Steve

Sandwiching a little history into peanut butter & Concord grape jelly cookies

October 12, 2014 by Steve

Along with its partners, peanut butter and sliced white bread, Concord grape jelly is an American staple, a symbol of something completely familiar and unsurprising. Which is why Steve was so delighted to find out that the original name for it was “Grapelade,” and the stuff became popular after it was included (along with cigarettes) in WWI ration kits. According to the Concord Grape Association (whose members “process more than 90% of the Concord grapes processed annually in the United States”), Concord […]

Categories: Cookies, Cooking, Food, Fruit Desserts, Grapes, Jams & Preserves, Nuts, Recipes, Vegetarian

Matzo ball soup made better with brownness

September 25, 2014 by Steve

In her charming 1989 book, Cooking with Memories, Lora Brody had a chapter called “Gourmet Chicken Soup,” which related her dismay at a Passover Seder where she was forced to endure a “highfalutin’ chicken soup” that lacked matzo balls. She wrote that her mother made the comment, “Escoffier would be proud”—a sly insult because the promulgator of haute cuisine “wasn’t Jewish and neither … [was] this soup.” Brody continued the chapter by offering her own chicken soup recipe, which includes cubes of chicken bouillon […]

Categories: Cooking, Family, Food, Holidays & Events, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Soups & Stews

Damson plums make some damn fine plum pie

September 12, 2014 by Steve

Except during our brief jaunt to Michigan, Gourmandistan has not seen many plums this year. While both of us remember plums picked from Kentucky trees in our youths, we don’t see them often in the markets—and we’ve been too lazy to ask the farmers why. (Though should any of you be reading this, we’d be happy to hear about it.) But we spotted a basket labeled “damson plums” at last week’s market and decided to ask about them. Our question turned into […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Jams & Preserves, Old cookbooks, Pies & Tarts, Plums, Recipes

Pork chops with plums, cider and Petoskey stones

August 29, 2014 by Steve

This week, Gourmandistan briefly relocated to Lake Michigan’s Grand Traverse Bay, just north of Northport, Michigan on the Leelanau Peninsula. It’s the first time we’ve been to a Great Lakes beach (downtown Chicago doesn’t count), and seeing the sand and sculpted landscapes left from ancient glacial action has indeed been impressive. Steve has enjoyed wandering the cool, curiously critter-free water, finding colorful minerals, smooth pebbles and a few things he’s convinced himself are Petoskey stones, since he’s resisted buying the varnished […]

Categories: Cooking, Plums, Pork, Recipes

Lamb with Sweet Corn Kernels, our one Pushpesh Pant/Phaidon success

August 19, 2014 by Steve

Much like Wikipedia, we are willing to grant Pushpesh Pant his status as a “noted Indian academic, food critic and historian,” and we will not doubt (as per Wikipedia) that his India Cookbook was named by The New York Times as one of the best cookbooks of 2011. Unfortunately, “best” may be attributed to the book’s lovely design and comprehensive nature, because once again Gourmandistan has been foiled by the publisher’s inept and/or nonexistent editors, proofreaders and recipe testers. We were seduced […]

Categories: Cooking, Corn, Food, India, Lamb

Sorghum-braised belly, one benefit of being an ex-reviewer

June 22, 2014 by Steve

When Steve was reviewing Louisville restaurants, he mostly wanted to remain anonymous. While that practice (along with the profession) is dwindling today, during the decade-plus he was writing reviews, Steve shunned chefs and took pride in his Zelig-like ability to escape notice even when they did meet him as a diner. Now, as Editor of Louisville’s edition of Eater.com, Steve is supposed to hobnob with all sorts of industry folks—something he’s still a bit uncomfortable doing after all those years of anonymity. But hobnob he has, […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Pork, Recipes, Restaurants

The tallow of triple-cooked chips

June 15, 2014 by Steve

It is said that desire is the cause of all suffering. If that is indeed true, we must say Heston Blumenthal has not helped us as we work toward Buddhahood. But he did help us attain the best fries Gourmandistan has ever made. Steve obtained a bag of beef suet during the waning days of our nearby Foxhollow Farm store, with the specific intent of rendering it down for tallow, then forcing Michelle to make French fries with the stuff. Ever since McDonald’s abandoned its beef tallow, Gourmandistan has […]

Categories: Cooking, England, Food, Potatoes, Recipes

Bettering beaten biscuits with lard and a little “Derb-kee” sauce

April 28, 2014 by Steve

It’s Kentucky Derby week again, and we were searching for seasonally appropriate (at least for the Louisville area) dishes to discuss. Michelle was disinclined to make beaten biscuits, though alternate Derby food ideas were not forthcoming. Even though Steve pointed out that Charles Patteson included a food processor version of the infamous long-kneaded dough in his cookbook (along with the pre-Emancipation slave labor and post-Civil War “biscuit brake” methods), Michelle resisted. She’d been subjected to far too many virtually tasteless, artificially white and […]

Categories: Appetizers, Biscuits, Cooking, Food, Kentucky Derby, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Sandwiches

Leftover steak leads to lovely salad

April 11, 2014 by Steve

As spring teases us with delightful hints of warmer weather and local produce, like many we’ve begun to crave fresher tastes. One of our current favorites is this simple steak salad, which began with a bit of leftover steak that happened to occupy our house at the same time as a slightly overripe avocado and some of the first local radishes of the year. As we contemplated our time-sensitive ingredients, we thought about the usual steak + sides, but Michelle has […]

Categories: Beef, Cooking, Food, Radishes, Salad, Watercress