Dining In: Washington, DC - 2 Amys

Hi everyone! I'm back from my blogging hiatus and it was much needed. We recently took a road trip to NYC and spent one night in DC with a friend. Despite the fact that we drove head first into an early snowstorm on the East Coast, our first stop at 2 Amys was a great contrast to the wintry mix outside. 

The restaurant is casual yet chic. You feel like this is somewhere you can down a couple of bottles of wine with a table full of small plates, pizza and friends all the while discussing American literature or global warming.  

They had an amazing charcuterie selection, which in my opinion, made the meal. We had capocollo, prosciutto, and lardo. 

The pizza was so fresh with a thin and chewy crust. The cheese slid off the pizza easily into your mouth and the tomato sauce was super light and mild. While I could eat these all the time, in contrast to the charcuterie, I didn't feel like the pizza was the star of the show. Rather, the charcuterie was fabulous and provided a strong, flavorful note to the pizza.

To its credit, 2 Amys has D.O.C. certification for 3 of its pizzas, which stands for Denominazione di Origine Controllata, which I learned after the fact. D.O.C. is considered to be the most authentic pizza you can get in the States. There are specific qualifications from the dough, to the oven, and imported ingredients. If this is what authentic neapolitan pizza tastes like then I think we need to make a trip to Italy pronto! 

Happy Monday and welcome back! Thanks for reading. :) 

Homemade Potato Gnocchi

A lonely sack of 5 lb potatoes was sitting on our kitchen bench. Since we rarely eat potatoes, I don't know what possessed us to purchase a 5 lb sack. I had some great suggestions to make gratin dauphinois or 5 lbs of french fries. But I decided to overcome my fears of making potato gnocchi and give it one more try. I tried making gnocchi once in college and it was a complete fail. The dough was a ball of sticky mush that never ended up in our mouths. 

This recipe is from Smitten Kitchen. I think I mostly chose it because I could identify with her failed attempts and the pictures made me drool. 

Ingredients

2 pounds Russet potatoes

1 1/2 cups flour


1 teaspoon salt


1 large egg, lightly beaten

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 400°F. Prick the potatoes all over with a fork, and bake them on a baking sheet for 45 minutes to one hour, or until they are fork-tender. For best results, turn the potatoes over halfway through the baking time. Let the potatoes cool slightly.

2. Peel the potatoes, and then pass them through a potato ricer, food mill or grate them over the large holes of a box grater into a large bowl. Add the lightly beaten egg and the salt to the potatoes and mix well with a wooden spoon.

3. Add the flour to the potatoes a little at a time, using only as much as you need so that the dough will not stick to your hands. When the flour has been incorporated, bring the dough together with your fingertips.

4. Dump the dough and any remaining floury bits onto a slightly floured surface. Knead the dough as you would bread dough. Press down and away with the heel of your hand, fold the dough over, make a quarter turn, and repeat the process. Knead for about three or four minutes.

5. Form the dough into a ball and then divide it into 6 smaller balls. On a lightly floured surface, roll out one of the six pieces using your fingertips into a long rope about 3/4 inch thick. Cut the dough into 1 inch pieces.

6. You can cook the gnocchi as it is now, but traditional gnocchi has ridges. To create the ridges, press each piece of dough against the tines of a fork. With your finger, gently roll the pressed dough back off the fork. This takes a little practice. If you find the dough sticking to the fork, dip the fork in flour before you press the dough against it.

7. Place the gnocchi in a single layer on a lightly floured or parchment-lined dish. If you’d like to freeze them for later use, do so on this tray and once they are frozen, drop them into a freezer bag. This ensures that you won’t have one enormous gnocchi mass when you are ready to cook them.

8. To cook the gnocchi, place them into a pot of boiling and well-salted water. After a few minutes the gnocchi will float to the top. Continue to cook for one minute then remove and set aside.

If your dough ball comes an unruly, sticky mess, do not give up! Keep adding flour slowly and eventually it will stop sticking. I thought about throwing the whole batch away when large stabs of dough kept sticking to my entire palm, but I just kept at it. 

The result is light, chewy gnocchi that is quite fabulous lightly pan-seared after a quick boil. Since these take considerable effort (especially in the beginning), I would suggest making a bunch and freezing for rainy days. 

Gnocchi-making aversion? Cured!

Memorial Day Feast

My two friends from college visited during this Memorial Day weekend and of course it was filled with eating! 

My current addiction is Camembert cheese from Whole Foods, which is imported from Europe (yes, they are back in stock). 

The Husband found me some white anchovies, which we now will need to have continuously stocked in our fridge. White anchovies with grilled romaine with shaved parmesan and olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar. Delish! 

The Husband channeled his inner Bobby Flay and roasted sweet corn and poblano peppers on our gas stove. This was then pureed into a sauce that was poured over some pan-seared chilean sea bass. Underneath you'll see the purple asparagus that has been shaved (hence no longer purple) and blanched. 

Basil pesto with homemade fettucini pasta. 

Homemade taro ice cream (again!). 

Needless to say, it was an amazing Memorial Day feast. Thank goodness we were running around town all weekend to burn off some calories! 

Have a delicious Monday! 

Linguine alla Bolognese

The Husband found a great way to use up the ground pork in our fridge by making this delicious pasta dish. He claims that he improvised this recipe and then figured out later that it was called ragu alla bolognese. Either way, it was scrumptious. This was his "improvised and estimated" recipe.

Ingredients:
linguine or choice of pasta
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 lb ground pork
3 thick slices of bacon, chopped
1/2 jar of your choice tomato sauce
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp onion powder
1/2 tbsp garlic powder
1.5 tbsp dried basil
pinch of whole mustard seeds
2 tbsp granulated sugar
salt + pepper
parmesan cheese
1 tbsp olive oil

Directions:
1. Mix pork with soy sauce, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Set aside.

2. Boil salted water for pasta.

3. Render bacon in pan until bits are browned and crisp. Add pork and cook until pink is gone. Add mushrooms and cook pork till browned.

4. To the pork, add minced garlic, tomato sauce, mustard seeds, and basil. Simmer on low heat until desired thickness and flavor has had a chance to develop. (The longer, the more flavorful).

5. Add salt and pepper to taste and grate in as much parmesan cheese as you'd like. Add olive oil and stir in right before serving for some earthy, grassy flavor.

6. Serve immediately over hot pasta.

Some mache lettuce with smoked salmon doesn't hurt either!

Seafood Cioppino Stew

I am a huge fan of seafood stews and soups. Every time we go to any restaurant I always gravitate towards any type of steamy, hot, and ocean-y goodness.  With a few extra hours before The Husband got home, I decided to try this recipe.

As a note, I didn't have fresh shellfish or shrimp so I just used some fresh cod and then canned cherrystone clams and crab meat. Next time, I will definitely plan accordingly and buy some fresh seafood! As you probably see, the swiss chard made another appearance and it was a perfect stew vegetable.  Throw it in right before you finish cooking the stew to preserve its great flavor and texture.

Don't forget to serve with your favorite toasted crusty bread!

Dining In: Durham, NC - Vita

We tried Vita, a casual Italian restaurant, in Durham one weekend... just because. I really loved the color palate in this restaurant. On top of that, our Pappardelle Carbonara and Prosciuto di Parma pizza were quite scrumptious. I think my new obsession is baby arugula on pizzas because they give everything such a spicy, zesty kick!

If you live in Durham and want a decently priced Italian lunch, go check out Vita.

Chicken Marsala

After a year of staring at the same bottle of Marsala wine in our wine rack, I decided it was time to try the classic Chicken Marsala.



I followed a pretty simplistic recipe:

1/4 cup all-purpose flour for coating
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - pounded 1/4 inch thick
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup Marsala wine
1/4 cup cooking sherry

1. Pound the chicken breasts into 1/4 inch thick pieces. I didn't have a meat tenderizer or mallet so instead I used a rolling pin, which also did the trick.



2. In a shallow dish or bowl, mix together the flour, salt, pepper and oregano. Coat chicken pieces in flour mixture.

3. In a large skillet, melt butter in oil over medium heat. Place chicken in the pan, and lightly brown. Turn over chicken pieces, and add mushrooms. Pour in wine and sherry. Cover skillet; simmer chicken 10 minutes, turning once, until no longer pink and juices run clear.







4. Once the chicken was cooked, I realized that with this recipe all of the sauce was gone except for leftover thickened sauce sticking to the sides of the pan! Having watched one too many Food Network shows, I quickly removed the mushrooms and chicken. Then poured some chicken stock into the pan and promptly started scraping the thickened sauce off the pan.

5. I let the chicken stock and sauce reduce and added some flour to thicken the sauce a little bit.

And.... tada!

Chicken Marsala on a bed of Linguine topped with grated parmesan cheese.

Classic Meatballs

With access to organic ground beef and sweet italian sausage, I decided to make some classic meatballs this weekend. This recipe is a variation of Mark Bittman's recipe in How to cook everything.

First, soak 1/2 cup breadcrumbs in 1/2 cup of milk. I didn't have processed breadcrumbs so I used some bread and ripped it into little pieces.



Saute 1/2 cup of minced onion in some olive oil (or butter) until soft.



Combine breadcrumbs with milk, onions, 1 egg, 2 lbs of meat (your choice of beef, lamb, pork, chicken, turkey, etc), and salt and pepper to taste.





Roll out the meatballs approximately 1-1.5 inches in diameter.



To cook the meatballs you can either sear them in a nonstick pan with some butter (or olive oil). For a leaner option you can roast the meatballs in the oven 375 degrees for 20-30 minutes, shaking the meatballs occasionally to evenly roast the meatballs.

In the meantime, you can prep your favorite tomato sauce. I like to make mine sweeter than the average sauce to cut the acidity (just add some sugar).



Final Product.



Top with some chiffonade basil and you have an entree when coupled with fresh pasta or a mini-appetizer like this!

Happy Labor Day!