( – promoted by Sue Prent)
Hopefully everyone is getting back to at least a new “normal,” following Irene. So it’s about time we bring back the Green Mountain Gourmet feature contest. This time, barring natural disaster, we’ll give everyone until Thursday, Sept. 22 to get their entries into the comments section. Then our astute panel of jaw-flappers will declare a winnah!
As everyone gets a little “antsy” in the declining days of August, we’ve cooked up a little contest for our GMD community to get your minds off the weather and your creative juices flowing.
We’d like to know what local food treasures you have found, whether at a farm stand, the corner store or even in your own backyard. We’re inviting you, our readers, to become guest food-writers and describe for us as vividly as you can, two of the best local products you’ve found in your little corner of the world.
All entries will be judged by our esteemed panel of career eaters and editors. One lucky writer will be named our “Green Mountain Gourmet” and receive the coveted prize of a GMD mug and one-pound of my favorite local coffee, “Woodchuck Blend” by Kahwa Coffee of Swanton, Vermont.
Woodchuck is a dark earthy roast, deeply satisfying and smooth. It really delivers on the promise of its classic “fresh-perked” aroma, evoking memories of checkered tablecloths and my mother’s fresh-baked stollen. Tastes so good it’ll bring tears to your eyes!
See how easy it is? Here’s another:
My favorite ice cream discovery this summer is, not surprisingly, a local standout: “Habanero Maple” by Island Ice Cream of Grand Isle, Vermont. While all the Island flavors put the big names to velvety shame, “Habanero Maple” is the creme-de-la-ice-creme of gustatory narrative. It begins its palatable journey on the tongue as a cool whisper, all satin-smooth dairy and quiet caramel. Melting sensuously down the throat, it bursts into crackling warmth as the pepper asserts itself for a grand finale. Pure fireworks!
Okay, now it’s your turn…
Entries will be judged on mouth-water, stomach rumble; and, probably, what I had for breakfast. So sell it large and make it tasty, and you, too, could wash it all down with a big cup ‘o Chuck!
Not sure this counts as food writing, but back in the late 1970’s I did have a most unusual lunch prepared by New York Times food man Mark Bittman. Then unknown as a food writer Bittman had just purchased and was living in a two family house in New Haven Ct.
The carpentry company I worked for was hired to do some miscellaneous work on the place. The foreman was friends with Bittman who was home that day. If I remember correctly he was a salesman or something then and had just started writing occasional unpaid restaurant reviews for the local alternative free newspaper. That I do remember because he told us an owner of an Italian restaurant had called and objected to a recent bad review suggesting somewhat aggressively that only Italians should review Italian food. Mark called him the knee capper yet seemed undaunted by the call.
Around noon as we finished putting in a new kitchen window in his second floor apartment Mark offered us lunch he had prepared. I put aside the peanut butter and jelly sandwich (Skippy smooth, Welch’s grape jelly on white bread) I had packed in my lunchbox and tucked into a Georgia red-hot (no roll) and a bowl of canned chicken noodle soup. The un-naturally bright red frankfurter with green flecks of jalapeño was the ideal counterbalance to the warm pale yellow soup. We slurped the soup while beads of sweat formed on our upper lips from the spicy peppers embedded in the flavor free pink filling of the red-hot. Washing it all down with a refreshing glass of tepid city tap water I wondered, does it get any better than this?
I’m going to be busy with storm clean-up in the next couple of days.
As part of the GMD team, I don’t qualify to participate, but I do have a localvore-ish recipe to share as one of the best foods I’ve ever had:
4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate (the better the quality, the better the sauce; although I had great results using 1 oz. Baker’s brand with 3 oz. Ghirardelli)
1 cup Vermont A-Dark or B maple syrup (I get mine from a neighbor)
4 ounces butter
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
1. Put chocolate, syrup, and butter in a medium saucepan over moderate heat. Melt together and bring to a rolling boil.
2. Keep at a rolling boil to “softball stage” (for you candymakers out there), stirring occasionally. If “softball” to you means bats and bases and pitching underhand, then set your timer to 8 minutes at the start of the rolling boil, and stir occasionally – you’ll feel it when it starts to get thick.
3. Remove from heat. Stir in the salt and vanilla. Let stand 5-10 minutes, then serve over ice cream or fruit or sponge cake or some combination thereof.
I promise you that you will taste chocolate with a new depth on your palate. That depth is provided by the maple syrup, which has the good manners to support the chocolate fully and tastefully without in any way taking over or being obvious. During strawberry season bring home some just-picked, dip them in the barely warm sauce, and get little orgasms of sweet and juicy and dark and deep and chocolate in your mouth. If you go for icecream under the sauce, I recommend starting out with a good quality vanilla, and that would be B&J’s or Lake Champlain or Island Homemade. Coffee icecream is instant mocha under this sauce – with a zing.
If there’s any left, leave it (covered) on the back of the (unlit) stove overnight, it’s even better on the second day. If it gets a little grainy, add a tablespoon each of butter and maple syrup, and reheat gently, stirring. Go ahead, lick it off the finger you dipped into the (cooled) pan, you know you want to …
NanuqFC
Seeing is deceiving. It’s eating that’s believing. ~ James Thurber