PastaBasta

A photo I took of Mr. Faella outside of his Pastificio

Gragnano, Italy

Mr. Beard

I'm excited to be part of The West Village Social happening at the James Beard House this Tuesday, the 17th of July.
A bunch of great chefs from the neighborhood.

I'm even more excited to have Igor making Manhattans next to me!

If you're around please join!
Here's a link to all the info.. JamesBeardEvent

Salt Pork

While at the Nashville Farmers Market I stumbled upon this!!
Another reason to love the South..

Salt Pork is super easy to make.. I wonder why people don't do it more often.
Go to your butcher and ask for a piece of pork belly, take it home and rub kosher salt all over it...
I'd suggest adding sugar and spices as well.

Cover it and put it in the refrigerator for two days or until it feels firm.
Rinse and dry the pork, then wrap it in cheese cloth..
You can store this in the refrigerator for a long time.

As far as using it... the options are endless.
Cut it into small strips or cubes and add it while you're sauteing an onion for a soup or stew.
It's also great when cooking greens.. or any other vegetable for that matter.
Amazing in beans.. grind it and add it to hamburger or meatballs.. it goes on and on...

Chicken Picnique

One of my first dishes on the menu at Smith and Mills.
Cold Roasted Chicken, Potato salad with Caper vinaigrette, Haricot verts. Cornichons, grainy Mustard and Baguette.

This dish came to be when I visited a farm in Georgia.
We worked on the land all day, then drove a red pick up truck out to the middle of a field.

Our host had roasted a chicken the night before. We had baguette, some green beans, mustard, mayonnaise and a really cold bottle of Rose.

We ate in the back of the pick up truck with our hands.
The chicken coops were only 100 feet behind us....

Baby Steps

Here's an article about Smithfield hopefully, finally committing to stop using gestation crates. Let's hope they keep their promise this time.

Smithfield Foods To Stop Using Gestation Crates For Pigs By 2017

Also check out this video released by the Humane Society which gives a bit of background on the whole issue.

Save some Salmon

I recently went to hear Paul Greenberg speak, author of Four Fish, a NYT bestseller.

The lecture was held at The Explorers Club on the Upper East Side, which was sort of like stepping into a childlike fantasy, a Tudor style mansion outfitted with oak panelled walls, naturally.

But the stuffed Polar Bear, Elephant Tusks, and gigantic vintage globe really added to the euphoria.. if you have the opportunity, Go!


But to the important stuff.. Fish!!

Specifically Salmon..
(most of what we eat in this country is farmed)

The largest remaining Wild Salmon habitat on Earth is close to becoming no more!
Millions of sockeye, Chinook, chum, coho and pink salmon return from the sea to their spawning grounds in the pristine waters of Bristol Bay each year.

Sadly it may become the home to Pebble Mine, which would be the largest open-pit mine in America.
Help out Bristol Bay by going to SaveBristolBay

Also locally try to always buy Sockeye Salmon, which more than likely is fished from the Bristol Bay. Lets save some Salmon!

oh no Turkey!

Yet again another recall of ground Turkey.
Cargill recalls 185,000 pounds!!
In addition to the 2 million pounds of meat the company recovered and buried in a landfill.

You can read about it here.
Turkey Recall

That's a lot of Turkey.

Makes you think about how those Turkeys live.
And where this random occurring bacterium is coming from.
hmmm..

I think Turkeys should live like this..



You can buy these Turkeys at Heritage Foods USA

I know they're double the price of the weird genetically modified birds..
but try it out.