The Essential Gluten-Free Grocery Guide (5th Edition)

by Dave Morris, Bob Stamatatos and the Triumph Dining Team
Publisher: www.TriumphDining.com
$24.95

Mama is absolutely amazed at all the celebrities that are now eating gluten-free… either by choice or because they have to. Bet they don’t have the mind-boggling, and often overwhelming, task of trying to buy gluten-free groceries.

The so-called gluten-free aisle is paltry at best, and seems to be filled with a lot of cookies, crackers and other high-carb indulgences.

But there are a lot of gluten-free items in the store that you may be passing up because they doen’t have a label that screams: BUY ME! I’M GLUTEN FREE!

Thank goodness for Triumph Dining’s “The Essential Gluten-Free Grocery Guide 5th Edition”.

This handy little soft-cover book is organized logically by grocery store aisle. It covers more than 44,000 products, including 3,300 Brand names.

I really like it because it has a guide that tells you which food makers are upfront about cross-contamination risks. It also has handy little symbols to let you know really important info like:

• Made in a GF facility with no chance of cross-contamination
• Gluten Testing is performed on the products
• Procedures to prevent Cross-Contamination, but equipment/facilities may be shared with other gluten-containing food products

The cost of gluten-free items is sometimes DOUBLE the cost of similar gluten-loaded items, so the guide includes store brands from some of the larger chains like Safeway, Kroger and Albertsons.

Even if they don’t buy their own groceries, it’s somewhat consoling to know that the celebrities aren’t perfect… they have issues just like the rest of us!

Ripe: A Cook In The Orchard
by Nigel Slater

Publisher: Ten Speed Press
ISBN 978-1-60774-332-3

“Growing your own is as addictive a drug as almost anything out there.”

What it’s about: Yes, it’s a cookbook with deliciously mouthwatering sweet and savory recipes, but Nigel Slater has also filled it with beautifully written prose about growing, caring and preparing the fruit from his 40-foot London garden. A follow up to his book “Tender: A Cook And His Vegetable Patch.”

Who Should Read This: Each of the 24 chapters is a carefully crafted paean to a single fruit… he even includes a few eclectic items that we rarely see. Heard of damsons? How about medlar? Me neither. Regardless, if you like to cook, most of the recipes are relatively easy (and incredibly informative). And if you just like to look and imagine cooking, you’ll be more than rewarded.

Crisp pork belly, sweet peach salsa
Image by Jonathan Lovekin

Why You’ll Like This: This cookbook truly transports you to the reality of cooking. The images are bold and beautiful. The prose, incredibly visual: “The sudden sight of a cherry orchard in flower, perhaps as you turn a corner on a twisting country lane, can take your breath away.” This is adventure reading!

Favorite Part: I like cookbooks that teach me something, beyond learning how to make a new dish. This book really gets into the nuances of fruit: when it’s at its peak, how to store it and offers up some delightfully interesting pairings. Pears with salty bacon… yes please!

The Maine Lobster Book

by Virginia M. Wright
Publisher: Down East
$14.95

“A truly destitute man is not one without riches, but the poor wretch who has never partaken of lobster.” — Anonymous

Get out the Lobster Pots! Tomorrow is National Lobster Day!

Maine lobsters are plentiful and relatively cheap these days so it’s not really that crazy to think about joining the celebration (especially with Father’s Day around the corner… hint, hint).

Speaking of Father’s Day, if you’ve got a lobster lover in the family, I’ve got the perfect gift: “The Maine Lobster Book”… 96 pages of lore, traps, festivals, recipes and even lobster lovemaking (lobster ladies like their mates tough,strong and feared, but respected, by other male lobsters in the ‘hood).

If you like books about food, and the history and nuances of its journey to our plates, author Virginia M. Wright has done a fantastic job digging up fascinating facts and humorous asides about these arthropods. For example: did you know that lobster shells are used to make biodegradable golf balls (could this spark the revival of driving ranges on cruise ships?), dog treats and calcium rich plant pots.

And then there’s all that sex… who knew? She writes this about the females reaching sexual maturity: “They get…PMS—pre-molt syndrome—when, like their mother before them, they tidy up their shelters and walk the watery streets in search of the toughest guy in the neighborhood.”

But we all know that the best part about lobster is eating it.The recipes are a perfect mix of the basic (Boiled and Steamed Lobster) and the more complex (Herb Grilled Maine Lobster Tail on Arugula with Chive Ricotta Gnocchi & Corn Milk).

For dessert, Wright says you simply have to visit Ben & Bill’s Chocolate Emporium on Main Street in Bar Harbor. There you can get a butter-based vanilla ice cream studded with butter marinated lobster chunks.

Alright, get crackin’… this Father’s Day, it’s lobster all around!

Absolutely amazed at how many of y’all have asked for the French Laundry Cookbook recipe Carlos and I put together a few weeks ago… foie gras… lobster… port wine. Guess the economy IS improving.

Happy days are here again! (C’mon, I can hope, can’t I?)

Coincidently, last week the 2012 Michelin Guide to the “San Francisco, Bay Area and Wine Country” once again gave three stars to the Thomas Keller restaurant. The French Laundry has garnered three stars every year since 2007, the first year the Bay Area Guide was published.

I know you’ve heard about “Michelin Stars”… but do you know how they work? The Michelin star is basically the universal standard for determining the best of the best in fine dining, here and abroad. Michelin publishes three U.S. guides, to Chicago, San Francisco and New York City. Internationally, 27 Michelin guides cover 23 countries and three continents, featuring more than 45,000 restaurants. All of the restaurants are visited anonymously.

Mama would sooooo love that job.

This recipe requires great ingredients and a lot of prep. This is an “investment” recipe… it costs quite a bit of time and money to make, but the payoff is memorable. My only suggestion: Don’t take shortcuts. If you’re going to cook Keller… Cook Keller! Do everything to the best of your ability. And if you mess up… hey, it’ll still be delicious.

After all… how can you go wrong with foie gras and lobster?

Five-Spiced Roasted Maine Lobster with Port-Poached Figs and Sautéed Moulard Duck Foie Gras

Chef Keller’s French Laundry Cookbook book says: “No portion of this book my (sic) be reproduced—mechanically, electronically, or by any means, including photocopying—without written permission of the publisher.”

The publisher wouldn’t give Mama permission, and I respect that, so I’m going to give you a rough idea of what Carlos and I did to pull this tres magnifique dish together. For the precise ingredient amounts and the exact technique, go to the library and write down the recipe… or buy the book (regularly $50, but only $26.50 at Amazon.com). It’s a fabulous book just to look at, even if you don’t make a single recipe in it!

These are all the ingredients you’ll need:

Black Mission Figs, port wine, ground coffee beans, bittersweet chocolate, butter (lots and lots of it), shallots, chives, chicken stock (make your own or buy it fresh or frozen… no canned or boxed!), kosher salt, lobster meat, Chef’s Keller’s Squab Spice (he gives you the recipe to make this), foie gras, black pepper and a special gray salt (which you can find at specialty spice stores).

Carlos and I divided the duties and worked out a game plan for pulling everything together. You may want to enlist some help… I’ve found it’s a lot easier (and more fun).

1. Prep the figs and poach them in the port. Put some of the figs, coffee and chocolate in a blender… add the port from the pan and blend some more. Strain the mixture into a saucepan.

2. Dust the lobster meat with Chef Keller’s Squab Spice and salt and cover with melted butter. Heat it on top of the stove for a bit and then put it in the oven.

3. Cook the foie gras quickly in a very hot pan.

4. Spoon some warm fig sauce onto the plates. Build a little tower on each plate: one of the leftover figs, some lobster, more butter and then the foie gras. Top with the chives and fancy gray salt.

Chef Keller in four easy steps! See, that wasn’t so hard…

Five Spiced and Roasted Main Lobster with Port-Poached Figs and Sautéed Moulard Duck Foie Gras