Greek Festival 2009!

I made plans to go to the Greek Festival every night last week, because the food is so good and because the festival is a major fundraising event for St. Anthony’s church, but a Thursday meeting ran late and so Friday was the first day that I made it.
We organized the usual crew to go, friends and family and the like, which included our new extern from Atlantic Cape Community College, Kate.  She brought her boyfriend, Greg, and I was excited to bring them because Kate had never eaten Greek food before.  Ariana came as well, and she had never been to the Greek Festival, so we were happy to invite her and her boyfriend, Will, to the festivities.

The line for the food was long, but moved steadily, and so I got in line while Jill went to the bar and got a pitcher of Yeungling for the group.  The smells of roasting lamb were tantalizing and as we inched closer to the food, I began to get very excited that it was time, yet again, for the Greek Festival.

But what should I get?  That is the question that always burns my mind when I go to a place with many delicious options.  Should I go with the standard gyro?  Roast lamb, sliced thinly, and placed on a warm round of pita bread with sliced onions, tomato wedges, and tastziki (a yummy sauce of cucumber and yogurt).  If you’ve ever had Greek food before, it was likely a gyro, the reason for this being that it is simple and so good.

I always get the gyro though, and the alternative options were catching my eye.  The mousaka sounded good.  Mousaka is generally a layered dish consisting of sliced potatoes with ground meat and thin eggplant all topped off with a thick layer of creamy béchamel sauce.  Oh, how I do love mousaka.

But what I ended up getting was the pastitsio; long tubes of pasta mixed with feta cheese and ground meat, and topped with the same béchamel sauce as the mousaka.  Brittany got an order of soulvaki, skewered grilled chicken on pita, and we all got some appetizers including marinated artichoke hearts, briny black olives, crumbly feta cheese, and crispy triangles of spinach and cheese wrapped in thin layers of phyllo dough.

We sat down at the long full family-style tables and toasted our meal with a loud ‘OPA!’
The food, as usual, was amazing.  I remember last year genuinely feeling like Jill and I were back in Athens, sitting at one of their outdoor markets eating and drinking with crowds of people going about their daily lives.  Of course here in Vineland, we knew many of the people around us, which is the other reason we go to the Greek Festival… the socializing.

While there, we ran into folks that we knew… people that Jill grew up with, guests of ours from the bakery, people that we work with through the Main Street program downtown, and faithful readers of The Grapevine and of my column.  The food and the people… I have to give serious kudos to St. Anthony’s for putting on such a wonderful event.  If you missed out on the Greek Festival this year, you don’t have to wait until next year to get your fill of Greek, you can always head to Olympia Restaurant on Delsea Drive for some awesome Greek food (and wonderful French fries!).
Which brings me to a thought I had…

The Greek community is relatively small here in Vineland, but they are tight knit because there is a strong cultural presence… the festival not only showcased the culinary traditions of Greece (my favorite part!), but featured dancing, singing and more.  At last years International Festival in downtown Vineland, the Greek contingent was strong, with Lefty working the booth serving food and the Hellenic Pride dancers out on the Avenue.  Unfortunately though, there seemed to be many groups of Vineland’s diverse cultural makeup missing.

So I’m going to give a ‘shout-out’ to the community groups that form the background of our fair city.  I’d love to see a more diverse representation at the International Festival this year because I believe it will show a more true representation of Vineland.  I’d love for people to try a delicious curry and naan from India, real rice and beans and roast pork from Puerto Rico, potato stuffed peirogi’s and kielbasa from Ukraine, tamales from Mexico, soul food from the south, jerk chicken from Jamaica…

My point is that there are many groups of people here in Vineland, and I do believe that is what makes us a strong and interesting community.  ‘You are what you eat’ after all, so let’s get to know each other our various cultures through our food at this years International Festival on Landis Avenue on August 22(???).  So start organizing to get your cultures culinary gears in motion!  Contact Donata Dalesandro for more information at 856-691-0693.

A locavore experience for Gabby and Greg!

When guests are visiting from out of town, the question on my mind is always ‘what are they going to eat?’  Every meal offers the opportunity to show visitors who we are, by offering to share the best of what we eat.

Last weekend, we were honored to have had our dear friend Gabby and her boyfriend, Greg, visit us from New York City.  They are both chefs who, due to the current economic situation, have found themselves unemployed and so the opportunity for them to come down and see Vineland (as well as us old friends) was too great to pass up.

I picked them up on Saturday in Philadelphia, where they had taken the bus from New York.  We drove into Vineland in the afternoon, and got to the bakery right before the beginning of Thunder on the Avenue.  Jill was very excited to see Gabby, and no one had eaten lunch so we needed something fast and delicious.  I thought that Jamaican would be perfect, so we sent Gabby and Greg down a few blocks to A Taste of the Islands with our friend Elizabeth to pick up some take out.  They soon returned with platters of jerk chicken, jerk pork, and curried goat.  Each came with rice and beans (Jamaican-style with red beans and spices), as well as greens.  We tore into the platters, and as usual, the chicken was my favorite.  I enjoy eating Monica’s jerk chicken not only because the flavor is spot on, but because she always gives it a few whacks with her large cleaver before placing it into my platter on top of the rice and beans.  This roughly cut, bone-in roast chicken is very participatory, a primal way to eat your food, and so everyone got deeply into their lunch licking fingers and having a good time.

Later that night, after cleaning up the bakery, we packed some goodies to take to a bonfire at a friend’s house.  We sat around the fire talking and drinking cold Yeungling from the cooler.  At one point, our friend Kristen who was home for a few weeks from college remembered about a bottle of homemade cherry brandy that her father gave her earlier in the day.  She went into the house and declared that is was a 2007 vintage, the very year that Jill and I made brandy with Kristen and her father Sam (you may remember this brandy from an article I wrote last summer).  I was so happy that Gabby and Greg had the opportunity to taste this bitter flavorful south Jersey liquor that Jill and I had a hand in creating.

The next day, before a canoeing jaunt down the Maurice River, the four of us went to the bakery for espresso and breakfast.  I started cutting tender green spears of asparagus, and I cracked brown speckled eggs that we get from a local farmer.  In with the eggs went some organic 2% milk, and into my cast iron pan went diced onion, salt and pepper, and the asparagus.  The eggs then went into the pan with a sizzle, and in a few minutes we had some awesome scrambled eggs.  With some sliced avocado and a fine grating of Grana Padano cheese, the asparagus flecked eggs went onto rye bread that Grandmom supplied.  It was the perfect fuel for a canoeing trip and we gobbled it all up.

After a few hours floating peacefully down the Maurice and building up quite an appetite, we headed for our house, where a backyard BBQ was planned.  One of the best facets of owning the bakery is the ready access to a professionally stocked kitchen, and I took advantage of this by preparing some items ahead of time.  I boiled beets I got from my local farm stand; I washed ruffled green leaves of lettuce that I picked from my garden; I made salad dressing with EVOO and the homemade raspberry vinegar that John Cassadia gave me a few months ago…

When we got back to the house, Grandmom had made potato salad and my mother-in-law had created a batch of her amazing deviled eggs (also from the local brown eggs).  Greg and Gabby wanted to help, so Greg butchered a free-range chicken that I picked up at Bagliani’s in Hammonton while Gabby made a bangin’ marinade with lime juice, garlic, brown sugar, EVOO, and salt and pepper.  Greg then grilled the chicken outside with John, along with local asparagus, thick slices of onions and whole jalapeño peppers.  Gabby peeled, diced, and dressed the beets that I cooked the previous day while I made a quick salsa with a can of organic black beans, fresh garlic greens, oregano, tart crisp rhubarb (all the from the garden), a plum tomato, and EVOO.  I then threw together some guacamole from ripe avocados I had picked up at La Plaza on Landis Ave.

Everything came together nicely, and after heating some fresh corn tortillas on the grill, dinner was ready.  Everyone was starving, so we laid everything out on the dining room table and dug in.  We made little tacos with the tortilla and various fillings, and everything was quite tasty. Fresh Jersey strawberry shortcake and Jill’s homemade lemoncello finished off the dinner wonderfully.

We were very proud to have served such a locavore meal.  So much was locally grown or raised and seasonal and fresh, it really would have been hard to mess it up.  We wanted to share the bounty of a south Jersey spring with our friends, and I know that they were impressed not only with the food, but with Vineland and our whole region.  I think they’re already planning their next trip back.

Forest Grove BBQ… the best in SJ!

The verdict is in, and Forest Grove fire department had by far the most votes in my search for the best chicken BBQ in south Jersey.  I had heard about this BBQ before, it’s a McClennen family favorite, so I was somewhat familiar with it already.  The other BBQ that got my attention was the one put on by the Dorothy Fire Hall.  Of course, they were both held on the same day last weekend, so I was in for a lot of chicken!

Forest Grove started serving at noon, so Jill and I got there at about quarter after twelve and as expected, we encountered a long line.  (We were informed that there would most likely be a line.)  The line was occupied by all sort of people; young, old, black and white, all patiently waiting for two things… some tasty chicken and the legendary potato salad.

The line, for as long as it was, shuffled along rather quickly.  It was hot out that day, and it was a relief when my section of line moved inside, into the shade.  Ahead, I could see the end of the line and into the kitchen area, where a dozen or so people were swiftly and efficiently preparing the plates for the folks in line.

Jill, who had gone off to take pictures while I waited, reappeared from a side door trailing a man in rubber boots.  She had a big smile on her beautiful face, and she thanked Tom (the man in the rubber boots) for showing her around.  She then snapped a few pictures of the people working in the kitchen and then walked over to me.  She began to tell me about the scene that she had witnessed behind the fire hall.

Long cinder block fire pits had been built behind the fire hall for the sole purpose of the annual chicken barbeque.  In the pits were the burning embers of charcoal, glowing with pure heat and sending off plumes of bluish smoke. As the smoke wafted skyward, it encountered hundreds of chickens infusing them with a wonderful smoky flavor.  The chickens had been halved and placed into flat, palate-sized cages that were blackened from use.  A long line of these cages sat over the coals, each one filled with a single layer of chicken.  As they cooked, two burly men on each side of the roughly four foot wide pit flipped the chicken cages to ensure that they cooked evenly and on both sides.  The men made their way down the pit, flipping one cage after another until they had done them all.  After being cooked on both sides, the chickens were then sauced with the homemade barbeque sauce and finished over the hot coals.  It was very hot, and the air was thick with smoke, so I commend the guys in the back that were working the fires.

When the chickens were done cooking, they were put onto plates and moved inside, into the kitchen where a small army of folks put lettuce, potato salad, tomatoes and pickles on the plate.  A giant Kaiser roll on top finished the platter, and the plates were then placed into brown paper bags.

Some people even brought cardboard boxes to put the platters that they purchased into, although we only got one platter.  I gave a woman my ticket, and the older gentleman standing next to her passed me a bag.  All in all, it was a very smooth transaction considering all the food that was being produced.  In the foyer area, Newfield Library was holding a bake sale in conjunction with the BBQ to raise money for the operations of the library, and the standard bake sale goodies were available.
Before we ate the Forest Grove BBQ though, Jill and I then went to Dorothy to try their chicken.  The layout was similar, the fire pits and saucing looked just about the same, but the whole affair had more of a party atmosphere.  There were games and a hayride for the kids, and beer and clams for the grown-ups.  Many people were eating their chicken and licking their fingers while sitting at one of the dozens of faded red picnic tables.  Jill and I sat and ate the Dorothy platter, which came with corn, potato salad, corn and pickles… it was excellent.  The chicken had a nice smoky flavor, and we left satisfied.

We then went home to eat the platter from Forest Grove.  It was still warm, and it looked really good.  I went right for the legendary potato salad, which did not disappoint.  Now I’m kind of picky with my potato salad, but this really was worth the hype.  A good about of sauce, differing sized chunks of soft potato, and a dressing that balanced salty and creamy perfectly.  I was told that around 1800 pounds of potatoes were cooked this year, and it was all prepared from scratch by volunteers who starting making the salad on Friday evening at midnight, and who worked in rotating shifts!

The chicken was great as well, juicy and impregnated with a hint of smoke.  The skin was wonderfully salty, and we definitely enjoyed everything.  Congratulations to Forest Grove Chicken BBQ!  I can’t wait until next year…

Road Food (Eatin’ Down South)

Road trips are a delicious opportunity to try new foods.  I shun the typical road food that lines the interstate highways, corporate soul-less fast food joints and the like.  Sure, you know what you’re going to get, but I’m an adventurous sort of guy and I like eating the regional specialties of where I’m traveling.  I especially like to eat what the locals eat, because I can tell a lot about folks by what they eat.

Jill and I recently made a road trip down to South Carolina to make the wedding cake for my cousin Katie and her new husband.  The trip down was an adventure in itself, mostly because of the rather large wedding cake that we had packaged up in boxes in the trunk as well as the ridiculous amount of traffic that lined the beltway around Washington D.C.  What should have been an eight-hour trip, ended up being an eleven-hour trip.  Fortunately, the cake made it safe and sound, and the Katie was tremendously happy that her cousin and his wife got to play such an important role in her special day.

Once we got the cake safely in the fridge at the reception site, we decided to head out to explore.  Since we were in Dillon, South Carolina, we wanted to get some southern food. (Anyone who has driven down I-95 has been by Dillon, although they may not know it… Dillon is the home of South of the Border, the Mexican themed kitsch tourist trap just south of the North Carolina border.)

So how does one find a good restaurant in unfamiliar territory?  Ask the locals, of course, so that’s what we did.  Unfortunately, the nice young lady at the desk (with an almost incomprehensible southern accent) wasn’t too much help.  She mentioned a few places, but since she seemed to be debating with herself about where the best barbeque place was, none of them were directed towards me.  She finally settled on the BBQ joint next the hotel, which struck me as suspicious since she didn’t seem too confidant in that choice and I tend not to trust that the best food in town is also where all of the tourists are going.

Jill and I decided to drive around a little bit, and we’d see what we stumbled upon.  We headed towards downtown Dillon, since downtown is usually the first place I go when visiting a new area.  The downtown was a little dilapidated, and there wasn’t too much there in the way of food.  We stopped into one place, a local grill that had one occupied table and a not very impressive looking menu.  We moved on.

We were headed back towards the hotel, to the original place that was half-heartedly recommended to us, when we drove up to a small restaurant with a full parking lot and an unassuming façade.  Papa Tom’s it was called, and as soon I saw it, I recognized that this was one of the places the lady at the front desk had mentioned to herself.  We quickly pulled in.

Jill and I walked up to the ordering window and a nice woman with short bleached blond hair asked what we’d like.  We perused the menu and settled on a BBQ sandwich platter and fried chicken, both came with fresh slaw and French fries.  To drink, we of course went for sweet tea (your only other option in the south is lemonade).  We were warned that it would be about twenty minutes before our order was done, since they make everything fresh there… always a good sign.

After seating ourselves in the tiny dining room off to the side, and watching the locals filter in, our food came out.  The chicken was lightly breaded and golden brown.  It looked and smelled incredible.  I tore off a piece of the meat, and the juices literally dripped from the meat.  It was steaming profusely, and so I blew ever so gently on it before popping the piece into my mouth.  It was everything I could ever hope for in fried chicken.  It tasted as good as it looked, and we quickly devoured both pieces.  The tea, which I had found too sweet by itself, was actually a wonderful foil to the salty, greasy chicken.  The slaw, sprinkled with flecks of green and white, was clearly freshly made and was crunchy and creamy and cooled my mouth.  The fries were okay, but with a few squirts of catsup, went well with the rest of the meal.  Jill’s BBQ was not be ignored though.  The pulled pork was tender and vinegary, and on a white bread roll with slaw on top, it was darn good.

We chatted it up with the blond-haired woman, who owns and runs the shop with her sister, and she was happy to see a couple of northerners enjoying her southern food.  There certainly is a certain charm to the south… perhaps it’s the hospitality; maybe it’s the accent.  I don’t know what it is, but I like it and I can’t wait until my next excuse to head back down south for some fried chicken and BBQ.  If I’m back in Dillon, I’ll be sure to stop at exit 193 for some more of Papa Tom’s.

A Demo with Rob Buono

I pulled into the parking lot of Wallace Middle School and gathered my belongings.  At the front door, I checked in with the security guards, one of whom showed me upstairs to the classroom that I was looking for.  Inside, Rob Buono, the chef at the Greenview Inn at Eastlyn Golf Course, was standing at the front of the room at the whiteboard.  He had just drawn the rough outline of a tongue, and was labeling the areas of the tongue that perceived taste.

I was at Wallace to sit in on a lecture and cooking demonstration by Rob to the middle schoolers.  I had been invited by one of the teachers to observe and since Jill or I are usually the ones doing demos, I thought it would be fun to experience one from a different perspective.

Several classes began filtering into this one classroom, and Rob began passing out packets of information that included basic information including food safety, a bit about his culinary philosophy, and info about the taste sensations.  The kids quieted down, and Rob spoke briefly about his background and restaurant.

Rob then spoke about the tastes that one can sense (did you know that besides salty, sweet, bitter, and sour that there is a fifth taste called umami that is detected in meats, mushrooms, and soy sauce?).  Paper cups with various snacks were then passed out that had examples of the tastes (minus umami)… chips for salty, chocolate covered raisins for sweet, lemon juice for bitter (boy was it funny watching the facial contortions the kids made when they sipped the lemon juice!), and sour patch kids for sour.  Rob pointed out to the kids that talented cooks can use different tastes in conjunction with each other to create complex and delicious combinations of food, like how the sour patch kids incorporated sour and sweet together.

The class was quite full, and when that many middle schoolers sit packed into one room, it gets a little noisy!  It didn’t take too long for the kids to become progressively more fidgety, so it was decided that the time had come to move onto the hands-on portion of the morning.

Downstairs we went, all 60 students, several teachers, some assistants, one chef and one writer into the cafeteria.  The tables and chairs had been arranged into individual stations for the kids to work at.  Rob announced that he would be demonstrating how to make a stromboli (sort of a calzone) and that each student would be making their own as well!  A certain electricity buzzed through the room at the mention of this…

Rob and his assistants passed out scoops of flour and balls of dough, and then showed everyone how to press and shape the dough into a pancake shape about 12 “ in diameter.  He then ladled some sauce, sprinkled some cheese, and tossed some sausage onto the dough.  He swiftly, but ever so tenderly, folded and rolled the dough into the proper shape; an envelope of pure goodness.

Over the course of the next hour or so, the kids went to town.  Flour flew through the air and onto witty tee shirts and fashionable shoes.  Everyone was having fun.  A line formed behind a table in the front of the cafeteria where Rob allowed the kids to fill their own stromboli with a number of yummy fillings, all of which were generously donated by the Greenview Inn.

Into preheated ovens they went.  The cafeteria filled with the savory smells of tomato sauce and baking pizza dough.  The kids then dug in, hopefully a little more empowered to cook their own food and experience the joys of getting into the kitchen and creating something nutritious and delicious.  I asked a table of kids what they thought of their creations?  Perfect, was the unanimous reply.

Two more Signs of the Season

As you read this, fresh strawberries from local farms are being consumed right here in Vineland.  Yes, it’s that time of the year… strawberry season!  We got our first of the sweet, red, juicy berries a few days ago from Pontano Farm Stand on Lincoln Avenue and are they ever good.  There are many places to get local strawberries around town, so make sure you take advantage of the local bounty and frequent your neighborhood farm stand for Jersey Fresh strawberries.

It’s also the time of year for chicken barbeques.  Since moving to New Jersey, I’ve noticed that many churches and organizations run chicken barbeques in the summer as fundraisers.  I’d like your help in finding that one chicken barbeque that you wait for every summer.  Is it the one where all the ladies of the church make a huge batch of the tastiest potato salad?  How about the one with the most succulent chicken?  E-mail your favorite, and I’ll promote and write an article about the fundraiser that seems to have the most fans around town.  I look forward to hearing from you, and thanks in advance!

A Day Trip to Philly

Day Trip to Philly

The crew of The Sweet Life Bakery took another day trip to Philly a couple of weeks ago to spend our tip fund.  Thanks again to everyone who put their change (or more!) into the jar.  And to recap, we used the funds from our tip jar not only for fun, but for learning as well.

A guest of ours, Bob from Napa Auto Parts on Landis Ave, had been telling us about an excellent crab shack called DiNardos.  We all love crabs, so I went onto their website to do a little research and it looked like a winner to me.  Bonus points for dinner on Monday evening because it’s all-you-can-eat crab night every Monday night.

Since we were going into Philly, we also thought we’d check out some pastry shops and bread shops, and so I Googled a few places to visit and mapped them out on my blackberry.  We also were told about a cheese shop (we LOVE cheese) on Chestnut called DiBruno Brothers that we wanted to see.  But first, we’d start the day off at the Mütter Museum… the museum at medial oddities that is housed at the Philadelphia Physicians College.

On the day of our planned trip, we met at the bakery for quick coffees.  It was raining and dreary out, so we packed umbrellas and ponchos and headed to the big city.  We arrived at a parking lot behind the Mütter and Ariana skillfully wedged her car between a mini-van and a sedan.  The three of us were hungry and since it was raining, we didn’t want to walk too far.  Fortunately, we happened upon a pizza joint and went inside.

The pizza place wasn’t too busy, I imagine the rain was keeping folks away, and so we ordered a margarita pizza and water and waited for it to come to the table.  After eating the saucy pie, we headed over to the Mütter.  It was a wonderful day for a visit to a museum, and we spent the next several hours wondering through the interesting and sometimes creepy exhibits at the Mütter.

By the time we left, the rain had slowed to a sputter and so we took the opportunity to walk down Chestnut.  There’s nothing like walking in the big city, so interesting and exhilarating.  We found Swis Haus bakery, which would have looked at home in a European village, and sat inside while we ate tiramisu, almond pear tart, crumb-topped cheesecake, and a simple and very tasty woopie pie.

After leaving Swiss Haus, we walked to a nearby bread bakery called Le Bus, and grabbed an almond croissant and a loaf of black olive bread to try the following day.  The rain started coming down again so we quickly found DiBruno Brothers at 1730 Chestnut Street.

We walked in and I immediately knew that I had found a special place.  DiBruno Brothers was stocked full of all the great foods that I love… cheeses, breads, coffee, pastries, meats, prepared foods, and pastas!  I thought I had died and gone to heaven!  The first place we went was to the cheese counter, where hundreds of cheeses were laid out like a paints on a painters palette.  We were somewhat hungry, so we thought that we’d get a loaf of bread and eat it with cheese.

I told the cheesemonger that we were there to eat, so I asked him for direction.  I think that he appreciated the challenge and the opportunity to sell some cheeses that he liked.  We thought perhaps we’d get three or four cheeses, so he picked out a variety of different textures and flavors.  Before we decided to purchase the cheeses he suggested, he gave us each a little sample to see what we thought.  Since the cheeses were on the expensive side, it was great to be able to try them first (and good cheese costs good money!).  After picking out a soft Italian brie, a fresh goat cheese from California, an English blue, and a hard cave-aged Gruyere, we grabbed a loaf of fresh ciabatta and sat at the front of the store and ate.  It was lovely.

After walking around a bit, and being stranded for a while in Barnes and Noble because of the weather (not a bad place to be stuck!), we took a cab to DiNardo’s Famous Crabs.  We arrived at the restaurant at 312 Race Street ready to devour some crabs.  DiNardo’s gets their crabs fresh every day from the Gulf of Mexico, where blue crabs are always in season due to the warm water temperatures.  Monday is ‘all you can eat’ day, so the four of us prepared ourselves with a pitcher of cold beer on the table and plastic bibs around our necks.  The steaming crabs began to arrive on big platters, piled on top of each other and coated in a special seasoning.  These crabs were not cleaned, which we were not used to, but the placemats that sat in front of us showed us the way.  It took a little getting used to, but we figured it out pretty quickly and ate many crabs before the night was done!

Because we used our tip jar money, we each paid special attention to the food and the service everywhere we went.  Everywhere we visited, even the museum and bookstore, offered an opportunity for learning.  Thank you to all who left change in the tip jar for giving us the opportunity to learn and eat in Philly!

Walkers Farm Stand… asparagus at its best.

Two years ago, we planted asparagus roots in our backyard garden.  Last year, when the slender green shoots starting slinking out of the ground, we were forbidden from harvesting them to give the roots sufficient time to build up energy reserves (okay, so maybe I picked a few…).  This year, enough time had passed to cut the asparagus spears from the ground when they emerged.  Early in April, one or two began to poke out of the soil and I knew that the time was near for fresh asparagus.

There are only a few plants in our garden, enough for a side dish of one meal at a time, but I love fresh asparagus and I knew our little harvest would not be enough for me.  Ever since my asparagus began rising out of the garden, I’d been eyeballing the tight bundles at the grocery store or produce market to see if they were from Jersey.  Sadly, they were from Peru or Mexico, and I knew that it would be cheating to buy those foreigners so close to the Jersey asparagus season.  I mean, when we’re so close to the harvest here, why spoil it by eating imported asparagus… Sure it would be ‘good’, but ‘good’ pales in comparison to the tender, crisp, incredibly flavorful spears of local, in-season asparagus.

Finally, my mother-in-law called Walkers, the local supplier of asparagus and they informed us when the spears would be ready at their farm stand.  On the very day last week when they said the asparagus would be ready, she showed up at the bakery with a medium sized brown paper bag filled with several handfuls of the green spears!  The time had come at long last!  This is why I love spring, the longing is over… the weeks and months of eating shipped produce quickly comes to an end!

The following Monday, Jill and I made our way up Route 40 just past Malaga and turned left onto Porchtown Road.  Just up the road on the right hand side was Walkers Farm Stand.  We pulled into the dusty parking lot, and made our way inside.  There, at a small round table in the front, were several tubs of asparagus.  One of the grey tubs had pre-bundled spears, but the other two were stacked with loose asparagus that was thirty cents cheaper per pound.  Jill loaded up a bag with several pounds of the slender green spears, and we were ready to check out.

I started up a conversation with Troy.  He was very nice and helpful, and I asked if he eats a lot of asparagus… naturally, he does this time of year!  His favorite preperation is to grill the asparagus, which happens to be my preferred way of cooking asparagus as well.

At about this time, Jeff, the market manager showed up and I had the opportunity to talk to him for a while.  He was a very nice gentleman, and we talked about the farm; how big it is (300 acres with 30 devoted to asparagus), how long the farm has been around (since the 1840’s with 30 years of asparagus production and five generations of Walker’s working the Earth), and his favorite way to prepare asparagus (steamed in the microwave or raw right out of the ground).  I have to say that I do this as well in my garden… there is nothing like eating asparagus right out of the ground with nothing on it.  It was obvious to me that this family loves farming and loves good food, they’re clearly experts at the craft of growing fresh produce.

Jeff also told me about where one can buy Walker’s asparagus in and around Vineland, including at Malench, Weavers, Levari farm stands.  The cool thing about buying it right at the farm stand is that the asparagus that you buy there was picked that very day. Any leftovers they have from the market go to the produce auction and then onto the wide world of asparagus eaters.  Like a lot of produce, the minute that it’s picked, it begins to deteriorate in flavor and texture.  So definitely plan on stopping by the farm stand at 105 Porchtown Road in Pittsgrove. Or at least check out the website at < http://www.walkersfarmmarket.com/>

So Jill and I took that bag home, and consumed the entire contents within a few days.  I made sautéed asparagus with pea shoots and green garlic (all from my garden) when we got home that night.  The asparagus was so tender and delicious!  That week, we also ate asparagus and peas over pasta, grilled asparagus, asparagus soup…

Before I left Walkers, I grabbed a recipe sheet they had available.  There was salad of cold asparagus and vinegarette that I’m looking at now that looks really tasty… perhaps when I go back for more this weekend, I’ll have to try that one out.  Who knows, it may become my new favorite way to eat this tasty spring veggie!

Spring!

This past weekend was a weekend of good eats for me.  Spring was in full force… the weather was nice and warm, and I ate some great food that I wanted to tell you about.

On Saturday, I was out doing errands and noticed that Malench Farm Stand was open again at the Boulevard and Sherman.  Yes, spring has definitely sprung.  It’s that time of the year when our local farmers begin selling the fruits and vegetables of their labors.  I pulled onto the gravel parking area and up to the stand, which consists of two long flatbed trailers.  I said hello to Denise, and told her how glad I was to see the stand open again!  After chitchatting, I grabbed a few handfuls of dark green, leafy spinach as well as a few bunches of radishes and several pots of live herbs.  The radishes looked adorable, small bright red globes with lush looking green tops.  Denise said that the radishes were from Pontano Farm on Lincoln Road, and that her own radishes likely had a few more weeks until they were ready.  (The radishes I have at home in the garden look pretty shrimpy looking as well.)

As soon as I got back to the bakery, I showed Jill the little red and green bouquet of root vegetables and she got even more excited than I did.  She loves radishes and has fond memories of picking them out of her grandmothers’ garden when she was a child.  I plucked a few from the bundle and cleaned them up by cutting the greens off the top as well as the long stringy root from the bottom.  I then rinsed them under cold water to rid them of the dirt that clung to their sides.  They were then ready to eat.

The cool crunch was so nice and clean tasting.  There was just a little spiciness to the radishes (sometimes you get radishes that burn your mouth!), and we quickly gobbled them up.

The herbs that I picked up (thyme, oregano, and sage) I planted in the little garden that I started in front of the bakery.  There was a barren looking spot right in front of our steps that has bugged me for a little while.  Not because it looks bad, but because it just looked kind of blah.  A few weeks ago, I scooped out all the old grungy looking mulch and put a few buckets of compost and peat moss, and a few bags of topsoil on the patch.  I tilled everything in and planted some daffodils, mountain pinks, pansies, grape hyacinth, and pot of gold.  Now, I added an edible component to the garden so that I have ready access to fresh herbs when I’m at work.  It didn’t take too much work to make the plot look nice, and as the spring and summer progress, the flowers and herbs will fill in and the little plot that I’ve taken ownership over will be beautiful!

The next day, my friend John had a cookout at his place in honor of his birthday.  Again, the weather was nice and I got there a few hours after the celebration had started.  I was hungry, so I went over to the grill to see what was cooking.  I opened the lid to see a large pan of sausage, peppers and onions simmering in a rich looking broth.  The smell hit me, and I began salivating!  There were also burgers on the side, ready with cheese.  John wandered over at this point and proudly told me that the burgers were from Joe’s Butcher Shop and the sausage was from Serra Sausage.  Naturally, I had to try both.

I went onto the porch, grabbed some buns as well as Charlotte’s pasta salad, some potato salad and some green salad.  Back to the grill I went, where I loaded up the buns… one with a burger and one with sausage, peppers and onions.  The sausage was devoured first, and I was impressed with its flavor and texture.  Serra Sausage never disappoints!  It was awesome, and of course the onions and peppers added a pungency and sweetness that made me thoroughly happy.  The burger was next.

Now I don’t usually eat burgers.  Usually, they’re tough and greasy and they don’t really do it for me, so I usually bypass burgers.  (Plus, I generally stay away from red meat… not that you’d know it from reading my articles!).  Anyway, John said that these burgers were special, and as soon as I took a bite, I knew he was right.

These burgers were not greasy or tough, but actually had great flavor and texture.  They were excellent!  I’ve still never been to Joe’s Butcher Shop, but I will surely have to check it out now.  Joe’s clearly used quality meat with these patties, and they were cooked to perfection on the grill.
I can’t wait for summer.  The fresh fruits and veggies… the cookouts… I can almost taste it now!

Broccoli Rabe… how I love you!

Broccoli rabe season snuck up on us this year.  Out of the blue, my mother-in-law called me at the bakery to say that she just drove by our secret stash of wild broccoli rabe and that they were ready to harvest.  In fact, she even saw a few patches of yellow sprinkled throughout the field, which meant that some of the plants were just about ready to go to seed.  At that point, the flavor drops and the toughness increases.

Ideally, one would want to harvest just before this point, so it was time to go!
That next day we had off, a few days after the phone call, Jill went with Brittany and our friend Kindra to the field to get wild broccoli rabe.  They returned a few hours later with eight plastic grocery bags full of freshly picked broccoli rabe.

Now the hard part began.  In order to preserve the wild bitter greens for future use, they needed to be cleaned, blanched in salted boiling water, and put into freezer bags.  Paula took one bag, and grandmom took two.  We went to the bakery to process our haul, because it’s certainly easier to clean them all in a professional kitchen.

The process was easy, but time consuming.  The first thing that we did was to get a big pot of water on the fire, and while we prepared the greens, it would slowly come to a boil.  We then went through each bag and filtered out all of the non-broccoli rabe pieces… weeds, wild onion greens, grass, etc.  We also removed any yellow or wilted pieces of the greens.  They don’t taste good, so we didn’t want to include those.
After the edible portions were separated, we proceeded to cut the greens into smallish, bite sized pieces.  The thicker stalks were split in half (so that they would cook at about the same rate) and then everything (stalks, leaves, flower buds) was put into a bucket.  Into the bucket went copious amounts of cold water to wash the dirt from the greens.  We filled the bucket up until the greens were covered and then used our hands to plunge the greens into the water in the same manor that a washing machine washes your clothes.  The greens were then scooped out by hand into a colander to drain.  We didn’t want to pour the bucket into the colander, because the dirt would have simply fallen right back onto the broccoli rabe.

After the initial washing, the greens were still a little dirty, so we washed them a second time (dandelion greens need to be washed three, four or more times because they are always really dirty!).  There was no reason to dry them in a salad spinner though, because they were just going to go right into the blanching water, which by this time had come to a nice rolling boil.

Into the churning salted water went handful upon handful of broccoli rabe.  We wanted to pre-cook the greens until tender so that they could be frozen and finished for future use.  After a few minutes of boiling, the water had turned a sort of army green color and the broccoli rabe was done.  Using a long pair of tongs, we removed the greens and placed them into a deep pan to cool.  This process was repeated several times, until all of our haul was completed.  (Thank you Jill, Kindra, and Brittany for taking care of most of this process!)

After the greens had cooled to room temperature, we portioned them into quart sized freezer bags, labeled them with masking tape, and basked in the knowledge that we would have a whole year worth of free, wild, nutritious, local, and delicious broccoli rabe in the freezer!

So what to do with all of these yummy greens?  That question inspired me to commit to a broccoli rabe filled lunch menu for family meal at the bakery this week.  The first day, we got some Kaiser rolls from Donkey’s Place across the street and made sandwiches of fried onions, mozzarella cheese, and broccoli rabe.  The next day, we had grandmom-style egg sandwiches with locally grown eggs, onions, and broccoli rabe, topped with thin slices of white cheddar cheese on crispy whole wheat bread.  The following day, we had Puerto Rican pigeon peas over brown rice and broccoli rabe.  On Wednesday we had burritos with brown rice, kidney beans, avocado, yogurt, and of course broccoli rabe all wrapped in whole grain tortillas.  Thursday for lunch, we had whole-wheat rotini pasta tossed in a sauce of olive oil, onions, garlic, Serra Sausage, Pecorino cheese, and naturally, broccoli rabe.  Friday, the broccoli rabe went on pizzas that we made at the bakery…

As you can see, broccoli rabe is very versatile and can be used in almost anything!  And considering that this is the first fresh veggie that’s been available in our region (asparagus is starting to come up, but isn’t harvestable yet and dandelion is a bit more limited in its uses), we seriously loaded up.  Perhaps after this week, we’ll tone down the consumption.  But this is what local eating is all about… eating what’s in season because it’s fresh, tasty, nutritious, and in our case with the broccoli rabe, totally free!

Broccoli Rabe pizzas (with a Serra Sausage pizza thrown in for good measure)

Kindra in the foreground… Paula in the background.

Cooking Demonstration at Bellview Winery

Jill and I made plans last Wednesday to attend a cooking demonstration at Bellview Winery.  The chef that evening was Joe Messaglia from Mama Mia’s Ristorante & Pizzeria in Seaville.  Although I’ve never been to Mama Mia’s, I heard that the food was excellent and that Chef Joe puts on a good show!

We arrived a bit late, as we tend to do at evening events during the week, but I knew there would be a cocktail hour before the actual demo started, so we weren’t too worried about it.  We gathered ourselves together, and opened the front door to the winery.  There were about twenty-five people inside the lobby area, most chatted amicably with the folks around them, and everyone was sipping a blush colored beverage from Bellview-branded wine glasses.

Jim and Nancy, the owners of the winery, warmly greeted us and Nancy quickly poured us each a ‘cranberry spritzer.’  This was the blush colored wine that everyone was enjoying.  Nancy explained that it was a mixture of their own cranberry wine with seltzer and lemon-lime soda.  A twist of fresh lime clung to the rim of the glass, and we were encouraged to give it a squeeze into our drink.

As soon as we tasted our surprisingly refreshing spritzers, we turned to see who else was present for the demo.  Part of the fun of going to events like these is running into people that you know and sharing the evening with them.  Jill and I were pleased to see some familiar faces.  Mario Ruiz-Mesa, and his wife Carmen, were there.  They each own businesses downtown on Landis Avenue, Mario an insurance agency and Carmen, a real estate business.  We’ve socialized with them before on a professional level, but we’d never shared a meal before.  Sharing good food a drink brings a relationship to a whole new level in my opinion, so we made it a point to sit with them and their neighbor Sandy Jones who had joined them.

After moving us into the demonstration area and finding our seats, Jim took the whole group into the back to give us a tour of the winemaking facilities.  In an abbreviated manor (we were to see a cooking demo after all), he went through the wine making process from when the grapes come in to when the wine goes out.

As we stood listening to Jim, Jill nudged me and pointed out a gurgling sound off towards the rear of the large fermentation room.  Jill and I being former homebrewers, she recognized that gurgling as the sound of an airlock letting out carbon dioxide from a fermentation chamber.  I asked Jim about it, and he explained that it was a huge batch of their cranberry wine that was making the noise.  The cranberries had been added to the wine several days before, and the yeasts in the wine were happily digesting the sugars introduced with the cranberries.  He pointed to a large, silver fermentation vessel that had the telltale airlock on the top, in which we could see the water inside bubbling vigorously.

By this point, we were all getting to be quite hungry.  The cranberry spritzer had whetted our collective appetite, and we could smell delicious foods being prepared somewhere nearby.  We returned to our seats, and chef Joe Messaglia was introduced.  He came out into the demonstration area and spoke for a few minutes about himself.  I must say his story was quite impressive.  It included growing up in the family trattoria, attending an excellent culinary program in Italy, and working on cruise ships and fine restaurants all over the world.  This guy was made to cook good food!

Soon, he began preparing the first course; little purses of pasta, stuffed with a ham and prosciutto filling and tossed in Mama’s sauce.  The sauce was quite tasty and was a mixture of caramelized onions, peas, tomato, brandy, Marsala, and Parmesan cheese (among other secret ingredients).  It was an excellent first course, and the wines paired nicely with it.  I preferred Angelo’s Red Table Wine, although the 2006 Chardonnay was very good as well.

The main course was ‘Veal Rollatini Milanese’ which was pounded veal rolled around a filling of sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes, and ground sausage.  It was served with a stuffed tomato and a very interesting, slightly sweet lemon polenta.  For this course, I preferred the white wine, the 2007 Viognier.  Jim said that the Viognier grape seems to be growing particularly well in the vineyards, and it certainly tasted so.  It had a nice peachy aroma to it, and was the perfect acidity for the veal dish.  About half the people at the demo, though, preferred the red wine, which was a 2005 Chambourcin, an earthy mellow red wine that was very drinkable and very tasty.

Tiramisu was the final course of the evening, and that was paired with the sparkling wine Lettizzia, and the newly released 2008 Dandelion wine.  The real show-stopper though, was the bottle of 1971 Dandelion wine that Jim said the family found recently in the basement.  He was generous enough to have popped the cork on this extremely special wine, which was the color of honey and tasted like a fine sherry.  I couldn’t believe how good it tasted, how intense and complex the flavors were, and I seriously didn’t want it to end.  In all likelihood, we’ll never have a wine like that again, and Jill and I kept thinking back to Aunt Ada all those years ago on her hands and knees picking dandelion flowers from the very yard that surrounded the winery now.  Thank you Jim for sharing this special treat with us!

The evening was a blast, and I’m glad we got to sit with Mario and Carmen and share such a special night with them.  The food, the wine, the company… and of course the ’71 dandelion wine that I can still taste in my mouth.