Gourmandistan

Lentil soup, Le Puy and a lesson in geology

January 29, 2011 by Michelle

Millennia ago, when volcanoes were spewing up pretty much all of modern France, part of the magma that eventually became the Auvergne was composed of pure basalt, one of the hardest minerals on Earth. (Steve once did advertising for a basalt-slurry-based corn-chute lining company, where he learned vital facts about the igneous rock.) One of these ancient basalt pillars pokes up over Le Puy-en-Velay and hosts an 11th century chapel accessible only by climbing 268 steps—something the acrophobic Michelle can […]

Categories: Beans, Cooking, Food, France, Recipes, Soups & Stews

English muffins kick pancake ass

January 26, 2011 by Michelle

We’ve always enjoyed English muffins in Gourmandistan, but have long been dissatisfied with what can be found in our grocery. Years ago we bought some muffin rings and tried the recipe inside, but the oven-baked muffins were dense and not at all like the nook-and-cranny nirvana we sought. So we abandoned our muffins for other breads, occasionally buying a package of Bays for hamburger buns, only to find their freezer-burned corpses littering the Sub-Zero’s floor after we forgot about them. […]

Categories: Breakfast, Cooking, Food, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Vegetarian, Yeast breads

Modernity vs. nostalgia vs. pot pie

January 16, 2011 by Michelle

While Gourmandistan’s borders are stuffed full of scanners, digital cameras, electronic readers and other delightful devices of our electronic age, our population still clings to print, especially when it comes to cooking. Shopping lists are usually written on scraps of paper (although Steve sometimes transcribes them to his iPhone). Our shelves groan with heavy cookbooks, which Michelle recently reorganized to make room for more. As we had a lot of leftover poultry flesh from Steve’s recent rescue of the little […]

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

“A Charlie Brown Christmas” kind of Thanksgiving in January

January 12, 2011 by Michelle

Steve felt sorry for the little 10-pound turkey, spotting it lodged awkwardly in the bottom of the Foxhollow Farm Store frozen meat case the week after Thanksgiving. As it sat there through December, Steve began to wonder if the bird had died in vain—and possibly, what Gourmandistan could do with a turkey. We’ve never been big fans of America’s almost-national bird, suffering through bland braised turkey breasts and, in Michelle’s case, a bad experience with brining early in the free-range […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Recipes, Thanksgiving, Turkey

Appetizer solution (white bean bruschetta)

January 10, 2011 by Michelle

Our dinner guests being vegetarian wasn’t the problem—having dinner guests was the problem. Dinner guests, while certainly welcome in Gourmandistan, do require certain steps to be taken, such as picking up the numerous books and magazines scattered about, removing the cats’ countertop colander bed and making hors d’oeuvre. Michelle looked around the place and assembled some meat-free prospects: a few dried white beans in the pantry, a Blue Dog baguette in the freezer and some fresh sage leaves in the […]

Categories: Appetizers, Beans, Cooking, Food, Recipes, Vegetarian

Momofuku Mo Problems: A Christmas Blizzard of Chang

January 2, 2011 by Michelle

We certainly didn’t intend to eat at all four of David Chang’s restaurants as we began our quick planning for a Gourmandistan Christmas in New York City. But the path was set long before Snowicane, Snomageddon, Snowpocalypse or whatever you call the sixth-worst blizzard ever to hit the City. It started when Michelle beat Chang’s fiendishly democratic online reservation system for two of the available 12 seats at Momofuku Ko for Christmas lunch. Then, Steve made reservations for Má Pêche’s […]

Categories: Christmas, Food, Restaurants

Hoppin’ new year (black-eyed pea soup)

December 31, 2010 by Michelle

In Gourmandistan, we recognize there is a tradition saying eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day will bring good luck in he coming year. We also agree with Edna Lewis that black-eyed peas “are a little dull.” So, in an effort to bring our readers both good luck and good taste in 2011, we present an alternative to the traditional peas and rice. Happy New Year, everybody! BLACK-EYED PEA SOUP (adapted from Elizabeth and Alexis Terry’s Savannah Seasons: Food and […]

Categories: Beans, Cooking, Food, New Year, Recipes, Soups & Stews

Struffoli, Steve’s sole holiday food tradition

December 21, 2010 by Michelle

It’s a sign of how denatured Steve’s Neapolitan heritage is that he believed a traditional family holiday dish was spelled “struvela.” It’s actually struffoli—something Steve didn’t figure out until recently. Steve has memories of picking at the honey-covered dough bits as they sat on an increasingly sugar-sticky paper doily for days, a concept Michelle finds bewildering as well as slightly disgusting. Nevertheless, acceding to Steve’s whim, she decided to help bring struffoli to Gourmandistan. Steve’s mother was happy to give […]

Categories: Christmas, Cooking, Desserts & Sweets, Family, Food, Italy, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Vegetarian

Pursuing perfect Parker House rolls

December 15, 2010 by Michelle

These days Steve can bang out a perfect pâte brisée without looking at a recipe. He’s also now pretty good at pizza dough, as well as pasta and no-knead bread. But Michelle found Steve a new challenge in the November issue of Saveur magazine—buttery, puffy Parker House rolls. Steve took the Tom Colicchio article out of Michelle’s hands and, on his first try, made a passable imitation of a dinner roll. However, they were judged to be a little underdone […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Recipes, Vegetarian, Yeast breads

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