Why Bother?

Here’s a really good answer.

Grilled Sirlion with Olive Salsa? VOTE NOW!!

The Gourmand used to work in a kitchen in a very fine restaurant in Park Slope and there, he was taught to make chimichurri. Except, we went to a restaurant recently, and ordered a steak served with chimichurri  and our sauce and their sauce were decidedly different. Is the wikipedia definition “authentic?” I guess so, but in reading their ingredients and ours, its as though the two condiments evolved on different sides of the Earth, or maybe the Mediterranean. There is also tapenade but ours has WAY more vinegar. So, we are holding our first official The Gourmand & The Peasant poll. Here are your choices:

Chiminade or Tapenchurri

Leave your vote as a comment, or if you have a better idea, leave that and we will give you full credit! 

For the steak:
We used a 2 lb sirloin steak from Anthony’s Meat Market in Parsippany, NJ. (We were visiting The Gourmand’s parents.) Put the steak on a plate. Rub both sides with heavy shakes of garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. Let the steak sit on the counter until it comes to room temperature.

Meanwhile, make the olive salsa (below.)

Heat the grill to HOT and rub with oil. Put the steak on the grill, cover. After three minutes, rotate the steak 90 degrees and cook on HOT another three minutes. Flip the steak and observe your beautiful, charred hatch marks! Turn the heat down to medium-hot and cook about 8 minutes for rare, add more time to taste.

For the … uh … Name to be decided – go vote!:
2 cups chopped, mixed olives
1/4 cup chopped shallot
1 T chopped garlic
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Allow to sit about an hour. Serve with grilled steak.

Ray’s Spring Chicken

We went to our favorite farm stand at the Grand Army Plaza Farmers’ Market this past Saturday: Bradley Farms, home of Ray Bradley, and bought some chicken.  We love the vegetables from Rays farm but his meats, when available, are even better. We purchased two packages with two legs each.  The first pack was made into Julie’s favorite dinner earlier this week.  Tonight the other two legs will be marinated and then roasted on a bed of fingerling potatoes, also from Ray.

The Recipe:
3 stems of rosemary leaves
4 shallots
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp. Herbs de Provence (from Sahadi’s)
¼ tsp. hot pimenton
a hefty shot of olive oil
2 tsp. of rice vinegar
Salt and pepper 

2 lbs potatoes (we used fingerlings)
Chicken pieces, bone-in, for two (we used legs with thighs attached)

Place the first eight ingredients in a food processor and pulse until it forms a chunky paste.

Rinse and pat the chicken dry. In a bowl, rub the marinade into the chicken pieces, on all sides and let stand for an hour. 

Wash and cut the potatoes into chunks and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place into a roasting pan. Place the chicken on top of the potatoes. 

Put the pan in the oven at 350 for approximately 40 minutes (depending on cut) until the chicken is done.  If the chicken is done before the potatoes just pull the chicken out and cover it until the potatoes are finished. 

Serve with a salad or vegetable of your choice.

How to Roast a Mushroom Like a Chicken

This is a secret recipe from the dinner over which The Gourmand & The Peasant fell in love. There is a wonderful mushroom called the “Hen of the woods” or maitake.  The first step to winning your love is to find a great source of mushrooms.  All of our best mushrooms have come from the farmer’s market at Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn. Most recently, we have been getting great mushrooms from the John D. Madura Farm. We were so happy to see a bountiful pile of Hen of the Woods last Saturday, the first of the season. They get their name from their shape – they look like a brown chicken with her feathers all fluffed up.

Obtain a large hen of the woods mushroom, preferably a half-pound or better.
Dice two scallions.
Chop some thyme.
Salt and pepper.
Good olive oil. 

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Put the whole mushroom on a roasting tray lined with aluminum foil.
Sprinkle the mushroom with the scallion, thyme, salt and pepper.
Drizzle the mushroom with olive oil.
Put the mushroom in the hot oven and roast until the tips of the mushroom are dark brown and crispy.
The interior should be hot and moist, about 15 minutes.

Slice and enjoy as a appetizer or, serve with a grain or your choice and green salad.

 

Julie’s Favorite Dinner

Way back when, I lived with a wonderful, fabulous, awesome roommate, who through no fault of her own, was from Ohio. Now, don’t get me wrong, Ohio readers, I am big fans of some of the people your state has produced. But, culinarily, it will take some time. Like Ireland.

Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, my roommate and I were hungry, starving some nights and so cooking with flavor and in bulk provided leftovers and I revisited this recipe last night. YUM:

Julie’s Favorite Dinner
Enough chicken to yield about 2 cups of shredded cooked meat, any cut or part will do
olive oil
4 T curry powder – the good stuff
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
4 cups cooked wild rice
1 red onion, chopped fine
1 cup diced mango
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
coarse sea salt
ground pepper

Heat the oven to 350. Rinse the chicken parts in cold water and dry them well with paper towels. Place them on a foil-lined cookie sheet and drench all sides in olive oil. In a small bowl, mix together curry powder, coriander and cumin. Rub into all parts of the chicken. Bake 25 – 35 minutes until cooked through. Remove from oven and allow to cool. When cool enough to handle, shred the meat, discarding the skin and bones and set aside.

Meanwhile, cook the rice in a rice cooker or on the stovetop. In a large bowl mix together cooked rice, onion, mango, beans, cilantro, and cooked chicken. Add olive oil to coat so the rice doesn’t stick together. Add rice vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.

Pics to come. Hooray for low cost, high yield food to impress even the most discerning of Ohio-born palates. And this recipe is great for pot lucks and picnics.
 

 

Thomas Beisl & Paul Simon

This post will be mostly a review of Thomas Beisl, Austrian restaurant in Fort Greene, Brooklyn across the street from BAM. However, I have to give a nod to what brought us there last night. Eight of us, The Gourmand & the Peasant and parts of each of our families, descended on the place to fill up before heading across the street to the Brooklyn Academy of Music to watch a sold out performance of Paul Simon’s Under African Skies. It was awesome, despite some rule-breaking dancers breaking the rules of some stuffy ushers, the house was energized, especially when David Byrne stole the show. A shock of white hair, Mr. Rogers-meets-punk-rock wardrobe and dance moves, the man is brilliant and, with his cover of “You Can Call Me Al,” he had the entire audience on their feet, singing along and dancing, before turning the show back to an aging Mr. Simon, and an assortment of other guest singers and musicians including the venerable Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Ok, back to dinner. As former members of restaurant business, the phrase “table of eight” can recall some anxieties. Get the food out at the same time. Keep the glasses filled and the bread coming. Not easy, but handled with grace at Thomas Beisl. We ordered appetizers to be eaten family-style. An arugula salad with a curled slice of parmesan cheese dressed lightly in olive oil, two endive salads, served with grapes and walnuts, two orders of herring in sour cream, an order of chicken liver terrine and a large plate of steak tartare, which came with french fries.

The steak tartare was met with squeals from the more squeamish members of our dinner party. Yes it really is raw meat, and yes, it is a dining luxury you will never again lack for craving once you’ve decided that you could actually (gasp!) like expertly prepared filet mignon, albeit without the fire. The heat in Thomas’ tartare comes from a unique addition of chili, so what it lacks in warmth, it makes up for in capsicum. 

For dinner, I had Wiener schnitzel, a veal cutlet pounded thin, breaded and fried to a crisp golden brown and served with a generous wedge of lemon.

To drink, bottles of Schlumberger sparkling flowed, followed by a dry Riesling and Blaufrankish, a little known red grape varietal from the shores of the Danube in the Austro-Hungarian empire. The Riesling and the Blaufrankish were perfectly paired with our food courses and all three were under $35 a bottle. Not cheap, but for the convenience of being on the steps of an internationally recognized performing arts house, comparably affordable. I passed on a 2006 rosé – a shame its still being served to saps who don’t know that a new flock of 2007s have hit the shores and store shelves and far outshine the dusty, tired remnants of last spring.

There were desserts, and hopefully my familial readers will comment about them. I, however, am 13 days away from bikini, so I demurred.

All said and done, a delicious evening of song and feast for all the senses. Delightfully made memories of family togetherness, food and culture in my mind are in the making to recall over dinners to come.

Thomas Beisl
25 Lafayette Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11217
718-222-5800 

Beef Bulgogi

I had my first experiences with Korean food at a friend’s house as a kid in Rochester, New York. Home cooked meals, served family-style in the Hauser house, had a strong influence on my love of food. Recently, when I was craving Bulgogi, instead of looking up a generic recipe, I phoned Mr. Hauser and he passed along the following:

For the Beef:

2 pounds of sirloin steak sliced very thin across the bias
4 scallions, sliced
¼ c sugar
5 cloves garlic, chopped
5 T soy sauce
2 T sesame oil
2 T sherry, vermouth, or similar
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
a dash of hot sauce (I used Sriracha)

Side Dish:

Enoki Mushrooms
1 clove garlic, chopped
olive oil
Fresh pea shoots
Rice vinegar

To serve:

Cooked rice (Choose your favorite. We used a wild blend.)
Whole bib lettuce leaves
Kimchi
Chili paste

Combine the marinade ingredients in a bowl. Cover tightly. Refrigerate for at least 24 hours. In this time the above ingredients transform into something much more wonderful than the individual parts.

After 24 hours, and when you are just about ready to eat, start cooking the rice. We use a rice cooker, which takes most of the guesswork and all of the burning out of the equation.

The beef can be grilled, broiled, baked, or sautéed. I cooked the beef in a blazing hot, cast iron skillet. Put the beef in the skillet and resist the temptation to move it around so that some carmelization can take place. Once the meat is cooked more than half way, about five minutes. Flip it and cook, unmoved for another minute or two. Let the beef remain juicy and not overcooked.

For the side dish, cook the mushrooms with a clove of chopped garlic and a splash of olive oil over high heat. When the mushrooms start to brown, add the pea shoots a bit of rice vinegar. Toss, and turn off the heat. The idea is that the some of the pea shoots wilt and the rest remain unaffected by the heat, keeping their crunch.

To serve an authentic Korean meal, put kimchi out on the table. Spicy fermented vegetables might take some getting used to if you have never tried it, but it is worth the time to get to know.  Also try to get some Korean chili paste or Gochujang.

The spread should be all of the above in individual serving dishes. Bolgogi, rice, a bowl of bib lettuce leaves, kimchi, Korean chili paste, and the side dish of enoki and pea shoots.

Make a wrap, using a lettuce leaf, a tablespoon or so of rice, a piece of bulgogi, kimchi and chili paste. You will get a bit messy but it is entirely worth it so dig in and enjoy.

Serve the mushrooms and pea shoots on the side.

Stay tuned for the a Korean pork barbeque, another big hit from the Hauser house that with the Mr. Hauser’s blessing, we will experiment with before long.

Sometimes you have to make two dinners

When you are cooking, there are some basic rules of thumb.

 

1: Don’t let the gas run if the burner isn’t lit.

2: If in doubt, throw it out.

3: Marinading should be done for at least 24 hours.

Practicing #1 and #3, we got a great recipe for Beef Bulgogi from our friend’s Asian-scholar father and he tells us it will be much better if the beef can marinate for at least 24 hours.  Just preparing the marinade made me, The Gourmand, exited for tomorrow’s dinner.

So The Peasant & I made a simple pasta dish to hold us over.  I have been experimenting with frozen vegetables until farmer’s market season.  So simple pasta primavera, no cream involved, as per the request of The Peasant:
1 pound spaghetti

1 box or small bag frozen mixed veg

3 scallions sliced (left over from the bulgogi marinade)

4 cloves of garlic chopped

good olive oil (I used unfiltered extra virgin)

grated cheese*

lots of black pepper

Set the pasta to boil according to package directions. In a hot pan, sautée the garlic in some of the olive oil, then add the frozen veg and cook until the veg begins to dry and the colors are bright.  Drain the spaghetti and mix with the contents of the pan.  Add more olive oil at this point for the uncooked flavor of the olives. Grate a hefty amount of black pepper and stir.  Serve with grated cheese heaped on top.

Stay tuned for the results of the Bulgogi.

*As much as we hate to admit it, we know that you expect honesty. So, in this recipe, by “grated cheese” we mean Ronzoni Parmesan Grated Cheese, which we affectionally refer to as “Shakey Cheese.” We know it isn’t asiago, or grana padano, BUT is cheap, salty, and the ingredients cite parmesan cheese as number one ingredient of four. So we aren’t apologizing. Hope you still love us! Confess in the comments if you too have a dirty little culinary secret.  

Sidecar: Beer, Burger, Bar

The previous post was also about Sidecar, but last night, we actually ate there. You’ll recall (or scroll down to see) that they are ‘closed Mondays.’ We arrived a little early last night, after rescheduling our plans with dear friends Emily & Orson, so the Gourmand and I sat down at the bar and had a great conversation with Philip the bartender. As Philip and I were comparing medical notes (I’d had a slightly traumatizing experience at the otolaryngologist earlier in the day) I see over his shoulder in big, rainbow-chalk letters: “Gumbo Mondays!”

Huh? I asked Philip what the deal with Monday nights is. He said its Gumbo night and I said “according to your voicemail, you guys are CLOSED on Mondays!” Philip, a comment on his banter and equally matched sarcasm sparring, replied that I’d listened to the old recording and therefore the wrong recording. Coming from lots of people I’d be annoyed by this response, however there is something in the laid-back charm of the place that I actually thought it was a funny response. After all, I was there, enjoying a beer in an ice cold glass pulled from the fridge, and truly, what more could I have asked for at that point? I’m not even sure I like gumbo.

Sitting at the bar, I drank a pint of Captain Lawrence Pale Ale. The story, as told by Philip, was that a brewer at Sierra Nevada splintered from that company to start his own brewery, creating a smoother, cleaner version of Sierra Nevada fame. Success! The beer was perfect: refreshingly bitter – like the bartender’s banter. The Gourmand had an Old Pal, mixed of bourbon, dry vermouth and Campari. It was an exceptionally manly pink drink, served in a dainty, stemmed cocktail glass. All he needed was a monocle and a pinky ring.

When Emily & Orson arrived, we took a table. The Gourmand and I had already decided to combine forces and order two sandwiches from the menu and ask the chef to cut them in half. In many restaurants, this request is met with a “what? are you on a diet?” shaped raised eyebrow. At Sidecar, the waiter/part-owner said “That’s the best way to do it!” Big points for that!

The food is prepared in an open kitchen, behind a second bar, where you can order oysters and the rest of the menu á la carte. The chef, the other part-owner and our waiter’s brother, prepared for us a cheeseburger cooked a perfect medium with melted cheddar, lettuce, tomato and red onion paired with salty, crispy shoestring french fries. I say this with the highest compliments: THIS is the burger that McDonald’s aspires to recreate. There were minimal spices added to the ground meat, which was grassfed, making a huge impact on the resulting taste and texture. The outside was charred and salty, the middle bright pink. Here’s my favorite part: unlike most restaurant burgers one bites into, I wasn’t greeted with fat running down my wrists. I know many a burger aficionado refers to this as “juice.” I think of it as grease and the absence of it pooling on my plate allowed me to put Sidecar’s burger down between bites and savor the experience, without worrying that my roll would turn grey and soggy and therefore forcing me to eat my meal in one take.

The other half of sandwich I enjoyed was a Vietnemese Bahn-De. Spicy ground pork on a ciabatta roll, which truthfully I wish had been just a bit crunchy on top. It was soft, though, and spread with mayonnaise and topped with cilantro, like it was lettuce and shredded carrots. Served with a shot of cucumber juice and a beet cut into sticks, we dunked and drank the green juice and were told by the waiter that if we’d ordered our sandwich ’spicy,’ we’d have needed the shot to cool the heat. Next time, I will take him on the challenge.

Actually, next time, I think I’ll try the oyster bar and the buttermilk fried chicken. Maybe tonight…

Restaurants That Close on Mondays are Annoying

I was all excited last night to go out the Sidecar in Brooklyn with The Gourmand and our close friends. I had this hunch that  I’d better just call and make sure that they are open and, sure enough: Closed Mondays.

I suppose that everyone is entitled to a night off, but, well, I don’t have a better solution. I guess that Monday is the most obvious choice.

Instead, we had:

Modified Arroz con Pollo

Ingredients:
1 leftover bone-in roasted chicken breast
1 cup (give or take) left over wild rice from roasted chicken dinner
half an onion, finely chopped
1 lb frozen mixed vegetables
3/4 tsp saffron, bloomed in hot water
hot sauce (I used siracha) to taste
splash of white wine
splash of fruit juice
sea salt 

1 avocado, chopped 
1 lime 

How To:
Remove the chicken from the bone and chop fine. In a bowl, mix the chicken, rice, onion, frozen veg, saffron with the water, hot sauce, wine, juice and a generous seasoning of sea salt. Transfer to an appropriately-sized, over-proof dish. Bake, covered with foil, at 350 about an hour, until hot all the way through. The liquids should have all been absorbed by the rice.

Serve with chopped avocado, extra hot sauce, and a squeeze of lime juice.

Reschedule Sidecar for Wednesday and stay tuned for a review!