November 25, 2016
I’ve appreciated Clear Creek eaux de vies for a long time, but I was reminded of it lately because of my love for Rogue River Reserve Blue cheese, which is wrapped in grape leaves that have been soaked in their pear brandy. Loving the cheese as I do, I went out and bought a bottle. It was the perfect end to the Thanksgiving feast.
Clear Creek Distillery has set the standard for American fruit brandies for over 30 years, and I’m not the first person to wonder if they also set the standard for the rest of the world For the uninitiated, these clear eau-de-vies pulse with the sunny, complex pleasures of perfectly ripe fruit while maintaining the sharp, bone-dry finish of their European counterparts. As you sip, your thoughts may float to an Oregon landscape: lush rows of fruit trees, the wide Columbia River, a looming Mount Hood…
But here’s what makes this a truly great holiday gift: it cuts richness, so it’s the perfect quaff to end a big long meal. If there’s one thing I know for certain about this winter, it’s to expect a few of those.
I love this mirabelle plum brandy, an homage to the great golden plum eau-de-vie of Lorraine. But I think my favorite is the poire, which is the essence of pear. If you’re looking for a little extra panache, they sell a bottle with a whole pear inside – yes, they grow it inside the bottle. My kind of magic.
November 23, 2016
Some really intriguing ways to use those tart little berries, from the November 1982 issue of Gourmet.
November 22, 2016
From the November, 1976 issue of Gourmet, these two recipes really caught my eye. This spoon bread souffle is not your usual turkey day offering, and the dried fruit pie looks really delicious.
utes. Reduce the het to 375 and bake for 20 tao 30 minutes more, or until golden. The recipe suggests brushing the lattice with apricot glaze, but that’s not really necessary.
November 21, 2016
Came upon these unusually old fashioned recipes from the November, 1976 issue of Gourmet. If you’re looking for the simplicity of classic New England, here are a couple of recipes to consider. I especially like the thrifty recipe for this pudding:
Here’s an equally thrifty little pudding:
It’s too late to make this mincemeat pie for Thanksgiving; the fairly alcoholic mincemeat needs 3 weeks to cure. But you could make it now for Christmas; the recipe sounds really good.
Tomorrow: a few more great recipes from old Thanksgiving issues.
November 20, 2016
I’m looking out the window, and this is what I see: an entirely white world. The power’s out all over Columbia County, but we’ve got a back up generator and a fire burning in the grate. The scent of the stock I’m making for Thanksgiving gravy fills the house, making everything seem cozy.
And I’m hungry.
Happily, we had some warning. I knew we’d want some red meat on this winter day, so I marinated skirt steak. Lunch is almost ready.
Steak Sandwich
Shopping list: 1 pound skirt steak, 1 loaf bread.
Staples: salt, vegetable oil, condiments.
If you love steak sandwiches, you need to make friends with skirt steak. It’s a fantastically flavorful cut that doesn’t cost much. It does, however, demand a bit of coddling.
The skirt is a bundle of abdominal muscles that have worked very hard, lending them great flavor and a tendency to be tough. Long and thin (a friend calls it “steak by the yard”), skirt steak has many aliases. In Texas it’s called “beef for fajitas,” and in the Jewish restaurants of New York’s Lower East Side it goes by “Romanian tenderloin.” But in my house it’s sandwich steak because the skinny slices can stand up to salsa, chimichurri, pesto – or simply mustard and a bit of butter.
If you buy your meat from an artisanal butcher, ask for the “outside” skirt, which is fatter and juicier than the inside cut. (If you’re buying meat from industrially-raised animals this is a pointless exercise; the Japanese import 90% of American outside skirt steak.)
Rub the meat all over with salt – 3/4 of a teaspoon per pound of meat and let it sit in this dry brine for 4 or 5 hours before cooking. This will draw out the liquid and concentrate the flavor. Just before cooking blot the meat very well with paper towels to remove all the surface moisture, and brush it with a bit of vegetable oil. (I prefer a neutral oil like grapeseed, but it’s your call.)
Skirt steaks prefer high heat (cooked low and slow the meat turns chewy), so get a grill or grill pan very hot. The steak will cook quickly; two minutes a side should give you beautifully rare meat.
Rest the meat for ten minutes. Now comes the most important part: the slicing. If you cut with the grain each slice will be a single tough muscle. If you cut against the grain, into very thin slices, you’ll end up with tender meat. (This means that when you’re cutting you want the grain to run up and down in vertical stripes, not horizontal ones.)
Now cut a crusty roll in half, butter one side, spread mustard on the other, and heap it with thinly sliced steak. You can add any condiments you like, but this meat is so tasty it really deserves the spotlight to itself.
