(Flash movie) Blue Dog Greens, based in Bangor, Michigan..
(Flash movie) Scobey's Produce, famous for Corn, Beans, onions and many other vegetables...
(Flash movie) Kirklin Farms
(slide show) Harvest Dinner 2007
Julie's thoughts on our new dinner menu, December 2009
Every time we start the process of changing our menu, Robb and I discuss what direction to take. Robb spends countless hours finding dishes that inspire him, either from the web or from one of the books in his large collection.
On this menu, the idea was simply great-tasting, familiar comfort foods that people could enjoy while re-connecting with each other over a meal. That's what we hope for all of our guests—eating delicious, nourishing food and dining together. The time to spend sharing a meal with people you love is truly a gift.
The way Dave Warkentien from Young Earth Farm loves his pigs brings a depth of flavor to his pork, but slow-roasting it for eight hours with Dijon mustard and caraway helps too. It just melts in your mouth. We serve it with rutabagas, which look ugly but taste beautiful. The rutabaga flesh is tangy but by adding some sauteed apples in the "mash" it has the right kind of balance.
Visser Farm saved us some tasty little potatoes and to honor the last of the harvest spuds, we are frying them in duck fat. All potatoes should be so lucky. Finally, the whole dish is served with our deep purple sauerkraut, made from red cabbage, which we have been fermenting on the back table.
Rushing River Trout Farm in Wisconsin feeds its ponds with fresh artesian springs. Robb is stuffing their trout with porcini mushrooms and roasted fennel and serving it on a wonderful root vegetable pancake with corn sauce, made from the corn we put up this past summer.
The buttermilk-fried pastured chicken from Family Coop Farms is so moist and tender, with just the right amount of crunchy crust. We're serving it with traditional mashed potatoes and gravy, of course. Pastured chickens forage for their feed and walk around more, resulting in darker flesh and the taste that nature intended.
After so many requests for the return of the stuffed Poblano pepper (our un-fried version of Chilis Relleno), we decided to take a little different spin on it by stuffing it with chili tempeh and an incredible smoked gouda cheese, then grilling some pineapple for a peppery salsa that we put on top.
My personal favorite is the creamiest-ever Anson Mills polenta we make. The corn is ground in South Carolina AFTER we place our order!
Smoking our own chicken for the risotto has been an interesting project resulting in a creamy, smoky, slightly peppery flavor and a bright aftertaste from the lemon zest—comfort food at its finest.
We wanted to end the meal with some comfort too. There are quite a few tempting choices. We're serving pumpkin creme brulee, panna cotta using Jack Brown's honey with some almond flavor surrounded by a tart pomegranate puree, caramel apple crisp and last but certainly not least, the Pain Perdu, a little French toast with house-made oatmeal raisin ice cream and maple caramel sauce.
We hope you come taste these new creations of Robb's before they change again.
A Little Bit o' Soul
Executive Chef Robb Hammond explains why it's all about the craft.
What attracted you back to Food Dance, Robb?
Well, I think it's a natural fit for me and always has been. I have a lot of respect for Julie and Michelle and what they've done over the years to constantly move forward and to improve on the business every day for customers, for employees and for suppliers. I think the food is a natural fit because of the closeness to the local farmers. I'm excited at being given the opportunity to take the direction of the food into my hands as long as my ideas fit within the Food Dance Guiding Principles. The familiarity is also nice. I don't feel like I'm starting over, it's more like I've been on a long vacation.
What do you think you've learned from your experience? What life lessons?
I think I've learned how to cook honestly, and I think I learned that as much through failure as through success. Working with Matt Millar at Journeyman gave me the idea to put the craft back into what I do, to bring it back to a more humble state than what my work had turned into and get back to what really matters. Most of the food shows that are so popular amplify what we do to something greater than what it is - we just cook every day and we're happy to be a little bit better at it. I like to think that chefs are right up there with woodworkers and other craftspeople with our perspective on food. It's a little bit more soulful.
How would you describe your style now that you've discovered it?
Well, I think I just listen to what makes more sense instead of trying to push the envelope too much. I've learned to listen to what sounds natural and what feels natural. If you cook what you love to eat or like to eat, for the most part, you'll be pretty good at it because you just have a natural kinship with that food. Luckily for me, I love everything and I've even learned to love things that I've hated in the past, like fava beans. Those are the types of things that I absolutely adore now.
with Sous Chef Jeremy Johnson
We've been reading recently that because of the economic situation, there are some interesting food trends emerging. There's a huge interest in vegetable gardening, Campbell's Soup and Velveeta are selling like crazy, and casseroles are really popular. Do you have a take on that?
Most people just do not pay attention to what goes in their mouths. I think they care more about the outside of their kid's hands than what they put in their kid's mouths. We just trust peanut butter manufacturers, for example, and we're up in arms if somebody's not regulating them, but we're not even regulating ourselves. We want the government to control every aspect of the food supply, but we take no responsibility for what goes into our own bodies. We don't want to pay what it it costs to supply good food.
We feed a lot of people here at Food Dance and we source our food locally whenever we can, even if it's not particularly convenient for us. I hope that in some small way we can affect the way people think about the food they eat.
We're trying to teach people that it's not that hard to cook and eat intelligently.
Most people have no idea how to cook and I think that's a terrible problem in this country. People are afraid to fail in the kitchen, but sometimes you can eat your "failures" and think about it and learn something.
You can be extravagant with your flavors and not be extravagant with your technique. You don't have to have years of training to do that and I want to show people that it's not that scary. We can show that to people.
So do you have a big goal for what you want to do at Food Dance?
We were talking about craft earlier. I want to bring more of that back. We're going to start grinding our own sausage for our pizza, we're grinding our own sausage for biscuits and gravy this week, we're going to make smoked chickens, smoked sausages, make our own pasta, make pates, those types of things that are almost lost. We're doing very humble food prepared very well.
Michigan Corn & Chile Pudding
A Favorite from the 2008 Harvest Dinner
Makes one 9 x 13 pan
Spray or butter pan and set aside
1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped, roasted green chilies (depending on the heat you want)
8 cups corn kernels (6 cups to puree) & (2 cups left in kernels)
3 Tbl melted butter
2 cups sour cream
2 Tbl flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1-12 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (1 cup for top and 1 cup for batter)
1 tsp fresh thyme (or ½ tsp dry)
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup chopped chives or green onion
Puree 6 cups corn.
Place pureed corn, kernels, butter and sour cream in bowl, combining with spoon.
Stir together dry ingredients, thyme, 1 cup of cheese, chives or onions in separate bowl. Add wet ingredients to dry, stirring only until combined.
Pour batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top of batter.
Cover pan with foil, being careful not to let foil touch batter.
Bake at 325 for 35-40 minutes. Batter should begin to look set.
Remove foil and continue cooking until middle is set and golden.
You may test with a thermometer to 160 degrees in the middle, or use a toothpick that comes out coated but not wet and soupy. Cool 10-15 minutes to allow pudding to set before serving.
Mediterranean Feta
This is a delicious appetizer, one of the most popular among Food Dance diners. It's also easy to prepare!
½ lb fresh baby spinach, roughly chopped
¾ cup roasted red peppers
1/8 cup garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh oregano
½ teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1lb Feta cheese (preferably French feta)
Preheat oven to 425°
Place the first six ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine.
Crumble Feta, then place in a shallow ovenproof container. Top with spinach mixture and bake for 20 minutes. Serve with a fresh baguette or crackers.