Gourmandistan

Celebrating an understandable Indian cookbook with asparagus, cauliflower, cashew and coconut curry

May 8, 2016 by Steve

While we have not completely pushed Pushpesh Pant out of our kitchen, Gourmandistan’s latest Indian lodestone is definitely Meera Sodha’s Made in India, the runner-up in this year’s Piglet cookbook competition. We were charmed by the book almost from the moment we picked it up. Michelle was captivated by Sodha’s personal story of growing up in Lincolnshire, England with Ugandan-Indian parents and Steve by the recipe for Chili Paneer on page 27. We’ve spent the last couple of weeks making many delicious things, […]

Categories: Asparagus, Cauliflower, Cooking, Food, India, Nuts, Recipes, Vegetarian

Bourbon Ball Trifle tastefully twists a Kentucky Derby tradition

April 23, 2016 by Michelle

The first Saturday in May is fast approaching and our thoughts are, once again, turning to the Kentucky Derby. Over our years of Derby partying, Gourmandistan has sampled plenty of bad bourbon balls. For those of you unfamiliar with this Kentucky candy, the bourbon ball was the invention of Ruth Hanly Booe, who began making candy in our state capital, Frankfort, after leasing a bar idled by Prohibition. While it’s possible that making candy in an old bar put the idea of liquor-infused candy into her […]

Categories: Cake, Chocolate, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Kentucky Derby, Recipes

Cocoa brownies with coconut icing sweetly kick chocolate to the curb

April 1, 2016 by Michelle

Gourmandistan has a long history of bringing our virtual world recipes from Alice Medrich’s Chewy Gooey Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies. (We are not sorry, dear readers, because the recipes are so damn good.) Today’s homage is to a batch of brownies that bypass chocolate for cocoa powder. As Medrich says, “the best brownies are not always made with a bar of chocolate,” asserting that cocoa gives brownies “divinely soft centers and slightly chewy, almost candylike tops.” We must admit the idea of coconut icing came […]

Categories: Baking, Brownies, Chocolate, Coconut, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Recipes

Bacon salad dressing brings back memories, blesses pea shoots and more

March 27, 2016 by Michelle

Michelle had never heard of Hillstone Restaurant Group before reading this month’s feature article in Bon Appétit Magazine. This “non-chain chain” is reportedly adored by such culinary luminaries as Danny Meyer and David Chang. As she read, Michelle felt a jolt of familiarity when she saw that HRG “started in 1977 with the opening of Houston’s in Nashville.” 1977, it seems, was the year Michelle and her college girlfriends also landed on Nashville’s West End Avenue, becoming a part of the beginning of what Andrew Knowlton, the article’s author, calls the “best-run, […]

Categories: Apples, Chicken, Cured meats, Food, Friends, Nuts, Pork, Recipes, Restaurants, Salad, Watercress

Take-out lo mein taken in to Gourmandistan, transformed by duck

March 21, 2016 by Steve

Over the years, there has been much debate in Gourmandistan over which Chinese food travels best. While it was never one of Michelle’s favorites because sameness, Steve usually asserted that lo mein was a reliable take-out choice. He felt the combination of noodles, sauce and assorted other things (mainly pork, in Steve’s preference) was always about the same quality at home as it was in the restaurant. However, this homemade version with duck may very well end the argument, as Steve agrees it […]

Categories: China, Cooking, Duck, Food, Mushrooms, Pasta

Soy-braised tofu begins Gourmandistan’s assimilation of Koreatown

March 6, 2016 by Steve

It’s not as if Gourmandistan hasn’t ventured Korean cuisine before. But now that we own Deuki Hong and Matt Rodbard’s Koreatown: A Cookbook, we’re pretty sure our realm will now frequently include meals with banchan, gochugaru and other good things out of the Hermit Kingdom and its more friendly neighbor to the south—quite possibly this soy-braised tofu dish called Dubu Jorim. Hong is a Korean-American chef who runs the restaurant Kang Ho Dong Baekjeong in New York’s Koreatown, and who previously worked in the kitchens […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Korea, Recipes, Restaurants, Tofu, Vegetarian

Does aging make banana cake with coffee buttercream, chocolate and walnut praline better?

February 28, 2016 by Michelle

Perhaps it was the praline that prevented Michelle from immediately warming to this cake. After announcing to Steve that she was going to make something sweet out of a small bunch of overly ripe bananas, Michelle quickly thought of pairing it with coffee buttercream and chocolate ganache, but struggled for a bit to find a way to insert a nut-laden layer as well. Steve did manage to raise a bit of interest with the idea of a baklava-esque layer of […]

Categories: Baking, Cake, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Recipes

Pork and walnut crépinettes, because caul fat is amazing

February 19, 2016 by Steve

It is not a secret that Gourmandistan loves odd bits of animals, from oxtails to hog jowls to entire pig heads. Now, thanks to our badass local baker/pig farmer, we have another part to cherish—caul fat. This magical, membranous lipid has given us several memorable meals recently, including these delightful crépinettes. Caul fat, for those of you unfamiliar with it (we’re looking at you, most Americans), is a sheer membrane overlaying the stomach of some animals, including sheep, cows and pigs. We got […]

Categories: Food, Kale, Meats, Nose-to-tail, Nuts, Pork, Recipes

Boozy cherry almond biscotti demonstrate thinking inside and outside the box

February 14, 2016 by Michelle

Many years ago, Steve had his first day at a new advertising agency, receiving a t-shirt with the company logo and the slogan, “think outside the box.” Steve received it politely but did not wear the shirt in public, as the clichéd slogan struck him as kind of silly. (They weren’t alone in their platitudes, as Steve’s previous agency liked to boast it “put the client at the center of everything we do.”) However, a recent batch of biscotti Michelle whipped up […]

Categories: Baking, Cherries, Cookies, Cooking, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Nuts, Recipes

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