Brandade

Salt cod, potato, cream. More or less. Add a little salad, maybe some Brussels sprouts cooked however, and it's a pretty complete meal. Some white wine and an apple tart and it's a proper fall/early winter feast.

There are a lot of recipes for this stuff. I kind of relied on this one, but was really going for something like what I had at avec a while back (along with an excellent shaved Brussels sprout salad). If you have the time, and it's still on the menu, I'd recommend a trip to avec. If not, what I did worked out okay. Not nearly the same, but really not bad.

About 2/3 of the weight of the soaked salt cod worth of potatoes were peeled and boiled. While they were boiling the cod simmered in cream with a little sliced shallot and a clove of garlic. Once the potatoes were soft they were drained and mashed with a little of the cod-simmering cream. Then the cod (boneless) was flaked and added to the potatoes along with a little more fresh cream. Then a few eggs were added, as was some olive oil, a healthy amount of salt and pepper, and some chopped parsley. The whole mixture was whisked kind of smooth, put in an oven safe bowl, and baked at 425 until it set. Before serving it was topped with some olive oil.

This is kind of like a chowder that's not self conscious about its heft. Cod from Kate's, potatoes from farmer's market (Shaker), shallot from Snake Hill, garlic and parsley from the garden, cream from Snowville, eggs from the backyard. Spanish olive oil, just because. The bread was from Christopher's at the West Side Market--Lake Erie Sourdough. It was serviceable.

Scratchin' the Itch

Crab cakes w/ never-frozen AK king crab. From Kate's. Not an inexpensive luxury, but a worthy one. The meat to shell ratio blows away that of dungeness or blues, so it doesn't take too much weight to get a fix. The fresh stuff is a rare treat.

For the cakes it was shredded crab meat, some fresh bread crumbs (from an OTR baguette), salt, pepper, a little Old Bay, and eggs. Once the cakes were shaped, they were coated in dry, finely ground OTR crumbs. The formed patties were left to chill in the fridge for a bit, and then eventually sauteed in some duck fat (I was out of butter b/c of the sauce).

The sauce was doctored up hollandaise. A few yolks and some water were warmed up over a double boiler. As it thickened, some lime juice, salt, and pepper was added. Then some melted butter was slowly drizzled and whisked in. Plus a little cayenne. As it held waiting for the other things to come together some water needed to be added to thin it out. Right before serving some cilantro and crab meat got stirred in. It was a nice sauce.

Also pictured are some scrambled eggs. Lots of eggs were used on this breakfast. The ladies have been producing. Also some OTR baguette. Really not a bad way to start the day.

P-town Primer

Back from a short trip to the Cleveland of the West Coast. Saw some nice stuff, ate some good food. Up there is Haystack Rock, just a short drive up the coast from:

Tillamook Cheese Factory. Possibly the best place ever. All you can eat squeaky cheese, gratis. That packaged stuff available around the UP isn't bad, but there's nothing like the fresh stuff. Clean and loud. Not a bad app to be followed by some really good ice cream. Mountain huckleberry for me. I love Jeni's as much as the next guy, but seriously . . . mountain huckleberry.

Also on the coast, Bell Buoy, for the of the best smoked fish around. Selection varies, but we got some smoked salmon collar (chinook), smoked sturgeon (pictured below), and a little tub of bay shrimp (also pictured below). Those are good shrimps.

Man can't live on smoked seafood alone, so we stopped by Ecola Seafoods for some post snack dining. I had forgotten whether I liked Mo's or Ecola more when I was out there. Turns out, I think I had liked Mo's. No big deal. Just had some awful chowder, crappy bay shrimp and dungeness crab, and really great fried razor clams. All washed down with some Widmer Hefeweizen in plastic cups. Classic.

The coast was only a short part of a trip that started with late night eats at Clyde Common. Limited evening menu, but some decent fancy popcorn, ridiculous ham board, good onion goat cheese pressed sandwich, and really nice simple salad. That was next door to Stumptown--perfect for morning macchiatos.

After coffee, breakfasts couldn't be easier. Pearl Bakery one day, Ken's the next, and Milo's rounded out the standards. All great places, but my favorite brunch out there, and likely my all time favorite brunch, is the all you can eat soul food at Yam Yam's. It doesn't open until 12:30, but who really needs catfish nuggets, meat loaf, succotash, choice of pork or turkey greens, candied yams and the like any earlier?

Breakfasts/brunches were good, but so were lunches and dinners. Tabor schnitzelwiches, Pok Pok for very good, but maybe overrated, poultrycentric Thai, and Moonstruck, for a dessert for lunch type thing.

Dinners weren't too bad either. Beast for one of the best all around dining experiences I've had. Two seatings a night, room for around 25, and a set menu. Tomato-orange soup w/ cracklings; charcuterie plate including foie bon-bon, tartare, chix liver mousse (ridiculously good), and rabbit liver terrine; lamb rib chops w/ creamed spinach and chanterelles garnished with (and reeking of) little matchstick cut black truffles (which for the record, isn't my favorite way to enjoy the fungus--see Komi post); an odd combination of potatoes (a little too joe joe like for me) and a great escarole cesar; some great cheeses; and finishing up with a nice and rich chocolate truffle cake. There was a sorbet in there somewhere too.

The meal as a whole exceeded the sum of the generally excellent parts, but I'm a sucker for the format of dining offered there. Two strange things though. The wine pairing, generally pretty excellent, was old world with the exception of one offering. This from a restaurant that doesn't stray too far for most of its ingredients. But I think that's a a trend in a lot of nice places (of the 15 plus offerings paired at Alinea, only one was from the US). Second, did you notice what was conspicuously absent from the offerings. No seafood. Not missed, but not present.

We also ate a Beau Thai, for some pretty normal PDX Thai food. There's just a high standard for that stuff out there, so it was a nice low key dinner. Fat Tire to wash it down.

Probably the best food we had was at Navarre. No "real" website. Awesome. Small, intimate place possibly hosting the hardest working chef I've ever seen. Great, not in your face, really carefully sourced food prepared freshly and amazingly. $1 gets a bunch of great bread. Another $1 for choice of olive oil. Foie on cumin toast for a few bucks. Boudin, just because. Another great salad. Great pate. Everything was just spot on. The service too was understated and really nice. We choose a $26 bottle of Spanish red and were informed they were sold out. Server recommended we go with $22 one--the least expensive on the list. Either I have cheap taste in wine, or the server was just being honest and more concerned with us enjoying the meal than running up the bill. Either way, it was appreciated and an all too rare occurrence at most places.

A little note: ordering is sushi shop (or Happy Dog) style. There were a few things crossed off our list b/c they weren't available at the time. But subsequent lists had different items crossed off and reappearances of the old ones. It's one full time guy and helper in the kitchen. When things are sold out sometimes they just needed time to prep some more. All I'm saying is, it's good we ordered in parts, because we would have missed some things if we didn't.

We also had crappy food in a nice venue at McMenamins Kennedy School. It doesn't matter how inexpensive the happy hour food is, it's not worth it. But the place, in my opinion, is a must see, if only for a drink and to use the bathroom.

We drank too. Samples and purchases at Clear Creek (NYT approved), same at Rogue (pretty decent gin), and some Mirror Ponds at the always classy Union Jacks ($5 cover). Also, great service for picking wine to take home from this place. And of course a quick drink at Ash Street, because we were downtown. And doughnuts at Voodoo.

Hikes, neighborhood tours, and some shopping rounded out the trip. Long flight(s), but without question worth it. Even with that mother of a bread thieving bird pictured above. Anyway, joke was on him b/c that bread sucked.

Baby Bones Taste Better

Veal bones. Veggies.

And a little vegan curry. Potato, onion, pepper, herbs, and lots of coconut milk.

Thoughts?

I know it's been a while. Moving on . . . .

Love the guy, fired up about this project. I'm new to the Shoreway at just over a year in. Most folks here raised kids on my street that are at least my age now. So I don't feel like I have the right to complain. This may well be good for the neighborhood. But please, someone, give me a place near 65th & Detroit where I can eat better than decent, affordable food, a few (read: 2) times a week. Hotdogs and fries aren't that. It may be great for visitors.

Happy Dog filled a niche for residents that I think will be sorely missed. If I'm missing something here please feel free to try to change my mind. For now, it's going to be a place I'll definitely check out, but I get my fix of dogs downtown.

Also, why change the name, isn't it perfect? It certainly celebrates the history of the neighborhood.

Montreal Redux

Rinse, repeat. Be back in a few.

Pic from here.

Another Free Cheese Post

I've been kind of off posting in general for the last little while, and particularly off posting about the free cheese. On the gratis cheese front, it seemed like everything I was getting was just another variation of brie, and that was getting a little tired. I mean, I love brie, but really, it was too much. But today I received a shipment of two funky cheeses, one of which I'm really looking forward to trying. So between that and my nagging conscious telling me to honor my commitment to post about these cheeses, I present this post. I'll be the first to admit that in light of the sparse posting as of late, to come out with this is kind of lame. But bear with me. I've been under the weather.

It's Ile de France's Saint Albray. Whether intentionaly or because the package sat on my stoop for most of a hot day, this brieish cheese had a funk that was quite pleasant. It worked well with a piece of OTR epi and some garden tomatoes (that orange one is a Nebraska Wedding). Really, a nice little summer sandwich. Nothing else needed. The cheese seems like a good transition cheese for someone ready to move past a commercial brie, but not quite ready to dip into some super heady, gooey stuff.

And that's it for now. With some travel forthcoming posts will remain scarce. Hopefully there'll be some good food related incidents to report back on.

Mexican Food

Real Mexican food, sorta. Many liberties were taken, but the flavors were authentic, or at least maintained a semblance of integrity. And the setting couldn't be more traditional--outside on a 90+ degree day.

This will be proofread later--sorry in advance.

Pictured above are salted Marcona almonds roasted with chili powder (Urban Herbs), strawberry blossom honey (Ohio Honey), and a little grapeseed oil. Also watermelon (truck farmers--maybe--at NUFM) seasoned with salt, chili powder, and lime juice.

Pickled carrots (Muddy Fork and Blissful Acres) and banana pepper (St. Paul's Patch). The brine was rice wine vinegar, water, sugar, cinnamon, black and white mustard seeds, clove, allspice, black peppercorns, chili flakes, and fresh garlic.

Fake elote. Wok fried corn (Buster at NUFM), Kewpie mayo, lime juice, salt, and chili powder.

All the above was served with margaritas. Why not?

Ceviches. We should have given Stuart, who took all these pictures, a prettier plate, but that's okay. Also, liberties were taken with the "ceviches." Whatever, it was good. Clockwise from 12:00: USA Gulf Shrimp (Kate's), Dungeness Crab (Costco, seriously, prev. frozen) with raw corn, and Scallop with some garden tomato. Everything was hit with lime juice, salt, pepper, and lots of cilantro. The shrimp and scallop also got minced habanero pepper, garlic (St. Paul's), and sweet onion (NUFM). The scallop ceviche may have been the fan favorite.

The chips are cut up tortillas fried in good lard (Country Gristmill, NUFM). The tortillas weren't the best for frying (they kind of wanted to split in two), but frying anything in lard and seasoning right away with salt leaves a big margin of error.

Served with a sparkling Rose.

Pumpkin blossom soup. One of the affable Ms. Small's contributions. Duck stock (Plum Creek duck), good milk and crème fraîche, onion, squash, purslane, and pumpkin blossoms (Covered Bridge at NUFM).

Hot soup on a hot day--it works. Even better when paired with a white Rhône.

Roasted duck (Plum Creek) and tomatillo tamale with mole negro (combination of Mayordomo jarred mole negro and a powder from a stand at Mercado Benito Juarez brought back to life with chicken stock).

The tamales were made with masa harina para tamales reconstituted with baking powder, good lard, and pork stock (Tea Hills pig). Thanks Ricky B. for the dough recipe. They were steamed in banana leaves.

The stuffing was roast duck and pureed, charred tomatillos.

Served with a petite sirah, the pairing was spot on, as only the famed Billy could do.

Melting ice cream. Not sure about the pictured scoop, but it was good stuff. This recipe, with a bit of Mexican pecan chocolate thrown in. Raw milk and cream from Wooster.

And the beautiful setting. A yard in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood. The construction didn't stop the crowd.

Pac NW in Cle

Ohio Chanterelles (Killbuck Valley); Soft Scrambled Pullet Eggs (backyard); Dungeness Crab (prev. frozen, Costco).

The mushrooms were seasoned and sauteed in butter, removed, and then the eggs were scrambled in the shroom flavored butter. Topped with picked crab meat.

If only the crabs resided in Erie, this would be everything breakfast should be.

Yellow Squash Au Gratin

First, the pan. 5 bucks at the Ohio City Yard Sale. Score. Thanks to a friend that willing to hold it for me (for a loaf of OTR bread as a holding fee), a lovely little copper lined gratin dish was mine. Perfect timing too, because there was neighborhood potluck and I really wasn't feeling like making anything. Nothing motivates like a new toy. That, and fridge full of some quality homegrown produce. The squash are merciless.

After googling around for squash au gratin, there was some good stuff but nothing really blew me away. So I aggregated some of the concepts, and the above happened. It's a one pot meal, something I never seem to be able to do. The CFT does not particularly endorse one pot cooking, but when it works out that's kind of nice.

The ingredients were: one 2 lbs squash (yes, I weighed it, and it was exactly two pounds), a little onion, thyme, salt, pepper, nutmeg, heavy cream, cheddar cheese, pecorino cheese, bread crumbs, butter, flour, and a little olive oil.

The squash got super roughly diced and sauteed in butter with the onion and a little salt and pepper (I didn't presalt the squash like a lot of recipes recommend. There wasn't a problem--any extra moisture cooked off during the saute. YMMV). That went on for about 15 minutes, and at some point in there thyme leaves were thrown in. When the squash was just about a nice tenderness, in went a tablespoon of flour. The flour got stirred around and evenly distributed. Then in went a pint of heavy cream to cook down for a bit. Also a little nutmeg and more salt and pepper.

When everything was all nice and creamy and thick, the heat was turned off and the mix was topped with shredded cheddar and a bit of pecorino. Over that went some breadcrumbs that had been mixed with just the tiniest amount of olive oil to moisten them up. All that got tossed into a 450 oven until the breadcrumbs were golden and the sauce bubbly, and that was it. Served at room temp it was pretty good.

Not the healthiest thing ever, but a great way to use that summer squash.

Late Notice

Looks good to me, but I'm biased. Webpage here.

And sorry about the pic quality. It's the content that counts. Although clicking on the pic helps.

Not Cooking

So how to pay tribute to local blog Cleveland Foodie being the latest to vacate the amateur ranks of blogspot? With a CF style interview, of course. Based on one with Ms. Robb, another ex-blogspotter now the master of her own domain.

So without further ado, here's an interview with a local micro-celebrity, Ms. Chicken. We asked her 20 questions. Her responses were surprisingly candid, articulate, and insightful.

1. Top 5 spices everyone should have in their pantry? Chili flakes, peppercorns, coriander, cumin, thyme.

2. What is your favorite spice or herb to cook with and why? I don’t really cook much, but I love cilantro.

3. Favorite kitchen tool? I think a lot of people have too many things in their kitchens. Really, who needs poultry sheers. A good pair of scissors works just fine.

4. What do you love about Cleveland and what drives you nuts? I love the neighborhoods. It’s nice to know I have other chicks to hang with right down the street.

The hot dog cart cartel drives me nuts. I hear rumors about change, but . . . .

5. Favorite restaurant? Probably the Fig if I had to pick one. Not many places care so much about the lives of the animals they serve.

6. What restaurant do you miss? The girls and I are still kind of new to the area, but we hear Parker’s New American Bistro was quite the loss.

7. Favorite dish to make? I kind of eat what’s laying around. Lately I’ve been enjoying imperfect strawberries. Looking forward to peaches.

8. Easiest item to make for a large gathering? Easy, a frittata.

9. Where do you grocery shop? Mostly the yard.

10. Where does your passion from cooking come from and how did you get into this business? I don’t consider myself so much a cook as a food producer, and I guess that comes kind of naturally to me. It’s like I was put on this earth to make food. It’s all I do, and I find it most fulfilling. I don't know how to do anything else.

11. Biggest lesson(s) learned in the kitchen? Stay the hell out.

12. How does your love and regular practice of yoga inspire your dishes? Egg laying is taxing to the body, mind, and soul. And as you can see by clicking this link, yoga has long been a way of life for my kind. By practicing yoga regularly I can be sure to lay eggs of hard shell and sound nutrition on a daily basis.

13. What projects are you currently working on now? One long term project is to bust out of my run. So far not so good. I’m also working on increasing the size of the eggs I lay. That is going much better, likely because of my aforementioned commitment to the chicken yoga.

14. You’re having a dinner party, top 5 songs on your playlist? I'm more about artists than songs. Anything Marvin Gaye, most definitely. Perhaps some Peter Tosh. Sam Cooke, for sure. Definitely no Alice Cooper. That guy's nuts.

15. Describe your job in culinary media and the role you played in Michael Symon’s upcoming cookbook. I really don’t do too much. Symon asked if I’d be part of a demo for the book, do some posing and whatnot, but that wasn’t the direction I was looking to take at the time.

16. What local farmers do you support most often and why? Love Gather ‘Round Farm. You can hear those girls from the Rapid stop. It's very empowering

17. If you could be any chef for a day, who would it be? Colonel Sanders. I'd kill myself.

18. You have two plane tickets to anywhere in the world. Where are you going and who has the other ticket? Key West. My people run the place. Other ticket goes to any rooster who’s down. We'd kick it Hemingway style and eat conch fritters.

19. What’s your favorite meal from your childhood and last meal on Earth? I love lamb's quarters. Something about how they’re so often ignored makes them taste all the better. Last meal on earth. Probably a posthumous foie sauce.

20. What advice would you give to someone planning an event? Relax. These things usually work out fine.

Using Eggplant

Split eggplants, tomatoes, and a bit of pepper got coated in olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, and thrown under the broiler. After everything was charred, the eggplant was peeled and the mix got thrown into the food processor with a little cumin, coriander, fresh parsley, and a little more olive oil. Also a bit more salt and pepper.

With toasted pita, a nice light meal. And it uses up some of that eggplant.

Roast Duck

The title says it all. One duck, salt, pepper, and a 350 oven for about 1 hr 45 min. Some potatoes roasted in reserved duck fat (the duck was in an uncovered casserole that was drained 3 or 4 times during roasting) with a whole garlic clove and some rosemary. Salt and pepper, too.

There's lots of info on roasting ducks out there, or rather lots of info on not roasting ducks. I didn't air dry, lacquer, score the skin, or any of that. Just started it back up and finished breast up. Simple. Good.

The breast was fully cooked but still really tender. Probably because of the self basting and all the fat it was sitting in during the first part of cooking. Tasted kind of like super rich dark meat chicken. But even more so, the leg was where it was at. Tender as a braised leg but with crispy skin. I'd like a dozen.

This isn't to say I'm giving up med rare duck breasts, but I won't hesitate to roast the whole bird again in the future. It's just too easy and low maintenance.

Duck from Plum Creek.

More of the Same

I think I'm getting into a cooking rut. Carbonara (pictured) is certainly a fine standby (especially with homemade guanciale), but it's kind of like picking up a best seller. It'll be good, no doubt, but there's a whole world of other things out there that are at least as satisfying, it just takes some effort to find them. And I think there's something in that effort that can make those finds even better than some of the best standbys. Maybe. I do like me some carbonara though.

My excuse for the rut: Ms. Nature is being quite the tease with this summer thing. Showing a little sweet corn, maybe a peek of a tomato or two, and then submerging us in cool dampness for weeks at a time. She is a cruel mistress.