Hercules

At the end of the school year ML and John went to Mount Vernon with her 4th grade class. John led a group of five girls all from international backgrounds including India, Senegal, Canada, Germany and ML who was born and raised in the house she lives located in the Shaw neighborhood of DC. As they went through the many displays and exhibits they began to take turns reading the kiosks out loud. What struck them were the names of slaves who were owned by George Washington (Charlotte, Jupiter, Matilda…). The girls decided to collect the names of all the slaves they could find, interested in why this home would be billed as solely the home of George Washington when so many talented artisans and craftspeople lived and worked there.

They walked around all day with a pen frantically jotting names on scraps of guide maps and pieces of trash. Later they entered the Orientation Center only to find that Mount Vernon had a small wall dedicated to the slaves of Mount Vernon and on that wall were the names of all known forced to serve President Washington.

Well the girls knew that ML's parents were both chefs and became very animated when they discovered that GW had a master chef from Philadelphia named Hercules. Evidently Hercules was so important that there was an oil painting made of him. We look forward to spending time this summer learning more about Hercules and the many enslaved artisans, technicians and laborers who built the US and contributed more than we could ever imagine...

Gratuitous Photo From Restaurant 1508

photo by abby greenawalt

Restaurant 1508 #3

We had another fabulous home restaurant. In addition to the food, wine and music the energy was fantastic, everyone met someone new and conversation was ….

This menu--spring, Wild Salmon, Morels, Lamb, Peas, Cherries…

Dinner Friday June 26, 2009

Passing
Springfield Farm Roasted Lamb with Mint on Cucumber
Toigo Farm Tomatoes and Red Onion on Grilled Onion with Curly Parsley
Toasted Cornmeal and Pea Cake with Caramelized Onion
Lemon Verbena Martini
(Ch. des Valentines) Cotes du Provence ROSE Estate 2007

Seated
Beet Green Soup with Kohlrabi Relish and Basil
Walnut Bread
(Mestre-Michelot) Bourgogne Blanc "Montmeix" 2006

Semolina Noodles with White Morels, Baby Zucchini, Baby Carrots, Red Spring Onion, Borage, Lemon Balm, Bronze Fennel and Summer Savory
Sesame Bread
(Gilbert) Menetou Salon Blanc 2006 (sauv Blanc)

Ivory King Salmon with Sugar Snaps, Baby Leeks, Baby Blue Kale, Potatoes and Lemon Mustard Vinaigrette with Chives and Parsley
Spelt Focaccia

(de Montille) Bourgogne Rouge 2006

Cheese with Cracker and 1508 Greens

Cherry Compote with Cornmeal Crust, Frozen Coconut

(Jacques Lassaigne) 'Les Vignes de Montgueux' Blanc de Blancs Brut NV Lassaigne

Shaved, Frozen Chocolate with First Figs of the Season

Mini Maccha Cake
Small Oatmeal Lavender Cookie
Salty Rosemary Walnut Biscotti

The music was inspired by the work of Herbie Hancock. We began with modal jazz funk and moved to variations of Honky Tonk, where HH is playing I think three different pianos with Miles Davis. Recorded in DC in the 1970’s these sets are an extrapolation of the late sixties work In a Silent Way which we also played… I am a sucker for variations and the inability to repeat anything the same –so I love to play these so called same songs back to back…Honky Tonk lasts for more than an hour when you play all five versions together and they bleed into each other… this and silent way are about as far as I can go with electronic Jazz…they have everything I love about Jazz—improv, spontaneity, syncopation and in these tunes funk… I ended with HH first album Maiden Voyage, classic and also The Piano which is solo work which is nice to end on after everyone is a little drunk and tired… a great night… thank you Herbie!
Cantaloupe Island, Cantaloupe Island, Herbie Hancock
Watermelon Man, Cantaloupe Island, Herbie Hancock
Driftin', Cantaloupe Island, Herbie Hancock
Blind Man, Blind Man, Cantaloupe Island, Herbie Hancock
And What If I Don't, Cantaloupe Island, Herbie Hancock
Maiden Voyage, Cantaloupe Island, Herbie Hancock
Honky Tonk, The Cellar Door Sessions [Disc 5], Miles Davis
Honky Tonk, The Cellar Door Sessions [Live] [Disc 3], Miles Davis
Honky Tonk, The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 [Disc 2], Miles Davis
Honky Tonk, The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 [Disc 4], Miles Davis
Honky Tonk (Live), The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 (Disc 4), Miles Davis
Improvisation #1, The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 [Disc 1], Miles Davis
Improvisation #2, The Cellar Door Sessions 1970, Miles Davis
Improvisation #3, The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 [Disc 4], Miles Davis
Improvisation #4, The Cellar Door Sessions 1970, Miles Davis
In A Silent Way/It's About That Time [LP Version], The Complete In A Silent Way Sessions [Disc 3], Miles Davis
In A Silent Way, The Complete In A Silent Way Sessions [Disc 2], Miles Davis
In A Silent Way (Rehearsal), The Complete In A Silent Way Sessions [Disc 2], Miles Davis
Maiden Voyage, Maiden Voyage, Herbie Hancock
The Eye Of The Hurricane, Maiden Voyage, Herbie Hancock
Little One, Maiden Voyage, Herbie Hancock
Survival Of The Fittest, Maiden Voyage, Herbie Hancock
Dolphin Dance, Maiden Voyage, Herbie Hancock
My Funny Valentine, The Piano, Herbie Hancock
On Green Dolphin Street, The Piano, Herbie Hancock
Someday My Prince Will Come, The Piano, Herbie Hancock
Harvest Time, The Piano, Herbie Hancock
Sonrisa, The Piano, Herbie Hancock
Manhattan Island, The Piano, Herbie Hancock
Blue Otani , The Piano, Herbie Hancock
My Funny Valentine (Take 3), The Piano, Herbie Hancock
On Green Dolphin Street (Take 2), The Piano, Herbie Hancock
Someday My Prince Will Come (Take 3), The Piano, Herbie Hancock
Harvest Time (Take 3), The Piano, Herbie Hancock

Cornmeal Cookies

John has been private cheffing on the upper east side of Manhattan. His process usually involves multiple phone calls between us in which we try and hash out the dietary needs of the client as well as how far can we push expectations in our discoveries and experimentation with people and food. This amounts to what we have found to be not additions or multiple random ingredients thrown together but subtractions or reductions to the simplest forms of flavors, textures and colors... A great example of this is John wanted to make a cookie with semolina flour, I found an elegant Italian recipe made with almond meal and semolina flour, brown sugar and butter, just that simple. This worked perfect for his client. However the greater success happened when after visiting the Amish farms last year we came across an outstanding hand ground toasted cornmeal and needing another cookie for our vegan cookie selections we decided to adapt the Italian recipe by substituting the semolina with this toasted cornmeal and the butter with vegetable oil... here is the recipe...

Cornmeal Cookie
4 oz non hydrogenated vegetable shortening
1/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup corn meal (I use hand ground toasted corn meal)
1/4 cup ground almonds

Cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in flour and mix well. Add the cornmeal and ground almonds and mix to a firm and smooth dough. Pinch balls of dough, roll them into spheres, place on a lined or greased baking tray and then flatten each ball with a fork.
Bake in a 350 degree oven until golden brown.

buttercream

OK so many of you know I am vegan and so is Martin Lane (my 10 year old)... Vegan-ism has come to me basically since ML's birth... For in the time previous to her arrival I was the working Pastry chef for Ruppert's Restaurant–this occupation would preclude a hard vegan practice, in that I tasted cheeses and made many desserts with amazing cream from local farms and butter from France... This all brings me to a recent dilemma non-dilemma I had when faced with the request for the name of a baker who could make an awesome chocolate cake with white butter-cream icing... the dilemma non-dilemma was the hesitation of do I make something I know I make as good as anybody even though I would not eat this thing (tasting would not be a problem John is not Vegan)... My natural course of action is to convince the client of the truth: That any dessert I can make non-vegan I can make vegan just as good if not better... but alas, I knew in this instance that vegan was not an option... so my hesitation is personal just as is my choice of being vegan, that is to say that I do not feel the need to proselytize or force anyone into eating something they are not comfortable with as I expect the same respect from others... Ultimately I do have some ground level principles and if I am going to use butter and cream and eggs they are going to be produced using the best practices possible in order to contribute to the health of my client and to the eco-systems in which we participate... I am looking forward to cracking those farm fresh eggs with their bright yellow yolks, whipping butter with natural sugar and finding a source for raw milk.

making bread

I began to make bread seriously around the same time I met John. I was living in a basement apartment on Connecticut Avenue near Nebraska Avenue. The apartment had no windows and John had given me herbs to grow that I kept alive with grow lights. Doing with–with what I had as there was no room OR space OR light for a garden. Making bread in that apartment was a challenge as well, however at that time I was working as a lawyer and producing a documentary and to work live material with my hands was exhilarating. To make bread is to interact with a live culture and from this perspective I continue to understand the connection between Gardening and Breading.

Making bread I experimented with cultivating a live wild starter from just flour and water and letting this ferment into yeast. This is the process of making a sour dough. I also experimented with using fresh compressed yeast. Ultimately I found the fermenting starter too sour and the compressed yeast starter not rich enough. After months of experimenting and bringing John tastes to the catering company we both worked for at the time, I came up with a process of "AND"– I would make both a starter using fresh compressed yeast AND allow it to sit over night as one would do in the making of a wild starter.

I have made bread almost every day of my life since those early trys and I tell anyone who wants to learn how to make bread that it is a process that is informed by experience– the who, where, why and when. Of course there were experimentations with flours and grains and seeds in those early attempts... However the method of leavening was my most important discovery and this process has stuck with me and grown and changed in its many iterations from Connecticut Ave all the way through Rupperts... I consider my process a method of variation and echoing–Variation in the understanding that each time I make bread I know it will be different and Echoing in that there is an attempt to repeat what is desirable but ultimately this repetition will always be different even if in the slightest variation. I don't consider an echo any less authentic or desirable than my first attempts but all connected and original.

A few structural tid-bits on live yeast cultures whether you are making one from scratch by cultivating flour and water or you are using fresh compressed yeast.

1. Sugar activates yeast or feeds yeast
2. Salt inhibits yeast or kills yeast
3. Cold temperatures put yeast to sleep or encourages a dormancy
4. Hot temperatures will Kill yeast but WARM temperatures make yeast lively

So here again we see the process of "AND"–for you want to feed your yeast AND you want to curtail its growth at the same time... Like most encounters, we desire a lively robust experience and at the same time just enough control in that the potential is not squashed or squelched, while at the same time not being over run (I think of the 'I Love Lucy' episode in which she is literally forced out of her kitchen by a loaf of bread she was baking)...In bread making the "AND" entails being guided by taste. How the saltiness and the sweetness informs your process is usually where you will find your good mixtures in the counter actualizations of seemingly opposing forces that should instead be seen as acting in concert... The same goes for temperature–experiment with letting rise in warm areas or in the fridge depending on what sort of time constraints you may have and what sort of working strategies feel good to you...For if you like to work fast and are a adrenalin junkie you may want to work with higher temperatures or if for example you prefer cross country skiing to downhill skiing you may want to work in cooler temperatures... Temperatures in terms of liquids added and even the temperature of the room...

One final note this post is about the Making of Bread not the Baking of Bread–I will post about that later and here are my loose guidlines to making bread:

Fill a large bowl with about 3 cups of warm water. Add 2 tablespoons of fresh compressed yeast, 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 tablespoons of salt and a cup of flour. Stir mixture and leave at room temperature for 6-12 hours. Slowly add flour while kneading. The flour can be all-purpose unbleached but even tastier and healthier if you use other flours in addition to all purpose flour. Generally I use about 1/2 all purpose unbleached flour with the balance being one or a mixture of the following flours- spelt, whole wheat or buckwheat. Knead dough adding more flour until the dough forms a ball and stope sticking really badly to your hands- this will take at least 8 cups of flour. Set bread aside until it doubles in volume. Then form the dough into your desired shape loaf and let it sit at room temperature for an additional 30 minutes to an hour before baking.

Falafel

As far as falafel goes in DC nothing can compete with Amsterdam Falafel in Adams Morgan. The fixins bar is crazy good, roasted eggplant and fresh beets--...Fresh cucumbers... Pickled veg... We visit often! No matter how formal the dinning experience appropriate to the occasion nothing beats just plain good falafel balled and cooked to order... Our only complaint was the pita bread but recently they have rectified that with really good whole wheat pita.

We live on the other side of Logan Circle so sometimes we can't make it over to AFH. Fortunate for us a new Falafel joint opened near us at 6th and H. What's exciting about Urfa Tomato Kabob is that they bake their own middle eastern style bread for their swarmas and falafels. No amazing fixins bar but if you are stuck in need of a bite near Verizon Center and Burma (a favorite) is FULL check them out. Urfa deserves credit just for recognizing that bread is a crucial factor in the making of any sandwich.

"To Taste"

In response to, “what do you mean by 'to taste' in the pickled garlic scape recipe?”

This is something we have discussed, thought about and practiced for years. This question brought us back to a familiar discussion and with the help of John here are some thoughts:

"To Taste" is something we read often in recipes... What exactly does this mean? What sort of logic or underlying principles does the direction "salt and pepper to taste" constitute? What is challenging for the novice cook or anyone involved with creating an aesthetic experience for themselves or others is the ability to hold multiple concepts, tastes, flavors or senses in the head at the same time without negating or overpowering any of the contributing forces. For example take the first time one makes lemonade–usually the first experience with cooking we have here in the United States. We start with Lemons, Water and Sugar and we slowly start to build... squeezing fresh lemons... adding sugar... stretching with water or ice... this process is enabled by the act of tasting... I taste-it seems tart-I add sugar... I taste again-it seems sweet-I add lemon... I taste again-it seems too strong-I add water... what is going on is tiny adjustments where all the ingredients form a tension without canceling each other out... I want to taste lemon AND I want to taste sugar AND I want to taste water (yes water is important flavor/texture to lemonade) AND I want to taste the mixture we call 'Lemonade'... This is the logic of the 'AND' as well as the logic of taste where every flavor you add to a dish stands on its own and at the same time contributes to the tension of the whole without canceling the other ingredients out in the counter-actualization of a mixture... The process of "to taste" is really the logic of paradox (an apparent contradiction that implies that things are distinct while not being separate). "To Taste" becomes more difficult when we add more that three ingredients–for example while making a curry you want to feel free to add something like cardamom but you don't want this flavor to dominate yet you want it to stand on its own in a tension–taste distinct while not being separate, a non-dual truth.... Another way to think about this way of cooking is through music and contrapuntal composition. Take Bach's Goldberg Variations, through the entire piece rarely is more than one note played at the same time. The harmonies, resonances, discords and resolutions are the tensions created in-between the striking of notes at different times–apparently contradicting single distinct notes not separate and creating a whole. In other words each ingredient (note) can stand on its own as is, however contributing to a larger whole this single ingredient (note) enters into a series and an artichoke's artichokeyness becomes apparent by contributing counter discords and resonances in its mixtures with other ingredients (notes).... "To Taste" amounts to "Cooking By Ear" the working title of a book I am working on with John.

Daisies

In our first garden on 3rd and M street in NW we grew zinnias, cosmos and nastursium. This was the garden of chefs and not yet florists. That is to say that the Nasturtiums, although delicious, were always destroyed by aphids, the Cosmos were gorgeous in the wildness but hard to use or keep alive in large arrangements and Zinnias a flower a Rupperts' guest once described as earnest always seem to burn up so early in the hot DC summers. When we closed Rupperts I ventured out into the Flower business–doing flowers for the Georgetown boutique Relish as well as many other public and private clients. Needless to say our garden adapted to new needs and when we moved to 6th street the description of an earnest flower stuck with us. And in our most recent iteration of 'earnest' we have been experimenting with DAISIES. We have grown different types of Shasta daisies but have had the most success the varieties Becky and Snowcap. We find it difficult to cut these Flowers when they begin to bloom in June and turn our backyard into a wild meadow–but alas the more we cut the more grow and more importantly fresh cut, they contribute generously to my work as a florist. Also because of a recent daisy blight it is pretty much impossible to get these daisies unless you grow them yourself.

I recently did a Wedding for gardeners where I used blooming pea shoots, herbs and of course big bunches of Daisies– I found creating for gardeners incredibly intimidating, much more than creating for other florists or cooking for chefs... I later received an e-mail saying how wonderful everything was and how they appreciated the time put into the project... Gardening or growing anything is just about as earnest as it gets... To have an abundance of Daisies is a very fortunate thing...

I was recently contacted by Nole who has a website, Oh So Beautiful Paper," primarily dedicated to paper that also includes sources for other beautiful things especially ones that pertain to entertaining and weddings.
I enjoyed perusing the site since I too am passionate about paper and printing.
Oh So Beautiful Paper just made a post about my flowers…check it out! A huge thanks to the talented photographers in my life- Erik Johnson, Abby Greenwalt and Jay Premack. Your photos make me look so good!!!!

Garlic Scapes

A garlic scape is the chute that pops out of the bulb of garlic every spring–similar to a tulip. The farmer then snips off the scape in order for the garlic to mature properly. My question is where have these been? Have we traditionally disposed of these amazing greens? Maybe farmers have been enjoying them all along? I mean we have had garlic forever but only in the last ten years have we found scapes in the DC farmers market circuit. Today we got a huge bag of them from our CSA Clagett Farm. Every year in early summer we find as many as we can and pickle them. Someone at Rupperts even came up with a martini using our pickled version of this succulent green bean like vegetation... Pickle, grill or roast–treat them with the honor traditionally reserved for asparagus and you will have really made something from what I am assuming was traditionally discarded or kept by those in the know...

Pickled Garlic Scapes
Clean garlic scapes removing any dirt or brown spots and place them in a large bowl. Combine cider vinegar, water, salt, agave nectar, black pepper corns, and mustard seeds in a pot. Taste the mixture and adjust to taste, add more salt or agave nectar if necessary. Bring to a boil. Once mixture is boiling pour mixture over the scapes taking care to cover them completely. You can eat the scapes immediately or even better store them in the refrigerator and let them continue to pickle. They can be used in so many ways including chopped and added to salads, paired with roasted poultry or on their own.

Wild Alaskan White King Salmon

Navigating the waters as it pertains to seafood is tough. Healthy not sustainable, sustainable not healthy, blah, blah, blah... how about just good! Fortunately we work with Prime Seafood who is dedicated to selling only sustainable and healthy seafood....We are working on a menu for an upcoming catering party in which we want to create A. a cold main course and B. a seafood dish. To serve an elegant salad as a main course is something we use to do at our restaurant Rupperts. However to do this we need a pristine piece of protein, there is no masking with temperature or sauces in a cold or room temperature dish (most cold dishes should be called not hot dishes because flavor thrives at room temperature). Spring is the time of year to serve wild Alaskan Salmon because they migrate to fresh water where they can be caught. This Salmon is not local but unlike most local mid-Atlantic fish it comes from a healthy and robust population and is not over fished. We found 'white king salmon' and we are so exited about serving this rarity with peas and morels... No one is sure exactly why these fish are white but they are much more delicate and the flavors are perfect for our dish... Spring is the time when we can all enjoy eating salmon but make sure you are getting WILD Alaskan Salmon!

Eat or Gift Cookies

We had the opportunity to bake cookies all weekend to sell at the Twin Springs Farmers Market. Recipes that I usually make in small batches I times-ed by 5 to make over 800 cookies... We had fun cooking together, but also spending the day at the Market. The Saturday Twin Springs Market is in a church parking lot where John and I both grew up (Montgomery County, Md). It is run by Jimmy and has been for over twenty-five years--way before the DuPont Circle Farm Market was even a thought... What is amazing about this market (besides the STRAWBERRIES) is the people who show up there– show up every week, line up long before the market opens, and have been for the last 25 years... evidence that the so called food revolution should be thought of more in terms of an evolution and that we should be wary of so called food revolutions that ignore many pleasurable apparatuses and practices that are already in place... We hear over and over again what we are doing wrong, when maybe we should focus on is what we are enjoying right...

June 26, 2009 Restaurant 1508

Restaurant 1508, Number 3
Friday June 26, 8:00
1508 6th street, NW (between P and Q)

The June 6 restaurant was amazing, we can’t wait for the next dinner so we decided to do the next one, June 26th. For details about the June 6 menu and wine parings see the June 7th post.

This menu may include:
Apricots, Cherries, Corn, Tomatoes, Sweet Peppers, Okra, 1508 Fava Beans, Peaches, Locally Raised Poultry….
Herbs and greens from 1508 6th street, most other produce is from the members of the Path Valley Farm Collective located in south central Pennsylvania.

Reservations- I will accept reservations for parties of one to eighteen until full (eighteen being the maximum dinner guests for June 26). If there is space it is possible to reserve an entire table for 8-10 guests.
Please share this invite with potentially interested diners that you know.

Reserve via email- j.sidralane@verizon.net

Please advise if you have any food restrictions or allergies, vegetarians are easily accommodated.

Hope you can join,
Sidra
sidraforman.com
sidrapractice.com

Another Saturday Night @ 1508

SATURDAY... We had another AMAZING night at 1508... We celebrated a Birthday and an impending Birth... We shared with Old Friends and made some New Ones... Looking at June 26th for the next event...Stay Tuned... and in the mean time Check out this slide show of John making buckwheat noodles (above) and the menu, including Tom's UNTOUCHABLE wine choices (below):

In the Garden

Mussel Salad with Parsley and Lemon
Grilled Spring Onions with Thyme
Hand Cut Buckwheat Noodles with Sorrel and Borage
Carrot Cornbread with Rhubarb BBQ
-Derrick's Lemongrass Infused Martini
- (Dom. Brazilier) Coteaux du Vendemois Rose Gris 2008

In the Dining Room

Morel Broth with Mashed Potato Scone
- (Mestre-Michelot) Bourgogne Rouge 2006

Asparagus, Radish, Egg, Lemon, Mustard and Curly Cress with
Sesame Bread
- (Gerard Boulay) Sancerre AOC 2007

Lamb Shank with Peas, Kale, 5 Grain Gratin, Marrow Mint Butter and Spelt Foccacia
- (Vaudieu) Chateauneuf du Pape 2005

Tomme de Montagne with Pine Nut Crackers

Lavender Shaved Ice with Strawberries and Cashew Cream
- (Paillard, Pierre) Brut Rose Bouzy Grand Cru NV

Beet and Chocolate Cake with Candied Beets and Popcorn

Cornmeal Cookies
Coconut Chocolate Chip
Vanilla Cake with Mint Icing

As always we have been so fortunate to work with people, farmers, wine guys who love what they do and we love them for that and it is just FUN to share with anyone interested in enjoying food, friends and LIFE!