Monthly Archives: September 2012

Apples Apples Apples

27 September 2012

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I’m embarrassed to say that until I turned 18 I actually thought I didn’t like apples.  I grew up in Hawaii and almost only ate muchy, mealy  red delicious apples.  I hated them.  Bland, soggy, bleh.  It wasn’t until I moved to NY and experienced an apple picked straight from the tree that I really got it.  It was a gala apple, still my favorite pie apple to this day.  I’ll never forget to way that apple tasted and the way it made me feel.  I was in upstate NY at an apple picking party complete with hay ride and cider press.  I had never seen anything like that before.  Until the moment I ate that apple I thought the whole idea of an apple picking party seemed silly but in one bite I totally got it.

This is the season when every market and menu has an abundance of apples.  I love apple pie!  Not as much as Kyle, who has been known to eat a full pie in a day by himself, but I sure do look forward to apple pie time of the year.

But my favorite apple flavor isn’t the caramel-sugary goodness of apple pie…  It’s the tart, refreshing flavor of green apple.  I love green apples diced, made into sorbet, soda, chips.  You name it.  As long as it retains that crisp flavor.  In a new dessert at Birch and Barley I’ve combined all my favorite tart ingredients.  A baked-to-order lemon cake, green apple sorbet, diced green apples, yogurt panna cotta, passion fruit gelee and passion fruit curd.  In a time of year when everyone is focused on transitioning to rich winter food I wanted to keep it refreshing and light.

A Little Friendly Competition!

10 September 2012

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We know our cooks can cook. We are constantly impressed with their work ethic and talent, working 14 hours a day to make food they are proud of.  But besides family meal, (which they take very seriously,) we haven’t see what our cooks at Birch and Barley can come up with from scratch.  So naturally we were really excited when NRG decided to do an iron chef style contest at each restaurant.  The winners will compete in a BBQ-off at the company picnic in a few weeks.

Each restaurant was to come up with their own rules for their contest.  We decided to give a nod to Cochon 555, a pig centric cooking competition held yearly, by having our own version, Cochon 666.  Get it.  With all the whole pigs we have been getting in at Birch and Barley, it just seemed appropriate.  The rules were as follows:

  • 3 courses (appetizer/entree/dessert) needed to be prepared in 1.5 hours
  • Of the 4 cuts of meat offered (liver, loin, belly, shoulder) at least 3 had to used to create an appetizer & entree
  • pantry items are fair game
  • the dessert would include a secret ingredient, to be announced at the start of the 90 minute contest

Oh, and did I mention each restaurant had to get a “celebrity judge”…  We were lucky enough to lure in Nycci Nellis, who offered a great, positive energy sprinkled with just the right amount of critique.  Perfect.

So it began.  Pastry Assistant Jes Kearney, Meat Cook Mike Hanney, Entremet Gennaro Esposito and Hot apps cook Paul Kostandin spent 90 minutes cooking and I was one of the lucky taste testers!  Pork & black garlic sausage with pan seared gnocchi and pesto, stuffed pan roasted loin with fried green tomatoes, shaved ice – Philly style and half smoke with the most perfect spaetzel I’ve ever had.  Hanney even rigged a smoker out of two pots and a beer pipe.  In the end it was Paul that took the prize, (although it was close…  everything was really really great!)  His menu was amazing!  Appetizer of tortelloni stuffed with cranberry bean purse served with seared bacon/veg and pan seared deviled pork liver.  The liver was so creamy.  The entree was seared pork loin with grilled watermelon, a spicy stir fry of bok choy &  sugar snap peas, and a biscuit puree.  For dessert Paul made a puree of plums and ginger which he drizzled over shaved ice then topped with whipped cream and candied ginger.

Besides bragging rights, which is the best prize of all, Paul won a gift card to Woodberry Kitchen, one of our favorite restaurants, and a trophy unlike any I’ve ever seen.  A pig skull painted red with… well, you can see it in the pictures below.

It was a proud moment for both Kyle and I, watching our young, aspiring chefs create and be judged by us and themselves, (Kyle was sure to tell his cooks the self judging was going to be the hardest part…  Having people taste your food when you know there are things that could be better.)  I can’t wait to see what they come up with next!

Now, on to the show…

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