Skillet Doux

Birthday Swag

Pollo en Escabeche de Cebollas Carmelizadas	Dominic Armato

Tonight's dinner, from Rick Bayless' Mexican Everyday. Thanks for the present, guys!

NYT on Guanciale

	Dominic Armato

Can we consider this the coming out party?

Guanciale has been one of my favorite pet ingredients for a few years now, and until we moved to Baltimore I'd taken its availability for granted. I bought it from Fox & Obel on a weekly basis back in Chicago, but six months into our stay in Charm City I still haven't located a local source. This has led to some extreme measures. But as much as I love cramming six pounds of pig jowls into an already packed refrigerator, I'd much rather this stuff were widely available. I had assumed its scarcity was a function of our new home, but a nice piece in the New York Times seems to indicate that the lack of availability is a national phenomenon. Here's hoping a little high profile coverage like this helps to remedy the situation. The nation deserves face bacon in abundance. In the meantime, I'm more than a little excited about having a couple of new sources to check out.

Incidentally, can I also nominate Bucatini all'Amatriciana as the trendiest pasta of the past six months? It's been our go-to make at home comfort food for years (though I tend to favor a non-traditional rigatoni), and I always had to explain to folks what it was, but I swear that I've seen it on seven or eight different menus since last summer. Is this just my experience, or has it suddenly caught on like wildfire everywhere?

Simple to Spectacular

Scallops with Ginger-Lemongrass Beurre Noisette

I've probably gone over this before, but in case I haven't... for the record, Jean-George's Simple to Spectacular is one of my favorite cookbooks by a longshot. Everything I've made out of it has been great, none of it is overly complicated, and the concept -- five variations on each theme meant to take the same dish or technique to five levels of sophistication -- is wonderfully instructive. Absolute must-have.

Lost Treasure

	Dominic Armato

Hooooo, buddy, did I rediscover an old gem this afternoon.

Once upon a time, back about ten years ago, I was dating a fine lass who hailed from a tiny Missouri burg by the name of Moberly. Moberly is halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City, about 35 miles north of Columbia, and surrounded by... not much. It is, however, home to St. Pius X Catholic Church. In 1995, the year I spent a little time in Moberly, St. Pius was badly damaged by a tornado... on the 4th of July, no less. But as far as I'm concerned, the more momentous occasion that year was the release of "Pleasures of the Good Earth", the St. Pius X Community Cookbook, a culinary compendium that is impressive in all kinds of ways.

In terms of the development of culinary appreciation, 1995 was a good year for me. It was the year I learned not to nonchalantly dismiss low-brow and semi-homemade concoctions. Stop laughing. Moberly was where I learned to stop looking down my nose at biscuits and gravy. Moberly was where I first sampled frozen meatballs simmered in a crock pot with yellow mustard and grape jelly, and was forced to admit that they were really tasty, no matter how disturbed I was by their composition. Moberly was where I watched Grammy Jo take an industrial-sized jar of the cheapest, nastiest breed of limp hamburger dills available, mix in a cup of sugar and a few dashes of Louisiana Hot Sauce, toss it in the fridge for a couple of days and magically produce a jarful of sweet, piquant and delightfully crisp pickles. It was like watching an alchemist at work. She might as well have been turning lead into gold.

But what I love about this cookbook is that it isn't exclusively composed of magical grandmotherly recipes. It delights and amuses from both ends of the spectrum, simultaneously encapsulating everything I adore and abhor about small town American food. It has the homey, comforting feel of a Scott Peacock cookbook, but with a lot more condensed soup. There are some real gems, to be sure, including a fantastic hot slaw I've made on a few occasions, more creamy appetizer dips than you can shake a triscuit at, and a horde of cakes and pies that look awesome. And when I'm done appreciating the homey goodness, I can gape at the train wrecks... of which there are quite a few.

There's the green bean recipe that calls for Sizzlean. There are a number of "Oriental" recipes that appear to have earned that moniker purely by virtue of the fact that they contain a modest amount of soy sauce. There are some pastas I found particularly disturbing, including the lasagna that incorporates cottage cheese and the "Seafood Linguine" that includes both milk and cream, garlic powder and chicken bouillon. As mentioned, condensed soup is present in abundance, but Ms. Leonard's "Clam Chowder" takes the Campbell's crown by mixing equal parts Campbell's celery soup, Campbell's cream of potato soup, Campbell's French onion soup and... oh yes... Campbell's England clam chowder (but, as the recipe reads most emphatically, "NOT Manhattan chowder"). How the clam chowder managed to outbid the other three for naming rights, I have no idea. But nothing, absolutely nothing, makes me die a little like reading the following "Helpful Hint" from the first page of the Meat, Poultry & Seafood section (my emphasis):

When shopping for red meats, buy the leanest cuts you can find. Fat will show up as an opaque white coating, and it can also run through the meat fibers themselves, as marbling. Although much outer fat (the white coating) can be trimmed away, there isn't much to be done about the marbling. Stay away from well marbled cuts of meat.

I'm assured that rumors of a connection between the printing of this helpful hint and the Moberly Independence Day tornado are entirely unfounded. This was, for context's sake, leading into the chapter containing recipes with ingredient lines such as 2 Lbs. bulk pork sausage, 1 C. melted oleo, 1 stick of butter, 2 cans gravy, 10 thick slices bacon and 1 Lb. Velveeta cheese. Apparently, the good denizens of Moberly might very well be done in by their foodstuffs, but by god, beef fat won't be the culprit! I feel a little guilty poking fun, but I hope it's clear that it's well-intentioned, loving abuse. If it hasn't already been done, somebody really needs to scour the country for these parish cookbooks and produce a master compilation. They're history, amusement and deliciousness all in one... though not necessarily at the same time.

Soppressata - Chapter I

In a move that is sure to yield either deliciousness or botulism, I've decided it's time to take a crack at dry-cured sausage.

As a Valentine's Day present, I received Charcuterie, a cookbook that I've been eyeing for quite some time. I've always wanted to hang some meat in the cellar. Of course, the fact that I have no cellar has been something of an impediment. But my desire to cure, coupled with my fiancee's enabling nature when it comes to foodstuffs, has finally driven me to make homemade sausage a reality.

Next stop, soppressata.

All hurdles have officially been cleared. A source of quality, farm-raised fatty pork? Check. A local source for pink salt? No sweat. I have a good freezer lined up, so that any trichinella larvae that may have snuck into my hog can suffer a frosty death before they go into the sausage. And most importantly, it turns out that my folks up north have a largely unused refrigerator sitting in their basement, which gets nice and cool this time of year. What's more, my father... a huge fan of good salami... has agreed to help.

Coming soon, Chapter II -- The Pork

Wok Fu 101

I've encountered some pretty decent books that focus on the wok, but this is the best by a longshot. Those who stir-fry at home often lament the fact that they can't achieve the unique and intoxicating fresh glow of a good restaurant stir-fry. That glow is called "Wok Hay", which translates to "The Breath of a Wok", and lends the book its name. Wok Hay is one of those things that's difficult to describe but easy to identify, and this is the best available roadmap for achieving it.

For those who aren't familiar with traditional uses of the wok, a 240 page volume dedicated entirely to a simple, round pan may seem like overkill. But there's a reason the wok is arguably the heart and soul of Chinese cuisine. Only a culture that is thousands of years old could develop a pan that is simultaneously so simple and so versatile, and takes years to both season and master. There's something beautiful about an implement that increases in both beauty and utility as it ages... and for which the most traditional seasoning methods frequently involve copious amounts of lard.

Breath of a Wok is exceptionally comprehensive. To give some sense, the recipes don't even start until page 68, and with good reason. Without the proper technique, a wok is just a funny shaped pan. Young starts with a little wok history, but only to the degree that it's relevant to the cooking. However, once she delves into selecting and seasoning a wok, the book becomes an invaluable resource. She draws on a range of sources -- wok purveyors, family members, master chefs both eastern and western -- to cover multiple seasoning techniques for a myriad of different woks. It's less a matter of choosing what's best and more a matter of choosing what's best for you. Selection is a matter of both utility and personal style, and in the ideal world you don't have to choose between the two. As much as you may want to release your inner Iron Chef Chen with a northern style round-bottomed wok and ladle, they aren't going to do you much good on an electric range. Of course, once you've read the book through you'll be ready to run down to Chinatown and pick up 100,000 BTUs worth of blistering wok burner goodness, but Young patiently focuses on excellent alternatives for those who are less... enthusiastic.

Of course, the recipes themselves are fantastic and cover a broad scope. Young groups basic stir-fry recipes by primary ingredient, and then proceeds to provide instruction and recipes for other wok techniques, such as braising, smoking, steaming and deep-frying. The recipes aren't dumbed down for a western audience. Young keeps them accessible, but authentic. Plus, a comprehensive glossary that includes clear photos is sure to aid those who aren't accustomed to cruising Asian markets.

Bottom line, this book is a must-have. If you have an interest in wok cookery, start here. If you don't, start here anyway, and you probably will by the time you're about five pages in.