When it is a bit chilly in the New England spring, nothing tastes better than a salad of wilted dandelion greens. Besides being a warm comfort food on a cool night, the fresh greens tantalize with hints of the unfolding season. If you do not have dandelion greens, you can substitute just about any other hearty green such as Napa cabbage, Swiss chard, or spinach. This salad is great served with warm crusty sourdough bread.
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Health-food stores and even mainstream supermarkets these days devote whole shelves to soothing and healthful herbal teas. But teas and infusions made from your own garden have much more flavor than store-bought varieties. All you have to do is gather some herbs and other flavorings in a piece of cheesecloth, tie it with kitchen string, set it in a cup or pot, and pour in boiling water. Alternately, you can just pour boiling water over loose herbs and strain them out after they steep. Try experimenting with ginger, blackberries, mint, apple blossoms, rhubarb, marigolds, tarragon, and rose hips. Here are some of our time-tested herbal teas for two from the garden.
Halibut, the largest flatfish (a family that includes sole and flounder), range from the Arctic Sea to New Jersey. Most are caught in the frigid waters off Maine and Nova Scotia. We buy whole fish that weigh 40-50 pounds and measure 5 feet long without their heads. Halibut has a firm texture that makes it perfect for sautéing and grilling. Thai red curry is also delicious in stir-fries.
This dessert combines two classic cakes–chocolate and carrot–into one. It's not as rich or heavy as pure chocolate cake, although the buttery frosting is a nod to chocoholics. In olden days carrots were a staple during winter because they store well in a root cellar.
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Winter in Maine may be long and dark, but at least we have fresh Maine shrimp! Delicate and small, these sweet pink morsels are perfect in dumplings. Serve with Vietnamese Clear Dipping Sauce.
Continue reading “Arrows Restaurant: Maine Shrimp Dumplings with Cilantro” »
Our version of this standard Vietnamese table condiment includes Vietnamese coriander, which is very different from cilantro, the common Mexican variety of coriander sold in most stores. Vietnamese coriander has long, pointed leaves and a strong, lemony taste that is almost as aromatic as perfume. It is easy to grow from seed, and you can bring it indoors during winter.
Continue reading “Arrows Restaurant: Dipping Sauce for Maine Shrimp Dumplings with Cilantro” »
Classic boiled beef dinner is home cooking at its best, which is why you won't find it on the menu at Arrows or many other restaurants. This easy, crowd-pleasing meal was made for the hearth, not dining out, and we savor it at home on cold nights with family and friends. It dates to a time when homesteaders cooked over the unregulated heat of woodstoves, which required dishes that were flexible about temperature and timing.
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I started making crab cakes in a little dump of a restaurant in Monterey California where I grew up. The quality of the crab there varied from the best Dungeness to not the best "something or other" that the owners of the joint wanted us to use. Sometimes when you use inferior ingredients, you can actually learn how to make the best ingredient shine; in this case, I learned that it enhances the flavor of the crab meat to first mix it with fresh lemon juice. I also like to use tons of sour cream in the mixture. If the cakes feel like they are almost too loose, that is the correct consistency of flour, crab meat, and sour cream! The cakes will then be light and fluffy and not have the consistency of pucks that one so often encounters in crab cakes. For those of you concerned about fat in your diet, just forget about crab cakes: they’re just not worth doing any other way!
Continue reading “Maine Peekytoe Crab Cakes with Spicy Chive Mayonnaise” »
Every year we try to get to some part of Asia and after many trips from Indonesia to Beijing, one begins to find that there are certain staple sauces that never fail to satisfy. Our spicy cilantro and basil sauce is just this sort of staple. It’s incredibly easy to make and tastes great on virtually everything! We tone down the use of fish sauce that one would commonly find in this sort of dipping sauce in Asia, but this is a matter of taste; add more (with care) if you want a more authentic South East Asian flavor.
1 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk
½ cup cilantro leaves
¼ cup basil leaves
¼ cup flat-leaf parsley
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 shallots, peeled
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tablespoons sugar
1 serrano chile, stemmed and seeded
2 teaspoons finely chopped gingerroot
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Combine all the ingredients in the jar of a blender and process for 30 seconds until smooth. Cover and refrigerate or keep at room temperature until serving. It is best used the same day it is made.
Clark Frasier and Mark Gaier are the chef-owners of Arrows restaurant in Ogunquit.
Mark and I first went to South East Asia in 1993. One day we were on our way to a remote temple in northern Thailand, and we stopped at a food stall along the dusty road. The most beautiful lady (northern Thai people are especially beautiful) and her two adorable kids were selling fresh corn from the fields directly behind them, grilled over wood with coconut milk, butter, and salt. Mark, who grew up in Ohio and considers himself to be a true connoisseur of corn, felt it was the best he had ever had. From then on this became a favorite preparation of ours from home to Arrows to MC to Summer Winter and all from a little lady in northern Thailand.
Kosher Salt
6 ears corn, shucked
½ cup canned unsweetened coconut milk
3 tablespoons clarified butter, melted
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 sturdy bamboo chopsticks, soaked in water for at least 30 minutes
1. In a large pot bring 2 quarts water and 1 tablespoon salt to a boil. Add the corn, cook for 3 minutes, and drain.
2. Toss the corn in a bowl with the coconut milk, the butter, 1 tablespoon salt, and the pepper.
3. Start a charcoal or gas grill.
4. Using an ice pick, awl, or small, sturdy knife, make a 1 ½-inch-deep hole in the stalk end of each ear of corn and insert a chopstick. Grill the corn, turning it regularly so as not to burn it, for 2 to 4 minutes until lightly browned. Serve at once.
Clark Frasier and Mark Gaier are the chef-owners of Arrows restaurant in Ogunquit.
