Corn A’plenty…

Posted on September 18, 2012 by dgourmac

We are in the waning days of sweet corn season, so it’s time to make the most of this delicious food.  Tonight’s blog is about a lunch I made two days ago, featuring something called “Corn Butter” and some sympatico companions in our larder (can vegans use that word?) .

I must tell you that I frequently get ideas from a great food blog: Food52.  As I looked over their page that day, I saw Yotam Ottolenghi’s Sweet Corn Polenta with Eggplant Sauce, and it struck a chord for me.  We had just bought 6 ears of corn from a local farmer, and they were great.  Since I had just made polenta last week, I explored a little further and found another Food52 recipe, one for Creamless Creamed Corn.  Finally, reading through that, I found reference to Whitney Chen’s Amazing One-Ingredient Corn “Butter”.  So we bought more corn and made this cornerstone dish.

Back to lunch on Saturday: Using the corn butter as a foundation, I pulled out the remaining ingredients I wanted to work with:

  • fresh beet greens from a bunch of beets I bought at the farmer’s market that morning
  • fresh sweet red pepper that I had cut into strips and sauteed slowly in olive oil, finished with a bit of red wine vinegar boiled off at the end
  • a couple of slices of my homemade whole wheat Tartine bread
  • leftover Moroccan eggplant jam which Aaron had made from a Paula Wolfert recipe

First, I grilled the bread in a ridged pan on a hot stove.  Next, I wilted the beet greens in a bit of the olive oil left in the pan from the peppers.  After spreading the corn butter on the bread, I topped it with various combinations of those toppings, poured a glass of Masseria Li Veli Verdeca, and ate heartily.

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Li Veli Verdeca Update

Posted on September 14, 2012 by dgourmac

A few days ago I posted a story about my polenta supper and Verdeca wine from Masseria Li Veli in Puglia.  Since my son and I had visited the winery this Spring, I sent the link to Giovanni, who is the Manager of that winery property and who was the gracious host to our visit.  He was kind in his praise, spoke about the new harvest and provided a great photo, which I embellished a bit and post below:

(“We are having a really great harvest this year: the grapes are perfectly ripe and the weather is wonderful.  I send you directly from my phone a picture of the Verdeca grapes picked yesterday.”)

His email closes with this quote from Goethe:

“La vita è troppo breve per bere vini mediocri” 

 

 

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Mostly Vegan Verdure al Forno

Posted on September 14, 2012 by dgourmac

I do miss cheese sometimes.  That is why, last night as I was fantasizing about making some sort of a vegetable casserole for dinner, I held a brief discussion with the guardian of my health (my alter ego).  We agreed that the following recipe would be as salubrious as it would be healthy — even with a small amount of cheese (thus, mostly vegan).

 

It was preceded to the table with a small antipasto, consisting of:

  • thinly-sliced kohlrabi in a celery seed rice wine vinaigrette
  • diced red and choggia beets
  • homemade cucumber pickles
  • Gaeta and Castelvetrano olives

 

 

While the content is almost all vegetables, the dish packs a lot of flavor.  The long cooking plus the natural sweetness of the corn water concentrates those flavors, so it was well-accompanied by a medium-bodied red wine from Tuscany.  My choice was a 2010 Morellino di Scansano — “Passera” — made from Sangiovese grapes.  It was a superb match and only $16 retail – before my 10% discount.

 

 

Variations and substitutions:  this dish provides broad flexibility in choice of ingredients, based on product availability and your tastes.  I actually added a handful of cooked cremini and dried Chinese mushrooms which I scooped out of some leftover mushroom and barley soup from the night before.  If I had celery in the refrigerator, that would have gone in, too.  Red, yellow or orange peppers would also go well, as would yellow squash, chickpeas, fava beans — whatever you like.

Another variation to consider would be to serve the cooked vegetables on top of pasta, rice, farro, couscous, or other grains.  The key to success is high-quality produce, combined with proper braising and baking technique — mostly trial and error — but also a process that seems quite forgiving, which is why mine came out fine and yours probably will too.  Buon appetito.

 

 

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An Easy Supper

Posted on September 11, 2012 by dgourmac

Tired from a day of teaching (me) and quilting (Barbara), we decided to do something quick and relatively easy for supper last night.  Naturally, Italy was the inspiration, complemented by the remaining bounty of summer vegetables.  Total time = 30 minutes.

First course was leftover savory carrot soup which Barbara made the previous evening.  This version was tingly-spicy from a bit of extra Costa Rican black peppercorns, and it was less fruity without the apples and nuts she normally adds to the blender — and thus, much more to my liking.

The main dish was simple, a bowl of polenta, with added kernels of sweet corn off the cob, topped with juicy diced heirloom tomato and sautéed baby artichokes:

Preparation was straightforward:

  • Boil 750 ml. of water, with a few pinches of kosher salt and 2 Tbs. olive oil
  • Slowly add 250 g. of medium polenta (see photo below, preferably from Italy)
  • Turn heat to medium low, and stir regularly with a large whisk
  • After 10 minutes, add a cup or two of corn kernels, and continue stirring
  • Remove from the heat after 25-30 minutes, when polenta is thick and smooth
  • Separately, take 4 baby artichokes, break off tough outer leaves, and cut off the top half of each.  Cut each one in half vertically.  Saute the eight pieces in olive oil and salt added, until browned on each side.  Lower the heat and add about 1/3 cup of white wine or water.  Cover and braise until tender.
  • Slice a large heirloom tomato, then dice into 3/4-inch chunks.  Drizzle a little olive oil, salt and pepper on tomatoes in a bowl.
  • Place polenta in a pasta bowl.  Top with tomato and artichoke pieces.  Mangia!
  • Serve with a full-bodied Italian white wine, such as the Li Veli Verdeca shown below.

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Johnny’s Brown

Posted on August 31, 2012 by dgourmac

A very pretty fish.  Should be added to post below…

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Trout Fishing in Colorado

Posted on August 31, 2012 by dgourmac

When I was growing up in suburban New Jersey, I used to dream of trout fishing in Colorado.  Over the years my youngest brother listened to my fantasies, and 40 years ago he decided to try it out.  He loved it, stayed there, and made his home and career as a pioneer in solar energy on the Western slopes of Colorado ever since.

I’m very glad he did, for my sake as well as his.  I’ve gone out to visit and fish with him many times, but this summer was the first occasion in 7 years that I made the trip.  We had a great time together, exploring the non-profit solar education organization he founded 20 years ago, enjoying time with his family, visiting towns I hadn’t seen before, sampling my first Colorado wines, and…trout fishing.  Here’s the family:

Fire-Roasted Chiles in a market in Paonia, CO:

On the same shelf, same store, 2,001 road miles and 5,600 vertical feet from NYC:

And, to complete my food blog, the flyer for the Fifth Annual Eagle Mushroom Festival:

Oh, yes…and we caught trout float fishing on the Colorado River, near Glenwood Springs, and of course, these were released safely immediately after landing them:

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49th College Reunion

Posted on August 31, 2012 by dgourmac

What could be more exciting than the 49th college reunion for a small group of men who graduated from an engineering school specializing in naval architecture and marine engineering in 1963?  Especially when that special event occurred on an island in the Ohio portion of Lake Erie.  Well, you guessed it; that was another highlight of the summer for me.  As a member of the graduating class of 15 guys (it was not coed in those days), I was very happy to see 9 of us gathering, complete with our partners, once again.  After all, we have known each other and worked together over 53 years; participated in each other’s weddings and other family events; and shared an esprit de corps that comes from surviving intense emotional, intellectual and physical trauma collectively.

I won’t bore you with the details, but here are a few of the photographic highlights:

Full-size replica of Oliver Hazard Perry’s ship, The Niagara (There’s no “V” in the name!)  It’s actually an interesting story.  Most of us don’t know much about the War of 1812, but if it weren’t for Perry and his actions in Lake Erie, we all might be Canadians right now.

Nine of the remaining 14 grads of Class of 1963:

The usual suspects & their better halves:

This was a good warm-up to our 50th, next year.  Hopefully, it will be quite awhile before we all fade into the sunset.

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Wine 317 – Southern Italian wines

Posted on August 31, 2012 by dgourmac

One of the great joys of summer is the arrival of Aaron and his friends on the island, for our annual wine tasting event.  What began as Wine 101 one evening many years ago has progressed through various stages, to a four-day food and wine / family and friends celebration.  This year was particularly special since Sarah, Nathan, and the D Boys were also visiting at the same time.  Our wine focus was on 14 wines — mostly of Southern Italy, where Aaron and I had been (Puglia and a touch of Basilicata) this Spring.  For good measure, I threw in a couple of older Bordeaux wines from my cellar.

One of the new members of the club is Patrick, a friend of Jeremy.  His creativity was inspired one afternoon, when he looked at our cottage and associated shack from the vantage point of our main deck.  He envisioned Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World painting from that landscape, and then enlisted Molly as the model for his own replica.  The resulting compare-and-contrast image, below, is astonishing:

It’s difficult to capture the energy, good humor, and fine tastes of these young people in electronic media, but a few photos and a video will give you some idea of the occasion.  Thanks for the photos by Kara, Ashley, Molly, Patrick and Sarah.

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Cianfotta

Posted on August 30, 2012 by dgourmac

Simple cooking is often the best.  Summertime and the abundance of fresh vegetables call out for dishes like Cianfotta — a Southern Italian country-style vegetable stew.  The launching point was a fine cookbook from my library by Viana La Place — Verdure, Vegetables Italian Style.  Here is her recipe:

With a dish like this, improvisation is not just allowed, it’s encouraged.  So I drew on my favorites available that evening, and made the dish with these elements:

  • Olive oil, garlic, spring onions, leek, celery stalk, rosemary, saffron
  • zucchini, eggplant (diced), yellow bell pepper (strips), Yukon Gold potato
  • tomatoes, jalapeno, borlotti beans (Italian, canned)
  • 2 cups of Asian greens, sauteed and chopped

Using a wide sauteuse, I cooked these together in a few stages, pretty much as she outlines in her recipe.  Results were delicious; also good the next day, and enhanced by the addition of capers packed in salt, rinsed and warmed up with the vegetables.

Of course, one of the glories of Italian cooking is that everyone has a different version (or even a name) for any particular dish.  Since Cianfotta (also known as Ciambotta) is from Naples, it is worth reading what Arthur Schwartz (the maven of Neapolitan cooking) has to say on the subject.

Cianfotta recipe – Schwartz

Then, you can roll your own.  Buon appetito.

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Recalling July and August….

Posted on August 30, 2012 by dgourmac

The past six weeks have been a blur — did lots, wrote very little, as you know.  But, I am back home, rested and ready to recall some of the highlights of my food and other adventures.  This post will touch lightly on several good meals early during that period.

Vegetables have been plentiful and gorgeous this summer.  One of my suppers started with a first course of beets, hearts of palm, peppadews, olives, and tahini sauce:

This was followed by a Tofu Scramble, accompanied by toasted bread rubbed with heirloom tomatoes:

In mid-July the local farm stand offered their own butter beans (or wax beans, as I would know them), and I made a dish wish sauteed carrots along with a plate of grilled zucchini with a balsamic drizzle, and imported Greek beans with tomato sauce (from a can!):

Those same wax beans provided another good dish, starting with a base of brown rice and black barley, cooked separately and mixed.  Then a vegetable medley with zucchini, beets, swiss chard, and turnips was pan-roasted and placed on the grains:

 

That same week also produced a simple plate of the best vegetables — some pan-roasted, others in the oven:

  • sweet potato
  • eggplant topped with tomato sauce
  • turnips
  • golden and red beets
  • frying peppers
  • yu choi, stir-fried with red onion, and incorporating cooked farro

Lest you be concerned that I have given up wine, I am providing a photo of the 2007 Lacrima di Morro d’Alba which accompanied this meal and the next.

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