One of the added benefits from all of the preserving we do at EVOO is we have these great locally sourced in-house-made flavor bombs that we can add to our cocktails. Our specialty drinks are often flavored with things like apple butter, peach butter, berry jams, preserved cherries and pickles, which we use to flavor a multitude of our specialty drinks. The most popular of these drinks is our Jalapeno Margarita, made simply with just the finest ingredients: Jalapeno Tequila, fresh squeezed lime juice, agave nectar and EVOO’s sweet pickled jalapenos all shaken together with some ice and then strained into a salted rimmed cocktail glass.
EVOO’s Jalapeno Margarita:
2.5 ounces Tanteo Jalapeno Tequila
1.5 ounces fresh squeezed Lime Juice
.5 ounces Light Agave Nectar
4 each slices of EVOO’s sweet Pickled Jalapenos, plus 1/2 ts of the Jalapeno Pickle Brine
Shake well with ice, strain into a salted rim cocktail glass, garnish with a few additional slices of jalapenos.
note: most likely you won’t have a jar of EVOO’s jalapenos in your cupboard. You can substitute your favorite brand; most brands are not sweet, just add an extra squirt of agave nectar if desired.
As many of you know Za is EVOO’s sister restaurant with two locations, one in Kendall Square, Cambridge, abutting EVOO and the original Za is on Massachusetts Avenue in Arlington. When the timing is not right for you to dine at either restaurant, you can still enjoy ‘za on your own schedule. Below is the best way I have found for finish cooking or re-heating ‘za. So, if you are not sure what time you want to eat, but you know you want ‘za, don’t serve it soggy and cold. Follow these simple instructions to eat crispy crusted hot pizza whenever you want with little effort.
The first thing you need to do is order a stack of za from either location. They are 10″ pizzas that will serve one hardy appetite or two can share one za paired with one of Za’s amazing salads. Order a bunch and finish cooking on your time. I tend to order them early in the day, asking for them to be 1/2 cooked, not cut and refrigerated until pick-up. There is no need to take them home hot. When I get home I refrigerate the pizzas until I’m ready, whether it’s a few hours or a few days it doesn’t matter.
When it’s time, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Once your oven reaches 375, place a heavy duty cookie sheet on the middle rack in your oven and heat the cookie sheet for 5 minutes, this will ensure a crisp bottom. If you have multiple racks and multiple sheet pans you can finish cooking several pizzas at a time, however, be careful the temperature on the bottom and top racks can vary greatly from the middle one.
Now add your pizza, I have found it takes between 8 and 12 minutes to get the crust crispy and the cheese to gooey. Use a burger flipping spatula lifting the ‘za in the middle. The sides of the ‘za not being held by the spatula should not droop, the topping should be hot and bubbling in spots. Remove the Za from the oven place on a big cutting board, cut into eight equal sized pieces and serve.
Step 1: Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
Step 2: When oven reaches 375, place sheet pan on the middle rack in the oven for an additional 5 minutes.
Step 3: Place ‘za on hot sheet pan.
Step 4: Look at doneness, brown edges, bubbly cheese.
Step 5: Check bottom, za is nicely browned and not droopy.
We are proudly baking pies for the twentieth consecutive year in support of Community Servings’ annual fund raiser Pie in the Sky. Every year since EVOO opened in 1998, we bake 25 to 30 pies, for pick-up a couple of days before Thanksgiving. Many of the areas best restaurants, bakeries and caterers bake a total of 2500 pies to support Community Servings.
Fredy getting ready to par-bake some of the pie shells
Each pie costs $30, which provides a week’s worth of nutritious home-delivered meals to a Community Servings’ client and a tasty Thanksgiving treat to the buyer.
Find your favorite pie shell recipe make and pre-bake it. Evenly spread the brown sugar inside the pie shell.
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Bake the sweet potatoes until cooked, while they are still hot, scoop out the pulp, measure out 2 packed cups. Place the sweet potato pulp in the bowl of a food processor and add the butter, pulse until butter is melted and sweet potatoes are a smooth puree. Add the remaining ingredients, pulse until smooth. Pour the sweet potato mixture into the prepared pie shell. Bake until set 45 minutes – 1 hour, until set.
Cool at room temperature for 2 hours and serve with top quality apple butter and lots of whipped cream.
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
1/8th 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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
EVOO Restaurant 