New Faces

A big, fat welcome to the new faces who have joined the Hinterland team in the kitchen. Meet our newest chefs, Charlene and Terry!

Smoking

Belly, in the smoker

 A few quick pictures of our bacon process.  We got 6 beautiful pork bellies from Ken at Polka Dot Pastures and usually we roast or confit them as an appetizer or component to a dish.  With so many bellies we decided to make our own bacon.

We start with a simple sugar and salt cure and let the bellies sit for at least a week.  After the cure it's off to the smoker.  The bellies are hot smoked at a low temperature for most of the day.  Apple wood chips soaked in our own Hinterland Maple Bock is the smoke flavor of choice.

After the smoke the belly rests (it's been on a real wild ride) and cools.  Once it is completely cool the bacon is ready to be eaten.

Belly, transformed into bacon

On the bottom of the post you will see a glimpse of a dish we are running this weekend.  As a tribute to all the wonderful hog we've been getting the Chef's decided to create a sampler pig plate.  Included are pork rillettes (made from the jowels), a brat (award winning I might add) and a pork croquette (our play on head cheese), all served with mustard, gherkins, and frisee salad.

Snout to tail

Recently we recieved 3 whole heritage breed hogs and 1 veal calf at the Hinterland kitchen.  These animals were raised specifically for us and we are pretty excited to show what we've been doing with them.  It goes without saying that we are truly embracing head to tail cooking in regards to these animals, everything is going to be used.  In the coming weeks we will start showing what we've done with animals and how they will be appearing on the menu.  To start off, something simple, spare ribs. Here is a quick picture tour of what we did with the spare ribs currently featured on our lounge menu.  Enjoy!

We start with a cure, brown sugar, chili's, salt.

After a days cure, we smoke them, low and slow

After smoking, the ribs are still a bit tough, so we finish them sous vide style to get them just tender

Ready for you to eat, Hinterland IPA BBQ glaze, cornbread, spicy apple slaw

Artic char

We have had a busy holiday season at Hinterland, our resolution is to update this blog a bit more in 2012.  Let's kick off the new year by showing a new dish on the menu.  We are using our fancy new immersion circulator to "poach" a piece of fish in a small amount of olive oil.  The texture of the fish prepared this way is incredible (the flavor is pretty darn good too).

Here you go, Olive oil poached artic char with vanilla saffron emulsion and shaved fennel grapefruit salad.

After a quick brine the Artic Char is vacuum sealed with extra virgin olive oil

A quick few minutes in the immersion circulator and the fish is a perfect medium rare

Artic Char, ready for consumption

Sous Vide

It's like Christmas in the Hinterland kitchen!  Recently, we got an immersion circulator which allows us to start playing around with Sous-vide cooking.  Sous-vide translates to under vacuum.  In short, we vacuum pack the food item to be cooked and place it in a thermal controlled water bath.  This allows us to cook evenly for long periods of time.  This produces a more consistent, and juicier product.

We have only just started exploring the possibilities.  First up was the egg.  We've being playing with the time and temperature in order to create the perfect egg.  The whites are just set, and the yolk is just getting a bit "fudgy" but still very runny.  We served these beauties on our schnitzel over the weekend.

Random Updates

We have been pretty busy in the kitchen at Hinterland lately.  I figured I'd just post some pictures of what we have been up to.

A nice selection of local cheese!

on location for a private event in Door County

We have added a link for Hample Haven on the side

Hample Haven Farm, a new lamb provider for us

Sweet Grass Farms Carpaccio, sunflower sprouts, and house made pickled chantrelle's.

Porchetta

As I mentioned in the last update, we recently got some suckling pigs from Polka Dot Pastures.  One pig was destined to become pierogi's, the other, porchetta.  The pierogi's are not on the menu yet, so we will save them for another post.  Today, we will share with you the magic of porchetta!

the tied hog

Many times we are asked, "what is your favorite cut of pork?"  The answer is easy, "all of them."  Those crafty Italians realized long ago that if you simply remove the bones from the pig, roll the whole thing up and roast it, no matter what your favorite cut everyone will be happy.

To start Chef Kelly removed the bones from the entire animal.  I took the head and added the cheeks and jowels to the pierogi's.  The tougher muscles were tenderized just a bit.  From here, the pig was seasoned with salt, pepper, and some ground spices.

Kelly then rolled and tied the seasoned pork.  After cooking it slow and low in our conventional ovens, we finished the porchetta in our wood fire oven in order to get a nice hard crust on the outside (and to melt some of that fat).

 after wood fire oven

see the little belly!

 Finally, after a nice long rest (remember, always, always rest your meats!) we cut into the beast and it was glorious!  As you can see from the picture, all of your favorite pig parts are there for your enjoyment!

On the menu we are serving it with a mustard reduction, chantrelle mushrooms, brussels sprouts, neuske's bacon, and an arugula pickled carrot salad.  Chef Amanda even made some soft pretzels to go with it!  Come on in and get some while it's still available!

Polka Dot Pasture Suckling Pig Porchetta