I am probably the luckiest girl in the world. I don’t mean to be, I just am. I’m friends with several of the best chefs in Minnesota.  Not only are they great cooks, but they have created philosophies and ways of doing thing which makes each them completely unique and wonderful.  To top that off they even love to teach, which means that I get to call them up and say, “Hey, what’s on your mind?  Anything you want to share with some of my favorite cooks?”

When I asked my friend Scott Graden, owner/chef of the award winning New Scenic Cafe in Duluth that question and he answered, “Inspiration is everywhere and it’s so much more important than recipes and ingredients.  I’d like to talk about that.”  In my head I shouted, “woo hoo!”  Then we chatted and brainstormed on how to go about doing a workshop on inspiration, came up with a plan and that he promptly forgot.

I, however, did not.  It turns out that the things that inspire him most are the people and the land around him. Hence, on our weekend in Duluth we got to meet with Stephen Dahl his herring fisherman and David Rogotzke his maple syrup maker and salmon fisherman.

It really was the best adult field trip for cooks ever.

We started off the day at the New Scenic Cafe where Scott was kind enough to talk to us about his experiences as a restaurant owner and chef. He went over where everything came from, how it happened and why he made the decisions he did.  He gave us an amazing insight into the tenacity and drive he had to bring the Cafe to what it is today.  (This included living in the garage for 5 years.)

The cooks drank some wine, asked Scott questions and tried not to shiver too much.

Daily self portrait reflected in the kitchen of the Scenic Cafe.

Superior… uh, dingy?  This is the boat that Steve fishes from.

Steve Dahl, Superior fisherman tells us about the practice and politics of fishing on Lake Superior.  It turns out that most of the state’s policies on fishing rights are crafted for sport fisherman who don’t account for nearly as much revenue on the lakes or care for them as the commercial fisherman.  Even though Steve has to fight all the time, he still considers himself lucky to be able to go out onto Lake Superior and fish everyday.

The folks getting to try Dave Rogotzke‘s maple butter and salmon.

Dave takes us for a tour of his sugar maple farm.  He tells us all about the practices he employs for the long life and care of his trees.  He considers himself to be a steward of the land that he’s lucky enough to get to work with and he wants to protect it as much as he can.

I think Kyndell wants her own syrup house.

Welcome Troop #9!

David explains the rest of the syrup making process, from reduction to bottling.

Then we went picked up a couple of mystery containers of food from the Scenic and went back to the condo for some cooking.  This was our view.  Yea!

Team chicken roll-up hanging with their ingredients.

The offering from Mark and I.  Grapes stuffed with blue cheese and served with Canadian bacon.  All you need to do is cut a conical shape out of the top of a grape with a paring knife, stuff it with some blue cheese and then present it with some warm, cooked Canadian bacon (or regular bacon for that matter) on a stick of some kind.  We served ours on a fork with the instruction to keep the fork safe, as it’s the only one folks were getting for the evening.

Pork tenderloin from Team Zen – The base of the sauce was red peppers and onions sauteed in olive oil and then simmered in chicken broth with mashed garlic, brown sugar, ginger, soy sauce, sirracha, cilantro, salt and pepper.  Once the ingredients were softened they were pulverized in a blender to make the sauce for the pork, which was pan roasted in some olive oil.

Someone is stabbing at the fabulous goat cheese chicken rolls.   Jeff took a couple of chicken breasts pounded them flat(ish) with a small frying pan.  (It was totally awesome.)  He then spread a mixture of goat cheese mixed with, freshly grated parmesan cheese, chopped basil, garlic, salt and pepper.  Then he rolled them up, secured them with twine and roasted for about 30 minutes under a 375 degree oven.

Yoon Hee decided to make some crostini sandwiches.  slice up some bread, slicing through every other slice, and rubbed garlic on them and spread salted butter in between.  Then she baked them in a 375 degree oven for 10 – 15 minutes flipping them once to brown them up.

Team reduction hard at work.

Team Reduction gave us this dish of roasted pork tenderloin and yukon gold potato with a reduction sauce made from home made broth, red wine, mushrooms, currents and other stuff Kyndell’s going to have to tell you about because I don’t remember.  They also served up some collard greens cooked in the same broth with some butter.

The happiest addition of all: crusty bread spread with goat cheese and sliced strawberries let to sit in sugar.  It was a nouveau strawberry shortcake.  I loved it.

And that was our weekend.  If you would like to join us for future events: join us!  Or you can play along at home by visiting our blog.

Love always,

MrsMarv

It would be very easy to change this around to whatever flavor profile you were looking for. A bit of crispy bread, fresh greens, creamy cheese, something sweet, crunchy and acidic and you’ve got a combo that will (more than likely) work. And of course if you blend it all up, you’ve got a dip.

Oh, and it takes about 7 minutes to make, total.

Spinach & Chevre on Crusty Bread with Balsamic Reduction

Balsamic Reduction
(Take 1 1/4 c red wine and 1/4 c balsamic vinegar and bring to just boiling. Reduce heat and simmer until liquid is reduced by at least half around 1/2 – 2/3 c. Cool and store until needed. Keeps forever in the refrigerator.)

1 baguette, sliced

You can just slice up the baguette and serve on that, or brush slices with olive oil and brown in a 400°f oven until browned. This is the best option if they’re going to sit around for awhile.

2 – 3 T apple juice
1 bag spinach (or similar amount)
1 – 2 oz chevre, crumbled
2 T lightly roasted almonds, chopped
salt, pepper & cayenne pepper to taste

Heat juice in pan until boiling. Toss in spinach, cover and pan steam until dark green and wilted.

Turn off heat. Let cool down. Drain out extra liquids. Mix in chevre, almonds and spices and stir until mixed in with some lumps. Top baguette slices with a couple of tablespoons of spinach mixture. Drizzle with balsamic reduction.

Serve with some fresh berries.

I’m so impressed with my cooks that I have to share. I’m sorry if you don’t care, but we are doing some good cookery up in this tundra, pardon-my-french, please.

First off, in case you don’t know, I have a group now. (Hello group!) They can cook. (I love that they can cook!) So I set them up with Scott Pampuch at Corner Table, who happens to be able to cook as well, in fact he’s a James Beard semi-finalist-for-best-chef-in-the-Midwest-cook. And then he and my cooks went to town making a really nice meal.

We divided them up – color circles on name tags mean something sometimes. They were given leaders and joined; team meat, team starch, team veggie, team dessert and team egg. (Once the people knew what was going on… they couldn’t help but make a team egg to be coached by Chef Pampuch. The man knows his way around an egg.)

And this is what happened (approximately) – recipes (not even close) for apple caramel bread pudding and eggs on toast to follow.

Okay, so in my opinion, Team Egg won. There were no winners here, but my god, Team Egg won. I love the duck, I soooooooo love the duck. But Team Egg’s dish was simple, delicious and frankly, eloquent. Really yummy.

Hey, Kyndell! This is my friend Kyndell. Kyndell did not stay as she had to go report the news, but she did make appreciative sounds while eating Scott’s breakfast for her. (Seriously, he made her breakfast before work.)

This is Troy, the leader of Team Meat. Ignore his name tag, it lies. Team meat made Duck confit on some roasted potatoes and onions. Way good, if you ask me. They also made some seared duck breasts, way even better, if you ask me. Oh, how I love the duck.

This is Veronica, a member of Team Meat working away.

This is Chef Scott, making sure nobody burns his restaurant down.

This is Kathy, leader of Team Dessert. She is being heckled by Scott for only making one dessert.  (But if he had let her make cupcakes I’m pretty sure she would have happily made a trio of mini cupcakes for everyone.  She is Queen Cupcake.)

Team Dessert, glowing. They are making bread pudding with apples and browned butter, there’s a reason to glow.

Team Starch hard at work making a gratin that will never be seen.

Tourist Jody looks on to all of the industry.

Team Egg hard at work. Go Team Egg! (Nina, the leader of Team Egg is in the patterned shirt.)

Kathy with a uniform malfunction! Oh no!

Scott coaching Team Veggie, while Team Dessert cuts up apples.

Duck breasts for Team Meat.

Cookery going on right there.

Team Egg made scrambled eggs on toast.  Toast was some lovely crostini Nina is oiling right here.

Yoon He, one of our new members.

Scott and Ann creaming the unseen gratin.

Salad, don’t really know what was in it, but it was good.

Tourist Jody relaxes in the sun.

Duck!

Matt helps himself to a bit of this and a bit of that.

Harkness displays his usual plating prowess.

Kathy munches.

Tourist Jody in her bubble of joy.

Super-Fast Carmel Apple Bread Pudding

Okay, so it’s not really super fast, but it is faster than normal.   Team Dessert, really took too long – but it sooo wasn’t their fault, it was mine.  When they said they wanted to do bread pudding, I imagined it in ramekins; smaller space in water bath means that it would be done quicker than in a huge pan.  They had other ideas, but I was right and should have said so.  Doesn’t make it any less tasty. Yum, yum.

Kathy had her own stuff to say about the day.

1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c butter
1 – 2 t vanilla
pinch salt

2/3 loaf buttermilk bread (or other good bread)
2 small granny smith apples, chopped into chunks
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 c sugar
3/4 c cream
1 c milk
2 t vanilla

1c more cream
2 T sugar
vanilla bean

Melt butter in pan, add in sugar and cook until dissolved.  Add in salt and vanilla. Distribute amongst ramekins.

Pre-heat oven to 375°f. Break up bread into bits and disperse it into ramekins with apples.

Mix together eggs, sugar, cream milk and vanilla. Disperse between ramekins. Place in a larger pan and put into pre-heated oven for 35 min (in other words, way less than the hour 10 it normally takes) or until set up in the middle.

Let cool for a bit. Put cream in mixer bowl. Split vanilla bean down the center, flap sides out, scrape insides out with the flat of the knife. Add to cream. Add in Sugar and mix on medium high speed until peaks form.

Scrape around the perimeter of ramekins and invert onto serving dish. Top with whipped cream. Serve with a smile.

Scrambled eggs on toast

I know there’s no need for this recipe and yet I feel compelled. It was really good.

bread, something in a rustic sourdough would be nice
olive oil

4 eggs
2 T butter
1 – 2 oz chevre
salt/pepper

mushrooms
more olive oil

chives
orange zest

Preheat oven to 400°f. Slice bread into slices, brush with olive oil and toast until brown.

Slice and saute mushrooms in olive oil over high heat until tender.

Put eggs and some butter into a cold pan over medium high heat. Start stirring with a spatula. When the bottom begins to cook all over remove from heat and stir until eggs cool again. Return to heat – and keep doing the heat/no heat rotation until they’re cooked through. Add in chevre and salt/pepper and stir until creamy.

Top crostini with some of the eggs. Sprinkle on some chives. Grate a bit of orange zest on top. Top with some mushroom slices.

So I present to you, my day at the flea market (with tacos + lengua and salsa recipes at the end!):

Oh, how could you possibly drive by this one a beautiful fall day?

Ah, look at it.  Isn’t it just lovely?  Granted the lengua one is a bit obscured by the steak taco, but you get the idea.  (YUM!  That’s the idea.)  

First off the flea market.  (I know, you want the food now.  But it will be much better once you’ve walked around and worked up an appetite.)

Sugar cane available at many of the market booths. 

Everybody loves a bird house with a license plate roof.

Aw… Young love at the market.

The guy selling these glasses could not figure out what I was photographing.

And once we got to the end of the tables – Taqueria Mi Tierra

Lovely mango & almond drinks quench our thirst.

Marv decided to have a lengua torta.  It was pretty as well.

Three salsas provided accompaniment; red, green and something in an orange.

The crispness of the day did not keep anyone from enjoying the open air.

Little sisters always like to be entertained by their big brother’s dancing.

Lengua for tacos

1 beef tongue
2 onions, peeled and quartered
water

2 T butter
1 T flour
1 T chipotle powder

2 c beef broth

2 roasted peppers
2 roasted red jalepenos
1/2 c roasted tomatoes

Put tongue with pressure cooker with onions and add water until it comes about half way up on the tongue. Cook for 25 minutes. Peel off the white skin. Cut in half. The bottom half of the tongue should still need a good deal more cooking. Cut it into small chunks.

Melt butter over med-high heat until butter is bubbly. Sprinkle with flour and chipotle powder. Stir until thick and browned. Add in beef broth and heat until mixture is reduced and thick. Add in peppers and tomatoes puree with a stick blender until smoothish. Add in the chunks of tongue and cook until tender.

While tongue is cooking, cut up other half of tongue into small chunks. This half of the tongue should be cooked through, but if it’s not done add it into the mixture and cook for 20 mins or so.

Salsa

4 tomatoes, roasted
2 onions, roasted
2 jalepenos, roasted
2 T ancho powder
2 T cream or sour cream
juice from 1/2 lime
salt

Throw all ingredients except salt into a blender and blend until smooth add salt to taste.

I’ll warn you straight off, I don’t really remember what was in the original recipe. Which is to say – that this salsa has become such a staple in our house that I can’t be sure where it started (nor can I seem to find it on my computer – but I’m sure you could find it online.) I do know it was a recipe posted by Jim Campbell of Mild to Wild Pepper and Herb company. If you’ve never tried his bbq or hot sauces I highly recommend them. They’re really good and he seems like a really good guy.

Salsa

6 tomatillos
4 roma tomatoes
4 jalepeno peppers
3 aniheim peppers
2 yellow onions, quartered
2 ears corn
juice from 1 lime
1 bunch cilantro, coarsely chopped
salt to taste

Put all ingredients except lime, cilantro and salt on the smoker or grill. Grill over medium heat until veggies are tender, pulling them off the heat as they’re done. Deseeded remove stems and outer skins of all veggies. Put all veggies except corn in the blender. Blend until they’re the consistency you want. Cut kernals off corn. Put in a large container. Add in the blended veggies. Add in lime, cilantro and salt.

Confetti Nachos

blue corn chips
sharp cheddar cheese
crumbled goat cheese

Preheat oven to 400°f. Cover the bottom of a heat-proof pan with tortilla chips. Shred the cheddar cheese and sprinkle it over the chips. Dot with goat cheese. Bake until cheese is browned and serve with Wildpepper Salsa.

Chili Verde
olive oil
onion, coarsely chopped (reserve some for garnish)
1 part or whole roasted chicken
3 to 4 c chicken broth
1 – 2 c white beans, cooked
3 or more cups of Wildpepper Salsa
1 T cumin
salt to taste
chili fixins – cheese, chopped onion, sour cream, cilantro, tortilla chips, lime wedges

Heat olive oil over medium high heat, cook onion until tender. Add in broth, salsa, chicken and beans. If it is too thick add in more broth. Bring to a boil then reduce and simmer for 10 – 20 minutes. Add in cumin and salt. Add in some chopped fresh cilantro if you like.

Serve with fixins and enjoy!

Mushroom & Potato Hash

1 – 2 T butter or olive oil
6 yukon gold potatoes
6 oz assorted wild & brown mushrooms, quartered
1 c Wildpepper salsa, room temperature

Boil potatoes until tender but not soft. Let cool then cut into small chunks.

Heat butter over medium-high heat until very hot. Add in potatoes and cook until brown on all sides. In the meantime, heat olive oil in another pan and add in mushrooms. Cook until tender. Add in salsa to coat.

Place potatoes in bowl, top with mushrooms and then spoon on another scoop of salsa. Serve and slide in to toasty salsa bliss.

Chicken Green Chili

1 recipe of wildpepper salsa
1 chicken, smoked and pulled
3 green bell peppers, broiled
1 c beans, cooked
4 – 5 c chicken broth
1/2 c beer
1 T cumin
1 T garlic powder
2 t oregano
1 t jalepeno powder
2 dashes fish sauce (if you have it)

Basically, I make twice as much salsa as I need, freeze or can off a bunch and make chili out of the rest. While smoking the ingredients I also butterfly and smoke a couple of chickens, one to eat and one for the chili. On the day that I make chili I put 3 bell peppers under the broiler until their skins on all sides have blackened and then I pull them out and put them in a mixing bowl covered by a plate. I let them steam for a bit (20 mins or so) and then pull off their skins and pull out their seeds. Toss them into a food processor and process until coarsely ground.

To butterfly a chicken just cut out it’s spine and fold it open breaking it’s breastbone. Nothing to it and it’s easier to control cooking time.

I then take half of the salsa and stick it in a stock pot, with the chicken broth, chicken and beans. Add in spices and simmer for 10 – 20 minutes. You’re done. Serve with accouterment.

Falafel made from scratch at home has always eluded me. But I’ve had to keep trying because the place by my house that has falafel on the menu serves up these mini falafel pucks that only serve to make me wish that I was in Texas. Or knew how to make it myself. It seemed that every time I tried the little beasts would explode or suffer from some sort of garbanzo bean plate tectonic syndrome. Soon there would be little fried bean bits floating and bursting into flames in hot oil, victims of the unfair and unstable universe on which they lived. And I didn’t have a clue why.

“It’s street food for crying out loud! It can’t be that freakin’ hard,” I’d cry to Marv who would just roll his eyes over my falafel incompetence. Then, while I was on a plane, I read a description of falafel that said it was a dough made from garbanzo beans and spices that’s fried in oil and served in pita bread with cucumber sauce and lettuce. A dough. Doh! All the recipes I had tried were basically bean patties with nothing holding them together.

Armed to the teeth with this new information – I had another go. And it worked beautifully. Yea! Falafel for me!

Falafel

1 1/2 c dried garbanzo beans
1 onion, peeled and quartered
2 – 6 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
1/4 c fresh cilantro, oregano or basil, coarsely chopped
1 t baking powder
2 T sesame seeds
2 T cumin
1 – 2 T Old Bay seasoning
1 T cayenne
1/4 – 1 c whole wheat flour
salt and pepper to taste
oil for frying

Rinse the beans and remove all that look funky. Cover with water and soak for 15 – 20 hours, until tender. Drain the beans, and place them in a food processor along with the onions, garlic and cilantro. Pulse until the the bits are paste-like but still distinguishable. Transfer to a bowl and and stir in spices, baking powder and flour 1/4 c at a time until the mixture is dough (doh!) like and the mixture isn’t wet.

Heat about 1/2″ of oil in a pan. Meanwhile, roll dough into smallish balls and flatten them out. Set aside.

Once oil is heated to 350° or more, fry falafel patties about 5 minutes per side, or until nicely browned. Drain on paper towels and serve with something cucumbery (see sauce below and salad to come).

Tzatziki Sauce

1 8oz container light sour cream or Greek yogurt (if you can find it)
1 small cucumber, deseeded and and chopped into chunks
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1/4 lemon juice
1 T chopped fresh dill
1 T parsley, chopped fine
salt & pepper

Combine cucumber and garlic in food processor and pulse until coarse. Add in the rest of the ingredients and pulse until liquid. Serve with falafel or chicken or beef or whatever you like.

On the other hand, if my marriage did destruct, I would get all the poppers…

Now, I can’t abide by fancy ingredients in my poppers. I’m just a straight up pepper, cream cheese & fried batter kind of a gal. Even so, getting them right was kinda hard. First off, turned out that the peppers need to be cooked, otherwise they were too tough. Originally, I tried steaming, because I was only trying to make them pliable, but it turned out that roasting them in an oven brought out their sweetness, which was awesome. And getting the right combo for the batter was kinda annoying; too wet, too dry, too thin, too whatever. Finally, I got it nailed down pretty good.

There were also a few hiccups in the process. I tried a few different ways to cut holes, empty out seeds and insert cream cheese. It turned out the easiest way was to just slice out a hole on one side and scrape out the seeds. And while we’re on the subject of seeds, they’re the best way of moderating the heat you want. More seeds = more heat. If you’re not sure what that means for the peppers you have, just try one. Then you can determine how many of them you want in your popper.

Jalapeno Poppers

12 jalapeno peppers
5 oz (or more depending, on the size of your peppers) cream cheese, softened
pinch salt

1/2 c flour
1 T cornmeal (optional)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 c milk
1 T honey
1 t salt
pepper

1 c bread crumbs

Roast peppers in 450°f oven, turning when they brown. As soon as the peppers are mailable. If they get too brown before being maliable put them into a bowl and cover to steam the skins off. (Pull off whatever doesn’t fall off on it’s own.) Allow to cool.

Heat 2″ of peanut oil to 300°f – 325°f.

Meanwhile, mix together cream cheese with a pinch or two of salt. Create a boat cut in each pepper by pinching a fold and cutting around the your fingers from almost the top to almost the bottom. Do not remove the stem. Scrape out seeds with a spoon and fill with cream cheese.

Mix together flour, cornmeal, milk, egg, honey, salt and pepper until well combined and there aren’t any lumps. Put breadcrumbs into small bowl. Holding by the stem, dunk pepper into batter. Coat thoroughly, let excess drip off and transfer to breadcrumbs. Press bread crumbs into batter.

Drop into hot oil. After a few seconds of cooking, flip and finish cooking the top.

Enjoy!

I pretty much only make chubble once a year; Christmas time. I give it away as presents and then it goes away for another year or two. I set aside a day and just go to town making about 12 loaves at once. It turns out that not everybody does a baking day, so I got a lot of questions after I posted the chubble recipe the first time about what to do if you don’t want to serve it that day.

Well, I really didn’t know. I could guess, but actual hands-on knowledge eluded me. I decided to change that. I basically ran through every iteration of bake/freeze/rise I could think of. Oddly enough, they all worked out pretty well. The results are listed below.

In order to not get bored, I decided to do a different variation, gruyere with the bacon, Marv makes and green onions. It was really good. You might want to try it. Enjoy!

Gruyere & Bacon Chubble Stuffs


7 – 8 oz Gruyere Cheese, grated
1/4 – 1/2 bacon (homemade, if you can get it), cut thick and cooked, reserving the grease
2 bunches green onions or equivalent scallions, sliced thin
1/3 c parmesan cheese
1 – 1/2 t kosher salt (depending on how salty your cheese is)
2 t garlic power
1 1/2 t dried basil
2 T bacon grease

Follow the recipe for chubble up to the point where you mix together the the stuffs then just substitute these ingredients and carry on as you were.

Chubble: Delayed Method

Option 1
Bring chubble up to the point where you put in in your baking dishes to do the second rise. Place in a food safe plastic bag and let it rise in the refrigerator over night or up to 3 days.

Option 2
Bring chubble through the second rise and bake for 20 – 25 minutes. (When it’s solidly set up it’s done.) Remove from oven and cool. Put into freezer bag and freeze. Leave in the freezer up to 3 weeks. (The texture isn’t as good if you leave it in longer, but you can.)

When you’re ready to cook, heat oven to 425°f. Cook for 10 – 12 minutes. (Bread should be browned and sound hollow when you knock on it.)

Option 3
This is the weakest option. Before or directly after the second rise, put dough in freezer bag and place in freezer for up to 3 weeks. Defrost dough in refrigerator. If the bread hasn’t gone through the second rise, place it in a warm place to rise (it might not work but mine did.) For bread that’s gone through the second rise, preheat oven and cook as the chubble recipe directs.

I gotta say, poutine has never been my favorite thing. But I do not live somewhere that poutine is an art form. Around here you’re lucky if the fries are done and the cheese is warm. Don’t even get me started on the horrors of gravy from a box. Thus, I had to try myself. Go rogue. Make it on my own. The results: very… very…. tasty.

My first introduction to poutine wasn’t even poutine. I was in New York with a friend and we basically bounced from restaurant to restaurant for about an hour to find one that would seat us even though we weren’t interested in having a full meal. Finally we landed at a French bistro where we were treated to some amazing pommes frites with gravy. Oh, they were good. The gravy was so amazing, I wanted to buy a bucket of it to baptize myself.

So fries and gravy; good. But fries, gravy and cheese curds? Well, everything is better with cheese. (And I was told repeatedly tonight – bacon.) According to wikipedia poutine is, “a Quebec dish in which cheese curds are served layered on top of french fries, and melting under piping hot gravy.” The rest, is mechanics.

Mechanics are important. So, I decided to start with the best recipe for french fries that I know of even though I’ve never made them. They’re Emeril Lagasse’s Perfect Fries or something like that. They’re simple. They’re good. No argument from me. (I have rewritten the recipe for myself here because a) it’s not much of a recipe and b) it’s more fun to make a photo recipe.) The second part isn’t really rocket science either – buy some cheese curds – preferably of the “squeeky” variety.* The gravy is the big unknown. I had read that poutine gravy was supposed to be chicken gravy and I’d been wanting to see if you could make a good chicken gravy from grocery store chicken broth. And guess what? You actually can. Top off your meal with a pint and….

I say, get your bacchanal on and have yourself some poutine.

French Fries


These fries are a lengthy process – but most of it is waiting time not working time.

Cut 4 large russet potatoes cut into 1/4″ squared strips.

Submerge your potato strips into ice water and let sit in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour and up to overnight.

Put enough oil into a large pot to have enough to cover the fries but leaving 2″ (or more) at the top of the pan. (You want to go wide and deep here.) Heat oil to 325°f. Take the future fries out of the ice water and pat dry with paper towels or a clean dishtowel.

Dunk batches into the hot oil until they are pliable and won’t snap when you try to bend them. (This takes exactly 10 minutes for me.) Let rest for 15 minutes or more (up to 2 hours.)

Heat fryer oil to 350°f. Dunk fries (in small batches) into the oil until crispy (1 – 3 minutes.) Transfer from oil to a paper towel lined cooling rack. Salt to taste.

If you’re not eating these in poutine, then I recommend tossing them in a bit of finely grated Parmesan and a tiny bit of garlic salt.

Gravy

Hanne from Supper in Stereo has been conducting extensive poutine research and she advised me that the gravy must be piping hot. Looks piping hot to me!

1T olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
salt
2 T butter
2 T flour
4 c chicken broth
1/2 c white wine
1 t chicken bullion
1 t spike seasoning (or other pepper based dry seasoning)
1/2 cayenne pepper
salt to taste

Heat olive oil in a saute pan. Add in onions and sprinkle with salt. Cook until translucent. Add in butter. When butter is melted sprinkle in flour. When mixture begins to brown; whisk in 1 c chicken stock and stir until thickened. Add in 1/2 c of broth and stir until thickened. Keep adding in liquids and reducing in this method until you’re out of liquids. Add in spices and serve over fries and cheese curds.

* Cheese Curds

“It’s not a real cheese curd if you don’t hear the squeek.”

“What?”

“The cheese curd – has to make a sound like a wet finger on glass.”

“What in the hell is a cheese curd?”

Large eye roll, voice continuing with more irritation, “If you were from Wisconsin you would know these things. A cheese curd is a lump of cheese that comes fresh from cheese factories right after the cheese is made. If you don’t hear the squeak then it’s not a real cheese curd.”

Okie dokie then.

One more picture of what you could be having for dinner tonight:

Woo hoo!

It’s better than okay. It’s super easy to make, incredibly flavorful and versatile. I’ve been using it as a less fatty bacon, in salads, pasta, on sandwiches in soup. You don’t need very much to add flavor and interest in foods. Marv took 3lbs to work and watched it disappear. (He doesn’t really work with enough people for that to be reasonable.)

Tasso is made from pork shoulder butt. It’s brined for a week or so and then rubbed with a spice mixture that has cayanne and garlic in it and then smoked for a relatively short amount of time – 3 to 5 hours or so. But, I suspect there are as many ways to make this as there are people making it.

Tasso, the Recipe

10+ lbs pork butt roast

Brine
1 3/4 c Tender Quick
1 1/2 c brown sugar
1 T cayenne pepper
1 T black pepper
1 T ancho pepper
2 T onion powder
2 T garlic powder
1 gallon water

Rub
2 T ground mace
2 T garlic powder
2 T onion powder
1 T black pepper
1 T paprika
1 T chipotle powder
1 T dried sage
1 T dried thyme
2 T honey

Bone your pork butt if it’s not already boned. (Crikey, that’s a bad sentence.) Slice butt into large chunks 3″ x 3″ x however long the meat is. Combine all the brine ingredients and mix well. Put pork into a 2 gallon ziploc bag and pour the brine over it. Let it rest in your refrigerator for 5 days to a week.

Remove from refrigerator. Rinse and pat dry. Mix together rub ingredients and rub thoroughly. Hot smoke – 225°f – 250°f until internal temperature is 160°f – 165°f.

It will keep in your refrigerator for 1 – 2 weeks or you can freeze it for much longer.

Tasso Green Bean Salad

1 1/2 lb fresh green beans,
3/4 lb tasso, cut into thin strips 1″ in length or so
4 oz greyere, finely shredded

1/4 c wine vinegar
2 T olive oil
1 T lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, pressed
2 t mustard
pinch salt
pepper

Steam green beans until tender. While beans are steaming saute tasso until browned. Let both cool a bit. Combine the rest of the ingredients except for cheese. When cooled toss green beans, tasso, and vinigarette ingredients together. Toss in cheese and serve.

Tasso Sandwich

4 oz goat cheese, room temperature
1 t garlic powder
fresh basil, julienned
pinch salt
black pepper

tasso, thinly sliced
red pepper, roasted and sliced
hard sandwich rolls or french bread
olive oil

Mix together cheese with spices. Scoop out the insides of the rolls and feed them to my sister. Brush on a bit of olive oil and toast lightly on a griddle. Spread goat cheese mixture on the top bun and place tasso and red pepper on the bottom. Close sandwich and enjoy.

Missed Turn Stew

This is a recipe I already posted, but I made it with tasso rather that pork loin.