5 Things Volume 4

Volume 4

The backpack kids are back in town. School is back in session and with a new season comes its ups and downs.

1. Our co-workers have less time for us! Some of our really hilarious and youthful souls are back in the world of academia. Study hard: Cedar, Asher, Keira, Jake, Cy, Cal, Ian, Kjell, Lucy and Thomas. On a very, very exciting note- Penti (our summer spunky basement daredevil) is studying abroad in India and we wish him all the luck and encouragement on his grand adventure overseas.

Pictured is the Mr. Deli Manager TK -- not going back to school -- who's been keeping his nose in books while researching more and more about fermentation but that's for another 5 things.

2. We have been joined by a local jean-vest-wearing-rockstar Jacob. When he's not slaying sandwiches, Jacob's a multi-media working artist in Duluth. He makes short films, shoots video and plays in several bands in town. Welcome to the island of food weirdos!

Ok... So if you add the look, the knife and the t-shirt... You might get the wrong impression of him. He's actually an incredible sweetheart. We just wanted him to be fierce for the internet. 

3. Earlier this summer our assistant manager JT (read: Coach) took a leap of faith and moved across the country to Montana. We were heartbroken to lose him as he brought in a stellar sense of humor to the workplace, but we knew that he had a different scenery calling his name. So since we're in the middle of testing our new sandwich kit, we sent JT the first four person Cajun Finn Kit! Reports say it arrived safely and made for a sentimental meal with a piece of home. We miss you, JT!!!

This could be you. Stay tuned as we will announce the Cajun Finn Kit this fall!!

Barn dinner. Barn dinner. Barn dinner. Those two words have been on everyone's mind for the last month here at the Smokehaus! So we are happy that tomorrow is finally the day that we will be sharing and making a wonderful experience with 50 guests and co-workers. Eric Goerdt sure knows how to throw a damn party!

4. Stephen and Mary made Mozzarella from scratch for our antipasto platters that we are serving at "Boot in the Barn" this Saturday at Hemlock Preserve. To make Mozzarella you have to bring up your curd mixture to 105 F. There was talk about double gloves, hot hands and other phrases that confirms that love and labor went into the making of the Mozzarella. 

5. Three large Porchettas will be smoked, roasted and fire licked as the main event for our "Boot in the Barn" dinner. This week Eric and TK rolled Berkshire pork loin and bellies together. Each Porchetta was massaged and slathered with white wine, lemon, rosemary, sage, garlic and olive oil and will be cooked until tender-perfection. Each Porchetta weighs about 20 lbs!!!! That's a lot of mouth-watering Berkshire pork.

Excuse our raw image, processing isn't always glamorous but the outcomes are worth the mess. 

5 Things Volume 3

Volume 3

It's the last official Friday of the summer! We've been honking right along, despite the competition (or welcome reprieve) of the State Fair, with catering, special events, and delivery.

1. We cranked out 67 BEAUTIFUL raviolo for our Boot in the Barn Feast on September 9th. Eric's special pasta recipe is stuffed with Bayfield sheep's milk ricotta, Parmigiano Reggiano, Minnesota sweet corn, leeks, and love. 

2. Stephen finished the Cedar Lounge menu - making this cozy Superior watering hole even more unique: it's the only place in Superior we will be providing regular delivery!

3. Northern Waters Restaurant has been offering a Burbot Po' Boy sandwich - based on the New Orleans original but adapted for the Northwoods, it's a must-try! 

4. Ken Hammerlund, mystical vegetable genius (aka our tomato guy), appeared with his own blend hot sauce. We've been working on our own recipe, and his zesty, veggie-infused concoction is a great inspiration.

5. Woody's brand new baby boy has robbed him from our basement! Jeremy has been holding down the prep room nonetheless, even as the sandwich cooler has been on the fritz, employees have called in sick, and delivery has exploded! Thanks, Jerbaby Boi.

6. BONUS: Boot in the Barn planning is revving up. We've selected a remarkable amount of crystal, travertine, bronze, and silver to make a Medici marvel. Ci vediamo li! 

Boot in the Barn: A Celebration of the Harvest

Boot in the Barn: A Celebration of the Harvest

September 9th at 5pm 

 School’s back, winter’s coming, and it’s almost time to tuck in. We are celebrating the bounty of late summer Italian-style with a lavish dinner in a spectacular location, and you're invited.Northern Waters Smokehaus is hosting another Barn Dinner in Esko at the beautiful Hemlock Preserve. A private estate that plays hosts to weddings and parties every season, Hemlock includes a large barn dining room, a lavish nook-laden lounge, and views of the Saint Louis Valley.The $75 tickets grant entrance to the historic barn, where guests will be served cocktails, beer, wine, and spritzers and then receive a 5 course meal celebrating the harvest. The menu will include local seasonal ingredients and is inspired by Italian (specifically Tuscan) cuisine, which parallels Smokehaus food in all the right ways - it celebrates simple ingredients, isn’t afraid to party a little bit, and demands technique in every step.The meal will include campari cocktails, beer, wine, and non-alcoholic drinks; a pasta course; fire-licked porchetta made with Berkshire pork loin and belly (a very special blend) and stuffed with sage, rosemary, and garlic; a salad course; dessert; hausmade limoncello; and coffee.Music, as usual, will be provided - just bring yourself, relax, and celebrate the season.This will be the last public dinner offered by Northern Waters Smokehaus for the year at Hemlock Preserve. You can order tickets online, email or call Mary or Flo at (218) 724-7307 ext 201  

Northern Comfort - A Barn Dinner with Northern Waters Smokehaus

On July 22, 2017, we welcome you to another Smokehaus/Hemlock Preserve collaboration at the barn in Esko.

We can't help but reminisce.

It's August 2015, a heady day amid a heady summer, and I am slogging through piles of prep in the Smokehouse. There are smokers, dishwashers, managers, prep people, and miscellaneous fishermen who need their fish custom-smoked endlessly pouring in and out of the long oblong space, slipping on the moist bricks of the kitchen floor and talking as loud as they can in order to be heard above the clamber of our industrial fans and Daft Punk. Fresh smoke is in the air from a recent truck (a large, rolling cart that has little shelves to load perforated racks for smoking) of smoked pork shoulder, which is cooling magnificently in the center of the room, a white-handled Dexter knife placed on the top rack beside a chunk that has been hacked off and savored. I'm "supervising" cornbread: Eric's recipe, which includes lovely fresh corn off the cob and lovelier butter and cream, needs to be backed in batches and served while still warm to guests 45 miles and 2 hours away. We have heirloom tomatoes to delicately dismantle, Octo-Vin (fresh and unashamedly from the pages of the Momofuku cookbook) to make, herbs to pick, pasta salad to season, servers to wrangle, and the almighty "gather" list to attend to. I've got an empty stomach, a torn t-shirt and filthy apron, and it's about time to load up.

On the way to Esko, just as we crest Thompson Hill, I get a frantic call from my partner in crime, April. She can't account for the Octo-Vin - and neither can I, so I scramble to the back of my Volvo as my husband continues speeding towards our destination, and I'm digging through towels and warm (read:hot) cast iron skillets of cornbread and adorable menu cards that Flo magically whipped up and I touch a mystery Cambro, extract it from its nesting place - and voila! - our not-so-secret sauce. "Good news," I tell April over the Volvo's failing muffler, "I found the Octo-Vin." "We need ice!" April laughs. We're pretty used to these situations - we kind of live for them.

There's a little cloud of dust as we turn down the dirt road toward Hemlock Preserve, obscuring the brambly ditch weeds and meandering path for a few minutes, but we make the turn toward Sue Watt's estate and everything becomes clear. Two straight rows of pale pebbles guides our tire, a manicured strip of hyperactive green grass down the center. Our kitchen - a ten-by-ten foot tent that we use during farmers markets along with a propane-powered set of turkey fryers and a few folding tables smartly lined with Epicurean cutting boards - is pretty much ready for action and we pull up to unload. I leave the Volvo empty handed in order to get the lay of the land and walk toward the barn.

The barn - white, stately, adorned with Rhododendrons - I haven't seen it for a few months, when it was closed off for the season. Now it is in full blossom. It is elegant and country, mismatched and perfectly appointed, it is the Henri Matisse of barns - it is natural but it is secretly, expertly organized. Every nook and cranny is a still life. The sunlight is somehow captured in the vaulted holiness of the barn's wooden ceiling arches, and I get the feeling I am smelling hay from pre-war Minnesota. There is twinkling from the silverware and creaking from the floorboards. Ned has started to tune up his guitar and starts playing a Pavement song gently to himself. This is perfect. I think this to myself, but I'm saying it out loud, and everyone else is saying it too.

The food that follows has no choice - it is also perfect, as are the guests, the drinks, the wacky chauffeur, the soft ice cream, the distant lightening. This place is like that - inexplicably, effortlessly glorious. The day's preparations, anxieties, arguments and oversights have vanished into the evening, drifting down the meadow into the St. Louis River Valley with the embers of our bonfire, soaked up and overturned by our guests and their laughter.

We invite you to join us once again to Hemlock Preserve. Dinner will be served - fried chicken and fixings - as well as drinks and dessert. We figure we all deserve a little Northern Comfort.

Hemlock Preserve barn with table by Sue Watt, dinner by Northern Waters Smokehaus, and menu cards by Flo.

Barn

Ned Netzel