Gourmandistan

Bonus nuts, better chocolate improve Bourbon Chocolate Blonde Brownies

December 8, 2014 by Michelle

Gourmandistan is usually happy to studiously follow an Alice Medrich recipe, but we are not above adding our own enhancements to some of the Queen of Chocolate’s sweets—sometimes because of a mistake. The first time Michelle made these blonde brownies, she wondered why on earth Medrich’s instructions didn’t say to toast the nuts. After doing so, Michelle realized that there was a reason: the nuts were to be added only as a topping and would toast themselves while the brownies were baking. Since the nuts were already […]

Categories: Brownies, Cooking, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Recipes, Vegetarian

Seeking Eternity’s end through Kentucky country ham salad

December 4, 2014 by Steve

Gourmandistan recently tackled its first entire Kentucky country ham in ages and ages. We were stunned, after serving a Thanksgiving party of eight, to find that most of it still remained. That’s when we rediscovered a saying attributed to Dorothy Parker: “Eternity is two people and a ham.” One solution? Ham salad. Country ham is a signature Kentucky product which (like tobacco, bourbon and coal) may be a reason the people of our Commonwealth are so vibrant and robust. It’s salty, funky and smoky, […]

Categories: Cooking, Cured meats, Food, Pork, Recipes, Salad, Sandwiches

Sort-of French salt cod fritters (accras de morue)

November 24, 2014 by Michelle

Gourmandistan recently purchased about a pound of Canadian salt cod, as Michelle would like to try to recreate a friend’s stepfather’s legendary crusty cod hash. (Our first attempt was tasty, but also un-crusty and un-photogenic.) It turns out that a pound is quite a bit of dried cod, so we’ve been looking for some other ways to use the salty stuff. We thought salt cod fritters would be a good idea. Our first tastes of salt cod fritters came from French markets. This exotique […]

Categories: Appetizers, Cooking, Fish, Food, France

Fresh tofu skin pleases, produces tasty tailings

November 16, 2014 by Steve

There were some burnt fingers and a bit of frustration at Andrea Nguyen’s failure-assumptive instructions, but our first tofu-making project was an unqualified success. Not only did we enjoy some delicate, delicious fresh tofu skin, but also discovered that leftover lees make some lovely Asian croquettes. We began thinking about making our own tofu years ago after Steve reviewed a local restaurant for Louisville Magazine (on the magazine’s website, for some reason, Steve now seems to be known as “Lou”), enjoying both […]

Categories: Food, Meat substitutes, Recipes, Tofu, Vegetarian

Impossible Apple Cake with Maple Ice Cream

November 10, 2014 by Steve

We have mentioned this Caramelized Apple Cake before, because Michelle has tried to make it several times every apple season for years with little (OK, at least one) real success. The recipe pages in Susan Herrmann Loomis’ Cooking at Home on Rue Tatin have all sorts of scribbles covering them, adjusting the amount and thinness of apples, ingredients, mixing instructions and more. Time after time, it’s turned out underdone, overdone or just odd—but the damn thing keeps haunting us with its buttery, caramel […]

Categories: Apples, Cake, Cooking, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Fruit Desserts, Ice cream, Recipes, Vegetarian

Bringing harissa into Dinah Shore’s Basted Roasted Florida Chicken

October 31, 2014 by Steve

While not all Gourmandistan readers may be familiar with Dinah Shore, both Michelle and Steve remember watching her 1970s television shows. The Big Band-era star, 1938 graduate of Michelle’s alma mater and 1950s singer of “See the USA in Your Chevrolet” often hosted cooking segments and was a fairly adventurous cook for the era. Gourmandistan does not own a copy of Someone’s in the Kitchen With Dinah, Shore’s first cookbook, but we do often refer to our 1983 copy of The Dinah Shore Cookbook, especially her […]

Categories: Chicken, Cooking, Food, Old cookbooks, Recipes

Normandy Pudding slumps from soufflé to clafoutis, stays good.

October 27, 2014 by Michelle

It is once again apple season, and Steve has been bringing home several pounds of the fruit each time he goes to the market. While he’s happy to eat them out of hand, Michelle has been enjoying the chance to make tarte Tatin, apple crisp, clafoutis and other good desserts. Searching for something newish, she returned to Camille Glenn’s The Fine Art of Delectable Desserts, a 1980s-era philanthropic project from the legendary Louisville chef, teacher and author we’ve mentioned before. This […]

Categories: Apples, Cooking, Custards & Puddings, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Fruit Desserts, Old cookbooks, Recipes

Butternut squash, mushroom and country ham cannelloni lighten the load

October 19, 2014 by Michelle

We’re still working our way through our winter squash collection. After the recent pumpkin lasagne and a batch of Paula Wolfert’s squash soup (always delicious), we were still looking at a lot of squash. Michelle suggested making some squash pasta sauce, but Steve thought that would be too close to pouring soup over spaghetti. Instead (partly because he’s been on quite a pasta roll) he suggested making cannelloni, and Michelle quickly agreed. In the pantheon of pasta shapes invented by Italians, cannelloni (“little reeds”) […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Pasta, Pork, Recipes, Winter squash

Sandwiching a little history into peanut butter & Concord grape jelly cookies

October 12, 2014 by Steve

Along with its partners, peanut butter and sliced white bread, Concord grape jelly is an American staple, a symbol of something completely familiar and unsurprising. Which is why Steve was so delighted to find out that the original name for it was “Grapelade,” and the stuff became popular after it was included (along with cigarettes) in WWI ration kits. According to the Concord Grape Association (whose members “process more than 90% of the Concord grapes processed annually in the United States”), Concord […]

Categories: Cookies, Cooking, Food, Fruit Desserts, Grapes, Jams & Preserves, Nuts, Recipes, Vegetarian

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