Touche'

As far as trendy and new restaurants, our options may be limited in little Sandusky, Ohio, but I have been happily surprised several times. Zinc, Red Gables and Nagoya being some of them that come to mind.

This weekend we found another great place in North Central Ohio: Touche'. It is a Martini Bar operated by Chez Francois, a highly regarded French Restaurant right next door. The menu at Touche is highlighted by appetizers and comfort food with a stress on high quality and French ingredients.

Friday nights is Martini night. My father-in-law (John), my dad and I all have an affection for a good martini, so we went, with our wives to enjoy the discounted martinis and good company. The three of ordered vodka martinis up. My dad's was dirty with anchoive stuffed olives. John and I had vodka martinis with blue cheese stuffed olives. Awesome.

I ordered a meat plate that had a good sausage, a thinly sliced ham, and smoked salmon. There were large shavings of parmesian cheese, the perfect salty compliment to the meats. There was also a large assortment of olives and a bunch of gigantic whole capers. This all surrounded the best part of the plate- a bunch of artichokes, sun dried tomatos, and a really spicy cherry pepper, all perfectly marinated.

Erin and I then split a ham and cheese sandwich. It had the same, high quality ham that was on my meat plate with melted gruyère cheese. It was served with a spicy giardiniera, dijon mustard and a plate of more olives and other pickled vegetables (including a green tomato).


My second martini was the same, but dirty. The three martini guys, after dinner, had a shot of Knob Creek on the rocks. A sofisticated and strong whiskey with a bite. A great finish to a great evening.

Holidays

Erin and I had some great food while celebrating the Holidays. Some of the best:
1.) Filets at the Stookeys, Christmas Eve:
Erin's parents made some delicious filets. **So sorry I don't have a photo..I'm so mad, because they were soooo good!!
2.) What the heck is a stratta?
Turns out, it is some sort of quiche dish. It made for a pretty tasty brunch

3.) Nonna's Christmas spectacular:Similar to last year's, my grandma made a Christmas dinner for the ages. This year, we had Steak Sciscliano (prounounced SHISH-lee-ano). A very good cut of meat sliced into thin steaks, quickly seared on each side and soaked in olive oil and garlic and some italian seasonings. We had a lightly breaded and then baked shrimp; Pazella (italian style peas); homemade ravioli (with homemade tomato sauce)- they took my grandma something like 6 hours to hand make over 100 ravoli. They were the highlight of this wonderful meal. We had some nicely seasoned and spicy rappini (an Italian vegetable- a cross between spinach and broccoli).

4.) New Years Eve dinner: steaks at Red Gables Mesquittttte grill
We went to a small steakhouse in Sandusky with my brother and a couple friends on New Years Eve. The planning of our evening was very last minute, but we didn't complain. In fact, Erin ended up with the best steak ever. She got the filet, I got the ribeye. Both were perfectly cooked, high quality, and rubbed down with bold amounts of pepper and flavor. I tried a bite of Erin's- amazing.

**Also, sorry no photo, I guess the holidays=eating=Erin and Ryan's forgetfulness. I now have a New Year's resolution to remember to take photos of all this awesome food!

 A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to everyone!

Braised Cabbage- cold weather comfort food

I read a lot of food blogs daily. I always seem to stumble upon more great food sites that give me ideas and tons of recipes to try. Amateur Gourmet (written by Adam Roberts) is one of my favorites and I've tried many of the recipes from the blog (like this, this one here, and oh yea..this one too).

A few weeks ago I read a post where the Amateur Gourmet made braised cabbage. It sounded so good and so cozy and comfort food-y that I had to try it. And it was so good that I made it again and tweaked it a bit to make it more "Foodie In Training" and less "Amateur Gourmet".

I also wanted to attempt the recipe because at Mulvins (the local farm stand in Sandusky), they have beautiful cabbages about the size of a small child. I swear, they are seriously about twice the size of your run-of-the-mill grocery store cabbage. Anytime I can try a new recipe AND buy locally..it's all systems go for this gal!

So, did I mention that this recipe is also super easy? It takes a bit of time in the oven, but other than that it's some chopping of vegetables and that's about it. Adam from Amateur Gourmet got this recipe from Molly Steven's "All About Braising" cookbook so my first attempt I followed his adaptation of the recipe:

Preheat the oven to 325

Oil a 9 x 13 baking dish (I just drizzled a bit olive oil into the baking dish)

Cut green cabbage (about 2 lbs.)* into 8 wedges

Lay wedges in dish

scatter one thickly sliced yellow onion over the top along with a carrot (I used 2 smaller carrots) cut into 1/4 inch rounds

drizzle 1/4 olive oil over the top and 1/4 cup chicken stock or water

season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes

cover tightly with foil and in the oven it goes for 1 hour.

after an hour, remove cover and flip wedges and recover for another hour

Once cabbage is tender, remove foil and boost heat up to 400 degrees for about 15 minutes (or until top is browned and crispy.

Season lightly with salt and it's ready to serve!!

*Erin used about a 4 lb. cabbage..seriously it was huge

My first time making it I decided to add two cloves of garlic (I'm beginning to think I can't make a dish with adding a little bit of garlic..it make EVERYTHING good). I unpeeled it, but left the garlic whole more for flavor than texture or bite.

My second time making the braised cabbage it was a windy, blustery day- just perfect for a warm and comforting meal. THIS time I decided to turn up the volume and add some different ingredients. I had some fennel in the fridge, so I coarsely chopped the bulb and scattered that on top of the cabbage. I also didn't have any yellow onion so I coarsely chopped half a medium red onion and scattered that on top as well. The addition of the fennel was key, the flavor was great and it worked really well with the cabbage. And the red onion also was really nice because it turned a bit sweet and was a nice compliment to the spice from the red pepper flakes.

The dish has been a hit both times so I recommend you try it. It's great when it's bitterly cold out with a bowl of hot soup, but I think it would be good in any weather. Happy braising!

Fine Dining on Lake Erie: Restaurant Review of Zinc Brasserie

Our beautiful hometown of Sandusky, Ohio has a beautiful and tasty new restaurant, Zinc Brasserie. Located downtown, a stones throw from the picturesque Sandusky Bay and Cedar Point, Zinc Brasserie opened last summer. Sandusky has a lot of wonderful, local places to eat (and a lot of boring chain restaurants too) but there has never been a restaurant quite like this in Sandusky. The menu is seasonal with elegant and gourmet ingredients (duck confit, blood oranges, and artisan cheeses are rare on menus in Sandtown) and the decor is chic

Now, don't get me wrong I love my local Sandusky restaurants, there are some great family-owned, local restaurants that have great food and a wonderful, hometown charm. But that is a post all in it's own.Maybe after my parents read this they might say "Erin, this isn't the FIRST fancy restaurant in Sandusky...I remember when.. etc., etc. etc" but at least in my memory, I don't remember there being a restaurant like Zinc Brasserie.

Ok- now about the food. My parents, Ryan's parents, and Ryan and I all ate at Zinc Brasserie to celebrate a weekend home, wedding plans and because we're all going to be a big happy family soon! :) Our waitress was really nice and helpful, their late spring menu was full of choices and then there was a chalkboard full of specials they change daily. Zinc also has a great list of cocktails so after we ordered the cocktail and wine, we were ready to order.

I started with the ruby red beets and blood orange salad, which was AMAZING. I have been really loving beets lately so once I saw this salad on the menu, it was a done deal. For some reason as a child and until about 6 mos. ago I never liked beets. Maybe it's because my mom used to eat them cottage cheese and that I thought that was weird or maybe it's their very deep, dark purple color that turned me off, but man have I been missing out!! Beets are so good for you and so tasty. But, I digress.. The salad was really good, the combination of the rich goat cheese truffles with the tartness of the blood oranges and the sweetness of the beats was a heavenly symphony on my taste buds. I think I could have just ate like 3 plates of that salad for dinner but I finished my salad very satisfied and excited for my dinner.

For dinner I ordered one of the specials which I believe may have been an appetizer.. I chose the mussels in a white wine sauce with a spicy sauce in the broth. The mussels were delicious and the broth was very light with a few cherry tomatoes for color and a wonderful sweetness. It all worked so well with the flavor of the mussels. I really liked the spicy kick in the sausage and it provided a little extra something special and spicy to my meal.

Here are Ryan's salad and dinner. He might make an addition to the post and talk about it. I know his salad was something a little different for him and he also chose seafood which is not the norm for Ryan but he thoroughly enjoyed them both.

I definitely recommend Zinc Brasserie to anyone from Sandusky or just passing through. It is a great restaurant with a nice atmosphere and when you walk outside, the view is beautiful (the photo at the top is the view). I also recommend taking a walk around downtown before or after your done. Sandusky is a great city and the more people who spend time downtown the more it will grow in to the great city it has so much potential to be.

Busy Foodies

hey all, we have been super busy these days!! Between working and wedding planning and studying for the bar, it's been eating out and quick meals for us.
Don't fret...We've got some great posts in the works including some fine dining in our hometown of Sandusky, OH and tonight we are having a dinner party with some of Ryan's classmates! Should be a great night and I will definitely post about our dinner.


FYI- for all Cinci people- every Tuesday at Fountain Square there is a really great open market!! I went during my lunch hour today and it was a great way to spend my lunch. There were about a dozen booths set up and the vendors ranged from fresh lunch choices, bakeries, African Shea Butter, goats milk products, flowers and fresh produce! There was also a wonderful herb booth where I got some great herbs- Herbs De Provence, a Tandoori spice rub, and a Moroccan spice blend. The vendor was so knowledgeable and very friendly. He was even wearing a t-shirt that said "Foodie." on the front which won me over right away. All of the fresh produce were well-priced and looked very tasty. I came back to work with a few ears of sweet corn, my 3 herb packets, and fresh sugar snap peas..All for about $7. Not bad.

Tuesday is normally not a very exciting workday but now it can be!! I believe the market will be going on every Tuesday from 11-2 until the end of August.

Have a great day everyone, stay tuned for photos from the dinner party.