Braised & Enthused

Sorry for the brief hiatus!  Between work, and the upcoming holidays, it's been a bit crazy around these parts.  We've mostly been cooking easy, standby recipes, so there haven't been many new recipes to post here.  However, we did receive some nice looking short ribs in a recent share and put those to good use, cooking them low and slow.  This method of cooking leaves the meat nice and tender, practically falling off the bone.

We're big fans of Top Chef, and Edward Lee, a contestant from the season based in Texas, just put out a cookbook combining his Korean roots and southern tradition called, Smoke & Pickles.  We followed his recipe for the short ribs, and it was quite delicious.

If there's a lot of excess fat, you'll want to trim some of it off.  Then parboil the ribs in a dutch oven for about 8 minutes, in about 4 cups of water.  Once they start to cook, pull them out of the water, and set them aside.  You'll want to skim some of the fat out of the liquid, and then reserve 2 cups of the cooking water.  The rest of the water can be dumped out, and you'll want to dry out your pot.

Once your pot is back on the stove, heat a couple tablespoons each of sesame oil and vegetable oil.  When it's nice and hot, drop in a few short ribs at a time.  You want to get a nice sear on all sides of each short rib, so you'll want to do them in batches.

Once all of the short ribs are seared, place all of them back in the pot, add your chopped onions, ginger and garlic, and let it cook for a few minutes.

Next, add your soy sauce, chicken stock, mirin, and the 2 cups of reserved cooking liquid and bring to a slow simmer.  To balance out the saltiness of the liquid, stir in some sugar and honey.

Then just let it simmer away, giving your short ribs a turn every now and then.  After an hour, add in your carrots, parsnips, and pine nuts.  The recipe also calls for raisins, but I'm not a huge fan, so we left them out.  There was enough sweetness already from the sugar and honey.

Let everything simmer until the short ribs are tender, and the liquid has thickened.  This will be about another hour or so.

While we were in the final stages of braising, we whipped up a side dish of roasted Brussels sprouts.  We halved the brussels sprouts and tossed them in a marinade of miso paste, ponzu, rice wine vinegar, and sesame oil.  We also stumbled upon some black garlic at Trader Joe's, so we sliced up a couple cloves and added them to the sprouts.

Black garlic gets it's color from being fermented for weeks.  It develops a nice sweet flavor, with hints of balsamic vinegar.  It may look a bit unappetizing, but it's quite delicious.  Once your sprouts are evenly coated, place them on a baking sheet and let them roast in the oven for about 20 minutes.  We topped them with some sesame seeds and bonito flakes, for a punch of umami.

Rice would be the traditional accompaniment for this dish, but Edward Lee pairs his short-ribs with edamame hummus. We went in a similar, but different direction, and  whipped up some roasted garlic mashed potatoes with some spuds we got in our share. They were a great way to soak up the delicious gravy.

The meat was super tender, and fell right off the bone.  The Asian flavors in the braising liquid really soaked into the meat, and was a nice balance of salty and sweet.  We will be making this recipe again if we get more short ribs, or if they're on sale at the market (if Justin gets his way!).

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?

Paleo Shake-n-Bake...and I helped!

We had some umami dust leftover from our burgers, so we decided to jump a little outside the box, and try it on some pork chops.

Let's start with the cauliflower.  It wasn't too different from when we made the kimchi brussels sprouts.  The cauliflower was chopped up into more manageable, bite-sized pieces, and we crisped up some pancetta bits.  We poured a bit of the rendered fat over the cauliflower before popping it into the oven to roast.

Once the cauliflower was a bit charred, we pulled them out of the oven, and tossed them with the crisped pancetta, sliced kimchi, and some freshly sliced green onion.

Now, onto the pork chops.  Since we can't use panko or bread crumbs, we used some unsweetened, shredded coconut, and mixed some of the umami dust, minced garlic and ginger, and some black and regular sesame seeds

Then we just coated the chops in the mixture, and popped them into the broiler on some cooling racks.  Doing that allows the air to circulate around the chops, so all sides get crispy.  If you just place them on the baking sheet directly, the bottom will end up soggy.

To finish the dish, we placed our chop on a bed of creasy greens, lightly dressed in some rice wine vinegar, a dash of black vinegar, garlic, ginger and sesame oil.  The greens added a bit of acidity to the umami chops, while the roasted cauliflower added a nice kick of spice.

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!

Hikari Sushi & Sake Bar

The scrolling neon sign above the door at Hikari Sushi & Sake Bar has read "Coming Soon" for weeks.  So when we finally got word that they had opened, we didn't waste any time finding a seat at the sushi bar.  Plus, Justin had been craving sushi for quite some time, so Hikari's opening couldn't have come at a better time.

We started off with the calamari tempura, which was served with a sweet and spicy dipping sauce.  The calamari came out a bit cold, but the batter was light and perfectly crispy, while the squid was nice and tender.  I'll attribute the cold dish to it being just their second night open.  I'm sure when we visit again, it won't be cold.

The rest of our meal was garnered from the sushi bar.  The 2 sushi chefs were cranking out rolls left and right, and it didn't take long for ours to be set in front of us.  Justin ordered his favorite, uni with a quail egg on top.  The uni was so rich and creamy, while the egg was the perfect topper.  I ordered my favorite, the salmon skin roll, though it came as a maki roll (I usually prefer a hand roll).  Nonetheless, the salmon skin was nice and crispy, with a salty, charred, umami flavor.  The white tuna sashimi was nice and buttery as well.

Then we dove into some of their specialty rolls.  We had the caterpillar roll, which had eel and cucumber inside, rice on the outside, and it was topped with avocado.  The eel was nice and warm, with the perfect amount of sauce, while the avocado added a nice creamy element to each piece.  We also enjoyed the rainbow caviar roll.  The roll itself was a California roll with tuna, and each piece was topped with a different kind of tobiko.  I think the lemon tobiko was my favorite because it added an unexpected citrus element to the roll.  There was the stop drop roll which consisted of spicy scallop and cucumber.  There was just enough heat with the scallop that they weren't overwhelmed by spice.  You could still taste the fresh, sweet scallops.  The final roll was the shiso tofu maki.  I'm not one to order vegetarian rolls, but Justin suggested it and I went with it.  The tofu stood up to the rice, and the shiso added a nice, herbal-y flavor to the roll.

All in all, it was a delicious meal.  They had a good selection of traditional sushi and maki, in addition to some creative rolls.  They also had several cooked items on the menu, but we didn't try those.  Our server was a bit slow, but considering they've only been open for a handful of days, I'll let that one slide this time.  Following the meal, one of the managers or owners asked us for feedback on our meal and offered us a complimentary dessert, so we opted for the mango sticky rice.  It was the perfect way to end the meal.  The rice wasn't overly sweet, and the mango was perfectly ripe.

We hadn't found a decent sushi joint in DC, but Hikari will certainly fill that role considering how close it is to our apartments, and the quality of the meal we enjoyed.

Toki Underground

Ok, if you're like me, when you think of ramen, the first thing that comes to mind is this.  The over-salted, underwhelming, cheap stuff that only has a time and a place at 3 AM in a freshman dorm.  I was vaguely aware of the traditional Japanese ramen, but I've always been a bigger fan of soba, udon, or shirataki.  But when I was trying to think of what would be a perfect cure for a hangover on a particularly cold New Year's Day, I thought ramen just might be the trick.

I've been really, really, really, excited to go to Toki Underground for a while.  I wasn't deterred by the long wait times (typically 2+ hours), or the trendiness (Toki has been known to host famous clientele like Manny and Doogie Hauser).  And although I don't know the difference between Japanese and Taiwanese ramen, its difficult to keep me away from a hearty bowl of noodles, dumplings, and a soundtrack handpicked by Geologist from the Animal Collective.

If you're claustrophobic at all, I'd suggest ordering food to go, as space is limited to bar seating around the perimeter, and in front of the tiny kitchen.  We were seated between the 2 street-view windows, in front of some shelves that held jars of bonito flakes, the biggest cinnamon sticks I've ever seen, house-made preserved lemons, and togarashi.  The menu is simple and straightforward:

To start, we opted for a plate of pork dumplings.  You have a choice of fried or steamed dumplings, so we went with the fried version.  But don't be fooled by the term "fried".  They weren't deep fried with a thick batter.  Instead, they were very reminiscent of Chinese potstickers...simply pan fried and then steamed to finish.  You could really taste the ginger in the dumplings, which balanced out the 3 sauces that were drizzled over them.  One was spicy, one was slightly sweet, and the third was a bit tangy and savory.  Kara said they rivaled her mom's potstickers!

When it came to the ramen, I chose the kimchi kae-dama (which means with extra noodles), while Kara chose the Taipei Curry Chicken.  It was everything I was hoping for...packed with umami, there was a savory, flavorful broth, tender pulled pork, perfectly cooked noodles which absorbed a ton of flavor from the broth, and enough heat in the kimchi to clear out my sinuses.  The soft egg was a pleasant surprise, especially when I broke the yolk and let it mix into the broth.  Kara's bowl had perfectly crispy pieces of chicken, spinach, some nori, and a delicious broth that didn't overpower the other items in the bowl.  The ramen was so filling that we didn't even have room for milk and cookies.  Maybe next time!