks trot it out in tough times because it transforms inexpensive cuts of meat and other economical proteins into comfort food. And, there’s a hint of nostalgia, even if today’s cookers have gone upscale, with digital programming and internal temperature sensors.
If Dafforn is any indication, the slow cooker seems to be having a moment now.
Her commitment to the Crock-Pot can be seen on Twitter (@CaraDafforn) and the U-Relish Facebook page, where she docu-
ments the daily gurgles and grunts and contents of her own slow cooker. Both on- and offline, Dafforn strives to create a community and generate buzz about green business practices and local food.
Before U-Relish Farm, Dafforn worked for 15 years as a fundraiser for not-for-profits. Dafforn began developing the recipes that would become the cornerstone for U-Relish when her nephew, Ian, was born in 2003 with phenylketonuria, the inability to process certain amino acids. Ian, now a healthy 8year-old, follows a strict diet, and Dafforn created her nutritious and convenient slowcooker mixes to free up time for Ian’s vegetarian mom (Dafforn’s sister) to weigh, measure and prepare Ian’s food.
Dafforn says she had some help developing her recipes from a culinary advisor and a registered dietitian, but most of the combinations sold today are a result of her own trial and error and “five years of mistakes and uneaten meals.”
Today, some of the most popular products she sells are the Hoppin’ John Black Eyed Peas and BBQ Lentils.
Dafforn sources many of the ingredients for her mixes directly from her own urban farm in the Fountain Square neighborhood. It takes some creative planning to get good production out of her ⅓-acre lot. “[I] make the most out of it by going vertical,” she says.
For those ingredients she doesn’t grow herself, Dafforn partners with a Midwestern food supply company in order to keep her products regionally sourced.
U-Relish has a stall at City Market, where Dafforn sells her mixes and offers hot samples from 11am to 2pm, Monday–Saturday. The mixes are also available at Pogue’s Run Grocer, Good Earth Natural Food Store and Georgetown Market, though only the mixes sold at City Market have ingredients from her garden.
Details: Find the U-Relish Farms booth at Indianapolis City Market, 222 E. Market St.; www.u-relish.com.
Dafforn tending to her garden; she has created her own unique watering system reusing water bottles. Photo by Liz Nicol
Loving Spoonfuls Souper Bowls
The big game calls for a hot pot of hearty food
By Andie Marshall
Photos by Christina Richey
Indianapolis is hosting Super Bowl XLVI in February and, chances are, you’re hosting a viewing party. If ever there was a time to serve up big, hearty bowls of food to family and friends, this is it.
These recipes for Buffalo chicken chili, tomato basil soup and turkey stew are perfect for any chilly day, and they’re guaranteed to carry your game-day spread to a win.
Marshall is a home cook whose fondess for soup began when she was a working mom. With soups, she always had nutritious, homemade and re-heatable meals on hand.
BUFFALO CHICKEN CHILI
When I made soups for Casler’s, a former restaurant in Fishers, the owner asked me for a soup that guys would like while they watch games. Since buffalo chicken—wings, sandwiches or whatever—was a favorite with customers, I decided to use those flavors plus beer to make a chili. After different attempts, I like domestic, regular or pale ale rather than the darker, heavier varieties of beer.
Fresh vegetables, lots of tortilla chips and cheese quesadillas are great sides. For a milder taste, omit the jalapeño and/or reduce the hot sauce.
Makes 8 servings
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 pounds ground chicken (room temperature)
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 large celery stalks, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
1 large jalapeño, seeded and finely chopped
2 teaspoons kosher salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
8 ounces of beer, preferably a pale ale (try Upland’s Helios)
4 ounces hot sauce
15 ounces tomato sauce
12 ounces tomato juice
8 ounces chicken broth
¼ teaspoon granulated sugar
1.Heat a soup pot over high heat; add the extra-virgin olive oil and butter to the heated pot and melt together.
2.Add the chicken to the pot, breaking up the meat in to small pieces. Cook until browned.
3.Add the chopped garlic, celery, onion, carrot and jalapeño.
4.Add the salt, pepper, cumin and coriander, and stir the ingredients in the pot together.
5.Cook the mixture for 10–15 minutes.
6.Add the beer and scrape up browned bits from the bottom of the soup pot.
7.Reduce heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes.
8.Stir in hot sauce, tomato sauce, tomato juice, chicken broth and granulated sugar.
9.Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 15–20 minutes.
10.Garnish each serving, if desired, with a drizzle of ranch salad dressing. Or, serve with blue cheese tortilla chips (to make, top chips with crumbled blue cheese and warm in oven until cheese starts to melt).
TOMATO BASIL SOUP
Not many foods appeal equally to people from 12 to 97 years old. Our granddaughters want this Tomato Basil Soup as part of our Christmas Eve dinner; it is a favorite of their paternal grandfather; our son’s girlfriend ranks it at the top of her list; and, my mother-in-law usually asks for more.
It is a versatile soup that can be the beginning of a special dinner or a part of a casual soup-and-sandwich meal.
When entertaining casually, let guests create their own grilled cheese sandwiches to go with the soup. Provide an assortment of fresh loaves and sliced cheeses, and keep the soup simmering on the stove or warming in a slow cooker set on low. Croutons and basil leaves make nice garnish.
Makes 8 servings
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon ginger root, minced
1 large red onion, finely diced
1½ tablespoons light brown sugar
4 cups diced Roma tomatoes*
5 cups chicken broth
1 cup fresh basil leaves, torn (do not cut)
¼ cup cream
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
*Or, substitute canned, drained, petite diced tomatoes (if using, add ¼ teaspoon sugar)
1.Heat olive oil in soup pot over moderate heat.
2.Add ginger, onion and brown sugar and cook about 10 minutes or until caramelized. Stir constantly, and be careful not to burn the onions.
3.Add the diced tomatoes and bring to a simmer—do not boil.
4.Add the chicken broth and simmer on low until tomatoes are very soft, 20–25 minutes.
5.Remove from heat and add the torn fresh basil.
6.Purée using an immersion blender or food processor (process in batches).
7.Add the cream and purée until smooth.
8.Add salt and pepper to taste.
9.Return to low heat until it reaches your desired temperature.
DAY-AFTER TURKEY STEW
With a salad and crusty bread, this is a meal that offers a warm, hearty use for leftover turkey.
About 20 years ago I found a recipe for turkey stew in the food section of the Indianapolis Star. I have tweaked it often since then (including trying to omit the Kitchen Bouquet sauce, but it is definitely best with it) and have come up with my own version that hits the spot.
I serve this in individual deep soup bowls with garlic mashed potatoes on the bottom, much like a shepherd’s pie.
Makes 6 to 8 servings
¼ cup water
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cups cooked, cubed turkey
1 large onion, cut into 8 wedges
2 carrots, thinly sliced into rounds ½ teaspoon fresh sage
¼ teaspoon Kitchen Bouquet sauce
8 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced 10 ounces frozen peas
1 tablespoon fresh parsley
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1¾ cups chicken or turkey stock
1.Preheat oven to 350°F.
2.In a 3-quart casserole dish, blend the ¼ cup water and cornstarch.
3.Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.
4.Cover and bake for 50 minutes or until sauce thickens.
“Ironically, if a tenant leaves the kitchen, it’s usually a good sign it means they’ve outgrown the space. It’s this odd thing that I’m working with people to help them grow to the point where they’re not my customers anymore.”
Owner Linda Gilkerson
A kitchen in common
Food entrepreneurs get their start at a shared-use kitchen on the Near-Northside
By Christopher Collins
Photos by Meredith Rogers
One morning during the early autumn of 2009, Linda Gilkerson woke up from a dream with one word in her mind: cupcakes.
Gilkerson had always been passionate about small business ownership when she ran a nonprofit focused on training budding entrepreneurs. But while lately exploring opportunities herself, nothing seemed to stick.
Until cupcakes.
It wasn’t long before she realized that making and selling cupcakes as a business venture required commercial-grade equipment, proper licenses and enough space for production. At the same time, Gilkerson knew some of her colleagues sought something similar: a place where food-centric startups could rent a top-notch kitchen and spin their dream ideas into official businesses without much overhead.
Cupcakes became just a footnote to Gilkerson’s story.
Today, she runs Indy’s Kitchen, the commercially licensed shareduse kitchen that she opened in July 2010 near 25th Street and Central Avenue. It houses roughly 35 tenants, including bakers, caterers, cooking instructors, food truck operators and farmers’ market vendors. They pay $14–$24 an hour to use the space, which is outfitted with the likes of a 30-quart mixer and a 10-burner gas range.
Inside is a controlled chaos of slicing, chopping, baking, sautéing and frying. In this professional-grade kitchen, people know how to make the most of the space they’re given: The walls are lined with tenants’ supplies, and professional respect prevents any sugar theft.
“If someone didn’t clean up after themselves, I’ll usually get an email,” Gilkerson says.
Beyond simply providing cooking space, Indy’s Kitchen fosters a true food community.
“The people who use it are so respectful and so thankful we’re here,” Gilkerson says. Ironically, if a tenant leaves the kitchen, it’s usually a good sign—it means they’ve outgrown the space. “It’s this odd
thing that I’m working with people to help them grow to the point where they’re not my customers anymore.”
Graduates, as Gilkerson calls them, include Kris Parmelee, owner of Avec Moi, a to-go and catering spot in Broad Ripple; Cara Dafforn, who has a line of slow-cooker mixes under the label U-Relish Farm; and Sonja Bannon, who makes Raw-To-Go snacks. Dafforn and Bannon have a stall at Indianapolis City Market.
While researching the shared kitchen concept around the country, Gilkerson found a café with a shared kitchen in Chicago that seemed like a good model. Two trips later, Gilkerson, her husband and two other business partners were convinced this was the idea they were looking for.
Indy’s Kitchen has a similar partnership with Monon Coffee Company Downtown. A swinging door separates the two businesses. When people rent kitchen space, they get access 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Gilkerson keeps it easy: Tenants simply write in a calendar the times they need the kitchen, and she manages the schedule. The rental rates are structured so the more time you use, the less you pay.
With her background in small business, Gilkerson finds she’s a mentor to some, but tries to take her own advice: “I tell startups, ‘You have to do it consistently,’ and we do everything we can to be the same way.”
Even though they’ve been open a little more than a year, Gilkerson is already looking down the road. “The whole food truck thing is going to be interesting to watch,” she said. As the mobile food industry grows, so could the demand for Indy’s Kitchen’s limited space. “It’s going to be a challenge keeping everyone happy and have enough space for all the other stuff it takes to run this.”
Details: Indy’s Kitchen, 2442 N. Central Ave.; 317- 690-9089; www.indyskitchen.com.
Measuring ingredients made easier with this large scale
WHO’S COOKING IN INDY’S KITCHEN?
From caterers to food truckers, a variety of entrepreneurs have Indy’s Kitchen in common. Here’s a look at three of them, and how they use the space:
Becky’s Healthy Kitchen beckyshealthykitchen@yahoo.com
The name pretty much says it all. Becky Eaton offers healthy cooking classes, personal training services and meals to go. “My goal is to help teach people how to eat healthy food, using seasonal, affordable—and, when you can, local—ingredients,” says Eaton, a part-time health coach for IU Health. She teaches a class the last Wednesday of each month that has featured “recipe makeovers,” like taking your mom’s pot roast and kicking it up with buffalo sauce.
Duos Indy duosindy.com
When your food business is on four wheels, a separate professional kitchen is essential. And that’s why Becky Hostetter hooked up with Indy’s Kitchen, where she spends many hours making her menus come to life for her food truck, Duos. “I recently did a cherry conserve with Manchego cheese, ham and arugula, and that was our carnivore sandwich for the week,” she says. Fit for a restaurant, but made for your lunch break.
Fermenti Artisan facebook.com/fermentiartisan
The guys at Fermenti Artisan have a passion for freshness that’s second to none. Josh Henson and Mark Cox run an urban farm on the Eastside and use Indy’s Kitchen to process and prepare their cultured vegetables, which they sell at farmers’ markets. “Our primary focus is gut health—teaching people how to heal their bodies through the food they eat,” Cox says. The products that they do buy come directly from local farms and foster “a very, very personal relationship with our food.”
Step inside Simply Sweet Shoppe in downtown Carmel and chances are you won’t know where to look first.
The place is stocked from hardwood floors to ceiling with bulk bins and jars filled with brightly colored candies. Sophisticated chocolates and gift baskets catch the eye.
A seating area invites customers to enjoy their treats, plus coffee, hot chocolate and owner Jill Zaniker’s very own sipping chocolate—a two-ounce pour best described as a creamy, melted truffle in a cup.
This is exactly what Zaniker, a Carmel native, envisioned when she set out to fill a retail niche.
“I really wanted people to have a place to come and relive childhood memories,” she says. “And that’s what the shop has become known for.”
Sweet Talk in Carmel
With locally made chocolates and bulk treats, Simply Sweet Shoppe is a real-life Candyland
By Gretchen Keene
Case in point: “I had a 90-year-old woman come in recently and she was just so delighted by the place. It took her right back to when she was a little girl,” Zaniker says.
Zaniker, who has spent years in retail, opened Simply Sweet Shoppe in 2008 after being a stay-at-home mom for 12 years. In addition to offering retro candies, bulk items and novelty sweets (world’s largest gummy worm, anyone?), Zaniker knew she wanted to seek out quality chocolate made in Indiana.
“I carry local items whenever possible,” she says. “I strongly believe in supporting other small local businesses.”
Today, the shop stocks everything from gourmet marshmallows made by 240sweet in Columbus to gluten-free cookies by BeeFree Bakery in Noblesville.
Above: Jill Zaniker with a customer’s sweet purchase; Opposite: Holiday cake pops and candy cane suckers. Photos by Christina Richey
A FEW OF HER FAVORITE THINGS
Simply Sweet Shoppe owner Jill Zaniker scouts for Indiana-made treats to sell at her store. Here are four of her favorites:
Uncle Henry’s Candy
Carl Harvey’s uncle Henry taught him how to make chocolate, and now Harvey is an Indiana Artisan—which means he’s among the best at his craft in the state. He makes hand-cut turtles in Cicero, enrobing them in milk or dark chocolate for melt-in-yourmouth goodness. www.unclehenryscandies.com
BeeFree Bakery cookies
These gluten-free sugar and gingerbread cookies made by Jennifer Wiese in Noblesville satisfy snackers whether they are health-conscious or not. www.beefreegf.com
Best Chocolate in Town
Zaniker describes Best Chocolate’s chocolate-covered caramels topped with sea salt as “a little bit of heaven.” Elizabeth Garber, also an Indiana Artisan, makes the chocolates by hand in downtown Indianapolis. www.bestchocolateintown.com
Cake pops
These bite-size treats are all the rage, and baker Meghan Grilliot makes them on-site. Simply put, they’re balls of frosted cake on sticks, but Grilliot decorates them to the nines.
Left: Chocolate-covered caramels topped with sea salt by Best Chocolate in Town; Right: BeeFree Bakery’s gingerbread and sugar cookies. Photos by Christina Richey
A casino isn’t the first place you’d expect to find a restaurant trying to go local.
But there is such a shift happening at Indiana Live! Casino in Shelbyville, ever since Chef Bob Brody became executive chef there this summer. Brody oversees the cuisine at the casino’s dining rooms, ranging from a buffet restaurant to Maker’s Mark Bourbon House & Lounge, an upscale steak and seafood restaurant.
Brody is working to incorporate local ingredients into dishes, primarily at the sleek Maker’s Mark restaurant, which serves such meals as bone-in rib eye, Indiana chicken and dumplings and jumbo scallops.
Heading into winter, Brody’s kitchen at Indiana Live! is about 10%–15% local, he says. A realistic goal, Brody said, is to be 50% local. He incorporates local cheeses, breads, herbs, vegetables, hot dogs, some local pork and duck, from Maple Leaf Farms near Milford.
Sourcing local has been a tougher task than Brody expected, coming from Southern California where he had access to farms of a wide variety all year long. It’s a challenge he’s embraced.
Formerly the executive chef at Golden Acorn Casino, located east of San Diego, and Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, California, Brody was in the center of a food universe. He had access to all the ingredients he needed, and Pechanga even had its own herd of cattle in Northern California.
At Indiana Live!, Brody is shaping the menus that honor both his California roots and the Midwest palate.
“We have a particular clientele that are used to a certain kind of food,” Brody said. “Hoosiers like their pork.”
One of his first creations at Indiana Live! was a dish called Five Little Piggies: a pork burger with bacon, pulled pork, pork tenderloin and ham.
Meanwhile, Brody has been exploring local farms and markets, stopping at farms to talk business with the owners. A challenge Brody is running into is that many farms don’t have enough product to supply a casino. He goes through about 300 pounds of locally grown tomatoes per week—enough to wipe out a small farm’s inventory, Brody joked.
“You have to be selective with what you get and in some cases you just highlight [ingredients] opposed to buying things for the mass,”
Worth the Trip Indiana Live! looking to hit jackpot with local ingredients
By Josh Weinfuss
Brody said, mentioning that he might use local ingredients in a garnish rather than a whole meal.
Brody is still exploring the seafood Indiana has to offer. He’s discovered lake and river fish, such as walleye, trout and perch that might appear on menus at Indiana Live! But he’s had to import most of the seafood, such as scallops, halibut, oysters, shrimp and crab on the menu at Maker’s Mark.
Brody sees sourcing local ingredients as a way to keep the kitchen and the customers at Indiana Live! happy.
“You get a better idea of what your product is and, as a result, your employees get a better idea of what they’re serving and what they’re producing,” Brody says. “It’s not just open a can or open a box. You can be more creative in the long run.”
Details: 4300 N. Michigan Rd., Shelbyville; 877-386-4463; www.indianalivecasino.com.
Top: Chef Bob Brody; Bottom: Five Little Piggies: a pork burger with bacon, pulled pork, pork tenderloin and ham, topped with slaw. Photos provided by Indiana Live! Casino
Edible Events
Dec. 1: Digging Deeper Film & Book Se-
ries At this free monthly event put on by Fall Creek Gardens, people gather to talk about a book or movie on urban farming and gardening. December’s topic is the book “Food not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community” by H.C. Flores. 6:30–8:30pm at Mapleton-Fall Creek Development Center, 130 East 30th St. Other dates in the series are Jan 5. and Feb. 2. www.fallcreekgardens.org
Dec. 1–31: Charm of the Season Visit all six wineries on the Indy Wine Trail this month and get a wine tasting, glass of wine, discounts and ornament at each, plus a winebottle tote at the end. Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 on site. www.indywinetrail.com
Dec. 8: Terre Foods Hosts
Local Foods Discussion
Terre Foods Co-op, in partnership with Bloomingfoods, Clabber Girl and the Local Growers Guild, will host a panel discussion on the topic “Local Foods – If It’s So Good For Us, Why Is It So Hard To Find?” This free event is open to the public at Clabber Girl on the corner of Wabash and 9th Street in Terre Haute, starting at 6:30 pm.
Dec. 10 & 17: Christmas On The Farm
Traders Point Creamery in Zionsville hosts its annual festivities on two Saturdays in December, with a visit from Old St. Nick and reindeer, sleigh-hayrides around the farm, live music, caroling and crafts for kids. The free event is from 9am–2pm. 9101 Moore Road. www.traderspointcreamery.com
Dec. 13: Chef JJ’s Smoking Class
Learn all about the art of smoking in Chef JJ’s very own backyard using the famous Big Green Egg. This class takes place at “The Chef’s Table” where you can see all the action from prep work to grilling. Class participants are welcome to get involved and ask a lot of questions, and of course sample the food and drink. You are sure to get a unique dining experience that is both educational and entertaining, while eating fresh, local food. Tickets must be purchased in advance for $55. Class begins at 6:30pm. 1040 Broad Ripple Ave. www.chefjjs.com
Jan. 17–19: Indiana Horticulture Congress
This convention and trade show for crop growers features educational programs, a wine reception, cider contest and networking events. Events take place at the Wyndham Indianapolis West, 2544 Executive Drive. Registration starts at $55. www.inhortcongress.org
Jan. 24: Pizza on the Big Green Egg at Chef JJ’s
Cooking pizza on the Big Green Egg is not only super easy, it’s also so much better than those other guys can ever dream of! You are sure to get a unique dining experience that is both educational and entertaining, while eating fresh, local food. Tickets must be purchased in advance for $45 and class begins at 6:30pm. 1040 Broad Ripple Ave. www.chefjjs.com
Feb. 4: Taste of the NFL’s Party with a Purpose Chefs from NFL cities prepare signature dishes alongside current and former players for this charity dinner. The strolling event features wine and a silent auction, with proceeds going to Gleaners Food Bank and other hunger organizations. Tickets are $600. www.tasteofthenfl.com/superbowlevent
Feb. 11 & 12: Wine Lovers Trail Wineries on the Indy Wine trail will offer wine tastings and chocolate pairings. Visit all six wineries to get a wine-bottle tote. Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 on site. www.indywinetrail.com
Feb. 26 & 27: Parke County Maple Syrup Fair Eat pancakes, stock up on maple syrup and take home some maple syrup cookies at this festival, 8am–4pm both days at the Parke County 4-H Fairgrounds, 1472 North U.S. Highway 41, Rockville. There are also off-site tours of maple syrup camps. www.coveredbridges.com
Feb. 28: Sushi- Hands On at Chef JJ’s Ever wanted to make your own sushi rolls? Come learn the tricks and styles from Chef Eli Anderson at H2O sushi. Come get a unique dining experience that is both educational and entertaining, while eating fresh, local food. Tickets must be purchased in advance for $55 and class begins at 6:30pm. 1040 Broad Ripple Ave. www.chefjjs.com
Advertiser directory
Our heart felt thanks to all of our advertisers for their support in helping to grow and sustain Edible Indy and our community. Please make a point of supporting these businesses and organizations.
A. Arnold World Class Relocation 5220 W. 76th Street Indianapolis, IN 46268
870.5777 aarnoldmoving.com
Artisano’s Oils and Spices 1101-B E. 86th Street Indianapolis, IN 46240 251.4100 artisanosoils.com
Best Chocolate In Town
880 Massachusetts Avenue Indianapolis, IN 46204
636.2800 bestchocolateintown.com
Bloomingfoods
3220 E. 3rd Street 316 W. 6th Street 419 E. Kirkwood Bloomington, IN bloomingfoods.coop
Indianapolis City Market 222 E. Market Street Indianapolis, IN 46204 634.9266 indycm.com
Elk Ridge Ranch elkridgeranch.net
Green Clipping greenpieceindy.com
Green B.E.A.N Delivery
377.0470 greenbeandelivery.com
The Green Market 9101 Moore Road Zionsville, IN 46077 traderspointcreamery.com
Indiana Wine Grape Council indianawines.org
Indy Winter Farmers Market indywinterfarmersmarket.org
New Balance
9893 N. Michigan Road Carmel, IN 46032
876.4651 1551 East Stop 12 Indianapolis, IN 46227 889.6751
The Orchard School 615 West 64th Street Indianapolis, IN 46260 251.9253 orchard.org
Buy Fresher: Piazza Produce, Inc. 5941 West 82nd Street Indianapolis, IN 46268 872.0101 buyfresher.com
Pogue’s Run Grocer 2828 E. 10th Street Indianapolis, IN 46201 426.4963 poguesrungrocer.org
The Simply Well Book thesimplywellbook.com
Traders Point Creamery 9101 Moore Road Zionsville, IN 46077
733.1700 tpforganics.com
Zionsville Dentistry 1020 West Oak St. Zionsville, IN 46077 873.5344 zionsvilledentistry.com
R bistro
888 Massachusetts Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46204 423.0312 • rbistro.com
Chef Regina Mehallick’s R bistro has established itself as one of the premier restaurants in Indianapolis. Located in Indy’s Massachusetts Avenue Arts District, R bistro prides itself on offering the type of eclectic, creative cuisine expected on a strip predominated by art galleries. The menu, which exhibits a fusion of Mehallick’s global culinary influences, is course driven and changes weekly, often utilizing the freshest local ingredients and seasonal flavors. The changing menu indicates Mehallick’s commitment to her farm-raised, slow-food philosophy, and her membership in Slow Food and other progressive groups ensures that her philosophy will remain an informed one.
Farmers’ Market Directory
Green Market at Traders Point Creamery
Saturdays, 9am-noon, November through April 9101 Moore Road, Zionsville tpforganics.com
Indy Winter Farmers’ Market
Saturdays, 9am-noon, November 12 through April (Closed Dec. 24 & 31)
The City Market, 222 E. Market St., Indianapolis indywinterfarmersmarket.org
Bloomington Winter Farmers Market
Saturdays, 9am-noon, December 3 through March 31
Harmony School, 2nd & Woodlawn (909 E. 2nd St.), Bloomington localgrowers.org/wintermarket
In Season Winter 2011
Fruits: Apples
Vegetables: Arugula, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, chard, greens, kale, radishes, spinach.
In addition our local farmers hold back produce to provide during these months. So you may find beets, carrots, garlic, onions, parsnips, potatoes, and winter squash.
Last Bite
You’re getting warmer
By Audrey Barron
Photo by Erica Sagon
I think of winter as a time for reflection of the past year—a time for going inward. Winter is also a time for nourishing the soul and the body. One of my favorite ways to nourish is through the bounty of seasonal local foods.
I love nothing more than a nice bowl of soup to accompany me during this time of year.
Most traditional wintertime soups are served hot, to warm us from the inside out. This soup celebrates the root vegetables of fall harvest in a warming and vibrant way.
The twist: No heat is used in the making of this delicious dish. The ginger and curry do the warming here, providing the body with the benefits of healthy blood circulation and a boost to the immune system. Just what we need as we hunker down, reflect and look forward to spring.
Audrey Barron is an Indianapolis raw food chef and owner of Be Bliss Healing Therapies, providing holistic healing and education. www.beofbliss.com.
CURRIED CARROT GINGER SOUP
By Audrey Barron
Makes 4–6 servings
5 medium-size carrots, washed and chopped into1-inch pieces
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed
2 tablespoons yellow onion
2 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped into 1-inch cubes
1 tablespoon ginger, finely minced
¾ cup green cabbage
2 tablespoons light miso
2 tablespoons wheat-free tamari
1 teaspoon spicy curry powder blend
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
¼ cup olive oil
2½ cups water (use more or less, depending on consistency preference)
1.Combine all ingredients in a blender or a food processor and process until smooth. Using a highspeed blender like the Vita-Mix will create a wonderful, smooth consistency.
2.Serve the soup at room temperature straight from the blender or warm it gently in a dehydrator or over the stove on the lowest setting.
3.Garnish, if desired, with pumpkin seeds, fresh herbs and a drizzle of olive oil.
