Category Archives: Wine & Beer

The Food Matters Project: Reverse Fondue

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Leave it to Mark Bittman to take something as decadent as fondue and make a version that feels more reasonable without losing any of that great bread-in-hot-cheese goodness. And leave it to me to discover in the middle of the recipe that we had eaten right through our cheese reserves in the fridge (I have a thing for Cabot’s Seriously Sharp, okay?!) and I only had four ounces left while the recipe called for eight.

I made the recipe for my book club meeting, so of course 15 minutes before I was supposed to be there I was shoving veggies into the oven to roast (because why would I make these things easy on myself by cooking in advance?) and panicking on the discovery of the last of the cheese.

I ended up making up the difference with a bit of shredded parmesan and 3 tablespoons of silken tofu. With a good sprinkling of salt and pepper, the strong flavors of the cheese held up. I grabbed the pot and the platters of veggies and bread I’d roasted and brought it the two blocks over to my friend’s house where the book club meeting was being hosted to finish it on her stove, since it really needs to be poured right away after the cheese melts.

I’m not sure if it was the lesser amount of cheese, the tofu or if I just didn’t keep it cooking long enough, but my sauce never quite turned creamy. And the downside of this dish is that plain white sauce doesn’t look as appetizing poured over food as it does in a beautiful fondue dish, especially when it’s a bit on the thinner side. It still tasted good and cheesy, but didn’t exactly look as lovely as a traditional fondue spread.

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The other thing about making this for something like a book group is that it’s invariably going to sit on the table for awhile as people pick at food and chat. Bread that’s sitting in cheese sauce for awhile tends to get this weird combination of stale and dense, so for this setting perhaps a dippable version with the lower-guilt sauce like what Aura did would be better.

Either way, I’m always happy to try out recipes that involve bread, roasted veggies and cheese. Make sure to check out what the rest of the Food Matters Project members did and find the original recipe at Lexi’s blog.

Best Garlicky Mushrooms… and an unwelcome visitor

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This weekend, we had our first unwelcome guest in our apartment.

Now, I’m pretty brave when it comes to most things. When I was a kid, I found a baby bat under my bed and barely batted an eye. I’m the first one to put on the gloves and tackle a clogged sink, and I always get bathroom cleaning duty.

But I did what you see in the movies and leapt onto the bed shrieking after I saw it streak across our bedroom floor. D investigated, confirmed that it was indeed a mouse, and went back to what he was doing. I crouched on the bed for at least 10 minutes.

The more people I talk to about this (because, obviously, I posted immediately about it on Facebook and Twitter), the more I realize that mice are a pretty common problem, especially this time of year. Friends here in DC related stories of catching up to 30 in a month in their house. My mom reminded me that their old farmhouse saw its share of mice, too. But we had cats growing up, so I never had to see them alive and running across my floor. When I saw this running around my bedroom and casually disappearing amongst the shoes lined up under the bureau (MY SHOES! MY. SHOES. Is nothing sacred?), I felt like I had just walked in on a home invader.

So come Sunday, when I usually do my cooking for the Food Matters Project, I had spent the day hunting for cracks in the walls, cleaning up mouse droppings, interrogating hardware store employees about war strategies, and loading peanut butter into traps. I had a splitting headache and I was feeling unsettled and morally conflicted about the humanity of killing this brazen little creature. I ended up just heating up leftovers and going to bed at 8:30 p.m. Yes, you read that correctly.

Last night, D had been talking about pizza all day and I still wanted to at least make the mushroom part of this week’s Food Matters Project recipe, Polenta Cakes with Garlicky Mushrooms. After reading the rave reviews from the other FMP members, I’m going to make the polenta cakes soon, but I wanted to at least try the mushrooms. I ended up eating them with a fork out of the pan like they were candy.

I made my pizza thick on toppings and thin on cheese (a simple Parmesan/romano mix was so great here). Buffalo chicken breast, broccoli and these mushrooms made for an oddly delicious combination atop a quick homemade chunky sauce with fresh basil. And trust me, I will be using this recipe for mushrooms again and again.

mushrooms

Garlicky Mushrooms (from the Food Matters Cookbook)

2 tbsp olive oil
1 lb baby bella mushrooms (or assorted mushrooms)
salt and pepper
liberal shake of dried sage (the original recipe called for thyme, which I couldn’t find)
1/4 cup dry white wine

Put the olive oil in a skillet (cast iron worked great) and heat over medium heat. Wash the mushrooms and add them to the pan along with the sage, plus salt and pepper. Cook until most of the water has cooked out of them. Stir in the wine, turn down the heat to medium-low and let them simmer until most of the wine has cooked off. Serve with polenta cakes, atop another dish or simply on their own.

See the original recipe, including the polenta cakes that I haven’t gotten to make yet, on Sandra’s blog.

The Food Matters Project: Quinoa with Braised Beef, Parsnips and Carrots

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One of the strange things about living in DC is the quickness of fall. In New England, it seems like there’s a leisurely span of time between mid-September, when the days start to get crisp, and Halloween, when you have to wear a jacket over your costume.

In DC, I can run in shorts until late October. Two weeks ago, we had one day with a high of 83 degrees and the rest were in the 70s. The trees were starting to turn colors, but there were plenty still covered with deep green leaves. We had our windows permanently open for fresh air and the fan on in our bedroom at night.

But suddenly, with last week’s arrival of Hurricane Sandy, arctic air blew in. We’re shocked into wearing gloves on the morning bike ride and trying to negotiate our finicky heater to a decent temperature. Tourists are starting to bundle up and my fuzzy socks have come out of hibernation.

And sadly, Sandy’s strong winds blew off the colorful leaves from so many trees. Just as we started seeing the best of the foliage, it was on the ground.

fallen leaves

Luckily, his week’s Food Matters Project recipe was perfect to warm us up. The braised beef smelled incredible as it was cooking, and it made for great comfort food. You can see the original recipe, which called for wheat berries, on Culinary Adventures with Camilla, this week’s host. And the rest of the Food Matters Project members share their takes on it here.

quinoa beef parsnip stew

Quinoa with Braised Beef, Parsnips and Carrots (adapted from The Food Matters Cookbook)

2 tablespoons olive oil
12 ounces beef, cubed
2 onions, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, sliced
1/2 cup red wine
3 1/2 cups water or broth
3/4 cup quinoa
1 bay leaf
pinch of tarragon
pinch of oregano
2 large parsnips, peeled and chopped into chunks
2 carrots, peeled and chopped into chunks
salt and pepper
3 tbsp chopped cilantro

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. When it’s hot, add the beef cubes. Let them brown on all sides, turning them as needed. This will probably take about 5-10 minutes. Remove the beef from the pot when it’s browned. If there’s more than a few tablespoons of fat in the pot, drain the excess. (I used lean beef, so there wasn’t as much fat.)

2. Turn the heat down to medium, then add the onion and garlic and cook until they start to brown a bit, about 5-10 minutes. Add the wine and scrape the bottom of the pot to pick up any browned onion or garlic.

3.  Add the beef back in, along with the bay leaf, spices and water or broth. Also add a healthy dose of salt if you’re using water instead of broth. Bring it to a boil, then turn it down low to simmer. Let it cook for about 20 minutes.

4. Rinse the quinoa well and add it to the pot, along with the parsnips and carrots. If there isn’t enough liquid to cover everything, add some more water along with it. Turn up the heat to get the water to boil again, then, turn back down and cook for about 15 minutes, or until the quinoa grains have burst and the parsnips and carrots are tender, but not mushy.

5. Remove the bay leaf, taste and adjust the seasoning as needed. Serve garnished with the chopped cilantro.

Serves 4.

quinoa-beef-parsnip-stew-cilantro

Related posts:

The Food Matters Project: Raw Butternut Salad with Cranberry Dressing
The Food Matters Project: Collard-Tofu Burgers
The Food Matters Project: Bread and Nut Mayo
The Food Matters Project: Cheese-Nut Balls

Beer-boiled bratwurst with peppers and onions

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D craves bratwurst like crazy this time of year. We say it’s because of the cooler weather and the smell of smokiness in the air, but I think it’s just as likely that the steady stream of Oktoberfest celebrations serves as a constant reminder of his heritage (he’s half German). Whatever the reason, he’s tossed them into the grocery cart a few times recently and I don’t argue.

If you have a grill, brats are delicious on them. Alas, apartment dwellers often don’t have access to that kind of luxury. We like to boil our brats in beer, although you could certainly finish them off on the grill or even under the broiler for a bit of a char. If you’re going to use the beer boiling method, a cheap brew is fine, and I’d recommend steering clear of anything flavored.

For toppings, I usually slice up some peppers, mushrooms and onions thin and cook them on the stove until they’re soft. Mustard is a standby condiment, but you could also use relish, hot sauce or my favorite, a dab of sriracha for some heat.

I try to make a vegetable for a side for a bit more nutritional value — last time, I attempted sweet potato pancakes but they fell apart and turned into more of a sweet potato hash brown. Still delicious!

What are you craving as the seasons change?

bratwurst

Treating the end of summer blues

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I’m back from vacation and starting to get past the post-beach withdrawal, although a nasty case of allergies is really making that difficult. However, I wanted to share a drool-worthy photo to help battle the end of summer blues!

This is the Raspberry Cabernet Sorbet we did last month for the Food Matters Project, made with a package of frozen mixed berries that included cherries, blackberries and blueberries. It was incredible, as usual, and I mixed in chocolate chips after running it through the food processor.

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What’s your favorite end of summer cool-off treat?

The Food Matters Project: Roast potatoes and chicken with romesco

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slow cooker sweet potato and chicken

This week’s Food Matters Project recipe was Roast Potatoes and Chicken with Romesco, picked by Mireya, who is making me miss Spain with her beautiful photos! I spent a semester there in 2007 and it is quite an incredible place.

Fittingly, she picked a recipe with Spanish influences. I modified this oven-baked chicken because we’re having another scorching weekend here in DC. I used the slow cooker to do most of the work so we wouldn’t bake ourselves and finished it off with a quick blast under the broiler to brown the whole thing, but you can find the original recipe on Mireya’s post.

I also used sweet potatoes in place of regular potatoes and deconstructed the romesco so the flavors of the pepper and tomatoes would be cooked into the dish. See all the other bloggers’ takes on it here!

Slow-cooker sweet potatoes and chicken

3 sweet potatoes, peeled
1 green pepper
1 hot pepper (optional)
1 14-oz can whole tomatoes
1 cup cherry tomatoes
splash of red wine
2 chicken breasts

1. Cut the sweet potatoes into circles about an inch thick, then cut each one in half. Chop up the pepper and mince the hot pepper, if you’re using it. Chop up the canned tomatoes into chunks. Add them all to the slow cooker with the cherry tomatoes, chicken breasts, and wine, topping it off with some salt and pepper. Set it to cook for 4 hours on high or for 8 hours on low, and then leave it alone. (See below.)

2. After your cooking cycle is done, stir everything and cut into the chicken to check for doneness. Pour everything into a glass baking dish and put it under the broiler for just a couple of minutes to brown it a bit on top. Make sure not to broil it too long or it will dry out.

Fledgling tip: If you haven’t used a slow cooker before, it is imperative that you resist the urge to remove the cover to smell it or look at it while it cooks. The slow cooker works because it seals in the heat. Lifting the lid over and over could add hours to your cooking time. If you live with roommates, put a note on it that says do not touch!

The Food Matters Project: Raspberry Cabernet Sorbet

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This week’s Food Matters Project recipe feels like the epitome of decadence, but it’s actually quite low on guilt — the best combination! Our host is Jennifer of Simple & Amazing, who is giving me sorbet envy with the coconut recipe she made to go with her pick for this week, Raspberry Cabernet Sorbet.

Let me just point out that this is a dessert recipe that contains wine, which makes it an automatic winner in my book. The original recipe, which you can see on Jennifer’s post, calls for a bit more sugar than I ended up using, just because I like a tart flavor. I think I used about half what it called for, and I stuck to plain yogurt for the base. The sugar and yogurt turn creamy and the wine keeps it from freezing completely, so you end up with this gorgeous, incredibly easy sorbet that I wouldn’t hesitate to serve to dinner guests.

Raspberry cabernet sorbet

It really does look angelic, doesn’t it?

Although Bittman recommends serving it immediately, I found I needed to freeze it for a few hours because it was melting too quickly. You can see in the photo below that it’s starting to soften, although that could be attributed to the fact that I took a few minutes to admire it before scooping it into a bowl. After dinner, I pulled it back out of the freezer and ate it straight from the container with a spoon.

raspberry cabernet sorbetThis is fantastic on its own, but some dark chocolate chips, nuts or coconut flakes mixed in after you take it out of the food processor would probably be outstanding too.

Update: After a few people commented about the chocolate idea, I tried it. Behold, chocolate shavings and coconut. Heaven!

Raspberry cabernet sorbet with chocolate shavings and coconut

Related posts:

The Food Matters Project: Corn-Avocado Salad (with a Little Something Seared on Top)
The Food Matters Project: Tomatoes with walnut pâté and beet chips
The Food Matters Project: Updated Tea Sandwiches

Road Trip: Eastern Shore, Maryland

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D and I made a somewhat non-traditional Eastern Shore pilgramage in May to celebrate our anniversary. Rather than heading to Ocean City, we camped on the Chesapeake side, then spent a day driving up the coast and exploring. Check out the photos to see a chronicle of the trip, and click on any one to open a full-screen gallery. The places we visited are linked below, as well.

Market Street Books

Sage Diner in Salisbury, Maryland

Blue Crab Coffee

St. Michaels Winery

Eastern Shore Brewing

St. Michaels Crab and Steakhouse

All images except #4-7 courtesy Derrick Perkins and his fancy DSLR. The rest were taken on my fancy iPhone.

Seafood feast

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I promised an update from my mom and brother’s visit last week. As it turned out, we didn’t do as much cooking as we planned. We did, however, have ourselves a seafood feast courtesy of a trip to the Maine Avenue Fish Market. We made a softshell crab, scallops in a chili cream sauce, and mussels. My mom has been making the scallop recipe for awhile now and can’t remember where she got it from, but I can post her stand-by mussel recipe and the way we make softshell crab. To be honest, the scallops and the crab were the real winners — we are used to having mussels in New England, and they just weren’t the same here. But this recipe is fantastic if you have excellent mussels, and the broth was still pretty darn good.

Softshell crab

Softshell crab

Melt butter in a pan big enough to hold the crab. Put some flour on a plate and dip the crab in it on both sides so it is coated with flour. When the pan is hot, put the floured crab in the butter and cook until it’s crispy and browned, flipping halfway through to get both sides. This is fantastic on its own or on a bed of greens, so you don’t even need any dipping sauces (although it certainly lends itself nicely to pretty much anything).

Mussels

Mussels in spicy broth

Ingredients:

butter
garlic
a splash of white wine
1 tomato, chopped
a splash of hot sauce
1 lb mussels
crusty bread (you’re going to be sorry if you don’t have something to sop up the delicious broth with!)

Heat a large pot over medium heat and melt a pad of butter in the bottom. Add the garlic to the butter — press it if you have a garlic press, but if not, mincing is fine. Add the chopped tomato along with a splash of wine and a splash of hot sauce. Pick through the mussels and throw out any that have already opened — these are already bad. (It’s perfectly fine if one is; it doesn’t mean the whole batch has gone bad. Just toss it out.) Dump the closed mussels in the pot and put the lid on. Cook until all the shells have opened, then dump the contents of the pot into a big bowl, broth included. Enjoy the mussels and use a nice chunk of warm crusty bread to sop up the broth. Tip: If you don’t eat mussels often, it’s always a good idea to set another large bowl next to the one with the mussels where you can easily toss the shells as you eat. They’re going to go quickly!

Here are a couple photos of the scallops that we made, as well. Like I said, it’s a chili cream sauce, so we browned them first and then mixed the sauce in the same pan.

Browned scallops

Scallops in chili cream sauce

Turkey burger mania

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First of all, my hiatus from posting hasn’t been because I’ve forgotten about Fledgling Foodie–but with the holidays and all the traveling, parties and festivities surrounding them, I just haven’t been cooking at home as much. But I’m back on the wagon now after stuffing myself sick with Mom’s home cooking and too much office party fare. Expect to hear more in the weeks to come.

Last weekend my boyfriend was in town, and we did a lot of restaurant hopping and generally just following as our stomachs guided us. He’s a pub food type of guy, so I brought him to Capitol City Brewing Company downtown. I’m there a fair amount for happy hour–okay, okay, the bartender and I have become buddies because I’m there so often–but it’s usually the half-price appetizers that I’m craving after a busy Thursday at the office. While those are scrumptious, I haven’t tried too much off their full menu when you compare it to the amount of time I’ve spent there.

I ordered their turkey burger, and it was delicious. I’ve been on a bit of a turkey burger kick lately after discovering that I can mix them up and then freeze them into single serving sizes for a quickie meal, so I’ve been ordering them all over the place to see if I can pick up some ideas for what’s good in them. Cap City makes theirs with cilantro, celery, onion and carrots, and the result was great. I also had one at Chadwick’s in Friendship Heights a few weeks ago that just melted in your mouth.

As a sidenote, order the Blackout Stout if you’re at Cap City anytime soon. It’s a seasonal stout that the waiter recommended to me after I told him I’d like to try the Prohibition Porter. He said the Blackout was his favorite and brought me a glass to try. It was rich and had chocolatey undertones–perfect to warm up the insides on a rainy January evening.

I’ll definitely order the turkey burger again next time I’m there. But next time I’m getting the sweet potato fries–someone at a nearby table got them and I was drooling.