Chef Talk: Seared Stonington Scallops w/ Corn "Risotto" Features Chef Talk Recipe Farm Fresh Stephanie Webster July 09, 2010 Photo: Michelle Parr PaulsonEven if you don't make it to Dinners At The Farm this season, you can still capture some of the culinary magic that Chef Jonathan Rapp brings to each and every meal. Jonathan is the chef and owner of River Tavern in Chester, CT and the creator of Dinners at the Farm. This recipe for Seared Stonington Scallops with Fresh Corn "Risotto" is a dish you may find on the menu at one of his unique local dinners. Sure, you may not have the candlelit white tent glowing brilliantly against the farm backdrop, or the truck outfitted with a kitchen in which to cook your dinner, but set up a communal table and enjoy this delicious seasonal dish. Seared Stonington Scallops with Fresh Corn "Risotto" Read More
Don't Miss Dinners At The Farm 2010...Seriously! Restaurant Events Local Farm Farm Fresh Stephanie Webster July 09, 2010
Top Summer Cocktails: A Connecticut Blogger Round-up Ingredients Features Amy Kundrat July 08, 2010 The summer cocktail season is in full-swing and rather than mindlessly reach for the shaker and ice we decided we needed a lesson or two (or ten). We asked ourselves, what are all the cool people drinking? To answer this we went to the source and rounded up a few of our favorite food and drink bloggers in Connecticut to share their favorite summer cocktails with CTbites. I guarantee these cool summer drinks will have you planning meals AROUND your drinks. And if you feel inspired, please share your favorite summer cocktail as a comment below. Cheers! Read More
Gin Tasting @ NRG Wines Ingredients Cocktails Events Amy Kundrat July 06, 2010 If your preferred cocktail is a gin martini or the summer staple, a gin and tonic, there is an event happening this week you will not want to miss. Peter Troilo at Nicholas Roberts Fine Wines will be hosting a gin tasting this Friday July 9 beginning at 5 pm at their shop located at 1053 Boston Post Road in Darien. Usually known for a great selection of wines, NRG is mixing it up and will be presenting four gins with equally different styles and approaches to taste. If you’re on the fence about the juniper substance, you may want to read my love note to the stuff as inspiration, Bringing Back the Martini. Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, let’s meet our contestants. Read More
Meatopia BBQ NYC...It's Only 1 Hour Away!! Restaurant Events Road Trip Stephanie Webster July 06, 2010 While we pride ourselves in seeking out great eats in Fairfield County, sometimes good food requires a road trip. If you're looking for a little meat-oriented culinary adventure this weekend, we've got just the thing for you. Jump a train to NYC and savor the BBQ smorgasbord that is "Meatopia." What is Meatopia? On Sunday, July 11th from 11:30am – 4:30pm, 30+ Chefs and BBQ teams will be kicking up the heat & barbecuing every dish under the sun. Restaurants like La Esquina, Boqueria, Wilson's BBQ and even "The Food Lab" from Seriouseats.com will be contributing to the Meatopia Menu. Here's the best part...These top chefs will be only be barbecuing local and sustainable meats. Many chefs are pairing with a local farm to use products from regional farms. Truly, how can you not go? Now let's get some drooling going here...Contemplate for a moment a few of their featured menu items including: Smoked Duck Tacos, Mexican BBQ Lamb, Mini Short Rib Pies, and a Grilled Bacon Sandwich. (Who needs the lettuce and tomato, really?) Read More
CT Bloggers Roundup @ Miya's Sushi Restaurant Events Amy Kundrat July 06, 2010 Photo: Nick Caito, www.nickcaito.com Great food, an energetic chef and like minds. These were the makings of a perfect evening out for about fifteen local food bloggers and friends on a recent Wednesday night at Miya's Sushi in New Haven. I consider one of the best parts of my "job" as a contributor to CTbites to be getting acquainted with fellow food writers, many of whom I know virtually by their online epicurean diatribes. Over the past year I have even met several over comfortable meals where I don't have to be self-conscious about photographing my food and I know I won't get a fork in my hand if I eat off his/her plate without asking. With help and inspiration from fellow blogger Leeanne Griffin, I looked forward to a planned gathering of foodies and writers that would promise the flurry of cameras, endless plate positioning, many drinks and yes, the joy of community plates that I have come to know and love. Our setting? Miya's Sushi in New Haven, one of a few sustainable sushi restaurants in the country, with its endless and creative menu led by the personable and socially progressive Bun Lai. Our guests? An esteemed assortment of food bloggers, photographers and chefs including... Read More
Year-Round Inspired Italian @ Aloi Restaurant Restaurant Italian New Canaan Lunch Jeff "jfood" Schlesinger July 04, 2010 Photo: Kate SchlesingerMargherita Aloi, the Owner/Chef of Aloi in New Canaan, brought her culinary talent and vision to New Canaan several years ago. Raised in a small town in Piedmont, Italy, she entered the Culinary Institute of Barolo at the age of fourteen. After working for several years in Italy she was recruited by the renowned Pino Luongo, the chef and owner of New York’s La Madri Restaurant (and author of one of my favorite cookbooks “A Tuscan in the Kitchen”). She arrived in the US at the tender age of 18 and assumed the position of Pasta Chef at Le Madri, and subsequently advanced to its Executive Chef in 1998. Fortunately for New Canaan, in 2004 she visited and fell in love with our small town. Margherita accepted the position of Executive Chef at Bel Mare, the predecessor restaurant at the Aloi location, reinvented the restaurant and subsequently purchased the building. Aloi offers both inside and al fresco dining. The interior space is intimate and the décor is subtle and relaxing. The al fresco dining on Aloi’s terrace is one of my favorite places to dine on a warm evening with my wife and friends. Read More
This Week @ The Westport Farmers Market Ingredients Farmers Market Liz Rueven July 04, 2010 On July 8, from 10-2, Bill Taibe, executive chef and owner of LeFarm in Westport, will be offering some special dishes at the market. Taibe’s commitment to local growers and artisans is the concept upon which LeFarm is built. This 30 seat, cleaned up barn-like dining room in Colonial Green offers its diners meticulously sourced, deceptively simple, always exceptionally excellent fare. Taibe will be wow’ing visitors to the market with Nasturtium Honey Blunts. You got it! Taibe cleverly refers to rolled cigars here. For this preparation, Taibe sources the largest leaves of the Nasturtium flower (no more than 2-3 inches across), rolls them around a filling of chopped black olives, La Quercia prosciutto, Red Bee honey and Beltane Farms goat cheese. The variegated, bright green leaf has a peppery, arugula -like flavor which contrasts unexpectedly against the creamy cheese and the sweet honey. How’s that for finger food? Taibe will also offer pickled veal tongue served with bright, local tomatoes. Read More
Honey Tasting @ Sport Hill Farm Ingredients Easton Events Local Artisan Local Farm Farm Fresh Dessert Stephanie Webster July 01, 2010
Great Wine Buys for An All American 4th of July Ingredients Features Holiday Wine Chat JoAnn LoGiurato June 30, 2010 Our nation’s birthday brings out the patriotism in me. I like to make a toast to American winemakers by celebrating with all American wines on the 4th of July. Whether you are at the beach, the pool, picnicking in the park or on your boat, here are some wine recommendations and things to consider before the fireworks get started: 1~The wine needs to quench my thirst—for that I prefer wines with good acidity and crispness. I’m thinking-- a crisp, juicy Sauvignon Blanc. I like these California producers Girard ($16), Merry Edwards ($35), and LEED certified, organically grown Hall Napa Valley ($20). I also really enjoy the smokiness of Ferrari Carano Fume´Blanc ($17). Sauvignon Blanc is great with green salads, vegetarian dishes and anything with goat cheese or fresh tomatoes. Read More
100% Gluten-Free @ Cafe Cogolulu Ingredients Restaurant Bakery Special Dietary Needs Lunch Kid Friendly Amy Kundrat June 29, 2010 Most of us don't think twice about trying a new restaurant, taking a night off from cooking with takeout or browsing the aisles of a grocery store. But for a small percentage of Americans, these simple and daily rituals can be excruciating. Celiac disease is a digestive disorder that affects, by some estimates, 1 in 133 children and adults by compromising the ability to process certain proteins found in gluten. An oasis for sufferers has emerged in Fairfield County in the form Cafe Cogolulu, a reopened and 100% gluten free cafe in Wilton offering families suffering from this inherited autoimmune disease some much-needed respite. Read More
Meet Michel Nischan @ The Westport Farmer's Market Ingredients Cookbooks Events Farmers Market Stephanie Webster June 28, 2010
Cult Classic, Colony Pizza, Comes to Fairfield Restaurant Delicious Dives Fairfield Pizza Comfort Food Lunch Kid Friendly Amy Kundrat June 28, 2010 Connecticut pizza fans are not much different than baseball fans. Each are rabidly and often irrationally supportive of their team or in this case, their pizzerias. And just as that imaginary line splitting Connecticut into Yankees and Red Sox territory exists, so does the invisible border separating followers of Stamford's seventy-five year-old institution, Colony Grill, from those forming lines at Pepe's and Sally's on New Haven's Wooster Street. Depending on your team, one thing is certain. We in Connecticut take our pizza very seriously. The pizza rivalry is heating up in Connecticut with Colony Grill's expansion onto Fairfield's Post Road. Opening this past Memorial Day weekend, Colony Grill in Fairfield has already cultivated a near-instant following drawn to its thin crust hot oil pies and booming bar scene. Die-hard fans of Stamford's Colony Grill will not be dissapointed in its Fairfield incarnation. The nearly-identical menu is matched by an identically delicious pizza, minus the decades of pizzeria patina, a combination of occasionally surly service and constant throng of people and take-out orders we've come to appreciate (read: tolerate) in Stamford. Read More
This Week @ The Westport Farmers Market Ingredients Events Farmers Market Liz Rueven June 27, 2010 Kausik Roy, Executive Chef and owner of TAWA, Stamford, will be the guest chef at the Westport Farmers’ Market on Thurs. July 1st, from 10-2 Roy will offer two of his restaurant patrons’ favorite dishes. This self described “rule breaker” seeks to present authentic ethnic cuisine while incorporating an abundance of locally grown veggies, which are not commonly found on menus in Indian restaurants. His desire to alter how his customers think about Indian cuisine is evidenced in his re-creating many traditional dishes. A bright and crisp chilled native corn and asparagus salad will highlight the tail end of the asparagus crop Read More
The Double L Rises Again! Ingredients Farmers Market Local Farm Westport Farm Fresh Christy Colasurdo June 24, 2010 My friend Lloyd Allen is crazy. At least that’s what people said years ago when he decided to go into the fashion business (yet wound up igniting a rage for trendy rain ponchos), publish a book about former neighbor Martha Stewart (despite the fact that she had just been indicted) and, two years ago, re-open his 1980s farm stand, the Double L (in a ramshackle red-barn structure in Southport). Still, when Lloyd gets an idea into his head, there’s no stopping him. Perhaps it’s his “just do it” quality that makes people root for him against all odds. So when the rickety red building that housed the Double L was finally too dilapidated to be useful, Lloyd teamed up with Michael Van Haaften and set out in search of a site where they could create a year-round indoor farm stand Read More
Cheese Wheels: Smile and Say, “CHEESE!” Ingredients Features Catering Specialty Market Sarah Green June 23, 2010 There’s something udderly amazing going down in Fairfield County. MOOOOVE over Pizza and Taco truck and make way for the new cow in town! For the sophisticated palate, Westport’s Mirabelle Cheese Shop is going portable with "CHEESE WHEELS." Andrea Itin, co-owner (with her husband) of the Fromagerie since 2008, has decided to go mobile, and she’s coming to a Farmers’ Market or private function near you. Here’s the (not-so!) skinny: No matter what you’re into, there’s curd for you! Headed to your favorite wine shop for a tasting? Don’t be surprised if you see a reproduction 1940’s Tear Drop Trailer parked in the lot. As you pass, wafts of delectable cheese caress your nostrils and you go inside for a glass. As you sip the wine merchant’s favorite red of the month, you will be treated to divine local cheese on top of Isabelle et Vincent’s (1903 Post Road in Fairfiled) crusty baguette. Paired perfectly, cheese and wine are a marriage made in heaven. Another wine, another cheese, and you are in the zone. Read More
Thomas Keller...Only Minutes Away.... Features Cookbooks Events Amy Kundrat June 22, 2010 Don’t miss Chef Thomas Keller signing copies of his "ad hoc at home" cookbook this Friday, June 25 at 12 noon at The Westchester in White Plains. Chef Thomas Keller is the last chef whose cuisine would be described as “accessible” or “approachable.” If you’ve stepped across the threshold of any his celebrated restaurants including The French Laundry, Bouchon, Ad Hoc, or Per Se, you know no detail is overlooked. And if you’ve thumbed through his exquisitely detailed and daunting tomes such as The French Laundry Cookbook, let alone even try to cook from them, you know Chef Keller’s recipes take no shortcuts (and no prisoners). But accessible he will be. In his cookbook "ad hoc at home," Chef Keller brings us simple but beautiful recipes inspired by his more casual Yountville eatery, Ad Hoc. Read More
Top This: Frozen Yogurt By The Ounce Restaurant Westport ice cream Kid Friendly Dessert Stephanie Webster June 22, 2010 Haven't you always wanted to be in charge of your frozen yogurt destiny? Do you find yourself squirming as the kid behind the counter puts too much fruit and not enough fudge on your medium vanilla? Oh, to be the person in front of the pump deciding the fate and exact ratio of each delicious frosty flavor. When it comes to food, I like to be in control. It is this sentiment that has me singing the praises of "Top This," Westport's new pay by the ounce, frozen yogurt mecca. Located (fittingly) in the old Ben & Jerry's spot on The Post Road, Top This offers self serve frozen yogurt (mostly non-fat) in flavors like Snickerdoodle, Alpine Vanilla, Peach Mango, Cheesecake, and the ever popular "Tart yogurt." Grab a cup, pull a lever, and select your fancy…a veritable yogurt buffet. Read More
Stepney Kitchen: Creative Farm-To-Table Fare Restaurant Farmers Market Local Artisan Monroe Farm Fresh Multiple Eaters June 20, 2010 Amy Kundrat on Stepney Kitchen Chef Jason Hall spends each Tuesday driving from farm to farm in and around Northern Fairfield County looking for the bounty that will fill his menu at Stepney Kitchen. Located strategically at the intersection of Rt. 59 and Rt. 25 in Monroe, CT, Stepney Kitchen is in the epicenter of what may be some of Fairfield County's most bucolic and farm-dense townships. The neighboring towns of Easton, Newtown, Oxford and Shelton enjoy a deep agricultural heritage that is being honored today by dedicated farmers and chefs such as Jason Hall at Stepney Kitchen. On a recent evening, the kitchen was bursting with rhubarb as it enjoys its seasonal peak, arugula, ripe and delicious strawberries and piles of garlic scapes. In fact, after my meal Chef Hall sent me packing with my very own bag of garlic scapes. "Right now we are getting lots of beautiful late spring items like sugar snap peas, really nice lettuces, baby vegetables like turnips, squash blossoms and we are running through the end of a very prolific strawberry season- the strawberry gazpacho w/ fennel and grilled shrimp has been a staple item for the last couple of weeks," said Chef Hall. Read More
