hathor

Is anyone else giggling over the line: "I have two loin of warthog." Really, when was the last time you heard that?? I wish I could just beam myself overthere, what fun! (and I'm liking the projection alarm clock as well!)

The standby for goose is first to brine it. Then roast it in the pan with carrots, onion, celery, rosemary, sage, oregano and juniper berries. But a slow, low temp roast. Occasionaly piercing the skin to release the fat. Long and slow seems to render the fat out of the body more .....tenderly....if you catch my drift. Back in NY for now. It was way too short of a trip to Italy. Montone is calling me.......but, I need to be a good girl and do some work here before we can head back. I'm surprised you have duck troubles. I'll PM you some really easy things to do with duck.

Do you think we should start a separate frico thread?? It could have a life not unlike 'roasted cauliflower' me thinks! We had some fun in Friuli last night. The meal started with some....frico! This time I used the montsaio cheese and I have to say, I like parmigania better. I found the fat content in the montsaio to be so much higher so that the end result was not as cracklingly crisp. I served it with some sliced pears with a little honey drizzled on them and the Russiz Supeiore. sp? The wine was excellent: complex with hints of fresh peaches, almonds, lavender, but still crisp and straightforward with a lingering finish. The meat course was roast goose from a recipe that I found on mangaben.it. It was supposed to be an 'ancient preparation' using lots of celery. The instructions were a bit vague, especially at the end where it just says 'make a sauce with the celery'. I pureed the roasted vegetables (celery, carrots, onions, rosemary, sage) along with some potatoes and the goose liver, and wound up with something that should never be photographed. It looked the product of a toddler's diaper, but if you were brave, it tasted pretty good. Some beautiful white asaragus made up for the ugly vegetables. I have very fond memories of all the white asparagus that comes out of this area. Last nights's was just simply steamed with butter and lemon. The goose was disappointing, tough and stringy. Could have been the bird, could have been the recipe, could have been the chef. I'll go back to my usual roast goose recipe next time. And that was my ode to barnyard animals of Friuli.

Since you have such an abundance of it...it's really good for your skin. Splash it on after you wash your face. Then again, I love the smell. I find it luxurious and soothing. I get either French or Italian stuff in a cobalt blue bottle. Have no idea if that makes a difference.

I'd give Ottomanelli's on Bleecker St a try as well. They are also 'real' butchers.

Gerhard-Gsquared!! I am so happy to see you blogging. You don't know how many times in the past two years I've wondered how you were doing. I'm so pleased to see you are alive, well and your dream a reality.

Oh well...apparently I'll have to go elsewhere for my hallucinogenics! It really is a tasty and unusual digestivo. Pontormo: most of the people I saw eating breakfast where Milanese on vacation. So, it was the usual breakfast of coffee, a cigarette and maybe a pastry. Same ol' same ol'. The only somewhat unusual thing was that you could order a 'cappucino grande', basically a big ol' French cafe au lait.

I've been pondering this article since I read it over the weekend. The aspect of that was upsetting to me is that I wonder if the food is any healthier when the products is supplied by Sysco and the likes. My question is, just how processed are the ingredients? If the kitchens are offering processed foods, how much of an advantage is this over take out? In your background research, is there any evidence that people graduate to doing it themselves? Doesn't that harm the business to encourage people to cook on their own? And I totally agree that anything that has people eating dinner together is a good thing. But does food in baggy portions necessarily encourage that? And one last question: when did people start getting intimidated by their kitchens? Please understand, I'm not knocking the concept at all. I'm just turning it over in my brain, and pondering away.

Here is a photo of the mysterious genepy. Yikes! It is wormwood....glacial wormwood. No hallucinations, but we did introduce a friend to it last night, and once again we noticed it produced hillarity. It is supposed to be an excellent digestive and cure for altitude sickness. We had a group taste analysis and came up with pronounced flavor of thyme, some basil, and oregano. Herbaceous you could say! Pontormo, who is Maria's captain? What am I missing?

Ciao Auzureus! The coniglio tasted like it was a white wine braise with soffrito, lots of garlic and probably some stock. simple, classic dish, but excellently prepared. One of those that require bread for soaking up the extra bits. As far as the cavallo goes, I'm not really sure if its a specific breed, but more than likely it is. I'm just not a fan of cavallo. Doesn't taste good enough for me to be eating Mr. Ed if you know what I mean. (Obviously I don't have the same issues with eating Bugs Bunny! ) Speaking of breeds, the beef breed from Piemonte is fassone....isn't that usually prepared boiled? We had it grilled one night, and it was rather sinewy.

Yes! You are right about Il Pensiero. I have a mental block about the name! I'll have to give Ristorante Pucinella a try, I'm always on the look out for seafood in Umbria. Judith, have you ever tried La Rocca in Umbertide? Really good fish restaurant, and wonderful people. I crave the lumache....

What about all those incredible ingredients in their neat boxes? and pots and pans? that was a mighty sweet set up. Shoala, if you need some storage space, PM me. Seriously. Bon voyage. Buon fortunato. Buon lavoro and above all....have fun!

My confit crock is empty....woe is me. Its almost worse than running out of chicken stock....

I'm just catching up on all the cooking. Oh my!!! Great stuff going on. Hello! Nathan, you had a frico party and didn't invite any of us???? The frico and asparagus look particularly good. (Kevin, I just threw out my petrified hunk of fresh horseradish. Flavor wise it doesn't compare to the stuff in jars, but what a waste! ) I've got wines waiting for me, so I better get my act together and get into the kitchen. Ciao!!

I'm back in internet land! Technically we were skiing last week in northern Piemonte, and crossing over into Vallee d’Aoste, but Alagna Valsesia’s heart belongs to Walser culture. I don’t think it really matters what country or region we were in, it was simply the the heart of mountain cuisine. To visualize Alagna, make an ok sign with your thumb and forefinger, pull a handkerchief thru the “O”, Alagna sits tucked at the bottom of the handkerchief. It’s a hidey-hole of a town, nestled in the ravines of the Alps. The food is plain and solid, lots of simple braises of game meats served on top of brilliant yellow mounds of polenta. Our favorite restaurant in town was the Unione, a cozy, wood paneled trattoria with communal tables. The antipasti’s being offered were delicious grilled toma with vegetables, or another day, it was a fresh ricotta like cheese that was marinated with fresh herbs and pink peppercorns. Pastas were homemade and typical of all northern Italy, except for the butter and sage sauce which was a thickened green sauce. Grilled horse steak was always offered, but my favorite was either the cervo braised in red wine with lots of juniper or the coniglio humido that was just an outstanding rabbit stew. I’m not much of a desert eater, but my dining partners had chocolate something or other at pretty much every meal. Chocolate is a fine art up there in the mountains. The other popular restaurant in town was “Dir Und Don” which is Walser for here and there, to me it sounded like a doorbell ringing. Dir und Don. Excellent pizzas and grilled meats. They did an interesting thing with the grilled meats, which were done tableside on a small stone grill. They salted the grill stone instead of the meat. I’m not sure if this is a variation on the Italian penchant for tossing out the garlic before serving so the flavor won’t be too pronounced, but overall the salt was just too subtle for me. Lunches were much more of an adventure. We ate in little rifugios on the mountainside. Some rifugios are just small stone buildings serving only cold sliced meats or just polenta with some sauces, not even pasta (!) in Italy (!) can you imagine?? The usual fare was some pasta al forno, in this case a tender, herb filled canneloni, and cinghiale over polenta, with some mixed grill meats thrown in for a protein fix. Other rifugios are full service restaurants. One of our favorites is called “Morgenrot”, and here the stand out dish was “Cenefeles Grashopt” and I am sure I have not even come close to spelling this correctly. The ‘grasshoppers’ as we affectionately called them were oversized spaetzle in a butter, sage and spek sauce. All of this was accompanied by a crisp pinot that came from the chef’s vineyard in Bergamot. It wasn’t a pinto grigio, but sounded like pinot blanc? But our absolute favorite was Stadel Soussun. After our success at finding Morgenrot the day before, we were on the hunt to find another spectacular meal. Jeff, my hungry husband, spied an itsy bitsy sign on the side of the piste, which pointed to an even smaller sign which indicated the restaurant was 200 meters down a narrow snowcat track. What the heck, lets go see where the road leads. About 500 meters down the road, we are all thinking its going to be one long hike back up to the piste if this doesn’t work out. Finally, we come around one last bend and there is a small collection of classic Walser houses with a charming woman asking if we have reservations. No. Well then, would we mind sitting outside? Hell no! It was the most gorgeous setting, blue sky, sunshine, and a narrow rustic table set up just for us. We thought we were being sensible and ordered just some meats to begin, the guys ordered pasta and I asked for the minestrone soup. Then the food began to arrive. A steaming bowl of braised, slightly sweetened chestnuts was set in front of us with instructions to eat it with a piece of lardo, on black bread with a drizzle of honey. What a sublime combination. Grilled wedges of zucchini that were marinated with a sweet red onion came in another bowl. Then our waitress brought out some ‘vegetable cakes’ which were a type of sformato made with vegetables and mushrooms in a cheese sauce. And mixed somewhere in all of this was the prosciutto and speck we had ordered. Oh, and a gorgeous salad of chopped vegetables was thrown in for good luck and color. The pastas were home made fettucini with a vegetable sauce, and penne with huge, flavorful walnuts. My minestrone soup had lots of sorrel in it and it was was just delicious. Reminder: we still had to face that hike back uphill to the piste. Just as we were starting to really worry about our ability to get back to the piste; Sergio, the owner of Sossun let us know that he would drive us back in the snow cat. Now all was truly right with the world. So, we retired to the blue lounge chairs to digest and enjoy our time in the mountains. And just to make the experience completely perfect, coffee was delivered to our chairs accompanied by that wicked digestivo ‘genepy’. What the hell is that stuff? All I know is that it induces euphoria and giggles. Its probably illegal in the US. I love genepy! There was one other place in Alagna that if not euphoric, was pretty close. The Bar Mirella is a pasticceria and cocciolateria. Their ciambelle were the lightest possible pastry, the round cookies were impossibly thin and crunchy with exactly the right bit of sweetness. But it was the chocolate that was truly amazing. It came in all shapes: we’re talking actual size chocolate moka coffee pots with cups and spoons, scenes of Alagna carved into bars, full sized mountain climbing tools, bowls of chocolate nails and then the Easter stuff. Just outstanding work, and by about 9:30 in the morning (hey, I’m not a first tracks girl…) the smell of chocolate in the room would be almost overwhelming. So, yes we were in Italy, but really we had been welcomed into Walser country and it was a fine place to be.

How was the Jermann Blau & Blau? ←

Ah, Boris, I was hoping to hear from you. Jeff will be particularly happy with that bit about the windows, he is a serious architecture buff. Unfortunately, I don't speak any German, so it has limited my ability to do any research. Really looking forward to visiting this special little slice of the world. And I'll report back on the cuisine..as well as being on the look out for recently birthed calves and their mothers. Thanks!

I have a question. My husband and I are going to Piemonte this Thursday for 10 days to go skiing, and we are heading up to "Walser" country. Anybody know what sort of dishes are typical for this region? Anything I should be on the lookout for? I've done some research, but I've not come up with much in the way of Walser-specific cuisine. Thanks.

That deserves its own thread.

Adam is far more informed than I am...but 'cervo' is not strictly speaking a deer. Its a smaller game animal, with curling horns. My knowledge of cervo is strictly limited to see a stuffed one on a wall. I've also had cervo prosciutto, which was lovely. That goulash looked pretty good as well. Adam, where/how did you get the cervo?

A frico bar??? Good lord. I'd be the size of a house. Regarding frico techniques: I do it in the oven with a silpat. No stickage and moldable. The trick is to let it wait and cool for about 20 seconds before you try and take it off the silpat. I think the oven method gives the best crisp-ness. Might try my youngish Montsaio tonight and I'll report back to the group. Oh, the sacrifices we make!

And now for my tale of Sunday's dinner. “the best laid plans of mice, men” and me oft go astray. The plan was to have a small Oscar watching dinner party on Sunday night, just 4 of us. And it would be a F-VG themed dinner. Naturally. So on Saturday, my husband and I cycled down to a new wine store that I had read good things about, and that specialized in Italian wines. Pansanella & Sons at 115 South St. is an absolutely lovely store, with charming and knowledgeable staff. We bought 4 bottles of Friulian wine and a couple of Sicilian wines because I can’t think of too many dishes that are complemented by a little nero d’avola. We even went back for a tasting that afternoon and wound up with an invitation to visit an Umbrian vineyard that is run by the son of Sassiacia. All good, all on plan. The menu was to have been some frico (I’d tracked down some montsaio cheese, not aged) with a little tocai. A primi of polenta bianca with fresh grated horseradish, apple and ricotta. Then an amazing type of brodetto that starts off where you burn the garlic in the pan, which was taught to us by one of the chefs from Friuli. (Quick version of the recipe: burn 3-4 cloves of garlic in a little EVOO, remove from the pan, take some firm fleshed steaks or pieces of fish, bronzine works wonderfully, and dredge them in flour/salt/pepper, then sear the pieces, now add some excellent, very reduced fish stock, simmer for 10 minutes and serve immediately. The story is that this brodetto was created on a fishing boat and the chef accidentally burned the garlic and the rest was history. Now why the fishing boat chef was also toting along some fume` is another story entirely….) The vegetables were to be roasted brussel sprouts and pured yellow turnip with vanilla bean (not Friulian, but a nod toStudio Kitchen and completely seductive). Dinner was set for 7:30. The phone calls started at around 6:30 and by 6:45 the intimate dinner party was up to 10 people. Our friends and family are known to ‘troll for dinner’ at our house…. Quick trip to Gourmet Garage and now we had steak for my carnivorous nephew and asparagus for my brussel sprout hating girlfriend. And a buffet table set up so we could all watch the Oscars. Not the nod to Friuli I had envisioned, and all the wines will wait for a more suitable and quieter venue, but a good excuse to cook some more!

Wow! Everyone has been very busy. Excellent summary, Pontormo! Should be useful as we move on. Kevin, I'm fine with the Q2 order you suggested. Anything where I get to cook with lots of artichokes is fine by me. Not that I'm not completely jealous about the artichokes with the stems. Mrbigjas, great looking meal. I love that polenta tart. What a great idea. And yes, whatever herbs you find, use them. This region is very herb-centric, lots of variety here and they are not at all shy to use them.

I've had to travel to Paris many times by myself and have never, ever had any problem. Only lovely adventures and memories. I naturally gravitate to smaller bistros and restaurants. There used to be a lovely restaurant near the Place de Victoire, its gone now, or fashionalby renovated, but back then it was a neighborhood place. I was dining alone, and apparently I had a sad face on, I was wishing my husband was there to share the divine grilled sardines, when the older gentleman who wa the owner, came over, touched the inside of my wrist, and asked, "Ca va?" What an intimate and kind gesture, it made my whole day and I still fondly think of him. So, be brave and enjoy every moment!