I call it Gravlax, You call it delicious.....

I grew up eating lox on bagels, heavy, salty, bright pink slices of cured salmon layered on top of a fresh chewy bagel. As an adult I prefer the Scandanavian version and enjoy house curing my own gravlax. Gravlax is soft and subtle in flavor, a mere whisper to the throaty holler of the lox of my childhood. It all starts with the perfect piece of fish..........

When selecting your piece of fish it is easy to make a decision based on price and appearance but seriously steer yourself toward sustainable wild caught salmon, it may not be as pink or as plump as the farm raised but it is the better choice. Farm raised salmon may be cheaper and look better but nutritionally it is not as good for you; less omega3's and fishies are fed all sorts of antibiotics and yucky food to plump them up as well as pigments to enhance their salmon color. Environmentally, farmed salmon and it's industry create a host of issues that ought to be considered as well. I will leave my thoughts at that, I could post fact after fact and link after link but you can take care of that info digging on your own. Conscientious food retailers such as WholeFoods offer the best and allow you to make a responsible decision.

The recipe below is fairly simple - just salt, pepper, sugar and dill but you can play with this recipe. I've experimented with the type of salt I used, most recently playing with smoked salts. Other herbs and spices, even juniper berries can be added for different flavor variations - have a blast - experiment!

It's easy, It's Gravlax!

(this is the basic recipe, I mess with it all the time)

1 lb. filet cut salmon

(make sure pin bones are removed, you can remove them yourself with needle nosed pliers)

3 TBS Kosher Salt

3 TBS Sugar

2-3 tsp fresh ground black pepper

(mix these 3 ingredients together in a small bowl)

1 bunch of dill

Place salmon skin side down on a piece of saran wrap, cover all exposed flesh with your dry mix. Cover the entire piece of salmon with a good layer of dill. Wrap the salmon tightly in saran wrap, 2 or 3 layers is best, it will leak as it cures. Place salmon on a tray with a lip or in a pan, I use my 8x8 square baking dish. You will need something to use as a weight, I have a small cast iron pan that I use, and this item goes directly on top of the wrapped fish. Refrigerate gravlax for 36 to 48 hours, turning the salmon over a few times during the process - this helps redistribute the liquid.

Magic Time!

Unwrap your gravlax, toss the dill in the trash and give the fish a good rinse to remove all remaining salt, sugar and pepper. Pat it dry with a towel and you are good to go. You'll need a good sharp knife and don't forget to slice it thinly on an angle starting with the thinnest part of the piece. Serve it with many a condiment on a cracker or crispbread. I enjoy a Swedish mustard dill sauce but you can use chopped egg, chopped onion, capers, sour cream...the list continues. I can guarantee that this will be an absolute favorite....bring it to a party and you will be the star!

*I promise that all other recipe blogs in the future will contain more instructional photographs. I get so caught up in the process that I forget about my camera until it's too late.

Dill Pickle wha?

One of my all time favorite things in this whole world to eat are pickles. New pickles, sour pickles, half sour, bread & butter, gherkins; you name them, I love them. King of all pickles has always been the perfect polish dill. When I was younger we would have gallon size jars of polish dills that my mother, brother and I would make short work of (very short work, we're talking hours). So, imagine my delight when searching on Yelp.com for a polish restaurant in Detroit we came across a restaurant in Hamtramck called Polish Village that was highly recommended for it's Dill Pickle soup. No joke. Soup!

http://thepolishvillagecafe.com

What followed after this discovery was life altering. I returned back to New York on a single mission; recreate this divine goodness and share it with everyone. No one should be deprived of the experience of "The Soup". So I searched and found a recipe and altered it and made it and it was good.

Behold, the wonder that is Dill Pickle Soup.

Polish Dill Pickle Soup

(based on a recipe from epicurious, made a change or two per usual)

Makes 6-10 servings, depends on bowl size

Ingredients:

6 c. chicken or vegetable stock

4 lg dill pickles, grated or chopped

1/2 c. pickle juice

3 small potatoes quartered and sliced (2 1/2 - 3 c.)

2 small carrots, grated

2 TBS flour

1 c. milk (soy milk or half and half can be substituted)

1 egg

2 TBS soft butter

salt & pepper to taste

For Garnish:

fresh dill

sour cream

Directions:

1. In a large heavy bottom soup pot combine your stock, pickle juice, pickles and potatoes. Bring the mixture to a boil, lower your heat and cook covered until potatoes begin to soften (10-15 min).
2. Whisk together milk and flour, add to the broth, bring back to a boil then remove from heat.
3. Combine egg and butter. Slowly add small amounts of hot soup to egg/butter mixture to temper it (if you throw cold egg into the hot soup, you get egg drop. This is no bueno). once mixture is warm stir it into the broth.
4. Return pot to the stove on low heat - do not bring back to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Portion out your soup - use big bowls or be prepared to run back and forth to the kitchen for refills (trust me, this will happen). Garnish with sour cream and fresh dill and watch the magic happen.

let them eat soup

Last Tuesday I had grand plans. It was my day off and a perfect opportunity to catch up on my life - I was running out of undies, the dining room table was nearly invisible under a mountain of junk mail and the pantry closet was shooting random recycleable items out the door every time it was opened. Well, you know what they say about best laid plans.....

I don't know if it was the weather or if it was the two lonely acorn squash staring up at me from a bowl that kicked my need to feed into overdrive. Within minutes a menu was planned and text invitations sent out and the kitchen madness began. On the menu Winter Squash Soup with Gruyere Croutons, Bratwurst from Dines Farms, Roasted baby brussels with pancetta and shallots and salty fingerling potatoes.

The dinner was lovely, we were four at the table; conversation flowed, wine was poured, beer was drunk and we barely managed to save a cup of soup for our one latecomer. In those precious hours I again remembered how important it is to gather during the colder darker months to share good company, drink and food; to nourish not only our bodies but our spirit.

so with that in mind.....make some soup and share it with those important to you.

http://http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Winter-Squash-Soup-with-Gruyere-Croutons-2997

I've attached the soup recipe I used from Epicurious but as usual I made changes. I roasted the squash instead of peeling and cooking it in the broth. I also roasted a small head of garlic and added it all instead of 4 cloves. I used less broth than required and added more herbs. Make sure you make extra gruyere croutons because only half will actually make it to the table!

Baking Bug: Orange-Cardamom Currant Scones

I really wish the internet had Smell-O-Vision, because my apartment smells so freaking AMAZING right now...

For me, the baking bug tends to hit in the morning, especially on my days off. Many a morning I've been found in the kitchen, stirring together a mixture, before even having coffee or changing out of my pajamas. It also hits when my eye hits an ingredient on the shelf that's been long ignored, and I feel this strange compulsion to USE IT UP RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE!

Today, this means currants. I bought dried currants two months ago to make Irish Soda Bread for St. Patty's (which was fantastic!), and have been stuck with half a box of (carefully-stored and therefore easily-ignored) currants ever since. My brain matched these currants with my recent cardamom obsession (after the cardomom coffee cake I had at Table Local Market), and these delectable scones were born.


Orange-Cardamom Currant Scones

• 1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3 tablespoons unrefined cane sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, very cold, cut into small cubes
  
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 1/3 cup dried currants
• 1 egg
• 8 tablespoons heavy cream (more as needed)
  

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, cardamom, and salt. Add the butter and work it into the flour mixture with your fingers or a pastry blender, until it resembles a coarse meal. (I cheated and used a food processor.) Stir in zest and currants.

In a small bowl, beat the egg and heavy cream together with a fork. Add to the flour mixture and mix with your hands until the dough just comes together. (If the dough seems dry add the extra tablespoon of cream.) Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Pat or roll the dough to a 3/4 inch thickness. Cut into squares, then halve into triangles, or cut out rounds with a circular biscuit cutter.

OPTIONAL: Use a pastry brush to clean out the small bowl of egg and heavy cream, and use it to brush the top of the unbaked scones. Sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 15-17 minutes, until golden brown. Try not to eat them all at once.

Recipe adapted from Food Network Kitchens.

Sacred Bread

Baking Bread is an almost sacred ritual to me. I think there are few things I handle with such care or so specifically. The careful shaking off of cups of flour. Temping the water to a perfect 110 degrees for the yeast. Everything is timed: 10 minutes for the yeast, five minutes in the mixer, five minutes on the board, one hour to rest, one to rise, forty five minutes to bake...limited peeking please!

The kneading of the dough connects me to a time before I existed. Before bright shiny plastic bags under grocery store lights. This bread I make lives in a paper bag on a wooden cutting board on the counter directly in front of the toaster. A place of honor with my housemate’s best bread knife there at the ready.

Spending a morning with my bread resting, rising, be kneaded, listening to bubbles pop and breathe like watching a baby sleep. This is so satisfying. Second only to hot slices cut fresh and slathered with butter and preserves. Mmmmm.

Local Finds: TABLE Local Market in Bedford

I'm starting a new "Local Finds" series on this blog, which you'll see more of in the coming months. Not only is it a challenge to me to venture out of my usual food-obtainment zone, but hopefully it will encourage lots more folks to get more local food hot spots on their daily radar. Specifically, I'll be focusing on providers of local produce and goods, and farms in and around Westchester County.

My first stop in this season-long journey was TABLE Local Market in Bedford, which is kinda-sorta-but-not-really on my way home to Cortlandt Manor from work in Pleasantville, but absolutely, 200% MORE than worth the trip! The store itself is earthy and welcoming, with smiling helpful staff behind the counter, ready to offer samples and answer your questions. After a few minutes of food chat, I was ready to invite them all over for dinner.

I visited the produce section first, where I picked up some fresh eggs from a farm in Bedford Corners, NY, a handful of gorgeous minneolas (a member of the tangerine family), and some bright green pea shoots, all local and organic. In the case next to it, I found gorgeous creamy glass-bottled half & half from the Meadowbrook Farms Dairy. When I later took my eggs to the counter, I was informed that the eggs had been gathered and delivered THAT MORNING, and laid within the last 24 hours. It really doesn't get any fresher than that! I also picked up some Hudson Red cheese from Twin Maple Farms in Ghent, NY - a delicious and flavorful washed-rind soft/medium raw cow's milk cheese. I was also excited to see it the next evening, on the Birdsall House Tavern's local cheese plate!

TABLE's culinary team churns out incredible dishes -- we tasted everything from the freshest guacamole to flatbread pizzas, to the most unbelievably moist, tender, and fragrant Cardamom Coffee Cake. Sorry there's no picture of that -- I ate it too quickly! I think we can sum up from the photo at left that their baked goods move pretty quickly.

Some more photos from this wonderful market, including some inspiring quotes on the walls.







TABLE is open Monday through Friday from 8am-6pm, Saturday from 9am-6pm, and closed on Sundays. Go! Now!!


TABLE Local Market 11 Babbitt Rd. Bedford Hills, NY 10507 (914) 241-0269
Across from the Bedford Hills train station
http://www.tablelocalmarket.com/

WTF is the Gourmet Slop Club?

Thanks to all of our supportive friends for connecting with us on Facebook! You helped us realize that we need to clarify our purpose a little bit, so we're here to answer some questions for you.

1. WTF is the Gourmet Slop Club? It started sometime in early 2009 with about seven of us, most of whom are writers for this blog, and who post and share content on our Facebook page. (Kendra does most of the tweeting, but mostly because she has a social media addiction to feed.) We are all friends with common passions for cooking, entertaining, local food, local arts & culture, etc. We were gathering every so often for informal dinner parties, and taking turns playing Chef - meaning one person got to cook whatever they felt like experimenting with, and everyone else has to eat it! But the GSC is not restricted to the original seven -- it's more an IDEA of a "club" than an actual club, and we brought it to Facebook, Twitter, etc., to open it up to all of you - keep reading.

2. Um. You have a weird title. We know. But we like it! We break it down like this: it's gourmet, because we strive to make it just a smidge more special and unique that the average daily food experience, it's slop because slop is a silly and unpretentious word, and reflects an earthy family-style way of cooking and entertaining (and we all strive to be silly, unpretentious, earthy and family-style), and it's a club because it's not exclusive. We were having so much fun, that we wanted to open this idea up to the world.

3. How do I join? Do I need to have you all over for dinner? No way, you're already in! This is a theoretical "club", where membership = participation or observation. By reading this blog and sharing your ideas, you're part of what we're doing.

4. ...and you felt the need to share your culinary self-indulgences on Facebook? Yes. And Twitter. Sorry. But not because we want to brag about what we're up to, because we want to inspire our culinarily-inclined (new word!) friends (both in real life and through social media) to share their own stuff! Post your photos, your restaurant reviews, your product finds, your silly food-related quotes, anything! We claim no ownership over any of your creative material. We just want to check out places you've enjoyed, and vice versa.

5. Are you interested in guest bloggers? Sure! Email gourmetslopclub@gmail.com

Screening of FRESH @ Stone Barns

This week I attended a screening of the food documentary "Fresh" at the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. Chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill introduced the film, praising it as "picking up where 'Food Inc.' left us" and he was exactly right. While Food Inc. focused on the national economic and health impact of grossly industrialized agriculture, "Fresh" focused on breaking down the grand illusion of "cheap food", and on individual farmers and their practices, skillfully demonstrating how organic and sustainable farming methods are far more productive and profitable for the farmer, and thousands of times more nutritionally valuable for the consumer. (Specifically featuring our good farmer friend Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, Virginia.) Be prepared to stomach a little bit of rough animal treatment footage, but I'd HIGHLY recommend seeing it. (There are also plenty of adorable baby chicks and piglets to make up for it.)

After the screening, we listened to a panel discussion with integral members of the sustainable food movement, including representatives of the American Farmland Trust, David Haight and Jennifer Small (also of Flying Pigs Farm), Stone Barns' very own livestock manager Craig Haney, Todd Erling of the Hudson Valley Agribusiness Development Corporation, and Jenifer Clapp, organizer of Columbia University's Politics of Food conference, and author of several influential reports on environmental sustainability and food policy.

The discussion brought up several staggering facts, including the idea of an impending global food crisis. That isn't to say that there isn't one already, but considering that the world's population is estimated to increase from 6 to 9 billion by 2050, meaning that we need to increase global food production by 70% to feed all of our new neighbors, AND that 90% of the world's viable farmland is already in agriculture production, then add in climate change for good measure, and we have.... well, a recipe for global crisis. Start growing some veggies, people. Seriously.

The panel also discussed our more local problem of slaughterhouse facility shortages. Our farmers have risen to serve our demand of quality, locally raised, nutritious meats, and now thousands of pounds of meat may go to waste, because farmers can't book their livestock in a processing center. If you haven't read the recent NY times piece, check it out here: Push to Eat Local Food Is Hampered by Shortage

The GSC loves our local food, local farmers, and our community. We encourage you to get your local providers on your shopping radar, and support them through purchases, volunteering, or anything you can do. We'll be starting a "Local Finds" series on this blog to help bring these wonderful vendors to the spotlight. Please share your thoughts and comments.

breakfast first

Friday, April 9 2010

7am wake up

730 out the door

745 arrive

Where’s the coffeee? Ok…French press of CODA French roast poured into quart size plastic container, add sugar and milk…

Would you like a Chef's coat to make it all official? he asks..nope just an apron for me please. That may be hard but hold on a sec....I'm handed a crumpled apron that was fished out of some random persons bag that smells remotely like boy....

First order

Clean 20 carrots…put in bags with fresh tarragon and chervil. Salt Pepper oil and lemon peel. Cryovac machine, hello beautiful. Bagged carrots logged, labeled and into vat with immersion circulator at 185 for a few hours

Oh looky…..8 butternut squash to be halved, scooped, oiled, salted and peppered. Baked. Peeled and cut in cubes to go into gnocchi dish

6 red onions? Sure no prob, try not to loose a finger on the mandolin. 2 tbs of fresh thyme, entire head of roasted garlic minus the tough bits, salt, pepper into pot to saute in bacon fat….mmm…..onions are translucent toss in 3 cups cider vinegar and watch those onions turn pink , reduce. Add 6 cups of apple juice and 6 tbs of whole grain mustard …and the rest off the bacon fat (almost all of a pint container) and reduce…..pull off heat, pour into container put in ice bath wait for later will go with pork.

Run over to Savory Spices..purchase for C&G and for myself. Meet Kate the manager, somehow she begins to tell me that she saw Tom Robbins at a signing at the Tattered Cover. I show her my wrist, she completely gets it. We’re buds. 6 smoked salts, lavender sugar, lobster mushrooms and multiple chili’s later..head back to Colt & Gray with cumin, coriander, sweet smoked paprika and cayenne.

Mix these spices he says - in this bowl, I give it more heat he says. Round up all 1 ½ to 2 and 3 tbs paprika. Dude..I can't read the page and remember what you're saying at the same time. Ok ok..what’s this for? Don’t remember just scanning recipe sheet but it smells good.

oh wait, one last thing before I take you to the bus he says, prep this case of rapini...chop off the stems at the twist tie and put them back in here. Sure thing but let me use that fancy knife please.

Josh in the meantime makes a dozen and a half of the biggest f’n lamb shanks I have ever seen. Floured, browned and then added to a white wine, bourbon something with mirepoix and some other stuff covered and left to slow roast in the oven. Houses the rest of the prep list by 11 and is looking for the next project without breaking a sweat unlike me who is ready for a Martini and a nap. By the time I board my plane I smell like onions, garlic and vinegar and am ready to pass out but I go knowing that my brother is in a good place;I am proud of my brother, he is fluid in the kitchen and a joy to watch as well as a great teacher. I look forward to working with him again, only this time I'll remember to eat breakfast first.

summertime is a comin..........

a quick and easy favorite that will delight any strawberry lover.....

16 ounces of fresh strawberries hulled and coarsely chopped

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/4 tsp fresh lemon juice minus the pits (squeeze it in your hands folks)

drop everything into a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir until sugar is fully dissolved. Bring mixture to boil, lower heat and allow to simmer for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl, refrigerate for a few hours.

Serve over anything you see fit, french toast, pound cake or just eat it with a spoon. We had it over dark chocolate gelato with fresh whipped cream topped with mint.

just a note of caution - do not over boil your sauce, should you do this your pot and spoon will NEVER be clean again no matter how hard you try.