Good Grub
Good Grub from the maker of Butterfly Bakery of Vermont
Tourtiere du Fittsgeorges
This is not a weeknight meal. This is not even an "average Sunday" meal. This is a "plan on being in the vicinity of the kitchen all day" kind of meal. Fortunately it's not hard, it just takes a while. And it can also be made ahead and frozen, for a yummy no-fuss meal.Tourtiere is a French-Canadian meat pie. Being engaged to a French-Canadian, I've taken great interest in yummy sounding French-Canadian foods that I was formally unfamiliar with (and by "taken an interest in" I mean "totally mess with my fiance's traditions").
Traditionally tourtiere is made with ground meat, but Martin Picard (of Montreal's Au Pied de Cochon fame) has forever changed that for me. He opened up a sugar shack north of Montreal (read: middle of friggin nowhere) and published the recipe for his Tourtiere du Shack, which is about 60/40 braised pork/ground pork. I think his original recipe uses pig trotters, but mine uses a more easily obtainable pork shoulder. Any meaty braising cut will fit the bill.
If you are unfamiliar with the Quebecois tradition of the sugar shack (Cabane a Sucre), I highly recommend familiarizing yourself. The idea is that Quebecois families go to a nearby maple sugaring shack during maple sugaring season and eat a huge buffet of the types of foods that the sugarers (who are doing backbreaking work in the snow in the woods) would eat. This involves lots of meat, lots of fried and lots of salt. The tourtiere is just one of the meat options. Others include creton (a pork spread that I have spent a lot of time trying to recreate), and Oreilles de crisse (literally means "ears of christ," and literally is fried and salted pig jowls). Have I mentioned that Quebecois love pig in all it's many and tasty forms?
I've made this tourtiere several times now and it has gained a reputation amongst "those in the know." I say "those in the know" because the reputation is apparently "Mine! All mine!" with little interest in sharing. It's kind of crazy good. So be warned, if you make this you may be asked to make it again. And then again.
Tourtiere du Fittsgeorges
Inspired by Martin Picard’s Tourtiere du Shack
Crust:
3 cups white all purpose flour
1 cup cold butter, cut into pieces
1 tsp salt
cold water
Filling:
2 onions
2 heads of garlic
1 tsp dry thyme
6 peppercorns
3 bay leaves
2 1/2 cup chicken or vegetable broth
2 lb pork shoulder
2 tbs bacon fat or butter
1/4 lb mushrooms
1 tsp salt plus more to taste
3/4 cup white wine
1 lb ground pork
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 cup shredded russet potato (about 1/2 large potato)
pepper to taste
1 beaten egg yolk
Crust:
1) Mix the salt into the flour.
2) Using a food processor or pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture has formed a fine grain (but has not begun to clump together). If you have time, refrigerate the butter/flour mixture for 1 or more hours.
3) Add the water, starting with a couple tablespoons and mix in with a wooden spoon, until the dough just barely holds together. Be careful to not over mix. Cut the dough into two balls and let rest in the fridge for 20 minutes to a full day.
Tourtiere:
1) Preheat oven to 325° F.
2) Rough chop 1/2 onion and 1 head of peeled garlic. Place in a dutch oven with the thyme, peppercorns, bay leaves, broth and whole pork shoulder (broth should mostly cover the shoulder). Bring the broth to a boil over medium heat, then cover and place in preheated oven for 2 hours
3) Remove the dutch oven from the oven and shred the pork shoulder with two forks. Cover again and return to oven for another hour, or until the pork is falling apart. Set aside to cool. When cool, remove any bay leaves, bones, fat chunks or connective tissue and further shred the pork. Remove most of the liquid and set aside.
4) Finely dice the remaining 1 1/2 onion, peeled garlic head and mushrooms. Add to a large skillet with the bacon fat and 1 tsp salt. Sautee over medium heat until onion is starting to brown and almost all of the liquid has evaporated, about 5-10 minutes. Deglaze pan with the wine.
5) Let most of the liquid evaporate again and add the ground pork, cinnamon and cloves. Cook the pork until cooked through, stirring often to break up any large pieces. Add the shredded russet potato and cook for about 10 minutes or until the potato has softened. Add the mixture to the shredded pork and stir in as much liquid as the mixture will soak up. Add salt and pepper to taste and set aside or refrigerate to cool.
6) Preheat oven to 400° F
7) One pie dough ball at a time, roll the dough on a generously floured surface to about 1/8 inch thick and large enough for two 8-inch pie tins, being careful not to let the dough stick.
8) Line two greased 8-inch pie tins with the dough, letting about one inch of dough overhang the side. Fill the two crusts with the tourtiere filling.
9) Roll out the remaining dough ball and cover the two tourtieres, rolling the top and bottom crusts together. Cut vents in the top crust of each tourtiere and brush with beaten egg yolk. Bake tourtiere at 400° F for 30 minutes and then reduce heat to 350° for another 30-45 minutes, or until crust is golden brown. Enjoy!
Note: Fully assembled yet unbaked tourtiere can be wrapped and frozen for up to three months. Let fully thaw in the fridge before baking.
Squash Casserole
The life of a recipe developer is so much more fun when someone comes up to me and says, "I need a recipe focusing on this one specific thing, stat!" It gives me a jumping off point, but lots of flexibility. So, today that thing is winter squash. I copped out two weeks ago with a squash repeat, so I needed to not do that again. But I also needed to make dinner out of items that were already in the house (for a man who tends to be a little ho-hum about squash).My first thought was a corn/beans/squash dish, since those are very complimentary foods (for growing and eating). But I didn't have corn or beans, so that was out. Then I thought that a squash/veggie/sausage casserole dish sounded lovely, but I'm all out of sausage. Fortunately I've found that some ground beef (which I did have) plus fennel seed and bacon fat ends up tasting remarkably like sausage in dishes (and my man is very not ho-hum about bacon fat).
This dish is very flexible to the ingredients you have in your house. Just about any veggie combo will do and you can eliminate the meat by subbing in some black beans (mix in about 2 cans after taking the vegetables off the heat). You can eliminate the cheese by just leaving it out and sprinkling nuts over the top (or not, if nuts ain't yo thang). I'd say that the only thing this dish really needs is the mashed, roasted squash and some vegetables of some kind for the squash to stick to. Have fun!
Squash Casserole
1 large winter squash (butternut, pumpkin, acorn, Long Island cheese squash)
1/2 medium cabbage, sliced
1 medium fennel bulb, sliced
2 medium onions, sliced
2 tbs bacon fat, butter or olive oil
1/2 garlic bulb, peeled and sliced
2 bell or anaheim peppers, cored and sliced
1 jalapeno or cayenne, finely chopped (optional)
1 tbs fennel seed
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp salt, plus more to taste
1 lb ground beef
8 oz chevre
4 oz grated cheese and/or crumbled feta
1) Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut the winter squash in half, remove seeds and place cut side down on a foil lined cookie sheet with edges (or a roasting pan). Roast the squash for about an hour, depending on size, until a fork easily pierces the skin of the squash. Remove from oven and let cool.
2) Meanwhile, cook over medium heat the cabbage, fennel bulk, onions, fat, garlic, peppers, fennel seed, salt and pepper, stirring regularly, until cabbage is soft, about 30 minutes.
3) Turn the heat up to medium high and add the ground beef, stirring regularly until beef is cooked through. Remove from heat and let cool somewhat.
4) Scoop out about 4 cups of the cooked squash and roughly mash with a fork. Mix it into the beef mixture. Break the chevre into 1/2 inch pieces and gently fold into the beef and squash mixture. Spread everything into a 9x13 inch casserole pan and top with grated or crumbled remaining cheese. Bake for about 30 minutes at 350° F or until cheese is starting to brown.
Winter Squash repeat
I've never repeated a blog entry, but this one is from three years ago (and delicious), so I thought it was time. Enjoy!
Winter Squash Soup
Winter Squash Soup
So I would have thought that once I got heat in my house (yay heat!) I
would have starting veering away from soups, but apparently that is not
the case. I have recently been falling in love with squash soup. It’s
so simple and so delicious.
When winter squashes started showing up at the farmers market I realized that I didn’t know much about most of them. I love butternut and, of course, pie pumpkins (be prepared for the best pumpkin pie recipe ever in November), but I didn’t know much about the rest. And one of the lovely things about this blog is that I have to get outside of my food comfort zone to keep writing columns (my blog would be very boring if I did nothing but write about the stir fries that I make more often than I should). So I started bringing squash home and roasting them (it’s so much easier than peeling and boiling them). At first I was just eating them straight (or with butter, for the drier varieties). But that wasn’t very interesting (and could be quite fattening). So I came up with the brilliant idea of soup!
Last week I bought a bunch of squash at the farmers market and when roasting time came I had butternut, delicata and a variety that I had never seen before. It looks like a cross between a delicata and an acorn. The farmer at Dog River Farm told me the name, which I promptly forgot. But, when in doubt, roast! So I sliced the squashes in half, composted the seeds (some folks like to roast them, but that’s never been my thing) and placed them upside down on a greased, foil-lined pan. I roasted them at 350° F “until done.” Done, to me, means that a fork slides easily through the skin. This time ranged from about 30 minutes to about 1 hour 15 minutes depending on the squash and the size.
I went ahead and made squash soup with my delicious delicatas right there on the spot (see below), but as it was around 11 pm on a Sunday night I decided to leave the other squash for later. I shelled out each type of squash into a separate container and tossed them in the refrigerator. As luck would have it, this ended up making me perfect lunches all week. My roommate had brought a whole bunch of leftover chopped onions home from a company picnic and she decided to sauté and freeze them for later use. So, each morning I’ve been pureeing some of these sautéed onions with chicken broth and the roasted squash to make some absolutely lovely squash soup for lunch. All of the squashes have made excellent soup, but so far that mystery squash has been my favorite. I’ve played around with adding curry, roasted garlic or chili pepper flakes, and I encourage you to do the same. But I’ve put my super simple recipe below because it’s still my favorite and it makes a good jumping off point.
So, I hope you enjoy this simple soup as much as I have been and keep an eye out for my upcoming blog entry on making your own homemade broth!
Winter Squash Soup
4 delicata squash (or a similar amount of your favorite type of winter squash)
1 medium red onion
2 tsp olive oil
pinch salt plus more to taste
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
black pepper
1) Slice the squash in half, discard the seeds and roast the squash, open side down, at 350° F on a greased, foil lined baking pan. The squash is done when a fork easily slides through the skin, about 30 minutes for a delicata and longer for larger squash. Remove the squash from the oven and let them cool.
2) Dice the red onion and sauté over medium high heat in the olive oil and the pinch of salt in a large saucepan until the onion starts to brown. Remove pan from heat and scoop the contents of the squash into the pan, discarding the skin.
3) Add the broth to the pan and with an immersion blender, puree the mixture until smooth (or puree in batches in a standing blender). Return the pan to the stove and heat the soup, over medium heat, until hot. If the soup is too thick, add more broth or water. Add salt and pepper to taste.
When winter squashes started showing up at the farmers market I realized that I didn’t know much about most of them. I love butternut and, of course, pie pumpkins (be prepared for the best pumpkin pie recipe ever in November), but I didn’t know much about the rest. And one of the lovely things about this blog is that I have to get outside of my food comfort zone to keep writing columns (my blog would be very boring if I did nothing but write about the stir fries that I make more often than I should). So I started bringing squash home and roasting them (it’s so much easier than peeling and boiling them). At first I was just eating them straight (or with butter, for the drier varieties). But that wasn’t very interesting (and could be quite fattening). So I came up with the brilliant idea of soup!
Last week I bought a bunch of squash at the farmers market and when roasting time came I had butternut, delicata and a variety that I had never seen before. It looks like a cross between a delicata and an acorn. The farmer at Dog River Farm told me the name, which I promptly forgot. But, when in doubt, roast! So I sliced the squashes in half, composted the seeds (some folks like to roast them, but that’s never been my thing) and placed them upside down on a greased, foil-lined pan. I roasted them at 350° F “until done.” Done, to me, means that a fork slides easily through the skin. This time ranged from about 30 minutes to about 1 hour 15 minutes depending on the squash and the size.
I went ahead and made squash soup with my delicious delicatas right there on the spot (see below), but as it was around 11 pm on a Sunday night I decided to leave the other squash for later. I shelled out each type of squash into a separate container and tossed them in the refrigerator. As luck would have it, this ended up making me perfect lunches all week. My roommate had brought a whole bunch of leftover chopped onions home from a company picnic and she decided to sauté and freeze them for later use. So, each morning I’ve been pureeing some of these sautéed onions with chicken broth and the roasted squash to make some absolutely lovely squash soup for lunch. All of the squashes have made excellent soup, but so far that mystery squash has been my favorite. I’ve played around with adding curry, roasted garlic or chili pepper flakes, and I encourage you to do the same. But I’ve put my super simple recipe below because it’s still my favorite and it makes a good jumping off point.
So, I hope you enjoy this simple soup as much as I have been and keep an eye out for my upcoming blog entry on making your own homemade broth!
Winter Squash Soup
4 delicata squash (or a similar amount of your favorite type of winter squash)
1 medium red onion
2 tsp olive oil
pinch salt plus more to taste
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
black pepper
1) Slice the squash in half, discard the seeds and roast the squash, open side down, at 350° F on a greased, foil lined baking pan. The squash is done when a fork easily slides through the skin, about 30 minutes for a delicata and longer for larger squash. Remove the squash from the oven and let them cool.
2) Dice the red onion and sauté over medium high heat in the olive oil and the pinch of salt in a large saucepan until the onion starts to brown. Remove pan from heat and scoop the contents of the squash into the pan, discarding the skin.
3) Add the broth to the pan and with an immersion blender, puree the mixture until smooth (or puree in batches in a standing blender). Return the pan to the stove and heat the soup, over medium heat, until hot. If the soup is too thick, add more broth or water. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Fresh Tomato Soup
Fresh tomato soup is the perfect bridge between summer and fall. In fact, if we had another season between summer and fall, I think it should be called Fresh Tomato Soup Season (FTSS for short -- it would be fun to hear folks say it). To me, farmers market (or garden) tomatoes taste like sunshine. Luscious, bright, juicy, bikini by the swimming hole with a glass of maple lemonade kind of sunshine. So, eating fresh tomato soup on a brisk fall evening is like wrapping yourself in a handknit throw made with pure spun summer sunshine. It's just all kinds of perfect.
Fresh tomato soup is nothing like the canned stuff but is almost as uncomplicated. I like serving mine up with some grilled cheese sandwiches. Last night's grilled cheese was two slices of cracked wheat bread, spread with chevre, a good melting cheese and just a little bit of hot sauce. Then cooked with butter between two cast iron pans. Oh, yeah. I could do that for dinner again tonight. And maybe tomorrow night too...
Fresh Tomato Soup
1 the olive oil
1 med onion, rough chopped
4 med garlic cloves, sliced
1 tsp chopped thyme
1/2 - 1 tsp salt (to taste)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
6 medium tomatoes, chopped
1) In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, saute the olive oil, onion, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper until the onion has softened.
2) Add the tomatoes to the pan and stir. Cook for about 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the tomatoes are soft and juicy. Using an immersion blender or food processor, puree the soup until everything is more or less pureed. Simmer over low heat for another 10 minutes or until ready to serve.
Fresh tomato soup is nothing like the canned stuff but is almost as uncomplicated. I like serving mine up with some grilled cheese sandwiches. Last night's grilled cheese was two slices of cracked wheat bread, spread with chevre, a good melting cheese and just a little bit of hot sauce. Then cooked with butter between two cast iron pans. Oh, yeah. I could do that for dinner again tonight. And maybe tomorrow night too...
Fresh Tomato Soup
1 the olive oil
1 med onion, rough chopped
4 med garlic cloves, sliced
1 tsp chopped thyme
1/2 - 1 tsp salt (to taste)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
6 medium tomatoes, chopped
1) In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, saute the olive oil, onion, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper until the onion has softened.
2) Add the tomatoes to the pan and stir. Cook for about 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the tomatoes are soft and juicy. Using an immersion blender or food processor, puree the soup until everything is more or less pureed. Simmer over low heat for another 10 minutes or until ready to serve.
Tomato Sausage Pie
This isn't the most elegant of dishes, but it's crazy tasty and makes great leftovers. I love how sunny summer tomatoes taste to the degree that I don't bother with fresh tomatoes in the off season. It's not out of a local-tomato obligation, but rather a "food that I want" vs "food that I don't want" issue (I feel the same way about homemade butter). There are just much tastier things available in the other 7 months of the year!
I also love how this recipe can be entirely local (ok, well, 99.9% as that no one is growing local peppercorns as of yet). So go forth and eat!
(And BTW, I don't have any pictures of luscious Vermont tomatoes because last weekend me and my man cooked and froze 72 lbs of fresh tomatoes to save for colder months -- equivalent to 52 cans. And this has left us temporarily tomatoeless -- I'm guessing we will survive).
Tomato Sausage Pie
1 pie crust in pie plate (optional)
1/2 lb chorizo sausage (no casing)
1/2 onion
2 garlic cloves
2 lb tomatoes, sliced
1-1/2 – 2 cups grated cheese, divided
2 eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1) Preheat oven to 375° F.
2) Cook the chorizo, onion and garlic over medium heat until the chorizo is cooked through and onion is soft. Place sausage mixture in the pie crust (or greased, empty pie plate, if omitting crust).
3) Sprinkle 1/3 of the grated cheese over the sausage mixture. Top with the sliced tomatoes. Whisk together the eggs, milk and ground pepper in a small bowl, then pour over the tomatoes. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and bake at 375° for 30-40 minutes or until cheese is browning. Enjoy!
I also love how this recipe can be entirely local (ok, well, 99.9% as that no one is growing local peppercorns as of yet). So go forth and eat!
(And BTW, I don't have any pictures of luscious Vermont tomatoes because last weekend me and my man cooked and froze 72 lbs of fresh tomatoes to save for colder months -- equivalent to 52 cans. And this has left us temporarily tomatoeless -- I'm guessing we will survive).
Tomato Sausage Pie
1 pie crust in pie plate (optional)
1/2 lb chorizo sausage (no casing)
1/2 onion
2 garlic cloves
2 lb tomatoes, sliced
1-1/2 – 2 cups grated cheese, divided
2 eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1) Preheat oven to 375° F.
2) Cook the chorizo, onion and garlic over medium heat until the chorizo is cooked through and onion is soft. Place sausage mixture in the pie crust (or greased, empty pie plate, if omitting crust).
3) Sprinkle 1/3 of the grated cheese over the sausage mixture. Top with the sliced tomatoes. Whisk together the eggs, milk and ground pepper in a small bowl, then pour over the tomatoes. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and bake at 375° for 30-40 minutes or until cheese is browning. Enjoy!
Maple Basil Shortbread with Maple Tomato Jam
I listen to a bunch of food related podcasts in the bakery and the other day I was listening to one (this is the article: http://www.npr.org/2012/07/28/157359289/you-wont-throw-tomatoes-at-these-recipes) and they mentioned using tomatoes as a sweet item and specifically mentioned tomato jam. I was intrigued. Then someone mentioned pairing it with a basil shortbread and I was hooked. Ok, I went back and read the article and found that they mention pairing a tomato sorbet with the shortbread, not the jam, but I liked the jam idea, so I went with it (although, perhaps tomato sorbet should be next on my list). Also, now that I've read the article (instead of just listening to the podcast while elbow deep in cookie dough), I see that they have a tomato jam recipe there, but mine is different. Feel free to experiment and compare.I've done a couple different versions of this shortbread and they are all curiously fantastic. I even did one where I swapped out the rice flour for a coarse local cornmeal (that's what's in the picture). If you can get over the fact that it doesn't taste like what you expect a shortbread to taste like, but still tastes just like a shortbread, it's crazy delicious. Enjoy!
Lemon Basil Shortbread
3 sticks of butter, room temperature
1 cup of maple sugar
4 tbs chopped basil (about 32 large leaves)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon extract
2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup rice flour
1) In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, maple sugar, basil and salt until just mixed plus a little more. Add the vanilla and lemon extracts and mix thoroughly.
2) Add the flours and mix just until the flour is evenly incorporated. Shape the dough into a rectangle, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.
3) Preheat the oven to 350° F. Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness and cut with knives or cookie cutters. Place cookies on foil or parchment paper lined cookie sheets and bake for about 10 minutes or until the edges of the shortbread are golden. Enjoy!
Makes about 30 cookies
Maple Tomato Jam
3 lb tomatoes, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp cumin
1) Add all ingredients to a large pot and cook over medium heat for about 2 hours, or until the mixture is thick and spreadable, stirring regularly. Let cool and enjoy!
Humaneitarian
Have you heard of this lovely website? Humaneitarian.org (and yes the 'e' in the middle is deliberate) is a website devoted to helping people learn how to eat humanely raised meats. I highly recommend checking out and not just because I wrote a few recipes for them! Here is one on tender grass fed steak:
www.humaneitarian.org/being-a-humaneitarian/in-the-kitchen/grass-fed-beef/
There will also be some recipes from me on cooking whole chicken, Vermont Style BBQ Pulled Pork and grilled lamb chops. But in the mean time, check out everything they've got going on over there!
www.humaneitarian.org/being-a-humaneitarian/in-the-kitchen/grass-fed-beef/
There will also be some recipes from me on cooking whole chicken, Vermont Style BBQ Pulled Pork and grilled lamb chops. But in the mean time, check out everything they've got going on over there!
Rhubarb deliciousness
And here is a lovely article I recently wrote for the new iteration of Edible Green Mountain about some of the tasty things you can do with rhubarb:
http://www.ediblecommunities.com/greenmountains/editorial/spring-2012/edible-seasonal-kitchen.htm
http://www.ediblecommunities.com/greenmountains/editorial/spring-2012/edible-seasonal-kitchen.htm
The Development of a Recipe and a Recipe Developer
I recently wrote an article for Local Banquet about being a recipe developer and how to develop a recipe. There are also two delicious recipes to go with it (and the mention of a third that didn't make it in because after 14 tries I had to call it quits). Here's the link:
http://www.localbanquet.com/issues/years/2012/summer12/recipedevelopment_s12.html
http://www.localbanquet.com/issues/years/2012/summer12/recipedevelopment_s12.html
Whole Milk Strawberry Sorbet
When the manager of the Montpelier Farmers Market asked me to write up a recipe for my favorite way to eat local strawberries, my first thought was, "Um, recipe? My favorite way to eat local strawberries is rinsed." But then I gave it a second thought and realized that there are many delicious ways of consuming these scrumptiously seedy red delights. Some obvious preparations, like shortcake and pie came to mind, but really, who wants to cook in this sweltering humidity (the meatloaf in my oven notwithstanding)? And can I just say how much I love ice cream and all things frozen? I made this a milk based sorbet because there is just so much tasty tasty milk available at the Montpelier Farmers Market and ice cream seemed too heavy for this hot summer heat (and would require that steamy cooking thing to happen too). The rum, besides being rum-tastic, also helps keep the sorbet softer for days to come. If you're going to eat the sorbet right away and you're not an imbiber you can just leave the rum to the sailors. Enjoy!1 qt fresh strawberries, washed, stemmed and chopped
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup VT maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup VT rum (such as Dunc's Mill or Smugglers Notch)
1) Put all the ingredients in a food processor and purée until smooth. Freeze in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions.