Meats | Gourmandistan

Almond boneless chicken, exhibit ABC of Chinese-American idiosyncrasy

June 10, 2015 by Steve

Gourmandistan’s love of soy, stir-frying and other Asian ideas has led us to explore many Chinese dishes, as well as Chinese restaurants around the globe. Like many Americans of a certain age and geography, both Michelle’s and Steve’s first exposures to “Chinese food” came from menus full of chop suey, crab wontons, General Tso’s chicken and other items never dreamed of in China. We grew older and discovered dishes from Szechuan, Hunan and other regions of China, along with restaurants that (sometimes with […]

Categories: Chicken, China, Cooking, Food, Lettuce, Mushrooms, Peas, Recipes, Restaurants

Deliciously dumbing down duck curry

April 13, 2015 by Michelle

Michelle has been revisiting David Thompson’s Thai Food, a cookbook we’ve had for many years. In addition to enjoying the stories about Thai culture and history, she has also been searching for some fresh recipe ideas. The ingredient list in a recipe for “red duck curry” drew her attention, and our first preparation went well in spite of the omission of shrimp paste (we need to visit some bigger city Asian markets again soon) and the addition of some vegetables. While we did bone out the […]

Categories: Broccoli, Cooking, Duck, Food, Recipes, Sweet potatoes, Thailand

Pot roast with Guinness and dried cherries (skip the sweet potatoes, go for the slaw)

March 26, 2015 by Michelle

We have been working our way through a batch of beef we bought from our biodynamic farm neighbors. While we enjoyed much of it, we were unsatisfied with the lean roast cuts (one rump, one sirloin tip). We tried several different methods with them, and in each the meat turned out to be dry and fairly tasteless. The experience left Steve ruing not experimenting with barding and larding, and left Michelle with the idea to send Steve out to buy a chuck roast. When Steve returned from the grocery, he […]

Categories: Beef, Cherries, Cooking, Food, Recipes, Sweet potatoes

Paleoanthropology and persnickityness in potée

February 1, 2015 by Michelle

While other forms of cooking undoubtedly predate the pot, there certainly couldn’t have been too many of them. Once humanity got the hang of fire and sticks, some genius must shortly have realized that cooking meat in liquid makes not only better meat, but (bonus!) a nice broth as well. Whenever this happened, however, it was a mind-bogglingly long time ago, as we were recently reminded by watching Werner Herzog’s “Cave of Forgotten Dreams,” a documentary about the Chauvet Cave paintings. Chauvet’s astonishing art […]

Categories: Beef, Cooking, Cured meats, Food, France, Rabbit, Recipes, Soups & Stews, Vegetables

Rabbit nems resurrect thoughts of France, sausage making

January 19, 2015 by Michelle

Gourmandistan has had an idea of recreating rabbit nems in our imaginary fiefdom almost since the time we discovered them in Normandy a couple of years ago. As we recall, the rice paper-wrapped treats we bought from a Caen market lapin vendor were filled with ground rabbit and subtle spices. We’d buy the uncooked rolls along with some containers of sauce, go home and fry them, and have a wonderful and easy lunch. While those particular nems seemed a bit less Asian than other Vietnamese rolls we’ve enjoyed in France, the lovely texture and taste […]

Categories: Appetizers, Food, France, Rabbit, Recipes, Vietnam

Moo meets Marco Polo in dan dan noodles with carrot pickles

January 13, 2015 by Michelle

Along with just about everyone who is interested in Sichuan food, we in Gourmandistan are fans of dan dan noodles. This classic dish usually calls for pork and some sort of Chinese noodle or ramen. Our current home version uses neither, and we’re mostly quite happy about it. Our pork-free, pasta-using version started with some surplus ground beef, which Michelle thought of using for dan dan after seeing such a version in Fuchsia Dunlop’s Land of Plenty credited to someone named Xie […]

Categories: Beef, Carrots, China, Cooking, Food, Old cookbooks, Pasta, Pickles, Recipes

Garbure Gets Gourmandistan Ready For 2015

January 1, 2015 by Steve

Once again Gourmandistan enters a new year, and once again we enjoy black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day, without resorting to Hoppin’ John. Steve managed to come down with a nasty cold between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, meaning Michelle had to manage the kitchen by herself while Steve wheezed, coughed and slept in isolation. (While Michelle missed her sous chef, we both hope the bug has missed her.) While sniffly Steve was in no shape to help search for a recipe, […]

Categories: Beans, Cabbage, Cooking, Duck, Food, France, New Year, Recipes, Soups & Stews

Dim sum all ye faithful (with tofu skin rolls)

December 25, 2014 by Michelle

Gourmandistanis are certainly not the first tribe to discover the joys of eating Chinese food for Christmas. Nor was this year our first indulgence of our Asian inclinations over the holiday (though we’re pretty sure we’ll avoid a blizzard this year). As per a request from Michelle’s lovely sister, we decided to turn our house into a dim sum parlor for Christmas Day lunch this year. We scoured local markets, ground pork and shrimp and assembled various doughs and spices over numerous days, freezing or […]

Categories: China, Christmas, Cooking, Dim sum, Food, Pork, Recipes, Tofu

Sweet Potato Soup with Sorghum Butter continues use of country ham

December 16, 2014 by Michelle

Gourmandistan has been going through our chunked, frozen remnants of Thanksgiving country ham much faster than we’ve ever used Steve’s home-cured guanciale. Our freezer holds quite a few packages of cured pork jowl, which have been waiting to be made into pasta carbonara or spuma. (Michelle, who despises spuma and always finds better options than pasta carbonara, wishes the guanciale packages would simply disappear, and may aid them in doing so someday.) The Newsom’s ham, however, has been called out on several occasions to […]

Categories: Cooking, Cured meats, Food, Recipes, Soups & Stews, Sweet potatoes