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

The Taste and Pigs

Chef Kelly plates some Smoked BBQ pork meatballs.

Last night was the annual Taste on Broadway.  Over 30 local restaurants set up shop on Broadway for an evening a food, drink and music.  This year we brought some Cherry Wheat, our new IPA and a whole lot of pork!

We brought 3 items this time.  Earlier in the week we smoked some Sweet Grass Farms pork shoulders, added some veal and ground pork, lots of love, and a healthy glaze of our own BBQ sauce.  We served these beauties with some spicy apple slaw.


We also served some Shrimp and Scallop seviche with corn chips.  This was a big hit on the hot day.

Seviche!

 For dessert we got a case of peaches from our friends at Ledgeview Gardens and roasted them (with an ample amount of bourbon) in our wood fire oven.  Add some pound cake and a little whipped marscapone and you've got yourself a nice little trifle.

Chef Amanda prepares to unleash her desserts upon the masses

The complete product

Finally, we wanted to let you know about another farm we use that is producing great, high quality, all natural pork.  Ken Kahle runs Polka Dot Pastures in Luxemburg (I've added his information in our links section) and in the past we have used his heirloom breed pigs in the restaurant  (the next batch will be ready by winter he tells us).  Last week got a few suckling pigs from him.  We are currently in the process of using these beautiful animals to make Porchetta and some Pierogi's.  Hopefully we will be able to update you on our progress soon!

Beef

At Hinterland we do our best to always have local, grass-fed beef on our menu.  Most people will agree that there are significant health and social benefits for eating grass-fed over grain fed beef (for more information we recommend you read any of Michael Pollan's books or check out the River Cottage).  However, we do get some questions in regards to the marbling of grass fed beef.  The common thought is that corn is needed to produce truly great marbling in beef.  Visual evidence is the best argument we can make in the case of grass-fed.  Just look at these pictures next time someone tells you that you can't get a well marbled grass-fed steak.

Sweet Grass Farms Ribeye

Sweet Grass Farms Striploin cut for Carpaccio

Carbonara

Currently in the lounge we a running our version of an Italian classic.  Purists will argue what true carbonara is, but everyone agrees on the basics, pasta, pancetta, cheese, and egg yolk.  If you start adding ingredients beyond that it might get you into trouble (definitely stay off the streets of Rome late at night).

The current Hinterland version is a bit of a twist.  Instead of pancetta, we are using a house cured and lightly smoked guanciale (the jowels are from sweet grass farms).  We add some sweet peas, a little pasta water, some piave, and a little manchego.  Instead of the egg yolk, we finish the dish with an sunny side up egg from Sunset Farm.  A great, simple tasty dish. 

We have also included the links to a few other companies.  The cheeses I mentioned are from a company we have just started using called Artisinal Cheese.  Not only do they work to insure the cheese we get is at its peak condition, they have tons of great information, educational tools, and pairing ideas.

Finally, our eggs come from Sunset Farm.  They supply us with a good portion of our local pork, chicken, and beef.  You can find their products on our menu and on Chef Brett's menu at The Whistling Swan.

Broadway Farmers Market

Chef Kelly checks out the chard

Now that summer is mostly here, we thought it would be a good time to talk about the Wednesday market.  Not only do we get a majority of our fresh, organic vegetables there, but Hinterland also has a stand.  If you are at the market we suggest taking a break during your shopping and sip on a nice cool local micro brew and enjoy some of our Championship Nachos (poblano cheese sauce, chipotle grass fed beef, pico de gallo).

We buy from a lot of different farmers at the market, but we thought we would highlight two of the ones we use a bit more frequently. 

Todd Jaskolski runs Caprine Supreme and we buy all of our goat cheese and goat cheese curds from him.  Besides Chevre and curds, Todd has a rotating roster of cheeses.

Luke Wojcik runs Twin Elm Gardens in Pulaski.  All of our sunflower sprouts, peashoots and micro greens are grown by Luke.  In addition to greens you will also find a wide variety of other great high quality products at Luke's stand.

That's it for now, but as the summer goes on we will be sure to post more.  All of these people are making some fabulous products and doing their best to help the community, please support them!

Tuna

We always get the best and freshest fish at Hinterland.  We are particularly picky about our tuna (only #1 sashimi grade for us).   This weekend we have a special treat.  #1 grade Japanese tuna!  The Japanese are very passionate about their tuna and thus have a more rigid grading system.  This stuff is gorgeous! 

The burger is back

The burger has had an occasional spot on our lounge menu in the past. Recently a regular customer requested it. Instead of going back and rehashing the kobe burger, we decided to go local and go large.

First, we have the beef itself. Not only is it local and grass fed, but its also a custom grind done specifically for Hinterland. 40% chuck, 30% brisket, and 30% shortrib have produced a moist and ultra flavorful burger.

The bun is homemade. The big, moist burger required a sturdy roll to take in all the juices without falling apart. Check them out, they're gorgeous.


Next, being pork fanatics, we knew we couldn't make a burger without some form of pig. Bacon and pancetta are natural choices, but we wanted to go all out. Pork Belly was the obvious answer. We cure the belly for a few days, cook it confit style, slice it, grill it, and glaze it with home made BBQ

After that, some arugula from Ledgeview Gardens, tempura onion rings and a nice mound of garlic fries. I like mine with Pub Draught.

Ledgeview Tomatoes!

Ledgeview Tomatoes are at Hinterland! Both beefsteak and cherry tomatoes,the black cherry variety look particularly stunning, these little beauties are irresistibly delicious sweet and rich,with great color that adds to many of our dishes. In addition to the wonderful tomatoes we are also getting greens, cucumbers and pole beans. Look for them at the Wednesday Farmers Market on Broadway.

Softies are here!

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Cheeks

Check out this monster halibut cheek that came into our kitchen today! If you want to try some, come on in. This weekend we are preparing these cheeks tempura style with lemon caper emulsion and spicy slaw.


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Spring

Halibut, morels, fiddleheads, and ramps!!!


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Sweet grass

We got some Sweet Grass Farms ribeyes and strip steaks at hinterland this week. Check out the marbling!


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Belly

We love our pork at Hinterland. Just a few minutes ago we pulled this belly out. It was lovingly poached in it's own fat until fall apart tender.


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Morels!

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