That Day I Made Lunch for Magnus Nilsson

A couple of weeks ago I got this cryptic email from my friend Greg Reynolds at Riverbend Organic Farm near Delano, MN:

Hi Mary Jane,
 
This is all very much blue sky at this point (don't change your plans), but I'm checking out my options. 
 
Are you doing anything on Wednesday June 1st ? Would you be up for making lunch for a few famous chefs using ingredients from the farm ? No pressure, just a few James Beard Award winners, etc....
 
Greg

Of course I was up for it and I told him so.  Then I didn't think much more about it.  Greg and his wife, Mary, have fabulous chef-driven meals on their farm occasionally.  All the best chefs in Minneapolis love him because his produce is simply and consistently glorious.  I think one of the reasons Greg's produce is so popular is his silver palate.   Greg and his wife, Mary, cook and eat very well.  He knows what's good and brings that to the chefs.  I have the great privilege of trading a weekly blog post for a CSA share of Riverbend Farm's wonderful produce.  I love puzzling out simple ways to cook what Greg grows.  I figured this was a big deal, but no use worrying about it, right?  Right.

The following Tuesday, I'm quietly watching our recorded Game of Thrones with my husband when I get this note from Greg:
This is the story:  a Swedish chef , Magnus Nilsson, is coming to town next week. His deal is cooking with food from the local area.  We are having him over for lunch. Other people eating and talking are Paul Berglund, Gavin Kaysen, John Krattenmaker ( Fika, American Swedish Institute, who is hosting the visit to Mpls.), Amy Theilen (cookbook writer), and there seems to be some involvement with the Strib. 

I don't usually swear.  I'm not good at it.  This time I made an exception.  My mind started spinning and I was chattering like a monkey.  What was I going to cook for this table?  I remembered watching The Mind of a Chef with Magnus plucking eggs off a cliff and roasting puffins.  I immediately went to my computer to look up more about him.  I watched Chef's Table on Netflix.  I was star struck.  And then there is the rest of the table of culinary rock stars.  No pressure.....

What was I going to cook for him?  Luckily Greg and Mary had some ideas.  I stopped by their farm a few days later and we talked through menu ideas and what ingredients are available.  Their friend Leroy said the crappies were biting and could deliver a batch of filets for us.  Greg had some hull-less oats he wanted me to try.  He had cornmeal and a few veggies left in the root cellar.  Some lettuce was ready.  I have a ton of herbs and plenty of rhubarb at my house.  Greg had lots of eggs.  The jam I made from my plums was quite tasty.  I think we can make this work.  Mary and our friend Gina Coburn would help.

Simple foods I've done for Target events: boozie milk shakes, chips and dip, corn and tomatoes...

I've done a lot of food consulting work for Target where, on occasion, I would create recipes to be served at events that also featured food from world famous chefs and their restaurants.  It did not take me long to realize that in situations like this, I will always do better if I relax and cook what I know rather than trying to cook to impress. At its best, my food is simple and uncomplicated. My aim is always to try and inspire people to cook at home.  I always want people who eat my food to want to go home and make this for those they love.  I wanted to create a menu using my own advice.

I went away for a weekend with my family Up North.  I went for a long hike in the woods and found some pristine oyster mushrooms.  I piled them into my husbands hat and carried them home.  Now I had another gem to add to the meal.

I wrote the menu.

Rhubarb Cocktail
Cornmeal Fried Crappies
Hushpuppies
Sorrel Horseradish Tartar Sauce
Whole Oats with Bacon Dressing and Wild Oyster Mushrooms
Mixed Greens with Roasted Root Vegetables in a Cider Vinaigrette
Deviled Eggs with Pickled Milkweed Buds
Sourdough Bread, Hope Butter, and Homemade Plum Jam
 
Buttermilk Custard Cornmeal Cake with Hazelnuts and Poached Rhubarb

Mary made the rhubarb cocktail in the style of lemonade.  Very refreshing.   

I tested a buttermilk brine on the fish but came back around to a simple dusting with Greg's white cornmeal and flour with plenty of salt and pepper.  The fish are so sweet and delicate anything more is too much.

The hushpuppies were kind of a joke.  Greg said we needed hushpuppies for the press.  He meant "hush puppy" as in a distraction for them while they talked, not the literal fried balls of cornmeal batter.  We were frying fish, after all, so I decided why not.  They turned out great.

My sorrel is tart as lemons, so I stirred some into a horseradish spiked tartar sauce.  

I had tons of eggs to work with.  The yolks were so very, very yellow.  They made everything look extra rich.   I made a big batch of mayo. I steamed some eggs for 13 minutes and the shells came off perfectly.   I  deviled them to go around the salad.  

The oats cooked up chewy and nutty.  I added a couple of tablespoons of bacon fat to the vinaigrette I dressed them with and stirred in some crisp pieces of bacon from Rieder's Meat Market.  The new broccoli leaves at Greg's farm were so flavorful.  I'd shred some to go around the edge of the bowl.

The cake was adapted from a recipe I created for my food editor at Pillsbury and later at General Mills publications, Andi Bidwell.  After a trip to Italy, she asked me develop recipes based on her notes from some memorable meals.  It was great fun.  One I really liked was a cake with a lemon filling baked into it topped with almonds.  It used 8 eggs.   Perfect.   For this party, I made the cake with Greg's white cornmeal and filled it with a vanilla custard.  I love the flavor of corn and vanilla, it reminds me of Captain Crunch.  I used buttermilk in the custard to replace the tang of the lemon.  I poached my rhubarb in a simple syrup in a slow oven to keep the pieces intact.  They turned a deep ruby red.  Minnesota hazelnuts from another farmer friend, Mike Lilja, were sprinkled over the top and baked up toasty good.

I could not sleep the night before the lunch.  I wished the roasted potatoes weren't so dry, I should have steamed them.  Did I put too much mustard in the deviled egg filling?  Those oats are sucking up a ton of dressing and really need more salt.  My cake, which always sinks in the middle, looked a little too sunken.  Was it done enough?  I didn't actually have time to get Hope butter, but had Organic Valley cultured butter instead.  My milkweed buds were so small....
The next morning, I brought up the lettuce from my basement fridge...and it was frozen.  I left an apologetic message for Greg.  I knew he had more.  But still, what a shame.

Getting Greg and Mary's house ready for lunch.

I got to the farm early so I'd have plenty of time to wash the lettuce, or pick it if, Greg hadn't gotten my message.  He had, and it was waiting for me in the walk in cooler.  The day threatened rain, so we all decided the party should be inside instead of on the lawn as we had originally planned.   I wish I had taken more pictures when the table was set.  It was so pretty with flowers from Mary's garden.  The house was so clean and pretty.  We left the front door open right by the table and the room was perfumed with blooming lilacs.  

One of the best surprises was the news that Paul from Bachelor Farmer was sending his sous chef, Ian, and another chef, Harper, out to help me.  That brought its own worry.  These two have WAY more culinary skills than I and they are coming to help me! They could not have been sweeter or more helpful.   Plus they brought a spread of pastries, wonderful cheese (I love Bent River camembert),  and Red Table salamis for the press.  Ian asked for my hush puppy recipe.  I was very flattered.  Ian has a two-year-old sourdough starter that he used to bake some loaves of wonderfully chewy fine-grained breads.  My mom has a starter that has been around for over a hundred years.  I used to teach sourdough classes  a lifetime ago.  We all had plenty to talk about in the kitchen.  I was greatly relieved to have Ian's watchful eye on the fish and fritters.

Ian and Harper in Greg and Mary's kitchen.

Deviled eggs with pickled milkweed buds and fresh garden lettuce

Magnus and Paul Berglund showed up almost an hour early.  They stepped into the kitchen while I was sautéing the oyster mushrooms for the oat salad.  It was surreal.  He leaned against the kitchen wall looking so young in his jeans and sneakers.  And yes, his hair is amazing.  We chatted a little bit.  I showed off the mushrooms I had found and offered them a taste.  Good butter, great mushrooms and a little salt.  Nothing better.  

They went off to talk about farming with Greg and tour the farm while we finished up.  Ian was making this amazing coffee by pouring panfuls of boiling water over the grounds in a large chinois strainer.  The aroma was so fruity it smelled like there were raisins in the mix.  I added a bit more vinaigrette and salt to my oat salad and put the platters together.

Paul from Bachelor Farmer stuck his head in a said they could come to the table any time, so I started frying up hushpuppies and fish.  The fish came out so pale from the white cornmeal clinging to delicate sweet flakey fish.  They were lovely.  I scattered some chopped chives over them all for a bit of color and fresh herby onion flavor.  When the hush puppies were done they were a deep golden brown and looked pretty nestled up against the fish. 

When the food was ready, I joined the table. I served everything family style.  I sat across from Lee Svitak Dean, food editor for the Minneapolis Star Tribune.  Next to her was Paul Berglund (Bachelor Farmer's chef with a new James Beard Award),  then Greg Reynolds and Amy Thielan (food writer, chef and Food Network personality).   Across from Amy was Gina Coburn (neighbor, friend and cafe owner), then Mary Reynolds, Magnus Nillson, and Gavin Kayser (Spoon and Stable's chef/owner with his own James Beard Award)  right next to me.  Everyone was relaxed and chatty.  

Paul had funny stories about his travels in Sweden with his dad.  He shared his great affection for the smell of the pine tar the coastal villagers paint on their homes in the summer.  Gavin quipped he would be sure and get him a can on his next visit to Sweden, his wife's home country.  Paul chatted with Magnus about his visit to his remote Swedish restaurant, Fäviken.  it sounds magical.  Magnus has only the faintest trace of an accent, once pronouncing Holstein with a long i sound.  Cute.  The beef he serves is from older dairy Holstein cattle.  He's developed his own method for aging the beef up to 5 months under a coat of tallow to make it tender.  All that exercise on the pasture and long life must make the beef incredibly flavorful.  I look forward to trying it one day.  The fat on those steaks is butter yellow.

I learned from Magnus that while they have lots of reindeer where he lives, you cannot hunt them.  They are privately owned and branded at birth by an ear notching.  Then they run free.  That reminded me of stories of pigs running free in the woods in pioneer times here.  That led to lots of talk about pork.  This crowd does not believe pork should be the other white meat.

Gavin said he's had complaints on the weekends that his pork chops are too fatty.  Mary mused that weekends must be amateur nights for diners.  Magnus said that if diners don't eat the fat on the plates at Fäviken he won't bring out the next course.  He said he's relaxed that rule a bit, relenting if the guest at least tastes it.  Magnus told stories of the pigs he raises for his family.  One season the pig pen wasn't ready, so the two pigs were put in with the sheep.  The pigs grew to believe they were sheep for the rest of their lives.  These "pig sheep" would escape their pens and return to graze with the sheep.  The resulting pork was too muscled and not fatty enough.  Amy talked about the surplus of pork fat in her freezer at home.  Paul said he has fryers full of lard and still has more than they can use.  It made me think of the bags of pork fat in my own freezer that I have yet to render into lard.

It was fun to hear about the pigs that Magnus keeps now.  They are raised through the winter, growing a thick fur coat, which they shed for the summer.  He talked a bit about the lean commodity pigs in Sweden that they call pig-hams.  They are the size of dogs and not very tasty.  

The conversation turned to fishing.  When Magnus travels, he always asks if they can go fishing.  This was no exception, he was planning to go out on Saturday morning.  Magnus explained a new system at Fäviken he has for sourcing burbot, what we call eelpout.  He leaves foam fish boxes at the loading dock of his restaurant.   Local anglers drop off fish in the boxes and Magnus pays them later.  Amy tried to explain our Eelpout Festival.   Which turned the discussion to the summer solstice festivals in Sweden.  Magnus showed a video of the maypole dancing to Mary.  Because the sun never really sets at the solstice, there is really no need to stop the party.  

I brought out the dessert, Ian poured his wonderful coffee and we all talked a bit more.  Ian and Harper joined the table for a bit.  Magnus gave us all signed books of his photograph collection.  Then it was time to go.  In typical Minnesota fashion we lingered a bit, chatting in the driveway.  Magnus was a great sport about all the photos we took before he left.

From left to right: Paul Berglund, Amy Thielan, Magnus Nilsson, Harper, Ian Heieie, Gavin Kaysen, Greg Reynolds

Greg, Mary, Gina and I all pitched in to wash the dishes.  It was a fun recap of the lunch.  Then I dashed home to change before we all headed out to a party for Magnus at the Minneapolis Swedish Institute where we got one last and best photo together.  

From left to right: me, Greg Reynolds, Magnus Nilsson, Mary Reynolds, Gina Coburn

I am so grateful for this opportunity to cook for this amazing group.  This blog post is as much for me as for  those who may read it.  I want to remember it all. Incomplete snippets of stories keeping flitting into my mind from the table...Paul's perfect picked to order salad,  something about a steamed broccoli leaf.  I know there is lots more.  Hopefully Lee will be writing about it.  Everyone was so very complimentary of the food.  I am truly humbled.  It was wonderful spending a day celebrating the good food we have right here in Minnesota with a table full of friendly people who's lives happily revolve around food.

Skål!