Maggie's Farm

A re-post -

Wine tasting, and taste in general: a quote from Do You Taste What I Taste?. at Slate:

It was less encouraging to discover how easily the nose can be led astray by the eyes. For his next stupid human trick, Wysocki produced two jars, one labeled "Food," the other "Body." I was told to sniff each. I actually was one of the few people not fooled by the experiment: I said both jars smelled like vomit. In fact, both jars contained the same chemical compound, butyric acid, which can be perceived as vomit but also as perspiration or Parmesan cheese. Wysocki told me he often conducts this test at seminars and that, on average, 60 percent of the people in the room will claim they enjoy the aroma in the "Food" jar, with most saying it's redolent of Parmesan cheese; but when he asks if anyone found the "Body" jar pleasant, no hands go up the participants invariably claim that it smells of puke or body odor. He mentioned similar work done with wine by Frederic Brochet, a French cognitive psychologist. Brochet has shown that people given a white wine that has been dyed red will describe it exactly as they would a red wine. He has also found that if he serves the same wine in two different bottles, one labeled a cheap vin de table and the other a pricey grand cru, people invariably lavish praise on the latter and scorn the former. Brochet has dubbed this phenomenon "perceptive expectation."

I have no interest in being a "super-taster." I want to continue to enjoy red wines under $25/bottle.

A fine old New York carnivore's delight, on W. 36th St. since 1885.  Actually, it was a club before that, back when Herald Square was NYC's theater district.

Keen's is famous for their mutton chops (photo). How do you like your mutton done? (don't say "Dressed as lamb").

I'm getting hungry. Need to get back there soon. Remember when manly pubs were termed "watering holes" and hearty meat-eaters were termed "trenchermen"? The good old days, before wimpy metrosexual scaredy-cat men, and before we had a President who eats arugula. (Confession: I like arugula, and dandelion greens too, but I could happily live the rest of my life without salad or vegetables.)

Everybody in the NY metropolitan area has his own favorite steakhouse, and NYC has tons of them. It's a guy thing. Wives prefer their favorite Italian or French bistros, and those are fine with me too.

I have a buddy who will not eat roast chicken, or any poultry, without homemade Cranberry sauce on the side.

I understand that. I love roast chicken, but it needs some zip. Readers know that I freeze many bags of fresh cranberries in my freezer every fall.

My Dad, who loved to travel around Scandinavia, was a Lingonberry fan. When we cleaned out his house, we found his stash of around ten jars of Ikea Lingonberry preserves. They are as good as cranberry, tart and lively.

Amazon has them, and of course Ikea does.

Menu for this Spring's Special Ducks Unlimited Game Dinner next week:

Medley of wild game hors d'oevres: Home-made venison sausage, seared duck breast, grilled venision loin, with assorted condiments and chutneys

Quail on toast, stuffed with fois gras with giber sauce and parsnip frites

Pheasant breast over penne, with tomato pink sauce

Home-made fresh, unsweetened Mango Sorbet

Antelope Bistro: Teriyaki tenderloin, mozzarella and tomatoes over mixed baby greens with balsamic glaze

Home-made fresh unsweetened Raspberry Sorbet

Stuffed filet of venison: fire-roasted peppers, spinach, sweet-potato puree and grilled asparagus

Bananas Foster served over challah french toast

Assorted imported cheese board with grapes, sliced pears, nuts, dried fruit and home-made breads

Wines: Chassagne Montrachet, Nuit St. Georges 2005, Pommard Le Rugien 2005, Chateau Guirard Sauterne

I posted on the important subject of the Chef's Knife a couple of months ago. 

Pretty much all anybody really needs is a good paring knife, a good bread knife that won't mutilate bread, a Chef's Knife, and a meat carving knife.

It's time to post about meat-carving/slicing knives. We have a few of them around, old fancy bone-handled ones, newer supposedly-effective ones, etc., but I have never had a knife that could slice beef, steak, ham, turkey, or lamb as well as this one. It's like a butter knife through butter, as thin or thick as you want it to be.

The pros buy much more expensive ones, but this one is excellent. The 10" would have sufficed, but what the heck.

I understand now why chefs keep their knife collections in metal cases. They are fine tools.

Hot steak trends across the USA.

I'd try any of them, but there's still nothing better than a fat 2" Costco ribeye coated generously with salt and pepper and thrown on a hot iron skillet with some butter. No need to crank up the charcoal. Crusty on the outside, blood-red in the center.

Mashed taters and some garlic spinach on the side (lightly brown garlic in plenty of olive oil, then pile on a mountain of spinach and cover, let it wilt in its own steam, and stir a bit with salt)

In reading the piece, I had to look up sous-vide cooking. I do not like the sound of it.

Souvlaki, the way the Greeks make it. Greeks eat a lot of this stuff - it's the Greek hot dog or hamburger, like Gyros.

Marinate your pork cubes or slices, preferably overnight. You can add some bell pepper chunks for the skewers. Cook on charcoal grill with salt and pepper. (Sometimes people use lamb, chicken, or swordfish instead of pork.)

Serve on Pita roll or in a pita pocket with a little chopped lettuce, chopped tomato, chopped raw red onion if you want and even pickled hot peppers, and all topped with generous globs of Tzatziki Sauce.

(While on the topic of Tzatziki, I should mention that I believe it to be the best sauce that exists for poached fish, especially poached salmon. Baked salmon, too.)

Taco, gyro, burger, pizza, falafel, sushi, noodle soup, pho, bigalla, poutine, jerk chicken, covrigi, satay - all fast food and street food is good stuff around the world. Cheap and delicious.

Using this recipe, more or less - whole critter, head on of course, caught today: BAKED TROUT WITH SOUR CREAM

Update: Delicious, and that big trout was enough for three of us.

Simple and delicious. I think adding chicken ruins it, but some people prefer it like that. Bean sprouts are essential, as are chopped scallions on top. I usually sprinkle more soy sauce on top after it's done.

Angel Hair or Thin spaghetti are right for this. When you think about it, is normal-sized spaghetti good for anything? I don't think so. I hate it because the flavor/pasta ratio is too low with it.

Here's the recipe.

The most recent dinner we had in Sicily was swordfish stuffed with herbs and pignoli nuts on a bed of couscous with a sweetened wine and raisin sauce. That was outside Agrigento on the southwest coast. To this day, western Sicily is "Arab" and eastern is "Greek." The local cuisines of Italy reflect the history.

The history of Sicilian cuisine is the history of beautiful, wonderful, and profoundly-corrupt Sicily - and also the history of the Western World. No problema - they only hassle eachother - and we must be multiculturally-tolerant. Put Sicily on your bucket list. They love Americans there and, like the Irish, they all have a cousin in NY or NJ. We are returning there soon.

For some dumb reason, I decided to codify the dominant carbs of Italy, which, like Sicily, still has large variations in regional cuisine, sometimes varying almost completely over 50 miles in terms of wines, cheeses, sausages, meats, carbs, etc. As readers know, in Italian tradition the Antipasto is tasty little treats, the Primi is generally a carb (a pasta, risotto, gnocchi, etc) or a soup, and the Secondi is meat or fish, with a veg on a side dish only if you ask for it.

What is suppertime in Italian culture? Late, like 8 or 9 pm, after the passagiata with lots of vino and friends and relatives and kids. As I have said before, the cuisine of all of Italy is designed to be accompanied by wine. Without sips of wine, it tastes less wonderful.

Bread? Everywhere. "North" and "South" roughly mean in relation to Rome. (Umbrian bread is terrible: they quit using salt after a salt tax argument with the Pope in 1540 and still don't use it. That's a long Italian grudge for ya.)

The North: Polenta, Rice and Risotto, Potato, Gnocchi, fresh-made egg noodles (eg Pappardelle) including ravioli and tortellini. Mainly butter for fats, but some olive oil too.

The South: Plain (no egg) dried pastas, beans. Pizza. Olive oil for fats.

Sicily: Couscous, rice, some plain pastas. Olive oil.

Now I expect some arguments and exceptions from readers, but I think this is generally accurate.

Image is a very fine Umbrian Primi that I had in Assisi - Gorgonzola and Porcini Risotto. Nothing better. Arborio Rice only. Italian women have strong arms from stirring Risotto and Polenta. You can't stop stirring them until done.

Our occasional contributor Kondratiev posted this recipe as a comment the other day:

Cooked this one last night using venison backstrap (loin):

Seared Venison Steaks with Baked Pear and Red Wine
Serves: 6

Ingredients
3 bosc pears (1/2 each)
1 small cinnamon stick, broken
5 black peppercorns
 bottle red wine
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons olive oil
6 trimmed 6 oz. venison steaks
Salt and ground black pepper
1 shallot, finely diced
1 tablespoon red currant jelly
2 oz. butter, plus extra for greasing

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter an ovenproof dish. Peel, core and halve the pears. Arrange snugly in the dish, hollow side up. Tuck in the cinnamon and peppercorns, then pour in half the wine. Sprinkle with sugar and dot with butter. Crumple up and wet a sheet of greaseproof paper, then lay it over the dish before covering with foil. Seal tightly and bake for 1 1/2 hours, or until the pears are tender. Turn the pears after the first hour. Keep warm. You will need their liquid for the sauce.

2. Pour the oil into a non-stick frying pan and set over a high heat. Season the steaks and fry for 2-3 minutes on each side for medium-rare. Remove the steaks and keep warm. Reduce the heat and gently fry the shallot before adding all the wine, including that with the pears. Boil vigorously, scraping the pan as you do so, until it has reduced by half. Microwave the jelly and, once it has melted, then stir it in, remove the pan from the heat and quickly whisk in the 2 oz. butter. Strain into a warm sauceboat and serve immediately with venison and warm pears.

Mrs. BD and I have liked Barbetta for many years. It's on the theater district's Restaurant Row, and it's been in the same townhouse, and owned by the same family, since 1906.

Food is mainly Piedmontese, no red sauces and only one pasta on the menu. I had the rabbit with a white wine sauce as secondi and so did the pupette, while she explained to us the basic architecture of successful playwriting from Aristotle to Beckett (it's always been the same because it works, even for screen writing - we had just seen a fairly OK production of Measure For Measure at The New Vic. She explained that Godot had perfect structure but no content - which was the point. For me, Godot sticks in my head but I don't really want or need it to).

Their pre- or post-theater prix-fixe menu is very reasonable if you pass on their amazing wine list. The upstairs dining is cozy, the downstairs is elegant but simple. The jewels that can be hidden inside simple old brownstones are always surprising to me. They also have a small garden.

Reservations absolutely required and appropriate adult attire is expected but the family which owns it has run a relaxed, highly-attentive, and cheerful, comfortable joint for over 100 years.

I stumbled on these, and they sound good to me:

Lamb Shank Posole

African Chicken Peanut Stew

This is a repost:

We respect and value - with a deep sensitivity to cereal differences - hot breakfast cereals from strange, exotic, far-away cultures like Montana, etc. Here's what we like (besides English muffins):

1. Cream of the West, from Montana
2. Red River, from Manitoba
3. McCann's Oatmeal, from Ireland

Being Yankees, we are also partial to Apple Pie for breakfast (that's what it used to be made for), but you must not buy that at the store - there are some things in life you would never buy. Also great for breakfast - leftover cold pizza.

Readers know that we also love Chipped Beef on toast, but a quarter of an Apple Pie (a multicultural tarte tatin will work, too), two coffees and a couple of smokes will get anyone ready for a cold, rugged day of work in the drafty old office.

We're having 30 friends over here at Maggie's Farm HQ for a casual wild game dinner tomorrow night. Perfect for a 10 degree (F) winter night. I'll have all three fireplaces burning.

Three of us guys now do the cooking for these events, and lucky are the invitees.

Hor's doevres: Slices of rare charcoal-grilled wild venison filet mignon and slices of rare Canada goose breast, en croute, with a dab of horseradish.

Entrees: One hunting pal is making his favorite venison curry with rice. My Louisiana-born and bred hunting buddy is making wild duck gumbo. I am making wild duck breast with dried cherry sauce, with cheese grits. Or maybe a warm duck breast salad. Can't decide.

Somebody offered to bring a big salad, and somebody else graciously offered to bring home-made desserts. I supply the beer, and everybody will bring a bottle or three of red wine.

I'll provide pretty good cigars too, for them what wants 'em. In my experience, women never complain about guys and cigars when men do the cooking and party planning. We'll have to set up a few extra tables in the living room to do this, because this ain't no palace (but not a trailer either). The persnickety Mrs. BD just hates it when a plate of gumbo or a tankard of Pinot Noir gets spilled on her furniture. 

Everybody likes pancakes, especially with a side of bacon, sausage, and/or fried eggs.

Readers know that I like to throw a handful of frozen cranberries into the batter, and that I am particular about Maple Syrup - Grade B, not Grade A.

I also like to make cornmeal pancakes (as in photo). I tend to overweight the cornmeal/flour ratio, and I like to throw some canned corn or frozen corn into the batter. Good stuff.

Kids love it. They will grow strong, healthy, average or above-average, and attractive on this feed.

By the way, have you ever used molasses on pancakes? It's delicious, especially on cornmeal pancakes.

A re-post -

Gourmet pizza nowadays often comes without tomatoes and with all sorts of other toppings, but it was the basic  tomato-mozzarella mix that made pizza so popular, beginning in the 1950s, in the US. It was made for beer.

That basic format relied on the importation of the tomato - originally a yellow fruit, the "pomi d'oro,"  from Mexico to Europe in the 1500s. Cortez brought more than gold to Europe.

From its Greek origins to Chicago's Pizza Uno, the story of pizza is about immigration, entrepreneurialism, and invention. Now, "93 percent of Americans eat pizza at least once a month."

Modern pizza originated in Italy, although the style favored by Americans is more a friend than a relative of the traditional Neapolitan pie. Residents of Naples took the idea of using bread as a blank slate for relishes from the Greeks, whose bakers had been dressing their wares with oils, herbs, and cheese since the time of Plato. The Romans refined the recipe, developing a delicacy known as placenta, a sheet of fine flour topped with cheese and honey and flavored with bay leaves. Neapolitans earned the right to claim pizza as their own by inserting a tomato into the equation. Europeans had long shied away from the New World fruit, fearing it was plump with poison. But the intrepid citizens of Naples discovered the tomato was not only harmless but delicious, particularly when paired with pizza.

Cheese, the crowning ingredient, was not added until 1889, when the Royal Palace commissioned the Neapolitan pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito to create a pizza in honor of the visiting Queen Margherita. Of the three contenders he created, the Queen strongly preferred a pie swathed in the colors of the Italian flag: red (tomato), green (basil), and white (mozzarella).

Read the whole American Pie at Am. Heritage. 1960s image of Miss Rheingold (a bigger deal in NY than Miss America) from the article. Extra-dry Rheingold Beer - the beer of New York baseball, brewed on the east side of Manhattan until the 1970s.

I always grow a pot of Thyme on the back porch steps. It's my favorite herb. Savoury. It remains fresh and fragrant all winter. Just dust off some snow, break off a few sprigs, and toss them in ye olde stew pot. No need to dry it.

Learned that from my Mom. She was all about keeping her life simple but she sure enjoyed grand luxe for a change of pace.

If you cook at home at all, a good Chef's Knife is the first thing you need. The proper use of this tool for all of its various purposes - chopping, dicing, slicing, etc. - are things to be learned. YouTube is a fine resource for learning knife skills.

Pictured is an 8" Wusthof.

I bring this up because last week we posted on the topic of Knife Control, and were reminded about docs in the UK: British Doctors Call for Ban on Long Kitchen Knives to End Stabbings.

Next, it will be a ban on knitting needles.