Live Blogging Chew Chew Fest...See Blurt!

Hey there...I'm down on the Burlington Waterfront at Chew Chew Fest doing some live blogging of everything I eat. Check it out on Blurt!

Vermont's First Annual Jr. Iron Chef!

Tomorrow, at the Champlain Valley Expo in Essex, 30 teams of Vermont youth will go head to head to find out "whose cuisine will reign supreme."  Although there's no "secret ingredient," the youngsters were tasked with creating localvore dishes that can easily be replicated in a school cafeteria. Given that it's barely spring and the growing season is just beginning, this isn't as easy as it sounds.

The middle school competition will happen Saturday morning, while the high schoolers will compete in the early afternoon (I'm the head judge for the high school competition). Attending is really inexpensive, $2.50 for individuals and $5 for a family, and the money raised benefits the Burlington School Food Project and VT FEED. There's also gonna be a few food vendors, maple sugar on snow and live music.

You won't find Molto Mario or Cat Cora there, but there are going to be a few local celebs, such as Kathy O'Brien (of Survivor fame), Mark Bove, Anson Tebbetts (Deputy Secretary of Agriculture) and farmer/legislator Will Stevens. The M.C. will be Chairman Sean Buchanan, executive chef for Stowe Mountain Lodge.

It's for a good cause and it should be fun. Hope to see you there!

Chocolate and Scallops? Yeah Baby!

Didn't have the romantic, Valentine's Day dinner of your dreams? You can make up for it on March 5.

On that evening, Chef Aaron Millon of Montpelier's Restaurant Phoebe is teaming up with Nutty Steph -- the famous granola maker who recently added a chocolate factory to her business -- to present a 7-course chocolate pairing menu.

What the heck is a chocolate pairing? Think cocoa-dusted sea scallops with a coconut and potato "pave" and a rich elk steak with a chocolate-hazelnut glaze and sweet potato and cranberry risotto. Talk about swoon-worthy...and that's just two of the courses!

Alongside the savory stuff, of course, is dessert: hot "triple chocolate" with espresso crème, and white chocolate ice cream with passion fruit foam.

The evening promises to be playful, delicious and sensual, and completely out of the ordinary. I made a reservation as soon as I heard about it, so if you attend, make sure to stop by and say hello. I'll be the girl with the huge, goofy grin on her face...But I might not be the only one.

The meal is $55 a person, or $80 if you want the optional wine pairing, which includes five matching quaffs. Open seating begins at 5 p.m. Call 262-3500 for reservations.

 

 

Free Hot Chocolate Tasting at Lake Champlain Chocolates

Recently, Good Housekeeping Magazine sampled 19 different dark chocolate hot chocolates and declared the All-Natural Old World Drinking Chocolate from Lake Champlain Chocolates in Burlington the "clear winner." Sweet!

This Saturday, they'll be hosting one of their free hot chocolate tastings from 12 - 4, and it will include the winning drink as well as their Organic and Aztec versions.

Attendees will be treated to music by the multi-talented Robert Resnick, who is also a mycologist, VPR host and writer. And he's the librarian responsible for the awesome culinary collection at Fletcher Free.

Another special feature: Chocolate-covered strawberries, which are only available around V-day.

* Photo from the Lake Champlain Chocolates website

Calabrian Tasting Menu at L'Amante

Last Thursday, D. and I went to the first of L'Amante's special regional dinners. Here's a snippet about these dinners from my Side Dishes column:

"It's a good time for lovers of Italian cuisine. For the fifth year in a row, the well-traveled folks at L'Amante will help diners survive the coldest weeks of winter by offering them samples of food from sunnier climes. Each week, from January 14 through February 21, Chef Kevin Cleary will create a three-course menu to showcase the specialties of a particular Italian region. This year he's featuring Calabria, Trentino, Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont and Tuscany. Dinners are $35 a person, with optional wine pairing, and are only available on week nights. Valentine's Day week is an exception: L'Amante will revert to its regular menu for the occasion."

The meal began with a trio of crisp, deep-fried eggplant balls in a spicy tomato sauce (tomatoes are used in many Calabrian dishes). The sauce was an excellent accompaniment, and the whole was lovely and flavorful.

Next up: orecchiette with broccoli rabe. Bitter foods are tough for me to handle, and broccoli rabe is pretty bitter. However, the pasta had a great texture and the rabe was a fetching bright green. And I still managed to eat the whole thing.

Our final dish was roast pork with fennel stuffing served with mashed potatoes and spinach. The pork was perfect: amazingly brown and crisp on the outside but cooked just right in the middle. The sides were delicious, too. This one definitely blew us away!

Can't wait 'til the next one!

Bove's vs. Bobby Flay: Lasagna Throwdown (Updated)

I mentioned this before the holidays, but thought I'd "throw" it out there again...

The Food Network will air its lasagna throwdown, in which Bobby Flay is pitted against Mark Bove of Bove's, a few more times over the next couple weeks. They are:

February 2 at 4 p.m.
February 14 at 8:30 p.m.
February 15 at 3:30 a.m.
March 15 at 9:30 p.m.
March 16 at 12:30 a.m.

Watch 'em sling sauce and nosh on noodles as they crown the king of lasagna...Fun stuff. If you want to make the pasta dish yourself, Bove's has Nonna Victoria's Lasagna recipe on their website, but you'll need to purchase a couple bags of Bove's brand meatballs and two jars of their sauce to follow it. Clever, eh?

You can also read more about the Throwdown on the Bove's Blog.

Montpelier Winter Farmers' Market

Today I had the pleasure of stopping by Montpelier's Winter Farmers' Market. What on earth do farmers and other food producers sell during the winter? A plethora of root vegetables, tubers and squash, artisan cheeses, all kinds of natural and organic meats, wool, pickles, jam, and more.

The crowded market was in one of the Vermont College buildings, and featured a band in addition to the vendors and crafters. Very cool!

I acquired a leg of lamb, a package of fresh chorizo, some country-style spareribs, a jar of "tongue pickles" (which are really made from cucumbers) and four kinds of artisan cheese. I didn't buy any produce because my CSA share supplies plentiful quantities of all the winter veggies I desire.

The market takes place the first Saturday of every winter month from 10 until 2. You can get more information about all of Vermont's winter markets here.

Christmas Eve Menu

Phew...the holiday season, and all of the feasting that goes with it, is almost over. The first special meal I had over the last couple of weeks was an excellent Christmas Eve repast at my father's house. Here's the menu:

~ Bacon topped mushroom soup
~ Homemade Parker House rolls
~ Jasper Hill Farm's Constant Bliss
~ Oysters Casino
~ Braciole
~ Risotto
~ Zabaglione with berries and pound cake

The mushroom soup was really, really good...I'll see if he's willing to share the recipe for a future post.

Did you have an exciting holiday dinner? I'd love to hear about it if you did.

Happy Birthday to Kismet (It's a Party!)

The lovely ladies at Kismet are throwing a party tomorrow, beginning at 5 p.m., to celebrate their 1 year anniversary. In addition to Alanna and Crystal's tapas-style treats and yummy drinks, there will be a bunch of cool food producers handing out samples of their products.

The full text  of their press release is below...

"After one full year and nearly 8000 meals served, Kismet of 207 Barre street, Montpelier, Vermont, will roll out the red carpet and throw their very own Birthday Bash. Kismet Owners, Alanna Dorf and Crystal Maderia, plan to transform the tiny breakfast/brunch space, for one evening, to mark the first anniversary of their new restaurant and successful catering business.

“ This party gives us an opportunity to connect with our restaurant customers, neighbors, and catering clients alike. Many people still don’t know we’re here and many have tried either our restaurant menu or have experienced our catering, but few have sampled both”, Says Crystal Maderia. “We have a great thing happening here,” says Alanna Dorf, in regards to their local foods menu and personal relationships with their customers and employees, “and it’s exciting every time a person comes in and says ’wow!, I’ve never been here before.’ We made it through our first year, and it’s time to celebrate with our regulars while opening our doors to people who have been wanting to check out what we’re all about.”

Restaurant regulars and catering clients will enjoy samplings of Kismet favorites, like their dandelion lattes, hot chocolate, and even a variety of their house made butters to take home, as well as an eclectic assortment of creative tapas that Kismet will feature on their catering menu. In addition, guests will be able to meet with and sample products from other local food producers featured on the kismet menu. Nutty Stef’s Granola, La Strada Bakery, Red Hen Bakery, Awake Coffee, Jasper Hill cheese company, Butterworks Farm, Winding Brook Farm, Vermont Foods Distributors, Patchwork Farm and Bakery, and local farmers will be joining the kismet staff in celebrating the business’s first year.

“We never really had a ‘Grand Opening’,” say’s Crystal, “maybe because our opening has been more gradual- like a slow unfolding…As we get more comfortable, more used to this whole endeavor, we open up more and more while at the same time learning how to maintain our own personal bounderies and the well-being of the business. The mark of our first year is really big for us. We both have given so much to this business, and the business has given to us both in such an intimate way. We are ready to celebrate that, and can do so with a confidence we didn’t have a year ago.”

“December 21 marks the shortest and darkest day of the year” remarks Alanna in regards to their one year anniversary and the date of their open house celebration, “and is a perfect example of what we do here. We are constantly trying to make more out of less, make things brighter, to find balance and to stay connected to what is happening in the world around us”. The red carpet will be rolled out on December 21, and doors will open at 5:00 pm.

Garrett Oliver at The Daily Planet

If there is anybody who deserves the title "American  Beer God," it's probably Garrett Oliver. He's the brewmaster and Vice President of New York's Brooklyn Brewery, sits on beer-judging panels and authored The Brewmaster's Table, an authoritative tome on pairing beer and food. Last Sunday, I was lucky enough to hear him speak at the Daily Planet's third beer and food pairing (they're doing them regularly, these days).

I first heard Oliver give a talk during a beer 'n' cheese pairing at
the American Cheese Society conference in Burlington last summer. There, I was introduced to the argument that beer is actually a better accompaniment to food than wine is. Why? Beer-o-philes say that that caramelized, roast-y flavors that come from malt and the bitter, bright notes courtesy of hops, match up well with the flavors in foods that we eat (and that the yeasty, fruity qualities of wine don't do so quite as well). Plus, the "scrubbing bubbles," as Oliver jokingly referred to them, help to refresh the palate.

Last Sunday, after attendees milled around sipping Brooklyn Local 1 -- an ale that is re-fermented in the bottle (like Champagne) -- and sampling a trio of Vermont cheeses -- Vermont Ayr from Crawford Family Farm, Constant Bliss from Jasper Hill Farm and Bonne Bouche from Vermont Butter & Cheese , we settled at our tables to listen to Oliver talk a bit about beer, with the wit of a culinary comedian. His first point: That the "beer" produced in the United States before the craft brewing movement doesn't even qualify as beer. "It's not made of the stuff that beer is made of. It's not made how beer is made," he opined. Same thing goes for the real bread vs. the supermarket stuff, and American "cheese" that is only 80% milk. "Cheese is 100% milk," said Oliver, "Kraft Singles are plastic."

And then it was time for the meal. Here's the menu:

~ Tuna tartare with sesame lemongrass dressing; Lager   

~ Spicy gazpacho, guacamole and a baked-chicken taquito; East India Pale Ale

~ Moroccan Lamb Tagine; Brown Ale

~ Ancho Chile Dusted Molten Chocolate Cake; Black Chocolate Stout

The tagine was my favorite dish that evening -- it was complex, meaty and sweet -- and I'm a huge fan of the Local 1 and the Brown Ale, but my favorite pairing was the spicy gazpacho with the I.P.A. The "hot" soup and the citrus-y bitterness of the beer worked really well together.

I'm definitely sold on this beer pairing thing.

Spanish Cheese Tasting at UVM

Last night, I attended a really interesting Spanish cheese tasting and wine pairing event at UVM, hosted by the University's Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese (VIAC). What made it so interesting? Two things: 1) There were several experts from Spain present. 2) I'd never tasted a single one of the selections we tried. 

One expert from Spain was Dr. Montserrat Almena-Aliste, who is also on the VIAC staff -- I took her course in "Sensory Evaluation of Food" when I was doing my self-designed B.A. in interdisciplinary food studies back in the day. The others were Dr. Francisco Pérez Elortondo and Alfonso Zamora. There were a few local cheese whizzes there as well: Dr. Paul Kindstedt, author of American Farmstead Cheese, Jeff Roberts, author of the Atlas of American Artisan Cheese, and Willow Smart from Willow Hill Farm.

After we mingled and snacked on treats such as piquillo peppers, marinated mushrooms, Serrano ham and poached pears, servers delivered each attendee a plate with generous portions of the seven chosen cheeses. Each cheese was introduced by one of the experts, who made sure to relay where the variety of cheese is made and how it's produced. Then, everybody in the room cut, chewed and sipped in unison.

This is what we tried:

~ Nevat, a snowy white, soft-ripened cheese goat cheese from Catalunya. Paired with a white wine called Don Olagario Albarino.
~ Pata Cabra, a washed rind goat cheese from Zaragosa. Same wine pairing as above.
~ Idiazbal, a lightly smoked sheep cheese made in the Basque Country. Paired with a red wine called Scala Dei Negre.
~ Garrotza, a semi-hard goat cheese with a distinctive, silvery-purple rind from Catalan.
Same wine pairing as above.
~San Simon, a very soft and smooth smoked cow's-milk cheese from Galicia. Professor Almena pointed out that there is so little artisanally produced San Simon that the entire stash is consumed in Spain. This version is commercially produced. Same wine pairing as above.
~Zamorano, a tangy sheep cheese with a zig-zag pattern on the rind (similar to Manchego), from Castile-Leon. Paired with a very nice red called Bodegas Roda Roda.
~Valdeon, a strong cow's-milk blue cheese that is wrapped in Sycamore and Maple, from Cabrales. Same wine pairing as above.

I can't say which cheese is my favorite, as they were all new to me and were completely different from each other. I definitely enjoyed the Pata Cabra and funky Zamorano quite a bit, as well as the Valdeon. And it was fun to share my impressions with those at my table and to hear what some serious cheese-heads had to say about each one. Another neat aspect: seeing how the different wines "played" with each cheese. Very cool.

Farmers' Dinner at the Kitchen Table Bistro

I had an incredible dessert on Monday. It was a dense, moist, maple-y apple cake called made by Lara Atkins at The Kitchen Table Bistro in Richmond. I don't have much of a sweet tooth, so it's rare for me to fall in love with a last course, but this one did the trick.

I was at the KTB for a "Farmers' Dinner." Throughout each summer and fall, the Vermont Fresh Network teams up with restaurants and farmers for this series of special meals. Most are multi-course fixed price deals, and involve supping on whatever local meats, cheeses and produce are available at that time of year. Most of the restaurants also offer optional wine pairings with dinner.

 

Most restaurants have only one Farmers' Dinner each year, but the KTB's first one, on November 14, sold out so quickly that they added a second one on the 26th. And that one sold out, too!

Here's the menu:

Treats from the Kitchen; Gruet Winery's Blanc de Noirs Sparkling

The treats included smoked chicken salad with cranberry and honey coulis, Yukon gold (I think) potato chips topped with beef tartare, bacon & blue cheese fritters and apple & cheddar fritters. All were delighful, but the tartare was my fave.

Smoked Bacon and Summer Corn Chowder; Brancott Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc

Roasted Pheasant with Cardoon & Onion Gratin, Pheasant Jus; Leitz Riesling

Braised Short Rib, Radicchio, Shaved Watermelon Radish, Honey Vinaigrette; Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir

Grilled Lamb Chops, Garlic & Yellow Eye Bean Ragout, Braised Red Cabbage and Boucher Farms Blue Cheese; Allegrini, blend of Crovina, Rondinella & Sangiovese

Grandmother's Apple Cake, Cider Sorbet, Warm Maple; Bonny Doon Vineyards Muscat

Each course proved delightful and the wine pairings were perfect. Besides the dessert, the dish that moved me the most was the braised short rib. It was so tender that I'm pretty sure it fell off the bone when I looked at it. The bitter radicchio balanced nicely with the meaty, fatty flavors, and the pretty watermelon radish added a splash of bright color to the plate.

I can't wait to go back.

"Beef Up" Your Culinary Skills at It's Arthur's Fault

There's not much that's more empowering than being able to turn a side of beef into juicy steaks, ribs and roasts. Or maybe I'm just a bit strange.

Butchering know-how is crucial for folks in food service, NECI even has a special "Meat Fabrication Lab" in which budding chefs learn the art of dismemberment, but it's a skill that few home cooks ever learn.

But that can change! Arthur Shelmandine, the bottled sauce guru at It's Arthur's Fault, teaches cooking classes out of his Jericho home. One upcoming class is called, "Meat Cutting and Butchering," and will take place on November 17. Here's part of the course description: "We'll be butchering a sizable piece of locally raised, grass-fed beef. Our efforts will produce cuts to be used in our dinner as well as freezer packaged items." The meat will come from Jericho Settler's Farm.

Attendees get to bring home a few pounds of beef, and can also invite a guest to share in the items they prepare. What's on the menu? It's not set in stone yet, but possibilities include: Keftedes, steak and shallots, and Stroganoff.

I tried to find other meat-cutting classes in the area, but Google was less helpful than usual. Know of any?

Apple Trivia

It's the season for harvest festivals and apple picking, as pretty much every local food publication has made abundantly clear.

To help you out, here's a list of pick-your-own places in Vermont. It's not apple specific, but there are lots of orchards on the list.

And now the fun stuff...

Apple Trivia:

• In Ancient Greece, one way of proposing to a young lady was tossing her an apple. Catching it was the equivalent of saying "yes." But what if your chosen one was a klutz?
• There are more than 7500 apple varieties in the world
• China produces more apples than any other country. The United States comes in second
• The world's biggest (known) apple weighed three pounds
• Way before Zoloft was a gleam in a Pfizer exec's eye, apple juice was prescribed as an antidepressant
• One of the oldest known cookbooks, the Roman De Re Coquinaria (On the Subject of Cooking), includes a recipe for pork with apples. The book is from the 4th or 5th century A.D.
• At weddings, it used to be customary to throw apples. Rice probably hurts less
• Only crab apples grew in the United States before European settlers introduced bigger, sweeter versions
• When John Glenn orbited the earth, he noshed on applesauce in space
• One medium apple contains 80 calories and 20% of your daily fiber requirement
• Apples are related to roses, strawberries and almonds
• It takes 36 apples to make one gallon of apple cider
  

In my research, I noticed that apple varieties often have really cool names. Here are a few of them:

1) Ashmead's Kernal
2) Crimson Crisp
3) Epicure
4) Fallawater
5) Galarina
6) Horneburger Pancake
7) Hubbardston Nonesuch
8) Lady in the Snow
9) Magnum Bonum
10) Northern Lights
11) Pink Sparkle
12) Rambo
13) Rusty Coat
14) Sops of Wine
15) Smokehouse
16) Strawberry Parfait
17) Translucent Crab
18) Winter Banana
19) Zuccalmaglio's Rienette

Turnip Troubles

Right now, I'm fairly sure that the citizens of Wardsboro, Vermont (pop. <900) are wicked pissed at me. I accidentally slighted their favorite vegetable in one of my features last week.

Wardsboro, near the state's Southern border, is the home of the Gilfeather turnip, named after farmer John Gilfeather (1865-1944). Gilfeather developed and grew the crunchy white orbs during the early part of the 20th century. It's one of only a few widely-recognized and officially certified heirloom veggies indigenous to Vermont. In my Q&A with Gary Nabhan, I mistakenly transcribed it as a "gilliflower turnip." The black gilliflower is an heirloom variety of apple, not at all the same thing.

The folks in Wardsboro are so serious about their special root vegetable that they have an annual celebration in its honor. Vermont's Gilfeather Turnip Festival takes place at the end of each October. Admission is free, and so are the tasting portions of turnip dishes that are served between 2 and 4 p.m.

But their adulation goes even further. A turnip song? Yep. A turnip poem? You betcha. You can hear them both in this 23-minute video...

Gonna try cooking with GTs on your own? Here are links to a few recipes:
Gilfeather Turnip Soup with Spinach from the Four Columns Inn and Restaurant in Newfane
Gilfeather Turnip Soup with Sea-Legs, whatever that means
And a couple others.