Sustainable Eating in Cleveland

Shaker Square Meals

These were delicious.

Meal One: currants, beets, corn, zucchini, (Shaker Square), sweet onion (City Fresh)

Corn on the cob is boiled. The purple mush in the corner is shredded and boiled beets, some cabbage and a bit of sweet onion. The zucchini were first boiled and then fried to add more flavor. This is sort of tedious to do however, because a whole lot of water has to evaporate out of boiled zucchini before it becomes fried zucchini. In my opinion boiled/steamed zucchini tastes just fine, but I wanted to add same variety because I have boiled it before.

Meal Two: currants, beets, corn, egg, zucchini (Shaker Square), bread crumbs (Marc's), Almara crepe batter (Whole Foods)

This was interesting. I wanted to make zucchini cakes and beet cakes. Not having batter, I mixed crepe batter with bread crumbs and coated the zucchini (steamed, pureed in blender) and beets (boiled, grated), with the mixture. The result was extremely flammable but after a few duds I got the hang of how long to fry them. They tasted pretty good but fell apart too easily - I needed eggs which I didn't have that week.

The rest is self explanatory. Pan fried chicken, currants, corn on the cob.

Meal Three: currants, garlic, chicken, zucchini (Shaker Square), Inn Maid pasta (Zagara's)

Garlic chicken, fried zucchini, some pasta with the chicken. Just finishing up on the ingredients.

I also made sauerkraut!

Sauerkraut: cabbage, currants (Shaker square), salt (not local)

Step one: Cut up the cabbage into strips. Some like long strips, I made mine medium length, about half the length of my pinky finger. Put in some currant. They are mostly for color and just a little flavor, so don't add too many. Usually, cranberries are used. Carrots are another common ingredient but they are also mostly for color so I skipped them since I didn't have any.

Add a liberal amount of salt and squeeze the mixture around in your hands for a few minutes until you can see that the cabbage has released a lot of juice.

Step two: put it all in a pan...or a pot...or a barrel. Depends on how much you want to make. Cover it with something. I chose a saucer.

Step three: Put something heavy on top. You want those juices to keep getting squeezed out. Leave it there for a day or two, or longer depending on how much you make. In Plenty, they mentioned that it smells...I didn't make that much so mine didn't smell, but I guess this might be something to watch out for? See for yourself.

The end. Next up is a combination of Coit Road Market, the BRB Market at Case again, and Whole Foods again.