Scrambled Eggs, Ramsay Style

I have been experimenting with scrambled eggs recently. Usually, I would beat them in a bowl, slowly pour the mixture into a hot pan with olive oil, and stir continuously with a fork, slowly folding the curds of eggs as they form. If anything, this technique was probably more like an omelet than scrambled eggs, but it was pretty flavorful and the constant stirring ensured that the eggs wouldn't dry out.

However, I stumbled upon a clip posted on Youtube of Gordon Ramsay making scrambled eggs with a technique I had never seen before. What he did was to put the eggs in a pot, put a pat of butter into the eggs, and then begin beating the eggs with a spatula while cooking it over a fairly high heat. You continue stirring, taking the pot off the heat at times to ensure that eggs don't burn, dry out, or overcook. When the eggs have set, you season with salt and pepper and then put in a dollop of creme fraiche in order to cool the mixture and give it richness. What results is a custard like concoction that has a rich, velvety texture. My version above used heavy cream instead of creme fraiche, but was otherwise identical. I also placed some chopped chives on top to give the dish a little bite. The key, I think, is the continual stirring in order to prevent burning or huge curds from forming...not wholly dissimilar to the old technique I used to make scrambled eggs. Anyway, it is good to have something else in my repertoire and I will probably use my old technique solely to make omelets now and use this one when I want to have something a bit more luxurious and rich for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a late midnight snack.

Toscana Grill - Courthouse 1/23/2011

My future brother in law had a Groupon to this self-proclaimed "Eco-Friendly, Organic Italian Restaurant," so he decided to take me out to lunch. It is located in a development on Clarendon Boulevard that also houses the Velocity 5 Sportsbar and is located near the Ray's the Steaks and the AMC Courthouse movie theatre. Unfortunately, it isn't located directly on Clarendon Boulevard, so I spent approximately 10 minutes wandering through faux arcades and plazas with tessellated mosaic tiles before I finally managed to stumble upon it.

There were only two or three other parties dining there when I arrived and we were quickly seated. The menu was slightly confusing; select items had random codes attached to their descriptions. It took me a while for me to find the key before I was able to decipher that VG signified vegan, VT was merely vegetarian, OR was organic, GF was gluten free, and SPICY probably meant spicy (just a wild guess...it wasn't in the code key). So, it is one of those type of places...you know, those crunchy, granola ridden holes that caters to people wearing sandals and hemp and who are otherwise too stoned to care whether the vegetable-based, factory-processed proteins (probably shaped by the hands of sweatshop migrant labor) are underseasoned and overcooked. My expectations duly plummeted. Unfortunately, then the bread came.

The bread was tasteless, dry, and slightly stale. I tried dipping it in the olive oil, but because of the huge blot of balsamic vinegar floating in the middle of it, the olive flavor was completely masked by the tart fruitiness of the balsamic. I resorted to the butter. Things weren't looking good.



Luckily, the actual entrees were better. My dining companion ordered the eggplant parmigiana (GF, VG) while I ordered the Shrimp Risotto (SPICY), one of the least coded items on the menu. The shrimp risotto was surprisingly not bad. The rice was toothsome, the tomato sauce was not tinny, overly bright, or ketchupy, the shrimp was not rubbery. and it had a nice tart flavor with a little SPICY kick to it. It reminded me of jambalaya, actually, and while this is a dish far afield from the Tuscan hills, I enjoyed it.



I tried a bite of the eggplant parmigiana and was not similarly impressed. The eggplant was bland, the pasta was overcooked, and the sauce was rather heavy and unimpressive. I only had one bite though, so perhaps it develops in flavor if you leave it on the table for a while (like a fine Brunello developing in the glass...right?).



We had some extra cash on the Groupon left over, so we ordered a chocolate cake. It was ok. A little dry near the edges, but the chocolate had a decent, dark depth to it.



The service was fine. The waitress was nice and the water was refilled with a satisfactory frequency. I don't know if I would go out of my way to try this again...it seems like the deformed bastard child that would spring forth from an Olive Garden crossbreeding with a health food store in Berkeley, but I wouldn't write the place off. I had no regrets dining here.

Linguine alle (canned) vongole

This was a quick pasta dish I made the other day out of random pantry goods I found buried in the back of my cupboard. Basically I just started off by heating some crushed garlic, chopped anchovies, and red pepper flakes in a pan. I then deglazed with some crappy Chilean chardonnay. After the wine reduced, I tossed in a small can of chopped clams with the liquid. I waited for the liquid to reduce and tossed in the cooked linguine (slightly more than al dente) into the pan with a little bit of pasta water. Tossed the linguine several times in the pan to coat the sauce evenly throughout the pasta, sprinkled some chopped flat leaf parsley (vastly superior to curly parsley), tossed it again, and then plated it. And, it came out much better than i expected. The semolina from the linguine seemed to slough off into the sauce as it cooked in the pan, given the sauce a pleasant, yeasty texture. The clams were ok, but the anchovies helped provide needed brininess; if I were to ever make a sauce with fresh clams, I think adding anchovies would be superfluous. And the herbaceousness of the flat leaf parsley added some lift and brightness to the dish. Not bad for a ghetto pasta dish thrown together in 15 minutes.

International House of Pancakes (IHOP) - Columbia Heights 1/21/2011

International House of Pancakes (IHOP)
1400 Irving St NW
Washington, DC 20009

IHOP has finally arrived in the District! Now, no longer do we have to sally forth to the hinterlands of NoVa in order to satiate a 3:00 am craving for a stack of pasty flapjacks smothered in the finest synthetic maple syrup that $4.99 can buy. The IHOP in Columbia Heights opened several months ago, but I didn't have an opportunity to try the place until this weekend. The IHOP is the most recent addition to the cornucopia of chain restaurants that now grace this little corner of Columbia Heights. Embedded within the Target complex, it is across the street from the Five Guys, near a Chipotle, below a Pizza Hut (located in the Target) and next to a freestanding Panda Express. All we need is an Orange Julius and this would be one of the finest open-air mall food courts in the District.

This IHOP seems to serve a niche that the original planners of this development inexplicably failed to address during the original construction...a sanctuary providing on a daily basis 24 hours of post-bacchanalian respite where one can sober up by soaking up the booze in one's stomach with a liberal dose of pancakes, burnt bacon, and overcooked eggs. Now, this grievous oversight has been remedied (not to mention it can also double as a dessert place to go to in order to cap off a fine meal of chow fun and teriyaki at the aforementioned Panda Express).

As mentioned earlier, the IHOP is embedded within the Target complex and is only accessible on Irving Street. Unfortunately, because of this, you don't have the soul-stirring sight of the iconic blue roofed, A-frame pagoda to greet you when you first approach. The interior also has much to be desired...it is almost monochromatically beige and feels like the basement cafeteria of a college dorm.



I went there with a friend around midnight. Service was a little confused and slightly inattentive. I placed my order with one waitress, and then five minutes later, another waitress came up. After trying to sell me on the all-you-can-eat pancakes (which I had already gleefully ordered from the first waitress), she departed and literally a minute later the first waitress came back with our coffee. Unfortunately, she failed to bring any utensils with her, so I had to use a (sealed) straw (that was probably left over from the previous cover) in order to stir in the cream and sugar.



Luckily, the food made up for chaotic service. Right now, IHOP has an all-you-can-eat pancake special, so I ordered the $4.99 deal: five flapjacks on the first plate with as many additional servings of 3 pancakes that you can eat. I only ordered one extra helping, but since I still managed to gorge on eight pancakes for $5 (which is probably 7 more than I should have ate considering I ate earlier that night), I more than got my money's worth.



So, go now if you are going to go at all. The pancakes aren't exactly light as feathers, the syrup is treacly, artificial, and slightly gross, the service is disordered, and the ambiance is the pits...but, for some reason, there is no other place I would prefer going to after 2:00 am on a weekend night (though that is probably because everything else is closed).

Astor Mediterranean - Arlington 1/21/2011

Astor Mediterranean
2300 North Pershing Drive
Arlington, VA 22201-1428
(703) 465-2306

Astor Mediterranean is a small local chain with two locations: one in Arlington and the other in Adams Morgan. Several friends decided to have a group meal and after much debating, balloting, cajoling, and vote rigging, we finally decided to go to the Arlington branch.

The Arlington branch is located in a rather dilapidated building which also houses a Army/Navy Career Center and is across the street from an abandoned strip mall currently being demolished by a bulldozer. The interior of the restaurant, despite the neighborhood consisting primarily of rubble, rusting I-beams, and other wonderful iterations of urban blight and squalor, is actually fairly nice. Astor Mediterranean seems to be primarily a takeaway place...a lot of douchy recent college grads in hoodies and sweats were coming in and ordering out, and for some reason they were all wearing cheap flip flops and sandals in 10 degree weather (to each his own I guess). Since Astor is essentially a deli, you order at the counter, receive a ticket, and wait for your ticket to be called. While there is no table service, there are several tables available for sit down, and they even serve the food with china and silverware if you choose to eat in. They also have some flatscreens where you can watch the crawl on CNN when you get tired of talking to your dining companions (i.e., a great first date place! Sure to impress!).

I went up the counter, checked the selections, and decided to order the kufta kabob. Essentially, we are talking about ground sirloin seasoned with several herbs and spices (like a Mediterranean KFC) redolent of the flavors and aromas of the Middle Orient (you know, cumin...maybe some salt). I had no complaints: the meat was well seasoned, had good flavor, and was moist. The rice accompanying the kabob was also seasoned and well prepared. There were some forgettable stewed chickpeas on the side and a leaf of braised cabbage, but they didn't detract, and the main players on the plate more than satisfied. The cucumber and tomato salad with yogurt sauce was also not bad.



Most of the people I dined with had the braised lamb shank which looked big enough for a caveman, smelled even better, and I am sure was delicious. It received plaudits from everyone who ordered it. Other friends had a salmon dish and a vegetarian combination platter, which they both liked. All of these entrees and the sides were less than $12 (mine was only $9).



I'll probably try the branch in Adams Morgan fairly soon, though it is smaller and doesn't have the lovely ambiance of urban decay that this one has. On all counts, I heartily recommend this place.

Roasted Chicken with Lemon and Thyme

Over the weekend, I decided to try roasting a chicken for the first time. I consider myself fairly competent at throwing together a pasta dish, grilling or sauteing chicken or steak, and whipping up a simple vinaigrette and salad, but I have avoided more complicated dishes involving proteins until recently. But, having done fairly well with a pot roast and the coq au vin, I decided to do a simple roast chicken. And, in my opinion, it turned better than I could have hoped.

I think the key with roast chicken is simply getting quality ingredients. So, I stopped by Whole Foods, bought the whole bird (which was only 20 cents more per pound than at Safeway) and some fresh herbs. When I got home, I first left the chicken on the counter to get to room temperature. According to Thomas Keller (I saw a clip of him roasting a bird) , this is done to allow the bird to cook more evenly. I don't know if this is scientifically true, but he's Thomas "French Fucking Laundry" Keller, so I'll give him a benefit of a doubt.

All I did with this particular roast was: season the cavity liberally with salt and fresh ground pepper; prick a lemon with a skewer and stuff it and some fresh sprigs of thyme into the cavity; truss the bird with some butcher's twine; place it in an oven-safe saute pan; liberally season the top with coarse sea salt, fresh ground pepper, and chopped fresh thyme; and place it in the over at 450 degrees for 45 minutes. After I pulled it out, I let it rest for about 5 minutes, carved it, plated the breast, thigh, and leg, squeezed a little juice from the lemon into the pan juices over and spooned the elixir over the meat.

The breast was moist, the thighs and legs thoroughly cooked, and the oysters of the bird were absolutely delicious. The coarse sea salt formed a crust on the skin, giving it a wonderfully crisp texture. And the pan juice, by itself without any additional trimmings or tricks, was the perfect sauce. Basically, this was a really satisfying dish that practically cooked itself.

Brownies

I made these brownies back in St. Louis when I had a proper oven which could do fancy things like bake breads and roast meats, unlike my current oven which can only hold my extra pans. I basically followed the recipe in the Joy of Cooking, though the sugar I used was half granulated and half brown. After you finish baking, little chunks of gooey molasses (from the melted brown sugar) riddle the interior of the brownies, imparting a rather chewy texture. Though the picture makes them look like a turd loaf, people enjoyed them a lot. I haven't made them in three years, unfortunately, and I don't even remember the recipe. I would have to find my old cookbook and try it again sometime...once I get an oven that can actually cook food.