Weekend Brunches – Tabaq and Snap – DC

Saturday I met some law school pals for brunch at Tabaq. I was seriously underwhelmed. I had the chicken an waffles, which consisted of a battered, dry chicken breast placed on top of a belgian waffle. It was supposed to come with cream gravy, but instead came with what I think was supposed to be a house made bbq sauce? The chicken was tough and tasteless, and I abandoned it pretty quickly. The waffle was actually pretty good, so I ate it with the lone strawberry that came in my side of fruit. But the rest of the fruit in that bowl – which consisted mainly of mealy melon balls – was tasteless and disappointing as well. The service was terrible – our water glasses went empty numerous times, which was extra frustrating as we were seated on the un-airconditioned rooftop deck on a sunny summer afternoon. My friends weren’t thrilled w/ their food either (they both got difft. types of eggs Benedict), and the potatoes and Hollandaise sauce that I tried were extremely disappointing. The potatoes were greasy and a bit mushy, and the Hollandaise was bland and fatty, instead of that rich, warm taste that should fill your mouth when you indulge in that particular treat. Will NOT be returning to Tabaq.

Snap, in Georgetown, was pretty disappointing as well. I’d been before, and was underwhelmed by their crepes. I had turkey and cheese, my friend the Thai chicken, and neither of us enjoyed our plates at all. I don’t love the savory filling options they have either – a few basic meats, cheeses, and veggies. A few sauces, but no particularly tasty combinations are offered. The sweet crepes looked fine, though I didn’t get a chance to sample. This time I had a turkey and cheese panini, which was plain and forgettable. My friends’ crepes were served on paper plates and did not look or smell particularly appetizing. However, I did try my friend’s peach bubble tea (it’s a fruity tea, not a milky one) and I LOVED it! So I would definitely return for the bubble tea, and to enjoy the ample outdoor seating in their cute patio area on a pleasant day…but the food is a no go in my book.

Vidalia! – DC

So I got back to DC Wednesday night, and haven’t wasted any time settling back in to the food scene. My firm’s summer associate program is ending in a couple of weeks, and as I’ve missed pretty much the entire thing, I’m doing my best to make the most of these last couple of weeks! In other words, I’m squeezing in as many lunches as possible with the kiddos before they take off.

Friday was lunch at Vidalia. I’d been there once before, when I was a summer associate, and I remember being pretty underwhelmed by the food. This time, however, I really really enjoyed the meal.

I ordered the peach-ginger lemonade, which was easily one of the best beverages I’ve ever had. It was super refreshing and delicious, and the flavor was out of this world! I’m convinced that there was a fresh vanilla bean pod scraped into the drink, which I think is what pushed it over the top. The waiter claims there was no vanilla, but I don’t believe him, because: a.) I could taste the vanilla in the drink, and b.) I could SEE the freaking specks of vanilla bean in the bottom of the glass! But the waiter kind of sucked overall, so whatever. I’m definitely going to start experimenting with vanilla in fruity drinks now!

The bread basket was a delight all on its own – house made cornbread (with actual corn kernels in it), a sort of cheesy foccacia, and super buttery parker house rolls, all served with butter and a vidalia onion compote. All were delish, though those parker house rolls were really to die for. So was the foccacia, actually. Yum.

I skipped appetizers, though we did order a vidalia onion for the table. It was roasted in what I think must have involved a touch of red wine – I thought it was just okay. The flavor of the broth/mixture it was roasted in was too tangy for my taste, and overall the dish was too sweet.

My entree was the burger, served on an onion roll with smoked gouda, housemade spicy ketchup and fried onion strands (I nixed the bacon, though my companions seemed to enjoy the baconed-up burgers quite a bit). It was a fantastic combination of sweet and salty flavors, and they got the medium-rare temperature down pat. I wasn’t over the moon about the potato salad that it came with, but it didn’t matter b/c the burger was so durn tasty!

For dessert, I got their signature lemon chess pie, which is FABULOUS! The perfect balance of sweet and tangy (more on the sweet side, just how I like it), with a lovely tender crust. The berry gelee and blueberry compote that accompanied the pie were both delicious, and complemented the lemon flavor perfectly. All in all, a perfect dessert. I sampled my friends’ desserts as well, of course: the pecan pie was easily one of the best I’ve ever had, I loved that they used crushed candied pecans instead of giant chunks of plain ones. The mud pie was only okay, and the caramelized onion ice cream that accompanied my friend’s bacon chocolate chip cookies was as odd tasting as it sounds like it would be. I definitely think the lemon pie was by far the best of the bunch.

After that experience, I would DEFINITELY go back to Vidalia. But, just like Tabard Inn, there aren’t a lot of things on their menu that appeal to me. Part of this is b/c they, like Tabard, have a lot of overly complicated menu items that don’t particularly appeal to my tastes. But the main reason is that almost ALL of their dishes involve pork in one way or another, and while they might be able to make certain dishes without the pork, I always hate making those kinds of requests at good restaurants for fear of messing with the integrity of the chef’s original ideas.  So, like Tabard, Vidalia isn’t quite on my short list, but it’s durn close!

Coming up: brunches at Tabaq and Snap, Dinner at Founding Farmers, lunches at Brasserie Beck and Agraria. Thank God I love going to the gym!

Getting M’groove Back

Okay I’ve had TONS of food adventures in the past few months, and sincerely hope to post about them all at some point. But for now, I’m just going to start posting regularly (I hope!), and I’ll insert “catch-up” posts whenever I get around to it. And with that…onwards!

Tabard Inn – DC

The patio at the Tabard Inn may be one of my favorite places  to dine in DC. But I mean exactly that – it’s one o f my favorite PLACES. I love love love the location, ambience, landscaping, decor, etc. It’s absolutely adorable. Well, the whole restaurant is really cozy and lovely and straight out of Harry Potter – the fireplace in the waiting area is a total dream come true in wintertime. But the patio, with its garden tables and beautiful flora, is extra special. And the food at lunch today was really impressive.  My salmon melted in my month, the miso broth it came in was a perfect complement, and everyone’s desserts were fabulous. I liked my friends’ peach cobbler best (that linzer crust was to die for!) but they liked my lemon meringue pudding cake best (the meringue disk it was served on was a really delicious touch). That being said, I’m never overly pleased with their menu options…always a bit too fancy and froo-froo for me.  But when I do find things on the menu that appeal to my taste, they always do a PHENOMENAL job with them. So it’s not quite on my “short list,” but it’s durn close.

Martha’s Yellow Butter Cake & Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream

One of the two desserts I made for my Memorial Day BBQ was a classic yellow cake with a chocolate swiss meringue buttercream. Both recipes came out of Martha’s Baking Handbook.

The cake recipe was extremely straightforward. I’ll admit, I often take shortcuts when baking, and in this case I took two: I used only AP flour instead of the cake flour called for in the recipe, and I did not sift the dry ingredients separately. Instead, my first installment of dry ingredients was the salt, baking powder, and first cup of flour. Second installment was second cup of flour, etc.  I doubt this had any significant effect on the final product, as the cake had a beautiful texture. It was wonderfully moist and tender. Also, the cakes cooled almost completely flat, making them ideal for stacking into a layer cake (no leveling was required, though I did scrape a bit off the top for tasting purposes!)

Unfortunately, the flavor of the cake was too sweet for my taste. I like my yellow cake to be buttery with a slightly salty note for balance. Hers was just…sweet. Thus, I don’t think I’d make this as is again. The texture really was wonderful, so I may try and fiddle with the proportions a bit to balance out the sweetness. Until I get that right though, I’ll stick with my go-to one-bowl yellow cake recipe from The Kitchn, which can be found at http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/diy-recipe/recipe-diy-yellow-cake-014637

The frosting, however, is a TOTAL keeper. I’ve been wanting to work with non-American buttercreams for awhile now, which is one of the reasons I chose Martha’s Handbook for this project. Swiss meringue frosting does take a bit more effort than traditional buttercream, as it involves whisking egg whites and sugar over a double boiler and whipping the mixture into a fluffy, gorgeous meringue before mixing in softened butter and flavor of choice (vanilla extract, melted chocolate, etc.) But I definitely think it’s well worth the effort (and if you have a stand mixer, it’s really not that big of a deal at all). The sweetness  of swiss buttercream is so much more subtle that it really allows the added flavors to shine, and the texture is beautifully light, smooth and creamy all at the same time. So you can thoroughly enjoy the frosting without feeling like a cavity is forming with each bite. American buttercreams – which are basically just butter whipped with a TON of powdered sugar and added flavorings of choice -  will always have a special place in my heart, but overall, I do think I prefer meringue-based frostings.

1. Whisking over heat. 2. Beginning the whipping. 3. Meringue! 4. After adding the butter. 5.  After adding melted chocolate…The final product!*Drool*

Hiatus

Sadly, my Martha project – and really all of my kitchen adventures – have been on hold for the past month, and probably will be for at least another month or so. At first it was because I moved (into the best house EVER!!) and was busy packing and whatnot. Then I got staffed on this ridiculous case that has me working all hours of the day and night, which eventually ended up sending me to NYC, where I will be for the next 2-3 weeks! While I’m really loving my NYC experience, I’m afraid my little food blog is going to have to be set aside for awhile.

Meanwhile, check out my other blog for funsies:http://alia0628.wordpress.com/

Buttermilk Biscuits: Cheddar Variation

“Mmm, cheesy biscuits.”

I lost track of the number of times I heard that phrase Saturday night, but I have to say, I think it summed this recipe up quite nicely.

I had a good deal of buttermilk left over from the cream cheese and chive adventure of last week, so I decided I might as well use up as much of it as I could before it went bad. And I figured I might as well keep working on my biscuit-making, sooo I opted to the cheddar variation of Martha’s buttermilk biscuits. Plain buttermilk biscuits just seemed too boring; and besides, everyone could use a little more cheese in life!

This recipe is much simpler than the cream cheese/chive biscuits. They are drop biscuits, which means instead of rolling out and chilling a slab of dough, I just had to mix together the ingredients until they formed a big lump of dough, pat it down flat, and cut it into rounds.  MUCH easier.

And the finished product was simply delicious.  I know that this is not must my personal bias towards cheddar biscuits speaking, b/c I took the freshly baked biscuits to girls’ night, and the 6 of us managed to go through about 20 biscuits – and that was in addition to all of the other delicious food that my fellow potluckers had made, which included lasagna and two desserts!

So these were simple to make and absolutely delish – I didn’t have any issues with the recipe to speak of. My one complaint, though, was that they dried out really quickly. They were fantastic the night they were made, but by the next day there were noticeably drier. And the day after that, I couldn’t eat them at room temperature anymore. Nuking them for 15 seconds helped, but by day 4, they were hockey pucks.

Cream Cheese and Chive Biscuits

Oh man, I wish you could smell these. I honestly didn’t expect a whole lot from this little recipe…but the aroma that hit me when I opened the oven door instantly set my tummy a-rumblin.

Why, you may ask, did I opt for a savory recipe as my first foray into Tackling Martha Territory? Well, it’s Lent, and a lot of the people in my office (aka the people who eat what I bake so I don’t get fat) have given up sweets for the month. I thought they deserved a treat, and anyhow, I was intrigued by this recipe when I first flipped through the book. It didn’t seem to me that this particular combination of ingredients would yield an especially tasty biscuit. I was very wrong.

The recipe is simple, but time-consuming. The dough must be mixed, kneaded, rolled out four separate times, and chilled twice in the interim. But there is something so soothing about rolling out pastry dough. Pizza dough, on the other hand, is a pain in the ass. It’s so elastic and ornery that attempting to roll it out can be quite a headache. No wonder the experts resort to throwing the stuff at the ceiling – I’ll bet the first person who did that did it out of sheer frustration. But I digress. Pastry dough – smooth, fatty, and delicious – is such a delight to work with, because it’s so easy to shape, roll, and mold into the size and thickness you’re going for. Rolling this stuff out reminded me of working with rugelach dough. I assume working with pie crust is similarly enjoyable, though that is an adventure I have yet to undertake…

Anyhoo, a couple of issues I had w/ this recipe:

1. I’m pretty sure I over-kneaded it, as the biscuits are slightly tough. But Martha says to knead it only 4 times after you dump it out of the bowl. I’m not sure what counts as one “knead,” but I’m pretty sure I went way over 4 before I got it smooth and unsticky enough to work with. Hmm.

2. I was out of parchment paper, so I used buttered foil. The bottoms browned a LOT faster than the tops, so I had to watch em like hawks for the last few minutes to make sure I gave them enough time to brown a little on top but got them out before the bottoms started to burn.

I would totally make these again. The flavor is slightly cheesy, slightly herby – but not to the point where you would be able to pinpoint the use of cream cheese or chives. The ingredients all complement each other nicely to create a wonderful flavor w/out being overpowering, even though cream cheese and chives are too pretty distinct flavors. I just need to get the texture right, but I’m pretty sure that has more to do w/ my technique than Martha’s recipe.

Two Yums Up!

Taking on Martha

Today began my own abbreviated version of a Julie/Julia project.  (I wanted to link to the book, but I can’t figure out how to do it. Bah. See the end of the post for the link.) While I wasn’t crazy about the book itself, I LOVED the idea. And decided that Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook – a lovely graduation gift from one of my favorite uncles – would be my MtAoFC.

It’s been a rough couple of months for me, for a number of reasons, and I’ve been racking my brain for some kind of personal challenge to embark on that would help me get back in touch with the things that really make me happy in life.  If you’ve ever met me, then you know that baking – and subsequently eating the results – makes me very, very happy.

Martha Stewart’s recipes are not exactly known for their simplicity or user-friendliness. But, for the most part, the results are worth the work. Or so I hear. The plan is to bake my way through her beautiful Baking Handbook, making every recipe that sounds remotely tasty to me. There are a few in there that definitely won’t make the cut – call me picky, but Golden Raisin and Fennel Scones are just not for me. But there are many many more delicious looking treats that will, I’m sure, present me with new and fun challenges. And hopefully teach me a thing or three along the way.

So my hope is that by tackling Martha’s madness, I will sharpen my own skills and get back in touch with a side of me that has been somewhat suppressed as of late. I hope you enjoy sharing my adventures with me.

http://www.amazon.com/Julie-Julia-Year-Cooking-Dangerously/dp/0316013269/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237172003&sr=1-1

Scones

A friend of mine invited me over for brunch a couple of weeks ago, and I decided it would be a great opportunity to try out some scone recipes I’ve had my eye on. I made two types of scones: blueberry lemon with a buttery lemon glaze and cheddar rosemary. I used two different recipes for bases, and tweaked them a bit with the fillings and toppings that I used.

For the savory scones, I used Ina Garten’s Cheddar and Dill scones as a base. I really don’t like dill though, so I replaced it with fresh rosemary. Ina’s recipe can be found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_119789,00.html

My scones didn’t look quite as puffy as hers, but were still pretty:

For the sweet scones, I used Alton Brown’s basic recipe to start with. Recipe can be found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_147,00.html

Instead of dried fruit, I used frozen blueberries from Trader Joe’s. I also used more than just a “handful” of the fruit; then again, my handfuls are smaller than most. I just tossed in enough blueberries until the dough looked ‘berried’ enough. I also added the zest of one medium lemon to the cream/egg mixture before adding it to the batter.

For the glaze, I combined about 1/4 cup of melted butter, a couple of tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, and enough powdered sugar to get the consistency I wanted – probably about a cup and a half or so. I also threw in about 1/4 cup of granulated sugar to add a bit of texture to the glaze, but of course, that’s totally optional.

l made the mistake of trying to thin it out with a little milk, which I’m guessing reacted w/ the lemon juice and made for a slightly grainy texture. Luckily I didn’t add enough milk to do any real damage, but will definitely remember not to use any milk or cream next time around.

Here they are!

So which recipe won the day? Alton’s, hands down. His scones were delicious and moist and soft – practically melted in my mouth! – but still substantial and bread-like enough to be considered scones. I’m sure glazing them w/ melted butter and lemon juice helped a bit, but I could tell that even naked, these scones would have been fabulous. Meanwhile, Ina’s scones were a bit on the dry side. I reheated one in the microwave and that did help some, but overall I would say that her recipe just did not deliver. I did like the cheddar/rosemary combination, and will definitely be using that in the future.

Ina’s method of using the paddle attachment on the Kitchenaid mixer to “cut in” the butter was very useful. Also, I think it’s worth noting that Ina’s dough was a lot easier to work with; Alton’s was sticky and messy, while Ina’s rolled and cut beautifully. But I’d rather have sticky hands and yummy scones than the alternative, so I declare Alton the winner in this round.