I’m not a beer geek at all, but when one of my favorite breweries (Weihenstephan) teams up with one of my least favorite breweries, I get anxious to see the result. A week ago a friend dropped off a bottle of the limited edition Weihenstephan and Samuel Adams collaboration, the “Infinium Ale.” I haven’t cracked it open yet, and I’ll update the post when I do, but I just wanted to put it out there that this does exist and that it’s an interesting collaboration. The packaging was designed here in Boston by Adam & Co. and it looks amazing.

Stay tuned for a review (I’m cringing because I don’t “review” things)…

Pumpernickel and Duck Confit Stuffing with Braeburn Apples and Hazelnuts (image: top)

What you need:

• 2 Duck legs (about 1.5-lbs)
• 1/2 Pint, rendered duck fat
• 8 Slices of pumpernickel bread, cut into cubes
• 8 Slices of wheat bread, cut into cubes
• 1 Shallot, finely diced
• 3 Sprigs of thyme, picked and chopped fine
• 1 Sprig of rosemary, picked and chopped fine
• 3 Bay leaves
• 3 Leaves of sage, chopped fine
• 1/2t. Savory
• 1/2t. Lavender
• 1/8c. Salt, plus some for seasoning
• 3 Small onions, diced
• 2 Braeburn apples (or whatever kind), peeled, cored, and diced
• 2 Ribs of celery, diced
• 1c. Hazelnuts, chopped
• 3 Cloves of garlic, chopped fine
• 1/2c. White wine
• 2c. Chicken stock

The Process:

dry cured two duck legs (~1.5lbs total) from sherman market with one finely diced shallot, 1 sprig worth of thyme, a bay leaf, 1/2t. savory, 1/2t. lavender, and 1/8c. salt, overnight in a non-reactive container. rinsed off the legs and seasonings and then patted the legs dry. placed the legs in a vacuum bag with 1/2-pint of rendered duck fat (bella bella birds), a sprig of fresh thyme, the rinsed spices from the dry cure, and one diced small onion. stuck the vacuum bag in a 165-degree thermocirculator (water bath) for 13-hrs. let cool for an hour, then removed the legs from the bag, strained out the spices and aromatics, ladled the fat back into a container in the refrigerator, and set aside the confit jelly. pulled the meat and fat off of the two legs and separated into thin strands (like pulled pork). broke down the skin and fat into similarly sized pieces. placed all of the fat, skin and meat in a container and ladled the still-liquid confit jelly over the top until totally covered. set aside for later in the process.

put 1T. rendered duck fat and 1T. olive oil to a 10-in saute pan over medium heat. added 2 diced small onions and 2 diced ribs of celery, and cooked until soft. seasoned with salt, pepper, 3 finely chopped fresh leaves of sage, 2 sprigs worth of finely chopped fresh thyme, 1 sprig worth of finely chopped fresh rosemary, 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic, and two bay leaves. reduced 1/2c. of white wine into the mixture along with a big scoop of confit jelly. mixed in 2 peeled, cored, and diced braeburn apples, 1c. of chopped hazelnuts, the pulled duck leg confit, and 2c. chicken stock. stirred around until friendly. mixed the contents of the saute pan into a bowl containing 8-slices of pumpernickel bread and 8-slices of wheat bread, which had been chopped into stuffing sized cubes. tossed well and then poured into a 3Qt. rectangular pyrex baking pan. placed the pan in a 350-degree oven for 30-minutes, then broiled the top until browned.

Rich Acorn Squash Layered Souffle-Cheesecake

What you need:

Crust:

• 1 Egg yolk
• 1/4 Vanilla bean, seeds
• 2T. Heavy cream
• 1t. Salt
• 4-5T. Butter, unsalted
• 3/4c. Sugar
• 1c. All-purpose flour, sifted

Filling(s):

• 7 + 2oz Heavy cream
• 1 Acorn squash, roasted and skin removed
• 1/4 + 1/8c. Sugar
• 4 Egg whites
• 1/2+1/2t. Salt
• 1/8t. Cream of tartar
• 1/2 Vanilla Bean, seeds
• 1/4c. All-purpose flour
• 4oz Creme fraiche
• 7oz Ricotta cheese

The Process:

came up with this one over the summer. it’s a cream and cheese based batter, gently folded into stiff-peaked egg whites…so a combination of a cheesecake and a souffle. avoided using cream cheese also, because really, who knows what that is? the version of this from over the summer had fresh blueberries instead of the squash filling. fall provisions called for a more seasonal iteration, and it turned out really great.

cut the yolk from one egg, the seed from 1/4 of a vanilla bean, 2T. heavy cream, 1t. salt, 8T. butter (probably would have been fine with 4T., 8T. was overkill) and 3/4c. granulated sugar into 1c. of all-purpose flour, until the fat/liquid were broken up pretty small (a food processor would have worked also, pulsed a few times). lightly mixed the ingredients, then poured into a 9-in springform pan and packed by hand into the bottom. threw the springform with the dough into a 350-degree oven until lightly browned on top, about 15-minutes.

roasted an acorn squash by cutting it in half, removing the seeds, and placing it cut side down on a parchment lined baking sheet. pulled and let cool when a cake tester could easily pass through the flesh of the squash. scooped the insides of the squash into a mixing bowl. added 1/8c. granulated sugar, 1T. heavy cream, 1 egg, and 1/2t. salt to the squash and mixed until smooth. poured this filling into the still-hot springform pan, lined with the already cooked crust, and returned to the oven for about 7-minutes, until the thin layer of squash had set. pulled the springform, let cool and then placed into the freezer until ready to put in the oven again.

mixed together 7-oz of heavy cream, the seed from 1/2 of a stick of vanilla, 1/4c. sugar, a pinch of salt, 7-oz whole milk ricotta cheese, 4-oz creme fraiche, and 1/4c. all-purpose flour. whipped the whites from four eggs with 1/8t. of cream of tartar until stiff peaks. lightly folded the whites into the cheese batter mixture, making sure to not destroy the bubbles. gently transferred the souffle mixture to the chilled springform pan and immediately placed into the 350-degree oven. baked for about 45-minutes, moving from the top rack down to a rack closer to the bottom based on the browning of the souffle top. the cake is done when there is no longer a jiggle of liquid under the souffle crust. it should have about one and a half times the height and be cooked throughout.

Linguica and Bitter Green Quiche with a Stuffed Double-Bacon-Fat-Tortilla Crust

What you need:

• 4-5T. Bacon fat
• Pepper
• Salt
• 1c. All-purpose flour
• Water
• 1/8+1/8lb Sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1/2lb Linguica sausage, diced
• Olive oil
• 5 Large leaves of collard greens, deribbed, sliced into ribbons
• 2 Small onions, sliced thin
• 1/2c. White wine
• 8 Eggs
• 1T. Fresh thyme, chopped fine
• Butter

The Process:

this here quiche has a stuffed crust. made some tortilla dough by cutting 4-5T. of bacon fat (no lard around and didn’t want to use shortening), and some pepper and salt into 1c. of all-purpose flour, then cut in water until workable. refrigerated the dough for 30-minutes or so, and then gently rolled the dough into two large pieces (being careful to not incorporate too much of the fat – to keep it flaky), each big enough to cover a 8-in round cake pan. buttered the cake pan, placed a round of parchment paper in the bottom, then buttered the parchment. placed one of the tortilla shapes into the paper-lined pan, then sprinkled 1/8-lb of sharp cheddar onto the bottom tortilla, and covered with the second tortilla dough. trimmed the dough to the size of the pan.

sauteed 1/2-lb of diced linguica in some olive oil until browned, then added five large leaves of collard greens (de-ribbed), and two small onions sliced into thin strips. seasoned with some salt and pepper and added 1/2c. white wine. cooked until the wine had reduced around the meat and greens, and the greens appeared to be wilting.

beat eight eggs using a stand mixer, until foamy. used a spatula to gently mix into the eggs salt, pepper, 1T. fresh chopped thyme, the sauteed meat and greens, and 1/8-lb of shredded white cheddar cheese. poured the filling over the tortilla dough in the cake pan, and then used the spatula to make sure that everything was evenly distributed. put it into a 350-degree oven for about 35-min or until a cake tester came out clean (not sure how long it took). allowed to cool for a few minutes and served.

I’m going to go ahead and say it – Indian food looks like diarrhea. Why are some of the most disgusting looking prepared foods the most delicious? Is that vomit or the best biscuits and gravy on the planet? It’s hard to make some foods look sexy on the internet, sometimes you are just not going to win. That being said, I present to you the “you’re going to have to take my word on this,” internet food photo round-up, compiled from photos on my blog Lick My Balsamic. This post was inspired by dinner last night, which was quite possibly the best pot roast that I have ever made/put in my mouth. It was so frustratingly unphotogenic, while at the same time so damn tasty, that I decided to put together an entire post to justify its existence on my internets. Enjoy…

Cider and Plum Braised Chuck Roast With Smashed Red Potatoes and Roasted Squash (photo: top)

What you need:

• 2.5-lb Chuck roast, seasoned (s+p) and tied
• 4 Slices of bacon, cut into lardons
• 1 Large onion, diced
• 2 Plums, pitted and diced
• 1.5T. Thyme, fresh, chopped
• 1.5T. Oregano, fresh, chopped
• 4 Cloves of garlic, smashed
• 3 Allspice berries, whole
• 1/2t. Korean chili flakes
• 1/2t. Ajowan (optional, may be hard to find – may substitute cumin or anything)
• 1c. White wine
• 1c. Chicken stock
• 1c. Apple cider
• 2T. Tomato paste

The Process:
seasoned, tied-up and seared-off a 2.5-lb well-marbled chuck roast in a hot dutch oven containing 2T. of olive oil. browned both sides and removed the roast from the dutch oven. rendered the fat out of four slices of bacon, chopped into little lardons, in the hot oil, then added one large diced onion and let cook on medium heat until almost translucent. added to the onions two medium size diced plums, 4 smashed cloves of garlic, 1.5T. fresh chopped thyme, 1.5T. fresh chopped oregano, 3 allspice berries, 1/2t. korean chili flakes, 2 cloves, and 1/2t. of whole ajowan. allowed to simmer until heavily aromatic, then added 1c. of white wine, scraped all of the suk from the bottom of the dutch oven and let reduce until syrupy. returned the roast to the pot and poured in 1c. of apple cider, 1c. of chicken stock, and then jostled everything around and mixed in 2T. of tomato paste. covered the top of the dutch oven tightly with tin foil (thanks, cooks illustrated!) and then the metal lid, and placed the vessel in a 325-degree oven for 2.5-hrs, flipping the roast half way through the cooking time.

removed a few cups of the braising liquid about 30-minutes before the roast was done. skimmed the fat off the top, pulsed in the food processor, and then reduced with a little more stock and some fresh sprigs of thyme and oregano and some salt and pepper to taste. pulled the roast, sliced it up and served it over some boiled-smashed-roasted red potatoes and some roasted squash, topped with some of the gritty gravy mixture.

Now, on to the round up. Bear with me, some of these images are pretty old and not so fabulous, but they were delicious…

kitchen sink benedict: artichoke heart gravy over a fried egg and pan-fried buttermilk ciabatta

file gumbo-style tilapia stew with linguica and potato

cheddar-rosemary biscuits with sake-sausage gravy and a pickled pepper puree

herb roasted turkey salad with fresh grapes and blueberries

eleventh hour tangy smoked and pulled pork with creamy buttermilk coleslaw

black bean chiles rellenos over a spicy sage romesco sauce with sweet corn pitas

I think that I have been eating garlic since the day that I was born. The story goes that when I was an infant my parents would just take whatever they were eating for dinner and put it in a food processor with a few cloves of garlic and feed that to me. That being said, I am always looking for more reasons and ways to eat garlic. When a friend of mine pulled out a tub of thick olive oil containing delicately poached cloves of garlic, it might as well have been gold. The sharp bite of the garlic had been removed in the poaching process, and replaced by a smooth sweetness that made the poached cloves mild enough to be enjoyed on toast, but still potent enough to be used while cooking.

Also, like the ever-popular Cocoa Puffs cereal – that makes its own chocolate milk – the oil that is infused with garlic flavor during the poaching process is great for dipping, cooking, or garnishing your favorite dish. Since the olive oil does not near the smoking point, and should not boil during the poaching process, the cloves of garlic can be stored in the same oil in the refrigerator without the threat of rancidity [edit: poaching garlic in olive oil is the perfect breeding ground for botulism, however; so make sure to eat the poached garlic within a few days (2-3) to avoid any risk]. Spooning a few poached cloves of garlic and some of the oil onto a cutting board, a garlic paste can be made quickly using the flat side of a chef’s knife. Mix this paste into almost any dish for delicious results!

What You Need:

• 1 Pint of garlic, peeled
• 2-3c. Olive oil (nothing fancy, just a good quality cooking oil)

The Process:

peeled enough garlic to fill a pint container with raw cloves. placed the pint of cloves into a small sauce pan. poured olive oil over the cloves in the pan until fully-submerged. put the pan over a low flame and allowed to get up to a delicate simmer. continued at this temperature (probably about 200-degrees) until the cloves were tender enough that they could be easily pierced through by a cake tester or fork. removed the cloves in oil from heat, and allowed to cool (a little bit of browning is ok, ideally the browning would occur during carry-over cooking, after removed from heat…that gives the best result). transferred the cooled garlic to a pint container with a spoon, and poured the oil that the cloves were cooked in over the top until the container was full (discarding any brown bits in the bottom of the sauce pan). placed the covered container in the refrigerator until needed (edit: use within 2-3 days).

olive oil poached garlic is one of the most versatile ingredients to have in the fridge. the taste is slightly more mellow and the cloves can be consumed raw or in cooked food. there is also a nice sweet undertone and the oil is great for garnishing or dipping. a pint container of these usually disappear quickly.

[edit: it was brought to my attention that this is the ideal breeding ground for botulism, so i edited the content to say that you should eat them within a few days to be safe. i have done this technique a dozen times or so, with great results (ie: no botulism), but it's not worth the risk, so eat them fast.]

I do not own many cookbooks. I’m very stubborn and tend to be partial to the school of thought that if you have an idea about how something should be done, then that is as good as knowing, so just do it (see item #4 in “The Cult of the Done Manifesto”). Unfortunately, this is not the best path for efficiently taking in information that could be valuable, and getting into good habits in the kitchen (and winning arguments at fancy dinner parties). While the “I don’t need a cookbook” mentality is supported well by publications like Rachael Ray cookbooks – I don’t need you to tell me how to boil pasta, devil woman – there are some texts out there that are dense collections of information on food, cooking and techniques, that can be invaluable resources to cooks both in home and commercial kitchens. These tend to be the books that I gravitate toward – books that you read one page of and your head hurts from information overload. My collection of cookbooks is pretty lean, and half of them are books that I picked up at yard sales and are useless, or contain one recipe or chart that I like, so they stay on the shelf. And, it’s hard to throw away a book, especially if you don’t feel like you have given the book a fair chance. Anyway, this topic comes up because in the process of helping a dear friend of mine put together his own cookbook, I was forced to review my own collection and from these books, determine what makes a good one. I put together a short list for y’all of my favorite “cookbooks” (the majority of the selected books are actually texts on cooking and/or food).

The Joy of Cooking – Rombauer and Becker
The cookbook. If you want to know process or how to do something right, this is where you look. No frills. About a million recipes and techniques that will improve the way that you cook.

On Food and Cooking – McGee
Just about everything that there is to know about food preparation, history, origins, and science. I’ve been trying to make my way through this one for some time now.

Larousse Gastronomique – Montagne
An enormous encyclopedia of foods and ingredients. Much of this book is old school french techniques and styles for a wide variety of prepared foods. Usually mentions a food/dish, and some main ingredients, and sometimes a technique. It’s really fun to read through this and skip around between the referenced items (it’s like the Wikipedia “random” button for crazy foods). I have a really old version, so the pictures are kind of nauseating (like pictures of a volcano of jello upside down cake filled with a whitefish dip – not really, but that kind of stuff). But, a great reference, regardless.

The Food Lover’s Companion – Herbst
A more modern mini-encyclopedia of foods. Great for quick reference and simple explanations.

Charcuterie – Ruhlman
A very accessible narrative cookbook with some good back story on portions of the process and history of the techniques. As a process nut, I don’t really follow the recipes 100% in this one, but it’s great for reference and techniques. If you were to go through this book and follow a majority of the preparation techniques/recipes, it would set you up very well for a more advanced go at charcuterie under your own tutelage. Overall, an amazing book, which has brought some of these extinct techniques back into the modern kitchen. Also includes some great recipes for natural pickles, and useful everyday brining techniques.

The Flavor Bible – Page and Dorenburg
A really interesting concept for a book. Basically a rundown of flavor combinations. If you are in a MacGuyver-type jam and all you have is a lemon, a russet potato, and a link of linguica, this book could help you put something delicious together.

The Bread Baker’s Apprentice – Reinhart
Often referred to as the reference for home cooks looking to learn how to make bread. A really awesome book. If you are trying to make a quick bread for dinner and you just got home from work, this is not your book. Most of the recipes take more than one day to complete.

Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing – Kutas
An older, more-hardcore book on charcuterie. I’ve only dusted this one off a few times. Good for cross-referencing long curing techniques. If you were a hunter out in the sticks and had this book, you would be pretty much all set for survival.

A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking – Baldwin
A short PDF (that you can download for free) reference on what you need to know to prepare foods sous vide. Includes some boiled down technical information, and also extremely in-depth mathematical reasoning and more advanced descriptions of the reactions that occur when food is cooked.

Cooking for Geeks – Potter
A technical look at cooking and food preparation and the science behind it all. I haven’t gotten my hands on a copy of this yet, but it’s on my “to buy” list.

Cooks Illustrated – (Quarterly Magazine)
A great reference for nearly fool-proof technique. I mean, it’s published by America’s Test Kitchen, so they…test…everything. Also, honest product reviews can be found in this magazine (as far as I know).

Gourmet Magazine – (discontinued)
Overall, a pretty great magazine. Good pictures and recipes. You can find back issues on the internet. [Edit: Gourmet is still alive as "Gourmet Live" an iPad application - Thanks, Beau.]

And last…the plug. Vadim Akimenko, Peter Reynolds, and myself just put together a mini-cookbook that is part of a quarterly information series that is going to be distributed by Vadim’s developing butcher shop, Akimenko Meats (Coming to Cambridge Massachusetts Winter 2010). Expertly printed by the magicians over at the MagCloud on-demand printing service, the ten-recipe cookbook is available online now. The following is a recipe for “Perfect Rare Roast Beef,” from Akimenko Meats Presents – The First Cookbook.

This roast beef recipe will work for most cuts of beef, it’s really a method rather than a recipe. I like using top round because it is fairly inexpensive and under utilized. When you are looking for a roast, look for cuts that will do well with dry heat methods of cooking, think rib, strip, sirloin, top round, eye round or knuckle to name a few.

What you need:

• 5# Top Round roast, (first cut is best)
• 6 cloves of garlic, ground into a paste
• 2 shallots, ground into a paste with the garlic
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 cups of mire poix, (2:1:1 onion, carrots, celery), optional
• Roasting Pan

The Process:

Pre-heat oven to 425′F. Set the roast aside and allow it to come to room temperature.

Rub the roast with the garlic/shallot paste, then sprinkle generously with pepper first then salt. If you like you may sit the roast on a bed of mire poix. This adds flavor to the roast, but more importantly makes a good base for a sauce or gravy from the drippings.

Throw the roast in the oven at 425′F for 15 minutes then turn the heat down to 325′F, and cook for 9 minutes per pound for rare. Remember that cooking times for these types of recipes are just guide lines. Always check the internal temperature with a food safe thermometer making sure the tip of the probe is close to the center of the roast. When the internal temperature reaches 100′F for rare or 115′F for med-rare, remove the roast and let it sit for about 15 to 20 minutes. And don’t cheat on the resting time. During this 15 to 20 minutes the jus is redistributing throughout your roast. Cut prematurely and lose the jus to the carving block.

So, you’ve been very patient, carve that roast and eat!

Just because a food item is in season, it doesn’t mean that you are going to get one that tastes good. Inspired by a food talk at Boston’s ICA by culinary geniuses Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnette, I set out to make a refreshing chilled gazpacho soup. Bissonnette and Oringer stressed the importance of high quality ingredients, and as I strolled through the aisles of the produce section at my local market I found myself unable to find suitable tomatoes. I grabbed a few four-packs of tomatoes on the vine, and was beginning to think of other dishes that I could make, until I noticed a tray of fresh cherries on one of the end caps. Hard and light colored tomatoes tend to be more acidic and missing the “middle” of their flavor profile. The freshness of the cherries would bring back this middle ground and the natural sweetness of the end result, a tasty gazpacho. In fact, until I pointed out to my dinner guests that there were cherries in the gazpacho, they were unaware of the flavor…I would like to assume that this is because the flavors were paired well together, but who knows?!

What you need:

• 8 Medium sized tomatoes, quartered
• 3T. Salt
• 2 Stalks celery with greens, chopped roughly
• 15 Fresh cherries, pitted and stemmed
• 1/4 Vidalia onion, chopped roughly
• 1 Clove garlic
• 1 Jalepeno pepper, halved and seeded
• 1t. Caraway seed, crushed
• 1t. Celery seed
• 1 Large handful of fresh cilantro with stems
• Fresh cracked pepper
• Cayenne powder
• 1c. Extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Lemon, juiced
• 1 Lime, juiced
• Sea salt
• Green onion, finely sliced (garnish, optional)

The process:

quartered eight medium sized tomatoes and placed them in a plastic prep tub. sprinkled 3T. of salt over the tomatoes, and mixed them around to get an even coating. roughly chopped two stalks of celery, with the greens, and threw them into the tub with fifteen or so pitted and stemmed fresh cherries, a quarter of a sweet vidalia onion, 1 clove of garlic, the nose half of a jalapeño pepper (without seeds), 1t. of crushed caraway seed, a pinch of celery seed, a large handful of fresh cilantro with the stems, fresh cracked pepper, a pinch of cayenne, and 1/2c. of extra virgin olive oil. allowed the tomatoes, vegetables, and seasoning to sit on the salt for an hour or so at room temperature, until a fair amount of liquid had leeched out of the tomatoes. blended everything in the bin together with another 1/2c. of extra virgin olive oil, the juice from one lemon and one lime, and salt, pepper, and additional jalapeño pepper (or just hot sauce) to the taste.

stuck the mixture in the refrigerator for a few minutes and then served in a chilled bowl, garnished with sea salt and thin sliced green onions.

Nothing from a box can compare to the taste and mouthfeel of fresh homemade pasta. Growing up, my father would make fresh pasta occasionally. As a child, I loved the process of making the fresh dough and the excitement associated with the event, but I didn’t really appreciate it fully until I had a pasta maker of my own. When I was twenty years old I went to Italy with my family and grabbed a classic Italian-made hand-crank pasta maker to give to my roommate as a present. I used the pasta maker all of the time until my roommate moved down to New Orleans and took it with him. A few months passed and then I got a new one, but it just wasn’t the same. Two years later I went down to New Orleans to visit a good friend of mine (the ex-girlfriend of my old roommate) and stumbled upon the original pasta maker in a pile of his stuff that had been left behind after the split. She understood that I had been reunited with something that had been missed, and told me that I could have it. Thousands of feet of pasta have been rolled and cut on that machine, including the sheets of dough used to make the tortellini in this dish.

Homemade tortellini go a long way. A nice presentation of only a few of the fresher, larger, and heartier, wrapped pasta will pack the same punch as a whole bowl of the frozen or bagged counterpart. The back of the tongue is satisfied with the nutty smoothness of the brown butter, and chives and goat cheese give this dish a more complicated and sharp taste up front than the standard tortellini made with ricotta cheese.

What You Need:

Pasta Dough:

• 3/4c. All-purpose flour, sifted
• 1 Large egg
• 1/4t. Salt
• 1/2t. Olive oil
• 1/4t. Luke warm water

Filling:

• 1.5-oz Fresh goat cheese
• 1 Egg yolk
• 1T. Chives, chopped finely (reserve a pinch for garnish)
• 1t. Panko bread crumbs
• 1t. All-purpose flour
• Salt
• Pepper
• 5 Slices of pancetta, sliced into thin ribbons

• 1 Handful of fresh spinach per dish
• Chicken stock
• Water
• Olive oil
• Salt
• 2T. Unsalted butter, browned
• Parmesan cheese, grated coarsely

Vadim Akimenko loves meat more than anyone that I know. It might be less of a love and more of an appreciation, but in the hundreds of meals that I have shared with Vadim, not one has lacked a healthy portion of animal protein. Sometimes I think that it is surprising that he hasn’t eaten his dog (no, not really…it’s a joke). Vadim Akimenko was born in 1981 in Orlando, Florida. At the age of seventeen, Vadim landed his first job working as a line cook in a commercial kitchen, after years of experience in the household kitchen with his mother. Studying under Kevin Fonzo at Cafe K in Orlando, Vadim had his first look at the inner workings of the food industry as he chopped onions and made stocks for the restaurant. It was at Cafe K that Vadim first witnessed rudimentary meat cutting, and developed a fondness for the art of butchering. After he graduated high school, Vadim moved to Hyde Park, New York to attend the Culinary Institute of America.

At the CIA, Vadim learned how to properly break meat, and the principals of nose to tail cooking (meaning that no parts of the animal are wasted). He received a wide array of technical training in butchering, preparing charcuteries, and french culinary techniques. He had a natural talent in taking apart animals, but his stay at the CIA was short lived, as he quickly realized that he was not cut out for the life of a line cook. He moved to Boston, Massachusetts with the intent of bringing his love for authentic southern barbecued foods to New England, and opening a locally-minded barbecue restaurant. He worked in a handful of kitchens in the Boston area including Eat in Union Square, Somerville,  and Seasons in the Regal Bostonian Hotel, before taking a life-changing position in the meat department at Market Basket (a relatively small chain of sixty-two grocery stores in Massachusetts and New Hampshire). Market Basket is a pretty normal grocery store, catering to the typical American diet of meat with a side of meat, which meant lots of practice for Vadim. He quickly moved up the ranks from an apprentice meat-cutter, who only packed meat, to a roaming butcher who ran the meat saw (woodworkers read: bandsaw) and went from store to store to help with cutting meat during high-volume periods. He was taken under the wing of a seasoned veteran named John Buckley from the meat department at the Burlington branch of Market Basket, who taught him many of the traditional butchering techniques that he uses today, and helped him to continue to advance the development of his art.

After working for two years at Market Basket, Vadim was offered a job at Savenor’s Market in the Beacon Hill area of Boston, Massachusetts. Vadim started again by simply cutting meat at the gourmet butcher shop and high-end grocery store, and eventually moved his way up to the position of meat manager at the Cambridge, Massachusetts store location. Vadim assisted Savenor’s in attempting to make the switch over to more locally raised and sustainable meat supply sources, and implemented a housemade charcuterie program, while taking on the responsibility of managing the meat department at both the Cambridge and Beacon Hill store locations. After five years at Savenor’s Market, Vadim left to continue to pursue his desire to open the barbecue joint of his dreams, only to realize that the greater Boston area was lacking something more fundamental. The change in direction came from the idea that barbeque is a luxury, but the availability of locally-raised and humanely slaughtered meats is something that everyone should be able to afford. Vadim knew that he could make the biggest difference by taking his knowledge and specialized skills and applying them to an extremely traditional model that is practically extinct in metropolitan areas.

The Pig & The Butcher from Paper Fortress on Vimeo.

Akimenko Meats is slated to open in the Cambridge/Somerville area of Massachusetts in the Fall of 2010. If you are interested in getting involved there are a variety of ways to help Akimenko Meats raise funds through their website or Kickstarter page (note: as I publish this article there are only five days left on the Kickstarter pledge drive).

Juice. It doesn’t sound very special. Well, it is. Mass-produced “juice,” for the most part, is just a variant of soda pop. How many flavors and how much sugar can we fit in this container? How do we keep it in solution and looking good throughout its shelf life? Juice is juice. That’s it. You extract the juice from a fruit or vegetable, and then you use it, or consume it. In the summer months especially, a simple hand-powered juicer (they come in many styles and sizes) is an invaluable tool to have on-hand in the kitchen.

What You Need:

• 1.5-lbs of fresh cherries, pitted and stemmed
• 3 small carrots, peeled and sliced into small chunks

The Process:

pitted and removed the stems from 1.5-lbs of fresh cherries. ran the cherries through a hand-crank masticating juicer with a few small peeled and diced raw carrots. used a coarse mesh strainer to remove some of the larger pulp and served in a chilled glass with some ice.

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