Tip The Cook

It is the time of the year to tip your cook. If you are eating at a restaurant and your meal is exceptional - steak or fish cooked just right, etc, consider tipping the cook(s). Ask your server how many cooks are on the "line" - those that are cooking your meal per order, typically 2 or 3 or four. Send them back 5 bucks a piece. 5 bucks is a lot of money for a cook - they get about 10 bucks an hour, maybe 12 if it's a really good restaurant. 5 bucks is almost a pack of smokes or a beer after work. It will be much appreciated. They will be high fiving on the" line."

Merry Christmas!

A Single Man

One good thing about not being married or having a live in girlfriend is you get to clean your ducks and fish and deermeat in your kitchen where it is warm and you have a large maple chopping block island. Plus easy access to all the tools of the trade.

Lucky me, kind of... .

Me, My best friend, My Daughter, and a Duck,Best meal ever

So I did it.I cooked those wild Mn mallard duck breasts as in my previous post and it was the best meat of any kind that I have eaten in 60 plus years of eating meat and believe me as a hunter and professional chef in the business, I've had access to and have cooked and eaten a lot of meats, domestic and wild.

I recall a leg of organic lamb done on a weber at Tim and Beth's in NW Wisconsin, and a number of venison chops braised w/ onions, mushrooms and brandy
that have come close.

But nothing quite like this.

Beyond your dog getting a surprise chicken bone, your 1st girlfriend and your first kiss, or your best wife and your best time w/ her,beyond just palate and taste and memory to a deep in your chest satisfaction.This was complete. You could ask for nothing more.

Dark and wet and cold outdoors so I did them indoors on a black cast iron pan on the stove top in olive oil. Seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic, skin side down on med heat till crisp - 4 to 5 minutes, flipped and sauced w/ the orange marmalade sauce/glaze( added worcestershire,and soy sauce to previous recipe) and cooked for about 2 minutes and the breasts were med rare.

Sliced duck breasts a quarter inch thin at an angle and layed out on a plate and covered w/ additional sauce. Served with butternut squash and warm fresh baked whole wheat bread w/ butter. The breast medallions melted like butter in my mouth. Herbed, sweet and sour, spicy, complex, deep.Wow.

Brandy, dark chocolate, and espresso for dessert.







herbed, spiced

They Shoot You Eat

Gotta love it when you have friends that are good at shooting ducks but they don't want to clean them and they give them to you.

Rick showed up at the bar/restaurant that I work at the other day and said the guys don't want to clean the ducks they shot but he knows who does and that was me. I said you're right and he gave me 4 mallards. Boy oh boy lucky me.

I put them in the walkin cooler and two days later I brought them home and plucked the breasts and boned them out and skinned the wings and legs. The wings and legs will make a luscious broth which will be incorporated into a reduced sauce involving red wine, balsamic vinegar, garlic, hot peppers and orange marmalade, as well as cilantro and parsley.

Cook the duck breasts med rare on your weber over charcoal or preferably local maple or oak and glaze with the sauce. Nothing better. Serve with butternut squash seasoned w/ butter, brown sugar and ginger. Accompany w/ Sam Adams or a cabernet.

A Garden of Earthly Delights

It is that very special time of the year when we can be eating straight out of the garden.

Green beans from mine. Sweet corn from a local grower.

Boil green beans till al dente. Drain.Add olive or canola oil or your favorite healthy oil to a preheated saute' pan and add beans, season w/salt, pepper, garlic,crushed red pepper. Add dry roasted peanuts. Saute' over medium heat for a couple of minutes until beans are tender, but not overcooked.

Do fresh cooked sweet corn - either shucked and boiled - or roasted on the grill or a weber unshucked - you do not have to soak them in water - control the temperature and turn so you do not burn them up. Do yourself a favor and use a real wood fire in your weber - oak, maple, birch or whatever hardwoods you have available. The woodsmoke adds a dimension of flavor that you cannot get otherwise.

Shuck the roasted or grilled corn, and slice the corn off the cob. Make a batter like a scratch pancake batter - 1 cup flour, 1egg, 1 teaspoon baking powder, salt and pepper to taste. Stir in corn - 2 cups. Here's the best part - add garlic, fresh or granulated, diced green onions, and crushed red pepper( if you have hot peppers in your garden, use them but be careful they can be very hot). Add oil to your frying pan and fry big spoonfulls of cornbatter over medium heat for a couple of minutes till golden, turn, and fry till golden again.

Serve the corn fritters with a sauce of orange marmalade, balsamic vinegar, garlic, crushed red pepper( or your own garden hot peppers), chopped parsley and cilantro. and a little soy sauce to taste.. It is a spicy asian adaptation of the traditional southern fried corn fritters.

You will know that you are eating when you are eating these green beans and corn fritters. Have some cold beers at the ready.

Give Me The Money , I'll spend it at the Bar

I went to a wedding last Friday at The Refuge in Oak Grove. Beautiful weather, great preacher that really personalized relevant scripture to the soon to be bride and groom, verdant landscape, geese in the distance, lowering sun, etc... . Ceremony not too long. Perfect.

Reception, dinner and dance immediately following in a spectacular post and beam constructed lodge type bldg reminiscent of Lutsen on the N shore of Lake Superior. I was impressed.

And then came the food. Iceberg lettuce - the bagged pre-prepared foodservice kind w/ the shredded carrots and red cabbage - plastic tomato wedges and of course, ranch dressing. Accompanied by a super market soft wheat roll.

Um - where's the dixie cup w/ the peanuts and mints was my first thought and then I went oh oh remembering that I ordered salmon.

Worse than expected. Way overcooked dry as a dead stick salmon topped w/ a cucumber dill creamy salad dressing. Under cooked carrots, decent skin on mashed potatoes, which I used to envelope the salmon so I could swallow it. The plate probably cost the father of the bride 20 or 30 bucks or more.

I would rather spend the 20 or 30 bucks at the bar. A relative, Jim, said he'd had worse food at weddings. He also said that in the south burbs its better, but as you get north the food gets worse. Even at these fancy places. Millions on the bldg and grounds and a pittance for the food and chef/cooks.Sad. Inexcusable, embarrassing, pathetic.

Family Friendly Chili

If you are going to make chili for your family and you have kids and they don't like beans like most kids these days it seems, use refried beans - your own or canned( w/o lard). They will not identify them by sight, yet you get the wonderful depth and heartiness of flavor as well as the health benefits of beans. Good for both of you. A twofer.

Serve the chili over brown rice or angel hair pasta. If you serve it over pasta, add allspice to the chili , as well as the usual suspects of chili powder, garlic, red pepper, bayleaf and parsley. Garnish w/ grated or canned parmesan cheese.

As a special treat serve it over polenta - seasoned corn meal mush - recipe on the carton of Quaker cornmeal - but add garlic and parmesan cheese to it. Simple, family friendly, delicious.

Perfect w/ a cabernet or shiraz or zinfandel or your favorite beer.

Salmon and Fresh Fruit Salsa Celebration

My sister is visiting from S California so I am cooking up a summer thunderstorm for her.

Wild caught Alaskan salmon is on the menu.I do it in the Weber. I use red oak, rather than charcoal.Oak is abundant here so why would I pay an exhorbitant price for Kingsford charcoal.

Start your fire in the Weber with birchbark - birch abounds hereabouts - and small pine branch kindling - if you live amongst tall pines as I do there will be plenty of small dead branches of pine on the ground. Add small and medium split oak and let the fire roar till you have a bed of red and white hot coals. Just like charcoal.

Finely dice fresh mango, strawberries, an orange, sweet red and green peppers and green onions. Add salt, black pepper, red pepper, garlic,chopped fresh parsley, cilantro and mint to the fruit. Add lime juice, balsamic vinegar and honey. This makes it a little sweet and sour. You can add any other fresh fruits that you have like kiwi, papaya,cantalope, honeydew, raspberries,etc... .

Put salt, black pepper and olive oil on the salmon filet(s).Grill over wood coals in the Weber for 2 or 3 minutes and turn, grilling for 2 or 3 more minutes. You do not want to overcook the salmon filets - med rare to med is fine. A general rule of thumb is 7 minutes per inch of thickness of fish till well done. Do not overcook. Err on the side of underdone.

Serve with fresh garden vegetables like green beans and zucchini sauteed with salt, pepper and garlic, and brown rice. Put plenty of the fruit salsa on the salmon and the brown rice.

Bruschetta - Year Round Summer Treat

If your tomatoes are not ripe yet and you are craving bruschetta with a tomato, basil, garlic and olive oil topping, use canned stewed tomatoes. If you dice them on a cutting board and lift them up off the cutting board with the french knife you have been chopping them with, they will not be too wet.

Place them in a bowl, add salt and pepper, minced fresh garlic, chopped fresh basil; stir, drizzle w/ olive oil.Serve w/ toasted french bread rounds that have been brushed w/ olive oil, garliced and toasted in the oven or on your grill.You may top them w/ finely grated parmesan cheese.

Stewed tomatoes are made with ripe harvested tomatoes and thus have that deep, rich round umami part of taste.We only get real ripe, tomato tasting tomatoes one month of the year in Mn.

Do you and yours' a favor and try it w/ stewed tomatoes. Luscious.

!st Real Day of Summer

Finally a summer day which I have applauded with a Mn Gumbo that included pepper jack brats( from Thielen's in Pierz) and largemouth bass, plus the usual suspects ( onions, green peppers, red too, and celery). I sauteed the veggies till half done in olive oil, added the raw brats and cooked slow till all were done , add enough flour to absorb the oil, added garlic( plenty),paprika, crushed red pepper, bay leaf, fresh basil, oregano, thyme in average amounts, and then water, chicken bouillon and v-8 juice, and finally the bass filets. The bass are the last - they only take a few minutes to poach in the special slightly thickened broth of the gumbo.

Cook brown rice on the side. Place cooked rice in individual serving bowls, ladle gumbo over, strew with a mix of the same fresh chopped herbs.

Note: Do the onions, peppers, celery slowly, as well as the brats. It's about a 20 minute to a half hour process. Enjoy it. Have a glass of wine or your favorite beer. Sing along. Talk with your 14 yr old daughter about the summer play that she is in. Stir it all in the pan, get outside and throw the ball for your pooch to fetch. Get back in and stir again, humming along.

Recall that you have leftover polenta from last night's supper. Heat that up in the microwave. and serve as the surprise side. It is so great.

The Bowstring Boogie

Fished on Bowstring the last couple of days with lifelong buddies, an annual trip that I do not make annually, which makes it even more special for me. Usually in Canada, but not this time. This trip was close, accommodating, and affordable.

Not great fishing but decent with walleyes from Bowstring and Winnie. Plenty to pack plus to fry - including northern and perch and a dandy tullibie, which I threw back and regret that action as now I would like to pan-smoke it and eat it with mustard and orange marmalade or apricot preserves., with the addition of garlic, red or jalapeno pepper, and cilantro as a basting and/or dipping sauce.

Dang, those sweet hot spiced plenty of garic sauces are good on smoked goods. Add green onion and parsley too. Whoee!

Floured fish deep fried, calico beans with jalapeno peppers, and boiled red potatoes with butter and garlic had us in Bowstring heaven. Sweat running down Kurt's face and chest and others whooping and hollering - we knew that we were eating for sure, and that it was dam good.

Geiger's Trails End Resort on the north end of Bowstring.Exceptional efficiency, housekeeping cabins, cook your own. The real deal. Best fish cleaning house I've ever seen or used.

A Sock in the Eye

Supper tonight wild caught Alaskan sockeye salmon poached med rare to med in white wine - a Riesling - somewhat sweet, served with a fresh fruit salsa involving equal amounts of strawberries, avocado, orange, green onion seasoned w/ garlic, red pepper, and dill, salt and black pepper to taste. Oh, and some apricot preserves. Excellent.

Never overcook salmon. It jumps a step between cooking and eating - for example if you cook it to med rare it will be med when you eat it, and so on. Salmon gets dry and loses flavor when it is cooked beyond medium.

Sockeye this time of the year is " Copper River Red," probably the best Salmon in the world, especially if you have your own local source like a good friend who fishes them or a trusted market.

It tastes of itself and of the sea. You can eat it raw sushi style, or salt and sugar cured lox style; add dill and it is Scandinavian.

A Cool Spring Evening Supper

A simple supper on the patio by myself because my daughter is at a friend's house overnight.

Grilled Muenster cheese on New England Brown Bread done with olive oil, instead of butter, along with tomato soup seasoned w/ red pepper, basil, and garlic. Excellent. Dunk, for sure.

Microwave steamed broccoli seasoned with garlic, olive oil, butter, black pepper and lemon juice on the side. Perfect.

East wind still still blowing. No fishing. Dang. All out of frozen after last night's final frozen cache of walleye.

French Open tennis on tv. Klister( sp) beat by a lanky lefty from the Netherlands. Good tennis.

I am 8 by 12 in the garden and ready to plant, but it is still too cold - frost possible tonight. Also turned over a couple of herb and flower gardens off the patio.

I am ready and waiting.

Stop it east wind so I can fish.

Bass from the freezer tonight sauteed and finished off w/ chardonnay, butter, garlic, red pepper and dill. Exquisite. Served along side onions, cabbage and carrots.

Everything's great so far except the weather.Too cold. Wrong wind.

Loons are plaintive. Me, too.

A Bob Dylan Day

Outdoor food is garden food. It's just about that time in the Brainerd Lakes area. There has been no rush because of the cool spring.

I've planted early in the past and the plants just sit there and don't grow.

Finally began turning it over w/ a shovel today. More tomorrow and thursday - expanding my small plot from 6 by 12 to 18 by 12. I want more than what I can eat in season because of the price of fresh produce in the stores these days as well as because of my increasing realization that most of what you get in supermarkets is probably poisoned by pesticides and herbicides. Deeply. I can manage my small plot w/o those poisons.

I have been impatient over the years - a little less now at almost 63. Daily progress over a week will yield as much or more than a long hard driven get it in day. I take the time now and then to scan the sky for eagles ( they're often working the shoreline for fish), or to throw the tennis ball for my brown lab pup. He fetches it right up. I'm counting on him for pheasants in the fall in some local ditches and fields - just he and me, a two man team.

A break for lemonade at 10 AM on the patio is requisite . A morning cigar - not inhaled anymore - and a few pages of reading - AS ALWAYS. JULIA, currently, and Sydney Sheldon's autobiography. If the east wind would stop blowing I would discontinue yard and garden work and cast the shoreline for bluegills using a flyrod with a black gnat. Don't tell anyone.

It's the 24th of May and there is a program on Mn Public Radio entitled " Boy From The North Country" about Bob Dylan's early days and his Mn roots which includes anecdotes and music from back in the day, so I take an early lunch and a beer to savor that. I sit on the patio and crank up the radio. It is great.

A friend calls and intones "rainy days on the great lakes, walking the hills of old Duluth" and does a riff on his harmonica. He has been listening to the same program. What an interlude on what a day.

Thank God for Spring.

Fishing Alone

If you are fishing alone, you are probably not. There is likely to be a loon working the dropoff beyond you, a great blue heron working the shoreline, and a bald eagle above you working both , plus your in between depth.. There was. It was beautiful.

I used a fly rod. they didn't. It was bluegills I caught. Nice ones.

From what I could see, I caught more than they did. A great day for Homo Sapiens.

They eat them raw. I don't. This time I cooked them with a cracker crumb breading in canola oil in a black cast iron pan. I seasoned the breading with black pepper, crushed red pepper, granulated garlic, parsley and dillweed.

We enjoyed them equally.

Fishing Opener: What You Should Do

I promised on Facebook that I would detail the classic French beurre blanc( white butter") recipe for fish caught on fishing openers.

Dredge fish filets in flour, fry in half butter and olive oil ( or canola or soybean, usually identified on the label as vegetable oil) for 2 to 3 minutes on med to med high heat until golden , turn, saute a minute or two and remove from pan. The general rule of thumb in cooking fish is 7 minutes per inch of thickness of fish. Do the math. You want it on fairly high heat to get it brown, and turn the heat down after you flip the filets.

After you remove the filets from the pan, pour off excess oil, add a cup of any white wine and cook on med high heat until reduced by half, add chopped parsley and garlic, or tarragon, or garlic and sage, remove pan from heat, add 3 or 4 pats of cold butter and swirl pan in a circular motion until butter pats are melted and pour over filets. It is a luscious sauce, redolent of herbs, pan debris, and butter.

Accompany with starch( potatoes, rice, couscous, etc)..., and fresh cooked vegetables - broccoli or asparagus, or green beens) or in more traditional shore lunch style w/ baked beans w/onions, bacon, and jalapenos and fried potatoes. Add onions and peppers and garlic to the potatoes.

Accompany with your favorite beer or wine - a pinot noir or chardonnay - and enjoy.

Coffee, cognac and cards before bed. In moderation, of course. You are about 60 or more and you don't want to crawl into the wrong bed.

When it is fishing opener on Mille Lacs and it is 40 degrees with a Ne wind at 20 plus and you are on the west shore, you don't fish. You stay in the cabin and burn wood in the stove or fireplace and do picture puzzles and play scrabble. If you're up with the family.

Otherwise it's you and the boys at your favorite local bar for beer, bloody marys and breakfast. Oh - it's raining, too. The favorite kind of opener if you own a bar and restaurant on Mille Lacs. Nice on friday, sh***y on Saturday, nice on Sunday. Maximum money.

Slow opener this yr? Yes, probably, for people and fish. Late spring, high gas prices - would you come up and spend a hundred five on gas for the truck and the boat if you'd heard the forcast?

Some of us can't resist. It's with guys you've done it with for years. It's not a fair weather deal. You've known these guys for a lifetime. It's not a gamble even though it's poker, which you also will be doing tonight. You won't lose much, but you can win a lot.

There might be a guy in your group that can cook. Lucky you.

It Keeps On Getting Better

So after you have had pork fried rice for dinner, the next day you scramble more eggs in with the fried rice and you have it for breakfast along with toast. It is way better and more interesting than just having scrambled eggs. Add garlic and red pepper and cilantro.

Try it with leftover hot dogs, onions and potatoes, too.

Manslaughter or Assisted Suicide?

If you are fat and you order food at the restaurant that I work at I will cook you an extra large order of hashbrowns, for example, because I know that is what you want. Is that bad?

Your Final Birthday

The butt was a 6 lber. Eat it as a roast with the vegetables as described.

Next day as pork fried rice.

3rd day cut up and cooked with cabbage and potatoes, carrots and onions.

It's a butt that keeps on working it.

4th day in a many bean soup.

Checked out a flat of Sam's Club cupcakes yesterday at work - someone brought it in to the restaurant for a birthday party. - 138 ingredients listed on the label. If you ate one it would be your last birthday.

You Bet Your Butt

If you are going to roast pork, do Boston Butt. Five hours at 350 degrees, covered.Add water about a third of the way up in your roasting pan. I use a black cast iron skillet. If you don't have a glass cover( mine broke), use a brown bag. It works. Be sure to check water level through out the cooking cycle, and add as necessary.

Season the roast simply w/ salt,pepper and garlic to start. Add crushed red pepper and herbs de provence for the last hour of cooking - along with onions, carrots, celery, and potatoes.

It is a hearty, substantial and healthy meal in a pan. So simple, rich and delicious. A little more than mom's pork or pot roast. You get the umami of the fatty meat, plus the bouquet of the herbs. Exquisite! Plenty of vegies plus the meat and fat you crave when it is 29 degrees on the 1st of may in Minnesota.

I've always felt that if you eat the good stuff( vegetables), you can eat the really good stuff( meat) too.

As Good As Chocolate

A good late night snack on these cold wet days of spring is homemade shoe string potatoes. Cut the potatoes as thin as you can - like "Picnic" in the can. Use russets and sweet potatoes for a special treat. Do half canola and half olive oil - these oils are good for you and will satisfy that sweet or carb craving.

Deep fry - you only need about an inch of oil - on just above med heat ( 350 degrees). Adjust heat as necessary - don't let it smoke. Fry till golden brown, drain on paper towels, season with salt, pepper and granulated garlic. No need for a dipping sauce as they are so rich and satisfying as is - and like I said - good for you. Best of all they taste heavenly and satisfy that craving w/o killing you. Add a little cayenne if you prefer spicy.

A potato is a vegetable - russet and /or sweet - so they count for that.

Spring Salmon

Use your hidden hard boiled Easter eggs to make an adjusted" Norwegian hollandaise" sauce to serve with your wild caught Alaskan Salmon.

The traditional sauce is melted butter, chopped hard boiled egg, lemon juice and dillweed -melt 1 stick butter, add 1 chopped hard boiled egg , 1 tablespoon dillweed., and 1/ 2 squeezed lemon juice.

Adjusted or enhanced includes the addition of 1 tablespoon chopped parsley, 1 /2 teaspoon minced garlic, and 1 /2 teaspoon crushed red pepper added to the melted butter.

Cook salmon in olive oil in saute pan over medium heat for about 2 minutes( season w/ salt and pepper), turn and cook 2 more minutes. The general rule of thumb in cooking fish to well done is 7 minute per inch of thickness of fish. Do the math. You want this salmon to be cooked medium - not dried out, which means cook it about half way there. The slower you cook it the better - even on medium low.

Spoon sauce over filets/steaks before serving with your favorite starch and vegetable - rice, boiled or shoestring potatoes, broccoli, or asparagus.

It is a deep kiss with your lover, you lucky one.

Wednesday, April 20th

The wind stopped blowing so I got down to the lake today and saw 3 loons, 5 ducks, 1 eagle and a dead bullhead, pretty good sized. I did not eat any of them.

Guacamole and refried beans w/ chips and corn tortillas a perfect playoff football snack.

Make the guac w/ onions, tomatoes, jalapeno pepper,lemon juice,plenty of garlic, cilantro and olive oil. Process. Serve with chips of your choice.

Pinto or black beans mashed and fried in half butter and olive oil, seasoned w/ salt, pepper, garlic, cayenne topped w/ cheese, served w/ chips and warm soft corn tortillas.

Looks good, smells great, tastes like a touchdown.

A Winter Sandwich

Use marble jack cheese and bleu cheese and cooked spinach to make a great midwinter grilled cheese sandwich on whole grain bread. Grill the sandwich in a small amount of olive oil, or olive oil and butter. Eat it alongside a multi bean and vegetable soup.