East End EDL Report
We blew into Scrimshaw last night on a damp chill wind past dinghies rocking in the bay by this dockside restaurant (featured in Edible East End last fall), the day’s plunge in temperature reminding us of the season to come. Our first course, which warmed our mood, wasn’t on the EDL menu, but could have been. We shared an order of spring rolls, the light and crispy wrap centered with a generous filling of duck confit and balanced by a mound of chopped Napa cabbage salad and chutney. The menu offered five of the seven entrees featured during the 11-day EDL run, most paired with a suggested North Fork wine.
Three of us chose the chicken breast stuffed with a mixture of chopped mushrooms and herbs and glazed with a reduction of local Concord grapes alongside the ingredient of the weekend: cauliflower. The fourth ordered fork-tender medallions of pork tenderloin served with an apple cider reduction and cauliflower.
Thinking of the 24 pounds Bill Clinton has just shed on a plant-based diet, we decided to forego the beckoning cassoulet of duck confit, sausage and braised pork (suggested wine, Peconic Bay Cabernet Franc). We also bypassed the salmon napoleon of puff pastry with a Paumanok Riesling cream sauce. And since we’d all been cooking up penne with pesto during the height of the basil season, we skipped over the day’s featured entree, penne with pesto and roasted cauliflower. And how wrong we were to do so: To our surprise after our spring rolls our waitress arrived with a bowl of the penne, “complements of the chef.” The penne was delicious, sauced in butter with tiny specks of basil, nuggets of roasted cauliflower, squares of roast squash and bite-sized new potato halves.
