bluefish, potato salad and peach relish: Kyle

North Fork chefs compete with tricky bluefish in ‘Iron Chef’ type contest
by Vera Chinese

Kyle Strong-Romeo, sous chef at the Jedediah Hawkins Inn plates bluefish with peach relish. (Credit: Vera Chinese)
Kyle Strong-Romeo, sous chef at the Jedediah Hawkins Inn, plates bluefish with peach relish at the “Seafood Throwdown” at Grown on Long Island Day at the Suffolk County Farm in Yaphank. (Credit: Vera Chinese)
How do you take the musty-smelling, sharp-toothed bluefish and make it palatable for the masses?

It helps if you have a quartet of talented North Fork chefs on hand and a whole lot of olive oil for poaching.

Bluefish and tomatoes were the necessary ingredients in an “Iron Chef” type competition at Grown on Long Island Day at the Suffolk County Farm in Yaphank on Friday, Aug. 8. Chefs Kyle Strong-Romeo of the Jedediah Hawkins Inn and Amanda Falcone, a pastry chef at the North Fork Table & Inn, battled chef Steve Amaral of the North Fork Chocolate Co. and his sous chef Rene Oliva for bragging rights.

The chefs were given the two ingredients and money to buy fresh, local produce from the event’s farmers market for the “Seafood Throwdown,” sponsored by New York Sea Grant. The annual competition at the Long Island Farm Bureau-sponsored fair raises awareness of cooking with local seafood.

“No one eats it,” Amaral said of bluefish. “This is bait.”

But judging from the line a people waiting to sample Amaral’s seared and poached bluefish served with a white wine wine, roasted corn and tomato broth, he was just exaggerating.

Seared and poached bluefish. (Credit: Vera Chinese)
Skin-on seared bluefish with a yogurt, dill and cumin fingerling potato salad. (Credit: Vera Chinese)
“They worked amazing magic with bluefish,” said Robin Lee Simmen, a community horticulture specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension, and one of the contest’s three judges. “They were very different presentations, but both were fresh and bright.”

But it was team Strong-Romeo/Falcone that the judges, which included Suffolk County Community College’s culinary arts director Rich Freilich and Edible East End deputy editor Eileen Duffy, selected as the best.

“Bluefish is tough,” said Strong-Romeo, who won over the judges with skin-on seared bluefish served with a yogurt, dill and cumin fingerling potato salad. “It has a distinct flavor and it’s a fish that you need certain ingredients to cook well.”

Bluefish are abundant in New York waters from May through November.
http://northforker.com/2014/08/09/north-fork-chefs-compete-with-tricky-bluefish-in-iron-chef-type-contest/

Artist Max Moran’s North Fork scenes at Jedediah Hawkins
by Carrie Miller

“ New Suffolk Moorings” 30 X 40 Oil on Canvas (Credit: Courtesy)
Scenic vistas meet oil and canvas in North Fork artist Max Moran’s newest exhibition series, which explores man’s relationship with the weather.

The series, titled “Fair Winds and Tides,” will be unveiled at the Jedediah Hawkins Barn Gallery on Aug. 16. The sixth annual exhibition at the Jamesport restaurant’s gallery will remain on display through Sept. 14.

Moran, who has lived on the North Fork since 1996 and currently resides in Batting Hollow, paints East End land and seascapes.

“Being so close to the waters of the Long Island Sound and the Peconic Bay, there is always this theme of being tied to the weather and the water. [The work] explores our relationship with the two,” Moran said. “I do my best to try to picture it and document it. It humanizes us. It is something we each have to encounter and explore.”

Standing out in the open air, Moran paints each piece on location to have “a pure interpretation” of the scene.

About 30 large works will be on display, as well as about 15 smaller vignettes he created of “pedestrians in the rain,” he said.

An opening reception for the annual event will take place Saturday, Aug. 16 from 5 p.m. to 8 pm.

The Jedediah Hawkins Inn is located at 400 South Jamesport Avenue Jamesport, NY (631) 722-2900.
http://northforker.com/2014/08/08/artist-max-morans-north-fork-scenes-at-jedediah-hawkins/

Five Reasons To Visit Long Island’s Wine Country
by Mary Beth Albright

In past decades, Long Island’s North Fork was the forgotten sister of its glamorous sibling to the south that everyone always talked about: the Hamptons, the Hamptons, the Hamptons. But in recent years, savvy travelers have discovered the north for its unspoiled shoreline, superior wineries, farms and farm-to-table restaurants, and a relieving lack of crowds that come with them. The increased interest has also come with an increased quality of chefs, inns and wines produced in the region, along with great surprises in store for anyone who hasn’t driven (or taken the jitney) the couple of hours from New York City lately. Here are five reasons to visit:
Taste vintages at Kontokosta Winery
Rarely do tasting rooms and wines equally impress. The 62-acre winery in Greenport is the farthest east on the North Fork, and boasts views of the rocky bluffs and Long Island Sound from an expansive lawn. Both reds and whites are extraordinary here, and they taste even better in the sleek tasting room — exposed steel beams, floor-to-ceiling windows and copper communal tables were designed as a modern interpretation of a 19th-century barn.
Eat at the North Fork Table & Inn
North Fork Table restaurant, whose executive chef Gerry Hayden clinched a 2014 James Beard Award finalist nod for Best Chef: Northeast, is the standard-bearer for dining in the area. With an understated, comfortable dining room as the backdrop, Hayden’s team showcases refined American dishes that focus on local ingredients, including the area’s incredible seafood. Can’t score a dinner reservation? Catch the North Fork Table lunch truck in the inn’s parking lot every Thursday through Monday afternoon.
Visit Shelter Island
A 10-minute ferry ride (with your car or without) across Peconic Bay transports you to another world, one without traffic lights but with a drug-store lunch counter. Shelter Island rests between the North and South forks. There, you’ll find the Mashomack Nature Preserve for hiking and calm public spots like Sunset Beach for relaxing. But if you must visit the Hamptons, Shelter Island’s South Ferry is the easiest way to get there — simply drive from the northern part of the island to the southern to catch the boat. And if you’re up for an adventure, take the once yearly ferry from Montauk to Martha’s Vineyard on Aug. 10, returning on Aug. 12.
Stay at the Jedediah Hawkins Inn
Located on 22 acres of farmland, the restored inn was the 1863 home of the eponymous sea captain owner. Listed on the National Registry of Historical Places, Jedediah Hawkins Inn’s five rooms and one suite boast fireplaces and works from local artists such as Rob White. Its fine-dining restaurant, headed by executive chef Craig Attwood, is complemented by a speakeasy — we’re talking secret passageways and trap doors here — where casual small plates are offered. Book the Belvedere Suite, which has a private cupola with 360-degree views of surrounding vineyards.
Shop in Greenport
The village provides pleasantly walkable boutique shopping (jewelry, pottery, custom tees) right along the water and terrific restaurants for lunch (The Cheese Emporium by Bruce & Son) and dinner (Noah’s). And since you’re all the way out in Greenport, which is almost at the fork’s end, drive to the tip and visit Orient Beach State Park to swim, watch ospreys and great blue herons, fish, hike or kayak.
http://blog.forbestravelguide.com/five-reasons-to-visit-long-islands-wine-country

Summer specials at Jedediah Hawkins in Jamesport

Wednesday July 16, 2014 2:15 PM By Erica Marcus

(Credit: Randee Daddona)

July is busting out all over at Jedediah Hawkins Inn. Craig Attwood, who took over the kitchen earlier this year from Richard Kanowsky, is making good use of the Jamesport inn’s lovely grounds.

On Thursday nights, Attwood serves barbecued chicken, pork ribs, corn and cornbread starting at 5 p.m. ($28). And an old fire truck is on hand to dispense craft beer from Riverhead’s Crooked Ladder.

Fridays there’s live music on the patio. Sundays, starting at 3 p.m., Attwood serves a traditional clam bake with lobster, clams, mussels, corn and potatoes ($30). And Thursday through Sunday, the new front patio hosts a happy hour from 4 to 6 p.m.with $5 wines by the glass, spiked sorbets and nutty floats such as lemon-ginger sorbet with limoncello or raspberry sorbet with Gosling’s Black Seal rum and club soda.

What did you decide to do for the surfboard and why? I decided to concentrate the waves in to a single drop as it held my concentration in focus. It is a holographic expression of all of the sea being contained within a single drop of water. I have titled it “The Last Drop.”
How does the environment affect the work you do? My work demands uninterrupted, concentrated hours filled with natural light. Painting for 10 hours a day is possible because a dip in the sea, a walk in the garden, or a breath of the sky restores and refreshes me.
How is the Hamptons evident in your work? I create paintings that are timeless and eternal. I am inspired by that part of humanity that is beyond time and space and by the present eternal moment. The rhythm of paint syncs with the rhythm of the sea for me. I spray it, splash it, spread it onto the canvas with similar abandon to express the emotion of limitlessness expansion I perceive here on the East End. In the portraits, the glances and emotion must be timeless, as if a glance from a hundred years ago, or a hundred years from now.
How does your being deaf affect your other senses? It wasn’t until later in life that I realized that deprivation of any of one’s senses could heighten any remaining senses. I leaned more toward the visual perhaps with such acuity that not only do I lip-read, but I also take in all the body language of those around me. I appreciate emotions coming through the surfaces of everything surrounding me. They can be subtle or raging. How my subject or I feel at a given moment will influence how I paint, thus more or less delivering emotional hints to the beholder. To be surrounded by art only affords this continuation and enhancement of the subjective experience.
Read more at http://hamptons-magazine.com/lifestyle/articles/artists-surfboards-benefit-the-southampton-hospital#XbdKdIpIcJdhwHZV.99

Improvisation and the Combi Oven

Craig Attwood is cooking with both at Jedediah Hawkins

Author: Long Island Pulse | Published: Thursday, June 26, 2014

Most folks don’t stay at a B&B for a rack of lamb. It’s more about a crackling fireplace, a cozy reading nook or a pastoral setting. A decent scone is simply a bonus. Jedediah Hawkins Inn in Jamesport is the exception. For years guests have come from Manhattan and beyond, while locals book their special occasions in advance, all for a multi-course meal at the Inn. Many don’t bother to stay the night, the food is just that good.It’s 3pm on a Tuesday and a customer saunters in to request an unusually late lunch. For the restaurant’s newest executive chef Craig Attwood, there’s absolutely no problem whipping up a meal during off-hours, even if the kitchen’s closed. In fact, he admits he prefers a special request or a fussy eater. “When someone comes in and wants something special or says ‘Hey, can you make this?’ I like that. It pisses some people off, but I like it,” he said.

He’s even gone as far as making a zabaglione for a customer at a former restaurant who had a serious hankering for the Italian dessert. And then there’s the regular who comes in to Jedediah for a special all-foie gras menu. Attwood gets a kick out of catering to the fellow who has an affinity for eight courses of Hudson Valley foie gras. “Sometimes it’s only three courses, sometimes more. It depends on how he’s feeling.” No matter the mood, he’ll often end it with a dessert, such as cherries or a brioche—generously laced with fatty goose liver, naturally.

Attwood said that lately he’s big on cooking with a “combi oven: a technique using combination steam and heat, slow cooking at a low temperature,” particularly for his famous garlic, thyme and coriander seed lamb dish (that comes with a side of fresh garbanzo beans and pea shoots). There’s also his seared Montauk skate, served with toasty basmati rice, dotted with raisins, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and a miso butter. The dish came to fruition when the chef inherited 10 pounds of miso after taking over the restaurant and, to him, the basmati and miso butter created the perfect marriage of flavors—especially when served with the local fish.

Like many of the area’s restaurants, Attwood is taking full advantage of Long Island’s farm and seafood bounty and he’s excited to build a relationship with the people who will supply his food. “This is the fun part,” he said. “I wake up in the morning and see what came in. If the boats aren’t going out and they don’t have monkfish, and the guys have something else, I’ll change my menu based on that.” Attwood generally meets with his sous chef and begins to wax about what might go well with, say, the local farmer’s fresh shitake, and they’ll put it with that fish, even though it’s not a monk. “Sweating your ass off and being on your feet wears on you, but the exciting part is when you get to work and sit down and write down your dishes with stuff like that local fish—that’s what I love the most.”

– See more at: http://www.lipulse.com/dining-nightlife/article/improvisation-and-the-combi-oven#sthash.j64o92K1.dpuf

TripAdvisor certificate of excellence 2014

For the third year in a row, Jedediah Hawkins Inn has been awarded TripAdvisor’s Certificate of Excellence. The prestigious award honors hospitality excellence and is given to hotels that consistently receive outstanding traveler reviews.  President of  TripAdvisor for Business said “the Certificate of Excellence gives top performing establishments around the world the recognition they deserve, based on feedback from those that matter most–their customers.”

We are very grateful to our wonderful guests, who take the time to write reviews, and to our amazing team, who deserve this accolade.

FT article on North Fork

Unpretentious And Awesome: A Guide To The North Fork
This week, we’re launching Gothamist’s travel content, Gothamist Getaways. Four times a year, we’ll have a week of posts featuring looks at travel, food, products and tips, near and far, for making your trips more pleasurable. So enjoy and let us know if you have any hints for us—email travel@gothamist.com.

Maybe you got the idea from GIRLS. But the North Fork has been a great escape for city folk for decades. With inexpensive mom-and-pop motels, farmers and oystermen working land and shore, and a truly unpretentious vibe, The North Fork, is an all-season destination. The only downside to this bucolic, charming stretch of Long Island is many of the area beaches are a bit rocky.

GETTING THERE: Put Greenport, where you’ll be spending the night, as your ultimate destination in your GPS. En route, stop in Mattituck to visit The Village Cheese Shop and stock up on a bit of charcuterie and cheese to take with you to go (you’ll appreciate them when you’re tasting wine later on). For those without a car, you can take the Hampton Jitney or the Long Island Rail Road.,

WHERE TO STAY The Silver Sands Motel is a family run motel with a small private (not rocky) beach. They are running a special until May 15th, two nights at the motel, a local bottle of wine and a $50 gift certificate to use at one of three fantastic area restaurants (The Frisky Oyster, Noah’s,Biere) all for $250 plus tax. If more luxurious digs are your thing, check into Shinn Estates or The Jedediah Hawkins Inn.

http://gothamist.com/2014/03/26/jauntsetter_guide_to_the_north_fork.php