Eat More Noodles

Last night, MM and I spent the entire evening cooking. Inspired by the pictures and basic recipe outlines from a few pages in the Wagamama cookbook, we pulled together a cha soba noodle vegetable stir-fry paired with pan-seared pepper and sesame encrusted tuna. The thing is, even though MM is an incredibly talented chef (see our previous kitchen escapades here) we both are new to the flavors and methods in making this genre of food. We had a great time figuring out how to pull it all together, which of course made eating it that much better!

 

Prepping all of the vegetables, the sauce, and the fish before starting the cooking was essential- it all goes so quick once you start cooking- you have to be ready to go! 

 We rolled the tuna steak in a mixture of cracked black pepper, white and black sesame seeds, and cayenne and then seared it.

 Plate #1 to look pretty

Plate #2 to devour as quickly as possible! 

Excited to eat the left overs for lunch, 

-Domestic in the District

A December Must-Try: Baked Feta with Dates and Honey

While perusing my Google Reader, I came across this amazing combination from one of my favorite cheese blogs, Madame Fromage. Baked Feta with dates and honey. Yum! I think I'll be adding this to my list of dishes to try when Ken is working late and I'm making dinner for one... or maybe for a girls' night. It seems like an interesting alternative to the now-common baked brie and apples, don't you think?

Loving the ooey-gooey sweetness of dates cooked in honey,

-Domestic in the District

A Homemade Favorite: Olive Bread

One of my all-time favorite things to do is go to Marvelous Market to buy their Olive Batard (or Olive Mini if it's just for me.) The subtle flavor of the black olives is perfect with large hunks of cheese. Especially with Port Salut.

Tomorrow night Ken and I are headed to a dinner party with my new coworkers, and I'm bringing my own version of an olive batard. And of course, I'm also bringing a wedge of cheese. Here's my recipe.

Olive Batard

oven temp: 395 degrees
time: 25-35 minutes
serves: 2 loaves

3 1/4 cups plain flour + rye (or wheat) flour as needed
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 sachet active dry yeast
2 cups warm water
1 can kalamata olives, chopped, juice retained
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp crushed caraway seeds and black peppercorns

*Place flour, salt, yeast, and sugar into a large mixing bowl and combine well.
*Add the olive juice, water, olive oil, and mix (either by hand or using a kitchen-aid mixer with the bread hook on low). Add rye flour slowly as needed until a dough forms. Knead for 5-10 minutes.
*Add chopped olives and fold through the dough then cover with cling wrap and let set for 60 minutes in an area not exposed to a draft.
*Dust counter or cutting board surface with flour and empty dough onto the surface. Knock air out of dough and briefly knead until smooth.
*Cut dough in half and roll each portion into a large roll. Cut slits into the top of the rolls. Fill slits and cover the top with the mixture of crushed caraway seeds and black pepper. Lightly add sea salt to the top as well. Pat seasonings gently into the dough to keep them from falling off while baking.
*Cover with tented tin foil and put in a 395 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove the tin foil and bake for another 5-10 minutes until the top is browned. If the loaves are still soft in the middle, turn oven off while leaving the loaves inside, allowing the loaves to set inside the slowly cooling oven.

Serve warm with port salut or any other cheese you like.

*Note: you can also simply make one large loaf, which will bake with tented tinfoil for 25-30 minutes, and then another 10 without the foil.

Happy Baking,

-Domestic in the District

Fresh Summer Ingredients: Radishes, Lemon, Figs, and Mustard Greens

Instead of specifically meal planning, lately I have been trying to simply purchase bright, colorful, and crisp fruits and vegetables with which to cook. Then, I have been sort of making it up as a go during the week.

Recently, I found some gorgeous greens (specifically of the Mustard variety- which have a great tartness and do not shrivel as quickly as other greens when sauteed.) I also snagged some lemons, figs, and radishes.

So tonight, I served up a salmon fillet (can you tell we eat our share of fish in the summer?) roasted with lemon juice, capers, salt, and pepper. The roasted salmon paired well with mustard greens sauteed with shallots and thinly-sliced radishes. To finish off the summery meal, a pair of fresh Brown Turkey Figs sliced open and stuffed with Gorgonzola cheese and baked at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, and served hot.


What are you enjoying experimenting with this August?

-Domestic in the District

Getting My Sea Legs Back With Spicy Salmon

I will be the first to admit that adjusting to my new gas oven and range has been a bit of an unexpected challenge, although certainly a welcomed one.

After sadly over-cooking last night's salmon, I decided to try again this evening. While I referred to my usual lemon and pepper roasted salmon last night, I was looking for something different on this warm August evening.

The result was a spicy dry-rubbed salmon. I pulled together a smoky spicy rub using a few of my beloved Penzey's spices: fresh cracked black pepper, cayenne pepper, ancho chili pepper, a mixture called "Arizona Dreamin", crushed cumin seeds, and sea salt.

Once I combined the spices, I rubbed them onto both sides of the salmon, topped it with fresh cilantro and a decent dose of fresh lime juice. With the oven heated to 425 degrees, I put the salmon dish (covered in tented tinfoil) in the oven for 10-15 minutes and then removed the tinfoil. The salmon is done when a fork inserted in the thickest portion causes the meat to flake along the muscle lines.

Partnered with this spicy salmon, I served roasted chickpeas with a sauce made of olive oil and lime juice, as well as a watermelon-tomato-mint salad.

Fresh, summery, vibrant, spicy, and light. The combination worked well, and I was happy to have had some success cooking with my new gas oven.

What are you serving in the midst of the summer's heat?

-Domestic in the District

Mediterranean Dinner Party

Here are a few belated pictures of a dinner party we hosted a couple weeks back. Stuffed and roasted red peppers, stuffed grape leaves, chicken souvlaki on warm pita, homemade hummus and tzatziki sauce, tomato and cucumber salad, roasted vegetables, and seasoned chick peas.

The Grass Is Always Greenest Outside

Nothing makes dinner better than
enjoying it while sitting on a blanket on soft spring grass beneath green trees filled with warm breezes.

We are soaking up this perfect weather and sunshine before the thermometer dips to 50 degrees on Friday. Hope you're finding ways to do the same.

Welcome Spring!

-Domestic in the District

Defending a British Breakfast: Egg and Soldiers

“I'll bet what motivated the British to colonize so much of the world is that they were just looking for a decent meal."

My guess is that Martha Harrison, the author of the quote above, never had "Egg and Soldiers" for breakfast. If she had, she might have reconsidered her sentiment.

Although initially I was hesitant to dip pieces of butter-slathered toast (aka "Soldiers") into a slightly runny egg, it turned out to be delicious. The egg tasted like cheese, and was extra wonderful with a little bit of Marmite (yes, yes, you either love it or hate it- I love it.)

This morning was my first attempt to make it myself, and it was so simple. Here's how to enjoy egg and soldiers at your own breakfast table.

Egg and Soldiers

1. Put a piece of toast in the toaster or in a warm pan on top of the range at medium high heat.

2. In a pot of boiling water, place the number of eggs you're planning to cook. I cooked mine this morning for 3 minutes and 30 seconds. It was runnier than what my sweet friend SM served, but it worked well for dipping and tasted great!

3. Pull the egg out of the water, place in an egg cup and slice the top open with a serrated knife. Note: if you, like me, do not have egg cups, any small jar or glass with an opening that holds the egg upright will work. My egg this morning sat in a small empty jelly jar I washed and saved a couple weeks ago. No shame, friends!

4. Cut the toast into strips thin enough to fit through the opening at the top of the egg.

5. Serve and eat immediately while both egg and toast are hot, and accompany it with a cup of good tea. It is perfect for a rainy spring morning.

As a long time egg-avoider, I can honestly say it was perhaps the most wonderful way to eat an egg.

Oh, and if you think the dishes SM uses are super cute, you're right! Check them out for yourself, thankfully Emma Bridgewater has started shipping in the United States.

Happy Breakfast-ing,

-Domestic in the District

Well Worth A Buck: Pork Carnitas Sliders

Waking up to an email from Living Social announcing $1 lunches all over the city was a wonderful start to the day. A small flurry of text messages between a couple friends quickly settled that we would try the lunch menu at Pound. We arrived before the crowd, secured a high-top table, and eagerly waited for our sandwiches. They were so delicious, we ate them right up, buttery toasted brioche buns and all! DDM barely paused for this picture before polishing off her plate.

Loving unexpectedly cheap lunches with fun friends,
-Domestic in the District

A Cheese-Lover's Cookie

Inspired by this post on the Kitchn Blog the other day, I decided to make my own batch of gouda apple oatmeal cookies, but with a few variations on the recipe.

Here's what I put in my gouda apple oatmeal cookies:

2/3 Cup Grapeseed Oil (lighter than olive oil with significant health benefits)
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla
3/4 Cup All Purpose Flour (white or wheat)
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1 tsp Powdered Ginger
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 Cups Oats
1/2 Cup figs, finely chopped
1 Medium Green Apple
4 oz finely chopped Gouda cheese (you could really use any mild semi-soft cheese, but I would not recommend using smoked gouda.)
Ground Cinnamon

Oven Temp: 375
Bake Time: 17 minutes

Whisk oil, egg, and vanilla together. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients and figs together. Peel and core the apple, and then grate it directly into the dry ingredients. Stir this well, being sure to combine all the flour and apple. Fold in chopped Gouda. Add the oil, egg, vanilla mixture and combine fully. On a lightly floured baking stone or cookie sheet, drop spoonfuls of the dough approximately an inch apart. Dust each cookie with a little ground cinnamon, then pop them in the oven. Be sure to rotate the cookies half way through cook time if your oven cooks unevenly. Once they're done, pull them out of the oven and allow them to stand for 3-5 minutes before eating them, these cookies need a few minutes out of the oven to firm up.

Gouda apple oatmeal cookies are not sweet, and it's important to give people with whom you share them a heads up about that. Otherwise, they might be weirded out by your cheese cookie. Also, because of the oatmeal, these cookies are very filling, which is good to know ahead of time, as they are also addictive.

Last night we ate them over vanilla ice cream, and it was a fun combination! I am also hoping to find some cinnamon ice cream to pair them with for next time.

Which recipes are inspiring you to create your own variation?

-Domestic in the District

Not Quite Mastering the Art of French Cooking... Souffle

As some of you know, my attempts at baking tend to be hit or miss. Suffice it to say that the baking adventures continue as I am trying to master Julia Childs' recipe for Chocolate Souffle.

Here's a picture of my best attempt thus far. It was beautiful initially, but then gravity kicked in and it fell a little bit.

I'll keep trying and hopefully I'll eventually get it right. In the meantime, I'd love any suggestions on tricks of the trade when it comes to baking souffles.

Stumbling My Way Through the Art of French Cooking,

-Domestic in the District

Spice Route Friday Night

While I've had this cookbook since last July, I have been hesitant to give it a try for a few reasons. For starters, the recipes are unlike other dishes I've made before. Additionally, the lists of ingredients often call for spices I did not yet have on hand (whole cardamom pods, cumin seeds, star anise, garam marsala, the list goes on.)

Thankfully Penzey's has a broad selection of excellent spices at wonderful prices, and after slowly amassing such treasures as saffron, whole vanilla beans, and shallot pepper, our spice cabinet is armed and ready for nearly any recipe from this book. The time seemed right tonight to take a crack at the South East Asian/East African/Middle Eastern delicacies described in this book.

For our first exploration of the flavor combinations traditional to this style of cooking, we chose Sirloin Steak with Cinnamon and Pepper from Oman accompanied by a Rice Pilau with Coriander from Zanzibar.

In addition to exploring new flavors and spice combinations, tonight was one of a few evenings in which we both spent a couple hours together in the kitchen. Ken managed the rice pilau dish from start to finish (including chopping onions and garlic) and I was in charge of the steaks.

We were amazed at the outcome of these recipes. Ken deemed the steak the best steak I've made yet (and I've twice made Julia Child's butter sauteed steaks!) The rice had a wonderful subtle flavor of cardamom, curry, and cinnamon complimented with the spice of whole black peppercorns, even though we substituted brown rice for basmati rice.

Sirloin with Pepper and Cinnamon
Oman
2 sirloin steaks 1 inch thick
fresh ground sea salt
fresh ground black pepper
coarsely grated cinnamon; about a 1/2" stick
1/2 tablespoon butter (optional)

Season steaks with salt, pepper, and grated cinnamon. Rub the spices into the meat before quickly searing them in a hot cast-iron pan. Add the butter after a minute, and flip the steaks. Let rest five minutes before serving.

The recipe for the rice pilau was a bit more complicated, so I'll leave it up to the author of the cookbook to explain it. However, it included a whole cardamom pod, a cinnamon stick, whole pepper corns, coriander, garlic, onions, cloves, and curry all sauteed together and simmered with the rice.

These dishes will absolutely be added to our menu for having friends over for dinner, and we are already planning our next dinner-at-home date.

Be bold, readers! Try new flavors and dishes without fear- they might be some of the best you've made yet!

-Domestic in the District

Seasonal Kitchen Transitions

If only I could honestly say that 365 days a year I have a passion and eagerness to contentedly stir together sauces and pull together endless interesting and delicious dishes. If only...

Unfortunately for our taste buds, the end of Winter regularly gets the best of me. The cold wet weather has certainly inspired a number of large batches of soups, hot sandwiches, and roasted meats of various kinds. But, what once were exciting new cold-weather dishes now seem to be old hat and are entirely uninteresting. Thankfully, the gusto of a new season is exactly what's needed to liven up my deflated cooking sails.

It's officially Spring (see the photo of the Cherry Blossoms!), and I am happy to report that my daily www.weatherchannel.com inquires seem to indicate the warmer weather is around the corner. As the mercury ever-so-slowly begins defying gravity, so do my spirits. With renewed giddiness, I'm back to watching and re-watching episodes of Avec Eric on Hulu, reading The Art of Simple Cooking, and purchasing spices I've only dreamed of using on my latest trip to Penzey's with EM.

While a month ago it was still just too cold to venture to the open-air weekend fish market by the Waterfront, I think April may just be the right time to pull on my wellies and search out some nicer quality fish than I find at our other-wise reliable grocery store. If it turns out to be a good resource, you can be sure I'll let you in on the secret.

In the meantime, I'm resorting to some tried and true favorite dishes we haven't had in a while, such as a chicken and brown rice with a home-made kung pao sauce, and fillet of salmon cooked in emulsified lemon juice and olive oil with thyme and rosemary accompanied by roasted Brussels sprouts and green beans.

Kung Pao Sauce
*note: this is not a sweet Kung Pao sauce. If you prefer a sweeter sauce, use brown sugar instead of molasses, and add it slowly to the sauce until you find the right flavor balance.

2 Tablespoons white cooking wine (I keep a bottle of inexpensive white wine in the fridge for this purpose rather than using the bottled "cooking" wines. All alcohol cooks out before serving.)
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
1.5 Tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in 2 Tablespoons in water (this causes the sauce to stick to the cubed chicken once it is served)
1-2 ounces hot chili paste (available in the ethnic food aisle at most grocery stores)
2 teaspoons white vinegar
.5 - 1 teaspoon molasses
2 Tablespoons very finely diced fresh garlic
4 green onions diced to garnish before serving
Optional: lightly roasted peanuts

Whisk together all the ingredients, save the green onions and peanuts. Pour the sauce in a medium sauce pan at low-medium heat for a few minutes to unify all the flavors. The sauce will thicken quickly because of the cornstarch, so wisk continually. In a hot pan, warm 2 tablespoons olive oil. Once the oil is warm, add 4 cubed raw chicken breasts (or thighs if preferred), and sprinkle the raw chicken with a mixture of red and black peppers. Cover pan and allow chicken to cook fully. Add the sauce to the cubed chicken once the chicken is no longer pink. If the sauce is too thick, slowly add small amounts of soy sauce to the pan until obtaining your preferred texture. Before serving the dish, top with sliced green onions and even toasted salty peanuts if desired.

What go-to dishes are you rediscovering as your Winter repertoire transitions to Spring?

-Domestic in the District

Not Up To Grocery Shopping Today? No Problem.

Are you interested in using up the fresh vegetables in your fridge in a quick healthy meal? Oh good, me too!

Thankfully, I had the opportunity to do exactly that this week as I have sorta been under the weather. Uninterested in going to the grocery store, I decided to rummage through the fridge to see what I could find. Low and behold, I discovered some brocolini, spinach, tomatoes, green onions, jalapeno, and fresh garlic. Add some chickpeas and quinoa and... ta-da!! A meal for two that used what I had on hand.

Here's what I used, but this could very easily be modified for whatever is hanging around in your own fridge:

5 Campinari tomatoes (halved)
1 Jalapeno (finely diced and de-seeded)
2-3 Cups of fresh spinach (washed and stems removed)
1-2 Cloves of garlic (very finely chopped)
1 1/2 - 2 Cups garbanzo beans (rinsed)
1 Cup Quinoa (cooked)
Olive Oil (to coat the pan)
Cayenne Pepper (to taste)
Fresh Ground Black Pepper (to taste)

Heat pan to medium-high heat, and swirl in olive oil so that it coats the pan and becomes hot. Add tomatoes, cut side down and occasionally shake the pan so that the tomatoes move (to keep them from burning.) Once the tomatoes become soft and slightly browned, remove them from the pan and set them aside. Drop the heat to medium and add more olive oil if needed, and allow it to warm in the pan. Add the garlic and jalapeno, and saute briefly. Once the garlic becomes slightly brown, add the brocolini to saute. After it sautes, remove and set it aside. Add the spinach and allow it to wilt, tossing it with the olive oil, garlic, and jalapeno. Once the spinach is wilted, remove it and set it aside.

Return the brocolini and tomatoes to the pan with the garbanzo beans. Lightly toss them all together in the pan with red and black pepper to taste. Fill bowl with quinoa, and top with spinach, brocolini, tomatoes, and garbanzo beans. Squeeze a slice of lemon over the top of each bowl and finish with diced green onion.

Let me know what variations you come up with from your own fridge!

-Domestic in the District

Pasta Mamas!

My dear friend MM is an amazing chef (literally- she worked in NYC at a French restaurant- she's totally legit.) So imagine my delight when she agreed to spend an evening cooking with me! After three days spent pouring over various cookbooks, magazines, and online pictures I decided that we would make fresh goat cheese and spinach raviolis with a light tomato basil sauce.

We made the pasta dough, cut out the ravioli circles, quickly blanched the spinach to create the filling, gently sealed each ravioli, and made the sauce from fresh tomatoes, basil, garlic, green onions, and a little bit of fresh lemon juice.

The finished product was heavenly! The balance between the creamy ravioli filling and the acidic tomato sauce was just right. The success of the dish hung on a few helpful tips MM provided along the way- things I would have never thought to do! Here are a few:
1. add a dash of cayenne pepper to the finely chopped garlic cloves while they're roasting- it adds a yummy and subtle kick to the sauce!
2. add some salt to the water in which the spinach blanches- this gives a little bit of seasoning to the leaves. In MM's words, "It should taste like the sea." Note: I later read the same tip in Julia Child's book, so we're now doubly advised!
3. prick the raviolis each just once with a needle. This allows the heat inside the ravioli to escape without causing the pasta pocket to rupture.

Hopefully MM will have a break in her schedule soon to do a quick interview for Domestic in the District on other helpful kitchen tips!

Tonight I'm going to re-attempting the sauce we created that night, hopefully I can recreate it! If I can, I'll post it so you can give it a shot on your own.

What kitchen adventures are you enjoying these days?

-Domestic in the District