The Food of Spring

 

ramps

 

 

I love New England for the four seasons among other things.  Each season helps you appreciate the next even more.  After a long cold frozen winter, the treats of spring are a gift.  The scent and flavor ofspring ramps are wild, ever so slightly earthy and perhaps a favorite allium among food lovers around here.  The spring mushrooms are beginning to pop up for seasoned foragers to find and bring to the table.  Asparagus and artichokes don their deep green coats and burst with the taste of spring.  Fiddleheads make their début and chanterelles are earthy and soft and if we are lucky abundant this season.  The pink stalks of delicious rhubarb melt in your mouth taking on any sweetness you pair with them.

 

Photo by Dieter Wiechmann

Chef Tim Wiechmann of T.W. Food has created a six course menu to celebrate and share the bounty of spring as only he can highlight it.  This special spring menu is available Wednesday, April 29th 2009.

The menu includes:

• Wild morels and ramps with seared atlantic sea scallops and smoked oysters
• White asparagus with local egg Grenobloise, cured ham and fines herbs
• Artichoke salad with beet sprouts, Pecorino cheese custard and crispy spring onions
• Vermont pheasant roasted breast and citrus confit thigh, wild fiddleheads, chanterelle mushrooms and sauce foie gras 
  or Tagliatelle hand-made with fiddleheads, chanterelles and Parmigiano Reggiano 
• Cheese and salad
• Rhubarb ice cream with French lemon dacquoise pastry and ginger creme Anglaise

For the wine pairings please visit the T.W. Food website and for reservations, please call (617) 864-4745

A perfect little pot: Rillettes

Charcuterie at T.W. Food Restaurant (Photo by Dieter Wiechmann)

Rillettes is rustic and flavourful.  There are several types of rillettes.  Traditionally, it is made with pork, but it can also be made with rabbit or duck.  It is usually in a jar or “pot” similar to a pate, but not quite as refined, which gives it character not only in flavor but also in texture.  There is a layer of fat on top to preserve the meat.

A little jar of Rilettes is the perfect addition to a spring picnic or country style lunch.  Serve a lot of fresh local greens, some hearty “pain de campagne“, some cornichons or local pickles, rillettes, and another one or two charcuterie offerings and you have a great lunch to pull out and enjoy with family or to serve guests on the weekend.  

If you want to learn more about rillettes and other charcuterie you can join chef Leah at Formaggio Kitchen as she demonstrates how to make a few of her specialties.  At the moment, the class is sold out, but you can ask to be put on a waiting list.

If you are just looking to enjoy some locally made rillettes you can pick some up at Formaggio Kitchen or head over to T.W. Food Restaurant and order chef Wiechmann’s special charcuterie plate.

Easter with Chef Tim Wiechmann

Chef Wiechmann’s thoughts on food, and the Easter holiday and traditions:

“Easter to me is a special time to cook. In both France and Germany ,the two 
countries closest to my heart, the holiday is a serious eating affair.  Easter is similar to Thanksgiving, in the United States, with long-standing food traditions and good times for the entire family.”

Chef Wiechmann fondly remembers being “dressed to the nines” for five hour Easter luncheons.  Family would gather and children would appreciate the importance of a symbolic meal.  He has fond memories of his family coming together, right over the Swiss border at the ancient Chåteau de Divonne in the Jura of France, to celebrate the holiday.

At T.W.Food Restaurant, an Easter menu has been put together that plays on the old and the new, the traditional and the modern, the European and the American.

Pig’s feet meets a beautifully classic eggs benedict, lemon desserts are infused with the flavors of tea and ginger and spring artichokes are partenered with creamy hazelnuts. 

Easter Lunch at T.W. Food will be on Sunday April 12, between 12 and 6 pm.  For reservations, you can call  (617) 864-4745.

A six course menu celebrating spring foods for Easter is $69 / $105 with wine pairings.  
There are two six course menu options to choose from; one is vegetarian.

Some of the menu items are:

artichoke salad with confit lemon and potatoes, herbs, and hazelnut purée.
asparagus soup flan with mint and salad of raw asparagus and shallot vinaigrette  
spring lamb leg slow roast with local garlic and rosemary, smoked kathadin potato, purée of fennel and salad of fava bean 
or 
easter ham cured berkshire pork leg, pineapple and clove glaze, local garlic and potato gratin, sauté of spring salad sprouts and basil jus “hollandaise” with orange zest 
a cheese course
and of course, dessert 

 

Beer and food pairing save the date

 

Dann brewer of Pretty Things

On Saturday, April 25th 2009 at 2pm Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge will have Dann Paquette of Pretty Things brewery and author, Lucy Saunders for a free event about pairing beer and food (with a focus on cheese).  

Dann Paquette will bring some of his local Pretty Things beer:  

1. The Jack d’Or a simple table beer or “Saison Americain”.  It is a beer that can be enjoyed before, during, or after a meal.  It is easy going. 
2. The  Saint Botolph’s Town that is simply described as a rustic dark ale.  For a more detailed story visit the Pretty Things website.

This guarantees to be a tasty and thirst-quenching event.

Let’s eat.

Nantucket Wine Festival: Pairing wine and cheese

 

Cheese seminar at the Nantucket Food and Wine Festival

 

 

The 13th Nantucket Wine Festival is coming up soon.  The Nantucket Wine Festival starts off on Wednesday, May 13th 2009 and runs through Sunday, May 17th 2009.  This is a great event for foodies, food lovers, and those who enjoy wine, know wine, or want to learn more about food and wine.  Not to mention that the setting couldn’t be more perfect.  Nantucket has so many hidden gems including restaurants, farms, wineries, and other island-made foods.  

The Nantucket Wine Festival has a complete schedule of cooking demonstrations, wine and food seminars, luncheon symposia, a celebryity chef and wine maker auction dinner, restaurant and winery luncheons and dinners, and charity gala events.

On the theme of pairings there is a special food and wine tasting event:   Fromage with the King.  On Thursday, May 14th from 11:00 – 12:00  Ihsan Gurdal, who travels the world seeking out artisan producers of the world’s finest cheeses from his home base at Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, will take  you through a sensory exploration of cheese.  He will pair cheeses with some favored condiments and explain the relationship between cheese and wine.  Not only will the tastings be spectacular but Ihsan’s dynamic energy combines both passion and intellect.  You will find yourself satiated at very least by the end of this session.

Good food paired with a good cause

 

Formaggio Kitchen supporting the East End House at Cooking for a Cause.

I love charity food events because I love to eat good food and I think it is really important to contribute to great causes and support those in need.  Even as a full time student, when I had little or no income of my own, I volunteered my time.  It’s a big part of my culture and my family life to always give to others.  

When I can enjoy great food and support a good cause that’s a perfect pairing.  I love the Hunger Brunch for that reason and the pairing of Didrik’s and Chef Tim Wiechmann of T.W. Food.  Two locally owned business worked together to kick-off a month of fund raising for Food for Free.  Food for Free is a local organization that rescues food and redistributes it to those in need.  Chef Tim Wiechmann of T.W. Food, known for having a close relationship with his food sources and his delectable and creative uses of all parts of his ingredients,  offered his delicious and beautiful hors d’oeuvres for Didrik’s kick-off party celebrating the beginning of  special fund raising month.

On March 20th 2009, Formaggio Kitchen paired up with some of the top chefs and mixologists in Boston and Cambridge’s East End House to put on a fabulous, delicious and convivial gala event to raise money for the East End House.  The East End House is a unique multi-service community center and social service agency in Cambridge.  They provide programs and services to strengthen family and community to a diverse population.  The East End House programs include an emergency food program, an “out of school time” program, family support programs, youth support programs and childcare programs among many others.  

It was a great event, a great view, great food and drinks, and a great cause.  There really is no better pairing than a great cause and some great food.

Let’s share what we have to offer and let’s eat.

A marriage of wine and cheese

To go with our theme of pairings, I will post a couple events happening at respected restaurants and stores in and around New England.

 

T.W. Food

 

 

T.W. Food a restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts that is tucked away outside of Harvard Square in a residential neighborhood, is worth a visit.    The chef knows his food and farmers and he keeps the sources as local as possible.  The restaurant is fine dining at a fair price.  For this special pairing meal the cheeses are French, the wines are Italian and French, and many of the rest of the ingredients are local. (Note that the links to each cheese may not be the exact cheese that Chef Wiechmann will be serving, but it will tell you a little bit about the style and flavors of each cheese.)

A Marriage of Wine & Cheese
Four Course with Wine $49

On Tuesday April 7, T.W. Food Restaurant will do a special four-course Wine &
Cheese dinner, called a Marriage of Wine & Cheese. The menu will feature
hand selected cheeses with wines from Italy and France. According to Chef
Wiechmann, “A good cheese and wine pairing can be magic.”
❣
Amuse Bouche

Gratin of tuscan kale
with bleu cheese Fourme d’Ambert
or
Oeufs au Fromage
with a Normandie Livarot

American lamb leg
shaved with local potato salad, Pyrénées cheese
Ossau-Iraty and black cherry compote
or
Gnocchi Parisienne
gratin with fennel, celery and carrot, cave-aged
French Comté
or
Farm Beef
Painted Hills Farm, roulade with potato gratin,
sauce with Burgundy cheese Epoisses

Cheese
first spring vermont greens, Loire Valley goat
cheese Bucheron

Tiramisu
Vermont Mascarpone, espresso, ladyfingers

T.W. Food is located at  377 Walden Street, Cambridge.

 For reservations call
617 864-4745