When you are a chef with a three-acre farm outside your kitchen door and a multi-course tasting menu to prepare each night you need to take a very different approach to creating your cuisine. Neither corporate mandates nor recipes dictate what’s on the menu, the farm does. But Chris Knouse, Executive Chef at Castle Hot Springs, thrives on it.
“I knew right away this is where I was supposed to be,” said Chef Knouse when he first saw Castle Hot Springs resort and its sustainable farm three years ago.
The all-inclusive property in the wild and beautiful Bradshaw Mountains is centered around the farm and its 150 organic crops that are picked at the peak of ripeness. That bounty provides most of the produce for the restaurant which is aptly named Harvest.
What to cook today? Chef Knouse draws inspiration for his tasting menu by taking a slow walk through the farm looking for full ripeness, peak color, and tasting for optimal flavor. The gardens and greenhouses are his pantry, a culinary artist’s palette from which he creates edible masterpieces.
The evening’s multi-course affair is artistically presented, highlighting the best of the season. Changing nightly, it might begin with a curated selection of farm-inspired small bites followed by a soup, and a salad of greens fresh from the fields. The main course offers diners a choice; perhaps a seasonal and sustainably-sourced prime beef tenderloin, fish, duck breast or vegetarian entrée. The menu ends on a sweet note with a dessert created by the pastry chef. Wine pairings from the Wine Spectator award-winning cellar further elevate the meal.
It Starts with the Guests
Each night’s tasting menu is designed around the guests… their likes, dislikes, and dietary needs, all of which they’ve shared in advance of arrival.
“We do get a lot of dietary restrictions,” says Chef. “Celiac is a big one but there are many others. We try our best to create a menu so that just about all our guests can eat anything on it. It’s a great comfort for them to know they can let go. We want them to relax.”
From there, the tasting menu is dependent on the harvest.
“I don’t work from recipes or with regular seasonal dishes,” explains Chef Knouse. “We work with Mother Nature out here, not just the seasons, so we do need to pivot accordingly.”
What grows well together in the garden tends to go well together on the plate.
“In spring, I’ll prepare a dish with peas, ramps, fiddlehead ferns and mushrooms, because those grow together on the farm,” says Chef. “With a harvest of summer squash and early fall squash, I’ll roast them with herbs, tomatoes, and chiles, which also grow together. I just need to make the plate look pretty.”
Some of the harvest – root vegetables for instance – can be preserved in cold storage and the farm’s greenhouses also help to extend the seasons.
“I did not expect to have asparagus in the heat wave but we had them in the greenhouse and they were awesome,” says Chef.
Letting the Ingredients Shine
When you’re cooking with ingredients this flavorful, simplicity is key.
“I cook vegetables lightly, so they are al dente,” says Chef. “I don’t want to take away the nutrients, and I want guests to taste the freshness. This veggie hasn’t been riding on a truck across five states. It was walked across the field this morning.”
As a way to enhance each dish and add a different flavor component, Chef Knouse blends herbs, chilies and edible flowers harvested from the farm into flavored oils, salts and herbal blends. Basil oil is rubbed on pizza crusts. A coconut broth is garnished with a colorful swirl of Thai basil oil and red chili oil. Blackberries are freeze-dried and blended with Maldon salt and rose petals.
There’s a spice wall in Harvest’s kitchen with shelves lined with jars of dried herbs and chilis, most of them grown on the Castle Hot Springs farm. From these, Chef creates specific rubs for duck, lamb, ribeye and pork.
Chef has created his own twist in a new herb mix which he’s dubbed Herbes de Castlé, a riff on the classic Herbes de Provence. It will be available for guests to purchase at the resort so they can add a taste of Harvest to their at-home recipes. The blend includes his favorite herb, Mexican oregano, which is spicier than Greek oregano and loaded with antioxidants. He suggests adding it to tomato sauce to mellow it out a bit.
Other herbs in the mix include summer savory, rosemary, bay leaf, sweet marjoram, thyme, basil, fennel, anise, Texas tarragon and lavender. Not all these herbs grow in the same season, so it takes planning for the farm to produce the blend. The herb farmer – that’s an official and essential position at this farm – makes sure these herbs are planted next to each other so they can be harvested and dried more efficiently.
The bounty of the farm of course continually changes, season by season, indeed sometimes day by day.
“If a guest came to Castle Hot Springs last year, or maybe six months ago, and showed up today, he or she may not have the same dishes but there will be a nostalgic flavor–’yes this is the memory, that’s it, that’s why I wanted to come back.’ Those memories are the backbone of flavor.”
What isn’t grown on the farm, Chef sources from local farmers after first getting to know them and their product to ensure their practices align with Castle Hot Springs’ mindset of doing right by the land. A search for the best beef to serve in Harvest brought him to Cooper Ranch and their small herd of grass-fed, free-roaming, mountain-pastured cattle.
“They’re a perfect fit for us because it’s as natural as it gets,” says Chef.
Sweet Turnips & The Perfect Tomato
This fall, Chef is especially excited about Hakurei turnips and hybrid tomatoes from the farm. “As the nights get cooler, this turnip’s flavor becomes insane…bright and refreshing, sweet and earthy at the same time,” says Chef. “I just slice it and serve. I don’t know how to make it any better than it already is.”
November is when tomato season takes over, and there’s a greenhouse devoted solely to hybrid varieties. Chef’s favorite way to showcase these is in a killer tomato sandwich. “My favorite are the giant beefsteaks,” says Chef. “It’s the perfect tomato every time. Letting it ripen on the vine is key for taste and texture.”
Chef adds a little salt, basil, parsley and dill to his perfect tomato, tops it with a goat cheese ranch dressing made with goat chevre, and serves it on multi-grain bread from Breadworks, an artisan bakery in nearby Prescott.
If you’re lucky enough to find or grow great-tasting tomatoes, try them with Chef’s goat cheese ranch recipe below.
The Farm Rules
It always surprises guests from out of state – “I had no idea you can grow this much produce in Arizona and have fresh harvests year-round!”
True enough, in Arizona vegetables and fruits don’t grow just with a sprinkle of seeds and a little water. It takes planning, patience, and real horticultural skills to create daily feasts but when the necessary talents are at work, the dazzling tastes on a guest’s plate are delicious proof that there are culinary destinations worth visiting in the Sonoran Desert.
At Castle Hot Springs your taste buds will be the judge.
GOAT CHEESE RANCH
Ingredients
1 Tbsp Fresh Dill
1 Tbsp Fresh Chive
1 Tbsp Fresh Italian Parsley
1 tsp Smoked Paprika
½ tsp Garlic Powder
½ tsp Onion Powder
1 Cup Goat Cheese
2 Cup Heavy Cream
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Directions
- Finely mince all herbs.
- Combine all ingredients into a mixing bowl. Whisk until incorporated and smooth.
- Taste and adjust with salt and pepper.