NorCliff Farms Inc. is pleased to announce that Joshua Groom from 13 Mountain St. Restaurant has taken 1^st place in our 2010  “So You Think You Can Cook?” Culinary Competition. On April 16^th, 2010 our staff hosted a fantastic dinner party with honoured guests invited to be a part of our judging panel and help us determine our winner.

After receiving over 100 recipe submissions from chefs all over Ontario the NorCliff staff had narrowed it all down to the top 3 recipes.

From there we asked our guests to help us determine who the ultimate winner of our challenge would be.

Josh claimed first place in our challenge after majority vote chose his “Fiddlehead on the Roof”, a mouth-watering appetizer incorporating layers of fingerling potatoes, Niagara Gold cheese and NorCliff  Farms Inc. frozen fiddleheads.

The evening included fantastic music provided by husband and wife team Beth and Mark Bartley from VOX Violins. Flowers provided by Sidey’s Flower Shop. Our 5 course-tasting menu was paired with wines from Rockway Glen Estate Winery in St. Catharines and at the heart of it all was our delicious menu created by James Cuttriss and Andrew Patterson from The Heat is On Catering.

 

Fiddlehead on the Roof

 

Fiddlehead on the roof is a dish influenced by classical French cuisine. A new age twist on the old; potato au gratin. Obviously fiddleheads are the key ingredient. It is difficult to pair many items with the fiddlehead without masking its flavour. The potato and cheese of this recipe will make the fiddlehead better versus hide it. The fiddle head is a very elegant item so finding product of top quality is the goal. Equally never forgetting where you are from is always at heart, working with Niagara’s finest cheese will help cure that ache. Truffle oil will be the finish, which never hurts.

Fiddlehead on the Roof Recipe

Ingredient	Measurement	Notes
Garlic	2 cloves	Roasted
Whipping Cream	250ml	35% reduced
Fingerling Potatoes	180g
NorCliff Frozen Fiddleheads	125g	Thawed, strained
Upper Canada Niagara Gold Cheese	50g	Grated
Kosher Salt	1g
White Pepper	.25g	Ground
Truffle Oil	15ml
Micro Basil	1 pinch	Garnish
Dijon Mustard	15ml	Garnish
Thyme & Rosemary	0.0125g of each	Fresh

 

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit
2. In a small tinfoil square. Place garlic cloves, fresh herbs and pinch salt and pepper into tinfoil. Seal tinfoil load in oven.
3.  Cream goes into a sauce pot and starts reducing on low heat until 25% of original quantity.
4. Place product in tinfoil in cream when the garlic colors and softens completely.
5. Refrigerate mixture to fully thicken. When chilled soften with small whisking action.
6. Shave potatoes lengthwise to about one millimetre thick. Bring 2 litres salted water to a boil while slicing.
7. Blanch the sliced potatoes in the water when it comes to a full boil. By submerging the potatoes in boiling water you start the cooking process. Hoping to allow all finished product to be finished at the same time.
8. Remove potatoes after about 1 minute of being blanched. Allow them to drain and to cool spread out on sheet pan.
9. Inside a greased ring mould that has been placed on a parchment lined sheet pan.  Layer the potato slices by stacking them in rotation around the inside of the ring mould. Post potato layering season the potato stack with a small pinch of salt. Season with distance always distributes better.
10. After potatoes are stacked take two table spoons of cool whipped reduced cream and place on potatoes in ring mould.
11. Take half bag of fiddle heads that have been straining and remove all brown spotted or discoloured fiddleheads.
12. Place elite fiddle heads on 8.5×11 sheet of paper towel. Fold the paper towel in half and press removing all water from the fiddleheads. Remove fiddleheads from paper towel and remove stem ends.  Layer nicely over whipped cream inside mould. Layering with aesthetics in mind always helps.
13. Season fiddle heads with small pinch of salt.
14. Top tower with grated Upper Canada Cheese Niagara Gold. Then load in oven for 20 minutes rotating at the half.
15. Remove from oven when time is complete or cheese has fully caramelized.
16. When fresh out of oven take small knife and run around edge of ring mould to remove baked on pieces. Rest the final product for 3 minutes in ring mould.
17. Take table spoon of Dijon and smear across service plate.
18. Remove ring mould and with large metal spatula move fiddle head gratin to plate and place on Dijon smear.
19. Dress plate around gratin with table spoon of truffle oil.
20. Garnish “Fiddlehead on the Roof” with micro basil leaves and serve.