Employee Spotlight – Athena Hay

Mar6

March’s Employee Spotlight is a shout out to Athena Hay. Athena’s contagious smile has been welcoming our guests at EVOO for almost a year. As a host she is often the first and last person to interact with our guests, and she is exactly the type of person we want for that job: friendly, outgoing and affable. When you arrive at EVOO she may be there to greet you with her professional yet vibrant demeanor shining through, assuring you that we will take great care of you.

As usual Steve Kurland our General Manager and business partner, took on the task of presenting this month’s employee spotlight, Athena Hay, with questions. Read on and get to know her a little better.

How long have you worked at EVOO and in which job(s)? I’ve worked at EVOO as a nighttime host for about a year or so.

What’s your favorite food item on our current menu? Current favorite is the Beef Tartare, but the Chinese Box is still my go-to item.

What have you enjoyed about working at EVOO? Often when beginning a new job and learning about the “behind the scenes” work, the magic of a place can be lost. But, what I loved about EVOO is that the magic just grew. Learning how much EVOO takes to heart the mission to be environmentally conscious and support and serve local. And, the actions taken that not all patrons might first notice, like how we reuse all our plate liners and how the server notepads are made from our re-purposed menus. Or how we grow our own herbs and little tomatoes right on the roof of our building!

What are you watching on TV these days? Planet Earth II on Netflix is a must see if you haven’t watched it yet!

Do you have any pets? I do not unfortunately! I do try to keep animals in my life as much as possible however. When I’m not working at EVOO, I have an independent dog boarding and walking job so it is not uncommon to see me walking around town with a posse of pups!

Where did you attend college? What was your favorite class? I attended Massachusetts College of Art and Design where I graduated with a BFA in Architecture. I loved all my design studios but it was also great to step out of my comfort zone with classes like Introduction to Jewelry Metal smithing.

What is the last show you attended? Last show I attended was a jazz show at the Beat Brasserie in Harvard Square.

Where did you grow up? How did you end up in the Boston area? I am from the suburbs of Boston and first moved into the city for school, Boston is definitely my hometown!

What is your dream job (other than EVOO)? Researching and designing public outdoor communal spaces is what excites me most in design so my dream job would be working with a like-minded, passionate team designing for a future communities.

In 1982, at least 15 years before she was born The Who wrote a song about her.

What’s Cooking: Keeping it local in January

Jan22

Okay so it’s late January and nothing is growing in the fields of New England. What does a restaurant that prides itself on really being farm-to-table do to maintain a menu that is true to their ideals during a long cold winter?

Local cellared roots

Well, fortunately for us more and more local farms either have, and are now using or they have installed root cellars. These farms are able to supply us with all the root vegetables, winter squashes and cabbages we need. Great local carrots, beets, turnips, parsnips, radishes, kohlrabi and potatoes are easy to come by. Many farms also have have heated greenhouses that provide us with lettuce, arugula, spinach, pea greens and even some herbs. Getting local sustainable livestock is not a problem, all of the land-based proteins used at EVOO year round are from independent small family-owned farms.

A greenhouse at Red Fire farm in Granby, Ma

However, the most important thing we do is plan for it. Throughout the local growing season starting in the late spring and finishing well after the hard frost we pickle, can, preserve, dehydrate and freeze. This is a lot of work and it comes at great expense to us. But, we made a commitment to ourselves and our community, to be as local and sustainable as possible.

Some of the items we pickled this year include: asparagus, rhubarb, fiddlehead ferns, garlic scapes, cucumbers, onions, garlic, okra, beets, green beans, peppers, jalapenos, cauliflower and green tomatoes. Some of the pickles are sweet, some are dill and some are fermented. Many pickles are canned in glass mason jars, while others are in big buckets finding their way to the inner depths of our walk-in refrigerators.

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We make gallons upon gallons of apple butter, which we use in our apple crisp at EVOO, on a winter squash pizza at Za and whatever other way(s) we can come up with. Big vats of jalapeno and habanero hot sauces are made, processed and put-up. Many flats of local berries and grapes, at the peak of their ripeness are made into jellies and jams, and we canned more cherries than anyone would ever want to pit.

a stash of local goodies

pickles stored in our dining room

Some backroom storage

Pickles and Jam

Bread ‘n’ Butter Pickles and Pickled Cauliflower

We oven-dry and vacuum seal cases of plum tomatoes, so that in the dead of winter we are still able to have local tomatoes on our menu.

Plum tomatoes starting to dry

The finished product, vacuum sealed with EVOO

We shuck, vacuum seal and freeze bushels of corn. We had local corn salsa on our menu last week with a pastured MA beef empanada.

Kohlrabi Kimchi

We also make buckets of kimchi, some using the traditional napa cabbage, while others are made with kohlrabi and still others are with zucchini or butternut squash.

Dried mint and basil from our Rooftop garden

Dried chives from our Rooftop Garden

Our rooftop garden often provides us with more herbs than we can use, so we dry them for use in the winter months.

Aleppo style peppers before they are dried

Dried cayenne peppers

We dry and grind locally grown chile peppers, using them wherever a little bit of heat is needed.

Running a sustainable restaurant in Massachusetts has its challenges and we have been taking them head-on for years. During our 20 year tenure it has gotten a whole lot easier, the local movement has helped us immensely. Farmers who used to look at winter as a time for a short break and planning for the upcoming season are now figuring out ways to grow, store and sell more to restaurants and at winter farmers markets. We have also learned how to plan better for the winter, making sure we take the time to preserve our short growing season’s bounty for use throughout the whole year.

If you’re into root vegetables, pickles, preserves and greenhouse greens, come on in and see how we are serving them, at the same time you will be supporting us and your local farming community.

A link to our menu:

http://evoorestaurant.com/#menu

Employee Spotlight – Alex gladwell

Dec12

Each Month we are going to spotlight one of our employees. I hope these segments show what a wonderfully diverse workplace we have at EVOO. This month being the first in the series we choose Alex Gladwell to be our first victim. Alex is one of our long-term EVOO employees who has worked as a server, bartender and a supervisor. I also keep trying to get her to work in the kitchen as well; I think she has the right temperament and work ethic to be a very good cook.

Alex working a recent shift at the bar

Steve Kurland, EVOO’s general manager and business partner, put some questions to Alex, here are her responses-

EVOO’s Employee Spotlight Questions

How long have you worked at EVOO and in which jobs?

I have worked at EVOO since 2013, as server, supervisor, and bartender.

What’s your favorite food item on the menu?

The beef tenderloin and, when in season, the bluefish.

What’s your favorite drink that we serve?

Catcher in the Rye! (Old Overholt Rye, St Elder – Elderberry Liquor, Lemon Juice, Cava)

What’s your favorite app?

Oh man, this is a tough one. Think it’d have to be the Country Pate. That, and the rabbit confit salad. And all things charcuterie.

What’s the last book you read?

“Bad Feminist” by Roxane Gay. And I just picked up Barbara Lynch’s “A life of Playing with Fire”. Both books by strong, inspirational women.

What’s your favorite music?

Can’t really choose a favorite, per say. Love jazz, R&B, folk, old school country, hip hop. I would say most genres, except for maybe heavy metal and techno—not so much my jam.

Do you have a pet?

No.

What do you do on your time off?

I love to hike, hang with friends/family, and travel as much as possible. This year I was fortunate to travel to Cuba as well as New Orleans. Hoping 2018 also consists of some adventure, as I’m hopeful it will.

What was your first car?

Mazda 626

Now that you have gotten to know Alex a little bit better, if there are any other employees that you would like us to spotlight, as well as questions you would like us to ask, just add comments to this blog.

Mason Jars

Nov27

During the local growing season we fill a great quantity of Mason jars. In an effort to prolong the local growing season, we pickle, can and preserve a variety of local ingredients; keeping us stocked-up with locally grown produce through New England’s long winter. We make sweet pickles, dill pickles, pickled cauliflower, pickled peppers, pickled onions, pickled garlic, pickled okra, pickled rhubarb, pickled fiddlehead ferns, pickled ramps and pickled scapes. In addition to all of the pickles we make a variety fruit jams, this year we made grape jelly, raspberry jam, strawberry jam and plum jam. We also canned cherries soaked in spiced red wine, and we finish our canning season with many jars of apple butter. Having all of these pickles and preserves available to us allows us to add locally grown sweet, spicy, acidic and interesting flavors to our menu. Making all of the pickles and preserves is no small feat, many man (or woman) hours are used every week to stock up our inventory.

Bread ‘n’ Butter Pickles and Pickled Cauliflower

Concord Grape Jelly

Pickles and Jam

At the end of September when habanero pepper season is in full swing, and carrots, onions, garlic and tomatoes are all still readily available, we make enough hot sauce to last us the entire year; this year we made 15 gallons. We use the hot sauce in our habanero coleslaw, it often finds it’s way into hollandaise, tartar sauce and wherever we need to add some heat.

Habanero Hot Sauce

Our most popular and most utilized Mason jar fodder is jalapenos. We fill more than 200 quart sized Mason jars with our sweet – spicy pickled jalapenos. During the local growing season, which runs from July through first frost, Kimball Fruit Farm in Pepperell, MA, supplies us with a bushel or two each week. Fredy, our prep cook extraordinaire slices the peppers, rinses them with cold water to remove excess seeds; which contributes to the spicy heat, and then he prepares the brine. He sterilizes the jars, fills them with the rinsed peppers and hot brine and finally he processes them in a hot water bath. We set them up in hopes that we have produced enough for the full year, until we can make more. I don’t want to run out of these peppers they are too popular. At every family or friend gathering I get hounded for these peppers. I make sure a bring several jars with me to keep everyone from twitching. I get it, I personally go through three to four Mason Jar quarts a year. They are really that good.

Fredy pickling jalapenos

Filling the jars with hot brine before processing them.

The finished product

At EVOO we always have our pickled jalapenos on our lunch menu, served on our chicken sausage sandwich. At Za our sister we use them as a pizza topping and in as an ingredient in our avocado salad. Any recipe that I write that calls for jalapenos we use our home made pickles. Just like any of the other pickles you find on our menu they are all made in house, with recipes that we have spent a long time perfecting. We never use store bought pickles.

Chicken Sausage Sandwich with Pickled Jalapenos, VT Cheddar and Knee Slapping Good Barbecue Sauce

One of Za’s Pizza’s topped with our pickled jalapenos.

Seasonal Fruit Crisp

Nov6

Blackberry - nectarine crisp with corn crisp

Blackberry – Nectarine Crisp with Sweet Corn Ice Cream

At EVOO we almost always have a fruit crisp on our menu. Starting in the spring with raspberries usually paired with rhubarb, moving into strawberries, blackberries, cultivated blueberries and then my favorite wild blueberries. Peaches and nectarines are often in the summer mix of crisps sometimes mixed with berries and at times mixed with basil from our rooftop garden. Going into autumn we like to make pear filled crisps, some years it’s just pears flavored with a little brandy, as is on our current menu; recipe is below. Other years we pair the pears with dry fruit such as raisins, currants and / or dry cranberries. Later into the fall and through the winter we are able to get apples cellared at local farms for use in our apple crisp.

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The recipes for all of the crisps are quite similar; fruit mixed with some sugar and flavors topped with an oatmeal – nut topping, baked and served with our in-house made ice cream. The ice cream flavors depend on which fruit is filling the crisp. The berry and stone fruit crisps often get creamy, yet mild flavored ice creams such as vanilla, sour cream, buttermilk or even sweet corn. The pear crisp that is on our current menu is topped with ginger – brown sugar ice cream and our apple crisp is almost always paired with salted caramel ice cream.

Pear Crisp with Ginger – Brown Sugar Ice Cream

EVOO’s Pear Crisp

Ingredients:

Topping:

¾ cup Granulated Sugar

¾ cup Light Brown Sugar

¾ lb ½” cubed Butter

1½ ts Vanilla Extract

1½ ts ground Cinnamon

½ ts Kosher Salt

3 cups All Purpose flour

¾ cups Rolled Oats

1½ cups toasted slivered Almonds

Filling:

5 cups peeled, cored, large diced Pears

1 TB Brandy

2 TB Lemon Juice

1 ts Vanilla Extract

1 ts Ground Cinnamon

1 ts fresh ground Nutmeg

1/3 cup Granulated Sugar

1/2 ts Kosher Salt

3 TB Corn Starch

1/8^th lb 1/4″ diced Butter

Method:

Topping:

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment combine the sugar, brown sugar, butter, vanilla extract, cinnamon and salt until smooth and creamy. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until just combined.

Filling:

In a large bowl combine all of the ingredients.

Baking:

Pre-heat oven to 310 degrees. Fill individual portion sized ceramic ramekins with the filling. Place filled ramekins on a sheet pan. Top each ramekin with 1/3 cup of topping. Bake for 25 minutes. Top each crisp with an additional 3TB of topping and bake for an additional 25 minutes. The filling should be bubbling over the sides and the topping nicely browned. Let cool a bit and serve with ice cream.

Peaches, peaches and more peaches

Sep9

I love peaches. They are another one of the many locally grown crops, such as tomatoes, apples, berries and corn that we look forward to cooking and eating every year. This peach season is extra special because due to a winter thaw that tricked the peach trees into budding early, followed by a deep freeze that eliminated the buds and ultimately peaches in New England last season. Fortunately, peaches are plentiful this year and we are celebrating by incorporating them all over our menu.

You can click on the following URL to read an article from the Boston Globe to get a more detailed account of last years peach pounding.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/05/14/after-sad-summer-peaches-new-england-could-see-bumper-crop-this-year/nKxSdZ7cap4kEgXNPGilJN/story.html

Peach-Bacon Panini

Za’s Peach Pizza

Some of this season peach menu items are; a smoky, slightly spicy and cool Chipotle laced Peach Gazpacho (recipe follows) is on both our lunch and dinner menus. Peach, Bacon and Cheddar Panini is on our lunch menu. We are making a Peach-Basil Relish that we serve with smoked bluefish. Peach-Blueberry Crisp (recipe follows) with our homemade sour cream ice cream is on our dessert menu; as are White Wine Poached Peaches that we are serving with an almond financier. We are also in the process of making Peach Butter and habanero laced Peach Hot Sauce, which we will preserve in Mason jars for use during the winter months. I don’t want to leave out that we serving a Peach-Goat Cheese Pizza at our sister restaurant Za. And, I can’t forget about our bar where our bartenders are are creating mixed drinks and Sangria with summer’s golden fruit.

Chipotle laced peach gazpacho

EVOO’s Chipotle Laced Peach Gazpacho

Soup Base Ingredients:

1½ qts large diced Peaches

¾ cup Orange Juice

1 TB Lime Juice

1 TB Rice Vinegar

1/3 cup Water

1½ TB Honey

2 TB EVOO

1 ts minced Chipotle Chilies

1 ts Kosher Salt

½ ts fresh ground Black Pepper

Garnish Ingredients:

½ cup medium diced Peaches

½ cup medium diced seeded Cucumbers

¼ cup toasted slivered Almonds

2 TB small diced Red Onion

1 TB fresh chopped Cilantro

3 TB EVOO

Method:

In a tall thin non-reactive container combine the soup base ingredients. Using an immersion blender puree until smooth. strain through a fine mesh strainer. Chill.

Just before serving, in a separate bowl, combine all garnish ingredients. Ladle soup base into chilled bowls, spoon generous amounts of garnish into the center of each dish. Serve.

Peach – Blueberry Crisp

Peach-Blueberry Crisp

Ingredients:

Topping:

¾ cup Sugar

¾ cup Light Brown Sugar

¾ lb 1/2″ cubed Butter

1½ ts Vanilla Extract

1 ts ground Cinnamon

½ ts Kosher Salt

3 cups All Purpose flour

1 cup Rolled Oats

1½ cups toasted slivered Almonds

Filling:

5 cups large diced Peaches

3 cups Blueberries

3 TB Lemon Juice

2 TB Brandy

1/2 ts Kosher Salt

1 cups Sugar

¼ cup Corn Starch

¼ lb 1/4″ diced Butter

1 ea Zest from Lemon

Method:

Topping:

In a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment combine the sugar, brown sugar, butter, vanilla extract, cinnamon and salt until smooth and creamy. Add the remaining ingredient and mix until just combined.

Filling:

In a large bowl combine all of the ingredients.

Baking:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Place the filling into a 9 inch X 13 inch baking pan. Evenly spread two-thirds of the topping on top of the filling and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the crisp from the oven and evenly spread the remaining third of the topping over the top and then bake for an additional 20 – 30 minutes, until the filling is bubbling around the edges and the topping is nicely browned. Remove the crisp from the oven and let it rest for 20 minutes before enjoying.

Local Strawberries

Jul2

Strawberries from Kimball Farm in Pepperell, MA

I think of Strawberries in the same I think of tomatoes. The best of the best are grown locally, here in New England. At some point in June every year we start with berries from Connecticut, then Massachusetts working there way through New England, ending once we see berries coming from Quebec. Though the Quebecois berries are still quite good they no longer fit our standard of serving locally grown ingredients. Just like tomatoes, at EVOO we only serve strawberries when they are in season locally. Like tomatoes most of the strawberries you find in the grocery store are crap. Like tomatoes they are grown in chemical laden soil, picked unripe, so they will travel better, they ripen, well turn red anyway, during transport. Not ripening on the vine they do not have a chance to develop any flavor. Buy local berries in season directly from your local farms. Enjoy the treat, overindulge on them for a short period of time each year, it will make Strawberry season as special as it should be.

A couple of weeks ago we received our first case of Connecticut berries. I was excited to see them available, I put them on our menu in a strawberry – rhubarb crisp. The next day I ordered more and California berries were delivered instead. More crisps were made using the California berries before any of the chefs noticed (including me). The difference was astounding, the California berries were awful. They lacked any real flavor, they had a tart-mineraly flavor not at all reminiscent of a real strawberry. They were red on the outside and Styrofoam white on the inside, unlike the local berries which are red all the way through. When the crisps were cooked, the liquid that oozes over the top of and down the sides of the baking dishes, which is usually bright red was more of a caramelized dirt pink color, not at all appetizing. Needless to say, we did not serve these substandard crisps to our guests.

Strawberry – Rhubarb Crisp

Now the local strawberry season is going strong we are using them in the previously mentioned crisp as well as a strawberry gazpacho (recipe below) a nicely seasoned chilled soup which receives rave reviews every year. At both Za locations we are offering a Strawberry – Arugula Salad. Support your community by eating locally.

EVOO’s Strawberry Gazpacho

At EVOO we garnish the gazpacho with diced strawberries, seedless cucumbers, cilantro, red onion, EVOO and toasted almonds.

Ingredients:

3 qts halved Strawberries

1½ cups Orange Juice

2 TB Lime Juice

2 TB Rice Vinegar

1 cup Water

3 TB Agave Nectar / Honey

¼ cup EVOO

1 ts Tabasco

2 ts Kosher Salt

1 ts Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Method:

Puree all ingredients together. Strain if desired.

Death of a pig (part 10)

May12

The head cheese is all gone. We served it at our bar, on our homemade charcuterie menu, as is, just a few slices in a board with some of our homemade bread.

We also cut it into bigger chunks, breaded and deep fried it, serving it with some of last summer’s raspberry jam, pickled green tomatoes and a butter basted egg.

Now that it is gone we have moved on to rillettes. A traditional french preparation of cooking meat, usually pork, very slowly in fat until the meat is so tender that it shreds apart. Its then chilled enough for the fat to congeal and form a paste. Typically it’s served at room temperature with grilled or toasted bread.

We are serving the rillettes of Hoosier with pickled green beans, which we pickled last fall, first of the season chives from our rooftop garden, prunes we soaked in lots of booze with some sugar and grilled bread.

We are scraping the bottom of Hoosier’s barrel; all that remains is some smoked skin and bones, which we will soon use.

Death of a pig, (part 9) Head Cheese

Apr14

Nearly 4 months after he was delivered to us Hoosier’s hoof-prints are still making big imprints on our menus. We are using the leaf fat for the biscuits being serving with fried chicken on our lunch menu. His jowls, that we cured to make guanciale are being served with a locally produced Buratta cheese.

Peppered Coppa

On our Charcuterie Chalkboard we are still featuring spiced coppa, his back fat is in our kielbasa and chicken sausage, and the fat from the hams we smoked are being used to make ham fat – potato croquettes. The remaining freezer fodder includes some smoked skin and bones, a fair amount of back fat and a few pounds of meat that will end up as sausage, rillettes or even braised.

Beyond all that, I just made a non-traditional head cheese, inspired by the head cheese I had at Cochon a great restaurant in New Orleans. A few winters back Colleen and I happened by, walking for miles, as we do every time we visit an unfamiliar city. I had heard of Cochon and since it was about time for a refreshment break, mid-afternoon, we sat outside in the hot February sun, we ordered up some drinks and one of their house-made charcuterie platters. All of the charcuterie was good, but the head cheese was memorable. It changed the way I have approached making it ever since.

Typical Supermarket Head Cheese

Typically it’s the bits of the head; the tongue, ears, cheeks, skin and fat separated by overly gelatinous substance, resulting in a barely palatable concoction. It’s like eating a salty version of that Jello-canned fruit crap my mother would make for us back in the seventies.

At Cochon it appeared as though they pureed together some of the head fat with some reduced braising liquid from cooking the head and then folded in the other bits before pouring in all into a terrine to be chilled.

I made it like that a few times with great results, it really is so much better than the traditional version.

EVOO’s Head Cheese

I decided to take it one step further and smoke the head before braising it, wow, head cheese went from barely palatable to really good to I want some now! The smoked version is by far the best; sweet, smoky, salty and super rich. We currently have it on our charcuterie chalkboard, as is, sliced on a board. On EVOO’s dinner menu we have made a croquette out of it, breading and deep frying a thick slice, serving it with last summer’s raspberry jam, pickled green tomatoes, scallion – green peppercorn sour cream and a butter basted egg.

Head Cheese Croquette

We’ll see if Hoosier offers up any other delicacies worthy of another post. He has had an amazing run on our menu, we greatly appreciate all that he has given us.

It’s Not Spring Yet!

Apr6

From 4 days ago.

I know the calendar tells us spring has sprung, however, local ingredients are still telling us it’s late winter. Right now, April 5, locally it’s still all about cellared root vegetables, cabbage and greenhouse greens.

Don’t let those restaurant menus filled with fiddlehead ferns, asparagus, ramps and peas fool you, none of it is local. With the big snowfall last week and still chilly temperatures, it seems as though spring will be running a bit late this year. Fiddleheads and ramps are still weeks away, asparagus a month maybe more, and peas closer to two months. Every year is different and as soon as the real local spring ingredients are available our what-are-we-going-to-make-with-this-root-this-time anxiety is lifted, and the real local spring ingredients are plastered on our menu.

The first signs of spring are happening in our rooftop garden, the chives are about an inch out of the ground. That’s it, the weeds haven’t even started yet.

Making Agnolotti

The first food harbinger of spring is usually spring-dug parsnips, this root, wintered in frozen soil, turning the starches into sugars. What you end up with is an amazingly sweet full-flavored parsnip. We received our first batch this week from Hutchin’s Farm, an organic farm located in Concord, MA. We currently have them on our menu stuffed inside agnolotti pasta, fried chips at we are serving on a beef heart dish, and in a cake as a dessert served with smoked maple ice cream. They are also roasted or pureed and make a great sweet or savory custard.

Spring-dug Parsnip Cake with Smoked Maple Ice Cream

The recipe I am including for parsnip cake is really just an adaption of a traditional carrot cake, substituting parsnips for carrots. I came up with this recipe when a writer from the Boston Globe asked me for an original recipe using parsnips. At the time I had know idea how this would come out, knowing I just wanted to have a recipe included in her article. I can’t say I was surprised with the results, they’re great, especially when using super sweet spring-dug parsnips. As with carrot cake the better the carrot / parsnip tastes the better the cake will be.

Click Parsnip Cake for a link to the recipe.

EVOO Restaurant

A restaurant committed to using local, quality ingredients and supporting the community.

Tag Archives: farms

Employee Spotlight – Athena Hay

What’s Cooking: Keeping it local in January

Employee Spotlight – Alex gladwell

Mason Jars

Seasonal Fruit Crisp

Peaches, peaches and more peaches

EVOO’s Chipotle Laced Peach Gazpacho

Peach-Blueberry Crisp

Local Strawberries

EVOO’s Strawberry Gazpacho

Ingredients:

Method:

Death of a pig (part 10)

Death of a pig, (part 9) Head Cheese

It’s Not Spring Yet!