New Menu at Supper Puts Grains Front and Center
A sampling of the new grains dishes on the menu at Supper
A wise dietician once told me that the best way to try a new food you’re nervous about cooking yourself is to find a restaurant that cooks it—and cooks it right. That’s pretty much what Supper’s new grains menu is all about—cooking right the things we home cooks haven’t quite mastered—by incorporating hearty grains into imaginative dishes and putting a whole new spin on, say, quinoa.
“The grain is the star,” says chef/owner Mitch Prensky. “Everything else—the protein, veggies—they’re the accompaniment.”
The idea to make grains the mains came after Prensky pondered the predominance of pasta in Italian cuisine. With his new menu, he’s putting an American spin on it, and instead of using empty-calorie carbs, Prensky is exploring new textures and flavors with more nutritious grains, like quinoa and barley.
His other motivation: vegans. “I had a lot of vegans coming in to eat, and I just realized I’d be an idiot not to make something delicious for them,” he says. Can I get an amen?
His love song to vegans comes in the form of the new red quinoa pilaf, a warm bed of quinoa topped with asparagus, snap peas, edamame, radish and a drizzle of housemade almond milk that’s as thick as a cream sauce and spiked with sage.
The other offerings include a toasted barley risotto with local mushrooms, bagel spaetzle with house-smoked salmon, and Buffalo grits that basically taste like wings on some seriously creamy steroids. Yes, they are delicious. (I should know—I housed a plate last night).
New creations are on the way, too. Prensky says he’s experimenting will all kinds of whole grains back in the kitchen, including millet, rye berries, freekeh and bulgur. “I’m excited about all the new options,” he says. “It really got us thinking about all the things we can do with these new and different ingredients that you won’t find many other places.”
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