Food truck crazy!

Over the past few months I've seen the phrase "food truck craze" in print several times.  It's been needling me, slowly.  Agitating me.  BOTHERING me.

So it's time, I suppose, to make a simple declarative statement.  There's no such thing.  This is not a craze.  This is not a fad.  There are some exceptions, but overall, this isn't a get rich quick scheme for us.  It's probably not a get rich at all scheme for most of us.

It's a small part of a growing contingent of artisans.  Talented and hardworking people who want to show you something new, or maybe something old.  These are people you should take seriously.  Good food should not be treated as a fad.  Fads come and go.  I want good food to stay.

It is an exciting time to live in Columbus.  Food is getting better, amazing even, and it's not just a rash of cupcake shops because cupcakes are in.  It's people blazing new trails or doing old comfortable things in new and exciting ways.

I had a donut today.  A donut in solid contention for the best donut I've ever had, and I've had a few in my day.  The concept seems so simple and it is, in a way.  This is an item you can find within one or two miles of where you sit right now.  This donut, however, towers well above all others and not because it has maple and sausage in it, but because it is crafted in a way that makes it better.  It's not overproofed, so it isn't just a wisp of sweet, airy regret.  It has some chew, an appropriate density.  The oil temperature was obviously closely monitored, because it wasn't greasy or heavy.  The sweetness wasn't over the top, leaving room for you to enjoy the other flavors.  Someone loved that donut (before me), and wanted to share it with you. This is what the food culture is becoming, and it's a great thing.  This is an idea we should get behind.  Maybe there will be a donut craze...

I'm pretty sure that Dan, on That Food truck, is insane.  He isn't just bringing you a wonderful product, but he's so concerned about the quality of his product that he is cutting and curing his own meat.  Your meat, really.

It's not a second thought to most people, as they are loading up on scalding hot hodduk and dduk boki from Laura at Ajumama, how much time and effort is involved in crafting that product from the ground up.  Kimchee(s) and (eese), sauces, marinades...  sourcing ingredients alone has to occupy hours.

As far as we're concerned...  there isn't much to say beyond tater tots.  So. Many. Tater Tots.  Then, we have the rest of the menu to prepare, also from scratch, down to the bacon.

It's control.  We can all tell you, where pretty much every ingredient on the truck came from specifically down to the ingredient.  We're accountable, because we made it, or we know who did.


There is a clear picture of where this goes.  Portland, LA, Manhattan, DC... trucks are now an integral part of the restaurant culture of those cities.  The food coming off of these trucks deserves to be taken seriously and held to the same standards; judged at the same level as any brick and mortar.

If you ask most of us, I'm sure you'll find that we're up to the challenge.


Check out our offerings and schedule www.swoopfood.com

Try a little Seoul food at it's best www.ajumama.com

See what's happening with the fellas on the other Big Red, www.thatfoodtruck.com


Find out when and how to get the best damned donut you've ever had in your life www.destinationdonuts.com

That was great! Where are you guys normally?

One of the buzzwords I seized while putting Swoop! together was agility.  It is an obvious upside to this sort of business plan.  This parking space not working out?  Move to another.  Not selling the beet salad (which I'm still a little sore about)?  Make the rest of the beets into chips.  The way we exist in this space is perfect for change.

There is, however, a trade-off.  You have to give up some of your stability in exchange for that sort of agility.  When a customer wants to find your product, there is a little more doing involved to track you down.  A brick and mortar is generally glued to a concept.  The upside is that if that concept is successful; if everything is executed well consistently, it works and customers know exactly where to find you.  You don't have to juggle a hundred locations and be as concerned about what sells at one location or another. 

We're discussing the laying down of some roots, in several possible forms.  But in the mean time, we're happy to be making and maintaining some more solid and on-going partnerships.  Some are new, and we'll hopefully be able to put some flesh on the bones for you soon.  Some feel as old and worn in as your favorite pair of jeans. 

If you've spoken to me in the last four months for more than two minutes concurrently, you've probably heard me gush about Dinin' Hall.  We love Dinin' Hall.  Eliza and Tim are awesome.  Dinin' Hall and by extension the property at 400 W. Rich, with its collection of artists and artisans are, in my opinion, great for Columbus.  There is ownership and responsibility shown for the city that radiates from there.  I hear that even the mayor was sighted taking in the scene at the market recently.  It's becoming a community hub.  We enjoy partnering with all of the trucks and carts that we pair with there; some standouts being The Green Meanie (I'm gonna start a petition to bring back that sandwich), Crepes a la cart and recently Lac Viet, who's lamb pho is one of the most amazing dishes in Columbus.

We're proud to support them, and happy that they support us.  Through the cooler months, we'll probably be at Dinin' Hall quite a bit.  We might be doing as much eating as cooking, but if you wanna stop by and grab a table...  there's a really great chance that you'll enjoy something special.

Check out our schedule at www.swoopfood.com.  We really wanna know what you think.  Feedback!
Learn more about Dinin' Hall and see what vendors are there at www.dininhall.com
Please, please, PLEASE eat the lamb pho from the cart or http://www.lacvietfoods.com.  Please.
Go to http://www.greenmeaniefoodtruck.com  and tell Keith and Janka to bring back the Green Meanie or I can't be held responsible for my actions.
Finally support a dinin' hall favorite and a great crepes cooker  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Crepes-A-La-Carte/309005385776843

Happy Accidents and hello fall

What started out as a disappointing setback turned into a good thing for us when we found out that the Bluescreek shop at the North Market was out of fresh side, or pork belly; nearly out of pork all together after a long family vacation.  Several moments were spent stalking the case and avoiding a meltdown.

Our Fall burger was going to be just a plain (as something with housemade bacon can be) bacon cheeseburger.  We tend to build things from the bottom up, keeping them relatively simple.  Great bread and great meat that we try not to overpower with a lot of outside ingredients.  In our opinion, the more things you pile into a bite of food, the harder it is to maintain balance... to discern the subtleties of each ingredient.  The challenge is magnified when your product is only a few bites, something we've gotten a lot of negative... feedback... about in the last few weeks leading up to the burgerwars competition at Zauber brewery.

I've been toying with the idea of curing some lamb "belly", technically breast, as bacon for quite some time.  The original BLT for our summer menu was conceived as that salty lamb bacon confited, thick cut and seared, with a thin slice of pickled green tomato with...  well, I won't give it away, but when faced with a missing ingredient and a lack of time to find it elsewhere, well, we settled into a "no time like the present" mentality and wheeled slightly to the right.

The result, named after Lyle's son, one of the cutest kids we could think of, was the  LJ had a little lamb (and then we ate it).  Several balanced bites of beef, fatty lamb and smoky cheese with a touch of acid from our tomato jam.  We liked it.  One could go as far as to say we loved it and were excited to share it with you.  We weren't counting on you taking to it so quickly.  We sold out in two hours and won a burger competition to boot.




Here is a sample of what we're bringing you this fall:

Cheeseburger Slider
American Cheese, house pickle, lettuce, tomato jam

L.J. Had a little Lamb (and then we ate it)
House lamb bacon, tomato jam, house pickle, smoked gouda, lettuce

Spicy Jerk Fried Chicken Slider
American Cheese, House pickle, lettuce

Braised Short Rib Slider
Glazed, slow cooked beef short rib, horseradish cream, crunchy tots

Justin Tim-BAO-Lake
Roasted mushrooms, hoisin, Chili Paste

Beet Salad
Arugula, Goat Cheese, Pickled mango dressing

Housemade Tots as always

Tater Tot Poutine
Bacon Gravy, Cheddar Cheese

And yes, we are pulling the brussels from the menu for a while, doesn't mean that we forgot how to make them.  They are still available for catering and special requests.  Of course we cater! Give us a call some time!

Collaboration

The career of a cook is filled with great and original ideas.

     Fact is, as a chef, or cook... you find inspiration daily in all sorts of things.  Flipping through a cookbook.  A walk through a farmers market.  A simple stroll through German Village can yield some interesting results, but that's a story for a different time.
     There are so many great ingredients and ways of connecting them that it would take several lifetimes to explore them all!  Yet, many masters have had many lifetimes to cover most of the bases and chances are, it's been done.  But never fear... new worlds of exploration of texture modification techniques have made the possibilities endless! In this way you'll could find yourself collaborating with the great chefs of history.
     But on a daily basis... the grind of a day to day kitchen... even the seemingly simple tasks might require collaboration, not just to fulfill volume, but to make it work. 
     I'd made tater tots on a small scale again and again over the past few years and as the plan for Swoop! developed, I had very reasonable expectations of how to scale the volume up sucessfully.  What a simple thing.  A wonderful crunchy little thing. 
     Our plan... my plan, was to par cook our potatoes, shred a portion and finely chop a portion.  Then we seasoned the mix, forced it into a pvc pipe, pressed it out in cylinders and retired it to the freezer to set.  After the potatoes were frozen, we chopped them into the tots and took a few moments to be proud of ourselves.  The tots were GORGEOUS!


     The next step was to send them for a ride in the fryer and that's where things began to fall apart, literally.  Freezing the tots before there was a crust allowed ice crystals to form on the interior, which as the tots thawed released water, which produced steam... which produced a beautful lace of hash browned potatoes.
     Fail.  Fifty pounds of useless product and back to the drawing board.
     The research on tots began in earnest.  I experimented with corn and potato starch looking to bind the structure without, desperate to salvage our plan.  The really surprising thing, however, was what my only employee did.  My only employee, who's not a cook.  My only employee that doesn't want to be in a kitchen.  My only employee that has been saving my ass at evey turn.  He turned into a tater totspert.  He read the history of tots, could probably be certified as a tater tot expert at this point.  He figured out ratios for our binder, cooking times that minimize moisture, worked with me to figure out a process to scale a recipe for a pound of potatoes to one that works for 50.


See?   Gorgeous!

     It's tedious work and a food cost loser, but we do it because you really like it and we'll keep doing it.  You know what else...  we'll throw in the small batch recipe for tots too.  Pretty sure you won't make it more than once

Tater Tots

1 lb Yukon Gold Taters
1 minced shallot
2 large garlic cloves minced
Salt and pepper (feeling bold?  substitute a little cayenne for pepper... boom)to taste
Vegetable oil

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees while you are mincin'
Rinse and cook the potatoes for 8-18 minutes depending on size.  What you want is to cook the potatoes exacly 1/2 way.  If you cook them all the way, you'll be making mashed potatoes, which are delicious fried, but another recipe.
Remove to the refrigerator to cool, or submerge in an ice bath and dry thoroughly.
Shred 1/2 of the potatoes and mince half.  You can pulse them in a food processor if you'd like.
Mix everything together and start rolling.
Keep rolling
Keep rolling
Yeah... keep rolling.
Roll some more.

When you are almost done  preheat your oil to 340, then fry in small batches until golden and freeze.  About halfway through this process, I promise, you are going to want to quit.  "Oh..." you'll say, "I'll just finish tomorrow." 
No...  just like your parents used to say...  you have to finish what you started.  If you try to store the mix the salt will draw out enough water to steam your tots apart as they fry.  If that happens you can add a little flour or cornstarch until the mix it dryer and a bit sticky.
Once all of your tots are frozen, bag them and prepare them the same way you would a nice store bought tot.  You'll like and appreciate them more.

The Great Basil "Caper"

So...  you might have seen a couple of photos of my Trip to Jorgensen Farm in Westerville Ohio early last week.  (I think... things are beginning to blur a bit)  The farm was a great experience, a ton of very diverse product literally as far as the eye could see.
My mind was reeling a bit, as the green peaches that I'd come for were gone gone gone and I was flustered trying to decide whether to change a published catering menu or search else where for product, I mean... I drove all the way to Westerville.
By way of introducing me to her product, and I like to think as a way of letting me clear my head and perhaps find some inspiration, Val put me in the capable hands of one of her farmers for a tour.  I was struck by the large variety of product, and excited for a couple of years to pass by, when the farm will really be in full bloom.  In the short term, I satisfied myself with the knowledge that if I'm careful, and quick, the first harvest of some of my favorite things will be available.
For a whole season, however, in the mean time herbs abound there and as we strolled from plot to pot smelling and sampling, one thing stood out to me in a big way.  Basil.  Someone out there loves basil.  There were literally miles of it.  Purple, Green, Thai...  I think I even saw some saw toothed Holy basil in the distance. 
By the time we made it out of the sage plot, where I lingered overlong perhaps, my hands reeked of sage and my palate was pretty much blown.  On the way back to the farm house I was stuck trying to figure out what I could use.  As much as I loved the succulent leaves of sage they offered, its a bit too aggressive for any preparations I had in mind.  As we walked by the rows and rows of basil, a plan started to form and by the time I'd reached the porch, I was in love with the thought of a garlic-less Thai basil pesto with sesame oil and peanuts. I was virtually swimming in it.
But how much Thai basil?
My mind blanked, stems, yield.  It was flowering, so a lot of it would be a bit tougher, though the Thai isn't as prone to the bittering you'd experience in sweet basil.  As I often do, when put on the spot, I overreached.
"Four Pounds!"  I blurted and 20 minutes later I was on the way to the car with two large grocery bags packed with basil.  What was I thinking?
As I picked through the leaves to prepare them for blanching, I was struck by the aroma of the leaves.  and perhaps unconsciously, the resemblance of the tight buds to capers.  It seemed a shame to throw them away and I researched a ton of uses for basil flowers, none which would apply to me by the time I'd be able to use them.  I needed to preserve them, which left me two options.  Drying or salting.

Then I had and idea.  What if I "capered" them,  and their little flowers too!

I made a heavy brine, rinsed them thoroughly and immersed them in the brine right after I made my pesto and a couple of days later the product is aggressively salty and caper like, but it has an amazing sweet herbal quality that is more pungent than the more conventional pesto and if you let the broken buds linger on the tongue for a moment, a numbing sting reminiscent of szechuan peppercorns or flowers/buzz buttons floating in my most memorable hot pots.

Basil Bud "Capers"

3/4 cup basil buds
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vinegar (I'm not gonna make this decision for you.  I will say I'd stay away from very sweet or lower acid vinegars)
1 tablespoon sea salt

Dissolve the salt in the vinegar and water, pour over your rinsed buds and let sit, refrigerated for well, I've had mine down for 5 days and they're awesome.  They were delicious in two days.  They might not make it two months.

Po' food

This blog has fallen by the wayside in the aftermath of revving up the truck.  There are so many demands on a restaurateur's time that sometimes it's hard to make extra.  I mean to get back to it.  Starting today.

The best food is poor food.

 

The finest food traditions of so many old cultures involve skillful manipulation of less than desirable cuts of meat and seasonal produce that has persisted, prized until even today. A $27 slow braised short rib at a fine dining restaurant... Your mom’s rich pot roast... A strip of crisp bacon on a Sunday morning... These things are all history.

Progress and industry have threatened these traditions throughout the years, but always, they prevail. As a society, we don't need preservative methods such as salting, curing and pickling. There is ready access to refrigeration and meats are leaner and healthier, in some distinct ways, than ever before. The popularity of some of these "tough cuts" of meat makes them very equitable in price to premium cuts.

Why then do we still take six hours to braise a pot roast for our families? Why, for so many people, is breakfast not quite breakfast without a strip or two of bacon or sausage? A tough ol' rooster would be near impossible to find outside of a small family farm these days, yet you can still find a decent coq au vin.

It's because slow food; food that nanny, mamau, maman, granny and achamma, made for you was made quite literally of love. Her love for you made her industrious when times were tough and food was scarce. Her love for you made her look at that pork neck, or cow stomach in a new way. She came to understand that if she handled it precisely, she could make something that not only filled you up, but made you smile and warmed you to the core. She knew that for you to be strong you needed vegetables when there were none growing and she found a way to make it last.

The love of the centuries feeds us to this day. My family, still centered in the deep south, is steeped in that culture; a culture where fried fish and a slow cooked pot of beans is likely to show up at any meal. Where I come from, most everything is handmade, because it always has been, or at least, it was.

These days, a lack of time and inclination is leading people away from that style of cooking even though crockpots, pressure cookers and immersion circulators make it more convenient than ever. There are too many fast choices, and a homemade meal is harder and harder to come by.

At Swoop! we still love ya'. Can't say it's as much as your dear old ma, but it's real. What we do might seem funky at times, but give us a try and we think you'll like it. We want to give you our best, and we'll work hard to keep doing so as long as you let us. We hand make as much of our menu as we possibly can and we make no compromises with our ingredients and standards.

 

Matt

Swoop! Southern Fried Chicken

A brine is a short cure that works by cellular osmosis...  awwww, hell.  It makes food taste better, more tender and way jucier.

Southern Fried Chicken Brine

3 cups buttermilk
2 crushed cloves garlic
2 tbs paprika
1 tsp cayenne
2 tbs salt
zest of one lemon
fresh ground pepper to taste (we like lots)
5 toasted juniper berries* if you have them laying around


Breading
2 cups flour
1/4 cup potato starch (cornstarch'll do if you gotta)
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste


1 whole fryer chicken, pieced

Zip bag your cut fryer chicken and pour in the brine.  Squeeze as much air as you can out of the bag and move it all around to coat well.  Throw it in the fridge overnight (yes, advance planning is a must)  or for at least 5 hours.  Hey - wash those hands!

Fill your fryer/cast iron/whatever you're deep frying in with neutral oil.  Follow the manufacturers intructions and if there aren't any, 3/4 of the  way to the top is probably your max.  Preheat the oil to 325.  Use candy or deep fry thermometer or if you're old school, you'll recognize the shine across the surface of the oil.  Most people recognize 350 as a common fry temperature.  The lower temperature here allows time for the inside of the chicken to cook, with out the crust becoming charcoal.

Toss your chicken in the flour mixture.  If you wanna get fancy, go back to the brine and then back to the flour again(mega-crunchy).  Soap, water; meet hands!

Couple of situations here.  If you're shallow frying, there's gonna be some flipping in your future and if not your road is a little easier.  Don't overload the pan/pot.  You wanna eat your chicken fast,  and I can dig it, but, too much chicken, temperature drops suddenly and then you have a soggy mess.  10-12 minutes ought to just about get it but what you really want is to reach 180 degree's internal.  Here's how I test it when I don't have a probe thermometer around.  I take a cake probe or paper clip and push it down near the bone in the thickest part of the chicken.  I hold it here for a time and then touch it to my lip.  If it hurts like hell, it's ready.

Please be nice to your new chicken.  Salt it lightly.  Drain it on a rack, not paper towels or a paper bag and please, for the love of all that is holy, don't hold it in a gas oven.  The vapor from the gas oven will, well...  the nice crunch the potato starch gives you will go away.

Make this for your mom and give some of that love back!