Umami So Fat!

Umami...that elusive 5th flavor...

You've likely heard all about it in those Kikkoman soy sauce commercials.  But tonight, we bring you umami burgers.  Just like the ones in LA.  And instead of fries, we went with kimchi brussels sprouts, ala Momofuku.

So let's start with the burgers.  To get the umami flavor, we finally got to use our bottarga, plus some pulverized dried straw mushrooms and nori.  With that, we mixed in a blend of white pepper, salt and wasabi that we picked up from the Asian market last week.  This gave us a salty, savory umami dust to work with.

We were fortunate enough to receive some ground beef from Polyface Farms.  If you've been following along, you'll remember me gushing about Polyface here.  We mixed the beef with our umami dust and a splash of fish sauce.  Then we just formed them into 2 patties and got them into the pan to start cookin'.

While the burgers cooked, we got to work on the kimchi brussels sprouts.  I should've kept the last beating stick...then we could've had a proper duel!

But alas...we started with some bacon...because every good dish starts with bacon.  Once it was nice and crispy, we threw the sprouts into the pan so they could roll around in the bacon fat.

Once they were seared, we slid them into the oven to roast.  After about 15min., they came out of the oven, and were bathed in some butter, salt and pepper.  We added the bacon back into the pan, along with some of our sliced kimchi.

We let all the flavors meld together for a few minutes, so each ingredient was coated in the butter, and spicy juices of the kimchi.  By the time the sprouts were done, so were the burgers.  We're getting much better with this whole timing thing!  The sprouts were garnished with a little raw carrot, and our burgers got some avocado and creasy greens.

The burgers had such a rich, salty, savory flavor, and creaminess of the avocado balanced it all out.  The sprouts were nicely roasted, with a sharp spiciness from the kimchi and a nice crunch from the raw carrots.  It was quite the delicious meal!

Tools of the Trade

I know its been almost a month since Christmas (where did the time go???), but I thought I'd go back and do another little recap.  But this time, I want to talk about the gifts Justin and I received.  Just about every present was food related, whether it was tools to add to our arsenal, cookbooks for inspiration, or random ingredients my mom found at a Hispanic market (I mean that Santa had his elves whip up in the shop).

So let's start with the equipment...

1.All-Clad 13 inch French skillet with lid.  I have a couple smaller All-Clad pans and they are awesome!
2. All-Clad Tool Set.  When mom asked what I wanted for Christmas, I didn't giver her much to work with. I just said that I needed a ladle.  So she came up with an entire tool set.  The one she found me is similar to the one pictured but also includes s slotted spoon and another spatula.
3. Salt box...though mine is currently holding pepper.
4. Iron Wok  Its made out of one piece of metal, so the entire thing gets hot, hence gift #9.  The wok made its debut when we made stir fry.
5. Granite Mortar & Pestle.  I still need to season it, but it should get plenty of use down the road.
6. Pirate Chef Apron.  Justin tends to be a little messy when he cooks.
7. Ceramic Mortar & Pestle.  It just so happens that Justin's parents had the same idea and got him a mortat & pestle too.  You may recognize it from our pig head post.
8. "Eat With Your Hands". This cookbook was listed as one of the top cookbooks of 2012.  My favorite part is that along with the recipes, Pelaccio gives recommendations for what to listen to and what to drink while cooking that recipe.  Justin has already read it cover to cover and is ready to start trying some of the recipes.
9. Silicone Pot Handle.  So the idea was for this handle cover to go with the wok.  Unfortunately, the handle of the wok is too thick for it to wrap around.  But I have another cast iron grill pan that we can use the handle on.
10. Gnocchi Paddle.  Now we won't have to use a fork to make the ridges!
11. 6-qt. Crock Pot.  Until now, I've just slow cooked things in my dutch oven.  But we broke her in by making some chili yesterday.

And then we unwrapped a few food items...

1. Squid Ink.  Santa brought both Justin and I a few packets of squid ink.  We're not sure how exactly we'll use the ink, but we've got some ideas in the works.
2. Bottarga.  If you're not familiar, this is cured fish roe.  The one that we got is mullet.  After our first experience with bottarga at the Feastly dinner, we're excited about using it ourselves.
3. Flavored Salts.  Not to be confused with bath salts...I don't think you'd want to snort or smoke these.  For Justin, I picked up the sriracha salt, roasted garlic salt, and aged balsamic salt.  They were so fragrant, you could smell them through the tins.  We sprinkled a bit of the roasted garlic salt onto our steaks.

Fall Harvest Feast

Last night we pretended to be adults and went to a dinner party.  Anyone familiar with Feastly?  Its a simple concept:  the host cooks a meal, you shell out some money to reserve seats, and you enjoy a tasty meal with some like-minded strangers.  Our first Feastly dinner was back in September...a Julia Chld-inspired meal, hosted by Lindsay and Matt of WellFed Group.  Not only are they veterans in the restaurant industry, but Matt is also the Chef de Cuisine at The Occidental.  So we basically ate at the chef's table for a fraction of the price.  When we saw they were hosting another Feastly meal, we jumped at the chance to join them again.

Last night's meal consisted of:

What the menu fails to mention is the delicious disc of goat cheese that was baked with brown sugar and pecans that topped the apple and fennel salad.  It was sweet and creamy, with the nice goat cheese tang.  The 2nd course was a rich and creamy risotto topped with bottarga.  I'd never heard of bottarga before, but it gave the risotto a nice, rich, umami flavor.  The risotto was followed up with a juicy chicken thigh, skin crisped to perfection.  The thighs had been confit'd for 8 hrs.  Yes, you read that right.  8 HOURS!  It fell right off the bone and just melted in your mouth.  Not to mention the salsify puree.  This was another ingredient I hadn't had before. Matt described it as being similar to parsnips, so I was expecting it to be a bit mealy.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  It was so creamy and silky smooth.  And if those 3 courses weren't enough, the meal was capped off with a salted caramel cheesecake.  It was so light and airy, and I think my favorite part was the sweetened sour cream they topped the cheesecake with.

We opted to pair our meal with some delicious beers.  Lindsay suggested a Saison for the first 2 courses, and a Belgian trippel or a hoppy IPA for the 3rd course.  We started with the Stillwater Saison, a citrus-y, crisp, clean ale.  A classic saison.  We followed that up with La Fin du Monde, a Belgian trippel.  It was a fruitier, more full-bodied beverage.  A perfect complement to the chicken thighs and salsify puree.  Had we not been driving, we may have tried to pair a 3rd beer with dessert, but we had a decent drive ahead of us and played it safe.

Not only was the food delicious, but the company was great.  We ate with complete strangers, yet there were never those awkward moments like when you're on a bad date.  We did the typical DC thing and played the "what do you do?" game.  Turns out one of our fellow diners was also a Wake Forest alum.  What are the odds?  But the uniting force was our mutual love and appreciation of food.  So if you're looking for a fun night out, good food, and meeting new people, I would highly recommend checking out Feastly.  Especially if Lindsay and Matt are hosting.  Just make sure you save 2 seats for us :)