Happy Holidays Troops!
Recently I had the pleasure of having dinner at The Kitchen Restaurant, as a congratulations from my best friend Nicole, and I did promise that I would try a couple of things from their December menu. The evening was fantastic! I hadn't been there since July so it had been awhile since I had seen Chef De Cuisine Noah Zonca. And while other guests insisted on calling him "Chef Noah", not me. I had been there far too many times to fall into that trap. He's Noah, my buddy who happens to be an EXCELLENT Chef. Sometime during the night the conversation somehow got to my past brief stint as a Pro Wrestler. And when Noah was made aware of my ring name, he was like a puppy with a new toy. He told me that "You never should have let me hear that! That is your name from now on!" Nuts. Pretty soon people would stop by my table "Hi Sugar Bear!", or "Hey Sugar Bear, are you really a regular here?" It was all in fun though and Noah really is a good guy, so much so that he shared a couple of the recipes basics for a two of the courses that night. And as promised I did try them and I will share my results here.
The first thing I tried was their French Onion Soup. He made it sound easy, but in reality... The first thing I promised myself was that I would try and stay as close to the real thing as possible and would only deviate if absolutely necessary. So this morning Patty and I headed out to the Farmer's Market to collect the needed ingredients, first up I needed the onions. I needed some yellow onions, some Pearl onions, and some cippolinis. Not a problem. I also picked up some Swiss Gruyere over at Corti Brothers for the toasted topping. The recipe called for some Beef Stock, Duck Stock and Veal Stock. Beef was no problem. but locating some Duck and Veal stock was an issue. I had made my own Chicken stock in the past but wasn't quite ready to experiment withe making a duck and a veal stock. So I substituted with a Chicken stock instead. That was the only deviation from the recipe that I made.
So to get started I needed to carmelize my onions, and while that is a time intensive task it is one necessary to the soup. For the uninitiated, carmelizing onions is simple, Slice up the onions and then get a wide pan, heat that up on medium-high and put in a little olive oil, then place the onions in the pan and stir them so they are all coated and let simmer for 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes, sprinkle some salt on the onions and as they brown spread them around and let them all brown evenly, this will take 30 minutes or so. I can't stress that you must take your time, you don't want to fry them, just let them brown. Carmelizing onions is like spending time with a ladyfriend, you have to take your time and go nice and slow...
Once the onions are nice and brown, then add 1/4 cup of flour to the pan and then its time to add the liquor. 1/2 cup of Port. 1/2 cup of Madera, 1/4cup of Cognac. Once the alcohol cooks off, then add the stock and a 1/4 cup of whole grain mustard, stir often and after about 30 minutes or so it should have all integrated and thickened nicely. After its simmering take a piece of bread, I used wheat, and slice some of the Swiss Cheese and place the cheese on the bread and broil until melted and place the bread on the soup after its in a bowl and....there it is...French Onion Soup. With a HUGE assist from Noah at the Kitchen, this was all possible because of his help. The taste is exquisite, not quite the Kitchen, but really good. So good that I will be doing it again, and for guests. It was a lot of new flavors and took awhile, but the end result was definitely worth it!
The next task was the Lobster Mac & Cheese, the only instruction I got from Noah was Bechamel Sauce and the three cheeses involved, White Cheddar, Talleggio and Parmesean. From there I was on my own.
This time the journey began at Corti Brothers for the cheeses, all three were present and accounted for so that was not a problem. I chose not to add the Lobster because I wanted to get the basic down first before I tried to poach some Lobster. After picking up the proper pasta, Radiatore, I was ready to go. Once I got back to the "Big Sexy Kitchen" I began the bechamel sauce. For this I used 5 teaspoons of butter, melted slowly, in a wide pan, and as the butter is melting take another pot and add 4 cups of milk to it and get it hot, not boiling, but hot. At the same time I started to boil my pasta water. After the butter has melted stir in 4 tablespoons of flour and once that's all together, begin to add the milk one cup at a time, and whisk until its smooth, then bring to a boil and reduce heat and let it simmer for 10 minutes whisking it periodically. As the sauce is simmering, add your pasta to boiling salted water, and the pasta should be done right as the sauce is finished. Let the pasta continue to cook in the hot water but reduce the heat from boiling, and turn the sauce to low. then take 1/3 cup of each of your cheeses and add them to the sauce, and they will melt in seamlessly, use the whisk to further smooth out the sauce. Drain your pasta and add it to the sauce, season with salt and a touch of nutmeg and serve hot. This one was ridiculous! I will NEVER make Mac & Cheese any other way again! This is the one! I can't stress enough how delicious this is, and once I do it again and add the poached lobster to it...
What's next? Don't know yet, but it will be tasty...
Thanks for reading and as always all comments are welcome!
Marc Wiggins Esq. (That sounds so nice...)
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