We’ve been obsessively experimenting with happy chickens – here you can see Old Hall Farm and Fosse Meadows Farm stands, both of which offer a perfect bird for a Sunday night roast with market vegetables. And pretty bunting.

Perry’s Farm and Ted’s Veg are great for stocking up on produce – I’ve been trying all sorts of fun and colorful things like green and red kale, red cabbage, Isle of Wight tomatoes, sorrel, cress, local apple and pear varieties, rhubarb stalks, and purple sprouting broccoli.

It’s all excellent quality, grown by small farmers and producers, and a great way to get involved in supporting the local community. Plus, it’s delicious.  Showing up at the market and buying whatever looks exciting is a great way to try out new vegetables and play around with different recipes.

I love broccoli, especially when it’s pretty and purple. I think it’s delicious on its own, but let’s be honest…isn’t everything a little bit extra awesome when you add cheese into the mix?

This fantastic creamy feta dip is adapted from Sarah (fellow Rambling Restaurauteur) and her amazing Persian dishes that we’ve enjoyed at Nowruz new year celebrations for two years.  She’s made addictive rhubarb lamb khoresh and homemade baklava and all sorts of deliciousness.  I borrowed her lovingly worn Persian cookbook to play around with some recipes for a dinner party and ended up with a version of a Cheese and Walnut Spread that goes perfectly with lightly steamed broccoli.

You have to start with a really good feta cheese and our choice of cheese the past few years has been this delightful can of unintelligibility.

Having just got back from Berlin yesterday, I actually think it’s in German, although the writing also implies Bulgarian? Who knows – it’s creamy, salty, and fantastic and that’s all that matters.  Go comb the corner stores for it and you won’t regret it.

If you happen to be so lucky as to have received a Slap Chop (of incredible infomercial entertainment value, including the remix) for Christmas from your brother, you can use it to crush some nuts. You won’t regret that either.

Add some chopped parsley and mint to the dip, along with lime juice, some olive oil, minced garlic, and salt and pepper. I happened to have some creme fraiche in the house from Ottolenghi’s amazing caramelised garlic tart which added a nice smooth tartness to the dip.

It’s great with crackers, great with flatbread. Great on carrots or probably any other raw or lightly steamed vegetable. I bet it would be good stuffed in a chicken breast or rolled up into meat or spread on a sandwich. Cheese spreads like this are great multitaskers.  Make it and I’m sure you’ll find another ten great ways to eat it. Like by itself on a spoon…

Super Easy Cheese,  Herb, and Nut Dip

What You Need:

I’ll be honest, I didn’t really measure any of this, so don’t worry about the proportions too much. Try, taste, adjust as necessary, and I’m sure it will be delicious.

A good hunk of feta cheese (the Persian book says 1/4 pound)

1/2-1 cup of nuts – traditionally walnuts, but I didn’t have any, so I used almonds. Also delicious.

A handful of fresh parsley, chopped into little shreds

A handful of fresh mint, also chopped into little shreds

Other herbs that would be good but I didn’t have – scallions, basil, tarragon, etc.

1 clove minced garlic

1/4 cup creme fraiche

1/4 cup olive oil – I think I left this out

juice of 1 lime

salt & pepper

What You Do:

Ummm…put it all in a bowl and mix it up. It doesn’t get any more complicated than that and it will take only about 5 minutes of your life. Scoop onto a piece of broccoli or animal flesh or grain product and eat. Happy times.

]]> http://eatfamilystyles.com/2011/04/11/sunday-farmers-market-trips-and-an-easy-cheesy-recipe/feed/ 0 http://eatfamilystyles.com/2010/03/03/butternut-squash-polenta-and-other-mayhems-deadpan-restaurants-opening-night/ http://eatfamilystyles.com/2010/03/03/butternut-squash-polenta-and-other-mayhems-deadpan-restaurants-opening-night/#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:00:32 +0000 irene http://eatfamilystyles.com/?p=2965 So much has happened in the last few weeks. Amin is now gallivanting in Dresden, and Judy has proven a valuable addition to our kitchen cohort. We at Deadpan Restaurant had our opening debut a few weeks ago, and then a repeat event this past weekend. It was, in a word, insane. Five dishes, 12 guests per event, hours upon hours in the kitchen, and I don’t think I’ll ever look a pot of polenta in the eye again.

Let’s talk about the menu. Since we’re new at this whole restaurant thing, we haven’t really figured out how to simultaneously serve a secret supper and photodocument it, so bear with us on the pictures!

We started with a red wine oxtail and beef tongue stew, served as chilled, jelly hemispheres, with a layer of homemade Momofuku pickles on a toasted baguette round.

Probably the most challenging dish of the evening, our tongue-and-tail amuse bouche was cast in a mold designed and cut by Amin. Pretty cool, huh? We value the use of all parts of the animals we eat, and wanted our guests to do the same. To our surprise and delight, nobody tried to escape the event while we described this dish, and everyone cleaned their plate! On a side note, those pickles are so addictive and delicious – definitely at the top of my these-are-so-easy-to-make-i’ll-never-buy-them-again list.

For our starter, we served the dish that has been our pride, joy, and near-undoing for the last several months: pork belly with butternut squash polenta. Cured for two days in a mix of brown sugar, sea salt, cinnamon, cloves, star anise and black pepper, and then braised for upwards of three hours in a pot of chicken stock and Delirium Tremens (famed as the best beer in the world), this local pork from Autumn’s Harvest Farm is tender, buttery, and melts in your mouth. The butternut squash polenta is cooked on the stovetop and then baked (or is it fried?) on cast iron with a lot of butter. We made our sauce out of a reduction of the braising liquid and some Cornell Orchards cider. This isn’t actually the pork belly we served, but an earlier incarnation that looks mostly alike:

We also served some cider mulled with the same spice mix that we cured the belly with. Still with us, even through the bad flash photography? Our other three dishes, after the jump…

Our third dish was a palate cleanser: quenelles (a.k.a. football shaped lumps, originally and traditionally made of meats or fish, but now just any mushy substance) of fresh grape sorbet. We seeded, peeled, and pureed the grapes, then added lemon juice and simple syrup, and stirred in crushed dry ice. Voila! Sorbet. Pretty cool. Sadly, no pictures this time around, but we’ll do a recipe post soon enough!

Our main was a wilted arugula salad with walnuts and figs, surrounded by brined, pan-fried chicken breast, graced by a quenelle of goat cheese whipped with shallots. I’m never eating normal, non-whipped, no-shallot goat cheese again.

That green puree you see is a mixture of spinach and arugula, and has a wonderful, tangy bite. Did we competitively squeezee-bottle it into our mouths in the kitchen after the dinner was over? Maybe. Here’s a closeup of the entree.

Finally, we served a dessert of chocolate torte over crisp madeleine biscuit with chocolate ganache, raspberry coulis, and earl grey-infused whipped cream. Best at room temperature, torte is flourless and crazy-rich. The photos speak for themselves.

All in all, it was a beautiful two nights. Our guests were gracious and generous, we didn’t have any major disasters in the kitchen, we didn’t break any dishes, and dinner-table conversation didn’t lull once (lulz). Thank you to everyone who joined us. Here are some final action shots!

Irene, interrupted while considering a bed of very green and flavorful arugula while trying to pretend she’s not drinking a milkshake during dinner preparations.

Daniel and Amin, straining cider through a cheesecloth.

Max, performing some classic gesticulations while describing a dish.

Daniel, laughing at the sheer volume of dishes to be done.

Can’t wait for the next event!

Beautiful Thing #1: The view of the River Tyne, including the Tyne Bridge and the Millenium Bridge, from the Viewing Box of the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.

And the reverse view of the BALTIC, an old flour mill, from the Millenium Bridge. If you happen to be anywhere near Newcastle, go see Damien Hirst’s fascinating exhibition Pharmacy and marvel at the view.

Beautiful Thing #2: The plum tart from the charming and brand new six-week-old BUEE Cafe and Bistro at Side Cinema.  I actually didn’t eat it; we went for the pecan pie and the raspberry cheesecake baked by the chef-husband of the proprietor-wife instead – more on that in a bit – but it’s a thing of beauty all the same.

Beautiful Thing #3: The goat cheese and roasted vegetable pizzaiola from Cafe Royal, a gem of a cafe amidst the shops of the city centre featuring artisanal bread from their own bakery.

So much to see in Newcastle and so much to eat! Let’s take a closer look at our two exciting foodie finds…

I say it all the time – one of my favorite things about traveling is the opportunity to search out unique or local or independent or just plain good places to eat.  Sometimes it requires Googling or Yelp searches or asking locals for recommendations or wandering around in hungry desperation.  Other times you just get lucky.  Chris and I arrived in Newcastle mid-morning, dropped off our bags at the hotel, headed up to what seemed like the busiest area full of high street shops and chain stores and shopping malls, bypassed a few Prets and Subways and McDonalds, and then just got lucky.

Any time I stumble onto a place with an award-winning bread display like this, I consider myself in luck.

I wish I had written down some of the surprising and unusual flavors – I recall a loaf with lemon and one with raisins and something else intriguing – but more so, I wish I had bought a loaf (or five) to bring home with me.

Since I didn’t have an army or family to feed, I got only the veggie pizzaiola, piled high with roasted peppers, eggplant, squash, caramelized onions, and even a large slice of fennel, as well as the most enormous slice of goat cheese topped with a twist of black pepper. I almost thought it might be too much goat cheese for me to eat at once. Obviously, it wasn’t. Who am I kidding sometimes?

The cafe was bright and airy, adorned with stacks of jewel-toned jam and jelly jars, sugar-sprinkled pastries, and shelves of cute ceramics I would like to own, including an adorable mug that says ‘silly sausage.’ I am having severe non-buyer’s regret at the moment.

After a fast and furious day and night and following day of game designing and game running, we celebrated with a walk around the city, venturing over the Tyne to the BALTIC and back over the Millennium Bridge. I dragged Chris back to BUEE Cafe, which we had noticed just around the corner from our hotel.  Having passed by what seemed like an endless supply of nearly identical chain restaurants, I was drawn by the cozy and casual vibe of the small storefront despite the fluorescent gleam of the kebab shop-style refrigerated display.

The menu left us with some difficult choices. Cumberland sausage and mash or pork belly? Gnocchi with basil sauce or Northumbrian steak? We decided to start with potatoes and raclette. Crispy potatoes smothered in a blanket of good cheese will never fail.

I ended up going for the coq au vin with mushrooms, roasted vegetables, and bacon and also ended up eating some of Chris’s excellent steak with onions in red wine sauce.

I loved the illustrations of Newcastle on the walls, the old school ceiling fixtures, the local beer, the charming waitress,  and the effusively friendly Canadian owner. We didn’t get to meet her husband, but we did get to meet his raspberry cheesecake and his pecan praline tart. Enough of an introduction for me to think we could be great friends.  I also loved my cute and comfy window seat in the corner.

If you happen to find yourself in Newcastle any time soon, go to the BALTIC, the cafe, and the bistro.  And buy me a silly sausage mug.  And while you’re at it, a loaf of bread. And a slice of plum tart. Pretty please?

Cafe Royal
8 Nelson Street
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 5AW
+44 (0191) 231 3000

Cafe-Bistro Buee
1-3 Side
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 3JE, UK
+44 (0191) 231 4080

Seems like everyone is talking about urban agriculture these days, with innovative new ideas ranging from tiny little crowd-funded SF city farms to fantasy skyscraper-high vertical farms.  From pundits to policymakers,  foodies to farmers to futurists, a lot of people are starting to think about urban food production for the sake of local economies, the environment, community resources, jobs creation, urban design, potential food security issues. and many more reasons.  I’ve been reading this really interesting report by the London Assembly called Cultivating the Capital: Food Growing and the Planning System in London (big PDF here) about working with city planners to increase the growing potential of the city.

Nerdy, I know.  In case you don’t want to read the 93 pages yourself (almost half of it is just appendices!), the report looks at the current situation of urban food producers, the barriers they face in growing and getting their products to market, and potential innovative solutions.  It also analyzes the city land that could be used for food production and encourages the use of  unconventional growing spaces, from rooftops to parks to housing developments.  And in terms of specific action, the report recommends that the Mayor of London promote and support policy and planning to increase Greater London’s food production and distribution channels.  They’ve got lots of important reasons to back up their suggestions:

‘There is a good case to be made that commercial agriculture is one of the best and most productive land uses in the Green Belt [an undeveloped area around London, set aside primarily for agriculture, forestry and outdoor leisure, but mostly not actively farmed]. The benefits include: opportunities for local job creation, skills development,  regeneration, preservation and management of green space, potential for waste management, providing healthy locally produced food and so reducing food packaging and food miles and the potential for improving food security.’

One of the big points is how much unused space there is within London that could be directed towards food production. The UK has these small plots called allotments that are available to the public for gardening/farming, but there are also swaths of unused industrial land and vacant building sites that could be improved visually and put to good use by developing for small-scale agriculture.   And it can get really small.  The report says, ‘Almost any site, irrespective of size, location or soil conditions can be used for food growing operations by making use of raised beds, skips and builders’ bags filled with good quality soil.’  Why not use green roofs or land along highways or railways or unused office land?

And it doesn’t even have to be a profit-making food-growing enterpise – it’s just fantastic to be able to produce any of your own food. And then you can get reaaaaally small. Because it doesn’t really get any tinier  in terms of space and literal lack of land than living on a houseboat (shoutout to my friend Olivia living on a houseboat in Alaska right now). And yet, this creative houseboater has developed an innovative way to grow tomatoes in a space smaller than that occupied by our forlorn and all-too-neglected barbecue grill.

I always talk about how much I’d like to grow my own food (despite my propensity towards immediately and invariably killing every single plant I’ve ever owned, including the cacti).  But I always live in the middle of cities and never seem to have enough space or enough land.  Yet these boaters have taken a very unexpected site and turned it into a mini growing area.  How sweet would it be to go pick tomatoes off your roof while enjoying this view of City Road Basin along Regent’s canal?

And looking back towards my hood…

A bit of inspiration for those of us who support the idea of more local food production. Until I get my act together to actually plant something, I’ll continue to buy vegetables from my local CSA veg box (and a shoutout to Growing Communities for being mentioned as one of the best programs in the report!), but I’m glad that other people are doing lots of growing in unexpected places.

Someday, I’ll be able to walk outside and pick what I want for dinner. Someday, someday…

it was one of those magical instances where the forces of nature align at the precise moment to allow for our attendance at the festival.  not only did it happen to be in the right city at the exact time we were already traveling there for work, but the massive marketplace of food activities was situated about 20 feet from our game location. ridiculous. thanks to the organic foodie gods smiling upon us, we got to tour the many stalls of farmers, bakers, ice cream makers, olive oil producers, brewers, and so much more.  most importantly, we got to eat lot of stuff. delicious stuff. stuff like this clown smile of cheese from the bath soft cheese company.

i am going to make my way to Bath (pronounced bawwth) just to eat more of this cheese.  sadly i don’t remember the name, but i think it might just be the fantastically named Wyfe of Bath, described on their website as ‘succulent and bouncy.’  ahahaha. are they taking the piss? did chaucer write their copy?  hilarious.

another one of my favorite stalls was from hobbs house bakery, manned by the insanely cute brothers tom and archie.

tom and archie are brothers one and six in the fifth generation of a baking family and spend nearly all their waking hours thinking, breathing, baking, and living bread.  their passion for good, sustainable, real food shines through on their website and their philosophy and methodologies passed down through generations  embody the concept of  artisanal production.  both online and in person, their sheer love and excitement for baked goods and their adorable family styles make me feel so warm and fuzzy inside that i want to give them all my money to support their baking habits.  and my eating habits. it’s not hard to justify, because their bread is who-needs-condiments-i’ll-just-eat-this-whole-loaf-by-itself levels of delicious.  they’ve won about a bajillion awards for products like their fig and walnut loaf, their wild white sourdough, their spelt soda bread, and their other stellar offerings (wow, typing this is making me immensely hungry). you can see an example of nearly 5 pounds of spelt sourdough on the left, which is about how much more i would weigh if i lived anywhere near ‘the medieval market town of Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire’ where the bakery is located. next up after bath, i’ll be going there to sample every possible thing that comes out of their ovens and, if the foodie gods shine on me once more,  possibly even take a breadmaking course with tom. yess pleease.  we snatched up a loaf of wild white  – it might have won more awards than taylor swift and beyonce put together- and sauntered off on the enjoyable task of finding an accompanying snack.

the festival was full of opportunities to learn, from cooking demonstrations to gardening lessons to sustainability steps for chefs. i personally learned the valuable fact that buffalo milk makes for phenomenally delicious dairy products and my life is now better having gained this information.  chris and i ate our wild white loaf with a pure white tennis ball-sized lump of lusciously creamy buffalo milk mozzarella and i sampled a shockingly good buffalo milk coffee ice cream.  i also learned about the newest trend in urban chicken coops – the eglu from omlet! – pictured below with two  cackling chickens and the two children squawking loudly at them.

the eglu is a fascinating business concept – it’s a simple, well-designed, eco-savvy, almost trendy chicken coop that comes with everything you need to start your backyard egg production.  that includes organically-reared chickens, bags of feed, egg crates, and a full installation, delivery and education from your very own ‘chicken chauffeur.’ it’s a bit amusingly designer-chic-yuppie-farmer-in-the-city; you know how far urban farming has come when your chicken coop sells  ‘spacious open plan living‘ for the hens like it’s a midtown penthouse with exposed brick walls, washer/dryer and 24 hour doorman. but i also appreciate that products like the eglu make it easy and accessible for more people to raise chickens and get a step closer towards connecting to the source of their food.  and i’m a HUGE fan of backyard eggs, so i’m all about anything that spreads the wonders of good fresh eggs straight from the chicken coop.

the festival also featured a street food bazaar and performances…

but i wasn’t too compelled by the selection of vendors and went for mixing and matching from the individual producers instead. this area could use a little pumping up for next year – maybe an infusion of upmarket global influence or SF street food festival excitement – but i was happy to see a little bit of street food love.

there were plenty of local farmers from all over southwest england who supply restaurants, stores, farmers markets, and individual box schemes (british version of a CSA box)…

as well as gardening demonstrations, talks, and hands-on practice from cool organizations like G.R.O.F.U.N which is  about Growing Real Organic Food in Urban Neighborhoods. they’re also ‘all about food & all about urban communities, and how best we can work cooperatively to feed ourselves & significantly reduce the ecological footprint of getting food to our tables.’  so fantastic.

i was happily surprised by the number of people willing to pay £5 for entrance into the festival – there were lines waiting for the gates to open at 10am and many of the tents were swarming with people like bees around an innovatively designed modern ‘beehaus‘. another alternative was to join the soil association, the largest organic organization in the UK and one of the main festival sponsors, for free entrance. happily, i’d been planning to join anyway and even got an exciting bag of organic goodies as a bonus. free jar of crunchy peanut butter + free jar of wild blueberry jam + small loaf of wholemeal bread purchased from local bakery stall  = yup, you guessed it, PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME!

all in all, it was a fantastic event and congrats to all the producers, partners, and planners on a job well done. i’ll parachute into your festival any time. over and out from the organic astronauts in orange…

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