Category: General

He has friends who give him freshly foraged chanterelles. And this is what they do with them:
“Favorite recipe of the
moment, in addition to dead ass plain:
Sautee over medium/high with no oil. Allow to cook in its own juices until
1/2 cooked. Add a tablespoon of butter and a splash of white wine. Reduce
by around 1/3, and add some heavy cream. Return to a simmer for a minute or
two. Salt/Pepper. Eat.
Made mushroom risotto and mushroom bruschetta so far. Pizza tonight, and
eggs tomorrow. We were fantasizing about northwest triple crown:
Chanterelle and crab stuffed wild salmon fillet. Or perhaps grilled wild
halibut smothered in chanterelles…”

Because they are capable of producing dishes like the one we ate in a neighborhood osteria in Milan, near our friends’ apartment, called La Piola. Everything that came to the table for the four of us was spectacular, but the porcini risotto was just completely out of control in its exquisite deliciousness and intense mushroominess. A true foodgasm.
All the risottos we had on the trip were perfectly cooked, exactly the right texture of soft creamy with a firm bite, even the ones at the wedding. Since when have you ever had good food at a wedding? Same goes for the gnocchi — fluffy little cloud-pillows robed in cheese. Hot damn.
LA PIOLA
Viale Abruzzi, 23 (Circonvallazione)
Tel.02/29531271
Sadly, we’d left the camera in the friends’ apartment during dinner by mistake, so no pictures of the foodgasm. You’ll just have to trust me.

to post about my food adventures in europe, here is what i made for dinner last night. There was a big sale on beef chuck roast at Whole Paycheck, and I’d been eyeing the daube provencale recipe in Cook’s Illustrated, and this is what happened.

Put the oven on 325F. Trim the fat from the roast and cut it into big chunks, 2-3″ or so. Salt & pepper them, then brown in olive oil in your dutch oven. Take them out when brown on all sides, and add a bit more oil, along with a sliced onion, 2-3 carrots cut into chunks, and 2-3 potatoes (i used yukon gold) cut into chunks. Sprinkle with salt & fry until they’ve taken on most of the color from the brown bits on the bottom of the pan, then sprinkle them with several tablespoons of flour and cook until it browns. Add in most of a bottle of red wine. Also add 2 cups of hot water in which you’ve soaked some broken up dried shiitakes and about 1/4 of a bouillon cube that was left over. Add some dried thyme or savory, a bay leaf (i didn’t have one last night, fresh out), a few shots of vietnamese fish sauce, a tablespoon of harissa, a cut up head of fennel and strips of zest from about half an orange. Bring it up to a simmer, then put the meat and juices back in, submerging them. Add some olives if you like. Bung it in the oven with the top on partially and leave it there for 3 hours. You might want to stir it once or twice as the surface does get a bit grotty looking from the dry heat. Makes the house smell lovely. The magazine recipe asked for tomatoes and parsley at the end, but i just ate it as it was and didn’t miss them.

“This morning, President Bush nominated Harriet Miers to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court. Miers is a long-time political appointee, campaign counsel, personal lawyer and Bush loyalist who has never served as a judge.”
I don’t generally want to drag politics into this blog, but you have got to be kidding. Never served as a judge? Fucking hell.

Found these strawberries at the farmer’s market, and was unable to resist their adorable tininess and intoxicating fragrance. I ate them with a bit of sweetened sour cream, which actually was a bit like Icelandic skyr. Dreamy.

I had to get up early yesterday morning for class, so I ended up listening to some pre-8am NPR on my return to consciousness and discovered Living On Earth. Sure sounds like crunchy-granola hippy-liberal NPR radio to me. (Not that I necessarily mind, per se.) But I guess I often find the commentary to be just soooo depressing, and occasionally it gets this holier than thou tone that can certainly get old… but this particular show, at least on this particular morning, I just found to be interesting listening — cool stories that just happen to have something to do with people interacting directly with the the earth. (That’s little earth, not big, capital-E save the world Earth. Again, not that I mind. Interesting that I’m so self-conscious about it though. Somehow, giving a shit about the environment has suddenly become a BAD THING(tm). But I digress.)

First up, a story about eating food grown locally. (well, not actually up — I was half-asleep. I dreamt of apple trees and cider as the commentary seeped into my brain.)

“Home Grown”
McKIBBEN: …I don’t think I’m ever going back to eating the way I used to. I could give you a lot of good reasons

OK, so I totally got up early on a Sunday morning to watch their new show, Party Line, and it was awesome. First of all, crab and cream cheese stuffed into a pepperoncini? YUM. And then spinach-parmesan balls that are easy as can be and sound dee-lish. Plus, how do you not love a hot hors d’oeuvre that throws together quickly, holds well and is probably just lovely at room temp? AND is wegemetarian friendly. Folks, we have a winner.

Throughout Terminal B of Logan Airport, instead of pillars they have monstrously huge go-cups of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, complete with kicky little splashes frolicking along the rim of the cup. Surreal, endearing, and creepy all at the same time. *shudder*

From the Metromix blurb on La Oaxaquena:
“Seafood includes the huachinango a la Veracruzana, a whole red snapper served Veracruz-style in a zesty garlic and onion tomato sauce. Salads and sandwiches, like the signature torta of grilled tenderloin with chorizo sausage, beans, avocado and Mexican mayonnaise are lighter options.”
In what universe is steak + sausage + avocado + mayonnaise lighter than fish in vegetable-tomato sauce? Oho, how I laugh. Ha ha ha. Guffaws of laughter. Sigh.

Today we were walking on the beach by the lake up north near Edgewater, and since it was beastly f#%@ing hot and humid we got a little popsicle treat. I really don’t think I would enjoy Chicago nearly as much if there wasn’t such a pervasive Mexican/spanish-speaking influence. Tamarind & chili is a tangy-sweet-salty frozen delight, and there is also a mango-chili version, and a lime-salt pop. OOOH, I am so excited to try them all!