BROOKLYN
BREAD Good Food News « Delivered Fresh
INSIDE...
19 Things To Try This Weekend PAGES 4-5
Thursday, November 18, 2010 « Vol. 1, No. 1 « Free Publication « Brooklyn, NY
Win Copy Of “The New Brooklyn Cookbook” PAGE 21
Meet Joel, The Knife Man Of Gowanus PAGE 29
Confessions Of A Bartender! Kristen Ossmann, Charlotte Kamin and Rachel Glickman were among the guests at a savory pie dinner held at Four and Twenty Blackbirds in Gowanus on Saturday, November 7 – more coverage inside. Photograph by Lawrence Sumulong
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Do NOT pick up this FREE paper unless you want to be informed, inspired and enlightened by delicious Brooklyn food and drink.
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Thursday, November 18, 2010
From The Editors
Almanac
Our Team Editor Danielle Franca Swift
THURSDAY November 18 Mostly cloudy
Editor Jack Wright
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Assistant Editor Jon Roth
High Temperature: 55 Low Temperature: 37 Chance of Rain: 20% Sunrise: 6:46am Sunset: 4:36pm Moon phase: 85% visible
Project Manager Dan Mathers
FRIDAY November 19 Mostly sunny
Sara Heidinger
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High Temperature: 48 Low Temperature: 35 Chance of Rain: 10% Sunrise: 6:48am Sunset: 4:35pm Moon phase: 91% visible
SATURDAY November 20 Mostly sunny
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High Temperature: 52 Low Temperature: 38 Chance of Rain: 10% Sunrise: 6:49am Sunset: 4:35pm Moon phase: 96% visible
SUNDAY November 21 Partly cloudy
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High Temperature: 50 Low Temperature: 39 Chance of Rain: 10% Sunrise: 6:50am Sunset: 4:34pm Moon phase: 99% visible
Illustrator Liza Corsillo Photographers Jen Campbell
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Lawrence Sumulong
T’S safe to say you’ve noticed that Brooklyn is now home to a collection of restaurants, cafés and food-focused artisans that has no equivalent in this country (and maybe in any other country, either). And you will be reminded of this every time you pick up Brooklyn Bread, which we hope you will do every single week, by the way. We will not only be profiling the people who run the restaurants, devise the recipes, plant the crops, bake the cakes, sharpen the knives (and sometimes make them, too)... we will also be turning the spotlight on the people who enjoy this wonderful Brooklyn bounty. Flick through these pages and you will see what we mean – our photographers will be traveling to events all over the borough, capturing the fun of a street fair, the pleasure of a party catered by a first-class restaurant, the joy of picking produce from a farmers’ market. Although we’ll try to refrain from using buzz words like locavore (oops) we WILL be paying special attention to establishments which are using locally-sourced food. And although we care deeply about organic, healthy food, we will never preach (the inclusion of ice cream sundaes, chocolate and cookies in this issue should testify to that). We’re here, in short, to celebrate Brooklyn’s diverse food culture. In our pages we will be featuring not only the people who are creating good foods but also the people who are enjoying them! And we’ve enlisted some of the brightest people in the business to support us. Please join us. Danielle Franca Swift & Jack Wright
John Suscovich Allen Ying Advertising Sales Catherine Barreda Erica Izenberg Jen Messier Brooklyn Bread is published every Thursday by Brooklyn Bread Press P.O. Box 150026 Brooklyn, NY 11215 (917) 740-1072
www.brooklynbreadpress.com For individual emails: name@ brooklynbreadpress.com Printed on recycled paper using soy-based inks.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
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Inside This Issue
A smorgasbord of photographs, advice, wisdom and wit! 19 Things To Try This Weekend 4-5 How about a couple days filled with treats both inspiring and indulgent?
The Events Guide 7 Plenty of ways to enjoy yourself, and one fine way to give back, too.
Humble Pie 8 The Wasta Pie Scandal, by the girls at Four and Twenty Blackbirds.
The Cheese Report 8 Laura Nuter has some cheesy delights for EVERYONE this Thanksgiving.
FEAST Dinner At Church Of The Messiah In Greenpoint Good food for a great cause p6-12
A Lily And A Loaf Of Bread 11 Want to impress your Thanksgiving dinner host? Sarah McColl has a plan.
Try This At Home! 13 Cathy Erway shows us how to enjoy the best food around... in our own homes.
A Perfect Day In Brooklyn 15 Join Greenlight bookstore owner Jessica Stockton Bagnulo on a weekend lark.
The Market Report 17 Shaun Dubreuil of Eagle Street Rooftop Farm is mad about radishes!
Pie Dinner At Four And Twenty Blackbirds Nate Smith is chef for the night at this Gowanus pie shop p22-24
Edible History Of Brooklyn 19 The public library’s fascinating new column checks out the old food clubs.
The New Brooklyn Cookbook 21 Interview with the creators of a musthave new guide, and a contest too!
From Soil To Plate 23 Sara Franklin rediscovers her love of something she took for granted.
Adopt An Animal 25
Brooklyn Gets Its First Edible Schoolyard Slow food pioneer Alice Waters is among the guests at Gravesend p27-31
They need a home. Can you help?
The Knife Man Of Gowanus 28 Why Joel Bukiewicz is Brooklyn’s sharpest man (we couldn’t help it!).
Confessions Of A Waitress 35 An illuminating, charming look into the life of a server, by Stella Dixon.
Bartender Of The Week 37 Juan Castillo on life at Huckleberry.
Brooklyn Bread Rate Card 39 Everything you need to know!
The Red Hook Harvest Festival Fun in the fields at Red Hook Community Farm p32-38
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Thursday, November 18, 2010
19 Things To Try This Weekend Your fun guide to some serious eating in the wonderful borough of Brooklyn
1. Saraghina Often the simple things really ARE the best. Saraghina is a minimalist Italian restaurant that was designed using leftovers from a nearby garage, garden and storefront. Then there’s the wonderful pizza, and the everchanging specials. It’s “the kind of uncomplicated food some stylish Italians might throw together at their weekend house,” said The New York Times. 435 Halsey Street, Bed Stuy, 718-574-0010, saraghinabrooklyn.com.
2. Brownies At Baked Two former advertising execs opened this Red Hook bakery in 2005. Before long they were being recognized nationally, appearing on the Martha Stewart Show, the Today Show and the Food Network. Their sweet and salty brownie with caramel and fleur de sel garnered the most attention, although the peanut butter and peppermint choices are equally delicious. 359 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook, 718-222-0345, bakednyc.com.
3. My Friend’s Mustard Available at fine goods shops, Anna Wolf’s wholegrain mustards are infused with Brooklyn’s own Six Point Ales. The Jalapeno IPA and Spicy Brown Ale Mustards are the perfect accompaniment to sausages, pretzels, or anything really. myfriendsmustard.com.
4. Chicken Biscuit At Pies N Thighs When Pies n Things reopened after a twoyear hiatus, the attention understandably focused on their wonderful fried chicken, essentially rejoining the craze they themselves started. However a one-trick pony they are not. The best $5 sandwich you are likely to find is the crispy, spicy, buttery chicken biscuit – a southern fried chicken breast, slathered with hot sauce on a perfectly flakey and moist biscuit. 166 S 4th St, Williamsburg, 347-529-6090, piesnthighs.com.
5. Daily Market Menu At Stone Park Café One of Brooklyn’s most overlooked restaurants is also one of its best. In addition to Stone Park’s excellent menu, for $32 chef/ owner Josh Grinker prepares a three-course menu based on what’s available at the market that day. Recent items have included grilled pork chop with butternut squash risotto and Brussels sprouts, or housemade tagliatelle with andouille sausage, tempura fried rock shrimp and lobster beurre. 324 5th Avenue,
Above: At the Vanderbilt in Prospect Heights, savor the perfect fall cocktail, the Hudson Buck. Right: Pick up daily-made sausages like jalapeñocheddar cheese and bacon cheeseburger at The Meat Hook, in Williamsburg.
Park Slope, 718-369-0082, stoneparkcafe.com.
6. Malfatti At Al Di La This Park Slope eatery is still hard to get into, and for good reason. It is still turning out exceptional Italian cuisine. The Malfatti, (ricotta and swish chard gnocchi) served with brown butter and sage and a hint of grated nutmeg, has been on the menu since Al Di La opened. The pillowy, light gnocchi is too popular to take off the menu. 248 5th Avenue, Park Slope, 718-783-4565, aldilatrattoria.com.
7. Sausages At The Meat Hook Brent Young and Tom Mylan (both formerly of Marlow and Daughters) have opened one of Brooklyn’s best butcher shops. It’s the daily-made sausages that will have you returning. Varieties such as jalapeño-cheddar cheese, bacon cheeseburger or bahn mi dog are like nothing you’ve had before. 100 Frost Street, Williamsburg, 718-349-5033, themeathook.com.
8. Salted Caramel Sundae At The General Greene Although their ice cream cart, fashioned from local tools and parts, may no longer adorn the sidewalk in front of their store, you can still take a seat inside and sample some of The General Greene’s homemade ice cream. We recommend trying the salted caramel ice cream sundae. This cup of salted caramel ice cream is topped off with whipped cream, crushed pretzels and caramel and is an unmissable part of any trip to The General Greene. 229 Dekalb Ave., Fort Greene, 718-222-1510, thegeneralgreene.com.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
BROOKLYN BREAD
Page 5 Left: Don’t go to the General Greene if you think your willpower is capable of resisting the salted caramel sundae – it won’t be. Below left: Brooklyn’s own wholegrain mustard, made with the finest local beers – My Friend’s Mustard is available at fine local stores and markets.
start your weekend. 210 Smith Street, Cobble Hill, 718-855-7939, cloverclubny.com.
15. Anarchy In A Jar Chutney The website explains that it might be a bit of an exaggeration, but Anarchy in a Jar has labeled its Tipsy Chutney as “probably the best chutney in the world.” When you take into account that this sweet and spicy concoction is made from apples, cranberries and whiskey-soaked raisins, you might just be inclined to agree with them. anarchyinajar. com
9. Chicken & Dumplings At Seersucker
16. Black Rabbit Bar
Seersucker was recently awarded the Snail of Approval by Slow Food NYC. On your visit, make sure not to miss their chicken and dumplings. This stew of braised chicken, carrots and celery also yields delicious bites of wheat-flour dumplings with every spoonful. 329 Smith Street, Gowanus, 718-422-0444, seersuckerbrooklyn.com.
Stepping inside Black Rabbit Bar is a Prohibitionesque experience. As winters cold chill encroaches, you can hang by Black Rabbit’s rolling fireplace or take up a super-private booth with some of your friends. While there, make sure to try the vegetarian Welsh rarebit fondue. 91 Greenpoint Avenue, Greenpoint, 718-349-1595, blackrabbitbar.com.
10. Hudson Buck At The Vanderbilt As the colder weather rolls in, we find our tastebuds changing as much as our wardrobes. The Vanderbilt is ready to accommodate your changing taste with its Hudson Buck cocktail. Made with Maker’s Mark, apple cider molasses, homemade ginger ale and allspice bitters, it’s the perfect fall drink. 570 Vanderbilt Avenue, 718-623-0570, Prospect Heights, thevanderbiltnyc.com.
11. SCRATCHbread As if you needed more incentive to eat SCRATCHbread... they are now teaming up with the talented butchers at The Meat Hook to create a luxe version of their SCRATCHstuffing mix. This glorious combination will yield a pairing of country sausage with SCRATCH’s butternut croutons, pecans, and wild mushroom. scratchbread.com
12. Peaches HotHouse The specialty at Peaches HotHouse is the Nashville-style hot chicken that is an absolute can’t-miss. They also serve pan-Southern dishes like Carolina rice bowls and fried green tomatoes. The owners of Peaches HotHouse, Craig Samuel and Ben Grossman, are native Brooklynites who also run Fort
17. Buttermilk Channel
Greene’s barbecue restaurant Smoke Joint, and Bed-Stuy’s Peaches, a sister restaurant to the HotHouse. 415 Tompkins Avenue, Bed Stuy, 718- 483-9111, peacheshothouse.com.
13. DP Chutney Collective If you’re into good food – and surely you are if you’ve had the sense to pick up this magazine – then you probably already know about the DP Chutney Collective. So, as Thanksgiving approaches and we start having flashbacks to week after week of eating leftover turkey, the DP Chutney Collective has the solution to your white-meat blues: this year add a bit of its cranberry and green chili chutney to any of your turkey dishes. thedpchutneycollective.blogspot.com
If you’re looking for great food at a great price, visit Buttermilk Channel on Mondays to sample from the $25 menu. Create your three-course meal from selections like roasted pumpkin and sweet potato soup, followed by a ham-wrapped brook trout with grits, jam and mustard greens followed by chocolate and caramel tart with salted peanuts. 524 Court Street, Carroll Gardens, 718-8528490, buttermilkchannelnyc.com.
18. Brooklyn Brine In Brooklyn Brine Company’s own words, they make “damn fine pickles.” And, if you like regular old kosher dills, get your hands on some of Brooklyn Brine’s whiskey sour pickles, lavendar asparagus and fennel beets. They will give you a whole new appreciation for pickling. What’s not to love? brooklynbrine.com
14. Baked Eggs At Clover Club
19. Fish Fridays At Acme Smokehouse
Despite a long list of delicious and complex original cocktails the Clover Club has come to be known for its baked eggs which – according to many a patron – constitute the perfect brunch. Pair them with one of Clover Club’s cocktails and there is no better way to
Just in time for weekend entertaining or a leisurely Sunday brunch, Acme opens the Smokehouse Outlet every Friday, from 8am to 1pm, for some seriously good wholesalepriced shopping. 30 Gem Street (just off North 15th Street), Greenpoint, acmesmokedfish.com.
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bicycle station
Bicycle Station
Thursday, November 18, 2010
FEAST Dinner At Church Of The Messiah In Greenpoint Saturday, November 13... visit feastinbklyn.org PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALLEN YING
“The Bicycle Station is a godsend for cyclists...” Time Out New York
Gargamel, Jenn, Azreal
TUNE-UPS v REPAIRS RESTORATIONS v SALES Owner Mike has more than 30 years of experience in bike maintenance and care We are open through the fall and winter and offer excellent prices for off-season sales and repairs
Ericka, Katie, Theresa
$45 TUNE-UPS! Get your bike tuned up and be ready to ride this spring 171 Park Avenue, corner of Adelphi 1 block from Flushing Avenue (718) 638-0300 bicycylestationbrooklyn.com Erin Dunigan, Eleanor Strehl, Jenny Florence, Lauren V.H.S
Thursday, November 18, 2010
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The Brooklyn Food & Drink Events Guide ’Tis just about the time to indulge yourselves... here are some tips (along with a chance to give back)
11/18 Feedingnyc’s Thanksgiving Cocktails For A Cause
11/24 Greenpoint Reformed Church Thanksgiving Dinner
Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres from 7pm to 10pm at the Hudson Terrace, 621 W46th Street (b/w 11th & 12th Ave), New York. A donation of $105 provides Thanksgiving dinner for three families, gets you in the door and you drink free all night! A $35 donation provides Thanksgiving dinner for one family, and gets you in the door. FeedingNYC relies on the generosity of New Yorkers like you to help provide Thanksgiving dinners to thousands of families in need in all five NYC boroughs. Tickets at feedingnyc.org.
11/20 Giving Thanks Dinner With The Eagle Street Rooftop Farm Celebrate the closure of the 2010 season with the good folks of the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm team in an event hosted by Brooklyn Kitchen, in support of the altogether worthy food education program Growing Chefs. Starts at 7pm. Tickets at givingthanksdinner.eventbrite.com. Brooklyn Kitchen, 100 Frost Street, Williamsburg, 718-389-2981.
11/20 Bread Ii: More Dough At Ger-Nis Culinary & Herb Center Feel like getting a little messy with bread dough? This class will take bread-making a step further, while still providing a comprehensive refreshing overview of what was taught in “Bread I” along with the basic steps of bread-making. The focus this time around will be enriched doughs, which use a fat as an ingredient, creating a much more luxurious and decadent product. Recipes: pumpkin harvest bread, honey pecan sticky buns, and cinnamon raisin bread. Class is from 11:00am to 2pm. Ger-Nis Culinary & Herb Center, 540 President Street Suite 2E, Gowanus, 347422-0337, ger-nis.com.
11/20 My Friend’s Mustard At Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain Meet Anna Wolf, local mustard maker and sample her hearty wholegrain mustard. From 3-5pm. Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain, 513 Henry Street, Carroll Gardens, (718) 5226260, brooklynfarmacy.blogspot.com.
11/21 Cheshire Canning At Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain Just in time for the holidays, meet local food maker, Jennifer Lazzaro, and sample her
Sample the superb Sixpoint Craft Ales at Grab Specialty Foods in Park Slope on November 22.
seasonal sauces and pickles. A great opportunity to buy something for the Thanksgiving host! From 3-5pm. Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain, 513 Henry Street, Carroll Gardens, (718) 522-6260, brooklynfarmacy.blogspot.com.
11/21 The (Su) Sugar Show At The (Makers) Market With the fall harvest in full swing, this (Su) Sugar show will host a delicious tour of some of the finest chocolatiers, candymakers and bakers. For one day only, experience the aromas and flavors of confections from around the region. Learn how to integrate seasonal fruits in your next baked good, and see what it takes to make pastries from looking homemade to haute cuisine. Come away appreciating the art in artisanal baking and chocolate making. Event runs from 11am to 5pm. The (Makers) Market, 232 Third Street, Gowanus, 718-237-4335, xoprojects.com/ market.html.
11/22 Sixpoint Craft Ales At Grab Specialty Foods Get your hands on delectable Brooklyn brews like the Sixpoint Signal IPA, Belgian Rye, Pilsner, Pumpkin and Righteous Rye, Sweet Re-Action, Sweet Action. Grab Specialty Foods, 438 7th Avenue, Park Slope, (718) 369-7595, grabspecialtyfoods.com.
Volunteers are needed any time from 2pm to 8pm. There is no need to call or email ahead of time if you want to volunteer – just come and they will have enough work for everyone to be involved. From 6-7pm, turkey dinner with all the trimmings will be provided at the Greenpoint Reformed Church. The Food Pantry will have a special Thanksgiving distribution of food on November 24 from 10am-5pm. If you would like to volunteer for this, please come any time after 9am on Wednesday. The church needs volunteers to help prepare for this pantry distribution on Tuesday from 2-8pm. Please feel free to stop by and help. The pantry will be closed on November 25. Greenpoint Reformed Church, 136 Milton Street, Greenpoint, 718-383-5941, greenpointchurch.org.
11/23 To 11/25 Thanksgiving Pie! At Four And Twenty Blackbirds For Thanksgiving Four and Twenty will be selling whole pies on a first-come, firstserved basis – normally, you have to preorder pies in advance. Get ’em while you can. Open Tuesday 8am to 7pm, Wednesday 8am to 7pm, Thanksgiving Day 8am to 4pm. Four and Twenty Blackbirds, 439 3rd Avenue, Gowanus, (718) 499-2917, birdsblack.com.
11/24 Saul Thanksgiving Tasting Menu In addition to the full menu, Saul will offer a special tasting menu the night before Thanksgiving. It’s a compact tasting menu of some of their favorite fall foods, a primer for the actual Thanksgiving meal. Saul, 140 Smith Street, Boerum Hill, 718-935-9844, saulrestaurant.com.
11/25 Thanksgiving With Fatty ’Cue Join the folks at Fatty ’Cue for some turkey day fun. For $59 you get smoked Heritage turkey and all the fixins, including a complimentary glass of champagne. They will be serving from 4pm to 10pm, but the bar will be open until midnight for those looking for some apres-turkey bourbon and cocktails. Fatty ’Cue, 91 S. 6th Street, 718-599-3090, Williamsburg, fattycue.com.
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Humble Pie By Emily and Melissa Elsen, of Four and Twenty Blackbirds, 439 3rd Avenue, Gowanus
I
F WE’VE learned anything at our shop about the character of pie, it’s this... pie is a powerful foodstuff. Powerful enough that, dare we say, it’s persuasive. Need a favor from your friend? Bring a slice of pie beforehand. Done deal. Arguing with your partner? A slice of fresh pie might solve it. Kid throwing a tantrum? Pie with whipped cream is the answer. Honestly – we’ve witnessed it all. Perhaps the ladies of Wasta, South Dakota (population 75 people) knew this when, 10 years ago, they offered fresh pie as a reward for coming out to the polls to vote. We’ve never been to Wasta, but we did grow up in a very small town, and have visited many more – they need all the political representation they can get. Seems pretty innocent right, a slice of pie after you vote? Trouble is, state law in South Dakota
makes it illegal to offer anything to voters at polling places, lest it be construed as persuasion to vote for a particular candidate. While it seems unlikely that the ladies of Wasta were trying to persuade their friends and neighbors to vote for a particular party, it IS likely that the pie was pretty darn good. And so there was a sensible compromise. As a peace offering to the townsfolk (after cutting off their free pie at the polls) the state’s Attornery General Mark Barnett inducted an annual Pie Day at the capitol building in Pierre. Every December, around 200 pies are presented to the public, for free, along with coffee, of course. When all is said and done, there’s one thing we would agree on: don’t mix pie with politics.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
TWITTER BREADCRUMBS ruthreichl Huge, dangerous, delicious fresh sea urchin: black spines, gorgeous golden roe. Fresh wasabi. Sprinkle of lemon. Rich start for a fine day. Nov. 12 bkfarmyards BIG digital hug to everyone helping us through the hail storm damage. We still need $870! Nov. 12 RuthBourdain Sleepy after battle urchin. Thai fried rice, superspicy, zinged w/chiles and a dollop of radioactive uranium. All aglow. Seriously. Glowing. Nov. 12 FoodNewsJournal Scientists discover unknown lizard species at lunch buffet (we’re not making this up): http:// ht.ly/38yEU. Nov. 12 EdibleManhattan Watch this 6-Minute Doc to Find Out Why Marlow & Daughters Wants You to Eat Less Meat http://bit.ly/ bHQdwn. Nov. 8 bedstuyblog St. John’s Bread & Life Holiday Drive: the largest soup kitchen in Brooklyn, ... http://bit.ly/bmYzFe #bknews. Nov. 8
The Cheese Report By Laura Nuter, of Grab Specialty Foods, 438 7th Avenue, Park Slope
N
O DOUBT you’ll be participating in cheese-related activities around the borough and beyond on this most celebrated food holiday. Whether hosting or being hosted, ask yourself: Are you going to present the most amazing assortment your guests have ever dug their knives into, or will you be the sorry slouch hoarding the cheese all night... the cheese that somebody else brought? Forget Aunt Sally’s green bean casserole and Uncle John’s sweet potato with mini-marshmallows... at the end of the day everyone wants to know, “Who brought the fabulous cheese?!” I’ve provided a few suggestions that will appeal to a variety
with a nutty and caramel-y profile.
of audiences. Hopefully you’ll visit several of the outstanding shops throughout Brooklyn in search of your ideal assortment... Super Fancy Deluxe Vacherin Mont d’or Cow’s milk wrapped in spruce with lots of earthy mushroom goodness. Rogue River Blue The most incredible cow’s milk blue wrapped in grape leaves macerated in pear brandy – phenomenal! Montgomery’s Cheddar Raw cow’s milk cheddar that’s grassy, nutty and just a bit fruity – perfect. Kunik A rich, tangy cow/goat triple cream. Berkswell Raw sheep’s milk
Delicious and Affordable Scharfe Maxx My favorite “everyday” stinky raw cow cheeses – simply magnificent! Delice D’argintal A buttery triple that will turn on just about anyone who is breathing. Blue D’Auverne A sweet, spicy and creamy delight. Midnight Moon Never met anyone who didn’t love this cheese. Sweet and tangy with hints of caramel. I said I only eat orange cheddar Prarie Breeze They will never speak of orange cheddar again. Beemster Gouda XO Keeps them in their comfort zone, yet exposes them to caramel-y magic. Fromage D’affinois Sweet double-cream goodness! Tallegio A perfect introduction to the world of “stinky.”
Good Bread
Date Nut Spice Bread By Ina Garten
2 cups coarsely chopped dates, pitted 1/3 cup orange liqueur 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 3/4 cup light brown sugar 1 extra-large egg 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1 tablespoon grated orange zest 2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 1 teaspoon kosher salt 3/4 cup fresh orange juice 3/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter the bottom of an 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 by 2 1/2-inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pan. Combine the dates and orange liqueur in a small bowl and set aside for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally. In a bowl beat the butter and brown sugar together on medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the bowl. Add the egg, vanilla, and orange zest. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Add the flour mixture alternately with the orange juice to the creamed mixture, beating only until combined. Stir in the dates with their liquid, and the pecans. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the top. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
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Our Favorite Places To... Drink coffee, eat breakfast, eat cake, and enjoy a nightcap
JONATHON DRIVER, 54, teacher, Park Slope «Drink coffee: Colson Patisserie, Park Slope «Eat breakfast: Colson Patisserie «Eat cake: I don’t «Enjoy a nightcap: A glass of wine at home
STEPHANIE DOMINGO, 27, fashion industry, Bushwick «Drink coffee: Gimme! Coffee, Williamsburg «Eat breakfast: Prime Eats, Carrol Gardens «Eat cake: I don’t «Enjoy a nightcap: Larry Lawrence in Williamsburg
TIM CROUT, 38, fashion industry, Prospect Heights «Drink coffee: Ortine, Prospect Heights «Eat breakfast: Ortine «Eat cake: I don’t «Enjoy a nightcap: Weather Up, Prospect Heights
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN SUSCOVICH... TO ORDER COPIES, PLEASE CALL (917) 740-1072
BROOKLYN BREAD
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Thursday, November 18, 2010
FEAST Dinner At Church Of The Messiah In Greenpoint Saturday, November 13... visit feastinbklyn.org for news of upcoming FEAST dinners
Dan Funderburgh, David Perez, Molly O’Rourke
Ross Vedder, Rachel Finkelstein, Kyle Kabel, Julia Lillie
Mary Choueiter, Natalie Frank, Gabriela Salazar
Ross Vedder, Liangela Cabrera, Louie Serrano
Diego Dickinson, Maggie Dickinson, Ingrid Ammann, Desmond Boles
Michael Kagan, Jason Bereswill, Robin Friedlander, Jane Hamill
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Thursday, November 18, 2010
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A Lily And A Loaf Of Bread
T
A host of hostess gifts, Brooklyn style... by Sarah McColl
HE mannerly guest mandate of not showing up empty-handed counts double at Thanksgiving. This is a holiday, after all, about abundance. Here are some suggestions that will make your host so happy, she won’t even notice when you bow out before the the dishes are done. For starters, tell your hostess the appetizers are taken care of and have Kors d’Oeuvres deliver their roasted pumpkin, butternut squash and goat cheese spread ($8) to your door, pick up some crackers and DIY some herby, toasted mixed nuts to round out the nibbles. Or drop by a cheese shop for the kind of spread that will make country folk swoon (seriously, it’s hard to find Morbier at Stop & Shop). When my brother-in-law first came to meet his bride-to-be’s family, he carried a loaf of yeasty artisan bread under his arm. Can there be a more wholesome, earnest hostess gift? Contribute to your table’s bread basket with the jaw-droppingly amazing semolina, fennel and raisin loaf
from Amy’s Bread (Village Market, $3.69) or represent the ’hood with SCRATCHbread’s South Slope Sour (Brooklyn Kitchen, $3.50). Visiting hard drinkers? This hostess wouldn’t scoff at a bottle of Farmer’s Botanical Organic Gin (Red White and Bubbly, $27.49) ushered in by someone eager to mix a little pre-turkey dirty martini. Traditionalist tipplers might want to stick with wine. Big Nose Full Body suggests Serge Batard Heho Le Rouge ($11), a lighter red from the Loire Valley that’s great slightly chilled. For whites, try Skyleaf Riesling 2009 ($11); its touch of sugar works as well with turkey as it does with pumpkin pie. One of the complaints about Thanksgiving fare is that it can be a little one-note.
You know when you look down at your plate and everything’s the same color? Jazz up the pie offerings with a 10-inch key lime pie (Steve’s Key Lime Pie, $25). Or, for those who feel like breaking free from the confines of dessert’s traditional cornucopia, set out bags of Liddabit Sweet’s caramels on the dessert buffet. Creative combinations like beer and pretzel (Greene Grape Provisions, $6.75), are crazy delish, and manageably bite-sized, even if you’re stuffed. No matter how full, people rarely turn down a cookie, especially one as irresistible as the brown sugar gingerspice shortbread from Whimsy & Spice (Brooklyn Flea, $8). Show your hostess you care about her well-being by handing over something she can enjoy in private once her house is clear of hooligans. A stack of Saipua soaps (Saipua, $8) will restore her sense of equanimity. Though a half-bottle of Chateau De Caladroy Muscat de Rivesaltes (Big Nose Full Body, $15), a fortified wine with hints of peaches and apricots perfect for drinking in bed in her nightgown, might be quicker.
Serving simple, healthy, locally-sourced food
exceedingly tasty baked goods
260 Fifth Avenue, Park Slope 718.230.3119 Mon 7-6 « Tue/Wed/ Thu 7-7 « Fri 7-9 « Sat 8-9 « Sun 8-7
troispommespatisserie.com
“Eat shares few characteristics with modern New York restaurants.” - New York magazine
124 Meserole Ave. Greenpoint 718-389-8083 eatgreenpoint.com
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Thursday, November 18, 2010
FEAST Dinner At Church Of The Messiah In Greenpoint Saturday, November 13... visit feastinbklyn.org for news of upcoming FEAST dinners
Vanessa Gomez, Ingrid Redman Peck
Amanda Pastenkos, Tara St. James
Megan Schmidgal, Christine Cavallomagno
Maureen Connor, Andrea DeFelice
David Diao, Jing Lui
Carly Dahl, Casey Shively
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALLEN YING... TO ORDER COPIES, PLEASE CALL (917) 740-1072
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BROOKLYN BREAD
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Page 13
Try This At Home!
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Inspired by Brooklyn’s finest culinary creations, Cathy Erway tries them out in her own kitchen
HERE are many things I would never attempt to make at home from Char No. 4. Most of the menu, actually, which makes it such a welcome treat when visiting the Boerum Hill hotspot. Chef Matt Greco’s brand of upscale Southern fare involves lots of meat curing, smoking, and sausage making, all done in-house. In fact, a small walk-in fridge in the restaurant’s kitchen is something of a cheese cave of cured delights, with lamb pastrami ripening in all stages in a peppery brine, and homemade bacon waiting to be cut into cubes. So when I saw a seasonal offering on the fall menu that looked exciting, but halfway intuitive to make, I jumped at the chance. It’s a vegetarian entrée, but one that’s hearty and filling. Crispy sweet potato gnocchi, with hen of the woods mushrooms and wilted spinach. The hen of the woods are the trickiest ones to find, but I know of a few sources. Madura Farms, at Union Square and Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket Saturdays, has the most impressive array of fungi all year, including maitake mushrooms, which is hen of the woods’ other name. Yeah, it took me a little while to figure that out, too. At Honey Hollow Farms’ stand at the Union Square market, too, I’ve found those, as well as the wildly bright orange chicken of the woods mushrooms, which is a seriously wedge of mold – chewy, enormous and chickeny-tasting. In any case, no matter what crazy mushrooms you use, I’m sure they would taste good with this gnocchi. A trick to getting the gnocchi crispy on a hot pan with butter is to blanche them, them shock them in ice water. This was gleaned from a Let’s Eat In radio chat with resident bread baker but a cook-ofall-trades, Matt Tilden. I have no idea how Matt Greco cooks his gnocchi, but I’m going with this. The spinach (which I plucked from my keg containers on the roof garden) looks so silky and delicate in this dish that it was likely tossed in the pan at the last second. So, all told, this is fairly easy to pull off. If you don’t mind shaping gnocchi from dough.
Crispy Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Mushrooms & Wilted Spinach Inspired by menu item at Char No. 4 Makes about four servings 1 lb sweet potatoes About 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 large bunch spinach
If you’re having a hard time finding hen of the wood mushrooms, look for maitake (it’s the same thing)
3 tablespoons butter 1 shallot, sliced 1/4 lb hen of the woods mushrooms, chopped 1/4 cup dry white wine 1 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil salt and pepper freshly ground nutmeg (optional) Boil the sweet potatoes until tender, and try to avoid poking them with a fork too many times in the process. Remove with a slotted spoon and let cool a minute or two; peel the skins (they should slip off easily). Working while the potatoes are hot, pass them through a ricer or food mill (or substitute a colander with similar-sized holes and a spatula). Immediately add about half the flour and fold into the potato mixture with a spatula. Continue adding a little more flour until the dough comes together and won’t stick to your floured hands. Turn onto a floured cutting board and separate into two or three balls. Roll each one out into a roughly one inch-thick log, and cut into roughly one square-inch pieces. Sprinkle with flour and roll the pieces around with the flour on all surfaces. Optional: press a fork onto one surface of each piece to create the classic gnocchi shape. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Prepare an ice bath in a large bowl. Boil the
gnocchi for about two minutes, making sure the water is constantly at a roiling boil (you may have to work in batches). Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to ice bath. Drain. Heat a large, heavy-bottomed skillet or chef’s pan over medium-high. Add a tablespoon of butter and once it begins to foam, add the gnocchi so that each piece gets direct contact with the bottom of the pan (you will probably need to work in batches). Let cook until gently browned on the bottom sides, and flip. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper and transfer to a bowl. Repeat with the rest of the gnocchi and add more butter as needed. Add another tablespoon of the butter and the shallot to the same, but empty, pan. Cook, stirring, for a couple minutes. Add the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. Once it begins to brown a tiny bit, add the white wine and cook, stirring, until it’s almost evaporated. Add the gnocchi to the pan and season all over with salt and pepper, to taste. Add the spinach and the tablespoon of olive oil. Toss a minute or so until the spinach is completely wilted, and serve immediately. Try this at home, and see for yourself. Cathy Erway is the author of The Art Of Eating In, published by Gotham Books, and of the blog Not Eating Out In New York (www.noteatingoutinny.com). She hosts the weekly radio show, Let’s Eat In, on Heritage Radio Network.
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BROOKLYN BREAD
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Speakeasy Ales And Lagers At Grab Specialty Foods Saturday, November 13 in Park Slope PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAWRENCE SUMULONG
Nicole Kucheva, Angelica Li, Marie Condenzio, Joe Schember
Tim Traynor, Jack Killen, Mark Moulis
Alex Forbes at your service
Thursday, November 18, 2010
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My Perfect Brooklyn Day
Books, brunch, comics, beer... just some of Greenlight bookstore owner Jessica Stockton Bagnulo’s favorite things
I
N ADDITION to books, my perfect days in Brooklyn often revolve around food. On a perfect weekend day without time or calorie restrictions, my husband and I would first head over to the beautiful Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. We like to browse the new releases to see what we might be missing, and maybe pick up a classic movie we’ve never heard of from their great collection of DVDs . After that we’d stroll through the Grand Army Plaza Farmers Market – the sensual experience of the market is amazing. There’s always an incredible selection of fresh produce, and sometimes wine tastings from local wineries like Buzzard Crest Vineyards and or Pumphouse. We always look at Blue Moon Fish – the catch is different every week. We usually leave with bunches of greens, apple cider, and maybe some herbs to plant in our backyard. Once we drop off our purchases at home, the ideal next step would be to visit the Brooklyn Public House in Fort Greene for brunch. I usually opt for the classic Eggs Benedict (which they do to perfection), though my husband is more adventurous and likes the Brunch Burger topped with a fried egg. The place has a great old-fashioned atmosphere, and the bar in the front of the restaurant has a huge selection of wines, beers, and good cocktails. To walk off our brunch, we could head over to Park Slope and our favorite comics shop, Bergen Street Comics. The owners, Tom and Amy, have created a wonderful spot, where we can not only catch up on new arrivals and find all the classics, but there’s original artwork from local cartoonists available for sale, and frequent evening events. With our bag of comics, we could walk to The Brazen Head on Atlantic Avenue. It’s a laidback bar with a ton of craft beers on tap (McSorley’s Ale, Brooklyn Lager, and
“If dinner happened to give us a second wind, we might visit Southpaw to see who’s playing,” says Jessica, who co-owns Greenlight bookstore in Fort Green. Photograph by Lawrence Sumulong
Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, to name a few), plus two casks of hand-pulled beers. And they make a killer Bloody Mary. We’d order drinks, crash on the couches by the windows, and read our comics: heaven. Later, we’d head home and make dinner with all our great finds from the farmers market. If dinner happened to give us a second wind, we might visit Southpaw to see who’s playing – it’s a great venue that always has a stellar line-up of country and rock art-
Browsing at Bergen Street Comics and enjoying eggs benedict at Brooklyn Public House in Fort Greene
ists. There’s also a neat reading coming up on November 23, “The Best of Music Writing 2010,” (shameless pitch: Greenlight will be there selling books!) Or we might head to Barbes, which has a wild and amazing variety of shows in its tiny space, from swing jazz to Slavic soul to South American Cumbia. Unless of course, it’s First Saturday, in which case we’d have to go to the Brooklyn Museum of Art for the free admission, live music, and films and lectures. If only the perfect Brooklyn day went on forever. Jessica Stockton Bagnulo is the co-owner (with Rebecca Fitting) of Greenlight Bookstore, an independent bookstore in Fort Greene which opened in October 2009. Greenlight carries fiction, nonfiction, art books, and children’s books among other offerings, and hosts author events several evenings a week. The store can be found online at greenlightbookstore.com. Jessica serves on various book industry committees, councils, panels, and boards, and lives in Park Slope with her adorably literate husband.
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Thursday, November 18, 2010
Speakeasy Ales And Lagers At Grab Specialty Foods Saturday, November 13 in Park Slope
Thiago and Catherine Guimaraes
Nina Box, Klaus-Peter Wehr
Louis Nevaer
Paula Chalares
Jack Killen
PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAWRENCE SUMULONG... TO ORDER COPIES, PLEASE CALL (917) 740-1072
fresh pastries artisanal breads desserts custom cakes
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Thursday, November 18, 2010
BROOKLYN BREAD
Page 17
The Market Report
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Shaun Dubreuil of Eagle Street Rooftoop Farm recommends the radish
OW that the fall is upon us at the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, one would almost expect the vibrancy of produce to already be fading into dull browns and dark greens. Although New York’s parks have lost their sunsetcolored foliage, our rooftop vegetables are competing with a wild array of shapes and hues. Our last market of the year, this Sunday, November 21, is timed to catch the last veggies of fall just in time for Thanksgiving. It wasn’t the Pilgrims’ first choice when the tradition began, but one vegetable we’re looking forward to cooking with is radish. Radishes are almost forgotten after late spring, when the warmer temperatures cause them to quickly flower and go to seed, foregoing the development of a juicy underground bulb. As fall settles in, the still-ample sunlight but cooler weather allows them time to mature into the root vegetable so many love to eat. We started seeding radishes again a couple weeks ago on the rooftop, and their delicate greens are
already interspersed amongst beds of clover and vetch. Although most of us have started reaching for scarves to protect us from the wind that whips across the roof from the East River, radishes defy the cold and shrug their shoulders above the earth when they are ready for harvest. We hunted through the burgeoning seedlings for the telltale inchdiameter Easter Egg radishes that would be ready for sale. It is a pleasure to pull them from the ground and find gem tones of magenta, garnet, purple, and ivory. Some surprise us once they emerge, like the long
and tapered Icicle radish, befitting its name, or the French Breakfast with its plump red top that extends to a creamy white tail. The flavors of radishes are perfect for a chilly fall day. The sweet and crunchy first bite intensifies to a spice that warms your throat like a sip of tea, then fades to refreshment. They can be sliced into a salad with the last of the season’s lettuces and dressed with homemade herb vinaigrette. Or, to enhance their warmth and sweetness, caramelize sliced radishes in a hot pan with oil and balsamic vinegar to create a tangy and vibrant side dish. Don’t forget about the greens – the tender leaves can be eaten raw for a spicy addition to salad or ground with nuts, garlic and oil into a piquant pesto. The Rooftop Farm’s final market of the season is this Sunday, November 21 from 9am to 4pm. In addition to our produce – perfect for Thanksgiving – we’re hosting an all-day potluck at the Farm. Come on by, see the rooftop, and stock up on foods for your Thanksgiving meal – perhaps even some radishes!
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BROOKLYN BREAD
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
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An Edible History Of Brooklyn Long before Costco, there were food clubs in the borough... by Joy Holland
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TORES like BJ’s and Costco have brought to many presentday Brooklynites an irresistible combination of consumer emotions, making us feel simultaneously rich and frugal by allowing us to cram our tiny New York City dwellings with discounted consumer goods. For maybe seventy percent of the regular price, plus the price of your annual membership, you can lay up industrial quantities of frozen cod fillets, kitchen towels, and bottles of detergent so large you can barely lift them. You can buy two dozen eggs at once and watch them ageing in the refrigerator for the next month; you can stuff your freezer with so much frozen quiche that no real man would set foot within a mile of your apartment, and you can set your heart all aflutter carrying 40lb bags of dogfood up four flights of stairs. Needless to say, such notions have been in the air in Brooklyn for a long time. The first food club in the borough, according to an Eagle article dated December 7, 1947, was started at the Gertzog dairy and grocery store, 1294 Sheepshead Bay Road. Part-owner of the store Boris Edelman said, “Women came here and they didn’t have enough money to buy the things their families needed.” Borrowing an idea from a Philadelphia butcher, he charged a $1.25 weekly fee and sold food items at wholesale prices. According to his reckoning, he needed at least 350 members in order to turn a profit.
But not everyone was eager to jump on board. One woman refused to believe she could actually save money through the club. Something of a showman, Edelman decided to test her. He said, “I pulled a dollar bill out of my pocket and offered it to her for a dime. She refused to take it. ‘What’s the catch in it?’ she wanted to know.” An Edible History of Brooklyn is published in partnership with Brooklyn Public Library. For more information, visit brooklynology.brooklynpubliclibrary.org.
“In a café-crazed town, Iris is one of a kind.” “Best Café” in 2010 “Best of New York” issue, New York magazine Stumptown coffee ¯ Pastries, cookies and biscuits, all baked in-house All-day breakfast classics ¯ Sandwiches ¯ Salads For full menu and more details, visit us online at www.iriscafenyc.com 20 Columbia Place, b/w State & Joralemon | Brooklyn Heights | 718-722-7395 No computers or iPads please – take some time out from the real world!
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BROOKLYN BREAD
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Speakeasy Ales And Lagers At Grab Specialty Foods Saturday, November 13 in Park Slope PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAWRENCE SUMULONG
Grab Specialty Foods owner Laura Nuter
Dan and Sheila Eckert
Jack Greem, Alex Forbes
Thursday, November 18, 2010
BROOKLYN BREAD
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Capturing The Brooklyn Revolution
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The New Brooklyn Cookbook is a sharp culinary tool to guide you around the borough
HE borough’s food revolution has been documented in an attractive new book that would make a great holiday gift for the foodie in your life. Professional recipe developer Melissa Vaughan and her husband Brendan, an editor at GQ, chose 31 restaurants to grace the pages of The New Brooklyn Cookbook, which was recently released by HarperCollins. Brooklyn Bread talked to the couple about the process behind the book. How did you compile the list? How many disagreements were there on who did, and didn’t, make it? This may sound surprising, but the list wasn’t THAT hard to come up with. Many of the restaurants were no-brainers. For all the restaurants, our criteria included the following questions: Is the cooking creative and ambitious? Does it feel like a neighborhood restaurant that reaches a bit higher? What’s the dynamic between chefs/owners and customers? Does it feel unique while simultaneously being part of the larger community? And then, in terms of making a balanced cookbook, do we have the right mix of neighborhoods and cuisines? There were a few restaurants we debated adding, but ultimately didn’t for one reason or another. But overall, we agreed on every restaurant we included. Melissa worked with the chefs to chose the recipes, she tested all the recipes and went on all the photo shoots. And Brendan was responsible for all editorial aspects of the book including restaurant and producer profiles and recipe headnotes. How many times did you eat at each place before making a decision on their inclusion? It ranged from a couple times to a dozen times or more. We’d eaten at most of these restaurants before we decided to do the book, and knew we wanted to include then. For the others, we made a list of likely candidates and visited them all. Some felt right to us, others didn’t. Was your test ONLY about the food, or did atmosphere, attitude and vibe play a part? Vibe definitely played a part. Our goal was to create a family album of the latest generation of Brooklyn restaurants that have contributed something unique to the evolution of the restaurant boom in Brooklyn. Our criteria was fairly specific, taking into account all four elements you’ve mentioned: creative yet approachable cooking, often with a strong commitment to local, seasonal and artisanal ingredients; a kind of homespun, eclectic atmosphere; no attitude (or at least not much!); and a warm vibe. Did any restaurant request that they NOT
Left: Authors Brendan and Melissa Vaughan. Right: Chocolate makers Rick and Michael Mast are featured in sidebar sections about notable local artisans. Photograph by Michael Harlan Turkell
SIX COPIES TO BE WON
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BROOKLYN BREAD is giving away six copies of this beautiful book, which retails at $40, in a reader contest. To enter, answer the following question: How many restaurants are featured in “The New Brooklyn Cookbook”? Email your answer to hello@brooklynbreadpress.com. Please write COOKBOOK CONTEST in the subject field and do not forget to include your name, address and telephone number. Winners will be selected at random.
be included? Yes, but both owners included one of their other restaurants. We don’t have Frankies because the owners just published their own cookbook (which is great). But we do have Prime Meats, owned by the same guys. And a similar situation with Diner. The owners wanted to participate by giving recipes from Marlow & Sons, but since they may do their own cookbook someday, elected not to include recipes from Diner. Were most of the restaurants happy to share recipes or did some express concern about divulging culinary secrets? The chefs were all generous and open. Not one expressed concerns about revealing secrets. Even if you can make your favorite restaurant dish at home, you’ll continue to venture out to eat in the restaurants to satisfy your craving for the atmosphere and spirit you can’t replicate at home. And because you don’t have to do the dishes. Are there any restaurants that you now wish you HAD put on the list? Since we reached our deadline for adding new places to the book, we’ve eaten out a LOT less – mainly because we were so busy writing the book. But the Commodore in Williamsburg is one place I think we would have included if we’d had more time. How many of the recipes have you tried cooking at home? Oh, 100 percent of them. Often many times.
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Thursday, November 18, 2010
Pie Dinner At Four & Twenty Blackbirds With Nate Smith Sunday, November 7 in Gowanus... photographs by Lawrence Sumulong
Making the pies
Kristen Ossmann, Charlotte Kamin, Rachel Glickman
Andrew Knowlton, Adam Pasick, Sarah Simmons, Emily Fleischaker
Stephan von Muehlen, Stuart Heys, Danielle Choi, Alita Edgar
Ellen Foote, Lily Hindy
Josh Levin, Caitlin Cohen
BROOKLYN BREAD
Thursday, November 18, 2010
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From Soil To Plate
I
’M NOT sure how it crept up on me, this month of November. Until two days ago, I found myself in subconscious denial— my wall calendar was still stuck a month in the past. But here we are, in this sleepy month that leads us into the holiday season and edges close to the official start of winter. I just returned home from a week of visiting farming friends in Vermont and Western Massachusetts. Driving through the rolling back roads of the Green Mountains and the prime farmland of the Connecticut River’s floodplain in the Pioneer Valley, I felt the nesting instinct. The fields have been put to bed, the hay long since cut, the corn stalks shorn to golden stubble, and the last of the crops turned in. A few greenhouses and cold frames still harbor coldhardy greens, but for the most part, farmers have stocked their root cellars and are settling into a long winter. When I asked Stacey of BK Farmyards what she’s lusting after this time of year, she surprised me with her response: garlic. Garlic! It’s almost so obvious that I forget about it. “There are a couple crops that can make it
The weekly green report by Sara Franklin
through a NYC winter, but my favorite is garlic,” said Stacey. “If you have already planted it, your crops will have benefited from some root growth which is important for overwintering. If not, you still have some time to get the garlic in the ground before it freezes.” Garlic is marvelous in that you can duplicate your favorite varieties. “If you like Keith’s garlic [available at Union Square], then plant that!” says Stacey. “Break the bulb into cloves, plant each clove two inches down, six inches apart. Make sure the bottom of the bulb is down. Mulch your garlic to prevent its heaving out of the frozen soil. In this climate, hardneck garlic will do much better in the cold. When the garlic scapes in June,” [scapes being those
beautiful curlicues of tender green that dazzle at early summer market stalls], “you can cut and eat the scapes, then let your garlic mature a little longer.” Wait until late summer – when the stalks of the plant turn brittle and brown – to pull mature garlic from the ground. Make sure to try it fully on a screen or by hanging before storing for the fall and winter. Garlic is a building block for virtually all of my savory recipes, and so I sometimes take it for granted. But Stacey’s comments reminded me of its glory and pragmatic nature. My favorite way to highlight its flavor is to let it speak for itself, unadorned.
Roasted Garlic Preheat oven to 400. Keep heads of garlic intact. Use a sharp knife to slice the top off the stalk and just a tad off the top of each clove. Wrap the head(s) in foil individually and roast 45-60 minutes, or until cloves give with a gentle squeeze. Remove from oven and cool. To remove garlic from the husk, squeeze out of the openings in the top. Serve with slices of toasty bread drizzled with olive oil, and some salt.
you rock, lobster! A blog for crustacean enthusiasts yourocklobster.com
BROOKLYN BREAD
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Thursday, November 18, 2010
Pie Dinner At Four & Twenty Blackbirds With Nate Smith Sunday, November 7 in Gowanus
Four and Twenty Blackbirds owners Emily and Melissa Elsen and guest chef Nate Smith
Lily and Steve Hindy
Tony Hernandez
Jeff and Eileen Caron
Anna Dunn, Jeremy Parker
Liza deGuia, Brendan Hayes
Samuel Cohen
PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAWRENCE SUMULONG... TO ORDER COPIES, PLEASE CALL (917) 740-1072
Thursday, November 18, 2010
BROOKLYN BREAD
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Enrich Your Life... Adopt An Animal
Three beautiful creatures need loving homes... call Dog Habitat Rescue at 718-395-2298 for more information
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SIMON needs a home! This sweet, black-and-tan dachsund/chihuahua mix is ready to go to a new family. He (along with his sister, Betty) was rescued from a puppy mill in the south and needs a permanent, loving home. Please contact us if you’d like to apply to adopt Simon or Betty.
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CHLOE is a sweet, petite pittie/hound mix. She has a red-and-white coat and weighs less than 30 lbs. Chloe was rescued from a neglectful owner and has been getting along great with all the dogs at our rescue (which also has 20-30 dogs per day in daycare). She’s an amazing dog and ready for the agility course – she is highly motivated to learn and will thrive in a new home. Please contact us today to find out more about Chloe!
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MISCHIEF arrived with his brother, Rascal. They were transported from West Virginia, where they were in a kill shelter, products of a puppy mill. Rascal and Mischief are high-energy miniature pinschers, just under a year old. Very smart and incredible little gymnasts! Both are neutered and can be adopted solo or as a pair. Please contact us if you’d like to apply to adopt one or both of these wonderful little guys.
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Thursday, November 18, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
BROOKLYN BREAD
Edible Schoolyard Opens First Garden In Brooklyn
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Gowanus Canal 16ft
Friday, October 15 at PS216, Gravesend PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAWRENCE SUMULONG
Mediterranean 7,280ft
Helene Selter, Marie Renna, Cecile Iacono
Indian 25,344ft
atlantic 28,232ft Alice Waters, Jake Gyllenhaal, Marty Markowitz, Domenic Recchia
Pacific 35,797ft
Oddhero.com Graphic prints, made in Brooklyn with genius Helene Selter, Vita Tammaro, Dominick A. D’Angelo
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Thursday, November 18, 2010
The Knife Man Of Gowanus
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Sara Franklin meets Joel Bukiewicz, who gave up writing and taught himself the art of knife-making
WAS intimidated when I first read about craft knifemaker, Joel Bukiewicz. Maybe it was the harshly lit shot of him, fully focused on grinding a knife edge, brow furrowed over safety glasses, that I stumbled across in a local magazine. But I know part of it was the mix of envy and awe I feel towards those artisans who seem to have some deeper compulsion towards the pursuit of perfection in their craft. I suppose it’s a good thing that our first face-to-face meeting was in the homey warmth of a Gowanus pie shop, near his workshop, where I watched his mouth melt into a contented grin when the first forkful of a slice of peach cranberry hit his tastebuds. So with my silly onlooker’s nerves softened, but my admiration intact, I asked Bukiewicz if I could stop by his shop to scope out the production of this writer-turned-craftsman’s stunningly beautiful and cultishly popular (no joke, the wait list is over a year long) knives. BROOKLYN BREAD: So how did you get into all this?
JOEL BUKIEWICZ: My then girlfriend, now wife, Julia and I had just finished graduate school for fiction writing, and we headed to my family’s farm near Atlanta, Georgia. The rents were cheaper, and we were working on books. I had finished a novel that I couldn’t even get an agent to look at, and was 200 pages into a second. We moved to Florida, and were working in Tallahassee around the time of the Bush v. Kerry election. After that there was this sense of a prolonged national hangover. And every day in my writing I felt like I was losing steam. I felt like if I kept on writing I would hate it in three months. In the meantime, I had developed a need to make these creative offerings every day. I had built a set of bookshelves and a pair of canoe paddles for my dad, and started work on a cabin. I was around a lot of handy people on the farm, and learned from them. I was cutting firewood to make a living, and I felt like trying to make a knife sounded like the right thing to do. BB: But how did you know how? JB: I’ve had this weird fetishy things for
knives all my life. I read up on knife-making on the net. There are just three basic steps. So I made one, out of rusty steel from one of the barns, and then another... I bought a $30 grinder from Harbor Freight. Something rung in me, and it felt really good. In three or four days, I had made something useful, while both of my books were just sitting in the computer. BB: So what then? JB: I set up shop in a garden shed and worked all night. I went to a blade show and used my savings to buy a $700 grinder – a grinder and a drill press are the two semiexpensive things you need to make knives. I got good pretty quickly, and people started wanting my knives. There was a sense of hubris – not many knifemakers do it professionally. And it fulfilled what I was looking for in life – I wanted to create beautiful things for work and not be told what to do by jackasses. BB: Hear, hear! So how long after you started did you come to Brooklyn? JB: About a year and a half, maybe two years. A year before we decided to come back,
What We Bought At Brooklyn Flea Saturday, November 13
Connie DeRosia (pictured with her husband John), 58, a retired financial aid officer, from Manlyus, NY, bought pickled vegetables, a dozen golf balls, and an antique mirror.
Gabriela de la Vega, 39, a jewelry designer from Fort Greene, bought a vintage typewriter for her 12-yearold son as a Christmas gift. “He had expressed an interest in typewriters,” said Gabriela.
Sara Sheth, 28, a marketing designer from Fort Greene, bought a cup of coffee, a knit scarf, pillows, and some tasty focaccia bread.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN SUSCOVICH... TO ORDER COPIES, PLEASE CALL (917) 740-1072
Thursday, November 18, 2010
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“Making knives has informed my cooking... I didn’t know that you aren’t supposed to hold a chef’s knife by the handle,” says Joel. Photograph by Lawrence Sumulong
we visited and started saving our money for a security deposit here. BB: How did you break into the scene here? JB: I had some mail orders. But I had to figure out during that year before we came back to New York what I was going to pursue. Did I want to be the future of military-grade knives? And hunting knives, I’m not even sure they’re legal here. Anyway, the problem with handmade hunting knives is that people don’t use them. Down in Georgia, in the knife-making scene, I just felt like it wasn’t my tribe, not my people. When I was back in NYC visiting, though, I decided, “I’ll design a kitchen knife, it’ll be super easy.” But it was really hard! BB: Why kitchen knives? JB: I had always liked to cook, and I feel a little bit gifted with cooking. Making knives has informed my cooking quite a bit. When I started, I didn’t know that you aren’t supposed to hold a chef’s knife by the handle. BB: Did things take off right away? JB: No. First I had this tiny studio in
Gowanus right next to Lowe’s. Things weren’t going that well. My now wife was helping to support me at that time – she was working as a journalist. In 2007, though, the Daily News did a piece on me, and then Edible Brooklyn called and a show called Cool Hunting. And then, The New York Times did that big piece on the craft food scene in Brooklyn, and I was in that. The next day, my website went from 50 hits a day to 1,000 a day. All of a sudden, I had a two-year backlog BB: Wow, and now you have chefs and home cooks clamoring for your knives! JB: Yeah, but I can’t keep up. It takes a lot of money and time to make a knife. The hand work is 12-15 hours a piece, and we have to send them off to be heat-treated. BB: Do people ever treat you like a food celebrity because of your knives and the chefs who use them? JB: I feel a little guilty. People are like, “Wow, you make knives!”, and I get singled out. There are so many talented knifemakers around the country.
BB: So what’s next for Cut Brooklyn? JB: Well, this space is huge. We’d like to turn the front into an open kitchen and use it for fundraisers, chef demos, and also a place for knifemakers who work out of more obscure places to show and sell their knives. BB: So now that you’ve established yourself and have a thriving business, how do you feel about it all? JB: Super, crazy lucky. I have never felt lucky in my endeavors before. I just wanted to do what I wanted to do. I had no sense when I decided to move here that there was a gathering movement around food and artisan trades. I feel privileged and honored to get to work amongst all the talent in the food world. They are the best people, and I get to hang out with them! That’s pretty special. There’s this New Brooklyn Cookbook [see page 21] coming out, and it feels like just the right time to take stock. I think we’ll probably look back in a few years and think back on this time and go, “Wow, that was a great five or six years.” People really want to connect right now.
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Thursday, November 18, 2010
Edible Schoolyard Opens First Garden in Brooklyn Friday, October 15 at PS216, Gravesend PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAWRENCE SUMULONG
Dog Habitat Rescue at Unleash: Brooklyn 216 Franklin Street Brooklyn 718.395.2298 rescue@doghabitat.org
Actor Jake Gyllenhaal dropped in to lend his support
«Dog Habitat Rescue, founded in 2009, is the newest member of the Mayor’s Alliance for
Kathy Klein, Richard Breyer, Michael Ebenstein
NYC’s Animals. «Working with 150 Alliance Participating Organizations to increase adoptions from Animal Care and Control shelters and transform New York City into a no-kill community by 2015. Theresa Riccardi, Lori Falcone, Ann Marie Stabile
Thursday, November 18, 2010
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Edible Schoolyard Opens First Garden in Brooklyn Friday, October 15 at PS216, Gravesend
Charlie Reynoso, Mya Jenkins
Lottie Shannon, Julius Bowens
Carrie Laney, Jennifer Rothman
Jeffrey Pace, Marty Markowitz
Fran Marzullo, Jeannie Tarantino
Iris Baum, Sherry Tannenbaum
PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAWRENCE SUMULONG... TO ORDER COPIES, PLEASE CALL (917) 740-1072
Vinyasa Yoga Open Level Classes Beginners Tweens 39 Wyckoff Street between Court and Smith www.cobblehillyoga.com
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THE BIG PICTURE The Red Hook Harvest Festival at Red Hook Community Farm on Saturday, October 16. Photograph by Lawrence Sumulong
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Thursday, November 18, 2010
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Thursday, November 18, 2010
The Red Hook Harvest Festival Saturday, October 16 at Red Hook Community Farm PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAWRENCE SUMULONG
Eli Brown, Fe(lix) Namaste
Kenya Scott, Larry Ramirez
Luis Alvarez, Ana Cecilia Stieglitz
Thursday, November 18, 2010
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Confessions Of A Waitress
I
Life from the other side of the table, by Stella Dixon
N COLLEGE, I lived with five other girls. Over the course of our four years together, we pursued very different interests, different majors, and different men. But, like most women who’ve subscribed to the Victoria’s Secret catalogue, each of us was irrationally concerned with our weight. Charlotte replaced meals with coffee and bubble gum. Paige spent the better part of freshman year on an elliptical machine, cursing carbohydrates. Chloe went through a tuna fish-only – hold the mayo – phase. Cooking dinner consisted of defrosting Lean Cuisine, pretending that the final product wouldn’t taste like its plastic packaging. We tried Atkins, Weight Watchers, and a silly crash diet that allowed for drinking only lemon juice mixed with cayenne pepper. We were the annoying girls who ordered salad dressing on the side and salivated over a piece of birthday cake without ever picking up a fork. After college, I went overseas on the proverbial search for self (read: I had no plans for the future, but I figured I should at least have a sexy Italian fling while I figured it out). Back-
packing through 10 European countries, I came to no decisions about my life and, sadly, found no hunky Italian suitor to comfort me. But I did become intimately familiar with escargot in Paris, nutella-flavored gelato in Rome, schnitzel in Germany, chocolate in Switzerland. In Amsterdam, I had a better trip from aged Dutch cheese than hash brownies. One crepe at the base of the Spanish steps, and I’d lost all selfcontrol. I can’t remember how I felt standing in front of the Berlin Wall, but I can still tell you how my champagne tasted at the base of the Eiffel Tower, or how the whipped cream on my first Belgium waffle formed four perfect little
domes at each golden corner. I came home with no souvenirs, as I’d spent my Italian leather shoe fund on deep-fried zucchini flowers. But I did gain 10 pounds and, more happily, an appreciation for real food. I fell into waitressing, working for an avantgarde chef whose menu was a whirlwind of exciting and unusual flavors. He once told me that he couldn’t sleep; panic attacks kept him awake because he hadn’t yet figured out how to combine foie gras and peanut butter. I was part of an exciting new world, far removed from the freezer section of the Gowanus Pathmark. Yesterday, one of the line cooks whipped me up a goat cheese and blood orange cheesecake I’d been dying to try. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the gooey blueberry compote running down its creamy side. I skipped toward it, fork in hand. “You know,” the cook said, “that’s about 1300 calories.” I paused, feeling an old, familiar panic rising in my throat. Then I thought better of it. I’ve learned that good food, like a handsome Italian man, is meant to be enjoyed. And that is a realization worth every last calorie-rich bite.
renew revitalize refresh
olive design Interior Design at affordable rates You’ll love coming home olivedesignny.com mary van vliet (347) 495-5188
Skateboards Flowers Dry-Goods 533 Park Place Prospect Heights 718.789.8889
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Thursday, November 18, 2010
The Red Hook Harvest Festival Saturday, October 16 at Red Hook Community Farm PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAWRENCE SUMULONG
Jenny Blackwell, Maureen O’Brien, Jeff Heens
Taeson Compton, Tachel Compton
Jabani Bennett, Quarmen Negron, Jabani Bennett
Thursday, November 18, 2010
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Bartender Of The Week
H
Juan Castillo from Huckleberry Bar in East Williamsburg
UCKLEBERRY Bar, situated on Grand Street in East Williamsburg, has been winning rave reviews for its intimate atmosphere and serious attention to detail on all matters pertaining to the cocktail. Add in an interesting selection of wines and beers, along with a menu of well-executed small plates (both imaginative and classic), and you can see why this is a place that’s worth getting to know a little better. We chatted to bartender, 27-year-old Juan C. Castillo, to get the inside track at the Huckleberry. What’s your home town? Queens, NY. How long have you been working at Huckleberry? More than three years now. What is the most popular seasonal cocktail right now? Ghost of Faustus: Gin, ginger, Velvet Falernum and grapefruit. Got anything appropriate for Thanksgiving that we should be trying? We have a few cocktails that meet the requirements, but I would go for the Siamese Dream. It’s a concoction of mine, based with apple and cinnamon-infused rum, homemade pumpkin jam, Velvet Falernum, Barcode Organic Bitters – Marshall Altier’s Baked Apple, and St. Elizabeth All-Spice Dram – it’s like liquid pumpkin pie! What is generally your best-selling cocktail year-round? Hmmm, Sampogna from the Neighborhood Favorites section in the menu, and Perfect Manhattan from the Classic Cocktails section. How do you feel about the fact that so many cocktails are now called a martini simply because they’re served in a martini glass? It actually bothers me a lot, especially when people would ask: “Can you make martinis?” referring to a fruity/frozen drink, but is not something that couldn’t be fixed by educating our guests. How important is the glass that holds the drink? Very important. To begin with; does it need ice or not? Then I believe quality is based on getting the best experience possible. A great cocktail reaches its balance out of the proper amounts of each ingredient. It’s also very important to serve it right – not just how to prepare it right. Is there any cocktail you wouldn’t serve, on principle? Absolutely not. I would always try, in the case that I didn’t have all the ingredients, to recreate the drink as close as possible to make my guest happy.
“I’m your huckleberry.” Juan Castillo recommends the Wyatt Earp for designated drivers – huckleberry jam, tarragon syrup, lemon and club soda. Works for us. Photograph by Allen Ying
How would you describe the clientele at Huckleberry? What I am going to say is that I have never worked as happy as I have during the last three years. What’s your own favorite drink? And which Brooklyn bars do you enjoy? Ha, that’s very tricky to answer (like when a guest asks what would I recommend from the menu). I like rye whiskey the most, but I switch a lot depending on my mood and circumstances. And as for the bars that I go to on my time off – The Counting Room, Lady Jay’s and Huckleberry Bar (of course) are my favorites. You have a great-looking tequila menu. Do any of your patrons actually sip the drink, or does everyone feel like they have to shoot them down? You would be impressed by the percentage of people that rather savor their tequila instead of shooting them down… Give us an inside tip: what Huckleberry snacks and sandwiches should we
be trying? Again that’s tricky. Depends on how hungry you could be. Maybe the macn-cheese, bacon-wrapped dates, pigs in a blanket – or anything from tuna sandwich to the baked to order cookies. I honestly like everything a lot. What’s your sexiest non-alcoholic drink? The delicious Wyatt Earp, made with muddled huckleberry jam, tarragon syrup, lemon and club soda. Is it true that every bartender secretly dreads making mojitos, or anything involve lots of vegetation and muddling? Ha-ha, that seems not to be a secret anymore, is it? Maybe only on extremely busy nights, though if they are well made and taste delicious, it is always worth the sacrifice. It’s all about the guest! Huckleberry Bar, 588 Grand Street (at Lorimer Street) Williamsburg, 718-218-8555, huckleberrybar.com.
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Thursday, November 18, 2010
The Red Hook Harvest Festival Saturday, October 16 at Red Hook Community Farm
Torrey Maldonado
Sita Goldstein
David Buckel
Tracey Andrews
Emily Nathan, Laura Mackness
Jennifer Johanos, Chris Hamlett
PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAWRENCE SUMULONG... TO ORDER COPIES, PLEASE CALL (917) 740-1072
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Thursday, November 18, 2010
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