Denver Food Blog

Liz Kellermeyer

​Boy, are our cheeks pink. Turns out that our guy in Paramus can only lay claim to the bagel and some pastry recipes baked at Hi Rise, 2162 Larimer Street. Head baker Sammy Marquez is the on-site, flesh-and-blood man behind many of the sweets, including several that we featured on last week's Sugar High post.

Though a Colorado native, Marquez completed his culinary schooling and training in New York, which accounts for much of the East Coast influence on the pastries lining the case. "Walking into a pastry shop in Brooklyn, New York, is nothing like walking into one here in Denver," he says. "The selection, variety and quality far outshines just about everything I've seen here in my home state. I want to change all of that and do some things that are very common on the East Coast, yet very difficult to find here."

Doug Anderson, the owner of Hi Rise, says that when he was looking for a head baker, he used candidates' shortbread as the litmus test. Marquez was the one who blew him away, and for good reason: The raspberry shortbread bars are one of the things Marquez is most proud of, and we were lucky enough to get a peek at the recipe responsible for so much gushing. It's yours, after the jump.

So angry, so delicious...

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I have sworn for a long time that I would never include recipes in this blog. I have raised a (completely ineffectual) stink over the notion of other people including recipes. I have my reasons -- the biggest of which being that I neither like nor trust recipes not written by a working cook, describing his methods for cooking something that he prepares fifty or a hundred times a night, and that the recipe or prep details of a working cook are less than useless to a home cook in almost any circumstance. My favorite cook's recipe ever? This one, for prepping chicken roulade, which was written on a cocktail napkin and used to hang above the station of one of my cooks:

Pull chix
Pound chix
Roll chix
Hold chix

All the cooks and chefs reading are laughing right now. Trust me.

But anyway, I'm making an exception here because in this week's review of Paradise Asian Cafe, I mentioned that I'd never seen a restaurant offering Cantonese lobster in lobster sauce. That's still the case. I couldn't find it on a restaurant menu anywhere. But I did find a recipe, courtesy of Madame Wong's Long Life Chinese Cookbook--a vintage tome from the '70s just full of gems like this one--and have decided to share it here just because it looks so good.

​Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them, and cook up a feast.

Last month, Pete and Barb created a multi-course autumn menu. This month, in honor of Thanksgiving, they'll continue to add recipes until they have a complete, multi-course turkey day menu. Pete's already fattened us up with his Gorgonzola dip and taught us how to confit a turkey leg and roast a turkey breast. Earlier this week, he prepared a carrot and winter squash puree; today, he's doing wild rice bread pudding stuffing.

​Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them, and cook up a feast.

Last month, Pete and Barb created a multi-course autumn menu. This month, they'll continue to add recipes until they have a complete, multi-course Colorado Thanksgiving menu. So far, Pete has made a Gorgonzola dip and taught us how to confit a turkey leg and roast a turkey breast. Today, he's prepared carrot and winter squash puree.

A Flickr photo

​As someone who hails from the Midwest and has never lived in a place that didn't have seasons, I take seasonal food very seriously. Last year a friend visiting from southern California stared at me in bewilderment as I savored the first batch of strawberries from the farmers' market. While I reveled in the first sweet taste of summer, she couldn't comprehend my glee. Strawberries, you see, grow year round in her part of the country. To me this was akin to having Christmas every day; you'd think it'd be awesome, but after a while, it all becomes normal and you don't even notice it anymore. That would suck.

​Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them, and cook up a feast.

Last month, Pete and Barb created a multi-course autumn menu. This month, they'll continue to add recipes until they have a complete, multi-course Colorado Thanksgiving menu. Last week, Pete made a Gorgonzola dip. Today, he's doing turkey.

"The breast is dried out, and the thighs aren't cooked through." Sound familiar? "With our full-proof turkey method, you'll never have to hear this again," promises Pete. "Let's face it: No matter how good a cook you are, cooking white and dark meat to perfection is difficult. This method makes it very easy to cook fork-tender legs and thighs and a perfectly roasted breast."

Do you know the muffin man?

​There's a contest for everything, including, as it turns out, muffins. And for Sharon Smith and Wendy Goldstein, owners of the Two Sisters Inn -- a bed-and-breakfast in Manitou Springs -- it was their muffins that took the cake on Monday, November 9 at the Bed & Breakfast Innkeepers of Colorado (BBIC) annual conference in Golden, when the twosome won the -- wait for it -- Golden Muffin Award (aka, the Best Muffin in Colorado) for their original recipe for Mandarin orange streusel muffins.

Woo-hoo!

Lance Barto in his kitchen at Strings

​"This is the perfect hearty recipe to help warm your body from the chill in the air," says Lance Barto, the executive chef of Strings and the subject of this week's Chef and Tell interview.

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Both readers and restaurateurs had a lot of suggestions for what to do with the former home of Mojitos -- which isn't surprising, considering that this spot at 1120 East Sixth Avenue is a good location just begging for a good operator to go into it.

And while I've already reported the news that Alex Gurevich from Limon and Bisque is taking over the space, and will be putting on the big white had to make pizzas and salumi for the neighbors, that didn't stop the guys from Dave Query's Big Red F group from playing along with my "What if..." game.

In my original fantasy version of the new Mojitos, I had James Lee--the able tender from Query's Bitter Bar at Happy--hanging out behind the bar and mixing up artful cocktails for all the Cuban food fanatics I imagined flooding my re-staffed Cuban eatery. And apparently, Lee thought that was a pretty good idea, too, because he came through with a couple of cocktail recipes for what he would've made there if only Query and the Big Red F crew had been a little quicker and snagged the space for themselves.

​Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them, and cook up a feast.

Last month, Pete and Barb created a multi-course autumn menu. This month, they'll continue to add one recipe a week until they have a complete, multi-course Colorado Thanksgiving menu.

"My sister Mariah, who trained in Paris and is a private chef in Vermont, just visited me and Pete, and between the two of them, you're not going to get better food anywhere," promises Barb. "While she was here, we served a heritage turkey from Bennett, and confited the legs and roasted the breast." Pete and Barb served the turkey with mashed squash from their garden, carrots, bread pudding stuffing with wild rice, a dried cherry chutney, Brussels sprouts with bacon, mashed San Luis potatoes, and gravy. For dessert, Mariah made a poached pear tart.

The feast started with Gorgonzola dip, the first recipe this round. It's best to let the dip sit overnight, so the flavors really blend.

Andre Baranowski

​A few years back, I spent Thanksgiving with the large family of a friend whose house was tucked into the side of a mountain somewhere near Durango. Like most families at Thanksgiving dinners, we had segregated ourselves into two groups: those who were slamming wine and watching football, and those who were slamming wine and helping in the kitchen. The bird was in the oven and the family matriarch was delegating side dish duties to anyone with an itch to cook. Each assignment brought about suggestions for ways to alter the sides based on different family traditions. The chef's patience waned as the brown-sugar-to-yam ratio was debated, and she finally hollered, "THIS IS MY HOUSE AND WE'RE GOING TO COOK IT MY WAY!"

Lesson: Hell hath no fury like a woman about to lose control of her Thanksgiving dinner.

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Thanksgiving is still two weeks away, but should you feel like tackling a turkey early (you know, just for practice), Dedric McGhee, exec chef of Thyme on the Creek, the in-house restaurant at the Millennium Harvest House in Boulder (and the former chef of El Monte Sagrado in Taos), offers this recipe for Southwestern-style turkey enchiladas.

Lori Midson

Braised oxtails and sugo

​Braised Oxtails and Sugo with Homemade Pappardelle

Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them, and cook up a feast. This is the third in a series of dinner-party recipes; they'll add one a week until they have a complete, multi-course fall menu.

Lori Midson

​Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them, and cook up a feast. This is the second in a series of dinner-party recipes; they'll add one a week until they have a complete, multi-course fall menu.

For week one, Pete made mushroom rugula, a savory mushroom mixture that's rolled in pastry, baked and sliced. This week, Pete whips up roasted squash risotto, "a perfect fall or winter dish," he says, "that's hearty, warming and uses ingredients that are at their peak during the dark months."

The basis of all risotto, says Pete, is the rice.

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As I reported earlier today, Jax-Boulder chef Hosea Rosenberg is the official grand marshal at the University of Colorado at Boulder's 2009 homecoming on Friday, October 30. And one of the perks (if you can call it that) of living in the residence halls, at least on Friday, is that the collegians will get a taste of Rosenberg's food, namely his salmon with spinach, sweet potato hash and red wine syrup.

You're dying for the recipe, aren't you?

Lori Midson

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Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them, and cook up a feast. This is the first in a series of dinner-party recipes; they'll add one a week until they have a complete, multi-course fall menu.

First up: Pete's recipe for mushroom rugula, a savory mushroom mixture that's rolled in pastry, baked and sliced. It's the perfect finger-food prelude to the main meal.

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You know it's fall when the Nutty Apple Crisp returns to the Ted's Montana Grill menu -- and this year, corporate chef Chris Raucci is sharing the secrets of the dessert.

"Our guests can't wait for Nutty Apple Crisp to return each year," he says. "We receive letters and emails from people all year long requesting the recipe. We consider that the best compliment of all, so we've decided to share our recipe for the first time."

The recipe, which makes enough to feed four, follows.

​James Lee, mixologist at the Bitter Bar at Happy (known as Happy Noodle House until very recently), is heading from Boulder to New York this weekend, for the annual Santé Restaurant Symposium -- where he'll be competing against against five other bartenders in the Iron Bar Chef contest.

The competitors will have 45 minutes to create three drinks (aperitif, tall drink and dessert drink) using a secret ingredient; drinks will be evaluated on appearance, aroma, taste, use of secret ingredients, and overall impression. The winner will get a thousand bucks and immediately qualify to compete in the 2009 Shake It Out competition, with a chance to win $5,000.

Lee was selected for this competition based on the "Scottish Sunset," a cocktail he concocted at the Bitter Bar. The recipe follows.

Lori Midson

​Last weekend, Elise Wiggins, executive chef at Panzano (909 17th Street), held a cooking class at Bear Mountain Ranch, home on the range to the Black Angus steer that ranch owners Debbie and John Medved are raising for Wiggins, who is using the beef at Panzano.

The cooking class, which also included a fantastic lunch with sliders, tomato and mozzarella soup and focaccia, focused primarily on Wiggins's recipe for pappardelle bolognese, which was also the star of the lunch. If you've got a pasta machine at home, Wiggins recommends making your own pappardelle, but you can also purchase the pasta dried from Whole Foods, Marczyk's and several other area markets.

Bolognese Meat Sauce
Serves 4

Ingredients:

1/4 lb pancetta, finely chopped
1 medium Spanish onion or yellow onion, peeled and finely chopped
1/4 cup celery, finely chopped
1/4 cup carrot, finely chopped
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 lb ground beef
2 lb ground pork
2 lb ground Italian mild sausage
2 freshly ground cloves
2 tsp freshly ground cinnamon
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 pint whole milk
Pomodoro sauce (recipe follows)
Sea salt to taste
Freshly grated Romano cheese

​Every month, the Colorado Department of Agriculture shares a recipe created by chef Jason Morse of Valley Country Club in Aurora. The October recipe, Three Onion Soup, focuses on one of the state's major crops and comes just in time for these suddenly cold days.

In 2008, Colorado produced 270 million pounds of onions, at a value of more than $43 million, according to the ag department. This year has seen another bumper crops of onions, which are now available at farmers' markets and grocery stores across the state. Onto the recipe:

Lori Midson

​At last week's Mile High Chef Competition between Argyll Gastropub cooker Sergio Romero and Jing exec chef Jay Spickelmier (who emerged victorious), the hit dish of the night was Spickelmier's Tuscan lamb and white bean soup, the recipe of which he was happy to share with us. It's the perfect soup for fall.

Tuscan-style lamb and white bean soup

Ingredients:

1 pound lamb top round sirloin
3 strips bacon
1 shallot, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1/4 cup diced fennel
1 can navy white beans, drained
2 cans low sodium chicken stock
Salt and pepper
Brown sugar

Barb Marczyk

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Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They usually bring a selection of some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them, and cook up a feast fit for kings ... or at least, patrons of Marczyk.

Every week, Pete and Barbara serve up recipes on the Cafe Society blog. This week, they went on a collagen kick with Sticky Lips Chicken.

This delicious braised chicken gets its name from the veal demi used in the sauce, says Pete, adding that the collagen makes your lips stick together.

​The Great American Beer Festival ended Saturday night, leaving behind many hangovers, almost as many awards (including a surprise win for Aurora's Dry Dock), and some very fond memories of the new Farm to Table Pavilion, a 2009 innovation that had local chefs pair farm-to-table Colorado foods with local beers.

The Farm to Table Pavilion is almost certain to return next year. And in the meantime, you can get a taste for what local beer can do for local food -- particularly when you can still grill out of doors -- with this recipe for Old Chub Beer Can Chicken from the Culinary School of the Rockies, a partner in the GABF project.

​Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They usually bring a selection of some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them, and cook up a feast fit for kings ... or at least, patrons of Marczyk.

Every week, Pete and Barbara serve up recipes on the Cafe Society blog. This week, they did the Mexican hat dance while making green chile.

Pete's dissertation:

My first experience with Green Chile (caps intentional and used out of reverence) was about 20 years ago. I had moved to Denver from Massachusetts, and the only "chili" I knew was the red kind with lots of overworked finely ground beef and kidney beans. It was my first autumn in the Southwest, and I was captivated by this new scent of roasting chiles wafting from the roadside stands with giant signs proclaiming, "Hatch Green Chile War!" Instantly, I was like a dog on point. I could smell chiles being roasted from a mile away. All of a sudden I was pursuing green chiles and green chile stews of all kinds -- and they were everywhere.

Among my friends there was much discussion and debate: I quickly joined the fray. Thick or thin? Tomatoes or tomatillos? potatoes or flour? Oregano or cumin? Pork loin or shoulder? How could I have lived twenty-some years without even a hint of such an exquisite and complex thing? Such was the plight of a turtlenecked New Englander.

I soon developed a self-proclaimed sophisticated green chile palate -- and being a hands-on kinda guy, I set out to make the perfect green chile. What I really learned over the last fifteen or so years is that green chile is as individual as driving, sex or grilling. Everyone has an opinion, and, of course, each opinion is the best opinion.

Here's my opinion:

This so-called master recipe is the basic core of a traditional Southwestern-style green chile stew sometimes referred to as New Mexican green chile stew, or Pueblo green chile stew. The recipe has as many variations as there are stars in the Taos night sky. I always serve mine with plenty of freshly browned warm tortillas.

Lance Barto in action at Strings

​Harvest Week ends today. But should you feel inspired to try to recreate some of the dishes that Denver's independent restaurants have been creating out of local ingredients, Strings, Noel Cunningham's New American restaurant at 1700 Humboldt Street, has offered up chef Lance Barto's recipe for Red Beet-Potato Gratin

Ingredients:
3 red beets
3 baking potatoes
6 oz. Colorado goat cheese
1 qt. cream
6 oz. Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/2 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs, but regular will work fine)
Salt and pepper to taste

Begin by slicing beets thinly on a mandolin or by hand. Layer the beets evenly over the bottom of a glass casserole (9" x 9"). Heat cream over low heat until simmering, reduce slightly and melt in the goat cheese and half of the parm. Season with salt and pepper. Pour the liquid over the beets and potatoes until they are almost entirely submerged. Gently press down on the potatoes and beets with your hands; there should be enough liquid for them to be barely submerged while you press gently. (If you have any of your cream base left over, it makes an excellent pasta sauce.)

Cover the pan with foil and bake at 350 degrees for about 45-50 minutes. To check for doneness, take a slice of potato off the top and taste. Once the potatoes have cooked through, remove the foil, top first with remaining parm, then with a light layer of bread crumbs. Bake for 5-10 more minutes until the crust is golden brown. Remove the gratin from the oven and let rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Photo by Michael Beckerman

Winning bartender Vince Martinez with a few Hpnotiq girls

​Vince Martinez of Maloney's Tavern nabbed first place at the Hpnotiq bartender competition Tuesday night at Suite Two Hundred, beating out eight other local bartenders. Each had to create a drink that featured Hpnotiq, a liqueur made from a blend of vodka, cognac and tropical fruit juices. 

Martinez got top scores in creativity, presentation, technique and overall taste with his Notiq Rupture concoction.

Here's the winning recipe: 1.5 oz. Hpnotiq, 3/4 oz. raspberry vodka, fresh muddled pineapple,  3 oz. basil seed juice, served on ice in a tall Gibraltar glass and garnished with three Gushers.

The basil seed juice created a layer of tiny, gelatinous balls at the bottom of the glass, and the Gushers candies garnish was another winning touch.

Nancy Levine

Ken Kody, Mix Master

​I took my judging job seriously during the DeKuyper Mix Master Bartender Contest at Saturday's Denver Food & Wine event, tasting eight cocktails. Really tasting eight cocktails, since these were complex concoctions (a DeKuyper product had to be part of the mix) that demanded my full attention.

The ultimate victor: Ken Kody of Bacaro in Boulder, whose winning drink was named Amnesia, appropriately enough.

Here's how to make it: In a mixing cup, blend 2 parts DeKuyper Ragin' Root Beer Schnapps plus 1 part DeKuyper Hot Damn plus 1 part Irish Cream. Serve in a shot glass.

My personal favorite?

​El Grito -- the day when Mexicans across the world commemorate that country's independence from Spanish rule -- isn't until September 16, but Richard Sandoval, chef-owner of Tamayo, La Sandia and Zengo, is getting an early start on all the celebrations.

Beginning today and continuing though Sunday, September 20, all of Sandoval's metro area restaurants will feature ¡Viva Mexico! menus and cocktails, including a sparkling Mexican sangria and the agave del sol, whose recipe is below.

Agave del sol

3 fresh blackberries
1 1/2 oz Reposado tequila
1 oz sour mix
1/2 bottle ginger beer
1 wedge fresh lime

Muddle the blackberries in a shaker. Add tequila and sour mix and shake. Pour into a rocks glass and top with ginger beer. Garnish with lime.

Menu specials include pork carnitas tacos al Jalisco; rock shrimp and octopus ceviche; chile de arbol lobster tacos; pan-seared halibut with a huitlacoche-zucchini tamale; chipotle tamales with chicken; and pan-roasted mero with mole. For more info, or to make a reservation, go to www.modernmexican.com.

All photos by Barbara Marczyk

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Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They usually bring a selection of some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them, and cook up a feast fit for kings ... or at least, patrons of Marczyk.

Every week, Pete and Barbara serve up recipes on the Cafe Society blog. This week, they're making magic with mushrooms.

Rustic Mushroom Duxelles Stuffed Flank Steak

Most duxelles form a smooth paste, but this has some nice chunky texture, says Pete. The recipe includes both fresh and dried mushrooms, but it's not difficult to prepare, and you've only got to haul out three pans. Just keep in mind, warns Pete, that you should "never taste mushrooms when they're wild and raw because they taste like smoky dirt and you'll be put off." Plus, he says, "experienced 'shroomers rarely, if ever, eat a wild mushroom raw." They're also difficult to dry, so instead of washing them, just gently brush them off.

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In this week's Chef and Tell interview with Tyler Wiard, the executive chef at Elway's Cherry Creek, Wiard talks about his proudest moment as a chef -- the day he won the National Pork award, and a cool $5,000 in cash, while competing against nearly two dozen other chefs in a piggy duel in San Diego.

On the off chance that you have absolutely nothing to do this holiday weekend, making Wiard's winning recipe would certainly fill an hour ... or ten.