Toys in the 'Hood

Recently, I moved from my condo in Eastlake to a house in the U District. One of the best things about moving is exploring your new neighborhood and all that it has to offer. Lucky for me there's a surplus of good, cheap food and watering holes there.

My first venture out drinking was a stop at Die Bierstube on Roosevelt, a short walk from my new home. Naturally I was weary; after all, I just moved further away from the great Feierabend in South Lake Union, but I was confident that they'd have my favorite dunkel, or dark style of beer that is still very light. Not only did they have one (and a wheat dunkel to boot!!), but an intriguing concoction macerating in a large jar above the register that turned out to be a house-made "whiskey". While I wouldn't go as far as to call it a whiskey it was indeed tasty, and inspired the base of this week's cocktail special.

The jar was a little far for me to make out everything inside but I did notice golden raisins, so the next week at work I started a simple infusion with the raisins and vodka, leaving me a couple of weeks to figure out the rest until it was ready.

Since it's officially spring I wanted light and bright flavors for this, so I started by muddling fresh mint and ginger, added the golden raisin liqueur and topped it all off with a float of sparkling wine. I call it:

"The Raisinette"!

Since we're just on the other side of spring I get to showcase the best of both worlds - the deep earthiness of winter interwoven with the softness of spring. Some of my best dishes have come out of these intersections of inspiration, and I'm really happy with the way that this one came out.

For some reason I've been really fixated on the idea of a dish with fried brie lately, so I cut discs out of a wheel that I then coated with egg and panko breadcrumbs to be fried as a topping to say, a steak, so that the cheese oozes out when you cut into it like a broken yolk and coats the meat like a sauce.

I initially wanted to try out a buffalo flat iron steak from my specialty company, but when that turned up unavailable I had to scramble Tuesday morning before deciding on an interesting cut of beef called a top sirloin from just above the tenderloin, and I even found an Angus breed version that has more flavor and tenderness. I carefully cut the meat into thick portions that tend to naturally sway on the triangular shape, which made a good visual contrast to the circular brie.

For a vegetable I used some beautiful, locally grown rainbow chard, a green that has a variety of colored stems that also give the leafy vegetable good body even when finely shredded and sauteed in a little butter, onion and garlic.

To compliment the colors of the chard while countering the richness of the brie I roasted red and golden beets and peeled them before pureeing with red wine and champagne vinegar respectively along with a little sugar to give me a duo of sweet and sour sauces to balance the plate.   



With Love,

Cheffrey

Green with Envy

St. Patrick's Day is here on Thursday, though I don't think that many of you reading this will end up being dragged out of a bar by friends at the end of it, but I've been surprised before!!

For those of you who are looking for an alternative to puking up green beer, I have just the thing for you!

This week I'm continuing with my twists on the traditional corned beef and cabbage dish like the previous years while keeping with the spirit of the holiday.

For this year I wanted to do something unusual and create an interpretation of our own dish, the 219 Benedict, which is already a take on the classic by dicing the Canadian bacon and adding it to cooked, grated potatoes along with smoked gouda and scallions that we then top two with poached eggs and a creamy tomato and mushroom sauce.

The funny thing that people don't see about restaurants is the way we cooks snack on the food you enjoy, but in a different way. Take the Benedict for example: there's always an odd ball (literally) leftover that brunch chef Alejandro likes to deep fry for himself. This combination reminded me of corned beef hash, another item on our brunch menu, and the rest just fell into place.

Corned beef has nothing to do with corn; it actually refers to the kernel-sized salt that was once used to cure beef brisket. I used to make our own, but due to a shortage of refrigeration I couldn't just let forty pounds of beef cure in there for a week at a time, so we started buying it made locally by our sausage company, Cascioppo Brothers, which may not be as good as mine (hehehe), but it's pretty damn good.

After a long, slow cook in just enough water to help the meat stay moist it's left to cool overnight so that it's firm enough to dice finely. Meanwhile, I simmered peeled, whole potatoes until just done and allowed them to cool completely before grating them by hand and tossing in chopped scallions, eggs and the corned beef. I shaped them into three, three ounce eggs.

Why eggs? Why not!!

You can't have corned beef and cabbage without the cabbage, but I really don't like the time it takes to braise traditional white cabbage, let alone the stinky sulfur it can give off, so I went with a new favorite: napa cabbage sauteed in butter, onions and garlic, yellow and black mustard seeds and chopped parsley. Perfect.

I also prefer a little nice mustard to go with my CB&C, plus the dish needed some moisture in form of a sauce, so I simmered a stock with the usual suspects: parsley stems, bay leaves, onion, garlic and peppercorns to name a few, and then I added an equal part of white wine and reduced it until almost dry before adding heavy cream and seasoning it. The sauce is then strained and, once reheated to order, finished by stirring in a heaping tablespoon of Dijon mustard.


I thought long and hard about what kind of drink to offer this week. I wanted to focus on the two most commonly known Irish beverages; either Guinness or an Irish Whiskey like Jameson, (but don't think I don't know about the others, like Poitín, aka Irish moonshine).

After an experience at an Irish bar in Brooklyn, NY I realized that there are some people in this country that prefer to drink a certain spirit distilled in a certain region of a country by a certain religion, like Jameson, believed to be made in southern Ireland by Catholics, and Bushmills, which is produced in Northern Ireland and thought to be produced by Protestants (and possibly the world's oldest licenced distillery in the world) - one of stupidest forms of ignorant bigotry that I've come across... and I've seen a lot!!

Bigotry aside, I personally prefer Jameson whiskey for taste alone, so after researching cocktails containing Irish whiskey I came up with an ingenious name for a drink that also helped form it's foundation.

The Irish Redhead!!

I filled a pint glass of ice 3/4 full with Jameson's (hey, some stereotypes are for a reason; we do love our booze, after all..) and added honey, fresh lemon juice and egg white powder that I shook vigorously and finished with club soda. To help balance the drink and solidify its moniker I topped it with several dashes of Peychaud's bitters that were stirred into the foam created by the egg white powder, giving it a red-hued float!

Chicago can keep the green dye for their river; I prefer red!!

With Love,

Cheffrey

The Clouds of Heaven

With the first sign of spring vegetables starting to show their heads I realized that I need finish showcasing my winter dishes now if I don't want put my ideas on hold until next year, chancing that they'll get lost forever.

If I've said before that I love pasta, then I'm a stalker for dumplings. There's just something magical and mysterious about biting into a shrouded filling bursting with flavor. While there are many great dumplings from cultures around the world to choose from, I decided to go with more of an Asian style, with some of my own twists.

I made a filling by enriching ground, raw shrimp with pancetta that I blanched in water to tenderize it as well as to remove the excess salt, reserving the liquid for the base of my broth. For the dough I used the same shu mai wrappers that we fry for our tuna tartar tacos on the menu, but by boiling them instead of frying, they become light and pillowy, like little clouds from Heaven.

I used the leftover shrimp shells to fortify the pancetta broth, and for an even more intriguing flavor I simmered the whole lot with Szechuan peppercorns - tiny, dried berries with strong citrus notes that are commonly used in the Sichuan region of China, where it was realized long ago that the mouth-tingling properties of the peppercorn plays extremely well with the spiciness of hot chiles, so I added a few pinches of ground chile de arbol and a subtle amount of soy sauce for salt and umami.

Another classic pairing for Szechuan peppercorns is eggplant, so who am I to argue? I sauteed up small rings of Japanese eggplant with onions, garlic, ginger and soy sauce. While the eggplant gives some heft to the the dish, I needed another dimension and some green to boot, so while I was at Uwajimaya picking up the eggplant I also grabbed several bunches of watercress, one of the oldest known leafy greens consumed by man and one of my all time favorite greens (though long neglected in my recent repertoire). Its peppery flavor really lent a hand to the flavor profile of the total dish, playing off of the peppercorns, eggplant and broth.

After my recent purchase of orange bitters for the Orange Apricot Punch a couple of weeks ago my mind has been reeling with ideas. I remember talking to one of our servers, Justin, about how well orange goes with whiskey, like the way we muddle orange slices and maraschino cherries with Basil Hayden bourbon to make our signature Old Fashioned, which led me to this other variation to a classic cocktail.

I thought that since whiskey goes so well with orange I felt that I could make a version of a Manhattan by using rye whiskey instead, since it has many of the same characteristics as bourbon. I used Grand Marnier orange liqueur in place of the sweet vermouth and, of course, aromatic orange bitters instead of the traditional, well, bitter variety. The final cocktail was a HUGE success on its first night alone, so I'm excited to see how well it does the rest of the week!!!

With Love,

Cheffrey

New Directions

We've all heard the trendy culinary catch phrases before, like: "fat is flavor" and "everything is better with bacon". It is easy to fall back on these go-to ingredients for guaranteed good taste, but the true art of the craft comes when you work outside of these parameters to create something that is considered dull and flavorless into an intriguing dish that makes even a carnivore raise their eyebrow with interest.

I'm writing of course about tofu, which is essentially cheese but made from soy milk that's used as a meat substitute, though even some vegetarians find it boring. I've used a lot of it at home in order to eat healthier, but I must admit that I hated it in the beginning, but like anything that's difficult - if it was easy everyone would be doing it.

So I started my dish by marinating blocks of extra firm tofu - I find anything softer to be off-putting to those weary of tofu already - in a blend of olive oil, shallots, garlic and dried herbs de Provence, with an emphasis on the dried because after a few days marinating the tofu is marked on the grill, creating a wonderful char and smoky flavor that can't be achieved by fresh herbs alone.

To go with the bold flavor of the tofu I needed accompaniments that were equally as strong. While it may be presumptuous to think that vegetarians and vegans are missing out by omitting bacon from their diet, it is a fact that braised winter greens are greatly enhanced by the addition of it, so to split the difference I used a single malt scotch from Islay, which has a very smoky characteristic of its own, inspired by the flavors I got out of a dish at the Black Bottle (who's waiter said that there was no scotch added). The scotch flavor is assertive yet pleasantly familiar; not an imitation of bacon but an excellent alternative to it.

Lucky for me portobello mushrooms were available at a great price this week, and since they are commonly used in vegetarian dishes due to their meaty texture, I used them here to help give more sustenance and take on  flavor.

Mushrooms in general are like sponges, absorbing liquids with little effort.This knowledge led me to the addition of a marinade with the same foundation of olive oil, garlic and shallots but with the addition of mustard and fresh rosemary; both great pairings to the portobello. After several hours of absorption I roasted the large caps upside down so that the remaining marinade with continue to seep in.

Now that I had a foundation with the braised greens and the mushroom I needed something to finish it on top. Typically a sauce is used here, but since the center of the tofu is already soft and creamy, I went in another direction.

I had this idea for a Mediterranean "salsa" comprised of cherry tomatoes, shaved fennel and minced black, oil-cured, Moroccan olives that I seasoned with freshly chopped herbs like marjoram, oregano, parsley and chives along with a dressing made of preserved Meyer lemons and oil. I lean towards "salsa" as opposed to "salad" for this because sometimes customers tend to think that a salad is something comprised of lettuce.



I have been wanting to re-introduce a cocktail using cinnamon-infused tequila every since the outstanding success of the Cinnamon Pear Martini that utilized poached pears in two ways by churning the cooked pears into a sorbet that is floated in a mixture of the poaching liquid and cinnamon-infused tequila. Despite the quick time that the cocktail sold out and the many requests to put it on the menu I ultimately decided against it due to all of the processes that go into making and executing the drink. This is my attempt to rectify that dilemma.

For the past few weeks I have been steeping whole cinnamon sticks in Cuervo tequila, bringing even more complex flavor to an already interesting spirit, one that is only enhanced by the addition of the sweet and sour elixir of freshly juiced granny smith apples (aka green apples). With just a few dashes of bitters and a few shakes over ice the mixture is strained into a martini glass to make a more formidable version of the original, but with a great enough flavor to stand alone.

With Love,

Cheffrey

It's About Time!

Sometimes it takes a while for a good idea to form. Sometimes a good idea forms instantaneously. And sometimes a good idea has to wait its turn.

Last summer I was researching recipes when I came across a cookbook by one of my favorite chefs, Charlie Trotter, where he had a dish that featured a mustard pasta. At the time I had just made a lemon flavored pasta and was very interested in infusing flavors into pasta and I quickly came up with this dish, tucking it away until a season where it would be more suitable to offer a rich braise.

My initial plan was to offer it sometime in autumn, the nearest time I could, but something kept coming up; maybe I wanted to take advantage of an seasonal ingredient that was available for a short period of time, or I had a different pasta idea, or I wanted to save such a good idea until just the right time... The next thing I knew it was seven months later and I'm finally getting to it.

The pasta is made by mixing stone ground mustard and eggs with all purpose flour and some wheat gluten, the pure form of the protein in flour that helps hold the dough together. I used the gluten to fortify the pasta to compensate for the added moisture that the mustard brings. Not only does the pasta have a wonderful flavor but it is also a beautiful golden color with specks of the whole mustard seeds.

To stand up to the robust pasta I needed ingredients that were no slouches themselves, so first I braised cubes of wild boar leg meat in a combination of rich pork stock and a hearty tomato sauce, and then roughly shredded the meat while the sauce simmered once again with red wine and fresh herbs like parsley, oregano and marjoram. There is enough of the light gaminess of the meat to shine through the pasta yet it is subtle enough to meld into the dish.

Another component that I added was broccoli rabe, or rapini, which is a pungent and bitter green that resembles a leafy broccoli. Its distinct flavor is a perfect match for the strong pasta and rich boar ragout. And to finish the dish and help thicken the sauce I tossed in a handful of Pecorino cheese (think Parmesan, but made from sheep's milk).

For the final touch - that last coup de grace of richness and goodness - I topped the pasta with my own freshly made ricotta cheese by separating the curds and whey of cream and milk by slowly cooking them with buttermilk and then straining out the cheese. I chose to top the pasta with the ricotta as opposed to mixing it in so that the diner can taste the freshness before stirring it in themself.


Good things come to those who wait!!

~~~   ~~~   ~~~

I sometimes go a little overboard with the infusions that I make for cocktails due to the time it takes to impart the flavor. I'd rather have too much than run out of my cocktail too soon.

As was the case when I made my kumquat vodka for a martini cocktail a few weeks ago. With a bottle leftover I wanted to utilize that great flavor once again.

I felt that the combination of orange and apricot, one of my childhood favorite fruits, would be a good combination, compounded with the kumquat vodka, muddled fresh mint and a healthy dose of Angostura orange bitters. I was blown away by the result!! It was the perfect balance of sweet, sour and bitter with the added brightness of the mint.

With Love,

Cheffrey

100 Acts of Love

Sometimes it's very hard to not believe in fate. My 100th blog post falls on Valentine's Day, one of my most deliberately catchy menus to fully embrace the notion of aphrodisiacs in food, where I have the ability to not only create great food but be able to explain my every intention and inspiration. To my loyal followers and new readers alike: thank you for being my muse.

Like I said, I once again formulated a menu for this Valentine's Day based on the and fundamentals of cooking with aphrodisiacs. We all know about the classic ingredients like oysters, chocolate and alcohol, but I wanted to showcase a few more, both historic and superficial. And since we all could use a little more romance in our lives I plan on offering these specials for the rest of the week until I run out.

For starters, I concocted a cocktail that embodies the romance of sparkling wine with a play on words that actually makes a tasty, balanced drink. I used a passion fruit puree that I gave an added touch of vodka (to help get you in the mood) that we used as a base in the same way as a traditional mimosa but with more of a sweet and sour pop kick.

For the appetizer course I used local oysters from Totten Inlet to make my oyster pot pies by first poaching them in a little water to release their liquor so I could use it to make a creamy sauce with onions, garlic, celery root, carrots and edamame as a play on the traditional components. Instead of the pie dough I meticulously shaped puff pastry shells with a little heart on top.

Beef has been known to get the blood flowing, if you know what I mean, and spiciness gets the heart rate up, so I went with an entree that is flavorful and light - light enough to ... er, keep your mobility??

Anyways, I braised chunks of beef in a teriyaki sauce made by mixing soy sauce with brown sugar and slowly cooking in an oven until perfectly tender. Once cooled the meat was slightly shredded to be tossed with a warm Asian slaw of carrots, Napa cabbage, bok choy, fresh cilantro and scallions. To accompany the dish and fulfill the orgasm-like spicy attribute I used a little known technique of cooking a white curry. Generally curries are colored by the chile that they are made with, but there is an Indonesian variant that has all of the seasonings without the heat. While I love the flavor that it has, I feel that the missing heat really takes away from what is expected from a curry, so I cooked onions, ginger, cumin, coriander and lemongrass with the white seeds of jalapeno peppers in coconut milk and blended it into a luscious broth to finish the dish.

For the final course, I (of course) had to have a chocolate dessert, but not just any dessert; a Chocolate Baked Alaska! I perfected my baked Alaska skills at the '21' Club years ago and have been wanting to offer it here for a long time. Well, there's no better time than V-Day!!

I started with a base of chocolate cake that I layered with chocolate ice cream infused with creme de cacoa and mixed berries that had been macerated in Grand Marnier orange liqueur. Once frozen solid and cut into portions I decorated them with an egg white meringue that's toasted to order to represent the flames of passion and love.

Here's to a hundred insights, and a hundred more!

With Love,

Cheffrey

Good Ol' Country Boy

Every now and then I like to get back to my roots. That is, working with and refining what is known as southern cuisine.

I grew up on southern food, but I didn't realize what heights it could reach until I worked my culinary externship in Charleston, South Carolina where I first learned the extent that this hodgepodge-influenced soul food could be refined. Giving the richness that this type of food inherently possesses I tend to limit my offerings to this time of year since most people prefer heavy dishes in the winter.
I've been wanting to serve a loaded cornbread for a while now, and I finally settled on the additions of finely grated smoked Gouda and ground Chinese sausage, but instead of cooking a whole skillet I used these little non-stick pans that make perfect individual portions, great for laying a foundation.

Over the holiday season during my short vacation in Florida my mother cooked Christmas breakfast for my wife and I, which included one of my favorites: country ham with red eye gravy. It's made by rendering pre-boiled country ham (to help remove some of the excess salt from the curing process), adding flour, water and coffee - hence the "red eye". I've made a thinner version in the past as a play on au jus, but this time I wanted something more substantial. This time I made a rich broth by simmering sliced country ham with vegetables and herbs that I then thickened and finished with freshly brewed chicory coffee (my preferred cup at home). The resulting sauce was bold and slightly bitter - a perfect pairing to the sweetness of the cornbread and the Chinese sausage.

Traditional southern dishes usually contain some form of cooked, bitter green. While kale, mustard or dandelion greens are the norm, I felt some wild, baby arugula would fit the bill. Simply sauteed with a little onion and garlic confit helps give flavor to a newer version of accompaniment.

While I could have gone many different ways with the "main" protein for this dish, chicken is a perfect medium; a blank slate. I've always preferred a pan roasted airline breast - with the first section of the wing attached to add flavor and a classier presentation. Think of it as a healthier version of fried chicken, except for an added boost of flavor I whipped up sweet cream butter with freshly chopped oregano, thyme, and chives that I molded into a loaf pan to chill so I can slice it thin to finish the breasts while still hot to infuse more flavor.

As if my dinner special isn't down-south enough, I've dreamed up a drink special that'll turn a yokel into a socialite!

There has been a lot of distilleries offering "moonshine", or unaged corn whiskey, probably so they can have something to sell while the rest ages in barrels for a few years. You can even buy some of them at our state run liquor stores. On a whim, I bought a bottle made by a company out of Virginia that was a lot sweeter than expected, so I realized that I could use this as a clear version of sweet vermouth along with another more traditional style, a few dashes of Peychaud's bitters and a maraschino cherry to make a completely transparent Manhattan!!

Hell Yeah!!

With Love,

Cheffrey

A Few of My Favorite Things

We all have our vices; some of us more than others. As a chef, I of course love food, but sometimes other guilty pleasures come into play...

While at my favorite coffee stand, Vivace, I had a moment of clarity. What if I took my favorite booze for flavoring (vodka) and infused it with my favorite coffee (Vivace) to make one of my favorite drinks (White Russian) from one of my favorite movies (The Big Lebowski)?? Brilliant!!

Since I have no real guideline for this I had to wing it, as usual, so I felt that a half pound bag of whole bean vita blend could impart a strong enough flavor for two bottles of vodka to have a strong enough flavor similar to Kahlua. First, I allowed the beans to steep in the vodka for two days until they all sank, indicating that they were soft enough to then roughly chop them in the blender. Another five days and the brew was ready for the next step.

I knew that I needed some sweetness to create my own version of Kahlua, and to add to that deep, rich flavor I decided on a simple syrup made with light brown sugar and a little water. Once combined, the resulting liqueur is like Kahlua and vodka already mixed, simply needing to be topped with some smooth half-and-half.

The chef abides!!

~~~   ~~~   ~~~

Another one of my favorite things are dumplings, and while it's easy to find, say, the Asian variety in Seattle, I've had a hard time to find some good pierogies here.

Pierogies are roughly Slavic in origin (Polish, Russian, Lithuania, etc.) but those boarders tend to bleed. Simply put, they're an unleavened dough with a filling. While no one in my family came from this region (just to the west, in Germany, for the most part), I have always loved them, and one of my favorite restaurants in NYC is still Veselka where they make eight different types of pierogies (as well as a mean Ukrainian borscht).

Since I haven't found my new pierogi spot yet, my only natural course is to do it myself and share it with you!

In my research I found that the dough is basic; simply flour, salt, eggs, butter and sometimes sour cream, which only means "required" to me since it adds flavor, thus an essential in my book. They can be baked, boiled or fried, but for now I'm sticking with the more typical boiled variety.

Traditional fillings include sauerkraut, meat, fruit, or my favorite: potato. Perhaps it's my Kraut/Patty heritage but I LOVE potatoes!! And the only thing better is potatoes with cream, Taleggio cheese and onions cooked in butter... Yeah! That's the way to go!!

For a sauce I chopped the white parts of fennel bulbs and stewed them with onions, garlic, cream and mixed mustard seeds as a sort of play on both braised cabbage and creamed spinach. To finish the sauce and retain the crunchy texture of the fennel I added the finely chopped green tops and fronds before it's reheated to order.

After boiling the pierogies I toss them in a little brown butter and garnish the dish with crispy, fried shallots that have been marinating in buttermilk before tossing in flour and frying to play on another traditional way of finishing the dumplings by sauteing them in butter and onions.


Hopefully, the things that I love will help influence the things that you'll love in the future!

With Love,

Cheffrey