‘Dishing up New Jersey’
What’s great in the Garden State
Buttered roll. That’s the first recipe in “Dishing Up New Jersey,” a new cookbook celebrating the Garden State or as the publisher puts it — “a love letter to New Jersey’s best bites.”
“Everybody from Jersey will get this,” explained author John Holl. “It establishes a little bit of street cred.”
The book “has been 20 years in the making,” revealed the New Jersey native, avid home cook and editor of All About Beer Magazine, who’s reported for The New York Times and Star-Ledger.
“If you’re going to be a reporter, you need to know where the best places to eat are, no matter where you are,” Holl said. “I’ve been gathering notes for quite a while.”
“Dishing Up New Jersey” features 150 recipes from bakeries, breweries, farms, four-star restaurants, diners, delis and more. The idea: “Make it approachable” because “cooking shouldn’t be intimidating.”
Try the New Jersey sloppy joe, classic Lawrenceville mac and cheese or oysters braten topped with pretzel crumbs for a “fun mixture of textures and flavors,” Holl described, “fusing the German biergarten with fresh seafood.”
Hungry for more? Sample Barnegat Inlet scallops, crab cakes or a backyard clambake.
“Jersey fresh seafood is amazing,” he raved. “The shore has so much to offer for anybody’s taste.”
At Saltwater Cafe in Cape May, “people come just for the crab and corn chowder,” said general manager Karin Rickard. “The chowder is representative of the restaurant. It’s fresh, clean, simple.”
As for being included, “we were thrilled, absolutely thrilled,” she added.
Boardwalk fudge and funnel cake made the cut too.
“They’re synonymous with the shore,” Holl said. “It wouldn’t be a New Jersey book without them.”
The book not only highlights favorite foods, but also people and places along the way.
“It’s very easy to find an unexpectedly wonderful meal in a new place,” he noted. “Explore — because food will tie the memories together.”
Oysters Braten
Recipe from Asbury Festhalle & Biergarten, Asbury Park
These oysters have become a house favorite at the Asbury Festhalle. In this preparation, chef James Avery takes a classic seafood dish, Oysters Rockefeller, and mashes it up with classic biergarten flavors of pretzel and sauerkraut. At the restaurant, the kitchen “Dishing Up New Jersey” also lists restaurant weeks and celebrations like the Jersey Fresh Wine Festival, The Chatsworth Cranberry Festival and Great Tomato Tasting. “Taste more than 60 heirloom tomato varieties, uses day-old housemade pretzels for the crumbs, but a package of store-bought sourdough pretzels will do just fine at home. The recipe may make more filling than you need, but it will hold up in the refrigerator for about 5 days, or you can freeze it for another batch of oysters. Prost!
INGREDIENTS
The Mornay Sauce: 2 tablespoons butter 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 2½ cups milk 1 cup Parmesan cheese 2 egg yolks 2 dashes hot sauce 1/8 teaspoon salt
THE OYSTERS:
1 cup minced leeks 1 cup sauerkraut, drained
½ cup (1 stick) butter
12 East Coast oysters, such as Wellfleets or Blue Points Salt
2 tablespoons minced chives
2 tablespoons coarse sourdough pretzel crumbs
Makes 4 to 6 servings
INSTRUCTIONS
1. To make the Mornay sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add the flour and cook, while whisking, for 2 minutes. Raise the heat to medium-high, add the milk and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce the heat and add the Parmesan, egg yolks, hot sauce and salt, stirring to fully combine. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool completely.
2. In the meantime, combine the leeks, sauerkraut and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Cover and cook until the leeks are soft, 7 to 10 minutes.
3. Scrub the oysters under cold running water to remove sharp edges and sand. Shuck the oysters over a bowl, being sure to save all the liquid. Discard the flat shell and save the “cup” or deep shell.
4. Strain the reserved oyster liquid through a finemesh sieve into the sauerkraut mixture. Cook until almost dry, but not browning or taking on color. Season with salt to taste and allow to cool.
5. Set the oven to broil. Lay out the reserved oyster shells on a baking sheet. Place 1 tablespoon of the sauerkraut filling in each shell, then nest a shucked oyster into the filling. Top with 1 teaspoon of Mornay sauce. Place on a rack in the middle of the oven and broil for 8 to 10 minutes, until browned and bubbly. get gardening tips from pros and learn about the research and hard work that Rutgers gives to state farmers,” wrote author John Holl. Check it out Aug. 31 at the Snyder Research and Extension Farm in Pittstown.
6. Arrange the oyster shells on a platter and garnish each oyster with chives and pretzel crumbs.
Crab and Corn Chowder
Recipe from Saltwater Cafe, Cape May
This chunky and flavorful chowder combines the best of shore and farm. Don’t skimp on the extra time it takes to roast the corn; the sweet flavors intensify with roasting and complement the savory nature of the other ingredients. This is a dish designed for a large party; it yields about a gallon of soup. But it’s worth it, and there are unlikely to be leftovers.
INGREDIENTS
4 ears fresh white corn, unshucked
¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, melted
¾ cup all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon olive oil
3 stalks celery, diced ½ Spanish onion, diced
3½ quarts chicken stock
1½ quarts seafood stock
1 tablespoon seafood seasoning
2 teaspoons Sriracha hot sauce
1 teaspoon dried thyme 3 large potatoes, peeled and diced
½ green bell pepper, diced
½ red bell pepper, diced
2 cups heavy cream
16 ounces cooked crabmeat
Makes 16 servings
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle of the oven and preheat to 225 degrees. Place the whole, unshucked cobs on the middle rack and roast for 40 minutes. Cool and then shuck the corn. Slice off the kernels; you should have about 3 cups. Reserve the kernels and the cobs.
2. Mix the melted butter and flour in a medium bowl. Stir until smooth and set aside.
3. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat and add the celery and onion. Cook until tender and translucent, stirring often, about 5 minutes.
4. Add the chicken stock, seafood stock, and reserved corncobs to the pot and bring to a boil. Boil until reduced by one-third, about 15 minutes. Remove the corncobs and discard. Reduce the heat to bring the stock down to a simmer.
5. Stir in the seafood seasoning, hot sauce and thyme. Gradually whisk in the butter mixture until the stock has thickened; stir frequently.
6. Add the potatoes, bell peppers and corn kernels, and bring back to a boil. Reduce the heat and let simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the heavy cream.
7. Portion into bowls and garnish each with 1 ounce of crabmeat and an additional shake of seafood seasoning (as desired) before serving.
Funnel Cake at Home
Even those folks who claim not to like sweets are tempted by the warm sugary smell of deep-fried batter coming from the boardwalk kiosks each summer. Funnel cake is a messy sharable treat, served with an unreasonable (but welcome) amount of confectioners’ sugar on a flimsy paper plate and often with napkins not strong enough to handle sticky fingers. But what about funnel cake at home? Is such a thing possible, and is it even worth it? Yes and yes. This is great for kids’ birthday parties and sleepovers, backyard cookouts and really anytime you want a shore-minded treat but can’t make it there in person. The only special equipment you’ll need is a squeeze bottle.
INGREDIENTS
Vegetable or peanut oil, for frying
2 cups instant pancake mix, like Bisquick
1 large egg
1 cup milk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Confectioners’ sugar
Makes 12 to 18 funnel cakes, depending on size
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Add 2 inches of oil to a deep-bottomed pot or Dutch oven and heat to 350 degrees.
2. Combine the pancake mix, egg, milk and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl and stir until fully incorporated and the consistency of cake batter.
3. Transfer the mix to a squeeze bottle and carefully squeeze the batter into the oil, working in a circular and sideways motion, to create your desired shape. If you want smaller cakes, you can fry two at a time, but don’t overcrowd the pot. Cook for 30 seconds and carefully flip the cake using a wire spider or tongs. Cook until the cake is deep golden brown, an additional 30 seconds. Remove from the oil, transfer the cake to a plate lined with paper towels and cool slightly. Work in batches until the batter is gone, taking time to let the oil return to 350 degrees between frying.
4. Pour confectioners’ sugar into a fine-mesh strainer and hold it above each cake, gently tapping the side of the strainer to release the sugar. Serve immediately.
BOARDWALK FUDGE
Recipe from Jenkinson’s Sweet Shop, Point Pleasant Beach
This sweet beach-vacation staple is thick, chewy, and satisfying. For decades vacationers have been coming to Jenkinson’s on the Point Pleasant boardwalk, and it’s a good bet that most of them, at some point, succumbed to the sugary cocoa aroma of freshly made fudge. While not the original recipe found in the shop, this fudge is easy and fun to make at home and will bring back memories of a great shore visit. Ingredients
½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups sugar
1 (5-ounce) can evaporated milk 10 large marshmallows
1 cup chopped walnuts
Makes 15 to 20 servings
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Butter an 8-inch square baking dish.
2. Combine the butter, chocolate chips and vanilla in a mixing bowl until fully incorporated. Set aside.
3. Combine the sugar, evaporated milk and marshmallows in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce the heat to low and let simmer for 6 minutes, stirring constantly.
4. Pour the marshmallow mixture over the chocolate chip mixture. Beat the fudge until it thickens and loses its gloss. Quickly fold in the nuts and pour into the prepared baking dish.
5. Refrigerate the fudge for several hours, until firm. Slice into bite-size pieces and serve. ALL RECIPES EXCERPTED FROM “DISHING UP NEW JERSEY” BY JOHN HOLL, PHOTOGRAPHY BY AMY ROTH, USED WITH PERMISSION FROM STOREY PUBLISHING.