THE BEST APRES-SKI RECIPES
Ski-condo kitchens aren’t always the best-equipped, but that shouldn’t stop you from going for the gold when you come in from the cold. These recipes for Swiss rösti, lamb shanks with currants and chickpeas, and peppermint schnapps whoopie pies will warm and satisfy after a day on the slopes
By Matthew Kronsberg
COOL FUEL | Clockwise from left: rösti; lamb shanks with currants and chickpeas; peppermint schnapps whoopie pies
STEPHEN KENT JOHNSON FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, FOOD STYLING BY JAMIE KIMM, PROP STYLING BY STEPHANIE HANES
EATING WELL (or at least heartily) is one of the great, earned pleasures of a day spent skiing or snowboarding. Often less pleasurable is negotiating the ski-town dining scene: Expensive food and long waits can make a home-cooked meal back at the rental look attractive. That is, until you think about the typical ski-condo kitchen.
There’s the set of cut-rate knives, all serrated, most gaptoothed; the iPad-size cutting board; and the skillet that lost its nonstick coating sometime during the second Clinton administration. There always seems to be, inexplicably, a hand-cranked egg beater—and quite explicably, given the priorities of the après-ski set, no fewer than nine bottle openers. You’ve seen this movie before, at the beach house (and at least that had a grill).
But scarce gear shouldn’t spell defeat. “I don’t think you need a lot of equipment,” said Daniel Humm, the Swiss chef and co-owner of Eleven Madison Park in New York and an avid skier. “You’d be surprised how many things you can make in a toaster.”
After a day on the mountain, simple and sustaining will win every time. “When you go to the mountain house, it’s like, ‘We’re going to have pancakes with extra butter for breakfast, then we’re going to put something in the oven to cook low and slow with tons of fat for dinner,” said Mike Solomonov, chef and partner of Zahav in Philadelphia and a serious snowboarder.
And while beach cooking often benefits from proximity to a farmstand, winter demands you work from a different larder. But there are treats here too. Mr. Humm said, “In Switzerland, there’s always great dairy—cheese, yogurt, milk, cream—and cured meats.” During visits to his parents’ ski apartment in the Swiss mountain town of Arosa, he steps away from the stove and revels in his mother’s cooking. Among his favorite dishes is rösti, a skillet-size potato pancake that can easily anchor a meal. “She would put prosciutto on top, with sliced tomatoes and cheese, then put it back in the oven. That plus a salad is a full meal,” Mr. Humm said. In Vermont, where Mr. Solomonov attended college and still snowboards, “the food culture is incredible,” he said. “We would go to the Shed brewery in Stowe, get some super dark beer and make beer-cheese soup. We’d make really good sour-cream pancakes in the morning with local maple syrup.”
Tracy Obolsky, pastry chef at Manhattan’s North End Grill, worked in snowboard shops before taking to the kitchen. Recently she found inspiration in a drink she had in her retail days. “I was up at Stratton Mountain for a demo day with Ride Snowboards,” she recalled, “and they were handing out Dirty Girl Scouts: hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps.” She decided to apply those flavors to whoopie pies and developed a recipe far easier to execute than her signature mountainside move: a frontside nosepress on a rail.
The attitude to take with après-ski cooking is pretty much the same as that for skiing itself: Know your limits and don’t let ambition get in the way of fun. “If I can take a trip to California or Colorado, I’ll absolutely do that,” said Mr. Solomonov, “but I’m also fine with driving to the Poconos. I just want to get up on the mountain and ride.”
Peppermint Schnapps Whoopie Pies
Adapted from Tracy Obolsky of North End Grill, New York
Peppermint Schnapps Whoopie Pies
STEPHEN KENT JOHNSON FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, FOOD STYLING BY JAMIE KIMM, PROP STYLING BY STEPHANIE HANES
This dessert from pastry chef Tracy Obolsky is based on a minty, spiked hot chocolate. It’s both comforting and refreshing after a long, active day in the cold.
Total Time: 1 hour Makes: 18 3-inch whoopie pies
6 tablespoons cocoa powder
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
1⅓ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1¼ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon plus ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
2 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons brewed coffee
6 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon plus ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk
½ tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1½ cups heavy cream
½ cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons peppermint schnapps or liqueur
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a bowl, whisk together cocoa, granulated sugar, flour, baking powder and soda and 1 teaspoon salt. In another bowl, whisk together eggs, yolks, coffee, oil, 1 teaspoon vanilla and buttermilk until smooth. Slowly pour liquid into dry mixture, whisking together until smooth. Stir in melted butter.
2. Spoon batter, one scant tablespoon at a time, onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, 2-3 inches apart. Bake until slightly risen and just dry in the center, 8 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. (If using a pair of standard-size baking sheets, this will take about 3 batches.)
3. Meanwhile, in a bowl, beat heavy cream, powdered sugar, remaining vanilla, remaining salt and peppermint schnapps until firm peaks form.
4. Sandwich 2 tablespoons whipped cream between 2 cooled cookies. Repeat with remaining cookies.
(ORIGINAL ARTICLE)
APRES SKI
