Smoking Goose

I've raved about Goose the Market in past posts, and now its time to rave about the Smoking Goose. Chris Eley opened this place up near downtown on Dorman St. and its kind of like Goose the Market, except its all about MEAT! Good, good good meat. Locally raised meat. The art of butchery is coming back in vogue, and meatpacking districts in cities all over the place are exploding with some insane butcher shops and wholesale stores. There's an interesting article in the NY Times about it here, and Smoking Goose gets a shout out! Restaurants all over town are buying up their meats now, so chances are high that you'll devour some of their goods while dining out in the near future!

Here it is. Kind of hiding on Dorman St.

Make sure to check the hours because they are limited.

Decor is minimal, but then again, that seems like the way it should be. No frills, just some serious butchering and meat-making going on here. They sell some spices and condiments on one wall, and T-shirts ("Curing Indiana One Pig at a Time"....cute), cutting boards and also Primal Cuts, a compilation of butchering tips and recipes from the country's top 50 butchers, Chris Eley included.


You can see everything they sell on their website, and its a lot. We actually went for bacon butter they were selling on a limited basis (no, New Years diet resolutions aren't in effect yet and bacon butter sounds like a brilliant idea) but unfortunately, they were out. So I got their Kitchen Sink sausage, which has all kinds of stuff by way of pork and spices in it, hence the name. It was salty and pretty seriously spicy, and added a great kick to the dish we made.

We made some breakfast burritos, for dinner:) I threw some scrambled eggs, browned sausage, cheddar Jack, tomatoes and avocado into a tortilla and served it with a Sweet Potato-Sausage Hash.

Go check them out the next time you're scratching your head over what to fix for dinner. I promise you'll find something!

Sobro Cafe

We tried a new place over the weekend: Sobro Cafe. It's at 52nd and College, and its actually the same place that used to be Garuda, which was an Indonesian restaurant I reviewed for a magazine like, maybe 8 months ago. I was surprised it changed so fast, but its actually the same owners (who are Dutch) who created a whole new thing. It's a cafe in that there's pancakes and coffee, but its also open late night and serves dinner and beer. It's kind of an "everything" restaurant.

It's small inside, but has a cool vibe with bright colors, an open kitchen, bar seating along the windows and local art on the walls. We started off with coffee and chai. The chai was WONDERFUL--very rich.

We had the kids with us and ended up ordering sort of a hodgepodge of stuff: banana and Nutella pancakes (which were rolled more like crepes), grilled cheese with tomato and chopped basil on sourdough, a twist on a Philly cheesesteak using pita and spinach, and a plate of sweet potato fries. Everything was gone in minutes. They were even awesome with the kids, and brought out crayons and let them choose a picture to color while we waited for our food.




Prices were reasonable (we got away for under about $35) and if we'd been alone, we probably would have sampled the dinner entrees. The pancakes (I'll call them crepes) looked like the star of the menu board, and they had a ton of varieties. I'm trying the bacon and chocolate version next time:)

Paella

Paella is a Spanish dish that can be made different ways depending on the region, but normally includes rice, veggies and some kind of meat or seafood. It's delicious. I found some rather interesting (read: complicated) recipes in cookbooks and online that are probably more authentic than what I make, but my recipe is mucho mas facil. Here's how to git 'er done in 15 minutes flat:

Mixed Paella

medium shrimp (raw, peeled and deveined)
chorizo (spanish or if you can't find it, mexican)
chicken breast (skinless/boneless)
saffron rice (either make your own or buy it prepackaged)
peas (i used frozen)
flat-leaf parsley
lemon
paprika
garlic
shallot
crushed red pepper flakes
olive oil and butter

Follow the directions on the saffron rice. Way easier and less expensive that buying saffron threads! If you have it, use chicken brother in place of water.

Heat the oil and butter together in a pan over medium heat and then add minced shallot, garlic, crushed red pepper and paprika. Amounts? Use your best judgement. (how lazy am I??)

Add the chicken, chorizo, and lastly the shrimp (those go fast!) and sautee until cooked. (Seriously, wait until the last minute to throw those shrimp in)

I threw some frozen peas into the rice pot and replaced the lid for the last couple of minutes to get them warmed through. Plate a layer of rice/peas and then add the meat on top, sprinkle with chopped parsley and squeeze lemon all over everything.

This dish is simple and delicious and makes for a great cold-weather dinner!

Local Folks Foods

As promised in an earlier post, I'm talking about one of the items I bought at the Indy Winter Farmers Market. It's pizza sauce from Local Folks Foods. This company is really cool, because their whole "thing" centers around reducing the distance food travels before being consumed, and using nothing artificial. Super local. I was excited to taste my local pizza sauce:)

I made (drumroll) a pizza. We do a vegetarian dinner once a week, and I made sort of a Mediterranean version, using Trader Joe's garlic and herb pizza dough, Local Folks pizza sauce, a blend of shredded mozzarella and crumbled feta, kalamata olives, Roma tomatoes, arugula and an egg. Bam.

(As a side note, I'm sort of liking the egg on the pizza thing. Just crack an egg right over the top of your pizza before you bake it, and it cooks with the pizza.)


The sauce was great. Some sauces are way too sweet or way too thin or don't have any flavor. This was really, really good. Thick (but not chunky), not too sweet, and a great blend of herbs to make it taste just right. I made breadsticks with some of the leftover dough and it also made for a great dipping sauce.

Check 'em out when you visit the farmers market next time. You can find a listing of their products on the website and retail locations, too. (other than farmers markets, I saw Good Earth on the list, Goose the Market, and Green BEAN delivery)