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Wandering how to make Banh Mi, the famous Vietnamese pork rolls? Here is an easy and quick way to prepare this spicy sandwich.Cooking for a crowd? “The Feast” turns to ace chefs—who better to advise on feeding the whole crew?—for recipes, prep advice and, of course, wine pairings. Plus, we’ll give you 10 value wines recommended by our editors. Get ready: It’s time to feast!
With 48 hours to go before Thanksgiving, you can practically hear the nation’s stoves snapping to life. If your burners are still idling as you wait for inspiration to strike, you might want to think about committing. Lucky for you, Dale Talde gave us his recipe for an easy, seasonal dish that combines the cozy with the unexpected. By the end of Thanksgiving, your friends will be thanking you.
You might know Talde for his runs on Bravo’s Top Chef franchise. Today, he’s a co-owner, with David Massoni and John Bush, of Three Kings Restaurant Group, whose eclectic mix of New York–area restaurants and bars includes the flagship pan-Asian spot Talde in Brooklyn, the dim-sum house Rice & Gold in Chinatown and the Italian restaurant Massoni in Manhattan’s Flatiron District.
Talde grew up in Chicago, the son of Filipino immigrants. The title of his 2016 cookbook, Asian American: Proudly Inauthentic Recipes from the Philippines to Brooklyn, speaks to the identity politics he has negotiated all his life. Today, his approach is fiercely iconoclastic. “I’m gonna own all of it,” he says of his Asian heritage and U.S. upbringing. “I’m so proud to be Filipino, but my parents didn’t come here for me to say that we are anything but Americans. So why should my food have to reflect what you think I should be doing?”
These days, Talde says, his cooking tends to combine salt, fat, acid and heat in ways that speak to his own cultural mash-up. In his version of the classic Szechuan spicy minced pork over rice, you can just forget about the rice. “Why not put that with sweet potatoes instead?” he proposes. “Sweet potatoes are dope, and we’re in America, where this is indigenous to what we are. And it reminded me of disco fries, which is my jam. Hey, of course you could put it over rice, but try it with sweet potatoes and see how much more awesome it is.”
Plus, he says, the combination of crispy sweet potatoes and minced white meat is perfect for that Friendsgiving potluck where you want to bring something familiar, yet a little different. “It travels really well, and everyone’s like, ‘Yo, this is interesting, what is this?’” he says. “It’s really unpretentious. It’s easy to eat. There’s no fighting with your food. Think about bringing that to a Friendsgiving.”
In the spirit of proudly inauthentic, Talde encourages home cooks to make his recipe their own. “Everything’s a riff, right?” he reasons. “You don’t like pork? Do it with beef. You don’t like beef? Do it with turkey or chicken. It’s awesome with that. Do it with brown tofu.”
The dish gains nuance and depth from an array of spices and condiments, many of them specialty Asian ingredients such as Szechuan peppercorns, toban djan (a spicy salty paste of chiles and fermented beans) and shaoxing wine (made from rice). Look for these at Asian groceries or specialty food markets, but if you can’t find them, he says, it’s no big deal. Swapping in black peppercorns won’t ruin this dish; neither will Sriracha or plain white wine. The resulting flavors will just be less funky and sweet. “I think people will see that they don’t have something and be like, ‘Oh, OK, I can’t make it.’ No! Cooking shouldn’t ever be that rigid. Philosophies and styles should never be that rigid.”
The most important element in the dish is the crispy sweet potatoes, which provide a textural contrast to the soft minced-pork gravy. Your best bet, he says, is actually to buy them frozen. “Frozen potato products always come out crunchier because they IQF [individual quick freeze] them,” he explains. “It draws moisture out and really, really gets them crunchy.” Look for sweet-potato wedges in the frozen-foods aisle. Follow the package instructions to thaw them before you sauté them.
If you’re going the home-cooked route with your sweet potatoes, he suggests washing, drying and slicing them the day before you plan to cook, then letting the wedges sit, uncovered, in the fridge overnight. This will dry them out a bit, helping them crisp up in the pan the next day.
In fact, Talde notes, if at some point in the future you make this with more than 48 hours before you intend to serve it, almost the entire dish can be made well in advance: “Make it a month ahead, whatever,” he says. “This thing freezes really well. It’s like chili.” You could make the pork gravy in advance, minus the tofu, then refrigerate it for a few days or freeze it for longer. Then, “Bring it up to a boil, get it ripping hot, put your tofu in. The tofu will break up, and then it’s warmed through.” Pan-fry your sweet potatoes, combine everything and you’re good to go.
He also has a tip for Thanksgiving day—no matter what you make. “My thing, especially when you’re cooking for a big group of people, is don’t ever turn the oven off. Because if that thing’s underdone—boop!” Into the oven it goes. And if you’re a good host, your guests probably won’t mind anyway: “‘Ah, guys, it’s gonna be another five minutes. Have another glass of wine.’”
To complement his bold cooking style, Talde typically goes for light- to medium-bodied, higher-acidity wines. To balance this dish, which he says is “more spiced than spicy,” he especially likes the juicy fruit core of the lively, fresh Viña Herminia Tempranillo Rioja Herminia 2014.
Talde likes having a couple white wines on the table as well. “That’s the fun part about wine, right? There’s not one right answer.” Grüner Veltliner is a go-to for him. “It’s light, it’s easy-drinking,” he says. And for a palate-cleanser, “If you can get Txakoli, it’s perfect. That effervescence shuts it all off, it turns the spice off, and then it gets you ready for the next bite. It’s made for this kind of food.”
If you’re going for extra Friendsgiving credit and want to bring a side dish to balance the pork and sweet potatoes, he suggests a light, refreshing smashed cucumber salad, a classic Szechuan complement to hearty foods. Cucumbers are cut into matchsticks, smashed lightly with a rolling pin or the back of a chef’s knife, and then salted and drained. Talde adds a simple dressing (play around with rice-wine vinegar, soy sauce and a pinch of sugar), along with shaved sweet-tart apples, such as Pink Lady, and herbs like cilantro, basil and mint.
And when it comes down to it, he concedes, “I would make a pot of rice. Hell, yeah. Pot of rice would be really good with this.” Sometimes a side of tradition has its charms.
For the sweet potatoes:
For the pork:
1. Place sweet potatoes in a large, heavy-bottomed pot. Cover with cold water and add salt. Cover pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook until al dente but not soft, about 5 minutes. Drain and let cool. Optional: Transfer to refrigerator and chill, uncovered, overnight.
2. In a sauté pan, add the vegetable oil, and heat over medium. Place the cooled sweet potatoes on a cutting board and crush lightly with the back of a chef’s knife. Add the Szechuan pepper and black pepper to the pan, followed by the sweet potatoes, working in batches if necessary. Fry the sweet potatoes, flipping once, until brown and crispy on each side. Remove from the pan and drain on paper towels.
3. In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch with 1/2 cup water. Stir to incorporate and set aside.
4. Coat a Dutch oven with vegetable oil or canola oil and heat over medium-low. Add the ginger and garlic and cook for 30 seconds, until just fragrant. Add Asian five-spice powder and cook, stirring, just for 5 seconds or so. Add toban djan, increase heat to medium and add shaoxing wine, then add ground pork, breaking up with a spoon and stirring to coat with the toban djan mixture. Cook until pork is cooked through, stirring occasionally, about 10 to 12 minutes. Add soy sauce and chile oil. Cook, stirring, until some of the liquid has been absorbed, about 2 minutes. Turn off heat and cover to keep warm.
5. Drain off any accumulated water from the tofu and scatter tofu evenly over the pork. Add chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Let cook for 20 minutes. Add cornstarch slurry and sugar, and simmer for another 5 minutes, until thickened slightly. Taste for seasoning. Check sweet potatoes; if necessary, set burner on medium-low to rewarm.
Make ahead: Pork mixture will keep, minus the tofu, in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month. Reheat over medium-low, then add tofu and cook until warmed through.
6. Plate one of two ways: classic disco fries–style, by scattering some sweet potatoes on each plate and topping with pork, or restaurant-style, by spreading pork on each plate and topping with sweet potatoes. Garnish with scallions. Serves 8.
Note: The following list is a selection of outstanding and very good red and white wines from recently rated releases. More options can be found in our Wine Ratings Search.
BODEGAS ONTAÑON Tempranillo-Garnacha Rioja Crianza 2015
This red is fresh and firm, with dusty cocoa, underbrush and licorice notes framing the black cherry and red currant fruit. Keen acidity and well-integrated tannins give this focus. Drink now through 2027. 10,000 cases made.
BODEGAS VIVANCO Rioja Crianza 2014
This plump red has a sweet core of ripe cherry and plum fruit, with leafy, cedar, toast and vanilla accents. Bright, juicy acidity and light tannins give this focus. Lively and harmonious. Tempranillo. Drink now through 2024. 60,000 cases made.
EL COTO DE RIOJA Rioja Coto de Imaz Reserva 2014
Light and crisp, this graceful red delivers cherry, berry, leafy and loamy earth flavors in a supple texture, with light tannins and orange peel acidity that give way to a spicy finish. Drink now through 2024. 100,000 cases made.
CUNE Rioja Viña Real Crianza 2015
Cherry and orange peel flavors show a bright, sweet-tart character in this red. Firm underlying tannins and lively acidity give this structure, while vanilla and spice notes linger on the finish. Drink now through 2025. 5,000 cases imported.
BODEGAS LAN Rioja Crianza 2014
This juicy red offers bright cherry, berry and sweet vanilla flavors, with spice and leafy accents. Citrusy acidity focuses the plush, gentle texture. Graceful and gentle. Drink now through 2020. 96,000 cases made.
FORSTREITER Grüner Veltliner Niederösterreich Grooner 2016
There’s a nice balance here between the peach and apple fruit and the herb and grassy flavors. This is harmonious too, leaving a fresh impression. Drink now through 2023. 3,500 cases imported.
SCHLOSS GOBELSBURG Grüner Veltliner Kamptal 2016
An aromatic style, boasting lilac and freesia accents. Apple and grapefruit notes prevail as this elegant white winds down on the graceful finish. Drink now through 2023. 3,700 cases imported.
DOMÄNE WACHAU Grüner Veltliner Federspiel Wachau Terrassen 2017
Elegant and well-balanced, with flavors of apple and dried apricot and hints of fleur de sel, all supported by firm acidity. Remains focused on the finish, ending with flinty, spicy notes. Drink now through 2020. 42,000 cases made.
ERREKALDE Hondarrabi Zuri Getariako Txakolina Saline 2017
This snappy white delivers bright citrusy flavors accented by briny and light herbal notes, powered by racy acidity and a light spritz. Very fresh, and shows some breadth. Drink now. 14,000 cases made.
ETXANIZ TXAKOLINA Getariako Txakolina Txomin Etxaniz Getaria 2017
This white shows the rapier acidity and mineral profile characteristic of the type, but offers broader flavors of apple and ginger that add depth, if also a touch of rusticity. Drink now. 7,500 cases made.
Clear pumpkin pie, roast turkey, mashed potatoes and the perfect pie crust: Thanksgiving dinner tips you’ve been searching for.What are the cheese pros excited about right now? Like wine, the world of cheese is vast and diverse—potentially overwhelming, but rewarding to explore. No one is happier to guide you than your neighborhood cheesemongers. You should talk to them! In “Cheese Talk,” we introduce you to a top cheesemonger and ask them for three cheeses to look for this month, as well as what wines or other beverages to pair with them.
Eric Schack oversees one of the busiest cheese counters in the country at Eataly NYC Downtown in New York’s Financial District. He’s come a long way from the small cheese shop in Chicago where he took a “day job” before planning to attend graduate school. “I got into cheese kind of by mistake,” laughs Schack. “I went to art school.” But fate and cheese had other plans.
“I fell in love with the topic of cheese, researching it, getting into it more and more.” A few cheese and wine shop jobs later, he started his own business catering wine-and-cheese parties and seminars. In 2013, he helped open Eataly’s Chicago location.
“One of the things that drew me to Eataly was the chance to work with Greg Blais [formerly of Dean & Deluca, Bedford Cheese Shop, Essex Street Cheese Co. and host of the Cutting the Curd podcast] … on top of that, Italian cheese for a long time had been kind of a blind spot for cheesemongers, so the opportunity to work firsthand with such a large collection of Italian cheeses [sealed the deal].” In 2016, Schack moved to New York to open the cheese and cured meat operations at Eataly NYC Downtown.
As Eataly’s lead artisan of salumi and formaggi, Schack is responsible for maintaining the store’s rotating selection of about 250 cheeses (more than 1,000 will be offered over the course of a year). While 60 to 70 percent of the selections are Italian, “it wouldn’t be very Italian of us if we didn’t also feature local foods. The rest of our cheeses are exclusively artisanal domestic.”
There’s meat, too, of course, with more than 100 salumis, including 15 different types of prosciutto. In an average week, Schack goes through about 5,000 pounds of cheese and salumi, including four 90-pound wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, which typically arrive at the end of the week. “My arms ache every Friday,” says Schack who, despite the heavy load, was able to carve out enough time this past summer to participate in (and win) the Cheesemonger Invitational, a national competition of cheese knowledge, pairing and service skills.
Eataly NYC Downtown
4 World Trade Center
101 Liberty St., 3rd floor, New York
(212) 897-2895
Eataly.com
Milk: Cow
Category: Alpine
Region: Greensboro Bend, Vt.
Age: 10 to 12 months
Price: $29 per pound
Eric says: This is a cheese that is a collaboration between the Cellars at Jasper Hill up in Greensboro, Vt., and Anne Saxelby, who runs Saxelby Cheesemongers. Anne had said she wanted to help develop a cheese which [employs] a practice from the Old World, where the cheese rind is prepared with grass or hay from where the cows graze. To create Calderwood, the cheesemakers at Jasper Hill use select wheels of their Alpha Tolman cheese. Yet while the Tolman is still young, they cover the outside with a special dried-grass mulch and vacuum-seal it. Cryovac’ing the cheese pushes the grass into the rind, binding them together to age further in Jasper Hill’s caves. When finished, it’s a completely different cheese [from Alpha Tolman] altogether, and you eat the rind as well. It’s a fantastic experience. With the grass on the outside, the cheese has a better representation of the terroir, if you will, of Greensboro, Vt. You’re immediately transported to the fields surrounding Jasper Hill—you’re eating the literal grass, with the milk that came from that very grass.
Eric’s recommended pairing: Although it’s a bit late for Oktoberfest, I recently enjoyed Calderwood paired with Left Hand Brewing’s Oktoberfest Marzen—fantastic together. My go-to pairing is Shacksbury Cider’s Arlo, whose spirited acidity brings a new layer to Calderwood’s dried-grass rind.
Wine Spectator picks: Jasper Hill’s alpine-style Alpha Tolman is modeled after Appenzeller, the fruity, nutty cheese from northeastern Switzerland. Many of the dry white wines from Switzerland, Germany, Austria and France’s Alsace region will complement Calderwood, especially wines with minerally and nutty or grassy elements. Look for wines from Alsace like Trimbach Pinot Blanc Alsace 2016 (89 points, $18, 12,000 cases made), Dr. Loosen Riesling Kabinett Mosel Blue Slate 2016 (89, $22, 8,000 cases imported) from Germany, or Forstreiter Grüner Veltliner Niederösterreich Grooner 2016 (90, $12, 3,500 cases imported) from Austria.
Milk: Sheep
Category: Natural rind
Region: Abruzzo, Italy
Age: 1 to 2 years
Price: $41 per pound
Eric says: One importer that we work with quite closely at Eataly is Marcelli Formaggi, and one of their cheeses which is a favorite of mine is the Pecorino Brigantaccio. It’s a fantastic Pecorino that is covered with rye bran, and it’s a really great representation of that same practice utilized on the rind of the Calderwood. The name “Brigantaccio” is an ode to the brigands, a group of people [editor’s note: literally gangs of highway robbers] that existed in Italy, and the brigands used to hide their cheeses. They would bury them, to hide them from each other, or from the tax man, so to speak, but you wouldn’t necessarily want a cheese that was covered in dirt, so they would cover it in grass or bran and then seal it in a pot, which they would put a [lit] candle in … to create a vacuum. A year or two later, they would be like “Hey, Giuseppe, didn’t we bury some cheese around here somewhere?” And they would dig up this pot and break it open, and they found that the cheese was not only beautifully preserved but that it tasted much, much better than it had previously.
This is a true raw sheep’s milk–lover’s cheese; the dry paste explodes in your mouth with the scents of fluffy wet wool, warmed tallow and the strong but balanced flavor of an Abruzzo barnyard.
Eric’s recommended pairing: I love this cheese at a table of small bites, like some lamb arrosticini and a few smoked almonds. These and a bright watermelon-forward bottle of Campirosa [rosé] make for a simple meal that’s full in flavor.
Wine Spectator picks: This unique cheese of Abruzzo is a natural match with the local Montepulciano d’Abruzzo reds. Look for Masciarelli Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2015 (87, $14, 39,600 cases imported) and Farnese Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Fantini 2016 (88, $16, 250,000 cases made).
Milk: Cow
Category: Bark-wrapped, washed rind
Region: Dodgeville, Wisc.
Age: 2 months
Price: $26 each
Eric says: There are a lot of amazing washed-rind, spruce-bandaged cheeses that come out this time of year. (For more on bark-wrapped cheeses, see “Bark-Wrapped Treats: Rare and Delicious,” in the Nov. 15, 2018, issue of Wine Spectator.) The one I always look forward to is called Rush Creek Reserve, which is a fantastic cheese, similar to Mont d’Or or Petit Vacherin. This is made in Dodgeville, Wisc., by Andy Hatch, who runs Uplands Cheese Co., the same maker of the much-celebrated, probably most popular artisanal domestic cheese, Pleasant Ridge Reserve. Spruce bandage imparts a very particular flavor to the cheese itself, which I describe as kind of nutty, but also kind of nutmegy. And the milk is the late-season milk, and that milk has the most robust, unctuous, amazing flavor qualities to it, and that’s why the cheese itself is so rich. It’s intense but never offensive. Peeling back the rind reveals a cheese which is in a permanent liquidlike state, this gooey quality that you can dip a pear into. I can’t think of something more pure but at the same time luxurious.
Eric’s recommended pairing: I’m a sucker for Riesling, particularly good Michigan Rieslings. I know I’m biased here, and that those Rieslings are hard to come by outside of the Mitten. This said, Rush Creek loves a solid Riesling, wherever you find one. At the moment, I have a bottle of Teutonic‘s Riesling, from Willamette Valley, reserved for the first wheel of Rush Creek I bring home this season. Another note: Rush Creek is the perfect way to start a Thanksgiving dinner, and has become a staple of my own.
Wine Spectator picks: Only available for a few months each year, beginning in November, Rush Creek Reserve is an occasion in itself. It’s a splurgeworthy cheese that sings with Champagne: With its acidity and effervescence, sparkling wine is an ideal foil for creamy, mouthcoating bark-wrapped cheeses, which are typically luxuriously rich in fat and salt. In the absence of Krug, Dom or Cristal, celebrate Rush Creek season with a domestic sparkler like Argyle Brut Willamette Valley Vintage 2014 (91, $28, 22,000 cases made) from Oregon or Gloria Ferrer Brut Rosé Carneros NV (91, $29, 2,000 cases made) from California.
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