Best Dish in North Carolina Contest
July 2009

The Yancey House Restaurant and Gallery has been named one of the best casual dining restaurants in North Carolina and has four dishes in the finals of the Best Dish in NC Contest.

According to director Matt Tunnell, the purpose of the contest, sponsored by NC Dept. of Agriculture and Our State Magazine, “is to recognize and reward the efforts of restaurants and chefs who source and implement North Carolina products regularly in their menus along with increasing public awareness of the quality of food, restaurants and chefs in our state.”

When a guest wrote to suggest we enter the contest, he said, “I know you are Mike are busy, but this will be easy. It is what you do every day at the Yancey House.” This is true. Since we opened our restaurant three and a half years ago, we have worked closely with farmers and grown our own produce in order to offer our guests dishes with the freshest and highest quality ingredients.

The four finalist dishes will be served Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings throughout the month of July. During this time, contest judges (restaurateurs, chefs, and food critics) will visit Yanceyville to dine as “mystery shoppers.”

They will be judging our dishes according to “a) the chef’s use of NC products and ingredients; b) the creative use of ingredients; c) marketing, plating, and presentation; and d) taste.”

We invite you to come and enjoy these special offerings. Although we cook with local ingredients year round, these specific dishes will be available only during our evening meals in July.

Select from gazpacho made with vegetables all grown on our farm at Two Turtles, the restaurant gardens, and area farms. Try crab cakes made with fresh NC lump crab. For the Isabella’s Summer Chicken, I will use a Poulet Rouge Fermier, a French heirloom breed grown on small farms in the Piedmont area of North Carolina. The dish will also use Carolina shrimp and bacon. For dessert, indulge in a fresh peach trio dessert.

During the next four weeks, in my Literary Chef column that appears in the Caswell Messenger, I will feature the farms and farmers involved in the creation of each dish as well as the recipe.

Absolut Gazpacho

Absolut Gazpacho is a popular Andalusian Spanish dish which utilizes my favorite vegetables of summer. Most simply put, gazpacho is a liquid salad made of yellow, red, and green bell peppers, cucumbers, green onions, fresh garlic, and luscious ripe tomatoes. This week, all of the vegetables in this dish come from our home farm, the restaurant garden, and the Carborro’s Farmer’s Market.

In a large bowl combine ripe tomatoes (peeled, seeded and chopped), 1 cup tomato juice, 1 cup cucumber (peeled, seeded and chopped), 1/3 cup each of chopped red, green, and yellow bell pepper, 1/2 cup chopped red onion, 1 small jalapeno (seeded and minced), 2 minced garlic cloves, 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, 1 – 2 juiced limes, 2 TB. balsamic or sherry vinegar, TB Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp. sea salt, 1 tsp. black pepper. Stir to combine.

Transfer 2 cups of mixture to a blender. Puree for 20 seconds on high speed. Return pureed mixture to bowl and stir to combine. Cover and chill for 2 hours and up to overnight. Serve icy cold with basil chiffonade. We serve our Absolut Gazpacho in a martini glass with a splash of Absolut Vodka (although virgin Gazpacho is available), and garnish it with carrot and celery sticks threaded through a jalapeno pepper ring. Salud!

Make it your own. To peel a tomato, dip in boiling water for 15 seconds, cool, then peel. Use a variety of tomatoes. If you have trouble with acidity, use low acidic golden tomatoes, german Johnson, and brandywine. If not using vodka add a dash of roasted ground cumin.

Lucindy Willis, Ph.D. is chef at the Yancey House Restaurant and Gallery (yanceyvillage.com), 699 US Hwy. 158 W., Yanceyville, NC. 336.694.4225. In her previous life, she taught in the English Dept. at NCSU in Raleigh. Send questions, comments, or topic ideas via email to lucindy@theliterarychef.com. Twitter us at twitter.com/yanceyhouse.