eat me drink me

Yesterday I hit up Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene to hear Louisa Shafia talk about her book, Lucid Food: Cooking for an Eco-Conscious Life.  Well, let’s be a little more candid, I mainly went to try the food she whipped up from recipes in this stunning cookbook.  On the table, she had a briny, crisp red cabbage, apple, and dulse salad (page 86),  a fluffy, fresh tortilla Espanola (page 36), and the bittersweet, flourless chocolate cake with prune puree and hazelnuts (page 65).  Um, yum?!  Each hor’dourves sized bite had a unique, refreshing flavor, but the best part, Shafia had gotten all her ingredients from the Fort Greene Farmer’s Market.

Now that’s ambition, and a theme throughout Lucid Food.  The book is broken down into seasons, fall, winter, spring, and summer, and works on the premise that the world would be a better functioning place if we stopped trying to cater to foods that don’t naturally grow year round.  Take for example asparagus and strawberries.  The latter is always best in peak season, but still we insist on having them available to us.  One way around this, Shafia said, is to freeze and can foods.  The raspberry puree, which lended a burst of berry tartness to her chocolate cake bites, were frozen by the farmer, not shipped across the world.

Shafia spent a little under a year writing, researching, and cooking for her book and in the end, she has produced a wonderful piece on how to eat more consciously both for yourself, and the environment.  “The book was my way of showing people you can eat with the seasons, eat local, and more consciously,” she said.  “People think it’s hippy food but I am trying to break the stereotype.”  With recipes I am eager to try like the Fesenjan (chicken in pomegranate walnut sauce) and the spring dish, spot prawns with garlic, sorrel, and white wine, there is nothing hippy-like about her dishes.