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Get Face-To-Face With Your Dinner

Photo by JADEN HAIR

Chef Tim Grandinetti, of Twin City Quarter in Winston Salem, shows off a freshly caught mahi-mahi.

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By JADEN HAIR

Tribune correspondent

Published: March 11, 2009

Last week, I was on a food writing and photography gig at Club Med Columbus Isle in the Bahamas to document their Food and Wine Festival.

One day, when a shipment of fish didn't make it to the island, the chefs went fishing and caught two 45-pound wahoo and one 80-pound mahi-mahi that fed 80 of us at dinner.

The next morning, "Top Chef" winner Stephanie Izard caught a massive wahoo, but before she could reel it in, a shark snuck in, chomped down and yanked it away. Stephanie landed a torn head. The day after, the chefs caught lobsters to feed our group.

Now that's farm … er … sea to table. No middle men, no freezers, no saline/formaldehyde solution to plump up and preserve the seafood, and no pricy markups.

To me, going green means getting as close to the source of your food as possible. Maybe even nose-to-nose, as my husband has been doing recently. Scott's buddy Shawn, an avid hunter, has been taking him out to hunt wild boar. Yeah, as in free-roaming, hairy hogs with stubby horns that plow through the underbrush.

Apparently, they are plentiful in Myakka, and the ferociously digging boars are considered vermin, an ugly word that translates to "the more you shoot, the fewer the property owner has to trap and dump."

Are they delicious? Absolutely. We took the hogs to the Palmetto Meat Shop, a small family-run business where they know exactly what to do. Country ribs, chops, Italian sausages, brats, ham steaks and roasts. A few days later we picked up two massive boxes full of wrapped pork.

If you wonder what wild boar tastes like, it's full-flavored pork: The meat is darker (not pretty pink like mass-domesticated, caged pigs) and not a bit gamey (although that depends on age, what they've been feeding on and season). We also soaked the meat overnight in iced lemon-vinegar water to rid it of any strong gamey smell or flavor. It's the best pork I've ever had, and we shared a cooler full of meat with friends from The Stew and the Culinary Sherpas.

I'm not advocating getting a shotgun and going hunting in your backyard. You have to be licensed and know where you're permitted to hunt. Boar hunting is not pretty, nor is it easy.

But start thinking about how to minimize the number of hands, machines and chemicals that touch your food. There are plenty of places to fish in the Tampa Bay area, and there are countless vegetables and fruits you can grow yourself. Visit a farmer's market where you can buy super-fresh produce and get to know the farmers behind your food.

Remember "six degrees of Kevin Bacon"? How many degrees are you from your source of food?

MAHI-MAHI WITH PINEAPPLE BROWN SUGAR GLAZE

This is a recipe from chef Russell Cunningham of Agraria Restaurant in Washington, D.C. His restaurant gets 80 percent of its food from a collective of more than 40,000 family farmers from across the country. Their motto is "know your farmer, know your food." This is the second time I've met Russell and enjoyed his food; he cooked the fish the chefs caught

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 cup minced yellow onion

2 teaspoons finely minced garlic

1/2 to 1 teaspoon finely minced fresh chili (scotch bonnet, habanero or jalapeño)

1/2 teaspoon finely minced or grated fresh ginger

1/4 cup brown sugar, divided

2 cups diced pineapple (1/4 inch dice)

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Salt and pepper to taste

Four 6-ounce mahi-mahi (or any other local fish, about 1 inch thick)

1 tablespoon olive oil

Heat a medium saucepot over medium heat and add the butter. When the butter is bubbling, add the onion, garlic, chili, ginger and just half of the brown sugar. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring constantly until the sugar has caramelized. Add the remaining brown sugar, pineapple, cider vinegar and cinnamon. Continue to cook until the pineapple has softened and the mixture is bubbling. Turn heat to low, let cook for another minute and then turn heat off. Stir in the cilantro, salt and pepper to taste.

Season the mahi-mahi fillets with salt and pepper. Heat a frying pan or grill pan over high heat, add the olive oil and swirl to coat. When the pan is hot, add the fillets (not touching) and cook the fish for 2 to 4 minutes each side until cooked through.

To serve, top fillets with the pineapple brown sugar glaze.

Serves 4

Steamy Kitchen Faves

The Palmetto Meat Shop has been open for 28 years. It is owned by the Talbot family: Roger, Claudette, sons David and Roger Jr., and daughters Nicole and Audrey. The walls are decked out with trophies, mementos and artwork given to them by loyal customers. Every week, they smoke their own sausages and roasts, and if your four-legged kids are super-good, you can take home a free bag of beautiful beef bones. I bring home a bag every time I visit ... even though (shhh) we don't have any dogs, I roast the bones at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes until the marrow is bubbly, then sprinkle sea salt and scoop out the rich, silky marrow to spread on toast.

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