minxeats

J. Paul's Summer Menu

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

J. Paul's restaurant in Harborplace is welcoming the impending summer by adding several new items to their menu. We were invited in for a taste, and remembering how we enjoyed our last dinner there, we jumped at the chance to try some of the new goodies.

I feel bad that we don't get down to the Inner Harbor area more often. As longtime county residents, we find city driving to be a bit of a pain, especially in the business district (if one can call it that). But, on the occasions we persevere, grit our teeth, and venture downtown, we find ourselves well-rewarded for the effort.

This particular evening was clear and temperate, so we chose to eat on J. Paul's patio, (as did every other diner in the place). We started things off with two of their new cocktails, the "Oriole Magic" and the "Paul Red Handed."

Left: Oriole Magic - Bacardi Rum, banana liqueur, orange, pineapple, and lime juices with a sugar rim
Right: Paul Red Handed - muddled strawberries, Absolut Citron, fresh lemon, elderflower, Champagne

The Oriole Magic sounded interesting, but I let Mr Minx order that one because I had my eye on the PRH. I struck gold with a light and sweet easy-drinkin' kind of beverage strongly flavored with strawberry. It was one of those dangerous concoctions that begs for guzzling, but sipping is definitely in order. The Oriole Magic was much less-strong and, um, sorta weird. I always expect anything with banana liqueur to taste like that peanut-shaped marshmallow candy, circus peanuts, and it almost did. Not that that would have been a good thing, mind you. We just thought the drink's elements didn't blend well, and the bartender didn't help things by salting the rim instead of sugaring it. Oh well....

Philly Rolls: caramelized onion, rib eye, cheddar cheese and cherry pepper cheese sauce

The appetizers were far more successful. We originally wanted to share the new shellfish bucket of various bivalves and crab with lemon butter, but after we were told the restaurant was out of clams, we switched gears and tried two separate apps. Mr Minx's Philly Rolls - egg rolls stuffed with what one might normally find in a cheesesteak sandwich, served with a pool of house-made "cheez whiz" - were really tasty. The fried shell was actually an improvement on the usual sub roll (hey, we're not from Philly). Just be warned that this appetizer is fairly heavy and filling, so you might want to share if you plan to have an entrée as well.

Crab cake, Boursin-stuffed fried local tomato, corn relish, arugula and cherry pepper remoulade

Several people - from the restaurant's PR ladies to the servers - mentioned that the new crab cake appetizer was a favorite, and as a crab cake fanatic I had to try it. While the cake had too much shredded meat for my taste, it played well as a soft textural counterpoint to the super-crisp slice of tomato that shared its crunchy coating with a schmear of garlicky and herby Boursin cheese. The peppery arugula and dollop of spicy remoulade added to the lively flavors on the plate.

Grilled salmon, lemon mashed potatoes, spinach, key lime butter sauce finished with tomato and avocado

There are several new sandwiches, salads, and entrées on the menu, including a sushi-grade seared tuna salad, an 8oz New York strip sammie, and Chicken Milanese, all of which sounded tempting. We settled on the grilled salmon and the Buffalo chicken wrap.

Mr Minx's salmon was simply grilled, a bit crusty on the outside, and topped with a light-tasting butter sauce and vegetables. Very nice, but the best thing on the plate was the mashed potatoes, which were unusually flavored with lemon juice and zest. I wouldn't necessarily put citrus on mash, but it worked really well and I plan to try it at home.

My Buffalo chicken wrap came with a choice of cucumber salad, cole slaw, or fries, and remembering the tasty slaw that Mr Minx had with his fish and chips last time, that was my choice. Cilantro should be an ingredient in all slaws, IMHO, and it was as good as I remembered. The wrap was good, too. Crispy fried-and-hot-sauced chicken strips shared the tortilla with chunks of celery, feta, tomato, and lettuce, a hot wing experience wrapped into a tidy little package.

It's clear that the chef at J. Paul's cares as much about his food's appearance as its flavor. How much more attractive than a plain white tortilla is that spinach one?

Buffalo chicken tenders, spinach tortilla, celery, feta, tomato, romaine, cilantro aioli

Stuffed to the gills (I doggie-bagged half my sandwich) we ordered dessert anyway. There were three selections that night - the flourless chocolate torte that we had sampled on our other visit, no-bake cheesecake, and creme brulée. Stereotypically for us, Mr went for the chocolate, and I went for the cream.

Flourless chocolate torte, raspberry sauce and berries

The torte is really too decadently sweet and fudgey to be served in a slice that large, but the very tart berry sauce helped a bit. A great dessert for sharing.

Three cremes brulée: plain, chocolate chip, berry

My full stomach was dismayed to see that I was receiving not one, not two, but three ramekins of creme brulée. I really didn't have room for one, but when I discovered there were three flavors, I ate more than a few bites of each. My favorite was the berry, which had a welcome lightness and fruity acidity. Most importantly, I appreciated that the creme was cold. This dessert should properly be refrigerated after brulée-ing, so the creme is cold and the hot sugar forms a hard, crackable, layer on top. Recipes that instruct one to "serve immediately" are wrong, wrong, wrong because that gives the molten sugar an opportunity to melt down into the custard, ruining the effect.

:::stepping off soapbox:::

Anyhoo...if you find yourself hungry in the Inner Harbor and don't relish the idea of eating at Bubba Gump's or Cheesecake Factory, we can recommend J. Paul's. We like the food and the service. We like half price bottles of wine on Wednesday and half price raw bar after 5pm on Thursday, too.

J Paul's
301 Light St
Baltimore, MD 21202
(410) 659-1889
j-pauls.com

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Viente de Mayo

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

After seeing several Internet items extolling the virtue of making one's own corn tortillas, I thought I'd give it a go. Why not try it to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, a holiday that means nothing to most Americans but, like St. Patrick's Day, is a good excuse to drink?

But we had a pack of corn tortillas in the fridge already, and, truth be told, Mr Minx isn't all that fond of tacos made with soft corn tortillas. (I know!) So instead of tortillas, I figured I'd make some other sort of fried thingy with my newly-purchased bag of masa.

I noodled around online and found recipes for things called sopes, which appeared to be thick fried tortillas with a rim around the edge. But some of those recipes were similar to the rimless gorditas, which may or may not be split open and filled, depending on the recipe consulted. This blog (and others) calls them Salvadoran enchiladas, but if there's no chiles on them, etymologically speaking, how is that even possible?

If I did call them sopes or gorditas and, heaven forfend, topped or filled them with something non-traditional or not from the proper region, the spirits of Mexican grandmothers will haunt me forever. Or so my research led me to believe.

I decided that the best--and safest--technical term for fried corn thingies made by a gringo like me would be Fried Corn Thingies. Then I would be able to top them with whatever my little heart wanted to top them with, without fear of repercussions from the Great Beyond. For our Cinco de Mayo dinner, that was a combination of chicken and chorizo, plus refried black beans and various condiments. On the side I served my version of esquites, and we washed everything down with passionfruit margaritas. Well, the original intention was to have passionfruit margaritas, but the Ceres brand passionfruit juice I purchased didn't taste very much like the tangy fruit in question. They were ok, but not anything to write home about. Especially if home is Mexico. Everything else, however, was muy bueno.

Fried Corn Thingies with Assorted Toppings

Thingies (recipe below)
Refried Black Beans (recipe below)
Chorizo Chicken (recipe below)
Chipotle Sauce (recipe below)
Easy Salsa (or your favorite salsa) (recipe below)
crumbly cheese, like feta or cotija
sliced avocado
fresh cilantro

Layer beans, chicken, chipotle sauce, salsa, and cheese on a Thingy. Top with avocado and cilantro. Devour and repeat.

Fried Corn Thingies

2 cups masa
1 1/4 cups water
1/4 cup vegetable oil, plus more for frying

Mix masa, water, and 1/4 cup oil into a smooth dough. Divide dough into 10 pieces. Form each one into a flattened disk about 1/4" thick.

Heat a griddle or large frying pan. Add disks a few at a time and cook for about 2 minutes on the first side, until it starts to brown lightly. Flip the disks, cook 2 minutes more on the other side, and remove from heat. Set aside until ready to eat.

When ready to serve, cook the thingies about 2 minutes per side in a bit of oil to crisp. Drain on paper towels.

Refried Black Beans

1 15oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup water
salt and pepper to taste

Put beans and water in a saucepan and cook over medium high heat, stirring frequently and vigorously, until most of the liquid has evaporated and the beans are mostly mashed. Remove from heat and add salt and pepper to taste.

Chorizo Chicken

1/2 cup chopped onion
vegetable oil
pinch salt
2 links Mexican chorizo
3 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon light brown sugar
splash balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook onion in a bit of oil and a pinch of salt until softened. Remove chorizo from casings and add to onions, breaking up sausage with the back of a wooden spoon. Cook, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes, until sausage starts to darken. Add the chicken thighs, broth, and cilantro. Bring to a boil, then cover the pot and turn the heat down to medium-low. Simmer chicken about thirty minutes until tender.

Remove chicken from pot and allow to cool for a few minutes. With your fingers, two forks, or a knife and a fork, shred/chop the meat into small piece and add back to the pan. Turn up heat and cook, uncovered, until most of the liquid has evaporated, skimming off most of the red oil that rises to the top. Stir in the garlic, brown sugar, and vinegar. Cook an additional minute or two and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Chipotle Sauce

1 canned chipotle in adobo, seeded and minced
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
3 tablespoons sour cream
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
pinch sugar
pinch salt

Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Easy Salsa

2 large or 4 small tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup chopped scallions
1 tablespoon lime juice
pinch cumin
salt and pepper to taste.

Mix first four ingredients in a bowl. Season to taste.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Cooking With the Orioles' Wives

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

Way back in 1986, the wives of the Baltimore Orioles put together a cookbook to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation - Maryland Chapter. Because it was both Orioles- and food-related, I bought a copy of Birdfeed and spent many happy hours reading and re-reading it. Not that it was a particularly good cookbook, but it was entertaining. And it had caricatures of Orioles players and coaches of the time, some of which were pretty good. (I was an illustration major at MICA at the time and caricatures were my thing.)

Like most community cookbooks, the recipes range from the very simple to the fairly complex, depending on the cooking skills of the recipe's owner. Pitcher Mike Boddiker's wife, Lisa, seemed to enjoy cooking, as some of her contributions were the most complex. One recipe she offered is for kolaches, a yeast-raised, fruit-filled pastry of Slavic origin that requires several hours of kneading and resting before eventual shaping and baking. For my first foray into cooking from this book, some 27 years after its purchase, I chose to make Lisa's Oatmeal Cake. With my adjustments, of course.

The recipe originally called for 1 cup each of brown and white sugar - entirely too much - and I reduced the white sugar to 1/2 cup. There was also no instruction as to what sort of pan to use. The amount of batter seemed a bit much for a single 9" square pan, especially as the baking time was a scant 30 minutes, so I baked it in one 9" square pan and one 9" round pan. Both produced adequately tall cakes. I think a single 9" x 13" would work fine, too.

The resulting cake was really quite delicious. Very moist and fluffy, with a pronounced oatmeal and cinnamon flavor. We happened to have some horchata-flavored ice cream on hand (a Mexican drink made with ground rice and flavored with cinnamon) and it was the perfect accompaniment.

Oatmeal Cake (adapted from Birdfeed)

2 cups water
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

In a large saucepot, bring the 2 cups of water to a rolling boil. Once it reaches the boil, stir in the oats and turn off the heat. Cover pot and allow the oats to absorb all of the water, about 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350F.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter, sugars, and vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until incorporated. Stir in the oatmeal. Mix the remaining ingredients together in a bowl and slowly add to the wet ingredients, beating only until everything is incorporated. Do not overmix.

Scrape mixture into a greased 9" x 13" baking pan, or two 8" or 9" round or square cake pans. Bake about 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow to cool on a wire rack. Eat warm or cold with ice cream.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Oven-roasted Asparagus

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

My new favorite way to cook asparagus - oven roasting.

I do the same thing with broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts.

Preheat the oven to 450F.

Trim and rinse asparagus. Pat dry. Place asparagus on a foil-lined baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and a healthy pinch of salt. Slice a couple of garlic cloves thinly and scatter the slices on the asparagus. Toss with your hands so everything gets a nice coating of the olive oil.

Roast for 5-6 minutes, turn spears with tongs, and roast another 5-6 minutes. Serve as is, or with a drizzle of lemon mayonnaise or hollandaise.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Spicy Fish Soup

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

Over the years, I've likely posted several variations on this recipe, but I think it's one well-worth sharing. Why? Because: 1) it's so simple; 2) it's so good; 3) it can be altered to your whim.

Put a cup of chopped onion and a sliced bulb of fennel into a soup pot with a bit of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until veggies are wilted and maybe beginning to brown slightly. If you like garlic, stir in a couple of cloves, minced, now. Add a 15oz can of chopped tomatoes and their juices and two bottles of clam juice + 2 clam juice bottles of water. Or a bottle of clam juice and a fish bouillon cube (Knorr makes these) + water. Or, if you want to go vegetarian, about 4 cups of your favorite veggie stock/bouillon. If you have leftover tomato paste/Thai red curry paste etc., add about a tablespoon of that here, but if you don't have it, no worries. (I scraped out the last of a jar of Maesri chilli paste with basil leaves.) Squeeze in a bit of Sriracha, turn the heat up, and bring the soup to a boil. Once it boils, lower the heat, cover the pot, and simmer for at least 30 minutes so the flavors meld.

Meanwhile, prepare your seafood: shell and devein shrimp; check your crabmeat for shells; cut your fish into thumb-sized pieces. Taste the soup - if it seems flavorful enough, add your seafood. Turn up the heat and cook until the fish or shrimp just turn opaque. (Crabmeat only needs warming.) If you're going the vegetarian route, small cubes of extra-firm tofu would not be out of place here, but you could also add more vegetables, like corn, okra, or greens. Taste the soup again and fine-tune the flavors with salt and pepper, more Sriracha, a bit of lemon juice, a dribble of agave syrup or honey.

Serve soup with crusty bread. Yum.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Lamb unKebabs

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

My favorite flavor palettes come from China and Thailand and I find myself using them pretty frequently in my weekend dinner-making. Despite the vibrancy of seasonings like Sriracha, star anise, and Thai basil, eating similar flavors over and over can get, well, boring. So one recent weekend, I mixed things up a bit and prepared a meal with origins in the Mediterranean. And I don't mean Italy or Greece - Turkey's there too, along with Egypt and Syria, Albania, and Bosnia.

Lamb is a popular protein in that part of the world, and it is often flavored with what we might otherwise consider "sweet" spices. You know, the seasonings most familiar to us in pumpkin pie - cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Combined with cumin and paprika, these sweet spices both camouflage and accentuate the characteristic "gamy" flavor of lamb.

These rather sausage-like lamb patties, borrowed heavily from a kebab recipe found in chef Silvena Rowe's Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume: Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean, would be perfect skewered and cooked on the grill, but they were also quite tasty when pan-fried and served with a sprightly salad of tomato, feta, and olives.

Lamb unKebabs (adapted from Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume)

1.5 lbs ground lamb
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/4 cup coarsely chopped pistachios
1 tablespoon finely minced fresh mint
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
pomegranate molasses (optional)

Mix all ingredients except molasses thoroughly. Form into eight small patties. Refrigerate on a covered plate for at least one hour and up to overnight to allow flavors to meld.

Cook patties in a bit of olive oil in a hot pan until browned on both sides and cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Serve with tomato salad and a drizzle of the pomegranate molasses.

Tomato Salad

2 ripe tomatoes, de-seeded and cut into large dice
1/4 cup chopped black and green olives
1 tablespoon minced chives
splash balsamic vinegar
splash lemon juice
splash agave syrup or honey
pinch salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup cubed feta cheese

Combine first seven ingredients in a bowl. Allow to rest at room temperature for at least half an hour so flavors can meld. Add cheese when ready to serve.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Spicy Buckwheat Noodles With Leftover Fried Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (Neal P) — Fri, 10 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

For weeks, the Minx has been strongly suggesting that I make some recipes from Fuchsia Dunlop's recent cookbook, Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking. A quick scan of the book made me realize why she was so insistent. The recipes not only look delicious, but they are relatively simple and use ingredients we normally keep around the kitchen. Trouble was, we'd been eating out quite a bit lately and, on the few nights when I would cook at home, there was little time to prepare anything but a fast meal.

Then our schedule settled down and I actually had a day when I could truly ponder a proper dinner. However, we didn't have a whole lot to work with in the fridge. There were three pieces of leftover fried chicken that we picked up at the supermarket a couple days earlier, a random jalapeño pepper, and the usual assortment of vegetables. I decided to flip through the book to see if there was anything I could adapt to cold leftover chicken. When I saw the recipe for spicy buckwheat noodles, I knew I was on the right track. Since I'm a hardcore noodle guy, we always have a wide array of pasta and noodles in the pantry.

Aside from the chicken and buckwheat noodles, the rest of the recipe included seasoning elements which we always keep around. I still had to make some adjustments, though. It turned out I didn't have as much of the buckwheat noodles as I had thought, so I tossed in some leftover linguine (it made a nice black-and-tan effect in the bowl). Also, we were out of chili oil, so I replaced it with sriracha. The recipe calls for shredding the chicken and tossing it in with the noodles, but since I had fried chicken, I couldn't just throw away the crispy skin. I chopped up the now slightly flabby skin into pieces and fried them in a frying pan for about 5 minutes until they were super crispy bits. It made for a pleasant crunchy contrast to the slippery noodles.

Spicy Buckwheat Noodles With Leftover Fried Chicken (adapted from Every Grain of Rice)

3-4 leftover fried chicken legs and/or thighs
5½ ounces dried buckwheat soba noodles
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
2 tablespoon Chinkiang vinegar
½ teaspoon sugar
salt, to taste
1 tablespoon sriracha
1 clove finely chopped garlic
1 finely chopped jalapeño
1 tablespoon sliced spring onion

Put a pot of water on the stove for boiling the noodles. While you are waiting for the water to boil, break down your fried chicken. Remove the skin (with crispy coating intact), chop it into smallish pieces and put it into a hot pan with about half the cooking oil and fry for about five minutes, stirring occasionally. When the skin is nicely crispy, move to a plate with a paper towel on it. Also while you are waiting, mix together the soy sauce, Chinkiang vinegar, sugar, sriracha, and garlic in a bowl. Then chop your spring onion and jalapeño and set aside.

When the water is boiling, add a tablespoon or so of salt to the water and put in your buckwheat noodles. The noodles should cook in about two minutes. Drain the water, but leave the noodles in the pot. Put the pot over a medium high heat and add the rest of the cooking oil. Toss in the sauce mixture and the jalapeño. Combine thoroughly, and then add the shredded chicken. When everything is warmed through, place in serving bowls. Sprinkle the spring onion and fried chicken skin on top for garnish.

Serves 2 to 4 people, depending on how hungry everyone is.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Jerked Around

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Wed, 08 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

Normally, I'm not a big fan of jerks. Humans, obviously, but also chicken. I really don't enjoy the flavor of dried thyme when used in quantities larger than a pinch, and while I do like hot food, I also like to have the ability to feel my palate, lips, and tongue after eating.

In the naiveté of youth, I tended to give jerks a chance. This often resulted in disappointment - by an imbalance of seasoning or, well, just plain imbalance. Recently, however, I have found that I can have a meaningful relationship with jerks, but only those that spent the majority of their lives flapping their useless forelimbs and shitting copiously. For some, that description may well include the random ex-boyfriend, but for me, it refers to chickens that have been marinated in a mixture of herbs and spices (most notably thyme, allspice, and scotch bonnet chiles) before being grilled.

My friend Raine recently came back from a cruise to the islands and presented me with a souvenir jar of jerk spices. I gave it a taste, right out of the container, and was pleased by the balance of seasonings and heat. I had some cornish game hens in the freezer and thought I'd cheat a bit. Rather than marinating the suckers, I rubbed them with garlic butter and coated them with a goodly amount of my newly acquired seasoning. And while that particular day would have been perfect for grilling, I popped the birds into the oven, instead. The results were succulent, spicy, and just a little bit hot.

Jerky Hens

2 tablespoons butter, softened
4 cloves garlic, crushed (I used 2 cloves of regular and 2 cloves of black garlic, just because)
2 1¼ - 1½ lb cornish game hens
2 generous tablespoons jerk seasoning (if you want to make your own, here's a recipe)

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Mash the garlic and butter together until well-blended.

Using your fingers, loosen the skin on the hens' breasts to make pockets; be careful not to tear the skin. Place blobs of butter under the skin (also using your fingers) and rub the rest of the butter on the skin all over the hens. Coat each hen with about a tablespoon of jerk seasoning.

Place hens, breast side up, in a roasting pan lined with foil and roast for 25 minutes at 450°F. Turn heat down to 350°F and roast for 25-30 minutes more, until a thermometer inserted into the meatiest part of the bird registers 165°F.

Remove birds from roasting pan and allow to rest for about 5 minutes. Using a sharp chef's knife, cut the chickens in half and serve one half per person.

Serves 4

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Sweet Potato Hummus

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

I am a horrible, mean-spirited, and cruel person. But you knew that already.

My husband ~~hates~~ strongly dislikes sweet potatoes. And after eating the hoppin' john I made for good luck in the new year, he's decided that he ~~hates~~ is not fond of black-eyed peas, either. Mostly their funky rotted vegetable smell. Meanwhile, I love both, farty fragrance and all, and decided to make hummus with them.

If hubby didn't like it - more for me! Bwahahahahaha!

Hummus makes a terrific snack or lunch, with some carrot sticks or pita or even tortilla chips. It's pretty filling, and if its not made with a ton of oil, relatively lean. And when the nutritional power of a sweet potato is added, hummus is good for you, too. 200g of sweet potato offers 65% of the RDA of Vitamin C, and 769% of Vitamin A. The tortilla chips, not so much. But tasty! Especially the Toasted Sweet Potato ones (Bachman brand) we bought recently, which were a perfect pairing, emphasizing the sweet potato flavor.

Even Mr Minx had to admit that the combination of sweet potato and black-eyed peas was pretty darn good, although it was hard for him to come right out and say it. Especially since his mouth was full of hummus.

Sweet Potato Hummus

1 medium sweet potato (about 1.5 cups cooked pulp)
1 15-oz can black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
3 tablespoons tahini
1 large clove regular garlic or 5 cloves black garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice (+ more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon salt + more to taste
extra virgin olive oil

Poke holes all over the sweet potato with a fork. Put potato on a microwave-safe plate and nuke for 8-10 minutes, until tender. Allow to cool, then remove skin.

Put the black-eyed peas in a food processor with the tahini, garlic, brown sugar, lemon juice, spices, salt, and about 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Pulse until the mixture forms a relatively smooth puree. Add the sweet potato and pulse into a smooth puree, thinning with a bit of water if it seems too thick. Taste for seasoning and add more lemon juice and/or salt, if needed.

Serve in a bowl, top with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of fresh parsley.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Red-braised Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Fri, 03 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

I recently obtained a copy of Fuchsia Dunlop's latest Chinese cookbook, Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking. Honestly, the recipes are quite simple, only partly because we have most of the more exotic ingredients on hand already (chinkiang vinegar and shaoxing cooking wine, for example). Flipping through the book, I found several recipes I want to make, including a couple of cold chicken dishes that would be perfect for a summer supper, especially if there's leftover rotisserie chicken in the fridge. Dunlop also includes a recipe for red-braised pork, which is also in her Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province. I remember it being quite tasty and while contemplating making it again for a weekend dinner, I thought, why not use chicken, instead? There are a plethora of boneless, skinless chicken thighs in the freezer, and that seems like the perfect meat for red-braising.

I've eaten red-braised beef, and made red-braised pork more than once. Red-braising is a Chinese cooking technique that involves stewing meat in a mixture of soy sauce and spices like cinnamon and star anise. The resulting dish is subtly flavored, and more of a brownish--rather than reddish--hue. Chicken proved to be an even more subtly-flavored protein, so I upped the amount of soy sauce and star anise from Dunlop's recipe. The chicken cooks gently at a low temperature for a fairly short amount of time, leaving it very tender. I served it simply over steamed jasmine rice with sides of piquant smashed radishes (also in Dunlop's new book) and some asparagus that I roasted with garlic. Delicious.

Red-braised Chicken (adapted from Fuchsia Dunlop's recipe for red-braised pork)

1 tablespoon canola oil
2 scallions, white part only
1 thumb-sized chunk of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into 4 slices
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into thick slices from end to end
2 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons shaoxing cooking wine
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 whole star anise
1/2 cinnamon stick
salt to taste
chopped scallion for garnish

Heat the oil in a large saucepot (I used a 3-quart lidded pot). Add the scallions and the ginger slices and stir fry for a few moments. Add the chicken pieces and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally (it's ok if they get a little brown in spots, but we're not looking for browning here). Dump in the stock, wine, soy, star anise, and cinnamon stick and bring to a boil. Cover the pot and turn the heat down to medium. You want the liquid to be lightly simmering, but not at a full boil. Cook for about forty minutes, stirring occasionally, and skimming and discarding any foam off the top. After the cooking time has elapsed, test a piece for doneness. The meat should be supple and tender; if it's still a little tough, cook for an additional 10 minutes or so, but don't cook it so long that the meat starts to fall apart.

If the meat seems a little bland, add a bit of salt. Serve with rice, garnished with scallions. The stock is delicious, so use it as a sauce to moisten the rice, or eat it as a soup.

Marinated Radishes (adapted from Every Grain of Rice)

10 radishes, cleaned and ends trimmed
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sambal oelek
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

Smash the radishes with the side of a cleaver or a heavy chef's knife. You just want to make them splay out a bit, not break them into pieces. Put them in a bowl and toss with the salt. Allow them to sit in the salt for about half an hour, then drain the liquid that has collected in the bowl, rinse the radishes under cold water, then drain them well again. Mix the soy, sambal, sugar, and sesame oil together in a small bowl until sugar dissolves. Pour over drained radishes and stir to combine.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Birroteca Revisited

noreply@blogger.com (Neal P) — Wed, 01 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

A few months back, the Minx and I visited Birroteca for the first time with a friend of ours who happened to be a vegetarian. Although I'm sure she wouldn't have minded if we had ordered meat dishes, we decided to order mostly vegetarian selections so we could share them equally. On the second visit, we chose to assess some of their more carnivorous offerings since we were going with the Minx's meat-loving brother.

We started with the calamari alla plancha, which we ordered on our last visit. Minxbro is a serious fan of calamari, and this has to be the best in town. It's like the best pasta you've ever eaten, embedded with squid flavor. Next came the meatballs with house-made ricotta and tomato gravy. Traditional meatballs tend to be extremely soft, but these offered some resistance to the fork as I sliced through them. They reminded me of my own meatballs when I make them with just ground beef, so the firmer texture was just fine with me. Teamed with a big blob of ricotta, the meatballs were quite comforting.

In the serve-the-dishes-as-they-are-made tradition of Birroteca, our two vegetable courses came next. The pea tendrils (basically the green bits that the peas grow on) were tender and fresh. Served with bacon jam and well-cooked pearl onions, the greens took on a sweet porky goodness. We also ordered brussel sprouts which were roasted to a fair-thee-well. Matched with a slightly gamey tasting coppa ham and a black garlic aioli, the already tasty sprouts were elevated with a delicious richness.

While all of this was quite wonderful, I wanted to experience some meat action, so we ordered that evening's family style special called Sicilian steak. The menu states that the dish serves two or more and they ain't kiddin'. What had to be about a pound of medium rare skirt steak was complimented by ravioli, roasted cherry tomatoes, and asparagus bathing in a basil tomato sauce. The steak was perfectly cooked, and the ravioli, filled with tomato, were toothsomely al dente. The serving was so large that, in spite of our best efforts, we still ended up taking some home.

Of course, part of the reason we didn't fill up on steak and ravioli was because we also ordered the Duck Duck Goose pizza. Fig jam serves as the sauce, fontina and asiago cheese are layered on top of the sauce, and duck confit is sprinkled over the cheese. To top it all off, a duck egg is cooked sunny-side-up in the center. The Minx and Minxbro enjoyed the pizza thoroughly but, while I liked the duck confit and the added luciousness of the duck egg, the fig jam was far too sweet and turned what I had hoped to be a savory dish into something closer to dessert.

The pizzas are the only items I've been disappointed with at Birroteca, but that has more to do with my prejudices about pizza than with the quality of the food. My concept of great pizza is the New York style pepperoni pizzas I got from the corner pizza parlor when I was a kid. The Neopolitan style pizzas served in many restaurants now just don't give me the same soulful satisfaction. The crust is too crisp and I find that, while the toppings may be exotic, they are often too skimpily applied to overcome the quantity of crust. The result is, I'm tasting way too much dry flavorless crust and not enough toppings. I'm probably in the minority with this opinion, however, since I saw lots of happy pizza eaters at Birroteca.

Birroteca has so much to offer and the menu changes so frequently, we look forward to going back again and again. I can't wait to try some of their other pasta dishes and the salumi.

Birroteca
1520 Clipper Rd
Baltimore, MD 21211
(443) 708-1934

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Pimiento Cheese

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

Pimiento cheese sounds like a mistake from the Kraft labs, doesn't it? Like some pinkish-orange paste that would come in a little jar in the dairy case. Something my mother would have regarded with near disgust had I indicated that perhaps she buy a jar (despite her own love for Velveeta), you know, just to try it. Like I had to try lima beans before I decided that I loathe them.

Oh wait, pimiento cheese does come in a little jar in the dairy case. Lookee there!

What exactly is a pimiento anyway (and why doesn't anyone pronounce the second "i" - pih-mee-ento)? They're the red thingies in green olives, right? That taste just like roasted bell peppers? Ah - they are peppers, but a cultivar also known as a cherry pepper, and not your standard bell pepper. But why mash them up with cheese and mayonnaise? That seems a little cruel, to both the pepper and the cheese.

...and I've just offended scores of Southerners with my ignorance. I may live south of the Mason-Dixon line, but I am a yankee at heart. (Notice I spelled that with a lower-case "y" so as not to be confused as a fan of a particular New York sports team, which I am most definitely not.)

I must admit I've always been a leetle, tiny, weensy bit curious about pimiento cheese, but I've never tried it. That is, not until Richard Blais' cookbook, Try This at Home, came into my life. In it, he offers a recipe for a decidedly non-traditional pimiento cheese with jalapenos, poblanos, and nary a pimiento to be found.

The white cheese + the green peppers makes a pretty Spring-like color combination that reminds me more of egg salad than of pimiento cheese. And the addition of cilantro and lime takes the flavor profile in a westerly direction, so the result is more Austin than Atlanta. But - cheesilicious. And, if you think about it, I still haven't tried pimiento cheese, at least not the authentic stuff.

I used Kewpie mayo; if you do, too, omit the salt. Also, I didn't like the texture at first - it was like cheese salad. Food processor to the rescue!

Richard Blais' Pimiento Jack Cheese (adapted from Try This at Home)

8 ounces white pepper jack cheese, coarsely grated
1 small poblano pepper, roasted, peeled, seeded, and finely diced
1 small jalapeno, seeded and minced (or more to taste)
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
Grated zest and juice of 1/2 lime
Kosher salt to taste

Combine the cheese, chiles, mayo, cilantro, lime zest and juice, and salt. Pop the mixture into the food processor and give it a couple of pulses to break down the cheese a bit more and better amalgamate the mixture.

Serve with crusty bread or crackers or use in a grilled cheese sandwich.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Culinary Bucket List

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

The French Laundy

Does anyone else have a culinary bucket list? You know, a wish list of foods and restaurants to try before kicking the proverbial bucket? I do. So far it's fairly short because I can easily visit local restaurants that are on my radar, and New York is only a short train ride away.

Restaurants

French Laundry (Yountville, CA) and/or Per Se (New York)
Alinea (Chicago)
WD-50 (New York)
Le Bernardin (New York)
The Slanted Door (San Francisco)
Atelier Crenn (San Francisco)
Spago (Los Angeles)

Foods

Chitlins (why not?)
Haggis
Rattlesnake
Absinthe
Mangosteen
Boiled peanuts
Fiddleheads
Rocky Mountain oysters

It all seems pretty do-able, huh? Maybe I should aim higher!

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Grub Street Diet

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

One of my favorite features of the New York Magazine Web site is the "Grub Street Diet." Every week, some NY-based celebrity (actor, musician, director, media mogul, etc.) is asked to keep track of everything he or she eats during the week and submit it to the magazine in essay format. Some folks have an interesting life but a boring diet, and with some others it's vice versa.

Recently, Mr Minx and I found ourselves eating in restaurants a lot more than usual, which made me think of the Grub Street Diet. We're in the "interesting diet, boring life" category, as you'll see.

Monday, April 15
Monday is usually Panera day, and my regular order is a large coffee and a breakfast sandwich. I've been stuck on their Mediterranean egg white, which has pesto, spinach, cheddar, and roasted tomatoes on ciabatta. It's quite a tasty combo - love the roasted tomatoes - and plenty filling to satiate me until lunch.

Around 1pm, lunch was a Voskos exotic fig non-fat Greek yogurt. It tasted ok, but the fig seeds made it unpleasantly crunchy.

Mr Minx always has dinner in the works when I get home from work. This evening, he was in the process of making a day-glo yellow Curry of Indeterminate Origin from a recipe he found on teh Innernets. He insisted it was supposed to be a Thai-style curry, but it looked Indian. Smelled Indian, too. In any case, it was brightly colored and slightly sweet and went nicely with a big pile of basmati rice. It also used up the block of super-duper-firm tofu we picked up at Trader Joe's a few weeks ago that was on the verge of expiration.

Tuesday, April 16
Today, I went to Au Bon Pain for my coffee. I like iced coffee when the weather is warm. ABP only offers the caffeinated stuff, so I make my own by overfilling my cup with ice and mixing hot decaf and their Irish cream flavor half and half (their hazelnut is rather flavorless) with some milk. Their large iced drinks are so huge, I end up finishing it with lunch. But first, breakfast, which is a boring cup of Muller FruitUp yogurt in the Peach Passionfruit flavor. It's tasty enough, I suppose, though the fruity part on the top is a bit gelatinous. And now that I've gone to look for the nutrition label online, I've decided that I can no longer eat this particular yogurt. Why? Because it contains tilapia. Yes, I realize that is a fish, but I wonder if Muller knows that?

I was hoping that the UMB farmers' market would have started up already so I can get my summertime fix of two tacos from Ruben's Mexican Food. Instead, I ate the lunch I brought, which was home-made sweet potato hummus with baby carrots and sweet potato tortilla chips.

Mr Minx picked me up from work today. When I asked what he wanted to do for dinner, he suggested we could eat the leftover pasta from Friday. Except for the tilapia in my yogurt this morning, I hadn't eaten meat since Saturday, so really wasn't in the mood for that particular pasta, which had a vegetarian goat-cheese-and-tomato sauce. Mr Minx then suggested we go to Burger Brothers, which at that point on our ride was about a block away, so that's what we did. The first time we ate there, the burgers and fries both were super-salty. This time, the saltiness of my cheeseburger with bleu cheese, pickles, and tomato was my own damn fault, since bleu cheese is salty, but it wasn't anything like the first time. The fries were pretty good, too.

Wednesday, April 17
On Wednesday, I took the day off work so we could get a bunch of errands done. Breakfast was a bowl of cereal - a handful of Honey Bunches of Oats to finish off the box, and another handful of Mini-Wheats, topped with 2% milk.

Squire's everything pizza

We then went to Home Depot to pick up stuff for our new vegetable garden, made a trip to the storage locker to pick up some furniture, including a much-needed office chair. We had been using one of my Dad's old chairs from probably the late 80s. It was so wonky that after sitting in it for more than ten minutes we found ourselves sliding so far forward our knees were in danger of hitting the ground. That one was disposed of in a quick trip to the dump. We had borrowed my brother-in-law's truck, so after returning that to him, we visited with my mother-in-law who lives in the same area. By the time 3pm rolled around, our stomachs were growling and Mom suggested we order a pizza from Squire's, which we did. Almost nothing satisfies a ravenous appetite more than one of their hearty "everything" pizzas topped with pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, and meat sauce. I was a pig and ate three slices, but other than the cereal, didn't eat anything else all day.

Thursday, April 17
I was home on Thursday, too, and after a breakfast of toasted Panera honey wheat bread topped with a bit of Richard Blais's recipe for pimento cheese (post on that coming soon!), I decided to tackle a recipe from a cookbook that I received for review. The pineapple upside-down cake from Tate's Bake Shop: Baking for Friends turned out extremely well. Except for the part when the caramel oozed up the side of the pan and out onto the bottom of my oven. Luckily, it was lined with a sheet of foil that caught the now-burning and smoking caramel, and I quickly whipped it out and replaced it with a fresh sheet, all without: 1) burning myself; 2) causing the cake to fall.

No lunch again today because we planned to have dinner with my brother at Birroteca. He's been threatening to move out of town and has been trying to eat at as many of the restaurants I've recommended as possible. Earlier in the year, Mr Minx and I had a terrific meal at Birroteca with our friend Melinda, but it was mostly vegetarian in nature. This time, we ordered dishes fit for a carnivore (and a post about that meal will be forthcoming). We again ate the calamari alla plancha because it's so freakin' good, but we also tried the meatballs, the duck duck goose pizza, and the Thursday special of Sicilian steak.

Friday, April 18
I was back to work today and had an Oikos Café Latte yogurt for breakfast. No fish in that yogurt, but it does have "black carrot" juice for color. Huh? It was really good - I'll buy this one again. Lunch was leftover hummus from Tuesday with more baby carrots.

For dinner, we had the leftover pasta that we eschewed on Tuesday, beefed up (literally) with some of the steak left over from Birroteca. We try to be really good about eating all of our leftovers, whether they come from meals eaten at home or in restaurants. There's too much waste in this country as it is.

Four days a week, we eat nothing between dinner and bedtime, but on the weekends, we indulge in a bit of ice cream. Tonight we had it with some of the pineapple upside-down cake from Thursday.

Saturday, April 19
Breakfast was leftover black bean enchiladas from last Sunday's dinner, topped with a fried egg. We need the protein for the day ahead.

For the past three Saturdays, we've been attempting to downsize our storage locker. This week, we made still more progress before calling it quits and going home to wash up a bit. Honestly, I can deal with dust and grime for only so long before my dirty hands trigger my semi-compulsive need to wash them.

After washing up, we decided to have dinner at Earth, Wood, & Fire. The last time we were there, I fell in love with their coal-fired chicken wings. They're perfectly cooked, tender and juicy, with a nice crisp skin with patches of char and a light smack of cumin. I had some of those with a small arugula salad with bleu cheese and seedless grapes.

Late night dessert was a bowl of ice cream with pineapple upside-down cake.

Sunday, April 20
The original plan was to meet my brother and Dad at the Nautilus diner for breakfast. Mr Minx and my brother were then going to head down to the Orioles game and Dad would drive me home. But Dad wasn't feeling well, so I stayed home with the dog. While the boys ate omelettes and bacon, I made myself a sandwich with pancetta, a fried egg, and a spoonful of Blais' pimento cheese on toasted rye. While the Nautilus is fine and dandy, I dare say I probably got the better end of the breakfast deal.

After taking quite the long walk with the dog in order to obtain one of those horrible "e-collar" thingies so he won't scratch his eyes out (he has terrible hay fever), I spent the afternoon reading cookbooks before heading to the kitchen to work on dinner. I wasn't sure if the boys would be up for dinner after the game, but I made enough for several people anyway - red-braised chicken thighs, smashed marinated radishes (both from Fuchsia Dunlop's latest Chinese cookbook) and some oven-roasted asparagus with sliced garlic. I fixed a "beauty plate" for photographing, then ate that as my dinner, along with the lion's share of asparagus.

We finished up our ice cream stash with more cake before hitting the sack a bit earlier than usual.

See. Boring. And long-winded, to boot.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Foolproof Hollandaise

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

Serious Eats' Food Lab does it again:

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Tate's Bake Shop

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

Long Island bakery Tate's Bake Shop is famous for its chocolate chip cookies. How do I know this? Well, the press release said so. Apparently bakery founder Kathleen King's recipe has received recognition from Consumer Reports, and Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine. Hmpf. You all know Rachael doesn't impress me. But what is impressive is that King won the Specialty Food Association's 2011 sofi Gold award for Outstanding Cookie. But what does this all mean? Do the cookies taste good?

The answer is...drumroll please...yes!

Tate's sent us a sample bag of their gluten-free chocolate chip cookies, and I must say - they are pretty damn good. Crispy and buttery-tasting, Tate's cookies contain a goodly amount of chocolate, and are pretty much indistinguishable from a gluten-full cookie apart from a slightly sandy after-texture.

These cookies are hitting the Baltimore area and should be available at Whole Foods, MOM's - My Organic Market, Fresh Market, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Wegman's. If you'd rather make your own cookies, there's also a new cookbook. Called Tate's Bake Shop: Baking for Friends, it contains recipes for scones, tarts, and quick breads as well as about 40 cookie recipes.

What struck my fancy as I perused the book for the first time was the recipe for pineapple upside-down cake. Kathleen King used a lovely cheat for the topping - toffee bits - which add more caramelly flavor than the usual brown sugar and a bonus of tiny almond bits. The other thing I liked about the recipe was that the eggs were added whole. So many traditional recipes for pineapple upside-down cake require that the eggs be separated and the whites whipped before adding. King's recipe is completely un-fussy and produces a moist and tender cake that might be the best pineapple upside-down cake I've ever tried.

I have to add one important direction to the recipe - place the skillet or baking pan on a cookie sheet! I didn't do this and the toffee oozed up one side of the pan and over onto the bottom of the stove, sending plumes of smoke everywhere as it burnt. Fortunately, I keep a sheet of heavy-duty foil on the bottom of the oven and was able to whisk it out of there and replace it (carefully) while the cake was still baking.

Pineapple Toffee Upside-Down Cake (adapted from Tate's Bake Shop: Baking for Friends)

1 20-oz can pineapple rings
1 1/2 sticks salted butter, 4 tablespoons sliced, 8 at room temperature
1 cup toffee bits (I used Heath Bits 'O' Brickle baking pieces)
7 maraschino cherries, drained, stems removed
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup plain nonfat or low-fat Greek yogurt

Position an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat it to 350F.

Drain the pineapple, discarding the juice (theminx says: make a pina colada!). Reserve seven pineapple rings. Coarsely chop the rest and set aside.

Melt the 4 tablespoons of sliced butter in a 9" ovenproof skillet (or a 9x2 round cake pan - I used a 9" square glass pan) over medium heat. Remove from the heat and sprinkle the toffee bits evenly into the skillet. Arrange the pineapple rings in the skillet, placing a cherry in the center of each one.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, beat the sugar and 8 tablespoons of room temperature butter with an electric mixer set to high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. One at a time, beat in the eggs, followed by the vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in thirds, alternating with the yogurt in 2 equal additions, mixing until just smooth after each addition and scraping down the bowl as needed. Do not overmix. Stir in the chopped pineapple. Spread the batter evenly over the pineapple rings and cherries in the skillet.

Bake until the top is golden brown and a wooden toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the inside of the skillet to loosen the cake. Place a serving plate over the skillet, and, using pot holders, invert the skillet and plate together to unmold the cake. Serve warm or at room temperature.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Dumplings

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

On one of the final episodes of that Food Network classic, "Worst Cooks in America," the worstcooktestants are tasked with making dumplings - Chinese siu mai and wontons and Japanese gyoza. As I was watching, I thought to myself, "if those mostly-incompetent people can make an edible dumpling, a mostly competent person like me can, too!" Honestly, they made it look very easy, right down to the little pleats on the gyoza.

Gyoza, or jaiozi, in Chinese, has been my family's favorite Chinese restaurant appetizer forever. No Chinese meal was complete without them. And they had to be fried. Potstickers, they're called. One can, of course, steam them, but my favorite part of the dumpling is the crisp bottom part of the wrapper. Mmm.

I recall making jaiozi with a friend some years ago, and it seemed like a huge production. She had made the filling in advance, so it was the dumpling-forming and cooking that were intimidating to me at the time. But now that I look back, vaguely remembering that she insisted on boiling them in a large pot of water before frying, I see that we made them incorrectly. Especially since many of them fell apart before they even made it to our mouths.

I think she was mostly paranoid about using raw ground pork in the filling, but she needn't have been.

A quick online search brought up myriad variations on that filling. Some used cabbage, some didn't. Some added shrimp. Bobby Flay's recipe (found in his Throwdown cookbook) called for hoisin, chile paste, 5-spice powder and allspice. No wonder he lost. I decided to go with a more simple combination of ingredients: ginger, garlic, cilantro, and green onions. I did borrow an ingredient from Chef Flay's dipping sauce: black vinegar. The result was interesting, but the slightly molasses-y flavor of the vinegar was a bit overpowering. Much better was a more traditional sauce made with soy, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and scallions. I've supplied the recipe for both; you may decide you like the vinegar sauce. Flay uses hoisin (and a thousand other ingredients) in his, in place of the sugar and soy, which may work better than my substitutions if you don't mind a thicker sauce.

In any case, dumpling making was much simpler than expected. The round wrappers are pre-made and sold in 12- or 16-oz packages at your neighborhood Asian grocer. If you can only find square won ton wrappers, you can cut them with a large round cookie cutter.

Potstickers

1.5 lb ground pork
1 T chopped scallions
1 t grated fresh ginger
1 t chopped garlic
1 t finely minced cilantro
salt
1 16-oz package round dumpling wrappers
oil for frying

In a medium bowl, combine pork, scallions, ginger, garlic, and cilantro, plus a generous pinch of salt. You can taste for seasoning by cooking a bit of the meat in a little hot oil. Remember that the dipping sauces contain soy and will be salty, so don't overdo it.

Prepare your area for dumpling assembly: have a clean cookie sheet or two covered with parchment, a Silpat, or a clean tea towel nearby, plus a small ramekin of water, the bowl of filling, and a teaspoon.

Take a dumpling wrapper and place it into your left palm (right, if you're left-handed). Dip a finger in the water and use it to moisten the edge all the way around. Use the spoon to place a blob of meat into the center of the wrapper, then fold the wrapper into a semi-circle. If there's too much meat, take some out at this point. Pinch the middle edges of the dumpling together and then make a pleat to one side of the middle using only the side of the wrapper facing you. (In other words, the dumpling is pleated only on one face.) Add another pleat or two (if they fit) to that end, then repeat the pleats on the opposite end of center. Gently squeeze the edge of the wrapper to make sure it's closed and that there are no air bubbles, and place it on the cookie sheet. Repeat until all wrappers and/or meat are gone.

(For a visual aid to pleating dumplings, check out this video of Chef Anita Lo doing just that. Dumpling making starts at about the 2 minute mark. Before that time, she demonstrates making the dumpling wrappers themselves. She's a bit fancy; I found it easier to pinch the wrapper closed in the middle and make 2 or 3 pleats on either side.)

To cook dumplings: Add a tablespoon or so of neutral cooking oil to a large skillet over high heat. When the oil is hot, add a layer of dumplings. You can fill the pan, but don't crowd it; the dumplings should not overlap. Cover the pan and cook for a few minutes, until the bottoms of the dumplings are a nice golden brown. If the pan seems to be getting too hot, turn the heat down a bit. Once the dumplings are brown - don't turn them! - add a quarter cup or so of water (more or less, depending on the size of your pan and number of dumplings). Cover the pan and cook until the water has evaporated. At this point, the dumplings should be shiny and somewhat translucent on the top (non-browned) side. If you're concerned about the pork being cooked, cut a dumpling in half and check. If they're not cooked, add a few tablespoons more water, cover the pan, and cook until additional water has evaporated.

Remove cooked dumplings to a plate and serve with dipping sauce.

Dipping Sauce 1

3 T black vinegar
1 T rice wine vinegar
2 T light soy
1 T light brown sugar
1 T chopped scallions

Combine ingredients in a small bowl, stirring to make sure sugar dissolves. Allow to sit for 15 minutes or so for flavors to combine.

Dipping Sauce 2

2 T light soy
1 T rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 T chopped scallions
1 t toasted sesame oil

Combine ingredients in a small bowl, stirring to make sure sugar dissolves. Allow to sit for 15 minutes or so for flavors to combine.

If you've made more dumplings than you can eat at one sitting, put the remaining dumplings, still on the cookie sheet, in the freezer for a few hours. When frozen solid, transfer to plastic bags and store in the freezer. When you cook them, you'll need to leave them on the heat for a bit longer.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Tomato Tart with Olive Oil Crust

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

Sometimes Facebook is really handy. I subscribe to (or "like") the news feeds of various and sundry bloggers, news agencies, and chefs, and every once in a while, something interesting comes down the pike. Like the other day, when America's Test Kitchen's feed included a recipe for a tart crust made with olive oil. Ordinarily, I would have scrolled past, but an image of the dough being dumped unceremoniously into the tart pan--without rolling--stopped me. That looked easy, and it certainly had to be tastier than an all-ready pie crust.

Ok, so it was mostly easy, but there were still several steps. First I had to drag out the food processor to blend the crust ingredients. Then they were pressed into the tart pan - the easy part. But then the pan had to go into the freezer before blind baking, and then the crust had to cool before filling. After filling, there was a second baking. By this point, hours later, I thought maybe I should have just tackled bread-making.

But the end result was pretty tasty, if not as flaky as the recipe's intro would suggest. The crust was more cookie-like, but not sweet. The recipe called for whole wheat flour, which I didn't have, but it was only 1/4 cup, so I didn't think it would matter. After tasting it, I think oatmeal might be an interesting addition, especially since the crust reminded me of a cookie anyway.

The original filling called for zucchini, but I used all tomatoes. They look a little dark in the photos because I used the greenish-brown Kumato tomatoes, which are the only grocery store tomatoes that actually taste like, well, tomatoes. All year 'round (my unsolicited opinion).

Tomato Tart (adapted from America's Test Kitchen)

Tart Crust
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4–6 tablespoons ice water

Filling
3 or 4 Kumato or other medium-sized tomatoes, cored and sliced into 1/4 thick rounds
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
3 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil (divided use)
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
salt and pepper
chopped scallions

Place the flour, sugar, salt, and cheese into a food processor and pulse until combined. Drizzle in the olive oil and pulse about a dozen times. Add 4 tablespoons of the ice water and process until dough starts to form a ball. If the dough doesn't form a ball, or if there is still unincorporated flour in the bowl, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of water and pulse until it comes together.

Put the dough into a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom and pat into an even layer on the bottom and up the sides of the pan. The dough will be very soft. Place the tart pan on a large plate or cookie sheet and freeze until firm, about half an hour.

Preheat oven to 375F. Set the frozen tart on a baking sheet and press a double layer of foil into the shell. Fill the shell with pie weights (I use raw rice, which I save and reuse for the same purpose) and bake until shell is golden brown and set, about 30-40 minutes. Slide the tart shell onto a wire rack and gently remove weights and foil. Allow tart shell to cool completely before filling.

While the shell is cooling, place the tomatoes on several layers of paper towels to absorb some of their moisture. Sprinkle with about half a teaspoon of salt and let sit for half an hour or so.

Cook the onion in 2 teaspoons of the olive oil over medium heat until golden brown.

Once tart shell has cooled and tomatoes have rested, adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 425 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix the remaining teaspoon of oil and ricotta together and season with salt and pepper to taste. Spread the ricotta mixture evenly over the bottom of the cooled tart shell. Arrange the onions on the ricotta and top with the tomatoes.

Bake the tart on a baking sheet until the cheese is bubbling and the tomatoes are wilted, 20 to 25 minutes. Let the tart cool on the baking sheet for 20 minutes.

To serve, remove the outer metal ring of the tart pan before slicing. Garnish with chopped scallions.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Sammiches

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

Cajun Kate's softshell crab po boy, image from egullet.com user philadining

Last Friday they were discussing sandwiches on WYPR's Midday with Dan Rodricks and it got me thinking about sandwiches I have known. I put in my two cents by recommending the po' boys from my friend Don's restaurant Cajun Kate's in the Booth's Corner Farmers' Market in Boothwyn, PA, because it's one of my current favorites (especially the brisket, fried oyster, and soft shell crab versions), but that's not the only sandwich that has struck my fancy over the years.

When I was quite young, my maternal grandmother had a stroke. During her recovery, we ate lunch together every day, and every day it was the same thing - an imported deli ham sandwich with iceberg lettuce and Kraft thousand island dressing on seeded rye bread from Levin's bakery, with a side of Funyuns. I don't know the origin of the sandwich, but I suspect it was my mother's invention, as I have never seen it elsewhere. Occasionally, when I'm feeling particularly nostalgic, I have a ham on rye with lettuce and thousand island for lunch. It never fails to take me back to age 3, when being cute and entertaining came far more easily.

Another sandwich I enjoyed in my youth, but not nearly as often, is the Baltimore classic, pit beef. It seemed that I only ate them in the first weekend of October, when the Fells Point Festival was in full swing. We lived on the 500 block of Ann Street at the time and my Dad and I always walked down together in search of a pit beef sandwich, which Dad would order well-done, with burnt ends, and we'd add mayonnaise and enough horseradish to make our noses run. Oddly, we always had to share the sandwich (Dad's rule, not mine), so I tend to feel a little greedy that now, as an adult, I get to have my own.

When I like something a lot, I try to eat it often, but not often enough to tire of it. Back in the heyday of Harborplace, there was a little Greek stand on the second floor of the Light Street pavilion. After a morning of desultorily shuffling from shop to shop with my college buddies Leslie and Wanda, we'd occasionally grab lunch there. My personal favorite was a veggie pita, basically a gyro without the meat. If I remember correctly, a warm and fluffy Greek pita was piled high with a combo of lettuce, tomato, raw onion, and cucumber and glopped with tzatziki and feta before being wrapped in aluminum foil to make the messy sandwich easier to handle. So simple, but so good, and something I could eat once a week without getting bored.

I'm also quite fond of a good chicken salad sandwich, and by "good," I mean chicken salad made with a mix of white and dark meat, chopped into fairly small pieces, a generous but not overwhelming amount of mayonnaise, and bits of minced onion. The seasoning can be simple salt and pepper, or something fancier like curry powder and mango chutney. The bread can be rye or a nice artisan loaf. Chicken salad sandwiches I am currently fond of include, believe it or not, the ones found at the University of Maryland Medical Center's Aramark-run cafeteria. The sandwich ladies are not skimpy with the scoops of salad, and they carefully remove the tough part of whole romaine leaves before arranging them carefully on your sandwich. And it's a steal at about $4. Mary Mervis, in the Lexington Market, also makes a fine chicken salad sammie. I like to make it a Chicken Smith by requesting a salty addition of a slice of Smithfield ham. This sometimes confuses the sandwich makers, so tell them to slice and weigh the ham and add the price to the sandwich.

Oh, there are so many more I can mention here: the asparagus and goat cheese wrap from the SouperFreak food truck, any number of tasty grilled cheeses (love the Fresco at Grilled Cheese & Co.), Attman's corned beef! and let's not forget Maryland's potential state sandwich - the soft shell crab. And burgers - but they're a completely different post....

What are your favorite sandwiches?

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Chef Competition Looking for Local Talent

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000

The Mason Dixon Master Chef Tournament is currently accepting applications to compete in this Summer’s third running of this unique local competition. Eligible chefs must be currently employed as a chef, at least 18 years old and available all competition nights in order to compete.

Competition Dates (5:30pm – 9:00pm) are as follows:

June 17, 18, 24, 25
July 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, 30
August 5, 6, 19, 20, 27 (Final Championship Match)

Complete Rules and Regulations of the Tournament can be found at:

http://www.masondixonmasterchef.com/contact-us/rules-and-regulations.php

Chefs may apply online at:

http://www.masondixonmasterchef.com/contact-us/compete-as-a-chef.php

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Sticky Rice

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

The last couple of times Mr Minx and I went out for sushi, I was disappointed. While both meals featured very fresh fish, they seemed bland overall. Mr Minx says we probably just ordered badly, but I think I was just ready for something completely different. So on a recent excursion to Fells Point, I decided Sticky Rice would be the ideal place for lunch.

The restaurant looks like a dive bar on the outside, and like a dive bar on the inside, albeit one with a beautiful wooden bar and bar back and a gussied-up gold-painted traditional pressed tin ceiling. The classic rock blaring in the background and basketball on the TV belies the menu of traditional and not-so-traditional sushi items.

We vacillated between an appetizer cheekily called "sticky balls" and its vegetarian cousin, "garden balls," before choosing the former. Made with a thin skin of tofu with a pocket cut into it, the balls are stuffed with tuna, crab, and rice flavored with Sriracha before being deep-fried until crisp and topped with scallions, wasabi dressing, eel sauce, and tobiko. They are unlike any inarizushi we've ever had in the past, and I must say - a vast improvement. (Inari skins are typically soaked in a sweet soy syrup before being stuffed with plain rice; I find them to be far too sweet.) We liked the delicate crispness of the tofu, and the balance between the spicy rice and the two sauces.

We also had two rolls. One was a special, the Scorpion roll, stuffed with fried soft shell crab, plus avocado and cucumber. The other was called "Drawn-N-Buttered," an inside-out roll with tempura shrimp, lump crab, cucumbers and scallions. Sounds fairly normal, but it was served with a garlic butter dip. Who knew that garlic butter was such a fine accompaniment to sushi? We found ourselves dipping both rolls into it. Our only quibble is that the butter might have been tastier if it were hot, or at least warm.

A nice touch: the carrots and greens on the platter were not merely a garnish but an actual salad topped with a bit of the usual tangy orange sushi restaurant dressing. It was a nice acid counterpoint to the richness of the butter sauce.

Sticky Rice proved a welcome respite from our sushi doldrums.

Sticky Rice
1634 Aliceanna Street
Baltimore, MD 21231

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Choice Bites 4.12.2013

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

Some "healthy" foods aren't quite as healthy as you might think they are....

Someone at Buzzfeed has nothing to do but hate on cereal. Here's a list of "16 Breakfast Cereals That Should be Obliterated." Really? Obliterated? Get a life.

Like to overeat at meals? Then Gluttony Pants may be for you!

Ever thought about using food scraps in your garden? Not as is, but as compost? Food 52 has a good, brief, article on three methods of composting, just in time for Spring planting and growing season.

Confused about regional bbq styles? These handy explanations make it easy to figure out.

This Tufts' student is the ultimate recycler: he eats food he finds in Dumpsters, and plans to open a cafe to feed other students.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Nando's Peri Peri

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

Several months back I was invited to try one of the new Maryland branches of Nando's Peri-Peri, an international chain specializing in hot-pepper-marinated chicken. The location was a bit out of my way, so I declined. But then another one popped up near work, and I was able to check out their wares on one of the "mock service" days prior to the grand opening.

My date for lunch was my Dad, and he selected the flame-grilled chicken breast with sides of cole slaw and corn on the cob. I was briefly tempted by wings but didn't feel like smelling like chicken for the rest of the day. I instead opted for the butternut squash and couscous salad with sliced peri-peri chicken and grilled halloumi cheese.

Dad enjoyed his meal. The chicken was tender and the corn was yellow. Yay for yellow corn! (I am not a fan of white.) The slaw was a bit...hmm...not bland. It just needed a little kick. It's mayo-based, but on the tart side, and if you're used to sweet slaw, it might be a disappointment.

I loved my salad. The base was baby spinach that was topped with red onion, green and black olives, grilled corn, and couscous, plus big chunks of roasted butternut squash. The vinaigrette was slightly sweet and had a bit of heat. The chicken was a sliced version of Dad's, and the slabs of halloumi (which looked just like the chicken) had been grilled. Really tasty.

The chicken comes in a range of heat levels, from "plain-ish" to "extra hot." Our food was ordered "plain-ish," and had a very mild chili kick. We tasted the lemon & herb and medium sauces as well; the former was mild and had a nice herby flavor and the latter was not particularly hot to my palate.

There are a handful of choices for dessert at Nando's, and of those we chose to sample the peanut butter cupcakes. At $3.25 each, they're a bit pricier than found elsewhere - and smaller - but the chocolate cake was moist and the peanut butter frosting was rich and creamy and full of peanut butter goodness.

While we enjoyed the food, it seemed a bit spendy, at least for lunch. For instance, that chicken breast - supposedly a whole butterflied and deboned breast, a tad larger than the size of my palm - is $8.95 all by its lonesome. One side raises the price to $10.95, and with two sides the chicken costs $12.85. A half chicken, bones included, is more of a bargain at $9.45. My salad was $7.95, not including the chicken. That was an additional $2.95. The halloumi was an extra $2.25, for a grand total of $13.15. I suppose I've been spoiled by food trucks, but I don't normally spend anywhere near that amount for lunch. But, it was good, and I'm still tempted to try their wings.

Nando's Peri-Peri
421 West Baltimore St
Baltimore, MD 21201

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Mari Luna Bistro to Host Mason Dixon Master Chef Tournament

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

The Mari Luna Bistro, the newest member of the Mari Luna Restaurant Group’s family of restaurants (http://www.mariluna.com), is set to be the home of the 2013 Mason Dixon Master Chef Tournament.

Renowned for filling the void of authentic Mexican food in the Baltimore region, each of the Mari Luna Restaurant Group’s three area restaurants are family owned and operated by the Luna family, which includes executive chef Jaime Luna, his wife Alba, and their daughters.

The roots of the Mari Luna Restaurant Group reach back to the City of Mexicali in Baja, California where Jaime Luna was raised on traditional Mexican cooking. When he came to the United States in 1984 he began a 20-year career in the culinary field working with nationally acclaimed chefs and restaurateurs in the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore markets, including Michel Richard at Citronelle and Steve de Castro at Babalu Grille. In 2004, he opened his first namesake restaurant, Mari Luna Mexican Grill. Today, the Mari Luna Restaurant Group consists of three restaurants, the Mari Luna Bistro in Baltimore, and the Mari Luna Latin Grille and Mari Luna Mexican Grill both in Pikesville, Maryland.

Combining the warmth of the Luna family with sophisticated and delicious food preparation for a unique dining experience, the Mari Luna Bistro is the perfect place for the Mason Dixon Master Chef Tournament. The Bistro brings authentic Mexican food to the cityʼs cultural district. Highlights of the menu include seven styles of guacamole, each served in a traditional stone mortar called a molcajete, extensive taco offerings made with fresh corn tortillas, and house made white and red sangria. The basement of the Bistro called the Luna Lounge is a unique private party room with a built in bar and dance floor.

The Mari Luna Bistro is conveniently located right in the heart of Baltimore’s cultural district, just steps away from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Joseph Meyerhoff Hall, and the Cultural Center stop of the light rail.

Tickets for all 15 dates of this summer-long single-elimination chef competition are available for purchase at: http://www.masondixonmasterchef.com. Tickets for most matches are $25 for general admission and $45 for judging experience (including all taxes). In addition, the Mason Dixon Master Chef Tournament donates 10% of the net proceeds of each ticket sold directly to their charity partner Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland (http://www.mealsonwheelsmd.org).

Competition Dates (5:30pm – 9:00pm):
June 17, 18, 24, 25
July 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, 30
August 5, 6, 19, 20, 27

Event Timeline:
5:30 p.m. – Happy Hour with Complementary Appetizers and Wine Tasting, plus Drink Specials
6:30 p.m. – Cold Prep Begins for the Competition
7:00 p.m. – Chef Competition
8:00pm – Judging Begins

For more information about the events, go to the Tournament's Web site: http://masondixonmasterchef.com/

Posted on Minxeats.com.

World's Worst Customers?

noreply@blogger.com (theminx) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:28:00 +0000

As a restaurateur, would you cater to the whims of ~~patients~~ customers who not only present a list of "directions" for the kitchen, but also brings their own box of pasta?

Make sure to read the comments, too.

Posted on Minxeats.com.