3 Easter Brunch Dishes: Recipe #19

Plus, some thoughts on Chicago's delicatessens.

This has been a weird week with all my Substack plans upended by the new House and Senate bills heading to the floor with the goal of replenishing the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. This is vital for the survival of the national restaurant community. Follow here for more info.  Like my Easter theme for this week, this economic lifeline for small businesses “has risen.” It’s a miracle. Let’s push it across the finish line.

Before we get to the recipe … I got a lot of heat for not including any Jewish delis in Chicago last week in my city recommender guide for delis.

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Maybe it would help to explain how this works. It basically comes down to the fact that I don’t make sh*t up. When I make a list I include places I have been to or taken food from in some cases. And I include places where the meal I had was memorable enough to want to go back. I have eaten twice at Manny’s in Chicago, and I respect them and their legions of fans and acolytes (and the lunches I had were good), but I never landed in Chicago and thought, “Boy, I really need to go to Manny’s.”

On the flip side, anytime I land in NYC I think about Katz’s. And that’s also why I asked at the end of the column for reader thoughts, because I would love to find a Chicago deli that really moves me. You all sent in some good suggestions, and I will try them next month and report back. I am starting to feel, that like the Twin Cities, Chicago could really benefit from a kick-ass traditional scratch deli.

Here were your ideas for me:

·      Jeff & Judes

·      Kaufman’s

·      Max and Benny’s

·      Morry’s

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And this is tangentially related:

Loved this article. As someone who’s moved around the country after growing up in New York, finding a Jewish deli that’s good outside of New York City is a lifelong quest.

But: a request —

Do you have a recipe for making those superb square potato knishes that Jewish delis used to sell around the New York area in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and so on? Square, about 4” x 4”, and about an inch thick, basically flat on top and bottom. I have tried and tried and tried to reproduce that and never quite got it.

I have only made these, from an old Saveur magazine recipe that’s 15 years old. I add some schmaltz and butter to the potatoes and use extra onions, too. But this a good base recipe to start with.S hape them how you like. Their inspiration was Yonah Schimmel’s knish, which for me was the gold standard back in the day.

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Recipe: King of Tarts

I like Easter. I don’t celebrate it, but I go to a lot of homes that do, and have had some amazing food over the years. I love ham, and a good roasted whole brined/cured pig leg is a thing of beauty, especially for those that also smoke it a bit. I also love roasting a whole fresh ham, which is butcher speak for a pig’s rear leg that isn’t cured.

That being said, like Thanksgiving and some other holidays. It’s all the OTHER food that I die for, the sides are everything. Here are two that I often make to bring to someone’s house and frankly they are good all year long for a weeknight dinner or weekend lunch. I love them both.

Bacon, Caramelized Onion and Gruyère Quiche

Classic French dishes like this quiche Lorraine are making a comeback, and for good reason.

Makes one 9-inch quiche

The crust

·       1  1/2 cups flour

·       1/2 teaspoon salt

·       7 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter

·       1 egg yolk

·       3 to 4 tablespoons ice water

The filling

·       3 ounces natural applewood-smoked bacon, diced small

·       1/2 cup minced onion

·       5 ounces aged Gruyère cheese, grated coarsely

·       3 large eggs, beaten

·       4 ounces crème fraîche

·       Salt and ground white pepper to taste

·       Pinch cayenne

·       Pinch ground nutmeg

·       1/3 cup milk

Make the crust

Mix flour and salt together in mixing bowl. Cut butter into 1/2-inch cubes. Press butter chunks between fingertips and drop into center of bowl. Toss to coat. With fingertips, gradually work flour and butter together until mixture resembles coarse meal.

Whisk egg yolk and 3 tablespoons of water together in small bowl to blend. Drizzle egg yolk mixture over flour mixture, tossing with fork. Stir dough until mixture begins to come together; press together with hands to form a rough dough.

Turn out onto cool counter and press together into mound. Dough will not come together completely. (If dough is very crumbly at this point, sprinkle with enough remaining water to reach this consistency.) Using the heel of your hand, smear a small amount of dough away from you on the counter.  Scrape up and continue with remaining dough, mounding smeared dough together on counter. Press mound into disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours.

Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Roll out crust to 12-inch circle; line a 9-inch tart pan with crust. Trim edges and line with parchment. Partially bake crust by weighing with dried beans or pie weights; bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until set.  Remove parchment and weights; bake an additional 3 to 4 minutes or until crust appears dry. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F, setting aside the tart shell for filling.

Make the quiche filling

Fry the bacon to crisp. Remove bacon with slotted spoon to drain on paper towels.

Place the onions in the pan with the bacon fat and lightly caramelize. Drain. Add bacon and onions to the bottom of the baked crust. Follow with half the cheese.

Combine the eggs, crème fraiche, seasonings and milk. Whisk well. Pour over the onion mixture.

Sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Bake the quiche

Place quiche on a foil-lined baking tray and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 to 40 minutes, or until golden and puffed. Cool for 15 minutes prior to slicing and serving.

Serve warm.

Bacon and Onion Tart

This is one of my favorites. It’s a bacon and onion filling bound with soft, ripened goat cheese and a ballsy Gruyère, poured fairly shallowly into a delicate pâte brisée. Pay attention while you make the tart crust; it’s one you can adapt for a thousand fillings. Add some sugar to the dough and prebake with pie weights, and you will be able to fill it all spring with lime curd and berries.