Truffles

We got our first truffles of the season today through Oregon Mushrooms who we have dealt with over the last couple of years. Truffles are one of the few legendary flavors in my mind that actually live up to the hype. I spoke with Tim on Monday about what types of truffles would be available this week since the season has just begun. He knew that he would have Italian White Alba and Burgundy truffles. On Wednesday Tim called saying that the Oregon truffles were not quite ready for harvest, they would need another few days and that he would have French black truffles in a couple of weeks. We ordered Burgundy truffles which we received this morning.

Alba White Truffles are the most flavorful of all truffles and also by far the most expensive. We use these shaved fresh over mashed potatoes or cauliflower puree, the warmth from the food sets off the sharp muskiness of the truffles. French Black Perigord truffles and Italian Burgundy truffles are slightly less intense than Alba truffles but are each unique and deeply aromatic. Tomorrow at our Home Lunch we are going to put thin slices of Burgundy truffles under the skin of Eco Friendly Foods chicken and then finish them off with fresh slices on top.

We look forward to getting the Black Oregon truffles soon. They have a vaguely chocolaty taste and are much less expensive than the imported truffles. This allows for experimentation and generous shavings on a variety of foods. Oregon Black truffles are also great in desserts, especially custards and ice cream.

We will incorporate all types of truffles into our menus throughout the winter.

Local Brussel Sprouts

We got the our first local brussel sprouts of the season from Twin Springs Wednesday market. We are going to roast them and pass them at a Home Lunch at 1508 this Friday. Brussel sprouts have a bad reputation because many people think of them as a stinky vegetable. The smell is caused by overcooking. The process of overcooking brussel sprouts actually causes a chemical reaction that emits sulfur which causes both a bitter taste and bad smell.

On the other hand lightly cooked or raw and marinated brussel sprouts seem unrelated. They often pleasantly surprise people who have previously only eaten overcooked sprouts.

To roast sprouts take a thin slice off the end,where the sprout was attached to the plant, and then cut the sprout in half longways. Heat a heavy bottom skillet over medium high heat. Lightly coat the brussel sprouts in grapeseed oil and season with salt and pepper. Cook cut side down until lightly browned, about 1-2 minutes. Flip the brussel sprout over and cook on the other side until the sprout is just tender, the time will vary from 1-3 minutes depending on the size of the sprout. One of my favorite accompaniments to roasted brussel sprouts is pickled ginger.

To marinate sprouts take a thin slice off the end,where the sprout was attached to the plant, and then cut the sprout in half longways. If the sprouts are very large cut them into quarters. Season sprouts with salt and cover with a vinaigrette of your choice composed of 3 parts vinegar to 1 part oil. One of my favorites is rice wine vinegar and sesame oil. Let the sprouts sit for 30 minutes at room temperature for lightly marinated sprouts or up to 24 hours in the refrigerator.

Micro Greens

Photo Jacqulyn Maisonneuve

The gardening season is winding down. Huge fig leaves are falling and lots of our crops have been pulled up and replaced by green manure. We still have kale, chard, cabbage, tomatoes and horseradish growing...but it seems to be growing in slow motion compared to mid-summer. I relish the change in season and look forward to a little less garden time but already miss just picked from our garden produce...especially salad greens.

In an attempt to keep growing greens throughout the winter we have set up a small micro green farm under a sky light in our house. We hung large window boxes on the wall, fitted them with 8 shallow trays, filled those with a layer of potting soil and sprinkled them with 8 different types of organic seeds. We covered the seeds with paper towels and water them a few times a day with a spray bottle. We planted Friday and the photo is of the seeds yesterday! The greens grow at different rates but some might be ready to eat by this Friday and all will be ready within the month.

We were first introduced to micro greens years ago when Mike Pappas, who had just started Eco Farms showed up at the back door of our restaurant with a variety of enticing micro greens. Immediately we were seduced by the intense flavors and the unique textures and used them to enhance a variety of dishes. Mike grows his greens 8 miles from DC in Lanham Maryland on a small plot of land using bio-intensive farming methods. Years later we are anxious to grow own, experiment with different varieties of greens and use them immediately after harvesting.

Micro greens are packed full of nutrients. It is believed that not only do they contain all of the nutrients of larger greens but also the additional benefits of the energy and nutrients that they would use up in the process of growing larger. They are classified as a functional food, one that provides benefits beyond their basic nutritional profile.

We are excited about our new indoor farming project and hope for success!

Local Fall Dahlias

Photo: Jay Premack

For the last few weeks I have been using lots of local dahlias. The colors and varieties are vast and make each flower arrangement unique and exciting. The most beautiful dahlias are delicate and do not travel well...luckily Bob Wollam grows a huge variety of dahlias and brings them into DC several times a week. The size of a dahlia flower can range from 2 inches to 1 foot in size. A little research on why there are so many varieties of dahlias revealed that they are octoplodis, meaning that they have eight set of homologous chromosomes instead of the two sets usually found in plants. This gives dahlias 4 times the ability of most other plants to cross breed into different varieties since homologous chromosomes contain hereditary factors such as color, shape, size and petal configuration. New varieties of dahlias are created from both purposeful and accidental (by bees) cross breeding.

Dahlias are available from mid July through the fall. Bob says that he still has lots of flowers blooming, he is able to protect them from light frosts but once a hard frost hits the season will be over.

pumpkin seeds


One of my favorite things to make, serve and eat this time of year is sweet and salty roasted pumpkin seeds. I eat them as a bite on their own, as a garnish to any fall fruit concoction or with pumpkin, sweet potato or squash desserts.

Pumpkin seeds appeal all year long but at this time of year they are at their freshest and pair well with seasonal foods. Over the last couple of weeks we have served them many different ways: roasted and combined with fall squash, in a green salad with banyuls vinaigrette and a quenelle of polyface farm eggs, roasted and added to a spelt bread and to garnish several sweet courses.

I save the seeds from pumpkins and fall squashes to roast, often with olive oil and salt. The unhulled seeds are my favorite for snacking. Hulled pumpkin seeds work well for both savory and sweet dishes.

Nutritionally pumpkin seeds are miraculous! They are believed to help promote prostate health, help with arthritis, and lower cholesterol... They are also full of minerals, protein and monounsaturated fat.

Sweet Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

2 cups Hulled Pumpkin Seeds
3 tablespoons Agave Nectar
Himilayan Salt to taste
1 tablespoon sugar (ideally organic fair trade)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a sheet tray combine pumpkin seeds, agave nectar and salt to taste. Roast stirring regularly until seeds are darkly toasted but not burnt.

Remove from the oven and stir in sugar. Continue stirring as they cool to prevent them from sticking to the sheet tray. These store for several days in an air tight container.

Induction Heat

Our New Induction Heat Burner
Cassete Feu My Mother used Catering

We just bought a couple induction heat burners to cook tomorrow night in a kitchen that has no stove or oven. My Mother used Cassette Feus, which amounted to fancy French camping stoves or portable butane burners–Barely an upgrade from Sterno. Our new induction heat burners operate on the same technology that a lot of metal work uses. We barely understand and the picture below is the inside of one of our machines. The digital world is frightening sometimes... I mean when something gets hot, I want to see flames... And when something gets Hotter, I want to see bigger Flames! Analog Flames!!

What happens is when a flat bottom pan, that is electrically conductive (conducive to magnetics), hits the surface of the induction burner, an oscillating current is applied to a copper coil which produces an oscillating magnetic field. This electromagnetic field sends energy through the metal thereby creating resistance–heat. This process will only work on pots and pans that a magnet will stick to... we spent most of the evening sticking magnets to our favorite pans. (I guess its safe to say that if cooking is the wonderful mix of art and science we definitely fall on the art side of things.) Fortunate for us we have a love of cast iron in le Creuset cookware and the French saute pans we brought home from Rupperts.

I am not going to even pretend to fully understand–however what is interesting is that different from standard electric flat stove tops, these burners are much more efficient in terms of energy. They heat up super fast And get very hot–John used them for a short time when he worked at Marlow and Sons in Brooklyn.

We are looking forward to the gig tomorrow night... Here is a peek at the menu... and the inside of our new machine...

Passing
Roasted Sweet Potato with Polyface Chicken Salad

Seated
Green Salad with Polyface Egg, Chives and Banyuls Vinagrette

Grilled Beef Brisket with Braised Turnip, Carrots Leeks, Potato, Barley and Wilted Chard
(vegetarian alternative available)

Chocolate Cake with Roasted Pears and Ginger

Cookies
Macaroon
Gingersnap
Rosemary Oatmeal

The Inside of Induction Heat Burner

blue weeds


I did lots of flowers last week. I got beautiful flowers from Holland, Virginia and others from South America...But I am enthralled with the porcelain berries that are growing wild in the yard of the abandoned house next door and coming over the fence into our yard. I incorporated these berries into two large arrangements that a couple stood between while they got married on Sunday, I sent some in a low arrangement to a friend of a friend who is in the hospital and I am using some in centerpieces for a dinner that I am cooking on Wednesday evening...

A little internet research revealed that the porcelain berry is considered an invasive plant. There is documentation about how it has overtaken yards, open spaces and killed other plants. I am pretty certain that will not happen in our little eco system over here because we will use as much of it as we can cut in flower arrangements.

These berries make me examine the classification of weed vs flower...I must admit that this is not my first time picking weeds to use as decor or food. During the first few years that we had Rupperts Restaurant an abandoned lot/parking lot (this is where the convention center now stands) was across the street. In that parking lot the most beautiful purpley blue flowers grew and often we would try cutting them and putting them in vases for the restaurant, however they did not like being cut and always wilted and died before dinner. I have had more success with edible weeds and love to eat both pursalane and chickweed. In fact I have been known to purchase bags of both of these "weeds" for salads.

Another thing that attracts me to these blue berries that I found in my yard is the color. Blue flowers are hard to come by and are a great compliment to so many other colors. There are blue hydrangeas and occasionally a blue forget me not or muscari. Just this week we saw a news story about a new blue rose, to me it looked more purple than blue! Although blue flowers are hard to find I have many requests for them for brides who want to use blue. Usually we use blue hydrangeas or incorporate a blue linen or vase. If this weed was around all the time I would certainly use it lots. I will enjoy it while it is here!

fig hockey

We were cleaning up what John calls, "Sidra's Field of Chaos", after two weddings, twigs, leafs and stems are everywhere... And Then, a hockey game broke out... It started when a stray fig wandered out of the dust pan pile AND after Martin Lane had declared her unlove of figs... its been a long season and we have enjoyed a lot of figs but we could have never imagined a contact sport based on smashing this glorious fruit as so much fun:

photo by Jacqulyn Masionneuve

Girl's Night


We had fun hosting a fabulous group of 10 women and one baby at this evenings Home Restaurant.

We continue to enjoy the blend of late summer and fall ingredients. John made amazing "little ear" pasta. Tonight we tasted a bunch of new wines that we had not served before all of them were excellent and well paired with the food, thanks to Tom.

Tonights menu and wines...

Passing
Whitmore Farm Egg, Egg Salad with Chives
Chestnut Soup
Pomegranate and Quinoa Salad
Scallop on Kohlrabi with Pickled Kohlrabi
Roasted Sweet Potato with Fall Squash with Pumpkin Seed
White Sweet Potato
(Labbe) Abymes Savoie 2008

Seated
Black Cod on Cauliflower Puree with Tomato and Lentil
(Delaunay) Touraine “Estate” Sauvignon Blanc 2008

Wild Oyster Mushrooms with Noodles, Lima Beans, Leeks and Eggplant
(Raquillet) Mercurey Rouge Vielles Vignes 2007

Strip Loin with Horseradish Mashed Potato, Beets, Green Beans and Breakfast Radish
(Roucas Toumba) VdT “Les Grands Chemins” 2008

Farmers Cheese with Apple and Walnut Cracker

Carrot Sorbet with Coconut Macaroon
(Chancelle/Bourdin) Cremant de Saumur NV

Chocolate Cake with Fig and Ginger
(Guindon) Coteaux d’Ancenis Malvoisie 2007

Cookies
Ginger Molasses Cookie
Sweet and Salty Pumpkin Seeds
Oatmeal Rosemary Cookies

Flowers

I have been feeling pretty down all day...I have been working the last couple of days on samples and proposals trying to get a big corporate flower job that I found out this morning I did not get.

Seeing Jackie's photos tonight made me feel a lot better about the amazing work I am so lucky to have... beautiful flowers, food and gardens AND with my kid around most of the time!! It must suck to work at a certain bank these days... (I won't mention which one...)

Arranging flowers is messy work...stems, leaves, boxes and vases are everywhere...basically chaos. Now the flowers are all neatly arranged in vases ready to go to various events. Fig branches and some amazing weed vine with blue berries came from our garden, Dahlias came from Wollam Gardens in Virginia, viburnum, anemone, tulips, hypericum, hyacinth, lisianthus...came from Holland and hydrangeas from South America.

Thursday evening I did flowers for the opening of the new Longview Gallery space. Tomorrow I am doing flowers for a wedding. Tomorrow night we are doing an 'all girl' Home Restaurant. On Sunday I have a couple of weddings. Days roll right into days...

Jacqulyn Maisonneuve came by today and took a few beautiful shots of the flowers.




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Hana Market

Sometime all of us, especially Martin-Lane need a break from home cooked food. This evening after a long day of school and after-school activities we decided to go for our favorite carry-out...which consists of supplies from Hana Market at 17th and U.

This tiny, jam packed Japanese Grocery store that has been open for less than a year is our source for many items including maccha tea, seaweed, miso and fresh japanese vegetables that are grown on a local farm.

This evening we bought some frozen vegetarian goyza, dried wakame seaweed, a pre-made seaweed salad, fresh bean sprouts and some tofu cakes. We steamed the goyza, rehydrated the wakame and dressed it with sesame oil and soy sauce, dumped the seaweed salad on a plate, heated the tofu cakes and mixed the bean sprouts with lettuce from our garden and dressed it with sesame oil and rice wine vinegar.

We completely appreciate the small independent stores that supply us with interesting ingredients.

chestnut

Every fall we used to have a well dressed woman in a large black Cadillac would show up at our back door to sell us chestnuts. We would excitedly welcome her and buy about 100 pounds from this tweed clad Virginia farmer. At the time there were not many farmers markets around and before she started showing up, the only chestnuts that we could find were imported from Italy. The Italian chestnuts were always a bit tired by the time we received them and not nearly as good as the local chestnuts.

This woman who grew and delivered chestnuts also taught us a method of shelling chestnuts which prior to her information was torturous. She told us to cut the chestnuts in half, place them in water, bring the water to a boil and as soon as they were cool enough to handle remove the shell. This method is vastly superior to the other methods that we had previously tried. We added the provision to always use a dinner knife to remove the chestnut, not your fingers. Using your fingers inevitably results in chestnut being jammed under your nails. A condition that to this day we call "chestnut thumb". Pain that results from any substance under the nail–no matter what job or discipline is now Chestnut Thumb.

There are certain repetitive jobs in the kitchen that I really enjoy and mark the change of seasons. In the spring there are peas and then fava beans, in the fall there are chestnuts. Minds wander as monotonous prep jobs become moments of conviviality. The mark of a good kitchen is conversation...

For the last couple of weeks we have been buying chestnuts on Saturday morning at the 14th and U Farmers Market, from Kuhn Orchards. We use chestnuts in a variety of savory and sweet dishes. At last weeks Home Restaurant we served a Poussin Noodle Soup with Chestnuts and Turnips. This week we will pass a warm savory Chestnut Soup while guests are gathering. Over the next couple of weeks I will pair chestnuts with chocolate and also probably make a dessert with chestnuts and fall fruits.

Chestnut Soup

Onion
Garlic
Shelled Chestnut
Sherry Vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Sage

Sweat onion and garlic. Add water and chestnuts and cook until chestnuts are soft. Puree until smooth adjusting the amount of water until desired thickness is achieved. Season with sherry vinegar, salt, pepper and sage to taste.
Serve warm.