This time, two duck breast halves, salted overnight, then dusted with pepper and wrapped in cheesecloth went in the trusty wastebasket to hang for a week. When dried, they’ll be much like prosciutto. With any luck our melons will be ripe by then and we’ll have a feast.
cookblog Posts
Christine recently bought me Hamelman’s Bread book, and I tried his recipe for pizza dough. It came out well; using a biga, or pre-ferment, for taste and texture is the secret. Next time I will probably add half whole wheat for health and flavor. I made two- the first was guanciale and shiitake, the second endive/basil pesto with cherry tomatoes. Given our oven’s upper limit of 500˚, another important key to success is to get…
Indeed. So First off, I managed to pick a ton of green beans and kale, then blanch and freeze them while the duck smoked on our very own apple wood; its neck and giblets went in a pot with carrot, celery, shallot and parsley from the garden to make a broth for freezing until needed. The duck legs, breasts, and fat I ordered arrived, locally sourced, which means that tomorrow is confit and prosciutto day-…
One of our shortcuts to town goes right by Elijah’s, and we stopped in to give Kurt a pickle- they just came out of the crock and I must say I nailed them; they’re just like Grandpa made- and Kurt gave us some beautiful chicken-of-the-woods (yellow and orange) and chanterelles. With the guanciale ready for action, I grabbed some worthy companions from the garden and went to work turning all of it into a heavenly…
Christine returned from the city, bearing a beautiful enameled cast-iron gratin dish that she got for 13 bucks at the dollar store around the corner from our place. It’s indistinguishable from Le Creuset, and got me inspired, given that I had made a merguez mixture a couple of days ago, figuring to grill it on sticks like before. Milo and I had already picked a beet, carrots, and potatoes earier in the day, as well…
It was quite hot and muggy today, and after a swim in the river Milo and I needed something light yet satisfying. The zucchini are going off again, so I made them into “noodles” with the saladacco and churned a thick, yummy sauce of fresh and dried tomatoes, pine nuts, pesto, and oil in the food processor. With a lovely cold glass of Les Domaniers Puits de Moret Côtes de Provence rosé (the Ott acquisition,…
Cook, that is. Christine is in the city for a week so I’m making next to nothing, letting the garden and Milo determine what I have to do. Tonight he had black beans (canned, to my chagrin) plus leftover sweet potato and fresh endive mash which he loves and eats by the handful out of the suribachi while I try to make it. I had tofu tossed with most of the above and some quinoa…
As I mentioned yesterday, our 1976 Clos des Mouches was cooked, so today I marinated pork chops in it with garlic, herbs, salt, 5-spice, and a pinch of brown sugar. They went on the grill after a sliced zucchini got a nice char (I don’t grill veggies with oil any more; the flare-ups are carcinogenic) and then got tossed in oil, salt, and thyme. I also steamed a sweet potato and made an endive mash.…
Liz had yet another dinner party, and I had a hankering to make paté again. So as before, ground pork, rendered bacon fat and the bacon plus spices, garlic, and this time cream, Calvados, and stale bread went in a terrine and into the oven. For some reason it broke- the fat separated out- so once cooled a tiny bit I puréed it all back together again and pressed it in the fridge for four…
Here’s a quick shot of the crock (note the trough around the lip for water to seal it) and the resulting giardinera; everything but the salt is from the garden and they’re tangy, crunchy, and delicious. We’ve given away or eaten all but one jar, so in a couple of days it’s going to be time for round two. There is nothing they don’t complement and enhance, and they’re as healthy as food gets.