Dgourmac's Blog

The Amalfi Coast – 2017

Posted on June 4, 2017 by dgourmac

Ten years earlier I had made a very similar trip alone, so I felt well-prepared to share the experience with Barbara this time around. We stayed at the Hotel Santa Caterina in Amalfi, one of the Leading Hotels of the World (literally and figuratively). From there, we explored:

Ravello (went to two music recitals there)
Positano (round trip by ferry from Amalfi, a little shopping and an excellent lunch)
Amalfi (shopping for Barbara, a haircut for me with Gerardo — my personal Italian barber, and another fine lunch for us both)
visits to two different organic wineries (Le Vigne di Raito in Vietri sul Mare, and Reale in Tramonti) These included tours of the vineyards, tasting the wines, and being served fantastic lunches by each of the proprietors. These were arranged for us by my friend and wine importer, Nick Mucci, of Mucci Imports in Boston. Thank you, Nick!
all of this was greatly facilitated by the superb staff at the Santa Caterina (Pino, Gennaro, Simone, and Matteo) and…
by Salvatore Lucibello and his marvelous drivers at Amalfi Car Service, who transported us safely and comfortably along the tortuous roads that hug the coast and up into the steep hillsides. I’ve been driving cars for 60 years, and have driven before in several parts of Italy, but the city of Naples and the Costa d’Amalfi I leave in the hands of true professionals, like Salvatore and his team.

Overall, this is world-class scenery, food, and wine, with warm, delightful people. It was a wonderful week.

With my barber, Gerardo, in Amalfi

Posted in Almost-Vegan, Food, Music, Travels, Vegan, Vegetarian, Wine | 1 Comment

Easter Weekend in Napoli (and Dublin)

Posted on June 4, 2017 by dgourmac

In mid-April Barbara and I took a trip to Campania — Naples and the Amalfi Coast. Thanks to Joe Brancatelli and his travel newsletter that I subscribe to, I had been able to buy some terrific business class tickets on Aer Lingus. They enabled us to fly from Boston to Naples, via Dublin, so we stayed one night in Dublin as a bonus en route.

Here are a few of the highlights in Dublin and Naples during Easter weekend.

It was a cold and overcast Good Friday morning when we landed in Dublin. Fortunately we had booked a room at what may be the best hotel in the city, The Merrion. It’s a beautiful hotel with superb, gracious service. We were able to spend time in the spa and indoor swimming pool, sipping fresh squeezed orange juice and hot tea, while our room was being cleaned. Once in the room we unpacked and went to a small and comfortable dining area in the hotel for lunch — smoked salmon and brown bread, and a fine draft of Guinness. The warmth of the fireplace quickly dispelled the chill of the day.

Despite the rain showers, we walked around the city center to explore a little in the afternoon. A lovely park and an old cemetery provided quiet beauty and respite from the city traffic.

The biggest surprise in Dublin was the fact that the law forbade the sale of alcohol on Good Friday in public houses. In other words, bars and restaurants were closed (unusual for Ireland). However, as guests of the hotel, we could be served in their restaurant and pub, so we had dinner in the hotel and went to sleep early.

Saturday in Napoli was dedicated to walking around the narrow streets of Centro Storico and finding the best traditional Neapolitan pizza. The major event on Easter Sunday was a visit to the archeological museum and its marvels, along with further exploration of outstanding food, including pasta, seafood, and vegan meals. A parade right next to hotel Sunday morning was an added treat.

Posted in Beer, Food, Travels, Vegetarian, Wine | Leave a comment

Working Backwards, from Most Recent….

Posted on May 8, 2017 by dgourmac

Now let’s see, where were we….

I have not posted anything except for a little music since March. That may be because I haven’t spent two straight weeks at home since the end of January. Traveling and teaching have consumed my energies, but I have only two more trips to make, and I can begin to catch up now. I’ll start with last night’s simple dinner with wonderful wine.

For Saturday’s night’s meal, I made a simple Porcini Risotto. It was very good, and we had some leftovers which provided last night’s meal:

arancini
braised cabbage and carrots
braised, then roasted, fingerling potatoes

Barbara does an amazing job with the arancini. She makes small balls with the leftover risotto, pokes a small hole into the center and stuffs a little steamed zucchini into the hole, seals it up, rolls each ball in bread crumbs, and deep fries it in virgin olive oil. Perfetto!

The wine was a marvelous Cesanese Riserva, from Damiano Cioli, imported by Jan D’Amore. This is far and away the best Cesanese I’ve had. It’s produced by a young couple who have transformed the family vineyards to a stunning, natural boutique wine. Sold by Eataly Vino in New York.

Posted in Food, Friends, Vegan, Wine | 2 Comments

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No 2

Posted on April 28, 2017 by dgourmac

Source: Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No 2

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Quick Culinary Excursion — Another Pasta Dish

Posted on March 19, 2017 by dgourmac

Most often my daytime menu is driven by two forces in the kitchen:

available ingredients
desired cookware

Today’s Sunday lunch was a good example. It started with a relatively new cast iron skillet I purchased recently from Food52 and was eager to try it out. It was made by the Smithey Ironware Company of Charleston, SC, and it seems to be a fine example of American artisans at their best.

I’ve been cooking all weekend, so I was not desperate to use a bunch of items. I did, however, have a nice, small Italian eggplant that warranted attention, and some leftover fennel, vegan sausage, and white beans I should use up. Furthermore, it’s been DAYS since I had pasta, so the path was clear:

sautée cubes of eggplant until tender, then remove
sautée sliced onion, garlic and fennel together
add sausage slices and white beans to the pan, and cook until blended
add the eggplant back into pan, plus salt and pepper
boil a single portion of linguini (135 gm)
mix it all together with some pasta water, 1 tsp of whole-grained Dijon mustard, and grated Calabrian Pecorino
serve in a big pasta bowl.

As I surveyed the scene it felt much like a dish from northeastern Italy — almost to Austria, except there the sausage would be pork, and the vegetables would include cabbage. Fortunately, I remembered that I had a bottle of 2009 Lagrein in the cellar, purchased locally from importer Jeannie Rogers (Adonna Imports) about 7 years ago. It was a perfect match, and a great way to spend 1/2 hour in the Südtirol for lunch.

Posted in Almost-Vegan, Food, Vegetarian, Wine | Leave a comment

Another Saturday Lunch, Three Weeks Ago

Posted on March 18, 2017 by dgourmac

If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you will know that on Saturday mornings when my wife is off doing other things, I have two major activities:

take the garbage out to the town facility
play with my food

Saturday, February 25th was no exception. The garbage went pretty smoothly including recycle (paper, glass, plastic) and take it or leave it. When I got home I did several things in the food category.

The first step was to take my week-old loaf of bread made with Triticale grain and to run it through the slicing machine so I had nice, even slices that enable me to save some for home, as well as take some with me on my trip Monday. Next, I decided to work with some of my vegetables. I had a radicchio di Treviso and chose to braise that slowly in a pot with olive oil, and later, a little bit of salt and pepper and white wine. Following that I took a zucchine, sliced it up, started with some chopped onions — cooked until tender — then added a chopped up piece of chanterelle mushroom, and cooked it for a while until lightly browned. Finally, I added the zucchini slices and some oregano, salt, and pepper

When the zucchini were mostly tender, I added some white wine (twice in small amounts) and let it braise slowly until it was a little brown and very tender. I toasted my bread (two slices), spread the toast with a purée of almond milk ricotta and chopped Spanish black olives, and then topped with broccoli micro greens and the chopped up cooked radicchio.

To the salad I added the one hard-boiled egg, cut in quarters lengthwise, and a few pieces of pickled beets and pickled jalapeno peppers. Served it all with a glass of Lamezia (Gaglioppo) from Calabria.

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Walking Down the Driveway in February

Posted on March 18, 2017 by dgourmac

February in New England can be very cold, very warm, or a little of both. Late last month, I walked down the driveway for the mail, and I was struck by the dramatic skies and scenery around me.

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Sometimes, we go out to eat…

Posted on March 18, 2017 by dgourmac

While I’m posting today, I may as well relate a story about an excellent meal we had one night when we went out to eat locally — a relatively rare occasion. Not only did we eat out, but we also BOTH had cocktails. I think that had not happened since 1978.

We went to Burton’s Grill in Westford, MA. Barbara ordered the “Winter Citrus and Sage”, made with a designer vodka and tangerine syrup (see the listing below), and I had a “Green Tea Salty Dog”, with Bombay Sapphire Gin, fresh grapefruit juice and Himalayan pink sea salt.

Both drinks were superb. Dinner was simple; beet salad and side of french fries for her. and a spicy Thai Rice Bowl for me. Very tasty, plus enough to take home for leftovers.

Finally, all of those taste treats were supplied with excellent service and a modest tab, which I was happy to pay, plus tip.

Posted in Food, Vegan | 2 Comments

World Class Leftovers?…. and Saturday Lunch

Posted on March 18, 2017 by dgourmac

We are sometimes accused of having world-class leftovers in our fridge. While there may be some truth in that, I can assure you that those leftovers — in their natural habitat — look anything but “world-class”. For example, here are some leftover black beans, lentils in broth, white beans in broth, cooked toasted rye berries, and half of a purple daikon radish. Hardly the stuff “dreams are made of”. They were in the refrigerator this morning as I began to play around in the kitchen.

My first order of business was to make vegan sausage, just because I had some Vital Wheat Gluten and Nutritional Yeast, two components of Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s recipe which I had made once before. It took about an hour to make the mix, steam the sausages, and chill them for use. In the meantime, I had just read an article in the NY Times online about Gascony, and I was getting hungry. Based on the article, I was in a duck fat, Southwestern France frame of mind, but also thinking vegan, so I started looking up recipes for what I could do with the unlikely combination of lentils, beans, sausage, and rye berries. A few recipes caught my eye, but especially this one: Wheat Berry and Lentil Salad, so I adapted it to what I had, and the results were marvelous.

I sliced up one of the sausages and sautéed it in a cast iron skillet. Serving the sausage with some whole-grained mustard, I ate the salad and sausage, while drinking a Villa Creek Willow Creek Cuvée GSM blend, and I was transported to Gascony — without any duck fat but with some of the flavors I imagined.

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Deep, Dark, Delicious — Bruschetta for Lunch

Posted on January 26, 2017 by dgourmac

One of my go-to lunches this time of year is Bruschetta. Simple, colorful, satisfying, and Vegan, this dish has all the basic food groups:

Vegetables (roasted red peppers, capers)
Grains (my homemade Seeded Rye Levain Bread)
Fruit (olives in Pate Nere from Puglia)
Nuts (Kite Hill Almond Milk Ricotta)
Chocolate (especially if you include some of Barbara’s Avocado Chocolate Mousse)

Bruschetta on the plate

Lots of variations are possible, depending on what you like and what you have. Here are the basic steps I used:

Bread. I had baked two loaves of my seeded rye bread in December, eating one at the time and freezing the other. Two days ago I defrosted the second one, and today there was half the loaf left. Toast, grill or pan-fry two slices of the bread; I fried mine with olive oil in a skillet.
Toppings. The first layer was almond milk Ricotta, made more spreadable by mashing it with olive oil. Next came the Pate Nere, right from the jar. This one is just organic olives and oil — no capers, anchovies, parsley, or Cognac. Finally, I had roasted some wonderful and inexpensive Israeli sweet red peppers from the market several days ago. They had been peeled, sliced and marinating in oil and capers in the refrigerator since. They were warmed up in the skillet after the bread was done, and slid on top of the other layers. Notice the presence of organic olive oil in everything. I believe it has contributed greatly to my health; it has had NO effect on my weight; and it’s responsible for the shimmering umami you see in the closeup photos, below.
Dessert. I rarely do desserts, but this avocado mousse is outstanding. And it is vegan. The recipe is at the bottom of the posting.