Breads & Crackers | Gourmandistan

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

Pita, parity, pasta makers and pressing the perfect lavash cracker

August 25, 2013 by Steve

Recently we’ve been messing around with meze, cracking the spines of Ottolenghi and Tamimi’s Jerusalem and Claudia Roden’s Arabesque and The New Book of Middle Eastern Food in search of small somethings to serve alongside what has turned out to be a surprisingly addictive version of David Lebovitz’s baba ganoush. (We’ve been roasting the thin-skinned Asian eggplants from our farm share under the broiler until charred and soft, then blending the skins and flesh into the mix. Smokily delicious!) We also needed […]

Categories: Cooking, Crackers, Food, Recipes, Vegetarian

We gladly fat our Tuesday for your hamburger today.

June 8, 2013 by Steve

Unlike certain other sidekicks, Michelle is not usually a big fan of hamburgers. While the humble burger is usually held forth as an American icon, for Michelle it holds multiple potential failure points. The bun could be too toasted, too wet, too gummy or too stale. At a restaurant, it could arrive “dressed” with limp, lukewarm (possibly worm-carrying) lettuce, or perhaps a pale and/or tasteless tomato slice. The meat could be greasy, gamey, dry, or simply dull. Additionally, Michelle disdains […]

Categories: Beef, Cooking, Food, Recipes, Sandwiches, Yeast breads

Ramping up cheese biscuits with roast duck, slaw and (of course) ramps

March 28, 2013 by Steve

It is wonderfully once again time for ramps, a benefit of Gourmandistan’s close proximity to Appalachia. (Other benefits are elk viewing tours, excellent attorneys/former judges and enormous amounts of dirty, dirty coal money to support Steve’s beloved UK Wildcats.) Michelle bought some ramps immediately upon spotting them at our first spring farmers’ market, and we happily enjoyed them in several dishes before inspiration struck twice and we ended up with what may be the best sandwich on earth. It started […]

Categories: Biscuits, Cheese, Cooking, Duck, Food, Ramps, Recipes

Betraying Bubbeleh (again) with brown lard bialys

February 16, 2013 by Steve

It is unclear whether Steve’s Jewish grandmother, who died several years before he was born, would have been disappointed in him. (Though if Jon Stewart and legions of other Jewish comedians are any guide, she quite possibly could not have helped herself.) But as someone who reportedly kept a kosher home, she would definitely be shocked by these bialys, which feature some of Steve’s home-rendered brown lard. Steve first met bialys as a boy in New York, where they appeared […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Recipes, Yeast breads

A decent excuse for roasting: Duck Fat Focaccia

November 9, 2012 by Steve

It’s not as if Gourmandistan is unfamiliar with ovens. After all, we’re about to buy a new one because half of our decades-old double unit burned out from fun tricks like 24-hour pork roasts and 550° “turn the place into a pizza parlor” sessions. But we have been somewhat unsuccessful with home-roasting whole ducks. Saint Alice of the Incredibly Simple Roast Chicken Recipe (that’s salt, pepper, 400°, 1 hour) once disappointed us with a boring, too-greasy duck, though fervent acolyte […]

Categories: Cooking, Duck, Food, Recipes, Yeast breads

Blueberry alarm clock

May 28, 2012 by Steve

Blueberries may, quite possibly, be nature’s most perfect food. According to these helpful folks at the High Bush Blueberry Council, they border on some kind of super fruit—low in calories, loaded with fiber and vitamins, and packing enough antioxidants that one might safely hoover up an entire grill’s worth of free radicals without turning into the picture of Dorian Gray. (Have a great Memorial Day, everyone!) In season, Steve likes to finish his morning routine with a fistful of berries […]

Categories: Blueberries, Breakfast, Cooking, Food, Muffins & quick breads, Recipes, Vegetarian

Butter buns, your best Kentucky Derby bet in years.

April 30, 2012 by Steve

In Spring you can find a number of Louisvillians who will quite possibly bet you they can go Ptolemy one better. They will not only insist that the stars, moon and sun revolve around the earth, but that the axis of our universe pivots on a mid-sized American city built at a fossil-laden kink in the Ohio River. Doctrinal proofs include The Great Gatsby, Muhammad Ali, Louisville Slugger bats, the opening scene of Stripes, and of course “The Most Exciting […]

Categories: Food, Kentucky Derby, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Yeast breads

Morris and the matzo brei

April 4, 2012 by Steve

Steve didn’t get a lot of food traditions from his father. Morris, a somewhat joyless eater who demanded his beef be “burnt to a crisp,” snacked on pickled herring and hated cheese, had mostly wandered away from the Jewish traditions of his Lower East Side upbringing. His kashrut contained exceptions for bacon and Virginia ham, though he avoided shellfish (calling lobster, clams and scallops “bugs that eat sewage”). A widower hosting his Louisville-residing son in various New York apartments during summers and holidays, […]

Categories: Cooking, Crackers, Eggs, Family, Food, Passover, Recipes, Vegetarian