Here are 3 warm and filling Fall/Winter recipes from Jonathan Bardzik!

15th October 2021 BWM Staff

During the fall and winter months, most people are looking for something nice, warm and filling to satisfy them. Well, fall is here and the Bears are hungry!

We have gathered three of our favorite fall/winter recipes from one of our favorite chefs, Jonathan Bardzik. These hot recipes are finger-licking good and will keep you nice and full!

Bacon fat-roasted sweet potatoes with brown butter chimichurri

Serves 4

Brown butter replaces olive oil in this classic Argentinean herb sauce. Brown butter’s nutty flavors pair perfectly with rich, sweet potatoes roasted with garlic and the fresh herbs offer bright balance.

For potatoes:

3 slices thick cut bacon
6 medium sweet potatoes, about 2 lbs
2 cloves garlic, minced

For chimichurri:

2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 parsley
1/4 cup chopped chives
1/2 tsp Aleppo pepper or sweet Hungarian paprika
2-3 tbs cider vinegar
6 tbs butter, cut in 1 tbs pieces

Hot sauce like Frank’s or Tabasco

Directions:

Cook bacon in a 12” skillet over medium heat until fat is rendered and bacon is crispy. Remove bacon to paper towels until cool and chop. Reserve rendered bacon fat.
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Make potato fries: Meanwhile, peel potatoes and cut lengthwise in to steak fry-like wedges, about ½” thick on the outside. Toss potatoes with bacon fat and garlic. Season with salt and pepper and arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet. Place fries in oven and roast until tender inside and crispy and lightly browned outside, about 20 minutes.
Make chimichurri: While fries cook, combine garlic, parsley, chives, Aleppo pepper or Paprika and vinegar in a food process. Finely chop.
Melt butter in a 10” skillet over medium-low heat. Continue cooking until milk solids in the bottom turn a rich, nutty brown color. Add herbs from food processor and cook for 30 seconds to warm through. Season to taste with salt, freshly cracked pepper and hot sauce
Serve warm chimichurri immediately over roasted sweet potato fries.

TIP: the browned butter will thicken at room temperature so serve warm sauce over the hot fries to keep it liquid.

For the past 10 months now we’ve stayed close to home and kept our circle small. We have so many wonderful friends that we look forward to sharing years and years of pool parties, Sunday brunches, Friday happy hours, weekends away and snuggle movie weekends at home with; and we’ve been staying safe, as have they, to make sure all of those wonderful times together happen.

As we head into winter 2021 we have become expert level hibernators and Jason and I are ready to go. And, as we snuggle up together under a blanket or three on the couch as we get ready to binge Harry Potter (again) we will be practicing our brunch game, because it won’t be long now until Sundays will fill our table with the friends we’ve missed. We can’t wait to greet them at the door – with a big hug. Happy New Year!

Lemon poppyseed ricotta waffles

Serves 4-6

Moist, lemony, rich, with a little crunch from the poppyseeds and cornstarch. It’s just the right amount of everything and not too much of anything. A warm fennel seed, honey butter, running down onto the plate tops them perfectly.

PS I know this looks like a lot of ingredients, but most of them are pantry staples and there’s almost no work involved!

Dry ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs poppyseeds

Wet ingredients:

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup whole milk
2/3 cups melted butter
1 tbs sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 lemons, zested

For honey butter:

3/4 cups butter
1/3 cup honey
1/4 tsp ground fennel seed

Directions:

Make batter: Mix dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. In a separate, larger bowl, mix wet ingredients together. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and whisk until combined. Do not over mix. It’s okay if there are a few streaks of flour. Let rest for 30 minutes.
Make honey butter: While batter rests, melt butter in a small saucepan. Add honey and fennel seed and keep warm on low heat.
Cook waffles: After resting batter, cook it in your waffle maker according to directions. This is a wet batter, so cook them a little extra time until well browned. Serve immediately or keep warm directly on the racks of an oven set at warm or 200° F.

TIP: Waffles are all about a crunchy exterior and tender interior. Stacking them up in the oven steams the crunch out of the exterior. Placing them directly on the racks keeps them crisp.

The Best Mashed Potatoes Ever!

What’s the secret to the world’s best mashed potatoes? Three things:

Use the right potato: Use a good starchy potato. Yukon Golds are a great potato, but unless you want creamy instead of fluffy, they just won’t cut it for mashed. At your local grocery store that means Russets. If you’re hitting your farm market look for varieties like Kennebeck, Eva and Reba.
Use the right tool: Pass the potatoes through a ricer or food mill. The less you work them the fluffier they are. That old fashioned masher makes them lumpy and beaters just make them gummy. Bonus! The food mill will catch the skins. No more potato peeling. Don’t worry, you can find another job for cousin Johnny!
Add a bright bite: The one thing lacking amidst the comforting starchy potatoes, rich cream, and butter was a little bite. Something to keep your palate from being lulled to sleep. Sour cream is too sharp. Crème fraîche is the perfect answer. Look for it with the good cheese display at your grocery store.

Serves 4-6

Light and fluffy, rich with cream and butter and with just the right bite from crème fraiche – sour cream for grown-ups. These are everything good-old-fashioned mashed potatoes are meant to be. You can dress them up with a drizzle of truffle oil or fried sage leaves, but for Thanksgiving I like them simple and delicious!

Ingredients:

3 large starchy potatoes, like Russet
2 tbs butter
1/2 cup cream
3 tbs crème fraiche

Directions:

Boil whole and unpeeled potatoes until a paring knife easily pierces to the center, but potatoes are not falling apart.
Using the finest disc, press potatoes – peels and all – through a food mill into a medium bowl. The food mill will catch most of the peels.
Stir butter, cream and crème fraîche into warm potatoes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Absolutely drown in gravy!