Dec 20, 2011 Posted in Home, Magazine Articles

Wild Things

Jackson Hole Magazine Winter 2011-2012

 

Chefs’ Tips for Cooking

Prime cuts need to be cooked rapidly by searing or grilling to seal in the juices.

Do not cook past medium rare.

Season wild game with what the animals eat such as rosemary, juniper and sage.

Cook wild game with butter as the meat tends to be very lean. The butter fattens it up a little bit.

Keep it simple with salt and pepper for seasonings.

The lack of fat ensures game will cook faster. The fat on beef acts as an insulator so heat must penetrate this insulation before the cooking process begins.

Both coriander and rosemary blend well with game flavors

An internal meat thermometer is a handy reference.

For coordinating timing of dinners, prep vegetables and starch before putting on game steaks.

Grill with a marinade of good olive oil, shallots, ground coffee and fresh cracked pepper.

Cloves, juniper berries and lavender toasted and ground with olive oil or rosemary and black peppercorns as marinades.

Slow cooking for long periods is appropriate for lesser cuts, braising, covered in liquids creates tender and flavorful dishes.

Brown a game roast, add to the crock pot with a bunch of veggies and herbs and liquids such as broth, stock, wine or beer.

 

Pan Seared Red Deer, Shiitakes, Sherried Cherries & Sweet Brown Rice
The Kitchen / Jarrett Schwartz

Serves 4

4 8 oz red deer steaks

canola oil

2 c sliced shiitakes

1 c dried cherries

1 T minced garlic

¼ c cream sherry

2 T soy sauce

2 T sugar

3 T cold butter

Saute in canola oil the sliced shiitakes, dried cherries, and chopped garlic. Deglaze the pan with cream sherry. Add soy sauce and sugar. Reduce for two minutes, add the cold butter. Sear the deer steaks on an iron skillet or grill to rare. Plate, add sauce and rice. Serve.

Housemade bison sausage, ground in-house with carmelized fennel, shaved white cheddar and roasted chile broth.

Rocky mountain elk ossu buco with roasted root vegetable quinoa and bourbon steak sauce.

 

Venison Osso Bucco with Braised Winter Vegetables
The Garage / Michael Burke

6 osso bucco slices, 2 inches thick

1 carrot chopped

2 celery ribs, chopped

1 small red onion

1 leek

salt & pepper to taste

¼ c olive oil

½ bottle red wine

½ c tomato puree

1 T chopped fresh rosemary

1 T chopped garlic

1 ¼ c venison glace

Sear lightly floured and seasoned osso bucco in hot olive oil. Remove from pan. Add the diced vegetables and caramelize to a rich golden color over medium heat. Deglaze the pan with wine and reduce the volume by half. Add the meat back to the pan, plus the tomato puree, garlic, herbs and venison glace. Cover the pan and place in a preheated 325° oven for about an hour or until the meat is falling from the bone. Remove venison from the pan. Pass the sauce and the veggies through a sieve pressing to extract all the juices. Place the venison back in the sauce and keep warm.

While the osso is cooking select whatever vegetables you would like to accompany the entrée and sear in hot olive oil, caramelize and braise for about 45 minutes. Place the vegetables in a deep bowl, then the osso bucco on top. Ladle the sauce over and around the vegetables and serve.

Forest Mushroom & Currant Stuffed Elk Chops with Red Wine Reduction and Mashed Potatoes     Cadillac Grille / Suzanne Marino

• Elk chops, thickly cut
• 3 minced garlic cloves
• 1 T minced shallots
• 1/3 c apple, minced
• 2 T dried currents minced

• 1 c assorted forest mushrooms, minced
• 4 T butter, melted
• 2 ½  c seasoned corn bread crumbs
• 1 c goat cheese
• 2 T guava juice concentrate
• 1/8 t sea salt
• 1/8 t cinnamon
• 1/8 t allspice

Grill chops briefly on each side only trying to achieve grill marks. Once cool, cut a pocket in the side of each elk chop. Set aside. Sauté mushrooms and garlic together in half the butter, add apple, currants, cheese and bread crumbs. In another bowl combine melted butter, guava juice, sea salt, cinnamon, allspice. Mix in the mushroom mixture. Pour butter mixture over the top and mix gently. Lightly stuff the elk chops with the mushroom-cheese mixture. Preheat oven to 350°. Place the stuffed chops in a shallow baking pan and bake uncovered for 20 minutes.

Velvet Elk
Gun Barrel Steak & Game House/ Chef Peter Lageveld

Serves 2

12-14 oz elk tenderloin

spice rub: 2 t salt, 1 t garlic powder, ½ t black pepper

olive oil

2 oz sliced mushrooms

2 oz julienned sun-dried tomatoes

2 oz diced green onions

2 oz red wine

4 oz demi glace

2 oz butter

Cut the elk into 2 oz. medallions and dust with spice rub. In a saute pan, heat a small amount of olive oil, sprinkle in some cracked black pepper, and saute the elk medallions until medium-rare. Remove from pan and keep warm, then add sliced mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, and diced green onion. Deglaze with red wine. Add demi-glaze and butter. Stir while heating sauce until butter is incorporated. Serve medallions draped in sauce and garlic mashed potatoes. Do not cook past medium rare.

 

Seared Venison Loin, Jalapeno Bacon Grit Cake and Blackened Tomatillo Jus
Café Genevieve  / Chef Joshua Governale

Jalapeno Bacon Grit Cake:
1 cup Anson Mills Grits
2 cups water
1/3 cups cubed bacon, cooked (fat reserved)
3 jalapenos, chopped and seeded
1 cup white cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook grits according to package directions. Combine all ingredients together in a bowl and pour into a shallow pan. Place the pan in the refrigerator until mixture forms and sets to pan.

Blackened Tomatillo Jus:
3 c reduced Veal stock
3 c blackened tomatillos (Place tomatillos in oven to blacken)
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 T garlic, chopped
1 T corn oil
2 c Anaheim chilis, diced

In a sauce pan over medium heat, cook onions, garlic, and chilis. Add the rest of the ingredients until cooked. Combine all ingredients in a blender and puree. To serve, heat sauce until thickened.
In a medium pan or on the grill, sear a 6 oz cut of venison on all sides. Ask your butcher for a 6 oz serving per person of Denver Leg. After searing the venison, salt and pepper and place in the oven to roast.

Serve on a large plate, place a small spoonful of the Blackened tomatillo jus. Cut a square out of the grit pan and place the grit cake on top of the jus. Top the grit cake with a sautéed green of your choice, like arugula. Place the venison on top of the arugula. Add more jus on top of the venison and serve immediately.

 

Chianti Antelope with Huckleberry Sauce
Amangani Resort / Chef Rick Sordahl

32 2 oz servings

8 oz antelope bones trimmings

4 oz peeled shallots, thinly sliced

1 T peeled garlic, chopped

1 bay leaf

¼ oz fresh thyme

3 juniper berries

¾ oz canola oil

750 ml Chianti

4 lb veal demi glace

2 lb chicken stock

6 oz huckleberries

Over med high heat, brown the antelope trimmings in the canola oil. Add shallots and garlic and cook until translucent. Add the wine and reduce liquid by 80%. Add the demi, chicken stock and the aromatics and simmer until sauce coats a spoon. Strain through a chinois and cool. Finish the sauce with berries, add salt and pepper to taste and whole butter before serving.

 

Zonker Stout Braised Buffalo Short Ribs served with Organic Stone Ground Grits and Onion Marmalade
Cascade Grill / Kevin Humphreys

4 buffalo short ribs, 4 in., 3 bone

1 onion, peeled and diced

1 carrot, peeled and diced

2 celery stalks, diced

2 T tomato paste

24 oz Zonker Stout

4 c beef stock or broth

1 T garlic, minced

8 sprigs fresh thyme

2 bay leaves

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 300°, if convection to 250°. Season ribs with salt and pepper on all sides. Heat the oil in an oven safe pan and sear the ribs on all sides evenly over medium high heat. Remove the ribs from the pan and reserve on plate. Cook the onion, celery and carrot over medium heat, stirring occasionally until lightly browned. Add the tomato and stir frequently for about 2 minutes. Return the ribs to the pan and add the beer, stock or broth, garlic, thyme and bay leaves then bring to a simmer. Cover with a lid and bake for 7 hours undisturbed. Remove the ribs from the pan and keep warm. Strain the liquid into another sauce pan and place over medium heat to reduce.  Skim any fat from the top and season with salt and pepper as needed.

 

Braised Elk Raviolis of House Made Pasta, Brown Butter, Pine Nuts, Dried Cranberries and Crispy Brie Bread
GameFish / Steven Murphy

Braised Elk Leg

2.5 pounds ~ elk, Denver Leg (Jackson Hole Buffalo Meat Company)

3 T kosher salt

1 T fresh cracked pepper

1 t paprika

1 t cumin

1 t coriander

4 c veal or chicken stock

½ c demi glace

Combine all above seasonings in a small bowl. Sprinkle meat with entire seasoning mix. Either pan sear meat until dark brown or grill until same stage. Place meat into deep hotel or casserole dish and pour braising liquid over meat until 2/3 is covered. Cover and place in a 250° low or no convection oven for 6 hours. Flip braised meat once every two hours. Must be fork tender.

Pull from liquid and using two tongs quickly pull apart the meat. Rough chop to a fine mixture and pour the demi glace over the finished product.

Complete using a pasta machine, ravioli dough made to setting three for most basic units. A 2” round works with a fork and water to make sure the dough rounds stick to each together. Can be frozen, dusted with flour to prevent sticking.

Ravioli Dough

28  (2 Inch Round) Raviolis

3 cups All Purpose Flour

4 eggs

1 Tablespoon Kosher Salt

2 Tablespoon Olive Oil

Sift Flour. Make a mound with the flour making a well in the center. Beat the eggs and add them to the center of flour. Add salt and oil. Knead mixture mixing wet and dry together. Add water as needed. Dough should be smooth and not sticky. Divide into two equal portions. Wrap with plastic. Rest for at least 30 minutes, but over night is better.

 

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For some the thought of wild game for dinner is the anticipation of the hunt. That’s a many month process. Apply for and score an elk license in a coveted area. Summer scouting missions are the next step. Walk the terrain quietly throughout the season looking for game trails, places where an animal has bedded down. Notice the thickets of the foliage the wily wapiti like to eat.

Ready the camo outfit that never comes inside the house, except for the occasional washing in baking soda, plus the boots, hat, gloves. Have a few rounds of target practice with your bow or rifle or both. Put the bone saw, plastic garbage bags and tent in your pack. Sharpen your knife. Check out and replenish your ammo supply, new copper bullets instead of the old lead. Not only will the scavengers who are drawn to eat the gut piles be lead free, but the meat on your table will have no shards.

The day before opening day there is the walk in, pitching the tent, the watching, listening and waiting, no fire, just a quiet cold dinner. Trying to rest with visions of sugarplums dancing before the first light has you up and out. Luck and timing have as much to do with success as a clear shot and a steady hand. It could be hours, days or weeks waiting for your chance. All this before the future dinner is even in hand, but not yet dressed, skinned, carried, butchered, wrapped and frozen.

Other folks take a different approach to dining on game, with the emphasis on fine. In this valley we have the luxurious option of checking out the local dining guide and reserving a table. That’s all it takes. Jackson Hole is extremely fortunate to have a remarkable number of skilled chefs whose creativity abounds. Most menus offer an array of game meat choices with sustainable, local or regional and organic ingredients as accompaniments. Some chefs have begun to utilize our short summer growingwindow by buying and preserving tomatoes, cherries, berries and more, bringing summer’s bounty to winter.

Although it is referred to as game meat, there is nothing gamey about these products. Elk, antelope, bison and red deer or venison raised free range on farms with consistent diet of good nutritional value create the highest quality product. These meats are high in protein and minerals, yet low in fat and cholesterol. Diners can enjoy the opportunity to sample spectacular offerings to please any gourmet or satisfy a more mundane desire. Bison burgers abound on the valley’s menus. The latest trend of sliders, tiny burgers made of everything from antelope to shrimp and always pronounced as if by Joe Morton, the mellifluous voiced hall of fame baseball announcer. This is merely a summary in random order of the variety, not even close to the whole picture of tempting morsels.

Cascade in Teton Mountain Lodge does a lot with buffalo, including sliders, carpaccio and short ribs with Zonker Stout. The hanger steak is done Loma Saltado fashion with herb roasted potatoes, chile purees and a pan sauce is a take on Peruvian street food. A very popular item is the house made buffalo pastrami.

Couloir serves buffalo tenderloin house smoked and paired with salsify puree, wilted greens and Madeira glace. In addition there is the Cervena red deer from New Zealand with house preserved brandied cherries.

In the Fine Dining Restaurant group you will find elk tartare with house potato chips and for a taste of Vietnamese cuisine, venison pho with aromatic beef broth, rice noodles, sugar snap peas and straw mushrooms.

Wild game chili with house made cornbread, sour cream and grated cheddar matches the lively environment at Q Roadhouse, with the wild boar short ribs are another savory option.

Il Villaggio Osteria serves incredibly exciting Italian cuisine. Chef Paul O’Connor’s Seared Buffalo Carpaccio with roasted garlic balsamic aioli, shredded spinach, parmesan, beet “tartare” and lemon oil will please any palate. The braised local buffalo osso bucco with saffron risotto is supreme comfort food. House made gnocchi with wild boar bolognese and pecorino romano is the best.

Jeff Drew at the Snake River Grill is a James Beard regional chef award winner. His food always wins favor. This winter that includeswild boar tenderloin with spiced sweet potato mash and rioja sauce. Buffalo osso bucco on organic polenta and horseradish persillade will warm your heart and your belly. He also presents a cast iron roasted elk chop with duck fat whipped potatoes and Banyuls gastrique.

At the Amangani chef Rick Sordahl prepares a different slant on bison ribs in a chipotle cabernet braise with shallot mashed potatoes and snow peas. His elk chop is paired with a chanterelle mushroom ragu.

GameFish’s Steven Murphy entices with Wyoming buffalo and ricotta triangoloi with gorgonzola cream sauce, golden raisins, sun-dried tomatoes and local sage. Another choice there is Wyoming buffalo ribeye with scalloped potatoes, crisp tobacco onions and maitre d’ butter. There’s also a mixed grill wapiti rack and elk filet with bacon, blue smashed potatoes and mustard demi glace.

Million Dollar Cowboy Steak House chef, Kevin Gries shared, “This winter we’re offering a 22 ounce dry aged buffalo ribeye along with elk chops, top butts and tenderloins, plus a holiday seasonal caribou. Who can resist ‘reindeer’ in December?”

The Wort Hotel’s chef, Scott Ritter, offers a smoked pheasant soup with firecracker roasted sweet corn, a hint of apple, pumpkin seed infused oil and sweet potato hay. The Silver Dollar Bar serves the popular elk gyros and elk sliders and wild boar chile with housemade jalapeno cornbread and a cilantro creme fraiche. Entrees include garlic and rosemary infused buffalo tenderloin with balsamic compound butter, yukon gold potatoes and baby carrots with vegetable medley, plus smoked paprika and mexican coffee rubbed free range venison served over sweet potato whipped potatoes with burnt marshmallows and broccollini, and an apricot and molasses large bone “natural” elk chop served with Colorado quinoa, haricot verts, and juniper huckleberry demi glace.

Some chefs have shared recipes for their favorite game dishes. Visitors will enjoy the ease of finding purveyors such as Cowboy Free Range Meats and Jackson Hole Buffalo Meat Company who sell and ship buffalo, elk and a wide selection of game offerings for your cooking and dining pleasure at home. It’s a fantastic way to reminisce about a Jackson Hole experience and share with friends and family

Dec 1, 2011 Posted in Magazine Articles

Kids’ 24-Hour Kits

Teton Family Magazine / Winter 2011-12
 

Children’s well being is important. At home there is family to keep kids safe. When kids are at school their security transfers to their teachers and the staff.

We don’t think about them often, but there are circumstances that could necessitate sheltering at school overnight. Severe weather events, an earthquake, flood or landslide might close roads or take out bridges between school and home.

Most schools have water, emergency rations, first aid and sanitary supplies enough for at least three days. For each child to have a personal 24-hour kit could allow a layer of comfort if they are kept at school for a night away from their homes. This is especially true of younger children. Knowing those kits are prepared and in place may bring some peace of mind to all family members.

Kits would be assembled at the beginning of the school year. A large zip lock bag labeled with each student’s name and information including contact information and medical alerts would be sent home with an explanatory note enclosed.

For the personal component of their kits photos of their families and favorite pets would be added. A note in their parent’s own handwriting would also be among the items in the bags when they are returned to classrooms.

Identical general supplies would be added to each bag before they are all stacked into five gallon buckets, covered and stored along side the teachers’ classroom supplies. Many community organizations and businesses are likely to step forward to offer donations appropriate to their domains if they are made aware of the 24-hour kit project.

If the need ever arises, each child will have something of his own to allow a feeling of protection. Everyone would probably still be less than comfortable but they could keep warm. They wouldn’t be in the dark. They would have a bit of autonomy and a way to express their feelings and document their surroundings.

The general supplies for each kit includes:

Small bottled water
Energy bar
Fruit roll-up
Small pack tissues
Small notebook, pencil and sharpener
Space blanket
Tiny flashlight
Small game or puzzle
Toothbrush and toothpaste
Wet Wipes

 

Oct 18, 2011 Posted in Magazine Articles

Live Kitchen

Teton Family Magazine | Fall 2011

There are many reasons to nudge your kitchen down the path toward living foods. Budget tightening might require cutting back on spending. You might be caught up in an awareness of how much unnecessary trash your eating habits produce. Suddenly you listen to your body and you hear it screaming for a change. You may be working to solve a mystery about food allergies for yourself or a family member. It might just be curiosity.

What exactly does “live food” mean? Live foods are not something trendy or new. It’s more about historic traditions and the foods that kept our ancestors alive and healthy, or killed them. At some time, the ancients must have been a bunch of desperately hungry family groups and tribes looking around for edibles in every form. They found a new plant, it tasted okay, they could chew it but would it make them sick? It was the early version of the television commercials about letting Mikey try it first.

Human bodies have always harbored many kinds of live bacteria. Some of them aid digestion and boost the body’s immune system against disease microbes. Probably most of the greatest advances in our collective culinary history were mistakes. Most involved live foods.

Some Egyptian slave let the flour get wet and the next day the flatbread rose. Wow! Yeast and sourdough were discovered. The herding tribes of Central Asia learned to sew leather bags for carrying water or milk as they traveled. One day with a stroke of luck and just the right blend of bacteria as it bumped along on the back of a mustang, it thickened into tasty, tangy kefir. A crock of goat’s milk left on the altar for the goddess of the hearth in some Middle Eastern village turned into yogurt.

These are imaginings of how live foods came into being. The keepers of these traditions carried their cultures (in more ways than one) and their seed stocks as they migrated around the world. These were forms of wealth back when salt was a trading currency. They traded and taught and learned. Many pioneers of the American West were called “sourdoughs” because of the jars they carried with them to their new homes.

Our society has evolved to a state in which most of us live an urban lifestyle with little contact with agriculture. We buy what we need and want without connection to the source of our food. There is little connection to the land. Not much of a normal American diet is fresh or raw or alive. And yet there are many simple steps to remedy this pattern and take back some control.

Little steps toward independence can feel empowering and add vitality to your life. It is the “chop wood, carry water” approach to life in which the ritual routines become the threads of a joyous tapestry. Take it one step at a time. Many of the product and recipe choices are easy and rewarding. Do you want to be in the kitchen or have your hands in the soil? Do you want a project to accomplish in a day or a couple weeks?

Yogurt is simple. The ingredients to make yogurt are yogurt (about a cup) that contains live bacterial culture and milk of some form. It can be whole milk or low fat, non-instant powdered milk or unpasteurized milk. The milk (5 or 6 cups) needs to be slowly heated to the point of scalding (almost boiling) in a pan on the stove, then allowed to cool to a warm bath temperature. You will need a clean glass jar or ceramic crock with a cover. Crocks are great at holding heat. Fill the jar or crock with hot water to warm it. Add the yogurt to the warm milk and stir. Empty the crock or jar, pour the milk into it and cover. Depending on the room temperature, it could take 6 to 12 hours to become yogurt. You will know by the consistency when you tip or jiggle your container. During this time it needs to be in a warm place with no drafts. That could be over a pilot light, near a wood stove, wrapped in a bath towel inside a cardboard box facing a warm air vent, outside in the sunshine in a protected place.

After the process is completed, refrigerate it. Put a cup of it in a small jar labeled “yogurt culture” so no one gobbles it up and use that to make the next batch. Every time it gets easier and takes less time. Add your favorite fruits, use it in sauces and dressings or eat it plain.

Growing things can be very rewarding for children and adults. Sprouts are fun and microgreens are a dynamic explosion of colors and tastes. Both are projects small in size and short in duration. Both are indoor projects that can happen in the winter to create easy access to fresh, crunchy foods.

Sprouting is done with any of a variety of seeds like alfalfa, mung beans, soybeans or radishes. Put the seeds in a clean jar, soak them for a few hours, drain them, cover with a screen or cheesecloth lid and put the jar in a dark place. Rinse the seeds each day, drain and keep them moist. After they have sprouted, let them have a day in the light to turn green. Eat them in salads or stir fries or refrigerate them. Sprouted grain seeds may be folded into breads for added texture and nutrients.

Microgreens are grown in small trays of soil. Only the above ground plant is snipped and eaten, usually after the first set of leaves appear. There is a wonderful book, Microgreens: A Guide to Growing Nutrient Packed Greens by Eric Franks and Jasmine Richardson that is quite useful. Information online abounds.

Although Kombucha has a documented history throughout many Asian countries since the 1800’s, it has been trendy in the United States for the last couple decades. It is now a manufactured product sold by the millions in individually portioned glass bottles. As it is a fermented drink, sales can be regulated. This tea and sugar combination is cultured from a strange looking, live, pancake shaped “mother” that contains both yeast and beneficial bacteria. Kombucha is a daily regimen of acquired taste that can be grown at home for pennies a gallon. The health benefits have testimonials that range from easing joint pain, aiding digestion to curing cancer and reducing allergies. There is no endorsement from any federal agency but many advocates.

Kimchi and sauerkraut are essentially the same food that were developed on opposite edges of the planet, Korea and Northern Europe. Fermenting vegetables, particularly cabbage, with salt and acids such as vinegar has been a useful manner of preserving foods through the winter seasons. The health benefits of these probiotic foods are returning them to popularity. The crisp, spicy vegetables add dimension to bland meals.

Think about all these forms of live foods. When you are ready, take a step and learn something new. Do what fits to incorporate them into your life.

Avocado Omelet

The crunch of the sunflower microgreens adds incredible texture

Yield: one omelet

 

2 eggs

1 tablespoon water

salt and pepper

3 tablespoons sour cream

2 tablespoons chopped chives

½ ripe avocado, sliced

1/4 cup or medium handful sunflower microgreens

2 tablespoons butter

 

1. Beat the eggs in a cup until smooth

2. Add the water, salt and pepper to the eggs and beat a bit more

3. Heat an omelet pan over high heat

4. Add the eggs to the pan, working the pan to evenly cook the eggs

5. Spread the sour cream over half the omelet

6. Evenly spread the avocado slices over the sour cream

7. Sprinkle the chives over the avocado slices

8. Place the sunflower microgreens over the chives

9. Fold the omelet in half and plate

10. Serve hot

Sauteed Carrots with Radish Microgreens

The microgreens are a perfect counterpoint to the richness

Yield: makes four servings

 

3 cups carrots, grated

2 tablespoons fresh ginger

2 garlic cloves

3 tablespoons butter

salt and pepper

four bunches of freshly snipped radish microgreens

 

1. Wash carrots and grate by hand or in food processor

2. Grate the ginger through a microplane

3. Heat a saute pan over a hot flame

4. Melt the butter in the pan

5. Add the carrots and stir

6. Add the ginger and stir

7. Press the garlic cloves directly into the pan

8. Stir until the carrots are slightly cooked

9. Remove pan from heat

10. Salt and pepper to taste

11. Divide onto plates and top with radish microgreens

12. Serve

Yogurt Feta Dip or Dressing

Yield: about 1 ½ cups

 

1 ½ cup yogurt

½ cup crumbled feta cheese

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon hot sauce, such as Tabasco

1 clove garlic, pressed

Salt and pepper to taste

 

1. Place the yogurt in a small bowl

2. Add the crumbled feta and stir

3. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir

4. May be thinned with water to the appropriate texture

5. Place the bowl on a platter with cut up vegetables in bite sized pieces

Cornmeal Yogurt Pancakes with Blueberries

Yield: about 18 pancakes

 

1 ¼ cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons sugar

1 cup cornmeal

1 ½ cup yogurt

½ cup water

3 eggs, well beaten

3 tablespoons melted butter

1 cup blueberries

 

1. Sift together all dry ingredients

2. Mix together the yogurt, water, eggs and butter

3. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet without over beating

4. Pour about ¼ cup batter onto a hot griddle

5. Sprinkle blueberries on top

6. When the pancake bubbles, flip

7. Do not turn more than once or press down

8. Serve topped with a dollop of yogurt and warm maple syrup

Jul 13, 2011 Posted in Magazine Articles

Italian Cuisine (r)Evolution

Jackson Hole Magazine | Summer 2011
View article at LifeintheTetons.com >

America has long had a love affair with Italian cooking. That’s easy to understand. It’s too delicious and comforting and sensual to resist. Our picture is pizza or spaghetti with meatballs, candles in basket wrapped chianti bottles, maybe eggplant or chicken parmesean, with great disparity among the spellings of the cheese from Parma. Getting a handle on the multi-faceted explosion of what is happening in the world of contemporary Italian cuisine takes some thought and reflection.

It was in the 1880’s that the population boom of Italian American immigrants mushroomed from just a few thousand to four million by 1920. During those turbulent decades Italy was stressed by the unification of its city states. Many wars and rebellions caused economic pressures, particularly in the agricultural southern regions.

The United States was romanticized for its images of vast open spaces, cheap land and welcoming arms. A different reality awaited those immigrants upon arrival. Mostly this Italian population settled in cities along the east coast or in the growing state of California. Coming from agricultural backgrounds they often lacked skills for urban living. Although many eager workers found available jobs at menial labor, some utilized their skills in the culinary world. They started little neighborhood restaurants. This was the beginning of Italian American gastronomy.

Unique regional cuisines were formative in the history of Italy, influenced by the neighboring Greeks, French, Africans, Austrians, and Etruscans. Historically, Italy was a passage for the Christian crusaders to the Mideast and voyages to the Silk Road, China and the Orient. The climate diversity from mountains and plains to sea coasts, north to south was expansive. Each city state and region was as described in today’s words, a locavore community. They built their lives around what they had on hand.

The populations of Italians who migrated here generally came from the southern regions surrounding Naples and Sicily. They brought their regional specialties that became what we recognized as Italian food. Of course, those meals were formed by what was available in those times, the American varieties of meats, seafood, cheeses, grains, produce, herbs and spices. Within our scope of awareness, that was what Italian food was. From coast to coast the menu choices and preparations were pretty much the same. (more…)