Tag Archives: Drink

Dec 06 2012
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Drink, Life

Cocktails!

When food people (aka “feoples” — a term coined by my friend Emily Anderson of The Broccoli Stalker) have dinner parties, nothing is ever simple. Take, for example, the dinner date we had this week at our place with our friends. I thought ahead: I prepared and froze our gnocchi a few days before the dinner, made tuille dough and rosemary simple syrup the night before and started the pork ragout simmering in the slow cooker early in the day. I could have  just used dried pasta and purchased cookies or a pound cake, but why make things easy when you can challenge yourself (and your pots and pans and guests), right? Instead, the gnocchi had to be sautéed right before eating, the sabayon frothed and foamed and for entertainment…well, a friendly cocktail competition, naturally!!

We left the cocktail creations to the boys, but the ladies chose the secret ingredient — a bag of Whittard tea that was sitting on the counter (the gentlemen chose black tea). The good people at Whittard sent me a bit of tea and some 70 percent hot chocolate that has now become my favorite thing ever. Our choice of tea as ingredient was met with immediate groans and the turning of brain gears could be heard throughout the house. They shouldn’t have worried, they both managed to create *amazing* cocktails.

Without further adieu, here are the two winning tea cocktail recipes from our dinner date competition:

elderflower saketini

Elderflower Sake “tea”ni (created by K)
1 oz. cold Whittard black tea (we used oolong)
2 oz. sake
1 oz. Cointreau
1 oz. St. Germain elderflower liqueur
1/2 oz. simple syrup
1 oz. ginger beer
sugar on a plate

Put the first five ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously. Lightly wet the rim of a martini glass and dip rim into sugar. Pour contents of the shaker through the shaker filter carefully into the glass. Top off with ginger beer. Enjoy!

hard ginger palmer

Hard Ginger Palmer (created by Adam)
1 oz. cold strong Whittard black tea
1 heaping TB honey
1 good squeeze of fresh lemon
1/2 oz. limoncello (optional)
2 oz. whiskey
1 oz. sparkling lemonade
ginger beer

Stir the tea, honey, limoncello (if using) and fresh lemon together in a highball glass until honey has dissolved. Add the whiskey, then ice to almost fill the glass. Add the lemonade, top with the ginger beer and garnish with a lemon slice. Enjoy!

And enjoy we did — both of the cocktails. The Elderflower Sake “tea”ni was sweet, bright and lovely and the Hard Ginger Palmer was dusky, but sprightly with lemon and ginger.

As I’ve mentioned, we never endorse products we don’t actually use. Neither of us drink coffee. In fact, my friend Adine had to show me the proper way to use a coffee maker on this very night. I can spatchcock and sous vide squab, but I’ve never been able to master a cup of coffee. It is my foodie shame. Because I’m not into coffee, I’m really picky about tea — I either really like it or hate it and there aren’t many types I really like. Who knew the British were so talented with tea?!? Okay … everyone knows that, but I’m happy Whittard sent me a sample to prove it.

It’s a festive time of year. Take your inspiration from K and Adam and use tea in your cocktails — it adds a bit of bitterness and a unique flavor. Experiment! Have fun! Cheers!

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Jun 24 2012
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Drink, Life

30 Days of Food Inspiration – Day 24

Day 24: Last Chance Liquor. 

Photo courtesy of Northland’s NewsCenter.

This is Last Chance Liquor at 619 E. 4th Street, Duluth on Wednesday, June 20, 2012. That water flowed and flowed and flowed until more than nine feet filled the wine cellar and basement of the building. The people living in the apartments above had to be evacuated and haven’t been able to stay in their homes since. Why does this matter to me? Last Chance Liquor has been my family’s business for more than 40 years.

My grandfather started the business in the 1960′s and my uncle and cousins still run it today. When I was little, I dusted bottles in the wine cellar and rode up the conveyor belt from the basement. To this day, I walk into a liquor store and catch the distinct smell of cardboard boxes slightly dampened with beer and liquor and I think, “Ah…childhood.” (Yes, I know this is weird). Last Chance is a popular and thriving Duluth institution that provides jobs and even homes for the people who live above the store. When the storm sewers couldn’t handle the waters running through Duluth’s streets, it crashed into Last Chance’s basement and wine cellar, decimating their inventory and leaving a huge mess, bills, expenses and uncertainty in the wake.

This is my uncle, David Katoski, owner of Last Chance Liquor. He’s dedicated his life to the place. And my grandmother, Irene (age 88 … shh, she’ll KILL me if she knows I spilled that info) who spent her life with my grandfather building the business and still owns the building. As you can see, the floors are still wet, but a massive and dedicated corps of volunteers have helped clean and organize what they can.  After this photo was taken, K and I drove my grandma to the Twin Cities so she could get away for a week. She’s been sick with worry and everyone wants her to see what a difference a week will make. Against all odds, Last Chance has remained open for business.

Here’s how you can help: 

On Monday, June 25, 2012 they’re having a huge beer LIQUIDation sale (ha! get it?!?) If you’re in the Duluth area, please stop by Last Chance Liquor at 619 E. 4th Street and stock up on beer for summer. If you’re not in Duluth, please spread the word. Let’s help Last Chance sell out so they can clean up and start rebuilding better than ever.

On behalf of my family and everyone involved with and touched by this local, family owned business, thank you!
For more information or if you’d like other opportunities to assist, please email EatDrinkLifeLuv (at) gmail.com

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Jun 01 2012
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Drink, Life

30 Days of Food Inspiration – Day One

May was bananas — like totally crazy, not the delightful yellow fruit. I had the flu, I was on jury duty, I took on more work projects for my business (YAY!) which often meant working late into the night (boo). And, while we got off to a rip-roaring start creating our own recipes, the schedule of testing, photographing, documenting, writing and posting got the better of me. June is a fresh start, so we’ll be bringing you 30 days of food inspiration each day this month.

Day One: Iced tea. 

May also marked the first full month I was soda-free. I was never too big a soda drinker — just enjoyed one diet Pepsi per day with lunch — but I thought I’d see how I felt if I cut out the high caffeine and chemicals. And it’s good, no more afternoon jitters. I replaced the soda with iced tea just in time for lovely, sunny weather. My favorites are Good Earth Citrus Mate Energy Tea or good ol’ Lipton with a wedge of lemon. I still like a little caffeine help that comes with black tea, so what’s your favorite tea on ice?

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Nov 20 2011
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Drink, Life

Cameron Hughes Wine Event

I am notoriously frugal. K once went shopping with me and I tried on a sleeveless shirt. He said he liked it, I told him I would only pay $45 for it if they agreed to include the sleeves. As a self-employed writer, my budget for items is often zero, so frugality is a necessity. K, on the other hand, loves many of the finer things in life, like wine. He adores wine, he learns about wine and he knows what he’s talking about. The words cheap … er, frugal, and *good* wine rarely go together. But we found a way to make that happen when we went to a Cameron Hughes wine event at the Edina, Minnesota Room and Board store.

As soon as we entered the store, we were given a wine glass and invited to sample wines, cheeses, toasts and chocolate dessert. As tempting as the food was, it was really the glass (and what was soon to be in it) that we focused on.

Cameron Hughes, you see, is a master negotiator. He goes to the top wineries across the planet and takes their extra wine off their hands. Because those wines are often in very limited release, the wineries do not allow any additional wines to be sold under their name, so Hughes releases them under his own name. You won’t know which high buck winery your beverage came from, but it won’t matter whose name is on the label because the wine is some seriously fine wine.

The wine is released in limited lots, identified only by their lot number, origin and type of wine. Sampled at this event were:
* 2009 North Coast Petite Sirah
* 2009 Atlas Peak Chardonnay
* 2002 Gran Reserva Ribera Del Deuro Tempranillo
* 2009 Santa Barbara County Pinot Grigio
* 2009 Russian River Pinot Noir
* 2009 Arroyo Seco Chardonnay
* 2009 Spring Mountain Meritage
* 2009 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
* 2009 Stag’s Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon

K’s favorite? Lot 303 — the Stag’s Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon. It started faintly sweet and full then slowly gained deeper, dark fruit flavors. My favorite was Lot 242– the Atlas Peak Chardonnay. Normally, I don’t care for Chardonnay. The flavors are far too warm, too heavy and the wrong kind of sweet. This, however, was *un-oaked* Chardonnay which tastes more citrus and mineral, almost like a Sauvignon Blanc.

Under their original labels, these wines are very expensive. But as part of the Cameron Hughes “Lot Series,” they go for between $11-28 per bottle. The wines can be ordered online or can be found at Sam’s Club or Costco liquor stores. They definitely have a cult following and people stalk the release of the spirits, so you have to act fast to find them. The Cameron Hughes website also has a locator that can help you track down the wine near you.

Trust me, you will be a hero if you bring a bottle or two to a holiday gathering or put a bow on one as a gift. And no one has to know you were frugal and only paid pennies on the dollar for what some other suckers are paying big money for. Everyone’s a winner!

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Nov 09 2011
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Eat - Cooking

Truffled Gnocchi – Top Chef Night

You know that feeling when you’re reading a recipe or making a dish and something seems … off? You feel like there’s not enough of something, or maybe too much, or even that something is missing. But you soldier on because, hey … it’s in a book or this is how the dish has always been made. We all need to trust our cooking instincts, no matter what someone else (or some recipe) says. This is why:

It was the premiere of Top Chef season nine. We were excited. We’ve missed the show and the challenge of recreating the dishes the contestants come up with. I am signed up with Klout and they have a perk program. If you don’t know what this is, don’t worry. It’s a pretty pointless “influence” algorithm for social networks. This week Klout told me I’m “influential about cats.” We neither have nor discuss cats. Klout is wrong. But, I digress. As pointless as it is, Klout sent us a lovely free Top Chef package to promote the new season (thanks Klout!). It included the “How to Cook Like a Top Chef” cookbook with some fun recipes. So, for the debut of the new Top Chef season, we decided to cook like chef Ashley Merriman from season six and make truffled gnocchi.

Gnocchi is a dish I’ve made countless times. I know what it’s supposed to look like, I know it’s ready to throw in boiling water by the way it feels in my hands. Gnocchi is simply mashed (or riced) potatoes, eggs and flour made into little dumplings of wonderful. They’re great simply boiled in water for about three minutes and they’re even better when you saute them in butter. This recipe for gnocchi called for potatoes, egg yolks and a teensy bit of flour for dusting. I mentioned to K that the recipe seemed wrong, there wasn’t enough flour. But I soldiered ahead because, hey…it’s written in a book and the good recipe testers at Bravo Media wouldn’t put out a recipe that was wrong, right?

WRONG. When you bake potatoes, put them through a ricer, add egg yolks and try to form them into a dough with just a dusting of flour you get this:

NOT Gnocchi

Yes, that is a disgusting pot of hot, mushy potato water. It tastes like water, but with a smack of mushy potato. This is what happened with about 1/3 of the gnocchi dumplings before I freaked the hell out. Immediately, I got out the flour container, smashed all the remaining “gnocchi” back into wet potato form and started adding flour until they actually formed appropriately firm little potato dumplings. I realized I should have trusted my cooking instincts. There was not, in fact, nearly enough flour in the recipe.

While all this was happening (and I was cursing the recipe under my breath), K was blanching arugula and combining it with melted butter and a little heavy cream. He was also sautéing shallots, garlic, thyme and mushrooms with a little truffle oil. We boiled a new pot of water, popped the revamped gnocchi into the bubbling pot and soon they rose to the surface. They were tossed with the truffled mushrooms and the arugula cream sauce was poured on top. Chunks of ricotta cheese were sprinkled and dinner was served.

It was so much better than hot, mushy potato water. The gnocchi was springy and firm with fresh potato taste. The mushrooms and truffle oil were meaty and substantial and funky and the arugula cream sauce was smooth and green with just the slightest, peppery bite. The ricotta was cool and milky. We both could have enjoyed more, if only I’d trusted my cooking instincts and hadn’t lost so many. But we were satisfied that we saved the gnocchi in time to enjoy a killer new season of Top Chef.

So, the next time your instincts tell you that there’s not enough flour or there’s too much lemon or that a recipe is missing chicken stock — listen to your inner chef. S/he wants you to have a delicious dinner. Don’t fight that feeling.

Truffled Gnocchi

Alterations: Let’s just put it this way, if you’ve got “How to Cook Like a Top Chef,” don’t bother with the gnocchi recipe on page 37. Use a recipe from your favorite Italian chef and just go with the truffled mushrooms and arugula cream sauce in the book.
Soundtrack: A techno mix put together by K. Most of our interesting music choices come from him. He highlights some favorites on his music blog: http://whatisplayinginmyitunes.wordpress.com/  Check it out.
Would we make this again: We will make MY version of gnocchi and add truffled mushrooms and arugula cream.

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Aug 11 2011
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Drink, Eat - Cooking, Life

FreshTartSteph Hosts a MN Food Bloggers Backyard BBQ and Bars Bake-Off

A perfect Minnesota summer night. A gleaming and glowing home with a bustling kitchen, counters overflowing with delicious food. A sprawling green yard, surrounded by lush trees reflecting in the still pool. Smoke wafting from the MYOKebabs on the barbecue. Sweetly clinking wine glasses and warm laughter. And then…
someone said “pork in a box” and it was all downhill from there.

Stephanie Meyer (Minnesota Monthly’s Fresh Tart Steph) graciously hosted the MN Food Bloggers earlier this week for a backyard barbecue and bars bake-off. Her home is lovely. The food, provided by Tastebud Tart Molly Hermann of Kitchen in the Market, was delectable and summer perfect — cool salads, build-your-own kebabs with tons of “accessories” and sauces. Shaina and Ole from Food for My Family provided the Chinese Box, a mobile smoker, and Ole manned the great hunks of pork as it crisped on the outside and become more and more tender on the inside. The Fulton Beer guys were there with cold, crisp local beer and Kitchak Cellars were there sampling deep ruby wine that K loved.

I may have mentioned that I’m no photographer. K takes most of the photos for this blog (and takes *all* of the good photos), but I’m giving myself points for remembering a camera this time and taking a few photos — even though I didn’t remember until it was dark.

Enjoying Delicious Fulton Beer

Eating, Drinking, Chatting and Fighting off Mosquitoes

The food, the drinks, the atmosphere and the conversation were absolutely perfect. And just when the mosquitoes chased us all indoors, it was time to witness the results of the judging for the bars bake-off and enjoy the sweet fruits of our labor.

Given the competition, it was ridiculous that I attempted a bars entry and I *agonized* over what I should bring. I finally decided on Lemon Thyme Meringue Bars which were a compilation of shortbread cookie crust, lemon meringue pie filling and vanilla meringue cookies and my imagination that adding the herb lemon thyme would elevate the whole thing.

First I made the shortbread crust:

Buttery Shortbread Crust

1/2 c. Confectioner’s sugar
1 1/2 c. flour
3/4 cup butter at room temperature (1 stick of butter = 1/2 cup)

Mix the sugar and flour together, add butter and mash together with a fork (or your hands, if you’re impatient) until it forms a dough. Press evenly into a pan until it’s about 1/4-inch thick, make sure some go up the sides of the pan as well. Bake at 350 degrees until it’s golden brown (25-35 minutes).

Then I made the meringue cookies. It has been AGES since I’ve messed with a pastry bag and tips and it showed. These, however, would become the crowning achievement and most identifiable factor in the bars.

Post-Piped/Pre-Oven Meringues

3/4 cup of sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
4 egg whites
3/4 tsp vanilla
big pinch of salt

Beat the egg whites, vanilla and salt on high speed until soft peaks form. Combine the sugar and cornstarch and add slowly to egg white mixture, beating while you add the dry ingredients. Crank the mixer up to high and beat until stiff, glossy peaks form. Put the mixture into a pastry bag and pipe into cookies (I used a large star tip). The faster you can do this, the better they will turn out.

Bake for 1.5 hours at 225 degrees then turn off the oven and leave them for about another hour (or until they’re cool and crispy).

Mine were not cool and crispy and I had to put them back into the oven where many of them burned. They didn’t end up a lovely white with the “s’mores marshmallow” streaks, they were a toasty beige color.

Lemony Lemon Thyme Filling

With the meringues chilling in the oven, I made the lemon filling.

1 1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
big pinch of salt
6 egg yolks
1 Tb. lemon zest
1.5 TB lemon thyme (you should add more, I couldn’t taste the lemon thyme)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 TB butter

Simmer the water, sugar, cornstarch and salt over medium heat in a saucepan. When it starts to bubble and thicken, whisk until it starts to get clear. Whisk in the egg yolks one at a time then the lemon juice, zest and butter. Let it simmer for a minute then remove it from the heat. Add the chopped lemon thyme. Let cool (stick a piece of plastic wrap on top and let it touch the filling, like pudding, it will help prevent a weird skin from forming). Put into the crust and bake at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes.

I dipped some lemon thyme leaves into egg whites and sugared them. When everything was cool, I placed the meringue cookies on top of the lemon bars and voila …

Lemon Thyme Meringue Bars

I did not notice at the time that these very closely resemble breasts. So while I did not win the bars bake-off, at least I gave the judges a good laugh with what were alternately called “Boobie Bars” and “Nipple Bars.” I’m not even going to tell you what K called them.

If I ever make these again, I’d add chopped lemon thyme to the crust, more to the filling and even sprinkle some fresh lemon thyme over the top.

The well-deserved winner was Kelli from I Had a Delicious Time with her rosemary, apricot,  Captain Morgan creations (you’ll have to get the recipe from her for yourselves). Here she is posing with her hubby and some of those amazing bars.

Kelli and David Abrahamian with Kelli's (Delicious) Winning Bars

After briefly meeting the delightful Andrew Zimmern, a latecomer to the party who wisely stole the last of the crusty pork bits, we headed out — full, sugared up and simultaneously buzzing with energy and exhaustion from a wonderful evening. And if you’re wondering what the aftermath of a MN Food Bloggers event looks like…

What we Left Behind

Thank you to Stephanie Meyer for being such a gracious hostess and to everyone who made the evening a delicious success. We had the best time chatting with friends, meeting new people and, to everyone we didn’t get a chance to meet yet, there’s always next time. And we’re looking forward to it. We are so fortunate to have come across this amazing community of people who gather, not only online, but to share in real life the joy of food and everything that comes with it.

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May 03 2011
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Drink, Eat - Restaurants, Life

New York Bites — Our Final Day

The final day of our honeymoon was, appropriately, a Monday. We solemnly packed our bags and left them with the front desk staff at our hotel after we checked out. Then we tried to forget about it being our last day by heading to Discovery Times Square to take in the Pompeii exhibit.

All that history made us hungry so we hoofed it to the legendary Carnegie Deli just 10 minutes before there was a very long line outside. The walls were plastered with framed, signed photos of celebrities who’d enjoyed their gut-busting meals. The tables are lined up in long, communal lines and you become quick friends with whomever is sitting next to you. Seeing the GIANT portions in front of our neighbors, we opted to share two of the dishes the Deli is most famous for — matzoh ball soup and a pastrami sandwich.

Matzoh Ball Soup

Yes, that really is the color of the matzoh ball soup and there is not a speck of green in sight. It’s very basic, but also very good. Rich chicken flavor with light-as-air matzoh balls. How they accomplished this with matzoh balls bigger than a softball (I’m not joking), is beyond me. I guess that’s why they’re famous.

Pastrami Sandwich

Above is half of the pastrami sandwich and it takes up much of the plate. I didn’t even bother with the bread and just went for the warm, tender, peppery pastrami. It was my kind of sandwich — just good, simple filling and nothing like mustard or mayo mucking it up. Of course I couldn’t finish my sandwich half and our server seemed really disappointed in me. She helpfully suggested my already full stomach might have room for a glacier-sized piece of cheesecake and I had to politely decline. She was disappointed in that too. Kind of like when my grandma used to shake her head sadly and tell the grandchildren, “Well, I guess you’re not a member of the clean plate club.”

We rolled ourselves out of the Carnegie Deli and did some more exploring of the city. We stopped in at Eataly again for a little gelato snack and sat in the cold outside of the Flatiron Building watching the city go by. We meandered into Tom Collichio’s nearly empty Craftbar (it was 3:30 in the afternoon) where the friendly bartender made K a creative, flowery cocktail tempered with fresh sprigs of rosemary and  generously accommodated my requirement for an N/A ginger “martini” (which was super yummy).

Then we wound our way back to our hotel and caught our final taxi (then promptly got caught in traffic on the way to the airport in rush hour).

Now we love New York City. We want to visit again and explore all the neighborhoods we haven’t seen yet, to eat at all the restaurants we didn’t get the chance to taste.  Next time we’ll find the neighborhood gems, the hidden jewel boxes only insiders know about. We’ll hoof it around Harlem and Queens.

The Twin Cities can definitely hold its own, food-wise. We most certainly have restaurants and cocktail “alchemists” that are “New York caliber.” We don’t have to travel to the East Coast to find amazing, diverse and delicious food. But we’ll be back. For lots of reasons. And hopefully again sometime soon.

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Apr 26 2011
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Drink, Eat - Restaurants, Life

New York Bites — Day Five

K’s birthday was in March and part of his gift was a private tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art while we were in New York City. That day had arrived and we met our guide, Victoria from Art Smart, who brought us through their modern art collection and filled the trip with fascinating history and stories. She also gave us an impromptu run through the rest of the museum so we’d know our way around for the rest of our day. Then she recommended we have lunch at Petrie Court Cafe and Wine Bar.

I enjoyed a spring vegetable angel hair pasta frittata and K loved his foraged mushroom and creme fraiche flatbread. Our relaxing lunch took place next to the sunny European sculpture court. It was like having lunch in Paris.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a HUGE museum and we couldn’t cover it all in one day, but we got a good sampling of what we really wanted to experience. We were exhausted from all the walking and everything we took in (centuries of art and history), but we rallied for the big evening we had ahead.

Our clever friends DLB and Baxter (who officiated our wedding) kindly gifted us a certificate to Wylie Dufresne’s WD-50 on the Lower East Side. The restaurant is modern, but comfortable and the dress code is casual, but we were dressed to the hilt because of our after-dinner plans.

Well known for playing with his food and being something of an alchemist, Dufresne’s menu definitely didn’t disappoint. A lover of liver, K started with the aerated foie gras with pickled beet, mashed plum and brioche. The plate looks like a bunch of artfully placed sponges, but the foie was rich and vaporous — the best kind of rich (and foie) in my opinion.

Aerated Foie, Pickled Beet, Brioche and Mashed Plum

I started with the peekytoe crab roll with house made mini salt ‘n vinegar potato chips and celery mayonnaise. This was such a strange and interesting play on temperature. The crab roll looked like it would be hot and crispy, but it wasn’t. It didn’t seem to be fried. Tepid is such a gross word, but that’s the only word I can find to describe the outer layers, but the dense and sweet crab mixture inside was cool, but not cold. The celery mayo was a great “cool flavor” to accompany the roll.

Peekytoe Crab Roll, Salt 'n Vinegar Chips and Celery Mayo

WD-50 must have hit the jackpot on a load of celery when we were there because K also very, very much enjoyed his celery gin and tonic drink. It had a distinct, but not obnoxious, celery flavor. K has since tried to replicate this at home and it was a bit too celery and gin forward. I think the secret ingredient might be egg whites. If you’ve got any insight, it would be welcome!

Celery Gin and Tonic

The light cocktail was a good pairing with the full-bodied entrée K chose: Iberico pork neck with smoked paprika spaetzle, peach and Marcona almond. This was the richest, most flavorful and “porky” pork I’ve ever tasted and the paprika spaetzle was genius — spirited with a dancing spice.

Iberico Pork Neck with Smoked Paprika Spaetzle

Straying from my apparent obsession with skate, I went with the crispy Mediterranean bass with black forbidden rice, artichokes and a white chocolate-green olive sauce. The sauce originally creeped me out a little, but the salty olive-ness was nicely (and not too obviously) balanced by the sweet white chocolate. My only complaint was that there was *A LOT* of fish — one less filet would have been perfect. I absolutely loved the black sticky rice molded into rice balls — sticky crisp on the outside and sticky tender on the inside with a nutty flavor reminiscent of wild rice.

Mediterranean Bass with Forbidden Rice and White Chocolate Green Olive Sauce

We had to skip dessert because we were short on time and going to a food-centric event, but Wylie (who we could see cooking for us in the kitchen) and staff couldn’t send us away empty-handed. Our mini desserts were frozen marshmallow cream coated in crushed Rice Krispies. Yup, frozen rice krispy treats. I never want to eat another traditional rice krispy treat again. Just … yum.

Frozen Rice Crispy Treats

After our creative dinner at WD-50 we grabbed a cab to a nearby benefit for UNICEF I caught wind of via Twitter the week before we left. The event — dubbed Eat. Pray. Heal. Japan. — was a fundraiser for children in Japan affected by the recent earthquake and tsunami. Top Chef contestants Mike Isabella, Angelo Sosa, Harold Dieterle, Hung Huynh, Kevin Sbraga and Seth Caro (from the dessert show) made small bites and appearances. Ariane Duarte, Amanda Freitag, Richard Blais and more were mingling as well. An opportunity we simply couldn’t pass up.

After meeting Ariane Duarte, an absolute sweetheart who gave us the skinny on how to pounce on the food coming out of the kitchen (you’ve gotta be an aggressive New Yorker, not a polite Minnesotan, apparently) we greeted Angelo Sosa. He is very kind (and very tall, as you can see) and has an amazing attitude about life and his success.

K+ L + Angelo Sosa of Top Chef

Before we headed out, we had to grab a minute with Richard Blais to congratulate him on his well-deserved Top Chef All-Stars win. He was also very kind, but also seemed uncomfortable with the attention and out of his element. We got the feeling he’d have been more comfortable back in the kitchen instead of in the middle of an adoring crowd.

K + L + Top Chef All-Stars Winner Richard Blais

That night was truly an NYC movie night. For one glorious evening we were leading the lives of glamorous TV/movie New Yorkers getting dressed up, having an incredible dinner, being whisked off in a cab to a fabulous celebrity benefit …
Not the *real* life anyone lives, but for one night it was a very sparkly feeling!

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Feb 15 2011
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Drink, Eat - Cooking, Life

Epic Valentine’s Day Dinner

Restaurants are crowded on Valentine’s Day. They have to crank out a lot of food over several hours. Probably not the best time to visit if you truly want a handcrafted meal made with love. Also, good luck trying to get a reservation at the place you really want to go. So last year, on our first VDay together, K and I decided to make an epic dinner with recipes from amazing chefs. We enjoyed an amuse bouche, poached lobster, a rib eye steak, dessert and way too much wine. This year we decided to keep the tradition alive, but pare down the food a little.

Starter
To begin, we chose Romaine on Romaine by Michel Richard from his book “Happy in the Kitchen.” It was simple, elegant and light. Because VDay fell on a Monday this year, we tried to do as much ahead as we could. K made the shallot dressing the day before by blending mayo, mustard, shallots, red wine vinegar, Tabasco, chives and basil in the food processor. The resulting dressing was pungent and very, very sharp and oniony. We hoped it would mellow out overnight in the refrigerator.

The dressing was toned down with the addition of dark green romaine leaves blended into the dressing with a bit of rice vinegar and honey. Before dinner, K took the more delicate inner romaine leaves and wrapped them in a rice paper wrapper. The “salad” was a light, crisp and fresh bundle dipped in gorgeous green, deeply flavorful dressing. An easy winner and we’ll be enjoying it again to finish off the remaining dressing, lettuce and rice paper wrappers.

Romaine on Romaine

Main Course
In the make-ahead spirit, we chose Silky Syrah Short Ribs, also from Michel Richard’s “Happy in the Kitchen” book. The ingredients are lovely, but the directions in the recipe are over-the-top time intensive — saute, deglaze, tie with twine and leek leaves, oven braise, skim fat and scum, refrigerate overnight, simmer, strain, blah, blah, blah. Evidently, Richard does not own a crock pot as beloved as ours is.

We decided 4-5 hours was enough time to crock the short ribs (BEAUTIFUL pieces of meat we got for an incredibly reasonable price from the Linden Hills Co-op). I ran home over lunch and browned the short ribs in a little olive oil.  I cut up some bacon and fried up the pieces then sautéed cut up leeks, carrots, onions and garlic in the rendered fat. I dumped in a bunch of syrah (red wine) and let it bubble with the veggies for a few minutes. Then I put the whole thing into the crock pot with some rosemary, thyme, bay leaves and star anise. I set the ribs on top, poured a bit more wine and some chicken stock over the top and let everything simmer away for the afternoon.

As a side dish, we chose tarragon spaetzle from Stewart Woodman’s “Shefzilla: Conquering Haute Cuisine at Home” book. We have never made spaetzle (thick, noodley dumplings), but received a spaetzle maker as a gift. I made the dough according to the recipe — flour, egg, milk, salt, chopped tarragon, fresh nutmeg — and let it rest for awhile. It was a lot stickier than I thought it would be. Every time I picked up the ball of dough it stuck to my hands like industrial glue. It also stuck to the spaetzle maker and wouldn’t push through the little holes. Woodman’s recipe called for cutting up the dough so I tried that, but it stuck to everything — the knife, my hands, the cutting board. As the boiling water mocked me, I decided to oil everything — the knife, my hands, the cutting board, the dough — and that made life in spaetzle-ville a lot easier. Little noodley dumpling by little noodley dumpling, I dropped them into the boiling water and K fished them out since he was at the stove.

While I was cursing sticky spaetzle dough (in a loving, Valentine’s way, of course), K was making the syrah sauce for the short ribs. He took a few ladles full of cooking liquid, strained out the solids, added some port, honey and tomato paste and reduced it.

With the ribs falling-apart tender, the sauce silky and the spaetzle cooked and fluffy, the main course was finished. Silky actually doesn’t even begin to describe this sauce as it was seduction on a plate. It enrobed the short ribs, which melted as soon as you bit into them. The spaetzle was substantial, but tender and they tasted perfect after a quick swipe through the sauce as well.

Silky Syrah Short Ribs with Tarragon Spaetzle

Dessert
After taking a break to open gifts, we moved on to our made-ahead-assembled-at-the-last-minute dessert — Poached Pears with Poire William Caramel Sauce from Eric Ripert’s book “A Return to Cooking.”

While K was assembling the salad and reducing the sauce, I filled up a huge pot with water, sugar and a vanilla bean, peeled two Bosc pears and let them simmer in the sweet liquid for about 30 minutes. Then I melted sugar in a pot before adding some heavy cream. The recipe calls for the addition of Poire William, but we couldn’t find that. We did, however, have pear vodka on hand (thanks to Master Mixologist K) and used that in the caramel instead. I also crushed up some pistachios to put into our vanilla almond milk ice cream (K is not a fan of the lactose).

When it was time to celebrate with dessert, we mixed the ice “cream” with the pistachios and put that in the bottom of the bowl, popped the warm pear on top and drizzled warm caramel sauce over the whole thing. It was sweet, but not too sweet and naturally sweet because of the pear. The pear-flavored caramel was lovely and the pistachios added a nice crunch to the creamy ice milk (I added too many pistachios though). The pear was plump and glistening and it was a great balance of warm and cool.

Poached Pears with Caramel Sauce

K enjoyed a lovely glass of red wine with his meal. Because of my recent health challenges, I’ve been staying away from wine, but here’s how awesome my hubby is — he picked up a bottle of alcohol-free white “wine” and some bubbly Perrier so I wouldn’t miss out on the experience. A happy and delicious Valentine’s Day was had by all. Hope you had a great day (and a spectacular meal) as well.

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Jan 13 2011
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Drink, Eat - Cooking

Southwestern-Inspired Bread Pudding and Tomatillo-Braised Pork Loin — Top Chef All-Stars Night

We do not play with liquid nitrogen. While we disagree on several cooking-related issues (i.e. substituting this for that, do we need a sous vide machine, etc.) we absolutely agree that one of us (me) would accidentally freeze and break off a finger if we were “cooking” with liquid nitrogen. So when the Top Chef All-Stars had to make food without using any cooking tools, the liquid nitrogen came out (along with other innovative ideas). Hilariously, Chad the Bravo intern wrote down exactly what chef Tre Wilcox did to make his Southwestern-inspired bread pudding stuffing including using liquid nitrogen to freeze the ingredients and smashing them with a pot. The final product looked delicious so we decided it was our winner, but we also decided we’d just cut the ingredients with knives. We also realized we’d need a protein to round out our meal so K found a recipe from Rick Bayless when he was on Top Chef Masters — tomatillo-braised pork loin.

The difference between the two recipes couldn’t be more stark. One requires the reader to “smash with small pot,” the other suggests you “nestle the browned pork into the warm sauce.” In our still new, but much-loved Dutch oven, K started browning the pork loin while I roasted the tomatillos and jalapeno under the broiler. Though they didn’t get as “splotchy black and blistered” as Rick said they should, they seemed roasty enough to me (and K was waiting to move on to the next step). I pureed them in the blender and K browned the onion and garlic and put the tomatillo puree into the pot. We’d cut the recipe in half and suddenly it didn’t seem like there was going to be enough tomatillo sauce to braise the pork in. Rick Bayless to the rescue again! We had half a jar of his tomatillo-based guacamole “starter” in the refrigerator and it contained the same ingredients so we added it, put in a little water, cilantro and added the pork. Sorry … we nestled the browned pork into the warm sauce then put it into the oven. The recipe also calls for a side of potatoes, but we skipped that in favor of the bread pudding stuffing.

K started tearing up chunks of sourdough bread while I cut red, yellow and jalapeno peppers. We simmered the peppers in some chicken broth and I added the cream and egg to the bread. It seemed like there was plenty of liquid to make a custardy bread pudding so we just put the softened peppers and a little bit of the liquid in with the bread — not ALL of the pepper liquid as the recipe seems to call for. We added the shredded cheddar, spices and cilantro and popped the pan into the hot oven. In looking over the recipe again, I just realized it does not list bacon as an ingredient so we didn’t even put that in, despite the fact that it is prominently featured in the title of the recipe.

The pork and bread pudding were finished at about the same time and the our Top Chef kitchen smelled amazing. K let the pork rest for a few minutes, I let the stuffing cool for a few minutes then we cut and plated dinner. Oh my stars was it a Southwestern masterpiece! The tomatillo sauce was tart and smoky and there was just enough of it to cover the tender, juicy pork. The bread pudding was perfectly spiced, sweet with peppers, crisp and cheesy, but still quivering a bit with rich creaminess. We toasted Southwestern success with a Cline Ancient Vines Mouvedre red wine. The whole meal was, to use a dated (but appropriate) SNL reference, like buttah. We are privileged to have two families who host us for Thanksgiving every year, but if we ever host we’re ditching the turkey and Stovetop and going with tomatillo-braised pork loin and Southwestern bread pudding stuffing. And everyone would be thankful we did.

Southwestern-inspired Bread Pudding and Tomatillo-Braised Pork Tenderloin

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