~FOOD&WINE

Myra Goodman’s organic raspberry corn muffins contain a story. It’s the tale of the Carmel Valley-backyard beginnings of the now-global Earthbound Farm enterprise, of a time long before 74 percent of supermarkets nationwide carried Earthbound produce, and before normal folks spoke of growing organic.

It’s appropriate, then, that the muffin recipe is the first of the (gulp) 250-plus recipes in Goodman’s recently released cookbook, Food To Live By.

“These were muffins I baked in ’84 when Earthbound started,” Goodman says. “I’d look right outside from the kitchen, see customers, dust off the flour and run out. I have friends that say, ‘I used to buy the corn muffins when you were 20. Remember me?’”

Raspberry Corn Muffins

Makes 12 standard-size muffins

Moist and sweet even without butter, these little baked goodies reveal why they were a Farmstand standby since the beginning.
     
Butter for greasing the muffin cups (unless using cupcake liners)
1 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 cup finely ground yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup buttermilk
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 half-pint (about 1 1/4 cups) fresh raspberries or frozen (unthawed) unsweetened raspberries

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter 12 standard-size muffin cups or line them with cupcake liners.

2. Place the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl and whisk to combine well.

3. Place the eggs, honey, sugar, buttermilk, and melted butter in a small bowl and whisk to combine well. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined. Gently fold in the raspberries. Do not overmix the batter or the muffins will be tough. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling them almost to the brim.

4. Bake the muffins until they are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.

5. Place the muffin pan on a wire rack and let the muffins cool for about 10 minutes. Remove the muffins from the pan and serve warm. The muffins taste best the day they are made but, if necessary, they can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days. Reheat them in a microwave for about 10 seconds or in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 5 to 10 minutes. 

That kind of personal history is one of the key ingredients in Food to Live By. Set alongside pages laden with drool-inducing color photos and a lifetime of creative recipes—soups and salads, meats and poultry, fish and shellfish, pasta dishes and vegetarian plates, sauces and sides, breakfasts and desserts—the history is one of the most interesting aspects of the book.

“It is more than a cookbook,” Goodman says. “A lot of the motivation was sharing our stories, all the reasons why organics are the choice. There’s a little biography and a lot of information.”

It is also a culminating step in her overall mission. “Striving to bring delicious organic food and an understanding of its tremendous value to as many people as possible,” Goodman writes in the introduction, “has been a way of life for [husband] Drew and me for more than 22 years.”

The book recounts how that mission first sprouted in Carmel Valley through spontaneous events that occurred as organically as does EB’s granola.

Myra and Drew hooked up as college students (at Berkeley and UCSC, respectively) after attending the same high school in Manhattan. Together, they found a house off Carmel Valley Road where they could work off the rent by improving the property while Myra prepared for grad school. They figured they could cover their expenses with Myra’s babysitting checks and by selling fruit from the property’s acre and a half of raspberries. But when the time came to apply the pesticides to the crops, they couldn’t do it.

Prosciutto Wrapped Beef Kebabs

Serves 4; 2 skewers per person

The host of the NFL-playoff barbecue didn’t have skewers, so I wrapped the onion inside of the proscuitto and soon had some of the more seductive small bites I’ve ever tried. They took just minutes to prep and cook, but they’ll take forever to forget. Just to push the self-indulgent envelope, we plopped the baby gourmet filets on garlic bread for powerhouse mini-sandwiches. Easy to understand how these are reserved for special events at the Goodman house.

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Pinch of salt
1 1/4 pounds beef tenderloin, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
1 sweet yellow onion, such as Walla Walla or Vidalia
8 ounces prosciutto, thinly sliced

1. Place the Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, and salt in a medium-size bowl and stir to blend. Add the beef cubes and stir until well coated. Let the meat marinate at room temperature, stirring occasionally, for 20 to 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, set up a barbecue grill and preheat it to medium.

3. Cut the onion into quarters lengthwise through the root end. Then slice each onion wedge in half crosswise to make eight chunks.

4. Cut the slices of prosciutto in half, lengthwise. Wrap each beef cube with a half slice of prosciutto.

5. Assemble the kebabs by alternating pieces of onion (3 or 4 layers) with cubes of prosciutto-wrapped beef on 8 skewers.

6. Grill the kebabs, turning occasionally, until cooked to taste, a total of 6 to 8 minutes for medium-rare.

7. Transfer the kebabs to a platter and serve hot. 

“We hated the way the chemicals smelled and instinctively knew they weren’t healthy for us, our future customers, or the environment,” Myra writes. “And because we were literally farming our own backyard, the potential impact was clear.”

The young couple set about studying Rodale’s Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening. When they grew more organic raspberries than they could sell fresh—according to their self-imposed rule—their freezer quickly filled with frozen berries.

Myra began experimenting. Some recipes worked, some didn’t. Today, 16 raspberry recipes, ranging from chocolate soufflé with raspberry sauce to raspberry-poached pears, survive to appear in Food To Live By, including the muffins (see recipe, pg. 21).

The organic invention-by-necessity theme persisted for the Goodmans. Earthbound’s most revolutionary advance, the first successfully bagged-and-marketed salad, is a particularly striking example. It happened because Myra and Drew were working so much they ate mainly pizza and takeout.

“We were growing delicious healthy greens right outside out kitchen window,” Myra muses, “but we were not eating them.”

They began washing, drying and bagging greens every Sunday for the week ahead. Later, as they marketed such bags locally to great success, they couldn’t keep up with demand, so Myra’s father and Drew invented a bagging machine. Today Earthbound—after continuing to grow, partnering with Mission Ranches in 1995 and Tanimura and Antle in 1999—sends out 30 million servings of EB Farm organic salad every week.

~ ~ ~

This prosciutto-wrapping is great fun, a tactile treat. The sticky paper-thin cuts of pork and the tenderloin cubes adhere to one another with a quiet slap, like meaty magnets. The prep process is nothing short of sensuous—only nobody told me how sensuous organics could be. Same goes for the dusting of the albacore in ground coriander, fennel and black pepper. And the payoff is that the the Prosciutto-Wrapped Beef Kebabs and Seared Tuna With a Fennel-Coriander Crust taste as indulgent as the prep would suggest (see recipes, pg. 24 and 26).

The point here is that organic, on the pages of Food to Live By, means a lot of things—but not self-denial. (Merely peeking at the shrimp cakes on page 174 feels hedonistic—and is best done with a big bib.)

Strawberry Tarragon Salad with Aged Balsamic Vinegar

Serves 4 as a side salad

Salads are a natural with EB, and the book doesn’t disappoint—there are 16 salad recipes and 17 dressings including wild ideas like Baby Greens with Grilled Figs and Walnuts. This one stood out among the robust options (Butter Leaf Lettuce with Passion-Fruit Vinaigrette and Edible Flowers?!) and proved delectable: The marinated strawberries and blue cheese made mouth magic with the balsamic vinaigrette, while the roasted pecans contributed crunch punctuation to each bite.

2 pints small ripe strawberries, rinsed and hulled
1/4 cup good-quality balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons aged balsamic vinegar (optional), preferably at least 6 years old
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Pinch of salt
4 ounces (5 to 6 cups) mixed baby greens, carefully rinsed and dried, if needed
1/2 cup fresh whole tarragon leaves
1/4 cup toasted pecans, chopped (to toast the pecans, before chopping, spread over a baking sheet in a single layer. Put in the oven for five minutes at 350 degrees.)
1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled blue cheese

1. Prepare the flavored vinegar by mashing three strawberries against the side of a small bowl with a fork. Add the 1/4 cup of good-quality balsamic vinegar and stir to combine. Let the vinegar stand at room temperature to absorb the strawberry flavor, 1 to 2 hours.

2. Meanwhile, cut the remaining strawberries in half lengthwise so they are bite size (if you have large berries, cut them into quarters). If using aged balsamic vinegar, place the cut berries in a small, shallow bowl, add the aged vinegar, and stir to coat. Let the berries marinate at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours, stirring occasionally. If not using aged balsamic vinegar, you do not need to marinate the strawberries.

3. Strain the strawberry-flavored vinegar through a sieve, pressing down on the berries to extract all the liquid from the fruit. Discard the solids. Place the flavored vinegar, olive oil, mustard, and salt in a glass jar and seal the lid tightly. Shake the jar vigorously to combine.

4. Just before serving, place the mixed greens and tarragon in a large salad bowl and toss to combine. Add 3 tablespoons of the vinaigrette. Toss to lightly coat the leaves, then taste to see if more vinaigrette is needed. Any leftover vinaigrette can be stored, covered, in the refrigerator, for up to 3 days.

5. Divide the greens evenly among 4 salad plates. Arrange the strawberries on top and sprinkle with pecans and blue cheese. Serve immediately. 

“Organic is more than what people think it is,” Myra told me before embarking on a recent book tour to Illinois and Texas. “A lot of people have very vague sense that it is farmed without chemicals, or that it’s very basic, but don’t realize there are a lot of other ways that organic is different than conventional. The surprises are in the details.

“The book’s not preachy. I don’t want people to feel bad, I just want to give them information to invite them to try more organic.”

Organic insights are there—how to decode organic labels, how to buy sustainable tuna—sprinkled in through sidebars and spotlights. It’s one of several qualities that stand out in the 400-page gourmet resource. Others include the following:

• The Diversity: Good cookbooks grease the wheels of culinary creativity. Folks who eschew cookbooks for a more personalized approach will enjoy the inspirational kick gleaned from the fun ingredients, various dishes and healthy options that abound herein: Edamame pesto! Golden tomato gazpacho! Spicy Chicken Lettuce Wraps! Tangerine tofu! Plus Myra understands. “What felt ironic is that at the beginning of this process I didn’t use cookbooks, like an artist—nobody in my family did,” Goodman says, “Now it’s become a family heirloom.”

• The Earthbound Edge: Goodman imports classic EB posters, including field guides to winter squash, gourmet greens, tomatoes and more, and many of her most revered Farmstand recipes, including possibly their most popular: the granolas—both the maple almond and the cranberry pecan.

• The Collaboration: Goodman leans heavily on a strong family tradition of tasty recipes, but also shares some hits from local flavor hubs like Flying Fish in Carmel and the Post Ranch Inn’s Sierra Mar in Big Sur, and adds recipes from Earthbound Farmstand chefs and others.

• The Depth: The family’s revered Flank Steak recipe includes a companion guide to Goodman Family Olive Sauce, but also references a Jalapeño Arugula Aioli for leftover steak sandwiches; several salads include notes on how to create dressings and/or details on how to roast nuts and vegetables—and that’s just the beginning. The book is stuffed like her Grilled Vegetable Lasagne (or her Twice-Baked Potatoes, or...) with insightful and practical accessory tips.

• The Chops: Everybody I’ve talked to about this cookbook digs it. One local authority on cookbooks, who was a 1980s Carmel Valley gardener in her own right (none other than my mother) leafed through it, tried out the raspberry corn muffins, and promptly bought two copies—one for herself and one for her best friend, a chef who writes cookbooks for General Mills. Her friend shared it with her whole department, then reported back, saying: “We all love it.” 

Seared Tuna with a Fennel Coriander Crust

Serves 4

Some of the simpler recipes in Food To Live By are the best. This dish turned out fantastic—the crust’s transition from Kosher saltiness to fennel sweetness made every bite of fresh albacore dynamite. Keep a piece sliced on the pan to make sure “seared” doesn’t turn into “completely cooked.”

1/4 cup fennel seeds
3 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 tablespoons whole white or black peppercorns
Coarse (kosher) salt
4 tuna steaks (each about 3/4 inch thick and 6 ounces)
2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Place the fennel, coriander, and peppercorns in a spice mill or clean coffee grinder and grind to a fine powder. Spread the spice mixture on a plate.

2. Sprinkle salt on both sides of the tuna steaks. Dip each tuna steak in the spice mixture, lightly coating it all over.

3. Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the tuna and cook, turning once, until cooked to taste, about 2 minutes per side for medium-rare. Serve warm.