For this week’s Food Blogger Spotlight, I’d like to introduce you to Hank Shaw of Hunter Angler Gardener Cook. Hank writes about honest food from the point of view of someone who’s knee deep in the process from beginning to end – and I mean that quite literally. As a hunter, fisherman, gardener, forager, butcher, and cook, he is familiar with almost every aspects of eating. Hank is one of the only people I know that if you dumped him off in the middle of nowhere with nothing but his wits, he’d probably eat just as well as he does at home. So in the event of WWIII, I’ll be heading straight for his house.
Besides blogging, Hank also writes features for several publications such as Field and Stream, Art of Eating, and Edible Sacramento. You’d never know it from his current topic, but he spent many years as a political writer and journalism teacher. I guess this writing thing is in his blood, eh?
So, please welcome Hank Shaw and be sure to say hi in the comments.
(Note: all photo courtesy of the fabulous Holly Heyser)
We all have staples that we couldn’t live without. What three ingredients do you *always* have in your kitchen and why? I’m not talking snacks like chips and hummus, but rather ingredients you use all the time in your cooking.
I have a lot more than three ingredients in my kitchen at all times, but if I needed to narrow it to three staples it would be olive oil, flour and dried mushrooms.
Olive oil is my go-to fat, as I am primarily a Mediterranean cook. Sure, I love duck fat, lard and even butter, but if I am absent-mindedly putting something together on a Wednesday, I’ll reach for olive oil first. And I use two kinds: a plain-old Costco extra-virgin, plus a “finishing oil,” usually either a local, like Apollo or Bariani, or a Greek or Italian oil; I like the powerful green oils better than the softer yellow ones.
As for flour, I am not a huge baker, but I am a huge pasta maker, so by saying “flour” I really mean either flour or dried pasta. I eat a lot of pasta. I make homemade pasta roughly once a week or so, and it can be as easy as tagliatelle, which can be made in minutes once you have the dough rested, or as elaborate as tortellini and such. I find the rolling, kneading and repetitive shape-making to be therapeutic. OK, maybe that’s a little psychotic…
And life would suck without dried mushrooms, specifically porcini. Powdered, they go well in pasta dough, and they rehydrate fast enough to make on work nights. I like them as much as meat, and I can serve them to vegetarians, should some wander by unexpectedly. I tend to have four to eight kinds of dried ‘shrooms lying around. Right now I have porcini, chanterelles, yellowfoot (yellowfeet?), black trumpets, maitake and matsutake.
Imagine you moved to the smallest apartment possible – a shoebox, really – and you only had room for a single cookbook. Of all your cookbooks, which one would you keep? Why do you love it so?
That’s easy: Chef Paul Bertolli’s “Cooking by Hand.” It is the kind of cookbook I would make if I were writing a cookbook – and that’s a good thing, because not only am I actually doing that right now, but I am working with Pam Krauss, who was Bertolli’s editor on that book!
What makes the book so special is that Bertolli makes no bones about trying to be comprehensive – he writes about what he views as the foundations of his Italian cooking. Pasta, whole-hog butchery, charcuterie, deeply flavored sugos and stews, a light touch with fresh vegetables and the concept of building your menu around the dessert; after all, it is the last thing your friends or guests will eat before they leave the table. I’ve had the occasion to briefly meet Bertolli at a salami event, and I am hoping someday to work with him, at least for a time; I suspect there is much I can learn.
When you’re looking for new recipes (or creating one of your own), what is your number one priority? What makes you pick one recipe over another?
I design recipes based on what I have in my hand at the moment. If my garden runneth over with leeks, as it is now, I think about ways to cook leeks – now, and not later, as vegetables have an imperative that cannot be ignored. Wait a week too long and you have wasted what, in the leek’s case, can be a year’s effort in the growing.
Likewise, if I’ve come home with snipe or wild ducks or a pheasant or deer, I play off that meat with the season. If it is warm, I grill. If it’s cold, I braise. Root veggies or zucchini, it all depends on the season.
Seafood takes this to its extreme. Your life needs to stop when you are blessed with a surfeit of seafood. I’ve caught so many mackerel once that I ate them every day for 10 days, in every which way. Mackerel does not freeze well, so you enjoy it while you can.
Food is meant to be eaten. Now, not later. Preserves are lovely, but only when they bring something else to the party – never preserve anything if you like the fresh product better. I happen to like pickled things, in many cases better than in their fresh incarnation (Jerusalem artichokes are an example), so I do make a lot of pickles. But I digress…
Blogs have the potential to be so many things, from personal journals to outrageous adventure reports. What is the most important thing you put into your blog, and what is the most important thing you get out of it?
My website is a home for my generally random adventures and experiments in food, a place where I can set down my thoughts on this odd pursuit that occupies so much of my mind: I am always thinking about how to perfect my craft, and while I am aware I will never achieve that perfection, the life is in the journey.
What I really love about using a public venue for this is the response I get from the community. I routinely hear from other gastronauts, readers more expert than I am at this or that, as well as rookies seeking advice – being able to help others is a huge deal for me, as one of my goals is to offer others what knowledge I have been able to accumulate over the years. Without the interaction, I am not sure I’d still post my thoughts on the web. I’d still write of course, but it might be in a private journal, not a blog.
Thanks for sharing, Hank.
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Comments { Add a Comment }
Who knew that porcini mushrooms were so versatile? I haven’t seen the Bertolli book but it sounds like my kind of cookbook. Which no doubt means I’ll like Hank Shaw’s book, too. Nice interview, as always. It’s great to see the diversity of opinions esp. on the top three ingredients.
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I have a huge bag of dried porcinis that I need to dig out. I wonder how long they’re good for?
“Wait a week too long and you have wasted what, in the leek’s case, can be a year’s effort in the growing.” – Well said, Hank, and I wholeheartedly agree with your philosophy of eating the fresh stuff while it’s around and at its peak. It’s surprising that more people who’ve eaten mealy tomatoes in January aren’t coming around to this way of thinking.
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I agree! It can be difficult to eat all of your bounty, but isn’t that why friends and neighbors exist? To help reduce your bumper crop of zucchini?
I actually read something interesting in Ruhlman’s book, the January tomatoes are so low in acid that they fail when making a raft for consommé. Blegh.
I agree with his ideas on freshness of food a — and I’m laughing over the comment of meeting Bertolli at ‘a salami event’ — though, of course, there are plenty of specialist events that sound amusing at first hearing.
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Indeed.
I’m sure it was a total sausage fest (heh).
Great interview. I’m impressed that he makes pasta once a week! I also love to make pasta at home, but usually only do it once a month, because it does take a lot of time and effort–still love to do it. Fresh-made raviolis are heavenly.
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I know – if that’s not commitment, I don’t know what is. I wish I had time to make fresh pasta every week. His girlfriend is a lucky lady.