Grilled Tomato Sauce From Steven Raichlen Like soup, tomato sauce is one of the dishes you're least likely to think of grilling. But there is a powerful reason to try this sauce. Beyond the mere novelty factor, grilling imparts a gutsy smoke flavor to the sauce and heightens the natural sweetness of the vegetables. Don't take just my word for it. For thousands of years, Mexicans have grilled tomatoes, onions and peppers to make rich-tasting salsas. I have adapted the technique to make an exceptionally flavorful tomato sauce. Serve the sauce over grilled polenta, with any simple grilled fish, or with just about any cooked pasta. Makes about 3 1/2 cups. 5 lucious, ripe red tomatoes 2 - 2 1/4 pounds total, cut in half crosswise, and stem ends removed 1 medium size white onion, peeled and cut into quarters 1 rib celery 4 cloves garlic, peeled and skewered on a wooden toothpick or small bamboo skewer 3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil 1 tsp. oregano 1/2 tsp. hot pepper flakes 1 bay leaf 6 fresh basil leaves coarse salt (Kosher or Sea salt) freshly ground black pepper 1/4 to 3/4 cup chicken stock, vegetable stock or water Cook the tomatoes, onions, celery and garlic in greased and preheated grill (George Foreman grill) until nicely browned. You may need to cook the vegetables in more than one batch. Transfer the grilled vegetables and let cool. Finely chop the onions, celery and garlic by hand or in a food processor. If using a food processor, run machine in spurts. Heat olive oil in large non-reactive sauce pan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion, celery and garlic, oregano, hot pepper flakes and bay leaf and cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Coarsely puree tomatoes and juices with the basil in a food processor. Add the tomato mixture to the sauce pan, with the vegetables. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then let sauce simmer gently until thick and richly flavored 8-10 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. The sauce should be thick but pourable. If it is too thick, add a little stock or water. Remove and discard the bay leaf. The sauce can be refrigerated, covered up to 4 days. Or frozen for up to 2 months. Let the sauce come to room temperature then reheat it in a non-reactive sauce pan over medium heat, stirring often.

The answer to “Are there wolves in New York?” is both yes and no, and more complicated than either answer alone could explain. There are no known established packs of wolves, be it Eastern/Timber wolves, grey wolves or red wolves, in any portion of the northeastern US south of the Canadian border. However, there are most certainly wolves that have crossed into the US over the last 30-130 years, with documented instances. How established they really are is what remains to be seen. The last known “established” northeastern wolf pack was completely killed off in 1890. This pack has all places of the hierarchy filled. But the area they spanned covers tens if not hundred of millions of acres of dense forests here and in neighboring states (Adirondack Park alone is 6MM acres, over 9,000 square miles), with ample room for them to go undetected. And to be honest, they aren’t even undetected. While some of the stories mentioned above may sound unlikely, there have been 3 confirmed kills of wolves in New York and Vermont from 1998-2006. These are only the cases where the bodies were definitively tested (they were a 100% match as wild-raised, non-captive wolves, not coyotes, coy dogs or coyote-wolf cross breeds either, though their exact lineage and origin remains unclear). Again, these are just cases where someone bothered to have the body tested afterward, and it does not include sightings alone or kills which were unconfirmed. In 2 out of 3 of these instances, the wolves that were killed were spotted with other wolves and indicate the potential for the existence of presently establishing packs. Interior Alaskan “Yukon” wolves are not the same. The behavior of wolves in Alaska is very different from the documented behaviors of the wolves that have largely inhabited Canada and the lower 48. Stating that a wolf in Alaska is inquisitive and unafraid of humans is true but irrelevant in the present conversation. It’s a known behavior of that subspecies, but not necessarily of any of the subspecies of wolf that would potentially be spotted in the wild in the northeastern US. Alaskan wolves have come to live in significantly greater harmony with Alaskan hunters, as it’s a much smaller population of people trying to kill them, which has allowed the population of Yukon wolves to avoid decimation, unlike northeastern populations. Any wolves found in New York or similar locations would be more closely related to the Eastern Timber wolves and/or grey wolves found in southeastern Canada. When considering the known interaction levels of those wolves, we see that they commonly adopt an approach not dissimilar to coyotes; they do not consider humans to be prey, but do recognize their potential as a predator. They remain curious but cautious. They will not attack unless provoked, and will often remain just at tree lines, showing themselves while maintaining the opportunity to slip back into the forest. And when food is scarce, especially in times of drought or deep winter, they will approach areas with humans in search of food. With that said, their history with humans has understandably left them more skittish and less interested in our company than their Alaskan relatives. Are they here? Yes, we already know this. Are they thriving? Probably not. The 3 mentioned above were all killed by hunters aiming to find coyotes, which are legally hunted in the areas where these wolves would be attempting to reestablish populations. This is one of the same reasons the DEC hasn’t bothered to try relocating any individuals or even entire packs from the Canadian populations. Not only is there evidence that they are naturally relocating on their own, but additionally, no one knows how to create the right kind of laws and hunting regulations necessary to ensure coyote traps and hunters don’t once again decimate any new populations of wolves. And in New York in particular, we have hunted the large prey these animals require to get through long winters to near extinction, much like the wolves themselves. In those months, kills are scarce, even smaller prey such as beavers and hare are hard to come by. These predators used to rely on the occasional large game to sustain long periods without food. But these days, spotting a wolf in New York is more likely than spotting the elk, moose or caribou they would need to survive a long winter, all of which thrive north of the Canadian border. Caribou haven’t been here for hundreds of years, back when wolves heavily roamed the NY landscape. Elk are thought to be extinct here, rarely seen outside of Pennsylvania, which has successfully reintroduced them. A tiny population of moose exists in the Adirondacks, as do white-tailed deer, but both are susceptible to deer-borne illnesses, wasting disease and ticks, in addition to over-hunting, all of which have left them few and far between. The irony here is that the wolves helped keep these same diseases in check, which now instead spread freely amongst the remaining populations. For these reasons, it becomes MORE likely that any wolves spotted in New York State would NOT be in their usual large packs, instead struggling to regain a territory that no longer resembles the home their ancestors once knew. Litters would be smaller than average, with pups significantly less likely to survive their first winter than packs north of the border. If you see a wolf in New York, it’s entirely possible your eyes are not playing tricks on you. As anyone who frequently sees coyotes here can tell you, it’s quite easy to see the difference, even when they are dustier in coloring. Consider yourself lucky, snap a picture if you can, and hope that one day they return to the numbers they once were. Our state and its wildlife will be significantly healthier if they do.

If you wait until next week, IÂll take you to the Kutztown Folk Festival here in eastern PA, where youÂll be able to sample a huge variety of PA Dutch specialties all in one place (link below) and be tempted to take home one of the 2000+ locally made quilts on display. Some of your choices will include chicken pot pie, schnitz un knepp (ham cooked with dried apples and dumplings), Lebanon bologna (a type of summer sausage) sandwiches, potato cakes, sausage and pepper sandwiches, shoofly, cherry crumb or other crumb-topped fruit pies, corn pie, fried scrapple and/or corn meal mush, roast ox, and pickles and preserves of many varieties. On the way home, weÂll stop at one of the farmers markets for thinly sliced dried beef, applewood smoked bacon and ham, Lodi apples, Uncle HenryÂs hard pretzels, any one of a dozen varieties of potato chips still fried in lard, sticky buns, chip steak, freshly picked corn, untrimmed celery, pickled eggs and red beets, pot pie noodles, whoopie pies and Moravian sugar cakes. I confess that I wonÂt feel much like cooking dinner since IÂll be tired from volunteering at the festival. We can go out for dinner at any one of a score of diners or 100+ year old still-operating village hotels/taverns, where itÂs possible that some of the nightly specials may be stuffed beef heart with gravy or pig stomach stuffed with potatoes, onions, smoked and fresh sausage. YouÂll have to remember that many of the vegetables or items like steamed clams will be served with addiction-inducing browned butter. Yuengling beer will be on tap everywhere but you can also have prize-winning Chambourcin wine from one of the Lehigh ValleyÂs vineyards. Here is a link that might be useful: Kutztown PA German Folk Festival

I don't buy the fish from Asia or South America... a lot of things like farmed shrimp are helping deplete the world of ecologically-significant mangrove trees, in addition to their polluted rearing environments. Up here in the north, I have no idea where the Gulf of Mexico shrimp were caught, so I tend to avoid, but not as hard and fast as avoiding the Asian sourced shrimp. In season here, I have a source for rhode island red shrimp... I eat those with gusto! Most of the year they are in waters too deep to net. Sweeter and more delicate than regular shrimp, they don't ship well. I will buy some farmed fish - Arctic char when I can find it - it is raised in self-contained lakes in Canada or Iceland, and I trust those sources. I'll also eat rainbow trout. I love just about all fish, except maybe flounder (too bland). But for sustainability reasons there are some I no longer eat. My toro (bluefin tuna belly) days are done. I''m not fond of the canned fish taste (tuna, salmon), although there is a limited place for tinned sardines if packed in EVOO by a reputable company. I can't wait to get a recreational fishing license when I move. Fresh caught lake or river fish can't be beat! So, anyhow, for me location counts. North America or, when appropriate, northern Europe.