March 10 & 11 2009
Meal 1: Sloppy Joe with Artisan Rolls, Roasted Potato and Carrot Hash, & Wilted Spinach
· Heat the hash at 350° until hot and lightly sizzling, about 15 minutes.
· Warm the Joe in a sauce pan with a little additional water if necessary. Warm the rolls in the oven too.
· To wilt the spinach: heat a little olive oil or butter in a saute pan over medium heat. When nearly hot, add a little minced garlic if you like and then the spinach. Stir it immediately and add perhaps a splash of water. When the spinach has wilted and become bright green (less than 3 minutes) it is ready to be served immediately. Alternately, dress the spinach as a salad.
Meal 2: White Bean and Roasted Red Pepper Soup, Pesto Fusilli with Chevre, and Broccoli Salad
· Warm the pasta in the oven at 350 until just warm – about 10 minutes.
· Heat the soup in a sauce pan with some water to thin it, we prepared it in a concentrated form. Adjust the salt and pepper seasoning.
· Serve the broccoli salad at room temp.
Local Notes:
"Fresh is always better..."
"Chevre this week, and last ? But Prairie Fruits, our local/ only cheesemaker isn't producing yet. How did you get some ? Did you compromise ? Did the local thing break down ?"
No. All is well. The chevre is from Prairie Fruits. You see we did the unconventioal manouvre of planning ahead for our members. We asked Leslie to let us know when their last batch of the season was going to be made and we ordered a winter's supply worth. Then, we froze it. It freezes beautifully, nearly perfectly. Like so many of our local foods, besides innate characteristics of the cheese that allow it to freeze well, the initial quality is so high that freezing it is really no compromise at all. I have excavated chickens from my freezer that had been there for 2 years and still have them roast up beautifully ( though I do try to do better). Ideally I try to use meats within 6 months, and vegetables within 1 year.
More restaurants should do this. I would if I had one. I welcome the challenge. The difference in quality from frozen local to fresh industrial would be shocking enough to fuel a meal time revolution in this country. Oh look, it already is...
Vive la resistance!
Technique:
I am So-fritto...
Soffrito is an essential substance, literally. It is not only essential to Italian cooking, but it is the combination of the gustatory essences of onions, garlic, spices, and salt-cured pork.
We forgo pork here at F.N.-HQ for our members prefer kosher-style and vegetarian based cuisine. But not at home. I have been making bacon and pancetta, and now guancale at home for use in our soffritos. A soffrito is the foundation layer of flavor in Italian cooking upon which the rest of the dish is built. It is a technique, a fundamental one; and, as such it has more to offer than any recipe ever will. The essence of the procedure is this:
Dice your pancetta or guancale. Guancale which is pork jowl cured in the manner of pancetta. Also there is a divine product called lardo*. Guess what it is. Bacon is not really a good substitute. Bacon is sweet and a soffrito is decidedly savory. Uncured pork belly would be a better choice. I cure my jowls and bellies with fennel, garlic, corriander, juniper, red chile, etc. and salt. Very aromatic, vegetal, savory flavors. But I digress.
Fry the diced pork in a little olive oil, as these salt cured products do not render easily. When the cubes are rendering and mid-browning, add your onion and garlic, and perhaps some sage and red pepper flake.
Wow, I definitely made that sound harder than it is. To summarize: just fry up some special pork fat, and garlic, onions, herbs and spices. Cook till it looks nummy ( Yes, nummy. You know what I mean.) and then add what ever else you are cooking. Add tomato product and get - tada-tomato sauce for pasta, pizza, what have you. Add white beans, veggies and broth-tada- soup. Add fresh zucchini, eggplant, and tomato with some basil-tada- summer on a plate. But we are hardly to spring yet.
So, what did we do about omitting the pork for the soffrit so important to translating the essential flavors Italian umami (deliciousness) into our soup this week? We upped the olive oil content. But we also made a special spice mix that helped to assemble those essential flavors and get them into the onion, garlic, and oil. Additionally the oil was guarded from excess heat during the soffrito process so its more delicate flavors would not be ruined by the cooking process. Ordinarily olive oil is avoided for the pan roasting of foods as it burns at a low temp and its flavor values are lost. Best to buy good olive oil and use it to finish dishes. So, we tried to honor the basic technique and flavor objectives with slight substitutions and variations. We hope you enjoy it!
*LardoI am becoming an afficianodo of fat. I have a fat collection. ( I also collect salt for those of you wondering what to surprise me with). It includes the regulars like bacon fat and schmaltz, but it is recently enhanced with this amazing slice of heaven called lardo - savory, cured fatback.
More importantly, this lardo, an incredibly gracious gift from our beloved Eric, is cut from Berkshire hogs raised or finished on acorns. Yes, acorns. Their effect is beyond belief. The fat is rich and nutty with a sonorous mouth feel that just reverberates powerful sweet salty savory notes across your palate. It is one of the best things I have ever tasted and it is being produced by an artisan in Iowa under the name La Quercia.
This is world class stuff, literally. I have tried the famed Iberian jamon imported from Spain and retailing for $160/ lbs. This blew that out of the water ( granted the retailer may have mishandled it, or the product could have suffered during export). And while not cheap, is a good value at $15-$30/ lbs. I think $60 worth of mixed goods like some lardo, some guancale, and some copa, would last you 6 months to a year. Its efficient, potent stuff.
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