Standard Fish Prep

Lake Erie perch with a parsley/caper/butter/lemon sauce. Over cauliflower posing as couscous. By far one of my favorite ways to eat fish.

The perch was seasoned with salt and pepper, lightly dredged in flour, and quickly sauteed in olive oil. A quick wipe of the pan, and in went some butter. Once the butter just started to brown the capers and parsley got tossed in. The capers popped, the parsley kind of fried. Once off the heat some lemon juice was squeezed in. The universe was right.

Served with some "cauliflower couscous." I certainly didn't invent the treatment, but I get it. Some shallot softened in butter while the cauliflower got buzzed in the food processor. Then the chopped up cauliflower joined the shallot to warm through. I really didn't need too much cooking. Some salt, pepper, and olive oil and this was really just a better version of the ubiquitous little balls of pasta. At the very least a really pleasant alternative.

I really liked this. Clean perch flavor, buttery citrus, nice caper and herb flavor, all over a veg that was happy to compliment anything placed on top of it.

Fish from Kate's, shallot from Muddy Fork, parsley from FarmShare, cauliflower picked up at NUFM at Shaker.

Even More Breakfast

I'm really not a huge breakfast guy. Espresso, maybe a bagel or banana, and I'm good to go. However, sometimes there's more.

First, some sausage got browned up and set aside. Then diced regular and sweet potatoes were sauteed for a while in less butter than you'd think. When the taters were just about cooked through some green pepper got softened up, and then some onion. Salt, pepper, cumin, and paprika rounded out the spices.

After the veg was sorted back in went the sausage and little nests were made for 4 eggs. Some olive oil got drizzled in the depressions, and the eggs were cracked into place. A minute or two under the broiler, some parsley, salt, and pepper, and it was time to eat. A nice little breakfast skillet at home.

Housekeeping II

Just some fall cleaning. Bumping out some inactive blogs or ones that I don't read anymore and adding some new ones.

Linking is no way an endorsement just as not linking is no way an indictment. If there's a regularly updated Cle food blog I'll generally link it.

Little crab and mushroom omelet up there with some sweet potato/reg potato hash, in case you were wondering.

And the Giveaway Winner is . . .

Cio and Mike. Chosen via Google's first link for a random (pseudo) number generator. Actually, Lizzie A. won first, but as she's a household member I had to choose again. We were too lazy to put the names in an actual hat.

Cio, aka Rosy Girl, and Mike, aka Cleveland's hottest bartender, are friends, but personally I was pulling for tattgiff and her poem. No offense to everyone else of course. Congrats guys, I think I have your contact info somewhere.

In other news, pictured is a Plum Creek duck breast spiced with star anise, coriander, cumin, salt, and pepper with a cherry wine/duck stock sauce. That side is acorn squash, cooked in a 450 oven with the same spices (minus coriander) and drenched with some Snake Hill Farm maple syrup for the last 5+ min of cooking. Squash via FarmShare.

The 4 lb duck yielded perfect sized breasts, and the legs are getting a quick cure and will be confited tomorrow before being stashed away for cooler weather. Which may not be too far away--outside my breath was showing for the first time this year.

Jumping on the Bandwagon

My attempt and minimalist Korean fried chicken (a little background here). As far as fried chicken of any sort goes, these might have the highest taste to effort ratio ever.

Pot of lard (around 350/375 degrees). Chicken wings (seasoned with salt and pepper). Wings go into hot lard. Wings get nice color (maybe short side of 15 min, maybe a bit longer). Wings come out of lard and go in a bowl with just a little butter (doesn't have to be melted) and some sriracha (to taste). Wings, butter, and sriracha (or any chili/garlic paste type thing) get tossed to melt butter and coat wings. Bit more salt. Mmmmm.

Also, don't forget, one day left to try to win $65 to spend on anything here. See post below for details.

Wings from Plum Creek. If shopping the Cleveland area farmer's markets, Tea Hills has some nice ones too. I think the reason this worked so well without any real fuss is because of the quality the chicken. Factory chix may require more sophisticated treatment.

Giveaway, Meal, and Review

Warning: Long post below.

First the giveaway. $65 dollar credit to CSN stores, an online place selling everything from dining tables and furniture to frying pans (check out these sweet ones) and other cookware. How to get it? I agonized for about 10 min over what I should ask for in exchange for the credit. But really, just leave your first name, last initial, and current city of residence and we'll go from there. Feel free to say more if you'd like--I'm certainly curious to know who is reading (there are at least a few of you) and what you like about this blog or don't--but I'm just going to pick a name from the comments out of a hat. That is unless someone says something really good--then that person will win. Most likely it will be the hat method though.

Second, the meal. Pictured above is farfalle with sausage, broccoli rabe (rapini), chard, garlic, the tiniest amount of anchovy, red pepper flakes, and parmesan cheese. The rabe was blanched whole (in boiling water that would eventually cook the pasta), cooled in ice water, chopped up, and set aside. Between the high quality rabe and the blanching, there was not even the slightest amount of unpleasant bitterness.

For the chard, the stalks were lightly peeled, chopped pretty fine, and sauteed in olive oil with salt, pepper, and an anchovy fillet. The cooked chard stems got set aside and replacing them in the pan went some Italian sausage that had been removed from its casing and some red pepper flakes. That got chopped and browned. Once the pork was cooked back in went the chard stems along with the leaves and some minced garlic. The chard cooked down and its still damp leaves added some extra moisture to the pan which kept the garlic from burning.

By the time the chard leaves had wilted and were tender the pasta was cooking away. About 3 min before the pasta was done, the blanched and tender crisp rabe got heated up with the pork-veg mixture awaiting the pasta. Once cooked, the drained but wet pasta went in with everything else, cooked for a few seconds, and the heat got turned off. In went a generous handful of parm, a check for salt and pepper, and off to the table it went. I've never found a better way to eat chard or broccoli rabe. Or pasta for that matter.

Most of that stuff was from the Peninsula Farmers Market. Best as I remember pork was from Curly Tail, rapini and garlic from Urban Growth, and the chard from Infinite Garden Farm.

And finally, the review. Here's a link to the Sitram frying pan I did most the cooking in. It was less expensive a month or so ago, and was provided (with the addition of my $8 supplement) by CSN, the same folks giving some lucky commenter $65 ($5 more than I got). Coincidentally, I cooked the pasta in a saucepan from the same brand, but a different line. Bottom line--I really like the pan. I had been wanting to upgrade from a restaurant supply 10" aluminum pan for a while but just couldn't pull the trigger. This was a nice opportunity.

In my mind, there are lots of great options for cookware. The biggest thing is to match the cookware with the cook. I really don't believe there are universals. To that end I wouldn't recommend this for everyone. It's not exactly inexpensive--check out this super adequate set if you're looking for a few pots and pans to get started (or this for a few bucks less)--if you're on a limited budget, and it's not a piece of artwork, if that's your thing (it is kind of pretty though). However, it heats pretty quickly and evenly, and is heavyweight enough that burning things is likely to be due to operator error, not equipment failure. And stainless steel is the only material that's in contact with food, so it's nonreactive, which is nice when cooking with acidic ingredients. Plus the handle never seems to get hot on the stove, which is a bonus, and it's all metal, so you don't have to think twice before throwing the whole thing in the oven (or even under the broiler). Going from the stove to the oven is very important to me--it may not be for you.

Also, I love the absence of rivets attaching the handle to the pan. I know people love rivets and welds are more prone to failure--I've been in a busy restaurant kitchen, waiting impatiently by the window for some food to come up, only see the chef grab a pan off the stove, spin around to start plating, and gasp while the pan and its contents fell to the floor with the chef left holding the pan's delaminated handle and probably thanking god he hadn't been working on a flambe. Yes, welds no doubt fail, and I'm sure when this one does it'll be at the worst time possible. But my other welded handled cookware has been going strong for years in my little residential kitchen, and I'm pretty rough with my cookware. I'm all for well designed stuff, and rivets are certainly no deal breaker, but there is a such thing as over design. This pan is tough. And cleaning around rivets sucks.

So I like the pan, a lot. Claded stuff is nice, as are carbon steel pans like the ones linked way above. But as noted cookware should be matched to cooking style. For me, having a nonreactive pan that heats up quickly, can be banged around, and won't freak out if I let it soak with detergent for a day (or two) fits the bill. I'll save the babying for my chef's knife. And it's just a pan, so dropping a car payment for the thing doesn't make too much sense to me no matter how cool it is. All in all, two thumbs up.

Good luck winning the $65 credit. Contest ends this Sunday at midnight.

Gun Enthusiasm

I think that's a miss.

Fire in the country.

Here's hoping for a few more weekends like this past one.

The CFT in the News

Profiled in Fresh Water here. There goes any attempt at CFT anonymity.

And if you've read it, here are a few clarifications:

Regarding the garage filled with garlic, that was Urban Growth garlic, farmed in Ohio City and sold at the Fig Market and the Peninsula Farmers Market. They're good friends, have been featured in Crain's, and run a tight ship. That the article mentioned that they grow in Peninsula and sell in the Shoreway was somewhat ironic in that I give Pete and Virgina a hard time for selling at a far off fancy pants market ("pillaging a food desert" might have been uttered). Anyway, sorry about the error, and I'm going to try to visit P & V way out there tomorrow a.m. They've got some great plans for next year as discussed by Pete in the Crain's article.

Rural Oregon. I did work in Oregon for AmeriCorps for the long side of 2 years before settling here. Big ups to IHAD Oregon. However I lived in Portland (N & NE) and commuted about 30 min each way to work in Forest Grove, which could be considered rural. City by night, country by day (with huge Nike and Intel campuses between). It was there I developed my love for Mexican and Hawaiian food, mushrooms, and not using an umbrella no matter how hard it rains. It was also there that that I honed my disdain for homeless people with very expensive rain jackets and dogs and cities that shit on their minority populations. Most notably, I really miss the filberts.

Friendships with vendors. That's always been tricky for me, as I think the distinction between friend and acquaintance is a huge one. I sometimes find it hard to figure out when there's an actual friendship or simply a friendly business relationship with vendors and folks at restaurants. Maybe that's part of the charm of farmers markets and restaurants where the chef comes out to give patrons a high five or the staff is particularly cool--there's some type of relationship there. But I sometimes find it confusing, and as such my bright line for determining friendship is . . . non-business home visits. If there's been a non-transactional home visit I tend to think there's a friendship, or at least a burgeoning one. If not then it's a friendly customer relationship, which isn't bad and is quite nice for what it is.

Conversation is a good thing I think, and it makes sense to at least know a little about the people that are growing/making what you're eating and drinking. Are they honest? Is everyone on the same page? Do the profits go to support causes you find abhorrent? Please though, there's not much worse than waiting behind someone in line while he or she is performing psycho analysis on a busy vendor before buying $5 of veggies or a dozen eggs. Maybe we should limit ourselves to one friendly convo topic per visit?

"Libertarian gun enthusiast." I like Tod, count him as a friend, and stand by that statement. What's not mentioned is that I took him up on that skeet shooting offer, and have done so on numerous occasions--he's a much better shot than me. The guy has great meat, and it's raised in a very thoughtful way. While I don't subscribe to all of his political views, I find his thoughts on subjects well considered to the point where reasonable minds may differ. I wish more people gave as much though to their political stances as he does.

That's it. Overall I really enjoyed the article and was flattered by it. The vendors and restaurateur mentioned are beyond reproach, and it's great that there's another periodical covering these types of things. They could use a snazzier webpage though, but I'm really in no place to criticize.

Twofer

Pardon the skanky looking cilantro. I cut it before it was dry. I knew better. Moving on . . . .

Beef brisket. One cut of meat. Two + meals. The pictures are, however, in reverse order of the meals. But the tacos were better than the not-quite-braised-long-enough thing going on below. The slices pictured down there weren't terrible by any means, but the pulled stuff the next day was great.

The braise was pretty standard. First the meat was seasoned with salt, pepper, cumin, and chili powder and seared in some lard. Then it was removed in went diced onion, celery, and carrot to soften with some salt and pepper. Once those were good in went minced garlic and tomato paste. Then some thyme, bay leaf, and a bunch of leftover red wine simmered with the veg. The veg-wine mix got put in a casserole with the brisket, and some room temp stock (veal/chix) was added to make the liquid come halfway up the meat, the casserole got covered with foil, and it went in a 325 oven for 1.5 hrs. It could have used another hr for max tenderness, but it was really quite good as is.

Before serving both sides of the meat got charred under the broiler--it took about 2.5 minutes per side. The liquid was strained from the veg and got mixed with a tiny amount of roux to make a thin gravy. The sauce went well with the mashed sweet potatoes and the green beans that had been blanched and then sauteed with some garlic.

It felt like an old-school Sunday night supper.

The tacos began when the first brisket dinner was over. The leftover half of the brisket and all the leftover sauce (with a little extra water) got put in a covered pan that went into a 250 oven for about 3 hrs. That cooled overnight in the off and slowly cooling oven, was refrigerated for a day, and reheated on the stove for a second brisket dinner.

The brisket was easy the pull apart, and the sauce got reduced to a super thick syrup that was added to the pulled meat. Also added was some more salt, pepper, Mexican oregano, and chipotle powder. It was pretty awesome.

That side salad that's barely visible in the taco pic--arugula, lettuce, watermelon, and feta. Simple vinegar (lemon juice is better), oil, salt, and pepper dressing. That salad is classic for a reason.

Tacos served with cilantro, diced onion, lime, sour cream, and hot sauce.

Beef from Millgate. Lettuce and arugula from Firefly Farm (Shaker Mkt). Watermelon from a cool urban farm on 30th and Cedar. Feta from Lucky Penny (via FarmShare).

Oh, and stay tuned. It appears that I've been offered the opportunity to give away a $65 credit to an online store that has tons of things to choose from. In the next few posts I plan to review a thing I got from them and offer up the gift cert. Just fyi. And there's going to be some linkage. Seems like a fair price to pay.

Steaked

Flank steak, tons of veg, sweet potatoes. A sauce would just ruin it.

Beautiful flank steak from Millgate Farm. Legit grassfed beef, and a great selection of cuts. Not cheap, but not over the top either. Plus, the guy who runs the joint is a great shot. It was seasoned with salt and pepper and seared in super hot cast iron pan slicked with olive oil. A small pat of butter, split skin-on clove of garlic, and sprig of rosemary were thrown in the pan during the searing/cooking to add some extra flavor and make the kitchen smell all nice. About 4 min on each side and it was set to rest. Just before serving the sliced steak got hit with just a bit of salt.

To the right of the steak is some mashed sweet potato (With a little regular potato mixed in--I stupidly grew some red skinned potatoes right next to my row of sweet potatoes, so when I went to peel one of the presumed sweet potatoes I was surprised to find to some nice white flesh. The whitey just went in the with the sweet stuff.) The boiled and drained tubers got mashed with just a little salt, pepper, and butter. It would have been fine with no addition. I don't know how sweet potatoes do it, but it's one of the few foods that are just perfect as is. Especially right out of the ground.

Under the meat is some more good stuff. A mix of green beans, sweet peppers, oyster mushrooms, shallot, corn, and tomato. Just about everything was cooked separately, set aside, then heated back up together. The green beans were blanched, shocked, and sauteed in olive oil with salt and pepper. The peppers sweated in olive oil with salt and pepper until they were soft. The mushrooms seared in olive oil with some shallot, salt, and pepper. The corn just sauteed really fast in oil. And the tomatoes were heated up with everything else right before dinner was served. It was ratatouille inspired, and a real pleasant way to eat some good vegetables.

Green beans picked up at Shaker Mkt, peppers and corn from FarmShare, mushrooms from Killbuck, shallot (and garlic for cooking the steak) from Urban Growth, and tomatoes from Nature's Bin.

All in all a pretty good and healthy meal. The summer bounty will be sorely missed.

[cutting across the grain on a cluttered cutting board]