Gourmen

A group of college guys who live in a house with a fig tree and happen to know—and love—cooking. Among our favorite things: coffee, sugarless peanut butter, scrapings and sharp cheese. This is how we live and eat well on an everyday basis. Or so we like to think. Chapel Hill, NC

[gourmen]

Trick or treat...the treat is tacos

Last week tacos seemed an appropriate post for the humid, seventy-degree days, but this week’s colder weather made me think twice about the salience of this recipe.

Then I looked back on our Friday meal and decided:

The time is just right.

After all, these tacos are quick, cheap and easy—all things student us students could use with our minds focused on looming, far more pressing Halloween activities.

These tacos truly take next to no time to make. Really. All of the steps (of which there are few) in this recipe are mechanical—other than a heated up taco shell if you want yours that way, that is—there’s no actual cooking in this recipe. The meal’s preparation takes about 15 or 20 minutes, and during Halloween weekend in Chapel Hill, you’re going to want that extra time to enjoy the most cawl-edge holiday around here.

^Ask these buffoons, who really love Halloween.

And furthermore, these tacos are beautiful. The color scheme—between the lush pink-purple of the slaw, the green of the avocado and the yellow or white of Cheddar cheese—makes this meal announce itself in colors that would match perfectly to a Frankenstein’s monster costume.

As I mentioned earlier, in holding to the ethos behind most Gourmen meals, these tacos are cheap. Canned crab is about three dollars, beans around a buck, and cheese and an avocado from Trader Joe’s will run you about a buck each as well, while corn tacos from a pack cost next to nothing. Though Dev and I polished these tacos off between the two of us at the cost of about $3-4 per head and were stuffed, this meal should feed three people for $2-3 per head with two tacos per person in theory.

And if you’re of age and looking to buy some drinks with that extra change to pair with these easy tacos, the spicy but quaffable notes of Westbrook White Thai, brewed out of Mt. Pleasant, S.C., work fantastically with this meal. 

Crab, Black Bean and Avocado Tacos with Beet, Radish and Carrot Slaw

1 4 oz. can of canned crab meat, drained

1 15 oz. can of black beans, drained

1 avocado

½ onion, cut into slices

4 cloves of garlic, minced

2 limes

2 tsp. dried cilantro

1 ½ tsp. dried cumin

¼ of a large beet, or half of a medium-sized one

2 radishes

2 carrots

1 T mayonnaise

3 T apple cider vinegar

1 tsp. dried parsley

1 T  honey

½ c grated cheddar cheese

salt and pepper

6 soft corn taco shells

In a large bowl, mix the crab meat, black beans, onions and garlic. Cut the avocado in half, pit the avocado and score the flesh before scooping it on top of the preceding ingredients. Squeeze the juice of both the limes over the mixture and add the cumin and cilantro. Mix well and salt and pepper to taste.

Grate the beet, carrots and radishes together into another bowl over a sink (the beet juice can stain). Mix in mayo, vinegar, parsley and honey. Salt and pepper to taste.

In the corn taco shells, add equal amounts of the crab, black bean and avocado mixture. Top each with an equal dollop of slaw, then an equal sprinkling of cheese. Enjoy.

[gourmen]

Aunt Jo’s meatloaf, cause mothers (and aunts) know best.

The proverbial saying “mother knows best” should likely be penned at the top of any meatloaf recipe in existence. It’s home cooking at its finest, the epitome of comfort food., and after 10 days straight days of rain in Chapel Hill, we’ve been needing it to soak up the sorrowful puddles on the ground. That’s why we called in to Momma McMillan for help on this week’s posting: Aunt Jo’s Meatloaf, Gourmendized.

^Yes, the meatloaf was that good. Ask Ethan.

To be fair, then, perhaps the axiom should be “Aunt Jo knows best,” as well. I never liked meatloaf until I tried it one night, mid-winter, at Aunt Jo’s house in Medina, Ohio. Every other I’d ever tried before was far too sweet and ketchup, but Aunt Jo’s version was divine, cheesy, rich and just sweet enough for my tastes, and the perfect end to a day of playing in the snow outside.

And while I respect and still adore her recipe—which uses tomato soup and honey barbecue sauce for its caramelized and moist exterior—this week I wanted to see if something else could be done with Aunt Jo’s recipe to make it…different (Momma McMillan uses it rather than her own old recipe after my snotty “Aunt Jo’s is better” criticisms, by the way, thus the phone call to her for the written copy). Spruce it up, maybe. Gourmandize.

^Ben and Dev, chowing.

The idea that Ben, Devin and I came up with was to Italianize the meatloaf. Take out or alter the things that could be tinkered with—the meat, the canned tomato soup and the packaged cheese—and play with them to verge towards one of our other favorite comfort foods, cheesy Italian fare.

Ergo, we subbed in a mixture of beef and pork for straight ground beef (Italian sausage and meatballs occasionally call for the combination); Gorgonzola dolce and Parmesan cheese from our beloved Weaver Street Market for the packaged cheddar; and homemade tomato sauce for the canned soup. Then we added a mixture of sautéed garlic, onion and mushrooms for funsies. If this sounds mouthwatering, let me confirm, it was. The smells of this meatloaf while it was baking were unreal.

At first the cost seemed very un-Gourmen-like, but after we realized how many servings this recipe made, we decided it’d be okay for the site. The initial cost was $27, but easily made 6-9 servings (depending on how hungry you are). Due to the richness of this meal, the latter end of the serving amounts is more accurate in my opinion, though, again, it depends on appetite.

And don’t forget our beloved cooking warm fuzzies: both of the meats from Weaver Street—the pork was delivered there by the awesome Firsthand Foods—were local and sustainably raised. And that is a major plus to the community, the animals and the health of us, so not only is this recipe delicious and affordable, it’s beneficial and responsible, too.

Enjoy.

*P.S.: Our original recipe didn’t anticipate the amount of meatloaf we’d have to work with and we ran out of tomato sauce, so we had to make a second, smaller batch using a sweet-chili, Sriracha and soy topping. That one was tasty as all get out, too, but this recipe has adjusted for that problem.

Aunt Jo’s Meatloaf, Gourmendized

1 pound ground pork

1 pound ground beef

8 oz. Gorgonzola cheese, at room temperature or slightly melted

½ c of Parmesan, plus another ½ c for sprinkling

1.5 cup of mushrooms, sliced 1/8” thick

1 onion, diced

5 cloves of garlic, minced

1 c of rolled oats

1 T dried oregano

1 T dried basil

1 T dried parsley

2 t red pepper flakes

2 c of garlicky tomato sauce (homemade or canned, either works, but you know which one is better—our recipe is below and should be made ahead of time) 1 ½-2 T butter (for sautéing)

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Heat a generous amount (1.5-2 T) of butter in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add onions and mushrooms and a sprinkle of salt, then sauté until tender (about 10 minutes). Add garlic and continue to sauté for another 2-3 minutes, or until garlic is just toasted.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground pork and beef thoroughly. Add the rolled oats, sautéed mixture and the 8 oz. of Gorgonzola, ½ of Parmesan, as well as the oregano, basil, parsley and pepper flakes. Mix thoroughly. Add a sprinkle of salt and a generous shaking of pepper.

Grease two loaf pans and place equal halves of the mixture in each. Top with equal portions of tomato sauce and the rest of the Parmesan cheese. Cover in foil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake on 400°F for 5-10 minutes, or until cheese is slightly browned.

*Homemade Tomato Sauce (Quick Version)

Heat 2 T of olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add 3 large cloves of minced garlic and sauté on medium heat until slightly browned. Pour in a 16 oz. can of whole peeled tomatoes and mash them up in the pan, then add 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, 1 tablespoon each of dried basil and garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. 

[gourmen]

Eat your way into fall: Stuffed butternut squash with (soy—or not) chorizo

In Chapel Hill, the college bars are a-brimming with pumpkin beers. Students no longer arrive to class panting and sweaty. Leaves are bordered with a golden edges.

It’s fall, you all.

Pumpkin may be the preferred squash of the season, but its inability (for the most part) to lend itself to dishes other than desserts is why the Gourmen chose its close relative, the butternut squash (actually called “butternut pumpkins” by some Australians), for our first fall-themed dish of the season:

Stuffed butternut squash with chorizo.

Butternut squash can be utilized in anything from soups to baked goods to tacos to pasta (see our “Pasta Di Autumno” for a similarly fall-and-curcubita-themed post here). We like to think of it like a more seasonal version of the versatile sweet potato, though the texture of butternut squash is a tad more delicate than the ocherous tuber. Both, however, are affordable and nutritious carbohydrate bases from which a plethora of meals can emerge: A butternut squash at Trader Joe’s will cost you $1.99. A bag of organic sweet potatoes at the same store is $4.49. Both are deals.

For this recipe, I wanted to emulate a style of flatbread I encountered many a time in Barcelona (never, ever, has bar eating been so sublime). It was topped with chorizo (or, in Catalan, xorizo) and Gorgonzola cheese, as well as a pear-balsamic reduction, and it was incredible. Usually I strive for respectful adherence when it comes to traditions inherent to a dish that inspires me, but since I try to eschew meat whenever I can—though flesh is simply irreplaceable in some cuisines (see: the Merritt’s B.L.T. in Chapel Hill, N.C.)—and this idea is a ways away from a flatbread, I used Trader Joe’s soy chorizo instead of the real stuff. However, normal chorizo works fine as well. I’m sure my Spanish friends would prefer that instead, actually.

One thing (of a few) that is great about this recipe is its malleability. Don’t like Gorgonzola? Use a different, meltable cheese. Don’t care for harvest grains? Use rice or quinoa. It’s all a stuffing in the end. Each iteration would likely be just as good as this one. As long as you can divide a squash and scoop the seeds and stringy flesh and sauté some mushrooms and onions, this recipe will go off without a hitch. It’s incredibly easy.

What’s also great about this meal is the fact that, though it involves a good deal of time, the amount of actual involvement is limited. I read the first two acts of Hamlet while roasting the squash. I did a short assignment during the second oven usage. My productivity did not suffer at all, a key thing for class—or work-from-home, if that’s your thing.

And then there’s the price: Combined, between the soy chorizo ($1.99 per package, only half used), the butternut squash, the grains (maybe 50 cents worth of a package of harvest grains from Trader Joe’s) and the trivial amount of onions, mushrooms and cheese in this dish, I would calculate this meal costs between $3-4 dollars per person.

Now, as far as I’m concerned, that is a pretty affordable way to eat yourself into fall.

Stuffed Butternut Squash with Chorizo

(Serves 2)

1 butternut squash, halved lengthwise

6 oz. soy chorizo (or normal chorizo, either will work)

¼ onion, diced

1 c of mushrooms, sliced

3/8 cup of cooked grain of choice, cooled (I used harvest grains, but quinoa or rice work, too)

1 egg

2 oz. soft Gorgonzola

olive oil

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Scoop the seeds and stringy flesh from the squash halves. Brush with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast in a small pan for about 40 minutes or until the flesh is tender and comes away easily. Cool.

While squash cools, heat 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add onions and mushrooms and a sprinkling of salt and pepper and sauté until slightly tender. Crumble the chorizo into the pan. Cook until vegetables and chorizo are slightly browned.

Scoop the cooled flesh from the squash halves into a mixing bowl, leaving about ¼ inch of flesh still on the skin. Add the cooled cooked grains and chorizo mixture and mash together. Make sure the mixture is warm, not scalding, and then add the egg and Gorgonzola, as well as another sprinkling of salt and pepper. Mix until Gorgonzola is melted and both the cheese and the egg are equally distributed.

Reduce oven heat to 375°F. Bake stuffed squash halves for 20 minutes or until tops are barely browned.

Plate and enjoy.

[gourmen]

Pasta Night: Creamy ricotta, pea and white bean penne for two (bucks)

This week the Gourmen are stripping our late fanciness to get back to the basics:  

Good dining, on the über cheap, in little time. And this recipe—which costs only $2 per head—is a good return, for it’s as easy as boiling water (quite literally).

It’s time for some creamy ricotta, pea and white bean pasta.

I have Italian roots, and theorize that my blood runs a little redder because surely 60 percent of my constitution, between my mother and my grandmother’s cooking, is made up of garlicky red sauce. But tomato sauce (the good stuff) takes time, slowly metamorphosing to perfection over the course of hours upon hours of simmering as some boiling cauldron-esque magic assimilates and intensifies the flavors of tomato, basil and garlic to an ethereal degree that has haunted me since childhood.

But I digress: not everyone has time for that, and that’s okay. This creamy pasta dish will be ready in almost the time it takes you to boil water. And, per person, it’ll only run you about two bucks. 

That’s right. Two bucks. $2. Take a quarter of a pound of whole-wheat penne (about 38 cents, give or take), a cup of frozen peas (maybe 50 cents), half a can of white beans (50 cents), olive oil, garlic, half a lemon (25 cents) and one third of a cup of Trader Joe’s whole milk ricotta (about $1.25; worth every penny), and with this guide you’ll have a complete, nutritious and high-in-protein vegetarian meal for two that is also easy as hell to make.

^Reserve that lovely liquor every time. A simple bowl beneath your strainer will do the job.

The trick: using the starchy boiling water to make a sauce, and being generous with your olive oil, pepper and salt.

Deliziosissima. Kiss your fingers and cast them from your lips.You’re a chef now, bambino.

The Romans use pasta water for cacio e pepe—a beloved dish entrenched in local pride that literally consists of only olive oil, pepper, salt, noodles, pasta water and cheese thrown together while hot—and many restaurants use the starchy liquor as a way to thicken sauces and get them to stick to noodles. It’s not some cheap trick, but an industry hack of sorts that is worth noting for your own repertoire. 

Pasta water can be used jazz up many recipes. Just a tablespoon or two of it, when folded into a tomato sauce then slathered over pasta and cooked for a few minutes, makes a noticeable difference from a standard gravy. Your friends (as you impress them) won’t know what happened, and you won’t have to expend any extra money on some fancy secret ingredient.

And, in the end, doing big with little is what this blog is all about.

Special thanks and a shout out to Mark Bittman, the incredible food columnist who retired from the New York Times last weekend, for inspiring this dish via one of his Minimalist posts. Also to Isabel Hagood, thanks for being a lovely photographer and a recipe lab rat. We do appreciate it.

Creamy Ricotta, Pea and White Bean Pasta

1 ½ cups whole-wheat penne (or some other whole-wheat pasta), dry

1 c of frozen peas

½ c of white kidney beans, drained

1/3 c of whole milk ricotta

3 large cloves (or 4 medium cloves) of garlic, minced

½ lemon

olive oil

salt and pepper

Bring one quart plus one cup of salted water to boil with a dash of olive oil. Add frozen peas and return to a boil, then add beans and pasta. Cook 5-7 minutes, or until pasta is al dente, or cooked, but still slightly firm, to the bite.

While pasta, peas and beans are boiling, heat 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil in a small skillet. Add minced garlic. Sauté for 3-4 minutes, or until garlic is slightly browned. Pour oil and garlic over the ricotta in a large bowl, and season with salt and pepper.

When pasta is finished cooking, drain in a pasta strainer or colander suspended over a bowl so to reserve the pasta water. Mix the pasta, beans and peas with the olive oil, garlic and ricotta. Add ladlefuls of the reserve pasta water and continue mixing until you have a slightly liquid, but creamy and clinging sauce.

Place in bowls and add a drizzle of olive oil. a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and a squeeze of lemon over top.

Buon appetito!

[gourmen]

Just for sh*ts, shrimp and grits

The Charleston roots of the Gourmen’s newest honorary member, Johnson Hagood, make it prime time for an introduction…and this post about shrimp and grits.

Many attribute the beloved brunch dish with the Cajun cookery of the Big Easy, but what used to be shrimp and hominy actually came to life in the Lowcountry around Charleston, S.C., from which Jaime Hagood, a brilliant chef, doctor and father to both Johnson and Isabel (another contributor, wink wink), happens to hail.

Historical Louisiana cuisine favors local rice crops, but Charleston’s proximity to both shrimp and corn made it an ideal breeding ground for a dish rooted in spicy creolized Gullah cuisine (the similarity and often mistaken synonymity of Creole and Cajun could likely account for the misattribution of shrimp and grits’ place).

Anyways, our tie to shrimp and grits, Johnson, arrived in Carrboro this year with little more than an immersion circulator and a beer server certificate to his name—in other words, he was destined to join us.

Another weekend visit with him to Tom Robinson’s for local shrimp, brought in from the N.C. Coast on Thursday, prompted us to make this $5 per head version of of the dish.

Ethan, a housemate whose been to both Charleston and New Orleans, said this iteration was among the best he’s ever had. “Bro this was a fucking steal,” he sighed, patting his belly after the meal.

And a steal it was—coming out to about $5 per head.

The shrimp, at $9 per pound, cost $13.50. A third-pound of chorizo, another local product made in-house at Cliff’s Meat Market in Carrboro, only cost about $1.50, and was plenty for the red-eye, Tasso-style gravy we made from it. Factoring in grits and a cup or so of coffee, as well as the optional cheese, and since this meal serves four people, we calculated it roughly comes out to about $5 per person.

Our tips for success: Don’t overcook the shrimp, be generous with your fat usage (shrimp and grits was meant to fuel labor, not a tapered waistline), and cook the roux for about 2-3 minutes, but don’t let it pass the color of rich brown, or it’ll throw off your gravy.

And if you don’t have reserve bacon fat or lard, more butter is always a fine substitute. At the Gourmen house we save all of our bacon drippings in a jar. If you don’t yourself, it’s not a bad practice to keep up.

^This is how happy you’ll be eating these shrimp and grits...ask Baby J.

Johnson accompanied this meal with Ruby Redbird, a grapefruit and ginger-tinged session beer from Spoetzl Brewing in Texas.

A Finger Lakes, N.Y., blend of Chardonnay and Riesling ($12, from Salmon Run, with enough sweetness to cut through the rich meal while still keeping enough buttery oakiness to blend) would likely do fine as well…we think.

*Aside: Chef Bill Neal of Crook’s Corner in Chapel Hill, N.C., is widely acknowledged as the person who made gourmet shrimp and grits a staple of upper-echelon Southern cuisine.

Shrimp and Grits with Coffee Chorizo Gravy

Serves 4

1 ½ lbs of shrimp, peeled and deveined

1/3 lb of chorizo, removed from casing

1 c of dry, stone ground grits

4 T of bacon fat, lard or butter

2 T of all purpose flour

1 c of semi-strong coffee

½ c of low-fat milk

1 T paprika

1 T chili powder

1 T dried oregano

1 T dried parsley

1 T dried basil

1 T black pepper.

1 t cayenne powder

½ a large onion, small dice

¼ a large onion, minced

6 cloves of garlic, minced

4 T of butter, plus 2 T of butter for grits

2 t of Old Bay or Tony’s creole seasoning

Salt and pepper to taste

3 T of Frank’s Red Hot or Texas Pete hot sauce

Start preparing the grits according to the package.

Heat one tablespoon of bacon fat in a large cast iron skillet or frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the chorizo and cook until browned, then remove, reserving the fat. Lower to medium heat, add another two tablespoons of bacon fat and the diced onion and sauté until soft and translucent with a sprinkling of salt. Then add half of the garlic, as well as the paprika, chili powder, dried oregano, dried parsley, dried basil, black pepper and cayenne powder. Toast for about one minute and add another tablespoon of bacon fat.

Meanwhile melt four tablespoons of butter in another large cast iron skillet or frying pan over medium heat. Begin to cook the shrimp with the other half of garlic, the minced onion and Cajun spice mix. It should be finished in about 5 minutes, or as soon as the flesh is firm and tinged with orange and pink.

Return the chorizo to the other pan, and also add the two tablespoons of flour. Cook for 2-3 minutes, then add the cup of coffee slowly, scraping the pan to deglaze all the burnt bits. Add the milk and continue to cook and stir gravy until it clings to the spoon, about 2-3 minutes. Add hot sauce and salt and pepper to taste.

Just as grits finish cooking, add the butter and an optional addition of ¼ cup of cheese (we prefer smoked Gouda) as well as a healthy dosage of salt and pepper and stir to combine.

Plate the grits first, then top with the sauce and the shrimp to finish.

Mix well and enjoy.

[gourmen]

Cornmeal Scones

Flour is a gift from above, the driving force behind joys of life that include bread, alfredo sauce, pasta, cakes and cookies. And need I mention breakfast pastries? The scone, the doughnut, the croissant?

At the Gourmen house we certainly adore flour, but we have an almost equal love affair with the South’s traditionally preferred milled grain: cornmeal.

Cornbread, cornmeal-breaded catfish, you name it: we love the golden grain.

I have a weakness for scones and a love for the New York Times (on many mornings, you can find me enjoying one or the other, sitting cross-legged in loafers, on our couch, with my housemates likely mocking me in the background), and this weekend, when a sweet toothed fit of hangriness collided with running into a cornmeal scone recipe by Melissa Clark, the stage was set for this Gourmen post.

I wanted those cornmeal scones, but I wanted them fast. The innovation that need spurred ended up being perfect for the blog. The ingredients cost around $2 or so for 4 scones, and the time it took: just under 30 minutes. The recipes fits right into the Gourmen archive.

Also, they were delicious. Here’s how they worked: 

Clark’s recipe was sweetened by plums that were boiled in spices and honey, then chilled for an hour. My aching stomach, though, had an immediate demand that wouldn’t wait for that. By switching the plum addition to a generous dollop of raspberry jam, and also adjusting for a higher ratio of cornmeal to flour in order to really bring out the grainier texture and flavor of the ingredient, I had a recipe I was ready to work with.

The only real work in this recipe is cutting the butter into the dry ingredients. Cubing the butter beforehand and letting it reach room temperature is key, but you don’t want it too warm or it will melt into the dry ingredients. By using your fingers to squeeze the butter into the dry ingredients, almost as if you were sifting through the dough with pinches, it should be relatively easy to form the desired “coarse crumbs.”

Be sure that you don’t forget to heed the suggestion of not using all the half and half-egg mixture in the dough. You want to start by adding two-thirds of the amount, then checking if you have a moist—but not wet—dough that just sticks together. Too much moisture won’t result in flaky scones, and trust me, you want to have flakiness—otherwise you might as well be making a cake.  

These scones are like cornbread, only better, and go great with a hot cup of tea or coffee.

Well, not really, but they are more pastry-like, at least…

Cornmeal Scones

Serves: 4

(Adapted from The New York Times)

½ c cornmeal

½ c all-purpose flour

1 ½ T sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

3 T butter at room temperature, cubed

1 egg yolk

3/8 c half and half

Raspberry jam

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Sift dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Add cubed butter and cut into the dry ingredients to form coarse crumbs.

Mix egg yolk and half and half. Add to the mixing bowl until you have a dough that is moist—but not wet—and sticks together enough to form a 1 ¼ in. thick round.

Cut wedge into quarters and put on a baking sheet. Using your thumb, create a thumbprint in the center of each of the scones and add a generous tablespoon-ish scoop of raspberry jam. Brush remaining half and half and egg mixture onto scones.

Bake for 15-17 minutes until scones are golden brown on edges.

Enjoy.

[gourmen]

High cuisine, poor sole

Last week we gave you a seafood feast fit for a king. This week we look back to Neptune’s bounty for a cheaper meal fit for any day of the week: $3 sole à la niçoise.

It sounds far fancier than it is; don’t let the name deter you. Sole, according to my trusty culinary bible, Larousse Gastronomique, has been so celebrated throughout culinary tradition that it has more recipes written for it in the Western canon than any other fish. Romans ate it, Louis XIV favored it, and the French chef revolution of the 19th century made this “royal dish” into a foodie darling.

Sole’s prestige, however, belies its cost. Trader Joe’s does a remarkable job of fish sourcing for a large corporation, and made a pledge to shift to all sustainable fish sources by 2013. Dover sole sells there for $6.99 per pound, and a one pound package usually contains about 5 filets—perfect for standard, 3-4 oz. serving size. Just be sure to take out a filet or two the day before cooking them to allow in them to thaw overnight in the fridge. You don’t want to cook straight from frozen—to my tongue, it alters the taste in a bad way, just saying.

Sole isn’t particularly fishy, it’s a flounder-like specimen with a delicate flavor and light, flaky texture that lends itself spectacularly to sauces, stewing, patés and salt preservation. This version, à la niçoise, uses tomato fondue, anchovy butter, capers and olives to flavor the flesh. I recommend serving it over rice, with a side of grilled zucchini.

The actual, in-kitchen preparation of this meal only takes around 15 minutes. But the anchovy butter and the tomato fondue should be made ahead.

My shortcut tomato fondue consists of taking whole canned tomatoes, draining them, mashing them, and then placing them in a pan with a pat of melted butter on the stove. Add your preferred blend of spices (I prefer salt, pepper, oregano and garlic powder) to the pot, then bring to a simmer. Reduce for an hour or longer, until you have a paste-like consistency. You don’t have to watch, and that’s a good thing. Cover the pan, walk away, go do some homework. Come back when you can. Just make sure it reaches that thickness at some point.

The anchovy butter is even more simple: Drain and soak a small can of anchovies in water to remove some of the salt, then drain them again. Mash into 2-3 T of softened butter, shape into a lump, and refrigerate. Voila: you have a spectacular condiment and savory cooking addition that can be used for off-kilter, tasty garlic toast and fried eggs. Oh, the miracles of flavored butter…

But back to the cost. This meal for two, which also uses a can of tomatoes, a few olives, anchovies  ($1.39 per can, I believe), and negligible staples such as butter and spices (salt, pepper, garlic, etc.), comes out to only about $3-4 per head (depending on where you shop) when you include sides of zucchini and rice.

Yet, mind you, this is a modified recipe from Larousse Gastronomique, a beloved book of the culinary beaux mondes. Even though you’ll be dining on the cheap with this easy recipe, you can confidently cook and eat this dish with pride.

As to the taste—well, it’s fantastic. The sole foundation remains delicate and light, but carries and counter-balances the salty richness of the thick tomato fondue, the capers, the olives, and the deeply umami crescendo of the melting anchovy butter.

Sound good? Try it out and sea for yourself.

Enjoy.

Sole à la Niçoise

2 filets of sole

1 cup tomato fondue (see above)

2 t anchovy butter (see above)

6 olives

capers 

olive oil

salt and pepper

Pat sole filets dry. Sauté with salt and pepper. Cook on the stove in a heated pan with olive oil on medium heat for 1 minute on each side (filets tend to be thin). Top with heated tomato fondue (one half on each) then three green olives each and a host of capers and juice. Place a 1 t pat of anchovy butter on each and allow to melt while hot.

Serve with sautéed zucchini and rice if possible. Pasta and asparagus are also great accompaniments.

[gourmen]

Senior Year Seafood Feast

Welcome back.

After a summer of testing new recipes apart, and a sad goodbye to one of our key contributors (miss you Asa), the Gourmen are back for our last year of documented good college eats.

And do (or rather, did) we have the seafood feast to kick it off for you.

To us, no food purchasing experience says “welcome back to UNC” more than a [*requisite] trip to Tom Robinson’s in Carrboro for a taste of the N.C. Coast. There, old-style seafood on ice [taken out wrapped in newspaper] is driven in on Thursday and sold by Sunday in a humid shack behind Acme restaurant.

This week got there early Friday, but normally we’re there first thing in the afternoon on Thursdays—that’s when you get the freshest and best deals. Our pickings: a 2.8 pound whole red snapper (this fish was the size of my torso) and two still-kicking soft-shell crabs for a grand total of $40. For seafood that arrived yesterday from the coast, that is a steal, in case you were wondering. And trust us, you’ll taste the difference from previously frozen and imported fish.

Our seafood feast was dual in nature. The soft shells we left to shine on their own, deep fried in cornmeal with just an accent of Old Bay seasoning. Snapper, though, has a clean, but more assertive flavor than most whitefish, but still can use some complementing. Given my tenure close to the fantastic Asian food in Southern California all summer, I looked to that inspiration for a marinade.

Three hours (split evenly for each side) in an aluminum serving tray that was  too small for the fish (it’s tail hung out the side) was all that a mixture of soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, sambal chili paste, minced garlic and green onions needed to perfume the snapper’s flesh with a hint of exoticism. Then, a dusting of flour and a bath in hot peanut oil turned it to a tasty reminder of my tastes of whole fried fish in both New York’s Chinatown and the suburbs of Southern California. The flesh literally fell off the snapper in steaming, flaky chunks as we tore it apart, family-style, from its perch on a tray-sized rice plate.

The soft-shells, tender and with a slight crunch, were sublime as well, but the snapper, topped with a second batch of its marinade after frying so that it could be re-introduced to the flavors, definitely stole the show. Smashed together with a slice of avocado and a clump of rice soaked in the marinade drippings, it created a sensational combination of fatty and acidic, rich and delicate, grain [land] and sea that made small symphonic melodies of flavor ring in each onigiri-like bite.

Though our feast fed just four people for $60 ($15 per head), between leftovers and our miserably full state after, I feel safe in asserting that this restaurant-level dish should cost about $10 per plate (serving 6) in reality. I usually pay $20 and up for similar dishes when eating out, and this was more than comparable to those marked-up plates. Plus, you get the warm fuzzies of buying local, and who can’t help but to savor that?

Needless to say, we’ll be having it again.

Try it out for yourself; we feel confident that you’ll follow in our path.

A UNC-food Feast

(Asian-inspired pan-fried snapper and cornmeal-crusted softshell crabs)

Serves 6

One whole and scaled white-fleshed fish, preferably snapper, weighing 2.5-3 pounds

Two soft-shell crabs

1 bunch of scallions, diced into ¼” thick pieces

6 cloves of garlic, minced

1 c of rice vinegar

1 c of soy sauce

1/3 c Sambal chili paste

4 T honey

¼ c sesame oil

1 c of all-purpose flour

1 c corn meal

1 T plus 2 tsp. of Old Bay seasoning

3 c peanut oil

16 oz. of dry rice (white or brown)

1 avocado, halved, pitted and sliced into roughly 1/8” thin pieces

3 T sesame seeds

Three hours beforehand, combine scallions through sesame oil in a large bowl. Place fish in a tray where it can lay flat. Cover fish with half of the marinade. Let sit for 1.5 hours covered in the refrigerator, then turn it over.

While fish is marinating for the second half, heat two skillets with 1.5 cups of peanut oil (or enough for pan-frying depth) in each to medium-high heat. A dropped in dash of flour should sizzle, but not dramatically so. Also prepare the rice according to manufacturers instructions.

Mix cornmeal and all but 1 teaspoon of Old Bay on one plate, and put the flour on another. Dredge the soft shell crabs in the cornmeal mixture and drop into one pan. Dredge the marinated fish in flour and drop into the other. Cook crabs roughly 4-5 minutes on each side, and the fish, 5-6 minutes on each.

Plate the rice on a large tray and garnish with avocado slices and sesame seeds. Drain seafood on paper towels (and sprinkle remainder of Old Bay on crabs) before plating over top of the rice. Finish the dish with the remainder of the marinade.

Enjoy.

***Though the flesh will mostly flake away (and the skin is the best part), be careful of the small bones on the snapper. The crab, since it’s soft-shell, can be (and should be) eaten whole.

[gourmen]

Fast Fish

At the Gourmen house we are big patron’s of Tom Robinson’s seafood shack in Carrboro, N.C. Every Thursday the store gets in fresh shipments of local, just-out-of-the-water North Carolina seafood that makes our mouths water in pure anticipation of what we’re going to be cooking Thursday night.

We understand, however, that cooking seafood is a daunting process for some, and therefore may not be for everyone. We want to fix that. This post is your guide to the simplest, yet still incredibly delicious, method of preparing perfect seafood dishes out there, inspired by Mark Bittman and the folks at the New York Times’ series of recipe-less meals. 

It will get you fearlessly cooking and eating seafood in no time. 

The method that Bittman and us were both inspired by was the French method of cooking “en papillote,” or in a package. It may seem strange to wrap things in foil or parchment paper and then bake or grill them, but what happens with this method is a two-fold process: 

Firstly, it causes the fish (or whatever you cook in the foil) to steam, thus guaranteeing flaky, fall-apart tenderness. Secondly, it imbibes the food with whatever other ingredients you choose to steam along with it inside the package, thus incorporating flavor additions with a force not common to such a relatively easy and short cooking time. 

^Don’t forget bread to sop up those delicious juices. 

The key to this method, and its result of deliciously done fish, is that if you are going to prepare the foil packages long beforehand (so that you’ll just have to throw them in the oven at another given time), do not add any acidic ingredients (in this recipe, the lemon; in other variations I’ve done, tomatoes) until later because they’ll interact poorly, given time, with the foil. 

The other key is to have fun. This method only takes about 20-30 minutes, so play around with your ingredients to add to the package with the fish and give it your own twist of flavor. I’ve done fish with Texas Pete and butter; fish with crushed tomatoes, cumin and cilantro; and fish with honey, chili powder and garlic. Be bold and enjoy the process of the meal; love to eat it and take pride in your role of having cooked it. 

The cost for this meal depends on the fish you buy. We’ve bought fillets of trigger fish for 4 bucks that would feed two, though the recipe featured in this post was a fillet of monkfish that commanded a “premium” of a dollar or two more (totally worth it—monkfish tastes clean and light like a stone-filtered mountain stream). The other ingredients are essentially negligible in cost; just figure out what you want to serve your fish with, and you’ll have a meal that will impress anyone in about the time it would take you to shower and dress.

Keep us posted on your variations, and enjoy!

Bo’s Monkfish “En Papillote”

2 4 oz. portions of monkfish

3 cloves of garlic, minced

4 preserved lemon slices (or 4 slices of fresh lemon each about 1/4 in. thick)

1/2 tsp. of dried oregano (divided into two 1/4 tsp. portions)

4 T olive oil

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Cut four squares of foil that can wrap around the monkfish portions. Stack 2 and 2 together to make two foil bases. Add 1 T of olive oil to center of each, then lay down a portion of monkfish on each of the oiled centers. Add another tablespoon of olive oil to top of each portion of fish. 

Divide the garlic evenly on top of the fish portions. Add 1/4 tsp. of oregano to each, then salt and pepper (peppering generously). Top each with 2 slices of lemon, then wrap the foil over top of the fish to make a sealed package.

Bake fish for fifteen minutes until fork tender. Serve with a crisp greens salad or freshly sauteed greens with lemon (or whatever you’d like, really).  

[gourmen]

Beeting The Weekend Slump

Lately I’ve been on a smoothie grind. It started last week with my recovery from spring break, during which, to sooth my stomach rendered weak by a week of overindulgence on all fronts, some research into detox ingredients led me to creating this concoction that can cause even the most tortured of stomachs to smile.

Don’t be fooled by the lovely pink color: this isn’t your typical strawberry-banana bullsh*t from a turbinado sugar smoothie bar café, but a veggie and antioxidant-packed powerhouse that will cure your liver of all its indulgent weekend woes, and its color comes from a detox superhero: the humble beet.

Beets, as well as dark, leafy greens like the kale in this smoothie, are known for their detoxifying properties. Yogurt, with live cultures, helps restore a healthy bacteria balance in your gut, and also beefs up the smoothie’s protein content. I add protein powder for sweetness and an even higher content, but if you aren’t a weightlifter or aren’t keen on protein powder, you can leave that out or add some natural, sugar-free peanut butter to the mix to make the smoothie all the more complete in its nutritional value. The optional addition of a 1/4 cup of raw oats, by the way, can give your body fiber to help its cleaning out of toxins that may remain in your bloodstream and gut. 

By leaving out refined sugars (I use an all-natural, organic protein powder sweetened with Stevia, though you could alternatively use bittersweet cocoa powder mixed with honey or maple syrup to get sweetness), as well as non-proactive culture dairy (i.e. normal milk) and processed ingredients, this smoothie will allow you to streamline your body’s process—specifically your liver and your gut’s processes—of cleaning and restoring itself with healthy and helpful compounds.

What’s great about this smoothie, other than its power-packing of nutrients and benefits, is its splendid, refreshing taste and its VERY low cost. A strawberry-banana bullsh*t blast at some trendy smoothie bar is bound to set you back around five bucks or so. This smoothie, in the cost of all of its ingredients, is less than 2 dollars if you leave out the protein powder, and right around 2.50 if you leave it in. Now that, to us, is a win on all counts.

Give it a day or two of these after your weekend funsies, and you’ll be feeling right as rain in no time, or make them your breakfast for a morning boost.

But don’t get too excited by their possibilities (for we do promise that they will really make you feel great)—the weekend is the weekend for a reason, man. 

Beet Detox Smoothie

1/2 of a beet

1 1/2 cups unpacked kale (better to freeze it beforehand for texture)

2/3 c yogurt

1/4 almond or soy milk

1 scoop all-natural, organic chocolate protein powder

*optional: sub-out 1 tsp. bittersweet cocoa and 1 1/2 T honey or maple syrup to sweeten instead of protein powder. Alternatively, you could  add 1 T of peanut butter instead of the cocoa to keep up the protein content. 

*also optional: 1/4 c of raw rolled oats

Combine all ingredients in a blender or Vitamix until thoroughly mixed, using a few pauses and scraping down the sides with a spoon to ensure an ideal, smooth texture.

[gourmen]

Asparagus for Us

The weather is warming; the long snow days are done. Spring is here, and with it, it’s most quintessential vegetable: asparagus.

I get excited just thinking about the two together. 

One of my most poignant memories of food was walking through Paris during asparagus season in the spring: gleaming from the carte du jour of each bistro I passed was the proud announcement of freshly-in asperges and the dishes to be built around them (my favorite was the simple classic of tender white asparagus in a browned butter sauce) for the day. Escoffier was obsessed with them; The Belly of Paris, the market of Les Halles, was partially defined (somewhat do to Zola’s book named after it) from its status as the place where Parisians bought their asparagus. Asparagus and culinary lore go hand-in-hand. 

I didn’t trust myself enough to replicate the simple perfection of white asparagus in browned butter as I had it in France when warm weather and a hunger for the vegetable came a-calling, but I did feel comfortable enough with a Vitamix and a healthy amount of non-browned butter to craft this soup.

This quick, one-person recipe will take you about 15-20 minutes of total time, from sautéing the asparagus and peas to heating the soup, and barely costs two dollars worth of ingredients, if even that. The only keys to getting it right are a heavy peppering hand and some ideal crusty bread to mop up the thick soup.

Warning, by the way: if you expect a smooth puree, asparagus is fibrous and therefore this soup has a thicker, more fibrous texture than you would expect. If it doesn’t suit your fancy, then just blend at a higher speed for longer time, and you should be good. Just be careful that it doesn’t beat air into the eggs!

PS: Many photo credits to the lovely Isabel Hagood.

Asparagus and Pea Soup

Serves 1:

20-25 stalks of asparagus, bottoms trimmed off

1/4 green peas (frozen or fresh)

2.5 T butter

2/3 c European yogurt

1 egg

1/8 c milk

2 T balsamic vinegar

1.5 t garlic powder

1 t onion powder

1 t red pepper flakes

salt and pepper

Place 2 T in sauté pan. Sauté asparagus and peas with half of garlic powder, half of the onion powder, and salt and pepper on medium heat for 3-4 minutes, then cover with lid and steam until tender (5 minutes or so).

In a blender or Vitamix, add the yogurt, egg and milk. When asparagus and peas are done steaming, add all of pan plus juices to yogurt, egg and milk. Blend on low to medium until ingredients are all blended together, with there still being chunks or shreds of asparagus in the mix. 

Add the blended soup to a small sauce pan along with balsamic vinegar, the rest of the garlic and onion powders, and the salt and pepper flakes. Mix and heat to a simmer for 2-3 minutes, then reduce to serving temperature. Salt and pepper to taste. 

[gourmen]

Peanut Butter Jelly Time

There's something beautifully nostalgic about the perfect peanut butter and jelly sandwich, something that takes me back to bagged lunches, recess, and nap time...things I no longer have but could definitely use.

Now that we’re grown-ups, I feel that to indulge in that nostalgia is healthy, and to do it, there’s nothing more appropriate than a grown-up PB&J to match our ages. We've got to treat ourselves, after all.

Here's the lowdown on the Gourmen’s [Grown-up] Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich, which uses high quality ingredients like our local favorite of Big Spoon Roaster’s nut butter, to up the ante on a humble childhood classic.

Ingredients:

Two slices of your choice of bread (I prefer some fresh sourdough)

Big Spoon Roasters Espresso Nut Butter (regular peanut butter and/or any other nut butter works too)

Super fruit spread (any type of jelly, jam, or preserves, really)

1/2 banana sliced (optional)

Soft butter

Steps:

Begin heating a skillet on medium heat

Spread equal amounts of peanut butter and jelly on one side of separate slices of bread

Slice banana thinly (like banana chips)

Evenly distribute slices of banana on the bread with the jelly

Sandwich the two pieces of bread together and spread a generous amount of butter on top

Melt about a tablespoon of butter on the skillet, until golden brown

Place butter-less side of PB&J on skillet

After about 2 minutes (depending on how hot your skillet is) flip the PB&J when bottom side.

When both sides are crispy and golden brown serve on plate and cut in have as you wish (nostalgia points for triangles)

Enjoy! 

*The espresso nut butter is extremely beneficial for the morning - giving you just the right amount of caffeine to kick-start your day!

[gourmen]

Cheapo steakhouse: Coffee-rubbed short ribs dinner.

Part of the greatest challenge in maintaining an affordable food budget without sacrificing quality is the usage of meat. Grass-fed orpasture-raised anything can mean, for some, an unreasonable price premium—but that’s only if you go for the primo cuts. This post is on one of the humbler slices.

The short rib is typically a stew or braise-worthy cut, tenderized best in acidic sauces over long periods of heat until it falls off the bone. For this recipe we wet-rubbed and pan-fried it rare for a steak/pork chop-like quality. To do this right, the keys to keeping the cut tender are: A) Rubbing the short ribs beforehand to let the salt do some magic and get the flavors in and B) not cooking them past rare.

The accompanying milk gravy moistens up the meat, too, and with a scoop of the mashed sweet potatoes we suggest as an accompaniment to each bite, there is little more you could want from this cheap of a beefy, flavor-loaded cut.

The hard parts of this meal are the care for the cut we discussed above and the working of a roux for the gravy. When whisking the flour into the hot fat and butter left in the skillet (with some more butter added, of course) to make the gravy, make sure to whisk constantly and cook to a blonde color before adding the milk for a nice, toasty flavor. Also make sure to continue whisking when incorporating the roux into the liquid once the milk is added to avoid chunks.

When the notes of coffee in the dry rub mingle with the sweetness of the maple addition in the gravy and the sweet potatoes’ luscious caramel flavor, this becomes a unique savory-sweet hybrid that will make your taste buds go wild.

^Pre-gravy coating

For two people, between the Brussels sprouts, mashed sweet potatoes and short ribs, this meal ran probably ran about 7 bucks per person with leftover sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts (if you don’t stuff yourself like us). We went all out for a pound of short ribs that were local, pasture-raised and grass-fed (courtesy of our ever-awesome local co-op, Weaver Street Market); made sure to use organic sweet potatoes; and added bacon fat to the Brussels sprouts and this meal still stayed within that budget.

When a meal of this type would usually cost you over 20 or even 30 dollars in most restaurants, we find this to be one hell of a deal. Add on the amazing taste, and we’ll take our cheapo steakhouse nine times out of ten.

While this isn’t exactly the healthiest feast, we think it’s a delicious and warming way to say goodbye to the winter. We think you will, too.

Cheapo Steakhouse Meal for Two

Coffee-Rubbed Short Ribs with Maple Milk Gravy

Short Ribs:

1 pound bone-in short ribs

1 T fine ground coffee

½ tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp paprika

½ tsp onion powder

1 T salt

1 tsp black pepper

2 T honey

2 T olive oil

2 ½ T of butter

Maple Milk Gravy:

1 ½ T butter

3 T all purpose flour

1 c low fat or whole milk

1/8 c maple syrup

salt and pepper to taste

Two-six hours beforehand, the longer the better, mix all short rib ingredients but short ribs and butter into a gritty paste. Rub over short ribs on both sides and chill, covered in a dish with foil, in fridge until ready to prepare.

Preheat a cast iron skillet or other, deep sauté pan on medium-high heat. Add butter and melt till sizzling. Add short ribs and cook 2 minutes on each side, searing sides, too, if extra thick. Remove from skillet and set on plate.

In reserve fat, add the butter for the gravy and melt. Reduce heat to medium and add the flour and whisk into melted butter, then cook until slightly blonde (1 minute). Add milk and whisk constantly to incorporate the roux. Add maple syrup and continue whisking. Salt and pepper (use the pepper liberally) and continue to reduce on a simmer on medium-high heat until it achieves a gravy-like consistency.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

2 large or 3 medium sweet potatoes

1 ½ T butter

½ cup low fat or whole milk

¼ plain yogurt

*salt and pepper (to taste)

Boil potatoes for 20-30 minutes until fork tender. Mash with remaining ingredients and salt and pepper to taste.

Bacon Fat Brussels Sprouts

1 small bag frozen or fresh Brussels sprouts

1 ½ T bacon fat (or butter, or 2 pieces of bacon*)

2 T vinegar

½ tsp cayenne pepper

salt and pepper to taste

Heat bacon fat in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add Brussels sprouts and cayenne, salt and pepper and cook until slightly seared. Add vinegar and continue to cook until liquid all but evaporates.

*If using 2 pieces of bacon, cook bacon with a small amount of oil or butter in the pan until crispy. Remove from pan, leaving the fat to cook the Brussels sprouts. Add the bacon, crumbled, to the Brussels sprouts once they are served.

[gourmen]

My Cousin Vinny: NYC food meets Southern grits

“If God created anything better than this, he kept it for himself.” – Anthony Bourdain on Barney Greengrass’ scrambled eggs with lox and onions in New York City.

Those that know me understand my deep love of New YorkCity’s Jewish appetizing store cuisine: bagels, lox, bialys, Nova lox, chopped liver, whitefish salad…I could list them on and on with watery eyes, staring northward. A past post of ours was about my birthday present of overnighted smoked tuna and other appetizing store wares from Russ and Daughters, and if that gets your fancy as much is it did mine, here is another post of the same theme, this time one about our own creation.

A weekend visit to Asheville, N.C., is what gave the Gourmen the chutzpah to combine smoked salmon and grits for this recipe. We heard that local bakery Farm and Sparrow had bialys that beat out those of New York, and when we left Asheville with a bag of their hand-milled grits in our hands, a vision of a Southern spin on New York City’s Jewish cuisine came like divine intervention —we were going to make the Barney Greengrass classic of lox and eggs…and then we were going to put it over cheese grits.

Challenging New York City’s bagel supremacy—unless you’re Montreal (shout out to our friend Adele’s killer homemade bagels)—is a dubious endeavor. But Farm and Sparrow’s grits come from heirloom corn and are milled by hand by David Bauer—and, even more so than most Southern grits, they are to die for.

This meal can be more affordable if the luxury items we used are scaled back—though even with them this was fairly affordable still. While using gourmet cheeses and duck eggs, our meal ran about 6-7 bucks per plate (I'd hate to imagine the cost in a restaurant). Using a decent cheddar and normal eggs instead, this would approach closer to the 5 buck-per-person range.

Duck eggs, in our defense, are a more luxurious version of the humble, yet divine, egg. They have a far more buttery texture and slightly gamey taste that can enliven any meal in place of their typical counterparts. If you’re willing, we’d highly encourage you to try them.

There’s no real key to this meal other than not getting the grits too hot and burning them. A heavy peppering hand and ample time to cook the onions to tender and slightly burnt loveliness can help, too.

This meal is an example of how separate regional cuisines can merge to make a beautiful thing. Perhaps soon we’ll see more than Farm and Sparrow's contentious bialys emerge in the South.

For me, though, I just want to find a bagel on par with Ess-A.

As we were eating this dish, all I could think of was how it embodied the storied scene from My Cousin Vinny, as Joe Pesci squawks in his Newark-born accent:

"Were these magic grits? I mean, did you buy them from the same guy who sold Jack his beanstalk beans?"

I'm beginning to think we did.

Enjoy.

Scrambled Eggs With Smoked Salmon and Onions Over Grits

Serves 2

4 oz. smoked salmon, chopped

1/4 sweet vidalia onion, sliced thinly

2 duck eggs and 2 eggs (or 4 normal eggs)

1/2 cup of stone-ground yellow grits

1 T oil or butter

4 oz. of cheese of choice (we used an even combo of Taleggio and Port Salut)

1 slice of preserved lemon, minced (optional)

1/2 t of cayenne

1 T Dijon or spicy brown mustard

Salt and pepper

Put 2 cups of salted water and the oil on the stove and bring to a boil. Add the grits and bring back to a boil, then reduce to medium-low heat and continue to cook for 25-30 minutes with a lid, making sure to stir occasionally. With about 5-10 minutes left, add cheese, a liberal amount of pepper and the cayenne and stir in to melt. With about 3 minutes left lower heat slightly and stir in one of the eggs. Salt and pepper to taste.

While the grits cook, saute the onions on medium low heat in about 2 tablespoons of oil and a dash of salt for 10 minutes minimum. Beat together 2 duck eggs and one normal egg with the salt, pepper, lemon and mustard. Raise the onion pan heat to medium high and scramble until halfway done. Add the smoked salmon and continue to scramble until eggs are fully cooked. Use them to top the grits and enjoy.

[gourmen]

Sweet potato waffles (or pancakes...dealer's choice).

Winter has come to Chapel Hill in a snowy layer of whiteand icy winds. During this time, I subscribe to the following philosophy: nights are best spent with company and hot cocoa or cider, the afternoons outside in the snow and, lastly, when it comes to the mornings, “I’m making waffles.”

Vermonters, Canadians, upstate New Yorkers and other Northeastern habitants have long been characterized by their sage application of maple syrup and hot, buttery pancakes and waffles to deter the cold. Tuesday’s morning and the chill of leaving my comforter cocoon told me to follow their lead. It turned out the whole Gourmen house had the same idea, and it took no time for them to be in on it, too.

We’ve already talked this week about the humble sweet potato, and with this recipe the magical tuber delivered us yet another tasty miracle. When baked, mashed and incorporated into our almond meal-based batter, it makes a far cakier and more dense waffle with caramel, earthy overtones. It adds some healthy fiber, along with the almond meal, to make for a healthier morning indulgence, and cuts down on the amount of added sugar—though we took a cue from our Northern brethren and subbed in maple syrup in our batter, anyways—you’ll need for the waffle batter and topping, too.

Plus, as we said before, since North Carolina is the country’s top sweet tattie producer. Rep the home state and use it.

The ingredients will likely run you a grand total of about $5 for about 10 waffles (it really depends on the size of your waffle iron). Sweet potatoes are cheap, flour is cheap, eggs are cheap and so is the small amount of milk you’ll use. Almond meal is the most expensive item for this recipe, and in the end you’ll only be using a little over two cups of that.

Devin liked topping his waffle with Greek yogurt, walnuts and maple syrup for a protein boost. Me, I sometimes prefer crunchy (sugar-less) peanut butter and a drizzle of honey, but with these, the classic maple syrup and butter combo hit just the right spot. Alongside the caramelly sweetness and hints of toasted almonds in the waffles, little could have beeen more perfect on a cold, snowy morning.

For those that don’t have a waffle iron: this batter, when cooked, is cakey enough to make pancakes as well. We’re equal opportunists. 

Enjoy.

Sweet Potato Waffles (or pancakes…dealer’s choice)

5 small or 3 medium-sized sweet potatoes

2 c almond meal, plus 3-4 T for reserve

1 c all-purpose flour

1 ½ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 c 2 percent or whole milk

1 ½ T melted butter

¼ c plus 2 T maple syrup

Cooking spray

Ahead of time, bake sweet potatoes 40-45 minutes on 400°F in oven until a fork or knife can poke into them like soft butter. Remove flesh from skins and mash. Let cool to roughly room temperature.

Whisk together the flour, almond meal (minus the reserve), baking soda, salt, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice.

Mix eggs, maple syrup, melted butter, milk and maple syrup together in a separate bowl. Add dry ingredients and mix to a smooth batter. Add in mashed sweet potatoes and mix to remove all chunks. If the batter appears too watery, add some of the reserve almond meal.

Preheat the waffle iron. Spray with cooking spray. Cook waffles too a deep amber, orange-tinted hue. They won’t be very crispy, but incredibly cake-like and soft.

Serve with warmed butter and pure maple syrup.

*Photo help credit to Isabel Hagood

[gourmen]

We want that (butter-less, flourless, chocolate) cake, cake, cake, cake...

We hate to abuse proverbial clichés, but when it comes to indulgence, you can definitely have your cake and eat it, too.

This weekend the Gourmen made a Valentine’s Day cake with no butter, no flour and relatively little added sugar—and it was damn good. 

^Photos courtesy of the cake's honorable recipient: Isabel Hagood

The key, it turns out, to a moist and fudgy cake without butter comes from none other than the Gourmen house staple of the humble sweet potato. When boiled, mashed and used as the backbone of this cake, it adds a sweetness and density that makes for a fudgy, delicious treat that won’t make you miss the glorious luxury of butter at all.

And, considering that North Carolina is the country’s number one sweet potato producing state, we find this treat a celebration of local flavors, too.

The addition of almond meal (which added extra nutritional value through fiber and protein) allowed the cake to still work while being flourless and, therefore, made it gluten-free (hate to jump on this bus again, but figured we’d let you know), too.

Those features aside, here are the only things you have to worry about when making this recipe, though it honestly is a relatively easy process:

1)   Make sure to allow the mashed sweet potatoes to cool adequately before adding the egg yolks and egg to them. If you don’t heed this advice your eggs will start to cook beforehand (scrambled egg mush is what you’ll end up with).

2)   Removing the potato skins. Skins in this recipe will make the cake chunk-filled and fibrous.

3)   Whipping the egg whites with a dirty beater/whisk. Simple cooking knowledge—they will not rise if there’s any yolk in them.

4)   Over-mixing at the end. You want to gently fold in those whites, or else you’ll end up having pushed out all that air you work so hard to incorporate.

5)   Not using a double boiler to melt the chocolate. The emulsified chocolate will come apart without gentle heating.

For this recipe, we’re liberally estimating a total food cost of about $8 for the entire cake. Sweet potatoes are cheap and you’ll only need a few of them for the recipe. Eggs are inexpensive as well. The only really costly things are the almond meal (which you’ll only use a cup of) and the dark chocolate for the ganache frosting.

Considering that this cake fed 10 people at our house (it’s very rich) and a few people got multiple slices, we think $8 for this healthier, delicious and luxurious dessert makes for a killer meal.

Chocolate Sweet Potato Cake (adapted from The Vegetarian Times)

1 c sugar (divided in half)

1 c mashed sweet potato (skins removed and cooled)

1 c almond meal

1 c sweetened cocoa powder

4 large eggs

3.25 oz. dark chocolate (about one large bar, preferably 70 percent cocoa)

4 T whole or 2 percent milk

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Divided the yolks and whites of three of the eggs.

Place sweet potato, ½ cup of sugar, cocoa powder, almond meal, three egg yolks and the final, whole egg in a food processor or blender. Mix until fully combined, being sure to scrape down sides. You don’t want any chunks of potato by the end.

In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites until light and airy. They should lift and form slight peaks. Add remaining ½ cup of sugar to egg whites and whip further until the whites lift and hold slightly more.

Gently fold the egg white mixture into the sweet potato mixture. Pour into a greased cast iron skillet or other pan and bake for about 40 minutes, or until a fork or toothpick prodded in the center comes out clean.

To ice the cake (it will sag slightly in center), place dark chocolate in a double boiler (bring a small amount of water to a boil in a medium saucepan and place another metal bowl over top of the saucepan, making sure to not allow its bottom to touch the water) and melt, stirring consistently. Incorporate milk into the mixture, stirring to combine. Ice the sunken center of cake with the ganache.

Before serving, warm cake in a 200°F oven for 5-10 minutes.

Enjoy.

[gourmen]

Spring roll up.

Spring rolls aren’t your typical homemade college lunch, but we don’t understand why—not only are they easy, they’re freaking amazing.

After all, they’re goddam mini-burritos.

Ingredients are the key to good spring rolls, and I suggest you get as creative as you want with all of your favorite raw/chilled veggies, meats and sauces. I enjoy getting adventurous and trying other things like fruits, cheeses, raw fish and other savory items in my rolls, too.

So, first point being: these are really your canvas to play with.

For this inspired roll I used a filling of fresh vegetables, Toscano cheese and wild herring and a topping drizzle of homemade peanut sauce. The ingredients in this photo, plus the herring (not pictured) cost a total of about $4 and will yield 3-4 PHAT wraps, all of which will have a killer flavor-packed punch.

The hardest ingredient to find will be the rice paper. Most grocery stores carry them, however; look for them in the international isle. We got ours from Li Ming’s grocery in Durham, which, if you have the time, is most definitely worth a foodie field trip for some new and different flavors.                              

Once you have the ingredients you want laid out and your sauces ready to go. It is now time to soak your rice paper. This will soften it in preparation for wrapping. Let it soak in room temp water for 30-45 seconds ( time varies, the warmer the water, the less time you want to soak). You want it to turn into a slightly firm but jello-like sheet.

Next place the soaked paper onto a clean plate or prep station, and it’s time to pile on your desired fillings.

The wrapping method can be difficult, but here’s my little trick: 

Let the wrap sit and slightly air dry after removing it from the water. This allows it to firm up a little and become more sticky and self-adhesive. 

Now you can wrap it just like you would a burrito. If you need any help with burrito wrapping or want to get really fancy with it, just let me know and I’ll write up a post.         

Your end product should end up looking like this:

Remember to have fun with the process and add in some random sauces and items to keep your palette excited each time you make these.I added cream cheese and smoked salmon to one the other day and it was like the morning after passover. Conventional? No. Delicious? Absolutely.

Let us know of your spring roll inventions, and be sure to post them in reply!