Michelle

Rabbit nems resurrect thoughts of France, sausage making

January 19, 2015 by Michelle

Gourmandistan has had an idea of recreating rabbit nems in our imaginary fiefdom almost since the time we discovered them in Normandy a couple of years ago. As we recall, the rice paper-wrapped treats we bought from a Caen market lapin vendor were filled with ground rabbit and subtle spices. We’d buy the uncooked rolls along with some containers of sauce, go home and fry them, and have a wonderful and easy lunch. While those particular nems seemed a bit less Asian than other Vietnamese rolls we’ve enjoyed in France, the lovely texture and taste […]

Categories: Appetizers, Food, France, Rabbit, Recipes, Vietnam

Moo meets Marco Polo in dan dan noodles with carrot pickles

January 13, 2015 by Michelle

Along with just about everyone who is interested in Sichuan food, we in Gourmandistan are fans of dan dan noodles. This classic dish usually calls for pork and some sort of Chinese noodle or ramen. Our current home version uses neither, and we’re mostly quite happy about it. Our pork-free, pasta-using version started with some surplus ground beef, which Michelle thought of using for dan dan after seeing such a version in Fuchsia Dunlop’s Land of Plenty credited to someone named Xie […]

Categories: Beef, Carrots, China, Cooking, Food, Old cookbooks, Pasta, Pickles, Recipes

Dim sum all ye faithful (with tofu skin rolls)

December 25, 2014 by Michelle

Gourmandistanis are certainly not the first tribe to discover the joys of eating Chinese food for Christmas. Nor was this year our first indulgence of our Asian inclinations over the holiday (though we’re pretty sure we’ll avoid a blizzard this year). As per a request from Michelle’s lovely sister, we decided to turn our house into a dim sum parlor for Christmas Day lunch this year. We scoured local markets, ground pork and shrimp and assembled various doughs and spices over numerous days, freezing or […]

Categories: China, Christmas, Cooking, Dim sum, Food, Pork, Recipes, Tofu

Sweet Potato Soup with Sorghum Butter continues use of country ham

December 16, 2014 by Michelle

Gourmandistan has been going through our chunked, frozen remnants of Thanksgiving country ham much faster than we’ve ever used Steve’s home-cured guanciale. Our freezer holds quite a few packages of cured pork jowl, which have been waiting to be made into pasta carbonara or spuma. (Michelle, who despises spuma and always finds better options than pasta carbonara, wishes the guanciale packages would simply disappear, and may aid them in doing so someday.) The Newsom’s ham, however, has been called out on several occasions to […]

Categories: Cooking, Cured meats, Food, Recipes, Soups & Stews, Sweet potatoes

Bonus nuts, better chocolate improve Bourbon Chocolate Blonde Brownies

December 8, 2014 by Michelle

Gourmandistan is usually happy to studiously follow an Alice Medrich recipe, but we are not above adding our own enhancements to some of the Queen of Chocolate’s sweets—sometimes because of a mistake. The first time Michelle made these blonde brownies, she wondered why on earth Medrich’s instructions didn’t say to toast the nuts. After doing so, Michelle realized that there was a reason: the nuts were to be added only as a topping and would toast themselves while the brownies were baking. Since the nuts were already […]

Categories: Brownies, Cooking, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Recipes, Vegetarian

Sort-of French salt cod fritters (accras de morue)

November 24, 2014 by Michelle

Gourmandistan recently purchased about a pound of Canadian salt cod, as Michelle would like to try to recreate a friend’s stepfather’s legendary crusty cod hash. (Our first attempt was tasty, but also un-crusty and un-photogenic.) It turns out that a pound is quite a bit of dried cod, so we’ve been looking for some other ways to use the salty stuff. We thought salt cod fritters would be a good idea. Our first tastes of salt cod fritters came from French markets. This exotique […]

Categories: Appetizers, Cooking, Fish, Food, France

Normandy Pudding slumps from soufflé to clafoutis, stays good.

October 27, 2014 by Michelle

It is once again apple season, and Steve has been bringing home several pounds of the fruit each time he goes to the market. While he’s happy to eat them out of hand, Michelle has been enjoying the chance to make tarte Tatin, apple crisp, clafoutis and other good desserts. Searching for something newish, she returned to Camille Glenn’s The Fine Art of Delectable Desserts, a 1980s-era philanthropic project from the legendary Louisville chef, teacher and author we’ve mentioned before. This […]

Categories: Apples, Cooking, Custards & Puddings, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Fruit Desserts, Old cookbooks, Recipes

Butternut squash, mushroom and country ham cannelloni lighten the load

October 19, 2014 by Michelle

We’re still working our way through our winter squash collection. After the recent pumpkin lasagne and a batch of Paula Wolfert’s squash soup (always delicious), we were still looking at a lot of squash. Michelle suggested making some squash pasta sauce, but Steve thought that would be too close to pouring soup over spaghetti. Instead (partly because he’s been on quite a pasta roll) he suggested making cannelloni, and Michelle quickly agreed. In the pantheon of pasta shapes invented by Italians, cannelloni (“little reeds”) […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Pasta, Pork, Recipes, Winter squash

Harvest lasagne with pumpkin, kale and pork

October 7, 2014 by Michelle

Last week we were told by our CSA farmer, Pavel, that the enormous orange and green gourd he handed us was known as a Musque de Provence pumpkin. Maybe some of our francophone friends will tell us whether it should be called musque or musquée. The English language sites seem to be just about equally split, though the French sites do lean toward the side of musquée. It’s apparently also known as the “Fairytale Pumpkin,” for obvious reasons. We can’t say exactly where it sits on the pumpkin family […]

Categories: Cheese, Cooking, Food, Kale, Pasta, Pork, Winter squash