Author Archives: Peter - The Roaming GastroGnome

Born and raised in the beautiful Mid-Hudson Valley of New York State, moved to DC for a job, stayed way longer than I thought, got married and moved to Chicago for her job. It's an awesome city!

Braised Fennel Gratin – Yes We Do Eat Vegetables Sometimes

Looking back at recent posts I notice there are a lot of meat-centric ones. Though I do love cooking meat, curing it, making sausages, etc., I think the recent posts are due more to seasonality. It’s winter, we eat more braises and roasts than salads. That’s not to say vegetables disappear altogether from the table,Continue reading “Braised Fennel Gratin – Yes We Do Eat Vegetables Sometimes”

Culatello – Another Curing Result is In!

A little more than a month ago I posted about curing a butchered ham into a fiocco and culatello. At the time I was only able to show you the fiocco since being the smaller of the two it was ready in a shorter amount of time. Well, here we are 5 weeks later andContinue reading “Culatello – Another Curing Result is In!”

Roast beef with Coffee Rub and Bordelaise Sauce

I had a really nice piece of beef sitting in the fridge and wanted to do something a little different with it. Nothing really jumped out at me from the cookbooks I was looking in but I did see a sauce idea for a rather simple version of Bordelaise sauce. So I thought ok, that’llContinue reading “Roast beef with Coffee Rub and Bordelaise Sauce”

40 Cloves of Garlic Chicken With Tarragon Mustard Sauce

  I don’t think I had cooked any chicken since before Thanksgiving so this was a refreshing change of pace for us from all of the Christmas/New Year’s overindulging. Now that I think about it, I am pretty sure the last time we had a chicken dinner here at home I made 40 cloves ofContinue reading “40 Cloves of Garlic Chicken With Tarragon Mustard Sauce”

Cotechino – Buon Anno!

I think this last post of 2015 pretty much sums up my excellent sausage-making year and kicks off the next in an awesome style. Cotechino and lentils is a traditional Italian New Year’s dish served for good luck, much like black-eyed peas here in the US. The lentils are supposed to represent coins, no ideaContinue reading “Cotechino – Buon Anno!”

Merry Christmas! Christmas Salami!

I’m deep into prepping our Christmas Eve dinner but wanted to share a photo of some salami I made yesterday, some Christmas Charcuterie if you will. Instead of wrapping and putting under the tree, I stuffed and hung them in the curing fridge. Makes quite the Christmas card, no? Should be ready in a monthContinue reading “Merry Christmas! Christmas Salami!”

Culatello and Fiocco – I Am Ham, Ham I Am

When we returned from our Tuscan vacation back in October I was extra-inspired to try curing new things like salumi and hams. Eating prosciutto all week will do that to you. Inspired, yes, but not quite ready to go whole hog (ha ha ha) and hang an entire leg in my basement. Instead, I optedContinue reading “Culatello and Fiocco – I Am Ham, Ham I Am”

Creamy Mushroom Soup – A Good Winter Warmer

This week’s post was inspired by a bowl of mushroom soup Cheryl had over the weekend at one of our favorite local French restaurants. As is often the case when she orders something really delicious she asks ‘can you make this?’ Of course I can, dear. For you, anything. One pot of creamy mushroom soupContinue reading “Creamy Mushroom Soup – A Good Winter Warmer”

Spanish Chorizo

Ever since I purchased Ruhlman’s Charcuterie years ago I’ve wanted to make Spanish chorizo but it requires dextrose and meat starter culture, two ingredients I never had on hand and had always put off buying. That all changed last month when I decided this coming winter would be the winter of fermented sausage and orderedContinue reading “Spanish Chorizo”