Gesine Bullock-Prado - My Vermont Table: Recipes for All (Six) Seasons

My

Vermont

Table

Recipes for All

(Six) Seasons

Gesine Bullock-Prado

PHOTOGRAPHY BY

RAYMOND G. PRADO

To our Vermont Konditorei Kinder:

Agnes

Lily

Nola

The Sisters Sand: Kalika and Meeka

And Star Giant (aka Adrienne)

We love you more than maple syrup.

Contents

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I love Vermont because of her hills and valleys, her scenery and invigorating climate, but most of all because of her indomitable people. They are a race of pioneers who have almost beggared themselves to serve others. If the spirit of liberty should vanish in other parts of the Union, and support of our institutions should languish, it could all be replenished from the generous store held by the people of this brave little state of Vermont.

CALVIN COOLIDGE, September 21, 1928, addressing fellow Vermonters in Bennington while touring by train to assess progress of recovery following the devastating 1927 flood

I was 28 when I found home. I have a hometown, mind you. I was born in Washington, DC, and raised just across the Potomac in Arlington, Virginia. My dentists office was in the Watergate building. My middle school classmates grandfather ran, unsuccessfully, for president. Twice. Our neighbors across the street, Dimitri and Natasha, had defected from the Soviet Union, worked in intelligence at the Pentagon, and had a cat named Kissinger. A good portion of my early years was also spent in the fairy-tale cities of Salzburg, Austria, and Nrnberg, Germany, with my mothers German family and, as I recall, cake. And then in my early 20s, I moved to Los Angeles, where I went to law school, had a career in film, and formed a lifelong love affair with Sees Candies. I have connections to and great affection for each place. But I never felt like anything but a visitor. In Arlington, I was the German girl. In Germany, I was the American girl. In Hollywood, I was the odd woman who complained about the lack of seasons and made homemade bread and farmer cheese on the weekends. But it wasnt until I met a man named Ray, we fell in love, and he took me on a trip to see his alma mater, Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, that I found my place in the world. Not the metaphorical place of true love and souls forever entwined, although theres an argument for that as well. A place that when I literally crossed over the Connecticut River from New Hampshire to Vermont soil, I felt aligned. Or, as it is sung in my favorite Shaker dance hit, Simple Gifts, Id found myself in the place just right. (I share this experience with the von Trapp family of The Sound of Music fame, who similarly found a kinship in Vermont. The family live here still.)

It took six years to make the move from California to Vermont after that first visit, almost 20 years ago now. Ive lived in Vermont longer than Ive lived anywhere else in my life, and with each passing year, even with all the bending and turning of writing books and traveling to teach and appearing on TV to bake and judge, it is in Vermont where I come round right. This book is both a love letter to the place I love best, a place that feeds me and inspires me to feed the people I love, and my way of sharing what it is that I love so much about Vermont through food with you through her six magical seasons (and yes, there are six distinct seasons in Vermont).

This book is not a Vermont purist cookbook. If youre looking for old-timer, Vermont food authenticity, this isnt it. Instead, this is a book inspired by the comfort I take in Vermont and all its seasons. Thats not to say that the food Im writing about isnt deeply influenced by the heart of Vermont. It is. From Abenaki traditional food ways to 1700s tavern fare to the Plymouth, Vermont, kitchen of Calvin Coolidges childhood to our deeply English and French influences, I am culinarily shaped by things authentically Vermont while also recognizing that in our modern world, our tastes expand and evolve with our access to food cultures that lend themselves to experimenting with local culinary offerings.

And, of course, my own upbringing as a flatlander (not born in Vermont) plays a starring role in how I approach food, including my liberal use of Maggi, a liquid seasoning invented in Switzerland and a favorite of German cooks (my German mother included; more on this in a bit). If you are put off that I use ground sumac, a predominantly Middle Eastern spice, in quite a few dishes, just know that I harvest it from my backyard, where it grows wild (and unbidden). If you are confused as to how on earth saffron plays any kind of role in Vermont cuisine, I invite you to visit my garden in early fall, when my saffron crocuses bloom in profusion and I spend an entire day harvesting the stigmas. Dont get me started on burdock root, most often seen in Japanese cuisine as a lightly pickled salad, a plant so invasive on our land that I cant even bring myself to harvest the stuff to eat, it makes me too angry with its ridiculously deep taproot, Jurassic leaves, and late fall burrs that tangle themselves into my dogs tails and into my wool sweaters.

Thats just to say that this book is about finding joy in food by season: when the crocus, lupine, and daffodils bloom in the meadow and the morels hide in the wood (spring); when the wild berries bring all the deer and bears to the yard (summer); when the tomatoes finally ripen, the corn is sweet, and heirloom apples blanket the trees (fall); when the trees are bare and all but the bravest wild apples have fallen but the pumpkins are poppin (stick season); when its bitterly cold and snowing and only a hearty venison goulash can warm your bones (winter); and when its still cold but theres hope as the maple sap starts to run and the syrup finds its way into all manner of dishes (mud season). Each season has its own peculiar rhythm, and whats comforting changes with the season (Im not craving goulash in the dead of summer, but thats just me). Rest assured, however, that this cookbook is steeped in maple syrup and studded with Vermont Cheddar whenever warranted, which is always.

NOTE: Throughout this book, Ill identify recipes as Brave Little Recipes when they require a little something more, be it time or effort. Thats not to say that they are hard, although some are challenging, such as my inverse puff pastry, and others require long wait times and odd, hard-to-source ingredients, such as the saltpeter in corned beef. I simply identify those that require a little Vermont patience and fortitude. And if you can muster them, youll be rewarded.

Things I Use in This Book (Ingredients and Tools) That You Might Not Be Familiar With (But Should Be)

INGREDIENTS

BROWN BUTTER: Brown butter isnt something you buy at the store. You have to make it. You simply take regular old unsalted (sweet) butter and melt it in a saucepan. Once its melted, it will bubble and pop (melt over low heat to prevent messy butter explosions, and use a saucepan much larger and taller than youll think you need for the same reason). Slowly, the noise dies down and the milk solids in the butter will start to float to the bottom of the pot and brown, infusing all of the butter with a nutty, caramel taste and smell. This takes a few minutes. Pour the butter into a bowl. Most culinary tomes advise to avoid transferring all the brown bits at the bottom of the saucepan but, personally, I really dont mind if some tag along. Theres flavor in them nubbins. Allow to cool either completely or just enough to work into your recipe (the recipe will specify). Because a high percentage of water is present in butter, the browning process leads to a good deal of evaporation and, therefore, a loss in weight. In my recipes, I account for this loss and will ask you to brown just the right amount for the recipe in hand, taking into account that by the end of browning, youll have the right weight.