Salisbury’s new Country Bistro

The first thing you notice when you walk in the door is the smell, almost overwhelmingly enticing, of baked goods: pie, cakes, cookies, foccaccia. Butter. Apples cooked in sugar.

Then, subtly, like the flute in a composition by Mozart, the scent of vinaigrette wafts its way into your consciousness and you realize that, in addition to a case full of lavishly decorated cupcakes and fat round cookies, the new Country Bistro offers salads, artisanal pizzas and sandwiches that range from an all-American BLT to the more sophisticated hreb-roasted flank seak and “lunch in Paris” (a baguette with ham or pate, cornichons and butter).

The scents are courtesy of a trio of chefs, including the mother-daughter team who own the Academy Street eatery (formerly home to the Harvest Bakery and then Timan’s Harvest).

The restaurant is owned by mother Jacqueline Heriteau Hubbard and daughter Holly Hunter Stonehill, who have written several cookbooks together, including titles dedicated to soup and to garden-grown edibles. The pastries are courtesy of itinerant baker Peggy McEnroe, who also supplies goodies to Irving Farm in Millerton.

Country Bistro had its official opening on Saturday (although diners had a chance to break in the new wait staff and chefs beginning on Tuesday, May 1) and the owners promise an “in town” restaurant with food in a range of prices, from the affordable wraps (1/2 wrap, $4.50) and soups (12 oz. to go, $3.95) to pricier special items, which will rotate depending on what’s available and what catches the fancy of the cooks.

For these are ladies who take great pleasure in taking fresh, seasonal ingredients and converting them to breakfasts, lunches and, eventually, hors d’ouevres (to be called “sundowners,” which can be ordered in the early evening on the restaurant’s two terraces).

Soups will be a specialty of the house, in part because Heriteau is the author of “A Feast of Soups,” which continues to sell well after 20 years. Her emphasis in this and other books she has done (including “Grow it, Cook it,” inspired by a garden installed at her home in Vermont many years ago by her father, Marcel Heriteau, a well-known chef and the founder of the Escoffier Society in Montreal).

On the unofficial opening day, May 1, Stonehill and her staff rushed around the kitchen, trying to ensure that orders were filled and supplies of fresh foccaccia weren’t depleted. Heriteau oversaw production with aplomb, and shared her recipe for wild mushroom soup, which is listed in her cookbook as “Favorite Mushroom Soup.”

Mushrooms may seem like the iceberg lettuce of the food world, there just for texture and color, but in fact they offer significant amounts of fiber, B vitamins, selenium and potassium. They also are endowed with more antioxidants than more obvious choices such as carrots and tomatoes, according to some studies. For maximum health benefits, buy portobellos and creminis.

Wild Mushroom Soup
Heriteau writes in her introduction to this recipe that “I use 8-ounce bottles of clam juice to make this (you never taste the clam, by the way) and the cleanest mushrooms I can find so all I have to do to prepare them is wipe them quickly.”
Serves 4
1/2 pound mushrooms, chopped
3 tablespoons butter
Salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups bottled clam juice
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup heavy cream, whipped

In a saucepan over medium heat, saute the mushrooms in the butter, stirring, about four minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Lower heat and stir in the flour. It will make a gummy roll. Cook another two minutes. Then, beating constantly, add the clam juice, stirring until well blended, one to two minutes. Cover and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in the cream and remove from heat.
To serve, ladle into bowls and garnish with whipped cream.
This soup is wonderful reheated with a little milk. If you’re cooking it ahead of time, don’t add the cream until just before serving.

Country Bistro is at 10 Academy St. in Salisbury and is open Monday to Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Lynn Meehan shared this recipe, which she said has become an addiction!

Hi Cynthia,

This delicious easy recipe for maple syrup granola came from the March/April 2007 issue of Yankee magazine. It was included in an article by Annie B. Copps “A Brunch to Welcome Spring”, about two women, Faith Middleton and
Fern Berman, who love to entertain…
Enjoy! Lynn

Granola
Total time: 1 1/2 hours active time: 20 minutes

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup whole almonds
3/4 cup shredded coconut
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
1 cup raisins or chopped dried cherries

Heat oven to 250 degrees. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except raisins or cherries. Make sure oats, almonds, coconut are well coated with sugar, syrup and oil. Spread out on a large baking sheet (or two small sheets). Bake 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes for even browning.

Remove the sheet from the oven and let cool on wire racks. Scoop or pour granola into a large bowl, add raisins or cherries and mix well. Store in well-sealed containers at room temperature up to two weeks.

Yields about 5 cups.

The Cancer Project Web site has seasonal menus that feature cancer-fighting ingredients. The fall and spring 2006 newsletters offered two innovative breakfast ideas that feature grains we normally associate with dinner. Try them as is, or substitute ingredients (such as milk for rice milk, or oatmeal for quinoa). But do give some of these alternative foods a try; quinoa, for example, is a delicious, tender, fluffy grain and a nice change from the oats that most of us have been eating for most of our lives. The best way to introduce new foods into your diet? Gently and gradually.

Fruited Breakfast Quinoa
From Foods That Fight Pain by Dr. Neal Barnard and Jennifer Raymond
Six 1/2-cup servings

1/2 cup well-rinsed quinoa
1 1/2 cups vanilla rice milk
2 tablespoons raisins
1 cup chopped fresh or canned apricots
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine quinoa and milk in a medium saucepan. Bring to a slow simmer, then cover and cook for about 15 minutes until the quinoa is tender. Stir in raisins, apricots and vanilla. Transfer about 1 1/2 cups to a blender and puree. Return pureed mixture to plan and stir to mix. Serve warm or chilled.

Breakfast Rice Pudding
From The Survivors Handbook: Eating Right for Cancer Survival by Dr. Neal Barnard
Six 1/2-cup servings

2 cups cooked brown rice
(substitute white rice or other grains if you prefer; the Cancer Project recommends that you make the switch to whole grains from refined grains slowly, to give your digestive system a chance to adapt)
1 1/2 cups vanilla rice milk
3 tablespoons raisins
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Combine ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a slow simmer. Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes, or until thick. Serve hot or cold.

I always seem to make more oatmeal than I need. This recipe from the Joy of Cooking can be adapted to use up the leftovers.

Oatmeal Griddle Cakes
Makes a dozen 4-inch cakes
Mix well: 1/2 cup all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon double-acting baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt
Beat one egg and mix with 1 1/2 cups cooked oatmeal, 1/2 cup evaporated milk, 1/4 cup water, 2 tablespoons of melted butter or canola oil. Add to the dry ingredients, mixing swiftly to avoid lumps.
If you have time, let the mixture rest in the fridge for a while before cooking on a hot griddle.

The food feature on the health page of the Feb. 8 Lakeville Journal shares the good news that grapes and grape juice offer a host of health benefits, including protection from cancer and heart disease. Concord grapes, with their intense coloring and rich flavor, are the grape motherlode (look for a recipe for Concord Grape Sorbet in the paper) but regular grapes have benefits as well.

This recipe is adapted from Rozanne Gold’s “Low Carb 1-2-3”. You can use seedless table grapes, though the dish will be more flavorful if you can find the darker, seeded version.

Chicken breasts with slow-roasted grapes
Serves four

1 pound seedless dark red grapes
(or, half pound grapes and about one cup Concord grape juice)
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
4 6-ounce skinless, boneless chicken breasts
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Remove the grapes from their stems. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and place half the grapes on the sheet. Bake for 1-1/2 hours, shaking the pan frequently. Remove from the oven and set aside.
If you plan to make your own grape juice, puree the remaining, uncooked grapes in a blender until they are smooth. Strain into a bowl through a coarse-mesh sieve, pressing down hard on the skins. Discard the skins (and seeds, if there are any) and set the juice aside.
In a large nonstick skillet, over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter. Season the chicken breasts with the salt and pepper. Add the chicken to the skillet and cook until golden, about five minutes per side.
Add the grape juice, and cook until the chicken is done and just firm to the touch and the sauce is a dark mahogany color, about five minutes. Do not overcook the breasts. Remove from heat and transfer chicken to a serving platter.
Add the remaining tablespoon of butter to the skillet and cook with the pan juices over high heat for one minute. Add the oven-dried grapes and cook, stirring, for one minute longer. Add salt and pepper to taste and pour the sauce over the chicken. Serve immediately.

Among the vegetables that seem to have no season is beets. They are good any time of year.
And among the many beautiful dishes on the Stagecoach Tavern’s farm table menu is a beet salad that’s a little different. No gorgonzola, for starters. Instead, bacon. Slivered and fried celeriac. And a dab of creme fraiche. Simple, beautiful and healthy.
It’s more a series of steps than a recipe , chef Sarah Dibben told me, starting with roasting whole beets. Just place them in a two-inch deep pan; rub them with a little olive oil; salt-and-pepper them; pour in a little water, cover with a lid or foil and roast them at 300 degrees until they are tender. When I tried it, the beets took almost three hours.
Then, pour on a vinaigrette made from one part balsamic vinegar and three parts olive oil, salt and pepper.
Sprinkle on shredded celeriac that has been deep fried. I couldn’t find celeriac, so I fried up shallots instead — anything crispy and flavorful will do it, and top each serving with a little crumbled bacon.
As a final touch, Dibbens dabs a teaspoon of creme fraiche on top.
Dibbens has a very interesting farm table menu that depends almost entirely on meat and produce raised and grown within 15 miles of the Stagecoach Tavern which is on Route 41 in Sheffield,MA.
For reservations, call 413-229-8585. — Marsden Epworth

Saveur magazine (1998) is the source for one of my all-time favorite break-your-diet apple dishes. It’s a traditional dessert from the Brittany coast in France (the region that gave us the wonderful, versatile crepe). It is similar to the apple pancake recipe below, but is less sugar-coated and more like a thick baked custard with fruit.

Apple Far
Serves 8

Preheat oven to 375.

Grease a deep 10- or 12-inch cake pan with two tablespoons of lightly salted butter, and dust it with 3 tablespoons of sugar. Peel and core four large crisp apples (try Mutsus, or “real” golden delicious if you can find them), and slice into thin rounds. Layer 3/4 of the apple slices in the pan and bake until soft, about 30 minutes.

Melt a stick (1/4 pound) of lightly salted butter.

Sift 1 1/2 cups of flour and 6 tablespoons of sugar together into a mixing bowl, making a well in the center. Whisk in two cups of milk and three eggs, beating until the batter is smooth. Stir in melted butter and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Pour batter over cooked apple slices.

Arrange remaining slices on top and sprinkle with 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar (some candied ginger cut into microscopic bits and sprinkled on top is always nice on custardy desserts, too).

Bake until golden and crusty around the edges, about one hour. It will puff up nicely, but will of course fall quickly, so if there’s anyone you want to impress or delight, have them at hand when you open the oven door.

Cut into wedges and serve warm from the pan.

On the health page of the Jan. 11 Lakeville Journal, I promised to post additional apple recipes on Salty Plums. This high-calorie treat doesn’t belong on the health page, and I have to confess that I haven’t tested it yet. But it comes from Joan Nathan’s always dependable (and infinitely interesting) “Jewish Cooking in America” (a book that proves that Gourmet Jewish Food is not an oxymoron). It reminds me of one of the signature dishes of my hometown: Chicago, a city that really understands high-calorie soul food. Try it, and post your own results here!

German Apple Schmarren (Sugar-coated Apple Pancakes)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 cup milk
2 large apples
2 tablespoons butter
Confectioners’ sugar
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Preheat the oven to 350.
Mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the eggs and milk and beat until smooth.
Peel, core and slice the apples in eighths. Gently stir them into the batter. Heat a 10-inch ovenproof skillet on the cooktop. Brush with the butter, then pour in the batter. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the pancake puffs up at the sides and is crisp and brown on top. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice.

Nathan offers a variation on this from Lois Greene of Waterbury. When Lois was a child, her father “combined the eggs and other ingredients in a huge iron frying pan. After a short while, he put the apple slices over the top of the eggs and sprinkled them liberally with sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice. As the eggs cooked, they puffed up around the apples. When he judged the eggs and apples done, he cut the pancake like a cake.”

I usually like to leave the making of banana bread to our publisher/editor in chief, who bakes an excellent loaf. I especially enjoy leaving a bunch of soft brown bananas in the front lobby of our office building; the next morning, as if by magic, a steaming hot loaf wrapped in tin foil appears in its place. It reminds me of the shoemaker and the elves.
Occasionally, a situation arises where I find I must bake the bread myself. This happened recently when I promised to cook a few meals for a friend who was recovering from surgery. I decided to make a few tea loaves and slice them up so she could eat them for breakfast. And, although our publisher would probably have gladly contributed a banana bread, I decided “to do for myself” for a change.
The recipe I found in “The Martha Stewart Cookbook” (oh, get over it, you know you like her) ended up being exceptionally rich, moist and delicious. My friend asked for the recipe, and I figured as long as I was typing it up, I would share it with you, too.

1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed very ripe banana
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans and walnuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a loaf pan (9×5x3-inch). With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, beating well.
Sift the dry ingredients together and combine with the butter mixture. Blend well. Add the bananas, sour cream and vanilla. Stir well. Stir in the nuts and pour into the prepared loaf pan.
Bake one hour, until a cake tester comes out clean. Turn out onto a rack and allow to cool.

So, the holidays are over, and surely most of us have had our fill of all kinds of great foods, highly caloric or just seasonal and really good. But now it’s January, and we all still have to find nourishment. Where to find inspiration?

How about cookbooks? Did anyone else get a cookbook for a gift this season? Maybe it’s just me (like my family thinks I can use some help with cooking, perhaps?), but I often receive a cookbook as a gift at the holidays. This year, my cousin sent me a wonderful cookbook from Gloucester, Mass., where she spends summers (during the school year, she’s a linguistics professor.)

It’s the Fishermen’s Wives Cookbook, which in Gloucester is very meaningful. For anyone who’s visited there (or read [click here] “The Perfect Storm”, or seen the movie), you know this is a real seafaring community with a long history of families waiting for fishermen to return from the sea. The Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association was formed in 1969 and has been very active raising money to help families left behind by those lost at sea, and working to affect legislation that will help conserve New England fishing grounds and heritage. The cookbook is part of their fundraising activity.

The book is a hard cover with full color throughout, so not your usual spiral-bound fundraising variety. The “wives” come from a range of ethnic backgrounds, but the author (Susan Pollack) identifies them as being from “Sicilian-American, Portuguese, Irish and Newfoundland cultural traditions.” While not all the recipes include seafood, many do, and what’s better than eating lighter in January?

Some of the recipes are: Mediterranean Swordfish Steaks, Shrimp Salad or Lobster; Marinated Tuna Steak; Mussels in Marinara Sauce; Calamari Trizzano; Manhattan Clam Chowder; Tuna a la Porticello; Stuffed Fillet of Sole Rolle; Beer Batter Fish G. Lovasco Style; Salmon Pie; Seafood Chowder. Want some seafood yet?

There are also lots of Italian specialties, like ricotta cheesecake (which my cousin’s mother made all the time when we were kids - it’s fantastic, light but smooth and tangy with lemon brightening the flavor), pizzelles, biscotti, breakfast stratta and focaccia.

This is a great cookbook to inspire some January cooking. Has anyone else been inspired, by a holiday gift, to try some new recipes?

For more info on the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives, and their cookbook, go to their (click here) web site.