One Block West Restaurant: August 2009 Newsletter

Thanks for reading this month's One Block West Restaurant newsletter. I really have way too much to say and not enough time to say it.

Have you noticed how many restaurants are trying to pin local and organic labels on themselves these days? What we've been quietly doing for years and years is now suddenly all the rage. You might as well jump on the bandwagon: below you'll find the formal announcment of our Annual Mayfair Farm Farm-to-Table Dinner, celebrating the bounty of Mayfair Farm, our principal produce supplier. This annual dinner lets me create vegetarian dishes that could convince dedicated carnivores to change their ways!

You'll also find a bit on a couple of Virginia wine tastings that I have attended, our new summer lunch menu, fabulous Saturn peaches, and a recipe for a quick and inexpensive summer dinner.

Thanks for all your support! I hope to see each of you in the dining room soon,

Ed Matthews
Chef and Owner

For those of you accustomed to our annual pre-Labor Day closure for vacation, we're not doing it this year. The economy just won't permit us.

In honor of Virginia Farm Market Week, on Saturday the 8th of August, I'll be at The Freight Station Farmers Market in the parking lot of the Winchester Little Theatre (Boscawen & Stewart Streets) from 10am to 1pm grilling pizza. Pizza samples are free and are our way of saying thank you for supporting the local farmers market. I'll see you there.

I know that many, many of you have been itching for the announcement of this dinner, our annual August dinner honoring the hard work of Gene and Beth Nowak of Mayfair Farm, our primary suppliers of local produce. As in past years, we will offer a five-course vegetarian dinner paired with wines for $65. Everything on your plate will come from Mayfair Farm. Gene and Beth will be on hand to answer questions. This dinner is reservation only and you should book on the phone at 540-662-1455. Please have your credit card handy to guarantee the table.

Alan Biros of Spriggs Delight Farm in Sharpsburg MD is now a regular at the Freight Station Farmers Market on Fridays. Alan's mom makes the cheese and Alan sells it. I eat a lot of goat cheese and I must say that this cheese is outstanding. I really like the aged Tommme. The Camembert and the feta are also delicious.

Now that summer vegetables are in full force, we're taking advantage of them on the lunch menu. Here are some of the new dishes that you should try:

Insalata Caprese, the classic fresh tomato and mozzarella salad
Fish Tacos, marinated and grilled catfish on corn tortillas
Cheese Tortellini with Tomatoes, Corn, and Basil, making its annual summer appearance
Spinach Salad with Blue Cheese, Pickled Red Onions, Blueberries, and Bacon Vinaigrette

In July, I participated in two Virginia wine tastings, one a trade-only event featuring Loudoun County wines and one a private tasting with Andy Reagan, the winemaker of Jefferson Vineyards, located hard by Monticello.

I am happy to report that among the sea of junk that I tasted at the Loudoun County event, I found a few solid wines. The wines from Fabbioli Cellars, already a house favorite, tasted really nice, especially the Rosa Luna rosé of Sangiovese. Also super were the two very different Bordeaux blends from The Boxwood Winery, the Merlot-centric Topiary and the Cabernet Sauvignon-centric Boxwood. I also like Tarara's Syrah. Each year, I find a few more producers worthy of being on our wine list. I am happy to report that the Boxwood wines are in house now and we're working on distribution issues to get the Tarara Syrah in house.

In the Jefferson tasting, all the wines were solid. But two stood out for me: the 2007 Pinot Gris and the 2007 Petit Verdot (not the reserve wine). For more information:

Here is a very quick to prepare summer dish that I threw together the other night for dinner in about five minutes, a perfect dish for that busy summer night.

Panzanella with Pernod Shrimp

8 ounces stale French bread
extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
fresh herbs such as basil and oregano, minced
salt and pepper
red pepper flakes
2 medium tomatoes, about 16 ounces
1 European cucumber
8 ounces shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 fluid ounce Pernod

Slice the stale bread into bite-sized cubes and toss with enough olive oil to lightly coat the bread, and add half the garlic, the fresh herbs, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.

Heat a large sauté pan over medium high flame and cook the bread, tossing, until it browns lightly on all sides.

Place the bread in a large bowl. Dice the tomatoes and the cucumber and add to the bowl. Try to put as much juice from the tomatoes as possible into the bowl. Mix well. Adjust the seasonings to your taste.

Let the bread salad stand while you cook the shrimp. In the same pan that you cooked the bread, heat a bit more olive oil. When hot, add the shrimp and cook on one side until half-cooked, then flip. Season with salt, pepper, and the other half of the garlic. Just as the shrimp is nearing doneness, pour in the the Pernod and mix well until the Pernod is evaporated. Add the shrimp to the panzanella and mix well.

Serves two really hungry people or four as an appetizer.

Here are some additional recipes from my blog:

Three Citrus Tequila Flounder Seviche, a great hot weather dinner.
Porcini Mushrooms with Thyme, for your fresh porcini this fall.

About 7 or 8 years ago, I started seeing these flat peaches for sale in the local area. Being the sort to adopt any stray produce with which I am not acquainted, I brought a bunch of these peaches home to try, after first inquiring what they were called. I was told that they are called Saturn peaches, after the rings of that particular planet. I've since learned that they are also called doughnut peaches, for obvious enough reasons.

I can tell you from a vast amount of personal experimentation on the subject that a tree-ripened Saturn is an ambrosial, juicy delight. These may be the juiciest peaches I've ever had the pleasure of letting dribble down my chin! I've had them in both yellow and white flesh, the preponderance being white. They have very thin skins, making them difficult to transport, and almost no fuzz, making them a joy to eat out of hand without peeling. Of course, I've never let a little fuzz stand between me and any peach. And they are freestone to boot.

Thanks to our friends at Rutgers (anyone remember the old light pink to orange Rutgers tomatoes?), more and more Saturns are finding their way to market. The breeders at Rutgers developed a tree that is more cold tolerant than its Chinese parents, allowing peach growers in most areas of the US to grow this wonderful peach.

Things keep changing on the local supply front. In the summer, it is usual for 95% or more of our produce to come from local farms and this summer is no different. What is different this year is that the vast majority of our proteins are coming from local farms. I am more encouraged than ever that we'll be able to keep our food dollars here in our community. For more information on where you can find some of these same foodstuffs, see www.buylocalvirginia.org.