My daughter Stacy called me the other day and told me she had been to a relatively new restaurant in Duluth and had enjoyed what she said was the best hamburger she had ever eaten. Well, that got my attention because I am always on-the-hunt for a great burger. Today I had the opportunity to try that place, which is the Clyde Iron restaurant that just opened this year back in May. The head chef is Robert Giuliani who I will have the privilege of working with on a dessert event in February. Teresa and I went there today for lunch and I ordered his Steak Burger, which can be cooked to a medium-rare if you like, and I do, so I ordered it with the Smoked Cheddar cheese, Tomato, Lettuce, Mayo and Caramelized Onions. To be fair, the cook forgot to put the onions on it but it was so good that I didn't notice. The bun was nicely grilled and the burger is cooked over an oak-fired grill. The cheese lent a very nice smoky note to the dish and to me the classic burger is dressed with tomato and lettuce with mayonnaise. They offered several choices of cheese and toppings, like a spicy sauce so I asked the server what the sauce was and she said it was a spicy ketchup. I am not a ketchup guy so I went with the mayo and it was excellent. Up until this burger my "gold standard" had been between two burgers; the first is the Kobe Beef burger at the Crooked Spoon in Grand Marais, MN and the second,believe-it-or-not is a chain restaurant burger from Outback Steakhouse in Duluth. Both of those can be ordered medium rare and they were my favorites to date. Robert's version is just as good as either of those, as they each have their individual high points, so I would say we have three equal winners in my estimation.
I tried another one a couple of weeks ago after watching an episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives which featured the Duluth Grill. They offer a Roasted Garlic burger and it sounded intriguing to me so I ordered it. Major disappointment. The burger was way overcooked, it was served on a whole wheat bun, which is just wrong and there were no garnishes at all. I won't be back.
The hunt continues for excellent food!
Good eating,
Tim
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Wild Game Feed
I spent the entire day on Friday cooking for my second annual Wild Game Feed at my church, the Vineyard here in Duluth, MN. Now I know some of you reading this are thinking that wild game is a definite downer in terms of culinary delight but I have spent a great deal of time figuring out how to make Venison and Elk, Pheasant, Bear and Moose taste very good.
I had some wonderful help to make this dinner come off well and I want to thank my friends Bob James, Joshua Herbert and Charlie Plys for making it work well and providing a good experience for about 150 men.
Bob, Joshua and I spent some quality time together creating some cool dishes for the boys to eat. Bob and I had about 30 lbs. of donated ground Elk to deal with so I decided to make meat loaf out of it. We added a dozen eggs, a full box of crushed saltines, a bunch of fresh parsley, finely chopped, 3 finely chopped onions, a cup of chopped Cashews, a few cups of grated Parmesan Reggiano, some Worcestershire sauce, some Frank's Hot sauce and a little salt and pepper. We formed the mix into free-form loaves on sheet pans lined with foil and wrapped half of them with bacon strips, leaving the rest plain. I put a probe in the center of one of the loaves and set it to 160 degrees in a Blodgett convection oven ( marvelous machine) and about 1 hour later we had some very nice meatloaf. In the meantime we had a little extra mix leftover so we made some patties and fried them in a saute pan to test the product and it was truly good stuff!
The same donor of meat also provided about 15 lbs of Elk Steak so I decided to make Elk Bourguignon from half of it and braise the other half in a combination of beef stock, Young's Double Chocolate Stout, Thyme, Rosemary and Crushed Red Pepper flakes, a little Worcestershire sauce and some onions and carrots.
The Bourguignon goes as follows:
10 slices thick cut bacon
2 T. Olive oil
5 lbs Elk steaks cut into 2" pieces
2 carrots, sliced
3 sweet onions, sliced
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
4 Tablespoons flour
1 bottle Red Wine
3-4 cups beef stock
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
3 cloves smashed garlic
1 teaspoon fresh Thyme leaves
2 crumbled Bay leaves
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees
Saute the bacon in the oil over medium heat for 2-3 minutes until lightly browned.
Remove to a side dish. Dry the Elk with paper towels so it will brown well. Saute a few pieces at a time in a large, oven proof dutch oven (or two, spitting the ingredients between the two) over high heat until well browned on all sides. Add it to the bacon. In the same fat, brown the slice vegetables, then pour out the remaining fat, if any. Return the Elk and bacon to the casserole and toss with the salt and pepper. Sprinkle on the flour and toss again to coat the meat. Set the casserole in the oven, uncovered, for 4 minutes. toss the meat again and back into the oven for another 4 minutes. Remove the casserole and bring the oven temp down to 325 degrees. Stir in the wine and stock so that the meat is just covered. Add the tomato paste, garlic and herbs and bring to a simmer on the stove. remove from the stove and cover, placing in the oven for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily and it begins to fall apart. Serve over mashed potatoes or egg noodles.
The next dish we made was a Wild Rice Pilaf:
1 lb Wild Rice
1/2 lb long grain white rice
3-4 strips of bacon cooked crisp and crumbled
1/2 cup Craisins
1 cup diced sweet onion, sweated in a saute pan
Cook the wild Rice and white rice in chicken stock according to their respective instructions and then combine all the ingredients in a bowl or in one of the pots used. Season with salt and pepper as needed and serve with any main dish above.
Good eating,
Tim
I had some wonderful help to make this dinner come off well and I want to thank my friends Bob James, Joshua Herbert and Charlie Plys for making it work well and providing a good experience for about 150 men.
Bob, Joshua and I spent some quality time together creating some cool dishes for the boys to eat. Bob and I had about 30 lbs. of donated ground Elk to deal with so I decided to make meat loaf out of it. We added a dozen eggs, a full box of crushed saltines, a bunch of fresh parsley, finely chopped, 3 finely chopped onions, a cup of chopped Cashews, a few cups of grated Parmesan Reggiano, some Worcestershire sauce, some Frank's Hot sauce and a little salt and pepper. We formed the mix into free-form loaves on sheet pans lined with foil and wrapped half of them with bacon strips, leaving the rest plain. I put a probe in the center of one of the loaves and set it to 160 degrees in a Blodgett convection oven ( marvelous machine) and about 1 hour later we had some very nice meatloaf. In the meantime we had a little extra mix leftover so we made some patties and fried them in a saute pan to test the product and it was truly good stuff!
The same donor of meat also provided about 15 lbs of Elk Steak so I decided to make Elk Bourguignon from half of it and braise the other half in a combination of beef stock, Young's Double Chocolate Stout, Thyme, Rosemary and Crushed Red Pepper flakes, a little Worcestershire sauce and some onions and carrots.
The Bourguignon goes as follows:
10 slices thick cut bacon
2 T. Olive oil
5 lbs Elk steaks cut into 2" pieces
2 carrots, sliced
3 sweet onions, sliced
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
4 Tablespoons flour
1 bottle Red Wine
3-4 cups beef stock
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
3 cloves smashed garlic
1 teaspoon fresh Thyme leaves
2 crumbled Bay leaves
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees
Saute the bacon in the oil over medium heat for 2-3 minutes until lightly browned.
Remove to a side dish. Dry the Elk with paper towels so it will brown well. Saute a few pieces at a time in a large, oven proof dutch oven (or two, spitting the ingredients between the two) over high heat until well browned on all sides. Add it to the bacon. In the same fat, brown the slice vegetables, then pour out the remaining fat, if any. Return the Elk and bacon to the casserole and toss with the salt and pepper. Sprinkle on the flour and toss again to coat the meat. Set the casserole in the oven, uncovered, for 4 minutes. toss the meat again and back into the oven for another 4 minutes. Remove the casserole and bring the oven temp down to 325 degrees. Stir in the wine and stock so that the meat is just covered. Add the tomato paste, garlic and herbs and bring to a simmer on the stove. remove from the stove and cover, placing in the oven for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily and it begins to fall apart. Serve over mashed potatoes or egg noodles.
The next dish we made was a Wild Rice Pilaf:
1 lb Wild Rice
1/2 lb long grain white rice
3-4 strips of bacon cooked crisp and crumbled
1/2 cup Craisins
1 cup diced sweet onion, sweated in a saute pan
Cook the wild Rice and white rice in chicken stock according to their respective instructions and then combine all the ingredients in a bowl or in one of the pots used. Season with salt and pepper as needed and serve with any main dish above.
Good eating,
Tim
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Underground Dining
It has been what seems like an eternity since I have posted here and I attribute much of that to recovering from this "attempt-at-flying" accident I had this August. It has taken forever to get to feeling normal and I didn't feel like eating for a long time and cooking was really a lot of work. I has been just over 3 months and I am finally feeling like I'm coming back to a sense of normalcy.
During that time I have told you about some ice creams that I have tried and that has been fun. I sat my kids down during one of the holiday celebrations and we talked about some ice cream flavors they might like to see. Here are a few of them:
Candied Almond
Bananas Foster
Pumpkin Pie
Dark Chocolate Cherry
Amaretto
Egg Nog
Cardamom
Chocolate/Cayenne
Dark Chocolate/Caramel/Sea Salt
Malted Milk
Toasted Coconut
Malibu Rum
Browned Butter
Those are some of the ideas my kids came up with and I like all of them. It will take a while to work my way through all of these along with the normal fun of cooking for daily life but it will be a great adventure in any case.
Another adventure that is coming up in the next couple of weeks is an annual wild game feed at my church, the Vineyard Church here in Duluth. I did my first one ( and their first one) last year about this time and it was an absolute blast!
Many, many folks donated game and brought their own dishes to be shared and it was a total success. We fed about 100 to 120 people with plenty for everyone.
Last year we cooked Elk Sliders, Walleye Cakes, Baked Walleye fillets, Venison Bourguignon,
Wild Rice Pilaf, Roast Wild Turkey and a host of other fun things. It happens this year on the 17th of December and if you might think of coming you are officially invited.
Another adventure that has been rolling around in my head is something I mentioned here some time ago and haven't yet pursued. My friends Lisa, Anita and I have been kicking around the idea of an "underground dining" experience where we would invite 10 to 15 people for a 5 course meal including wine and charge 25 or 30 dollars a head for the evening.
I recently watched a show on the cooking channel called The 4 Coursemen that did just this. There was a group of 5 people that collaborated on a dinner in a house in Georgia somewhere and did just what we have been talking about. It was fascinating! I am getting more and more pumped to do this. My friend Lisa has a large enough dining area to accommodate 10 or 12, I think, and she is interested in this concept as well. We need to get together and work out the details and find our 10 to 12 people to invite that might be willing to part with enough money to make it happen and we would all enjoy some killer food together. We will be getting together in January for a brunch event that involves our normal gourmet group and I am sure we'll talk about it then, if not before.
Enough of my food ramblings for now,
Good eating!
Tim
During that time I have told you about some ice creams that I have tried and that has been fun. I sat my kids down during one of the holiday celebrations and we talked about some ice cream flavors they might like to see. Here are a few of them:
Candied Almond
Bananas Foster
Pumpkin Pie
Dark Chocolate Cherry
Amaretto
Egg Nog
Cardamom
Chocolate/Cayenne
Dark Chocolate/Caramel/Sea Salt
Malted Milk
Toasted Coconut
Malibu Rum
Browned Butter
Those are some of the ideas my kids came up with and I like all of them. It will take a while to work my way through all of these along with the normal fun of cooking for daily life but it will be a great adventure in any case.
Another adventure that is coming up in the next couple of weeks is an annual wild game feed at my church, the Vineyard Church here in Duluth. I did my first one ( and their first one) last year about this time and it was an absolute blast!
Many, many folks donated game and brought their own dishes to be shared and it was a total success. We fed about 100 to 120 people with plenty for everyone.
Last year we cooked Elk Sliders, Walleye Cakes, Baked Walleye fillets, Venison Bourguignon,
Wild Rice Pilaf, Roast Wild Turkey and a host of other fun things. It happens this year on the 17th of December and if you might think of coming you are officially invited.
Another adventure that has been rolling around in my head is something I mentioned here some time ago and haven't yet pursued. My friends Lisa, Anita and I have been kicking around the idea of an "underground dining" experience where we would invite 10 to 15 people for a 5 course meal including wine and charge 25 or 30 dollars a head for the evening.
I recently watched a show on the cooking channel called The 4 Coursemen that did just this. There was a group of 5 people that collaborated on a dinner in a house in Georgia somewhere and did just what we have been talking about. It was fascinating! I am getting more and more pumped to do this. My friend Lisa has a large enough dining area to accommodate 10 or 12, I think, and she is interested in this concept as well. We need to get together and work out the details and find our 10 to 12 people to invite that might be willing to part with enough money to make it happen and we would all enjoy some killer food together. We will be getting together in January for a brunch event that involves our normal gourmet group and I am sure we'll talk about it then, if not before.
Enough of my food ramblings for now,
Good eating!
Tim
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