Marly's of Wilton......Fun for Family, Great for Dates

Just finished a great meal at Marly's in Wilton CT tonight.

Now I want to preface that I'm going to change the way I write about restaurants here.  I've seen in a bunch of cooking shows that talk to the chefs or the owners and most of them have said that they really dislike that people take pictures of the food.  They said it takes away from the experience.  I tend to disagree but I have seen enough of the shows to make me think that unless it absolutely requires a photo, I will try to refrain from taking photos at restaurants.  But I will torture you with stuff I cook.

So onto Marly's.  The location is tucked away in the center of Wilton Center CT.  The space is handsomely decorated and in the warmer months, outdoor seating is available.

The  menu is a terrific blend of everything.  Appetizers include two types of chicken wings, fried calamari which you would find in many places that are safe bets.  But Marly's kicks it up a bit by adding P.E.I Mussels and a Pan seared Scallop dish. They also offer two different kinds of sliders.  Kobe beef and Pulled Pork.

On the same side of the Menu were 7 different kinds of salads.  Some of which I'm sure would be big enough for a whole meal.  I was in the mood for Caesar Salad and order theirs as my appetizer.  The romaine was crispy and fresh and the dressing was not too heavy.  It had great salty flavor to it but the best part about it was the long pieces of shaved Parmesan.

On the right side of the menu were the main dishes.  Your choices go from Burgers to Steak and everything in between.  The burgers are not just simple burgers though.  You have your choice of 8. I have had the pleasure of trying three of them in a previous posting and let me tell you, it is difficult to choose just one.  You can also choose to go lighter and select one of five different sandwiches.  Other main dishes included steaks, a few fish dishes including Salmon, Tilapia and Cod.  They also have a number of pasta dishes that you can order 1/2 order of if you want it as an appetizer or just a lighter dinner.  I chose the Buccatini pasta and clams.  The sauce that it came with was a red sauce that was rich and bold.  It was also quite spicy.  Just how I like my meals.  The clams circled the pasta when it arrived so there were plenty.  I enjoyed the sauce so much I had to get more bread for mopping.
Anita ordered off the specials menu tonight which was seared Scallops over an Arugala Salad.  The Scallops were very big and the dish was very pretty and colorful.

We had our kids with us tonight and a friend of theirs.  The kids menu comes on the kids activity book to keep them busy.  All the kids dishes were either $5 or $6 which is perfect.  And the fries were perfect.  One of the greatest things they do is on Sundays.  For families, they have movie night.  in a smaller section of the restaurant, they set up a TV and show a movie.  Kids also get served a meal while watching the movie.  So while they are enjoying a movie and dinner, you can have a little alone time with your loved one.

Oh, and I know I started by saying I wouldn't take photos at restaurants again unless they are real special.  Well I couldn't resist.

Marly's can be found on the web at www.marlysofwilton.com

Passover Feast.......There is no slim way to do it.

The Passover Seders are now over.  And thank goodness.  Yes,I know. What the hell am I whining about.  Two days of some incredible Jewish Soul food.   It's exhausting.  There is so much stuff that you want to have that you end up eating yourself silly.

I remember when we would have those marathon Seders at my Grandparents, we would all sit and rest after the soup just to make some space.  

So I'll start by letting you know how the Pastrami Salmon turned out.  It was bad.  But bad in a weird way.  You see after the siting in the salt/sugar/cilantro/parsley/shallot wet rub for two days, it has in essence cooked.  So you take all that stuff off and give it a rinse.  Then you dry it off and pour on a mixture of molasses, cayenne ( lots), and coriander.  It then goes back in the fridge overnight.  This is what it looks like:

Then you take it out and slice it.  I put it out on a nice plate and it looked real pretty, see:

Even the flesh looked good:

But the topping was weird tasting.  And Spicy.  I didn't mind the heat but it had a strong molasses flavor.  Maybe with less molasses it would have been better but it still wasn't pastrami tasting.  I have to find the recipe that I used many years ago and make it again.  

So I served that along side Egg Salad with mushrooms.  Just some good stuff to nibble on while everyone arrives and gets settled.  

We then took to the table to do the ceremony and story telling of the holiday.  I like to really breeze through this and enjoy the wine along the way.  The traditional Seder has you drinking 4 glasses of wine throughout the meal.  Some of us did that before the meal started.  We were all laughing a lot.  It was a great night.

I suggested to Anita, my wife, that we use the soup we had in the freezer for the night.  I'm all for fresh soup but this was a time saving tactic.  We had three gallons frozen that we really needed to move and it was one less thing we had to make.  Fresh Chicken soup is wonderful and Anita makes it really great.  But it takes almost a whole day to really get it right.  So we went with the Frozen stuff that tasted just as good as it was made that day.  

Our main meal was next.  I originally wanted to make two chickens on the rotisserie but Anita said we would need three for our crowd.  My rotisserie will only hold two chickens so I needed another plan.  How can I cook three whole chickens on the grill at the same time without having to constantly watch it and flip it.  I already had the oven doing something so the Grill was it.  

Did I hear someone say Beer Butt Chicken?  that is right sir.  Beer Butt chicken is the way I went.  Now before any of you hardcore Heebs out there start in on me about not being able to drink beer during Passover, I'll have you know, I drank the beer the night before and only used the cans.  

For those of you who don't know Beer Butt chicken, listen up.  This is such an easy and fun way to cook a chicken on the grill.  You just need a grill, a can of beer (or any beverage in the average 12 oz can) and a chicken.  The idea is you open a beer, drink 1/2 of it and set it aside.  Then you make a rub for the bird and rub it all over the chicken.  Take any leftover rub and put it in the can.  Then you place the chicken's cavity over the can of beer so that the chicken looks like it's sitting on a tri-pod.   Can of beer and it's two legs keep it from falling over.  I made a mixture of Olive oil, lots of fresh squeezed lemon juice and lime juice, ginger powder, garlic powder and rubbed sage.  I think mixed it all up in a bowl and took a turkey baster and filled up the cans 1/2 way.  I then took the birds and dipped them in mixture coating all the sides and placed them on each can.  

when you put it on the grill, you need to cook it indirectly.  That means there is no flame under it.  I used the two outside burners and preheated the grill to 325 degrees.  I then placed the birds in the middle of the grill and it looked like this:

Don't they look awesome!!!!!

After about 1 hour, then come out like this:

Now if you want, you can put a drip pan under the bird or birds to catch the drippings so that you can make a gravy from it.  I forgot to do that but in the end, I didn't need any gravy.  It was even juicy today for leftover lunch.  The idea of the can is used for two reasons.  One is that it provides a good sturdy base to hold the bird.  Second is that when the mixture gets up to a steaming point, that steam provides moisture for the bird.  the moistness and the flavor is worth it.  I highly recommend cooking it this way.

The other item we made was brisket.  I don't know why we don't make this dish more often.  We have three great recipes but we have found the one we made this night is our favorite.  You sear the meat on both sides for 5-7 min. to get a good outside to the meat.  then you cover the meat in a mixture of ketchup, onions, dark brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce and salt and pepper.  The mixture looks like this on top of the brisket:

 

After covering it up, it goes in the oven for 2 hours.  After two hours to you take out the meat and when it's cool enough to handle, you slice it into 1/4" slices.  Then back into the pot for another 2 hours.  You cut it 1/2 way because if you wait till it is all the way cooked, the meat just shreds apart.  After cooking, it looks like this:

 

'The sauce was sweet from the ketchup and the meat was so tender, a knife would be there just for show.  

The Main dishes were accompanied by a potato dish called potato Kugel.  It is made from a mixture of potatoes, matzo meal (like corn meal) eggs, and salt.  You put it all into a food processor till it get to the consistency of a potato pancake batter.  It is placed into a casserole dish and cooked for about an hour.

The other side dish was baby organic veggies roasted with honey and cumin.  The veggies were Patty Pan Squash, baby multi colored carrots, baby Vidalia onion, baby zucchini, and fennel.  It was really tasty and so simple.

 

After a short break, the final portion of the meal is served.  Anita makes some of the greatest desserts.  She made her staple cheese cake that was so good this time.  Where she really excels are her cookies.  She made Pecan  meringue's and coconut macaroons.  The meringues are so light and fluffy and sweet.   They are the crowd favorite.

 

the platter of cookies is always so impressive.  take a look:

Well I hope you enjoyed seeing how we celebrated the Passover holiday.  The crazy part is that we did it all over again the second night.  Its truly an exhausting few days but there is no better way to make yourself tired.

I'd be more than happy to share the recipes that you see here with anyone.  if you would like the recipe, send me a comment and I'll be sure to send it to you.  Or you can send me a message to alanharitonblog@gmail.com

thanks for reading and enjoy every meal you can.

Passover is here........Bring on the Soul Food Part 1

Now for those of you who don't know me, I'm the farthest thing from a religious person.  But what I really enjoy about the holiday, any holiday, is that it brings family and friends together.  Usually around a meal when it comes to me.  Now the time has come for the Jewish holiday of Passover.

Small History Lesson:

 Passover is the holiday where Jews around the world celebrate the exodus for the evil Pharaoh who kept the Jews enslaved to build the pyramids.  During this time of escape, the Jews had no time to wait for their dough to rise for their bread.  So the bread that they had to eat resembled what we have today as Matzo.  So for 8 days we eat nothing (or try to eat nothing) that is made of flour or rises.  That list includes: bread of any sort, crackers, rice, pasta.  The first two nights are called the Seders.  These nights are meals that are served around a ceremony that really tells the story about how the slaves escaped Egypt.   Growing up and going to my grandparents who are Orthodox Jews, our ceremonies there would last sometimes up to 5 hours.  The ceremony at my house lasts about 15 minutes then onto the eats.

History lesson Over.

For me, this is a time when I have an excuse to entertain.  So this is what I have planned.

As a good entertainer does, I will have nibbles out for people to nosh on while we wait to start the dinner.  I have decided to make my egg salad with mushroom and a Pastrami Salmon.  I had made the Pastrami Salmon once a while ago and it was a huge hit.  So making it again I thought would be great.  I searched high and low for the recipe and couldn't find it.  So I found another one from the chef David Burke and thought I'd give it a try.  It calls for taking a 2 to 2 1/2 lbs piece of salmon with no skin on it and curing it with salt and herbs to sort of cook it.  So I have a 2 lb. piece here.

I kind of mauled it a little when I was taking the skin off.  My original goal was to go to Costco and get their Salmon because it is perfect for this.  Boneless and skinless.

So the recipe calls for 1 cup of salt and 1/2 a cup of sugar to be covering the entire piece of fish.  Then in a food processor puree 1/2 lb. of shallots, 2 bunches of Cilantro and 1 bunch of Parsley. Coat the entire fish in the puree and let it sit for two to three days.

My fish will sit for two days.  Then I'll mix a mustard, molasses, coriander seed, cayenne, and bay leaves and let it sit for one more night before serving it sliced.  With my new low salt diet, i'll be having very little of this but it's very dramatic when served right.  I hope it turns out ok.  You'll see the results either Monday or Tuesday.

For the rest of the meal, we'll be serving traditional Matzo ball soup which Anita makes the best I've had.  I'll be making for the main dish, Brisket, and three chickens done on the grill beer butt style.  our sides will be Broccoli, roasted red potatoes with rosemary and a vegetable medley consisting of Patty Pan Squash, baby organic carrots that are all sorts of beautiful colors, baby Vidalia onions, and baby zucchini.  If it turns out right it will be both beautiful and tasty.  I'm going to season it with honey and cumin.   We will also make a potato dish called kugel which takes almost the same batter as a potato pancake and makes it in a casserole dish.

As usual, Anita will out do herself in the dessert category.  She's got one Chocolate cheesecake made and is currently cooking a regular cheesecake.  we'll have coconut macaroons, and meringue cookies.

it will be a great feast that I'm looking forward to sharing with all of you.  I hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I have enjoyed both writing about it and preparing it.

I'm Back

I took a small break and I'm now back.  I have some exciting things to share especially with the Jewish Holiday's coming up, i'll be sharing some good Soul food.

Plus I just got back from Las Vegas so I have one new place to mention.

All in all I'm happy to say that since I got rid of salt in my cooking, my ticker has been much better.  I've also dropped a little weight and hope to drop more.

I want to mention that I got rid of the salt I used to use.  I still have it in somethings but I don't use it anywhere near where I used to use it.  I don't go so far as getting low sodium everything.  I get low sodium soy sauce and low sodium chicken stock but I don't go beyond that.

I'll be in touch again shortly with some past places I have eaten and some things I've made to try to help my diet.

In the meantime, enjoy what you eat and try something new all the time.

The Start of the Low Sodium Life....A wake up call.....And hey look, there's Fish

So I went for a physical this week because earlier in the week my body was talking to me.  My body wasn't saying good things either.  It was saying, your grossly overweight and you use too much salt.  So if you can't see that on your own, i'm going to make your heart beat to the theme of Hawaii Five-O.

Well as you can imagine I heard the music.  Went to see the doctor and got a few x-rays and some blood work. I don't know what the blood will tell me but I know it won't be smiling.  So that was it.  I had gotten back on the exercise routine a few weeks ago so I knew I had to continue that.  But the real issue for me is Salt and portion control.  As you know from reading, I like food a little too much.  Even my doctor said that having this blog is a bad idea.  But I find writing it to be therapeutic and now that I have to change my eating habits a bit, I could use all the therapy I can get.

So the Doctor said to me since I know how to cook, I should know how to cook without salt. Truth is I really don't.  Every thing I read and watch, everyone seasons everything with salt and pepper.  Everything!!!   So I have to be clever with flavor because I like my food to be full flavored.

So last night I decided to try to cook without salt.  I went to the market and got two pieces of Captains cut Cod.  I like the Captains cut because it's a meatier cut and it's mostly the same size all the way through.  So that allows it to cook evenly.  Regular Cod is equally delicious but sometimes I find that you need to cook it so the thicker part is fully cooked and that in turn dries out the thinner parts.

So I started out with about 1/4 cup of minced Shallots and about 6 cloves of garlic that were rough chopped.
I sauteed them till they were fragrant and they were soft. I took it off the heat and let it cool a little bit.  I added about 1/2 a tsp. of oregano to the mixture as it cooled.

I then placed the fish into a casserole dish and turned up the oven to 400 degrees.  I put some olive oil on the fish to coat it.  Now from the photo it may seem like a lot but it was less than I usually put so it was a step in the right direction.

I then took the cooled shallot/garlic mixture and coated the top of the fish and then sprinkled some red pepper flakes on top.

I baked it for 10 minutes until the tops got a little brown and the fish started to flake, and also till the kitchen smoke went away from something I guess I had cooked earlier that spilled on the bottom on became ash.

Overall the taste was very good.  Could it have used some salt?  Of course it could have.  But that will be my job to figure out how to tweak it just a little bit more to get the full rounded out flavor that personally I need.  

This dish was finished with some steamed brocolli so all in all it was a very healthy meal.  And a step in the right direction.

Now the real trick is to see how I do tonight when I go out to dinner with my friends.  We are going out for Thai so I have to really be careful.

Please don't yell at me me when you read my review on it.

Taqueria La Michoacana...........No, your not dreaming, you've stepped into a Taqueria in Mexico

My regular job is located in Bridgeport CT which is home to the largest city population in the state.  With that many people, there are hungry mouths to feed.  There is a large population of Latin residents and therefore a fair amount of Latin Food.

When you look at the store front, you know you are in a place that caters to the local crowd.  There is not a lick of English anywhere.  The space inside is a narrow almost Pizza joint feel with tables on both sides, a TV in the corner and a Juke box in the other.  Sergio the owner is almost always at the counter waiting to take your order.

The Menu shows that they serve everything from Breakfast to Dinner and everything in between.   Fortunately or Unfortunately, at my office we have only gotten one thing there. Tacos.  The Tacos that they make here are like you would get when you are down in Mexico.  They are simple and they let the natural flavors of the meat and salsas do the talking.  And they don't really talk.  They Scream!!!!

We usually get a mix of the Chicken and the Pork Tacos.   But they offer so much more.  They have Beef, Tongue, Sausage and a whole bunch of other organ meat for the brave.  They serve three home made salsas that are fresh made everyday.  Plus they have a pickle mix that includes Cactus which is full of flavor.  When we get the tacos, we ask to have extra grilled spring onions and Jalepenos. Served in two flour tortillas, with a squeeze of lime takes you to a local stand in Mexico City.

Their other dishes include Burritos, Grilled Chicken Dishes and Pork Dishes, and a Mexican soup called Posole which I saw one day.  Looks like a meal rather than a soup.

Go visit Sergio.  You'll be glad you did.

Taqueria La Michoacana can be found at 1914 Main St. in Bridgeport. 203-366-6590.

Luc's Cafe & Restaurants............An Ultra fine Bistro in Ridgefield

So thanks to Facebook, I have met up with an old friend of mine that I hadn't seen in almost 20 years.  We had gotten together a few times with other friends and we discovered that we actually lived very close to each other. As a matter a fact, we both lived 10 minutes from Ridgefield CT.  So after meeting a few times we decided it was time to introduce our better halves.  My friend Scott had said they have been to Luc's Cafe and had the best mussels there.

So as we were so close to there, we decided that would be our meeting place.  Luc's Cafe has been in Ridgefield since 2001 and is just off the main shopping section in the downtown area.  The space is bigger than it looks from outside as it takes up the lower area or even basement of a larger building above it.  when you walk in, your invited to a cozy bar area that is tight for guests to stand if there are no seats.   I say cozy because both my wife and I clocked the head of a sitting patron twice.  Yes we both hit the same guy at different times.

Now as I said we were in the basement of this older building and you know it when you are seated.  The foundation is part of the decor of the space.  Many old buildings didn't have the nice smooth walls they have today when laying a foundation.  It was piled rocks and you see them and feel them as they surround the room.

Luc's menu is primarily French with staples as Salad Nicoise, Escargot, Steak Frittes, and Cassoulet.  But what brought us here are the Moules.  or Mussels as we call them here.

We started off with Salads and my favorite Escargot.  The snails were served in a traditional Escargot plate which housed the succulent little morsels sans shells. The buttery sauce each snail is submerged in has just the right mix of garlic and spices.  My dish was practically ready to be put back on the shelf as I used a good amount of bread to mop up the extras.  My friend Scott's wife Corrie had never tried Escargot so I insisted she try.  I think I might have created a new fan.

For the Main dishes three of us had gotten Mussels and my wife had a craving for Duck.  Her Duck was served Confit in a port wine sauce and served with Mushrooms and shallots.  They use a fancy word for the mushrooms and shallots but I think you get the idea.  I had a taste of the duck and it was tender and juicy and a good choice if you want duck.

The rest of us got the Mussels.  they cook the mussels in a round dutch oven and serve it to you in that same pot.  They are served two ways.  In a white wine sauce with multiple herbs and a tomato and garlic sauce.  Now I'm usually a big fan of the white wine sauce and Scott and I got the white wine sauce.  Scott's wife Corrie had gotten the garlic and tomato and it was a winner of a decision.  Not that mine was bad, it was delicious.  The garlic and light tomato sauce took it to another level.  We asked for more bread for the mopping which was great and absolutely necessary.  The side of Pomme Frittes (french fries) were crispy on the outside and steamy on the inside.  A perfect fry indeed.

Luc's Cafe & Restaurant is located at 3 Big Shop Lane, Ridgefield, CT 06877.  203-894-8922 or you can go here to see the full menu /www.lucscafe.com/