Shanks a Lot

This is one of the dishes I first turn to whenever the cool weather hits us. These fabulous braised veal shanks are perfect for family dinners or entertaining. Be sure to keep some small forks or espresso spoons handy for extracting the delicate marrow from the bones. The fennel and orange flavors marry beautifully, as does the vinegar, which cuts through the fatty richness of the veal shanks.

Braised Veal Shanks with Orange and Fennel
8 osso buco veal shanks . . . please select meaty, center-cut pieces,
     approximately 14–16 oz. a piece
Kosher salt and pepper
Flour for dredging
4 T. olive oil
2/3 c. sherry wine vinegar
3 c. homemade veal or beef stock
2 medium-sized fennel bulbs, trimmed
3 c. peeled and sliced carrots
1 c. fresh squeezed orange juice
1/2 c. cooked and cooled peas (or frozen)
1 orange, peeled and segmented, freed of all connective tissue and
     filament

Preheat oven to 375. Season the veal shanks with the salt and pepper and dredge with the flour. Place the olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat and brown the veal. Reserve to a platter. Discard the fat from the pan.

Add the vinegar, scraping the pan, and reduce by half. Add the stock and reduce by a third. Return the veal to the pan, cover, and braise in the oven for an hour.

Slice the fennel lengthwise into sixths. Uncover the veal, then add the carrots, fennel, and orange juice. Raise temperature to 400 and cook uncovered for another 45 minutes, basting as you go.

Skim the sauce. Reserve the meat (it should be fork-tender) and vegetables to a platter, then return the pan to medium heat on your stovetop and reduce liquids to sauce consistency. Stir in the peas, then season and serve over the shanks.

Garnish with the orange sections. Serves 6.

Truffle Time

On November 2–3, local shoppers can buy real Urbani truffles at their local supermarket. I think that says a lot about our town. But then, on the other hand, it’s really just a convenience issue. Lunds and Byerly's are handling the shopping for you. They aren't actually going to be retailing the item regularly, but it’s a start. Here’s how it works. You pre-order at a deli service counter at any Lunds or Byerly’s store. Then the truffles will be available for pick-up on Friday, November 2, at Byerly’s in Edina from 12–6 p.m. and on Saturday, November 3, at Byerly’s in St. Louis Park from 9 a.m.–3 p.m. The truffles are from Urbani, a company I order from regularly, so you can trust them. I have seen white truffles available this season for anywhere from a few hundred dollars for a seven-ounce jar of brushed truffles (subpar product) to $400 for a fresh three-ounce truffle. That was the best price I saw all season so far. Still outrageous, but worth it. According to the company, “Because of the fluctuating market price for truffles, the exact price charged at Byerly’s will not be known until the sale dates.” What will you do with yours? If you go white, be sure to get a truffle that is not tinned or jarred, is clean and moisture-free, and is less than ten days out of the ground. D’Artagnan is currently selling white truffles for $420 an ounce and winter black truffles for $80 an ounce.

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So many books are out these days that I am digging. Check out suvir.com for a preview of my buddy Suvir Saran’s new American Masala. I love this book.

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Adam Roberts, The Amateur Gourmet, saw Alice Waters on The View and has some interesting insight, and the clip of Joy talking about chicken vaginas and beer cans to Dame Waters is as good as it gets. I love Alice Waters, but she really needs to figure out how to connect to more than just her primary core constituency. Her message is spot-on, but if she could tap into RaRay's audience for just five seconds, things would start moving in the right direction a little faster.

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Have you seen the feature on The Huffington Post that lets you see who in the food world is donating to which presidential candidate? Grub Street pointed us in that direction. Chefs are here. Restaurateurs are here.

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Ed Levine lays out contradictory positions on pasta and sauce from Mario Batali and Mark Bittman. He mentions Gwyneth Paltrow filming with the pair for a new series. I just saw Gwyneth in two movies on the plane, Murder and Shakespeare in Love. I can't wait to see her standing next to Mario and Mark in the new show. Beauty and the Beasts!

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Grist, a website dedicated to environmental news and commentary, has been running a special series on food and farming. There is a lot of cool stuff  to check out on their website, including an edible IQ quiz, an audio slideshow of the sustainable-food revolution, an interview with Pollan (of course), and a story about how CAFOs affect Iowa residents (from a real life Iowa resident).

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On JGV's blog, he writes about Michelin stars and how he would hire someone with a smile and no experience over another with four-star experience and no smile.

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Closer to home, on October 13, 2007, The Herkimer Pub and Brewery claimed a GOLD medal at the 2007 Great American Beer Festival, the largest national beer competition recognizing the most outstanding beers produced in the United States today. The top three winners in the competition's seventy-five beer style categories were announced October 13 at the twenty-sixth annual award ceremony, held at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, CO. The Herkimer Pub and Brewery's Alt beer was recognized as the best in the German Style Brown Ale/Düsseldorf Style category for its impressive malt and hop character, reddish-brown hue, overall complexity, and proprietary yeast qualities. CONGRATS Herkimer!

Time For Soup

I love soup, and this one is a home run. Best of all, it freezes well. I like to make this soup once it gets cold and rainy, and of course, it’s a great way to use up those carrots that I know are always sitting in the bottom of your vegetable bin.

Carrot Soup with Ginger and Curry
3 lbs. peeled and chopped carrots
1 lb. carrots, juiced
3 c. chicken stock
2 T. vegetable oil
1/4 c. minced shallots
4 Kaffir lime leaves
2 T. Madras curry powder
1 t. blanchan (shrimp paste)
1/4 c. minced ginger
2 sliced garlic cloves
2 red Thai chile peppers
1 T. toasted coriander seeds
12 oz. coconut milk
Lime juice and cilantro leaves for garnish

Place oil in a large pot over high heat. When aromatic, add the ginger, garlic, shallots, shrimp paste, curry, sambal, coriander seeds, and lime leaves. Cook briefly. When aromatic, add the stock, juice, and carrots. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Puree well, strain well, and bring to a simmer again, adding the coco milk. Simmer until soup has a rich, full-bodied consistency, then season with sea salt and white pepper. Add the lime juice and cilantro at the table. Serves 6–8.

Link Me

Okay, here we go with another lightning round of "Link Me!"

Tom Colicchio lost a Michelin star, and Gordon Ramsay got two for his U.S. restaurant. The best chat on the topic is this recent beauty from Frank Bruni, musing on the subject of Michelins.

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Sara Dickerman posted this a few weeks ago on Slate—what to expect from servers, tied to the new memoir from Per Se service alum Phoebe Damrosch, Service Included. A question: Since less than 1% of our population ever gets to eat at a restaurant of Per Se's caliber, who will care?

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Tony doesn't like Rachael—we know that—but this is priceless. In New York Post, Page Six talks about Bourdain's opinion of Ray's endorsement of Dunkin' Donuts.

New York Magazine’s Grub Street thinks Bourdain may be calling the kettle black, and in a sense they are right. He is. But they miss the bigger point. Tony is not conflicted because he loves donuts and slams RR because she cashes a check while saying she loves hers—or because he waxes poetic about his old druggie days. He is a social commentator, and unless he crosses the line and takes a paying gig endorsing something that he has railed against, then he should be left alone by the nattering nabobs. What he could be taken to task for would be decrying the world of commercial television while participating in it for a living. Here’s the bottom line, though, as far as I am concerned: TB is a witty, erudite, and fashionable culi-pundit. He is biting and cynical. But we all have to feed the family. I worry all the time about selling off some of my integrity—you end up making hard choices all the time, just hoping that you're making the best decisions possible as your career evolves.

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Speaking of the Post, first round of trans-fat fines have been handed out in NY (the best is the headline—"Trans-Fat Ticketers Leave No Margarine For Error"). When are we going to get some good old-fashioned anti–trans-fat legislation in our Cities?

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Did you ever grab something off of someone’s plate and then regret it? This guy did. Here’s a dude who eats his girlfriend's pork chop, then she stabs him with her fork and knife. I don't know about you, but it seems pretty reasonable to me:

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And finally, though I didn't even know it existed, I now may never experience the erotic corn-dog eating competition at the Iowa State Fair.

All Hail King Corn

As a die-hard Yankee fan, there is nothing more pleasurable than seeing the Boston Red Sox looking so demoralized when the camera pans their bench. If there is a God in pinstripes, the Sox will squeak by the Tribe in seven and then get bageled by the Boys in Black in the Series. And how about young Eli and my New York football Giants? But I digress . . .

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One of the best pieces of storytelling I've seen in a while, especially for those fifteen people on the planet who still have not read my favorite food book of the last twenty years (The Omnivore's Dilemma), is the documentary King Corn. Joe Drape in The New York Times had a great piece last week about the film, which is in limited release. The movie, like Pollan’s book, makes a good case that, among other things, “government subsidies have lead to the overproduction of corn at the detriment of public health."

Some more of Drape's quotes from the NYT, as quoted in Ain't It Cool News:

That issue lives at the heart of King Corn, which "takes the position that America's most valuable crop is overproduced" and that it takes a toll "on the environment, public health and family farms." While that sounds like a polemic, the filmmakers—Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney— say that wasn't their intent. Their hope, they say, is simply "to raise awareness about how the food on our plates gets there, for better or worse." Their device is to grow an acre of corn in Iowa and follow its path from an Iowa grain elevator to a corn-fed cow farm in Colorado, as well as to Brooklyn, where they "examine how high fructose corn syrup in sodas has contributed to the nation's high obesity and diabetes rates."Their tone remains respectful of Iowa and its farmers, perhaps most surprisingly during a nursing-home visit with 98-year-old Earl Butz, who was Richard Nixon's agriculture secretary and "the architect of modern farm bills." Curt says his plan was to "take down," Mr. Butz, but he found himself disarmed. Calling corn "our secret weapon," Mr. Butz said: "We feed ourselves with only 16 or 17 percent of our take-home pay. That is marvelous." Curt couldn't disagree—even while knowing that the acre of corn he had grown for the movie "would have lost $19.92 but became profitable with a government subsidy of $28." As Curt puts it: "We do not have all the answers . . . there are not fifty simple ways to save the planet."

So if you spend 40% of your income on housing and, stretching Butz's numbers slightly, 20% on food, then is it really true that we spend 60% of our dough on room and board in this country? No wonder no one ever saves any money.

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Speaking of money, if you are looking to splurge a little, here are some ways to do it.

La Belle Vie is celebrating its second anniversary at its 510 Groveland location with a six-course wine tasting dinner at 6 p.m. on Thursday, November 1. Special guest Terry Theise, named “Man of the Year” by Wine & Spirits Magazine and hailed by The New York Times as the “voice of Austrian wine,” will be there.

The cost is $135 per person, plus tax and gratuity.There is limited seating available and reservations are required. For more information or reservations, contact La Belle Vie at 612-874-6440 or visit the website.

D'Amico Cucina is celebrating their twentieth birthday, and their Cucina tasting menu will be comprised of menu items from the original 1987 D'Amico Cucina menu. The special menu will be offered from October 26 to November 10 and will also be available a la carte. The tasting menu with wines is $135. On the menu:

CONSERVA D'ANATRA, MELE, MENTA

Warm Conserve of Duck, Apples and Fresh Mint
Orvieto, Antinori "Campogrande" 2005

DENTICE ALLA MELANZANE, SALSA DI POMODORO E MELANZANE

Snapper Wrapped in Eggplant, Eggplant Tomato Sauce
Arneis, Ceretto "Blange" 2006

GNOCCHI DI FORMAGGIO DI CAPRA CON SALSA DI NOCE

Goat Cheese Dumplings with Walnut Sauce
Chardonnay, Jermann 2005

POLLO NOVELLA ALLA GRIGLIA CON ERBE E OLIO

Baby Chicken Grilled Peasant Style with Herbs and Oil
Grinolino d'Asti, F. Rinaldi 2005

SCALLOPINI DI VITELLO CON SALSA DI BOTTARGA

Pan Fried Veal with Tuna Roe Sauce
Barbaresco, Ada Nada "Cichin" 2000

TORTA RICTOTTA CON FRUTTA CANDITA

Ricotta Cheesecake with Candied Fruit
Vin Santo, Isole e Olena 1996

Finally, for $40 less than either of those two dinners, you can dine on November 13 with the Alsatian sensation and winemaker Paul Zinck at Fugaise. Five courses from chef-owner Don Saunders will be paired with six wines. Because of the small seating capacity, this one will fill up fast.

So who's going? I wonder, do the same fish from the same pond bite on the same lures in this town? As customers, do you think restaurants should continue to do events like this? For the restaurateurs in the room, do they work for you from a profit or PR standpoint? Discuss!

Loafing Around

Everyone has their go-to version of meat loaf, and everyone thinks theirs is the best. I'm no different. But in case you are still looking for yours, this is the answer to your prayers. I love to make sure I have some of this for leftover meat loaf sandwiches that I serve on toast with Heinz chile sauce.

The Real Deal Meat loaf
1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. ground veal
1 lb. ground pork
3 T. butter
1 large onion minced
3 ribs minced celery
1 c. blanched and drained spinach . . . frozen is OK, but be sure that it is squeezed well to remove excess moisture.
2 pinches fresh grated nutmeg
1 c. chopped tomatoes . . . canned is OK.
2 c. dry bread crumbs
1/2 c. sherry
1/3 c. heavy cream
2 eggs, beaten
4 T. tomato paste, softened in a few teaspoons of water
2 slices bacon

Place the butter into a large sauté pan over high heat. Add the onion, spinach, celery, nutmeg, and tomato. Cook until soft and glassy.

Add the sherry and cook until dry. Cool, then pulse for 4 or 5 seconds in a food processor. You don't want to purée it, but you want to be sure there are no big chunks. Place into a bowl and add the cream, bread crumbs, eggs, and meats. Combine well and season with salt and pepper.

Place one slice of bacon inside a large rectangular loaf pan. Add the meat mixture all at once and spread tomato paste mixture over the top of the meatloaf. Place a piece of bacon over the top of the paste. Put the loaf pan into a 325-degree oven for about 2 hours.

Remove and cool for 15 minutes before unmolding, slicing, and serving.

The Last Week Show

Last week I was on the Today show. FUN! Here are the highlights:

I revisited some of my fave NYC haunts while shooting the taped package they ran right before my live segment with one of their correspondents. Jenna Wolfe and I went to Carnegie Deli, Jewel Bako, Bowery Congee, and several other hot spots that I adore. They did a nice job with the taped piece, but they played the “fear factor” card a bit too much, I thought. The day of the show, we arrived nice and early and hung in the green room with Chris Matthews and his entourage of brainy politicos. Matthews is a baseball nut, and we chatted about the Yanks, Twins, and the AL. Twinkle (Jenna Bush) arrived amidst a hailstorm of security. The First Family’s personal security detail is an awesome thing to see in action, especially up close. Originally I was going to be on the couch with Matt, but since Jenna did three segments inside with Anne, the producers thought I should be outside on the plaza with all four hosts. It was a difficult thing to pull off. Four minutes, five egos, ten plates of food . . . . I would have preferred to spend the time talking to one host about sharing food and experiencing other cultures, but I’ll have to wait until next time. Meredith and Matt are very kind and sincere people, very welcoming. Roker is a goofball. Curry is phenomenal. She is the most calm and inclusive host on the set.

My wife and I were staying at the Ritz, just a block away as the venerable Plaza Hotel turned a hundred years old. Matthew Broderick cut the cake. We ran downtown before the scene got too hectic and had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Da Silvano. This restaurant has been open since I was a young man, and it’s nothing fancy—a small little trattoria—but the food is great and the people-watching even better. We had thin buttery slices of prosciutto that come served on a sheet of thick butcher paper, a large bowl of steamed mussels, sautéed calf's liver with sage and brown butter, and some spaghetti puttanesca . . . but the stars of the night were the twelve truffle courses. The fresh white truffles of Alba are just now in markets, and the owner of the restaurant showered us with a few dishes that are part of their fall truffle menu. First we tried the creamy white polenta, topped with a quartet of perfectly fried quail eggs crowned with a small snowdrift of shaved white truffle. Next up was a small softball of milky and warm burrata with shaved bottarga and white truffle. Oh my lord, are white truffles good.

 

Plaza birthday cake.

Below: Tongue and brisket at the Carnegie; polenta with quail eggs and truffles.

 

Below: Yoshi at Jewel Bako sharpening his knives; shinso flowers; octopus sashimi with green tea salt, pickled cucumber, and shiso flowers at Jewel Bako.

 

And finally, everybody loves durian . . . !

Crime, Germs, and Criminal Pathogens

For years, I have been decrying the sorry state of regulation, labeling, consumer education, and mass production in our food world. I am not alone in that effort, and what's more, I've been a follower, inspired by some truly vibrant thinkers on this subject, everyone from Michael Pollan to Eric Schlosser. The Topps Meat Company, one of the largest in the country, is now out of business after issuing the second largest beef recall in US history just last week. An entire year's inventory—21.7 million pounds of beef—may have been tainted with a deadly E. coli bacteria. USDA spokespeople promised to speed-up warnings and encouragement of potential recalls in the future. Oy vey. Closer to home, Cargill has recalled close to a million pounds (as of Sunday) of a premade beef patty that has shipped nationwide, including to Sam’s Club stores, where some Minnesotans bought the product and fell ill. Cargill learned of the situation just last Friday and acted quickly. Anyone need more convincing that something is really wrong with our relationship to food? In our undeniable lust for cheaper and more convenient foods, we have created a food production chain that can kill us.

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My dad came into town last week—happy 80th, Pop!—but some thoughts from his visit still linger. When he comes into town, he prefers to stay downtown in Minneapolis at his regular room at his fave hotel, so I am ferrying him back and forth a lot, with plenty of time for us to chat in the car. One day, as we are driving down Hennepin Ave. between 8th and 7th, cruising past City Center and looping around Block E, my dad turns to me and says, “Not very inviting or safe-looking is it?" And this from a lifelong New Yorker who still walks everywhere he goes and doesn’t scare easily. Cops on all the streets shaking down roving packs of wannabe hoodlums, open drug transactions. There are few cool restaurant scenes or great shopping on street level in the heart of downtown, just huge bars with cop cars outside keeping an eye on drunk kids. I had never seen it that way until we looped the block a few times to see what we could see, hoping we were wrong. We weren’t. I admire our local city government for what they are doing to make it safe for citizens in downtown Minneapolis, but at a certain point, we must be doing something wrong if our downtown is more combat zone than vibrant center of daily life. Take a drive around the City Center and Block E next Friday or Saturday evening. It’s not pretty.

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I checked out the Shrine Circus over the weekend—pretty tame stuff, not very exciting, fewer acts than there should have been, small crowds, and RIDICULOUS security all over the place. The vibe was not family-friendly at all. It was as if they were expecting trouble any second. And when intermission came and went and the second half of the circus started, the Dominguez Motorcycle Riders came out to the blaring tune of Mötley Crüe’s “Girls, Girls, Girls,” replete with two-dozen scantily clad, preening cheerleaders gyrating the crowd into a frenzy. I had to wonder who the core demo of the show was. My two-and-a-half-year-old loved it all, by the way. I’m no prude, but all of this just had me shaking my head. All the local news chat about animal cruelty and the petitioners working overtime to disallow the use of animals in the local version of the circus have got it wrong. The greatest injustice is the one perpetrated against the paying public.

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In the USA Today the other morning I saw a health piece by Kim Painter pointing out that 23% of men leave the washroom without washing their hands. She asserts that the reasons are always the same when you ask someone why they don’t wash up—it takes too long, it doesn’t make a difference, and hands look clean. WHO ARE THEY ASKING??? Everyone I know will tell you that it’s because most public restrooms are filthy and grabbing onto faucet handles in them is something no sane person would do . . . and of course I now always carry antibacterial wipes.

All this is my way of saying that the older I get the more I turn into a cross between Howard Hughes and Howie Mandel.

Grits

So I had lunch with my son at Brasa last week—what a fabulous joint that little place is. Anyway, it made me get out my favorite grits recipe after I ate Alex's version. Here it is. I serve it either with roasted, whole corned beef glazed with maple-bourbon-mustard sauce or under grilled quail. (For the latter, take 12 semi-boneless quail and marinate overnight in 2 c. of fresh orange juice. Grill over high, direct heat and brush with apricot preserves thinned with a little cider vinegar and brown mustard.) These grits also are fabulous with roasted ham . . . I'm making myself hungry.

Cheddar Cheese Grits
4 c. milk
1-1/2 c. quick-cooking grits . . . Quaker Oats brand work great.
1/4 lb. plus 4 T. butter
2 t. butter for the baking dish
2 t. salt
1 dash hot pepper sauce
12 oz. of grated, sharp farmhouse cheddar cheese . . . Grafton works
     well.
3 eggs, well-beaten
Butter for frying

Butter a long, rectangular baking dish—Le Creuset works great, as does Pyrex. Preheat oven to 375. In a large sauce pan, bring the milk and 2 c. water to boil over high heat. Pour in the grits, and stir well.

Pull from heat and stir in all the seasonings, cheese, 1/4 lb. butter, and the eggs, stirring well. Pour into the prepared baking dish and place in the oven for 1 hour at 350 degrees. Let cool for 10 minutes, then serve.

Top Chef . . . and Many Links

After watching the Top Chef finale last night, I can assure you justice was served. Hung deserved to win. Casey and Dale both could have won, but in the finale meal, they underwhelmed. It also shows that ultimately, the best dish wins. Hung's sous vide duck was the best plate last night, according to those who ate it. Listening to Ted Allen and Padma Lakshmi talk food is a painful experience. Neither one is a legitimate opinion-maker or really knows what they are talking about. They are created characters, essentially. All you had to do was listen to Rocco, Todd, Michelle, Colicchio, et al. talking about the food throughout the finale to see that Allen and Lakshmi are devoid of any credibility. Congrats to all, especially our own Brian Malarkey, who very easily could have been in the final three. The New York Daily News has this exclusive web-interview with the producer of Top Chef about the show.

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So much to link to today.  For starters, David Bouley is opening a restaurant with Yoshiki Tsuji in New York. Tsuji is the president of Japan's largest professional cooking school. This merging of East and West is quite possibly the largest and most important food trend of the last fifty years.

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You may have already seen this, but Ruhlman and Bourdain are doing "The Golden Clog" awards.

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Frank Bruni writes about restaurant nomenclature in his blog.

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Want to help improve school foods? (Want to watch Jared from the Subway commercials talk policy on C-SPAN?)

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Check out this cool toy.

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My friends in Chicago all tell me mixed things about Grant Achatz's health (Achatz has mouth cancer). But along similar lines, a reader of Grub Street wrote in for suggestions on where he should eat before an operation that may take away his sense of taste. Grub Street enlists Eric Ripert to cook him a meal he'll never forget.

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I am a huge stickler for labels and info. Here is an awesome little video on PLU codes and how to read them. The skinny? Conventional: four digits. Organic: five digits beginning with a nine. Genetically modified: five digits beginning with an eight.

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Here is a NYT article on New Yorkers that eat outdoors—that is, suffer through eating outdoors just to be more European, even though eating outside sucks. I don't know about you, but it would be great to have more three-season outdoor-eating venues here in the Twin Cities.

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Do you remember all those bad boy chef stories that mentioned Mario Batali? Here is a wind-up Mario toy that flips pasta in one hand and has a bottle of scotch in the other. By the way, he looked physically worse on Jimmy Kimmel the other night than I have ever seen him. 

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Here's a food-on-stick that sounds awesome: tornado potato.

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Next week, I'll fill you in on my Today Show experience, with pictures.

October Mailbag

In seven-plus years, I have never received more mail on customer disappointment than I have from e-mailers recently about bad experiences at Harry’s. If the sampling is any indication of how things are going there, the restaurant isn't long for this world. Second place goes to Landmarc. Is it just me or has there been a veritable explosion of mediocre restaurants?

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One of the issues in the local dining world is a shortage of talented operators who are demanding enough and capable of training staff and molding kitchens. But according to another e-mailer, the Twin Cites market is oversaturated with wine vendors and distributors. I am quoting here a former salesperson for a venerable company:

We are all climbing over each other to harass restaurant owners who can smell us coming from across the street and hide in the basement until we leave. Some of us are actually doing a good job of seeking out the small boutique production wines, unusual varietals, biodynamic-sustainable production, and generally stellar wines. Others are simply selling on brand recognition and price. I guess the real question I have is whether the Twin Cities market is ready for Inzolia, Nero d’ Avola, Trincedeira, and Moschofilero, or are we content to swim in a sea of animals on the label, Marilyn-Seven-Deadly-Big-Red-Randy-Bicyclettes, giant conglomerate stuff you can find around the corner in the $5 bin? And more pointedly, is there is room in the market for forty-eight wine vendors?

Sound familiar?

I think the answer is that there are fewer restaurants looking to really educate staff and grow a real wine program than there are restaurants looking to serve really good food. Am I wrong?

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Russell Klein’s Meritage is opening next month, and Klein e-mailed me to point out that Meritage will be downtown St. Paul’s only owner-operated, food-driven table-cloth restaurant. He also pointed out that the last three restaurants to close there (Margaux, Fhima's, and A Rebours) all closed because of reasons other than the state of dining in the city itself. Agreed. Margaux closed because it served bad food in a bad location and was a dull restuaurant; Fhima’s was just bad, period; and A Rebours kept sliding off everyone’s radar screen as the food got worse and worse, and as Doug Anderson focused more of his attention on the new Nick and Eddie project in Minneapolis. However, my point in previous blogs has been that the customers are not in downtown St. Paul, and I think restaurateurs need to go where the customers are. I think Meritage has a great chance of succeeding, but if they were up on Grand Avenue, they would fill more often, fill earlier, and do more business.

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Got a few e-mailers who saw me on talk shows or heard me on national radio programs over the last few weeks. I was in NYC shooting a new series for Travel Channel called What’s Your Trip, a Talk Soup–style show that features gobs of awesome user-generated content. Check out the Travel Channel for details on attending the Travel Channel Academy video school—it’s fantastic. I was in NY for Fashion Week and had a great meal at Momofuku and at Olives in the W Union Square. Randy Gerber’s Underbar is pretty cool there as well. I had a ginger ale one night there and saw everyone from Jordin Sparks to Kanye West hanging out.

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According to a reliable source, Boba Café in Brookdale is serving some really good Hmong food. The guy who told me about Va Lor clued me in to it.

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According to an e-mail from Joan Ida, her Hong King project is not moving along as fast as she would like, and she is coming home to Minneapolis after some traveling in Asia. Here is my wish to the food gods that she opens up a high-end Chinese restaurant on Grand Avenue in St. Paul in the space across from CVS pharmacy, the old Bober Drug space.

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Does anyone ever watch TasteTV?

Duck a l'Orange

October is here. Who cares what the temperature gauge says or how the local teams did over the weekend? Who cares how much time a dish takes to cook now that the season has turned? I am getting ready for hibernation, so break out the cream and butter and dust-off the kettle . . .  or if you like, blow the cobwebs from a French classic and get cooking. This recipe reminds me why great food is timeless. I cut the back bones out of the ducks when they have rested for 20 minutes after cooking, serving the duck in quarters. Two servings is half a duckling—a large portion per diner, but I rarely serve it any other way.

Duck a l’Orange
2 large Pekin (Long Island) ducklings, about 5–6 lbs. each
5 c. fresh orange juice
4 buds star anise, ground or crushed

The Sauce
4 c. rich duck stock or veal stock
1 c. fresh squeezed orange juice
1/4 c. Grand Marnier
6 cloves
Zest of 1 orange
1 shallot, minced
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 c. sugar
1 t. lemon juice

Prick the ducks with a sharp fork and wriggle the skin to loosen. Marinate the ducks for 24–36 hours in the orange juice and ground star anise. I use the super-sized Ziploc bags.

Remove ducks from marinade, discard marinade, and place ducks on a rack in your refrigerator. Dry for 12 hours refrigerated and then 2 hours at room temperature.

Rack the ducks over a roasting pan, season with salt and pepper, and stuff the cavities with rosemary and sliced oranges. Preheat the oven to 350 and roast ducks for 2 hours, turning and basting with the fat, pricking the skin occasionally when the leg joint wriggles in its socket.

Place the sugar and lemon juice in a high-sided saucepan over low-medium heat and slowly let it caramelize without stirring. When golden light brown, pull from heat and stir in the shallots, orange zest, and spices. Add the stock (it will bubble a lot—keep stirring), then the cup of orange juice and Grand Marnier, stirring. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to maintain a simmer, and reduce to sauce consistency. Season with sherry wine vinegar, salt, and orange zest. Strain and keep warm.

Serve the duck with the sauce. Serves 4–6.