Monthly Archives: June 2010
Visiting the Farmers Market
I love the simplicity of summer meals. The answer to that age-old question of “What’s for Dinner?” just presents itself.
Tuesday was a beautiful sunny day. I had been called for jury duty in a distant suburb I’d never been to before. I claimed the convertible for the day. With a juror number of 7, it was inevitable that I was empanelled. Fortunately, the case was short, and we were released while the sun was still shining. It was the perfect afternoon for a ride with the top down.
I arrived home early enough to be able to visit the Lexington Farmers Market while the offerings were still plentiful. A farmers market is one of my favorite places to shop for food. I love the freshness of the fruits, vegetables, breads, and meat. I especially like meeting and chatting with the farmers that produce the food I will eat.
I’m not hung up on organic or not. From talking with farmers at this and other markets, I know that while their farms may not be strictly organic, they still are stewards of the earth and consider the health of their land, themselves, and any employees when choosing how to farm it. I trust the food I buy at a farmers market to be sustainable, and, of course, you can’t get more local.
We had a warmer spring than usual for New England, but this is only the third week of the market season. The range of choices was limited to spring vegetables: lots of greens and spring root vegetables. Strawberry season started, too.
I bought a quart of strawberries, a bunch of radishes, a bunch of beets, red dandelion greens, mustard greens, and arugula. I also saved the beet greens for sautéing.
So how did I answer the dinner question? Well, in our own garden, the lettuce continues to thrive, and the peas (planted in early March) are ready. I had thawed a T-bone steak from Chestnut Farms. Howard grilled the steak, and I made a salad from our own lettuce and peas and sliced radishes from Stillman Farms. To round it out, we had leftover rice salad and chickpea salad that I had made over the weekend. That’s my kind of eating!!!
Restaurant Review (Chicago): Blackbird
One more thing I didn’t mention about our Chicago weekend was the amazing dinner we had at Blackbird. I’m not quite sure how I picked the restaurant, but somehow I read about it, found it intriguing, and was able to make a reservation.
As it turns out, our meal at Blackbird will be displacing one of the current placeholders from my “Top 5 Meals Ever” as mentioned in another post.
Blackbird was across the river from our hotel in an area called the West Loop. The restaurant itself was very stark. It was mostly white, with a little bit of black, but no other real color to speak of. The meal added the spark. I knew I was in for a wild treat when I didn’t even recognize some of the ingredients listed on the menu.
We started with the server’s recommendation of an endive salad with crispy potatoes, pancetta, and a poached egg. The salad arrived encased in an upright tube of fried potatoes, a spectacular presentation. The server cut the potato container up, which transformed the plate into a riff on the classic French frisee aux lardons salad..
For our entrees, Howard had a slow-cooked halibut with a brandade made from more halibut pureed with broccoli rabe. I chose grilled sturgeon with snails served with pickled Napa cabbage and other pickled vegetables. Both dishes were really unusual and quite delicious.
Finally, we ended the meal with the most beautiful presentation of a cheese plate that I’ve ever seen. I don’t like to take photos of my food in restaurants, so, unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures to share. There were five cheeses, and each cheese had its own accompaniment: We also enjoyed a vintage tawny port (from 1977) with the cheese.
- California goat cheese served with pickled rhubarb
- Illinois sheep’s milk cheese served with apricot pate de fruit
- Cowgirl Creamery ‘Red Hawk’ served with mustard genoise (which was funky, but worked)
- 8 year cheddar from Wisconsin served with oat and almond granola
- Bleu d’Auvergne served with honey comb
As a parting sweet, when they brought the bill, we enjoyed little dark chocolates filled with rum.
To top it off, in the latest of the twice-weekly emails I get from Food & Wine listed their picks for the 10 Best New Chefs for 2010, to be featured in the July issue (which didn’t arrive yet). Mike Sheerin, the chef at Blackbird, is one of their choices. Here’s a link to one of his recipes along with a video where he talks about his philosophy of using locally sourced ingredients at his restaurant.
This was a meal that we’ll remember for a long time. It was so unexpected that we picked a restaurant that turned out to be something so special.
A Plateful of Happiness 