My Plate or Yours?

Beakfast Weddy, Gampa

Family memory -- more my mother's than mine -- has me toddling down the hallway of a relative's lake home to summon my grandfather for breakfast, with a pudgy one year old's stuttering steps and a notable inability to pronounce my "r's." "Beakfast Weddy Gampa" became part of our personal shorthand and perhaps explains my inordinate affection for the first meal of the day. 

Extraordiary breakfasts are the subject of my latest Bloom column -- and I have really lucked into some wonderful ones lately. That beauty in the photo was the breakfast at our amazing hotel, the U Zlate Studne, in Prague this last December -- great cheeses, perfect pastries, and the best damn yogurt I have ever had.

Oh yeah, and a dynamite cup of hot chocolate.

Gout Fest

One of the blessings of living part time in Florida is the readily available bounty of the sea.  A mixed blessing, as it turns out, because my husband, a life-long lover of the briny Apalachicola oyster, has once or twice so over-indulged that he has landed himself with a hideous attack of “the gout.”

Gout is a very painful malady, usually presenting as an inflamed big toe joint so tender that the weight of a sheet on it can cause the sufferer to yelp with pain. It is brought on by elevated levels of uric acid, caused by, among other things, the consumption of large quantities of alcohol, meat, and seafood, leading to its one-time nickname, the “rich man’s disease.” In fact, I had thought gout was something that only afflicted wealthy irascible port-drinking elderly gentlemen in historical novels, but it turns out even poorer, less cranky and not-so-elderly people in modern times get it too if they eat enough oysters. 

And actually, an attack of gout can make you pretty cranky awfully fast, and all the people around you too.

So, anyway, Sunday afternoon, friends brought a seafood feast over to eat on our deck. Trays of oysters, raw, on the half shell, with a dynamite cocktail sauce and roasted with all manner of toppings -- cheese, garlic, ginger, capers. No matter how I try I am not an oyster lover, but I am a crawfish lover and there were pounds and pounds of them too, boiled up to a deep red color, and served with a spicy Cajun remoulade.

As I looked at all that seafood glory spread out on the table, all I could think of was, “what a gout fest!” So far, we are symptom free, but the name has stuck. I have a feeling we will be enjoying gout fests for many a day to come.

I'm Back

I am chagrined and embarrassed to realize how long it’s been since I posted regularly on this blog.  At first I took a break because I was starting to worry more about whether anyone was reading what I wrote than I was about what I might have written or, indeed, eaten, and the whole process of chasing readers was getting me down.  But that hiatus, intended to be brief, got longer and long and longer.  I guess I can turn anything into a hard-to-break habit.

But I miss it, damn it.  I have always found my world on my plate, and blogging is a way of keeping track of where I’ve been and what I have eaten when I got there. I still journal regularly, but not about food, and there have been many bites lost to memory over the past years -- savory, sweet, wonderful bites that I was sure I’d never forget, and now I have.

So, here I am, readers or no, picking up the threads again and happy to be here.   The point, after all, was always supposed to be the food and the writing.  I just let myself forget that too.

Yes, I'm A Yummy, Chummy, Funny, Lucky Gummy Bear

The April/May issue of Bloom, with my gummi bear column, is now out and available at fine Bloomington establishments everywhere.  If you didn't catch it, I have been on a quest to make a great gummi bear and so far, I am falling short.  The flavors are good (maybe because I am using real fruit concentrates rather than artifical lifesaver flavors and colors) but I can't get the texture right.  I want chewy, not rubbery, and it may be that I am using too much gelatin.  I will try again!

Meanwhile, last weekend saw another run to the Albanese candy factory in Merrilville, Indiana, home, so they say, of the "world's best gummies."  I am not sure if they are the best in the world, but I have made it my personal mission to find out.  What they do make that is really beyond wonderful, is chocolate covered gummi bears.  The smooth melty chocolate with the fruity chew is a perfect combo and I am smitten.

As promised in the Bloom column, here are some video links to making gummi bears -- one the way the commercial candy makers do it (you have to wait through the red licorice portion, which is actually kind of cool, and then it's only gummi worms, but it is the same principle) and one is a kind of goofy guy making them at home.

And because if I am tortured, you should be too -- here is the link from the gummy bear song. I'm A Yummy, Chummy, Funny, Lucky Gummy Bear -- it will be with you all day long!

Another wonderful Slow Food Bloomington event coming up Sunday, August 14, from 4-7.

Slow Food Fest -- August 14th, 4-7 p.m., Kirkwood Avenue between Indiana and Dunn.

Participating Restaurants Include: Tallent, Finch's, FARM, BLU Boy, Nick's, Feast, Upland, One World, Mad Tad's, IMU, Happy Pig, Recess Indy, Recess Indy, Bloomingfoods, Brown County Coffee.

Tickets -- $30 in advance (Tallent, Finch's, B'foods); $40 at the door, cash bar.

Be there!!

 

Hog Heaven! (with menu updates)

(You can click on the poster to read it more clearly.  Details follow below)

Slow Food Bloomington is proud to be part of the Bloomington Eats Green Weekend -- three events celebrating local sustainable eating in January.

First, two speakers:

On Friday, January 22, noted ethnobotanist (and native Hoosier!) Gary Nabhan, is speaking on "Renewing America's Food Traditions."  On Saturday, January 23, Joel Salatin, of Polyface Farms, who has been featured in the Omnivore's Dilemma and Food Inc., will bring his irreverent touch to "Holy Cows and Hog Heaven."

Both talks are in Woodburn 100 on the IU Campus, from 6-7:30 p.m., free and open to the public

And then the food!

Sunday, January 24, Slow Food Bloomington presents "Hog Heaven: A Celebration of Local Pork from Snout to Tail (that's everything but the oink!)" From 3-6 p.m. in Alumni Hall of the Indiana Memorial Union, 14 local chefs will each take on one part of the pig to showcase the delicious versatility of Hoosier pork cookery.  There will be local beer and wine, good music and great fun.  Tickets are $20 in advance at Bloomingfoods, and $25 at the door.  Cash bar.

Participating chefs include:

• Kai Bookwalter & David Coonce, Bloomingfoods, (pork loin): Roasted Pork Loin Stuffed with Figs and Braised with Local Apples 
• Dan Borders, Bloomingfoods, (Boston butt and Lard) Pork Confit with Pickled Vegetables
• Tad DeLay, Limestone Grille (pork shoulder): Smoked Pork Shoulder with Polenta and Collard Greens
  
• Damien Esposito, The IMU, (liver,kidney & chitterlings): Pork Terrine
• Jeff Finch, Finch's Brasserie, (pork belly): Mini Pastrami Sandwiches and Slaw
• David Fletcher, BLU Chocolate Cafe and Cakery, (bacon & lard): BLU Boy Chocolates with Caramel and Bacon
• Jeff Fletcher, The Bakehouse, (pork loin): Roasted Pork Loin 
• Fred Manion, Lennie's, (ham): Sausage
• Daniel Orr, FARMbloomington (shanks, hocks, and trotters): Brazilian Feijoada with Pigs Trotters, Farofa, Collard Greens and Orange 
• "Rags" Rago, Nick's English Hut (spareribs & backribs): Jamaican Jerked Ribs 
• Alan Simmerman, Bloomingfoods, (bits & pieces or whatever is left after the cutting): A Rich Pork Broth made with Braised Hocks and Neck Bones seasoned with Local Cabbage & Potatoes served with a Local Butternut Squash & Sorghum Biscuit 
• Dave Tallent, Restaurant Tallent (head, jowl, cheek, tail): Porchetta Croquettes with Apple Moustarda and Pickled Sunchokes

Hope to see you there!!  

Watercress Soup!

The Chefs Dinner is a couple of weeks past now, fabulous as always. We’ve been buzzing with guests and good food here and I am fighting a deadline on our textbook revisions (should be done in a month, except for the copyediting, etc.) but I do intend to get back to blogging – I miss it.

Meanwhile, I had a request for the recipe for the sublime watercress soup Chef Daniel Orr (FARMbloomington) made for the dinner and like the good guy he is, he sent it right away. He  used rice as the thickener for the one he made for the dinner, but says this one with potato is good too. Make it quick, while the markets still have watercress – and serve it chilled!

Wild Creek Cress Soup

Makes 2- 2 1/2 qts.

5 bunches watercress- stems and leaves separated

2  onions, sliced

6 cloves garlic

2 potatoes- cut in rustic dice

2 parsnips- peeled and roughly chopped

1  fennel bulb

1 cups white wine

2 qt. vegetable or chicken stock

½  pound spinach

1/2  pound sweet peas

1  apple- peeled, cored and diced

Tabasco

Salt and Pepper

Sweat onions in a heavy bottomed pot. Add chopped garlic and half of the chopped watercress steams. Add white wine, stock, potatoes, parsnips and fennel. Simmer until potatoes and parsnips are tender, then season add the watercress leaves, spinach, peas and apple.

Return to a boil, take off heat and puree immediately in blender. (note: puree mostly the solids at first for you may not need all the liquid. You can always add more if you need, but you can’t take it out.)

Cool the soup down fast by placing the soup in an ice bath. Adjust seasoning and serve cold with whipped crème fraiche and fresh watercress.

To serve hot reheat just before serving. Great hot with oysters!!!

Slow Food Bloomington Chefs Dinner

The Slow Food Bloomington Chefs Dinner is coming up this Sunday at 5:30 at the Bloomington Convention Center. Here’s the menu (subject to final tweaks and improvements.) The wine pairings are still in the works. Tickets are available for $100 per person at Bloomingfoods East and West, or email me if you are out of town.

Looks delicious – as always! Great food, wine and music -- and all for a good cause.  Come have a wonderful evening and help us send our delegates to Terra Madre. If you are in south central Indiana, please plan to join us!!

 
Slow Food Bloomington Chefs Dinner 2008

(vegetarian alternatives available on request)

 

Hors d’oeuvre

 

Pinwheels of Capriole Farms Goat Cheese and Heartland Family Farm Summer Savory

Gregg “Rags” Rago, Nick’s English Hut

 

Wibs Cornmeal Toast points with Braised Fiedler Farm Pork and Baby Fennel

&

Market Cucumber Slices with Schacht Farm Chicken Salad

&

Deviled Red Rosa Farms Quail Eggs

&

Local Bean and Potato Canapés

Alan Simmerman, Bloomingfoods

 

~~~

Pulled Fischer Farms Pork “Sandwich”

Greg Hardesty, Elements, Indianapolis

 

~~~

Chilled Heartland Family Farm Cress Veloute with Trader's Point Creamery Yogurt and Spiced Sesame Paillettes

Daniel Orr, FARMbloomington

 

~~~

Spring Salad of Local Greens, Caramelized Peaches, and Boudin Noir, Sherry Vinaigrette

Regina Mehallick, R bistro, Indianapolis

 

~~~

Ed Mundy’s Rabbit Crepinette with Homestead Growers Mushroom Crepe and Roasted Harvest Moon Flower Farm Beets, Whole Grain Mushroom Jus

Jeff Finch, Finch’s

 

~~~

Intermezzo

Sorbet

Krissy and Christine

 

~~~

Duo of Long Farms Elk, Braised Heartland Family Farm Cabbage, Wib’s Grits, Farr Ridge Red Wine Vinegar Gastrique

Dave Tallent, Restaurant Tallent

 

~~~

Capriole Old Kentucky Tome Frico Taco with

Heartland Family Farm Micro Watercress Greens,

Strawberry Gastrique ,

Capriole Soft Goat Cheese Hush Puppy

Tad Delay, Limestone Grille

 

~~~

Dessert Trio:

Chocolate and Capriole Farms Goat Cheese Tartlet,

Hunters Honey and Heartland Family Farms Strawberry Ice Cream-filled Profiterole,

Raspberry Rose Macaroon

 

David Fletcher and Scott Jackman,

BLU Boy Chocolate Café and Cakery

 

A Few Good Meals

Well this is kind of embarrassing, but here I am. Politics still driving me crazy, but one must eat, after all.

Food. Of course I have been eating all through this ordeal (though there have been a few moments when I actually lost my appetite.) Some highlights really stand out.

A visit from Dave and Krissy Tallent in Apalachicola. We had the best meal ever at David and Ryanne Carrier’s Avenue Sea. We all ordered the tasting menu and it’s worth reliving here:

Started with 3 oysters on the half shell for the oyster eaters, with citrus mignonette and tiny julienne radish and candied tangerine peel. (I had the green salad with fines herbes and cabernet vinaigrette.)

Cobia carpaccio with Thai peppercorns on a small heap of shredded cabbage with rice vinegar and sugar.

Oysters poached in olive oil with picholine olive tapenade, garlic, and shaved fennel with a crisp toast. (I had a poached egg yolk and rapini, poached garlic and olive oil.)

Gulf hopper shrimp sautéed in their shells in smoked paprika oil with green garlic and preserved lemon.

Carrot soup with curry scented crème fraîche.

Chevre agnolotti with roasted beets and a beet reduction.

Octopus in casuela with chick peas and chorizo (I had risotto with cabrales and apple.)

Roasted grouper in Benton bacon on lentil du puys with sauce Robert

Beef on pomme de terre puree (I had wild mushrooms, sautéed.)

Cheese – Rocastin (French sheeps milk cheese), pecorino noce, sweet grass dairy Georgia gouda, sweet grass dairy ripe goat with vegetable ash, Epoisses, cabrales, candied pecans, quince paste, apples, sherry soaked golden raisins.

Butterscotch crème brulée with pecan sandies; olive oil cake with chocolate sorbet and bitter orange sauce; crepes with almond mousse and strawberries; some kind of chocolate pave with tangerine sorbet.

Oh my God it was good!

Two great side benefits of that Florida trip – cooking with Dave which is always the most fun, even in my tiny Apalach kitchen and Dave going out with David Carrier to meet his seafood suppliers and arranging to get FRESH GULF OYSTERS, SHRIMP AND GROUPER OVERNIGHTED TO BLOOMINGTON!!! As a direct result we had fried grouper cheeks and chips with a smoked paprika remoulade one night at Restaurant Tallent and I can’t even tell you how good that was!! One of the best things I’ve ever eaten.

Another highlight of the last weeks (months?) has been a couple of wonderful meals at FARMbloomington. One was breakfast – amazing biscuits and gravy even I can get excited about (that's them in the picture above.)

Now, remember, here in Indiana, “biscuits and gravy” usually refers to a white sludgy flour concoction full of sausage and tasting strongly of black pepper, slathered over biscuits. I am not saying it doesn’t hit the spot every once in a while, but mostly that’s because it’s one of those white comfort foods that kind of puts you into a refined starch coma.

But the biscuits and gravy at FARMbloomington are eye-opening. First the biscuits are really something – flakey and rich and wonderful. But it’s the gravy that really turned me on – it’s actually light and flavorful, full of red and green peppers and chunks of kielbasa. A vibrant (and much healthier) cousin to the usual Hoosier fare.

And then there was dinner. I was invited to a departmental dinner there recently (old I.U. colleagues) that had every single one of us doing back flips.

We started with a couple of “welcomes from the chef” – a salmon tartare that was herby and spicy and just superlative (I have had these excellent raw fish preps from Daniel Orr before and they are always knockouts) and a wild rice pancake with goat cheese that I’d have been content to have as an entrée.

For a first course I had the tuna ceviche in white balsamic and coconut water – more raw fish wonder, this one crunchy with bits of coconut (tiny chunks, not shreds) – just super. Jer had the butternut squash banana bisque that is becoming legendary around here – it was garnished with crab meat and fruity chiles. Elsewhere around the table, out of reach of my questing fork, were Caribbean prawns on a bed of tropical slaw and soup made from house-corned beef. I did snag a bite of pizza with shitake mushrooms, ricotta and truffle oil, which I have had before, and which I love.

My main dish was the best thing I think I’ve ever had at FARM: a vegetable plate with spinach and basil risotto in the middle, butternut squash with blue cheese and hazelnuts, grilled veggie and mushroom ragout, tofu with curry and sesame, fried leeks, mixed grain pilaf, and broccolini in garlic oil. Every component was perfect and an adventure to boot. (And, just because I love them, I had a side of Daniel’s fries, covered with chiles and cheese.)

Jer had duck in a barbeque sauce on a bed of warm potato salad, which he said was great, and others had the tandoori salmon, the skirt steak and frites, and the chicken with black vinegar and chile paste.

We managed dessert – barely. Jer and I split a berry tart full of lemony pastry cream.

And while I am on a FARM roll, I should mention a recent meeting with farmer friends that ended up being a bar snack feast – soup (tomato), edamame with dipping salt, fries (natch),  pizza, white bean hummus, and I can’t even remember what else, but really, really good stuff!

Lots of other good stuff going on here (foodwise) but tons of deadlines and the relentless beat of the primaries. I will post again soon.

Primary Flavors

Sorry for my blogging silence of late – I’ve been broadsided by my day job.

Besides writing about food, what I do is teach political science and write about American politics. With primaries and caucuses every other day (or what feels like every other day), this is our silly season. And I may as well admit it, I am a junkie. I have swapped food blog reading for politics blogs and I LOVE IT.

In fact, I am pretty amused to see that the last post I made was January 4, the day after the Iowa Caucuses. There have been some memorable food moments in my life since then, however, If I could stopped being distracted enough to write them down.

• Most of the last month was in Florida, including a week with my mom. High points included      some best-ever fried shrimp at the Owl Café – a restaurant I love but often forget since the arrival of Avenue Sea. That is a mistake.
• Also with Mom I spent one evening making a fearsomely good tuna noodle casserole. There is nothing more to be said about that. If you don’t know how good a from-scratch tuna noodle casserole with olive oil packed tuna and tons of mushrooms can be, then that’s just sad.
• FARMbloomington is open and I have a piece about it in the current issue of Bloom Magazine. The food in general is good, but when Daniel himself makes the vegetable plate it can be an      awesome thing.
• Made a quick trip to Oregon for family reasons and stuffed myself with Vietnamese food – sure wished I could do that here at home!
• Found out that Bloomington’s original Ethiopian restaurant has returned. The owner has owned an Italian restaurant for years but yield to entreaties to reopen Ashenda. So now you walk into Puccini’s and turn right for Ethiopian food and left for Italian. Only in Bloomington…. The food is great though -- the Ethiopian food, anyway!)
• Spent yesterday and the day before working with a farmer friend to perfect a tomato sauce      she intends to sell at our market. She froze a ton of tomatoes from      last summer and they are stunningly good. I always think canned tomatoes are a good substitute for fresh during the winter, for sauces and stuff, and in general they are, but Teresa’s frozen tomatoes are spectacular.      Cant’ wait til she starts to market this sauce.
• Related – had Teresa’s fresh (day old) eggs for breakfast yesterday. Rich and wonderful and from happy chickens to boot. All eggs are not created equal.
• Heading to Paris this evening for our annual Valentine’s Day trek. This time we renting an      apartment instead of staying in a hotel – it’s much cheaper and with the dollar the way it is, we’d rather spend our money on food, not housing. Plus, we get a kitchen to cook in!! What a treat. Hopefully once we are there the prospect of good eating will push politics out of my mind and      I’ll get a blog post or two in.

À bientôt!