|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The recipes that follow is from my recently published cookbook, “A Cook’s Table” Food and Wine Together (co-authored with Todd Wernstrom). The recipes are designed to lean against a specific grape varietal. And each Recipe will suggest a wine profile to compliment the dish… I have always labelled my style of cooking as wine friendly. And it was clear that each chapter in the book should be headlined by a grape varietal. So, enjoy classical as well as new dishes, that have, and will stand the test of time. They allow the wines to show what is best and most compelling about them rather that overwhelm what is in your glass.
For a deeper look, find, “A Cook’s Table” respectively at Amazon.com www.barnesandnoble.com and at Two Chefs Restaurant. I urge you to find a proper glass, dig out your favorite pot or pan, Start slicing and dicing and enjoy.
Jan Jorgensen
Curried Oyster Stew
Serves 6
This dish can be served soupy or more hearty and stew-like on top of rice. It always reminds me that bubbles and curry are a great match, especially when the main event is oysters. The oysters are easy in this case because they are simply added at the end.
Curries deserve their own chapter, of course. Mine are perhaps more perfumy than many non-Western versions, each reflecting its particular place of origin. The spicy part of any curry—chilies—can be adjusted to taste.
I prefer a pasty curry versus a dry, powdery one. The main “perfume” in curries, cardamom, is extremely aromatic, and works well in the company of celery, apples, mango, pineapple, coconut, plum and pear. Find your favorite curry in the Asian section in grocery stores, ethnic specialty stores in your neighborhood or online.
Stew mise en place:
36 large oysters, shucked
1 onion, peeled and cut into brunoise
1/4 cup pancetta, finely diced
1/4 cup of curry paste
2 apples, firm and tart, Granny Smith, if available, cut into 1/8-inch dice
2 celery stalks, cut into brunoise
6 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
bouquet garni (add 1 cinnamon stick)
2 cups unsweetened coconut milk
1 cup tomato concasse
1 cup heavy cream
1 soup spoon of honey
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
In a saucepan, sauté the onion and garlic with the pancetta, but do not let it brown. Add the curry paste and celery and let the curry “toast” with the onion mixture for about 2 minutes. Add apples, and a minute later, coconut milk and bouquet garni. Bring to a simmer, let cook for 5 minutes, then add tomatoes.
Season with salt and pepper. Add heavy cream and honey and simmer for 2 minutes, then taste again. Add oysters, stir, skimming off any foam, then turn off heat and add cilantro.
Serve as a soup or on top of rice for a more filling dish.
Kitchen Wisdom:
Watch for salt when seasoning as the oysters will add some when added to the dish.
What to drink:
This recipe is a daunting mix of flavors, aromas and textures from a wine-pairing perspective. Ordinarily, the default choice with oysters in pretty much any guise is a non-Rosé sparkler but here Rosé works best because of the high level of fruit in the dish. I would lean toward a NV version because they typically show more fruit than the “fancier” and more expensive—not that any Rosé Champagne is cheap—bottles. The wine’s fruit-forward profile would be a nice complement to the dish’s complexity. As an alternative that is still in the fruit-forward vein, a NV Blanc de Noirs would be a bit more subtle match.
Boeuf Sauté Stroganoff
Serves 6
A dish that many know, but probably haven’t tasted properly executed. It is a dish that was esteemed back when I was apprenticed. It is more than simply a beef stew because of the sautéed beef tenderloin. It dates to 1860s Russia or at least that seems to be the timeframe in which it first appeared in a cookbook. That recipe calls for sufficient mustard to be used so that pungent flavor is apparent. Onions and mushrooms are not a part of the dish as we know it today, but I think they are good additions. They were introduced around 1912. Count Alexander Stroganoff (a famous Russian general) devised the dish for a cooking competition, and hence, the name of the dish. It has been very popular since. A more interesting origin story is that his French chef developed it for him because he had soft teeth. Either way, it certainly stands the test of time.
Ingredients:
2 lb. beef tenderloin tips, cut into strips (1 inch x 1/8 inch)
2 cups fresh tomato meat, skinned and seeded
6 cups sliced cremini mushrooms
3 cups sliced shallots
6 cups intense veal stock
1 cup crème fraîche
generous splash of Cognac
1/2 bunch parsley, roughly chopped
salt and pepper
olive oil
A large frying pan is needed. This dish comes together quickly, so make sure that your ingredients are prepped and ready to go. All components are cooked individually first and then combined at the end. It is very important not to overcook the tenderloin. Medium rare would be optimal as the dish will continue to cook while being served. Turn on your exhaust fan, if you have one.
Heat the pan on the stove until very hot, divide the beef tenderloin tips into 3 batches, season each one with salt and pepper right before cooking. Add olive oil to the hot pan, and with a slotted spoon arrange the meat in the pan. Brown the meat quickly at high heat for about 10 seconds. Cook each batch separately so as not to crowd the pan and cause the meat to steam. Remove the meat using the slotted spoon and put into the serving dish. Repeat this process with the remaining batches of meat.
Add a little more olive oil to the pan, if needed, then add the shallots and sauté until golden brown over medium to high heat. Remove onions from the pan with a slotted spoon and keep them in the dish they were in prior to cooking. Add a splash of olive oil to the pan and then the mushrooms. Sauté until golden brown as well. Leaving the mushrooms in the pan, deglaze with the Cognac. With a slotted spoon, place the mushrooms back into the dish where they were first held.
Add the veal stock to the pan and reduce the 6 cups of stock into 3 cups (this should take about 20 minutes). Add the mushrooms and shallots back into the pan. Bring the dish to a boil and season, if needed. Add the meat along with the tomato meat and crème fraîche but do not let the mixture boil once added (reduce heat, if needed). Ladle the pan’s contents into individual serving dishes, sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve immediately.
Escoffier suggests sprinkling the dish with croutons as well, which is a good idea in my opinion, because they will absorb some of the sauce, becoming almost candy-like. Traditionally, the dish is served with buttered noodles, mashed potatoes or fried potato strips.
Kitchen Wisdom:
Don’t overcook the meat when starting the dish. Residual heat will mean that it will continue to gently cook after the sauté. If it seems like the meat is a tad underdone, all will be well in the end, so resist the urge to continue cooking for even seconds more.
What to drink:
The crème fraîche, reduced veal stock and meat juices make for a silky, rich sauce that would be best countered by a somewhat earthier, almost lean Pinot. A Côte de Nuits would provide the necessary backbone to temper the luxuriousness of this dish. As an alternative, any cool-climate Pinot would work as well, “cool” being relative in the New World.
Farm Girl with Veil
Serves 6
A very interesting name for a dish. We “met” each other in 2005 when I was writing a menu for a dinner I was cooking for a cruise ship. The particular cruise was titled “Top of the World.” Given my Danish heritage, I was definitely qualified for the task in light of my country’s very northern border which is virtually at the top of the earth. It was served the evening the ship reached the ice cap located about as close as one can get to Santa’s Workshop!
Denmark has some of the best apple orchards in the world, and seemingly every Danish household with enough space in the yard has at least one tree. It is said that the recipe originates in France, which is certainly possible, but the use of pumpernickel points toward a more northern origin. I have made it many times since this trip. The pumpernickel is the most interesting feature, I think, because most apple-oriented cakes employ graham crackers.
Ingredients:
2 lb fairly tart apples like Granny Smith (not over ripe)
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
3 cups of pumpernickel crumble
1 cup dark brown sugar (muscovado sugar if it can be found )
1 stick of butter
1 1/2 cups heavy cream, whipped
1 cinnamon stick
Pumpernickel crumble:
Slice and dry about 2 pounds of pumpernickel bread. Finely grind the dry bread in a blender. Some pumpernickels are made with nuts, raisins and the like; use ones without too many additions.
Cut apples into wedges and remove seeds (no need to peel them). In a small pot, combine them with the water, sugar and cinnamon stick, and cook until tender but not mushy, about 8 minutes. Remove cinnamon and set aside.
Melt the butter and brown sugar in a sauté pan, add the pumpernickel crumble and sauté until the bread takes on a crisp texture. Set aside.
Layer the pumpernickel mixture with the apple mixture in individual ring molds, starting and finishing with pumpernickel. Alternatively, you could layer a 10-inch baking dish the same way.
Bake for about 10 minutes at 300. Serve warm, with a generous dollop of whipped cream on top. The whipped cream will melt slightly, hence the “veil.”
Kitchen Wisdom:
When making the apple compote, make sure it’s tight and fairly dry, not wet, runny or mushy.
What to drink:
This one seems ideal to match with a tawny because of all the brown and black bits in the recipe. Any style will do except the entry level one. Those resemble Ruby Ports more than they do tawnies so you’ll need to step up at least to a Ten Year Old.
If it all goes wrong. Make a reservation.
305-663-2100
Two Chefs Restaurant
8287 South Dixie Highway, Miami
ABOUT US:
For more Miami community news, look no further than Miami Community Newspapers. This Miami online group of newspapers covers a variety of topics about the local community and beyond. Miami’s Community Newspapers offers daily news, online resources, podcasts and other multimedia content to keep readers informed. With topics ranging from local news to community events, Miami’s Community Newspapers is the ideal source for staying up to date with the latest news and happenings in the area.
This family-owned media company publishes more than a dozen neighborhood publications, magazines, special sections on their websites, newsletters, as well as distributing them in print throughout Miami Dade County from Aventura, Sunny Isles Beach, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Brickell, Coconut Grove, Pinecrest, South Miami, Kendall, Palmetto Bay, Cutler Bay and Homestead. Each online publication and print editions provide comprehensive coverage of local news, events, business updates, lifestyle features, and local initiatives within its respective community.
Additionally, the newspaper has exclusive Miami community podcasts, providing listeners with an in-depth look into Miami’s culture. Whether you’re looking for local Miami news, or podcasts, Miami’s Community Newspapers has you covered. For more information, be sure to check out: https://communitynewspapers.com.
If you have any questions, feel free to email Michael@communitynewspapers.com or Grant@communitynewspapers.com.
