Capital Spice

Let’s be honest…even with all the rain, this has been a pretty sweet late spring and early summer.  We’ve had some beautiful days (and evenings) and we’ve even avoided the stifling humidity that usually settles in toward the end of May and sticks around until late September.

If you’ve got the opportunity, you owe it to yourself to do a couple of outdoor lunches before it’s too unpleasant.  And if you’re near the White House, there’s a relatively new outdoor dining option - the modern-meets-classic-Mediterranean Siroc.  With a fenced-in patio that faces McPherson Square, Siroc provides a great chance to enjoy the outdoors in an upscale setting.

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to meet a business associate for lunch.  We had both heard good things about Siroc’s menu, so we decided to meet there and give it a shot.  The weather was too good to ignore, so we opted for a table outside.  With a refreshing sparkling water in hand, we turned our attention to the lunch options.

The Mediterranean influences came through loud and clear time after time.  Beef carpaccio, housemade sausages, octopus in pesto, panini served on ciabatta or focaccia – all of them caught our eyes and made us wrestle with our decisions.

What did we choose?  And how was it?  Find out after the jump. (more…)

With the June Cookbook Challenge chugging along, we’ve been turning our attention to some of the impulse buys in our collection.  One of these, simply titled “Thai,” indicates on its cover that it comes from “The Essentials Collection.”  Inside, we’ve found some easily followed recipes that cover a wide range of recognizable Thai dishes from spring rolls to green curry. 

Essential?  Maybe not.  But definitely helpful.

For the challenge, we decided to tackle two dishes from this cookbook simultaneously: a Thai fish curry and a pineapple and cucumber salad.  We figured the sweet, refreshing salad would offset the heat of the curry.  As it turns out, the salad features chili sauce prominently and the curry wasn’t all that hot to begin with, but we were still happy to have the combination side by side on our plates.

To make the salad, we peeled and quartered one cucumber, then scooped out the seeds and chopped the quarters into 1/2-inch pieces.  We then proceeded to cheat a bit, going for a can of cut pineapple in lieu of the small fresh pineapple that the recipe called for.  Combining the cucumber and the pineapple, we added one thinly sliced red onion and one bunch of chopped arugula leaves.

The dressing for the salad combined some classic Thai flavors: three tablespoons of lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, one teaspoon of sugar, one teaspoon of sambal oelek (chili sauce) and two tablespoons of chopped fresh mint (more of those living organic herbs from Shenandoah Growers).  We whisked the all together and tossed them with the salad for a flavor that was at once salty, sweet, spicy and soothing.

The fish curry was a bit more complicated, beginning with the shopping for the recipe.  The ingredient list calls for 1 3/4 cups of coconut cream, so I found myself torn between coconut milk (a pretty standard ingredient in Thai curries) and Coco Lopez-brand coconut cream (for making pina coladas).  I bought one of each to be safe, only to find that the directions for the recipe refer to the ingredient in question as coconut cream and coconut milk interchangeably.  Frustrated, I set aside the sugary drink mixer and broke out the coconut milk.

We coarsely chopped four shallots and threw them in a blender with two inches’ worth of finely sliced fresh ginger, two inches’ worth of chopped lemongrass, three seeded and chopped red Thai chiles, one tablespoon ground almonds, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric and 1/2 teaspoon salt.  Adding six tablespoons of the coconut milk, we blended the mixture until it made a slightly lumpy paste.

After bringing the mixture to a boil in a large saucepan and cooking it thoroughly for four minutes, we added the remaining coconut milk and brought everything back up to a boil.  We laid in four orange roughy filets and allowed them to simmer for roughly 8-10 minutes, flipping them halfway through the cooking.  At that point it was just a matter of plating and serving the fish and the salad side by side.

Despite the coconut milk hiccup, we definitely found the recipes in this book to easily followed and tasty.  Considering how many of our cookbooks focus on aspects of Asian cooking, it’s a safe bet we’ll be doing away with a few of them.  This one might just make the cut.

It’s no big secret that we love a good cocktail here at Capital Spice.  Consequently, several of our cookbooks are actually collections of cocktails.  From the classics to the most eccentric, we’ve got our libations covered.  On our recent trip to San Francisco, though, a visit to Chronicle Books turned up a book that I just couldn’t resist. 

Infused: 100+ Recipes for Infused Liqueurs and Cocktails focuses on just what you’d think it does.  Ever since my failed attempt to make bourbacon, I’ve been eager to try my hand at making some homemade infusions to use in cocktails.  I snatched up the book and brought it home.

Since our June Cookbook Challenge applies to all of our recipe books, I decided there was no time quite like the present to try my hand at an infusion.  With some beautiful basil growing out on our deck (thanks to the folks at Shenandoah Growers, who sent us some of their organic “Living Culinary Herbs” to try for ourselves), I knew that I wanted to attempt a basil-infused vodka.

Taking a bottle of Absolut 100 that we bought with the intention of making our own limoncello, I poured the contents into a clean half-gallon Mason jar.  To this, I added one cup of lightly packed basil leaves that I rinsed and dried.

And that was pretty much all there was to it.  I left the bottle in a cool, dark place to steep for 24 hours before opening the jar up and pouring the contents through a coffee filter.  The bright green color that the vodka had taken on was striking, and the vegetative, musky aroma of the basil was unmistakable.

With the vodka strained, I poured it back into its original bottle using a funnel (Thank you, Georgetown, for teaching me such valuable skills).  The bottle went back into its cool, dark hiding place for another week to further enhance its flavor.

We put the liqueur to the test with some friends this past weekend – inviting them over for a drink that involved the basil vodka, muddled strawberries, and rosemary-balsamic simple syrup.  The high alcohol content of the Absolut 100 gave it a bit of an alcoholic burn, but the balance of sweet and savory flavors made for a great time.

We’ve still got plenty of basil vodka left…anyone for a Bloody Mary brunch?

As most engaged couples do, Mike and I registered for every kitchen gadget under the sun. Tiny kitchen space be damned, we most definitely did need that asparagus steamer! Oh? And glasses for port which are completely different from glasses with which to serve sherry? Two sets, please.  Well sure, we don’t really drink sherry but we might… one day.

We realized the error of our ways a few months after being married and living with all this… stuff. Most extraneous items have gone the way of the dodo, much to Goodwill’s joy. Somewhere in the DC-Nova area, a budget shopper’s kitchen is decked out with the finest items Crate & Barrel has to offer, courtesy of our family and friends. I hope they found a good home.

However, one item remained unused but stubbornly, cozily at home in the kitchen. It sat in the drawer, peeking out at me every time I grabbed a clean dish towel and mocking me and all of my intentions. That item is the creme brulee blow torch, which we registered for right away because obviouslywe would be throwing DC’s most delightful dinner parties as newlyweds and everyone knows no dinner party is complete without a luscious creme brulee.

Four years later, it was still in the packaging. My mother, perhaps hoping to prod me along, gave us a book of creme brulee recipes for Christmas one year. I thumbed through it dutifully and then onto the shelf it went, next to The Best of Russian Cooking (and we all know how well that turned out). But the June Cookbook Challenge brought this book off the shelf with a vengeance and I am so grateful that it did.

For my first ever creme brulee, I could have gone with the classic vanilla bean. That would have been a safe approach. But once I saw the recipe for ginger chile creme brulee – a spicy and sweet dessert?? – I was hooked. 

Looking back, I learned two key lessons from my first creme brulee experience. One, it takes some patience. Kinda like making risotto. And two, it’s helpful to have a blender at the ready for custard emergencies.

Recipe and more info after the jump. (more…)

Sometimes it’s too easy to forget DC is a mere drive away from some beautiful destinations. On a recent bright Saturday, Mike and I packed up the car and our cocker spaniel Murphy for a day trip to Annapolis, Maryland. Every time we visit Annapolis I’m surprsied by how small it is. Lined with brick streets, charming historic homes and buffered by the Naval Academy, downtown and state capital, Annapolis is an enchanting place to spend an afternoon. It’s just cozy enough for a relaxed day of strolling, window shopping, and eating…which is exactly what we did. 

We started off the day at the Quiet Waters Dog Beach, where the largest population of labradoodles I have ever seen splashed into the water after tennis balls. Murphy, however, expressed no interest in swimming. Instead he sat comfortably behind a log calmly staring at us while we tried to  coax him in. He’d go in about paw deep, drink the water, grimace at the saltiness of it, run away from a wave then sneak back to drink the water and grimace some more. No amount of tennis ball tossing and whistling would convince him to swim. Fine, we decided, it was time for lunch. 

Reviews and more photos after the jump! (more…)

If it were an item of clothing, the Better Homes & Garden’s New Cookbook would be a pair of Carhartt trousers: a respectable though unsophisticated workhorse. Flip the book open to any page and you’re likely to find an American classic from tuna noodle casserole (page 293), to corn relish (page 192), to steak au poivre (page 332). 

Last Friday we cooked up a quick weeknight dinner of sausages from Eco-Friendly Foods and mustard potato salad. When I needed a vegetable side recipe to accompany these treats, I immediately pulled this spiral-bound book off the shelf to contribute to the June Cookbook Challenge. The book is chock full of simple recipes and the dilled peas and walnuts immediately caught my eye.

I’m a recent convert to the pea community. Growing up, I hated peas in all their mushy, greyish indignities. The flavors were flat, the texture was awful and I thought they ruined any dish they touched. That was before I actually tasted fresh spring peas. Like walking through the wardrobe, I entered a whole new world. Springlike, gorgeously green and with an al dente texture that screams fresh, I was in love. 

With a bag of peas from the H St Farmer’s market, we already had everything we needed for this recipe. Once the peas are shelled, this side dish is about as basic as it gets. The final result was simple, healthy, and full of flavor.  The tangy dill interplayed nicely with the walnuts and and peas, creating a fun combination of flavors and textures with every bite. We cooked our peas for about a minute longer than I prefer. They were still delicious but lost a little of that resistance I love so much but we still polished off the dish and had seconds.

Dilled Peas and Walnuts

2 cups of shelled peas (frozen peas not recommended… because they are gross)
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 Tb butter or margarine (we substituted olive oil)
1 1/2 teaspoons snipped fresh dill or 1/3 ts dried dill
1/4 ts salt
1/4 ts black pepper
3 Tb broken walnuts, toasted

Cook peas and onion, covered, in a small amount of boiling salt water for 10 minutes or until crisp tender. Drain. Return to saucepan. Stir in butter, dill, salt, and pepper. Heat through. Sprinkle with walnuts.

“They squirm so you don’t have to.”  With those words, Alex over at Brightest Young Things gave our TNFNS recaps a shout-out in her weekly round-up this week.  And that was BEFORE last night’s epsiode!

When it comes to competition cooking shows, this isn’t exactly our first rodeo.  We’ve been lucky enough to interview Spike from Top Chef Season 4 and finalist Carla Hall from the most recent season.  Each time, we’ve come away from the experience with the impression that – despite all the editing that you know goes into turning hours of footage into minutes of television – their television personalities were distilled versions of themselves.  Spike does have a swagger and a wink to him, and Carla is just that sweet and eccentric.

But we’re at a loss to figure out what’s going on with Teddy Folkman on The Next Food Network Star…this is DEFINITELY not the Teddy we know.  TV-Teddy wasn’t exactly making fans with his over-the-top performances; after tonight’s episode that may end up being the least of his worries.  Even with the friendly crowd at the Capitol Lounge rooting for him, this one had to be tough for Teddy to watch.

Details on the episode (so SPOILER ALERT) and some thoughts about what may lie ahead after the jump. (more…)

After five weekdays of rushed breakfasts and slurped coffee, a leisurely Saturday morning breakfast is in order. When I turned to The Best of Waffles and Pancakes for the June Cookbook Challenge this cornmeal waffle recipe immediately caught my eye. This recipe became a double win with the addition of cornmeal, one of my favorite secret weapons. Its slightly sweet, grainy consistency provides a fantastic contrast to what may normally be a one-note texture.

This was our first time with this recipe and I’d give it a solid B. This is more of a waffle workhorse than a treat on its own and for the effort of making a breakfast dish, I’d like to be a little more wowed. The savior of the meal was the fruit topping; we macerated fresh strawberries and blueberries  for a summery treat in lieu of  syrup. Put together, the cornmeal created a unique texture but was mild enough that it really became a muted platform to eat the juicy, bright berries. 

Fromthe cookbook Best of Waffles and Pancakes

Cornmeal Waffles
3 large eggs, seperated at room temperature
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all purpose flour
1 Tb granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk 

Preheat waffle iron. In a medium bownl, combine the cornmeal, flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and baking soda.

In a small bowl, whisk the buttermilk, egg yolks, and butter. Pourthis mixture into the dry ingredients, stirring until a lumpy batter is formed.

In a clean, dry medium sized bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the batter. 

Add about 1/3 cup of batter onto the hot, greased waffle iron. Bake for 2 to 3 minutes or until the waffles are golden brown.

One of the best things about our cookbook challenge has been the opportunity it provides for us to visit with some of the oldies-but-goodies in our collection.  You know how it goes – with each new option, the old standbys fade further and further into the background.  It’s not because of anything they did or didn’t do; sometimes that’s just the way it is.

For us, Giuliano Hazan’s “The Classic Pasta Cookbook” is one of those faithful friends.  Some of our first cooking experiences together while we were dating were taken from this book, which belonged to a friend: a basic pomodoro, a spicy all’arrabbiata, a rich carbonara.  It had served us so well that I gave a copy to Elizabeth for Christmas one year, and I even reached out to the author to ask him to sign it.  But changing cooking habits (we rarely make pasta anymore) and an influx of new cookbooks with an emphasis on fresh, seasonal ingredients have relegated Hazan to the bookshelf. 

When we started the challenge, this was one of the books that we were most looking forward to revisiting.  It was pretty much a foregone conclusion that we would hold onto it, but what dish would we make to test it (and ourselves)?  Elizabeth was flipping through the book when she lit upon farfalle al salmone affumicato.  The handy translation informed us it was “Bow Tie Pasta with Smoked Salmon and Roasted Bell Peppers,” and we knew we had a winner.

Besides…it gave us another opportunity to fire up the Big Green Egg!

Once we had the salmon smoked it was just a matter of making the recipe – details after the jump. (more…)

Two years and $22 million later, the historic South Hall at Eastern Market is just about ready to reopen.  In fact, the temporary East Hall, where long-time vendors like Bowers’ Fancy Dairy Products, Canales Meats and Market Lunch have been operating since August of 2007, closed its doors at 4 PM on Sunday and the tenants have begun the process of transferring their equipment, their supplies and their inventories out.

Last month, the Mayor’s office announced that the Market would officially reopen on Friday, June 26th with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10:30 AM.  The next day, June 27th, will be an “all day celebration with music, face painting, food, entertainment and the newly remodeled historic market!”  With those dates quickly approaching, we decided to poke our heads into the South Hall to see how things are progressing.

As we headed down 7th Street from North Carolina Avenue, we were more than a little impressed with the renovated streetscape outside the Market.  Cobblestones in alternating colors give the block a feel that’s much more like a plaza or a pedestrian zone than a car-friendly thoroughfare.  It should come as no surprise that the city is pushing to keep 7th Street closed to vehicles on weekends (a program that has been in place since the Market reopened post-fire, and one that has plenty of adherents and critics).

From the outside, little has changed about Eastern Market.  The brick structure was largely unscathed by the fire, so the crews were able to address some minor cosmetic repairs without having to recreate the historic facade from scratch.  Inside, though, quite a few things have been updated and replaced.  The result is a modernized structure that retains its authentic character.

More photos of the work in its final stages after the jump. (more…)