Seniors are more particular and diverse in their tastes than ever before
By: Faith Bahadurian
Arugula salad with cherries and pecans; braised rabbit; lobster tortelloni all of these dishes might be expected on an upscale restaurant menu, but they are, in fact, just a sampling of the extensive dinner menu offered when I recently dined at Princeton Windrows Senior Living Community, located in Plainsboro near Forrestal Village.
Residents of this upscale independent living community live in a mix of villas, town houses and apartment-style condominiums. Four restaurant-style venues offer casual to formal to private dining and, of course, there are many other amenities on-site.
Eager to show off his cuisine, Windrows’ director of culinary services, Chef Richard Blagrave, recently invited me to have dinner there with him and a few of the residents, and I was quite impressed with the food, the service and the congenial residents.
"Seniors are more particular and diverse in their tastes than ever before," says Mr. Blagrave, who holds a degree in culinary arts from Philadelphia’s Restaurant School of Walnut Hill College. "They demand lots of choices, special requests and flexibility. Senior living dining is changing."
Each evening the menu offers a number of rarely repeated soups, salads, appetizers and entrées. The menu also has an "always available" section with its share of classics and comfort foods such as chicken pot pie, broiled salmon, vegetables served plain or sauced, and more casual fare such as hamburgers and salad platters.
Popular dishes and ingredients at Windrows include crab cakes, veal, sautéed spinach (off the menu during my visit), sardines and anchovies. While salmon, flounder and tilapia are popular, larger fish such as tuna are a harder sell. Ice cream is a top seller year round, and the dessert menu featured many flavors, including several low-sugar options. Around 150 dinners are served each evening, including quite a few that are ordered "to go" to eat in residents’ dwellings.
We ate in the dressier dining room, where men wear jackets and ties, but an adjacent room offers the same menu in a more casual atmosphere. Residents are welcome to bring their own wine to dinner; the night of my visit our table enjoyed Hopewell Valley Vineyards merlot and chardonnay. And one of the trio of crostini we sampled as appetizers featured Jersey tomatoes and basil grown in a greenhouse the residents share, in addition to a ricotta-anchovy-olive version, and one with eggplant and fennel caponata. No shy flavors here!
Chef Blagrave works closely with an active restaurant committee made up of residents, and it was clear they got a kick out of seeing what the well-liked chef ordered for himself at our dinner (he sampled several things, as I did).
Frankly, much as I love to cook, my own years-from-retirement life is so busy at this point that this lifestyle has a definite appeal. Do I have to wait or can I sign up now?
Chef Blagrave is known for his crab cakes, and the one I sampled was easily the most flavorful I’ve had in ages. The secret, he told me, is not to use only expensive jumbo lump meat. He likes to include some lump and even claw meat in his version. Now I know why the ubiquitous all jumbo lump crab cake is chronically lacking in flavor.
All recipes below are adapted from Chef Richard Blagrave.
WINDROWS CRAB CAKES
1 pound picked crabmeat; use a mix of jumbo lump, lump and claw meat, if available
¼ cup fresh bread crumbs
¼ cup mayonnaise
1 egg, beaten
¼ tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/8 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon Old Bay seafood seasoning
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
1 scallion, chopped fine and lightly sweated
¼ cup bell pepper (red and/or green), chopped fine and lightly sweated
Crab liquor from the containers
Panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
Butter for sauté
Drain crab and save the liquor. Pick over the crab, but don’t break up lumps. Spread crab on a sheet tray in single layer. Heat in the oven at 350 degrees for 4 minutes. Shells will turn pearl white, easier to identify and remove.
To sweat the scallion and peppers, heat gently in a skillet or in the microwave covered, until slightly limp.
Mix together bread crumbs, mayonnaise, egg, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, Old Bay, parsley, sweated scallion and peppers and liquor. Mix well. Fold into crab meat.
Form into 4 to 6 cakes. Roll lightly in Panko (Japanese) bread crumbs. Pan fry in butter until browned on both sides and cooked through.
CAPONATA
WITH FENNEL,
OLIVES AND RAISINS
About 3 cups
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound eggplant, unpeeled and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
2¼ cups red pepper, chopped
1½ cups fennel bulb, coarsely chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1/3 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
1/3 cups golden raisins
¾ cup tomato sauce
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
½ cup fresh basil, chopped
Salt and pepper
Toasted baguette slices for serving
Heat oil in a heavy pot on medium-high heat. Add eggplant, bell pepper, fennel and garlic. Sauté until eggplant is tender, about 10 minutes. Add olives, raisins, tomato sauce and vinegar. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover and simmer until caponata is tender. Stir in basil; add salt and pepper to taste. Serve at room temperature on toasted baguette slices.
PAN-SEARED SALMON
WITH GINGER AND CURRY
Serves 6
2 tablespoons ginger, peeled and minced
1 tablespoon curry powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 6-ounce salmon fillets, skin on, patted dry
1/8 cup olive oil
9 scallions, thinly sliced diagonally
½ cup dry vermouth
Stir together ginger, curry, salt & pepper. Pat mixture onto salmon fillets. Heat oil in skillet. Cook salmon skin side down for 5 minutes covered. Turn and cook for 3 minutes more, covered. Adjust cooking time as needed. Add scallions to pan and cook for 1 minute. Add vermouth, swirl pan, and reduce slightly. Plate the salmon fillets over baby greens and spoon sauce over the salmon.

