Fun Playing With Clam Bake Season, Part 2

After devouring two clam bakes at Solon's Bar 50/20 aka Mish Mosh, we next sampled the Clam Bake at Fisher's American Tavern, right next door to Mish Mosh. Though we give the slight Clam Bake edge to neighbor Mish Mosh, we also had a great time at Fisher's. Fisher's is serving it's last bakes tonight and tomorrow starting at 4pm; Mish Mosh goes through the end of October.

Fisher's basic clam bake includes a dozen clams, half roasted chicken, corn on the cob, sweet or baked potato, clam broth, New England clam chowder, and a roll with cinnamon butter for for $29.95. Extra dozen clams are $12. They also have a New York strip steak bake for $35.95 and a clamless chicken bake for $19.95. We continued our pattern of sharing one full bake, plus a dozen extra clams. On this evening, we decided to get a second cup of clam chowder in addition to our Steak Bake and extra dozen clams.

The chowder was ok, but definitely a food service product. 

This part of the bake was very good. We opted for sweet potato instead of white. Even though the corn wasn't grilled as Mish Mosh's was, it still had a lot of flavor for late October corn. The steak was nicely cooked to medium. And the sweet potato hit the spot for sweetness and texture. We were grateful for the pats of real butter, since the cinnamon butter was actually margarine. I especially liked the jus. 

Bob liked Fisher's clams better. I liked them better than the clams at the first Mish Mosh bake, half of which were a little too big and tough, but equal to the second two Mish Mosh bakes we had (the last after we had Fisher's). Mish Mosh won for presentation and that lovely tomatoey clam broth. Mish Mosh also won for it's house made chowda with fresh clams. It's not fair to compare lobster or filet with NY Strip, though we also loved Mish Mosh's grilled chicken. All the animal proteins we sampled were perfectly cooked by each restaurant.

So, side by side, priced within a couple of dollars of one another in each variation they shared, we give the win to Mish Mosh. But if you are hankering for clams, either restaurant will slake that thirst in style. Get Fisher's until tomorrow, Mish Mosh's Monday-Saturday through the end of the month.

Oh and if you fancy lobster with your bake, Mish Mosh offers live Maine lobsters Thursday-Saturday, and they are tasty!

Our third bake at Mish Mosh was steak - which had been a 12oz New York Strip similar to Fisher's, but switched out the night we dined to an 8oz Filet, still priced at $38. I normally prefer strip to filet, but not that night. 

Cooked to a perfect medium rare!

Straight up Clam Broth no Tomato, Third Mish Mosh Bake

We're going to try to get back to Mish Mosh for the pork ribs before the season ends! Though Fisher's was a very worthy second. Fun Playing With Clams in Solon for one more week!

Fisher’s American Tavern

28020 Miles Road

Solon, Ohio 44139

(440) 349-3736

https://www.facebook.com/fishersamericantavern/

Open for lunch at 11am Mon-Fri (Saturday at noon)

Closes 11pm

Closed Sunday

Bar 50/20 aka Mish Mosh

5020 Brainard Road

Solon, Ohio 44139

(440) 349-7300

mishmosheatery@gmail.com

No website, FB page: https://www.facebook.com/bar5020/

Open for lunch and dinner M-TH 11:30am-11pm, Fri-Sat until 1am.

Fun Playing with Food Over Labor Day Weekend

For only the second time in 24 years, Bob and I spent Labor Day Weekend at home and not at the Western PA Mensa Regional Gathering in Pittsburgh. In 1991, we first met at this event, and we married five years later. Bob is experiencing some health issues that make travel and hotel stays difficult. so home it was. Sad as we were to miss the festivities, we did eat well.

Our Saturday breakfast was another take on Hash Brown Waffles topped with poached eggs, similar to the photo below.

Saturday's dinner was about using up some lovely peppers we'd gotten at Basketeria at the West Side Market two weeks prior, together with Farmers' Market sweet corn, and some of the last fresh Alaskan Wild King Salmon of the season, from Mister Brisket, which was fabulous. 

Stuffed Peppers with Lentils, Tomato Sauce, Onions, Cheese

Ementaler and Gruyere Cheeses complimented the salmon perfectly.

Grilled Alaskan Salmon topped with garden Garlic Chives, Grilled Corn, Stuffed Pepper

The leftover salmon became salmon salad Sunday morning, served on beautifully rustic dark rye from Lucy's Sweet Surrender at the Chagrin Falls North Union Farmers' Market and market tomatoes.

Dinner on Sunday and Monday was the same: grilled Mr. Brisket Burgers, On the Rise buns, Farmers' Market lettuce, onion and tomato, leftover stuffed peppers and corn salad made with the leftover grilled corn from Saturday's dinner:

For Sunday breakfast, the Waffle Iron Chef-ed again! I'd been wanting to make Falafel Waffles, and this was my big chance!

The recipe suggested using about a tablespoon of batter in each grid - good if you wanted falafel-ball sized waffles to stuff in pita, but not so good if the waffles would be the star, so I tripled the amount per grid after the first four. We served the waffles on the plate, with more tomato and onion, and topped it with Amir's Tahini Hummus (which was more hummus than tahini, I'm afraid, but Heinen's didn't have Amir's straight tahini), and my riff on Michael Symon's Tzadiki sauce - substituting local Anaheim Pepper for Cucumber. Since the hummus wasn't sesame-ee enough for me, we drizzled some additional Sesame Oil over all. 

As we count down the last days of summer, and the last days before Bob's surgery (to hopefully at least make a dent in his spinal problems), it was nice to pause and enjoy good food and one another. I hope your long weekend was equally delicious and that you had fun playing with your food! 

Fun Playing With A Gem in the Raw: Tim Bando's Grove Hill

July 2014 has been a roller coaster. It started with an amazing meal at Jonathon Sawyer's Trentina (blog post on that to come shortly), then a week plus in Boston enjoying fresh fish, seafood, and great friends. My fiftieth birthday was approaching at the end of the week, and I had been planning culinary adventures to celebrate it for months. Then, it happened -- the crud descended the night before and crushed all the plans. I spent my big day going from doctor, to lab/xray, to pharmacy, to the couch, to sleep.

After a week of misery, the fog began to lift, so we took a chance on getting a seat at Tim Bando's one-and-one-half week old Grove Hill in Chagrin Falls (the website isn't really up yet; you'll get better info on their Facebook page). I didn't want to make a reservation, in case the cough wouldn't permit me to go out at the last minute, so we hoped 6pm would be early enough to get a table. We missed it by that much (the diner ahead of us got the last one). The cheerful hostess suggested the bar, but at first that didn't appeal - were there tables at the bar area, I asked? She said no, but as we headed out, we saw a communal "sidebar" that can hold up to 7 people next to the bar, looking out the front window, with comfy leather stools. And only two of the seven seats were occupied. Sold. I hope they come up with a better name or description for that table, since it's the bar area, but not the same as sitting at the bar; in fact, it was quite lovely, except for the aggressively perfumed plants on the window sill.

Service was mostly expert, though the bread service was delivered by a runner who didn't tell us what the components were. Despite a couple of flaws, we thoroughly enjoyed our meal and it was a worthy consolation prize for the recently cancelled festivities.

Bread Service: Whipped Soft Butter, Garlic, House-made Hummus

The bread was assertively crusty with a melt-in-your mouth middle. I don't know what the garlic cloves were intended to be. They didn't seem soft roasted and weren't spreadable, but they didn't taste pickled either. Cut up, they went nicely with the soft whipped butter. The bean dip tasted very fresh with an herbaceous pop, but was a bit too salty. 

Roasted Corn

Bob's roasted corn was topped with Calabrian Chili Aioli, Pecorino, and Basil. Not local corn yet, but close enough to be enjoyed, accompanied by a great balance of sweet and slightly spicy flavors, with mouth hugging creaminess from the aioli bringing it all together.

Grove Hill Chicken Soup

This chickeny elixir is thick with orzo, chicken meat, carrots, celery, onion and chili oil, and topped with parsley. Though it needed a big pinch of salt, this creative approach to Grandma's chicken soup made this sick girl feel like she'd had the most comforting bowl of poultry penicillin ever. Be forewarned that the chili oil heat is pronounced, so if it is not your favorite flavor, steer clear. 

Texas Cut Sirloin
Summer Bean Salad, Herb Butter, Fries

Bob's steak was cooked to a perfect medium-rare and crusted nicely, though it was also a bit under salted. The bean salad offered an unexpected but welcome pork-infused flavor punch, and the crispy fries rounded out the plate nicely.

Seared Scallops
Polenta Croutons, Truffled Corn, Chives

This dish would have been magnificent if the Polenta Croutons hadn't been cold. The scallops, my first seafood since enjoying local/super fresh products in Boston, were a very good quality product, well seasoned and perfectly seared. The warm corn salad complimented the seafood with both texture and acid enhancing the natural pairing of corn and shellfish. The Polenta Croutons were a great idea and had nice flavors, but they needed to be served hot and crispy to really impress. 

Desserts are made in house and sounded delicious, but the portions were so generous that we hadn't even cleaned our dinner plates. Guess that means we'll have to get back to Grove Hill for another meal!

We had fun playing with our dinner off the bar at Grove Hill. The deft hands in the kitchen and in service are cranking out both creative and more familiar comfort food, at very reasonable price points, and it all bursts with flavors, colors and textures that left me hungry for more. The restaurant also offers a full raw bar; I haven't seen that menu posted anyplace on line, but the regular menu is on the Facebook page. I expect the few flaws in seasoning and temperature will work themselves out as everything settles in, but I really hope that they re-think those stinky flowers by the window seats (I love roses too, but not right by my dinner plate or wine glass). I'm excited to try additional offerings from the regular and raw bar menus and playing with food at Grove Hill after hitting the farmers' markets later in the summer; they are supposed to start serving Saturday and Sunday brunch sometime in August.

Grove Hill
25 Pleasant Street
Chagrin Falls, OH 44022
(440) 247-4800
Closed Monday

Fun Playing With Garden Tomatoes in a Cobbler

This post is a few weeks late, but we still have some luscious garden tomatoes ripening in the house, and basil in the garden - hopefully some of you do also (or can still get from the farmers' markets) - because this recipe is so good, we made it four times in two weeks!

I stumbled upon Tomato Cobbler on Seriouseats.com, here. The recipe originated with cookbook author Lisa Fain, and can be found in her book The Homesick Texan Cookbook.  Ms. Fain rightly wondered if cobbler, traditionally a sweet ending filled with fruit, would work as a savory when made with garden tomatoes and cooked in a cast-iron skillet. After sharing the recipe with Bob, he turned it into even greater deliciousness with a few garden tweaks. 

He first followed the recipe exactly. The prescribed ingredients are as follows:

1 pound tomatoes, peeled, cored, and diced or 2 cups canned diced tomatoes, drained
1 jalapeño chile, seeds and stems removed, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup chopped cilantro
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon lime juice
Salt and black pepper, to taste
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick)
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup whole milk

which yielded this:

Here is is served up for dinner with some of our Breychak's Farm Sausage, from the grill:

We devoured it, but felt we could do better. We also skipped the cast iron skillet, concerned about the tomatoes reacting, and used a three quart All Clad Chef's Pan. So in some ways, this post is about the process of playing with food, and how by being unafraid to experiment, you can sometimes improve someone else's recipe.

For the second incarnation, Bob doubled the amount of tomatoes to 2 cups. He also added some garden corn kernels and reduced the liquid in half. This version was more delicious, but a little too wet:

By the time we made it a third time, for my parents in NY, we'd decided to cut the tomato back to 1.5 cups and to substitute garden basil for the impossible-to-grow-in-Northeast Ohio cilantro. Perfection!

We made a triple-size batch of the cobbler for our friends in Jamaica Plain Co-housing, but it was devoured by our 30+ guests before I could snap a photo of it!

So, the next time you have garden tomatoes and basil (and perhaps corn) on your hands - give this amazing dish a try. It works as a side (as seen above) or drizzle with cheese of your choice and melt to make it a one-pot meal (I enjoyed the leftovers from the first one that way, with cheddar).

1.5 cups tomatoes, peeled, cored, and diced
1 jalapeño chile, seeds and stems removed, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup chopped basil or cilantro
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon lime juice
Kosher Salt and black pepper, to taste
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick)
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
.5 cup whole milk (we used 2% from Snowville Creamery)

Fresh corn off the cob

To make the cobbler:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. Toss together the diced tomatoes (together with their juices - don't let them get away!), diced jalapeño, garlic, basil or cilantro, cumin, and lime juice. Add Kosher salt and black pepper to taste.

3. Melt the butter in a 2.5-3qt. oven-safe skillet or Chef's Pan, on low heat. Once the butter is melted, remove the pan from the heat.

4. In a bowl, bring together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and Kosher salt. Add the milk and stir. Add and stir in corn, if using. Pour the batter over the melted butter in the skillet. Do not stir the batter. Spoon the tomato mixture on top of the batter and again, do not stir. Bake for about 30 minutes, uncovered, and remove from the oven when golden, brown and delicious!

Fun playing with garden tomatoes, corn and basil never tasted this good!

Fun Playing Slowly With Cinqo de Mayo Food (early) and Momocho!

What a glorious time we had last Monday at one of our favorite Cleveland restaurants, Momocho! And our great time benefited a wonderful cause - Slow Food Northern Ohio. Chef Eric Williams and his crew opened the restaurant on their day off for this delightful, family friendly evening, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting Slow Food. And though I don't have children (I find the husband quite sufficient) - evenings like this almost make me wish I had one - from the youngest in the house (1 week old Isabel W.) to the almost-two-year-old Pchak twins, to some slightly in-between and even older youngsters. Every one of them was wonderfully behaved.

As an extra bonus - by going relatively early during Daylight Savings Time, and being seated by a window - I actually had good light to photograph (Momocho is one of those places that has dim light and lots of reds at night, which makes photography with my limited skills and camera difficult.)

I started with a Pomegranate Margarita, but then switched to what is now my new all time favorite at Momocho - the Pineapple Margarita with Chile-Lime salt. We had three friends at our table, and an extended table of friends right next to us, and the aforementioned W. family behind us!



While enjoying our cocktails, we ordered up a 3-guacamole sampler. No one makes guacamole like Momocho - simply fresh and fabulous!


Freshly Fried Chips


Guacamole!


Goat Cheese, Tomato, Poblano




Jicama, Pineapple, Habanero, Mint

This was the table favorite.


Garlic Confit, Bleu Cheese, Chile Verde



Starting on the left and going clockwise - goat cheese, pineapple and bleu cheese.


Goat Cheese


Pineapple


Bleu Cheese

The guacamole was a more than ample appetizer for us, so we moved on to the mains!


Pepita & Pecan Crusted Trout w/Jalapeño Mustard Crema & Sofrito Green Beans

My taste was yummy!


Adobo Lamb Chops w/Jalapeño Mustard Crema & Goat Cheese Avocado & Spinach

Since two of my dining companions ordered this dish, I got two different angles on it:



It was wonderful.


Kobe Beef Abondigas, Charred Tomato & Chile Guajillo, Hominy, Truffle Oil, Cotija

This photo does not do justice to this tasty dish - an amazing textural and flavor combo!


Pork Chop el Carbon w/ Oaxacan Mole, Smoked Gouda Tamale Dumplings

My dish - and if I do say so - the winner and most amazing!







Tender, succulent pork and complex mole married with caramelized peppers and those amazing corn dumplings.


Grilled Corn on the Cob w/Chipotle Lime Butter, Cojita & Crema, Pico De Gallo

I first tasted an incarnation of this dish last spring at the Taking it to the Streets for Annie benefit. Chef Eric has refined and improved it - and where oh where does he get corn this good at this time of year?

I am so delighted to show you some of Momocho's food - we love them so much, but don't get there often enough - and when we do, the light often defeats my efforts to capture the food - thanks to Cinqo de Mayo, though, I was able to play with my food with abandon at Momocho last Monday!