Piccata

This is an impressive recipe because the name is recognizable and it sometimes shows up in Italian restaurants. Really though it only requires simple, fresh ingredients and the amount of skill necessary to mix and dip and combine various things, then just wait around (read: drink a glass of wine and repeatedly hit the refresh button on facebook) until its done. Easy cheesy.

This is a preparation that can be applied to various meats, be it your turkey, chicken, veal or your flaky fish, like your tilapia or your fillet of sole, or what have you. Basically any cut of meat or fish thats thin and tender. The grocer might call it a “cutlet”. I made it with turkey the other night when I had a hankering for something crispy and lemony and meat-y and fresh.

You will need:

meat of your choosing

all purpose flour

1 egg

s & p & any other spices you like (poultry seasoning, dried parsley etc.)

butter

white wine

capers

fresh parsley

3 lemons

anchovies

pound the meat (thatswhatshesaid) in between two pieces of cellophane with a mallet, or a blunt object that you deem kitchen-appropriate. dip the cutlet into whipped egg. dredge cutlets into flour/salt/pepper/anything else mixture. lay cutlets in a medium heat, buttered pan. brown on each side for about 3 minutes and remove from pan, turn the pan on low heat. deglaze the pan with a generous pour of white wine, scraping up all the delicious tidbits with a spatula. add capers to taste and the juice of 2 lemons. cut up 3 anchovies real small and add those too, the flavor won’t overwhelm the dish like you’d think, they just punch up the sauce. stir and simmer, simmer and stir until sauce is reduced, about 15 minutes. on low heat add cutlets back into sauce for another 4-5 mins. throw in a handful of fresh chopped parsley. squeeze fresh lemon over the whole thing.

I boiled some fingerling potatoes, this would also go well with a pasta or orzo situation, or a salad if you’re feeling Atkins-y. This meal makes for bangin’ leftovers and reheats well for lunch the next day, especially in sandwich form.

Salute!

bar food.

i don’t know what happened while i was gone, but DC has gone foodie, and i could not be happier about it. on 14th st, new bars and restaurants spring up  faster than mushrooms sprung up on my walls during rainy season in nicaragua.

the part i like best is this: suddenly bars are about eating as much as they are about drinking. bar food is no longer about nuts and french fries. it’s about putting a fancy hat on trashy food, which is one of our favorite things of anything. it’s shrimp corn dogs. it’s lamb and bison sliders. it’s homemade rhubarb pickles and goat cheese croquettes and winter squash arancini. it’s salt and spice and crunch and all kinds of tasty goodness to go along with your beverage of choice. hooray! hooray!

my favorite nights so far have been at churchkey, where a ruddy-cheeked boy in a butcher’s apron saddles up to a meat slicer on the end of the bar and and your charcuterie plate is assembled in front of you. other menu items include to-die-for fried macaroni and cheese sticks and chicken-fried sweetbreads. the beer is pretty good too (oh, ha ha.)

if i had a big bag of money, an iron stomach, and the metabolism of a 13 year old boy, i would dedicate the next couple of years to aggressive and joyful sampling of 14th street’s kaleidescopic smorgasboard of treats. instead, i have inflammatory bowel disease, work in public service, and am up to my double chin in student debt.

so… welcome to my pity party. have a deep-fried cheese log with bacon buttercream frosting.

endive boats.

This recipe came to me by way of my Aunt Mary. She wasn’t really my Aunt but that’s what I called her. She was married to my Uncle Ralphy, who isn’t really my Uncle but that’s what I call him. Aunt Mary was a lady, like ladies used to be. Poised, self-sufficient and smart as a whip. She served my parents and I these delicate Endive Boats in her living room in Manhattan. They were so elegant and fresh and pretty to look at and it is in her memory that I’ve been making Endive Boats with Crab Salad for nearly every party I’ve had since. The endive is slightly bitter and crisp, the crab slightly sweet and creamy. I consider them a throw back to parties of yore when life looked like Mad Men, when things were lovely and dignified like Aunt Mary herself.

endive lettuce

canned crab

lemon

mayo or yogurt

horseradish

fresh chives

s & p

mix the crab, yogurt or mayonaisse, horseradish, lemon and salt and pepper to taste. place one spoonful in the “hull”, if you will, of your endive boat. snip some chives over the top. If you’re feeling fancy (read: rich) top them with a little salty caviar. arrange in a pretty pattern. put on your pearl necklace. enjoy.

malbec.

malbec is a gypsy rose lee grape: overlooked, underappreciated, and lost in the bordeaux chorus line.  neglected by france for years, she took it on down the road, straight into argentina’s bronzed, welcoming arms (much as i hope to do someday.) thick-skinned and ample-tannined, she flourished, rose to international prominence, and lived happily ever after in my wine glass.

finding an affordable (read: under $12) good argentine malbec is hard, but i’m on a mission. i can’t get enough. a nice malbec is like the pop-rocks of wine, and i mean that in a complimentary way. it does crazy things to my tongue, and i like that. insert a nice cut of rare steak, you got a party goin’ on in there.

wine people and bottle lables describe malbec as “velvety” and “plush,” with “aromas of tobacco and raisin,” which i mean, ok. i know what you’re trying to say. it’s heavy. call it inky if you’re feeling poetic. but in general, wine descriptions kind of annoy me.  maybe i need to amp up my viticultural self-education to find out how fermented grapes can taste like raspberries or leather, or something. i don’t know.

what i do know is this:

in the amount of time it takes you to identify notes of violet and arugula with deep vienna sausage undertones topped off by a bright dingleberry finish, you could have drank an entire glass and poured the next. or eaten a wheel of smoked gouda.

that’s how i roll.

oysters rockefeller.

oysters are like peaches. they’re so perfect in their raw state that it almost hurts to cook them. i’m never going to say no to an oyster in any form, but who wants to waste the transcendent experience of eating one raw? the cold, stony flavor, the sharp tang of lemon juice, the little gritty bits of shell… all washed down with a dry sauvignon blanc?  j and i have spent many nights and  literally hundreds of dollars doing just this.

still… when holiday time rolls around, i’m hoping someone in the family makes oysters rockefeller. it’s one of the few cooked oyster concessions i’m willing to make (the others being oyster po-boys, which deserve a blog all unto themselves, and the spectacular things that happen when j. cracks open a tin of smoked oysters at cocktail hour.)

originating at antoine’s (one of new orleans’ oldest & snootiest french-creole restaurants), the “true” oysters rockefeller recipe remains a mystery. common folk can make it by mixing together finely chopped spinach, scallions, parsley and celery with breadcrumbs, butter, and pernod (or herbsaint, if you’re old school.) toss it all together and then wilt it down in a pan… spoon it over raw oysters in their shells, top with extra breadcrumbs and maybe a little parmesan, and broil until things get sizzly and toasty.

num num, *pats belly*.

prosciutto pear slices.

so many good things happened to my taste buds this holiday season. i can’t really say the same for my burgeoning  love handles or the sad, ravaged remains of my GI tract, but i figure it’s nothing a few months of fasting and a couple of good colonics can’t take care of. 

(if that’s not a segue to continue a discussion about  food, i don’t know what is.)

the following fits nicely into one of our most beloved food categories: Things Wrapped in Pork Products/Pork Products Wrapped in Things.  bosc pear slices topped with a fresh sage sprig and wrapped in a slice of prosciutto. bake on high heat till the pears get soft and hot and the prosciutto gets crispy, then eat. it’s a big sweet rush of pear cut with peppery sage and tangy prosciutto.  DECADENT!

my aunt p. made these while the family orchestra (not to be confused with the family jazz band) played christmas carols, various uncles quaffed expensive pinots, and children ran amok, armed with suprisingly sophisticated nerf weaponry. (ahh family!)

Choucroute (Shoo-kroot)

Its the holidays and that means three things. mariah carey christmas album. food. and food. I will admit right here, right now that when Christmas season starts I become a giant nerd. I put out plates of peppermint bark (for the imaginary guests that come over and help themselves to my treats while remarking what an excellent hostess I am) and I make those janky paper snow flakes and tape them to my windows.

I. love. Christmas. I am a sucker for the holidays and old-timey traditions and it should come as a surprise to no one ever in the world that my favorite traditions are food-themed.

Christmas Eve at my hose (spelling error Im choosing to keep bc its funny) means Choucroute. Its an old-fashioned, super easy and super satisfying German dinner. You will need:

• potatoes
• 1 jar of saurkraut
• small porkchops
• any type of cured bratwurst
• 2 bay leaves
• black peppercorns
• white wine
• white onion

heat your oven to 350. boil potatoes until aldante. brown the meats and onion quickly. dump the kraut in a baking dish and add the bay leaves and peppercorns. nestle the meats and potatoes into the kraut and add a cup of white wine. cover and bake for about an hour. serve with various mustards and crusty bread.

my mom usually makes a salad with this meal using a lettuce called mache (mawsh), its also very traditionally German and you can get it in a bag at tjs. she will cut up some apple and persimmon into the salad, which is bangin.

little pinot, maybe a german chant/drinking song or two and you might as well change your last name to Feldman. Prost!

white wine mushroom chicken breasts.

 

i may be an augustus gloop, but i think moderation is for sissies. when i find something great, i want as much of is as i can get. whether it’s a song (passion pit’s “little secrets”) or a t.v. show (rhymes with “schmurty frock”), i prefer to ignore my self-control. granted, this can get a little dangerous when your obsession du jour is something like spoonfuls of mayonnaise or burning money, but in general, i believe in indulgence. especially when it comes to food.  ryan adams sang, “everybody wants to live forever, i just want to burn out hard and bright,” and though his outlet unfortunately turned out to be buckets of jack daniels, i still resonate. yeah, you do burn out. i don’t know if i’ll be able to eat fried plantains for another few years. BUT it was worth it. food is for eating. when you find something you like, i believe you should eat it all the time. 

since october, this has been the one meal that the kitchen siren sings to me.  i walk into whole foods with endless supper possibilities, but since there is no one to strap me to the mast (and usually rebecca is singing along next to me), i end up jumping overboard and buying the same thing every time… chicken breasts, brussel sprouts, yams, lemons, and a big ole’ bottle of sauvignon blanc.

 here’s how you put it together:
-marinate chicken breasts in lemon juice, white wine, olive oil, salt/pepper, oregano/sage/basil, chopped garlic.
-brown them in a nice hot pan, then turn it down and cover. add lemon juice, wine, olive oil as needed to keep things simmery and lubricated. when it’s just about done, pull out the chicken and keep it warm in the oven.
-dump sliced onions and mushrooms into the pan. add more wine and some butter; you can sift in a little flour to make it roux-y. cook it all down, then spoon it over the breasts (that’s what he said.)

accompany with baked yams and brussel sprouts done like this:
-cut them in half and put them in a baking dish, cut side down. drizzle in a bunch of olive oil, sprinkle minced garlic, salt, and cracked pepper. brown them on the stove for a few minutes, then stick them in the oven (low heat) while you do the chicken.

eat this with a big class of cold white wine in front of some schmurty frock. there are worse things you could OD on.

chocolate ganache.

ganache (guh-nosh) is pretty much chocolate’s best kept secret. not only is it suspiciously easy to make, but it holds up through all kinds of beating, whipping, and freezing and STILL remains absolutely delicious.  

and try this math out: ganache = chocolate + cream. in most circumstances i find simplicity boring, but ganache is complex and divine and sophisticated and elegant. it’s the grace kelly of icings. 

you make it like this: get 9 oz of bittersweet or semisweet chocolate. (it comes in big bars that are broken into 1 oz squares. handy!) use a big knife and chop up the chocolate into bits.

put a cup of heavy cream in a bowl. put that bowl in a saucepan full of water. heat that water. DON’T let the cream boil, but get it nice and hot. take it off the heat, add in the chocolate and let it melt a little, then whisk it all together. it doesn’t really matter how you do this… as long as you get hot cream mixed up with melty chocolate. you can either use the glossy stuff that happens first, or you can put it in the fridge for a while, and then whip it up with a beater until it’s light and fluffy.

seriously, you guys, you have to make this. you will not regret it. put it on cakes, use it as fruit/pretzel dip, or do like i do and eat it with a spoon. thanks to aunt c and uncle j for bringing me into a world where ganache exists.

vietnamese sangwich.

As I sit here writing this I am at my desk on my lunch break eating one of these and it’s so good I was inspired to write about it post haste. You can choose between chicken, pork or tofu all piled high with spicy green peppers,  cilantro, onions and carrots on a crunchy French roll. Its kind of sweet and spicy and tangy and crunchy and fresh…all the best things about Vietnamese food, except in hand-held form, which happens to be my favorite form. Leaves the other hand free to type up witty blog entries or stroke a nearby cat.

ps. Saigon Sandwich, where I got mine, is in the Tenderloin. Its kind of a rough neighborhood so….maybe bring your gun. And your appetite!

Pps. It was only $3, something we can all appreciate, especially during these lean times.