Small Bites

I know a lot of you usually come to this blog for breaking restaurant news. That’s coming, I promise. We’re working on a fall restuarant preview, and I’ll introduce you to all the new hip places you’re going to want to try over the next few months.

But during August, while restaurants are sleepy and patrons are on vacation, we’re cooking up a storm over here in the Locally Grown Recipe Contest. Here’s a little video explainer.

Why not try your hand? Click here to enter. 

You could win dinner for two at Blue Hill at Stone Barns and a $300 gift certificate to mypersonalfarmers.com. The winners will participate in a cook off at Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture and get tickets to Harvest Fest on Oct. 4, when we’ll announce the winner.  Good luck!

Karen Symington Muendell of Yorktown Heights sent in this recipe for the contest.

“I favor quick, fresh dishes for the summer months,” she says. “This is a combination of two recipes I created.”

What do you think of the recipe? Vote below. The reader favorite will win a cookbook.

Want to enter the contest yourself? Click here: LoHud.com/LocallyGrown.

The recipe, after the jump.

Samantha Falk of Yorktown Heights sent in this recipe for the Locally Grown Recipe Contest.

“I like gardening,” she says, “but am bad at weeding and there was one particular succulent weed that was the bane of my existence. That is, until I was reading the last issue of Gourmet magazine and there it was — my weed! I am now thrilled to grow nutritious purslane.”

What do you think of Falk’s recipe? Vote below. The reader favorite will win a cookbook.

Want to enter the contest yourself? Click here: LoHud.com/LocallyGrown.

The recipe, after the jump.

I heart Jimmy Fink, the DJ over at 107.1 The Peak. He loves food as much as I do. And he loves to talk about it. And this, from a guy who’s met John Lennon.

Check him out, discussing the sangria over at Oporto.

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(Photo by Seth Harrison/TJN)

The 411 on Oporto.

I went to Half Moon before we reviewed it to see what diners were saying. Here’s what I found out:

In case you haven’t heard about the new (unpronouncable) cool white wine for summer, here’s a clip from RNN where I talk about it and I make other recommendations for delicious summer wines — in case you can’t find Txomin Extaniz. (And I’ve heard that, after it was in the paper yesterday, it sold out by 2 p.m. at Rochambeau, so it might be a hard bottle to nab!)

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My new best friend Jimmy Fink just sent me an MP3 from this afternoon’s drive time show where he gives his recipe for hot summer weekend dining. Hint: he loves Walter’s!

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For this week’s What’s Cooking segment on RNN, I went to Despana in SoHo, which supplies Spanish imports to restaurants like Espana in Larchmont, Meson Los Espanoles in White Plains and Peniche in White Plains. Take a look:

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Today’s podcast features Jeffrey Kohn, the owner of Q Restaurant & Bar on Main Street in Port Chester, talking about how to make mint juleps.Podcast file:Flash video:

And here, for your viewing pleasure, is the sixth and final installment of the show. Enjoy!

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Part 5 is here:
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Here’s part 4 of the show:

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Here’s part 3:

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Here’s part 2 of the show:

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Watch part 1 of the show, which aired last night on RNN, or download the podcast here:
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And the winner is ….

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The moment the contestants fear the most: The judges table!

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Here is the segment where the contestants rush to finish their dishes.

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Here is the segment where chef Jeff Raider critiques the cooks’ techniques.

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Our Locally Grown show on RNN is now available for download, or viewing here in the blog.

Here’s the first segment, where we meet the contestants.

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Forgive me repeating myself, but in case some of you get to this blog via Google, I want everyone to be on the same page:

Lots of cool thing are coming out of the Locally Grown contest. Of course there’s the TV show! Don’t forget to watch it at 6:30 on Wednesday. I think you’re really going to enjoy seeing your neighbors cook off!

As part of the other coverage, though, we’ve started to put together a few videos. You can see them all at the Locally Grown Web page, but we’ve also packaged them together as a video Podcase. Whooo Hoooo! Here’s the fifth, an introduction to one of our contestants.

Podcast file

Flash player

Forgive me repeating myself, but in case some of you get to this blog via Google, I want everyone to be on the same page:

Lots of cool thing are coming out of the Locally Grown contest. Of course there’s the TV show! Don’t forget to watch it at 6:30 on Wednesday. I think you’re really going to enjoy seeing your neighbors cook off!

As part of the other coverage, though, we’ve started to put together a few videos. You can see them all at the Locally Grown Web page, but we’ve also packaged them together as a video Podcase. Whooo Hoooo! Here’s the fourth, an introduction to one of our contestants.

Flash player

Forgive me repeating myself, but in case some of you get to this blog via Google, I want everyone to be on the same page:

Lots of cool thing are coming out of the Locally Grown contest. Of course there’s the TV show! Don’t forget to watch it at 6:30 on Wednesday. I think you’re really going to enjoy seeing your neighbors cook off!

As part of the other coverage, though, we’ve started to put together a few videos. You can see them all at the Locally Grown Web page, but we’ve also packaged them together as a video Podcast. Whooo Hoooo! Here’s the third, an introduction to one of our contestants.

Podcast file

Download:

Forgive me repeating myself, but in case some of you get to this blog via Google, I want everyone to be on the same page:

Lots of cool thing are coming out of the Locally Grown contest. Of course there’s the TV show! Don’t forget to watch it at 6:30 on Wednesday. I think you’re really going to enjoy seeing your neighbors cook off!

As part of the other coverage, though, we’ve started to put together a few videos. You can see them all at the Locally Grown Web page, but we’ve also packaged them together as a video Podcast. Whooo Hoooo! Here’s the second, an introduction to one of our contestants.

Podcast file
Flash player

Lots of cool thing are coming out of the Locally Grown contest. Of course there’s the TV show! Don’t forget to watch it at 6:30 on Wednesday. I think you’re really going to enjoy seeing your neighbors cook off!

As part of the other coverage, though, we’ve started to put together a few videos. You can see them all at the Locally Grown Web page, but we’ve also packaged them together as a video Podcase. Whooo Hoooo! Here’s the first, a short clip that I narrate, explaining the contest.

Delicious tuna tartare!

Chef Peter X. Kelly has had to do some reshuffling at his restaurants, especially after the news that two Freelance alums — chef Davey Martinez and front-of-the-house charmer Paulo Feteira — have left to open their own place in Haverstraw. (It’s called the Union House and I’ll have more info on that shortly.)

The good news about all of this is that Phillippe Scouarnec, who was chef de cuisine at Xavairs at Garrison for a number of years and most recently worked at Restaurant X in Congers, is the new chef de cuisine at the Freelance Cafe in Piermont. I went on Friday and Philippe is holding up his end of the bargain very nicely indeed.

My husband had the Caesar salad. Crisp lettuce and well balanced dressing as always.

I had the spicy tuna tartar. It’s not really that spicy — it’s just got a gentle heat. I love the cucumber salad, too. It’s like my family recipe.

Philippe sent out a nice little benny: one of the specials of the evening. Duck dumpling with apple and prune in a sweet and sour broth. What an eye toward fall! Very rich and delicious. I really liked the apple flavor.

After that, we were full, so we took about one bite of my husband’s entree — Stone Church Farm chicken (his favorite) — and concentrated on my moules frites (one of my favorites). Check out the video to see those dishes!

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Apres diner, I ordered a big fat Bordeaux. Yum.

Lisa Rudner is the new pastry chef at Xaviars at Piermont next door. I know Lisa from her work as a part-time sports reporter at the Journal News. She left to go to pastry school and I am very glad she did. The molten chocolate cake was gooey and delicious.

Here’s the apple strudel crumble cake. I wouldn’t think to order this, but it was moist and packed withe flavor and the crumb topping was sweet but not too sugary. A winner!

Have you been to Freelance lately? It’s a little hard to score a table. Any tips? (Mine are to go late and sit at the bar.)

Freelance Cafe, 506 Piermont Ave. Piermont. 845.365.3250. www.xaviars.com/freelance.