After the traditional holiday menu of standing rib roast and all of its usual accompaniments, the idea of coconut custard pie appealed to me as the dessert after a very savory menu. Perhaps it’s a mistake to call it coconut custard because the filling does not contain milk to produce a silken custard but rather it’s just eggs, a lot of sugar, a lot of melted butter and vanilla extract poured over sweetened coconut flakes that line the bottom of the prebaked pie shell.
Coconut pie
It’s rare when restaurants reach that highly regarded perfection of high purpose and aspiration, the notion of which is such a subjective idea anyway. But once you find such a place as The Garrison in Yarmouth housed in the Sparhawk Mill along the Royal River, it’s immediately clear that this could be the golden bough we’ve all been waiting to climb, the prize at the end of that exiguous road where no less than some fabulously good food arrives to dazzle the senses.
As I said, the place is off the beaten path. Off Route 1, onto Portland Street then onto Bridge Street to wind down to the front of the building. Park in front of the mill building and walk up to the door, which is so unclearly marked, you’re still not sure you’re at the right place. The only clue was a kind of hieroglyphic G to the right of the door.
The front door
You enter a coat room where an epicene host greets you with an elegant hello. You go through another door—you haven’t seen any dining room or kitchen yet—until you enter one of the most urbanely cool dining rooms in Maine. It’s aglow with soft lights over the long bar and L-shaped dining room, a space that’s both rustic and refined. The open kitchen is on its own, just seen discreetly enough where a huddle of serious chefs works their magic.
As dinners in a soup bowl go, chicken and dumplings are so honestly good. There are a couple of versions of how to prepare this old-time dish. One method is to put a dumpling dough, more like noodles or pie dough, cut into strips and poached in chicken broth. Sometimes they’re used as the final addition to stews and braises. Erin French offers a recipe in her “Lost Kitchen” cookbook, showcasing a stew of moose (or beef) with parsley dumplings. These dumplings are more like puffy balls of dough that are put in to poach in the stewing base.
For my chicken and dumplings version I chose the dumpling balls as the medium. The dough is flour, baking powder, milk and dried herbs of parsley and sage. You can use fresh, but I like the stronger taste of the dried herbs. What you need to do is boil up a 3 to 4 pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces, covered with water in a large Dutch oven and simmered for about an hour. The chicken is removed from the broth, allowed to cool and then taken off the bone and shredded roughly. Pour the stock through a strainer into a large bowl or glass measure.
A soup bowl of chicken and herb dumplings
