Gourmandistan

Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Carbon Copy

February 17, 2012 by Michelle

We could say we shared ideas with Alice Medrich at one of her famed Bay Area Cocolat stores back in the Seventies or Eighties. We would be lying. We could say we “tweaked” this recipe for Apricot Lemon Bars from Medrich’s latest cookbook, Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies. We could tell you how our tweak made it so much better. Again, this would be an untruth. We did substitute walnuts for hazelnuts—only because, while Steve usually has enough nuts […]

Categories: Apricots, Cookies, Cooking, Food, Fruit Desserts, Lemon, Recipes, Vegetarian

Rabe and Pizzage

February 10, 2012 by Steve

While desperately awaiting the arrival of local spring greens, we’ve been buying broccoli rabe at our Whole Foods because Michelle can no longer tolerate the taste of the usual bland broccoli flown in all winter from god knows where. The stuff comes in giant bunches, and we were faced with a pile perilously close to becoming chicken food. Thinking about the rabe’s bitter green flavor and seeking a simpler way to get the potato-like taste she got from Jerusalem artichokes […]

Categories: Broccoli rabe, Cooking, Food, Jerusalem artichokes, Pizza, Recipes, Vegetarian

Hulk Hogan, Sorghum and Sweet Potato Pancakes

January 29, 2012 by Steve

A Real American Breakfast, a cookbook borrowed from her mom’s collection, put Michelle in mind of this morning’s meal, and Steve in mind of Hulk Hogan. As Steve (or assorted Hulkamaniacs) can tell you, Hulk was once the “Real American.” Born from humble beginnings, pumped up in the steroid-fueld ’80s to fight the cartoonish Iron Sheik, he now spends his time on social media and reality TV and defending rumors that he’s less the man than he claims to be. […]

Categories: Breakfast, Cooking, Food, Recipes, Sorghum, Sweet potatoes, Vegetarian

Topinambour-ing to you!

January 26, 2012 by Steve

We’re always trying to vary our limited winter veg choices, so we’ve been happy to see tiny bags of Jerusalem artichokes available at our currently-only-on-Saturdays local farm store. Known as sunchokes, topinambours and more, these gnarled sunflower tubers are great pan-roasted, or thin-sliced and sautéed with garlic. (Then again, just about anything is great sautéed with garlic.) Looking for another way to use the tasty tubers, Michelle discovered a tart recipe in Ottolenghi: The Cookbook and decided we could wing it […]

Categories: Cheese, Cooking, Eggs, Food, Jerusalem artichokes, Kale, Recipes, Vegetarian

Brownies, taking away the taste of failed muffins.

January 16, 2012 by Steve

Michelle was unhappy; Steve, somewhat stuffed. Several weekends of new recipes resulting in miserable muffin failures had wasted many cups of our precious frozen blueberries as well as other Gourmandistan goods. The first batch of blueberry muffins was too bland with an unpleasant, gummy texture. The second, tasty but too heavy. (Steve, like some sort of scavenger bird, picked the fruit out of the batter and baked remains before feeding Michelle’s castoffs to the chickens.) A third attempt abandoned blueberries […]

Categories: Brownies, Chocolate, Cooking, Food, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Vegetarian

Granola Opry

January 9, 2012 by Steve

There is opera, and there is “Opry.” There is granola, and there is “Granola Revisited” from Lorna Sass’ Whole Grains Every Day Every Way. We Gourmandistanis often find granola too sweet, too cinnamony or just too junked up. Carob chips are Satan’s chocolate and, being purists, we believe even Amedei chocolate would ruin a good granola (and vice versa). This granola is simple, light and still plenty sweet—especially when you ramp up the coconut ration (perhaps, for example, after discovering […]

Categories: Breakfast, Cooking, Food, Recipes, Vegetarian

A bulgur display of powder.

January 6, 2012 by Steve

This Curried Bulgur from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything (“The first one. The yellow one, with the fat Bittman,” Michelle said) makes a nice base for a bunch of lunches. One of our household staples is a jar of curry powder, because even though we take what many consider ridiculous steps with food (Steve was recently mocked for wondering if he could make his own analog to cheap canned crescent rolls for pigs-in-blankets), we see true Indian spice prep […]

Categories: Cooking, Eggs, Food, Grains, Recipes, Vegetarian

A not-so-short hop away from Hoppin’ John

January 1, 2012 by Steve

We Gourmandistanis generally pride ourselves on maintaining a humanistic, progressive point of view, striving to reject superstition and magical thinking. However, given Steve’s totemistic use of blue clothing and fervent belief in the power of both hexing (and reverse hexing) as applied to UK basketball, we cannot say we’ve completely left superstition out of our lives. Plus, especially for Michelle, Southern traditions hold strong, and here in our wintry homeplace black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day are as expected as […]

Categories: Beans, Cooking, Food, New Year, Oysters, Recipes

A small, citrusy step away from the treacle.

December 28, 2011 by Steve

It’s almost the end of the holidays, and we’re starting to be just a bit sick of sweet. While eating our way through what remains of Michelle’s cookie cavalcade (reduced by gifts, get-togethers and Steve’s occasional late-night rustling), we started to think of slightly less sugary finishes to our meals. We make this dish only occasionally, as it requires wonderful winter citrus and restaurant-level pith removal that is beyond Steve’s skill set to meet Michelle’s standards for fresh fruit consumption. […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Fruit Desserts, Grapefruit, Orange, Recipes, Vegetarian

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