Reflections on a Super Bowl Menu

Executive Chef, Bryan Moscatello
When Super Bowl Sunday comes around the thing I’m most focused on is, what food to serve.  Most people are eating sandwiches, pizzas and assorted chips and dips.  Keeping this in mind I opt not buck tradition so pizza and sandwiches will be served at my house and why not throw in a couple little platters of great bites.

Lets talk little bite first.  Since I moved and threw my mini fryer out nothing deep fried will hit the menu. I wanted to get some fruit onto the menu so we began with pancetta wrapped black mission figs, gorgonzola dolce foam and port syrup.  I decided to go with the oh so good duck liver cream puffs drizzled with an intensely reduced brandy glaze. No football pre-party is complete without some form of Swedish style meatball, I decided it would be smart to have mini truffled rabbit meatballs with parmesan gravy.
For the pizza it makes the most sense to me to have something that can’t be ordered from Domino’s.  And the duck liver cream puffs have me wanting some more of that flavor so I went with a foie gras pizza with smoked duck breast, fresh figs, thyme, an incredible artisanal balsamic vinegar and mache leaves.  The only thing missing on the pie was something crisp.  So I decided to go with prosciutto cracklings.
To round out the meal I had to go with a classic grilled cheese.  First bread selection, I went with a whole grain boule that was riddled with seeds and came as an unsliced loaf.  Unsliced is the key here, so that I was able to cut the slices to my desired thickness.  Cheese selection I knew that velveeta just wouldn’t cut it so I went with the next best thing which robiola: a soft, ripened mixture of cow, goat and sheep milk cheeses. A dollop of kerrygold butter to cook the sandwiches in was the final ingredient.
No sandwich is complete without some form of cooked potatoes.  With no fryer there was no point on going the French fry route so I chose the next best thing.  I cut the potatoes in 2” by ½” rectangles and cooked them slowly over medium heat in a 50/50 blend of butter to oil with a liberal amount of salt and pepper.  This method takes a bit longer and more attention but the result is outstanding.  They become well seasoned throughout and very creamy. The last remaining ingredient, a sauce.  I had bourbon so it seemed only fitting to make a bourbon barbecue sauce.
It was my best Super Bowl yet, the only thing missing was the Vikings.