Dancing Spoon

Cheese: Persillé du Malzieu

Cheese About

by Dana A. Romero
Persillé du Malzieu
Murray's Cheese shop describes our cheese of the week as "Spice is the variety of life, which is why we hunger for this rare, powerfully spicy blue. Produced just beyond the legally protected limits of Roquefort, this cheese is made of Lacaune sheep milk, like it's more famous neighbor, but captures a far greater flavor spectrum.

This cheese is Roquefort gone wild...

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Love cheese? Need a cheese guide? Dana A. Romero runs the Cheese Group at Dancing Spoon. This is where you can learn and discuss everything having to do with cheese. Every week we will highlight a different cheese.

Super Bowl Shuffle

Irishman The Healthy

by Chef Gavan Murphy
Mini Beef Sliders, Asparagus Skewered Shrimp, and Tandoori Chicken Skewers
Super Bowl Sunday is THE biggest sports day of the year here in the States. Though this is a relatively new ritual for me, I know that the game is only half the excitement. Yes there are there commercials, which have become wildly popular, but I’d bet that food on this day is just as important as the game itself. You can’t have a Super Bowl party without food, can you? But being a foodie and a health freak, I wondered, does football food have to be bad for you?

The key here is to make healthier choices especially since chances are you’re not drinking water! Here are a few ideas that will score big points even from the pizza crowd.

About Kate Gooding

Ordinary Out of the

Kate Krukowski Gooding
Beaver Chili? Grilled Wild Turkey? Braised Goat Shanks with Orange Zest? We’re very excited to introduce our newest contributor, Kate Krukowski Gooding, to Dancing Spoon. Kate’s column, Out of the Ordinary, found exclusively on Dancing Spoon, will bring you some very, well, extraordinary recipes and dishes. And on a tamer but no less creative side, you’ll find such interesting dishes as Grown Up Mac and Cheese with Maine Lobster and Roasted Ambercup Squash Chili. We know you’ll enjoy Kate’s column and recipes

Kate is most well known for her wild game dishes, layering of spices and creative food combinations. You wouldn’t expect that this cookbook author grew up in a meat and potatoes Polish/Irish family, where salt and pepper were the prominent spices at the table. Kate Krukowski Gooding's curious culinary journey began at the age of fourteen when her high school class embarked on a trip to Spain where she first discovered saffron. Shortly after her return she tasted her neighbor’s delicious Thanksgiving turkey stuffing loaded with sage. These two spices launched a lifelong spice quest. From an eight-month stint traveling through Europe, to trips across North Africa, Central America, China and the Caribbean, Kate has researched indigenous herbs and spices while satisfying her travel bug.

Braised Goat Shanks

Ordinary Out of the

by Kate Krukowski Gooding
Braised Goat Shanks with Orange Zest
This hearty recipe works well with lamb too, but I do love cooking with goat. The meat is lighter in color than lamb and tastes just as delicious. I first tasted goat back in the early 80’s on my first trip to Jamaica. We were at a Jamaican barbecue and Curried Goat was one of the main entrees. I’ll try almost anything that I have never tasted before. The tender goat meat was spiced perfectly with a hot Jamaican Curry. I knew I would create this dish at home.

Back home: So where do I get goat meat in Maine? I have been buying goat’s milk (for my infamous Goat’s Milk Peanut Butter Fudge) from Bob for more than 15 years. I was in luck; he had plenty of goat meat! I ended up buying a whole goat and tried many recipes for different cuts of goat. Goat is very similar in size and cuts to lamb except for the rib cuts, they seemed quite smaller. I feel the ribs were smaller in part because the goat was not raised on grain or corn but totally free range. Enjoy!

Grilled Scallops and Risotto

Irishman The Healthy

by Chef Gavan Murphy
Grilled Scallops with Saffron Butternut Squash Risotto, Grilled Asparagus
On one of my most recent trips to Ireland we ate in one of our favorite seafood restaurants, The Tankard, in my hometown. Ireland gets some amazing seafood from the Atlantic Ocean and it definitely affects the flavor to the good. The Tankard is known for their scallops, which are always so fresh and sweet. If only the Irish didn’t love their sauces so much. I’m not a big fan of putting sauce on my food as the Irish tend to do. In my opinion if the quality of the product is good let the flavor of the food speak for itself.

Just as with any seafood, it is best to purchase scallops from a store that has a good reputation for having a fresh supply of fish. Get to know a fishmonger so that you can have a trusted resource from whom you can purchase your seafood.

Gourmet Water

by J. Michael Wheeler

Premium bottled water takes a new twist: in-house premium water. Charles Fishman’s great FAST COMPANY article, Message in a Bottle (July/August 2007), examining our bottled-water-fixation and its ramifications, was a watershed moment. We’re pleased to let you know that the public has responded. The Dallas Morning News (1.1.08) reported that bottled water sales are expected to slow to a trickle this year, and producers are blaming everything from the parched economy to the kitchen sink.

But what if you still have a thirst for gourmet water? Or, the even harder task, resisting the snide waiter’s heavy-handed sales pitch of ”My I bring you bottled water or,” his lips curls as he pauses here, “tap?”

Cheese: Beemster X-O

Cheese About

by Dana A. Romero
Beemster X-O
I love the flavor of this week's cheese because "the butterscotch permeates the palate, followed by alternating waves of whiskey and pecan." I am sorry if I am waxing euphoric over this cheese but it is extremely good for being such an old cheese.

Beemster cows graze only on pesticide-free pastures which are located 20ft below sea level in North Holland. The rare blue sea clay of these pastures contains special minerals that give the milk a sweeter and softer milk fat. Hence Beemster cheeses have softer and creamier texture than other Dutch cheeses.

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Love cheese? Need a cheese guide? Dana A. Romero runs the Cheese Group at Dancing Spoon. This is where you can learn and discuss everything having to do with cheese. Every week we will highlight a different cheese.

Braised Beef Short Ribs

Irishman The Healthy

by Chef Gavan Murphy
One of my favorite cooking methods is braising as it is one of the most fool proof and easiest ways of cooking, not to mention a one-pot-meal! Braising is a cooking method that uses both moist and dry heat, typically used for tougher cuts of meat that require longer cooking times.

There are various versions of braising in one pot, most notably the French version, pot-au-feu, “pot on the fire”.  Short ribs are an amiable cut of beef perfectly suited for braising or slow barbecuing, both of which tenderizes the meat and brings out its rich flavor.

Cheese: Heublumenkase

Cheese About

by Dana A. Romero
Love cheese? Need a cheese guide? Dana A. Romero runs the Cheese Group at Dancing Spoon. This is where you can learn and discuss everything having to do with cheese. Every week we will highlight a different cheese.

Heublumenkase
OK so I know what you are thinking. Heublumen? That’s German for Hayflower isn’t it? Why yes it is but add the little word Kase (German for cheese) to the end of it and you get something revolutionary.

Herbs and Flowers Cheese or Kuh Heublumenkase in German, is a seductive blend of fragrant dried flowers, herbs, and pure organic Bavarian cows milk. Besides coming from high quality milk, this German cheese takes on extra character through the selection of organic flowers, including safflower, blue mallow, peony and marigold, mingled with rosemary, oregano and a dash of unrefined rock salt.

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The Bistro Part One

2008 Favorites

by J. Michael Wheeler
Every year we like to showcase our reader's favorite articles. Here's an all-time winner!

I’m sure it was Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast that made me fall in love with French food. Not Taillevent French food, but the café, the bistro, la bar. Before I ever ventured to my culinary nirvana I was steeped in Hemingway’s France: his baguettes, his well-lit tables, his wines. Then I read his almost-contemporary in Paris: A. J. Liebling’s wonderful adventures in eating: Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris. Next came, of course, Julia Child and actually trying to cook coq au vin.  And surprisingly, it was very good. But not as good as that first coq au vin on that first trip to France.

And then we were hooked. My former wife and I made frequent trips to Paris and Nice and Burgundy. I was able to arrange my schedule (I ran my own marketing and design studio) to allow several 2 or 3-week trips to France a year. And since that meant only 28 or 42 chances to have a meal (we didn’t really count breakfasts in the tally) we poured over Patricia Wells’ A Food Lover’s Guide to Paris, and A Food Lover’s Guide to France. Then there was the Michelin Guide and Le Guide du Routard. Each trip yielded notes and restaurant business cards: recommendations for places to try on the next trip.