The Vermont Farm Table Cookbook

There is an ongoing joke that in the South, we have our own word for "farm-to-table", we call it dinner.  Face it, the food on your table came from some farm somewhere.  The problem is, that farm might just be in Timbuktu.  We have lamented the fact that the cookbook world has been inundated with "farm-to-table" cookbooks.  When The Countryman Press offered to send us a copy of The Vermont Farm Table Cookbook by Tracey Medeiros we though, here's another one.  When we got the book, we were pleasantly surprised.  Why is this cookbook so different?

You will notice that The Vermont Farm Table Cookbook has no "to" in the title.  It is the Vermont farm table cookbook.   That distinction is important.   When I built a pair of tables for my house, they were based on my favorite farm table.  That table sat in the kitchen of my friend, Barbara, outside of Randolph, Vermont.   The table was huge.  Barbara's brother, Tim made the table with big 4X4 legs and a solid plank top.  That table sat in the same spot for years.  Kids grew up around that table, family was mourned, meal after meal was served, and more than a few drinks were downed.   The last time I was in Vermont, the table was gone.  A kitchen remodel had given way to a smaller table, but Barbara assured me it was safe in her studio after a nail-biting move involving heavy machinery.  I missed that table.

There are thousands of tables like Barbara's in Vermont.  It is the soul of a farm -- the place the farmer drinks a first cup of coffee in the pitch dark of morning; a place to order seeds for the garden, a place to shell peas, a place to feed a family and friends, a place to watch children grow, and more.  It is that table that is the soul of Medeiros' book.

The Vermont Farm Table Cookbook is about those tables and the people who sit at them, morning after morning, day after day, generation after generation.  Yes, the food is beautiful.  Yes, you want to cook it.  And, yes indeed, you want to eat it.  Most importantly, you will know then name of the person who set the ingredients on the table.  You will find four generations of the Shat family raising beef.  Six generations of the Conant's have been working Riverside Farm.  WhistlePig Whiskey is leading a new generation of drinkers to rye on a very old farm.   Misery Loves Co. fed people out of a 1976 Winnebago, and in 2012  they opened an actual bricks and mortar restaurant.  You will meet foragers and pie makers; cheese makers and cider distillers; chefs and teachers, all contributing a piece of their farm to your table.

Nothing makes our table happier than red meat and whiskey, so this recipe is a no-brainer.  Also, we have a whistle pig or groundhog living under our shed.  He comes out every morning and will sit out with the chickens. He is a bit of nuisance, but we have grown fond of him.

New York Strip Steaks with WhistlePig Whiskey Demi-glace Sauce

4 (10-ounce) New York strip steaks, about 1 inch thick, trimmed 
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 
3 tablespoons olive oil 
10 ounces cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced 
1/4 cup finely chopped shallot 
1 garlic clove, minced 
1/3 cup WhistlePig whiskey 
1 1/4 cups demi-glace or beef stock 
1/4 cup heavy cream

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Season the steaks generously with salt and pepper.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the steaks and sear 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Transfer the steaks to a baking sheet and bake until medium-rare, 6 minutes.

3. While the steaks are in the oven, add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to the empty skillet and heat over medium heat. Add the mushrooms, shallot and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and carefully whisk in the whiskey. Return the skillet in the heat and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the demi-glace and return to a simmer. Slowly whisk in the cream and cook until the sauce is slightly reduced. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon the sauce over the steaks and serve.

All find and dandy, you think, but what if your table is in Timbuktu or Alabama or Idaho?  Don't let that stop you from grabbing a copy.  Within a hundred miles, or fifty or even one, you will find a farmer.  She might be making beer in a basement, he might have an acre of okra, they might own 1000 acres with a golf course and vineyard, but somewhere out there, and not that far out there, there are farmers with food for your table.  Take The Vermont Farm Table Cookbook as your inspiration and find them.  Find your local butcher who sources meat, find your favorite whiskey maker, find a dairy with local cream and sit down at your table.  You won't be disappointed.

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9 X 13 The Pan That Can

I know!!! If I don't start posting more, you are going to stop reading. What happened to me posting every day? Well, life gets in the way. I'm sorry. but I digress...

Harry Lowe read a review in Cook's Illustrated about the very best 9 X 13 baking dish.


He set out to order them for Christmas presents. Unfortunately, the pans were sold out and back ordered for quite some time. I received a lovely box with a note saying I would get my Christmas pan as soon as they were back in stock. Well it took some time but I finally received my pan this weekend while I was in D.C.



I stopped by a favorite used book store and there sitting on the shelf right before me was a copy of The Better Homes and Gardens 9 X 13 The Pan That Can. Clearly, it was an omen and clearly I bought the book. IF you read this blog or my other blog you will know that I need NO help in figuring out what to put in a 9 X 13 pan, but again, one cannot fight omens.

I must say, I find the recipes rather long and complicated for cooking in 9 X 13 pan. One would think that these recipes would require a whole compliment of dishes. Actually, many of them are adapted from other Better Homes and Gardens publications. For some the main difference in the recipe is changing the word "pan" to "9 X 13 pan." Still, there are over 300 recipes that you can make in that 9 X 13 pan or any other pan you might have. Here's one. Just a note, you will need another saucepan for the green beans and several containers to put everything in to refrigerate. Frankly, I would rather eat this hot that chilled for 24 hours.

Fennel Lime-Crusted Beef Tenderloin

1/2 cup lime-infused olive oil (1/2 cup)
1/4 cup fennel seeds
1/4 cup snipped fresh tarragon
1/4 cup finely shredded lime peel (need 5 to 6 limes)
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3-pound center-cut beef tenderloin
1 pound peeled onions (such as cipollini onions, pearl onions, and/or yellow onions)
3 cups sliced fennel
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 pound fresh green beans, trimmed


1. In a small bowl combine 6 tablespoons of the oil, the fennel seeds, tarragon, lime peel, pepper, and salt. Coat the tenderloin with seed mixture. Place meat on a non-reactive tray; cover loosely with foil. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes or up to 1 hour.

2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Place meat on a roasting rack in an ungreased 9 X 13 pan or baking dish. Return any coating left on tray to meat. Insert an oven-going meat thermometer into the thickest portion of meat. In a medium bowl, toss together onions and 1 tablespoon of the remaining olive oil. Place onions on half of the pan or dish alongside meat. Roast, uncovered for 30 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, toss together fennel and remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Stir onions and add fennel to other half of roasting pan alongside meat. Roast for 15 to 20 minutes more or until thermometer registers 135 degrees F for medium-rare doneness.

4. Transfer meat to cutting board; cover with foil. Let stand 10 to 15 minutes. The temperature should register 145 degrees F for medium-rare doneness. Wrap roast tightly in plastic wrap; chill for at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours. Transfer onions and fennel to separate bowls. Cover each bowl tightly; chill for at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours.

5. For sauce, pour drippings from the baking pan or dish into a small saucepan, scraping out and including the crusty browned bits. Add red wine to the saucepan; cook until bubbly, stirring constantly to
dissolve browned bits. Transfer sauce to bowl. Cover; refrigerate until serving.

6. To serve, cook green beans in a small amount of boiling salted water for about 5 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain. Rinse with cold water until chilled; drain again. Toss green beans with the sauce. Arrange on serving platter. Thinly slice tenderloin and arrange on top of beans. Serve your tenderloin platter with roasted onion and fennel.

OK, you can chill the whole thing. On second thougth it might just make an excellent picnic item!

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Consuming Passions

Consuming Passions is more of a food history than a straight up cookbook. Philippa Pullar takes the reader on a romp from the earliest of Roman foods to the throes of DDT in the 1970's. As you may be able to tell from the title, Pullar is interested in the passionate side of food.

Her detailed accounts of the Romans is quite fascinating if not the lest bit nauseating. There was a lot of eating with your hands and relieving yourself at the table and eating until you puked. She cites an early book on etiquette that offers this advice. When at dinner avoid digging into your codpiece. Rules to live by!



The sixteenth century saw a new appreciation for and fascination with fruit. Fruits were not simple served but adorned to fit a kings table. During Christmas, Sir William Petrie's household consumed one ton of cheese, 17 oxen, 14 steers, 5 bacon hogs, 13 bucks, 4 cows, 29 calfs, 129 sheep, 3 goats, 5 does, 54 lambs, 2 boars, 9 porks, 7 kids and a stag. That was some Christmas party!

Sir Alfred Munnings, Taggs Island

In the 1920's, a flourishing restaurant trade grew up in Britain. In her diaries, Lady Cynthia Asquith rarely lunches alone. For the poor, times were grave with most families subsisting on just over a shilling a week to buy food.

Consuming Passions is a great book if you have an interest in the history of food and how it is consumed. The recipes are culled for old cookery books. Here is a recipe worth the title alone.

Meat Roly Poly

Make a suet crust. Cover it with a mixture of minced meat and kidneys, a little liver if liked, onions and herbs and a few oysters, Roll up and boil. Serve with a good brown gravy.

Grab a glass of wine and remember, don't dig in your cod piece.

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Gourmet Cooking School Cookbook

Dione Lucas was among the first to teach cooking from a television studio in 1947. She held private classes were attended by such individuals as Salvador Deli, Helen Hayes and Paula Wolfert, who took 6 classes and immediately dropped out of college for a career in food

Dione Lucas’ books led to the growth of French cooking in America, though she never rose to the fame of Julia Child. Many people swear by Lucas' omelet recipe, others wax poetic on her more complicated dishes. Her squab was another favorite, not so much for the recipe but because she states that it was a favorite dish eaten by Adolph Hitler, which debunks the theory of his vegetarianism.

Her Gourmet Cooking School Cookbook gives this detailed but excellent recipe for beef with sour cream.

Boeuf Stroganoff
(Fillet of Beef with Sour Cream)

MARKETING LIST
2 pounds fillet of beef (center cut)
Salt butter
brandy
garlic
1/2 ounce (1 package) dried mushrooms
meat glaze
tomato paste
four
1 1/2 cups heavy commercial sour cream
fresh dill

PREPARATION TRAY
meat, trimmed and cut into pieces
garlic, chopped
dried mushrooms, soaked, drained and chopped
mushroom stock, strained
fresh dill, chopped

1. Remove any skin, fat and sinew from the mat, and cut it into thin fingers 2 1/2 inches long, 1 inch wide.

2. Heat in a heavy pan: 4 tablespoons (2 ounces -- 1/2 stick) of salt butter. Stir it until it is golden and sizzling.

3. Now, put in your beef, a few slices at a time, being careful that the pieces do not touch. This is the trick to browning meat quickly and evenly without allowing any juice or steam to form, thereby stewing instead of sautéing your meat. Remove browned pieces with a slotted spoon or tongs-- never stab with a fork!-- and set aside until all the beef has been cooked.

4. When all the meat is brown, put it back in the pan and flame it with: 1/4 cup of brandy

5. Remove the meat from the pan again and stir into the juices: 2 tablespoons (1 ounce-- 1/4 stick) of salt butter

6. Remove the pan from the heat and add: 2 teaspoons of finely chopped garlic. (Chop garlic in a little salt with a sharp knife.) 1/2 ounce of chopped dried mushrooms (These give a completely different flavor from our fresh mushrooms, and the two are not interchangeable. Put the 1/2 ounce of dried mushrooms to soak in 1/2 cup of warm water for at least 1/2 hour. Drain the mushrooms, saving the liquid, chop them very fine and add them to the garlic sauce.)

7. Stir slowly over heat for 2 minutes, but don't brown the garlic.

8. Stir in, off the fire: 1 level teaspoon of meat glaze, 1 level teaspoon of tomato paste, 3 tablespoons of plain flour, the strained mushroom stock

9. Stir over the fire until it thickens, but don't let it boil.

10. Beat in, a dab at a time: 1 1/2 cups of heavy sour cream, using a wire whisk.

11. Mix in: 2 good tablespoons of freshly chopped dill

12. Heat the sauce, but keep it below the boiling point or the sour cream will curdle. It should just be steaming. Then put your meat in, but do not keep it in the sauce over a flame or it will continue to cook. It can stay warm indefinitely over hot water, with a cover on, or on an electric hot tray.

If you want to be a thoroughly unruffled hostess, you can brown your beef and make your sauce in the morning, refrigerating them in separate bowls until about an hour before you serve. At the last minute, you can heat the sauce gradually, stirring it to keep it smooth and watching that it doesn't boil. Then add the meat, which will be room temperature by this time, and add your fresh dill to the sauce now, heat the two together, and there's your perfect Stroganoff, prepared in advance, yet served precisely au point.

It seems terribly drawn out, but read through the recipe and give it a try.

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