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On my second trip to San Francisco last November I devoured My Life in France. The delayed flight out of LAX and lack of WiFi there made it easy to fall into Julia Child’s memories.
That night I found myself at Alamo Square Seafood, and if there was anything to convince me of how my life keeps crashing into food, it would be the presence of beurre blanc on their menu.
How could I not order it? After reading about Julia’s persistence in learning how to make it, I had to try this magical elixir in the form of creamed butter. Am I waxing a bit too poetic for you? Perhaps, but you have to understand - this sauce transformed my sauteed red snapper from a simple fish to the best poisson I’ve ever tasted.
This recipe would be mine, oh yes. I would perfect it and serve it with a flourish to family and friends, and my head would probably fill with pride as I recounted how wonderfully easy it was, and it would become an often-requested favorite.
Except the next time I put fish on the menu my husband balked.
“I don’t really like fish that much,” he explained.
That much? That much?!? We hardly ever have fish in this house. I ruefully noted (in my head) that I was sure he wouldn’t mind if we had fish sticks every week, but throw a real fish into the mix and he’s turning up his nose like our toddler. Who, incidentally, doesn’t like fish sticks but eats salmon.
I shelved the idea for a while - after all, it was the holidays, and then my cleanse, and time gets away from you - but then all of a sudden it was February, a full three months after I had declared my love, and I hadn’t even sent it a Valentine.
“I’m making beurre blanc this weekend!” I shrieked, brandishing a stick of butter and preventing all access to the kitchen. Of course, the only ones home were the cats, who just blinked at me. Darn cats. Chefs get no respect.
Julia Child’s Beurre Blanc
Note: This process will actually take longer than you think. I had to pop our food in the microwave to keep it warm while I was whipping the butter. If at all possible, have a sidekick in the kitchen who can keep an eye on everything else, getting the meal done as close as possible to the finishing of the sauce.
Extra sauce will congeal and can be used like compound butter. Try it on roasted veggies or on top of a burger. Or, store in the fridge until you remember it’s there, rewarm slowly on the stove, and add in a few pieces of new butter until you reach the
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 tbsp finely minced shallots or scallions
Salt and ground white pepper
8 to 12 ounces (2 to 3 sticks) chilled best-quality unsalted butter, cut into 16 or 24 pieces
In a small saucepan heat liquids to a boil, adding shallot and white pepper. Boil down to a syrupy glaze.
Remove pan from heat and whip in two lumps of butter, then two more.
Set pan over lowest possible heat and continue to add more butter as soon as the last lump has been absorbed. You might want to take it off the heat completely in order to reach the proper consistency.
It should be smooth like mayonnaise, and the butter should not melt.
Add salt to taste and serve. However, letting it sit a moment before serving will help it thicken further and prevent melting when added to hot food.
For this post, I interviewed Megan Wannarka, a volunteer beekeeper with Ames Farm in Minnesota.
How did you get into beekeeping?
I had a fascination when I was younger and found the nearest beekeeper and asked if I could help. My mom drove me out and I spent an afternoon with him. I was in love. I only helped him one day and was interested in getting into from then but it’s not necessarily a good hobby for a 13 year old.
Most recently after interviewing for the Peace Corps, they asked me if I was interested in working with bees, which lead me to get more experience in the area. I contacted the beekeeper who I work with now. I volunteered with him last summer after being laid off from my job. (The company name is Ames Farms, he has 300 hives and will expand to 500 and is organic as possible and sells his honey throughout the united states)
What is a typical day like?
Depending upon the time of year it differs slightly. We begin in April around 6-7am (depending upon the warmth of the day) checking hives, making sure they have enough honey, checking the queen, giving them pollen.
Later in May-June, checking for eggs, brood pattern, for queens and disease. At this point of the year you can re-queen a hive and still have a good amount of honey in the fall. Honey will start to “run” or “flow” around late May. If you talk to a beekeeper at this point of the year, they are very happy and busy.
Late in July-Aug you are pulling the capped honey off the hives (most labor intensive part of the year) and taking it to the honey house to be uncapped and spun out to be strained and bottled. Most days we work until we can’t (12-14 hour days were typical last year) because or daylight or where we can get to with so many bee yards, but we have a large operation compared to most hobby beekeepers, checking a yard on a weekly basis rather than daily.
How long does it take to create honey (pollen to honey)?
Bees collect nectar from flowering trees, shrubs and plants over the course of spring and summer. Nectar is the raw product of honey, while pollen is stirred up while gathering the nectar from plants and helping in pollination. Bees will also collect pollen on their hind legs and is a foodstuff that they eat along with honey. The bees will hold the nectar in their stomach, much like a cow and their cud, and then will deposit in into a cell in the comb once they get back to the hive. A single bee will make only an 1/8 of a teaspoon of honey in their lifetime.
Once the cell is full and the moisture content has fallen below 18% (depending upon weather) the bees will cap the cell. This is the sign the honey is ready. It can take a few months to have a box of frames be completely capped once the honey starts. Last year the honey flow started in June and we started to take honey off in August. But with the correct conditions you might this process can really start to fly in the middle of the summer and beekeepers need to keep on top of it.
Can you talk about the differences in honey (grades, different pollen sources, etc)?
Grades of honey are based on percent of soluble solids, absence of defects, flavor and aroma and clarity. (further detail can be found here) Most honey you find in the grocery store and farmer’s market is grade A.
Pollen sources will determine color, flavor and aroma of the honey. Most commercial honey is blended from many sources so it’s harder to tell the difference between a dandelion and clover honey. The beekeeper I work with makes a point of NOT blending his honey except by single super (box of honey with 9 frames it) which captures a very small area of pollen and from a specific area, which is pretty cool. His honey ranges from dandelion (strange enough tastes like lemon), to melon (he’s got hives on an organic melon farm) to basswood and of course clover.
What should people who are interested do to get involved with beekeeping?
Buy local honey from either the beekeeper at the farmers market, direct, find a local hobby beekeeper association chapter and join (they have a ton of information if you’d like to get into it) It is a dying art and shouldn’t be rushed into if your thinking of trying it. My beekeeper has many stories of people trying it, not finding the time for it and then end up abandoning the whole idea
Sources and further reading:
United States Standards for Grades of Extracted Honey
The Backyard Beekeeper’s Honey Handbook by Kim Flottum
Plan Bee: Everything you ever wanted to know about the hardest working creature on the planet by Susan Brackney
And anything by Eva Crane (the foremost researcher on the subject)
Find a local honey producer by searching Local Harvest
Megan Wannarka works with Ames Farm and is originally from small town in southern Minnesota. When she’s not playing with bees she’s found with her nose in a book, causing trouble, breaking hearts and freelancing.
Fooled you! Technically I don’t have a meal plan this week, as I’m heading to Minnesota to help my mom move to Nebraska, and I’ll be gone all week.
I’m leaving the boys a premade lasagna and $20 (plus the rest of the food in the house, of course) so we’ll see what happens.
I do have some posts scheduled to go up this week so be sure to pop by!
And have you entered my giveaway yet? I am stocked with Retro Bizzaro goodies right now and all I can say is YUM.
See?
Hope you decide to enter, and have a great week!
(if you’re missing the meal plans, be sure to visit I’m an Organizing Junkie!)
What are you doing next month?
In our house, we’ll be changing the way we eat. We’re going to see how much we can stick to only local sources for our food. This is something I’ve wanted to try for a while, and because we’re already getting our meat and vegetables from local farms, it shouldn’t be too much harder to get the rest of our food locally.
There will be exceptions - coffee, of course, is not grown in Austin. But there are multiple local roasters we can use. I’m going to try to find a source for local flour, but we might have to give that one a pass. Spices are an exception as well, but we can get Texas olive oils. Everything else is out the window if it’s not local.
I’m throwing out a challenge. Make March your month to eat local too. Get your veggies from the farmer’s market or a CSA. Find a local meat producer. Seek out a dairy source, if you can. You can even have some not-so-healthy food, if you can find a place to get your fix for sweet treats. Make at least one meal a week from local food sources. It’s not too much to ask. If you’re up for it, push yourself even more.
It’s true that we’re just coming out of what’s considered the Dark Days, and those of you in northern climes will have a tougher time than me down in Texas. But give it a shot. Learn about where your food is coming from.
With that in mind, I’m giving away 2 DVDs of the Oscar-nominated Food, Inc. I’ll also include some Austin foodie gifts to show you some of the fantastic food crafted right here.
Prize #1 will include:
A copy of Food Inc
Treats from Retro Bizzaro - Old school snack cakes made with local ingredients
Samples from Kohana Coffee - Specialty coffee beans slow roasted in Austin
$25 Shopping Spree on RegionalBest.com, an online artisan food market. Buy unique and hard to find food and food gifts direct from food artisans, family farms and other small companies across the country.
Prize #2 will include:
A copy of Food Inc
Treats from Retro Bizzaro
Samples from Kohana Coffee
Artisan popcorn from Cornucopia in a flavor of your choice
Jake’s Natural Fine Foods Lemon Poppyseed Biscotti
To enter:
1) Leave a comment on this post describing one way you’re changing the way you eat.
2) For an additional entry retweet this post (be sure to include @stetted so I can see it) and leave another comment letting me know you’ve done so.
3) For another entry subscribe to this site (either via e-mail or RSS) and leave a comment letting me know.
4) For yet another entry, become a fan on Facebook and leave a comment letting me know.
Two winners will be drawn at random via Random.org. You have until February 28 at midnight to enter, and the winner will be announced here on March 1. Good luck!
Also, I’ll be highlighting the wonderful companies listed above in the coming weeks, so be sure to stay tuned!
P.S. If you’re interested, the book club will be reading and talking about The Omnivore’s Dilemma starting in March. I’ll be making posts here on the blog, but for more discussion you can join my forums. Please be sure to let me know you’ve joined so I can approve you!
If you live in Austin (and aren’t lactose intolerant) you need to get yourself over to Antonelli’s Cheese Shop in Hyde Park.
Antonelli’s, nestled in between Hyde Park Grill and Dolce Vita, is small, but they make up for their size in enthusiasm and knowledge of cheese. John and Kendall Antonelli and Kelly Sheehan are ready to talk your ear off about cheese, and make sure you taste as much of it as possible. I actually felt a bit guilty that I only tasted a few of the cheeses due to time, but I vow to do better next time. Especially after Kendall and I shared a bit of love about Cowgirl Creamery, whom Kendall called one of their mentors.
They also sell olives, chocolate, salami, crackers - pretty much anything you need to throw an amazing cheese party is available right here. Although I won’t blame you if you keep all your purchases to yourself.
I was so excited to be in the shop that I completely forgot I was supposed to get gorgonzola and came away with gruyere instead - a delicious mistake! I also picked up a small piece of ossau-iraty, a fanastic sheep’s milk cheese that I’ve been snacking on this week, and a few Askinoise Nibble Bars in varying levels of dark chocolate that they conveniently have right on the checkout counter. Who can resist that?
I’ll definitely be back to Antonelli’s soon. Especially since I found out they have guanciale. Can I blame them for my impending weight gain?
Antonelli’s Cheese Shop
4220 Duval St, Austin
www.antonellischeese.com
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