Congratulations to the Zingerman’s Coffee Company’s Allen Leibowitz and Nathan Mikkelson for taking first and second place respectively in this year’s Motown Throwdown!  Zingerman’s barista Chris Glasow also participated with a tasty concoction, and the Coffee Company is now serving all three drinks!

The Winners, left to right: First Place– Allen Leibowitz. Zingerman’s Coffee Company, Second Place– Nathan Mikkelson, Zingerman’s Coffee Company, Third Place– Stephen Curtis, Rowster Coffee.

Each year, baristas from all over the Metro Area are invited to the Throwdown to compete for Best Signature Drink. In addition to the competition, the Throwdown also features a free Cupping Event where attendees can sample new brews, and learn more about how to professionally analyze coffee. In addition, there is a “Meet the Roasters” area which offers samples and a chance to talk java with local importers and roasters about their craft. And all of this is accompanied by the sounds of local DJs spinning their favorite music.

Allen’s First Place winner is called the ‘Tokyo Egg Cream’ and according to Allen it’s “an espresso-centric homage to the Brooklyn Egg Cream sold at the Zingerman’s Delicatessen.”

To create a Tokyo Egg Cream, espresso is shaken with muddled maple syrup and Japanese yuzu vinegar.  This mixture is then strained into a glass and topped with a splash of highly carbonated water, which causes it to foam. The result is crisp, cold and very well balanced between bittersweet espresso and hints of subtle bright citrus.

Nate Mikkelson took Second Place with the Indian Rose, a delicious taste of the Subcontinent.  The drink combines Cardamom-infused rosewater, an espresso shot of our Indian Natural blend, and a nice bit of foam on top.

Chris Glasow weighs in with the Sunnyside Up. This one starts with a shot of Espresso Blend #1 poured hot over real butter and rosemary simple syrup. Then it’s iced, and topped with bit of foam & lemon.

Stop by the Zingerman’s Coffee Company and try all three!

Congratulations to all winners! See you at next year’s Motown Throwdown!

Zingerman’s 4th Annual Camp Bacon is coming soon and to help get everyone prepared, we’re sharing tasty excerpts and recipes from Ari’s book, Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon. 

Apple (or Pear) Bacon Crisp

Strange as it sounds to some, bacon really can beget a fine dessert. As someone at the Zingeman’s Roadhouse said when we had this on our dessert list a while back, “You might think bacon and apples sounds strange for dessert, but it’s basically like serving pork chops with applesauce.” Made sense to me. And for folks who love their bacon, it’s a very good way to get a bit more into their day.

The crisp is a great autumn dessert and would be excellent for both eating and engaging guests in conversation at holiday meals. You can do it with pears instead of apples, with equally good results. In truth, I almost like it better that way, but they’re both darned good! Take your pick, or, if you’re entertaining, do one of each and let your guests decide.

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup golden raisins
• 3 tablespoons bourbon
• 6 ounces sliced Arkansas peppered or long pepper bacon (about 3 to 4 slices), diced
• ¾ cup Muscovado (or other natural dark) brown sugar
• 9 to 12 ripe apples or pears (about 2½ pounds)
• 1¼ teaspoons cinnamon
• ¼ cup unsalted butter

For the streusel:

• ½ cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into ½-inch pieces
• 1¼ cups flour
• ¼ cup Muscovado (or other natural dark) brown sugar
• ¼ cup sugar
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Pour the bourbon over the raisins, mix well and set aside to soak for a minimum of 15 minutes, on up to a couple of hours (longer is better to my taste, but if you forget to do it ahead the shorter time will work just fine).
3. Dredge the bacon in ¾ cup of brown sugar and lay on a foil-lined
4. baking sheet with a lip. Sprinkle any of the remaining brown sugar over the top. Bake for 20 minutes or until very dark brown, crisp and caramelized. Carefully remove from oven and allow to cool.
5. While bacon is cooking, slice the fruit (skin on) directly into a 9-inch round pan. After you’ve covered the bottom of the pan, sprinkle on some of the raisins, then a bit of the bourbon and the cinnamon. Add another layer of fruit, then the remaining raisins and cinnamon. Sprinkle the balance of the bourbon over the top and dot with the butter. (The sliced fruit may pile up over the lip of the pan, but it will settle while baking.) Sprinkle the candied bacon pieces evenly over the top.
6. Reduce the oven temperature to 375°F.
7. Make the streusel by combining the butter, flour, salt and sugars in a mixer or food processor. The mixture should be crumbly and somewhat dry. Sprinkle over the top of the apple mixture in the pan and pat down lightly. Go around the edges, pressing the streusel into the fruit to seal.
8. Place the dish in the oven uncovered and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the juices are bubbling up around the edges and the streusel is nicely browned. Remove from the oven and cool for 15 minutes.
9. Serve warm, with optional ice cream or gelato.

Serves 6 to 8 for dessert.

See you at camp!

Zingerman’s 4th Annual Camp Bacon is coming soon and to help get everyone prepared, we’re sharing tasty excerpts and recipes from Ari’s book, Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon. 

Pasta alla Gricia

The background on this dish is provided in the section on guanciale (see page 118), so all I’ll say here is that it’s a really great bowl of pasta, and that the pepper is one of the key components of this dish, not a postscript, so use a lot of it. The more I eat this dish, the more I like it.
Ingredients:

• 1 pound spaghetti (I’m partial to Martelli, but you can pick from any of the great artisan brands including Latini, Rustichella and Cavalieri)
• 5 ounces (about 2 to 3 slices) guanciale, diced
• Hot red pepper flakes (preferably Marash), to taste
• Freshly ground Tellicherry black pepper to taste
• 5 ounces Italian Pecorino Romano cheese, finely grated

Procedure:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a generous amount of salt.
2. At the same time, begin heating a heavy 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat.
3. Add the pasta to the water and stir so that the noodles don’t stick.
4. Fry the guanciale in the skillet until its fat is released and the nuggets begin to crisp. (If your guanciale is too lean, add a bit of olive oil to the pan.)
5. When the pasta is approaching but not quite yet al dente, remove from the heat and drain.
6. Add the pasta to the skillet with the guanciale and toss well to coat with the hot pork fat. Cook over medium heat for about 2 minutes, until the pasta is fully al dente. Stir regularly so that the pasta doesn’t stick. Add red pepper flakes and black pepper liberally to taste.
7. Turn off the heat, add the grated Pecorino cheese and toss to coat. Serve hot, and pass the pepper grinder.

Variation:
In the spring, sauté 6 ounces of asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces, along with the guanciale. I like the asparagus pieces lightly browned to bring out their full flavor.

Serves 4 as a main course, or 6 to 8 as a side dish.

See you at camp!

Week of 5/23/13

Here’s a quick list of some of the things happening at Zingerman’s Community of Businesses this coming week.

• New French cheese at the Zingerman’s Deli beginning this week!  A Casinca: a soft, brine-washed goat’s milk variety with distinct nuttiness and rusticity, Délice de Pommard: creamy cow’s milk cheese rolled in brown mustard seeds, & Puits d’ Astier: a ewe’s milk cheese from the Laiterie Garmy.

• If you wear your Zingerman’s t-shirt to the Deli on Tuesdays, you’ll get $4 off the price of your sandwich. Four bucks!
• Get 30% off a bottle of wine at the Zingerman’s Roadhouse every Tuesday!
• It’s Pimento Cheese Tuesday at the Zingerman’s Creamery! Get $2 off the per pound price all day!
• Get over the hump! Wednesdays are special at the Zingerman’s Creamery. If you buy any two Zingerman’s Gelato, you’ll get a third FREE! Who can argue with free?
• Please join us at Zingerman’s on Fourth this Thursday, May 16, 5-9:30pm for a POP-IN with our friends from the Brinery. Owner David Klingenberger is going to show us fun and unique ways to incorporate his fermented line of veggies into everyday dishes. No reservations required – just POP-IN!

• Every Thursday, the Zingerman’s Roadhouse creates a delicious new menu! Stop by for more details!
• Zingerman’s is passionate about listening to our customers. So much so that we’ve developed systems to capture and respond to that feedback. You can learn how we do it at our Keeping Score on Service seminar this Friday at ZingTrain! Join us!
• The Zingerman’s Bakehouse turns 20! And we’re celebrating with a very special BAKE! class. Please join us this Friday, May 17, 1-5:00pm as we tell stories and share our favorite Hungarian recipes. You’ll leave this class with an authentic Hungarian meal to enjoy at home!
• Fridays and Saturdays at the Zingerman’s Bakehouse mean Special Bakes, limited-edition loaves available for just a weekend. This weekend it’s Potato Dill Bread: roasted potatoes, fresh dill and scallions mixed up in a loaf of our chewy tangy sourdough. Stop by for a taste!
• You made it to Saturday, why not treat yourself to an old-fashioned Malt? Zingerman’s Next Door is now making Marvelous Malts! Using natural Calder Dairy milk, Zingerman’s Creamery gelato and malt. Available in Chocolate or Vanilla. A delicious blast from the past!

• Next Monday is Mozzarella Monday at the Zingerman’s Creamery! $2 off the per pound price for Fresh, Smoked, or Burrata! Two bucks off!

Summertime is Food Cart Season!

Ji Hye Kim and the San Street crew will be joining the line up at Mark’s Carts again this year. Ji Hye takes her fond memories of home cooking and Asian street market treats to the streets of Ann Arbor, dishing up some really great Asian street food with the freshest ingredients.

Banh Mi Sandwich Vietnamese style sandwich with daikon radish pickles, cucumber and jalapeño slices, fresh herbs and sriracha mayo on Zingerman’s Bakehouse bread.

Buns! Buns! Buns! Hand-rolled and steamed buns, filled with yummy meat, mushrooms or tofu. Served with its own tailored sauces and/or pickled veggies. Slider sized.

Stop by Mark’s Carts on Washington between Main and Ashley and follow San Street on Twitter @sanstreetfood.

Zingerman’s 4th Annual Camp Bacon is coming soon and to help get everyone prepared, we’re sharing tasty excerpts and recipes from Ari’s book, Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon. 

North Carolina Fish Muddle

“Bacon makes the soup”

—Provençal saying

I’m not sure how I first heard of this dish, but it has become one of my favorite ways to cook fish stew over the years. It’s clearly in the same culinary tradition as all the one-pot seafood stews made anywhere near the ocean—something between a thickened bouillabaisse with bacon and a fish-dominated, lightly tomato-based chowder.

Although I’d always seen this billed as “Outer Banks Fish Muddle” I was steered straight by Elizabeth Wiegand, author of the Outer Banks Cookbook. “Muddles are done both at the coast and up rivers, so some sources say,” she explained. “However, I’ve always considered them INNER coast.” What she’s saying makes good sense. As she pointed out quickly, while it makes a great summer getaway and provides for some fine fishing, the thin strip of land that is the Outer Banks has never been a good place for raising the pigs from which the bacon for this fish stew comes.

(As a pig-related side note, Elizabeth also shared with me that back in the nineteenth century the North Carolinian upper crust built homes on the Outer Banks, then ferried all their possessions across the bay: servants, supplies, pigs and cows all came over. The livestock liked to root under the houses, which in and of itself isn’t a terrible thing. But the small holes in the floors of the Outer Banks houses, which allowed floodwaters to drain, also allowed the smell of the animals to permeate their interiors. The latticework that became so typical of houses in this area was originally installed to keep the animals and aromas away from the living quarters.)

Most recipes for muddle rely on rockfish, so called because the fish hang out near rocks. You may know them as striped bass, which fisherman refer to as “stripers.” What I didn’t know until speaking with Elizabeth is that they’re also known along the Carolina coast as “Mr. Pajama Pants” because of the horizontal black stripes that run up their hindquarters. Better still, some folks call them “squid hounds” for their propensity to chase squid, one of their favorite foods. The spring and fall are prime striper seasons—one theory of muddle making being that people had end of the year get-togethers to cook up the new season’s fish (remember, the slaughter took place around New Year’s, as well).

There are a few thousand versions of muddle. In part because it’s so good, and in part because this book is about bacon, I’ve put the pork more out front than some other cooks might have done. With that in mind, I prefer to feature the bigger flavors of an Edwards’ or Benton’s. I use a mixture of different fish for greater complexity of flavor and texture, but it’s certainly great made exclusively with striped bass, as well.

The sliced bread isn’t in many recipes but it’s a great way to bring more bacon flavor to the dish. Elizabeth reminded me that many Southerners would use Saltines, which are, of course, widely considered a “traditional”  bread down below the Mason-Dixon line. I have eggs listed as optional—most recipes don’t use them but I think they’re delicious. I’ve old references to doing the same in various versions, including one from Beth Tartan’s 1955 classic book, North Carolina and Old Salem Cookery.

Muddle is mostly considered a main dish, but you could certainly serve it in smaller portions as a soup course.

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces (about 4 to 6 slices) bacon, diced
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 1 large leek, washed well and thinly sliced
• 1 large or 2 medium carrots, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 pounds fresh plum tomatoes, chopped (in the off-season I’d suggest using good-quality canned)
• An additional 4 ounces bacon, in a single chunk
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaf
• ¼ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes (I like the Marash red pepper flakes from Turkey)
• 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped, rinsed and squeezed dry
• 4 cups fish stock
• ½ pound pollock or other inexpensive white ocean fish, cut into 1-inch
• pieces
• 1½ pounds waxy potatoes (I like Yukon Golds), cut into ½-inch dice
• 1 pound striped bass or other full-flavored ocean fish, cut into 1-inch
• chunks
• 1 pound cod or other flaky white ocean fish, cut into 1-inch chunks
• Coarse sea salt to taste
• Freshly ground Tellicherry black pepper to taste
• 6 eggs (optional)
• 6 slices good crusty bread
• 3 to 4 tablespoons reserved hot bacon fat
• Bacon fat mayonnaise (optional, see page 172, Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon)

Procedure:

1. 1. Brown the diced bacon over medium heat in a soup kettle or large Dutch oven until crisp. Remove and set aside. Remove the 3 to 4 tablespoons of drippings and reserve for garnish, leaving the rest in the pot. (If you don’t have enough fat in the pan, feel free to add a glug from the jar you’ve now started saving . . . right?)
2. 2. Sauté the onion, leek, carrot and celery in the fat until soft. Stir gently to be sure they don’t stick.
3. 3. Add the garlic and bay leaf and cook for 2 more minutes.
4. 4. Add the tomatoes, bacon chunk, thyme, red pepper and parsley and cook over medium high for 10 to 15 minutes, until the tomatoes release their juices and begin to reduce.
5. 5. Add the fish stock, pollock pieces and potatoes and bring to a strong simmer. Reduce heat to medium low. Simmer, uncovered, for about 2 hours. The muddle should be the texture of a moderately thick vegetable soup, so add more water if needed.
6. 6. Remove the bacon chunk and set aside for future use. (At this point, the stew can be cooled and held in the refrigerator overnight, to be finished the following day. If you do so, be sure to bring the broth back to a strong simmer before continuing.)
7. 7. Add the striped bass and cod, submerging them in the stewing juices, and bring back to a low boil.
8. 8. Simmer for 5 to 8 minutes, until fish is just done. Add salt and pepper to taste. The stew should be thick and savory.
9. 9. If using the eggs either poach them in a separate pot or do as I do and just crack them gently into the muddle when it starts to simmer, after you’ve added the final pieces of fish.
10. 10. When the stew is just about ready, toast the bread. Rub each slice with some of the reserved bacon fat.
11. 11. Warm the bowls in the oven. Ladle in the muddle and top with a slice of the toast. Place one of the poached eggs in each bowl. Sprinkle with the diced bacon.
12. 12. You can also treat the muddle like a Marseillaise bouillabaisse by spooning a dollop of bacon fat mayonnaise atop the toast as a rouille. (It’s delicious!)

Serves 4 to 6 as a main course, or 8 as a side dish.

See you at camp!