Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, July 21, 2011

Published by Thursday, July 21, 2011 Permalink 0

by Simon de Swaan

The whole Mediterranean, the sculpture, the palm, the gold beads, the bearded heroes, the wine, the ideas, the ships, the moonlight, the winged gorgons, the bronze men, the philosophers -all of it seems to rise in the sour, pungent taste of these black olives between the teeth. A taste older than meat, older than wine. A taste as old as cold water.–Lawrence Durell

Lawrence Durrell (1912-1990), who wrote the modern classic Prospero’s Cell (1945) about time spent in Corfu, was born in India but spent most of his life abroad. Though educated in Britain, he resisted affiliation with Britain and preferred to be considered cosmopolitan. He was a novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer.

 

 

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Wild Woman on Feral Acres: Backyard Poultry Skills; from chick to plate in mere weeks

Published by Wednesday, July 20, 2011 Permalink 0

by Esmaa Self

Insulted by misleading labeling U.S. laws that allow “free range” to mean the chickens had limited outdoor access, while “natural” meat can include a percentage of injected saline, for after all, salt is natural, and “fresh” chicken can be sold as such even if it has been kept at 30 degrees, we decided it was time to take matters related to the quality of the meat we consumed into our own hands.

Which is a wordy introduction to the following fact: this year we raised and butchered our own meat chickens.

Cornish chicks. Photo courtesy Wiki Commons.

Our goal was not to simply eat cheaply. If price per serving was the only consideration, we’d shop Sam’s Club and save the trouble of raising our own food. No, as always, our goal is to grow excellent food while reducing overall costs (shipping, packaging, additives, bacterial contamination, supporting factory farming). We hoped to produce this higher caliber meat for less than we could buy a locally produced ‘natural’ chicken. And we did. In 11 weeks we raised a baker’s dozen of Cornish roasters, realized 77 pounds (about 35 kilograms) of meat at an amazingly low $1.43 cost per pound. This figure includes butcher paper and freezer bags, feed and lighting, and, of course, the animals. Excluded from the weight are necks, giblets, wing tips, etcetera, reserved for making nutrient rich stock.

Keep in mind that what we produced is not organic meat, for we used a non-medicated, locally produced non-organic feed, however neither is local favorite Red Bird brand organic, and their skinless, boneless chicken breasts sell for $2.99. What we produced is an incredibly tasty, tender and truly farm fresh chicken meat without the factory, the trucking or the non-recyclable packaging.

Our Cornish roasters at 4 weeks

And zero labeling lies.

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David Downie: Chartres: Sacred and Profane

Published by Wednesday, July 20, 2011 Permalink 0

by David Downie

Last weekend my travel feature on the cathedral and lively town of Chartres ran in the San Francisco Sunday Chronicle Travel section — the cover story. This was the first time I’d written anything for the Chron since 2007. I was a regular contributor from the late 1980s until then, but somehow, after John Flinn left as editor, things went quiet. I had 6 books to write — three Terroir Guides, a thriller, a history of the American Academy in Rome, a book about Rome’s quiet corners… and Hit the Road, Jacques, about our 750-mile trek across France… a book my agent is currently showing to editors in New York… So, there wasn’t much time for magazine and newspaper work.

I’m happy to say that the affable “new” travel editor, Spud Hilton, in the saddle for the last few years, was glad to have me contribute again to the section. I hope this is the first of many pieces.

Back to Chartres and a teaser, the first few lines of the story, and a link. Photos are included and, believe or not, I took them. The par-blind photographer.

The voices of vacationers partying at cafés faded as I left Chartres’ picture-postcard main square and entered the dusky nave of the cathedral. Blinking until my eyes adjusted, I stared up at dozens of jewel-like stained glass windows glowing an otherworldly blue. READ FULL ARTICLE

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Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, July 20, 2011

Published by Wednesday, July 20, 2011 Permalink 0

Of course, the food is important. The quality and variety of food is so important to the Spanish generally that it is said they spend a higher percentage of their disposable income on food than any other industrial nation. It is not because the cost of the food is higher in Spain than it is in France, Canada or Australia, but because the Spanish expect better food and a greater variety of it.–Ann and Larry Walker, To the Heart of Spain

Ann and Larry Walker are the authors of 6 books on food and wine, and regular contributors to numerous publications in the U.S. and abroad. They live near San Francisco in California.

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Gluten-Free Cooking: Buttered Apricots and Goat Cheese

Published by Tuesday, July 19, 2011 Permalink 0

 

by Jenn Oliver

Incorporating fruit into your starters and main courses: an untraditional approach

Fruit deserves to have a place outside of dessert. Dessert is often shunned for fear of ingesting too many sugar-filled calories and a myriad other reasons, and sadly fruit is often under-appreciated, being associated only with a guilty, and even naughty, indulgence.

How often do we associate certain fruits solely with pies, tarts, scones, cakes and other sweet delights? Such a view not only limits our appreciation for fruit, but forces upon us a paradigm that fruit should be “improved upon” by making it even sweeter than it already is. Maybe for some acidic fruits, such as certain berries or citrus fruit, this is true, but many are already pleasurably sweet and unfortunately get overlooked as a valid component in other parts of a meal.

What if fruit were the star of other dishes too? Maybe a first course, served with meat, etc.?  Some of my favorite dishes involve fruits, and it’s not just for the sweetness – many fruits pair really well with savory items and I think provide a balance to other strong elements. One of my most frequented pairings this summer has been to add herbs and the tang of locally-made goat cheeses to baked or roasted seasonal fruits. The markets are absolutely brimming with succulent produce, and every two weeks it becomes a “new” mad rush to enjoy as many ways as possible: first strawberries, then cherries, then apricots & peaches, and soon  plums and other berries will arrive en masse.

And you know what? Sometimes I think the taste of fresh fruit is even more enjoyable when it is not a part of le dessert.

Click here for the recipe.

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David Downie: Guanciale: An Obituary and a Homage to Rome’s Jowl Bacon, Part 1

Published by Tuesday, July 19, 2011 Permalink 0

by David Downie

Click here to read part 2

The inimitable guanciale — Italian “jowl bacon” — made for over half a century by the Carilli brothers in Rome is dead. Long live Rome’s guanciale!

Purists insist that without guanciale it’s impossible to make the true versions of the pasta sauces carbonara (olive oil, butter or lard, eggs, black pepper, pork jowl, and pecorino romano), gricia (subtract the eggs and black pepper, add hot chili and wine), or Food Wine Rome (add tomatoes to gricia).

But guanciale also finds its way onto bruschetta and into soups as well as myriad other pasta sauces, vegetable medleys, frittatas, poultry, beef, and pork. To my knowledge, the only course of a Roman meal in which guanciale does not appear is dessert.

C’ho passione! C’ho passione!” — “I’m passionate, I’m passionate!” sang white-haired pork butcher Salvatore Carilli when I interviewed him a few years back.  When I asked him about the trade his  family has been in for more generations than he can tell me, with paternal pride, the wiry and excitable Carilli, the eldest at 72 of three butcher brothers, thrust a wizened, pepper-dusted, triangular two-kilo hog jowl into my hands. He had cured it in dry salt and air-dried it for months.

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Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, July 19, 2011

Published by Tuesday, July 19, 2011 Permalink 0

My favorite sayings are the ones that yoke together metaphorically sexual desire, or passionate love, with the act of eating. There is an earthiness about these expressions that to English ears sounds faintly embarrassing and possibly in bad taste.  You might say of a sexually appealing person, Esta como un queso: “He (or she) is like a cheese.” (It would have to be a ripe, oozingly delicious cheese)…–Paul Richardson, A Late Dinner: Discovering the Food of Spain

Good Reads is an English writer and author of 6 books. He lives in Spain. Good Reads says of him: “He traces the roots of Spanish cooking to the landscape, the people, and the history of this beautiful and complex country.”

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Food Art: Mickey Mouse Buns, food photography by Sandeea

Published by Tuesday, July 19, 2011 Permalink 0

Sandeea is our latest food photography discovery. A woman of many talents, she is also author of the Food Play column. She writes in both English and Spanish.

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Destination Dessert: Sweet Focaccia with Strawberries and Dark Chocolate Ganache

Published by Monday, July 18, 2011 Permalink 0

by Jamie Schler

STARTING OVER – Step 1

Like the beat beat beat of the tom-tom
When the jungle shadows fall
Like the tick tick tock of the stately clock
As it stands against the wall
Like the drip drip drip of the raindrops
When the summer shower is through
So a voice within me keeps repeating you, you, you

Night and day, you are the one
Only you beneath the moon or under the sun
Whether near to me, or far
Its no matter darling where you are
I think of you
–Cole Porter


“Life is an adventure,” she said, no trace of cliché on her lips. He scooted down a little lower, snuggling deeper into his corner of the sofa. His eyes searched out her own, slightly pleading, slightly mocking, filled with the desire to believe her once again. She had just returned from Germany and stepped off of the airplane into a new life, one of risk and a daring adventure, one of complete togetherness. They were tossing caution to the wind in their great desire to grab at happiness and contentment, something so rare these days. And from here on out they would be together each and every day, all day and into the night.

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Jonell Galloway: The many colors of summer tomatoes

Published by Monday, July 18, 2011 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

Red, yellow, green, and orange tomatoes now available in Lake Geneva region

Tomato season is well under way, and here are a few suggestions for using them.

How to choose a tomato

Remember you can’t judge a tomato by its cover. By that I mean, the best tomatoes may well be the ugliest. They have not been sorted to meet some regulation as to size, shape and color. They can even be marked “Geneva,” “Lausanne” or “Vevey”, and never have had a root in the earth. Tomatoes can be grown hydroponically just about anywhere, so the fact that it’s marked with a local name is not absolute assurance that it will be full of flavor like a summer tomato should be and that it has been grown using traditional methods.

There are a lot of resellers in farmers markets, and then there are direct producers. Don’t hesitate to ask the vendors in your farmers market if they grew their tomatoes in a field or if they were grown hydroponically or in a greenhouse (often referred to as sous tunnel or en serre). “Field” tomatoes are obviously likely to have more taste.

The best way to be sure is of course to grow them yourself, but we do not all have the possibility, of course.

The appearance is just one factor. Smell is just as important. A natural, ripe tomato smells fragrant when you put it to your nose. A small tomato can have as much taste as a big one. Tomatoes should be soft, but not blemished or split open. If they are hard and are not aromatic, they are probably not field tomatoes.

A tomato can have hard black “calluses” on it, but that has no effect on its flavor. Simply trim them off.

In general the darker the color, the stronger the taste and the more acidic. Yellow and orange tomatoes are sweet, rather like fruit. Red tomatoes have more pizzazz. The darker, purplish ones are strong-flavored and not to everyone’s taste.

Green tomatoes tend to be more acidic. Most people prefer them cooked rather than raw, but this is a matter of taste.

How to eat a summer tomato

There are million ways to eat tomatoes, but ripe summer tomatoes need very little.

My favorite way of eating them is simply with salt and pepper, and perhaps a drizzle of olive oil. A beautiful addition to any summer lunch is a large plate of sliced tomatoes of different colors, served in this way. It is always a hit, both aesthetically and as a dish.

Tomatoes are also good grilled over the coals. For this, choose medium-size tomatoes, so they won’t fall through the grille. Simply cut them in half and grill for about 3 minutes on each side. This intensifies the flavor, giving it what the French call a confit flavor. What it really does is evaporate most of the water, leaving behind the most flavorful part, the flesh. The natural sugar in the tomato also caramelizes, making it taste sweet rather than acidic.

Tomatoes, courgette (zucchini), and aubergines (eggplant) — the classic Mediterranean vegetables — are all in season at about the same time. There are endless recipes one can think up, but one of my favorite is to mix finely diced tomatoes, zucchini and chopped onions marinated in a generous helping of vinaigrette made with Balsamic vinegar, Chardonnay vinegar and olive oil.

And then there’s the all-time favorite: mozzarella served with tomatoes and fresh basil. This too can be livened up by using tomatoes of different colors.

This article was originally published by Geneva Lunch.

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