Wisconsin Foodie

>> Welcome to "Wisconsin Foodie." For this week's episode, I've come hungry to one of the touchstones of the Milwaukee culinary scene, as well as the nation's. Chef Sandy D'Amato and his namesake restaurant, Sanford. >> This is a shark we caught earlier today. >> Now we're cooking... >> For this episode, we'll follow Sandy down the aisles of a farmers market, behind the scenes in his own kitchen... >> Hey, Justin. >> Hey, Sandy. >> And he'll come to the Milwaukee Public Market to cook a cabbage soup for "Wisconsin Foodie." The produce is fresh and the place is set, stay tuned for "Wisconsin Foodie." >> We're at the West Allis Farmers Market with Justin, who's our chef de cuisine over at Sanford. In season, we'll be here three days a week, and we do, everything that's on the menu that is grown here will find its way to the menu in some form because we can pretty much change our menu daily. I've been coming here since I moved back to Milwaukee in 1980. What we like to do is, we walk the whole market first, see what we're interested in, and then come back to those specific ones and start putting things away. And then when the bell rings

at 1

00, we can just go to the individual vendors, pay,

and by 1

30 be on our way back to the restaurant. So you had these, you told me the other day these are Yummies? >> Yes. >> We tried some of these, they were great. >> Did you like them? >> Yeah, we'll take a couple more of these. Is that a technical name? >> Yes, exactly. >> "Yummy peppers." I think there's about 40-plus vendors here, so it gives us a chance to work with all of the different farmers, because you look around and you're going to see peppers at 13 or 14 different booths. You're going to see tomatoes at seven, eight different booths. And every tomato is not created the same. Hi, Therese. >> Oh, hi. >> We've got the green tomatoes, and I think we have some other tomatoes. What I did from the first time that I came here is, I'd go around and I'd take one of each tomato from each vendor and buy one, go back, and then try them all and see which one had me-- That's how I came upon going to Therese's for the tomatoes over these years. Bye, Walter. We just ran into Mike, who's our chef over at Coquette, and he's here picking up some peppers, apples, and squash. It's really important with everything, whether it's corn, beans, no matter what you are, you're always looking for that perfect product. If you put the time in, you're going to find it here. ( bell rings ) That's the bell. Now they can take money. Now it's a market. The whole idea of coming to the market three times a week

is that we can literally pick things up at 1

00

and have them on the menu at 5

30 when the first person walks through the door. We have the flexibility to do that because our menu is changeable every day. We print up the menu every day, plus we have our surprise menu. >> I've heard the restaurant business described as an organic thing. Like, you don't know what you're walking into on a daily basis. You go to work with an open mind. You come to the market with an open mind. You see what's there, what should you be using. Some of this stuff will speak to you as you walk by it. So it's not necessarily the easiest thing to do, but I think it's definitely the funnest thing to be doing. Almost everywhere in the United States now there's farmers markets. It's been interesting that even traveling on the Interstate, and they have farmers markets actually at the way stops on the through-ways. It's happening all around the country. I think that was everybody, right? We got the peppers, got the yams. >> Yes, I think we're covered. >> My name is Mike Gingrich. I'm co-owner and cheesemaker for Uplands Cheese. Uplands Cheese makes Pleasant Ridge Reserve, which is a raw milk farmstead cheese. The advantage of being a farmstead cheese is, we can use very, very fresh milk, and we can feed the cows in a way to produce the flavors that we want in that cheese. All right... This was our first award. This was American Cheese Society Best of Show Award that we won in 2001. That was our very first year. The make room is down here. This is where it all starts. In the morning, the milk comes over. We fill the vat. The curd is all trapped on that press table behind that dam plate. It's made every day and then moved to caves. Then it's washed with a brine solution, and turned every day. Doing it this way, we're really sort of producing a product that would have been typical 200 years ago, and is very, very rare today. >> Sandy made a conscious choice to mine the farmers market instead of a produce order form, to cook in season and from the region. In 1989, he and his wife Angela decided to create a restaurant based on this approach. >> Sandy! >> Hey, Kyle. >> How are you? >> Good, how are you doing? >> Good, thanks for having me. >> Thanks for coming, I appreciate it. We've got, Justin's in back and he's already getting everything ready for us, so I think it's going to be a really nice dinner. What we can do beforehand, if you'll have the time, and I think you have the time, because he has the time, we can kind of take you around a little bit and I can show you a little bit of the history of the place and how we started. >> I would love a Sandy D'Amato curated tour. >> Okay, right this way. >> So, what are you showing me here? >> Well, these are actually pictures from the beginning, not of the restaurant, but it's actually the grocery store, because this building was originally my grandfather's and father's grocery store. My grandfather opened it up in 1921 and really as you can see, this is a really mom-and-pop store. This is my grandfather. He's right here. My grandmother is right over here. >> Mm-hmm. >> And this is my dad. He's probably about six years old, he's in the overalls. >> In this building? >> In this building. This is actually, the back here is where the store ended. And behind that is where they lived. Then right here, behind this, this isn't an alien, it's actually a scale. That is actually the scale over there. >> Hey, Justin. >> Hey, Sandy. >> This is Kyle. >> Hey! >> Justin's our chef de cuisine here and he's going to be putting together the whole deal for us today. >> Pleasure to meet you, I'm sort of hungry already. >> Good, it's good to have you guys. >> What are we going to have? >> Well, we have a surprise menu set up for you. Farm fresh products from the West Allis Farmers Market with our little twist on it, all seasonal, all good to go. >> Right on. >> Cool. >> Well, let's get out of the highly-lauded Sanford kitchen and into the highly-lauded Sanford dining room. >> Enjoy. >> Laud on. ( all laugh ) >> So those beautiful, Yummy peppers that we got at the market the other day, we have roasted them, cleaned them, and now we're stuffing them with a smoked Arctic char salad with some wine potatoes, candied orange, and green olive. Arctic char is a fish from the family of trout and salmon, so it's kind of like a cross between trout and salmon. It's got good oil content. It's from the waters around Iceland, so it makes for a nice smoked fish, because it has the oil to stand up to taking the smoke. We are now plating our first course of the day. It is going to be a zucchini cream. A little grilled zucchini garnish to echo the zucchini in the dish. Now we're garnishing with a little crispy chorizo. For our first course tonight, this is a Yummy pepper, roasted and stuffed with a smoked Arctic char salad, zucchini cream, and lemon sherry oil. Enjoy. >> It looks fabulous. >> So, I have to ask. He just called this a "Yummy pepper." Is that a chef term? >> Well, I just found this out at the market from the farmer. We were asking about the peppers, and I hadn't seen these peppers before, and I said, "What are they called?" She said, "Yummy." >> I don't know which I enjoy more, the name of this pepper or the fact that you, after 30 years, are still learning new things when you go to the market. >> Well, that is something that does not end. >> Nice sort of sweet and tart, or really better put, sort of tangy and smokey. A little bit sweet, and the blending of everything. >> That's something that we try to do with all of our dishes is, it's all about balance. It goes from balancing food to balancing the wine, to balancing the service, and then, what we actually try to show people that work with us, too, is it crosses over to balancing your life. >> For the next dish, I have some fingerling potatoes that have been crusted with salt and roasted, so I'm going to cut them and we're just going to char grill them real fast to get a nice, crisp outside. Along with that here, we have some Yu choy. It's in the choy family, it's locally raised. A lot of the Hmong farmers will grow this. It's outstanding, a nice peppery flavor to it. We have here some fresh sea scallops that we're just going to sear in a nice hot pan, to get a nice crisp outside on it. I've got some Maine lobster here that we just partially cook and now I'm going to grill it with a little butter and lemon to order. Our second course today is a combo of scallops and lobster, and it's paired with pretty much the bounty of the market right now. We've got some fresh Yu choy, char grilled. Then we've got some char grilled fingerling potatoes. So we'll add our scallops and lobster. So we have our second course today. It's a combo of scallop and lobster with market vegetables, which will include Yu choy, wax beans, fingerling potatoes, and beets with a truffle dressing. Enjoy. >> Thank you. And you know, usually when we put this dish down in front of someone, you say, "scallop and lobster," and then after that it becomes "blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." >> Right, Charlie Brown speak? >> Right, people just stop listening after that. But you'll see when-- well, I'll let you try it first. I was saying that people look at this dish, and they think "scallop, lobster," but they don't care too much more about what's going on in it. But you see the vegetables just hold right up to it and that's what you come away with. >> You can't always count on fresh air, you can't always count on good company. But a good meal will absolutely set your day right. >> For our entree tonight, we're doing a roasted squab and seared foie gras with a medley of pumpkin. So first pumpkins of the year, we love to get them. To garnish we have a little roasted pumpkin. We've got kind of a spiced, pickled pumpkin. I think it's kind of cool to balance a dish out with one ingredient, to use it a bunch of different ways, to show the diversity of an ingredient. It really captures the season for me. We've got some pumpkin seeds to garnish it. A squab reduction sauce. So now we'll finish this up with a piece of seared foie gras that's coming right over. For our entree tonight, we have a roasted squab and seared foie gras with a medley of pumpkin, which will include a spiced pumpkin cream, roasted pumpkin, pumpkin seed gnocchi and pickled pumpkin. Enjoy. >> Nice, thank you. >> I'm sensing a major pumpkin theme. >> All pumpkin, all the time. >> I love it. Wow, Sandy, this is tender and it smells amazing. >> It's got a little bit of foie gras on top. >> Mmm! It's perfect. I mean, it's the right tie with a suit. It's just the perfect bow on a present. It is perfect. I don't care if it's uncouth. >> It's pigeon. How could anything be uncouth with it? >> I don't even know the couths. I don't even care. ( both laugh ) >> We're doing a saffron and white wine poached honeysuckle pear. We're going to stuff it with a fig compote. We're pairing that up with a Driftless cheese, which is a fresh sheep's milk cheese. We're doing that with a pistachio cake and lemon ice cream, and then a little saffron white wine syrup to go with it. This is one of Sandy's classics, just doing a saffron white wine poached pear. So we're just pairing it with the pistachio, because it's kind of a nice, nutty pairing to go with it. He's pretty well known for his desserts. He's one of the earlier people to do the order while you eat the rest of your meal, so that you can pretty much guarantee you're getting a nice, fresh dessert made that day. A lot of desserts finished a la minute, so he pretty much set the standard for that. So for dessert tonight we have a honeysuckle poached pear with saffron and white wine, and a pistachio cake with lemon ice cream and candied pistachios. So I hope you have enjoyed your meal and don't need a wheelbarrow to get to the door. ( laughter ) >> Thank you. >> It's interesting. You as a chef went for the pear and the cheese. I went straight for the ice cream. >> Nothing wrong with that. This just happens to be closer. >> It's pretty rare that I get to spend an entire day with an acclaimed chef who's not just conversant and knowledgeable, but so generous. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for being a treasure for our city, for our state, and for all of us that love pushing the palate just a little bit further. >> Thank you. It's just my pleasure to be part of it. I appreciate it. >> We're glad to have you. >> Thanks, Kyle. >> You bet. >> Cantaloupe. Round, sweet, delicious, and filled with natural sugars, which could be bad if not eaten at the right time. The best time to eat things with high sugar contents like this, bananas, peaches, and cherries, is after we exercise. This will help replenish the carbohydrates in our body, which will give us lasting energy. And hey, the protein in this cantaloupe will help us replenish our muscles for the future. I love eating things like this after practice, which will help me stay energized for the rest of the day. Plus, if you're going to eat dessert, try one of these. Get that cake out of here. I'm Garrett Weber-Gale, and this is my Athletic Foodie tip of the week. >> Hi, I'm chef Brian Moran. Today I'm in the kitchen with Sandy D'Amato, chef and owner of Sanford Restaurant. Today Sandy and I are going to prepare a Russian cabbage soup. Sandy, welcome to the kitchen. >> Thanks, Brian. Pleasure to be here. >> Great to finally cook with you. Sandy, tell me a little bit about this recipe, peasant soup or cabbage soup. What is its background? >> This is kind of the mother lode of Russian food. This is called "shchi" and it's almost the start of what everybody has when they're growing up. The farmers, when they go out in the fields and come back. In its base, it's cabbage. >> Tell me a little bit about some of the product that I see in front of me here. >> Well, we have rutabaga, we have celery root, we have yellow beets, cabbage. So what I've added to this is, of course, chef-ing it up a little bit. >> Chef-ing it up, right. >> We're adding a little bit of Brussels sprouts. What I'm going to do is just take the leaves off, saute those up, a quick sear on them, and that's going to be the garnish for the soup. >> Typically then, we're going to add salt as a seasoning, but I see some other things. We've got some bay leaf, thyme, tomato paste, I'm assuming. >> Right. Tomato paste, we have a little marjoram and savory. Then garlic. >> Obviously we've got all of our vegetables and everything ready, or as we say, our "mise en place." >> Shall we start it up? >> Let's start it up. >> We can actually start adding our vegetables right away. >> Get that butter melted around. As we add more of the root vegetables, the sweating is going to occur naturally from the moisture of the vegetables, correct? >> Because we're going to keep it covered. You keep it over low to medium-low heat and what that does is, along with helping to cook the vegetables, it starts to meld the flavors, which is really what you want with this, is to get all the vegetables so that you're not tasting rutabaga, celery root, cabbage, you're tasting an amalgamation of all of them into something that will be better than hopefully all of them separately. What we'll do at this time is, I'm going to add in the salt. >> Some pepper? >> Little bit of pepper. >> Fresh ground, or just a ground black pepper. >> Then we'll put our herbs in there. Now we can add our cabbage in. As you can see, this is fairly hearty. >> It has to cook down a lot, obviously, but that broth is going to help it later on. Did you add a little garlic at the end? >> Yeah, a couple cloves of chopped garlic and the cabbage at this point. We'll let that cook for about three or four minutes, just to sweat a little bit more, get that cabbage sweated in, and then we can add the stock to it. >> We talked back a little bit, we were talking a little bit about the fact that in the restaurant industry, in your experience, doing this 20 years, any high points, other than cooking with me on "Wisconsin Foodie"? Is there any other moments? >> I cannot think of anything that has been more exciting in my life. >> I know you've been thinking about it an awful long time, right? >> No, I actually know, for me the best part of cooking over the years has been seeing the people that I've worked with go on. There's always a point when somebody starts working with you, and it might take, at Sanford it usually takes about a year and a half, two years, where all of a sudden something clicks and they get it. They really understand the whole process and what's going on. >> Let's take a look at our soup. I see more steam coming up. I'll let you do the honors. >> I think at this point we can just add the tomato paste in. Then we'll add our vegetable stock. >> We're going to use a vegetable stock in this, because this is really a vegetarian dish. >> It is. >> The stock is in there, so this is going to have to slow cook for about 25 minutes, is that what you said? >> Right, 25 minutes. So we're at the point where the vegetables are now nicely cooked, and a nice thickness to it. >> We have set it on a very low heat, also, Sandy, don't we? It's still doing a really nice job. >> We're going to add a little bit of vinegar and dry mustard. >> Okay. Where are we at with the stage now of the soup? We've added the mustard and vinegar. >> The vegetables still have a little bit of crunch to them, so I'd like to let it go about another 5 minutes so we can make the garnish while that's going on. What we're going to is, it's going to be a process of, I'm really not quite sauteing, it's more searing of the leaves. >> So we're not cooking them a long time, in other words. >> No, we're just going to take the oil. >> Searing is a brief cooking application. >> Searing almost to the point of scalding. Just a little capful of oil on these. >> Why oil, Sandy, on the leaves of the Brussels sprouts first? >> Because I don't want to add any oil to the pan. This pan is extremely hot, so this is going to be a quick process. >> Not that bad, I was expecting a little more oil in it. >> Right, there's no oil in it. At this point, it's got to be fast, just the shallots. Little bit of vinegar. >> Those shallots don't burn or scald or anything. >> Because you're adding the vinegar, right. >> Kind of neutralizes things. >> You're just cooking it until they're all gone. >> That was fast. That was really fast. It's beautiful. Now, is this something that's served at Sanford from time to time in season? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> You add the sour cream in there. You add a little bit of your sprouts. Just a couple of these around. >> Sandy, thank you so much. It's really an honor and pleasure to cook with you. >> It's my pleasure. >> If you want to learn a little bit more about this recipe,

you can go to

wisconsinfoodie.com You'll have to tell me what you think. I guess you've got to eat your own cooking sometimes. >> Yeah, I'd eat that. >> You'd eat that, that's what I thought. >> I'd finish it, too.