Afield {Book Review}

In conjunction with the 2013 Piglet Tournament of Cookbooks, the editors at Food52 put out a call for the community to review some cookbooks for their Community Picks portion of the fun and games. I ended up this this one: Afield: A Chef’s Guide to Preparing and Cooking Wild Game and Fish by Jesse Griffiths.

Afield is part manifesto, part cookbook, and part coffee table book. And it is definitely not a book for people who want to believe that the meat they purchase comes - headless, legless - wrapped in cellophane at the grocery store and was never a living animal.

Broken down into ten chapters, Jesse guides the reader through prepping and cooking everything from snipes to wild boar and from crab to rabbit.  Each section includes step-by-step images of how-tos – pluck doves, clean catfish, filet flounder, pick crabs, field dress large game, butcher a deer – and a bevy of easy-to-follow recipes.

Given that my circle of friends includes hunters and fishermen, I often get emails with photos of successful kills held aloft next to proud grins. And I relish getting deliveries of homemade sausages, cuts of wild boar and venison, whole crabs, and more. But I have never had to deal with an entire animal, except for seafoods. So with Afield on my desk, and this review to pen, I made a few calls to get my hands on some wild boar and some fresh crabs.

Photo courtesy of Kevin Brookhouser

Brian, “the best killer in the family” according to my 9-yearold, took me to his game freezer; I toyed with making something with his wild boar sausages. But, in the end, I snagged a piece of wild boar backstrap and followed Jesse’s recipe for Wild Boar Rillettes. Before reading Afield, I had never heard of a rillettes, much less eaten one. Rillettes are savory meats or fish that have been braised or prepared as confit. As suggested, I served my rillettes with a hefty bread, grainy mustard, and homemade pickles. Jesse’s recipe was easy to do and resulted in a salty, creamy, satisfying dish.

Click for the Wild Boar Rillette recipe on my kitchen blog: 

Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Photo courtesy of Bret Boatman

Because my friend’s husband – my usual crab source – was out of town, she asked her co-worker if he would help me out. Bret called and hooked me up with two beauties that he had just pulled from Monterey Bay earlier in the day. Making a variation of Jesse’s Pasta with Crab, Basil, and Garlic was an easy dinner on a Sunday night. Well, easy for me. My husband had to pick the crabs clean which I really, really appreciated. I did pour him an oatmeal stout while he cracked and pulled.

The recipe was, as promised, a great way to stretch a few crabs into a filling dish with just a handful of other things. Jesse’s stories are written in a way that make you feel as if you have stepped into the scene. And his recipes, besides the fresh meat, utilize ingredients you have readily available in your pantry. Jody Horton’s accompanying photos are vivid; you feel as if you could reach right into the page and grab food from the plates.

Afield is an accessible, inspiring tome that helps you turn a carcass into a culinary masterpiece.

*Note: Several of us reviewed the same cookbooks. My review was, in the end, not used by Food52 during their Piglet.*

Dancing on Your Palate

A Food52 Potluck on the Monterey Peninsula

Story and Photos by Camilla M. Mann

The etymology of ‘potluck’ falls into two camps. One camp clings to the literal compound – pot + luck – and credits its first use to Thomas Nash, a 16^th century British writer, to mean food cooked for an unexpected or uninvited guest, as in the guest gets “the luck of the pot” or whatever the cook has on hand. Another camp claims that it’s the misspelling of the Native Americans’ potlatch. Potlatch from the Chinook, means "to give away" or "a gift;” traditional potlatch ceremonies, in the Pacific Northwest, involved the redistribution of wealth within a community and were accompanied by singing, dancing, and bartering, as well as feasting. The only thing a potluck and a potlatch have in common: it’s a meal with no particular menu. Each participant brings dishes to share with others.

When I agreed to host a potluck, during the month of December, for the publishers of Food52 to celebrate the launch of their second cookbook, I didn’t take into consideration just how jam-packed my schedule was. To the usual holiday madness, add my little one’s birthday, the annual holiday fund drive for the foundation that I chair, birthday parties for four of our close friends, two of those whose birthday treats I always make, two rounds of Secret Santa, and parties upon parties upon parties. December quickly descends into chaos with sticky notes all over my calendar to remind me where I’m supposed to be next. So, what was I thinking committing to putting together a potluck where guests were invited to bring dishes from Food52’s website?!? Clearly, I wasn’t.

Thankfully, my parents decided that their annual holiday party would be the perfect venue for a Food52 potluck. They invited several friends from their ballroom dancing circle – artists, retired teachers, meteorologists, and more. It was quite a multi-talented group. They dance, they play instruments, they sing, and they cook. All I had to do was put together some foodie schwag bags – from Food52’s sponsors –, cook, show up, take some photos, scribble some notes, and taste the dishes that paraded through the door.

Steve, who owns his own outdoor pizza oven, baked some rosemary focaccia. Based on his vast experience with turning yeast, flour, salt, and warm water into pillowy goodness, I don’t think that he used a Food52 recipe; but if he had, this one might be close.

Yi selected Absurdly Addictive Asparagus, the Best Asparagus Recipe Contest winner posted by kaykay. She reported that the recipe was easy to follow and she really loved the photographs. The resulting dish was delightful. It was, as promised, absurdly addictive and I’ll be making it again soon.

Theo brought Thanksgiving Osso Buco posted by QueenSashy in the Best Thanksgiving Turkey Recipe Contest. Though this didn’t win that contest, it was a winner in our book. And, it turns out that this was the second time that Theo made the osso buco. His first attempt used chicken while his potluck offering was made with turkey. The chicken rendered the dish too dry, so he swapped poultries. Osso buco is traditionally made with veal shanks. That I knew, but I learned that osso buco also requires that the meat and bones be cut in a particular way; they are cross-cut with the bone in. As soon as Theo lifted the lid off his dish, the aromas of allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg swirled together and made my mouth water.

Other dishes included roasted pork tenderloin, clam chowder, greens with poached pears, wild rice salad, and the two dishes that I made with my current culinary obsession: fennel pollen. I made a fennel-barley soup and a roasted fennel dip [click the names to read the recipes on my kitchen blog, Culinary Adventures with Camilla]. An article I read about fennel pollen dubs it “culinary fairy dust” and I couldn’t agree more. Just a sprinkling takes a dish from delicious to divine.

I was thankful for the opportunity - from Food52 - to get some likeminded people around tables who were willing to explore the collection of recipes...and share their creations.

This gathering of dancing cooks was, as a potluck should be, a communal feast full of laughter and libations.

*Full disclosure: In exchange for hosting this potluck, I am receiving complimentary copies of The Food52 Cookbook, Volume 2: Seasonal Recipes from Our Kitchens to Yours, beans from Rancho Gordo, and butter from Olli's Handcrafted Cultured Butter.