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…