A traditional clafoutis is made in a deep, flared ceramic dish about eight inches across and four inches deep. I don’t have anything like that handy, though I do have plenty of cast iron, which is pretty much perfect for a job like this. I’ll use either a 9″ skillet or a small Dutch oven, […]
READ ONClafoutis may be French, but refined it ain’t. It’s a rough country dish from the Limousin region, which is in the south-central part of France, near the mountainous Massif Central. No one knows just how long the people of Limousin have been making clafoutis, though it’s fair to say that the dish became famous all […]
READ ONKla-FOO-tiss. Oh alright, that’s not how you say it. Can’t a guy have a little fun? Most anglophones pronounce the word kla-FOO-tee, though if you really want to get your frog on, you can say kla-foo-TEE. However I warn you that your friends will think you’re auditioning for an announcer gig on National Pubic Radio. […]
READ ONThe ever-vigilant Jim Chevalier has provided me with this link to an online version of From Captivity to Fame or The Life of George Washington Carver. It’s great reading, and includes Carver’s 105 Different Ways to Prepare the Peanut for the Table as an appendix. Sadly, a recipe for the mock asparagus isn’t in there.
READ ONI suppose it’s because I’m a Midwesterner, but when it comes to cherries, I’m a sour cherry man. Pie, turnovers, ice cream toppings…that’s where the money is with cherries as far as I’m concerned. There are one or two sweet cherry recipes that sway me, however, and clafoutis is one of them. And whaddya know, […]
READ ONI had to take another sudden trip to farm country. My apologies. However I will say the crops are looking fabulous. Combine state-of-the-art seed and machinery with an early planting and lots of rain and the result is corn that’s practically up to my shoulders already. So much for the oft-quoted adage “knee-high by the […]
READ ONThe nice thing about dog biscuits is that you can improvise a great deal with them, incorporating just about any element that your dog either likes or that you want to add to his/her diet. That said, feel free to swap ingredients in or out of this basic formula. As long as you have enough […]
READ ONReader Giovanni asks: Would you be able to explain how gluten affects dogs? I’ve heard that it is not great for their digestive system but am skeptical to believe that it’s true for all breeds. Thanks Giovanni! Having consulted the joepastry.com house veterinarian, Dr. Amanda Rizner, I have been authorized to say that while some […]
READ ONReader Jim C. of Chez Jim notes that dog biscuits go back at least as far as 1623 in Spain. Evidently, “pan de perro” was referenced in a play by Lope de Vega, a contemporary of Shakespeare and one of the great luminaries of Spanish Golden Age literature. Who knew dog biscuits had a literary […]
READ ONEveryone who’s driven I-71 between Louisville and Cincinnati in the last decade has seen the six-story yellow-tinted statue of Christ in front of Solid Rock Church in Monroe, Ohio, locally known as Big Butter Jesus. BBJ, or “Touchdown Jesus” as he is also known, has been a source of both humor and controversy for years. […]
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