This morning, I woke up at the crack of dawn. Having raced a half-marathon on Sunday and struggled with sleep the past couple of nights, I ended up with a craving for fried chicken and waffles. I’m not sure if I can attribute this craving to feeling rundown. Whether it was the race or the insomnia causing the craving, I knew that Sneakers Bistro in Winooski, VT served some of the best breakfast/brunch in the area, so I checked out their menu. To my delight, Chicken and Waffles was on the menu, so my brother and I made it over there for lunch.
My brother ordered the BBQ pulled pork sandwich. The sandwich was enormous. The proportions were a little off, but it’s hard to complain when they pile too much meat onto a sandwich. A heaping pile of pulled pork came in a slightly sweet barbecue sauce with a little bit of red cabbage slaw on a fluffy, light roll. The meat was juicy. The sauce and meat might have benefited from some smokiness, and the bun did not hold up well, quickly becoming soggy. I tried the dish, and it was definitely something that can be enjoyed in spite of any flaws I may have found.
The dish placed in front of me was a fried chicken breast on top of a sweet potato waffle smothered in a country gravy studded with bits of sausage. Served in two small dishes alongside this gorgeous pile were some grits and two poached eggs. The grits were slightly bland and lacked any creaminess. They certainly would have benefited from even just a little cream or butter and some salt. They were slightly elevated by some Cholula hot sauce and some yolk from the poached eggs. Lucky for me, I did not come here for grits and eggs. I came here for the chicken and waffles, and it was great. The chicken was moist and flavorful and was pleasantly crispy. The waffle was not dry at all, slightly crispy where not covered in gravy, and provided a wonderful sweetness to complement the rest of the dish. The gravy was rich and rounded out the entire meal. There was even some extra that I soaked up with some of my brother’s leftover french fries. The chicken and waffles at Sneakers bistro is my new favorite brunch dish, and it will be the one I look forward to having when I visit Burlington in the future.
Yesterday was my step-dad’s birthday, and since I was away last night, I wanted to make dinner tonight. I picked up some lamb at a local coop as it is definitely a favorite of my step-dad’s. There were also some boneless country style pork ribs that looked great. When I got home, I was in the mood to make tacos. I had a mole sauce in the fridge that I made the other week. It was heavy on the chiles with notes of sweetness from bananas and some dried fruit in addition to some bitterness from a rich dark chocolate. I wanted to serve this with the pork, and I wasn’t sure what I would be doing with the lamb…
I was going to braise the pork in the oven, then finish it on the grill. In an oven proof dish, I put onions, garlic, celery, and carrots with a quality dark ale. I brushed the mole onto the pork ribs and placed them on top of the vegetables. I covered it all in foil and put it in the oven at 325 degrees. They cooked for a few hours until tender, then I removed the ribs, still lightly sauced, and finished them on the grill to give them a nice char. I served the pork in warm homemade flour tortillas with a little bit more of the mole, cilantro, and raw red onion.
With the lamb, I knew I would not be cooking with Mexican ingredients, but I did not know exactly the direction I would head. I began by searing the lamb, removing it, then sauteing onions, garlic, celery, and carrots in some olive oil. When they had cooked down a bit, I deglazed with red wine and some beef stock and added dried chile, bay leaf, and cinnamon. I added the lamb back to the pot. I let this cook for a couple of hours until the lamb was nice and tender. I had some avocado that I found ripe at the coop this afternoon, and I decided to make an avocado-basil crema. In a food processor, I combined avocado, basil, olive oil, lime juice, cumin, paprika, salt, black pepper, and a touch of water and cream. With this creamy condiment and a somewhat rich stew, I knew I had to cut through this with some acidity and maybe a little sweetness. I had some more red onion, and I found some dried California yellow cherries in my kitchen. I decided to pickle them together. In a small sauce pot, I brought to a boil rice vinegar, mirin, salt, pomegranate molasses, and a number of spices including allspice, juniper berries, clove, cinnamon, bay leaf, and mustard seed. I poured the hot liquid and spices over sliced red onion and the dried cherries and added some water. After about two hours in the refrigerator, the onions and cherries had reached a nice pickled state. I was excited how it all came together, and some toasted marcona almonds brought a little more texture and some welcome nuttiness to the taco. My favorite part of it was definitely the avocado-basil crema, and I found myself eating small spoonfuls of it before we even sat down to eat…
Today was fun, and as I have said before, I love cooking without a recipe. There are certainly aspects of the taco fillings that can be improved upon, but for an afternoon/evening of cooking on a whim, I was very happy with how the food came out.
OK, so what’s new since last year.