The Dish

Every neighborhood needs a place like Dish. Let's face it, good takeout is tough to find and Dish does it right. But Dish is no lowly takeout joint, A tiny storefront on Detroit's east side, it specializes in fresh, healthy, made-from-scratch cuisine, with real, unprocessed ingredients. You can get soups, salads, sandwiches, desserts or a three-course gourmet meal. Above, see the Muffaletta, white bean salad and Caesar salad.

Chef and owner Paul Sulek is a CIA graduate and has made the rounds at some of the country's finest, ranging from The Mansion On Turtle Creek in Dallas, The Whitney and The Country Club of Detroit. His wife Peg co-owns the business with him, and they create the menus together. 

These folks clearly know their stuff, and in addition to their scrumptious menus, their website offers loads of links to food-related books, movies, music, blogs, tips and local purveyors.

Ideally, we'd all cook beautiful meals every night, but sometimes it just isn't gonna happen. Whether you're busy, tired, lazy or just don't feel like cooking, places like Dish offer people a delicious answer to the what's-for-dinner question. It's fantastic that a chef of this caliber is bringing real-food solutions to our busy world. 

Weeknight Salmon

Can I just state for the record, right here, how much I love salmon? It's delicious, healthy and versatile and you can dress it up for an elegant meal or keep it simple for a weeknight supper.

Today, we're sticking with the weeknight plan. Season a couple of filets with salt and pepper, a tiny drizzle of olive oil and grill for 4-5 minutes per side. Whip up a topper of greek yogurt (feel free to sub mayo, sour cream or creme fraiche, Dijon mustard, salt, pepper and a bit more good olive oil.

Steam some broccoli or veggie of choice, season and sprinkle some good parmesan on top. Feel free to add a starch, a salad, whatever you like. Dinner is served.

Forest Grill

Tonight we continued Wes' birthday celebration with dinner at the award-winning Forest Grill in Birmingham. Owner/Chef Polcyn has long championed high quality local ingredients and traditional techniques and this American bistro follows suit.

We started our extraordinary meal with a glass of Prosecco paired with two perfect appetizers: summer crab and melon salad with a crenshaw melon consommé; and an English pea risotto, with arborio rice, mascarpone cheese, black truffles, truffle oil, Parmigianno-Reggiano, fresh herbs gremolata and pancetta.

The crab salad, seasoned with chives and lemon and topped with arugula, frisee, and avocado, was light, zesty and refreshing. The cool melon consommé mingled with the crab to balance and tame the peppery notes.  In contrast, the creamy, intensely flavored risotto, speckled with crispy, salty housemade pancetta, offered substance and silky richness. 

In short, this is how I want to remember summer during the bleak snowfalls of January.

We followed with veal cheeks, Parisian herb and ricotta gnocchi, wilted spinach, tomato and Parmigianno-Reggiano. The chef braises the meltingly tender veal cheeks in a demi-glace and port for eight hours, then surrounds them with the plump, pillowy dumplings. The dish is rich, hearty, slightly sweet, but never heavy. Heavenly.

We also savored the bouillabaisse with mussels, clams, lobster, scallops, shrimp and crab in a rich, flavorful tomato broth, with crunchy baguette topped with saffron rouille.

Our fine server Joseph presented proper wine pairings for both entrees: 2006 Morgan Winery Double L Vineyard Chardonnay from Santa Lucia Highlands and a 2006 Clos La Coutale Malbac.

The highly talented and credentialed Executive Chef David Gilbert has made the requisite rounds: Thomas Keller's French Laundry in the vaunted Yountville, Calif., as well as various three-star Michelin rated restaurants in Paris and Spain.

Nearly 10 years ago, author Michael Ruhlman featured Polcyn in his excellent book, The Soul of a Chef: The Journey Toward Perfection. The two also collaborated on the James Beard Award-nominated Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing.

While Forest Grill is an exceptional spot for a celebration meal, you can go casual here, too, with soups, clay-oven baked pizzas or the charcuterie de jour. Mindful of the economy, the restaurant now offers prix fixe three-course lunch ($15) and dinner ($30) menus. However you choose to do it, just get there and enjoy.

Pasta with Filet Mignon

My husband Wes' birthday is tomorrow, but since we found ourselves with no plans this evening, we decided to start the party early with a lovely home cooked meal: pasta with filet mignon. A true celebration meal.

First, we seasoned a single beautiful filet with salt and pepper and let it come to room temperature -- very important when searing meat. Four minutes per side in our trusty Le Creuset cast iron grill pan, then let it rest for at least 10 minutes. Some seasoned cooks will sneer at our choice of filet, but we deliberately chose the milder flavor and wanted to keep the calorie/fat content somewhat in check.

Meantime, we sauteed a huge shallot and two cloves of garlic in olive oil until lightly caramelized in a big skillet while the pasta cooked in salted boiling water. We drained the pasta and added it to the pan so it could mingle with the shallot mixture. Then we added a big splash of good red wine, another big splash of beef stock and a few spoonfuls of the pasta water (an excellent technique for pastas). 

We sliced the filet thinly while the wine reduced, and added it to the pan. Threw in a knob of butter to melt (hey, it's a celebration meal). A few fresh basil leaves from the garden. Done.

We shared this meal outside in a cool summer night with an gorgeous bottle of Brunello di Montalcino. Amazing meal, amazing wine, amazing husband. What could be better?

  

Guest Post at Eat, Live, Travel, Write

I'm excited to report that I've written a guest blog post that's now up on Eat, Live, Travel, Write. So, please take a moment to look at her fine blog and feel free to comment, if you'd like. Topic is my recent meal at Michael Symon's fabulous Roast in downtown Detroit.

Thanks for the opportunity, Mardi!

Dispatch from Barcelona

My husband Wes is the executive editor of AutoWeek magazine, and his work takes him across the globe. He's had the good fortune to eat in hundreds of fine restaurants, and today he contributes this guest post to Fresh Eats. Watch for his guest post from Scotland.

At ABaC, Barcelona's only two-star Michelin restaurant, I had the chance to enjoy the work of chef and molecular gastronomer Xavier Pellicer. Pellicer chose cooking as his trade when he was just 13, having grown up around fine food and wine -- how could he not with a Catalan father and French mother?

Pellicer moved among Europe's Michelin-starred restaurants, arriving at ABaC in 1999.

ABaC is located in a refurbished mansion that had been privately owned and also was once the U.S. consulate. There are two dining rooms, one large and one small, both decorated in what I'll call modern Spanish: Creams and whites and indirect lighting and elegant, neutral shades. 

The kitchen wherein Pellicer works his magic is actually an ancient theater where the original families who owned the mansion staged plays.

Our meal was simple, elegant and delicious. Pellicer started us with a beautifully plated dish of prawns, watercress and artichoke. Next we moved on to grouper in a warm, nutty, almond emulsion. As a seafood lover I was in heaven: The prawns and grouper struck the perfect balance between clean fish flavor without being too fishy, one of my seafood pet peeves.

Next, the main dish, a Barcelona specialty, Iberian suckling pig. It was sublime, with a crispy skin and, once we cut into it, succulent juicy meat, flavored to perfection.   

The entire meal was served on gorgeous Versace china, of course. It was an experience I won't soon forget.

Back to the Basics

          

This blog is in a temporary state of minimalism, and that can be a good thing. After all, Mark Bittman, New York Times columnist/Bitten blogger/author has made a career of editing meals down to essential ingredients and seasonings.

Case in point: Bittman's piece in Wednesday's NYT food section, 101 Simple Salads for the Season, ranks #2 on the website's most-clicked list four days later. You can feed yourself for an entire summer with these super simple "recipes," while taking advantage of the abundance of local, seasonal produce. You'll see some familiar food combos, as well as some innovative pairings (tomatoes and strawberries with basil, parmesan and balsamic, anyone?)

But Bittman's legacy won't only be about getting back to the basics in the kitchen. He, along with Michael Pollan and a few others, are helping shape our values and philosophies when it comes to food, and the complicated politics surrounding the dinner table. 

Bittman's latest book, Food Matters, marked a big departure from his previous work, and in it, he shares his personal story of how he changed his approach to food, going semi-vegetarian, and why. The book has 75+ green recipes (meaning plant-based, planet-friendly meals), but also includes some meals with meat. 

If you're interested in healthy eating, feeding a family, food politics or sustainable food supplies, I encourage you to read these books. These two authors peel the layers off of these complicated subjects without resorting to activism or a militant tone. Watch for the fall release of Pollan's young readers edition of Omnivore's Dilemma. 

In the meantime, try a few of these salads and enjoy the summer!