Food adventures 2013

We've traveled a lot in 2013- states so far include Arkansas, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, and Florida! If you know one thing about us, its that we love good food, and good company. Some of our best meals on the road go hand in hand with wonderful people, and great conversations.

We performed in Greenwich (pronounced phonetically, unlike NYC's Greenwich Village) at 70 Main last week, and had an amazing time! John and Zaidee, the owners, were absolutely the best! Their hospatility, combined with the wonderful acoustics and ambiance of the space make for an unforgettable evening. They pointed us to Eli's Diner, a great breakfast place near Saratoga Springs, which has your standard breakfast fare but with truly exceptional buttermilk pancakes, and inredible homemade bread. Carb lovers everywhere, rejoice :)! (Disclaimer, their eggs are also quite delish). 

Delicious Mediterranean lunch in Garden City, Long Island, with a great friend of the band, Stanislav Bogdanov! He graciously housed us during our NYC performance, true friendship doesn't get better than that. From left to right: hummus, roasted red pepper hummus, baba ganouj, and spicy feta.

 

We all went to a noodle bar before our show at the Living Room on the Lower East Side. 

The hot broth was definitely a comfort after a stressful time with parking Vanna White that ended in a parking ticket, and very tense shoulders all around. Cars in NYC, park at your own risk! 

 

No trip to Florida would be complete without some authentic Latin food! The

highlight was definitely the tostones, which are slices of plaintains that are fried twice. Yum!

This was at our first show in Wisconsin. We had been in Florida the week before, and arrived to huge piles of fresh snow in Amherst. Our hosts knew how to beat the cold and made us a delicious hearty vegetable soup, with local homemade bread. It made us realize that Wisconsin people know how to make cold weather enjoyable!

Pizza

     We love food at Harpeth Rising. In fact, we have devoted a column to it here, and filled it with our favorite recipes both at home and on the road. We'll also throw in recommendations on great cooking music, and hope you will share yours too!

     Pizza is plentiful on the road, but good pizza is a lot less common. We've seen our share of pizzas on the road, and decided that you just have to make it yourself if you want it to be done right. It has nothing to do with the fact that Maria is an Italian from Brooklyn, but she uses this recipe, and we can attest that it's a winner!

 ~Bon apetit!

Pizza Points:
1. The oven should be as hot as possible.
2. Using a pizza stone (essentially an unglazed ceramic tile) will make the crust crispier, as the tile absorbs extra moisture, and provides an even heating surface. I don't own one, but it's on my list of things to buy myself when retail therapy hits.
3. Cheese: Buy a block of cheese, and grate it yourself! Pre-grated cheese has cornstarch added to prevent the shreds from sticking to each other in a sticky jumble. The meltage, if you will, will be better when you grate it yourself.
4. Use good quality bread flour! It affects the gluten development of the pizza crust, which in turn creates that slightly crispy, yet chewy texture of the dough that works for this type of pizza crust. So go spend $5 and get yourself some good flour! I prefer using King Arthur flour, but use whatever you like best!
adapted from Annies-eats.com

Musical Points:
Making pizza is a fun activity with your friends/family, and we recommend having a good playlist on in the background as you knead, sauce up, and wait for it to get hot and bubbly. We recommend the Buena Vista Social Club for a smooth Latin groove. Oh, and a few beers wouldn't hurt ; ).  

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup. warm water
2 1/4 tsp. instant yeast
4 C. bread flour + extra for dusting
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 C. water at room temperature
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. cane sugar (or any sugar you have)

Toppings:
tomato sauce
block of mozzarella or any other cheese of choice
any toppings your heart desires

Pour the instant yeast into the 1/2 Cup of warm water. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the salt, flour, and sugar. At this point, pour in the rest of the room temperature water into the yeast/water mixture, and add that and the olive oil to the dry ingredients. Knead with (clean) hands. As the liquid is absorbed the dough will become sticky. Knead for five minutes until it forms a smooth ball. 

Depending on the humidity, temperature of water, and a myriad of other factors, you may need either a little more water or flour to achieve a ball of dough that is gently pliable. Put the ball of dough into a greased bowl, cover with a cloth, and leave in a warm place for two hours to rise. You can pre-heat an oven to a warm setting and put the dough there (use an oven-proof bowl). Take a look at the dough- it should have almost doubled in size. Good. Punch it down to deflate it, divide the dough in half, and shape into two balls. Let rest for about ten minutes (no more than 30 minutes). 

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees about 30 minutes before you put the pizza in the oven. This is to ensure that the oven is as hot as it can be. Some people turn their broilers on beforehand, as those temperatures can exceed 500 degrees. The idea is that you want the oven as hot as possible. My favorite pizzas come from coal fired ovens, where temperatures can get up to 800 degrees. The pizza that comes out is a slightly charred, blisteringly hot, atrociously delicious pie : ).
 At this point, take your ball of dough on a surface lightly sprinkled with cornmeal, and shape into a large square/circle/desired pizza shape. Brush the crust lightly with oil. Trust me, it will give it a wonderful color and texture. Top with tomato sauce/grated cheese/yummy toppings. Slide it onto a pre-heated pizza stone or baking sheet in the oven, and bake for 10-12 minutes. It should be hot, bubbly, slightly browned, and will smell amazing.

Left: mushrooms, yellow bell peppers, sliced green tomatoes (from my garden!).
Right: spinach, olives, yellow bell peppers.

Restaurant Review No. 1!

Leaf Vegetarian Restaurant

(Boulder, Colorado)

Having foodies in the band, we're always on the lookout for interesting places to eat. We have a variety of palettes here at Harpeth Rising, from super health conscious Kefir drinkers and probiotic geeks, to pizza snobs aficionados (not just the girl from Brooklyn!). Being on the road so much, and being so busy at times, we really appreciate those special meals as a chance to sit down, relax, and enjoy a well prepared meal. We’re homebodies at heart, y’all! This all brings me to our most recent restaurant review of a wonderful restaurant…

Band rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Ambience:

     We walk into a large, sunlight room, with an incredibly elegant, high ceiling (about 20 feet). Fans gently turn a small breeze, and vintage ceiling tiles in a creamy white offset the pale, lemongrass green walls. There is an S-curved waterfall which separates the restrooms from the restaurant, and the rough, corrugated metal underneath adds a little bit of edge to an otherwise calm, inviting room. The food is served in large, white plates (to better showcase the food, of course),

Waitstaff: attentive, attractive, quick, and helpful. They know the menu backwards and forwards, and one gets the feeling that they are invested in your dining experience. Speaking of attractive, it is true that these are healthy looking people- fresh faced, and bright eyed! They seem like they're reaping the benefits of so called “clean eating”, as vegetarianism and veganism is often touted to be.

Variety of menu: Now, this is a vegetarian menu, so there are wonderful and creative options. They create “meat-like” dishes out of seitan, mushrooms, and have innovative uses of quinoa, rice, and other grains. For vegetarians, this restaurant truly has it all. For meat eaters, it offers a chance to try something both familiar, and new. 

Ability to please all the band members: Yes. Please and thank you. Come again!

Price: ** to *** 

Highlight: 

     Once a month, Leaf offers a raw, vegan menu. It so happened that the night we were there they had a pre-fixe raw dinner night. I was able to order the eggplant parmesan à la carte, which was the most adventurous meal that I have ever had. Growing up with an Italian nonna, and surrounded by delicious Italian-American food, I was certainly skeptical of what this interpretation could mean- but I ventured on, figuring, when else would I have this opportunity? I have always been curious about the plethora of diets and food lifestyles out there, and this offered me a chance to slip into someone else's shoes, if but for an hour.

            The parmesan was beautifully presented, with three small slices of eggplant atop a bed of  wide, julienned carrots (“fettucine”) smothered in a pesto sauce. Green herbs garnished the sundried tomato sauce, alongside a raw nut cheese, which tasted like ricotta. The eggplant slices were dehydrated, and then marinated in a flavorful olive oil. Eggplant has a meat-like texture, and the thinness of the slices allowed for a more delicate texture, although the skin was difficult to cut though. Sounds like meat, doesn’t it? The portion was small, but incredibly flavorful, with eat bite bursting with bold, bright, and fresh flavors. My favorite was the pesto and julienned carrots. The pesto was based with a bold, fruity olive oil, pine nuts, and fresh basil. The flavors blended surprisingly well with the slight sweetness of the “fettucine” carrots. The nut cheese paired well with the tomato sauce, and all the flavors rang to eggplant parmesan’s true colors.

            Overall, the freshness of the food, and delicate blending of flavors was astonishingly good. Texture wise, this wasn’t your grandma’s eggplant parm, but I didn't need to eat as much to feel satisfied. Michael Pollan, the celebrated journalist and food activist, has a famous quote, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” That quote perfectly sums up our dining experience at Leaf. Incredible vegetarian food, locally sourced, and expertly prepared. Not only that, but Leaf owns an actual farm in the area, and they sell their crops to local businesses as well. Leaf is setting the standard of local, organic, sustainable farming, and it’s a business model that one rarely sees, but one that Leaf accomplishes with seemingly great ease. We need more places like this to remind us to slow down, savor each bite, and feel a connection to our environment.   

            

Leaf Vegetarian Restaurant

2010 16th Street
Boulder, Colorado 80302
Phone: 303-442-1485      

http://www.leafvegetarianrestaurant.com/Home_Page.html