Eat Local: News From Lansdowne’s Sycamore

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

When Lansdowne farmer’s market opens at the end of May, so will a new booth: the Lansdowne Table. Chef Sam Jacobson of Sycamore will be selling some of the things you’ll find at the restaurant—drunken raisins, completed dishes, etc. What makes this exciting is that he’ll also be making some locally produced cheeses and other items available when he can get them. That includes the Oak Shade cheddar cheese (available through Green Meadow Farm) used at last night’s Green Meadow Farm to Table dinner.

The dinner, by the way, was stellar.

If you’re not familiar with Sycamore, consider stopping in next time you’re in Lansdowne. Yes, I know what you might be thinking: Delaware County, particularly that part of Delaware County, is a bit of a no-man’s-land when it comes to good, non-chain restaurants. I like to think that Sycamore opening up five minutes from my house two years ago is a karmic payback for all those times we had to drive into Philadelphia for dinner. Philadelphia Magazine voted it one of thetop 30 restaurants in the Philadelphia area and Philadelphia Inquirer restaurant critic Craig LeBan gave it agood review. My husband and I eat there fairly often, although we miss their Sunday brunch terribly (they stopped doing that last year).

When we first received the email about the Green Meadow Farm dinner, I was excited. And then I got this email the night prior:

Here is a list of what Chef Jacobson bought at Green Meadow Farm today.  He will be improvising tomorrow night’s Farm to Table Dinner.

Baby Back Ribs, Capons, Brisket, Butter, Cream, Oak Shade Raw Aged Cheddar, Heirloom Tomato Juice, Salsify, Fiddleheads, Claytonia, Baby Arugula, Golden & Chiogga Beets, Baby Fennel, Red Cabbage, Rabe, Leeks, Cucumbers, Pea Shoots, Asparagus, Rhubarb, Wild Garlic, Spring Onions, Strawberries, Honeysuckle, Chives, Cilantro, Chervil, Thyme, Mint, Kaffir Lime Leaves, Dill.

Yep, I immediately started drooling. And then Chef Jacobson disclosed that he picked the majority of the produce himself with the help of some of the folks at Green Meadow Farm, several of which were at the dinner. For someone interested in eating locally grown foods, that’s just . . . well, fantastic. And the dinner didn’t disappoint, let me tell you.

We started off with an amuse bouche—a spoonful of honeysuckle sorbet. Ian Brendle, one of the farm’s owners, told us later that this was made with honeysuckle syrup that his girlfriend makes from honeysuckle blossoms collected from the farm. She says she makes a tea concoction of sorts from the blossoms, although Ian’s father noted it takes forever to collect the five gallons of blossoms needed to make the syrup. Oh, and if you have honeysuckle on your property and want to use it, make sure it’s the edible variety—some honeysuckle blossoms would make a nasty-tasting syrup. The sorbet itself was lightly sweet and quite good.

Next up was chilled heirloom tomato soup made with coconut, Kaffir lime leaf and cilantro. While everything was really good, this soup was my second favorite dish of the night. Yesterday was pretty warm as far as spring in Philadelphia goes, so it was nice to have a cold soup. The coconut milk used (not local) was done with a very light hand—just enough to give the soup a bit of creaminess. The lime was very evident but not heavy in the slightest. The cilantro was the last flavor to come through, bright and delicious. Oh, and let me tell you about the heirloom tomato juice this soup was made with! Ian let us know that it is pressed through a sieve by local Amish women. The flavor was really wonderful, especially after suffering through crappy, tasteless supermarket tomatoes all winter.

We then moved on to seared scallops with butter roasted salsify, minted fiddleheads, and pea shoots. Chef Jacobson always seems to have scallops on the menu, and no matter how he makes them, they’re always excellent. Sadly, they’re not locally grown, but that’s okay—my guesstimate is that at least 90 percent of the ingredients from last night’s dinner were. I’ve cooked salsify before, but I liked last night’s version better. The fiddleheads had such a great, fresh taste. The pea shoots, by the way, were actually Claytonia, a green I’d never heard of before. As a whole, it was a really nice dish.

And then there were the main courses. Yes, courses. Chef Jacobson served up three dishes, all served family style at each table. The first was capon in mustard cream with caramelized leeks, spring onions and baby fennel rice, along with asparagus spears. The capon was just . . . really, really good. The asparagus was a little on the thick side but still tasty. My only complaint about this dish (and the entire dinner) is that I might have enjoyed more sauce—it was very lightly sauced.

The house-smoked barbecue brisket and ribs with sauteed red cabbage rabe with wild garlic, Oak Shade cheddar mashed potatoes, and fresh watermelon relish was something I could eat every day of the week. The brisket and ribs came from aged angus beef, and both were tender and yummy. The red cabbage rabe was a first for me—I’d never heard of it. Ian’s father told us that the shoots sent up by overwintered brassica vegetables—the rabe—are all edible (and delicious, I might add). The wild garlic made this dish. The pungeant fresh garlic added a very specific taste and I couldn’t get enough of. It’s hard to make bad mashed potatoes (okay, I guess that’s not entirely true), but these were fantastic. Just enough cheese, perfect texture.

There was also a baby arugula salad (micro greens, really) with roasted beets, cucumbers, and a creamy dill and chive dressing. Also good, particularly the dressing.

But the last dish was my favorite: strawberry rhubarb compote with a shortcake biscuit and Lancaster cream and custard. I’m much more of a cheese person than a sweet dessert person, so it’s strange for me to rave over a dessert. This was so perfect and so simple, though, and it was insanely good. Maybe it was the light ending to dinner or maybe it was just the flavor of the fruit and the texture of the biscuit. Chef Jacobson noted that they are considering adding a version of it to the regular Sycamore menu, so hope springs eternal that I’ll get to have it again.

So, there you go: last night’s Green Meadow Farm to Table dinner. I feel like a moron for all my superlatives, but the truth is that it’s in the top five meals I’ve eaten at a restaurant. Period.