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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 Barnes&Noble.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.
POTATO RÖSTI, OSETRA CAVIAR
Serves 6
Rösti originated in Switzerland, and while simple to make, it’s extremely rewarding when done correctly. The dish was probably created by mistake or with the idea of using already cooked potatoes, left over from a previous meal. The cooked potatoes are simply grated, shaped and fried. I like to add a little bacon and onion to the dish, and in this recipe, caviar as a luxurious garnish.
At first glance, you might say that this is just a potato pancake of sorts and hardly revolutionary. Depending on where you’re from, “potato pancake” can mean latkes, strata or galette. This is all true but I like rösti because the potato is cooked twice, where most other versions will start with raw potato, grated or cut thinly, then shaped and cooked.
Rosti:
● 2 lb. Yukon Gold Potatoes, boiled or baked the day before in their peel, kept cold
● 1 small onion peeled
● egg yolk (optional)
● olive oil, lard or duck fat for cooking
Peel the cooked potatoes, then with a box grater, grate the potatoes and onion into a bowl. Mix with your hands, squeezing the mixture together into a ball of dough. If the dough seems dry, add an egg yolk or two. In a non-stick skillet add a generous amount of lard, duck fat or oil and bring to medium heat.
On a cutting board, divide the dough into 2-ounce balls, or use a small cookie cutter or ring mold to measure the balls out. Flatten the dough balls with a spatula or shape them in a ring mold (about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and ⅛-inch thick). Using a spatula, arrange them in the skillet. Do not flip, touch or shake once the sauté is started. Allow them to sauté to a golden brown, then flip and brown on the reverse side.
Arrange them on a serving tray as an hors d’oeuvre or on a plate as a first course. Three per serving is perfect.
Garnish:
● 1 cup crème fraîche
● 1 cup finely chopped bacon, sautéed to a crisp, or sliced, crisped and chopped
● 1 celery stalk, chopped finely
● 1/4 cup parsley, chopped.
● 3 shallots peeled, chopped into a brunoise
I prefer Osetra when it comes to fish eggs. I find the species to be delicious as well as affordable but any good fish eggs will do. Let your budget be your guide.
On top of each rösti, place a dollop of crème fraîche, a small dollop of shallots, celery, then caviar and a sprinkle of parsley.
Kitchen Wisdom:
Season the rösti after they have been cooked. Doing so before will result in the salt pulling out moisture which can cause the rösti to crumble.
What to drink:
This is not only a rich dish, but starchy. Because of the bacon, I would lean toward any Champagne with lots of bottle age on it. The particular style, i.e., NV, Blanc de Blancs, etc., is less important than the aged notes that come with bottles that have been disgorged for at least two years—more is even better—which should nicely mimic the smoky and “oily” notes of the rosti. Rosé would work as well. Champagne’s inherent acidity can handle the fish eggs.
PAN ROASTED HALIBUT WITH POACHED OYSTERS AND CAVIAR
Halibut has to be the Rolls Royce of the ocean. My first encounter was at culinary school. The creature was monstrous, in fact huge, and I wasn’t even sure why the fisherman even kept it. I have seen many halibut filets since that day, and it has, unfortunately, become very expensive to work with on a regular basis. Because of its size (not even close to a flounder, sole or other flatfish), it works well in a traditional pan roast. This dish originates from a special lunch, and therefore the spurge on oysters and caviar. You can’t go wrong with briny oysters helped along by a heap of caviar.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
● olive oil
● 1/2 stick of butter
● salt and pepper
● 16 medium oysters (shucked with liquor reserved)
● 2 oz caviar (I suggest American Sturgeon)
● 4 6-oz halibut filets
● 1 cup white wine
● 1 cup chicken stock
● thyme florets
● 1/2 stick of butter
● chopped parsley
● 1 cup cooked fingerling potatoes, cut in a brunoise
Preheat a cast iron pan to medium high, add olive oil, then add the halibut to the pan and sauté the fish for 4-5 minutes until golden brown. Flip, add the butter to a corner of the pan, letting it froth. Spoon butter over the fish constantly for an additional 4-5 minutes, then remove from the pan and set aside.
Place the oysters in a small sauté pan with the juices (you might add a small splash of white wine if you’ve lost some of the liquid). Bring to a simmer, remove oysters, add white wine and chicken stock, reduce to about 1/4 cup, then strain the broth into a clean saucepan. Add fresh thyme and potatoes, and whisk in the remaining butter. Set aside until assembly.
To serve:
Place a piece of halibut on a serving plate, reheat oysters in sauce but only to a bare simmer, then place oysters around each filet of halibut. Ladle sauce around fish and oysters. Place a half ounce of caviar on top of each halibut piece and sprinkle with parsley. Serve immediately.
Kitchen Wisdom:
The initial heating of the oysters will allow you to start to build a good sauce. Soigné it as you cook.
What to drink:
While there is a lot of richness in this recipe thanks to all of the butter, a more interesting match than a rich Chardonnay would be a Chablis, particularly a Premier Cru, though a regular Chablis would work as well. Chablis loves oysters. That said, you certainly could go with a richer style Chardonnay, but I would suggest that you remain in France with a Côte de Beaune.
CARROT CAKE
Serves 8
Carrot cake, I think, deserves to be labeled a classic. That said, it also has many detractors in much the same way that German chocolate cake does. People tend to love or hate each of these two with very little shoulder shrugging in between. The use of the humble carrot, a root as opposed to some exotic flavor base, made it somewhat revolutionary when it was developed. That development is somewhat murky but the belief that it somehow evolved from pudding form, perhaps in the Middle Ages, seems plausible at least.
At Two Chefs, we started making them regularly as sort of an alternative dessert for those who felt that soufflés were too decadent and therefore, unhealthy. The irony, of course, is that other than the carrots themselves, there is little “healthy” about this luscious cake!
This version is for a loaf pan, but feel free to employ 6-oz ramekins or tube pan. Doing so makes for a nice single-serving presentation.
Ingredients:
● 4 eggs
● 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
● 2 cups sugar
● 2 tbsp vanilla extract
● 2 cups all purpose flour
● 2 teaspoons baking soda
● 2 teaspoons baking powder
● 1/2 teaspoon salt
● 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
● 3 cups grated carrots
● 1 cup chopped pecans
Preheat the oven to 325. Grease and flour a 9 x 13-inch loaf pan.
In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Fold in carrots, then the pecans. Pour into the prepared pan.
Bake in the oven for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar.
Kitchen Wisdom:
We like to serve the cake in individual portions, as referenced above. Doing so keeps them fresher longer. A brief visit to the microwave will bring them back to “life” before serving. If serving a larger gathering or as part of a buffet, choose a loaf or a tube pan
What to drink:
This version is interesting in that it doesn’t incorporate cream cheese for icing; in fact, it has no icing at all, which makes it much easier to match with wine. Cream cheese simply would have made it difficult to match with a sweet wine because the rule that the wine should be sweeter than the dessert would be hard to follow. Yes, this cake is sweet, but not so sweet that a Sauternes-style wine, from anywhere really, would not work quite nicely.
If it all goes wrong. Make a reservation.
305-663-2100
Two Chefs Restaurant
8287 South Dixie Highway, Mia
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