Little Moscow by the sea

So I'm coming to the conclusion that there is nothing better than having fast and cheap public transportation that will take you from your door to countless destinations including many beaches within an hour. After a rather disappointing trip to rock, rock, rock-a-away beach I decided to see what other seaside destinations the silver bullet could take me.

Just past Coney Island lies Brighton Beach with clean sand, and a tight knit Russian community with many cheap eats possibilities.


M&I International Food at 249 Brighton Beach Ave in Brooklyn is one of the largest eastern European markets this side of the Kremlin. Hosting endless displays of smoked fish & meat, pickled goods, breads, cakes, lots of great fresh produce and a nasty selection of Kvass.

Some Russian tough guy started speaking to me IN Russian as I was holding a big ol bottle of Kvass. I have to assume the rough translation to English went something like this:

"That bottle will grow hair on your chest, do you think you can handle that little man?" Followed by an awkward wink.

Upstairs at M&I is where to go, there is a small cafe with a hot food bar, everything is $5.99 a pound. I got a plate full for under $5.00. My favorite was the golumpkie, it reminded me of my grandmothers Polish golumpkies she use to make for my grandfather and I. There were some mystery meat filled "tortellini" dumplings, potato pierogies and also a strange ground chicken pattie which was saltier than the dead sea.

There is a lot to choose from at M&I, most of it was pretty good and very reasonably priced. After soaking in some rays head over to Brighton Beach Ave to fill up.

Learn some Russian phrases before you go to better enjoy your trip to little Moscow by the sea.

pocket change.

Let's just say you go to see a show, it's late, you're hungry, you've got some coins flopping around in your pockets, you stop.

I don't want to know what rogue ingredients were in this $0.63 biscuit and gravy combo.

The biscuit did taste surprisingly like a home made bisquick biscuit. The dipping gravy, oh the gravy, I couldn't quite place it as chicken or beef but it did taste somewhat like chicken a la king sauce.

1 Biscuit

Calories: 240
Fat: 13
Sodium mg: 490

I don't think we need to research the gravy...


Let's not stop there again.

Creative Spaces

A garden grows in Brooklyn...

Totally Tropical Pork Mojo

With summers heat and humidity creeping in the desire to eat or even cook inside seems to fade.

Start with a pork tenderloin, you may have to trim the excess fat and pull off the "silverskin" before this is ready to marinate in the MOJO baby.

The Mojo sauce or marinate is a very common in Cuban cuisine. It's simple as pie to make and is lip smacking good.

Tropical Mojo

• 1/2 cup olive oil

• 8 garlic cloves thinly sliced

• Juice of 2 limes & half an orange (traditionally a sour orange is used in place of the orange and lime)

• A bunch of fresh oregano & cilantro chopped

• Salt and pepper to taste

• Splash of vinegar
• 1/2 cup of water

Heat the oil over medium high heat; throw in the sliced cloves till lightly browned. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a quick boil.

After the Mojo has cooled allow tenderloin to marinate in this for at least 24 hours.

This totally tropical pork mojo was served with the following!

• Grilled onions
• Grilled asparagus
• Grilled plantains mmm
• Black beans with cilantro, cheese and grilled onion

Nicely washed down with a DOUBLE IPA homebrew from two good friends. Very malty, sweet and high in booze. Tasted like a cross between a Sam Adams and a Dogfish 90 min..

Damn fine.

Parisian Loaf Pizza

Who are we kidding this is just french bread pizza. Just because you're a food blogger does it mean you have to be some swanky haute cuisine endorsing fool?


At the same rate when we do something we do it right. This nice snack was a callabro with our like minded foodie amigo "The DMB."

Nice crusty loaf rubbed with garlic and oil, sweet sweet caramelized super star onions, extra sharp cheddar, crispy buffalo chicken sausage rounds, drizzled with home made buttery buffalo sauce and pepper jack ranch.

Paired well with a refreshing, easy drinking Allagash White to numb the heat.

Disgustingly good.

Apple Celery Tomato Soup!

Hello there lovely, loyal TSC fanatics.

I am currently on tour right now, and I am writing the bulk of this blog from our van driving across Ohio.I made this soup before I left, and I really wish I hada bowl of it right now (but most of it is in my freezer waiting for me to get home).


This Apple Celery Tomato soup has a light, refreshing taste that makes it a killer side dish or first course. Its notsubstantial enough to satisfy on its own, if you're hungry like a Lumberjack. Like most of my soups, it's pureed which automatically makes it soup-erior.


Ingredients

4 Tbs butter

4 ribs chopped celery

2 chopped granny smith apples with skins

2 large plum tomatoes

1 medium white onion

4 c water

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 large piece of parchment paper, cut to fit just inside the pot

Heat butter over medium heat, and sweat out the onion. Then add chopped celery, apple and tomato and nutmeg. Allow these to cook for a few minutes and get a nice coat of butter. Add water, and turn heat down. Place parchment over simmering soup and leave on low heat for about an hour.

Blend soup in small batches. Now comes time to strain out all the bullshit: those celery stringsand apple seeds really can ruin your day.

Note: You want a sieve with the smallest holes imaginable, a regular wire sieve didn't do the trick for me on the first pass through. I used my yogurt strainer and it worked perfectly. I suppose lining your wire sieve with some cheese cloth or somethingwould be cool too.


I hope you enjoy this one, I love the light flavor, and I seemingly always have these three ingredients in my house...

-T, T.S.Q

New England Real Ale Exhibition 2008

Cask conditioned beer is real beer.


Cask beer is unfiltered and unpasteurised, secondary fermentation is done directly in the fermenting vessel. These style beers are served in the 55 degree range and have much smoother carbonation due to the secondary fermentation period. CO2 and Nitrogen are not added to draft these beers, handpumps and gravity spigots are used.

I was lucky enough to make it in the door at the 12th annual New England Real Ale Exhibition. I was actually the last person let in, the thirsty mob behind me was kind enough not to attack me. Inside the small hall offered some of the worlds finest cask beers available to you for a mere $5.00 door entry, refundable $5.00 glass fee (our take the loss and keep the glass.) Tasting prices were as follows: pint $5.00, 1/2 pint $2.50, 1/4 pint $1.50.


Some highlights included:

Wachusett Brewing Co: Ryde
Very smooth, extremely drinkable or session-able as they call it, this beer is also flaked with rye for a slight rye flavor. Very nice.

Rogue Ales: Brutal Bitter
refreshing, floral, hoppy.

Moat Mountain: Spruce Tip Brown
This was the most unique of the day, a malty brown ale which was dry hopped with SPRUCE TIPS. It wasn't overpowering like pine sol, it was strange but did work well.

Gwynt y Ddraig: Haymaker medium cider
This was my favorite of the day. I am a huge cider fan and this was the best farmhouse style cider I've ever had in my life period. Oak conditioned, such a ripe, fresh, apple taste, not overwhelmingly sweet, almost herbal undertones. I went back for seconds and was proud to say I got the last one.
Incredible.


Put down the bud light and drink a real ale.

Rogue Sap

Rogue Sap, this is my new favorite roadside refreshment.

Straight from the maple tree the sap drips into the bucket waiting to be boiled down into nice amber syrup.

Clear, just sweet enough and slightly sticky to the lips. I’ve never heard of anyone drinking straight sap before but I’m not one to ever turn down tradition. It was tasty and refreshing; it honestly tasted like simple syrup. You want to be careful though as I was told that raw sap should only be consumed in small quantities otherwise you may give your self an upset stomach.

Maple sap is better used to make maple syrup as it takes 40 gallons of maple sap to make just one gallon of maple syrup. A single tap can produce around a gallon of sap in a day during optimal weather conditions.

The Salted Cod does not condone stealing any hard dripped sap from maple farmers. Luckily I was in “Wheeler” county where they have the rule of the land.

Leaving Behind the Trucker Hat

The New York Times ran an excellent article yesterday on the young farmers movement. The Times interviewed the two young farmers who left life behind in Brooklyn to start the The Hearty Roots Community Farm in upstate New York. I found this article to be quite inspiring as I've thought about doing this myself for some time.

It's nice to see some of my peers finding success in this field...

Click here to continue to the New York Times article.

Happy Johnny Appleseed day

Johnny Appleseed was a very well liked man. The apple variety he planted generally grew fruit that was too sour for eating and baking. Most of his apples were turned to hard cider. Therefore people were excited to see him because he was the guy bringing the booze. He was one of our country's leading conservationist responsible for many plantings and he was born in Leominster MA.

In celebration of this special day I’ve posted the lyrics for all of you to sing the “apple picking song.”

"Picking apples, picking apples,'Til we're done, 'til we're done, Picking all the apples, Picking all the apples,'Til we're done, 'til we're done.

Climb a ladder, climb a ladder,In a tree, in a tree, Hello everybody; Hello everybody, Look at me, look at me.

Making applesauce, making applesauce swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish
Pouring the applesauce, pouring the applesauce in a dish, in a dish.

Eating applesauce, eating applesauce,Yum, yum, yum; yum, yum, yum. Eating all the applesauce, eating all the applesauce. Now we're done, now we're done."

Artist unkown

You could also visit an orchard to celebrate…

Norway’s Doomsday Vault

NORWAY DOOMSDAY VAULT
Originally uploaded by a1e2000

This week Norway has opened the "doomsday" seed vault built to protect millions of food crops from climate change, wars and natural disasters. The vault has been built deep within an Arctic mountain in the remote Norwegian island of Svalbard which lies only 600 miles from the North Pole.

The International Herald Tribune has a great in depth article on this.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/28/europe/seed.php?page=1

Tuscan Beet Green Soup

I wish I knew of this simple soup this summer while I was still receiving my CSA share from Parker Farm. I received so many nice beets with the greens but I never really had anything to make with them that I enjoyed.

I received Mario Batali's "Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at home," as a gift this Christmas and have adapted this recipe form there.

1/2 cup of olive oil
1 onion, sliced
2 gloves of garlic, chopped
2 medium russet potatoes, diced
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
4 cups beet greens, cut into ribbons
3 cups water
3 cups chicken stock
1 can cannelli bean
1 bay leaf

In a large pot add your olive oil and bring to high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened, add remaining ingredients and cook over low heat for 45 minutes to an hour.

I topped this soup with Pecorino Romano cheese. I was also lucky enough to have potatoes in cold storage from my CSA for this soup, they really absorbed a lot of great flavor making them extra tasty. A nice thick slice of great homemade oatmeal bread for dipping made a wonderful accompaniment.

Enjoy your greens.

Fresh horchata

I've recently become obsessed with horchata after trying this milky drink at a local taqueria that offered it in my area. Ever since my first sip I have been looking out for it everytime I grab some Mexican food which seems quite frequently. I did a little research on this and found there is actually no milk in this sweet aromatic and refreshing drink. It is a type of rice milk so this is also a very vegan friendly treat.

After a few google searches I found the following Horchata recipe by Rick Bayless a Mexican chef I have always enjoyed on PBS. This recipe was featured in his book “Authentic Mexican Cookbook.”


Ingredients:

6 tablespoon white rice
1/14 cups blanched almonds
1 inch cinnamon stick
3 2-inch strips of lime zest(colored rind only) 3/4 inch wide
about 1 cup sugar

Directions:

Thoroughly pulverize the rice in a blender or spice grinder. Transfer to a medium -size bowl and add the almonds, cinnamon stick and lime zest. Stir in 2 1/2 cups of hot tap water, cover and let stand at least 6 hours or preferably, overnight.Scoop the mixture into a blender jar and blend for 3 to 4 minutes, until no longer feels very gritty. Add 2 cups of water, and then blend for a few seconds more. Set a large sieve over a mixing bowl and line with 3 layers of dampened cheese cloth. Pour in the almond-mixture a little at time, gently stirring to help the liquid pass through. When all has been strained, gather up the corners of the cheesecloth and twist them together to trap the dregs inside. Squeeze the package firmly to expel all the remaining liquid.Add 2 cups of water and stir in enough sugar to sweeten the drink to your taste. If the consistency is too thick add additional water. Cover and refrigerate until you're ready to serve. Stir before pouring.

Yields 1 1/2 quarts, 6 to 7 servings.


I ended up with enjoyable results, it was not quite as flavorful as the horchata I have been drinking locally but it wasn’t bad either. Next time I make this I will double the cinnamon quantity and possibly grate some nutmeg in as well. You may need to adjust the amount of water if you prefer a lighter or thicker drink. This lasted for about a week in the fridge so this recipe does make a decent amount.

Soup's On! Wild mushroom & walnut

For my first post as a member of The Salted Cod, I wanted to start by sharing my favorite and most impressive soup.

Mushrooms and walnuts are two of my favorite foods. In this soup, they get to slow dance together all night long.

ingredients:
1 c. chopped carrots
1 c. chopped celery
1 c. chopped onion
1 c. chopped leek
2 c. chopped crimini mushrooms
3 tbs. butter
salt
black pepper
2 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
1 pinch dried thyme
1 pinch dried sage
1 c. dried porcini mushrooms (1 package)
1 c. chopped walnuts (I always add more)

First step: soak a cup of dried porcini mushrooms in 2 cups hot water for 30 minutes to re-hydrate them.

Then saute a chopped cup of each of the following in some butter, salt and pepper: crimini mushrooms, celery, leek, carrot and onion. add 2 bay leaves, couple garlic cloves, a pinch of sage and a pinch of thyme (dried is fine) After the veggies have just started cooking add 8 cups hot water, the porcinis and their soaking liquid. simmer that for about an hour.
Remove bay leaves.

Then, in small batches, transfer soup to blender, and puree. Make sure you use really small batches. note: when blending hot foods, steam builds up in the blender and the pressure can cause the lid to pop off. To avoid burns, I wrap my hand in a dish towel and hold the lid on that way.

After all the soup is pureed, transfer back to the large saucepan. slowly reheat the soup, and add the cup of chopped crimini mushrooms and the cup of chopped walnuts. If you really dislike walnuts, this soup is probably fine without them. I happen to love them and think they bring a great flavor and texture to this soup.

Enjoy, my new friends!
I hope you don't hate it.

Sweet Crêpes

Snowed in today, what's for breakfast? There's been a jar of nutella in the closet I've been eyeing for a while.

I got the idea for these nutella banana crêpes from a good breakfast I had at Z Square in Harvard square a while back.

I adapted the following crêpe batter recipe from The Joy of Cooking.

3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Sift all dry ingredients then add and mix

2 eggs
2/3 cups of milk
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

I found the batter to be too thick as my first two crêpes failed miserably. I added another 1/4 cup of water and turned the heat up and I got much better results.

Plate your crêpes with nutella and sliced banana roll it and enjoy. Great crêpes but actually quite filling and very, very sweet.

Tunch the soup queen

Just wanted to let everybody know that we have a new contributor who has signed on to the Salted Cod. "Tunch the soup queen!"

Tunch will be contributing from beautiful western Massachusetts. Tunch has been dubbed "the soup queen" because of her obsessive love for inventive homemade soups.

She is also known to occasionally hit the road and go on tour across the USA. If we're lucky we might be able to get mobile posts from some great American holes in the wall while she is on the road.

Welcome aboard soup queen!

Cucumber Maki

This is my first attempt at sushi, very basic cucumber maki roll (my avocado disappeared from the fridge!)

I stocked up at the Super 88 in Allston, I didn't spend more the $10 on this. All I really needed was a bamboo rolling mat which I picked up for 98 cents and some easy to use premixed sushi rice seasoning. The pre-mixed saves you the time of mixing sugar and vinegar, with this you can just add a few tablespoons in.

In a nut shell, cook your short grain or sushi rice, let it cool, mix the rice seasoning, spread it onto the nori sheet, add your cucumber and roll. I ended up with 4 rolls from 2 cups of rice.

I have yet and probably never will master cooking rice. It seems so simple but it's either dry or too wet and never compares to sushi house quality rice.

Acceptable results with this first attempt, as it made for a nice lunch at work.

Thank you Melissa for having a camera at work!

AS220

We didn't think we would be visiting any farmers markets for a few months as we are smack in the middle of a New England winter...

Enter the AS220 Winter Farmers Market!


AS220 is a non profit community arts center that hosts a weekly indoor farmers market in Providence Rhode Island. When we arrived there were probably half a dozen vendors set up.

Our most notable vendor was local artisan cheese makers Narragansett Creamery. We sampled all varieties available including fresh homemade ricotta which was excellent. We purchased a nice block of fresh farmers cheese or queso blanco. It's a rather mild and salty cheese which is great for melting in quesadillas. Lucky for us at the next vendor was actually selling homemade corn tortillas made on Atwells Ave. We also picked up a huge bag of pecans for $2.



Other items available products include root vegetables, hearty winter greens, local shellfish, Rhode Island roasted coffee and pet treats.

Speaking of quesadillas, AS220 is also home to Taqueria Pacifica. A hip west coast style Mexican joint and former taco truck. We had some great horchata (rice drink flavored with almond and cinnamon) to go along with our breakfast quesadilla. Two eggs, sweet potato's, cheese and mushrooms stuffed inside one massive tortilla. Topped with salsa verde, this really hit the spot.



We can't really say enough about the AS220, lots of local art and artists, a winters farmers market, a taqueria, a print shop, and small bar and stage for bands as well. They also offer a wide variety of classes to the local community. We'll be there next month learning to silkscreen t shirts!

Tonno e fagioli

This is the perfect light summer dinner on a warm Tuscan night.
Unfortunately it was about ten degrees outside and snowing when I decided to make this. Delicious none the less.

Pure simplicity.

-Italian tuna packed in oil
-White beans
-Very thinly sliced red onion

Top with a bit of good olive oil and sea salt.

Get a away for a minute.

Happy Holidays from the Salted Cod