Cerulean - Revisit

So, Cerulean has a new chef—Alan Sternberg -- and I hadn’t been back since he starting cooking. I have had some ups and downs with Cerulean, but it was time to go back. We are lucky to have such a modern place in Indy with such innovative work going on in the kitchen, and I was happy to see what the new chef had in store.

The menu has gone back to a more traditional appetizer/entrée/dessert format, which I guess may be more pleasing to the masses but I sort of enjoyed the small, medium and large plates of days gone by. But regardless, for me, it is all about how good the food is, regardless of the size of the portion.

tartare

I started out with their version of beef tartare ($12). Of course I couldn’t pass this up. The beef was very high quality and very tender and I really enjoyed the surprising take on the flavors—not your typical beef tartare flavor profile. There was a distinct Asian flavor with hoisin sauce and black garlic. I loved the freshness brought from the pickled ramps, watermelon radish and romaine and the little bit of crunch from the crispy quinoa. And the presentation (as you can see) was beautiful.

My second favorite appetizer was probably my friend’s beet cured wild salmon ($15) with white bean puree, olive oil, clementine and crispy garlic. I loved the acidity and freshness from the clementine and the salmon was really tasty—with that slight pickled flavor. This is my kind of appetizer—light with a lot of fresh, crisp flavor. The beans kept it somewhat grounded though.

salmon

Hubby had a special—the braised pork cheeks with parsley sponge. The sponge was very intriguing-it looked like it belonged under the sea with its bright green color. It was pretty mild in flavor though—not much could really shift focus from the extremely rich pork. One bite of another’s friend’s gnudi ($9) demonstrated a very tender ricotta dumpling. They were good—nicely cooked, but with the sunflower sage pesto, smoked oil, Parmesan and nutmeg, maybe just slightly one-dimensional. I was hoping for a little more contrast from the tang of the ricotta I guess. 

pork cheeks

Overall though, so far in this meal, we were pretty impressed. The food was beautiful to look at, and generally had a nice complexity of flavors. Also, our service was quite friendly and helpful—and when we had a second bottle of the same wine we had started with, and it was bad, they didn’t bat an eye at bringing us a new one (which is something we had a problem with in a previous visit). Also, they have stemmed wine glasses for everyone now, which I know will make some of my wine snob friends happy.

As we moved into the second course, I was just hoping to keep going with the same momentum and I am happy to say, we did. In fact, I think the entrées may have even slightly outshined the appetizers.

I had the “fried chicken” ($29), which was almost more of a take on chicken cordon blue. Regardless, it was delicious. There was wonderfully seasoned crispy pieces of chicken that were topped with Taleggio cheese (a wonderfully stinky soft cheese), pieces of Edward’s country ham, and a slight hint of truffle. You got a little smoky sweet flavor from the ham and the strong taste from the cheese. This was a dish I couldn’t stop eating. There were also some scoops of stuffing alongside, which I also really enjoyed, and I am not typically a stuffing person. It had the right amount of softness inside and slight crispy edges. And it was nice to have something to eat with the gooey chicken. This is a great, although quite rich, dish.

Hubby and I argued over whether my chicken was better, or his spotted bass dish ($27). It was an excellent piece of fish served with clams in a white wine broth with chives, lard, asparagus and pickled shallot. This was a great combination. Loved the thin-sliced asparagus and the extra crispy skin on the fish. It was perfectly cooked and I appreciated they didn’t stack anything on top of that skin making it soft. The pickled shallots added a great pop of acid. This was an exceptionally well-composed dish. You can’t go wrong with this or the chicken.

We all shared sides of the mac and cheese ($8) made with two-year aged cheddar and caramelized onions. It was tasty, and I liked the slight smoky taste from the onions. I mean, how could you not appreciate a little mac and cheese with fried chicken? Necessary? No, but it still tasted good. We also had the crispy Brussels sprouts ($7) with maple gastrique and bacon. The sprouts were cooked really well, which is the challenge so often with these, unfortunately they lost the crispy edges once they were tossed on the gastrique. In itself, it wasn’t bad—slightly sweet, slight acidic, but it took away from Brussels sprouts that otherwise would have been so nice and crisp. 

We also had a couple of desserts. I am becoming less and less of a dessert person, but Cerulean is one place I love to get dessert because of their talented pastry chef, Pete Schmutte. He has a distinctive style that carries on the beautiful presentation of the food. We split the bento box ($12), which is a fun combination of different sweets—there were cookies, macaroons and those yummy, super fruity jellies. We also had one of the more composed dishes—it was “bavarois” flavored with buttermilk and blue cheese and an intense Concord grape sorbet. Sort of like a cheese plate in dessert form. There were some sweet croutons alongside. It was a fun and tasty dish, even if I wished it had a little more blue cheese kick to it.  It is totally worth doing dessert here.

Glad to see some new energy in Cerulean—like I said, we are lucky to have such a cool, modern place in Indy and I think they have really come into their own. Things seemed mellow, the service was professional, and the food was very good. They seem settled and I am glad to see it.

Cerulean

339 South Delaware Street

Indy  46225

317/870-1320

www.ceruleanrestaurant.com 

Cerulean - Revisit

Ok, it was the buffalo fried chicken skins that lured me back to Cerulean.  I have never had a bad meal there, but the last one was a little lacking service-wise (and the food hadn't been as good as the first time). This time we decided to just go with one other couple and avoid any potential auto-gratuity issues. Also, my friend really wanted the buffalo fried chicken skins too.

The first thing we got was a really good table (something we did not as a party of 8) right in front of the main window. Lovely. We also had a very attentive server, stemmed wine glasses, and no hassle with our wine.

Cheese and Fried Bread with Preserves

Melon

Tart Amuse 

These are our drunken sailor friends, who will order willy-nilly a ton of food and share it all. The best kind of friends to dine with. We started with the Indiana cheese board ($21), the fried bread ($7), the buffalo chicken skins (natch)($6), and the compressed melon salad ($8). All of it was fairly spectacular I have to say, even though we probably over-ordered. The cheeses were great—there were four different cheeses ranging from a blue to a soft mild goat and it was served with wonderful salty housemade crackers, apple mostarda and preserved figs. It was a great combo with the fried bread which was good on its own, but also came with house preserves including a strawberry jam, a plum jam, a jalapeno cream and a mushroom custard—all served in cute little jars, even if they were a little challenging to get the stuff out of with the slightly too large spoons served with them. I think we all agreed we loved the mushroom one a lot spread on the fried bread, and I also really enjoyed putting a little of the jams on top of the cheese as well. Sometimes I used the crackers and sometimes I used the bread. All of it was delicious, but I think I would really want to order both again in the future to mix and match which certainly necessitates more than just hubby and me because it’s a lot of food.

Buffalo Chicken Skins

One Chicken Skin

The fried chicken skins were very tasty too. They didn’t have a strong buffalo flavor, more of just a more heavily seasoned fried chicken, but they were extremely rich and decadent. The Gorgonzola mayo underneath could have used a bit more blue cheese flavor, but I enjoyed having something rich to dip into. A very cool take on some classic flavors. The melon was also a refreshing variation from what were some very rich appetizers—and it was a smaller size for sure. The only thing I didn’t like at this stage of the meal was the amuse bouche they served—it was a slice of pickled apple that was so tart, it almost choked a person. Small bits of these would have probably been lovely with the cheese, but on its own (well, with a bit of caramel corn) was a bit much.

As far as the size of the plates, I guess Cerulean had decided to move away from the very small plates into a more standard kind of menu. The first page of the menu is larger, more shareable items now. The second page is more of a classic appetizer and the third page classic entrées.

The three second courses we had were the Mangalitsa pork ($16), the summer squash ($12) and the lamb sweetbreads ($14). Again, everything was very good. The pork dish was very large—it had an herby biscuit underneath, lots of shredded pork, some mushrooms and tomatoes and a light, slightly maple vinaigrette underneath—and of course, the thing that sold me, a beautiful sunny side up egg on top. This was clearly big enough to be a main dish.  The meat had a lot of flavor and I liked the yolk making the thin sauce a little thicker and richer.

I only had a bite of the squash but it was very tender and was well seasoned—there was tarragon as well as some fruit preserves underneath.  Probably my favorite second course was the lamb sweetbreads. They were little pieces that were fried very crisp (they know how to fry things up here). There was a creamy yogurt sauce and a very thin agrodolce (sweet and sour) sauce flavored slightly with rosemary. A great combination of sweet, tangy and completely over the top decadent with the fried bits of sweetbread. I could easily eat a whole plate of these I think.

Squash

Sweetbreads

For my main dish I ordered the vegetarian option which was heirloom tomato confit ($24) and hubby ordered the ribeye ($34)—we planned on sharing. Again both were very good, although I don’t think the tomatoes would have been enough on their own for an entrée, it tasted more like a heavy appetizer. I liked the way they had cooked the tomatoes whole though, and that it was a hot dish. There was also some formage blanc (sort of like cream cheese) underneath and a lemony vinaigrette on the whole thing. I could have used a little more of the cheese to go with all the tomatoes.  I liked the fresh arugula for a nice texture variation. It was good but I would have been disappointed if I weren’t sharing with hubby. His ribeye was delicious—it was a thin cut style and had a wonderful homemade vinegar steak sauce and large mushrooms and soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside, cheddar bacon croquettes. Even though the steak was very thin, it was cooked appropriately. I also had a bit of my friend’s salmon –it had great bright flavors with pineapple on top (there were some hot slices of chili pepper as well which I skipped.

Tomatoes

Ribeye

Salmon

I have been impressed with pastry chef Pete Schmutte since I first had his desserts way back at the City Market dinner I organized awhile back.  He does a lovely job of presenting them and coming up with flavors you don’t see on every menu in town. Our friends ordered the stewed cherries with angel food cake, buttermilk Amaretto cream, sarsaparilla ice cream and black pepper ($9). I had a little bite, and it was tasty. I also loved my simpler trio of sorbets ($8)(exactly what I wanted after all that food). And when they told me passion fruit was one of the flavors, I was sold. There was also pineapple mango and a strawberry. All were light, bright, and delicious. The little macaroon on the side was a nice thing to eat along with, although I would have loved a couple more.

This was our best meal at Cerulean yet, and top to bottom, one of the best I have had in Indy for a while. I continue to hear mixed thoughts about the restaurant, but this meal made me appreciate how lucky we are to have such a modern, artistic space with wonderful food. It’s a nice counter-balance to a lot of the more casual, bar-centered restaurants that have become so prevalent in Indy. 

Cerulean

339 South Delaware Street

Indy  46225

317/870-1320

www.ceruleanrestaurant.com 

City Market Dinner

This isn’t exactly my regular type of post, but I wanted to let you all in on something I have been working on for the last couple of months—an idea from Brad Gates that we talked about back in February when he was dropping off our annual Valentine’s Day dinner.  This past Saturday, I helped to organize what I hope with be the first of many market dinners at the City Market downtown.

We kept it fairly small for the initial attempt. I invited several people I know and several of you I feel like I know through the blog.  There were about 30 of us and we sat upstairs at large tables at the market and enjoyed food from Brad Gates Catering, Circle City Soups and Sweets, Fermenti Artisan, and pastry chef Pete Schmutte.   

Photos courtesy of Brown Sugar Meatloaf

I love the fact that we got to sit in an historic Indianapolis building eating local seasonal food prepared by market chefs—and we tried to keep the price reasonable at $45 per person.  We wanted the dinner to be accessible to lots of people in terms of price and formality.  I think people genuinely enjoyed themselves and it was great to interact with both old and new friends.

Dinner started with cheese and various pickled veggies.  The next course was homemade beet pasta with housemade salmon pastrami and a fennel cream sauce. The main course was bison medallions topped with cabbage, favas, pea shoots and a Vidallia onion demi glace and a baby root vegetable pot pie topped with Capriole farms goat cheese. Dessert was a lovely chocolate namelaka with passion fruit ganache (with lots more to it). The dessert was almost too pretty to eat.  Almost.  We were also treated to a plate of various flavors of macaroons and even more cheese. 

The dinner was even better than I hoped for food-wise, the setting completely casual, and it was great to bring various Indy food loving people together over a meal.  I know the market vendors hope to make these types of dinners recurring events and that is why I am doing this post.  I want to help them compile an email list for future dinners of anyone who might be interested in attending that I can pass along to them (and also for purely selfish reasons—I want to attend more of them myself!)  When they’re announced, the menu and the price are set (and payment is made in advance).  If you are interested in being included in the mailing list for future dinners, please leave me your contact information in a comment below (or if you were there, let me know what you thought about it) or email me at erininindy@gmail.com.  I can’t wait for the next one and I can’t wait to meet more of you!

***Special thanks to Brown Sugar Meatloaf for having the good sense to take some proper photos (I took a couple, but hers are so much prettier).  The photos here are her work. 

Brad Gates Catering

Indianapolis City Market

222 East Market Street

Indy  46204

317/445-0105

www.bradgatescatering.com

Circle City Sweets

Indianapolis City Market

222 East Market Street

Indy  46204

317/632-3644

www.circlecitysweets.com

Circle City Soups

Indianapolis City Market

222 East Market Street

Indy  46204

317/956-2395

Fermenti Artisan

Indianapolis City Market

222 East Market Street

Indy  46204

317/493-1652

www.facebook.com/fermentiartisan

Pete Schmutte

Pastry Chef

Pete.schmutte@gmail.com