Hugo's: The Education of Rob Evans

From an article in the Maine Magazine, Jan/Feb 2010.

The Education of Rob Evans

He grew up in Southborough, Massachusetts. The men in his family were electricians. Evans went to vocational high school but never even considered working in the trade.

When he was 20, he sold his motorcycle, bought a one-way ticket to Hawaii, and found a cheap apartment right on Sunset Beach and a job cooking breakfast at a surf shop across the street. “That was probably the sweetest situation of my life,” he says. “I was out of work by noon, surfing and playing on the beach all day long. It was so good that it got boring, and I took a job in a cruise ship kitchen.”

On the ship, Evans worked three-month-long shifts with a month off between to travel. He did it for three years. As the ship sailed around the South Pacific, he worked through every station in the kitchen.

In the fall of 1998, Evans tried out for a line cook job at The Inn at Little Washington, the famously over-the-top restaurant and inn in Washington, Virginia. He got the job and went back to working 14 hours a day for eight dollars an hour.

A year later, Evans and his then-girlfriend, now wife, Nancy Pugh, moved on to The French Laundry in Yountville, California. At that time it was considered the very best restaurant in the country.

“Everything was different at The Laundry,” he says. “Everything was cleaner and better, and done its own way.” For his tryout, Evans spent the day in the kitchen doing prep work. During service, he stood in a corner of the kitchen and watched how it all went down. “Watching that food go out sent chills down my spine,” he says.

Evans and Pugh left Napa after six months to open their own place. For a couple months, they lived out of their pick-up. “Our stuff was all over the place,” says Evans. “We had no apartment, no money in the bank, nothing. And that’s when we heard about Hugo’s. The owner was willing to sell cheap.”

In the seven years that they’ve been open, Evans and Pugh have gone from total unknowns to totally famous in the food world.
In 2004, Evans was named one of the best new chefs by Food & Wine magazine. In 2009, he won the coveted James Beard Foundation award for best chef in the Northeast.

Read more.....


Hugo's in Portland, ME

Blog Bites: Madeleines

It was Sunday night, the actors getting awards, the people in haiti still getting not much, John Mayer was singing about heartbreak warfare, and I made my first batch of madeleines based on a recipe by the wonderful Heidi Swanson. Lovely!

1 stick unsalted butter (original recipes calls for 1 1/2 but I think it is too much)
3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
a pinch fine-grain sea salt
2/3 cups sugar
zest of one large lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
powdered sugar
baking spray
Special equipment: A madeleine baking pan, regular or small

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Melt the stick of butter in a small pan over medium heat until it's slightly browned and has a nutty aroma, (takes about 20 minutes on low heat). Strain (using fine mesh strainer) to leave out the solids. Cool the butter to room temperature. 

With the melted butter cooling, use a baking spray (the one with oil and flour) to spray the madeleine pan (I am a bit lazy here, you can also butter the pan and dust it with flour).

Using a kitchenaid is great for this recipe. First, put the eggs with the salt in the bowl. Use the whisk attachment, and whisk the eggs on high speed until thick and frothy (ca. 2-3 min). Continuing the mixer on high speed and slowly add the sugar in a steady stream. Whisk for 2 minutes or until mixture is thick and ribbony. With a hand whisk gently add in the lemon zest and vanilla (just until mixed).

Sieve the flour on top of the egg batter, and also gently fold in with the hand whisk. Now fold in the butter mixture. Only stirring enough to bring everything together. Spoon the batter into the molds, filling each mold 2/3 -3/4 full.

Bake the madeleines for 14-16  minutes (8-10 minutes for smaller cookies), or until the edges of the madeleines are golden brown. Remove from oven and unmold immediately. They are rather fragile, but will get crisp once cooled. Immediately dust with powdered sugar.

Makes 3 dozen regular madeleines.

This post was featured on FoodBuzz's Daily Top 9 on Jan 20 2010.

My little Cooking Cat

The winter is too long, and sitting next to the wood stove can get a bit boring, so Baby Cat has lately decided to check out what I am cooking. She patiently sits on the other side of the stove and seriously inspects all my moves, chops, pots, and baking. As long as she approves, it must be good!

Wilted Winter Salad with Meatloaf Lunch

Another variation of my new lunch: sauteed onion with cherry tomatoes, jicama, corn salad with wilted radicchio and arugula, a splash of black cherry balsamic vinegar and a slices of meatloaf.

Wilted Arugula Salad with Charred Cherry Tomatoes and Bosc Pearc

Salad in the winter.... needs a little adjustment when it is 3F outside. In a heavy pan, I heated some extra virgin olive oil, added a few red pepper flakes, a small chopped red onion, a handful of sliced cherry tomatoes and a sliced Bosc pear. I let it all char slightly, and then added 2 large handfuls of arugula salad. I let it just wilt down, mixing it with the other ingredients in the pan. Once served on a plate, I added pine nuts, blue cheese crumbles, and topped it with a shot of Black cherry balsamic vinegar. ---

Turkey Soup with Vegetables

The winter is in full swing, the wind is howling around the house, the holidays are over, and it is time for some simple, but warming soup. Rummaging in my freezer, I had located a turkey wing, left from Thanksgiving. So, I just added a quart of water, 2-3 handfuls of frozen vegetables, and heated it all, with the wing still frozen. Wonderful flavor steeped from the turkey bone into the soup, and once the meat was heated and soft I pulled it off the bone, and added it to the soup. When the soup finished slow cooking after 30 min, I discarded the bones, and served the soup. The turkey had been brined, so there was still enough salt and herbs in the turkey to be sufficient for the soup.

Pasta Florentine

This is light, vegetarian, full of flavor and light wintery comfort food. It gets its meaty and mushroom flavor from the boca burger, a crunch from the red bell pepper, thick stewy consistency from the spinach and pasta and the light and refreshing taste from the spinach and tomatoes combination.

1/2 ts olive oil
1/2 red onion, diced
1 portabella mushroom boca burger, cut into small dice (or larger if you like)
1/4 cup water
1 small package of frozen but thawed, chopped spinach (like Green Giant) or fresh spinach
2 oz Fiber gourmet elbow pasta
crazy salt, pepper
1/2 ts maggi chicken bouillon concentrate
1 fresh garlic clove or 1/4 ts garlic powder
1/2 red bell pepper, small dice
1 cup passata (or chopped fresh tomatoes)

Use a heavy bottom pot. Heat the olive oil and saute the onion and the diced veggie burger, until the onion is softened and slightly browned, and the boca burger pieces are slightly browned. Add the bell pepper, mix and add the water to scrap off the browned bits from the pot bottom. Add the spinach, pasta and the rest of the ingredients. Mix gently and well so that all the ingredients are mixed. Bring up the heat, and then let simmer on low for 12 min until the pasta is cooked.

Optionally: add parmesan cheese.

Gift Idea: Reusable cup sleeve

Chic and reusable: cup sleeves for that hot latte at Starbucks or Verve. Available at Etsy.com by megan auman.

Red red red Salad (Legal Seafood)

One of my favorite salads that I had a few years ago at Legal Seafood in Boston: the red red red salad. Radicchio, dried cranberries and cherry balsamic vinaigrette, with some pecans and goat cheese.

1 head radicchio, cut in thin stripes
2 TB dried cranberries (or black cherries)
1 TB goat cheese, crumbled (or gorgonzola)
1 TB pecans, toasted and/or spiced (or walnuts)
Black cherry balsamic vinaigrette

Prepare salad and ingredients, and serve with vinaigrette.

Black cherry balsamic vinaigrette:
very good olive oil
black cherry balsamic vinegar (available @Fiore, Bar Harbor, ME)
1 garlic clove, grated (microplaned)
1 TS honey
1 TS mustard
salt, pepper

Fill all ingredients in a jar, and shake well.

Belgian Endive with Apple, Pomegranate, Pecans and Goat cheese

Another great winter salad: endives, celery, apple, toasted pecans, pomegranate seeds and goat cheese with a Galeo dressing.

Local artisan cheese in Maine

Local cheeses in Maine, mostly goat cheese. The Appleton Creamery Goat Cheese, of course, is my favorite.

The article in the Maine Mag.

Exhibit by Kathryn Oliver at the Carver Hill Gallery in Rockport

Planing for a trip to Rockland? This is a destination, too. Opening Reception and Performance by Kathryn Oliver at the Carver Hill Gallery in Rockport on Wednesday, November 11th 2009.

Kathryn Oliver - playwrite, visual artist, sculptor and painter - will have paintings, ceramic sculpture, large puppets and mobiles on exhibit at the Carver Hill Gallery from November 11th to December 7th 2009.

For more information, check here.

Beet Stuffed Baked Apples

several apples, washed and cored
1 beet, peeled and cut into sticks
1/2 cup beef stock (or vegetable stock)
1 TB balsamic vinegar
1/2 ts whole cloves

Core apples and place in baking dish. Stuff with beet sticks. Fill the area around the apples with the mix of beef stock, balsamic vinegar and cloves. Bake at 430F for 30 min.

Serve with goat cheese and pinenuts.

Looking for cute aprons ?

A great online and in-state find for gorgeous aprons: 2 Fresh Threads, Portland, ME.

2 fresh threads
po box 3083
portland, maine 04104
p. 207.317.1536
e. info@2freshthreads.com

Vegan Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Sauce

This is not necessarily skinny, but it is vegan (no eggs, no butter, no sugar), so quite light and just a divine rich chocolate taste, and light cake texture.

Ingredients for a small spring form:
1/3 cp whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup all-purpose unbleached flour
1 ts baking powder
1/2 ts baking soda
1/3 cp cocoa powder
1/4 ts salt
1/2 cp soy milk
1/4 cp canola oil
3/4 cp pure organic maple syrup
1/2 ts apple cidre vinegar
1 ts vanilla extract

Raspberry Sauce (for a small cake):
1 cp frozen raspberries, thawed
1/2 ts maple syrup
1/2 ts vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 9 inch springform pan with non stick cooking spray. Sift together flours and baking powder and baking soda. In a saucepan, heat the soymilk on low-medium heat. When it is slightly bubbling, add the cocoa powder and whisk well until it is dissolved. Remove from heat. Combine the other liquid ingredients in a bowl and whisk well. Add the cocoa mixture and combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry.

Pour batter into prepared pan, bake at 350 F for 25 minutes until a toothpick or butter knife comes out clean. Let cool completely and frost with your favorite frosting.