It’s been a surreal, sultry winter for us in the upper midwest. Like a tuber or budding branch, I’m unsure of whether winter is already over or not. With the prospect of a meager inch or two of snow this weekend, I had to make one of my favorite French classics before we’re supposed to shed this winter weight: tartiflette.
by Austin Coe Butler
Rush Creek Reserve is a highly coveted, seasonal cheese made from the raw, autumn milk of cows at the precise moment they transition from fresh pasture to cured hay. This decadent, custard-like cheese is girdled in a band of spruce, which imparts a woodsiness at home in the winter kitchen and at holiday meals. Cheesemaker Andy Hatch was inspired to make Rush Creek Reserve by his time as an apprentice cheesemaker in the Jura region of France where he made Vacherin Mont d’Or, another coveted, seasonal, and spruce wrapped soft cheese. While often compared to Mont d’Or, Rush Creek Reserve is a unique and incredible cheese in its own right.
I’ve written previously about baking your Rush Creek and its place on my Thanksgiving table, but here is a nod to the traditional Mont d’Or bake you’d find people enjoying in the Jura on a special occasion or winter’s night. It’s bound to leave you scraping the last of your Rush Creek from its bark.
1 Rush Creek Reserve
1 garlic clove, minced
3 or 4 springs of hearty, winter herbs like rosemary, thyme, sage, marjoram, or savory, minced
3 teaspoons dry white wine
1 lb/450 g fingerling potatoes
An assortment of charcuterie like speck, France 44’s house made summer sausage, or Lowry Hill Provisions salami
Cornichons or other pickles
Good bread like Patisserie 46 Baguette or Baker’s Field Table Loaf, both available at France 44
Preheat your oven to 375º F.
Cut the top off the Rush Creek Reserve and set it aside. Add the garlic and herbs before mixing. Add the wine and cover with the top. Place the Rush Creek on a sheet of tinfoil and wrap the foil around the sides of the cheese. You can make this look as elegant as you’d like. Bake the Rush Creek for 15-20 minutes until hot, but not overcooked and split.
Meanwhile, place the whole, unpeeled potatoes in a pot of cold, salted water and bring to a boil. Drop the heat to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes or until tender. Drain and reserve in the hot pot.
While the Rush Creek bakes, assemble your spread. Slice the bread or tear it apart with your hands. Shingle the speck. Slice the salami. Shake the brine from the cornichons. Serve the potatoes piping hot. Pour yourself a glass of wine.
Once the Rush Creek is ready, serve it immediately with small plates and a single spoon. This is a meal best enjoyed with your hands. There’s nothing quite like the snap of a potato split in two and dipped into bubbling cheese.
by Matt Gruber
Quack quack, quack quack quack honk... Ahem, excuse me I forget sometimes not everyone can read duck - but duck is exactly what we are cooking this week. Never in my adult life did I think I'd return to duck. It was a dish served to a young me, beer can style, shotgun pellets on the side. Absolutely horrified and having an immature palate I had no idea what I was consuming. This was all just normal cabin life at the time; you know, ants in the syrup are just added protein vibes. I always tell this story and it is funny to look back on, but I figured duck was spoiled for me forever.
Flash forward to a little local butcher shop sourcing humanely raised, locally sourced, delicious duck (hold the shotgun pellets) - my mind was changed.
It's speculated that long before everyone's favorite dinner option was chicken, duck was the real star. The Chinese domesticated ducks some 4000 years ago and started the legacy of this delicious dinner option which now offers so many different directions, spins, and takes on countless dishes. Trying to not do duck à l'orange as a tired cliché of the 1960's, I wanted to still incorporate orange, but add a little rosemary and make a nice finishing sauce to add on top while keeping the duck simple with salt and pepper. To accompany this, I've also whipped up a side of Les Moulins Mahjoub hand rolled couscous with almonds and cranberry. A perfect dish for a perfect fall day.
1 Duck breast
1 knob of butter
1/2 cup Dried almonds
1/2 cup Dried cranberries
1 cup couscous
1 1/2 cup chicken stock for couscous
3/4 cup chicken stock for sauce
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 orange plus zest
2 sprigs rosemary
1 tbsp onion, minced
Sauce
Add 3/4 cup chicken stock, knob of butter, juice of one large orange plus zest, and rosemary sprigs to the saucepan and bring to a boil. Once a rolling boil is reached, reduce heat and simmer until thick. (should thicken out by the end of all the cooking)
Couscous
Lightly toast almonds, cranberries, and onions prior to adding in chicken stock and bringing to a boil. Add in 1 cup couscous, slightly cover and reduce heat- wait until couscous has absorbed all the chicken stock.
Duck Breast
Start your duck breast skin side down on a cold cast iron or your favorite heavy bottom pan, heat set to medium/medium-low. Cook for 5-6 minutes or until golden crispy skin. Flip over and cook for 2 minutes, remove from pan and let rest for another 3 minutes.
Plate and enjoy!
by Austin Coe Butler
Bavette is a little known cut of beef here in the states. It’s similar to a flank steak in that it comes from the bottom sirloin, but it’s a bit thicker and more marbled, giving it a deeper, beefy flavor and remarkable juiciness. With this in mind, some believe that butchers conspire to keep the steak for themselves, which has given bavette the reputation as “the butcher’s cut.” It’s rich, beefy flavor can hold up to a stronger cheese like Roquefort. This recipe is a combination of two classics, the French bistro classic steak frites, which often features bavette, and the American steak house staple of steak and blue cheese.
4 tbsp beef tallow or vegetable oil
2 tbsp unsalted butter
12 oz shallots, thinly sliced
11 oz fingerling potatoes
1 lb Bavette
1 sprig of rosemary
2 garlic cloves, crushed
125ml dry red wine like Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinot Noir
4 oz Vermont Creamery crème fraîche
4 oz Maison Carles Roquefort, crumbled
2 tbsp beef stock
1 tbsp chives
Salt and pepper to taste
Season both sides of the bavette generously with salt and pepper. Allow it to temper while you prepare the rest of your ingredients.
Slice the fingerlings in half and place them in a pot of cold, salted water. Bring the pot to a boil then drop the heat to medium and cook for 8 minutes. Strain the potatoes and reserve.
Meanwhile, in a pan over medium heat, caramelize the shallots in a tablespoon of oil and a knob of butter. Reduce the heat and sweat, stirring often, until caramelized, about 20 minutes. If the shallots look like they are sticking or scorching, add a splash of water to release them. Despite what the internet may tell you, there’s no shortcut to jammy, caramelized alliums, so pour yourself a glass of wine, put on your favorite podcast, and enjoy your time babying those shallots.
Finish the potatoes. Heat two tablespoons of oil in a pan over medium high heat. Add the potatoes and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally until lightly crisp and golden.
To cook the bavette, place it in a pan over medium high heat with a tablespoon of oil and cook for 4-5 minutes on one side depending on its thickness. Flip the bavette and then add in the 2 tablespoons of butter, garlic, and herbs, and baste the steak for another 4-5 minutes. Remove the steak from the pan when its temperature reads 10º under your preferred doneness, for example, if you prefer medium rare you would pull the steak at 125º and allow the residual heat to carry the steak to 130–135º. Allow it to rest for a minimum of 5 minutes.
To make the Roquefort sauce, begin by removing the excess fat, rosemary, and garlic from the pan. Over medium heat, deglaze the pan with the wine and scrape up the fond, those crispy, browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Add the stock and then reduce the liquid by half. On low heat, add in the crème fraîche and Roquefort, stirring until the cheese is incorporated. Add the chives and cut the heat.
To serve, cut the bavette against the grain. Plate with a the caramelized shallots and fingerlings. Serve with a generous spoonful of the Roquefort sauce. And, of course, if you have any leftover Roquefort you can crumble it on top of the steak. Bon appétite!
by Austin Butler
Hafod (pronounced “Havod”) is a feral little truckle of Cheddar made on Bwlchwernen Fawr in western Wales. It’s the perfect cheese to enjoy in that pub classic known as a Welsh rarebit, not only because of its provenance, but because of its flavors. This wheel of Hafod is beautifully cracked with blue veining, adding a rich umami to the smoky lard and Cheddar tang I pick up in the cheese. I enjoy having a rarebit alongside a salad, something to cut through the unctuousness with some herbaceous crunch. As apples are coming into season alongside walnuts, I can’t think of a better salad than one of shaved fennel, orchard apples, and walnuts with a tart and sweet dressing of apple cider vinegar and honey.
Makes 6 Welsh Rarebits
For the Welsh rarebit:
A generous knob (about a tablespoon) of butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup/200 mL beer like Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale or Guinness
1 tablespoon of mustard, either powdered Coleman’s or Dijon
½ teaspoon cayenne
2 tablespoons Col. Pabst’s Worcester Sauce
450 g Hafod Cheddar or other mature, strong cheese, grated
Crusty bread like Bakersfield’s Good ‘Wich of the North
For the salad:
1 small tart apple
1 fennel bulb
30 g walnuts
25 g olive oil
25 g ACV
16 g honey
2 g salt
In a saucepan over low heat melt the butter. Add the flour to the pot and stir continuously to form a roux. Toast the roux until blonde and fragrant, about two minutes. Slowly add in the beer while stirring to prevent lumps. Add the mustard, cayenne, and Worcestershire sauce and bring to a simmer. Add the Cheddar a handful at a time. Adding the cheese too quickly will cause it to split, so be patient, this can take a few minutes. Once a smooth sauce has formed, reserve it in a small bowl and cool until pastelike.
Toast the bread. No floppy rarebits here, please.
Heap a few generous spoonfuls of the thick, velvety cheese sauce right to the edge of the bread and broil it until smoking, bubbly, and browned. You want a few crispy edges to form.
Allow the rarebits to cool for a few minutes, then make a crosshatched pattern on the top and shake a few drops (or “lashings” as the Brits say) of Worcestershire on. Serve immediately with a pint. Top with a fried egg to make a “buck rarebit.”
For the salad, slice the fennel and apple thinly, preferably on a mandoline. Roughly chop the walnuts and add them to the fennel and apples. Dress with olive oil, vinegar, honey, and salt. Toss to combine, including any fennel fronds that may have come alongside the bulbs. You can make this salad in advance if you withhold the salt. I quite like this salad throughout the autumn, especially alongside pork chops and a celeriac purée.
by Anna Glassman-Kaufman
Can you tell we love pasta around here? There’s just nothing quite like a big bowl of pasta after a long day.
For this recipe, I’m going to need you to forget everything you’ve ever learned about cooking pasta. There’s no pasta water to salt, no ‘al dente’ to achieve. This dish originating in Puglia, Italy has you cook the pasta in the method of risotto, low and slow with periodic additions of tomato broth along the way.
It’s aptly named “Spaghetti all’Assassina”, or the Assassin’s pasta - the dish is spicy, crispy, and keeps you on your toes.
All you need: spaghetti or another similarly shaped pasta, tomato sauce, tomato paste, red pepper flakes, olive oil and garlic. This recipe serves 2, but feel free to double to feed 4. If you’re going any bigger than that, I’d recommend splitting it into two pans, to ensure maximum crispiness.
The recipe comes together in under a half hour, and you probably already have all the ingredients in your pantry! But lucky for you, we carry them all in the shop too (even gluten free options!)
Ingredients:
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp tomato paste
8oz dried spaghetti
1 cup tomato sauce (we sell our house-made sauce in the refrigerator case, or pick up some San Marzano tomatoes and make your own!)
1 ¾ cups water
Parmigiano Reggiano, freshly grated
Combine the water and tomato sauce in a pot over medium heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer.
In a 12-14 inch skillet (the wider the better), heat up the olive oil on medium heat.
Add the garlic and chili, and a bit of salt and pepper. Stir until the garlic begins to brown and is very aromatic, then add the tomato paste. Stir with a wooden spoon and cook for about a minute.
Spoon about ½ cup of the tomato broth into your pan, and stir to mix all ingredients.
Next, add all your dried pasta in one layer into the pan. Spoon another ½ cup or so of tomato broth onto the pasta and move around with a fork or tongs to be sure that every piece of pasta is coated in the broth.
Now comes the hardest part - patience. Let your pasta cook for a few minutes at this stage. This is the one way the recipe differs from risotto. If you stir and agitate your pasta constantly, you won’t get the satisfyingly crispy bits at the bottom of the pan. Move around slightly just to ensure it’s not sticking, but let the hot oil and sauce do its job.
After about 4-5 minutes, or when the pasta has absorbed all of the liquid, begin adding the additional liquid, one ladle at a time. As the pasta cooks, you can move it around slightly to create a nice even layer on your skillet.
Continue this process until you’ve added all the broth. At this point, it’s time to turn up the heat a bit and flip over that pasta. Check carefully to ensure that you have a nice toasted, almost burnt base on your pasta, then use a fork or tongs to flip it all over, like a pancake. Turn the heat up and cook the other side to get a nice toasty crust on there as well.
Plate immediately and serve with grated Parmigiano Reggiano, freshly cracked black pepper, and a nice glass of red wine.
By Matt Gruber
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Most of those times of day are when I like to enjoy some good ol' fashioned BBQ Ribs. Oddly enough, ribs haven't always been a "pit" staple. It wasn't until the 20th century that people started really dabbling with barbecued ribs. Part of this has to do with people neglecting the tougher and gristle heavy cuts of the animal. Most people were delighting themselves with the more tender and easier to deal with cuts.
I myself felt lost and confused that I couldn't recreate the delight I have had from smoked ribs in my travels down south at places like Papa Turney's Old Fashion BBQ in TN - and even right here at home at places like Ted Cook's 19th Hole in Minneapolis. I was stuck on the idea of needing a smoker to have tender, fall off the bone barbecue at home. Turns out all I needed was patience, acceptance of no smoke, and an oven that can hold a low temp (I think this one is pretty common).
Pork ribs are such an easy day off food that I believe everyone should explore. Leftovers for a breakfast hash, pull off the bone for a lunch sandwich, or a full on spread for a picnic inside dinner, this is how you start your new obsession.
Ingredients for homemade BBQ sauce:
1 cup chicken broth
½ cup ketchup
1 cup grated onion
2 tablespoon Worcestershire (highly recommended Col Pabst)
1 tablespoon mustard
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
¼ cup molasses
Optional - 2 teaspoons your favorite hot sauce
For the rest, all you need is pork ribs and your favorite sides
Salt and pepper pork ribs 24 hours ahead of time
Preheat oven to as low as 200, but somewhere between 200-215
In a small sauce pan add together all BBQ ingredients and salt and pepper to taste
Whisk together and reduce until sauce consistency and set aside
Place ribs in oven uncovered on middle rack, sit back and relax.
Once the ribs reach an internal temperature of 200, glaze with BBQ sauce and broil until internal temperature reaches 215 and has a nice bark.
There you have it, it’s mostly a waiting game until 215. You cannot screw this one up! Depending on the size of the ribs, allow yourself ~1 hour per pound, maybe even a bit more is a good rule of thumb. Also, don't be ashamed to just use some good old Sweet Baby Rays either (not a sponsor).
by Matt Gruber
One of the greatest joys of working behind the counter at any of our locations is talking about food and recipes with customers. Oftentimes, sharing and exploring new corners and regions of dishes I never would have thought to explore or combine.
One afternoon a customer proposed the question “Is oxtail the right cut for my ragù?” Stumped for a moment, I admittedly had no idea. So, the conversation evolved and I found myself bringing home an oxtail to put it to the test. I love oxtail as much as the next person but had never worked with it at home. A bit unsure I grabbed some ground pork just to be safe. After doing a bit of research I had no idea I was walking into a classic Roman style Ragu - coda all vaccinara. Ragu in the style of the butcher. It was meant to be. Caught up in an 18th century dish I never knew I needed in my life.
The sheer velvetiness of the sauce caught me off guard. The oxtail is traditionally served on the bone, so I wanted to try that for my first experience with the recipe. It can be a little awkward though, so I would recommend shredding the meat. This ended up being one of the best meals I’ve created in a long time.
Ingredients:
1 QT Beef Stock
1 Package Spinosi Pappardelle
1 Oxtail
⅓ # ground pork
1 Medium onion, diced
2-3 Stock of celery, sliced into half moons
4 Cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
Fresh basil to taste, I put a few leaves in the sauce while reducing
1 Jars LC (La caterdral de navarra)
2 Jars Bionatura Strained Tomatoes
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 block Cravero Parmigiano Reggiano
Steps:
In a large dutch oven, brown ground pork and oxtail ~3-5 minutes a side over medium heat
Add garlic, onion, celery and half of the beef stock and bring to a boil
Add the 3 jars of tomatoes with the rest of the beef stock and simmer
Continue to reduce until you have a thick sauce, approximately 4-5 hours occasionally scraping the fond off the sides.
Bring 5L of water to a boil, then cook the pappardelle for 3-6 minutes or until al dente
Shred meat off of the oxtail bone and return to sauce.
Assemble a bowl and garnish with fresh basil leaves and grated Parm. And there you have it, a simple yet outstanding ragù.
Cook, serve, delicious
by Sean Lawrence
The humble galette, the short rustic pie that it is, excels as a format for showing off simple yet delightful ingredient combinations. In this case: the beautifully sweet and ripe tomatoes at the very end of the season, salty and tangy feta, and herbs fresh from the garden (I used mint and parsley, but also recommend: basil, tarragon, chives or thyme)
Dough
1 cup AP flour
6 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cubed
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 black pepper
1-2 tbsp ice water
Filling
4 oz Essex St. Lesbos feta
2 medium tomatoes
2-3 tbsp fresh herbs
Kosher salt
Olive oil
Combine flour, salt, and pepper. Blend in cold butter with a pastry blender or sturdy fork, or by pulsing in a food processor. Add water in small increments until it forms a loose crumbly dough. Form into a ball, wrap with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least one hour.
While waiting for the dough to chill, cut tomatoes to 1/4 inch slices. Lightly salt both sides and place on towels to drain. Crumble or dice feta. Chop herbs and reserve about a tablespoon for garnish.
Preheat oven to 425. Roll out chilled dough to a 12 inch circle. Trim the edges into a clean edge if desired, or leave the uneven edges for a more rustic feel. Transfer dough to a baking sheet. Arrange feta on the dough, leaving 1.5 inches along the perimeter to later fold over. Next layer herbs, then drained tomato slices, and a drizzle of olive oil. Fold and pleat the outer edge of dough, pinching the corners of each fold to stick them together. Bake 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and fragrant. Allow to cool briefly, then slice and serve with herbs and more olive oil.
by Austin Coe Butler
August means an inundation of tomatoes, a true embarrassment of riches. The feral, skyward sprawl of tomato plants begin to sag and snap under the weight of dozens of jewel-like tomatoes each bearing an incomparable fragrance and sweetness. The gardener vacillates between ecstasy and dismay at this boundless harvest. Here’s a modern take on a classic sauce to help you get through all those tomatoes.
Pasta al Pomodoro is a quintessential Italian dish—simply pasta with a rustic, chunky sauce of tomatoes, garlic, basil, and olive oil. This “2.0” version from EXAU Olive Oil takes one simple cue from modern gastronomy to create a phenomenal dish. By blending the sauce and utilizing the natural pectic in tomatoes, a rich emulsion is formed, creating a silky sauce that is the very flavor of summer.
This recipe is the time to show off simple ingredients of exquisite quality, and you can find them all with the exception of the basil in our shop. We have gorgeous, ruby-like cherry tomatoes and heads of fresh garlic. Our impressive array of olive oils are right alongside them, and an honest wedge of Cravero Parmigiano Reggiano is waiting for you in the cheese case.
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1-2 garlic cloves smashed
1 peperoncino or small red chili pepper (fresh or dried) (We sell garlands of dried Calabrian peperoncini)
5 leaves of basil
1 lb cherry tomatoes, the sweeter the better
1 lb pasta, preferably a long noodle like spaghetti or Makaira Chittara
4 tbsp Georgio Cravero Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
Bring a large pot of abundantly salted water to a boil.
Quarter the cherry tomatoes.
In a small sauce pot, add the garlic and peperoncino. Cover with the olive oil and set it on low heat. If using dried peperoncino, add it with the tomatoes to insure it doesn’t burn. Cook until the garlic turns fragrant and golden, usually 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the cherry tomatoes to the pot and raise the heat to medium. Stir and cover. Cook for 18 minutes, stirring every few minutes.
Add the basil and a pinch of salt. Cook for another 2 minutes. Cut the heat.
In a blender or using an immersion blender, puree the sauce into a velvety consistency, think Campell’s tomato soup.
Cook the pasta 2 to 3 minutes shy of the manufacturer’s recommendation for al dente.
Add the sauce to a large pan over low heat. Transfer the pasta to the pan with the sauce along with a ladle of the starchy pasta water. Raise the heat to medium-high and toss the pasta continuously.
Remove from the heat and add the Parmigiano Reggiano. Stir to combine and serve immediately, finishing with a thread of extra virgin olive oil.
