The menu was devised with the idea of promoting alternative proteins for the non carnivore. Beans, whole grains, tempeh and tofu would all make an appearance in the meal. For the appetizer Chilly was set to make crackers to pair with Megan’s creation of Hillbilly Hummus. The crackers are a pretty simple recipe that allow for infinite variation in toppings and flavourings. The Hillbilly Hummus is an interesting spin on traditional hummus with a southern flare using black eyed peas in place of chick peas and peanut butter in place of the sesame tahini.

Jack, being the master of all things uncooked got tasked with the salad; endive and quinoa salad with poached eggs.  Endive is one of those more underrated, underused and under-appreciated vegeatables (more possibly on that at a later date).  The quinoa is a unique product that is usually considered a grain, but is in fact a seed.  Quinoa is found in most supermarkets with the rice and beans and has a nutty flavour.  Here the quinoa was added atop a salad of chopped endive and vegetables and a balsamic vinaigrette.  The whole salad was further enriched with a perfectly poached egg.  The egg yolk mixes with the salad ingredients to add a certain unctuousness to the whole dish.

The main dish I took care of was the maple mustard tempeh.  This is a fairly common dish to be served in our household as it’s tasty and pretty simple.  Tempeh is a pressed and fermented soybean patty.  It also has a nice nuttiness that works well in multiple presentations.  Here the tempeh was marinated in a fairly neutral marinade before frying in a pan.  The tempeh needs a bit of marinating as it’s a pretty dry product (see un-marinated and tasteless blackened tempeh slab from the Lundi Gras Chef’s Night).  The tempeh is glazed in pan with a combination of dijon mustard, maple syrup, hard cider and cider vinegar.  Simple and fantastic.  The maple mustard glaze can easily be applied to any protein and would be great on chicken or pork as well.

The vegetable side was a dish of balsamic glazed brussels sprouts.  The brussels sprouts is one of the most unloved vegetables on this side of the planet.  Many people dislike the funky quality of this relative of the cabbage family.  This dish may have been the easiest to prepare and has made re-appearances in this house.  The sprouts are roasted until golden brown in the oven then topped with a simple balsamic vinegar glaze of two parts vinegar to one part sugar.  The sprouts are finished with a sprinkling of dried cranberries to add some textural contrast and a pleasing sweet-tart flavour.

Bob was our Indian specialist for the evening as he was tasked with a palak paneer.  Paneer is an Indian cheese that is a simple preparation of whole milk and lemon juice.  The mix causes the milk to curdle and the curds to separate from the whey.  The whey is poured off and the curds are pressed with cheesecloth typically overnight but for this evening only for about two hours which still resulted in a pretty firm cheese.  The cheese is then fried on its own to give it a bit of a crust and body then set aside before the palak (spinach), tomato and spices are sauteed up.  Traditionally, palak paneer is more of a gravy of pureed spinach but Bob went crazy and left it unblended and it resulted in a much fresher and heartier version once the cheese was added in at the end.  It was a great idea and it makes me wonder why this doesn’t get prepared like this more often.

Megan took on the vegan tofu chocolate pudding.  This is another favourite recipe around the house and it’s great to serve to the unsuspecting (once you know they don’t have a soy allergy) as no one would guess the main ingredient is tofu.  A brick of silken tofu is whirred up in a blender with melted chocolate, Kahlua and golden syrup.  The intention of the recipe was to put it into a chocolate cookie pie crust but the crust was too dry and unusable, so pudding it is.  Still darn tasty.

Sadly, I can’t remember all of the beer pairings.  I do remember a Detroit lager for the hummus and salad.  A nut brown ale to pair with the brussels sprouts, tempeh and palak paneer.  Finally, a lambic for the dessert.  I have to admit I normally don’t like lambics and was trying to find a polite way to decline, but Jack’s choice was really good and a perfect pairing for the pudding.  Rounding out the evening was a bloody mary with almost an entire salad as garnish.  Perfect.

In the end it was a pretty successful and satisfying meal.  Everyone seemed to enjoy a meatless meal and no one (to the best of my knowledge) snuck in any bacon to eat while my back was turned.  The great thing about a vegetarian meal like this is that it is fairly adaptable and can be served to carnivores and herbivores without coming off as a health meal.  The point of this meal was not to create a meal using meat substitutes but to use proteins suitable for a vegetarian diet.

Delicious

-///

The French Hottie

Popular U.S. opinion is that French wine has a certain “mystique”. Unfortunately no one really knows what that word means anymore, so it has become an alias for “overpriced” and “not immediately enjoyable”. The people who believe this are the same Neanderthals who slept through French class in college, and never noticed the sweet, sexy girl in the second row who somehow had a better accent than anyone else. I miss that girl. I think she’s in the bottle in front of me.

This is another capable Rhône designed for bistro food, and a long, fantastic conversation about poetry, movies, politics, and the color of her eyes (there I go again…)

2007 Le Clos Du Caillou Côtes du Rhône (About $20)

Learn more about the winery (French language only): http://www.closducaillou.com/site/spip.php
Learn more about the bottle in front of me (French language only): http://www.closducaillou.com/site/spip.php?page=fichevins&id_article=109

Love to see what's under THAT label...

SEE: A deep, majestic, and clear ruby red. Lightens to an even medium red at the rim.
SWIRL: It coats the glass beautifully with even, slow legs.
SMELL: A floral perfume over a bed of solid musky leather. There beef blood in there, and lots of dark berries. As the alcohol blows off, there’s some intriguing barnyard and bacon aromas.
SIP: Wonderful black cherry and cassis are upfront, but it’s not long before the muted spice notes emerge, with orange peel and cloves.
SAVOR: There’s a long evolving finish that starts dusty and hot, but resolves to bitter chocolate.  Nice solid structure and balance to this.

Final impression: A lusty wine to savor slowly and enjoy its finer aromas. This one will age well for several more years.

Pair with: Classic French bistro fare. Boeuf Bourguignon, rich cheeses.

Some of the tomatoes in pots from last year's garden.

As somebody who enjoys good food and cooking, I know that my finished product is only as good as the ingredients that I put into it.  This is especially true when it comes to fresh produce, as so much of the conventionally grown fruits and vegetables are now grown for shipping hardiness, rather than actual flavor.  A sad waste, in my book!  True, we can now get almost any sort of produce, grown anywhere, at any time of the year, but is it actually worth buying?  In the case of tomatoes, I have to say no.

I remember growing up with tomatoes, real tomatoes, that came fresh from the garden.  They were a focal point on our BLTs. They were sliced and lightly pickled with vinegar and onions.  They were tossed with fresh mozzarella and basil.  They were broiled with herbs and Parmesan on top.  Best of all, they horrified my early fall lunch mates in school when I would pull one out and eat it like an apple, juice dripping everywhere.  They were bright red, acidic, and had names like Big Boy, Early Girl and Rutgers.  These tomatoes were picked very ripe and traveled no further than to a neighbors house.  Is it any wonder that I find today’s hard pink supermarket tomatoes to be somewhat lacking?

I decided to take matters into my own hands.  Two summers ago, for the first time, I decided to try planting some cherry tomatoes.  We put a few pots out back, had 3 or 4 plants, plus 2 of jalapenos.  Last year I decided to expand, so had 10 or so cherry tomato plants, as well as a patio tomato and several pepper plants, not to mention branching out to herbs.  There were some success, some failures, and some really wet weather.  A total success it was not, but there were enough successes that I fully planned to do the same again this year.

You know how sometimes, when you get a crazy idea, it just builds.  Then you can’t shake the idea, and it becomes just a big encompassing desire to go nuts with your idea?  Yeah, that was me and my garden this year.  Why start with pre-bought plants?  I can start from seed!  I purchased a mixed packet of tomato seeds from Heirloom Solutions, got my seedling pots ready, and planted them, along with some onion and green onion seeds.  I quickly decided that my tiny patio out back was really not enough space, and had already proven to be not quite enough sun, so I figured that I could sneak a few plants out front.  We had a garden up against the house that was already in place when we moved in, that was stunning.  Years of neglect by us has met that it’s been taken over by bug-ridden hollyhocks, and a Rose of Sharon that has spawned hundreds of mini-bushes from root shoots.   Last weekend, I took a hoe to that garden, and out everything came.  Over the next couple of weeks, multiple bags of peat soil will be added, mixed in to what is already there, in an attempt to get the soil a little more healthy.  A tiller will be rented to help chop up the roots left from that blasted Rose of Sharon, and a bag or two of manure will be mixed in.  I have blood meal on hand for later fertilizing, and am planning on placing a soaker hose in for the summer.  The plan is to keep these tomatoes healthy and organic, and hope like crazy that the birds don’t love them as much as I do.

Is everything going perfectly to plan?  Of course not!  My seeds, since it never occurred to me that they would need a grow light and not just a room with sunlight, got a bad start, and are currently very leggy, and are just now starting to sprout their tomato plant leaves.  For the first three weeks, they looked like tall stalks with 2 oval leaves….in other words, nothing like a tomato, and totally indistinguishable from every other seedling in the world.  I panicked a bit, consulted some friends, did some looking on the web, and decided to hit them with the Ott Light I use for crafting.  A few days of that, and little bitty baby sprout leaves started to appear!  My hopes are high again, and soon I will replant a bunch of them into slightly larger containers, to continue growing until they can go into the ground in another month or so.  The plan is to have a good dozen plants out front, some cherry tomatoes out back, along with another plant or two from this seedling bunch in containers, and to plant some at a couple of places in our neighborhood where we know the people won’t mind us stealing a couple of their tomatoes if they got a type we did not.

This year's seedlings, just starting to show their real tomato leaves.

Is all of this more work than swinging by the store, and grabbing a tomato from the bin?  Of course.  Especially with having to start from total scratch this year, it’s a ton of work, hassle, and a bit of an investment.  Is it worth it?  Considering the fact that I will get tomatoes that will have amazing flavor, that I know have never been sprayed or chemically enhanced, whose seeds did not start out as part of some lab project?  Absolutely.

Pretty clever, if I do say...

We seem to be running short on pairing tips and tricks, so this seems as good a time as any to expand on that subject. Food and beverage pairing can be intensely intricate and daunting, but it needn’t be. Simplicity can, and often does, yield amazing results, so you don’t have to be a Master Sommelier or Brewmeister to find a beverage to go with your meal. With a little knowledge, experience and thought, it can be as easy or as complex as you make it.

First, when contemplating a beverage pairing I always think in terms of comparative or contrasting flavors. I like to go with contrasting most of the time as it tends to add more interest, unless there is a really special ingredient (read as rare or expensive or both), then I try to go with something understated and complementary to let that ingredient be the star.

Complimentary flavors are the easiest to start with. Certain foods will always pair well with certain beverages, but always keep in mind the full ingredient list of the dish and method of cooking when looking for a good pairing. Pork and shellfish, for instance, will go with beer no matter what the method of cooking. It’s the other ingredients involved that will determine what you should pair with it. Mussels steamed in white wine can certainly be paired with a beer, but it’s a trickier pairing than just going with white wine. The same or similar, maybe even a better quality wine than was used in the cooking process, is a no-brainer as far as pairing for such a dish goes. If you used a $5.00 bottle to steam them, serve them with a $15.00 bottle (especially if you are already familiar with that bottle) and life is easy.

Bottom line with the complimentary method is you really only need some basic knowledge of beverages to pull off a successful pairing. The typical flavor profile of the various beer styles and for grape varietals and blends. Intuition often helps immensely here, too. Once you have that vision of the final dish in your head, what you want the end result to taste like, just stand in front of the beer or wine shelf and browse with that in the back of your mind. In any well stocked beverage store I’m sure something will jump out at you. Trust your instincts, and if it doesn’t work out the way you wanted it to, ask yourself why. What was the beverage lacking? Was it too heavy or too flat? Did it overpower the food, or vice versa? Once you determine the answer, congratulations! You’ve just had a learning experience, and that is never a bad thing! This will guide your future selections.

The point is, don’t take this too seriously. The comparative flavor method is fairly forgiving, and works well enough most of the time. Acidity cuts through fat, is probably the best advice to give to someone who wants to venture into this endeavor. If the dish at hand is rich or has a rich and fatty sauce, go with a beverage that has some acidity. Braised pork, for instance, loves a lager or a white wine with higher than normal acidity. Hard cider is also a valid option since there’s a fair amount of acid and apples are a classic pairing with pork. But, as I said, the other ingredients in the dish might scream for something more specific. Curry braised pork? I’d go with a light or medium bodied beer, depending on what sort of curry is used. Jerk braised pork? Would benefit more from a light lager, or maybe even bold white.

Of course, if there is a particular beverage used in the construction of the dish, then that beverage is a no-brainer for

New Holland Breweries Mad Hatter being added to a Cheddar-Ale soup. I wonder what I should pair with this?

pairing. Beef Burgundy (Bourguignon) loves a bold red wine, because that’s one of the liquids in the braise, and beer poached bratwurst on a summer afternoon cannot and should not be paired with anything other than a good beer! I doubt even Ian, our resident wine guy, would argue that.

Another thing to consider are the ingredients used in the brewing of the beverage before you. This counts more for beer and cider than wine, since wines are nearly always made with grapes alone. Many beer styles incorporate herbs, spices, citrus, even seaweed in the brew kettle. If those adjuncts would pair well with the food on the plate if they were part of the dish, then they will work well when present in your libation. Beer with citrus peel works well with deserts and fish, one with heavy spices like a winter ale will go well when game or curry or jerk seasoning are on the plate, and one with fruit additives will go well with anything that particular fruit would. Chocolate and raspberry, for instance. A classic combination. Chocolate cake and/or ganache loves a raspberry lambic. And lambics are high in acidity, which will cut through the fat and richness chocolate brings to the table, thus washing your palate clean and preparing you for the next mouthful.

So let your intuition, instincts, and sense of adventure guide you. Count failures as learning experiences. Above all, dare to explore your options. Some great pairings can come from unlikely places, and the only way to find out is to try! There is a universal “ah ha!” moment in this endeavor, one that every beverage snob has had. Most people just don’t get it until they’ve experienced it. The synergy that can occur with food and beverage mingling on the tongue, making each other greater than the sum of their parts.

I have a few more ideas in mind for future posts right now, but I’ll get back to this subject. Next time I touch on this I’ll tackle the not-so-easy pairing ideas of contrasting the potable with the plate.

-Jack

It was an unseasonably hot and humid day in the Motor City today with a high of 89F. The summer like sunny weather prompted our pals, The Hungry Dudes, to pose the following query to their facebook audience:

“It’s toasty out there, how are you going to keep cool? Frosty beverage perhaps?”

While a cold bottle of beer is the quick and easy, This one is so damn simple to make that it’s worth the ten minutes messing with knives and blenders.

The unlikely flavor combination of lemon and anise is the most refreshing thing I’ve ever tasted on a hot summer day and it’s made with lots of ice… ice is water… so it’s good for you.

-///

White for Tapas

It’s no longer news that Michigan (like much of the eastern U.S.) has had an early spring, with record-setting temps that make it feel like Summer. So at the risk of jinxing us all into colder temps, I thought I’d cover one of my favorite pairings with an affordable bottle. I LOVE Spanish-style tapas, and most of them are savory gems that are free of red meat. Try this, respectfully chilled, with the tapas you love.

A White for the Red drinker.

ZOLO 2010 Torrontes (About $12)

Learn more about the winery: http://www.vinodelsol.com/thewineries/zolo.html
Learn more about the bottle in front of me: http://www.vinodelsol.com/pos/zolo/TechSheet_ZoloTorrontes.pdf

SEE: An attractive dusty light gold.
SWIRL: A clear even coat on the glass with slow legs.
SMELL: Initial aromas of white peach & flowers and some faint smoke. Some minerality follows, stone fruits and tart apple.
SIP: A definite warmth and tartness, with baked pear and and orange rind/pith following. Lime and sea salt hint at pairings.
SAVOR: As it opens, this becomes a complex, warm, and golden bath over the food it is served with. It seems to embrace salt.

Final impression: This will not contrast to or confound light Spanish classics–a great everyday wine for seafood or vegetable tapas.

Pair with: Complex savory but not spicy dishes, saffron, shrimp, dry Spanish chorizo, sardines and young sheep cheeses. Avoid sugars and carmel flavors.

For those who aren’t avid Facebook users or whom missed this gallery last week, here in all it’s glory is our Chef’s Night dedicated to authentic Irish cuisine.

Recipes for some of the dishes can be found here and here with more on the way. Can’t get enough? Check out the sweet article in Real Detroit Weekly  written by our buddy Joe Hakim documenting the evening.

With much appreciation to our friends, the producers and vendors at Detroit’s Eastern Market for this great plate:

Beer bread from Avalon Breads, Blackberry Ginger Jam from Slow Jams, Eggs from Holtz Farm, Raw Milk and Maple Bacon from Oliver Farms.

For those in other parts of the world – while you may not have direct access to the amazing foods being created in Michigan, it’s still worth your while to seek out your local farmers markets and artisanal producers and vendors to bring the very best to your table.

Here are some web resources that can help:

Local Harvest market locator

USDA Farm Market Search

And cool apps for Android and iphone such as:

Locavore

Farmers Market Finder

With spring coming early, it’s going to be a fantastic season! Get out there and buy real food from real people and we’ll show you great ways to prepare it here at The Rogue Estate.  Got a favorite Farm / food website or app? Share it with us in the comments.

-///

For St. Patrick’s Day few dishes are more traditional than Colcannon, a mix of potatoes and either cabbage or kale.  For this version I went with cabbage as I found out in research that Colcannon comes from the old Gaelic word “cal ceannann” meaning white-headed cabbage.  Kale is used almost equally as cabbage is in current preparations and kale is probably the sexier of the options, but I wanted this recipe to be as traditional as possible.

A few liberties were taken with the preparation and ideas behind this recipe, mostly dealing with green onions.  Most recipes call for leeks to be used as the flavoring agent, but since leeks were already on the menu in another guise I went with green onions.  The second reason for using the green onions is another traditional Irish dish called “champ” which is basically mashed potatoes with green onions (no cabbage) that is very similar to colcannon.  I actually like the flavor of champ better than colcannon, but since colcannon is a bit more recognized I went with colcannon with a definite nod to champ in adding much more green onion than would be traditionally used in colcannon alone.  The third reason for the green onions is that it reminded me of a soup of a sort that I had at a bar when I was in college.  Near St. Patrick’s day one of the bartenders would also make up some traditional Irish fare to give out to regulars.  On the unofficial bar menu along with other fare was colcannon and champ.  The first time I had ever tried either.  He also made a soup like side dish that he called “green tea” which was basically lots of green onions steeped a long time in milk and cream then served in small demitasse cups.  It was pretty magical stuff and so in tribute to him I added a bit of a variation on his green tea to the colcannon.

Depending on how many recipes you look at and how far back you go you’ll find that bacon is not used in the oldest recipes for colcannon.  In about half of the recipes I looked at it was an ingredient or a topping.  The reason for this is that colcannon was generally a poor farmers recipe and bacon wouldn’t be available to poorer families or would be used sparingly.  I didn’t intend to use bacon as I’m the lone vegetarian in this mad band, however, bacon was crisped up and made available for those who wanted it.

The great thing about colcannon is its simplicity and there are quite a few variations you can play with.  If you want it softer and more luxurious version you could pulse the sauteed cabbage in a food processor and whip with the potatoes.  The spicing is definitely variable.  Mace is the traditional spice but it would be interesting with smoked or sweet paprika, nutmeg or possibly cinnamon.  Kale would generally lend a greener flavour and a heartier texture and if you wanted to really go heavier you could use collard or mustard greens.  The onions used are variable as well.  The bulbous spring onions would be excellent if not quite as readily available.  Red onions cooked with the cabbage would add an interesting colour pop.  The only things that aren’t really optional are the potatoes and the butter.  Colcannon is very much a vehicle for melted butter.

Leftovers reheat easily and can also be used for a killer potato, cabbage and cream soup. Topping options are endless as well – anything you enjoy on a baked or mashed potato is going to work on Colcannon brilliantly. Got a favorite variation? Let me know in the comments. 

-Jason

This dish was part of The Rogue Estate’s Authentic Irish cuisine dinner, featured in Real Detroit Weekly and The Hungry Dudes on 03/14/12.

When thinking of Irish food, like any other American, I automatically think of boiled meat, corned beef, and potatoes.  The Irish are not known for their desserts, so when looking them up, I had to keep my mind open, and avoid the Bailey’s Cheesecake that you find on “Irish Pubs” all across America.  Turns out the Irish have gotten very creative in using what they could get to make unique desserts.

For our Traditional Irish Meal, I decided to tackle this recipe for Burnt Oranges.  Wait…how did tropical oranges become a staple for not-so-tropical Ireland?  Turns out that while Ireland was at war with England, they made friends with Spain.  The Spanish sailed some of its foodstuffs up to Ireland, and the rest was history.  Of course, by the time the oranges were sailed north, and the common folk got their hands on them and ate all of the really ripe ones, they were left with some oranges that had seen better days.  Cooking them like this was an interesting and tasty way to not waste those older oranges.

What I did leave out of this recipe was that the Seville oranges are a pain in the butt to peel, far more so than any other orange I have ever dealt with.  Between the segments that wouldn’t come apart gracefully, to the fact that Seville oranges have more seed than flesh in each segment, I figure next time I’ll stick to making this with another type of orange.  The results will be sweeter and less traditional, but I’ll swear less.

Have any tips on how to handle Seville oranges or a favorite citrus recipe? Let me know in the comments!

-Megan