Unlike the past couple years, I haven't chosen a particular cuisine to explore here in 2007. This is due to the fact that there are several cuisines I'd like to try my hand at and I'm too lazy here early in the year to pick just one. I got a wonderful new mortar & pestle for Christmas so I'm ready to start pulverizing things. Last night I decided that I wanted to try some recipes from Food and Drink in Medieval Poland and began thumbing through the book and found some tasty things to whip up such as Zrazy po Cyprjsku and Szynka Duszona z Ogorkami. The problem is that they require Ocet Kubebowy or cubeb vinegar. The ingredients for this stuff are all attainable but it takes 3 months for the marriage of the flavors to be consummated. So I found a couple recipes without the stuff to try and hope to get the vinegar going tonight. Cubeb vinegar requires sherry vinegar or vino cotto vinegar so I asked The Dulcinea where I can find a store on the west side (where I work) that has fancy vinegars. One place was very close to work - Grape and Company so I called them up. I got Linda, the proprietor, and asked if they had the vinegars I need. She launched into a wonderful description of their vinegar selection which even talked about the varieties of grapes each used. She seemed to be under the impression that I was doing some Italian cooking so I informed her that I was, in fact, recreating 14th century Polish recipes. Her response was one of excitement and we ended up chatting. I made the mistake of telling her that I used to cook for a living and that my recent ventures have mostly involved German and Polish cuisine. And so, when I head over to the store during my lunch break, she is going to try and talk me into teaching a cooking class there. Linda said that she is Italian and that she teaches the occasional class in which she imparts some of her grandmother's most beloved recipes. But, since there are a lot of Germans and Norwegians around, she'd love to have some classes dedicated to those cuisines. I hesitated because I am no chef – just someone who likes to cook (and eat). But she wouldn't take no for an answer and soon I found myself swept up in her enthusiasm. While I didn't commit to anything, I have a feeling that I'll be dragging my spätzle maker there at some point this spring. I can just see it now. There I am pounding pork cutlets and some old Grossmuter is going to lay into me about my technique. I sure hope Linda isn't expecting that I would make anything that is acceptable to today's "healthy" eaters cuz that ain't gonna happen.
While my vinegar ages, I am going to try and make Kurczak Pieczony z Suszonymi ?liwkami which is Chicken Baked with Prunes. Not only does it not require cubeb vinegar, but it also uses bacon. Mmmm…bacon…The dish also involves shredded cabbage and I think I'll get that done on the cabbage shredder I inherited from my dad who used to make sauerkraut. For dessert I plan on making Gruszki Duszone z Ogórkami i Figami which is Pears Stewed with Cucumbers and Figs. It not only sounds tasty but uses rosewater and I have about a gallon of the stuff to use up before I'm 80 and it's all evaporated away.
My last bit of things culinary is that my friend Jason and I have tentatively scheduled next Thursday for a Chicago meat run. You can read about our last venture here. In addition to the usual joints (the Polish places in Jefferson Park and Devon Ave/Little India), I am hoping to make a stop at Paulina Market where they have more salami than you can poke a stick at. Plus the guys there give us Cheeseheads lots of free samples! I hope to have lots of mouth-watering pictures. Speaking of which, I took my camera into the shop just after Xmas and found out yesterday that Nikon is going to fix it for me absolutely gratis.
Lastly (truly lastly), I want to brew another batch of beer and I would like to do a lager. I'm not sure if I'm going to do it from grain, even though I now have a mill. But I want to age it in this crawlspace in our basement. While not exactly a cave, it's basically how my German ancestors did it and that's how I wanna do it.
No comments:
Post a Comment