{"id":6262,"date":"2019-01-27T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2019-01-27T16:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/villasentieri.com\/?p=6262"},"modified":"2023-04-26T16:53:28","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T23:53:28","slug":"calabria-dispatch-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/27\/calabria-dispatch-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Calabria Dispatch #7: Horses Galloping through Fields of Clover"},"content":{"rendered":"

January 27, 2019<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The last few days have been pretty low-key.\u00a0 Well, except for the exam, that is!<\/p>\n

Exam days were Wednesday and Thursday.\u00a0 We were randomly assigned to one of three groups and scheduled for our exam on either Wednesday afternoon, Thursday morning, or Thursday afternoon.\u00a0 Wednesday morning was free for all of us.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Gnocchi with gorgonzola fonduta, walnut pesto, caramelized pears and balsamic vinegar<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My exam was scheduled for Thursday morning so I had Wednesday free until a 4:30 PM lecture with Dr. Bill Schindler.\u00a0 \u201cDr. Bill\u201d took the salumi (charcuterie) course about three years ago and has since done some collaboration with Chef John.\u00a0 Dr. Bill, an anthropologist, focuses on understanding human foodways from prehistory to modern times.\u00a0 You can find out more about him here<\/a>, and here<\/a> and here<\/a>.\u00a0 He is an enthusiastic and engaging teacher.\u00a0 I hope to spend some time with him at the Eastern Shore Food Lab<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Dr. Bill Schindler, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Washington College and Director of the Eastern Shore Food Lab<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With my exam scheduled for 8 AM on Thursday, I went to bed early on Wednesday.\u00a0 I woke up at 3 AM and could not get back to sleep.\u00a0 Other than not wanting to embarrass myself, I had nothing substantive riding on this exam.\u00a0 I guess not being embarrassed is motivation enough.\u00a0 I knew the exam would not really be about recipes.\u00a0 It would be about technique and process.\u00a0 That\u2019s not something that can be learned in 10 days.\u00a0 So, really, I\u2019d been preparing for this exam since I started cooking at the age of 17.\u00a0 I either had it or I didn\u2019t.\u00a0 Nonetheless, I have to admit I had performance anxiety.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Calamari and Totani at the mercatino in Soverato<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I had to make Risotto alla Parmigiana (Parmesan cheese risotto), Scaloppine di Maiale con Salsa di Marsala (pork cutlets with Marsala sauce), Spaghetti Aglio e Olio (spaghetti with garlic and oil) and Dinner Rolls with Beet Powder (that turned them fuchsia).\u00a0 In general, it was designed to be a low-pressure exam (RIGHT!) though there were a few things done to trip us up.\u00a0 We all had to share pasta cooking water, which was bubbling away on the stove when we got to the kitchen.\u00a0 The water, however, was not salted.\u00a0 (Lesson:\u00a0 taste EVERYTHING!!!)<\/p>\n

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Dinner rolls, with beet powder, made by the students in my testing group<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was the second one to start dinner rolls after finishing the other three dishes.\u00a0 When I got to the pastry lab, I was told: \u201cthe ingredients are all over there [pointing].\u201d\u00a0 I started weighing out flour not noticing that another student had removed a second container of flour and put it on a different table (until that student brought it to my attention).\u00a0 The two flours had different \u201cW\u201d values (a measure of the strength of the flour).\u00a0 The recipe called for a particular W value, which could only be achieved by mixing the two flours in a precisely calculated ratio.\u00a0 Although we had learned that flours could be combined to achieve the desired W value, all breads that were made until exam time used one specific flour of the desired W value so I wasn\u2019t even thinking about the need to mix.\u00a0 (Lesson:\u00a0 read EVERYTHING!!!)<\/p>\n

[Note: Flour sold in Italy is labeled with the W value.\u00a0 This is not true in the United States.\u00a0 After getting home I will need to source flour with known W values.\u00a0 I’m not sure how that’s going to go.]<\/p>\n

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Pasta at the mercatino in Soverato<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Having successfully salted the pasta water and calculated the correct ratio of flours, I felt like I had done a pretty good job on my first exam.\u00a0 I had the afternoon off until the second session with Dr. Bill that evening.<\/p>\n

Dr. Bill\u2019s second session involved knapping stone to make sharp stone knives then using our stone knives to butcher a rabbit.\u00a0 There were also lessons on starting fire using sticks and making rope from plant fiber.\u00a0 Making a stone tool was essential since we had to have at least one to butcher our rabbit.\u00a0 Starting a fire and making rope were not essential to the evening\u2019s activities and I briefly assisted one other student with the (failed) fire thing before doing the rabbit thing.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The stone knives that I knapped with Dr. Bill’s guidance<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stone tools are incredibly sharp!\u00a0 Sharper than my expensive Japanese ceramic knives.\u00a0 They get dull quickly, though, and can only be sharpened by re-making the tool which I see as distinct disadvantages.\u00a0 To be sure, if an incredibly sharp instrument is needed, a well-made stone tool will be sharper than any modern man-made knife.\u00a0 Rarely, however, is that degree of sharpness needed for a cook.\u00a0 In addition, stone tools often have several sharp sides so it\u2019s quite easy to slice through fingers and hands while trying to cut something else.<\/p>\n

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Butchering a rabbit with a stone knife that I knapped with the expert assistance of Dr. Bill<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Butchering the rabbit was a worthwhile experience and the knowledge gained is directly transferrable to doing so with a metal knife.\u00a0 It is also a good prelude to butchering a pig which we do in the coming days as part of our week of salumi (charcuterie), otherwise known as dead animal week.\u00a0 (Chef John turned the rabbits into a fabulous cacciatore for Saturday\u2019s lunch.\u00a0 The jus from the cacciatore was used as the main component of a quick sauce for incredibly delicious house-made pappardelle [made with 30% whole wheat flour] served as the first course before the rabbit.)<\/p>\n

\"\"
Citron (cedro) at the mercatino in Soverato<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Friday was market day and we all went to the mercatino at 9 AM.\u00a0 A side-trip to the kitchen\/restaurant supply store scored me two large saut\u00e9 pans perfect for finishing pasta in sauce and several plastic grates for drying pasta, draining cheese, curing meats, and glazing pastry.\u00a0 I searched and searched Amazon and the Webstaurant store and could not find plastic grates (nor could I find the specific type of saut\u00e9 pans that I bought, which are made in Italy).<\/p>\n

\"\"
Olives at the mercatino in Soverato<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have now officially started my hoard of items to be brought back to the States.<\/p>\n

A quick trip to the liquor store after the mercatino was unsuccessful in securing a bottle of bourbon.\u00a0 They only had one, Rebel Yell, and it was \u20ac50!\u00a0 I\u2019ll stick with my Jim Beam at \u20ac13 until I find something better.\u00a0 After the liquor store, and a quick side trip for Dr. Bill to buy a present for his wife, we went to a wine tasting.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Association of Italian Sommeliers Wine Tasting Guide<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fabio, one of the owners of the Panino Lab (which I wrote about in a prior blog<\/a>), is also a sommelier.\u00a0 There is a room at the back of the Panino Lab set up for wine tasting.\u00a0 We tasted four different, and excellent, Calabrian wines.\u00a0 Fabio walked us through the tasting process and criteria with the first wine.\u00a0 We then each had to evaluate the remaining three wines and discuss our thoughts.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The first course of Saturday’s lunch was pappardelle made with 30% whole wheat flour with a simple sauce made of rabbit jus and topped with shaved truffles<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This has re-kindled my longstanding desire to take the one-month sommelier training course at the Culinary Institute of America in California.\u00a0 For now, I\u2019ll settle for the wine tasting and pairing lessons that are part of this course.<\/p>\n

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Wine tasting guide translated into English<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Occasionally I can identify some of the different flavors in wine; things like ripe berries, leather, grapefruit, and vanilla, for example.\u00a0 Whenever I do this, which isn\u2019t often and is always in the context of being with a sommelier or wine aficionado who is doing the same thing, Frank (my husband\u2026remember my husband\u2026I haven\u2019t mentioned him in a while) gets a very serious look on his face, tastes and swishes the wine, and then says something like: \u201cHorses galloping through fields of clover\u201d or \u201cDucks waddling down the hill in a rainstorm.\u201d\u00a0 So far, he hasn\u2019t quite hit the flavor profile of any wine but sooner or later, who knows?<\/p>\n

After the wine tasting, we reconvened in the kitchen with chef togs for a lacto-fermentation lesson.\u00a0 Dr. Bill decided to demonstrate rather than make it a hands-on session as planned.\u00a0 He put up three or four different kinds of vegetables to ferment, including sauerkraut.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Wine tasting in the back of the Panino Lab in Catanzaro Lido<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the short break before dinner, I put my feet up and enjoyed a glass of bourbon!\u00a0 The next day, Saturday, was our first completely free day since starting the course 13 days earlier!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January 27, 2019 The last few days have been pretty low-key.\u00a0 Well, except for the exam, that is! Exam days were Wednesday and Thursday.\u00a0 We were randomly assigned to one of three groups and scheduled for our exam on either Wednesday afternoon, Thursday morning, or Thursday afternoon.\u00a0 Wednesday morning was free for all of us. … Continue reading Calabria Dispatch #7: Horses Galloping through Fields of Clover<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","wpupg_custom_link":[],"wpupg_custom_link_behaviour":["default"],"wpupg_custom_link_nofollow":[],"wpupg_custom_image":[],"wpupg_custom_image_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[363],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people-and-places"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6262"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6950,"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6262\/revisions\/6950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}