Throwback: First Ever Pomander Saveur Post

It has been almost a year since I hatched the crazy idea to write about food in a fun way intended for the enjoyment of my friends and family. Blogging has in recent years exploded on the scene and now virtually everyone can voice his or her opinion via blog. I had been reading a number of food blogs, mainly by famous chefs and amateur home cooks, and decided to give it a shot. Pomander Saveur is the second incarnation of my efforts to share my home cooked meals and experiences in the kitchen. The first was email-based with the working title “Gustemest Food Blog”. I would cook a meal and then email everyone on my contact list the photos with a few lines of text describing each dish. I have since moved to a more formalized format though the content and arrangement of the site maintain the flow of my initial endeavors in Internet food writing. People to this day ask me about the very first email, Gustemest Vol. 1, featuring a tarragon chicken sandwich and a carrot slaw. The sandwich was made with leftover roasted chicken that I had made for friends the night before. I pulled the chicken apart and tossed it with mayo, Dijon, chopped tarragon, golden raisins, and salt & pepper before throwing it between two pieces of wheat bread with melted Comté. This was one of the best sandwiches I have ever made, and I have enjoyed it many times since. I recommend the combination of raisins, fresh herbs, and cold chicken; you will be pleasantly surprised how easily they come together.

In addition to the robust chicken sandwich I had a side salad of carrot slaw. I love to grate carrots and toss them with any number of vinaigrettes or sauces to make a fresh spring/summer salad to accompany barbecue or sandwiches, picnics or potlucks. For this particular carrot slaw I grated a few carrots on the medium-hole side of a cheese grater then tossed the vibrant ribbons with lemon juice, olive oil, parsley, sesame seeds, and salt & pepper. Carrots can be eaten raw as often as cooked, leaving the crisp texture and nutrient content of the carrot unmanipulated. The warm sandwich and cold citrusy salad contrasted beautifully and I was thrilled to have my first entry ready for the presses. This is a nostalgic reminiscence in honor of that notable lunch repast that started it all. The Gustemest, or precursor to Pomander Saveur, will be celebrating its one year anniversary soon and I am thrilled remember my very first foyer into food writing. As always, I encourage you to enjoy and share delicious food and home cooked meals with yourself and others!

Dinner With Lucullus

M.F.K. Fisher, the simultaneously subtle and brilliant food writer, devoted a chapter in her opus Serve It Forth to the importance of dining alone. She loved to cook and entertain guests which is beautifully rendered in her writing but she never forgot to make time for herself. Even when dining alone Fisher would treat her meal with the same delicate touch and refined style that she lavished on her guests. I totally agree with her notion that eating alone does not have to be a chore, bore, or quick fix of crappy food. She attributes this philosophy of eating well, even when alone, to a Roman noble named Lucullus. Lucullus was a grand gourmet notorious for the wealth he squandered on his food budget and opulent feasts. One day he verbally abused his team of chefs when they served him leftovers, stale bread, and overly watered wine on an off day from his busy social schedule. When his staff stood apologetically before him they pleaded that since he was eating alone they assumed a lavish feast was not a necessity. He rebuked them by saying that when Lucullus dines with Lucullus the food should be at its very best, going above and beyond what they served his guests. Lucullus ate the finest foods and drank his most potent vintages when dining alone, because he was worth it. I agree wholeheartedly that it is warranted to treat yourself now and again to a special meal made especially for you.

Tonight I decided to dine alone and model Lucullus’s gastronomic philosophy. I had a lot of tasty things leftover from my last trip to the farmer’s market so I threw some stuff together that worked out really well. I had a second pork tenderloin that had been marinating in the fridge for two days, leftover from the dinner party I threw for Nick’s birthday. After sitting in the flavorful marinade (refer to last post) for several hours it had taken on a tremendous amount of flavor. I roasted it in the oven and finished it under the broiler to give it a nice crust. I plated the pork next to a mixed green salad with crumbled blue cheese and cubed bosc pear. The spring mix of mesclun and fresh herbs paired well with the zing of the blue and the sweetness of the pear. My vegetable side dish was stir-fried baby bok choy purchased at the Korean stand at the Union Square farmer’s market. I threw them in the wok with vegetable oil, garlic, and minced ginger and briefly sautéed them. Right at the end of the cooking time I added sesame oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and chili paste to give it some Asian flare. You could say my dinner had an east meets west vibe to it with the bok choy standing as the antithesis of the more Mediterranean pork and salad combo. Dining alone does not have to be banal; one can eat like a Roman noble even when breaking bread solo. As always, I encourage you to enjoy and share delicious food and home cooked meals with yourself and others!

Birthday Dinner Part Deux

There are way too many people that have birthdays in April; it is just too hard to keep track of them all. A number of friends and family members of mine have been celebrating recently including my mother, cousin, and best friend Nick. After making a delicious meal for my mother’s birthday last week I decided to do the same for Nick. This was going to be a tricky task given that Nick is such a skilled cook and gourmand but I was up for the challenge. I drafted a menu, did the shopping on Friday morning, and hit the kitchen that afternoon. There were going to be six of us total including a number of good friends that live in the city as well as Nick’s girlfriend and best friend visiting from Los Angeles. I pulled all the stops and cooked a beast of a four course meal, plated a l’assiette individually for each diner. The first course was a shaved Brussels sprout and radicchio salad with Dijon vinaigrette and crumbled spring Parmesan. The Parmesan was purchased at Dipalo’s, a little Italy purveyor of all things Italian, and was the highlight of the salad. Their Parmesans are seasonal and the flavors totally change depending on the time of year. The crunchy raw Brussels sprouts contrasted excellently with the nuttiness of the cheese and peppery bite of the radicchio making for a lovely first course.

When I cook a multi course meal plated individually I like to follow the Mediterranean progression of dishes. Italian and French cuisine de haute consists of a marked hierarchal succession of vegetables, pastas, seafood, meats, fruits, and finally sweets. I adhered to this formulaic arrangement of courses by electing to serve pasta as the second course. During my visit to Dipalo I also bought an oozing hunk of Gorgonzola dolce, an aromatic and creamy blue cheese. I melted the cheese with heavy cream, black pepper, and nutmeg into a thick creamy sauce to accompany potato gnocchi. I drizzled a large spoonful of the sauce over five or six gnocchi since they were so rich and topped them with sautéed pears and a sprig of tarragon for presentation. The pasta was certainly rich though the small portion made it bearable with a great interplay of textures and tastes. The salty Gorgonzola sauce contrasted nicely with the sweetness of the pears making for a balanced dish with tons of flavor.

The third course was an inventive one to say the least; grilled adobo shrimp with carrot puree. I have never tried to make this dish and the idea was hatched as Nick and I perused the produce stands at the Union Square farmer’s market. There were a number of fresh spring vegetables just beginning to be harvested like carrots, fava beans, green garlic, mesclun, and ramps. I love shrimp and I know Nick does too so I went up to Joon my fishmonger and bought some beautiful gold and gray wild shrimp. I seasoned the shrimp after snipping their legs and deveining them with ground adobo and kosher salt before grilling. They came out spicy and charred, marrying perfectly with the silky smooth puree of gorgeous pale orange carrots, olive oil, and a splash of cream. The ingredients of this delectable seafood course were minimal but the flavors were deep and complex.

The fourth and final course of Nick’s epic birthday meal was pork tenderloin with ramps and a fava bean and edamame ragout. I marinated the pork in a blend of vegetable oil, soy sauce, Sichuan pepper, Dijon mustard, and tarragon for about four hours, to enhance its inherent pork flavor and promote caramelization. I seared it for a few minutes per side and finished it in a 400-degree oven until it was cooked through but moist. I served thick slices of the pork alongside a ragout of edameme, fava beans, red onion, and mint. Ramps are a very special spring thing that I absolutely love to cook with. Ramps are wild leeks that taste like a cross between green garlic and scallions. I pickled a handful of ramps with cider vinegar, juniper berries, bay leaves, kosher salt, and tellicherry peppercorns. The small bulbs quickly took on the aromatic brine and turned a lovely whitish pink color. The second batch of ramps were sautéed briefly in olive oil until they were just tender. The two ramps were fabulous, serving as a kind of sauce or condiment to the roasted pork tenderloin. I wanted to really wow Nick and our friends with this meal and from the praise my satiated dinners lavished on me when it was over, I think that I succeed. As always, I encourage you to enjoy and share delicious food and home cooked meals with yourself and others!

Dorothy's Birthday Bash

There is no greater honor than hosting a birthday party for a parent. Last weekend was my mother’s birthday and I tried to make it as special as possible. I invited a few of her close friends over for an evening of dinner and drinks with yours truly serving as chef. My father was also present which gave the whole evening a nostalgic familial air as we pleasantly sat together and ate a wonderful meal. I started us out with a platter of bruschetta which I love serving to larger groups because you can just plop it down and let people serve themselves. These bruschetta were made of Pugliese loaf and wheat miche topped with three bean puree and grilled radicchio. I like to start my dinners off with a bang and this tasty app was a big hit; they were eaten up so quickly that I almost did not get to enjoy one myself. Just puree any assortment of canned beans, drained and well rinsed, with a few cloves of garlic and a liberal drizzle of quality olive oil. Season with salt and freshly cracked black pepper and it is ready to eat. I smeared a generous helping of the puree onto some toasted breads and then grilled individual radicchio leaves on a grill pan until they wilted. It is that easy and that delicious.

The second course I served to my mother and her friends in honor of her birthday was my take on pasta primavera, the classic Italian spring dish. Pasta primavera basically refers to any type of noodle dressed with spring vegetables, olive oil, and garlic. This pasta dish consisted of the finest looking vegetables that my local gourmet grocer had on offer last Monday, mainly tight asparagus spears, chard, and an assortment of fresh herbs. I boiled some cavelli, a festive curly noodle, and tossed it with sautéed vegetables in a bacon-cream sauce. I topped the smoky and rich concoction with minced tarragon, parsley, thyme, and dill to give it a radiant burst of freshness. Overall the dish was very well received and our dinner guests were thrilled by the luscious pasta primavera set before them. My mother was happy too, especially the bacon and asparagus aspect which are two of her favorite ingredients.

My favorite desserts are all fruit based and I rarely eat chocolate or baked goods after meals, content to sip on a bitter espresso or digestif. My mother bought a couple baskets of beautiful California strawberries and a slightly unripe mango which we threw together with orange juice and a little sugar. Fresh fruit, seasonal of course, is a great way to end a meal and provide a sweet sensation without excessive preparation or calories. This ambrosial fruit salad was both refreshing and tasty, the perfect way to end a decadent meal lovingly prepared by a son for his mother. Here’s to many more. As always, I encourage you to enjoy and share delicious food and home cooked meals with yourself and others!

Friday Farmer's Market Dinner

My father and I have had some mighty fine meals this week. We have been mostly eating out, taking advantage of the vast restaurant culture that the city has to offer. So far the highlights of my father’s visit have been Momoya and Dovetail, two relatively new restaurants on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with ballooning reputations. I lovingly refer to Momoya as the poor man’s Nobu with excellent Japanese cuisine. The food is excellent and the prices are reasonable with tons of daily sashimi specials and inventive rolls. My favorites are the rock shrimp tempura and the Momoya spicy tuna composed of seared yellow tail and spicy tuna topped with a raspberry reduction and slivered almonds. Dovetail has only been open a year and has quickly blossomed into one of the best seafood restaurants in town. The seven course tasting menu was just insane with dish after dish of intricate preparation and imagination. The salt-baked sea scallop with urchin and kumquat, horseradish panna cotta with house-cured salmon, and halibut confit with morels and nutmeg were all out of this world. Alas one cannot eat out every night of the week, so a couple of days ago my father decided it would be nice to stay in and cook. We had a tasty lunch at the oyster bar at grand central and then hit the union square farmer’s market to plan a menu. I had my eye on some fresh beets and a massive well-marbled pork shoulder from the Queens county farm museum. I ended up doing the bulk of the cooking and threw together a couple of pretty good dishes. The first consisted of balsamic-pickled beets, honeyed goat cheese, and an herb salad. The herb salad contained tarragon, cilantro, parsley, dill, and mint, an absolutely stunning blast of flavor that contrasted nicely with the acidic earthiness of the beets and creamy sweetness of the chevre.

The second course of my Friday night farmer’s market meal was beer braised pork shoulder with Anaheim and adobo chilies. I was looking for a farm raised protein to serve as the main course and the first thing I saw at the busy market was the anatomical chart of a pig. I approached the Queens county farm museum stand and was told that they had recently slaughtered a pig and had an array of fresh cuts available. The young lady in charge recommended the pork shoulder and suggested that I braise it low and slow. I took her counsel to heart and started thinking about what and how to braise the pork with. My father suggested a classic braising liquid of wine, stock, onions, garlic, and herbs. I decided to go with beer in order to deepen the pork flavor with a bitter component and also create a lightly caramelized sauce. After searing the pork shoulder over low heat in a Dutch oven I threw in some sliced onions and whole garlic cloves. I then returned the meat to the pan with a pint of stout and two cups of stock, bringing everything to a simmer. I had some dried Anaheim and adobo chilies that my friend Hope in California sent me so I threw then in with a bay leaf and bouquet garnis of thyme and parsley. The whole thing cooked at 200 degrees for about 3 hours though it could have gone about 5 in order to really fall off the bone. Overall the flavor was there but the meat had to be sliced and then served in the sauce; not the tender almost stew-like texture that I had expected after an extended cooking time. The chilies reconstituted nicely in the richly flavored spicy sauce but the tenderness of the meat was an issue. As always, I encourage you to enjoy and share delicious food and home cooked meals with yourself and others!