It all depends

Monster size okra.

What's the best okra? Chef get this kind of question all the time. We live in a culture that demands to know what the best is in every category and chefs, restaurants, and ingredients are not immune to this unnecessary need.

I acquired some okra from Trillium Haven because it was passed over. There was nothing physically wrong with it it just happened to be large in size. It seems that small tender okra is what everyone was interested in so those were quickly picked out leaving the older stuff that is commonly described as "woody".

The irony is that tender okra is easy to over cook. Extremely easy. So what would happen if one set aside common knowledge and took large woody okra and didn't bother coddling them with low heat and careful stirring for a gumbo?

Not only did the okra not turn to mush it maintained a tender texture that could be described as a little al dente. So what is the best okra. It depends. What are you making?

Ferry ring mushrooms

I'm not saying it's safe to eat these little guys but I have never had an issue. As the name implies the grow in a circular formations. Usually in grass.

To think tomatoes used to be considered poison

Final product. Heirloom tomato salad. Tomatoes, pistou, Cowslip Creamery Phocas, and cold polenta cut into cubes. 

Only the best at the market. Trillium selling the best looking tomatoes at the Fulton st. Farmer's Market.

I am not above using factory seconds when the flavor is this good. The Tom Waits of tomatoes if you will.

Not wanting to haul out the food processor to make a little bit of pistou the herbs were chopped with the garlic and oil was added to make a paste.

Cowslip's version of a gruyere style. I was warned that it was young and should age a bit but it was perfect in this salad as a young or fresh cheese was required. Thanks to Jana Houske Deppe.

When you're handed lemons.

This was not the post I wanted to write. In fact, this is not the food I wanted to cook but that's beside the point.

It has been increasingly popular for chef's to craft their menus around the concept of what food must have looked like "pre-refrigeration". Curing, canning, pickling, and fermenting to name a few of the techniques employed. I was one of those chefs and that was my culinary focus as well until I was forced to look at food in a whole new light.

Now instead of pondering a time without the ice box I was pondering a time without food (or at least the money to frivolously spend on food) and as a chef I felt compelled to not just feed my family ramen and mac & cheese but to find a completely new way to cook using what was cheap but in season and nutritious. Small bits of affordable meats and whole grains coupled with copious amounts of fresh vegetables. A whole new way to look at cooking.

That was when it hit me. I wasn't inventing a new way to eat I was simply joining the rest of the world (or a least the majority of it). Chefs are a tad bit full of themselves by nature but to think that I somehow invented eating like a poor person was taking it to a whole new level of arrogant.

All I was doing was rediscovering American peasant food at it's best. Its how most of the world has eaten for thousands of years and how we should eat now. Lots of vegetables and fruits in season, whole grains and beans, and small portions of meats and cheese raised humanly.

I have been humbly lead to
see food differently and it's likely in the near future others will as well. Large hunks of meat with small bits of vegetables served out of season is not sustainable financially or ecologically.

How about it? Lets turn lemons into lemonade.

Nappa cabbage, brown rice, mayacoba bean, ham bone.

Lentils, onion, and savoy cabbage with cayenne.

Stir fry of broccoli, beef, onion, scallion, egg, radish, and chicory

Ratatouille made with fresh picked squash, zucchini, tomatoes, and shallot.

Zucchini, mayocoba bean, brown rice, and tamari.

San Fran

Cowgirl creamery.

Would love to see one of these in GR

San Fran

Gaia Cafe

I have a special place in my heart for The Gaia. Even without meat on the menu owner, Rick Van Dam, has some of the tastiest food in GR. Their buckwheats are the best pancakes in town served with actual maple syrup. The Gaia cookies are addictive. And of course the mean green burrito. The combination of black beans, brown rice, and house made tomatillo sauce is well worth the lack of pork or ground beef.

It was also the first scratch kitchen anyone was foolhardy enough to let me loose in and where I met and worked with Matthew Millar whose better known for cured meats and pork belly than tofu and seitan.

Lots of history in a place that started out in the room that now houses the kitchen and used a wood stove for heat. It's the place that inspired me. It's the place that made me want to cook.

Respect

First puffballs of the season

Puffballs were probably the first mushroom I successfully foraged. They are easy to spot and identify for an inexperienced mycologist too green to dare eat anything that might resemble the deadly Amanita aptly named the, "Death Angel".

Usually fall is the time to keep an eye out for giant puffballs and I have a few spots in the city that hardy ever fail to produce a nice supply. It was truly a mitzvah to find some in June and they made a nice late afternoon snack

I get a sense of pride scrounging around in parks and maybe even your front yard for wild bits of edible goodness. Right about now I expect to find fairy rings and maybe if I'm lucky some milkies.

Tacos in The Mission District.

Barbacoa and lengua respectively. The Barbacoa was excellent. Tender and juicy and seasoned just right. The lengua was a bit underdone but delicious. The price was extremely low ($1.50ea)

Below a couple al pastor tacos also dressed traditionally with white onion and cilantro. Spot on delicious.

Gino's my neighborhood pizza joint

Ever since I lived in Eastown I have frequented Gino's Pizza. I'm not going to go on a lengthy diatribe about how it is the best in town cause it's not. It is; however, a solid neighborhood pizza joint in an area littered with the usual corporate pies that serves good food at reasonable prices.

I went in the other day to get my old stand by: sausage , mushroom, onion and noticed the pinball machine was unplugged and it was unusually cold inside. There was a space heater behind the counter and the owner said it was to save money. I'm not a genius but it was obvious that business was hurting at Gino's while just across the street Papa John's had a brisk business.

Breakfast ribs #3

For this go around we dry rubbed Berkshire pork ribs with salt, ancho chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, cocoa powder, and a bit of coffee from Mad Cap.
Next after letting the ribs cure a few days they were finished in our combi oven with a moisture percent of 40%. Cheating? Hell yeah it is. But I wanted to try to find a setting on the combi that might work for brisket without having to cover it in a pan to retain moisture and this seemed like a good place to start.
The ribs turned out nice and tender. The added moisture really helped and had me wondering if the old time pit masters didn't throw a little water in once in a while.

Staff meal#4 duck tamales

Duck "nuts"

I have hesitated to ever put an item like these on any menu because they are throughly addictive. shredded duck confit breaded, fried, and served with a honey dijon. Nothing difficult but delicious all the same. We made these for a VIP table requiring an amuse and of course a few extra for the team.

Duck confit

Not much to say. Just cure them and cook in duck fat until they are fall apart tender.

In England they have a word for the bar in your neighborhood that is closest to you. Its called your "local" and while I was there I had mine. It was down the block and called, "The Grenfell Arms". It was a small pub with a few rooms to let and they served food at dinner time. I knew the bar keep and could always stay around for another after last call. It was more than a bar it was a place to talk, shoot what the British misinterpret as a game of pool, and a place for a lost soul to refuel.

Back home in GR I have the Pickwick. This is my "Cheers" the place where everybody....well at least somebody knows my name and I have been coming to the Pick since before I could legally drink. Its not what you think, I went there to get ice and pick up cooking wine for the chefs at Gaia.

This was the place where we would go to not only watch the World Series but also all major pollitical debates and happenings. I remember having the good fortune to be able to immediatly and completely drown my sorrows when bush won a second term in office back when it was Whitbread on draught.

This is the bar I will bring my son to for his first pint. It is the place you wish you frequented but can't "deal" with the lack of "variety" and for that I am glad.

Staff meal #3 scotch eggs

Well more like a snack. We put these together as an amuse for a guest. Made with 20th centry market kielbasa. The best kielbasa I have found in Grand Rapids to date.

Pig drawing #2

Staff meal #2 taleggio and pork belly mac and cheese.

Not a light meal, but after a crushing week it hit the spot. Many thanks to the banquet crew for the hook-up.

House-cured sardines

One of the biggest culinary disappointments I find is the bad reputation that sardines have. A good lightly smoked sardine is one of the most satisfying pleasures of life and a while back my favorite brand became impossible to find (Bela) I decided to make my own.

Gutted and bones removed they were lightly salted overnight, rinsed, and dried. Last hot olive oil was poured overtop and they were allowed to slowly cool before being stored in the walk-in for a week. They turned out quite well. Next attempt will be to lightly smoke the fish.

Do the math. I count 12 wheels of roaring forties.

Pig drawing #1

At the Winchester when they were redoing the bar

Latke technology 101

I have been searching for a way to make ready to fry latkes for years. Yeah I like the way they run around the room at Barney Greengrass in NY asking not whether or not you want latkes but how many, but I always wanted to make latkes to order in a restaurant setting. I have experienced what happens when potatoes are grated raw after an hour. Liquid weeps out and all turns grey, and they do not fry well at all. I also have seen what happens when they are fried ahead of time and reheated (forgive me Bubbi Wepman I hope you are not reading this).

That is where science comes in. Potatoes cooked at about 149f will act as both raw and cooked. They grate like raw but won't turn grey and weep liquid and when mixed with minced onion, matzoh meal, egg, and salt and pepper will make a mix good all day and not to bad the next. They will also not crumble like a cooked potato.

Early attempts on the griddle were successful. Lots of nooks and crannies.