Southern chef putting Cajun spin on dishes at Gravenstein Apple Fair

2022-08-12 20:36:07 By : Mr. Michael LI

When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Where: Ragle Ranch Regional Park, 500 Ragle Road, Sebastopol

Cost: Advance admission is $18 adults and kids 13 and over, $10 for kids 6 to 12 and free for kids under 5. Tickets at the gate are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and veterans and $15 for children. VIP tickets, including a special lounge, entrance, exclusive drink and food tastings and other perks are $125, in advance only.

Information and tickets: gravensteinapplefair.com

To Bradley Wildridge, if it can be eaten, it probably can be fused.

Wildridge relishes unlocking the riddle behind taking a classic Southern dish and kicking it up with flavors his Cajun-cooking family in Louisiana never would have dreamed of.

So when the Southern-born-and-bred chef behind the new pop-up kitchen Bayou on the Bay signed on to be a food vendor at the Gravenstein Apple Fair this weekend, he took it as a personal challenge.

While other purveyors at the annual festival might work something apple-y into their fair menu in honor of Sebastopol’s favorite fruit, Wildridge boldly vowed to sneak or smother every dish specifically with Gravensteins, confident it would be not just gimmicky, but good.

So along with the expected apple fritters, apple cider and apple pie, ravenous fairgoers can fill up on Cajun sausage rolls with Gravenstein caramelized onion, smoked Gravenstein barbecue macaroni and cheese and curried Gravenstein jambalaya. No part of the Cajun meal will go without an infusion of Gravenstein.

For dessert, he will offer beignets with Gravenstein apple compote and Gravenstein apple pie bread pudding. He and wife and partner Mandy Reilly Wildridge are also stirring up a cool refresher: Gravenstein apple sweet tea.

When he first came to Sonoma County about seven years ago to help with a friend’s chocolate business, after several years of cooking in Texas and Alaska, Wildridge was astounded by the amount and variety of fresh food available here. The Gravenstein was one of his sweetest discoveries.

“It’s fun. It’s the first apple of the season. It’s the perfect little apple, and you can’t get them anywhere else,” he said in praise of the rare heirloom variety that can be a treasure to find in the U.S. outside Sonoma County, the Northwest and Nova Scotia.

Dating back at least to 17th-century Denmark, where it was crowned “The National Apple” in 2005, Gravensteins have a very short growing season, don’t travel well and don’t have the long shelf life of varieties bred for the supermarket. Just a few short weeks in July and August are the sweet spot for this ephemeral fruit to be harvested, pressed, canned or consumed fresh.

With sweet-tart flavor and crispy-juicy texture, it is a crop with many fans who believe it’s worth preserving and celebrating, even as the number of orchards in Sonoma County continues to gradually dwindle.

As of 2020, there were 2,170 acres devoted to commercial apple growing — 688 of them producing Gravensteins — compared to 56,828 acres in grapes. In 2009, there were 833 acres producing Gravensteins. The cash value of the crops tell the story: The county’s grape harvest was worth more than $350 million in 2020, versus less than $4 million total for apples, according to the Sonoma County Crop Report.

Gravenstein grower Laura Cheever of Laura’s Apples said this year’s crop is early. She started harvesting shortly after the Fourth of July.

“Usually, the Gravenstein Fair heralds the beginning of the harvest season. This year, it’s toward the end,” she said. “For me, one of the most interesting things about getting to know the Gravs is the way they change as they tree-ripen over the course of their short season. They start very firm and tart, and that is what we usually see at the fair. As the season progresses, they develop more sweetness, intense fragrance and a burst-in-your-mouth quality. We’ll get to experience that this year.”

The Gravenstein Apple Fair, returning after a two-year COVID-19 hiatus, is the main fundraiser for Sonoma County Farm Trails.

“Their mission is to keep farms forever in Sonoma County, especially in this day and age. With a possible recession coming, times are hard for our farmers,” spokeswoman Tyffani Sedgwick said.

But with the Gravenstein, it’s not just nostalgia that draws people to the festival, running Saturday and Sunday at Ragle Ranch Park in Sebastopol.

Apples are one food almost everyone agrees on. The festival is an opportunity to consume them in so many ways, from Rocker Oysterfellers’ housemade goat milk caramel apples to Black Piglet’s deep-fried Gravenstein apple hand pies.

For those who prefer their apples in a glass, Slow Food Russian River will bring their apple press so people can press their own juice, and a Hard Cider tent will include some special releases just for the fair from Tilted Shed and Golden State Cider.

But surely, the most intriguing flavor experiences will come from simmering pots at Wildridge’s gazebo.

“I love traditional dishes. But I like to be surprised by things. I want to try the weird guava mac and cheese,” confessed the 29-year-old chef, whose love of richly flavored food took root in the central Louisiana kitchens of his grandmother and great-grandmother.

One of his earliest memories is standing on a stool at his grandmother’s house, breaking eggs into a bowl and trying to make pancakes.

As with any chef in training, there were a few culinary mishaps.

“One time, I was trying to smell the file gumbo (file is a dried, ground sassafras powder) and dumped it upside down, and it went down my nose and throat. I couldn’t breathe. But I was always in the kitchen,” he said.

Wildridge remembers his Nana whistling and calling “Yoo-hoo,” as he bounded down the stairs to behold mounds of beignets ready for frying. That’s the recipe he uses for his own beignets, which he offers New Orleans-style with the iconic Cafe Du Monde chicory coffee he orders.

Now he enjoys the alchemy of taking basic recipes for gumbo, jambalaya and roux passed down through generations in his family and marrying them with other unexpected cuisines, like his Indian fusion coconut curry jambalaya.

Rather than the traditional tomato with meat and seafood, he cooks his jambalaya curry-style, with vegetables. It was a concept his wife, Mandy, born and raised in Sebastopol, devised and developed. Then he adds some Big Spoon Sauce Co. Sichuan-style Chili Crisp to add a bite of heat.

Wildridge apprenticed in the kitchens of celebrity chefs like John Tesar and Stephen Pyles in his native Texas and spent time at Charlie Palmer’s Dry Creek Kitchen after moving to Sonoma County. So he has a firm foundation in fine cuisine. And while he sells hearty sausages and crawfish, he also has vegan and vegetarian-friendly food.

His traditional gumbo broth is vegan-based with oil. But for the meat lover, his gumbo ramen is served over rice noodles with sausage and chicken breast.

For vegetarians who still love their cheese, Wildridge makes a mean macaroni cheese with barbecue sauce. At the fair, he’ll serve it with a topping of caramelized onions and Gravenstein apples.

“I love the smoky sweetness of the barbecue sauce and the salty cheese, the crunch of the onions and the creaminess of the cream sauce,” he said.

For Wildridge, food is jazzy — hitting all the right notes, in both flavor and texture, and not holding back.

He and Mandy launched Bayou on the Bay in November. You can find it popping up at the Sebastopol Farmer’s Market and area breweries like Henhouse in Petaluma. Go to their website at bayouonthebay.com to see where they’ll be next.

This sweet and smoky bowl of comfort was Chef Brad Wildridge’s go-to after a long night working in the kitchen.

4 tablespoons butter, plus 1 tablespoon for roux, if needed

1 ½ cups heavy cream, plus ½ cup for sauce, if needed

2 cups shredded smoked cheddar or smoked mozzarella

1 cup shredded St. George Joe Matos cheese

1 tablespoon hot sauce of choice (Wildridge uses Crystal or Tabasco)

Barbecue sauce of choice (optional)

Over medium heat, cook flour and butter into a roux paste (melt butter first and mix flour in until it forms a slightly runny paste; add 1 additional tablespoon butter if it’s too thick) and slowly whisk in heavy cream. (Add ½ cup cream if it’s too thick.)

Once the cream is incorporated and warmed, add the cheese and stir until melted. Add remaining seasonings and remove from heat. Mix accordingly in proportion with noodles.

In a separate pan, over medium heat, fry the sliced apples and onion in the avocado oil, with salt and pepper, until the onion takes on a nice brown caramel color. Spoon over the top of the macaroni dish with a swirl of barbecue sauce, crispy fried onions and green onions, if you desire.

East meets the South in this flavor fusion with a Sonoma County twist.

1 small-medium sweet potato, diced small

4 cups cooked long-grain white rice

3 cups coconut milk, plus 1 cup, if needed

½ small head of cauliflower, separated and chopped

3 cloves garlic, plus more to taste, if preferred

3 tablespoons curry powder, plus more to taste, if preferred

2 Gravenstein apples, cored and diced

Salt and pepper, to taste

Big Spoon Sauce Co. Chili Crisp chili oil or Magic Beans (Dragons Booty, for the brave)

Boil the sweet potato for 9 minutes, strain and set aside. Cook long-grain rice and set aside. Simmer coconut milk, celery, onion, bell pepper, cauliflower, garlic, curry powder and Cajun seasoning on low heat until the vegetables are tender but not falling apart.

In a separate pan, saute the Gravensteins and the sweet potato with a splash of oil, garam masala and salt and pepper. Once the apples are soft and slightly caramelized, mix together the rice, coconut/vegetable mixture, peanut butter and apple mixture and keep on low heat for 10 minutes. Taste and adjust curry flavor and salt and pepper as needed. Top each serving with a tablespoon of Big Spoon Sauce Co. Chili Crisp or another chile oil of your choice.

Wildridge grew up using this super simple, all-purpose sauce for dipping, drizzling and dunking. It can be vegan, too, if you make it with vegan mayonnaise.

½ cup Vegenaise vegan mayonnaise or regular mayonnaise

Combine all ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and whisk until completely incorporated.

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at 707-521-5204 or meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com. OnTwitter @megmcconahey.

When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Where: Ragle Ranch Regional Park, 500 Ragle Road, Sebastopol

Cost: Advance admission is $18 adults and kids 13 and over, $10 for kids 6 to 12 and free for kids under 5. Tickets at the gate are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and veterans and $15 for children. VIP tickets, including a special lounge, entrance, exclusive drink and food tastings and other perks are $125, in advance only.

Information and tickets: gravensteinapplefair.com

Like most everyone, I love a good feature story that takes me somewhere I’ve never been or tells me something I don’t know. Where can I take you? Who in Sonoma County would you like to know better? I cover the people, places and ideas that make up Sonoma County, with general features, people profiles and home and garden, interior design and architecture stories. Hit me up with your tips, ideas and burning questions.

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