Jim Dixon

Back to cardoon... I made a quick pickle earlier this spring. First pulled the stringy stuff from the back, then cut out some of the tough skin on the inner stalk (I found, after doing about half, that thisis much easier on the concave stalk if you split them lengthwise first)...cut into pot-sized lengths. Boiled them for about 25 minutes (depends on how old/big the stalks are) until tender-ish. Mixed water, salt, sugar, and vinegar until it tasted about right (not too sweet, not too vinegary), then soaked them in the fridge. very tasty, with the bitter cardoon playing off the sweet-sour. I think I put the approximate recipe on my site. Do you have a car while you're in Italy? A nice 2-3 day road trip could be made with a pork-themed visit to Norcia in Umbria (a bit east of Spoletto, and up), and from there a short hop to Casteluccio for some lentils (lenticchie in italia). Another, altho' it's long drive for just one day, is the parco naturale near Grosetto in the Maremma. About 10 km from the Aurelia autostrada, including a stretch of gravel road, and you're on the only unspoiled beach in Tuscany...no cabanas, no umbrellas, and not too many people. Jim

I didn't grind it myself, but mixed n about 25% ground brisket with some regular (20% fat) ground beef. Made a great burger, maybe because of the collagen...but it takes slow cooking to break down, so maybe not... Jim

I'm also in the basic Weber camp, but if I had the room and needed to cook for bigger groups, I'd get the 55-gallon split drum pit used by all the local bbq shacks. Here in Portland I know a welder who makes them from food-grade drums. The rotisserie would be tricky, but otherwise the drum pits give you lots of room and flexibility for fire placement. In my perfect world, I'd have another couple acres of backyard and room to build to combo wood oven, barbecue, smoker, and grill. Reality means just enough space for the Weber, wood supply, and a small grill I use for additional fire starting (and the occasional backyard campfire). I used to be able to buy 40-lb bags of lump briquet from a local fuel oil place, but they stopped bringing it in from Louisiana. Now I get about 7 lbs for about $5 at the local natural foods supermarket. I also use the trimmings from my fruit trees and softwood scrap from my own projects for starter. A furniture-builder friend sometimes brings bags of shop fall-off, nice kiln dried hardwood in small chunks perfect for the Weber. Jim

Some of the things I remember cooking over the last few weeks.... fritatta with fresh porcini (king boletus), garlic tops (from my back yard), and beet greens rigatoni with fresh favas, already cooked cavolo nero (sauteed onion, added chiffonade of greens, splash water, cover and cook), already roasted cauliflower (this was one of those clean-out-the-reefer meals), golden raisins, and bread crumbs pork tenderloin, brined w/salt-sugar 45 minutes, rubbed with pimenton, cooked over fruit wood fire using indirect heat and low temp for about an hour...served with lemon mint, garlic, caper, and preserved lemon salsa verde catfish filets with same brine (shorter soak, about 20 minutes), grilled quickly over hot fire leek and fava risotto (using my heretical microwave risotto technique) crispy risotto cakes for the next couple of days (form into small patties, press into bread crumbs, pan fry in olive oil until crisp) zucchini in a bag (adapted from Bugialli cookbook on the Italian islands, smooth-skinned Mediterranean zucch, rubbed w/oil, wrapped in foil, baked, served w/salsa verde above) penne w/more of the cavolo nero, the leftover zucchin (and some of the salsa verde), oil-cured balck olives, crumbled bottarga, splash of dry marsala, and bread crumbs...lots more olive oil, Sicilian sea salt, and cracked pepper

My 78-year-old mother felt compelled to drive to LA (from Portland) in her 91 Mercury Grand Marquis recently. She asked if I wanted anything, and I knew she'd be stopping at trhe Olive Pit in beautiful Corning, CA, so I asked for a tub of their oil-cured olives. I like the oil cured olives for cooking because they're esy to pit. You can pretty much just squeeze out the pit and then chop or use in the mangled but whole state. Since they're made from fully ripened fruit, the flavor is less bitter. So Mom gets back from her little drive. She tells me to get the olives out of her trunk. I was expecting a quart, the typical plastic tub they sell at the Pit, but there, nestled in the spacious trunk of her big Mercury, was a 14-lb pail of olives. "It was cheaper to get the big bucket," Mom tells me. Jim

The short answer is no. And in fact, several US winemakers are getting ready to introduce screwtops on their good wines to get consumers ready to abandon traditional corks. Bonny Doone will do about 80,000 cases of Big House red and white in screw tops, and Oregon's Argyle will start putting one of its best pinots in screwtop bottles. The problem is the quality of natural cork (and not enough of it) leading to 'corked wines' and other issues with synthetic substitutes. Jim

I didn't try the salmon, but I'd avoid the place (Portland City Grill) in general. I reviewed just the bar menu, but Roger Porter's review in WW was right on...it's corporate food for the suburban palate. Jim

Helena I like my chicken to be falling off the bone, so I cooked it for about 90 minutes. I built the fire at one end of the weber (as opposed to the sides...even though the weber is round, this does make sense if you picture the grill itself..the 'sides' have the little slots for dropping in extra charcoal), using a good pile of charcoal and about 3 pieces of 2-inch diameter fruitwood (trimmings from the Asian pear treee)..let it burn down a bit, then put the chicken on breast side down at the other end and put the cover on. The fire was hot enough to brown the skin nicely, and I turned it a couple of times..also added the smaller trimmings for smoke...for the final 30 minutes, I put the wings on over more direct heat, moving them frequently so they wouldn't burn. As usual, the breast was a little dry, and next time I'll brine the whole chicken, but was in a hurry this time. I use the standard-issue weber kettle (22 inches, I believe) Priscilla I've brined turkey, and there's been a lot of talk here about brining in general (thanks especially to col klink)...I was inspired this time by Gourmet's article about brining fresh salmon briefly....I plan to try that, too. One thing to be careful about when brining smaller pieces like wings is how long you leave them in the brine...they can get too salty. I did the wings for about 30 minutes, and they had a definite salt tang...not too much, but I wouldn't want to leave them in much longer. I may also experiment with the salt content in the brine...this one was about a cup of kosher salt in 2 cups water (and 1 c br sugar)

Panettone also makes great French toast. Jim

Judith loves chicken, so for her birthday this week I made it three ways... Big roaster (7 lbs) with sprigs of fresh thyme, oregano, and young garlic pushed under the skin, pimenton (Spanish smoked paprika) on the outside...roasted and smoked on the weber over mix of hardwood charcoal, fruit wood, and blueberry/grape trimmings for smoke. Wings brined in simple salt and brown sugar brine, few shakes of mesquite salt (great stuff, from Santa Cruz Spice in Tumacacori, AZ 520-398-2591), grilled over the same fire. Liver pate using recipe adapted from Del Conte's Gastronomy of Italy (saute onions in olive oil and butter, add livers and cook, add a bit wine...I used Marsala instead of dry white...process with anchovy, capers, more butter, and a little fresh sage). Also made a fava bean spread for variety...fresh favas, mint, shallot, preserved lemon, and olive oil...didn't have quite enough favas, so thickened to spreading consistency with bread crumbs...okay, but I liked the version I made last year better (about the same, but without the lemon). Served with cavalo nero, borlotti beans, and simple green salad. Jim

I was introduced to the whole concept of amaro (Italian for bitter) in Italy, and I've come to really like the stuff. We usually have Averna, a Sicilian amaro, on hand, but Christopher at GT served us a digestivo of Amaro Nonino that was really nice. Nonino is a distiller in Friuli known for grappa and pure fruit distillates, but I'd never had the amaro (Oregon has liquor laws that harken back to Prohibition). I was able to track down a couple of bottles in Brooklyn just before our plane left. As the weather has warmed up, I've been drinking a cocktail of about 1/3 amaro and 2/3 fizzy mineral water over crushed ice. Very refreshing and tasting a little like cola, but without the sugar. Jim

tsquare... Thanks...I made up a spray and blasted the ants...haven't seen any aphids yet, and I'm checking because I have a great crop of cavalo nero (aka lacinato kale) and they really go after it. The artichokes are doing fine, though. Jim

malawry... I would make it as a topping...heat chocolate in mocrowave (it melts, but stays the same shape, so you have to be careful not to assume it's cool), stir in some cream, or in a pinch, milk or even a little vanilla ice cream, since it was out and just waiting anyway. I never actually measured anything, but for a quarter cup of chocolate chips, probably a tablespoon or so of cream. I like the idea of adding it to the ice cream as it's freezing, so maybe you could get swirls of dark ganache in the vanilla ice cream. Jim

I used to make a quick ganache in the microwave when I needed chocolate for ice cream. I think freezer...my mom makes truffles and stores them in the freezer. Jim

Man, does this thread move fast... A couple of pages back, Soba asked if I'd been to Craft re the fried sage leaves...short answer, no, but they sound good and I may try something similar... Liza...the sage and Parm seemed made for each other (other flavors were salt and olive oil, also complementary, but I've come to realize that I eat almost everything with salt and olive oil)...like Jinmyo said, basil gets ugly when cooked hot like this. These mutant sage leaves seem a little odd to me, too. I just the stuck the plant in the ground (and the leaves looked pretty normal when I bought it), didn't fertilize (altho' I have caught the pugs lifting their legs in the herb patch, which is right outside the back door), and haven't applied anything radioactive. I'm trying to work in a Soylent Green reference here, but running out of time and brain cells. Oh, and dinner....Sunday brined some boneless chicken thighs for about an hour (water, salt, brown sugar), tossed with a packaged dry rub my brother sent from Texas, and grilled hot over wood...we get thighs because they don't get so dry as breasts, but these were especially moist. Jim

Friday was green...broiled aspargus, big salad, and stuffed sage leaves. These were a last minute addition. I'd read something somewehere about stuffing sage leaves, but the biggest sage leaves I'd ever seen were still only about an inch long and too narrow to stuff with much of anything. But the sage I planted a few weeks back has taken off, and the leaves are huge, maybe 3 inches long and 2 wide. I pinched off a few, wrapped each around a sliver of Parmigiano, and fried in a thin film of olive oil for about a minute or less on each side...the leaves get a little crispy, and cheese a little oozy. Sprinkled with sea salt and ate hot...resisted urge to strip entire plant for more. Jim

More info in this Sonoma cheese makers article I haven't visited these cheesemakers in Sonoma, but sampled many of their cheese as the Ferry Terminal Plaza Farmers Mkt in SF...it's near the new ball park. Jim

It's my understanding that saltwater species are generally safe to eat raw, but freshwater and anadromous fish may have various parasites. I've been told that most of these are large enough to be seen, so if you're worried, look closely at the fish. For more details, take at look at this UC Davis info. Jim

Glen Ellen, north of Sonoma proper, makes a nice stop. There's a community olive press next to the winery and just up the road is Jack London State Park, an interesting break from wine. You should also check out the Vella cheese tasting room just of the square in Sonoma. Jim

I love the little cone shaped bottles those come in...I usually stuff a couple in my carry on for the flight home, and actually have two in my refrigerator right now. Jim

Blue Heron... More on bottarga here Jim

I mentioned bottarga over on the Pacific NW board and Blue Heron asked me to expound... Bottarga is the Italian name for dried, pressed fish roe...gray mullet in Sardinia, tuna in Sicily. It's my experience that the tuna is more common. You can buy it pre-grated in small glass jars or by the chunk, which is how I prefer it. The classic Sicilian dish is spaghetti with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, parlsey, and bottarga. It's also sometimes shaved thin, macerated in olive oil or lemon juice or both, and served as an antipasto. I like to add it to things that I might have added anchovy to for the subtle depth of flavor, except that bottarga is never quite so subtle. Most recently, I made a salsa verde with things from my garden...lemon mint & spring garlic...and some Meyer lemon zest, juice, olive oil, and bottarga. I've also added it to more traditional salsa verde (basil, parsley, garlic, etc). A little goes a long way. I have several pieces in the refrigerator. I wrap it tightly and it seems to keep forever. One of the older pieces is getting crumbly and more dried out, but that just makes it easier to break up. Recipes usually call for grating, but I've never found that to work well...there's often a membrane in the roe sack that resists grating, so I slice thin pieces and chop them up. You can buy the chunk form at Esperya , and probably the jars at good better food shops. It's expensive, even in Italy. I bought a piece the size of a pack of cigarettes for about $10 last fall. I tucked it into my hip pocket coming through Customs, not sure of whether I could get it in legally, and realized after I got by that the plastic and tape wrapped piece of brown stuff probably looked just like plastic explosives (and this was in November). Jim

My garden is full of the arugula flowers right now, so I'm eating them a lot, too. I used to let my artichokes flower because they looked so nice, but after eating some late last fall decided they were too tasty to let go. I have some smaller ones forming up now (after eating the main stem artichokes a couple of weeks ago), but one of them is covered with ants. Does anybody have a good technique for getting rid of the ants? I'm tempted to try soapy water, but thought I might check here first. JIm

I was a soup dumpling virgin until our recent visit to NYC. Our friend had sent us to Joe's Shanghai and had told us to order the "buns," but had forgotten to clue us in on the eating technique. Luckily, we sat at a large table and I was able to watch someone else eat one first. I also had a bowl of Shanghai soup...thick, ropey noodles in a brown stock with a few bits of sliced pork and pickled cabbage...it was very good. Jim

The fish guys weren't at the Farmers Mkt, but I was ready for salmon, so I pulled a couple of small filets out of the freezer. Sockeye, but not CR. Rubbed with olive oil, coarse salt. cracked pepper, and cooked in our little convection oven. Ate with a salsa verde made with lemon mint, spring garlic (garlic volunteers in the garden...clove about as big as the end of a finger and very mild), lemon zest, olive oil, and bottarga. Jim