129 WASHINGTON STREET
POUGHKEEPSIE, NY 12601
(845) 452-3501
CHEF/OWNER: ED KOWALSKI
Poughkeepsie holds a position in the Hudson Valley that’s unlike the vacationlands of the north and the bedroom suburbs to the south. Though a stately city sited on a picturesque bluff over the Hudson, it’s also a bustling metropolis with an independent source of life. But as urban as Poughkeepsie can seem, it is also clearly tied to the natural beauty that surrounds it. For evidence, take a look at the Walkway over the Hudson, the mile-long footbridge that soars over a majestic stretch of the river and connects Poughkeepsie with rural Ulster County.
Crave, a stylish restaurant snuggled at the foot of the Walkway in Poughkeepsie, was not debuted by some Manhattan expatriate looking to cash in on the Hudson Valley’s new cool. Says Chef/Owner Ed Kowalski, “I was actually born and raised here. I’m a local guy.” He continues, “I was married young —at 21, to a girl who was also from this area, my high school sweetheart—and I started cooking out of necessity, basically, because we didn’t know what we were doing.” He laughs. “I had to learn quickly because my wife really does not cook. So, I started playing around with recipes from some old books that I found from the Culinary.” Soon, Kowalski’s adventures in emergency cooking evolved into something like a career. “I began working as a grill cook here and there and that’s when I discovered that this is what I wanted to do for a living.
“Yeah, I was tempted to go to the city. I had two or three good job offers in Manhattan when I graduated from CIA and the money was good. But the hours were a little weird because, basically, I had to add four hours of commute time.” Kowalski sighs. “It’s a hard enough profession to begin with, but, then, to add on a four-hour commute. I figured I’d never be around, and my kids were young.”
The city might have been unworkable for this young chef, but it turns out that Poughkeepsie was on the verge of regeneration. “I actually worked in both of these two buildings that I currently lease back when I was in high school. The spaces used to be an Italian restaurant and an old-world Italian deli. I had worked in both of them—I grew up four blocks away—and so I was familiar with the area. There was a fire, and the buildings’ owners boarded up the ground floors.” In the restaurant business, one owner’s loss is another’s opportunity. “I figured that I wanted to try something and that this would be a perfect location.” Kowalski took on the space, and transformed it with a minimal budget and a lot of his own labor. In 2005, he debuted Lola’s Cafe and Catering, which he calls a “fast casual” breakfast and lunch restaurant that left him with time in the evenings to spend with his young kids. “I started out as an owner/operator; I had no other employees in the kitchen. Lola’s ended up doing very well, so we kept adding staff, adding staff, and adding staff. That’s how we ended up taking over the space next door.”
At Crave, which he debuted in 2010, Kowalski gave the burnt shell a stylish revamp with a flickering, candle-lit brick wall and a copper, faux-finished ceiling. There, Kowalski is finally able to return to the elegant cooking that left him dreaming of culinary school while he was still trying to figure out an emergency family dinner. Look for stylish New American cuisine with occasional feats of molecular techniques, all at the foot of the Walkway over the Hudson.
(SERVES 2)
For the farro:
3 ounces of Spanish onion
1 tablespoon of chopped garlic, chopped
½ cup farro
2 cups of vegetable or duck stock
For the caramel-orange-tamarind sauce:
¼ cup sugar
Juice from half a lemon
1 cup orange juice fresh squeezed
¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup tamarind paste
For the carrots and chard:
1 bunch of baby heirloom carrots: orange, yellow, and purple (if possible)
3 leaves of rainbow Swiss chard, de-stemmed
Corn kernels cut from 1 sweet corn cob
4 halved cherry tomatoes
To finish the dish:
2 duck breasts
¼ cup kosher salt
1 star anise pod, ground in a spice grinder
Rind from 1 orange, microplaned
2 tablespoons cracked coriander seed
Lemon juice
To prepare the farro: In a small pot placed over medium heat, sweat the onion in the olive oil until it is translucent. Add the garlic and sauté on low heat until it’s fragrant. Add the raw farro and cook, toasting the raw grain until it smells slightly nutty. Pour in the stock and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to a rapid simmer, and cook the farro until it is tender and slightly chewy, approximately 20-22 minutes.
To make the caramel: Fill a small bowl with water and set out a pastry brush. Set aside. In a medium, heavy-bottomed pot, place the sugar and lemon. Cook the mixture over low heat to melt the sugar. Continue to cook the sugar mixture until it reaches a rich amber caramel color, occasionally brushing down the sides of the pot with the water to prevent crystals.
When the caramel is amber, remove the pot from the heat and slowly add the orange juice and soy. The caramel will bubble up. After the bubbling has subsided, add the tamarind paste and return the pot to the heat. Cook until the liquid is reduced by half. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt, making sure that there is a balance of sweet, sour, salty in final product. Reserve.
To prepare the vegetables: Prepare an ice bath. In a medium pot filled with boiling water, blanch the carrots until they are just tender. Remove and immediately plunge the carrots into the ice bath to halt them from further cooking. Reserve the carrots with the chard, corn, and tomatoes as you finish the dish.
To prepare the duck breast: Preheat oven to 350°. Place duck breast in a non-reactive container and season it liberally with the salt and spice mixture. Refrigerate for two and a half hours to cure, then rinse the cure mix off and pat the duck dry with paper towels.
Using a sharp knife, score the skin of the duck in a shallow grid, being careful not to cut into the meat. This will help to render its fat. In a cool, oven-safe pan, place the duck skin side down. Turn the heat under the pan to medium and begin to render the fat from the duck breast. When the duck skin is crisp and chestnut brown, flip the breasts over and place the pan in the preheated oven for about 4 minutes or until the breast is cooked to medium-rare. Remove duck from the pan, retaining the duck fat in the pan, and allow the breasts to rest on a plate for 2–3 minutes before slicing. While it rests, sauté the blanched heirloom carrots, corn, Swiss chard, and the farro in the duck fat until they are warm. Season with a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon juice. To plate, arrange the farro and vegetables on two plates. Slice the duck breast across the grain, place on farro and serve.