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Seasons by the Sea: Porgy: Sweet by Any Name

Seasons by the Sea: Porgy: Sweet by Any Name

Porgies are easy to catch, plentiful, and inexpensive, to boot. Stores like Citarella and the Seafood Shop in Wainscott, above, sell the fish for around $6 a pound.
Porgies are easy to catch, plentiful, and inexpensive, to boot. Stores like Citarella and the Seafood Shop in Wainscott, above, sell the fish for around $6 a pound.
David E. Rattray
Porgy are white fleshed, relatively lean, flaky, and sweet, similar to red snapper
By
Laura Donnelly

If bluefish are the Rodney Dangerfields of the fish world (“don’t get no respect”), then surely porgies are the juvenile delinquents. They are tough little fellas — thick-skinned, bony, and travel in gangs. But once you get past that “rebel without a cause” exterior, they are sweet and worthwhile.

Porgy is the name in the United States for any fish in the family Sparidae, which includes over 100 species. There are many varieties around the world and many more names, most of them far more charming than “porgy.” Sea bream, scup, sheepshead, mischuppaug, and if you dig deep into the Food and Drug Administration’s list of approved fish, you’ll find that some species of bream are known as “bogue” and “boops boops.” The gilt-head bream, common in Europe, is also known as orata, dourada, tsipoura, and awrata. The name mischuppaug comes from the Narragansett Indians. Shortened to scup, it is said to mean “fertilizer,” because that’s what it was used for long ago.

The introduction of trawl fishing in the first half of the 20th century hurt the porgy population, along with fluke and bass, and by 2005 porgy was declared overfished. When quotas were put in place in the 1990s, the fish population returned bigger and better, a good sign according to Seafood Watch, a source for fish sustainability. This is particularly good for porgy fans because this fish is best cooked whole and preferably in the one-pound range, as those bones are easier to remove.

Porgy are white fleshed, relatively lean, flaky, and sweet, similar to red snapper. They will take just about any kind of bait, which makes them fun for children to catch. At fish markets, they are ridiculously reasonable, as low as $2.99 per pound UpIsland, and around $5.99 per pound at Citarella and the Seafood Shop in Wainscott. You definitely want to buy them whole, gutted, and scaled. From there you can prepare them any way you would a whole fish: baked, pan-fried, stuffed, on the grill.

This fish has had a reputation for a long time as lowly bycatch, trash fish, and throwaway, but many chefs in the know on the East End have been serving it for years. Joe Realmuto and Bryan Futerman of Nick and Toni’s cook it in their wood-burning oven . . . and have the good sense to call it Montauk sea bream on the menu. Jason Weiner and Jeremy Blutstein at Almond shared a photo of one of their porgy dishes, which can only be described as “porgy pornorgy,” slathered with olive oil and lemon juice, fresh herbs, black olives, orange slices, and more. 

George Eldi, a part-time resident of Lazy Point and proprietor of Wines by Nature in Wading River, suggests serving porgy in fish tacos, along with a cold “clean, fresh, vibrant Gruner Veltliner wine from Austria” that can cut through the taco spices. Colin Ambrose of Estia’s Little Kitchen in Sag Harbor, seconds that recommendation, calling porgy “the best taco protein.”

My favorite, lazy research method for fun food stories is Facebook. When it comes to food, everybody has a robust opinion, especially chefs and East End friends. Dan Rizzie, a local artist and funnyman on a par with E.B. White replied: “Porgies are one of the most misunderstood yet edible fish that are readily available and catchable in our area. The traditional complaint is they are just too bony. Listen, sports fans, all fish are too bony.” He goes on to say “I usually carry a bucket on my boat filled with water and put all the porgies I catch in there.” 

He throws back the little ones, scales and guts the big ones, seasons them with oregano, olive oil, and lemon juice, and grills them for about four minutes per side. “Stop complaining about bones and cook yourself some porgies!” Wait, Dan, you have a boat and haven’t invited me out on it. . . ?

Eleni Prieston recommends a similar recipe, Greek-style, seasoned with lemon juice and olive oil and grilled whole. She also said “remember . . . they used to toss blowfish back, and now they’re a delicacy.”

Adrienne Nelson, a fellow girl-chef I used to work with at the Living Room in East Hampton, suggests Thai-style, dusted with rice flour, fried, and served with Thai condiments. She now works at Prune in New York City and kindly shared its recipe for zuppa di pesce, which includes porgy.

So c’mon people, try stepping away from those expensive filets and steaks of tuna, swordfish, and striped bass. Broaden your aquatic horizons and try our local porgies, Montauk sea bream, boops boops. A fish by any other name would be just as tasty. . . .

The State Department of Environmental Conservation’s website has information about the porgy season, size requirements, and catch limits.

Click for recipes

News for Foodies: 06.22.17

News for Foodies: 06.22.17

Local Food News
By
Joanne Pilgrim

The Harbor Grill in East Hampton served its last meal yesterday; its owners announced last week that they could no longer afford to keep the doors open. Increased costs, they said, have made it impossible to maintain the restaurant, which was designed to be an affordable eatery to serve the year-round community. The Harbor Grill’s sister restaurant, the seasonal Harbor Bistro, which is on Three Mile Harbor, will continue to operate.

 

Garden Potluck

Slow Food East End is gearing up for a summertime potluck on July 6 at Bridge Gardens in Bridgehampton. Reservations are being taken online for the event: slowfoodeastend.org. The cost is $20 per person, or $15 for Slow Food members. Guests have been asked to bring an appetizer, main course, side dish, or dessert that can serve six to eight people, made with local ingredients from the garden or farm market. Lawn chairs or picnic blankets, serving utensils, and beverages should also be brought to the potluck. A look at the website will enable cooks to see the dishes others are bringing.

 In addition to the shared meal, Rick Bogusch, the garden manager, will lead a guided walk through the garden’s edibles. The 5 to 8 p.m. event has a rain date of July 13. 

 

Approval Award

In other Slow Food news, Art of Eating Catering, which is owned by Cheryl Stair, a Slow Food East End leader, and her husband, John Kowalenko, has been awarded the chapter’s Snail of Approval award. The award is presented to businesses that incorporate Slow Food ideals regarding the use of clean, local food that is raised or grown in a sustainable manner. Art of Eating, which recently moved its headquarters from Amagansett to Bridgehampton, is the first caterer and event-planning business to receive the award. Other recipients include the restaurants Bell and Anchor, Almond, Nick and Toni’s, and Estia’s Little Kitchen.

 

Culinary Memoir

Peter Gethers, the author of “My Mother’s Kitchen: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and the Meaning of Life,” in which he describes his effort to give his aging mother, the daughter of a renowned restaurateur and a friend and mentor to famous chefs, the final gift of a feast featuring all her favorite foods, will be at the Sylvester & Co. store in Sag Harbor on Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. for a book signing and cocktail party. 

Mr. Gethers is a part-time Sag Harbor resident. An author, screenwriter, playwright, book editor, and film and TV producer, he is also the author of “The Cat Who Went to Paris,” and the co-creator and co-producer of the hit off-Broadway play “Old Jews Telling Jokes.” 

 

Dante in East Hampton

Dante, a Greenwich Village bar and restaurant, will pop up in East Hampton at the Highway Restaurant and Bar tomorrow through Sunday, taking over the bar. Exclusive cocktails by Dante will be offered, including selections from the New York City bar menu and a classic Negroni along with unique variations of the Aperol spritz, an Italian favorite. The drinks will be available each day beginning at 4 p.m. 

 

Pig Roast at Baron’s Cove

Baron’s Cove restaurant in Sag Harbor will host a harborside pig roast on Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. Matty Boudreau, the restaurant’s barbecue master and executive chef, and a member of a national award-winning barbecue team, will prepare a whole smoked hog with house-made sauces and all the fixings. Also on the menu will be smoked local blackfish and peppered and smoked turkey breast. Dave Kellen will play live music from 2 to 5 that afternoon, and there will be specials on cocktails and beer.

Seasons by the Sea: Nothing Beats Olive Oil

Seasons by the Sea: Nothing Beats Olive Oil

It’s not too early for locally grown zucchini blossoms, at least from the greenhouse. Peanut oil can take the heat required for high-temperature frying without burning.
It’s not too early for locally grown zucchini blossoms, at least from the greenhouse. Peanut oil can take the heat required for high-temperature frying without burning.
Laura Donnelly
Olive oil has been the number one fat in my house forever
By
Laura Donnelly

Summer is upon us, so now it is time to think about salads and grilling, which means it’s also time to think about oils — olive for salads, peanut for frying up those zucchini blossoms and chips, flavored oils for marinades, etc.

Information about which oils are the most healthful is constantly changing. Have you hopped on the coconut oil bandwagon? Not me. As far as I’m concerned, it’s fine product to put on your body, not in it. For accurate and up-to-date information about coconut oil, you should consult the most recent studies by the American Heart Association and the Mayo Clinic. Nuff said.

Olive oil has been the number one fat in my house forever. I use good butter in moderation, margarine has never crossed my threshold, and for the occasional frying, I’ll use peanut oil, which has a high smoking point. The smoking point is the temperature at which the oil in the pan starts to burn. Not good. Other oils with a high smoking point are avocado (currently replacing coconut oil as the healthy and popular darling), almond, light olive oil, peanut, safflower, and sunflower. Oils that will start to burn between 225 and 330 degrees are flaxseed, butter, coconut, and walnut. Unrefined oils such as wheat germ oil should not be heated at all.

It’s simple logic that you should save your favorite extra virgin cold pressed olive oil for salads or dipping, in order to let the flavor shine through. Use your less expensive, light olive oils for sautéing and roasting. For a splurge, try a high quality walnut, hazelnut, pistachio, or pumpkin seed oil as an addition to salad dressings. A little bit goes a long way, and the pumpkin and pistachio oils have a strikingly brilliant emerald green hue. It is important to remember that certain nut oils go rancid fairly quickly, so they should always be stored in a cool, dark place. I keep some of them refrigerated.

There are two brands of organic olive oils with local connections. Illyrian Press olive oil is made from kalinjot olives, bottled in Albania, and brought to us by Andrew Strong and Rachael Faraone of Springs. Their award-winning oils can be found at Marder’s in Bridgehampton, Serene Green in Noyac, the Seafood Shop in Wainscott, and numerous other locations. 

Arlotta Food Studio, which offers a variety of plain and flavored organic olive oils and balsamic vinegars, is produced by John Arlotta and his brother-in-law Mario Pecoraro of Water Mill. Their venture started with a peach farm and olive grove in California 10 years ago. They started the oil business eight years ago. The oils are available at over 50 farm stands and markets throughout New York, and the flavors range from the pure (silky and buttery!), to garlic, blood orange, rosemary, basil, lemon, and hot pepper. One of my favorites is the hot pepper oil, which Mario suggests slathering on a Browder’s bird from the North Fork. Sprinkle with herbs de Provence, salt and pepper, and roast. One of Mr. Pecoraro’s other favorite recipes is halibut drizzled with blood orange oil, a little honey and lemon, and then pan fried or grilled.

The lemon and blood orange oils are good for sweet as well as savory dishes. I’m thinking a lemony panna cotta with berries would be divine drizzled with a few drops of the blood orange oil.

When asked if they are planning to create any new flavors or if they’ve tried any that have failed, he said the lavender olive oil was not appealing and that someone had suggested they make a butter-flavored olive oil. Not happening.

Their olives are pressed in October, and the oils have a shelf life of approximately two years, whether opened or not.

Really good oils will be expensive, but they are worth it. My favorite commercial brand is Barbera Frantoia Extra Virgin, originally made with Sicilian olives, but now (like many other olive oils) made with a blend of olives from Spain, Greece, and other regions of Italy. This oil is green, fruity, herbaceous, and slightly peppery but not bitter at the end.

The varieties of olive oils in gourmet stores can be daunting. If you are impressed by that little dish of oil accompanying your bread course at a restaurant, ask the waiter to find out what it is. I have learned a lot about oils this way. Ask the chef at your favorite Italian restaurant what he or she uses. Chefs love to share cooking tips! You can also buy a bunch of bottles and host an olive oil tasting party. Take notes and send guests home with their favorite bottle. 

Whether you cook, drizzle, dip, marinate, or fry, here are some recipes to inspire you. The first two are really more like ideas for cocktail parties. Use your favorite and best extra virgin olive oils for both.

Click for recipes

News for Foodies: 06.29.17

News for Foodies: 06.29.17

Local Food News
By
Joanne Pilgrim

Eric and Adam Miller, the father and son behind Bay Kitchen Bar on Three Mile Harbor in East Hampton, have opened a new restaurant, Flagship, on the docks in Montauk. The menu features local seafood, meat, and poultry entrees, small plates to share, crudos, and raw bar items, and there is a seasonal cocktail menu. Sample dishes include fluke and charred squid crudo with passion fruit, crusted yellowfin tuna with roasted carrots, soba noodles and dashi broth, smoked pork ribs with sweet potato and a honey glaze, and a burger featuring smoked bacon, crispy shallots, and a fried duck egg. 

The wine list features Long Island and worldwide wines, and rosé for $10 a glass. A new style of bottle service offers pre-bottled chilled cocktails to serve eight, such as martinis, Manhattans, and Negronis. Service will be daily from noon to 2 a.m. starting Saturday.

At Calissa

Weekly après-beach events at Calissa, the new Greek restaurant in Water Mill, begin on Saturday and will continue each Saturday in July and August starting at 4 p.m. A reservation costs $250 and comes with reserved couch seating for four in the garden, rosé wine for the table, and individual servings of a roasted whole suckling pig, with side dishes. There will be a live D.J. providing music, and an opportunity to play bocce.

 

Pig Roast

Will roasted pig be the summer’s main dish? The Bridgehampton Inn is taking reservations for a pig roast on July 9. 

The inn’s dinner menu, which changes biweekly and includes the chef’s bread course, a selection of small plates, entrees, and desserts, can be found on its website, bridgehamptoninn.com. The restaurant will make custom cakes to order for celebrations.

 

The Crabby Cowboy — Daily

Rick’s Crabby Cowboy Cafe in Montauk is now open daily for lunch and dinner. The restaurant has added a sushi bar, where the chef will be making platters featuring three, six, or nine rolls from the menu, which includes a choice of 10 local sushi selections. Also new to the menu are a number of salads, among them a Greek salad with fresh feta, tzatziki, and dolmades, sunflower burgers from Montauk’s Naturally Good cafe, and Montauk Session India Pale Ale from the Montauk Brewery on tap. 

Seasons by the Sea: So Good, They Have a Monster

Seasons by the Sea: So Good, They Have a Monster

Menus from several restaurants over the years
Menus from several restaurants over the years
Laura Donnelly
The word “cookie” most likely comes from the Dutch word “koekje,” which means “small or little cake.”
By
Laura Donnelly

Everyone loves cookies. Cookies are so good they have their own monster. No other food has a monster, does it? Does lasagna have a monster? Cheetos? No, only cookies.

Cookie Monster, who came out of the brilliant mind of Jim Henson in 1966, started life in commercials for snack foods and IBM. By the time “Sesame Street” first aired in 1969, he had become a blue, furry, clumsy creature whose grammar was atrocious and appetite for cookies insatiable. The cookies for the show were made of rice cakes, which were painted and dotted with a glue gun to look like that ultimate cookie, the chocolate chip. Real cookies would have messed up the puppet costume.

The word “cookie” most likely comes from the Dutch word “koekje,” which means “small or little cake.” They are called biscuits in England and Australia, galletas in Spain, and kok in Germany. According to the website What’s Cooking America, the first cookies may have been test cakes, drops of batter used to test an oven’s temperature for baking. But cookies have really been around since seventh-century Persia, one of the first countries to cultivate and process sugar and put it into cakes and pastries.

One of the earliest cookbooks with a recipe for cookies was the 1596 “Goode Huswife’s Jewel” by Thomas Dawson. “Take fine flowre and good Damaske water you must have no other liquer but that, then take sweet butter, two or three yolkes of eggs, and a good quantity of sugar, and a few cloves and mace, as your Cookes mouth shall serve him, and a lyttle saffron, and a little God’s good about a spoonful if you put in too much they shall arise,” and the recipe continues in this stream of consciousness manner for a whole paragraph.

Desserts and cookies did not earn a chapter in cookbooks for a while. They were listed in the back of cookery books as Jumbles, Plunkets, and Cry Babies.

Some historians believe fortune cookies came about during the 12th and 13th centuries when Chinese soldiers would sneak rice paper messages into mooncakes to help coordinate battles against Mongolian invaders. Apparently they knew the Mongolians didn’t like the lotus nut paste traditionally put into the cakes. Chu Yuan Chang, a political revolutionary, disguised himself as a Taoist priest, entered occupied walled cities armed with mooncakes that had instructions for coordinating the uprising, and thus began the Ming Dynasty.

Cookies have also been described by the great baker Maida Heatter as a form of diplomacy. Indeed, I have used the gift of a platter of cookies many times to sway, seduce, bribe, thank, comfort — you name it; cookies can do it. I have gotten into yard sales early by taking cookies, and my son’s grades may have improved a fraction by a gift of cookies at a parent-teacher conference.

One of my favorite ways of sharing cookies has been in the restaurant business. As a pastry chef, I would always have the kitchen to myself in the early morning hours. The only company was a radio and the constant flow of delivery men and women from Dairyland, Baldor, Gosman’s, Cromer’s, Satur Farms, Braun Seafood, Balsam Farms, wine distributors, and many more. Being able to offer a cookie or two and a cup of coffee to these guys who had been battling traffic all alone was a treat for me. Sometimes the favor would be returned in the form of a little fillet of Spanish mackerel from Fuzzy, a family recipe for grilled shrimp from Gosman’s, some extra arugula from Patty of Early Girl Farm.

At one restaurant I worked for in East Hampton, the owner was not too terribly up to date on paying his bills. A large, very large, ponytailed gentleman would show up frequently in a chauffeur-driven Cadillac and come through the back door looking for his money. He was scary but polite to me, and I plied him with more biscotti and espressos than was probably necessary. He knew I didn’t have anything to do with the payroll, but he was still sending a Sopranos-style message through me to the owner.

I also loved having enough cookies on hand for the staff. This would drive some of my colleagues batty (Alexandra!) but to me it was important for them to be able to just grab a little treat during a long, brutal shift of busing, waiting tables, washing dishes, and cooking.

Is baking cookies a lost art? I hope not, because cookies are one of the fastest and cheapest things you can whip up for a snack or dessert. Make enough dough, roll it into logs, and freeze it. Now you’ve got cookies anytime you want. They can be healthy oatmeal with dried fruit and nuts, or gooey, rich, decadent chocoholic delights. 

You can tailor your cookie selections to match menus and seasons. In winter, after a hearty soup or stew, it’s nice to have ginger molasses cookies or hermits. In summer, after some grilled fish and salad, lemony cookies with a sorbet are perfect. Soon we will have local strawberries, followed by peaches, plums, blueberries, and raspberries. A bowl of berries with a simple, crisp cookie is a homemade dessert, just not a lot of work.

If you’re interested in composing a cookie platter, think about texture, color, and taste. You should always have America’s favorite — chocolate chip — along with oatmeal, perhaps pecan sandies, and the aforementioned lemon cookie. Biscotti last forever, they’re easy as pie to make, and they’re good for dunking into coffee.

For an Italian-themed meal you could make marzipan pine nut cookies and amaretti. For a Moroccan feast, make some cardamom-scented almond cookies and apricot-jam-filled sugar cookies. French: tuiles and cat’s tongues. American barbecue: brownies and snickerdoodles. You get the idea, now get baking! 

Click for recipes

News for Foodies: 06.01.17

News for Foodies: 06.01.17

Local Food News
By
Joanne Pilgrim

The South Fork’s easternmost farmers market starts up for the season next Thursday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Montauk green, and will continue weekly through the summer. In September, market day will change to Fridays. Thirty-five vendors are participating this year, offering fish and shellfish, fresh vegetables, olive oils, flowers, sea salt, pasta, bread, honey, baked goods, chicken burgers, dairy and meat products, condiments and preserves, sauerkraut, pickles, and more. The market is organized by the Montauk Chamber of Commerce, which donates proceeds to the Montauk Food Pantry. Last year, $8,705 was donated. 

 

At Union Cantina

The Union Cantina in Southampton is serving half-price tacos on Tuesdays, along with specials on flights of tequila and Tecate. On Wednesdays, children under 10 may eat free from the kids’ menu, and there are specials on wine and sangria. On Saturdays and Sundays, a “bottomless brunch” is served from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

 

Meal Delivery

Epicured, a prepared-meal delivery service, is up and running on the East End. The gourmet meals are focused on healthy dining options. They are portion-controlled and feature healthier takes on favorites, along with “low-bloat, flat-belly foods.” There are breakfast, lunch, and dinner items to choose from on the service’s website, getepicured.com. 

 

Surf Lodge Chef

Robert Sieber, the new executive chef at the Surf Lodge in Montauk, is making some changes to the menu, which includes dishes such as sea urchin linguine, fluke ceviche, crispy prawns, and fish tacos. Mr. Sieber, who was a student of Daniel Boulud and Brian Loiacono, has worked in kitchens from Asia to San Francisco and Brooklyn. Also at the Surf Lodge this year, Brian Kim of DomoDomo, a Japanese handroll bar in Manhattan, will prepare tuna, eel, lobster, and other hand rolls to be served on the deck. 

 

Drive-Through Wine 

On holiday weekends, the Wolffer Estate in Sagaponack is now offering a drive-through service for purchase of cases of its Estate Rosé or Summer in a Bottle rosé wines at its wine stand on Montauk Highway. The service will be offered, weather permitting, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays of holiday weekends. 

Starting Came Naturally to Her

Starting Came Naturally to Her

With a few final construction tweaks to be resolved, Carissa Waechter still managed to open her new bakery for the holiday weekend.
With a few final construction tweaks to be resolved, Carissa Waechter still managed to open her new bakery for the holiday weekend.
Durell Godfrey
“I’m really excited to have people come in and have the experience of the smells and bubbling sounds of the loaves baking."
By
Isabel Carmichael

Carissa Waechter’s new shop in East Hampton is the inevitable culmination of something she has been cooking up for quite a while. Carissa’s Breads have been popular at South Fork farmers markets, and now she will bake and sell not only breads but also cakes, pastries, croissants, and pies and jams made with fruit from local farms.

“I’m really excited to have people come in and have the experience of the smells and bubbling sounds of the loaves baking,” she said as she recently surveyed the finishing touches on the shop, which is off Newtown Lane in the former space of East Hampton Gourmet. 

The baking area takes up about 1,000 square feet. A grain mill for wheat, which she obtains in separated, wheatberry form, will be installed at the rear of the building. As for the ovens, Ms. Waechter may expect to have a personal connection with them. One is named Olive, after an olive bread that a customer especially loved; another is named Amber, in keeping with her sister business, Amber Waves Farm, and two stacked ovens are called Figs, for her favorite fruit.

“The previous owners were so helpful and nice. It was meant to be. We had been looking for a space for a while.” The best thing, she said, is that “you get to do what you love and then people take an interest, and it makes me so happy.”

Ms. Waechter said she applies “techniques and methods from the chefs I’ve trained under, but the recipes are my own developments, usually classics adjusted to incorporate something that’s hyperlocal and in season.”

Ms. Waechter, who grew up in Florida, moved to New York City on her 21st birthday to go to culinary school. She then apprenticed with several notable chefs, including David Burke, who is a TV star and author as well as a cook, and Daniel Boulud, who owns dozens of restaurants across the country and around the world, with, at last count, seven in New York City.

Along the way, she “found out it was in my blood: My great-grandmother lived on a wheat farm outside of Chicago and was a famous pie baker. She would pay the men with fried chicken dinners to harvest the wheat.” Her grandmother and great-aunt also went door to door to sell pies.

Referring to the East End, Ms. Waechter said, “I love the barter system and love that fishermen and farmers come to a farm stand, leave fish and vegetables, and get bread and pies in return.”

In 2009, on a rare day off in the city, Ms. Waechter had a roller-skating accident that changed her life. While convalescing, she got a call from Eli Zabar, of the family that owns the eponymous food emporium on the Upper West Side, who was taking over the Amagansett Farmers Market. He asked her to join the staff for the summer to bake bread. There, she met Amanda Merrow and Katie Baldwin, who had been apprentices at Quail Hill Farm and had just started growing wheat behind the market when they opened Amber Waves Farm, which is now a community supported agriculture organization with acres of crops in production and a farm stand of its own — the former Amagansett Farmers Market.

Among the Amagansetters she met that summer was John de Cuevas, a long­time summer resident who just happened to have a natural yeast culture he had started in 1965. He passed it along. She also got a rye starter, which was begun in 1999 in Southampton, and began baking and selling her breads at farmers markets. Once her business had grown, she began preparing breads at the Amagansett Food Institute’s South Fork Kitchens at Stony Brook Southampton, while helping to organize its use. 

“The financial expenses of starting and building a business from scratch are unreal, which led me to utilizing tools like the small business development center, cofounding the shared kitchen space, etc.” She acted as coordinator there for about two years while operating Carissa’s Breads. She added pies to her roster for Thanksgiving in 2014. 

Asked if she would consider expanding further, Ms. Waechter said, “I’m a serial entrepreneur, planner, and workaholic, but I’m also cautious, always writing new plans and fleshing out new ideas, and I love taking calculated risks. However, I will only commit to new projects when the timing is correct.”

Meanwhile, it is noteworthy that her wholesale bread business now has 52 inns, markets, restaurants, hotels, and beds-and-breakfasts on the North and South Forks as clients, and, with Rustic Roots Delivery, which covers Long Island and Westchester in addition to the city, she plans to send her breads to all five boroughs.

News for Foodies: 06.08.17

News for Foodies: 06.08.17

Local Food News
By
Joanne Pilgrim

The Oreya restaurant has reopened at the Capri hotel in Southampton and is now accompanied by the Oreya Lounge. The restaurant, overseen by Greg Grossman, its chef and owner, serves a Med­iterranean-inspired menu and has been redesigned, with the inclusion of the outdoor lounge, cocktail bar, and pool. New dishes on the menu this year include sumac-cured hamachi crudo, wood-fired lamb tenderloin, foie gras hummus, and beet salt-baked red snapper.

 

At the Maidstone

The restaurant at the Maidstone Hotel in East Hampton has been revamped by David Standridge, a chef at the Cafe Clover in Manhattan’s West Village. As consulting chef, he has created a contemporary American breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu that features casual, seasonal, and local fare.

 

Breakfast at the Inn

The Bridgehampton Inn restaurant is now serving breakfast from 8 to 10 a.m. and brunch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Sunday. The menu will include weekly specials. 

 

For Food Biz

The Amagansett Food Institute will host the first in a series of informational and networking evenings for small food producers on June 22 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the headquarters of the Plain-T iced tea business in Southampton. Participation is free, but advance registration, by emailing info@amagansettfoodinstitute. org, is required, as space is limited.

The evening will feature a presentation by Cheryl Clements, the chief executive officer and founder of PieShell, an online crowdfunding source for food businesses. There will be tastings of Plain-T’s beverages offered by the company’s owners, Alessandro and Tathiana Teixeira, time to meet other food entrepreneurs, and an opportunity to pitch a business model to PieShell. 

 

The Squeezery

The folks from the White Room Gallery in Bridgehampton have opened the Squeezery, a juice and coffee bar by day and bar bar by night, on Amagansett’s Main Street. The bright and vibrant space has tables and a lounge area, art, and a menu of juice combos or a la carte ingredients, as well as coffee drinks and snacks. 

 

Craving Ice Cream?

One option for a serving of the sweet, soft stuff is Smokin’ Wolf, the takeout barbecue shop on Pantigo Road in East Hampton. The shop has reopened its ice cream freezer for the summer.

Seasons by the Sea: Locavores’ Delight

Seasons by the Sea: Locavores’ Delight

Juliana Nash, Amanda Merrow, and Ruby Stenerson at the Amber Waves Farm Market.
Juliana Nash, Amanda Merrow, and Ruby Stenerson at the Amber Waves Farm Market.
Durell Godfrey
The former Amagansett Farmers Market has reopened as Amber Waves Farm Market
By
Laura Donnelly

Amber Waves Farm Market

367 Main Street, Amagansett

Open seven days, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. Thanks to the generosity, wisdom, and hard work of Margaret de Cuevas, the Peconic Land Trust, and those coolest-of-cool “lady farmers” Amanda Merrow and Katie Baldwin, the former Amagansett Farmers Market has reopened as Amber Waves Farm Market, and the gals now own the nine acres behind it.

Ms. Baldwin and Ms. Merrow have been farming the land for almost 10 years, growing mostly wheat, but now the farm is dedicated to over 300 varieties of approximately 60 crops. A good amount goes to 150 C.S.A. (Community Supported Agriculture) members, and the rest is sold at the new, improved market and to local restaurants.

On a recent visit to the market, I got a tour from Juliana Nash (composer and musician by trade, now manager of Amber Waves Farm Market), and her charming son, Zane, who is 14. 

Let me just say that this is the finest curation of local and New York state goodies that I have ever seen in one place on the East End. It is essentially one-stop shopping for everything you could possibly need for a great meal, and more. There are Browder’s Birds chickens, eggs, homemade mayonnaise, Carissa’s breads, pies, pastries, divine tiny quiches, Good Water Farms micro-greens, Joe and Liza’s ice creams, North Fork Roasting Company coffees, Art of Eating and North Fork potato chips, Arlotta olive oils and vinegars, Open-Minded Organics mushrooms, Catapano, Mecox Bay Dairy, and Villa Italian Specialties cheeses. And, of course, there is a wide variety of seasonal vegetables, herbs, flowers, and seedlings.

Suppose you don’t feel like cooking? You will be delighted to find guacamole, smoked chicken, and barbecued spare ribs from Smokin’ Wolf; salads, wood-roasted cauliflower, grilled wild mushrooms, and more from Harbor Market in Sag Harbor, pestos from Almond restaurant, sauces from Vine Street Cafe on Shelter Island, homemade tortillas, pickled eggs, and Holy Schmitt’s horseradish.

Besides offering these various prepared and fresh foods, Amber Waves Farm is continuing to focus on educating school children about farming, with over 20 schools, after-school programs, and summer camps. There are also workshops throughout the summer, starting with learning how to gut a fish with Sean Barrett, that tall, cool drink of water from Dock to Dish (June 24); building a worm farm with local artist Scott Bluedorn (July 1), and other workshops like pizza-baking with Carissa Waechter, fermenting, preserving, foraging, and flower-arranging.

Some other products you will find here are beach blankets and towels, Hilary Leff’s beautiful tie-dyed scarves, Southampton Soaps, pottery from farmhouse pottery of Vermont, and those iconic Amber Waves farm caps.

Starting in July, Amber Waves Farm Market will be open from 7 to 7, seven days a week, and they hope to remain open until January. So stop by to give thanks for good deeds done in our community, purchase some of the best and freshest foods available out here, and help support our farmers. Here is a simple recipe from Browder’s Birds to get you inspired.

Click for recipe

News for Foodies: 06.15.17

News for Foodies: 06.15.17

Local Food News
By
Joanne Pilgrim

Amagansett Less Marvelous

After 15 years in business, the Mary’s Marvelous store in Amagansett has closed. Mary Schoenlein, the owner of the shop and another in East Hampton, announced the intention to close the store some time ago, and it was shuttered this week. In a note to customers, Ms. Schoenlein thanked them for their support and said it was with “sadness and regret” that she and her staff were leaving Amagansett. The shop, which serves prepared foods, pastries, takeout sandwiches, salads, and more, coffee and tea, etc., will continue to do business on Newtown Lane in East Hampton.

 

At East Hampton Point

At East Hampton Point, Monday is industry night at the bar, with small bites for $5 and half-price drinks. Dinner will be served this month on Thursday through Sunday nights, and lunch will be served starting at noon on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Reggae music has returned on Sunday nights from 6 to 9 p.m. 

 

Reception at Inn

The Bridgehampton Inn will serve small bites, wine, and beer at a reception this evening from 5 to 7 to celebrate “Sea Rakes,” an exhibit of photographs by Lindsay Morris that will be on view throughout the summer. 

Country Night

Tuesday night is now country night at the Springs Tavern. Besides a light bar menu, with $5 hot dogs, pizza slices, and more, there will be live music by the Spaghetti Westerners at 9 p.m. Before the music, beginning at 8, there will be a free class in line dancing. Sweet Action beers and shots of Jack Daniels will be offered for $4. The Springs Tavern is open daily, but offers its dinner menu from 4 to 10 p.m. on Thursdays through Mondays. 

 

Healthy Eating

Stefanie Sacks, a “culinary nutritionist” and the author of “What the Fork Are You Eating,” has introduced Reboot Food 4 Grown Ups. To begin on June 26, the program is a series of classes that will show people how to “recognize, reshape, and re-nourish” their eating habits. The sessions, limited to 12 students, will focus on ingredient choice, culinary techniques for healthy food preparation, and how to successfully achieve a “food reboot.” They will take place at Scoville Hall in Amagansett. The cost is $150 per session, or $400 for the series of four, which includes recipes and an apron. The first class, later this month, will focus on breakfast. It will be followed with a session on lunch on July 3; dinner on July 10, and a July 17 session on healthy snacks and dessert.