01.27.07

Where is Bandol v2.0 ?

Posted in First Blog at 3:09 pm by johnc

Hi,

just wondering when and where Bandol will be opening again. 

John (dishwasher at bandol v1.0)

 

01.23.07

Zen and the Art of Real Estate

Posted in Bandol at 6:05 pm by Erik

5 years ago, my job was 99% food, 1% everything else.  Right now, it’s the polar opposite.  Sure, I get to make soup, hang out at Ladle all day, chat with friends and guests about food….I even cook at home with some decent results…go figure. 

But the sticks in my eye these days (yes, more than one), seem to be things like “Pro Formas”, “Projected Growth”, “Cost PSF both MG and NNN”.

Exhaust Systems are my nemeses, fax machines are beginning to REALLY freak me out, and the “Architectural Stamp” is the Holy Grail I have been searching for.  Our beloved City of Portland needs about 40 pages of info and signatures before I could even think about changing a light bulb, nevermind putting a hole in the wall to build a duct.  Building the duct, in fact, has to have about 15 people working on the same page….no….same word in the same paragraph. 

Conceptualising a menu and wine list has been put on a burner so far back that I can barely see it.  Nevermind designing the dining room and kitchen.

Mind you, I’m certainly not bitching or complaining….I’m extremely fortunate to have the means to rebuild and reopen Bandol.  This whole exercise is laying the foundation for my future as a cook and restaurant owner, as well as securing a small place in the culture of Maine as a whole. 

The point, is just that what the diner experiences is the culmination of a whole group of folks working in unison.  Not just the staff, but a whole network of builders, partners, contractors, architects, designers, city workers, artisans, number crunchers, real estate agents (my agent has been working with me for almost a year now….he wants me to reopen almost as much as I do).

Just like reading the inside of a record album, or watching the credits of a movie, there is a whole list of people responsible for the final product.  Any misstep along the way proves detrimental to the final product as well as extremely expensive.

So, next time you are at your favorite dining establishment, (my fave these days is Bar Lola), digging into a Cassoulet or Mushroom Popover, remember, it’s not just owners, chef, and staff who deserve credit.

PS   I just want to cook……

01.21.07

Braised Pork Shoulder w/ Spiral Staircase

Posted in Recipes & Techniques at 9:00 pm by Erik

So, you’re probably wondering what a spiral staircase has to do with braised pork….I’ll get to that later….as well as the resonance and sustain it has……

 To begin, I had some buddies in town this weekend.  We decided at the last minute to cook some food and open some wine.  Earlier in the day, my friend Paul told me about a technique i had never heard of.  Once explained, it totally made sense, and I immediately got excited and decided to try it out that night.  What he explained was a little simpler than this, so i decided to finesse it a little bit.

Pork Shoulder Braised in Polenta:

  • 5# pork shoulder steaks (aka country ribs)
  • 1 onion, sliced thin
  • 6 cloves garlic, minced into a paste
  • 1.5 C slow cooking polenta
  • 2 QT Chicken Stock or water
  • 1C HC
  • 1/2 C Roquefort
  • 1 head Radicchio, chiffonade
  • 1 Spiral Staircase
  1. Pat pork dry with paper towels.  Season with generous amounts of salt and pepper.  In a hot steel pan, sear pork steaks in canola oil until brown and delicious.  Only 2 will fit in the pan at a time, so between each batch, degrease and deglaze the pan to pick up the deliciousness.  Rest pork and pan drippings in a pan deep enough to hold them.
  2. THIS STEP IS IMPORTANT…….READ CAREFULLY!!!   Make sure the pan of pork is resting on the rail next to the spiral staircase.  Make sure you tell yourself, “Something bad may happen…..”   Don’t listen to yourself, and allow the pan of pork to rest there…..balancing….prone….vulnerable….browned and delicious….peering over the spiral staircase you walk up and down everyday.
  3. Allow your favorite Fancy Food Purveyor…..who shall remain nameless…….Sergio…..to deftly knock the pan down the aformentioned spiral staircase.  Hear the ringing of the pan, the “splash” of the delicious juice….the “clang” goes on and on…..you wonder, “do i really have that many stairs?????”
  4. It seems to go on forever.  Time stands still.  Put your hands over your face, and picture the pan walking down the stairs like a Slinky.  5 Steaks, one “plop”.  They do everything together.
  5. Now, laugh to cover up the tears welling behind your eyes.  Allow Jay and Sergio to retrieve the pieces of fallen pork, and to scrub the walls, window, and metal stairs.  Thank God that you had the foresight to Swiffer the stairs before folks showed up.
  6. Examine each piece of pork as they bring them back up the stairs, rinse out pan, and put them back in.
  7. Preheat oven to 375.
  8. Caramelise the onions in the searing pan, picking up what’s left from the last batch.  Hit the pan with chicken stock, and whisk in the polenta.  Dump half over the pork, and add the heavy cream to the rest of it.  BTAB, season well, and pour over the pork.  Braise in oven for 2 hours, lowering the temp to 300 after 1.5 hours.
  9. Pull out the pork, allow to rest, and whisk the blue cheese and radicchio into the polenta. 
  10. Chat with Sharkey about the Bag Game, drink some wine and enjoy the Pork…..remember, you swiffered….you can rest easy

01.08.07

Sou Fassum

Posted in Recipes & Techniques at 4:32 pm by Erik

Anyone who was at my last dinner party saw the Sou Fassum, in all of its glory.  I think there may be some photos of it out there on someone’s cameraphone.   

Compliments of Steve….newest member of the Tenacious D road crew……in charge of high-fives 

sou fassum

Sou Fassum (in Provencal dialect), is Chou Farci, or stuffed cabbage.  But, it’s no ordinary stuffed cabbage.  It’s a tradition in the area around Nice.  Cabbages are stuffed all over the world, but this is definately provincial.  Traditionally, the whole cabbage was stuffed, re-molded, and wrapped into a net-like bag, called a fassumier, then poached. 

Great for a dinner party, especially for the dramatic anticipation before slicing…sort of like when making any kind of layered terrine, or pate….did it set properly??? 

There are a few resources out there, but I just sort of adjusted things to my own taste

 special tools:

  • 3′ x 3′ piece of cheesecloth
  • 3′ piece of butchers twine
  • 12 qt stockpot
  • long wooden spoon, longer than the diameter of the pot
  • 6 to 8 hungry friends, maybe some foie gras too…maybe some scotch and a mechanical bull

 

Ingredients

  • 1 5# Savoy cabbage, nasty leaves removed, stem end cored out, but still with leaves intact
  • 3/4C Riz Rouge de Camargue, blanched for 15 minutes in salty water
  • 2# ground pork (Windy Hill is good), mixed with 1T Chili flake, 1T toasted Fennel seeds, 1t quatre epices, salt and pepper.  Taste it raw for seasoning…don’t worry.
  • 3 cloves garlic, mashed into a paste with a sprinkle of salt
  • 1 onion, minced
  • 8oz cubed porkloin, 1″ dice
  • 1 gallon chicken/beef or veal stock.  I used some ethereal pigfoot stock from the previous pigfoot party…mmmmm….

 

  1. In the stockpot, fill 2/3 with h20, BTAB, season with a handful of salt.  Plunge whole cabbage into boiling h20, allow to blanch for 8-10 min, remove to an ice water bath.
  2. While cabbage is cooling, sear the cubed pieces of pork in some OO, season with salt and pepper.  Add the minced onion, garlic and sweat until translucent.  Remove from heat
  3. Lay cabbage, stem side down, on the spread of cheesecloth.  Undo 1 leaf at a time, in order, dont break any, so it opens like a sunflower.  after about a dozen layers, cut out the core.  Chiffonade and add to the pork and onion mix, and put back on med heat until the cut cabbage wilts into the pork.  Set aside to cool.
  4. Once cool, mix with the ground pork sausage, adjust seasoning.
  5. Roll the farce into a ball, maybe about the size of a softball, depending on the size of your cabbage, and place into the center of the open cabbage “flower”.  (You may have a little bit left over,so roll into a cylinder of plastic wrap like a tootsie roll and freeze…slice off 1″ thick medallions and fry to med-rare for breakfast….or with scotch)
  6. Rebuild the cabbage, bringing the leaves up to the middle, in order….dont rip any.  Once cabbage is rebuilt, pull cheesecloth up around it, and twist to a compact ball.
  7. wrap a piece of twine around the twisted end and tie a slipknot.  Wrap the twine around 6 times to tighten, then secure with another knot, making sure it is SUPER tight.
  8. In the stockpot, you should have your stock of choice already simmering at between 180 and 190ish degrees.  Tie the other end of the twine to the wooden spoon, and dip the cabbage package into the simmering stock, resting the spoon across the rim of the pot.  Make sure the cabbage stays off the bottom of the pot, and suspended in the center.  (does that make sense???)
  9. Allow to simmer 3-4 hours.  If the cabbage wants to float, put a glass bowl upside down over the cabbage to weigh it down…but dont let it hit the bottom.
  10. After 4 or so hours, pull the cabbage out, wind the wooden spoon like a big key on a wind-up toy, to tighten the cabbage package again, and retie it.  Cool the liquid, and allow the cabbage to cool in it over night.  The next day, untie everything, pray that it set up, get your broiler hot, and slice into it like a birthday cake. Make your friends go “oooh-ah”
  11. Broil individual pieces with foie gras drippings spooned over, and a sprinkling of Maldon Salt

01.03.07

Sheep…….or cow?

Posted in First Blog at 2:56 pm by Mental Lentil

A friend of mine visits you quite regularly. I’m beginning to suspect an obsessiveness! She highly reccommends your soups, and updates me daily on her flavoursome soup du jour. I’m hoping to sample some soupy delights soon, and wonder if you can improve on my own favourite lentil soup recipe, which involves an onion, tomatoes, lentils (obviously), garlic, vegetable stock, cumin and coriander.

 Serious question: who would win a fight between a sheep and a cow, and why?

01.02.07

Salmon

Posted in Salmon at 1:27 pm by Erik

My old friend Kevin Lalumiere had a query about farm raised vs. wild salmon……what are some thoughts? I’m curious as well, to find out what the consumer prefers…..converse amongst yourselves

01.01.07

2006-07 thoughts

Posted in First Blog at 12:18 am by Erik

As the countdown to the new year approaches, I’m revisiting the events of 2006. Mind you, I’m contemplating on a personal level, but also mulling over certain social and cultural matters which personally affect my life, my craft, my future, and really….any issues providing the silk that weaves the web I call life.As far as New Year’s Resolutions go, I don’t have any. Sure, I could stop using so many cuss words, I could avoid the Scotch, I could even avoid sugars, carbs, duck fat, cheese and cured Pork products. I haven’t set foot in a church in…well…I don’t know how long. I could run my ass around the block a few times. (they say ass on network television now, so it’s really not a cussword). I could even stop watching network television.In fact, I have never really looked back on the previous year and said to myself, “Self…..you REALLY need to change this and that and the other about yourself. There is too much of this, not enough of that…..and really, you might want to quit the other. To do so would bring on immense amounts of guilt and shame when, two weeks after quitting Pork, I cave in and eat a pig sandwich from The Cheese Iron. Life with limits = unhappy life. Sure, moderation is the only healthy way to enjoy the hedonistic pleasantries of life. Just read “French Women Don’t Get Fat” by Mireille Guiliano. She spins a delicious “how to” list based on the lifestyles of Europeans. Beurre Blanc is A OK, but not by the gravy boat. A tablespoon will enhance the poached Dover Sole just fine. Believe me, I’ve seen cooks drink a pint of foie gras fat on a dare, and it’s not pretty. I repeat, not pretty. Don’t try this at home….

‘Let it be known that I don’t like new years parties, just because those who have them won’t invite me, based on the fact that they think I don’t like new years parties.’

Garrison Keillor, the voice, and now face of, “A Prairie Home Companion”, thanks to the movie, opened his NYE show at the original site of Grand Ole Opry, with the aforementioned (somewhat paraphrased) statement. I read “Lake Wobegone Days” as a kid, and listened to “APHC” on the weekends on the NPR station in New Hampshire.

As Keillor waltzes around downtown Nashville with Vince Gill (a country artist who I really can’t stand these days, but I’m sure as a kid he was great), he waxes poetic about the ups and downs of Nashville. He begins his stage show by stating that 2007 may be the best year we ever had. He also said, “If you get tired of sour cream, you’re tired of life…” His typical yet completely endearing self-deprecating persona sweeps through a jingle, managing to rhyme “playing an old Martin” with “a date with Dolly Parton”, and into a jam with Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas.

Some folks may want Dick Clark’s Rockin New Year’s Eve on their tube, but I’m more than content with Keillor and a long list of Nashville pickers and singers, making their way through miles of tunes the Good Ol’ US of A can call its own. There’s nothing more American than Martin Guitars, Bluegrass, and A Prairie Home Companion.

Also, The Old Crow Medicine Show. They’re a 5 piece old timey string band, right around my age, some older, some younger. They sound like they played pre WWII bluegrass before WWII. But, again, they are all about 30-ish. I enjoy all of their tunes, I play my own Martin guitar along with their CD’s, and have seen them once or twice live. High pitched, twangy, and in touch with the poverty, blight, and desperation of our nation after the turn of the previous century.

Ketch Secor, the fiddle player, graduated high school from Exeter Academy, a prestigious private school in NH. …. Huh??? No poverty, no blight, no worries, no food stamps??? How can a well-to-do white kid from a blue-to-white-collar family write such desperate, sad and hopeless country music lyrics? ….he’s a product of the generation who were products of the generation who lived through The Depression and the depression of the early 1900’s. Stories, songs, principles, and morals have been handed down through great uncles and grandparents. The Old Crow Medicine Show are a prime example of “backward thinking” young folks who re-interpret the thoughts and feelings of generations past, and let those thoughts and feelings flow through their pens, voices and stringed instruments.

Our culture, as a country, and as a whole, has had our share of mistakes, some unforgivable, some forgettable. We’re a melting pot….self described mutts of the human race. But, fortunately for us, most cultures have the proverbial skeletons they keep locked in their closets. Arrogance, shame, greed, envy and selfishness…..anything Yoda describes as being products of The Dark Side of The Force. Earlier in the evening I came across a movie called “Super-size Me”. The narrator and star of the documentary eats at (yet another American fumble) McDonald’s, every meal, every day, for 30 days. Three meals proper, for 30 days. From what I gather, his body turned to pure deterioration, malfunction, and anarchy. Anarchy of the body. Who would have thunk it?

Fast food, fast lifestyle, fast drugs, fast marriages in Vegas…..Fast faster fastest…..faster cars to crash, faster internet connections….drive through pharmacies, burger joints and, the epitome of American fuck-ups, the drive through Liquor store. They didn’t have those things in Lake Wobegone, Minnesota. Those folks in Lake Wobegone got fat from the ethereal sour cream they put on their baked potatoes, perched next to their 20 oz prime rib. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It wasn’t fast, and they probably had a great horn band playing in the background.

So, what does all of this rambling have to do with food, wine and the future of my restaurants?

Well, like the OCMS, I look toward the past for inspiration. The polar opposite of the new generation of “forward thinking” restaurants, I feel as though there are hundreds of dishes and techniques that have been forgotten, as well as hundreds of provinces in Europe, and thousands of French grandmothers.

More on the Bandol food theories tomorrow.

In the new year, appreciate your farmer, buy local, eat chocolate, enjoy Scotch (responsibly), give a nod to the Portland Fisher(wo)men, resolve to never have a resolution, learn to play an instrument, and always say “You’re welcome”.

Erik

 

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