Dgourmac's Blog

Bread, Bruschetta, and Brunello

Posted on March 9, 2020 by dgourmac

Over the past 4-5 months my bread-making efforts were dismal failures. The breads did not rise properly, they came out too flat and dense, and I became discouraged, because I was unable to figure out what was wrong. So I did what any normal person would do: hide. Finally, a few weeks ago, I decided to tackle the topic again. This time, instead of using any of the variations of bread formulations which had worked for me previously, I returned to a standard Ken Forkish recipe, Field Blend #2, page 158 in Flour, Water, Salt, and Yeast. I followed the directions precisely, and — although the timing required was longer — it worked perfectly, and my faith was restored.

Breads proofing in baskets, going in refrigerator overnight:

The next morning I baked the loaves and was happy again.

For the next week or two, we had wonderful Bruschetta on demand (e.g. white bean purée and sautéed beet greens):

Two accompaniments of note:

White Bean Purée from Rancho Gordo’s Marcella cannellini, made with chopped onion and garlic, sautéed, and mixed in food processor with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Charkhali — a Georgian-style Pickled Beets, with cayenne, salt, garlic, chopped cilantro, and red wine vinegar, from Sephardic Cooking by Copeland Marks:

Now a confession about the title of this post: I have only one bottle of Brunello left in the wine cellar and I’m not ready to drink it yet, so while I loved the alliteration in the title, I don’t have the Brunello to show you. However, two out of three ain’t bad, and I can recommend an excellent Rosso Veronese, Le Guaite, which goes very well with these dishes.

While we’re on the subject of this wine, it was a perfect accompaniment two days ago to a cabbage, white bean, and cavolo nero soup that I made from a Marcella Hazan recipe. Here’s what it looked like:

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Fabulous Frittata

Posted on March 9, 2020 by dgourmac

I don’t usually tout the recipes I create, but this time, I think I will.

Yesterday, our local farmers, Elena and Karl, had a pop-up farmstand where they were selling spinach, Swiss Chard, scallions, and cilantro from their high tunnel growing tent. I really miss good, fresh greens this time of year, so I was at the farmstand 3 minutes before they opened to make my purchases. They were all gorgeous.

After stripping the leaves from the chard plants, the remaining stems looked young, tender and juicy, so I decided to chop them up and save for dinner tonight. I wilted the spinach and chard in the remaining water that adhered to the washed leaves. Then I sautéed some large, thinly-sliced white mushrooms in olive oil. Removing them from the pan, I added one leek sliced crosswise and the chopped chard ribs, cooking them over moderate heat with salt and pepper. Then I chopped up and added a moderate amount (1-1.5 cups?) of both the wilted chard and spinach leaves. I added chopped scallions just at the end.

Now that the vegetables were prepared, I let them rest in a bowl while I shredded the cheeses (Jarlsberg, a Basque Brique de Brebis, and a pecorino) and put them in a bowl to combine later. The last step in prep was to beat 5 eggs with a little salt and pepper. To the eggs, I added all the cooked vegetables plus the cheeses, and let them all absorb the eggs for about 20 minutes.

I took my best heavy steel skillet, heated it on medium flame with 2-3 Tbs. of olive oil, and then poured in the vegetable/cheese/egg mixture. As the filling solidified, but while the eggs in the center and on top were still loose, I placed the skillet in a preheated oven with the broiler on high. That browned the top, melted the cheese perfectly, and finished the frittata to perfection.

In the meantime Barbara made a salad of sliced avocado, fresh orange and blood orange segments, and topped it all off with chopped cilantro. Colors and flavors were exciting, and the 2003 Barbera d’Asti complemented everything nicely.

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Two Simple & Delicious Spanish Dishes

Posted on March 1, 2020 by dgourmac

If you love tapas, as I do, you must have encountered this ubiquitous shrimp and garlic dish at some point. Known usually as Gambas al Ajillo, it is a wonderful first course or accompaniment to almost any meal. Tonight we made a quick journey to Spain for supper, starting with the Gambas, and making the rest of the meal from an outrageously simple vegetable dish of Potatoes and Green Beans Extremadura Style. Here’s how they looked on the plate:

Here are the recipes and associated cookbooks. Intriguingly, both were cooked in clay pots, and I think they are partially-responsible for the pleasing flavors and textures of the resulting dishes.

I already had a white wine open, so I finished it with this supper. It was a Garganega from the Veneto; not a perfect match but certainly acceptable.

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Library Cookbook Club, and Experiments at Home

Posted on February 9, 2020 by dgourmac

We are always exploring about cooking and eating. Recently we joined a cookbook club at our town library. Once a month the members look at two chosen cookbooks, select a recipe they want to make, and bring it to a group supper. My wife and I each do a dish for the event. It’s fun, we learn some new recipes, and we get to try different things.

Sometimes, one piece of information leads to another, and we go off in new directions fruitfully. That happened last month after a cookbook club evening. We did some research in our food magazines (e.g. Fine Cooking), and the result was several new dishes in our repertoire. In particular, we liked Seedy Herbed Walnuts and Artichoke Galettes. I used the motivation to experiment with a roasted radicchio dish with sheep milk cheese and oven-roasted potatoes, as well.

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Tardivo from the Veneto, Pinot Noir from Colorado

Posted on February 9, 2020 by dgourmac

Last summer my grandson and I traveled to Colorado to visit friends and to be with my brother, Johnny. One of the highlights of that trip was finding an elegant and delicious 2015 Pinot Noir from Stone Cottage in Paonia. Now, almost six months later, I can write about an unusual (and superb) pairing with Radicchio Tardivo, which I’ve been enjoying this winter from the produce department at Eataly in Boston.

I made a salad with the Tardivo and Castelfranco Radicchios, and tossed it with a light balsamic vinaigrette. I also roasted some of each of the radicchios in olive oil. Served with some leftover gnocchi, roasted salmon, and sugar snap peas, this lunch was a marvelous combination for the Pinot Noir.

The wine is lovely, fragrant, and balanced. Further, it is distinctive in its 500 ml. bottle.

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An Appropriate Message Today

Posted on December 25, 2019 by dgourmac

It’s great having friends all over the world. I received this in a text message from a friend in Hong Kong. We’ve known each other for 31 years. It seems appropriate to share this with you today — a warm message from an Indian gentleman to his Jewish friend on a Christian holiday.

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First Snowfall, Tuesday Night Dinner

Posted on December 3, 2019 by dgourmac

Like much of the country as we begin December, we got a hefty chunk of snow the past few days. Through Sunday evening, Monday, and Tuesday, the total accumulation here was about 12″ of fairly wet snow. With significant changes to our logistics plans, I picked up my former student (who was our guest speaker in class for Monday) on Sunday night. Instead of driving 1.5-2 hours to our house for dinner and overnight, we stayed in town Sunday night and were able to avoid another 2 hour trip Monday morning to school.

The class and business plan coaching sessions went very well, and I was able to get back home Monday night at 7 PM. Lorin had plowed the driveway in the afternoon. As always, Barbara ably handled the shoveling of you walkway, Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning. Since the snow continued to mid-day on Tuesday, I was able to run my snow thrower that morning, so the driveway was clear by 11:30 AM.

Tuesday was my night to cook dinner. I took the easy route: main dish was a package of Kite Hill Mushroom Ravioli with Almond Milk Ricotta. We had a bunch of Peruvian asparagus, and Barbara had the idea of making the dish with chopped egg, diced cornichons, and sautéed shallots. That turned out to be quick and relatively easy. Barbara had some flavorful leftover vegan bechamel from a gigantic Lasagna she made a few nights ago, so I used that for the sauce (with a little lemon juice added) for the ravioli.

One of my favorite Italian white wines has always been Greco di Tufo from Campania. I haven’t seen that in stores for some time, but Eileen at Social Wines had a very good Greco from Fatalone in Puglia, and that was a beautiful match.

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Thanksgiving Week Meals without Turkey

Posted on November 30, 2019 by dgourmac

Monday — SRV

This time of year, almost everyone is consumed with Thanksgiving preparations and activities. As a result I go out of my way to relish meals that have no connection whatever to the holiday, except for the traditional meal on Thursday. As you can imagine, that leaves a lot of alternatives to play with. I’ll share two of those from this particular week.

On Monday night I stay in the city for dinner, instead of fighting the gruesome traffic on the way home at 5 PM. This week I took the bus along Mass. Ave. to SRV, a good Venetian-style restaurant on Columbus Avenue. As usual, a glass of wine began the evening — in this case, an Arneis.

For the first plate, I chose an octopus appetizer, which was fried (fritto) along with accompanying pieces of fried potato and artichoke. The dish was attractive, but unfortunately, I found the Tempura-style batter too heavy. It overwhelmed the flavors of the featured ingredients, so I didn’t finish it.

I was still in the mood for a little octopus, so I chose one of the Cichetti — two pieces of Octopus in Saor, with pine nuts, coriander and celery. That was just right.

The main dish that attracted me was Risotto with White Truffles and lots of Parmigiano. The waiter suggested a red wine, and to my delight I found the Eugenio Bocchino Barbera D’Alba on the list, which paired beautifully. I was happy to know that it is a Giannoni Selection, imported by my friend Gemma Iannoni.

The staff responded favorably to my disappointment with the Octopus Fritto, so I was pleased overall. They also had an excellent selection of Amari, which I considered for awhile, but since I had two glasses of wine and still has a 32-mile drive ahead of me going home, I decided to skip the digestif.

The impressionist view of the evening is best expressed with a glass of wine, rendered by the Waterlogue app on my iPhone. Buon appetito.

Waterlogue 1.4.3 (120)
Preset Style = Vibrant
Lightness = Auto-Exposure
Size = Large
Border = No Border

Tuesday, Dinner — Impossible Burger at Not Your Average Joe’s

Barbara and I were both busy driving around on Tuesday, so we did an early dinner at a local restaurant with 1/2 off pricing for burgers on Tuesdays. Plant-based Impossible Burgers hit the spot.

Tuesday, Late Night Snack — Bruschetta and Friends

I almost forgot: I had made some bread on Sunday — two loaves of overnight brown, a tasty whole wheat favorite.

So, when I was hungry at 10:15 PM on Tuesday, bruschetta was top-of-mind. I pan-grilled a slice of the bread, and I opened a jar of a Bruschetta sauce with olives and capers, from Ritrovo, an Italian food supplier, topped it with some sliced cherry tomatoes, and opened a bottle of my most favorite Arizona wine, 2016 Datura, the 100% Petit Verdot from the Oddity Wine Collective. That was pretty spectacular itself.

I was enjoying the wine so much, I looked around for another excuse to drink some more. The “leftovers” drawer in the refrigerator produced a very small Honeynut Winter Squash from Small Farm. Barbara had split and roasted it ten days earlier, so I decided to see if it was any good. A small mouthful tasted fine, so I peeled it, warmed it up with olive oil, salt, and small cubes of feta cheese. Adding some of the tomato spread and black olives from the sauce, I tasted the dish. Wow!! Off the charts, delicious. I was only sad that we had tried only one tiny Honeynut. I could have eaten a very large one happily.

Wednesday — New Recipe for Beets, Crab Cakes and Veggies

We had crabmeat that needed to be cooked, so Barbara handled that ably as always, making crab cakes. I took care of the vegetables, with fresh spinach from Small Farm and frozen corn mixed with cooked leeks and shallots.

I also decided to do some experimentation with the Small Farm beets I bought on Saturday. I steamed them until tender, then peeled and cooled them, while I read The Flavor Bible, with an eye toward complementary ingredients that might offer variety from the usual feta cheese and similar accompaniments. I settled on three key ingredients that I always enjoy (lemons, Dijon mustard, and sliced shallots). I juiced 1/2 lemon, add the grated zest to the bowl, mixed in 2 tsp. of Dijon mustard, and added on small shallot, thinly-sliced. After whisking these all together, I poured the dressing over sliced beets, adding some delicious, crunchy Ibiza sea salt, and we ate these as an appetizer. This was paired with an orange wine from Friuli, and the balance of flavors were most beneficent.

Thursday — Thanksgiving Day

No explanation needed. Perfect traditional meal by Barbara.

Friday — Grilled Halloumi and Vegetables for Lunch, Bacalao for Dinner

(Note: this was in a separate post yesterday. Sorry for the repetition.)

A week earlier I had found a recipe from Serious Eats that intrigued me, so I printed it out and waited for the right time to try it. Friday — lunch — was that time.

Dinner was a chunk of desalted Cod loin from La Tienda, pan/oven roasted, and then topped with our old friend, Ritrovo Bruschetta Sauce. It was accompanied by a simple salad of romaine, endive, and small tomatoes. The wine was a new departure, a 2014 Pacheca Riserva from the Douro Valley on our trip there in March. It was excellent with the rich tomato/olive/caper sauce and the fish.

That was Thanksgiving week — so far.

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Grilled Halloumi and Vegetable Skewers

Posted on November 29, 2019 by dgourmac

I find many Greek dishes extremely satisfying: elemental, flavorful, and uncomplicated. A good example is the recipe I made for lunch today:

Fortunately, since it’s the day after Thanksgiving, all was quiet and I had time for the prep work and cooking. I did about half of quantities for the recipe above. All went smoothly, and the hot gas grill did a fine job. There were two small alterations in my version. One was the addition of a grilled and peeled Poblano pepper from Small Farm. I figured the grill was already hot, so why not roast it at the same time?. (You can see it on the top right in the grill photo.) The other was the choice of Ibiza sea salt to heighten all the flavors, which it accomplished admirably.

The wine choice was easy: we already had a white wine open in the refrigerator, I thought it would be a very good match, and it had Greek characters on the label — even though it was a 2010 Venezia Giulia from Friuli region of Italy, adjacent to the Slovenian border. It turned out to be especially compatible with the charred pieces of Halloumi. Who knew?

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Catching Up — Part 2

Posted on November 22, 2019 by dgourmac

Turnip – Potato Gratin with Bok Choy

October had some pretty good meals. The Small Farm featured in many of those. One of the better ones combined a Potato – Turnip Gratin with young Bok Choy, cooked nicely in my old Chinese wok. It was umami-heaven.

The wine for this combination may surprise you. I chose a 2016 Domaine Ilarria from Irouleguy, in the Basque region of France. Outstanding wine, and a perfect match.

The next day for lunch, I added some rich Rancho Gordo beans to the Bok Choy. We also had some leftover eggplant-tomato tapas and a packaged ravioli of Braised Moroccan Chickpeas and Carrots from Valicenti pasta in Hollis, NH.

Fall Vegetable Medley

Another variant of the use-all-the -farm-fresh-vegetables and take advantage of the hammered steel pan was this Fall Vegetable Medley.

In the meantime Autumn marched on through our town and the conservation land across the street from our driveway.

Cannelloni

One day in October we were blessed with farm spinach and fresh almond milk ricotta from Kite Hill at Whole Foods. Immediately, I leaped into action, making my own pasta and turning that into a vegan Cannelloni, with a side dish of roasted salad turnips and Romano beans.

Lunch at Eataly

On days when I am in the city for classes, I will often go to Eataly Boston for Italian specialties, especially sheep milk cheeses, pastas, and some produce items. Sometimes I stay for a quick lunch, such as this one with Burro e Alici and a Mushroom Ravioli.