July 2005 Archives

You want a meat thrill? Click on the above image to get a much larger version with all kinds of juicy detail.

The logistics of making a decent blog can get interesting at times. One of the basic rules I have is to not post too many times a week, let alone a day. I believe I can give you 3 decent posts a week without getting too weak. And this post I wanted to leave for tomorrow morning, but I can't. It was too tasty, too amazing to leave behind. This is a fresh post from tonight's meal.

It's been 8 days since we took this trip and if I don't get something down, it'll just kill me. Or my brothers in Que will, whichever comes first. The day actually took about 9 hours, 9 hours of either procuring meat or eating it directly and it's just too big. So, I'm going to split this entry up over two parts. Are ya ready? Click below to read on.

Uncle Wiggly's Posse.

First things first, I want to thank everyone for their time and effort in putting these entries together. I've done a few myself and what with our busy lives, it's truly amazing we get done what we do.
We also need to give a healthy round of applause to Pantheon Books of New York who donated Diana Abu-Jaber's book, The Language of Baklava. It's a memoir, eh. I would also like to thank Chilebrown, Mama and myself for doing some fine judgin'. It was kinda funny, Chilebrown and I found ourselves pretty much on the same page, whereas Mama really enjoyed the fish and/or veggie parts of the entries. I believe Mama's comment to me was, "Screw You" as she slavered over the delights. Judging is family fun, something for everyone.

Here are the DETAILS of the contest from more than a few weeks ago, just in case you missed it all.

Okay, let's get to it, enough of the blah blah blah.

Since there were so many good posts, I'm extending the prizes so we can have 4 winners. Spiffnoid, eh?

1. At the top of the heap we find Saffron's BLT. You hit us at the right time with the right ingredient, bacon.

2. We have two people in Second Place, Charlotte with her Summer Weeknight Special and Henry Joe with his Indoor Tri-Tip with Cabernet Reduction. (Just scroll down to see his entry).

3. For the 4th book, Kevin flies in with his Chicken Picata.

Cheers to y'all and the winners can either email me directly and leave your mailing address. Or I will contact you on Monday when I have your email addresses in front of me.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have some dishes to do. Take care,

Biggles

The Fatted Calf newsletter rolled in this morning. I've been busy with the contest here and didn't get a chance to check out the menu for this coming Saturday's Berkeley Farmer Market. Heh, I wish I had. Ya know, I feel kinda odd being so darned enthused each week about what these fine people have put together us. Surely it must get old and the food can't possibly be this good. Just between you and me? It probably does get old and yes it is, the food is this good. This week's special? Guinea Hen Roulade with sage and prosciutto. My legs just got all goosepimply, MmmMmm, goose. Usually they put the fine G. Hen in to a country style pate, one of my favorites. But this week it's a roulade (kinda sliced open stuffed and rolled back up). I'm sure this would be wonderful in the smoker, on the grill (a tad indirect) or in the oven. When you stop by the market, ask Taylor or Toponia how to best cook these little dears.
Next up we have one of my favorites, the Crepinette. This is a fancy sausage patty that's wrapped in caul fat (fatty webbing that bastes as it cooks). This week they're sportin' some cumin, mint and orange zest. I want them so bad right now. Gout or no, Biggles will be tasting these and the Guinea Hen Roulade.
I noticed the Mortadella on the menu, if you're a fan? Don't pass this up, Fatted Calf is skilled in the wily ways of the 'della.
Please click on and read the Fatted Calf Newsletter not written by me, it was written by Kim O'Neill.

Yay! Another book signing is scheduled for July 27th, that's tomorrow evening. I'm a co-author in Digital Dish, a compilation of the best writing from 24 different food blogs across five seasons. If you can't make the signing, please take the time and go purchase a copy. Not only will you be getting one very good book, but you'll be supporting the grassroots publishing movement. It isn't just the big boys that can come out to play, no sir.

Please click HERE to buy a copy today.

Here are the particulars for the book signing:

Wednesday evening July 27, begins at 7:30pm. Towne Center Books is at:

555 Main Street
Pleasanton, CA 94566
Tel: 925-846-8826
TowneCenterBooks@spamfreesbcglobal.net

Hey, we got a few entries going here, Celeste was our first! You're going to have to work harder than you thought, the entries are really well done and presented very nicely. Go have a gander, there's a link to it over there on the left under EVENTS. Or you can click HERE and go directly. Contest is due to end Wednesday, July 27th. However, it will take us a few days to tabulate the winners. So, if you're a day late? Enter anyway, it's for fun, and fun has no deadlines.

Off you go, I have spoken.

Biggles

The genisis for digging up this old cookbook and preparing a dish came from Meg at I Heart Bacon. She's hosting a Virtual 40's-70's Party, neat huh? In true Biggles tradition, I found a cookbook I liked from 1909, not anywhere close to the 1940s or the 1970s. This is how I follow directions, only to a point. I opened it up right to the meat section and found something that interested me, Steak à la Bordelaise. I read through the ingredients and in typical boy fashion, figured I knew how it all went together. The way I figured, the steak was to simmer in the sauce, nope. I had it wrong, a good wrong though.

Holy moly, I don't remember a Lamb Leg Roast showing up and not this fancy. Fatted Calf decided to make this roast a Roulade, meaning rolled up and most likely stuffed with something. Oh! Sure enough, stuffed with Tapenade. Traditionally this is black olives, anchovies, capers, olive oil, garlic and lemon juice pounded to a thick paste.
Okay, hunker in close, that's it. Now listen up, I know I've been hammering on you to stop by every Saturday at the Farmer's market in Berkeley. But I can smell it from here, this one is going to be special and I don't believe this will be something you can count on to show up several times a month. In fact, I would give them a call to reserve yours right now. This way, when you show up 10 minutes after the market opens, it'll still be there. You think I'm kidding? Try me.
Next up are the Duck Crepinettes with Picholine Olives, White Wine and Thyme. Even with gout, you should try at least ONE of these. The Picholine Olives add such a mild nutty flavor to the duck sausage, it's nice. I'm also eyeballing the Chorizo under the Salumi heading, consider trying it. I know the Pepperoni Salami is outstanding, this has to be just as good. Could it be better? Waaaaa, I see the Guinea Hen Terrine and I can't have it. Have a slice for me, hey.
This coming Saturday is going to be one of the best markets ever, don't miss it.
Now please go on to read their newsletter and menu not written by me.

Mrs. Meathead and I would like to introduce you to our buddy Oxygenee. He's the proprietor of The Virtual Absinthe Museum and La Fee Verte Absinthe House. After a few weeks of discussing Meathenge and passing meat and exotic wood jokes back and forth, Oxygenee offered to send us some pix of these yummy delicacies he had while he was in Boveresse.

As promised, direct from Switzerland, for Meathenge:

Bundnerfleisch and smoked sausage from the chalet at Le Creux-du-Van described in my postings on the forum.


From L'Ermitage des Ravet, a two Michelin star restaurant at Vufflens-le-Chateau, a VERY expensive Swiss lakeside town, home to Michael Schumacher amongst others:
Breaded cutlets of fallow deer, served with a small ramekin of highly concentrated truffle sauce, topped with a puff pastry toque. Fuckin' incredible. We drank a 1981 Vega Sicilia "Unico" with it.

Cheers
Oxygenee

Today was a perfect sunny day to start up the grill and try out one of Rachel's recipes. Anything with wild salmon, extra virgin olive oil, smoked chile peppers and some fancy Australian salt. Such a treat since I can get most of these ingredients at one stop.
The Austrailian Murray River Salt flakes I already had, from the wonderful Salt Traders. Look for the Margarita Salt. I got no idea why they named it that, but it's amazing. Smoky, hot and with wondeful cruncy light salty love.
Just before noon I jacked up the mesquite grill and tossed on some hickory chunks. This was let to settle for a bit. One needs to let the grill or smoker get in to its crease before cooking anything.
The fresh salmon was slathered in extra virgin olive oil and the Margarita Salt. On to a searing grill for a handfull of minutes on each side. Pay attention to the initial side, that's for presentation. Let the other side go to hell, who cares.
Even with lighting a fire, I had this meal done inside of an hour, not quite 30 minutes. I believe it was closer to 40 minutes, even so. This was a hands down winner for when you have very little ingredients and no time.

Fini

ps - Rachel Ray had nothing to do with anything I did. I was just feeling cheeky, in a positive way towards Rachel. Just venting a little steam, she's been getting such a hard time. I figure people should lighten up a bit about simple, easy to find and cook meals.

I'm a little late today posting the Fatted Calf Newsletter (not written by me). I've been searching for just the right Crepinette Image, I found it! Whaddya think? I don't remember what was in it, but I see some greens & nuts of some kind, maybe pine? Well, this week I can tell you exactly what they're made of, Pork Crepinettes with Fresh Porcini Mushroom. Oh man, such a rich wonderful combination. This little patty of love would go very well with a very smoky fire. The trio of the pork, mushroom and fire are a porky 3 way anyone can take part in. The special this week are the Hoffman Farm Quail stuffed with Savory Pork Sausage and Fig. We had a gaggle of them a few weeks ago, they give so much. The brined quail, the stuffing and that delightful fig. Be very gentle when cooking these dudes, they're boneless and if they stick, you're done for. Well okay, not really. But it'd be nice to keep the package together. When you go to their newsletter (not written by me), check out the list.
There's a little O' by the way, just because they send us this list each week, doesn't mean that's all they'll have on Saturday. No sir, if you show up there could be a handfull of items not listed. It isn't personal, just the way things go from time to time.

Go on if you dare ...

Yay! A contest! It took me a bit to come up with something worth doing. And personally, I'm getting a little overwhelmed with all the fancy cookin' & ingredients both in books and on the internet. Sure it's a lot of fun, always something new to try. But this isn't something that occupies most of my time in the kitchen or at the grill. I'm usually coming home from work and have about 1.5 hours to come up with something, get the kitchen clean and serve up food that is worth eating, good or at least good for you. To be honest, after 10 years of cooking every night for my family, I'm starting to come up a little dry on recipes. So, this contest is all about your favorite weekday meals. A meal you have 2 to 3 times a month, more or less. If not, something that you love dearly and would work well in a pinch. If your recipe requires going to 3 or more grocery stores, that's not going to work. 2 I think we could handle, maybe 1?
I'm going to make this easy, nice eh? Your submission can be on your blog or you can submit it directly to Meathenge Labs. You can make it as long as you want or as many pictures as you want, it's up to you. You will be judged on 3 things:
1. You'd want the judge to say, "Yeah, I'd make that. It looks & sounds really good."
2. Overall Love Factor of your image & prose(show you cared with your presentation). Tell a little story?
3. Completeness and flow of your recipe. Does it make sense? If you can't make sense of it, you can't eat it. And if you can't eat it, you can't win. See?
The Meathenge Lab assistants will be pitching in to judge these fine entrys, thanks all!
The contest starts today, July 13th and ends on July 27th. That's Wednesday to Wednesday, 2 weeks & 2 weekends.

The 3 top finalists will receive a copy of Diana Abu-Jaber's book, The Language of Baklava. Diana weaves the story of her life in upstate New York and in Jordan around vividly remembered meals: everything from Lake Ontario shish kabob cookouts with her Arab-American cousins to goat stew feasts under a Bedouin tent in the desert. These sensuously evoked meals in turn illuminate the two cultures of Diana's childhood - American and Jordanian - and the richness and difficulty of straddling both. Thank you so much to Pantheon Books in New York for supplying these hardback books. Yup, hardback, ain't that cool?

I'm sure I've left a few things out, feel free to email me and we'll get to them as we roll along over the next two sun filled weeks.

Good luck and let the contest begin !!!

The fat from salmon is so cool. Remind you, this is coming from someone who has only been eating fish for 10 years or so and only recently Salmon. Yeah, I know I'm an idiot. But I just love Salmon Fat and had to mention it. The stuff is so sweet & warm, so clean. This lends possibilities, lots o'.

The above shot is from a nice calming walk I took today about noon or so. Needed to clear the head, don't ya know. If had stood up and you could have seen through the haze, San Francisco would have been there.
Fatted Calf's points of interest for this coming weekend are Lamb Brochettes and obviously the Pork Crepinettes with Red Wine Soaked Figs & Hazelnuts. The smart money is on the Petit Sec Aux Herbes. This is one of my newish favorites. It's kinda like a Slim Jim meat stick, but bigger with better flavor and a goodly amount of herbies. I had one for breakfast a few weeks back and it kept me going until noon, love at first smounch. Please get some fresh air yourself on Saturday morning and go visit the Fatted Calf located in the Berkeley Farmer's Market.

Now, if'n you're able, go read their Newsletter (not written by me).

Well, all my hard work over this last weekend paid off. Not only did I get to eat the food, but I won some cool prizes. Let's cut to the chase and visit The Pragmatic Chef's Contest Winners Page and write-up.

Biggles

Hey, the crust on the bread had a bubble the size of Chicago in there. Anyone know what that's all about?
Had a nice weekend filled with crazy pork roasts, marinated tri-tips and sausage stuffed quail. The weather was quite breezy, but at least the sun decided to come out before noon. Heh.
Check out these hickory smoked quail that I picked up from Fatted Calf on Saturday morning. I hadn't decided what to get until I walked up. I think I did pretty well, eh.

And look inside the quail!!
That thar is a fig, yum. Figs & Pigs (Hi Kate!).

I entered my pork roast over at The Pragmatic Chef. Today was the last day to get your entries in, I barely made it. I don't think it's up yet, we'll see. I'll let ya'll know. I'm pretty excited about it.
As you can probably guess, the 3 day weekend really had no goals or plans. I knew Paul was coming over Sunday for a meal, but that was about it. Everything was just a toss together situation, now I need some salad and fiber.

Biggles

What a week it's been, seems like a month has past so much has happened in the last 7 days. Thankfully it's coming to a happy ending, a 3 day weekend and my favorite salami, the Sicilian al’arancia. A wonderful Sicilian style salami with a tad of orange zest, rounds out perfectly over the tongue. The special this week lists as a Probably Quail stuffed with figs. MmmmMmmM Probably Quail, my favorite! I love these little guys, brined to sweety juice and boneless. They're perfect in the smoker or grilled indirectly, should take about 50 minutes. 1 per person is the way and a nice different way to share on a July 4th's celebration. Buy heavy on the Wild Mushroom Crepinettes, these are one of Fatted Calf's best versions and go quickly once presented. A good way to grill them is to sear over high heat for a few minutes per side, then cook indirectly. Remember, don't cook too long, they tender.
There are many good things listed this week, make sure you stop by and get yourself some. Now go read their newsletter ...