Say what? According to wikipedia Brandade is a dish that is an emulsion of salt cod and olive oil eaten in winter with bread or potatoes. It’s typical of both France and Spain and while I can’t remember where I was the first time I ever tasted a brandade, I do have a memory of being instantly enamored with the creamy, salted fish and potato goodness.
Fresh Cod Brandade with Tarragon
The other night I had some fresh cod on hand, rather than my usual pan seared approach, I baked it and thought I’d try making my own version of a brandade. I added tarragon since the potted plant in my garden is growing like a weed, and because really I just love lemon and tarragon with fish. The result was outstanding, if I do say so myself.
The first night, Brad, Alexis and I ravenously ate the brandade with some toast and a side of grilled baby artichokes and olives. The next day Brad and I warmed it gently and simply enjoyed it on some fresh crusty bread from the greenmarket with sliced heirloom tomatoes on top.
What doesn't go well with a slice of heirloom tomato?
Fresh Cod Brandade
serves 4 as an appetizer
1/2 lb fresh cod fillets
1/2 pound potato, peeled and cut into 1″ pieces (I used a Yukon Gold)
4 cloves garlic
1 sprig tarragon, leaves plucked from the stem
1/4 cup heavy cream
juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste
crusty bread or toasts for serving
Heat the oven to 350 degrees and place the cod, seasoned with salt and pepper, on an oiled, foil covered baking sheet. Bake until just cooked through – depending on the thickness of your fillets this might take anywhere from 7-12 minutes. Mine were done in 7, check them frequently, they’re ready when you can easily flake the fish with a fork.
Meanwhile, bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook the potatoes and garlic cloves until tender, about 10-15 minutes. In a small saucepan, heat the cream and tarragon over a low heat until warm and fragrant.
In a food processor, puree the cod, potatoes, garlic, cream and tarragon until very smooth. Blend in the lemon juice and additional salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm with toasts and enjoy!
This is a great dish for entertaining, it’s easy to make, delicious and just a bit decadent. It’s a lovely appetizer, although you could certainly pair it with olives and other hearty sides like we did to make a small plate meal.
It’s a beautiful day in Brooklyn, and my shoulders are sore from carrying a watermelon home from the greenmarket in a backpack. At this time last week I was munching on peaches from a farmers’ market in another beautiful place, Aspen Colorado. Been there? You should go.
Wildflowers
The Best Wedding Menu Ever
Brad and I went to Aspen as guests of the newlywed Jay and Lindsey Hafemeister (Jay and the rest of the H. clan being long time family friend of Brad’s) for what I can only describe as a fairy tale wedding on the top of a mountain.
I'll have the Elk, please
The setting was epic, the band was awesome, the dance floor was hot, and I’m not exaggerating about the food – I stuffed a copy of the menu in my purse for the delicious memories. Sweet pea and ricotta ravioli in citrus herb butter? Yes please! Halibut with a summer ragout of peas, fava beens, wild mushrooms and black truffles? Oh my! And what’s an awesome seasonal menu in Colorado without some perfectly seared Elk tenderloin atop an heirloom bean, tomato and leek cassoulet – don’t forget the watermelon radish. We washed everything down with some beautiful wines and it’s a good thing I hit that dance floor hard.
Time to loosen that tie...
I’m not really one for cake, but I love me some biscotti. The ladies of Lindsey’s family sent us down the gondola at the end of the night with a box of their homemade traditional Italian wedding cookies and milk.
The Condo and the Entertainer
The entertainer would be my mother-in-law, Caryl. We headed to Aspen a few days early for some family time with Brad’s mom, sister and cousins (who had recently visited us in Brooklyn). The condo that Caryl rented for us turned out to be a huge, comfortable home full of sunlight and a big wooden table that easily sat 12 for dinner (or a long night of Apples to Apples).
A family hike
It was during our second day there when I started overhearing Caryl on the phone with her girlfriends saying, “Well we’ve got this fabulous condo, and I’ve got my little chef here…” – she was planning a party, and volunteering me to cook for it.
I recruited Brad and Amanda (sister-in-law) into the kitchen for help with chopping and prepping as I busted out double quantities of some of my go-to recipes like sundried tomato orzo and this salad with peaches and prosciutto. Cooking in a rental kitchen is like camping – you never quite have what you need, so don’t get too fancy and plan to improvise. I also hacked some pretty successful Italian sausage and peppers with an improvisational oven to stove-top method.
Dinner at the condo, a buffet for many
Sometime between passing over my grocery list that morning and setting out the dishes to be served, the number of guests shrank from 18 to 10 – so much for the party I cooked for, but at least the meal was a hit. Plates were licked clean, seconds were had, and there sure were a lot of leftovers.
Roadside Jerky
The drive from Aspen back to Colorado Springs was a long one. We took the scenic (and somewhat frightening) “shortcut” through Independence Pass and we stopped at a farmer’s market in Buena Vista to load up on some produce for dinner. I thought Jersey was the place for sweet corn, but apparently Colorado’s high altitude and cold nights are good for making sugars. Gosh darn was the corn tasty and sweet and I loved seeing all the varieties of squash and peppers that are native to the southwest.
Above the treeline on Independence Pass
As we were driving through green pastures surrounded by mountains, I found myself thinking, “this is ranch country where we ought to be stopping for some steak”, and then I saw a sign for Jerky: Beef, Buffalo and Elk – good enough! The man selling the jerky from a van on the side of the road asked me about my preferences and I tasted a few things – teriyaki or spicy? Elk vs. Buffalo? I bought some Spicy Buffalo and some Red Chile Beef that was hot as all hell and we carried on, gnawing on that tasty jerky for the rest of the ride home.
Red, Green or Christmas
The last few days of our trip were spent in Colorado Springs where Brad and his Dad, Marv, took me to Rudy’s Little Hideaway, a restaurant, formerly located in a motel, that I had been talking about since we arrived 2 days earlier. Rudy’s serves breakfast burritos and huevos rancheros smothered in chili (red or green – but I’m not one for choices, I always go Christmas). It’s a great little family-owned join where I can get my chili fix and it didn’t disappoint.
Not the most attractive photo, I know, but that's what we call smothered
Our last supper was spent with Brad’s cousins Kristi, Matt, Tarah and Jolie, who returned our Brooklyn hospitality by having us to dinner at their log cabin on Cheyenne Mountain. We sat on their deck overlooking Colorado Springs, eating watermelon and laughing as we tossed our rinds out into the aspen trees.
When I was 23 years old, I moved to Santa Fe by myself. One of my many early jobs in this town was to collect payments from advertisers for the local alt-weekly, The Santa Fe Reporter. Some other time I’ll talk about the other great ways Santa Fe and the people I met there influenced my life, but I’ve got a specific topic for this post.
Tunisia, photo by Salah Helal, 2004
One day I met Salah Helal, a guy who was running some little ads in The Reporter for his restaurant in a strip mall called the “Pyramid Cafe”. Salah was from Tunisia. He lived in Santa Fe where he rode a motorcycle and worked as a mechanic until he met the former owner of his restaurant. He and his cousin Ziggy had lunch one day at the then Greek restaurant, and chatted with the owner who talked about wanting to get rid of the place. They bought the restaurant, and Salah, who learned to cook from his mother in Tunisia, recreated the menu and made the place his own.
I was a young, poor, eager graphic designer living on the other side of the country from my family and everyone I had ever really known. I helped him design some business cards and a takeout menu, he paid me a little money and fed me lots of his food, and we became friends. Salah introduced me to so many dishes I would grow to love, like merguez and some of his own Tunisian specialties, including a spicy carrot salad he called Salata Houriya.
Tunisia, photo by Salah Helal, 2004
I moved back to New York City after I met Brad in 2004, but we stayed friends for several years. I went to see Salah at Pyramid Cafe and have some of his food every time I returned to Santa Fe (where I have now been away from for too long). He once Fedexed me some frozen merguez (which he made himself with grass-fed lamb that he sourced from farmers in southern New Mexico) that was defrosted and starting to drip out of the box when it arrived at my Brooklyn apartment. We ate it immediately and it was delicious. Last I heard he was starting a new business and recently married to a woman from Tunisia, and we’ve since lost touch (Salah, if you come across this blog post, call me!).
I regret never asking Salah for his recipes. Last summer I started making this carrot salad, it’s just a simple dish of raw carrots, freshly toasted spices and mint, but it always makes me think of his Salata Houriya. I still hope to travel to Tunisia some day to see and taste Salah’s home for myself.
My Carrot Salad
Spiced Carrot Salad
6 large carrots, shredded*
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
2 lemons, juice and zest
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped mint
1/2 cup chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste
*I use the shredding disk in my food processor to prepare the carrots, but the large holes on a regular box grater will work just fine.
In a hot dry skillet, toast the spices. They’re ready when you can smell them, note the seeds can go quickly from toasted to burned.
Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and toss to combine well. If the mixture seems dry, you can add a bit more oil. Allow to rest for at least one hour or refrigerate overnight, stirring occasionally. Bring to room temperature, tossing well before serving. This salad gets better with time – the carrots release sweet juices that mix with the oil and lemon and cause the raisins to plump, while the spices and mint permeate the whole dish.
Bonus Points: This salad is totally picnic perfect. It’s easy and delicious, packs well and tastes great later.
Why hello! This blog has been a bit quiet over the past week while I’ve been traveling in Colorado.
Maroon Bells (Aspen), Colorado
Last Wednesday we headed to Aspen for some fresh mountain air and a wedding before heading south to Colorado Springs, where Brad hails from, for some additional family time.
I’ve eaten everything from a Costco lasagna to some roadside buffalo jerky and I’ve got photos and a wedding menu (that featured sweet pea ravioli and elk) folded up in my purse to prove it.
Tomorrow I fly home to Brooklyn where I’ll dump all those photos off our of cameras and write a proper post about my journey. More soon…
A few years ago I did a century ride (100 miles on bicycle) around the North Fork of Long Island with Brad and some other friends. It was August, and we spent the day circling farms and orchards. I saw fields of peach trees, so heavy with fruit the branches were practically on the ground. Every time we stopped at a support station, no matter the food and drinks they were offering for fuel, there were always boxes of ripe, juicy peaches. They were so delicious I couldn’t help myself. I would eat 1 or 2 of them before moving on, and still had a few more at the after party. Maybe it was all the cycling and my ravenous appetite, but those peaches were irresistible and I think I ate 7 or 8 of them that day.
All summer long I buy peaches from the greenmarket. Yellow peaches, white peaches, and for a few weeks each season, those sweet little doughnut peaches. I’ve pledged allegiance to a certain orchard at our market, but during peach season, I like to taste my way around the peaches and always give extra consideration to the New Jersey farms. Along with other greats from the state, like Taylor Ham and yours truly, we all know Jersey has some fine peaches.
Gently cupping a precious little Doughnut Peach
Every week, as I’m surveying the fruit, people walk up and start picking the peaches up, squeezing them, and putting them back. This makes my blood boil. Peaches are delicate fruit! Don’t squeeze the peaches! And every time I want to turn to that person and say, “You know you’re just bruising the peaches, right?” But I never do, instead I just rant to Brad about how I wish people would stop squeezing the damn peaches. And the next day, when I walk by my bowl of once perfect peaches and see them covered in little brown bruises the size of thumb prints, I get mad all over again.
So maybe now you’re wondering, how do I know if the peaches are ripe and good for eating? Smell them! Give those soft fuzzy peaches a good sniff and if they smell sweet and peachy, they’re gonna taste that way too. If you like to determine whether your peach is ready for eating based on the firmness of the fruit, do that to your own peaches, not mine. And if you must squeeze the peaches, gently cup them, like you would a boob, and apply light, even pressure.
Jersey Peach Daiquiris
And now for a recipe. A few weeks ago I found myself staring into the fridge, where a bowl of super ripe, sweet, juicy peaches was staring back at me. I had planned to make some cobbler or maybe ice cream with them, but it was too hot for any of this. And so, there they were, and it was almost cocktail hour. So I cut up those peaches, tossed them in the freezer, and a few hours later I sent Brad into the kitchen to blend up the best peach daiquiris I have ever tasted.
Frozen Jersey Peach Daiquiris
6 peaches, peeled, cut, and frozen (spread them on a plate and stick them in the freezer for at least 1 hour)
6 0z. light rum
4 tbsp. triple sec
4 tbsp. lime juice (approx. 2 limes)
1 tray of ice
Throw everything in the blender. Blend.
Makes 4 drinks
Cheers!
Ahhh, peaches. The perfect thing to toast to on a hot summer day.
Ok, so I really don’t know why this never occurred to me sooner. Hot Greenmarket Saturday in Brooklyn…don’t want to cook…don’t even want to grill…get some fresh fish and make ceviche! Even as I just typed that it seems so obvious.
Ceviche, en route to mouth
Last Saturday it was hot. Like really freaking hot. As I made my way into the Greenmarket for my weekly shop, I found myself looking longingly at the Blue Moon stand, but thinking, “what would I get that wouldn’t involve me firing up the stove or grill?” I wasn’t in the mood for smoked fish, I only wanted to eat things that would be refreshing, and ideally cold. And that’s when the aha! (or, duh!) moment occurred.
I chatted up one of the fishmongers, who it turns out had just delved into some ceviche experiments of her own the week before. She said she made hers with flounder and it was yummy, but this week she was going to try squid. I chose some Scrod*, which was the firmest and most appropriate seeming of the white fish that was left (yes, I slept in and missed all the good stuff) that day. She tipped me off to her success in mixing lime and orange juice for the citrus, and we agreed to compare notes and recipes next week.
*Wikipedia tells me Scrod is typically young cod, although it is also a common New England acronym for “Seamans Catch Received on Deck”, referring to whatever type of white fish caught that day would be split and boned for cooking.
Fish! West Coast Style: Rockfish (top) and Steelhead (bottom) as illustrated by Miss DaughterFish
At home I did some good old googling (does Google make money when I type that? That word really ought to have a ‘TM’). I narrowed my search to several Peruvian ceviche recipes, as they typically called for white fish and were closest to what I had in mind. I opted to follow a recipe that called for less time macerating the fish in lime juice, because we’re talking about really fresh fish here, people. I mean, you wouldn’t be making it otherwise. Recipes that called for the fish to marinate for an hour or two just seem paranoid, and I feared would cause the proteins to break down too much and ruin the texture of the fish. Sure enough, it worked like a charm. After the salt water soak, 15-20 minutes was plenty of time in the lime juice to “cook” the fish. Oh, and it was completely and totally delicious.
Ceviche de Pescado
Ceviche de Pescado
1 lb. white fish fillets, such as scrod, flounder, or cod
4 limes, juice
1 orange, juice
1-2 chili peppers, minced (I used 1 jalepeño and 1 cherry bomb)
1/4 cup (3-4 small) shallots, minced
1 small clove garlic, mined
1/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
Cut the fish fillets lengthwise into 1/4″ strips. Then cut into pieces about 1.5″ long. Place the fish in a bowl of lightly salted water and allow to rest and tenderize for about 1 hour (I used about 2 cups water and about a tablespoon of kosher salt – the fish should be completely submerged).
Drain the fish well and toss, gently with the lime and orange juices, chili, shallots, and garlic. Refrigerate for 15-20 minutes. Just before serving, stir in the cilantro. Transfer the ceviche to a serving dish and then spoon some of the citrus juices over top.
That’s it! Seriously, so dang easy and tasty. Even on a hundred degree day, I barely broke a sweat! We were lazy and ate the ceviche with chips. I was wanting plantain chips, but Brad returned from the store with corn tortilla chips instead. Next time I think I’ll serve it in lettuce cups with some warm tortillas on the side.
Speaking of fish, check out daughterfish.com, a blog about the domestic arts from the daughter of a fisherman.
We recently welcomed our friend Alexis home from Paris. He spends a lot of time abroad, touring and playing drums with bands like Paramount Styles, Bellini, Girls Against Boys, and most recently the Obits. During his travels he often gets to experience incredible meals, some of which he’ll document and relay to me over email, like this one:
spaghetti with celery and some kind of fish that was really spicy and great
He also brings me home gourmet ingredients from places like Italy and France. What a pal. I asked Alexis if he’d maybe like to be a guest blogger and share some of his own culinary tales and trials in a new series called, “I made that! (and it wasn’t that good)”.
Croque Monsieur pour les Cons
While abroad in Paris, I thought it wise to show off my worldly side by pulling out one of my old standbys… the sandwich. Parisians do the sandwich pretty well, but I tend to think of this as a more American invention: bread with something in between to give it taste. While the Parisians have the bread thing down pretty well, what they don’t have is the American creativity of adding more and more. Quantity=Quality, that’s the American motto. I thought it was time to put in my 2 cents.
Sometimes when you are in another country and are not familiar with the customs and trends, Americans tend to revert to the old standbys: McDonalds, Starbucks and Coca Cola. This is lazy and unadventurous. With so many delicious things in Paris, for example, why not branch out and try something new like Quick Burger, Nescafé and Orangina? The French pride themselves on having the highest quality, freshest ingredients and rightfully so! Chez Quick is almost as fresh as McDonald’s.
Now, as a gourmand, I thought it would behoove me to show off my sandwich making abilities as a start, before I tackle the full on meal. After all, while getting ready for a full on meal using indecipherable ingredients, why not give yourself a bit of sustenance? I put on my chef apron and hat and look to see what magic I can stir up in my girlfriend’s kitchen while she’s off doing something called work. A quick scan of her placard and I find Pur Cacoa en Poudre, Haricots Cuisinés, Oddibil Phytothérapie Digestive, Farine de Blé, Doliprane Paracétamol, Lessive Concentrée Au Savon Végétal and Coulis de Tomates… lots of good stuff. These ingredients could probably add zip to any recipe but for me I see some old dried out bread and some cheese with a funny name and a green vegetable at the bottom of the fridge: I believe it is a cucumber. Perfect! Let the cooking class commence…
Paris=Fancy
Ooh la la
Mandatory Photo
Moodinators
Café Pain Radis!
A Dash of Color
Fancy Bread
Emmental Français
Boom! Done!
Ingredients for Sandwich Jambon du Fromage:
1 thing of bread
2 or whatever slices of some kind of cheese-found something called Emmental-looks like Swiss, smells like it too
13 slices of some kind of vegetable or something to give it a dash of color and taste
2 slices of Jambon de Paris – that’s ham from Paris, which is better than ham from Lille, for example
1 Scratchy Recording of Serge Gainsbourg
1 Picture of the Eiffel Tower somewhere in the room or on a bag or something
I added a garnish of a color on the side (this didn’t look edible – I think it’s a bracelet). Feel free to add anything you can find to add some dynamics and texture to your dish. I also used cucumber because that was at the bottom of the refrigerator and though it is fairly tasteless, I was starving so I didn’t care. Enjoy!
Alexis Fleisig knows a lot about a lot of things. He pretends to speak French and likes to eat chips and salsa.
This past weekend it was so hot, not even grilling was an option. Now it’s a cool 74 degrees, but the temperature is supposed to climb again. Think proactive, like stocking a fallout shelter with canned goods. Add this recipe to your arsenal and you’ll be eating well and keeping cool through the next heatwave.
Chill with some Cool Cucumber and Zucchini Soup
On Saturday I remembered a cold cucumber and zucchini soup I made years ago and dug up the recipe, which was originally printed in Gourmet. Earlier that day, I’d had a conversation at the greenmarket with Hardeep about how he makes his raita. Freshly stocked with cucumbers and inspired by the thought of that refreshing, spicy dish, I decided to spike the soup with cumin and use yogurt as a base.
Cool as Cucumber and Zucchini Soup
2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped (totalling about 1 lb)
2 zucchini, roughly chopped (totalling about 1 lb)
1/4 cup chopped shallot
1 fresh hot chili pepper (I used a jalepeño, seeds and all, but you could also try a pinch of cayenne instead)
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted and ground
1 teaspoon coriander seeds, toasted and ground
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup strained whole milk yogurt
chopped fresh cilantro and good olive oil for garnish
In a blender or food processor combine the cucumber, zucchini, shallots, chili, vinegar, water, spices, salt and sugar. Blend until very smooth. Transfer to a bowl and whisk in the yogurt. Taste for seasoning and refrigerate to chill for at least 30 minutes. Serve garnished with a drizzle of olive oil and a bit of chopped cilantro.
Makes about 4 cup servings.
No matter the temperature outside, this soup is not only delicious, but has all the rich vitamins and benefits of raw food. I also love how the zucchini skin turns the soup a beautiful green color.
We survived Heatpocalypse 2011, despite the lack of air conditioning in our Park Slope apartment. But it’s still hot as hell inside, even though temperatures outside have cooled to bearable degrees, and I haven’t slept through the night in days. So while it seems the worst is over, you could say I’m not really “over it”, and we haven’t even seen August yet.
On Friday afternoon when temperatures hit 103˙ here in Brooklyn, the “feels like” heat index was 115˙ (yes, I typed that right). I broke down. I had a headache. I was pissed off. Why was it so damn hot?!
On Saturday it was only a few degrees cooler, but maybe I was seasoned from the day before, because I felt like I could handle it. I dressed in a bikini. I made iced tea. I even cleaned the kitchen. In the evening, when the humidity started to build along with more sweat and discomfort, we drank cold beverages. We ate cold foods. We lounged with fans pointed directly at us. We survived.
Brad, with a cold one on an insanely hot day
I won’t be unprepared the next time this summer kicks up the heat. I’ve got recipes for posts to come – look forward to some deliciously cold foods for hot days. In the meantime, do yourself a favor. Fill your ice trays and make some iced tea. You’ll thank yourself for it later.
On Sunday I experienced one of those ‘live on in your memory for some time to come’ kind of meals. My farmer, and friend, Ray Bradley hosted his second-ever farm-to-table dinner in his barn in New Paltz and Brad and I were fortunate to be among the guests at the enormous communal table.
The long communal table in the Bradley Farm barn (photo: E. Frossard)
I’ve been eating the food Ray grows for as long as we’ve lived in Park Slope and shopped at the Grand Army Plaza greenmarket – going on 6 years now, and I’ve been lucky to count him among my friends for more than a few of those years. Back in the day, I used to refer to him and his sidekick, Hardeep, as the bearded farmers – as in: Brad: “Oh my God, these pork chops are amazing.” Me: “I know, I got them from the bearded farmers!” Eventually I learned that Ray was the farmer and Hardeep (who calls me ‘Sunshine’ and always compliments my dresses) is his long time friend who has helped run the market stands since he was hawking garlic by the bulb back in something like 1995. I also learned that Ray used to be an accomplished chef, and that one day, in the words of Hardeep, he “quit chefing and started farming”.
Of course, the chef-turned-farmer raises the most incredible pork and some of best produce at our market. It also explains how talking about food was the start of getting to knowing one another. One day, amidst verbal recipe swapping, Ray asked me what I did for a living. When I told him, he said he’d like to have labels designed for his pickles and some new products he was thinking about canning (like his heirloom tomatoes – hello delicious!), and maybe this was something I could help him with. And so began one of many projects Bad Feather and Bradley Farm would work on together, trading our services for his food. I wrote about creating the newsletter and website on the Bad Feather blog a while back.
Not just your average Grilled Chicken (photos: E. Frossard)
Now here we are several years later. Ray and the marvelous ‘lady he’s with’ – who prefers to remain as ‘the woman behind the man’ – were able to leverage the newsletters, website and online store, to promote and sell out a 3 dinner, farm-to-table series this summer. The dinners are being hosted in the barn on the farm, which Ray and his crew of friends known as ‘the gourmet guys’ were finally able to finish out this past Fall after a wildly successful fund-raiser in which the prize was a 5 course dinner and wine pairings for 4, cooked by Ray.
I’ve been to Bradley Farm many times, and have watched as the barn has been renovated to its current state over the last few years, but the transformation from barn to restaurant was unbelievable. The setting was absolutely beautiful. And the food… I’ve experienced Ray’s cooking before, it is amazing and straightforward, always showcasing the food he grows in the most simple, yet mouthwatering, ways – but on Sunday Ray was truly a chef again. He turned out a menu of seasonal, inspired dishes – perfectly prepared and elegantly plated to the entire table, course after course:
Passed Hors d’œuvres (pâté!)
New England Clam Chowder with Long Island clams Solitary Oak 2009
Lobster Bouquet with seasonal greens and beurre blanc sauce Vidal Blanc 2010
Wood-charcoal Grilled Chicken with mashed potatoes & roasted allium selection (onions, garlic & shallots), Mountain Red 2009
Herb Salad with baby head lettuces, citrus and wildflower honey vinaigrette, roasted beets, sprinkled with cheese and chopped pecans
Blueberry cake with peach sauce and vanilla ice cream Kir Peach Dessert Wine
So THAT'S a Lobster Bouquet! (photos: E. Frossard, lower left B. Thomason)
Ray had some help from his friends, many of whom rallied to set up and help run the show. Chef Jean Luc of PicNic Market made 2 pork liver pâtés (one a peppery mousse, and the other, country-style with habañeros, pistachios, mint and hyssop) that threatened to end me before we even got started, they were so decadently delicious. Several of the courses featured fish from Blue Moon (from which official and unofficial family members were in attendance) – including the infamous lobster bouquet. Ray has mentioned this dish to me many times before as something he makes for dinner parties, always with different sides, but I never really understood the wonder that it is. Perfectly cooked (of course), sweet lobster surrounded by a “bouquet” of whatever is in season – in this instance, a colorful arrangement everything from shredded beets with beet greens and mint, to fava beans and a husk tomato. Ray told me he adds the lobster roe to the beurre blanc, which he finishes the dish with. Heaven in my mouth.
I could go on and on… oh, that clam chowder, who cares if it was hot! And a bite of sweet, roasted garlic with perfectly grilled chicken… but then I’d never finish writing this post. Each of the courses was paired with wines by Adair Vineyards, local New Paltz winemakers who turned up with some beautiful wines. Hard to choose, but my favorite might have been the white they paired with dessert (a blueberry cake with peach sauce), the Vidal Blanc blended with 10% of their peach dessert wine. I just wanted to keep my nose in my glass and breathe the perfume for the rest of the day.
Making magic out of Blueberry Cake (photos: E. Frossard)
But all good things must come to an end and so I returned home with a full belly, a bag of apricots and some of that blueberry cake. Ettiene Frossard, our friend and Ray’s, documented the day with photos that look as good as my memories taste (thanks Etienne for letting me post them here!). Next month Brad and I are moving from the table to help in the back of the house where I’m ready to sweat and hoping to pick up a few tricks from the pro.
Bonus Material:
There is a wonderful article by Regina Schrambling about Ray and Bradley Farm in the Summer issues of Edible Brooklyn and Edible Manhattan. There’s even mention of Brad and I, and how we got the man who doesn’t own watch, let alone have an email account, to let us make him a website – where you can learn more about Ray and the farm, and see more of Etienne’s gorgeous photos, like this one:
Big sky over the barn at Bradley Farm (photo: E. Frossard)
Alexis Fleisig knows a lot about a lot of things. He pretends to speak French and likes to eat chips and salsa.
