Crave: a food and drink blog

In the Dish

I've got a new  recipe in my cooking arsenal along with those Company Carrots---the chocolate mousse I made at Thanksgiving. Now, I thought it came out too dense, not fluffy enough, but everyone loved it. Here's how it went down:

You need:     1 3/4 cups whipping cream, 12 ounces quality semi-sweet chocolate chips , 3 ounces espresso or strong coffee, 1 tablespoon dark rum , 4 tablespoons butter , 1 teaspoon flavorless, granulated gelatin.

As those of us who have artist and other Button Factory related friends know, Friday night is when you go to th Open Studios. Many of the artists are there  and they bring wine, beer, cider and snacks to serve us Cheese 'n Crackers: There was lots of cheese and crackershungrey art lovers. Last night Marhall Carbee even had pizza from Flatbread which we basically missed, but Cookology had a good spread and there was plenty of cheese and hummus. I also have a pocket full of chocolate, an atomic fireball jawbreaker and a headache from the wine.

I'm almost finished getting all the stuff for Thanksgiving dinner. Got the Turkey, veggies and plenty of cream and we've created a Google Doc with all the dishes we're making, including a timeline to further plan it out. On the menu, Free range turkey from Vermont, quark cheese with garlic from Rollinsford and Brookford Dairy, shrimp from Seaport Fish, golden beets, Veggies Await: Golden beets, celery root, garlic, apples, cranberries, onionssquash with sage cream, company carrots, celeriac salad, stuffing with walnuts, apple, celery and sausage,... gravy, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts with bacon...

I spent five days peering into the big windows at Cava, the new tapas restaurant on Commercial Alley in Portsmouth, before I went in. I used to stalk over at Four, looking in to see who was dining there but Cava Tapas and Wine Barwhenever a new restaurant comes in, well, the grass is always greener. No review yet of course--it's waaay too early--but so far so good!  Danny the bartender migrated from Brazo to make my Caipirhna (national drink of Brazil) and there's a good wine list with bottles I've not seen before. You can order a taste, a half glass or a full glass to have with your little bites or more substantial plates. Great manchego cheese and ham on smoky toasted bread, crab croquettes with...

Week continues with more face stuffing. Good thing I ran that 13.1 miles in the Seacoast Half Marathon on Sunday to prepare. That's 1600 calories by my calculations. We went to the Portsmouth Brewery who has selections on from the regular menu on their three-course menu for the week but with the bonus of four samples of beer of your choice. Brews: Choose four samples of beer with your dinnerTamale: Like a polenta with chicken inside and lots of hot sauceChicken: Lucious chicken breast with sweet potato puree and red cabbagePear Profiteroles: Pastry filled with pear sorbet with a rosemary caramel sauce

As promised, Four restaurant is now offering a nightly pre fixe menu for a mere $40. When I reviewed the restaurant a month or so ago, they only had their modern steakhouse menu available, so Andy and I went back to sample the pre fixe. First dish--an amuse bouche of sweet chili shrimp, bits of shrimp in a vibrant red sauce good enough for bread soppage.Sweet Chili ShrimpCured Coho Salmon Pizza: One second course choice is a salmon pizza with roasted beets, sweet gorgonzola cheese, spinach and a maple Dijon viniagrette.Carrot Soup: Creamy carrot with curried pistachios and a swirl of pumpkin oil

Entree choices were a tender beef short rib over tangy horseradish mashed potatoes and a whopping

I attended much of the NH Film Festival this past weekend--I'm a big film buff-- and of course one of the most important parts of any film festival are the parties. I got to most of them and they all had food and a bit of a different attitude. I did miss the Muddy River party on Friday night--I had an exhausting day and couldn't muster the energy.

 First up--Thursday night's after party at the raw bar at Jumpin' Jays. The good--nice food including shrimp and cocktail sauce with plenty of horseradish and little crab cakes.  Also good--big open space with the run of the restaurant.Shrimp: All parties must have lots of shrimp

Andy and i got a tour of the kitchen over at Tulsi, the new Indian restuarant in Kittery Foreside. Much of their cooking is done in a hotter than hell Tandoor oven. The naan bread is cooked on the side of the oven andpulled off when brown and bubbly. Oven: See the heat at the bottomOut of the oven

Yes, Green Acres is the place to be. Farm livin' is the life for me. Land spreadin' out so far and wide--keep Port City and give me that country side!The man, the myth, the lettuce: Andy Gagnon of Andy's Greens surveys the letttuce crop for Saturday Farmers' Market  So Friday I got to help Organic Farmer Andy harvest lettuce, Swiss Chard, herbs, arugula, kale, and other greens for the Saturday Farmers Market. It's back breaking work but someone's gotta do it.Red LettuceChard and Kale: I had to put it in bundles

Here's to hoping someone at the Maine Oyster Festival on Sunday from 6-9 makes some Oysters The famous oyster lugeOysters RockefellerRockfeller. I love that stuff. Go to www.maineoysterfest.com to get tickets and don't forget that freaky oyster luge. I'll be there judging but not catching oysters shot down an ice slide.

Fish throwing, stalls of ethnic cuisine and the sweetest peaches at Pike's Place Market in Seattle. Lots of hot chili peppers too.  And take a look at the sandwich from Salumi, Mario Batali's Dad's fantastic little salami shop--we could use one of those here. Red green and yelow hot chili peppersPeachy by the poundSalami Sandwich with onions, fennel and curry

We wound up in the Elysian Brewery in Seattle e again where my favorite brew is the Saison Poivre, finished with pink, black and green peppercorns--spicy!  Elysian BreweryAnd while there we met the guy behind the bar--Brian O' Neill--who--get this--used to work at the Portsmouth Herald! He got fired eight years ago. He used to work at The Blue Mermaid too! Crazy.

We're in Seattle eating our way through crab and salmon heaven with so much smoked and fileted salmon that the fish mongers throw it at the tourists in Pike's Place Market--more pics from that later. I've already had some big sweet Dungeness crab, met a dude who knows the guys from The Deadliest Catch, and have had "small plates" in just about every restaurant around. Oh, and had a brew at Elysian Brewery on Peter Egelston's recommendation. Public Market

This dish doesn't look as pretty as when Chef Evan Mallett at Black Trumpet Bistro served it to us last night, but it was delicious--smoked and brined pig heart in thin slices with a house made chutney and tangy Smoked Pig's Heartmustard--they have a new menu over there and we tried out some of the small plates and soups including a terrific sausage and kale stew and sausage steamed in sweet pequillo peppers.  

We know exactly what to do with all those tomatoes that cropped up over and over again this season--make some tomato sauce. We made three batches so far--a marinara which I froze, another marinara which we canned and then a meat sauce that we just kept around to eat. Heck, I'm just tickled I'm dating someone who actually has canning equipment in his city apartment. So can we did.

First we made the sauce...

Peel the tomatoes: Shock the tomatoes in boiling water for a minute then take them out to cool. The skins will come right off

Farmer Andy and I decided to make dinner again--more meat and fingerling potatoes--and for cocktails we tried making the national drink of Brazil, the Caipirinha. The bartender over at Loco Coco's in Kittery showed us how to make it on Monday and we thought we'd give it a try. You'll need raw sugar, some cachaca (the liquor store has it), ice and many many limes. Cut the limes: For each drink, cut lime in half, then one half of the lime into small pieces

Squeeze the other half: Place the cut up lime in a shaker. Squeeze the other half into the shaker.

So Organic Farmer Andy and I decided to cook dinner "in" this past Saturday using as many local ingredients as possible--not difficult when one of us is well, an organic farmer and Saturday is Farmer's market day. We got a coupla' T-bones from Outlaw Farm ($27), corn from another Andre at Heron Pond Farm (six ears, $3.50), and cukes, tomatoes and fingerling potatoes from Andy's Greens (free, but with all the labor and expenses that goes into growing this stuff--probably the most expensive thing on the menu. It all turned out --deliciously. Here's what we did:  Cucumbers and Tomatoes: Cucumbers are sliced thinly and put into a dressing of rice vinegar, sugar and plenty of black pepper. I learned that when I worked in a Hungarian restaurant. Tomatoes are topped with fresh basil leaves, balsamic vinegar and olive oil

T-Bones: Topped with olive oil, fresh tarragon and garlic, then broiled in the cast iron pan

Steak, corn and fingerling potatoes: Corn on the cob has a butter with fresh chervil in it. Fingerling potatoes are roasted with salt and fresh thyme

If all goes well, Chef Simon Lampert's new restaurant, Four, will open next week at 189 State Street.  I can't give menu details because I promised not to spill, but I was inside last night and it looks terrific. Just 36 seats and a cool bar and of course a kick-ass wood-fired oven.  Good luck on the opening, guys!A wood-fired oven

Get some of these at the Farmer's Market this Saturday. They're spectacularLemon Cucumber