Fresh Tart

Minnesota Food Bloggers heated up a frigid, Minnesota morning by hosting our first educational event on Saturday, January 21, 2012, at Minnesota History Center. Bloggers, farmers, food advocates, chefs, journalists, and concerned eaters gathered to view the morning session of the live TEDxManhattan: Changing the Way We Eat webcast.

The morning session's focus was sustainability. After the viewing, Minnesota Valley Country Club executive chef, Tour de Farm founder, host of In Search of Food, and local food advocate Scott Pampuch spoke to the group about the evolution of his thoughts, menus, and purchasing decisions at his restaurant Corner Table. Scott then joined a panel discussion with Barth Anderson of Fair Food Fight, Debbie Morrison of Sapsucker Farms, and myself, moderated by Brett Olson of Renewing the Countryside, to continue the conversation as a group.

See the event summary at Minnesota Food Bloggers. An overview video of the webcast, panel discussion, and reception is below.

TEDxManhattan: Changing the Way We Eat Viewing, Panel Discussion & Reception from Minnesota Food Bloggers on Vimeo.

Given that everything is better fried - everything - it will come as no surpirse that root vegetables make utterly dreamy latkes. I like celery root in particular for its slightly sweet flavor.

These latkes are delicious as is, fresh out of the fat with a dab of sour cream, but my favorite way to eat them is topped with a poached egg. I know: Everything is Better Fried and Just Put an Egg On It, two of my favorite food credos, together in the same post? Out of control.

This same technique works nicely with zucchini as well. I particularly like a mix of zucchini and green pepper, in the summer when both are abundant, topped with Greek yogurt and scallions. Or a fresh tomato sauce. Or ooh, with Molly Herrmann's tomato jam! So lovely. We'll have to wait a few more months to play around with all that fun, however.

For now, fry your root vegetables and be very happy.

And then join the Minnesota Food Bloggers for a Saturday, January 21, viewing of TEDxManhattan: Changing the Way We Eat webcast, 9:00 am, at the Minnesota History Center. The webcast will be followed by a discussion and reception sponsored by Minnesota Monthly Magazine. The event is free of charge.

And join Jason DeRusha and me next Monday evening, January 23, as we assist Chef Scott Pampuch for Chef's Night Off cooking class at Kitchen in the Market. I hope that you can be there with us for food, hands-on cooking, wine, and FUN!

Recipe for Celery Root Latkes at Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly Magazine.

From Kitchen in the Market:

What do you get when you combine your favorite restaurant chefs in the Twin Cities, a fabulous non-profit, a bevy of fantastic “celebrity assistants” and a pretty kick-ass kitchen? Well, we like to call that Chef’s Night Off. And, we’re squealing like schoolgirls to tell you more.

Chef’s Night Off is a limited-attendance cooking class led by the best restaurant chefs in our fair cities. Up close and personal. So fill up your glass, put on your apron and be prepared to get busy. Because YOU’RE doing the cooking. The menu will be created the day of the event so Chef can take inspiration from the seasonal goodies and international flavors of our Midtown Global Market.

Amazing, feel-good side effect? Your participation will help fund a donation to Renewing the Countryside, a wonderful local nonprofit that helps connect and strengthen rural communities including farmers, artists, entrepreneurs, educators and activists. For more information on this amazing organization, please visit their website at www.renewingthecountryside.org.

How fun, right? So come and cook with Chef Scott Pampuch, assisted by Jason DeRusha and me, on Monday, January 23, at Kitchen in the Market. There will be food. And wine. And FUN. I hope to see you there! Register here.

TEDxManhattan: Changing the Way We Eat, is a full day of talks broken into three sessions—Issues, Impact, and Innovation—exploring the state of our food system and our progress toward sustainability.

Please join the Minnesota Food Bloggers for a webcast viewing of the morning session, live from New York City, on Saturday, January 21, 2012, followed by a discussion and reception sponsored by Minnesota Monthly Magazine.

Minnesota History Center Irvine Room

9:00- 9:30 am Registration

9:30-11:00 am TEDxManhattan morning session webcast

11:00 am -12:00 pm Talk/discussion with
Minnesota Valley Country Club Executive Chef,
host of In Search of Food (airing spring 2012), and
local food advocate Scott Pampuch

12:00 - 1:00 pm Reception

There is no charge for admission to the event. Parking is available in the Minnesota History Center lot for $5.00. REGISTER HERE. Hope to see you there!

Most-viewed Fresh Tart recipe in 2011...Pasta Amatriciana from the Muir Glen Vine Dining Tour dinner I attended at Corner Table Restaurant back in February. Chef Scott Pampuch shared his recipe, I made it at home and included it with my post about the event, and kablam.

You all LOVE pasta! And pork! I don't blame you one bit!

Coincidentally (or not!), that was a very special event for me. I met so many new friends, all on the same night, I look back and shake my head at the evil food fun that has spun out of that night. Joy! Dave! Minnesota Food Bloggers! Not kidding.

I didn't realize it then, but 2011 was just starting to simmer. I couldn't possibly have known that it would boil over into the most significant year of my life, short of the year that Nathan was born. (I chat about a few highlights in my recent Twitterview with Joel Carlson for Minnesota Monthly Magazine.) I am in awe of the friends I've met, the relationships that have blossomed, the work that has come my way, the food I've been able to cook/photograph/write about, the opportunities to grow and push and do crazy shit that blow my mind from the moment I open my eyes each morning.

Thank you for reading what I write, cooking my recipes and letting me know (truly, nothing makes me happier, nothing), chatting on Twitter, sharing your pictures and stories on Facebook and your own blogs. We are very lucky here in Minnesota that we've been able to turn our social media connections into real and lasting friendships, good work, delicious food, charitable contributions, and the energy of connecting with people who love what they do.

There's so much more coming! Amazing. Cheers to 2012, much love, Stephanie

So...on to Part II and the pretty details of the Tour de Farm/Celebrity Chef Tour dinner. Despite the bumps in the evening (see Part I), it really was an amazing night. In fact, the whole weekend was a blast, starting on Friday night, when Joy Summers, Molly McNeil, and I stopped by Birchwood Cafe to chat with proprietress Tracy Singleton and to meet National Geographic fellow, sustainable seafood advocate, and chef Barton Seaver. I bought Seaver's book For Cod and Country and had the chance to talk with him for a few minutes about his work and mission. As I left I told him I'd see him not just at Sunday's event, but also for dinner Saturday night at Corner Table, where he and Tour de Farm founder/chef Scott Pampuch were cooking together, featuring a menu of sustainable fish as well as CT's signature local fare.

Debbie and Stu Williams, as well as Rudy Maxa, Ana Scofield, and Ana's daughter Natalie, joined John and me for dinner. We chatted with Seaver and Pampuch, decided to let them choose dishes for us (very wise decision), and had the best meal of the summer: Tomato salad with trout roe. Pickled herring, smoked clams, and basil pesto. Trout cakes with sweet corn. Pork belly with scrambled duck egg. Braised rabbit. Slow roasted salmon with goat cheese butter, baby Brussels, and walnut pesto.

And oh, lovely sweet corn panna cotta for dessert, mmm. Although I didn't realize it at the time, it turns out those creamy dreamy bites were the first of many I'd be maniacally inhaling over the next couple of weeks...but more on that in a bit.

After precious little sleep on either Friday or Saturday night, I picked up my friends Joy Summers, Shaina Olmanson, and Molly McNeil and we were off for Star Prairie Trout Farm in Star Prairie, Wisconsin, for Sunday's Tour de Farm dinner. I think it's fair to say that Star Prairie is the Lothlorien of Wisconsin farms, watery and elvish and a little bit magical. The sight of the long, communal dinner table - always impressive - was particularly delightful as it twisted and turned amongst crystal clear trout springs.

Did I mention that the weather was perfect? Dry, sunny, warm, clear. No frizz. Even though I stayed for far too long, I didn't score even one mosquito bite. I'm telling you...Lothlorien, for real.

As a Celebrity Chef Tour/James Beard Foundation event, the guest chefs included Seaver, of course, as well as chefs Tim McKee and Andrew Zimmern, with Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl as the evening's sommelier. Yes, I write for Dara, and think she's just the bees knees in every possible way, but those are not the reasons that the highlight of the evening, for me, was the marvel of the wine pairings with the food.

The reason is...the wine pairings were delightful. Interesting, approachable, and just really...fun. Wine fun! Food fun! So good.

Also fun? Sitting next to and chatting with Kris Hase, Tour de Farm organizer (along with Pampuch), as well as TDF website designer, blogger, and photographer. All the stunning Tour de Farm photos that have made you so eager to attend one of these dinners? She took them.

Yeah.

When the lovely sweet corn panna cotta I'd had for dessert the night before at Corner Table showed up alongside skirt steak at this dinner, it kicked off a whole rave about the beauty of panna cotta, both sweet and savory, and how rather easy it is to make, and how it should be invited onto more plates.

See Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly Magazine for Kris' genius "cheese course" take on Goat Cheese Panna Cotta with Honey & Berries and Sweet Corn Panna Cotta with Bacon & Blue Cheese.

And see below for the Sweet Corn Panna Cotta I had on Saturday and Sunday, a recipe that Thomas in the kitchen at Corner Table came up with for the event. I photographed - and let's be honest, quickly devoured - it with fried sage (up top) as well as a with a sexy strawberry-balsamic-black pepper jam (below) I was lucky to possess, one of the amazing Serious Jams by Heidi Skoog that you will soon be hearing much about...killer stuff.

In case you're counting, that's three versions of panna cotta I've made in the last couple of weeks. A couple of them I made twice. That's a lotta panna cotta friends, and I've loved every spoonful.

Your turn now...hit it.

Sweet Corn Panna Cotta
Via Tour de Farm/Celebrity Chef Tour Dinner
Makes six 4-oz. servings

1 c. whole milk, divided
2 tsp. powdered gelatin
2 tsp. butter
3 ears corn, husked, kernels sliced off cob
1 c. heavy cream
salt & freshly ground black pepper

Pour 1/2 c. of whole milk in a small bowl and sprinkle gelatin evenly over the top to soften it. Set the bowl aside.

In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Stir in the corn and heat, stirring a few times, for 5 minutes. Add the remaining 1/2 c. of milk and the heavy cream. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove pan from heat and let cool for a few minutes. Whisk the milk/gelatin into the warm mixture.

In a blender, puree the corn and liquid together on highest setting to a very smooth puree. Pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer set over a medium bowl, using a ladle to press out as much liquid as possible. Season mixture to taste with salt & pepper. Ladle into six 4-oz. ramekins. Chill until set, 6-8 hours.

Serve cold in ramekins, or turn out onto plates by warming the bottoms of the ramekins on a plate of hot water for 2-3 minutes and then running a knife around the edges before inverting.

I inhaled the gorgeous plate of food above two weeks ago, which feels like two years ago, given that between now and then my mom had major emergency surgery and time has sped up and stopped both at the same time. It's almost impossible to imagine that I was ever running around stunning Star Prairie Trout Farm, at the Tour de Farm/Celebrity Chef Tour Dinner, in a sun dress, laughing with my friends, snapping too many pictures, eating perfect food perfectly paired with perfect wine...

...but there I am. I'm so grateful that I have the pictures to remember that I was there, having an awfully good time, with my lovely friends Molly McNeil, Joy Summers, and Shaina Olmanson.

About those pictures. There were seven of us bloggers at the event, all with big cameras and a passion for taking pictures of food and chefs and pretty things, and we were...overwhelming.

While it was a rather perfect storm of elements not likely to recur anytime soon - a very special event, a gorgeous setting, an unsual mass of photographers, a level of comfort with chefs that we all know and like and have photographed before, lots and lots o' wine - we did have a long discussion on the Minnesota Food Bloggers Facebook page about blogger etiquette, as it were, concluding with a general consensus  to 1) be aware of our impact as a whole (to avoid a paparazzi effect), 2) be respectful of chefs and staff and their space, 3) not bother other diners/guests, 4) ask permission to take photographs, and 5) remember to sit back and enjoy the food and setting.

When deciding if it's appropriate to bring a big camera, it's obviously important to bear in mind the mission of the event. I worked on the Eat Ramen Help Japan event held earlier this summer, and our stated goal was to raise awareness and money to help feed Japanese families affected by the March earthquake and tsunami.

In that case - bring on the paparazzi, right? We courted as much media and social media coverage as possible.

In the case of Tour de Farm, the stated goal, via the TDF website, is "...to gather people with their family, friends and new friends to share an experience that generations of farm families experience all the time. By celebrating the harvest, the goodness it provides and the toil at the hands of those who provide it, we hope people are inspired to consciously live and eat the way we should, naturally, healthy and as a family and community.  We want people to escape the city to unwind in a tranquil setting and appreciate the wonderful farms where our food is produced."

Click click click click click. Not particularly tranquil. As someone who loves to take pictures, pretty much all the time, I confess that I didn't even consider not bringing my camera. I was so excited to be away with my friends, in a lovely place, with so many people that I respect and admire, that I couldn't wait to photograph the farm, guests, food, chefs, all of it. While I've so enjoyed looking at and sharing my images, I'll never go to an event like this again expecting to document it from beginning to end, unless I'm hired to do exactly that.

What do you think?

Details about the evening, including a recipe for one of my favorite parts of an overall breathtaking meal, in Tour de Farm/Celebrity Chef Tour Dinner, Blogger Etiquette & Sweet Corn Panna Cotta: Part II.

Don't miss my colleagues' beautiful and varied spins on the same evening:

Amy Peterson at Green Your Plate
Joy Summers at City Pages Hot Dish Blog and Eating the Minneapple Part I and Part II
Shaina Olmanson at Babble Network's The Family Kitchen

Make sure to see the results of the long and scrumptious panna cotta discussion I had with web designer/photographer/cook/Tour de Farm organizer Kris Hase, including her recipes for Goat Cheese Panna Cotta with Honey & Berries and Sweet Corn Panna Cotta with Bacon & Blue Cheese, at Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly Magazine.

Sweaty, delicious partying is in full swing in Minnesota, whee! Given our short al fresco season, we are maniacal about eating outside, mosquitoes be damned. From food trucks to farmers markets, patios to farm dinners, food just tastes better in the hot sun.

I'm personally full to bursting with beautifully prepared local food, courtesy of a flurry of lovely, farmy events. I was even at the same farm - Riverbend Farm in Delano - twice in the last week. Yah. Too fab, truly.

Yesterday's food fun was via the Tour de Farm Chicknic Breakfast at Riverbend, featuring four lady chefs - Molly Herrman, Sheela Namakkal, Michelle Gayer, and Solveig Tofte. Oh my god, all four are the coolest girls on the planet, cranking out ridiculous food all over the Twin Cities while keeping everyone around them laughing.

When Stephanie March, Katie Hoffman, and I arrived, there they were, glistening in the beating sun while pulling together a local feast for the crowd's breakfast.

Molly's Kitchen in the Market partner Tracy Morgan was pouring icy cocktails (each chef created a signature mix). Loads of volunteers were running-while-melting. King and queen de Tour de Farm Scott Pampuch and Kris Hase played hosts and runners and photographer and...everything.

Steph, Katie, and I - city girls that we are - set out our blanket in shade-that-was-sun in less than an hour. Ah well. We were happy to sweat it out with the rest of the crew, inhaling heaping plates of chilequiles, poached eggs, braised pork, cheesy polenta, BLT waffle cones, empanadas, salads, pancakes with berries, and a healthy sample of each cocktail.

I was personally quite taken with Molly's pretty tomato jam (up top), a bright-and-tangy foil for the porky, cheesy heaven that I slathered it on. I asked her for the recipe last night and she graciously obliged.

Recipe for Tomato Jam at Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly Magazine.

I worked out this decadent, completely over-the-top (gluten-free!) dish with the help of friends Andrew Zimmern, Scott Pampuch, and Ken Okumura.  A delicious, collaborative blast.

Recipe for Poached Egg, Crispy Pork Belly, & Watercress on Rice Flour-Potato Pancake with Bacon-Maple Vinagrette (whew!) at Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly Magazine.  Have at it!

PS I realize that's two poached egg posts in a row.  I'll give it a rest for awhile, I promise.

Corner Table Restaurant chef/owner Scott Pampuch's recipe for Roast Chicken Sandwich with Pickled Marmalade, on Sunstreet Breads baguette, from Corner Table's Farm & Table Community Supported Kitchen (CSK) box, at Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly Magazine.

Say that 20 times after a glass of champagne...