Busy Nothings

This recipe comes via Katy and Gordon Reeder.  These onions are suprebly and sophisticatedly sweet, that is, sweet but just sweet enough.  They’re a dynamite flavor addition to a wide variety of dishes.  Here’s the recipe:

Balsamic Vinegar Caramelized Onions

2 yellow onions, julienned

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup good quality baslamic vinegar

2 T brown sugar

1 T fresh thyme, minced

Extra virgin olive oil

Heat a saute pan large enough to hold all of the onions with a bit of olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onions and saute until they just begin to color, tossing frequently.  Add the balsamic vinegar and brown sugar and stir or toss to combine.  Cover, reduce the heat, and let cook for about 30-35 minutes, or until the onions have cooked down and caramelized deeply.  Add the thyme and toss to combine.  Serve. 

Two great uses for these onions are: 1) tossing with linguine, bacon or pancetta, and a bit of Parmesan cheese.  So delightful!  or 2)  Pairing with a grilled Rib eye steak like I did:

The sweetness of the onions provides a nice counterpoint to the deep beefiness of the steak as well as providing a nice acidic high note to the whole dish.  When topped with some high-quality butter, this dish is damn near perfect.  I served it with some Caramelized Broccoli with Garlic.  The steak was grilled according to my charcoal chimney method.  Enjoy!

A few more pics can be found here. 

This is a nice way to utilize asparagus.  Here’s the recipe:

Asian Grilled Asparagus, from How to Grillby Steve Raichlen

1 lb fairly thick asparagus

2 T dark sesame oil

1 T soy sauce

1 clove garlic, minced

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 T sesame seeds (optional)

Preheat a grill.  Snap or cut off the woody bases of the asparagus.  Skewer 4 to 5 stalks together using 2 wooden bamboo skewers. 

In a small bowl, mix together sesame oil, soy sauce, and garlic together.  Brush this mixture on both sides of the asparagus and season liberally with salt and pepper.  Sprinkle with the sesame seeds, if using. 

Cook, on the grill, until nicely browned on both sides, about 2 to 4 minutes per side.  Serve immediately.

The asparagus comes out with such a nice, salty flavor and cooked just tender.  It’s a wonderful accompainment to Chinese Pork Chops.  Here’s what they looked like:

The only thing I didn’t like about this recipe was the fact that it wasn’t really that easy to skewer the asparagus.  The raw stalks didn’t take to kindly to having holes punched through them.  I might consider blanching them first next time, just so they can be more easily skewered.  The skewering really works well to control the asparagus on the grill and ensuring that they are evenly cooked. 

I have often remarked to myself that there was no restaurant in the Fargo-Moorhead area that I thought was in completely in line my likes and dislikes.  To be sure, there were restaurants that I enjoy in this area, namely, Grazies, Jade Dragon, Passage to India, Sammy’s Pizza, and Sushi Time.  But while all of these restaurants have good food, they weren’t places that I really wanted to go to more than once or perhaps twice a month.  I enjoyed them but there was not a true synergy between myself and the restaurant.  That is, there wasn’t a place in town that I felt that if I were to open a restaurant, this is just how I would like it to be.  I think this feeling is gone now that I’ve enjoyed John Alexander’s in downtown Moorhead. 

John Alexaner’s is part of the burgeoning Fargo-Moorhead restaurant empire that includes Juano’s and a Latin themed bar.  It has been open since January of ‘08 and it has a delightfully small and focused menu.  It offers a number of appetziers, a few saldas, some burgers, a couple of pastas,  grilled cheese sandwiches, steaks, and a Kentucky Hot Brown Sandwich.  The idea, which I think is brilliant, is to take familiar dishes and elevate them slightly to the point where they become just about fine dining.  In doing so, the restaurant manages to skirt the lines that separate fine dining and American casual dining. 

The interior of the restaurant echoes this “skirting” theme by being sleek and cool enough to pass off as a nice dining destination while maintaining a casual atmosphere with details like paper napkins. 

As far as the food quality goes, I thought it was spot on.  The first thing I tried was the beer battered cheese curds.  Here’s how they served them:

They were very, very good.  The breading was crisp and just a bit bitter from the beer.  The cheese inside was perfectly gooey and full-flavored.  I really can’t think of having any better fried cheese curds in my life (and I’ve lived in Wisconsin before).  The accompanying sauce was called a “white ketchup” which, to my palate, meant that they mixed ketchup with mayonnaise.  The first bite seemed a bit odd because it tasted (unsurprisingly) a lot like tartar sauce but as I ate more of it, I began to see why the sauce was chosen.  It was to be a milder ketchup as the cheese curds, while being pretty flavorful, just wouldn’t stand up to a full blast of tomatoey ketchup.  Hence, the cutting it with a blander ingredient-mayonnaise.  It was a very good idea and indicative of the care the restaurant takes in its dishes.

My entree was a duck breast covered in a port suace with dried cherries, apples, and mint.  It was served with asparagus and mashed poatotes.  Here’s a picture:

This was a very good but not quite perfect dish.  The duck was nice and was served just under medium-well.  One could have hoped for a bit more crisp on the skin.  The sauce was a fascinating combination of flavors.  The port reduction was nice match with the fruits but the mint was, well, a wow ingredient.  At times, I loved it and at times, I really didn’t care about it.  The chef placed full, fresh mint leaves in the sauce which presented a texture contrast (nothing is quite like chewy leaves) and a very big flavor punch whenever one of the mint leaves hit your mouth.  It did finish the sauce intelligently as it balanced out the acidity and strong flavors of the port but it seemed to come at a pretty high cost.  If anything, mint was too aggressive of a flavor for this dish, especially in the amount given.  But, I really am nitpicking here.  I really did enjoy the dish.

The sides were good and great.  The mashed potatoes were the great part.  Made of red potatoes, they were silky smooth and exceptionally buttery.  Major kudos to the kitchen for that.  The asparagus was just too crisp tender for my liking but not very far off the mark. 

I really look forward to my next visit to John Alexander’s.  The prices are great, it has a nice, affordable wine list, and the bartender’s are knowledgeable and helpful.  Exactly the kind of place where I would be happy to spend some well-earned dollars. 

John Alexander’s address is 315 Main Avenue, Moorhead, MN 56560.  And it’s phone number is 218-287-5802. 

ADDED:  The Fargo Forum has an online review of this restaurant. 

This is a great, simple way make a grilled pizza.  And the results is tremendous.  Here’s the recipe:

Grilled Pizzas with Caramelized Red Onions and Blue Cheese, from Let the Flames Begin by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby

One recipe E-Z Grill Bread

Extra virgin olive oil

3 red onions, peeled and sliced into thick rings

Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

1/2 cup crumbled Maytag or other good-quality blue cheese

1/4 cup parsley, chopped (optional)

Prepare the E-Z Grill Bread.  Just for quick refence, it needs about 2 1/2 hours to complete.  When it is finished, divide it into four equal portions and roll out into rounds 1/8 inch thick. 

In a large saute pan, heat a bit of olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onions, and reduce the heat to medium-low.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until well caramelized.  This could take up to an hour or longer. 

Build a fire in your charcoal grill.  This recipes assumes a 22-inch kettle style grill.  Adjust your grilling technique accordingly for other types of grills.  (Apologies to gas grill owners, I don’t own one so I can’t give any advice as to how this would be done on a gas grill.)  When the coals are ready, bank them off to one side of the grill, leaving one side completely coal-free.  Let the fire go until it is medium (you can hold your hand above the coals for 4 to 5 seconds). 

Brush one side of the dough with olive oil.  Place two rounds of dough (oil side down) over the coals and cook just until toasted.  This shouldn’t take more than 2 minutes.  While it cooks, brush the other side of the bread with olive oil.  Watch it carefully as it goes from perfect to burnt pretty quickly.  Then flip the bread over and add the toppings.  When the other side is toasted, move the pizzas to the cold side of the grill and clamp on the lid.  Cook about 3-4 minutes or until the cheese has almost completely melted.  Remove from the grill and sprinkle with parsley, if desired.  Cut and serve immediately.  Repeat with the remaining two pizzas. 

This pizza highlights the combination of sweet, caramelized onions with the creaminess and the slightly acidic sharpness of really good blue cheese.  It’s quite a dynamite combination.  The flavors are so boldly good that its very easy to overeat.  Here’s how my pizza turned out:

A few notes:  1)  I used about double the amount of cheese on my pizza than the recipe calls for.  I decided to place the reipce’s recommended portion because I think it would work better.  As much as I love blue cheese, it is very strong tasting and less cheese probably would have been more in this recipe.  While delicious, the blue cheese did dominate the dish.  2)  I used Maytag blue cheese and it was amazingly good.  It had an exceptionally creamy texture with wonderfully strong flavor.  I would suggest using the same as there isn’t anything to mask a cheese that did not taste good in this recipe.  Enjoy!

This salad is study in contrasts: Sweet and salty, crunchy and tender.  Here’s how you make it

Asparagus Salad with Sweet Balsamic Dressing, based on this recipe from Epicurious

2 lb asparagus, woody ends trimmed and cut into thirds

1/3 cup good quality balsamic vinegar

1 T Dijon mustard

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp minced garlic

3 T extra-virgin olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

1/3 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

Coarse sea salt, for sprinkling

Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil.  Separate the asparagus tips from the rest of the asparagus.  Place all of the asparagus, except the tips, into the boiling water.  Cook for one minute and then add the asparagus tips.  Cook for an additional 2 minutes.  Drain and immediately place in a ice water bath.   Remove the asparagus once it is completely cool.  Drain and then place on some paper towels to dry off any excess water. 

Meanwhile, bring the balsamic vinegar to a simmer and gently reduce by half.  Remove from the heat and place into a small bowl.  Whisk in the Dijon mustard, basil, and garlic.  Add the olive oil, a tablespoon at a time, whisking each tablespoon until completely incorporated.  Add freshly ground black pepper to taste.  Do not add any salt!

Assemble the salad by gently tossing the asparagus, dressing, and walnuts in a bowl.  Place the salad on plates and sprinkle with the coarse sea salt.  Serve immediately. 

Here’s what it should look like:

The salad should be sweet from the balsamic vinegar reduction but salty from the salted water in which you cooked the asparagus and the addition of the coarse sea salt on top.  The garlic adds a nice little bite and the sea salt and the walnuts add a nice crunch (a very nice contrast to the tender asparagus).  It’s very pretty and sharp little spring salad.

A few notes about the recipe:  1)  Do not skip the two-tiered cooking process of the asparagus.  Use the fact that this salad uses asparagus pieces to your advantage.  Asparagus tips cook faster than the rest of the stalk so any time you can cook them at a different rate, you should do it.  By cooking them for 1/3 less time than the rest of the asparagus, you should end up with perfectly tender (and al dente, if you will) asparagus tips and stems.  2)  Correctly season the water in which you cook the asparagus.  Taste the water after you add the salt, it should taste salty; like the sea, if you’ve had that pleasure.  3)  The coarse sea salt isn’t absolutely necessary to this dish-you could use kosher salt instead-but I find it added such a nice crunch and concentrated saltiness that I really wouldn’t do it any other way.  It finished the dish perfectly by adding both a texture and flavor contrast.  I used this salt from Penzey’s. 

Enjoy!

I had a charming dinner in the Twin Cities this past weekend.  Cafe Twenty Eight is tucked into a refurbished fire station that is tastefully decorated with warm and bright colors.  It also exhibits a very nice wall of historical tidbits and artifacts that detail the history of the fire station as well as some of the neighboring Linden Hills area.  As a sample of what you’re apt to see, the wall displays three ribbons given to a school for having no traffic accidents due to their crossing-guards  in the mid 1970’s.  Quirky, yes, but really quite sublime.  Not only is it a direct link to the neighborhood’s past but it shows a real appreciation for the minuteness of life there.  And I think that is how their food comes out-homey and comfortable but with an exceptional attention to detail. 

My party ordered two salads:  A Beet Salad and a Champagne Pear Salad.  The latter was quite the better of the two.  Pears were poached, sliced, and then used as a base for greens, pistachios, and blue cheese tossed in a Champagne vinaigrette.  I thought the pears were wonderful.  They were poached to the very nanosecond of perfection; just tender enough to yield easily to a bite yet firm enough to retain their shape, texture, and integrity.  They paired beautifully with the tangy vinaigrette.  The dish is highly recommended. 

The Beet Salad was constructed of perfectly cooked beets (just like the pears above) that were covered with greens, orange pieces, shaved red onion, walnuts, croutons, and a citrus vinaigrette.  I thought everything worked really well together.  The only thing wanting in the dish was some more acidity in the dressing.  It would have woken up the and heightened the natural sweetness of the beets.  Here are pictures of the Beet Salad:

My entree was a pan-seared flat iron steak with Yukon Gold pommes frites.  They were adorned with wilted arugula, truffle butter, and a green salsa.  The beef, according to their website, comes from grass fed steaks that were raised humanely.  It was deliciously beefy and perfectly seared to medium-rare.  Here’s a picture:

The pommes frites were creamy and just a little bit crisp, exactly what you would think would come out of deep frying Yukon Gold potatoes.  The wilted arugula added a nice bitterness, the truffle butter earthiness, and the green salsa just a bit of kick.  I very much enjoyed it. 

Other members of my party were also duly impressed.  The potato gnocchi had a perfect consistency, and the succulent pork loin was sitting atop some outstanding polenta.  Two others ordered lamb-one got a lamb shank and the other got chops from a rack.  The latter seemed to be the better deal as the shank was absolutely enormous and probably a little difficult to eat with panache. 

I didn’t partake in dessert but the Surly “Two” chocolate cranberry beer was quite a treat.  Nicely acidic from the cranberries with the rather odd sensation that the chocolate was somehow mellowing it out from above, if you can catch my meaning there. 

Cafe Twenty Eight is a real treat and I would welcome the opportunity to stop there again.  It’s a perfect neighborhood bistro.  

Well, it had felt like spring but my grill seems to have been covered in snow today!

Well, it was out to the grill again last night with another rib eye steak.  I do realize the frequency with which I cook with that cut of meat but, at least right now, I am reveling in seeing how this cut reacts to differing flavorings and cooking methods. 

This time around, I modified my charcoal chimney grilling method as described in this post.  Not only did I allow the steaks come to room temperature before I grilled but I used a two-step cooking process.  I start with searing the steaks atop the chimney and then I dump the coals on to one side of the grill to let me use the rest of the grill for indirect cooking.  It really worked well and I got a very nice medium-rare steak.  Here’s a picture:

And here’s the recipe

Seared Korean-Style Rib Eye Steaks with Kim Chee Slaw

Based on recipes from the Kingsford Complete Grilling Cookbook by Rick Rodgers

Enough for 4

For the Kim Chee Slaw:

1 4 inch piece of ginger, peeled, and shredded

2 T rice vinegar

2 T sugar

1 tsp hot or sweet paprika

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper, or more to taste

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 T dark sesame oil

6 cups cored and shredded Napa cabbage

4 scallions, chopped

2 tsp sesame seeds

Squeeze peeled ginger over a medium bowl to extract the juice.  There should be approximately 2 T juice.  Add the vinegar, sugar, paprika, and red pepper.  Whisk to combine.  Slowly whisk in the oils.  Toss with the cabbage and scallions.  Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour, or up to 8 hours. 

For the marinade:

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup dry sherry

3 scallions, white and green parts, coarsely chopped

1 1/2 under-ripe kiwi, peeled and coarsely chopped

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 T dark sesame oil

1 1/2 T minced ginger

3 garlic cloves

1 tsp sesame seeds

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

Mix all ingredients together in a blender, food processor, or using a stick blender.

For the steaks:

4 rib eye steaks, approximately 12-16 oz in weight, and at least 1 inch thick

Take two gallon sized plastic bags and divide the steaks and marinade evenly between them.  Close the bags and rub the marinade all over the steaks.  Let stand at room temperature while building the fire (or refrigerate for up to 8 hours). 

Fill a charcoal chimney full of charcoal.  Light and when completely ashed over, place your grate directly on the chimney.  Remove the steaks from the marinade and sear both sides of each steak, one at a time, giving each a 1/4 turn on each side to create a diamond pattern.  The steaks should spend about 2 minutes per side atop the chimney.  Then remove the grate and dump the coals on one side of the grill only, leaving 1/2 of the grill charcoal free.  Place the grate back on the grill and place the steaks on the side of the grill without coals.  Cover and let cook until your desired temperature is reached, about 4-5 minutes for medium rare.  Obviously, check your meat before and during the indirect cooking part of this process.  The size and shape of your steaks will vary the cooking time.  When done, remove from the grill, cover with aluminum foil and let sit for 5 minutes.  Serve atop the Kim Chee Slaw and serve immediately. 

These steaks are wonderfully full-flavored.  They are very like Bulgogi or Korean beef short ribs except more tender.  The slaw has a nice spiciness and just enough acidity to make it really interesting.  I will probably have to make this recipe again.  Enjoy!