Simple Syrup -- Complex Flavors!

With some extra kaffir lime leaves from our pork belly, we thought we'd throw together some simple syrups to have on hand.  They'll come in handy when we want to make cocktails.  Plain simple syrups, just sugar and water, are easy ways to sweeten any drink, especially iced drinks.  But throwing in some aromatics will make them even tastier.

We made 2 versions; kaffir lime and ginger, and just kaffir lime.  To start, we combined equal parts of water and sugar, tossed in the aromatics in 2 separate pots, and gave them some heat.  

You'll want to make sure all of the sugar dissolves, and then just let it boil.

Once it's boiled for about 10-15 minutes, it should be ready.  It'll be thicker, like a syrup, and coat your spoon.  Then we just poured them into some mason jars, and let them cool with the lids off.  Once they've cooled, we just popped them into the fridge for safe keeping.

They taste amazing, and I can't wait to mix them into some cocktails!

Eat a Fleet a Fajitas!

With the dog days of summer winding down, we're trying to use the grill as much as we can before Fall really sets in.  We had a craving for some steak, so we decided to make some fajitas and grilled corn.  We wanted to mimic the flavors of carne asada, so we marinated our flank steak with beer, garlic, lime juice, cumin, cayenne pepper, jalapeno, chipotle in adobo, salt and pepper.

You can do this the day before and let it sit overnight, or if you forget (like us), just get your meat in the marinade asap, and prep everything else.  Our meat ended up marinating for about 90 minutes.  For veggies, we sliced up some bell peppers and onions, and just sauteed them on the stove with salt and pepper.

We also had a few poblano peppers from our share, so we drizzled some olive oil on them, sprinkled them with salt and pepper, and threw them on the grill to roast up.  We also thew a few ears of corn on the grill for our side dish.

We knew the steak would only take a few minutes on each side to cook to a nice medium rare, so we waited until the peppers and corn were just about done to throw the meat on the grill.

We thought of preparing the corn like we did on the 4th of July, with cayenne, lime and queso fresco, but I wasn't pleased with how the cheese didn't really stick to the corn (like in the Aaron Sanchez commercial).  So we modified the preparation and made it into a salad.  Just cut the kernels off the cob, and toss with a dash of cayenne, crumbled queso fresco, chopped cilantro, and a squeeze of lime juice.  You get all of the same flavors, but it's much easier to eat, and get all of the components in one bite.

While the meat was resting, I peeled the roasted poblanos and sliced them into strips.  I also sliced up some lime wedges and chopped some cilantro.  Our tortillas were warming in the oven too.  Then just build your fajitas, and dig in!

The meat was nice and juicy, and still had great flavor even though it didn't marinate very long.  You had a nice smokiness from it being on the grill, some heat from the poblanos, but sweetness from the onions and bell peppers.  It's a pretty quick and easy summertime meal that takes you south of the border.

Volt - Table 21

I wasn't quite sure how Justin was going to top last year's birthday (dinner at Rogue 24), but he managed to do just that.  He managed to not only score a reservation at Volt, but it was at the 8-person chef's table, Table 21.

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Since we've watched Bryan Voltaggio on Top Chef, and the current season of Top Chef Masters, and having been to his other restaurants, Family Meal and Range, we knew we'd be in for a treat.  Table 21 gives you a front row seat to the kitchen.  It was surprisingly quiet too; no one yelling like Gordon Ramsey on Hell's Kitchen.  The kitchen was a well-oiled machine, everyone knowing their role, cooking and plating each dish with precision, and the occasional, "yes, chef."  It was also quite entertaining to watch billowing clouds of smoke/steam (I'm not sure which it is, technically) flow out of the kitchen as liquid nitrogen was poured over various ingredients too.

But let's get to the food!  The one thing I enjoy about these kinds of meals is not knowing what you're going to get until the dish is served.  We received a copy of the menu at the end of the meal, and it turned out that we ended up having smaller versions of almost every item on the a la carte menu, plus a few more.

We started with 4 "snacks" and a cocktail.  The cocktail was Voltaggio's take on the classic drink, an aviation, but it was frozen with the liquid nitrogen.  They recommended we let it sit and melt for a few minutes before tasting it.  I don't think I waited long enough though, because that first spoonful burned my tongue from how cold it was.  The snacks included a deviled egg, a poached oyster shooter, a gougere, and a lamb "blockette".  My favorite was the lamb, which had been formed into a perfect cube, lightly breaded, and topped with a smear of baba ghanoush.  In close 2nd was the deviled egg; rather than using the egg white, a celeriac macaron served as the vessel and added a nice crunch, while the caviar that topped the creamy yolk added a nice brininess and texture to the bite.  The first set of dishes was rounded out by a duo of tomatoes.  One side of the plate had heirloom tomato gazpacho with blue crab, and the other had a caprese salad with homemade burrata in place of mozzarella.  The freshness of the tomatoes was apparent.  

Next, we moved into slightly bigger dishes; about 2-3 bites each.  We started off with a tuna tartar served with an avocado cream, green apple, and drops of soy sauce.  I'd been watching one of the chefs plate this dish right in front of me, and it tasted as great as it looked!  We also had salt-crusted baked carrots, which despite the slight saltiness, still let the sweetness of the carrots shine through.  This was followed by summer beans with goat ricotta and a fava bean hummus.  The hummus was the star of the plate, for sure.  Next, we were served a sourdough linguini with clams and smoked potato.  The pasta had a subtle sourness to it that didn't overpower the taste of the clam.  To finish of the second round of plates, we each had half of a soft-shell crab.  It was lightly fried golden brown and perfectly crisp, and tamale was rich--a true Maryland classic. 

In keeping with the seafood theme, we sampled the calamari bolognese.  The cavatelli pasta were made with squid ink, and the sauce was made with calamari and miso.  It was outstanding, and offered an unusual, but delicious spin on a classic pasta dish.  This dish also won Chef Voltaggio the latest challenge on Top Chef Masters, to send him into the finale!  We then moved into some of the heartier, meat and seafood dishes.  First we tried monkfish with artichoke, fennel and stinging nettle.  It was cooked perfectly, resembling the texture of a lobster tail.  Next came a piece of rockfish served atop cabbage, chorizo, turnip, and peach.  The skin was nice and crisp, while the fish remained moist.  As for the meats, we were served braised pork cheek and jowl, some of my favorites parts of the pig, served with celeriac, fava beans and pearl onions.  The final savory dish was a piece of braised lamb neck served atop a barley risotto with sauteed kale.  At this point, I was struggling to find room in my stomach for the remaining food, but it was hard not to eat that barley risotto.

After all of those savory dishes, we still had four desserts to go.  To ease us into the sweets, we started with a cheese plate of goat bleu cheese and ricotta with rhubarb.  It was a great way to transition into dessert.  Next came a plate of milk & honey; goat's milk gelato, drizzled with honey and pieces of honeycomb.  This was my kind of dessert.  The sweetness of the honey was balanced out by the different textures and the richness of the gelato.  Some of the honeycomb was was crisped up while others were soaking up cream, creating an interplay of different textures as well.  Then came a dish of chocolate ice cream sitting on top of a homemade toasted marshmallow, adorned with frozen chocolate mousse, peanuts and caramel.  It was like an upscale frozen Snickers, times a million!  It was so rich and decadent.  Just when I thought we were done, they brought out their interpretation of a Dove bar; chocolate panna cotta with a thin chocolate shell.  I could only fit one small bite in my stomach, but that one bite was amazing.

Not only was it an inventive and delicious meal, but it was great to get a front row view of the kitchen.  If you ever have the chance to eat at Table 21, or any other chef's table/tasting menu experience, I would highly recommend it.  Watching everyone in the kitchen work in harmony to produce plate after plate of beautiful, delicious food is a sight to see.  I couldn't have asked for a more delicious birthday meal!

Magnificent Miso Mollusks

If you're looking for a quick weekday meal, look no further than some seared scallops.  They don't take much time to cook up, and make for a very tasty meal.  The sweet scallop is perfectly complimented by the salty and umami from the miso paste.

You'll want to start by patting your scallops dry.

Then we mixed up a marinade of miso paste, mirin, rice vinegar, ginger, and a touch of sesame oil.  We used this recipe as a guide.  We let the scallops marinate in the sauce for about 30 minutes while we prepped our sugar snap peas and toasted up some almonds.

When you're ready to cook your scallops, get your pan nice and hot.  Place your scallops in the pan, and let them get a nice, golden brown sear before flipping them.  Searing them gives them not only a great taste but nice textural component as well.  Be sure to keep your attention on the pan, they only take a few minutes to cook on each side.

We topped our scallops with some freshly chopped scallions, and had a nice little salad of mixed greens, sugar snap peas, and almonds.  The outcome is a fresh, sophisticated, warm weather dish that looks as great as it tastes.  That's it--quick, simple, and delicious!

Doi Moi

We recently visited Doi Moi, and having visited Vietnam, I had high expectations for the food.  When you first walk in, you're greeted by a bright, inviting space.  It's a stark contrast to it's sister restaurants, Estadio & Proof, which are filled with dark wood and low lighting.  I immediately noticed the delicious smells coming from the open kitchen, and knew we were in for a treat!

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We started with a round of drinks, my mom and I opting for the basil/lemongrass/cachaca cocktail, while Justin tried the tamarind and peanut-infused bourbon drink.  The tamarind wasn't too sour at all, and peanut and bourbon is a natural winning combination.  Both were absolutely delicious, and dangerous in the sense that you could easily down the drinks in a few gulps if you're not careful.  They're that delicious!

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As with most small plates restaurants, 2-3 dishes per person were recommended, and they came out as they were prepared.  We were told that everything was sourced from southeast Asia, and we were impressed to hear that everything is fresh, never frozen.  You could see the freshness in every dish that came to the table.  We decided to order in rounds, so we started with the green papaya salad, salt & pepper fried squid, and the tumeric sablefish.  The papaya salad had a nice crunch, and the distinctive tang of fish sauce, but I was looking for a little more heat, a little more sweet, and a lot more peanuts.  The squid were perfectly crisp, tender, and not greasy.  The sablefish was nicely seasoned, and flaked apart when you stuck your fork/chopsticks into it.

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For our next round, we tried the jungle curry with halibut, crab fried rice, and the pork & shrimp spring rolls.  We're huge fans of jungle curry, as it was one of our favorites from Little Serow, and we even made some at home.  The halibut was cooked perfectly, but the curry was missing some heat, and I just wish there'd been more of the curry sauce.  There was a surprising amount of crab in the fried rice, and I kept going back for more.  The spring rolls were definitely a table favorite.  They were long, skinny, fried rolls, packed to the gills with pork and shrimp.  Our server recommended wrapping the rolls in a lettuce leaf with some of the sliced cucumbers and carrots that were on the plate, then dipping it into the sweet & sour sauce.  The unfortunate, and somewhat puzzling, part was that were was only 1 lettuce leaf on the plate.  He gladly brought us more lettuce upon request, however.  His method was delicious though.  You had the warm crispy roll, balanced out by the cool, crunchy veggies, finished with the tangy dipping sauce.

We were still a bit hungry, so we decided to try the roasted half chicken, which we'd seen several other tables order, along with a beef dish and pork skewers.  If you're going to order the chicken (you definitely should), I'd recommend doing so towards the beginning of your meal because it takes 30-40 minutes to cook.  It is well worth the wait.  The skin is perfectly crisp, while the meat was still juicy and tender.  The sauce for the chicken was a bit too acidic, and it was somewhat of a shame to dip perfectly crisp chicken skin in any sauce.  The beef had rich flavors of soy and ginger, and came with shark sriracha, the Thai version of sriracha (we were kinda hoping that it was sriracha seasoned with shark fin or something).  It's basically the same as the one we're accustomed to with the rooster on the bottle, although thinner in consistency and a tad bit sweeter.  The pork skewers were equally delicious, served with a crunchy peanut sauce.  The sauce was so good that I ended up dipping some of the chicken in it.

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We finished off the meal with the fried bananas and a couple of iced coffees.  The bananas were steaming hot with a thin, crisp batter, and toasted, shave coconut sprinkled on top.  The banana had a nice sweetness to them, and I loved the fresh coconut.  The iced coffees were also great, and although they had sweetened condensed milk in them, they weren't cloyingly sweet.

A few of the dishes lacked some heat, but maybe they're trying to cater to a more western palette.  Overall, it was a great meal, and I will definitely go back to try the rest of the dishes on the menu.