Category Archives: Local Finds

Food Talk: Balinese Cuisine with Selamat Pagi

sambalmatah

Why would three Brooklynites open a Balinese restaurant? Because once they’d tried the exotic, healthy cuisine, they couldn’t get enough.

Pete Van Leeuwen, Ben Van Leeuwen and Laura O’Neill, the trio behind Brooklyn’s renowned Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, have opened Clean Plates-approved Selamat Pagi (Indonesian for “good morning”). They shared what made them say “we want to eat this kind of food all the time.”

Q. What was the impetus behind opening up a Balinese restaurant?
A. I’m from Melbourne, Australia, and travelled to Bali several times from there with Ben. We fell in love with the island and especially the food. After taking a cooking class in Ubud, Bali, we began experimenting with the dishes and cooking style back home in NYC. We wanted to eat this kind of food all the time and had always secretly dreamed of having our own restaurant, so when we ended up with an empty storefront at the front of our ice cream-making kitchen in Greenpoint, we thought, why not go for it?

Q. What did you have for breakfast today?
A. Sticky black rice with yogurt, fresh mango and toasted coconut.

Q. What are the defining elements of Balinese cuisine?
A. Balinese (Indonesian) food is complex, spicy and fresh. Bali is an island with access to great seafood. Part of what defines the cooking is the use of fresh spices as opposed to dried. We run an almost dairy-free kitchen, cooking most dishes with extra-virgin coconut oil. We use a lot a lemongrass, ginger, galangal, kaffir lime leaf and chilies.

Q. What are some choices in cooking style and ingredients that help keep your dishes healthy?  
A. Cooking with coconut oil rather than butter keeps the dishes lighter and is integral to the flavor, as well. We source the majority of our ingredients locally and from organic producers. Our grains and flours come from Cayuga Farms. Our produce and meats come from small organic and biodynamic producers in New York and Pennsylvania. Certain ingredients cannot be produced in this region and for those, we make sure to find sustainable and safe sources.

Q. What kind of fish do you feature? 
A. We wanted to feature delicious, sustainable and locally caught fish. We change it up based on availability. Right now we are using mostly bluefish and mahi-mahi, but also sometimes offer pollock.

Q. You’re known for your sambal. Can you tell us a bit about this condiment, and how you like to use it?
A. Sambal is generally a spicy condiment. We make all ours from scratch. We offer prawn crackers with three sambals as a snack/appetizer on the menu, which is a wonderful introduction to the flavor profile of the cuisine. We feature the sambals across many of the dishes, with eggs, fish and steak. I often enjoy our sambals simply with steamed rice. The Sambal Matah is a raw sambal made up of finely sliced lemongrass, shallots, kaffir lime leaves and chilies, with black pepper, lime juice, coconut oil and shrimp paste. It’s full-flavored and fresh and great with eggs, meat, greens or fish.

 

 

Selamat Pagi’s Sambal Mateh Recipe

by Chef Jason Greenberg
(makes approximately 1 quart)

Add a few tablespoons to your breakfast, lunch or dinner to give them some Balinese spice.

Ingredients:

225 g shallots, thinly sliced rounds
5 kaffir lime leaves, chiffonade
130 g lemongrass, white parts only thinly sliced
35 g red thai bird chilies, seeded and julianned
1/2 tsp. black pepper, ground
2 Tbsp. lime juice, fresh
1 Tbsp. shrimp paste
1/4 c. coconut oil, warmed
sea salt to taste

Place all ingredients except coconut oil in a mixing bowl, and toss well. Add the coconut oil and salt to taste. Sambal should be served at room temperature. Will keep for 1 week in an airtight container in the fridge.

Selamat Pagi
152 Driggs Ave. (bet. Russell and Humboldt Sts.)
Brooklyn, NY 11222
718 701-4333

For more recipes, check out The Clean Plates Cookbook!

Cup, Cupping Away: Toby’s Estate Coffee Cupping Class

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While we’re more apt to recommend a glass of green juice for your morning boost than caffeine, we still love a good cuppa. Especially from the likes of Toby’s Estate.

Sustainability is the driving force behind the Australian company, whose first American café-roastery is in Brooklyn. Toby’s buys its beans directly from farmers, ensuring traceability and fair trade. It also welcomes the public to $5 cupping classes twice a week: that’s the process of evaluating coffees’ unique tastes (just as with wine).

How to do a cupping at home:

1) Measure several varieties of whole beans into separate cups or glasses (about 12 g coffee per 6.5 oz. water). For a blind tasting, you can place stickers on the bottoms of the cups to keep track of what’s what. Place a small glass of water next to each set of cups.

photo-22) Grind the beans in each cup individually, making sure to brush off your grinder in between coffees. Place a number next to each coffee, to use in your notes.
3) Sniff each cup of dry grounds, taking notes on what you smell.
4) Boil water (the ideal temperature is 202°F), then pour it slowly over each cup until the grounds are saturated, starting with the first beans you ground.

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5) After 3-4 minutes, it’s time to break the crust: using the back of a spoon, push away the “crust” that’s formed on top of the brews, inhaling deeply as you do. Take notes on what you smell.
6) Skim the cups to remove the grounds, leaving as much liquid as possible, and get ready to taste.
7) Take a spoonful of coffee at a time and slurp—ungracefully rapidly and loudly—trying to get the liquid to coat your tongue as you inhale. Dip your spoon into the water in between tastes.

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8) Try each coffee a few times, and feel free to spit out sips (into an empty cup, that is) as you go.
9) Compare and contrast your observations and your favorites, and then go for the big reveal.

That’s the smell of success.

Toby’s Estate
125 North 6th St. (bet. Bedford & Berry)
347 457-6160

$5 public cupping classes take place every Wednesday and Sunday, from 10-11:30am. Reserve your spot here.

Photos by Jaclyn Einis

New Year’s Resolution: Eat Locally

Stoneledge Farms CSA

This year, we’re resolving to consume more locally-grown, seasonal foods with intact, vital nutrients (not left behind on gas-guzzling big rigs). And here are two new haunts that make it easy, with hunting-gathering techniques that will leave both our consciences and plates as clean as can be:

IMG_8139DearBushwickOpeningBushwick’s new breed of hunting-gathering gastronomic restos (including Clean Plates-approved  Roberta’s, Blanca, Northeast Kingdom, Cafe Ghia and Momo Sushi Shack) recently welcomed Dear Bushwick to the ‘hood. Chef Jessica Wilson is an extreme forager, offering over 90% local ingredients, among certified organic Hepworth Farms produce and 100% hormone/GMO feed-free Campanelli Farm, Sugar Hill Farm and Sir William Berkshire proteins. Chef Wilson works with Hudson Valley Harvest to find ”specialities and treats of the earth and sky: trees, hay, wood, fruit and more,” with plans to harvest her own salt from local waters.

Get this: Roasted Whole Wild Mushrooms with fregola, leeks and cranberries in vegetable broth
Braised Lamb Neck with confit fennel & garlic, white beans & sultana jus

Dear Bushwick
41 Wilson Ave. (@ Melrose St.)
Daily: 5pm-11pm
929 234-2344

Hunter's Brooklyn

Further down the borough, saddle up for a wintery selection of game meats and drink at Hunter’s in Carroll Gardens. Around the bend from Verde on Smith, 61 Local and Saul, you’ll find house-made pastas, pot pies, sustainably-sourced meats and 100% local veggies to round out an affordably-priced, eclectic New American, Italian and French menu.

Get this: Grilled Kale with hard egg, puffed chickpeas, roasted squash & whole-grain vinaigrette
House-made Agnolotti with winter squash, sage, pumpkin seeds & Brussels sprouts

Hunter’s
213 Smith St. (bet. Butler & Baltic St.)
Tue-Thu: 11am-11pm, Fri-Sat: 11am-2am, Sun: 11am-10pm
718 246-2221

Images courtesy of Charles Smith, Dear Bushwick and Hunter’s.

Gold Standard

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‘Tis the season for cozy soup, but making homemade stock can simmer away a lot of time. Don’t reach for those salty cubes yet! Foodshed Stock’s Brooklyn Bouillon has a solution that’s free of hydrogenated oil, grain and gluten, with just a tad of sea salt to taste. (Scroll down for a soup recipe.)

Bouillon, from the French verb bouillir (“to boil”), is traditionally defined as a simple broth. Brooklyn Bouillon’s are true to their name: they’re brewed in Kingston, NY, and Sunset Park, Brooklyn, with entirely local ingredients—including 100% certified organic produce from Hudson Valley’s The Farm at Miller’s Crossing, and grass-fed beef and pastured chicken from nearby Grazin’ Angus Acres. Lengthy simmering and the bones’ natural gelatin create deeply concentrated, flavorful, nutrient-rich vegetarian and carnivorous stocks in three varieties.

Stay tuned: Brooklyn Bouillon will be launching Foodshed Stocks CSA at the end of January, for convenient pickup at both Brooklyn’s 61 Local and Manhattan’s Jimmy’s No. 43.  Join and get one monthly, four- to six-serving “recipe box” containing one seasonal recipe, organic produce, beans and legumes, and your choice of meat or veggie stock ($40-$60 per month). Or get bouillon packages right now at Stinky Bklyn, Brooklyn Fare and Forager’s City Grocer, or directly from the farm on Plovgh.

Get a hearty Winter Carrot and Sunchoke Soup recipe here.

More questions? Send your bubbling queries to rachael@brooklynbouillon.com.

It’s hot stuff.

Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Bouillon.

Pick of the Barrel: Damn Fine Pickles at Brooklyn Brine

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When you smell the vinegar, you’ve arrived. Jars fill the windows and barrels line the floor of Brooklyn Brine’s new retail store, soft-opened in June in the front of their Gowanus brinery.

The demand for Brooklyn Brine has been growing steadily since Shamus Jones and company put their hands in the pickle jar in 2009; today it’s sold in small specialty stores, at big retailers like Williams-Sonoma and Whole Foods Markets, and is exported to Canada, Japan and Hong Kong. Jones moved operations from his Greenpoint home to more spacious pickling digs on President Street in 2010, and anticipates he’ll need more space in the next couple of years. Continue reading →

Park Life: North Brooklyn’s New Farmers’ Markets

Peaches

During sticky New York City summers, being a weekend warrior means sticking around for the days that start with “S.”  It also means access to myriad festivals, fleas and of course, farmers markets.

The simple joy of a trip to the farmers market is best served sans MTA; fortunately, this just got easier for many North Brooklynites. Two delightful new Sunday farmers markets opened in June, in Greenpoint’s McGolrick Park and Bushwick’s Cooper Park. Continue reading →

Bokashi, What? A New Old Way to Compost

Image courtesy of Vokashi

Bokashi, an ancient Japanese style of composting, embraces a traditional, efficient way to create new soil while maintaining cleanliness in the process. Thanks to Vanrdra Thorburn and her Brooklyn-based company Vokashi, New Yorkers can try their hands at this ancient practice while cutting down on food waste and providing fresh soil for community gardens and public green spaces.

“Bokashi is the Japanese method of fermenting organic matter,” Thorburn explains. “It is the first phase of a two-phase process. The second phase is the actual composting in gardens. So anyone can ferment their organic matter as long as they have a microbial starter and airtight bucket.” Continue reading →

Butter Beans Grow in Brooklyn: Refreshing Healthy Kids Programs

Image courtesy of Butter Beans

Between the first lady creating the organic White House garden and spearheading the national Let’s Move! campaign to the controversial ruling by Congress that qualified tomato sauce on pizza as a valid vegetable in school lunches, a lot has been going on in the conversation about kids and healthy eating.

While those are big national headlines, a mom-led, Brooklyn-based organization, Butter Beans, takes their fight against childhood obesity and unhealthy eating local. Continue reading →