Fry

This dish perfectly combines the bright, bold flavors of Asian spices, fresh lemon, and BBQ sauce. All you’ve gotta do is fry up some chicken thighs and dress them in a tart, clingy sauce. The result is some powerfully provocative flavors. This sauce also works well with grilled chicken.

Vaca Frita, “fried cow,” is a citrus-flavored variation of the Cuban dish Ropa Vieja, “old clothes.” These incredibly tasty, crispy fritters of shredded beef are so good, they’ll give you cravings that you never had before.

Personally, I don’t know why this is considered a southern dish. With our short growing season in Central New York, there’s never a shortage of green tomatoes. It seems like the North should have thought of this dish first.

You can make sausage links or you can make patties, which are a lazy man’s links. If you opt for links, you will need a sausage stuffer. You may also have to special order the casings from your butcher. It is a good idea to double the recipe, too, because it is easier to work with a larger amount. These are good breakfast sausages, but they also shine with kraut, lentils, or duck. Enjoy with a nice glass of Hungarian wine, or with a nice Hungarian man, i.e., artist Peter Hoffer.

We came up with this alternative to braised rabbit as a way to eat rabbit in the summer. If possible, ask the butcher to bone a rabbit for you. Be sure to distinguish between the legs and the loins (or saddle). In Canada, asking for the kidneys is no problem. In the United States, it is hit or miss. Sometimes we like to serve the skewers with Gentleman Steak Sauce (page 251) for dipping, but they are good on their own, too. Another nice option is an easy pan jus, made by deglazing the pan with a shot of sherry, then adding 1/2 cup (125 ml) chicken stock and 2 tablespoons unsalted butter.

Not long ago, restaurants were just fun places to eat out—not the foodist temples of today. And they were often an ode to the owner’s homeland, hobby, or previous livelihood: a ski or fishing lodge, a Bahamian beach hut, a Chinese pagoda. At the top of our list is the stube, the Austrian ski shack with crossed skis hung over the mantel, beer steins, pretzel buns as bread, schnapps, and kabinnet. The menus here would invariably feature sides of mustard in glass jars, parsleyed potatoes, krauts and wursts of all kinds, and, ultimately, the schnitzel—crisp and hot and overlapping the plate like Dom DeLuise on a bar stool. We include schnitzel on the Joe Beef menu twice a year: in the spring with peas, cream, and morels, and in the fall with chanterelles, eggs, and anchovies (of course). Ask your butcher for 4 large, pounded schnitzels. Sizewise, default to your biggest pan. You can top the schnitzel with Oeufs en Pot (page 29), or with a plain fried egg with a lemon wedge alongside.

When we opened Joe Beef, we made all kinds of promises, oaths of sorts: no cranberry juice, we would wash dishes ourselves, we would stay open on Monday nights. We also said we would always have (at least) one breakfast item on the dinner menu. Of course, we are closed Mondays and never do the dishes ourselves, but we do always have one breakfast item on the menu. Oh, and we still don’t serve cranberry juice. We see foie gras the same way we see skateboarding: we had a phase, like most everyone. But then it stopped, and now it’s here and there and we enjoy it in small doses. If you come to town and want to feast on foie gras everything, make a pit stop at Au Pied de Cochon; they are good friends and do it better than anyone. Our favorite way to serve foie gras is with a breakfast-sausage patty or with peameal bacon, a well-peppered over-easy egg, and an English muffin. Add a dash of maple mustard and you’re happy, whether it’s 7:00 A.M. or 7:00 P.M. (You’ll have plenty of mustard left over, but that’s okay. It’s good with everything from salmon to corn dogs.) Remember, when you sear foie gras, be generous with salt, use a good pan, and most important, be prepared for a smoke show. Work fast and have a tray and tongs at hand before you start.

Consider making a double batch of Ed Lee's orange-honey butter to serve the next morning with toast or warm biscuits.

Pounding beef into thin "Milanese"-style cutlets makes portions look even bigger than they are. This recipe also works well with veal, pork, or chicken.

I’m particularly proud of our house-made sausages, which we have been making and selling at the Market since day one. They’re delicious, and they’re also free of the fillers, additives, and preservatives common in commercially made sausages. You don’t need a meat grinder or a sausage stuffer to make sausage at home. You can use preground pork shoulder, mix in the spices of your choice, and form them into patties or kebabs. Here I share three of my favorite spice combinations: a classic breakfast sausage, a hot Italian variety, and a sweet Spanish-style chorizo. If pork is not your thing, ground chicken or turkey that has a 15 to 20 percent fat content will work as well.

Cherries are just as delightful in savory contexts as they are in sweet ones; here, they’re combined with sage and a little vinegar to complement the mild flavor of pork chops. This is a perfect dish for a romantic dinner for two. This is a classic example of a simple pan sauce and can be modified for different meats or seasons. Try swapping in different fruits, herbs, or vinegars, depending on your whims and desires. If cherries aren’t in season, figs or apricots would be especially good.

Brian mastered mole verde under the tutelage of Brenda Godinez, a Cakebread staffer who creates exquisite flower arrangements for the winery. Brenda taught Brian that a proper mole requires many steps: almost every ingredient needs to be fried or toasted first to deepen its flavor. The mole verde, or green mole, relies on fresh chiles, tomatillos, and cilantro for its emerald color. When well made, the mole is velvety smooth. This recipe features chicken, but we sometimes use duck legs or pork. Truly, the spotlight is on the sauce. Serve with rice and a salad. Note that this recipe makes twice as much mole (the sauce, not the chicken) as you need to serve six people. But why make mole in small amounts? It freezes well, giving you a running start on the next dinner.

By mid-November, the tomato vines in our garden have usually had enough. The days are no longer sufficiently warm to ripen the fruits that remain on the plants, so we start thinking about fried green tomatoes. Southerners might raise their eyebrows, but Brian uses neither cornmeal nor bacon fat when he makes these. He prefers the lightness of vegetable oil and the crispness of a panko coating. These coarse Japanese bread crumbs are a favorite of many chefs because they produce such a crunchy and well-browned exterior. Brian tops the fried tomatoes with a dollop of softened goat cheese from Skyhill Farms and a spoonful of fennel marmalade. The dish offers so many pleasing contrasts: warm and cool, tart and sweet, crisp and creamy. We typically serve it as a passed hors d’oeuvre with our Sauvignon Blanc, which has the bright acidity to match.

Inspired by the simplicity and purity of Japanese sashimi, American chefs are exploring the world of seafood crudo (Italian for raw). Typically, crudo is accompanied by Mediterranean garnishes like capers and olive oil rather than the soy-based dipping sauce that is served with sashimi. At the 2005 Workshop, Florida chef James Reaux made a beautiful halibut crudo with chive oil, using the abundant chives in the winery garden. For raw preparations such as this one, the seafood must be impeccably fresh.

Crab cake fans will enjoy chef Marc Ehrler’s golden shrimp cakes, a dish that reflects his years cooking in the Caribbean. Chef Ehrler, a 1991 Workshop participant, substitutes rock shrimp for crab, grated yuca for bread crumbs, and cilantro for parsley to make an appetizer that tastes like something you might find at a seafood shack on Martinique. A mango salad seasoned with chile and lime is the palate-tingling accompaniment. Look for yuca, the starchy root vegetable also known as cassava, in markets that cater to a Latin American or Caribbean clientele.

Everyone’s inner child emerges when these “corndogs” come out of the fryer. Who doesn’t love eating from a skewer? But unlike the popular corndogs that star at America’s state fairs, this whimsical hors d’oeuvre hides a juicy whole shrimp under its cornbread coat. Steven Oakley, a 2005 Workshop alumnus, serves the skewers with homemade honey mustard for dipping. On another occasion, you could use the cornmeal batter for pancakes.

The affinity between asparagus and eggs is apparent to anyone who has ever enjoyed an asparagus omelet. But here’s another variation on that theme. Brian roasts the asparagus to concentrate their flavor, then tops them with fried farm eggs basted with sizzling olive oil. The edges of the egg white become lacy and crisp while the yolk remains runny. A sprinkling of Parmesan helps make the dish more wine compatible. Serve as a first course for a spring dinner party, or in larger portions for a weeknight supper. It’s best to fry only one egg at a time, but each one takes less than 30 seconds.

To keep these pancakes from browning too much, cook them over medium (not high) heat, and lower the temperature if they start to darken too quickly. Sour cream is a classic accompaniment to grated-potato pancakes of all sorts (including latkes).

LIGHT ENOUGH TO BE SERVED AS a casual breakfast dish but hearty enough to accompany a New York steak, these latkes have a crunchy, savory flavor due to two techniques: First, the potatoes are salted to remove most of the excess moisture and then browned in olive oil and butter for a rich, round flavor.

DUNGENESS CRAB CAKES ARE THE QUINTESSENTIAL SEATTLE DISH, and there is much debate around town about which restaurant makes the best. Some local chefs like to add unusual ingredients to their crab cakes, but our only twist is a bit of cheese, which adds richness without overpowering the crab. We use Dungeness for its sweet crab flavor, but blue crabmeat can be substituted. To minimize last-minute preparation, you can refrigerate the crab cakes for several hours before cooking. Allow them to come to room temperature, uncovered, for at least 15 minutes before cooking, as slightly warmer cakes hold together better during cooking. Serving the crab cakes over fresh spinach with a light vinaigrette completes a lunch or dinner.