Not much more to say than ” Corner Table is now on Twitter.
click here… go ahead.. try it.. you will like it.
It’s universal… people wander into a kitchen and conversations start. Welcome to ours.
You wanted to know what goes on in the kitchen. Right?
What’s a Corner Table Cooking Class Like?
This is the coveted pork belly class. We had so much interest, so, keep an eye out, this class may show up again in February. Or it might not…
The first thing we should mention is that this isn’t your normal cooking class. For one thing it’s in the kitchen of a rather busy restaurant during dinner service. Another thing is that you’re greeted with the first course of your dinner for that night, a “nosh plate” with beer or wine.
Behold our featured ingredient for the night, the pork belly.
Mise en plase, if you cook, you should know this phrase. If you don’t, look it up.
Salt is very important.
Oops – the wifi went out so Chef de Cusine, Jorge Guzman, filled in talking about pickling while it was being fixed. Just a little bonus since pork belly goes so well all things pickled.
And, again, the importance of salt and the two best tools in the kitchen. Your hands.
Did we mentinon that you get dinner along with your class? Yeah we did. We’re going to mention it again. You get dinner along with your class. This course was warm celery root and parsnip soup with bacon, pancetta, guancalle and fresh pork belly garnished with sweet red pepper and lemon simple syrup.
It appears that it was good to the last drop.
Not your traditional piece of fat to make lardo, but in the interest of using all parts of the belly, this is a quick verson of the traditional Italian ingrediant.
Ah, this is the joy that is pancetta.
This course is bacon and eggs: fresh pancetta, poached egg, spicy dark cherry + honey gastrique.
pork belly: braised
Hidden Steam Braised pork belly, butternut squash puree, Ames farm caramelized apples, creamy heirloom beans from Riverbend Farms. Dessert had very little to do with pork belly, but it does speak to the balance betweena rich full dessert and citrus. Rogue chocolate ganache with lemon curd, candied walnuts and chili sweet sauce.
Vino + Vinyl is Moving
Wondering what we are doing with Sunday nights at the restauarnt. Well, here you go. Vino + Vinyl is moving to Thursady nights. We already do $1.00 corkage fee on Thursday nights, so we are going to break out the turntable and spin some records as well.
Sadly, we are going to close on Sunday nights. We thank all those that walked in fromt he neighborhood, and spent Sunday nights with us. We are going to have some new and exciting things happening at Corner Table.
Stay Tuned.
Minneapolis, New Years Eve, Thank you
Blue Moon, Corner Table, Tour de Farm Tent
I just wanted to take a moment this morning to thank everyone who grew, cooked, decorated, served, ate, drank and in any other way were involved in the wonderful evening we had last night. It truly does take a leap of faith to come out on one of the coldest nights of the year to a tent set up in the middle of a Minneapolis street, and that’s just what you did. You’re amazing. Thank you all.
Here was the menu from the night
Amuse
Family style
Hidden Steam Pork Belly and Lutsen maple gastrique
1st course
Larry Gates in Kellogg Warm Sweet Meat squash soup, allspice Castle Rock cream, Ames Farm Apple and northern Lites Blue cheese
Wine Course
Morin “Olympe” Chitry 06
2nd course
Cured Star Prairie Tout, crème friache, poached potato in PastureLand butter
Cono Sur Riesling 2009 from Argentina
3rd course
William Yoder Roasted beets, Riverbend farm polenta, Star Thrower farm Sheep’s milk ricotta
2005 Vina Alarba Old Vines Grenache
4th course
Thousand Hill braised grass-fed brisket, Rutabaga puree from Elizabeth Emerson in Castle Rock Cream + pickled mustard seed
Bordeaux- Cotes de Bourg, Domaine Peychaud, old vines Merlot 2006
5th course
Rogue chocolate ganache cakes, warm Pepin Heights Apple cider crème anglaise + Honey caramel sauce, Sweet braised beets
Lustau Pedro Ximenez San Emilio Sherry
Minnneapolis, New Year’s Eve, Blue Moon
Yes, the ground is frozen
“Once in a Blue Moon…” Right? That is the saying. Well, that is kind of what I am thinking right now about putting this tent up. While everyone is cozy and warm there are about six hard working guys putting up a tent and getting ready for dinner tonight.
You have to have a velvet rope for New Year's Eve
We also are going to have a number of Farmers with us tonight. Thousand Hills Cattle Company, Dragsmith Farms, Pastureland Butter and our friends at Tangletown Gardens will be joining us for dinner as well. We can all sit around and talk about local food and what we are going to plant in the spring.
Why don’t you come and join us tonight to see how it all turns out. New Years Eve Dinner
Minneapolis – this New Year’s Eve… Celebrate Local!
If you would like to have an evening like no other in Minneapolis on New Year’s Eve, you need to get your seat at our Tour de Farm Table! It is very easy to do and you will never forget it. You will be greeted at our reception area at 6:00pm with beer from our newest local brewery: Fulton and their IPA, Sweet Child of Vine. (It’s good.) You will nosh on appetizers made from the finest artisanal meat and cheeses Minnesota has to offer. There will be some guests of honor at the event: Yes, our farmers! Come and find out the answer to, “What do I do with rutabaga?”
Then you will move out to the (yes, big HEATED) tent to be dazzled by the amazing food stuffs Minnesota has to offer over the next 5 courses + the starting amuse featuring (YES!) house made bacon produced from Hidden Stream pork. Then we move on to dishes created with: Sweet Meat squash, Cedar summit cream, Ames Farm Apples, Northern Lites Blue cheese, Star Prairie Tout, PastureLand butter Riverbend farm polenta, Stickney Hill farm goat cheese, Thousand Hill braised grass-fed brisket, and produce from Elizabeth Emerson Farm.
And we finish on a dessert featuring: Rogue chocolate, Pepin Heights Apple cider and Garden Frame Honey.
So where are you going to be this New Year’s Eve? (You should be here!)
Big Heated Tent
“So, what are were you thinking?”
That is the most frequently asked question I have gotten since we announced that we are doing a dinner on New Year’s Eve: OUTSIDE (in a HEATED tent.)
I was thinking is that this is the time of year that we have really great locally made food. We have a fantastic supply of meats, cheese, milk, butter, amazing root vegetables, etc. The list goes on and on. Yes, we have a great supply of local food! There, I said it. The excuse of not cooking locally in the winter is just not true anymore. There is more local food out in the marketplace than ever. We have the ability to eat year round with the season. That is the idea.
Ok, I know most of you understand that already or you would not have any idea that this blog exists. So, next question: Why outside?
Well, why not?
It is New Years Eve, Right? It is a special night. How many times have we gone out for New Years Eve and gone to a restaurant just for that one night because of tradition. How many times have you gone to a friend’s house, just because, well, that is what we always do? How many times have you just said, “it is just like any other night, except prices go up, and everyplace is crowded,“ and not gone anywhere. Here is your chance to ignore all the same things that you always do. Here is your chance to step out of the norm and do something that most people normally would not do. It is a special night, right? End your year with a bang. Who else amongst your friends and family are going to be able to tell this great a story about what they did on New Year’s Eve?
I think you get my point. It is a special night. Do it up.
The bigger reason is that it is a break the habits that you’ve built over your lifetime. That is really what eating locally is about: breaking the bad industrialized eating habits we’ve had in the past couple of generations. Or should I say, we need to get back to a traditions and a habits of our grandmothers.
You go through the week, thinking about what to eat, what to cook, and we get in the habit of doing the same thing over and over. We all have our reasons: family favorites, convenience, budgets, and habits. This really comes down to habits. If we all start to change our habits, little by little, we will be able to change.
So, this year, I challenge you to break a habit right at the end of the year. Start a new tradition. Do something on New Year’s Eve that is really different. Why not start with having dinner in a HEATED TENT, in south Minneapolis.
Sounds like a good break in tradition.
Eat, Drink + Be Farmy
New Year’s Eve at Corner Table this year is going to be a bit different. We are bringing the farm to you! Over this past year we have had a great time with our Tour de Farm (tourdefarmmn.com) dinners so for New Year’s we are going to create a “Farm Dinner” in the city. We’re closing off 43rd street and setting up a farm style dinner table in a big tent. If you attended the dinners – this is a great way to end the year! If you missed out, this could be the best dinner yet!
New Years Eve
December 31st, 2009
Recpetion starts at 6pm
Dinner at 7:00pm
$150.00 per person
5 course with beer and wine
Tickets only available online at tourdefarmmn.com.
Dinner with Rick Nelson…..
This blog is a place for me to get out some thoughts, ideas, have a conversation, and fill people in on what goes on in our restaurant, just in case you are interested. With that said: dinner this past Thursday night was a bit different for us.
One of the things you do as a cook, chef, restaurant owner, server, etc. is find out who the food writers are for all publications. Which is now very difficult. So many people write about food, you never know who is sitting in the dining room. Well, the Star Tribune has a gentleman by the name of Rick Nelson writing about food. He has been writing there for years, and I’m lucky to say that since I was at the Modern Cafe in Minneapolis, Rick and I have had a working relationship. He knows who we are, I know who he is, so when he comes in he gets the same treatment as everyone else. This is very serious. He has a difficult job, and so do we, and knowing that a food writer is in your dining room, is always a bit nerve wracking.
So, what is the point of the post? Well, it happened that Rick came into the restaurant the other night under an assumed name.. We had no idea and I give him credit for shocking us. But it doesn’t end there, not only did he and his partner Robert come in for dinner, but he brought two of the twin cities most well known dinners, Bob and Sue Macdonald. If you are in the restaurant industry, you know Bob and Sue. They are great people that are passionate about food and wine. They support so many restaurants with both their own dollars, but also by word of mouth. So, now we have a food writter and a couple twin city heavyweight dinners not only in the restaurant, but at our KITCHEN TABLE.
So, yes. to say the least, we were a bit on edge. What follows next are a couple of photos of the night as well as some simple commentary.
The four are engaging in a conversation about a number of restaurants both in and out of the Twin Cities. I have to say, to be able to listen to that conversation was interesting to say the least.
If you’re ever in the position to cook for Bob and Sue, you soon learn that they are very well informed about food. They have over the years chronicled their dinning adventures and given hand written notes on what restaurant, what they ate, the chef, the wine, and other notes regarding the experience, to a number of chef’s in the twin cities.
Here is shot right at dessert time, with some Lustau sherry. The next photo is of Rick Nelson, so if you see him in a restaurant in the twin cities, know that you will more than likely be seeing something about that restaurant in the newspaper some time soon.
I am not going to write about the food here I am sure that you will be seeing something soon (with hopefully some nice things about us) in the Taste section of the Star Tribune. Thanks again, Rick, Robert, Sue and Bob for a great evening.
Scott
Perfect Thanksgiving Turkey
Here is a re-cap of the first cooking class. As you can see we started the class with some notes, and some wine. This is how all classes should start.
I also put down some snacks knowing that you are coming from work, so, don’t worry about getting feeding yourself on the way in.
The classes take place right in Corner Table’s kitchen while dinner service is going on. It is very interactive and spontaneous. The structure is very free and open. When questions come up with just four people in the class we can just answer then. The question came up in class of what to cook for vegetarians for Thanksgiving: my answer was whatever they wanted. Keep meats out of side dishes, use vegetable broths for cooking so that all the sides are fair-game and that alone can be a great dinner of vegetables, stuffing and… don’t forget the pie. Stay away from TO-FURKY!! (Sorry, I am sure I am offending someone.)
Number one rule: Season your food. My turkey gets trussed after the brine, rubbed with lemons, then stuffed with lemon halves to roast, and plenty of pepper.
We talked about some side dishes and stuffing as well. I like to make a southern style spoonbread and then use that to add to bread for stuffing. We also added corn from this season that I have in the freezer, our housemade bacon ( there were no vegetarians in the room), some wild rice and fresh thyme. I also used a white chicken stock ( on the cutting board) compared to a brown stock ( next to cutting board) which made a great sauce for the stuffing. The stocks mentioned will be talked about in an upcoming class titled: Pantry.
More classes to come, some are already sold out. Remember: Learn a recipe and you will be able to make that one dish; learn a technique, and you will be able to make whatever you want.
Thoughts
Feed me!- Truly a “farm to table� menu (and proud of it)
- A great chef + new chapter
- What do you do with all that Kale and Kohlrabi?
- Tour De Farm Tickets Now Available Online
- Thank You City Pages! I Think?
- Remembering what Jon taught me.
- Tour de Farm 2010 Tickets on Sale Now at Corner Table
- Outstanding in the Field + Tour de Farm 2010
- Tour de Farm – 2010 is coming
- Want to eat more local foods? Here’s how you start.
