Morning at Home

“I’m going to make everything around me beautiful — that will be my life.”

— Elsie de Wolfe (1865–1950), interior designer, United States

Surrounding yourself with delightful everyday objects you love makes everyday life more beautiful. Items you look at and touch all of the time carry significance in creating life’s simple pleasures. Both form and function are important. When a knife, a kitchen cloth, a teapot, a mug are so impeccably designed, so sensuously textured, and so faultless in their utility, all but their overt beauty is rendered unnoticable. Good design makes your day, begin it in beauty.

Quite similarly, a strengthened body harbors a nourished soul. Taking time to mindfully prepare real food for yourself and those who wake up with you feeds self-respect and manifests regard for the well-being of family and friends gathered at your table. Good food makes your day, begin it in strength.

Curation for an alpine-modern morning

Recipe: The Perfect Egg Sandwich

A simple dish to remind you to try new new things in life. Make→

Glass French Press

This Glass French Press (available in gray or clear) is an evolution of the classic press pot. The press brews a perfect full-bodied pot of coffee or tea in the traditional French Press method. Made of premium heat-proof borosilicate glass, it is durable and able to withstand extreme temperatures. Shop at Alpine Modern→

Recipe: Kale and Potato Pancakes with Gravlax and Nordic Yogurt

Alpine Modern Executive Chef Ellory Abels created a delicious dish to make for your weekend brunch. Make→

Recipe: Alpine Granola

A morning at home with a simple bowl of toasted oats and nuts. Make→

Alishan Jin Xuan High Mountain Spring Oolong Tea / Taiwan

The name Jin Xuan refers to a specific tea varietal developed by the Taiwan Research and Experiment Station (TRES), which is dedicated to the improvement of the tea industry of Taiwan. Jin Xuan teas are satisfying as they offer good amplitude in texture and taste. With mild floral notes, they have the greatest potential for sweetness, with hints of exotic fruit. Teas elaborated with Jin Xuan leaves have a particularly creamy texture with a distinctive milky smoothness and sweetness. Jin Xuan has typical green, crisp pastoral notes with hints of mountain flowers that charm the nose. The perfect cup of tea to begin the day. From Taiwan Tea Crafts.

Tetsubin Tea Vessel / Japan

A tetsubin is a Japanese vessel for preparing tea. This beautiful cast-iron tetsubin is adorned with the traditional “snow pellets,” or dots. An added benefit of the cast-iron is that iron is transferred from the kettle to the drink, providing the body with the healthy mineral. From Ikenaga Iron Works Japan.

Recipe: Grapefruit Brulée

Broiled in the oven, the grapefruit forms a delicious golden brown and crispy surface. Make→

Forest Honey / Italy

Dark amber color, rich taste, though not overpowering, this honey is great spread on bread. Born from the nectar of flowers in the wilderness of the fragrant, humid forests of northern Italy, this honey has the fresh and delicate scent of the mountains. From Rigoni di Asiago.

Fox In The Leaves Tray

Beautifully printed melamine tea tray featuring Donna Wilson’s watercolour illustration of a fox in a leafy woodland. Made in a small factory in Belgium. Shop at Alpine Modern→

Recipe: The Perfect Egg Sandwich

You need a small cast-iron pan...

Ingredients

• Artisan bread
• Butter
• Farm-fresh egg
• Salt/pepper
• Japanese mayonnaise (Kewpie)
• A handful of arugula (basil is nice too)
• Tomato, sliced
• Bacon, cooked

Preparation

Heat up the cast-iron pan on medium heat while toasting two slices of bread.

Melt butter in the pan and, once hot, add cracked egg. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the egg and let it cook for three to five minutes, depending on how well-done you like your egg.

In the meantime, spread mayonnaise on each slice of toasted bread. Add a handful of arugula to the bottom slice, place egg on top, add tomato and bacon and cover with the other slice.

Eat and resist the temptation to make another one.

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Read the story of a Boulder ad and marketing exec whose Griswold #2, a gift he'd only come to appreciate years later, reminds him to try new things in life.

Recipe: The Alpine Glissade

Ingredients

Serves two

• 1.5 oz (45 ml) Alpine Modern Cafe cold-drip coffee
• 0.5 oz (15 ml) filtered water
• 0.75 oz (22 ml) Bonal Gentiane Quina
• 0.25 oz (8 ml) Campari
• 0.25 oz (8 ml) Licor 43

Directions

Combine ingredients and pour over ice.

Quick stir in glass.

Garnish with orange peel.

Recipe: White Asparagus and Morel Salad

Ingredients

• 6 white asparagus
• 6 morels (cleaned)
• 2 radishes
• 1 bunch ramp tops
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 shallot
• 2 pounds (907 grams) butter (cubed)
• 1 tablespoon (15 milliliters) water (for beurre monte)
• 4 ounces (113.3 grams) Delice de Bourgogne cheese
• Dandelion greens
• Sheep sorrel
• Red orach
• Purslane

For the white asparagus

Trim away the woody ends and blanch the white asparagus in salted boiling water until cooked (three minutes). Transfer to an ice bath. Once cool, cut each piece into three small pieces (batons). Reserve for later.

For the ramp top puree

In a saute pan, add the diced shallot and one tablespoon (15 grams) of butter to hot pan. Sauté shallot until translucent. Add cleaned ramp tops and cook for five to seven minutes. Add cooked mixture to blender and puree on high for thirty seconds. Chill and reserve.

For the beurre monte

Add one tablespoon (15 milliliters) of water to saucier pot, heat, and slowly add the cubed butter. Whisk constantly until water and butter have emulsified. Season generously with salt and pepper. Reserve on a simmer.

For the egg yolk

Cook for one hour at 63.5º C (146º F) in a mixture of grapeseed and olive oil.

To Finish

Gently poach the cleaned morels in the beurre monte mixture for four

minutes. Wipe off any excess butter. Put on the plate.

Toss the white asparagus in a small amount of the warm beurre monte, and put on the plate.

Spoon the ramp top puree alongside the morels and white asparagus.

Place the Delice De Bourgogne on the plate.

Add warm egg yolk, sliced radish, dandelion greens, red orach, and purslane.

Recipe: Alpine Fizz

Ingredients

• 1½ ounces (44 milliliters) CapRock Gin
• ½ ounce (15 milliliters) Braulio
• ½ ounce (15 milliliters) huckleberry-sage syrup *(see additional recipe)
• ¾ ounce (22 milliliters) lemon juice
• 1 egg white

Combine all ingredients in a shaker tin.

Dry shake ingredients without ice to aerate egg white.

Shake ingredients with ice to chill and dilute.

Using a hawthorne and a ne strainer, strain cocktail into a chilled coupe.

Garnish with fresh herbs and/or huckleberries.

For the huckleberry-sage syrup

Combine equal parts huckleberries and granulated sugar into a sauce pot.

Bring to a boil and simmer just until the huckleberries begin to burst.

Add sage leaves and continue to simmer gently.

Once infused, remove sage leaves and discard.

Place syrup into a blender and blend until smooth.

Strain syrup with a strainer and refrigerate until cool.

Final product should be thick but pourable, adjust with water if necessary.

Recipe: Smoked Trout Salad

Ingredients

• 1 cup (236.5 grams) salt
• ⅓ cup (71 grams) sugar
• 8 ounces (227 grams) emmer wheat (farro)
• 1 lemon
• 1 bunch parsley
• Fresh cherry tomatoes
• Chives
• Sherry vinegar
• 8 fiddlehead ferns
• 6 ounces (170 grams) fresh cheese (burrata)
• Dandelion greens
• Chickweed
• Red ribbon sorrel
• Wild wood sorrel
• Yarrow

For the smoked trout

Combine one cup salt (236.5 grams) and one-third cup (71 grams) sugar and sprinkle evenly over the small filleted fish. Refrigerate for eight hours to cure. Remove from fridge and rinse under cold water. Refrigerate the fish overnight, uncovered. In the morning, light the charcoal grill (preferably using applewood and charcoal). Once the coals are hot, push them to one side of the grill. Place a tray with ice next to the coals. Put the grill grate on top of the charcoal and the tray of ice. Set the trout on a metal baking pan directly above the tray of ice and “smoke” the trout for ten minutes.

For the farro

Put the farro in a pot and fill with cold, salted water until the farro is submerged. Bring to a boil and simmer. Cook for fifteen minutes until the farro is tender. Strain. Season generously with lemon juice, sherry vinegar, salt, and pepper. Add sliced tomatoes, sliced chives, and parsley.

For the fiddlehead ferns

Remove the top portion of the stems and blanch in a large pot of salted, boiling water for a eight to ten minutes, until tender. Place in a small ice bath to stop the cooking process.

To finish

Spoon the nished farro onto the plate.

Add the smoked trout on top.

Garnish by adding the fresh farm cheese, seasoned fiddlehead ferns, dandelion greens, chickweed, sorrels, and yarrow.

Drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Alpine Modern Chef Colin Kirby on fiddlehead ferns:

The ingredients featured in these pages make all the difference. Wild, fresh, and foraged flavors have become a staple in the culinary world, and this dish reflects that point. A main component to the smoked trout dish is the fiddlehead fern. The ferns have a great woodsy, almost bitter flavor reminiscent of where they came from: the forest floor. Their texture is superb, providing an added bite to the creaminess of the trout and fresh cheese. Technically, they are the furled fronds of ferns. They are incredibly healthful as well, high in fatty acids. Fiddlehead ferns can also be pickled and eaten anytime.

Recipe: Alpine Granola

Ingredients

• 3 cups (385 g) rolled oats
• 1 cup (130 g) slivered almonds
• 3/4 cup (65 g) shredded sweet coconut
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (55 g) dark brown sugar 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (130 g) maple syrup
• 1/4 cup (85 g) vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon (4 g) salt
• 1 cup (150 g) dried fruit, like raisins

Steps

Preheat oven to 275°F (140°C)

In a bowl, combine the oats, almonds, coconut, and brown sugar.

In a separate bowl, combine maple syrup, oil, and salt.

Combine both mixtures and pour onto two sheet pans. Cook for one hour, stirring every fifteen minutes to achieve an even color.

Remove from oven and transfer into a large bowl. Add dried fruit and mix until evenly distributed.

Keeps in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

The Bowl

New Norm Bowl, Menu Design, Denmark

The Danish design firm Norm created the New Norm bowl for Menu, inspired by Nordic nature. The bowls are characterized by their purity and simplicity, their design is quiet, unobtrusive. Since the New Norm bowls are available in different colors and sizes, they mix with each other vividly.