Fall Cooking

Well it has been a good long while since I posted anything here. I have been busy working on this project, as well as a few other things. So I thought I’d post images of two tasty 100% Farmer’s Market creations that I’ve made in the last couple of weeks.

At the Dupont Farmer’s Market, there is a couple that always seems to have some soft shell blue crabs (frozen this time of year of course), and we’re getting towards the end of the herbs and tomatoes and eggplant, so I thought I’d use all of them for a tasty Italian style dinner. The crabs were pan seared then baked off for a few minutes in olive oil and topped with a salsa of tomatoes, basil, shallots, Balsamic, and olive oil. The spinach was quickly wilted with some garlic. The eggplant was pan-seared til soft, then marinated in a sauce made of olive oil, garlic, capers, chili, and parsley. Served with a nice clean Prosecco, it was a tasty evening.

A couple of nights later, I was in the mood for some serious comfort food. So I pulled out some ground goat that I purchased from Eco-Friendly Foods, some bell peppers, and some acorn squash and went to town. The goat was sauteed with paprika, fennel seed, oregano, thyme, hot red pepper, garlic, onion, and coriander seed to make some sausage. I then mixed that with some sauteed kale and celery and some sheep feta cheese and stuffed it in the fresh bell peppers, and topped it with some Pecorino cheese and roasted them for 30 minutes in the oven. The acorn squash is my favorite fall recipe, roasting it at high temperature til carmelized on one side, then dressing it with a sauce of lime juice, cilantro, hot chili, garlic, and olive oil. Served with a delicious 1998 Icardi Barbera, the mellow tannins paired perfectly with the tanginess of the squash and heartiness of the stuffed peppers.

Monday Poll Question!

Ok, inspired by a silly list of pictures from the Wanfujing Night Market in Beijing, I started remembering some of the weird (and sometimes gross) things I have eaten in the past: silk worms, Japanese grated yam (the most disgusting texture I have ever experienced), whole bird on a stick, Chinese Thousand Year Eggs, sauteed lettuce, etc.

So I really would like to know:

What is the weirdest (or most disgusting) food you have ever eaten?

As always, I’m looking for good stories, and although I won’t be offering a prize this week, shouldn’t sharing with (and hopefully shocking) your fellow food lovers be reward enough?

Road Trip – Food on the Run

Sometimes you just need a road trip right? Ok, it’s not that much fun when you don’t have a choice, but one benefit of my recent road trip is that I had the ability to try some fun road food, and a great brunch restaurant in Chicago.

I sincerely had no idea there were so many resources for people looking for food on the road. But there is an entire website/message board dedicated to just that proposal, called Roadfood.com. Since I knew we would be stuck on the turnpikes all the way from Pennsylvania to Chicago, and usually the only food you see is at those awful rest stops.

Instead of being trapped on the turnpike in Ohio, we decided to leave the soul-crushing monotony, and traipse up to Seven Hills south of Cleveland and stop at an old fashioned drive in ala 1950s car service. The prices at Swenson’s were cheaper than McDonalds, and the quality was significantly better. They are known for their Galley Boy sandwich, a double-cheeseburger with two sauces: a barbeque-base (sweet and savory) and a mayonnaise-base (reminiscent of tartar sauce, but creamier). Coupled with extra-crispy and delicious onion rings, fried zucchini, and a couple of old-school phosphates, it was heart-attack-inducing, juicy, and delicious.

Once in Chicago, there was a disappointing dinner at Volo Restaurant and Wine Bar. While they had a really reasonable wine list that was paired nicely with the food, and the bone marrow was huge and delicious, the crab appetizer was a complete miss, and the service was at glacial pace. But, it was a great location for relaxing outside and sharing some wine.

Due to the lack of serious food the night before, there was a certain amount of starvation the next morning. Fortunately, we found a wonderful breakfast spot in Logan Square, Lula Café. Using fresh, local ingredients, and a fusion of Latin, Asian, and American food, the food was excellent, service was friendly and efficient, and it is clearly a great local destination. Starting with the Bloody Mary made with Sambal Chili, rather than the usual Tabasco, there were surprises everywhere. The eggs benedict were perfectly poached, and served on top of tiny baby summer squash, squash blossoms, and arugula, then topped with crispy Serrano ham, hollandaise, and basil pesto. A perfect balance of creamy, tangy, salty, and crunchy. The roasted pork shoulder over black beans was hearty and delicious as well. All in all, a great destination for brunch.

Finally, as a last meal in Chicago, we stopped at the institution of Lou Mitchell’s downtown on our way out of town.

Touristy, yes, but also full of locals and old-school waiters and waitresses. The homemade orange marmalade was delicious and sharp on their homemade thick wheat bread with a hint of sweetness. But the star was the massive portions of delicious eggs and potatoes, not to mention the melt-in-your-mouth pancakes with real maple syrup. A two egg breakfast was, in fact, a four egg breakfast, enough for a lumberjack, but everything was cooked well and the fastest breakfast service I have ever seen.

Definitely worth the trip.

Slow-Cooked Goat Tacos

One of my favorite cooking magazines is Gourmet Magazine. I have often used their recipes, either in pure form, or as a basis for my own adventures in cooking. When looking through the July 2008 issue, I came across a great looking goat taco recipe using anchos and guajillos – two of my favorite chilis. I didn’t think much of it at the time, largely because goat is not that common. However, as luck would have it, the next day I was at the Dupont Circle Farmers Market and visiting my friends at Eco-Friendly Foods as I do every week. Lo and behold, they had goat! And not just any goat, but fresh (!) goat shanks and goat shoulders. So I picked up a goat shoulder in preparation for some delicious goat tacos. In a kismet moment, there were also tomatillos at another vendor, and I have been growing jalapenos in the garden, perfect for making some fresh salsa verde! It had been a long time since I had made some really traditional Mexican food, my favorite Mexican cookbook being Rick Bayless’ Mexican Kitchen. I used his recipe to make some delicious salsa verde for topping the goat tacos.

The recipe from Gourmet was an excellent blend of spices, utilizing the depth of the anchos and guajillos, as well as the slight gaminess of the goat. The estimated cooking time of 5 hours was not far off, but first braising the goat in the sauce on the bone, then shredding the meat and braising again allowed the flavors in the sauce to penetrate the meat fully, creating a deep, slow, burning spice in the meat. The taste was authentic and rich, a flavor I had not experienced in years, indeed, not since I was in Mexico.

Served with the accompaniments of shredded lettuce, salsa verde, avocados, sliced onions, lime juice, crumbled cheese, and a few chilis, it was a delicious balance of hot, sweet, tangy, rich, and tart that was a pleasure to eat. Surprisingly, a Falanghina was quite the lovely match for the combination – not too dry and not too sweet, but a nice balance to the spice and depth of the tacos.

Winner of Special Prize

Well, I had three stories to choose from last week on the special poll.

1) A stylistically well written response detailing the fear we often feel about things going wrong. However, as there was no actual disaster, I decided that one of the two actual disasters should win.

2) Ah yes…not cooking something…always a fun story, and made particularly fun by the fact that it was for in-laws.

3) The funniest, and most disastrous story of the bunch, but posted on behalf of someone else. If the actual individual who this had happened to would have posted, they would have won the prize.

So, without further ado, story (2), cold enchilladas, wins the prize. I feel no guilt giving it to the enchillada because the same person posted stories (2) and (3), and lives in the same house as the person in story (1). As a prize, you win….(drum roll please…): An 8oz bag of Chinese TienTsin Chili Peppers from Penzey’s Spices, to be shipped directly to your address!

If you feel you had a better story than this one and think you should’ve won the prize…remember to chime in next time!

Monday Poll Question

So I decided to do a free-form poll today. The question of the week is:

What is your worst cooking disaster?

We all have had them…those days when you have Thanksgiving guests coming over and you forgot to defrost the turkey, or turn off the sauce, or one of a thousand other major or minor disasters that happen as we cook in our homes (or restaurants for those of you in the profession). I, and my readers, want to hear about them in a pitiful effort to salve our own wounds. And frankly, a lot of these stories can be pretty hilarious in retrospect, and who doesn’t need a little humor on a Monday?

So tell me all about it my friends, and next Monday I’ll have a special prize for my favorite!

(warning: I will be attempting to sniff out fake stories with my Sherlock-like analytical skills, so don’t try pulling a fast one on me!)

Sometimes It’s Just Better Not to Post

Ok, so I was all ready to post about this great pasta dish I made with roasted tomato sauce with pesto and grilled beef. Yeah…that wasn’t going to happen. It was a total disaster. The best I can say about it was that the pasta was cooked properly al dente.

I guess in some ways it is helpful to have disasters, because otherwise how are we ever going to learn from our mistakes?

So this is what I have learned: never over-cook your pasta sauce…elsewise it turns into tomato paste, and no amount of attempts at saving it will succeed…that is unless you have a whole new pile of tomatoes, basil, garlic, and about an extra hour to cook.

I hate cooking disasters. It is especially frustrating when you spend more than an hour trying to make something delicious. Oh well, I made up for it with a very nice martini at least, and maybe next time it will turn out better…

Dining in Spain (a.k.a., Dining at Tia Pol)

Whenever I encounter restaurants where numerous reviews expound upon the “epic” waits, I always wonder if any place could be worth such a wait. However, at one particular restaurant in Chelsea, Manhattan, we decided to brave the wait, based on the rave reviews, and some personal recommendations from a Jodi and a Tom, both fellow barflies at our local favorite in Adams Morgan, Washington DC, Cashions Eat Place. Therefore, as planned, we arrived at Tia Pol, at 205 10th Avenue last night at approximately 8:15 PM.

As we walked up, we noticed it seemed to be about the size of a closet, and was packed to the gills with people sipping sangria. The hostess gave us a wait time of 1 hour and 15 minutes. Desperate to sit down after a day of hiking around Manhattan, we gave her my phone number, and peeked into the next door restaurant Isakaya Ten. There we found a wonderful and chatty bartender, and a unique quirk for regulars: you can order a whole bottle of Shochu from their extensive list, and if you don’t finish it, you can put your name on it and have it for the next time you visit. Our hour wait was therefore spent mercifully having a lovely glass of Shochu in air-conditioned comfort, before the main event…an amazingly authentic meal at Tia Pol.

There are very few seats in this little restaurant, and the menu is one laminated page long or small plates, with the daily specials written on a chalkboard behind the bar. The wine list has a broad range of prices on excellent Spanish wines, and the staff is very knowledgeable about each of the wines and dishes available. After our preferred Rioja was unavailable, our waiter recommended a 2003 Laurona Montsant, from the Priorat region of Catalonia. 50% Garnacha, 25% Merlot, 15% Syrah, and 10% Cabernet, and aged for a year in French Oak, it was well balanced, light, and hinted of stewed fruits. A perfect wine for the broad range of flavors we were about to embark on. Everything we saw looked excellent, but here is the list of tapas we ate, representing a broad range of flavors and textures:

1. Montadito de crema de habitas con beyos: a fava bean puree, with just a hint of garlic on toasts, drizzled with excellent extra virgin olive oil (we had them hold the beyos cheese, as it is a cow’s milk cheese, and I am allergic)
2. Gildas: ondarroan anchovies, pickled peppers, and green olives on little martini skewers. It was the perfect little snack, and I’m dreaming of making a martini using these…
3. One of the daily specials, four perfectly small slices of grilled rare white tuna served chilled with a cilantro, almond, and olive oil pesto, and a white bean salad of beans, onions, and olive oil. Eaten alone, the tuna was rather bland, but eaten together, the three elements complimented each other perfectly.
4. Paquetitos de jamón con alcachofa: crushed artichoke hearts mixed with anchego cheese and wrapped into three perfect little triangles of Serrano ham. It was a lovely combination of creamy-ness and salt
5. Piquillos rellenos de ensaladilla rusa: what I would consider one of the highlights of the meal, four small roasted red sweet peppers, stuffed with a puree of potato, garlic, and pimento, topped with shredded pickled white tuna, and served with a salad of watercress. It was at once creamy, tangy, and bitter, and served at the midpoint of the meal was the perfect pallet cleanser after the heaviness of the grilled tuna and the ham
6. Granicha: charred baby green long peppers, simply tossed in salt, were at once bitter and salty, and I can see these served at a bar with some almonds as a nice accompaniment with a cold beer on a hot day.
7. Navajas y almejas: razor clams and cockles, which were perfectly cooked and tender in white wine, garlic, parsley, and butter. We must have gone through a whole loaf of bread sopping up the broth
8. And finally for dessert, we chose a cheese plate including Valdeon (a cow/sheep’s milk blue cheese), Manchego (a creamy lightly aged sheep’s milk), and Garrotxa (a wonderfully stinky goat cheese). Also included on the platter were roasted marcona almonds, lightly candied and spiced walnuts, and the best preserved red cherries I have ever had.

It was a truly decadent evening, with the only downside being the wait. Needless to say, next time I am in New York City, I will be returning for another authentic Spanish treat!

Barbequing in Connecticut

Is there anything more Americana than barbequing on Fourth of July weekend? How about ribs in the Connecticut suburbs on a deck surrounded by trees and hearing fireworks in the distance? Well, it appears that this Fourth of July was the most Americana of times I’ve had in a long time.

It is intriguing to consider how much effort most of us will go through to experience the perfect barbecue. A significant quantity of books have been written on the subject, and it is a multi-million dollar industry. Products on the market range from the food, to the utensils, to the paraphernalia (i.e., aprons, hats, corn-on-the-cob holders, etc.), and $1,000+ grills.

This Fourth of July weekend, we relaxed with friends and grilled on their brand new gas Weber grille. But first, we made an early run to a highly unique store, which has apparently been featured on Ripley’s Believe It…Or Not! Called Stew Leonard’s, it was kitchy in the extreme, involving animated animals, barnyard songs, and an entire dairy-bottling operation, backed up by live video pictures of their dairy herd. There we picked up two racks of pork ribs, several ears of bi-color corn, and some cherries.

For once I was not the one cooking up a storm. Our friends marinated the ribs in Penzey’s BBQ 3000 rub, then slow-baked them at 250-degrees Fahrenheit for 6 hours. They cooked up a homemade honey barbeque sauce with a little bourbon (Bulleit Bourbon to be specific), then threw the ribs on the grille for another 30 minutes, glazing with the sauce and turning them four or five times. At the same time, the corn was cooking in its husks for a while, before being peeled and thrown directly on the grille. The result was a beautiful spread for the four of us. Yes…we did eat ½ a rack of ribs a person…but how could you not when they look like this:

The ribs were so tender that they fell off the bone, and some of the bones were even disintegrating, while the outside of the ribs were sticky and happily crusty. A little BBQ Sauce on the side, and a 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, and it was a perfect evening with friends.

Missing Posts

Sorry folks. Stomach flu is not so conducive to posting about food. I am beginning to eat again, and next week will be in New York City, so hopefully I will have a lot of good food to discuss in the near future.