EASTER WITH EDGE
Celebrated Chicago chef Grant Achatz turns his considerable skills to home cooking for this fetching Easter feast.
On the eve of his sold-out appearance at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, celebrated Chicago chef Grant Achatz turns his considerable skills to home cooking for this fetching Easter feast.
Grant Achatz knows what it’s like to miss out on the celebrations that anchor family life. When he was slogging his way through the ranks in élite kitchens (Charlie Trotter’s and The French Laundry among them), Easter was a holiday in which he participated by proxy. These days, with his flagship
Chicago restaurant, Alinea, ranked among the world’s best and other venues, Aviary, Next and Roister, shoring up a mini-empire, it’s a different story – just don’t expect this
Michigan-bred boy to prepare a traditional Easter feast.
“The Midwest has a specific food tradition,” he says.
“Growing up here I’d see people eat the same things each
Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I’d think, gosh, the same thing, year after year.”
Achatz has forged a global reputation based on wildness and whimsy in equal measure; he is, famously, the inventor of the edible helium balloon. So it comes as no surprise that an Achatz family Easter is a grab bag of global influences, including an Alinea-esque creation of grilled prawns and beetroot with smouldering cinnamon. We’re a long way from the Rust Belt, Toto.
“A lot of these recipes are in the repertoire of stuff we like to cook at home,” says Achatz. “We draw from a mish-mash of inspirations, so it’s a globally influenced meal of things we simply love to eat – plus, there’s the influence of my cooking. The shrimp and beets – it’s trying to utilise certain techniques. And the kids love anything that’s on fire.”
After missing out on so many Easters working, the holiday is definitely a thing for Achatz, his partner, both their mothers, and his two sons. While the calibre of the chef in the kitchen might be higher than normal, the Achatz Easter proceeds like many others. “You plan to get food on the table at three, but it’s never ready on time,” he says. “As you’re preparing, you’re constantly snacking. We just graze all day.”
The month of April will also find Achatz in Australia for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, where he has set himself the task of presenting a masterclass with 140 edible balloons. Australia’s dining scene has caught his attention, and he’s looking forward to getting stuck into the local terroir. “It’s a real youthful restaurant explosion – so I’ve kept the last four days free. We’re going to churn the culinary side pretty well.” Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, 31 March to 9 April, melbournefoodandwine.com.au
“We draw from a mish-mash of inspirations, plus there’s the influence of my cooking. And the kids love anything that’s on fire.”
Grilled prawns and beetroot with chilli and smouldering cinnamon
“This is a riff on a dish we had on the Alinea opening menu that involved beetroot and smoking cinnamon,” says Grant Achatz. “Brown spices and beets are a proven combination, but the kid in me wanted to involve some whimsy. During my childhood I hated the spicy cinnamon chewing gum known as Big Red, but as an adult I enjoy it. I basically replicate that sensation with the simple addition of chilli – I use dried Korean chilli threads. Here we turn the eating utensil, in this case the cinnamon skewer, into the equivalent of an incense stick that you eat from.”
Prep time 20 mins, cook 1 hr (plus cooling)
Makes 12 (pictured p114)
2 small beetroot, trimmed
40 gm sea salt
6 cinnamon quills (the longest you can find), split lengthways into skewers
12 uncooked prawns, peeled and cleaned Grapeseed oil, for brushing
Torn mint, to serve
Finely grated grapefruit rind, to serve Korean chilli flakes, to serve (see note)
Grapefruit glaze
Juice of 4 pink grapefruit
Juice of 1 lemon
50 gm white sugar
50 ml soy sauce
Pinch of Korean chilli flakes (see note)
1 For grapefruit glaze, strain juices into a saucepan, add sugar, soy sauce and chilli, and simmer until a light syrup forms (45-50 minutes). Cool to room temperature.
2 Meanwhile, combine beetroot, salt and 2 litres water in a large saucepan over medium-high heat and stir to dissolve salt. Bring to the boil, reduce heat to medium and simmer until a knife inserted into the beetroot withdraws without resistance (25-30 minutes). Drain, cool to room temperature, then peel and cut each beetroot into 6 wedges.
3 Heat a grill to very high. Carefully skewer a piece of beetroot on a cinnamon stick, followed by a prawn, then brush with grapeseed oil and season to taste. Repeat with remaining beetroot and prawns. Grill, turning once, until prawns are just cooked through (2 minutes each side), then dip in grapefruit glaze and let the excess drain off. Arrange on a platter, scatter with mint, grapefruit rind and chilli flakes, ignite one end of each cinnamon quill with a blowtorch (optional) until they start to smoke, then serve.
Note Korean chilli flakes are available from select Asian grocers and Herbie’s Spices (herbies.com.au).
Savoury doughnuts with pine-nut butter
“Who doesn’t like doughnuts? In this case we flip the model and make them savoury umami bombs with the addition of parmesan and capers,” says Achatz. “The pine-nut butter acts as a savoury frosting and the raisins add a slight sweetness.”
Prep time 20 mins, cook 25 mins (plus chilling)
Serves 8
300 ml milk
250 gm butter, diced
200 gm plain flour
6 eggs, lightly beaten
300 gm finely grated parmesan
125 gm golden raisins
60 gm drained capers in brine, patted dry Finely grated rind of 2 lemons
Canola oil, for deep-frying
Pine-nut butter
125 gm pine nuts, toasted to golden brown 125 ml ( 1/ cup) grapeseed oil
2
1 Bring milk, butter and 6gm salt to a simmer in a saucepan over medium heat, add flour and beat with a wooden spoon until dough forms a ball and pulls away from the side of pan (1-2 minutes). Transfer to a mixing bowl, add eggs in 3 batches, whisking well between each, and whisk until dough is glossy. Season to taste with black pepper, then fold in parmesan, raisins, capers and lemon rind. Spoon rough balls of 2 tablespoonfuls of mixture onto a tray lined with baking paper and refrigerate until firm (3 hours).
2 For pine-nut butter, process all ingredients and 1½ tsp salt in a food processor or blender, scraping down sides of bowl occasionally, until very smooth (3-4 minutes). Butter will keep refrigerated for up to a week.
3 Heat oil in a large, deep saucepan to 150C and deep-fry doughnuts in batches (be careful, hot oil will spit), turning occasionally, until golden brown (2½-3 minutes; the centres should be creamy, not cooked through like a cake). Drain on paper towels, transfer to a platter and serve drizzled with pine-nut butter.
Thai-spiced jerky
“I love the sweet-sour, salty-acidic, spicy flavours of
Thai cooking,” says Achatz. “Here, we play with the idea of the obligatory crudités everyone has at holiday meals by drying them into chewy textures and adding the flavours of South East Asia.”
Prep time 30 mins, cook 3 hrs (plus marinating)
Serves 8 (pictured p114)
4 large carrots, peeled and sliced 2mm-thick
lengthways
1 daikon, peeled and sliced 2mm-thick
lengthways
1 small butternut pumpkin, peeled, seeded
and sliced 2mm-thick lengthways
1 jicama, peeled and sliced into 2mm-thick
rounds (see note)
2 large tomatoes, blanched (see cook’s notes
p177), peeled, sliced into 5mm-thick rounds 1 kg beef rib-eye, fat removed, sliced across
the grain into 2mm-thick slices
1 head red-leaf lettuce, such as oakleaf
Coriander, to serve
Thai dressing
100 ml fish sauce
100 ml caster sugar
100 ml lime juice
60 gm Thai basil leaves, torn
60 gm mint leaves, torn
60 gm coriander
20 gm ginger, peeled and thinly sliced 6 kaffir lime leaves, torn into small pieces 2 birdseye chillies, thinly sliced
2 red shallots, thinly sliced
1 lemongrass stalk, thinly sliced
1 large garlic clove, thinly sliced
1 For Thai dressing, stir fish sauce and sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat, add remaining ingredients, cover and stand at room temperature to infuse (at least 3 hours, or overnight in the refrigerator). Strain through a fine sieve.
2 Combine vegetables with a third of the dressing in a container, toss to coat well, cover and refrigerate to marinate (3 hours).
3 Combine beef with half the remaining dressing in a separate container, toss to coat well and refrigerate for 3 hours to marinate.
4 Preheat oven to 95C. Spray two wire racks with non-stick spray or brush with a neutral-flavoured oil and place on a large baking tray. Blot vegetables and beef with paper towels (do not wipe or rinse) and arrange on racks so they’re not touching. Place in oven and dry until shrivelled (2-2¼ hours for pumpkin, 2¾-3 hours for beef and remaining vegetables; check often to avoid overdrying).
5 Brush both sides of beef and vegetables with dressing, arrange on a platter lined with lettuce leaves, scatter with coriander and serve with remaining dressing.
Note Jicama, also called yam bean, is available from select supermarkets and Asian greengrocers.>
“Who doesn’t like doughnuts? In this case we flip the model and make them umami bombs with the addition of parmesan and capers.”
Cucumber, orchard fruits and lettuces with white sesame, white pepper and white miso dressing
“Twenty years ago when I was a young cook at The French Laundry in Napa, California, I was talking to a chef friend of mine in the kitchen who confidently claimed that ingredients sharing the same colour pair with each other and dared me to prove him wrong,” says Achatz. “To this day, I still haven’t, and this creamy, spicy and somewhat sweet white-on-white dressing proves it.”
Prep time 15 mins
Serves 8
500 gm (1 bunch) red radishes, trimmed
and quartered
2 cucumbers, cut into 5mm-thick rounds 2 Granny Smith apples, cored, cut into eighths 2 ripe pears, cored, cut into eighths
½ Spanish onion, thinly sliced
1 cup (loosely packed) rocket, stems trimmed 1 head cos lettuce, leaves separated and
halved lengthways
1 small head (150gm) radicchio, leaves
separated and halved lengthways
Sesame-pepper-miso dressing
75 ml grapeseed oil
60 gm sesame seeds 30 gm silken tofu
25 gm white miso
25 ml lemon juice
10 gm white peppercorns 1 small garlic clove
1 For dressing, blend ingredients and 1 tsp salt and 100ml water in a blender on high speed until smooth (10 minutes); stop the blender at intervals if it gets hot, wait for it to cool, then resume. Strain through a fine sieve and thin to drizzling consistency with a little water if necessary. Dressing keeps refrigerated for up to 5 days.
2 Combine vegetables, fruit and leaves in a large bowl, ladle dressing over salad to taste, toss lightly to coat and serve with remaining dressing.
Roast mushrooms with caramelised fennel, onions, eggs and dates
“This dish is made to be a side for the braised lamb,” says Achatz. “The dates pair with the dark cocoa notes in the main dish, and the aromatic cardamom-date combination takes it to the Middle Eastern cooking of tagines and curries. But really what you have is a deconstructed mushroom, onion and fennel omelette.”
Prep time 15 mins, cook 25 mins (plus standing)
Serves 8 (pictured p113)
4 fennel bulbs
75 ml grapeseed oil
1.5 kg mixed mushrooms, such as shiitake, Swiss brown, maitake and oyster, cleaned, halved, quartered or whole, depending on size
2 onions, each cut into sixths
75 gm butter, diced
20 gm thyme sprigs
5 garlic cloves, finely grated
80 ml ( 1/ cup) white vinegar
3 8 eggs
Finely chopped chives, to serve
Date vinaigrette
70 gm medjool dates, pitted 60 ml (¼ cup) sherry vinegar 2 tbsp grapeseed oil
1 For date vinaigrette, blend ingredients with 80ml water and ½ tsp sea salt in a blender on high speed until very smooth (4-5 minutes). Thin to drizzling consistency with a little extra water if necessary and season to taste. Vinaigrette will keep refrigerated for up to 5 days.
2 Preheat oven to 175C. Trim the fronds from 3 fennel bulbs and reserve, then quarter the bulbs. Heat a roasting pan or very large sauté pan over medium-high heat, add oil, mushrooms, onion and fennel quarters, and cook without stirring for 3 minutes. Gently stir once and cook for another 3 minutes. Add butter, thyme and garlic, transfer to oven and cook, stirring twice, until mushrooms are just tender but with a little bite (8-10 minutes). Season to taste and keep warm.
3 Shave remaining fennel bulb on a mandolin and place in acidulated water (see cook’s notes p177) to crisp.
4 Meanwhile, bring vinegar, 5 litres water and 2 tsp salt to a simmer in a large saucepan, stir vigorously to create a whirlpool, then crack eggs into the swirling water. Turn off heat, cover with a lid and stand for 6 minutes, then remove the eggs with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
5 Transfer roasted mushrooms to a large serving dish, nestle eggs on top, drizzle with a little date vinaigrette, top with shaved fennel, season to taste, then scatter with fennel fronds and chives, and serve with remaining date vinaigrette.
Braised lamb shoulder with cocoa and cardamom
“Admittedly, on the surface this dish seems a bit odd,” says Achatz. “Cocoa, pumpkin, cardamom, lamb?
This is a perfect example, however, of a technique we use frequently at Alinea called ‘flavour bouncing’. You basically take a focal ingredient and begin to ‘bounce’ satellite flavours off it. The rule is, not only do the supporting ingredients have to go with the main ingredient, but also they all must go with each other. For instance, lamb goes with eggplant and lamb goes with cardamom, but does cardamom go with eggplant? Yes. You continue the bouncing of ingredients off one another until the dish is complete.”
Prep time 25 mins, cook 4½ hrs
Serves 8 (pictured p112)
2.5 kg lamb shoulder, bone in
150 ml canola or grapeseed oil
3 onions, cut into large dice
2 small fennel bulbs, cut into large dice 75 gm ginger, finely grated
50 gm ( 1/ cup) plain flour
3
40 gm garlic cloves (about ½ head), finely chopped
30 gm long red chillies, thinly sliced 4 lemongrass stalks, trimmed and bruised with the back of a knife
2½ tsp Madras yellow curry powder
Large pinch of saffron threads
250 ml (1 cup) lime juice
200 gm brown sugar
2 litres (8 cups) beef stock
800 gm eggplant, cut into 2.5cm cubes
800 gm pumpkin, peeled, cut into 2.5cm cubes 370 gm crème fraîche
Coriander, mint and finely grated lime rind, to serve
Aromatic sachet
50 gm cacao nibs
30 gm coriander seeds
30 gm Darjeeling tea leaves
12 gm fennel seeds
10 gm green cardamom pods, bruised 7 gm whole mace (see note)
5 gm cumin seeds
2 dried bay leaves
1 For the aromatic sachet, tie ingredients in a piece of muslin and secure with kitchen string.
2 Preheat oven to 160C. Heat a large roasting pan over medium-high heat and season lamb shoulder generously. Add oil to pan and when it starts to smoke, add lamb bone-side up and rotate to brown evenly (5-6 minutes), then turn and brown other side. Transfer to a tray. Reduce heat to medium and add onion, fennel, ginger, flour, garlic, chilli, lemongrass, curry powder and saffron to pan and sauté, stirring often, until vegetables are tender and spices are aromatic (8-10 minutes). Add lime juice and brown sugar, simmer until sugar dissolves (3-4 minutes), then add stock and aromatic sachet and bring to a simmer, stirring so no flour lumps remain. Return lamb to pan, cover with a lid or foil and braise in oven for 3 hours.
3 Add eggplant and pumpkin to roasting pan, leave uncovered and braise until the lamb pulls from the bone easily with a fork (1-1¼ hours).
4 Strain braising liquid from pan into a bowl, whisk in crème fraîche, and return to roasting pan. Season lamb generously, scatter with coriander, mint and lime rind, and serve.
Note Whole mace (also sold as mace blade) is available from Herbie’s Spices (herbies.com.au) or other specialist spice shops. If it’s unavailable, substitute a grating of nutmeg.>
Macieira
“Overwhelmingly, when people think of a cocktail they assume it will be cold. Most people, however, finish a meal with a hot drink like coffee or tea,” says Achatz. “In this after-dinner drink we combine the two assumptions and make a hot cocktail. The Madeira and whisky flavours pair perfectly with the brown spices and roasted banana of the black cake, while the crème de violette, lemon and fruity apple make it a welcome end to a celebratory meal.”
Prep time 10 mins, cook 1 min (plus cooling)
Serves 8
100 ml rainwater Madeira (see note)
100 ml Laird’s Applejack apple brandy (see note) 50 ml Nikka Japanese whisky (see note)
50 ml Averna amaro (see note)
10 ml crème de violette (see note)
Thinly peeled rind of 2 lemons
Madeira syrup
60 gm white sugar
35 ml rainwater Madeira
1 For Madeira syrup, bring sugar and 20ml water to the boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat, add Madeira and chill over an ice bath. 2 Bring ingredients, except lemon rind, 50ml Madeira syrup and 125ml water to a simmer in a saucepan, then pour into a teapot. Twist a piece of rind over each of 8 teacups, dropping rind in, pour in cocktail and serve.
Note Rainwater Madeira is a lighter style of a Madeira; Achatz uses Blandy’s. Laird’s Applejack, Nikka Japanese whisky and crème de violette are all available from Dan Murphy’s bottle shops. Averna amaro is a bitter Italian liqueur available from select bottle shops. If it’s unavailable, substitute another amaro.
Steamed black cake with roasted banana and olive oil ice-cream
“I’ve always loved warm desserts with ice-cream,” says Achatz. “Every bite is different as the ice-cream begins to melt into a sauce and you get layers of texture. My girlfriend has family in England and lived there when she was young, so she has nostalgia for sticky toffee pudding. We combine the two memories with a twist of banana and olive-oil ice-cream.”
Prep time 30 mins, cook 1½ hrs (plus chilling)
Serves 8
300 gm (1⅔ cups) plain flour
10 gm baking powder
100 gm raisins
100 gm currants
100 gm pitted prunes, coarsely chopped
100 gm walnuts, roasted and coarsely chopped 1 tsp ground mace (see note)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp finely grated nutmeg
Finely grated rind of 2 oranges
250 ml (1 cup) milk
250 gm molasses
200 gm butter, melted, plus extra for greasing 60 ml brandy
1 egg
Scraped seeds of ½ vanilla bean
Ground cinnamon, for dusting
Roasted banana and olive oil ice-cream
3 bananas, unpeeled, skins pierced at intervals with a skewer
750 ml (3 cups) pouring cream
250 ml (1 cup) heavy cream (45% fat content) 200 ml milk
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
250 gm granulated sugar
8 egg yolks
250 ml (1 cup) extra-virgin olive oil
1 For ice-cream, preheat oven to 190C. Place bananas on an oven tray lined with baking paper and roast until skins blacken and begin to seep juice from the piercings (20-25 minutes), then peel. Bring creams, milk, vanilla bean and seeds, half the sugar and 5gm salt to a simmer in a saucepan. Pulse yolks and remaining sugar in a blender to combine, then add banana. Remove vanilla bean from cream mixture and, with motor running, pour into blender and process for 3 minutes. With motor still running, slowly add olive oil and blend until well emulsified (5-6 minutes); stop the blender at intervals if it gets hot, wait for it to cool, then resume blending. Transfer to a bowl placed over ice and leave to cool, stirring occasionally (20-30 minutes). Churn in an ice-cream machine, then freeze until required. Makes about 2 litres.
2 Preheat oven to 170C. Butter a 23cm-diameter cast-iron pan. Mix flour, baking powder, dried fruit, walnuts, spices, rind and 3gm salt in a large bowl to combine and make a well in the centre. Whisk milk, molasses, butter, brandy, egg and vanilla seeds in a separate bowl to combine, then add to well and mix until combined but slightly lumpy. Pour into pan, cover with plastic wrap (don’t worry, it won’t melt), then a layer of foil and bake until a skewer inserted withdraws clean (50 minutes to 1 hour). Serve warm with roasted banana and olive-oil ice-cream, and dusted lightly with cinnamon.
Note Ground mace is available at select spice shops and online from herbies.com.au.