One of these mornings...

I am going to make biscuits and gravy (a dish I have never actually had, but I have heard descriptions of it, and it sounds nice) in the Northern California style: fresh, small-farmed ingredients, homemade sausage, etc.

The trouble is: I am not a baker, and within the area of baking, biscuits are my weakest area. I tend to overwork them, which yields a little hockey puck.

But just having biscuits, sausage and sausage gravy just doesn't sound like a proper breakfast. There should be something sweet, but not too heavy, to go along with all this. I would like to think along the lines of a meyer lemon curd, but I don't think I want to put that on the biscuits that will be drizzled with gravy. However, adding another bread product strikes me as gross...so I am forced to think of little meyer lemon pots de creme with fresh, local berries (you can tell I am planning a bit far ahead here), but is this getting to be too much? Perhaps if I just served mimosas that would do the trick.

Hmmm. I am beginning to understand why I don't go for big breakfasts. All of that work without the benefit of a martini? I suppose one could have a martini at six in the morning, but that sort of thing was never my style. Martinis shouldn't be served too often before five in the afternoon.

So, why am I thinking of fancy breakfasts now? Probably because of my general dissatisfaction with commercial breakfast sausage. I taste these things and think, "well, it's OK, but it could be much better, really." And to spend all that time making sausage and not give it the right setting seems wrong.

Hard Cider

They have some Hard Cider from Vermont at Trader Joe's, so we picked up a six pack. The stuff is really good: crisp, refreshing, sort of like Martinelli's, but not as sickly sweet, more thirst quenching, and with a much better flavor. At 5% it barely counts as hard, but it is enough to give it structure. Good stuff.

Vegetable Soup.

I have to produce one for an event tomorrow. I hate vegetable broths, which is why I have NEVER seen soup as a viable Friday in Lent option. However, duty calls, and I have to think of something edible. I am thinking of building a vegetable stock of standard aromatics with leaks, then using that to make a mushroom/potato bisque, and serving it with rustic French bread croutons and thyme-infused EVOO and drizzled with creme fraiche.

East Indian Catholic Recipes.

Someone found the site looking for the above phrase. Unfortunately I don't really have a treasure trove of any Indian recipes. I cook a few, but they are not spectacular, and I know nothing of the food of Goa, which is probably pretty good, since I can only imagine the combination of Portuguese and East Indian cuisines. I like Indian food, but it is probably my weakest area, foodwise.

So, sorry.

Now, if you want to move over a bit further East, to Thailand and Indonesia, then we can talk. I love to cook Southeast Asian food. And if you have some good Vietnamese recipes to offer, well, then I am all ears. I know a little bit, but would like to know more.

I suppose I should focus on Phillipino food, since we live in such a Phillipino area (with a great market full of all sorts of goodies that are just screaming for experimentation). Anyone recommend a good cookbook?

First BLT (and second and third...)

This week I had the first BLT of the season. It was magnificent. In fact, it was so magnificent, that I had to make it again the next day. I have started to do something that I highly recommend (besides using dry-farmed tomatoes, which you really should try if you get the chance. Amazing things), which is to toast the bread by lightly frying it in the bacon grease. WOW! It takes the BLT to a whole new level.

But remember, if you eat one today, you need to do an alternative penance!

Hungry?

I hate the things alive, but I would try it.

Radishes...

Alicia is looking for uses for radishes. This is a good questions. I generally eat them just straight (they make a great accompaniment to chilled Austrian Gruner Veltliner wine), or slice them into thin rounds to go in salad. Also, finely diced, they make a good addition to a taco.

I have had them, again, thinly sliced, as an interesting and pleasing pizza topping. They are good as a garnish to shrimp cocktail. The thin slices might also be fried in a tempura and served with similarly prepared fried slices of lemon (paper thin rounds, zest, pith and pulp) and deep fried anchovy stuffed green olives. At that point, you might as well add some deep fried calamari. Yum!

You could do a pasta with radish slices and thin strips of rare beefsteak and fresh tomatoes. Garnish with California Dried Jack cheese.

If anyone else has any radish ideas, please post them in the comments!

That's some cinghiale!

A 1,050 lb wild boar?

The sad thing is that all they are doing is making sausage, if the story is correct. Now, I love wild boar sausage, but you would have two amazing prosciutti and loins that would feed a whole parish.

Nueva Italia is in Mexico

Well, I ended up cooking Italian food tonight, or sort of Italian food, as it is really my own creation, and since it has Monterrey Jack, it should probably count as California cuisine.

But...Nueva Italia is in Mexico (Michoacan). I have never been there, but as far as I know it is the only such named place in the New World, so perhaps this counts.

It is too late for me to post the recipe, because I might forget what was in it, and I have to teach in the morning, but basically it was a grilled chicken, sauteed mushroom/Marsala, balsamic vinegar deal with a finish of jack, parmiggiano and chopped parsley. Very tasty. Holler if you want details.

And on the subject of things that grow underground...

Well, we weren't really talking about things that grow underground at all, but we were talking about the Englisch, and there is an Underground in London, so perhaps we are there.

Beets. Or beetroot as the Englisch say. Clean 'em, trim 'em, wrap them in foil with a splash of water, roast them at 400 for about an hour or so, or until you forget about them and get hit by this roasty, earthy smell. Let them cool a little. Peel them. Cut them into chunks. Toss them in a little white wine vinegar and EVOO. Sprinkle with salt and pepper (freshly cracked, natch). Put them in the icebox for whenever you are making a salad. They have an affinity for goat cheese. Bon appetit!