The Hungry Hoosier

Carnegies, Greenfield

There are not many chef/owners, outside of Rome anyway, that would go to the trouble of building a traditional wood-fired, Roman-style brick oven out in back of the restaurant. That, however, is exactly what Ian Harrison did. He uses the oven to turn out breads, pizza, and meats of delicious distinction.

Carnegie's occupies Greenfield's old Carnegie library building, thus the name. The menu is Italian inspired by American accents and Chef Ian changes it often to take advantage of fresh, seasonal ingredients, using local foods when he can. Speaking of local, the oven is situated in the backyard vegetable and herb garded which provides ultra-fresh ingredients during the growing season.

I was fortunate to work in Greenfield for a few years when Carnegie's was open for lunch. Ian does great work. His Cream of Roasted Red Pepper Soup is one of his claims to fame and it was almost always part of my workday lunches when I dined there.

They are not open for lunch any more but serve a terrific dinner menu and Ian is still making that signature soup! Carnegie's has a blog here. It is not updated often but has the basic information including a sample menu. The oven is featured here as part of a Traditional Oven resource website with lots of photos and info about these ovens. I'm thinking this might be a good backyard summer project for next year!

Apple Family Farms, McCordsville

This weekend, on a visit to the Traders Point  Winter Farmers Market, I picked up a chuck roast from Apple Family Farms in McCordsville, Indiana. Their beef comes from grass-fed Scottish Highland Cattle and they do not use any antibiotics or growth hormones. Lisa, my wife, calls these "happy cows." The Apple Family also dry-ages their beef a minimum of 21 days. I prepared the roast this evening by altering my Stout-Braised Pot Roast recipe available here. I followed this recipe but made two additions. First, after searing the roast, I rubbed it with a whole-grain mustard. The second change was the addition of about a third of a cup of raisins in with the vegetables.

This turned out well. The roast was tender, flavorful, and did not reduce much in size unlike most traditional beef. The additions of mustard and raisins made some subtle differences to the dish. As you would expect, the raisins gave it a little sweetness and the mustard brightened things up a bit.