Porkapalooza

by Xani

I travel often, and I of course I eat when I travel, but I don't often travel just to eat.  This past weekend's visit to Boston was the exception to the rule.

A few weeks ago, an email arrived from Dave's Mom, M.  Attached was a scanned copy of an article from The Boston Herald, all about how Citizen Public House and Oyster Bar does a pig roast for groups of 10 or more, and Boston foodies are raving about the experience.  She had scheduled a dinner with a group of local friends for April 10-- was there any way we could join them?

Wow, what an invitation!  Were we really going to travel a few hundred miles for roast pig?  Well, in a word, yes.

Our Salty Ticket to Fame

by EP

A few weeks ago, I got an email from a reporter at the Daily Record, a business/legal newspaper asking if I would be interested in being interviewed about the blog for their weekly story about lawyers with interesting hobbies.  I, being an honest and loving sister and co-blogger, politely replied that I write the blog with my sister, and we are a package deal, so to speak.  And oh by the way, we are both lawyers.  Cha-ching!  Entertainment GOLD.

New Chef and New Season at B&O Brasserie!

by Xani

Sometimes, it's good to be a food blogger. In the past week, EP and I have been lucky enough to dine at two of Baltimore's best restaurants: Salt  (don't worry, post coming soon!) and B&O American Brasserie.  Now we've blogged about B&O before, but last night we were invited to try out the new B&O, with new Executive Chef Thomas Dunklin at the helm.  And, not to put too fine a point on it, the new menu ROCKS!

Check out that ink!

A Grandmother's Recipe for Hamantaschen

by EP

Readers should note that the title of this post is not "MY grandmother's recipe for hamantaschen," but rather "A grandmother's recipe."  Our grandmothers didn't make hamantaschen (ruggelach is another story), so when I decided I wanted to make hamantaschen for Purim a few weeks ago, I had to find someone else's family recipe.  I found this NY Times recipe, which won me over with the author's sweet story about her grandmother and the adaptations she made to the recipe after WWII (the heaping tablespoons of lemon zest in the dough didn't hurt either).

So, while visiting the BCD parents out at Blackacre, BCD Mom and I set to making these three-pointed cookies made to resemble the hat of Haman, the bad guy in the Purim story who tried to kill all the Jews (what else is new?).

A Doughy Weekend

by Xani

I know everyone is just on the edge of their seats waiting for more info about our interview the other night.  Well, you will have to wait just a little bit longer, although I will tell you that Salt was just as good as I remember, even though the last time we ate there was in 2008!  More details to come very soon...

Meanwhile, I spent a pleasant weekend experimenting in the kitchen.  First, I decided to try another America's Test Kitchen recipe, this one for Chicago Style Deep-Dish Pizza.  Now, I'm normally a thin-crust girl.  I can practically whip up a grilled pie or flat bread in my sleep.  But deep-dish is another animal.  I'm hesitant to even call is "pizza," it's something else entirely.  But ATK provided a thorough recipe, complete with pictures and video (another reason I love their site), and it looked too delicious not to try.  I got started on the dough and actually remembered the take pictures this time!

Dough phase 1

After assembling the dough in my KitchenAid, I started getting a little nervous b/c it didn't have quite the glossy/tacky consistency the recipe called for.  REMAIN CALM, I instructed myself.  For once, I listened, and by the time it had risen all was well, and I was able to shape it into this:

Now the crazy part, you slather it with butter!

And roll 'er up...

This is a form of lamination (which I've discussed before) and the ATK testers found that it was an important part of getting the flaky, light crust that is crucial to true deep-dish (heavy and bready is no good!).

A few more steps and another rise (this time in the fridge)...

flattened

folded, seams pinched to form a ball

ready to rise again

and it was time to shape the dough, slide them into generously oiled cake pans, and top them with lots and lots of cheese!

a half pound of shredded mozz on each pie!! plus a little of my homemade red sauce

aaand a little more cheese...

A relatively quick 20 mins in a hot oven, and they were ready:

TA-DA!

Ready for their close-up

Sliced nicely

OMG PIZZA!  I think you can tell from the pictures these pizzas were, in a word, ridic!  The crust got nice and crispy on the outside from the oiled pan and hot oven, but the crumb was nice and light on the inside, with a little richness from the butter.  Then, all that ooey-gooey cheese, and rich marinara sauce.  Yum.  One criticism was that the filling seemed a little wet, which after a few minutes affected the crispness of the crust and made things a little soggy.  Next time I will try using a low moisture mozzarella and/or cook down the sauce a bit more.

This was a fun recipe to try and a nice treat, but not the kind of thing I'm likely to make/eat all the time (one can only eat so much salad to balance out such things).  But this NEXT recipe is something I'm adding to my repertoire forever.  Another ATK recipe (god, I'm such a fangirl), this time for their Rustic Dinner Rolls.  I guess I've got a little confidence in my bread-making skills since my successful boule experiment, and dinner rolls seemed like a good fit since, unlike a large loaf, these can be frozen and individually defrosted as needed. (I hate throwing food away, and I think I would CRY if I had to throw away lovingly homemade bread because it went stale!)  Unfortunately, no pictures of the process (I got a migraine halfway through making these-- my wonderful boyfriend took over and "turned" the dough according to the recipe while I took my medication and laid in a dark room for a while), but the outcome.... WOW!

OK, they may not look like the prettiest rolls you've ever seen (again, they're "rustic") but they taste AMAZING.  Perfect crispy outer crust, great, light texture inside (from the higher hydration level-- love that ATK includes food science lessons in their recipes!), and amazing taste.  I could see these showing up in a bread basket in a nice restaurant for sure.  They re-crisp easily- just a few minutes in a hot oven and they taste out-of-the-oven fresh.

So, those were my adventures in dough this weekend.  What should I make next??

X

What's BCD up to Tonight??

by Xani

Are we spinning a salad, kneading dough, or roasting a whole pig?  NO!  We're headed out to a little spot known for it's kobe beef sliders, duck fat fries and green lighting.  And we won't be alone-- a reporter and photographer will be joining us.  That's right, we're getting interviewed!  For a real publication!  We're totally excited for the meal and the opportunity.

Details and links to come as soon as we have them.  I can taste those fries already...

X

Surprise!

by Xani

Hey BCD readers (if you still exists)-- surprise, I'm still alive!  And still cooking and eating.  Here's a quick post of some recent culinary treats, to whet your appetite for more BCD blogging!
Lobster:

Lobster Roll and Thrice Cooked Fries

Valentine's Day Special: We bought two big lobsters and ate them three ways!  First, boil them up, reserve the claw and tail meat for the lobster rolls, then devour every morsel in the bodies.  That was Friday night.  We also did the first cooking of the Thrice Cooked Fries so they'd be ready for lunch the next day.  Most of the tail and claw meat got lightly dressed and stuffed into a toasted, buttery split-top rolls (luckily we were able to find the appropriate rolls-- a real New Englander won't have it any other way!), and served alongside the fries for Saturday lunch.  The fries were excellent but in my opinion not worth the hassle, since the America's Test Kitchen one-step fry technique is just as good, and so much easier.  The rest of the meat got mixed into a decadent dinner salad with mango, avocado and, of course, homemade vinaigrette.  You know I love my salads!

Pizza:

Oscar-worthy Flatbreads

These are a couple of flatbreads I whipped up for Oscar night.  Using my trusty Ratio method for the dough, I shaped the breads and baked them on a pizza stone in a 500 degree oven (it was still too cold outside to grill them-- but luckily grilling season is right around the corner), then topped them and slid them back in to melt the cheese.  The one of the left has brie and peppedew peppers, on the right is a classic combo of caramelized onions and Gruyere.  We ate these before we lost our appetite from the bad jokes.

Bread:

My First Bread!

Above are the before and after of my very first home-baked loaf of bread!  Again, I used the recipe/technique from Ratio for a basic "lean" bread.  I cooked it in my Le Crueset dutch oven, like all the kids are doing these days.  I could not have been happier with the result.  Here's an interior shot:

It was absolutely fabulous slathered with butter and a little salt (but what isn't?)

Weeknight dinner:

Spinach Gratin with Poached Eggs

My new favorite thing is poaching eggs.  It's so easy and they cook up perfectly.  I'm eating less meat these days so eggs are a good protein source to include in dinner.  This spinach gratin (which you can see hiding under the eggs) was actually supposed to be the main course, but the spinach cooked down to nothing! I had to supplement the meal and poached eggs were the perfect solution.  A little toasted whole wheat pita was the perfect thing to dip in the runny yolks.  

So there's a little update on what I've been eating for the past few months, just in case you'd been tossing and turning all night wondering ;)  I'm hoping to post more now that spring is on its way and fresh, delicious ingredients are back on the menu.  And stay tuned for very special upcoming posts from Boston and, a BCD first, INTERNATIONAL BLOGGING!

X

The Hunt for White Anchovies

by EP

Okay, so, this is awkward.  It's been a long while since we posted.  The good news is, we haven't posted because we are busy having fun with new hobbies; the bad news is, we haven't posted and now one too many people have asked me, "hey, what's up with the blog."  Hrmph.  But today's a new day, right?  And today, I had some great pizza.

This afternoon I met up with the BCD parents, who were in town to watch the lovably awful Terps in one of their last home games of the season.  We enjoyed a late lunch at Scittino's, a family-owned pizza place and Italian market in Catonsville.  I have fond memories of Scittino's, since my parents met me there for some celebratory pizza shortly after I found out I passed the bar exam (still feels good to say that).