After a winter of roasting root vegetables a beautiful spring week lies ahead with promises of balmy nights and sun filled days. A few weeks ago Anthony, our talented chef on the grill, started asking to get some lamb chops back on the menu. We tossed around ideas, some lent themselves to the passing season and we were both craving a light preparation with a cool sauce. Several days went by as we starting to plan where it would fit into the menu, the upcoming weather and the search for a new and interesting ingredient.
When the lamb racks arrived we carefully trimmed and digitally dissected ( i.e. used our fingers, an old phrase I learned from a chef early in my career, thanks Josh) the excess fat away and cleaned the bones also known as “frenching the bone.” Great meat, seasoned simply with salt and pepper then grilled / roasted to a well rested, ruby red medium rare simply speaks for itself. We pulled an old favorite sauce out of our quiver, the traditional Greek tzatziki sauce. No, not the glompy white cucumber flecked creme on your gyro but the bright, cucumber and herb perfumed yogurt meant to cut the richness of the unique flavor of lamb. Finally, we found an ingredient that had yet to make it onto our plates here at Niche the Lebanese cous-cous. Not to be confused with its delicate and much finer cousin, this texture is that of pasta and it’s size is just a bit smaller than a Kix or Cocoa Pebble. I toasted it in olive oil with a good dose of Spanish paprika and cooked it in a roasted red pepper broth until tender and then spread it out onto a sheet pan to cool. As the lamb is resting, asparagus tips are sauteed in olive oil along with the cous-cous before nesting onto the plate to be topped with lamb chops just waiting to be devoured.
After all that, what finally distilled itself onto the menu is the collaboration of a few cooks craving some lamb chops but you’ll just have to taste for yourself! Mouth watering yet? Until next time . . .Chef Jeremy

No matter what variations to the recipe you have for the stew there are a few tips and things to watch out for that will set your sheppard’s pie apart. Most recipes call for the potatoes to be boiled before mashing.  Cooking the potato properly is the foundation of the topping. If you do like to boil the potatoes don’t forget to add salt to the water and after you drain the potatoes, spread them out onto a buttered baking pan. Put the baking pan into a preheated oven (350 degrees) and bake until the steam no longer comes off the potatoes but before the brown. The excess water will only weigh down the potatoes and where the water was you can now fill it back up with butter and egg yolks.

After drying out the potatoes, put them into a mixer on medium speed, add the butter and egg yolks whisking just to incorporate. If you leave the potatoes in the mixer to long they will begin to get “gluey” and lose their delicate texture. Fold some scallions and herbs into the mix for more flavor and a bit of garnish. Put the somewhat cooled mixture into a pastry bag with a large star tip and pipe onto the top of your stew. Remember that the more surface area you create with the star tip and piping pattern, the crispier the golden brown crust gets.

For the next few nights we are infusing our Winter Tasting Menu with some traditional Irish fare. Tomorrow night we will serve our version of sheppard’s pie to celebrate St. Patrick. To put our unique touch on it, we are gently braising lamb shoulder in broth with cipolinni onions, baby carrots and garlic until if falls apart. The fluffy and golden brown potatoes will crown each individual crock and bake until golden brown. To finish the dish, rather than the peas in the stew we are gently draping sweet pea tendrils. Erin go braugh!   Chef Jeremy

While I have yet to taste a batch of his recipe, I am confident that he has a handle on the gravy but he still uses tube biscuits. Don’t get me wrong fluffy, perfectly layered dough popped and unraveled from a shiny tube is a much better way than frozen or precooked biscuits any day. So many people are intimidated by biscuit baking, leaving it up to machines in a factory; making your own is easer than you think if you keep a couple of things in mind.

The recipe I use for our biscuits and gravy dish at brunch on Sunday morning comes from our crispy, slightly translucent edged and dog ear (from buttery fingers) and dog eared paged copy of the “Joy of Cooking. (click here for the recipe).” I modify the recipe a bit adding 1 tsp of baking soda and substituting buttermilk for the milk and I brush the biscuits with milk instead of butter before baking. I double the batch and precess it in a food processor until the frozen butter bits are about half the size of a pea. The dry component of the recipe works even better after being frozen and you can pull out as many biscuits as you need instead of baking by the dozen. A major shift from the recipe that I use is something that comes with the experience of many batches, some close to perfect and plenty of failures. I start with the dry component in a mixing bowl, a fork and some ice cold buttermilk. I splash in some buttermilk and start to mix with my fork until the clumps begin to get larger.  Set the bowl aside for a few minutes and let the flour absorb the buttermilk. Grab about a three inch ball of the dough and almost turn the bottoms inside the bottom creating a rough , almost spiky surface. those spikes will create crispy little craters that give a delicate crunch after being enrobed in velvety gravy. Brush the tops lightly with milk and bake at 450 degrees until the biscuit comes off the nonstick baking pan and has a subtle thump when tapped.

The only way that I truly enjoy eating biscuits is fresh from the oven (popped from a shiny tube only if desperate). Making them for family and friends is rewarding, but can be a mess. Next time you get the craving, let me make and clean up the mess, drop into Niche, I bake a fresh batch of them every Sunday just before we open.

1. 2006 Charles Smith “Royal City” Syrah, Washington State
2. 2004 Palmaz Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley
3. 2004 Turley Charbono, Tofanelli Vineyard
4. Williams Selyem Late Harvest Gewurtztraminer, Vista Verde Vineyard
5. 2006 Charles Smith “Motor City Kitty” Syrah, Walla Walla Washington

Based on recent events in the wine world I feel confident in saying that Washington state wine is here to stay. As the Washington wineries continue to get better at what they do for more reasonable prices, California will be forced to compete with their neighbors to the north.
The industry has seen so many great Washington wine houses popularity emerge this year like Charles Smith, Cayuse, and Betz. Charles Smith, my personal favorite, was named winemaker of the year and his Royal City Syrah received 100pts by the Wine Enthusiast Magazine and was ranked the number two for Wine of the Year. Compare that to the once omnipotent Silver Oaks Cabernet Sauvignon as their wines have taken a beating with numbers in the 80 pts. It is clear that the old guard won’t be able to rely on high prices and name recognition any longer. Great wines are crafted to be drunk not just talked about. The American wine drinking public are finally beginning to understand that you don’t have to rely on name recognition to find great wines.
As we close out the year I sat down and jotted a few predictions for the coming year:

1. Washington wines will continue to develop and put pressure on the other wine producing states.
2. More people will venture away from drinking big fat cab’s all the time and start drinking more Syrah.
3. Wine prices in both market and retail will continue to decline.
4. Brad Pitt and Angelina will break up.
5. The economy will slowly crawl out of the gutter.

Thank you again for an exciting year and I look forward to see you in my bar soon. . .Vince

September
5th ~ See Chef Jeremy’s demo at Geneva’s Festival of the Vine17th ~ 3rd Annual Harvest Dinner
24th ~ Concert Between Courses, Young Artists Recital
October
1st ~ Concert Between Courses Michelle Areyzaga - soprano and Larry Dieffenbach - piano
29th-31st ~ Halloween themed Tasting Menu
Tasty Bits
Welcome to the latest edition of Tasty Bits Newsletter!
Mark your calendars for another busy fall and holiday season here at Niche Restaurant!Thursday, September 17th we are hosting our 3rd Annual Autumn Harvest Dinner. That evening we will highlight the best that the season has to offer from local farm pastures to the plates here at Niche. Six courses of tasty morsels of food for $50 plus tax & gratuity and$40 for an optional wine flight paired by Vince.
As the Summer winds down and the weather begins to keep us indoors, check out three great websites about wine that our Sommelier Dan Fijolek sifted from the abundance of info on the web in the Oeno-File column.
Chef Jeremy discusses a bit about the difference between organic and sustainable farming practices and how they ultimately affect the flavor below. Then find out his take on what it is about the change in weather that evokes so many great food memories in the Kitchen Connection.

Eat Me Daily

Tasting Table

Michael Ruhlman’s Blog

Line Cook

by Sommelier Dan Fijolek

When all young palates first fall in love with wine the desire for knowledge is never far behind.  Fortunately for today’s emerging connoisseurs the Internet serves to teach us all we are willing to learn.  But like all information on the web the question becomes what wine info on the web can we actually trust?  Below are three websites that come to mind whenever I am asked this question.

• robertparker.com ~  Robert Parker is probably the most influential wine critic in the world.  And unlike Wine Spectator or Wine Enthusiast which has biased opinions based on advertising that is done in their magazines, Parker’s magazine Wine Advocate has no advertisements therefore no bias.  Although his site is only partially free, he has reviews for most of the modern world’s wines which makes it a valuable resource.

• wine-maker.net ~  When people ask me who my favorite wine maker is, the name Sean Thackrey inevitably comes to mind.  He has achieved true cult star status as a modern wine alchemist and insists on using traditional wine making techniques that date back to the Middle Ages.  He breaks all the modern rules of wine making which gives him huge street cred from hedonists like myself.  His site is fantastic because he includes a good portion of his very extensive and very old personal library for free on the site to nourish our minds.

• wineaccess.com ~  This site is a great online wine shop that pays special attention to more obscure wines that require seeking out.

Fortunately for today’s emerging connoisseurs the Internet serves to teach us all we are willing to learn. You don’t even need to leave your house to get great wine anymore.  Oh mighty Internet, is there anything you can’t do?

One of the things that I missed the most while living in the Bay Area was the inherent feeling of the evolving seasons. The changing seasons conjur up sensations on each of our five senses and bring back fond memories from as far back as childhood. Here in the midwest the four seasons arrive sometimes over night like the chill in the night air. Everyone here in the midwest looks forward to the relief of a 65 degree day after weeks of 90 degrees heavy with with dense humidity.

As a chef, the changing season signals the arrival of not just new ingredients, but thoughts of hearty roasted root vegetables, gently braised meats enrobed in a rich reduction of its own juices. Something about the chill in the air makes me crave roasted squash and pumpkins and the delicate balance of nutmeg, ginger, cloves and cinnamon on savory and sweet dishes throughout our menu. This time of year is when the sweetcorn is at its juicy, sweet and tender peak of perfection.

Maybe it’s the change in temperature or the bounty of Autumn’s harvest but the changing season brings excitement of things to come and time to reflect on the past season. Before we know it Thanksgiving will have come and the first snowflakes will begin to drop. Until then enjoy the end of Summer and all that it offers because by we will be craving those 90 degree days by January. Until next time . . .Chef Jeremy

The term organic refers to global food products that are heavily regulated and can be quite costly for the farmer. It often begins with a waiting period to enssure that the land to be farmed is free from chemicals and synthetic materials, often taking up to 3 years. The farmer must then pay to have soila dn water samples taken and studied, complete documentation on farm history, design a plan for future production and be interviewed at an official farm visit. After all of this, the farmer is required to pay an annual fee anywhere from a few hundred to thousands of dollars. With these demands many of the smaller farms that I work with either don’t have or don’t desire to the label of “organic” for their produce, but would rather be known as sustainable.

In the past couple decades a grass roots movement of sustainability has made its way into homes throughout the country. A bill was passed defining sustainability as a system of farming process that enhances the environment, uses little non-renewable resources, produces food that is healthy to eat, financially sustains the farm and most importantly, enhances the quality of life for farmers and society. Most of the farmers that you will see at your local market tend to use these practices and the cost is much lower. They will use age-old farming techniques like integrated pest management and crop rotation to accomplish what technilogy has put into a powder for industrial farms.

All definitions, sociological and political views on the matter aside, to me, sustainable food simply tastes better. Organic farms can be found throughout the world and are often large in scale with extensive shipping. While the transport of foods has come a long way over the past couple decades, the organic carrot you bought at the grocery store was probably grown out west or even on the other side of the equator and harvested some weeks before you are it. Most sustainable farmers at the markets were digging in the dirt just the day before and probably that morning to harvest the carrots. nothing beats the flavor of a carrot just pulled from the earth, still warm from the sun, washed off and eaten raw. Not only does it taste good but its packed with nutrients that lessen with time and most importantly, it makes me feel like I am making a difference for my guests and farmers alike. To me, that is the essence of sustainability.