How the heck do you pronounce it anyway?! Gyro

I say, yee-roe. Not guy-ro or gee-roe, but what do I know? This week was Greek week for specials so I was cranking out the gyros and moussaka. This weekend I'll post my moussaka recipe which was really, really good. And as promised to Lori Lynn...lot's o' cheese pics. But until then, drool over my lunch today!

Election Day...our way!

A historic night indeed. One that I'm sure I'll remember for the rest of my life. After all, its a rare night that I have a hot toddy and turkey!

Gutes Frühstück

Yesterday Tyler and I took a true day off - no computers (mostly), no cell phones (mostly), and just lazed around (mostly). He started the day making me a German pancake with egg, which I hadn't had German pancakes in years. One of my favorites was in Indianapolis at Rick's Pancake House when I took all of my nieces for a morning of gluttony. I know I had the German pancake. Emmy had chocolate chip pancakes. Kelsey had a Belgian waffle. Erin had a huge stack of blueberry pancakes. And for the record, my non-food memory sucks, but I remember this meal even though it was from 10 years ago.

Food of the Soul: Shepard's Pie

When you start slicing away layers of life crap and get to the essence of who you are and what you are, we all have an innate connection to something or someone. For Tyler, there is a clear connection to the 1910s (give and take a decade). For me, there is some very strong connection to African American women. I don't know what it is - past life, psychic energy, memories from childhood. I'm not sure, but its been there as long as I can remember. I find it comforting. I'm thankful for it and embrace it regardless of what IT is.

That connection has led to a string in my life story that include a visit to Soul Vegetarian East. It is a restaurant of the African Hebrew Israelites in the southside of Chicago. It's in a rough neighborhood, and I remember enjoying that vegan soul food like no other. I've found other "homes" at soul food restaurants in New Orleans and Indianapolis, but they never lived up to that experience at SVE. I even bought their cookbook, but you know how it is - just not the same.

All of this reminiscing is because today I was craving soul food. I've felt a bit scattered and hurried in my life, so naturally my body is saying, stop and eat from your soul. And so tonight I whipped up a good old fashioned shepard's pie. A bit of bison, leftover vegetables, a bit of hoisin (my twist), and topped with taters seasoned with clove and aged cheddar and finished with panko. Not quite the usual, but damn good anyway! And my soul is still for one more day.

November Drool

Here's a good start to the month

Bread can't get any more perfect than this!

And for a little snack - foglie mais (leaves of corn) from one of our Italian producers. Very light, delicate cornmeal cookies topped with leftover clove infused white chocolate...a perfect breakfast.

TGRWT #11: Bananas & Cloves

Over at Khymos.org (linked in our favorite blogs), each month the site challenges folks to create dishes using unusual, yet reflective ingredients. It's an interesting idea - "If two foods share one or more key odorants, chances are that they will go well together. The first step towards finding new pairings would be to identify key odorants." From Wiki: An aroma compound, also known as odorant, aroma, fragrance or flavor, is a chemical compound that has a smell or odor. A chemical compound has a smell or odor when two conditions are met: the compound needs to be volatile, so it can be transported to the olfactory system in the upper part of the nose, and it needs to be in a sufficiently high concentration to be able to interact with one or more of the olfactory receptors.

Coming off of the tasting menu, I didn't have time to do anything fancy, but I did want to throw two creations into the ring. First off is my Banana Clove Canolli.

Process one half of a ripe banana with one whole egg. Spread thinly on a silpat and bake at 200 F until no longer tacky, but before it crisps. Mine took about 90 minutes. Shape your tuile around a dowel lined with parchment. Bake until crisp - about 2 more hours in my case.

Warm one can of coconut cream and add 1 T. of freshly ground cloves. Bring to a simmer and remove from heat, covered. Steep for at least 2 hours - I steeped overnight. Make a 4:1 white chocolate ganache using the coconut milk. Let rest until it starts to firm, then pipe into the shell.

How did it taste? This pairing is not quite as daring as others, but I also chose the easy path by making a dessert. The banana was subtle, yet lingering and deep. The clove, on the other hand, was at first over powered by the white chocolate, but then remained the lasting taste in my mouth. If doing this again, I would work the ganache into a mousse to lighten it up (I was out of cream).

On a side note, the banana crisps by themselves were outstanding once crisp, and make super plating decorations. They were very easy to shape with a great texture, and not overly banana-ey by themselves.


As I said, I copped out by making a dessert, so I took a bonus stab at this challenge - Banana Martini with Clove "Olives."

Using Tito's handmade vodka (gluten free) I mushed the other half of the banana and let it steep overnight. I then did a gelatin filtration process to remove the solids resulting in the clear vodka again. And finally a simple clove infused coconut milk, formed into spheres and dropped into the martini.

The result looked like vodka but tasted like banana soup. It was very sweet, with no taste of vodka whatsoever. The melting coconut and clove gave a nice undertone to the second and third sips. Although it didn't taste like vodka, it still had a kick -- the vodka made my head numb and the clove made my tongue numb. This could be a dangerous drink!

Blog of a blog: Breadhunter's Blog

I added a link to this very interesting blog that focuses on the culture of sourdough (pardon the pun), and particularly the ways in which people prepare the bread. I was led to this from a recent request that someone in town had regarding an horno oven that our community might install. Check it out.