About 3 weeks ago I made my own sauerkraut for the first time. You can find the post about it here. For the last week, I have been checking and tasting it daily to see if it was ready. Today I decided it had fermented enough so I packed it up into smaller containers and refrigerated it. In hindsight, the next time I make sauerkraut I will let it go just a little further and get a touch more sour as I really like sour things, though my wife thought it had just the right amount of sourness. Either way I am very happy with the results. My homemade stuff is so much better than the store bought stuff, and it is so easy to make. I don’t know why it took me so long to attempt to make sauerkraut, but after this experiment I think it will become, at the very least, a yearly thing. Maybe next year I will make a larger batch and attempt to can some when it is done.

Of course, once the sauerkraut was ready I couldn’t wait to cook with it so I threw together one of my favorite dishes, Choucroute. Technically what I prepare is not truly choucroute as I use beer in my dish as opposed to white wine (usually Riesling) and I skip many of the traditional spices such as juniper berries, mace, nutmeg, etc. in favor of caraway seed, but choucroute sounds so much better than Sausages Braised with Sauerkraut. This dish can be made up pretty quickly, but I prefer to cook it slow and low for 1-2 hours as I find this long, slow cooking yields a depth of flavor that quick cooking just can’t achieve. (continue reading…)

French Onion Soup is one of those dishes I have pretty much stopped ordering at restaurants unless I am familiar with the place and know they make it properly. It’s not that most places have bad French Onion Soup, it’s just not that good. That’s too bad because good French Onion Soup is not difficult to make, it just takes a little time and patience. French Onion soup gets its extraordinary depth of flavor in the long, slow cooking process of caramelizing the onions. Rush this step and that is the difference between a good onion soup and an okay one. Onion soup should also be made with homemade beef stock, but not many people keep beef stock around like they do chicken stock. If you don’t have beef broth around then at least buy canned beef broth. Whatever you do stay away from the bouillon cubes or packets as they tend to be overly salty and taste way too artificial.

The first recipe is a standard recipe for French Onion Soup. The second recipe is for a Creamy Onion Soup with Blue Cheese. It starts just like the French Onion Soup, but then thickened and finished with half and half and blue cheese. It is one of my favorite variations on Onion soup

French Onion Soup

2 Tbsp. Butter
4 pounds Yellow Onions
1 cup Red Wine**
2 1/2 qts. Beef Broth
1 each Bay Leaf
3 sprigs Thyme
Salt
Pepper
Gruyere or Swiss Cheese
1/2 thick croutons cut from a Baguette, toasted

Peel and julienne the onions. In a large pot, over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onions, season with salt and pepper and slowly caramelize the onions. Over medium heat this should take about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Stir regularly to keep the onions from burning. This is important in the later stages as the onions start to caramelize It is this long, slow caramelization process that really builds the deep flavor of this soup so don’t rush it. When the onions are dark brown raise heat to medium high and deglaze the pan with the red wine. Add the bay leaf and thyme. Reduce the wine until almost dry then add the beef broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and allow to simmer for 30 minutes. To serve ladle into soup crocks top with a crouton then the cheese. Place under a broiler until the cheese is bubbly and slightly browned in spots. (continue reading…)

It seems to be a universal truth that kids hate brussels sprouts and who can blame them, especially if they were all served like my parents served them; cooked to death then drizzled with vinegar. It’ no wonder that many of us ever outgrow that hatred. That’s too bad because brussels sprouts can be a wonderful vegetable. Sure, overcooked they can be mushy, slimy and sulfurous, but when cooked properly they have a wonderful earthy quality about them and just a hint of a sharp bite that makes them lively.

While many people still prefer to blanch them whole, or cut them in half and blanch them, before giving them a quick saute in butter, I prefer to pull them apart so that each leaf is its own individual. I then saute the raw leaves and finish them by steaming them with a little liquid. Sure it is a little more time consuming this way, but I like the resulting texture and flavor cooking brussel sprouts this way.

Brussels Sprouts with Pecans & Dried Cranberries
1 1/2 pounds Brussels Sprouts
2 slices Bacon, diced
1 clove Garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. Butter
1/4 cup Pecans, toasted
1/4 cup Dried Cranberries
1/3 cup Madeira (Sherry works great also)
Salt
Pepper

Core and peel apart the brussels sprouts. Thinly slice the tight centers of the brussels sprouts. In a large skillet cook the bacon over medium high heat. When brown and crispy remove from pan and pour off all but 1 Tbsp. of bacon fat. Add the butter to the skillet and allow to melt. When the foaming subsides add the the brussels sprouts and cook for 3 minutes, stirring often. Add the garlic and cook 2 minutes longer, continuing to stir. Toss in the dried cranberries and the Madeira. Continue to cook until the Madeira as reduced to almost dry and the brussels sprouts are tender. Add the pecans and cooked bacon. Season with salt and pepper and serve. This serves 4 as a side vegetable.

It won’t be long before another corn season is behind us, here in Wisconsin. Then we will have to rely on frozen corn or corn that was picked thousands of miles away and shipped to us. I won’t even mention the canned stuff. The frozen stuff isn’t bad, in fact it often is a better choice than the “fresh” stuff in winter. At least the frozen stuff is picked at its peak of ripeness and processed within days of picking. The ears of corn you see at stores, in winter, were shipped thousands of miles to make it to the local megamart, and who knows how long ago it was picked. With corn that time is very important and crucial to the sweetness of it. Once corn is picked the sugars start converting to starches immediately. There’s some truth in that old saying that for the sweetest corn you need to cook it in the field! Within hours this process starts and within a few days the process is complete, turning a sweet, vibrant, ear of corn that’s full of flavor into something rather bland and boring. The last couple of weeks, I’ve been stuffing myself with fresh, locally grown corn with the knowledge that I won’t have that privilege much longer.

My favorite way to eat corn is grilled, on the cob. It’s a simple enough process, just soak fresh ears of corn in water for a few hours, then grill for about 20 minutes over a medium grill, turning constantly. Remove and allow the carryover heat to finish cooking it, in the husks for another 5-10 minutes. Peel, slather with butter, salt and pepper and enjoy.

Another one of my favorite ways to prepare corn is this Corn and Bacon Relish. This wonderful dish can be made year round as it doesn’t require absolutely fresh corn. Sure, with fresh, local corn, this dish is sublime, in my opinion, but there are enough other flavors going on that frozen corn makes a perfectly acceptable dish also. This relish makes a great garnish for fish (especially salmon and trout), pork or chicken. It works great on its own, as a side dish. It’s great stirred into mashed potatoes, and makes a wonderful garnish for a number of soups such as pumpkin or squash soup. The list of items it goes well is almost endless.

Corn and Bacon Relish

1 each Red Pepper, roasted, peeled, and diced
3 cups Fresh Corn
2 slices Bacon, chopped
1/2 each Red Onion, small dice
1 clove Garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. Thyme, fresh, leaves only, chopped
1 1/2 Tbsp. Chives, fresh, minced
1 Tbsp. Cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. Sugar
Salt
Pepper
Veg. oil

In a large sauté pan render bacon until crisp. Remove bacon, but leave bacon fat in pan. Add a little veg. oil if necessary and sweat the onion and the garlic. When soft add the corn and sauté until done. Toss this in a bowl and add the bacon, peppers, herbs, vinegar, and sugar. Season with salt and pepper.

Late Harvest (or Fall) raspberries are just starting to make their appearances here in Wisconsin. If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I love raspberries and the fact that they are harvested twice a year thrills me. While the nights are getting cool, days can still be warm so I still, occasionally, enjoy an entree salad for dinner. This salad is bright, refreshing, and a great reminder that summer isn’t over just yet.

Spinach & Raspberry Salad

1 1 1/2 pounds Baby Spinach
6 slices Bacon, thick cut, diced
2 each Chicken breast, cut into strips
1 each Leek, white and light green parts only
3/4 cup Raspberries
1/3 cup Raspberry Vinegar
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1/4 cup Pecans, toasted and chopped

If spinach is large, remove the stems. If it is tender baby spinach you can leave the stems intact. Place spinach in a large bowl. Place bacon in a saute pan and cook over medium high heat until rendered and crisp. Remove from pan, pour off all but 1 Tbsp. of bacon fat and and saute the leeks over medium heat until tender and just slightly browned around the edges. Remove leeks from pan and add the chicken. Again saute until until done then remove from pan. Add the raspberry vinegar to deglaze the pan, scraping up all the browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Turn off heat and stir in the vegetable oil. Season with a few grinds of black pepper. Add the bacon, leeks, and chicken to the spinach and drizzle with the warmed raspberry vinaigrette (you may not need all of the vinaigrette). Toss to mix and divide among 2 plates. Garnish with the fresh raspberries and toasted pecans.

I had forgotten how much I like properly shirred (baked) eggs, until this past Sunday, when I was searching for a simple, yet elegant dish for my wife and I to enjoy for Sunday brunch. I wasn’t in the mood for an omelet and we always tend to do a variation on Benedicts when looking for something a little special so I went digging around in my cookbooks and was reminded of shirred eggs. I hadn’t done something like that in years, so it would be a novel dish for my wife, and better yet, Shirred Eggs is one of those dishes that is just ripe for variations.

At it’s most simple, Shirred Eggs, are eggs that have been placed into a shallow custard cup, seasoned with salt and pepper, and topped with a little butter to help keep the top from drying out, then baked just until the whites are set, but the yolk is still runny. Doesn’t sound very exciting, does it? Not really. Like a good poached egg, shirred eggs are fine on their own, if not a little bland, but it is when they are part of a dish that they rise above their humble stature and become something almost sublime.

Virtually anything can be used as a base on which to make Shirred Eggs. Some of the more common bases are creamed spinach, various types of hashes, seafood, cooked grains, ham, bacon, other cooked meats and various other vegetables. Just like with omelets, the choice is really limited only by your imagination. Because I was looking for simply elegant this time I reigned the imagination in and created the recipe below, which serves 2. I accompanied the Shirred Eggs with toast and Maple Glazed Bacon, the recipe for which is below also.

Shirred Eggs with Ham & Manchego Cheese
4 each Eggs
1 tsp. Butter
2 Tbsp. Yellow onion, finely minced
1/2 cup Ham, finely diced
1/2 cup Tomatoes, finely diced
1/2 tsp. Fresh Tarragon, finely minced
4 Tbsp. Heavy Cream
1/3 cup Manchego cheese, shredded

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.Heat the butter, in a small saute pan, over medium high heat. As the butter finishes melting add the onions and cook without browning. Add the ham and cook for 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and tarragon. Heat just to warm the tomatoes then remove from heat. Divide the tomato-ham mixture between 4 small creme brulee cups or ramekins and spread evenly. Crack an egg into each cup or ramekin and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle each egg with 1 Tbsp. of cream. Sprinkle the cheese over top, dividing the cheese evenly among the 4 cups. Bake for 12-14 minutes, checking them after 10. Eggs are done when the whites are just set but the yolks are still runny. Serve immediately as the eggs will continue to cook a little longer.

Maple Glazed Bacon

Take 4 slices of thick cut, smoky bacon and cut them in half. Cook over medium high heat until 3/4 of the way done. Drain on paper towel. Meanwhile remove rendered fat from pan and wipe pan clean. Lower heat to medium low and add the bacon back to the pan. Brush with real maple syrup, flip over and allow to cook for 2-3 minutes. After about 1 minute brush other side with maple syrup. Flip over, when time and cook another 2-3 minutes. Remove to a cooking rack, set over a sheet tray, to crisp up. Make sure that bacon is not touching each other as it cools as it has a tendency to want to stick until it cools slightly.

I don’t consider myself to be a food snob. Sure, after years of cooking in high end restaurants I can extoll the virtues of foie gras, debate whether American or New Zealand lamb is superior, or lose myself in discussions of the world’s greatest cheeses, but I also love to debate the best fat to meat ratio of a properly made burger, lose myself to the comfort of great diner food, and swap secrets to making the best chili. I think yellow mustard has its rightful place as a condiment of choice, I like salads made of iceberg lettuce, but worst of all, late at night I sometimes succumb to the call of the frozen pizza. Good luck finding any food snob that will admit to those infractions!

That being said, years of being a chef have left their mark on me and occasionally a bit of snobbery shows through. A case in point is the BLT. How can a BLT, a staple of diner food, be associated with food snobbery? This lowly sandwich is rife with chances for snobbery in my opinion. First off, as far as I am concerned there are only about 2 1/2 months, a year, when BLT’s should be eaten. The most important cornerstone of a BLT is the tomato and that tomato must be ripened on the vine, and by that I don’t mean those semi tasteless “vine ripe” tomatoes found in grocery stores. Those things are only a small step above the regular tomatoes. So here comes the most important lesson in BLT making-if you have to buy your tomato from the store to make a BLT then forget it. A BLT should only be made with locally grown tomatoes that truly come to you ripened on the vine, whether that tomato was grown in your garden or bought at the local farmers market, it doesn’t matter as long as that tomato wasn’t sent half way across the country. Most areas only have about a 2-2 1/2 month window in which tomatoes are ripe. I would rather wait through most of the year to eat a BLT made with sun ripened tomatoes than waste my time eating a BLT made with tasteless, acidic tomatoes with the texture of cardboard. (continue reading…)

Last Saturday while shopping at the Fond du Lac farmer’s market I came across the first beets of the season. Well, at least the first beets to arrive at the market. Excitedly, I grabbed up a couple of bunches, just thinking of all the possibilities. Life interjected and we got busy with visiting friends, work, and the daily grind. I forgot all about them. This evening as I was driving home from work, in 90 degree weather, with no AC (I know you probably don’t care, but I thought I’d share my misery with you), I remembered buying them along with some beautiful baby spinach. Being hot out, salad sounded good so I threw this salad together for a refreshing late night dinner.

Beet and Spinach Salad
2 bunches Baby Beets, tops removed (if fresh you can add the tops to the salad)
2 pounds Baby Spinach
6 slices Bacon, thick cut
4-6 oz. Blue Cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup Pistachios, shelled
1 can French Fried Onion Rings
1/3 cup Maple Syrup
1/4 cup Malt Vinegar
1/2 cup Vegetable oil (any neutral flavored oil will work)
Salt
Pepper, freshly ground

Place the beets in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook until a paring knife, when inserted into the beet, encounters little resistance. For baby beets, this should take about 12-14 minutes, depending on their size. When done, remove from heat and run under cold water to cool them. Peel and quarter the beets. The skins should slip off relatively easily. Meanwhile chop the bacon and cook, in a saute pan until crisp. Remove the bacon, leaving the bacon fat in the pan. Add the maple syrup and vinegar. Scrape up an bits stuck to the bottom of the saute pan and cook 1 minute. Add the oil, salt and pepper, tasting and adjusting the seasoning as needed. Remove from heat. Combine the spinach, beets, and bacon in a large bowl. Add the warm, not hot, dressing to the salad and toss to coat. Add the blue cheese and toss again. Taste and season with more salt and pepper, if necessary. Divide among 4 large plates and sprinkle with the pistachios. Place a small mound of the onion rings on top. This recipe serves 4 as an entree salad or 8 as a first course.