Unfortunately, as I was riding my bike on the mean streets of DC Sunday morning, a careless man opened his pickup truck door into me . . . causing me to hit the deck and break a bone in my arm, the olecranon, which forms the point on the elbow.  I'm having surgery tomorrow to repair the damage.  My orthopedist will be inserting some hardware that will likely be removed in a second surgery in a few weeks.  Consequently, I'll be on hiatus from blogging for awhile.  I won't be able to cook or photograph food for at least a few weeks.  I'll return to blogging as soon as I can.  Ciao.

        

The second course of Sunday night's meal was this smoked salmon and spring onion uramaki (inside-out roll).  While not displaying the creativity of the now-(in)famous Kobayashi uramaki, these were nevertheless good.  I couldn't find sushi-grade raw fish in my neighborhood, so I went with the safety of smoked salmon.  I have and would again eat raw the non-sushi grade tuna from the Whole Foods in my neighborhood, but I was wary of serving it to five guests . . . I like to play it on the safe side when it comes to food safety and others . . . even though I tend toward reckless when it comes to my own lifestyle.  At any rate, this course was well received.  I'm in a sushi rolling mood, so I think I'll let it roll again this weekend. 

        

As I mentioned in my last post, I had five friends over for dinner Sunday night and fed them six Japanese-inspired courses.  The first course was this oyster in a sake-based sauce that I made up without measuring anything, but I think the proportions were roughly as listed below.  Although I didn't serve it in a shot glass, I'll call it a "shooter" anyway.  I bought the oysters at the Dupont farmers market Sunday morning from Busters Seafood.  I really liked the shooter and my guests claimed to like it as well.  I plan on making something like it again.  Here's a recipe that makes somewhere between a half and three-quarter cups.  I'm thinking that the number of people it would serve will depend on how you serve it (e.g., on a shallow serving spoon, in a shot glass, etc.).

• 1 cup sake
• 2 cloves garlic*, minced
• 1-inch piece of ginger*, peeled and minced or grated
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons mirin
• 1 spring onion*, thinly sliced

1. Combine everything but the onion in a small sauce pan.
2. Bring it to a boil and then lower the heat enough to keep it from boiling over—keep an eye on it!  Continue cooking until it's reduced to about a half cup—about 15 minutes.
3. Remove from the heat and strain.  Discard the solids and allow the liquid to cool to room temperature, then put it in the fridge or freezer to chill it until ready to serve.  Serve it cold, with a freshly-shucked oyster and garnish with some spring onion.

  


  

        

I had a dinner party tonight with the folks who were in the cooking class I taught at ArtSpace DC this winter.  The company was great.  The food was pretty good, too . . . six courses that I'll tell you about in the coming days.  But, for tonight, I just wanted to let you know that the dessert was plate-licking good to at least one guest.  It's the highest compliment I've ever been paid for my cooking.  So I pulled out my camera.  Alright, I'm off to bed and, after an on-me work day tomorrow, I'll be off to drink whiskey and celebrate St. Paddy's Day prematurely with my woman and the Pogues tomorrow night.  But it's my sincerest hope that I'll be back to document tonight's meal within a couple of days.  Thanks to my guests tonight.  I had a blast cooking with and for you and, more importantly, getting to know you.  Happy St. Paddy's Day, folks.

        

Sometimes meals just present themselves.  Last night, I went to Whole Foods to pick up a few things on my way home.  On my way into the store I noticed some Whole Foods employees behind a grill on the sidewalk selling hot dogs as a fundraiser for some nonprofit . . . they've been doing this for a couple of weeks.  Into the store I went.  I was planning on making some sushi rolls for dinner . . . honing my rolling skills for a dinner party this weekend . . . but I didn't know what I was going to put in the rolls.  While strolling around, I heard over the sound system an announcement that the sidewalk sellers had run out of buns but had about 50 already-cooked hot dogs sitting on the grill.  Consequently, they were having a two-bunless-hot-dogs-for-$1 sale.  Instantly I thought of hot dog eating pro Takeru Kobayashi.  Have any of you ever seen this Japanese dude eat hot dogs?  He's a hot dog eating machine.  He's won Nathan's International July Fourth Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island 7 out of the last 8 years.  At that moment I decided to honor Kobayashi with some maki (seaweed on the outside) and uramaki (rice on the outside) rolls.  I worried that my inspiration might be stymied by a sell-out of the hot dogs, so I rushed to the checkout line and, before I knew it, I was strolling down the alley to my apartment with two hot off the grill tinfoil-wrapped bunless hot dogs in hand.  I have an awesome rice cooker with a timer, so I knew I'd have freshly-cooked sushi rice waiting for me at home.  Strangely, when thinking of condiments, the first one that popped into my head was ketchup . . . most people would probably have thought of mustard, but I've always liked ketchup on hot dogs.  I didn't want my sushi to be totally trailer park (like there's any way for a hot dog sushi roll not to be trashy), so I substituted some spicy roasted red pepper purée that was in my fridge for the ketchup that initially sprang to mind.

There you have it . . . last night's dinner.  I know, I know . . . many of you probably think this is totally nasty.  My coworkers, who really like hot dogs, cringed at my description of this delicacy moments ago.  But whatever . . . it was pretty good . . . and Kobayashi the Great would probably appreciate the tribute.  Just looking at the photo makes be chuckle.  I must be in the running for the Most Trailer Trash Sushi Of All Time award.  I only wish I'd stuck with the ketchup.  Switching up to red pepper purée might cost me the prize.

        

I've mentioned before the awesomeness of Marcella Hazan's book Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.  On the day that my copy was delivered to my office, a co-worker friend of Italian descent grabbed it before I'd even cracked the cover.  It seemed like only minutes later that she returned to my office to return my copy and inform me that she'd just ordered a copy for herself.  On Sunday evening I reaped the benefits of that fateful day, when she and her man cooked for me and my woman.  She threw down this minestrone from Hazan's book, along with several other delicious dishes.  She also sent me home with some soup, so I photographed it before I ate it.  So here I am, thanking our gracious hosts and plugging Hazan's book once again.  Cheers.

        

This recipe was inspired by and modeled on Ice Cream Ireland's margarita sorbet recipe.  Actually, it was inspired by the fact that I wanted to bring a dessert to a dinner party at a friend's last night, combined with the fact that I had some lemons on hand.  The weather in DC this weekend was unseasonably warm, so sorbet sprang to mind.  Off I went to Ice Cream Ireland looking for a lemon sorbet recipe.  Instead I found their margarita sorbet recipe and thought immediately of the popular bar shot known as the "lemon drop."  Thinking it'd be tough to go wrong with vodka, lemon juice and sugar, I adapted the margarita sorbet recipe as follows.  It made about a quart of boozy sorbet deliciousness.  

• 340g sugar + a bit for garnishing the rim of some serving glasses 
• 500ml drinking water (filtered or bottled if you live in a city with nasty water, like me)
• 250ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 100ml vodka
• lemon zest for garnish

1. Boil the water and dissolve the sugar in it.
2. Remove it from the heat, cover it and cool it to room temperature.  Then add the lemon juice and vodka and cool the mixture in the refrigerator until it is cold (about 38°F) about 6 hours or over night.  (I generally refrain from putting hot items directly into my refrigerator, because doing so can increase the temperature within your refrigerator into the danger zone for bacterial growth—approx. 40°F to 140°F.) 
3. Freeze in an ice cream maker, then place in the freezer to harden more for a few hours before serving.
4. Moisten the rim of a serving glass with a lemon wedge, then dip the rim in sugar.  Spoon the sorbet into the glass and garnish with lemon zest.

 

        

This dish was last night's dinner . . . quick and easy and made entirely of ingredients from the Chesapeake Bay region.  Yeah, the plate probably could have used some carbs; instead, I got them from some Newman's Own counterfeit Oreos that I ate for dessert.  I prefer the chemically-chocolate delight of original Oreos, but the hippies at Whole Foods don't sell much original junk food . . . just the more expensive counterfeits.  I digress.  Back to the main attraction.  EcoFriendly Foods had a 2-for-1 sale on all of its link sausage at the Dupont farmers market a few weeks ago, so I loaded up.  Last night I threw some chorizo on my stove top grill pan and, while the chorizo was grilling, I braised some mixed hearty greens (mostly kale and Swiss chard) that I picked up at the farmers market Sunday in some apple cider that I'd also picked up at the market.  This meal took about 20 minutes to prepare and was delicious . . . perfect for a weeknight when you arrive home at 9PM extremely hungry.  The following recipe would serve two as an entrée or four as a small course or side dish.  Enjoy the weekend, folks.

• 1 lb. hearty greens* (e.g., kale or chard)
• 1 cup apple cider*
• 4 links chorizo* or other sausage to your liking

1. Wash the greens thoroughly.  Remove and discard any thick, woody stalks and then chop the greens into bite sized pieces.
2. Bring the cider to a boil in a large pot over high heat, then add the greens and reduce the heat to medium.  Put the lid on the pot but leave it cracked slightly, so the evaporating water can escape.  (This allows the water from the cider and the water released from the greens to reduce down into a slightly-thickened sauce.)  Cook the greens in the cider (i.e., "braise" the greens) until soft throughout, about 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, on a stove top grill pan or a skillet or a real outdoors grill for those of you fortunate enough to have outdoor space, grill the sausage over medium-high heat until cooked through, about 10 minutes.
4. Remove the greens from the pot and, if there's a lot of braising liquid left in the pot, turn the heat up to high and reduce the liquid for a few minutes to thicken it a bit.  The braising liquid on the plate in the photo above could have been reduced/thickened some more, but I was hungry and impatient.  It tasted great, anyway, but if you're patient, then boil some more of the water out of the sauce.
5. Plate and eat.

 

        

Well, work has gotten the better of me over the past two weeks.  I've been cooking, but I haven't been photographing and writing about it.  But last night I had some breathing room on the work front, so I recreated this dish that I'd made with my cooking class on Monday night . . . pears poached in red wine, then served with the reduced poaching liquid, some whipped cream and lemon zest.  This is a remarkably simple dish with a fairly high "wow" factor.  Everyone in my class loved it and I shared last night's recreation with my girlfriend, who also loved it.  Last night we ate them with some Humboldt Fog cheese and champagne . . . a very decadent treat for a Tuesday night, or any night for that matter.  As we ate them last night it occurred to me that the dish could be taken to another level by stuffing the hollow cavity of the pear, where the core used to be, with soft, stuffable cheese of some sort.  Any suggestions? 

Pears and apples are about the only locally grown fruit available at DC farmers markets this time of the year.  Both store very well, staying crisp and fresh, if stored properly—just above freezing temperature in a low-oxygen environment.  Farmers can harvest them in the fall, store them, and sell them through the winter.  This region's farmers market offerings are getting pretty monotonous . . . I'm really looking forward to Spring . . . but trying to make the most of the local food around in March.  This is a spin on pears that I'd enjoy anytime, anywhere.  The following recipe serves 8.

• 8 pears* (I used Bosc and haven't experimented with poaching any other varieties)
• 1 lemon, cut in half
• 1 bottle (750ml) red wine (any type, no need for an expensive one, but it should be good enough that you'd drink it)
• 1 cup sugar
• water
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon sugar

1. Peel the pears, leaving the stem intact.  Remove the core from the bottom using a melon baller or a small spoon.  Immediately coat the peeled pears with some lemon juice to prevent browning by rubbing the entire surface of the pear with the halved lemon, squeezing the lemon gently as you do to release some juice.
2. Bring the wine and sugar to a boil over medium-high heat in a medium sized saucepan (just large enough to hold the 8 pears in a single layer), stirring occasionally, until sugar is fully dissolved.
3. Add the pears to the saucepan, then add enough water, if necessary, to nearly / barely cover the pears.  Beware that the pears will float, so it's seemingly impossible for them to be completely covered . . . and you don't want any more liquid than absolutely necessary, because the addition of water will reduce the intensity of the wine flavor absorbed by the pears.  Return the liquid to a boil, then reduce the heat to maintain a simmer.  Cover the pot.  Now you're poaching pears.  Cook the pears in the simmering liquid for about 30 minutes, checking every 5 minutes or so and gently turning the pears to make sure all sides have a chance to cook in the liquid.  (See comment above about the impossibility of completely covering the floating pears.)  Be careful when you turn the pears because, as they cook, they'll get soft and you don't want to damage the appearance of the pear with gouges from a spoon!
4. After poaching the pears for about 30 minutes, gently remove them from the liquid with a slotted spoon and place them in the refrigerator.
5. Turn the heat under the saucepan to high and boil the poaching liquid to reduce it to about 1 cup, which will take 15 minutes or so.  You'll know you're getting close to done when the action of the liquid changes from a boil to a bubbling foam.  Keep an eye on the saucepan at this stage, to make sure it doesn't foam over the sides of the saucepan.  Occasionally remove the foaming saucepan from the heat to let the foam bubbles settle (about 20 seconds), in order to judge how much liquid is remaining.
6. While the poaching liquid is reducing into a sauce, whip the heavy cream and, when it reaches soft peaks, beat in the sugar.
7. Serve the poached pears with the red wine reduction sauce and whipped cream, with some lemon zest grated over the top, as pictured.

 

        

I was out of town last weekend visiting family and friends in Pennsylvania and, though I did some cooking, I didn't photograph any food.  Now I find myself mid-week, buried with work, with none of my own food to blog about.  Oh well.  What I do have is a great article about small, obsessive food producers in Brooklyn from yesterday's NY Times, written by the son of a friend of mine.  It's called Brooklyn's New Culinary Movement.  Enjoy.  I'll be back this weekend with some original material.