For a Thanksgiving Special, I did a segment on Radio Boston about some non-traditional dishes.  I volunteered to do the vegetable side dish.  I’ve been really enjoying Brussel sprouts lately.  It’s a great late fall treat. I love getting them right on the stalk that looks like a cave man’s club, becasue that’s how you know they are really fresh!  A member of the Brassica family, which also includes cabbage, kale and bok choy (some of my other favorite vegetables), they’re loaded with vitamins, potassium, and iron. I firmly believe that if you don’t like Brussels sprouts because you think they’re bitter, you haven’t had my Brussels sprouts! (Or at least really good Brussels sprouts).

If you’re looking for something different for Christmas this year, or just a fun new side dish, this is a simple, quick and healthy dish, you’ve got to try this.  It’s great for entertaining because you can do a lot of the work ahead of time.  You can make the dressing up to three days before your meal and blanch the sprouts a day early, then just stir fry them to reheat and you’re all set.

Andy Husbands’ Minty Brussels sprouts

Serves four as a side dish

1 Recipe Vietnamese Vinaigrette (below)

2 tbs vegetable oil

4 cups, Brussels sprouts, quartered and blanched to al dente

½ cup mint leaves, roughly chopped

Place the oil in a heavy bottomed sauté pan; I love cast iron pans, over medium high heat.  When the oil is hot and almost smoking add the blanched Brussels sprouts and lets sear, stirring occasionally, letting the outer leaves start to brown.  Continue to sear for 3-5 minutes until they are all becoming toasty and nutty smelling.

Add the vinaigrette, remove from heat and toss with mint.  Serve immediately. Yum.

Vietnamese Vinaigrette

Makes about ½ cup

1/3 cup hot water

1 tbs granulated sugar

2 tbs fish sauce

2 tbs carrots, pealed and shredded

1 small clove garlic, minced

1 tsp ginger, peeled and minced

In a medium bowl mix the hot water and sugar until fully incorporated.  Add the rest of the ingredients, mix.  Will last for one week refrigerated in an airtight container.

This dressing is excellent as a dressing on a napa salad with mangoes, mint, shrimp.

Jody Adams, Michael Schlow and Joanne Chang also contributed to this segment with some great recipes!  Listen here.

For my Thanksgiving installation of Farm to Fork, I headed up to Smolak Farm in North Andover.  I love it up there. I participated in the Whim Dinner series there over the summer, a benefit for Share Our Strength.  It’s not too far from Boston, but so peaceful and beautiful.

Back to fall.  What’s better than apples. The first bite that is juicy and sweet followed by sweet.  Yum.  I read recently that most apples in the supermarket are over six months old!  Not to mention how far they travel.  In New England, apples should be local. Always.  You can get them locally from July until April, sometimes even May.  They are plentiful at the farmers markets and speciality shops and coops that sell local produce.

One of the coolest parts of heading out apple picking is the Heirloom varieties.  There’s so many you have never heard of.  We tried Seek No Further, red, juicy and sweet, and Rhode Island Greening, green, firm and tart.  This creates a great balance combine with some Cortlands for some apple sauce.

And that’s what we made, with spiced candied peanuts.  It a yin-yang balance of sweet, sour, salty, spice.  A dish that you can enjoy all fall and winter.  You can use many variations of apples and nuts – that’s half the fun.

Listen to the segment here.

Andy’s Apple Sauce with Candied Peanuts

Makes about 4 Cups

2 Seek No Further apples, cored and sliced into ½ inch slices

2 Rhode Island Greening apples, cored and sliced into ½ inch slices

2 Cortland apples, cored and sliced into ½ inch slices

1 cup apple cider

1 pinch sea salt

Place all ingredients, except sea salt, in a heavy bottom 4-quart saucepan over medium high heat and cover with lid. Bring to boil and turn heat to medium, simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove cover and continue to simmer and stir for 5-7 minutes more until apples are soft and easily mashable with fork.

Remove from heat and season with sea salt and mash with fork or run thru food mill. Serve warm or cold. Garnish with candied peanuts (recipe below).

2 tsp oil

1 cup peanuts, shelled, skinless, roughly chopped

3 Tbs granulated sugar plus 1 Tbs reserved

1/2 tsp cumin sees, toasted and ground

1 tsp sea salt, or kosher salt

½ tsp red pepper flakes

Place the oil in heavy bottom sauté pan, I prefer cast iron pan, over medium heat. Add the nuts and stir continuously for 2-4 minutes until the nuts start to smell toasty and are lightly browned.

Add sugar and continuously stir for 3-5 minutes making sure the sugar and nuts don’t burn. The sugar will start to melt and turn golden brown. Immediately pour into a stainless steel bowl and toss with the remaining sugar and spices. Pour onto sheet pan and let cool. Eat as a snack or on applesauce.

About a month has gone by since my trip to China.  Jet lag has passed, work has regained some normalcy after playing catch up, and finally, time to recreate the wonderful food that we ate during our travels.  This was part of the plan all along, gather six of the other chefs along for the journey and highlight the food at a special dinner at 647.

Lot’s of red lanterns (every restaurant in China hangs red lanterns out front to symbolize it’s there, most don’t even have names), check. Chopsticks, check.  A full house, check.

We got it as close to the true Chinese experience as we could.  We rearranged the floor plan for communal seating in groups of 8-10, served everything family style and had lots of Tsing Tao beer (China’s equivalent to Budweiser) on hand.

Jasper White of Jasper White’s Summer Shack served Szechwan Style Water Cooked Fish (which is really poached in Peppercorn and Chile Oil).

Photo Credit: Brian Samuels, www.briansamuelsphotography.com (taken with an iPhone)

Brian Reyelt of Citizen Pub, Franklin Cafe and Tasty Burger served Crispy Chicken with Chilies and Peanuts

Mark Porcaro of Top of the Hub served Chile Braised Pork Shank

Neal Robert of Good Life Productions served Salted Potatoes with Chinese Celery and Peppers

Bik-Fung Ng, one of the trip’s organizers and the unofficial “Mayor of Chinatown” served Pork Lotus Cakes

Photo Credit: Brian Samuels, www.briansamuelsphotography.com (taken with an iPhone)

I served Xia Lim Bao, Black Truffle Soup Dumplings

Dessert was really crazy.  We served Watermellon with Pandan Syrup and Sea Salt (which we got everywhere in China) as well as Braised Pork Belly with Coconut Rice, Prunes and Sour Cherries. Sweet, savory, there was a lot going on; and people seemed to like it.

It was great to reunite the group of chefs and showcase the great flavors of China.  I’m looking forward to the next trip like this and the dinner that follows.

The Martha’s Vineyard Food and Wine Festival is a fun event to wrap up the summer.  This year I participated in the Opening Reception, the Grand Tasting and the Tapas Challenge.  It was great to get away, relax and hang out with some good friends.

The opening reception was all about desserts.  So I brought my pastry chef, Katie.  We served Butterscotch Pudding with “Bad Breakfast” Topping.  The “Bad Breakfast” Topping, bourbon soaked cherries, almonds and cornflakes, really made this dish.  Held at The Atlantic, it’s a fun way to start the weekend.

Saturday was the main event.  The Grand Tasting was held at The Field Club.  Held outside under tents, it brings together great restaurants from the Vineyard, Boston and beyond.    Our table was next to Chef Levon Wallace from Water St.  Perfect chance to size up the competition before the Tapas Challenge later that night.

The Tasting went great.  Our signature Tibetan Pork Momos were a hit.

Once that was done, we packed up and headed over to the Harborview Hotel.  It’s a beautiful space right on the edge of town overlooking a lighthouse.  This is where the Tapas Challenge was.  The three courses were Pear, Oysters and Duck.  Each course was paired with wines.  Levon had the home court advantage.

I put Katie on a crash course of shucking oysters, something she had never done before, but did great with.  We tried a few different things in our prep time, but overall I think we came out with a strong menu.

Course One: Pear

2010 Ladera Sagrada “Castello de Papa” godello (Valdeorras)

light, high minerality

Tremont 647

Frisee salad with pear puree, candied bacon, candied meyer lemon, meyer lemon vinaigrette

Water St

Fingerlink potato with poached pear and blue cheese

Course Two: Oyster

2010 Bodegas Berroia “Berroja” (Chacoli De Bizcaia)

grapefruit and straw

Tremont 647

Oyster with amarillo nuoc cham

Water St

Oyster Pannacota

Course Three: Duck

2009 Bodegas Indiano “El Brozal” Tinto (Rioja)

chocolate, dark cherries

Tremont 647

Duck Mole Taco with Dried Cherries Salsa Verde

Water Street

French toast with duck hash and poached egg

After the diners voted, we took questions while the votes were tallied.  We prevailed, though it was close.  One more night and it was back to Boston in the morning.

Day 1
The flight to Beijing wasn’t so awful, for some reason I had it in my mind that it was going to be 18 hours, perhaps, do to my last trip to Thailand which was about that. A ambien, a neck pillow, and a few movies on my iPad and the flight passed quite nicely. I’m not sure about that chicken sponge that was served for lunch, but I had a half of a cubano from Frontera take out and that helped.
At the airport we were all discombobulated, I wasn’t sure if I was awake or tired, met our ‘national’ guide Charlie, jumped on one of those giant tour busses and headed to the Prime hotel. Checked in, headed out. It was like herding cats on a mix of Adderol and Xanax trying to get the chefs focused or doing one thing. We were trying to head to a Szechuan restaurant since we aren’t going to that provence….hour later, tired and hungry we were staring at snakes and scorpions on sticks, chef Brian ate the scorpions, my stomach wasn’t up for it yet. A few of us broke from the group and went to a restaurant, the rest stayed at the stalls.
My legs and back were soar from flying and the restaurant option was appealing, unfortunately the restaurant was not. Beer was good, noodles with a light soy and sesame oil with crunchy baby bok choy was edible and thankfully filling, the meat gelee, beef tongue, and mystery mushroom mix were gelatinous, gooey, rustic- I took a bite and decided to opt out.
A few more went home and four of us, as chefs do, went out out for some culture, we define culture as drinking maybe too many cocktails. 3 double jacks and I was ready for bed. Midnight.
Day 2: first full day in Beijing
Feeling somewhat human, up at 6:30am, headed down for the included breakfast. Besides allof the usual suspects of pancakes the ubiquitous egg station there was a 20 foot arced buffet table with a tasty Chinese breakfast; dumplings, noodles, wok fried beef, fried rice, sweet and sour pickles. I went back for seconds.
Hour bus ride to the Summer Palace, absolutely stunning. Ornate, colorful, historic, super impressive. We all reflected on the type of power the emperors had to have this sprawling palace. Charlie tells us that they had 150 chefs that produced 100 dishes for each meal.

Big Boss is where we ate lunch. Very tasty.

A lot of discussion about the soup and it viscosity. I thought it was a simple reduction but Jose pointed out that it didn’t have a huge chicken flavor, it was more light with a interesting cucumber taste with silky egg drop. We asked and we think soup was lightly thickened with probably potato starch or maybe bean starch.
Other highlights: really crispy chicken in orange reduction, bok choy with mushrooms, crispy chicken in Ah-So(?) sauce, velvet pork in a light tomato and curry (or maybe fenugreek. The stand out was the braised pork With minced stewed onions and collards.
I think the pork belly was braised in a mushroom soy with onions, then reduced the braising liquid and stewed collards and onions in it, it was sweet, hardy, rich. Superb.

After lunch we we went to Tieneman Square and the Forbidden City. I’ve seen both on tv and in movies and neither did justice on their size, grandiose, and intensity. I expected the military presence to be greater, it was still there but no show of guns or tanks. Plenty of cameras watching people and sharply dressed stoic guards, I assume there was a lot more that we couldn’t see.
Walking through Tieneman square I was reminded of all of the news broadcast with goose stepping military and the show of military might. All the buildings we so big you really felt small in the sea of people.
The Forbidden City is complete craziness, I’ve never seen anything like it. You enter thru 6 inch thick wooden gates over moats, walking into a grand courtyard surrounded by walls and a main building in the front center, this gets repeated and repeated and repeated. I felt each time that this was the center but yet it kept going and going like one of those Russian eggs. Each element of the every building, roof, flooring, walls were all so perfectly and beautifully designed, it took 14 years to build and not one nail was used.
We walked 6 miles, totally worth every step.
For dinner we had a simple Chinese dinner, I love the giant lazy-susans in the tables and the beer was cold. After dinner we saw a Kung Fu ’show’, I thought it was going tone a couple guys fighting it out in a ring, actually it was a off off off Broadway love story about Kung Fu- most people dozed off, I thought it was campy and they certainly were trying to entertain us.

A few notes about dinner. That soup was fantastic in the fact that is had zero flavor and a weird cornstarch constancy, look at that picture, it looks almost plastic. The most interesting dish was the corn fritter.
My first impression was that it tasted like cotton candy with a hint of Cap’n Crunch. Jasper thinks they are using what we would call hard corn, it’s not the butter and sugar corn we eat every August, but the corn that is grown for corn syrup, this makes sense since this is what is in both cotton candy and Cap’n Crunch.

Back to the Prime Hotel and bed.

For almost as long as 647 has been open, we’ve held Grilling Social.  It’s a casual dine-around event where I invite a few friends as guest chefs and we set up grills on the patio.  This year, Wyeth Lynch of Soul Fire BBQ in Allston and Matt Audette of Radius joined me.

Grilling Social really started as whole animal night.  Then a neighbor called the cops on us because she was concerned about the welfare of the animals.  So, we changed it up just a little and have continued this awesome tradition nonetheless.

Wyeth served Caramel Chili Glazed Smoked Chicken Wings with slaw.

Matt prepared local striped bass with corn marmalade, corn and tomatillo salad.

I did a Korean grilled flank steak with star anis sweet potatoes, mint corn salad, and fried tapioca.

And our pastry Chef Katie Burchman made delicious Lemon Lime Bars with fresh Raspberries and Mint

Peach Basil Tostadas

and chocolate chip cookies with fresh berries and mint

It was a great night at 647.  Can’t wait to do it again next year!

A couple weeks ago I catered a BBQ on the Cape.  It was a donation to Share our Strength won at an auction at Hamersley’s Bistro.

I served Andy’s First Place Ribs, Slow Smoked Chickens, BBQ Beans, Cornbread, Coleslaw, Spring Fruit Crisp and Banana Pudding.

There are some cool upcoming events this month you should come to!

Monday, July 25, is Grilling Social at Tremont 647.   This fun dine-around experience will feature guest chefs Wyeth Lynch from Soul Fire and Matt Audette from Radius.  $35 covers food and 2 Harpoon drafts.  $5 off when you show your Friends of Harpoon card.

Wednesday, July 27, join me at Whim Restaurant at Smolak Farm, 315 South Bradford St., N. Andover.  I’ll be the guest chef for a true Farm to Fork experience.  $60 per person.  Register here.

Summer and grilling are synonymous.  The warm weather makes everybody want to spend as much time as possible outside and cooking outside is no different.  Food is always a great way to bring people together, but grilling is really special.  Maybe it’s because in New England our season is limited.  But I think it’s the food that really speaks to people.  Few things compare to a really good burger fresh off the grill.

I recently has the opportunity to work with how2heroes again.  It’s a great how-to website centered around food.  No matter if your an ameature in the kitchen or a professional chef, there’s something you can learn from this site!

Here’s my how2hero video on Grilling the Perfect Burger

Here’s a Hot Jam for your Summer BBQs

Ever summer I participate in Hot Stove Cool Music, Thoe Epstein and Peter Gammons’ charity which helps high needs but high potential Boston area students to college.  It’s always super fun.  New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys headlined at Fenway Park this year.

We served whole Hog Pickins with Cornbread and North Carolina Slaw.  People just couldn’t help but kiss the hog.  If you’re pictured here kissing the hog, let us know!  We’ll have something waiting for you at 647!

IQUE BBQ Coleslaw

from The Fearless Chef

We don’t just serve this slaw at our competitions; we also eat it in pulled-pork sandwiches while we’re waiting for the judges’ decision. You can use it to the same effect in Barbecued Chicken Sandwiches.

Serves 4 to 6

1/2 cup Aioli (recipe to follow)

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice or juice from a jar of dill pickles

1 tablespoon yellow mustard

2 teaspoons celery salt

11/2 teaspoons Basic Barbecue Rub (recipe to follow)

4 cups shredded white, green, or Savoy cabbage

1 cup shredded red cabbage

1 large carrot, peeled and grated

1 small red onion, peeled and julienned (or thinly sliced)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. In a small bowl, combine the aioli, sugar, lemon or pickle juice, mustard, celery salt, and barbecue rub; mix well.

2. In a large bowl, toss together the cabbages, carrot, and onion. Just before serving, add the dressing and toss until thoroughly mixed.

Aioli

Mayonnaise is as old as classical French cooking itself, and the French have been adding garlic to it virtually from its invention, giving that creaminess a welcome bite. If time is of the essence, and you don’t want to make your own mayonnaise, buy Hellmann’s (sold as Best Foods west of the Rockies), and add garlic to it. But try this recipe at least once, and I bet you bring out the Hellmann’s a lot less often than you used to.

Makes 11/4 cups

1 large egg

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 cup canola oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Put the egg, lemon juice, garlic, and mustard in a food processor or blender; purée.

2. Slowly drizzle the oil into the food processor until the mixture is smooth, thick, and shiny. Season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate for up to 1 week, covered.

Basic Barbecue Rub

When I say “barbecue,” I mean slow-cooking by smoky, indirect heat, not grilling. If you don’t have a smoker, try this rub for slow-roasting meat in the oven. (Avoid using it for direct-fire grilling or broiling because the spices and sugar in the rub will burn.) As a general rule, use

1/4 cup per pound of meat, and let it rest about 30 minutes before cooking.

Makes about 1 cup

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons ground cumin

2 tablespoons chili powder

2 tablespoons salt

2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon cayenne

4 tablespoons paprika

Mix together all the ingredients thoroughly. Will keep for several months stored in a cool, dark place in an airtight container.

Photo Credit: Meghna Chakrabarti

The latest edition of Farm to Fork, my new radio segment that airs monthly on WBUR, featured a trip to Copley Square Farmers’ Market.  There I was pleasantly surprised that Atlas Farm had fresh local strawberries!  Immediately I knew we would make strawberry shortcake.  It’s sweet and tart and rich all while being light enough for a hot day. 647’s new pastry chef, Kate Birchman, helped out with the recipe.  Her recipe is awesome!

Mass Farmers’ Markets Fourth Annual Strawberry Dessert Festival runs from June 10 until July 3.  Come try the Strawberry Shortcake!  A percentage of the proceeds benefit Mass Farmers’ Market.

Listen Here

Atlas Farms Strawberry Shortcake

Yum. For this you will need 1 quart of Atlas Farms (or any locally grown) strawberries, 1 cup whipped cream, and the below recipes.
 Slice All strawberries (reserving 4 for syrup), slice the shortcakes horizontally, evenly distribute the sliced strawberries on each bottom slice, drizzle with syrup, top with about a tablespoon of whipped cream, and place the shortcake back on top.

KATHERINE’S SHORTCAKE RECIPE

Yield: 8 shortcakes

Ingredients:

2 CUPS ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR

4 TEASPOONS BAKING POWDER

¾ TEASPOON SEA-SALT

½ TABLESPOON GRANULATED SUGAR

½ TABLESPOON LIGHT BROWN SUGAR

3 TABLESPOONS BUTTER

1 TABLESPOON SHORTENING

¾ CUP HALF & HALF (plus an extra ¼ cup reserved for brushing)

½ TEASPOON VANILLA EXTRACT

¼ CUP SANDING/COARSE SUGAR

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. In a bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, sea-salt, and sugars.
3. Cut butter and shortening into the dries, so that you have pea-sized pieces of fat throughout the dry ingredients.
4. Add ¾ cup half & half and vanilla and mix in until just combined.

5. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to ½-1” thickness. Using a medium-sized, fluted cutter, cut out shortcakes and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.

6. Brush the tops of the shortcakes with half & half and sprinkle sanding sugar on top of cakes.

7. Bake shortcakes for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

For the syrup:
½ cup water
½ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp dried lavender
1 half vanilla bean fleck, split down the middle and scraped
1 pinch salt
4 strawberries, stems removed
Place all ingredients in a small sauce pan over medium high heat and simmer for 5 minutes, strain and let cool. Use immediately or place in air tight container and refrigerate until needed. Will last up to 2 weeks.