Cassoulet Wrap-Up and a Recipe!

Food writer and friend, Cathy Erway posted a great recap of the Cassoulet Cook Off on Not Eating Out in New York. She was also kind enough to include her Moroccan inspired cassoulet recipe!

Just before the Cook Off, I received an email:

"i am french and from the south so i know cassoulet and i was wondering if you are doing this only this week end and if it's possible to enjoy it only during the special event ???? i mean is it possible to eat your cassoulet saturday night for example ???"

Well, my French is rusty, but...

Bien sur, mon ami! Il y a cassoulet à la carte pendant l'hiver a Jimmy's No. 43. Bon Appétit!

I hope that answers your question!

The Brisket Sandwich

One of our favorite food writers, Alex Van Buren (author of Clean Plates and a contributor to Edible Manhattan) stopped by the other night for a brisket sandwich. We have a few new fall menu items - shrimp and grits, 24 hour braised pork with celery root puree but the sandwich is the real winner- and it will be on the menu for the fall and winter!

Alex wrote that the brisket sandwich is "...glammed up version of pulled pork (from a totally different animal)...". To read more of his beef brisket musings, click here.

A Toast to Bacon

Some of our picks for best bacons - Mountain View and Benton's! Try our new dish: Dandelion greens with bacon -dripping vinaigrette. BLT crostini. You can read more about trends in bacon here and come to Jimmy's No. 43 for our popular Beer and Bacon Tastings. The next one is September 22. Keep an eye on our Events section for updates!

My New Favorite Chef

In restaurants, chef's typically come and go. I would trade my first born for a good meal by Sarah Jenkins but she will never stay in one place; bred from a journalist father, she has the travel bug real bad. One of NYC's greatest features is that there are dozens of unheralded, working chefs who have good training and experience. One of them (the secret chef?) is cooking at Jimmy's No 43 right now and he is blowing people away with his simple preparations of dishes like:

Braised pork belly, brussel sprouts and pecans
Shrimp and grits, hickory bacon, scallions
Seared wild striped bass, cider braised cabbage and carrots

Zaid the Farmer

Jimmy's No. 43 receives regular deliveries from Zaid the farmer of Norwich Meadows Farm (upstate New York, near Syracuse). He makes the 5 hour drive every week to sell his wonderful, certified organic produce on Saturdays in Union Square and on Sundays in the Thompkins Square Park greenmarket.

Zaid tells the story of Norwich Meadows Farm like this:

10 years ago we took over the farm. It was not being used and a New Jersey developer was planning to divide it. The economy in that area soured [then] he backed out and we were able to buy the farm. We almost lost the farm 3 years ago during the year of major floods. Over half of our crops were washed away. If it wasn't for Just Food and the CSA's it manages, we never would have made it. There is little interest in supporting farmfresh in our area.

Click to find out more about Just Food. Support your local growers- buy at the greenmarket!

Greenmarket Goddess 2002

In 2002, a little East Village restaurant named Patio Dining made a splash with its daily market menu. I was lucky to be part of that magical time. Chef Sarah Jenkins was working at Il Buco on Bond Street. She was my favorite chef. My wife and I had our first date there and many dates after that. We even had our rehearsal dinner there. One afternoon, she (Sarah) came to see me, "I quit Il Buco, I want to work with you.". I said, "Take a few weeks off, go back to Italy, then we'll talk". When she returned, we agreed to offer a daily market menu.

Sarah would go the market every day and buy what she needed for the menu that night. Every night there was one dish that was the best thing I had ever tasted in my life. One night it was the soup, the next it was the pasta and so on.

Rob and Robin at New York Magazine wrote a feature article titled Green Market Goddess- click here to read from the New York Magazine Archives.