The Sauced Chef

I’ve recently joined a great foodie group called The Strickland Tasting Society. It’s unprententious, fun and focuses on food AND BOOZE! (check it out on facebook, key word: STRICKLAND TASTING)

The STS sponsors hundreds of culinarians and home cooks in the hopes of finding one thing; the perfect food and alcohol pairing!

I like the group so much, in fact, that I will periodically feature one of their pairing recipes and its creator on my blog.  Once I saw Chef Will’s pairing recipe,  I knew I had found my first STS feature

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 Chef Will’s Shepard’s Pie and Oatmeal Stout Pairing

Bio: My name is Will Curcio. I’m 27 years old, born in Pittsburgh, PA but currently residing in Atlanta, GA. I was a US Army MP and worked for various law enforcement agencies until my heart (and stomach) made me follow my dreams all the way to the kitchen where I currently spend the majority of my days and nights. I enjoy all styles of cooking especially Italian, Irish and North/South American variations. Currently preforming my amazing (and inebriated) culinary skills nightly at The Mellow Mushroom in Midtown Atlanta. The future will be bright filled with full stomachs, strong buzzes and my own restaurant! Stay tuned!

Recipe Comments: Ok, nothing feels more like Fall to me than shepherd’s pie! I have worked several recipes but really enjoy this one, simple and delicious. I pair this with an oatmeal stout (I like Stockyard but it is hard to find) I also enjoy a IPA with this

 5 lg potatoes (Red and yellow both work very well, I prefer red)- cubed not peeled
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter
1 pound lean ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped (I tend to use more)
1 ounce margarine
1 ounce all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 cups beef broth
2 tablespoons browning and seasoning sauce
8 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1. Place the potatoes in a pot with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook until tender. Drain and mash with milk and butter.
2. While the potatoes are cooking, crumble the ground beef into a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic
3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Melt the margarine in a small pan. Stir in the flour. Cook and stir over medium heat until dark brown. Let cool off the heat then gradually stir in the broth, ketchup and browning sauce until smooth. Set over medium heat and simmer until thick.
4. Stir the sauce into the ground beef and transfer to a casserole dish. Top with mashed potato, then sprinkle the cheese over the potato.
5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes

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I think I want my kids to be British when they’re born! You ever hear a British kid say “basil”… it sounds like some wondrous thing from Narnia!

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3-2-1 Pie Dough!

Mixer (you!)

3 lbs of pastry flour

2 lbs of all-purpose shortening

1 lb of ice cold water

1. Combine flour and shortening in large mixing bowl
2. Mix, BY HAND, until dough is either mealy or flaky. Flaky describes the pie crust, this is very little mixing, just enough to blend the fat and flour together.  Never use flaky for the BOTTOM of a pie.  Mealy will have the consistency of cornmeal and is good for a strong structure
3. Add ice water and mix  until it feels like playdough.  Do not overmix!

I use mealy for the bottom and shell, and flaky for the top of the pie.  I also freeze the remaining dough already set up in pie tins.   Make sure you make a pie hole before baking. (If you don’t like pie holes, why don’t you just shut yours!)

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Lisbon Bisque with Linguica Meatballs

Food processor

Large ladle

Large frying pan

Large stew pot

Large tempering bowl

2 oz cooking oil

2 oz butter

10 oz can of chestnut puree

4 cups beef broth

2 cups water

1 white yam

5 medium size parsnips roughly chopped with skin on

½ white onion julienne

10 oz whole milk

4 oz heavy cream

2 lbs linquica sausage (chorizo will work also)

½ cup fresh cilantro

2 garlic cloves minced

½ cup chopped parsley

1 egg

Beef base TT

S/P TT

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees
2. Place white yam (skin on!) in its own tray and roast.  Roast until it is slightly soft to the touch.  Remove and place in freezer to cool (about 20 minutes)
3. Add water and beef stock to large pot over high heat
4. Combine oil and butter to hot frying pan and sauté white onions until slightly caramelized, add to bisque pot
5. Add parsnips (skin on, so wash each parsnip thoroughly!) to frying pan and carmelize to a full, nut brown color.  Add to bisque pot. 
6. Take yam out of freezer and do a rough chop (about 8 pieces, skin on!) and add to bisque pot
7. Cover bisque pot, add chestnut puree, and simmer for 20 – 30 minutes (until parsnips are tender)
8. Combine sausage, garlic, cilantro and egg in food processor, blend until it becomes a manageable meatball mixture.
9. Form 10-15 meatballs and set aside
10. Add parsley to bisque mixture (set aside some for garnish) and ladle bisque mixture into food processor in batches (probably 3 or 4) and blend until uniform and smooth
11. Pour mixture back into pot, temper in milk and heavy cream and simmer over medium heat, stirring sporadically.
12. Season bisque with beef base and s/p (or whatever!) to taste
13. Sauté meatballs in frying pan until browned on all sides,  add meatballs to bisque and let simmer for 5-10 minutes until meatballs are fully cooked.  Stir constantly, but be careful not to break meatballs in bisque.
14. Serve with parsley garnish

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Pangea Pizza

Traverse City, MI

www.pangeaspizza.com

Pangea is located in the heart of downtown Traverse City and features pies from around the world.  Pangea also has a large outdoor patio area that is perfect for lounging and drinking in the summer

Get Sauced: 4 out of 4

Pangea has a HUGE beer list.  They offer flights of beers and have bottled beers categorized by country of origin. They also feature local microbreweries on their taps.  Michigan is recognized to be one of the top 5 microbrewed beer producers in the nation, its nice to get that taste right from Pangea’s drafts.  They boast a decent wine list for a pizza place and feature some tasty marguuerita and daquiri drink specials

The Sauce: 2 out of 4

We ordered an Italian, Mexican, Rajasthan (Indian)and Carribean Jerk pizza.  I was most impressed with their basic Italian pizza sauce and the Indian pizza sauce.  Their basic Italian sauce was thick, with a good balance of sweet and tangy.  It also had a fresh basil finish.  The Indian sauce was very unique, with hints of cumin, turmeric, coriander, curry and garlic that  complimented the house made Saag Paneer cheese.  However, I was extremely disappointed in the Jerk and Mexican pizza sauces.  The Mexican pizza sauce was very bland with no kick.  Yes, the pizza had chorizo sausage (just ok) which added some boost to the sauce, but not enough.  I expect to taste chili and cumin with real tang and maybe some minced jalapeno, nothing like that happened.  The Jerk pizza sauce was rough.  No allspice, no thyme,  nothing to represent the sweetness of jerk, not to mention ZERO spice.  Even the chicken on the pizza (supposedly jerk rubbed) was barely seasoned.  It tasted more like a Hawai’in Pizza with chicken instead of ham than an actual representation of real Caribbean jerk flavoring. Whoever made that pizza was the only REAL JERK!

The Reduction: +1 Ambiance for 7 out of 10

Our server was pretty good, she did bring us the wrong beers initially but apologized and corrected her mistake with decent quickness. The outdoor patio is large and has a tiki-bar feel, complete with tropical drink specials.  During the evening it is simply lit with Christmas tree lights.  There does exist a  laid back, let’s eat, drink (and drink some more) and be merry vibe that is really unique, though! Keep the beer list on point, but spice up the SAUCE!

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Compari’s

Plymouth, MI

www.comparisdining.com

Downtown Plymouth is a hidden gem with some great places to eat and drink.  They also do a great job of holding fairs, festivals and interesting events to bring the people in. Compari’s is right in the heart of where you want to be.

 Get Sauced:  2 1/2 out of 4

For a moderately priced Italian Bistro, the wine list was as expected; a spackling of Cab Sav’s, Merlots, Pinot and one Zinfandel.  They only had 4 beers on tap and two of them were Bud and Miller! The only saving grace was the large bottled beer list which was somewhat diverse. 

The Sauce: 2 1/2 out of 4

My first disappointment took place when I ordered a beautifully prepared house salad only to realize that they were using bottled bleu cheese dressing.  There is nothing worse than tasting that faux bleu cheese processed flavor on a salad. Nothing! Here’s the kicker, they had fricking bleu cheese crumbles readily available! Why wouldn’t you make your own dressing! To me, that’s just laziness based on the hope of customer ignorance! However, the redeeming bite was on the asparagus/mascarpone stuffed ravioli with a wild mushroom cream sauce that I ordered.  The light sweetness of the mascarpone paired wonderfully with the earthiness of the cremini/shittake mushroom sauce.  The sauce had hints of garlic and pepper and relaxed my previously annoyed taste buds with a robust nutmeg finish.  Unfortunately, my meal was the best of the table and its not a regular menu item.  If you go there, do not order the whitefish! I tried my sister’s and instantly regretted the mushy, unseasoned, overcooked cardboard that hit my saucy lips!

The Reduction: -1 Customer Service  for  4 out of 10

The server was unenthusiastic and boring.  He did a sub-par and inaccurate  job describing the menu.  I witnessed my sister ask for water multiple times with multiple people before she was refilled.  They had an oil and vinegar bottle on the table next to a fresh parm shaker which (I assume) was to make a dipping sauce for the fresh bread.  I was the one that had to make the sauce for the table and it wasn’t even suggested to us by the server.  The ambiance was as expected, nothing amazing, nothing really shitty either.  The bathrooms were clean and elegant. The tables a bit too small, but nothing that one wouldn’t expect from a bistro-type setting.  Overall, next time I am in Plymouth I won’t be visiting Compari’s.

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