This is a very satisfying soup you have have for dinner.  Use the bones from your favorite local fish and save the filets for another meal.  Porgies, striped bass, bluefish, blackfish or fluke are all great for this.

Ingredients
2 quarts of vegetable stock or seafood or fish stock
2 stalks fresh lemongrass, sliced on a bias in 2-inch pieces
4 kaffir lime leaves
2 red chiles, sliced
2 tablespoons fish sauce, such as nam pla
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup of sliced shitake mushrooms or (8-ounce) can straw mushrooms, rinsed and halved
1 green and/or red bell pepper, sliced
1/2 can coconut milk (add more or less to taste)
1 pound baby shrimp, peeled or fish
2 limes, juiced
2 green onions, sliced
1 handful fresh cilantro, chopped

Directions
Bring the stock to the boil over medium heat in a saucepan. Add the lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, and chiles. Lower the heat to medium-low, cover and add coconut milk and simmer for 15 minutes to let the spices infuse the broth.

Uncover and add the fish sauce, sugar, and mushrooms. Simmer for 5 minutes. Toss in the fish or shrimp at the end and cook for about 5 minutes until they cook. Remove from the heat and add the lime juice, green onions, and cilantro.  The taste should be a balance between sweet and sour with the freshness of the ciltantro and spring onions coming through.

I try to eat local when possible but sometimes on the days I work in the city, I need to pick up something on the way home.  I was in midtown today and stopped by the Grand Central Station Market where you’ll find an abundance of prepared foods as well as fresh fish, produce and other items.  If you are on the East End of Long Island and lucky enough to score some Cod from Montauk or Block Island, that’s the way to go!

There are a few fish stations in the Grand Central Market but the one at the very end had some beautiful wild caught giant hunks of glistening Cod and they were speaking to me.  As I ordered it, the guy waiting in line next to me asked me how to cook it.  I told him I like it simple, pan roasted with olive oil, shallots and with something slightly salty like olives or capers.  Add salt and pepper to the filets and dust them with a bit of flour (use rice if you are allergic to wheat).  Add shallots and capers to pan of hot EVOO.  Then add your dredged filets.  Cook on one side, then flip.  Then deglaze the pan with the same white wine you are having for dinner.   I am loving the North Fork Project Chardonnay by Pellegrini.  Finish with butter until slightly thickening and served the filets and pour sauce over them.  Serve and garnish with some fresh wild fennel, dill or your favorite herb.

Dinner for four
1.5 lbs of Cod
2 tablespoons of EVOO
1/2 cup of flour/wheat or rice
1 teaspoon of capers or two tablespoons of chopped green olives (with pimentos is okay)
1/4 cup of white wine
Sea salt and pepper
2 healthy pats of butter

Serve with a side dish of Moroccan style glazed carrots and your favorite bean salad.

Spring has arrived and with much talk about Spring cleaning. For many of us the most important room in the house is the kitchen. We spend a lot of time there preparing the meals of the day and eating many of them too.

Maintaining a green kitchen or green home doesn’t need to be as overwhelming as it sounds. You just need to do a little planning and enlist the help of your family. Start with one of these options and grow into the rest with time. Begin by switching to an organic multi purpose cleaning product that you can dilute with water.  Try shopping at farmstands or local grocers and recycling.  On a rainy day you can take the next step and think about repurposing items like linens, keeping a small countertop composter for vegetable scraps and coffee grounds or planting some herbs.  All of these are ways to provide a healthy home, reduce your carbon footprint and save some money.

I hope you’ll try some of these green kitchen tips and be on your way to enjoying your new organic kitchen.

What you will need: Spray bottles, Castille soap like Dr. Jacobs Organics, essential oils like eucalyptus, peppermint oil and tea tree oil, Bon Ami, white vinegar and old linens.

Multipurpose cleaner: A basic solution you can pour into spray bottles and use for countertops, walls and floors. Dr. Jacobs has a great Peppermint scented soap and a Eucalyptus one as well. During the warmer months you can even safely combat ants and fruit flies by adding a few extra drops of peppermint oil into the solution. But mother nature can’t help you if you leave food out, so make sure someone remembers to take out the garbage and that you wipe down tables and counter tops at the end of meals!

An abrasive cleaner: Bon Ami – for scrubbing pans and your stove top as well as cleaning your sinks and tub area.

Glass cleaner: White vinegar diluted with water to use for cleaning glass and mirrors.

Cut down on paper towels: Repurpose old linens by making rags from old towels to use with the multipurpose cleaner and pieces of old sheets for windows and glass. Newspapers are also a great for glass cleaning.

For these and more green ideas from The Greenporter Hotel, catch our featured article in this month’s Hotel Management Magazine on Green cleaning.

photo by Doug Young

photo by Katharine Schroeder

During these warm days I begin to think about what we will soon find at the farm stands.  A vegetable that seems to intimidate a lot of people, even the most avid cooks, is the artichoke.  I have few recollections of artichokes during my Midwestern childhood, but recall them always prepared the same way.  Stuffed with breadcrumbs and Parmesan or in a dip.    It was during my travels that I discovered the versatility of artichokes.  Whether atop pizzas on the street in Sicily or in little bundles,  fried and wrapped in newspaper at a market or dressed in vinaigrette at tapas bars, they were all delicious.

April is the time of year to celebrate the arrival of this prickly vegetable packed with vitamin C and fiber and low in calories. One of my favorite preparations for artichoke is the easiest — puréed into a simple bisque with stock. Top it off with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and spring onions, along with some crunchy crostini on the side.  Please look for this recipe in the Spring 2012 issue of Wine Press Magazine.

What to drink with artichokes?   It is very important to select your beverage carefully.  Choose a pale Ale or some Bedell Cellars Rosé to accompany this meal.  Most wine is difficult to pair with artichoke, as it alters the taste, making it sweet. 

photo by Katharine Schroeder

Artichoke Bisque

Ingredients:
1½ cups of prepared/blanched artichoke hearts (about 10 small hearts)
3 cups of Seasoned Fork “Roast Chicken Stock” or our North Fork Garden stock   Short of time? Try an organic store bought brand.
½ cup of caramelized chopped shallots
⅛ cup of dry sherry
¼ cup of cream or half and half (optional if lactose intolerant)
*At Cuvée, we only add cream to the soups upon serving.  We do not make them with cream, except for our New England-style clam chowder. 

 Preparation:
Peel and core your artichokes to use just the hearts and blanch them for about 4 minutes, set aside.
In a large saucepan chop and sauté the shallots until slightly brown, then add the artichoke hearts and sauté until slightly browned and set aside.

Assemble a puréeing station. Have a large pot and a ladle ready to purée the artichoke, shallots and stock in batches.
If too thick, add a bit more stock; if too thin, add another artichoke heart.  If you don’t have any more left, sauté about five button mushrooms and add to the purée.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Add sherry and cream when ready to serve and garnish to preference.

The mushroom cutlet has a meaty texture from the mushrooms with a “milanese-type” crust so even your meat eater will want this. The stuffing is very light and the entire meal can be made without using lactose products.

Cutlet
3 cups of chopped shiitake mushrooms cleaned and rough chopped
2 chopped spring onions
2 tablespoons of EVOO
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup of matzoh meal
1 1/4 cup of ground walnuts
4 eggs

Place mushrooms and scallions in a food processor and mix.  Drizzle with EVOO and salt.  Then add matzoh meal and pulse until forming a thick paste with the consistency to form into patties.

Ground 1/4 cup of walnuts and blend with ground matzoh meal for breading. Shape 4 to 5 oz patties into cutlet form and dredge into crumb mixture and coat. Complete all 4 to 6 patties and set aside to pan fry.  They can be cooked in advance and heated in oven prior to serving.

The stuffing

5 sheets of matzoh, broken into pieces
2 cups of garden stock (1 to pre-soak matzoh, then another cup to add after adding the eggs; add little by little as you might not need all of it.) Preheat the oven to 375 to bake your matzoh stuffing.
1 grated carrot
1/2 cup of finely copped celery
1/2 cup of finely chopped spring onions
1/2 cup of ground matzoh meal
1/4 cup of fresh chopped herbs (Greek oregano, chives, sage, wild fennel)
4 eggs
2 tablespoons of EVOO

Preheat the oven to 375° to bake your matzoh stuffing.
Combine all ingredients and mix until forming a thick batter the consistency of muffin mix.  Add more stock if it’s too thin. Taste the batter and add more salt and pepper to taste.

Oil a 9 inch pan with EVOO and add matzoh batter.  Bake for 30 minutes.

The mushroom velouté
This velouté is made from three simple ingredients.  Sautéed mushrooms, shallots, and garden stock.  Purée them together in a blender and add salt and pepper to taste.  No thickener is needed since mushroom emulsifies naturally.

Serve this dish with a full-bodied red wine for your holiday guests.  Try the Cabernet Sauvignon blend from Kesser Vineyards New York State, Finger Lakes

Last weekend, two of my kitchen colleagues at Cuvée prepared the staff meal and shared some dishes that they eat during lent or “Cuaresma” in their native country of Guatemala made from simple, inexpensive ingredients like lentils, potatoes and bread.

Not only were these dishes delicious and inexpensive, but they were also nutritious and great vegetarian options.

Lentil Soup with Carrots and Potatoes and Sofrito
One small bag of lentils (organic are best)
4 large carrots, peeled, scrubbed and rough chopped
2 medium size potatoes, scrubbed and diced
One green pepper or poblano (deveined and chopped) if you want some heat
Two tablespoons of chopped cilantro
Two tablespoons of chopped onion
Two cloves of minced garlic
One quart of water
One quart of Seasoned Fork garden stock
1/4 teaspoon of turmeric or a few threads of Saffron
1/4 of olive oil
Salt
Black pepper
Vinegar
2 or 3 bay leaves

Procedure:

Add olive oil to large dutch oven and heat. Add all ingredients except the lentils, vinegar, salt and pepper (added at the end) and sauté for 7 to 10 minutes. Then add lentils and stir. Add one quart of water and boil for one hour. Add the quart of garden stock in thirds, as needed. Once lentils are tender, add salt, pepper amd vinegar to taste. Garnish with fresh cilantro and serve in your favorite soup bowls. Serve with crusty bread and a salad. Try this with a bottle of North Fork Project by Pellegrini.

photo by Alexandra Lauber

 A warm Spring like this one gets everyone excited about the summer. I can’t wait to get back on the water this summer.  Some clamming on Hallock’s Bay and later a little fishing for striped bass or fluke, if we are lucky.  I was recently inspired by Martin Garrell’s piece in the Suffolk Times about a cod trip he took to Block Island. I have been dreaming about cod fishing ever since I read Cod: The History of the Fish that changed the world by Mark Kurlansky. Until I can someday find a cod excursion, I am happy to “settle” for the delicate white flesh of the striped bass or fluke right in our back yard.   

  The great thing about the North Fork is that you don’t even need to have a boat to harvest the waters. You can dig for clams at low tide with your feet or with a rake. And there are several beaches where you can see the striped bass jumping out of the water waiting for you to cast your line. Or you can go on an expedition with any number of charters like Libby Koch’s H2O Hospitality. She’ll take you out on her boat, Category One, for a three hour excursion and show you her secret spots that hold the North Fork’s finest mollucks and bivalves.   

photo by Deborah Pittorino

Even shopping for digging and fishing gadgets is an outing on the North Fork. Right on the docks of Greenport we have some of the oldest American Marine Supplies providers like Prestons and White’s Hardware. Between these two stores you can buy anything from a clamming rake to waders, shucking or fishing equipment and navigation maps.   

photo by Doug Young

Whether you buy or catch your own fish, you should try this recipe for striped bass with chimichurri.  This meal will be the perfect accompaniment to a bottle of Paumanok Riesling, named by the Wall Street Journal‘s blind tasting, led by Hugh Johnson, as one of the nation’s top 12 wines, “Luxury dozen” 

Catch of the Day Recipe:  feeds up to four people,  preheat oven or grill to 425 degrees

Pan-roasted Striped Bass with Chimichurri, fresh herb orzo and grilled asparagus with truffle oil    

Ingredients:                                                                                                                                                                                                

1 ½ lb of Striped bass (always fresh at Southold Fish Market)
2 tablespoons of EVOO
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt (try Amagansett Sea Salt)
Sprigs of your favorite fresh herbs.  (I prefer lighter herbs like chives, parsley or dill for the delicate flavors of Striped Bass or Fluke.  If you have Bluefish, you can use some stronger herbs like sage and Greek Oregano.)  

 Procedure: Pat down your filets with paper towels to make sure they are dry.  If a filet is humid it won’t develop a golden crust.  Then add salt and pepper to taste.  Place filets into hot pan, skin side down and cook for 3 minutes on medium to high heat to crisp the skin.  Then flip onto flesh side.  Add herb sprigs and a drizzle of olive oil and place pan in the oven or covered grill top for additional 7 to 15 minutes depending on how well done you like your fish.  White fish should be removed while the flesh is still glistening as it will continue to cook while resting.  I cook mine to medium rare (140 degrees).  Serve with side dishes of fresh herb orzo and grilled asparagus with truffle oil.

 Bruschetta with Mashed Peas, topped with crumbled cheese and fresh herbs.