Restaurant Widow

CSA & Market Report for October 28th

Look!  Thanksgiving dinner!  Anyone who has ever been in my parents' house and seen the giant picture of me, as a 4-year-old, standing next to a live turkey, knows I have a sordid past with live turkeys (how was I supposed to know not all creatures want me to pet them!?).  For that reason, I was a little nervous while sticking my camera lens into the cage to shoot this picture, but I really wanted to feature the extra skin over his beak.  I wonder how one would go about finding the real name of that particular body part...Snood!  Just looked it up at kidzone.com.  Snood!  What nice word.

The markets this week were very thin, of course, and it was cold - really cold.  There were still a few diehards out there selling squash, apples, gourds, greens and cauliflower.  I bought my last box of Toby Run shitake mushrooms for the year, and my last peppers, chiles, sprouts and onions from Dearsmans. 

My CSA box this week included eggs, potatoes, bell peppers, arugula, greens, mixed lettuce, cauliflower, bok choy, scallions and bitter greens, which I used to make this yummy bitter green salad.  There's nothing like it when eaten with or after a rich meal; I highly recommend it.  This was a mix of radicchio and frisee with the bunch of arugula thrown in for good measure.  Wash in several changes of water, spin dry, and dress liberally with olive oil, sprinkle over some nice sherry vinegar, cracked black pepper and a good shower of sea salt:

WCB #73

The kitties love my light box.  It's like the perfect, kitty-sized tent.  They are rarely still enough when climbing about to take pictures of, but I loved this rare exception of Mimi, who was very taken with the garlic last Market Day.  I didn't know we were supposed to be dressing up for Halloween this week, so let's just say that Mimi is dressed up as me, fussing about with food and enamoured of garlic. Please visit Kayak Soup for the rest of this week's fun felines!

Crumbs From the Week - Includes Whining About Greed and Smoking! Read On!

I've been having a rather hectic week this week - working every day, helping a friend launch his catering career (shameless plug: e-mail me if you need any catering this holiday season and I'll put you in touch.  The chef is the one responsible for my better-than-the-French-Laundry-Pork-Belly from this time last year, it's the really, really bad picture, at the end; bonus - if you read the post, you can relive one of the most humiliating nights of my dining life!  Laugh at me, please!)  And, if you visit my Flickr page, you can see some of the pictures from our event.

I did have a little free time to attend a Scotch tasting, which you will hear more about later; it was very educational, and I'm here to impart my newfound wisdom upon you.  Aren't you lucky?

At the Farmer's Market this week, I bought some of this intensely smoky, rich jowl bacon, complete with hairy skin.  Similar to guanciale, the dry-cured jowl product from Italy, this jowl bacon was produced locally by those crazy kids over at the Wayward Seed Farm (you might remember them from such products as radish pods and salsify).  I wasted no time cutting in and browning some up for some spaghetti and greens.  I have a very special and unusual plan for the precious rendered fat which will certainly be revealed to you in good time.

And now, folks, I'd like to get serious.  First up, something political.  I promise, this is the only time you will hear me get political.  Unless you know me and have the misfortune to encounter me after a bourbon, but that's rare.  Midterm elections are coming up on November 7th, and the city of Columbus and all of Ohio is being purposefully misled about one of our ballot measures, Issue 4.  This is not a smoking ban at all, as it is being touted in adverts, but a constitutional amendment - backed by tobacco companies - which will reverse many of the codes installed after the 2004 election, when the city of Columbus voted to go largely smoke-free in restaurants, bars, etc.  If, like me, you are a non-smoking (or even if you're a smoker who would like to control their own decay) restaurant or bar industry worker with absolutely no company-provided health care, I am sure you would also like to keep the air in your establishment as clean as it has been for the past 2 years.  For more information on this issue, click here to go to the SmokeFree website.  There are numerous other resources to research this online, simply Google "issues 4 & 5."  Voting yes on issue 4 will override issue 5, which is the state-wide smoke-free law, which will bring the rest of the state inline with Columbus and many other cities Ohio cities.  So, just for the record, it's NO on 4, and YES on 5, if you'd like to keep things smoke-free.  Whew.  I can't even believe I wrote the words "ballot measure."  I promise to never again be political. 

Lastly, I'd like to talk about greed.  I know that you, my dear readers, are all loving, kind people who would never cut me in line or race me to a table, or stomp your feet like 5-year-olds in the bakery line, but for the rest of you, I'd like to propose a day where we all think about someone else before ourselves.  Instead of saying me first, how about we remember we live in a country of abundance.  How about this Saturday, while you are standing in line at Omega waiting for your giant cinnamon roll which could feed a family of 4 in some parts of the world, and the person in front of you buys the last one, you blame yourself for sleeping in so late, instead of whining vocally that you've been waiting 10 minutes and you can't believe they would sell the last roll to the person in front of you, who clearly doesn't deserve it.  That goes for you, too, fennel lady from last week's market.  How about this Saturday, try to be a little bit nice.  I promise it won't kill you.  Let someone ahead of you in line.  Don't stake out your seat for brunch at Northstar before you've ordered, ignoring the sign telling you not to do that, wasting a table for an hour while everyone else stands around, egg sandwich and coffee in hand, waiting for a table.  I'm tired of it.  And as soon as I muster the courage to call you out on it, I will.  Just one day.  No cuts, no foot-stomping, no laborious, world-on-my-shoulder sighs, just everyone acting like a grown up who might occasionally hold the door open for a little old lady.  Anyone else in?

So Just What do I do With All Those Parmesan Rinds?

I work in a restaurant which uses a lot of Parmesan cheese.  We get the good stuff,  the kind which costs a lot in the grocery store or cheese shop.  Our line cooks shred pounds of Parmesan cheese every week, and about once a week, I beg for the Parmesan rinds, or "Parm butts," as we lovingly refer to them at work.  People are always asking me why.

There are a few reasons. As we all know, wholesale beats out Whole Foods anyday, so I try to be as enterprising (read: cheap) as possible when it comes to this precious comodity.  Our cooks use a coarse grater, and are on a time constraint.  At home, I use a fine grater for light, fluffy shreds, and have more time to devote to my grating.  As a result, I can get a lot of mileage from the cheese they leave behind. 

But more than that, Parmesan rinds make a delicious addition to any number of things after all usable cheese has been grated from within: they are wonderful added to soups and stocks, they in fact make their own delicious stock when poached slowly, and they are also a great enhancer to all sorts of tomato sauces.  Just throw the rind in and pluck it out before serving or canning.  The flavor is subtle yet wonderful - it isn't overtly cheesy, just as Parmesan itself isn't overtly cheesy - it's rich, salty, savory and satisfying.  Some might call this Umami.

Which brings me to my finer point: using typical Lisa logic with no concrete scientific evidence to support my theory, I believe Parmesan makes everything taste so wonderful because it contains large quantities of naturally occuring MSG - the largest occuring naturally, I believe.  Now, don't freak out on me, folks.  Your body loves MSG so much it creates it on its own - it also occurs in large quantities in breast milk.

So what have we learned today?  Don't throw away those Parmesan rinds!  They are very useful.  You can acutally purchase them at Whole Foods, by the way, just in case you don't have unlimited access to them as I do - not in the regular cheese section but in the cheese cooler where they have the "lesser" pre-packaged cheeses.  Happy eating!

CSA & Market Report for October 21st

Radish pods - aren't they fun?  A strange mix of sweet, watery crispness with a hot radishy bite at the end, good raw in salads or stir fried - I'll let you know what I find to do with them (these came from the Wayward Seed farm).
My CSA box this week included eggs, lettuce mix, mixed mustard and other greens, potatoes, cilantro (which I donated to another, cilantro-loving member), radishes, green tomatoes, and this cute dumpling squash:

And now, a photo montage of my other purchases, most of which came from the Wayward Seed Farm (of course, I also purchased the week's shitake mushrooms from Toby Run, and onions, peppers and Brussels sprouts from Dearsman farms, but you've seen those all a million times before).

Small purple kohlrabi:

Purple scallions and undeveloped cippolini onions:

And a nice bunch of garlic from Just This Farm, who has a new website and is currently accepting orders for turkeys, one of whom I met Saturday at the Farmer's Market.  Furthermore, they are selling boxes of many of the ingredients needed for Thanksgiving dinner for $48, so you can have a local Thanksgiving.:

WCB #72

Look at this happy face.  This is the face of Ike dozing off to sleep on the heating vent.  Oh, how he loves that heating vent. 

Cafe del Mondo

Guess what?  I've made your dinner plans for next Thursday.  Wasn't that easy?  You don't even have to think about what to order.  All you have to do is make a reservation and find some spare wine lying about your house.  You say you only have a budget of $40 for dining out this week?  Even better. 

Located in an unassuming warehouse on 4th street is one of the city's hidden lunch treasures.  Many are already familiar with their scathingly Italian espresso, their calzones and paninis, and whatever else has been cooked up for lunch - I've been there on occasion (too bad they weren't open when I used to work at the Smith Brother's Hardware Building), but until recently, I had no idea they served dinner every once in awhile. 

When a friend, whose taste I trust implicitly, told me a 4-6 course dinner was served on Thursday nights for around $20, I was incredulous, but excited to see what it was all about.  And it's true.  It's all true.  There's no liquor license, so I came armed with wine in hand.  Wine I already had at home, so there was no need to even buy something on the way - I'm really sticking to my budget!

Cafe del Mondo is small and cozy - it's a pleasant, warm orange color and seats about 20 or so.  Our server opened out wine for us and we were presented with a plate of simple bruschetta.  It seemed simple, tomatoes on toast, but the tomatoes were spiked with a little garlic, and the bread was perfectly toasted. 

Next up came a great little salad topped with many things in the Italian vein - olives, roasted red peppers, fresh mozzarella and a good, housemade balsamic vinaigrette.  It was the quality of the simple ingredients which shone; the roasted red peppers were seriously good, almost buttery rich.  I'm sorry for the picture, I was a little timid, being with a few people who haven't seen my compulsive picture-taking before:

For dinner, we were served sliced pork loin topped with a simple sauce of capers and a few oven roasted tomatoes.  On the side was a simple - but perfectly cooked - pile of spaghetti tossed in butter and pine nuts and covered with a little dusting of good Parmesan; it could have used a little salt, but we kept marveling at the perfect al dente-ness of the noodles.  Good, not overcooked green beans finished the dish, cooked up with a little bacon and more of those roasted red peppers.  Everything was simple, unpretentious, and quite good:

Dessert came - a tall, proud layer cake with simple whipped cream frosting and lemon curd filling.  I very unwisely chose to have an espresso, a decision I had 9 hours to regret as I lay in bed cursing my thoughtlessness.  I guess I am officially old - gone are the days of chugging pints of coffee all day long and still getting my 8 hours of blissfully unaware sleep.  It's all downhill from here, I guess.  Soon I'll be giving my waitresses the evil eye and insisting they've slipped regular into my coffee cup, promising them late-night calls of curses and burnings in effigy.  It all happened so fast.  My, haven't I digressed?  I hope no vitriol for little old ladies came through.  Here, calm down by looking at this cake:

I ate 1/3 of the cake last night, and then had the rest for breakfast.  As I tossed and turned all night, wondering how one measly ounce of beverage could so ruin my slumber, eating the rest of that simple cake for breakfast was my one comfort.  That and the promise that on Monday, I can get all the sleep I want.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, I encourage you to break your routine and visit Cafe del Mondo for their Thursday night dinners; my dinner cost $18.  No joke - plus, leave a nice tip, remembering your server opened your wine even though you didn't buy it there.  Reservations are required and dress is casual.  Please specify any dietary concerns, as there is no menu.  If you want to be extra special nice, you might want to bring in a little grappa or limoncello for the chef.

Info:  Cafe del Mondo 659 N. 4th St in Columbus (Italian Village)  614.294.5000 

Tempura Revisited

I had a stroke of brilliance a few days ago.  Seriously, brilliance.  You see, I have, as I'm sure many of you do, a yard full of green tomatoes.  Pounds and pounds of them.  My cherry tomatoes continue to ripen away as though it were 80 degrees outside, but for the larger tomatoes, well, they are stunted.  Anyone who has lived in our climate knows there's no hope for these leftovers.  I still have flowers on my tomato vines - the vine thinks it's still warm outside, but the tomatoes, they know better.  I have been racking my brain thinking of ways to use all of these greenies.  Remember the purple tomatillos from a few weeks ago (weren't they pretty with their little hats)?  Well, they were going to go into sweet tomatillo and green tomato gazpacho, but then they froze by accident in the fridge and turned to mush, and anyway, still, I have green tomatoes.

And then it hit me: tempura!!!  Of course!  The perfect answer to fried green tomatoes!  Why don't I ever see that anywhere?  Why?  I'll tell you why: tempura is not the best medium for fried green tomatoes.  What seemed like the aforementioned stroke of brilliance turned out to be okay when fresh and scathingly hot from the wok, but immediately turned into a slightly soggy, sad mess with a molten-hot center.  I would never want you, dear readers, to think that I think everything I do is perfectly delicious.  Of course, I try to put my better recipes on the website, because what faith would you have in me if nothing every looked good or turned out?  My mother cooks these recipes, for the love of crumb cake!  I want them to work!

Which is why I will humbly advise you to take my word for it and not try to tempura fry green tomatoes.  Would you like me to break it down further?  Most people put a nice coating of cornmeal-heavy breading on fried green tomatoes - this ensures a nice barrier in case any of the tomato's insides start to leek through (even though we're using unripe tomatoes here, they are still wet inside).  Part of the beauty of tempura batter is its fragile viscosity, which, when prepared correctly, will cling to just about anything, even a dry piece of broccoli.  I just isn't suited to the threat of damp.  It's delicate, whereas cornmeal is hearty.  Therefore, I offer you last year's Fried Green tomato recipe, which is still good, after all this time.

I can attest to the fact that the following items, all purchased this week from the farmer's market, are delicious when tempura fried: onion rings, broccoli, cauliflower, salsify (I totally stole that idea from the menu at the Refectory - must give credit where credit is due), hot chiles, red bell peppers, and, of course, leftover bits of nothing but the batter itself, skimmed from the surface of the oil.  To read more in depth about tempura frying, please see my earlier article on Squash Blossom Tempura - the basic method is the same.  If you have loved ones who are finicky about getting in their veggies, tempura is a great trick!  I served this up with a "tartar" sauce of equal parts Kewpie mayo and my hot sweet pepper relish purcahsed from Wishwell farms (that advice is right on the jar, and it's good advice!); of course, equal parts mayo and whole grain mustard with a dash of Tabasco works well, too, as does a simple good sprinkling of salt.  After all of this fried goodness, you will probably need a nice bitter salad, so plan accordingly when you're out shopping.

Pom Iced Tea in Cool Reusable Glass with Lid

Congratulations, Pom Lychee flavored Iced Tea.  Your slick packaging ensured I would part with $2.79 on something I would typically never purchase (premade iced tea).  The good news is, this "keepsake glass," as they call it, comes with a neat little lid, so you can put it by your bed at night and no cat hair will float in.  Brilliant.  It's worth every penny.  Oh, and the tea is pretty good, too, although I like the blackberry version better.  You can buy your very own at Sunflower Market (now open on Bethel road at Sawmill; much bigger than the campus store).

CSA & Market Report for October 14th

It's getting cold here, folks.  Saturday morning marked the inaugural wearing of corduroy for this frumpy foodie (I'm a generation Xer: I have always had, and will always have, an affinity for corduroy; although my flannel fixation pretty much died with Kurt Cobain).  The markets were thin this week, both in the farmers and the crowds, and they were both filled with pumpkins, gourds, apples & apple cider, and decorative ears of corn.  I toyed with the idea of making a cold storage area in the old boiler room in my basement (what I like to affectionately refer to as my "wine cellar," although we're lucky to have 25 bottles at any given time), but I haven't done it, and I'm not sure if I will - somehow I don't picture myself lugging 100 pounds of squash onions home just to test out my storage ability, but who knows.

We are in that fleeting time of year when all of the greens and root vegetables, because of the chill in the air, are remarkably sweet and delicious.  Not to mention lovely to gaze upon.  Witness this radish:

My CSA box this week included radishes (pictured above), baby greens, lettuce mix, tiny heads of red cabbage, bok choy, eggs, scallions, mixed gourds, garlic, and a pumpkin!  I still have four weeks of my CSA left and only now am I finally to the point where I am putting everything to good use, even if it all goes into the pasta bowl (I did another one of those today, but I'll spare you another garbage-bowl pasta redux).  I am planning to subscribe to the Elizabeth Telling CSA again next year, and I would recommend it to those of you who have been a little disappointed by the lack of variety in some other CSAs.  Not that I am knocking any other farmers, of course, but I think Elizabeth Telling is perfect for adventurous but small families - there won't be pounds and pounds of beans or anything, just about enough to feed one or two people, but there's always a nice variety.  Enough preaching.  On with the slim pickins of the rest of the market (pictured below is my lovely gourd selection):

From Wayward Seed farm at the North Market I bought a little more salsify, since I know I probably won't be seeing it again until this time next year.  It's actually quite tasty raw.  Husband cooked it into beef stew last week and I didn't document it, but I will try to cook some up this week to give an idea of how to use it.  I also bought these lovely, fat little carrots whose name I've forgotten.  They look like little tops.  We discussed the sweetness of carrots due to the cold, and I have been very happy with my carrot purchases from numerous farmers over the past few weeks, so I'll note it for next year: carrots are best in late September through October.  I might even have a little carrot-salsify saute for dinner, who knows.

That was about all for the markets.  I swung through the Worthington market with the express purpose of picking up my weekly dose of Honeycrisps - another thing to get better with the cold are these sweet and juicy apples - one a day keeps me a healthy girl!  I also stopped by Wishwell farms for a jar of their great hot sweet pepper relish and a few pounds of redskin potatoes, now that Arbor Hill Organics has packed it up for the season.  It's hard to believe that something like a potato could taste so differently when purchased from a farmer, but this past week Husband bought a bag of potatoes from a (reputable) grocery store and we both agreed they tasted strangely like dirt, and not in a good way. I am going to miss the pounds of wonderful potatoes I've purchase all year from my farmers.  Maybe I should think about that cold storage area after all . . .