Read full article here.

Full recipe below:

Ingredients

• 4qt chicken stock
• 6oz Shiro miso
• 1oz mirin
• 1oz shaoxing wine
• 2oz soy sauce
• 10-11 dry shiitakes
• 3″ piece of ginger
• 6-8 scallions
• Sliced fresh shiitakes
• Roasted pulled chicken
• Pea shoots
• Thin sliced carrots
• Thin sliced breakfast radish
• Udon noodles
• Togarashi

Directions

1. Slice ginger into 1/4″ slices and char in broiler.
2. Cut bottoms off of the scallions and char in broiler — Reserve tops for garnish.
3. Simmer chicken stock with dried shiitakes, charred scallions and ginger for 30 minutes
4. Strain
5. Add shaoxing, soy, mirin, and miso to chicken stock
6. Serve soup with udon noodles, pulled chicken and garnish with scallion tops, pea shoots, carrots, radish and julienned shiitakes
7. Season with togarashi

CHICAGO – December 18, 2012 – Rockit Ranch Productions is pushing the “Country” genre envelope with a new Saturday night party called “The ACE Country Club” at its much talked about American-Asian culinary mash-up Dragon Ranch Moonshine & BBQ. At the center of it all, as the clash of “Country” & (Night)”Club” might suggest, Rockit Ranch will be “mashing up” Dragon Ranch Country music favorites, with the best in Hip-Hop, Pop, Rock, EDM – currently raging at its other award winning venues, Rockit and The Underground.

Complementing this newly created, high energy, eclectic, music set, expect innovative and fun twists on traditional “High Tea” Country Club menus. Culinary cultural mash-ups include “Hillbilly Finger Sandwiches,” Tempura Pickles, Sriracha Pimento Cheese and Chocolate Covered Bacon to name a few. In addition to inventive “Whiskey Bento Boxes,” full of carefully selected treats to enhance the flavors of the Whiskey or Moonshine bottle of your choice, guests will enjoy special signature cocktails from our Moonshine Mixologist, such as “High Tea” which will include Dragon Ranch brand Moonshine, Sunda’s Hibiscus Tea, Dragonberry Bacardi, Lemongrass, amongst other intriguing ingredients, all served in the ultimate party vehicles, red party cups.

As for the name ACE? “That’s an internal term of endearment Rockit Ranch uses to describe fellow lovers and supporters of the Art, Culture and Entertainment (thus the A.C.E.) scene in Chicago, that we want to bring together” says CEO Billy Dec, who also does a live weekly segment on ABC TV’s “WCL” and leads a blog aChicagoThing.com, both to promote Chicagoand and its cultural offerings. “Having just wrapped a successful run in Neil Simon’s “The Good Doctor” at Piven Theatre, it reinforced to me first hand how critical it is to keep bringing artists and supporters together to continue creating wonderful works and experiences for our city. And if people as passionate and supportive as we are know where to gather, we could network, maybe create new things, perhaps strengthen Chicago as a top city of creativity and innovation, all while having a ton of fun with everyone who supports the vision – at least that’s the dream!”

The ACE Country Club will take place from 9 p.m. – 1 a.m. on Saturday nights starting January 5, 2013. For more information or to reserve a table, visit www.DragonRanch.com or PR Manager Deanna Dugo at 312.765.9370

Dragon Ranch’s menu is far from a traditional BBQ menu–especially with the Asian influences on a large portion of the items, and yet there are plenty of recognizable dishes that at first glance are easily dismiss-able quite simply because I don’t typically like those items. That said, here are 5 dishes on the Dragon Ranch menu that I know you’ll enjoy if you give them a chance–even if you’ve never liked them before.

1. Deviled Eggs

Despite being a staple at most summer barbecues throughout my childhood and adult years, I’ve never really enjoyed deviled eggs. They always tasted too bland and the texture always grossed me out. The Deviled Eggs at Dragon Ranch come with house cured bacon, togarashi aioli, and are garnished with red chilis and wasabi tobiko.

They come with just a little kick to them, but they taste just right.

2. Grilled Vegetable Tempura

Before getting my start in the hospitality industry, I was very non-adventurous in my choices of where to dine, and more specifically what I ordered while dining out. The Grilled Vegetable Tempura is something I certainly would have ignored on the menu simply because I had no clue what tempura was. After trying the vegetable tempura, (I actually ate the entire order of what you see pictured to the right) I’ve since become a huge fan of the dish and tempura in general.

Dragon Ranch’s Grilled Vegetable Tempura comes grilled, then fried in our own tempura mix served with a delicious sweet spicy chili sauce.

3. Garlic Edamame

Edamame is another dish that this ignorant blogger wouldn’t have recognized before getting my start at Rockit Ranch Productions. After trying out my first order of Edamame at Sunda several years ago, I’ve been hooked on Edamame. Dragon Ranch’s spin on the traditional Edamame dish is no different and holds its own just fine. (I like to eat it with a small dish of sriracha as well to add some extra spiciness.)

The steamed edamame is tossed in butter, garlic, chilis and togarashi. (My apologies to all you calorie counters out there–the Garlic Edamame is none-too-healthy.)

4. Bourbon Baked Beans

There isn’t a food item that repulses me more than baked beans, and even after seeing them up close and personal, I have to admit I was still very apprehensive to try them. Upon Chef Shaun’s insistence I took a giant spoonful. I was pleasantly surprised not only at the flavor of the beans, (and the texture which is what normally turns me off to even the most high quality beans) but I was also impressed with how well the bacon complemented the bean–not to mention the sheer large portions of bacon that came with it.

The sweet and spicy baked beans come with smoky bacon and chilis and are a must try. (You’ll probably have to share them too)

5. Thai Eggs Benedict

Growing up a picky eater in a traditional Irish-Catholic household, we typically stuck to eggs and bacon, or maybe if we were getting real adventurous, we’d make waffles for brunch. Eggs benedict is something I wasn’t introduced to until recently and Dragon Ranch’s Thai Eggs Benedict is right up there with some of my other favorite, more traditional brunch dishes.

The Thai Benedict is house made with spicy thai sausage patties, topped with poached farm eggs, sauteed greens and red curry coconut hollandaise and is available for brunch every Saturday and Sunday starting at 10:30am.

-Tim Toomey
Interactve Marketing Strategist
Rockit Ranch Productions

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Dragon Ranch’s pimento cheese has quickly become a crowd favorite, so we decided to take a look at the history behind this Southern inspired spread…Turns out, in the early 1900’s, cheese and pimento peppers were at some of their highest prices, so the upper class would serve it on sandwiches at tea parties. Once processed cheese came around and farmers in the South began growing their own pimento peppers, the spread itself suddenly became more affordable, but surprisingly maintained its upper class image. To this day, the pimento cheese sandwich on white bread is served on the course of August National at one of the world’s most prestigious golf tournaments, the Masters.

The spread also plays into Dragon Ranch’s Asian influence, as it is a popular snack in the Philippines, where it is referred to as cheese pimiento. In our version we use four types of cheese (jack, gouda, sharp white and yellow cheddar), sriracha, pickled chilies, and togarashi aioli, and we serve it up alongside artisanal crackers.

…and not to brag or anything but The Eater even recently named our pimento cheese one of the top in the COUNTRY! Check it out here.

Piecrust

• 3 3/4 cups (400g) AP flour
• 3/4 tsp (5g)  salt
• 1 1/2 cups (345g) chilled cubed butter
• 3/4 cups ice water

Directions

1. Combine flour and salt
2. Cut butter into flour mixture with a pastry cutter or fork into coarse crumb
3. Stir in one tablespoon at a time until mixture barely comes together
4. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate minimum 4 hours or overnight

Bourbon Walnut Filling

• 2 cups white sugar
• 8 tblsp (113g) softened butter
• 6 eggs (slightly beaten)
• 1 1/2 cups light corn syrup
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 tblsp bourbon
• 1 cup toasted chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Cream sugar and butter until pale and fluffy
2. Add the rest of ingredients and mix well
3. Roll out piecrust to 1/4″ thickness
4. Place pie dough into pie or tart pan
5. Add toasted nuts into bottom of pie and cover with filling
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until just set through
7. Let cool completely

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The expansion of the whiskey distillation process occurred as immigrants from Scotland and Ireland settled in the heartland of America. These areas were rich in the grains ideal for crafting whiskey. Farmers often found themselves with a surplus of grain and sought a suitable method for turning a profit from this surplus. They relied on the recipes of their ancestors combined with American creativity and ingenuity to create many of the whiskeys that we still enjoy today.

The 18th Amendment – Prohibition – had a tremendous effect on American whiskey in the 1920’s. Distillers were no longer able to age their whiskey due to the threat of discovery and punishment. As a result, whiskey was pushed to the black market in its unaged, white form: Moonshine was born. The process was crude and the taste was harsh; but the introduction to white whiskey continued the evolution of American whiskey.

Today, we are free to enjoy both white and barrel-aged whiskeys to our heart’s content. Distillers continue to innovate with different types of grains and aging processes. The ever-expanding selection of available whiskeys has also allowed creativity with the cocktail craft. One of my favorite cocktails at Dragon Ranch is the Cinnamon Pineapple Smash – combining our White Dragon Moonshine with some of the best flavors of fall and the holiday season – see the recipe below. Enjoy!

DRAGON RANCH CINNAMON PINEAPPLE SMASH

Ingredients:

• 2 oz Dragon Ranch White Dragon Whiskey
• 1.5 oz Pineapple Juice
• 1 oz Cinnamon Simple Syrup
• .5 oz Lemon Juice
• 1 oz Ginger Beer
• Two Pineapple Chunks

Prep:

• Combine first four ingredients and shake over ice;
• Pour into a large glass;
• Top with ginger beer and Pineapple chunks

-Patrick Cullen, Dragon Ranch bartender

At Dragon Ranch, we’re always experimenting with different types of barrel aging and one of the best examples of this is our signature cocktail called the Rockitman. We start by aging our whiskey in a medium toasted American oak barrel for at least six weeks. Then we add an in-house aged cherry brandy with Maker’s Mark and plum bitters that marinates in the barrel until it obtains a nutty, smokiness – taking a normal Manhattan well beyond anyone’s expectations!

We also make our own spiced rum, called Ranch Rum. It’s composed of different herbs and spices—even smoked peppers! We let it sit for a few days until the flavor profile is right, then the rum goes straight into an oak barrel for about four weeks. Order it straight up, or our bartenders can make you a mean Dark & Stormy paired with house made ginger-lime syrup and ginger beer—very tasty!

Barrel-aging anything—whether it’s a spirit, wine, beer, or even a cocktail—impacts the flavor profile in such an amazing, intricate way, that it becomes truly unique. I guess another way to look at this process is that the spirit is going through a chemical reaction, which is pretty cool – but that’s the nerd in me talking!

-Mike Matozzo, Assistant GM