Loie Fuller's

A review I wrote for the JWU Campus Herald:

   With the world of culinary arts so quickly becoming engulfed by modernist techniques, it's nice to escape the compressed beets, gelatinized vegetable purees and anything that's been dehydrated and rehydrated. Sometimes in order to really appreciate food, we need to take a step back from impressive techniques and treat our ingredients with respect. After all, when you're in Rhode Island and surrounded by hundreds of passionate local farmers, consistently delivering the absolute highest quality ingredients, why would you want to mask those natural flavors? Thomas Keller has said that the reason he opened Bouchon - his bistro style restaurant - is so that he would have a place to eat after a day of cooking at the French Laundry. Even the greatest chefs cannot deny that simple bistro style food - when prepared well - is a staple cuisine which is both comforting and exciting; something for every person to indulge in. Whether you're a food snob or an anti-foodie, bistro food is something that anyone with an appetite can appreciate. There are a few wonderful bistro style restaurants in Providence, and with classic dishes such as roasted Cornish hen and steak with pommes frites, Loie Fullers is one of the best.
   In 2007, Loie Fuller's opened it's doors on Westminster Street, and they've been delighting Providence diners ever since. On the inside, the décor is best described as elegant. With hand painted murals on every wall and a beautiful mosaic tile floor, the craftsmanship here is excellent. The dining room is pretty small, yet not quite as tiny as many of the newer restaurants that are popping up downtown (north, birch, Figidini, ect.), and the space is very comfortable. One other perk to this restaurant is that because it's out of the way of downtown, in an area where there is more space available, they do have their own parking lot, so those of us with cars don't have to worry about finding parking on the street.



Vegetables and Grits



   Our latest visit to Loie Fuller's was on a Sunday evening, and it was somewhat empty. On a busier night such as a Friday or Saturday, this place gets packed, and the wait for food can get pretty long, so I would suggest coming on a slower night. Our waitress was pleasant and happy to explain everything on the menu to us. She knew the menu pretty well, and the very few things that she didn't know offhand, she promptly went to the kitchen to find the answer. As well as having regular specials, the menu is always changing to suit the season based on what is available from local farms. Many of the ingredients used here come from local farms, and some even come from a farm which is owned by the head chef. To start, we ordered a bounty of appetizers, including the confit duck wings, which were both crispy and tender, tossed in a spicy, sweet sauce making them blissfully sticky and delicious. We also ordered the Loie Fuller plate which is a selection of artisan cheeses, cured meats, and olives; all of which were excellent, especially a particularly strong bleu cheese which had us in awe of it's sharp, full flavor. The polenta fries are another must-try appetizer, fried and crunchy with a smooth house made aioli, although the seasoning was a little uneven, and some fries were perfectly salted, while others lacked some seasoning.


Roasted Pork Loin

   For my entrée, I had the special, which was a roasted pork loin served atop fresh cornbread with a green chile salsa. As unusual as it was to have this type of meal offered in a bistro setting, I thought that having an occasional non-French dishes on special is a nice way for the chef to keep the menu interesting and show that his talent extends far past French bistro cooking. The portion was surprisingly large, and the pork was juicy and fresh. The salsa was quite spicy, and the cornbread, which was warm and fragrant, was made even more delicious by the pork drippings that soaked into it from sitting underneath the pork loin. Other entrees that we ordered included the roasted local Cornish hen, steak frites, and the grilled veggies with grits, all of which were very well executed in classical-French style.
   Overall, our meal at Loie Fuller's was excellent. With elegant décor, friendly service, and well executed bistro food, this is a lovely choice of restaurant for any occasion, whether you're taking out a date or just looking for comforting, tasty food.


Roasted Cornish Hen

Husk Cherry Clafoutis with Cantaloupe and Cucumber Yogurt

     Every year, it seems as though summer is getting shorter and shorter. It still feels like it has only been a few weeks since the warm weather arrived, although it is already packing up it's belongings and preparing to slowly slip out of our grasp as fall washes over the East Coast. While the end of summer is a sad time for most, it is always a bittersweet time for me. Bitter, of course, because soon the glorious season of abundance will be gone, along with all of the light, crisp summer vegetables. However, it is also very sweet for a few reasons. First of all, the end of summer means that fall is almost here, and nothing is quite as nostalgic and quaint as the corn maze navigating, pumpkin picking, fire-side reading season of autumn. The second reason to love the end of summer isn't because of what is to come in the months ahead, but what is already here - husk cherries. These tiny husked fruit begin to pop up for a short time at farmers markets in New England towards the end of summer, and what a glorious short time it is.
   If you are not familiar with husk cherries, they look - at first glance - like miniature tomatillos, carefully wrapped in a delicate natural packaging, giving them a great presentation as an after-dinner-snack when entertaining guests. Although the husk isn't what makes this fruit so special. Once you unwrap a husk cherry, it is a small yellow cherry-tomato-looking thing with a very unique taste. Some people say that they taste like pineapples, while others compare them to mangos. To me, the flavor falls somewhere between a mango, a kumquat and a sweet, just picked tomato.

    Recently, I found some husk cherries at a farmers market, and I wasn't exactly sure what to do with them. While the idea of a chutney or tart sounded delicious, I couldn't help but feel like such a unique and rare fruit needs to be treated simply and left whole, so that it can be appreciated for exactly what it is. I eventually settled on a clafoutis-kind-of. A clafoutis is an old school rustic French dessert. The kind of thing that house wives have been making for ages. A traditional French clafoutis consists of cherries, which are placed in a baking pan and have a almond-flavored custard batter poured over them before being baked in the oven. This recipe differs from a traditional clafoutis in two ways. First, that we will be using husk cherries instead of cherries, and second, that we will be using vanilla extract to flavor the custard rather than almond extract. I personally find that the delicate flavor of vanilla does more to compliment the light sweetness of the husk cherries, although you can use almond extract if you prefer. This dessert tastes best when served still-warm with a spoonful of a cold cucumber and cantaloupe melon yogurt to offset the sweetness with tart and refreshing flavors.

 

 

Husk Cherry Clafoutis

1 Pint Husk Cherries

2 Large Eggs

2/3 Cups sugar

2/3 Tbsp Flour

1/2 Cup Whole Milk

1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract

 

Preheat an oven to 375 degrees. Butter and flour a gratin dish or oven-safe pan and spread the husk cherries evenly throughout the bottom of the pan. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs along with the flour and sugar. When they are well beaten, add the milk and vanilla extract. Pour your custard batter into the baking dish, just enough to almost cover the husk cherries. Put the clafoutis in the oven until the top begins to brown and it is cooked through. A knife or fork - when inserted into the custard - should come out clean. While your clafoutis in baking, you can make this simple yogurt topping.

 

 

Cucumber Cantaloupe Yogurt

 

Plain yogurt(Preferably from a local artisan producer such as Narragansett Creamery)

Cucumber, finely diced

Cantaloupe, finely diced

 

 

You may have noticed that there are no quantities listed for these ingredients, and that is mostly because there really is no right or wrong way to make this. Add more or less of each ingredient as you would like. The cantaloupe adds sweetness; the cucumber adds a refreshing element and the yogurt adds a tart flavor, so keep that in mind when choosing your quantities. Of course, if it doesn't come out how you would like, then you can always add more of any ingredient, and if plain yogurt is too tart for you, feel tree to add some honey or agave nectar. To prepare the sauce, simply fold the cucumber and cantaloupe gently into the yogurt Be careful not to mix your yogurt too much or it will become thin and runny. To serve, wait for your clafoutis to cool to just above room temperature, use a spatula to scoop some onto a plate, and add a spoonful of the yogurt. This makes an excellent sweet treat for a summer afternoon spent sitting in the sun.

 

 



On Gnocchi

     Ah, gnocchi (pronounced nyaw-kee): what fond memories I have of thee. If you are not familiar with gnocchi, you're missing out. These adorable little dumplings are a traditional Italian treat, made with either potato or ricotta cheese, boiled, and often seared in butter or tossed with an herby sauce. But, of course, my love for gnocchi goes far beyond their unique taste and texture. As with any true human-food-romance, I share a sort of emotional connection with this dish, and with the fact that each dumpling is completely different and tells its own story.

Exhibit A (Photograph is from http://www.sallypasleyvargas.com, an absolutely wonderful food blog):

   Notice the shape of these dumplings, and the fork on the bottom right. Gnocchi have a unique ridged shape that, when home-made, must be done by hand with either a fork or a nifty little tool called a gnocchi board - but I prefer using a fork for a more rustic outcome, as well as a much more nostalgic experience. Now those ridges means that each and every single dumpling is handled individually, crimped by hand with a fork, and inspected by the gnocchi-artist for quality assurance. A plate of homemade gnocchi is special in a way that not many foods are, and that is that each single gnocchi on that plate is a little different, and that they were each made and shaped with a huge amount of time and love. Fresh gnocchi isn't a plate that can just be slapped together on your lunch break, but with a little time and a lot of care, you can create something truly amazing that will not only taste great, but it will make you feel great knowing that you crafted your dinner from scratch.
   For a long time, gnocchi was almost unheard of in the states, even on the east coast where "Italian" culture is pretty popular. I have vivid memories of going to "Italian" restaurants of the late 90's and asking for gnocchi, only to be met with a blank, confused stare by a waiter who had obviously never heard the word in his life. Also, I remember quite well one particularly amusing classroom moments during my first year of culinary school, involving a student who was assigned a recipe for gnocchi, and - having never heard the word - sounded it out as ga-noh-chee. He spent the first 30 minutes of class asking if anyone had ever heard of ga-noh-chee before someone finally explained what they were and how to pronounce them. He had changed majors by the end of the trimester. Now does that mean that they was impossible to find until recently? Of course not! It was just a bit of a scavenger hunt. Although that has changed, and gnocchi can be found at the tables of many rustic Italian restaurants and bistros today, but the obvious truth is that no restaurant gnocchi will ever compare to what you can make at home. For me, gnocchi are a great go-to item when I'm planning dinner for my family or friends. Not only does the flavor and craftsmanship impress, but many Italian friends have never seen or heard of this authentic dish, and there's no better feeling than introducing a friend to their new favorite food.

As previously stated, gnocchi can be made from either potato or ricotta cheese, so here are the recipes that I use for each dough.

Ricotta Gnocchi

2 cups ricotta
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
all-purpose flour as needed
1/2 stick unsalted butter

salt to taste

Potato Gnocchi

6 russet potatoes, baked, skinned and mashed (or some of last night's leftover mashed potatoes)

4 egg yolks

all-purpose flour as needed,

salt to taste

   For both dough recipes, start by combining all ingredients except flour in a bowl. Slowly add flour while mixing until a soft, somewhat sticky dough is formed. Once your dough is formed, you do not need to let it rest before forming your gnocchi. To form your gnocchi, simply take a handful of dough, and roll it out into a log, about 1/2 in or larger if you want bigger gnocchi. Using a knife, cut your dough log into pieces, depending on how large you want them to be. Now comes the fun part.

   

   Take one of your gnocchi and roll it into a ball between your hands. Then, roll it gently over the back of a well floured fork. You should end up with small oval dumplings with even ridges. Don't get discouraged if your first few gnocchi don't come out well. It takes some practice to learn the technique, but it's well worth the practice, and rolling gnocchi with your family or friends can be a fun social event before dinner. Once your gnocchi are formed, lay them out in a single layer on a floured surface. When you're ready to cook them, just drop them into a pot of salted boiling water. Unlike homemade pasta, fresh gnocchi will take a couple of minutes to fully cook through, and they can be doughy when not fully cooked.

   As for sauce, I like to keep it simple. Gnocchi go great with three things: butter, herbs and vegetables. I like to saute some herbs and garlic in a little butter while my gnocchi are cooking. When they're finished, I toss my gnocchi in the pan with the butter and let them get brown on one side. Be sure to do this in small batches to avoid over-crowding your pan. If you want to add vegetables, add them before the gnocchi to let them cook, or precook them and toss them in with your finished gnocchi.

Ricotta Gnocchi with Rosemary and Oven Roasted Beets

Potato Gnocchi with Basil, Chives and Pickled Radishes