slaw | Johnny Prime

NOTE: THIS PLACE IS CLOSED

My wife picked up a Gilt City deal for David Burke’s joint at Bloomingdale’s. I noticed some nice looking sandwiches, a decent looking burger, and a hanger steak on the menu, so I was psyched to try it out.

Unfortunately, the special menu for the flash deal eliminated all of the things I was interested in trying: pastrami sandwich, French dip, burger, and hanger steak frites. But not to worry! This deal actually supplied us with a LOT of food, and, contrary to out last experience with a Burke joint (Fabrick), the food here was really good.

They start you with warm cheddar popovers. I can eat a basket full of them. Very tasty.

I ordered the grilled tofu Thai peanut salad to start (please don’t kill me). It was actually really good! It had an acidic pop to it from the various citrus and fish sauce additives, and good texture from the jicama and cabbage slaw.

My wife had the tomato soup, which was velvety smooth, topped with a Peter North -like splash of basil oil, and accompanied by a miniature grilled cheese sandwich.

For my entree, I had the grilled salmon.

It was cooked to a nice medium temperature, and it sat on a bed of slaw that was similar to my starter salad, only heavier on the slaw component as opposed to the lettuce. It also had a pop of cumin in it that altered the flavor profile a bit. The salmon skin had a great crisp to it as well.

My wife had chicken Milanese; breaded and fried tender chicken cutlet, topped with arugula and shaved Parmesan cheese, and garnished with grape tomatoes and lemon wedges.

There was a nice tomato-based sauce underneath too, but just the right amount so that nothing got soggy or smothered.

For dessert, I had this chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. I usually don’t go for chocolate cakes, but this was delicious.

My wife had the sorbet with fresh fruit. Really nice, actually, when you mixed both desserts together for a bite.

If you can still find this deal online, I recommend it. While they severely limit the menu on you, what you do get is good quality and a lot of it. You’l leave full, and with a feeling that you got a good deal.

DAVID BURKE AT BLOOMINGDALES
1000 3rd Ave
New York, NY 10022

I whipped this bitch up after a surprise trip to the Mosner family meat processing plant for a tour and butchery class. Check out my write-up of that shit HERE.

Once we got home, I was itching to try some of what we just worked on, so I took the stew meat scraps and threw them into the slow cooker with some apple shit and some spice shit.

I set it on low and slow. Four hours later the result was amazing. My wife and I threw it onto a sandwich with some pickled cabbage and a spicy mayo. Check out the recipe below assholes:

What you need:

about a pound, or pound and a half, of pork stew meat
apple moonshine or brandy (3/4 cup)
can of apple sparkling water (12oz) or apple juice
one serving of apple sauce (unsweetened – 4oz)
2 tbsp brown sugar
3 cloves of garlic (cut each into thirds or quarters)
1 small to medium sized onion (halved)
kosher salt to taste
crushed red pepper to taste
cloves (about 10)
1 small cinnamon stick
fresh cracked black pepper to taste
handful of baby carrots, sliced thin
shredded cabbage
white vinegar
mayo
habanero hot sauce or sri racha sauce
sliced jalapeno
sub/hero bread

THE MEAT

1) Mix the apple sauce, apple brandy, and apple sparkling water to use as a braising liquid base. Add to the slow cooker.

2) Drop your stew meat into the slow cooker.

20140405_182207 — stew meat swimming in the slow cooker

3) Add salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, cloves, cinnamon, garlic, and onion into the slow cooker.

Me, magic-wanding in a mix of kosher salt and crushed red pepper

4) Set slow cooker to 4 hours on LOW. Mix that shit around every so often while it’s going.

5) When finished, pull out of the liquid and cut the meat into manageable chunks for a sandwich.

NOTE: This meat is going to come out sweet if you go light on the spice, so what I did below was create some extras to balance the sweet with a little kick of spice. Be a man – do it.

THE TOPPING

1) Get some tupperware and put the carrots, cabbage and white vinegar into it.

2) Add some spices as you see fit.

3) Let that shit sit and soak until it’s party time.

THE DRESSING

1) Add habanero sauce or sri racha sauce to mayo as you see fit.

2) Mix.

NOTE: if you have the ability, like my wife did, then you should make your own mayo from fucking scratch. How? Whisk together 1 egg yolk, a little blob of dijon mustard, a little white vinegar, a pinch of salt, a little olive oil, and a squirt of lemon juice until it becomes like a nice aioli. That shit will have a little zing of acid to cut the sweetness and spice of the other sandwich elements.