Cooking With Kyle Simple, easy, delicious by james kyle snyder
Food brings back memories. When you say “the house smells like thanksgiving,” a particular picture or scene is brought forward and you can almost indulge in the sweet and savory smells and flavors you have collected and stored over the years. This emergent memory is not confined to the holiday season or location of the event. Something as simple as a sandwich can take you back to a found slice of your life that can not be fully absorbed without the anchor of the smells of food that had been enjoyed. I love Cuban food. Cuba is a true melting pot of cuisine showing influences from the Caribbean, Africa, Spain, and China. It shares similarities with Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Simple dishes like moros y cristianos (black beans and rice cooked together) are called arroz con/y negro Frijoles when cooked separately. It is the ability to easily describe these nuances that implies care and high level of detail in their cuisine. In July, there was a sandwich contest in “the ‘burg” and the first thing that came to mind was a cubano. It conjured memories of: food trucks in Florida, the smell of the salty Atlantic air, hot sand, an ever-present breeze, and the mouthwatering mixture of grilled buttered bread surrounding carefully prepared pork shoulder, dill pickles, melt cheese, and a hint of spicy brown mustard. Because the pork is such a delicate flavor, the other ingredients need to be in the exact “right” proportions or the pork gets lost. We will talk about how to braise a pork in another article. Many use pork butts for this. I much prefer marinating and the tying a pork shoulder and then braising it ever-so-perfectly. Let’s just take it as a given that the pork is center stage and it must be moist and flavorful.
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I had trouble finding a good Cuban style bread for this sandwich so I purchased 8 different contestants for the experiment. The Jewish challa came in a close second. It’s only downfall was the missing crunch of the crust after grilling. The winner was the Torta from Costco. It had the requisite light-medium crust that would not get too tough, like Italian or French breads, but has a great flavor and texture for the finished product. Building a Cuban sandwich takes practice to get the portions right. Split the roll evenly, covering both insides with a thin layer of brown mustard. Evenly pile the thinly sliced pork on the bottom to about ¾ of an in thick. On the bun top, put two thinly sliced, pieces of sorano ham (this is an adaptation but a yummy one!). On the bottom, put one thin slice of Swiss cheese. On the top, one thin slice of the melty cooper cheese. Cover the Swiss with thinly sliced dill pickles. I get whole pickles and slice them thin my self. This is important or the pickles takeover the sandwich. Put the two halves together, butter both sides, and put on a pannini iron. I add a brick on to to help the compression of the sandwich. You can uses hot cast-irons to sandwich the sandwich as well. It takes about five minutes, on medium high, to get the cheese to melt and the bread to crisp. Experiment with different meats, turkey, chicken, prosciutto, or salami until the cubano is exactly how YOU like it. Remember, one great meal can give you years of memories so take the time to make even a simple sandwich spectacular! Hope you enjoy. Be well and keep it easy, simple, and delicious! Kyle brings as food that delights the palate each month in FP
Front porch fredericksburg
JUS POP’N Fxbg New gourmet popcorn store
By a.e.bayne Are you a salty or a sweet person? Maybe you like a little of both. Whatever you’re craving, you’ll find something to please at Jus Pop’n, Fredericksburg’s new gourmet flavored popcorn store. Carolyn Gipson and her son, Dominique Fowler, opened the shop in the small space next to Dragonfly Yoga Studio in the back of the Shop at 810 Caroline Street. You might say it is the perfect location, what with its close proximity to Jabberwocky Books. Gipson says her journey to business ownership came later in life, after years of commuting back and forth to Washington, D.C. for work. She had had a few years reprieve working at home, but then she was called back up to the office
to work onsite. The commute convinced her that there must be a better way. Gipson and Fowler looked at many storefronts downtown, but the space at 810 Caroline Street fit the bill. They completed the build-out and moved in for business. Gipson’s siblings had already successfully opened gourmet popcorn shops in other parts of the country - her sister with three in Iowa, and her brother with three in Wisconsin. She knew they would help her develop a business model that would work, and they would allow her to take their best recipes and tweak them for the tastes of locals in Fredericksburg. With Fowler’s help, Gipson started popping, first off-site, and then on. Today, she has a 16 ounce popper, a caramelizer, and many new recipes she’s developed with the help of her tastetesting team. It hasn’t been easy. Gipson says, “Getting people to realize that we’re back here has been a challenge. Doing events like the Sandwich Invitational and the Back to School Expo has helped with that. We’re making sure we have the proper staff who want to learn the popcorn business and aren’t just here for a sales job.” Gipson is also finding that space will be an issue in the future, which is actually
WELCOME TO OUR GREAT OUTDOORS It’s Beautiful ~ Night and Day!
The Soup & Taco, Etc. 813 Caroline St. Fredericksburg, VA
Wine & Spirits a.bowman distillery wins two silver medals by Kristie Wooldridge
Serving Traditional Mexican, Tex-Mex Food and Something More!! Tuesday to Saturday 11am-9pm a good thing, as she says, “I see us growing a lot faster than anticipated.” Despite the obstacles, Gipson notes the kindness and support of her main street neighbors. “They’ve welcomed and accepted us. Everyone has offered to help in any way they can, and they’re always sending people over to check us out. I didn’t expect this much support from other businesses, and the outpouring of love has overwhelmed me.” Jus Pop’n offers a wide variety of flavors, but Gipson says customers have definite favorites. She says the Sea Salt Caramel is a best-seller. The Buffalo Ranch, “which has a little bit of a kick to it,” is also a hit. Gipson was surprised by the success of the dill pickle flavored popcorn. Of course, the kids go for birthday cake and Tutti-Frutti flavors. The pièce de résistance is the signature flavor of Fredericksburg, the Freddy – a combination of cheese and caramel popcorn that offers the perfect blend of salty and sweet. Gipson plans to grow the business, and she’s working hard to expand her customer base. She says, “We aren’t confined to the store. We do parties, weddings, special events, we ship, and we have online ordering.” For more information about Jus Pop’n, visit their Facebook page at JusPopn LLC, or check out the options on their webpage at www.juspopn.com . A.E. Bayne is a writer, visual artist, and educator who is a frequent contributor to Front Porch Magazine. She co-edits Fredericksburg Literary Review and has been living in Fredericksburg for 17 years.
Sunday 11am-6pm
Phone: 540-899-0969 E-mail: soupntaco@yahoo.com
The Sunken Well Tavern
Two bourbons from the A. Smith Bowman Distillery have each garnered silver medals at 2015 Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition. John J. Bowman Virginia Straight Bourbon Whiskey, and Bowman Brothers Straight Bourbon Whiskey were each ranked among 365 spirits that were submitted from a total of 34 countries, and were ultimately awarded for demonstrating superior quality and taste.
720 Littlepage sunkenwelltavern.com 540-370-0911 Eat Well Drink Well Live Well
“It is a real honor for two of our bourbons to be awarded silver in this competition,” Brian Prewitt, master distiller, said. “It means a lot to us to be ranked among so many excellent spirits from across the globe.” The Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition was formed in 2007, with an esteemed panel of judges using a blind-tasting method to award medals to the best distilled spirits from around the world. The award-winning entries will be displayed during the Los Angeles County Fair, Sept. 4 – 27, in “The Wine, Beer & Spirits Marketplace.” Complete results of the LAIWSC are available at www.laspiritscomp.com. A. Smith Bowman's distilling roots date back to the years before Prohibition when the Bowman family had a granary and dairy farm in Sunset Hills,
Virginia. They used excess grain from the family estate to distill spirits. In 1934, after the Repeal of Prohibition, Abram Smith Bowman and his sons continued the family tradition and built a more modern distillery in Fairfax County, Virginia called Sunset Hills Farm. In response to the rapid rise of taxes in Northern Virginia, the Distillery was moved in 1988 and is now nestled in Spotsylvania County near the city of Fredericksburg, 60 miles away from the original location. As a small and privately owned company, A. Smith Bowman Distillery continues the time-honored traditions on which it was founded. Considered a micro-distillery by today's standards, A. Smith Bowman produces an assortment of hand-crafted spirits distilled from only the finest natural ingredients and using the latest technology. This microdistillery focuses on the production of premium spirits honoring the legacy of Virginia's first settlers. For more information on A. Smith Bowman, please visit www.asmithbowman.com.
Kristie Wooldridge is the Associate Public Relatons Manager for A. Smith Bowman
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