February 16th, 2010 by Sarah
We are quite proud of the seafood we serve at Legume which is why we’re having Seafood Explosion Night on Thursday, March 11th. While phenomenally fresh seafood is something we serve regularly at Legume, we’ll be offering a greater variety of it on this night. If you’d like to come, please click here to request a reservation or give us a call.
February 16th, 2010 by Trevett
the week ahead
Maine diver Scallops and shrimp are due in today. There are two more months left until the seasons for both close, and so the plan is to keep them on the menu as often as possible while we can. Browne Trading Company overnights us these hand-harvested scallops the day after harvest. Truly, the freshest, highest-quality scallops you can get.
We’ll also be getting either North Carolina Wahoo or Washington State Sturgeon later in the week, depending on what Sea to Table has available.
I’ve spent most of my life living within an hour’s drive of either the Atlantic or Pacific oceans, and I can honestly say that the seafood we get shipped to Pittsburgh is consistently as fresh if not fresher than the seafood available from most of the retail seafood markets in the places I’ve lived. Working with companies like Browne and Sea to Table that ship directly to restaurants from the source of catch cuts out layers of middlemen and days of shipping.
These companies democratize access to phenomenal fish for chefs across the whole country. It makes it possible for independent neighborhood restaurants like ours to serve seafood of phenomenal quality. And because we don’t have to meet a large minimum order, we can get many small shipments of fish that we cook within in a few days rather than giant shipments of fish that would take a small restaurant like ours much longer to use up.
We’re excited for Seafood Explosion Night, Thursday, March 11th. Let us know if you’d like to come!
February 10th, 2010 by Trevett
the week ahead
Seafood
Alaskan cod keeps coming in beautiful, so we’re sticking with it. We’ve been serving the cod with mussels. We noticed the mussels are particularly tasty this time of year prompting us to add some to the appetizer section of the menu this week.
Vegetables
One of the surprise hits of last Sunday’s special dinner was the Schi. Schi is Russian cabbage soup made with rich beef broth, sauerkraut, fresh cabbage, onions, garlic, dill, lemon juice and our tomato paste. Cooking the onions in lard gives the soup an extra dimension of warmth just perfect this time of year. Don’t be afraid to order this mundane-sounding soup.
Meat
We received a quarter steer from Ron Gargasz. I had ordered it to come in fresh but it all ended up being flash frozen in order to appease the USDA inspector at the facility where it was processed. Don’t ask me why. It’s another example of how freaking difficult the agricultural laws in our country make it for restaurants to sell healthy local meat to its customers.
It is safe to say that we have a lot of beef to move through in the near future. Expect to see a lot of meatballs and meat sauce at Legume. The processor cut the animal up with the home cook in mind, which left us with a bunch of goofy-looking, goofy-sized steaks. If you want one, give us a call the day before you come and we’ll pull one from the freezer for you.
Dave Heilman brought us some pork recently. It will end up in the cassoulet this week and in the pate campagnola in the coming weeks. It’s nice to have the Heilman’s pork back.
