iEat Green - Mark Winne - 03.08.18

Mark Winnie is the author of the new book, Stand Together or Starve Alone: Unity and Chaos in the U.S. Food Movement, which is a call for collaboration. As a food activist and co-founder of a number of food and agriculture policy groups including the City of Hartford Food Policy Commission, the Connecticut Food Policy Council, End Hunger Connecticut!, and the national Community Food Security Coalition, Mark recognizes the need for us to all work together if we really want to make progress. He was an organizer and chairman of the Working Lands Alliance, a statewide coalition working to preserve Connecticut’s farmland, and is a founder of the Connecticut Farmland Trust. Mark was a member of the United States delegation to the 2000 World Conference on Food Security in Rome and is a 2001 recipient of  the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary’s Plow Honor Award. From 2002 until 2004, Mark was a Food and Society Policy Fellow, a position supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Since 2013, Mark has served as a Senior Advisor at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, where he works on local and state food policy. His essays and opinion pieces have appeared in the Hartford Courant, the Boston Globe, The Nation, In These Times, Sierra Magazine, Orion Magazine, Successful Farming, Yes! Magazine, and numerous organizational and professional journals. Mark blogs regularly at www.markwinne.com. In addition to his newest book, Mark is the author of Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty (Beacon Press 2008), and Food Rebels, Guerilla Gardeners, and Smart Cookin’ Mamas: Fighting Back in an Age of Industrial Agriculture (Beacon Press, 2010). Mark currently writes, speaks, and consults extensively on community food system topics including hunger and food insecurity, local and regional agriculture, community food assessment, and food policy.

 

Herbed Tofu Medallions with Shitake Mushroom Coulis
4 servings
Ingredients
1 cake, Organic Extra Firm Tofu, cut into
¼ “ thick slices, then halved into triangles
¼ cup nutritional yeast
½ t. dried thyme
½ t. marjaram
1 t. garlic powder
½ t. oregano
¼ t. salt
1/8 t. pepper
Sautéed Shitake
¼ cup diced shallots
¼ cup celery, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 cups sliced Shitake mushrooms
2-4 Tbs. water
¼ cup red wine
2 t. tamari
1 Tbs. chopped sage
Fresh ground pepper
1 Tbs chopped parsley
Sauce
1 cup vegetable stock
1 Tbs red wine
1 Tbs. mashed avocado
1 clove garlic
1 Tbs. chopped parsley
Directions
Make a mixture of the nutritional yeast, thyme, marjoram, garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper and put into pie plate. Bread the tofu medallions with the mixture on both sides. Lay out on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes, turning over half way through, when golden brown. Sauté the shallots in a dry cast iron pan, adding 1 Tbs. of water at a time, to keep it from sticking. After a few minutes, add the celery and garlic, and continue sautéing

until soft, adding a bit more water as needed to prevent sticking. Add the shitake mushrooms and continue cooking. When they start to wilt, add the ¼ cup of red wine, the tamari, pepper and sage. Cook until the liquid has evaporated. Remove mushrooms into a bowl and add the tablespoon of parsley. Set aside. In the same pan, add the cup of vegetable stock, and the tablespoon of wine. Using a garlic press, add the garlic. Let it cook down for 5 minutes, until reduced by half. Whisk in the mashed avocado until smooth. Add the parsley. Pour the sauce over tofu cutlets and top it with the Shitake mushrooms, Garnish it with plenty of fresh parsley. Serve immediately.