Spanish Hooky- no sticker fruit
It’s not all pork sausage and foie gras around here. Sometimes the Tramontana wind blows me away for a new book project that I’ll just call here “Spanish Hooky”. Beside the work at hand, TC- intrepid photographer and I managed to eat in a handful of wonderful joints from Bar Boia in Cadaques to Les Cols in Olot. But these natural lemons were scored at the Monday market in C-town before we headed to the volcanic landscapes of inner Catalunya. There we had... Read More
Charcuterie: Saucisse de Toulouse Part #3- babes in a blanket: the recipe
cleaning sausage casings- chez Sabadini The piggy nursery is housed in a brick and tile roof building. There are five sows with their young, around 8-12 each in individual pens. A red heat lamp keeps the temperature uncomfortable hot for us, wonderfully cozy if you are a hairless little thin-skinned pink piglet. Bruno Chapolard acts as the nursery ‘dad’ and keeps an eye on the new moms and the little ones; feeding and watering them as needed. They stay here about 3 weeks before... Read More
Charcuterie: Saucisse de Toulouse Part #2- about a Pig
Warning… all lovers of cute pink cartoon pigs should leave the room. Now! Years ago (early 1970′s) I had one memorable close encounter of a pig kind. It was that first pig killing experience that changed the way I thought of pork forever. I’ll never forget the flavor of the first fresh pork liver I cooked, grilled over an open fire, on Lopez Island… in the good old days. Amazingly delicious. In these good old days (and I am sure they are in the making)... Read More
Charcuterie: Saucisse de Toulouse Part #1
SAUCISSE DE TOULOUSE- It was nearly a year ago that we danced around the Chinese pig, ate dumplings and spiced pork belly- then got distracted by black truffles and other good winter food. We all declared that night that the year of the pig (as Charcuterie) would go mainstream; we weren’t far wrong.New books on charcuterie appeared like Ruhlman and Polcyn’s Charcuterie or Stephane Reynaud’s ‘Pork & Sons’; old books resurfaced (I found an old edition... Read More
Ten French Recipes from Gascony you should know how to cook
Cupcakes running amuck; Mister Greenjeans back on the tube; next, we’ll be eating small hamburger without buns and calling them meatballs! As most of my friends know, I am generally unplugged here at Camont. It’s deliberate. Except for the high-speed wireless connection and my 10 million Skype-mates, I can spend all day seeing nobody at all: maybe a cyclist on the towpath; a hunter trespassing the neighbors field; the postman delivering the latest supermarket ads. I’m... Read More
