Steve

Strong beef sparks stunning salad with silky shallot vinaigrette

November 12, 2016 by Steve

Recently we have been happily patronizing Red Hog, a craft butchery and restaurant opened by our friend Bob Hancock of Blue Dog Bakery. Their meat has the kind of impeccable sourcing and careful trimming we’ve come to expect from England and Italy. We’ve quickly learned to depend on the sausages, roasts, chops and other meats we’ve picked up on several visits. We’ve also learned Michelle needs a bit of adjustment to dry-aged beef. We’re certainly no strangers to finely-aged beef, having enjoyed many meat courses at some […]

Categories: Beef, Cooking, Food, Lettuce, Meats, Recipes, Salad

Approaching fall with apple curd, salted caramel, pecan and rosemary cake

September 7, 2016 by Steve

Crisp apples are showing up at our local markets, which of course means that Steve is buying them and that summer is coming to an end. It seems it’s still a bit early for his beloved Gold Rush, but the Granny Smith-types we grabbed (the vendor told us they were Gold Rush, but we knew better) are pretty tasty. Michelle used some of them to good effect in an exceptional apple curd, which she worked between layers of pecan and rosemary cake […]

Categories: Apples, Baking, Cake, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Nuts, Old cookbooks, Recipes

Pizza is always perfect, especially when pressed for time or fridge space

August 27, 2016 by Steve

We have several go-to meals in Gourmandistan, often emulating take-out or delivery dishes. (Our usual remote location makes these options impractical.) While some may swing in and out of rotation, something that almost never goes unmentioned as a quick and easy meal option is pizza. Sure, sometimes “quick” means Steve has to spend part of his day making pizza dough. But we usually have a couple of chunks sitting in the freezer, as Steve makes more than we need each time because […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Pizza, Recipes

Plural couscous plus corn and oven-dried tomatoes

August 9, 2016 by Steve

“Couscouses” seems to be an acceptable plural form for the tiny balls of semolina pasta that are a North African staple. This usage has recently become quite necessary in Gourmandistan, as we have been enjoying a variation of this Yotam Ottolenghi/Sami Tamimi salad-ish dish. Their version calls for both couscous and mograbiah, described as also being known as “pearl or giant couscous and, in North Africa, as berkukis.” The pair admit that mograbiah “is more difficult to find than ordinary couscous,” suggesting “the Sardinian equivalent, fregola” as […]

Categories: Cooking, Corn, Food, Pasta, Recipes, Salad, Tomatoes, Vegetarian

Blueberry, banana & poppy seed cupcakes sensibly say goodbye to blueberry season

July 26, 2016 by Steve

We are quite fond of cake in Gourmandistan. But with our small population, cakes often last past their enjoyment date. Of course Steve is not above trying to reduce the surplus by sneaking bits and pieces from under the cake dome, often late at night or when Michelle isn’t looking. But even these predations cannot stop the inevitable sections stuck in the freezer (where they are never quite as good once thawed) or a slide into the chicken bucket. And […]

Categories: Baking, Bananas, Blueberries, Cake, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Recipes, Vegetarian

Pre-Pearl Harbor peach preserves are historically delicious

July 13, 2016 by Steve

Michelle recently made two wise decisions: teach Steve how to make jam and get a monthly subscription to the newly-available online archives of our local newspaper, the Courier-Journal. Steve has pitted, chopped, sugared and boiled plums, cherries, peaches and (currently) wild blackberries, filling our freezer with an overflow of jam. With her newly-found spare time this fruit season, Michelle has perused old restaurant reviews, advertising and such, bemoaning the fact that this treasure trove wasn’t there when we were writing our book. (Yes, the […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Jams & Preserves, Old cookbooks, Peaches/Nectarines, Vegetarian

Simmering a bit more summeriness into beef pot roast

July 5, 2016 by Steve

Pot roast is something we usually associate with colder months here in Gourmandistan. But we had a really cool 4th of July weekend, and even as the weather increasingly becomes hot and sticky around here, we cannot stop buying beef from our biodynamic neighbors up the road. A slab of chuck roast recently caught our eye and demanded we do something with it. With the help of Alice Waters and Bradley Ogden, Michelle came up with this lighter-than-expected pot roast. She […]

Categories: Beef, Cooking, Dumplings, Food, Recipes

Roasted green bean, corn and okra salad, our shrimpless salute to Dewees Island

June 2, 2016 by Steve

Yet another Dewees Island trip is drawing to a close. As we do at the shore, we indulged ourselves in local seafood, particularly shrimp, which Michelle managed to eat for at least one meal every day but one. Much as the local fishmongers might argue to the contrary, however, one cannot exist completely on shrimp. Instead, we present you with this delightful green bean, corn and okra salad. Before we gift you with the recipe, we will again relate the loveliness of […]

Categories: Cooking, Corn, Family, Food, Green beans, Okra, Salad, Vacation, Vegetables, Vegetarian

Celebrating an understandable Indian cookbook with asparagus, cauliflower, cashew and coconut curry

May 8, 2016 by Steve

While we have not completely pushed Pushpesh Pant out of our kitchen, Gourmandistan’s latest Indian lodestone is definitely Meera Sodha’s Made in India, the runner-up in this year’s Piglet cookbook competition. We were charmed by the book almost from the moment we picked it up. Michelle was captivated by Sodha’s personal story of growing up in Lincolnshire, England with Ugandan-Indian parents and Steve by the recipe for Chili Paneer on page 27. We’ve spent the last couple of weeks making many delicious things, […]

Categories: Asparagus, Cauliflower, Cooking, Food, India, Nuts, Recipes, Vegetarian

Gourmandistan

A fabled land of farmers, farm shares, fancy (and not so fancy) restaurants, family meals, food projects and more.

Author Archives: Steve