In Honor of National Pasta Day

Posted on October 17, 2016 by wanderingglutton

After what has seemed like an extraordinarily busy 3/4 of a year, I have begun cooking on a more regular basis. I have been able to read some of the books that I got for my birthday way back in March. The one I’ve been reading the most of late is Cooking by Hand, by Paul Bertolli. Since today is National Pasta Day, I thought it appropriate to write a bit about the pasta dishes I have been making.

I have been making homemade pasta for many years, first using the recipe for egg noodles in the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that my parents gave me when I first moved into an apartment while in college. More recently, I have been using the recipe for egg pasta from How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman. I have tried adding semolina flour in various ratios to the All Purpose flour that the recipe listed. All of these pastas were good, and if I hadn’t tried anything else I would have definitely been satisfied.

Bertolli’s Whole-Egg Pasta recipe calls for Artisan flour. I have opted to use high-gluten flour that I have found in the bulk section of one of the local grocery stores. The recipe also calls for two whole eggs (rather than the combination of whole eggs and egg yolks that the previous recipes did) and a small amount of water. What I have discovered is that the texture of the dough in this recipe is velvety smooth and the texture of cooked noodles is more tender, even when cooked to al dente.

What I’ve also determined is that the pasta from this recipe is extremely versatile in how it can be served. I’ve made it to go with a vegetable sauté, added it to a thick soup and also to pair with a hearty ragu. Ultimately, it is the new favorite in my house.

veggie-saute

Pasta w/ a vegetable sauté

pork-veggie-soup

Pork, Veggie and Noodle Soup

duckgizzardragu

Pasta w/ Duck Gizzard Ragu
Posted in Meal by Mike | Leave a comment

Vidalia Onion Upside Down Cornbread

Posted on September 12, 2016 by wanderingglutton

I have always been a lover of cornbread, but frequently am dissatisfied because the texture ends up too dry and very crumbly. To remedy that, I recently sought out a recipe from one of the food blogs that I read. A quick search resulted in a wonderful recipe from the Sweet Savant, for this Vidalia Onion Upside Down Cornbread.

cornbread-turned-outThe first time that I made this recipe we were hosting friends for dinner and I wanted to make cornbread to go along with a smoked tri-tip roast. As I read the list of ingredients, I noticed two things that stood out. 8 ounces of frozen broccoli-thawed and 16 ounces of 2% cottage cheese. I have never been a fan of frozen broccoli, so I determined that I would break not just one, but two of the cardinal sins of hosting someone for a meal at your home (1. Never try a new recipe for the first time; and 2. Never alter a recipe the first time you make it). I decided that fresh corn, cut off the cob, and some chopped peppers (bell, jalapeno, or whatever I had on hand) would be good substitutes for the unwanted ingredient.

I prepared the corn to be added to the batter by cooking it on the smoker briefly, just long enough to get a bit of char on the kernels from them touching the grate. From there I cut the kernels off the cobs and mixed them in with the rest of the wet ingredients. I also added the chopped peppers (poblanos in this case) to the chopped bacon as I browned it in a separate skillet.

I think my favorite part of this cornbread is the golden Vidalia onion slices that provide a stunning display on the top once the loaf is inverted and removed from the frying pan. In addition to the stunning visual they provide, they keep the bread moist and contribute some subtle sweetness.

cornbread-in-the-ovenMy second favorite part about this cornbread is that I get to bake it a cast iron skillet. One lesson that I learned the first time that I made it was that I needed to bake it in a skillet with taller sides, as the butter that the Vidalia onions saute in will flow over side and make a big smoky mess of the oven if the sides are not tall enough. The second time I made it, I used the cast iron Dutch oven that I got from my Mother. Any time I get to use one of the kitchen tools I got from her is a good day. The tall sides of the Dutch oven successfully contained the butter, and that made everyone in my house much happier.

The bottom line is that this cornbread is moist and packs a lot of flavor in each bite. I think the cottage cheese is responsible for the moisture and some of the subtle dairy taste. Because it has sugar in it, my Dad would have called it Johnny Cake, but I am more interested in eating it than debating what it should be called. What I do know is that I have never had any leftovers when I have made it. That is always a good sign.

Vidalia Onion Upside Down Cornbread

Derived from the original recipe of Demetra Overton – http://sweetsavant.com
Prep time: 15 mins  Cook time: 40 mins  Total time: 55 mins
Serves: 8

Requires a 10-12 inch cast iron skillet, but I used an 11 inch Dutch oven that has 3 3/4″ tall sides and that worked very well.

Ingredients

  • 2 Vidalia Onions
  • 4 Tablespoons of butter
  • 1 1/2 Cups of cornmeal
  • 1 Cup of AP flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt
  • 1/3 Cup white sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 Cup diced poblano pepper
  • 3/4 Cup fresh corn kernels, cooked and cut from the cob
  • 1/2 Cup bacon, chopped and cooked
  • 4 eggs
  • 16 ounces of cottage cheese

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Cook the corn (still on the cob) for about 3-4 minutes (over an open flame will char some of the kernels and will provide great flavor and color inside the finished loaf).
  3. Saute the bacon in a separate pan and add the diced pepper for the last minute or two so it softens.
  4. Slice the Vidalia Onions into rings, leaving the rings together if possible.
  5. Melt the butter in the cast iron skillet (the one to be used for baking).
  6. Place the onion slices close together in the the butter, filling in any spaces with smaller bits of onion.
  7. Finely chop any remaining Vidalia onion and reserve it.
  8. Let the onions cook on medium heat for 5 minutes.
  9. While the onions are cooking, mix the batter.
  10. Add the cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl and stir to combine.
  11. In a large bowl beat 4 eggs and mix in the cottage cheese.
  12. Add the reserved chopped onions.
  13. Add the bacon and diced peppers.
  14. Add the cornmeal mix and stir to combine.
  15. Pour batter over the onions.
  16. Bake the cornbread for 20-25 minutes or until done.
  17. Let the cornbread cool for 10-15 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pan.
  18. Place a plate or breadboard over the pan and, using oven mitts, carefully flip the pan over and remove cornbread from the pan.
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A New York Weekend, Day Three

Posted on August 10, 2016 by wanderingglutton

To wrap up our weekend in New York, we ventured onto the island of Manhattan. On the way, we learned the lesson that precision is required when entering an address into a GPS unit. Always make sure you include the name of the borough of New York City, or else you may end up wandering around Brooklyn or Queens instead of your desired destination elsewhere.

harry-and-idas

Harry & Ida’s – look closely and you can see me in the window

Once we made it into Manhattan and found street parking, we made our way to Harry and Ida’s in the East Village. The sign on the sidewalk out front claimed this to be the home of the World’s Best Pastrami Sandwich. Seeing that claim, I decided what I would order before stepping inside the store.

As we walked through the door, co-owner Will Horowitz saw John and welcomed us into the kitchen. Jason and I did not meet Will at the Charcuterie Masters event, where he and John served as two of the judges. After showing us around the kitchen and curing areas of the shop, he suggested that we go around the corner to get lunch at Momofuku Noodle Bar. I ordered The Ida sandwich (the “lighter” version of their pastrami sandwich with only 1/4 of a pound of meat) as we passed the counter, letting them know I would be back to get my order.

The size of Momofuku Noodle Bar surprised me. I have been to New York City before and know that many stores and restaurants have small footprints, but Momofuku seemed excessively small. Perhaps it was just the total number of people around the tables and seated at the bar that made the room appear filled to capacity throughout the entire time we were there?

There was a short wait before we sat down, but we took advantage of this time to look at the menu and decide what we would order. The seating at tables has a communal feeling, unless you are a group of six, you share a table with another group or two. Our odd number resulted in the hostess finding a chair for John to sit at the end of table.

We ordered almost as soon as we sat down, selecting buns (a couple Shitake and a couple Brisket), small plates (Kimchee/Pickles and Rice Cakes) to start, and a noodle bowl for each of us (a Momfuku Ramen, a Spicy Miso Ramen and a Black Winter Truffle Ramen). As we each tasted the starters, we concluded that the buns alone would have been worth the wait. The dough was tender and light, but strong enough to contain the juicy and amazingly flavorful fillings. For me, it was a toss-up which variety was better-I could have eaten dozens of each of them.

truffle-ramen

Enjoying the last of the Truffle Ramen

When our noodle bowls arrived, we were all overwhelmed by the intoxicating aroma of the Black Winter Truffle Ramen. We were not alone, as the people sitting next to us at the table also commented on the rich and earthy scent. I am a huge fan of noodles, and I have had freshly made ramen before, but the texture of these noodles was like no ramen I have ever eaten. The richness of the broth in each of bowls made us realize that these were no regular bowls of soup. There was a decadence to them. I had expected that from the Truffle one, but the pork stock of the Momfuku Ramen and the dashi of the Spicy Miso Ramen were just as rich in flavor in their own way.

After completing our feeding frenzy, we made the short walk back to Harry and Ida’s. While we were eating, Will and his kitchen staff were prepping eels for cleaning and smoking. I had never witnessed this activity before but it was fascinating to see the squirming eels, stunned by being salted, taken to the board where they were skinned and gutted. From there, they were moved into the smoker.

Will finished our behind the scenes tour of his place by guiding us to basement. There we saw his fermenting chamber. He explained that they preserve all of the vegetables on the menu at both Harry and Ida’s and Ducks Eatery, and that they forage for many of them and buy everything else from farmers at nearby markets. After the tour, I picked up my sandwich and we made our way back to the car.

For some crazy reason, I expected that there would not be a great deal of traffic on a Sunday. I was wrong. We drove up FDR Drive along the East side of Manhattan and were in stop and go traffic the entire way. I guess when you are driving in a city with the population of New York, there will almost always be traffic. The traffic did get lighter once we got to the George Washington Bridge.

Once we got into New Jersey, we intended to make our way up the West side of the Hudson River and into upstate New York. We started up the Garden State Parkway, but decided to head for home when we were unable to contact any of the people we hoped to visit. This allowed us to make our way into the sunset on I-80.

I took a break from driving while we made our way across Pennsylvania. That gave me the opportunity to eat the pastrami sandwich from Harry and Ida’s. It was at this point that I learned that the sign in front of their store did not exaggerate or lie. This was the World’s Best Pastrami Sandwich (at least the best that I have ever had and I have tried the pastrami at Katz’s, the Carnegie Deli, Attman’s [Baltimore], Zingerman’s [Ann Arbor] and many other delis). When John and Jason smelled the awesome aroma of the pastrami sandwich, they both asked what I was eating. When I was done eating, I told them all about it. All in all, it was an appropriate end to an excellent weekend.

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A New York Weekend, Day Two

Posted on June 15, 2016 by wanderingglutton

After all the excitement from the amazing food and conversations about food on Friday night, I could not imagine that Saturday would be able to rise to a similar level. Man, was I wrong.

We started the day with a trip back to Brooklyn, to the Bushwick neighborhood this time. Our destination was Roberta’s, a pizza place known for its brunch. We were supposed to meet with a guy who has an idea and a prototype for a mobile chat application that could be of interest to members of The Salt Cured Pig. As we arrived, the first thing that I noticed was that Bushwick appears to be the center of the hipster universe. This meant that with my full, bushy beard, I was not totally out of place.

We sat down and prepared to order when the final member of our party arrived. Michael Ruhlman, the well-known chef and author (or co-author) of such works as Charcuterie, Salumi and Ratio. I have to admit that I was a bit starstruck. Michael spoke with each of us about what we do, our involvement with The Salt Cured Pig and its new parent group The Handcrafted Larder, and he seemed genuinely interested in what each of us had to say.

I have seen Michael Ruhlman on TV or online many times (as a judge on “Iron Chef America” and as a road trip companion of Anthony Bourdain on an episode of “No Reservations”), though I had no idea how personable he would be in our face to face encounter. We chatted a bit about the charcuterie plate we had ordered while waiting for our pizza to arrive. We all agreed that none of it was remarkable, but that everything except the nduja on it was a topping for a pizza, so eating it as appetizers may not have shown it in its best light. As we finished our meal and conversation, I was unable to restrain my inner fanboy and told him how much I have enjoyed learning about food from his blog and books. He accepted my admiration with humility and thanked me for my kind words. It was an unexpected encounter with a true food celebrity and a very enjoyable one at that.

Most of the rest of the day was devoted to the Charcuterie Masters event at the Flushing Town Hall. There I got to meet several fellow members of The Salt Cured Pig who I had previously only known online. The standout interaction of the afternoon was having an extended conversation with Bob del Grosso.

Bob is a chef, formerly on the faculty of the Culinary Institute of America and currently at Drexel University. Bob is also one of my favorite food people who spends a good bit of time online. He doesn’t take himself or life too seriously and can even be seen on Facebook joking about the irony of the current popular fascination with bone broth or wearing a hat he has manufactured from ramps and chicken wire. Bob and I swapped several stories of working in restaurant and home kitchens. Inevitably, we also ended up talking about bone broth. For those who think that Bob only jokes about that subject, you should know that Bob has conducted quite a bit of research and can seriously converse about how bone broth has been represented in culinary history and fully debunking the fantastical claims of impossible health benefits associated with its consumption.

Finally, we got down to the main event. Having volunteered to assist with the judging of the competition, I set up the process for how each entry was accepted, documented and passed to the judges for their input. This kept the judges unaware of who submitted each entry and allowed them to assess each one without bias. Working primarily behind the scenes, I did not sample too many of the multitude of varieties of charcuterie. I did taste some amazing fennel salami that Steven Jagoda made (it was the winner in its category). I also tried a couple jamon pata negra samples (one aged 24 months and one aged 36 months), coppa di testa, and the best pistachio-studded mortadella I have ever had that Rodrigo Duarte of Caseiro E Bom provided.

Coppa di testa, presented in the skin of the pig's head

Coppa di testa, presented in the skin of the pig’s head

Pistachio-studded mortadella

Pistachio-studded Mortadella

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was an excellent event to cap off a great day.

A New York Weekend, Day One

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A New York Weekend, Day One

Posted on March 16, 2016 by wanderingglutton

A couple weeks ago, I made a road trip to New York City to help with the Charcuterie Masters competition. Considering my fellow road trippers (fellow members of The Salt Cured Pig, John Patterson and Jason Osburn) and I were only there from early Friday morning until Sunday evening, we took full advantage and crammed in as many great opportunities to eat great food and talk with great people about food. Due to the volume of activities, I will be splitting my recounting of this trip into three separate posts.

After driving for 12 hours and well into the early hours of Friday, we crashed with great expectations for the morning. We were staying in a hotel a couple doors down from the venue for the Charcuterie Masters event (Flushing Town Hall), right in the heart of Flushing. Once we were all awake and ready for the day, we decided to walk over to the venue and get a lay of the land.

While walking over there, we immediately noticed that everyone else on the sidewalk was looking at us a bit oddly. We definitely stuck out in this neighborhood, as all the people we encountered were Asian. After seeing the exterior of the Flushing Town Hall, we wandered into the market next door.

Immediately upon walking in to the market, we were met with a distinct odor of fresh seafood. When I say fresh, I mean that most of it was still alive. It was amazing to see the variety, from spider crab to geoduck to rather large sea snails. We walked around the produce section and found the usual fruits and veggies you would expect, as well as Jackfruit and Durian. We have a few Asian markets around Ann Arbor, but this one had a greater volume of items as well as a much more diverse selection. We were in a food lover’s heaven thinking of all the possibilities.

Photo of spider crab in market

Spider Crab

Photo of geoduck in the market

Geoduck

Photo of sea snails in the market

Sea snails

After meeting some of the other members of The Salt Cured Pig who were in town for the Charcuterie Masters event, we made our way to the Gowanus area of Brooklyn. Our destination was Fletcher’s Brooklyn BBQ. John knew Pitmaster Matt Fisher who provided a spread of some of the best BBQ and sides that I have ever had.

We shared a couple of Fletcher’s Platters and sampled the Beef brisket, Beef burnt ends, a house recipe Hot link, Beef tri tip,  and Pork char siu. As a fan of brisket, I expected great things, just due to the fabulous aromas, and I was not disappointed.

The brisket was lean and sliced thin, allowing the flavor of the meat to stand up well to the flavor of the smoke. The burnt ends packed a huge punch of smokey goodness that offered a great counter to the spice rub that featured a nice dose of black pepper. The Hot link was juicy and seasoned well with paprika and some ground hot peppers. Matt even surprised us with cheese burgers topped with mornay sauce that he cooked in a cast iron skillet right in the firebox of his smoker.

The tri tip was a cut that I had never tried before and I think it may have been my favorite. It was sliced thin like the brisket, but its texture was much more tender due to the marbling of fat throughout each morsel. It had a significantly more delicate smoke flavor and barely required me to chew due to its tenderness.

The char siu was another cut I had never tried previously. It appeared to be from a pork shoulder and was sliced a bit thicker. Each slice had a ribbon of fat that separated two lean very lean bites. The pork had a light smokey flavor that pared well with the tangy and slightly sweet sauce that accompanied it.

The sides we sampled were all house made and included corn bread, pickled cucumbers, pickled peppers, potato salad, pit smoked beans and collard greens. The corn bread was sweet, as expected north of the Mason-Dixon line. I enjoyed using it to cleanse my palate between each of the other dishes. After tasting each of the meats on their own, I made little finger sandwiches using the pickled veggies to top each bite. The potato salad was just the way I like it, employing a generous amount of yellow mustard to bind and flavor it.

Baked beans are one of my favorite BBQ sides. I usually expect a slightly sweet flavor and somewhat gooey texture in the beans’ sauce. These beans had a very meaty flavor and the sauce was almost more like gravy than syrupy stickiness.

The best of the sides was the collard greens. I am typically not a big fan of them because they are over-cooked and under-seasoned, so they are nothing more than a pile of mush. These were seasoned with some of the smoked meat and retained some texture so I had to actually chew them. This allowed me to savor each bite.

Photo of Pitmaster Matt Fisher

Pitmaster Matt Fisher

We hung out and chatted with Matt for a while after we finished gorging ourselves and then I determined that I needed a bit of caffeine if I was going to make it through the evening. Immediately next door to Fletcher’s BBQ, we found the Four & Twenty Blackbirds Pie Shop. I had seen a segment of a the show Unique Sweets on the Cooking Channel that featured the pies from this shop, so I felt obligated to try something. I couldn’t eat another bite of anything at that moment, so I got my espresso and a slice of salted caramel apple pie to go. (Kept in the refrigerator of the hotel room, the slice of pie made an excellent breakfast the next morning.)

At this point we left the Gowanus neighborhood and made our way to Cobble Hill. Along the historic Brooklyn waterfront, we found Pok Pok. Pok Pok serves cuisine from northern Thailand and has earned a Michelin star in 2014 and 2015. I am a novice regarding Thai food and did not really know what to expect.

We ordered three dishes to split, a spicy and sour glass noodle salad with mussels and sour pork sausage, a spicy chopped duck salad with duck liver and skin and a sweet pork belly and pork shoulder curry. Each of the dishes was unique and flavorful, but the consensus favorite was the glass noodle salad. The combination of elements in the dish melded together perfectly, with none overpowering any of the others. The sausage added a bit of richness that kept the dish from being too spicy, while dried shrimp and fish sauce contributed a subtle saltiness. The pickled garlic gave hits of sour and the shallots and carrots brought a bit of natural sweetness. It was one of the best things I ate all weekend and I would go back just to have another serving of it.

As we left Pok Pok and returned to our hotel in Flushing, I thought I had consumed all I could possibly eat. Fortunately, I was wrong. We met up with several other members of The Salt Cured Pig at the New York Food Court. One of those we met was Michael Pardus, a faculty member at the Culinary Institute of America who has spent a substantial amount of time in Asia and is one of the Asian Cuisine instructors.

As surreal as it was walking down the street and in the market in Flushing, the New York Food Court raised that feeling to another level. As we walked into the building, we encountered a large open space with tables lined up like the food court of a mall. What made the scene different was that the neon signs adorning each of 30 or so food booths were composed of characters of Chinese, Japanese or Korean alphabets.

Photo of the New York Food Court

The New York Food Court

The smells were intoxicating and there were so many choices that it was extremely difficult to decide what to try. Michael made his selection by which booth had the smell of something familiar. He had a dish of spicy intestines and noodles. I tried a couple bites of it and determined that while the texture was very appealing, I was sure I tasted a hint of the previous contents of those intestines (purely psychological, I am sure).

Photo of the hand pulled noodle shop

Hand Pulled Noodle Shop

I found a booth that sold hand pulled noodles and was temporarily mesmerized by the routine of the cook handling the dough and pulling the noodles. I am a big fan of noodles anyway, but knowing that I would be getting noodles that I could watch them make sealed the deal for me. I chose a bowl of them with beef tendon and bok choy in a beef broth. The noodles were tender and I thoroughly enjoyed them, but more impressive was the richness of the broth and the discs of beef tendon that practically melted when I place them on my tongue.

Thinking back, it is difficult to believe that we were able to pack that many food experiences into a single day. Be sure to come back to read about day 2 and day 3 of this food adventure.

Posted in Charcuterie, Travel food | 1 Comment

Date Night at Pacific Rim

Posted on January 24, 2016 by wanderingglutton

A few weeks back, my wife and I were treated to the chance to get out without our daughters. A friend of ours invited them to a play date with her two daughters, and we jumped at the chance for a date night. Since we don’t go out often without the girls, there are quite a few restaurants here in town where we haven’t eaten.

I have heard good things from a few people regarding the variety and quality of the food at Pacific Rim, so we decided to give it a try. We glanced at the menu posted in the window and I saw a dish with sea scallops listed there, so I was pretty sure what I was going to order. Unfortunately, when we got inside and our waiter gave us our menus, that dish was not there. I was prepared to be disappointed by that, until I saw the Five Spice Duck. My wife opted for the Grilled Lemongrass Chicken.

For a starter, we shared the Chinese Garlic Chive Dumplings. They were flavorful with a nice crunchy exterior enveloping the tender mushroom and jicama filling. We enjoyed them, but we were even more thoroughly impressed with the salad. To be honest it was the salad dressing that was most notable element of the dish. It was well-balanced in its savory and sweet, ending with a hint of heat. Our waiter was not surprised when we asked about the dressing, and he pointed out that the recipe for it is available on the Pacific Rim website.

Then came the time for our entrees. My Five Spice Duck was a pan-seared duck breast and duck confit risotto with a Chinese five spice reduction sauce and shanghai bok choy. The unctuous duck confit and its melt in your mouth texture was the perfect addition to the creaminess of the risotto. I requested the duck breast be cooked medium rare. Its richness stood up extremely well to the balanced hit of sweet, savory, bitter, and sour of the reduction sauce. The pairing was certainly a case in which each element truly enhanced the other. I tasted my wife’s Grilled Lemongrass Chicken and it was also very good. The meat was tender and juicy and served as an excellent canvas for the floral and citrusy lemongrass in which it had been marinated.

To go along with our entrees, we selected a Grochau Cellars Pinot Noir Commuter Cuvee. It had a light, fruity aroma with a slightly tart flavor, not unlike a combination of raspberries and cranberries. I’m no wine expert, but it tasted good and seemed to go well with the richness of my entree.

For dessert, we shared a Warm Chocolate Cake. While not exactly a molten middle, this bittersweet chocolate cake had a moist exterior with a very fudgy center. Its texture was similar to a very enjoyable slightly under-baked brownie. It came with a scoop of toasted coconut-Kahlúa ice cream and was garnished with sake-macerated cherries.

Based on the positive, but somewhat limited information I had heard about Pacific Rim, I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. Given the outcome of our meal on this impromptu date night, I am quite certain that we will visit Pacific Rim for another meal.

 

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Review of 2015

Posted on January 1, 2016 by wanderingglutton

Well, 2015 has been quite a year. While I may not have been doing much writing, I have done a good bit of wandering. Travel has included a couple trips to Washington, D.C., a couple to Pittsburgh, a couple to Allegan, one to Cleveland, one to San Francisco and what has become the annual road trip to Myrtle Beach with stops in Cincinnati, Asheville, and Knoxville. Throw in a day-long visit to Charleston and I feel like I did my share of travel.

In the middle of the year of wandering, my family moved to a new (to us) house that we are settling into still.

Amid the chaos of moving and travel, I was also able to participate in some pretty amazing culinary activities. I worked with a good friend in the catering of the most interesting wedding reception I have ever seen. It included the roasting of a pig, complete with a “Pig Parade” from the cocktail party to the reception venue. What ultimately made it the most interesting reception was the bridal party’s performing as a band to entertain the attendees after dinner.

I joined a group of online friends from The Salt Cured Pig at a Cajun Boucherie. That is a whole day event that includes the dispatching, butchering and cooking of a pig. We cooked and ate two types of boudin (blanc and noir), head cheese, cracklins, and backbone stew. We also sampled the charcuterie that many of the attendees had prepared and brought to share.

Another event that The Salt Cured Pig hosted was a Charcuterie Jam. This offered me the opportunity to literally rub elbows with one of my  culinary heroes, Kate Hill. Kate brought together Dominque Chapolard, a French butcher whose family works with Kate in her cooking school in Camont, France, and Jeffrey Weiss, a chef and butcher trained in the Spanish style, to demonstrate the differences in preparation style of charcuterie from those two countries.

While I have been cooking throughout the year, I haven’t been writing about it very much. As I look forward to 2016, I hope to do more of that. While I know this isn’t the first time I’ve had a similar hiatus, I am looking to write and post more frequently and not look back on the failure to do so in the past.

Here’s to a happy and healthy 2016!!

Cheers!!!

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A Conversation with Frank Fejeran

Posted on July 3, 2015 by wanderingglutton

I recently sat down to talk to Frank Fejeran, the owner and chef of Ricewood BBQ, to find out a bit about him and what led him to doing what he does. We chatted at one of the picnic tables, the al fresco seating area at Ricewood. The best part about this location was that we were able to appreciate the aromas coming from the wood smoker next to the food truck.

To say that Frank has been around is a bit of an understatement. He was born in California, but moved to Ann Arbor while in the early years of elementary school. He returned to California for high school and then went to culinary school at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Frank began working in restaurants in California and met his mentor chef Riko Bartolome in Southern California. From there he moved back to Southeast Michigan to work at Tribute in Farmington Hills. Then it was to Chicago, where he cooked at Takashi and Hopleaf. Prior to opening Ricewood BBQ, Frank had been the executive chef at Raven’s Club, here in Ann Arbor.

It was the position at Hopleaf that Frank identified as career changing. He went from having the skillset of a chef to focusing on the food that he was preparing. Frank said that we live in a global economy and freshness is possible from many places, just the carbon footprint is different. Rather than solely focusing on extremely local food sources, the chef’s job is to entertain, to fill bellies and make people happy.

When I asked Frank why he chose to open a BBQ place, he replied because he loves BBQ. It is almost a hobby-like job. He said that once he figured out the core stuff, everything just falls into place. Furthermore, he stated that BBQ is not a flavor, not a meat, it’s a way of doing things. It is a tradition.

Frank did a good bit of research to determine how to make his BBQ the best it could be. He traveled to Texas to conduct this research. It was there that he determined that smoking the meat over a wood fire provided the best, most authentic flavor. As a result, you can see the offset firebox wood-fired smoker when you go to eat at Ricewood BBQ.

One of the big differences about Ricewood BBQ is the fact that your choice of meat is served over a bowl of rice with finàdene (pronounced finadini). I asked Frank why he chose to serve his BBQ over the rice bowl. He told me that it came from a family tradition. Part of his family is from Guam and their family dinners were bowls of rice with roasted meat and finàdene over the top. Leftover meat was kept in a bowl of finàdene in the refrigerator so it would marinate while being available for snacks or future meals.

I asked Frank about his plans for the future, since a food truck in Michigan is definitely a seasonal type of business. He told me that he is building a company with a goal of redefining a chef’s work/life balance. Frank said that food based businesses survive or fail due to labor and overhead. His plan is to create several micro-businesses focusing on small menus, low labor costs and small overhead.

Right now Ricewood BBQ is open Monday-Friday from 11am-3pm or until they sell out. They are also open for Nitewood, one Saturday night each month. Nitewood is only advertised via their social media accounts, so make sure to follow them on Twitter @ricewoodbbq or Facebook a2ricewood.

Posted in Ann Arbor food | 2 Comments

Pasta with Peas and Prosciutto

Posted on May 9, 2015 by wanderingglutton
Pasta with Peas & Prosciutto

Pasta with Peas & Prosciutto

Tonight I am essentially living the bachelor life. My wife is chaperoning a Girl Scout sleep-over with my older daughter and my younger daughter fell asleep early at the end of a busy week. Since I didn’t need to cook for anyone else, I chose to make one of my favorite springtime dinners, pasta with peas and prosciutto.

This is favorite of mine because it is fast to cook and offers a lot of flavor. I put a pot of water on to boil and got started with my toppings. I julienned a couple thin slices of prosciutto, then peeled and sliced two shallots. I had a small package of fresh peas that I had picked up at Trader Joe’s, so I was essentially ready.

For pasta, I had a one lb. package of casarecce (short lengths of pasta rolled into S shapes). Once the water was boiling, I added the pasta and started the fire under a saute pan with a splash of olive oil in it. While the pasta cooked, I sauteed the shallots and prosciutto. When the pasta had about three minutes left in its cooking time, I added the peas to the shallots and prosciutto.

After the pasta was done cooking, I drained it and scooped a serving into a large pasta bowl. By this time, the peas were done cooking so I poured the contents of the saute pan over the serving of pasta and grated a healthy handful of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese on the top. I seasoned it with a few grinds of black pepper and called it done.

What I enjoy the most about this meal is the combination of the fresh sweetness that the peas offer juxtaposed against the saltiness of both the prosciutto and the cheese. The shallots provide a hint of onion that is tempered into an additional faint sweet flavor. Ultimately, this is a true taste of Spring to me.

Now that I have eaten dinner and done the dishes, I think it’s time for dessert. Cheers!

Bulleit Bourbon, a bachelor's dessert

Bulleit Bourbon, a bachelor’s dessert

Posted in Meal by Mike | Leave a comment

Ricewood BBQ

Posted on May 6, 2015 by wanderingglutton

Ricewood BBQ
Today I decided to try out Ann Arbor’s newest food truck, Ricewood BBQ. I read the press report about their successful opening day (completely sold out in an hour and 40 minutes), so I knew that if I wanted my choice of items from the menu I would need to arrive early.

Just before noon I pulled into the parking lot behind Morgan & York, 1928 Packard Road. The first thing I noticed was the large, black food truck with a few people milling about. Next thing I saw was the pile of wood and the shiny smoker, ejecting a billowing column of smoke from its chimney.

Promptly at noon, the truck’s window popped up and they were open for business. The line was just long enough that I could see the menu and decide what to order. I am a sucker for good beef brisket, so I opted for the Brisket Ricebowl. For my wife, I got the Pork Shoulder Ricebowl. Both came with a side of marinated cucumber and I asked for the Fina’dene sauce on the side (spicy for me and gringo for my wife). Since I was taking my order home I did not order a drink, though I was tempted by the Kool-Aid of the day.

When I got home and opened the containers, I noticed that the aroma was slightly smokey with a hint of sweet. I sampled a couple bites of the pork shoulder, but saved most of my appetite for the brisket. I am of the school of thought that good BBQ does not require sauce, so the fact that the pork shoulder came with sauce initially made me leery. The menu did reveal that the pork came served wet, so I wasn’t surprised by the sauce and I discovered that it was the source of the sweetness that I had smelled. The pork was very moist and had decent flavor that the sauce did not dominate.

Turning my attention to the brisket, I saw that had a prominent smoke ring and nice layer of bark on the edge of each piece. After tasting a bite on its own, I tried dipping a bite in the spicy Fina’dene sauce. The Fina’dene gave it a good bit of heat, with a nice combination of tart vinegar and tangy soy sauce. I thought that would be a good topping for the pile of rice and it was. The brisket had more smokiness than the pork and was nicely seasoned with salt and pepper. I did reserve a couple bites to try with my own homemade BBQ sauce and that worked well too. The marinated cucumbers were a great addition to the ricebowls, providing something nice and crunchy to go along with the tender meat and sticky rice.

I have never experienced Chomorro, Pacific Island-Style BBQ before today. The flavors of the Ricewood BBQ were different than what I have ever tried before, but I really enjoyed them. It is not your typical BBQ joint and that is a good thing. I look forward to going back again and trying the ribs.

Ricewood BBQ Menu

Posted in Ann Arbor food | Tagged | 4 Comments