The Cooking and Cuisine of Friuli Venezia-Giulia

[hathor]

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.

How do you normally cook goose? 

I'm intrigued about trying it, but after my disastrous results roasting a duck I'm just not willing to spend the $40-$50 I see goose for here just to have it turn out like that. 

Are you back in the U.S. or still in Italy?

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[hathor]

Saturday night, I made dishes from probably opposite ends of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, so it's not so micro-regionally "pure". We started with gnocchi stuffed with pear and ginger:

The cinnamon, oddly, seized in the butter and turned into a viscous goo right in the middle of the pan. Never seen that before.

How do you stuff a gnocchi? Wrap the gnocchi dough around something? Its such a finicky dough that I'm having trouble visualizing the process.

Now if you wanted the cinnamon goo...you'd never get it to happen again!

The cevapcici sound wonderful. I love the mixing of the Slavic food influences in this region. You wind up with some surprising and delicious combinations. Well done Kevin!!

hmm...I've screwed up the quote thing.... sorry!

[Kevin72]

How do you stuff a gnocchi? Wrap the gnocchi dough around something? Its such a finicky dough that I'm having trouble visualizing the process.

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Yes. They're a little bigger than normal as a result. And I did need to rely on quite a bit of flour to make it work. Still, I find 'em easier to do than making a stuffed pasta.

[FoodMan]

I'm just not willing to spend the $40-$50

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Don't, my Hong Kong market carries frozen geese for less than half of that price. Never tried them though.

Now, ducks, are awsome, but I usually cook the legs and breast seperate.

[Kevin72]

Don't, my Hong Kong market carries frozen geese for less than half of that price. Never tried them though.

Now, ducks, are awsome, but I usually cook the legs and breast seperate.

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Let me roll out my complete American-ness here and say that those ducks and geese at the Asian markets scare me since they still have the heads on. Which leads me to worry that they may not be gutted, either. Besides, I don't have anything I could readily hack their heads off with.

See, I can do duck breast okay, and duck legs okay, and a braised duck I do just fine, but roasting 'em is problematic, and I keep remembering similar results growing up whenever my mom would roast them.

[FoodMan]

Don't, my Hong Kong market carries frozen geese for less than half of that price. Never tried them though.

Now, ducks, are awsome, but I usually cook the legs and breast seperate.

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Let me roll out my complete American-ness here and say that those ducks and geese at the Asian markets scare me since they still have the heads on. Which leads me to worry that they may not be gutted, either. Besides, I don't have anything I could readily hack their heads off with.

See, I can do duck breast okay, and duck legs okay, and a braised duck I do just fine, but roasting 'em is problematic, and I keep remembering similar results growing up whenever my mom would roast them.

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That is toooo funny! Kevin these geese do NOT have their heads attached. The ducks that do have been gutted and a sharp butcher knife is all u need to hack the head off, remove the skin from the neck in one piece and make a wonderful "stuffed duck neck" from Paula Wolfert's Cooking of SW France book .

[Kevin72]

The ones at our market do. Plus there's the wife factor: I just got her to come around on duck in the past few years, but her coming home to me hacking one of their heads off may put her right back over again.

[azureus]

Let me roll out my complete American-ness here and say that those ducks and geese at the Asian markets scare me since they still have the heads on.  Which leads me to worry that they may not be gutted, either.  Besides, I don't have anything I could readily hack their heads off with.

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Um, this American deals with whole poultry all the time. I haven't purchased any type of bird at the supermarket since I moved to the country eight years ago. But, heads don't need to be hacked off. You can disjoint the neck by cutting between two vertebrae close to the body. Gutting isn't fun, but not difficult either--pm if you ever want details.

I've never mastered roasting a goose whole, either.

Did you make your own haivar sauce? I buy it all the time here, and I wish that I'd realized that it was part of Friulian cusine.

Off to make a Friulian dinner!

April

[Pontormo]

You raise and kill your own poultry, if memory serves me correct, no?

It's interesting that I found the same recipe for the haivar sauce on a number of French Web sites---the same thing happened when I looked for Hathor's genepi/y, although I suspect there are other factors involved in these two cases.

What does "haivar" mean, anyone?

I thought the dish reminiscent of different recipes in Paula Wolfert's Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean, though one sauce using red peppers calls for blending the raw pepper with water and one small hot pepper, then reducing it to a "jam-like" consistency before blending it with okra, garlic & a minimal amount of ground meat. Eggplant is cooked in kibbleh, too, with flavors similar to the ones Kevin combined. This Friulian dish sounds delicious.

Edited March 28, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[Kevin72]

Um, this American deals with whole poultry all the time.   

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All right, I should've specified "city boy" American-ness then. Please don't cut my head off!

Did you make your own haivar sauce?  I buy it all the time here, and I wish that I'd realized that it was part of Friulian cusine.

Off to make a Friulian dinner!

April

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Yeah, it's really easy, and it's in Plotkin's book. Though it looks like there's many variations, as Pontormo pointed out. A small cooked eggplant, two red bell peppers, and two cloves of garlic pureed together.

I still want to hear about this brovada jota!

[Adam Balic]

Um, this American deals with whole poultry all the time.    

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Did you make your own haivar sauce?  I buy it all the time here, and I wish that I'd realized that it was part of Friulian cusine.

Off to make a Friulian dinner!

April

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Yeah, it's really easy, and it's in Plotkin's book. Though it looks like there's many variations, as Pontormo pointed out. A small cooked eggplant, two red bell peppers, and two cloves of garlic pureed together.

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It's extremely popular in the Southern Slavic regions. The root word for the name comes from "Caviar", in Serbo-Croat is is called "ajvar ljuti od paprika", in other words "hot pepper caviar". Could be a Turkish thing possibly.

[FoodMan]

I've never mastered roasting a goose whole, either.

Not sure anyone really has actually. Ever read Steingarten's "Supergoose" article in his "Must've been something I ate" book? He tries every trick under the sun with many geese and never could manage to roast a perfect goose, with medium done breast, tender legs and crispy skin.

[azureus]

You raise and kill your own poultry, if memory serves me correct, no?

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Yes, several kinds. One features in the dish that I cooked last night.

It's interesting that I found the same recipe for the haivar sauce on a number of French Web sites---the same thing happened when I looked for Hathor's genepi/y, although I suspect there are other factors involved in these two cases.

What does "haivar" mean, anyone?

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Sioux Falls, SD has a small Eastern European grocery. They carry about eight brands of ajver/ajvar (pronounced EYE-var) from various countries. Some have eggplant, and some do not. Each brand comes in Mild and Hot, although the Hot versions aren't truly hot, at least not for me.

I found a link on wikipedia discussing the word: Ajvar (from Turkish hayvar, salted roe)

(ETA: I see Adam already discussed this, but I didn't read far enough ahead before posting!)

I never managed to get a copy of Plotkin's book, but just last week my copy of La Cucina Del Friuli-Venezia Giulia in 850 Ricette Tradizionali arrived in the mail. Despite the large number of recipes, haivar isn't mentioned.

Red bell peppers are $1 apiece! right now, so homemade haivar is on my list.

April

Edited March 29, 2006 by azureus (log)

[azureus]

All right, I should've specified "city boy" American-ness then.    Please don't cut my head off!

I still want to hear about this brovada jota!

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Sorry! I promise to be nice! Hey--I have until Friday to roll out the brovada. I will make the soup, never fear.

April

[azureus]

I've never mastered roasting a goose whole, either.

Not sure anyone really has actually. Ever read Steingarten's "Supergoose" article in his "Must've been something I ate" book? He tries every trick under the sun with many geese and never could manage to roast a perfect goose, with medium done breast, tender legs and crispy skin.

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I'm glad to know that it's not just me, but it makes me wonder how roast goose was ever popular. Or maybe the modern varieties just aren't suitable for roasting.

April

[azureus]

Last night, I finally found the time to cook a multi-course Friulian meal:

Antipasto: Strucolo Carsolino

Primo: Zuppa di Asparagi

Secondo: Pollo in Sguazet con Polenta

Contorno: "Spinaci" Affogata

Kevin wasn't sure if he broke any rules with his meal, but I know that I did. Lidia Bastianich states firmly in La Cucina di Lidia that the affogata isn't appropriate to serve with braised meats. I'm such a rebel.

The Strucolo:

Everything else:

I was intrigued by all of the recipes for strucolo (also called rottolo upthread) that I found in my latest cookbook. The fact that most are to be boiled was also intriguing. In my own personal food classification system, I had always thought of strudels as being more akin to puff pastry. This was definitely more like a gigantic noodle, and I wish that I would have stretched the dough more, because cooked pasta was a bit thick in spots after cooking. I chose this particular recipe because the filling contains fried breadcumbs, nuts and raisins and the sauce has cinnamon and sugar in it. This combination seems to be a defining part of Friulian cuisine.

The asparagus soup was boiled asparagus pureed in its own cooking liquid and thickened with flour, butter and eggs. It was tasty, but very rich.

The affogato was based on a recipe from Lidia's book, I just substituted spinach for the escarole.

The main dish was mainly inspired by a dish that Lidia's co-author wrote about at the beginning of her book. The sauce was made from a long-simmerd free-range bird and served over fuzi. I don't see how the recipe actually given in the book on p.164 could even be compared, as the chicken is only simmered for 20 minutes.

This will probably seal my image as a knife-wielding maniac, but I had an old, tough, free-range rooster out in my barnyard. So, into the pot he went. I used the ingredients given in the recipe, but added extra stock and wine, and then simmered it all for over four hours. It was every bit as good as promised. Actually, I made the sauce on Sunday, and the leftovers have kept improving. My husband has been making sandwiches with the meat for his lunches.

After that, I needed a nap!

April

[Pontormo]

Question Authority, April.

Phew!!

Just after READING that, I intend to have a salad for dinner...with frico.

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I have never seen anything like your boiled strucolo, unless it's Adam's (?) ricotto and spinach roll.

Did you like it?

(I'm sorry, but it kinda reminds me of Shar-Peis!!!)

[azureus]

Question Authority, April.

Phew!!

Just after READING that, I intend to have a salad for dinner...with frico.

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I have never seen anything like your boiled strucolo, unless it's Adam's (?) ricotto and spinach roll.

Did you like it?

(I'm sorry, but it kinda reminds me of Shar-Peis!!!)

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After posting, I felt an urgent need to walk the dog so that I could burn some calories.

And yes, I was referring to Adam's spinach roll. The Friuli cookbook has several savory struccolo recipes, including one similar to Adam's. I did like the flavor, although I think that the boiling made the nuts in the filling taste blander than if it had been baked. The shar-pei wrinkles likely occured because I rolled out the pastry almost square, which made it quite long, and iit had to be coiled up in order to fit it into the pot.

[Kevin72]

Great looking meal, April! I love the touch of the rooster being used.

I recall that the pollo is squazzet caught my eye when reading Lidia's book as well, and that I was frustrated also by the disconnect between the recipe and the vivid description.

Wish I'd heard about struccolo earlier in the month; I'd like to try one out myself, too. So was it just puff pastry dough?

What's really odd is that there's a baked version of the struccolo with the same ingredients (maybe a little chocolate and grappa thrown in, too) called gubana, served as a dessert . . .

[Adam Balic]

I've never mastered roasting a goose whole, either.

Not sure anyone really has actually. Ever read Steingarten's "Supergoose" article in his "Must've been something I ate" book? He tries every trick under the sun with many geese and never could manage to roast a perfect goose, with medium done breast, tender legs and crispy skin.

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I'm glad to know that it's not just me, but it makes me wonder how roast goose was ever popular. Or maybe the modern varieties just aren't suitable for roasting.

April

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Goose is my favourite meat, but I'm unsure about the "medium done breast, tender legs and crispy skin". If you cooked chicken until medium rare, I doubt that you would get tender legs either.

If you want a medium-rare goose and tender legs, then they really have to be cooked seperately I think. Mostly I do very long slow cooking times, the legs covered in foil to stop them drying out, the breast meat is pink but well done..

Geese haven't been 'intensively' bred like chickens, so the breeds used now a pretty much what was around a hundred years ago etc. The fat content varies a great deal, but you really don't want to roast a very fatty goose as by the time all the fat has rendered out the meat will be very well done.

[Kevin72]

Is it common to braise a goose?

[azureus]

Wish I'd heard about struccolo earlier in the month; I'd like to try one out myself, too.  So was it just puff pastry dough?

What's really odd is that there's a baked version of the struccolo with the same ingredients (maybe a little chocolate and grappa thrown in, too) called gubana, served as a dessert . . .

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No, my version was essentially pasta dough--flour, eggs, and water. The recipe was actually listed under the Primo/Pasta Fresca section of the cookbook. But, to get really confusing, Lidia's version of gubana does use puff pastry. Carol Field's version uses yeast bread. And in Culinaria, there is a recipe for pinza, which uses the same filling, and an egg dough. The dough is rolled up, cut and baked like cinnamon rolls.

April

[Adam Balic]

Is it common to braise a goose?

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There are many recipes for this, but unless you have a very young bird, there will be a lot of fat going into the braise and you will have to work around this.

[FoodMan]

Since this one will probably be my only Fruilian meal this month, I wanted to try something different. So, we had the following:

Tagliolini De Zucca, pasta with pumpkin from Roden’s book. I used butternut squash because I think it had the best flavor and is easiest to work with. The pasta dough itself has some roasted pureed squash in it and it only uses egg yolks. the roasted squash gives it a lovely color and a mild sweet taste. The sauyce is more sautéed squash in butter with little onion. I rolled this one by rolling pin rather than a pasta machine and it was surprisingly pliable, elastic and easy to work with. It was certainly a very good primo to precede the pork and I will be making this again.

The Secondi and contorno was a recipe I’ve always wanted to try from the Babbo Cookbook, “Braised Pork Cheeks- Fruili style” served with sautéed cabbage and prune vinegar. The pork is braised in a combo of aromatics, tomato, apple cider and dark beer. Unfortunately pork cheeks are nowhere to be found over here unless they are smoked as part of the jowl. If I could find them I would’ve made Guanciale a long time ago. So, I substituted what Batali recommends, boneless chunks of pork shoulder. The dish is outstanding and the pork work wonderfully with the tangy vinegar laced cabbage (which also has some homemade pancetta in it). The few drizzles of prune vinegar gives the whole dish a prefect sweet sour note. Since this week has been so damp and cool in Houston, this braise was a very appropriate goodbye to the winter.

Sorry for the not-very-photogenic picture, certainly not like the one in the book. Take my word on it though, it was way better tasting that it’s looks.

[FoodMan]

If you want a medium-rare goose and tender legs, then they really have to be cooked seperately I think.

That was Steingarten's conclusion too . Adam, can the breast remain pink and be well done and not stringy at the same time??

April, that is a fine looking rottolo...I have to make me one soon and pot about it!