Monthly Archives: August 2011

by Steve | August 29, 2011 · 8:41 pm

Basque in the afterglow: garlic, sausage & red pepper soup

Possibly the saddest lie Michelle has ever told involves a pony, the Pyrenées and picture-taking. Steve had asked to stop on a narrow, guardrail-less road winding its way towards St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port so he could photograph a Basque pony, one of a small herd climbing the steep mountainside.

Michelle, a raging acrophobic, suffered Steve only a few shots before declaring she was worried he would “fill up the card” on the digital camera. Steve, who has much experience with Michelle’s fear of heights expressing itself in novel ways (e.g., oddly overwhelming concern for a hypothetically falling baby) gently acceded to this fiction and returned to the car, managing to take a few other photos of the gorgeous mountainscapes and the creatures that live among them between Michelle’s bouts of crippling fear.

It turned out that, other than the altitude, Michelle very much enjoyed the Basque country, an odd, defiantly un-assimilated land of espadrilles, frontons and a glorious tradition of pintxo bars. Once she pried her clenched fingers from our car’s steering wheel, she managed to take some nice pictures as well.

Recently we found beautiful locally-grown pimentos from Hambley Farms.

And based on that, we made this deliciously garlicky-spicy soup based on a Basque recipe, which let us once again reminisce about our time between France and Spain—helped, Michelle must admit, by Steve’s “camera-stuffing” shots.

It's like breakfast in a bowl: sausage, egg and toast!

GARLIC, SAUSAGE & RED PEPPER SOUP (Baratxuri Salda)

(adapted from Lois Anne Rothert’s The Soups of France) (Serves 6)

1/2 lb. spicy sausage (we used bulk spicy pork sausage from Garey Farms)
3 red peppers, preferably pimentos, seeded, trimmed and cut into 1/4″ strips
1 TB olive oil
10 cloves finely minced garlic
Pinch of Piment d’Espelette or other mildly hot powdered pepper
2 quarts chicken stock
1 tsp. salt
Red wine vinegar

Poached eggs
Croûtes (recipe follows)

Heat the olive oil in a soup pot over low heat. Add the garlic, sausage and bell peppers, stirring often until the sausage is broken up and browned, about 10 minutes. Drain any excess fat from the pot, add the pinch of Piment d’Espelette or other pepper, salt and stock, then bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for about 20 more minutes, until the garlic and red pepper ribbons are soft and tender. Taste, add more seasoning if desired, then ladle into bowls or soup plates. Garnish each bowl with a poached egg, some croûtes and a dash of vinegar.

Croûtes

Preheat oven to 375°. Spread narrow slices of French, whole grain, white or other bread on both sides with a thin layer of butter, lard or other fat. Place the slices on a baking sheet and put them in the oven for 5 minutes. Check the bottoms for brownness, leaving them in for a few more minutes if needed to get them golden brown. Turn the bread slices and bake for another 3 to 5 minutes until both sides are golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool the croûtes on a rack.

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Tagged as Soup

by Michelle | August 21, 2011 · 7:39 pm

Honey-Rosemary-Ginger Ice Cream with Peaches

While we enjoy rosemary and ginger, we really never considered using them together—and especially not in ice cream. But while pining for something dessert-ish, Michelle found this recipe in Patricia Wells’ The Paris Cookbook and decided to give it a go. She was a little dubious even as she steeped the ginger and rosemary custard, but started to be convinced by its savory aroma.

The recipe comes from Alain Dutournier’s Carré des Feuillants, a wonderful restaurant we visited with Michelle’s mom during a 2002 trip to Paris. Dutournier pairs the savory ice cream with pears poached in honey and Beaumes de Venise (a sweet Muscat-based wine from the Rhone Valley). Pears were not yet in season here in Kentucky, but we had a surfeit of peaches and figured their spicy sweetness would make a good substitute.

We also had, as always, an abundance of eggs, so we made the ice cream a little richer than the original recipe with the addition of some yolks.

After an overnight chill it was time for Steve to plug in our ice cream maker and stand watch while Michelle browned sliced peaches in butter and brown sugar. We were very pleased with the results. The rich ice cream’s spicy ginger and piney rosemary flavors played wonderfully off one another and brought out the spicy-sweet notes of the peaches.

HONEY-ROSEMARY-GINGER ICE CREAM

(adapted from Patricia Wells’ The Paris Cookbook)

2 c. heavy cream
1 c. whole milk
1/2 c. mild honey
thumb-sized knob of fresh ginger, peeled
7-8 branches of rosemary
3 egg yolks, whisked together in small bowl

Combine cream, milk, honey, ginger and rosemary in a large saucepan. Heat over medium flame until tiny bubbles form around the edges of the pan. Add a little warmed cream to the egg yolks and stir to temper. Add the yolks to the cream mixture, whisking for a minute or so. Remove from heat, cover and let steep for approximately an hour.

Strain cream mixture through a fine sieve. Discard ginger and rosemary. Refrigerate overnight. Transfer to an ice cream maker and freeze.

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Tagged as Desserts, Herbs, Ice cream

by Steve | August 13, 2011 · 8:35 am

Pork chop paragon.

Pan-fried pork chop

“Respect the product” is a somewhat shopworn phrase in cooking circles. But our recent gift from Bob Hancock of Blue Dog Bakery underscored the reality behind the banality.

Blue Dog now transforms into Red Hog Tapas every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, highlighting Bob’s charcuterie made with pork from his own Red Wattle hogs. Bob shows his pigs respect from farrowing to their final day, giving them plenty of room to roam and minimizing their stress on their way to processing.

So when Bob gave us a couple of chops (along with several pounds of pig fat Steve can’t wait to render into lard and cracklings), we wanted to show them as much respect as Bob gives his pigs. We chose one of our favorite, simple pork preparations — an Alice Waters-inspired sage leaf pan-fry. We plucked leaves from our abundant sage plants, pasted them on our salted and peppered chops, and briskly crisped them before a brief rest. They were juicy, sweet and sensational, and will most likely form the baseline of future pork flavor comparisons. Respect.

PAN-FRIED PORK CHOPS

(from Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food) (serves 4)

4 pork chops

Salt & pepper

Fresh sage leaves (or other fresh herbs such as rosemary, marjoram or savory)

Olive oil to coat pan

Season chops with salt and pepper on both sides and let rest for several hours at room temperature.

Press herbs into chops.

Heat a heavy frying pan over medium-high heat and pour in enough olive oil to coat. Add chops, cooking until brown, for about 5 minutes. Turn and cook until done, about 4 minutes more.

Let chops rest for 4-5 minutes.

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Tagged as Pork

by Michelle | August 10, 2011 · 7:51 pm

The trouble with tomatoes.

Slime. Goo, guck, glop. Or whatever you want to call the viscous heart of just about every raw tomato. That (and lots of little tough seeds) is why Gourmandistan can be very, very wary of its fresh “love apples,” much to the dismay of many of our friends who eat tomatoes out of hand in their gardens.

We certainly think bacon, lettuce (or avocado) and tomato sandwiches are delicious, but (at least in our world) only require very thin slices of firm, fresh tomato. We appreciate our farm share cherry tomatoes, but they add cloying sweetness and an even bigger ratio of goo and seeds to meat. The cherries are usually dispatched to the dehydrator, then frozen to await their role as sauce strengtheners over the Winter. When we’re making sauce with our beloved San Marzanos we’re not above tossing in an heirloom beefsteak or other variety, but sauce-making is still a few weeks away.

There is one way we enjoy (nearly) raw tomatoes — in a lovely light sauce from Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse Vegetables. For a few perfectly ripe, firm (and even juicy) tomatoes, it’s one of the best ways to go.

FRESH TOMATO AND GARLIC PASTA SAUCE

(adapted, only barely, from Chez Panisse Vegetables) (serves 4 supposedly, but it usually serves only 2-3 in our house)

3 or 4 perfectly ripe tomatoes
3-5 cloves garlic, minced
A handful or parsley and/or basil, chopped
½ c. fruity olive oil
Salt and pepper

Cut out the stem ends and dice the tomatoes. If you are obsessive like Michelle, you can peel and seed them before dicing.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed skillet until quite hot but not smoking. Throw the garlic into the oil. Before the garlic begins to brown, add the tomatoes and stir. (Careful, they may spatter a bit.) Add the chopped herbs and cook for only a few minutes, just until the tomatoes are warmed through and begin to slump a little. Season with salt and pepper.

Toss with cooked pasta. We usually use homemade spaghetti, but anything will do. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.

Leftovers, if there are any, are delicious topped with an egg that has been lightly fried in olive oil.

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Tagged as Pasta, Tomatoes

by Michelle | August 5, 2011 · 10:28 pm

Knights in white pizza.

Cold hearted orb, that rules the night. Its passage has removed almost all tomato sauce from Gourmandistan’s sight. And before the arrival of San Marzano season we need every bit of sauce for an eggplant parmigiana we plan to have on the next family visit. But alas, a block of mozzarella was in danger of reaching the end—so we breathed deep the gathering gloom, and decided to use the cheese in a white pizza.

Actually, white pizza sauce often rivals red in Gourmandistan. While red certainly holds its own with anchovies, peppers, spicy sausages and more, white allows us to enjoy a little more delicate flavor. Though we often tart our whites up with garlic, rosemary and other bold flavors, we’ve also used it for mushrooms and other subtle foods. This time we went big, with sautéed onions and garlic, steamed and sliced new potatoes, rosemary and some of Steve’s still-amazing guanciale. That’s the kind of thing that will get you right out of your moody blues.

WHITE PIZZA SAUCE

2 TB butter
2 TB flour
1 tsp. or so chopped rosemary
1 c. milk
pinch red pepper flakes or cayenne
salt & pepper

Melt butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and whisk to make a roux. Add rosemary and some red pepper flakes, continuing to whisk until flour is cooked off. Add milk slowly, whisking. Cook, whisking, until sauce thickens. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside. Sauce will thicken further as it cools. If too thick, whisk in more milk. Use as you would use tomato sauce on a pizza. (Makes enough for 1 medium to large pizza. Dough recipe here.)