Monthly Archives: May 2010

by | May 31, 2010 · 5:58 pm

Pea meets pie. Gourmandistan falls in love.

First too-good-to-be-true thing:  a large bag of in-shell English peas from the Norton Commons farmers market. Second too-good-to-be-true thing:  a recipe for Fresh Green Pea Pie from Camille Glenn’s The Heritage of Southern Cooking, combining the fresh peas with a double crust. Mrs. Glenn, food editor for the Louisville Courier-Journal back when it was a great newspaper who died earlier this year at the age of 100, wrote:

If I were asked to name the greatest fresh vegetable dish in the whole wide world, I believe it would have to be Fresh Green Pea Pie, a combination of buttery fresh peas and crisp crust.  It has succulence, flavor, freshness, elegance, and charm—and one doesn’t meet it every day.

Who could resist that description?  We just had to try it.

Instead of one giant pie, we decided to modify the recipe to make a couple of individual ones. Steve shelled the peas and prepared the pastry, then Michelle took over. She cooked the peas for what seemed a long time, then mixed them with butter, chicken broth, parsley and a bit of dill before folding the mixture between two sheets of pie dough. After baking for about half an hour, the pies came out of the oven looking warm and wonderful. Hesitating for a bit of reflection on how best to un-tin the pastries (Michelle resolved, should there be a next time, to find some mini pie pans rather than tart pans to bake them in) we finally got to break into them—and found everything we wanted. Buttery-crisp pastry mixing with sweet, warm tender peas. An exceptional dish—and while Michelle doesn’t know if we’ll have the peas or the energy to make another batch, Steve is already pining for his latest love.

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FRESH GREEN PEA PIE

(adapted from Camille Glenn’s The Heritage of Southern Coooking) (for two 4-1/2″ pies)

Crust for a single crust pie, refrigerated
1-1/2 quarts fresh green peas, in the pod
1/2 to 1 tsp. sugar
4-5 TB butter
2 TB chopped fresh parsley
1 TB chopped fresh dill
Salt & pepper
Splash of chicken stock
1/2 TB heavy cream

Divide crust into fourths.  Roll out each quarter into an approximately 6″ circle on individual pieces of wax paper.  Place two of the dough circles into 4-1/2″ pie or tart pans.  Leave the other two on the wax paper.  Return all to the refrigerator.

Shell peas.  Cook in a pot of boiling, salted water, with the sugar, for 15-20 minutes, until done but still bright green.  Drain.  Put back in saucepan.

Add 4 TB of butter, herbs, salt and pepper.  Toss over low heat until butter is melted.  Splash on a bit of chicken stock.  Cool.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Fill the prepared shells with the cooled peas.  If peas look dry, top with some small pieces of butter.  Lay remaining dough circles over tops of tarts.  Pinch crusts together, using a little brushed-on water as glue.  Trim off any excess dough, and crimp.  Make a few slits in the top crusts with a sharp knife so that steam can escape.  Brush top crusts with cream.

Bake on a baking sheet (or, as we did, on a pizza pan with holes) on the bottom rack of the oven until brown, about 30 minutes.  Let settle on a wire rack for about 5 minutes before removing from pans.

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by | · 8:08 pm

A delicious frosting of “delay and divert.”

Gourmandistan has nothing against salt—we use it liberally on and in all kinds of things, and enjoy a nice salt crust on a steak or roasted chicken. What we don’t like is big business hiding it—especially when also hiding how crappy processed food really is. This story deals with how the food industry wants to divert attention from a reasonable request to cut the amount of salt in food, and why they don’t want to do it.  Here’s a sample from the article:

Beyond its own taste, salt also masks bitter flavors and counters a side effect of processed food production called “warmed-over flavor,” which, the scientists said, can make meat taste like “cardboard” or “damp dog hair.” Salt also works in tandem with fat and sugar to achieve flavors that grip the consumer and do not let go — an allure the industry has recognized for decades. “Once a preference is acquired,” a top scientist at Frito-Lay wrote in a 1979 internal memorandum, “most people do not change it, but simply obey it.”

Bonus: you’re probably addicted to junk food!

Pushed to Lower Salt Use, Food Industry Pushes Back – NYTimes.com.

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by | May 28, 2010 · 10:21 pm

Single-serving strawberry tarts

Michelle was craving strawberry pie.  But the problem is that fruit pies, especially strawberry pies, last for only a short time before becoming mushy and unappetizing and we didn’t want to waste any of our precious fruit.  Steve remembered that we had small tart pans stowed somewhere in the kitchen cabinets and so we made up a batch of tart dough from Maury Rubin’s book of tarts and froze six single-serving tart shells, pulling them out as needed and baking.  For the filling, we looked to Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours and found the perfect recipe:  strawberry tart from the famous Paris café, La Palette. Nothing but strawberry jam (which we’d made several batches of in the past few weeks) and lightly-macerated berries.  Parfait.

TART DOUGH

(adapted from Maury Rubin’s book of tarts)

13 TB unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 c. confectioners’ sugar
1 large egg yolk
1-1/2 c. AP flour
1 TB heavy cream

Let butter sit at room temperature for 10 minutes or so, until malleable but still cool.

Place sugar in bowl of mixer.  Add butter and toss to coat.  Using paddle attachment, cream at medium speed until sugar is no longer visible.  Scrape sides of bowl.  Add egg yolk and beat until well-blended.  Scrape sides of bowl again.  Add half of flour.  Beat until crumbly.  Add remaining flour and then cream, and beat until a sticky mass.

Shape dough into a disk and wrap in wax paper.  Refrigerate for an hour or more.

Cut chilled dough into 1″ squares.  On a floured work surface, use the heel of your hand to knead dough pieces into a smooth disk.  Keeping surface well-dusted, roll the disk into a 12″ log.  Cut log into 6 equal-sized pieces.  Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

On well-floured piece of wax paper, roll out one piece of dough into a round large enough to fill a 4-1/2″ tart pan.  Put dough into tart pan, cutting off excess around edges and pressing in.  Prick with a fork.  Put in freezer.  Repeat with 5 more tart pans.

Freeze for at least 30 minutes.  If saving for later, put in plastic bags or wrap with aluminum foil and keep frozen until needed.

Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 15 minutes.  There is no need to fill with beans or pie weights, but it is a good idea to tamp the bottoms down with your fingers as the shells are baking.

Cool on wire racks, then unmold.

***

LA PALETTE’S STRAWBERRY TART

(adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours)

Strawberry jam
Strawberries
Sugar
Splash of kirsch or framboise

Halve or quarter strawberries and place in a bowl.  Splash on a small amount of kirsch or framboise.  Sprinkle with a small amount of sugar, and toss.

Spoon jam over bottom of cooked tart shells.  Top with berries and their juice.

Serve with crème fraîche, whipped cream, or, as we did, homemade buttermilk ice cream.

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by | May 27, 2010 · 7:35 am

Who’s ready for a Dale Earnhart, Jr. Cheeseburger?

FTA: “100 million people … find sustenance every day from 7 million vending machines. … [W]e rarely notice it or consider that the food inside vending machines has been made by humans, and that those people believe that vending machine food can taste good.”

Vending machine food of the future – chicagotribune.com.

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by | May 26, 2010 · 9:43 pm

Eating, eccentricity and ethnocentrism at the “International” Bar-B-Q Fest

Earlier this month Steve’s friend and honorary Gourmandistani, Bill, invited him to Owensboro for the International Bar-B-Q Festival, held on the second Saturday in May since 1978 on the (at least for this year, somewhat rain-swollen) banks of the Ohio River. The Festival’s website advises one to “come for the food, stay for the fun,” but Bill insisted the right way to attend the “Fest” was to go early, beg for scraps of cooking ‘Q from the cooking teams and get out before the crowds showed up. Despite his seeming aversion to Owenboro’s unwashed masses, Bill is quite the Festival fan, practically begging Steve to put out the word about the International Bar-B-Q Festival to Gourmandistan’s literally tens of followers. To Bill, the Owensboro Festival is a jewel—an exciting, interesting and one-of-a-kind display of the delicate art of pit-smoking meat.

Owensboro certainly  stands out in the world of bar-b-q because of its rather eccentric choice of meat—mutton. It seems that lamb-loving Welsh settlers combined with a big early-1800s push into sheep farming meant the Daviess County area had plenty of “tired wool” on its hands, and slow-cooking was the only way to deal with the critters. So while there was certainly plenty of pig and chicken about, plus perhaps the odd beef rib or sausage, mutton took center stage. The Gourmandistan entourage arrived reasonably early, while the pits were still smoking away with their burdens of meat and people were stirring that Kentucky specialty, burgoo.

Despite the “International” label, the competing teams seemed to be divided among Owensboro’s many Catholic parishes—although Steve’s other friend Brian did suggest that the Vatican ties qualified the church members as “international.” While Bill still thinks the Owensboro Festival needs more national recognition, like attention to Memphis in May and other big (and actually less parochial) competitions, the Owensboro Festival was to Steve’s eye a very accessible event, where free samples could be had if one begged creatively enough and (as Bill demonstrated) had the stones to grab very hot meat with one’s bare hands.

Sure it's hot, but who can resist a free sample?

We never did get a piece of the whole spit-roasted pig, despite our efforts.

But we did manage to score several chunks of mutton. Many parishes also sold sandwiches, which were both delicious and non-hand-burny. Stuffed and thoroughly smoked, we left the ‘Q fest before the onslaught of local bands began—and made plans to meet next May for more mutton.

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