Busy Nothings

A few nights ago, I decided to make a little impromptu dinner with a friend.  Eggplant, as of right now, is in season and readily available at my local Farmer’s Market.  So I decided to make my favorite eggplant dish: Eggplant Parmesan.  But before we get to that, my dinner companion was kind enough to bring ingredients for a delicious Greek-style salad.  She brought chopped Romaine lettuce, red onion, pepperoncini, and Kalamata olives.  The last two ingredients were particularly good as they came from the olive bar at Cash Wise foods.  To those ingredients, I added some garden-fresh tomatoes, homemade croutons, and a really quick homemade dressing.  All it contained was red wine vingear, coarse-ground dijon mustard, salt, pepper, and olive oil.  I thought it was pretty good but Katelyn thought it a bit bland.  I probably should have jazzed up the dressing a bit more with some garlic and some herbs perhaps.  Here’s what it looked like:

I then made the Eggplant Parmesan.  This is not so much a recipe as it is a process-all I did was the classic breading procedure that can be used for everything from vegetables to meat.  All I did was slice the eggplant into 1/2 inch slices, dredge them in flour seasoned with salt and pepper, coat them with an egg wash, and then dredge them in a mixture of Panko bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese.  It was then straight into a saute pan with about 1/4 inch of oil.  Pan fry until crisp and golden brown on both sides.  Then, I put on a little bit of Balsamic Tomato Sauce and some mozzarella cheese and put it underneath the broiler for melting.  Here’s what it looked like:

It was pretty good for the most part.  The eggplant was slightly bitter-I should have salted the eggplant before cooking.  That is, I should have sprinkled the slices with Kosher salt and let them sit out on a wire rack for about 1/2 an hour.  Then a quick rinse.  This will draw out some of the bitterness of eggplant.  Everything else about it was solid; just not spectacular.  The breading was crisp with almost a nutty taste from the fried cheese in the breading.  The sauce was flavorful.  Maybe I just needed to use more of that.  As it was plated, I guess I used a minimalist approach to everything. 

For dessert, it was strawberry shortcake.  As it was sort of a weak dish, I’m not going to share the recipe but I’ll just say I’m not fond of The Joy of Cooking’s shortcake recipe and I failed to see any great benefit to macerating strawberries in red wine and sugar.  But, maybe I just did things wrong.  Here’s what the final product looked like:

Maybe Katelyn liked it:

Unbeknownst to me, my brother Tim has a little MySpace blog.  His latest entry describes his incredible experience with a Hardee’s Thickburger.  You can read it here. 

I had dinner at Granite City Food and Brewery (GCFB) last night with Katelyn.  GCFB, for full disclosure purposes, is one of my employers, so you’ll have to keep that in mind in my review of the food.  As a quick primer on GCFB, it is a brewery/restaurant.  Each location, of which there are 19 now, has a brewery on site as well as a “from-scratch” kitchen.  The menu is large and fairly varied.  There are a number of burgers, sandwiches, salads, and “signature” items.  If I had to choose, however, between the beer and the food, I would definitely take the beer.  It is simply outstanding.  I especially like the Brother Benedict’s Bock and the Northern Light; I even like them in a 2-pull, where the two are mixed 1/2 and 1/2.  The 2-pull is what I drank last night.  GCFB does one thing that is fairly unique: it has weekly food specials.  This offers a chance for diners and staff alike to have some variety in the GCFB experience. 

And, hence, Katelyn ordered the Ravioli with Mediterranean Vegetables.  It was four-cheese ravioli tossed with zucchini, bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, and artichokes in a red wine reduction, marinara sauce and just a bit of cream.  It was topped with Feta cheese and pine nuts.  Here’s what her half-eaten plate looked like:

I tried it and found it to be a very nice dish.  The vegetables were perfectly tender and the ravioli were bland enough to be the perfect sop for a surprisingly rich tasting sauce.  I didn’t get to taste one but I imagine the artichokes were a nice wow ingredient that made the dish even more memorable. 

I ordered the Four Cheese Sausage Rigatoni but with some modifications.  Instead of sausage, I chose to substitute sauteed mushrooms and add some sauteed onions.  Obviously, I’ve tried this dish to “spec” and I found that my variation (by the way, GCFB is fabulous at accomodating diner’s differing dietary needs and desires.  If you want something different in a dish, just ask and the staff will do everything it can to accomodate you.)  was actually better than the original.  For one, I’m not overly fond of the sausage at GCFB.  Additionally, I love mushrooms and they add something called umami to a dish.  This flavor (on par with sweet, sour, salty, and bitter) is described by the Japanese as meatiness or deliciousness.  It gives a wonderful full-flavor feeling to food.  So, in some respects, my variation on the dish was just as meaty as the original.  And the addition of sauteed onions added a bit of sharpness and some texture contrast.  Tossed with some al dente rigatoni noodles in a cream, parmesan, blue cheese, ricotta, jack, and mozzarella sauce, it was a pretty darn good dish.  Here’s my half-eaten plate:

The Old Broadway is a stalwart downtown Fargo restaurant and bar.  It is probably more well-known for its nightlife (I’ve even done some uncomfortably bad dancing there once.) but it serves surprisingly capable food at lunch time.  The restaurant itself is a mix of dark woods, nostalgic vintage signs, and a beautiful black tin ceiling.  It’s just the tiniest bit disconcerting.  One the one hand, the woods and ceiling harken back to an old-school steakhouse, which offers a good deal of understated grace and dignity.  On the other hand are the faux antique signs that somehow can be found at every neighborhood Applebee’s, Famous Dave’s, and TGI Fridays.  Somehow, those signs just aren’t as comforting as the rest of the decor. 

The food, however, has no identity issues.  It is straightforward American bar food fare.  The Old Broadway offers sandwiches, pastas, salads, and burgers for lunch and in each of those categories, there are no real surprises.  That, by the way, is not necessarily a bad thing; a restaurant, in my mind, should only serve what it can do well.  There is no shame in serving “plain” or “old-fashioned” food as long as it is prepared with care with quality ingredients. 

In that spirit, I ordered the Rueben sandwich with sweet potato fries.  The Rueben was classically made-corned beef, swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and thousand island dressing on grilled pumpernickel bread.  The sandwich came out piping hot with the cheese literally oozing off the sandwich.  The corned beef was moist, tender, and flavorful while the sauerkraut added its distinctive zing.  My only complaints with the sandwich, and they are minor, are that the bread could have been a hair crisper and the thousand island dressing was not much of a flavor factor.  Perhaps a little more of the dressing or a more robustly flavored dressing would serve the sandwich better. 

The sweet potato fries were just as good.  They were devilishly crispy on the outside with a tender and slightly sweet interior.  It almost seemed that some of the sugars in the sweet potato had caramelized on the outside.  Needless to say, they were delicious and almost worth going back to the Old Broadway just for them.  My only gripe with them is that they came unseasoned to the table.  I shouldn’t have to season things at the table for this reason: food is seasoned better in the kitchen. 

Despite my small misgivings about the Old Broadway, I think it is a fine lunch destination.  I just don’t know if I would trust it for their rather expensive dinner menu. 

I made some decent cookies over the weekend.  Here’s the recipe: 

Double Chocolate Cookies, from Baking with Julia

1/2 cup or 2.4 oz all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

12 oz bittersweet chocolate, cut into larger-than-chip-size chunks

4 oz (1 stick) unsalted butter

4 oz unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 Tbl instant coffee powder

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside until needed.  Divide the bittersweet chocolate in half and set half aside.

Place the butter, 1/2 the bittersweet chocolate, and the unsweetened chocolate in the top of a double boiler.  Heat the mixture, stirring occasionally, until the butter and chocolates are melted and smooth.  Remove from the heat.

Meanwhile, put the eggs, sugar, coffee, and vanilla in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat at high speed for about 10 minutes, until the mixture is very thick and forms a slowly dissolving ribbong when the whisk is lifted and the mixture is allowed to drizzle back into the bowl.

With the mixer on low speed, very gradually add the warm butter-chocolate mixture.  Scrape down the sides of  the bowl and work your rubber spatula around the bottom of the bowl, then continue to mix just until the chocolate is thoroughly incorporated.  Add the dry ingredients and the remaining bittersweet chocolate chunks and mix thoroughly.  The mixture will look like a thick, marshmallowy cake batter.

Cover the bowl with plastic and chill for several hours, or overnight.  (It can be kept in the fridge for up to 4 days.) 

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line bakings sheets with parchment paper. 

Using a heaping tablespoon of dough for each cookie, drop the dough onto the lined sheets, leaving at least 2 inches of psace between each mound of dough.  Bake for 10-12 mintues, rotating the pans halfway through the cooking time.  The cookies wil puff, then sink and crinkle and wrinkle around the edges.  These cookies are better underdone than overbaked, so if you have any doubts, pull them out of the oven earlier rather than later.  These shouldn’t appear dry and they won’t be crisp.  Cool on wire racks to room temperature. 

Here’s what they look like (I think the kids had gotten into some of those cookies ):

I was mildly disappointed by these cookies.  They have a very nice chocolate flavor and a soft, pleasing texture.  However, like the recipe states in the book, it’s more like a cross between a brownie and a cookie.  That’s fine, I suppose, but I’m the type of guy who likes to keep things in their place, at least in regards to baking.  Hence, I like my cookies with more bite and definitely with less brownie characteristics.

 There is one really cool thing about this recipe.  If you make it, it asks you to beat the eggs and sugar for 10 minutes on high speed.  It really makes for a light batter with the addition of all the air into the batter.  I wish I had some smart explanation for it but I don’t.  Anyway, the kids like the cookies:

My brother was lucky enough to obtain a few large Salmon fillets from a friend who had been fishing.  He didn’t have any specific info about species or anything like that but the fish was very good.  It was a very firmly, fleshed salmon with a very mild taste.  It was not very oily either.  It probably would have been a very good candidate for poaching.  Anyway, with two fillets, I made two recipes:  Simple Salmon, of course, and Glazed Grilled Salmon.  Here’s the recipe for the latter:

Glazed Grilled Salmon, from Epicurious here

3 tablespoons (packed) dark brown sugar

4 teaspoons prepared Chinese-style hot mustard or Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon rice vinegar

2 7-to 8-ounce salmon steaks (about 3/4-inch thick)

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Combine brown sugar, mustard and soy sauce in medium bowl; whisk to blend. Transfer 1 tablespoon glaze to small bowl; mix in rice vinegar and set aside. Brush 1 side of salmon steaks generously with half of glaze in medium bowl. Place salmon steaks, glazed side down, onto barbecue. Grill until glaze is slightly charred, about 4 minutes. Brush top side of salmon steaks with remaining glaze in medium bowl. Turn salmon over and grill until second side is slightly charred and salmon is just opaque in center, about 5 minutes longer. Transfer salmon to plates. Drizzle reserved glaze in small bowl over salmon and serve.

I was disappointed in this recipe because, as written, the recipe just doesn’t give the salmon a chance to really soak up the excellent flavors in the glaze, which I really liked.  It was sweet and hot and complex all at the same time-a classic combination of flavors in Asian cooking.  So next time I make this, I will be sure to use the glaze as a marinade first.  I think the fish will end up much more flavorful all of the way through.  I must admit, however, that I did not cook the fish as directed since it was such a large piece of fish.  I used an aluminum foil method.  Simply oil a piece of aluminum foil and place it on a pre-heated grill (gas or charcoal, no real difference).  Place the fish on top of the foil and top with whatever-dill and lemon are obviously good choices (and salt, pepper, and olive oil too).  Cover the grill and cook until it’s done.    Here’s a picture of the fish:

Juano’s is a little Mexican chain with three locations in the Fargo-Moorhead area.  I went for lunch at the downtown Fargo location and was pleasantly surprised.  For lunch, it offers a taco bar that includes soup, hard shell tacos, soft shells tacos, and some bars. 

For an appetizer, as is the case with every other Mexican restaurant on the planet, I think, chips and salsa were brought out to the table.  In this case, there was a choice of two salsa: a freshly made concoction of diced tomatoes, cilantro, and spicy peppers and a cooked, pureed salsa.  Both salsas were good; although, I think the fresh salsa could have benefitted from using tomatoes from a local farmer’s market instead of the rather insipid tomatoes they did use.  And the chips, perhaps by design, were just not that crisp.  They seemed just a bit stale. 

After a few chips, I went to the buffet where the soup was definitely the star.  It was a chicken and rice soup with just a hint of tomato.  What made it so outstanding was the exceptional broth.  It had a very nice deep chicken flavor and just the right amount of salt and cumin.  Paired with the tender shredded chicken and rice as well as some cilantro and fresh fried tortilla strips, it was a truly wonderful soup. 

The tacos were also good but certainly not in the “wonderful” strata that the soup was in.  The taco bar offered either hard or soft shells and their choice of chicken, beef, or refried beans.  For toppings, there was sour cream, shredded cheese (a jack and cheddar blend), diced tomatoes, pickled jalapeños, and shredded lettuce.  Put together, these ingredients made a fair taco.  One could nit-pick with the ingredients-the chicken seemed a bit dry and the tomatoes should have been much better this time of the year-but for an all-you-can-eat taco bar, it was really pretty good.  Here’s a picture of my plate:

The bars were ok but really not to write home about.  There was a choice of a brownie or a carrot cake bar.  I had the latter and it was moist and sweet enough to be palatable but far from being anything exquisite. 

Overall, I liked my experience at Juano’s.  The food was good and with a little more attention to some small details, it could really be good.  Yet, at $9.50 a person for a taco bar, one might think they should be really good already. 

Here’s a couple pictures of my adorable nephews:

Thai Orchid is a little gem of a place tucked away near downtown Moorhead, MN.  It is a decidedly Thai restaurant with the usual selection of spring rolls, noodle dishes, and curries.  It is richly decorated in a deep red color that creates a calming and relaxing dining experience. The food is as good as the décor.  I ordered two things over lunch: Deep-fried Spring Rolls and Pad See Ew.  The spring rolls were simply amazing.  Fried perfectly; they came out as crisp and as light as you could ever want.  And the filling of cabbage, carrots, and spices was piping hot and perfectly seasoned.  It was paired with a sweet and sour dipping sauce that I think was made from sugar being very slowly caramelized in rice vinegar.  Put together, the sauce and spring roll were a great combination as they complimented each other instead of having the sauce completely overwhelm the appetizer as is so common in lesser restaurants.  Here’s a picture:

My entrée was also excellent but not quite as perfect.  Pad See Ew is wide egg noodles served with broccoli and egg as well as your choice of meat or tofu.  I chose the chicken.  What was right with the dish was a wonderfully flavorful yet slightly sweet sauce that provided just the right amount of flavor to the rest of the dish.  The broccoli was perfectly al dente as were the noodles.  Yet, the chicken was so randomly cut that while some pieces were cooked just right, other smaller pieces seemed a little tough and overcooked.  Overall, though, it was a very well prepared dish even though it was not nearly as good as the Pad See Ew at Kanlaya Thai Cuisine in Washington, D.C., by which I can only mean the utmost comment to Kanlaya.  Here’s a picture:

This recipe for French Toast, I think, is Alton Brown at his best.  He takes ordinary food, analyzes what makes it good, and comes up with a solid methodology to achieve those goals.  What he wants, and myself as well, is French Toast that has a nice but not overpowering egg flavor, complete penetration of the egg mixture into the bread, a fully cooked inside, a well-browned exterior, and a hint of sweetness.  This recipe does it all:

Alton Brown’s French Toast, (original recipe can be found here)

1 cup half-and-half

3 large eggs

2 tablespoons honey, warmed in microwave for 20 seconds

1/4 teaspoon salt

8 (1/2-inch) slices day-old or stale country loaf, brioche or challah bread

4 tablespoons butter

In medium size mixing bowl, whisk together the half-and-half, eggs, honey, and salt. You may do this the night before. When ready to cook, pour custard mixture into a pie pan and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Dip bread into mixture, allow to soak for 30 seconds on each side, and then remove to a cooling rack that is sitting in a sheet pan, and allow to sit for 1 to 2 minutes.

Over medium-low heat, melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a 10-inch nonstick sauté pan. Place 2 slices of bread at a time into the pan and cook until golden brown, approximately 2 to 3 minutes per side. Remove from pan and place on rack in oven for 5 minutes. Repeat with all 8 slices. Serve immediately with maple syrup, whipped cream or fruit.

This is what it looks like when finished:

I know this recipe takes a little more work than your average French Toast but it’s really worth it especially if you are using a nice country sourdough loaf like I was.  (BTW, it was from the Turtle Bread Company in the Twin Cities.  They’re great bakers.)  The recipe creates French Toast with a custardy interior, crusty exterior, and just the right level of egginess and sweetness.  I hope you give it a try.  One last note:  I made this recipe this morning substituting skim milk for the half and half.  It was still good but lacked some of the richness that I had enjoyed when making this recipe in the past.