Delicious desserts are one thing, but delicious sustainable desserts are another. This recipe for hazelnut flourless chocolate bouchons meets both criteria: the hazelnuts were harvested from the hybrid hazelnut field just outside Lied Lodge – we’re talking 500 feet from field to kitchen — and they add nutritious, great-tasting flavor to a variety of dishes we serve here at Lied Lodge.

Give this one a try and let me know how you like it.

Hazelnut Flourless Chocolate Bouchons
2 lbs. melted chocolate
2 cups crushed toasted hazelnuts
1 cup whole toasted hazelnuts
1 tsp. salt
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
2 vanilla beans
1 ½ cups sugar
1 oz. powdered gelatin
6 egg whites
Cocoa powder

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over low heat for approximately 15 minutes. Combine salt, cream, milk, vanilla beans, sugar and gelatin in a sauce pan and bring to a scald. Be careful not to boil. Set aside to cool. Slowly stir the cream mixture into the melted chocolate and reserve at room temperature; add the crushed hazelnuts. Chill a bowl and the egg whites, and then whip the egg whites into stiff peaks. Fold into the ganache. Spray a silicone mold with pan spray and dust with cocoa powder. Bake at 325 degrees for about 25 minutes or until picks come out clean. Chill the mold. Remove for serving, and garnish with toasted hazelnuts.

Enjoy!
Chef Matt

Matthew Taylor is the Executive Chef at Lied Lodge & Conference Center in Nebraska City, Nebraska, where local, sustainable entrees are served daily. You can catch him doing a live cooking demo at this year’s Wine Under the Pines Festival on Saturday, August 6, 2011, at Kimmel Orchard & Vineyard, Nebraska City.  Have a specific recipe you’d like to see featured on this blog? Let us know.

From the Lied Lodge Kitchen: Crab Cakes

Jul 05 by Lied Lodge Blog in Food & Drink, General, Local food, Recipes tagged Arbor Day Farm, comfort food, crab cakes, Lied Lodge, summer recipe with no comments

 

This is one of my favorite summer dishes. Crab cakes are an excellent way to kick up the barbecue, especially when you mix and match accompaniments and use fresh, seasonally available ingredients. Let me know how you enjoy this one.

Maryland Blue Crab Cakes
2 lb. blue crab meat, well drained
¼ cup raw garlic
1 cup panko crumbs
2 whole eggs
½ cup red bell pepper bruinoise
½ cup carrot bruinoise
½ cup red onion bruinoise
2 jalapeños, seeded and bruinoise
¼ tbl Old Bay seasoning
2 lemons zest and juiced
1 orange zest
½ cup flat leaf parsley, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
Kernels from 2 ears of fresh sweet corn

Procedure:
Heat olive oil on medium flame in sauté pan. Add garlic and sauté until aromatic. Add the peppers, carrot, onion, and jalapeño to the pan and cook gently until just sweated together. Add Old Bay seasoning and parsley, cook until just aromatic, about 2 minutes. Combine all ingredients to mixing bowl and stir together well. Adjust seasoning and panko until the mixture forms small cakes that stay together well and are not too moist or too dry. Form cakes into small cylinder shapes Reserve cakes to order.

Until next time,
Chef Matt

Matthew Taylor is the Executive Chef at Lied Lodge & Conference Center in Nebraska City, Nebraska, where local, sustainable entrees are served daily. Have a specific recipe you’d like to see featured on this blog? Let us know.

Raised Beds: A Great Option for Not-So-Great Soil

Jun 24 by Adam Howard in General, Greenhouse tagged Arbor Day Farm, raised bed growing, tree care, trees with no comments

 

Jan Bonham and Kristy Edwards work in the raised beds at Arbor Day Farm.

Are you looking to start your plantings earlier and possibly stretch your harvest date further?  Look no more than raised beds.  Raised beds are nothing more than elevating soil or mix, which allows the soil to warm faster in the spring and to cool slower in the autumn months.  In some regions, depending on climate, using raised beds lengthens the growing time by an extra month on either end of the regular growing cycle. That can be a real advantage in getting strong, healthy plants and trees.

Arbor Day Farm is currently experimenting with our own raised beds.  Our soil here is, for the most part, clay.  This hinders good root development for young seedlings and it also eliminates the possibility of lifting (that’s “greenhouse speak” for harvesting) the seedlings at maturity. The clay would tear the lateral roots, all but killing the seedlings once they went to outplanting.  With the challenge of clay soil in our area, we decided to go with raised beds as a trial when it comes to growing bareroot seedlings here at Arbor Day Farm. 

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World-Renown Chefs Pay Visit to Lied Lodge Kitchen

May 17 by Chef Matt in Food & Drink, General tagged Arbor Day Farm, ceviche, chef, Lied Lodge with 1 comment

 

It’s not every day that I get to share my professional kitchen with world-renown chefs, but last month here at Lied Lodge, that’s exactly what I had the privilege of doing.

Chef Javier Wong and Chef Matthew Taylor spent hours cooking together in the Lied Lodge kitchen.

To make a long story short, an international film crew stayed at Lied Lodge last month while working on a tourism documentary about Peru, South America. They stayed for many days, put in incredibly long hours shooting in Peru, Nebraska, and brought with them some of the finest chefs in the southern hemisphere to star in the film:

Chef Christian Bravo, the award-winning chef and restaurateur of Lima, Peru, hailed as one of the best gourmet chefs in South America;
Chef Javier Wong, internationally known as “The God of Ceviche,” who owns and operates one of the most exclusive restaurants in all of Peru, and
Chef Ivan Kosac, a molecular gastronomy guru who has worked and trained in France and Spain.

Being a chef myself, I was familiar with the collective reputation of these three chefs and their elevated standing in the world community of gastronomy. I was thrilled to have such talented and well respected chefs in house for a few days, and our time in the Lied Lodge kitchen together are some of the most cherished memories of my career.

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Spring Weddings: Lots of Color

May 06 by Adessa Grundman in General, Weddings tagged with no comments

 

 Wedding season is upon us again, and every year a trend or two seems to emerge.  Some years it’s “eco-friendly” wedding themes; sometimes it’s outdoor weddings, or gem tones, or cupcakes. I’ve helped to coordinate a handful of weddings at Lied Lodge so far this spring, and one trend seems to be at the forefront right now: splashes of color — any color – in unconventional places.

Here are a few examples to get your wedding day creative juices flowing:

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