In Linda's Kitchen

Wishing For Tomatoes

2012-02-12T10:30:00.000-08:00

Tomatoes for roasting

These tomatoes are what I'm longing for. It is now February and we've endured weeks on end of either 20F or 30F weather. It has also been a rather "brown" winter without much snow- only enough to not melt on our few sunny days. The remaining snow, and any melted snow, now freezes everyday which requires ski poles, skill, guts, or those little chain ice-walkers. I'm beginning to feel like a cow yearning for the fresh grass of springtime. I keep looking for signs of chives, usually the first green to grow in my garden, and so far my search has not been fulfilled. I think I'll order seeds and let the growing begin.

Yes, I've been absent for the past month or so. Fall semester barely ended before Christmas and when that happens my favorite holiday seems to whoosh by. I spent most of my vacation time updating classes and preparing for the spring semester. I also worked voraciously on my book business. Then my computer caught a virus so I spent several days performing a system recovery. Actually, the recovery part was easy but all the updating was tedious. My next computer will definitely be an Apple.

I have not stopped cooking. For Christmas eve dinner I made sugo d'anatra, a duck ragu. I'm still missing the skin that I assumed would be on my locally raised ducks and I thought the ragu would at least keep the duck moist. It did and it was delicious! For Christmas, since there were only four of us for dinner, I cooked my locally raised chicken, from the same source as the chicken I used for that time-consuming but fully-worth-it Chicken Galantine. That is something I never would have made without Charcutepalooza. And it was so good, that I will definitely make it again!

Spicy Noix de Jambon

Right after Christmas I also bought another pork leg and proceeded to make some new noix de jambon. I made three "real" noix de jambon, then I experimented with roasted, ground fennel with garlic as well as a spicy jambon. I made two each of both ideas on some smaller cut noix. The fennel became too gritty so next time I would do it with whole, fresh fennel seed and garlic, although I'd be worried about bacteria forming because of the raw garlic. For the spicy noix de jambon I coated it with Spanish smoked paprika and cayenne. Needless to say it was hot and delicious. The three regular noix also turned out yummy.
I've been rummaging through the freezer, cleaning out those products with expiring dates. Needless to say, I'm just about out of sausage so that is on the calendar. I've added leftover pork pieces (from the not-so-capable butchery of two pork legs) to risottos and pasta dishes. I even added some pork, instead of beef, to a wintry batch of borscht. The borscht did much more than double duty because I used up last summer's beets, carrots, and cabbage as well. With some duck breast prosciutto scraps I made a carbonara and the list just goes on and on.

My birthday is coming up in April and I'm already thinking about a Chicken Galantine.... We'll see. Usually for my birthday I give myself the gift of making a very difficult dessert that I haven't made before. One year I even made Sherry Yard's six layer Dobos Torte that she made for one of Wolfgang Puck's famous Oscar parties. Wow! That was not only delicious but also great fun! I don't know what will happen this year but the ideas are simmering on my brain's back burner....galantine, pork pie, head cheese....

The Charcutepalooza Finale: Choucroute Garnie

2011-12-06T07:48:00.000-08:00

Choucroute Garnie

Growing up we always had our dinner together at the kitchen table. We had no dining room so the kitchen table had to accommodate all six of us. Having three younger brothers and living during a period of traditional gender roles, I often ended up being my mother's helper, whether cleaning the house, folding laundry, or cooking something. My mother was never big on cooking and we pretty much had the same things for dinner every week. Variety came from some of the first fast food joints, the local Italian pizzeria, and dinner with friends. Of course, I wasn't a very big eater so I didn't really care about what was set in front of me. I liked the ubiquitous spaghetti that was my Italian grandmother's recipe, but aside from that my mom usually made something very New England like pot roast, or very easy like biscuits with chicken gravy (thank you Campbell's Soup). But there was one dish that my Dad loved, and I learned to love it too, and that was pork chops, potatoes, and sauerkraut oven-braised in a covered casserole dish. My mom served it with gravy and I hesitate to think of where the gravy came from.

So, when the December Showing Off challenge was announced, my mind enthusiastically wrapped itself around the idea of Choucroute Garnie. From 1984-1985, I lived in Stuttgart, Germany which is only about seventy miles from Strasbourg, the capital of Alsace, the home of Choucroute Garnie. The people of Stuttgart speak Swabian, which, like Alsatian, is one of the Low Alemannic dialects. As in Alsace, the people of Swabia (Stuttgart and the surrounding area), pay much attention to cured meats. Indeed, every town contains a Metzgerei, a butcher's shop where charcuterie is found in abundance. My husband and I loved the food. When my parents visited in the summer, my husband and I took them to Strasbourg for some Choucroute Garnie and three of us ordered it. My mom ordered some chicken dish and I wondered if she hadn't really liked the pork chops and sauerkraut that she made so long ago. I had made Choucroute Garnie a number of times in my adult years but this was the first time I would be tasting it in some fancy restaurant in Strasbourg. I don't remember the name of the place but it was very close to the cathedral. It may have been Maison Kammerzell. The food tasted sublime and exceeded my expectations. I don't remember all the meats served with it, I only remember devouring most of it.

Having spent this past year diving with great expectation and fun into the Charcutepalooza challenges, I began to do some research on the history of Choucroute Garnie in order to serve an authentic dinner. I also wanted to regale my guests not just with wonderful food but also with anecdotes about Choucroute Garnie like how the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, when in Paris, ate it every day at the Rotonde in Montparnesse.

I also wanted to explain how this very German style dish came to be found in France. Alsace's location, west of the Rhine River and backed by the Vosges Mountains, made it a strategic place for both countries, as its history reveals. At the end of the Thirty Years War in 1648, Louis XIV annexed the area into France where it remained until the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, when Germany took over Alsace. After World War I, the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 gave the territory back to France. With the rise of Nazi power in Germany, Hitler annexed Alsace in 1940, but at the end of World War II, the area was returned to the French government. Although this history of sovereignty must have been exhausting for the citizens of Alsace, it also seemed to bring out the best of both countries when it came to food.
As for other trivia about Alsace, that famous song "Les Marseillaise," known by many for its timely occurrence in the film Casablanca, was composed in Strasbourg. A number of famous people have come from Alsace, including such illustrious chefs like André Soltner and Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Marcel Marceau, the famous French mime came from Alsace as did Marie Tussaud of wax museum fame. Also, according to the Saveur Cooks Authentic French cookbook, Alsace is known for its many starred Michelin restaurants. As I remember from my year in Stuttgart, it is an interesting area because several close borders, including not only France and Germany, but also Switzerland and Austria, exchanged sovereignty, visitors, neighbors, friends, and family throughout its history.

I set the date for the Charcutepalooza final meal for the Sunday after Thanksgiving. With the end of the semester and all its extra work looming in front of me, I wanted to give myself plenty of time! I invited six, close friends who had been following and reading and hearing about my charcuterie escapades throughout the year. They also had sampled some of the challenges.

Hors oeuvres

I wasn't quite finished with the final set up when my guests arrived, so my hors d'oeuvres table wasn't ready, but I quickly set out all the hors d'oeuvres, thus beginning an evening of showing off my newly acquired charcuterie abilities. All the hors d'oeuvres had been made in advance and only needed to be displayed and eaten. The day before I had done some preliminary preparations like making bread and sauce to serve with all these delectable charcuterie tidbits. In a blatant attempt to bribe the judges, I baked a loaf of Michael Ruhlman's Classic Rye Bread with Caraway Seeds and a boule of Bob del Grosso's Alt-Sourdough Technique bread in which I substituted some of the bread flour with rye flour and added some caraway seeds. They were both delicious! I had once been served pork rillettes with a Sauce Gribiche at Santé Restaurant & Charcuterie in Spokane, WA, so decided to do the same at my Charcuterie dinner, using the recipe from The Lutèce Cookbook. For the charcuterie, I served thinly sliced noix de jambon, pork confit, melon squares wrapped in duck breast prosciutto, Anne Burrell's Bacon Wrapped Dates Stuffed with Manchego but wrapped them with pancetta instead, and a pork paté, as well as some cornichons and olives. Both the hors d'oeuvres and the entree were served with coarse ground mustard and Dijon mustard. We had to force ourselves to stop eating all the hors d'oeuvres in order to save room for dinner.

Choucroute Garnie

I compared a number of recipes for Choucroute Garnie in order to figure out some of the correct meats and spices. In the end, after looking at recipes from Julia Child to Anthony Bourdain to Jeffrey Steingarten to André Soltner, I decided that I would pretty much follow the recipe from Soltner's Lutèce Cookbook. I deviated slightly depending on what meats I had on hand and what I could make. After smoking some ham hocks and frankfurters, which turned quite dark and smokey because the Brinkman Smoker doesn't have an interior thermometer, I received an early Christmas present: the Bradley Smoker. I was able to use the ham hocks after boiling them a bit and changing the water for another simmer. The frankfurters weren't too bad and had to be used because time was slipping away. But, using my new Bradley Smoker, I was able to make a delicious, stuffed sausage, Saucisses Montbéliard (a simple, garlicky sausage often used in Alsace in Choucroute Garnie). I also made some pancetta, the salt cure, but made it flat so I could cut some large cubes to cook with the choucroute. I had a small, fresh ham that I ended up brining, after which I cut it into manageable chunks, gave them a quick sear in rendered pork fat, then put it all into the choucroute as well. I also added the cubed pancetta pieces, pork hocks, Riesling, onions cooked in pork fat, some of own chicken stock, juniper berries, cloves, caraway seeds, and bay leaf, covered the casserole and roasted it as 325F for an hour and a half. Finally, I added the frankfurters and Saucisses Montbéliard which had been simmered lightly,and the boiled potatoes (from our garden) so that all the flavors would blend.

Spiced poached pear

We finished the dinner with a light dessert. I decided to serve something both light and Alsatian. Pear trees flourish in Alsace and are frequently used to make pear brandy. They are also used to make the famous Alsatian fruit cake/bread known as Bierwecke. Not having any real Alsatian pear brandy, and knowing from experience that the fruit cake is quite heavy, I decided to us our own Bosc pears to play off the pear theme and make some spiced poached pears. I followed David Lebovitz's recipe. I think I added too much ginger because after poaching the pears the ginger flavor dominated. To take off that hot, almost bitter edge, I reduced the liquid with a bit of pomegranate syrup. It tasted divine. I served them on top of an Amaretto and Mascarpone Cream topped with crumbled, Amaretti cookies. Then we made ample use of wine as a digestif. We were satiated.

Noix de Jambon, Oops, Salt and Air-Cured Pork Belly

2011-12-01T06:56:00.000-08:00

Noix de jambon

This may look like Jambon de Camont, and it may even taste like the re-named noix de jambon, but I confess, I cut all three of my noix de jambon too small, so by the time they had gone through the salt stage and the cold smoke stage, they had already lost 30% of their weight. It made for a very easy challenge, but somehow I felt like I didn't really meet the challenge. If I had hung them, they would have just become smaller and drier. They certainly tasted good and, although the small and medium ones were a bit salty, they were still edible. I saved the large one, the most edible, for my last and final December challenge.

I didn't have time (end of semester deadlines) to order another fresh "ham." Actually, my local USDA butcher, Woods Meats, informed me that they were selling me pork leg because it wasn't ham until it was cured. I smiled. I've become well acquainted with them during the course of the year. I wasn't even sure I could order more pork leg because this is the time of year when they're preparing for holidays, brining and curing their own hams, and stocking up for the winter. I can't even buy pork back fat from them this time of year! Luckily I have extra in the deep freeze. Also, they only slaughter pigs on Wednesdays, so it would be another week before I could order another pork leg. I wasn't sure what to do.... I thought about lonzino, but again, what if that went wrong as well? And, I had never tasted lonzino. Wonder if I didn't like it. Oh, what to do? what to do?

Dry sausage like chorizo or saucisson sec all required too much time because of the grinding, cooling, mixing, cooling, stuffing, cooling, hanging. I do love dry sausage and intend to make Spanish chorizo, Hungarian salami, and Saucisson Sec, but not in the midst of grading final papers, essays, and exams.

So, I turned to one of my favorite parts of the pig: the belly. Since I couldn't get the pork back fat for lardo, why not some pork belly? I love pork belly! If I bought just the right size, I could make flat pancetta to use as large chunks of pork belly in the December challenge and use the rest for a small, cured pork belly - lardo with striation! I had just enough time for twelve days of salt cure and eighteen more days hanging until November 30th.

Salt & Air Cured Pork Belly, aka Lardo

I took the pork belly out of its box in the heat controlled room with humidifier. It looked and tasted salty and porky and lucious, but I was pretty sure that it needed more time. It hadn't lost enough in weight (does that matter with lardo), plus I wanted that full 24 day hanging. It's beautifully white with small striations of meat. I believe that it becomes saltier over time, also drier, yet the fat will still dissolve almost instantly into the homemade bread I'll serve it on.

Cured pork belly on homemade rye bread

I tried it on some homemade, sourdough rye. It's really good, but I think it will just become more and more delicious for each additional day I allow it to hang. And after eleven months of charcuterie, I know that I need to go for the flavor. Hurray, Charcutepalooza!

Whole Hog: Appreciation Of The Animal Who Provides Our Food

2011-11-08T18:46:00.000-08:00

I wanted to call this particular blog "From Nose To Tail" but I wasn't sure of the copyright laws regarding someone else's title, i.e., Fergus Henderson's The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating. It's a wonderful book, as well as a feast. Fergus Henderson is just one of a number of recent chefs who have brought people back to the age-old appreciation and tradition of using the entire animal that sacrificed its life for our consumption. Other chefs include Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Chris Cosentino, and others, as well as many of the people interested in sustainable food like Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingsolver, and Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon, authors of the 100 Mile Diet (the original link to their 100 Mile Diet website appears to have disappeared so I give you the Wikipedia synopsis - I did follow the original website and their year eating such a diet). The list grows ever longer and now includes film as well.

But, back to "appreciation of the animal who provides the food." I saw that "illuminating moment" while watching The Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs on Sunday, 10/30. Maybe it was just my own personal Tipping Point, when I finally saw, with my own eyes, how a chef truly appreciated and knew, within his own ken, how to treat every part of an animal.

In the first part of this competition for the next Iron Chef, the chefs were teamed up in pairs. Outside in the California countryside, they then had to make a fire with grill, butcher a small pig, and create two dishes that would win the competition. The chefs came up with many very creative and delicious dishes. I drooled over all of them. But the genius, illuminating moment appeared for me while watching Chef Michael Chiarello.

Chef Chiarello was paired up with Chuck Hughes. They made, for the first dish, a Crispy Pig's Ear Salad with Beets and Pork Cheeks. Their second dish consisted of Chili Maple Glazed Pork Chops with Pig Brain's Duxelles served on Grilled and Poached Potato with Grilled Pork Belly. That illuminating moment came as I watched Michael Chiarello, using his hand, scoop the brains out of the pig's head and add them to the celery/duxelles mix, explaining that brains are "...creamy, voluptuous, and buttery." He continued by adding that brains have "...great flavor and texture." After seeing what he did and hearing his beautiful description I think something inside me changed and suddenly brains no longer held fear of kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, or some other animal infestation of what, to my mind, however rational or irrational, is connected to mad-cow disease. Suddenly, I understood that the brains, which are mostly fat, are very useful and contain that luscious porkiness flavor, and thick, buttery texture.

To think that only a few months ago I wondered what happened to the pig's brain while simmering the head in an aromatic broth. Later, after an email to my internet friend, blogger, inadvertent food science mentor, and Charcutepalooza judge, I did learn that brains are mostly fat. Throughout this year, my participation in the Charcutepalooza community has taught me much about charcuterie and food in general. I doubt that I would have appreciated Michael Chiarello's usefulness with the brains, had I not learned so much this year.

If I really want to appreciate the pig I raised, the pig whose every part I need to use in appreciation for the life that pig gave to me, I need to appreciate all the body parts offered by the pig, with the same understanding that a chef like Michael Chiarello has for the animal and the food produced by its parts. And it's not just the raising, the butchering, the use of the parts, and the ability to create great dishes from the parts, it's looking at what's at hand and using it in the most efficacious and delicious way possible. I mean, why would I throw extra butter into a duxelles when the brains are right in front of me? Frankly, I think that Chef Chiarello's use of the brains were pure genius. The other chefs used many parts, but that use of the brain, for me, was the highlight.

And you know, I think I'd love to use the brains in a celery, wild mushroom duxelles. Wow! I even think that the pig would smile with me.

Finally, Duck Breast Prosciutto

2011-11-02T20:16:00.000-07:00

Duck Breast Prosciutto with Melon

Yes, I finally made the Duck Breast Prosciutto. It was the first challenge for all the Charcutepaloozas which began in January, 2011. I became a member of this distinguished group of bloggers towards the middle of January, if memory serves well, and so was excused from meeting the first deadline. Instead, I had the rest of the year to make the duck breast prosciutto. I waited until I could order it fresh, with another item I really needed from D'Artagnan. D'Artagnan isn't anywhere near my neck of the woods, and because I try to be sustainable and local, I ended up waiting months to place that order. The rest of the time I just drooled while examining their website. But finally an appropriate need occurred with the appearance of the September Packing Challenge, sparking my overwhelming desire to make the Duck Roulade. So I received my fresh Moulard Duck Magret, Half Breast when I ordered a Whole Pekin Duck in September.

I used the recipe from Ruhlman and Polcyn's Charcuterie. It was very easy and fun to make, although I used too many wraps of cheesecloth and had to remove some halfway through. It tastes divine, with a bit of chew, good salty, peppery flavor, and an end of pure duck flavor on my tongue! However, I think that when I do it again, I'll take off some of the fat. It was just too much in my mouth. But that same fat also brings in much more flavor when fried or broiled. Decisions, decisions....

I tried it first plain. While picking all the veggies before the first frost hit, my husband found the mini cantaloupe in the garden. We're not even sure how it came to be there, and, with our long, rainy, cold spring and rather cool summer, it just didn't grow much. Because it's so small, it didn't have a burst of flavor, but it looked so cute that I had to serve it with the prosciutto. On another occasion, I used the prosciutto with pasta. But now I'm saving it for the last Charcutepalooza challenge. If there's any left, I'm sure I'll use it up pretty quickly in a pasta dish, on a pizza, fried with some vegetable, or just scrambled with eggs. However I use it, I know the taste will be all I want it to be.

Gala Chicken and Rock 'n Roll Duck

2011-10-15T05:48:00.000-07:00

Steve Jamsa, Photographer

I couldn't wait to make the Chicken Galantine! I had a chicken in the freezer raised and butchered by my friends, Seth and Talina. How local and sustainable was that! This was to be a meal that did more than meet the Charcutepalooza challenge, it also became one in which I satisfied my desires to stay local and eat sustainably. I had accessible to me all the ingredients except the salt, peppers, Madeira, Pâté spices, pistachios, and cheesecloth. It felt good to be able to use so many local ingredients making a dish that is so elegant and classic!

I not only made the Chicken Galantine, but, having some leftover filling, I also made a pâté. I always have local morel mushrooms which I receive fresh and then dry myself so I reconstituted some for the galantine. I also added pistachios to the forcemeat. Other than those two ingredients, I followed the recipe from Charcuterie.

Removing the skin from the rest of the chicken was pretty easy, except, heeding the advise of my hubby, I cut the skin around the top rather than the base of the drumsticks. Dumb move. It left me with a slightly smaller piece of skin than I would have had but it all worked out okay. I used the extra forcemeat to make a pâté which I baked in a ramekin. I lined the ramekin with some rendered duck fat that I had made after making rillettes and covered the pâté with foil before baking it.

Chicken Stock

I grow my own bay leaves and thyme so I added them fresh to the chicken stock. Because I'm in north Idaho, I do have to bring the bay tree inside during the winter. But it still thrives! The stock was delicious and after a good straining, I poached the galantine in the stock.

Steve Jamsa, Photographer

Some friends, Steve, Diana, and Alice stopped by after work for a sample of the galantine and a glass of wine. Steve, a professional photographer, honored my request to shoot some photos. I offered some other goodies as well, including lingonberry preserves (like the cranberry jelly with turkey), pickled ginger, olives, crackers, cherry tomatoes from the garden, and other "small bits" as well. Everyone loved both the galantine and the pâté.

After the work on the galantine, I had to wait a week before starting in on the Duck Roulade. Because I also work, both dishes took two days. However, at least I knew how to take off the skin properly and to cut the thighs and legs at the base!

Duck Roulade

Unlike the chicken, I had to buy a duck raised elsewhere. Usually, I pick one up across the border in Creston, B.C. But I decided to take advantage of the wonderful discount offered by D'artagnan to the Charcutepalooza bloggers and I ordered a Pekin duck. It arrived quickly but, since I had ordered a frozen duck, I had the opportunity to put it in the deep freeze while I honed my skills on the chicken.

Duck skin ready for freezer

Duck skinned

I invited two friends for Duck Roulade dinner, my neighbor, Gary, and my best friend and chef, Mark. Mark arrived with several bottles of Elsa Bianchi Malbec from Argentina. He always knows how to put a meal over the top! I really enjoyed the wine and thought it went perfectly with the duck. For dinner, I also served mashed potatoes and parsnips along with buttered pole beans, all from my garden. It was delicious! Everyone loved the duck roulade and it was a lovely closing to this time-consuming challenge. And I was very, very happy that it all turned out so yummy!

Pâté en Croute: Success and Failure

2011-09-15T06:48:00.000-07:00

English Pork Pie

This is my success: the English Pork Pie from Charcuterie. My husband and I had it for dinner and found ourselves acting rather piggy when we reached for seconds. The pie was delicious! I loved the saltiness of the meat, accentuated by the bountiful addition of smoked ham. I used my own chicken broth in the meat mixture. I did use the fine dice of the meat grinder but it still appeared a bit "rustic," although the texture was not like burger meat. The crust was pure butter, one of my favorites, and besides, store-bought lard contains the addition of "fake" fat. Yuck! What happened to pure lard?! Actually, I do have a huge bag of pork fat in my freezer but it isn't rendered yet. I guess I'm waiting for the "Confit" challenge....

Freezing equipment

I wanted this to be a success so my grinding equipment spent the night in the deep freeze. I had already put together my mise en place: cooled onions and garlic in one bowl, diced ham in another bowl, pork shoulder in large dice mixed with the spices, chicken broth measured in a cup, and the ice bowl ready to go. I ground the pork with the small dicer, added the chicken broth, and mixed in the ham. Then, the pork mix went back into the refrigerator to stay cool. Later, I made the dough, put it in the fridge to cool, and in the afternoon assembled my English pork pie.

In the oven

About an hour or so before dinner, I popped it in the oven. I thought it looked kind of pretty in a very English Pork Pie kind of way. I had a bit much crust, but after a problem with my original Pâté en Croute (see below), I didn't want to lose all the luscious fat again.

My dinner slice

The meat does not look as ground as it actually is because it's still warm, no aspic holds the ground meat together, and I used more than the required amount of ham (one of my weaknesses). It was so good!

Notice how the meat hasn't shrunk hardly a bit from the pastry dough. That made me very happy. I did bake the pie on parchment, just to be sure it didn't stick to the pan. Julia Child recommends lightly greasing the baking sheet underneath the pastry, so I thought I'd be safe with the parchment paper. The paper did slide right out from underneath the pie later on when it had cooled. Notice how I lost a bit of the fat, but not much.

The English Pork Pie is my success. Unfortunately, I rather failed at the Pâté en Croute, which was too bad because I had been so very excited about it!

As soon as the announcement for the September Packing Challenge appeared, I immediately knew I would do the Pâté en Croute, because I had a wild boar tenderloin to substitute for the pork tenderloin. I couldn't wait to begin.

I didn't have a proper terrine, so I substituted with a terra cotta loaf pan. Everything seemed to go well - I even felt comfortable making my own chimney. And into the oven it went. I could smell the cloves in the spice mixture first and the aromas were heady. But by the end of the cooking process, when the fat had broken through the pastry dough in I don't know how many places, panic mode set in.

My first thought was "get rid of the excess fat so it doesn't end up hardening around the outside of the pastry dough." Wrong. Do not throw out the delicious fat, even if it does spread a bit onto the crust because by pouring some of the fat out, I also poured out flavor and binder. This a major mistake and, it turns out, I made several.

I sautéed my wild board tenderloin about a minute or so too long and it became dry in the oven. The forcemeat was not packed tightly enough around the tenderloin. My dough did not cover the pâté correctly and I didn't use enough egg wash. Plus, it broke around the chimney funnel. I also think I may have used a bit too much ground clove. The entire pâté had shrunk too much from the crust. The pâté was a bit dry because I decided not to use the aspic since I didn't know where the crust was leaking.

Pâté en Croute

It may look good, or, at least acceptable, but this was the next morning after the pouring-off-the-fat error. After several tries, I managed to release it from the pan - of course, upside down.

Notice the fat on the bottom of the pastry...which is why I poured out some of the fat...to the detriment of the meat. Luckily, I also managed to turn the whole thing right side up.

Now, that looks better, even without the chimney.

Then I cut my beautiful pastry encrusted forcemeat and my heart sank in direct relation to the space between the meat and the pastry. I felt like crying. But first I had to taste it.

It had a pronounced clove flavor that was too much over the top. I liked it, but it should have been more in the background. The pork, minus that lovely aspic I made, tasted almost dry. The boar tenderloin was definitely dry. Woe was me! What to do, what to do.

I'm the kind of person who, given lemons, makes lemonade, so, first, I cut the tenderloin out of the pâté, for other uses (in risotto, in a ground pork mix, and shaved for a sandwich). I saved some of the crust and the meat for occasional snacking. The rest of the meat I cut into manageable pieces, pressed into a mini loaf pan, poked it about a thousand times with my cake tester, and then poured some of the aspic over the pâté. It became much more moist and the flavor was lush, filling the mouth with flavors from a fairly recent but also remote rural past.

In the end, the pâté tasted rather good. The aspic lent flavor and fat. It didn't look particularly beautiful after such abuse, but it still tasted fine.

I have made pâtés and terrines in the past, but never one covered in pastry. I'm not a big pie eater and for many years I always thought of crusts as just extra calories. But I've learned much from actually doing the Charcutepalooza challenges and in the future, I'll be using these techniques and making this charcuterie much more often. It isn't just a means of preserving food; rather, it has its own elegance and flavors that take me, at least, to other realms of possibilities.

A Birthday Dinner

2011-09-05T20:05:00.000-07:00

Almond Panna Cotta with Cherry Compote

My friend, Mark, is very special because he is so much fun, wonderfully generous, thoughtful, compassionate, beautiful, gracious, smart, occasionally bitchy, an incredible chef, and a best friend forever. So, after my friend, Ilona, and I gave Mark a surprise birthday last year (I think he has forgiven us but God forbid we ever have such thoughts again), I asked him what he wanted this year. Of course, his first response was "No surprise party." I suggested small and he narrowed it down to very small. He wanted to play games (one of his favorite party activities) and to just eat appetizers. I liked that idea. Because we celebrated this party in July, I've belatedly had to re-construct the menu from the shopping list.

I began with a special request from Mark, Angels on Horseback. Instead of wrapping the oysters in bacon, I used my Charcutepalooza pancetta. Yummy! Then followed plates of appetizers, all of which could rest at room temperature (the beauty of many cured meats) and which we could nibble all evening. The dishes were mostly skewed onto fancy, Japanese toothpicks and included several interesting combinations. Andouille sausage paired with salt and pepper shrimp (thank you Laura Caulder). Fresh mozzarella teamed up with organic cherry tomatoes and fresh basil, sprinkled with salt, pepper, and a wee bit of raspberry balsamic vinegar. Charcutepalooza fennel sausage loved the buttered, new potatoes with salt and pepper. Marinated manchego cheese, matched well with marinated mushrooms à la Grèque (Craig Claiborne) and marinated olives (lemon, fennel, red pepper). I served the Charcutepalooza smoked pork loin on crostini with my homemade pear chutney. Finally, I long-slice fresh zucchini from the garden on our mandolin, after which I spread some goat cheese mixed with fresh herbs (nepitella, oregano, basil, savory) onto the zucchini slices, rolled them up, topped them with a piece of roasted red pepper, and tied them with fresh chives. One of my favorites! Then the game(s) began!

We ended up playing Trivial Pursuit, and, being the oldest, my husband soared to first place where he remained all night. Nobody could best him no matter how hard they tried, and we did try hard. Finally, we capped off the evening with that delicious almond panna cotta (pictured above) with cherry compote freshly made from my garden cherries. It was fun and I think our dear friend, Mark, had a lovely birthday evening.

Head Cheese Hash With Eggs

2011-08-14T06:30:00.000-07:00

Head cheese hash and eggs

I cannot describe how good this was. I coarse ground the head cheese with some already cooked and cooled steamed new potatoes (from the Farmer's Market 'cause mine aren't ready yet), chopped raw onion, chopped raw green pepper, and salt and pepper. The green pepper and onion gave it a bit of a kick that the head cheese and potatoes alone would have missed. I sautéed the hash in a cast iron skillet until browned on both sides. The eggs are from my friend, Helen, who knows a lot about farming. After all, she and her husband have beef, chickens, garden vegetables and flowers, and many acres of alfalfa. Also, her mother was a Stump Ranch Pioneer. No wonder these eggs have such a golden yolk that is as tasty as it looks. Of course, poaching them in water and salt allowed the richness of the yolk to shine. The roll was homemade and contained fresh herbs. The hash was so yummy, that I made a enough to store and have during the short, cold days of winter. Packed into half-pint canning jars, they will keep for several months in the chest freezer.

Head cheese headed for freezer

In another effort to use up all the head cheese before the next Charcutepalooza challenge, I decided to make a potato "gratin." I found the original recipe for this Swiss inspired gratin in a magazine that has long since disappeared and it never fails to disappoint through years of different cheeses, herbs, and meats, with the potato remaining unchanged. The proportions depend always on the amount and kind of cooked meat I have at hand in the fridge. The potatoes are cooked about three quarters of the way through, cooled, and then shredded in the food processor along with some onion, garlic, and cheese (I used Gruyère for this gratin). I gave a large dice to the head cheese, and along with the herbs, folded it all together. The original recipe called for rosemary, thyme, savory, and marjoram and I used all of them, fresh from the garden. I put all but a bit of shredded Gruyère into a buttered casserole dish, added some cream, put the rest of the Gruyère on top, and baked it in a 350F oven until the top was well-browned, about 30 to 45 minutes, depending upon the depth of the casserole. For me, it's as much a comfort food as mac 'n cheese. I always serve it with a light, slightly acidic salad. In this instance, I do confess with going a bit overboard on the feta. After a month of head cheese, I guess I was just feeling rather cheesy.

Potato gratin with head cheese

Making head cheese has been a real challenge for me; indeed, more like an initiation rite than just a challenge. From the first, I jumped into this challenge up to my head, well, the pig's head at least. I not only survived, but have even thrived on the making of head cheese. Every month I learn something new, and now, I eagerly await the next Charcutepalooza challenge.

Dutch Yellow Split Pea Soup With Head Cheese

2011-08-12T09:41:00.000-07:00

Dutch yellow split pea soup with head cheese

With one pig's head and four ham hocks, I ended up with a large loaf of head cheese for just two people. I tried to give some away, but I've had no takers. Most of them are disgusted by the thought. Some of them even looked at me in disgust. But some thought what I made was great - but that didn't mean they wanted to try it. So, I had to figure out something to do with the head cheese.
Since the head cheese has a flavor that was somewhat like ham, or at least the ham that's left over from making stock, I thought I'd begin with my favorite Dutch soup - yellow split pea. I have a recipe for it from a book titled Dutch Cooking by Heleen A.M. Halverhout. It's a very simple recipe, demonstrating that with fresh ingredients, simple can be delicious. Although the recipe calls for green split peas, I have a love for both yellow and green split peas and since yellows were in the house, they became the split pea of choice. Naturally it calls for water as well as a pig's trotter and a pig's ear. I figured that head cheese was an acceptable replacement for both those ingredients. It also calls for frankfurters, and although I was tempted to use my hot dogs, I had so much head cheese to use that I just made it do double duty. But the following ingredients are what I think makes it so good. It includes potatoes, salt, celeriac, bunch celery, leeks, onions, and more salt. I think it's the double celeries and the double onion family that gives it the most flavor.

I make large batches of soup so that we can freeze some for winter. I have found that 1 pint glass canning jars with a good inch or more of head room (allowing for expansion), make just enough for one person. And in the winter, we love soup. Whether having lunch at home, traveling over to Seattle for a few days, or bringing a lunch with me to school, soup is divine on cold, snowy, wintry days.

Navy bean soup with head cheese

Thinking even more about stocking up for winter, I decided to use more head cheese in a Navy Bean soup. I love the small, white navy beans and the soup is basically made up from the beans, a mirepoix mix, and this time, head cheese. It tastes delicious and I even added some of the head cheese gelatin. Between these two soups and some tomato based and/or veggie soups, I should have soup in the freezer until spring arrives!

Of course, I'm still left with more head cheese, so more ideas for all this head cheese will arrive before August 15th!

Head Cheese: An Initiation Rite

2011-07-29T11:42:00.000-07:00

Head cheese made in loaf pan

I feel like I've been through an initiation rite, and at first, I wasn't even sure into what I had been initiated. Charcutepalooza's Sensible Worlds, aka Brad Weiss, writes about The Fetishism of Charcuterie and the Meatiness Thereof and I think he pretty much tagged this fascination correctly. But having spent the last six months salting, brining, smoking, grinding, stuffing, and emulsifying, in other words, indulging this fetishism, why now did I feel "initiated"? After looking over the "binding" challenge Charcutepalooza Facebook photos available, and at my own photos, and thinking about it for several days, I now know it was the pig's head. I can't believe that I actually cooked the animal part that even Mrs. Wheelbarrow avoided.

And as I thought more about it, I realized it wasn't the head, per se, because, after all, I couldn't even see the nasty bits like the brains. No, it was the eyeballs. And they probably wouldn't have bothered me so much if I hadn't watched the video of Chef Chris Cosentino removing the meat from the pig's head in order to make porchetta di testa. During the video he says "...to be really careful not to puncture [the eye]," so the whole time my pig's head was cooking, I kept worrying about accidentally puncturing an eye. I had no idea what would happen and why I shouldn't do it. So when my stock began to reduce and I needed to turn the head a bit to keep it submerged, my stomach turned with it. And suddenly I felt very liminal, between one state and another, just as occurs in an initiation ritual.

Nothing about charcuterie had really bothered me so far, so buying and cooking a pig's head really made me feel like a member of this charcuterie community. Being a Charcutepaloozer was one thing, but working with a part of an animal in which you have to overcome hesitant thoughts, like dissolving brains and delicate eyes, really made me feel like I had entered a new stage of charcuterie. For me, it was the biggest challenge so far, but I did it. Wow! Does that feel good! What an initiation....

Simmering the meat

So, in my giant stockpot are simmering six hocks and one head. Following the Charcuterie directions, I added the proper herbs and spices, including the nutmeg and allspice, and the aroma was, well, "heady." After draining the stock back into the pot to reduce more, it was pretty easy picking out all of the meat, although it was also really, really greasy. The leeks had absorbed all that fat and just clung to my fingers. But when I finally finished my hands felt so soft. Because I chose to use the pink salt, my meat remained pink, something I don't think I would do next time. I don't own a terrine (yet), so I stuffed the meat into a loaf pan. I think I packed it in a bit too tightly because the gelatin/stock didn't really spread as much as I would have liked.

Head cheese

I also saved the leftover stock/gelatin in 1/2 pint canning jars so I could freeze it and then use it in soups and braises.

Head cheese stock/gelatin

And after finishing the whole process, having taken up something that was a real, personal challenge, I sat down and had lunch.

Head cheese sandwich

A head cheese sandwich with homemade roll, my own canned dill pickle, and some Dijon mustard. How much better can it get? I love Charcutepalooza!

Pig's Head

2011-07-22T18:31:00.000-07:00

Pig's Head

Yup. I picked up my pig's head today. As is obvious, it's cleaned, and quite well cleaned at that. It certainly does not even compare to Chris Cosentino's beautiful pig's head. Good job, Chris! No ears, no tongue, no skin. But I did get the eyeballs, ugh. I'm not sure I understand the USDA set up for being able to sell ears and tongues, and the butcher was far too busy today for asking questions. I know I can get the tongue and ears when it's my pig, but I guess they can't sell them. C'est la vie...

I also picked up 6 lbs. of ham hocks to be added to the recipe. Given that I barely had a container large enough for the brine, I think that is more than enough meat for two people and one (I hope) head cheese. I have a pig's heart that I thought about adding to the mix, but again, all that meat and just two people, I don't think so. I did find a few stray whiskers and some hair that I had to get rid of, so the head is even cleaner now. I put it and the hock into the Charcuterie brine, so it's soaking in a bit of heaven. Of course it was so heavy and so big that I actually had to set it outside where it may possibly do well in the cold spell we're having. Just in case, I keep adding ice.

I would be more nervous at this point in time in making the head cheese, but I found a marvelous video that provides just the imagery and descriptive words I needed in order to proceed with ease and confidence. Thank you Carl Tashian, Winnie Yang, Marisa Huff, and Johanna Kolodny. I think I'm ready for the next step....

Auf Wiedersehen, Hot Dogs!

2011-07-15T13:04:00.000-07:00

Long Hot Dogs

I almost forgot to photograph my hot dogs before putting them in the freezer. That's the kind of month it has been (I totaled my car but luckily wasn't injured). With all the meat I had, I couldn't imagine using a pastry bag to stuff them, so I took the lazy path and used my Kitchen Aid. It wasn't bad but they did turn out a bit uneven at times. I made some regular sized hot dogs, but I have fond memories of the 15" chili dogs sold at Cupid's across the street from the San Fernando Valley State College campus (now Cal State Univ., Northridge), so I made some long ones as well. They weren't thin enough, but that's because I used local hog casings instead of sheep casings.

My biggest problem came with the smoking. My first edition, fourth printing copy of Charcuterie called for hot smoking, but with my old Brinkman smoker, sans attached thermometer, I think I should have cold smoked them. I thought I saw a comment somewhere by Bob del Grosso saying that hot dogs should be cold smoked, but I couldn't find it so I dutifully followed the directions as printed. So, the hot dogs were a bit too smoked, plus I put them on the grill so they had those grill marks, but I must say, the flavor is very good.

Hot Dogs and Kraut

I like my dogs with kraut and Dijon mustard. When I lived in Stuttgart one year, I ate the local Rote Wurst all the time. It tasted like a good hot dog should taste. I wanted to duplicate that recipe, but couldn't find it. In southern Germany (and maybe all over the country) and in Austria, small "sausage" kiosks are often found in front of department stores and on the streets late at night. They usually offer two kinds of sausage or "wurst" and they come with a roll (Semmel) and Scharfe (sharp, but think quite hot) or Süsse (sweet) mustard on a rectangular plate. The sausage are not put in the roll, after all the rolls are round, one just holds it in the hand, dunks the end into the mustard, and alternates bites with the roll. It is the best! And I loved when they had Rotwurst in the kiosk.

Hot Dogs with Baked Beans

My husband likes his hot dogs with baked beans, even canned beans. It works for him so although we sit at the same table, we part ways with the hot dog accompaniment.

I had great ambitions for this month. I wanted to make the Weisswurst. And I really wanted to make Thüringer Bratwurst like I remember it. Actually, I like the Freybe's Thüringer Bratwurst that I buy up in Canada. I know that in Thuringia two necessary ingredients are caraway and marjoram, and often garlic as well. It gives the bratwurst such a pronounced flavor. I didn't get the task done in this month's challenge but I will in the future. I also wanted to use my pig's liver in liver sausage this month, but that wasn't made either. Oh well, something to look forward to! Along with next month's challenge: headcheese!

Hot Dog Preparation

2011-06-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

De-boning beef short ribs

I bought my short ribs from my favorite, local USDA butcher. They use their own farm-raised cattle so no hormones or antibiotics. Indeed, their place is very pastoral in the summer with the cattle grazing and lazing through the summer days in the meadow in front of their business. I'm very proud that I saved myself $3/pound by buying the bone-in short ribs instead of the de-boned ribs. Also, I needed the butchery practice. I love practicing butchery which I have learned only from books and youtube.com. It does intrigue me and although I'm not professional, I think I do an okay job. I'd love to be an apprentice to a professional but between teaching and everything else, I don't think that will be happening any time soon.... Unfortunately, my knife sharpening skills are really atrocious, so much so that I need to use a knife sharpener. But I do know what sharp is and I cannot work without sharp. Maybe if I butchered more often.... Anyway, it was really easy taking the bone out.

So, I put the meat through the small grind and added my water and salts just like Ruhlman and Polcyn told me to do. Now it's in the refrigerator, busy "...develop[ing] the myosin protein that helps give the hot dog a good bind and a good bite." Go myosin, go! Tomorrow or Saturday, I'll add the rest of the ingredients and make hot dogs! It should be interesting....

I hadn't intended to make Ruhlman and Polcyn's hot dogs, but given the scant directions for making a good Swäbische Rote Wurst, I decided to learn from the Charcutepalooza heroes before embarking on more ambitious endeavors. I cannot wait!

Tiramisu

2011-06-29T19:11:00.000-07:00

Tiramisu

I know, I know, my photo abilities are limited, as is my camera, but that is a 10" x 15" tiramisu. And yes it sits on the ugly, vinyl tablecloth that is used for all messy activities. But it's good and the size is perfect for the occasion. Like the shape? My friend, Fred, who is also the local Democratic Committee vice-chair, owner of fifty head of Scottish Highland Cattle, and mechanic par excellence, made me a stainless steel 10" x 15" mold for this cake because I had to make five of them for a wedding.

I've made many, many different recipes for tiramisu but this one is the best. Simple pure flavors. From Nick Malgieri to Franco Galli, I have tried many recipes and in the end, I think I've put together ideas that really don't make my tiramisu unique, but it sure tastes good! I used to make it all the time at Papa Byrd's Bistro and everyone loved it. That's why I was asked to do it as (multiple) wedding cakes.

I use Malgieri's Pan di Spagna made, of course, with farm fresh eggs. I brush the cake with a coffee/brandy sugar syrup, then top it with Green and Black's Organic Cocoa Powder. Then I layer it with a mixed filling of zabaglione (classic, with eggs, Marsala, and sugar), whipped cream, and marscapone cheese, followed by more cake with coffee syrup/powdered cocoa, and more filling, until I have three filling layers. I finish with a somewhat heavy topping of the cocoa powder. It's simple and easy and I think that is what makes it taste so good.

If there are any secrets, well, it must be the quality of the ingredients. I didn't make up the recipe, I just learned from the best!

Charcutepalooza Throughout The Year

2011-06-24T07:04:00.000-07:00

Moroccan smoked pork loin with beluga lentil vinaigrette

We were not able to eat all the smoked pork loin at once so I cut the rest into two-person portions so that just the two of us could have a quick and easy dinner some summer night. Although summer has barely arrived here in the northwest, I did need that quick and easy dinner so I took some of the Moroccan smoked pork loin out of the freezer, defrosted it, and later gently warmed it in the oven, covered with foil and a few drops of water to kind of steam warm it. I served it with beluga lentils with a bit of mirepoix in a Pomegranate Balsamic Vinaigrette. It was delicious! The sweet tanginess of the vinaigrette married well with the smokey spiciness of the meat. Yummy! Charcutepalooza all year long! And to think that I made it myself...well...with the inspiration of many other Charcutepalooza fans.

Japanese Peanut Butter

2011-06-21T18:02:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's my empty jar of Japanese Peanut Butter. Well, I haven't cleaned it out completely, but I will. Isn't it sad? I can't find it anywhere. Not even in Seattle! Not even at Uwajimaya. So I'm posting this in the hopes that someone can tell me where to find more. Below is the front of the jar:

Followed by a list of ingredients (I think):

Where oh where do I find this delicious peanut butter????

Bangers And Mash

2011-06-14T06:57:00.000-07:00

Bangers and Mash

Well, it wasn't just any sausage, it was my garlic sausage. And, of course, I also changed the mashed potatoes by adding a bit of parsnips. For sweetness. And, I'm addicted to mashed potatoes and parsnips. Finding a British beer in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, was nothing short of a miracle. Bass. At Safeway. Wonders will never cease. So began my multiple usages of stuffed sausage.

Given my weakness for sausage, my first four different sausages didn't make a dent in my freezer so I decided to go for even more. Top left is Charcuterie's Smoked Andouille recipe. Below is Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Merguez Sausage. On the right, both coiled and in links, is Charcuterie's Venison Sausage. I feel like I'm on a sausage mission, trying more and more kinds of sausage-making, but maybe I'm just filling a junk food addition. Be that as it may, as long as I had extra minutes in the day, a love of sausage loomed overhead.

At first I wasn't crazy about the Andouille, so I used and froze it without smoking it. I figured I could smoke some of it, if I wanted, after defrosting.... I may be completely wrong but I had no choice because life is like that.... I didn't think it had enough pepper a first, but after freezing and then defrosting a few links, I changed my mind and really liked the flavor. Andouille Sausage is really good whether smoked or not, and it lends itself to many different dishes. I used it in a risotto and it turned out very well. I also made a cream sauce with peppers, onions, and zucchini and served it over egg noodles, as shown above. Now I think that smoking it would really bring out the flavor even more.

Garlic sausage and peppers

So, every summer I look forward to the County Fair in late August (and yes, that is way too early). I often enter some of my canned goods and have won a number of blue ribbons. But what I really look forward to is the food booth from Coeur d'Alene because they serve coils and coils of homemade Italian sausage. I can smell the sausage and pepper, onion, garlic, and oregano mix on the grill before I even see the booth. The server cuts a long chunk of the coil, sticks it into an oversized sausage roll, covers it with the pepper mixture, puts it onto some serving paper, and hands it to you. And, in a truly disgusting fashion, I also put yellow mustard on top - it must be some childhood thing. Occasionally, throughout the year, I try to emulate the flavor, and although I didn't add the disgusting yellow mustard to the above sandwich, it came close to county fair memories.

I've used my sausages in a number of ways. For dinner one night my husband and I had rigatoni with chicken sausage and peppers in cream sauce again. I love how the cream absorbs the flavors of the peppers and sausage as well as the changing herbs that I add. To me, it's comfort food. I also made a risotto with my chicken sausage removed from the casings and I added some cut up broccoli. That was delicious! The hint of tomato from the sausage blended well with the broccoli, onions, and garlic. My own chicken stock just added more flavor.

I haven't had the venison sausage yet. I'm thinking I'll like it more in winter.... However, once those root vegetables come up in the fall, I may be tempted to serve them with venison sausage. Hmm, what kind of beer would go well with venison sausage? Maybe on a gusty, windy fall day, red wine would match the sausage better. So many choices! And tomorrow, a new Charcutepalooza challenge! I'm ready!

Chicken Sausage

2011-05-30T21:08:00.000-07:00

I resisted this challenge because I really don't like chicken sausage. It's not that it doesn't taste good; rather, when it comes to sausage I want anything but chicken and fish. If I had found someone reasonable duck, I would have made duck sausage. If I had wild turkey, or grouse, or pheasant, I would have made that. Actually, my favorite is pork sausage (except for my newest addiction, Merguez). But chicken, to me, is just not something to be made into sausage. I don't really like it ground into meatballs or patties either. Maybe it's the delicacy of the meat and when it comes to sausage, I like it heavier in fat and flavor in the mouth. I do, however, like chicken as forcemeat because there it retains its more delicate flavor. However, I fulfilled my responsibility and I discovered that chicken sausage is not so bad when it's homemade.

I began small, with only two pounds of chicken thighs. I had fun with the de-boning. Yeah, thighs are easy-peasy, but I watched this video on youtube by some guy who looked like he was half asleep but then de-boned that thigh perfectly in just seconds. I figured after about another 500 thighs I might be half good.

Then, I ground the chicken. The most negative aspect about making chicken sausage is that every time I touched the bloody chicken I had to wash my hands again for another step in the process. I think I spent more time washing my hands and anything else that had contact with the chicken than with the sausage process itself. Anyway, grinding was a breeze. It yielded a uniform small and sticky grind that absorbed the spices well.

Then came the flavorings. I didn't have fresh basil (like the Charcuterie recipe) and I really don't like dried basil. I was in the mood for toasted fennel so I toasted two teaspoons, which I then ground in the mortar. I added cracked hot pepper, salt, thyme, lots of finely diced raw garlic, some chopped, sun-dried tomato, and some orange zest. I liked the idea of the orange zest, but I think it didn't do as well in a sausage as it does in a liquid. My husband, however, thought it was very good. For a liquid, I added half dry white wine and half ice water.

Stuffing was a problem. It really needed smooth and steady stuffing which is not easy for one person, especially with that sticky, viscous ground chicken. I ended up holding the sausage casing with one hand and stuffing the KA stuffer with another, but at speed #4, it all seemed to work. The sausage turned out just a bit thick. However, it tasted really good.

I meant to add some pork back fat instead of using the chicken skin, but having forgot to defrost it, I just used the chicken skin. Next time, I would definitely use the pork. Since my spices came from the Provençal area of France, I felt the end flavor was pretty good. And having worked with all that sticky ground chicken, I think I'm ready for some emulsified sausage. Weisswurst, here I come!

Grinding Sausage

2011-05-15T11:05:00.000-07:00

Sausage and peppers

I made Charcuterie's smoked andouille recipe because I was curious about how it would turn out. For me, andouille means paprika because it provides not just taste but also that red color. Noticing that this recipe did not call for paprika, I was intrigued. The book says that the sausage is "...so flavorful you can eat it with no accompaniments" so I decided to try it that way and it is tasty but not what I expected of an andouille recipe. Maybe the smoking provides more of my expected andouille flavor but even though I've stuffed some of it I have not yet had time to smoke it. However, the fatty grind did become dinner. I made it into little meatballs, which I sauteed in oil. After cooking, I removed them, took out any burnt bits, put in some fresh oil and added my peppers and onions, with salt, thyme, and red pepper. After the veggies softened, I removed them, made a dark roux, added some of my tomato passata and water, then put the veggies and meatballs back in the pan. Scrumptious! So, I served it over egg noodles. Easy-peasy!

Part of the grinding process involves taste and that's what I really wanted to get right in this challenge. As noted in my previous post I borrowed recipes freely from others. I never really realized that I had many similar recipes in my own head because of what I add to meatballs, meatloaves, risottos, soups, stews, etc.. With that knowledge in mind, I have become quite a fixture at my local butcher and so far they've only failed me when it came to caul fat. However, they do provide elk, venison, pork, and beef. And they usually kill and cut the local moose, bear, and yak as well. I'm not really into eating bear. Yak, I love. It's some of the best meat I've every tasted.

I had ground my own meat on a number of occasions and have experimented with making my own meatballs, venison and lamb terrines, and various other kinds of meatballs/meatloaves with various grindings of the meat plus experimental additions like various kinds of cheeses. However, I had never tried stuffing sausage casings before so I attempted this time to get the grind just right for that particular kind of product.

The grinding process went well with no particular problems or difficulties. Then, jumping ahead of the game, I decided to stuff my several different kinds of sausage all in one sitting. I noticed towards the end that I should have stopped for a bit, put my equipment in ice water, and then continued because the sausage began to taste a bit dry and crumbly. Because I taste everything (isn't that part of the fun?) I noticed it quickly so I could stop in time to prevent further error.

Although I slid over the mark from just grinding into stuffing, I like the idea of having my sausage stuffed because of all the recipes I can make with already stuffed sausage. I can just heat it on the grill, or boil it in liquid. I can add it easily to a choucroute recipe. I can slice the sausage for an hors d'oeuvres or a tapas (chorizo in red wine). And, I can take it out of the casing and use it ground.

I'm happy the next challenge is stuffing because I love sausage!

Sausage, Sausage, And More Sausage

2011-05-10T10:50:00.000-07:00

Four different fresh sausage

I am wearing a huge smile on my face. Just the sight of those beautiful sausages makes me happy, brightens my day, and makes my taste buds tingle. Top left is my fennel sausage; underneath, garlic sausage; in the middle, Italian sweet sausage; and both those babies on the right are Merguez sausages. The casings for the Merguez had a hole so I had to stop, tie off, and finish with a smaller sausage.

This is my first time making sausage. I never knew it could be so easy. Actually, stuffing them, with a Kitchen Aid, is not easy without help. That is one lesson I learned. It's difficult trying to guide the sausage casing with one hand while stuffing in the meat with the other hand. Also, pushing the meat into the sausage stuffer has to be somewhat continuous or the sausage becomes lumpy and filled with air pockets. Of course, maybe that problem is related to oiling the worm.

Another lesson learned is that there is a very good reason for oiling the worm well, because otherwise the meat sticks to it, which means stopping and washing everything in the middle of making sausage or building my own arm muscles by forcing more meat to go through the stuffer. Well, I have another batch of meat ready to go so I'll see if I learned my lessons.

Keeping the casing in lukewarm water before threading it onto the stuffer also helps. Otherwise, it's hard work and provides potential for the casing to tear. So, having someone to help stuff the sausage, oiling the worm, and keeping the casings wet were my three most important lessons. They were techniques I had never known before.

As for the recipes, well, I borrowed freely and must give proper due to the providers. So far my favorite recipe is from Mrs. Wheelbarrow whose Merguez sausage recipe is soooo goooood! She mentioned the merguez in this month's grinding challenge, but I first saw her recipe as a Food52 winner. After seeing the comments that others left, I decided not to change anything. Mrs. Wheelbarrow's spice mixture is incredible and I'm sure it will find its way into other dishes. I don't know what harissa she uses, but I had some DEA harissa that I had picked up at The Basque Market on a trip to Boise. They don't seem to have it in their online store but I've noticed that Amazon carries it.

Well, I did kind of change one thing. I added about 1/3 c. of my pork shoulder butt to the lamb because I didn't want to end up with dry sausage. I only had ground lamb left in my freezer because we had eaten all the lamb shoulder and I wasn't sure of the fat content, so, in went the pork. In order to honor Moroccan tradition, I probably should have added oil or maybe duck fat in respect for the pork taboo. Impulsively, however, I threw in the pork. And to make it worse, I did it again in the second batch I have waiting to be ground. I'm not sure what a good pork alternative would be. I'm not crazy about lamb fat - it just isn't tasty.

I borrowed the Italian sweet sausage and the garlic sausage recipes from Michael Ruhlman's Charcuterie. I did add a bit more hot pepper to the Italian sausage recipe, and, after frying a taste sample of the garlic sausage, decided to throw in some garlic granules in order to satisfy my garlic cravings. Both of these are very good but next time I would toast and grind the fennel for the Italian sausage and double the amount of garlic for the garlic sausage.

Finally, the fennel sausage recipe came from Joyce Goldstein's The Mediterranean Kitchen. This recipe called for toasting the fennel and it was delicious in the sausage! She also has recipes in there for other sausages including Portuguese Linguisa, Greek Loukanika, Spanish Chorizo, and Calabrese Lucanica. Wow, the Lucanica combines both pork and lamb! I have found a match that I have to try! I can see this is going to be the summer of sausage.

Italian Sausage and Lentil Soup

2011-04-30T16:05:00.000-07:00

And this is how it began. Clockwise from top left: brown lentils from the Palouse; my homemade "passata"; my quickly defrosting chard from my garden; my homemade mild Italian sausage out of the casing; my sausage in the casing; my friend, Marsha's, beautiful garlic and onions; kosher salt; and sour cream. All together they make soup.

I once had a soup similar to this at La Cucina, Cucina in Spokane, WA. I loved it and this is the duplicate I came up with at home. The sausage is so flavorful that I don't add any other herbs to the soup. The heat from the sausage is just enough. It is a soup in which every ingredient has its separate place on the tongue so that each individual flavor can be found but the overall flavor is rich and mellow with just enough hot spiciness and deliciousness that it's hard to stop eating before that feeling of being sated sets in.

To make the soup, I saute one large or several small onions, garlic (at least five or more cloves, crushed), and sausage (I take it out of the casing). Then I add the chard, followed by the passata and enough water to allow the lentils to expand with a bit more for a soupier texture. After it cooks for a while, I check for seasoning. If it needs more salt, which it usually does, I salt to taste. Actually, I bring it to the saltier side because after adding the sour cream some of the saltiness is absorbed by the cream.

I usually make a large batch of soup because I like to put the excess into one pint glass canning jars, screw on any old lid, and stick it into our chest freezer to have at some future date. The one pint jars are just enough for one person because, of course, I have to leave at least an inch of head room so that the frozen soup doesn't break the glass. For this batch I used one pound of lentils, three medium onions, eight cloves of garlic, about three cups of frozen chard, two heaping tablespoons of passata, twelve cups of water, and about a half to three quarters cup of sour cream.

Italian Sausage and Lentil Soup

Spinach or any other flavorful green can be substituted for the chard. The sour cream is added at the end to help blend the flavors and mellow the contrasts in flavors. I call my canned, roasted, pureed tomatoes a passata. In my mind it's a true passata but I've seen other definitions. At the end of summer, just before the big frost should hit, I strip my tomato plants of all tomatoes no matter what color they are. The under ripe greens are separated from the rest of the tomatoes and allowed to ripen in my sun room. I can usually make some last into the very first days of December.

The passata is the perfect dish to make in the evening and finish the next morning. The ripe tomatoes are rinsed, dried, and ready to cut. I cut out the stem end and any flaws. Into a large casserole or baking dish, I drizzle some olive oil. Then I add the tomatoes, and whatever else moves me that evening. Sometimes I also add some garlic or onions or even balsamic vinegar. I cook it all at 325 F until about half the juice of the tomatoes is gone. The tops are always dark and well carmelized. Then I leave it to cool in the oven until the next morning.

Whenever I get around to it the next morning, I throw the whole mess into my Cuisinart so that I don't have to worry about skins and seeds. I pack it into sterilized, wet canning jars with some lemon juice (depending on the size of the jar). The lemon juice insures that the tomatoes have enough acidity so that they don't spoil. I always check my Ball or Kerr canning book to remind myself of how much lemon juice. Yes, I have reached a point in my life when so much is in the very gray brain cells that it's always easier to just re-check my memory because I certainly don't want to kill myself eating my own canned goods! Finally, I finish off the canning in a boiling water bath. The tops seal and they go into my root cellar (a cool, dark place). I use the "passata" in soups, stews, sauces, and even as a topping for crostini.

I have to have bread with my soup. I make my own bread. The one pictured happens to be Jim Lahey's (Sullivan Bakery, NYC) No Knead Bread. I make it with sourdough starter, water, beer, and whatever flour I'm in the mood for. The one pictured has unbleached white, kamut, and flax seed meal. It loved the soup and I loved it all! Yummy!

Smoked Out

2011-04-15T09:56:00.000-07:00

Smoked, Moroccan spiced pork loin with olives/lemon.

I finished up my brief, albeit somewhat obsessive, Charcutepalooza smoking challenge. I learned a lot about smoking. I learned that a smoker with an attached thermometer is much better than one without. I own the one without. Not being able to really know the temperature of the smoking chamber, except in approximates, makes smoking much more of a challenge than a pleasure. Greatly reinforced during this challenge is the knowledge that I should always, always check the meat's doneness with a thermometer. I use an instant read thermometer. I learned that I much prefer brining over dry rubs, because the dry rubs become too cooked or too dry. Then again, I've been brining for so long that perhaps that taken-for-granted knowledge helps me to produce a better product. Maybe I could learn to love dry rubs too, but I'd have to use them more often. I learned that I like some foods smoked, but it's not fun to smoke everything in sight because not everything tastes better smoked. I am looking forward, however, to a smoked wild turkey next Fall. We always have many winter squash in the garden each year and I did love the smoked flavor in the squash. Smoked bacon has never been high on my list of cravings, and now that I've made pancetta, I'll take that first any day. Finally, I learned that after smoking I not only need a shower but my hair needs big-time scrubbing. Maybe that's an indication that I'm doing something wrong???

Smoked pork loin with Moroccan spices

I think this was my favorite smoked meat: pork loin with Moroccan spices. I know, that is so NOT Moroccan. I mean pork??? But I did it anyway. I didn't have a local beef or lamb loin, but I did have pork. My friend, Mark, gave me "his" Moroccan spice mix recipe. It's not really his because he found it many, many years ago in some magazine. But it's certainly yummy! It contains coriander, cumin, smoked Spanish paprika, salt, cinnamon, and cayenne.

The pork loin tasted really good just plain. The second time we had it with some sauteed vegetables with a Mediterranean twist. I finished off the veggie saute with a splash of water so that I could add some leftover rice to the pot and have it be soft and fluffy . Finally, I added the slices of the pork loin to the top of the veggie/rice mix just to steam the meat slightly for warmth.

But my favorite dish appears in the photo that begins this blog. I cooked up some diced onion with a pinch of saffron. Then I added some chopped, green French olives and the sliced rind of one of my salt cure, preserved lemons, and some water. I salted to taste; obviously, it didn't take much. Finally, I added several slices of the smoked, Moroccan spiced pork loin to the pot just to warm the meat. I served it all with my combo tzatzakis/raita yogurt mix: Greek yogurt; cumin; fresh cilantro; seeded, chopped cucumber; a dash of hot pepper; and salt to taste. It was so tasty that I started eating before remembering to take a photo; thus, the utensil accompaniment.

Spicy, smoked pork with pear chutney, aioli, and gouda cheese.

Another favorite dish was the sandwich I made with the spicy, smoked pork loin. Last fall I had made some pear chutney with our own Bosc pears. On several occasions, Serious Eats has featured sandwiches, in New York and Los Angeles. One of those sandwiches had a pairing of pork and pear, or maybe it was apple, and cheese. Taking my cue from that, I bought a "ciabatta" (it came close in appearance but lacked a bit in flavor), spread some of my own aioli mayo on the bread for moisture, added some gouda, the sliced pork loin, and my pear chutney. Now that was good! I loved how I could taste each flavor but not one overpowered the other. Now that's a keeper!

Smoked pork hocks

The pork hocks became the item that finally made me realize that I should have smoked them longer in order to bring the meat up to temp, but, I should also have kept the interior of the smoker cooler so that the smoke didn't brown the meat too much. I wrapped and froze these to use with beans as a future soup.

Smoked baby back ribs

The ribs were my most disappointing dish. They were obviously smoked too long. The rub overcooked. The smoker's internal temperature was too high. And yet they held such promise! I rubbed them with a dry rub from Anne Burrell's Crispy Mustard Braised Pork Belly. Then, after sitting in the fridge for 24 hours, I didn't wash the rub off. Needless to say the ribs are a bit salty. Because the herbs were overcooked in the smoker, I ended up throwing the ribs in boiling water. That improved the flavor. But they were still a bit salty. I think the best thing to do with them now is throw them out - oh no, I cannot waste food! - or, cook them with some beans or cabbage or something. I know an idea is brewing, but it has not yet come to fruition.

This post is a bit late because it is April 15th already, and Mrs. Wheelbarrow has just announced the new Charcutepalooza challenge: Grinding! I am ready for this one. Meguez sausage, bratwurst, Thuringer Bratwurst, Spanish chorizo, maybe even "Rotwurst," the speciality hot dog like wurst from Swabia where I once lived for a year. Sausage is my junk food. And now that I've finished with my temporary, 8-week substitute position, and no longer have six college classes upon my own three, I'm going to throw myself into, overindulge in, satiate myself with, and completely succumb to the joy of making sausage. Caul fat, sheep casings, hog casings, weisswurst, chorizo, saucissons sec, kielbasa, andouille, oh, it will be heaven on earth.

Smoking Convert

2011-03-31T08:55:00.000-07:00

Smoked pork, shallot, garlic, squash.

I confess, I was never really big on smoked foods. I'm not even a big smoked bacon fan. And I'm not a fan of barbecue sauce. Maybe I'm an American culture failure. But now that I've smoked one spicy, dry rubbed pork loin, there's no stopping this smoking convert.

In the above photo, the spice rub looks much darker than what I see. Hmm, any photo hints?? This first photo also shows that I really went wild over the first time smoking as I also smoked shallots, garlic, and winter squash. The shallots and garlic need to be tended more carefully next time, but the winter squash had a slightly smokey flavor that combined well with the sweet carmelization and earthiness of the squash. Had I had more squash, I would have cooked it all for some great soups and raviolis!

For the pork loin, I followed the dry spicy rub from my curing bible, Charcuterie. I also ground up some very fresh, dried herbs and spices from my favorite local Health Food Store, Mt. Mike's, in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. After wrapping it in plastic wrap, it looked like this:

Red, wrapped, and ready to begin

I left it in the fridge for the required amount of time, then prepared myself for smoking. We have a Brinkmann electric smoker. We didn't use chips because they just burn too fast in this smoked; instead, we used larger, water-soaked hickory chunks. We have some applewood, but it isn't chopped up yet and with our very wet winter, not really dry enough. So, we used what we could find.

I thought I'd just follow the directions in Charcuterie for smoking but obviously different smokers require different timing, heat up at various rates, and have a high temperature limit. I could not get our smoker hotter than 250F and that was with lots of wood. So, I settled for a longer cooking time. Also, the final temperature of the meat was a bit higher than what I really wanted, so next time I'll go for the lower, fully-cooked pork temperature.

Smoking away

On another occasion, I served the pork loin plain again, but this time with sauteed yellow peppers and onions and with saffron rice and dried tomatoes. Loved it!

More spiced pork with peppers, onions, and rice.

I didn't have time to take a photo because we were late for our ten hour trek to the Oregon coast, but the pork also made into a delicious banh mi sandwich. My son just cut slices and ate it plain because he liked it so much. We have a bit left and that will become some other dish when we return to Bonners Ferry tomorrow.

The smoking bug did not stop at the pork. I also smoked a curry rubbed, butterflied leg of lamb. The yearly lamb comes from my friend, Annie, who raises the sheep for wool. It's usually smaller and our local USDA butcher cuts it. I always get the leg bone in, so I had an opportunity to try out my "butchering" skills in order to have the butterfly cut. I felt good about how it went. I also made some freshly chopped curry spices but followed too closely a recipe I once found on the web and ended up with a bit too much coriander, which didn't allow the cardamom to come through as much as I wanted. But it was still good!

Curry crusted butterflied lamb leg

Again, the photo makes it appear darker than it is. It's pretty good. I think I'll mix it with some lentils and spinach for soup. And make more sandwiches out of it, maybe something in a homemade pita with yoghurt ~~raita,~~ ~~tzatziki~~, raita*, and dal. There's just no end to it.... Now what shall I smoke next?

*linguistic and cultural confusion....

Corned Beef and Corned Beef Tongue

2011-03-14T11:17:00.000-07:00

On to the Brine! What a great idea for our third Charcutepalooza challenge! My husband and I love corned beef so we decided to be really decadent and make both corned beef and corned beef tongue. Like other bloggers mentioned over at the Charcutepalooza Facebook page, some of us had decidedly gray brisket after it came out of the brine. Mine was really weird because it also sported a nice pink spot in the middle.

I wasn't too worried about it because several of the bloggers said that it turned properly pink when cooked. However, I did check with one of my favorite food bloggers, facebook friend, and brilliant food scientist, Bob del Grosso. Although he was busy and knee-deep in butchering, he did send some information. So, after giving him an abundance of detail into how I brined the brisket, he suggested that somehow an air pocket had been created in the brining liquid because air can cause the gray. That's quite possible because I put the brisket in a very large bowl, put a beef tongue on top of that, and then topped it all with an upside down plate. Certainly the presence of the tongue may have caused the pink spot because that is where it rested. But I still wasn't sure about the gray coloring. However, after perusing many of the corned beef Charcutepalooza photos, it seems that this happened to some degree or another with everyone's beef.

When he had a bit more time, Bob went on to explain that beef turns gray as it oxidizes. However, if brined "...with nitrite and then cooked, the oxidation will mostly disappear as the meat shrinks and the heat drives off the oxygen." It was a simplified, scientific explanation that I could understand. It certainly explains why so many photos had shades of gray coloring after the brine. And now we all know why it turns properly pink again! Bob knows so much, shares so much important information about food and cooking, and writes so well that many people are faithful fans of his blog, A Hunger Artist. Thanks, Bob!

I did brine the brisket with freshly made pickling spice, borrowing the recipe that Ruhlman provides in "the book." My local health food store always has very fresh, dried spices. I loved how the flavor of the clove came through. I never knew corned beef could taste so good!

We ate the corned beef last week in our traditional St. Patrick's Day style with boiled potatoes, cabbage, onion, and carrots. Then we snacked on it. And we made sandwiches with it. And then we took the tongue out of the brine and cooked that for even more corned beef!

My husband loves corned beef so much "too much" peeling or removal of gristle, fat, etc. is not allowed. I'm not crazy about tongue, but it tasted as delicious as the brisket. Now he has enough lunch to last awhile.

I cannot wait to find out what the next challenge will be!

Salt Cure Round-Up

2011-03-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

Between shoveling snow and picking up six substitute classes for six weeks, I just could not find the time to post my final projects on the salt cure. Luckily, most of the snow is now gone so I reserved a morning to write.

I was extremely pleased that my second pancetta turned out as good as the first. I'm a homemade pancetta convert and will never buy it in the store again. I picked up a half pork belly this time at my local USDA butcher, cured it a la Charcuterie, and the result was fabulous, again!

I've used the pancetta in a variety of preparations, but I cannot stop eating one of my favorites, Angels on Horseback! And, of course, instead of wrapping the oysters in bacon, I used pancetta!

For the final salt cure item, I made something that I had been wanting to make for a long time: Preserved Lemons. After checking Charcuterie, I also took a look at similar recipes in two other cookbooks that I love, Sunshine Food by Sophie Grigson and Modern Moroccan by Ghillie Basan (which is way overpriced online - I bought it as a remainder for $5). Charcuterie did not call for the addition of any liquid using only the salt. Grigson called for some juice and some water. Basan called only for extra juice. So, I checked out Michael Ruhlman's website on the same day that he posted an article about Lemon Confit, or, preserved lemons. It's an article worth reading with many helpful suggestions in the discussion zone.

I bought some Meyer lemons and, using kosher salt, stuffed them into a one quart canning jar.

I decided to follow Basan's suggestion to put the jar of lemons aside for several days to let the skins soften, then push them down and add more lemons, salt, and juice. This is what now sits in my root cellar.

Thank you Charcutepalooza! I can't wait to use the preserved lemons and now it's time to post about brining!

Pork, Pork, Pork, Never Enough Pork

2011-02-20T12:01:00.000-08:00

Uh, oh, I just re-read the Charcutepalooza Ruhls and discovered I was supposed to post about my delicious pancetta by the 15th! Oh well, I did post about my quiche, which was delicious, but I never put up all those other photos and descriptions of all the other dishes I made with the pancetta. So here goes!

Salted, bagged in fridge for seven days

Rolled and ready to hang

Yes, I'm a little OCD about all the string, but I wanted to make sure it was tight enough so no mold grew inside.... We have another building on our property, not attached to the house, which contains some exercise equipment and a pool table. It's easy to control the heat and humidity and the pancetta hung on an exercise bar. We had already made pancetta in December so I bought this second half of a pork belly in order to make another pancetta within the required time frame. After two weeks of hanging, it entered my world of pancetta-palooza!

I use pancetta for so many different dishes. I used it to cover my meatloaf:

Pancetta meatloaf with winter squash

I decided to make a new spin on the classic BLT, so I made myself a PLT!

PLT

It actually wasn't a true PLT because I added a slice of swiss cheese. I was really hungry! Thinking about the Food52 Citrus & Olive challenge, I also used some pancetta to start off a braised lamb with oranges and olives. Unfortunately, it didn't make the contest cut but it sure tasted good! I'm not crazy about the photo, but for a tasty and easy way to add some more depth of flavor I often add pancetta to many meat braises.

Lamb with pancetta, oranges and olives

My favorite dish is one that was made completely from scratch. I made winter squash ravioli with a pancetta cream sauce. It's my favorite use of pancetta so far! The saltiness and flavor of the pancetta combined with the sweet kuri squash filling of the ravioli filled my mouth with such a wonderful balance of flavors. I think I could eat this once a week!

Winter squash ravioli with pancetta cream sauce

Finally, tonight I'm making a half leg of lamb for dinner and I'm still trying to decide if I should lard the leg with pancetta and garlic, or bone it and stuff it with pancetta, garlic, and maybe some spinach.... The goodness never ends. I am so thankful for Charcutepalooza!

Charcutepalooza and Food52

2011-02-10T18:21:00.000-08:00

I absolutely could not resist. When Food52 posted this past week's contest requiring a pairing of citrus and olives, and I knew I would be bringing a pancetta and comté cheese quiche to a Superbowl party, I had to enter....Plus, Mrs. Wheelbarrow had, just the week before, announced the new Food52 and Charcutepalooza partnership. It was fate....

I love orange and olive salads. I like the color of black olives, although my favorite for taste is the picholine. Since I live in a very rural area in north Idaho, I was lucky enough to receive a jar of mixed "French" olives for Christmas. This became the perfect moment to enjoy those olives. I know that some are picholines and some are niçoise, but other than that, it's a gamble. At least they still had flavor. I put several in the salad. I used both navel and blood oranges because I cannot resist the color. And, at the moment, we have Maya sweet onions at the local grocery store, so that became my onion of choice. Actually, they are sweet, but they don't hold a candle to our almost local WallaWallas.

As for the quiche, well, I have been making a number of pancetta dishes for the February Charcutepalooza challenge, and for the Superbowl party I thought a quiche would be a good "finger food." Since the pancetta has such a different flavor than bacon, and since I had some Comté, I thought that sounded like a rather good combination and, from comments made, people really liked it. Two challenges, two simple and classic dishes. What could be better?

Orange Suprème and French Olive Salad with Sherry Vinaigrette

1 navel orange, suprèmed

1 blood orange, suprèmed

French olives, to tasted, pitted

Thinly sliced sweet onion

Romaine lettuce

Salt and pepper

Suprème both oranges by removing all membranes, skin, and pith. Many videos are available online. If you're relatively skillful with a knife, hold the peeled orange in your hand, over a bowl, while cutting out the membranes. This saves the juice for the salad.

Using the flat blade of a knife, push down on the olives to remove the pits.

Very thinly slice about a quarter of a sweet onion.

With your hands, tear enough romaine lettuce for two into your preferred bite sized pieces, add salt and pepper to taste, and mix in the simple sherry dressing.

Top with some navel and blood orange suprème segments, olives, and onion.

Sherry Vinaigrette for Two

1 T. Spanish sherry vinegar

2 T. olive oil

1 T. juice from orange suprèmes

Mix thoroughly.

Pancetta and Comté Quiche

Pie Crust:

1 1/4 c. flour

Pinch of salt

1/2 c. chilled butter (unsalted)

scant 1/4 c. ice water

Combine flour and salt in food processor bowl. Cut the butter into approximately 12-14 small pieces. Add to flour. Pulse on and off until it resembles coarse crumbs. Drizzle in water until it loosely comes together after several more pulses. Lie large crumbles on plastic wrap, Using the wrap over your hands, slowly mold this into a flat round. Refridgerate for about 15-20 minutes.

Remove from fridge and roll, turning, until large enough for quiche pan. Make sure you have enough to cover the edges. Cut off excess.

Filling:

1 1/2 cups shredded Comté cheese

4 eggs

1 3/4 c. half-and-half or cream

1/2 tsp salt

pinch of nutmeg

4 slices cooked pancetta, cut into large dice

1 T. butter

Sprinkle 1/4 - 1/3 of the cheese over the bottom of pie shell. Beat the eggs with half-and-half, salt, and nutmeg. Fold in the pancetta and cheese. Pour into quiche crust and dot with butter. Bake at 375F for 35-40 minutes, until middle is slightly puffed and golden brown. Let cool and serve.

Pancetta Heaven

2011-02-03T20:11:00.000-08:00

Pancetta beginnings. So, before the February challenge, my husband and I had already received a pork belly for Christmas, so, we ate half the pork belly braised, and now we're making foods using our cured pork belly. However, I want to be part of the monthly challenges and deadlines for Charcutepalooza so last Thursday, I picked up another half of pork belly. On Friday I started the curing process and have been massaging the salt and herb into it everyday. We'll probably do the tight roll on Saturday.

In the meantime, my dear friend, Mark, gave me four wild goose breasts that a friend had given him. Mark is sooo generous! Since they had no skin, and, being wild, no fat, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them. But, in true Charcutepalooza spirit I said to myself, "wild goose breast confit"! I have enough duck fat frozen so I only needed to defrost the fat and season the goose breast (again, Charcuterie). Tomorrow morning the confit begins...sigh...I can already feel the love.

So Much Pork Belly

2011-01-27T17:41:00.000-08:00

The pork belly was a Christmas present from our son to his father. However, after wringing my hands and claiming that two pancettas would feed us the rest of our lives, I did get half the pork belly. Devious, I know. Actually, I don't think my husband minded because I told him I had been dying to try braised pork belly.

Our son bought the pork belly, special order, from our local USDA butcher, Woods Meats, aka Wood - (Bar) X Ranch. We like them: no hormones, no antibiotics, no steroids, locally grown, grass fed all summer, and it can't get more pastoral than Woods. Once presented to his dad, we cut the pork belly in half, and started the curing process for the pancetta. Worrier that I am, I wanted to make sure that conditions were as close to pristine as possible, posted earlier on this blog. Needless to say, it turned out perfect: now I'm afraid to do it again in order to quality for the grand prize at Charcutepalooza. Plus, that's a lot of pancetta for two people but ah, what we sacrifice for love.

Back to that pork belly. I have been reading for some time about braised pork belly and when I finally got my hot little hands on that half a pork belly, I knew I wanted something close to heaven. Perusing the internet, I happened upon Anne Burrell's Crispy Mustard Braised Pork Belly. As "sous-chef" to Mario Batali on Iron Chef America, Food Network's Anne Burrell, with the tight, straight skirts under her chef's jacket, spiked blond hair, and her seemingly lackadaisical but incredibly trained approach to food, offered the braised pork belly recipe of my most decadent dreams. It had my favorite ingredients, including fennel, onion, and mustard and that was enough to capture my imagination.

The preparations began, and the house smelled like my little bit of heaven for six+ hours. One of the comments at the recipe's site said "OMG. Words fail me," and that is exactly how I felt. I made plain, steamed Viking potatoes, so that they could soak up all that luscious onion/fennel/mustard/pork fat flavor. In order to cut some of that fat with some acidity I added some sauteed cabbage with the addition of some sauvignon blanc wine. That helped, but next time I would just make German slaw for both the acidity and the texture. This time around, it really didn't matter much how I tried to accentuate the main course because on its own it won first place in my heart.

Addendum: I didn't add as much fennel and onion as I should have. Fennel, which grow like a weed along the freeways of southern California, where I was raised, is $3 for a an almost dried out bulb. Highway robbery! Also, I'm almost out of my own onions so I've been conserving... it must be the depression influence of my grandma upon me. But the meat, which cooks like a confit in its own fat, that was the star!

So for anyone ambitious enough to make their own bacon, their own guanciale, their own pancetta, seriously think about braising the other half of that pork belly.

A Little Bit of Heaven

2011-01-19T20:07:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting some good, very French, very Parisian brioche for months! Months! Around Christmas, one of my favorite food bloggers, A Hunger Artist, said he had just made brioche on his Facebook page. I requested, graciously enough it seems, for the recipe and he obliged me. Last week I made this unbelievably delicious brioche loaf and have been eating it every day for breakfast. It has been my "little bit of heaven" for a week, but, alas, that week is over.

The crab apple jelly that I spread on the brioche was made by me last fall. I cannot even believe that I've had a beautiful, bountiful crab apple tree for about fifteen years and never thought to make crab apple jelly.... What was I thinking??? I guess it's because by that time of the year, I have so much harvesting, so many canned good to put up, and so little time on my hands (I teach), that my mind couldn't handle one more chore. How sad! Because this is one of the best jellies I have ever tasted! Right up there with this is chokecherry jelly. Wow!

So I started off the year with a lovely taste in my mouth and now I have two more taste/cooking goals to keep me busy: Charcutepalooza and Michael Ruhlman's Bread Baking Month. I had been wanting to do a year with both of these favorite foods and now I have my inspiration. I'm a bit behind on the bread baking, and I may not do every loaf because that is a lot of bread for just two people, so to begin I will try either the Classic Rye Bread with Caraway Seeds or the Ciabatta.

I missed the first Charcuterie challenge, duck prosciutto, but my husband made the same recipe last year so we may or may not try that challenge this year. We started "curing" our Pancetta before Christmas, and just brought it in the other day. It looks superb and tastes so much better than anything we ever bought in the stores. I'll try to post how we are now using the pancetta and what we did with the other half of the pork belly.

Since dinner utilized some of the pancetta and I am completely satiated, I'll wait until another day to describe that fulfilling dinner.

Pancetta

2011-01-17T16:08:00.000-08:00

Need I say more? Of course, that's a lot of pancetta but I'll use it. In the meantime, much of it is frozen in convenient packages.

This was really the brainchild of my husband. He wanted to make pancetta. Since I'm the chef in the family, I had to rain on his parade. I think he deserved that for so often hogging my book, Charcuterie, by Ruhlman and Polcyn.

We followed the recipe in the book exactly. I worried about the humidity, so I quickly ordered a hygrometer and calibrator online. We have a building outside that houses a pool table and some exercise equipment so we decided to use that as our place to hang the pancetta. We set the heat at 55F, and made sure the hygrometer measured around 60% humidity. It hung for two weeks and this is the result.

It's delicious! Luckily we rolled and tied it very tightly so mold did not become a problem. I never knew pancetta could taste even better than what the Italian deli in Spokane has. This is the way to go.

I Love Nepitella!

2010-07-05T08:44:00.000-07:00

I love nepitella! Also known as Lesser Calamint, or, in Latin as calamintha nepeta, this herb grows wild in Italy, especially in Tuscany and Umbria, as well as in other parts of Europe and North Africa. It tastes like a cross between mint and oregano. Although the mint is the primary flavor it gains a warmth and fullness from the oregano flavor, thus it not only brightens a dish but adds richness as well. It is a beautiful albeit petite plant, growing about twelve to eighteen inches in height and only about twelve inches in width. Small, lavender/pink flowers appear before it goes to seed. Watch Fabio Trabocchi's video to what it looks like and how to use it.

It is traditionally matched with mushrooms as well as artichokes but I use it with so many different ingredients; indeed, wherever I could use mint and/or oregano, I usually opt for the nepitella. I found a website that reports that in Italy a sprig of nepitella is often packaged with mushrooms. Although this website is Henry's Farm, I could only find the information about nepitella through a google search. I've often used this and other mints in a tea for an upset stomach, but I guess not everyone should feel free to use nepitella this way, because, as Rosalind Creasy reports in her book, The Edible Herb Garden, "...evidence indicates that nepitella should be avoided by [a] pregnant woman."

It's supposed to withstand cold to almost zero degrees, but it has survived my north Idaho wintry days of at lest ten degrees below freezing. It doesn't seed itself like it does in Italy, and I'm not sure why. However, it does seem happy to be growing in my sandy, glacial silt soil. And, whether rainy or dry, it seems to thrive year in and year out.

I used my nepitella yesterday in a white bean salad that I brought to my friends' annual July 4th celebration on the Moyie River. Strangely for north Idaho, it was cold and rainy, so instead of cold greens, I wanted to bring something a bit hardier, but still a salad. So I decided to make an Italian style white bean salad. I had some canned white beans so I could be somewhat lazy and use them to make one of my favorite dishes.

I sauteed some onion in olive oil with some salt, then added garlic and cut up cherry tomatoes. After the tomatoes just began to break, I added the beans, stirred well, and removed from the heat. Then I added my favorite herb, nepitella. Finally, after the beans came to room temperature, I added freshly squeezed lemon juice and some chiffonaded spinach from my garden. It was so yummy! And the ingredient that really made it special was the nepitella.

Grilled Venison

2010-06-24T18:01:00.000-07:00

Ah, heading into summer with some grilled venison, marinated in red wine, a bit of Dijon mustard, salt and pepper, and some drops of already reduced balsamic vinegar. I threw it on the barbecue, one minute each side, and it was oh, so good! Red inside and dark brown outside. Mmmm.... However, it did have a problem: I so wanted steaks that I left them whole instead of making kabobs. Yeah, I should have cut it up because it was cut so oddly that it really was meant to be three individual pieces instead of one with silver skin separating the pieces. Ugh! Nothing chewier than silver skin. My bad! or lazy as the case may be. But everything else was perfect.

I ended up being so busy in my garden (a rainforest of weeds), and, I didn't know that my boys had eaten most of the potatoes while I was away, so instead of finishing the potatoes on the barbecue I made mashed potatoes and carrots with a bit of onion. They were delicious, especially with the reduced meat marinade, finished with some butter, flowing from the meat onto the potatoes. Finally, I topped the whole thing with mushrooms that had been reduced with white wine, a few droplets of the reduced balsamic vinegar and finished with butter. It was a feast! And a great way to say goodbye to spring and welcome the endless sun of summer. Yeah, even in north Idaho.

Is Bonners Ferry Not In North Idaho???

2009-07-14T19:37:00.000-07:00

Wow, my husband and I spent the day in Coeur d'Alene because we had errands to do, not the least of which was returning books to the NIC library. Since our arrival coincided with lunch, we decided to try out a new, for us, restaurant, the Bonsai Bistro. It was pretty good, and the $9.95 lunch special certainly filled up this hungry gal with wholesome, varied, and delicious Asian cuisine.

Up the block from the Bonsai Bistro I briefly ran into the Coeur d'Alene Visitor's Center in order to pick up the latest dining guide for not just Coeur d'Alene but all of north Idaho. I found a publication that I have enjoyed in the past, but this time I was struck by the fact that nothing, NOTHING was mentioned about Bonners Ferry, Idaho. To say the least, I was appalled.

Bonners Ferry, ID is the internatonal gateway into Canada, including destinations like the east Kootenays, the Canadian Rockies, and the International Selkirk Loop. Approximately 30 miles north of Sandpoint, ID, just north of Bonners Ferry one can travel east towards Montana and Glacier National Park, northeast towards the Canadian Rockies and directly north through the Kootenai Valley to the Kootenay Rockies (the different spellings are a Canadian/U.S. difference). Boundary County is a region of immense beauty, including the Kootenai River, the Moyie River, the Kootenai Valley, alpine lakes, waterfalls, hiking trails, and vast areas of state and federal forest land. Our recently re-vitalized downtown has tourists and locals alike visiting in droves with write-ups on many local tourist sites, e.g., tripadvisor.com.

And thus, to my complaint: Idaho Cuisine, in its 10th Anniversary Issue, has no mention whatsoever of any Bonners Ferry restaurant, including one of its newest, Papa Byrd's Bistro. As an Idaho blogger, and, in full discretion the pastry chef at Papa Byrd's Bistro, I cannot believe that Idaho Cuisine does not include Bonners Ferry in their magazine.

I love my position at Papa Byrd's but I have not been remiss in dishing out compliments to other restaurants and tourist attractions in Boundary County. The first summer of our new International Visitor's Center opening, I volunteered one day each week into welcoming tourists from around the world to our beautiful county. I also blogged about some of our local food oriented attractions. I believe in supporting local businesses and eat at all the restaurants, shop locally as much as possible, and support the reasoning that any good business is good for all businesses. The next summer I began work at Papa Byrd's, which shares a parking lot with the Visitor's Center, and became the souschef (Mark is the head chef) cum tourist advisor for out-0f-towners. We have had numerous compliments on both our savory cuisine and our desserts. Other local restaurants have also had much support locally and internationally including "Under the Sun" cafe and shopping; "Jill's Cafe"; "The Creamery"; the "Panhandle Cafe"; "Bonners Books"; "Boardwalk Boutique"; "Mountain Mike's Nutrition and Gourmet Food"; "Paradise Valley Bed and Breakfast"; the "Log Inn"; the "Northside School Bed and Breakfast"; and numerous other businesses.

Thus, for all these reasons, I am appalled that a magazine representing north Idaho, somehow forgot the crown jewel of Idaho, Boundary County. I invite all journalists from Idaho and eastern Washington to visit a county that, although seemingly hidden, remains the crown of the gem state. We're not just the friendliest, we have incredible scenery, lovely accommodations, diverse shopping, and over-the-top cuisine.

And All Is Well In Linda's Kitchen

2009-07-08T19:22:00.000-07:00

Ahh, as always, life has moved on. No more friends in the kitchen (lying, cheating, stealing will do a person in), another busy tourist season, and successes learned, have turned my restaurant employment into, once again, a job worth my while.

But with the extra days off (we have another cook), the appointment of pastry chef, and my own garden, my own kitchen has been a pleasure in recent months.

I had the worst oven anyone could own, and when two burner's finally bit the dust, I just told my husband that's it. New stove. A trip to Fred's Appliances in Coeur d'Alene. And lo and behold, it turned out that in two weeks after that trip, Fred's was having their giant parking lot sale in Spokane. Well, even if it meant rising at 4am, I wanted a decent stove and so off we journeyed. I didn't get my ding and dent, but I did buy, at a very reasonable price, a GE duel range, 30" stand alone (which is huge for my kitchen) and I am so happy! I'm still getting used to the very accurate oven, working with high-powered gas burners, compared to 18 yrs of electric burners, and just the overall workings of this baking/convection two-oven marvel. Indeed, I'm just now figuring out the bread temperatures, an important point to know since I bake all our own bread.

I also have my garden to contend with these days. The cutworms have been deadly to my black Tuscan kale and Swiss Chard so it's now warfare. Thankfully, Garden's Alive provides me with a pretty much organic defense, but all the rain has made this an ongoing war.... It's extra work, but I mean to prevail.

So, with my own garden produce coming on strong, I have been making endless creations with spinach, lettuce, fresh herbs, baby turnips, beets, and carrots, some peppers, summer squash, and even some early, renegade potatoes. It's all so delicious! From the first chives in spring, well into October (and even later with global warming) my garden just keeps on giving....

I did make myself, way back in April, the most marvelous birthday cake ever. After buying myself Sherry Yard's Desserts By the Yard, I made the chocolate twelve layer Dobos torte that she had once made for an Academy Awards dinner. Oh! Wow! Oh! That was incredible! One of my best birthday cakes. But that is what I do every year for my birthday - I challenge myself to make a dessert in which I do not fully understand the process but, of course, by the end, I'm "in the know." It's so gratifying, especially when it turns out so perfectly.

Ah, it's so good to be writing about food again. I can't wait to upload some photos to support more of my incredible experiences with food.

Moving Into Fall At Papa Byrd's

2008-10-23T10:26:00.000-07:00

School has begun, the tourist season is about over, but the great food at Papa Byrd's just gets better. Business has certainly slowed and our tanking economy hasn't helped much, but innovative Tracy has us serving half portions again during the day, and college has taken away many of our employees, so we continue on.

We slid gracefully into Fall with a lovely, artistic belly-dancing performance by Tracy's friend, Erika. Having only seen belly-dancers who danced for the tips lavished upon them, Erika's presentation was a pleasant departure into something that emphasized grace, artistry, balance, and form. The customers were very pleased and even the employees had to stop their work and become absorbed into the show. At the end, Erika did a beautiful dance while skillfully balancing a series of candles on a tray on her head. Beautiful!

Several weeks ago Josh's dad, Terry Sherven, played guitar and sang at the restaurant, along with local musicians Gary Lawrence (bass and singing) and Wayne Rau on mandolin. The customers really enjoyed the music. I had to agree with many of them that it sounded like Willie Nelson was in the restaurant. Great night!

We've had several perfect restaurant weekends because Josh and Tracy have been serving and the evening's flow has been everything a restaurant could wish for. We have an excellent core group of people that just cannot be beat. That's our dynamic duo: Tracy and Josh!

And our customers seems to be happy. We've had people from Seattle to Tasmania to Coeur d'Alene rave about the food. We even had a customer write about us at TripAdvisor.

Besides our regular menu which includes Mark's signature lasagna, Mark also creates the most delicious specials from Vodka Sauce on Papparadelle with Freshly Grated Parmesan to a Wild Mushroom Duxelles Sauce on Mushroom Ravioli topped off with a Balsamic Reduction to Orange-glazed Game Hens served with Wild and Brown Rice with Middle Eastern Herbs and Roasted, Locally Grown Apples and the list goes on.

I've created some new desserts, a favorite being my version of the Velouté au Citron (Lemon Velvet Cake), in which I use two biscuit layers in the center and two almond meringue layers for the top and bottom, thus creating a multi-layered cake. Last weekend I created a cake I called "Evita" because it had flavors reminding me of Argentina: chocolate genoise layers made with
Dagoba Xocolatl Hot Chocolate Mix, three layers of mocha buttercream, topped with a chocolate ganache, and then I trimmed the sides to show off the layers. Yummy! And last night I made a Caramel-Pecan Chocolate Ganache Tart. After "quality control," the kitchen came to a standstill.

Arriving home after work, I found the movie "Chocolat" just beginning on TV and was compelled to watch the entire movie for yet another time. It just captures me and dessert-making....

Well, off to work....

Summer At Papa Byrd's

2008-09-01T16:58:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy summer. I've been working six nights a week and as much as I love working it doesn't leave much time for other favorite endeavors, like blogging. I did, however, manage to get in a few words at my other blog since my son, Julian, was one of two pages from Idaho at the Democratic National Convention. He was also the youngest member of the Idaho delegation, and as the mom with subsequent bragging rights, I had to write about the convention.

But back to the kitchen, which these days seems to be Papa Byrd's kitchen instead of Linda's.... Maybe not, after all I do work there.... The summer has been interesting with live music, a belly dancer, and all sorts of delicious specials created by Mark. I've had a hand with several different desserts. I captured some of the specials and desserts on film so photos to follow! We've had some incredibly busy days and also some slower ones but in a restaurant's first year it seems no predictions can be made. Summer has been good because we're located adjacent to the city parking lot and just a few doors down from the Visitor Center. For those of you who have never heard of Bonners Ferry before, we are a gateway to both Montana and Canada and we have more than 30,000 tourists who pass through our county (pop. 10,000) every summer.

We only have ten tables at the restaurant plus four 2-tops outside. Tracy, one of the owners, can handle the entire place easily but some of the local help has more trouble. On the positive side, many people know all the local help so patience comes in full supply. All in all we have a very good crew although the college students will be sorely missed.

Of course my favorite working crew belongs in the kitchen and on Saturday nights three of us have a great time no matter how busy it gets. So meet Anita, Mark and myself, Linda:

I caught some of the desserts on camera, but please, I'm no photographer. One night I made a Chocolate-Dipped Financier Cake, served with sweet whipped cream and fresh raspberries:

On another I went for my Chocolate Mousse Cake (because of the lighting the filling looks to be different colors but it comes out solid chocolate):

A favorite is Tiramisu, made with real zabagloine, macarpone and whipped cream. Most people here have only experienced the American custard (or vanilla pudding at some places) mixed with cream cheese, but we have the real thing and it is appreciated:

And when berries were in season, we just served the zabaglione with fresh fruit:

The desserts are only a final compliment to Mark's excellent and delicious "specials." On the following occasion he created a roasted fennel and red pepper shrimp, served on top of a Gorgonzola potato galette and accompanied with garlic roasted fresh red and golden beets on top of their own garlic fried greens. It was so good that the staff as well as the customers demand it frequently! The food just keeps on coming! Unfortunately my camera has not caught all of our delicious specials, which leave staff and customers satiated! But I'm working on it because I want everyone to know why Papa Byrd's is THE hottest restaurant in Boundary County, Idaho!

Slow Food In Bonners Ferry

2008-07-24T21:39:00.000-07:00

It was, indeed, a rather slow night for the restaurant, but our slowly made Bolognese Sauce was well worth the wait! I fell in love with Mark's version of it (he used Italian sausage) and could have eaten at least a pound of sauce and pappardelle. But I restrained myself and saved it for customers....

The entree included our caprese salad, so I shot a quick pic of the caprese salads and of our house salad (mixed greens, tomatoes, gorgonzola, and a balsamic vinaigrette) right before the waitress scooped it up to serve.

I took several more photos but didn't like some of them including the photo of Mark and myself (better luck next time). However, since I mentioned waitresses, we had two of our college students, Meadow and Betsy (left to right) with one of our dishwashers, Tony, who's always eager to pose between two beautiful girls.

More to come after I get used to taking photos while working....

It's About Time I Brought My Camera To Work....

2008-07-21T18:28:00.000-07:00

We've been creating some very tasty and beautiful dishes this summer and I keep leaving my camera at home.... Every time I read some of my favorite food blogs I just cringe at my own negligence. I guess it's about time to bring that camera to work.

This morning I made a carrot/ginger soup. Pretty typical these days but it did contain lots of flavor. I think it was the nutmeg and cardamom that pushed it over the top. I also did a watermelon gazpacho, from a recipe supplied to me by my chef, Mark. It had a lot of flavors in it, including watermelon, cucumber, peppers, mint and several others, and when all those flavors finally married, it was really sensational! And perfect for a 90+ degree day.

Before leaving for the day, owner, Tracy, wanted a variation on her favorite Alfredo style sauce, "something with spinach," she said. I left her with a spinach cream sauce, made with the simple basics of spinach, white onion, salt, nutmeg, and cream, all blended in the food processor, and then mixed in a bit of Parmesan. I loved the flavor and in our "quality control" test, in which we finished it off with freshly ground pepper, we both decided the chicken raviolis were a terrific match.

Yum, another day of cooking all day. I just love it!

Papa Byrd's Bistro

2008-06-02T07:14:00.000-07:00

The days all tumble into one on-going love affair with food. The people just keep coming and even when we're hit all at once, with almost every order having a special request, I still love it! From the desire to please to the desire to create, I feel I'm on top of the world, and I have only Papa Byrd's Bistro to thank. Well, and Mark and Tracy, owners, as well as to the great staff that also works there. Our grand opening isn't until June 28th, but the summer tide has already begun and I expect we'll be putting in lots of long hours through next fall.

Our menu is starting to really form, although it's more in our heads at the moment. Of course we'll be keeping all the pizzas but we're adding different salads and sandwiches, and Mark keeps creating the most delectable and delicious dinner specials. I still haven't gotten over the amazing Moroccan spiced ribs, served with couscous and tzatziki. Wow! I think that special should be available once a week all summer long! People also seem to crave different pasta dishes, so that will be fun. I've made a number of different desserts but the Tres Leches coconut cake and the Decadent Chocolate Cake seem to be keepers, at least for the summer. Homemade ice cream also offers both a great dessert complement as well as being delicious on its own. And soon we'll be adding Creme Brulee. Oh, the yummy quotient just keeps growing!

Every day I mean to bring in my camera, but who knows if I can find time to take a photo. I must try however, because Mark does such a beautiful plating, and the food looks as good as it tastes. Well, I'm off to work.... and work has never been so much fun!

How Do I Love Cooking....Let Me Count The Ways....

2008-05-26T21:05:00.000-07:00

Ah yes, it has been a while, but now the semester has finished, and I have another job, for summer and beyond. Before the end of the school year, I did manage to make it to Emery's for several more lunches. These included a delicious Thai curry dish and on another day, some succulent roast pork; unfortunately my last meal there left me hungry.... My husband had a huge, scrumptious crab and shrimp salad. The lady next to me had a huge bowl of some kind of pasta. The guy to my left had a large, fat-dripping andouille sausage. I was served five little bay scallops and eight miniature gnocchi with tomato sauce. It all tasted good, but the forced diet-sized portion left me so hungry that I had to eat more at my favorite Coeur d'Alene latte stop, Bella Rose. Oh well, next semester my teaching will be in Sandpoint, ID, so I'll have an opportunity to find more interesting eateries and food hangouts.

Since I'm only a part-time instructor, I began thinking about a second or even summer job to keep me busy and supplement my income. Luck came my way right here in my little home town and I jumped at a local opportunity to work as a "chef." Recently returning to his hometown after many years' absence, my new "boss" took over a local pizza place and preceded to turn it into a delicious and cozy local bistro (keeping the pizza, of course). Several soups, a small variety of sandwiches, and specials dependent on seasonal foods make up the menu. He is also a self-trained chef and I think his food is wonderful. Together we try to cook food that will make the customers says "wow!" And I am having way too much fun. I have to pinch myself to make sure it's real.

I just love spending hours in the kitchen: prepping, cooking, creating new recipes. And my boss, Mark, is a delight: creative, humorous, genial, gracious, and just a dear person. He owns the place with his niece, Tracy, who is the front room person that everyone falls in love with. Indeed, the entire staff is great, but I think that's because Mark and Tracy set the tone to make this a hard-working but friendly place to be. And the food is excellent!

Although quite small, the location is town center. Originally they thought it would just be a family affair, but through local word-of-mouth people have flocked to the restaurant and its popularity has spurred quick growth. Besides meaning a necessity to hire more employees (lucky me!), this has also prompted the necessity for the menu to expand. Bringing my pastry skills to work, I have been allowed to present as well as create some of my European style desserts and I love doing it! From chocolate mousse cake to lemon gelato filled tuile cups to a coconut-inspired Tres Leches cake to an all chocolate-no flour cake served on raspberry coulis with a dollop of whipped cream, I am in dessert heaven. I also prep for lunch, am given free allowance to create soups of the day, and help with the specials. I never thought I would love the work this much. And when we have a really busy lunch or dinner, it just makes it all that much better.

So, if you ever make it up to the crown jewel of north Idaho, Bonners Ferry, visit us at Papa Byrd's Bistro (at the city parking lot, near the Visitor's Center), 11-8, Mon.-Sat. You'll eat well, appreciate views that include mountains, trees, rivers and blue skies, and then you can shop Main Street downtown for all sorts of great items, from used and rare books to dishes to clothes to crafts to art to stationery. We're a friendly bunch in this town and as the U.S. gateway to the Canadian Rockies we always welcome our visitors.

Loving What Is Rare....

2008-04-07T19:34:00.000-07:00

I took a quick trip to Seattle last week. One of the best things about Seattle is that I can buy items that are just NEVER available where I live in north Idaho. Veal is one. Now the local supermarkets in Seattle (QFC) always have some sort of veal. And of course, Pike's Place Market always has big, luscious cuts of veal. But where I live, where people actually raise beef, nobody slaughters a calf! That is a waste to people around here. So, I have to buy my veal in Seattle....

I used to buy my veal just across the border in British Columbia, but now, because of mad cow disease, I cannot bring any beef, or veal, across the border. Pork is okay. Wild boar is okay. Even bird is now okay, but no beef. No venison or buffalo or lamb either. It's a hoof thing...

So, I did bring home a lovely "blade steak," which seems to be just a thin "blade roast." It's big enough for my husband and myself, however. I browned and then de-glazed it with Madiera, , browned up some mirepoix, added a bit of flour, some homemade veal stock, threw the veal back in and braised for an hour or so. Oh, and I added some dried (I dried them) morel mushrooms with the water from dehydrating them, some salt, pepper, thyme, and, I think, a bay leaf (from the bay tree that grows indoors in my sunroom, now almost five feet tall). I served it with mashed potatoes and parsnips and fresh chives (from my garden). For extra vegetable, I chunked up some of my friend, Marsha's, just dug carrots. And then I used my barely sprouting parsley as a garnish for the veal. It was soooo good.

First I put up a small plate to photo, and then, having forgotten the fresh parsley (my husband just wanted to eat....forget the photos), I ignored the guy almost passing out from lack of food and piled him up a big plate, with parsley, and then, made him wait for one more photo. I think it was all worth it....

Accompanied by a Trader Joe special red wine, we began the meal with a "Bon Appetit!" and ended with "Ich bin sat" (I am satiated). Life is good.

More Dining at Emery's

2008-03-30T10:22:00.000-07:00

No, I haven't been around much lately - two hours to work and two hours return, three days a week, has seriously cut into my blogging time. But I do love teaching!

I've also had the opportunity to experience several more meals at Emery's, the restaurant of the North Idaho College Culinary Program. For my third visit to Emery's, I began with a "chicken with veggies" soup. It was okay. It seems to be a staple of the repertoire. For the main course, I settled on chicken marinated with sun-dried tomatoes and peppers, I was delighted to find it moist and flavorful, albeit having but a few diced peppers. Unfortunately it was accompanied by "rosemary, garlic roasted potatoes" which tasted like, yuk!, water. Either they had been over-boiled (my guess) or had spent several days in a steamer drawer.

On this visit the dessert was a chocolate cake with a chocolate buttercream frosting. I know I should have tasted it, but I was just too full (having eaten a croissant from the Pine Street Bakery in Sandpoint, one of the best croissants this side of Paris). The cake looked good, and although I'm not a big dessert eater, I love to make European style pastry (you know, all those yummy, multi-layered kuchen and torte (cakes) that you see in the window of a German or Austrian bakery, or the French cakes, which usually have a more sleek and uncomplicated appearance but still with a flavor to die for). And given how critical I am about buttercreams (I prefer a flavor that is not just butter) I should have tried the cake. Oh well, next time....

On my fifth visit, a friend joined me for lunch. We both had the sauteed shrimp, scallops and cod with a garlic butter sauce, served with rice. It arrived beautifully arranged on a square plate, rice perfectly mounded in the middle with the sauce and fish artfully arranged around the rice and several thinner-than-a-match strips of red and green pepper in two diagonal, off-corner places. It looked beautiful and tasted wonderful! Neither the butter nor the garlic overwhelmed and the fish flavor came through with perfect balance. I could have licked the plate clean.....shamelessly.

The dessert that day, yes, another round eclair, but this one tasted divine. Filled with a chocolate pastry cream that was light and not overly chocolate, it was served on a several lines of chocolate icing and topped with just a sprinkling of powdered sugar. I left wondering if the food was going to be that great from now on since the end of the program was drawing nearer.

And the following week, well, they were closed that week, but last week, I was not disappointed. The roasted garlic and winter squash soup had potential, but was too bland from lack of salt and the roasted garlic overwhelmed a bit. Still, it had promise. The main course, roast pork with mashed potatoes and broccoli was delicious! The pork was moist and had a flavorful herbed crust, mostly cumin, coriander and garlic. The potatoes were mashed with butter and chives and roasted garlic and were so moist that just a bit of the pork pan gravy served as additional, complementary flavor. The broccoli was cooked "al dente" but not too hard. I think I received them at just the right moment from hard to soft. The dessert was a Napoleon, but the crust was too soft, not enough pastry cream filling, and I wasn't crazy about the icing. Oh well, I only tried two bites, but it didn't tempt me further.

Now, before I go on, I have to state that these lunches only cost between $4-8. Yes, that's right, between four and eight dollars, most around the $5 range. Usually one has a choice amongst about 6-8 different items, usually two soups (one often being a "clear" broth) and only one dessert, although if dieting, a sorbet is frequently available. So, I don't really expect homemade sausage, organic ingredients, or grass-fed beef. But these students are doing very good work overall and more than just being a bargain, Emery's offers good food, some of it exceptional. I'm enjoying every lunch....

Emery's: the Aroma, the Taste, the View

2008-02-23T17:51:00.000-08:00

Now that I'm working three days a week in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (a two-hour drive from home, giving new meaning to sustainable living....), I find myself with time to listen to books on tape, the Great Lectures, and the opportunity to eat once a week at Emery's. The lectures, borrowed from a friend, have not, so far, been devoted to food. But the guy who lectures on The Concerto, Robert Greenberg from San Francisco Performances, is so interesting, that I actually look forward to the drive.

Wednesday is my longest day, ending at 9pm, but I look forward to it because of the opportunity to eat at Emery's, the restaurant of the North Idaho College Culinary Arts Program. Open only three days a week with sittings from 11:30am-12:30pm, I now make sure that I have a weekly reservation. In a small, intimate room, with a view of Coeur d'Alene lake, I have the opportunity to taste students' cuisine at an unbelievable price - usually around $6.00. And that includes soup, freshly made bread, an entree and dessert. It's not the CIA, nor does it pretend to be. Nor do all the students have the same enthusiasm, dedication, and bon vivance that The Foodist has. But this is north Idaho, which has, in case you don't know, produced some fine chefs like Kim Sturts who works for Tom Douglas in Seattle.

I've learned that after the first month of the program, the students are put into the kitchen, so, as you may expect, the cuisine can vary in its taste, preparation, and creativity. For my first lunch I went with the Coq au Vin, and learned immediately to lower my expectations a bit according to where the student was in the program. The soup, actually a "clear broth with chicken" was not clear at all but the flavor was all chicken with an accent of herbs. The Coq au Vin had too many tiny rib bones which was not at all pleasant to bite down upon, the chicken skin was rather greasy, and the mushrooms were "common," but overall the flavor was definitely leaning in the right direction. The noodles were a bit dry from standing around.... oh well. For dessert, I went for the mango/raspberry sorbet which was a great pairing of flavors albeit a flakey and inconsistent texture.

For my second lunch I went with a corned beef sandwich, mistakenly thinking that the simplicity of the sandwich would yield a delicious lunch. I think that my order was based subliminally on the cover photo of the March issue of Bon Appetit magazine. Unfortunately, the store-bought corned beef, the thin and almost non-existent layer of sauerkraut, caught between the panini grilled rye bread, just didn't do it for me. The salad lacked the same creativity and the dessert, an "eclair," was actually just a cream puff, made, I'd guess, from a pudding mix. I asked the waitress (a culinary student) if the chef knew the difference between an eclair and a cream puff and the answer came back, "the shape." I didn't have the heart to say, and yeah, you have the shapes completely wrong. But the tomato-basil cream soup that began the meal was divine. At least I now know that one part of every meal will be just about perfect....

Last week, I knew I'd have to go with something that a beginning student would think creative, but fool-proof. I longed for the roast pork loin with mashed potatoes and gravy, but having had pork the night before, went with the stuffed chicken breast with herbed butter sauce. The soup, a chicken vegetable, was fine. The fresh bread was pretty good with a chewy crust. The chicken breast, dry as you probably already imagined, was cut in half with a layer of herbed rice and feta cheese. It was served with not-quite-cooked-enough carrot chunks (too big for one bite) that were dripping in butter. The rice, herb and feta stuffing was good. The herbed butter sauce was good. I think I would have brined the chicken breast. But for the price, I'm being overly fussy ($4.50). Dessert was the same eclair as last week, so, I passed.

It has been an interesting experience so far and the students are delightful, so eager to please. If I have to eat out, I think I enjoy these inexpensive, "experiments" in eating more than very expensive, "pretty" plates. I'm not rich, I appreciate the joy of learning immensely, and I don't eat out often. In my neck of the woods the restaurant food is not created by "trained" chefs or even trained cooks. Furthermore, I prefer to live as sustainably as possible when it comes to food so I don't trust much of the food bought by restaurants. So, for now, Emery's is my treat and I look forward to every lunch I'll have there!

A Mid-Winter Sunday

2008-01-20T08:52:00.000-08:00

This is what the lower garden looked like at 7:30 this morning. So many shades of gray! And so cold...brrrr... mid-teens this morning. Just as cold yesterday morning....when my cat, Katie, began to wander into the forest because she had discovered that the snow was so frozen she could walk on top of it without falling in! She is a crazy one, a real tree-climber. She has even climbed up the post from the downstairs porch to the upper one. So far, I've managed to keep her off the roof. I think.

So what does all this have to do with food. Well, I needed something warm and comforting, so I took out some of my friend, Helen's, eggs for some soft boiled eggs on toast, with bread that I made yesterday, and for just a bit more protein, fried up some of Armandino Batali's finocchiona salami. Hmmm...delicious. And just what I needed on this cold winter day.

Actually my kitchen has been a buzz of activity since yesterday. I made some No-Knead Bread because we were completely out and it's my husband's favorite. For myself, and my Monday lunch customers, I started on the two-day bread recipe in Nancy Silverton's Breads from the La Brea Bakery. I love her description and because of it, all the whys and hows and wherefores just came together for me. This is about the fourth time I've made the bread and I'm doing it consistently until it all becomes taken-for-granted. Then the whole process will be inside me and I can begin to innovate. I've been baking bread at least once a week for the past five years and I'm finally beginning to feel like I'm not a novice any more.

And there's more going on in my kitchen. I just love the suggestions for making a great veal stock from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook, and that's what is filling my house with a wonderful and pervasive aroma this morning, and, all day. The first time I made it, it came out perfect! Now it's the way I always make my brown veal stock, or even the "ersatz demi." Actually it's the demi I prefer. I then freeze it in ice cube trays, put the frozen cubes in a freezer zip lock, and store it in my large basement freezer. It's just the perfect "over-the-top" addition to so many great dishes.

I've learned how to cook so many great meals from Julia, and the boys.... and the girls too! I've never met any of these chefs but they have certainly been a part of my life for many years. I still have the book club edition of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, that I bought as a teenager! It was formidable at the time, although I remember trying to make some fish dish for my grandma that actually came out tasting pretty good, even though I over-cooked the fish a bit....

Well, it's almost time to throw together some chocolate chip cookie dough, as well as the dough for six pizzas. Those are for my vegetarian son. I make one a day and he loves them! Then it will be time to put my bread in the oven. Given that I also have some lesson plans to write up, I guess I'd better head back to the kitchen.

Ciao, and bon appetít!

Food In The Four Fields

2008-01-18T08:17:00.000-08:00

I haven't had access to the internet since Monday. The story is typical north Idaho. My ISP provider began to snowmobile up to the radio tower to fix some equipment, could only get so far on the snowmobile, snowshoed the rest of the way, worked on the equipment until it was too dark, then found himself being "rescued" by our local Search and Rescue guys who refused to let him spend the night there. It was four days before he could go back in and fix the equipment. I was never sure whether I should laugh or cry....

What made this so frustrating for me is that I started teaching at our local community college this week (90 miles away, giving new meaning to the term local), and needed internet access for all sorts of school related reasons. Luckily, things seem to be back to normal, so here I go again....

Interestingly, I have a student who is taking my Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology class because she is interested in cultural aspects of food and nutrition. How can I not love that? Food is a great topic for talking about anthropology because it can be approached through any and all of the four sub-fields of anthropology: physical (also called biological), archaeology, cultural, and linguistic.

Biological and physical aspects of diet, evolution, and health are prominent topics today. Food is an important part of the archaeological record, providing us with historical data about what and how people ate in a time without written record. Cultural and social aspects of food abound, from culture specific diets to the economics of shopping to social aspects of eating. And how we talk about food reveals much about our culture, ourselves, and how food is valued. Indeed, history, the environment, and economics also enter into discussions of food, while the politics of food is pervasive around the world. Given the popularity of food today, what with the food channel, trendy restaurants, sustainable eating, GMO crops, and so forth, the topic of food lends itself to a variety of questions and discussions within the four fields of anthropology and makes it easily accessible to beginning students. I could go on and on....

Instead I'll jump right into the food I made for Monday lunch this week, especially since it's one of my favorite comfort foods. I made an Italian sausage and lentil soup. I first had soup like this at a restaurant and I loved it. Of course, lentil soup was also childhood delight since it was one of my father's favorite foods although we only had it when he had time to make it. (My mother's favorite to make, and it hasn't wavered over the years, is reservations). Anyway, starting with some good Italian sausage (or ground pork with Italian seasonings like fennel, oregano, and hot pepper), I brown the meat, throw in some chopped onion, a bit of carrot and celery, garlic and salt, and before that garlic has time to do anything but yield its flavor into the fat, I add some homemade tomato sauce. Then come the lentils and the water, and I let it simmer until the lentils are edible. At the end I mix in some creme fraiche or sour cream and I just love the mix of flavors in this soup.

I found several years ago that my soups, stews and what have you always taste better when I use water instead of some canned or even worse, dried broth or bouillon. I was delighted to read last November that this is the very thing that author and blogger, Michael Ruhlman suggests. He said:

"I cannot say this strongly or loudly enough: DO NOT use canned stock/broth. Use WATER instead. I repeat. You DO NOT NEED to buy that crappy can of Swanson’s low sodium chicken broth! It will HURT your food. Use water instead. When that recipe says 1 cup of fresh chicken stock (or good quality canned broth), please know that your food, 90 percent of the time, will taste better if you use tap water instead of that "good quality" canned broth. Water is a miracle."

And he's absolutely right.

Continuing with lunch, salad consisted of celery, carrot and couscous with a lemony, dijon vinaigrette. My everyday white bread flour with wheat bran rolls took on some interesting shapes when I tried sliding them off the peel onto the preheated baking stone in my oven. I kind of liked the effect.

And dessert, well, I never go wrong when I make something out of Nick Malgieri's book Perfect Cakes, so this week I made the "Capriccio alle Nocciole" or Hazelnut Cake from Ticino. It was delicious!

Bon Appetit!

Monday Lunch

2008-01-07T18:26:00.000-08:00

Today was Monday Lunch. I've been doing Monday lunch for about four years. Monday Lunch is lunch for friends who work in town and would just like a lunch made by me once a week. It all started with my friend, Elizabeth. Actually, the whole thing was her idea. In my small town in north Idaho, not many job opportunities exist and those that do are usually the real low pay jobs. In the restaurant industry that can be really low because this is a "Right-To-Work" state, which means waitresses and waiters, for example, might only be paid $3.15/hr. Hard to believe isn't it? Very sad but true. So, Elizabeth had this idea of delivering lunches for a business.

Well, with all the health requirements most home kitchens wouldn't pass inspection, so, she kind of gave it up. But at the time she was working at one of the local florists and requested that I make her lunch once a week. Well, the owner wanted lunch, as did the owner of the local bookstore, and my friend Julie, at the health food store, and so the business just blossomed. At one time I had too many customers, so much that I almost had to double up on everything. I cut back and now I have but a few who wait eagerly every week for lunch.

Lunch is a prix fixe deal. It's cheap, six smackeroos for an entree (usually soup, but could be risotto, panini, etc.), a side dish (usually salad, maybe a sandwich if lunch was soup, a veggie dish and so forth), homemade roll, and dessert (anything from tiramisu to dacquoise to bundt cake to creme brulee). Each business has their own decorated box (made by my friend, Diana). Their lunches come in glass containers and wax paper bags. They have to wash their dishes which I pick up later in the week. And they all get the same thing, and that's whatever I feel like making that day. I do take into consideration some serious likes and dislikes: John does not like raw onion, Alice refuses offal, and Julie doesn't do beets. But other than that, it's the cook's whim. And I love it! And I think they do too. Indeed, Diana eagerly awaits the description alone....and seems satisfied with the food....

Every Sunday is like Iron Chef America day. I scour the fridge and pantry to see what ingredients I have. Most of these lunches are organic, by default of my preferences, and many of the entrees include ingredients grown over the summer which have been canned or frozen. It's fun figuring out what to make. For desserts, it can be based on what's available, but I've also made it a point to try every recipe in Nick Malgieri's book, Perfect Cakes. So far every recipe has come out perfect and I've tried over half of them. Sometimes I do a vegetarian lunch but usually I use some of my local beef, pork, lamb and game.

Last week I made one of my customer's favorites: a multiple cheese panini. I included ham this time but the 3+ cheese paninis are always hits. Usually I take the end of strong cheese, chop it fine and mix it with cream cheese. This is the spread. Then I add slices of at least two, sometimes more cheese. If I have several cheese ends, I'll mix all of them with the cream cheese. The layers are always put on day old homemade bread and then the bread drizzled with olive oil before going into the panini maker. Being a cheese lover, this is also one of my favorites, but in the interest of good health, it's not frequent.

Today I made a corn and turkey chowder. I threw in onions; garlic; tomatillos concassé (I love that term, learned it while reading Michael Ruhlman's The Making of A Chef. It's used with tomatoes and concassé means crushed or pounded.); chopped bell and poblano peppers; a bit of roasted tomato; turkey; reduced turkey stock frozen in cubes; oregano, cumin, salt, and my own hot pepper (Baci di Satana). It was good! Thank goodness we have enough for our own lunch tomorrow. Salad was a simple green with tomatoes and Maytag Blue Cheese with a Dijon vinaigrette. Homemade rolls were, this week, the No-Knead Bread Recipe which I made into rolls. Finally, dessert was a homemade vanilla pudding with crushed amaretti and amaretto laced whipped cream. I hope they enjoyed it!

The Raft

2008-01-06T20:06:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to write this blog for days.....but between snow, internet access problems, a computer taken over by malware (not mine, my husband's), crazy cabin-fever cats, filling out paperwork for a new job, and all those outside obligations, I have been swamped. But I've never stopped thinking about "the raft."

For Christmas, I finally received two books by Michael Ruhlman that I had wanted but had not yet read: The Making of A Chef and The Reach of A Chef. In The Making of A Chef I read about "the raft." This is something that a cook does when turning a stock into a consomme, so that it becomes so clear, one can read the date of a dime at the bottom of the consomme. Wow! Now that's like magic, and like magic, it takes some very skillful work. But it wasn't just the idea of "the raft," it was also Ruhlman's description that just took me in:

"The idea of making goop that looked like a ground-beef milk shake and dumping it into perfectly good stock offered childish pleasure--like making mudpies or dropping very large melons from very high places or seeing how far apart you and a friend could play catch with a raw egg before it smashed in one of your hands. And yet, despite these crude pleasures--indeed, because of them--the end result was one of ultimate refinement."

And then Chef Pardus gave the scientific explanation for this "ground-beef milk shake". Despite the science, it was difficult to shake this milk shake into a broth so clear I could read the newspaper through it. It intrigued me, beguiled me, and just sucked me in. I thought about this for a long time, and I found the recipe for this raft of ground beef, mirepoix, egg whites, and tomato and I was not only intrigued but down right impressed. It was a yucky thing to dump into a stock, or rather, on which to pour a perfectly good stock. But for the clarification, I had to stop and think, was it worth it? Well, for a true consomme, of course it was worth it.

But for the home chef, trying hard to be sustainable, not apt to serve a consomme, and usually just pleased with the tasty stock, the idea of ultimately "wasting" all that perfectly good ground beef which I could use for meatballs or a risotto, all those egg whites that would make a terrific almond meringue, and using those few homegrown tomatoes that I had scavenged from the garden this year, well, I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

But someday I will. Because to me "the raft" has come to symbolize all that is good about professional cooking. It requires skill, knowledge, desire, and experience to make a perfect consomme, and that kind of perfection is what cooking is all about. Someday, I'll make it.

Because, for the rest of my life, I will never forget about "the raft." So magical, so professional, and ultimately, yielding such an ethereal tasting product. Mmm, I'm almost tempted right now....

Affordable Food

2007-12-22T09:22:00.000-08:00

Today a friend came down from Creston, B.C. and we joined some other friends at a local favorite, Under the Sun: a cafe, and clothes store, and just French style general store. I'm not doing justice to it. It's not just a great place for gifts, but also wonderful to browse. Family owned, one daughter does the cooking, another orders the clothes, and yet another does the books. But that's not fair either, because they all do everything, including dishwashing. And Dad fixes whatever goes wrong.

Mom, Shelley, does most of the organizing as well as help with everything: from ordering to cooking to assisting customers to washing dishes. She is amazing and so are her three daughters!

Daughter Kynsie orders clothes, helps at the register, makes coffee drinks, and acts as waitress. Every day Kynsie provides a personal fashion statement with yet another change of clothes, shoes and sometimes even hair. She really belongs in Paris!

It's a busy day for lunch at Under the Sun. Everyone came in at once! Daughter, Kendall, is swamped, but she always has time for a smile! Lunch was delicious, as usual.

The store is in what used to be about the best hardware store in the world: Lindsey-Helmer Hardware. It has a wonderful skylight, shelves up to the ceiling with the wall-sliding ladders, and wooden floors. I hope the photos provide some idea of how wonderful and interesting this place is. At this point, the hardware store has become a bit of France in north Idaho, selling unique items for the home, and, also serving a delicious lunch.

Lunch is simple but delicious. The food is organic, well-prepared, and bound to satisfy anyone on any given day. And, if a person needs something to start the day, the organic, fair-trade coffee, lattes, and expressos are wonderfully matched to the homemade berry scones that are always available. The occasional lunch specials are all made from scratch and I highly recommend Mom's homemade chicken noodle soup. The Greek salad is also very popular, especially in summer, mounded high with mixed greens, Bulgarian feta cheese and Kalamata olives. I'm also partial to the sandwiches because I can pick and choose my bread and all the ingredients. From turkey to ham to tuna, several kinds of cheese, fresh veggies and different spreads, a sandwich can be built to satisfy any appetite or diet. Homemade spelt bread is available as well as La Brea bakery bread. And lunch stays within the $10-$20 price range. Now that's affordable.

What is not affordable, at least to me and many of the people in my neck of the woods, is Alain Ducasse's newest restaurant, the Jules Verne, at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Oh, don't think I wouldn't want to dine there! The description by Angela Doland, Associated Press (as reported in the Spokesman Review) has already made my mouth salivate. "Roasted imperial langoustine with sauteed green vegetables and black truffles; pan-seared beef tournedos and fresh duck foie gras with souffled potatoes and Perigueux sauce" isn't even in the same category as a ham and cheese sandwich. And that view! Whew! But even if I lived in Paris, I don't think that the price is "'accessible to everyone,': about $108 for lunch and $216 for dinner, without wine." Maybe, if I were employed in my profession (university professor) and if we lived in Paris and if we weren't paying everyday taxes that rise precipitously, then, maybe, we could splurge on such a meal. But given that we are not part of the wealthy elite, the best we can do is copy the menu in my own home kitchen because, as we all know, necessity is the mother of invention. Well, copy except for the fresh truffles....

Actually, for those kinds of prices, I personally would rather attend a day or half day at Ducasse's cooking school, L'Ecole de Cuisine d'Alain Ducasse. But that's out of my budget as well. However, I can read and I can afford cookbooks so I practice and learn on my own and I'm very happy with most of my homemade "haute cuisine" meals. So thank you Monsieur Ducasse for the inspiration, but I'll have to forego personally tasting meals prepared by you and your excellent staff and continue to dream of how I can turn such a menu into affordable cuisine.

Bon appetit!

In Linda's Kitchen

2007-12-21T17:15:00.000-08:00

Well, I succumbed and decided to write a food blog. My other blogsite, IdahoRocks, just had too much about north Idaho and politics and very little about food. And food is something about which I really want to write. Food, all things food, food that usually ends up in my kitchen, but food from the garden and the farm, and what is happening with food in our world today. It all interests me, thus, you are invited into my kitchen to see and hear about what I do with food.

"Virtually" is about the only way you can come into my kitchen because it is so small! And not nearly enough cupboard space. I have baking equipment in my root cellar, extra pots and pans in the laundry room, and my favorite pasta pot and risotto pot are in the linen closet. But I make do…..although I would love to have a kitchen like Michael Ruhlman's or one of those ads from Gourmet or Fine Cooking. And I especially want a very high quality gas stove, as well as a built-in electric oven. I HATE my oven. But that’s another story.

Living in north Idaho, I have some of the best food. Morels in the springtime, huckleberries in summer, an abundance of game, lakes and rivers for fishing, farm-raised beef, pork and lamb, and a garden that overwhelms me every year. And for any fruit or vegetable I don't raise, why there's always the Farmer’s Market.

And like many people, I could turn to the web….although I try to depend on local food and sustainable food. Unfortunately, living in this small rural area where the next closest town is either in another country or an hour away, any sort of 100 mile diet just doesn’t allow enough diversity to satisfy a food lover like me….

We do cheat in our household on the locally grown because we usually visit Seattle at least once every two months. Our son is in Seattle at the University of Washington, we do research at the university library, and two very good friends are on the Olympic Peninsula. Plus the book sales, book stores, antiquarian book fair, and well, that’s also another story….

Back to the food, last week I found two, big, local, smoked ham hocks, and stealing from a meal we had at Feierabend in Seattle during their Oktoberfest celebration, I coated them with Dijon mustard and brown sugar and then cooked them in a low oven for several hours on top of some shredded cabbage. They were so big that we had them two days in a row, and this is how they looked on the second day before we decimated them.

I decided to repeat this idea for Christmas. I bought a ham, will follow the hocks idea, but this time I'm cooking it on top of shredded red cabbage, with some homemade spaetzle, brussels sprouts with chestnuts, fresh baked bread, and something else to lighten up the dinner a bit. I'm thinking of salad but we'll see. For dessert, an old Bon Appetit recipe, Pots de Creme Turinois (December 1980), pots de creme with chestnuts. Yummy!