Kapnos

With all the delicious restaurants in DC, it's rare that we go back to the same place multiple times.  Mike Isabella has done something special at his first restaurant, Graffiato, and it's one of our all-time favorites, so when he opened a Greek spot, Kapnos, we knew we had to try it.  We've always wanted to try the tasting menu at Graffiato, and since this was a special occasion, we decided to splurge and try it at Kapnos.  We turned over control to the kitchen, and let them make all the decisions for us.  We just sat back, relaxed, and waited for dishes to roll in!

Let's start with drinks.  They have a trio of kegged lemonades, each with a different liquor.  Justin started with the gin lemonade, which also had a slice of grilled lemon, batavia arrack, honey, thyme, and soda.  It had a slight sweetness to balance out the tartness of the lemon, and was quite refreshing.  I started with the mustachio, pisco-based drink with house made ginger beer, maraschino, angostura bitters, and lime.  It came in a copper mug with pellet ice (I have a thing for pellet ice), and was quite tasty.  Maraschino can sometimes be too sweet, but the ginger beer and lime cut the sweetness.

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For our first course, we were presented with a bowl of marinated olives, and two spreads, the tyrokaftarl and the melitzanosalata, served with warm flatbread.  The tyrokaftarl was the clear favorite.  The feta, smoked manori (greek sheeps mil cheese), and yogurt combined for a rich and creamy spread.  It was topped with thin slices of serrano pepper and grains of paradise, which gave it the perfect amount of heat.  The melitzanosalata, a spread of smoky eggplant, roasted red peppers, walnuts and feta, had a nice sweetness to it, and was a great counterbalance to the cheese spread.

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The second course consisted of a couple salads.  The first, and our favorite, was the spicy watermelon salad.  Slices of compressed watermelon were lined up and topped with pickled watermelon rind, and shaved fennel.  The watermelon was super sweet with just the right amount of spiciness.  The other salad consisted of roasted fennel, arugula, dates, and almonds.  The fennel was rather sweet, from being roasted, and not the usual anise flavor you get with fresh fennel.

At this point, it was time for round 2 of drinks.  I took our server's suggestion and tried the papadapolous, made with skinos, a Greek liquer made from from the Mastiha tree.  She described it as piney and nutty, and since I like gin, I figured I'd give it a try.  She did not steer me wrong!  It had a nice tartness from the grapefruit, but was balanced out by some honey.  If you're not careful, you could drink it in one big gulp.  Justin went with the gonzo, a drink made with genever, aquavit, spiced honey, and lemon.  He likened it to a lemon gin martini.

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Course three consisted primarily of seafood.  We were really excited to try out the charred octopus, since it's one of our favorite dishes at both Graffiato and Zaytinya (Isabella's former kitchen).  The octopus was served with green harissa and eggplant.  The octopus was cooked perfectly, with a nice char, and the harissa added a subtle spiciness.  We were also served the clams, a mix of razor clams, geoduck clams, and salt cod.  The sauce was citrusy and fresh, but we could've used more clams, and less cod.  The halibut made up for it though, sitting atop a bed of sauteed garlic and leeks, in an avgolemono sauce.  The halibut was moist and flaky with a golden crust.  The garlic, and leeks were confited but didn't become overly mushy, and lemon sauce were the perfect compliment to the protein.

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For the fourth course, we finally got to try one of the spit-roasted meats that were taunting us as they rotated before our eyes through the evening.  We had the lamb, served with some ancient grains, tzatziki, and harissa.  The lamb was perfectly tender.  Because of the charring and slow roasting didn't have the expected gamey, lamb taste.  The ancient grains didn't add much for me.  I would've preferred no grains, and more meat!  We were also served the duck phyllo pie with cherries and pureed pistachios.  The phyllo was only a couple layers thick, golden brown, and crispy.  The duck was extremely flavorful, though a bit on the salty side, so the cherries helped balance out the salt.  It was served with a pistachio puree, which had a bit too much heat and detracted from the dish.  Along with the lamb and duck, we had the gigandes, or giant beans.  They were tasty, but I would've preferred a different vegetable--we will have to go back and try the hen of the woods mushrooms and/or Greek Fries.

And if all that weren't enough, we still had dessert to come!  We dug our forks into the chocolate mousse

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cake with mastic ice cream, and the apple baklava with apple ginger ice cream.  Let's start with the mousse.  It wasn't a cake at all.  Instead, the mousse was formed into a long rectangle, like a candy bar, and had a thin, chocolate coating covering it with a crunchy bottom, reminiscent of a Nestle Crunch bar.  It was quite rich and decadent, though the mousse was extremely light and fluffy, and the cherry sauce added some sweetness to the dish.  There were also a few cherry jelly cubes, which I wasn't a huge fan of.  However, the mastic ice cream was a hit.  Mastic is made from the sap of the same tree that skinos is made from, and it had a piney nutmeg taste.  It was delicious!  The apple baklava was my favorite though.  I tend to prefer fruit desserts over chocolates, and this was no exception.  Baklava tends to be cloyingly sweet, so the apples added a nice tartness to balance it out.  The apple ginger ice cream had a nice spice to it as well, adding another layer of flavor to the dish.

Overall, it was a great meal.  The service was wonderful, and the food was great.  If you have a big appetite, and aren't sure what to order, I highly recommend the tasting menu.  We were able to try a variety of dishes, many of which were dishes we probably would've chosen on our own.  We can't wait to go back to try the suckling pig and roasted goat!

Super Bowl Spread

We've had our fair share of sports this weekend...a Wake/Maryland basketball game yesterday, the Caps/Pens game this afternoon, and the Super Bowl to round things out.  So what better way to cap off the weekend than with a proper spread of delicious bar food?  On the menu tonight were some wings, buffalo chicken dip, and "crack bread".

So let's start with the wings...a bar/sports staple.  We seasoned the wings with a little roasted garlic salt and some pepper, and placed them on a cooling rack, on top of a baking sheet.  This helps get all sides of the chicken crispy, and lets some of the fat drip off.  After about 10 minutes, we flipped the wings to make sure all sides were equally crispy.

 

While the chicken baked, we mixed together the sauce for our wings.  We went with a coriander chutney for some spice, and mixed it with Greek yogurt for a little extra tang.  Once the chicken was cooked through, we dunked them in the chutney/yogurt mixture.  Back into the oven they went to crisp up again.  Think of it like tandoori chicken...the yogurt and chutney bake into the chicken, the outside is nice and crispy, while the meat stays really juicy.

The wings cooked for another 15 minutes on each side.  To the leftover sauce, we added a little cilantro, lime zest and lime juice to use as a dipping sauce for the wings.  Once the wings came out of the oven, they got a sprinkling of cilantro and squeeze of lime juice.

Dish 1 down.  Now on to dish 2...the "crack bread".  Its basically a pull-apart bread with cheese and bacon.  Think of it as an alternative to loaded potato skins.  We started with a loaf of sourdough, cutting it horizontally and vertically, but not all the way through.  You're making nooks for all the cheese and bacon to go.  Rather than using bacon bits, we cooked up our own bacon.  And the secret to it all is the melted butter mixed with a little bit of ranch dressing mix that gets drizzled over the entire loaf.

The recipe calls for slices of cheese, but I've found that shredded cheese is easier to sprinkle into all the nooks and crannies.  Its best if you can have one person spread the bread apart while someone else sprinkles the cheese.  Once you've distributed the cheese evenly, do the same with the bacon.  Then you drizzle the butter/ranch mixture over the entire loaf.  Pop it in the oven, wrapped in foil for about 15 minutes, and then another 10 minutes uncovered.  What you're left with is a crusty, melty, savory finger food.

 

And last but not least...buffalo chicken dip.  If you haven't had the fortune of experiencing this delightful treat, you should go ahead and make this right now.  We seasoned 2 chicken breasts with salt and pepper and popped them in the oven to cook for about 20 minutes.  While those cooked, we fired up the crock pot and threw in a brick of neufchatel cheese to soften up.  You can use cream cheese instead, if you want.  Because we had some extra yogurt and ranch dressing mix, we threw them together and added that to the crock pot as well, in place of the blue cheese dressing.  Its our slightly healthier spin on the dip...I mean, it was 0% fat greek yogurt ;)  For the blue cheese part, we added in blue cheese crumbles.  And to top it off, add in buffalo sauce.  We went with Frank's.  Once the chicken is cooked, shred it up and add it to the pot.  Then sprinkle a bit of shredded cheese on top and let it heat up and melt together.  What you're left with is a delicious dip that you can serve with chips, celery and carrots.

All 3 dishes came together rather quickly and with few dishes to clean up (my favorite kind of dishes!).  Throw in a few beers, and you have the makings of a great Super Bowl spread!

Flippin' Burgers

When I first really got into cooking, I was (and still am) a fan of Rachael Ray.  Her recipes were easy and used common, everyday ingredients, and she made cooking look fun and easy.  And it turns out Justin had a bit of a crush on her too (which I can kinda see, she rescues pitbulls, can cook, and has delightful catchphrases such as "yum-o").  Anyway...one of the few recipes of hers that I still make are her spanikopita burgers.  The spinach and onions keep the turkey juicy, and the feta gives the burger a nice saltiness.  To kick up the Greekyness, I like to top them with homemade tzatziki.

So here goes...

Start by chopping up some red onion and garlic and get that sauteing in a pan.  Once they become really fragrant, and the onions are translucent, set them aside to cool.

For the spinach component, I take the easy route and just use frozen chopped spinach.  Once its defrosted, you'll want to wring out all the water so your burgers don't become soggy.  Just like I did with the kohlrabi the other night, you'll want to put the spinach into a dish towel, and just wring it out.

You'll be surprised by how much water comes out of the spinach.  To quote Justin, "The spinach is peeing!"  Yes, we're like 5 year olds sometimes :)

Once you've gotten as much water out of the spinach as you can, toss it in the bowl with your ground turkey.  Then you add in some feta crumbles, and the spices.  This time we went with salt, pepper, oregano, parsley, a little rosemary, and some dill.  Now its time to get down and dirty and mix everything together so all the ingredients are evenly distributed.  Then you're ready to make your patties and cook 'em up!

While the burgers were cooking, we made the tzatziki.  I like to grate the cucumber so its easier to get the water out of it, but Justin took the time to slice it really thin.  If you have a decent amount of time on your hands, you can sprinkle the cucumber with salt and let the water leach out of it.  But if you're making it while the burgers cook, you can squeeze out the cucumbers just like you did with the spinach.  Otherwise your tzatziki will be runny, and nobody likes runny tzatziki.

My mini food processor was the perfect size for the amount of yogurt we had left.  We just used non-fat plain yogurt on hand, but I prefer to make it with Greek yogurt.  It just adds an extra bit of tang, and its a little thicker than plain yogurt.  Regardless, either will work just fine.  So into your food processor, toss the yogurt, some garlic, the cucumber, fresh dill, a splash of lemon juice, and some salt and pepper.  Puree it all together until the garlic and cucumber are finely chopped.  And there you have it.  Piece of cake!

Sometimes when I make these burgers, I like to make a little salad to top the burgers.  This usually consists of sliced tomatoes, pepperoncini, red onion, and some arugula, dressed lightly with olive oil and red wine vinegar.  The only thing I had on hand this time were the pepperoncini, so I just sliced up a few for a little added spice.

And because you have to have fries with your burgers (I'm pretty sure there's a rule written somewhere to that effect), we made some sweet potato fries as our side.  And we had plenty of extra tzatziki leftover for dipping!

Best Birthday Ever!

I gotta be honest here, I usually don't look forward to birthdays.  It comes so close to Christmas that it usually ends up being an afterthought.  When Kara told me she had a special surprise in store for me this year, I knew this birthday would be one of my favorites--especially since it was competing against previous years, like the year I was injured in hockey practice, or the time I had to work late, or in third grade when my mom told me she got me a girl present by mistake.

Any guesses what the surprise was?  I was perplexed too, but I figured it was food related (of course!) and I knew it would be amazing.  For Kara's birthday I took her to Rogue 24, and I could see she was determined to have another unforgettable meal together for my big day as well.

She certainly didn't disappoint...my first time dining at the legendary Komi! I figured it out when we got off at Dupont.  It had to be either Komi or Little Serow, and seeing that Little Serow doesn't take reservations, my intuitions proved correct.

For those of you not familiar with Komi here is a bit of a background.  It is a small, intimate, and personalized experience serving a Greek inspired, prix fixe menu, custom tailored to each tables preferences.  Reservations are hard to come by, only taking them a month in advance of the day you plan to go.  Don't be discouraged if you can't get through, keep redialing!  It took Kara and her mom 45 minutes to get through, using 4 different phones, and even then, our reservation was still at 8:45pm!

I was visibly excited when we sat down, and I needed a drink to settle in for the gastronomic journey ahead.  Kara and I are both really in to all the inventive craft brews around now, and are big fans of porters and stouts.  Luckily, Komi has a decent beer list.  In fact, we both opted for a couple of our tried and true favorites; her a Duck Rabbit Porter and me an Old Rasputin Imperial Stout.

Finally, the small plates started coming our way, and from the very first dish the bar was set extremely high.  Frequent readers of this blog can probably figure out some of my favorite ingredients from some of the stuff we've featured, raw seafood, truffles, exotic meats, classic pastas, and international fare.  Those were all featured prominently in this meal.  I thought Kara had tipped them off, but she insists it was all a happy coincidence that some of my favorite foods were served.

The first few courses were bite-size dishes, gradually increasing in size as we moved towards the main course.  Our first dish was a bite size, house made brioche with smoked trout roe.  It was reminiscent of lox and bagels but was a very clean tasting and fresh take on those flavors.  Next, we had Komi's modernist rendition of spanakopita.  Kara had been talking about this dish since she'd had it in May, and it certainly lived up to the hype.  Essentially, what arrived was a small, perfectly golden brown ball resembling a croquette.  We were advised to eat it in one bite, so we popped those suckers in our mouths, and were treated to an outpouring of creamy, hot spinach from inside.  The next treat to come our way was a slice of raw salmon.  What really stood out about this dish was just how fresh and buttery the fish was.  It's natural flavors took center stage in this preparation and the flesh was velvety and tender on the palate.

The next round of dishes were a bit larger and built some complex and unique flavors.  The scallop dish that followed was like Chef Johnny could read my mind, and was able to create flavor combinations that need careful precision to be successful.  It was raw scallop (yum), uni (one of my absolute favorites), shaved truffle (what, are you serious here!), and diced turnip for a little textural component.  The end result was food porn bordering on over the top that Kara would never allow me to create in our kitchen.  That course was followed up by a perfectly grilled and seasoned baby octopus.

Ok, hopefully you haven't  drooled all over your keyboards yet because the dishes kept on coming.  If you've seen our post on gnocchi you are probably aware that it is my top comfort food.  In fact, gnocchi was   one of the items I made the first time I cooked a meal for Kara.  These gnocchi were amazing.  Fortunately, I was able to capture a video of Kara's reaction upon tasting them.  They were so light and tasty, no heavy sauce was needed, just some brown butter, Parmesan and chives. Kara and I are both adventurous eaters, and as fans of terrines, pates, and offal meat, we excited when the next course was a rabbit liver mousse on a crostini.  Again, it was seasoned to perfection, and it was extremely creamy in contrast to the crunchy bread.

When you think about Greek Cuisine, it is hard to overlook that simple sandwich staple--the gyro.  In this sophisticated riff on the dish, the spit roasted lamb was upgraded to wagyu beef, and the topping was a generous slice of foie gras.  Our next plate brought some salty and sweet goodness to the table.  It was a carmelized medjool date stuffed with marscapone cheese and topped with some sea salt flakes.  Again, dates are a favorite of mine, and I recreated this dish for my family this holiday.

You're probably thinking, wow what a great meal, but it was about to get even better as they brought on the main courses. Our pasta course featured homemade pappardelle pasta with lamb ragu, topped with orange zest.  This dish was simple but delicious, and the pasta and lamb worked harmoniously together without either stealing the show.  The orange zest gave the dish a fresh, brightness to it as well.  The meal peaked with the next main course.  It was a wagyu beef short-rib, served a perfect medium rare.  Accompanying this were toasted pita, pickled fresno peppers, turnip mostarda, and housemade tzatiki.

That last course was truly a tough act to follow, but the 5 dessert courses were sweet bites that rounded out a perfect meal.  Our first dessert was some creamed honey complemented with a crunchy granola-like component.  That was followed by an amazing brown butter ice cream with cashews and a bruleed banana puree. It was reminiscent of bananas foster, and I could eat a pint of the brown butter ice cream.  It was so creamy, decadent, and delicious.  Next we were treated to plate of house made chocolates and toffees that were quite exquisite.  Last but not least, we were each given a root beer lollipop, which made a nice little treat the next day.

All in all, it was a birthday I'll never forget.