Selective Palate

It doesn’t happen very often but M and I went grocery shopping a few weeks back. Now I am talking about real grocery shopping not picking up a couple things for dinner. While in the produce department we discovered something I had only heard rumors about. “Could it be?” I said. M asked if it was rotten? I turned to him and said I prefer the term “fermented”. So with that I threw 2 heads of Black Garlic in the cart. I could not wait to get home and open up my treasure.

Then the realization came to me that I have no idea what to do with this! So the package sat there for several days while I researched. I wanted to really highlight this strange new ingredient not just throw it in any old dish. I found 2 recipes off the Black Garlic website that really sounded yummy.

First up was Scallops with Black Garlic and Chorizo. I followed the recipe exactly and it was a perfect appetizer. I might have a drizzled a little olive oil on  top to finish it up but other than that no tweaking. This recipe is so versitile. I could switch out any number of ingredients and come up with a great starter. The Black Garlic shined beautifully. It had such a sweet, mellow taste that complimented the scallops. I could taste garlic but with none of the bite.

Next up was the Mushroom and Black Garlic Risotto. Again I followed this recipe fairly closely; why fix something that is not broken. I did not have vegetable stock on hand, I used chicken stock instead, so it was not vegetarian but neither am I! Again the earthiness of both the mushrooms and Black Garlic worked extremely well together.  Also, I have never added marcarpone cheese to any risotto but HO BOY I highly recomend it! In fact I had never used marscarpone for anything savory but I have seen the light; this stuff is so good! You could put it on a shoe and it would make it taste creamy and decadent.

So the verdict; I really enjoyed it. It was a nice change from your traditional garlic. It was sweet, savory, creamy (yes creamy), earthy and just plain nice. M on the other hand had no reaction. He said it’s fine nothing special. He leans toward the bitter, he loves it when I burn the garlic and black garlic has long lost any bitterness its fresh cooked (burned) counter part has.

So if you happen upon it at your local grocery store I highly recommend trying it if for no other reason than to say you have. If you are really interested I believe the Black Garlic website actually sells it.

This year we didn’t exactly have the coin to go on a vacation but we managed to get some travel in even if it was local. One thing M and I like to on a nice weekend is take a drive through the mountains with the top down. I like to do what I have dubbed “The Loop”. We start going south out of town then we hang a left and climb up a mountain, go around a mountain, and eventually come down a mountain and we end up north of town. Like how that works, welcome to Vermont!

Along the way we stopped at a state park named Texas Falls; falls yes Texas not so much! But it is 1 of my favorite spots to just hang out. It is also, 1 of the first spots we found when we moved here and there is a great story that goes with it but I am not ad liberty to tell it .

There was some kind of wedding taking place this day so we could not get a good picture of the falls, but I can say they were nice.

There is also a blue berry patch that we often stop and pick our own leaving our money in a box left for just that reason and we end up stopping whenever we see something cool.

This year with all the rain we managed to see quite a few waterfalls just along side the road and it made for very nice views as we climbed the mountain. We stopped a couple of times and got some pretty shots. It was a coolish day the sun was in and out with a little rain. We did have to put the top up towards the end of the day but we had a good time none the less.

Here is a view from the top of 1 mountain we climbed that day. It is 1 of my favorite roads. You have to drive (either direction) a very steep and winding road. You are actually riding the side of the mountain and it gives you a weird feeling as you look down and realize you are just hanging off the side of this mountain and there is nothing stopping you from going over except this tiny guard rail. Its pretty cool. (And yes Amity this is the road where I believe you said it “made you week in the knees”!) By the way they close this road in the winter for good reason.

Towards the end of the drive we find ourselves in a nice little town with 1 of our favorites restaurants and a creamy stand! For those not in the know up here they call soft serve ice cream, creamies. It is fitting no?

Well since this is a “FOOD BLOG” I guess I should tell you all about our early evening dinner. If you ever find yourself in Bristol Vermont (about 45 minutes south of Burlington) The Bobcat Cafe should not be missed. We really enjoy this place. The food is always good, never pretentious, and the atmosphere is very comfortable. We have never had a bad time here. Over Christmas I even took my dad for a few drinks and snacks on our way home from Burlington. Even he loved it with its antique bar great selection of wines and home brewed beer.

When we arrived it was fairly early so we were not in the mood for a huge dinner though we deffinately could have gotten our fill. M ordered a small bucket of wings. Now M is quite the wing afficiando and is very picky when it comes to chicken wings and this is 1 of his favorites. They give a good size portion and they are perfectly crispy however, they do their sauce a bit different than other places. It is more of a savory chili sauce. M asks them to heat it up a bit and they have no problem with his request. They are saucey, spicy and crispy served with a side of house blue cheese. He ordered a side of herbed fries with a chipolte mayonaise. Not exactly the healthiest meal but it sure was tasty!

I was a little chilly so I ordered their steamed little neck clams in a bacon potato ale chowder. Yes it was as good as it sounds. It was a good size portion of the steamers bathed in the goodness that is bacon and cream! I think I might have licked the bowl. I topped it off with a nice glass of Chardonay and was more than satisfied.

We finished our meals and took a short walk on over to the creemee stand for dessert. We enjoyed it with a view looking over the mountains. Vermont is really pretty and though “you can’t [always] get there from here” it is a nice place to call home.

Talk about taking a hiatus and with no warning! This summer has been crazy to say the least. Between work and play I have had no time for much of anything. But rest assured I have still been cooking, dinning out and taking lots of pictures! I know I promised a run down of the Burlington Jazz Festival back in June so I will give you a brief summary…. AWSOME! OK I will elaborate a little on that. We only went 1 night and we only heard 1 band but the night was wonderful. We ate at a small French style bistro called Luenig’s Bistro right on Church Street Burlington and listened to a 1940’s era jazz band that even played a few French toons. It was definitely memorable to say the least.

Now on to the food! We ate at Luenigs Bistro on Church street. We started off with gourmet sliders. A trio of mini burgers each different and unique; venison with apple and onion ragu, lamb with frio gras, and beef with south west flavors. Over all it was very good. My favorite of course was the lamb with the frio gras. It was rich and decadant; perfect for a small bite. The venison had great flavors but unfortunately it does not take much to over cook such lean meat and it was on the dry side.

Gourmet Sliders (font: Venison, middle: Lamb, back: Beef)

For entrees I had softshell crab tempura fried atop a a lightly dressed mesclun and herb salad and topped with an avocado, corn and mango salsa. It was perfect for a summers night. It was a special that evening and not on their regular menu which is a bit more French.

M had a spiffed up classic; filet mignon topped with flash fried onions and drizzled with a red wine reduction atop the most sinful mashed potatoes around. They were roughly mashed leaving their red skins scattered throughout and blended with cream, butter and crab!

Filet with Sinful Potatoes

For desert we each got our own, M was not in the mood to share. He got the sugar pie and I a pinot noir sorbet. The sugar pie was something neither of us has had before but from what I gather pretty popular around here and in Quebec which we are not all that far from. It is sweet but not as sweet as you would think. It is similar to carmel in the center with a cookie like crust. Served with ice cream it was quite nice. But honestly I really enjoyed my sorbet. It was not overly sweet or overly “winey”. It was a nice light treat after a pretty big dinner. We also enjoyed our desserts with a nice small bottle of Canadian Ice Wine; a weakness of M’s, who has now turned me into a fan.

We rested after diner finishing our wine listening to the music until they had just about finished and enjoyed a nice walk on Church Street back to our car. It was a very nice night and I am sorry it has taken me so long to recount it for you.

After all this time, I have so many photos and meals to write about I am sure I will busy for some time recounting everything. Now as fall is creeping in it is time to settle down a bit. Spend some quality time at home next to the fire (yes I have had it going already!) and enjoy the cooler weather and the bounty of fall. Soon my farmers market will be closing for the season. I am sure I will have much more time to blog.<–>

Wow I have been gone a long time. I know, no warning, no explanation, I am horrible! Well let me fill you in real quick. I had some business I needed to take care in the old dirty south. Actually I used to live right outside Atlanta and I went to visit friends, family and yes take care a few things I left behind when I moved up to the north country. It was a bit hectic, I had a lot to do and people to see and not a whole lot of time to do so. But over all it was a nice time except for the flight back (which I will get to later) and even had some time to go out for a bite and a show at an Atlanta landmark!

My good friends Mark & Becky took me to Shakespear’s Tavern. We had a wonderful time. We saw a Hamlet and it felt authentic, like this is how it was supposed to be played. The players mixed in some humor in the otherwise dark tragedy and I have to admit the “authentic” english fare made it that much more fun. I took some photos but I had my flash turned off so the pics did not come out so great. But I have to say the food, which was served caffiteria style at the back of the theater, was quite good. They also offered a good selection of beer and wine. Over all if ever in the Atlanta area I recomend this. It’s something a little different than the regular touristy stuff and clubbing the city has to offer, plus it is kid friendly!

Afterward we were still a little hungry, after all we were there for over 3 hours. On the way home we tried out a late night sushi restaurant located in Buckhead called Bluefin. We split a few rolls and a great sashimi appitizer of white tuna in a light yuzu/ponzu vinagrette and a small seaweed salad. They had a nice saki list, though not much to chose from for 1 person. But over all it was very nice and they are open and serving a full menu till 2am!

However, we were not exactly drinking much that night considering the night before we had all gotten together with our pal Amity and belly danced the night away at a fantastic Mediterranean joint in Alpharetta called Cafe Efendi. If you ever get the chance I recomend the Iskander and Adana kebab, oh and the Baba Gannuj! Fantastic night, from what I remember!

Lastly, before I left we held a BBQ where Becky and I went crazy with the food. I am waiting for our friend Mark (another Mark) to get me the pictures and I will tell you all about it. We had everything and that girl Becky can cook! The 2 of us in the same kitchen was insane but the guests sure liked it! We ate and drank our fill then they sent me on my way to go back home to Vermont.

So my ride home left me sick and sitting on a plane for hours. It’s not a long flight but the computer system went down in Baltimore so that left us and many other planes stranded just sitting on the tarmack. I didn’t land in VT til after midnight and couldn’t wait to drive the hour home to get to bed!

By the morning I was not feeling any better and desided I needed a nice gental elixer to soothe my turbulant tummy. I whipped up a Sweet Ginger Tisane. This is a great alternative to tea. It works hot or cold over ice and dare I say with a boost of vodka on another occation. This set my tummy staight and it was very tastey to boot!

Recipe:

6 cups water
1/4 cup peeled and chopped fresh ginger
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup firmly packed fresh mint leaves
6 tablespoons dark honey (or to taste, I used about 4 T. and that was enough for me)
1 lemon, cut into 6 wedges

Combine the water, ginger and lemon juice in a sauce pan over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, add the mint, and let steep for 5 minutes.

Filter the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing down lightly on the ginger and mint. Discard solids.

Stir in the honey and serve hot or iced, garnished with a lemon wedge and some extra mint if you like!

CHEERS!

I know, I know where have I been? It s a long story but I am back now with a new game for you. I was having a case of the dinner blues and just could not think of what to make. I was surfing the web and nothing was inspiring me, so I commissioned M to help. I told him to surf randomly through Tastespotting.com and find something that seemed interesting and no matter what it was; providing it was not dessert, I would make it for dinner and then post about it. I thought it would be fun to try out some of my fellows foodies creations or finds, plus it would solve the whats for dinner question. Leave it to M to settle on a spicy burger! The Bloody Mary Burger by Culinary Cory. These were mini burgers but I wanted something more substancial so I modified them for a normal burger.

Here is what I did:

1 lb ground beef, I used a 90/10
2 Tbsp Ketchup
1 Tbsp Tabasco (we like spice so I uped the amount from 1 tsp.)
1 1/2 tsp. Worchestershire sauce
2 tsp. Horseradish
1/2 small yellow onion, minced
1 tsp. celery salt
1/4 cup bread crumbs

Mix it all together and make 4 patties. Grill up until desired doneness, I like my burger medium-medium rare. I topped these with pepper jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion and a cucumber, avocado salsa.

The Salsa was super easy, 1 whole english cucumber, sliced in half , seeds scooped out and large dice, 1 diced ripe avocado, and 2 scallions sliced. The dressing is the zest and juice of 1 lime, a splash of red wine vinegar, 1 T honey, 1 T olive oil, a handful of chopped cilantro and salt and pepper to taste. Whisk everything together and stir in to the cucumber, avocado and scallion mixture. Serve chilled! It was perfect on the burger as is and for chips later with some hot sauce!Next time I will mince up some jalapeno and through it in.

It was a perfect spring day that day so I became inspired to do picnic sides but updated.

Healthy Potato Salad -Courtesy of Martha Stewart which I really enjoyed. I served it room temperature and it was a perfect side to the burgers. I also served up a healthy slaw of crisp tart apples, fennel and carrots; this too courtesy of Martha Stewart and her Real Simple Team! This was made with yogurt and celery seeds and I thought it would be a great compliment to Bloody Mary Burgers. To be honest this was not my favorite. I thought it was a little heavy on the celery seeds. But M liked it enough. I think I liked the idea alot and will most likely try this again with some tweaking.

Well over all this was fun. I like playing the Tastespotting game! Thank you Culinary Cory for a great recipe and tasty burgers!

So now that Easter is over like most everyone I have a tone of hard boiled eggs and leftover ham. To be honest I am kind of sick of egg salad and ham sandwiches. So I thought what else can I do? Now I am sure there are a tone of more creative ways to use up my eggs and my ham, many I will find all week long while going though other blogs; but for me all I could think of was deviled eggs with ham. I mean its simple, yummy and good for breakfast, lunch or a snack. 1 night we even had them for dinner! And as you may have guessed at this point I am just about over it, but I still have more eggs!

I know almost everyone has a recipe for deviled eggs, but they are all as varied as the people making them so I thought I would give my take on the classic with the inclusion of leftover Easter ham!

First, you start off with your Easter egg and diced up ham. (Get it, Green Eggs and Ham! I know I’m cheesy)

Here’s the rest of what you will need:

Mayo ( the real thing!)
horseradish
Mustard, yellow (I tried using spicy brown because I love that with ham, but it was way too over powering in the eggs)
dash or 2 of Worcestershire sauce
Parsley
salt & pepper

Cut your eggs in half and pop the yolks ito a bowl. Now mix in everything else. I know I did not give any measurements here, this is completely by taste and texture. For 4 (whole) yolks I use a heaping spoonful of mayo, regular spoonful of horseradish, a good quirt of mustard & dash of Worcestershire sauce. I know not very helpful but your mixture should be thick, kind of like a pudding, and not runny at all. I also like my mixture to be very smooth, so before I add any of the ingredients to the yolks, I mash them with a fork and beat in the rest with a whisk. At the end fold in the diced ham and parsley, leaving some for garnish.

I mound up the filling inside the eggs. Its the best part and as M says if you don’t you will have some leftover and you don’t want that.

Enjoy these whenever you like. I think they are a nice twist on a classic. But don’t stop at the ham, deviled eggs are a great vehicle to put just about anything in! Switch out the worcestershire sauce for hot sauce, illiminate the mustard, ham and horseradich, add avocado, diced tomato, and some minced jalapeno and you have deviled mexi eggs with a kick! Or add diced olives and oragano for an Italian twist. You can do anything let your imagination go wild.

On a side I wanted to tell you what leftover ham I am using. As you may know I live in Vermont and not too far away is a little place called Dankin Farm. They are well known for their maple syrup and smoked hams. For Easter I picked up a maple smoked and glazed boneless spiral ham. I am usually adverse to spiral hams, they tend to be full of water and maple glazes are usually too sweet for me. But this ham was great. It was smokey and not your traditional sweet glazed ham. It was a big hit and to be honest there was not a ton of leftovers. Not only that what was left was divied up! If you get a chance I highly recomend this ham. It is not like any you will have had before!

After a busy day of shopping were happen to find ourselves on Church Street in downtown Burlington. I decided I wanted chinese food so we walked ourselves over to a nice restaurant called A Single Pebble. Now I had been there once before with a large group of women and I remember the food being good. I also remember not paying a lot, but I will get to that later.

We had been running around all day and had worked up a bit of an appetite so lets just say we enjoyed ourselves and I fell into a food coma on the ride home!

A Single Pebble is a nice sit down chinese restaurant that serves up everything family style. I love family style places that way I get to try a little of everything!

To share we ordered 4 small plates and 1 large entree. It was PLENTY of food for M and I. I thought we would have leftovers but no such luck this time around.

A Single Pebble is great for speed. Once you order within a few minutes the food starts coming out. They do not wait for everything to be done at one time instead they just bring each dish out as soon as it flies out of the wok and is served to you piping hot.

First out was the Imperial Spring Rolls. Every asian restaurant I visit I have to order spring rolls. I tend to measure the quality of the place by how good the spring rolls are. These came out piping hot filled with shrimp, scallops, and squid and served with a sweet soy dipping sauce. They were very tasty and not greasy. M who is not a seafood fan even liked them. My only complaint was for the price, $7.50 I thought we would get more than 2 spring rolls!

Next to the table a simple yet delicious salad of shredded nappa cabbage and cilantro dressed with a sweet rice wine vinaigrette. Again very good and refreshing but for $7.50 I felt ripped off.

Scallion Pancakes were the next to make an appearance. We got quite a few of these and they were crispier than I have had them before but that is not to say they were not good. They were very good. M commented that he would love to stuff them with something, I think he said something creamy would be great. Yes you could fill them but I really liked them plain with the sweet soy dipping sauce. They had a really good, fresh scallion taste that I really enjoyed not to mention a satisfying crunch. These were I believe $7.00 and they did give us a lot so I didn’t feel they were TOO expensive comparatively speaking.

For the last small plate we got the special of the night which was called Momofuko. A shredded pork covered in a spicy version of a korean BBQ sauce topped with a giant fried oyster and rolled in a lettuce cup. These were a big portion but if we were getting them for a larger table they would not have been able to share. I liked these quite a bit though the BBQ sauce was not like any Korean BBQ sauce I have ever tasted and I love Korean BBQ! At first bite I thought the oyster itself was lost but its crunch was welcome. However, I tried it with and with out the oyster and the creaminess of the oyster really cut through the BBQ sauce nicely. These too were expensive, some where around $9.00 for 3 wraps.

The main course of the night was Empress Beef. Thinly sliced beef cooked in a Cantonese “gravy” with assorted mushrooms set atop braised baby bok choy. I am a sucker for bock choy and between that and the mushrooms I was sold. Unfortunately, we only got 6 leaves, yes leaves of bok choy. The entree itself was nice and again another tasty dish but I felt it was missing something, maybe a little spice. M really enjoyed it and he polished off the majority of. I must say the vegetables, including the bok choy where cooked perfect. But as in all the previous dished the $19.00 price tag was a bit much to take for what we received.

Over all the meal was very good. We could not find much to complain about with the food. They did offer a full bar, wine list and sake menu which was nice though we were not in the mood to imbide much that night. The atmosphere is also very welcoming. Most tables have a lazy susan in the center for easy sharing and the tables are not extremely smashed together. The decor is very typical asian restaurant with a bit less tackiness and due to the structure the noise is kept at a minimum. So we enjoyed ourselves and the food but we did not enjoy the $100 price tag at the end!

Over the weekend I was not much in the mood for cooking; allergies! So we ate out of course.

M never turns down the chance for pizza; in our house it is a rare treat unless I make 1 from scratch. But for M nothing beats take out so we decided to try a fairly local pizza joint that we had not tried yet; Green Peppers. We had heard pretty good things about it so why not. M of course got a a large 4 cheese pepperoni pizza and an order of hot wings; what he’s a growing a boy! I ordered their eggplant parm on whole wheat. I was asked if I wanted peppers, onions and mushrooms on that but thought that was odd for a parm sandwich so I declined.

When we got our food I was shocked at the size. Lets just say we still have pizza in our fridge. The pizza was very good. Not at all what I think of when I think pizza however. It had a thick crust but not like a deep dish and it was not overly heavy which surprised me for the thickness of the crust. The cheese was abundant but not oozing off your pizza and they did not skimp on the pepperoni but it was not greasy. Over all we liked it! This is the type of pizza I would try non traditional toppings with to mix it up and have fun.

Next up the wings. Now both M and I enjoy our hot wings. As evidence in this post where I tried Alton Brown’s version. So we got an order of 10 HOT. Being that we are pretty picky when it comes to wings I have to confess these were pretty good. Not as crispy as we would like but then again we got take out so they sat in a plastic container steaming themselves and they were still good. Also, their hot sauce is not very hot but definitely tasty.

And lastly I got myself an eggplant parm “grinder”. Up here they call most heroes, grinders even cold ones. I remember when we lived in PA grinders were only hot sandwiches but not cheesesteaks or parmesans. Funny how different regions label things. Anyway back to my sandwich. It was good! The eggplant was thick cut lightly breaded but not deep fried and there was quite a bit of it. The cheese was a good amount but not over whelming and the same with the sauce. I decided on the mild sauce this time around but next time I think I am going to go for the spicy. Over all it had a good taste and not fussy at all.

She may not have been the prettiest girl at the dance but she was the one you wanted to take home if you know what I mean!

So if you ever fine yourself in the Middlebury VT region and want to try something differant you should stop by Green Peppers on Washington St.