The Corner Pantry

Chef Neill Howell won the Mason Dixon Master Chef Tournament in 2013, when he was working at Bond Street Social. I managed to snag the restaurant for a slot in our cookbook, Baltimore Chef's Table, but chef Howell had other plans. When he left Bond Street Social to open his own place, I transferred his info to a sidebar. Sadly, that sidebar was cut by our ruthless editor (along with a bunch of other stuff). Yes, Neill, I am apologizing again.

Turns out, change is good. Although he's not in the book, he is cooking up a storm at the Corner Pantry, a Balto-British cafe in Lake Falls Village. Recently, Mr Minx and I were invited to a media dinner hosted by chef Howell and his wife, Emily.

The Corner Pantry is located in the spot that used to house Banksy's. Gone are the faux-Burberry wall decorations; they've been replaced by fresh white subway tile and a large stainless counter atop which sit the day's wares. The first thing one notices is the pastries made by pastry chef, Julie Sutula: scones; crumpets; pop tarts; cookies, muffins; biscuits; and even Cornish pasties (a meat pie). Next to that is the cold counter, which holds the day's selection of salads and proteins. For $10.99 a pound, customers can load up on goodies like salmon, kimchi soba noodle salad, rice and cauliflower salad, etc., to eat there or to take home. A variety of breakfast and lunch sandwiches are also available, plus a few other dishes from the kitchen.

A selection of menus

We were served items from both the cafe and the catering menu. It was quite a lovely spread, and I'm betting chef Neill and Emily do a bang-up job with catering. The crab and corn fritter, which we were served as a passed app, was delightful. Scrummy, as they say across the pond.

Biscuits with tomato bacon jam

On the table were plates of Sutula's moist biscuits, which were hard to stop eating with a dollop of Chef Neill's tomato bacon jam.

Ploughman's Board

We started dinner in earnest with the Ploughman's board. Typically, a ploughman's lunch includes bread, cheese, and a thick brown vinegary chutney-like stuff called Branston pickle. After having a particularly constipating one in England in the 80s, simply hearing the word "ploughman," saddens me. But the ploughman's at Corner Pantry is a delight of tangy, toasty, and meaty elements. We were served tender ham hock, some toasted raisin spelt bread, a dollop of goat's cheese, a wee Scotch quail egg, and a bowl of piccalilli relish.

Kimchi soba noodle salad

The main course was served family style and included the restaurant's popular kimchi soba noodle salad. We're big fans of soba, our noodle of choice for cold salads. Chef Neill's was spicy and garlicky and so good we came back for more a couple days later.

Lamb Kofte with buttermilk tahini

Another dish off the catering menu is lamb kofte lollipops, which were served with a buttermilk tahini dressing. The kofte, elongated meatballs of Middle Eastern origin, were moist and redolent of cumin. (We also snagged a couple more of these when we came back for a repeat visit on the weekend.)

Roasted peach salad

The roasted peach salad included local peaches and Big City farms greens (which are also available for purchase in the grab-and-go case at the back of the restaurant) along with red onions--a delicious combination of ingredients for a simple tossed salad.

Roasted rockfish

We also tasted rockfish, simply roasted and served with lemon. This is something that would typically be a featured protein on the cold counter, like the roasted salmon that was available recently. Simple but very good. There was also a side dish of lemony rainbow chard (not pictured) that I could not stop eating.

Donut hole on passion fruit butterscotch and tiramisu

Dessert, of course, was also served. There was a lovely little tiramisu served in a mason jar, and a donut hole with passion fruit butterscotch. Say yes to passion fruit butterscotch! It was fab. Donuts are a Saturday special at the Corner Pantry, and if you're lucky, that donut hole/butterscotch combo will be featured. (Check their Facebook page for Donut Saturday announcements.)

We also took home a selection of the Corner Pantry's baked goods, all of which were uniformly delicious and made a fine breakfast the next morning.

Just a couple days later, I decided I didn't want to cook dinner. We don't live far from the Corner Pantry, so we popped in for some carry-out, which included roast salmon, kimchi soba salad, kofte, and a crab cake, which was one of the week's kitchen specials. And I must say...it was very special.

Crab cake and salad with homemade tartar sauce

Made with Maryland crab meat, this baby was almost all meat. I didn't notice any filler at all, and the seasoning had a lovely lemon flavor. Chef Neill may be from the UK, but it seems that his soul is firmly in Baltimore. I highly recommend this crab cake, so be sure to give it a try if it's available!

We recommend everything at the Corner Pantry, actually, and are happy that we finally had a chance to get there. We hope to become regulars. :)

For more info on menus, catering, etc., check out the Corner Pantry Web site:
http://www.corner-pantry.com/



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Cookbook Review - World Class Cakes

When I was approached to review World Class Cakes: 250 Classic Recipes from Boston Cream Pie to Madeleines and Muffins, I jumped at the chance. I'm always searching the Internet for cake recipes and wishing there were one source for all of the things that I want to bake.

And now there is.

This book, by Roger Pizey, contains recipes for layer cakes, loaf cakes, cheesecakes, and little cakes like macarons and madeleines. There's even a recipe for canelés, an intensely flavored mini cake from Bordeaux. Pizey, currently the executive chef at Marco Pierre White's London restaurant, Marco, also includes the recipe for the lemon tart from another one of White's restaurants, Harvey's. And even without knowing any of this, I detected a British influence as I read through the book the first time. There are no decadent, over-the-top, American-style superindulgences in World Class Cakes, (although there is a rather nice version of Boston Cream Pie). Rather, the cakes are indeed "world class," and include treats from Brazil, Japan, and Scandinavia.

One can't review a cookbook without actually trying a couple of the recipes. While so many of them caught my eye at first--and many of them involved ingredients I usually have on hand--I settled on the simple Cardamom Coffee Cake. Baked in a bundt pan, the cake involved the basics--butter, flour, eggs--but called for superfine sugar. Actually, all of the recipes in World Class Cakes that call for white sugar call for superfine sugar, and that's really the only issue I have with the book. I usually keep a box on hand, but it's not the easiest product to find, even in our over-stocked American supermarkets. So while superfine sugar melts faster and perhaps produces a finer texture to cakes, the 50,000,000 other cake recipes that involve regular sugar can't be wrong. I used plain old granulated sugar, but if you're a stickler for following directions, whiz your sugar in a food processor or high-speed blender for a minute or so to make your own superfine.

Back to that cake. As befitting its name, it was strongly cardamom-flavored and its slightly dry texture went exceptionally well with a cup of coffee. Tea, too. 

I also tried the recipe for chocolate whoopie pies, and they were a big success. The batter spread just enough to form perfect little cakelets, which I then sandwiched with marshmallow. Beware the lemon whoopie pie recipe, however--it doesn't have enough flour in it, so it will not work. If you want to make them anyway, increase the flour until it equals the amount of flour + cocoa in the chocolate pie recipe. 

So--a fun book, all in all, with recipes for cakes most folks have never heard of that are pretty intriguing and seem pretty easy. And the photography and food styling is great, making everything look very accessible and not imposingly fancy. I'm sure I'll reach for my copy many times in the future.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats.

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Posted on Minxeats.com.