image: onceuponacakestand.com
This wonderful supper salad is a perfect vehicle for “hot smoked” salmon or other smoked seafood. Or you can also use just about any non-smoked canned or leftover fish–tuna, salmon, and so on. The seashell-shaped pasta echoes the ocean theme, but of course any pasta shape will work fine.
The A-1 Diner in Gardiner is an ancient but well-preserved specimen of the dining-car diner. Inside, it’s got wooden booths, laminate-top tables, and leatherette-seated stools at the counter, as well as a quilted steel wall and perfectly preserved tiles on the floor.
The place is such a wonderfully authentic vintage set piece that you’d probably be happy just to stop in for a look and a cup o’ joe. But don’t.
Chefs at The A-1 are serious about their food, serving unusually delicious fare three meals a day. Baked beans, corned beef hash, biscuits, and mashed potatoes are homemade. Standards like meatloaf and fried chicken are there on the menu, but so are more upscale items like Creole Beans and Rice, Salmon with Pesto, and Eggplant Saffron Custard Gratin.
One of the anything-but-standard items on the menu of the A-1 Diner is this spicy, warming chicken mamou, the recipe for which was contributed by an A-1 waitress with a Cajun past.
image courtesy of roadsidegalore.com
True to Cleonice Restaurant’s Mediterranean focus, this fabulous paella, chock full of local in-season seafood and flavorful sausage, is almost always on the menu. It’s colorful, festive, and tastes sublime–a fabulous dish for a party. Feel free to improvise and add vegetables and seafood of your choice.
Based on the research I’ve done on the subject, a preserve and a conserve seem to refer pretty much to the same thing–that is, fruit cooked and preserved with sugar. I’ve called this a conserve because I happen to like the old-fashioned sort of ring to the name, but you can call it plain old cranberry sauce if you like. The pear adds a bit of different texture and the ginger makes it sparkle on the tongue.
When I took a poll, asking people to name their favorite menu item at Moody’s Diner in Waldoboro, the answer among my (admittedly unscientific) sample was practically unanimous: walnut pie. With real whipped cream.
Walnut Pie
Brooke Dojny, The New England Clam Shack Cookbook
1 cup chopped walnuts
Pie pastry for a single-crust pie
3 eggs
1 cup dark corn syrup
¾ cup sugar
6 Tablespoons butter, melted
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
Softly whipped cream
Onion rings are a requisite part of the clam shack experience, and the crispy, slightly puffy, deeply golden rings at Bagaduce Lunch, a little clam shack in Penobscot, Maine, are some of the best ever. The secret to good onion rings is simple, says owner Mike Astbury. Use freshly cut “colossal” onions and thoroughly bread them twice before they hit the fryer. Continue reading “Double-Dipped Onion Rings” »
Pumpkin pie is simply a custard pie made with pumpkin puree and seasoned with traditional sweet spices. After trying a couple of times to make pies with “from scratch” pumpkin puree (cutting, roasting, scraping, mashing), I concluded that it’s really not worth the trouble – in fact, canned pumpkin is superior in some ways because the puree has been cooked down to a properly thick consistency. Just be sure not to buy pre-sweetened and spiced pumpkin-pie filling. This pie follows a rather classic formula, with a small slug of bourbon or rum added for interest (though it’s fine, too, without the spirits). Continue reading “Bourbon Pumpkin Pie” »
A crisp, which is even more casual and easier to make than a cobbler, seems to me perfectly suited to fall cooking. Sturdier, less sweet autumn fruits are blanketed by a layer of oaty, almondy topping that develops into a crunchy crust as it bakes, sending the perfume of cinnamon-scented apples out into the house. Continue reading “Apple Crisp with Walnut-Oat Crunch” »
Pickled beets are one of those simple old-fashioned mainstays that are always a welcome addition to any meal, summer or winter. Here, they are dressed up with a drizzle of vinaigrette and shower of chopped fresh dill. Continue reading “A Dilly of a Pickled Beet Salad” »
If you’ve forgotten what real chocolate pudding tastes like, try this recipe from The Lobster Pound restaurant in Lincolnville, Maine. A simple chocolate dessert is just the ticket after one of The Lobster Pound’s shore dinners, and this recipe is an old-fashioned tried-and-true formula that results in a yummy pudding that beats the stuff from a boxed mix hands down. Continue reading “Lincolnville Beach Old-Fashioned Chocolate Pudding” »
Old-time Mainers sometimes call this “rye ‘n’ injun” bread (the “injun” referring to the cornmeal, because all things corn were associated with Native Americans). Others just called it brown bread. You can actually buy brown bread in a can, which you then heat by steaming, and it isn’t bad. But this homemade version is absolutely delicious–plus, making it is kind of a fun project. In New England, steamed brown bread was (and still is) a traditional accompaniment to Saturday night’s baked beans. Continue reading “Saturday-Night Supper Steamed Brown Bread” »
Eggplant, which one generally associates with Mediterranean cuisine, actually grows quite well in Maine–especially some newer types, like the slender Italian (or baby eggplant) and Japanese varieties. Peak season is midsummer to mid-autumn, coinciding with prime tomato season, so combining these two is our natural inclination. If the the eggplants are young and very fresh, they don’t really need preliminary salting to draw out bitterness, but I like to give them just a sprinkle of salt because it helps keep them from absorbing quite so much oil. This eggplant dish works as a side dish and also makes an excellent vegetarian entrée.
Let’s be honest: even in Maine, serving lobster to a group of more than a few people can get costly. But if you use the lobster meat as part of a single-bite hors d’oeuvre, then it becomes ever so much more affordable. The inspiration for these very pretty and absolutely delicious little skewers comes from my friend Holly Williams, who lives in Georgia. Sometimes it takes the insight of a person “from away” to illuminate what should have been obvious all along.
The flavors, textures, and colors in this lovely combination salad play off each other so well. You’ve got the crunch of the greens and snap peas, the sweetness of berries and maple, the salty smokiness of nuts, and the tang of cheese. It makes a wonderful first course.
Continue reading “Market Salad with Berries and Local Chèvre” »
Lots of people build their summer vacation round one of Maine’s famous food festivals–and of course, locals turn out in droves–to participate in the fun and the eating.
The 62nd Annual Maine Lobster Festival, starting this Wednesday noon in Harbor Park in Rockland, is a huge, five day festival which hosts thousands of visitors each year. There are lobster street sculptures, a parade, the annual Sea Goddess Coronation, music galore, arts tents, a race on half-submerged lobster crates and…lobster.
When I asked a friend if she'd divulge the name of her favorite clam shack/lobster pound in her part of Maine, her unreserved recommendation was Cod End in Tenants Harbor. She said, "We go so often that sometimes we end up just getting the grilled cheese on anadama bread with tomatoes. It's outstanding, and the perfect lunch when you're not in the mood for seafood." The secret, of course, is to start with good bread–Cod End gets their oatmeal and molasses anadama from the Schoolhouse Bakery in town–and to use a nice, sharp Cheddar cheese.
Continue reading “The Best Grilled Cheese Sandwich Around” »
If you can't get local or extremely fresh halibut, you could be consoled with the corn and lobster risotto–great on its own–that accompanies this rendition of Maine Halibut by Primo.
Continue reading “Seared Halibut on Native Corn and Lobster Risotto” »
