September 23, 2010

  • B & B’s Pork Tenderloin Is Ultimate Sandwich

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     “whacked and stacked tenderloin”

    After two months of voting, Cityview readers proclaimed the pork tenderloin from

    B&B 001

    B & B Grocery Meat & Deli as “Des Moines’ Ultimate Sandwich.” In the end, it wasn’t close. The deep fried specialty from the Sevastopol neighborhood beat Uncle Wendell’s pulled pork, Taste of Italy’s meatball, and Tasty Taco’s original deep fried taco in the finals. In fact, B & B’s toughest challenge was getting out of the first round, a tough regional that included pork tenderloins from Kelly’s Little Nipper, Smitty’s, Mr. Bibb’s and Crouse Café, plus meat loaf sandwiches from BOS and the Drake Diner, and Cosi Cucina’s wood grilled chicken melt. After that, B & B rolled through the quarterfinal round like Democrats through south side precincts.

    “After the Final Four story (“The Ultimate Sandwich Tournament”) came out in Cityview, people started showing for tenderloins. We saw folks we hadn’t seen for years plus a lot of new people who were just excited to find out where they could get a ’real tenderloin’ (without sodium injected pork). For three days in a row we sold out of tenderloins completely.

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    That had never happened before,” explained B & B partner and deli manager John A. Brooks, jr., as he pulled a ten gallon container of freshly butchered tenderloins from his cooler.

    Increased demand forced B & B to make some changes.

    “We started selling so many tenderloins that we noticed our butcher wrap wasn’t really big enough to cover them. We started encouraging people to order them “whacked & stacked,” (cut in half and stacked like a double burger) instead of sticking out over the edges. Finally we had to change the size of our butcher wrap, from 15 inches to 18 inches wide,” John said.

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    John and brother Joe represent the third of four generations running this 88 year old business at SE Sixth and Hartford. Nine family members currently staff a place that mixes an old fashioned butcher shop with a deli that is unique, in several ways. First of all, the it includes a grill and a deep fryer. So besides their signature submarine type sandwiches, you can order burgers, in sizes ranging up to the Quadzilla – four patties totaling one and a third pounds of beef. Want some fried oysters with your corned beef sandwich? Just add 75 cents per mollusk. Want headcheese or souse on your “Killer” sub? Take your choice of several kinds. Need a pig’s head or a butt with the skin left on? No problem. Want a deep fried tenderloin that isn’t pork? B & B also breads chorizo, turkey, chicken and beef for deep frying.

    B & B’s pork tenderloins might well be the only ones in the state that go directly from butcher block to deep fat fryer in a single process. They are also pork tenderloins in the literal sense. Most places make ‘pork tenderloins’ out of tenderized portions of the entire loin, including the less desirable blade and sirloin ends.

    “We only use real tenderloin from pure pork,” John Brooks explained.

    B & B wasn’t the only winner in the tournament. Iowa pork also kicked butt. Five of the eight quarterfinalists were pork sandwiches.

    UW -2

    Uncle Wendell’s pulled pork finished runner-up.

    Taste of Italy

    Even Taste of Italy’s third place meatball sandwich uses and half pork, half beef recipe. So, mark the year 2010 – that’s when pigs started to fly.

    Side Dishes

    Celebrity chefs flew into Des Moines last Saturday for Niman Ranch Appreciation Dinner. Headliners include Alex Ong (Betelnut of San Francisco), Sarah Jenkins (Porchetta in New York) and two Hollywood stars – Animal’s Vinny d’Otolo and Jon Shook. HajI Hinman from Denver’s Marczyk, Martin Murphy from New Hampshire’s Canoe Club and Randy Waidner from Gibson’s in Chicago will join George Formaro of Des Moines in the kitchen at the Downtown Marriott. Tickets are $75 at 641-579-6594.

    The Ultimate Sandwich Tournament Background

    Quest for a Civic Icon

    Des Moines’ Ultimate Sandwich

    More than anything we eat, sandwiches are loaded with lore and even sanctimony. Humans have been eating meat with bread since the Neolithic Era, yet it’s commonly asserted that Hillel the Elder invented the sandwich in the Age of Augustus about the same time he enunciated what would become known as The Golden Rule. Since then, most of our favorite sandwiches have been served unto others with conflicting stories about how they were invented and especially about how best to make them.

    Iowa and Indiana fight over which state created the first pork tenderloin. (Iowa did.) Several cities, on different continents, argue about where the first hamburger was served. In Elkader, Iowa people debate whether they should be served “mit or mit-out” – “mit” being German for “with” and sautéed onions being the object in question. Some sandwiches have become beloved icons of entire states. North Carolina’s smoked pulled pork, Texas’ smoked beef brisket, West Virginia’s pepperoni rolls, Louisiana’s po’ boys, and Oklahoma’s chicken fried steak are all better known, and loved, than all those state’s birds, trees, flowers and Congressmen combined. Some sandwiches represent smaller regions like Monroe County Kentucky’s sliced pig shoulder, Hatch Valley New Mexico’s slopper (burger smothered in red and green chilies) and northwestern Nevada’s roast mutton.

    Others are the provenances of cities. Philadelphians identify fiercely with their cheese steaks, as folks in Memphis do with their Elvises (fried peanut butter, bananas and bacon on white bread). Louisville has its hot brown (open-faced with turkey and bacon, pimentos and tomatoes, and Mornay sauce), Springfield, Illinois its horseshoe (open faced and topped with French fries and cheese), Chicago its Italian beef, Hollywood its French dip, and New Orleans its muffuletta (marinated olive salad, capicola, salami, mortadella, Emmentaler and Provolone on Sicilian bread). Both Tampa and Miami adopted the Cubano (ham, roast pork, pickles and cheese on Cuban bread) as both Detroit and Cincinnati did Greek style chili dogs. Owensboro’s smoked mutton sandwiches draw visitors from hundreds of miles. And Knickerbockers don’t think you can make a pastrami on rye anywhere, till you’ve made it there, in old New York.

    So last winter a “munch bunch” of local chefs gathered at George Formaro’s (Django, Centro, South Union and Gateway Market Café) to exchange their favorite Des Moines sandwiches and discuss whether one best represents this town. That evolved into Cityview’s Ultimate Sandwich Tournament. Scores of additional food workers, food writers and alpha diners were asked to nominate sandwiches (other than burgers which were deemed a category all their own). Those were chewed down to eight groups of eight.

    We seeded the eight sandwiches that received the most recommendations in different brackets. We also tried to keep types of sandwiches together so that early voting rounds could determine things like the city’s favorite pork tenderloin, etc. Cityview readers were then asked to determine winners in each group. After eight quarterfinalists were elected, slates were wiped clean and a second round of voting chose the final four.

    Uncle Wendell’s Pulled Pork

    Our Feed & Grain bracket featured Fourth Street Italian Beef’s namesake sandwich, Jesse’s Ember’s London broil, Trostel’s Greenbriar’s prime rib French dip, Maxie’s Reuben (corned beef and Swiss cheese on Jewish rye with 1000 Island dressing), El Bait Shop’s blacked fish po’ boys, Chip’s rotisserie chicken BAT (bacon, avocade and tomato), Proof’s vegetarian falafel on flatbread, and Sbrocco’s veggie (grilled eggplant, squash, tomato and goat cheese). Maxie’s Reuben won the bracket.

    Six authentic barbecue specialties led our Smokehouse region: Uncle Wendell’s pulled pork shoulder; Chef’s Kitchen’s smoked prime rib; Jethro’s pulled chicken with Bob Gibson (white) sauce; The Q‘s brisket with Gate’s style sauce; Smokey D‘s pulled pork, whose chefs have won more major BBQ competitions than any other Iowans; and Woody’s brisket. They were joined by Dos Rios’ spit roasted pork tacos on scratch made tortillas and Court Avenue Brewing Company’s pork braised in Black Hawk Ale. Uncle Wendell’s pulled pork slopped up the most votes, moving into the quarterfinals and then the final four.

    Wendell Garretson is a dues paying member of old school regional cuisine. He learned Cajun craft at Simo’s Cafisto, competed on the competitive barbecue circuit and toiled at the baker‘s craft . After opening a small bakery in Sherman Hill, he built a customer base working farmer’s markets where he added wood smoked barbecue to his menu. After moving into a café on Ingersoll, his business became more of a BBQ than a bakery, complete with a neon pig and jars of Kool Aide pickles.

    Uncle Wendell’s does the basics of superior Q quite well. Meats are crusted with smoke rings and tender meat. Best of all, you can order them sliced, from whatever end or direction you like — even at rush hour. Pulled pork is made from pig butts smoked with hickory, pulled off the bone and mixed. Sandwiches include crunchy skin as well as tender meat from near the bone. They are served on thick slices of home made challah. Want your bread sliced to half its thickness? No problem. Try asking for that at a chain. Wendell supports the “Buy Fresh, Buy Local” program and also keeps an all-star lineup of Iowa-made BBQ sauces, with Russ and Frank’s of West Des Moines serving as house sauce. Vinegar based sauces are also available.

    B & B Grocery Meat & Deli’s Pork Tenderloin

    Our Links section featured four link sausage sandwiches: George the Chili King’s Coney Island (the chili recipe is locked in a bank vault); Royal Mile’s Ingelhoffer (a homemade banger with ham and Maytag white cheddar on a hoagie bun); Django’s Django dog (homemade boudin blanc sausage with house made bacon, blue cheese, cole slaw, Dijon mayo and foie gras on challah roll); and homemade cevapi sausage from Royal Grill. Open Sesame’s kibbeh on pita, Gazali’s gyros, Los Laureles’ chorizo tacos, and La Pena’s birria (pulled roast goat on scratch masa tacos) rounded out that region. George the Chili King’s Coney Island moved on the quarterfinals.

    A Pork Tenderloin bracket featured fried tenderloins from B & B Grocery Meat & Deli, Smitty’s, Mr. Bibb’s, Kelly’s Little Nipper, and Crouse Café. They battled it out with meat loaf sandwiches from BOS and the Drake Diner, plus Cosi Cucina’s wood grilled chicken melt (with tomato, basil & mozzarella, and a sun-dried tomato spread on fire baked flatbread). B & B’s pork tenderloin moved on to the final four, receiving the highest vote total of any sandwich in any bracket, in both the first and second rounds, reminding us that the south side political machine knows how to get out the vote.

    In the heart of Sevastopol, B & B Grocery Meat & Deli is the city’s oldest food establishment dating to 1922. It’s also an old fashioned political hangout like no other in town. It’s difficult on occasions to tell the owners from the customers as so many people move behind the counters as if they work there. Their food service is leftover from another era too. This is one of the few places in town to fill nostalgic orders for things like pig’s heads, carcass beef, whole hogs, head cheeses and souse, or whole slabs of bacon. They only use pure pork, un-injected with double digit percentages of sodium solutions like that sold in our major supermarkets.

    B & B’s pork tenderloins might well be the only ones in the state that go directly from butcher block to deep fat fryer in a single process. They also bread “tenderloins” of chorizo, turkey, chicken and beef, but their pork tenderloins are uniquely literal.

    “Most ‘pork tenderloins’ aren’t even made with pork tenderloin,” said partner-butcher John Brooks. “That’s why we advertise ‘real pork tenderloin.’ We only use real tenderloin from pure pork. Every other place I’ve been to just tenderizes the entire loin,” he explained.

    To clarify, there are three main parts of a pork loin: the blade end, which tends to be fatty; the sirloin end, which tends to be bony; and the tenderloin in the middle, which is the leanest and most expensive part. That’s why most pork tenderloin comes from the whole loin and also why it needs to be tenderized – so that the texture seems somewhat consistent. B & B’s tenderloin is the real deal, with a wild card in its hand.

    Tasty Taco’s Original Taco

    Eight distinctive sandwiches with lots of homemade breads faced off in the Deli regional: La Mie’s grilled cheese (Brie and smoked Provolone) on country Italian bread, which more than one nominator described as the best grilled cheese sandwich in the world; South Union‘s hot Italian (ham, roast beef, turkey, capacola, pepperoni, mozzarella, mayo on garlic focaccia); Lucca’s Cajun grilled tuna on their homemade ciabatta; Star Bar’s Niman Ranch Jambon Royale ham and cheese with homemade mango chili jam; Maccabee Deli’s “Maccabee” (corned beef, roast beef, sauerkraut and sk’hug – an Israeli red pepper spread – on Bake Shoppe’s rye); Palmer’s “Marshall Field” (ham, turkey, bacon, Swiss, cheddar, lettuce, tomato and Thousand Island dressing on house baked marble bread); Centro’s chicken Caesar on South Union ciabatta; and Gateway Market Café’s lobster shrimp salad roll on South Union challah. In a close vote, South Union’s hot Italian moved to the quarterfinal round.

    Our Loose Meat region featured several traditional sandwiches that have been feeding Des Moines in six or more decades: grinders from The Tavern and Tursi’s Latin King; Coney Island’s beef burger; Tasty Taco’s original fried taco; and Maid-Rite’s namesake. Relative newcomers Paula’s beef rite and a house made sausage grinder from Mojo’s joined them, along with an at large bid for Hessen Haus’ Bismarck (chopped roast pork, sautéed mushrooms and onions, au jus and Swiss cheese on a large French roll). Tasty Tacos’ original taco moved into the quarterfinals and also prevailed to enter the final four.

    With a $500 loan, Richard and Antonia Mosqueda opened their first Tasty Tacos in 1961 at the corner of Euclid & Searle. A couple years later they moved to a small venue near their present store on East Grand Avenue. Today, Antonia supervises six children, who own six local Tasty Tacos employing several spouses and five grand children full time. The family’s long time motto is “Nada Es Imposible” or “Nothing Is Impossible” and it remains the driving force behind the business.

    “The original taco is by far our best seller and the item for which we are known,” said third generation Josh Mosqueda.

    “It’s a flour shell that we make from scratch, so they differ is size and shape. It’s deep fat fried, in canola oil, and stuffed with secretly seasoned ground beef, beans, Wisconsin cheddar cheese and lettuce. I can’t tell you anything more about it without getting in trouble,” he explained.

    It also still sells for just $2.75.

    Taste of Italy’s Meatball

    Taste of Italy

    Our Italian Sausage bracket was packed with traditional powers, including four sandwiches that had been around for half a century: Terry’s Special (broiled homemade Italian sausage, grilled onions and peppers, Mozzarella and Provolone) from Chuck’s; Gino’s stromboli (meat, marinara and cheese baked on rolled Italian dough), and Italian sausage sandwiches from Mr. V’s and La Pizza House (which closed during the competition). Although they are less than half a century old, sausage sandwiches from the Norwood Bar & Grill (the only place in town that defiantly uses ketchup) and Noodles, and a stromboli from Mezzodi’s all have traditions that date back many decades. An at large bid for El Chisme’s chicarron tacos (uniquely made in two different regional styles, with scratch tortillas) rounded out that bracket. In the most competitive of all groupings, Gino’s stromboli edged out Mr. V’s Italian sausage by the slimmest margin, with several others close behind.

    A Meat Ball – Banh Mi section was led by five meat ball sandwiches, from Noah’s, Mama Lacona’s, Christopher’s, Baratta’s, and Taste of Italy. They were joined by three banh mi (roast pork, charcuterie, shredded carrots, cilantro and dressings on baguettes made with rice and wheat flours), from La Paris, Le’s Chinese BBQ and Pho All Seasons. Taste of Italy’s meat ball sandwich moved on to the quarterfinals and also to the final four.

    Taste of Italy is a small strip mall grocery store and deli in Clive. It has an incredible food pedigree, being founded by Cindy Cox, the wife of a Graziano, and currently owned by Todd Ferin. A century ago, Graziano Brothers and E. Ferin Grocery were competing markets on the near south side. Ferin’s Clive store has evolved into more of a deli and less of a grocery store since it opened. Because of the popularity of its sandwiches, shelf space has been given up for tables. You can still find plenty of imported Italian delicacies, cheeses, salami and local Italian products from Gino’s, Orlondo’s and of course Graziano’s.

    Ferin and deli manager Bill Cesner run their sandwich business like a neighborhood bar without the alcohol. The chef often serves his creation and pretty much everybody knows your name. Their four meat ball sandwich costs no more than one at a subway chain. It’s made with Amadeo’s Fancy Bread, Fontanini’s meat balls (beef-pork-Romano cheese), sweet and hot peppers, and Provolone. It’s hot pressed until the roll crisps and the cheese melts. Andrea Bocelli sings almost continuously in the background. “Amo credo e so” (that this is one great sandwich.)

    Which Sandwich for You?

    Now it’s up to you to pick Des Moines’ ultimate sandwich. No matter which one wins, the things Des Moines prefers to pack into its bread have revealed a lot about the character of our city. First, this is a traditional town. Of the eight sectional winners, only Uncle Wendell’s, South Union and Taste of Italy had not been around for at least six decades. Moreover, Uncle Wendell’s was in a category in which everyone was a relative newcomer, Taste of Italy has family food roots that go back more than a century, and South Union was inspired by Italian bakeries in nineteenth century Zootsville, and by much older Sicilian traditions.

    Secondly, neighborhood chauvinism is still rife here even after fifty years of suburban sprawl. From the south side’s innumerable versions of homemade Italian sausage, to Second Avenue’s mastery of Asian charcuterie, to Lee Township’s tradition of great tavern kitchens and Mexican taquerias, the city’s sandwich lore is written in wards rather than chapters. The voting bore that out.

    Finally, we’re pretty democratic – our favorite sandwiches come from fine dining restaurants as well as dives, bakeries, Mom & Pop grocery stores, and butcher shops. We’re still as provincial as a pork tenderloin, that icon of Iowa that is virtually unknown outside the Midwest. And we’re also as nostalgic as a mid 20th century drive-in, as cosmopolitan as Vietnamese charcuterie and as sophisticated as a French patisserie.

    This is one fine place to eat lunch.

     

September 14, 2010

  • Ingersoll Sees Red

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    Des Moines votes like a progressive but when it comes to attitudes about Ingersoll Avenue, the town is as conservative as a National Park Ranger warning campers to leave things exactly as they found them. National chains have given up on this street after Henry’s, Arby’s, Hardee’s, and Burger King were all vanquished. Two of city council’s hottest issues in recent years resulted from minor proposed changes to Ingersoll: for bike lanes; and for a convenience store in Dahl‘s parking lot. Yet, the soft opening of Red last month completed a remarkably quiet transition of two Ingersoll houses into the three story Adio Building.

    Ingersoll’s newest resident is a wellness center that includes: a chiropractic clinic and offices; studios and galleries that advocate art and color therapy; and a restaurant named after the longest wave length in the color spectrum – the only one that can penetrate smoke and seemingly controversy. Though the Adio was a rare Ingersoll innovation that didn’t generate protests, it wasn’t born easily. A billboard announcing its future weathered so badly during long construction delays that it faded to invisibility. That gave Red owner Su Nong time to reconsider. Her restaurant’s name changes to Red Poppy, Red China and Red China Bistro depending on which menu or business card you read.

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    By any name, it massages the building’s aura. Design by Saley Nong (Splash) fuses feng shui and floral elements into a comforting oasis. Water, lava stones and beaded doors redirect a visitor’s vital energy toward all therapeutically-correct places. Music is stylish, be it Max Wellman or a salsa band. Stunning King Au photographs, giant flower vases, and a wall of red poppies stamp Red with a badge of uniqueness prerequisite to Ingersoll coolness. Style surpassed substance though. Tables wobbled badly.

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    Chinese banquet chairs were remarkably uncomfortable. Stools weren‘t any easier on the back. Only one table was set with leather and metal chairs that didn’t seem to have been purchased by chiropractor’s devious agent. Over three weeks of visits, service improved from oblivious to responsive.

    The menu kept the fusion theme alive with dim sum dominant and Chinese, Southeast Asian and French entrees mingled.

    Red Poppy dumplings

    Among dim sum ($6-$8)

    Red Poppy mustard greenwrap

    fried mustard green wraps were stuffed with pork and ginger, shu mai with pork and black mushrooms.

    Red Poppy padthaiwrap

    “Pad thai rolls” consisted of noodles that had been fried.

    Red Poppy chicwings

    “Five spice chicken wings” were dark brown, more fried than spiced. “Remakie” (a bacon wrapped take on ramaki), pot stickers, satay (kebab) with peanut sauce, crab Rangoon, lettuce wraps, and egg rolls all compared well with the PF Chang versions. Nothing compared to Kwong Tung’s dim sum for either price shoppers or exotic (Chinese) taste buds.

    “Salads” ($12) resembled “bun” dishes in most Southeast Asian restaurants. Rice noodles dominated those with choices of fish, meats or egg roll tossed in, and lots of carrots but hardly anything green. Dressings were so lightly applied I had to request a dish on the side. Entrees ($15-20) seemed to lack the balance of the restaurant’s design.

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    One special, described by my waiter as a stir fry, delivered a huge plate of meat and shrimp with mushrooms and a couple slices of onion but nothing green. A “Laos chicken curry” consisted of fried chicken that tasted old, fresh chestnuts, lovely fresh trumpet mushrooms, onions and carrots, but no liquid nor any vegetables that usually absorb liquid in a curry.

    Red Poppy ahi onrisotto

    On the French side ($20-25), seared tuna was cooked beyond specification and was served with a “coconut-ginger risotto” that was identical to the plain jasmine rice on an order of sesame chicken.

    Red Poppy sesamechic

    Bottom Line – Spectacularly good looking, Red is likely the year’s new Ingersoll hot spot. There are still wrinkles though.

    Red

    2925 Ingersoll Ave., 274-0097

    Mon. Sat. 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. – 10 p.m.; Sun. 5 p.m. – 10 p.m. (Breakfast, brunch and late night hours to come soon)

September 3, 2010

  • Mojo, in more ways than one

    Skean Block restaurant signaled Iowa’s food renaissance. When it opened fifteen years ago, Des Moines bon vivants began making regular trips to Albia to dine in its restored century building. Under Chef Dan Grove, Skean Block became a template for similar fine dining spots in historic buildings around the state. One of Grove’s first employees was a “just turned 16 year old” named Anthony Johnson.

    “I learned a lot from Dan but mainly I learned to be passionate about good food,” Johnson recalled from his kitchen at Mojo’s on 86th.

    Lots of young chefs pay lip service to their passion for cooking but Johnson pays dues as much as anyone in the state. Mojo’s fits him well. The restaurant is elegant and stylish with textured wall paper, huge leather booths, Deco lamps, wide plank floors and wide angle photographs of Iowa landscapes.

    Mojo's 001

    A private (first comer) wine room has a window to the kitchen while a backlit granite bar is punctured with dramatic pin holes. A large patio entertains live music on weekends. In other words, the place doesn’t even need great food to draw customers.

    Johnson has lined up more superb Iowa farmers and artisan suppliers than anyone in the area. He’s using De Bruin Brothers rabbits, Iowa Ostrich Coop ostrich, Fox Hollow and Sheeder Farms birds, Berry Patch fruit, Butcher Crick tomatoes and vegetables, Clover Leaf dairy, and La Quercia charcuterie. He also gets regular deliveries from half a dozen other farms. To best use their produce, he builds a short, frequently changing menu with a few daily specials. Sometimes ingredients walk in the door at the beginning of dinner hours. That’s how fresh things are.

    That’s why his dining room seems like a slow event. People stare at other tables dishes and ask questions of perfect strangers. They even offer to share bites with them. Half price wine on Monday may have had something to do with that but the people just seem to be excited to eat here. I was.

    Starters included calamari two ways: sautéed with home made Andouille and fried crisply with red pepper coulis. He offered tamales with duck confit and escargot with mushrooms en croute as well as Bourbon duxelles with truffle oil. He served smoked ribs with whiskey grits.

    mojo's

    Johnson made a deconstructed crab cake out of crostini, fresh crab meat, and garlic Dijon cream sherry. He topped that dish off with a soft fried quail egg. Ummmm.

    A house salad included marinated fresh peaches.

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    A spinach salad presented greens too tender for these hot weather days with duck confit, cehvre, oyster mushrooms, prosciutto crumbles, and an herb dressing with celery leaf. That was topped with crisped shoestring potatoes, one of only two uses of potato on the entire menu that night. Another time a salad featured mesclun with candied ginger, macadamia and wheat beer and passion fruit vinaigrette. Fried squash blossoms were served on a fresh pea puree.

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    A Caesar employed a head of Romaine.

    His entrees were paired with vision beyond fingerling.

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    Shank of lamb with baby apttypan, mashed potatoes and lamb stock reduction; mahi-mahi with brown rice, edmame coulis and tropical fruit salsa; duck breast with bacon-apple risotto, cherry basil compote and grilled asparagus; trout with sweet potato gratin green bean amandine and sage butter;

    Mojo's 013

     pork medallions with chorizo and raisin bread pudding, honey cream and roasted baby carrots,

    Mojo's 014

    chicken breast with wilted spinach and couscous salad, mushroom sauce, feta and asparagus. No two entrees saw the same platings, that’s rare in town.

    Two specials blew me away.

    Mojo's 007

    A seared saddle of rabbit loin had been thin sliced, pounded and rolled with fresh thyme. It was served on bng cherry and basil coulis with a shallot and prosciutto risotto and grilled cheery tomatoes. The rabbit was served with two ears of freshly crisped sage sticking up. Seared ostrich tenderloin was cooked rare and served with pearl barley and crumpled prosciutto, grilled carrots an maple Bourbon buerre blanc.

    Mojo's 009

    Desserts took full advantage of his fabulous fruit suppliers. Fresh coconut ice cream (yes he renders his own coconut milk) was served with blueberries and a rolled almond cracker stuffed with chocolate ganache. Goat cheese crème brulee also starred blueberries and bing herry cheese cake was served with freshly made watermelon sorbet.

    Bottom line – Mojo’s is better than ever and as fine a dining experience as Central Iowa has to offer. Johnson is rising star.

    Post Script – Tim Holmes (J Benjamin’s, B & B, Royal Amsterdam Hotel) is now the owner chef of Skean Block.

    Mojo’s on 86th

    Mon. – Fri. 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.

    Mon. – Thurs. 5 p.m. – 9 p.m.

    Sat. – Sun. 5 p.m. – 10 p.m.

August 31, 2010

  • John Deere, Gone with the wind

    John Deere got out of the wind turbine business today for less money than they had invested in the game. That looks like cutting your losses and makes me think that farm-based wind energy is perceived as a doomed business now. Hoping Francis Thicke weighs in soon as this is big part of his campaign.

August 26, 2010

  • Ray Earl’s Big Boned Soul

    Ray Earl's

    Arkansas-rooted Ray Earl Mason has resurrected soul food in Des Moines with old family recipes and smokehouse diligence. His Ray Earl’s Bar-B-Q & Soul even serves a holy grail of soul food pilgrims – buffalo fish, aka “big bone.” Those fish aren‘t for everyone – they’re hard to catch and fight like hell on the line. They’re difficult to eat (you need to suck the best flesh off long bones). To those who don‘t mind the challenges, they’re totally worth it.

     Big Bone BUffalo fish

    I like buffalo fish so much that they’re my first meal on every trip to Memphis, Helena or Clarksdale – the holy trinity of soul food towns. I figured such love was unique in Des Moines. Ray told me one day that he was getting in a supply of big bones in for dinner. I thanked him profusely, looked at my calendar and said I would see him the following day. He warned me that he was ONLY getting 50 pounds. I stupidly assumed he was kidding and showed up a day late and a fish short. Three subsequent trips were just as poorly timed. Ray said that summer floods on the Mississippi River have decimated the legal supply of buffalo fish. Iowa doesn’t allow restaurants to buy fresh fish from fishermen who have been pulling them off the Scott Street Bridge this summer. We wouldn’t want that.

    I found lots of consolation on my visits though. Ray uses only fruit woods – cherry, apple and peach – to smoke beef briskets, pork butts, rib tips, ribs, chickens, and an occasional turkey. All were served in very sweet sauces that can overwhelm the good flavors of the smoked meats if you don‘t order your sauce on the side.

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    Both brisket and shoulder were served chopped, with two large buns. That should give you a good idea about generosity of the servings.

    Ray Earl (3)

    Ribs were competition worthy – smoked dark on the outside with a deep pink rings and tender meat on the inside. I tried a split order of chicken wings – half fried southern style and half smoked. Both delivered tender meat and big flavors.

    Ray Earl (1)

    Catfish was served with filets cut into smaller pieces that could be fried crisply without over cooking any part of the fish. Their batter was crunchy with corn meal.

    ray earl's 004

    Mac & cheese was soul style, more like Velveeta than like anything being made in bistros with truffle oil accents. Collard greens were served dark green but without the least bit of sogginess. They were spiked with a little lardy flavor too but no acid kick. Slaw was crisper than any I’ve had all summer with freshly sliced cabbage treated to a creamy bath that complemented it, rather than drowning it. Beans were probably too smoky to be dating so many smoked meats.

    Desserts included sweet potato pie and peach cobbler.

    ray earl's 003

    The former had a divine thin crust, as good as they get. I swore I tasted maple syrup in the pie filling but Ray claimed it was just a little pineapple juice.

    Ray Earl (2)

    The cobbler was similar to what we call “fruit crisp” up north, but with more fruit and less sugar. Ray Earl said he’ll be introducing more specials and new items, particularly on Sundays. He doesn’t sell beer or wine but customers may bring their own.

    Ray Earl’s Bar-B-Q & Soul Food

    3811 Douglas Ave., 339-0394

    Tues. – Thurs. 5 p.m. – 9 p.m.

    Fri. – Sat. 5 p.m. – 3 a.m.

    Sun. 1 p.m. – 7 p.m.

    Side Dishes

    Chef Sean Wilson says both Azalea’s trappings and menu are being comfort fitted. Linen tablecloths and $30 entrees are out. House cured bacon and tasso ham, plus home made bitters and vermouths are in… Tommy Farrell leased the long-closed filling station that fronts El Patio on Ingersoll. He hopes to have it remodeled with festive lights, outdoor tables and heaters by September. Late night hours will be featured with Chicago style Italian beef sandwiches.

August 11, 2010

  • Mullets Accommodates Two Personalities

    Mullets is the latest restaurant from an enterprising corps of friends known as Full Court Press (FCP). A decade ago, they decided it would be boring to open a second edition of any of their early successes – Hessen Haus, Red Monk or Royal Mile. They reasoned that building something new and unique would better maintain their enthusiasm. El Bait Shop, High Life Lounge, Sbrocco and Fong’s Pizza followed. Because all those restaurants are south of Walnut and east of Fourth, they played a major role in regenerating the previously dilapidated part of downtown near the river and the train tracks. Each restaurant injected personality into an historic building that might otherwise have been demolished. So, every time FCP announces a new project, I get both excited to see it and worried that they might cannibalize their other businesses.

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    Mullets is named for both the ray-finned fish that is popular in Adriatic cuisines and the haircut that was outlawed in Iran this month. Fittingly it has a two personalities. I barely recognized the riverfront building which housed multiple short-lived restaurants before Mullets. It’s been remodeled in the image of historic waterfront cafes on the Tennessee and Kentucky Rivers and the Gulf of Mexico.

    Pine wood walls and furniture, boat and trailer antiques, and a double deck patio transport visitors with FCP’s customary authenticity. A short bridge walk from Principal Park, Mullets also serves as a baseball bar. High def televisions, an MLB network subscription, and plenty of baseball memorabilia have turned the place into a popular pre-game and post-game gathering spot for I-Cub faithful, many of whom wear museum quality antiques themselves – OAKS and even BRUINS jerseys. On game day, the place had a flavor of Wrigleyville.

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    Mullets serves breakfast on weekends and a single menu for lunch or dinner daily. The former seemed quite popular during a recent baseball homestand though I never had to wait for a table. Basics were well covered: sausage patties had perfect sear; pancakes were moist; bacon and eggs were cooked as ordered. Egg, meat and starch breakfasts started under $4 too. In the river café mode, biscuits and gravy were Southern quality and gargantuan. Smoked salmon hash and omelets were great closers, able to get the tough customer who wants something different for breakfast. 

    In this era of food police, the river café is an endangered species, even the historic old joints in the South. Hardly any government authority allows restaurants to serve fresh catch anymore. That’s a real pity this year as Iowans pull basket after basket of delectable striped bass off the Scott Street Bridge. Mullets compensates with a couple odd fish, at least for local restaurants.

     

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    Triggerfish won’t surprise anyone who is familiar with the flavor of fried perch. Blue gills (Illinois’ state fish) have a reputation for being fabulously tasty but incredibly difficult to clean. That made Mullets’ fried version a guilty pleasure.

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    Chowder was thick. Catfish had a heftier, more familiar flavor.

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    A shrimp and crawfish po boy and a cup of chowder were surprisingly mild. Tuna salad delivered a perfectly cooked piece of ahi on salad greens.

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    Frog legs were tough and exhausted after their long journey from China but my waiter removed them from my bill without even being asked. Potato salad and cole slaw were more Midwestern than Southern, with lots of sweet creamy texture and no acid kick. Salty clam cakes and fried pickle chips, a staple of river cafés, encouraged rehydration. Pizza, burgers, burritos, wings and tacos also complemented the high end beers and inexpensive wines that pumped lifeblood into the happy patio.

    Bottom line – Mullets is another slam dunk for FCP.

    Mullets (kitchen hours)

    1300 SE 1st St., 244-1443

    Mon. – Fri. 11 am.- 11 p.m.

    Sat. – Sun. 7 a.m. – 11 p.m.

August 3, 2010

  • Last Night at Russ & Abbie’s

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    Russ & Abbie’s 1953-2010

    Russ & Abbie, Thanks for the Memories

    The late bon vivant bartender Richard Herring (Rusty Scupper) liked to explain why political polarization was over rated: “Too much booze and everyone’s a radical out to change the world but when it comes to people’s favorite childhood restaurants, everyone’s a conservative incapable of even imagining any change.” Herring usually added that real life never co operates with either vision. It did though last week when the children of seven decades returned one last time to hallowed ground across the street from Hawthorne Park.

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    North High School buddies Russ Reel and Abbie Polito opened La Pizza House in 1952 and introduced generations of Iowans to the miracle of pizza. Much of south and east Des Moines reeled when the news of its imminent closing passed through town like water through a busted dam. I went back for the first time in maybe 20 years yet the place looked like it had never changed. Actually the all booth restaurant, with sliding window partitions, expanded three times, all before 1959. Its trophy case enlarged too but the flavors, where memories rule, remained constant as the original logo.

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    Pizza was still oval shaped, tavern style, and burnt on the edges. Its thick tomato paste still overwhelmed its cheese while mild sausage was still spread over every centimeter.

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    Home made Italian salad dressing tasted like the 1950‘s. Onion rings were still the thickest in town, freshly breaded and golden fried.

    Sandwiches La Pizza combo

    Grinders were still huge. Wall eyed pike still had a place on the menu though I never knew of anyone who ever ordered it.

    Converted to food conservatism, I checked out two tradition defying developments. Trostel’s Dish, the original area tapas wine bar, initiated both an entrée menu and a lunch service. The former included fish of the day, a pork chop on black eyed peas, potato gnocchi, a steak, and an airline chicken breast. The tapas menu had barely been downsized and still included hand cut pommes frites, truffled mac & cheese, arancini (risotto balls), and Jed Hoffman’s signature fried avocado. The Boursin mushroom recipe goes back to Paul Trostel’s early days at Colorado Feed & Grain, an Ingersoll hot spot when La Pizza House was a teenager. New tapas included duck legs, braised in sake and orange juice, with coconut cream red pepper sauce. Sesame crusted ahi was served “very rare” as ordered, with a complementary black bean vinaigrette. A burger came with perfect sear but the giardinieri on an Italian roast beef sandwich lacked a promised spiciness.

    Gateway Market Café has created some radical versions of traditional sandwiches. (Over 25% of its orders are vegetarian.) A vegan bánh mỳ was dressed with fabulous egg less mayo, anchovy-free fish sauce, plus julienne carrots and cilantro, with tofu in place of roast pork on a wheat flour baguette. The Iowa State Fair inspired four new vegetarian sandwiches that emulated meat with soy products. A marvelous grinder did it most successfully, with tempeh sausage in a rich marinara sauce on a hoagie bun with melted mozzarella. A gyros looked its part with yogurt sauce, onion, tomato and Feta on flatbread but slices of seitan had a distinctly mushier texture than lamb. Similarly a tenderloin passed the visual test better than the surrogate flavor test with an egg bun, pickles, onion and tomato. A Philly cheese steak fooled me completely, possibly because onions and cheese dominated the flavor of faux beef.

    Bottom line – the more things change, the more we need our memories.

August 2, 2010

  • Iowa Eggs: Fifteen Cent Miracles

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    Eggs aren’t nicknamed “the incredible edible” for nothing. They are among the most nutritious foods on earth, for the most obvious reason. Unlike fruits, vegetables and meats, eggs are designed to be food – to support embryonic life forms until they are mature enough to find their own nourishment. Milk is the only other similarly natural food. Eggs contain thirteen essential vitamins and minerals plus the highest quality food protein one can buy, at least this side of the black market for human mother‘s milk. Egg protein has the most nearly perfect mix of essential amino acids needed to generate body tissues. That’s why body builders chug shakes made of as many as 40 egg whites at a time. Only beef liver compares to eggs in levels of choline, a nutrient most Americans lack though it’s essential to knowledge acquisition and memory function, particularly in fetus development.

    Eggs balance diets. A large egg contains only 75 calories and only 5 grams of fat, mostly in the yolks which are also a major source of vitamins, including D, rarely found naturally in any food. In an age of cholesterol paranoia, remember that the world’s biggest egg consumers, the Japanese, have the world’s lowest rates of cardio vascular diseases. Besides, saturated fat has replaced cholesterol as the main target of trendy nutritionists and eggs are low in saturated fat.

    Jen Strauss of Carefree Patisserie, who served an egg yolk bacon mocha crème brulee this year at Bacon Fest, confessed her egg faith.

    “Eggs are whole foods in the most literal sense. They always have been. They are the most perfect food in nature. My kids can go through 2 dozen a week. I know they are getting a protein booster and an adequate dose of fat, which is necessary to a balanced diet. As a Mom, I also love that the egg is perfectly portion-controlled,” she said.

    Which came first?

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    Nest by Tilly Woodward, courtesy of Olson-Larsen Galleries

    According to the Medieval Church, the chicken did, as Genesis reported the God formed the creatures ahead of their reproductive systems and all else. Samuel Butler defied that in Victorian times, declaring the chicken was simply the eggs method of forming a new egg. Modern genetics affirms Butler, assigning organisms a role in the survival of gene sets, not vice versa. Since neither can exist without the other though, generations of common sense claims this is semantics.

    Historians agree. After all eggs existed nearly a billion years before the first chicken, at least if we define an egg as a female reproductive cell surrounded with enough nutrition to support embryonic life after its fertilized, and a membrane to protect it. Sexual reproduction arose 1 billion years ago. The first chickens came along less than 5000 years ago, way late compared goats and sheep.

    The chicken’s genetic parents were jungle fowl in Southeast Asia and India, where chickens were first bred. Since chickens will continue to lay eggs until they accumulate a certain number, they can be tricked into laying eggs indefinitely, by removing eggs before they reach their quota. Other birds lay a predetermined number, regardless of what happens to them.

    It’s possible that chickens developed for reasons other than food. The first culinary mention of chickens or eggs date to Apicius, a name given to a Roman food book in the late fourth century. However, literary references to cock fighting go back another 1000 years to India, and that practice spread to Greece, Persia and Rome long before the Romans discovered what good food they raised for fighting and religious purposes. We also have numerous references of chickens in religion – both as sacrifices and as diviners of the future – that date from Vedas.

    Once Apicius got the egg rolling, the culinary thing picked up speed fast. Apicius wrote recipes for frying, boiling, soft boiling and also for omelets and custards. French recipe books from 1400 have recipes for custards and omelets and baked eggs that hardly differ at all from today’s methods.

    Economic Engines

    From Roman till modern times, eggs were pretty much reserved for the rich. Populist egg commerce took flight in the middle of the 19th century after the Cochin breed was imported from China. Those beauties touched off a wild speculative breeding craze, similar to the infamous tulip mania. Chicken shows became big entertainment after the Civil War until the 20th century when the White Leghorn emerged as queen of egg laying chickens and the Cornish as the best meat chicken. Breeders then consolidated thousands of breeds down a handful.

    During the first half of the 20th century, egg farming became the agricultural equivalence of the American Dream. In 1945‘s “The Egg and I,” Betty MacDonald called it “the common man’s holy grail.” Thousands of farmers got into eggs, particularly in West Coast climates where heating and cooling costs were minimal. They were doomed by the laws of supply and demand. Plentiful eggs became too cheap for modern technology. When MacDonald wrote her book, most egg farms averaged 400 hens. Today, hardly any exist with fewer than 3000 and many have 100,000. Nothing smaller can afford the air conditioning, heating, antibiotics, high tech feed, and lighting systems required to raise hens efficiently enough to produce eggs that sell for about fifteen cents each.

    Today’s typical laying hen (240 million in the US) is born in an incubator, eats an industrially designed formula, lives and lays on wire under lights and produces about 300 eggs a year. That adds up to 50 billion eggs a year. China is the biggest producer with 41% of the world’s trillion eggs a year. Wolrd egg production has been growing almost 3 % a year of the last decade. World trade increases 6 per cent a year.

    Egg production is now concentrated in the Midwest. Last year, Iowa’s 57 million laying hens produced 15 billion eggs, roughly 15 percent of the United States’ total and more than twice as many as number two egg state Ohio. That’s about 300 eggs per hen, per year. Iowa eggs now account for $2 billion in yearly sales and support 7600 jobs that average nearly $37,000 in annual wages.

    Nationwide, egg income jumped from $3.7 billion in 2003 to $6 billion last year. Iowa’s share rose from $460 million in 2003 to $1.1 billion last year. That growth masked dramatic peaks and valleys. Wholesale egg prices per dozen reached 59 cents in 2004, then dropped to 35 cents a year later. As recently as 2005, Iowa’s egg producers realized income of $335.3 million, a third of what they earned in 2008. Last year, the wholesale price reached 93 cents, but feed costs were $12 per hundred pounds, almost double the 2006 average.

    Political stink

    The Humane Society recentlyfiled a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission to stop an egg producer from making what the group claims are misleading statements about providing a “humane and friendly” environment for hens.

    The group says an investigation at Rose Acre farms’ three Iowa farms showed hens trapped in wires of cages; hens unable to reach food or water; hens with broken bones; and dead hens in
    cages with live hens.

    Consumers have been turning to cage free eggs for the last two decades, particularly in Europe. California voters will decide this year whether or not to ban cages in egg productions. In Iowa, small farms like Fox Hollow in Elkhart, where Tai Johnson-Spatt

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    raises scores of heritage chickens, turkeys, geese, quai, ducks and peahens together, have found consumers willing to pay a premium for free ranged eggs. Are these things a threat to the big egg facilities?

    Egg producers are accustomed to the ebbs and flows of profits. A more recent problem on the horizon is political. During the past decade, the egg industry has been subjected to unflattering publicity about odors and mistreatment of its workers and, especially, the hens. One response to odor is a study by Hongwei Xin, director of Iowa State University’s Egg Industry Center in Ames. He experimented with hens’ diets to reduce the odor from their waste. Xin told the Des Moines register that preliminary results showing a combination of distillers grain often a residue of ethanol production or a mixture of calcium sulfate and zeolite had reduced odorous emissions by as much as 46 percent in early tests at Iowa poultry confinement centers.

    That won’t be enough to change the way consumers shop for eggs. More free ranged and cage free eggs are being purchased each year. A more serious threat appeared in November when California voters approved Proposition 2, which requires cages large enough for chickens to spread their wings. The egg industry is bracing for similar referendums in other states. Proposition 2 will not go into effect until 2015.

    Cooking Marvels

    At Iowa Egg Council’s 25th Anniversary Cook Off, Hy-Vee Conference Center chef Cyd Koehn demonstrated her recipe for silver dollar mashed potato soufflés. She set samples out with a business card. The following day she found 35 e-mail requests for the recipe.

    “I think people were taken by surprise – hardly anyone thinks about making savory dishes with meringues, only sweet stuff. But eggs are the most amazing food, you can do so many things with them,” Koehn explained.

    Eggs are incredibly versatile, having three extraordinary characteristics: 1.) They can thicken liquids into solids (custards, quiches); 2.) Their whipped albumen (egg white) expands eight times into foams (meringues) and; 3.) Emulsifiers in their yolks can stabilize oil and liquid (mayonnaise).

    In his eye-opening book “Twinkie, Deconstructed,“ Steven Ettlinger began by asking two questions: Why is it you can bake a similar cake with six ingredients, but Twinkies require 39? And why don‘t the ingredients in Twinkies resemble real food? (Corn dextrin is also the glue on postage stamps, ferrous sulfate is also a weed killer and calcium sulfate is called “food-grade plaster of Paris.”) Ettlinger discovered his answers in the mine shafts, oil fields, laboratories, reactors and blast furnaces that shaped Twinkie ingredients into powder and goo that attempt to replicate the flavor, texture and emulsification properties of the incredible egg, and its companion natural foods milk and butter.

    State of the Egg Art

    Iowa painter Tilly Woodward raises laying hens. She thinks they complement her art.

    “Raising hens teaches patience and waiting, metaphors for being both a mother and an artist. Remember, eggs are a classic symbol of the Holy Trinity. I can’t think of more beautiful, wonderful thing than an egg,” she said.

    Culinary egg art has been established for centuries. Classical Romans left recipes for boiling, frying and poaching eggs. China’s “hundred year egg” has actually been around for at least 600 years. Fifteenth century French recipes for custards, omelets and baked eggs barely differ from today’s. Even the latest rage in egg cooking takes its inspiration from an old Japanese tradition of housewives immersing eggs in mineral springs.

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    Enosh Kelley uses thousands of dollars worth of thermal immersion equipment to simulate such Momofuku eggs – simmered for hours at very low temperatures. At his Bistro Montage café, Kelley quick fries them and serves then with polenta and lamb bacon.

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    At last month’s Winefest, Dom Iannarelli (Splash) poached eggs in a bath of saffron, garlic, lemon juice, salt and red wine. He then used them on top of smoked salmon salad with home made pickles. He topped those eggs with others – tobikko.

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    At La Mie, Christina Logsdon has added a line of macarons that include both French and Italian styles. These little meringue based treats are notoriously difficult to make.

    One Des Moines variation in egg gastronomy is taken for granted by locals, until they leave town and can’t find Mrs. Clark’s mayonnaise. Mayonnaise has been made since the 1700’s by emulsifying olive or vegetable oil with egg yolks, vinegar or lemon juice. Mrs. Clark’s recipe adds mustard seed creating a distinctive Des Moines flavor.

    Some of the highest forms of egg art are out of fashion. In bartending, fresh egg drinks are rarely requested these days.

    “Pink Ladies (gin, egg whites, Grenadine and cream), Tom & Jerry’s (eggs, rum and sugar) and Ramos Gin Fizzes (gin, lemon juice, lime juice, egg whites, sugar, cream, orange water and soda) are all fantastic drinks that aren’t in style these days,” explains Sbrocco manager Mark Murphy.

    Similarly George Formaro (Centro) loves zabaglione, likely the world’s unique whipped egg yolk dessert. However he admits it’s not appreciated enough to keep on his menu. When he does make it, Formaro folds in heavy whipped cream so he can use it cold. Andrew Meek (Sbrocco) has adapted a new version of that classic.

    “I call it curd zabaglione. It’s basically a sweet version of Hollandaise. I cheat the classic, I don’t whip the yolks much at all,” Meek said, adding that he makes different flavors (rhubarb, Meyer lemon, lime, basil) and offers them in trios, on Asian soup spoons.

    “I also use that mixture in pound cake and tarts. The key for me is to use good eggs, grade AA’s or something fresh from a supplier. I get eggs from Fox Hollow Farm and I have even made this with their duck eggs. That’s heaven,” Meek added.

    Creative egg cooking mostly involves new applications of old methods. Des Moines’ most famous egg dishes involve whole egg pasta – particularly the Sunday dinner cavatelli that Calabrese immigrants brought here. Tony Lemmo and Phil Shires make all their pasta from scratch with fresh eggs at Café di Scala. They’ve added new variations like carrot tagliatelle and squash cappelacci.

    Other new applications are simpler. “I think almost any sandwich is better with eggs fried on top,” Formaro declared, reminding us that Centro and Django serve dishes that add eggs to burgers, pork tenderloins, salads and ham sandwiches.

    For the sake of poetry though, our last word on eggs goes to former Wire Whisk Workshop owner Deb Wagman.
    “Chickens, fertile mommies that they are, deserve to live in perfect bliss for the fragile treasures they give to us. Eggs are so unabashedly elemental, so profoundly nourishing, so Zen-like in their simple perfection. If I got to choose my last meal, it would be one poached egg – 4 minutes, no more, no less – on toasted whole wheat bread. Then, if I didn’t make it to heaven, I would have at least experienced a taste of it on earth.”

  • How to Cook Eggs

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    Nest by Tilly Woodward, courtesy Olson-Larsen Gallery

    Eggs have three extraordinary characteristics. 1.) They thicken liquids into solids; 2.) They create the texture of foam with their whipped whites and 3.) They can stabilize oil and liquid with the emulsifiers in their yolks.

    Most egg cookery has the same purpose – to bond liquids (the egg’s own, or others) into a moist, soft solid. Egg proteins coagulate when heated, so overcooking causes the proteins to overbond and squeeze out liquids, turning your dish rubbery or curdling it. Eggs whites begin to set at 145 degrees F and are completely set at 160 degrees F. After that, there’s trouble – fried eggs get rubbery and scarambled eggs separate into solids and liquids. Diluting eggs with other liquids raises the temperature at which coagulation occurs. Addind sugar does the same thing, though for different reasons. Salt and acids (crème of tartar, juice of any kind) have the reverse effect.

    Boiling

    Three to five minutes will solidify the white. To solidify the yolk, you can cook it five times as long. Tender whites will result from simmering the eggs instead of boiling them, no more than 185 degrees F, for 25 to 30 minutes. You can tell a raw egg from a cooked one by the way it spins, raw eggs spin reluctantly and will start moving again if stopped and then released. Fresh eggs are hard to peel, because their lower pH count makes the albumen adhere to the shell. The green color that occasionally forms in a hard boiled egg yolk is the result of gas formed by heating albumen’s high sulfur and then exerting pressure on the yolk’s high iron content. You can avoid this by only cooking the eggs long enough to solidfy the yolk and then plunging them in cold water, or peeling them instantly.

    Poaching

    Only use AA grade eggs, as they have a higher proportion of thick to thin albumen and will form more nicely in hot water. Do not boil the water, start at about 200 degrees and then reduce to simmering. Adding salt, or acid will speed the coagulation but it will also add flavors.

    Frying

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    The trick is to not let the white spread out too thin. Scientists believe the best temperature for frying eggs is 255 – 280 degrees F – that’s the same temperature at which butter will melt without turning brown.

    Scrambled eggs and omelets

    The amount of liquid that is added is key. Omelets are cooked faster at higher heat than scrambled eggs, so they can’t hold as much liquid. Scientists recommend 2 to 5 teaspoons per egg in scrambled eggs but only 2 to 3 teaspoons in omelets. If you add no liquid at all, be extra careful the eggs do not dry out. In any case, remove the eggs from the frying pan immediately as they will continue to cook even if the heat source is turned off.

    Custards

    Custards are sweetened gels of tender egg protein. Quiche is unsweetened custard. The basic custard combines an egg with a cup of whole milk and two teaspoons of sugar. Extra yolks can be added for richness. The bonding of proteins that makes the custard set will occur between 180 and 190 degrees F and the custard will curdle when it reaches just 5 more degrees. So slow cooking in an oven that never reaches 212 degrees F is essential.

    Foam

    Egg whites increase in volume by up to 8 times when beaten. In technical terms, egg foams are gas dispersed in liquid. In common talk, they are stable bubble masses of protein. Meringues can be beaten too little ( poor volume) or too much (premature collapse). Most cooks advise beating until the foam can stand up in a defined peak and not a second longer. A single drop of yolk, or any fat, will reduce the foam’s volume by as much as two thirds. Once the foam has formed though, it can be folded into the yolks or other fatty mixes and still leaven appropriately. That is how soufflés and sponge cakes are made. Acids (cream of tartar or lemon juice) are added to stabilize the foam. Sugar is added, after the foam forms, to improve the flavor. Since the 1771 French Encyclopedia was published, copper pans have been preferred for meringues. Copper pans create a creamier yellowish foam that is harder to overbeat than those made in ceramic and glass pans. If you don’t have copper pans, you can achieve similar results with cream of tartar. Scientists have been trying to analyze and explain the copper phenomenon for decades. Whatever the cause, they think it may hold the biochemical key to understanding how proteins interact during destabilization.

    As soon as meringues are formed, they are baked to stabilize the structure, by coagulating the proteins and drying out the sugar syrups. Soft meringues are baked at 350 F for about 15 minutes. Hard meringues are baked at 225 F for an hour to two hours.

    Angel cakes and sponge cakes derive their lightness from egg white foam but flour and milk give them their strength. Sponge cake batter includes egg yolks and sugar, where as angel cakes just add sugar. Souffles are light sponge cakes, with about half as much flour. Beaten egg whites are folded into a sauce rather than a batter. They can be made into savory or sweet versions, with purees of meat and cheese in the former and fruits, sugar, chocolate and liqueurs in the latter. The trick is to bake them hot enough for the proteins to set before the foam has fully expanded and begins to fall – yet at low enough heat to cook the center before the outside burns.

    Whipped yolks

    Egg yolks have too many fats to foam easily and their proteins are not suited to denature easily either. Still, the classic dish zabaglione manages the tricks with its mix of Marsala wine, frothy yolks and sugar.

    The miracle of egg yolks is their emulsification properties, particularly in bonding oils and liquids, as in mayonnaise and béarnaise sauce. In the mid 17th century, Pierre Francois de la Varenne discovered the whipped egg yolks could bond proteins into new sauces, his “Fragrant Sauce for asparagus” is the original hollandaise. It was named about 100 years later when Louis 14’s courtiers discovered it among Huguenots exiled in Holland. It‘s still made the same way, with clarified butter, egg yolks, lemon juice or vinegar. Mousseline is a hollandaise sauce made with whipped cream. Bearnaise sauce has the same base but also uses reduced white wine, shallots, chervil and tarragon. The trick is to not use more oil than your egg yolks can emulsify. Julia Child insists the proper ratio is 3/8th cup of butter per large egg yolk. Always make these sauces in stainless steel, enameled or coated pans, as metal oxides in iron and aluminum will discolor them.

    Similarly mayonnaise was imported from the Minorcan port city Mahon. Its made by emulsifying olive or vegetable oil with eggs, vinegar or lemon juice. Unlike Hollandaise sauce, it’s made at room temperature. Mrs. Clark’s distinctive recipe in Des Moines has always added mustard seed. Remoulade sauce is a mayonnaise base with gherkins pickles, capers, mustard and anchovy paste. In the development of sauces, French writers used the word “liaison” likening the thickening agents of sauce to facilitators in romance and warfare. When you make mayo in a blender, you can use whole eggs, as the albumen breaks down enough to weave between oil droplets.

    Hundred/Thousand Year Eggs

    A 100O year old, or hundred-year-old egg,, is preserved by coating an egg in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime, and straw for several weeks to several months, depending on the method. The yolk becomes a dark green, cream-like substance with a strong odor of sulfur and ammonia, while the white becomes a dark brown, transparent jelly with a comparatively mild, distinct flavor. The transforming agent is its alkaline material, which gradually raises the pH of the egg from around 9 to 12 or more. This chemical process breaks down some of the complex, flavorless proteins and fats of the yolk into simpler, flavorful ones, which in some way may be thought of as an “inorganic version” of fermentation.

July 29, 2010

  • Go Bananas After Dark

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    Because Des Moines is a top banana consuming (per capita) city, along with New Orleans and Kansas City,  

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    Dole was in Des Moines today promoting bananas as more than a breakfast food. They smoked bananas, grilled bananas and cooked banana shrimp kebabs.

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    The banana tasted better in the smoked version but the marshmallows did not like the slow low heat of the smoker.

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    The banana was the best part of the kebabs, they were perfectly cooked – sweet and not the least bit mushy while the pepper was undercooked and the shrimp overcooked. I’d add cherry tomatoes.