Appetites: Marcus Samuelsson on the art of leftovers

Even if you've never visited Marcus Samuelsson's popular Harlem restaurant, Red Rooster, he may be a familiar face. Samuelsson is a television fixture, appearing on shows like "Chopped," "The Taste," "Iron Chef," and "Top Chef Masters."

Raised in Sweden, Samuelsson's first cooking job in the U.S. was at the now-closed Restaurant Aquavit in Minneapolis.

Samuelsson is back in the Twin Cities to talk about his new book, "Marcus Off Duty: The Recipes I Cook at Home." He spoke with MPR News' Tom Crann about his work and shared two of his recipes.

• More: Recipes from Marcus Samuelsson

Here is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Crann: What kinds of things do you gravitate to cook at home when you are off duty? Is there something that all these recipes have in common?

Samuelsson: My journey started at home. I had a very patient grandmother and uncles that taught me everyday cooking and that's the reason why I'm here today. The reason why I'm a chef is because I learned everything at home and I wanted to share that.

And it could be simple things like Swedish meatballs or cooking mackerel. And that's the good stuff, you know?

Crann: Let's say somebody's had a long day at work, they get home and want to try something good that's not going to take five hours to prep. What would you recommend?

Samuelsson: I would recommend, try one of our soups. You can do it in 25 minutes and you know you're going to have a delicious meal. Really good cooking comes down to good planning and thinking about your shopping for one meal but essentially it's for three meals.

If you do roasted chicken, the next day there should be chicken soup. There just should. And even the third day it can be a chicken sandwich, right?

We know for a fact that we throw away 40 percent of our food in this country. If you know how to cook you don't do that. A) It's not the right thing to do for the environment and B) you want to save money and it's going to be delicious. I talk a lot in the book about cooking with leftovers. If you know how to do that you are so golden.

Crann: And what's the secret to good leftovers?

Samuelsson: You've got to do a little bit of planning. For example if you do a stew, let's say you do an oxtail. The next day you can do oxtail pasta. You can buy pasta, take the stew, it's going to taste even better.

We all have Turkey day coming up, right? Well, I recommend the next day do a turkey chili. Just get some beans, tomatoes then you have a killer dish based on the turkey from the day before, right? (See recipe below)

And then maybe on the third day you could do a turkey sandwich. So just think about how to stretch it and it's not leftovers, it's the good stuff.

Crann: It amazing to be talking to Marcus Samuelsson about leftovers when in fact you were asked to be a chef for a state dinner at the White House by the Obamas. You and Mrs. Obama are friends, I think it's fair to say, right?

Samuelsson: She was very helpful for me to do that dinner, I always feel grateful that I had the opportunity to do that.

Crann: And how did you approach that when that call came in from the White House?

Samuelsson: Well, first I had to make sure it wasn't you calling as a prank caller.

That was the first step and then once we go through that I felt I wanted to do something different. I wanted to break it down to: it's a party. It's an event. Even if it's at the White House it's still an event and party and you want the guest of honor to feel welcome. So I did a lot of research on the guest of honor [Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh].

He happened to be vegetarian, so I was like, great. Let's do an Indian-inspired meal, so he feels at home, with American ingredients, starting from Michelle Obama's garden initiative.

So we did a bread course where we served both chapati and American corn bread. We did a lentil soup, we did a curry dish and collard greens. The meal [was] really inspired from both sides, so just like as you would throw a dinner party, the guest of honor would feel very comfortable.

Crann: We wouldn't necessarily think of comfort when it comes to a state dinner. You tend to think of a state dinner as formal and very elegant and stiff.

Samuelsson: Yeah, but they're not mutually exclusive. Even at a state dinner you should feel good, you know what I mean? It's so important in dinning and eating. It's a feel too. Yes, we eat to feed us, but if you don't feel right when you cook it, when you serve it, and when you eat it together, you've missed the whole point. So that's, for example, why I put a lot of emphasis on music in this book.

Crann: You have playlists that you can play along with the electronic copy.

Samuelsson: Absolutely, yeah.

Crann: I want to ask you about this curious phrase we have in our culture, "celebrity chef." And sometimes there are names, we won't name them here, but celebrity chefs where the celebrity becomes more important than the chef.

How do you control and balance that and make sure that you have control over the food that's being served under your name at Red Rooster.

Samuelsson: I think our industry, my industry, has changed beyond [my] wildest dreams since I started cooking. I really got into this industry because of the love of food. And it's important to do that all the time. And sometimes you need to promote the restaurant or promote the book by cooking.

Cooking for me is always the place where I feel at home and even when I'm not at home I feel comfortable once I'm in that kitchen and I think — first of all, it's a very humble and guest-facing experience. And guests are very loud if they don't appreciate it. They don't care about celebrity, they care about good value for money and if it's delicious.

So I do love the fact that our customers are very vocal and it pushes me to know more about myself and more about the food we're serving in the restaurant because customers have options. We're very fortunate, we're a very busy restaurant, but if I start taking it for granted and just show up that will change very quickly. So I think.

Crann: And how much time do you spend in the kitchen these days?

Samuelsson: I would say, half my time I'm in the kitchen, at the restaurant. My wife and I live four blocks away from the restaurant and I love it. It's such a community affair, the restaurant, and something I take a lot of pride in is hiring 75 percent of my staff from Harlem. And there are people that are my neighbors that come to the restaurant weekly.

Crann: I want to talk about your time in Minneapolis. A lot of people remember that you were associated with Aquavit when it was open in downtown Minneapolis, spent a lot of time between here and New York and I wonder if over time you've kept tabs on the Twin Cities' food scene?

Samuelsson: Well first of all, I really enjoyed working here and working in Minneapolis. Something I learned a lot about was [how] my first restaurant did outside of New York. And I learned a lot about figuring it out — do the same dishes that you serve in one city, do they relate or are approachable in another city?

It was a very good lesson for me in terms of how you can't just lift up food and place it somewhere else. It has to have a little more gravitas to the community you're speaking to.

The other thing that I loved about being here was the community of chefs and servers. When I came in there was a great local chef like JP Samuelson who had worked a lot in New York over at Bouley.

When I look at today I see the food scene has changed tremendously. We're just on the verge of Gavin [Kaysen] opening his restaurant. He's from here and did his years in New York and now he's going to open his restaurant. And that will be the next restaurant here that will create a whole family tree of great cooks and five, ten years from now you're going to see cooks from Gavin's restaurant open their own small, local restaurants and that's really what a big time chef and restaurant can do.

It creates that second generation of community, small local restaurants as well. So, we had a part in that, we were part of that, and I feel always blessed to come back to the Twin Cities because people have always been extremely nice and pleasant to me.

Crann: Can you make a generalization about what Twin Cities diners like in a restaurant that maybe wouldn't work in New York or something in New York that didn't work here?

Samuelsson: Wow that could maybe be a whole program by itself. [laughs]

Crann: Well, what are the differences?

Samuelsson: There are differences in many ways. First of all, when you're in New York, who is the New Yorker, right? The state has 50 million tourists a year. So the New Yorker might come from Japan or Pairs. You're talking about a very global city.

And then, it's also who is in your restaurant. You're dealing with a lot of media and Wall Street people who are driving businesses, plus the neighborhoods.

So in Minneapolis and St. Paul you have different industry, fortune 500 companies. Target is a big customer and so on.

I would say New York is the most multicultural city in America and so the dining room feels a little bit different. Who orders is a little bit different, but I don't compare them.

To get a restaurant perfectly right and yummy and delicious and a place people don't want to leave takes time. And I'm fortunate that my restaurant, Red Rooster, is one of those restaurants in New York. I just think that every city should have those local restaurants that are just perfect for that city. And Minneapolis does have that and St. Paul does have that.

Crann: What food trends are you seeing out there that we are likely to see in Minneapolis in five or ten years?

Samuelsson: Food trends today are happening in cities at the same time because of the Internet, because we travel so much. For example, I always think about what my grandmother would say — all the stuff that she served are now trendy: pig feet, pig ear, kale — the fact that kale would be trendy — carrots are the new kale.

But it's also beautiful because, guess what? All that stuff grows right here. We can find great beets here, we can find good carrots here. So the fact that we as cooks are looking at the lesser cuts and are inspiring the home cook, that's good.

Financially, it teaches us to cook better. Using the whole animal is the only way to go because we have to. We're at 7.2 billion population today, soon we'll be at 8 billion. Guess what, where's the protein going to come from? You need to use the whole animal. You don't have to call it farm to table or nose to tail, you just do it because it's the right thing.

Crann: Everything old is new again? Full circle?

Samuelsson: Pretty much, right? Fashion is like that, music is like that, food is definitely a part of that. And then we have different mediums to upload it.

When I went blueberry picking with my grandmother there was no announcement, no Instagraming, because it's the opposite because when you find a good blueberry spot, you shouldn't tell anyone.

Recipes

Excerpted from "Marcus Off Duty: The Recipes I Cook at Home." Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.

Helga's Meatballs & Gravy with Carrot-Apple Mashed Potatoes

Serves 4, with about 6 meatballs each

This recipe is both a culinary heirloom (it's my grandmother's recipe for meatballs) and a postcard from Sweden, where meatballs and mashed potatoes are sold in kiosks. As new immigrants arrive in Sweden, hot dog stands may morph to sell kebabs or wok cooking, but the meatball kiosk remains a constant. There's nothing more warming in the freezing winter than standing on a corner, eating hot meatballs and mashed potatoes.

I grill these meatballs (inside, on a grill pan) to give them a deeper flavor and to cut back on the fat, and I've added carrots and apple to the mashed potatoes, which makes them slightly sweet. The gravy recipe is pure Grandmother Helga.

FOR THE MEATBALLS

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 pound ground chuck or sirloin
1/2 pound ground veal
1/2 pound ground pork
2 tablespoons honey
1 large egg
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

FOR THE GRAVY

1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup lingonberry preserves
2 tablespoons juice from Pickled Cucumbers
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

FOR THE CARROT-APPLE MASHED POTATOES

3 large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
1 medium Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 medium shallots, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon horseradish, preferably freshly grated
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Heat the olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. When it shimmers, add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool.

2. Combine the bread crumbs and heavy cream in a large bowl, stirring with a fork until all the crumbs are moistened.

3. Add the sautéed onion, beef, veal, pork, honey, egg, and salt and pepper to the bread crumbs and mix well. Wet your hands (it keeps the meatballs from sticking) and shape the mixture into meatballs the size of golf balls, placing them on a plate lightly moistened with water. You should end up with about 24 meatballs.

4. Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Grill the meatballs, in batches if necessary, until browned

Shredded Turkey Chili

Serves 6

You're never too young to learn the value of leftovers. Here, roasted turkey and black beans are turned into a hearty chili that's relatively mild for a kid's palate but flavorful enough to please any adult. Top the chili with sour cream, avocado, onions, cilantro, and tortilla chips, and you've got a winter feast.

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 red bell peppers, seeded and diced
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon chile powder
1 tablespoon cumin seeds, crushed
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons packed brown sugar
4 dashes Tabasco sauce
1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes in juice
1 (19-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup water
2 cups shredded leftover turkey or chicken
Sour cream
Crushed tortilla chips
Diced avocado
Fresh cilantro leaves
Chopped onion

1. Heat the olive oil in a heavy, medium pot over medium heat. When it shimmers, add the peppers, onion, and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is golden, 12 to 15 minutes. Add the chile powder, cumin, coriander, cayenne, salt, and brown sugar and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the Tabasco and tomatoes with their juice, breaking the tomatoes up with a spoon. Then add the beans and water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, partly covered, until the chili has thickened, 20 to 25 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Turn off the heat.

2. Fold in the turkey and let the chili stand, covered, until the turkey is heated through, 5 minutes. Don't continue stirring as you heat the chili, otherwise the turkey will break up and get stringy.

3. Put out bowls of sour cream, tortilla chips, avocado, cilantro, and onion so everyone can personalize the chili.

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