Recent Foodsville publications by Pinckney

Edisto Oyster Roast - old school on Peters Point.

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:23:30

    I have written extensively about oyster roasts and the general ambience associated therewith, but a few days ago Laura and I decided to do one for Valentine's Day. We used to have an oyster party in NYC on Valentine's Day whereat we had raw oysters, drank champaign and consumed some side dishes like Virginia Ham and black bread with butter. It was a lot of fun. People got to eat their fill of raw oysters, something not many of them had ever had the opportunity to do. We quit having this party years ago because the day after was so hard on the hosts. We were trying to recreate, in NYC, the oyster roasts familiar to me from my kid-hood on Edisto Island. Roasting wasn't possible so we went with raw.
    Most of the oyster roasts I have been to in my adult life - that started somewhere around age 40, I think - have been, in fact, oyster steams. Some one buys a bunch of bushels of oysters and then places them in a basket in a big steel steamer box. After about a minute or two the oysters relax and open up; the basket is lifted out and dumped on the table for the many to enjoy. Depending on the oysters this can be a pretty good or a pretty bland feed. Either way, lots of cocktail sauce gets used and the taste of the oysters is almost secondary. If they are bland oysters, it's more like a cocktail sauce feed.
    We had recently been to a real roast, where the hosts had built a big hot fire of oak logs and covered it with a 3' by 6' sheet of stainless steel diamond-plate supported on iron legs about 18" high. The oysters were dumped on the red hot steel and covered with a sopping wet cotton rug. In the old days they used burlap which I am told was made from Hemp. Interesting roast that could have made, I thought. Burlap being hard to find these days, cotton rugs are substituted. The oysters are in contact with the steel for a couple of minutes and actually do 'roast'. The shells char on the bottoms and the oysters pick up some little smoke and develope flavors not found in raw or steamed oysters.
    I wanted to do a roast this way and I wanted to do so on a couple of days notice only invitng people at the last minute. The Fisk brothers loaned me their steel plate contraption and I set about cutting up oak. I had a number of very nice pieces of live oak from a blow down two years ago and I thought to use that. The chain saw made quick work of cutting the pieces into nice 18" sections and then two separate log splitters were borrowed to split the pieces into usable fire wood. This took the better part of a day and left me limping. The next day I moved the wood from the splitting stage to the roasting arena. This was accomplished slowly with the use of the tractor and front-end loader and took another six hours, more or less, and I was limping harder. Lots harder.
    On the day of the roast at about 12:30, the brothers arrived and looked at the pile of wood and the as yet unkindled fire and decided with hardly a word exchanged between them that my heart was in the right place, but that I wasn't getting it done and wasn't likely to. They started the fire ... lots of diesel fuel and palm fronds ... and then left me to keep feeding oak to the fire and returned a half an hour later with picnic tables and benches and serious outdoor lights. Starting about 5:30, the fire was ready and they started roasting Oysters. I hope to do this again one day, but don't think I will attempt it without first recruiting the Fisks. They had been invited to an oyster roast, but ending up managing it. (Much to the relief of at least one cousin who believes that no one who has lived in the north as long as I have could possibly roast one oyster much less bushels of them)
    I got to attend my own party. I would feel that I hadn't really done much about having a party as they did all the cooking, but the wood gathering had left me mostly crippled and drooling. It was all I could do to put away my half bushel. and I had to do much of that sitting at a picnic table.
     It must be said, that a roasted oyster is a different food. These were local, from within a few miles of the event and the cocktail sauce went untouched. The mignonette went untouched. The bread and butter went stale. People ate oysters. And then, they ate more oysters. And then there were more eaten. The hot sauce didn't get opened and the lemons were ignored. Three couples had been unable to attend on account of last minute kid issues and we had a few bivalaves left, but if we had had full attendence we would have run way short. In fact, if I hadn't remembered to bring out the venison chili mid way through, we would have run out of oysters before we ran out of appetites.
    So, all in all, I can't wait to do it again.... but I won't take it so lightly the next time. I may have to start the wood pile soon. We can eat these creatures comfortably for another ten weeks or so. I understand why these events were once upon a time so anticipated and special. It is no simple thing to undertake. I am still beat, like someone took a stick to me, and consuming alarming handfuls of Tylenol ... but oh, the shellfish. What an experience. I was surprised at the number of people who had never had oysters this way or who hadn't had them this way since they were kids - kind of like me.

Robbie Burns Birthday Again

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:32:42

Tonight we are having a few people over for the haggis. The haggis is premade and fully cooked so it only has to be gently brough up the temperature in a pot of water. Last year it was quite good, but somewhat surprising when pierced witgh the knife. It oozed out like highly seasoned lava and solidified into a kind of course pate'. It will be fine.

What kind of vegetable do you serve with a haggis? This year I have elected to go with buttered cabbage, boiled potatoes and bashed neeps. Seamus Muldoon has a dish, Colecannon, that's made with mashed potatoes and cabbage, but because the haggis is so like oatmeal in consistancy I am going to boil the potatoes instead of mash them - for texture and visual appeal, you know. We are also having Bashed Neeps. The first I heard of Bashed Neeps was in a Patrick O'Brien book and I expected to be able to review the recipe in the companion book, "Lobscouse and Spotted Dog", but me copy is in South Carolina so that's out.

Bashed neeps are - essentially - mashed turnips treated much the same way as mashed potatoes. The turnips are diced, boiled for 15 minutes or so until tender and then mashed with butter and some other seasonigs... Cardamon has been suggested. I am unsure if the Scots would go for that, but we will let you know.

I have a bit o' single malt whiskey lyin' around, too, so the guests will each get a tint o' that.

The birthday poem, given to me this morning by one who has at times made his living wering kilts and dispensing whiskey as a "highlander", is in the style of Burns...

Upon a hill there stood a coo.
IF it's not there noo
It must have shifted

Well, I think it's funny.........

I hope the piper gets here on time.

Chicken with Forty - or more -cloves of Garlic

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:59:23

This is a variation on the Classic printed in the 1967 Gourmet Magazine brought to my attention by foodist Seamus Muldoon and elaborated on under the original posting. The priciple differences are the addition of carrots and Vermouth and the omission of browing the chicken before cooking. THE COOKING TIME IS APPROXIMATE. The color of the sauce will make most people think you made it tomatoes, but none are involved.

New Twist on Forty Garlic-Clove Chicken.

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:37:24

The first time someone made forty clove chicken for me I was unimpressed. It was a valiant effort by a friend who didn't - and still doesn't - cook much, but I appreciated the effort. His recipe was true to the classic... "take and chicken and forty cloves of unpeeled garlic, put them in a roasting pan and seal it up. Roast it till done, remove, carve and serve with garlic cloves as garnish" I tried it a couple of times over the years as it seemed to have potential, but it never moved me and it never seemed that the garlic ever really penetrated the chicken. A recent trip to Costco to get veal stew resulted in my buying two organic chickens and a two pound bag of garlic instead as there was no veal stew meat to be had - no, not even for ready money.

I got out a couple of books and looked over recipes for the dish and decided that I didn't love any of them and thought to do the following. I roasted forty or so cloves of garlic and THEN stuffed the chicken with them and scattered the ones that couldn't fit in the cavity around the bird. I used a heavy enameled, cast iron pot. Seasoning was mostly the garlic, a little teeny bit of salt and a sprinkle of herbs d'provence. Half way through the roasting I added a half cup of Vermouth and a big handful of cut up carrots. After about an hour and a half total cooking time, I removed the pot top and hit the broiler for a moment to brown the chicken, took it out and let it rest on a platter, degreased the pan drippings and mashed the garlic cloves and carrots together. (I squeezed the garlic out of the skins and discarded them) This produced a reddish paste to which I added a little salt and pepper and some chicken stock. When the stock reduced I allowed the pan to cool and added a bit of butter to the paste to thicken it up and served it on the chicken pieces.

Mighty good. It's worth doing and gets added to the list of recipes to hold onto when one has lots 'o garlic. It makes a pretty sauce and the carrots and garlic compliment each other with the garlic being sweeter than the carrots. Other herbs could be used and I am sure they would be good. The vermouth is important. It's a great flavor enhancer for chicken.

Mirepoix and Fish

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:05:09

    Someone asked me recently about fish cookery. Cooking fish is something that I don't do very well. I think it's a specific talent, like baking or pastry making and while I do cook fish from time to time, my repertoire is exceeding limited. It may be that the methods for cooking fish and the variety of fish are, indeed, limited. A cousin tells me that the best way to prepare fresh caught Trout or Sea Bass from the St. Pierre is to clean, season and immediately fry. I have to say, I don't disagree that this makes prime eating, but often fried Bass tastes like fried Trout or fried Catfish. It tastes 'fried'.
    Fish can be baked, roasted, grilled, fried, eaten raw ... whatever. Not being constantly on the water and not really being of the fishing pursuasion just yet I mostly have access to fish market products. A great favorite is Salmon filet. Wild Salmon is available from time to time, but farmed Salmon is always there. Farmed Salmon doesn't need any help staying moist in the cooking process. Wild Salmon, like wild deer or buffalo needs some assistance, however, and that brings me to mirepoix.
   Wild Salmon is good baked or poached - I have never fried it - but in any preparation other than poaching, it can easily dry out. Frying would probably keep it moist, but it just doesn't seem the thing to do .... like frying duck legs. I like to make a mirepoix to cover the Salmon filet and bake the whole thing. A mirepoix is a basic 'thing' in French cooking and consists of 'sweating a combination of equal parts finely chopped/minced onion, carrot and celery. These three roots are tossed into a pan together with butter or oil and cooked until they soften - not brown.
    I use a lot of butter when I am doing this for Salmon filets and add a squeeze of lemon juice and a fair amount of salt and pepper. I then cover the filet with the mixture and bake or broil ten minutes to the inch in a closely fitting vessel. If I don't have a close fitting vessel, I use tin foil to make one and place it on a baking pan. I like to make sure that the butter and fish oils don't run off and burn on the pan. It's a sort of bake/broil/poach method that gives wild Salmon a chance to keep its moisture. The mirepoix and rendered oils and butter make a good sauce and, if this is served with rice, a good 'gravey'.
    A local caterer uses a dollops of mayo mixed with the mirepoix when it has cooled. This holds it in place and forms a sort of coating or crust. I am surprised at the number of people who despise mayo, being a huge fan, myself. It isn't necessary, but if you like mayo, it does help hold it all together. Sometimes I will add a little minced mushroom to the mirepoix, but that is moving towards a duxelle. If we are adding the mushroom a bit of minced Parsely won't take you too far out of bounds. Savory doesn't do any harm, either.
     Actually, now that I think about it, duxelle does a great job on fish, too. That's another post though.

Venison Pot Roast in time for Thanksgiving and in lieu of the Bird

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:09:22

I want to say a few things about cooking deer. Deer is generally – at least as far as I know in South Carolina – very clean and organic, natural meat. It is also very dry meat and no matter what you do to it, if you cook it beyond medium rare it is going to be somewhat tough and dry. Even braising it isn’t going to put fat and moisture where the animal didn’t have any to begin with.

So – if tender is a primary requirement for wild meat, you either have to eat it cooked rare-ish or you have to add something to it after it’s cooked to give it some moisture. There are ways to do this. The braising liquid can be made into a wonderful gravy or sauce. You can douse it with olive oil when you serve it. A recent bout with a braised leg of venison led me to try sour cream as an additional gravy ingredient – sort of like Stroganoff. Cream fraiche would do, too, but sour cream is way more available in places where one is likely to have access to true wild meat. (Farm raised venison can be tender, but this is a result of treating it like beef cattle and corn feeding)

Try this sometime….

Think about that leg ‘o deer as a big old pot roast. If it has been boned, stuff it with vegetables and aromatics and tie it up and season it with salt and pepper and maybe some smoked paprika – whatever herbs and spices you like with beef will go well with venison. If the bone is still there, you can push some aromatics into the space between the bone and meat.

Brown it all over in some peanut oil and don’t be surprised when it soaks up the oil leaving you with a dry pan. Add more oil and sauté a couple of chopped onions along with a half a head of celery chopped like the onions, a couple of carrots julienne or chopped and some whole garlic still in the skin.

Deglaze the pan with a cup of red wine and add a couple of grocery store size cans of diced tomatoes. Use fresh if you have ‘em, but tomato and deer seasons do not coincide very well. When these have cooked together for about twenty minutes, add a couple cups of beef or chicken or vegetable stock – or, in a pinch – water. Add a faggot of fresh Rosemary, Thyme, Oregano and any other herbs still in the garden. (Skip the basil, it will vaporize and add nothing at this point.) Bring it to a boil and put the meat back in, cover it tightly and slide it into a slow oven (300 degrees) for five hours or thereabouts making sure the liquid doesn’t evaporate.

When it feels tender when stuck with a sharp object you have cooked it enough. Don’t be fooled, though, it isn’t tender. Take it out of the oven and let it cool for a couple of hours or overnight. This will allow the flavors to intensify in the gravy, but nothing will penetrate the dense meat.

Gently reheat it when you are ready to serve it. It might slice, but more than likely it will come apart like pulled pork. Serve it with lots of the cooking gravy and pass some good olive oil and/or sour cream with it. You will swoon. You will. You’ll have to chew hard, but then you will positively swoon.

With the addition of the olive oil or sour cream, this will no longer be as low fat as it would have otherwise been, but then again, it won’t be a corn fed pot roast a’la Dow Chemical with Monsanto overtones either; Somewhat chewy, but clean, tasty food straight from nature and as natural as meat gets.

Just for excess, feel free to sauté a package of whole or halved mushrooms and add them into the gravy/sauce before you reheat the braise.

Borscht - Beet Soup - I think

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:35:28

This is how I remember the recipe in Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" You might want to look it up if you have the book. It is very simply and VERY satisfying. I like it cold, although I understand it is sometimes served hot. I think of Borsct as nothing but beets and onions, but I read it is sometimes made with beef. I always serve sour cream and chives or chopped green onions with it, but it does no harm if you don't have those. I like Bittman's use of hot baked/boiled/roasted small potatoes on the side. Bread is nice too, but the potatoes are sort of special.

You can add some ginger and garlic if you like. It doesn't do it any harm and some like it. You can use plain water or chicken stiock, vegetable stock or beef stock. The neat thing is, it doesn't need a lot done to it to be a wonderful soup.

Many recipes use carots, celery, tomatoes and potatoes in the soup. Ehhh! maybe, but this is hard to beet and has the ring of autheticity about it.

Serves 4 - 6.

Borscht - Beet Soup - I think. Sort of.

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:17:35

Not too long ago we received a couple of bunches of beets from our neighbor who joined a Friend of the Farmer group in Ardsley, NY. I am fond of beets, but mostly what I think of when presented with them is Harvard Beets from the old "Joy of Cooking". I like that dish very much, but it gets old and it uses sugar and my wife can't have sugar and on and on. I've read about and eaten raw beet salad and beets done all sorts of ways, but I wasn't feeling adventurous and I still had a mess of beets. "BORSCHT", I thought and got out several books settling on Mark Bittmans recipe in "How To Cook Anything". It was simple. I say it was simple because I don't have a copy of the book handy to check and I have made it a couple of times since from memory and it has been very good each time.

He uses two pounds of fresh beets, a couple of large onions, water and salt and pepper. Condiments are sour cream and chive or choped scallions. If there are more ingredients in his recipe I don't remember them. I substituted some chicken stock for some of the water and made it and it was about perfect. The next two times I made it I messed with it a little bit. I used some ginger in it... I added some garlic. I used more chicken stock. None of these things did it any harm, but they didn't noticably change/improve it either. He recommends that you ignore the recipes that make it with beef short ribs and the ones that say serve it hot. He says it can be served hot, but it's better cold with hot potatoes on the side. I think he is right. The recipe - as I remember it - is becoming a staple in my house.

I also like to make it more or less a smooth soup. A number of pictures and on-line recipes show it as a chunky soup and I guess that's okay. I like it smooth and get it that way through the use precooking the beets before shredding them and the further use of a submersible blender. I'll post my version on the recipe page. If you have Bittman's book you might want to look at his version. It's a very satifying soup with potatoes or bread. Potatoes are better and Don't forget the sour cream...

Cabbage and Potatoes

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:49:40

HEY! Does anyone out there have a name for cabbage and potatoes? Just plain old cabbage and potatoes steamed together. I seem to remember something called Gallumphy or something like that..... It would be something from the Brits I would think.

Important Pans

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:55:50

I like to cook. It's how I relax and in many ways how I define myself. I am a serious amateur who likes good food and sharing it. Like many amateurs I collect things that go with what I like to do. Some of them are novelties and stay that way and some of them become indispensable. Black iron cookware is one of the things I now treasure. I didn't always and for a long time I didn't really understand it. It is heavy and the outside of old pans is often covered with scabby baked on food stuffs and rust boils. Non-stick cookware and I had a long running thing, but it faded as the surfaces failed and I read little hints about canaries dropping dead in the kitchen when the non-sticks were overheated. All anecdotal, for sure, but sometime - politics aside - there is a grain of truth in rumors of that sort.
I like aluminum - although from time to time one hears unsettling things about that, too. I use a lot of stainless steel and can usually keep most things from sticking to it. It isn't as heavy as iron and it can be very pretty, but it costly and it isn't all that hard to wreck havoc on a good stainless steel pan and have to toss it out. It hurts to dump a pan that cost $150.00 because you got distracted by something or someone for a minute too long and now the layers of stainless, copper/aluminum have delaminated and fallen apart.
Ruin a cast iron pan and you can throw it out without watching hundreds of dollars fly away -BUT - it's hard to ruin a cast iron pan. I have bought several back from the trash heap. If not properly cared for - and it's easy to care for a cast iron piece - they will rust. Rust can be removed with naval jelly, sand paper, steel wool - whatever. There are other ways. The pan can be re-seasoned just by using and not being overly fastidious in cleaning. One of the things about all cookware is that one applies heat to it. Heat kills most germs. A few bacteria or what-have-you left on the surface of a pan will get it's mitacondria fried the next time you heat it up so don't scour the pan with soap and abrasives after you use it; wipe it out and clean it up and then put it on a lit burner and as it dries, run a paper towel around it to spread the remaining oil evenly over the surface. You don't want to let any moisture remain on the metal.
While this is a well known trick for maintaining cast iron everyone has to learn it from someone. It was taught to me by theatrical designer and costumer named Paul Parody, a man long since gone to his reward, and is one of the the most meaningful kitchen lessons I was ever given. I pass it along in memory of Paul, a genuinely funny person who led a strange and short life. Much more about him I don't know, but I always think of him, a memory flashes through the brain pan, everytime I use a black iron piece.
It's an Edisto Blog so why am I going on about black iron? Well, I stopped into King's Market the other day on the way back from the dump to grab some okra and whatnot and there on the wall, for sale for $25.00, was an old style, smooth finished #10 black iron frying pan with no makers mark on it in relatively good repair. It took almost three seconds to snatch it off the wall and get it on the counter. It was way too shiny. It was coated in some sort of slick greasy coating. I think someone had tried to do some work on it....

The new/old pan is the one on the left

I brought it back to the corn field house, scrubbed it to get the unknown coating off and then fried out some bacon and then some other stuff and it is now, three days later, a regular performer in the kitchen having been used to make fried okra twice and a flat iron steak. Nothing sticks to it, heat distributes evenly over the entire cooking surface and it looks like it has been here forever. I thank whoever decided to go for the stainless or non-stick. This pan is a treasure, a pearl beyond price. I will leave it to my son's grandchildren - assuming they know how to fry an egg - or in the case of this #10, six or more.

Julie and Julia

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 19:40:40

We saw the Julie and Julia movie the other night and I loved every single performance in it. It's a feat, I think, when someone makes a movie based on two barely mediocre books and the movie turns out to be way better than either of them and/or the effect of the two combined. I know it's just me, but I didn't finish either book. I started both of them, still have them, but only made it to about mid-way and decided "so what". Well, I just wanted to share that grump since this site seems to have gone dormant.

Gonna go next door now and join the pre labor day picnic.

Just Wondering.

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 19:26:06

This morning I had some dealings with a bone in leg of venison. Usually the processor, Michael Cordray, takes the bone out because bonesless roasts take much less space in the freezer, but I had asked him to leave the bones in for one deer. I thought to smoke the leg to about 150 degrees on the BIG GREEN EGG and did so at 200 degrees. The venison - having next to no fat - was done to that temperature in about two and a half hours. The meat is flavorful and moist. I think I will use it for sandwiches for the upcoming drive to Edisto where I plan to shoot a bunch more deer. Does anyone other than me cook deer this way and does anyone have any ideas about infusing more flavor into Bambi. Venison is so mild, but I don't like to use heavy marinades and that's probably the answer.... marinades, I mean.

This meat, while healthy and all that is - as I said - mlld. Perhaps it's just South Carolina deer and their diet of fresh vegetables, new saplings and any row crop they come across and intensifying the meat just isn't going to happen. Maybe this is venison veal, but I haven't been shooting young deer. Does any body know anything about eating yearling deer. The flesh of this one is very light and pink as opposed to bright red. I'm just asking, speaking to ether, you know?!

I am planning to buy a tractor soon and perhaps erect a smallish greenhouse to see if I can make a go of heirloom tomatoes year round. As I understand heirloom tomatoes, they don't keep well and they don't travel well at all. I think there may be a local market for them in Charleston, however. Local, out of season, vine ripened tomatoes grown in Edisto Island dirt just like toamtoes are supposed to be. Maybe. I would have to make sure deer doesn't know how to open the door to the greenhouse.

Tarry Lodge

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:29:46

God Bless mario Batali. Yesterday was Laura's birthday and someone suggested to her that she might like the food at Mario Batalli's place "Tarry Lodge" in Port Chester, New York. While there are some exceptionally good restaurants in the county, I mostly have been underwhelmed by the offerings in Westchester, but Laura wanted to go, so we went. What a find. To start, the place is beautiful. It's a largish restaurant, but one doesn't notice until the service picks up and the foccacia starts moving out in rafts. The staff is well trained, friendly and knowledgable. The dinner service is real. By that I mean the silverware is solid and comforatable, the plates sized right for what's on them, the glassware exceptional and the linens are all real. One might think he was in a really good Manhattan restaurant instead of mid Westchester on a corner across the street from a Milwaulkee Tool repair place down the stree from a commuter train station.

The food. I can only vouch for we had, but it was a good sampling. The thin crust pizza with truffles, smoked mozarella and poached egg was worth the embarrasment it caused to Laura when I licked the plate. The farro with scorched corn, mint and red onion was a delightful treat and the ancient - and not so ancient - Romans would approve. We had a pasta with three mushrooms and thin sliced pig jowl that almost resulted in another face plant onto a serving platter. The Lardo ... oh mymymymy, the lardo. If they eat pork in heaven, this is what they eat. Lovely white cured pork fat that doesn't exactly melt in your mouth - Thank goodness because it would be too soon gone - but has nice little chew and then goes 'poooof' and is gone - probably right to my aorta, but what a thing to plaster one's arteries with. It's something that really should only be eaten by Eskimos after working hard, but it's such a treat. It will be years before I eat it again, but it could easily supplant foie gras. It could. It really could.

The Branzino was cooked just right, showed to us and then walked over to the boning station, taken apart and put back together sans bones and head and with a little condiment that I think was referred to as red onion jam. It was a fish cooked the way a fish should be cooked - just enough, all firmed up and warmed through and - god, how many times can I use the word perfect? - perfect.

Desert was beyond us, but we finished with espresso that came to us right from the machine, crema still intact with the cup hot and hot. I could hardly drive home what with the food hangover. Laura told me the wine was excellent and I am sure it was. Everything about the place was excellent and it would be astonishing had it been anything else.

Can't wait to go back. The service was elegant and friendly. The food, exceptional and the cost - not so bad. With tip it came to $190.00. I can't wait to go back, but I won't order so much. The drive home will be easier.

New blackeye peas - maybe local

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:51:58

Edisto Island. June16, 2009.
   A huge thunderstorm went through a couple of hours ago. Being on the edge of the land and the ocean we get some pretty awe inspiring sound and light shows. This one rattled the new hurricane glass and shook the whole house. Ozone was present in plenty and that made me hungry.
   I had stopped in to George & Pink’s a little while before the storm. It was just gathering – and I bought three peaches and a bag of fresh blackeye peas. I didn’t go straight back to where I am staying: I had some business around on the island and got to the new house about mid way through the storm and watched for about a half an hour.
   When I got home, I cooked the peas with a few slices of salt pork, some pepper flakes, chopped onion and sulfurous well water to cover. OH! Set me to swimmin’ in the head. Fresh blackeye peas - something to get really excited about and possibly local, too.
   For a side of meat, I thawed out a couple of little Costco Lamb chops and slow sautéed them with salt and pepper and nothing else. Tonight, I am feeling like a great culinary purist. I am a happy man and a satisfied eater tonight

Great Piece From Slate

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:33:12

Read this about what to do with all the vegetables you get in a farm share