Dining at the River Tavern and the Theater

Dining out, while taking in a night at the theater will give anyone a thrill if you are a person of culture. I can hop on a train, go into Manhattan, and head straight to Broadway and Restaurant Row. Living and growing up in a quaint small New England town, I can tell you that you can summer on the coast of Connecticut and enjoy these same joys, and not have to hop a train or travel to the city.

My Mother and I were ushering at the Ivoryton Playhouse, but before that, dinner at the River Tavern in Chester, was definitely going to be a treat. My sister-in-law recently celebrated her birthday there. It is her favorite place to eat.

River Tavern
23 Main St
Chester, CT 06412
(860) 526-9417
www.rivertavernrestaurant.com

The River Tavern is part of the Farm to Chef Program. Jonathan Rapp is Chef and owner.

The restaurant gets local produce from Four Mile River Farm in Lyme, White Gate Farm in East Lyme, Old Maids Farm in S. Glastonbury, Stanton-Davis Farm in Pawcatuck, Barberry Hill Farm in Madison, Scott’s Orchard in Deep River, Soeltl Farm, in Salem, and Hay House in Old Saybrook.

The table is very simple. The little bowl of coarse salt, and pepper mill is actually quite cute on the table.

We were the first to arrive at the start of dinner which is 5pm.

Chris Flahaven is Executive Chef, and is a graduate of the New England Culinary Institute.

Here are the menus for the evening we dined. The menus change daily.
We decided to dine from both menus.

From the Bar menu:

Local ricotta with heirloom tomatoes, fried parsley, croutons, pine nuts & balsamic reductions

Salad of local greens, apples, feta cheese, walnuts & poppy seed-buttermilk dressing

The salads were light. I had never tasted ricotta cheese that tasted so fresh. The Balsamic reduction and tomatoes had the perfect blend of flavors, and the pine nuts were not to missed. The apple salad was just as heavenly with the walnuts. Perfect for autumn.

From the Dinner menu:

Seafood stew with monkfish, scallops, calamari & mussels with confit tomatoes, fregula, saffron & grilled bread
Note: This seafood dinner was split into two meals.

We loved stew. The scallops  and mussels were excellent. I loved it, although my mother did not care for the monkfish.

No time for dessert, time to rush off to the theater. What is playing at the Ivoryton Playhouse?

I Love You, You’re Perfect Now Change

Image Courtesy of the Ivoryton Playhouse

 The show runs through October 13th.  It is pure fun, with lots of love.

Plenty to do on the shoreline.

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Baccala Salad

I am of Italian heritage. No Christmas Eve is complete unless you are serving a Baccala salad. My uncle was born in Italy and he can't go without having a traditional Christmas Eve dinner. We had to have those seven fishes. On our table growing up we had baccala salad, squidgy salad, shrimp cocktail, linguine with clam sauce and lobster tails. This is the Baccala salad from Rao’s Restaurant which is from the Food Network site.

Baccala Salad
Recipe courtesy Rao’s Restaurant
2 pounds salt cod cut in 3-inch pieces
1 cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic (I sliced them)
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 cups hot and sweet vinegar peppers
1 cup Gaeta olives (I stoned mine)
1/4 cup capers
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Salt and pepper, to taste
Soak cod for 2 to 3 days, refrigerated, changing water regularly. In large pot, bring 6 quarts of water to a boil, add cod and cook until fish breaks off easily. Strain and cool. After it cools, remove skin and bones, if there are any, and break into bite size pieces. In medium saute pan heat oil and saute garlic for 2 to 3 minutes. Cool. In a bowl, add cod, pour oil and garlic over, add lemon juice, peppers, olives, capers, parsley and salt and pepper, to taste. Place in serving platter and serve at room temperature.
Copyright 2012 Television Food Network G.P.

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Flounder Jeon

This is the light meal I prepared the other night - Flounder Jeon, and it was scrumptious. It is a variation of Aeri's Kitchen Haddock Jeon. It became a variation when I went to the supermarket the haddock was all sold out. I wanted to make the recipe so much I decided to purchase flounder. This recipe is a slight variation from Aeri's recipe which is Korean. I made a few slight changes.


16 oz. Flounder
⅓ Cup Flour
2 Eggs
Some Salt
Some Oil for Frying

Slice the flounder in half, and then cut the half's into thirds.

Sprinkle some salt on each side of the sliced flounder evenly. About 1 pinch of salt for each side will be enough. Set it aside for about 5 minutes.

Mix 2 eggs and 2 pinches of salt together.

Cover the salted haddock with flour.

Cover the floured haddock with the egg mixture. You can also add some finely chopped green onions into the egg mixture if you would like.


Add some oil (about 1 Tbsp) to the pan and place the battered haddock pieces in the pan.

Fry them until the fish is completely cooked and becomes golden brown.

 Here are those beautiful, light and tasty flounder pieces fresh from the pan. These fish are so flavorful you don't need any sauce to accompany these fish.

Thank you Aerie!

Here is the Chicken Salad I Made

You can do great things with roasted chickens and there is nothing better than using some of the chicken for salad to have for lunch.

You see the picture down below. This recipe came from Food and Wine Magazine and here is the recipe.
The flavor is very subtle. This recipe is very easy to cut in half. I personally can't eat 3 cups worth of chicken salad. I also think it would be great in a sandwich.

Chicken Salad with Cumin and Parsley

• BASIC-EASY
• FAST

1. 1 1/2 tablespoons grated onion
2. 1/2 cup mayonnaise
3. 1/4 cup plain yogurt
4. 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
5. 1/4 teaspoon salt
6. 1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
7. 3 cups diced cooked chicken
8. 1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh parsley
9. 2 cups shredded lettuce, such as leaf lettuce or romaine

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the onion, mayonnaise, yogurt, cumin, salt, and pepper. Stir in the chicken and parsley and toss to combine.
2. Put the lettuce on plates. Top with the chicken salad.

NOTES

More Chicken Salads:

Yogurt Dill Chicken Salad In a large bowl, combine 3 cups diced cooked chicken with 1 small minced onion, 2/3 cup plain yogurt, 1 tablespoon mayonnaise, 3 tablespoons chopped dill, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon black pepper.

Lemony Fruit-and-Nut Chicken Salad In a large bowl, combine 3 cups diced cooked chicken with 1 peeled, cored, and diced apple. Add 2 tablespoons raisins, 1/3 cup chopped toasted walnuts, 1 cup halved red seedless grapes, 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 1/4 cup plain yogurt, 4 teaspoons lemon juice, and 1/8 teaspoon each salt and black pepper.

Really Terrific Good-Ol' American Chicken Salad In a large bowl, combine 3 cups diced cooked chicken with 1 small minced onion, 2 ribs chopped celery, 3/4 cup mayonnaise, and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and black pepper.

Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Without tomatoes....

 

With tomatoes....
Both are yummy!!!

I don't remember where I found this recipe. I loved the almonds in the chicken salad.

Tea sandwiches don't usually have tomatoes on them, but on the sandwich without tomatoes I put butter on the bread and it definitely made up for not having the tomatoes.

Of to On the Border for Lunch

This is On the Border in Orange, Connecticut. For this meal I did not enter through this entrance.

I bought take out.
I picked up a House Salad with Mango Vinaigrette.

This picture is credited to On the Border.

It was quite tasty with bottled water.

Happy 4th of July

Here is a salad I made recently. It is Greek Pasta Salad with Feta and Chicken and it is a recipe by Robin Miller.
Here is the recipe for which I have also linked it to the Food Network where this recipe is posted. (Although this recipe came from the CD Kitchen).

GREEK PASTA SALAD WITH FETA AND CHICKEN RECIPE                                       Serves/Makes:   8

Submitted by: jlows

Ready in: 30-60 minutes   recipe difficulty 3/5 Difficulty:   3 (1=easiest :: hardest=5)

12 ounces ditalini or other pasta	1 teaspoon dried thyme
½ cup reduced-sodium chicken broth	salt and ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil	1 pound cooked cubed chicken
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar	1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
2 cloves garlic, minced	¼ cup chopped fresh mint leaves
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard	½ cup crumbled feta cheese
1 teaspoon dried oregano

 Cook pasta according to package directions.

In a small bowl, whisk together broth, oil, vinegar, Dijon mustard, thyme, salt and pepper to taste. Add diced chicken, green pepper, and mint.

Drain pasta and add to bowl with dressing and chicken. Toss to combine. Cover with plastic and refrigerate until ready to serve. Top with feta cheese just before serving.

My boyfriend loved this recipe but he wanted the feta to be in the salad. The fresh mint, although wonderful did not last very long sliced.  The pasta I used was hard to eat with the other items in the salad.

I made this salad once again but made a few changes that gave this salad a absolutely wonderful flavor. 

1. I used elbow macaroni because it is easy to eat in a macaroni salad with other items (That is what my mother uses) for which I also used 16 oz instead of 12 oz.

2. I added sun dried tomatoes with their liquid which I chopped up a little smaller which about to about 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup

3. I added dried parsley to the recipe and I negated the mint

4. I made twice as much dressing to keep the salad moist

5. I added container of herbed crumbled feta to the pasta salad at the very beginning.

Here is what it looked like...

It had more color, flavor and taste. It was a great hit at the 4th of July party too.

Stay cool on these hot days coming this week and Happy Independence Day!

Cassandra