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CHAINLETTER #2 - October 17, 1999
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The biweekly newsletter of Food Chain,
delivering organic meals by bicycle to busy
San Franciscans. http://www.food-chain.net

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CONTENTS:

1. EDITORIAL: Lentil-Eating Grin
2. RECIPES: White Bean Pate with Rustic Pesto
3. AT MARKET: The Salsa Window
4. FOOD CHAIN NEWS: The First Two Weeks
5. WHAT MEALS YOU'VE MISSED
5. GROUP OF THE WEEK: SF Bike Coalition
6. SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE

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EDITORIAL: Lentil-Eating Grin

After nuclear war, over-population was my
biggest Armageddon-level fear as a kid. The
first seemed ridiculously within human
control, but the second felt like an
inevitable, exponential death-march to the
end of the world.

I learned what the end might look like
from Sally Struthers on infomercials who
showed me that somewhere far away there are
brown people covered with flies, starving.
I also learned that they are not like us
because that doesn't happen here where
we don't have babies that we can't feed.
The worst impact of overpopulation was
already happening, but it wasn't happening
to us.

The baby that makes the planetery "us" total
six billion was born last Tuesday
according to the United Nations, they even
picked a newborn as the official Six Billionth
Person. Something for her resume.

That's a lot of people to feed, and is the
reason I first became a vegetarian: my fears
about feeding all of us. Ten years ago I
learned in an Environmental Studies class
just how much grain it took to make a cow, and
in case you don't know, it's lots and lots.
My thinking at the time I became a vegetarian
went, "If I don't eat them, they won't breed
them, so we don't have to feed them all that
grain that could feed lots of fly-covered
starving people somewhere."

(As an aside, a farmer in Missouri once told
me that eating meat was actually an
environmentalist act because cows are so
stupid that if we didn't take care of them
for our own food, they'd go extinct.)

Like my vegetarianism, the argument that
population growth will be the eventual
undoing of us all relies on simple supply and
demand arguments. If demand on our resources
continues to grow as population increases,
the supply will dwindle and will result in
massive global catastrophe for us all.

What this misses is that demand on resources
is not directly linked to the total number of
us.

It's still clear to me that eating meat is
gluttonous on a global scale, but that my
fear of the earth collapsing on itself
because of the sheer number of us humans (who
all could, by the way, fit quite handily --
if not comfortably -- in the Grand Canyon)
was based on a biased argument which focussed
on Third World birthrates, instead of
American consumption.

In an interview on NPR this week, a feminist
environmentalist said, "One hundred
lentil-eating, bicycle-riding, solar-powered
people are going to put less pressure on the
environment than one hundred beef-eating,
car-driving, fossil fuel-using people."

I felt a bit self-righteous for a moment -- a
lentil-eating grin -- then looked around at
my computer and stereo and nice apartment
with indoor plumbing and electricity, two
weeks worth of underwear, the paved streets
and garbage pickup and the manicured park
down the street and the corner store with
tofu, and I thought that I may, in my
lifetime, consume a hundred times more
resources than that Six Billionth baby who
probably isn't even a vegetarian.

Stefan Lynch
Food Chain Chef/Cyclist

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RECIPE: White Bean Pate with Rustic Pesto

Last week I had a lot of beans and basil on
my hands so I created this recipe...not
expecting that I would get four calls and two
e-mail messages about it. I wish I had
written down what I did. Due to popular
demand, here is that recipe...as best as I
can recreate it:

For the pate:

2 cups dry navy beans (or four cups canned)
1 head garlic
1/4 cup vegetable stock
1/4 cup white wine
1 tbs. good olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped.
1 tsp.dried rosemary
1 tsp.dried marjoram
1 tsp. dried sage
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. salt
fresh ground pepper
juice from half a lemon.

Cook the beans whatever your favorite way is:
Soak them overnight and boil them for a few
hours, or pressure cook with lots of water
for 40 minutes. Either way, they should be
very soft.

While that's going on, preheat the oven to
400. Chop off the top 1/2 inch of the garlic
head, put it and the stock and wine in an
ovenproof container (try a section of a
muffin tin lined with foil), cover with foil
and bake in the oven for 1 1/2 hours.

Meanwhile, saute the onion in the olive oil
over low heat. Once it begins to soften, add
the herbs and salt and continue to cook. If
it starts to stick, deglaze it with a little
water or white wine.

After 10 minutes of slow cooking, set it
aside and move on to the pesto (see below)
while the garlic and beans finish.

When the garlic is done, let it cook enough
so you can squeeze out the soft cloves. Add
this to the onion mixture.

If you don't have a food processor, put the
onion mixture in the blender and puree. You
can add a little water or olive oil as
needed. Mush up the beans with a potato
masher or (much more fun) your bare hands,
and stir in the onion-garlic puree.

If you do have a food processor, put the
beans and onion-garlic mixture in there for
several minutes until it's creamy. You can
add a little cooking water from the beans, or
olive oil, to thin it.

Stir in the lemon juice and some ground
pepper.

This makes 3 1/2 cups and will last in the
fridge for several days. Serve with bread or
crackers and a big dollop of Rustic Pesto on
top.

Rustic Pesto:

Leaves from 1 bunch basil (3-4 cups)
1/2 cup organic extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic
3 tbs. of any nut except peanuts (I
used cashews and walnuts)
a little salt
1/3 cup white or yellow miso.

If you are up for it, chop the basil, garlic
and nuts finely by hand. Or, do basil
separately from the garlic and nuts in a food
processor. With a fork or a food processor,
combine the miso and olive oil and salt. Stir
everything together. This freezes well, but
thaw it in warm water, not the microwave,
which will cook it and ruin it.

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AT MARKET: The Salsa Window

The end of October means the last hurrahs for
local tomatoes and eggplant and peppers. Lots
of other warm weather crops won't be back
until Spring, including melons (you know
they're native to deserts, right?)

Cilantro and dill are coming online...fresh
cilantro is fragile so it won't be here for
long. Make that salsa now while you can still
get good tomatoes.

Fennel and Arugula and cabbages and winter
squash are making their debuts, too, so
expect those in upcoming meals, by Food Chain
or of your own making.

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FOOD CHAIN NEWS: The First Two Weeks

We are really enjoying the great feedback on
each meal from our customers these last two
weeks.

Folks who participated in our beta test over
the summer got to see how we conscientiously
implemented their feedback about delivering
in the morning, using excellent packaging,
and creative presentation of the food, and we
got to see that they were right.

We have a handful of customers now, and are
focussing on making the best food possible,
and trusting that our customers will spread
the word.

Orders can be placed at
http://www.food-chain.net/orders

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WHAT MEALS YOU'VE MISSED

If you weren't getting Food Chain meals
in the last couple of weeks, here is some of
what you missed:
--
Garam Masala Mushrooms and Fresh Cranberry
Beans with Cilantro

Curry Cauliflower, Golden Chard and Peppers
in Chana Dal

Malabar Coconut Saffron Basmati with Roasted
Cashews

Fresh Cantaloupe and Almonds in Ginger Lime
Caramel.
--
Spinach Salad with Cashews and Sweet-Sour
Tamarind Dressing

Encrusted Eggplant and Pepper Stir-fry in
Green Curry

Gingered Jasmine Rice

Baked Five-Spice Apples with Melon in a
Coconut Pineapple Sauce.
--
Ciabatta Bread with White Bean Pate with
Rustic Pesto

Tomato Polenta Soup with Olives and Fresh
Arugala

Baked Apples with Walnuts in Caramel and
Vanilla Sauce.
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GROUP OF THE WEEK: SFBC

We have been delivering "Thanks for your
Great Work" meals to the San Francisco
Bicycle Coalition, which advocates for safer,
saner (and more fun!) transportation, and a
better San Francisco. www.sfbike.org.

They're having their annual Member
Appreciation Party November 13, 1999 6pm- 1am
Timbuk2 Warehouse 350 Treat St. @ 16th St. SF
Mission District Free to Bike coalition
member or join at the door ($20) Free music
and dancing Free food and drinks Live and
silent auctions

Every week Food Chain delivers meals to
deserving not-for-profit groups, and
publicizes their work in the Chainletter.
Food Chain meal Subscribers may nominate a
group.

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SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THE CHAINLETTER

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email address for this newsletter, go to the
Food Chain website,
http://www.food-chain.net/chainletters

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You may reuse anything here with, or without
attribution.