Sunday Brunch. The old standby in this town is at Silvercreek. Jim Gould's been competing, reasonably well. Which is better? Read on.
Both places do fresh Belgian waffles, omelets to order, and have a carving station that have glazed ham and roast beef, so it's a bit of a wash on that end. Silvercreek does throw prime rib in there as the beef, so there's a bit of an advantage there, but most of that is a wash.
The normal breakfast food is also close. Biscuits and gravy are good at both places. You'll get your usual scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and home fries at both places. Again, it's about a wash. All of it is solid. If I had to make a call, I'd actually go slightly in favor of Gould's for their sausage gravy, but it's pretty much a push. Gould's also has blintzes, which end up being pretty tasty. It's nice to have one or two, but you don't make a meal out of them. Additionally, Gould's does eggs benedict. I have to say that I love poached eggs. The Hollandaise scares me, particularly after you read or listen to Tony Bourdain. But it's still tasty, and I haven't paid the price, yet. This gives a slight advantage to Gould's for the breakfast.
One of the big things for me is fried chicken. At Gould's you get very tiny fried chicken, so it can dry out if it sits around, but they have a slightly sweet, very crispy chicken, whereas Silvercreek goes with the traditional southern fried. I think that if it's fresh, I lean to Gould's. But you have to have something to go with the fried chicken. Both places will have mashed potatoes. Silvercreek goes with gravy. Gould's does the bacon, onion, and cheddar thing. Both are good. But Silvercreek has deviled eggs. Who doesn't love deviled eggs? Slight advantage to Silvercreek.
The place where Silvercreek jumps ahead is with the peel and eat shrimp. Gould's does the normal shrimp that you'd expect to see, just boiled with some spices that's sort of bland. At Silvercreek, you get giant shrimp, that's cooked in a more traditional boil - salt, pepper, spices, and lemon. Really, you could just sit there and eat shrimp until your arteries clogged, and you'd die happy. Big advantage to Silvercreek.
The other warm dishes are where Gould's does better, simply by having more options. Silvercreek will have a couple other things. Maybe some baked mac and cheese (sort of mediocre) and a couple other things. Gould's will typically have some other fish (like tilapia or mahi mahi, or whatever they had extra of), which ends up being pretty decent. They also have a couple pasta options (often tortellini w/ alfredo, which is always tasty). I'd give the advantage to Gould's.
With regard to dessert, both places are alright, but the Gould's desserts remind you of catering desserts - nothing special, but all sweet and pretty decent. Silvercreek has pretty much their usual assortment of desserts out there, so you get some winners. I give a slight advantage to Silvercreek.
Silvercreek has been running brunch for as long as I can remember. They have a great dining room that's got an upscale feel that retains a warm, homey look. The brunch, runs $15.99, which includes coffee, juice, or soda. Jim Gould's has a larger dining area, and is generally a bit louder than Silvercreek, but the larger area results in faster turnover for food, so the food stays fresh. The downside is that the brunch runs $19.95, so it's $4 more than Silvercreek.
Overall, for quality of food, I'd give the slight advantage to Silvercreek. For the variety, that goes clearly to Gould's. But for value, given that it's 25% cheaper than Gould's, Silvercreek is the clear winner. Both places are worth going to, as you'll be definitely wanting a nap after you're done eating at either place. But Silvercreek will run you $10 less for 2 people, after you factor in tax and tip.
-foodgeek
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Monday, January 07, 2008
Kitchen Happenings: Currying Favor
Okay. I have to say that I'm addicted to spicy, slow cooked foods. Only when I make them in my kitchen, they're not always slow cooked. The current incarnation is a curried fish stew.
So, where to start? The base of the stew is a nice pureed, vegetable soup, based primarily on tomatoes and mirepoix (the standard onion, celery, carrot base in French cooking). Cook it down, season to taste, puree, and strain coarsely. Basically, you want to get the seeds and the long fibers out, but leave some texture to the soup. This is good on it's own. I happened to have a quart left over in the fridge.
I was originally planning on making cioppino, an Italian fish stew, so I sautéed some large cuts of green peppers and onions, while the base started to warm up in a pot. The plan was to add some potatoes, some fresh herbs, and let everything simmer for a while, before adding some fish (tilapia is what I had) at the end. Of course, I was out of potatoes, but had a bunch of left over potato/turnip gratin that was sitting in the fridge. That took care of the starch.
I decided that I wanted a spicy stew, so I started seasoning the peppers and onions, adding chili powder, onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, and ground red pepper, in addition to salt and black pepper. I deglazed the pan with some red wine, and added everything to the pot. As I was tasting, the dish was OK, but not great. I looked up in my cabinet and saw a bunch of yellow curry powder that was sitting there, untouched for the last 8 months or so. Bingo.
A bunch of curry powder, and some chunks of fish got added to the pot. The result? An incredibly addicting curried fish, with onions, peppers, and potatoes. Served over rice, this was a nice, rich, but not overpowering or overindulgent dish. Can't argue with that.
-foodgeek
So, where to start? The base of the stew is a nice pureed, vegetable soup, based primarily on tomatoes and mirepoix (the standard onion, celery, carrot base in French cooking). Cook it down, season to taste, puree, and strain coarsely. Basically, you want to get the seeds and the long fibers out, but leave some texture to the soup. This is good on it's own. I happened to have a quart left over in the fridge.
I was originally planning on making cioppino, an Italian fish stew, so I sautéed some large cuts of green peppers and onions, while the base started to warm up in a pot. The plan was to add some potatoes, some fresh herbs, and let everything simmer for a while, before adding some fish (tilapia is what I had) at the end. Of course, I was out of potatoes, but had a bunch of left over potato/turnip gratin that was sitting in the fridge. That took care of the starch.
I decided that I wanted a spicy stew, so I started seasoning the peppers and onions, adding chili powder, onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, and ground red pepper, in addition to salt and black pepper. I deglazed the pan with some red wine, and added everything to the pot. As I was tasting, the dish was OK, but not great. I looked up in my cabinet and saw a bunch of yellow curry powder that was sitting there, untouched for the last 8 months or so. Bingo.
A bunch of curry powder, and some chunks of fish got added to the pot. The result? An incredibly addicting curried fish, with onions, peppers, and potatoes. Served over rice, this was a nice, rich, but not overpowering or overindulgent dish. Can't argue with that.
-foodgeek
Friday, November 23, 2007
Kitchen Happenings: Giving Thanks
So I have a tradition. I don't go home for Thanksgiving. Home's a little far away. And I'm lazy. Instead, I sleep in, cook all day while watching football, and eat way too much. And then the day after, I do the same thing, minus the cooking part. Back when the entire posse was around, we'd spend the Saturday before Thanksgiving doing some volunteer work, and then have a big Thanksgiving dinner at my place. I'd have leftovers all week, and wouldn't want to do another turkey on Thanksgiving, so I normally don't do the traditional Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. Instead I normally go with a standing rib roast, and build from there. This year, I didn't have a posse around, so no early Thanksgiving dinner, but I stuck with my personal tradition, anyway.
It was pretty sweet. I made a nice warm vichyssoise the day before, so that made for a great opener. Simple as can be. Chicken stock, cooked leeks, potatoes, salt, pepper, all simmering in a pot. When everything's cooked down, you take the ol' boat motor for a ride, and puree everything. Finish with milk or cream, maybe a little garnish, and life's good.
I did go with something new, olive oil poached shrimp and scallops. Incredibly simple. Warm up a bunch of olive oil, and add some aromatics (garlic, sage, rosemary, and parsley, since that's what I had on hand). Cool the oil down to about 130, and add the seafood, and put the whole thing on the stove, over warm. Let it go until the seafood's cooked. You get this really nice, tender seafood that has a gentle flavor. You may need to add a touch of salt to the scallops, but the shrimp should be great as is. Very nice opener.
While this was happening, I busted out an old standby that I hadn't made in a couple years, a potato/apple cheddar gratin. Basically, scalloped potatoes, only with layers of apple in there. A little sweet and a little sour work nicely with the cheddar and potatoes, and makes for something that takes classic comfort food, and makes it just a little different, and darned good. This isn't the simplest dish, because you have to make a bechamel, and then thinly slice a bunch of potatoes and apples, but it isn't rocket science. And it's well worth the time. And if you make a big batch of bechamel, you can make baked mac 'n cheese the next day! The biggest thing is to have a big baking tray under your casserole dish, to catch the sauce that boils over in the oven. That saves you from cleaning up a mess.
After that, I made the classic rib roast, and had carrots and sweet potatoes below to cook in the drippings. Great stuff. I did try a new technique that I read about for the roast. Normally, I prefer to sear, and then go at 300 to finish. Instead, this time I roasted at 550 for 35 minutes, and then turning the oven down to 200 for the next 1:25. The meat turned out great, very rare, almost black and blue, but that's what I'm into :-) If I was having guests, I'd probably bump it up to 250 to finish, to get to a more medium-rare. But it was just me, so I went caveman style on this one. The problem was that the root veggies that were in contact with the pan ended up getting burned because of the time at 550. This technique is much easier than searing, so the trade off may be worth it. Unfortunately, nothing else can really be done with the oven during this time, so you'd have to make sides elsewhere, which isn't that big of a deal.
All of this stuff was pretty standard fare for me, so while it was tasty, it wasn't all that exciting to me. What turned out to be exciting was a little additional side that is going to become standard fare in my kitchen. Popovers (or mini Yorkshire puddings, if you like) from a muffin tin. They have popover tins, but I don't know what else you do with them, and the muffin tins work just fine. Easy to make the batter. Equal parts milk and flour (by volume), with 1 egg for each cup of milk/flour. Seasonings to taste. Add a little less flour for a lighter popover. Add everything to the blender, and blend. While the blender's still on, add the flour. You've got batter in seconds. Do this about an hour before your roast is coming out, and let the batter rest. Take the roast out to rest, and fire the oven back up to 425. Spoon a little bit (maybe 1-2 tsp) of the drippings into each slot in the muffin tin, and put the tin into the oven (you want the tin to be hot). After about 2 minutes, take the tin out, and fill each slot about 2/3 of the way with your batter, and put it back into the oven. Let it go at 425 for 12 minutes, and then reduce the head to 375 for about another 20 minutes. Brush with a little butter (or more of the drippings!), and you're in business.
The funny part was that I was doing a good job of portion control earlier. Instead of devouring the entire rib roast (which I've been known to do), I only punished half of it (though in fairness, it was a 3.25 lb. roast), and was good with the other sides. However, I definitely ate an entire tray (only 6, though) of the popovers. They're like those Pillsbury crescent rolls - just addicting. It struck me that the popovers were a lot like the muffins over at Milo's, so I think that I'll be playing around to see if I can duplicate what they're doing. I'm guessing a little more flour in the batter, and I'll be close.
In any case, I definitely ate well yesterday (and with the leftovers today). However, I think that I do want to roast a bird (probably a chicken, though), and make some stuffing, potatoes, and corn casserole, and drowh it all in gravy at some point soon to make up for my lost Thanksgiving. But I think that I'll be making popovers anyway, because they're too good to skip out on.
-foodgeek
It was pretty sweet. I made a nice warm vichyssoise the day before, so that made for a great opener. Simple as can be. Chicken stock, cooked leeks, potatoes, salt, pepper, all simmering in a pot. When everything's cooked down, you take the ol' boat motor for a ride, and puree everything. Finish with milk or cream, maybe a little garnish, and life's good.
I did go with something new, olive oil poached shrimp and scallops. Incredibly simple. Warm up a bunch of olive oil, and add some aromatics (garlic, sage, rosemary, and parsley, since that's what I had on hand). Cool the oil down to about 130, and add the seafood, and put the whole thing on the stove, over warm. Let it go until the seafood's cooked. You get this really nice, tender seafood that has a gentle flavor. You may need to add a touch of salt to the scallops, but the shrimp should be great as is. Very nice opener.
While this was happening, I busted out an old standby that I hadn't made in a couple years, a potato/apple cheddar gratin. Basically, scalloped potatoes, only with layers of apple in there. A little sweet and a little sour work nicely with the cheddar and potatoes, and makes for something that takes classic comfort food, and makes it just a little different, and darned good. This isn't the simplest dish, because you have to make a bechamel, and then thinly slice a bunch of potatoes and apples, but it isn't rocket science. And it's well worth the time. And if you make a big batch of bechamel, you can make baked mac 'n cheese the next day! The biggest thing is to have a big baking tray under your casserole dish, to catch the sauce that boils over in the oven. That saves you from cleaning up a mess.
After that, I made the classic rib roast, and had carrots and sweet potatoes below to cook in the drippings. Great stuff. I did try a new technique that I read about for the roast. Normally, I prefer to sear, and then go at 300 to finish. Instead, this time I roasted at 550 for 35 minutes, and then turning the oven down to 200 for the next 1:25. The meat turned out great, very rare, almost black and blue, but that's what I'm into :-) If I was having guests, I'd probably bump it up to 250 to finish, to get to a more medium-rare. But it was just me, so I went caveman style on this one. The problem was that the root veggies that were in contact with the pan ended up getting burned because of the time at 550. This technique is much easier than searing, so the trade off may be worth it. Unfortunately, nothing else can really be done with the oven during this time, so you'd have to make sides elsewhere, which isn't that big of a deal.
All of this stuff was pretty standard fare for me, so while it was tasty, it wasn't all that exciting to me. What turned out to be exciting was a little additional side that is going to become standard fare in my kitchen. Popovers (or mini Yorkshire puddings, if you like) from a muffin tin. They have popover tins, but I don't know what else you do with them, and the muffin tins work just fine. Easy to make the batter. Equal parts milk and flour (by volume), with 1 egg for each cup of milk/flour. Seasonings to taste. Add a little less flour for a lighter popover. Add everything to the blender, and blend. While the blender's still on, add the flour. You've got batter in seconds. Do this about an hour before your roast is coming out, and let the batter rest. Take the roast out to rest, and fire the oven back up to 425. Spoon a little bit (maybe 1-2 tsp) of the drippings into each slot in the muffin tin, and put the tin into the oven (you want the tin to be hot). After about 2 minutes, take the tin out, and fill each slot about 2/3 of the way with your batter, and put it back into the oven. Let it go at 425 for 12 minutes, and then reduce the head to 375 for about another 20 minutes. Brush with a little butter (or more of the drippings!), and you're in business.
The funny part was that I was doing a good job of portion control earlier. Instead of devouring the entire rib roast (which I've been known to do), I only punished half of it (though in fairness, it was a 3.25 lb. roast), and was good with the other sides. However, I definitely ate an entire tray (only 6, though) of the popovers. They're like those Pillsbury crescent rolls - just addicting. It struck me that the popovers were a lot like the muffins over at Milo's, so I think that I'll be playing around to see if I can duplicate what they're doing. I'm guessing a little more flour in the batter, and I'll be close.
In any case, I definitely ate well yesterday (and with the leftovers today). However, I think that I do want to roast a bird (probably a chicken, though), and make some stuffing, potatoes, and corn casserole, and drowh it all in gravy at some point soon to make up for my lost Thanksgiving. But I think that I'll be making popovers anyway, because they're too good to skip out on.
-foodgeek
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