In My Kitchen: Couple share a love of food
Name: Greg Rowe of Wichita
Occupation: CFO of Shelley Electric; chairman of the American Institute of Wine & Food-Wichita and past treasurer of the West Wichita Wine Connection
Name: Janne Rowe
Occupation: 4-H State Fair Sweepstakes winner, home chef
If the couple who cooks together stays together, Greg and Janne Rowe are that couple. Together they share the latest food trends with friends in their monthly Progressive Dinner groups, shop farmers markets and offbeat spice stores, dine at restaurants around the world and take wine and cooking classes – all without resorting to spatula fights.
Q: What’s the best (or worst) food advice you were given?
Greg: The worst advice I ever got was to cook pork until it’s completely done. It used to be that way, but now we all know that it can be pink in the middle. I like it pink and juicy, not dry, white or tasteless.
Janne: My best advice was to talk to the judges at the fairs I participated in when I was in 4-H and after. I would take notes on techniques and then go home and try to perfect my recipes following their advice.
Q: Why do you like to cook?
Greg: I like to eat, but cooking is a magnet for friends. I like the challenge and the creativity. I only got serious about cooking and grilling in the last five to seven years and now we do it all the time.
Janne: I’ve always loved to cook – even as a little girl. When I lived in the dorm at college I would cook there. My Crock-Pot got a lot of use fixing food for myself and friends.
Q: Everyone who likes to travel, eat and entertain usually has a favorite food memory. What’s one of yours?
Greg: There are so many, but one that sticks out is a 15-course tasting menu I did all by myself at Clio Restaurant in Boston. It was amazing. I hated to do it by myself but …
Janne: Eating at NOLA Restaurant in New Orleans. It’s one of Emeril Lagasse’s restaurants. We had the chef’s tasting menu at the kitchen bar.
Q: What’s your favorite kitchen tool?
Janne: Good knives. I prefer Henckel or Wustof. Don’t be afraid to spend a little more on knives. Good ones will last much longer. A well-stocked kitchen should always include a chef’s knife, a santoku, a carving knife, a boning knife and a paring knife.
Greg: The Big Green Egg. Does that qualify?
Q: Sure, but is there something a little smaller that you can’t do without?
Greg: A wine opener. I prefer the Rabbit (Metrokane Rabbit corkscrew), but any style will work.
Q: What’s your favorite food to cook?
Greg: Pizza on the grill and paella. Both dishes entail a great amount of creativity and are not your typical dishes you find on the grill. I’ve made more than 30 various types of pizzas and rarely use the typical ingredients such as pepperoni or Italian sausage. Some of my favorites are blue cheese, rib eye, bacon cheeseburger, smoked salmon and duck breast in fig barbecue sauce. Likewise, paella is open to all types of ingredients, but here I stick to more traditional (chicken, shrimp, chorizo sausage) while I am trying to perfect my cooking methods.
Janne: I like to bake. I started baking for 4-H while in grade school and found I sort of had a knack for it. As I got older, I really enjoyed pushing myself to try more involved dishes and techniques. I love both baking and cooking, but I think since baking is more involved and precise, I find it a little more challenging. I have never had much of a sweet tooth, so I don’t eat what I bake, but I truly take great pleasure in doing it.
Q: Favorite cookbook?
Janne: Pinterest. I use the Internet a lot for recipe guides. Pinterest is the best because there are really good pictures along with the recipes.
Q: When you are looking for inspiration in the kitchen, what TV food celebrity do you watch?
Greg: Bobby Flay. Well, that’s not entirely true. I enjoy watching Giada (De Laurentiis), but I listen to Bobby, especially his grilling shows. Alton Brown is undoubtedly more educational, but still, there’s something about Giada. Must be her Italian background.
Janne: Alton Brown. In his original show, “Good Eats,” he was masterful at helping you understand the why as well as the how of a certain food or technique. I think having the whole picture when you are preparing a dish is instrumental in helping you produce the best results.
Beth’s tip of the week:
If you like your vegetables to have those nice char marks, get a set of grill grates. These interlocking metal grates go on top of your grilling surface and offer protection against flare-ups (no water bottle needed) and give grillers perfect sear marks for pretty much anything you cook on the grill. And, they clean up pretty easily.
In My Kitchen
If you or someone you know is passionate about food and would like to be considered for the column, please e-mail us at aharris@wichitaeagle.com with your name, phone number and a few words on why you like to cook.
Blueberry Pudding Cake
Serves 6-8
1 1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen, thawed
1 cup sliced peaches, fresh or frozen, thawed
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup flour
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup boiling water
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toss fruit with cinnamon and lemon juice; place in a greased 8-inch-square baking dish. Combine flour, 1/2 cup sugar and baking powder in a bowl and stir in milk and butter. Spoon over fruit. Stir together remaining sugar and cornstarch and sprinkle over batter. Slowly pour boiling water over all. Bake for 45-50 minutes. Great served warm with ice cream.
Courtesy of Janne and Greg Rowe
Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza
Serves 2-4
3/4 pound hamburger, browned and drained, then seasoned with salt and pepper to taste
1 red onion, caramelized
2 tablespoons butter
1-2 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sweet white wine
1/2 cup dill pickles, sliced
Yellow mustard
Pizza crust of your choice
1 tomato, chopped
4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Note: After browning the burger, we add a barbecue seasoning (or salt and pepper) to give it some extra flavor. We make our own pizza crust, but dough can be purchased from some pizza restaurants in town.
To caramelize onion, half then thinly slice a red onion. In a saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons butter and add onions. Stir in honey, salt and about 1/2 cup sweet white wine. Cook over medium to medium-low heat until onions are soft and thickened. Add additional wine if necessary during the cooking process to keep onions moist.
Place crust on sheet of parchment paper. Spread a light coating of mustard over the crust. Layer pizza ingredients over crust, ending with cheeses. Transfer to pizza stone and bake or grill till crust is brown and toppings are heated through. If grill is heated to 400 degrees, this should take approximately 12 minutes.
Remove from grill when cheese and crust are browned. Let set for 5 minutes before cutting.
Courtesy of Janne and Greg Rowe
Grilled Panzanella Salad
Serves 8
8-oz. loaf Ciabatta bread cut in 1-inch slices
4-5 cloves garlic, peeled
4 bell peppers, red, orange and yellow
1 large sweet onion cut in 1/2-inch slices
1 pound asparagus, ends trimmed
6 large tomatoes, halved and seeded
12 ounces fresh mozzarella, cubed
1 cup fresh basil, torn
Olive oil for spraying
Dressing
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon
Salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste
Spray bread slices with olive oil and grill on both sides until toasted. Rub both sides of each slice with garlic cloves and cut into 1-inch cubes. Grill the bell peppers until charred on all sides, and place in a closed paper bag until cool enough to handle; remove peel, stems and seeds and cut into cubes.
Use toothpicks to hold onion rings together, spray lightly with oil and grill until soft, then remove toothpicks and coarsely chop. Oil and grill asparagus until crisp/tender then chop. Oil tomato halves and grill until tomatoes have grill marks. Place tomatoes in a bowl to collect juices (reserve juices), and peel if desired. Place bread, mozzarella, onion, asparagus and peppers in a large bowl. Chop tomatoes and add to bowl.
Combine dressing ingredients in a small bowl and add to salad with torn basil. If salad seems dry, add some of the reserved tomato juice. Add salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste. Serve immediately.
Courtesy of Janne and Greg Rowe
This story was originally published September 30, 2014 at 2:23 PM with the headline "In My Kitchen: Couple share a love of food."