Food | Gourmandistan

A side dish for all seasons

July 9, 2011 by Michelle

One of Michelle’s recent rummagings of antique store cookbook sections resulted in a copy of Roy Andries de Groot’s 1966 Feasts For All Seasons. De Groot’s books were a big influence on many of the 1970s and 1980s California chefs—particularly his Auberge of the Flowering Hearth (1973), which describes a year of seasonal cooking at a small inn in the French Alps. De Groot’s wealthy, blue-blooded, European perspective can sometimes be a bit annoying, but there’s much that is incredibly […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Old cookbooks, Onions, Recipes, Vegetarian

Sugared berries

July 6, 2011 by Michelle

Michelle’s mom’s birthday falls at the end of June, in the middle of blueberry season. We’ve made this wonderful cake several times with success, but never before have we decorated it so beautifully. Michelle first thought of adding lemon zest as a garnish, but was afraid it would overpower the rather subtle lemon cream cheese icing. We had many blueberries on hand thanks to Steve’s frenzied end-of-season buying spree, so Michelle decided to try sugaring them. Dipped in egg white […]

Categories: Blueberries, Cake, Cooking, Food, Fruit Desserts, Recipes

Happy 4th of July!

July 4, 2011 by Michelle

Categories: Food, Independence Day

Naked breasts: no longer a bore.

July 1, 2011 by Michelle

We’ve become quite attached to chicken bones. Not simply because in Gourmandistan most of them find their way into the stock pot. We’d also become convinced that boneless, skinless chicken breasts had no taste. We turned away from scallopine and piccata, towards baked or braised bone-in, skin-on breasts with garlic, wine and other good things. But a few recent purchases from Shannon Young of Stone Run Farms turned us around to the bare breast, and allowed us to revive a […]

Categories: Chicken, Cooking, Food, Recipes

A better bacon for pasta carbonara.

June 19, 2011 by Michelle

Steve’s guanciale has been sectioned, sealed and frozen, but not before we put some to a very good use. We’ve long been fans of pasta carbonara, even championing Calvin Trillin’s effort to change Thanksgiving into National Pasta Carbonara Day. (Trillin seems interested in the humorous aspects of carbonara-themed parades and presidential portraits. We’re more interested in eliminating the angst and crap food found in so many “traditional Thanksgiving” meals.) Carbonara sauce has a murky origin, but Gourmandistan is partial to […]

Categories: Cooking, Cured meats, Food, Italy, Old cookbooks, Pasta, Pork, Recipes

Gourmandistan unveils guanciale

June 12, 2011 by Michelle

For months, Steve was haunted by hog jowls. At a mid-Winter Bardstown Road market, Matt Corry of Schacht Farm told Steve about two jowls along with a pair of hocks available from one of his recently-processed pigs. Liking Matt and his meat products, Steve bought the meat sight unseen. A week later, Steve proudly informed Michelle he’d spent nearly $100 for four very large, very ungainly pieces of pork flesh. As our little chest freezer had very little room and […]

Categories: Cooking, Cured meats, Food, Italy, Pork, Recipes

So long, strawberries.

June 11, 2011 by Michelle

We’ve stuffed our freezers (and at times, our stomachs) with strawberries, until they can hold no more. We’ve made gallons of jam, bagged and frozen sliced berries in 1/2-cup increments for breakfast smoothies over the Winter, and made several shortcakes. We knew, however, that the best salute to the end of strawberry season had to be these wonderful meringues. A good meringue is the perfect platform for sugared strawberries and a healthy dollop of ice cream or gelato, whipped cream […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Fruit Desserts, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Strawberries, Vegetarian

Snow peas, with hints of pork and brevity

June 5, 2011 by Michelle

Before we had chickens, we had a garden. And from the first season, our garden grew peas. Like sweet corn, peas start turning starchy the moment they’re picked, so the freshest are always the finest. (Steve, of course, would simply stand in the garden and eat peas off the vine. But Michelle holds herself to higher standards and insisted he actually bring them to the kitchen.) After their first lovely flower, the tangled pea vines would produce sweet crunchy pods […]

Categories: China, Food, Peas, Pork, Recipes

Asparagus soup, a delicious penance

May 29, 2011 by Michelle

We try. We really, really try to restrain ourselves at our local markets. But we grow weak in the presence of so many fresh vegetables, acutely aware of the change of seasons. (Because of the dampness, strawberry season this year has been lamentably brief.) Overeager to grab good things before they’re gone for another year, we ended up with way too much asparagus sitting in our refrigerator. The previous week’s haul drooped their tips in disappointment as we added yet […]

Categories: Asparagus, Cooking, Food, Old cookbooks, Peas, Recipes, Soups & Stews, Soy Beans, Vegetarian