The Days Are Just Packed

May 31, 2010 • Locations, Recipes • by
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This Calvin and Hobbes comic (bottom) sums up just how much fun me and a few of the guys had this weekend. While our firefly-sipping ladies were off dancing on bars and surrounded by phallic party chachkas for a friends bachelorette bash we spent our time memorializing the crap out of Raleighwood. Between the grub, drinks, and outdoor adventures I think even ‘dubbya would be impressed (not that it takes much to impress a crack head like lil’bush).

First on the list was Cafe Caturra, a new brick-oven pizza joint in Cameron Village who asked me to stop by so I can write an article for New Raleigh. I won’t go into too much detail here since my review will be on NewRaleigh.com Wednesday, but the atmosphere, wine, and pizzas were all pretty much top-notch. Fast, tasty, and reasonably priced our group of fine gentleman left full and thirsty, ready to tackle downtown.

After a night of epic shuffle board games at the one and only Isaac Hunters Tavern we set out bright and early (around 11, ha!) to fish for dinner. On the way we made a quick stop at Taylor’s Wine Shop and BP for some bait and two beautiful local peaches as a morning snack. This place is less of a gas station and more a specialty store, with the largest selection of Larry’s Beans I’ve ever found, including a blend made especially for Taylor – a community hero apparently.

With peaches, worms, and a cooler full of bud-heavies we cast out hook and lure at Blue Jay Point, a park connected to Fall’s Lake in North Raleigh. Hours passed as we tried everything in the ole’ tacklebox to land some dinner, but alas the fish were far too clever for our night-crawlers or jelly worms and we left empty handed…

But the fish had not won, oh no my friends! Hook or no hook we were grilling up some scaley goodies: enter Earp’s Seafood. This small shack off South Saunders Street supplies the locals with all things waterbred. Among the most interesting were Rock Fish, Black Bass, Baby Pompano, and NC Brown Shrimp.

We chose two black bass and two rock fish to grill accompanied by a cucumber salad and baked ziti. The Black Bass are a favorite of my families, salty and briney with a bottom of the ocean flavor that is to die for. The Rock fish are the complete opposite, sweet and frothy due to their diet of shellfish.

Prior to grilling I managed to find a blackberry bush in our buddies backyard stocked to the brim with perfectly ripe berries. Fingers stained with the sweet purple nectar we turned these surprise berries into Blackberry Mojitos. Following the same recipe as before, simply replace the lime slices with a small handful of fresh blackberries and you’re in business. Don’t let their purplish tone fool you, this thing packed a flippin’ wallop thanks to John’s heavy rum hand (not complaining at all!).

Another night traversing the many fine (and not so fine) establishments of Raleigh left us eager for some stick-to-your-bones grub: enter Poole’s Diner. This would be the second time I’ve been to Poole’s in a couple months, which may not sound like much but I just don’t have the funds to go more often. That said, we arrived around 12 on Sunday for Ashley Christensen’s outrageous brunch menu. Just look at her menu!

Each dish sounded better than the next, but I finally opted for the Egg’s Benedict due to the mention of Porchetta (an Italian street-food I fell in love with in Firenze). Grilled english muffins topped with slices of heavily spiced pork tenderloin topped with pillowy poached eggs topped with a gluttunous Béarnaise sauce….cripes! Too good to put into words, just go there and try it.

We spent the rest of the afternoon deciding on dinner options, contemplating proteins and sides over a friendly round of frolf. Beef? Pork? Chicken? More Fish? How about we let the farmers market decide? Off again on another culinary adventure we found ourselves strolling up and down the market in search of inspiration. Our muse came in the form of a 4lb Pork Butt and some collards. An obvious choice I’ll admit but now a staple during our man-fest celebrations (that sounded wrong…not that their’s anything wrong with that).

The Pork was covered in a mix of sugar, salt, pepper, and vesta, seared, basted in beer and slow roasted at 325 for 4 hours. It could have stood to roast another hour but the beer reduced down to a sweet sauce coating each and every morsel. Along with some baked Annie’s white cheddar mac’n'cheese and Collards (simply braised in a butter-beer-apple cider vinegar mix) we had an all American feast to cap off a very memorialized weekend.

Cheers to the GROSS Club (Get Rid of Slimy girlS): John, Matt, Andy, Tom and Tyler for a kick ass, truck driving, flag flying, eagle soaring, guns blazing weekend. It was like The Sandlot, Old School, The Hangover, and Dazed and Confused all rolled into one real-time documentary (plus copious amounts of food). Rock, Flaaaag, and Eeeeeeeeeeeagle!

La Bandiera Italiana

May 25, 2010 • Product, Recipes • by
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The title is a referance to the three colors of this dish: green, white and red. When the NC weather makes you feel like you’re wearing a wool onesie a hot dinner is out of the question. Italians don’t really eat anything jet cold out of the fridge so this dish is best 5 minutes after it’s been off the fire. Buon Appetito!

Spaghetti alla Bandiera

1 lb Spaghetti

Handful of Pomodori Secchi (dry sun-dried tomatoes, not in oil I mean) soaked in warm water for 10 minutes and sliced thin

1 lb Wild Arugula, rinsed and dried

2 Cups Ricotta Salata, grated fine

Oil, Salt, Pepper, Chile Flakes

3-4 Garlic Cloves, sliced thin

Bring a large pot of salted water up to a boil and drop your pasta (the condimento will take just as long to make as the pasta will take to cook). In a large saute pan start to lightly brown the sliced garlic in 4-5 tablespoons of oil. When opaque add the sliced sun-dried tomatoes and chile flakes. Heat thru and then add all of the arugula, tossing constantly at first until completely wilted, season to taste with salt and pepper. Drain your pasta and add to the saute pan with 1/4-1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water. Toss to combine and remove from the heat. Drizzle with an extra 1-2 tbs of good olive oil and add almost all of the Ricotta Salata, reserving some to sprinkle on if needed. By the time you add the cold Ricotta Salata and mix in the olive oil the temperature will have dropped just low enough.

The arugula is peppery and sharp, the tomatoes strong and earthy. With the extra milkyness from the Ricotta Salata and freshness from the last drizzle of olive oil this dish is exactly what it means to be a real bowl of pasta. The sauce is barely more than a condiment, more like salad dressing than some heaping pool of meat sauce. The semolina of the pasta is the true star, the force holding the other ingredients in delicious limbo. As the dish cools your mouth will heat up thanks to the chile flakes, bringing on the necessary sweaty brow to help you cool down on such a hot evening. With the green arugula, white ricotta salata, and red tomatoes and chile flakes I may need to make this again the first day Italy plays in the World Cup for good luck (we may need it this time around…).

This is also excellent with other sharp greens like watercress, mustard greens, broccoli rabe, or spinach if you’ve got it. You can also substitute the pomodori secchi for regular oil-packed sun dried tomatoes, just try to remove as much of the oil as possible since it can be pretty overpowering.

High Country and Hippies!

May 25, 2010 • Locations • by
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GiustoGusto was on the road again this past weekend visiting the high country city of Asheville. My older brother and his girlfriend recently moved to Asheville to start lawyering, is that a verb?, and we finally had an open weekend to drive up and enjoy all Asheville had to offer. Anthony, my broheme, and I both attended Appalachian State University in Boone, NC, a comparable mountain town in theory but light-years apart in actual fact. Having lived in Boone for almost 5 years and visiting downtown Asheville on many occasions I thought I understood what this town was all about….poor Paulie, you were so wrong! Let me show you what we found:

Currently holding the crown as “Beer City USA” it’s no surprise that the first thing to hit my lips was an ice cold brewsky. We started with something rich and hearty to get things going: Asheville Brewing Co. Ninja Porter, a round-house kick to the face! We spent the rest of the evening hopping from bar to bar, including The Vault with it’s 22oz Pint Glasses and later Sazerac’s for some quality mixology including a fresh Mojito made with Tequila instead of Rum. No playing around folks!

The next morning some serious eats were in high demand. Walking thru downtown I was dumbfounded by how many restaurants this small city had to offer in a 10 block radius. Unlike Raleigh, with it’s large corporate headquarters and various administrative buildings, Asheville’s downtown is almost retail and restaurants only (save the amazing architecture of the court house and town hall above). Clothing boutique, restaurant, head shop, restaurant, belt buckle store? restaurant, you see where I’m going. It took us almost an hour to decide where to enjoy a late breakfast, finally deciding on Early Girl Eatery.

30 minute wait? No problem. We strolled down the block to Woolworth Walk, a large art gallery and craft emporium with a 50′s style diner inside where you can grab an ice cold Cheerwine or double espresso. Look at their machine, gorgeous!

Alternating sips of cheerwine and coffee we moseyed our way thru the galleries until the 30 minutes were up and we were breakfast bound. Early Girl’s dining room feels like an open sun room, light pouring thru the blurry glass windows illuminating wooden tables full of local delicacies like my fried mountain trout and grits for $8. The homemade blackberry jam on every table was a crowd pleaser as well, and I don’t even like jam (I may have to rethink things).

Now for the real fun, a chance to soak in all of Asheville’s curious characters and watch the expressive dance moves of hundreds of happy-go-lucky hippies: The Montford Arts Festival, a glorified block party with live bands, local artisans, and some interesting concessions.

I finally got to try Kombucha, a fermented tea with healing qualities (so they say). It tasted more like apple juice with a little vinegar mixed in, but I think the cape-wearing wizard sipping glass after glass next to me would say otherwise.

Montford, a historic neighborhood just seconds from downtown, looks and feels a lot like the downtown district of Wilmington with large, victorian homes sporting beautiful gardens.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking to Ant and Shannan’s place (a block from the festival) for beers, like the Pisgah Summer Brew above, maybe a short Phil Collins sing along, and then back to the festival to sit in the grass enjoying kettle corn and various musical acts.

For dinner we tried a Montford staple, Nine Mile, a carribean-pasta fusion restaurant serving up such mesmerizing entrees as jerk marinara and zucchini pasta with fresh pesto. I opted for the Concrete Jungle, a light mix of mussels and seared scallops atop linguine in a fresh white wine butter sauce. To my delight the pasta was cooked perfectly and the mussels were as tender as you can find (sorry for the fuzzy photo).

Munching on our Jamaican-Italian entrees to the musical stylings of one Bob Marley look-a-like we noticed a peculiar drink on our neighbors table. Within minutes my brother and I had struck up a conversation with the young couple and, thanks to our beer-induced disregard for boundaries, asked if we could try a sip of their “Lion Paw”. In it’s plastic bottle with small, white cap it looked more like a hot sauce then a beverage, and it was just as pungent. As thick as syrup and as dark as Charlie Murphy this intense elixir tasted like liquified black licorice X 100! On closer inspection we realized that the third ingredient just so happened to be, that’s right, Stiff Cock…Yup…Not much I can say about that except that I now understand it’s intentions…Boing! Big cheers to our table-neighbors for allowing us to sample their cock…this is getting worse and worse.

On our last morning we slowly made our way to West Asheville, the young trendy part of town, for what’s considered the best breakfast joint in the US by Good Morning America: Sunny Point Cafe. The wait was long, about an hour with a list 20 parties long, but lounging in the grass with our brunette beauties drinking coffee and nibbling strawberries growing in the yard was anything but unpleasant.

Dining under the canopy outside we enjoyed extravagant, creative items like Banana Bread French Toast, Maple Glazed House-Smoked Bacon, and local Chorizo hash with cilantro crema. Everything was incredibly rich and almost impossible to finish but ultimately very delicious. The eggs alone were cooked to absolute perfection.

Sadly we rolled our stuffed bodies back to the house, gathered our things, gave Ant and Shanny Felt a big hug and headed back to the Triangle. With over a dozen local breweries under my belt and a new understanding of Asheville and it’s unqiue neighborhoods it’s easy to see why it’s citizens love this blue-ridge oasis so much. Thanks to Ant, Felt, and all of their righteous friends for an Asheville tour to remember. With incredible food and even better beer I’m sure we’ll be back soon for round 2. Cheers!

Trota alla Griglia

May 20, 2010 • Product, Recipes • by
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Ciao tutti. To round out this maritime week I have an oldy but goody from my personal recipe books. Oranges and fish make my palate party like an emo kid at a Fall Out Boy show. I’m not sure what it is, maybe the sweet yet acidic flavor of perfectly ripe oranges that plays so well with the natural sweetness of fresh seafood? Whatever it may be, this dish will make you hungrier and hungrier as you eat, a great thing when you’re eating fish because it’s a real sin to let any go to waste (and it’s not the best leftovers). It goes a lil’ something like this:

Trota alla Griglia

2 Large Oranges (Navel, Blood, Clementines, no matter)

1 Large Trout (any seafood will work, I love using baby octopus)

Handful of Herbs (in this case Oregano and Lemon Thyme)

Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper

I also threw in some portobellos and scallions as contorni, scallions may be the greatest grilled veggies ever.

Wash your trout thoroughly, pat dry with paper towel and place on a hotel pan (tray). Slice both oranges in half and cut one half into thin slices. Squeeze two of the halves all over the fish, inside and out. Place the slices in the body of the trout along with the herbs and a generous pinch of salt. Salt and Pepper the outside and drizzle with olive oil. You gotta use your hands for this, but start mopping up all the orange juice and olive oil until the entire fish is covered in the “vinaigrette”. You could mix the salt, pepper, orange juice and olive oil separately but your hands are the best tools in the kitchen so might as well use’m.

Salt, Pepper, and drizzle the veggies with olive oil until covered and place everything (including that other orange half) on a screaming hot grill. Following yesterday’s fish-grilling tips grill the trout until crunchy on both sides and the flesh turns opaque and flakey, roughly 5-6 minutes per side. The scallions will cook the fastest and the ends tend to burn so be careful. The portobellos are nice and meaty so they can stand some solid heat, they should be ready by the time the fish is done. Plate and use the grilled orange half as your sauce, it’s all you’ll need besides a cool beer to get yourself sauced.

Trout works incredibly well with sweet/savory preparations like this, and orange seems to work best only behind apples (that’s another post tho). The herbs perfume the inside and wilt into a warm herb salad you can munch on, bite after bite with the moist meat. The scallions are also sweet as sugar with a wonderful char that you can either peel off or leave on if you’re like me. The portobellos add the richness, almost like a starch but meatier and adding texture to the dish. And don’t you dare throw out that skin, call me and I’ll come eat it if you wont!

I hope this gets you stoked to stoke your own fire and throw some fishies on the grill over the weekend. Grab a reel and fish out some dinner!…or go to the store, either way.

Oh, Snap!

May 18, 2010 • Product, Recipes • by
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We’re keep things nautical this week on Giusto with a couple more fish recipes. I’m going to make a bold statement and say that Grilled Whole Fish (of any shape, size, or variety) is my favorite meat dish of all time! Not my favorite dish, that’s pasta, but as far as protein on a plate goes, I’ll take a beautifully charred Snapper (like the one above) over a steak any day. Call me a sissy if you must but I find so much delight in tackling a whole fish, pinching off every morsel of flesh until all that’s left is the bright-white framework. It’s also one of the most revered preparations for fish in all of Italy, a matter of respect and appreciation for the subtle flavors and textures of the ingredient. The key is not to screw it up, that’s Italian cooking.

In short, all you need to know is that throwing a fish on the barbie is about as delicious as it gets, and a few summer veggies wouldn’t hurt either. The following is not necessarily a recipe but rather a series of steps to take when grilling whole fish:

Start with a clear-eyed, sweet smelling fish from your local fish monger or grocer. You may feel odd asking the fish dude to smell his product but a fish’s smell is a sure sign to it’s quality. Fresh fish should smell like the ocean, bright and briny without any of the “stink” so often associated with fish. The eyes should also be clear as glass and the skin should have a slight slime to it, dry skin means it’s been sitting around far too long. For once, slime is good!

Your fish guy should have the whole fish scaled and gutted, but if you must scale and gut it yourself I’d recommend doing so in your backyard, otherwise you’ll find fish scales for years to come scattered around every corner of your kitchen. Before grilling I like to give my fish a thorough rinse under cold water, running water in and out of the body cavity and removing any remaining tid-bits or blood lines inside. Pat the fish dry with paper towel and then season lightly, and I mean lightly. A few lemon or orange slices on the inside, maybe some herbs like oregano or thyme, a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper and that’s it!

Th most important part for grilling our one fish, two fish is to have the grill screaming hot. Place the fish diagonally across the grates and leave it alone, if you keep messing with it  you’ll most likely tear the skin or it will stick. This may sound awful but your fish will be ready to flip when the eye facing you (staring back that is) will be white and popping out. Feeling squimish? Don’t worry, just flip it over and you’ll never have to see that haunting eye again! The fish will be done when you the meat is opaque and flakes away at the touch. I’d tell you a time on each side to grill it but it really depends on the weight and size of the fish.

On this occasion I served ours up with some grilled asparagus, baby Italian eggplants, and local purple sweet potatoes I baked first and then finish on the grill for an extra crunch. The sweet potatoes actually gave out small bubbles of ultraviolet ooze (above) that tasted like pure sugar. All you need is a good drizzle of high quality olive oil, lemons to squeeze over, and a cold bottle of Soave or Vernaccia and you’re made in the shade. To eat it simply cut off the head from behind the gills and the tail, run a knife down the back bone and slip the knife or a spatula underneath the top filet. It should lift away from the ribs easily. From there you can lift the rest of the ribs and spine off of the bottom fillet and you’re left with two whole filets, a tasty bit of meat connected to the tail (I eat the whole thing, fin and all), the crunchy skin (my favorite part) and a lot of killer meat on and in the head. The cheeks of larger fish like this Snapper or Bass are exceptionally tasty, usually the first thing I eat. Gnawing on the head of a sea creature may sound odd to some, but for any fish fan’s it is the ultimate expression of love for all the sea has to offer. You just can’t beat fish head…Oh, Snap!

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