Get In My [Pork] Belly!

Despite having shelves of cookbooks and cooking magazines, we rarely take the time to flip through them and try out a recipe.  But last night, we did just that.  This summer we've gotten a watermelon in every share and we were running out of ideas (watermelon is to summer as cabbage is to winter in the CSA world).  Justin had actually already spent an afternoon thumbing through Eat With Your Hands, flagging the recipes that piqued his interest, including a crispy pork belly and watermelon salad.  It's not the first combination that comes to mind when I think of watermelon or pork belly, but let me tell ya...it's ridiculously good.

You'll want to start by pickling your rinds since they need to sit in the pickling juice for at least an hour.  You can also do this up to 2 days in advance. Start by mixing your liquid:
2 c. rice vinegar (we only have about 1.5 c. rice vinegar, so we used white vinegar for the remainder)
3 shallots, thinly sliced (we only used 2, since ours were pretty big)
2 Thai bird chilies, thinly sliced (we used jalepenos instead)
2 fresh Kaffir lime leaves (we found ours at Whole Foods, but Asian markets have them too)
2 inches ginger, peeled and sliced
1.25 oz palm sugar or 1 round gula jawa or 2 tbsp light brown sugar
1 tbsp koser salt

Combine everything in a saucepan and bring it to a boil.  All the flavors of the lime leaves, ginger, shallots and peppers will steep into the vinegar and sugar as it cooks.  The sugar adds a much needed sweetness to help cut the tanginess of the vinegar.  While your liquid is warming up, you can start slicing your rind.  You'll want to cut the flesh of the watermelon away from the rind, and also remove the tougher, dark green skin, so that all your left with is the fleshy white part.  You'll cut the rinds into cubes, and once your pickling liquid has come to a boil, and the sugar has dissolved, strain the liquid over your rinds.  They can go into the fridge while you prepare everything else.  You'll also want to cut the flesh of the watermelon into cubes, which can also go into the fridge to stay chilled until you're ready to serve it.

Now for the pork belly.  The recipe tells you to fry your pork, but we decided to just render out the fat and braise it in my dutch oven.  Just cut it into 1-inch chunks, and drop 'em in the dutch oven.  We had about 1 1/3 pounds of pork belly, and it took 20-25 minutes for it all to render down and crisp up.

While your pork is cooking, you can make the dressing for your salad.  In a food processor, combine:
3 oz. palm sugar or 2 rounds gula jawa or 1/4 c. light brown sugar
1 c. rice vinegar (we used Chinese cooking wine since we were out of rice vinegar)
1/2 c. fresh lime juice
4 inches fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
24 cilantro stems (use both the leaves and stems)
2 garlic cloves
3/4 tsp Kosher salt

Mix equal parts watermelon and pickled rinds, along with 2 sliced scallions, and freshly torn mint and Thai basil leaves (we used lemon basil instead).  Pour enough dressing over the salad so it lightly coats everything.  When your pork is done, divide it amongst your plates, and top each with the watermelon salad.  Garnish with some sesame seeds, and in our case, some crumbled chicharrones (I couldn't pass them up in the market!).

We were slightly worried how this would come out.  As any good chefs, we try and taste the elements along the way; the rinds were bordering on too sour, the watermelon was cloyingly sweet, and the belly was very rich.  Fortunately, the sum was definitively greater than its parts--this was a delicious meal.  Calling it a salad doesn't do it justice.  The dressing, along with the mint and basil rounded it out with a clean, herbaceous taste.  There is a definite salty, sweet, and sour thing going on here that made you want to keep going back for another bite.  The chicharrones and sesame seeds gave it a nice crunchy textural component.   I strongly suggest getting a piece of pickled rind, the sweet watermelon, and the warm crispy pork all in one bite.  The flavors really pop in your mouth, and compliment each other nicely.  Take it from us, this is one summer dish that can't be missed!

Compressed Watermelon Sashimi

To accompany our oyster miso soup, we took inspiration from our recent meal at Kapnos, and tried our hand at compressed watermelon, with an Asian twist.  We don't have a vacuum sealer, so we searched the interwebs for technique ideas and suggestions.

Start by slicing up your watermelon.  You want rectangular slices so they'll mimic pieces of tuna sashimi.  The easiest way to do this is by slicing the watermelon in half.  Slice off the round end as well.  Then cut off your rind, like you're supreming an orange.  Just let your knife follow the curve of the melon.  Then cut off the rounded edges so you're left with a a more cubical piece.  Then you can slice it into pieces that mimic sashimi.

To cut some of the sweetness and add a bit of flavor, we brushed some fish sauce onto each slice, and then stacked the slices into towers.  Then we tightly wrapped the towers in plastic wrap.  The juice will start to seep out immediately.  Do your best to wrap them tightly, and secure the plastic wrap with rubber bands.  Since the juices will leach out, we placed our little packages in a bowl, and put them in the freezer to compress even more.

We made ours prior to making our oyster miso soup, so they had time to compress, but not completely freeze.  To finish off the watermelon, we sliced up some radishes and garnished them with chopped parsley and cilantro, and some sliced serrano peppers.  The sweetness of the watermelon was balanced out nicely by the subtle heat of the peppers and the saltiness of the fish sauce.

Our other watermelon stacks are still in the freezer, but when we're ready to eat them, we'll just be sure to let them defrost before eating them.  It was a fairly simple way to achieve compressed watermelon without having a vacuum sealer too.

Frisky [Agua] Fresca

With another watermelon in our share, we decided to do something a little different with it, and make a drink.  We wanted something refreshing, but not too sweet, so we settled on agua fresca.  This literally means "fresh water", and is a combination of fruit, water and sugar.  I found this simple recipe, and got to work.

I had half of a watermelon left from our compressed watermelon, which was the perfect amount for the two of us.  The easiest way to chop the watermelon was to cut off the rounded end, and then slice off the rind, as if you were supreming the watermelon.  Then you can easily slice it into cubes.  We got about 6 cups of cubed watermelon outta this guy

 I also chopped up a few sprigs of fresh mint, and let it infuse into the water while I prepared everything else.

Once all of your watermelon is cubed up, I put my immersion blender to work and pureed the whole bowl.  In a matter of minutes, the bowl of watermelon was liquified.

Next, we had to remove all of the pulp.  You'll need a fine mesh strainer or some cheesecloth.  We had a small mesh strainer, so this step took a while.  Make sure you squish the pulp down on the strainer to get all of that juice out.  You can discard the pulp.  What you'll be left with is a highly concentrated watermelon juice.

Then add in your lime juice, water, and mint, and you're ready to serve!  If you let it sit overnight, be sure to give it a good stir/shake before serving.  You'll see the water and watermelon juice separate.  To jazz ours up a bit, we filled our glasses about 3/4 of the way with agua fresca, and topped it off with some seltzer.  You could easily add liquor too.

It's a great summer drink.  Now, if only I had a hammock to lay in!

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!

Everything's Betta' With Feta!

There aren't many things more refreshing than biting into a juicy, cold slice of sweet watermelon on a hot summer day.  But if you want something a little less messy, and even more tasty, try out this watermelon feta salad.

Start by chunking up your watermelon into whatever size cubes you'd like.  Ideally, you'd have a seedless watermelon, but in our case, try to take out as many seeds as possible while slicing and dicing.  A lot of the seeds came out as I diced it up, which made it a bit easier, but seedless is really the way to go.

Crumble up some feta cheese, and chop up some mint.  Toss with your watermelon, and you're pretty much good to go.

If your watermelon is really ripe and sweet, but you don't want a cloyingly sweet salad, you can cut some of the sweetness with some salt, pepper, and a few dashes of rice wine vinegar.  The feta adds a nice saltiness, while the mint adds a refreshing hint of flavor to the salad.

While there is nothing wrong with a big slice of watermelon and spitting out the seeds, hopefully you try this simple salad for a quick, refined take on this summer classic!