Food | Gourmandistan

Pee, pan-dairy pancakes & a pledge you should make

March 15, 2013 by Steve

Gourmandistan is not normally a territory enthused about the prospect of kidneys. Even a fan such as Jaques Pépin is forced to describe their flavor as “an assertive taste that some may not find inviting.” Putting it bluntly, kidneys pretty much always taste of urine, quite possibly because their primary function is producing the stuff. While we’ve received them in several whole animal purchases, we’ve usually (somewhat secretly and shamefully as nose-to-tail enthusiasts) allowed them to go to waste. Today, however, […]

Categories: Breakfast, Cooking, Family, Food, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Vegetarian

Rotating Shrimp Balls (and coconut milk) in Hot & Sour Thai Broth

March 1, 2013 by Steve

This amazing mix-and-match shrimp event started as many things in Gourmandistan do, with dim sum. Our successful shao mai, semi-successful har gow and further representations of our growing repertoire created quite a pile of shrimp shells. Steve, taking inspiration from Conor Bofin, decided he would maximize the value of the wild-caught, non-frozen shrimp and make shrimp stock. (Stunning revelation on checking Conor’s post: Steve forgot to add bay leaf. The stock turned out OK anyway.) Michelle, seeing Steve’s proposal as […]

Categories: Coconut, Cooking, Food, Recipes, Shrimp, Soups & Stews, Thailand

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

The Future Is Now: Fried Taro Puffs

February 19, 2013 by Steve

Despite certain appearances to the contrary (Slow Food-ishness, Southern accents, surrounding areas stuffed with gun-toting reactionaries), Gourmandistan is a place that embraces Progress. While we’ve seen that bitterly clinging to the past certainly brings its share of disappointments to some, we know anticipating the future can be dicey as well. (Steve, for one, still remembers 1997 as the year he didn’t get his atom-powered convertible chariot.) Recently, at the Roger Smith Cookbook Conference that Steve attended in New York City, several panels bravely tried to […]

Categories: China, Cooking, Dim sum, Food, Pork, Recipes, Shrimp

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

Bunny Bundt: Early Spring Marmalade Carrot Cake

February 13, 2013 by Steve

Not satisfied with making enough jam to slake Steve’s appetite for fruit-laced yogurt, last winter Michelle decided to also make Seville orange marmalade. After peeling, juicing, slicing and boiling, she’d produced several batches—exactly none of which met her stringent standards. Some seemed too thick with slabs of peel, others too runny and light. Steve thought they were all fine, especially the “blended” jars that Goldilocks-edly straddled the thick-thin divide. Unfortunately, Steve does not eat that much marmalade. He finds its […]

Categories: Cake, Carrots, Cooking, Food, Fruit Desserts, Jams & Preserves, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Vegetarian

Grappling the Bear’s Paw with Fuchsia Dunlop (and Stir-Fried Green Soy Beans)

February 7, 2013 by Steve

While we wait for the magical time Gourmandistan can plant its flag (and food-eating faces) somewhere in Asia, we at least have Fuchsia Dunlop. Her cookbooks have been a main gateway to Gourmandistan’s greater understanding of Chinese food and culture. We find Dunlop’s recipes so useful we months ago rush-ordered her new cookbook, Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking, from the UK, not content to wait for its recent release in the USA. Every Grain of Rice focuses on dishes […]

Categories: China, Cooking, Food, Recipes, Soy Beans, Tofu, Vegetarian

Well Shao Mai Mouth!

February 3, 2013 by Steve

We do declare, we never saw dim sum developing in Gourmandistan. But then, we didn’t foresee Pavel burying us in brassica, either. Gourmandistan’s dive into dim sum started with turnip cakes, because Steve wanted to whittle down our winter oversupply of daikon radishes. Kimchi wasn’t going to cut it, as (especially after it’s gone really pungent) a little goes a long way. Seeking another Asian avenue, Steve researched turnip cakes, and found the dish was simply a batter of rice […]

Categories: China, Cooking, Dim sum, Food, Pork, Recipes, Shrimp

Winter blues, lamb stew, with these turnips what to do?

January 26, 2013 by Steve

Gourmandistan has roasted, mashed, souped and snacked up seemingly a ton of turnips and rutabagas. Yet each Friday at our weekly winter farm share, Pavel continues to proffer more. The weather has turned ugly, forcing Steve into our old truck each morning for an icebreaking session in the creek. The chickens are miserable, and we miss fresh greens and fruit. Worst of all, it isn’t even February. Enough whining about winter, though—we understand others have winter much worse, without even […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Lamb, Recipes, Soups & Stews, Turnips