Gluttons Club

Made last night in Laurel, LI using farm fresh favas and my own house cured guanciale.

-fava beans, shelled and peeled
-home-cured guanciale diced small (for those of you who don't cure your own meats, try pancetta or proscuitto/serrano)
-garlic minced
-white wine

Parboil the beans in salty water for about 5 minutes until the color changes to darker green. strain and keep close by.

Sautee the cured pork product until the fat renders but do it slowly so it doesn't brown or get crispy. Add the garlic to soften.

Toss the beans in once the pork/garlic is ready and let them soak up the fat by tossing heartily. Salt and pepper to taste.

Add some wine and burn it off.

Drizzle in some olive oil before serving.

Hey!

Here is my video application for the Really Good job.

For details on the job, see here.

I think I have a serious shot at this so I'm crossing my fingers.

I haven't posted much lately (which is a disappointment to my loyal reader) and I apologize.

I got off to a good start with the relaunch after graduation but have faded since. Part of it is that the weather is nice so staying in the office on a nice day is less than ideal but a lot of it has to do with keyboard fatigue. Bad posture, using a laptop almost exclusively and too much typing have begun to cause little aches and pains in my arms. Combined with a newfound interest in rock climbing which also stresses forearms, I've been trying to avoid the keyboard as much as possible lately to give the tendons a chance to recover.

I'll try to keep up for my own sake as well as yours but please give me some time to rest and recuperate.

I've finally gotten around to reading one of Michael Pollan's books. Not sure why I resisted for so long but it might have to do with the argumentative style he takes.

I started "In Defense of Food" last night and am enjoying it so far. It is interesting timing since the veggie CSA I'm part of begins this weekend so the philosophical nature of the food intersects with availability quite nicely.

If you haven't read it, the basic premise is that food science and nutrition-based research on food and what we should be eating got out of hand and lead to the rise of processed foods, poor eating habits and public health problems. That's about as far I've gotten but I'll let you know how it turns out.

I'll post it when it's up on their site. Stay tuned...

Yesterday I stagiered at Toro during the day and then at 7, when I was due to finish my shift, I simply walked out of the kitchen into the dining room for drinks and dinner with friends. It was my birthday so a few folks came out to celebrate with me.

Jaime and the kitchen staff were good enough to send out a few extras for us which were gratefully accepted. It was an excellent meal and I'm glad I finally got to sample more of the dishes that this great kitchen produces. Here is what I can remember we ate and drank:

food (tapas, it's not as much food as it looks)

• stuffed and fried zucchini blossoms
• oysters on half shell with american caviar and some kind of sauce
• mexican corn
• beef heart
• halibut ceviche
• duck legs
• garbanzo and chorizo stew
• hanger steak
• garlic shrimp
• patatas bravas
• pan con tomate
• datiles con jamon (which I prepped earlier in the day)
  
• tortilla with asparagus
• anchovies
• kobe sliders
• jamon serrano
  

wine:

• 2006 As Sorte--a white made from Godello that is one of my favorite Spanish whites ever.
• Muga 2008 Rosado--Rioja shows its grace in this rosado and the style showed its versatility with food
• Prima Toro 2006--A bold red that went down well with the heartier dishes in the second half of the night.
• Celler Del Roure, “Les Alcusses” Mando Blend, Valencia 2005--something from the rare and mysterious portion of the wine list. By this point, things had gotten a little hazy but I do remember it was good
• Finally, I sidled over to another table where four lovely young women were sitting and drank some txakoli from the pitcher with them. Turns out, they all work at America's Test Kitchen. In the course of conversation, I gave one of them my contact for a potential internship there. Lovely, now I've got another potential job that doesn't pay anything.
  

On thursday I'll be going back to Toro for another round of stagieing. I don't get paid to do the fairly mundane tasks they have me do but I gain a lot of practical experience both in terms of cooking skills and how a restaurant is run. Also, I get to eat lots of good food. The real cooks love to pass me nibbles of whatever they're prepping to show off the work they do. It's a lot of fun--a little greasy, lots of sharp objects and searing hot metal all over--and a good honest day's work.

Just a quick note to tell you about some upcoming beer events in Boston:

June 19-20th: Beeradvocate's American Craft Beer Fest. A fairly standard beer fest but a good 'un. the BA boys do a good job of bringing education and discussion to the room full of people drinking too much.

August 1: Cambridge Brewing Company's Bass Fest. Striped bass served many ways served with CBC's fine ales. One of the very few seafood related events I look forward to.

June 5th: Harpoon Summer session. I've never been to one of the Harpoon parties but they are highly spoken of by friends. More of a general interest party than a beer specific thing.