Grab the Good Life with Rocco DiSpirito
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December 15, 2005 - WOR 12/15/05
WOR 12/15/05
***IMPORTANT***
Rocco's Cookware has RETURNED to QVC! Please go to:
ROCCO'S KITCHEN
Grab The Good Life everyone! Monster show on deck today: We are talking to Kurt Gutenbrunner from T.H.O.R., Wallse and Café Sabarsky Restaurants!
We also have Dan the Lobster Man and he's got a recipe for lobster stew.
Rocco: We are going to be talking about cooking goose at the end of the week. The only difference between cooking goose and duck is that it's a lot bigger and it has a lot more fat with a bit more of a gamy flavor. What I like to do is prick the goose with a fork and dip it in boiling water to get the fat rendering, then salt it really well inside and out, and then cook it slowly. Goose cooks until it's fully cooked inside, about 160-180 degrees, it never dries out – not like a turkey. It's almost impossible to overcook – and it's rich, fatty and delicious. The sauce I talked about with duck last week – the cranberry mustard glaze or the sour cherry mustard glaze, would be perfect with this. I basically took some craisins, which are dried cranberries, cooked them in red port, added some red wine vinegar and finished it with Chinese mustard. The reason Chinese mustard is sharper than Dijon is that it's pure mustard seed – no water or vinegar added.
Okay, let's go to the phones. Hi Ella from New York.
Ella: Hi Rocco. I have a question about celery salad. How do you pick them so the knobs are not inside, how do you cook them and what dressing do you use?
Rocco: I think you're talking about celery remalat which is a great dish and what you make when celery is in season, which it is now. You know they only harvest celery once so as it ages, the inside becomes hollow as the water evaporates. The way to tell in a store is if it feels heavy for its size. Then you know it's full of water and hasn't dried out. So once you have your celery, clean it and then I like to use a mandolin so you get thick julienne and with that I love an anchovy sauce. Use fresh anchovy if you can get it, otherwise used the canned, then add olive oil, lemon juice and mustard. Throw that all in a blender and toss it.
Ella: So you slice the celery before you cook it…
Rocco: No, I don't cook it at all – I leave it raw, nice and crunchy. If you really need to cook it, keep in mind it cooks really fast so in and out of the water, otherwise they'll break apart. Otherwise, it should really be uncooked. You can also get a few celery hearts, take out the leaves, and mix that in with that as well. Some lemon peel is also nice. It's a great dish – I love it.
Ella: Sounds good. Thank you so much.
Rocco: My friend, Kurt Gutenbrunner, is here. And we're going to talk to Dan the Lobster Man – I think what he does with lobster is extraordinary. Dan Zawacki runs Lobster Grams.
Dan Zawacki: What's going on my main gourmet cuisine man?
Rocco: Great Dan. Dan runs Lobster Gram and I'm sure all of you know about that. To get lobster as fresh as you get them in your Lobster Grams is very difficult. If you call 1-800-LIVELOB, you can send anyone a Lobster Gram. Now Dan, where'd you originally get this idea and how does a guy from Chicago have access to the best lobsters in the world?
Dan: Well, I've been doing it for 20 years now. I used to have a real job – I worked at Honeywell with computers. So you have a connection there – computers and lobsters. We buy right from the fishermen, the lobstermen up in Maine and Canada, fresh every day. In Canada at the Bay of Fundy – the deepest, coldest waters.
Kurt Gutenbrunner: That's right –
Rocco: Do you sell wholesale or just retail?
Dan: We are looking into it because we have so many people who want to do it. But our mail order business is just going crazy and you want to focus on what you do best. And that's what we do – we provide great gourmet gifts.
Rocco: Well I want to say it again. Your lobsters come fresh, they come with a pot to cook them in, and comes with butter and a butter warmer, clam chowder that's extremely good, chocolate cakes, and steaks… Now tell me, are they hard shell or soft shell lobsters?
Dan: Hard shell of course.
Rocco: Tell everyone why soft shell are not good…
Dan: Well, when the lobster molts, you know lose their shell, they're building up a new shell, so they're not as tasty when they're working on building their shell up…
Rocco: And their flesh is at the weakest point…it's like mush at that point.
Dan: That's the key right there Rocco –
Rocco: Well thanks Dan – Livelob.com. Now let's go to Thomas from New Jersey. I think you won Bright Smile.
Tom: Good morning Rocco. Thank you very much and WOR for the gift.
Rocco: You are so welcome. You were the 7th caller and you get a gift certificate for Bright Smile. Now let's go back to Dan and let's hear about his Big Daddy Kane's Lobster Stew.
Dan: Well, you need a lot of butter in there…
Rocco: Right, let me give everyone the recipe.
2 large garlic cloves, chopped and diced
one-half onion diced
2/3 cup sliced carrots
½ cup sliced celery
Salt and pepper
Tbsp of dried rosemary
2/3 cup sliced Portobello mushroom
1 stick of butter
2 quarts of Half and Half
3 cups Yukon Gold potatoes, cut in ½" chunks
2 lbs of fresh lobster meat or 4 ½ live lobsters
4 Tbsp of flour
Then make a roux with the butter and flour but add the carrots, onion, garlic, mushrooms, carrots, mushrooms and rosemary. Then when tender, you add the half and half but don't let it boil. Cook potatoes in separate pot and drain. Cook the lobster until it's semi-translucent and dice it. Then add the potatoes and lobster to the vegetable mixture and let it cook. Have that with a bottle of white burgundy and grab the good life!
Dan: It was so awesome and was even better the next day.
Rocco: We've been talking to Dan Zawacki, the Senior Lobster Consultant – call him at 1-800-LIVELOB or Livelob.com. If you want to be really gracious and kind, this is "the" gift – send people a Lobster Gram. Thanks Dan – happy holidays.
Now back to Kurt Gutenbrunner. You went from two restaurants to five, that's right. You had Wallse, Sabarsky, then you added Thor…
Kurt: Yes, we added Thor in September. Then Café Fledermaus in Neue Galerie – the original Café Fledermaus was a cabaret café in Vienna – all of the artists used to meet in the cafes and work out of the cafes. And what we did with Café Sabarsky and Café Fledermaus here in New York is put the same setting. We have reproduction furniture too. When I grew up in Austria, I think we were very much associated with our history. And all my restaurants are somehow connected to the art world.
Rocco: Tell everyone about the Neue Galerie.
Kurt: Well, it's a small museum on 86th Street and Fifth Avenue – There was a Neue Galerie in Vienna and it's named after Ronald Lauder from Estee Lauder. They have German and Austrian art from the turn of the century, from 1910-1930.
Rocco: How would you describe that kind of art?
Kurt: Creative. There is a furniture line in there and right now there is the Sheila Exhibition with a lot of drawings. He died when he was 28 years old.
Rocco: So Café Sabarsky is up there in the Neue Galerie, and Fledermaus is also in the Neue Galerie. Wallse is where the Black Sheep used to be and it's on 11th and Washington Streets, the most charming part of the West Village. It's a small intimate place. Well thanks Kurt. Let's take some phone calls. Elaine, thanks for being on the show.
Elaine: It's a pleasure to speak to you and hi Kurt. I'm going to be making some Cornish hens and I want to stuff them with some wild rice. Do I cook the rice first?
Kurt: You make a salt dough and you wrap the Cornish hen, put some herbs in there and then you bake it. Then you cook the rice separately and add some celery root and chestnuts. Then when you bring this to the table, you open up the salt crust. Send me an email and I will give you the recipe – KG@wallse.com.
Rocco: And what should she serve with the Cornish hens? Give us a little sauce.
Kurt: Buy some everyday button mushrooms. Put them in water, boil them for an hour and then throw the mushrooms away. Save the juice, add a little butter – I can send you the recipe too for an onion puree.
Rocco: Elaine, send him an email and he'll explain it all to you. Now let's talk to Donna from New York.
Donna: Hi Rocco, hi Kurt. This is not a recipe question – first, what do I look for when purchasing pots and cookware? Not too expensive. I'm not a chef but I cook for a very large Italian family.
Kurt: If you want to spend medium money, buy Rocco's cookware. If you want to spend a lot of money, buy Danielle or All-Clad.
Rocco: And if you want to spend crazy money, get Le Creuset. You need heavy but not too heavy, a clad bottom or a 5-ply bottom, some aluminum or iron surrounded by stainless steel – never cook with uncoated aluminum because it'll give you Alzheimer's. And then inexpensive, get the anodized aluminum. Good luck Donna.
And we have Kurt Gutenbrunner who owns Wallse, Café Sabarsky, Fledermaus, Thor, and now his new restaurant called Blaue Gans (blue goose) on Duane Street, which opened last week. And the web address?
Kurt: And Blaue Gans is what I would call a 'German diner'. Everything you need to know is at Wallse.com
Rocco: And no reservations necessary.
Kurt: Right, we serve beef stew, Austrian/German food like sauerbraten and soups, very basic, classic Austrian/German everyday foods. It's at 139 Duane Street. Wallse is at 344 W. 11th on the corner of Washington; Blaue Gans is between W. Broadway and Church, and Café Sabarsky is in the Neue Galerie, and Thor is on the lower East Side on Rivington.
Rocco: Thank you Kurt very much for being on the show. And also congratulations to Thomas of Wyckoff, New Jersey who won the Bright Smile gift certificate.
