Published on 01/08/2010 12:15pm By Tom Burfield
When the economy took a dive, so did business throughout the foodservice industry. But several mushroom grower-shippers said they’ve noticed gradual upward movement in their sales to restaurants this winter.
After dropping off in the middle of 2008, foodservice business started picking up again late this fall for Monterey Mushrooms Inc., Watsonville, Calif., said Joe Caldwell, vice president.
Some of the sales upturn may have resulted from the company’s efforts to let foodservice operators know just how versatile mushrooms are, Caldwell said.
“Mushrooms have flexibility,” he said.
They can be used in breakfast, lunch or dinner offerings; in Mexican, Italian, Asian, German or American dishes; and in sandwiches, salads, soups and casseroles.
Read the full story at ThePacker.com.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Mushrooms enhance menu at San Francisco restaurant
Published on 01/08/2010 12:36pm By Tom Burfield
When Annie Somerville, executive chef at Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, wants to add a special touch to her menu, one of her favorite options is mushrooms.
Filo purses stuffed with mushrooms and artichokes is one of her favorites, she said, and diners also love the grilled or roasted portabella sandwich, and they “go absolutely crazy” when she serves stuffed portabella mushroom with a mushroom sauce and mashed potatoes.
“Right now we are serving abalone, oyster and king trumpets,” she said in mid-December.
And the following week, she planned to grill squares of polenta over charcoal and serve that with an herb cream, grilled mushrooms and shaved parmesan cheese.
“It will be a really nice winter dish,” she said.
Somerville likes working with mushrooms because they are fun and exciting.
“They have great texture, really good flavor, and they’re compelling and fun to work with,” she said.
Because Greens is a vegetarian restaurant, Somerville gets to try her hand at preparing a variety of mushrooms, including portabella, crimini and the basic white variety. She likes to go beyond white mushrooms and considers the portabella a good, basic mushroom that many chefs now use.
“It has a really hardy flavor, it’s got a great texture, it makes a great sandwich, and it’s good roasted or grilled,” she said. “You can really put it to work.”
Somerville’s approach to vegetarian cooking is not to simply look for meat substitutes.
“It’s always nice to have some really, really hardy, flavorful ingredients on the menu,” she said, “and mushrooms definitely are.”
She is fond of the crimini, which she characterizes as “the white mushroom’s tan cousin” with a slightly deeper flavor.
She also likes to use the oyster variety because it has a good texture and grills and roasts nicely.
“You can grill or roast a whole cluster,” she said. “They’re very flavorful, and they have a really nice, chewy texture.”
Plain white mushrooms also can be delicious if you slice them, sauté them with olive oil, garlic or shallots, salt and pepper.
“Deglaze your pan with a little red or white wine or sherry,” she said. “They just need seasoning.”
During the fall, she made a salad that featured grilled delicata squash, little artichokes, peppers and abalone mushrooms.
“It’s fun and a good combination of flavors, colors and textures,” she said.
Other favorite mushroom dishes at Greens include stuffed portabella mushrooms, a grilled mushroom sandwich with melted cheese and wild mushroom ravioli.
“And anytime we have mushrooms on pizza, people love it,” Somerville said.
Read the full story at ThePacker.com.
When Annie Somerville, executive chef at Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, wants to add a special touch to her menu, one of her favorite options is mushrooms.
Filo purses stuffed with mushrooms and artichokes is one of her favorites, she said, and diners also love the grilled or roasted portabella sandwich, and they “go absolutely crazy” when she serves stuffed portabella mushroom with a mushroom sauce and mashed potatoes.
“Right now we are serving abalone, oyster and king trumpets,” she said in mid-December.
And the following week, she planned to grill squares of polenta over charcoal and serve that with an herb cream, grilled mushrooms and shaved parmesan cheese.
“It will be a really nice winter dish,” she said.
Somerville likes working with mushrooms because they are fun and exciting.
“They have great texture, really good flavor, and they’re compelling and fun to work with,” she said.
Because Greens is a vegetarian restaurant, Somerville gets to try her hand at preparing a variety of mushrooms, including portabella, crimini and the basic white variety. She likes to go beyond white mushrooms and considers the portabella a good, basic mushroom that many chefs now use.
“It has a really hardy flavor, it’s got a great texture, it makes a great sandwich, and it’s good roasted or grilled,” she said. “You can really put it to work.”
Somerville’s approach to vegetarian cooking is not to simply look for meat substitutes.
“It’s always nice to have some really, really hardy, flavorful ingredients on the menu,” she said, “and mushrooms definitely are.”
She is fond of the crimini, which she characterizes as “the white mushroom’s tan cousin” with a slightly deeper flavor.
She also likes to use the oyster variety because it has a good texture and grills and roasts nicely.
“You can grill or roast a whole cluster,” she said. “They’re very flavorful, and they have a really nice, chewy texture.”
Plain white mushrooms also can be delicious if you slice them, sauté them with olive oil, garlic or shallots, salt and pepper.
“Deglaze your pan with a little red or white wine or sherry,” she said. “They just need seasoning.”
During the fall, she made a salad that featured grilled delicata squash, little artichokes, peppers and abalone mushrooms.
“It’s fun and a good combination of flavors, colors and textures,” she said.
Other favorite mushroom dishes at Greens include stuffed portabella mushrooms, a grilled mushroom sandwich with melted cheese and wild mushroom ravioli.
“And anytime we have mushrooms on pizza, people love it,” Somerville said.
Read the full story at ThePacker.com.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Hot Tip For You Broke Asses!
Brokeass Gourmet is the premier food and lifestyle blog for folks who want to live the high life on the cheap. The blog features recipes that are always under $20, along with great advice on inexpensive but delicious beers, wines, cocktails and other topics relating to the BrokeAss Gourmet lifestyle.
Check it out!
Check it out!
Friday, January 8, 2010
Is Chicken Skin the New Bacon?
By Kristin Donnelly, Associate Editor at foodandwine.com
While visiting my parents outsidePhiladelphia over the holidays, I met up with restaurant critic Joy Manning for a Philly restaurant crawl. At Fish—chef Mike Stollenwerk’s second restaurant (the first is the diminutive Little Fish)— I loved the perfectly cooked skate (nicely crusted outside and moist within) served with golden brown spaetzle and a lush parmesan-truffle sauce. But our fishless starter—an otherwise ordinary beet salad—really struck me because of its garnish: crisp bits of chicken skin scattered like croutons.
Since winning Top Chef Season 2, Ilan Hall has talked about the deliciousness of chicken skin.
Rooster Rind
Now, he’s getting all kinds of press for the gribenes sandwich—essentially a BLT with chicken skin standing in for the bacon—that he serves at his new LA spot, The Gorbals.
And what trend would be complete without a David Chang restaurant to legitimize it? Crispy chicken skin garnishes hand-torn pasta with escargot sausage at NYC's still-impossible-to-get-into Momofuku Ko. (Plus David recently created Turkey Cracklings to accompany Turkey Breast with Ginger-Scallion Sauce in F&W's Thanksgiving Leftovers Challenge.)
Another fabulous recipe: chicken tacos from F&W's Marcia Kiesel with a crispy skin garnish.
While visiting my parents outsidePhiladelphia over the holidays, I met up with restaurant critic Joy Manning for a Philly restaurant crawl. At Fish—chef Mike Stollenwerk’s second restaurant (the first is the diminutive Little Fish)— I loved the perfectly cooked skate (nicely crusted outside and moist within) served with golden brown spaetzle and a lush parmesan-truffle sauce. But our fishless starter—an otherwise ordinary beet salad—really struck me because of its garnish: crisp bits of chicken skin scattered like croutons.
Since winning Top Chef Season 2, Ilan Hall has talked about the deliciousness of chicken skin. Rooster Rind
Now, he’s getting all kinds of press for the gribenes sandwich—essentially a BLT with chicken skin standing in for the bacon—that he serves at his new LA spot, The Gorbals.
And what trend would be complete without a David Chang restaurant to legitimize it? Crispy chicken skin garnishes hand-torn pasta with escargot sausage at NYC's still-impossible-to-get-into Momofuku Ko. (Plus David recently created Turkey Cracklings to accompany Turkey Breast with Ginger-Scallion Sauce in F&W's Thanksgiving Leftovers Challenge.)
Another fabulous recipe: chicken tacos from F&W's Marcia Kiesel with a crispy skin garnish.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
CIA Analyst to Gourmet Sausage Maker
Former CIA Intelligence Analyst, Stanley Feder, discovered a passion for crafting gourmet sausages. Four years later, his sausages are highly sought after in the Washington culinary community. Feder accredits his success to his artisanal process and his list of high quality ingredients, which would not be complete without Vande Rose Farms Duroc Pork.
Simply Sausage hand crafts high quality sausages for restaurants, gourmet food shops, farmers who raise livestock naturally, and for people who love great food.
They are fanatical about quality. They use high quality meats such as Vande Rose Farms Duroc pork, which is sustainably raised without hormones or antibiotics. For beef, they are using briskets and chucks. Their spices are the best available. In short, we believe that good ingredients, handled with care and creativity produce outstanding eating.
About the sausage team
The Simply Sausage team is composed of Stanley Feder, Gathoni Kamau, and C.J. Russell. Although Simply Sausage has been in business for four years, it took Stan two and a half years to find the skilled, responsible, and dedicated people who are serious about the craft of sausage making.
Stanley Feder learned the finer points of sausage making through trial and error and two short apprenticeships with John van der Lieck, a European-trained Master of Sausage Making (Wurstmeister) whose Oyama Sausage Company (www.oyamasausge.ca) is famous in Vancouver, BC, Canada. During 2004 Stan made sausages part-time at 2941 Restaurant in Falls Church, VA. Stan learned the basics in the 1970s by reading about and making charcuterie — sausages, pâtés, salt pork, and lard — at home. In February 2007 Stan spent eight days working with the Noguera family, traditional sausage makers in Sant Fruitós de Bages, Spain. Stan brought back a dozen recipes from this experience, including the chorizo picante and butifarras offered for sale. He is obsessed with quality in all aspects of any cooking he does. Stan is a member of Slow Food, a charter member of the National Capital Area chapter of the American Institute of Food and Wine, and a former director of The Regional Food Council/Local Food, a not-for-profit that worked to strengthen links between small farmers and the citizens of the greater Washington, DC, area.
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