Zach Grattan
Bio
There’s a story in every dish, but most people find it kind of hard to listen with their tongue.
Stories (10/0)
Bougie Clams and a Costco Table
Fennel and quartered onions sweat. Enter a healthy dash of coriander for good measure. A good glug of Grigio gets the crispy bits off of the bottom. My grandma’s enameled pot is a fickle mistress. Corn and potatoes are optional. The butter, however, is not. This isn’t a piece for vegetarians; you can read on, but some animals were hurt in the making of this piece. Bivalves to be specific.
By Zach Grattan6 years ago in Feast
Don’t Eat the Fuzzy Ones
I swear that the first greens of the spring come like a green sigh of relief. After damn near five months of winter, they release like the forest has been holding its breath all that time. Some folks aren’t a fan. They haven’t gone out to find them (and then failed).
By Zach Grattan6 years ago in Feast
Fiddlehead Blessings
I have a hard time deciding if there's a cruel irony to beauty or a lovely prologue to loss. When I feel the hem's of 2010s jeans wet with notch road grass, I wonder how many times I've left. I wonder how many times my grandfather felt it. When I fall ass over teakettle into a beaver pond, risking life, limb, and toxoplasmosis for a handful of native brookies, I hope for the same chance for my kids. I doubt its possible for them.
By Zach Grattan6 years ago in Poets
- Top Story - April 2018
Good Egg Puns Are Hard – Good Eggs Shouldn’t BeTop Story - April 2018
Eggs are sexy. I don’t care what anyone says, and if you don’t like eggs, you’re wrong (barring you poor souls with egg allergies, my heart bleeds for you). The stories about cooking eggs being used as an interview in great kitchens? Yup, it’s a thing. I almost had to make the maple poached eggs I covered in my post on maple for a stage once, and just the mention of the things got me the interview. What I’m saying is, eggs are no joke (insert pun here). My everyday breakfast food? Eggs, in some way shape or form. Rent meal staple? Eggs, in shakshuka or in a spicy cream sauce with chickpeas, and if you feel like it, prosciutto. My death row meal? Probably eggs, to be honest. Keep your lobster, truffles, and wagyu, and lay me down with a scramble or eggs Benny.
By Zach Grattan6 years ago in Feast
Rosemary and Grapefruit Shortbread
Cookies are patient, Cookies are kind. Cookies do not envy, they do not boast, they are not proud. Cookies don’t dishonor others, they not self-seeking, they are not easily angered, they keep no record of wrongs. Whether they’re that one cookie your mom makes every once in a while, those square prepared cookies that lounge next to the butter in the grocery store, or those heinous and somehow good frosted sugar cookies that never, ever go bad, when you needed cookies, they were there for you. When your wallet's looking a little slim and you’ve got some thanking to do, flour, sugar, and butter are there to replace any tie or Cross pen. Cookies are humble. They don’t need to be set on fire, served brûlée, or served alongside a fine sherry. They don’t need a 3 Michelin star face-lift alongside goat’s milk ice cream and the finest Peruvian cacao nibs. I’m not saying I’d turn that shit away, but at 3 in the morning after a few too many I’ll happily down a Milano or Famous Amos or five. But every once in a while, I want to give cookies some love, take them from “sure I’ll have a cookie” to “where the hell did my cookies go?”
By Zach Grattan6 years ago in Feast
Sugar Season
In Northern New Hampshire, seasons don’t last months, they last a few weeks at most. There’s deer season, turkey season, calving season, lamb season, the second month of January (February), and more important than all the rest (at least to me) is maple sugar season. Sugaring can last anywhere from a few days to 4 weeks, and run anywhere from late February to mid-April. For syrup sellers, a few days covers about a tank of gas, whereas a month-long season covers your property taxes and that trip somewhere warm and sandy that they’ve been eyeing for a few years. People call out of work, families gather, tall tales are told, and new ones are woven in the warmth, steam, and scent of the sugar house.
By Zach Grattan6 years ago in Feast
A Long Piece About Mushrooms
This article is partially about foraging for and consuming wild mushrooms. Under no circumstances should this article convince you to consume any wild mushrooms without first seeking out the advice of an expert and using their help to positively identify any edible mushrooms you may pick. Mushrooms can and will kill you and if you have any doubt as to the species of mushroom you have collected, err on the side of caution and DO NOT CONSUME THEM. That being said, please enjoy this piece and happy hunting!
By Zach Grattan6 years ago in Feast
- Top Story - January 2018
In Defense of the BeetTop Story - January 2018
Once upon a time, I was a cook. For the most part, I just use those skills to slap together the occasional cheese board or impress my girlfriend's parents with a nouveau cuisine something-or-other. I'm no chef, but the inspiration for these ideas did come from one—particularly my love for a damn good beet.
By Zach Grattan6 years ago in Feast