I need to come to terms with the fact that I’m on the verge of killing this blog by disregarding it.  Sadly pregnancy # 2 has me on a strict diet of the kind of food found on a T.G.I. Friday’s menu rather than things that I’m proud and inspired to write about.  Despite all that, I can’t put an end to Storkbite Stew without posting about the amazing salmon we searched out on a recent trip to West Cork, Ireland.

Smoked Salmon

Enter Frank Hederman…

Several years ago I read Colman Andrews’ article on the food revolution going on in West Cork in Saveur magazine. I have since been inspired to seek out these small artisanal producers.

My husband and my toddler decided on a whim to head to West Cork, rent a car and drive around.  The only rule we had was to stop at every sign that said “Honey For Sale” and that was our idea of an ideal family vacation.   Throw in a rented farmhouse, some sheep, cows and a quest for the finest smoked salmon and that is how we spent two lovely weeks which we can’t wait to repeat soon.

On this quest I went looking for both Frank Hederman of the Belvelly Smoke House and Sally Barnes of Woodcock Smokery.  Ms. Barnes proved impossible to find and after asking every farmer, sanitation worker and school kid getting off the bus in Castletownsend, we aborted our mission.  I’ve had Ms. Barnes’ salmon before at a bridal shower in Connecticut and it is indeed unforgettable.

Mr. Hederman on the other hand has a well marked smokehouse and a fancy little room where you can sample his wares.  It’s behind the house where he and his family seem to live.  He will even give you a demonstration of the cold smoke house which literally blows cooled smoke through a vent in the floor.  We saw oats being smoked for these delightful little Ditty’s Irish Oatcakes which are the perfect accompaniment to the smoked salmon.

Frank greeted us by telling us that Alice Waters rings him up every Christmas asking for his salmon which is her favorite.  And after sampling it, it’s my favorite too!  I’m telling you that this smoked salmon is a dream come true — it’s rich, buttery, silky, supple, fleshy and distinct of all other smoked salmon I’ve ever had.

I think I spent close to 60 euros on two small pieces and three slabs of mackerel as my only souvenir from our trip.

After my big purchase I had to shepherd this prize around Ireland as we traveled a bit before coming home.  The smoked salmon was a stowaway in a communal refrigerator at the Dzongchen Beara Buddhist meditation center where I was concerned that both my salmon and I would be tossed at any moment harboring a dead fish.  From there it traveled to the end of the Dingle Peninsula and on to Bunratty before our flight home.  We constantly checked it’s temperature and hoped for the best.   Of course it survived — it’s smoked!

We enjoyed it here in our own home kitchen alongside the first French breakfast radishes of the season and Ditty’s Irish Oatcakes with a nice white wine and some creme fraiche.  We savoured each piece and are very eager to return to Frank for more.

Pre-kid we used to frequent a joint in NYC called Island Burger which has dozens of burgers and chicken sandwiches to choose from.  Post-kid we make our favorites at home.   My favorite is the chicken and Boursin sandwich with caramelized onions and crisp lettuce.  Who knows if it’s still on the menu there as I haven’t been in years.

Grilled Chicken and Boursin Sandwich

First slice up your onions and add them to olive oil in a hot pan on medium heat and caramelize.  I find that adding a bit of honey once they begin to turn color helps them along.

To build your sandwich, start with a toasted bun slathered with Boursin cheese, crispy bacon, a grilled chicken breast, caramelized onions and lettuce.  Sometimes the night calls for Boursin cheese slathered on both sides of the bun which was the case here.

It’s pretty darn tasty and a very good excuse to buy the sweet Vidalia onions that are in stores now.

It’s been a good  long time since we’ve been cooking at Storkbite’s house.  Sad but true.  Second pregnancy and travel really got in the way of our family workings.  We were able to explore all the delights of West Cork, Ireland which is really a great place for food if you are into black and white puddings, smoked salmon, and fresh seafood like we are.  More on the things we found there in the coming weeks. Also, our CSA and Farmer’s Market starts this week.  We will soon have inspiration arriving every Thursday and Saturday so please stand by…
Grilling at Home: Pork Chops

Grilling in your home kitchen can be done but it makes for a smoky mess.  Such is life for apartment dwellers like us.  We were finally reminded of the pleasure of great simple food after attending an Italian produced barbecue.  I had some fantastic grilled zucchini there and decided that I needed more. Together with some butter rubbed bone-in pork chops we had quite a great feast and it was almost like being outside, well except for the smoke detector of course.

For the chops, rub with some butter, salt and pepper then grill.  For the zucchini, slice thick lengthwise brush with olive oil, salt and pepper then grill.  10 minutes later, consume.

Spring is coming, so we thought.  All we have here in the Northeast are rain showers on the warm days and chilly winds on the sunny days.  I am no longer able to eat the yams in my cold storage – I must eat greens.  I finally went to the grocery store and for the first time in a very long time I bought lettuce.  I tried to eat a seasonal and local diet, but if you live in the Northeast like I do then at some stage you have to give up and just throw the green potatoes away.

Cobb Salad

Nothing in this salad was local, not the bacon, bleu cheese, avocado, chicken, lettuce, nor the cranberries.  It was very delicious and gave us hope that spring is on the way and soon little lettuce and arugula shoots will sprout and fill our CSA box once again.  In the meantime I have to buy my lettuce for $3.49 a head at our local rip-off Met Foods.

To make a Cobb, just arrange all the items I mentioned above over lettuce dressed with a simple vinaigrette.  It will make you feel like you are dining at a country club on a bright sunny day.

Sometimes I like a greasy egg roll, but I’m not brave enough to consume anything from my neighborhood Chinese dives.  They all seem to sell a combination of General Tso’s and tacos.  The silver lining is that my local grocery has egg roll skins at a reasonable price that fry up so nicely in about a 1/2 inch of hot oil.

Egg Rolls with Pork
You can put just about anything you want in an egg roll so I used whatever I had.  Roll them according to the directions on the package and seal them with egg wash for good results.

For mine, use 1/2 lb. ground pork, browned; 1 small cabbage, shredded; 2 large carrots, shredded; 6 scallions, chopped; 1 tsp. celery seed, and 1 sprinkle curry powder.

You may be curious to know why I used curry powder?  Well, it’s all I had and oddly enough it worked and made our little egg rolls much more compelling than they would have otherwise been.

Fry them in about 1/2 inch of screaming hot vegetable oil until browned and bubbly.  Let them rest of paper towels and serve with a chili or plum sauce.

It was better than being at a Chinese restaurant for me!

As much as I like to think I have time and attention to detail to make my own pasta dough and turn it into ravioli these days, it’s just not going to happen.  I love the taste of  homemade.  I’m overwhelmed by so many things right now like Storkbite’s moodiness due to a molar, Papa’s 40th birthday, international vacation planning avec toddler, and well my eternal problem — what to have for dinner.  The molar and what to have for dinner really got me today.  I wanted fresh pasta but lacked the courage.   I came very close to buying manufactured ravioli from the refrigerated section until the tiny Michael Pollan I carry with me in my subconscious barked at me and said “Eat Plants!”. I took the plunge, bought egg roll skins and developed a quickie variation on the original.  From an economic standpoint I would have saved $3 buying the manufactured ravioli, but they definitely would not have been as good.

Quick Mushroom Ravioli

These good looking raviolis were a little bit fiddly, I’m not going to make it sound like a breeze.

For the filling, use 1 box of baby portabellas, 6 cloves of garlic, about a dozen sage leaves, shredded parmesan and shredded mozzerella.   Make sure to chop the mushrooms, garlic and sage.  Then saute everything except the cheeses on the stove in olive oil and 1 tbs. butter, salt and pepper.  Once the mushrooms slightly carmelize, remove from heat and add to a mixing bowl.  Once cool, combine cheeses and mushroom mixture.

Take egg roll skins which can be found at most Asian markets (or the Met if you live in Sunnyside). Cut the skins into quarters.  Fix yourself a little bowl of water and with wet fingers go around each edge of your skin.  Put 1 tsp. of stuffing in the center, place a skin on top and smash the wet edges together.  I made approximately 16 raviolis that were about 2 x 2 inches.

Melt 1 tbs. butter and olive oil together in a skillet and pan fry the raviolis.  I imagine that one could also boil them, but we didn’t try it.  We were after some serious richness tonight.  The mushrooms, garlic, sage and butter worked so well together and was oddly enough exactly what I had a taste for.

I’ve been a little remiss with Storkbite Stew lately as I had to take time out to celebrate my birthday.  Storkbite treated me to sleeping in and then a lovely day in the country at Stone Barns Center for Agriculture.  If you live in the New York area, go there.  Don’t just look at the website, go there.  Especially if you have a toddler of Midwestern parentage growing up in an urban environment and said parentage both have great concern their child will be afraid of dirt.    One delicious trip to the cafe and an afternoon’s romp through the woods we were ready to swing by the grocery store on the way home to pick up the requisite St. Pat’s Day fare.

Corned Beef and Cabbage

It’s Storkbite’s Papa’s favorite meal and I hate it.  I have learned how to deal with it over the years and I only make it on March 17th.  It’s basic and easy if you own a crock pot.  Simply take a giant corned beef, put it in the crock pot with about six cloves of garlic and one quartered onion.  Cover it with water, add salt and pepper.  Let it cook on high for about six hours.  In the last two hours of cooking, add scrubbed small potatoes (about 1 dozen).  In the  last one hour of cooking add a large head of green cabbage and a small head of red cabbage rough chopped.  Make sure the beef is tender prior to serving it.  If it’s not flaky, you can also throw it in a pot of water on the stove top and boil it.  I had to do this throughout bath and bed time this year since my crockpot got overloaded by cabbage.

Slice the corned beef and serve. I must admit that I like it more this year than in the past, but I think that might have been due to the Guinness!

Storkbite’s Papa has been asking for a cassoulet for weeks.  The weather is getting warmer and my time to make such a hearty dish was coming to an end.  I really don’t have the time or patience to follow a Julia Child recipe at the moment so I decided to just wing it.  It turned out both hearty and satisfying.  After standing around at the park all afternoon chasing Storkbite, the faux cassoulet was the shot in the arm I needed.

Faux Cassoulet

First off — soak your beans up to two days in advance. Find the biggest white beans you can find and soak a whole pound.   This recipe really requires the right pot.  I have a large shallow cast iron Le Creuset pan with lid that is really the best tool for the job.  It allows the beans to be evenly distributed in the cooking liquid.  If you are trying this with a deep cast iron Dutch oven you may want to increase the amount of cooking liquid to almost cover the beans.

Ingredients:

• 4 duck legs
• 1 lb. soaked large white beans
• 1/4 chopped bacon
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 12 pearl / boiling onions
• 2 tbs. tomato paste
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• 1 tsp. beef “Better than Bouillion”
• 2 c. hot water
• olive oil

On high heat drizzle pan with oil, brown the duck legs that have been salted.  Add bacon and brown, add whole peeled onions.  Once the bacon is browned and onions are slightly caramelized, remove duck legs and move everything to the side of the pan.  Add tomato paste and garlic.  Reduce heat and when the tomato paste is melted, add drained  beans.  Combine beans, bacon, onions and tomato paste.  Place duck legs on top. Add two sprigs of rosemary and 2 cups water with beef bouillion mixed in, cover and place in preheated 375 degree oven for 1 hour.

If toddler is cranky and you have to clean up the apartment like I did, reduce heat to 325 and let it go for a little longer.  You will want to test the beans for doneness before serving.   The duck should fall off the bone.

The taste of cassoulet in 1 hour prep and 1 hour cook time.  Take that Jules.

When one buys a really good baguette and no one eats it then it just goes bad fast.  There are few things that I do with old hard bread and those are: make bread crumbs, make croutons or make pain perdu.  For this particular batch I really had to twist Storkbite and her Papa’s arms into having breakfast for dinner.  Both objected until they saw the results and realized that I had a new round of Plant City strawberries.  There is something very comforting about having breakfast for dinner.  In my youth it was a ritual on the nights my Dad was out of town.  This round gave me comfort that I didn’t toss a $3.50 baguette.

Pain Perdu (a.k.a. French Toast)

Slice the baguette for pain perdu the day you buy it and not the day you try to make the French toast.  You will not be able to get a knife through day old baguettes unless they have been in a plastic bag in which case you will make very soggy pain perdu.

Mix 2 eggs, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1 tsp cinnamon and 2 tbs. milk together in a shallow dish.  Dip both sides of your sliced baguette in the mixture and place on a hot buttered grill pan.  Once golden brown on either side, plate and sprinkle with powdered sugar and strawberries (from Plant City, FL).

Even my finicky toddler gobbled up little hunks of pain perdu in real maple syrup and delicious strawberries.  At least I can get her to eat some things.

There is something about this economic downturn that makes me want to eat all my favorite comfort foods.  All the ones I swore off to eat $6 loaves of Ezekiel bread and $12/lb. grass fed beef.  It’s back to basics here at Storkbite’s house.  The annoying part is that I’m still feeding the finicky toddler the expensive stuff, meanwhile her poor parents are eating like they are at a Cubs game.  Nevertheless, our household and the rest of the economy will be back on track someday and we can go back to the way things were.

Chili Cheese Dogs

Get hot dog buns, good quality hot dogs like Hebrew National, chili, and shredded  cheese.

I made my chili a week ago which you can find in a recent post here on Storkbite Stew.  It’s been sitting around for quite some time.  Simply warm up the hot dogs on the stove top, add hot chili and shredded cheese to a toasted hot dog bun and presto — you too will start channeling your inner Harry Caray.