Fighting "Saudade"

A new knife and a good book...

According to Google SAUDADE (noun) is a feeling of longing, melancholy, or nostalgia that is supposedly characteristic of the Portuguese or Brazilian temperament. If you look SAUDADE at Wikipedia they go over a very long page trying to explain the inexplicable, but Nascimento and Meandro cite Duarte Nunes Leão's for what may be a proper definition of SAUDADE: "Memory of something with a desire for it."

Anyhow, my wife has been in Brazil for the last five or six weeks and yesterday I had a particularly strong case of saudade. So, I left work earlier than usual, stopped downtown Traverse City for a couple errands, started filling hungry and decided to treat myself to a proper dinner.

I stopped at Maxbauer Meat Market and bought a beautiful T-Bone steak for main course and a kielbasa and a weisswurst for appetizer. Before I reached the cash register I added four small young potatoes to my plans.

As I arrived home the small USPS box on my mail box greeted me with news that a new toy I was anxiously waiting for had arrived, but I controlled my urge to open the package in order to first start the fire on my Big Green Egg.

Once the fire was burning, and the potatoes and sausages were on the grill, and some oldies were playing on the radio, I turned my attention back to the small USPS box. From its guts came the most beautiful and well made friction folder one can conceive. The Michael Morris knife was made from an old file and the comfortable handle is made of micarta. A nice design feature is that the tang doubles as a bottle opener. I didn't even feel like having a beer, but felt compelled to try the built-in bottle opener! My expert opinion is that it works better than most bottle openers I've used to date.

While the Green Egg imparted its magic to the sausages I went on reading a couple chapter of Jim Harrison's Just Before Dark. The celebrated Grayling, MI, native discusses why "Small portions are for small and inactive people" along with observations along the natural order of really important things: first eat, then love! Considering I always told people that my stomach is the most important part of my anatomy, I can relate to Mr. Harrison's passion for food, that lesser souls could consider gluttony.

By this time the sausages were perfectly grilled and while they rested to allow the juices to incorporate with the meat I salted the T-Bone steak and placed it on the grill, taking time to assure the potatoes would not burn. I finished the beer while savoring the appetizer, and really building a bigger appetite.

A couple more pages and the steak was ready.

...and a great meal helps one to feel better!

In order to complement the magic that lump wood charcoal imparts to food I split the potatoes and seasoned with table salt, butter and olive oil. The texture and flavor was just out of this world. The simple dinner was washed down by a small (or maybe not so small) amount of a special edition Jameson Irish Whiskey.

Desert was just one Sonho de Valsa, the popular Brazilian bonbon made of chocolate and cashew nuts filling, and unchanged since 1938.

All this happened just before dark what is the time that saudade strikes most powerfully, but the new knife, good reading and great food helped keep it at bay.

Bob-white Quail & Pasta

This is not a pizza!

This is a very simple but delicious recipe that was prepared by my friend Daniel Rodrigues from Caxias do Sul - Brasil - on Sunday, January 27, after I brought a nice bunch of Bob-white quail following a hunt at Bruce, Steve and Mike at Pine Wing Preserve (www.pinewingpreserve.org) in Wetumpka, Alabama.

I will tell about the hunting at a later time, but I would like to share the recipe that feeds ten very hungry people right now!

Ingredients

20 Bob-white quail

2.5 packs of Barilla spaghetti (1 1/4 Kg)

300 grams Bacon

5 cloves of garlic

1large onion

12 sage leaves

1 sprig basil

Olive oil

Salt

Black pepper (if you like it, I don't)

Cabernet wine

Parmesan cheese

Preparation

Marinate the quail in the wine, salt, pepper and sage

Cut the bacon in small cubes, fry it and set aside

Fry the onion & garlic and set aside

Seal the quail by frying it in olive oil. After this add the marinade, bacon, onion & garlic and let cook until tender

After the quail is ready, cook the pasta as directed in the pack

Add the pasta to the quail and before serving add the basil and some of the cheese

Serve immediately

In the photo above, we served the quail & pasta in the crust of a RAR Gran Formaggio Parmesan wheel that we rescued after a very special celebration. It adds a lot to the presentation, taste and ambiance. We did not have any RAR wine left, and had to make do with other drinks.

Enjoy it!

Capriolo al Barolo

Nebbiolo Grapes

As a break from two weeks working in Germany attending trade shows, I took a (in my opinion) well-deserved two-day weekend in Italy’s Piemonte, with the very specific purpose of visiting my friend Vito Benevelli and having a couple meals at this restaurant Frandin da Vito.

I stopped by at lunch and we spent sometime talking (I was also eating) while Vito cleaned some fantastic Porcini mushrooms that would be the main meal during the evening’s dinner when I would return with my friend Patrick, for his proper introduction to the rich Piemontese cuisine, including proper tasting of its foremost wines, Barbaresco, Nebbiolo (which has a very special place in my soul), and the great Barolo.

Following dinner Patrick and I shared some of Vito’s Genipi (the home made liquor made of Alpine flowers and herbs I told you about before) and joined him for some discussion on Italian wines and Patrick started his collection of Great Italian wines.

Before we left, Vito asked me to comeback the following day (Saturday, 15^th) at 15:00 hours (that is 3:00 PM).

Next afternoon when I arrived Vito had set aside two 12 gauge over-under shotguns and a 240 Weatherby rifle, topped with a Zeiss 8X scope, and his backpack (or Zaino) with all the gear for an afternoon hunt.

We made a stop at TAV Carignano for some Elica shooting and this time I really shot badly. If Bill Berghuiss were with us, he would have shouted “Good Shot, Dick!”

After watching our friend Signor Guido win a fat poker hand with a Straight, we bid him farewell and continued our way to Barolo, and more specifically Monforte d’Alba, Vito’s birthplace and the city were his vines and cantina are located, and the vindima was in full swing.

We visited his home and as we toured his vines I was able to taste in loco the fantastic sweetness and delicate flavor of the Nebbiolo grapes, from which both Barolo and Nebbiolo wines are made, the main difference being the aging in oak barrels, one year for the Nebbiolo and at least three years for the Barolo.

As afternoon was coming to an end, and dusk began to approach, we rushed towards a local Azienda Faunistico-Venatoria, or in US parlance a hunting preserve or lease. The property was about one thousand hectares or 2,200 acres, and was a mix of luxurious riverbeds, meadows and mature woods, and there were no fences. All game is free ranging!

All over the Barolo region I saw signs announcing that there was open hunting on wild boar and foxes, but our target was the Capriolo (Capreolus capreolus), or roe deer, one of the most widespread of the Old World deer.

We parked close to one of the gates, got our gear and started walking towards one of the several meadows that dot the property. Just as we approach it I saw a large and beautiful fox moving along the one of the edges as we passed by a large number of bee hives, another sweet wild local delicacy.

We walked towards a ditch where we entrenched ourselves, got comfortable and started waiting for dusk and capriolo. Shortly after I spotted the first deer, or better saying doe, about four hundred yards away on the opposite wood’s edge. Shortly after, Vito spotted another doe with two fawns on the opposite side of the field and less than two hundred yards from us.

Over the next hour or so we had as much as eight does and fawns at a time on the field, and the fawns were clearly demonstrating why the roe deer is capriolo in Italy. They were playing and jumping around non-stop.

A nice sized doe (capriolo is quite smaller than whitetail) came to about a hundred yards of us, and with a scoped 240 Weatherby rifle from a solid rest that would have been a very easy shot, but we were after roebucks, and never pulled the trigger.

By this time I already had realized that hunting capriolo in the Piemonte is not that different from hunting whitetails in Michigan. Big bucks don’t grow big by being stupid, and they did stick to heavy cover and never came out. When it got to dark to shoot we grabbed our stuff and walked back to the car.

We then drove back to San Mauro Torinese and Vito and I had dinner together, at his place off course! And we had Capriolo al Barolo, from an animal that he had shot some days before. We polished out a couple bottles of Nebbiolo wine and I was forced into eating dessert: small pears cooked in wine and covered with a sauce made of chocolate and Amaretto and Zuppa Inglese, which is not a soup, but a delicious cake.

Before I departed Vito committed to join me next year in Uruguay for perdiz. I will be looking forward to that.

As any regional dishes, there are many subtle ways to prepare Capriolo al Barolo. This is one that looks similar to the way that Vito cooks at his restaurant Frandin da Vito in San Mauro Torinese.

Ingredients

·       800 grams (or about two pounds) of capriolo (you could replace it by venison), without fat

·       1 large glass of Barolo wine

·       1 onion

·       2 cloves of garlic

·       1 bunch of tarragon

·       2 or 3 branches of marjoram

·       50 grams of butter

·       50 grams of white flour

·       2 small glasses of Brandy

·       1 small glass of vegetable stock

·       Salt and pepper

Preparation

Cut the capriolo in cubes, keeping the bones, and place it on a dish large enough to hold it all in one layer. Add all the wine and half of the brandy, and turn the pieces after one hour. After two hours, in a way that all pieces marinated in both sides for at least one hour, spread over all the capriolo a fine paste made of onion, garlic, tarragon, marjoram, salt and pepper (personally I do not use pepper). Leave marinating for at least four hours (my friend Vito will leave it for at least 24 hours). Before cooking, dry the pieces of capriolo with paper towels. Melt the butter over very moderate heat in a large pan (I like cast-iron) adding salt and pepper. Add the pieces of capriolo and when they are well browned in both sides, put them aside. Return all the pieces to the cooking pan, covering them with boiling water. Add the flour, the remaining of the brandy, the vegetable stock and let it cook until the sauce is reduced to gravy. Serve immediately, placing the gravy over the pieces of capriolo.

Virtual Hunting

The author and Signor Vito Benevelli
(Photo by Maria José Camargo Meirelles)

Since last Thursday I am touring Torino (Italy) with my wife, just taking it easy, walking a lot, enjoying the sites, meeting some friends and sharing a good time with each other.

This does not mean that hunting is very far away from my mind, as the hunting tradition is deeply rooted in the Piemontese culture.

We visited the Palazzina di caccia Stupinigi that as the hunting lodge for the kings of Savoia. Stupinigi encompasses a luxurious palace that is heavily decorated with hunting art and is crowned by a bronze statue of a royal red stag. Tours are guided only, and at the beginning we are greeted by superb marble statues of Diana, goddess of hunting, and Actaeon, the hunter that Diana turned on a deer after he saw her nude, bathing on a stream, and was then killed by his own friends and hounds.

However, Stupinigi today houses a XVI and XVII century furniture exposition, and the hunting trophies are now at the Museo Regionale da Scienze Naturali at Torino’s quadrilatero (the historic city center). The zoology collection is very nice, displaying animals from all continents. The main room is inspired by Noah’s Arc and just after that there is an impressive display of all species of bears, except pandas.

Currently the museum is featuring an exposition on the history of taxidermy, starting at ancient Egypt with mummification and discussing the evolution of this art. It is impressive to compare XIX century and current animal mounts and understand how much taxidermy has evolved in its ability to portray life-like animals.

The Armeria Realle provides an evolutionary overview of personal weaponry from the Stone Age to the early XX century, including a reasonable amount of hunting firearms.

But the highlight to this virtual hunting tour was the visit to my friend Signor Vito Benevelli in his Ristorante Frandin. As we arrived we were greeted by Vito’s wife, Signora Luciana and soon after we were in the kitchen admiring the beautiful Beccaccia or European woodcock that were aging in cold chamber in the proper way, undisturbed with entrails intact.

Vito selected a nice bottle of Nebbiolo and my wife and I started a marvelous culinary adventure over eighteen different antipasti, among them the terrine di coniglio (rabbit) and paté di selvaggina, a most wonderful dish made of small game and wild truffles. At Frandin main dishes include pheasant, partridge, rabbit, boar, roe deer and other wild game depending on season.

After dinner we talked about hunting, how Vito is coaching his nephew on hunting the Italian alps, the diverse animals that he hunted during this season (roe buck, chamois, pheasant, partridge, capercaillie and of course, woodcock), the need to hunt foxes during January to minimize predation of roe deer fawns next spring, and some aspects of Italian law that only allows hunting four days a week, an individual hunter to be out only in two of those days.

Who thought I couldn’t get my wife hunting?