Cheese | Gourmandistan

Fried cacio e pepe helps us recall some delicious Rome memories

January 28, 2018 by Steve

Gourmandistan recently returned from a trip to Italy, celebrating the 30th anniversary of Michelle and Steve’s official union. (We don’t use our “shacking up” years in the official count.) While we spent the majority of our time in Venice, the trip began and ended in Rome. There we enjoyed a delicious, deep-fried version of Rome’s famous cacio e pepe (pasta with pepper and cheese). The path to enjoying it, however, had a few ups and downs—and not all the ups […]

Categories: Cheese, Cooking, Food, Italy, Pasta, Recipes, Vacation, Vegetarian

Grits, shrimp and baby artichoke casserole can’t replace Best Derby Ever

April 23, 2015 by Michelle

We very much like this casserole, which is a fancied-up, fresher-tasting version of the boring grits and cheese concoctions usually found on Derby buffets. But we don’t like it nearly as much as last year’s Derby. Faithful, years-long readers of Gourmandistan (and oh, how we love you so very, very much) may recall our previous posts, where we tended to take “The Greatest Two Minutes in Sports” with our tongues planted firmly in our cheeks. Last year, however, as Steve’s editorship of […]

Categories: Artichokes, Cheese, Cooking, Food, Kentucky Derby, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Shrimp

Leek Tart welcomes the ’80s back

February 11, 2015 by Steve

As we have noted before, Gourmandistanis are not unfamiliar with the 1980s. Over the decades we discarded many of our ’80s ways (shoulder pads, Sony Walkmen, comic books), but we never gave up the habit of eating quiche, despite being told it was not a dish fit for “real men.” (Being perceived as unmanly has never been an issue for Steve, who merely has to grunt in his normal basso profundo, possibly while pointing to his profound amount of chest hair.) We long ago adapted […]

Categories: Cheese, Cooking, Food, France, Leeks, Old cookbooks, Recipes

Harvest lasagne with pumpkin, kale and pork

October 7, 2014 by Michelle

Last week we were told by our CSA farmer, Pavel, that the enormous orange and green gourd he handed us was known as a Musque de Provence pumpkin. Maybe some of our francophone friends will tell us whether it should be called musque or musquée. The English language sites seem to be just about equally split, though the French sites do lean toward the side of musquée. It’s apparently also known as the “Fairytale Pumpkin,” for obvious reasons. We can’t say exactly where it sits on the pumpkin family […]

Categories: Cheese, Cooking, Food, Kale, Pasta, Pork, Winter squash

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

Spuma spurs slight civil unrest in Gourmandistan.

February 26, 2013 by Steve

Mutterings of dissent can still be heard every time the refrigerator opens and the speckled, pinkly pale jar of spuma is spied. Its funky, fatty taste did not please Michelle’s palate at all. Despite Steve’s insistence that ceviche, salami and sun-dried tomatoes prove the world agrees that “cured means cooked,” Michelle could not get past the idea she was eating “raw bacon.” Steve’s admission that he’d happily sampled “raw” bacon as a child further sickened Michelle, who had already decided […]

Categories: Appetizers, Cheese, Cooking, Cured meats, Food, Recipes

Soft-boiled eggs, soldiers and slightly overdoing Michel Bras

December 2, 2012 by Steve

We first found the Relais & Chateaux resort hanging above the Aubrac plateau in 2004, as we fled the food desert known as the Minervois that had been our lovely home for almost a month on our first annual “let’s spend our mythical child’s school tuition” flex-time sojourn to France. While we were utterly charmed by our house, we were almost equally devastated at the discovery all French folk did not necessarily look at food the way Patricia Wells had […]

Categories: Cheese, Cooking, Eggs, Food, France, Recipes, Restaurants, Vegetarian

Topinambour-ing to you!

January 26, 2012 by Steve

We’re always trying to vary our limited winter veg choices, so we’ve been happy to see tiny bags of Jerusalem artichokes available at our currently-only-on-Saturdays local farm store. Known as sunchokes, topinambours and more, these gnarled sunflower tubers are great pan-roasted, or thin-sliced and sautéed with garlic. (Then again, just about anything is great sautéed with garlic.) Looking for another way to use the tasty tubers, Michelle discovered a tart recipe in Ottolenghi: The Cookbook and decided we could wing it […]

Categories: Cheese, Cooking, Eggs, Food, Jerusalem artichokes, Kale, Recipes, Vegetarian

France, Southern style

September 8, 2010 by Michelle

We invited our British neighbors-for-the-week over for drinks and hors d’oeuvres this evening, a reciprocation for their including us in poolside drinks on Monday. Initially, we planned on an assortment of sausages, cheeses and perhaps a tapenade to accompany bottles of local wines. Then Michelle had a moment of genius. Instead of serving French food to British people vacationing in France, why not instead serve them Southeast U.S. classics made with Southwest French ingredients? Thus were born two marvelous appetizers: […]

Categories: Appetizers, Cheese, Cooking, Duck, Food, France, Recipes