February 2010 – eats for one

Rustic French Meatloaf using a hand grinder

Why would anyone want to hand-grind their own meat for a meatloaf? A fair question. For one thing, I have a hand-crank meat grinder — Silex No Clamp Chopper ca. 1959. When Carol’s grandmother died, it went to Carol’s mom’s basement where it lived until Carol claimed it. That was sometime in the seventies, but we gave it little use until recently when I rediscovered ham loaf.

I am an avid maker of meatloaf, meatballs and ham loaf. It’s common to buy ground beef or pork, turkey or chicken, even veal from your butcher, and that works fine for meatballs and meatloaf or most other ground meat preparations. For ham, it is a different matter. Ground ham is not readily available, so you ask your butcher to grind your ham, or grind it yourself. I learned that the ham I grind myself has a more coarse texture than that ground by the butcher. I like that much better. Why not try the hand-grinder for a meatloaf called “rustic” made with pork and veal? Why indeed; I got some pork and veal stew meat and went to work.

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To demonstrate the swell meat grinder and some other handy kitchen tools, I selected a recipe from the April, 2009 Gourmet Magazine: Rustic French Meatloaf, using veal, pork, chicken livers and your usual meatloaf things. I alternated pieces of pork and veal… presto, instant mixing.

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Here’s the grinder broken down. Pretty simple… the auger pushes the meat through the holes in the extruder and the meat is cut by the propeller shaped blade. I love the weight and the hefty feel of this grinder, and it is extremely easy to clean. Continue reading →

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Chris Costentino, the chef of Incanto, in a poll of local chefs and public figures, said his favorite way to eat bacon was the Maple Glazed Bacon Apple Donut from Dynamo Donuts. High praise indeed, since Incanto has a philosophy of featuring the whole pig and every part of the pig.

That was enough for me.

Sunday morning, I usually get up early and go someplace beautiful in the city to sit and write in my journal. So this Sunday, I headed for 24th street and Dynamo Donuts. Word had it that they open early and you better get there early to bring home the bacon. By 8:15 I was on 24th Street and finally found the inconspicuous storefront at 8:30. Closed; Sunday hours 9am to whatever. I wrote for a while in my journal and at nine found a place to park on Hawthorne, a nearby side street.

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When I got to Dynamo, there was already a 12 to 15-person line. No matter… it was nice and sunny and how long could it take, so I settled at the end of the line. A few minutes later, I felt a hand gripping my left shoulder and heard, “Uncle Marc!”

It was nephew Matt with Andrea, his intended (in June). How weird is that? Matt lives in the lower Haight, I live on Russian Hill and here we are on the wrong end of 24th Street early on Sunday morning. Matt and Andrea had been to Dynamo a few times, but not as a regular thing. We chatted about their upcoming wedding and Carol’s and my upcoming 50th anniversary and it was my time at the window.

I knew what I wanted, but took the time to read the description:

Maple Glazed Bacon Apple Donut
Studded with bacon and apples, sautéed bacon fat maple glaze and crispy bacon.

I ordered, paid my three bucks, bade goodbye and made my way home.

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Back home, we ate and savored the donuts. The donut itself is light but with substance… sort of a cross between a Krispy Kream and a cake donut. Yum. And of course the glaze has enough bacon and apple and fat and sugar to add a decadent wonderfulness. [Excuse the Sunday morning table littered with the Sunday paper and grocery list in progress.]

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I ate mine with a cored and peeled pear, a nice counterpoint to the rich glazed donut.

We’re not really donut people. Back in the days of our first living in SF, we discovered Bob’s Donuts on Polk Street down around Clay. For a while, it was a Sunday ritual for me to go to Bob’s early, pick out a selection of goodies – Glazed Old Fashioned, both regular and chocolate; Apple Fritters, Elephant Ears, Chocolate Eclairs, Cheese Danish and so on – to start off our Sunday. Starting the day with a sugar high was a good thing for a while, but then we found the Marin Farmers Market, a way better Sunday alternative. Later, a SF Farmers Market started in the middle of the Embarcadero in front of the Ferry Building on Saturdays and our weekend lives were changed… for better health.

Oh, I’ll go back to Dynamo for the Maple Glazed Bacon Apple Donut or perhaps one of their other delights, just not very soon or very often.

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