Steve

A small, citrusy step away from the treacle.

December 28, 2011 by Steve

It’s almost the end of the holidays, and we’re starting to be just a bit sick of sweet. While eating our way through what remains of Michelle’s cookie cavalcade (reduced by gifts, get-togethers and Steve’s occasional late-night rustling), we started to think of slightly less sugary finishes to our meals. We make this dish only occasionally, as it requires wonderful winter citrus and restaurant-level pith removal that is beyond Steve’s skill set to meet Michelle’s standards for fresh fruit consumption. […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Fruit Desserts, Grapefruit, Orange, Recipes, Vegetarian

Linzer Hearts still beating after all these years

December 17, 2011 by Steve

Michelle’s spattered and battered paperback edition of The Silver Palate Cookbook is full of notes, as during the Eighties it was one of our most-used volumes. We don’t turn to it much these days, as it seems a bit dated (Brie cheese baked in phyllo and a pound of butter, anyone?) and a bit embarrassing (why on earth did we note that baked garlic was “strange”?). But we keep the volume on our bookshelves, in large part because of these […]

Categories: Christmas, Cookies, Cooking, Food, Jams & Preserves, Nuts, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Vegetarian

Curried winter squash soup: If it’s farm share, it’s still summer, right?

November 18, 2011 by Steve

We are grimly staring down the onset of winter, scheming how to maximize the local and sustainable parts of our upcoming Thanksgiving dinner and dreading that time of year when we’re forced back into the produce section of Whole Foods. Defying the early darkness and bitter chill of these mid-November evenings, Michelle still gathers what herbs remain in our garden after several killing frosts. Our carrots have dwindled to a few gnarled roots, and we’re no longer sure which of […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Recipes, Soups & Stews, Vegetarian, Winter squash

End-of-summer cilantro, carnitas and the end of corn tortillas

November 5, 2011 by Steve

Several frosty mornings have shown that summer has passed in Gourmandistan. Despite the cold and dwindling daylight, we’ve had a sudden bloom of cilantro in our herb garden (in and outside the raised bed), and decided it was the perfect excuse to make carnitas. Steve was ready to melt down his homemade lard and get to deep-frying some pork chunks, but Michelle thought there might be a less messy and dangerous way to deal with the boneless pork shoulder we’d […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Mexico, Pork

That low, slow road to Morocco

October 28, 2011 by Steve

Gourmandistan cannot claim expertise on Morocco. American popular culture leads us to believe the North African country has an Express that leaves the smell of gardens in your hair, a certain avenue leading to Dorothy Lamour, and shockingly, gambling at Rick’s in Casablanca. Of course, Wikipedia can further enlighten us, but we’d rather turn to the pages of Claudia Roden’s Arabesque. We found this particular dish when searching for a way to deal with a lamb-share primal shoulder. Whole shoulders […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Lamb, Morocco, Pasta, Recipes

Struggle, strive, squash.

October 19, 2011 by Steve

Winter squash is work. Peeling is a chore and cutting can be terrifying, as the heavy flesh resists even the sharpest knives. And many times our local squash can be a little disappointing, our butternuts and acorns lacking a certain sugariness that we’ve found in French potimarron and Italian zucca. Michelle spends much time at local markets searching for something that appears close to these champions of cucurbitae. And when she finds a suitable candidate she faces even more work, […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, France, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Vegetarian, Winter squash

Italy, it’s not.

October 14, 2011 by Steve

This meal sort of started with finding some beautiful (and local) Grateful Greens watercress at Whole Foods. But it also began during our failed attempts to find decent Asian food in Italy. In France, her slew of South Asian colonials-turned-citizens generously offering porc au caramel, riz nature and nems, we’ve found many lovely Asian dishes. In the Veneto we couldn’t find anything better than bland Cantonese fare lamely Italian-izing itself with menu columns featuring “Antipasti,” “Primi” and “Secondi.” In addition […]

Categories: Beef, Cooking, Food, Japan, Nuts, Recipes, Watercress

A little less inspiration, a little pork action

October 10, 2011 by Steve

Gourmandistan has returned again to its traditional Bluegrass boundaries, after spending a month in northern Italy. (Thanks for the assist during our absence, Susie T.!) We must say that, though we enjoyed our time in Italy, we did not feel the connection we’ve built with France over the years. While we liked our butcher, our fruit vendor and some nice nearby wine shops, we missed the sense of terroir that seems to spark our imaginations. (Venice, though… we absolutely love […]

Categories: Artichokes, Cooking, Food, Italy, Pork, Recipes

Sisyphus and the world’s simplest tomato sauce

September 8, 2011 by Steve

Gourmandistan may not harbor the world’s biggest tomato fans, but our borders can certainly hold a lot of tomato sauce. We rely on cup-size bags of frozen sauce for pasta, pizza and many other dishes that make the cold months bearable. In past years we’ve bought flats of San Marzano tomatoes from Hazelfield Farm to make one of our most-requested recipes, Roasted Tomato Sauce. This season, however, the weather wasn’t cooperating with the tomato plants—at least on our Padua-predisposed schedule. […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Italy, Recipes, Tomatoes, Vegetarian