Connecticut Food & Farm, Summer 2015, Issue 1

Contents 1

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61

summer 2015

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Raw Milk & True Love: Buttercup Farm

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Bufalina~ Love Fades; Pizza is Forever

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A Bar Chef’s Craft Cocktails For Summer

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The Uncensored, Honest-to- Goodness, Nitty-Gritty

Story of the NoRA Cupcake Company

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Tasting Your Way Through Connecticut with the

Connecticut Farm Table Cookbook

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Match Restaurant’s Bacon-Jalapeño Oysters

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A Photographer’s Tips for Finding Great Light

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Top Ten Plants for Your Connecticut Edible Garden

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Sea To Table: The Architecture of Great Dining

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Cafemantic’s Herb-Roasted Stonington Sea Scallops

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Cooking With a Chef’s Mom: Green Garlic & Parmesan Soup

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Connecticut Session Beers

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Hit the Road on the Connecticut Farmers’ Market Trail

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The Forgotten Joys of Pork Cake

Contributors Winter Caplanson Carrie Carella Ashley Kelley Citroni Christy Colasurdo Caroline Finnegan

Laura Graham Melodie Hudak

Editor and Photographer at Connecticut Food and Farm, connects the dots.

Owner of NoRA Cupcake Company. She didn’t choose the cake life, the cake life chose her.

Of Ashley Caroline Photography is a wedding photographer based out of Connecticut who takes a fine art and photo journalistic approach to tell a timeless love story for her clients.

Is a contributing writer for Connecticut Food and Farm and she can eat more pizza than you.

Is the coauthor of The Connecticut Farm Table Cookbook and a sustainable foods advocate who resides in Westport.

Is a landscape designer specializing in organic approaches to a healthy and lush garden. If you hire her she will plant hydrangea in your yard and convince you to grow something edible.

Of Pawcatuck, Connecticut and Assisi, Italy, is the owner of Drink with Food, a sales and marketing company that helps small suppliers in the food and beverage industry to get better distribution.

Melodie Hudak is happiest in her kitchen nurturing friends and family with delicious meal, sipping wine and enjoying great conversation.

Amy Nawrocki

Teaches English and Creative Writing at the University of Bridgeport. She is the author of 5 poetry collections, most recently Reconnaissance, as well as three Connecticut History Books co-authored with her husband Eric D. Lehman.

David Wollner

David Wollner is owner of the Willimantic Brewing Company, a 7 barrel brewery with a cult following where he has been making craft beer for nearly 20 years.

Maya Oren Recipes: Rita Rivera, Cover Art

Lisa Nichols, Magazine Design

Photographers:

Videographer, lover of raw milk and lavender, is the founder of MOJALVO, a DSLR film marketing company.

Chef Jonathan Hudak, Cafemantic Chef Matt Storch, Match Restaurant Bar Chef Derek Vitale, Max’s Oyster Bar Owner, Love & Pop, Graphic designer, writer and illustrator shipwrecked in Connecticut. Three hour tour indeed... Loves soda pop, comics, cupcakes and the Bee Gees.

Of Right Click Design & Photography, loves to play with pixels on the screen and through her camera lens. She also really loves zombies and cats, but not zombie cats.

Valerie Brodie Winter Caplansan Ashley Caroline Diane Diederich Carla McElroy Michelle Martin

Editor’s Letter You found us!

When I leave a really great farmers’ market, I feel way better than when I arrived. I have asparagus for grilling, a bottle of wine to share with friends, and feta to crumble over a salad of greens from my garden. I’ve exchanged chat about the need for rain with the farmer who grew the sugar snap peas in my shopping basket. A potter complimented my dog for waiting politely while I fished out dollar bills from my wallet to buy a bowl with a blue glaze that called to me from across the field.

I never, ever feel better leaving the mall.

Connecticut Food and Farm Magazine is about places and people and dishes that make one fall in love (again?) with this state. It’s an insiders’ guide written by a kitchen cabinet of farmers, chefs, and foodmakers. Articles are paired with iconic images from amazing photographers in their element behind the lens during dinner service in a hot kitchen or ankle-deep in mud in a pasture.

In this first issue, read about a dairy farm run exactly the way you’d wish they all could be.

Hear how a newly-divorced bar manager struggled through the toughest time in her life to find her calling in cupcakes with soul, swag, and vibe. Learn how to mix a rhubarb collins.

Writers here share their best tips, finds, and recipes. It’s a feel good place.

These are the voices of Connecticut’s local food movement.

Welcome!

Winter Caplanson Editor in Chief

By Winter Caplanson Diane Diederich Still Photos Maya Oren, Mojalvo, Video

I want this to be a community farm where people feel like they make a difference‌ because they seriously do.

ucky you,Connecticut! You have the relatively rare opportunity to purchase farm-fresh, unpasteurized cow’s milk at a farmers’ market, from a farmstand, or a retail store. States control the sale of raw milk within their borders and ours is one of only 10 states to allow retail sale of raw milk.

Raw milk comes from pastured cows and has not been processed in any way. It contains milk’s natural and full array of vitamins and minerals, and enzymes your body uses to help digest it. It comes rich with butter fat —good wholesome cream you can stir into your coffee, or use to make fresh butter.

Passionate fans of raw milk think that it has better flavor and texture than pasteurized, homogenized milk. Some lactose-intolerant people find they can indeed digest this unprocessed milk. Raw milk in Connecticut is exclusively produced by small, local farms using sustainable methods and its fans often highly value their connection to the farmer.

The Connecticut State Department of Agriculture licenses over a dozen raw milk dairies, among the most beloved is Buttercup Farm in Sterling.

Twice daily, as they head in from pasture for milking, the Buttercup Farm cows are greeted by name by their milkmaid, Farmer Megan Johnson.

“I talk to them and evaluate how their day is going. Cows are just like people, they have good days and bad days. I try to connect with them and make them comfortable so they want to give me their milk. After I wash their udders, they let their milk down, and I attach the milking machine. I give each a cow little udder massage,” says Megan.

Evening milking has all the excitement of a big game. The barn is pristinely clean. Customers stop by to visit. Volunteers appear and begin to dole out grain for the cows, who are brushed and sprayed with apple cider vinegar to ward off bugs.

Megan is not just producing wonderful raw milk at Buttercup Farm, she’s raising a whole community of volunteers and customers that come to know, firsthand, what good dairy farming looks like.

Spend time with Megan at Buttercup Farm and you can feel her profound love for it. It’s the center of her universe and she’s eager to share it.

“I let the people that come here to volunteer find out what they enjoy. I like to tap into their passions and strengths. I let their individuality flourish as much as possible while staying in line with the goal here at Buttercup. I like to encourage them and watch these young people grow. It’s a nice safe environment, a positive environment. I want this to be a community farm where people feel like they make a difference… because they seriously do. All these people who help here are like my family. They encourage me. We encourage each other.”

The goal of which Megan speaks? That’s Heart First: quality over quantity, the animal’s well-being over production.

Before milking time, delighted volunteers bottle feed the calves who reside in the barn in a large pen with the resident personality-plus goat, Herman.

On the way in to her place in the milking parlor, a cow named June Bug stops to nuzzle her calf.

“We bottle feed the calves beginning a few days after they are born to insure mama’s udder stays clean and free from bacteria that is found in and on baby’s mouth. Plus it’s a whole lot of fun for the kids, and frankly adults, to feed the babies.

“But we respect our animals and if Mama needs her baby for her mental health we have been known to leave the calf with them. But most often, my cows know I’ll take care of it and they go out to pasture and just come in a few times a day to check on the little one.

“We try very hard here at Buttercup to ensure the animals are happy in all aspects of their life. That means more to me than filling a bottle of milk or chasing a buck- because in the end these aren’t just my cows they are my partners.”

Megan’s route to dairy farming began with a need to heal her own body and belief that raw milk is nutritious and delicious and that it nourishes in ways that processed foods cannot.

“Since a young age I had rheumatoid arthritis. I wasn’t really getting better from conventional approaches, so I decided to try drinking raw milk after I read a book saying it made arthritis improve.

I got my first cow named Buttercup, a Guernsey, almost ten years ago and I’ve been in remission from RA ever since.”

The Buttercup herd is now nine cows and six heifers, with seven cows milking. “As all my volunteers know I love to milk even numbers of cows, so I’m actually short one!”

Consumer demand dictates how many cows Megan milks and the Buttercup Farm following is growing fast. “People have liked seeing this farm built from scratch. When I moved here there wasn’t a milk room and the farm was heavily wooded.

“I started with one cow, a stool, a bucket and a desire to drink clean, fresh, raw milk. I still have that stool and that desire. I think the bucket got scrapped and Buttercup died of old age at 15 after providing the farm with two daughters and a lovely granddaughter. I’ve worked hard with the help of many others to get it to this point. Little by little, this farm is constantly growing and improving!”

Though Megan says raw milk can be used anywhere processed milk is, “Raw milk tastes sweeter, and is rich and creamy. It has wonderful undertones changing with the seasons based on what the cows are eating on pasture.”

At raw milk dairies, cleanliness is of supreme importance. “Healthy animals produce healthy milk, so everything starts with the cows, and

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Click here for video

ends with clean water, clean equipment, and consistency. Details are important: hair nets, gloves, filters, testing, sampling, and a lot of common sense! If something is out of sorts the cows are the first to notice so I pay close attention to the cows.”

Producers of unprocessed milk raw must have a milk license and are inspected by the state monthly. “We send out samples with two different labs to ensure accurate results,” Megan adds.

Buttercup Farm raw milk is bottled in glass.

“Customers prefer it, milk stays colder in the bottle, and glass is re-usable.”You can purchase half gallons, and often adorable little pints as well, at the self-service stand at the farm, at Central CT Farmer’s Cooperative in Manchester, Harvest Moon in Putnam, Sweet Peas in Brooklyn, Agway in Plainfield, and Flemings in Preston and Stonington.

This summer, Megan is having a new barn built by a crew of Amish carpenters. “I have many big dreams... to clear the land for more pasture, do rotational grazing, start hydroponics in order to feed fresh grass year round, become certified organic, sell ten cows worth of milk, have a petting zoo part of the farm that the public can come and enjoy, and install solar panels.

“Buttercup Farm should be a tangible connection between the public and where their milk comes from. Tell everyone stop in to meet the cows and see how things roll down here at Buttercup… evening milking starts at 4 and they’re invited!”

Buttercup Farm is located at 260 Main Street in Sterling.

The self-serve farm stand stocked with milk, eggs, soap, and more is open daily 8-8. Visit their website to learn more at buttercupfarmct.com

“Raw Milk Tastes Sweeter, and is rich and creamy.

It has wonderful undertones changing with the seasons based on what the cows are eating on pasture.”

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Love Fades

PIZZA

By Kelley Citroni Winter Caplanson Images

Forever

In any appraisal, there must be a control subject, a baseline standard against which all else is compared.I find that when it comes to pizza, ordering a humble, unassuming, plain cheese pie – so simple to make, so easy to screw up – is an effective way of sizing up the rest of the menu. I have discovered a new control, a new gold standard, in the Quattro Formaggi at Bufalina in Connecticut’s own Guilford Center.

Founded and run by husband-and-wife team Matt Scialabba and Melissa Pellegrino in 2011, Bufalina’s signature water buffalo logo peeks out from the first floor of a formerly-neglected, claret-colored colonial house. Matt, Melissa, and a helpful friend gutted the area and transformed it into the sharp, clean hotspot that it is today: 14 seats, a hand-built, traditional wood-fired brick oven; and an open prep area, all of which lend themselves to working efficiently in a space that’s just 325 square feet. Matt compares their team’s precision to a ballet; I’d like to take it a step further and call it a full-on opera. Between seating, serving, assembling, baking, and their endless take-out orders, Bufalina’s crew exercises all five senses in unison.

The inspiration for their methods and menu lies in Southern Italy. Between Rome’s oldworld Pizza Bianca – a flat bread dressed in only extra virgin olive oil and sea salt – and Naples’ rustic ovens, Matt and Melissa left Italy with a clear picture of what they wanted to create in their 14

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Matt and Melissa left Italy with a clear picture of what they wanted to create in their hometown of Guilford: a BYOB, “small family affair� with stringent attention to detail, both in their cuisine and in their ambiance.

hometown of Guilford: a BYOB, “small family affair” with stringent attention to detail, both in their cuisine and in their ambiance. Start your meal with a fresh, light salad made with crisp mixed greens, honey-roasted baby carrots, shaved Tuscan Pecorino, toasted hazelnuts, and tossed in red wine vinaigrette: ideal for whetting your appetite while you peruse the rest of the menu.

Now, down to brass tacks – the pie. My God, the pie. Baked at a scorching 950 degrees, each 12” pizza only takes 90 glorious seconds to cook.

It leaves the crust blistery and crunchy on the outside, chewy and comforting on the inside. Topped with ripe, authentic San Marzano tomatoes, blubbery buffalo Mozzarella, rich Parmigiano, buttery Provolone, and pungent Gorgonzola Dolce cheeses, Bufalina’s Quattro Formaggi comprises an unadulterated combination of texture, salt, fat and acid.

Normally go for dried red pepper flakes on your slice? Try their old-school chili oil, made from Calabrian chilies and extra virgin olive oil; drizzled slowly out of a glass decanter, this sinful condiment complements their pizza beautifully and is fabulous on the plate for crust-dipping, too. If you shared your meal and still have room for dessert, I beg you to dive into their wicked confection: a piping hot pizza crust smeared with chocolate hazelnut spread as soon as it’s taken out of the oven, and topped with a dusting of powdered sugar.

To. Die. For. Matt and Melissa’s commitment to maintaining a constantly-evolving, seasonal menu speaks for the respect they have for fresh, local meat and produce sourced from homesteads like Trout Lily Farm in North Guilford, Deep Hollow Farm in Chester, and Bishop’s Orchards Farm in Guilford. I’m counting down the days until I can try their most popular summer pie made with sweet figs, Asiago, Gorgonzola Dolce, smoky speck, and tangy balsamic vinegar. You can come with me, but don’t expect me to share.

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My God, the pie.

Baked at a scorching 950 degrees, each 12” pizza only takes 90 glorious seconds to cook. It leaves the crust blistery and crunchy on the outside, chewy and comforting on the inside.

Bufalina is located at 1070 Boston Post Rd., Guilford, CT. Open Tuesday through Saturday, from 4:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Reservations are recommended for indoor dining due to limited seating; summer patio is first-come, first-serve. Suggested seating time is one hour to accommodate the restaurant’s size and customer volume.

Visit www.bufalinact.com for weekly specials.

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A Bar Chef’s Craft Cocktails for Summer Written and photographed

by Winter Caplanson

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ow about a Rhubarb Collins? At Max’s Oyster Bar, Bar Manager Derek Vitale will mix that for you using his own recipe: house-made rhubarb syrup; Berkshire Mountain Brewers’ small batch Ethereal Gin; Salers, a gentian root French aperitif; peppermint leaves; fresh lemon juice; and soda water. It will be the most charming rosy pink and garnished with mint leaves and a trimmed stalk of fresh rhubarb.

At Connecticut’s best restaurants, there’s a lot more going into making a drink than stocking ice and mixers. Reflecting the farm-to-table dining trend, bar chefs are crafting seasonal cocktail menus, sourcing local, juicing fresh vegetables and fruits, using herbal garnishes, and making syrups.

Vitale even makes his own tonic water, a 3 day process using Cinchona, or quinine bark; lemon grass; lime juice and zest; cardamom; and juniper berry.

The botanical blend is cooked down in sugared water to make a syrup that steeps for days before the solids are strained out. The concentration is diluted with water and carbonated.

spirits. An understanding of the restaurant industry from the “front of the house” and great knowledge about food and drink means servers also graduate to success behind the bar.

Want to step up your own cocktail game? A bartending course can teach you how to make a classic drink and you can tweak the recipe from there to make it seasonal and unique. But keep it simple, Vitale advises.

“When you’re working with high-quality spirits, you want to be able to taste them in the finished drink.

Buy yourself a shaker, a Hawthorne strainer, and jigger… a jigger is your tool for measuring accurately to follow a recipe so it will come out as it should.”

The mark of a successful drink for Vitale? “People order a second one. It’s not only that the description looks good on a menu, you’ve mixed a drink that tastes good.”

It’s the basis for his 9-6-4 Gin and Tonic. Here, he opts for Ethereal Gin aged in Oak Barrels 2 months, adding rich notes of brown spice rounded out by vanilla and caramelized wood sugars. “Add that to our house-made tonic… that drink is all natural and full of flavor. It’s what a gin and tonic should taste like,” says Vitale.

In the same way that an aspiring chef might migrate to a pastry program and specialize in desserts, culinary professionals are increasingly selecting a focus on beverage. The bar chef mixing your drink may well have spent as many years in the kitchen as behind the bar.

In working with food they learned valuable skills to apply to cocktail concoction: how to select and treat ingredients, compose garnishes, create their own syrups, and incorporate fresh produce from local farms into drink recipes.

Unlike cooking, though, bartending happens in the public eye… one entertains guests, multitasks, and operates nimbly with a working knowledge about

At Connecticut’s best restaurants, there’s a lot more going into making a drink than stocking ice and mixers.

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Here’s Derek Vitale’s recipe for a Rhubarb Collins and two other favorite craft cocktails for summer.

Make them at home or try his for yourself at Max’s Oyster Bar.

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Rhubarb Collins

Flor De Humo

(Flower of Smoke)

-2oz Berkshire Ethereal Gin -.5oz Salers (Gentian Root Liquor) -2oz Rhubarb Syrup (Rhubard Simple Syrup Recipe) -1oz Fresh Lemon Juice -6 mint leaves

-1oz Pierde Almas Joven Mezcal -1oz Benedictine -.5 Ancho Reyes Chili Liquor -2 oz Pineapple -2oz Coconut Water

Combine all ingredients in a shaker tin with ice. Shake vigorously to combine ingredients and to bruise mint slightly to release the oils in the mint. Pour into a tall Collins glass and top with soda water. Garnish with a nice mint sprig and a trimmed stalk of rhubarb.

Combine all ingredients in a shaker tin with ice. Shake vigorously to create a nice froth with the fresh juice.

Using a Hawthorne strainer, strain into a large glass filled with ice. Garnish with a wedge of pineapple, pineapple leaves, and an edible flower.

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The mark of a successful drink forVitale? “People order a second one.

It’s not only that the description looks good on the menu, you’ve mixed a drink that tastes good.”

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Celery Gimlet -1oz Fords Gin

-.75oz St Germaine Elderflower Liquor -.5 Green Chartreuse -1oz celery water (juice some fresh celery) -.5oz fresh lime juice -2 dashes Fee Brothers Celery Bitters

Max’s Oyster Bar, 964 Farmington Avenue, West Hartford, is an upscale seafood spot offering raw bar specialties; a lively, sophisticated atmosphere; and of course, a great cocktail menu. Max Restaurant Group

Combine ingredients in a shaker tin with ice. Shake well to combine ingredients.

Strain into a chilled martini glass using a Hawthorne strainer. Garnish with a celery frond.

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The Uncensored, Honest-to-Goodness, Nitty-Gritty Story of the

NoRA Cupcake Company

By Carrie Carella Michelle Martin Photos It was the summer of 2011 and I had just gone through a divorce. I was definitely on auto-pilot… licking my wounds and trying to get back on my feet, and I mean all my feet: financial, emotional, mental.

Phil Ouellette, owner of Eli Cannon’s where I’d run the bar since 1997, had always been like a big brother to me and that definitely kicked into high gear when I was going through my personal battles. He did everything he could to help me through the life-changing process of divorce.

One night, we were outside in front of Eli’s and noticed that For Rent signs had gone up in the windows of the building across the street. We kicked around the idea of me starting a business there.

Phil told me to check it out. I was floored. How could my boss be encouraging me to look into something that could possibly take me away from him? I wasn’t ready.

I couldn’t leave. Eli Cannon’s was my home.

But, because I was always such a good soldier for him, I called. I set up an appointment with the Realtor and landlord the following Monday so Phil would be able to come with me.

Monday came. We walked around the space and honestly I think Phil was more excited than I was at first. I was still nervous about change and the unknown. We went back to Eli’s and chatted about the possibility of what it could become.

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The obvious choice was a cupcake bakery because I loved baking and being creative in coming up with new flavors… almost always booze related since I had been bartending since I was 18. That was what I knew.

BUT there was SO MUCH SPACE. So, Phil asked me if I wanted to partner together - Eli’s would take half the space and I could do cupcakes in the other half.

He sweetened the offer by saying that I could still keep my job at Eli’s in case things didn’t work out and that I would always have a place with them.

So I agreed, hesitantly. Phil could sense this and made me watch “Man on Wire” the documentary film about Philippe Petit who walked on wires in crazy locations like at the very top in between the Twin Towers in the late 70s. He told me if I ever wanted the fruit, I had to climb out on the limb.

Done.

When deciding what to call the cupcake bakery, Phil and I were having a conversation with the landlord and Phil looked at the landlord and said, you are never going to rent those apartments or get people to come open businesses in the North End without changing the perception of the neighborhood. You should do what New York does when it wants to gentrify a neighborhood: give it a name. We went back and forth with neighborhood names like NoGS (North of Grand Street), NoMi (North Middletown), but NoRA (North of Rapallo Avenue) was the coolest and most identifiable.

I told Phil that he was right and that I loved the idea for the neighborhood identity and that I would name the cupcake store NoRA Cupcake Company.

Born.

In NYC, around 2008, I’d visited a Crumbs Bake Shop for the first time and was AMAZED! The names of their cupcakes, the sizes, the flavors, the decorations… all of it blew me away.

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I’d bought every cupcake and brought them home to dissect and obviously devour. I was disappointed.

The flavor was merely OK, and the names didn’t truly represent what they were. The Cosmopolitan (which I thought was genius) was just pink cake with white frosting and green sugared rim. None of the ingredients from a Cosmopolitan cocktail were represented. THAT was the moment that I realized, I could do this and do it well.

When we opened the NoRA Cupcake Company, it was like the flood gates unleashed in my brain. I had so many ideas for flavors and recipes that I could barely keep up with myself.

I hired a few staff members - mostly people that had already worked for me at Eli’s. That was a blessing because they truly wanted NoRA and me to succeed in this venture. They were all in it and didn’t question when I said we are making a cupcake with potato chips and bacon.

Because none of us at that time had ever had culinary training, we were not held back by any technical boundaries. We let our imaginations and creativity challenge us to the fullest.

We have had some failures, don’t ever mention a Bloody Mary cupcake around us… but the majority of our tries have been successes.

If you ask the staff what they love about working here they will tell you that it is a true team effort.

Sometimes we have no guidelines, and sometimes we have themes given to us – like the Coventry Regional Farmers’ Market - every week, a new theme, a new challenge.

When you are an employee at NoRA, no week is ever the same with cupcakes, orders, weddings, markets, events, or wholesaling. It keeps it fresh and exciting for all of us!

Even with all this creativity, Irish Car Bomb, Chocolate Peanut Butter Explosion, and Raspberry Lemonade are our signature cupcakes that we make almost every day. We take a lot of pride in

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our SAVORY line up including Beefcakes with caramelized onions, balsamic reduction and goat cheese frosting. Thanksgiving Cakes with stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry cornbread and fried onions.

During this journey of being a small business owner, I have grown very dedicated to supporting other local small businesses. One of the only ways to survive a struggling economy and obstacles that make opening a business difficult, is to band together with other passionate small business owners. I use the ingredients they grow and make in our cupcake recipes and carry their product in the shop. We collaborate and confide in one another.

NoRA Cupcake Company has so many facets of business and I think that is why I’m in love with 30

it. I’m constantly challenged, never bored, get to utilize creativity, management, organization, event planning, networking and marketing, and writing skills (a bit ... I was an English major in college).

We have our retail storefront where we sell to walk- in customers and fill pre-orders, host private parties, and offer room rental.

We booked over 130 weddings last year… some full set ups with table designing and others rent our cupcake truck to show up at their venue.

Our wholesale accounts keep growing and expanding into different areas of the state. This gives us more exposure and allows us to market ourselves to other business’s established clientele.

Some of our partnerships have been so fun to be involved with and now we’re part of their “family” too! Maggie McFly’s, Bear’s Smoke-

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house, and The Whey Station have all been so great for cross-promotion, marketing, and branding NoRA into new markets!

To sum it all up - the cupcakes at NoRA Cupcake Company are sometimes sassy, over the top, larger than life, and possibly explosive. Other times they are delicate, elegant, classy, and subtle.

We are all these things as a group.

Not one stronger than the other - all equally important and necessary.

I think that my personality is also all of these things and the people that I have hired to work at NoRA Cupcake Company contribute to these qualities. I’m not sure where we are headed with this ride - we are carving our own path as we go. But I know we have just begun. Winter Caplanson, Executive Director of Connecticut

Food and Farm, once posted a quote from Gary Vaynerchuk as a reference to NoRA, and it has stuck with me ever since! I love it and refer to it as inspiration all the time.

“If she has got swag and flavor, then her product is going to have swag and flavor… I truly believe that physical products take the personality… in essence: the soul, the swag, the vibe, the DNA is extracted out of the person and put into the product.”

THAT is NoRA. NoRA Cupcake Company is located at 700 Main Street in Middletown, Connecticut. The Lil’ NoRA Cupcake Truck brings cupcakes to the masses.

Regular ports of call include farmers markets, community and foodie events around the state.

Visit them online at noracupcake.com

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Tasting Our Way Through

Connecticut

By Christy Colasurdo Ashley Scavotto Images

The stars we re aligned when my co-author, Tracey Medeiros, and I signed on to write The Connecticut Farm Table Cookbook (W.W. Norton). It was high time for Connecticut to earn its stripes as a food Mecca churning out top-notch local fare. But, it wasn’t until we started traveling the state and meeting James Beard Award-nominated chefs and world-class cheesemakers, honey ‘connoisseurs’, and foragers that we realized just how far Connecticut has come in keeping up with pioneering locavore outposts like Vermont, California, Seattle, and Oregon.

So began a yearlong pilgrimage that took us to urban farmers’ markets in New Haven, Hartford, and New Britain, to four-star eateries in Litchfield, Fairfield and Tolland counties, to lobster and clam shacks dotting the shoreline. We visited Bison farms, mushroom caves, and historic oystering grounds.

Our task was to take readers on a tasting tour of the Nutmeg state’s best offerings, and provide a window into the world of the farmers and chefs who are working together to bring us food that is hyper-local, seasonal, and pretty darned tasty.

We spent over a year ferreting both gritty dives and high-end eateries sourcing as much from local farms, vineyards, fisheries, dairies, and artisanal producers as possible. (And tasting along the way.)

As it turns out, the hardest part of writing the book was whittling down the number of venues, photos, and recipes to feature. As I profiled farmers and chefs, Tracey tested and tweaked recipes, and an army of photographers crisscrossed the state with their DSLRs in hand.

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Connecticut Boasts one of

Here, we share a snapshot of a few things we discovered about the Connecticut food scene.

For everything else, you’ll have to buy the book!

the best farmers’

Connecticut boasts one of the best farmers’ markets in the Northeast: The Coventry Regional Farmers’ Market. The market, which hosts up to 80,000 visitors each year, is like a country fair every Sunday, June through October, and well worth the trip. Visit once, and you’ll know why it was voted New England’s best farmers’ market by Yankee Magazine and selected as one of USA Today’s “Top 10 great places to shop at a farmers’ market.” With 75 to 125 vendors each Sunday, the market teems with action—the old-fashioned kind—with stand after stand displaying a colorful smörgåsbord of organic produce, freshly baked pies, preserves and pickles, and handmade goods. Here, wee ones frolic, fiddlers fiddle, puppies romp, and chefs and consumers chat up their farmers and sample their wares.

markets in

Northeast: The Coventry Regional Farmers’ Market the

Connecticut offers a Wine Trail, a Beer Trail, a Farmers’ Market Trail, a Cheese Trail, and even a Chocolate Trail, as well as a bustling Pick-Your-Own scene at picturesque orchards and berry farms. Check the Connecticut Department of Agriculture website for listings of CT food and wine trails, plus organic farms, farm stands, and more.

One of the fastest-growing wine regions in the US, Connecticut offers a tremendous variety of wine styles and stunning scenery as you traverse the scenic hills, valleys and coastline.

How to chart your course? Peruse the CT Wine Trail website and peruse 25 local wineries, then click to create a customized wine tour itinerary for an easy getaway. Not only will you enjoy tastings and tours at the state’s top vineyards, you can also dine at many of them.

Award-winning chefs abound, with rock-star chefs making regular appearances at the James

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Beard Awards. This year, three of the top finalist in the Northeast hailed from Connecticut.

Bill Taibe, of Westport’s LeFarm, The Whelk, and Kawa Ni in Westport was named Semifinalist, Best Chef: Northeast three years running. Bill is known for heavily seasoned dishes he calls, “aggressive, punch-you-in-theface” fare. Up in Washington, CT, Chef Joe Viehland was also named Semifinalist, Best Chef: Northeast” in 2014. Joel brings a Scandinavian sensibility to his gorgeously fresh plates.

Tyler Anderson is yet another James Beard Best Chef: Northeast Semifinalist for 2014, who also won Chef of the Year from the CT Restaurant Association. The “Chopped” winner runs the show at Millwright’s in Simsbury, where he procures organic heirloom produce from nearby Colgan Farm, and serves his elegant American creations against a backdrop of a soothing waterfall in the former Hop Brook Mill.

Who says hotel dining has to be ho-hum? If you scoff at the idea of fine dining inside a hotel, there are plenty of Connecticut venues to change (or blow) your mind. Across the state, top eateries are serving stellar cuisine amid stylish hotel backdrops. Some of our favorites: Heirloom at The Study at Yale, The Wharf at Madison Beach Hotel, The Oak Room at Copper Beech Inn, Muse by Jonathan Cartwright at The Mayflower Grace Hotel & Spa, Artisan and L’Escale at the Delamar Hotels, Winvian Farm at Winvian Hotel, Parallel Post in the Trumbull Marriott, Métro Bis in the Simsbury 1820 House.

The Connecticut Farm Table Cookbook (W.W. Norton). Available at Amazon: The Connecticut Farm Table Cookbook on Amazon

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We spent over a year ferreting both gritty dives and high-end eateries sourcing as much from local farms, vineyards, fisheries, dairies, and artisanal producers as possible. (And tasting along the way.)

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From the Connecticut Farm Table Cookbook

Match Restaurant Bacon-Jalapeno O

SERVES 6 ~(THIS RECIPE CAN BE SCALED DOWN EASILY

k:

t’s

Oysters

EASILY)

Chef Matt Storch says, “I will be honest.

I’m not a huge fan of raw oysters (bad experience) but, cooked, I will eat them all day long. This is a little take on casino-style clams using oysters. They are buttery, spicy, and delicious. Just be careful: They tend to talk back to you when they get hot on the grill!”

2 ounces (about 2 slices) smoked bacon, minced 1 cup (2 sticks, 8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature 1 large jalapeño, halved, stemmed, seeded and minced Finely grated zest and juice of 2 limes 1/3 teaspoon hot sauce, plus more as needed 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs, toasted 3 tablespoons minced fresh chives 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper Rock salt or fresh seaweed 6 dozen oysters 1. Cook the bacon in a small skillet over medium high heat until crisp, about 3 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Set aside.

2. In a small bowl, stir together all the ingredients, except the oysters, until fully combined. Transfer the butter mixture to the refrigerator and chill until just firm, about 2 hours.

3. Shuck all the oysters, making sure to release the muscle from the shell, and place them on a sheet tray lined with rock salt or seaweed.

This steadies the oysters and prevents them from wobbling.

4. Place a ball of butter, the diameter of a nickel, on top of each oyster.

5. Heat a gas, electric, or charcoal grill to medium-high heat (see note).

Place the entire sheet tray on the grill and cook until the butter melts and starts to bubble and the oysters are just cooked through, about five minutes.

Serve immediately Note: if you do not own a grill, preheart the oven to 450°F and bake until the butter melts and oysters are just cooked through, about five minutes.

A Photographer’s Tips for Finding Great Light for your

Farm Photography

by Ashley Scavotto

s a natural light wedding photographer,

I’ve learned that finding the best light in any situation will result in my personal favorite photographs. In my opinion, light and emotion are key factors in creating out-of-this-world images.

Over the past year, I’ve discovered a new passion for photographing farms, especially livestock. Weddings and farm animals might be incredibly different in nature; however, when photographing them, most of the factors are the same. Find great light? Check. Connect with subjects? Check. Create an interesting image? Check, check!

My appetite for photographing farms is strongly impacted by the type of light presented to me. As a result, below are some tips that I use when seeking the most beautiful light, in any given situation.

Golden Hour :Try your best to schedule your shoot around the most optimal light. When the sun is out, the best time of day to photograph your subject is 1-2 hours before sunset. As the sun descends, it’s no longer casting the harsh shadows that occur when at its peek.

Change your lens! Each lens processes light differently.

If you aren’t thrilled with the images coming out of camera, try a different lens!

Shoot in the shade! When I begin my shoots, the sun is at its highest so I’m always looking for shade. At one farm, I walked to a shaded area by trees which were beautifully backlit at an angle by the setting sun. The cows followed me and I created one of my favorite images. It’s key to face your subject

Golden Hour try your best to schedule your shoot around the most optimal light.

Shoot in the shade When I begin my shoots, the sun is at its highest so I’m always looking for shade.

away from the source of shade just as these cows are facing opposite of the trees and into the open field behind me full of light.

Find cover! If I can’t shoot during the ideal time of day, I often photograph animals inside their shed. The gate or doorway acts like a massive wall of window light illuminating your subjects beautifully. The closer your subjects get to the gate, the better the light will be.

Backlight your subjects!

For the last 30 minutes before sunset and for about 5-10 minutes after the sun dips below the horizon, photograph your subject so it’s blocking the sun located directly behind him/ her. This softly illuminates your subject and often creates magical

Jump For Joy, It’s Cloudy!

When it’s overcast, the sky acts like a massive soft box.

Find Cover: I often photograph animals inside their shed.

bokeh (aesthetically-pleasing blur) behind the subject. Get low if you need to!

Jump for joy if it’s cloudy!

When it’s overcast, the sky acts like a massive soft box creating lovely, even light. I try my best to find the sun behind the clouds and reposition myself or my subjects so they are glowing in the diffused light.

Shoot in the morning The Golden Hour applies to the morning as well.

Shoot in the morning!

Farmers start their day early so if you’re feeling courageous or you’re a morning person, the golden hour applies to the morning as well… it’s roughly an hour after sunrise. Plan accordingly and shoot as the sun rises because the morning light is just as gorgeous with a different story to tell!

Backlight Your Subject: This softly illuminates your subject.

Top Ten Plants For Connecticut Edible Gardens We tend to think we need very specific and spacious conditions to grow food, but this is not always the case. If you want to yield a huge amount of produce you will need to create a separate vegetable garden, but if you’re just looking to add something different and tasty to your garden, why not tuck in a few edibles here and there?

Caroline Finnegan Winter Caplanson Image by

Trees: Kousa Dogwood: There are over a hundred cultivators of this versatile Asian native. Showy and long lasting bracts cover branches in late spring, and in the fall plump fruit can be found dangling from the branches. This alien looking pink to red fruit is small, but wonderfully tasty, with custard-like texture.

Montmorency Cherry: Prunus cerasus ‘Montmorency’ –This small to medium sized self-pollinating tree is a strong performer in the garden. Bears heavy crops of small, tangy and tart cherries. It’s cold hardy, reliable, and lower maintenance than most fruit trees.

Vines: Hardy Kiwi Vine: Actinidia arguta ‘Issai’ (Self-fertile female) Vigorous and attractive vine growing up to 20 feet, this prolific producer bears hundreds of small, smooth, tasty green fruit. You can still use a male pollinator, which is not such a bad thing as the male kiwi vine is showy and tolerates shade. Don’t over fertilize or you’ll get more leaves than fruit.

Hops: Humulus lupulus Another vigorous vine, hops love the sun and grow rapidly to cover fences and trellises.

In the late summer the vines set attractive flowers/cones that can be used to brew beer. Plants can be started from rhizomes, but I’ve had better luck finding establish potted plants in nurseries and going from there. My favorite cultivars for ornamental and edible purposes are:

‘Cascade’, ‘Centennial’ and ‘Nugget’. These vines are heavy feeders and need lots of water to thrive, so give them a bit of extra attention for best fruiting.

Herbs: It’s all going to depend on your specific site and conditions, but a few herbs to consider tucking in amongst your flowers are: Dill, Basil (Thai Basil is particularly pretty), Garlic Chives, Thyme, Marjoram, Oregano and Parsley.

Plant Bronze Leaf Fennel with black-eyed-susans or coneflowers for a study in contrast.

Sage is another very attractive herb, and I often use it as an ornamental in its own right. Salvia officinalis ‘Berggarten’ has lovely blue green leaves and a great structure in the garden; Salvia elegans aka Pineapple Sage is bright, bold and if you’re lucky, produces stunning red blooms; Variegated Sages – either golden or purple – work very well in perennial beds, adding lovely color and texture.

Vegetables: SunGold or SunSugar cherry tomatoes: These vigorous and prolific plants are my favorite garden tomatoes. I plant them in large galvanized steel containers and keep them on the back deck all summer long. They require sturdy trellising and regular feeding and watering, but are so delicious that I barely mind the extra work it takes to keep them happy in a container. (There are countess other tomato varieties, but most really prefer to be planted in the ground, in a traditional vegetable garden.)

Lettuce and Arugula: You can use containers of greens to fill in areas of the garden that are slow to get going in the spring. These plants do not like the heat of summer, so I tend to keep them in containers that can be moved out of the garden come June. Re-seed the containers in August and set them aside in a cooler, shady area of the garden.

By mid-September they are ready to come back out in the garden until a hard frost/first snow nips the greens.

Favorite varieties of lettuce include: Brune de Hiver; Cimmaron; Devil’s Ear, Little Gem, Midnight Ruffles...

I’m going to stop here and direct you to the Baker Creek catalogue (Rareseeds). Their heirloom lettuce seeds are game changers for your ornamental garden.

Arugula does not offer quite as many varieties, but if you’re a fan of bold flavors I highly recommend the newer wasabi arugula. I planted some of this a few weeks ago and the baby greens are blowing my mind.

Swiss Chard: I use Rainbow Swiss Chard for a great alternative to mums or ornamental kale in autumnal containers. Forward planning is key to this – I plant the containers in late spring and set them aside to grow lush and full through the summer. Then, when things are starting to look a bit weary and boring, I pop these beauties in to the garden and people think I’m a genius.

Onions and Garlic: Oh how I love planting alliums in the garden! I use onions and chives as garden borders and pop in garlic bulbs as part of fall clean ups so we can enjoy the scapes coming up amongst perennials the next year. Egyptian walking onions are little weirdos in the garden, and usually solicit lots of second looks.

Berries: New cultivars mean you can add these traditionally large and dominating plants in to your mixed garden bed…

Northblue Blueberry and NorthCountry Blueberry produce several pounds of juicy blueberries on plants that grow up to three feet tall and wide. These little beauties are cold hardy, reliable and look lovely in the mixed border garden.

This was supposed to be a Top Ten list, but I clearly took major liberties with the concept! Now go find some space in your garden and grow some food!

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Sea To Table:

The Architecture of Great Dining

By Laura Graham Carla McElroy Images

he foundation or cornerstone of the plate that I will soon be enjoying, comes from deep down on the cold ocean floor: the home of the mid-Atlantic scallop. Its large, smooth pink shell distinguishing it from the smaller grey shelled scallops that one can find along the beaches of New England. Mid- Atlantics are the prized half dollar sized scallops that have become popular in expensive restaurants.

It is a chilly spring morning on the docks of Stonington, Connecticut. Fisherman are busy cleaning up their now docked boats. A fork lifts whizzes by and lifts a palette loaded with boxes into a moving van sized truck that has "The Fish Market" painted on the side. I am in the right place. I know I will find Paul Butterfield here. Paul has been doing this his whole life. We joke about what Stonington was like when we were kids. Homes could be bought for $30,000. Times have certainly changed since I would come as a child with my father to buy live lobsters for our dinner directly from the local fishermen.

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Paul walks with me through the warehouses and I meet the men who now deal in fresh fish. There are still tanks of live lobsters, but there are also boxes filled with ice that reveal flounder, eels, monk fish... all the denizens of the sea who will find their way onto our tables. But not only local tables, these fish will be sent all over the country, some all over the world. Stonington is just one tiny piece of the global fresh fish trade that involves airplanes and ice packed high speed shipments.

Into these Stonington warehouses fish now also arrive from all over the world. I marvel at the swordfish that Paul shows me from Brazil. Fresh, not frozen, and from Brazil. Paul tells me that he has a friend in South Africa whom he can call on his cell phone to find out about the catch there. Paul, a fisherman himself, knows quality, and he makes sure that is what he will bring back to the store, The Fish Market, where he works in Willimantic, Connecticut.

I watch him select his fish and then we head for one last stop: scallops.

These are Bomster scallops and they are frozen. Frozen, really? After a lengthy chat with Bill Bomster, I now get it. As is becoming painfully obvious to me, there is so much more to our food than meets the eye, and education is key. Frozen, once thought to be an inferior way to move food is actually better with deep sea scallops.

Bill's father revolutionized the industry when he realized that if you catch a deep sea scallop, rinse the sand from it immediately in the ocean's water, and flash freeze it right on the boat, it maintains its color and flavor. Bring it to shore fresh, wash it in fresh water, and it loses color and flavor. Let the scallops soak in fresh water and you also add weight to the scallops, they become bloated and pale.

Do the math, you can get more money for these heavier, bloated scallops. Good for who is selling them by the pound, not so good for the diner who gets a fresh, but lower quality taste experience.

The Bomster family also freezes their scallops and some other fish they catch in small batches that one can buy directly from a small freezer out front, farm stand style.

Just leave your money in the box.

Paul buys some big bags of Bomster frozen scallops, and I head north myself to follow them to their ultimate destination: Cafémantic in Willimantic, CT.

It’s a chilly spring morning on the docks of Stonington, Connecticut.

Fisherman are busy cleaning up their now docked boats.

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today, that it is now it is hard to imagine that kitchens were once something to be hidden away, separate from a formal dining space.

I sit down with Chef Hudak of Cafémantic to talk about his very contemporary approach to dining. Like open plan living, it all makes so much sense, it all seems so obvious, I do not think he realizes just how revolutionary and wonderful his restaurant is.

How does one "build" a great dining experience? I say great dining, because I am hesitant to use the word fine dining. Fine dining implies that the food is more visual than taste oriented, and the wait staff out dresses the clientele.

Great dining might be an elegant restaurant, or it could be a perfect picnic under a tree with the best company.

Cafémantic is great dining. Each mouthful truly makes you want to weep it is so good. The wait staff is cheerful, friendly and casual.You could show up for a quick lunch in jeans, or arrive well dressed for an important evening.

Great dining might be an elegant restaurant, or it could be a perfect picnic under a tree with the best company.

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The foundation of all of this, is of course, great ingredients.

Chef Hudak discusses his friendships with local farmers and producers. This relationship includes talking to the farmers themselves about their plans for future plantings. He explains to me that working with local farms is tricky. If a farm is too small, they can not afford to sell their products at a whole sale price to a restaurant. These small farms are able only to sell at farmer's markets, which assures them a retail price for their products. Chef Hudak needs to find local farms that are in that economic sweet spot, big enough to sell wholesale, but not so big as to compromise quality.

He talks about buying food through a RSA, or Restaurant Supported Agriculture. It is similar to a CSA or Community Supported Agriculture project. He describes with delight how every week he receives a box full of surprise fresh local ingredients.

Great ingredients are really about great relationships. They are about trust.

Vegetables, fish, poultry, red meat, bread, cheeses: each ingredient is a carefully cultivated relationship with a supplier. It would be easier to go with a big distributor who could bring him everything at once, but doing things his way raises the quality and flavor bar measurably.

Chef Hudak talks about how he can talk to Paul via cell phone while he is still on the docks in Stonington, and ask him which fish looks best that day. He trusts that Paul will make sure

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that what arrives in his kitchen will only be top quality. This is facilitated because Chef Hudak is flexible in what he will serve allowing Paul the freedom to truly pick what is best that day.

A great meal is also built around a great relationship between the restaurant and the diner. Hudak talks to me about his decision to serve small portions. Small plates as he calls them. I mention that this is how we eat in Italy, with an antipasto, primo, secondo, and contorni. In Italy you build your own meal. He says this is exactly right, that he wants the diner to be in co trol. He does not want to impose a large expensive entree on his customer. Instead of serving massive entrees, each diner at Cafémantic can design their own meal, not only in flavors, but in scale. A quick lunch?

One small plate and you may be good to go. A larger more important event can be constructed of multiple plates.

A great meal is also built around a great relationship between the restaurant and the diner.

Multiple plates and tastes also avoids what Chef Hudak refers to as the law of diminishing returns. Our palate gets tired of eating one flavor. Multiple small plates allow us to dine in a far more exciting way. Small plates also encourage sharing or collaborative meals. Eating is certainly at its best a social event.

The scallops arrive at my table. This is the real test, and I am simply delighted. Perfectly pan seared they are surrounded with interesting and delicious textures and tastes:pureed fresh peas and mint, watercress, chiodini mushrooms and brazed fresh fava beans, plus the crunch and bright red and white color of fresh diced radish.

From sea to table - spectacular!

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Herb-Roasted Stonington Sea Scallops Pea puree, Mushrooms, Charred Fava Beans Cafemantic, Chef Jonathan Hudak

broth

4 cups white chicken stock 1 oz. dried porcini mushrooms ½ lb. white mushrooms, fine dice or pulsed in processor ½ tsp. curry powder 4 thyme sprigs 1 bay leaf 1 cup seasonal mushrooms, such as brown hon shimeji as shown in photo, or morels shitakes, oysters work well, sliced or left whole depending on size 1 tbs. white miso paste

Pea Puree

2 cups shucked english peas (frozen works well if fresh are unavailable) 1 gallon water 1 c kosher Salt 1 c sugar 2 tbs. black truffle butter (substitute truffle oil if not available)

Scallops

12 each bomster scallops (dried on towels) 2 large pinces kosher salt 2 oz grapeseed oil 2 oz unsalted butter 2 garlic cloves, skin on crushed with side of knife 2 thyme sprigs ¼ lemon, seeds removed

Garnish

1 c pea tendrils 2 spring radish, shaved thin ½ c charred fava beans, shelled & blanched, tossed in olive oil & roasted in very hot dry pan until blistered seasoned with salt, lemon zest, more olive oil and fresh mint

1 tbs lemon avocado oil 1 tbs chives, finely chopped

Winter Caplansan

OD H M ET broth~

1. To prepare the broth, heat stock to simmer. Add dried porcini, white

mushrooms, curry and herbs.

2. Simmer on very low heat for 20-30 minutes, then strain through fine

sieve pressing solids with back of spoon or ladle for total extraction.

3. Add seasonal mushrooms and poach until tender, about 5-10 minutes.

4. Stir in miso and adjust seasoning, reserve.

Pea Puree~

1. heat water, salt and sugar to hard boil

2. prepare ice bath with strainer

3. blanch peas until tender, about 4 minutes

4. shock in ice

5. transfer to blender and add softened truffle butter and enough water

to make it spin.

6. puree on highest speed for 5 minutes until hot and silky smooth.

scallops~

1. season scallops with salt on both sides

2. heat heavy sautĂŠ pan or cast iron skillet until very hot and add oil

3. pat scallops dry with towels and add to pan, largest side down.

4. don’t touch until edges become golden

5. pour off oil from pan and carefully flip scallops

6. add butter, garlic and herbs. spoon foaming butter over scallops

for

30 seconds

7. transfer to towels

Plating~

1. smear pea puree on bowls

2. place scallop on puree

3. spoon broth and mushrooms around bowl

4. mix garnish ingredients and scatter around bowl

Cooking with a Chef ’s Mom

Green Garlic and Parmesan Soup

by Melodie Hudak, cooking with her son

Jonathan Hudak, Executive Chef at Cafemantic winter caplansan Images

Where does it start?What were the kitchen ways in the home where a great chef grew up? In this recurring segment, we explore how home cooking and thinking about food nurtured the aspirations of a child who grow up to cook professionally.

It wasn’t planned, I wasn’t following a trend, it was simply what I knew.

This was the culture that shaped my values for my own kitchen: I grew up in a large family in Central Vermont. For the most part, we grew or raised everything we ate. We all took part in caring for the garden, churning the butter, foraging for fresh berries and greens, catching fish, plucking chicken feathers, and canning fruit and vegetables.

While I don’t live on a farm now, I grow what I can and rely on local farmers as much as possible.

While raising my two boys, I cooked 3 meals from scratch every day so I spent plenty of time in the kitchen. I kept a drawer full of wooden spoons, plastic kitchenware, and empty food containers so my toddlers could pretend to cook alongside me.

As they got a little older, they made bubbles with an egg beater and a tub of soapy water or rolled out play dough and cut it into cookie shapes. They eventually graduated to breaking real eggs and stirring the batter and on to creating an entire dish on their own.

When my younger son Jonathan was 11 or 12, he loved creating garnishes. For Christmas that year, he got a book on garnishes.

I believe that cooking conscientious and nutritious meals together is the centerpiece of family life and is an enriching experience for both children and adults.

We not only enjoyed the benefits of eating meals together but we enjoyed the camaraderie, the connecting and the relating through the process of preparing the meal.

Both of the boys developed the passion and enthusiasm for all things culinary. My older son is carrying on the family tradition by cooking the family dinner with his 12 year old son by his side and exposing him to the kitchen ways he grew up with.

My younger son went on to be an accomplished chef and has surpassed my teachings. One of my greatest joys is to collaborate and cook a family dinner with him. Jonathan and I recently spent an afternoon in the family kitchen cooking with green garlic, an ingredient I have never used before. It’s young garlic, harvested before the cloves have fully matured, uncured and mild in flavor.

I love that there is always something new to explore and share.

By the way, Jonathan insisted on doing the garnish.

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Green Garlic and Parmesan Soup 3 leeks, 1 medium onion, 1 shallot cleaned and chopped (6 cups total) 4 oz. green garlic cleaned and chopped (approximately 5 bulbs) ½ oz. regular garlic chopped (approximately ½ oz) 6 oz of butter (we use cultured butter from Vermont Creamery) 4 ½ oz russet potato, peeled and diced (1 small) 5 cups of chicken stock (preferably homemade) ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese Salt to taste 2-3 springs of Thyme, a few peppercorns and bay leaf tied in a piece of cheesecloth to make a sachet

½ cup of heavy cream Garnish options: Sautéed fresh morels, fresh grated Parmesan, garlic croutons, fresh chopped chives, crème Fraiche with lemon zest, drizzle of good olive oil or any combination.

Melt butter in a heavy large saucepan over medium heat.

Add leeks, onion, shallots and garlic and sweat for 5-minutes.

Decrease the heat to medium-low and cook until the ingredients are very soft, approximately 25 minutes stirring occasionally.

Do not let caramelize. If the butter dries up add a little water.

Tie the thyme, peppercorns and bay leaf in a piece of cheesecloth to make a sachet.

Add the potato, sachet and half the chicken stock. Cook on medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and gently simmer until the potatoes are soft.

Remove the sachet and using a blender or an immersion blender puree the soup adding more stock to get the desired consistency.

Pour the soup back into the saucepan and add cream, Parmesan cheese and salt to taste. Reheat, top with your choice of garnish and serve.

Warm weather has arrived so I thought we’d talk about the current hot beer styles.

By David Wollner Images by Winter Caplanson

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The brewing community has come full circle the last couple of years regarding this subject. The Extreme Beers, those of high alcohol and/or unique flavors, have given way to the now ubiquitous Session Beers.

What’s a Session Beer? The term refers to beer styles that are easily quaffable and lower in alcohol and have been around since the birth of brewing. The renewed trend towards Sessionable is taking established higher abv beers and lowering the final alcohol to a more drinkable design. The most common Sessions on the market right now are India Pale Ales. Standard IPA’s are typically 6% ABV (alcohol by volume) loaded with hops and meant to endure the long journey from England to India. The Session versions run from 4 - 5.5% with all the hop flavors and a lower ABV. Early examples of Sessions in Europe were Saisons. Often brewed at farmhouse breweries for workers, they were made with products from their fields. The ingredients and flavor alone in combination with a lower ABV equaled the perfect daytime libation There are some great examples craft Session IPA’s on the CT Beer Trail: Two Roads’ Lil’ Heaven; Top Shelf’s Around the Clock; Spinster from Thomas Hooker; Chet’s from Broad Brook and a newcomer to the CT Beer scene, Stony Creek’s Little Cranky.

Willimantic Brewing Company will be teaming up with fellow brewer Aaren from Beer’d Brewing a Session Extra Pale Ale for an upcoming beer dinner at Willibrew.

I’ve been a professional brewer for almost 20 years and have witnessed the birth of the craft breweries the 1980’s. I wonder if this trend will catch on. I can tell you that I’ve brewed hundreds of beers with lower than 5% abv since 1997 because the public likes full flavor with lower alcohol. The Session sensation may be short term but the consumer will benefit in the end, since less is more!

Connecticut Food and Farm

Summer 2015

Hit The Road On The Connecticut Farmers’ Market Trail!

Written and photographed

by Winter Caplanson Passionate about local food? Chart your summer travels to discover our region’s agricultural bounty on the Farmers’ Market Trail. It’s a tour de force of special places across Connecticut well stocked with farmfresh foods and those made with passion using local produce, where you’ll meet people who enjoy creating things that matter.

The first and only Trail of its kind in the nation, the Connecticut Farmers’ Market Trail links over a dozen premier destination markets statewide. To make your visit to these fantastic farmers’ markets even more enjoyable, the website serves as an insider’s guide to things to do on market day at each locale.

Check out suggested farm-to-table restaurants, hiking trails, beaches perfect for strolling, shops filled with handmade goods and vintage wares, art galleries, working farms, and historic sites... in the city, on the shoreline, and down winding country roads.

For example, head to the Old Saybrook Farmers’ Market and, in this scenic seafaring town where the river meets the salty sound, you can stop in at Tova’s Vintage Shop to browse funky frocks and accessories spanning the decades, from rhinestone-encrusted 1800s jewelry to elegant Christian Dior suits from the 1950s. Have lunch at Fresh Salt on

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The first & only trail of it’s kind in the nation, the Connecticut Farmers’ Market Trail links over a dozen premier destination markets statewide..

Saybrook Point overlooking the marina and enjoy a seasonally-varied menu sourced from our region’s farms, brewers, cheese makers.

Bring the kids to Harvey’s Beach, a small, shallow-water beach with a bathhouse and showers. When it’s low tide there, you can walk out to the sandbars. Take in a round of Mini Golf on Saybook Point, a classic shoreline boardwalk miniature golf with sea breezes and boats cruising by. Cap off the trip at the original 1896 James Soda Fountain.

In Connecticut’s Northwest Corner, the picturesque Norfolk Farmers’ Market is nestled in the foothills of the Berkshires.

In the late 19th century, Norfolk evolved into a fashionable resort as visitors from New York, Hartford, Pittsburgh and Boston were drawn by its cool summers and clean air. The town has ever since had a bustling “summer colony” and is home to three state parks, the Yale Summer School of Music, and Infinity Hall, a shingled 1880’s Artsand-Crafts confection, with an opera house upstairs and storefronts at street level.

The hills and swales, tors and valleys of the Norfolk countryside have an ancient feel. It’s the perfect place to get outdoors!

Climb the tower at the top of Haystack Mountain and enjoy the view, hike the Norfolk Land Trust, picnic by the waterfall at Campbell Falls State Park, bike in Great

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Mountain Forest, go horseback riding at Terra Cello Farm, launch your kayak at Wood Creek Pond or tour Norfolk in a carriage from Loon Meadow Farm.

The Putnam Saturday Farmers’ Market is held in a pavilion riverside. Putnam, perhaps the jewel of New England antique shopping destinations, is best appreciated by walking the quaint downtown.You’ll find over a dozen antique shops and over 450 dealers in old factory buildings, a former courthouse and what was once a Montgomery Ward department store.

From the Farmers’ Market at Billings Forge venture out to some of the lesser-explored Hartford landmarks. Visit the observation deck of The Travelers Tower, New England’s oldest skyscraper. A landmark since 1936, the tower offers a panoramic view of the Connecticut River Valley.You may have driven by the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch in Bushnell Park, but have you been inside? The Farmers’ Market Trail site tells you how to score a free tour to climb its 96 steps for views of the park and the city.

On the 2nd floor of the Old State House, visit the Museum of Natural and Other Curiosities, a bizarre collection of natural curiosities where “Mounted animal heads

All along the Farmers’ Market Trail you’ll find handmade, Connecticut-grown, fresh, local, and fun.. . trending toward sharply toward the offbeat and unique.

line the walls, swaths of a python’s skin drape a window, and a mammoth alligator lurks from the ceiling. Cases of brightly colored butterflies sparkle, but creepy crawlies, such as the huge Peruvian tarantula, and the albino cobra snaking up out of a basket send shivers up the spine. Among the scores of other artifacts are a mummified human hand and a giant narwhal tusk, but …it’s the two-headed calf that is the most curious of the curiosities.”

All along the Farmers’ Market Trail you’ll find handmade, Connecticut-grown, fresh, local, and fun… trending sharply toward the offbeat and unique.​ Happy travels, food lovers!

The Forgotten Joys of Pork Cake By amy Nawrocki Valerie Brodie Image

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Our notions of what constitutes “dessert” and what constitutes a “meal” need to be challenged when we think about early American cooking. Cakes and puddings, which today we expect to be sweet, were often savory.

Vegetables and herbs were used in desserts, and a “pie” just as well could have had meat, as fruit or custard, just as well served as a main course as for a dessert. Suet, lard, and pork fat were often used in pie crusts and “cakes.”

Likewise, distinguishing between bread and cake also seems a contemporary assessment; we now expect bread to be yeast-risen, relatively un-sweet, with crispy crusts and flaky (doughy) centers.

A cake, on the other hand, is relegated to the confectionery realm, using carbonate-based leavening, moist, sweet, and deserving of equally sweet frosting or icing.

An interesting example of these mutable perceptions can be found in Pork Cake—more bread than cake, it showcases not only the cake-bread continuum, but also the surprising ingredient of salt pork that was a staple in most early Connecticut kitchens and used in ways that today we’d say are odd.

Salting pork meant preserving the pig’s bounty for the entire season.

Because we no longer have need of innovative preservation techniques, and because bacon is easy to find now, we often also forget or remain unaware of the range of uses for salt pork. It’s still a key ingredient in chowders and soups, but fat and salt are usually the first to go from our health-conscious menus. And rightly so. But dishes like these

Connecticut Food and Farm

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Cakes and puddings, which today we expect to be sweet, were often savory. remind us of the resourcefulness that was necessary just to put a meal on the table, and its odd combination of ingredients tells us that our modern labels may actually prevent us from trying something potentially delicious.

Researching early foods, I came across more than a few mentions of Pork Cake, like this one from Abner Judson, a Stratford lumber dealer and boot maker. The recipe was entered into his account book in 1854.

12 ounces pork (salt pork) 1 pint boiling water 2 teaspoons baking soda 1 pound seeded raisins 1 tablespoon cinnamon 1 nutmeg 2 coffee cups molasses (1 ½ cups modern conversion) 1 cup sugar Flour in your judgment Dice the salt pork, cover with boiling water to remove salt.

Then add molasses and sugar.

Add flour, raisins, and spices. Put into 2 greased and floured pans and bake at 300 for 2 hours.

A couple generations later, Elnora Wilcoxen’s Pork Cake uses dark brown sugar, citron, and orange and lemon peel, as these ingredients became more available. A slightly more “modern” rendition can be found in Hyla O’Connor’s Early American Cookbook. It calls for slightly less fatback (1/2 pound), equal amounts of sugar and molasses (1 cup each), 2 eggs, 1 tsp baking soda, ground cloves and allspice in addition to the nutmeg and cinnamon. O’Connor’s suggestion of 4 cups of flour corresponds nicely to Judson’s “in your judgment” prescription, and 50-60 at 375 minutes is plenty if using two 9x5 inch bread pans, greased and floured.

The results are surprising. When I made the cakes, after soaking the pork, I drained off the salty water, but added about a cup of fresh water (milk would work also) to make the batter moist enough to mix. The molasses gives the loaves a dark color, and the cake is dense, moist, but not overly sweet. Knobs of salt pork pop up in every other bite, and these are chewy, sometimes a little tough, but they unexpectedly complement the raisins and spice. I made a light cream cheese frosting and this not only made it seem more dessert-like but helped to balance the flavors. The color and texture reminded me of those horrible fruitcakes that grandmothers everywhere pawned off on unsuspecting eaters. The concept is similar—a heavy “cake” that will fill you up and keep well, but without the burden of multicolored candied fruit, there is a slightly more authentic feel and taste to this classic New England dish.

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