The Tasting Panel magazine

January 2013

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Cooking with Bourbon ONE KENTUCKY CHEF LOVES WOODFORD RESERVE story and photos by Fred Minnick L Ouita Michel is resident chef at Woodford Reserve. iving in Kentucky, I'm exposed to a lot of amazing bourbonprepared food. It seems all of our chefs and amateur cooks make bourbon balls or bourbon-glazed salmon, and who can live without bourbon barbecue? Instead of salt and pepper, we add bourbon. But there's one chef who treats bourbon like wine, always inding a place for it in her recipes. Chef Ouita Michel, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY, owns four restaurants in Kentucky and is the resident chef for Woodford Reserve. She's frequently on television and a frequent name in the James Beard Award nominations. But the most important thing you need to know: She makes the best bourbon food. Ever. And it all started with her love affair with pork. Looking to brine a pork loin with something different, Michel added bourbon. Hey, it tasted good, so she tried bourbon in a chutney. And before she knew it, she was using Woodford Reserve on scallops for an old French recipe called "scallops o'whiskey," Woodford-lambéed shallots in a fumet with crème fraîche. "You sear your sea scallops, lame them in the Woodford, add a little bit of fumet to put the ire out, a little bit of crème fraîche, tarragon, a tiny bit of lemon juice, and it's just outstanding," Michel said. She makes it sound simple. But for us non-CIA grads, cooking with bourbon is not as easy as with wine. I once marinated a pork loin with bourbon and the meat absorbed the whiskey like a sponge. Each bite reeked of alcohol. "There are some bourbon cooking rules I follow," Michel says. Her main rule is one of economic measurement. She uses less-expensive bourbon for large-scale cooking, brines and barbecue sauces. For the high-end items, Michel will use Woodford Reserve. In her ilet mignon, she uses duck fat, shallots, peppercorn, coarse grain mustard, Woodford, tarragon and a demi-glace. "I'll lame the ilet with a little bit of Woodford at the beginning, but then right before we serve the sauce, we'll add a Woodford that's not cooked," she says. Michel inishes with whiskey because many bourbon lovers want to taste the product in the dishes advertising the ingredient. "The most common comment I get from people about cooking with bourbon is, 'I can't taste the bourbon.' If you're going to simmer a sauce for two hours, guess what? You're really not going to be able to taste the bourbon a lot," she says. "That's why I inish with bourbon in a demiglace or sauce." Of course, she says all this while sipping on Woodford Reserve. So typical. I stop the interview and try her almond orange torte with bourbonsoaked orange slices. Um, yeah, I can taste bourbon. 24 / the tasting panel / january 2013 FAD-2013

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