SpiceLines

At the Carrboro Farmer's Market, a mix of hot and sweet capsicums from Peregrine
Farm are roasted over flames in a hand-cranked propane-fired wire drum.

Just like that, summer’s over.

Actually it's still sweltering, steamy, sweaty. Too hot at night to sleep with the sheet pulled up.

But when the sultry smell of roasting peppers begins to waft through the farmers market, I know that summer’s on the wane.

The Cochon Bloody Mary gets its kicks from 10 spicy
ingredients, including pickled okra and two hot sauces.
Photo credit: Terry Kuzniar for Garden & Gun

“You can order a Bloody Mary anywhere in the country but you can get a good one only in the South,” says Donald Link, executive chef and co-owner of Herbsaint and Cochon in New Orleans. In “Bloody Good,” (Garden & Gun, September/October 2008, p. 26), Link shares his recipe for this Southern scorcher with Francine Maroukian.

The Cochon Bloody Mary starts with a V-8 base, which gets “character and depth” from a hefty dash of pork jus, a reduction of pork stock. (Since Cochon serves seriously piggy dishes such as Louisiana cochon with turnips, cabbage and cracklins, and has an“in-house boucherie,” a pot of said stock is surely simmering on the back burner all day long.) But the drink gets its real kicks from 10 spicy ingredients, including ground pepper, whole grain mustard, garlic powder, Crystal brand hot sauce, green hot sauce, and juice from a jar of pickled okra. And don’t forget to stick a pod of pickled okra, the hotter the better (in my view), in the Bloody along with the usual celery stalk.

Oh, yes, there’s vodka in it too.

So why are Southern Bloodies so tasty? According to Link, that’s because “there’s more going on that requires daytime drinking : Football games, tailgating, the long, leisurely brunch. And here in New Orleans we have the best reasons for morning drinking—the night before.”

Do you love Asian food, but have trouble pairing curries and hot pots with the right wines? Are you concerned about the future of rice after 2008 shortages set off riots in Asia and caused stockpiling of imported grains here in the US? Maybe you’d like to learn how to make avocado chutney, cucumber kimchi or tomato chilli sambal.

Asian food lovers can explore all these topics and much more at the first annual Asian Culinary Forum in San Francisco the weekend of October 10-12, 2008. For three days the Ferry Building--and other locations around town--will be the venue for tastings, lively discussions and cooking demos by well known chefs, writers and other Asian food experts. Highlights include a wine and food pairing class at Le Colonial restaurant given by Singapore-based oenologist Edwin Soon; a chutney, kimchi and sambal demonstration cooking class given by Niloufer King, author of My Bombay Kitchen, and other chefs; and a panel discussion of the politics and practicalities of rice cultivation moderated by cookbook author and teacher Jeanette Ferrary.

Some of the most delectable restaurant food I’ve had recently has been cooked sous vide. At McCrady's in Charleston, Duroc pork loin from Caw Caw Creek exuded luscious juices. The lean loin appeared firm, but yielded to my fork as easily as butter, and it was packed with intensely piggy flavor.

Sous vide literally means “under vacuum.” Basically it involves cooking food in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag placed in a circulating water bath at very low temperatures. Cooking times can range from 12 minutes for salmon to 72 hours for short ribs; temperatures can be as low as 113 degrees Fahrenheit for fish and 140 degrees for beef. French chef George Pralus devised the technique in 1974 as a way of preventing fois gras from shrinking. Though it sounds awful, the results are sublime. Food emerges tender and flavorful; very little fat or seasoning is required.

Small Fairytale eggplants become creamy when grilled over a not too hot wood
fire. Toss them with your best French extra-virgin olive oil and chopped herbs.

Sigh.

Ced and Gil have just returned from a woozy month at Le Soupir. Le Soupir—a.k.a. the Sigh—is their house, not quite in the haute Var, about 5 kilometers from Callas, “a pretty unspoilt village of about 1,200 folk and a Saturday market with a fish stall which this year had stunning sole, done meuniere, and sar, which I baked stuffed with fennel and thyme from our lane.”

Are you green yet? Read on.

“The countryside is hilly and very wooded, slowly overtaking the old terracing, mainly chestnut (used to make flour and currently being revived) and oak. Roads are sinuous, but the only real danger is from putative Tour de France cyclists hurling themselves downhill.”

But back to the food. And the wine.

In a primeval, near-magical spice forest, leafy pepper vines
cloak the trunks of palm trees. Plump pepper berries, some
ripe, some not, dangle tantalizingly within reach.

For just a moment, for no reason I can decipher, I am in a place I know better than I should; I fall through the gratings of the conscious mind and into a place that observes a different kind of logic.

--Pico Iyer, Sun After Dark: Flights into the Foreign

Tall palms cloaked in heart-shaped leaves. Pepper vines dangling heavy clusters of green, unripe fruit.

Vaguely Indonesian houses, bright blue, burnt orange, pale pink stucco. Tip-tilted red tile roofs topped with bulbous finials pointing skyward.

A woman, head held high, striding along the edge of the road, ignoring the bleating motorbikes that sweep past her. Next, a sign for the Damsel Motor Driving School.

Then this:

An elephant sits regally in the back of a truck as he is chauffeured to work.

Burgundy okra from Perry-winkle Farm was the hit of the Wednesday Carrboro
Farmers' Market. The market and its farmers are featured in the October Bon
Appetit in "The Foodiest Small Town in America." Guess which "town" won.

Were you surprised to hear that Bon Appetit picked a locale known as “Durham-Chapel Hill” as “America’s Foodiest Small Town?” (October, 2008, pp. 96-103)

Actually I was.

I was also surprised to learn that Durham and Chapel Hill “are to many considered one and the same.” So much so, that the magazine decided to turn them into one hyphenated burg.

Having lived in New York for 11 years, let me say that’s a bit like lumping Manhattan and Queens together. Only an out-of-towner would do it.

Fried green tomatoes, a classic Southern dish, gets an Indian accent with the
addition of the sweetly fragrant spices in garam masala.

While B was in Boston, supping on Kumamoto oysters at O Ya, I spent the evening cleaning out the pantry. The Indian shelf is totally out of control.

At 12:42 AM Sunday I was sitting on the floor in a fragrant delirium, sorting through quart jars of Tellicherry peppercorns, fiery Kashmiri chilli powder and enough turmeric to stock a restaurant for 6 months. There were bottles of green and smoky black cardamom pods, thick barky rolls of Indian cassia, tins of fenugreek seeds. Who knew that I had six different kinds of garam masala?

And that was just the beginning. Is there a 12- step program for spice addicts?

My favorite Singapore breakfast: onion rava dosa, from Komala Vilas across the
street from K K wet market; a cripsy semolina pancake stuffed with purple onion,
green chiles and cumin, comes with sambar and coconut and onion chutneys.

Khao Soi—rice noodle soup with spicy pork paste and pea tendrils—from Laos. Chilaquiles—fried corn tortillas scrambled with chorizo, white cheese and smoky chipotle chiles—from Mexico. Shozuke—pickled cabbage, radishes and cucumbers—from Japan.

Lots of dishes worth getting out of bed for can be found in The Breakfast Issue of Saveur (October 2008). Reading Jeffrey Alford’s bleary-eyed meditation on pre-dawn chai in India took me right back to my own jet lagged forays on the subcontinent. “Walking the streets in the dark, I’m never far from a stall selling tea, or chai, as it is known in that country….Hot, sugary sweet, and mixed with milk, and sometimes, spices such as cardamom and cinnamon…it’s shot of pure rejuvenation. I always clasp a cup of the tea…and hold it close to my mouth, letting the steam roll up across my face.” And I was enticed by the recipe for Sayur Lodeh, a curry often served for breakfast in Singapore, though it’s clear I’d have to get up at 5 AM to make it.

Spicy soups are a breakfast favorite, especially in Asia and Latin America. The issue includes recipes for Caldo de Gallina, a Peruvian chicken soup with vegetables, noodles, cilantro, lime and red chile, and Congee, a soupy rice porridge served all over Asia. (For more flavor, simmer the rice with a piece of chicken and slices of fresh ginger; top with slivered scallions and chilli oil.) No mention of the ultimate breakfast soup, Vietnamese pho—beef noodle soup with green chiles, mint and basil-- but you can find a delicious recipe right here on SpiceLines.

At Sandwhich, Hich Elbetri browns chunks of goat meat
marinated in Moroccan ras el hanout before braising
them in white wine and chicken stock for 4 hours.

It was impossible not to go.

In fact, I could hardly keep myself from running downstairs, jumping in the Volvo and screeching down the driveway. I figured I could get there in 12 minutes flat, if I put the pedal to the metal.

Then I realized I would have to wait 17 hours (and 28 minutes) to taste Hich’s Moroccan Stewed Goat Meat with Dried Fruit and Almond Chutney, mainly because the slow braised dish wouldn’t be ready until 11 AM the next day. It’s good to read the fine print.