Filtering by Category: Features

“Pretty in Pink” Margarita Recipe: Grapefruit, Blood Orange & Hibiscus

Features Cocktails Recipe

Jennifer Spaide

One of our favorite local foodies, Jen Spaide, is a mother, chef, writer and natural food & health advocate. She also does recipe development for Barcelona/ Bartaco and makes a darn fine cocktail. Tis that time of year, when all should be drinking margaritas. Fresh, bright and summery, with just a little bite, this "Pretty In Pink" Margarita recipe is a keeper. Enjoy!

Black Rock Farmers' Market Opens June 20th: Honey Tastings, Michel Nischan & Food Demos!

Features Restaurant Bridgeport Farmers Market Local Farm

CTbites Team

The Black Rock Farmer’s Market (BRFM) is back and better than ever! Now in its second season, the market will be held every Saturday from 9:00 am – 1:00 pm on the field next to St. Ann Church on 481 Brewster Street. The mission of BRFM is to serve as a community gathering place where local and organic farmers, producers and artisans can offer fresh agricultural and related locally sourced products to the Black Rock community and surrounding area. With a strong focus on sustainability, BRFM educates people on the importance of good health and creates business opportunities for local vendors. 

This year will host a variety of local vendors including Sport Hill Farm of Easton, Aradia Farm of Southbury, K is for Cookies of Black Rock, Jane’s Good Food of Westport and more. There are many new and exciting experiences for market attendees, including more local farms, food demos and educational programs. The last Saturday of every month, visitors can shop for unique and creative items in the Artisan Market.

New this year there will also be a lecture series beginning on June 27th featuring Michel Nischan, CEO, President and Co-Founder of Wholesome Wave in Bridgeport. Nischan was recently named Humanitarian of the Year by the James Beard Foundation. 


What is the Gourmet Mode in the Wolf Convection Steam Oven? (sponsored post)

Features Kitchen Gear

CTbites Team

It seems that the Chinese have been cooking with steam for more than 3,000 years. And the "combi oven" (steam and convection combined) is a fixture in the finest European restaurants, bakeries and home kitchens. For the past several years in the U.S., many have been talking about steam ovens and how this is such a healthy way to cook. People bandy about the terms "Steam Oven," "Combi Oven," "Convection Steam Oven" and we're here to talk about the one option that is leading the pack in features, performance and number of models available.

With the Wolf Convection Steam Oven you enjoy exactly the right mix of heat and humidity for any dish - crispy or flaky on the outside, moist and tender on the inside. You have ten cooking modes at your command: Steam, Auto Steam Bake, Convection, Convection Humid, Convection Steam, Gourmet, Slow Roast, Reheat, Recipes and Keep Warm.


Friday Froth: Beavertown Brewery, USA

Features CT Beer Friday Froth Beer

James Gribbon

"Raygun Gothic," they call it - all pneumatic curves and sleek fins blasting through air and space. This was the look of a future that meant rocket vacations to the moon, a fission reactor in every home, and wristwatch television walkie-talkies. Like Cicely, Alaska, I've always wanted to live there. 

Humanity has accomplished some of this - I'm sure at least one of you reading this right now has an iWatch on your wrist - but the dream, the one Huge Gernsback had while writing inside his isolator and thinking about "Vacation City" suspended 20,000 feet in the clouds, is out of reach. Maybe not quite so far as I think, though, thanks to Beavertown Brewing of London, and late of America.

 


This Week @ Westport Farmers' Market: Chef Cecily Gans of Staples High School Culinary Arts Department

Features Farmers Market healthy Recipe

Lori Cochran

Cecily Gans is a culinary teacher at Staples High School. What makes her stand out is her commitment to teaching the kids the value of using local ingredients. Cecily spearheads our Gillespie Center monthly meal program where we, WFM, purchase food from our market for to kids prepare and serve the meal to our neighbors in need. She will be the guest chef at The Westport Farmers' Market on May 21st. You can find her recipe for Grilled Scallion, Herb & Goat Cheese Vinaigrette.

Cinco de Mayo Tips c/o Aarón Sánchez & Serendipity Magazine

Ingredients Features Holiday Recipe

CTbites Team

c/o Serendipty Magazine

Chef Aarón Sánchez, Executive Chef of Paloma in Stamford, and well-known TV personality with appearances on Chopped and Taco Trip, is the guest editor of Serendipity Magazine's recent issue. His  gourmet take on tacos and Cinco de Mayo party tips will leave you inspired to celebrate this Mexican holiday with his signature contemporary Latin approach.

On Party Prep

Try to have as many things done ahead of time as possible, and display food in cool bowls. I have dishes with different compartments where you can put little things like pickles in my line at Target.com. Pre-make your drinks in pitchers so you just have to add ice. The key is being proactive with the prep. You don’t want to be working hard while your guests are there.


Chef Thomas Henkelmann's Samuel Adams Glazed Veal Shank c/o The Greenwich Girl

Features Greenwich

Amy Kundrat

Photo: Lora Warnick

Our go-to gal in lower Fairfield County, Greenwich Girl Laura McKittrick, shared a recipe from her recent Food & Brews Issue with the Homestead Inn's award-winning chef, Thomas Henkelmann. If you don't know about Chef Henkelmann or the Homestead Inn, picture a cozy yet charming setting with a French-inspired menu and dishes that double as works of art. This Sam Adams veal dish is a delicious way you can recreate a bit of the Homestead in your own home. 

Samuel Adams Glazed Veal Shank with Red Cabbage, Carrots & Pearl Onions


Simply Delicious: Healthy To-Go Meals @ A Location Near You!

Features Catering Westport

Kaila Finn

After the Simply Delicious mother-daughter team created a catering company, opened a restaurant, and made two kiosk locations, they have landed in the Westport Weston YMCA, serving on-the-go food and perfecting the art of the “satellite location” business.  

Lauren Peden, co-owner and chef, explained the goal of Simply Delicious is “to offer people on-the-go healthy meals for those that don't have the time to make meals at home.”

Simply Delicious started catering parties six and a half years ago, right after Lauren finished classes at the French Culinary Institute. In a recent interview with Lauren, she said that “friends and other people wanted me to cater their parties, so I decided to make a business out of it.”


Big News at Craft Butchery: Dinner Service, Catering, A New Name & A Merger

Features Restaurant Butcher Specialty Market Lunch

Stephanie Webster

Craft Butchery has some very big news. This exclusively pastured, whole animal butchery is expanding their business, their product lines (including catering), and will soon open their doors for dinner service at the Westport location. Also, look out for a new Craft Butchery in Greenwich opening this summer.  

CTbites sat down with Ryan Fibiger, owner of Craft Butchery to get the full scoop. 

This rapid expansion, Ryan explained, “has actually been in the works for some time.” Craft knew they needed to grow to meet demand, but wanted to do so while maintaining their strict philosophy on sourcing and butchering. Fibiger said “We wanted to grow the business, but butchering is a labor intensive process that requires space and talent. It’s hard to replicate.” To speed things along, this old school, full-service, whole animal butchery made the wise decision to merge with Fleisher’s Grass-fed and Organic Meats in Brooklyn (Ryan’s stomping ground where he learned his trade). As part of this merger, Craft is now the proud owner of Fleisher’s 6,500 square foot processing facility and commissary in Red Hook, enabling Craft to grow all areas of their current business, including Catering, to-go retail offerings, and most importantly, their ability to break down animals on a larger scale. They also have a new name: Fleisher's Craft Butchery. 


Friday Froth: What's In A Name?

Ingredients Features CT Beer Friday Froth Beer

James Gribbon

The waiter gave me a look that said "Dude - work with me here," because I was mumbling. It started like this: 

Him: "What'll you have?" A perfectly reasonable question, and not an unexpected one, given that I'd just sat down. So I replied:

"Nmm nmm."

"What?"

"Nmm nmm... ee."

And that's when I got the look. So I said it louder, biting off each word:

"Nummy Nummy, please." 

Dammit. 

Look, I get it - it's fun to name your beer something ridiculous like "Buttface" or "Even More Jesus," but please, I humbly beseech you, the brewers of the world: please don't make it something I'm embarrassed to order in public. That said...


Christian Petroni of Fortina Pizza Shares Mom's Easter Pie Recipe

Features Holiday Italian Recipe Comfort Food

Stephanie Webster

When we asked Fortina's Christian Petroni  to share an Easter recipe, he turned to an Italian classic...his mother. Much of Petroni's culinary inspiration is derived from a richly food-centric childhood just outside of Naples, and this Easter recipe is no exception. Christian's mother's cooking can often be spotted on the menus of Fortina Pizza (Armonk, Ryebrook & Stamford coming soon), and now on CTbites. Thanks to Fiorella & Christian Petroni for sharing a little bit of their holiday with this ultimate comfort food Recipe for Easter Pie. What type of "pie" you ask. This recipe features: salami, sweet provolone, ricotta and eggs...enough said. 

Passover Dessert Shopping Guide via Kosher Like Me Blog

Features Holiday Kosher

Stephanie Webster

This incredible guide to all things Passover dessert comes from one of our fellow writers, Liz Rueven, of Kosher Like Me. This is the uber guide for those who wish to BUY, not cook their Passover sweets. Amen. 

I love it when my readers tell me what they need! So when M. phoned to ask where oh where should she buy her Passover desserts, we took the challenge and got to work looking for the best of the best.

For those strictly kosher or not so much, those on the west side or the west coast, we’ve got your  freshly baked, professionally made Passover dessert options covered.

Read the complete article: Leave the Passover Baking to the Experts.


Passover Brisket w/ Beet & Bone Marrow Pureé Recipe c/o Chef Arik of Le Farm

Features Holiday Recipe

CTbites Team

When CTbites asked Chef Arik Bensimon of le Farm to create a Passover recipe for our readers, he truly embraced both the request and the holiday. Not only has Arik reinvented the classic Passover Brisket (sorry Nana), but has orchestrated a dish that uses almost all of the ingredients found on the traditional Passover Seder plate. The roasted bone, horseradish, bitter herbs...they're all in there. He has even found a culinary use for the oh-so-sweet Manischewitz wine. 

Whatever holiday you celebrate this spring, add this recipe for Brisket with Beet & Bone Marrow Pureé to your library. It's simply delicious. 


Sweet and Savory Quick Bread Recipes via Marcia Selden

Features Recipe Breakfast Dessert

Marcia Selden Catering

We love a quick bread, they’re a breeze to throw together, freeze beautifully, and are a great activity if you are with your kids and looking for something to do.  

Enjoy a slice with a bowl of soup or a steaming cup of tea, and you have all the trappings of a sweet perfect day. The folks at Marcia Selden Catering have shared their favorite sweet and savory quick bread recipes. Enjoy our recipes for: Earl Grey Zucchini Quick Bread; Almond Butter, Honey, Banana Quick Bread; Sundried Tomato and  Pesto Quick Bread & Prosciutto & Gruyere Quick Bread. You’ll want to try them all!


Bounty Food Truck & Lobstercraft Join To Feature Surf'n'Turf Catering

Features Restaurant Seafood Burgers

James Gribbon

A snowy night found guests piled into the close confines of 284 Tokeneke Rd. in Darien to sample offerings from the combined menus of Lobstercraft and Bounty food truck. The two outfits have come together to expand their catering services for private parties, weddings and both special events, and we have your first look. 

"We thought the surf and turf idea between the best lobster and the best burger would make a great combo," Captain Mike Harden of Lobstercraft told CTBites. "We are working on bringing Bounty under the same roof so you can come to one place and get whatever you like."  

Da Legna: New Haven's Best Kept Pizza Secret

Features Restaurant Pizza New Haven

Amy Kundrat

Da Legna is the best kept secret for New Haven pizza lovers. But it shouldn’t be.

Ask a friend who lives or works in New Haven for their favorite pie, and steel yourself for a slew of anecdotes, a bit of Elm City history, and maybe even a neighborhood geography lesson – Wooster v. State Street. Then, after declaring their allegiance to one of the “big three,” lean in, because your friend may end their (a)pizza diatribe with an almost conspiratorial whisper of “Da Legna,” the two-year old State Street restaurant devoted to wood-fired pizzas, Italian tapas, and a refreshing lack of pretense.


The Rob Roy Cocktail: A Manhattan with a Kilt

Features Cocktails Recipe

Amy Kundrat

When the winter doldrums set in, and the temperatures flirt with zero, I set my sights firmly on brown spirits. Whisky, not whiskey, to be exact. A dram will usually do the trick, but on occasion I like to sully that perfect spirit by making it the foundation of a Rob Roy cocktail.

If you can reconcile the fact that you’re meddling with the perfection that is scotch, with sweet vermouth and bitters, then you’ve found your perfect century-old cocktail. It’s essentially a Manhattan with a kilt, which is a fitting description seeing as it was created in New York’s Waldorf Astoria in 1894 for an opera based on the Scottish folk hero and outlaw Robert Roy MacGregor.

There is something about peated scotch and a roaring fire, but an unpeated or blended whisky for your Rob Roy will also do the trick.


Holiday Flip Cocktail Recipe via Sean Nye of Match in SoNo

Features Cocktails Recipe

Stephanie Webster

Looking for the perfect Holiday Cocktail recipe for your festivities? Sean Nye has mixed up a little something special for CTbites, from his new post, behind the bar of Match in South Norwalk. 

Sean hails most recently from Walrus & Carpenter, as well as Bodega and South End in New Canaan. Jusy sayin...the man knows how to make a drink. 

Enjoy this truly delicious recipe for the "Holiday Flip" made with Applejack Brandy, cardamaro and nutmeg. And if you're simply too tired from opening presents, just go order one at Match.

Holiday Flip Cocktail Recipe


Kids & Adult Cooking Classes @ Aux Delices

Features Cooking Classes Education Kids kids activity kids cooking party

CTbites Team

Aux Delices' 2015 Winter/Spring Kids & Adult Cooking Class Schedule has just been announced. Aux Délices offers cooking classes for adults and children at their professional catering kitchen in Stamford. Classes are generally held on Wednesday evenings for adults and Sunday afternoons for children. Classes are hands-on for children and both participation and demonstration for adults. 

Their focus is to teach easy, interesting and seasonal food preparation, utilizing a variety of cooking techniques. The chef instructors are from Aux Délices, as well as from well-known restaurants in Fairfield County and New York City. Lynn Manheim, the Cooking School Director does an incredible job engaging and challenging both children and adults, while teaching students the basics of cooking along the way.  

View the complete schedule below...For more information, click here. 


The Year-Round Gin & Tonic

Features Cocktails

Amy Kundrat

The gin and tonic has become one of my favorite year-round cocktails. Now before you shout INFIDEL or HERESY and run for the torches to scare me and my cocktail into hibernation until the summer equinox, hear me out.

The first rule of a year-round G&T: the gin must be considered carefully. If you’re looking for guidance here, you can’t go wrong with the St. George Terroir Gin, which grounds this G&T with an earthy bite of “Douglas fir, California bay laurel, coastal sage, and other evocative botanicals.” One whiff and you’ll instinctively look over your shoulder for the bear that modeled for the label. Trust me, this is the gin you want for a cold weather G&T.

Next, find yourself a clean and crisp tonic. I recommend and will rarely stray from Q Tonic. Don’t even think about desecrating the G&T with a tonic like Schweppes, or please don’t tell me about it because I WILL judge you harshly.