On September 20th, Chef Andy will be preparing a meal at Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills featuring edible plants found across the grounds of campus. The dinner will be done in collaboration with Assistant Curator Emily Staugaitis, whose thesis focused on Cranbrook’s landscapes — which range from gardens planted a century ago to heritage apple trees still found growing wild on the property.

Cranbrook House, Bloomfield Hills
Sunday, September 20, 2015

5:00 pm Registration and tour (optional)
6:15 pm Reception and appetizers
7:00 pm Dinner

$150 per person. The price includes several courses, beverage pairings, gratuity, and a $25 tax-deductible donation to the Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research.

There are a handful of tickets left, and they are available only from Cranbrook directly. Reservations can be made by calling Kim Larsen at 248-645-3319. Please inform Kim of any dietary restrictions when making reservations.

Fresh, handmade pastas are always going to be a big part of our menu. We love eating pasta ourselves, and so far, our guests seem to be enjoying them as well.

A number of customers have asked how our various pastas are made and why particular noodles are paired with particular dishes. We make the pasta from scratch every day, so it was easy enough to put some photos together so as to illustrate how each is made and to explain why each is used in a particular dish.

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Thicker, squat noodles tend to allow chunky sauces and pieces of meat to cling to the inside or outside of the pasta. The size of the noodle generally matches the size of the chunks in the sauce. So the meat in the rabbit ragu gets trapped in the fine grooves of our house cavatelli, whereas the larger bits of lamb ragu go with the chewier, bigger, tube-shaped rigatoni.

And of course, within those styles of pasta, there are so many variations. Rigatoni is an extruded pasta, meaning that the dough is fed through a small opening by force, then trimmed to size. It’s also an egg-less dough, which means it also allows us the freedom to make vegan pasta dishes for guests who can’t enjoy the typical menu offerings.

Thinner, angel hair-style noodles are better for thin sauces, like that found on our squid ink chittara. Oils and looser sauces coat the noodle and help avoid them sticking together. No one wants a gnarly bird’s nest of sticky noodles.

Finally, gnocchi is almost more of a dumpling. It can be made in several ways, all of which are among the easier forms of pasta to make. Ricotta-based gnocchi like we currently serve at Selden Standard tend to be lighter and more pillowy than its potato or root veggie derived cousins.

We’re fortunate enough to have a few people on the team who know how make our pasta, and we can make quite a bit in a day. But for those interested in trying out some freshly made pasta at home, Andy’s put together a simple gnocchi recipe that we’re happy to share below.

Recipe: Ricotta Gnocchi

• 1 cups fresh ricotta cheese, drained
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 whole egg
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• Zest of half a lemon (used a microplane)
• 2 Tbsp soft herbs, chopped (e.g., chives, parsley, tarragon, dill)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour

In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or alternatively, in a bowl using a spatula or wooden spoon), beat the ricotta, egg and yolk, salt, zest, and herbs for about a minute, until smooth.

On a cutting board or other work surface, spread half of the flour in a thin layer. Spread the cheese mixture over the flour, sprinkling the rest of the flour over the cheese. Using a pastry/bench scraper, chop the mix into small chunks. Incorporate the mix back together by gently folding from underneath without actually kneading the mix. Repeat the process until most of the flour is incorporated. Then bring the mixture into a ball and gently knead 2 or 3 times until smooth. Do not overwork the mixture. Cover with a towel until you’re ready to form the gnocchi.

Cut the dough into six equal pieces. Lightly dust the work area with flour, and using your hands, gently roll each piece into a half- to three quarter-inch thick log. Repeat with the other five chunks of dough. Then cut each log into small gnocchi, placing the finished gnocchi on a floured sheet tray.

At this point, you may freeze them for storage or you may cook them. To prepare them to eat, gently drop them in boiling water for a couple of minutes until the gnocchi float. At this point, you may toss them with your favorite sauce: We suggest some butter and herbs, a pesto, or a simple tomato sauce.

Or, when in doubt, just fall back on the wisdom of Clemenza from The Godfather:

Come over here, kid, learn something. You never know, you might have to cook for 20 guys someday. You see, you start out with a little bit of oil. Then you fry some garlic. Then you throw in some tomatoes, tomato paste, you fry it; ya make sure it doesn’t stick. You get it to a boil; you shove in all your sausage and your meatballs; heh…? And a little bit o’ wine. An’ a little bit o’ sugar, and that’s my trick.

Chef Takashi, owner of Slurping Turtle in Chicago/Ann Arbor, recently hosted a ramen battle charity benefit at his Ann Arbor location. As the Detroit News reported, Chef Andy won the battle with a chicken ramen based on chickens, hens, and eggs from Salomon Gardens, and the $2,000 prize goes to Cass Community Social Services.

Andy’s recipe and an interview with Takashi are available online at the Channel 7 website.

We were also fortunate enough to be included in a summary from USA Today of new businesses opening in Detroit.

Finally, WDIV re-visited a story they did last year about Andy as well as our good friends Marc (Wright & Co) and Dave (Supino, La Rondinella). You can watch the video clip on the ClickOnDetroit website.

Balancing out sweetness in a drink is often done with citrus — lime in a margarita, lemon in an Aviation, etc — but when we recently tried the verjus from Black Star Farms, we decided it had to become a staple behind the bar. Especially for the summer.

Pressed from unripened (green) grapes, verjus is simply tart grape juice. Typically, a bartender would shake a citrus drink for several reasons, not the least of which is the cloudy appearance citrus gives to a cocktail. But the distinctive flavor and translucent appearance of verjus gives bartenders a few more options.

For the past few weeks, we’ve been running a couple of verjus-based drinks, and we figured we’d share the recipes. In addition to the Michigan-made Black Star Farms verjus, there’s a decent offering from Bonny Doon in California that can be found in metro Detroit as well. So if you can’t find one at your local store, hopefully you can find the other.

Pear Naked

When we first got our sample bottle of verjus, the very natural acidity of the unripened grapes started us thinking about other fruits. Pear leaped to mind, and we loved the resulting drink. Sadly, our guests drank the distributor out of the pear brandy we were using so we had to remove the drink from the menu after only a few weeks. But we think it’s a great spring/summer stirred drink, albeit deceptively strong.

• 1 oz St George Pear Brandy
• 1 oz Genepy des Alpes
• 1 oz verjus
• 2-3 dashes rosemary tincture
• Sprig of lavender

Combine all the liquid ingredients in a mixing glass and stir with ice until chilled and properly diluted. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with the lavender.

Product notes: If you’ve never tried any of the products from St. George, the Bay Area-based microdistillery, you’re missing out. Their “All Purpose Vodka” has great texture and roundness, their gins are widely regarded as classics, and they make tremendous un-aged fruit brandies, like the pear, that really carry the essence of the fruit into the spirit.

This particular genepy is made by the vermouth producer, Dolin, and imported by Haus Alpenz. Some people compare it to Chartreuse because the herb/shrub genepy is a key ingredient in Chartreuse. But while it shares some characteristics, while they’re both excellent ingredients, and while they are certainly in the same family of spirits, there’s no mistaking them for one another.

We made the rosemary tincture ourselves by soaking some rosemary in vodka for 3 or 4 days and straining it out. The drink is, of course, still quite refreshing and delicious without the rosemary, but that extra herbal note adds some complexity that we preferred.

Ghosts of Flowers

When we had to pull the pear brandy cocktail above off the menu, we went in the same direction for a replacement — fruit brandy and verjus. In this case, we turned to Laird’s apple brandy. The heavy dose of creme de violette makes this extremely floral, which isn’t for everyone. But the verjus does a nice job of balancing the sweetness from the liqueur.

• 1 oz Laird’s Bonded Apple Brandy
• 1 oz verjus
• .75 oz Rothman & Winter creme de violette
• 3-4 dashes Green Chartreuse

Combine all the ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Cheers!

We’ve been fortunate enough to garner mentions in a wide array of publications over the past month or two. Among the highlights:

• The Wall Street Journal included us in an “insider’s guide to Detroit”
• The readership of Hour Detroit voted us “Best Appetizers” and “Best Place to Take Out-of-Towners”
• Hour Detroit reviewed Selden Standard, praising us as a “new modern restaurant with high ceilings, a confident and knowledgeable waitstaff, a talented chef, and heavenly food.”
• Architectural Digest came to town and included us in a roundup of places to visit
• Andy visited Fox 2’s studios with Rev. Faith Fowler of Cass Community Social Services to discuss their upcoming fundraiser — and to make our halloumi & melon salad.

Thanks so much for the continued support!

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