Orange County bounty
4 chefs share their favorites in freshness and flavor
There is something about autumn in Orange County that whets the appetite, reawakening cravings quiescent during the warm months of summer.
Perhaps it’s the scent of fallen leaves and the first chilly morning that perks up our senses, making us just a little more hungry than usual.
More likely, though, it’s the vast offerings of our local farm markets, stands and grocers, when fall’s bounty is at its peak and the overabundance of flavors inspires us. Apples and sweet corn, whole milk and eggs, sausages and onions, Orange County is, right now, a veritable cornucopia, and few places in the world can rival the quality and array of food grown and raised here.
And, well, fall just makes you want to eat.
Happily, eating well is easy in Orange. Farms, orchards and dairies surround us, giving us enviable access to amazingly fresh and flavorful food. Orange County is home, too, to world-class chefs who would never settle for anything but the absolute best, and that’s why they turn to local purveyors.
To help us celebrate the season, we asked four chefs dedicated to using the freshest and best ingredients to prepare a dish. They shopped the farm markets – or, sometimes, went directly to a farm –– selected the best that the day had to offer, then went to work.
Here, they share their recipes, and their passion:
MUSHROOMS AND EGGS
Chef Shawn Hubbell
Amuzae, Goshen
Chef Shawn Hubbell of Goshen looks back on his early career with what might be called a dash of chagrin.
Fresh out of the Culinary Institute and eager to make his mark, he was intrigued by complicated recipes and methods.
“When I first started cooking I wanted to do more and more and more to a dish,” he says. “Now, that’s so not what my food is about.”
What it is about is simple, top quality ingredients, prepared beautifully and without unnecessary gilding.
That philosophy is exemplified in Hubbell’s warm mushroom salad, a showcase for the mushrooms he gets from Mycomedicinals Madura Farms of Goshen. He first discovered Dan Madura’s mushrooms while shopping local farm markets, and soon realized that he’d found a gold mine.
“I don’t know anybody who grows such an array of mushrooms and who knows so much about each and every one,” Hubbell says. “The sheer variety makes them special. We’re talking like four different kinds of oyster mushrooms, maitake, chanterelles, shiitake, pioppino. He has mushrooms you just don’t see anywhere else.”
And while several mushroom varieties are credited with boosting the immune system, reducing cancer risk and warding off colds, for Hubbell it’s the flavor that matters most. Another plus: They’re available year-round because they’re grown in a controlled environment, or “mushroom houses.”
The gently warmed egg yolk at the base of the mushroom salad comes from Jacks’ Farms in Westtown. (Free-range. $3.49 per dozen. Available at Soons Orchard, New Hampton.)
“They come from a really young farmer who lets his chickens live the way they’re supposed to live. They’re roaming around, eating what chickens are supposed to eat, not all crammed up next to a thousand other chickens. The eggs are on a natural cycle, and they taste that much better,” Hubbell says. “They’re beautiful.”
Sometimes the shells are brown, sometimes they’re pink or blue or sea foam green. The yolk, though, is always a stunningly vibrant yellow, the Las Vegas of egg yolks.
Hubbell notes that fresh eggs are readily available all year in Orange County, some from relatively large farms and others from very small home businesses that offer fresh eggs to the neighborhood. They’re well worth seeking out, says Hubbell.
“It’s important to know who’s growing your food,” says Hubbell. “I shop local because I get the best that way. I try to support the people around me instead of putting my money into a giant food conglomerate.
“The end result is always good. People aren’t always aware of the amazing bounty that’s available right here, and I like to show them.”
Chef Shawn Hubbell is owner of Amuzae, and services include private dinners, events, weddings and private cooking classes. Call 325-4366 or visit www.amuzae.com.
Madura Farms Roasted Mushroom Salad With Sherried Jacks Farm Egg Yolks
Note: Resist the urge to stir or otherwise disturb the mushrooms as they roast. They will only roast properly if allowed to remain still in the pan.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
1/4 pound mixed Madura Farms mushrooms
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 small shallot, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Zest of 1 lemon
4 Jacks Farm egg yolks
2 tablespoons thinly sliced chives
2 teaspoons good quality sherry
2 tablespoons grated parmigiano, regiano or pecorino cheese
Salt to taste
Heat a large sauté pan over high heat. Toss the mushrooms with the olive oil and season with salt. Leave the mushrooms in large pieces; do not cut into small pieces or they will not sear properly. Making sure that the pan is very hot, place enough mushrooms to just cover the bottom of the pan. Do not overcrowd. Cook in batches if needed to assure that the mushrooms roast in the pan and do not simmer.
Pan roast (do not stir or toss) until they start to brown and caramelize, about two to three minutes. This step is very important so that it maintains the texture of the mushrooms and draws out their best flavor. When brown, turn the mushrooms once and cook for an additional minute. Remove from the pan and toss in a bowl with shallots, parsley and lemon zest.
Strain the yolks through a fine mesh strainer into a small bowl. Mix with chives and sherry.
Place two medium-sized oven-safe dishes in the oven for approximately four minutes. Carefully remove the plates with an oven mitt and divide the yolk mixture between the two plates. (If poured into the middle of the plate it will naturally create a perfect circle.)
Place the mushroom salad on the yolks and garnish with the cheese. Serve immediately and warn your guest that the plate is hot.
CORN
Chef James Haurey
Crystal Inn, Warwick
If you know what Chef James Haurey is cooking today, you probably won’t need your calendar.
The season determines the menu, and local farms determine the ingredients.
And farming is something he knows quite a bit about. Haurey, chef at the Crystal Inn, helps run an organic farm with his longtime girlfriend, and is as comfortable with a Rototiller as he is with his saucepans.
For the Crystal Inn, Haurey relies on nearby Scheuermann Farms and Greenhouses, a Warwick farm able to provide the quality and variety of produce he needs.
“Every single thing fresh comes from their farm,” he says. “All the specials are built around what’s coming from the fields. It’s coming out of the ground and that day it’s going on to the plate.”
Haurey’s Sweet Corn Chowder has become somewhat of a tradition at the Crystal, and if it’s been a good summer and the corn enjoys a nice long season, the dish appears on the ever-changing menu well into the early fall. And for home cooks, the chilling temperatures seem to demand a pot of soup on the stove.
The recipe, though, demands fresh, local corn. There is no substitute.
There’s the unrivaled flavor, of course, and Haurey even uses the husk and the cob, extracting every iota of deliciousness the ear has to offer up. A frozen bag of kernels is clearly not what you want to use.
But local means more to chefs like Haurey.
“I believe it’s my responsibility for my food to be a local as possible for the people I’m serving,” Haurey says. “It’s the responsibility of chefs to seek out their local farmers, to support the community that supports you.”
Call the Crystal Inn, 12 Amity Road, at 258-9083.
Sweet Corn Chowder
Serves 8 to 10
Chef’s note: Be sure to drink a glass of wine as you prepare the soup; it never hurts.
6 ears of corn
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
3 cups heavy cream
1 medium leek, halved, washed and sliced ¼ inch thick
2 large tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 medium yellow onion, sliced thin
2 cups fingerling potatoes, ½-inch rounds
2 cups Apple Gate Farm natural bacon, optional (slice ¼ inch)
2 teaspoons saffron
Fresh basil
1/2 cup butter
Husk corn and remove corn from the cob, reserving husks and cob.
In a saucepan, combine wine and cream. Simmer husks and cob with the wine and cream mixture for about 30 minutes. (Don’t cook too long or the cream will become bitter.)
If using bacon: In a medium soup pot, cook butter and bacon together until bacon has rendered most of its fat and begins to crisp up on the edges. Add leeks, and continue with the recipe.
If not using bacon: In medium soup pot add butter, leeks, onions, garlic and saffron (season with salt and pepper). Cook on low heat, covered, about 10 minutes until onions become translucent.
Add tomatoes and potatoes, adjust seasoning, cover and continue to cook lightly until potatoes just start to soften. Everything should be simmering lightly in their own juices.
Strain the corn and cream broth into soup pot and continue to cook, uncovered, until soup starts to get a bit thicker. Add corn and cook until corn is tender, and adjust seasoning again. (A splash of lemon may be needed to brighten up the soup if it seems flat.)
Ladle into bowls. Garnish with toasted semolina bread from Janet’s Quality Baked goods, and fresh basil.
CELERY ROOT
Erik Johansen
Iron Forge Inn, Bellvale
Erik Johansen’s earliest memories are of food: the orchards at Ochs in Warwick, stopping at roadside stands for peaches, picking berries, sitting in his mother’s vegetable garden and eating sweet peas raw from the pod.
Now, Johansen is a chef and, along with his parents, owner of the Iron Forge Inn. He lives a little bit down the road, encircled by the farmland that provides his family and his restaurant with most everything he eats and serves. When his daughter Anelise was born, the infant’s very first excursion was to Rogowski Farm in Pine Island, and one imagines that her childhood memories will be much like her dad’s.
This time of year, Johansen looks forward to the arrival of root vegetables at market. One of his favorites, celery root, is often underutilized by the home cook, he notes.
“You go to a farm market and it looks like some sort of weird alien egg, all gnarled and a little hairy,” he says. “But it’s very versatile, with the taste of celery and its own depth of flavor, without the watery-ness of celery.”
The dish, New York State Duck and Celery Root Three Ways, is a daunting endeavor for the hone cook, but, he says, there are elements that stand well on their own - the Celery Root Noodles make a nice side, he says – and he hopes that even if the dish is too complicated to attempt, he’d like people to give celery root a try.
“It’s very versatile,’’ he says. “It’s delicious just raw and cut into a salad.”
Celery root thrives in the Black Dirt that surrounds Johansen’s home and restaurant, and he loves that it has so little to travel before it reaches his kitchen. And staying connected to the farmers, growers and purveyors who supply the Iron Forge is at the core of Johansen’s cooking.
“It just feels right. I go to the farm, I shake hands with the person who grows the food,” he says. “It would be really easy for me to flip through a catalog and order sauce and entrées. But it’s important to remember where food comes from. Food has a story.”
Call the Iron Forge Inn at 986-3411 or visit www.ironforgeinn.homestead.com.
New York State Duck and Celery Root Three Ways
Celery Root “Noodles” with Milk and Honey Dressing
Seared Duck Breast with Celery Root Fondant
Celery Root Puree with Duck Cracklings and Jus
For the Pulled Duck
4 duck legs
1 red onion, sliced
4 garlic cloves, whole
1 cup Pinot Noir
3 cups chicken stock
2 sprigs thyme
Pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sear the duck legs in hot oil to golden brown. Remove from pan and set aside.
Sauté onion and garlic to soften. Add red wine and reduce by half.
Add the chicken stock, thyme and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil.
Add the duck legs to the liquid and cover with a lid or foil. Cook in the oven until very tender, approximately 2 hours.
Let duck legs cool in the liquid overnight.
Remove the fat from the surface of the cooled liquid. Remove legs from the pan. Peel the skin from legs and save for duck cracklings.
Pull the meat from the bones and reserve for the Celery Root Noodles.
Reserve the liquid for the duck jus.
For the Duck Cracklings
Slice the cooked duck skin very thin.
Crisp the skin in 2 cups of hot cooking oil. (Do not heat the oil to more than 375 degrees.)
For the Duck Jus
Simmer the reserved liquid until reduced to a thickened sauce consistency.
For the Celery Root Puree
1 cup celery root, peeled
1/2 cup onion, sliced thin
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup water
Salt to taste
Combine all ingredients and place in an oven proof pan.
Cover and simmer until the celery root is very tender.
Remove bay leaf. Puree smooth.
For the Celery Root Fondant
Butter as needed (approximately 3 tablespoons)
1 celery root, cut into ¼-by-1/4-by-2-inch sticks
Water as needed (approximately 1/2 cup)
1/2 vanilla bean, seeds removed and set aside
Salt to taste
Melt butter in a sauté pan. Let the foam subside, and then add the celery root.
Brown celery root on all sides. Add the water to come halfway up the celery root sticks.
Add vanilla bean seeds and stir to evenly distribute.
Simmer over low heat until the celery root is tender. Remove from the pan.
Simmer the remaining liquid to thicken. Set aside.
For the Celery Root “Noodles”
Celery root as needed
Water as needed
Cut the celery root with a mandolin into long thin strips resembling linguini.
Using a wide sauté pan, add the celery root and a little water to keep moist.
Cook over medium heat until just wilted. The texture should be firm but not crunchy, resembling noodles in texture.
For the Milk and Honey Dressing
This dressing does not keep well. It should be used the day it is made.
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
Pinch of salt
Fresh ground black pepper
Stir the honey and vinegar together. Add the milk and season.
For the Seared Duck Breast
2 duck breasts
Cooking oil as needed
Salt to taste
Heat a cast iron pan over medium to low heat.
Score the duck breast by cutting a cross hatch pattern of slits into the skin side of the duck. Add duck breast to the hot pan skin side down.
Render the fat from the skin side of the breast until it becomes crisp and brown.
Turn the duck over and cook to desired doneness. Remove from the pan and let the duck rest for at least 5 minutes before slicing.
In a mixing bowl, toss the Celery Root Noodles with a small amount of milk and honey dressing. Twist the “noodles” with a carving fork and lay onto a warmed plate.
Place the Celery Root Fondant onto the plate and drizzle a small amount of the cooking liquid over the celery root. Slice the duck and place on top of the celery root.
Place desired amount of Celery Root Puree onto the plate and form a well in the center.
Drizzle a small amount of the duck jus into the well and finish with duck cracklings.
ONIONS
Chef Franz Brendle
Nina, Middletown
It is nearly impossible to imagine a kitchen without onions. Pharaohs were buried with them, the medieval English gave them as wedding gifts, and the Pilgrims packed some along when they sailed for the New World. They have been a culinary staple for thousands of years, and were used for food, seasoning and medicine in the earliest cultures of Egypt, India, China and Greece.
And of course there’s Florida, the Onion Capital of the World.
While the title may be self-proclaimed, it also seems to be unchallenged. And certainly the Black Dirt Region - which spans the communities of Warwick, Pine Island and parts of Goshen and Wawayanda – lends strong credence to the claim. Rich, wet, dark soil left by an ancient glacial lake is more than perfect for onion growing, and farmers have been doing just that for generations.
“When I think of Orange County I think of the onions,” says Chef Franz Brendle, owner of Nina. “And when they come right from the farm they’re simply that much more flavorful, aromatic. They’re just plain better.”
Onions, he adds, also store beautifully, so you can always have local ones on hand.
Brendle’s dish, Grilled New York Strip with Garlic Smashed Potatoes and Frizzled Black Dirt Onions, is straightforward and always popular at his eatery.
“People love it,” he says. He especially encourages home cooks to try their hand at frizzled onions – a delicate interpretation of onion rings requiring a couple basic ingredients found in every pantry.
Brendle, who lives in Goshen, shops the weekly farmers market at the center of the village for supplies and inspiration.
“I go every Friday,” he says. “And I get there early.”
Brendle describes his menu at Nina as “eclectic American.”
“I’m always looking for ideas, for something different,” he says. “I like to draw from by own backyard and around the world.”
Call Nina (27 West Main St., Middletown) at 344-6800 or visit www.nina-restaurant.com.
Frizzled Onions
Note: Try this elegant take on onion rings with your favorite steak or burger. It works really well with leeks, sliced lengthwise, too.
A mandoline is the best tool to use here and will ensure even slicing. If you don’t have one, a knife will do just fine.
2 Spanish onions (or your favorite variety), sliced thin, rings separated
2-3 cups milk
1-2 cups of white flour
Vegetable oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Combine milk and onions in a bowl and let onions soak for a few minutes (the longer the onions stand in the milk, the more delicate their flavor will become. If you like a robust onion taste, a quick bath in the milk is all you need.)
Remove onions from milk and toss gently in flour, just coating.
Heat oil in deep fryer. Add onions and fry until golden brown and crispy. If stovetop frying, you’ll need a good 4 inches of oil in the pan, heated to 350 degrees. Fry in batches to avoid overcrowding and move them around a bit to prevent sticking.
Remove from oil and drain on paper towels. Salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately, while they’re still nice and hot.