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Chef Series: Cinco de Mayo Feast with Colin Ambrose

Apr 22, 2021 | Chef Series, Past Events, SFEE LIVE

Colin Ambrose of Sag Harbor’s Estia’s Little Kitchen, has been making mole at his restaurants for more than 20 years and readily admits there is no one way to do it. “Everyone has their own version of mole sauce,” says Colin. “It has a good number of ingredients and steps, but it’ll be worth your while to give it a try while you’re sipping a margarita.” In fact his version has 16 ingredients and five steps (not that bad). But you only need three tools: a knife, a food processor and a cast iron skillet.

Colin is a recipient of Slow Food’s East End’s Snail of Approval, an honor SFEE awards to restaurants and food producers due to their dedication to sustainability of land, people and their business — in addition to producing delicious  good, clean and fair food, of course!

For his cooking demo, and our fundraiser, Colin cooked a Cinco de Mayo Feast that includes roasted duck tamales with mole sauce, pickled onion Garnish, pan seared duck breast, a spring salad and hibiscus and ginger margaritas.

The duck is from Long Island, and Colin grows his own corn for the tamales. However, last year a sudden storm destroyed his crop, so he cooked with corn meal from Marilee Foster’s farm. He and Marilee grow Oaxacan green corn that they grind themselves. The corn variety, which is a startling bright emerald green is a field corn that is meant to be dried and ground.

JOIN US:This Sunday, April 18, to Be a Part of a Community Powered Bakery

Apr 12, 2021 | Past Events

Slow Food East End started 2021 with an ambitious agenda. Confident that our school gardens project was up and running — there are now more than 30 (!) on the East End — we started to imagine what to accomplish next in the new world of a pandemic. We had to pivot to online fundraisers where generous local chefs donated their time to create cooking demos using the local ingredients we all look to SFEE to celebrate and promote. More about that later.

Last year we were able to give grants to food producers affected by the pandemic. Read about our partners in that effort. We also donated to food pantries from Riverhead to Greenport and Montauk. So what next?

Our chair, Pennie Schwartz, wanted to include more of the community in our work: the result was Feed the Forks. Our first effort: Flour Power.

 

Pennie was inspired by a very successful program in Seattle called Community Loaves: give community members a recipe (or they could use their own); they bake four loaves and keep one for themselves; SFEE handles the distribution to local food pantries. 

“I thought this was a project we could make our own,” says Pennie, “and actively involve our members to create the smell, feel and taste of bread, which nourishes the body and soul.”

Our first session is April 18, 2021 and features baker and SFEE board member, David Chaffin, who from 1998 to 2017 was the production manager/head bread baker at Amy’s Bread. He uses his recipe for whole wheat bread to demonstrate his method.

 

Meet Jermaine Owens of North Fork Seafood

Mar 29, 2021 | Chef Series, Past Events, SFEE LIVE

many raw pink and white fresh raw fish fillets

Despite the growing consumption of local seafood, having the skill to fillet fish like you can do it in your sleep is a declining art, says Jermaine Owens, who owns North Fork Seafood with his partner Danielle Cullen.

“I am a second generation fish cutter,” he says using a term he picked up during his entire life in the fish biz, “and it’s a dying art.” Southampton born, Owens has worked in every aspect of the industry: 27 years on party boats, fishing boats and in the big fish markets like Cor-J in Hampton Bays and Braun in Cutchogue. “I’ve always been around boats,” he adds.

This time of the year the fishery is opening up with the arrival of porgies, black sea bass and fluke; Owens knows ahead of time. “I can smell it when a big school of fish is in the waters,” he says. He also knows what his catch likes to eat as they grow. “In the cold weather they like softer bait.”

Pre-covid, Owens and Cullen opened a fish store on Shelter Island, which also had a restaurant. Things went well, until they didn’t. The store closed and the couple were back at square one. Owens’ phone started ringing. Friends in Greenport wanted to know where they could get some fish. He sourced down at the docks and delivered it to their door. She told two friends and they told two friends and then customers on the North and South forks were texting their orders and the couple was busy.

The popularity of fish tacos put porgy on the menu; Owens will deliver them whole or filleted. Black sea bass is very popular, says Cullen, because it’s such sturdy, thick white fish. “We eat it alot,” she says, but Owens likes his fried and she likes it oven baked. The fish holds up well in both dishes. 

Jermaine will be a part of the next episode of SFEE’s Chef Series, which features chef/restaurant owner/author, and North Fork Seafood customer Ned Baldin of Houseman in New York City. The cooking demo/fundraiser will be on zoom Wednesday, March 31 from 6 – 7 p.m. Tickets are $50 for general admission and $40 for Slow Food members. The confirmation email will include the Zoom link and a link to some of Ned’s recipes.

In addition to the delivery service, the couple has teamed up with Zilniki’s Farm in Riverhead to provide seafood for their CSA. The farm is part of a network that uses a website so customers can customize their boxes, something new on the East End. 

During the month of March on Saturdays, they sold prepared food for pickup from the Grit and Grace space on the Main Road in Southold. 

North Fork Seafood’s main advertising venues are Facebook, which has a form to set up orders, and Instagram. But by the time you’re a regular, your number will be in Owen’s phone and he’ll see your name when you text to place an order. They are working on plans to open a retail space somewhere on the North Fork. 

Owens says fisheries have been restored better than ever before and most workers are waiting for the federal government to raise limits. And then the smell of a school of fish will only get stronger.

Chef Series: with Ned Baldwin

Mar 9, 2021 | Chef Series, Past Events, SFEE LIVE

Join Slow Food East End for a virtual cooking demo with chef/restaurant owner and Orient resident Ned Baldwin. Ned is the owner of Houseman restaurant and just released a new cookbook, How to Dress an Egg: Surprising and Simple Ways to Cook Dinner.

Ned will be joined by his co-author, Peter Kaminsky, and the demo will include a fish lesson by Jermaine Owens of North Fork Seafood.

Tickets are $50 for general admission and $40 for Slow Food members. (Become a member.)