Del Campo

We first tasted Victor Albisu's cooking back in the winter when we visited his Taco Bamba pop-up.  Since then, the brick and mortar version has opened, as well as Del Campo, a more upscale eatery that still harkens back to his Latin American roots.

The first thing you'll notice is that everything the restaurant offers touches the grill.  Even components of their cocktails have a nice, smoky char to them.  I opted for the pisco sour, a classic Peruvian cocktail.  It's a refreshing drink on a hot summer night, due to the citrusy tang of the lemon and lime, and light foamy egg white that floats on top.  Justin wanted the Tank 7 farmhouse ale since we were meeting friends for beers afterwords.  About 10 minutes later he was informed they were out of the Tank 7, and it took awhile longer to get another beer. Since we there during the first few weeks of them opening, we weren't too surprised they were working out some kinks in service.

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Then we came to the food options.  While perusing the menu we were presented with freshly baked bread, served with smoked olive oil and smoked salt for dipping.  I think I could've drank a cup of the smoked olive oil on it's own, it was that tasty!  The menu is broken down into appetizers & ceviches, asados (essentially all the meat options), house specialties, and del mar (the seafood options).  Your best bet is to share everything so you can try a variety of food.

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For appetizers, we chose the roasted beet salad with goat cheese, the chicharones (because we can't resist crispy pork skin!), and the yellowtail ceviche.  The beets and goat cheese was one of my favorites, both in taste and visual appeal.  There were golden beets, striped beets, and the traditional red beets, all with a nice sweetness that was balanced out by the tangy goat cheese.  But we can't forget the chicharones.  You may be envisioning a pile of crispy pork rings on a plate, but this dish was way more than that.  It was more of a pork tasting plate, offering up some crispy skin, a rib, and a slab of pork belly.  The salty, delicious pork was balanced out with a sweet potato puree.

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Now, onto the entrees!  Ideally, you'll want to try a variety of meats.  I opted for the lamb shank, which was grilled perfectly and arrived at the table, falling off the bone.  The portion was a bit on the smaller side though.  Justin went with the short ribs.  The most common preparation for short ribs is to braise them for hours on end so they're falling off the bone when you eat them.  But in keeping with the theme of the restaurant, these bad boys were grilled.  If you're a bit hungrier, these are a good option because you're served three strips of short ribs.  Our dining companions chose the hangar steak and teres major steak, both of which were cooked to a perfect medium rare, as well as the grilled salmon.  We also received a complimentary serving of roasted bone marrow.  Now, if you remember back a few paragraphs ago, I mentioned sharing the food.  That's because all of the meats were served on one large wooden board, to really encourage sharing.  They also came with four sauces; two chimichurris (a traditional South American herb-based condiment), a Malbec sauce, and a salsa.  For the amount of meat we ordered, I think we could've used slightly larger quantities of sauce.

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The sides are a la carte, as in most steakhouses.  To accompany our meats, we ordered the fried yucca and grilled polenta for some starch.  Like any great french fry, the yucca was perfectly crisp on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside.  They were served with a salsa criolla, and I easily could've eaten an entire basket of these fries.  The sauce was addictingly good, and although we were stuffed, we kept going back for more fries.  The grilled polenta had a nice, charred outer crust, yet was still fluffy in the middle.  But they weren't very memorable.  Next time, I may opt for one of the vegetables.

Overall, it was a great meal, and delivered exactly what it promised; deliciously grilled meats.  It would definitely be worth a trip back to try a few other cuts and the uni ceviche and some desserts (assuming we don't stuff ourselves on delicious meats again!).

Beets & Meats

Today's post is brought to you by the letter 'B'.  Brats. Beer. Beets. Bacon.  What more could you ask for?

You could easily just throw the brats on the grill and call it a day, but we cooked at my place tonight, and I don't have a grill.  Instead, we gave the brats a quick sear on each side in a skillet, and then dropped in some  sliced yellow onions and a bottle of Red Hook Pilsner to finish cooking.

While the brats were steaming away, we got to work on the beets, which were the star of the show. Start by peeling and quartering your beets, and dropping them into some salted, boiling water until tender.  Though the recipe called for bibb lettuce, we just used the beet greens, so make sure to give them a good rinse and reserve them.  While the beets are boiling, crisp up some bacon.

You can set the bacon aside, but keep the fat in the pan to cook up the red onion, and wilt down your greens.  We then added in some balsamic, brown sugar, and fennel seed.  I only had the star anise pods on hand, so we substituted the fennel seed.  Let the brown sugar melt down, and then toss in your beets and coat them in the sauce.  Once they're coated, just sprinkle the bacon on top, and you're ready to serve.  Though the recipe calls for more of a salad, ours turned into more of a side dish since we wilted down the beet greens.

The beets, brown sugar and reduced balsamic made for a pretty sweet combination, but the greens and the bacon helped balance it out.  It really could've used the dark beer to cut the sweetness...we just didn't have any we were willing to sacrifice.

It was a quick, tasty summery meal; perfect for a Friday night.

Burgers. Beets. Battlestar Gallactica.

Tonight's post is dedicated to Dwight Shrute and the end of The Office.  We're pretty sure our beets came from a farm in Virginia, but Scranton isn't too far from DC, so I guess there's a slight chance they came from Shrute Farms.

This week's share gave us some Polyface ground beef, which we are always excited for. With the warm summer weather, burgers on the grill sounded like the perfect dinner.  We still had some umami dust on hand, and since Umami Burger isn't DC yet, we had to make our DIY version.  This recipe was our inspiration.

The twist this time around was the oyster mushrooms and onions in a port reduction that topped the burgers.

It's a really simple way to elevate any meat, whether it's a burger or a piece of steak.  Start by slicing and dicing your mushrooms and onion, and saute them in some brown butter.

Once they've softened, you'll add about 1 cup of port.  Here's where you'll deglaze your pan, making sure to scrape up all the tasty bits that are stuck on the bottom of your pan.  Then just let the liquid reduce down, stirring occasionally, until you have a thick glaze on your onions and 'shrooms.

We tucked our patties into some lettuce leaves, topped them with the port 'shrooms and onions, and some crumbled bleu cheese.

Since we didn't have any sweet potatoes for fries, we decided to make beet chips again to accompany the burgers.  They're super simple, and add a sweet, crispy component to the meal.  I would advise using a mandoline to slice them, if you have one, so that each chip is the same thickness.  Otherwise, take your time slicing and use a really sharp knife.  We used the beet greens to make a simple salad for a little extra roughage.

The beet chips, along with the port, added a nice sweetness that balanced out the rich umami flavors of the burgers.

And if you use your imagination a little, doesn't my plate kind of look like Dwight?

CSA Recap

Tomorrow we pick up another share of food, so I thought I'd give you a quick recap of how we used all the items from our previous share.  As a refresher, here's what we picked up 2 weeks ago...

And here's what we made...

• Po' Boys, Clam Chowder and Sweet Potato Fries
• clams
• oysters
• sweet potato (from a previous share)
• half of the onion
• Beet Chips
• beets
• Lamb Chops with Roasted Cauliflower & Beet Greens
• lamb chops (from a previous share)
• beet greens
• cauliflower
• creasy greens (for salad)
• Gnocchi
• sweet potatoes
• butternut squash
• Spaghetti & Meatballs
• spaghetti squash
• ground beef (from a previous share)

The rest of the creasy greens were used for salads throughout the week too.  The cilantro is still in the fridge, waiting to be used, and we used the broccoli as part of a crudite spread for a party 2 weekends ago.  We haven't done anything with the cabbage yet, but we're planning on making more sauerkraut.  More to come on that.

We can't wait to pick up tomorrow's share and make some more delicious dishes.  Stay tuned!

Sunday Dinner

We usually take a bit of a break from cooking once the weekend hits, but tonight we got back in the kitchen for some lamb chops, beet greens, and roasted cauliflower.  We kept the lamb simple, seasoning them with a little salt, pepper, and fresh rosemary, and threw them on the grill pan.  Though things got a little smokey, we managed to not set off the smoke detector, and get some perfectly medium chops.

The beet greens were saved after making some beet chips earlier in the day.  More on those in a little bit though.  We just sauteed the greens with a little garlic, olive oil and butter.  I hadn't had them before, but they were really tasty...similar in texture to sauteed spinach, but they still had the sweetness of the beets.  The roasted cauliflower is one of our favorite side dishes.  We first had it at Graffiato, Mike Isabella's restaurant in DC.  The seasonal, Italian-inspired, small plates never disappoint.  We've made a few attempts at recreating this dish, and have come pretty close, considering the menu simply lists roasted cauliflower, mint and pecorino as the ingredients.  But now that Chef Isabella's cookbook is out, we have the recipe in hand.  Its super simple, and super tasty.  Between the 2 of us, we almost ate a ginormous head of cauliflower in one sitting.

are you drooling yet?

We capped it off with a little salad to finish off our creasy greens, topped with some red onion, chopped walnuts and gorgonzola.  We usually make our own dressing when we have salad.  In this case, we used some orange muscat champagne vinegar that we picked up on a recent expedition to Trader Joe's and some olive oil.  The sweetness and citrus was a perfect complement for our salad.

As for the beet chips I mentioned a little earlier...I like beets, but they aren't something I would normally buy. When I hear beets, I think back to my childhood and the cartoon "Doug".  The beauty of the CSA is that it gives you a chance to try something out of your normal routine.  So what were we to do with these beets?

We turned to our friend Gojee for some ideas.  If you haven't heard of Gojee, you need to check them out.  You can tell them what you're craving, what ingredients you have, ingredients you don't like, etc. and it will search the interwebs for recipes that fit your criteria.  That's how we stumbled upon the recipe for beet chips.  They couldn't be simpler: peel the beets, slice the beets, brush with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and pop 'em in the oven.  

A simple, tasty and healthy little treat!  Now if only we could get a few more weekend days before heading back to work tomorrow.  The weekend always flies by too fast.