A truffle tree of your very own?

Anyone who has priced real truffles in the past few years has had sticker shock that makes gasoline prices seem reasonable. And it has become worse as the dollar skids in value on the international market. Last year they were as much as $3000 per pound on the retail market.

So why not adopt a truffle tree of your own? Risky, yes, but the potential rewards could be enough to seduce truffle-lovers who can affort the investment. Perhaps.

An enterprise in Gascony, France, has planted several hundred trees and is offering an adoption plan. You get your very own tree, and once (or if) it begins producing truffles, they are all yours, to keep or to sell on the open market. You get a picture of your tree, and can visit it any time you like.

The $64,000 question: When will the first truffles appear? How many? Some say as early as year three. Dr Khanaqa, a leading truffle expert, suggests between 150g and 450g per tree in year four, after which it should build up over the next twenty five to thirty years. A more conservative outlook goes with the majority view that harvesting should begin between five and nine years from planting. But truffles are unpredictable. One tree may produce a bumper crop while its neighbour does little or nothing. It’s this area of uncertainty that makes the whole concept intriguing.

For more information, or to adopt a tree of your very own, you can visit the truffière website.

Summer road trips!

Doing a little web-surfing the other day (something I don't have much time for lately) I came upon an article about various food-related museums. Who knew that there is a museum devoted to Spam? Or to Jello?

I'm not sure any of them are worth a dedicated trip, but if you happen to be in the area, take pictures and we'll publish them here!

Curried Lamb Ragout

I love lamb, but I have friends who don’t. Or at least they think they don’t. Recently I asked a friend if he liked lamb and the response was a semi-doubtful “Sure, I guess so.”

I had been to the grocery and found lamb stew meat on sale and snapped it up. Then the question of how to cook it arose. I had seen a recipe for an Indian lamb and lentil recipe. It had a long list of spices involved, but I thought I could do quite well with a good commercial curry powder.

I’ve been on a butternut squash kick lately, so that had to go in, and I used canned black beans instead of lentils.

Many Indian dishes are served here with garnishes such as toasted coconut, minced cilantro, raisins or a sweet fruit chutney. I used an almost-green banana to make a rather unique chutney that perfectly complemented the dish. We all wished we’d had more of it, so I’ve doubled it.

When I first made it, it was a bit too soupy for my taste, so I’ve cut down on the liquid. The result is a nice stew consistency. I served it with grilled pita wedges (instead of Indian naan bread) and a salad.

This will make a great dish for company or family. And my doubtful friend? He loved it!

CURRIED LAMB, BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND BLACK BEAN RAGOUT

2 lbs lamb stew meat
4 cups chicken stock
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon curry powder (see note)
1 teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)
1 small (about 3 pounds) butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1” cubes
2 16- to 20-ounce cans black beans, not rinsed or drained
2 bananas, very firm, almost green
Juice and zest of two limes
1 bunch cilantro
1 small jalapeño pepper, finely minced (optional)

Put the lamb, stock and bay leaves in a large non-reactive sauce pan or Dutch oven. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until lamb is almost tender, about 45 minutes.

While the lamb is cooking, in a medium skillet heat the butter and add the garlic. Stir a couple of times, then add the onion and sauté just until translucent. Add the curry powder and cardamom (if using) and stir a couple of minutes. Scrape this into the lamb mixture, add the butternut squash and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes. Add the black beans and cook until lamb is completely done and the butternut squash is cooked through but still firm, about 10 minutes more.

Meanwhile, peel the bananas and cut them in half lengthwise. Slice crosswise about ¼” thick. Toss with the lime juice and zest. Add 3 tablespoons minced cilantro. If you like spicy foods, add the jalapeño pepper.

When ready to serve, ladle the ragout into flat soup plates, garnish with the banana mixture and additional whole cilantro leaves. Serves 6 generously.

NOTES: Whether to use hot or mild curry powder is your choice. I used mild, but I’m a bit of a wimp about hot foods, and found the jalapeño in the chutney to give just enough heat for my taste.

Game Day Cassoulet

I have a friend who makes cassoulet (pronounced cass-oo-lay) at least once every winter. I love it and always look forward to it. Native to the southwest part of France, there are many versions. It’s a wonderful dish but very labor intensive, and for a rustic dish, pretty expensive.

It requires duck confit, leg quarters cooked in duck fat for a long time on very low heat. In addition, lamb shanks and French garlic sausages are included in most recipes.

And it’s a lot of work. Anthony Bourdain’s recipe in the “Les Halles Cookbook” gives directions broken down into “Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3” segments.

Well, when I recently wanted to do a similar dish for a brunch with neighbors, Anthony Bourdain wasn’t there (more’s the pity!) and I came up with a much less labor intensive version of my own. If not at all authentic, it sure was good!

I used chicken thighs with the bone in and the skin on. Even if you don’t like to eat the skin, I advise that you leave it on during cooking to keep the meat from drying out. For the sausage I used smoked sausage from the supermarket. A good lamb sausage would make a felicitous substitute; if it isn’t precooked, broil or roast it first, then cut into slices.

This would make a wonderful dish for you NCAA tournament game-watching friends. You can make everything the day before, then assemble in the morning, and bake when you’re ready for it. I made a salad with sliced winter fruit: oranges, pears and apples, with toasted walnuts on a bed of butter lettuce with a black currant vinaigrette dressing. It was the perfect companion to the cassoulet.

 

GAME DAY CASSOULET

1 lb great northern beans

2 tbsp olive oil

8 chicken thighs, bone-in, skin on (about 2 lbs)

12 oz smoked sausage, cut into 1/2" slices

1 large onion, chopped

4 large cloves garlic, minced

3 medium carrots, sliced

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 cup red wine

5 or 6 sprigs fresh thyme

1 bay leaf

6 cups chicken broth

Salt to taste

1 cup fresh breadcrumbs from firm bread

In a large bowl or pan, soak the beans overnight (or at least 8 hours) in water to cover by 2".

In a heavy Dutch oven, heat the olive oil. Add the chicken thighs, skin side down and brown on both sides in two batches. You want them a nice dark golden brown. Remove to a plate. Add the sliced sausage and brown on both sides. Remove and add to the plate with the chicken. Reserve.

Add the onion, garlic and carrot to the pan and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the onion starts to soften and is translucent. Add the tomato paste and stir until all the vegetables are coated with it. Add the wine, thyme and bay leaf and simmer until reduced by about half.

Drain the beans, discarding the soaking liquid. Add them to the vegetable mixture, along with the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and cook at a low simmer until the beans are just tender, about 45 minutes. After 30 minutes, taste the stock and salt if you think it needs it. If you are preparing it in advance, cover and refrigerate the beans in the pot, and the plate with the chicken and sausage.

Preheat the oven to 350. Drain the cooking liquid from the beans and reserve. Pick the thyme stems and bay leaf out of the beans. Put half the beans in a large casserole. Top with the sausage, then the rest of the beans. Nestle the thighs down in the beans, skin side up and exposed. Pour enough of the reserved cooking broth to just cover the beans.

Place the casserole in the oven and lightly rest a sheet of foil on the top. Bake for an hour, adding more of the cooking broth as needed to keep the beans just covered. Remove the foil. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the beans and chicken. Bake for an additional 30 minutes. Serves 8 very generously.

Wolfgang Puck in Louisville

I was in Louisville, my home town, this past weekend, and had the occasion to go downtown on a family business errand. I hadn't been downtown in perhaps years, and was pleasantly surprised at how "big city" it looked. In the lobby of the convention center we found a new place, "Wolfgang Puck Express." With an open line, and a wood fired pizza oven, it was hard to resist.

Friendly folks gave us menus and directed us toward a long but fast-moving line. Once our order was taken and paid for, we helped ourselves to our beverages. My sister had a coke but I had asked for unsweetened tea. The only tea they had was a very heavily mango infused tea, not particularly to my taste.


The extensive menu features Wolfgang Puck’s hand-crafted gourmet pizzas, a variety of pastas, sandwiches, soups, fresh salads, including Wolfgang’s famous Chinois™ chicken salad, and Wolfgang’s classics, such as ginger salmon and rosemary rotisserie chicken with garlic mashed potatoes. In this picture, you see one of the salads, quite an astonishing stack of goodies for the price. One with grilled salmon topped out the price list at $10.95. Others came with grilled chicken or rotisserie beef. And to the right of the salad is one of the pocket sandwiches, so large I could never have eaten it all.

In the background you can see the pizza oven.


My sister and I shared a very tasty "petite Caesar." As you can see it wasn't so petite. The lettuce was crisp and the dressing was one of the best in my recent memory. We also split a Tuscan vegetable pizza, loaded with roasted tomato, eggplant, fennel, rapini, mozzarella and fontina cheeses and pesto sauce. Boy! Was it ever good, and again, more than the two of us together could finish.

My only regret is that it is downtown, and that makes it a long way to go for lunch. They are open in the evenings, but are a bit more casual than I would like for a dinner out. But any time I'm going to be close to downtown, I would sure stop in again!

A pretty good salad!

So I don't usually do this...but I went to the supermarket before I'd had lunch the other day--what was I thinking?!?--and saw all kinds of things I hadn't noticed before and everything looked good. Of course. I tried this salad and for what it was, I thought it was very good!

Here is their description:

Our B.L.T. Caesar is the best of all worlds--a great Caesar Salad with Real Bacon Crumbles (and plenty of them) plus moist and tasty Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Tomato French Bread Croutons. Our Restaurant-Style Caesar Dressing is Caesar as it should be--rich, cheesy and mellow, not harsh or too vinegary. And all this on a bed of fresh, crisp 100% Romaine Lettuce.

In the main they were right. The sundried tomatoes and bacon really tasted like what they were. The croutons were tasty and crisp. There was even a little package of grated asiago to sprinkle on top. But I bought this on September 17 and the sell-by date was September 24. And already the cut sides of the lettuce were starting to get some of that rusty look that lettuce gets when it's been cut to far ahead. I trimmed it a bit and the rest was just fine.

The package says it makes three servings. I got five sort of side-salad size servings. It would have been pretty skimpy as a main course salad serving, but if you added some grilled chicken breast it would probably be enough for most. The cost was $3.69, or $0.74 per side salad serving, or $1.23 for a bigger one.

It was good for what it was, as a time-saver, but your own dressing, and toppings would probably be better!

Cuban Mojo Pork Chops

Recently I've gotten on bit of a binge of “Nuevo Latino” cooking. It's a blend of the elegant cuisine of Old World Spain, and the bright sunny flavors of the New World Hispanic countries. And it's a hot trend in the culinary world. You can hardly open any of the restaurant trade magazines without finding something about it.

A while back I had a dish resembling this pork dish in a little Latino restaurant in Louisville, KY. Pork is quite affordable, and takes to many different flavors. Most of my friends like it. So why not try it myself, I thought.

I made the marinade from scratch, but you can use bottled Goya Mojo Criollo (found in specialty markets and Latin groceries) with the addition of the juice and zest of one lime.

I did try packaged hollandaise sauce, which I found quite acceptable after tarting it up a bit. If you prefer, and have a recipe you like, feel free to make your own. The one thing I like about the packaged mix is that it won't break or separate if you have to hold it for a while.

I was going to use diced home-grown tomatoes, but I didn’t get to the farmers’ market, so I used a pint of those sweet little grape tomatoes from the supermarket, cut in half. I recommend them.

I accompanied it with a rice pilaf: I sautéed a little onion and simmered the rice in saffron-scented chicken stock. I added a handful of frozen peas, thawed, for color.

And I made the baked black beans that I mentioned a while back. They are, with no competition, the best black beans I've ever tasted. You can find that recipe here.
Give it a try; I'm sure your friends will enjoy it as much as mine did!

CUBAN MOJO PORK CHOPS

Mojo Marinade:
1/4 cup lime juice
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
The finely grated zest of one lime and one lemon (See note.)
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons olive oil

Sauce:
2 cups hollandaise sauce
2 tablespoons canned chopped green chilies
1/2 pint grape tomatoes, cut into half
The zest and juice of one lime

8 pork chops, 1" thick
Cilantro sprigs, for garnish

Whisk together all the marinade ingredients. Place the chops in a large plastic Ziploc bag. Add the marinade and squeeze out as much of the air as you can. Put in a baking pan in the fridge for several hours or overnight (or a couple of hours at room temperature). Occasionally turn the bag over and give it a little massage to make sure all sides of the meat are bathed in the marinade.

Make the sauce: Combine all the ingredients and keep warm.

To finish, remove the meat from the marinade. Put the marinade in a small pan and bring to a boil.

Grill or broil the chops until just barely done, brushing frequently with the marinade. Remove to individual plates and drizzle on some of the hollandaise. Sprinkle with the cilantro. Pass the remaining sauce at the table. Serves 8.

NOTE: Grate the zest of the lemon and lime BEFORE squeezing the juice.

Super scallops!

I am originally from Louisville, KY, and recently have been making frequent trips back on family business. My sister lives in Knoxville, so we try to plan our trips home so that at least one evening we can go out to dinner and catch up with each other.

Louisville is a fabulous restaurant town, and we’ve had our favorite restaurants that we sort of rotate among.

It took Memphis friends Kelly Robinson and Michael Hughes to turn me on to L & N Wine Bar and Bistro. A few weeks ago, my sister and I tracked it down and went for dinner.

We had a wonderful meal, composed of several “small plates.” We accompanied it with wines well chosen by our server from their list of over 100 wines by the glass.

My favorite dish was the scallops. The menu description was “seared diver scallops, basil gnocchi, tomato butter sauce, balsamic reduction.” I liked it so much that I went back alone a few days later to have it again.

You probably know the next part of the story: I had to try to do it myself. My first effort was quite felicitous. I made a sort of beurre rouge sauce with red wine, shallots and diced fresh tomatoes, made the gnocchi myself, and put it all together. It was delicious. But it was a whole lot of cooking time.

I knew that if I wanted to share it with you, I was going to have to make some revisions. So I gave it another shot, and this time it was still quite tasty, with a lot less work. And most of it can be done ahead.

I used purchased plain gnocchi and added a drizzle of basil oil to compensate. I used canned tomatoes, but there is no reason you couldn’t use really good, red ripe tomatoes from the farmers’ market this time of year. Peeled, seeded and diced, they would only take a few minutes of extra cooking for the sauce.

If you remember from earlier scallop recipes I’ve shared, “dry” (unprocessed) scallops are essential to any recipe that calls for browning them. I used U-10 sized (under 10 to a pound).
With a green salad, this has everything you need for a wonderful, but quick and easy, dinner for friends.

ALMOST L & N SCALLOPS

Sauce:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1/2 cup onion, diced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 can (16 ounces) diced tomatoes

Basil Oil:
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup (packed) fresh basil leaves

Balsamic reduction:
1 cup balsamic vinegar, simmered to reduce by half

To finish:
1 1/2 lbs U-10 dry scallops
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 package (16 ounces) potato gnocchi
Fresh basil or parsley, for garnish

Make the sauce: In a heavy saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the garlic, stir a couple of times, then add the onion. Cook until soft and translucent, stirring occasionally. Dissolve the tomato paste in the red wine and add to the onion. Add the tomatoes and their juices, bring to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring a few times. Salt to taste. Set aside.

For the oil: In a blender or food processor, puree the basil in the oil. Set aside.

When ready to serve, bring a big pot of well-salted water to a brisk boil. Drop in the gnocchi. Cook for about 1 minute after they rise to the top of the water, usually about 3 to 4 minutes in all.

Pat the scallops dry. In a heavy skillet heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the scallops and brown well, 2 to 3 minutes per side, turning once.

Divide the gnocchi among 6 plates. Ladle on most of the sauce (reheated if made ahead). Place the scallops on top and add the rest of the sauce. Drizzle the balsamic reduction over the top. Drizzle the basil oil around the edges and serve immediately. Serves 6.

NOTE: The picture is from the L&N Wine Bar and Bistro website. They topped theirs with crispy threads of deep-fried leek. Pretty , isn't it?

French Summer Picnic Sandwich

In my much younger days, I spent several summers at the University of Montpellier in the south of France. After morning classes, we would all grab a towel and a bathing suit and take a tiny quaint little train out to the beach at Palavas-les-Flots.

Our first stop would be one of the little stands along the beach selling “real” French fries. Piled up and already par-cooked, they would be thrown into a tub of boiling oil and emerge perfectly crispy. A sprinkle of salt and a twist in piece of waxed paper and we’d be on our way to the next little stand, selling drinks and “pan bagnat.”

This sandwich was a staple of ours. The name means “bathed bread,” or “wet bread.” Crusty French bread rounds would be cut in half, a little of the bread pulled out to make room for the filling and wrapped. Then trays would be set on top and weighted, to allow the juices from the tomato, the oil from the tuna, and a bit of vinaigrette to seep into the bread and the rest of the filling.

So when we planned a cooking class titled “Picnic in Provence,” this was the first thing that popped into my mind. We accompanied it with a salad of haricots verts, the tiny French green beans, tossed in a zesty vinaigrette and sprinkled with shaved red onion and fresh basil. Fresh beans from the farmer’s market would be lovely. Just be sure not to overcook them. They should be just barely crisp-tender.

You can make the sandwich on large crusty rounds, as we did, and cut it into wedges, or on smaller individual crusty rolls if you can find them. A regular sandwich bun or roll would get too soggy to work here.

This is a sandwich that definitely needs to be made ahead for the best flavor, making it perfect for a picnic. If you make the salad, don’t put the dressing on until shortly before serving. It wouldn’t affect the flavor, but the vinaigrette makes the bright green beans a sort of olive drab color after a bit.

So gather a few friends and head out to the park with a perfect French picnic!

PAN PAGNAT

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon each salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup good fruity olive oil
1 large crusty bread round
1 can (6 to 7 ounces) tuna packed in olive oil
1 green pepper, cut into very thin strips
1 small red onion, very thinly sliced
2 eggs, hard-cooked and sliced
1 tablespoon capers, drained
1/4 cup sliced black olives
1 large red ripe tomato, thickly sliced
4 anchovy filets (optional, if you hate them)
1 large handful arugula or baby greens

In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper. Whisk in the olive oil until emulsified. Set aside.

Cut the bread in half horizontally and scoop out some of the insides. Brush the bottom with a bit of the dressing. Layer ingredients as listed, drizzling the remaining dressing on top of it all. Place the top on the bread and wrap tightly in foil or plastic wrap.

Traditionally, this is weighted—a cookie sheet with a couple of cans on it will work well—f or a couple of hours, and not refrigerated. If keeping longer than a couple of hours, refrigerate, then let come back to room temperature before serving if possible.

To serve, cut the bread round into quarters or sixths, as desired.

DRESSING FOR GREEN BEAN SALAD

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 generous tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon each ground cumin, ground coriander and ground ginger
1/2 cup good fruity extra-virgin olive oil

Whisk the vinegar, mustard and seasonings together. Add the oil a little at a time, whisking until well emulsified.

Sicilian Summer Pasta

It’s summer and the tomatoes are great right now! I love them just eaten out of hand, with a sprinkling of salt. Or sliced, sprinkled with fresh basil and drizzled with balsamic vinegar and a good green fruity olive oil. Or sprinkled with herbs and olive oil and run under the broiler for a moment or two.

And I love them in a fresh tomato sauce, which I had every intention of making for the "Presto Pasta Night Roundup." That’s the one with diced red ripe tomatoes, slivered fresh basil or oregano, diced red onion, a bit of minced garlic, capers, olive oil and a drizzle of either lemon juice or balsamic vinegar. Let it set at room temperature, loosely covered, for the better part of the day, and at dinner time, cook pasta (angel hair is the traditional one to use), toss it, still hot, with the room temperature sauce and some shredded Fontina cheese and enjoy.

I was going to make that, until I came across this in an old edition of Gourmet Magazine, speaking of the multi-starred French chef, Michel Troigros: "…(he) does cold spaghetti with poutargue (pressed tuna roe) in a sweet tomato vinaigrette…" It reminded me of a dish I had in a Sicilian restaurant in Rome several years back, and now is the perfect time to make it.

The cuisine of Sicily uses more "exotic" spices than most Italian food because of the various Mediterranean cultures that have passed through this island at the tip of the mainland "boot." And citrus fruit practically grows wild there. Anyway, I loved the dish and came home and played with it until I got close. Poutargue (or botarga, as it is known in Italy) is not readily available here—and besides it’s expensive and definitely an acquired taste--but seared shrimp make a perfect substitute.

Here’s the menu: A big salad of crisp mixed greens with chunks of peeled seeded cucumber, slivered red onion, black olives, shavings of pecarino romano cheese and a red wine vinaigrette dressing, Sicilian marinated tomato pasta, a loaf of crusty bread and for dessert, store-bought pastry shells topped with jarred lemon curd and berries. Almost everything can be done well in advance, giving you time to enjoy a nice glass of mint iced tea with your friends. How easy could it be?

SICILIAN MARINATED TOMATO PASTA

For the sauce:
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 piece fresh ginger, peeled, about 1" square, minced
1 tbsp whole coriander seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds, lightly crushed
1 whole clove, lightly crushed
1 orange
1 lemon
1 pint baby plum tomatoes or grape tomatoes, halved, or 1-1/4 lb tomatoes, cored and cut into chunks
To serve:
12 oz spaghetti, preferably imported
1/2 cup good extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 large clove garlic, very finely minced
12 large leaves basil
The juice of the lemon
The juice of 1/2 the orange

Early in the morning, or even the night before, make the sauce: Dissolve the sugar in the water. Add the ginger, spices and the zest of the orange and lemon, taken off in strips with a vegetable peeler. Add the juice of half the orange. Bring to a boil, remove from the heat and reserve. Put the tomatoes in a glass or ceramic bowl and pour the syrup over the top. Let marinate, covered, up to 8 hours at room temperature, or chill up to overnight. Remove from the fridge to come to room temperature before serving.

When ready to serve, cook the spaghetti in plenty of well-salted boiling water until just barely al dente. Drain, mix with two tablespoons of the olive oil and reserve. Meanwhile, heat half the olive oil in a skillet with the garlic. Cook the shrimp until just barely pink, 2-3 minutes. Lift the tomatoes from the syrup and place in a large warmed serving bowl. Add the rest of the olive oil, a spoonful or two of the syrup (leaving the spices behind) and the lemon and orange juices. Salt and pepper generously. Add the spaghetti and shrimp and toss to combine. Sprinkle with the basil leaves, torn into bits and serve at once, or let cool to room temperature. Serves four as a main course.