November 11th
Bundle up and get your meat ready. Winter is coming.
The History
Where’s the Beef?
Martinmas, or St. Martin’s Day, was when the wheat seeding was completed and the annual slaughter of fat cattle began in preparation for the winter. This beef was salted and preserved for the cold months ahead. So, while your beef is hanging in the barn, have some of our duck ravioli instead.
The Man with Many Hats
St. Martin (Martin le Miséricordieux) was born sometime in the fourth century. He was forced by his family to become a soldier with the Roman Army. One day, he saw a poor, cold man lying on the ground, and he cut his own cloak in half to cover the beggar. This is when Jesus appeared to him, and the divine encounter caused him to leave the army, get baptized, and devote the rest of his life to the needy and the poor. He is the patron saint of poverty, beggars, cavalry, equestrians, geese, hotel-keepers, innkeepers, wine growers, and wine makers. One could say St. Martin wears many hats.
Like Michaelmas, Martinmas was also a time for geese. Rumor has it that St. Martin once hid in a goose pen to avoid being ordained as bishop. Hence, a cooked goose was often part of the celebration. Goose was expensive, so duck was a common meal substitute for the peasant folk.
The phrase “your goose is cooked” may have come from the fourteenth century when a Czech priest named Jan Hus (1372–1415) was burned at the stake for being a heretic. His last name, Hus, sounded like “goose”; also, “husa” translates to goose. So, when he burned, one could say his goose was cooked. Another theory for the origin of this phrase is that it came from the sixteenth century. When Eric the Mad of Sweden raided a small town, the residents hung a goose outside their houses to show their enemies they were not starving. Angry at the defiance, Eric and his cronies set fire to the town, thus cooking the goose. What a waste.
This holiday originates from France, but it had already spread to most of Europe by the Middle Ages. In Ireland, it was custom to sacrifice a rooster and sprinkle some of his blood in the four corners of your home (messy). Families also believed it to be incredibly bad luck to let any sort of wheel turn on your land. This was because St. Martin had been tossed into a millstream, and he was killed by its wheel. Ouch.
Meanwhile, in Germany and the Netherlands, it was custom to have giant bonfires, which led to the nickname Funkentag or Spark Day. Youngsters would leap through the flames of these bonfires and spread ashes on fields to make them fertile.
With shallots and pancetta.
Ingredients
1 whole Rohan duck from D’Artagnan, 5½–6 pounds
2 cups boiling water
3 tsp anise seeds
24 juniper berries
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
1 Tbsp butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 shallots, minced
2 tsp fresh sage, finely chopped
8 oz mascarpone cheese
1 egg
Perfect Pasta recipe (pg 17)
Directions
Preheat the oven at 425°F, with a rack in the center.
Remove the duck from the wrapping, and trim the wingtips (they will burn if you don’t). Remove any items in the body cavity. Thoroughly rinse the inside and outside of the duck with water.
Place the duck, breast side up, on a roasting pan. We recommend using a deep roasting pan that comfortably fits the length of the duck. Using a fork, liberally prick the duck’s skin. Be careful, as you want to go deep enough into the skin but not into the flesh. Pour the boiling water all over the skin that you have just prepared. This tightens the skin so that you will get a beautifully roasted bird. Allow the bird to cool for a half hour.
While you wait, combine the anise, juniper berries, salt, and pepper in a mortar, and grind with a pestle until you get a nicely ground mixture. After the duck has cooled, pat the duck with paper towels, inside and out. Rub the entire bird with the mixture. Focus on the breast, but save some for the inside as well.
Pop the duck in the oven for 45 minutes, breast side up. Remove the duck from the oven and carefully turn the duck over to breast side down for another 45 minutes. After that, once again remove the duck from the oven and turn it over, breast side up. You will also want to remove the fat from the pan using a baster or by simply tilting the pan. You can save this fat for future cooking, like with potatoes or eggs. Cook for a final 45 minutes.
After 2¼ hours, the duck will be golden and simply delicious. Remove the duck from the oven and let it rest. After it has cooled, you will be able to shred around 5 cups of meat.
Melt butter in a sauté pan, over medium heat. Add garlic, followed by shallots, and stir for 2 minutes. Add the sage, and stir and cook for another minute. Remove from the stove.
In a large bowl, combine the duck meat, cooled shallot mixture, mascarpone, and egg until fully incorporated.
Roll out the pasta dough on a floured surface and make ravioli the way you choose; either by hand with a cutter template or with a machine. Fill the ravioli with the meat mixture. As long as you are sealing the dough together properly, it will hold. Use a spray bottle to lightly spray the edges of the pieces of dough with water, and use a pastry brush to make sure it is covered completely.
Store the raviolis in the freezer on a cookie sheet lined with flour until frozen. You can use them right away or place them in a plastic bag for future use.
Cinnamon Beef Roast Wrapped in Heaven
Go heavy on the wine; we won’t say anything.
Ingredients
3 lb roast
2 tsp each cinnamon, salt, black pepper
1 tsp ginger
½ tsp each cloves and nutmeg
½ lb pancetta, sliced
Olive oil
2 cloves garlic (we used ½ clove elephant garlic)
2 medium onions, sliced
2 medium carrots, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
½ lb mushrooms (we used baby bella), sliced
1 Tbsp rosemary, fresh
3 stems thyme, fresh
2 bay leaves
3 cups burgundy wine
2 cups beef stock
½ stick unsalted butter
4 Tbsp all-purpose flour
Directions
Pat the beef dry with a paper towel. In a large mixing bowl, add the cinnamon, salt, pepper, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. Mix until fully blended. Add the beef into the bowl and rub the mix into all sides thoroughly. You will have some mix left over; set aside for later.
Allow the meat to sit for approximately 20 minutes or until it reaches room temperature. Wrap the beef in pancetta on all sides. If you are feeling fancy, you can truss the meat. YouTube has great videos on how to truss. If you can’t get the trussing down, make multiple ties around the beef with kitchen string, since the meat needs to be evenly cooked for the best results. If your roast is at different thicknesses, it will have parts that are overcooked or undercooked.
In a Dutch oven (or large oven-proof pan), heat a nice coating of olive oil on medium heat. At this point, we added some of the remaining spice mix to the pancetta-covered beef, pressing it nicely into the pork. Just so you know, this part smokes like the dickens—prepare yourself. Crisp all sides of the beef in the olive oil, and then remove roast and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 325°F. In the Dutch oven, over medium heat (still on the stove top), add the garlic. We really like to use elephant garlic. Technically this is not garlic but fennel, though it has a mild garlicky taste. It also slices like heaven. Once the garlic starts to brown, add the onions until they begin to soften.
Add the carrots and celery until they start to soften. Toss in the mushrooms followed by the fresh rosemary, thyme, and bay leaves. Stir and then add the burgundy and beef stock. Stir again. Gently place the roast into the Dutch oven, cover, and roast in the oven for 90 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven and carefully take out the roast, placing it aside. Cover loosely with tinfoil. You can leave it in the roasting pan while it rests.
Place the very hot Dutch oven onto the stove top, over medium heat. Cook down the juices for 20 minutes. Remove the bay leaves.
It is now time to make a roux. In a separate pan, heat ½ stick of butter until melted over medium-to-medium low heat. As the butter begins to bubble, sprinkle the flour into the butter and stir, stir, stir. Remove a cup of juices from the Dutch oven and slowly mix it into the roux. Remove from heat and pour the roux into the Dutch oven, then stir. Sprinkle with fresh thyme.
Cut the meat and serve with the gravy.
Added bonus: We decided to deconstruct this meal the next day. We cut up the meat and heated it with the remaining sauce, serving it over pasta. To make it especially fabulous. we heated up some bacon fat (butter will also do) and tossed some panko crumbs in the hot liquid until toasty. Finally, we sprinkled the toasted panko over the pasta to give an extra crunch to the leftovers. So good.
The original version of this recipe dates back to fourteenth century France.
To serve with Peasant Duck Ravioli (you can replace chutney with pea puree on page 64).
Ingredients for Harvest Chutney
½ cup honey
1 apple, cored and diced
1 pear, cored and diced
2 cups pitted and chopped cherries (we used sweet red cherries that are not sweetened; if they are not in season, most freezer sections have frozen unsweetened cherries that are delicious)
¼ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup white wine or champagne vinegar
½ cup currants
1 tsp ground ginger
⅛ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp white pepper
Directions for Harvest Chutney
In a heavy pan, heat the honey. Once the honey is hot (but not boiling), remove the white skim off the top.
Stir in apple, pear, cherries, brown sugar, white wine or vinegar, currants, ground ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and white pepper.
Cook for 20–25 minutes. Once the mixture gets thick, remove from the stove top and store, or use right away on the fabulous ravioli you just made.
St. Martin’s Sickness Prevention
Hair of the dog, hangover remedy—whatever you want to call it, it will make you feel better.
Martinmas was definitely a joyous holiday. No somber religious observances, just lots of food and beer. Those who had a little too much drink were called “Martinmen.” One should also note that, along with his long list of patronage responsibilities mentioned previously, St. Martin was also the patron saint of tavern keepers and drunkards. So much mead, ale, and wine were consumed that the hangover that followed was dubbed “St. Martin’s sickness.”
Since this breakfast is meant for those “delicate” mornings, you may want to make the batter a day in advance and store it in the refrigerator. The best part of this breakfast is that you can eat the items separately or put them all together to make a sandwich. We recommend that breakfast be served with our version of a mimosa—a half glass of champagne, with the other half filled with equal parts St. Germaine and orange juice.
Ingredients for Waffles
1 lb regular cut bacon
2 cups all-purpose flour
1½ tsp baking powder
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
2 large eggs
1 ⅔ cups buttermilk
⅓ cup heavy cream
⅓ cup butter, melted
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
¼ cup parsley
Directions for Waffles
Slice the bacon into bite-size pieces. Cook the bacon in a heavy pan until crisp but not burned. Remove the cooked bacon and place on a paper towel; set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and pepper.
In another bowl, combine the eggs, buttermilk, and heavy cream. Whisk slightly. Carefully pour the ⅓ cup of cooled melted butter into the wet mixture and combine. Slowly pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, mixing constantly with a wooden spoon. The mixture should be free of lumps.
Add the cheddar cheese, bacon, and parsley to the final mixture to complete the batter.
Heat some butter in a pan and make your waffles.
To make waffle sandwiches, we used a waffle pan instead of a waffle iron to make smaller, uniform waffles.
Ingredients for Waffle Sandwiches
4 Tbsp butter
1 large onion, sliced thin
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp ground ginger
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp ground cloves
½ tsp white pepper
1 lb center-cut bacon
Cold large eggs
1 capful white vinegar
A creamy sauce of your choice; our favorite is a simple blender-style Béarnaise sauce
Directions for Waffle Sandwiches
To make caramelized onions: Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a sauté pan on medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add the onion and then sprinkle with sugar. Cook the onions until they are golden brown, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Once done, remove from heat and set aside.
Candied bacon: Combine the cinnamon, ginger, brown sugar, cloves, and white pepper in a shallow bowl. Press the bacon into the mixture, coating both sides. Add the bacon to a hot pan. As the bacon candies, it may burn if unattended, so watch it carefully. If you notice the bacon starting to smoke, add a tablespoon or two of butter to the pan to prevent burning. The bacon will become gloriously sticky. Once done, also set aside.
Poached eggs: Do not be intimidated by poached eggs. They are shockingly easy and you do not need any fancy tools. Simply heat a medium-size saucepan. Add salted water and heat to a rolling boil. Add a capful of white vinegar and lower the heat to medium low, letting the water settle down to a simmer. Crack an egg into a cup first. Get the cup close to the water and gently slide the egg into the hot bath. Cook for about 4 minutes. You can add a few more eggs to the bath but it may take a half minute or so longer to cook. Remove the eggs with a slotted spoon and add on top of the sandwich.
To make this wonderful sandwich, start with one waffle. Add the caramelized onion and a slice (or two) of candied bacon, followed by the poached egg and a dollop of Béarnaise sauce. Top with another piece of waffle to complete the sandwich.
We made this for brunch. It was the quietest brunch we ever had, as our friends could not stop eating these “day after” treats.
