Garlic & Ginger-Studded Rotisserie Pork Loin

The Ambrose sisters and their sunny mother have returned from eight days on the southeastern coast of Florida, primed for another semester. Their call came in at 11:30 a.m. reporting a safe landing at JFK. “What’s the plan for dinner? ” they asked. I responded “pork loin” and the plan is made. Read More »

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Brussels Sprouts & Sage Sausage Hash

Brussels Sprouts and Sage Sausage Hash

Thanksgiving breakfast:  Yes, we love Brussels sprouts in our house. On Thanksgiving, it has been determined that it is just fine, in fact, to serve them twice. The first time is for breakfast where we cook them camp-out style on a grill over the fire in our fireplace. The second is for dinner, simply sauteed with garlic in olive oil until brown.

Breakfast ingredients:

a dozen local eggs
½ loaf of whole-grain bread for toast
12 Brussels sprouts, quartered
3 small red potatoes, cut into cubes and blanched for 3 minutes
1 small sweet potato, cut and blanched
1 leek, diced and rinsed
4 shallots, quartered
½ pound fresh-from-the-butcher sage pork sausage
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon kosher salt
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Chicken Hash “21” Style in Honor of Elegant Sarah

Back in the late 90’s, I had the good fortune of serving the Amagansett, NY community on a daily basis. The restaurant was called Estia’s and I had a bird’s eye view of Main Street for 16 years from my kitchen.

The nice thing about running a full-service restaurant seven days a week over the course of a decade is the people that you meet. One of my favorites was an elegant lady named Sarah Davis.  She stopped by occasionally for lunch with her daughter Tracy.  It was my good fortune to have a chance to serve Sarah, joining the legions of friends who admired her style. Read More »

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3 Sprout Sandwich with Pinenut Cream & Parsley Puree

Three Sprout Sandwich with Pinenut Cream and Parsley puree, parsnips and butternut squash

Tomorrow night will mark my first vegetarian tasting effort. Five courses served with organic wine from the Heller Estate in Carmel Valley, California.

This dishwill start the evening. As the menu developed, I was concerned that there might not be enough substance to satisfy a hungry guest. Having tasted this dish, I now feel confident that we will more than fulfill the goal of providing complete nourishment with tasty variety.

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash, peeled and sliced thin on a mandoline
1 spicy turnip, peeled and sliced thin on a mandoline
1 cup lentil sprouts
1 cup sunflower sprouts
1/2 cup alfalfa sprouts
1 cup pine nuts (soak in filtered water over night)
1 garlic clove
2 shallots
1 cup parsley leaves
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 lemon, juiced
1/2 cup water
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Fancy Eggs Benedict

Anything with hollandaise sauce works for me, especially when I’m cooking at home for my daughter Mansell.  This morning, she is on a soft food diet so I decided to forget about the usual English muffin and sliced ham arrangement.  Leftover mashed potatoes and diced ham provide a perfect replacement.

Simply mix 2 slices of ham chopped fine with 2 cups of mashed potatoes and create patties. Place the patties on a buttered pan over medium heat and cook until they begin to brown. Flip them over and repeat.

After tasting it, we realized we actually like this preparation better so it will be on the “Little Kitchen” Sunday brunch menu soon. Read More »

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Raul’s Chorizo Albondigon with Salsa Verde

Chorizo Albondigon

Raul has outdone himself with another superb Albondigon.  The last time we ran one, they were mini-chicken meatballs in a chicken broth. This one is the opposite but, in some ways, the same.  It starts with a long cylindrical sausage wrapped in meatloaf, then foiled and roasted for an hour.  Slice and serve with rice and beans. We enhanced the dish with a small radish salad harvested an hour before at the Quail Hill farm.

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Vegetable Enchiladas in Tomatillo Salsa Verde

Vegetable Enchiladas with Salsa Verde

Today, I walked in the kitchen door to find Raul putting the final touches on a salsa verde, utilizing the balance of our season’s harvest.  It is unique in that this salsa features several types of peppers, jalapeno, serrano, and sweet bells. In addition, he utilized a bowl full of cilantro and parsley that continue to flourish in our November garden.  Finally, he added equal parts of tomatillo (to the peppers), a handful of garlic cloves and the biggest Spanish onion in our pantry.

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Braised Veal Shank in a Clear Broth

Braised Veal Shank

Tonight’s menu was written when we weren’t sure how many people would join us for dinner.  The past weekend’s surprise snowstorm (15 inches in October) has caused power outages all over Connecticut.  That means no school for many.  Several neighboring families have no electricity so that they can cook, and Jessica has been on the phone sharing the love of her husband’s cooking.

The recipe below comes from today’s efforts.  It’s been cut down to serve 4 or 5 at your table.  I like to fill out the braising pan with chunks of veal stew meat thereby allowing for extra visitors or extra hungry family members.  I’ve chosen to keep the tomatoes whole in the braising pan so that the resulting broth will be clear.  If you like a darker, richer sauce, switch out the white wine for red and add tomato paste to the recipe (about 3 tablespoons should do). Read More »

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Linguine with Little Neck Clam Sauce

Linguine in Clam Sauce

We feature Little Neck clams in our Paella at the Little Kitchen.  Since it is cheaper to buy them by the bushel, we often have a few dozen left on Monday for this family favorite pasta dish at home.  Of course, fresh linguine is our choice especially when we have an extra pound of Lemon Pepper linguine left after our Ambrose Sisters Food Co. farmer’s market appearances.  The whole cooking process only takes about 30 minutes.

Be sure to have a bowl full of arugula and some ripe tomatoes on hand to accompany this meal with crunch and color.

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Cafe con Leche Flan

Ingredients (serves 4):

2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 can sweetened evaporated milk (4oz.)
14 oz. half / half
4 eggs (2 yolks only, 2 whole)
1.5 tablespoon instant coffee

A straight forward take on traditional flan. Not too sweet, if you like it sweeter add a few tablespoons of agave syrup. Read More »

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Roasted Pumpkin Salad with goat cheese and toasted seeds

When you clean a pumpkin never throw out the seeds. That’s what my mother taught me as a kid, primarily because the toasted seeds always made for an added fall attraction at her counter for snacks. In my kitchen the toasted seeds are shared with little hands as well as on the adult salad at dinner.

Ingredients serve 4 or more:

For the dressing

1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon dried oregano

For the squash and the seeds

1 medium size squash or pumpkin
3 tablespoons oil (each)
1 teaspoon kosher salt (each, seeds and squash)

For the salad

4 cup mixed greens
2 tablespoon goat cheese
1 apple, diced
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Pan Roasted Striped Bass with Amber Farms Wheat Berry and Rice Cakes

Ingredients (serves 4):

2 pounds Striped Bass
1/4 cup butter

1 cup wheat berries
1 cup organic brown rice
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 cup mixed chopped herbs
2/3 cup egg whites

This dish has supported our menu since the striped bass season opened on Long Island last July. The cakes are sometimes finished with mushrooms and truffle oil, sometimes sesame oil and sesame seeds, today with herbs from our garden, olive oil and egg whites. Read More »

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Cocojito

Cocojito

In the end of August, on a balmy Wednesday night I traveled to Montauk with Rupert for a sample of the offerings at Sean McPherson’s beach bar “The Crows Nest”.

Dinner was excellent. My favorite choice was the Kale Salad. Service was on the money, too. My take away came off the bar.

They were featuring a cocktail made with coconut water, mint, and some sort of rum. I don’t drink alcohol, the drink was delicious served virgin. I’m going to call it the Cocojito.

We don’t serve spirits at The Little Kitchen so I chose raw organic agave syrup and lime juice as a replacement. The muddled mint comes from our garden. It helps to shake the “Cocojito” on ice before serving. Try it in a 16 oz. shaker glass. Add a shot of Bacardi for the extra kick.

8 oz. coconut water
2 oz. lime juice
2 oz. raw organic agave syrup
5 mint leaves crushed on the bottom of the glass

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Lymanade, with cucumber and mint

The A. Sisters with Lymanade flavors

On Sunday last week a hurricane roared through Sag Harbor, her name was Irene and in the end my lemon cucumber plants were stripped of their leaves. Not a problem as the plants seem to be regenerating with new flowers and the existing cucumbers are much easier to find with the thinned foliage.

Lemon Cucumbers from the Estia garden for Lymanade recipe

Lemon Cucumbers from the Estia garden for Lymanade recipe

We’ve had a regular at the East Hampton farmers market asking for our Cucumber Mint Lymanade for a few weeks now. The A. Sisters table featured raspberry, strawberry, watermelon, peach, and cantaloupe Lymanades as the season has progressed. Now it’s time to respond to the call for the Mojito mixer that’s been a late summer hit for the past 3 years.

Lymanade Variety

Lymanade Variety

Each of our Lymanades feature a different seasonal, locally harvested fruit, but the basic recipe remains the same. Combine equal parts of lemon and lime juice (1 cup each) and then that much fruit puree (2 cups) with enough simple syrup to soften the citrus (1/2 to 1 cup)
and shake in an recycled wine bottle, chill and serve over ice with soda or your favorite spirit. Read More »

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Vegetable stuffed peppers with Amber Waves wheat berries

Another Tuesday on Quail Hill, sunny, dry, August at it’s best. I waited for a little girl to finish using the pitch fork in the potato bed. Her hair was tied back in a pink bandanna. If she dug 10 potatoes I’d be surprised but that’s not what it was all about. The look in her eyes, excitement on her face and tone of her voice screamed the story of perfect summer adventure.

On this particular evening we had an Amagansett resident visiting our table, he lives in a house that sits on the hill that overlooks Quail Hill’s fields. He’s an old family friend who’s been a vegetarian for years, oh sure a little fish, some chicken but when Alec comes to dinner, we always make an effort to include a vegetable center piece on the menu to ensure a full belly for the big man. Read More »

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Scallops and Prawns in Peach Ginger Sauce

Scallops and Prawns in Peach Ginger Sauce

This is one of the easiest “oh boy this is great” grilling recipes I know! A few basics to get started. Ask the fish man for 10-20 prawns and 10-20 sea scallops. That simply means that you’d like shellfish that come 10 to 20 per pound. When the prawns are thawed remove the main shell but leave the head and tail on. With a small knife slice the back of the prawn open and run the butterflied pieces under cold water to rinse away the brown stuff.

To clean the scallops, remove the muscle which is a little chip of flesh that comes off with the flick of your thumb.

Ingredients (serves 8):

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Hanger Steak & Fettuccine with arugula, garlic and butter

My daughters gave me a back yard fire pit for Fathers Day, it’s awesome. Tonight I tried a hanger steak on the grill and was amazed at the wonderful smokey flavor that placed this steak near the top of my lifetime list.

When I planned tonight’s’ dinner at the end of a long day it was the lemon pepper fettuccine that had my attention. I organized the ingredients quickly, having made the pasta for tomorrow’s farmers market in Amagansett earlier in the afternoon. The garlic and arugula came from the garden, and I had a piece of Parmesan in the fridge. Read More »

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Chilatole – Pork in Salsa Verde

Dave Bondlow got up early on Thursday morning and drove to Pine Plains New York to a small slaughter house that handles animals raised on farms in the immediate area using humane practices. He picked up one 180 pound pig, split and chilled.

As soon as Dave arrived in Sag Harbor I got busy breaking down the carcass, first removing the primals then separating the rib bones from the loins. The art of butchery takes time, as a novice working with whole animals, this was an exciting first step.

Serving 180 pounds of pork calls for a plan and this one was generated by a wedding rehearsal dinner that I executed for my late friend Christian Wolffer and his ex wife Naomi Wolffer-Marks. It was in celebration of their daughter Joanna’s wedding to Max, a handsome young man that she meet on a train 3 years ago. Read More »

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Jessica’s Asian Chicken Meatball Soup

I’ve been married to my wonderful wife Jessica for almost 20 years. The union has been spectacular, producing 3 wonderful daughters, several restaurants, a few comfortable homes and a common understanding that I cook and she drives the girls from here to there and back again. Tonight the menu has to be soft, Jessica has had oral surgery and as the pain and throbbing progresses, so will her hunger.
Soft chicken meat balls with spinach and Asian spice simmer in chicken stock as I write.

Why Asian spice you might ask. The truth is today I have no garlic in my pantry, if I did, this dish would have been made with 2 cloves. Instead I turn to the mystery jar, labeled only in Japanese. My best friend from grade school is married to a lovely Japanese woman. She is so wonderful that today she works in Japan for free, serving her country, rescuing dogs and cats that were orphaned in the earth quake. My friend Jeff has been home alone in LA for several weeks now, while his bride Mayu lives on the other side of the Pacific. Read More »

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Roli Roti Pork Belly with chili, ginger, garlic & cilantro

Roli Roti Pork

You’ll find a grocery on the edge of South Norwalk near the Rt. 7 extension with blue awnings. It’s called The SONO Country Market. My buddy “Hoops” calls it the pig store. There’s an excellent butcher at the “Pig Store” his name’s Arullio and he smiled when I asked for a piece of pork loin with the belly meat attached, rib bones removed.

My vision for this dish comes from a truck at the farmers market on the Ferry Building property in San Fransisco. The outfit is called Roli Roti, a rotisserie on wheels. Their pork sandwich rocks! In my view the trick is on the butchers cut. That’s where Arullio comes into the picture. He did what I asked when he prepared this special cut, bone off, belly on, pork loin. Read More »

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