Monthly Archives: November 2009
Sandwiches
| November 24, 2009 | Posted by admin under Uncategorized |
Executive Chef, Bryan Moscatello
Sandwiches are quite possibly the world’s best food idea, as far as I’m concerned. These items come in all different sizes and shapes. They come layered between almost anything and the fillings vary as much as our cultures. Man do I love a good sandwich. I think that that they are a superior food due to the fact that they are designed to be hand held, with the exception of a couple classics, so there is no need for china or flatware. Besides coming in all shapes and sizes they comprise many different textures and temperatures.
Here are some of my favorites. Let’s start with the exceptions to the rule, non-handhelds. The croquet Madame, this baby is delicious it is a ham and gruyere sandwich topped with Mornay sauce and a fried egg, when I make mine I use brioche for the bread. Then you have the popular day after thanksgiving open faced turkey sandwich topped with gravy. The make up of this sandwich depends on what your leftovers are. At my house the consumption of this sandwich usually begins at about 10 pm thanksgiving night. I start by making a cranberry aioli which is spread on the bread then there is a layer of honey glazed sweet potatoes, then diced thigh meat that’s been tossed with some giblet gravy and top that with some thin slices of roasted turkey breast and finish with more giblet gravy.
As for the hand held versions this will be a very abbreviated list because I could be here for months otherwise. In the Italian vein we begin with the muffuletta. This baby is big and robust, the key to this sandwich is the olive salad, the olive salad consists mainly of olives, peppers, cauliflower, carrots, herbs and olive oil. The salad needs to marinate overnight. The sandwich uses muffuletta bread which is a type of Sicilian bread. The bread is cut horizontally and both cut sides are spread with the olive salad and in between are layers of capicolla, salami, mortadella and provolone. Then there is the reuben, corned beef never tasted so good, on this classic it served with sauerkraut, thousand island dressing and swiss cheese on rye bread, it is griddled and served warm. The Cuban sandwich, I like this one pressed on the griddle, it is ham, roasted pork, swiss cheese, pickles and mustard on Cuban bread. The BLT, Bacon preferably apple wood smoked and thick cut, Lettuce and Tomatoes served on toasted slice bread and there should be a healthy spread of mayonnaise. Where would we be without the almighty grilled cheese, you can use any cheese and bread type for this it all depends on your craving right then and there, or what’s in your fridge. Here’s my grilled cheese trajectory, As a child I began with velveeta and white bread now I’m all about Taleggio cheese on fruit nut bread we serve up at Zola wine and Kitchen for lunch.
Ok I’ve got to go and make myself a sandwich now.
Braciola
| November 17, 2009 | Posted by admin under Uncategorized |
Braciola is an item that I grew up eating every Sunday at grandma’s house for dinner. It was one type of braised meat of many that we would enjoy during our Sunday dinner. I always went for it before the sausage, meatballs or braised short ribs. The reason for this was simple… it was something that we only had on Sundays. During the week we might have meatball parmesan sandwiches, Spicy Italian sausage in a white bean, and escarole braise or even short ribs with polenta, but never did we have braciola. I actually don’t even recall seeing it on many menus when dining at what seemed to be the only kind of restaurant we had in Jersey, Italian.
The draw of the braciola was simple it was very flavorful cut of beef that was packed with many different flavors from herbs, cheese and pine nuts. It was braised until fork tender in the Sunday gravy and simply put was delicious. So to break it down we use a traditionally tougher cut of meat, the chuck, this is used because it has more marbling, fat throughout the meat, which gives it more flavor and since we are going to braise it for a long time it will become very tender. You take a thin slice and pound it even thinner then rub it with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, chopped herbs, garlic, cheeses and pine nuts. It is then rolled and tied. Sear it heavily and braise it in the gravy for 3 hours or so at a low simmer until it is fork tender. Then enjoy.
Now that we have this as an item on our menu at Potenza I have come to realize it is not just for Sunday dinner and should be eaten all week long. I also began thinking that why limit it to solely an Italian restaurant. So I figured I might as well have some fun with this and share a slightly less Italian take on it and served a mushroom and onion stuffed braciola for a special at Zola Wine and Kitchen last week. The dish turned out great and we sold out of a lot faster than I would have thought. It seems that I am not they only that has a fondness for very flavorful stuffed and braised braciola.
I am currently playing with some other filling ideas to see which one works the best for our winter time lunch menu at the Kitchen. So over the course of the next few weeks I will be playing with these ideas to get that answer. Will it be the mushroom and onion, garlic-boiled egg and parsley, the classic herbed parmesan with pine nuts or will it be a slight departure of a braised beef osso buco stuffed braciola?
Game Birds
| November 11, 2009 | Posted by admin under Uncategorized |
Executive Chef, Bryan Moscatello
I don’t know if it’s a mountain thing or if it’s just me but during my time spent in the Colorado Rockies I grew very fond of game birds. It seemed like every year when the restaurants would awaken from their late summer slumber their menus would be riddled with all types of game birds. It was during this time that I learned how well these items worked with the all of the great flavors of the fall.
Quail which is probably the most common of these small delicacies would be paired with a rich locally foraged mushroom risotto at one restaurant, and paired perfectly. And at another you would enjoy the same bird but this time it might be prepared country fried style, delicious although the breading beat up the flavor of the quail. Then you would happen upon the Restaurant at The Little Nell and would thoroughly enjoy an apricot barbecue quail breast that had been skewered with lavender and sat atop a crisp potato tot.
Squab which many people seem to shy away from, but they certainly should not. This bird is rich and flavorful while not quite as robust and fatty as duck. This item is probably my favorite game bird for those exact reasons. It pairs exceptionally well with dried fruit and nuts. It also is brought one step closer to greatness when you introduce a foie gras element to it. Roast Squab with parsnip puree and foie gras suds there’s something I can eat all day and night. So the next time you’re in a restaurant don’t shy away from the squab dig in and go for it but remember it needs to be served medium rare.
Partridge I think I have only seen this bird on my own menu once where I ran it as a partridge in a pear tart on a Christmas week tasting menu many years ago. This bird is on the mild side so it did pair well with the ears and more neutral herbs and grains. This bird is often thought of as being in between the quail and pheasant as far as flavor and size alike. Pheasant is another great game bird for this time of year. Then you roll into wild turkey and mallards.
Where have all the game birds gone?
Versatile Cheese
| November 3, 2009 | Posted by admin under Uncategorized |
Executive Chef, Bryan Moscatello
I like many others really enjoy a grilled cheese sandwich, onion soup with a gratine of gruyere, some welsh rarebit, even a slice of New York style cheesecake. It is all of these things that make cheese such a wonderful ingredient to cook with. So why is this particular item so well suited for so many different things? Some of the simplest reasons might be that first it’s just plain good and we want to get the flavor of our favorite anyway we can, which leads me into my next point which is that it comes in so many different shapes, sizes and textures.
Taleggio Grilled Cheese on Fruit Nut Bread at Zola Wine & Kitchen lunch
Let’s break down the most basic of cheese items, the grilled cheese sandwich. The grilled cheese was always my favorite growing up. It was nicely buttered and griddled bread filled with molten American cheese, delicious. But as I grew older, learned more and my tastes began to evolve molten American was not the answer anymore. So loaded with an arsenal of information about affinage, pate, natural rind, bloomy rind, washed rind, pressed, triple cream, pasteurized and unpasteurized I embarked on the glorious journey of eating my way through some of the world’s greatest cheeses.
Since I started learning about French cheeses first I took on their artisanal cheese making culture first. The amazing thing is the fact that all cheeses start with milk and rennet which for the most part has a very similar flavor profile. However once the milk is put into the hands of the cheese maker it becomes as different as the people that are making them. Through all of my tastings of Roquefort, bleu de brebis, fourme d’ambert, epoisses, selle sur cher, valency, abondance, morbier, mimolette, crotin de chavignol, morbier and the list goes on and on. We haven’t even left France yet. I think all cheeses are suited for different things. For example there are some cheeses that are solely suited for grating and cooking there are some that are not suited for being cooked at all. Then there are the cheese tray cheeses which are the ones that are standouts and are meant to be eaten simply tempered by themselves so that you can savor every element of the cheese. I have found that I much prefer a strong ripe cheese over a more mild timid variety. The washed rind cheeses as well as the bleu vein cheeses are among the best for me. Epoisses which is a washed rind cheese from Burgundy is washed with a marc de Bourgogne is my favorite cheese to date.
As for cooking with the different varieties I really enjoy utilizing bleu cheeses in risottos or with pastas as well as for ravioli. I also prefer to use some of those more pungent types, such as taleggio on a fruit nut bread to make a great grilled cheese. A thin slice of morbier or fontina DOP makes a great addition to a rare roast veal sandwich. And as for my favorite cheese epoisses I use it on everything from burgers, to grits and I even make a “whiz” out of it for cheese fries. This is only a slight glimmer into the realm of cheese we did not even touch upon the fact that France, Italy and Spain have cheese making laws that govern what they can sell as a specific name.
So until we dive deeper into the amazing world of cheeses enjoy your favorites but try many many more kinds so to taste the diversity.
