Unseasonable Eating

Hi folks! I know you've missed me. I'm going to jump over all the apologies and explanations and just say I'm going to make a concerted effort to post more around here. If for no other reason than it gives me a reason to be excited about cooking and dining out and arranging things artfully on a plate.

So winter is a little boring in the cooking department. For some reason I get tired of all the heavy stuff -- the stews, the chilis, the roasted vegetables, the red meat. So while I think seasonal eating is awesome when the market is stuffed full of fresh local fruit and vegetables, when it's just kale and parsnips I get a little bored. I was missing the lighter side of the palate so we fudged a little bit and used unseasonal (at least in this hemisphere) mangos and plantains to do a little Caribbean dinner. Pan seared haddock, rubbed in a Cajun blend of spices, atop cilantro brown rice, topped with mango salsa, with a side of fried plantain slices. I feel like a waitress in the Bahamas for just writing that out. I know, I know, it was extremely unfoodie and possibly unethical to construct a meal chiefly of things that were flown in 1,000 of miles but there is only so much "comfort food" one person can take.

I at least went enviromentally conscious on the wild haddock (red snapper would have been more in keeping with the theme but also more expensive since he doesn't live around here). Honestly I think tilapia would have worked better, but this worked well, despite a few bones that made me paranoid of choking to death.

Anyways, the mango salsa was my job mostly because it's super easy. Here's what I did: chop up 1 mango, half an onion, a big handful of fresh cilantro, half a tomato, and a 1/3rd of an anaheim pepper. Add olive oil, lime juice, and salt to taste, along with Sriracha for some heat. Some jicama and red onion and jalapenos are all good substitutions. And anything citrus is in season (in FL or CA anyway) so you can make your concessions there if your ethical code requires it.

The fish was rubbed with a blend of cayenne, cumin, black pepper, red pepper, whatever you want pepper, on the side that doesn't have the skin on it. Then pan seared about 4 minutes per side. You can finish it in the oven or broiler if you have a thicker fillet and don't want to dry it out.

Plantains: you get the almost black ones, slice them in half and remove the peel, and then slice them and fry them. That's it. Although I would probably have slice ours thinner because they can be dry and a little mealy (potato-like) if the chunks are too big.

The rice was cooked like rice is cooked (honestly that's not my field of expertise but you boil it in water, or so I've heard). Then when it was close to being done, the Boy drained the rice, dumped the water and finished cooking it in butter and chicken stock. He promises me that he only used 1 tablespoon of butter. I guess I believe him. So it's kinda like a risotto but kinda not. And then more cilantro was added in there because no meal can have too much cilantro especially when it's the middle of winter and it feels like centuries since you've seen sunlight or guacamole or your own forearms.

New England Night

It was a very Red Lobster-esque New England Seafood Feast at our house last night. Littleneck clams steamed in white wine broth, Atlantic salmon, purple asparagus, and roasted potatoes and onions with rosemary.

While obviously Southern food is clearly my absolute favorite type of regional cuisine, I must admit those Yankees in New England have some really great food. Especially of the maritime variety. Last weekend's visit to the Connecticut coast was like a never-ending all-you-can-eat seafood buffet -- but with delicious (and fresh) offerings. I had lobster, clams, scallops, shrimp, and scrod. And it was still not enough. So we tried to take care of that last night.

The littleneck clams, like all mollusks, are super-easy to fix. Start with garlic and butter in a large pot (there may have been onion thrown in there too). Add in some chopped parsley and sage, but save some to add in later. Then some
white wine, the rinsed-off clams, and top off with more white wine. Let it cook for about 10 minutes on high heat until the clams just begin to open up. Once most of the clams are open, discard the ones that aren't, and scoop up as much broth as possible with the good ones. Some bread may also be required to maximize garlicy-wine-butter-broth absorption.

As for the salmon, I marinated them in a glass baking pan with some soy sauce, orange juice, ginger paste, cracked black pepper, brown sugar, and a teensy bit of orange marmalade. I love how improvisational marinades can be, yet they always turn out pretty fantastic. Left it to marinate in the fridge about an hour, but up to 4 hours is better. Wrapped them in foil packets and threw them on the grill on low heat. Took about 12 minutes to cook. It normally salmon takes more like 8 minutes or less, but we were cooking slow and they turned out so....creamy? In a good way. Just watch until the middle is opaque and it starts to flake off when poked with a fork.

Oven roasted the asparagus and the potatoes and Vidalia onions on 450 for about 15 minutes. The potatoes will take longer than the asparagus. Also, the purple asparagus just turns green when cooked unless you use lemon juice (same for purple peppers). By the way, purple asparagus is a little sweeter than the regular green, and can even be eaten raw. White asparagus, on the other hand, is made by a process that seems like plant-cruelty-- forced albinism. Basically they are covered with soil so they never get light, hence never produce chlorophyll. It makes them milder and more tender than their colored bretheren. Shudder. Too many comparisons to veal for me... I'll stick with green and purple, thanks.

Pittsford Seafood Market

The Pittsford Seafood Market is mysteriously not in Pittsford, but on Monroe Ave., between Averill and Goodman (across from Acme). They used to have a more swank restaurant, but they've since sold it and it is now a bar called the Angry Duck (I have no idea).

We've been to the PSM many times to buy raw fish to take home and make ourselves. They have the standard shrimp, tilapia, haddock, salmon selections, plus live lobster year-round, and mussels and scallops. Each visit, I was always tempted by the fish fry smells twirling about inside (it sure beats the smell of raw fish that most fish markets have). So this time, we went for it. The prices are very reasonable -- $6 for fish and chips or a salmon burger. You can order by the pound, order something raw and they'll cook it for you however you like. You can order fried chicken (but why?), baked or fried items, or dinners that come with sides. Everything is packed to-go, but there are a few booths and tables to eat inside.

We got the seafood combination dinner for $11, probably the most expensive thing on the menu. However, it was so much food, it easily fed both of us. It had two pieces of haddock, two fried scallops, two butterflied shrimp, two onion rings, some clam strips, and three fried sardines. The batter on the fish and shrimp was amazing-- like the best I've ever had! Very peppery, and well-breaded. And the crinkle cut fries and cole slaw do not disappoint. I saw hushpuppies on a picture on the menu, so I'm going to have to investigate that further.

All in all, I was immensely impressed with the quality, the flavor, the freshness-- not to mention the ambience of a kind of run-down Greek market with various maritime accoutrements tacked up on the wall. Plus they have a decent beer selection (Amstel, Corona, Genny, and the like), with two Greek beers-- all for $2.50 a bottle. We'll certainly be back just for that.

They also carry many traditional Greek products -- definitely the place to go for fresh feta -- as well as Creole seasonings and hot sauces, in the center section "store" part of the market.

Our Northern Neighbors

I was in Canada this weekend, so the first restaurant review here will actually not be in Rochester. Don't worry, I'll make up for it later.

It's so easy to hate on Canada. They seem proudest of exporting maple syrup. They have little to no cultural heritage. And of course they talk funny. All the other English-speaking nations have awesome accents (think Bret and Jemaine, Sean Connery, Cool Runnings) but they just talk funny. Though there are many reasons to look down on those Up There, there are few that make it worth a visit-- particularly the food-- even in Canada is a bit bland. Real Mexican food may be amazing, but at least Toronto is not Juarez.

Toronto is a foodie oasis, and two hours closer to Rochester than NYC. It is an ethnically diverse city, so it's a double-bonus of a competitive restaurant market with almost every kind of cuisine featured.

Jumbo Empanada on Augusta Avenue in Kensington Market is a tiny, crowded, Chilean outpost that is very similar to Juan y Maria's Empanada Stop. The Jumbo version had hard-boiled egg, raisins, and olives, just like the Don Francisco that Juan & Maria had (no longer on the menu). This filling is called pino. The Jumbo was more like a calzone though, with a thinner, burnt crust from cooking in a pizza oven instead of a deep fryer. And the beef was boiled down and shredded, not ground. I really liked the pico de gallo on the side, though the tomatoes are clearly not in season yet. It was also bigger than J&M's. It was a perfect start to our late morning, especially since the Kensington Market neighborhood of Toronto operates in the same way as the Rochester Public Market. We got to watch the 10 year old daughter of the Chilean owner buzz around bussing tables and complaining in the most world-weary Latin way. Then stroll through the cheese shops, bakeries, and fish stalls with our Vietnamese coffee and shop at the vintage clothing stores. There are no better Saturday mornings.

Kensington Market is definitely my favorite section of Toronto, but Little Italy, Chinatown, and the trendier Queen Street West area are all short walks away. And in a surprise twist, one of the best meals on my entire life actually took place at a restaurant in the Financial District (pinstripes not required).

The Beer Bistro sounded like the kind of place you could get a decent burger and something besides Labatt. Then we realized it was in the Financial District. As we got further and further from the quirky-hippie vibe that we love about Toronto, my enthusiasm started to wane. When we walked in and were asked if we had a reservation for one of the white tablecloth-covered tables in front of the contemporary art, my doubt had morphed into full on regret. But such auspicious beginnings tend to set up more rewarding meals because the expectations are bottomed out. We luckily grabbed a spot at the bar, facing Kings Street East, a major thoroughfare perfect for people-watching (it became even better when they started shooting a FOX pilot there later). The beer list was almost as long as Tap and Mallet's, but our adorably helpful waitress came through with some mind-bogglingly perfect recommendations so I didn't fall back on the old favorites when faced with so many choices. It helped that I now knew about my hoppiness-aversion and could be slightly more informed to give her clues about what I liked. I also liked that they treated beer like wine and had pairings for everything on the menu, and beers divided up under user-friendly headings like "sociable" and "spicy." She recommended the Neustadt Springs 10w30, a brown ale from Ontario. I've never even heard of the brewery before, but it is definitely a new favorite. Plus I love it when a waitress says it's drinkable enough to have 4 or 5!

Everyone has a "last meal" of choice. It's hard for me to pick just one favorite food, but if I knew I would die immediately after, I'd probably choose to eat moules frites-- mussels with enough fries to scandalously dip into the butter-wine sauce the mussels cook in. Followed by lots of dessert martinis. (Actually that was my birthday dinner at 2Vine). Mussels are both tactile enough to be fun in a play-with-your-food way and sophisticated enough to require their own utensil. They come in their shells, so they seem more tied to their natural state, but they don't require nearly the amount of effort lobster or crab legs do. They're pretty perfect. And the Beer Bistro had a whole section on the menu devoted to them! Which totally made up for the complete lack of hamburgers.

I went with the baked mussels florentine, because seafood + cheese = bizarre. Mussels were cooked on the half-shell and covered in beer, gruyere cheese, bacon, and spinach (Florentine always means spinach, though I don't remember spinach playing a visible role when I studied abroad there). The Boy had Kobe beef tacos. Neither was a lot of food for the price (just two tacos for a little over $9) but the flavor was amazing. And they thoughtfully supplied me with a little loaf of sourdough to sop up the beer-cheesiness to the point of total gluttonous embarassment. Plus they had those Chex mix bar snacks like Lux, but with candy-coated peanuts! I was content to die, and suspiciously close to doing so had the waitress not taken the melted-cheese-covered plate away from me.

Here's a recipe that's a close approximation-- just replace the wine with beer and add bacon. And for the advanced class, an empanada recipe.

Salmon in Coffee Marinade

Sometimes inspiration strikes in the strangest ways. Whilst doing our regular trek through the food Disneyland that is the Pittsford Wegmans, we were offered a free sample (which I never turn down) of cod. The Boy was enjoying a cup of coffee (the Donut Shop blend, v. good) and was resistant to eating the fish when his mouth was still awash in coffee-ness. However, he relented and then (Eureka!) had a vision of this crazy-awesome marinade, which he then used on salmon a few days later.

Since marinades aren't really a precise science like, say, baking, and since The Boy considers himself something of a culinary improvisational artist, this is basically an ingredient list. You can always alter the ratios should your little heart desire.

First you'll need enough fish (we used 6 oz. salmon fillets, I heartily recommend the Pittsford Seafood Market for all your pescatory needs). And a baking dish to fit the fish in. And an oven.

Marinade
Coffee (probably 1 1/2 cups per fillet, enough to coat the bottom of the baking dish)
Soy sauce (I would estimate 7-8 stabbing motions with the open upside-down bottle)
Few drops of olive oil
Little more lemon or lime juice than oil
Brown sugar (probably 1/4 cup or so)
Spices (now this is where it gets interesting-- he used garlic, pepper, and coriander)
And if I know The Boy, there was probably some Sriracha (Vietnamese hot sauce) in there.

Preheat at 350, put fish in the dish first, then combine marinade ingredients in a separate bowl and pour over the fish. Cover with aluminum foil. Cook until the internal temperature (at the center of each fillet) is at least 140 degrees. Take the dish out and the foil off and make sure the fish is flaky. You can do this by scratching the surface of the fillet with a knife; it should start to kind of fall apart.