What’s On the Menu at Sage General Store

Sage General Store, a locavore/farm-to-table restaurant in Long Island City, is one of my favorite spots in the area. I’ve really enjoyed the food there over the years, and one of my favorite things they serve is at brunch—chilaquiles.

chilaquiles-sage-general-store-long-island-city-queens

I’m also a big fan of their bacon brunch plate, too.

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Recently, though, they made some changes—they expanded and added more seats to the dining room, and added some things to the menu. With my We Heart Astoria colleagues, I was invited to try some of the current menu items; our group review is over at the site. I wanted to share photos of my very favorite dishes of that evening.

raspberry-lemonade-sage-general-store-long-island-city-queens

This raspberry lemonade is something I’ve drunk at Sage many times. I love how sweet tart it is and the color is gorgeous; I did not amp up the color in any way in this photo, that’s just the way it is. They also serve a lovely ginger mint iced tea, too, but I just love this lemonade. Along with tasting great, it’s very cheery.

guacamole-tostones-sage-general-store-long-island-city-queens

I’m a huge guacamole fan and will eat it whenever it is presented to me. I had never eaten it with tostones before, though, but they are wonderful with guac! And for those for whom it’s an issue, they are another gluten-free option as a dipper. I loved the flavor combination, too. Sage’s guacamole was wonderfully creamy, such a delight. Good guacamole is a blessing.

fish-tacos-sage-general-store-lic-queens

As I mentioned in our review, “Coming from California, fish tacos are (along with guacamole) an informal official state dish.” They always catch my eye on a menu, and these fish tacos were excellent. Note how fresh everything looks, along with the presence of that guacamole again. The tortillas are corn, and there was a nice chipotle crema running through each taco. Love the jicama slaw, a vegetable that always brings back memories of the California of my youth (jicama was ubiquitous there in the 1980s).

mac-and-cheese-sage-general-store-long-island-city-queens

I’ll go on record saying I dislike Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, as well as their “healthier” alternatives from companies like Annie’s. I just don’t think it tastes very good, what with its weak cheese coating and lack of flavor. With that in mind, I just want to say, thank goodness for real, homemade macaroni and cheese. This was made with five—count ’em, 5—different kinds of cheese. I also liked the little crispy breadcrumbs on the top. This mac and cheese was everything the boxed stuff is not—creamy, fatty, and delicious. It was a big hit at our table.

chocolate-blackout-cake-sage-general-store-long-island-city-queens

We tried a variety of desserts and this one won my heart. This is serious chocolate, and I loved how moist the cake was, especially. I thought it was beautiful, too—just look at that sheen on the top of the cake!

And that’s that. We ate a number of other things, too, including beets, polenta, chicken, and a few other cakes. These above I would for sure order again. In fact, what’s displayed would make for a pretty nice dinner, I’d say! I look forward to my next meal there.

Sage General Store, 24-20 Jackson Ave, Long Island City, NY 11101, (718) 361-0707, www.sagegeneralstore.com

Candied Bacon Lollipops at the Sunday Night Dinner

bacon lollipops up close at the sunday night dinner

One of the projects I founded with We Heart Astoria is the Queens Blogger Social. Every other month, we gather bloggers and writers based in Queens and meet up at a local restaurant or bar, for conversation, socializing, networking, and eating delicious food. These events are a lot of fun and it’s been great to meet other bloggers in our fair borough.

Last week we were honored to work with Tamara Reynolds of the Sunday Night Dinner, a private supper club in NYC. The idea sprung up at our last blogger social at Ornella, a local Italian restaurant (I’m working with them to do a dinner for my traditional foods meetup group – more on that later), and it was a tremendous one. She put together the menu and we put together the guest list.

Continue reading “Candied Bacon Lollipops at the Sunday Night Dinner”

Homemade Bacon

They say bacon is a gateway meat for vegetarians, and I can totally see how that is. As a vegetarian I used to eat “Fakin Bacon”, that soy-based alternative meat product, something I wouldn’t touch now.  I enjoyed it then because the smoky, salty taste was highly appealing.  But it’s no comparison to the real thing.

Since I left vegetarianism 13 years ago, I’ve eaten a lot of legit bacon.  I’d recently heard that you could cure your own bacon, which was really intriguing, but a little daunting.  So when I caught wind of bacon curing as part of the Charcutepalooza challenge, I thought that this was the perfect time to dive in.

I looked at my main two sources for pork belly, but neither had them in stock, so I headed to The Meat Hook in Brooklyn.  They sell very high quality local, pastured meat that is extremely tasty.   When I got there, they were butchering what I think was a pig, with some hardcore knives, on a large table behind the counter.  The person that helped me brought out a whole pork belly and deboned it, and also cut off the skin.  I ended up with 2.71 pounds of belly.  It was gorgeous.

I cured it (using this bacon recipe from Michael Ruhlman) with salt and spices, plus I added some smoked paprika to the spice mix – this gave the meat a smoky flavor without having to actually smoke the meat (which I have no idea how to do anyway).  I also opted to not use pink salt.

The end result is some of the most delicious bacon I’ve ever tasted, if not the best I’ve ever had.  And the smoked paprika really worked!  The bacon is both savory and smoky at the same time.  I am just so impressed with how easy it was to cure and how well it came out.  I plan to cure bacon more often.

So, what did I do with the bacon?  Well, I cooked it on its own, in the oven, and had it with brunch. I find that cooking bacon in the oven yields a more pleasant slice of bacon, plus I don’t get spattered with hot fat like I do when I cook it on the stovetop. I also used the bacon in a braised red bean dish that I was really happy with.  I’ve also reserved the fat when cooking bacon on its own, and have used it to cook with.  I’ve been really happy with it, too – it lubricates my cast iron pan like nothing else!

I used the bacon in a dish I put together called a BST (bacon, spinach, tomato) sandwich in open-face form – it’s also a wet version because I used tomato sauce.  It was absolutely delicious – a very simple, homey, and comforting dish with lots of flavor.  Plus it’s really easy to put together.

More images from my bacon curing project can be found in my Charcutepalooza photoset on Flickr.

Charcutepalooza and Harmonious Belly

One day in the not too distant past, I was reading Shauna’s blog post about making homemade yogurt, and toward the end she mentioned something called Charcutepalooza.  Now, with a name like that, I had to investigate.  Turns out, it is an extremely cool project.

200+ bloggers are going to explore the art of charcuterie together this year – one recipe per month – led by Cathy Barrow (aka Mrs. Wheelbarrow).  Here’s the list of the Charcutepalooza bloggers.  Impressive!

I’m looking forward to the monthly recipes, but also seriously enthused about the community surrounding the project.  I’ve already connected to people on twitter via the hash tag #charcutepalooza, and can’t wait to see the flurry of activity that will happen on the 15th of each month (when the communal Charcutepalooza posts go up).

When it comes to working with and preparing meat I am somewhat of a meat n00b, thanks to 13 years of vegetarianism, and then many years of general apprehension towards handling animal flesh. Also, I still am deeply connected to meatless meals, as that is where my core cooking skills lie, plus I just really like a lot of vegetarian food (falafel! kale! grilled cheese sandwiches!). Slowly, though, I’m getting more comfortable with the world of meat.  Charcutepalooza should help me with this.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had some troubles cooking meat during the Food Lover’s Cleanse. But by reaching out to my Facebook community, I connected with a friend who took me by the hand and taught me what she knows about cooking a steak. An informative and delicious lesson it was, too, which absolutely boosted my confidence in this area.  I am hopeful to find help with my charcuterie when I need it, too, from the community that has gathered around this project.  I will offer any help I can, as well.

I also mused that this year might be my Year of Meat – sure seems like it.  First it was the steak lesson, then the chicken carving workshop a few weeks ago, and now Charcutepalooza.  Oh, and I’m hosting a meatball making afternoon later in February, too. Fun!

I’ll be posting about the current challenge on February 15 – bacon.  Looking forward to that – now I just have to figure out in which recipe I’m going to use my bacon!

Perfect Crispy Bacon

Bacon

I love bacon.  I really do.  However, over the years I haven’t had the best luck cooking it, even though it seems so simple in theory.  When cooking it on the stove top – the only way I’d been taught – I’d always get grease spatter on my hands (ouch) and the bacon would cook unevenly.  I kind of gave up on preparing bacon, to be honest.

However, I’d recently heard about cooking bacon in the oven, and since I wanted to make a cobb salad on Friday, I thought I’d give this technique a chance.  Well, I am a total convert now!  This method works beautifully and turns out amazing crispy bacon, with no grease spattered hands or burnt bacon.

I took my inspiration from a method described on about.com, which is as follows:

Line a baking sheet with foil. This will make cleanup easier later.
Arrange bacon slices on the foil and place the baking sheet on the center rack of a cold oven. Close oven door. Turn oven on to 400°F. Walk away.

Come back 17 to 20 minutes later. As soon as the bacon is golden brown, but not excessively crisp, it’s done. The exact time will depend on the thickness of the bacon slices, and also on how quickly your oven reaches the target temperature.

Remove the pan from the oven. Transfer the bacon to another sheet pan lined with paper towels to absorb the fat. You can pour the liquid fat into a heat-resistant container to save for other uses. I like to pour it through a strainer lined with cheesecloth to filter out any crunchy bits.

My observations:

  • The foil was a really good call.  I wouldn’t want to do it without foil because it really does make cleanup easy.
  • At about 15 minutes, I turned over the bacon slices, using tongs to grab them. I think that gave the bacon a chance to cook more evenly than just cooking it on one side.
  • One way to drain the bacon is to set the slices on a baking rack which sits over a paper towel.  That way, the bacon won’t be sitting in its own fat and will have a better chance to more thoroughly drain off the fat.

My household was really impressed by this bacon. It was perfectly crispy without being burned or overcooked. In fact, you could hold the bacon horizontally and there was no bending. It snapped off and almost melted in your mouth. It was perfect in our cobb salad (which was delicious), and for breakfast this weekend.

I will forever cook my bacon this way.

Photo credit: (cc) Porge, via a Creative Commons License.