Cella Bistro lunch

One of my favorite parts of a week off from school is the opportunity to sample dining options at other times left unexplored.  There are so many places that I'm interested in trying, all within 25 or 30 miles, that I could probably schedule a Dining Staycation quarterly without exhausting anything other than my American Express card. The recent February break provided the perfect chance to try something new - and talk about perfect timing, Cella Bistro is now serving lunch.  Next stop: Schenectady! 

I've been to Cella Bistro once before, back in December when they were doing a limited Sunday service for the holidays.  We got in on their Italian night which was fantastic, as well as a great value. If this place was a bit closer, believe me, I'd  definitely be here with greater frequency.  The lunch menu hadn't been available to peruse prior to our visit because the chef-owner, Michael Cella hadn't made his "final" decisions until that very morning.  No worries - when you're dealing with a chef as inspired and creative as Michael Cella, the hardest choice was making a choice.  Here's what we went with: 

Roasted Red Pepper soup - bursting with color and flavor - piping hot, light and satisfying.

Bibb lettuce salad with lemon vinaigrette - tender and crisp simultaneously

An order of delicious fries dunked in aioli naturally

A sliced duck sandwich with aioli, sauteed mushrooms,  cheese,  caramelized onions

Reuben of housemade pastrami, cole slaw, cheese, 1000 island dressing on grilled rye bread. 
Bonus: A housemade pickle!!

Check out this mound of pastrami!!  Housemade Corned Beef was also available

Housemade Apricot cello

A couple of additional items worth mentioning; they have a very pleasing selection of beverages.  In addition to their homemade cellos, there was a nice variety of beers from which to choose.  We went with the Ommegang Rare Vos and couldn't have been happier.  Desserts were kind of weak, particularly for their first day's service, but we had a delicious bowl of Haagen Daz vanilla ice cream which was perfect with my glass of cello.  Lunch was somewhere in the $70 range, but you could certainly be more than satisfied for less than we spent.  It was vacation, though and Cella Bistro was the perfect spot to get away without really going away. 

Soup Swap - Sea Shanty Spicy Clam Chowder

clam chowder with a twist

Prior to moving to Albany, I worked in a fantastic little restaurant in Washingtonville, N.Y. called the Sea Shanty. The chef-owner, Len Holl, was truly the man who inspired me to view food in a completely different light; no longer was it something on a plate that I was serving merely to make a living.  Instead, it was something in which to take pride and to deliver to my guests with a pleasure previously not experienced. The restaurant was small, ok, it was tiny - 10 tables with a total of 30 seats.  The entire menu was on a large chalk board, generally 4-6 appetizer choices and perhaps 12 or 14 entree options - and was exclusively fish and seafood.  If someone in your party wanted something other than fish, Len would send the dishwasher to Grand Union to pick up a steak or some chicken.  The aroma of meat being broiled always seemed out of place to me, while the fish stink that we all wore upon leaving after a busy night was as familiar as a baby's blanket.  It was a special little place and I still miss it.

It's been 15 years since Len prematurely died, but the lessons I learned from him are deeply ingrained in my food sensibilities and my perspective of hospitality. I will always think of him when I pick up a knife to chop or cut, since he taught me the correct means of performing these tasks. The names Larry Forgione and Paul Prudhomme were the first celebrity chef names I learned, because Len worked with both of them and my understanding about how to treat delivery people and purveyors came directly from Len. Namely, when it is hot outside offer them something cold to drink and when it is cold outside give them something to warm them up. Nothing was more welcomed in winter by our linen delivery man or by Joe, our fish guy (Joe Fish, get it?) than a steaming bowl of Len's Spicy Clam Chowder. For my first appearance at a Soup Swap, naturally I chose Len's chowder as my contribution. So, here's the recipe for you and most especially for Len. I still miss you, my friend, but would like to think you'd be pleased with my attempt at your recipe.  And, thanks Almost Foodies for letting me join the party - I can't wait to eat homemade soup that I didn't make!

Len's Spicy Clam Chowder (makes 8 quarts)

1 gallon of clam juice
2 lbs chopped clams (I used frozen)
1 lb of hot Italian sausage (loose or removed from casings)
3 cans of tomatoes - 2 diced, 1 crushed
3 10 oz boxes of fresh sliced mushrooms (sliced as a time saver)
2 chopped red onions
5 or 6 red potatoes, cubed
1 bunch of parsley coarsely chopped

Crushed red pepper to taste
Chili garlic sauce to taste
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

mushrooms and onions softening in pork fat

In a deep saute pan, break up and brown sausage.  While sausage is cooking, warm clam juice in a very large stock pot over low to medium heat.  Use a slotted spoon to transfer sausage to stock pot, retaining the glistening pork fat in the saute pan.  Working in batches, soften the onions and mushrooms in the saute pan, adding them to the stock pot as they finish cooking.  Toss clams and potatoes into stock pot.  Stir in tomatoes (with can juices) and parsley.  Simmer on low heat for an hour or so and then season with salt, pepper, red pepper and chili garlic sauce.  Serve with oyster crackers and a tasty beer.  Toast Len.  Enjoy.

Snow day soup

this photo does not do it justice

Yesterday was our first snow day of the season and I am pretty darn satisfied with how I used my found time.  This storm was well forecasted for a change, and I was so confident that I was going to be home for the day, that I prepped bread dough the night before and got to enjoy the aroma of fresh bread baking in my oven.  Love that! 

I am newly obsessed with kale, following my meal at Cafe Capriccio, and decided to make a kale and bean soup.  I don't know about you, but I am convinced that white beans and kale are the flavor combination of winter 2011 - it seems like I'm seeing it everywhere (@Eataly on bruschetta, @Cafe Capriccio on crostini, in Bon Appetit, etc).  I gathered together 6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (cut into 2" pieces), a package of garlic and chicken sausage (sliced into 1" rounds), a huge bunch of kale (coarsely chopped), an entire head of garlic (again, coarsely chopped), 2/3 of a bag of "baby" carrots, approximately 2.5 quarts of assorted stock (more on this later) and a big can of canellini beans. 



The process:  Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy, deep pot, over medium high heat.  Add the garlic and lightly brown.  Turn down the heat and toss in the chunks of chicken thighs.  Brown on all sides, turning as necessary.  Add the chicken sausage and stock - I used 3 different types of stock from my freezer; turkey and two different batches of chicken stock.  I seasoned each of those birds differently and think the variety added a really nice depth to my end result. Turn the heat down to medium low and toss in the carrots and kale, stirring to distribute evenly, and cover.  My bunch of kale was ginormous and I had to add it slowly as it cooked down, which took a few minutes.  After about 30 minutes, I reached for my can of white beans and...paused.   "Hmmm.  If everyone is doing kale and white beans maybe I need to switch it up a bit," I thought to myself.  I considered how beautiful the orange carrots looked and decided to put my own spin on things (as I like to do) and reached for a bag of dried yellow lentils (2.5 - 3 cups, I'd say ) instead.  Oh, yeah.  Perfect!  I covered the pot again, turned the heat to as low as it would go and went skiing for a couple of hours.  Upon my return, inspired by the lentils, I seasoned the soup with between 1/4 and a 1/3 cup of garam masala and let the spices cook for about 30 minutes prior to ladling that loveliness into bowls.  I served the soup with home baked bread, soft, herbed cheese and roasted cauliflower.  Delicious.  

a delicious winter salad




Today's lunch was a salad of baby spinach and arugula dressed with olive oil and fresh lemon juice then topped with leftover roasted cauliflower, croutons and golden raisins. Yum, yum - that's good eating.

Mulligatawny Soup

a little mortar and pestle action - coriander seeds

I've got a thing for Mulligatawny Soup.  With my first pregnancy, it was my number one craving, and just like the pregnancy stretch marks, it's never gone away.  A perfect meal is an order of garlic nan and a steaming bowl of soup - usually from Shalimar.  There's something about the spicy wonderfulness that makes me feel content - true comfort food.  I've been looking for a recipe for mulligatawny for a while, but there seems to be an incredible variety of mulligatawny versions and I am easily overwhelmed by choices.  Yesterday, I bit the bullet and settled on this recipe for my framework.  I say framework because, people, it's soup.  I really can't be overly concerned with measuring ingredients for a soup unless it's a consomee' or a bisque (neither of which I've ever made) because, in my mind, soup is an item that is meant to be spontaneous and loosely constructed.  And, yes, we're talking about soup, not relationships.  :)

lots of onions, garlic and garam masala



I've been meaning to get to the Indian market on Central Avenue for a few weeks, and gathering ingredients for this soup provided me with the perfect opportunity.  The market was pretty impressive but a bit overwhelming, since I don't really have much experience with cooking Indian cuisine.  If you're looking for basmati rice, inexpensive spices or dried legumes, this is definitely a place you should check out.  There is a kitchen in the rear of the store and prepared foods are also available.  I thoroughly enjoyed the samosas I bought, finding them to be flaky, spicy and generally damned delicious.  And cheap.  I ended up purchasing 2 lbs of onions, 2 lbs of split red lentils, a 7 oz (?) package of garam masala and the samosas for $8 and change. 

deliciousness in less than an hour!

When I make soup I like to make a large pot of it - which leaves me plenty to eat, share and freeze.  I sort of doubled the recipe and would estimate I used almost 2 lbs of onions, about 10 garlic cloves, and perhaps 5 cups of split red lentils.  The process was pretty simple, saute the onions in some olive oil until they brown up, add the chopped garlic, spices and lentils and then add stock and coconut milk. I pretty much eye-balled all the spices, and threw in a few tablespoons of cardamon seeds, as well, since the recipe didn't call for any and I love them.  I omitted the chicken and the rice called for in the recipe, but used chicken stock (maybe 10 or 12 cups), which could easily be replaced with vegetable broth to make a vegetarian version. I also skipped the pureeing part because I like a dense soup and why dirty the blender?  I was pretty darn liberal with the seasonings, and finished the pot of yum by adding salt and some generous squeezes of fresh lemon juice.  This is a really easy soup to make with limited chopping - just the onions and the garlic, and I will certainly make it again.  Now, I can satisfy this craving at home.  Mission accomplished.

Saving the world with soup - a valiant attempt.

Yesterday I began feeling a bit under the weather - kind of sniffley and cold. Waking up this morning, I was achey and undecided if it was yesterday's a.m. workout or some sort of cold-related symptom. Since it stayed with me all day, (and the workout wasn't that hard), I'm inclined to think it is a, dare I say, a flu-like thing I'm battling. My answer is - SOUP!! Tom was a darling and headed over to the Asian Market on Colvin Ave and got me set up with my ingredients. Here's what I did:

Thawed 2 quarts of chicken stock from my freezer in a big pot. Added a couple of minced cloves of garlic and a large knob of ginger root, peeled and sliced, of course. Threw in some bite-sized pieces of uncooked chicken and let it all simmer for about 25 minutes. Added a can of coconut milk, , the juice of one lime, a hearty squeeze of red curry paste, a good 1/4 c of kecap menas. some more ginger because it needed more, and finished it with a package of glass noodles and a coarsely chopped bunch of cilantro. Served it in a bowl on a bed of crunchy bean sprouts. I swear I feel better already!