Meats, Roots and Leaves

When people I only see at Christmas parties lie to me and tell me I’ve lost weight, I usually laugh and say “Don’t worry, I’ll find it again.” Oddly enough, no one said it this season. Looking at this list of just some of places where I ate while travelling in 2011, I’m starting to understand why. Keep in mind, this list does not include restaurants in my home city, not to mention pizza deliveries.

With the exception of two places (a pub with an amazing selection of beer in Washington – I didn’t have the food so I can’t judge – and a restaurant in Istanbul with so-so food but a spectacular view – The picture above of the Blue Mosque was the view from our table), these, in no real order, are places I would not hesitate to eat at again. In fact, I can hardly wait.

The list…

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We’re having a little dinner party tonight for some old friends who are moving away and a few others who either want to wish them well or, were simply attracted by the promise of free food. Either way, this is one of the dishes they’re getting  (along with Italian onion soup and a roasted pork loin stuffed with spinach and pancetta) and it’s so good that I wanted to share it right away rather than let it stack up with the dozens of other recipes I keep meaning to post. I promised Italian food but this salad, made with grainy Dijon mustard and maple vinegar, might be a stretch. Maybe if I say it in Italian – insalata di barbabietola – I might get away with it.

Golden beet salad

Serves six

2 pounds golden beets

1 teaspoon grainy mustard

4 tablespoons maple vinegar

1/2 teaspoon sugar (optional)

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil plus a little more to drizzle over beets before roasting

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat oven to 400 F

Wash beets and trim tops if required. Place each beet on a square of foil wrap large enough to wrap the whole beet. Drizzle olive oil over the beets and seal the foil. Place in the oven for 45 minutes or until you can slide a blade easily into the beet. Remove and set aside to cool. When cool, cut the skin off and dice the beets into quarter inch squares.

Meanwhile, combine mustard, maple vinegar, sugar (if using) and whisk to combine. Add olive oil while whisking. Toss the beets with the dressing and serve at room temperature. Enjoy.

This is the first recipe I have made from The Chez Piggy Cookbook, despite the fact it will always be my favourite restaurant and I have had the book for years.

Chez Piggy was opened in 1979 in a refurbished limestone stable by Zal Yanovsky and his partner Rose Richardson. Both Zal, who was the co-founder and lead guitarist for The Lovin’ Spoonful, and Rose are gone now but the Kingston institution lives on. I started going there in 1988 when, as a grateful starving student, I won a $25 gift certificate in a raffle. I used it to buy dinner for L where, my courage bolstered (and, I have always assumed, her resistance lowered) by a nice bottle of wine, I proposed.

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Saw these in a little shop in our village and immediately picked up a bundle without even looking at the price, which turned out to be around $7 with tax. “They make a perfect hostess gift,” the sales clerk said. “Maybe so,” I replied, “but these are for me.”

Okay, there’s one born every minute. I soaked two of these – they are made from the staves of used oak wine barrels – in water (the label suggested soaking them in wine as an alternative. Yeah, right) and put them on the charcoal grill when I made a flank steak for four out-of-town colleagues looking for a free meal. Have to say, I couldn’t taste the wine (in the meat at least). The oak, however, gave the meat an intense smokiness and everyone raved about the flavour. So, we decided to do our best to empty another barrel for future barbecues.

Finally, a scientific study that suggests hamburgers may not be that bad after all.  The conclusions, published in the journal Circulation, found that there was no causal link between red meat and heart disease. This fantastic news comes to us from very smart people at Harvard so it has to be right. The study suggested that it is sodium and chemical preservatives that contribute to heart issues, not the meat itself. So, bacon, ham and sausage are still culprits. And red meat is still a suspect in some colon crimes so, it’s not off the hook yet.  But at least you can eat a hamburger to your heart’s content.

I can say, after a juicy half pound of  due diligence of my own, that a hamburger tastes just as deliciously bad for you as it did before the latest study.

Here’s my version, made with grass-fed Lincoln Red beef from the farm we support as CSA members. Yes, it does have bacon on it, but it is our favourite artisanal bacon made without nitrates. These are best cooked on the barbecue (seared and then moved to indirect heat to cook through) although I sometimes fry them in a pan and finish in the oven (350 F).

I will have to stop calling this burger the Heart Stopper (at least until another study comes out).

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