Monthly Archives: September 2012

Night Out at Northern Spy

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I had Northern Spy Food Co in the East Village on my restaurant hit list for some months, long before it was featured in Food & Wine. It had been recommended by long-time foodie and friend, Dave Wyman. Dave has an impeccable palate, so I implicitly trust his recos. Northern Spy did not disappoint. Yes, it’s your now standard “farm-to-table,” seasonal, local joint, but it has the distinction of superior execution.

With sister-in-law Rebecca and her husband in tow, we had enough people at the table to justify sampling almost every dish on the menu. Some highlights included the Fried Green Tomatoes with crabmeat on top, the Kale Salad, corn side dish (a bit of a surprise since local corn season is over, and an interesting entree of Smoked Carrots with Freekeh. Between the tomatoes and corn, the menu was still suspiciously full of summer favorites. But everything was so yummy, all doubts of freshness and ingredient origin disappeared.

Corn with roasted peppers, feta @ Northern Spy Food Co

Like the corn dish above, the chef takes a heavy hand with cheeses of all kinds. The Kale Salad was also particularly tasty and likely due to the generous helping of Pecorino cheese on top. Rebecca’s carrot entree, however, had flavors of a totally different kind. The carrots tasted like they were marinated in barbecue sauce – most unexpected

Smoked Carrots wild spinach, freekeh, almonds@ Northern Spy Food Co

The french fries fried in duck fat were also a hit. Yes, I admit, I tried them, despite my no meat stance. I rationalized that it was for research purposes only. Fortunately, did not feel sick afterwards despite this transgression.

Duck Fat Fries

And with that, I ceased my picture taking. My dining companions rightfully chided me and reminded me to get back to the real purpose of the evening – enjoying our meal and the company.

Next post: tomorrow’s CSA pick-up and back to the pots and pans.

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Windy Hill Farm in Great Barrington, MA on Saturday, September 22, 2012

Epilogue: The name of the restaurant is taken from a local NY state heirloom variety. We tried to pick some this weekend, but no dice.

 

Pesto Gone Wild

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The clock is ticking for this year’s herb garden. As we approach frost-like temps in the evening, I know my basil has a limited life span. So, I did some heavy pruning on the basil this weekend and whipped up another batch of pesto to put up for the winter (remember pasta al pesto genovese?). While I was at it, I noticed that  parsley was in need of a trim, too, so did the same for my flat-leafed friend. Did you know you can make a rather tasty pesto sauce out of parsley, too? And arugula, as well, but sadly, don’t have any growing in my garden just yet. Stay tuned for updates on the cold frame…

I followed a recipe from my trusty “How to Cook Everything” by Mark Bittman. From memory, it is something like this:

Ingredients:

2 cups tightly packed, washed and dried parsley leaves
2 cloves garlic, peeled
zest and juice from 1 small lemon
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts (can also use walnuts)
3/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper

Lemon zest, parsley, garlic and toasted pine nuts ready to whirl

Instructions:

Place all ingredients in food processor or blender, but use only 1/2 of the olive oil. Pulse several times and then drizzle in remaining olive oil until desired consistency is reached. Taste for salt and pepper. Will stay in the fridge for 3 days, or pour a small layer of olive oil on top and freeze. Delicious on pasta, meats, fish, panini, etc.

I enjoyed reading RachelEats’s blog post about her parsley pesto as well. Check it out here.

Freezer-ready pesto

It’s Thursday and I’ve finally covered off on all of last weekend’s cooking escapades.

Baba Redux: From Good to Great

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Earlier this month, guest blogger double-D Dan Doern shared his beloved Baba Ghanoush recipe.  I tried it out 2 weeks ago and had pretty good results, but not the greatness I aspired to. I was missing that much talked about “smokiness” that can be achieved with eggplant.  I thought, “Gosh darn it, I will achieve that smokiness.” So with this week’s bounty, I decided to take my Baba to the next level.

“Fire up the grill!” I bellowed to Hubs as I prepped the eggplant and  garlic (I am such a copycat). This is going to be easy-peasy, I thought. I then waited. And waited. And waited some more. Guess Hubs didn’t hear me, I thought. And as the hours passed, and the eggplants remained on the kitchen island untouched, and no smoke emanated from the Weber, I surmised that I best try a different tactic. The next day the sun was shining again and I gently asked if Hubs would be so kind as to light the grill whenever he might have a free moment, oh, thanks so much.

Once the grill was nice and hot, I placed the 3 eggplants and garlic directly on the grill rack and checked on them after 20 minutes. They looked good.  They had turned a caramel-y brown color from their original light purple, and still retained their shape. I set the timer and checked on them after another 15 minutes (35 min total). Still looking (and smelling) good, but not making too much progress. I was expecting them to deflate, but as this was a first for me, was going by what I had read and heard from friends. I gave it another 10 minutes before checking again (45 min total), I realized that the charcoal was done. No wonder my progress had plateaued. And Hubs was off and running on his next project. Ghanoush interruptus.

We got the grill fired up again after lunch and that’s when the magic happened (thanks, Hubs). It took another 45 minutes or so for a total of 90 minutes cooking time, not including the breaks (talk about slow food!). One by one, the eggplants started to sag internally. I scooped out the flesh from each one and placed it in a large bowl, careful not to include any charred pieces of skin. Pretty cool how the flesh does fall apart from the skin and easily scoops out.

90 minutes later: Grilled Whole Eggplant

Once I had all 3 eggplants in the bowl, I tackled the garlic. The eggplants were none the worse for wear with the stopping and starting of the heat, but the garlic had suffered a bit. Parts of the head got a little charred/burnt. I managed to squeeze out a portion of several cloves into the mixture, further imparting that elusive smokiness into the Baba Ghanoush, but I had to toss most of it. I augmented with a few cloves of minced raw garlic, too.

Verdict: I added the tahini, lemon juice and salt and pepper, and aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh. There it was, smoky eggplant Baba Ghanoush in all its glory. The dish tasted so much better than last week’s version – much more complex and tasty and real. I imagine this would be much easier with a gas grill, and now I know that we need more charcoal if using the Weber.

Tabbouli Tabbouli Tabbouli

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I just said it 3X because it’s kind of a dirty word in our house. Some people (who will go unnamed) won’t touch it. So instead of putting it on the menu, I made a delicious quinoa recipe on Saturday with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and garlic from our CSA pick-up, along with parsley, chives and mint from our garden, and didn’t utter the 8 letter word. And what do you know? It was roundly enjoyed.

I’ve written about quinoa and its virtues before, so no need to blather on about that. I will say that this recipe from Bon Appetit for Tabbouli-style quinoa was easy to prepare and very enjoyable: crunchy, summery, fresh and healthy. It also lasts a day or two, tasting better on day 2 if you ask me.

Bon Appetit’s Tabbouli Quinoa. My preparation looked the exact same

I prepared the recipe with minimal modifications and it was perfect [used chopped and seeded hothouse tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes]. Here’s how I know:

  1. Aesthetics: it looked exactly like BA’s photo above (ex the cherry tomatoes)
  2. 2nd Helpings: Served at a casual buffet lunch and discerning guests came back for more (ok, not super scientific, but unless everything else tasted awful…)
  3. The “H” Factor: Hubs liked it

Just call it something else. Chalk up another win for quinoa. I still have to try Rebecca’s recipe before the end of the month.

Delicata Squash Delight

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Well, it’s Monday afternoon and believe it or not, there is not that much left from my Saturday pick-up. Have had a busy few days of cooking, eating, entertaining.  I much appreciated the help in consuming these delectable perishables. I’ll spend a few minutes reflecting on Saturday night’s pasta experiment with delicata squash, which was a first for me.

Delicata Squash

The delicata that we picked up from the CSA on Saturday was on the small side, but I still had high hopes for it. I figured its diminutive size could work in my favor – if we liked it, we’d be eager to try more. If we hated it, there wasn’t that much of it in the dish. I was intrigued by how pretty the squash looks when cooked, and by the fact that it doesn’t need to be peeled (bonus!). N.b. photo below is not mine. I did the unthinkable: left home without my phone/camera this weekend.

Roasted Delicata Squash

After some research, I settled on this recipe under the headline Delicious Fall Pasta Recipe from a Chicago chef and  foodie blogger Chow Bella. Given that my pantry was lacking some key ingredients, like radicchio and tallegio, paired with the fact that those foodstuffs would not fly with Hubs,  I took some liberties in my  technique and preparation….Here’s my interpretation of the recipe inspired by Chow Bella’s.

Ingredients:

250  grams or 1/2 box of spaghettini (thin spaghetti)
3-4 Tbs. Olive Oil
1 lb. Delicata Squash
4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup Parmiggiano grated cheese [can add Taleggio cut in cubes if you have it on hand]
Kosher Salt and Black Pepper, to taste

Instructions:

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Cut the squash in half, lengthwise and trim off both ends, and scoop out seeds. No need to peel the squash.  Slice the squash in 1/4 inch slices.  Toss the squash with 1 Tbs. of olive oil and sprinkle with salt.  Lay the squash evenly on a sheet tray (without overlapping) and roast for 12-15 minutes.

From Chow Bella: Roasted Delicata Squash Sauce

While the squash is roasting, heat a large saute pan with 3 Tbs. of olive oil.  When the oil is hot add the slivered garlic and saute for 30 seconds.  Add the slivered onion, season with kosher salt and pepper, and slowly cook for 15-20 minutes, until the onions are caramelized.  Add the roasted squash and cook for 1 more minute.  Add the 1/2 of the cheese and turn off the heat.

Prepare spaghettini as directed on box.  When the pasta in nearly done, use a ladle to scoop a generous ladle of the pasta water into the sauce.  Drain the spaghetti and then pour into the pan with the sauce.  Stir all of the ingredients together, adding kosher salt, black pepper and a splash of olive oil as necessary to loosen up sauce. Serve with additional Parmiggiano on the side.

Yield: 2 generous servings

Conclusions: Would definitely try this again, and would be curious to prepare it with radicchio. The squash was a little dried out from the roasting, so I adjusted the recipe above to reflect that, and recommend 1/4 inch slices (even 1/2 inch) vs 1/8 inch in the original recipe. We added a little more olive oil at the table, but this recipe had great flavor. The squash is quite tasty, and not as sweet as butternut squash. Hubs said, “It has good flavor.” Final word: we had some leftovers which Hubs and Sam had for lunch the next day re-heated.

CSA Pick-up 9/15/12

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What a great haul this week at Wolfe Spring Farm. Great tomatoes, multi-hued peppers, onions, garlic, eggplants and (new this week) celery.

Here’s what we’ve prepared so far:

Details to come. Must rest now.

So much Veg!

Finding the Joy in the Simple

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Good morning everyone. Thought I’d share some early morning deep thoughts. I enjoyed this piece from NPR  about baking Challah, the traditional Jewish egg bread made for the Sabbath. It’s called, “Rosh Hashana’s Sacred Bread Offers Meaning in Many Shapes and Sizes” by Deena Prichep. It’s more about cooking and its spirituality than organized religion. Please read and have a listen to this short segment if you have a few minutes. Enjoy

Challah bread

There is also a recipe for Challah at the end of the piece. I’ve never made Challah – have you?

Off to the farm – stay tuned…

1 Star Dining with a 2 year old, aka “The Meal That Did Not Turn Out as Planned”

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I’m going to do a quick flashback to our August vacation in Italy. As I mentioned, we dined out a lot and cooked very little. In Italy, you can have a great meal at an everyday pizzeria or trattoria, so I didn’t do much research in advance on where to eat or reserve a table. But I did have my eye on one spot that I dreamed of dining at: La Pineta.

La Pineta is a renowned fish restaurant housed in a typical Italian beach club. Think Flamingo Kid on a smaller scale. It’s directly on the beach in the village of Marina di Bibbona, along a strip of sandy beach adjacent to a pine forest. It is attached to a bar/cafe and and a row of small cabanas, overlooking 3 rows of beach chairs and umbrellas available for rent by the same establishment.

You would never in a million years think this was the site of a 1 star Michelin restaurant. But wait. You enter the restaurant and the tables are covered in fine linen and beautiful stemware. There is an air of elegance in the dining room, but not stiffness. Your eyes drift to the blue-green Meditteranean sea just beyond the white sandy beaches, umbrellas and sunbathers. It is a beautiful setting, in the simplest terms. I like this review on a travel blog called Mapitout-Tuscany, too.

I was quite pleased to have secured a table with only a few days notice at peak season. With much anticipation, I discussed the meal with Hubs and baby Sam. The morning of our scheduled lunch, Hubs awoke feeling ill. He thought it was something he ate the previous night, but  the symptoms evolved into something flu-like. Ever the trooper, Hubs rallied around 11 AM and we hopped in the car to head to the beach club/knock-your-socks-off restaurant. We got to the beach, squeezed into a parking spot with assistance from an employee (who later turned out to be one of the head waiters) and hit the beach. Hubs was not feeling it, so he hung out in the shade while Sam and I frolicked in the surf. Lunchtime rolled around and Hubs had taken a turn for the worse. He begged off lunch, but insisted that I go ahead without him, but please take Sam because he couldn’t manage. Yup, me and my 2 year old dining companion.

I was torn – husband turning green, whiny toddler, stomach grumbling, reservation waiting – so I plowed on. Sam and I cleaned up for lunch and presented ourselves to the maitre d/head waiter/parking attendant. I apologized profusely for the shrunken dining party. He shrugged it off as he seated us at a corner table. I sensed my dining companion getting antsy, and knowing I couldn’t study the menu forever (though I wanted to), asked for advice on what to order. Everything, and I mean everything sounded awesome. I settled on a plate of raw seafood to start (crudo) and then a whole fish sauteed in a delicate tomato sauce with rosemary as my secondo. Only 2 courses for me – didn’t want to keep the little one waiting too long. For Sam, I ordered 1/2 portion of fresh pasta with a light tomato-based sauce speckled with mullet. No kids menu here. And a glass of vermentino for me, of course.

Sam’s lunch: straccetti di pasta fresca con le triglie. Fresh pasta with red mullet

Another head waiter popped by and asked if Sam would eat “alici”, or anchovies (there were 3 head waiters who worked the room as a team). I said let’s give it a try, and lo and behold, the munchkin had a few bites of fresh anchovies with juicy cherry tomatoes. Within a few minutes, our table was covered in treats. A basket of freshly baked breads and focaccia and another plate with carta da musica (crisp, thin flat bread). I thought we were set, but Sam got curious and started exploring the cabinets near our table which stored the restaurant’s extensive wine collection. Despite this chaos, no one batted an eye. The dining room staff could not have been more gracious.

Sam at La Pineta

Sam’s pasta arrived and my plate of crudo. I was in heaven. Raw langostines, delicate deep red shrimp, and several types of fish drizzled lightly with olive oil and sea salt. Oh, and a separate plate with an oyster, because not everyone likes oysters. Sam had a bite or two of pasta, but was preoccupied. We managed to get through the first course and then it got a little dicey. I broke down and agreed to let him play with iPhone, but where was iPhone. Uh-oh. We went out for a walk to find it and also check on Hubs.

Hubs was slumped in a chair in the cafe. He asked how much longer. Again, not the way I planned this meal. Sam and I hurried back to the table and my whole fish was ready. The Head Waiter expertly deboned it table side and presented it with a flourish. He also topped off my wine glass. I hurriedly ate the delicate white fish, all the while feeding Sam his pasta and nervously scanning the now full dining room hoping we were not disturbing anyone. I was cursing myself for having even ordered a second course, but had felt obliged to do so and then couldn’t leave the dish untouched, right? Oh, the obligations of fine dining! I made my way through 3/4 of the fish and felt full and satisfied that no one would be offended. The waiter asked if I’d like dessert (and he wasn’t joking). I declined and asked for the check. He passed by with the wine bottle and offered another splash – I am sure I looked like I needed it.

Hubs joined us as I paid the bill. The kind waiter dropped off a small plate of mini-lemon tartlets and asked if Hubs felt better. They didn’t even charge us a service fee for Sam. I was touched by how respectfully the staff treated us. And after paying the bill, I was stopped mid-stride while exiting the restaurant so that the chef and owner could say hello (center in photo below).

When does that happen?? It was an amazing meal, as much for the service as the ambiance as the food itself. And not to mention the company.

Copycats

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“There are no original ideas….”

is the perfect lead-in for this post. I’ve been itching to try Dan’s Baba Ghanoush recipe since he mentioned it a few weeks ago in his post. I picked up 3 beautiful Sicilian eggplants on Saturday at the Farm and had them earmarked for the Babah, as Dan calls it.

Sicilian eggplants getting ready for the oven

I had hoped to prepare them on the grill to ensure the yummy smokiness Dan wrote about. But alas the weather did not cooperate with said plan and I wound up roasting them in the oven. I will readily admit that I am NOT experienced with eggplant prep, so I had to do some research in addition to following Dan’s recipe. Eggplant and I are not simpatico.

You hear a lot about bitterness in eggplants, and the need to salt and/or drain them as part of the preparation process. Large seeds are typically an indicator of bitterness. Since these eggplants were super fresh and had small seeds (see photo above), I chose to skip salting and draining them. I lined a baking sheet with foil, and rubbed it with a small amount of olive oil. For the eggplants, I cut off the tops and sliced them in half, scored the flesh side, placed them on the baking sheet and roasted at 475F for about 35-40 minutes.

Roasting eggplants, like buns in the oven

I let the eggplants cool and then followed the recipe from Claudia Roden’s  “The New Book Of Middle Eastern Cooking.” I wound up doubling the recipe because I had about 4 pounds of eggplant. As an aside, I felt quite diligent because I used my recently purchased Escali scale to weight them in advance. Handy purchase.

Verdict: Very tasty eggplant dish, absolutely no bitterness, so good call not to salt/drain.

Today’s Lunch: Raw veggies, sliced baguette and homemade Babah Ghanoush

But I didn’t achieve the much-desired smokiness that comes with grilling. I read on The Shiksa’s blog that you CAN achieve that smokiness in the oven if you roast a few minutes longer than you think you need to. Must try that next time. Eggplant and I will become BFF.