bacon

Salad Frisée Lardons

by Anne Maxfield on November 29, 2012

Accidental Locavore FriseeThis is a classic bistro salad that is a particular favorite of the Accidental Locavore’s husband and her father. A poached egg is the traditional accompaniment. I usually eat mine without as I have an old abhorrence of runny egg yolks, but I’m told it adds that certain je ne sais quoi (f you need help poaching the eggs, click here).  It’s quick to make and is a good winter salad.

Salad Frisée Lardons

Print recipe
Serves 4
Prep time 20 minutes
Meal type Salad
Region French
The Accidental Locavore salad frisee lardon recipe. A classic bistro salad recipe with frisee, bacon and a poached egg with a vinaigrette dressing.

Ingredients

  • 1 head frisée, washed, dried and torn into bite-sized pieces
  • 4 thick slices bacon, cut into 1/2 inch matchsticks (lardons)
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 1 small shallot, finely minced
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 1/2 teaspoon herbs de Provence
  • 1/2 cup blue cheese, crumbled (use a good Roquefort)
  • 1 egg per person (optional)

Directions

Step 1
If you are poaching the eggs, start them first. Heat a small sauté pan with a tablespoon of oil over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook until the fat is rendered and the bacon is cooked but not crispy. Remove the bacon and drain on a paper towel. Reserve all the fat for the dressing. In a small bowl or 1-cup measuring cup, add the shallot, mustard, salt and pepper, herbs de Provence and red wine vinegar. Slowly whisk in the bacon fat until the dressing starts to emulsify. Taste and adjust olive oil and seasonings as desired.
Step 2
To construct the salad: Place the frisée and bacon in a large bowl. Add the dressing and toss to combine. On individual plates, put a mound of the dressed frisée. Top with the crumbled blue cheese and a poached egg if using. Serve and enjoy!
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Accidental Locavore Frisee LardonsMy verdict: This is a great salad that I don’t make enough! If you see frisée in the market, give this a try. Mushrooms or walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped are also a nice touch. The frisée on its own is also a good side salad for rich foods like duck (confit) or fois gras.

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Why Do I Like Butchers?

by Anne Maxfield on November 19, 2012

Accidental Locavore Butcher

Which do you eat more of, fish or meat? Almost every year, one of the Accidental Locavore’s goals is to eat more fish. I like fish, like it a lot, but I don’t cook it nearly as often as I cook meat. Part of that is due to the fact that while I know a lot of butchers and have great relationships with them, the same cannot be said about fishmongers. While there are plenty of good places in Manhattan to buy fish, none of the places I (in)frequent are the sorts where I ever see the same help twice. Upstate, the situation is more difficult as there is only one local store with decent seafood. It may also be an issue with the product–perhaps because they’re working with slippery, iced fish, somehow fishmongers never seem as affable as butchers. Or possibly it’s because for the most part, breaking down a fish just isn’t as complicated as a pig. I learned how to clean fish when I was a kid, so far pigs have eluded me.

And since almost all supermarket meat, is pre-packaged, watching a skilled butcher trim steaks to perfection or even cut up a chicken with a few strokes of a knife is witnessing an almost lost art.

Accidental Locavore Pig DiagramThe other day, I was in a new (to me) butcher, Schatzie’s on the Upper West Side. I had a discount coupon from somewhere, forgotten about it, and needed to use it, pronto. Schatzie, himself, greeted me like a long lost friend and went on to describe everything he had in the store, rating it as he went along. After a lot of perusal, I ended up with a roasted chicken, a steak, some pork sausage and his homemade bread & butter pickles. The chicken even came with sides of potato salad and coleslaw, although I have no idea how good they were, because Frank essentially inhaled them. The chicken, however, was really good, with a good clean chicken flavor. And I would definitely go back, because I know that no matter what crazy thing I was working on, Schatzie would take good care of me (although if it was something off the beaten path, I would call ahead).

Same thing with my other favorite city butcher, Dickson’s. Besides having the best bacon –possibly even better than mine — they make great sausages and the meat is pristine and locally sourced. Maybe if I hang out there more, they’d teach me the secret to their bacon (hint, hint). They also have some lesser-known cuts and will happily tell you the best way to prepare them.

Butchers have taught me a lot. At Quattro’s, near our upstate home, I learned how to judge how rare a steak is by touch. I know that a 14-day aged tri-tip is a wonderful thing–a 21-day old one, a little funky (and if you don’t know about tri-tip, get ye to a butcher!). Big Paul would lament about his lack of success hunting wild turkeys while putting together an Italian combo sandwich one of my friends named the best sandwich ever!

So maybe the next goal shouldn’t be eating more fish, but making friends with a fishmonger. Any suggestions? Or maybe it’s time to be really trendy and learn how to break down that pig…

 

 

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For the 12 Months of Charcutepalooza, the Accidental Locavore Made…

by Anne Maxfield on December 5, 2011

Accidental Locavore Pastrami

Wow! What a year! The Accidental Locavore has had so much fun with the Charcutepalooza challenges, not to mention what great charcuterie we’ve all been enjoying! For the “Showing Off” challenge, I did just that. My goal was to make all the things I’d thought about making over the course of the year and hadn’t done (yet). The bigger challenge was to find a venue for showing them off. You see, my husband — best taster and fiercest critic — works non-stop from the beginning of November (why he never saw the chorizo drying) through New Year’s Day, so a dinner party chez-nous wasn’t in the picture. Luckily, my friend Leslie has a “left-over” supper the Sunday after Thanksgiving where you can bring anything you’d like, so I was set!

My plan was to make two different pastramis, some bacon, the chorizo (from the November challenge) and a pâté de campagne. Accidental Locavore Pate de CampagneOver the summer, we’d had wonderful local lamb pastrami and a delicious beef tri-tip pastrami, and that became my pastrami inspiration. At the time of the bacon challenge, I didn’t have a smoker, so I’ve been dying to make more bacon and smoke it this time; this would be for personal consumption (sorry Leslie). The pâté is always good for a crowd and could be back-up hors d’oeuvres if (God forbid) the pastrami and chorizo didn’t work out.

Accidental Locavore My BaconOnce the refrigerator was stuffed to the brim (Santa Baby, how about a large-capacity fridge?) with pork belly, lamb shoulder, tri-tip, more pork (shoulder) a couple of duck legs (more about that in a minute) and more than a few duck livers, I got to work. Curing and/or brining the meats, then schlepping them to my country house for a weekend of intensive smoking. After a great breakfast featuring the bacon and some of my friend’s eggs, back to the city to finish the pastrami and make the pâté. While most people were fussing over turkey and stuffing the Locavore was steaming, grinding, confiting and having a great time!

Accidental Locavore Tri Tip PastramiA few hours later, beautiful pastramis (begging to be put in a sandwich…I acquiesced…fantastic!),Accidental Locavore Pastrami Sandwiches a big terrine of pâté, a ramekin of duck rillettes (the mixer was out and I had the duck confit…) and the chorizo, all once again, making a mockery of my refrigerator’s capacity.

The verdict? OMG! It was all great! Both pastramis were really good, the Locavore preferred the lamb, but they both had great taste and texture. The duck rillettes we previewed before the party Accidental Locavore Chorizio and Rilettesand they were good, but even better after a couple of days in the fridge, giving the flavors a chance to develop. There is currently a prominent Manhattan dermatologist who would not stop raving about the pastrami and will probably Botox my entire body in exchange for a slab of it.

Here’s what Leslie had to say “So impressed with your smoking skills.  Can’t believe how sensational the pastramis were…everyone loved it!  There were only a few scrapes left that hadn’t been put out.  Can only imagine the work that went into that.  BTW, the pâté, sausage & rillettes were also wonderful!  The pâté has been our snack all week.”

And while the challenges may be over for the time being, I’m going to go on grinding my own meat, making sausages both fresh and dried, perfecting bacon and smoking chickens (much faster butterflied and done two at a time). The duck confit (done sous-vide) will be a staple and I’ll just have to work out that much harder.

Thank you to Cathy and Kim for having such an amazing idea and letting me be a part of it!

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The Accidental Locavore’s 12 Ideas for Christmas Gifts

by Anne Maxfield on December 2, 2011

Accidental Locavore Stokes WreathSome years the Accidental Locavore just yearns for certain things and Christmas would be easy if anyone was listening. This year, I’m focused on things you might want. Added bonus: they’re all made by small, local businesses.

  1. The amazing lemongrass caramel from 2 Chicks With Chocolate. For the straight-up version (delicious warmed on ice cream) you have to check out their new store. Otherwise, custom-make yourself a box of their superb chocolates. Use code: Anne11, you get a 20% discount and my favorite charity gets a donation. Sweet!Accidental Locavore OMG Browines
  2. Speaking of caramel, a box of the OMG brownies from Salt of the Earth bakery. Get them at various places around Manhattan. Click here for locations.
  3. A workout session with my trainer. He’s the reason I can make and eat all this great food and not be morbidly obese…check out his shiny new gym and make a date with Ray.
  4. The partridge in the pear tree is so last century. How about an apple tree? Here’s the best part, you don’t even have to take care of it! Farmer Billiam and his crew will nurture your tree all year, you just come up at the end of the summer and pick away! Gift an apple tree lease.
  5. If one of the things you mourn for this time of year is fresh herbs, Stokes Farm has an answer for that. Order one of their rosemary wreaths, decorate for the holidays and have masses of rosemary at your fingertips. Pick up at one of the Greenmarkets, or have it shipped
  6. Accidental Locavore Ivan's UtensilsFor someone truly special, custom-made kitchen utensils. Ivan Hentschel hand-makes amazing wooden implements, rolling pins and butcher blocks. Actually he’ll craft a whole dining room table and chairs for you (but probably not in time for this Christmas). Email him (ihentschel@austin.rr.com) for details and see what your true love gives to you!

OK, enough about you…here are some more umm…personal…ideas:

  1. Molecular gastronomy kit. This is for my friend Zhu Zhu, who, it seems, wants the grown-up version of a chemistry set. The Locavore wants to watch!Accidental Locavore Bar Americain
  2. A copy of Bobby Flay’s Bar Americain cookbook. My iPad reviewers’ copy seems to have expired and the cauliflower gratin is still not perfected.
  3. The recipe for Serge’s (of Serevan) beef stew. (I’ve got one of the secret ingredients — dried Persian limes.) That way I can explore the rest of the menu when I eat there. And because I’ve been very good this year, the secret behind Dickson’s bacon.
  4. A new set of (impervious) oven mitts. Seems like mine bit the dust recently. Any ideas?
  5. A macro lens for the camera on my iPhone. Yes, the chorizo is waiting for its close-up.
  6. To win the Charcutepalooza challenge and go to France in March. Experiencing charcuterie at the source, along with market trips, Paris and possibly a French hen or three. Vous avez des pensées positives (think positive thoughts)!Accidental Locavore charcute-logo-small

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