Sunday Dinner @ City House - Pork Snacks!

Hi! I'm pretty excited about this post, because I get to write about pork snacks and various offal. This is not a post for those with a fear of the swine or the parts of the animal that you don't normally consume.

Dru's parents took us to dinner on Sunday night for our birthdays at City House, where we sat out on the patio...beautiful summer evening with a multi-course meal to work through. If you are not familiar with City House, it is a great restaurant in Germantown with a modern-Italian flair. Every Sunday night, they do a custom menu with "pork snacks" and various experimental dishes. I enjoy eating with Dru's family, because they (especially her Dad) have a healthy appetite and like a WIDE variety of food (just like me).

We started the meal with one plate of each pork snack:

• Ciccioli sliders
• Braised pork belly
• Sausage stuffed pepper with pecorino
• Crispy pig ears with wing sauce

Wow! All four were great. Ciccioli, which I had never had or heard of before, is pounded pork meat and skin fat, with a consistency something like pulled pork. The sliders came on little sweet steamed buns and yellow mustard. The flavor was very much like a rich pulled pork sandwich.

The pork belly was a little chunk that had been braised, so a lot of the fat and tissue had been rendered out. For those that don't know, bacon is smoked and thinly sliced pork belly...think of a cube of that meat about 2 inches on a side. This was a little, tender, fatty chunk of delicious.

The stuffed pepper was also great, but was very tame and conventional compared to the other three dishes.

Finally, the pig ears were incredible! They were very clearly fried ears, but smaller than you would expect. They were rich and wonderful, especially with spicy wing sauce for dipping and celery sticks on the side. As Dru says, you could fry anything with hot sauce and it would be good. We have bought rawhide pig ears for the dogs before, which are these enormous flaps, so we were expecting big ol' chunks. The ears at City House were much more petite...maybe two or three bites each. I really wish I had pictures, but we didn't document until the next course, which was...

Pizzas!

• Pizza with Manila clams and marinara
• Pizza with salt cod and potatoes

Both pizzas were quite good, though the general consensus at the table was that the clam pizza was better. The clams are cooked right on the pie, and they specifically did not cut it before serving because they did not want the clams' liquor to flow off the pizza.

Plus...

• Fried squash blossoms
• Lamb's tongue with mashed potatoes

Now, the lamb's tongue is shown above. To the untrained eye (i.e., mine), it kind of looked like a well-done pancake served over mashed potatoes. I have had raw beef tongue several times and enjoyed it immensely, so I was looking forward to this delicacy. The tongue was seared and was actually quite good, though it had a very fibrous consistency. That is, it was very difficult to cut and it wanted to come apart along the grain of the muscle, but the taste and feel of the meat was succulent and smooth.

All in all, our waitress was pretty excited that we were ordering all of these things that most people wouldn't touch. I don't want anyone to think that City House is focused on fringe food items, because they really aren't. Even on this "experimental" night, there were a number of things on the menu that you might find at any nice restaurant.

All in all, City House gets four big thumbs up from us. The first two times that we ate there, the food was way too salty, but they seem to have corrected that...everything was well balanced, with the exception of the salt cod, which you (obviously) would expect to be very salty.

Our next post will probably be from San Francisco, where we are traveling for the 4th of July weekend. Foodie prospects: excellent!

Recipe - Pasta Sauces!

Tomatoes are one of the most wonderful vegetables (yes, it's a fruit, I know), because of their versatility and breadth of flavor. Cooking is all about bringing certain flavors to the forefront and combining those in harmony. Tomatoes are both sweet and acidic, which gives you a lot of flavor combinations: spicy, acidic marniaras, bright and clean tomato consume, sweet tomato tarts, and so on.

While there are millions of saucing possibilities, I am going to cover a few variations on a single good base tomato sauce. As always, you should experiment with your food. The marinara below can be the starting point for anything from rich, creamy sauces, to spicy arrabiata, to "funky" flavors. I've used this base and added cinnamon and other "sweet" spices, and used that as a savory sauce for chicken sausage.

This is one of those basic recipes that should be in everybody's repertoire. Stop buying jars of tomato sauce! They're full of sugar, taste bad, and cost a lot more than making the sauce below. This sauce can be ready in 15 minutes if you are in a hurry, or let it sit for 45+ minutes to thicken and bring out some depth of flavor.

Basic Tomato Marinara

1 - 22 oz. can of crushed tomatoes. Tomatoes ONLY. Don't get canned tomato sauce or tomatoes with spices added...that stuff tastes like crap.
2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons (?) olive oil
Fresh (preferred) or dried basil and oregano

Peel the garlic, crush it with the blade of your knife, and then mince. Heat the oil in a sauce pan until it shimmers (but don't let it smoke). Turn the heat down to medium and saute the garlic for a few minutes, stirring frequently, until it is aromatic...if the garlic browns or burns, then the oil is way too hot.

Pour the can of tomatoes into the pan and stir to mix in the garlic. Immediately add a generous amount of basil and a few pinches of oregano, plus a pinch of salt and pepper. (You don't need much, or any, salt with canned tomatoes, because they have already added some.) Generous means 2-3 tablespoons of dried basil, or a good sized bunch of fresh basil that has been chopped up. I generally shake the container until most of the surface of the tomatoes is covered in basil. Stir in the spices and let the sauce simmer, stirring occasionally, while you prepare your pasta. The longer this sauce cooks, the better it will be.

That's it! How easy is that, huh?

Variations:

• Try sauteing a small onion (diced) or a minced shallot with the garlic.
• Try this with fresh tomatoes! Take about 2 pounds of fresh, and blanche them to easily peel. Discard the skins. Cut open the tomatoes, and seed them. Save the seeds, water, and goo that comes out, for thinning the sauce later. Dice the seeded tomatoes and proceed as above, adding some of the tomato water to the pot as needed. This will need to cook much longer (1 hour+), to break down the tomatoes. You can serve this as a chunky sauce or throw in a Cuisinart to create a smooth sauce.
  
• Try different spices...crushed red pepper for a spicy arrabiata, less or no basil, or marjoram and sage for a more savory flavor.
• Add a tablespoon of cream for a pink sauce...delicious, but more filling as well.
  

The New Hotness

The New Hotness is a favorite variation of ours, using spicy Italian sausage and red pepper. Start by sauteing about a pound of hot Italian sausages. I prefer to remove the sausage from the casing and crumbling it, but you could also cook them whole and then slice the sausage for the final sauce. (It's called the New Hotness because we came up with the recipe on a night that we watched Men In Black II, back in the day. Remember Will Smith saying he was going to drive? "Old and busted....new hotness.")

Once the sausage is cooked, remove and drain the grease (both from the sausage and the pan). Proceed with sauteeing garlic and onions above, adding just a touch of olive oil to the pan if needed. Add the tomatoes and herbs, but also throw in a dash of cayenne pepper, or a few dashes of crushed red pepper to taste, plus generous black pepper. Also add the cooked sausage back to the pot at this point.

So there you go! Easy-breezy-lemon-cheesey, right? (No lemons required.) Enjoy!

Recipe - Fresh Pasta

As promised from the Pre-Father's Day post:

Fresh pasta is extremely easy to make, is a specialty of mine, and is delicious with any sauce. (Next posting will be sauce options.) I'm obviously biased, but I think that this pasta formula make a noodle superior to any fresh pasta that I've ever bought (with apologies to Lazzaroli's). You can mix by hand, but it is much easier if you have a KitchenAid or similar stand mixer. I have heard of people using a Cuisinart for this, but I've never tried it.

The process below reads as being very long and complex, but it really isn't...I'm just detail oriented when it comes to food. Try making fresh pasta some weekend when you have an hour or two to play around. Worst case, you have to cook a box of dried pasta for dinner instead.

Ingredients

Makes pasta for 4 generous servings

2-1/4 cups fine durum semolina flour (buy in bulk at Whole Foods or similar store)
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt (1/2 teaspoon? I just give the grinder a few twists)
All-purpose flour as needed

Start by mixing all ingredients except for the all-purpose flour in the bowl of the mixer, using the paddle attachment. The dough will be very sticky and wet. Add the A-P flour by tablespoons while mixing, until the dough comes together and becomes very slightly tacky, but not sticky. Switch to the dough hook and knead for a few minutes. (The dough will get stickier as you knead it, because the flour continues hydrating. You may need to add more flour by pinches.)

To mix by hand, form a well in your flour for the eggs and slowly mix in with a fork until the dough forms. Continue adding flour until the right consistency is reached, then knead by hand for several minutes.

Cover the bowl with a towel and let the dough rest for at least 30 minutes (wrap it in plastic or put in a big ziploc bag overnight in the fridge for silky smooth noodles). Knead the dough by hand for a minute and then separate into 6 pieces. Let the dough rest again for a few minutes.

Next, flatten your dough balls with a rolling pin and then run through a pasta roller until you reach the desired thickness. Remember that the pasta thickens and expands when you cook it. Lay the sheets out on a flat surface to dry slightly (just a few minutes). Cut your noodles, either with the machine for spaghetti or linguine, or by hand for tagliatelle. Cut the sheets to length if they are for lasagna or ravioli. If you are not cooking them immediately, cover with a towel and let dry. If you plan to store your noodles, form them into "nests" before they get dry, let them dry for an hour or two, and then freeze in a sealed container (Tupperware, etc.).

Finally, to cook, plunge the pasta into salted water at a rolling boil. Stir gently to ensure that the nests separate. Very fresh noodles will cook in just a minute or two, and dried fresh pasta will take 5-6 minutes. As always, feel the noodles and taste when you are getting close. Either pour into a strainer or extract the noodles with a pasta serving fork if you are cooking in a few batches (which I do).

By the way: I will never forgive you if you rinse your pasta in cold water...you are literally washing away all the flavor. If you plan to leave the noodles without saucing immediately, just toss them with a tablespoon of olive oil while still hot to keep them from sticking together.

Sauce (or not), eat, and enjoy!

Notes:

I had a lot of trouble with pasta recipes in books until I developed this formula. The main problem was that most cookbooks don't want to spend much time explaining texture, moisture, etc., because most people won't even try to make pasta, and almost nobody will spend the time to understand the full process.

The first doughs I made either didn't hold together or were so wet and sticky that you couldn't work with it. This recipe will allow you to get a sheet of pasta that is paper thin if you want...one that you can literally see through. I've also tried to address the moisture issue; to get perfect noodles you do have to feel your way through the dough. Too dry and they won't hold together correctly. Too damp and you either can't roll them out, or you can roll them but then they form a big sticky clump after you cut them. Starting out you should err on the dry side, once your initial dough ball has formed, and you will do fine.

• You can roll out with a rolling pin if you don't have a machine, but it is a LOT of work. You are better off hand rolling thick noodles, like bucatini or pici.
• The amount of added flour that you need varies by a number of things, but is mostly dependent on how big your eggs are, the flour you buy (density, moisture level, etc.) and how humid it is. You will get the feel for the right dough after making it once or twice.
• Substitute 1/2 to 3/4 cup of the semolina with whole wheat flour for a nutty, grainier noodle. Alternatively, substitute the same or more with all-purpose flour for a silkier, creamier noodle.
• If the dough is not cooperating, just cover with a towel and let it rest. Come back in 30 minutes. The gluten in the flour has to hydrate and then develop...that is what gives the noodles their structure and substance. If you rush this, your noodles are going to fall apart. This is the same process that traditional bread dough goes through, to give the surface and crumb that solid, glossy texture.

Anyone can make good fresh pasta, easily, if you are willing to try. As always, eat well and enjoy!

(Pre-) Father's Day Dinner

I am going to use my post for the day to talk about a dinner we made last weekend. Dru and I decided to host dinner for our parents on Saturday in honor of Father's Day 2009. I will give the synopsis of the event and meal, but I particularly want to publish some of the recipes and formulas that we used...I have been asked by some people about some basic standby meals (and I have told others that they need these standbys...Chatty, I'm looking at you). While the meal was very nice, it really was composed of a few basic items.

First, the theme

This was not to be an epic 12 course extravaganza...we were short on time and manpower since Dru ran a 10 mile race in the morning, and I am lazy, leaving me from about 10 AM to 6 PM to plan and execute. I decided that four plates was a good number for the time I had, and if the menu was smart.

Because we are big on food and because I like to tie a good meal together (like the Dude's rug...it really tied the room together), the first task in planning the menu was to decide on a theme. I got thinking about Father's Day, and family, and siblings, and Dru and her sister Casey inevitably came to mind. Dru and Casey are very similar in some respects and very different in others, so I wanted to get that idea into the menu.

The final theme for the meal was "siblings" and was represented like this: Each course consisted of two items which were similar in ingredients or presentation, but which were also distinct and which could stand on their own.

Next, the menu

To open, two ravioli. No picture here, because we ate it up before we remembered to document.

• Fennel, sausage, and homemade ricotta with an arrabiatta sauce
• Kale, pine nuts, and feta with a (slightly) creamy tomato sauce
  

What a great start! I made fresh pasta, which made for nice toothy ravioli and which gives them an "exciting, abstract shape." We wanted to use veggies from our weekly CSA delivery, and we have a LOT of kale. I sauteed the kale with wine and lemon, and a touch of honey, then blended with the pine nuts to make a filling. As far as the first ravioli was concerned, well, I just like sausage and fennel (great combo), and fresh ricotta is a) delicious and b) super easy to make. The sauces here and in the next dish were simplified by making one base marinara and then adding a little extra before serving.

Next, rollatini, which is grilled eggplant wrapped around:

• Lemon and mint risotto with asparagus tips, topped with tzatziki sauce
• Basil risotto with diced tomato and broccolini, topped with traditional marinara

There is some debate over who came up with the lemon-mint flavor, but regardless it was awesome. That rollatini was probably my favorite item of the meal. Tzatziki is also really easy, and let me use half a cucumber that we had in the fridge.

The entree was fish baked two ways, served with sauteed lentils and fresh local peas (similar to black-eyed, not English peas):

• Salmon under herbs with lemon
  
• Salmon under spinach with mustard

This was a great contrast: the herbs and lemon made for a super flavorful and savory bite of salmon, and the mustad and spinach gave the dish some spice. For herbs, I used fresh dill, basil, thyme, and Italian parsley. (Side note: parsely is the most under-appreciated herb out there. It makes savory dishes so much deeper and can be so much more than garnish.) The other piece of salmon got a very light rub of dijon mustard and was covered in spinach with a bit of dill. Both were baked for about 15 minutes, leaving the greens slightly wilted and the fish perfectly rare.

To close:

• Buckwheat cookies with ricotta, drizzled with dark Tennessee wildflower honey
• Chocolate stout cake with whipped cream and fresh mint

Every dish was a hit and was interesting because flavors on the left and right side of the plate were contrasting. It was a good meal because each dish had some underlying ingredient that was presented in two ways, mostly visually and always flavor-wise. However, rather than wax poetic about how good it was (and it was), I would rather offer a few of the recipes that I used. If anyone wants info on a dish that I don't detail, just ask. I will add the recipes as separate posts, rather than making one giant post here.

Half of the meal was shooting from the hip, so don't take these recipes as gospel. For example, I had never made rollatini or these specific risotte before, though we have made all the components at one time or another. Whenever I cook, I'm just trying to have fun and experiment with something new. It (very) occasionally turns out poorly, but it is generally good. I've learned not to go off the deep end experimenting for a dinner party, but taking a known technique and changing flavors is not too risky.

Have fun and eat well!

Next up:

• Fresh pasta
• Fresh ricotta
• Simple marinara and variations (the new hotness)
  
• Risotto in all its glory
  

Home - and we still have food to write about!

So, we enjoyed blogging about all our delicious meals so much, that we are going to continue to write mouth-watering descriptions about our comestibles. We can't promise timely or consistent entries but you may get inspired, hungry, or ask us to invite you to our next dinner party!

A few notable dishes/meals since we've been back (and started our CSA! Yay Delvin Farms!):

Local sage sausage, grilled and served on baguette with sauteed peppers and onions, accompanied by remoulade coleslaw

Kale, tofu, and white bean enchiladas

Beet, apple, and orange salad with pomegranate vinaigrette

Greek kale pasta

Sourdough french toast topped with vanilla yogurt and blueberries

And a few dinners from elsewhere that were thoroughly enjoyed:

Ribs, beer butt chicken, baked beans, and salad with homegrown components compliments of Ben's dad

Scallop pasta appetizer followed by ginger and honey baby back ribs and parsnip/apple coleslaw, finished with a chocolate pretzel tart, courtesy of my parents

At Chachah with the girls I had (among other things) their version of guacamole which had edamame and ample lemon. Yum! Also, introduced another convert to the hot chocolate. If you haven't tried it, you simply must.

So, stay tuned for more descriptions, musings, menus, recipes, future trips, and possibly a soliloquy on the deliciousness of cupcakes!

Wrapping Up Belgium ... Day 8

For our last day in Belgium, we had big plans - buying chocolates for friends and hitting up some kitschy touristy stuff.

First though - brunch! We went to Le Pain Quotidian - the original. This restaurant has since expanded to the U.S. (NYC, not Nashville), and for good reason. They get it right - excellent breads and pastries, superb looking sandwiches and salads, and tons of jams/spreads/ accoutrements for the tables. I ordered the big breakfast and was absolutely delighted.

We shopped a bit, weaving our way around crowds attending both the jazz festival and the grand opening of the Magritte museum, where they were handing out apples and plastic bowler hats amid costumed tableau of familiar paintings. Rather than spending a long time in line, we decided to head out to a suburb to see ....

ATOMIUM! This was erected for the 1958 World Fair, in an effort to show everyone how progressive and futuristic Belgium was in the post-war era. Pretty neat in a big silver structure kind of way. They actually had an interesting exhibit of what the fair was like and the world situation at the time. Of course, the obligatory pics of us holding up monuments:

Next up was Mini Europe. We were a little dubious about how cool this could be (it was highly recomended in the guidebook) and balked at the 12 euro entry price, but it turned out to be AWESOME! These people have made 1:25 scale models of well known landmarks in all the European Union countries. They have moving parts (boats, trains, clocks) and interactive features. They have done detailed research into historical documents and blueprints to get accurate models - they are ridiculously precise! It was so neat to see places we have been ... and places we hope to get to! Here is Ben holding up the real Tower of Pisa ... and the teeny Tower of Pisa. Ha!


Heading back into town, we stopped in the part of the city known for excellent seafood. The restaurant wasn't open yet, so obviously, time for a beer. We almost had a disaster because I ordered "Witbeer", or wheat beer which is unfiltered and delicious. The man misunderstood and thought I said "coffee with milk". So I said, "no, beer" and he replied, confused, "oh beer! Beer with milk?". So I changed my order to "beer" and got that. Phew!

The restaurant we chose only had seating outside on the sidewalk - no problem for us. The amuse bouche was a croquette with ham and gruyere. For appetizer we shared a tuna carpaccio which was heavily gingered and very refreshing. For entree, I got a seafood linguine with roasted red pepper sauce. Ben got langoustines with a herb aioli. Tiramisu for dessert. A great way to end the trip!

We headed out to the airport that evening to be ready for an extremely early flight the next day, the start of a very long (but luckily this time, very uneventful) trip home. As you may have gathered, we highly recommend Belgium as a wonderful place to visit for culture, food, and beer!

Wrapping Up Belgium... Day 7 (Ghent)

Ok, only 3 weeks after the fact, we are finally (finally!) sitting down to finish up the Belgium blog! This is mainly because we have new and delicious things to talk about at home, but in the interest of seeing things through (ahem, Ben), we will delight your food imaginations with our last few days of vacation.

We left off being stranded in Bruges. We woke the next morning in the most luxurious bed and decided to hit up the same coffee shop we had eaten in the morning before. Espressos and pastry needs taken care of, we made our way back to the train station. Since the original plan had been a day trip to Ghent and the train back conveniently stopped in Ghent, things worked out. We just had to wear the same sweaty clothes from the day before.

Ghent is a neat little town - there is a university there, so overall it is kind of funky and a younger crowd, made all the more interesting by the centuries old bell tower and cathedrals. Also, Ghent was major port city with many canals and old houses where the rich traders and tax collectors used to live.

We arrived and walked a fair bit to a beautiful park near the south of the city, where the art museums are clustered. We were particularly excited to go to SMAK - a relatively new contemporary art museum (officially the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst). The main exhibit was entitled "Beyond the Picturesque" and focused on landscapes. Multiple artists contributed, some whimsical, some thought provoking, some just weird and annoying. All fascinating and very enjoyable. We were really hoping the museum would have gift shop shirts, but apparently they are too cool for that. A picture had to suffice.

We walked about a mile north to the center of town, working up a pretty good appetite. I know what you are thinking - time for some pork products of some kind? Of course! We went to a restaurant loosely interpreted as "The Butcher Hall", complete with aged pig legs hanging from the ceiling rafters. Beers to start, and Ben had his favorite of the whole trip, a Ghent microbrew. After much deliberation about what to order (it all looked good!) we settled on "A discovery of east Flemish meats and cheeses" and discover we did! A huge plate of charcuterie (for you non-foodies, basically glorifed bologna and salami) with a couple types of cheeses and this ridiculously spicy mustard. Paired with this rustic multigrain bread, more beers, and a leisurely afternoon, this made for a pretty perfect lunch. Don't worry, we got some carrot soup for a vegetable.


Stuffed with "cultural discovery", we headed over to tour the bell tower and cathedral. We learned many interesting things from a lovely woman who conducted our tour extremely fluently, alternating effortlessly between Dutch, French, and English. Luckily, these bells were much more in tune! Across the way was a cathedral with a beautiful pulpit and impressive collection of art.

By this point, we were pretty tired of wearing the same clothes and hopped back on the train to Brussels. After a nap, we decided to try the restaurant literally across the street from our apartment. It is maybe a good thing that we didn't make it there earlier in the week, because we may not have gone anywhere else! It was delightfully decorated in French farmhouse-ish style, menus on a chalkboard, dried herbs and lavender hanging from the ceiling. Everyone else in the place was speaking French (and as Ben pointed out, "food just tastes better when everyone around you is speaking French"). We started with an appetizer with shrimp in a sauce with citronelle and fresh coriander, topped with edible flowers.

For our main, I had a risotto made from spelt (interesting! nutty!) topped with perfectly cooked scallops. Ben had veal topped with the "best potato chips ever". For dessert we shared a lavender creme brulee and a pair of chocolate pots de creme - one straight up, one with a zesty marmalade type surprise. The meal was SO good that we asked if they would be open the next day, but unfortunately they would be closed for the long weekend. So goes it, we are happy that we got to go once!

After the trip home (about 15 steps), we turned in for the night.