inspired by Bon Appétit (June 2012)
We're fleeing town for Memorial Day weekend, off to see our friends Brian and Andrew, who recently found out that they're moving to Italy for 18 months. Needless to say, we're sad to see them go, more than a bit jealous, and eager to book a trip to visit.
So to bid them ciao, we offer you our newly anointed cocktail of summer 2012 -- a Campari and Gin.
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Food & Wine (May 2012)
We love food magazines for introducing us to new ingredients. But we really love learning how to combine familiar foods in new ways. That was the case with this Red Lentil Dal. It's made from relatively familiar ingredients -- lentils, asparagus, chiles, fennel, onions, coriander, even tamarind, which we've cooked with before -- but the sum of the parts was a completely new thing for us.
This recipe leapt out to us from the pages of Food & Wine. It was a no-brainer, really. We adore red lentils. And between our CSA and overpurchasing at the farmers market, we're swimming in asparagus right now.
Continue reading "Red Lentil Dal with Tamarind and Asparagus" »
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We've had a busy start to the year, but between our jobs and other projects, we've squeezed in a few long weekends away and a lot of really great meals. We feel really lucky to have so many opportunities to do fun things and eat good food with people we love, and we want to share some of that with you.
So here's a selection of photos and stories from our lives these past few months.
Our favorite Thai restaurant in DC is owned by three friends, and they've started serving Thai brunch. There's such a thing as Thai brunch? We had no idea, either! But in March we got invited to a "test brunch" as they were working on the menu. We loved a lot of the dishes, especially the Thai donuts, a delicious rice soup with a soft, creamy egg, and sweet ginger soup with soy curd. But we were especially enamored with these kanom krok (pictured above). They're delicate little shells filled with sweet coconut milk. Delicious.
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Bon Appétit (May 2012)
When it comes to seafood, probably the single most-quoted line around our house comes from "Top Chef" way back in 2009. Cheftestant Fabio Viviani was criticizing one of his competitors, Jamie, for making scallops too frequently. As Fabio put it, "This is 'Top Chef.' It's not 'Top Scallops!'"
What's charming about it is Fabio's Mario-and-Luigi Italian accent: "Eez no tope scallope!"
(By the way, if you're wondering what the second most often-quoted line about seafood is in our house, it has to do with ordering a certain kind of fish "just for the halibut." Thanks, folks! We're here all week.)
Anyway, these scallops from Bon Appétit....
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Saveur (May 2012)
We cut into the tiny habanero, and we both started coughing.
The spice immediately seemed to be in our throats. Is it really possible that the pepper is so hot that we felt it while just chopping it?
Now we knew how John O'Connor felt.
In the new issue of Saveur, O'Connor has an essay about eating in Senegal, where he describes Scotch bonnet chile-spiked dishes so hot they're "incendiary."
We were eager to try one of the dishes. We contemplated making the Thieboudienne, or Senegalese Fish and Rice, the country's national dish.
But we opted to start our Senegalese cooking adventures with something a little closer to home: this Black-Eyed Pea Salad.
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Cook's Illustrated (May/June 2012)
Our names are Zach and Clay, and we're carnivores.
Don't get us wrong: We love vegetables. We've been eating more meatless meals, and for lots of reasons -- our health, our budget, the environment -- we're very happy to be doing that.
But, man, sometimes nothing beats a steak.
So we were more than happy to try out the spice-rubbed steak in the latest Cook's Illustrated. As recipe author Andrea Geary says, a spice rub can be a great way to dress up an inexpensive cut of meat, turning "cheaper steak into 'choice.'" The problem? Spice rubs can often leave a steak tasting dry and dusty -- or worse, the spices fall off completely on the grill.
Cook's comes up with a solution, and as usual, it involves some extremely clever techniques.
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Food Network Magazine (May 2012)
We always have ginger beer on hand for summer cocktails. Also winter ones. (We drink a lot of cocktails with ginger beer, is what we're saying.)
But we'd never really thought about cooking with ginger beer. Which is why we really wanted to make this Grilled Ginger-Beer Chicken.
Chicken rubbed with dry ginger and slathered in a ginger-beer-and-black-tea barbecue sauce? It sounds like a great twist on BBQ chicken!
As it turns out: Great? Yes. A twist? Well, not so much...
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adapted from Everyday Food
Act 1: Wednesday Night, 8:30 p.m.
We're hungry.
We've both had busy days at our jobs, and we forced ourselves to go to the gym afterwards. Now it's late, and we're ready to eat. Fortunately, we've planned ahead: Earlier in the week we purchased all the ingredients to make these Edamame Falafel with Spicy Coriander Sauce.
Three facts make us think this dish will be a home run: We love edamame; we aspire to eat more vegetarian meals; and this dish only takes 35 minutes.
It is firmly in our sweet spot. We are ready to cook.
So we get to work. The chickpeas have been soaking all day, so we pulse them with edamame, parsley, cumin and salt. Falafel are rolled into balls. Oil is heated. Coriander sauce (a mix of sour cream, mayo, coriander and cayenne) is made.
And this is what happens:
Continue reading "Edamame Falafel with Spicy Coriander Sauce: A Story in Three Acts" »
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It's hot. It's cold. It's hot. It's cold.
Such has been spring so far. But for the most part, the garden doesn't seem to mind.
The lettuce is abundant. The carrots are tall. The peas are huddled together, latched onto each other like a little codependent family.
The majority of the work in the garden over the last month has been in thinning carrots. We haphazardly distributed carrot seeds when we planted them, and it appears we overplanted, because we have carrot sprouts galore. Each day we thin a few more, trying to give them space to grow. Now that the carrot tops are more than four inches tall, pulling up the plants seems like a shame, but we know it's needed.
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Food Network Magazine (April 2012)
Sometimes when you're cooking dinner for guests, you just need to roll with the punches. Usually, that works out A-OK. Happy guests. Clean plates. Satisfied hosts.
Sometimes, not so much.
Zach's parents recently stayed with us for a few days. Since they've visited our nation's capitol many times at this point, we no longer plan their visits around museums or memorials. Now, it's all about where we can go that's a bit offbeat. (Roosevelt Island and Lincoln Cottage made this visit's list.)
Most important, it's about where we eat. This time around, we had Thai, Vietnamese, Scandinavian and pie. (Cue music: "One of these things is not like the others....")
And, as always when we're with Zach's mom, we cook. Such were our plans for a recent Saturday night when, after a marathon of eating meals out at restaurants, we all needed a night in. So we planned to cook a spring meal, with this Asparagus and Cheese Tart featured as the entree.
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