Stuff to eat. Mostly around St. Louis.
The Best Chicken Fingers. Ever.
It's early 2014 and I've just arrived back in the U.S. I haven't eaten fried chicken in at least 4 years. I've convinced myself that not only do I not need it, but I don't even like it that much. Then, at my mom's request, I join my family for Josh Galliano's fried chicken night at The Libertine. Like an alcoholic having his first sip of whiskey in years, I'm overtaken by the urge to keep eating. I nearly polish off my half bird, and then continue to go every month for almost a year. Some people aren't a fan of the heavier breading that Galliano used (in favor of something lighter, like what you'll find at Southern now), but I love it. The more crunch, the better. Since his chicken nights were only once a month and I was jonesing for chicken—and this was before the fried chicken boom of 2015—I had to return to an old favorite: Sportsman's Park. Their chicken "strips" are, from what I can tell, full chicken breasts, pounded out and fried. A much manlier cut than the puny tenders. I'm a man, not a toddler!
Last summer, Galliano left Libertine and so ended his fried chicken nights. Desperate, I started scrounging around the internet for his recipe. Like Robert Langdon in The Da Vinci code, I started putting together the pieces. First came a Weekend Project: Fried Chicken Dinner post from Sauce Magazine. Then came a Food & Wine recipe. Neither looked quite right, though. There were differences between them. I began prodding his former cooks and ultimately discovered Galliano's recipe is a combination of the two, which you'll find below.
Yes, this is a long process for chicken strips. But it's worth it, especially if you're a chicken finger lover like me. They taste almost exactly like Galliano's MIA chicken. Hell, you could go crazy and change it into a chicken nugget recipe. Whatever you choose to do, you'll thank me for helping to crack The Galliano Code.
Josh Galliano's Fried Chicken
Chicken Fingers
SERVES: 4-6 SERVINGS | ACTIVE: 25 MIN | TOTAL: 6+ HOURS
INGREDIENTS
CREOLE SPICE MIX, COURTESY OF JOSH GALLIANO/FOOD & WINE
4-6 large chicken breasts, halved lengthwise
6 c water
10 bags black tea (English Breakfast)
1/4 c salt
2 T sugar
2 12-oz bottles Louisiana hot sauce (Crystal)
Tabasco
2 c buttermilk
4 sprigs thyme
2 eggs
2 c AP flour
2 c cornmeal
1/4 c cornstarch
canola oil
METHOD
Sweet Tea Brine
Add water, sugar, salt, thyme, 1 bottle of Louisiana hot sauce, a few Tabasco drops, and 2 tablespoons of creole spice mix to a pot. Stir and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn off stove, add tea bags and let sit for 10 minutes. Remove tea bags and let cool (unless you enjoy half poached chicken strips).
Once cool, add the chicken and put in the fridge for 2-4 hours.
Buttermilk Soak
Add the buttermilk, second bottle of Louisiana hot sauce, eggs, and 3 tablespoons of creole spice mix to a bowl. Mix together. Add chicken, then set in fridge. Allow to sit for 4 hours or overnight.
Breading
Preheat the oven to 170F. Begin heating 1.5 inches of oil in a deep pot to 350F.
Mix flour, cornmeal, cornstarch, and remaining creole spice mix (about 1/2 a cup) well in a baking pan or plate. Remove the chicken strips from the buttermilk and shake off the excess liquid, then dredge in the breading mix.
Once the oil has reached 350F, put in chicken, being careful not to overcrowd the pot. The temperature will drop—keep it close to 300F. Cook the 3-4 minutes, then flip and cook for another 3-4. Remove and place on a baking rack so they can drain. If not eating immediately, place the rack in the oven.
Smoked & Braised Lamb Shoulder
Few things in the wide world of food can compete with the beautiful simplicity of smoked meat. If done properly, it's a perfect meld of soft fat and crunchy bark, smoke and sweetness. I love pork ribs just as much as the next guy, and a slow-smoked brisket is hard to beat, but I'll be bold: my favorite meat for the smoker is lamb. Buying high quality bone-in lamb is imperative for this recipe—if you cheap out, you're going to end up with gamey, dry meat. For those of you in St. Louis, no where comes close to Bolyard's Meat and Provisions. The recipe is based off Chef Edward Lee's pulled lamb BBQ, from his cookbook Smoke and Pickles.
The quick smoke at the beginning of the recipe helps develop the crust and give the lamb a nice hint of smoke, and the braise turns it all into one heaping pile of easily shreddable meat. The leftover jus makes for great French dip sandwiches, but I've used this recipe to make tacos, rice bowls, and pastas. It's a fantastic way to prepare lamb that skips the red wine and rosemary like every other recipe out there.
Smoked & Braised Lamb Shoulder
Smoked & Braised Lamb Shoulder
SERVES: 6-8 | PREP: 15 MINUTES | TOTAL: 4 HOURS AND 45 MINUTES
INGREDIENTS
SPICE RUB:
2 T kosher salt
1 T black pepper
1 T dry mustard
1 T smoked paprika
1 T ground cumin
1 T garlic powder
1 T Korean chili flakes
1 T brown sugar
1 t cayenne pepper
1 t coriander
LAMB:
1 3 lb. lamb shoulder
5 c beef stock
1 bottle stout
1/4 c apple cider vinegar
1 T soy sauce
1 t tabasco sauce
METHOD
Combine all the rub ingredients and mix. Rub the meat with the spice rub until well covered. It’s best to let the meat sit uncovered in the fridge overnight, but if you’re short on time, leave it to rest for at least 1 hour.
Light your smoker and get the temperature between 225-250F (lower is better). Once there, add your smoker wood chunks. I prefer a 50/50 mix of apple and oak. Add the meat, leave to smoke. Preheat your oven to 300F. After 1.5 hours, remove the lamb from smoker and place in a roasting pan.
Add the liquid ingredients and cover with foil. Put the pan in the oven and check on it in 3 hours.
Lamb’s looking and smelling sexy, right? Remove from the oven and place the lamb on a cutting board. Pull it apart—wear disposable gloves to help from burning your hands. Eat all the good crusty bits when no one’s looking.
Strain the liquid and use it as jus, or use to cook grains in. Quinoa cooked in smoky lamb jus is orgasmic.
Dill Last Word
Olive and Oak' bar
You would think the guy who named his website Whiskey and Soba might know a thing or two about whiskey and cocktails, but you would be wrong. I don't know anything. I know that I dislike vodka—my Russian ancestors must be rolling in their graves—and generally enjoy gin, tequila, and whiskey. All the cocktails I know how to make are basic bitch cocktails.
Looking to learn a thing or two about crafting cocktails, I've turned to Olive + Oak's Chelsea Little, a badass bartender and one of my favorite people in town. She and Nate Weber used to do an excellent job of getting me sauced at The Libertine.
I don't think she knew what a n00b I was when it comes to drinks, though. Here's how our conversation went:
CL: I'm thinking I'll make a "Dill Last Word," a play on "The Last Word" cocktail.
Me: Cool. What's "The Last Word"?
CL: It's a classic cocktail made with gin, Green Chatreuse. I use some Aquavit, too...
Me: Cool. What's Green Chartreuse? And Aquavit?
CL stabs me in the face. End scene.
Wikipedia tells me that the drink originally came from the Detroit Athletic Club in the 1920s, which just screams class.
Little's take on the drink kicks up the herbaceous nature of the drink. The glass is lined with Aquavit, a spicy spirit, and she infuses the maraschino liqueur with fresh dill.
It's easy to make and even easier to drink. Keep this handy for springtime get togethers and summertime BBQ's. It's almost like a palate cleansing sorbet that can get you drunk.
Dill Last Word
by Chelsea Little
Dill Last Word
INGREDIENTS
DILL LAST WORD
3/4 oz St. George gin
3/4 oz Green Chartreuse
3/4 oz lime juice
3/4 oz maraschino liqueur
Aquavit
Dill
Ice
METHOD
Combine the maraschino and a handful of dill in a jar. Leave overnight.
Pour a small amount of Aquavit in the serving glass and swirl it around all sides. Pour out (or drink).
Add gin, chartreuse, lime juice, maraschino, ice and extra dill to a shaker. Shake.
Double strain into a coupe glass. If you want to go totally pro, fill a spritz bottle with peppercorn tincture and spray on to finish.
Recipe: Beets & Mushrooms by Chef Nate Hereford
I am an obsessive watcher of Mind of a Chef, an avid reader of high-end cookbooks, and quite possibly a restaurant groupie. I'd rather sit at the Chef's Counter in a restaurant than the first row of a Cardinal's game. With that obsession comes a new addition to Whiskey And Soba: chef recipes. The best seat in town is at Niche's counter, watching executive chef Nate Hereford and his team effortlessly create edible art. Hereford's passion for continuous improvement and working with local ingredients is infectious. He's inspired me to forage for mushrooms around my yard, which has only resulted in a psychedelic experience once.
A few weeks back, after enjoying a beautiful beet dish, I told him how hard it is for me to think of vegetarian recipes outside of your typical roasted/sautéed variety—that's when it hit me. Let's have the chef of St. Louis' James Beard winning restaurant create recipes using local and seasonal ingredients to help everyone cook better.
Hereford's first dish is beets with roasted maitake mushrooms, miso yogurt, candied pecans, oregano, and a quick spruce (rosemary for the home cooks) pan sauce. It may look complicated, but any decent home cook will be able to pull this off flawlessly.
"It's January, it's cold out, I wanted something vibrant but speaking to the season. Here we have beets, a great winter ingredient that grow really well around here in winter, as well as locally cultivated maitake (Hen of the Woods) mushrooms. I thought the earthy flavors of the two things would go really well together."
Something that struck me from my first meal at Niche was the huge variation of texture in every dish. "You want texture, but you want to balance the textures in every bite. The mushrooms have one texture, the two different kinds of beets have two different textures. When I construct a dish, I want to make sure I'm really focusing on the element you’re focusing on. The pecans are going to add sweetness as well as crunch, the yogurt gives you a creaminess, and the sauce on the plate ties it all together with acid. The oregano gives a background herbal note, refreshing your palate as you eat. Typically, when we think of dishes and start to construct ideas, we try to follow that pattern. We find that it allows constant excitement when you’re eating a dish. You’re always finding new flavors, new textures, cleansing your palate."
Beets
miso yogurt, mushrooms
by Nate Hereford
Beets with Miso Yogurt, Mushrooms
YIELD: 6 | PREP: 1 HOUR | ACTIVE: 10 MINUTES | TOTAL: 1 HOUR AND 10 MINUTES
INGREDIENTS
BEETS
12 red beets
salt
canola oil
BEET SYRUP
2 C maple syrup
2 C white distilled vinegar.
2 C water
MISO YOGURT
1 C white miso
1 C greek yogurt
1/2 C whipped cream
salt
CANDIED PECANS
1 C pecans
2 egg whites
1 C sugar
salt
MUSHROOMS
Hen of the Woods mushrooms
butter
salt
fresh oregano
1 rosemary sprig
2 T white distilled vinegar
METHOD
Beets
Preheat oven to 300.
Toss beets with just enough oil to cover, salt, then wrap beets in foil. Bake until tender, checking every 30 minutes. A knife should slide in easily. It should take roughly 1 hour. Once cool enough to handle, peel the beets (gloves are advised to avoid stained hands). Once peeled, set 3 aside. Using a mandoline, thinly slice beets about 1/16 of an inch (if using a knife, do your best to cut them very thinly). Set aside.
Dice the remaining 9 beets into assorted organic shapes. Whatever your heart desires.
Beet Syrup
Combine the maple syrup and the vinegar in a pan. Bring to a simmer. Turn the heat down and slowly reduce by about 1/2. Once brought down by 1/2, add the water, stirring to combine. Slowly reduce by 1/2 again. It should taste sweet and acidic. Brush on to or spoon over larger beet chunks.
Miso Yogurt
Whip the cream with a mixer. Blend miso and yogurt until a smooth puree is formed. Place in a mixing bowl and fold in whipped cream. Season with salt to taste. Set aside.
Whipped cream is optional if you’re short on time or lazy.
Candied Pecans
Whisk eggs whites with the sugar and salt until frothy. Add in pecans. Place on a sheet tray and bake at 325, stirring every 5 minutes until done (about 30 minutes).
Mushrooms
Tear the Hen of the Woods mushrooms into chunks and roast in a hot pan with canola oil. Finish with butter, basting until butter is browned. Season with salt.
Remove mushrooms from the pan and lower heat. Add rosemary sprig to pan and briefly cook to bring out aromatics. Deglaze pan with white distilled vinegar. Pour sauce in small bowl and set aside.
Plating
Plate at your heart’s content. To do it like Nate, spoon a dollop of miso yogurt on the plate, then use the back of the spoon to make a swoosh. Place the larger beet chunks on the miso. In between the beets, place the mushroom chunks and pecans. Place oregano in 2-3 places. Lay thinly sliced beets on top, as seen below. Drizzle with the rosemary sauce to finish.
