Four Continents, One Meal

Okay, so remember all that local food I've been eating lately? Well, tonight's meal was not exactly keeping in that theme. Some greenies out there may run out of calculator tape if they try to measure this meal's carbon footprint. Hey, the farm share starts in a few short weeks, I'll make up for it then.



I found these wonderful zucchini blossoms at the store. While they were astronomically expensive (and from Holland!) I couldn't pass them up as the window for procuring them is extremely short.



For the zucchini blossoms I made a filling out of leftover ricotta, lemon zest, chopped thyme, salt, pepper, Parmeggiano-Reggiano, and Uniekaas Reserve Gouda. I wasn't sure what to do for a batter so I modified my pancake batter recipe and did a batter with one cup flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, a large pinch of salt, and some of the remaining White Truck wine. I then dipped the courgettes with their flowers into the batter and fried them in a mixture of olive and canola oil, and sprinkled them with some sea salt.

Continents so far: (1) Europe.



I trimmed some beautiful New Zealand lamb top round steaks and marinated in a little olive oil, lemon, salt, pepper, garlic, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Simon and Garfunkel would have been 75% proud of me.

The lamb smelled extremely gamy in its raw form but after being cooked it was delightful. I carmelized some shallots in the pan then tossed in some chanterelle and morel mushrooms.

I generally don't make garbanzo beans as a rule but I made an exception tonight. I tossed these with some lemon, shallot, olive oil, cumin, cayenne, salt, and pepper and served them room temperature.

Continents so far: (2) Europe, Oceania.



For a wine I used this lovely Argentinian Malbec. I was a little disappointed because I'd hoped it was going to be from Texas and that the back label was a Dan Brown-esque conspiracy about how there were two Alamos and the Illuminati and/or the Masons were involved. The wine was delicious but the plot was rather boring (it just involved the eastern slopes of the pre-Andean mountains of Mendoza). So, overall, that was disappointing.

Continents so far: (3) Europe, Oceania, South America.



For dessert I made S'mores with these delicious marshmallows, chocolate, and honey graham crackers. All ingredients from the U.S. of A.

Continents so far: (4) Europe, Oceania, South America, North America.

Technically the black pepper I use is from India so I guess I could say this meal was from five separate continents. I'm actually pretty surprised that I don't have anything in my pantry from China. Surprised but relieved. I guess I could have also ground up some plastic and sprinkled it on the lamb for an additional Chinese ingredient.

Sadly nothing from Africa at all.

One day I hope to make a greenhouse in Antarctica, grow some tomatoes, ship them back home, and then make a meal from all seven continents. On that day Al Gore's fury will erupt in a violent explosion that will destroy us all.

Bon Appetite!