Rooftop Gourmet

Introducing the trendy dish of season! Pumpkin Mac & Cheese. It’s literally everywhere these days and every chef, blog, magazine, and cooking show wants to put their own spin on it; and that’s exactly what I did. I have to admit, whoever was the true Pumpkin Mac & Cheese originator was pretty brilliant.

Not only did they take one of the most iconic American, home-cooked dishes, throw in some seasonal flare, and make it unique, but they captured the culinary worlds’ attention and caused a massive, gooey, cheesy, pumpkin-y phenomenon. It’s just plain hard to read the words, “Pumpkin Macaroni & Cheese” and not stop in your tracks. The two things have never gone together before yet both sound so damn good together.

With the artisanal, gourmet mac & cheese craze still booming, and the pumpkin beer obsession on the rise, this combination of flavors, texture and spices is nothing shy of genius. I know that I am not alone when I say that when I first saw a recipe for this, I said to myself, “why the f@*# didn’t I think of that”! Okay… I’m jealous, but my stomach is now extremely full and I am completely satisfied.

I went out to buy two medium sized pumpkins because the ones that we used to decorate our front doorstep got smashed. Surprise… welcome to city living.

All I did was slice them into six equal parts, removed the seeds and guts, and roast them at 400 degrees until they were completely tender. I threw the bright orange, steamy flesh into the food processor and pulsed away until I was left with my homemade pumpkin puree.

If you’re too lazy to do this, just grab a few cans from the grocery store, and if you’re really lazy, just ask someone else to open the cans for you. I promise you that the “from scratch” method produces a much tastier and healthier pumpkin flavor.

For my macaroni and cheese, (which wasn’t really macaroni at all) I used an orecchiette pasta which in Italian means “little ears”. Every time I cook with orecchiette I can’t help myself from grabbing one of the baby ears and re-creating my favorite scene from Reservoir Dogs , screaming into the little dried pasta, “Hey… what’s goin on? Can you hear that”?

As the pasta water was coming to a boil, I diced up some applewood-smoked ham to give the macaroni & cheese some extra flavor.

I started to make a roux, which is equal parts butter and flour, whisked together in order to thicken my cheese sauce. I essentially made a pumpkin Mornay sauce which is a classic French Bechemel with the addition of shredded cheese, and of course pumpkin puree.

I specifically chose four different cheeses for flavor, balance, and texture. I used a classic Gruyere because of its impeccable melting quality and nutty flavor. I used a bright orange Vermont Cheddar for its color, and its sharp flavor. I used a smoked Mozzarella for the intense smoky flavor which I thought would work nicely with the pumpkin and the autumn spices, and lastly a creamy, fresh goat cheese for a tart punch.

All of the cheeses were slowly whisked into the Bechemel creating a thick, ultra-rich, cheesy euphoria. I finished the sauce with some minced sage, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and pepper.

I had a hard time keeping my fingers and utensils out of the sauce and trust me… it didn’t suck.

I poured the sauce all over the top of the al dente pasta and stirred it around with the smoked ham. It got spooned into individual and group-sized ramekins and then covered with homemade breadcrumbs.

I took some old bread, and pulverized it in the food processor with fresh sage and some nutmeg. A little melted butter brought the crumbs together into a golden, aromatic crust for the mac & cheese. Roughly thirty minutes in the oven, and the breadcrumbs were toasty and the cheese sauce was bubbling away.

I served this American classic with arguably one of the most exciting and popular grape varietals of the times; Argentinian Malbec. The 2010 Altos las Hormigas Malbec comes from Mendoza Argentina. In 1995 Alberto Antonini, a well-known Italian winemaker took a trip to visit the major viticultural areas of Argentina. He returned powerfully impressed by the potential of Malbec in the Mendoza region. Later that year he purchased 216 hectares of vineyards and Altos las Hormigas was born.

The project has turned into a huge success and his Malbecs are some of the best in South America. This one is a deep violet, purple color and rich with peppery spices. The wine is full-bodied and marries well with the “pumpkin” spices of the dish and the sweet pumpkin flavor in the pasta.

The bold wine has notes of mocha and coconut in the finish and is actually equally as rich as the cheesy pasta. The crunchy breadcrumbs add a contrast in texture and buttery flavor to the velvety orecchiette. I love how present the actual pumpkin flavor was in the dish and how well the smoky cheese and ham complimented the cinnamon and nutmeg.

As I expected from the very beginning, the person who came up with this idea is brilliant and should be awarded for his or her ingenuity and creativity. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Memorial Day is all about honoring American soldiers who died in combat, and is traditionally spent watching parades and enjoying backyard cookouts. Grilling on your deck or in your backyard is about as American as it gets, so that’s exactly what I did Sunday evening… with a classic French twist. I can’t think of anything that I haven’t thrown on my grill before, so I’m always searching for ways to add some flair to my char.

I had a long relaxing day on the new roofdeck and plenty of time to prep, so I decided to make a classic French Bordelaise sauce to drizzle over my grilled hangar steak. Sauce Bordelaise is named after the famous French wine region of Bordeaux, which produces arguably the world’s finest red wines (don’t tell the Italians).

So obviously this is a red wine based sauce combined with a classic demi-glace, which is like a “super stock” because it’s reduced and skimmed a hundred times over. Lets face it… I don’t have the patience to roast my own bones on Memorial Day weekend and make a traditional demi-glace from scratch so cartons of beef stock were just fine.

 I got the sauce going first by sauteing carrots, celery, onions, shallots, and some portabello mushrooms. It’s important to get these in the pot and just walk away for a bit because the more color and caramelization on your aromatics, means more flavor in your final product.

When the veggies were ready, I dumped in an entire bottle of Bordeaux (any dry red wine will do). The one thing that drives me nuts is when people come into the store and ask for the cheapest bottle of wine to cook with. I’m not saying to cook with expensive wine by any means, but I feel that a $10 bottle is sufficient.

The whole reason that you’re cooking with wine in the first place is because of flavor. You wouldn’t season your food with dirt instead of salt would you? When the alcohol evaporates and the wine reduces, what you’re left with is the flavor of that wine. A good rule is to never cook with a wine that you wouldn’t want to drink or serve yourself. I slowly let the wine reduce over the aromatics until it was almost completely gone. All of the flavors of the wine get intensified into roughly 1/4 of a cup, before I added some beef broth.

When that was simmering away, in between skimming the scum and fat off the top of the pot and discarding it, I popped back up to the roofdeck to enjoy the amazing view and ponder where my urban garden is going to be located (pictures will come soon once the furniture arrives).

 I picked a smorgasbord of herbs from my herb garden and chopped them finely to sprinkle over my trusty hangar steak. I love the smell of grilled red meat when it’s coated with fresh herbs because the oils in the leaves and stems come alive and fill the air with all sorts of enticing aromas. I dowsed the hangar with chopped rosemary, oregano, thyme, sage, and parsley before throwing it onto the cast iron grates.

Hangar steak cooks quickly so I took it off and let it rest for five minutes before I sliced it on the bias. Meanwhile, the sauce had reduced quite a bit so I took it off the heat and jammed it through a chinois or very fine strainer. After discarding all the bits and pieces, I was left with a silky smooth, beefy, red wine reduction that still needed some more time to reduce.

In a small sauce pot, I started whisking a roux (equal parts butter and flour) until it magically before my eyes went from white, to light blonde, to dark brown in color. When it was dark and rich, I added my reduction sauce and whisked away until the sauce came together and thickened to my liking.

 I turned down the heat and threw in a few sprigs of thyme to steep into the sauce. I served a light salad with the steak because it was painfully warm outside and the sauce is incredibly rich. I tossed some baby arugula with shaved radish, shaved shallots, and thinly sliced aged Gouda. It was an interesting combination but it tasted delicious. The aged Gouda is a great substitute for Parmesan.

Once I tasted, seasoned, tasted, and re-seasoned the sauce a million times until it was perfect, I sliced the steak. The rich, mahogany hued Bordelaise glistened as it crept into every crevice of sliced beef. I opened a bottle of the 2006 Catena Alta Malbec from Argentina because who knows grilled meats better than Argentinians. Even though Malbec from Argentina is the hottest wine craze at the moment, lets not forget that the French have been growing Malbec long before it was cool to do so in South America. The French have been using Malbec as a blending grape in Bordeaux for years because it gives wine tons of added fruit and a deep, purple color.

This wine in particular had an amazing color to it. It was like black ink and eggplant but had a lighter weight on the palate than I expected. It was creamy and lush, with flavors of blackberry, sage, and dark chocolate. It was medium bodied and had great acidity. Every hour that I had the wine open it improved more and more. More complex, intriguing flavors came alive as the night went on, long after the entire steak was devoured and our plates licked clean. Even though an American invented the dishwasher in 1893, we didn’t need to use it because the sauce was too damn good.