Live Like a Mid-Atlantic-er

Only two hours away, over one terrifyingly tall, long, rickety bridge, and through a shore town complete with an assortment of antique, craft, and chocolate shops.  Bring an appetite and plenty of cash, since picky eaters and credit cards aren't accepted.

The Crab Claw Restuarant
304 Mill St at Navy Point
St Michaels, MD

When everything in your childhood centered around amazing food, you can't help but grow into an adult whose entire life is measured by meals.  The only truly wonderful summers of my childhood, for instance, were spent gorging myself on so many variations of crepe forced upon me at breakfast, lunch, and dinner that the very word crepe became a four-letter word not to be repeated until the smorgasbord francaise of the summer before was a blissfully fantasized memory. 

My love of my Floridian beach hometown is likewise etched into my memory by fantastic feasts alongside friends and family--4th of July bbqs, elaborate dinner parties, mango slushies on the beach, and a cold cut sub from the local sub shop (more Peruvian Sauce please!, a delicacy tucked safely away in my checked luggage every time I leave Florida for more than a few weeks).



And although I hold onto these food memories with a constant wish to relive them, my move to the Mid-Atlantic brings with it a new set of food adventures to salivate over.  In the spirit of fully living my DC life, I happily tore apart my first mound of Maryland blue crabs this weekend--ripping, smashing, pulling, and tasting my way to bliss.



One dozen crabs piled high.  Knives, hammers, forks, and wet wipes strewn across white butcher paper.  The smell of a quintessential Chesapeake Bay summer town wafting through the air.  A quick lesson in crab eating and several hours later, the pile of freshly cooked crabs reduced to unidentifiable shell parts.  Another meal tucked away into my food-filled memory bank.

Beet-licious

So Im kind of assuming that just because Oded is the only poster thus far, this here blog is open for us all, yes?
Yes.

In that case lets talk about beets. I never knew I liked beets until I was 26. All Id had were the canned variety and though some people swear by then, I think they are crap. Nowadays, I eat beets regardless of cooking method because I love them truly. But this is the best way. I swear it.

Roasted beets. Or baked beets.
Cut off stalks and tails of beety bunch.
Peel.
slice into pieces roughly a quarter inch thick. You can do thinner, they'll just need less cooking. Or thicker--they'll be earthier.
Anyways--so slice beets.
Combine in a 9x13 cooking dish with EVOO, salt, pepper, and basically whatever else you have on hand that you think might be good. Ive used Italian seasoning, sage, cumin. Even a bit of curry once but I dont remember it actually tasting like curry.
Mix together and then arrange in one thinnish layer on the bottom of the cooking dish.
Cook on 400 for 35-45 minutes. Depending on how thin they are. Also Ive had varying results with varying ovens. I usually check on them after about 25 minutes and give them a stir and then reassess the time.

Thats it. They are so delicious. And if you get the greens as well even better. Cook them up with shallots and then toss greens and beets in with whole wheat pasta and sweet Italian sausage and toss with EVOO. Nom.Nom.Nom.

Luigi's Hot Peppers - A Family Secret I'd Give My Right Hand For (and almost did!!)

Anytime I've ever wanted to learn a secret family recipe there has always been some sort of price to pay for learning the wisdom of generations' passed. This recipe is no different, and in some ways the "price" was more exacting than other secret recipes I've learned.

My friend Cristina... the resident Italian of this blog :) taught me how to make her father's famed hot peppers. What Cristina forgot to mention was that you need to have an industrial sized bottle of hydrocortizone and an equally large bottle of grain alcohol and/or whole milk on hand (I suggest both... and I'll explain why later).

Preparation is key... one word... gloves: leather, latex, mittens it doesn't matter just wear gloves. Another thing you may want to consider is a Slap Chop (insert royalty payment here). 

Only use fresh peppers, nothing dried, and try to find peppers that complement each other. If you go with something spicy like a jalapeno or habanero, pair it with something a little less intense like a poblano or anaheim. Cristina and I ended up with 200 jalapeno and red finger peppers, both of which are very spicy! Also, while you're at the store you'll need lots of olive oil and salt, and some jars. 

 Wash and dry your peppers, DRYING is key. I became very intimate with the concept that water makes capsaicin burn worse, so take my word for it DRY your peppers.

Next grab a collander and place it in a larger bowl. This is the point where you'd want to dawn your protective gloves, and for Cristina and I, this is the point where we paid the "price"...     

 Chop the peppers to a fine dice. Cut off the stem, split the pepper down the middle, juliene, and dice; seeds and all (except the stem) go into the collander. Once you have a layer, you'll want to sprinkle enough salt to coat the layer.  Repeat until all the peppers are layered and salted. Yell something in Italian and leave it aside (but not in the fridge) for a few hours or overnight. Periodically you'll want to return and pour out the water that drained from the peppers. 

Once the peppers release most of their water, you're ready to go. Take your jars and pack as much pepper as you can into it while leaving just a little room to pour in your olive oil. When pouring in the olive oil you'll want to make sure that it gets into every crevice. I just pushed the peppers around with a fork to make sure the oil seeped in. Make sure that the olive oil covers the peppers all the way to the top or you'll get mold buildup in the jar. Once you've done this, the mixture will only get better with age. You can use it as a topping on a variety of different things... I really like it with brown rice (per Cristina's recommendation). 

Make note, you'll want to refill the mixture with olive oil or pack down the peppers everytime you use it to ensure that they remain covered by the olive oil. 

So remember that hydrocortizone, grain alcohol, and whole milk I told you about? If you're daring (or stupid enough) to cut 200 peppers without gloves (which we did) or you happen to touch your face or other sensitive areas of your body (which I did)... you'll want these remedies on hand. I have to commend Marianne, nurse extraodinaire, for saving our lives. 

My experience...

About 1/3 of the way through cutting the peppers, I told Cristina that my hands were tingling. This tingle grew to a burning sensation, which eventually graduated to full blown inferno on my right hand. Cristina, being the stronger soul in our group, finished chopping the peppers and then joined me in the pain bonanza.  So we started pouring milk all over our hands. I'm pretty sure I scared my neighbors, who saw me crying with milk dribbling down my arms. Regardless of how much milk we used, the sensation kept returning, and lasted well into the next day. 

If this happens to you, soak your hands in either a high proof grain alcohol or whole milk for 30 minutes (per nurse's instructions). I suggest using the whole milk, while taking swigs of the grain alcohol with your free hand. Afterwards, slather your hand with hydrocortizone and keep doing so over and over and over again. 

Things not to do: 

- Rub your eyes 

- Pet your cat

- Go to the bathroom

- Hug your grandmother 

- Learn the skill of facial recognition through touch (that thing blind people do) 

For all the pain, it was well worth it. The hot pepper mixture is great, and it lasts for a long time if preserved properly. It goes well with a number of things. Give it a shot... if you dare :) 

Quick Late Night Snack/ Summer Salad

I threw this salad together at 10 PM one night and within 15 minutes I was back on my couch satisfying my late night craving for.... endives?!????!!

Endive Salad w/ Roasted Grapes & Spicy Balsamic Reduction: 

This recipe served two not sooooo hungry people....

Ingredients:

- 1 large endive or 2 small Belgian endives
- 1/2 packet of cherry tomatoes
- 1/4 red or vidalia onion
- Approx. 10 seedless red grapes

Dressing:
- Balsamic vinegar
- Olive oil
- Crushed red pepper flakes
- Salt 'n' peppa


Prep/Cook Time: 15 minutes (didn't you read above?!? JK)

Instructions: 

Start by making your dressing. Add Balsamic, salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes in a bowl. Grab a whisk or a fork (if you're handy like that) and lightly drizzle in your olive oil while whisking to incorporate your olive oil into the balsamic mixture. Don't go heavy on the oil or you will lose that nice acidity from the balsamic. I'd say you want a 2:1 ratio of balsamic to oil. Then take your dressing and put it in a small sauce pan on medium to med-low heat and let the start reducing down. You're looking for the dressing to coat the back of a spoon without dribbling off. After the sauce has reduced, put it in the fridge to cool... no one wants a hot salad dressing.

Next come the grapes. Wash and dry them. In a separate bowl put a little bit of salt and drizzle them with olive oil just to coat them. Put them aside, we'll deal with them later.

For your veggies, slice them up however you want. I usually leave the endive until the end because it oxidizes and turns brown. If anyone knows how to avoid this, let me know. I've also experimented with regular endives and the smaller white Belgian endives. The Belgian ones tend to be more bitter which can be a nice flavor contrast to the sweetness of the grapes; but personally I like the regular endives because you already have some bitterness in the dressing. Lastly, I slice my onions paper thin so that I don't overwhelm the salad with onion flavor.

Back to the grapes. Pull out a pan and heat it up medium to med-high. No need to put oil on the pan since your grapes are already dressed. Throw them on the pan and let the skin roast on the outside. A little burning on the skin is ok but this process goes quickly, so don't take your eyes of them too long. I probably roasted them for 1-2 minutes tops.

Slice up your endive if you haven't already. Combine the veggies, add salt and black pepper to taste. Plate your veggies. Put your nice warm grapes on and drizzle your balsamic reduction on top.

**** Note: I've been wanting to add some cheese to this salad, and I thought Mozzarella or Burratta would be a good addition. If someone tries this, let me know how it goes.

Bon Appetit

Re-inspired

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love to cook. But law school has a way of destroying your soul, and I've been stuck in a flavor-rut. Everything started tasting the same ... a garlic-ey spicy EVOO drenched mess. Well my palette needed a pick me up, and this past weekend pulled me out of that rut.

On Sunday, I went to the DC Fancy Food Show. I won't go too far into the details... but at around hour 4 I abandoned any sense of civility and started sampling spoonfuls of different truffle butters. I'm not really sure what happened next, but I must have blacked out from sheer joy. I woke up back at home... shirtless and with an order form for 50 lbs. of hummus signed in my handwriting under the name Gateano De Luca.

Ok so really, the show was three days and at the end, all the exhibitors give tons of stuff away. So I went back today and raided the show. The meal that resulted from my findings was nothing but sheer inspiration.. recipe below.

Pan Roasted Chicken Thighs on Wilted Spinach w/ Blood Orange Marmalade Glaze: 

1 package of chicken thighs (trimmed of fat and cleaned)
1 bag of spinach (washed)
1/2  yellow onion
2 garlic cloves
1/2 lemon
2 tbsp of blood orange marmalade
Bragg's aminos
Rice wine vinegar
Sriracha

Rub:
wasabi powder
garlic powder
chili powder
salt
black pepper
cayenne
cumin
chicken consomme powder

Prep/Cook Time: 25 minutes  


Directions: 

All the ingredients used can be found at Wholefoods or Safeway, so don't go running somewhere crazy to find any of these ingredients.

Start by making your rub for the chicken. Just add the above spices together to taste. Note that the chicken consomme powder is naturally a little salty, so go light on the salt. Make the rub, and season both sides of your chicken thighs. You can do this ahead of time and let the flavors soak into the chicken if you want.

Next is the glaze. Take your blood orange marmalade, Sriracha, rice wine vinegar, and Bragg's aminos and combine in another bowl. I don't know exact proportions, but just work to taste. Go light on the Sriracha. Bragg's is a soy sauce substitute, so don't go too heavy on it since it's salty.

You'll want to blanch your spinach next. Prep a bowl with some ice water and in another pot bring some water to a boil. Once your water is boiling drop the spinach in for 30 seconds - 1 minute at most. Take the spinach out of the water and immediately drop it into the ice water. Tada... you've just blanched something.

On medium heat, drizzle some olive oil and let it smoke lightly. Throw your chicken on and let it brown on either side to develop a nice crust from the rub. You can turn the pan down slightly once you've got a crust and cook the chicken through. Don't keep the pan too hot or else your chicken will dry out and become tough.

Once you've cooked your chicken remove it from the pan. Chop your onion and garlic and add it to the pan until translucent. Take your blanched spinach and squeeze as much water out of it as you can. Throw it in with the onions and garlic. You can turn the heat back up a little bit over medium now. I threw in a little bit of butter but that's up to you. Let your mixture cook down and then squeeze 1/2 lemon on top. Add black pepper and salt to taste. Remove.

Reduce the heat on the pan down below medium. Throw in the glaze. Watch it carefully and stir frequently to prevent it from burning. Just let it reduce down by half and remove it from the heat.

Throw your spinach on the plate, chicken on top of that, and glaze drizzled on top. Enjoy.