The Northern Table: A Winter Dinner from Forest & Field

Overview:

As winter settles across the North, the forest and field offer a distinctive palette of flavors shaped by the season. For generations, northern cooks have relied on time-honored traditions of smoking, curing, drying, fermentation, and long-term storage to carry the harvest through winter. This class brings those traditions to the modern table, exploring how ingredients from forest and field can be transformed into an elevated winter dinner.

In the kitchen, at each course we will explore the techniques that bring the flavors of the North to life. We will work with hot-smoked walleye and lean venison alongside wild rice, forest mushrooms, aronia berries and winter apples. Through smoking, roasting, slow cooking and reduction, we will discover how these ingredients develop depth and character. We will also explore traditional preservation methods and the balance of smoke, acidity, sweetness and earthy flavors that define a northern winter table.

Together, these techniques create a dinner that reflects the character of the North in winter—smoky, earthy, tart, savory, and deeply rooted in the ingredients of forest and field.

In this culinary experience you will:

• Lean Game Roasting Mechanics: Temperature management, searing, and resting techniques for lean game roasts (venison/elk) to maintain tenderness.
• Reductions & Native Fruit Chemistry: Utilizing high-tannin, astringent berries to build balanced, glossy pan glazes for wild game.
• Dual-Grain Risotto Mechanics: Managing differing absorption rates and starch release when combining wild rice, barley and rehydrated dried mushrooms.
• Hot-Smoking & Oil Infusions: Incorporating delicate smoked fish flakes into starch-bound soups and cold-extracting vibrant botanical dill oils.
• Fruit Preservation in Pastry: The mechanics of fruit dehydration and controlled rehydration to intensify natural pectin and flavor profiles in baked tarts.
    

Menu: 

• Potato-Leek Soup with Smoked Walleye & Dill Oil: A velvety, cream-finished root soup topped with tender flakes of hot-smoked lake walleye and a vibrant house dill oil.
• Aronia-Glazed Venison Roast: Lean roasted game finished with a dark, tart aronia berry reduction.
• Wild Rice, Barley & Dried Mushroom Risotto: A rich, earthy risotto demonstrating slow-stock absorption, wild rice gelatinization and umami extraction from dried forest mushrooms.
• Slow-Braised Red Cabbage with Orchard Apples: Crisp red cabbage simmered with caraway, cider vinegar and sweet winter apples.
• Rehydrated Orchard Apple Tart: A flaky pastry filled with concentrated, spice-infused rehydrated apples.
• Keepsake Hard Cider: A crisp, spontaneously fermented local hard cider paired to complement the smoked and earthy profiles of the feast.

Notes:

• We are unable to accommodate individualized changes to the menu.
• Per University of Minnesota Policy, sampling alcoholic beverages is for educational tasting/pairing purposes and will be limited to small pours. 

Instructors: 

Chef Cheo Smith brings his experience in kitchens of all sizes — from the home oven to producing hundreds of school lunches a day, and now, to the Farm at the Arb. A Minnesota native, Cheo is a member of the Sisseton Whapeton Oyate and descendant of the White Earth Nation. He seeks to bridge the gaps in access and knowledge that prevent many people from getting farm fresh ingredients to their dinner table. His mission is to make preparing great tasting and healthy foods accessible to the home cook.