24 MAIN STREET
TARRYTOWN, NY 10591
(914) 631-0000
CHEF/OWNER: DAVID STARKEY; CHEF DE CUISINE: RICK KREBS
Presaging the fetishized Chipotle Grill by several years, David Starkey’s modest first venture, Tomatillo in Dobbs Ferry, felt like a revelation. There, in playful, honky-tonk digs, Starkey offered a lighter, locally sourced version of good old American Tex-Mex, dubbing his style “Mexchester cuisine.” Tomatillo was welcomed by locals who could treat their families to quick, crowd-pleasing burritos without shame—not to mention without antibiotics, GMOs, or unnecessary food miles, either. Tomatillo’s happy hours of discounted craft beer and margaritas only sealed the deal; like evenings spent streaming Netflix rather than watching broadcast TV, Tomatillo suddenly felt like the better choice.
With the 2009 debut of Sweet Grass Grill in Tarrytown, Starkey took on a more grown-up, New American menu while still keeping his sourcing as local as ever. Even the building materials for Sweet Grass come from its immediate neighborhood; Sweet Grass’s bar was hewn from an oak tree that had fallen on the nearby Rockefeller Preserve. As at Tomatillo, Starkey sources ingredients from the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. His is also supremely vegan and vegetarian friendly; there is no lonely veggie option in the bottom-of-menu ghetto here.
Says Starkey, “We try to source everything that we possibly can locally because we know we’ll be getting the freshest product while keeping our carbon footprint small. But what I really enjoy about sourcing locally is that it allows you to know your farmers. They become your partners. You can’t have a farm-to-table restaurant without knowing your farmers.”
(SERVES 4)
1 cup chopped spring onions
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups shelled fresh peas (retain the pods for the stock; see Note)
1 cup chopped basil
½ cup chopped mint
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons blanched, peeled edamame
1 tablespoon chives
¼ cup whole Greek yogurt
In a medium sauté pan over medium heat, sauté the spring onions in 1 tablespoon of the olive oil until they are translucent. Meanwhile, fill a small stockpot with 1½–2 quarts of salted water and bring it to a boil. When the spring onions are translucent, remove them from the heat and set aside. When the water is boiling, drop in the pea pods and cook, simmering, until they have lost their vibrant color and become somewhat tender (this should take 10–20 minutes). Skim the pods from the pot and discard, retaining the cooking liquid. Add the sautéed spring onions and return the liquid to a boil. When boiling, add the shelled peas and cook until tender, about 10 minutes.
Remove the pot from the stove and begin finishing the soup. In a medium bowl prepare an ice bath. Using a skimmer, remove about 1 cup of the peas and shock them in the ice bath. As the peas are cooling, set up a blender. Pour 2 cups of the hot peas, onions, and vegetable stock into the blender and blend until the mixture is smooth. Pass this through a fine mesh strainer and reserve; do not discard the solids that remain in the strainer. You will need them later in the recipe. Repeat this process of blending and straining with all but 1–2 cups of the remaining pea/onion/vegetable stock mixture. Allow the reserved portion to cool slightly.
To the blender add the reserved solids, the cold shocked peas, basil, mint, and the reserved vegetable stock. Blend until the mixture is a smooth liquid. Pass this through a strainer into the remaining stock mixture and discard all the solids. Season with salt to taste and chill until ready to serve.
To plate: Pour the soup into four bowls. Garnish each with blanched edamame, chives, 1 tablespoon cold Greek yogurt, and a drizzle of the remaining olive oil. Serve.
Note: Frozen peas may be substituted here, but you will need to use vegetable stock in lieu of the stock (above) made with pea pods.
