Celebrate CT Tax Free Discount Days At Grants

NOW GRANTS LIFTS THE BURDEN ON YOUR WALLET TWO WAYS
*Buy One Entrée and Get Another One Free, of Equal or Lesser Value*
Monday August 17 – Friday August 21, 5:00 – 6:00 PM
Must Be Seated by 6:00PM
No Take Out Please
Please Mention CODE WORD: “TAX FREE” When Making Reservations

*Order any Grants/Bricco Gift Card ($25.-$500.) from Sunday August 16 – Saturday August 22 and receive an instant 20% discount on cost of the card. (card valid anytime). You’ll see your savings at checkout!
Cards may be ordered online ONLY here.

BILLY GRANT JUST VOTED “ONE OF THE 50 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN GREATER HARTFORD, 2009” BY HARTFORD MAGAZINE, AUGUST ISSUE.

Free Barack Chili At Grants Restaurant

Billy Grant and WTIC – 96 FM Gary Craig are teaming up in celebration of Tuesday’s Inauguration Day 2009

January 20th from 11:30 – 1:00 in front of Grants Restaurant in West Hartford Center. Get a free cup of Barack’s Chili cooked up by Billy from the Obama’s family recipe and a Barack O’Berry soda compliments from Avery’s Beverages. First 96 who show get a souvenir Inaugural T-shirt from Tees & More.

We’ll have all the festivities on televisions inside at the bar so you won’t miss history in the making. So come early and revel with your fellow Americans in good cheer while supplies last.

Obama Family Chili Recipe

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• Several cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 pound ground turkey or beef
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon ground oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon ground basil
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• Several tomatoes, depending on size, chopped
• 1 can red kidney beans

Saute onions, green pepper and garlic in olive oil until soft.
Add ground meat and brown.
Combine spices together into a mixture, then add to ground meat.
Add red wine vinegar.
Add tomatoes and let simmer, until tomatoes cook down.
Add kidney beans and cook for a few more minutes.
Serve over white or brown rice. Garnish with grated cheddar cheese, onions and sour cream.

And keeping with Barack’s pledge of bipartisanship…

Senator McCain’s BBQ Baby Back Recipe

• 4 racks of baby back ribs
• 1/4 cup ground pepper
• 1/4 cup salt
• 1/4 cup garlic powder
• 4 lemons quartered
• 1 glass of water
Mix together pepper, salt, and garlic power and coat ribs evenly and marinate overnight. Place ribs on a BBQ at 400 degrees. Squeeze fresh lemon evenly over ribs every few minutes while cooking.

Nanny Hattie’s Potato Latkes

Happy Hanukkah

4-6 large Idaho potatoes
2 eggs
2 onions
2 -3 tablespoons Italian bread crumbs
pepper to taste
cooking oil (corn or canola works best)

Grate enough potatoes to give you 3 heaping cups and place in a bowl of cold water. When ready to make the mixture, drain well and squeeze out extra water.
Beat eggs and grate onions and add to potato mixture. Add pepper and bread crumbs to make a messy mixture that will hold together.

Heat enough oil on medium high to thoroughly coat the bottom of the skillet. Drop little blobs, about 3 inches round, of mixture into oil cooking until golden and crispy on each side. Make sure to stir batter well before dropping in a new batch. Drain on a paper towel. Keep warm uncovered on a cookie sheet while making the rest. Serve immediately with homemade applesauce.

Christmas Biscotti

Here’s a recipe sent to us from susu27


Christmas Biscotti

1/4 cup olive oil
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt (if nuts are unsalted)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup shelled pistachio nuts

Preheat oven to 300 degrees and line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, cream oil and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, almond extract and eggs mixing well. In separate bowl combine flour, salt, and baking powder and add gradually to the wet mixture. Stir in cranberries and pistachios by hand.

Divide dough in half and form each into 12 inch logs. (wet hands if dough is sticky)
Bake 30 – 35 minutes until logs are light brown. Remove from oven and cool 10 minutes on a cookie sheet or cutting board. Reduce oven temperature to 275 degrees.

Cut logs into half inch slices and lay on sides close together on cookie sheets. Bake about 10 minutes until dry. Cool and enjoy!

GRANTS NEW CHEF’S MARKET MENU

Here is a sampling of our new Chef’s Market Menu at Grants.
Please note: In order to bring you our freshest dishes, this menu changes regularly.

FIRST COURSE
Pan Roasted Wild Mushrooms
anson mills cheddar cheese grits
or
CT Beltane Farms Goat Cheese Gratinee Mission Figs
local apple salad

SECOND COURSE
Grilled Hanger Steak
tender spinach, potato puree, glazed carrots
or
Pan Roasted Atlantic Swordfish
chorizo, mussel broth, and fingerling potatoes

THIRD COURSE
Local Artisan Cheese
native buckwheat honey, fig jam and honey roasted almonds
or
Local Apple Crisp
vanilla bean gelato

Price Per Person: $32
The Chef’s Market Menu is designed for complete table participation.
Kindly: No splitting or substitutions

Chef/Proprietor: William F. Grant III
Chef De Cuisine: Eric Sass
Sous Chefs: Jonathan Hudak, Brent Stanford, and David Wheeler

Neapolitan Meatballs Recipe

Many of you have asked, so here it is…

Neapolitan Meatballs
Ingriedients
5 lbs Ground Sirloin
1 loaf “day old” Italian Bread (crust removed and cut into 1 inch cubes)
1/2 gallon whole milk
10 eggs
1 1/2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
1 1/2 cups Grana Padano Cheese
1/2 cup of pine nuts
1/4 cup dried currents
salt, pepper, and parsley

Procedure
- Cover bread in milk and soak for 20 min
- in large bowl combine all remaining ingredients
-squeeze soaked bread and shred into bowl
- add 1/2 cup of reserved milk and mix gently to incorporate

Chef note- extra milk may be necessary to obtain proper consistency for meatballs

Art Walk And The Cookbook

Support ArtWalk and buy the cookbook that features recipes and photographs from Billy as well as some of West Hartford’s other restaurants.


Corn Risotto                   Billy Grant                     Apple Cobbler

Billy Grant is a bit leery of chefs who call themselves artists. “A lot of people abuse that,” says the chef and co-owner of West Hartford’s Restaurant Bricco and Grants. Far more important to him is the idea that food and culinary tradition are respected, that the very best ingredients are sought out and treated with what he calls “the techniques and timing” essential to bringing out their best.
“Being able to use the best ingredients simply and not complicating them
unnecessarily”
are the keys to Grant’s extraordinary cooking and the success
of his two restaurants.

“You’re feeding people,” he says. “Whether you do that simply or in a
complicated way, those are all decisions you’re making. If you get the right
balance, then it’s an art . It’s not always about creating the next new
dish. It’s about finding the right balance and finding what you can offer at
a restaurant or what you can produce at home for your family.”

Grant’s risotto recipe is a culinary classic prepared to perfection. This
delicious version showcases wild mushrooms, but Grant encourages home cooks
to try seasonal variations. “Your risotto can be altered by changing the
flavor of broths, adding herbs and spices, or incorporating meat, shellfish,
or vegetables,” he says.

As always, start with the best ingredients and master the technique.
Simple is best for a reason.
Interviewed by Deb Hornblow

Book signing: Eat for Art: TD Banknorth branch ( September 20th )

Purchase an ArtWalk 5th Anniversary cookbook for $15 and have it signed by Billy Grant, Scott Miller of Max’s Oyster Bar and Michael Yarnot of the Corner Pug. Refreshments courtesy of Crown Market and Trader Joe’s.

TD Banknorth West Hartford Center branch
29 South Main Street. 11-1 p.m.

Summer Corn Soup

All ingredients are approximations

2 sweet onions thinly sliced
8 tablespoons of unsalted butter (1 stick)
Kosher salt to taste
Freshly ground white pepper
12-14 ears of corn
1 quart of half and half (For a less richer soup you can use milk or chicken stock)
1 quart of water or chicken stock

Method

Step One – Shuck the corn and remove all of the corn silk, with a sharp knife cut all corn off of the cob. Set corn kernels aside
Step Two – carefully grate each cob on a box cheese grater to release of the natural corn milk. Then break each cob in half and place into a 6-quart pot and steep the cobs with half and half. Let stand for one hour
Step Three – slowly sauté the onions in butter without browning for approximately 20 minutes. Season with kosher salt and fresh pepper. When the onions are very tender add the corn kernels stir and cook the corn approximently 5 minutes until the corn is just tender
Step Four – Strain the corn milk and pour into the pot with corn and the onions. Add two cups of the chicken stock to the corn mixture.
Step Five – Now puree soup in a blender, be sure to be careful and use additional broth to thin your soup to desired consistency.

BG notes:

Important to use farm stand local corn pick the day you are planning to make your soup, a combination of butter and sugar corn and silver queen works well. There are several garnishes that work well with this soup
sautéed summer zucchini and squash blossoms
crispy bacon and crème fraiche
your favorite wild mushroom
lobster, shrimp or crab meat

Basic Recipe For Corn Risotto

Be creative – your combinations can be endless

Ingredients

4 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1 finely chopped sweet onion
2 cups of Arborio rice
½ cup of dry white wine
6 cups of heated homemade chicken broth (corn broth can be made by simply box grating the corn cobs and simmering them for 40 minutes with onions or chicken broth or water)
½ cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese (USE good quality Grana Padano or Parmigiano Reggiano)
2 tablespoons of Marscarpone
2 cups of fresh corn kernels and its milk from scrapping the cobs with the back of a knife
4 oz of your favorite wild mushrooms
Fresh herbs such as tarragon basil chives

Method

Melt two tablespoons of butter in a heavy 4 qt pot in medium high heat. Add the onions and cook slowly, slowly stirring with a wooden spoon while the onions soften approximately 15 minutes. Be sure to season, be careful not to brown, stir in the rice to coat the grains with the butter and onion mixture. Add the white wine and cook, stir until the wine is absorbed into the rice, begin to add the broth ½ cup a time stirring after each addition of broth. Wait to each addition is absorbed before adding the next ½ cup of broth and continue this process. should take approximately 20 minutes. When the rice is tender but still al dente add corn, mushrooms, Parmesan cheese, Marscarpone, 2 additional tablespoons of butter and additional stock if needed. Stir until well combined add your fresh herbs and season. Be sure to taste before serving!! ENJOY!!

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