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Berkshire Tidbits: Winter Comfort Food
By Judith Lerner,
10:55AM / Saturday, February 20, 2016
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Well, winter is ensconced, even if it is not as dreadful as the last one. Coziness, comfort, heartiness and abundance are all welcome in our food right now.

Soup. Stew. Burbling baked and potted meals. Lavish sauces and drinks are what we want.


Rubiner's array of cheese and charcuterie for wine and cheese pairing seminar.

Let's start with upcoming cooking classes, the first of which is a cheese and wine pairing seminar at Rubiner's Cheesemongers & Grocers on Saturday, Feb. 20 from 3 to 5 p. m. for $75. Call 413-528-0488 to register. Owner/cheesemonger Matt Rubiner also gives private classes and seminars.

This week's first hands-on cooking class is actually titled Comfort Food Classics.

Chef Julie Gale, owner of At the Table Cooking School in Hillsdale, N. Y., will present her winter comfort foods class — which was postponed from Sunday, Jan. 17 — this Sunday, Feb. 21, from 3 to 5 p.m. as part of the Cooking at The Chef's Shop series.

Julie says her menu of beef barley soup, turkey pot pie and oatmeal raisin cookies, using local and organic ingredients where she can, is "wonderfully retro and will warm your family from the outside in with childhood memories of coming in from the cold to hot soup, pot pie and homemade cookies."

The two hour hands-on class, limited to 12 students, concludes with the meal the class has prepared.

The cost is $60 per person for a single class, $150 for a series of three. Payment is required in advance with a 48 hour cancellation policy. The Chef's Shop, 31 Railroad St. in Great Barrington, offers class students a 10-percent discount on purchases made on a class day.

For more details or to reserve a place in any classes: 1-800-237-5284, or 413-528-0135 or  Email@TheChefsShop.com.

Then, on Tuesday, Feb. 23, from 4 to 5 p.m., Matt Rubiner will be giving the first of a free monthly after school series of classes, Introduction to Cheese for Kids, he calls "very early training in cheese connoisseurship for children old enough to talk and not throw cheese at me," at his shop, Rubiner's Cheesemongers & Grocers or at his café, Rubi's Coffee & Sandwiches across the alley depending on class size. He wants to encourage what he has noticed as a welcome trend in his customers' children appreciating his cheeses.

Matt explained his teaching method.

"Students will learn, through rigorous snacking and spirited discussion, the basics of cheese, how it’s made, who makes it, where it’s from, et cetera."

He said that "Classes will be small, around 12 kids, so everybody gets a personalized, hands-on cheese experience. Don’t worry if a class fills up," Matt said. "We'll hold them frequently."

He encourages parents to "lurk in the background."

Call the number above to register your child for this unusual opportunity.

Periodically, Bob Sheets of ProSharp Mobile Knife Sharpening Service brings his belt grinder filled truck to The Chef's Shop, 31 Railroad St. in Great Barrington, to sharpen your kitchen knives, scissors, garden tools and every type of blade for $1 per blade inch while you wait. He will be there this Saturday, Feb. 20 from 10 a. m. to 12 p. m. Blades may also be dropped off at the shop before to be picked up any time after 12.

Haven Bakery & Café in Lenox and Great Barrington has created winter preorder take-out menus.

The Haven Supper Club menu for the week of Feb. 22 will be:

Hazelnut encrusted rack of lamb, with Swiss chard, potato gratin and fig and ginger sauce.

Slow roasted citrus salmon with a pickled beet kale salad and toasted almond couscous.

Butternut squash spaetzle with sage-chicken meatballs, spinach and roasted garlic cream sauce.

Entrées come with soup or salad and cost $22 for one to three dinners ordered, $75 for four dinners ordered, $110 for six dinners, $200 for 12 dinners. They can be any of the dinners.

Order by Tuesday, pick up at the bakery on Friday. The staff suggests people can order for different meals and can choose among that week's options. Call Haven, 413 637-8948 or eMail at  havencafebakery@gmail.com, to order and get on their list to received upcoming menus.

 

Did I say we need soup? Wild Oats Market Co-op, 320 Main St./Route 2, in Williamstown heard me.

Starting last Wednesday, Feb. 17, through all the Wednesdays in March, from noon to 1 p.m., Wild Oats will offer free samples of a different housemade Soup of the Week each week. They will give out the recipe and have all the ingredients on hand, some of them at sale prices.

Wild Oats produce, meat and cheese manager Leigh-Anne Nicastro told me that she and grocery manager Nicole Delmolino are collaborating to encourage their customers to feel brave enough to make soup.

"It grew out of a trip to Eataly," the enormous and lavish Italian market in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, Leigh-Anne said. "We were inspired to introduce people to making soup. It's so good for you as we all know. It's so healthy and nutritious. Soup definitely nourishes the body," she said.

And the soul.

My own father, who would be 107 if he were still alive, did not consider it a meal without soup.

While she was making this week's minestrone last Monday, Leigh-Anne said, someone watching her asked whether it would be going onto the hot bar that day.

"Not until Wednesday," she answered.

"Why so long?"

"Soup takes time."

"But, where are the vegetables," her questioner asked.

"You put those in the day of, You don't want them to get soggy," she explained.

She said the Soup of the Week goes onto each Wednesday's hot bar at about 10:30 a. m. Enough will be made to go into the cooler for customers who want to buy some after Wednesday.

But Leigh-Anne and Nicole are hoping people will choose to buy the available ingredients and make the soup themselves.


A Thank You Thursday sampling station last month for Superbowl Sunday food at Guido's Fresh Marketplace in Pittsfield.

This coming Thursday, Feb. 25, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., will be the second Thank You Thursday of the season at Guido's Fresh Marketplace stores in Pittsfield, 413 443-9912, 1020 South St./Routes 7 and 20, and Great Barrington, 413 528-9255. This month's theme is Staff Favorites.

Vendors and Guido's kitchens and departments offer tastes positioned around the stores throughout the day. Recipes are offered. Featured items are priced at special deal prices.

This month there will be some specials on Bola Granola and Sidehill Yogurt as well as Pamela's Gluten-free products and Bob's Red Mill and some of Mazzeo's sausages.

Shoppers receive 10 percent discount that day and a coupon for 10% discount at a future date within the following month. A $200 Guido's gift card is raffled off in each store.

January's Thank You emphasized the upcoming Superbowl. Perhaps this one will offer Leap Year Day items or St. Patrick's Day fare.

 

There will be some wine dinners next week.

Alta Restaurant & Wine Bar co-owner Aurelien Telle and his staff announced their next 5-course  5-wine dinner will offer wines of Portugal and a Portuguese-inspired menu on Wednesday, Feb. 24, at 6 p.m.

"In collaboration with the team at Spirited and Mary Daire, wine representative for Ruby Wines, who will describe and talk about the wines we will pour that night, we are very excited to feature a Portuguese dinner," he said.

The cost of the dinner is $65 plus tax and gratuity. Call Alta, 34 Church St. in Lenox, at 413-637-0003 to reserve seats. ASAP.

The menu and wines are as follows:

mussels Casino with chorizo

Sao Joao, Sparkling Rose, Bruto, 2013

bacalhau/Portuguese dried salted cod with chips, arugula & hazelnut salad

Poco do Lobo, Arinto, Blanco, 1995

braised lamb with paprika, peppers and saffran risotto

Ferreirinha, Papa Figos, Douro, 2014

Toledo cheese with Ben's olives bread, micro greens and Xeres/Sherry

Ataide Semedo, Bairrada, Red, 2012

pastels de Nata/Portuguese egg custard tarts with grape chutney

Don Antonia Tawny Port

 

On Thursday, Feb. 25, at 6:30 p. m., Rouge Restaurant & Bistro in West Stockbridge, 413 232-4111, 3 Center St. www.rougerestaurant.com, is having a Tuscan wine dinner featuring wines from producers including Castello di Bossi, Fattoria Le Pupille, Tua Rita and Tenuta Valdipiatta.

Chef and co-owner William Merelle will be serving a Tuscan menu to be disclosed only at the dinner. But William's wife Maggie Merelle said many people come to all of their wine dinners so there is not much room for disappointment.

Rouge wine dinners are evenings filled with trivia, wine, fine food, prizes and more. The cost of the dinner is $100 plus tax and gratuity. Call to reserve.

 

On Friday, Feb. 26, Wheatleigh, 413-637-0610, in the elbow of West Hawthorne Road in Lenox, will have a wine dinner with wines from Napa Valley Grgich Hills Estate. But this wine dinner has been sold out for the last few weeks, Wheatleigh assistant general manager Sybrandt Windell told me.

If you want to enjoy a wine dinner at Wheatleigh with a menu created by executive chef Jeffrey Thompson, reserve right away for the Spanish wine dinner, A Journey through Spain, being held on Friday, March 4, at 6:30 p.m. The cost of the dinner will be $145 including tax and gratuity. Call Wheatleigh to make reservations.

The dinner was the idea of Shane Lessard, area sales manager and partner in Folio Fine Wine Partners of Boston which imports family-owned wines from many regions of Spain for this dinner. Lessard will speak about the wines during dinner.

Wines served at the dinner may be purchased through Spirited Wines of Lenox at a special price for Wheatleigh dinner guests.

menu & wine pairing

selection of canapés

2013 Fillaboa Albarino

duck confit press with quince marmalade, frisée and pistachio

2011 Palacios Remondo “Placet”

loup de mer/Mediterranean sea bass with sweet potato, black trumpet mushrooms and Brussels sprouts

2009 Mas de Leda, Vinas Viejas

lamb saddle with white bean ragout, artichokes and pearl onion

2011 Palacio Remondo “Propiedad”, Grenacha

fig: poached figs, crème Catalana and fig ice cream

2010 Vall Llach “Porrera” Priorat

 

On Saturday, Feb. 27, from 8 to 11, the Yoked Parish of Becket will again present its monthly community breakfast to which all are welcome, at Becket Federated Church, 413-623-5217, 3381 Main St. across from the Becket Washington elementary school, just past the intersection with Route 8.

This will be just the right comfort menu of homemade scrambled eggs, pancakes, French toast, bacon, sausage, ham, hash, home fries, fresh fruit, juices, tea and coffee. And, sometimes, homemade desserts.

Adults are $6; children under 12, $3.

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