Italy-based Slow Wine to Tour US in January & February

Learn more about this special event, the cities on the circuit, and the wine makers being showcased! Also, Slow Food will roll out its first-ever wine guide written in English [...]

Sweet Potato Bisque with Virginia Wildflower Honey & Truffle

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon butter

2 cups chopped onion (about 1 large)

2 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon thyme

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon sugar

1 pound sweet potatoes, roasted and peeled

4 cups rich chicken stock or broth (if using store-bought stock, add a chicken bouillon cube)

1/2 cup heavy cream (or whole or fat-free evaporated milk)

1/4 cup dry sherry (optional)

1/2 ounce white truffle oil

4 ounces Golden Angels Apiary unfiltered Virginia Wildflower Honey

2 tablespoons chopped chives, for garnish (optional)

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, thyme, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, salt, pepper and sugar and cook until the vegetables are soft and lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the sweet potatoes, stock or broth, milk and cream. Cook with bubbles just forming on the surface.

Remove from the heat and puree the soup until smooth. This can be done in the pot with a handheld stick (immersion) blender or in a blender or food processor. (If using a blender or food processor, strain the soup, puree the solids and add the hot liquid back slowly in small batches, pulsing between each addition.) Adjust the thickness by adding more stock, milk or cream. Add sherry, if desired, stirring to combine.

Serve in individual bowls drizzled with truffle oil and honey and garnish with chives, if desired.

Makes six 8-ounce servings.

SLOW COUNTRY CUISINE | Jeff Robinson

by Wendy Swat Snyder

Chef Jeffrey Robinson looks at unused space and envisions squash blossoms and pea shoots. A locavore before it was a movement, he can’t recall ever living in a home without a few acres of vegetables, planted and tended by his Dad.

“As soon as we’d move in, he’d tear up the ground with a rototiller,” notes Robinson, executive chef of the Charleston Marriott’s Saffire restaurant. “My father’s garden supplied us and many of our neighbors.”

The Ohio transplant fully appreciates South Carolina’s long and fruitful growing season. Under his tutelage, Saffire became one of the first restaurants to participate in the Fresh on the Menu initiative. Determined to have his own production garden, and undeterred by the constraints of the nearly 350-room hotel property, Robinson has taken urban farming to its logical extreme.

After conversations with the South Carolina Department of Agriculture about what to grow, Robinson put in the first seedlings last winter – watermelons, squash, leeks, onions, and herbs. The initial plan called for planting in a fleet of boxes atop the hotel roof, but this was abandoned because irrigation was an issue.

With few other options available, Robinson, whose innovations inside the restaurant have won numerous corporate accolades, took his inventive approach outside – commandeering any nook or cranny on the hotel perimeter that looked as if it would support life.

Ornamental flower planters along walkways, lush poolside burms, and green spaces bordering the hotel parking lots now share space with thriving young vegetables, bringing new meaning to “local sourcing” at the restaurant and new inspiration to his kitchen staff.

“Everyone, especially the younger kids in the kitchen, thinks it’s really cool,” says Robinson, whose culinary career includes apprenticeships under Certified Master Chefs Hartmut Handke and Victor Gielisse. “When you’re on the line preparing the ingredients, it’s fun to know where it all comes from – you have more respect for it.”

Robinson likes to let his house-grown ingredients speak for themselves, in simple preparations, with no more than three concentrated flavors. He shares a recipe for a pasta dish showcasing ripe, heirloom tomatoes that requires minimal cooking - a summertime must-have!

Jeff Robinson's Lemon Chevre Ravioli with Sahuaro Pepper and Heirloom Tomato

1 pound heirloom tomatoes, ¼" dice

1 teaspoon Kosher salt

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

1 shallot, sliced thin and rings separated

¼ cup buttermilk

½ cup all purpose flour

pinch of Kosher salt

10 lemon chevre ravioli

1 Sahuaro pepper, sliced thin

2 scallion, white end only, sliced thin

a few sprigs flat leaf parsley

Reserve 2 tablespoons of the diced tomato for garnish at service. Toss remaining tomatoes with the salt & sugar. Set the tomatoes in a strainer over a bowl to catch the liquid. Press tomatoes gently every 30 minutes or so to extract the liquid for roughly 2 hours. Soak the shallot rings in the buttermilk milk for 1 hour. Drain the buttermilk from the shallots before tossing the rings in flour. Shake off excess flour and fry at 350 degrees F till golden brown. Season the shallot rings with a pinch of salt as soon as they are lifted from the oil. Heat the ravioli in simmering, salted water till warm, strain, place ravioli in bowl. Ladle the room temperature tomato broth over the ravioli. Garnish with the pepper, scallion, parsley & reserved diced tomato. Serves two as an entree.

Sources

Rio Bertolini's Fresh Cut Pasta

Split Creek Farm Goat Cheese

More on the Downside of Industrialized Farming...

NPR article showcases new book by Barry Estabrook on the forces driving industrialized tomato production. Read more...

Sweet Decadence Valentine's Day Celebration at Dock Street Theatre

More on the lionfish-

How to conquer the invasive lionfish? Saute it.

By Juliet Eilperin

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Lionfish makes for a stunning sight underwater, with its vibrant red hue and long, venomous spines. But it is also a relentless predator in U.S. and Caribbean waters, a trait that threatens coral reefs in the Southeast, Gulf of Mexico and beyond. Click here to read more...

SLOW COUNTRY CUISINE | Ken Vedrinski

by Wendy Swat Snyder

Chef Ken Vedrinski established himself in the early 1990s as an advocate for farm fresh ingredients heading up the kitchen of the acclaimed Opus Restaurant in the former Swissôtel Atlanta. He went on to garner the only Mobile Five-Star ranking awarded to a South Carolina restaurant at the Dining Room at Woodlands Inn. With the opening of hisTrattoria Lucca, Vedrinski, who learned to cook at the side of his Italian grandmother, has brought his culinary journey full circle.

Lucca - named for the town in Western Tuscany that produces his favorite olive oil - is a tribute to Vedrinski's Italian heritage. A semi-finalist for "Best New Restaurant" in the 2009 James Beard Awards, its menu showcases Lowcountry staples, particularly freshly-netted fish and local produce.

Recently, Slow Food Charleston asked Vedrinski to help raise awareness of the predatory lionfish now patrolling the waters of the East Coast, and he was completely on board.

"I'd just read an article about the lionfish," says Vedrinski. "They eat everything, and are threatening to wipe out the natural species unique to South Carolina."

Vedrinski also read that the lionfish is delicious, and that the best strategy for controlling it is increased consumption, so he's teamed up with guest chefs Mike Lata of FIG and Celina Tio of Julian to prepare a four-course dinner to support this sustainable initiative. The lionfish will be the centerpiece of the January 30 event, "Eat the Lionfish", as well as a new dish on Lucca's menu. Local lionfish hunter (and Lucca lionfish supplier) Vic Depuis will give a presentation.

Ken Vedrinski's Lionfish

Lionfish with Fregola Sarda , Lambrusco , Guanciale

Four 6-oz Lionfish filets

1 cup all-purpose flour

8 oz Fregola (large cous cous)

1 btl Lambrusco

4 oz Guanciale, cooked & chopped

1 qt chicken stock

2 shallots, finely minced

4 cloves garlic, finely sliced

1 small carrot, diced

1 fresh bay leaf

1/3 cup olive oil

1 beet, peeled & chopped

Preheat oven to 350. Saute shallots, garlic, and carrot in olive oil till soft. Add Fregola, Lambrusco, beets and bay leaf, and simmer until wine is almost gone. Add chicken stock and cook until Fregola is al dente. Remove beet pieces. Add salt to taste. Keep warm. Put Guanciale crust thinly on top of fish and bake at 350 for 6 to 8 minutes. Serve over Fregola.