Living on the edge…

Posted on March 27, 2018 by dgourmac

Last week I had the pleasure of giving the 20th consecutive Wine 101 session, a basic introduction to wine for the senior class of my undergraduate school on Long Island, NY.    It was an intimate affair; there are only 23 students in the class, which includes 2 students who are visiting for the semester from the University of Southampton in England.  We tasted 11 wines, with a wide variety of terroirs represented: France, Spain, Italy, California, Arizona, Portugal, Israel and New Zealand.

As planned, I drove into NYC to spend three days and two nights exploring food and wine, and visiting with friends, in the city where I grew up.  This post is primarily about my New York visit, similar to other adventures I have made bi-annually during the past few years.

What made this trip different was the forecast for dramatic snowfall in the city (12-18″), which began late the first night and significantly affected plans and activities for the next day.  My first stop after checking in to a perfect Airbnb apartment in an ideal location was a visit to Eataly Vino, a delightful Italian wine store adjacent to Eataly’s flagship location on 23rd Street.  I had purchased a case of wine there in November, but unfortunately, all the bottles did not arrive in time before I had to leave the city on the last trip, so my case rested peacefully in the Riserva section for four months, waiting for me to reclaim it.

One of the great charms of this store is the manager, Lenny Rankin, a modest but insightful and knowledgeable philosopher-king of the kind one often discovers in New York.  After discussing wines for awhile, our conversation turned to the weather and the dire predictions for Wednesday (the next day).  For weeks I had planned to visit my friends Jan and Jen on Wednesday night for dinner.  In fact, Jan is a wine importer and supplier to Lenny, which is how I found the store in the first place.

I was equivocating about whether or not to keep our date, since it involved a long trip up to Harlem, where they lived.  To get there would be impossible by taxi or Uber at rush hour during a heavy snow.  Only the subway offered a reasonable alternative, but I would have to walk through the snow and slush to get to the subways, and I had not brought any boots from home, so I had images of cold, wet feet all night.

Lenny encouraged me to go there anyway.  When he smiled at me and said, “if you’re not living on the edge, you are taking too much space,” I cracked up.  He had me then and there.  So the next day I stopped at a sporting goods store, bought a pair of waterproof boots (I needed new ones anyway), and made the trip without incident the next night.

In the meanwhile I have some food and wine to tell you about, since that’s why I was there in the first place.  Tuesday’s lunch was at abc cocina, Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s upscale farm-fresh eatery which serves Latin American fusion food.  It is only four blocks from my apartment, and since I had eaten at his vegetarian restaurant next door on my last trip, it was time to go Latin.  It’s a beautiful place and the food is terrific.  It was quite busy, but I got there just in time to get a table for one.

I was starved, so I started with an order of their spicy guacamole, which was incredibly delicious.  The other dishes were the maitake mushrooms with goat cheese, and the charred octopus with smoked paprika crème fraiche — both excellent.  For wine, I had a glass of cinsault/carignan from Chile, just right for the meal.

As always, I found Jean-Georges’ restaurant to be superb in every dimension.

 

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Big Snows, a Georgian Lunch, and Homemade Tagliatelle

Posted on March 18, 2018 by dgourmac

Most of the news for the past two weeks has been the heavy snows.  Three Nor’easter storms delivered over 40 inches (1 meter) of new snow in just 11 days.  We survived, as most New Englanders do.  And we marked our endurance and good fortune by taking artistic photos of our snow-filled landscape, and by cooking.

Snow Scenes

I even found an opportunity to do a Waterlogue version of a Cambridge view of Boston and the Charles River from in front of MIT’s Great Dome:

Waterlogue rendition of my photo

Georgian Lunch

The best lunch of the week was the result of my expedition into Watertown.  I went to buy a specially good Pecan Butter from Fastachi, but I also visited several of my favorite Armenian markets for some of their goodies.  One new item was a jar of “Georgian fried vegetables” which looked enticing.  It turned out to be a terrific mixture of eggplant, garlic, onions, celery, sweet peppers, and olive oil — velvety smooth, unctuous, and delicious.

Another recent purchase were several breads from Clear Flour in Boston, perhaps the best bakery on the East Coast.  Several slices of the Epi bread and a few of the Rustic Spicy Olive bread were perfect foils for the vegetable spread.

Much to my amazement I remembered that I had purchased a bottle of Georgian wine, a red blend named Sachino, so I pulled it out of the cellar and poured several glasses — a most favorable accompaniment.

Homemade Spinach Tagliatelle with Asparagus Sauce

Having successfully made a batch of tagliatelle a couple of weeks ago, I chose to make a green pasta version with fresh spinach puréed into the dough.  Again, the simple proportions of 200 grams of double-zero Italian flour mixed with two whole eggs provided the base.  The spinach was washed and dried, but not cooked (an Alice Waters recipe from Chez Panisse Pasta).  I used less than 1/2 cup of the purée, but it still made the dough wetter than I would have liked, so I compensated by using a good bit of flour when kneading and rolling the dough.

I folded the sheets of dough and hand-cut the tagliatelle to supply my spinach noodles.  The sauce was simple: just a finely diced half of an onion, cooked slowly in 1 Tbs. of butter and another Tbs. of olive oil, plus one bunch of asparagus, trimmed, cut, blanched, and then sautéed with the onion.  All was finished with the noodles stirred with the sauce, some pasta water and almost a cup of grated Parmesan cheese.  The wine was a very good natural Grillo from Sicily, which did an exceptional job pairing successfully with asparagus — not an easy trick.  Thank you, Eileen and Social Wines!

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Late Dinner at SRV Boston

Posted on March 7, 2018 by dgourmac

I was in town late yesterday, so when my meetings were over, I went to SRV Boston for a late dinner.  (SRV = Serene Republic of Venice)  This is an intriguing restaurant.  I go there for the pasta, and for the Venetian overtones.  You might enjoy this review from the Boston Globe.

The wine list is appropriately strong with choices from the Italian northeast regions.  Unmoved by the list of selections by the glass, I decided to start with a house specialty, a Negroni.  Very glad I did.  It was terrific.

The server surprised me with a tasty plate of amuse bouche, a gift from the kitchen.  I did not catch all the ingredients when she recited them, so I just ate and enjoyed.

Next was my Piatto — a Potato-Montasio Cheese Frico.  It was outstanding, especially the mouth-filling chunks of kohlrabi brovada (which I later learned is a lightly pickled vegetable preparation from Friuli).

Finally, I chose the pasta course — Tortelli Piacentini (description and photo below).

Not especially attractive visually, these Tortelli reminded me of blintzes ( they were filled with a fresh cheese, reminiscent of Farmer Cheese).  Cardoons and sour oranges have probably never graced blintzes.  The flavors were exotic and pleasurable.  They were also VERY hard to match with wine, so I continued to sip my Negroni (which paired very well)  For fun I also asked for a taste of the Li Veli Malvasia Nera, which I did find complementary (as well as complimentary).  Having visited Masseria Li Veli in Puglia twice before, I was gratified to find the wine from the southern tip of Italy playing well with the food from the most northeastern location.

By the time I drove home, all the traffic had dissipated.   It was a fine evening.

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Tagliatelle with Parsnips and Pancetta

Posted on March 6, 2018 by dgourmac

I don’t know if I could function with “Search” tools.  If they did not exist, I would never have been able to find, and then prepare, a great supper last Friday.  A few days earlier, I had purchased some gorgeous parsnips at our greengrocer.  They were clean, nicely tapered, and fresh-looking.  As I often do, I take an ingredient like this, and I search my own files, as well as the Internet, for recipes that feature it.  Thus, I was able to find “Tagliatelle with Parsnips and Pancetta” in my Pasta recipe folder on my Dropbox account.

I had copied that recipe from an issue of Gourmet magazine in October, 2000.  It was adapted from a Babbo recipe by Mario Batali, and it rested peacefully in my folder for 18 years, until I decided to try it out.

Because i always enjoyed tagliatelle, and I had the time on Friday, I decided to make the pasta fresh that afternoon.  Using the last of a small package of Italian double-zero (00) flour, I quickly made the pasta, and then prepared the rest of the dish.  It was easy to prepare, and quite delicious.  The sweetness of the sautéed parsnips and the contrast of the crisp pancetta made a perfect counterpoint to each other.

For the wine, I chose a 2012 Damiano Ciolli Cirsium Cesanese Riserva, imported by Jan D’Amore and purchased at Eataly Vino in NYC, a fortuitous combination, indeed.

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Simple Sunday Supper — Spaghettini Frittata with Black Garlic

Posted on February 26, 2018 by dgourmac

Well, it COULD have been a supper; it was actually Sunday lunch, but I like the alliteration the other way.

We had returned from Jamaica late Saturday night, and I had not cooked for a week.  The refrigerator had been emptied when we left.  We were hungry, so I made a late dinner of spaghettini, with a sauce of chopped salted anchovies and garlic sautéed in olive oil, to which I added one plum tomato peeled and diced, finished with salt and pepper, parsley, Parmesan cheese, and more Ligurian olive oil.  Quite tasty, but that’s not what the post is about.

Instead, it’s about the remaining pasta: leftover spaghettini with no sauce.  For a quick lunch on Sunday before going to a concert, I sautéed the pasta in olive oil, beat 4 eggs in a bowl, added grated Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, and then dropped in the cooked pasta.  All of this was placed in the nonstick pan I used with the spaghettini, and cooked over moderate heat, covered, until it was browned on one side.  Then, I flipped the frittata over, and finished cooking the other side.  The frittata went onto a big serving plate, and I added toppings: chopped parsley, small pieces of black garlic, and more olive oil.  For a wine I went for a Colle Ticchio Cesanese from Lazio.  Altogether delightful.  So was the Prokofiev 5th Symphony at the concert.

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Midnight Snack: Bruschetta with Friends

Posted on February 13, 2018 by dgourmac

Sometimes I need a midnight snack.   Peanut butter or Cheez-Its don’t do the trick.  Tonight was one of the more elaborate versions — satisfying my hunger, desire for favorite foods, and restoring delightful flavors to my mouth before bedtime.  It also helps that I had a nap for almost two hours this afternoon.

What I often do for this situation relies on bread.  Fortunately, I had a portion of a loaf made last week –a  Tartine-style Levain Sourdough bread, made from 80% bread flour, 15% home-milled Whole Wheat, and 5% home-milled Triticale.  As it had aged a bit on the counter, I sliced it very thinly with the electric slicer and froze the remaining 1/2 loaf.  These slices were no more than 1/8″ thick, and they could be defrosted and toasted directly in our electric toaster.

Now I had the plan.  Bruschetta with olive paste, roasted sweet peppers, and almond milk  ricotta cheese.   The other friend I needed to complete the pleasure was Victor Hazan, author of Italian Wine, my first bible on the topic.  The olive paste was Pate Olive Nere from Azienda Taurino in Puglia, where I had visited two years ago.  The peppers were in a jar, from Turkey, but they were thick and flavorful — perfect for the job.

I had a bottle of a Portuguese red wine open, but this called for something Italian, so I went to the cellar and returned with a 2012 Guidobuono Barbera d’Alba, from Jan D’Amore.  I don’t know Barberas that well, so I needed an introduction from Victor, and he provided a beauty.

“Although I had had a bottle of it now and then, I had never had much enthusiasm for Barbera, nor really understood the wine until my first trip to Piedmont.  I had arrived in the evening, late in November.  It was foggy; the streets of Asti were dark and empty; I was cold.  This was the hard, silent, impenetrable Piedmont I had always imagined and had long put off visiting.

It was nearly 10 P.M., and I asked to be directed to a trattoria.  Only one was still open.  I thought of balmy Rome which I had left in the morning and where at that very moment restaurants were beginning to fill up.  As I sat down, I was asked what I would be drinking.  In small Italian restaurants one usually talks wine before talking food.  Asti is Barbera country, so ‘Barbera” I told the man, but “bring me one of your best bottles.”

The food was sturdy and extraordinarily good — bagna cauda to start with …. and bolitto misto.  But the star of the evening was the Barbera, a five-year-old from the village of Rocchetta Tanaro.  The color was flashing garnet; the fragrance intense, of crushed flowers and concentrated fruit.  It was a mouthfilling, chewy wine, brawny, but without any hard edges.  The sense of comfort was immediate, chasing the chill, the loneliness, the oppressive awareness of the fog waiting at the door.  This is what Barbara is all about.”

I have no photos of the assembled bruschetta, but they were rich and delicious.  My Barbera was 6 years old, and I can not improve on Victor’s description in any way.  I can only add that I was very happy that I decided to save the Portuguese wine for another night.  And the yelping of coyotes down in our woods didn’t phase me at all.

 

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Spaghetti alla Chitarrra con Vongole

Posted on February 10, 2018 by dgourmac

Pasta with clam sauce, if you will.  Today’s lunch, and one of my most frequent meals over time.  Just a dozen of the smallest littleneck clams, a handful of pasta, olive oil, sliced garlic, a little Calabrian hot pepper, chopped parsley, and white wine.  The dish almost makes itself, although there is a little art in getting the clams to steam themselves open and finishing the pasta in the sauce without overcooking the clams.

The choice of wines can vary tremendously.  Today I chose what was open, a Paso Robles white wine with Rhône Valley grapes, a bit richer than I’d like, but still very good.

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Japanese Herb Tofu and American Vegetables

Posted on February 10, 2018 by dgourmac

Barbara tends to like a traditional-style American meal, with three things on the plate: protein, starch and vegetable.  Since we don’t eat meat anymore, and fish is infrequent,  I had to ad-lib the other day, but it worked out well.

First step was two cook two baked potatoes.  Preheat the oven to 425º F.   Wash and scrub two russet potatoes, and rub the skins with a little softened butter.  Bake in the oven while you do other things.

The protein was provided by an interesting food blog about healthy Japanese home cooking.  She provided a nice PDF with visual instructions on how to make cubes of tofu, flavored with a variety of herbs.  I had no dried dill, so I used 1 tsp. dried marjoram.  Here is how it looked in my nonstick pan.

We had some superb organic green beans, so that made the vegetable choice easy and colorful.  Cooked in salted boiling water, then drained.  Finally, they were finished with a little butter or olive oil, and some packaged dried onions.

The baked potatoes were opened and stuffed with butter or olive oil, plus chopped scallions and watercress.  And, for variety and interest, I heated up a bunch of Gaeta olives in olive oil, with herbs, as a side dish.

So traditional, and not so much at the same time.

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Barbara’s Culinary Artistry — revised on February 9th

Posted on February 7, 2018 by dgourmac

I actually do about half or less of the cooking.  Barbara is a superb and prolific cook in her own right.  Tonight was all hers.

I went to an afternoon movie (Tuesday is special pricing – $6), so I was out of the way and she could unleash her creativity.  She had recently sorted through years of recipes ripped out of magazines, newspapers, and other sources, and she had assembled a large collection of recipes that appealed to her.  These are still in the process of being indexed, but she was inspired by two of the recipes which she modified for dinner tonight.

The first dish was a Zucchini and Fresh Goat Cheese Tart.  [Please note that the wrong recipe was provided when initially posted.]  The dish was amazing!

Although inspired by this recipe for the salad, she made one that was a lot better, and quite different.  Hers featured Watercress, Endive, Shaved Fennel, Orange segments, Radishes, and an orange-olive oil dressing.

Visually, texturally, healthwise and for flavor, the meal was a huge winner.  I did get to make one choice — the wine.  I went to the white wine open at the time, a Famoso Ravenna, imported by Nick Mucci, and it was a perfect match, with both the tart and the salad, and especially with the goat cheese.  At least one department is still mine alone.

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Assorted Mouthfuls

Posted on February 5, 2018 by dgourmac

During the past week I’ve been lax in the food photo department, so this entry is less organized and attractive than full meals I would normally document.  I’ve been as active and exploratory as ever, but I will ask you to use your imagination to picture the results more than usual.

For example, I found a package of Rancho Gordo  Yellow Indian Woman heirloom beans in my pantry, and I decided to cook up a batch.

Normally, I soak beans overnight and then simmer them with only an onion and bay leaf the next day.  However, these are such rich, creamy beans, I decided to try a more full-bodied flavor approach.  Using a recipe for Yellow Eye Bean Soup from the New York Times Cooking archives, I prepared the beans as below, in Step 1 portion of the recipe.

They were wonderful, as was the rich broth, too.  Having plenty of time that afternoon, I did some more research and settled on this Peasant-Style Risotto recipe in the book Fagioli, by Judith Barrett, a gem of a used book purchased from Amazon last year.

Borlotti are similar beans in color and texture, so I knew I was on the right track.  We had about 1/2 cabbage in the back of the refrigerator, so that was a good choice, and a little pancetta always warms the winter heart (and stomach) of this almost-vegan diner.  This risotto was perfect on a cold night for the two of us, and leftovers provided lunch for me today — although I felt the need from some crostini, as well.

I had baked two loaves of Tartine’s Country Style Bread this morning, so two slices with some heirloom tomato, diced and marinated with salt, pepper, olive oil, a little red wine vinegar, and dried Greek oregano was the perfect accompaniment.

While we’re on the subject of crostini, I have to tell you about two packaged products that gave me similar pleasure a few days earlier.  Another lunchtime, and I drew out of a carefully-wrapped package some rustic Italian bread, and some baguette slices — leftovers from Clear Flour bakery last week.  I had also made a white bean purée from cannellini beans, onion, garlic, and salt.  Just a little of the purée was still left, so I spread it on a slice of bread, topped it with a piece of roasted red pepper (Divina brand, from Turkey), and added a pickled caper leaf from Santorini.  Mouth-watering, and very fine with whatever white wine was open on that day.  Plus one large Puglian green Bella di Cerignola olive.

Yesterday was Barbara’s turn, and she rose to the occasion.  It was Super Bowl day of course, so she made an excellent vegan black bean chili with blue corn chips for our meal before the start of the game.  Two glasses of Pallagrello Nero (Silva Nigra from Cantine Rao) rounded out the mouthfuls.

Moral of these vignettes: one can do some marvelous culinary things with beans!

Game Day Vegan Black Bean Chili on Blue Corn Chips

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