When it was suggested to me that I participate in a latke-making party and write a story about it, my initial response was, “Hmmm, doesn’t sound like much of a food story. Grated potatoes fried in oil? How interesting or complicated can that be?” When I heard that a number of children would be helping, I thought, “Now it’s getting interesting.” And when I learned about all the delicious varieties of latkes in existence, I was much enthused.

The latke-making marathon was held at Toby and Arnold Spitz’s house in Sag Harbor for a Hanukkah party and concert to be held at the Temple Adas Israel, the oldest synagogue on Long Island. Toby, a fun, energetic lady, is the chairwoman of the cultural programs committee and, we were delighted to discover, an awesome cook. She had already prepped most of the ingredients to make several hundred of three varieties of latkes — classic potato, a curried sweet potato, and zucchini with feta.

When the kids arrived — Clark, Jessica, Julian, and Siena, ranging in age from 8 to 12 — we got to work. There were still plenty of potatoes that needed peeling, onions to grate, spices to be measured, and eggs to be beaten. Jessica and Siena enjoyed dancing to the Klezmatics as they peeled potatoes . . . mostly over the trash can. Clark and Julian took on the manly tasks of egg beating and onion grating. Fortunately, the food processor was standing by to perform in three seconds what it was taking eight people an hour to do.

There were two big nonstick skillets and one griddle on the stove ready for frying. We began with the Sephardic zucchini pancakes, which were full of green onions, fresh herbs, and feta cheese. These are Toby’s favorite latkes, especially in late summer when zucchini is so plentiful.

As the kitchen floor got a bit littered, the countertops covered in flotsam and jetsam, and the air filled with oily-fry odors, I asked Toby what made her so lucky she was saddled with this massive task. “Apparently, I’m the only member who has a five-burner stove!” she laughed good-naturedly. In between directing the kids and moms, she explained that the Festival of Lights is considered one of the minor Jewish holidays, but certainly a wonderful one for food. In essence “we were persecuted, we survived, let’s eat!”

Next up were the sweet potato latkes, inspired by the now-defunct New Prospect Cafe in Park Slope. These were lightly sweetened with brown sugar and had a bit of curry and cumin in them. Toby suggested serving them with chicken and a salad.

There were now 10 of us in the kitchen, in various degrees of helping out, and we were getting more peckish by the hour. Latkes were disappearing. “This is a latke-making party for the temple, not a latke-tasting party!” I might have heard someone say.

At one point, Arnold, who had been a jovial good sport throughout the takeover of the kitchen, asked, “Could I have some lunch now?” Alas, the major production of a quadrupled potato latke recipe was about to begin. Out came some red wine. The kids tested the old wives’ tale theory of “a piece of bread in the mouth will protect your eyes from grated onion gas.” It does not work.

Then the moms, Soozy and Sharon, took over the frying. I marveled at the kids’ willingness and camaraderie of working for hours together on a cooking project. They are all experienced cooks and had no fear of spattering oil, sharp box graters, and unwieldy peelers. They have been friends for life and attend Hebrew school together.

I asked Toby her theories on potato starch. Rinse the grated potatoes or not? Squeeze out in a dishtowel? Submerge in water to discourage discoloration? Cook in schmaltz? I even tossed out a bit of my own Yiddish knowledge, explaining “fleishig” to the kids. This earned me the nickname “goychick.” Haha, I’ll take it.

Finally, the three kinds of latkes were done, drained, and getting stacked up on parchment-covered sheet pans for Sunday night’s concert and celebration. I enjoyed imagining the members of Temple Adas Israel marveling at the delicious and plentiful array of latkes, made with small hands and big hearts. It was an honor and an education to be a part of it. Thank you, Toby, Arnold, Soozy, Sharon, Jessica, Julian, Siena, and Clark!

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Holiday Meals

Michael’s restaurant at Maidstone in East Hampton has put together a special menu to be offered on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day next week. Besides a lineup of a la carte starters such as bouillabaisse, foie gras with diver scallops, and duck served two ways, and entrees including roasted truffle and manchego cheese-stuffed chicken, pistachio-crusted New Zealand rack of lamb, and traditional paella, the restaurant will offer a traditional Feast of Seven Fishes Christmas Eve dinner. For $75 per person, or $130 per person with wine, diners will be served seven seafood courses. Dessert will be toasted panettone served with a pinot noir-poached pear and chocolate ganache and red wine syrup.

On Christmas, Michael’s will serve a buffet-style brunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., for $50 per adult, or $25 for children under 10.

Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton will be open for dinner from 6 to 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve, serving a holiday menu that includes a choice of zuppa di pesce, with lobster, monkfish, clams, and mussels with saffron, spinach, and ceci beans, as an entree. The restaurant will be closed on Christmas.

At Rowdy Hall, also in East Hampton, lunch only will be served on Christmas Eve, with special choices including crab bisque, an omelette with smoked salmon and chives, and a lobster B.L.T. Rowdy will also be closed Christmas Day.

 At the American Hotel in Sag Harbor, a Christmas Eve menu will feature entree choices of salmon, blackfish, bay scallops, Long Island duckling, English prime rib with Yorkshire pudding, and more. All will be served with starters and holiday desserts both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The prix fixe costs $85 per person, or $40 for children.

Year-End Giving?

The Amagansett Food Institute, which works to support local farmers and food purveyors, is making a year-end appeal to raise $50,000, as it has been offered a $50,000 matching grant by a supporter. This year, the institute opened South Fork Kitchens at the Stony Brook Southampton campus, a food business incubator and cafe, and launched its Farm to Pantry program in partnership with Long Island Cares, which funnels surplus produce from farmers to food pantries. An East End CRAFT program matches farm apprentices to local farms and provides training. The organization’s website is at amagansettfoodinstitute.org.

Round Swamp Specialties

Though the Round Swamp Farm market in East Hampton has closed for the season, its Bridgehampton location, at 97 School Street, will be open for one last gasp this weekend. Prepared dinners, including beef bourguignon, meatloaf, shepherd’s pie, and more, are available through Sunday, as are side dishes such as butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and cauliflower-four cheese potato casserole. Also at the market are soups and salads and baked goods including muffins, holiday cakes, and pies. Peconic Bay scallops are on sale for $20 a pound, while supplies last.

Hampton Seafood Co.

At the Hampton Seafood Co. takeout shop in East Hampton, daily specials are offered. Thursday is taco day, with a deal on fish and shrimp tacos. Prepared foods for holiday meals, such as crudités, cheese and fruit platters, and seafood, of course — both ready to eat and ready to cook — are available. A new baker, Jennifer Corazzo, the Flour Girl, is providing the shop with bread puddings, cookie trays, pies, and other baked goods.

Cavaniola’s Traditional Swiss Fondue

It is important to use the best ingredients for best flavor. Supermarket cheeses probably won’t yield the same results, so I strongly urge you to get the best cheeses you can for this fondue recipe.

Cavaniola’s very kindly shared its recipe for fondue, and the results were spectacular. If you want, the shop will blend the cornstarch and grate the cheeses for you beforehand. Bring cheese to room temperature before beginning.

Serves two to three.

3 oz. grated Gruyere

3 oz. grated Emmental

3 oz. grated Appenzeller

1.5 Tbsp. cornstarch or flour

1 clove garlic, peeled and halved

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 tsp. lemon juice

Fresh ground pepper

Pinch of nutmeg

In a medium bowl, combine the three cheeses and toss. Rub the inside of the fondue pot with the garlic clove halves. Add the wine and heat over medium until hot but not boiling.

Whisk in the cornstarch and lemon juice. Add a handful of cheese to the wine mixture. While stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, wait for each portion of cheese to completely melt before adding the next. Continue until all the cheese is completely melted, bubbling gently, and has the appearance of a light cream sauce. Season to taste with pepper and nutmeg. Remove the pot from the heat and place over an alcohol-safe burner.

Nancy’s Ribollita

This soup recipe is from my friend Nancy Greenwald and has been included in my column before. It makes a huge batch, so freeze some! It is perfect after a first course of fondue.

Serves a lot of people.

3 Tbsp. olive oil

2 cans cannelini beans, or soak and use dried beans as directed

1 large can whole peeled tomatoes

1 can tomato paste

1 can tomato sauce

4 carrots, chopped

4 stalks celery, chopped

1 large sweet onion, chopped

2 bunches Swiss chard or one each chard and kale, center stems removed and coarsely chopped

1 bunch basil leaves, chopped

1 bunch rosemary, left whole (I tie this in a bundle with kitchen string)

1 bunch thyme, left whole and tied in a bundle

1/2 cup sage leaves, chopped

4 cups water

3 vegetable bouillon cubes

Saute onion in large stockpot or Dutch oven with olive oil for about 10 minutes. Add celery and carrots and saute another 10 minutes.

Add broken up tomatoes, tomato sauce, and paste. Add layers of cooked beans, chard, kale, basil, and other herbs. Pour in four cups water with bouillon cubes, and bring to a boil.

Lower heat and cover, then simmer for one and a half hours, stirring occasionally.

Remove stem bits of herbs before serving.

This is the time of year when warm, comforting foods are very appealing. What can be even more appealing are melty-cheesy dishes like Welsh rabbit, Kentucky hot brown, fondues, and raclette. The fun of fondue and raclette is that they are interactive meals. You simply set out the ingredients and let everyone do their own thing. While some would consider fondue a meal, I prefer to have it as a fun first course, followed by a light, yet heartily packed vegetable soup like ribollita.

Perhaps the simplest dish is Welsh rabbit (not rarebit), which requires no special equipment. It is simply toasted bread with a cheese sauce poured over it. The sauce is usually a bechamel to which cheddar cheese has been added. Other possible additions are beer or ale, mustard, paprika, and/or cayenne.

The Kentucky hot brown, invented at the Brown Hotel in Louisville, Ky., in 1926 as a late-night meal, consists of toast on the bottom, slices of turkey, a hot cheesy mornay sauce, then slices of crisped bacon. You could also add sliced tomatoes but why add a vegetable or color at this point? You’re in the South! If you stowed some leftover Thanksgiving turkey in your freezer, pull some out and try this delicious dish.

Fondues and raclette are the most fun of all but do require equipment. You can melt cheese in almost any fireproof vessel, but to maintain the proper texture and temperature throughout the meal, you need a fondue pot or raclette coupelle so you can have a continuous low flame keeping it warm.

If my mother, Honoria, had a Proustian food memory it was most certainly raclette. I remember her talking about it often — how delicious and nutty the melted cheese was, being scraped off the wheel onto a plate with boiled potatoes and cornichons. I wish we could have shared this dish with her as I have just recently discovered it. Raclette is the name of the cheese used and the recipe itself, after the verb racler, “to scrape.” Most stories about its history describe farmers or herdsmen setting up camp for the night high up in the Alps. They would lay a cheese wheel near the fire, and as it softened, scrape it off onto bread. The traditional accompaniments are cornichons (little French pickles), pickled onions, and small boiled potatoes. You can also dip bits of good ham into it. In my research for this dish I spoke with Michael Cavaniola of Cavaniola’s Gourmet Cheese Shop in Sag Harbor. It sells everything you need for either fondue or raclette. He asked if I was going to roast the potatoes in duck fat. So of course I had to. . . . This elevated the raclette to new levels of flavor and naughtiness. And since I didn’t have any pickled onions, he suggested cipollini onions, which turned out to be far better than plain old cocktail onions from a jar. They were sweeter and less vinegary.

Fondue has so many variations and dipping possibilities. As far as I’m concerned, anything that tastes good with cheese will taste good dipped into fondue.

There are also some etiquette rules for fondue. Rather than transfer your cheesy bread cube or apple slice directly from the pot into your mouth, you should transfer it from the pot to your plate, then eat it. No double dipping. If a gentleman’s bread cube falls into the pot, he must buy a round of drinks for all. Let’s remember, this dish is popular at ski resorts, where much jollity and drinking apres-ski are also considered sports. If a lady drops her bread cube into the bubbling cheese lava, she must kiss her nearest dining companions. The skewers that come with a fondue set are color-coded so each person can identify his or her own.

For my first fondue experiment I wanted to remain traditional and went with Mr. Cavaniola’s recommendation of a third Gruyere, a third Emmental, and a third Appenzeler. For additional binding and blending you can add a bit of cornstarch or flour. I prefer cornstarch as it thickens quickly and flour takes longer to cook.

Begin by rubbing a cut clove of garlic in your fondue pot or cooking vessel on the stove. Boil some dry white wine (preferably from the same region as the cheeses), then add cheese a bit at a time, stirring continuously and melting each addition before adding more. You can toss the cornstarch with the grated cheese to save a step, or add it as it cooks. A bit of lemon juice also enhances the emulsification of the fondue. A lot of traditional recipes also call for kirsch, a cherry liqueur, but I didn’t bother.

From here you transfer the fondue to the tabletop, with an appropriate heat source underneath, whether candles or Sterno or whatever came with your fondue set. Bread cubes are all you need, but cubes of ham, slices of apple, blanched broccoli florets or cauliflower, steamed potatoes, other root vegetables, and anything else you think would taste good are all appropriate.

There are some dangers of the cheese mixture separating, which is why certain cheeses are considered best for this dish. While I did see numerous recipes that used cheddars and goat cheese, Mr. Cavaniola warned against these as the altitude at which the cows are raised, the milk produced, and cheeses made, makes a difference. In other words, altitude matters.

If your fondue does separate, it can be revived by the addition of more wine (or other liquid), can be whipped into submission with an immersion blender (not sure about this), and one person suggested adding an egg yolk. I had no trouble with my maiden voyage and also had success reheating it the next day without problems. If your fondue party is so successful that you are left with no more than a browning cheesy crust at the bottom of the pot, turn the heat down and let it crisp up. This is known as le religieuse or “the nun.” It is delicious.

In Italy, a similar dish is referred to as fonduta, usually made with fontina cheese. A friend who grew up there and remembers the dish well says it was referred to as il pasto pericoloso, “the dangerous meal.” No doubt this refers to sharing an interactive meal with small children, an open flame, and sharp skewers on the kitchen table, not the fat content of the meal!

For self preservation, I enjoyed some outdoor hiking both before and after indulging in fondue and raclette, my pathetic replication of a day spent skiing in the Alps, and justification for such rich dishes.

If you have an old fondue pot gathering dust somewhere (I’ll bet your parent have one!), dig it out and start playing with fondue. Or just get a little contraption to melt raclette. Even a cast iron skillet will do.

It was fun researching and discovering these ancient dishes. I only wish I could have enjoyed them with my mother, whose memories and reminiscences inspired this cheesy journey.

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Winter memberships in Quail Hill Farm’s community supported agriculture program in Amagansett are still available and cost $395 for a family. A first-time fee for new members is $50. Individual shares are $250. 

The bounty can include carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cabbage, burdock, squash, beets, celery root, parsley, dried beans, wheat berries, and smoked hot peppers, among other things. Carissa’s Breads is also offering season-long bread shares through Quail Hill, and people can buy loaves individually on Friday pickup days.

Pickups are every other week on Fridays or Saturdays. Members can pick greens from the greenhouses any day of the week, and there are still kale and Brussels sprouts growing in the fields. The next pickups are Friday, Dec. 19, and Dec. 20, and will continue through February or even into March if supplies hold out.

Shares can be ordered by phone at the Peconic Land Trust office in Southampton or be bought online at peconic­landtrust.org.

Edible Gifts

Two ideas for food-related holiday gift hunters come from Sagaponack this week. Townline BBQ is selling its own house-made beef jerky, bottles of barbeque sauce, and hats and T-shirts. And, just up the road at Pantigo Farm, Sam Lester is offering his homemade jams and jellies, including beach plum from the bumper 2014 crop.

E.N.E. and the Palm

East by Northeast restaurant in Edgemere Street in Montauk has happy hour food and drink specials at the bar most nights from 5 to 7 p.m. and two-for-one sushi in the dining room on Sundays. E.N.E., as it is called, is open from 5 to 9 except on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and until 10 on weekends.

Members of the Palm 837 Club can get the restaurant chain’s featured wines of the month at significant discounts, including at its East Hampton Village location at the Huntting Inn on Main Street. During December, a 2011 Rodney Strong red from California’s Alexander Valley is $30 off the wine list price, and Gosset Champagne Brut Excellence is $15 off. The one-time $25 membership fee comes back to you in the form of a $25 gift card good towards a Palm meal or bar tab. The sign-up form is at thepalm.com/837-Club.

Duryea’s All Winter

Duryea’s Seafood Market on Tuthill Road in Montauk will stay open through the winter under the management of its former owner, Perry B. Duryea III. Its hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and until 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Two pound-and-a-quarter lobsters, a quart of New England clam chowder, and a choice of two pounds of mussels or two dozen Littleneck clams are $39.95 in an off-season special. Seafood orders can be cooked on request at no additional charge.

Loaves and Fishes

Feeling lucky, cook? Well, Loaves and Fishes Cookshop in Bridgehampton’s annual lottery sale is underway. Shoppers can dip into a jar at the register for a slip of paper, each good for between 5 and 25 percent off their entire purchase. The deal is offered until the end of the year.

New Year’s Plans

It is not too soon to begin thinking about New Year’s Eve, and Gurney’s Inn in Montauk has announced a $206-per-person black-and-white masked party that will include an hour and a half of cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, a five-course dinner, open bar, live music, and D.J.s imported from New York City. After the ball drop, which will be viewable on large-screen TVs, a round of light food will be served at 2 a.m.

Guests who perhaps wisely might plan to say the night can book a room for two now starting at $610. The room charge includes use of the Seawater Spa. Prices will rise after Monday.

Grilled oysters with lemon horseradish beurre blanc and shallots; mussels Skagen; Greenland shrimp; steak tartare with horseradish, mustard cream, quail egg yolk, and pickled beets, and lobster and duck are on the New Year’s Eve menu at the Living Room restaurant at c/o the Maidstone in East Hampton Village. The cost is $125 plus tax and tip. Reservations are being taken now.

Tutto il Giorno

56 Nugent Street

Southampton

377-3611

Dinner, Thursday through Monday

Lunch, Saturday and Sunday

If you are a fan of Tutto il Giorno in Sag Harbor, you will definitely like Tutto il Giorno in Southampton. For starters, you have a better chance of getting a table. The Tutto in Sag Harbor is a tiny, or should I say “piccolo” restaurant with a mere 38 seats that fill up fast. The Tutto in Southampton is much bigger and airier, but has similar, attractive decor and plenty of banquettes with pillows.

The walls are grayish, actually rather difficult to define as the lighting is exceptionally low. This is great for looking more attractive across the table but hell when you’re trying to read the menu. There are mirrors and beautiful Mary Ellen Bartley photographs, and some black and white portraits of gentlemen at a funeral in Sardinia.

The menus are almost identical — faithfully Italian, with plenty of homemade pasta options, and quite expensive. High prices don’t bother me so much when the food lives up to it and the environment is pleasant. Thankfully, there are excellent prix fixes and date night specials that take the sting out of the cost.

We took advantage of the prix fixe menu offerings on a recent Sunday evening, beginning with appetizers of roasted octopus, polenta with cauliflower, and mussels with clams in spicy tomato sauce. The octopus came to the table in its own little cast iron skillet, leading us to believe it would be scorching hot, which it wasn’t. It was warm and tender and tasty, but we agreed it could have used a bit more char. It was served with plenty of lemon juice and olive oil, and had a good amount of sweet fingerling potatoes, green olives, and cipollini onions scattered around in the pan. It was a nice contrast between chewy polpo, fluffy potatoes, and sharply salty olives.

The polenta had good flavor but the texture was way more Cream of Wheat cereal than the traditional coarsely ground cornmeal used for this dish. The bits of local cauliflower added sweetness and the crumbled Gorgonzola cheese swirled through gave it richness and tang. The mussels and clams in spicy tomato sauce were the best of all, a generous bowl with plenty of tender Manila clams and good-size mussels. The sauce was chunky, full of tomatoes, fennel, onions, and garlic. The dish was topped with a crostini with a dab of excellent garlic aioli.

For entrees we tried the black sea bass in parchment paper, tagliatelle with bottarga and spicy chilies, and ravioli stuffed with butternut squash. All three were superb.

The fish, which came out in its charred paper envelope with the top sliced open, was on a bed of fresh spinach and haricots verts. The fish was fresh and moist, topped with fresh herbs, capers, and black olives.

The tagliatelle was spicy from slivers of fresh red chilies and had toasted pine nuts, thinly sliced garlic, and marvelous bits of bottarga. Bottarga is the salted, cured fish roe from grey mullet or tuna. Bottarga di muggine is the grey mullet version, usually so firm it is grated with a microplaner. The bottarga di tonno (tuna) is a bit softer. I’m not sure which kind our dish had, but it adds a mysterious, umami, briny funk to dishes. We loved it.

The roasted butternut squash ravioli was perfect — super thin pasta pockets, cooked al dente, filled with more squash than ricotta, making them quite light and virtuous. This is good because they were swimming in a delicious browned butter sage sauce. The addition of toasted pumpkin seeds made this dish even better. It’s the little things, folks!

The service on the night of our visit was very good. We had an entertaining waiter who pointed out to us that getting the date night special for $25 was just as cheap as three hamburgers at McDonald’s. Not quite, but we were amused at his enthusiasm for a good bargain. Prices at Tutto il Giorno are high for Italian food. Appetizers are $15 to $21, pastas are $22 to $29, entrees are $33 to $40, sides are $12. I failed to find out dessert prices as we got the prix fixe special. I’m going to guess they are between $10 and $12.

For desserts we got the biscotti, tiramisu, and ricotta cheesecake. The biscotti were excellent, crunchy and hard with bits of dark chocolate in them. The tiramisu was as good an execution for this dish as you can hope for, well soaked ladyfingers, full of espresso flavor, layered with whipped mascarpone and dusted with cocoa powder. The ricotta cheesecake was also very good and simple, with mild vanilla flavor, a cookie crumb crust with a bit of cocoa powder in it, and streaks of good caramel sauce. The other dessert option was flourless chocolate cake. I will say here that while the desserts were tasty, the choices seem like something from a 1980s time warp. Considering the creativity and fine quality of all the other menu options, it would be nice to see something like a blood orange sorbet or olive oil cake or fruit crostada, still faithfully Italian, just more original.

I have never been disappointed with a meal at Tutto il Giorno in Sag Harbor, and if I lived in Southampton I would certainly patronize this location as well. The food is always good, the staff professional (occasionally amusing), and the dining rooms serene.

Tree Lighting and Treats

Food will be a part of holiday festivities at two local restaurants this weekend.

Tomorrow at 7:30 p.m., the Topping Rose House in Bridgehamtpon will serve hot chocolate, hot toddies, mulled wine, and Christmas cookies during a tree-lighting ceremony. Children from the Our Lady of the Hamptons school will sing carols.

On Sunday, after a tree-lighting event at c/o the Maidstone inn in East Hampton, the Living Room restaurant there will offer a Swedish holiday dinner menu for $42 per person.

Chef from Fresh Hamptons

Culinary students can learn from Todd Jacobs of Fresh Hamptons restaurant in Bridgethampton during a cooking demonstration at the Old Whalers Church in Sag Harbor next Thursday, part of its East End Chefs series.

Beginning at 6:30 p.m., Mr. Jacobs will prepare an organic leek and potato soup, followed by a pan-roasted organic chicken with oven-roasted Brussels sprouts and a brown basmati rice pilaf. Warm organic apple crisp with homemade whipped cream will be whipped up for dessert.

A $20 fee will entitle participants to taste all; wine and water will be available for purchase. As space is limited, advance reservations have been requested, and may be made by calling Lillian Woudsma at 553-6515.

Prix Fixe at Pierre’s

At Pierre’s in Bridgehampton, a $30 prix fixe includes two courses; for $36, diners receive a three-course meal. The special is available every night, the upcoming holidays excluded, but on Fridays and Saturdays it expires at 6:30 p.m.

Bonac Farms Goodies

Organic and locally grown dried herbs, teas, and more are available in holiday gift boxes from Bonac Farms, which sells them at the weekly Riverhead Farmers Market, an indoor market at 221 East Main Street in Riverhead, held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sundays.

Among the choices are a cook’s kit, with sage, oregano, and rosemary, a chef’s kit, which includes seafood seasoning, cilantro, and herbs de Provence, and two varieties of tea packages. Orders can also be placed by sending an email to [email protected].

Highway Diner and Bar

290 Montauk Highway

East Hampton

527-5372

Dinner Wednesday through Sunday

Lunch Saturday and Sunday

The restaurant at 290 Montauk Highway has changed hands so many times, I believe I have reviewed something at that location more than any other. I have already forgotten what was there before Rugosa, which served sophisticated and delicious food but didn’t last. The previous Highway Diner and Bar also served darned good food but didn’t really operate on diner-type hours or have diner-ish prices, but its owners did do a nice renovation of the interior, which remains in this new incarnation of the Highway Diner and Bar. Shuko, a frightfully expensive Japanese pop-up, came and went before I had a chance to review it, and now, Highway Diner and Bar is back, but completely different. I’m telling you all of this because I approached this establishment with a grumbly attitude the other night, a kind of “Oh, well, here we go again, I hope this place sticks around for a while, better be worth it, wah, wah, wah. . . .”

Not a lot has changed inside. There is still a nifty-looking soda fountain with stools to the right of the entrance. Straight ahead is a bar area with a large wooden wall dividing it from the main dining room. There are long blue banquettes along two walls and pretty orchids and Moroccan candles scattered around, giving the large, ungainly space some degree of charm.

I’m not sure why the new owners kept the name Highway Diner and Bar because this is so not a diner anymore. The only diner-like accoutrements that remain are the French’s mustard and Heinz ketchup squeeze bottles on each table, which are completely incongruous with the food now being served. We noticed that behind the soda fountain is a big pasta-making machine, a promising sign.

The menu is short and fairly simple. We began our meal with a Caesar salad, crab cake, and the soup of the day, which was carrot ginger. All three were simply delicious. The Caesar salad was large, with lots of shaved Parmesan cheese and homemade croutons. The dressing was assertive with garlic and lemon, as it should be. The croutons were so good you could even taste the quality of the olive oil they had been roasted with.

The crab cake appetizer was one big crab cake served on a bed of arugula with a dish of dilly tartar sauce and some homemade pickles that tasted more of soy and balsamic than regular pickles. The crab cake was moist, full of lump crabmeat and flecks of sweet red pepper and lots of herbs. It had a hint of lemongrass to it. The carrot ginger soup was not a smooth and dainty version; it was more rustic, with small bits of carrots and other vegetables in it. We all agreed it was excellent, especially with the warm slices of baguette served alongside.

For entrees we ordered the eggplant Parmigiana, ribeye steak, chicken potpie, and side orders of Brussels sprouts and French fries. The eggplant Parmigiana was one of the best I have ever had and was surprisingly light. The layers of eggplant were thin and delicate. It wasn’t loaded with gooey cheese or oil at all. It had a super fresh tomato sauce and was topped with a crunchy mixture of breadcrumbs and fresh herbs. We ordered the ribeye steak because we were intrigued by the very reasonable option of getting a 10-ounce portion for $27. Two sauces were offered with it: peppercorn or bearnaise. We went for the peppercorn, which was served in a tiny pitcher on the side. Cute, they found a use for diner creamers!

The steak was very good and cooked to order. It was served with a bundle of watercress, one of my favorite forgotten greens. The peppercorn sauce was smooth with very concentrated meaty flavor. The chicken potpie came out piping hot in its own fluted ramekin and was just as delicious as everything else so far. It was full of white meat chicken, carrots, herbs, and celery. This, too, had a little pitcher of extra gravy which was a bit bland and unnecessary. The Brussels sprouts were very good, roasted just right with a few stray crisped leaves. The French fries were skin-on, hand cut, excellent.

The service on the night of our visit was pretty good. The restaurant has only been open a few weeks, and it was quite busy on the night of our visit. Our waiter was serving tables on both sides of the wooden divider, so we’ll cut him some slack. The prices are very reasonable, especially considering the quality of the food and the generous portions. Appetizers and salads are $9 to $13, pastas $13 to $23, entrees $16 to $37, sides $7, and desserts $7 to $10. The wine list is short and reasonable. My only criticism about the entire experience is that this place needs a plastic entry door or a big velvet curtain between the front door and dining room. Every time someone entered, and they’d frequently stand there holding the door open for the rest of their group, an arctic blast would blow through the dining room.

We only ordered two desserts, but one of the charming managers (owners?), a woman wearing the coolest long leather coat, insisted we try the homemade pear sorbet as well. All of the desserts were as wonderful as the rest of our meal. We had pineapple upside down cake and the Highway toffee sundae. The pineapple upside down cake was just as it should be: sweet caramelized pineapple bits on a tender vanilla cake.

Sticky toffee date cake has become the ubiquitous dessert out here (you’re welcome), but this was a creative twist. The cake had been crumbled up into a sundae with layers of homemade vanilla ice cream and topped with crushed candied almonds and cashews. Naughty and divine. The pear sorbet was also excellent, it was light, tart, and sweet, a good ending on a cold fall evening.

I approached the evening with a bad attitude and rather low expectations, but all of us were delighted with our food, every single dish. I highly recommend the Highway Diner and Bar, just remember to wear your fisherman’s knit sweater and a cozy shawl.

There are three new cookbooks out right now with local connections. Ina Garten, a k a the Barefoot Contessa, has come out with her ninth book, called “Make It Ahead.” The folks of Edible School Gardens have published the “Delicious Nutritious FoodBook,” compiled and written by Judiann Carmack-Fayyaz. And the kitchens of Martha Stewart Living have come out with “One Pot.”

Let us first explore the Ina-verse of “Make It Ahead” (Clarkson Potter, $35). Basically, this woman can do no wrong. I have yet to try a Barefoot Contessa recipe that didn’t work. Same goes for any of my friends, whether they are experienced cooks or not.

The recipes are foolproof, fairly simple, and you can find the ingredients just as easily in Hamtramck, Mich., as you can in New York City. The concept and promise of “making it ahead” is a good one. Whether you just want to simplify a weeknight meal or prepare a grander feast for company without being at the stove when they arrive, this book covers all the bases, from prepping to cooking to baking ahead.

The recipes are presented as if you were going to serve them immediately but then offer steps for simplifying the meal in advance, such as chopping slaw ingredients a day ahead, preparing the dressing, and tossing it together just before serving. There are a number of recipes I have earmarked to try that sound delicious, such as leek and artichoke bread pudding, pear and parsnip gratin, twice-baked sweet potatoes, garlic and herb roasted shrimp, and the salty oatmeal and chocolate chunk cookies.

I couldn’t resist trying two of the recipes this past weekend, the Spanish tapas peppers and roasted cauliflower snowflakes. Both were excellent and easy to prepare. However, I must say about the cauliflower, if I had a restaurant, this would be on my menu as a side dish all year round.

Another aspect of the Barefoot Contessa books that is very appealing is the warmth and enthusiasm of Ina herself. She talks about life, surprises, discoveries, travel, her friends, and her husband, Jeffrey, with humor and graciousness. She gives credit for recipes where due, whether they are inspired by a person or place or restaurant. One of the more touching additions is the two pages dedicated to the late Lee Bailey, the author of several cozy cookbooks.

To sum up, how can you resist a book that begins with a recipe for whole-wheat peanut butter dog biscuits and ends with a picture of chocolate cake with mocha frosting?

“FoodBook”

The “Delicious Nutritious FoodBook” (Edible School Gardens, $13.99) is a wonderful educational primer for parents and children to encourage better eating habits from the beginning. The book itself looks like an issue of Edible East End, which makes sense because many of the editors helped with it. It is well designed and beautifully laid out. There are recipes from many local chefs, like Joe Realmuto, Bryan Futerman, Jason Weiner, and Noah Schwartz. There are also recipes from the children of local schools and their parents.

It is peppered with quotes and maxims and helpful tidbits from Michael Pollan to Dr. Seuss to A.A. Milne. The contents go from breakfast through greens, grains, rainbow colors, beans, meat, fish, and fruit. Most of the recipes are basic and encourage ways to involve children in the making of a meal, from the straightforward (smoothies) to learning how to chop vegetables and cook grains, meat, and fish.

Learning how to grow vegetables, how to shop, and how to plan meals takes up a good portion of the book, but it is all explained in an accessible way, with beautiful photography to illustrate. I love the anecdotes sprinkled throughout, like the story of Hannah, a fifth grader from Greenport who won a salad dressing recipe contest and now sells her dressings at farmers markets on the North Fork. There are also a lot of Mark Bittman recipes and tips, such as “101 things to do with such and such ingredients.”

From the simple mango chicken skewers from Sen restaurant in Sag Harbor to the more involved duck cassoulet from Orient Inn, this book has something for kids to do themselves and for parents to introduce to their children in the way of more elaborate international dishes. My only criticisms are: I wish there were a recipe index at the back, and there is a measurement error on the Liquid/Dry Measurements page — a gallon is 16 cups, not 15.

As Julia Child said many years ago, “You learn to cook so that you don’t have to be a slave to recipes. You get what’s in season and you know what to do with it.” This book should be available in every school, at every farm stand, and in every household with wee ones. It is a template for teaching good eating habits to our children from the beginning, when it matters most.

“One Pot”

Martha Stewart Living’s “One Pot” cookbook (Clarkson Potter, $26) is a great concept. Each chapter deals with a specific cooking vessel and what you can make in it. This covers everything from Dutch ovens, skillets, slow cookers, roasting pans, and pressure cookers to stockpots and saucepans, with each container getting its own chapter. Sadly, this automatically subtracted two out of six chapters for me, as I do not own a pressure cooker or slow cooker. If you have a better-equipped kitchen than I, then this book could be useful.

The inclusion at the beginning of each recipe of what is called “active time” and “total time” was a bit confusing for me. What this means isn’t explained, so I assumed active time is the time it takes to prep ingredients, in which case it is misleading. As experienced as I am, there is no way I can peel and mince onions, wash, peel, and chop carrots, dice 1 1/4 pounds chicken, slice green beans and herbs, and assemble dumpling dough in 20 minutes. So I think we should assume the active time refers to the beginning stages of cooking, not the mise-en-place beforehand.

Some of the recipes look delicious, and some are offered four ways, such as macaroni and cheese and pork stew. The macaroni and cheese variations include bacon and Gouda or mushrooms and fontina; both sound worth trying. Roasted tilefish on top of potatoes with capers also sounds easy and quick. The lentil soup with cauliflower and cheese looks tempting for a cold winter afternoon.

Since the premise of this book is based on the various types of cooking equipment and how they can be used to make a one-pot meal, it is important to discuss quality of cooking equipment. When it comes to cast-iron skillets, you can find Lodge skillets anywhere, and they are cheap. The key is to season them and keep them seasoned. You also shouldn’t cook anything acidic in them as this creates an off flavor from a chemical reaction between acid and iron. While this is discussed in the book, there is also a picture of chicken braised with lemons in a cast-iron skillet. Don’t do this!

When using a cookie sheet for roasting, it is very important that you have a heavy, sturdy one that won’t buckle or warp in the oven. As I said before, I don’t have a slow cooker or pressure cooker, so I can offer no advice on these. I would simply recommend buying the best quality you can afford.

Every household should have a Dutch oven; these are cast-iron enameled pots with lids. Le Creuset and Staub are the best brands and are frightfully expensive but worth it. I am still using my grandmother’s!

Which brings us to some interesting information, and I suggest you fasten your seat belt, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride. Throughout the “One Pot” cookbook, the cookware used is the Martha Stewart Collection for Macy’s. It looks attractive, so I researched it online. The first article to come up was a recall by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission on close to a million enameled cookware items made for the Martha Stewart Collection for Macy’s between 2007 and 2011. They were made in China and have chipped, causing burns and cuts.

Please invest in reliable, sturdy, reputable cooking equipment, especially when you are cooking with and for your children.

Holidays at Harbor Grill

The Harbor Grill in East Hampton is once again offering a deal for those who purchase restaurant gift cards for the holidays. For every $50 gift card, the purchaser will receive an additional card worth $10; for every $200 gift card, a $50 gift card will be issued as well. The offer will be good until Jan. 1.

Book on Sweets

Susan Pear Meisel, the author of “New York Sweets: A Sugarhound’s Guide to the Best Bakeries, Ice Cream Parlors, Candy Shops, and Other Emporia of Delicious Delights,” will sign books and offer samples of sweets at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill tomorrow at 2 p.m. Admission is free for members, children, and students, and $10 for others. A payment of $29.95 will include museum admission and a copy of the book.

Wine and Cheese Class

Michael Cohen, the wine director and restaurant manager at the 1770 House in East Hampton, will discuss pairing wines with cheese during a 5-to-6 p.m. session in the inn’s downstairs tavern on Dec. 6. The cost is $40 per person, and reservations are a must.

At Sammy’s

In Montauk, Sammy’s will be open through the holidays for lunch and dinner on Fridays through Tuesdays, although private parties may be booked for any night of the week. A weekly specials lineup is as follows: nachos, tacos, and burritos for $15.95 on Mondays; burgers, wings, or riblets with endless fries for $15.95 on Tuesdays; fish night on Fridays, with all-you-can-eat fried fish or popcorn shrimp for $19.95, and stuffed flounder, stuffed shrimp, or stuffed chicken for $21.95 on Saturdays. Sunday is shrimp night, with stir-fried Thai sweet chili shrimp, green curry coconut shrimp, and shrimp mac and cheese on the menu. Sammy’s is also offering catering.

Food Fair

The Amagansett Food Institute will have a holiday gift market featuring local food items at Chancellors Hall on the Stony Brook Southampton campus on Friday, December 5 from 5 to 7:30 p.m., and on Dec. 6 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the student center. More than 15 vendors will sell locally produced food items suitable for holiday gifts. Among them are Amber Waves Farm, the Backyard Brine Pickle Company, Gula Gula Empanadas, Old School Favorites, the North Fork Chocolate Co., and Wyse Organics.

The Friday market will be in conjunction with a holiday windmill lighting on the campus, and there will be cocoa and other treats, crafts and entertainment for children, and a guided tour of the windmill. On Saturday during the market, South Fork Kitchens, the food institute’s cafe at the campus, will sell snacks and coffee.

Slow Food Dinner

The North Fork Table and Inn in Southold will be the site of a three-course dinner sponsored by Slow Food East End next Thursday night at 7. The cost is $95 for Slow Food members, or $105 for nonmembers, which includes tax and gratuity and covers the family-style meal along with a glass of wine with each course. Advance reservations are required and may be made through the Slow Food chapter.

The menu will begin with a roasted mushroom and sweet onion croquette with goat cheese, followed by an entree of paella with chorizo, clams, and chicken, and an apple crostata for dessert.

The Slow Food chapter will present its first Snail of Approval award at the event to the restaurant. The award recognizes restaurants that embody the core Slow Food values of “good, clean, and fair food.”

Smokin’ Wolf BBQ  Specials

Smokin’ Wolf BBQ in East Hampton offers $7.75 lunch specials, which will be emailed to those who join the list at smokinwolfbbq.com. The casual eat-in or take-out restaurant is also taking catering orders for holiday parties.