Writing With My Mouth Full

Trekking the Pyrenees, Catalan Style

You came from New York City to get lost here?!, the lady at one of the refuges exclaimed when we told her where we came from. “Here” was the Pyrenees on the Catalan side, six hours from Barcelona by bus through the town of Vielha, and “lost” were two amateur hikers in the middle of the mountains, cold, soaking wet, scared and panicked about sundown.

Our adventure in the Pyrenees started four years ago, when we read about Carros de Foc, a company in Spain that established a route to connect the nine existing refuges in and around AigÃ¼estortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park. Each stop at a refuge earns you a stamp
on your “forfait,” or hiking passport, and ten–the last one is the same as the first, which completes your loop–earns you a T-shirt exclusively given to those who finish the trek. At first, it was all about the T-shirt, but as we ascended over granite after granite in the rain and descended down slippery trails in the snow, our goal became more simple: to live with ourselves shamelessly afterward.

Aiguestortes means “twisted waters” in Catalan. Every hike up gave us clear lakes and ponds to look at. Every trek down showed us waterfalls coming out of every crevice. We had never seen anything more beautiful in our lives.

If it weren’t for the hail striking our faces, the wind pushing us back and the snow freezing our hands, we would stop and enjoy the view. There were days when the sun came out blazing, and those were the days we enjoyed the most, even with our 25-pound backpacks. But the most rewarding were those we spent wet and miserable on the trail, finding our way to the refuge we were scheduled to spend the night in after eight hours of hiking, coffee with brandy waiting to warm our bodies and our hearts.

It was definitely the most emotional and the most physically grueling trip we’ve ever taken together. Nothing could have prepared us from trekking the Pyrenees, Catalan style.

Bacon-Wrapped Scallops

I’m not sick of bacon just yet. The third yield from my first shipment of bacon became dinner. This would be awesome with some mashed potatoes on the side.

Ingredients:
6 pieces of large scallops
6 slices of bacon

1. Season scallops with salt, pepper and paprika. Wrap each scallop with a piece of bacon.
2. Using a skillet, sear each bacon-wrapped scallop until bacon is crisp and golden brown. Sear the side where the bacon ends first. Using tongs, gently turn them and cook the other sides. To make sure the bacon stays closed, sear the end again for the last few seconds. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate. Serve on a different plate after 1 minute.

Turkey Bacon Avocado Portobello Sandwich

Talk about a quick lunch with bacon. I was hungry but I didn’t want a limp and sorry-looking sandwich. I wanted something filling, semi-healthy, and of course, robust. (I think robust is a good word to describe this sandwich.) The only shortcut I took here is to buy a few slices of honey-roasted turkey from the grocery deli. Using one loaf of French bread, this recipe fed two hungry people.

Ingredients:
4 slices of honey-roasted turkey breast
4 slices of bacon
1 avocado, halved, pitted, thinly sliced
1 portobello mushroom
1 bunch of arugula, rinsed and patted dry
French bread, halved, toasted

For onion relish:
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1/8 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup red-wine vinegar
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

For aïoli:
1 egg yolk
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp sherry vinegar
oil, salt, pepper

1. Make onion relish. In a saucepan, boil the onions in water until soft. Remove from heat and drain. Return to the pot and add brown sugar, red-wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar. Simmer in low fire until liquid is thick–I had this simmering until I was ready to assemble the sandwich. Stir occasionally.
2. In the meantime, roast portobello mushroom. Preheat oven to 400º. Place mushroom, pleats side up, on a baking sheet. Drizzle some olive oil and balsamic vinegar on mushroom and roast until soft. When cool to the touch, slice and set aside.
3. Cook bacon. Using a skillet, cook about 4 slices of bacon until crisp. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate. Set aside.
4. Make aïoli. In a blender, purée yolk, garlic, mustard and sherry vinegar until smooth and creamy, 2 minutes. Slowly drizzle olive oil into running blender until completely emulsified, about 2 minutes. If aïoli gets too thick, add a small amount of warm water, 1 tsp at a time. Season with salt and pepper and cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
5. Assemble sandwich! Lay toasted bread halves on a chopping board. On one half, spoon the onions and top with the meats and vegetables. Drizzle with aïoli. Top with the other half and hold together using a toothpick.

Bacon Corn Muffins

One of the best presents I received this year was a 3-month Bacon of the Month Club membership from Zingerman’s. Cameron just knows what the hell I would squeal over for my birthday. I love that Aaron and Pete understood that a box of pork delivered at work would be something I would actually want.

For the first installment, I received a pound of Applewood bacon. I could have easily had bacon and egg breakfasts throughout my entire week off from work until all the fat killed me, but I wanted to do something more special with my present. I searched for several bacon recipes, edited them to my own style and shared the bounty with family and friends. After all, what is Christmas without the sharing? When these bacon corn muffins were warm enough, they were packed in a large Ziploc bag and stuffed in a hand-carry tote, eaten onboard a plane.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 large egg
3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted
1 cup yellow cornmeal
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 stalks scallions, chopped
4 bacon slices
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt

1. Cook bacon. Using a skillet, cook bacon until almost-crisp. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate. When cool to touch, roughly chop. Set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 375Âº. Whisk together milk, egg and butter in a small bowl. In a different bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients. Add bacon. Combine both mixtures and stir.
3. Grease a 12-muffin pan and fill in with mixture. Bake on middle rack until golden and a toothpick comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Turn off heat and cool in oven for about 5 more minutes.

Minamoto Kitchoan

608 Fifth Avenue at 49th Street
212/489.3747
from $2.50 to $11 each

Wagashi, or Japanese pastry, is served in traditional tea ceremonies. They are usually made of Azuki, kidney or soy beans combined with mochi-rice or wheat. The most common types are the jelly and rice cakes which come in different fruit flavors and colors. Minamoto Kitchoan is not a restaurant, but stopping by the store on Christmas day, I couldn’t help but be tickled by the beautifully packaged pastries. You can pick and buy whatever you want or else one of the Japanese clerks will follow you around with a tray so they can handle the delicate goods themselves. The ones pre-packaged start at $2.50 each but there were some expensive kinds inside the glass cabinets. They’re all perishable of course, so they must be eaten within a two-week timeframe. Every $5 you spend will earn you a stamp on a card and you can get a small discount when you’ve spent at least $100. And at Minamoto Kitchoan, it’s easy to do just that. Pretty store, pretty little things.