Soups & Stews | Gourmandistan

No oven, no problem: stovetop chicken and dumplings

June 10, 2018 by Steve

Gourmandistan tries to put on a good face for guests, but recent visits have been marred by unexpected difficulties. The first was a bridge-defeating flood turning dinner guests into overnight visitors. The second was the double oven blowing an internal fuse, fortunately just as our pizzas were ready for another unlucky pair (who as it turned out were also overheated due to a dying central air conditioning unit). The days spent without AC and oven severely limited our cooking options, […]

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

Improvised umami-mazing oxtail and ramen soup, now that we’re cooking with gas

February 2, 2016 by Steve

A period of unfortunately-timed icy weather last week saw Gourmandistan once again facing an empty heating fuel tank, forcing us to lower our thermostat to a fairly chilly 50° F, to take short showers and to avoid using our gas cooktop. (Steve has already set reminders to check the tank level more frequently next winter.) Thanks to a pan of lasagna made before we knew the house was running on fumes, we did not suffer too greatly. An “emergency” request to our propane […]

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

In Winter’s midst, we make meatballs (and put them in beef and barley soup)

January 24, 2016 by Steve

Gourmandistan was fortunate enough to escape most of the massive snowstorm that engulfed America’s east coast in the past few days. However, several inches of snow and a somewhat ice-clogged creek have reminded us that, as in winters past, we may become stranded at home with no food options but what we have on hand. With an eye towards the ugliness that February might bring, Michelle brought home some beef, veal and pork and spent some time making a batch […]

Categories: Barley, Basics, Cooking, Food, Kale, Meatballs, Recipes, Soups & Stews

Bringing out the old to ring in the new with rabbit and some colored-eye soup

December 31, 2015 by Steve

Our version did not use black-eyed peas (instead it used yellow eyes), which we feel is OK because this post is not really about New Year’s. But, if you happen to have some dried beans, rabbit and bacon around when the calendar turns to 2016, we certainly think you’ll enjoy this dish. This “hearty and hospitable” soup was featured in a mid- to late-1980s food magazine, unnamed in the photocopied page contained in Michelle’s old three-ring binder that Steve found while recently cleaning […]

Categories: Beans, Christmas, Cooking, Food, New Year, Old cookbooks, Rabbit, Recipes, Restaurants, Soups & Stews

Merguez stew somewhat reduces bean surplus

November 17, 2015 by Michelle

Having snapped up quite a few containers at a recent farmers’ market, Gourmandistan currently has a surfeit of dried beans. Trying to decide what to do with some of them, Michelle came across a recipe from Steve Sando, founder of the Rancho Gordo heirloom bean company patronized by chefs such as Thomas Keller. Sando’s recipe called for marrow beans, which are white. Since we had made white chili not long ago (reminder: buy our book!), Michelle went with a different hue, choosing instead red kidney […]

Categories: Beans, Cooking, Food, Lamb, Recipes, Soups & Stews, Spinach

White chili, because we have a book to sell

November 9, 2015 by Steve

White chili has run wild on the Internet. But back in the 1980s, before everyone was connected, few people had heard of the idea. That was how Tim Barnes, a restaurateur featured in our just-released book, Lost Restaurants of Louisville, was able to convince many people that he had invented it. The recipe, using white beans instead of traditional red kidney beans and chicken instead of beef, was sometimes credited to Barnes and sometimes to his chef James Aydlett. The dish became so popular […]

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

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

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

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