Sussex-Style Scallops
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- Written by Kris Legates
Samantha Mairano’s succotash risotto complements a summer favorite
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From the May 2021 issue
Samantha Mairano is a true-blue Sussex County native. While growing up near Bethany Beach, she helped her grandmother bread the chicken destined for bubbling hot oil.
Her job at D.B.’s Fries, a small Bethany Beach eatery near the ocean, was the first step in her dedicated restaurant career. “I’ve never been in another field,” she says. “I’ve worked every restaurant position.”
After 19 years in Philadelphia, New York and Washington, D.C., she moved back to her home state. She is now executive chef and food-and-beverage director of the Landing Bar & Grille in the Plantation Lakes Golf & Country Club community.
Mairano brings a familiar touch to the dishes there. The mainstays of crab and chicken are reimagined as grilled chicken over crab ravioli with roasted corn and Old Bay-white wine cream sauce. Her scallops and succotash dish is another example.
Break Out the Grill
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- Written by Kris Legates
Welcome spring with Chef Ian Crandall’s hanger steak recipe
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From the April 2021 issue
Longtime visitors to the Historic Lewes Farmers Market will recognize Ian Crandall, co-owner of Kindle and Half Full in downtown Lewes. The chef has participated in the market’s cooking demonstration program for more than 10 years. Crandall is also a market customer. “I love the people,” he says. “I go as often as I can.”
The Gaithersburg, Md., native hunts for uncommon vegetables grown by “adventurous farmers.” Consider green garlic — garlic harvested early.
“Green garlic can take many forms at the farmers market or at the store,” says Crandall, who was 15 when he started managing the salad bar at a Giant supermarket. “I recommend the type that looks more like scallions, with no true bulb formed yet.”
One Smart Cookie
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- Written by Alissa Rosenstein
Shortbread treat can be easily matched to any holiday celebration
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From the Winter 2020 issue
At this time of year, you’ll likely find JoAnne Morgan Grape in the kitchen of her Plantation Lakes home. The Millsboro resident makes about 50 cookie platters for friends, neighbors, small business owners and first responders. She also makes cookies for the dementia unit at Mercy Ridge in Lutherville, Md., where her mother-in-law is a patient.
The selection varies, but many are Italian, says Grape, who grew up in South Jersey. Consider pizzelles, wedding cookies, ricotta-butter cookies and biscotti.
Grape collects vintage cookbooks, and her go-to tomes spotlight two British institutions: Fortnum & Mason and Claridge’s. Her thumbprint cookies are filled with Fortnum & Mason Champagne-orange marmalade, Champagne-raspberry marmalade, and lemon curd.