Ingredient: Gastrique - French Sweet and Sour Sauce

Gastriques are a sort of classic French sweet and sour sauce. The primary flavor (and some of the sweetness) typically comes from fruit (peaches, berries, mangoes and so on) and the sour from vinegar. Gastriques are particularly good on roasted or sautéed pork or poultry. They're easy to make, will keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks, and freeze beautifully.

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Technorati: Food | ingredient | kevin d weeks | seriously good | gastrique

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Rhubarb Compote

In a Good Cause



One of the places I teach cooking classes is Erin's Meadow Herb Farm. It's my favorite teaching venue because the kitchen is in a greenhouse and during the spring and fall, when the owner has classes the building the barn-sized doors at either end are pulled back to let the herb-scented air flow through and, although the roof is covered with a diffuser, the area is filled with natural light. There's also plenty of room for students to get close and plenty of room to work in. The only drawback is the kitchen is poorly equipped.

Some time ago Erin asked me if I would cook at a fund-raising luncheon for the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. She would cover the food costs and I would cover the cooking. It's a good cause and I would be cooking for people in a position to afford my services even in these depressed economic times so I agreed.

The menu focused on herbs and everything from antipasti to dessert featured a fresh herb — and only a single herb so it would shine.

As you might expect, the menu focused on herbs and everything from antipasti to dessert featured a fresh herb — and only a single herb so it would shine. Most of the dishes were standards from my repertoire but I came up with one new dish: a rhubarb/sage chutney.

Fresh herbs are at their best when they are fresh and uncooked so my quandary was how to incorporate a fresh herb into a meat dish and avoid cooking the herbs. A chutney or compote served over the meat was the idea I settled on. Given that the luncheon was in the spring, rhubarb seemed like a perfect seasonal choice and then I decided to go with roast pork as the entrée and that led me to sage. This is awesomely good on roast pork and would also be great on chicken.

Rhubarb Chutney
Serves 6.

3 large stalks rhubarb (about 1 pound) — cut into generous 1/2-inch dice
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c vermouth or white wine
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1-inch piece of ginger — peeled and finely minced
1 jalopeno pepper — seeded and finely minced
1/4 red onion — 1/4-inch dice
1/4 green bell pepper — 1/4-inch dice
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 c finely chopped fresh sage

Combine sugar, vermouth, and vinegar in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Bring to a boil stirring until sugar dissolves. Add remaining ingredients **except sage, reduce heat to low, and simmer, covered, until rhubarb is tender — 5 to 7 minutes. Taste and add sugar if needed.

Remove from heat and stir in sage. Serve at room temperature or chilled over pork or chicken.

Try this rhubarb compote with...
Fried Purple Potatoes
Fried Okra
Blackberry Ice Cream

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | ingredient | rhubarb

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Ingredient: Dry Vermouth

When cooking with wine, chefs usually recommend that you use whatever wine you're planning to drink. Good advice and I generally adhere to it. But the advice presumes you're going to be drinking wine and that might not be the case on a weeknight or you may be planning on red wine with a steak but you need white wine in the appetizer. You can always re-cork the wine, but once exposed to oxygen it's shelf life is limited - particularly in the case of white wine.

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Technorati: Food | ingredient | kevin d weeks | cooking for two

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Paprika Aioli

The List



For the past couple of years my enthusiasm for cooking and creating new recipes has waned, and really waned. I hadn't realized just how apathetic I'd become (after all, it's my job and I've been meeting my obligations)until about two months ago when I started gearing up for a fund-raising luncheon for the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and noticed how excited I was about the event — and sort of freaked because it had become bigger than I was comfortable with. Then I found my list of things to cook was growing again. I need to come up with some salad and dressing recipes (yesterday I bought the fixings for a seafood pasta salad and last weekend I made a sun-dried tomato vinaigrette that I'd been thinking about).

I needed more ice cream recipes and invented this rhubarb mousse last weekend and am making some lavender ice cream later today. I've been making Mexican/Tex-Mex dishes and I'm pondering something or other with Latin roots using pork. I've made notes on a jerk-burger (a hamburger featuring jerk seasoning) and I picked up some golden beets that I need to do something with.

This is particularly delicious on fish, but would also be good on chicken, excellent on a roast pork sandwich, and makes a good dip for crudities.

Last night I had dinner at my parents house and Dad had smoked a half salmon. I'm not sure how he seasoned it (my sister was down for a visit and I paid more attention to her than the food) but he had cooked it perfectly and I'd made an aioli to use as a sauce. However, I went a step beyond tradition and added some smoked hot Spanish paprika. It was amazing. I kept poking my finer in it to taste.

This is particularly delicious on fish, but would also be good on chicken, excellent on a roast pork sandwich, and makes a good dip for crudities.

Paprika Aioli
Makes 1 cup.

1 egg yolk
6 lg. cloves garlic
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 c canola oil
1/2 tsp ground mustard seed
1 1/2 tsp smoked hot Spanish paprika
Salt to taste

Roast the garlic, skin-on, in a small skillet over medium heat until softened and fragrant — turning once or twice to avoid burning. Peel garlic and mince finely in a mini food processor* or blender.

Add egg yolk to food processor* along with lemon juice. Drizzle in oil very slowly until mixture begins to thicken — then you can add oil slightly more quickly — being careful not to break emulsion.

Once all oil is incorporated, add garlic and remaining ingredients, taste, and adjust seasoning.

(*Note: I have Krups mini food processor that I got about 15 years ago. It has about a 12 ounce capacity, but it's best feature is the top has a small reservoir with two holes in it that adds oil to mayonnaise at exactly the correct rate for emulsifying. This unit is longer made, but if you can find one with a reservoir and drip holes it's worth buying.)

Try this Paprika Aioli with...
Grilled Pork Tenderloin
Grilled Shrimp
Roast Pork Sandwich

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | ingredient | aioli | mayonnaise

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Grade B Maple Syrup

Eating the Tree



I had friends over for a pancake brunch yesterday. My friend Sara had mentioned that she hadn't eaten waffles in years, which led me into my now-common rave about how good Grade B maple syrup is. So, of course, I had to have Jake and her over to try it. I don't have a waffle iron so I fixed pancakes instead.

I didn't want to do anything fancy with the cakes — after all, this meal was about the syrup. So I made a basic batter except that I added about 1/2 a teaspoon of ground coriander to the mix. Not enough to show up strongly, but enough to provide an underlying hint that complimented the syrup nicely. A generous dollop of Amish butter rounded out the pancakes and some top-flight country sausage from a local country ham maker added a spicy/salty element to the simple meal. But this is about syrup.

Wow! It's like eating the tree.

Several years ago I started reading and hearing about Grade B maple syrup. Like, perhaps, most people I assumed Grade B was inferior to Grade A — not that I'd ever seen any Grade B on a grocery shelf, much less tasted it. What I didn't know was that the grading system was based on color and not flavor or quality. The lighter the syrup's color the higher the grade. Grade B and below is typically sold to manufacturers for use as a flavoring. This is partially because of the perception of inferiority and partly because it has a stronger flavor that is useful in manufactured products.

I finally located some in a catalog and tried it. Wow! We're talking maple flavor times 10. Since then it's become a staple in my pantry. It's good in bran muffins, on oatmeal, on biscuits, in sweet potatoes (try mashed sweet potatoes with maple syrup and rum), pretty much anywhere you'd use ordinary maple syrup. But my favorite remains pancakes. After all, syrup is why God invented pancakes.

Despite searching, I've never found Grade B in a store. I did once find it at a roadside stand in Vermont — but only once (Yankees look down their noses at it). I'm sure it's available from a number of mail-order sources, but I get it from King Arthur Flour.

The first time I served it to my brother Kerry his comment was, "Wow! It's like eating the tree." That's the best description of it I've heard.

Try Grade B Maple Syrup with...
Pancakes with Cormeal
Maple Wholewheat Bread
Squash with Maple Syrup and Horseradish

Technorati: Food | review | kevin d weeks | seriously good | maple syrup

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Fat, Fabulous Fat

Like most (all?) humans, I love fat. And there's good reason at the root of that love. Fats are essential to our metabolic process. They're the way plants and animals store energy for future use. Because we can readily and quickly convert fat to serve immediate energy needs, it appeals very strongly to us.

You can read the complete article at Spot-On.

Technorati: Food | essay | kevin d weeks | spot-on | ingredients

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