This Tomato Tart Is Simple To Make–And Seriously Good

September 14, 2023 / / Mains, Recipes

The pastry is a dream–rich, buttery and very flaky.  The filling is enhanced with a thin swath of Dijon mustard and the whole gist of tomatoes is topped with slices of goat cheese with fresh herbs and capers, moistened with olive oil and honey.. It cooks up quickly in a hot oven. You don’t even have to rest the pastry before rolling it out to fiit into a 10-inch tart pan.

I found the recipe from David Leibovitz who got inspiration for it from Gascony food writer and cookbook author Kate Hill.  He made some changes and I made a few, too.

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Maine Blueberries: The Crop Is Bountiful

August 22, 2023 / / Baking & Desserts, Recipes

The season so far has been good for blueberries both for high bush and the coveted wild berries.  So many other local crops have not done as well.  Local peaches are a bust, and sour cherries were nearly nonexistent.  I bought two pounds of cherries and have used them up, one time in a cobbler and the other in a small 8-inch pie.  In other seasons I’ve had many pounds that I pitted and froze for future use.  Not this year.

As for blueberries, they’re everywhere, and I’ve taken to combining both high bush and wild in various pies, tarts and cobblers.  I like the combination.  The high bush add heft and the wild add their delicate sweetness in a great combination.

Blueberry cobbler pudding

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Summer Desserts Using the Best of Local Berries

August 7, 2023 / / Baking & Desserts, Recipes

Berries and stone fruits are the stars of the proverbial summer dessert repertoire.  Even though this year’s summer climate has been difficult for most farmers–witness the late start of juicy-ripe tomatoes and corn just trickling into market stands–berries have done OK.  We had a brief, short array of strawberries, and I haven’t seen a box of those cherished berries for several weeks.  Well, not necessarily.  Some farmers have rotating crops for a second and third crop, but none seem to make it to markets in Greater Portland.

For a strawberry fix all summer travel to Beth’s Farm Market in Warren on Western Road, a hilly verdant slope of gorgeous farmscape that promises great rewards.  Last week the counters were awash with strawberries as well as raspberries and wild blueberries. Other markets hither and yon in regions south of Portland or north of the usual tangle of Brunswick and Bath markets, you might find strawberries still.  I haven’t been to Bath farmer’s market yet nor Saco and Kennebunk, the latter starring Kelly Orchards peaches very soon.

Luscious double strawberry tart

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With Some Exceptions, Dining Well Beyond the Portland Nexus Is a Worthy Excursion

July 10, 2023 / / Restaurants

No  thick plush of white tablecloths because there’s no room for them with tables just inches apart apart and noise levels beyond comprehension, these traits might describe  the scene at so many otherworldly dining chambers in Portland nowadays where the civilities of the past give way to guileless  gimmickries as though we’re shoppers, not collectors. And let’s not forget the prices.  If you think navigating  at the local supermarket where shelves are stocked with sticker shock is fruitless, dining out is a way more perilous game of arithmetic.  One example is Twelve, the Portland outpost where the refugees of  Eleven Madison Park   didn’t bring the tranquilities of the mother ship to give new life to our 2023 Portland dining scene.

Twelve’s version of roast chicken, which I had last year when it opened.

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First Look: Update–Hungry For A Neighborhood Café, The Ugly Duckling

February 14, 2023 / / Baking & Desserts, Restaurants

Here are a few new dishes that I’ve tried recently.

The Breakfast Sandwich and Breakfast Sweet

Yinz breakfast sandwich served on a rye English muffin with a special Yinzer sauce(mustard and ketchup

Pastel de natas, filled with a wonderful custard filling

The Ugly Duckling courtesy of Chaval’s Damian Sansonetti and Illma Lopez opened today to an overflow crowd that spilled onto the street waiting to get in for some superb pastries and sandwiches. It’s part of a mini food mecca that has grown along Danforth Street in Ruski’s territory.  Zu Bakers, the 211 Danforth  and now Ugly Duckling comprise this delicious corner of food fare.  The Duckling, however, is in its own realm, serving up Illma’s divine pastries, excellent coffee and breakfast sandwiches served on Illma’s signature buttermilk English muffins.

The trocadero

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The Popular Former Baharat’s U-Turn is a Full Turn As A Neighborhood Hangout

December 20, 2022 / / Restaurants

Many Portland diners were sad to see the axiomatically hip  Baharat close its doors earlier this year.  When they first opened years ago, their take on Middle Eastern Food was a trendy answer to its start as a food truck or the more upscale places like EVO and Tiqa.  I loved the food in the first few years, its gutsy, easy to take fare was well prepared and reasonably priced. On my last visit about 5 months ago, it had lost its luster. The plating had turned from dazzling to muddy. I vowed not to return, and then it closed!

Baharat Circa 2017

From what I’ve learned ,the owners of Full Turn are related to the originators of Baharat, who’ve since moved downeast to be with family.  From other chatter at Full Turn when I visited last week, I surmised  it’s a  mix of employee ownership and its founders. And in so doing it’s truly a neighborhood restaurant serving a simple menu of food and drink, in essentially the same room as before. It hasn’t yet reached its full hipifacation potential.

There’s more seating in the  bar area and the rest of the dining room–a kind of cavernous space that just sort of disappears into the woodwork.  The great wall of windows will be very inviting when those big garage style door windows open in the summer.  At this time of year, sitting by them can  be drafty.  In fact on my visit, with  my back to the windows, I had to put my coat back on over my shoulders to stay warm.  That’s the only complaint.  I’m not sure that there’s a fix, other than to turn up the heat on frigid nights.

Full Turn dining room and bar at 6:00 pm on December 2022 evening  visit; by the time we left the rooms were filling up fast

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Mac And Cheese Beyond the Ho-Hum

November 11, 2022 / / Uncategorized

While we all love the ultra creamy, cheesy version of macaroni and cheese casseroles made with a custard base (preferred) or white sauce, the one that I offer here turns out an extra crispy crust made with saltine cracker crumbs.

Admittedly I’ve served this up to mixed reviews.  One was in a recipe article I wrote several years ago in the Boston Globe’s food pages.  I got a terse email from the editor saying it was rejected by their test kitchen who thought it was too dry.   Too much New England muster there.

Another time I served it to an old friend of mine who’s since passed (not from my cooking!).  And he loved it, saying it was the best mac and cheese.  He had a pedigree in the food world since his son is none other than TV cooking personality Andrew Zimmern whose love of cooked bugs brought him to fame. He visited his father Bob in Portland often, and his favorite spot of all in Maine–besides lobster joints– is Fore Street restaurant.

Bob was a voracious cook, rarely eating out but rather enjoying his own food more. He’d clip (as in the old days) recipes from magazines and newspapers and put them in  what he  called a tickler file, a holdover from his days as an advertising executive for Gray Advertising.  He was friends with James Beard also since Bob in his younger adult years lived in Greenwich Village,  and they were neighbors.  Though in all the years I knew Bob he never once mentioned going to Sunday brunch at James Beard’s house, a story his son Andrew brags about “going with his father.”    We were friends for years in New York and he followed us here when we moved to Maine.

Crisp and cheesy mac and cheese

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Sticks of Gold: The Price of Butter Is Sky High And Here Is Your Guide to Save $$$

September 30, 2022 / / Discoveries

The price of butter is out of whack.  Some brands cost over $7 per pound, which is 50 percent  more than last year when the average price was about $3.50 per pound at our area supermarkets like Hannaford’s,  Shaw’s, Whole Foods (for store brand) and Market Basket, the latter offering the best price deals for these sticks of gold.  Incidentally Shaw’s is one of the most expensive sources for butter, just under the average  whopping price at Whole Food’s butter aisle.  For example, Vermont Creamery butter half-pound package costs over $6  at Whole Foods whereas Walmart sells it for $2.98 for  8 ounces,   and picking it up at Shaw’s would set you back $3.99. Hannaford and Market Basket don’t carry Vermont Creamery butter.

 

Cabot butter at Market Basket, a relative

Currently Cabot Butter and Land O Lakes are well over $5 per pound, about $2 more than  six months ago, Cabot is generally less expensive than LOL.  The reason for butter price bloat manufacturers claim is that milk production is more costly than ever,  and labor shortages are to blame too.  I don’t necessarily buy this excuse. Still, I guess it’s a fact of life.  Why, for example, is Kate’s Butter, which is made locally from their own cows who graze on Maine’s farm fields,  way above its price from a year ago?

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Briefly Noted: The Knotted Apron Bistro Is a Neighborhood Gem Tucked Away in Rosemont

September 1, 2022 / / Restaurants

And by that I don’t mean the venerable food shop, Rosemont Market, which has anchored this neighborhood for years with its array of mostly locally sourced foods. But rather it’s across the road on Woodford Street.  In my one and only visit thus far to The Knotted Apron several weeks ago we thoroughly enjoyed our dinner because the food was so thoughtfully and artfully prepared and served in a true neighborhood bistro setting.  Think of it  being like a counterpart to the West End’s Chaval, a mainstay of the West End or The Blue Spoon on Munjoy Hill.  That every neighborhood in Portland or neighborhoods in general from York Village to Union Village should have such a locally inspirational place.

The Knotted has been around since the the Pandemic and while many newish restaurants in Portland tend to have a sameness about them, The  Knotted Apron remains clearly identifiable and has avoided the predictability of  being throttled by the so-called New American dining category.  Instead think of it as savvy neighborhood place serving delicious food.

One of the prettiest outdoor dining patios in Portland

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North Haven Barn Dinner Revisited 7 Years Later

July 13, 2022 / / Restaurants, Travel

Note: This was originally published on July 10, 2015 and having been reminded by a Facebook post in memories I decided to include it in the Golden Dish again since it’s so terribly apt for today, seven years later showing that fine cooking is timeless and still relevant without all the hoopla that swirls around our culinary scene today.

The food world is under siege with trendiness.  Fried chicken has become an artisanal  super-star.  The rarest tomato, the sustainable fish fillet, the rigors of omikase and Asian panache–even pizza are elevated to otherworldly stardom.  Canned food is left in the dust unless you can it yourself at a farm table in the middle of your highfalutin country kitchen. Then there’s the whole wide world of farm-to-table as though it were something really novel when in fact it’s how the world used to eat simply and well:  food from the field—unprocessed, unadulterated, fair and fresh.

At table at Turner Farm supper
The table set at Turner Farm Barn Dinner Circa  July10, 2015

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