November 3rd, 2010 by Trevett

november
The meeting of summer and fall is over, which makes November the first real culinary month of autumn.  Sure, we made a few token batches of pumpkin soups, a batch of goulash and cooked a few root vegetables in October, but uncle October gave us too many delicious tomatoes, beans and herbs this year for it to feel like the cold weather was really on its way.  But at the market today it was very apparent that the growing season is drawing to a close and that it won’t be long before we are resigned to many months of root vegetables and cabbage.

In some ways, that’s a relief.  Now that the first few frosts have hit, we’ll finally permit ourselves to start using canned tomatoes again.  It’s a bittersweet thing really:  it’s a bummer that we won’t see a fresh one until next July, yet a relief that we won’t have to blanch, peel and seed any more until then.  It’ll also nice to know that the fruits and vegetables we’ll be dealing with for the next seven months or so will have long shelf lives.  In the summer, we put a lot of energy into managing the ripeness of our vegetables and fruits.   A tomato has about a one or two day window of when it is perfectly ripe;  green beans need to be used up within a few days of receiving them; eggplant becomes bitter too long after being picked.  In short, the vegetables of summer demand a lot of attention.  Fall and winter veggies, on the other hand, have a much longer shelf life.  “Relax dude,” the Nips say (parsnips, turnips, rutabaganips)  “we’ll be just as tasty after a month of sitting in your walk-in as we are right now!”  Right on bro!

But the growing season is not over yet, and the markets are still abounding with wonderful fall fruits, root vegetables and leafy green things.  The Monday East Liberty farmer’s market has a remarkable selection of pears, apples and quince right now, and there are only three more weeks to enjoy it.  Paul’s orchard has been supplying us with delicious Asian pears and quince this fall.  Right across from those guys is the Grumpy Bluebird guy with heirloom russet apples, which are the most amazing apple I’ve ever tasted.  Almost as delicious as the russets have been the apples from an old forgotten orchard near Daniel Miller’s farm in New Willmington.  He’s not sure what variety they are, and neither am I, but they’ve worked out very well in the applesauce and dried apples that we’ve been putting up.

Our favorite apple producer, however, is third generation farmer, Tim Heilman from Kistaco farm.  Tim will supply us with most of the apples we’ll be using this year.  He supplies us with all of the cider we use to make vinegar throughout the fall and winter and he also is responsible for the mix of apples we use in our crisps.  (People ask us what apples we use in the crisp, but I have no idea.  It’s all Tim.)  He also supplies us with all of the peaches and most of the cherries we use.  Last but not least, Tim gave us some homemade applejack last year, which we used this past weekend to braise the pork shoulder in.  It was just phenomenal.  (It’s almost too delicious to cook with, except that Tim warned me about the awful hangovers.)  Don’t forget to visit Tim and all of the other farmers at the Saturday East Liberty Farmer’s market—Pittsburgh’s oldest and only year-round market.

lobster ravioli
Fall is a great time for lobster, which is why we are having Lobster Ravioli night this coming Thursday.  Because of the popularity of Lobster Ravioli night, we’ll be ordering extra lobster and we plan to have some ravioli available for the first seating on Friday.  (Please come on the early side if you want to guarantee the availability.)  Our ravioli is good because we keep the filling simple: it’s just lobster cooked in very salty water with a little bit of mascarpone cheese.  From the bodies we make a delicious sauce, and we usually serve it with some kind of root vegetable puree, either celery root or parsnip, and maybe some sautéed mizuna.

shaker dried corn
“By this time the sweet corn was also ripe, and then my grandmother (assisted by me and the magic Dutch oven) prepared one more of the distinctly great Pennsylvania Dutch food achievements—Shaker dried corn.  This is another item which it seems astonishing to me that the rest of the country does not know…I honestly believe that the taste of Shaker dried corn is better than the taste of corn when it is fresh from the cob.”  From the Pennsylvania Dutch Cookbook by Justus George Frederick.

After learning about Shaker corn this spring from Pennsylvania Dutch Cookbook, I was really eager to try it.  The idea of a dried corn product that originated in Pennsylvania is exciting to me—even if Eastern PA (where Shaker dried corn originates) might as well be another state.

We have three sources of “Shaker Corn.”  The first is sweet corn we dehydrated ourselves this past summer.  After making two batches, we realized it was way too costly to do it this way, and so we started asking around to see if anyone else had heard of it.  In July I asked two different Amish farmers—Sam and Nettie from Sommerset and Daniel from New Willmington — if they had every heard of such a thing.  They hadn’t, but they were willing to dry fresh sweet corn for us.  I had totally forgotten my requests until several weeks ago when Daniel showed up with several bags of it, and again two Saturdays ago when Brian Greenawalt, who visits Sam and Nettie every week and sells their produce at the Saturday East Liberty farmer’s market, had a big bucket of dried sweet corn for us.

I’m not sure if what we have is authentic Shaker dried corn, since it is something I’ve only read about.  If you’re an expert on Shaker dried corn and want to tell me it’s not authentic, that’s okay with me; whatever this stuff may or may not be, it is delicious.  There is a nuttiness reminiscent of canned corn and a nice tooth that is unbelievably similar to fresh corn.  Whether or not the flavor is better than that of corn on the cob as Justus claims is a matter of personal opinion.  If you appreciate canned cream corn like I do, then you’ll love Shaker dried corn.  We’ll be offering it as a side this week and then saving the rest for the winter.

whole animals
Most of the meat we cook at Legume comes cryovaced in plastic bags.  In the fall and winter, when our basement kitchen is cool, we occasionally buy a whole animal and break it down ourselves, partly for our own education and partly for fun.   Practically speaking, it’s not the best way to keep the labor costs down at the bistro.  Butchering whole animals consumes a considerable amount of energy, time and space—three things no restaurant ever seems to have enough of.

When meat comes to us already cut up in a plastic bag it is too easily viewed as merely another food “product.”  But when it comes in whole—with eyeballs looking back at us—it is much easier to remember that we are working with something that was a living, breathing animal.  This is important, especially as the weather gets cold and more of the food we are using comes from God-knows-where.  Working with whole animals from farmers we know gives us an opportunity to stay connected with the communities that provide us with wonderful food in the warmer months.  From a culinary perspective, working with whole animals has taken my cooks and I down paths which we may not have otherwise traveled.  It has led to failures and unexpected rewards.

This fall we will be lucky enough to receive two whole pigs and four goats from Riverview Dairy farm.  This is the fruition of several conversations I had last spring with Samuel, the owner.  We’re trying to find a way to make serving Samuel’s goat and pork a more regular thing, and much of it will depend on how many other chefs want to be involved.  Kevin S and Justin S are each taking one as well, and I can’t wait to see (and learn from) what they do with them.

legume events

lobster ravioli night November 4^th
Lobster ravioli will be available all night on Thursday and for the first seating on Friday evening. Give us a call or click here to request a reservation.

offal night November 18^th
On November 18^th, we’ll be serving some of the foods we’d be serving all the time, were there a regular demand for them.  Some of the dishes we plan on serving include: Lamb’s Tongue and Neck Terrine; Duck Liver and Quince Mousse; Eggs shirred in Tripe Stew; and perhaps some other surprises as well!  If this excites you but not your dining companion(s), they can rest assured that we will also be offering our regular a la carte menu. Give us a call or click here to request a reservation.

whey fed pig (tentative) November, 12^th, 13^th and 19^th.
We’re butchering the pig on the 11^th and serving the chops on the 12^th, the shoulders on the 13^th and the house-cured roasted ham on the 19^th.  The rest of animal will appear in various terrines, pates and sausages around this time as well. Give us a call or click here to request a reservation.

riverview dairy tasting menu
Throughout the month, we will periodically be offering a three or four course tasting menu featuring dairy and meat products from Riverview Dairy.

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November 1st, 2010 by Sarah

first goulash of the year: th., oct. 28th
This Thursday at Legume, we’ll be serving our first batch of goulash of the cool season.  I remember last year’s First Goulash Night as being one of the funnest nights in Legume history.  This year we neglected to make sauerkraut in time, so we’re getting it from Naomi who runs the Magnolia Café in Troy Hill.  Naomi used to sell her kraut and kefir at the Monday East Liberty farmer’s market and it’s really good.  We’re very grateful that she is able to share her amazing kraut with us!
If you’d like to make a reservation, give us a call or click here.

goat
Give it a try!  Milder than lamb or beef and very lean, goat is the most widely eaten animal in the world. We got two beautiful young goats this past Thursday from Riverview Dairy, the same folks we get our goat cheese from.

Goat has a reputation as being gamey, but good goat really isn’t.  I would say it is very similar to lamb in this respect; people who think they don’t like lamb often realize they do like it when they try good lamb.  The same thing is true with goat.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be playing around with goat.  We’re getting two more next week too.  I’m eager to move beyond our usual mode of operation of just roasting the whole thing and picking the meat off and using the pulled meat in pasta dishes.  There are other possibilities: confit, stuffed loin, goat pozole, ground goat etc.  There is a lot for us to try, and if any of it is good, we’ll put it on the menu.  If not, the staff will eat it at family meal, we’ll discuss it, immerse ourselves in it and hopefully something menuable will emerge.  It must.  This beautiful animal protein is readily available right here in Western PA, raised by people we know and trust, and so it really makes sense.

November 1st, 2010 by Sarah

early fall at legume
the week ahead
Duck is back at Legume.  You can expect to see duck liver mousse, duck consommé, and pan-seared breast on and off the menu over the next few weeks.  Don’t expect to see any confit on the menu until the middle of October, after they’ve hung out in their own rendered fat for a few weeks, becoming more ducky than duck.  These ducks are from Indiana.  Like all of the meat and poultry we serve at Legume, they are free of hormones and antibiotics and are from a family owned farm.  We’ve been looking around for a long time for someone who might raise ducks locally for us, and it sounds as though the kids at Who Cooks For You might give it a try.  It will be very exciting if they can raise ducks as well as they can grow vegetables.

Myrna has been bringing us amazing sun gold tomatoes for a few months, and now she has several tasty and interesting varieties of winter squash and pumpkins to bring us.  In general, I don’t feel a strong need to sample the many varieties of heirloom vegetables that are out there, as I don’t have the patience to keep track of them all.  But I really appreciate it when a farmer like Myrna chooses the varieties and grows them for us.  Myrna’s never sold us anything that wasn’t very tasty and I’m very confident that the varieties of squash and pumpkin she’s bringing us today will be just wonderful.  This week she is bringing us Blue Ballet and Paydon squashes as well as some Long Pie Pumpkins.

I had the great pleasure of meeting some of the folks from Clover Creek farm last week.  We served their cheddar last year and we just got some more.  They gave us a sample of their blue and WOW, was it good!!   (I can’t wait to get some of it and serve it with the wonderful pears that are available right now.)  For this week, we’ve got the cheddar and it is really, really excellent.  It is a true farmstead cheese, which means that the cheese is made on the same farm that the milk comes from.

The Riverview Dairy Tomme cheese has been met with approval by all of the cheese snobs who frequent Legume.  We’ve also been really happy with their chevre lately too, which keeps getting better.  Later in the fall, we’ll be getting some pork fed on the whey from the goat cheese making process.  (I wouldn’t be surprised if the carbon footprint of this source of this particular animal protein—pigs from an Amish farm raised on the whey of grass-fed animals sent directly from the slaughter house to Legume and butchered by hand—is less than that of tofu when you consider the petroleum used to farm soy, the long chain from farm-to-processor-to-packager-to-retail store, the long distance shipping and all the waste involved in packaging many 1# packages of tofu.)

Lamb shanks are back.  It’s a nice time of year to do lamb shanks, because they go so well with the flavors and textures of the summer produce that is still available now, yet it’s not too darn hot outside to eat a shank.  Jamilka’s been experimenting with making pepper pastes from Paula Wolfert’s great book “The Cooking of Eastern Mediterranian” and I’ll bet anyone a dollar that they will be great in a braise served with fresh tomatoes, green beans, hakurei turnips and gold potatoes.

interview with trevett
Check out the interview with Trevett on Seasonalchef.com and learn more about some of the sources of food for Legume.

fall events
th., october 14^th
fall harvest dinner with who cooks for you farm
Come join us for an a la carte menu featuring produce from Who Cooks For You Farm.  To be truthful, we probably won’t be using any more of their vegetables on this day than we normally do, since they are now the number one source of vegetables for Legume.   But on this one evening only, Chris and Aeros, the amazing force behind Who Cooks For You Farm, will be joining us for this event!  You can talk to them about their farm and CSA.
To request a reservation, please click here or give us a call.

th., october 28^th
second annual first goulash of the season night
The second annual “First Goulash of the Year Night” is a celebration of the cooler weather and the comforting flavors of the cold season.  Last year’s goulash event was one of the most convivial evenings in the history of Legume.  (What else would you expect from a bunch of people who come together to celebrate the cool weather by eating pork and sauerkraut?)  Even if you don’t like goulash, you’re still welcome to join the party and order off our regular menu, which will also be available.
To request a reservation, please click here or give us a call.

th., november 4^th
lobster ravioli night
No, this won’t be the only night we serve lobster this fall since it is the best time of year for it, but it is the only night we promise it will be on the menu.
To request a reservation, please click here or give us a call.

th., november 18^th
fall offal night
Legume was very naughty this past summer.  We neglected our offal-loving customers by forgetting to have a summer offal night.  We’ll be getting our seasonal offal night back on track on November 18^thwith an evening of innards and forgotten about muscles.  (In case you haven’t seen it yet, there is a great article about offal by Leslie Fleisher in the new Table magazine.)
To request a reservation, please click here or give us a call.

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