Archive for August, 2009

This past Saturday, some neighbors in the ‘hood were hosting a big party outdoors. I could smell the barbeque smoker, and no doubt, they were enjoying food in the outdoors. In my kitchen, I was busy preparing a French meal that required indoor tools. I had invited two friends who I will be traveling to England and France with in the upcoming months. I was inspired by seeing the recent Julia Child movie to make one or two of her dishes. I picked up Julia’s cookbook, co-written in the late 1990s with Jacques Pepin, and found her recipe for Boeuf Bourguignon.

The first course was inspired by a recent cooking class I took centered on the use of in-season, heirloom tomatoes. I adopted a recipe that was used, first published in Bon Appetit magazine, with tomatoes and shrimp. I served it with a tomato water cocktail (tomato water and cold vodka).

• Baby spinach, washed and spun dry
• minced shallot
• large shrimp
• garlic (lots)
• fresh herbs (thyme)
• variety of heirloom tomatoes
• salt, pepper
• EVOO
• dijon mustard mayonnaise
• balsamic vinegar

First, chop up your tomatoes and let them drain, salted, in a colander. This “firms” them up. Later, I mix the tomatoes with the vinegar, shallot, and freshly cracked pepper.

The shrimp get marinated in garlic, EVOO, herbs, and some of (now) salty tomato water.

Arrange a bed of spinach, top with tomato mixture, cooked shrimp (flash sauté with the marinade), a “line” of Dijonnaise, and top with EVOO. It was fresh, delicious, and satisfying.

The beef dish was made according to the recipe, and I was dissatisfied to find some beef cuts were dry, others very moist. I used a 275 degree oven (recipes call for 300-325), but things still dried out. I think maybe 250 for another hour (perhaps the last hour, stirring, and leaving the top partially off to reduce the sauce) would be the way to go. More experimenting is called for.

I served everything over some very (good and) creamy mashed potatoes, infused with roasted garlic.

The mushrooms and pearl onions (use frozen) were made separately, and they tasted divine(ly).

Our dessert was the best part, to some diners, but I neglected to photograph it. It is a pity.

Using Patrick O’Connell’s recipe for white chocolate mousse, I made two mousses: white and dark chocolate. This is not an easy recipe; his mousse is meringue-based. You beat eggwhites (I used pasteurized whites), and then drizzle-in a sugar syrup. I think I needed more syrup (it didn’t seem to incorporate as well). I used this base mixture, along with whipped cream, to augment my two batches (5 oz. each) of melted chocolate. Since the syrup and sweetened chocolate already has a lot of sugar, it helps to use a tangy sauce.

I made a sauce out of reduced mangostine and passion fruit juice. After reducing the juice, stir-in some fresh, cold pats of butter before refrigerating it. The sauce became a base on the plate. I used canelle-techniques for the dark mousse and a piping bag for the white.

We ate well.

There’s something interesting about this dish I made in a recipe by Mario Batali from his latest cookbook, Spain.

I made a filling with chorizo, peppers and onions. Very simple. But then you make a type of closed pizza pie: two crusts. The flavors were simple, but somehow really came across as Spanish. It was tasty.

I’m guessing you could reproduce this concept of cooking, empenando with just about any type of filling, as long as it wasn’t too saucy. He recommends making steam holes. The top gets coated in EVOO and helped the crust acquire the dark color.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about learning more about French preparations. I’d always heard good things about the cookbook that came out, oh, about 10 years ago, a collaboration between Julia Child and her French friend, chef Jacques Pepin. This cookbook still looks good, and I came to enjoy reading their disagreements on opposite pages (i.e. “I like to cook chicken this way,” and “Unlike Julia, I do it this way…”).

I made Julia’s lemon roast chicken. For the most part it worked, and was tasty.

She said to de-fat the pan drippings, and I tried. But darn it, it’s not fun nor easy to do when you have onions and carrots in the pan. So, I decided to put my knowledge to work: add flour, and it will thicken things up. Her pan sauce combines wine, chicken stock, and the flavorful bits, fat removed. I still had some fat, but the sauce was ultimately too greasy. It also lacked lemon flavor. While sage was the herb used, I think adding more lemon at the very end would have been smart.

As you can see, I also made their potato gratin. I did it in individual servings using ramekins, but felt the vertical shape didn’t adequately hold enough of the flavored milk. I augmented my middle layer of both Yukons and russet rounds (cut very thin) with a little truffle oil. I think real truffle slices would have made this properly deluxe.

For the next night’s dinner, I made their simple (and simply delicious) salad of avocado, red onion, and tomato.

This was absolutely delicious, using good-quality red wine vinegar and really ripe, perfect Haas avocado. I aim to make more from their book. I took a classic and put it to work from the dessert section of the book: Crème Anglaise sauce with fresh berries.

I recently dined at Citronelle at the Latham Hotel in Washington, D.C. This is one of Michel Richard’s restaurants.

Amuses of Salmon, Mushroom Cigar, and mini Ratatouille taco

This was a nice start to the meal and came with champagne. I especially liked the salmon, which came with crispy bits on top, reportedly they were rice krispies.

Iced Cucumber Avocado Soup

A real winner of the night, served in a heavy platter with a lot of ice, this was refreshing, creamy, delicious—simply wonderful.

Soft Shell Crab stuffed with PeekyToe Crab in Tempura

My dining companion’s favorite, this was a nice light tempura batter with an absolutely delicious sauce. The sauce was like a light hummus made with eggplant and mint oil.

Halibut with lobster saffron broth

The halibut was over-cooked. It simply was a little dry and tough. The sauce, however, was to die for. Absolutely scrumptious and delicious.

Lobster Burger

This cute mini burger came complete with home made potato chips. Moist pieces of lobster served as the “meat” between two mini brioche-based buns.

72-hour Short Rib

The wine was good, the beef rib (without bone) was tender, but it wasn’t as good as I’ve read about. Our neighbor’s table ordered the full entrée version of this, served more rare. This had great flavor, but I’m afraid Daniel Boulud makes a better short rib.

Cheese Plate with Turley Zinfandel

We had great cheese, but the true winner here was a 2007 Turley. This wine was magic, and it helped accentuate all the positives in each of our four cheeses.

Strawberry cocktail

Of the last three “courses,” this is a supreme winner. Wow! This was a dessert served in a big cup—celebrating the strawberry. It had shaved ice and really complex flavors. A real treat.

Chocolate Bar

This was a grown-up KitKat with raspberry sauce. It was good, but the raspberry component was a little heavy. You might just call it raspberry sorbet and sauce with a chocolate bar. You use your fork and knife; not to be a Mr. Pitt (from Seinfeld), but it would be messy to eat with your fingers.

Petits Fours

We enjoyed these the next day. Too much delicious bread and butter were available the entire evening.

We were seated next to an amateur critic who was taking notes all night long in her notebook. She said her short ribs were too salty. While the waitstaff was old school yet friendly, they didn’t take as much care to our satisfaction as this lady with her notebook. Three different people came over to check on her salty beef, while no one ever asked about our too-well-done fish.

My esteemed dining companion loved the meal, citing the bolder flavors than what we had experienced at the French Laundry last November. While many of the dishes I had were very delicious, and I agree, more assertive flavors were to be found on our table, something fell short of this being a best-ever meal.

Two of my first three wine pairings were lackluster, good, but not great. Then with a white burgundy, Vin de pays d’Herault, Mas de Daumas Gassac Blanc, things got serious(ly delicious). This was followed by an excellent red, La Parde de Haut-Bailly, Pessac-Leognan 2001 and the aforementioned Turley Old Vines.

This was a special meal for sure. If you took away the poorly cooked halibut and the so-so chocolate bar dessert, I would have felt far more comfortable (we ate a lot), and more convinced the stars were all aligned for perfection.

Warmly recommended, especially if you score a view of the kitchen. Insist on this. We were seated in a corner, in the path of a noisy air duct. I wasn’t pleased at first, but as the night wore on and I grew more warm, the chilly blast was more welcome.

A mostly dim sum restaurant located near the so-called seven corners area in Falls Church, Mark’s Duck House is located in a shopping area, tucked next to stores of all persuasions.

We were a bit late for lunch during the week, so most of the items we got were ordered specifically, not off a rolling cart. Among the best dishes were the shrimp-stuffed eggplant, turnip cake, and shrimp-chive fried dumping (these seemed to be dumplings that had gone south, perhaps, and been smooshed against a griddle—who knows, they were still tasty).

Ultimately, we’d learned somewhere in the past this was the place to go, but the combination of a long wait and a severely dated interior probably would have us looking elsewhere next time.

It’s not to say you won’t find some tasty items on their menu.

The area has several high-profile Chinese eateries to explore. I’m glad I’ve crossed this one off my list; it will take several more visits up to D.C. to declare any sure winners. Likely Rockville, MD will be in the cards soon.