Archive for January, 2008

Last year (or maybe slightly beyond a year ago), I made baby-back pork ribs. I followed a recipe from the Gourmet cookbook for so-called “Chinese” style ribs. It seemed to me at the time, to go well with potato latkes.

This time around, I followed Gourmet’s recipe for latkes, and we had a delicious meal.

The ribs get marinated in sugar, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and sherry; ketchup is added as a sweetener and for its red color. The ribs are always tasty.

For me, however, the real treat were the pancakes of potato and onion that weren’t pressed together; instead, I just dropped them in, and the resulting texture was superlative. Really, really delicious. The “secret” if there was one, for me, was a three-fold one:

• use butter with the oil,
• don’t use too much egg (in comparison, my homemade recipe was always too eggy compared to this),
• really, really, really squeeze-out the water with a towel!

Yes, and in addition to this, I made a keylime pie. Maybe I’ll get a photo of that still…

Thanks to Cavanna Pasta, this delicious meal was quick to prepare.

I like the concept of meatballs without spaghetti. So I served for each person, two of Gianni’s meatballs with his porcini ravioli.

My sauce:

• onion, garlic
• crimini mushrooms
• radicchio
• parmesan cheese
• marsala wine
• sweet red pepper relish
• salt, pepper
• EVOO
• applewood smoked bacon

I also served Cavanna rolls, but I split the tops, and poured-in EVOO before warming them in the oven. They were great for sopping-up the delicious mushroom sauce.

Neat discussion on eating out vs. eating in, and the budget implications.

I have had short ribs several times at nice places, and each time, the dish, or more properly, the meat, has been delicious. Meltingly delicious, complex, and when served on the bone, it falls off, a real pleasure.

I have never made short ribs; I did this weekend.

I kind of made my own recipe based upon this one from TV Food Network. I was inspired by the show connected with this receipe, but I didn’t follow things to the letter.

• Sherry Vinegar
• Red wine
• Carrots, onion, garlic
• Vegetable Stock
• Beef Demi-Glace
• Couple Squeezes of Famous Dave’s BBQ Sauce
• Maple syrup
• salt & pepper

I started out with browning the meat, then added the liquids. I omitted celery and the herbs from the original recipe. And my final sauce was too thin; I needed to reduce it further.

The beef was excellent; perhaps not “melting” like I’ve had, but the tartness from the vinegar was really good; the house smelled good. I made some garlicky potatoes to go with the beef, and used the sauce to moisten everything on the plate.

There are many variations on this recipe, among others completely different. I should like to serve something like this again.

Last week I finally had the opportunity to visit Kitchen 64, located off I-64 in Richmond, VA, at the Boulevard.

This place has gotten a lot of press and friends recommended it. They seem to have priced things for a good value on the amount of food you get; the cocktail list wasn’t cheap.

On a Saturday night, there was a 30 minute wait, arriving at 5:30 PM, an unusual time for me to arrive for dinner. Nonetheless, despite the cold, we could eat in their make-shift dining room extension, a patio enclosed with a temporary “tent,” complete with a centerpiece made from an upside-down feather Christmas tree. That decoration sums-up the idea, I think of the restaurant… something familiar, but different; not trendy, but it has 10% retro flavor, 80% noisy clients, and 10% too little space.

I ultimately ordered their prime rib sandwich, served french dip style. This was not what I wanted, but they were out of the avocado sandwich. Other items ordered included the hummus appetizer, a fish entrée, the prime rib entrée, fish tacos, and a tossed salad.

We left quite full, but no one was crazy about their meal.

My sandwich was okay, but there was nothing especially endearing about it. The fries, however, were the real star: crispy with a coating (I am guessing cornstarch). Good fries.

The prime rib was huge, but I am not sure my friend liked it. It was cooked to the correct temperature, etc., but the other accoutrements on the plate looked plain: lots of squash/zucchini.

The tossed salad: “Horrible.” The fish tacos: drippy. “Not terribly appetizing.”

The fish “dry.”

The most disappointing thing was the cocktail I ordered, their take on the Manhattan. This was my first time trying this drink, and so I accept some fault on my own. But it was the worst drink I’d ever had, and I could only stomach half of it. Despite it sitting on the table, no one else dared try it.

But the entertainment of watching my face curl from each attempted sip was rather entertaining.

Kitchen 64 has potential, but nothing was over the top for us. The black bean hummus platter was likely the best thing ordered, but there was nothing especially interesting about it: you got a big lump of mashed beans in the center, sliced onion, feta, olives, and cherry tomatoes with some pita bread. It works, but that was about it.

Despite our disappointment, there were plenty of folks there, obviously having a good time. I am willing to try them again for breakfast some day. We’ll see.