Gourmandistan

Bee suits, bittersweet, brambles and blackberry jam

July 27, 2013 by Steve

We are having a wonderful year for wild blackberries. Steve, determined to make the most of it, has been tramping out to a patch every morning for a couple of weeks. It’s a lovely spot, surrounded by sugar maple, tulip poplar and sassafras trees, and Steve doesn’t mind the hike through our (and, to be honest, our absentee neighbors’) overgrown old farm fields to get to them. He doesn’t mind spending an hour or so shuffling around a tangle of […]

Categories: Blackberries, Cooking, Food, Jams & Preserves, Recipes, Vegetarian

Sweet Cherry Mostarda, the new Mmm in Michelle’s life

July 22, 2013 by Steve

Steve would like to think he’s the tastiest dish in Gourmandistan. Unfortunately, his illusions are often interrupted by sights and sounds suggesting he’s not, mostly around mealtimes. His latest rival arrived as a result of an unwise impulse buy of sweet cherries at last Saturday’s market. Steve snatched up both boxes without even looking at them, as these were the first locally grown sweet cherries we have ever seen around here. At home, he discovered that not only were half […]

Categories: Cherries, Cooking, Food, Italy, Pickles, Vegetarian

Poppin’ tags this blueberry lemon tart (it is f*cking awesome)

July 19, 2013 by Steve

Everybody likes pop. You might be a hip downtown aesthete, a strangely-haired Hoosier, a B-girl, a King or perhaps just a jiggly pile of dough. At least for last week, “pop” in Gourmandistan simply referred to Blueberry Lemon Tart. As we near the end of local blueberry season, Michelle felt like making at least one last blueberry dessert. She turned to a recipe from Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse Fruit, remembering how she liked this combination of blueberry and lemon curd. […]

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

Deliciously dingy-watered finger-dirtying dill pickles

July 14, 2013 by Steve

Michelle almost didn’t take a picture of these pickles, even though they may be her favorite dill. It’s the Dill Pickles recipe from City Cuisine, the cookbook Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken wrote back in the Eighties before they became the “Too Hot Tamales” (befitting their rather spicy personal story). In addition to vinegar, salt, sugar (and of course, dill), the pickling spices include cumin, ginger and turmeric, which give the pickles a spicy, earthy, almost Indian flavor. The […]

Categories: Cooking, Cucumber, Food, Old cookbooks, Pickles, Recipes

Trying to recapture Venice with a tray of Tramezzini

July 10, 2013 by Steve

Many, many, many places on Earth describe themselves as “the Venice” of something or somewhere. Some of these alternati-Venices we find intriguing; others appalling. We have even visited a few of them. As we’ve also been lucky enough to visit Venice itself, we can assure you nothing really compares. Begun as an escape from brigands and barbarians, the sandy archipelago became a commercial (some might say piratical) powerhouse—an island nation of amazing canals, buildings and bridges. Steve, especially, was quite dubious about Venice […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Italy, Recipes, Sandwiches

Blueberry Surprise Cake: a tasty surprise witness to unbelievable testimony

July 3, 2013 by Steve

As an attorney, Michelle is keenly aware of the unreliability of eyewitnesses, preferring the certainty of written documents to sworn statements which often color fact with fanciful opinion. Steve, who has himself coached “testimonials” from video subjects (“Would you say this hospital is one of the finest in the state?” “Yes.” “I meant would you say that to the camera.”) can be troubled by “true stories.” Which is probably why he started to poke holes in Michelle’s childhood recollection of […]

Categories: Blueberries, Cake, Cooking, Food, Fruit Desserts, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Vegetarian

Unhealthily balancing Swiss chard with gemelli pasta and pine nuts

June 23, 2013 by Steve

It is well known that this time of year finds Gourmandistan searching for new ways to deal with CSA chard. We’ve long been fans of this healthy idea from Martha Rose Schulman, but were recently in the mood for something a little more robust. Enter Martha Stewart and her circa 2003 recipe for Gemelli with Sausage, Swiss Chard and Pine Nuts. Pre-prison Martha saw the wisdom of loading carbs into the mix of chard, raisins and nuts, with some sausage added to […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Nuts, Pasta, Pork, Recipes, Swiss chard

We gladly fat our Tuesday for your hamburger today.

June 8, 2013 by Steve

Unlike certain other sidekicks, Michelle is not usually a big fan of hamburgers. While the humble burger is usually held forth as an American icon, for Michelle it holds multiple potential failure points. The bun could be too toasted, too wet, too gummy or too stale. At a restaurant, it could arrive “dressed” with limp, lukewarm (possibly worm-carrying) lettuce, or perhaps a pale and/or tasteless tomato slice. The meat could be greasy, gamey, dry, or simply dull. Additionally, Michelle disdains […]

Categories: Beef, Cooking, Food, Recipes, Sandwiches, Yeast breads

Cherishing the chore of (sour) cherry jam

June 4, 2013 by Steve

There are some who shirk hard labor, thinking it never leads to any reward. Some embrace whatever physical challenge is placed before them, knowing their efforts will lead to what is best in life. While Crom knows Gourmandistanis are not opposed to labor-saving devices, we also recognize that sometimes you have to put in the work. That is why Saturday saw Steve sitting at the kitchen table for three straight hours, pitting cherry after cherry after cherry until his hands […]

Categories: Cherries, Cooking, Food, Fruit, Jams & Preserves, Recipes, Vegetarian

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