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

(See! We’ve been making things like smoked brisket – I just haven’t been writing about them.)

Spring has finally hit our little corner of the tundra. (Yea!) So, now we get to go out and get things that were grown here and cook them up. To that end I invited a special guest, Michelle Licata, a chef and teacher who shares her philosophy of good food and healthy eating with her eight-week wellness program, “Inspired Wellness,” upcoming cookbook, “Olives and Pearls,” and classes around Minneapolis.

This particular event happened almost a month ago, so there was very little available at the farmers market for us. But, what there wasn’t in variety, there was in flavor. Everything was beautifully fresh. We had chicken, trout, eggs, radishes, greens, grains and amazing artisnal sheep’s milk blue and fresh cheese. So we were forced to make due with just that. (Can I get any pity out there? Hm. No, eh?)

Alright, fine. The food was excellent. Michelle was an amazing and vibrant guide through a world of fresh and healthful eating choices. If you ever have the opportunity to take a class from her, I’d highly recommend it and I think anyone who was with me would as well.

Michele dazzling us with her charm and knowledge.

Linda starts to work on the roasted chicken.  She decided on butterflying the chicken and dousing it with a mixture of olive oil, fresh squeezed lemon juice with thyme, salt and pepper. 

Naomi is getting instruction while working on the radishes.  (I think.)

Michele overseeing the risotto.

Ah, the fritatta needs some seasoning.

Meeting over the trout.  Turns out the trout wants to be dipped in beaten egg, rolled in some panko and spices and then baked until done.

Michelle wokrs on panko/trout construction.

Frittata construction.  Oh yes.

Linda carves up her chicken.

The finished frittata.  (It was as good as it looks.)

‘

This salad of greens, arugula, radish and northern lights blue cheese is good, but not quite done.  It needs a vinegarette.

Ava looks on.

Michele demonstrates how to drizzle in the appropriate amount of olive oil for the emulsion of a proper vinegarette to take place.

Trout breaded in Panko & Herbs with Honey Dipping Sauce

trout, cut into bite sized pieces
1 egg, wisked
pinch of salt
1/2 t ginger

sauce
2 T honey
1 T white wine
1 t sirracha
pinch salt

Preheat oven to 375°f;.

Whisk egg in a bowl. Place panko, salt and ginger in another bowl. Take pieces of trout douse them completely in egg and then coat in panko. Place on a baking sheet.

Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 12 – 15 minutes or until fish feels firm.

While fish is cooking bring dipping sauce together over low-ish heat.

Serve fish with sauce.

Fritatta 

4 radishes, sliced thinly
radish greens, ripped
1 T butter
6 oz fresh cheese
6 eggs
3 T cream
1/4 parmesan
oregano
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 375°f.

Saute radish in 1 T of butter over medium high heat until translucent. Toss into frittata dishes with greens and cheese.

Whisk together eggs, cream parmesan and spices and pour over radish stuffs. Put onto a cookie sheet and bake for 45 to 60 minutes. Frittata is set when you press on the middle and it fights back.

Quinoua & Lentil Salad

Quinoua is not an ingredient that I’ve done much with – but as Michele pointed out it’s very easy, light and nutritious.

1 c quinoua
1 c water
salt

1/2 c lentils
1 1/2 c water
1 t salt
1 sprig rosemary
1 sprig thyme

juice of 1 lemon
1T honey
1Tmustard
salt to taste

Boil quinoua in water until done. Boil lentils in water with sprigs until done.

Put both into bowls and add in lemon, honey, mustard and salt to taste. Serve. People will be happy.

Lemon Thyme Roasted Chicken

1 chicken

juice from one lemon
2 T olive oil
2 t thyme
1 t salt
1 t pepper

Preheat oven to 400 °f

Butterfly chicken by cutting out the backbone and bending the chicken so that it is flat, breast side up. Put into baking pan.

Whisk together the rest of the ingredients and liberally cover the chicken. Put into oven and cook until chicken is browned and reads 160°f on a quick read thermometer. Cover and let sit until it comes up to 165°f. It will be perfect. Enjoy!

While this shot makes me feel like I should document this cooking process in a way that would continue on fellow MCAD alum Brian Lesteberg’s hunting series I’d really rather document the life span or mating habits of pie. (Wouldn’t it be awesome if pie did mate? Then you have all these mini pies running around to track and devour! Oh, I’d be one happy girl! “If it’s pie, it dies.”*)

The first thing that must be done with the venison is a simple braising. Braising, if you’re not already aware is cooking a tough piece of meat in some form of liquid over low heat slowly until the collagen and tough bits give up the fight and decide to become tasty. Venison doesn’t really have tough bits, but it’s very low fat, so braising will keep the moisture up for a lovely tender meal. Serve it and it’s juices over crack sma’ters (smashed potatoes with Gorgonzola cheese melted in) or some polenta. It’s yummy, doesn’t take much hands on time and it makes excellent use of the meat left on your doorstep.

Braised Venison

2+ lbs venison
olive oil
2 onions, divided one coarsely chopped, one sliced
2 carrots, peeled and cut into rounds
1 head garlic, roasted and cut in half through the widest part
1 bottle fruity red wine
8 oz brown mushrooms, sliced
salt & pepper

1 recipe crack sma’ters

Preheat oven to 300 °f.

Cut venison into 8 – 12oz chunks. Heat olive oil in braising pan until it’s shimmering. Add in venison chunks and sear on all sides (or as many as possible.) Add in carrots and coarsely chopped onions. Place garlic face down in the pan. Cover and let cook over heat for a couple of minutes. Pour wine in until it comes 1/3 of the way up the meat. Cook for 1 hour.

Remove from oven, stir a bit, add in the rest of the onion and mushrooms, turn meat and replenish wine if necessary. Cover and let cook for another 45 minutes to an hour. Meat is done when it’s very tender. If the gravy isn’t thick enough when you consider the meat done, transfer meat, mushrooms and onion slices to another dish and cover. (Throw away garlic.) Place braising pan on stove and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until gravy reaches your desired consistency. Add in a table spoon of butter, if you want to add in a little extra richness.

Serve gravy over crack sma’ters topped with venison, mushrooms and onions.

* I’ve lived in this part of the country for quite awhile now and I’m still startled by some aspects of the hunting culture, namely a guy sitting behind us in a cafe during breakfast who kept slamming his fist down on the table and yelling, “If it flies it dies! If it flies it dies!” It is possible he’s not a shining example of the hunting community as perhaps he just wasn’t very bright.

(But this is all local! And very, very yum.)

When I go to a new country or even a new state, I can’t wait to check out the local markets or grocery stores. I love wandering up and down the aisles seeing what the people eat. Oh, seeing what the people eat! Sometimes those things are a little scary other times they’re pretty awesome. (And do not even get me started on the loveliness of produce in Texas. It is so beautiful.) In Minneapolis, I love, love, love going to Latin, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Mediterranean and international markets. I feel like it enriches my life so much to learn about other cultures through their food. If you know what people eat, then you know what they value and invariably they value sitting down and sharing a meal with the people they love. Really, isn’t that all where we live?

So, while I have to admit that the eat local movement sounds vaguely racist to me, (I just keep thinking about the large number of immigrants that live by me and how they would be cut off from the foods of their culture) – there is a large part of it that is completely pragmatic and that I totally support. The product tastes better. Produce and many meats don’t age well and cutting down on the amount of time spent in transport is always good for the end result. Anyone who has eaten a tomato fresh from the vine can tell you that. Also I really like that I’ve gotten to know several producers in Minnesota. I love what they have to say about producing their products and absolutely I support their efforts.

Therefore, I am celebrating by making foods that highlight Minnesota products. For them that don’t know; damn near everything is grown in Minnesota. I’ve made soup to go with a couple of Minnesota made beers that are near and dear to my heart. The soup is a corn chowder with wild rice, wild mushrooms, Marv made bacon and a single red pepper (sorry red pepper producers.)

I gotta say, I love the results. The beers are Brau Brother’s Scotch Ale and Summit’s Oktoberfest. They’re both so warm and deep and lovely. Really, when paired with a pre-fall feast of bright veggies mixed with earthy wild rice swimming in a nice creamy base – what’s not to love? (Oh, and by the way, dessert is highly questionable; apple pie with wasabi ice cream.)

Minnesota Corn Chowder

4 ears corn, smoked or roasted
1 red pepper, smoked or roasted
2 oz wild mushrooms
1 c wild rice, cooked in water & broth
3 – 4 oz bacon
4 c milk (if you use skim milk – smoke another ear corn & blend more of the corn into it)
1 – 2 T brandy
(up to) 2 T butter or olive oil
2 T flour
1 lg clove garlic, thinly sliced
pepper
salt to taste

Cook bacon in a cold pan. When bacon shrivels on one side flip them over and cook until totally shrivelled. Take bacon out of the pan and drain on paper towel. Add butter to the bacon fat if necessary – you need about 2 T of fat total. Sprinkle flour onto fat and add in garlic slices. Add in pepper. Cook until deep brown. Add in milk, bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Add in 1/4 of the corn. Blend with a stick blender or transfer some of the milk mixture to a blender and blend the corn in. Transfer back to the soup pan. Add in the rest of the corn. Add in the red pepper and bacon sliced into smallish pieces. Add in wild rice.

Heat 1 t of olive oil, add in quartered mushrooms. Saute until softened. Add in brandy and saute until brandy is cooked in. Add mushrooms into soup pan. Cover pan and simmer over low heat for 10 – 20 minutes. Serve with the finest in Minnesota beer. (Oh frickin’ yum!)

One thing led to another and soon I was designing and programming a website for Minnesota Cooks. This seemed like a good project for me to work on as I’m working on starting a business (Yours4Food.com) that specializes in web strategy/design/programming/content development for folks in the food, nutrition and health industries.

Superior fisherman, Steve Dahl. (I did a bit of photography too.)

Minnesota Cooks is a joint project between Renewing the Countryside (the fine folks that bring you Green Routes), Food Alliance Midwest and Minnesota Farmers Union to highlight the relationships of chefs with local farmers/producers who supply them and to share their collaboration foods with the rest of us cooker types to make at home. Their main product for the year is a calendar that is filled with excellent photography, profiles on chefs and their producers as well as a recipe for each month. The calender coincides with an event at the Minnesota State Fair where they have demos given by chefs creating these recipes. So, I was charged with creating a website to support these activities. That’s just what I did.

Ta da! The 2006 chef page featuring Joan Ida, Nathalie Johnson, Scott Pampuch and JD Fratzke.

While we have some lofty goals for what this site can become – for the moment v.1 really is all about the chef – producer – home cook connection. The navigation of these relationships is the main story. Thus, the whole thing becomes a very simple framework to serve that purpose. The design itself is based on the calendar. The calendar’s primary focus is photography placed on a very stable grid system that hangs off of a large squareish image. I decided to use that to create a very simple, but more aggressive grid structure for the layout. I also decided to have more fun with the photos in that space. For the techie stuff – it’s php running on a mysql database with some flashity-flash for the intro.

Chef Graden flashes his pearly whites to the cheering crowd.

The web site was done by the time of the big event at the state fair. (Yea!) The event itself showcases the talents of 14 chefs representing excellent restaurants from around the state. The chefs create their dishes while chatting with hosts Brenda Langton, Scott Pampuch and Andrew Zimmern about their commitment to using the finest local ingredients and sustainability. On the eat local topic, Chef Scott Graden is quoted as saying, “If I can get fish from the guy that smells like fish, that’s pretty cool.” (To me he added, “Seriously, he reeks of fish. I love that.”)

Herring cakes courtesy of the efforts of Graden & Dahl.

One recurring subject at the event was the farms and orchards damaged by the recent floods in southern MN. Scott Pampuch of Corner Table and JD Fratzke of Muffuletta are involved in organizing an September 8 restaurant event where profits will be donated to the Winona County Red Cross and others for relief efforts. JD also spoke very eloquently about need for more help in those areas. Needless to say organizations there are overwhelmed with requests and the federal aid isn’t nearly adequate. He suggested getting together cleanup supplies (buckets, boots and cleansers) and basic living items (batteries, toilet paper and plastic totes) and taking them to the Winona Econo Food Location Donation Coordinator between the hours of 9am and 7pm. For more information there are hotlines, call: 507-457-8858 or 507-457-8859.

So, to sum up:
:: Winona County Red Cross
:: More help information
:: September 8 fund raiser participating restaurants

:: Find out more about the farms affected
:: Get your MN Cooks calendar ($10)
:: Check out some more of my photos of the MN State Fair, Duluth and Graden & Dahl

Help stuff:
Red Cross Twin Cities
Memorial Blood Centers

Photo stuff:
Photos by Noah Kunin
And them Harkni
And a Wetzel

Last weekend was what is quickly becoming one of my favorite annual events, the Hotdish Revolution of Northeast Minneapolis. Mrs. Marv expressed it’s sublime glory it way better than I could, so ditto what she said, and then some! This time around I set my sights on the Spicy category, which in the rules is described as being anything for those who consider salt and pepper spicy, and came up with this little number. It’s a smoky-sweet Southwestern inspired dish that gets its punch from a liberal dousing of mole sauce.

I messed around trying to make my own mole sauce, but realized fast that’s a project for another day. You could easily spend years perfecting one. In the end I gave up and reached into the cupboard for a jar, and that’s really the spirit of hotdish, right? Slop together can of this and a can of that for quick, no fuss, crowd pleasing tastiness. Viva la Revolution!

Plato Caliente

Any bbq meat will do for this recipe, be it pulled pork, beef brisket, or even chicken. What’s important is that it’s either shredded, chopped or pulled so that it can soak up the full flavors of the mole sauce. When I made this I smoked my own brisket ( 3.3 lbs. pre-cooking), which is an afternoon-long process that’s probably too much to get into here, but if you’re up for it, there are a number of sites online with instructions on smoking meat. The smoke ring is a good place to start and has recipes, chat rooms, and all kinds of folks who’ll help you do it like the pros.

That pink ring you see around the outside of the brisket you get it from smoking and is pure flavor. Look for it if you’re buying pre-cooked meat from a bbq joint or some such place.

If you are using your own bbq’ed meat you may want to consider baking the dish for 2 hours. It will help soften the meat up, especially brisket, and will allow the flavors of the meat and sauce to fully intergrate.

1.5lb cooked bbq beef or pulled pork.
12 oz. Trader Joe’s Red Mole Sauce
1/2 medium red onion, sliced
1-3 (or more) jalapeno peppers, diced
8 oz. queso fresco
15 oz. canned black beans
15 oz. canned hominy
1 handful of chopped cilantro
cornbread, baked

1. Combine the meat, mole sauce, onion, cilantro, beans, hominy, peppers and half of the queso fresco in a large mixing bowl and pour into a of a 9×13 cassarole dish.

Meat, sauce and veggies. This is how you want it, nice and sloppy.

2. Cover and bake in a 250° oven for 1 hr.

3. Remove form the oven and crumble the rest of the queso fresco over it. Crumble the cornbread over the top, put it all back in the oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese and serve.

Hotdish aftermath

Prize or no prize, this is hands down the best community event I’ve ever participated in. It is the perfect mixture of honoring the blue collar roots of the neighborhood while poking fun at their (lack of?) culinary taste. Hotdish is what it is. It’s a staple of funerals and church fundraisers, the thing that you bring to the table when you need something easy, economical and easily re-heatable. For some people (I am not one of them) it is the ultimate comfort food.

Most varieties of hotdish are 1 starch + 1 meat + 1 veg + 1 binder. The most popular of which are the tater tot hotdish (hamburger + corn + cream of mushroom soup, (also known as “Lutheran binder”) + tater tots) and tuna hotdish (tuna + peas + Lutheran binder + potato chips.) This lack of culinary excellence may be why one of the organizers, sitting at our table, marveled at how the annual event had caught on over it’s 3 year history. He said when they came up with the idea for the event, they were dubious that it was a good idea but they decided to give it a go anyway.

It was a good idea, in part because you would be hard pressed to find the traditional hotdishes at the competition. There is one category (“Tater Tot Excellence”) where one can find them, but not in the others (Spicy, Vegetarian, I Made It! (for cooks under 16) or Darn Good.) All you do is bring your hotdish, get a number, line your entry up under the corresponding sign and prepare to be judged by neighborhood celebrities, including actual high school lunch ladies. Once the judging is complete, the eat-a-thon begins.

The guy sitting next to me displays some serious plating prowess.

The most surprising aspect of this competition is how good many of entries are. When you’re eating food made by completely random strangers, you don’t really expect it to be good. Of course, this is a large part of the fun. There are a lot of sly looks with people whispering, “What do you think that is,” to each other as they poke at dishes they find less than obvious. Even if you can’t tell what they are, there are a lot of them. I was #59 and there were plenty of people who came after me so I’d guess that there were at least 80 different kinds of hotdish there. Oddly, not really knowing what in the H-E-double-hockey-sticks you are eating – is a lot of fun.

My hotdish was entered in the Vegetarian category. It was a toss up between that and Darn Good – but Darn Good came with the requisite that it didn’t fit in any of the other categories and mine did fit into vegetarian. It’s baked french toast stuffed with fruit and cream cheese. It’s really good. Fellow contestant (and former first place prize holder), Jeff Harkness, has also shared his recipe (judged in the Spicy category) for ¡Plato Caliente!, smoked brisket and beans in mole sauce topped with crumbled corn bread. There is also the tater tot hotdish I made last year with steak in a cheddar & blue cheese sauce. So, join in the fun – cook up a few of our hotdishes or invent your own. Invite a bunch of people over, judge and eat. You’ll be surprised how entertaining it is.

Darn Peachy Hotdish

2 T butter, melted
1 1/2 loaf Hawaiian bread or other egg bread, cubed into approx 1″ cubes and left to dry out for a day or two

1 c packed brown sugar
1/2 c butter
1 T water
1 T vanilla

1 10 oz bag sliced frozen peaches, thawed*
1 10 oz bag frozen blueberries, thawed*

6 oz cream cheese, softened**
1/4 c powdered sugar + more for decoration

5 eggs
1/2 c cream or whole milk
1 T vanilla extract
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg

This first step isn’t totally necessary, but I found making croutons out of half the bread helped them to keeps some crunch after everything else was poured on them. Preheat the oven to 450°f. Pour butter evenly in a 13 x 9 baking pan, sprinkle some cinnamon over the butter. Toss half the bread in and toss gently with a spatula. Put in the oven and bake until golden brown, tossing every five minutes or less to make sure they bake evenly. This should take about 20 minutes.

In a sauté pan, melt butter stir in brown sugar, water and vanilla. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes stirring often.

Cover these… with this.
Cover 9 x 13 glass baking dish (or ramekins – if you want individual portions) with croutons. Drizzle brown sugar mixture evenly over the croutons. Spread on a layer of peaches and a layer of blueberries over the croutons. Whip cream cheese together with powdered sugar. Place dollops of it onto the peaches. Cover with the rest of the bread. Using an electric mixer, whip the crap out of the eggs, cream, vanilla and cinnamon, gently pour evenly over bread. Refrigerate for 3 hours – up to overnight.

I suspect you could do pound cake croutons instead and make mighty nice parfaits by stopping at this point.

Preheat oven to 350°f. Bake for 40 minutes or until the egg mixture is cooked through. If the bread starts getting too brown cover loosely with aluminum foil. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

*I did make this with fresh fruit over the summer. I used a pint of blueberries and 4 medium peaches with skins removed. It was really good.

**You could also use yogurt that’s been drained for 24 hours.

We (myself and the good folks I recruited to eat with me) had been told that the-best-BBQ-in-the-state-bar-none was at Roscoe’s in Rochester. We went. We ate. We were underwhelmed. The bottom line: the people know how to cook the meat – which was exactly what it took to make us crave the full-on sweet and smokey flavor of some quality Q. The flavor just wasn’t there. We were sad.

The most interesting feature of the site was the cooker seemingly connecting the shack to the house next door.

We pulled up on the original Roscoe’s on 4th Street. It’s a bright, shiny, orange and white striped shack surrounded by picnic tables in an open parking lot. The sun was shining, we were hungry and there were slow cooked meat products to be had. Here’s how it shook down:

Really good: Baked Beans and Garlic Bread

Action shot of beans and garlic bread sitting there being tasty.

The baked beans were very well done. They were sweet with a nice molasses/tomato flavor that was tempered by savory chunks of jalapeno pepper, onion and pulled pork. They made the corps happy.

The garlic bread was also very nicely done. It had the perfect amount of butter to be nice and buttery but not greasy. It was also crisp and browned on the outside and soft and flaky on the inside.

Good: The Meat (Ribs, Chicken, Beef and Pork)

Action shot of shiny ribs with JoJo potatoes peaking out from underneath.

The ribs, chicken and pork were perfectly cooked. The ribs had an excellent mouth feel; tender but firm, came away from the bone easily without falling off in a heap. The chicken was also cooked to perfection; nice and juicy but fully cooked. The only problem with it was that the skin was a bit odd. The pork was very nicely done and went well with the sauce. The beef was a bit overcooked.

The biggest problem was the lack of flavor. Granted, I’m a little crazed for the smell and taste of smoked meat. Hell, when Marv is about half way through smoking a brisket I have a tendency to start burying my head in his chest and inhaling deeply. (I can tell this is incredibly attractive from the way that he starts running from me with his arms flailing about yelling, “stop sniffing me! STOP SNIFFING ME!”) So, when I have the opportunity to eat some really nicely slow cooked meat and there is no smoke flavor – it’s like Christmas without the yelling. It just ain’t right. Then to make matters worse, they really didn’t add any other spice to enhance the flavor of the meat, to fill in for the missing smoke. It was a shame. What could have been awesome, ended up being just good.

Fine: The Sauce, Slaw and Onion Rings
For me, the sauce was too sweet. I think sauce needs to work well with the flavor of the meat – which it didn’t. It needed to be more savory because the meat didn’t have much flavor so dunking it into a sweet sauce just left you with a sugary taste rather than a nice balance of contrasting tastes. Marv’s reaction was that it was, “… too tart which lends it’s self well to pulled pork but not much else. It needs to be more well balanced to work with the different meats.” He Harkni had a different view. He liked it, saying, “as far as sauce goes, I have a hard time calling one style better than another, personal taste is the biggest factor. What I care more about is if it seems to have been made with good ingredients and a little bit of thought, which theirs did.” Sauce is clearly in the mouth of the beholder.

The slaw was pretty run of the mill slaw. Nothing special about it. Nothing bad about it. It just was. Ditto on the onion rings.

Bad: The JoJo Potatoes and the Chocolate Chip Shake
Gosh, those potatoes were bad. It was really unfortunate. They could have been good. A JoJo potato seems to be a cross between potato chips and fries. The problem was that they weren’t really fried or baked well. They were stuck together in clumps. There was no crispiness. In addition to that, there were no spices added. A sprinkling of chili powder mixed with garlic salt and a bit of Parmesan would have done wonders. Yeah, that would have been good.

The shake brought frowns to the faces of the corps. I suspect that the corp who ordered it was thinking she’d get something pretty special passed through the window of the former A&W drive in. But alas, it was just watered down soft serve. It got thrown out.

Extra: Pulled Pork Sandwich

We also tried the meat in a sandwich; pulled pork. It was the right meat for the sauce. The bun was good, fresh, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. It would have been enjoyed more if the bun had been toasted, but this is the picking of nits. (I also think it could have used a thin slice of cheese, but that’s just me.)

In Conclusion
While Roscoe’s doesn’t have the best BBQ in Minnesota as far as the corps is concerned, it’s definitely worth looking up if you happen to be passing near or through Rochester. We just wouldn’t drive for more than a half hour to try it out. (Although, those beans were really good, so maybe if you’re a big fan of beans. And if they get that smoke thing going – we’d definitely be back to check it out.) Nonetheless, you will get a good meal here. The site was cheerful and had the owner operated charm that is quickly disappearing in America, the service was quick and friendly and the natives don’t bite. There are far worse ways to spend your lunchtime.

Pics:
Art Shanties by Jeff Harkness