Food
Let Your Stomach Do the Driving How far are you willing to travel for a great food experience? by Elaine Slater-Kogler Community contributor Have you ever thought about how far you have traveled to get a great food experience? I’m not talking about a slice of pizza or a salad; I’m talking about that special Mexican food or that special restaurant food that you know you can only get at one place and one place only, and you are willing to travel for it. I’ve traveled on average, an hour, to enjoy some of my favorite restaurants. A couple of years ago, our friends introduced us to our favorite place to dine. The caveat was that we could never go there again without them. My husband and I just kind of looked at each other and said “okay.” Little did we know what we were going to experience at Port’s Café in Geneva. If you’ve ever driven along Seneca Lake past Belhurst Castle and other notable stops on that road, you might have passed off Port’s as “not much” – big mistake! This is to-date, the best food experience that I have ever had in Central New York. I love to cook, and there are many times that we go out to dinner and I’m disappointed in my meal. Not at Port’s – it’s a gastronomic experience that you won’t forget. Now, the only caveat… is that you have to take me with you. If you have a favorite to-die for restaurant, send me an email at elaine@infused.com or send me a message on Facebook: facebook.com/fingerlakesfoodtrail or facebook.com/infused.foods.
Photo courtesy of Elaine Slater-Kogler
What’s Cooking? Elaine Slater-Kogler is owner of Infused!, a specialty food store at 37 Fennell St., Skaneateles. In business since 2005, Infused! is all about flavor as well as listening to customers. Contact Elaine at elaine@infused.com.
Baked Tilapia Fillets
Bring the Heat Sausage
Add vegetable and mango salsa.
Ghost pepper twist on classic recipe.
I love flavor, so I experiment with many different combinations of ingredients. I open up the cupboard and freezer and pull things out and see what I come up with (like this Photo courtesy of Elaine Slater-Kogler recipe): 4- 6 Tilapia fillets (placed in a glass baking pan sprayed with Pam); Infused! Harvest Herb Artisan Olive Oil (drizzle lightly over the top); Maruso Ghost Black Bean Soy Sauce (drizzle lightly over the top); 2 cups of French’s Dried Onions crushed Bake at 350 degrees until flaky. When Tilapia is close to finished baking, place crushed dried onions over the top and bake until browned. Mango Chutney Vegetable Salsa 2 cups diced green pepper; 2 cups diced red pepper; 1 cup diced sweet onion; 2 cups sweet corn kernels; 2 tbsp. of Infused! Oil (your choice); 1 Jar of Mango Chutney Place vegetables in a pan and cook until warmed through. Add half of the jar of chutney and warm that through. Serve on top of the baked Tilapia.—Elaine Slater-Kogler
This recipe was an experiment of mixing spicy sausage with the Ghost pepper soy sauce that turned out to be tasty. 1 package of hot sausage (or spiced to your liking); 1 Photo courtesy of Elaine Slater-Kogler red pepper sliced; 1 green pepper sliced; 1 sweet onion sliced; 1 large sheet of aluminum foil Drizzle 2 tbsp. of olive oil on the foil bottom. Place the peppers and onions on top of the olive oil. Place the sausage on top of the peppers. Drizzle 1 tbsp. of olive oil on top of the sausage and peppers. Drizzle 1 tsp. of Maruso Ghost pepper Black Bean soy sauce on top of peppers and onions. Preheat grill to 350 degrees. Wrap the foil up into a package and place on the grill. Cook for 15 minutes before checking contents – stir and rewrap the foil. Simmer another 15 minutes. Remove sausage from foil and place on the grill directly to brown. Pull the foil packet aside to keep warm while sausage is browning. Once browned, place a bed of peppers and onions on a plate and place sausage on top. Dinner is served.—Elaine Slater-Kogler
12 January 2014
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12/13/2013 8:41:45 AM