Maggie's Farm

You don't need to open a restaurant. You can be a seafood farm entrepreneur.

Natural marshes no longer support the markets for Littleneck Clams and Atlantic Oysters - especially the delicious Wellfleets. These tasty mollusks have to be farmed, but it's not very hard work.

You buy the seed from a clam or oyster nursery, protect them from gulls and whelks, and harvest them at low tide in your pick-up truck as the orders come in. You plant them, nature grows them on plankton. Sometimes you have to rake mud off the oyster bins.

The small producer I chatted with out on the flats at low tide has around 1,000,000 clams growing right now, at various stages of development. These are 30 cents each, wholesale.

He has around 500,000 Wellfleet Oysters growing, at around 70 cents each, wholesale. That's a nice little inventory, but a bad hurricane or winter storm can obliterate your investment so it is best to save your profits for hard times. That is intelligent, no matter what you do for a living. I don't think you can buy insurance for clam beds or most other sorts of income.

In his spare time, he was a three-term First Selectman of Wellfleet "until he finished what he wanted to get done," as a local friend said. It's always wonderful to me to see how unskilled Americans without any higher ed can find good ways to make a living.

Cranky, laconic old Cape Codder. I said I was curious about how he did this, and he replied "I don't know. Been doing this for 50 years. I still don't know what I am doing" as he lit up a fresh Marlboro.

Those orange mats on the right are what they protect the baby clams with. Clams live in the mud. Each year, new seed clams to burrow in the mud under a new mat. Usually harvestable in 3 years. 

The oysters grow in the wire bins. Those beehive cannisters collect oyster larvae, to reduce his costs of buying seed oysters.

Shellfish guys out on the flats with their trucks at low tide in Wellfleet Harbor. The most difficult barrier to entry in this line of work is obtaining rights to areas of mudflat. Waterfront landowners own the flats out to 200 yards.

One reason we need to dine at Pearl on each visit to Cape Cod is because of Mrs. BD's addiction to their grilled Bluefin Tuna with wasabi bean crust. The Tuna are local.

I like Pearl for its raw bar (which every restaurant up there has), its marsh views, and to watch the bar scene. Plenty of other joints up there that we also enjoy. Who wants to spend time in the kitchen when away from home - unless you have a pile of little brats from whom the public should be protected?

When grilling or sauteeing (on high heat) Bluefin Tuna, I have a terrible tendency to overcook it. I think it's because it keeps cooking after you take it off the heat. Tuna should look as in the photo, like rare steak. Maybe a minute or so per side on high heat or red coals.

Here's the recipe. Sharp knife, thin slices. A little soy or teriyaki sauce on the side, lime on top.

(I think Wasabi Peas and Wasabi Beans (soybeans) are one of the best snack foods.)

Home again, home again, jiggety-jog. 

Naturally, attempted to eat my fill of Wellfleet Oysters, but I never will. Life is too short to complete that pleasure.

A number of Obama bumper stickers out there on the Cape (but MANY fewer than 4 years ago). Most of the Priuses there this year had no political stickers. Mrs. BD kept track of that. We used to think that Obama stickers were part of the Prius brand and paint job. The enthusiasm is gone. We tried to keep track of the Scott Brown bumper stickers. "Take America Back". They were easy to find, but I still think he has only a fighting chance. People ignore the details. Warren is a hard Lefty, and that's usually good enough for wealthy Massachusetts.

Will provide more fun pics later. This is at Pearl's (the old Capt'n Higgin's, upscaled with a hopping bar scene) on the dock. My apologies if you drool on your keyboard. Sweetest oysters in the world, thanks to the Herring River. Mrs. BD is addicted to the seared raw Bluefin with the chopped wasabi-bean crust. Dynamite food. I love that, but my soul needs the raw shellfish every summer. All I can find, plus some steamers too. And some mussels.

(Some readers wonder how your editor Bird Dog posts when on sabbatical from Maggie's. I pre-post and pre-date some items when away. I cheat. Got to keep the rhythm section - the basso continuo - rolling along. That's my well-paid job here. Happy that everybody pitches in and keeps the posts coming when they can. We're a hippy  hippie commune.)

Is the Mojito really the national cocktail of Cuba? This drink seems to be enjoying a craze recently. Sounds like a Mint Julep but with rum.

I have never tried one, but I steer clear of hard booze most of the time. I like anything with mint in it, though.

Here's how to make it.

Via The Decades-Long Comeback of Mark Twain's Favorite Food - When America's favorite storyteller lived in San Francisco, nothing struck his fancy like a heaping plate of this Pacific Northwest delicacy:

... newcomers to the city, including Twain—straight from the Nevada desert with its pickled oysters and an appalling coffee substitute he dubbed “Slumgullion”—developed a taste for the tiny, coppery Olympias. The Oly, as it was called, was the classic gold rush oyster, a staple of celebrations and everyday meals in San Francisco restaurants and oyster saloons. Olys appeared in oyster soup and stew, stuffed into wild poultry and, of course, raw. Perhaps the most distinctive local dish was a “Hangtown fry” of oysters, bacon and eggs.

Mark Twain loved good food. I've had the Olympia oysters, but prefer the Northeast mollusc. I once ate 72 of them in a contest with a friend somewhere where they had an all-you-can-eat raw bar. I lost, but I still love to eat them.

Photo is an Olympia oyster.

Many claim this is the best Italian antipasto. It is properly made with dandelion greens.

This alone is plenty of lunch for me, but I rarely bother with lunch anyway unless it is a fun or social occasion. The simple recipe here.

Tastes fine, or better, if the flattened meat air-dries a little bit. Maybe half an hour or so.

This one was served to me in a cute little restaurant in Todi last June, sitting under the grape vines. Glass of the local Orvieto - not a great vino but just right with this on a warm day.

We probably don't eat as many hamburgers as we should, here at the Farm, but I am planning a friends and neighbors cookout for around 30 people and thought I would do some research on the best burger recipes.

Seems like a couple of splashes of Worcestershire sauce per pound, salt and pepper, and some Cuisenarted red onions is the simplest way to prep the meat. My preference for grilling is fatty beef, not lean. From Costco, of course.

My reading informs me that some people stir eggs, herbs, and all sorts of other things into the meat, but that sounds more like meatballs than burgers to me. Plus I like a burger rare, and who wants to eat raw eggs?

My girls spent the weekend practicing skeet and trap at a friend's club (they like guns), then they had a jolly overnight in NYC gallivanting around wherever young folks gallivant these days.

Do they know the NYC subways? Do fish pee in your reservoir? Well, they know the Manhattan and Brooklyn trains anyway. I think they know the cool clubs too.

It's a pleasure to a Dad when your kids get along, because you want them there for eachother when you're gone. My lad is preoccupied with his own pleasant chores, although I could use some spare young muscle.

I spent the weekend doing what I enjoy most: heavy manual labor around the farm's decorative grounds (the decorative parts, not the rough parts). I dedicate a weekend each late Spring (and one day in March) to these seasonal jobs, before it gets too warm and all you want to do is to sit on a Farmall tractor with a cold one.  First the chain saw work, then the clipper work, then the hedge-trimming, then the major weeding. Mrs. BD does the less-heavy weeding and pruning, being more obsessional than I am. And she likes to tell me where to move plants. Not a bad deal to be my wife despite my occasional crankiness.

Then the damn clean-up. It's the work Americans supposedly won't do. Well, I could use some immigrant help to get everything done on my list...

So what's for Father's Day supper? My favorite meal, or close to it - Vitello Tonnato - cold sliced veal with tuna sauce (with arborio rice and salad - arborio rice isn't just for risotto. You cook it in chicken broth). Great, strong flavors in the sauce - capers, anchovy, tuna. Need to make it hours, or a day, in advance. Mrs. BD likes to make it.

That's real Italian.

Here's the Youtube:

An amusing article, and at least 50% accurate: Basta la Pasta!

In the USA, Italian food can range from the sublime to the inedible. Same thing in Italy. Fortunately, Mrs. BD and I know where to go and what to order, in both countries.

Even Domino's pizza beats the Italian stuff 90% of the time. And, as I have said many times, pasta with red sauce is only fit to be eaten to prevent death by starvation. They don't even like it in Italy, except in Naples which is not exactly known for haute cuisine.

I tried them. Chef friend sent me the recipe:

3 lbs. white, eastern or yellow flesh potatoes
1 1/2 lbs. Emmenthaler cheese grated
1 lb or ring of kielbasa - I use Hillshire Farms' pork, beef and turkey kielbasa
1 pint heavy cream
Salt and Pepper
9 x 13 or similar size casserole dish

Peel potatoes, cut into 5mm rounds, boil until firm - not soft. drain set aside cut kielbasa into 5mm rounds
Spray Pam on baking dish. season bottom with salt and cracked black pepper.
layer potatoes, kielbasa, cheese, repeat, final layer should be cheese on top
add heavy cream
cover with aluminum foil bake 350 about 1 1/2 hours
uncover, bake an additional hour or when the cheese has melted all the way through

If the oven is gas it may go quicker
the cheese should gratin on top
let stand 15 minutes to set
cut into square servings

It's still chilly up here in Yankeeland. 30s (F) at night, low 50s at midday. An Irish coffee is good way to begin - or end (or both) a celebratory day.

- 1 or 2 shots of Irish whisky
- 1 or 2 tsp brown sugar (I like that crystallized brown sugar called "Sugar in the Raw")
- strong, hot fresh coffee
- lightly whipped or shaken cream - not fully-whipped cream

Put brown sugar and Irish whisky into a coffee glass, or a wine glass with thick walls. Add hot, strong coffee up to 1 cm (1/3 inch) from the glass rim. (If you are cautious and don't want to risk cracking the glass, leave the spoon in the glass to absorb some of the heat.)
Carefully add the lightly whipped cream over the back of a tablespoon.

Alternatively, you can make it the way some Irishmen I knew in NYC did it: Pour 1/3 of your cup of deli take-out coffee into the gutter, and splash some Seagram's 7 into it to fill the cup. Tastes disgusting, but it is warming and the right combo of upper and downer.

Now to marinate our leg of lamb (7 lbs., bone in) overnight. Sounds like Easter dinner, not brunch. Roasting it medium-rare is always a trick, even with the meat thermometer. 130-135 is about right, but the dang thing always keeps cooking after you take it out. Nobody likes brown lamb except the dog.

We served only two side dishes at dinner last weekend: Wild Rice with Apple and Cranberry, and simple String Beans.

At our house, we only eat those skinny string beans that come fresh in packages. French String Beans, Haricot verts. No strings in them. We eat them like candy. Costco sells them in big packages, and our supermarket overprices them in smaller bags. We steam them all up and they are good green food for a week in the fridge. I feel that the full-sized string beans that I was raised on are not really fit for human consumption.

We do them the Italian way:

Steamed for a few minutes until tender but still bright green. Drain, then tossed in the best olive oil you have, with sea salt. In Italy, simple is the best when the ingredients are the best.

Delicious either warm or room temp.

I suppose I was raised on some foods you might term "Hotdish" - Shepherd's Pie, Tuna Noodle, Macaroni and Cheese, Lasagna, Seafood Casseroles, and the like - but it's not a New England term.

As his main course offering for our game dinner, my hunting pal brought his Oryx Moussaka over in his 18 qt. Nesco roaster oven. Just carried it into the kitchen and plugged it in to keep it hot.

(Being a Louisiana-born-and bred guy, he also made 4 Pecan Pies from his Mom's recipe. Made the crusts, too)

His Moussaka came out great, even though he had never made it before. (At our guy dinners, the men cook, the womenfolk are guests, and a helper cleans up. Mrs. BD does the flowers, of course.)

Point being, I'd never seen these roaster ovens before. Very handy. Waring makes a cheaper one.

If your oven is full, these seem to function as a spare oven, large enough for a 16# turkey, and their portability, their ability to keep food warm, and the inability to burn food in them, are useful features.

Can they give you an oven-like crusty or gratin surface if that's what you want? No.  To brown the top of something, you have to put the enameled insert under the broiler for a few minutes.

Do any of our readers use these things?

One of our hors d'oevres for a dinner we hosted on Sat. night was duck foie gras on baguette slices.

D'Artagnan terms this stuff "sinfully rich."

It is better than ice cream, thanks to the ducks.

Readers know that, in Southern tradition, "birds" means Bob White quail. I am not talking about four-and-twenty blackbirds.

Even if you don't have any around, you can get semi-boned (Hey, Bird Dog -have you ever boned a quail?) quail through D'Artagnan. Semi-boned means they leave the bones in the legs and thighs. Great first course.

One of the best first course recipes in the world: Boned Quail Stuffed with Foie Gras. Instead of pate de foie gras, you can use seared chunks of foie gras.

You can do a similar recipe with pheasant, adding some bread crumbs, onion, and apple chunks to the stuffing along with the chunks of seared foie gras. A semi-boned pheasant is good, too.

Your dinner guests will return for dining like this, even if they don't like you.

Regarding gelato, all you have to do is point at random. It's all good. The rule is just one gelato per day.

A friend is visiting northern Italy for the first time, in a couple of weeks. Great time of year to go. Asked for food advice. Here are a few of my suggestions (bearing in mind that no menus will be in English):

Antipasto

- Any norceria platter
- Any crostini - every place has its own versions
- carpaccio - delicious. Usually served on dandelion greens. Sprinkle a little oil on top.

I Primi

- pappardelle al funghi
- Any gnocchi
- Any polenta, but especially al tartuffo
- Any risotto
- Sometimes you can find a Spaghetti alla Bolognese - it's nothing like the American version
- Bean soup/stew with pasta - Pasta e fagioli
- in springtime, Risi e Bisi if they have it on the menu (rice and fresh peas in broth - a Venetian classic primi)

Secondi

- Tuscan steak (they are very proud of that Bistecca alla Fiorentina, generally grilled on a wood fire with lauro or rosemary - rare is best)
- Venetian-style liver (fegato)
- Brasato - Braciole (stewed beef)
- Veal with tuna sauce (vitello tonnato)
- Ossobuco
- Cinghiale (wild boar) - however they make it is great
- Fish and seafood. Easy to forget that Florence, for example, was a major seaport before the Arno silted up. So was Pisa. (One way Florence became wealthy in the Renaissance was by importing shiploads of wool from Britain and turning it into nice stuff. Also, from being a financial center, of course.)

Another tip: Order one antipasto, one primi, and one secondi - and share them. That's really all you need. They are used to people doing that these days. They understand "to share."

Another: If you want a vegetable or green, like spinach with garlic or asparagus, or a salad, it's a separate order as a side dish. In Italy, a secondi is never contaminated with random vegetables on the plate. Except, sometimes, roast potato. You are supposed to savor just one taste at a time.

Another: Barbera is the local and popular table wine up there. Cheap and pretty good.

Feel free to add your northern Italian favorites in the comments -

Here's our game menu for this year's dinner for 24-28 friends that I and two of my buddies put together every March (we guys do all the cooking). We try to vary the menu each year.

We'll have fires in the fireplaces, and Mrs. BD will do the flowers. I think we'll do two tables for 12-14 this year, and, as we often do, change the place settings after the main course to mix things up.

Hors d'oevres: Smoked pheasant, wild venison filet on crouton with horseradish sauce, maybe something else too

Main buffet: Moussaka made with Oryx (yeah, my buddy shot an Oryx and has a freezer-full, and we are certain nobody here has ever had Oryx Moussaka), wild venison Bourguignon with noodles, rare sauteed Mallard breast with olive and cherry tomato gibier sauce on wild rice.

Dessert: Our traditional Apple Crisp with vanilla ice cream

After-dessert Cheese boards:  A good assortment of France's stinkiest, unpasteurized cheeses and baguette with walnuts, dried fruit, grapes, and sliced pears.

I have some family visiting midday on Saturday en route to pay homage to a newborn member of the clan, and figured we'd provide soup and sandwiches for the crew.

Somebody happened to mention turkey-mango sandwiches to me. It's a wonder how mangos have taken over in the supermarkets in Yankeeland, for good reason (I'll give y'all my mother in law's mango salad recipe some other time.)

Here are two versions, but I suppose one can mix and match. These could either be sandwiches or roll-ups (I have come to prefer roll-ups - less messy, less bread, and you don't need to eat as much if you cut them into 3" lengths).

Thin slices of fresh mango
lettuce
slice tomato
swiss cheese or provolone
avocado slices
couple of turkey slices
mayo

or

slices of Stilton
slices of turkey
arugula
fresh mango, mango salsa or mango chutney
lemon juice

or (if one is fresh out of mango)

turkey slices
any cheese
lettuce
tomato
very thin apple slices
apple butter on one side (or prune butter. I love both of those old-timey things.)
mayo on the other side

You can't get these at Subway. OK. I am hungry now.

Looks like a good place to try:

You go to a small town in Umbria and find your way to some modest trattoria, or maybe a market with a few tables. Then lunch arrives, and the top of your head comes off. Meanwhile everybody around you has their elbows on the table and is acting like food this good is no big thing. And you say, why not? Why couldn’t we have a place just like this back home?