Ingredients

• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons dijon Mustard
• 1/4 cup champagne vinegar
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 or 3 dashes hot sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

The easiest way to prepare this is to put all the ingredients, except the olive oil, into a food processor. Blend for a minute or two and then drizzle in the olive oil.

I also love drizzling honey on the salad, adding salt & pepper, adding the vinaigrette and tossing just before serving.

Try it out. Let me know what you think.

Source: Epicurious: Champagne Vinaigrette Salad Dressing Recipe

The Tamworth hog is the cornerstone of the farm. Grateful Growers offers a variety of cuts including chops, roasts, ribs, shanks and tenderloins. The farm also offers breakfast & Italian sausages, prosciutto style country ham, Chorizo, Bratwurst and other delicious products.

Gnocchi aside, Rudy’s has a great menu with many unique and simple Italian dishes. The wait staff is very professional, warm and friendly.

Short Rib Ragu with Gorgonzola Cheese

This recipe was originally inspired by a lunch dish of Short Rib Ragu at Bistro La Bon in Charlotte, NC. During the holidays, I found myself craving this dish and decided to attempt a recreation.

I found a wonderful recipe on Gastronomer’s Guide for Pappardelle with Short Rib Ragu and modified it slightly, adding frozen peas in the last 30 minutes of cooking and using Gorgonzola instead of Pecorino Romano because these details were closer to the dish at Bistro La Bon.

This dish would be fantastic with the fresh pasta suggested and is also great with a quality pre-packaged pasta. I made fresh tagliatelle pasta last night and wanted a rigatoni for this dish for “something different”. The rigatoni holds the meat sauce well.

Short Rib Ragu

Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Prep Time: 1 hr
Cook Time: 4 hrs

• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 pounds short ribs bone-in, cut into 2-inch segments
• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds boneless short ribs
• fine sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• bouquet garni (recipe follows)
• 4 small carrots, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 medium shallots, diced (optional)
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1/2 cup port wine
• 2 cups dry red wine
• 8 garlic cloves
• 3-1/2 cups beef stock
• 4 oz. frozen peas (add during last 30 minutes of cooking)
• 1 pound rigatoni pasta
• crumbled gorganzola (or blue cheese), for garnish (optional)
• chopped parsley, for garnish (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Warm oil in a 6-quart Dutch oven set over medium heat. Liberally season ribs with salt and pepper. Once oil is hot, cook ribs in two batches, searing all sides until brown. Remove to a plate.

Casserole after 3 hours of cooking at 325 degrees F.

To the casserole, add carrots, celery, onion, and shallots; cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Stir in flour and tomato paste. Deglaze the casserole with port wine, scraping the brown bits from the bottom. Add red wine; simmer until reduced by about half and alcohol has evaporated, about 10 minutes. Add garlic, beef stock, and the bouquet garni. Return the browned ribs to the casserole. Bring liquid to a simmer. Cover casserole and place in oven for 3 hours, adding peas in the last 30 minutes of cooking.

Remove casserole from oven and set over medium heat. Remove the braised ribs to a plate or bowl. The meat should fall off the bone. Discard bones and the bouquet garni. Shred meat into small pieces using a fork, discarding any pieces of fat. Skim off fat from surface of the sauce or incorporate back into the ragu. Return shredded meat to the casserole. Simmer sauce until reduced by about half.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of liberally salted water to a gentle boil. Cook rigatoni until al dente. Drain pasta and divide among bowls. Top each bowl with ragù and garnish with Gorgonzola and parsley.

Bouquet Garni

Prepare the bouquet garni by combining the following on a square piece of cheesecloth. Bring corners together and tie securely with kitchen twine.

• 1 dried bay leaf
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 5 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 sprigs fresh parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns

Stated simply, Sara Foster understands good food and offers readers a very down-to-earth guide to her palate. The result is delicious!

Sara Foster’s previous book, The Foster’s Market Cookbook, was coauthored with Martha Stewart, whom Foster worked with during the ’80′s. Fresh Every Day features recipes from the author’s North Carolina gourmet takeout shops.

Peter includes a scientific approach to the interactions that occur when making bread to help readers understand what gives bread it’s different and wonderful attributes.

With over 50 recipes that vary from traditional sandwich bread, Indian Naan, Challah, Cinnamon Buns, Pita, Pizza dough and hearth breads, this book is sure to give readers a new respect for whole grain breads.

Snapshot of a Persimmon pudding made for my father-in-law's 81st birthday.

My grandmother, Clara, was the first of many to teach me how to cook. She taught me how to make homemade buttermilk biscuits, Christmas ham and many other delicious comfort foods from the Southern US. She made this recipe on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Every fall, she would gather Persimmons from her tree outside, wash and then pulp the Persimmons. She would then spend several hours processing the fruit using a food mill or sieve with a wooden tool to mash the pulp through the sieve. She would then pre-measure into 2 cup ziploc bags, placing them in the freezer, in preparation for this recipe.

The fruit used in this recipe is not the Oriental Persimmons you find in the grocery store. I believe it’s the American Persimmon variety. Persimmonpudding.com has a variety of resources listed to find the necessary Persimmon pulp.

The key to this recipe is the mix of flour and liquid. When it’s correct, the result is a wonderful dessert with the consistency of a traditional pudding cake (not really cake and not really pudding). Too much flour creates a cake and too little creates a watery pudding, neither of which is very appealing.

Persimmon Pudding Recipe

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 1 hr 15 min

• 2 cups Persimmon Pulp
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 2 cups sifted self-rising flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 stick softened butter
• 2 eggs
• Dash of cinnamon (or 1/4 teaspoon)

Helpful Hints

If you have time, set the butter out on a kitchen counter and let it come to room temperature about an hour before beginning this recipe. If you’re running short on time, you can microwave the butter to melt it but be careful when adding it to the eggs as you don’t want to cook the eggs when mixing them with hot butter. Just soften the butter and let it cool.

I also like to add the baking soda to the flour when sifting because the sifting process mixes these ingredients well.

Directions

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the over to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a large bowl, sift the flour and baking soda. This step just makes it easier to fold in the flour later.
3. In another bowl, whisk the eggs. Then add the sugar and softened butter and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the Persimmon pulp and buttermilk in with the egg, butter and sugar mixture.
4. Fold in the flour and baking soda mixture. Then whisk to ensure the mixture is smooth. If you see any lumps of flour, continue whisking.
5. Add the dash of cinnamon. The cinnamon is a very flexible ingredient. You can add as much as you like but be careful not to overpower the persimmon flavor.
6. Grease a 13″ x 9″ glass baking dish. Then pour the single mixture into the baking dish.
7. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. You can test readiness by sticking a fork or toothpick into the pudding. When ready, the fork or toothpick will be clean when removed from the pudding.

This dish is delicious at room temperature or slightly chilled but it’s best served slightly warmed. Due to the sugar content from the fruit and sugar added, it will heat quickly.