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Jim Dixon

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    Identifying and Buying Pancetta

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    The last time I brought an undeclared item through US customs was Nov 2001. I had a nice block of bottarga, and while it wasn't meat or sausage I wasn't sure if it would be allowed in, so I double wrapped it, taped it with plastic packaging tape, and stuffed it in the back of pants with a shirt hanging over it.

    I made it through, maybe because we always declare our legal food (cheese, canned stuff, cookies, etc) and the inspectors were busy inspecting. But security was much tighter (this was right after 9/11), and a few minutes after we'd cleared the area I pulled out my bottarga and realized the plastic wrapped and taped little square looked pretty suspicious.

    I know others who've made it through with other meat items, but an 8-lb culatello might be hard to hide. You can always try, but I hate to think of all that nice pork getting tossed (or eaten by some customs inspector).

    Jim

    Tuscan Food Diary

    in Italy: Dining

    Posted

    Adam,

    Those pictures make me hungry. When we stay in Chianni we drive to Pontedera to grab the train into Firenze, and there's a tiny bakery a block from the station (in Pontedera) that makes a great schiacciata con uve.

    A Table in Tuscany, by Leslie Forbes, has a recipe for cantucci di Prato that comes close to those we ate in Tuscany.

    Jim

    Identifying and Buying Pancetta

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    I'm wondering if I bought a block of pancetta, how long would it stay fresh in the fridge?

    Given the increased scrutiny at Customs these days, the pancetta would likely never see the inside of your fridge. Unless it's inside a can, meat rarely makes it past the inspectors. Stuffing a cured pork belly down your pants is one option, but it could lead to 'extraordinary rendition.'

    Jim

    French Lentils

    in Pacific Northwest & Alaska: Cooking & Baking

    Posted

    We visited Castelluccio, the mountain village in Umbria renowned for its lentils, in October 2001. Only one of the tiny town's bars was open, and when we walked in we joined a couple of grizzled frarmers watching the ground zero memorial with Bocelli singin Ave Maria. After that small world moment, we ordered some food, including, of course, a bowl of lenticchie.

    At one point Judith began to sprinkle some Parmigiano over her lentils, and as I glanced at one of the farmers, he wagged his finger and said, "non formaggio."

    We talked a bit (struggling with my crappy Italian), and he explained that cheese masks the delicate flavor of the lentils. I asked him how he cooked them, and he said, "solo aglio, olio, sedano, sale, e aqua...non formaggio."

    So that's how I've cooked lentils ever since. I'm still hoarding a bag iof lenticchie al Castelluccio in the freezer.

    Lenticchie al Mauro (Mauro was the farmer's name)

    2 cloves garlic, minced

    1/4 cup extra virign olive oil

    1 stalk celery, small dice

    salt to taste

    1 c small green lentils (also called French or du Puy)

    cook the garlic in the olive oil over medium-low heat for a couple of minutes, being careful not to let the garlic brown

    add the celery and cook another couple of minutes

    add the lentils, water to cover (2-3 cups), and a good pinch of sea salt. bring to gentle boil, reduce heat, and simmer 15-20 minutes or until lentils are tender but not too soft

    adjust salt and drizzle with more extra virgin olive oil

    Jim

    French Lentils

    in Pacific Northwest & Alaska: Cooking & Baking

    Posted

    In Portland:

    New Seasons (bulk)

    Sheridan (bulk)

    Pastaworks has the real Umbrian lenticchie...good but pricey.

    I suspect the "French" lentils we get here in bulk are grown out in the Palouse, but I couldn't get a definitive answer from the WA lentil commission (it actually has an even nerdier name but I can't remember it).

    Jim

    Microwaves

    in Cooking

    Posted

    From the eGullet archives.....

    There's a mention, I think, of this in the most recent microwave thread, but here's my recipe (adapted from Kafka's book, which is a great resource).

    Microwave Risotto

    This isn’t really much faster than stovetop cooking, but it requires a loss less stirring. It is important to stir well between cooking sessions to release the starchy coating from the rice grains. I’ve included my own labor-saving microwave convention of always using a single numeral for cooking times (66, 99, 2:22, etc).

    This serves 4 as a side dish

    2 T olive oil, butter, or combination

    1 T chopped garlic, shallot, or onion (can be increased for onion)

    1 cup of risotto rice (superfino Arborio, Carnaroli, Vialone nano, or other short-grained Italian-style rice)

    1 c white wine (something you’d drink, reasonably dry)

    3 cups hot water or stock, plus more as needed

    salt

    Parmigiano Reggianno cheese, freshly grated

    combine fat and garlic (or shallot or onion) in microwave bowl. Cook on high 99 seconds

    add rice, cook another 99 seconds

    add some salt and the wine, stir for 30 seconds, cook for 2 minutes, 22 seconds, stir for 30 seconds

    add 1 c water (or stock), cook 3 minutes, 33 seconds, stir for 30 seconds

    continue to add liquid, cook, and stir until rice reaches desirable al dente state (typically about 15-20 minutes total of cooking, sometimes more).

    add one last quarter cup or so of liquid and stir. jiggle the bowl. you want to see what the Italians call all’onda, the wave. the finished risotto should not be too runny or too stiff, but exhibit some movement when the bowl is jiggled.

    stir in cheese. adjust salt. eat immediately

    I have this on my site, but it needs updating to reflect this more evolved method. I do have recipes for risotto with leeks and favas and arugula and favas, with beets and arugula (hey, I have a lot of arugula in the garden and have to use it up), with greens (like arugula), and with butternut squash.

    Jim

    There are some links in the original post that didn't copy over. I also make polenta regularly (like last night) in the microwave.

    You may commence with the culinary ass-whipping now....

    Jim

    ps.....I'm going to start reducing stuff, too..thanks andiesenji

    The East Coast Olive Conspiracy

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    Bux,

    Thanks for taking the Fat Guy to olive school. You're correct in pointing out that green olives are green because they're not ripe. The Kalamatas mentioned are ripe and illustrate just one of the colors (purple, in this case) of ripe olives.

    None of this explains why canned black olives from California are among the world's most tasteless and useless fruits.

    The canned black olive results from a process that is unique to California's olive industry. Green olives are processed in solution of ferrous gluconate that oxidizes them and turns them black. They're similar to maraschino cherries in that the original fruit loses its identity and becomes a vehicle for the added flavoring.

    Jim

    Ayers Creek Farm

    in Pacific Northwest & Alaska: Dining

    Posted

    trillium introduced me to Ayers Creek, and it's worth making the trip to Hillsdale to pick up some of his beans, if nothing else. Here's what will be available this Sunday at the Hillsdale Farmers Market:

    from the Ayers Creek email...

    Corn Meal/Grits --  Whole grain, grown and stone ground on the farm.  We will have meal (#18 mesh), fine grits (#14 Mesh) and coarse grits (#12 mesh). At the present, we have two varieties, "Northstine Dent," an old Michigan variety, and "Roy's Calais Flint," a very old Abenaki variety from Vermont.  The Dents are starchier, and tends to cook up on the sticky side.  The flint corns contain a higher percentage of opaline silicate and more protein, and tend to cook up with a lighter texture.  The flavors are different as well.

    Flint corns need a shorter season (75 - 90 heat unit days).  They are grown in New England and other short season areas of the US.  In northern Italy, especially in the foothills of the Alps, red or yellow flint corn is used for polenta.  The dents need 100 heat unit days or more, which translates in more than a month's difference in Oregon. We have to complete the drying of the ears under cover.  In the south and much of Italy, the higher yielding dents are used for grits, polenta and cornbread. 

    The fine grits and coarse grits are separated to provide consistency in cooking time.  There is a diffence in texture, but they are interchageable.

    Popcorn -- "Tom Thumb," also called "Lady Finger," is an traditional New England variety developed ages ago by the late Elwyn Maeder of the University of New Hampshire.  Popcorn is a nutritious whole grain food, great for children and adults.  We pop it in a bit of grapeseed oil.

    Carrots -- Freshly dug today.

    Parsnips -- Freshly dug today.  We will have some parsnip recipes at the market.  This when they are at their very finest, sweet and fragrant.

    Asian Turnips -- Red and white, good tops as well as roots.  These are mild enough to mix into a salad raw.

    Purple Top Turnips -- On special occasions, my friend's mother would serve cured calf's tongue.  Accompanying the tongue was always Fanny Farmer's turnip souffle.  It is a wonderful dish and good with any cut of beef or on its own.

    Black Radish  --  Earthy and pungent, black radish is best sliced or julienned, then salted for a few hours before eating.  Will keep for a week or more once salted.  Good as a snack when sliced, or as a relish when grated or julienned.  Particularly good as a garnish on sweet vegetables such as squash.

    Potatoes -- Desiree, a good red variety. 

    Salad Greens --  A mixture of radicchio, cutting chicory, chervil, chick weed, arugula, miners lettuce, mache (corn salad), wild cress. 

    Escarole, Endive, Sugar Loaf & Castelfranco Chicory -- Although used in salads for the most part, endive and escarole are delicious in soups, especially chicken based.

    Smallage -- cutting celery, much more intense flavor for cooking beans or preparing chicken stock.   

    Dry Beans

    Winter Squash -- By the slice, Pandana, Marina di Chioggia, Sucrine du Berry, Muscat de Provence, Butternut, Jarrahdale, Long Island Cheese.  The Marina and Jarrahdale are not so sweet as the other varieties and have a deep squash flavor.

    If you want more information about the Italian beans we carry and healthy bundle of new recipes, the Rodale Press has published a new book, cited below, on the subject.  It is available at Powell's.  Although I have yet to try any of the recipes, the book presents the most comprehensive and accurate discussion of Italian bean varieties I have seen to date.  This is the first publication I have cited where the publisher's location is given as a website rather than a city.

    Barret, Judith. 2004.  Fagioli : The Bean Cusine of Italy.  www,rodalestore.com: Rodale Press . 273 p.

    One warning...once you eat Ayers Creek's beans, you can't go back to store-bought.

    Jim

    Hash Browns?

    in Cooking

    Posted

    I make fried potatoes the same way my grandmother (and, I think, Ma Joad) did. I typically don't have anny cooked potato or a lot of time when I get the desire.

    Cube the raw spuds (russets have more sugar and brown a little better, but I've used yellow potatoes, too), and keep the pieces on the smallish side (roughly half-inch).

    Cook them in a cast iron or similarly heavy skillet in plenty of fat (usually olive oil for me, sometimes mixed with a little butter or bacon fat) over medium heat until they're done, usually about 30 minutes. Don't be too quick to turn them the first time...they need to develop a crust.

    If there's too much fat left in the pan when the spuds get done, drain it off...then add onions if you want, or even better, cook them separately while the potatoes are cooking. If you mix them in, the potatoes lose some of their crisp.

    Serve with a couple of fried eggs and ketchup (if you can get it in Amsterdam).

    Jim

    Cast iron pan problem

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    One hard core Griswold collector I talked to keeps a barrel of caustic soda in his garage, but I wouldn't recommend it. Just spray the skillet with oven cleaner, put it in a plastic bag, and check it the next day. If it's still crusty, repeat.

    Jim

    Sea Salt and Fleur de Sel

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    Fleur de sel (or flor de sal, but more about that below) is the fine grained salt that forms on the surface of the salt pond. When the weather allows (eg, not too wet or windy), it's raked off the surface. The salt crystals that sink to the bottom, from where they too are eventually raked, are 'just' sea salt. The only differences are the physical structure and, sometimes, the presence of additional minerals from the sediment at the bottom of the pond.

    The 'flower of salt' gets its name from the fact that it is the initial precipitate to 'bloom' from the increasingly salty solution, although some also say it's the result of some canny marketing. It isn't solely a French product, but they were the first to sell it as an upscale condiment.

    I learned about this salt after reading Corby Kummer's article in the Atlantic a couple of years ago. He wrote about a Portuguese firm called Necton that had received a Slow Food Award. (That story is available only to subscribers, but another version is here.)

    I realized that, along with olive oil, good salt was a key component to the food I was making at home. So I tracked down Necton, emailed them for awhile, and after about a year was able to import some of their salt.

    There are several flor de sal producers in the Algarve. But because of a Portuguese law dating to the 1970s that requires table salt to be 99% sodium chloride, they can't sell their best stuff in their own country. So much of the Portuguese flor de sal goes to France and becomes fleur de sel. As I understand it, EU partners are not required to include country of origin info on product labels, so if you have very white fluer it may in fact be flor.

    The production methods for sea salt vary widely. Large producers use machinery to scrape the ponds, some of which cover a few square miles. Smaller producers, like those in the Algarve, use hand harvesting techniques, and some have received certification from the French organization Natur et Progress that their salt is free of industrial contamination.

    I sell the Necton flor de sal from my web site (Real Good Food link below), and it's easy to ship.

    Jim

    Help A Recovering Vegetarian....

    in Pacific Northwest & Alaska: Dining

    Posted

    Most of Portland's better places have good burgers made from local beef that they grind themselves (or get from one of the better purveyors that grind Painted Hills or Oregon Country Beef daily). My all time fav is in the bar at Higgins (not even called a burger on the menu, but something like ground chuck sandwich), and they'll cook it bloody if you want, altho' I'm a medium rare burger eater myself.

    For more pedestrian burgers that you want cooked to 180F because you don't know how many cows sacrifieced various body parts to make them, Skyline Drive In is the place.

    Jim

    Latkes - the Topic!

    in Cooking

    Posted

    As I point out on my latke page:

    Our large blended family includes a couple of Jewish stepsons, and they report that my latkes compare favorably with the hundreds that they've consumed. Since I was shooting for hash browns originally, I've always eaten mine with ketchup instead of the traditional sour cream and applesauce. Aaron and Daniel tell me that, at least in the celebrations they attend, which are more culturally Jewish than religious, there's always a few folks out in the kitchen sneaking ketchup on their latkes, too.

    Ketchup has a long and honorable condiment history and a particular affinity for fried potatoes in any form. I stand by my Heinz (altho' I'll admit that I'm starting to lean a little toward the Muir Glen organic ketchup after some badgering from one of my own goyish boys).

    Jim

    Cooks and Books Visiting Chef Dinners

    in Pacific Northwest & Alaska: Dining

    Posted

    There will be an e-gullet table (the community table - 6:30 pm) at the portland/clarklewis/Joyce Goldstein dinner on December 1. Let the restaurant know that is the one you want when you call in. Her book (Italian Slow and Savory) is just beautiful and the food should be great!

    I wish I had been able to make this meal. My neighbor Jess told me the food was incredible, and I really want a copy of the cookbook. I paged through it at the bookstore and got really hungry.

    Jim

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