Anti-Valentine's Day Dinner

I'll start by sparing you my rant on all the reasons Valentine's Day is a holiday with no redeemable qualities or value whatsoever. I'm tempted, I really am, but this blog is about food, right?

So Terri and Steph came over to watch Live Free or Die Hard and enjoy some tasty deliciousness. I was feeling a bit creative, so I decided to boil some tomato water, salt and pepper, and spoon it over some slices of sashimi grade tuna. With the tuna firmed up just a bit, a sprinkled some Hawaiian sea salt on top with some soy sauce and truffle oil. Nice, clean first course.

Then seared a couple of racks of lamb with coriander, salt, and pepper. After I took them off the stovetop, I coated the lamb in horseradish, more salt, and more pepper and tossed them in the oven. While that lamb was roasting, I started the gastrique by running some cherries through a food mill until all the seeds were separated. I added the seeded cherries to a couple of cups of white wine, two bay leaves, a half a teaspoon or so of cloves, about a tablespoon of sugar, and about a teaspoon of whole allspice. I let the sauce reduce until just thickened and served it with the perfectly medium-rare lamb.

I love those rare times when a dish just really works on all cylinders. This was definitely one of those times. The salty tanginess of the horseradish crust was perfectly balanced by the sweet complexity of the gastrique. This was my first attempt at a gastrique, and I'm incredibly excited to try it with other fruits. A mango gastrique? With some roasted chicken, perhaps? Mmmmm......

Delicious.

T Eats Bone Marrow

I was interested in a nice dinner after a fantastic dance performance by Aysha Upchurch's Life, Rhythm, Move project last night--another appearance at Corduroy certainly seemed to be in order. Unfortunately, that bastion of spectacular food preparation is currently closed for its hop, skip, and jump a couple of blocks to a new location. But Blue Duck Tavern is supposed to be one of the better restaurants in DC, so I thought I would give it a try...

Oops.

I didn't have reservations, but I called ahead of time to gauge their business on a Sunday night. Not knowing when the show would end, I didn't find it prudent to make an arbitrarily timed reservation; I wanted to just be able to walk in and get a table. So as we walked into a mostly empty restaurant, I figured I was in good shape. But the hostess' response to my request for a table for two was that "she would see what she could do." Five minutes later she comes back and informs me I can have a table, but I have to be gone in two hours. Fine. Whatever.

We sit down to a menu that seemed numerically ambitious for a fine dining establishment. Sure, when I walk into Applebees I expect an abundance of choices, all of which will be prepared in a mediocre fashion. But most of the good meals I've had are chosen from a limited menu. Perhaps 6 or 7 choices for 1st and 2nd courses...but here, a list of a dozen first courses, a score of main dishes, and a dozen more side dishes? Raised an eyebrow...that's all.

So I'm glancing down the menu of starters when something catches my eye. Does that say bone marrow? At that precise moment, the server approaches the table and asks for our orders. I look up, mostly stupefied, and ask.

"What is bone marrow?"

I'm THINKING it must be a metaphor. Perhaps a preparation of something served in bone. Or a like Corduroy's "Buffalo Porcupines" which, rest assured, did not actually contain porcupine.

Nope. Bone marrow. Braised. Spiced. Bone Marrow. It's the house specialty for a first course. You can't really find it anywhere else in DC.

"I'll take it."

Sure enough, three halves of bone arrive a few minutes later alongside some toasted ciabatta bread. Scoop the marrow onto the bread and enjoy, the server tells me. Turns out bone marrow is much thinner than you might expect. But it basically had the taste and texture of....fat. Soft, salted, peppered, fat. Served on a piece of bread. I made it through one half of a bone before I had my fill. Nice to have tried, but certainly won't be ordering it again.

I had opted for a second course of duck breast and leg--also a house specialty--which came out soon after the bone marrow. Interestingly, as I look around, the restaurant is still mostly empty. Just why was it so hard to get us a table? Anyway, the duck is served in a very simple, non flashy presentation. No color, no flair...just a bit of sliced duck and a twig of rosemary. It's ok--I'll forgive that lack of thought in plating if it's tasty.

It wasn't. The duck skin was overly fatty (made all the worse by the fact that I had just consumed what felt like fat on a cracker for an entire first course) and the duck itself was a bit dry. No interesting or robust flavors. A date puree that was decent, but almost overpoweringly sweet. Long story short, I've made duck twice and I think both preparations were better.

I finished with a chocolate cake flambe that was the highlight of the night. Dense without being too rich, I finished all of it happily and glanced around. The restaurant was still empty.

In the overall scheme of DC restaurants, Blue Duck Tavern finishes a healthy few steps behind Jaleo, probably tied with the Oceanaire Seafood Room. But it definitely loses points for the aura of exclusivity it tried to hard to create. You want exclusivity? Make your food good enough to where you'll actually need to be concerned about an overbooked Sunday night. Overall Grade: C+

Yes. We. Can.

{Warning: Non food-related opinions ahead.}

So most of you know me by my daytime alter ego--a political operative bent on making the world just a bit better than I found it. So you won't be particularly surprised by the presence of my opinions on the subject. Although it is certainly to be understood that this food-dominated medium may be seem strange. You would be right. But since I believe today marks the most important electoral day thus far in our history, I would be remiss to ignore it with the excuse of a "poor medium."

Many of you may find the above statement puzzling. Today? Clearly important, but more important than November of '04? Than the election of Lincoln? Than the election of George Washington himself?

Never will you see me play down the importance of those days. The birth of a nation, a decision to end slavery, and the opportunity to defeat the most destructive President in our nation's history all should stand on their own as defining days.

But today we have the opportunity to literally and figuratively close the book on some of the darkest days of our past. After all, what better way to show progress beyond the days when a black man could be killed for knowing how to read than to elect one President? No, a President Obama does not mean the end of racism, or the end of our duty to pursue all forms of social justice. But it does give me hope. Yes, hope for a post-partisan Presidency...one that informs rather than deceives...one that lives for the American people and not in spite of them...one that unites rather than divides...Yes, I have hope for all of those things. But also hope that this beautiful country, for all its flaws and mistakes, is ultimately a force for good and cannot be denied or impeded on its endless march towards justice and enlightenment. Proof that we can make yesterday's impossible into today's reality not only today, but again and again for years to come.

It is true that today will very likely fail to mark the end of the campaign for either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, almost regardless of the outcome. But today can be a giant step for either candidate and so, until we reach the day when we can almost certainly crown a nominee, or until we reach that day in November when we can elect a President Obama, this day will remain, for me, the most important electoral day in our history.

Super Bowl Extravaganza

A full day of shopping. 4 hours of mise en place on a Saturday night. A rising at 9am on Sunday after an evening out till 4am. 7, maybe 8 courses...I lost track. 25 people. The Super Bowl.

Amazing how these things can come and go so quickly. Now, all that remains of the insane dinner we enjoyed just hours ago are some dirty dishes, (Ok, let's be fair...lots of dirty dishes) the soreness in my legs, back, and neck, and a couple of leftovers. And of course, the memories. And for one of my favorite parties thus far, I'm oh so happy to record those (food-related) memories for you.

It all started Saturday morning with braving bloodthirsty suburbanites in Costco. As much as I love me some Costco, I swear I get nightmares about those crowds and parking lots. Along for the ride was Alyse, who saved my life time after time after time all weekend. I got home just in time for the first soccer game of the weekend. After I got back home and showered, it was right back into the war zone...this time, Wegman's in Fairfax.

Let me take a moment to talk about the great things Wegman's has going for it. A spectacular selection. Perhaps the best I've seen anywhere, as far as gourmet foods, and definitely rivaling the Dekalb Farmer's Market. (Holy crap they had langoustines!) Totally reasonable prices. I felt like I was shopping at Harris Teeter more than Whole Foods. But with the same kind of Whole Foods freshness I love so much.

Unfortunately, the trip to Fairfax brings with it both the good and the bad. The good--clearly Wegman's itself. The bad--all the other people that decide to shop there. The ones that don't seem to realize that they are in public and should behave as such. The ones that cut you off and steal your parking space. Twice. The ones that make you say and feel things you are ashamed of later.

Anyway, Wegman's wrapped up most of my shopping--picked up a few things at Whole Foods, and got home at about 6pm. Made the salsa, started the spinach and artichoke dip, tossed the tomatoes in the oven to roast, and made the barbeque sauce.



Woke up at 9am with a full day ahead. The smoked turkey and bacon chowder, tortilla chips, pita chips, finishing the spinach dip, making the ribs, making a citrus bourbon glaze for the wings and a wasabi ranch sauce to dip them in, the roasted tomato caprice crostinis, the white chocolate risotto, and the mini salads of cucumber, arugula (couldn't find frissee anywhere), and yellow bell pepper with a red pepper coulis. And the seared ahi tuna.

Oh yeah, and I have another soccer game.

But with Alyse's help, it all happenned. For real. From beginning to end, with the singular exception of the cherry cranberry croutons. Alas, another day and another use for the bag of 183940 dried cranberries I got from Costco.

The Good: The ribs and barbeque sauce. Back on track here, thankfully, and came out with a great barbeque sauce after starting it from scratch with just tomato paste, instead of my usual half-cheat by using Heinz ketchup as a base. Clearly, the most underappreciated dish of the night, though, was the smoked turkey and bacon chowder. I'd have to personally put it near the top of my list for most successful dishes of all time. Yeah, that good. Also, like always, the white chocolate risotto came in big.

The Bad: The citrus bourbon wings turned into citrus mirin wings that we could never quite figure out. The flavor was a good idea, and the wasabi ranch actually worked, but we messed with the sauce too much. Mirin+lemon, orange, and lime zests plus orange juice salt, pepper seemed like it had a good, balanced, sweet flavor, but was too thin. Later attemps to thicken without changing the flavor profile were not ultimately as successful as I would have liked, but we made good efforts and learned something.

The Ugly: Not paying attention to the salmon and slightly overcooking it. Also, pureeing tomatoes, cilantro, and onion leaves you with this unattractive brown color. When I want to add some body to my salsa, I need to puree the tomatoes on their own.

The Fantastic: The Giants beat the Patriots. Really, could I have asked for a better evening?

Random Deliciousness

So I'm not going to end up recounting the full meals of the last few months; t'would be insane. But a couple of dishes stand out that should be detailed.

When I got home, I asked the mother for suggestions for the first meal I should make upon getting back. I should note that twice I've trusted the fam to rock out some beef tenderloin on their own and, without going into details, you'll just need to trust me that neither preparation ended up being ideal. And boy, am I going to regret writing that-I can hear my mom dialing my number right now...

In any case, I decided we had to start off with a bang. First I melted about 4 tablespoons of butter on the stovetop and added a bit of cream and some sliced garlic. Then I started cooking some bacon and, when all the fat was rendered, searing the tenderloins on both sides in that baconny goodness. They had been dusted with white pepper, cumin, black pepper, kosher salt, and a bit of cayenne.

After some good caramelization on both sides, tossed the tenderloins in the oven, then returned to the bacon grease, which then got some nice sea scallops crusted with black pepper, salt, and cayenne on both sides. Finally, minced the bacon from the beginning of the meal. Topped the tenderloins with sliced scallops, the bacon, and just a dash of garlic butter sauce. Mom called it the best steak she had ever had. I must say, it ranked up there.

I had brought home a sweet potato cheesecake that, in addition to the standard cream cheese, eggs, sugar and milk, got an extra dose of sour cream and pureed sweet potato and a topping of toasted coconut that solidified my love for making cheesecakes. I'm pretty sure that, from here on out, cheesecake is going to basically be my dessert of choice.

I spent weeks brainstorming ideas for the office holiday party. See, the theory behind it made sense--we have lots of people with food talent in this office, and should take advantage of it (them) and make them cook for us. Unfortunately, a middle of the day office party doesn't exactly lend itself to a roasted leg of lamb, so I had to figure out what I could make that would be good cold/room temperature and wouldn't degrade in quality from my preparation the previous night all the way through the afternoon. I finally got an idea when Alyse told me about a dish she ate that had grapes that had been simmered in simple syrup. I'd take Belgian endive spears, fill them with grapes I simmered in simple syrup, a bay leaf, and some allspice, over some melted havarti cheese.

Unfortunately, when I went shopping the night before the party...no belgian endive. Crap. So instead I did them in bell pepper quarters, which made the dish a bit sweeter than I would have liked (thanks to my failure to remember the frissee that would have added a bitter note to replace the lost endive), but it turned out ok.

That wasn't the only recent night that had me at a loss for food ideas. Intern Monica was in town, and needed to be fed. I didn't want to spend a lot of money, but figured she deserved something that had a littttle bit of effort put into it. We wanted Harris Teeter for about ten minutes before I stumbled across some gorgeous looking tuna. Does Intern Monica like raw tuna? No? Tough luck, I'm serving it to you anyway. And then...mmm, dried cranberries....how about...a cranberry risotto?

I had never made seared tuna before, and didn't really know how I was going to do it. So I ground some whole coriander and added a litttttle bit of black pepper and a generous helping of sesame seeds. Seared it on all sides, and them made a quick soy wasabi vinaigrette. Soy sauce, wasabi, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper. And then I made a typical risotto, just adding dried cranberries about halfway through the process. The little fruity bursts of flavor provided terrific balance to the heavy, thick texture of risotto. And today, Intern Monica likes raw tuna.

Later this weekend, because this post is getting too long, I play with potatoes via gnocchi and truffle oil!