Pork | Gourmandistan

Pork chop paragon.

August 13, 2011 by Steve

“Respect the product” is a somewhat shopworn phrase in cooking circles. But our recent gift from Bob Hancock of Blue Dog Bakery underscored the reality behind the banality. Blue Dog now transforms into Red Hog Tapas every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, highlighting Bob’s charcuterie made with pork from his own Red Wattle hogs. Bob shows his pigs respect from farrowing to their final day, giving them plenty of room to roam and minimizing their stress on their way to […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Pork, 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

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

Comfort; food.

May 24, 2011 by Michelle

We would prefer that Gourmandistan be a place of lightness and pleasure, where “tragedy” and “sorrow” are simply overly dramatic ways to describe ingredients wasted or a recipe gone awry. Unfortunately, real tragedy and sorrow recently breached our little domain, when Michelle lost her beloved younger brother. We found ourselves in a maelstrom of anguish, confusion and sadness—away from home, and with a broken oven. Gourmandistan seemed very, very far away. Neighbors and friends, showing the best of a small, […]

Categories: Beef, Cooking, Family, Food, Pork, Recipes, Sandwiches

Paella and surviving the Gourmandistan cookbook gauntlet

March 10, 2011 by Michelle

Hundreds, if not thousands, of cookbooks have seen their way in and out of Gourmandistan. The kitchen’s multiple shelves are nearly full, even though scores upon scores of volumes have been given away to friends and charities over the years and at least 50 others currently sit in an upstairs bookshelf purgatory, waiting for a decision on whether they stay or go. (We’re looking at you, Lee Brothers.) Gourmandistan’s general cookbook-keeping metric is simple: to keep a place in our […]

Categories: Chicken, Cooking, Food, Peas, Pork, Recipes, Restaurants, Rice, Spain