Cooking | Gourmandistan

Sooke and Salad

May 11, 2011 by Michelle

Steve recently celebrated a milestone birthday, and Michelle magnificently arranged for a semi-surprise trip to British Columbia. (It was a “semi-surprise” because Steve was planning on a May baby chick delivery, and needed to be told in advance that the first week wouldn’t be the best choice.) We tremendously enjoyed the entire trip from Vancouver to Victoria by way of Tofino, especially the view from our room at the latter’s Wickaninnish Inn. Who wouldn’t love a thrilling floatplane adventure and […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Lettuce, Recipes, Restaurants, Salad

Precipitation, Parties and Brioche “Pizzas”

April 23, 2011 by Michelle

People will tell you Gourmandistan is a lovely place, but it can be difficult to visit. Michelle had planned to entertain a couple of friends on Saturday for a multiple birthday lunch, and thought she’d found the perfect casual (and vegetarian!) idea—Yotam Ottolenghi’s brioche “pizzas.” All that was needed was the cooperation of Steve and Mother Nature. But before Michelle had decided whether the “pizzas” should be the appetizer or the main course, the ominous weather forecast caused her to […]

Categories: Appetizers, Cooking, Food, Pizza, Recipes, Vegetarian, Yeast breads

Are you smarter than a four-year-old?

April 18, 2011 by Steve

On a recent prowl through an antique shop Michelle spied a copy of The Cooking of Provincial France, a 1968 Time-Life “Foods of the World” edition. Initially Michelle thought it would be a nostalgic and campy romp, but then she noticed that the author was M.F.K. Fisher. Fisher’s spirit hovers over all food writers (except those obsessed with airplane meals, the McRib, Peeps, etc., who are driven by much scarier spirits). Fisher’s prose is marvelous, her joy in food transparent. […]

Categories: Breads & Crackers, Butter, Cooking, Food, France, Old cookbooks, Radishes, Vegetarian

Sorrel, yet another sign of spring

April 15, 2011 by Michelle

Sorrel is the sour cousin of spinach. We welcome its fresh, citrusy flavor as much as the glowing colors of wildflowers we saw on a recent walk. This tart let the tangy taste of sorrel stand out among some of our surplus eggs, onion and cheese in one of Steve’s extra-buttery pie crusts. It’s a fairly simple recipe—yet it took all Winter to finally get it done. SORREL-ONION TART (adapted from Deborah Madison’s The Greens Cookbook) 1 recipe pâte brisée […]

Categories: Cooking, Eggs, Food, Recipes, Sorrel, Vegetarian

Pecking a post of pickled eggs

April 6, 2011 by Michelle

Gourmandistan produces plenty of poultry product. Even with just five hens currently, we get more eggs than we can handle. And we’re beginning to suspect friends may view us much like zucchini gardeners, as we press dozens on just about anyone who comes to see us. When the scrawled carton dates edge closer to expiration, we despair to find ways to dispose of them. However, when he recently did a magazine review of Holy Grale, a nice little beer bar […]

Categories: Cooking, Eggs, Food, Pickles, Recipes, Vegetarian

Dry-fried beef slivers defeat linguini with clams

April 2, 2011 by Michelle

Linguini with clam sauce was once Gourmandistan’s “can’t screw it up” champion. Other than (duh) clams and clam juice, the basic ingredients (garlic, olive oil, white wine, onions, black pepper, parsley) could be added in just about any proportion and the sauce would still taste great on any pasta (linguini or whatever) we had around. It was something that could be thrown together in (well, for Gourmandistan) a short amount of time, and didn’t make (again, at least from our […]

Categories: Beef, Celery, China, Cooking, Food, Recipes

An escape to South Asia (without leaving the house)

March 28, 2011 by Michelle

Michelle had plenty of things to avoid around the house this weekend, among them income tax preparation and seemingly endless bouts of NCAA basketball (Steve says: “Go Cats!”). A shift in the weather made it uncomfortable to go outside, so Michelle took refuge in her alternate galaxy of cookbooks, choosing this time to travel to South Asia. A Sri Lankan coconut curry from Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid’s Mangoes & Curry Leaves: Culinary Travels Through the Great Subcontinent perfumed the […]

Categories: Cauliflower, Cooking, Food, Other Asian, Recipes, Soups & Stews, Vegetarian

Ramp-a-lama-ding-dong

March 22, 2011 by Michelle

Spring is teasing its way into Gourmandistan, and our nation’s population is bouncing in anticipation of fresh, green things to eat. (These things do include spiders and bugs, but only for the cats.) This past Saturday Steve snagged several bunches of ramps, one of the first local greens to pop up, from the Foxhollow Farm Store. Ramps, like onions, garlic and leeks, are part of the lily family and grow wild in moist forests across eastern North America—especially in Appalachia. […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Italy, Pasta, Ramps, Recipes, Vegetarian

Birthday and brittle

March 14, 2011 by Michelle

In 1911, Amundsen’s expedition reached the South Pole, Hiram Bingham “discovered” Machu Picchu and the first Indianapolis 500 took off at the Brickyard. That same year in Paradise, Kentucky, Brucie and Coza Dee Smith welcomed a little brother—Michelle’s grandfather, R.T. Smith, born 100 years ago today. 21 years later, R.T. eloped with the daughter of a wealthy neighbor. The young couple started out sharecropping on a few acres in Hopkins County known as “The Switch Place” (as it was near […]

Categories: Candy, Cooking, Desserts & Sweets, Family, Food, Nuts, Recipes, Vegetarian