Recipes | Gourmandistan

Single-serving strawberry tarts

May 28, 2010 by Michelle

Michelle was craving strawberry pie. But the problem is that fruit pies, especially strawberry pies, last for only a short time before becoming mushy and unappetizing and we didn’t want to waste any of our precious fruit. Steve remembered that we had small tart pans stowed somewhere in the kitchen cabinets and so we made up a batch of tart dough from Maury Rubin’s book of tarts and froze six single-serving tart shells, pulling them out as needed and baking. […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Fruit Desserts, Pies & Tarts, Recipes, Strawberries, Vegetarian

God bless our local farmers

May 25, 2010 by Michelle

Just like last year, we’re participating in two farm shares. Our friends Raphe & Teresa are no longer sharing their bounty with us, having found that increasing their wedding flower business far outweighed the pleasures of driving to Louisville to hear Steve incessantly begging for raw milk. We’re still with our neighbors at Foxhollow, but this year also got a share from Riverfarm Organics, a new CSA up in Goshen. Steve somehow missed the message about our first scheduled Riverfarm pickup. Luckily, we were […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Pasta, Peas, Recipes • Tags: Locavore

So many strawberries, so little time.

May 16, 2010 by Steve

Trying to eat SOLE (sustainably, organically, locally, ethically) can be trying for Steve, who feels he hasn’t eaten right if he doesn’t get at least one piece of fruit per day. So when the local stuff is in season, we tend to buy in bulk. Now strawberries have appeared everywhere from the Foxhollow Farm store to the Bardstown Road market. (Rhubarb, the tart celery-like stalk that Steve usually grabs as the first “fruit” of the year never appeared at our markets.) […]

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

Because sometimes you get the carrot.

May 15, 2010 by Michelle

Friday night, Gourmandistan served chicken and dumplings for dinner, along with a little watercress salad. The salad we threw together in a trice—Michelle’s high leaf-selection standards were the biggest delay. The chicken and dumplings? Getting that dish together took a bit over a year. We started with several baby chicks, which grew into heritage French Houdan hens running around the yard with the rest of the flock. Actually, these Houdans spent much of their time running from the rest of […]

Categories: Chicken, Chicken keeping, Cooking, Food, Recipes, Soups & Stews • Tags: Chicken keeping

A Quick(ish) Duck Confit

May 12, 2010 by Michelle

Duck confit is one of the world’s wonder ingredients. The rich, salty and herb-tingly tasty meat can be used on pizzas, in salads or soups. Or, you can make a quick meal by crisping up a couple of legs in a pan to go with whatever else happens to be around. In France, we’ve bought packages of traditional confit, made by slow-cooking duck legs in their own fat, then preserved by covering them in more duck fat. But here in […]

Categories: Cooking, Duck, Food, Recipes

Birthday Soup

April 27, 2010 by Michelle

Recently, Michelle had a birthday. Since Steve’s is only a week after Michelle’s, the usual practice is to have a joint celebration of some sort. (This year we’re going back to Alinea in Chicago—and, in keeping with chef Grant Achatz’s direction, the only self-indulgent table shots will be a couple discretely taken with an iPhone.) But on her actual birthday, Michelle decided to cook a variation of Thomas Keller’s Chicken Soup With Dumplings. After a full day of work, she just […]

Categories: Chicken, Cooking, Food, Recipes, Soups & Stews

Sacrelicious

April 26, 2010 by Michelle

Judy Rodgers’ Zuni Cafe Cookbook is somewhat of a holy text here in Gourmandistan—but, like any bible, it contains mysteries that sometimes test the faithful. A good example is the recipe for “Three Onion Panades: Chard, Sorrel, & Tomato.” Over the years, we’ve used all three varieties of panade to turn an overabundance of farm share greens, tomatoes, stale bread and about-to-go-bad chicken stock into a gooey, cheesy, rich meal. But at the end of this four-page recipe lies an […]

Categories: Breads & Crackers, Cooking, Eggs, Food, Recipes, Sorrel, Vegetarian

The Route from Nose to Tail often leads through Pozole.

April 19, 2010 by Michelle

Several months ago we were offered the opportunity to buy an entire lamb from some folks just down the road, said opportunity arriving with the information that we were free to select the method in which the lamb arrived, packaged and sealed, at our door. Steve, inspired by reading Gourmandistan cookbooks such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Meat Book and Stéphane Reynaud’s Pork & Sons, believed he could get better use of the animal by insisting on “primal cuts.” Joyce […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Lamb, Mexico, Nose-to-tail, Recipes, Soups & Stews