Seta's Cafe: Market Favorite turned Restaurant

Back in 2010 I had the deliciously good fortune to discover Seta's Mediterranean Cuisine at the Copley Square Farmers Market. It happened to be her first day at the market and everything I tried was fantastic. Seta was so lovely and I had a great time talking with her (article here). Over the past three years I have enjoyed talking with Seta, tasting her carefully crafted dishes, and watching her business continue to boom. 

Just a few years after starting her prepared food business Seta has realized her next goal - a space of her own open last month! Her cheery light-filled Seta's Cafe is located on bustling Belmont Street in Belmont, MA. 

The Armenian-Mediterranean menu is framed on the wall and the counter opens to the kitchen, busy with activity. Smells of garlic and grilled meats filled the air during my early lunchtime visit and tempting treats filled the display case next to the register. 

On a recommendation from the chef herself, I opted for the grilled lamb plate ($17). Every dish is made to order and after a short wait a sizzling plate arrived with my lunch. Enough for two people, the lamb plate included two generous skewers of tender lamb, bulghur pilaf, grilled tomato, grilled onion, and piaz (parsley, onion, sumac, aleppo pepper). 

The portion was generous enough for two people. The lamb was perfectly cooked and the piaz was a perfectly complement. The combination of savory sumac with a little kick from the aleppo was the perfect complement. Even seemingly basic salad was dressed with a tangy vinaigrette that brought it to another level. The meal is served with housemade lavash to either roll the meat or sop up the vinaigrette from the plate. 

Here is a close up look at the piaz - finely chopped parsley, red onions, and delicious sumac and aleppo pepper combination.

Ordering just one thing was just too hard. For dinner I took home half the lamb plate along with a chopped salad with added falafel along with baba ganoush. 

My first trip to Seta's new place was a wonderful experience and I can't wait to get back in there to try out the rest of the menu - especially brunch. If you find yourself in the area, don't miss out on a visit to Seta's Cafe.

What’s Cooking in the Kitchen?

My cooking routine has definitely changed since adding a new little one to the household and going back to work full-time and graduate school part-time. Now that we have a little eater, meals have to be quick to prepare and appealing to both adults and kid!

Pre-baby, we rarely ate out on weeknights. I cooked 3-4 nights a week, often trying out new recipes and techniques. Sometimes dinner wasn’t ready until 7:30 or 8:00 pm but we didn’t mind. With a little one, our weeknight schedule doesn’t allow for a lot of heavy duty cooking and we don’t want to do take-out. So over the past year I’ve slowly adjusted the routine, bringing us to our current schedule:

Thursday or Friday night: Menu planning and grocery list writing.
Saturday or Sunday morning (around 8 am): Grocery shopping.
Saturday morning (10 or 11 am): Weekly family trip to the farmers market to stock up on produce and our favorite bagels, meats, cheeses, and every so often a nice bottle of wine.
Sunday afternoon: Prep for the week! Wash, chop, cook, organize.
Weeknights: Assemble, reheat and eat! Make lunches and get organized for breakfast.

I try to cook everything we need for the week on Sunday and leave only a few things to cook during the week. If I cook during the week, it is usually something that goes in after the little guy’s bedtime. Here is a look at what we’ve had cooking recently! I’m sorry I have limited pictures – these days it’s more about getting dinner on the table for these guys.

Pot Roast in Many Ways
I cook for the week, but sometimes it can get a little boring to eat the same meal over and over again. Instead of the creativity of cooking something new each night I am having fun making variations with the original dish. This pot roast kept us well fed for many nights.

Pot Roast Take #1: Slow Cooker Top Round Roast with Vegetables
3ish pounds Top Round Roast – From Charlton Orchards (Wayland Winter Farmers Market)
16 oz sliced mushrooms
3-4 carrots, peeled and cut into 4 inch pieces (basically cutting in half)
About 10 small roasting potatoes (I used a mix of red, purple and Yukon gold)
1 medium yellow onion, quartered
1-1.5 cups water + beef base or beef broth/stock
Bay leaf
Splash of red wine
Salt

Salt the pot roast
Brown the pot roast on each side, for extra flavor (I skipped the step this time)
Add pot roast to the slow cooker and arrange vegetables around the sides of the pot roast
Add broth, wine, and bay leaf
Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours (check after 4 hours to see how tender the meat is)
Remove bay leaf and serve


Pot Roast Take #2: Pot Roast Quesadillas with Sharp Cheddar
Flour tortillas
Shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese (I use Cabot Extra Sharp or Seriously Sharp)
Leftover pot roast, carrots, and onions – chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Layout tortillas on a foil-lined baking sheet
Spread a thin layer of cheese on half of the tortilla
Top with chopped pot roast and vegetables
Sprinkle another thin layer of cheese on top of pot roast
Fold tortilla over
Bake for 5-8 minutes, until cheese is melted and tortilla is a lightly golden
Cut into wedges and serve


Pot Roast Take #3: Pot Roast Hash with Root Vegetables
Leftover pot roast, carrots, onions, and potatoes - chopped
Leftover roasted sweet potatoes and beets
Vegetable oil

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat
Add chopped pot roast and vegetables in a single layer
Cook for 5 minutes, stirring, until heated through
Press down with the back of a spatula and continue cooking for 5-10 minutes until the bottom is nice and crispy
Serve with a fried or poached egg on top – and a few splashes of your favorite hot sauce!

We served ours with scrambled eggs - I wanted to make sure the eggs were cooked through for the little guy.

What is your favorite way to repurpose food in the refrigerator? I am having a blast doing it!

Healthy Snack Wednesday: Visit the Farmers Market

Here in Massachusetts, it's farmers market season all year long. But now that it's June you can visit wonderful markets every day of the week! From downtown to MetroWest to North and South shores there are markets to explore.

Local farmers markets aren’t just for freshly harvested fruits and vegetables. Stop by any market and there will be a wide variety of vendors. There will be traditional farm stand booths with produce and farm raised products. Almost every market around the Boston area has booths with freshly made cheese and locally raised meats. In addition to the growers and farmers, there will also be food entrepreneurs with prepared salads, jams, baked goods, smoked fish, and more locally made products.

Smaht Fahm honeys and jams at the Boston University Market

Seta and her delicious prepared foods
 at the Copley Market

Now, I can't guarantee that the pastries and sweets you pick up from Danish Pastry House or Tatte Cookies and Cakes are a healthy Wednesday snack. But combined with fresh fruits, vegetables, and healthy dairy they go perfectly. I'm a believer in moderation. If you walk to the market and pick up a healthy selection of items, I see nothing wrong with an almond macaroon (just $1!) or a cinnamon brioche rose.

So check out the list of Farmers Markets in your area (http://www.localinseason.com/markets.htm\ or http://www.mass.gov/agr/massgrown/map.htm), get up from the computer and get outside! Happy healthy snacking!

When He Fends For Himself: Using the Oven

Welcome back to another addition of "When He Fends For Himself". With wifey back in school for the semester, I'm back on my own one night a week. Since she's been taking classes for a year and half, being alone one night a week is not a shock to the system. I actually planned ahead and got a package of Wild Mushroom Lasagne from Vic, The Pasta Man (Fior D'Italia Pasta and Cheese), at the Russell's Garden Center winter farmers market in Wayland, MA. I've had his ravioli before and was excited to try something else of his. Knowing that the lasagne was frozen and would take while to heat up, I didn't dilly dally when I got home. I immediately got to work.

I chose to heat up the lasagne in the oven because even though it would take longer than the microwave, I knew it would end up tasting better. This is the first time I had to do anything with the oven for "When he fends for himself" so I'll walk you through my turning on the oven routine. The first thing I do is open up the oven to make sure nothing is in it. This is a product of my childhood. When I was about 10 there was a potato in the back corner of the oven that no one noticed for about a month. Have you ever heard of twice baked potato? Try twenty times baked potato. I remember the way it looked and felt when it was finally removed and am scared to have that be repeated.

 I also, always, turn the oven to 350. Why? Because everything can cook at 350. In my vast experience, no other temperature has been needed.

I let the oven pre-heat and in the meantime placed foil in a small casserole dish and set the lasagne on top. Once the oven was at the required temperature I put in my frozen dinner and ended up checking its status about every 10 minutes.

 After 30 minutes, a quick taste test revealed a done lasagne and dinner was about to be served. Honestly, I was so excited I almost pulled out the casserole dish without using a pot holder. I plated the lasagne, took my seat in front of the couch, turned on the Bruins/Habs game, and got down to business.

The lasagne was really really good. It had great mushroom flavor, was the right serving size for a growing boy like myself, and was covered in an incredible sauce. I can't recommend Vic the pasta man enough. I know this winter he's at least at the Natick and Wayland markets.

After the successful meal I basked privately in the glory of a job well done, but then reality set in. It was less then a week until the wifey had class and I would be fending for myself again. All week the anxiety will build and the pressure will be on. Won't you join me next week to see if I can survive another night alone? With your support I can do it. Who's with me?

Until next time....

Local Luxury Dinner Party: Secondo e Contorno

This is the fourth post in the Local Luxury Dinner Party series. The party was part of the Next Food Blog Star competition hosted by Foodbuzz. While I didn't advance in the competition, the party was still fabulous!

The main course for our Local Luxury Dinner Party was inspired by the deliciously simple meal I enjoyed during restaurant week at Sportello. Barbara Lynch’s casual spot served up sirloin with local potatoes and salsa verde.

Sportello Sirloin, August 2010 Restaurant Week

I was in luck; during my shopping trip to the farmers market Stillman’s at the Turkey Farm had NY strip steak. I picked up three steaks – enough for reasonably sized portions for four diners. Atlas Farm had some freshly dug early season potatoes and hard neck garlic. The challenge prompt for the dinner party was “new and exotic tastes” which meant thinking of a unique vegetable for the side. Something green caught my eye at Atlas and I knew it fit the bill! I picked up two heads of Broccoli Romanesco and headed home with my purchases.

Fresh Romanesco at the market

Because this was the third course in the meal, I either needed to cook it all ahead of time or have it all ready to cook while we ate the first two courses. To make things easy I left the potatoes unpeeled and the garlic cloves whole. Because the romanesco looks so stunning whole, that saved some prep time too. As you could see in a photo in the previous antipasti course post, I cooked the steak on the stovetop while the first course was being enjoyed. That gave me time to let the steak rest before slicing. The romanesco steamed while we ate the ravioli. Roasting the potatoes was the easiest part of the meal! I threw the washed and halved potatoes into a baking dish along with the garlic cloves. All they needed was quick toss with olive oil and a little salt. The potatoes went into the oven when the guests arrived and were perfectly roasted when it was time to serve the main course.

To top the steak, I made lime basil butter the night before the party. I harvested the last of my lime basil, finely chopped it and mixed it with unsalted butter. This gave the steak a nice bright flavor component.

With all this photography, the camera battery died right when started this course! We plugged in the battery and switched over to the phone camera for a picture of the completed plate.

The wine paired deliciously with this course (really, the whole meal).

The course was simple, light (for steak & potatoes), and didn’t fill us up completely. Close, but we still had a little room for dessert. Stay tuned for the next post: dessert!

Lime Basil Butter
Makes enough for the meal plus plenty of extra

1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon finely chopped lime basil

Mix basil and softened butter together
Roll into a log shape
Wrap tightly in wax paper and freeze until ready to serve


Roasted Fingerling Potatoes and Garlic

2-3 pounds fingerling potatoes, washed and cut in half
2 heads of garlic, cloves removed and peeled
Kosher salt
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Place potatoes and garlic in a baking dish
Sprinkle with a generous amount of kosher salt
Pour in enough olive oil to coat potatoes and garlic and toss well
Cover and bake for 30-45 minutes


NY Strip Steak
I can’t remember exactly how I made this! Here’s a general overview.

Sprinkle the steak with kosher salt and let sit for about 15 minutes
Heat a skillet over medium-high heat
Sear steak on both sides and then reduce heat, letting steak cook to desired doneness
Remove from heat and top with slices of herb butter
Tent with foil and let rest for 10-15 minutes before slicing


Broccoli Romanesco

I steamed this in my vegetable steaming pot until just softened. I topped it with a sprinkle of kosher salt and a swirl of extra virgin olive oil.

Cheers!

Local Luxury Dinner Party: Primo

For a more traditional primo course, I decided to serve a pasta dish. The hubby loves ravioli and fall squash makes a perfect filling. I was excited to find red kuri squash at the market and planned to use that in my ravioli. Since I was challenging myself to a homemade meal, why not make the pasta dough from scratch? Sure, I’ve never done it before, but what could go wrong? Let’s just say, it was a nice luxury to have three other courses to count on just in case.

I did some cookbook browsing and blog searching and found the proportions needed to make pasta dough. I settled on 4 eggs and two cups of flour. I knew I wouldn’t have time to make the dough, roll it out, and fill it on the party night. That meant making the dough the night before and letting it rest in the refrigerator overnight until Thursday. I pulled out a large, shallow bowl for mixing (I was afraid the eggs would roll all over the counter). First went the flour, then the eggs into the well in the middle.

I probably could have read a few more recipes for the proper technique, but I just dug in and starting mixing. The dough was interesting…and sort of wet and not sticking together as I kneaded. Solution? Add more flour of course! Problem? All the all-purpose flour was used up. My idea? Use the whole wheat flour that‘s still in abundance in the pantry. The result? Interesting. I wrapped up my ugly ball of pasta dough and put it into the fridge to rest. I figured it could think about what it had done wrong and the next day it would be ready to play nicely.

On Thursday night during my pre-party preparations, I started by cooking the red kuri squash for the filling. I had peeled and cubed it the night before. Dealing with squash can be dangerous and you don’t want to lose a finger right before your guests arrive. A quick boil in salted water (about 12 minutes) results in squash ready for the immersion blender.

An apron is essential in keeping your party dress clean! After pureeing I mixed in a few generous spoonfuls of my homemade ricotta cheese and a dash of salt.

I set this aside and hoped for the best as I retrieved the pasta dough from the fridge. Since I don’t have a fancy non-stick pastry mat for the counter, I tore off some wax paper and tried to weight it down to stay in place. I floured the surface (I had picked up more AP flour on the way home) and pulled out my ridiculously heavy and generally unwieldy rolling pin. Immediately I could tell this was not going to go well. The wax paper was sliding all over the counter, the pasta was sticking to the rolling pin, and my hands were quickly becoming coated in dough. I called in the hubby to hold down the wax paper, but it was too late. It was already 6:35 at this point (guests coming at 7) and I needed ravioli! It was printed on the menu cards! So I rolled and stretched and pulled the pasta as thin as I could. I cut it into shapes closely resembling squares and placed a dollop of the squash and ricotta mixture in the middle. As I pressed a fork around the outside of each ‘free-form’ ravioli, I tried to talk the pasta into performing a miracle in the pot. I put it back into the fridge to rest until it was ready to cook. Here’s a look at the disastrous rolling adventure.

As we were wrapping up the antipasti course, I went back into the kitchen to bring a pot of water to a boil on the stove. While that was heating up, I added a generous amount of unsalted butter to a skillet and turned up the heat. Once it started to foam I watched for it to start browning and waited for the nutty aroma to fill the air. At this point, the water was boiling and I dropped my ugly duckling raviolis into the pot and waited with anticipation. After a few minutes they rose to the top, ready to be smothered in brown butter and served. I put two raviolis into each bowl and topped with the brown butter. As I took the dishes to serve, I told the guests that I would not be offended if they decided not to eat the ravioli. I just needed them to smile nicely so I could have a picture for the blog. The hubby will eat any ravioli, so he dug in. I had to go back to the kitchen for a steak knife.

Once you could get through to the inside, the filling was delicious! The ravioli were more like a pierogi or a dumpling. They were pretty dense. But often the cook is her own harshest critic. Maybe they were being nice, or maybe they liked the ravioli blobs, but I was the only one who didn’t clean my plate for this course.

The beauty of a multi-course meal is that there is plenty to eat if you don’t like one of the courses. With that in mind, the next post will feature the main course:

NY strip steak with lime basil butter
Broccoli Romanesco
Roasted Atlas Farms fingerling potatoes and hard neck garlic

Until then, don’t forget to wear an apron and don’t be afraid to try something new in the kitchen!

Local Luxury Dinner Party: Antipasti

The next installment in the Local Luxury Dinner Party series is the first course, antipasti! My trip to Atlas Farm’s booth at the Copley Farmers Market yielded some beautiful heirloom tomatoes. These were some of the last of the season and helped preserve the feeling of summer just a little longer. I’ve shopped at Atlas Farm regularly over the past two years, so this year I decided to buy a share. They offer a great share program – prepay at the beginning of market season and shop all season until you use up your share (for $90 you get a $100 credit for the season). This lets you buy what you want and you never have to worry about bringing cash to the market. Whether it’s a farmers market, local food shop, or grocery store you can save a lot of time and headache knowing you have a reliable place to find your ingredients. Now back to the antipasti…

Since I was planning a four course meal I knew that the first course couldn’t be heavy or I would be left with a lot of leftovers. My first thought was caprese salad, but when I looked at make-your-own mozzarella recipes I quickly changed my mind. I remembered that my friend Katie over at Once Upon a Small Boston Kitchen had recently made homemade ricotta with a recipe from Barbara Lynch. I pulled up the recipe and headed out for some local milk. With just three simple ingredients, this was about keeping an eye on the thermometer and getting the texture right. The end result was a creamy fresh tasting cheese that paired wonderfully with the tomatoes.

It wouldn’t be a meal in our house without bread! To make sure I had a reliable recipe, I surfed over to the King Arthur Flour website and did a search for Italian bread. I decided on the Italian Sesame bread. Planning your time wisely is important in being a successful party host. The bread, cheese, and basil infused olive oil were items that I could make a few days in advance of the party. I started the bread dough first and made the cheese while the bread was rising. I love this bread recipe – no fussy proofing needed. Just measure, dump, and turn on the KitchenAid mixer to do its magic. It does take a few hours start to finish for the dough to rise, so plan to start early enough in the day. The loaf gets braided like a challah and then generously covered in sesame seeds. After a quick bake the loaf was light, airy and a perfect addition to the meal.

I wanted to incorporate my homegrown basil into the tomato salad, but just sprinkling it on top seemed boring. After about 20 minutes of harvesting my basil I added it to a jar and started to heat up some extra virgin olive oil. I poured the warm oil over the basil and let it infuse overnight. I strained out the basil the next day leaving lightly flavored oil.

To make preparations easier on party night, I sliced the tomatoes the night before. I also cheated on the local/homemade theme by picking up some olives and marinated beans and artichokes from the antipasto bar at Whole Foods. I wanted to have some snacks on hand for the guests in case something went horribly wrong and I needed extra time to get the meal on the table (you’ve got to prepare for anything when entertaining!)

A few minutes before the guests were due to arrive, I set up my ingredients and laid out the salad plates. As you can see, multi-tasking is also an essential skill to have for entertaining. I’ve got a few different things going at the same time. I like to get the messy stuff out of the way before the party starts and be able to spend time with my guests. So if you come over for dinner at our house, don’t be offended if I refuse to let you help in the kitchen. I like guests to come enjoy – and for you and me not to work too hard while you’re here!

After the tomatoes and cheese were arranged on the plates and drizzled with the basil olive oil, I switched to my party apron (café style, instead of a full apron) and preset the salads while the hubby chatted with the guests in the living room. My mom gave me pearls and Mastering the Art of French Cooking for my birthday this year, so I feel it is appropriate to always wear the pearls when cooking and entertaining.  And yes, I did arrange the tomatoes like a traffic light (red, yellow, green). Presentation is an important part of the meal! After a few twists of the peppermill and sprinkles of kosher salt, and we were ready to start the eating.

The verdict? Delicious! Each tomato had a slightly different flavor. The cheese was fresh and creamy. The oil added a subtle basil flavor into each bite. I think we all wiped our plates clean with the bread, which the hubby expertly sliced.

As we finished up the first course, I headed back into the kitchen to finish the second course. Stay tuned for the next installment: fall squash ravioli with brown butter sauce. It was an adventure!

Local Luxury Dinner Party: Planning the Party

This luxury dinner party was made in advance of the results announcement from round 2 voting in Foodbuzz’s Project Food Blog.  While I didn’t end up advancing, I had a great time in the first two rounds and the dinner party was a success!

The first step in hosting any kind of party is to pick a theme and plan a menu.  The theme for this party, as given in the challenge prompt was:

Celebrate!  You've made it this far, and the next challenge is to hold a party for your friends and family.  Whether you're an experienced host or an entertaining newbie, get creative and host a luxurious dinner party where your guests will discover new tastes and exotic flavors.  Share your hosting secrets with readers, like how to cook for a crowd, plan a menu, or involve guests in the prep.

But what does luxury really mean?  And how do new tastes and exotic flavors fit with the luxury theme?  Does luxury mean rich, over the top foods?  Does it mean sparing no expense and picking up the rarest ingredients?  For my party I decided that luxury translated to a four-course, leisurely weeknight meal with all homemade dishes.  And it also meant the luxury of being able to purchase almost all of the ingredients from local farmers markets and vendors.

Like many home cooks, I often get stuck cooking variations of the same dishes each week.  So the hubby and I did a little brainstorming about what we don’t usually cook at home.  We quickly realized that Italian was a cuisine that isn’t represented often in our menus.  Sure we cook pasta every so often, but never a four course Italian meal.

Now that we had luxury + Italian decided, the next step was menu planning.  When we have guests over for meals, I like to ask if anyone has food allergies or severe food dislikes (some people just hate cilantro!).  Since this was a set menu, I wanted to make sure that our guests would be able to eat a little of everything.  For this party the parameters were no walnuts, fish, or excessive cream.  I added these to the list of the hubby and my food quirks and started making lists and researching recipes.

Instead of taking a detailed list with me to the market, I took an outline of the courses.  This meant the menu would be full of local, seasonal delights!  I visited my regular stops at the Copley Square Farmers Market - Atlas Farms and Stillmans at the Turkey Farm – and came home with most of my ingredients.  A quick stop at Whole Foods yielded some local whole milk and a few other ingredients.  With these fresh ingredients I created my simple, yet ambitious menu.

Since the party was planned for a Thursday night at 7 (I get home at 6), advanced preparation was necessary.  I put my list making skills to work and created a game plan for the week.

I left just a few things for Thursday and gave the hubby a honey-do list.  Luxury means pulling out the fine china and crystal!  We’ve been married for five years and have not taken full advantage of the beautiful set of china that we own.  This was the perfect reason to take out the goods and create a beautifully set table.  I added my grandmother’s candlesticks and candles to finish the look.

Another entertaining tip – know your limits!  With that in mind, I’m going to split this party into a series of posts for each course.  I’ll share tips, recipes, and pictures for each.

Thanks to Eric and Jen, our gracious guests, for waiting patiently while I photographed the dishes between each course.  And thanks to Jen for picking out a delicious Italian wine pairing for the meal.

Next in the luxury dinner party series, the first course:

Antipasti
Atlas Farm heirloom tomato salad
Fresh ricotta cheese, basil infused olive oil
Fresh cracked pepper

Assorted olives, gigante beans, and artichokes

Italian Sesame Bread and Olive Oil