A few cooking things

So Friday, I had this urge for both finger foods and vegetables. Go figure. As a result I made pigs in blankets, broccoli slaw, and bacon wrapped dates. That was like the best dinner ever. The pigs in blankets were of the crescent roll-lil' smokie variety and the broccoli slaw was a bag of broccoli slaw (yes you can find it in the bag o' salad part of your grocery store), dried cranberries, and toasted walnuts with a nice balsamic vinaigrette. The true kicker was the too easy to be true bacon wrapped dates. Basically, take a few dates and take out the seed which makes a remarkably neat hole for you to fill. I filled in with a 1/4 inch chunk of pecorino romano. then you just wrap the whole shebang in 1/3 of a slice of bacon (cut widthwise), secure with a toothpick and bake at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes. I found that the bacon needed some time in a hot frying pan to fully render out the fat. The end product was a Jaleo worthy meld of sweet and salty.

The other thing I made this weekend was an amaretto cake. While we were grocery shopping, we looked wistfully at all of the expensive holiday cakes soaked in rum, or frangelico or amaretto. For some reason they were not on sale and therefore, prohibitively expensive. I decided to make my own. I figure I'd find a recipe somewhere. In all of my cookbooks there wasn't really a cake that fit my needs so I made one up. I adapted the Barefoot Contessa lemon cake since it was a cake that required soaking the cake in a lemon syrup. I substituted amaretto everywhere the recipe asked for lemon. It made two cakes. One of which I iced and sliced immediately and the other I put in the freezer. The first was lovely, but the syrup really didn't soak through. I then took the second out of the freezer, poked a zillion holes in hte loaf and made another batch of syrup to soak the cake. We're still finishing the first loaf so I'll report later on whether the second loaf had the requisite soaking.

BTW, the homemade gyoza for New Years turned out PERFECTLY! I made it before the holidays and froze them. They boiled to perfection and none of them exploded in the pot. The key is using round gyoza skins and NOT won ton skins which are much thinner. The gyoza would also be perfect for ravioli.

What are you doing New Year's Eve?

I love that song. It's just so wistful and hopeful at the same time. Our friend Thank Heaven For Little Girls is hosting this year and in a fit of creativity, I suggested doing a tasting menu. The centerpiece of the tasting menu is a set of soups served in cheesy shot glasses. I've collected a few from Dollywood, Disneyworld, and New York and I thought it would be hilarious to have an elegant soup in a shot glass that says "Maryland - We're not angry, just crabby."

My contributions to the tasting menu will be:

Tom Kha soup with shitake mushrooms and crab (in a shot glass)
Vietnamese spring rolls
Crab dumplings in a Chinese soup spoon with a sauce of black vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil
Fake log o' meat dumplings with the same sauce (served in a soup spoon as well)

By the way, J and I went to Central Market to get fixin's for my Hawaiian inspired meal I made for J's mother for Mother's day. For anyone outside of Texas, Central Market is like Whole Foods on steroids. It's got a whole sauce bar that has onion dip, a zillion kinds of salsa, and even mole. It's pretty incredible. It ranks right up there with Wegman's. So at Central Market we just had to get Meyer lemons because they have such a delicate fragrance and flavor. They are availabel like one month a year and even then aren't really at supermarkets. Any suggestions for using them? We were thinking a Meyer lemon panna cotta. What do you all think?

Tales from Christmas 2007 - the Croquembouche

Sorry for the radio silence. We're out in the great state of Texas with J's family. I have been reading J's mother's scrapbooks like they were the rosetta stone. I love reading personal history (perhaps that's why I read so many blogs).

As with any other family, food is a big part of Christmas with te J family. Because J's sister had to have an early dinner with her in-laws, the J family Christmas celebration was an early brunch, complete with two spirited boys in football uniforms.

It always amazes me how organized J's mother is about making big meals. The night before, the table was set, all of the food was prepared and in the freezer The only thing to do was to reheat. One the menu was:

Sunday brunch egg casserole (complete with Jimmy Dean sausage)
Cheese grits
Citrus salad
Little smokies (made because J's nephew recently had pigs in blanket and only ate the pig)
Sausage balls (sausage mixed with bisquick)
Mini blueberry muffins
Cheese pennies
Cream puffs rolled in powdered sugar
Pumpkin brean with chocolate chips
Cranberry danishes (I made)
A HUUUUUUGE assortment of cookies and candy

And finally, a croquembouche. J's brother recently has gotten into cooking and is pretty ambitious about what he'd like to make. A croquembouche really intrigued J's brother and J is as adventurous a cook as he is an eater. So Christmas Eve, we made the vanilla pastry cream (quite delicious) and the cream puffs (or choux). The pastry cream went without a hitch but hell's bells the cream puffs bedeviled us. You see, choux paste is a very old recipe with very easy proportions. The basic recipe (which I got from Mastering the Art of French Cooking) goes like this:

1 stick of butter
1 cup of water
1 cup of flour
4 eggs
1 teaspoon of sugar
1/4 teaspoon of salt

You melt the butter in the water, bring to a vigorous simmer and dump the flour in all at once. Stir until the paste gathers together and is hard to stir. I like to stir in on low heat to make sure the flour incorporates. Many recipes say t take it off the heat once you add the flour. Once the paste is made, add the four eggs either big stirring even more vigorously (and building your forearms) or dumping the paste into a food processor and incorporating the eggs that way. Once done, quickly dump tablespoonfuls of the paste into an old ratty cookie sheet that is completely uninsulated. A pastry bag would be helpful here to pipe the dough and made sure the surface is smooth. Bake for around 20 minutes until the choux are puffed and golden.

That's how it SHOULD have worked but for some reason, the first batch of dough we ended up with turned into a batter. I grilled J over and over about our measurements and decided the dump the whole thing and start over. Luckily, the next batch was a sucuess. That night we filled the choux with the pastry cream and set them in the freezer.

In the morning we made the caramel sauce and the melted sugar to bind the whole shebang together. The melt sugar consisted of sugar, water and corn syrup heated to 320 degrees. on there we dipped one side of the choux in the sugar and stuck it onto another cream puff. Once we had a nicering of choux, we pour the caramel sauce on top. We had enough pastry to make a very nice castle wall with cream puff turrets. A little less than the big tower of cream puffs, but I pointed out, we only had 11 people for brunch. The best part though was dipping a few forks in the melted sugar and making spun sugar that glistened around the castle wall. it was nice collaboration between J, j's brother and me. And while I won't kid anyone about it being a pain in the ass to make, we all had a good time making it.

Weekend o' Food - Part 2

Saturday night I put together the most coherent menu I've ever made. Momma D requested that we make a meal for her and she belongs to a Gourmet club at her retirement community so the bar was set high. J and I wanted to make a meal that was over the top. It all started with the mango mousse recipe in Martha Stewart Living (the color issue). With a mango mousse and a macadamia nut crust, this was THE recipe. Light, refreshing and indulgent. It lived up to its promise of being extremely easy to make and crazy good. I am giving it its own entry but rest assured, its amazing. I decided to class it up a notch by making Nigella Lawson's macadamia nut brittle. This brittle is so easy I didn't use a recipe, I just roughly chopped macadamia nuts, melted sugar until it became a light amber and poured the sugar on top of the chopped nuts sitting on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Don't worry about using a candy thermometer or any such nonsense, just melt the sugar and watch it like a hawk. If I were to do proportions it would be 1/2 cup of macadamia nuts to 1 cup of sugar.

So with the mango mousse tart as the centerpiece, I built a menu around that. With a tropical theme, I went Iron Chefish with macadamia nut crusted chicken breast with a mango-pineapple salsa. As a side dish, I would make a napa cabbage slaw with a sesame dressing. I got my inspiration from Cafe Asia's divine Asian coleslaw. And in a huge bit of inspiration from Kylie Kwong, I made Asian brined cucumber. The true fun of the evening was actually PLATING the meal. I am fairly indifferent about presentation but Saturday night, I went all out. I used our nice square Asian plates and matching napkins. For once, the food looked as good as it tasted.

Here's the recipes:

Macadamia Crusted Chicken with Pineapple-Mango salsa
6 Chicken breasts pounded (you can find pre-pounded ones at Whole Foods)
2 cups of homemade breadcrumbs (it makes for a coarser crumb)
1 cup ground macadamia nuts
2 eggs

Mix breadcrumbs and ground nuts in a bowl. Dredge chicken breasts in the egg and then dredge in the breadcrumb mixture. Let site for 5 minutes. Heat up a skillet with thin layer of vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, pan fry the chicken for 3 minutes a side. Don't worry about not cooking it through. Place the cooked chicken on a greased baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.

Pineapple mango salsa
1 cup of chopped FRESH pineapple (I have to be a purist about that)
1 cup of chopped fresh mango
2 finely diced jalepeno
1 scallion finely chopped
1 tablespoon of fish sauce
Juice of 1 lime
Pinch of sugar
1/2 teaspoon Chinese chili paste
1 clove of garlic, minced

Throw everything into a bowl and mix. Let sit for at least a half an hour.

Asian Salad with Sesame Dressing

1 head of Napa cabbage finely shredded
2 large carrots, grated
1 scallion, chopped

For the dressing
1/2 cup of tahini
1/4 cup of peanut butter
1/2 cup of rice wine vinegar (or lime juice)
2 tablespoons sweet Thai Chili Sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce or fish sauce
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
1/4 cup of vegetable or peanut oil
1/4 cup of water
2 tablespoons of chopped ginger
3 cloves of garlic

Throw everything into a blender and blend until smooth. Add more water if the texture is too thick. Toss with the vegetables.

Asian Brined Cucumber
1 English hothouse cucumber with the seeds scooped out (just a preference as I hate seeds), thinly sliced
1 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of rice wine

Throw everything into a bowl and toss together until sugar and salt dissolves. Let sit for at least 15 minutes and then pour out the liquid (actually the liquid with some peanut oil is a great salad dressing)

Eastern Market - A Friend In Need

Eastern Market - A Friend In Need

Time and time again, I am reminded of the powerful connection between food and community. We eat together to celebrate, to mourn, to comfort, to nourish. We eat to catch up with an old friend, to celebrate the arrival of a guest visiting from many miles away and to just make it through another day when we need sustenance. We do eat alone, but often we use a meal together to connect to and enjoy one another.

Community presents an opportunity to build tiny or tremendous connections. It's where we have the great opportunity to become students of our interactions with many different teachers, to become part of something bigger than ourselves.

Eastern Market has for years been the best of food and community for me. Not flawless, not without challenge or evidently controversy, but, at its core, a unique place of escape from the work-weary world of modern life and whizzing digital input.

Here, my friends and neighbors have shared in the beauty of food, the excitement of a delicious bargain, a new taste or a reliable standby. From quick hellos to conversations that drag a bit too long, we run into each other and make exchanges great and small. But it all roots us. Some would argue that it all nourishes us.

Monday morning, I walked into the office to a disturbing "Did you hear?" Never a good sign. An hour later, I stood before a battered and burnt Eastern Market, one of many customers, neighbors, and friends coming by to pay our respects. I had to see for myself. It was worse than I imagined.

Hadn't I just been there on Sunday? My freezer and refrigerator were full from my trip. Many words came to mind once I stored everything away: fresh, quality, delicious. What would I make tonight?

Eastern Market has provided my family with wonderful food and a sense of community for more than 8 years. Until recently, we lived just a few blocks away. What a treasure to be able to take a nice walk on a crisp morning and come back with a few bags of fresh produce, meats, fish, and the occasional cookie or three.

Fresh cut flowers, a wrapped up sandwich from the Market Lunch, a container of baba ghanouj.

For the life of me I can't recall bringing anything home that I did not think was first rate. A huge bag of stunning Valencia oranges, freshly peeled garlic, a bag of magic lettuce that would somehow keep for nearly two weeks.

And I usually saw a colleague, a parent of a friend, a business owner I knew, someone I just met at a meeting, an artist I admired.

I stood there and worked over the entire horrible situation. Was everyone ok? What on earth were all these wonderful people going to do without their shops and the friends and neighbors who were in some way their families? After all, they have had a hand in preparing our tables for some of the great occasions of our lives, the delicious stolen moments when Washingtonians stop living their heads long enough to prepare a dinner party for people we enjoy, the quick fly-by snack when we're pushing the stroller or walking the dog.

Flowers to brighten the house when an out of town guest visits or just because. A cake for that last minute staff celebration. Thick, smoky bacon that makes breakfast with the newspaper an experience and makes the weekend real. An artichoke to eat or to pose on the still life plate.

The people are paying their respects. Those who know the vendors offer hugs and assurances. We are here for you. We must rebuild.

24 hours later the press conference begins and I see more vendors from the South Hall, community leaders, neighbors who have been eating food from the Market for ten, twenty, thirty years. People who gave up their cars because they could walk to the market. People who rarely enter a chain grocery store. We are hanging on the words of the Mayor, our Councilmember, the Fire Chief.

The sign says we will rebuild. The Mayor agrees. The community speaks too. The media. We are left with hope and the feeling that we must come together even more deliberately than our Market trips. We must be vigilant in supporting this community and using our best ideas and abilities to lessen the impact.

Eastern Market matters to us. It's not just where we buy food. And that should be enough. But it's more than that for the neighborhood and for those who love it. It's a beautiful reminder of the power and the possibility of human connection. It's family business given the best opportunity to thrive. It's a community saying we value all of this.

There are so few spaces in public life where we can all be together, greet our neighbors, get to know the people who grow our food. We need these moments, and those of us who have come to love it need Eastern Market. There is a simple but vital interdependency here that I cherish.

We want our friends and neighbors who have taken care of us for so many years to be taken care of. In some small way, in spite of all the cynicism in the world and all the exciting and challenging back-and-forth that happens in the halls of the great buildings nearby, many of us know these vendors as family. At the very least we are grateful for what they do and what they produce.

Eastern Market will be back and we will be there. Republicans and Democrats, politicians and nonprofit workers, artists and farmers, parents and children, tourists who visit occasionally and neighbors who visit daily.

We just aren't going to give that up.

How can you help?

1. Many of the vendors lost an incredible amount of food and equipment in the fire. Most have lost their livelihood. The Capitol Hill Community Foundation has set up a fund for the merchants and their employees. http://www.capitolhillcommunityfoundation.org

2. There will be a fundraiser at 6:00 p.m., Wednesday night (5/2) at Marty's, 527 8th St SE (zip is 20003).

3. Come to Market Day on Sunday. This is an all-day festival with great bands and entertainment. It's always a great time and a huge turnout would be wonderful.

4. Do not forget to visit the other shops and restaurants in the area. Petite Gourmet, The Forecast, The Village, Montmartre, Fairy Godmother, Tortilla Cafe (also owned by the Canales family that ran several stands in the South Hall), Blue Iris Flowers, Murky Coffee, Uncle Brutha's, Bread and Chocolate, Ben and Jerry's, Dawn Price Baby, Marvelous Market, and more. These places will surely be affected by loss of foot traffic and offer some great food and gifts!

5. Keep the story alive. There will be a lot of attention at first, but let's visit the market, shops, and vendors in the coming months. If it really takes two years, it is going to take some serious effort and promotion to keep these shop doors open. Keep bringing out of town guests.

Here's to Eastern Market and all it represents!

Small Plates

So in a few weeks we are throwing a small plates party for the gang. Think antipasti, tapas, dim sum or whatever little nibbles that strike our fancy. I myself, will go with a strict tapas theme where I will be making roast potatoes with both a garlic aoili dipping sauce (tip o' the nib to Jaleo for that one) and my roasted pepper sauce, garlic shrimp, and a vanilla flan for dessert. If I feel up to it, I might go to the Eden Center to Huong Binh and get a tray of spring rolls. At 50 cents each (75 cents for vegetarian), they are a bargain. So for the less creative of our friends, I ask you, dear readers, for ideas of things people can bring.

The Dinner Party

So Sunday we had the Timily's over for dinner and board games. We really went all out without an inordinate amount of effort - a meal with table settings, courses and even a drink. We decided to go with a Southwest theme, mainly because we found this marvelous cake recipe for flan caramel cake which somehow becomes a bundt cake with a layer of flan in the middle. It's a miracle of cooking. A creamy, dense, sweet, cakey, miracle of cooking. I'll let J give the recipe (and pictures) on that one because he made it. The rest of the meal consisted of:

Vietnamese lime soda
Tortilla chips and tomatillo salsa
Lime marinated chicken with roasted pepper sauce
Mushroom and carrot strudel

It was a wonderuflly harmonious meal with each dish complimenting the other. There was something slightly Iron Chefish about the way the lime flavor wove its way into each dish. The two recipes I will give are the chicken and the strudel.

Lime marinated chicken:

6 chicken breasts
Juice of four limes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
pinch of paprika

In a resealable platic bag, marinate the chicken in all of the ingredients for at least 2 hours although overnight is optimal. On a grill pan, sear the chicken on both sides for three minutes each. This won't cook the chicken all the way through but will keep the juices in while they get baked off. 20 minutes before you actually want to serve the chicken, bake it in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Cover with foil and let rest for 5 minutes. Chicken comes out moist and tender.

Mushroom Carrot Strudel

1 large carrot, grated
1 onion, sliced
1/2 pound of mushrooms, sliced(can be a mixture of button, portobello, cremini etc)
1 jalepeno pepper, seeded and sliced
3 cloves of chopped garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon Tony Cachere's spice mix
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 sheet of puff pastry

Saute the onion and carrots in the olive oil for 5 minutes until onions are soft and translucent. Add jalepeno and garlic and saute a few minutes more. Add the spices and honey and saute for five minutes more. Take off the heat. Roll out puff pastry to about 10 x 12 inches. Put the filling in the middle of the puff pastry lengthwise and fold the puff pastry over the filling like a letter. Flip the strudel over so the seam is on the bottom. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Slice and serve.

BFMQ's (Better than Frozen Mini Quiche)

BFMQ's (Better than Frozen Mini Quiche) from DC Food Blog

These can be made with a variety of fillings. We have made them for several events and parties and they are always very popular! I like doing the mini quiche because they freeze well and are easily portable. This works with the super small muffin pans and the larger ones as well.

CRUST: Make Pie Crust recipe first (see below for prep time etc.) Otherwise, use a store-bought crust (less tasty, but definitely less time-consuming)

CHEESE: 1 c. shredded cheese (can be ½ of two kinds, etc.) often cheddar, mozzarella, or swiss (which often melts a bit less well in my kitchen)

LIQUID: 1 ½ cups half-and-half or milk (milk does just fine)

EGGS: 4 slightly beaten eggs

DRY:
1 tbsp flour
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper, garlic powder or other spices (small amounts)

FILLINGS:
1 cup any of the following (or any tasty combination):

hamburger, TVP, or sausage (all seasoned, cooked and drained), bacon (6 slices cooked, drained and chopped), red peppers (diced), carmelized or chopped onions, spinach, chopped tomatoes, fresh basil, your choice -- the secret for me is to not use ingredients that are too wet. There is already a lot of liquid in the recipe and using ingredients that give off a lot of water may make your quiche too wet.

Some combinations we like: hamburger cheddar and diced onion; spinach, white pepper, carmelized onions and feta or jack cheese; bacon, cheddar, and garlic; basil, tomato and cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325.

2. Lightly spray tins with nonstick spray (PAM or Crisco?)

3. Put enough crust into each cup to reach the top. A jar can often cut the right size of dough depending on the muffin tin size.

4. Put a small amount of cheese in each cup.

5. Toss together the cheese and fillings and flour.

6. In a medium bowl, stir together eggs, half-and-half or milk, salt, pepper and garlic powder (or other spices).

7. Combine with cheese and filling mixture.

8. Use a ladle or spoon to fill each crust cup 2/3 full with mixture.

9. Bake for 35-45 minutes or till an inserted knife comes out clean.

If needed, cover the crust edges with foil rings to prevent overbrowning. These should pop right out with a knife. Serve warm!

My Favorite Pie Crust

Perfect Pie Crust from DC Food Blog (modifed from epicurious.com)

This will make a double crust. I've used many different recipes but I've settled on this one because it makes the flakiest crust. It's almost like puff pastry.

2 sticks + 2 tablespoons of butter

(at least 1 stick of butter should be frozen)

2 ½ cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

¼ cup of water

2 tablespoons rice wine or cider vinegar

Cut butter into tablespoon size. Pour into a food processor. Add the flour, salt, and sugar. Process on high until the butter is the size of peas. Mix water, a few cubes of ice, and the vinegar in a measuring cup. Slowly pour the water in by tablespoons and then blend on high. The way I did it starting out was to count to three pouring the water in and then blend for a short time by counting to five. Do that until the mixture has come together but is not too wet.

Refrigerate for at least a half an hour before using. When you roll it out for use, roll it out to about a ¼ inch thickness.

-J

Monicaritas

The Frozen Margaritas I grew up on . . .from JD

Cuervo
Frozen Limeade in 6 oz. containers
Triple Sec
Ice cubes

Place 6 oz of limeade concentrate in the blender.
Add one limeade container's worth of Cuervo
Add about ½ a container's worth of Cointreau (or Triple Sec).
Fill the blender with ice

Blend and enjoy!

Repeat as needed