Category: Classics & Standards

Looking for the root, the low down, the place it all starts from? Here’s our take…

Meyer Lemon Curd


Lemon curd is often thought of as a British affectation, but that’s selling short an amazing treat everyone should enjoy. Lemon curd is amazing on a scone, or Scottish shortbread, blended with plain yoghurt and granola, or a fresh fruit cup. Its lovely, light appearance is a bit deceiving; it is a dense, rich treat, bright with flavor.

Using Meyer lemons creates a whole new level of lemon curd. Meyers have gotten more popular lately but remain untried by many folks. Sweeter and less tangy than regular lemons, they’re thought to be a cross made long ago between a lemon and a mandarin orange. They’re high in vitamin C, vitamin B, and phosphorous. Our version also uses agave nectar or honey instead of refined sugar.

Meyer Lemon Curd – About 2 Cups

3 medium Eggs
2-3 Meyer Lemons
1/3 Cup Agave Nectar or Honey
1 tablespoon Meyer Lemon Zest
1/2 cup freshly squeezed Meyer Lemon Juice
6 Tablespoons Butter

Rinse your lemons well. If they have been waxed or treated, put them whole in a bowl containing 2 tablespoons of white vinegar mixed with 4 cups cold water. Allow the lemons to soak for about 15 minutes, then drain the water and rinse the citrus in fresh water and dry with a clean towel.

Place a saucepan large enough to hold your mixing bowl over medium heat with about 3″ of water in it and allow the water to heat through, (If you own a double boiler, set up the bottom as described and build the curd in the upper).

Zest two of the lemons and set aside the zest.

Juice the lemons to yield 1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice. The third may be needed or may be a spare, depending in how juicy they are.

Cut the butter into roughly 1/4″ cubes and set aside.

In a stainless or glass mixing bowl, combine the eggs, 1 packed Tablespoon of zest, and the agave nectar or honey. Whisk the mixture until fully incorporated and evenly colored, about 2 to 3 minutes.

Add the 1/2 Cup lemon juice to the blend and whisk for about a minute to fully incorporate.

Put your bowl over the pan with hot water or double boiler bottom. Add the butter in small batches of 6 to 8 cubes, whisking steadily and allowing each batch to melt and incorporate before adding more. This curd is an emulsion, and so the butter, (fat), needs time and whisking to properly blend. When all the butter is melted, continue whisking until the mixture begins to thicken noticeably, about another 2 to 3 minutes.

Remove the curd from the heat. Transfer the curd to a fine mesh strainer over a glass or steel bowl and use a spatula to gently strain the curd through the strainer. You’ll end up with some zest that doesn’t make it through the strainer.

 

Refrigerated a glass jar or airtight glass container for at least four hours. The curd will keep for about a week refrigerated, but I’ll bet it won’t last anything close to that long…

A small dish of this lovely stuff is a remarkably delicious desert, or an excellent palate cleanser after a heavy course in a fancy meal.

NOTE: You may substitute coconut oil for butter for a dairy free variation.

Easter Ham & Potatoes Gratiné


Easter dinner is one of those Gotta Cook a Ham Days, if ever there was one.  

Technically, ham refers to a back leg or shoulder cut of pork, which is then salt-cured, smoked or dry aged. Hams are found both bone-in and boneless. It may be a bit harder to find bone-in hams from any of the big national butchers, and frankly, that’s just fine with me; like everything else, the closer to you the ham is produced, the fresher and better it is. We have a couple local butchers that do beautiful bone in hams; that’s what we opt for and what I’ll recommend to you: That beautiful bone just has more flavor, for my mind, and that big juicy bone will make fantastic stock for soup. When choosing your ham, figure about a quarter pound per person for a boneless jam and a half pound for a bone in.

 Now, that said, there are a bunch more variations on the ham theme out there, so us cooks have to pay attention to what we buy in order to provide optimal cooking, because techniques vary widely. Fresh hams take longer to cook than canned ones, cold-smoked hams are typically simmered, not baked. 

The BIG ham FYI is that most store-bought hams come fully cooked and only need to be heated through to 140° F internal temperature. 

With all that variety, it’s best to carefully follow the instructions from your butcher, (or on the package), for preparation and cooking methods and times. After cooking, rest hams for 10 minutes before carving.

Now for any of those varieties up there, here’s our take on the famous glaze that so many go nuts for, the Honey Glazed Ham; whip this up for your brood without the big price tag. This recipe will be just right for a 5 to 6 pound pre-cooked ham.

2 Cups Honey or Agave Nectar

3/4 Cup Unsalted Butter

1/4 Cup Dark Corn Syrup

1/4 Cup whole Cloves

Juice of 1/2 fresh Orange

Pinch of Sea Salt

Preheat oven to 300° F.

With a very sharp paring knife, score a diamond pattern into the ham roughly 1/4″ deep; make the diamonds about 1 1/2″ or so.

Put the ham into a foil lined baking pan; pin a whole clove into the center of each diamond. 

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, add the honey, corn syrup, butter and orange juice. Stir constantly to fully incorporate. Once the glaze is blended and heated through, add a tiny pinch of sea salt to taste; the salt should just brighten up the flavor a bit, not make it salty. Reduce heat to warm and stir occasionally.

Brush glaze evenly over ham, set ham onto rack in middle of your oven and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, re-basting ham every 15 minutes. 

For the last 5 minutes of baking, turn on broiler to caramelize the glaze; watch carefully during this phase so the glaze doesn’t burn!

Remove ham from oven and rest for 10 minutes before carving.

 

Scalloped Potatoes

House made scalloped potatoes not only beat the pants off anything store bought or in a package, they’re easy to make, too. Don’t just save these babies for ham; they go great with chicken or beef as well, and dressed up with bacon, sour cream and green onions, make a decent main dish. 

‘Scalloped’ Potatoes is a bit of a misnomer, actually. Scallop derives from ‘escalloped’, from the French, meaning  to bake food, usually cut into pieces, in a sauce or other liquid, often with crumbs on top. Technically, that dish refers to fish, and sort of got adopted informally for spuds as well; gratiné is actually the more accurate title for this recipe, frankly.

A few general thoughts on making perfect Spuds Gratiné. Potato variety is critical to great spuds, and Yukon Gold is the go-to for these. Next comes the prep, and slicing them thinly and uniformly is the key there; about 1/8″ will do the trick. For the sauce, 50% – 50% heavy cream and whole milk will give you the perfect balance of texture and creaminess; while you can use lighter dairy, doing so will not yield great results, frankly. Also, avoid ultra-pasteurized dairy

Potatoes Gratiné

6 – 8 Yukon Gold Potatoes

1 1/2 Cups Heavy Cream

1 1/2 Cups Whole Milk

1 Cup Extra Sharp White Cheddar

2 Tablespoons Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

2 Tablespoons unsalted Butter

1/2 teaspoon Marjoram

1-3 cloves Garlic

1-2 shots Tabasco sauce. 

Sea Salt 

Freshly ground Grains of Paradise (Black pepper is fine too)

Preheat oven to 375° F

Lightly oil a 3 quart baking dish.

Cut potatoes evenly into 1/8″ slices. You can peel them if you need to, but best to leave them on for the nutrition. Submerge in ice cold water until ready to incorporate.

Smash garlic cloves under the side of a chefs knife, peel and mince.

Grate cheddar.

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter thoroughly. Add the flour, stir into the butter to form a roux. Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly. Add the cream next, slowly and evenly. Add the garlic, marjoram, 2-1/2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon grains of paradise, stirring steadily. When everything is fully incorporated and heated through, remove from heat and set aside.

Drain the potatoes and pat dry with a paper towel. Arrange a slightly overlapping single layer of potatoes in the baking dish, then ladle a generous layer the cream sauce the potatoes. Repeat with the remaining potatoes and cream mixture. Three to four layers of potatoes and sauce is just about right; make sure you end up with a sauce layer. 

Spread the last of the cheese evenly over the top of the dish.

Bake until the potatoes are fork tender, about 45 to 50 minutes.

Let the potatoes rest for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

 

Carolina BBQ Sauce


Got a reader following our pulled pork recipe from a few years back enquiring about Carolina style BBQ sauce; who could say no to that?

Carolina style barbecue sauce is traditionally a thin, vinegar-based preparation that allows the ingredients to easily penetrate the meat. It has a tang and a touch of sweet heat that really complements good BBQ.  This version works well as a baste while cooking and as a table sauce afterwards; it was designed for pork, but it’s great on chicken and beef too.

1 1/2 Cups Apple Cider Vinegar
1/2 Cup Tomato Sauce
1/2 Cup water
1-2 Tablespoon(s) dark brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Smoked Paprika
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
1 teaspoon ground black Pepper
1/2-1 teaspoon powdered Cayenne Pepper, (flake is OK, just use 1/2 teaspoon

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine all ingredients.

Stir constantly as the mixture comes up to heat. When it shows signs of a low boil, reduce heat to a bare simmer and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until all ingredients are heated through, fully dissolved and incorporated.

Allow to cool completely. If you used cayenne flake, strain the sauce through a sieve so the results are smooth and even in consistency.

Refrigerate for at least 8 hours to allow the flavors to marry. It’ll be even better after 24 to 48 hours, and will keep for a couple weeks refrigerated.

Place in a squeeze bottle and shake well before using.

VARIATION:
Replace the tomato sauce with yellow mustard, and this is still a damn good sauce!

UPDATE: Mark Fogleman was nice enough to send these comments. Here’s some great regional variations to try!

The Carolinas have 4 distinct BBQ sauce zones (don’t laugh…this is serious stuff ;’). 

Your recipe is similar to the thicker/sweeter/darker sauce we use in the western/mountain zone. 

Substitute 1/2 cup of catsup and 1tbs regular sugar for the tomato sauce and brown sugar if you want it to be authentic “Lexington” style sauce. 

Authentic “Eastern NC” sauce leaves out the sugar and the catsup/tomato sauce and adds 1tbs of salt. 

You nailed the Columbia, SC (Maurice Bessinger) style mustard sauce except his recipe uses regular sugar.

It’s also common to use the the Piedmont style sauce as the base of the accompanying cole slaw.

There are other regional differences… whole hog vs shoulder, picked vs chopped vs sliced (note “Pulled” is not included), charcoal vs gas vs Hickory vs Oak, yada, yada. It’s all good! 

BIG THANKS, Mark!

Paella, Minnesota Style


You might just wonder what would possibly bring the classic Spanish dish Paella together with Minnesota. Well, fact is, Minnesota is the largest U.S. Exporter of freshwater crayfish, bar none, and paella just begs for nice juicy crayfish, so there ya go. On top of that, we’ve got dear friends up there, so this ones for y’all.

Paella is made just about everywhere these days, but it originated in the Valencia region on Spain’s east coast. Like barbecue or chili over here, there are easily are as many versions of paella as there are cooks. While you’ve got all kinds of leeway as to what you put in a paella, there are some hard and fast rules if you want an authentic dish; we’ll cover those bases shortly.

It’s generally agreed that the roots of paella stem from the 1700s, when field workers would make rice dishes in a flat pan over a fire. They mixed in whatever they could find – such as snails and vegetables, crawfish, and maybe rabbit or chicken for special occasions. I’ve seen and eaten a lot of paella, good and bad. Essentially, paella is a rice dish and it should always be that; putting so much stuff into it that the essence of the rice dish is lost just ain’t right. Our version below is lovely stuff, and pays homage to the dishes roots along with a nod to midwest delights like fresh game sausage and crawfish. Once you’ve made paella, your mind will already be turning to what you’ll do differently next time; it’s one of those kinda dishes.

As mentioned, there are a few hard and fast rules you must abide by when making paella, and here they are.

Paella Rule#1: You must cook paella over a fire. Whether you use a charcoal grill, gas grill or fire pit is up to you, put it’s gotta be done. The reason for this is rooted in Paella Rule #2; if you’re gonna use that big, wide pan, you gotta be able to put even heat under all of it, and there’s no stove in our houses that’ll do the deed. If you really catch the bug, there are dedicated gas paella cookers with 2 or 3 rings, adjustable flame, and a nice, sturdy tripod base.

Paella Rule #2: you gotta use a Paella Pan. A traditional paella pan is a large, flat, open round steel pan with handles. Nothing else will get the rice to do the right thing, and if it don’t, it ain’t paella. La Tienda sells them, and you can find them on Amazon as well. Granted, if you only make paella once, it’s not worth the purchase of a pan; once you’ve tried it, I’ll bet you’re hooked, and you’ll want one for sure.

Paella Rule #3: you gotta use genuine Bomba rice. This medium grained, almost round rice from the Levante, (the eastern coast of Spain), absorbs a lot of liquid, which makes it particularly suitable for paella. You can order bomba rice from many online Spanish food retailers, including La Tienda, which is where we get ours. This stuff is a delight and well worth buying.

Paella Rule #4: you gotta use real saffron. It is, you’re about to discover, the most expensive spice on the planet. Don’t buy a lot, and don’t buy the cheap stuff. Get the best grade you can afford. When the recipe says a ‘pinch’, I mean a few strands, maybe 6 or so. It’s that expensive, but also that potent. Too much leaves a nasty metallic taste that’ll ruin a paella; we’re after the lovely yellow-gold color it imparts as much as taste, so go easy.

OK, so on to the recipe. This is my take on the roots of authentic paella, with a nod to Minnesota in the sausage and crawfish components.

1 Pound smoked Pheasant Sausage, (Any homemade game or chicken sausage works fine)
1 Pound freshwater Crayfish
12 Ounces Bomba Rice (Medium Grain will do in a pinch)
4-5 Cups Chicken Stock (or broth)
1 Cup White Wine
2 Tomatoes
1 sweet Onion
1 yellow or orange Bell Pepper
1/2 Cup Peas
1/4 Cup Italian flat leaf Parsley
1 sprig fresh Thyme (or 1/2 teaspoon dry)
1 pinch Saffron
2-3 cloves Garlic
1/2. Teaspoon smoked, sweet Paprika
1 Lemon
4 Tablespoons extra virgin Olive Oil
Sea Salt and fresh ground Pepper to taste

Rinse, core, seed and dice the onion, pepper, and tomatoes.
Chiffonade the parsley, peel and mince the garlic.
Cut lemon into equal slices and set aside for garnish.
Cut sausage into roughly 2″ chunks.

In your paella pan over medium heat, add olive oil and heat through.

Toss in the onion, garlic and pepper; sauté until the onion starts to go translucent. Remove the veggies to a bowl and set aside.

Add sausage and cook until evenly browned. Toss it into the bowl with the veggies and set aside again.

Add the rice to the pan and sauté dry for 2 to 3 minutes.

Stir in 3 cups of chicken stock, the wine, the thyme, paprika, and the saffron. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Increase heat to medium high and bring everything to a boil, then reduce heat until you’ve got a nice, even simmer going; cook for 15 minutes; stirring occasionally.

Taste the rice, and check to see if it’s pretty much done; it should be a bit too al dente at this point. If it’s not close yet, add another 1/2 cup of chicken stock stock and continue cooking, stirring occasionally. Add additional stock as needed, up to 5 cups total. Continue to simmer until the rice is done.

Toss in the sausage and veggie mix, as well as the tomatoes and peas. Simmer for another 5 minutes.

Add the crawfish on top of the dish, cover with foil, and simmer for 5 minutes.

Remove the foil, sprinkle parsley evenly over the dish.

Serve hot in bowls, dished right from the paella pan, and garnished with the lemon wedges. Make sure you’ve got lots of fresh, crusty bread, and a nice white wine, (I’ll suggest the Wollersheim Dry Reisling as the perfect accompaniment.)

Salut!

Spuds Three Ways


Ah, potatoes;
Do we ever get tired of them? Counting all the ways they’re enjoyed for all three daily meals, I’d say not.
Maybe you’re stuck in a rut for variety, though, and need a little push? I got yer back on this. Here’s a delicious trio to try, one over the top, one pretty healthy, and one in between.

 

Twice Baked

4 large Russet Potatoes
1 Cup heavy Cream
1/2 Cup Sour Cream
1 Cup Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese
4 ounces Butter
4 strips thick cut Bacon
4 Green Onions
Sea Salt & fresh ground Pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Dash of Tabasco

Preheat oven to 325° F

Rinse your spuds and pat dry with a clean towel.

Coat whole spuds with olive oil by hand, place in a glass baking dish. Season the skins evenly with salt and pepper.

Slide the spuds into the oven and bake for about an hour, until the spuds are fork tender.

Fry bacon, dry on paper towels and chop to a 1/4″ dice.

Rinse, strip roots and any nasty stuff from green onions, and chop those to a 1/4″ dice.

Grate cheddar cheese.

When the spuds are ready, pull them out of the oven and let them cool just long enough to handle with a clean towel, (in other words, still quite hot).

Reduce oven heat to 250° F.

Cut the spuds into lengthwise halves, then carefully scoop the guts into a mixing bowl, keeping the skins intact.

Add cream, sour cream, half the cheese, bacon, onions and butter to spuds and blend thoroughly. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Refill the skins with the spud mixture, top with the remaining cheese and slide those guys back into the oven; bake for another 15 to 20 minutes.

Serve hot. Great by themselves, or with a nice salad. Pair with a nice Fumè or Dry Reisling.

 

Roasted

8 – 10 small potatoes, (try a red, white and blue variety)
1\2 Sweet Onion
1-2 cloves Garlic
1 small sweet Pepper, (red, yellow or orange as you please)
2″ sprig Rosemary
1/2 teaspoon Thyme
Sea Salt and fresh cracked Pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 325° F.

Rinse and field strip onion, garlic and pepper, (in case you’re new here, ‘field strip’ means remove outer skin, cores, seeds and membranes, as needed.)
Rough chop onion and pepper into about 1″ pieces, quarter the garlic cloves.

Rinse, pat dry, and halve potatoes.

Toss spuds and veggies into a large mixing bowl. Add a couple tablespoons of EVOO, ( Extra Virgin Olive Oil), and toss to incorporate. Strip leaves from rosemary and add to bowl with thyme, salt and pepper. Toss to blend.

Throw everybody into a glass baking dish, and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until potatoes are fork tender.

These are a great side for broiled fish, roasted game or bird.

 

Latkes, (AKA, best potato pancakes ever)

5 medium Russet Potatoes
2 medium Sweet Onions
3 medium Eggs
1/4 to 3/4 Cup Flour
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground Black Pepper
1/2 to 3/4 Cup Oil

For the flour, unbleached all purpose is fine, but try whole wheat pastry as well, it’s very nice indeed.

For the oil, stick to Sunflower, Canola, or Corn; they won’t add any heavy flavor notes to the latkes. And speaking of oil, oil temperature is critical to good results when frying; oil maintained at 350° F will ensure nice light, crispy results that don’t taste and feel soggy. Use a candy thermometer to track oil temperature, and always add foods to be fried sparingly to allow the temperature to stay where it needs to be.

Peel your spuds and toss them into a large mixing bowl filled with enough ice water to completely submerge them.

Skin and trim ends from onions. Toss them into the ice water with the spuds.

Add oil to a frying pan over medium high heat; you’ll want about 1/4″ of oil or so. Have your thermometer handy for gauging oil temp.

Drain your spuds and onions and pat dry with a clean paper towel.

Grate the potatoes and onions with the finer side of a hand grater, or use a food processor or blender if you prefer. The hand method gives the best results for my mind. You want a nice, consistent size and blend of spuds and onions.

Check your oil and adjust heat so you’re sitting right at 350° F.

Place a platter lined with paper towels in your oven and preheat to Warm.

Toss the spud and onion blend into a colander lined with paper towels and gently squash the mix to remove excess water.

Dry off that large mixing bowl and toss your spud/onion blend in.

Lightly beat the eggs by hand and add them to the spuds and onions, then add the salt and pepper.

Add flour 1/4 cup at a time until the mixture holds together on its own, like a chunky pancake batter.

Fill a large soup spoon with a heaping hunk ‘o batter. Slip that puppy into the hot oil and gently squash it down into a cake. Fry one side for approximately 3-5 minutes, until golden brown, then and fry the other side for another 2 to 3 minutes. Look for that nice golden brown on both sides.

Now slide those little golden beauties onto the paper towel covered platter in the oven and keep fryin’. Add a little more oil if needed and watch that oil temp.

Serve nice and hot with the applesauce and a little dish of sour cream, crèma or crème fraîche. Latkes deserve to be a meal and they won’t disappoint; pair with a local sparkler or hard cider.

Beautiful Baguettes



In France, every day includes a trip to a Boulangerie, the local bakery, for a baguette or two. If you love bread like I do, then there are few versions more likely to float your boat than this fabulous French staple. Now for a disclaimer; I took some baldy poetic license calling this post Baguettes, ’cause this ain’t Julia’s Pain Français. This is a quick and dirty, want some fresh bread now, rough loaf, but it’ll beat the shit outta anything from the store. That said, I’ve revised the process a bit to make this version a bit more flavorful and true to its name.

If you love bread like I do, then there are few version more likely to float your boat than this fabulous French staple.

This recipe came with my Kitchen Aid mixer; I know a bunch of y’all have one too, but it seems many have lost the little recipe book, which is really a wealth of good stuff. This one will make two beautiful baguettes.

7 cups all-purpose flour
2 packages active dry Yeast
2 1/2 Cups warm Water (110° F)
1 Tablespoon Sea Salt
1 Tablespoon Butter
1 Tablespoons Cornmeal
1 Egg White
1 Tablespoon ice water

As noted, this recipe is meant for a KitchenAid mixer, but you can certainly do it by hand.

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water in a mixing bowl that has also been warmed to about 100° F. Allow the yeast to bloom for about 5 minutes.

Add the flour, butter and salt to the water and yeast.

Using the dough hook for your KitchenAid, attach The bowl and slide the speed setting to 2; mix for 1 to 2 minutes, until everything is well incorporated.

Continue to knead on Speed 2 for 2-3 minutes longer.

Dough will begin to pull away from the sides of the bowl, but will still feel somewhat sticky; it’s important to make sure you stop kneading when the dough still is still sticky, 

Turn dough into a large lightly buttered bowl, and coat the dough evenly.

Cover with a clean, dry towel and allow to rise in a quiet, relatively cool spot, free from drafts, until the dough has doubled in bulk. You want a cooler, slower rise than you might be accustomed to. This helps the baguette develop is characteristic flavor and texture.

Punch the dough down gently and divide it in half.

Roll each half into a rectangle about 12″ x 15″.

Starting on a long side, roll the dough tightly and evenly into a baguette shape, about 15″ long and 2″ wide.

Cover with a clean, dry towel and allow to rise in a quiet, warm spot, free from drafts, for about 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in bulk.

Preheat oven to 425° F. Place one rack square in the middle, with another below; leave enough room for a cast iron skillet full of boiling water. Ideally, you’ll have a heavy pizza stone or baking pan of the same material; this really makes a difference, just as the stone does for pizza. Put the stone or pan in the oven to preheat as well. 

Place a large cast iron skillet on the lower rack, filled with boiling water. If you want to go all out, find a nice big rock, clean it up,  and heat it separately through the preheat cycle, then carefully lower it into the skillet of water when you begin to bake. Our ovens at the bakery are stoned line, and have precise temperature and steam controls. We don’t at home, and just like Julia discovered 40 some years ago, this is the best way to approximate a real baking oven at home.

With a very sharp knife, make 4 diagonal cuts on top of each loaf, about 1″ long for each.

Carefully slide your baguettes onto the hot stone or sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

Combine egg white and cold water and whisk lightly. Pull the rack with your loaves on it out carefully, and brush each loaf lightly with the egg wash.

Return to the oven and bake 5 minutes longer.

Immediately remove baguettes from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Try not to eat it all before dinner.

By the way, those beauties at the top of the post were made by our Producer, Steve, right after we recorded; bread is powerful stuff!