On Wednesday, March 11, we will donate 20% of all dine in and take out proceeds from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. to the Wisconsin Dells Education Foundation. Support the Foundation and our children’s future while enjoying a delicious meal at High Rock Café’.
Check out WDEF’s webpage to graduates they have helped and all they have to offer: http://www.wdhsfoundation.org/
The Old Fashioned cocktail came into existence somewhere in the 1900s and began its revolution into what it is today, which can vary slightly depending on where you are. Wisconsin is famous for using Brandy in their Old Fashioned, so much so that most Wisconsiner’s now expect it. Margie Healy, director of public relations for Korbel, states Wisconsin is their number one consumer. “We export 385,000 cases a year and 139,000 go directly to Wisconsin. That’s one-third of our total production.” To say we have a love affair with the stuff would be putting it mildly.
Despite our dear regard to the beloved Wisconsin Old Fashioned, in these next months The High Rock Cafe will be tinkering with the recipe, adding some new wilder flavors to the mix. Featured through February and March we will have the Georgia Old Fashioned, the Woziak Old Fashioned and the Elderflower Old Fashioned. We hope you will grow to love these wilder sides of our much loved and adored classic cocktail. However, if you don’t, we will most definitely have some Korbel on hand.
The Georgia Old Fashioned
The first of our three variations is the Georgia Old Fashioned. This sweet peach of a cocktail is truly yummy. We start off by dropping some peaches into a glass, add a pinch of sage, give them a good splash of peach bitters and then drizzle the whole thing in Templeton Rye Whiskey.
Next we muddle the concoction together, add some ice and give a final squirt of Sierra Mist. The only missing ingredient? Garnish! And voila, a perfect looking (and tasting) cocktail.
The Carnivorus tour – starting January 7th at the High Rock Café: a tour of beef, exploring nine different cuts, over nine a week period. Chef Justin Draper wanted to experiment and offer the community something new and different. For the next nine weeks the High Rock kitchen will focus on a section of beef and create three unique dishes each week. The goal of this endeavor is to inform the clientele about the wide variety of flavors and cuts that are available to them. “We are very familiar with 20% of the certain cuts of the beef,” Justin says, “but there is another 80% that few have heard of let alone, cooked.” For example the shoulder tender is a great buy from your butcher, coming in around five dollars a pound where as filet mignon is $24 a pound. It has a lot of the same qualities, shape, and is very similar in a lot of ways for a fraction of the price . This is just one of the many points Chef Justin Draper is hoping to highlight through the Carnivorous tour.
Justin also hopes that people will venture to the High Rock Facebook page and blog for new cooking tips and information that he wants to create as part of this educational outreach. “Cooking is fun and I hope all the aspiring chefs and foodies out there will take advantage of this opportunity to expand their culinary horizon. I love to keep learning myself and that’s also what spawned this idea exploring the possibilities of what’s available.”
As a way to make this epicurean adventure fun, the High Rock will be offering prizes to those who attend the Carnivorous tour. A punch card will be available that briefly outlines the beginning and ending of each week and the cut of meat highlighted. If you go to 1-3 weeks you receive a drink koozie, 4-6 weeks is a $10 gift certificate and 7-9 you receive a High Rock cutting board. “Wisconsin winters can be long and we wanted to give locals a fun activity to enjoy here in the Dells.” Justin explained.
The Carnivorous Tour starts January 8th and ends March 10th. The regular lunch and dinner menu will still be available but the Season’s Freshest Menu will be taken over with Carnivorous Tour fare. A tour in beef might seem to favor only one type of clientele but in classic High Rock style the three creations will appeal to all foodies. The pricing as well, is meant to reach to all customers, it’s quite possible to attend all nine weeks for around $100. So if you or anyone you know enjoys cooking or creative cuisine, head over to High Rock this winter, we look forward to taking you on this delicious journey that is sure to delight any carnivore.
We’re so excited for this year’s holiday party!
We are going to be posting on facebook the exact prizes for this upcoming event!
We changed our Season’s Freshest last week to one of our favorites here at High Rock – Parsnips!
Some of you might not be familiar with this particular vegetable, a parsnip is much like a carrot but has a sweeter smoother flavor when cooked.
We decided this month to incorporate the sweet taste of this root vegetable into a hummus! We actually use this hummus on both the Reef Raider and in the Asian Hummus. It’s a little sweeter than the regular hummus so it makes it great to pair with savory flavors. For our Asian Hummus we take this parsnip hummus cover it with kim chi and serve it with bell peppers and fried pita wedges. Kim Chi is to the Asia as Sauerkraut is to Germany, it’s a staple that is used frequently. We make our own kim chi at High Rock with is quite a process. First we take cabbage and soak it in salt water for 3 hours, drain and rinse. Then we add fish sauce, spices and green onions, mix together and let it sit in a cool dark place for 24 hours. It’s important not to have any sunlight hit the mixture and away from any heaters, it can be at room temperature though. After that we put it in the fridge 2 days before we using it on our Asian Hummus. So if you want to give it a try this holiday season we will with cheer you on!
The next item we have is the Reef Raider Sandwich. This sandwich is served cold and has our sweet parsnip hummus with big chunks of clean white Tuna. Again we are using “Great Harvest” bread from our local bakery and they were kind enough to make a their Oregon herb onion rye to fit our sandwich. We top it off with sweet onions and romaine to complete this perfect pairing.
If you’re really hungry our beef stroganoff might be for you. For the sauce we are borrowing the au jus and horseradish from our Saturday Prime Rib and then adding oven roasted parsnips, carrots, red onion, and spinach. We are serving this with egg noodles and then over the top we sprinkle large crispy parsnips. It’s quite a meal and perfect if you are craving some strog through this wintery weather.
The final item is our Parsnip Cupcake. The smooth sweet nature of the parsnips lends itself perfectly to this creation and then with the sweet brownbutter maple frosting, it’s a little piece of heaven!
