Cauliflower, How I Love Thee!

Recently I noticed that there are a whole lotta cauliflower recipes on this blog. Why? Maybe because it's a versatile and delicious vegetable that can be used as a side dish or an entree, even as a substitute for rice or a pizza crust, but most likely because I am about 80% Eastern European and cabbage and cabbage-adjacent veggies are the food of my people. 

My childhood was fairly cruciferous. (Cruciferous refers to the cross-shaped flowers of many members of the cabbage family. Also, I was raised Roman Catholic, so....) Boil-in-bag broccoli in cheese sauce was always a big hit upstairs in our apartment. Downstairs, Grandma cooked cabbage in any number of ways, with and without pork products and other vegetables. But cauliflower she made one way: steamed. She'd put the whole head in one of her enamelware pots, add an inch or so of water, cover it, and turn on the heat. After the water had mostly boiled away, Grandma would stick a knife into the head to see if it was tender. If so, it was offloaded into a bowl, topped with a tremendous knob of butter, and sprinkled with copious salt and pepper. She and Mom and I would go at it with forks until it was gone while my younger brother ate a boiled hot dog or whatever other food he deigned to eat at the time. (Unlike me, he was a picky eater.)

Many years later I realized that cauliflower was plenty tasty on its own, but it is even better when roasted, spiced, or sauced. Its relative neutrality lends itself to a wide variety of flavor profiles, and it can be eaten raw, lightly cooked, and even cooked to death without stinking up the house (take that, broccoli!) Additionally, cauliflower is loaded with Vitamin C, antioxidants, and fiber, with only 145 calories for an entire 6" head. Cauliflower diet, anyone?

Links to a baker's dozen cauliflower recipes can be found below, though there are probably more than that around here. Besides cauliflower, what is the other theme running through them? Take a guess and leave a comment.

Blackened Cauliflower Steaks

Cauliflower can be cut through the stem into "steaks," which are lovely roasted until just tender with a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of salt. Top them with sauce, or a fried egg, or both, as in this recipe for Blackened Cauliflower Steaks.

Cauliflower Breadsticks

Cauliflower is low in calories, but not after it's used to create a pizza crust! (Cheese is the magic that glues it together.) Cauliflower crusts don't really cut it for me; I prefer to make Cauliflower "Breadsticks."

Cauliflower Caponata

Caponata is a sweet-and-sour Sicilian condiment usually made with eggplant and other veg. I don't see why cauliflower shouldn't get the same treatment. Cauliflower Caponata

My grandmother used to make vegetable fritters or pancakes all the time, mostly corn or potato, but occasionally with something really weird like canned asparagus. A shame she never worked cauliflower into her repertoire. Here are two totally different takes on the concept: 

Cauliflower Corn Fritters 

Cauliflower Fritters

Cauliflower Soup Reading this post I got the impression that I wasn't too pleased with this recipe, but dammit, I was going to make it anyway. It does seem a little weird, but it's a Rocco DiSpirito thing.

Cauliflower Tikka Masala

I believe pretty much anything would taste good smothered in a creamy spiced yogurt sauce. Skip the chicken and try Cauliflower Tikka Masala on your next Meatless Monday.

Kung Pao Cauliflower

Our favorite sweet and spicy Chinese chicken dish works well with cauliflower, too. Kung Pao Cauliflower

Mediterranean Cauliflower

Mediterranean food, with its various sauces and condiments and hummuses (hummi?), is fun to play with. Mediterranean Cauliflower gave me the chance to make some sauces, and also use a jarred product that I had just received for review. 

Moroccan-spiced Cauliflower Steaks

There are nearly infinite ways to season a cauliflower and make it delicious. I made these Moroccan-spiced Cauliflower Steaks with a jar of Moroccan grill seasoning I received as a Fancy Food Show sample. Of course I also made various sauces and salads to go with.

Purple Cauliflower Tacos

I probably could have just steamed and seasoned the cauli in these Purple Cauliflower Tacos, but I decided to make things a bit more interesting by turning it into fritters with feta cheese. Tortillas just happened to be a convenient way to get the various sloppy ingredients into my mouth easily.

Spicy Cauliflower Mac and Cheese

Spicy Cauliflower Mac and Cheese is a great way to sneak vegetables into a meal. Or to sneak cauliflower into a meal served to my pasta-loving husband who's not all that crazy about cauliflower.

Street Cauliflower

Street Cauliflower is my take on a dish eaten at La Food Marketa, which is their take on street corn.

What's your favorite way to cook cauliflower?

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Flashback Friday - Lamb unKebabs

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on May 13, 2013.

-----------------------------------------

My favorite flavor palettes come from China and Thailand and I find myself using them pretty frequently in my weekend dinner-making. Despite the vibrancy of seasonings like Sriracha, star anise, and Thai basil, eating similar flavors over and over can get, well, boring. So one recent weekend, I mixed things up a bit and prepared a meal with origins in the Mediterranean. And I don't mean Italy or Greece - Turkey's there too, along with Egypt and Syria, Albania, and Bosnia.

Lamb is a popular protein in that part of the world, and it is often flavored with what we might otherwise consider "sweet" spices. You know, the seasonings most familiar to us in pumpkin pie - cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Combined with cumin and paprika, these sweet spices both camouflage and accentuate the characteristic "gamy" flavor of lamb.

These rather sausage-like lamb patties, borrowed heavily from a kebab recipe found in chef Silvena Rowe's Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume: Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean, would be perfect skewered and cooked on the grill, but they were also quite tasty when pan-fried and served with a sprightly salad of tomato, feta, and olives.

Lamb unKebabs (adapted from Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume)

1.5 lbs ground lamb
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/4 cup coarsely chopped pistachios
1 tablespoon finely minced fresh mint
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
pomegranate molasses (optional)

Mix all ingredients except molasses thoroughly. Form into eight small patties. Refrigerate on a covered plate for at least one hour and up to overnight to allow flavors to meld.

Cook patties in a bit of olive oil in a hot pan until browned on both sides and cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Serve with tomato salad and a drizzle of the pomegranate molasses.

Tomato Salad

2 ripe tomatoes, de-seeded and cut into large dice
1/4 cup chopped black and green olives
1 tablespoon minced chives
splash balsamic vinegar
splash lemon juice
splash agave syrup or honey
pinch salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup cubed feta cheese

Combine first seven ingredients in a bowl. Allow to rest at room temperature for at least half an hour so flavors can meld. Add cheese when ready to serve.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - A Trip Around the Mediterranean

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on June 7, 2013.

Beef kebabs with shakshouky, tzatziki, and tomato and cucumber salad, on pita.

It seems traditional to drag out the grill on Memorial Day. While many people are content with burgers and hot dogs, I think if Mr Minx is going to go to all of the trouble to fiddle with charcoal and have a dirty grill to clean afterward, the food had better be a bit more interesting than the usual.

I've been enamored of ground meat kebabs recently and decided to make two types - lamb and beef - based on recipes from Silvena Rowe's Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume: Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean. Pictured above are the beef kebabs, flavored with cumin, paprika, allspice, and cinnamon, (this recipe, minus the herbs, fruits, and nuts, plus 1/2 teaspoon cumin). The lamb kebabs were based on this recipe, minus the cumin and pistachios.

To accompany the kebabs, I made four sauces/dips that I like to make, and it struck me that they came from different countries along the Mediterranean Sea. There was Romesco from Spain, Tzatziki from Greece, and Shakshouky and Hummus, popular in various North African countries. I also chopped up a seeded hydroponic cucumber and a pint of cherry tomatoes, dressed it with salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar and called it a salad, and there was feta cheese, too.

The recipe for shakshouky is linked above, and there will be a post next week on the hummus. The other two sauce recipes follow.

Romesco Sauce

I cheat when I make Romesco. Rather than roasting the vegetables myself, I use jarred roasted red peppers and canned fire roasted tomatoes. Here's the recipe I usually use. I didn't have almonds in the house, so I used 2 tablespoons of Trader Joe's almond butter instead. Worked like a charm.

1 small onion, chopped
2 jarred roasted red bell peppers, torn into chunks
1 15-oz can chopped fire roasted tomatoes
3 cloves garlic, crushed
¼ cup blanched slivered almonds
1 ounce white bread, toasted, crust removed
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon pimentón (Spanish sweet paprika)
olive oil
salt

Sauté the onion in a bit of olive oil until lightly browned. Place in blender or food processor with the next seven ingredients and purée, drizzling in olive oil until a thick sauce is formed. Add salt to taste.

Makes about 2 cups of sauce.

Very Simple Tzatziki

1 hydroponic cucumber
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 clove garlic, minced
kosher salt

Cut the cucumber in half and scoop out the seeds. Puree the flesh in a food processor, then dump it into a tea towel and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Put the cucumber back into the food pro with the yogurt and garlic and puree until well combined. Season with salt.

Makes about 2 cups of sauce.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Gnocco is Coming

Some might call the neighborhood Highlandtown (pronounced, in the local patois, Hollan-teahwn), and some might call it Brewer's Hill, regardless, the small but charming space at the corner of Eaton and Fleet Streets is now home to a restaurant called Gnocco.

We first met chef/owner Brian Lavin after he took over kitchen duties at Salt, in Butcher's Hill, and we featured a few of his recipes in our book, Baltimore Chef's Table. A bit later, he moved on to Fork and Wrench. Today, the talented Lavin has his very own place with which to leave his mark on Baltimore's culinary scene.

We were invited to Gnocco for a pre-opening media tasting and were quite impressed. The space is small, but bright and welcoming, with a long reclaimed-wood bar and glossy subway tile on the back wall. The menu is "Mediterranean-inspired," with touches of Italy and Spain in Lavin's simple and seasonal dishes. The items we tasted aren't necessarily going to be on the opening menu, but were a good indication of the style of food that will be served at Gnocco come opening day, June 21st.

Among our favorite dishes were oysters on the half shell served with uni, creme fraiche, and salmon roe (that reminded me of the late, lamented Pabu's "Happy Spoons" dish that I loved so much), and a lovely crostini of eggplant agrodolce topped with stracciatella (which will be made in-house).

There were also crispy stuffed olives with 'nduja (a spicy spreadable pork sausage) and boquerones (anchovies), beef tartare, and incredibly tender octopus.

We also tasted three entrees: a lovely house-made agnolotti stuffed with goat cheese and chives, with sauteed chanterelles and hazelnuts; a whole red snapper with yogurt and a cucumber and radish salad; and a perfect NY strip with grilled green onions and romesco.

Everything was really top notch. Simply looking at the photos makes me want to eat it all over again.

We think Gnocco shows great promise, and are looking forward to enjoying a full dinner there sometime later this summer.

Gnocco
3734 Fleet Street
Baltimore, MD 21224
http://www.gnoccobaltimore.com/



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Fazzini's Taverna

In my youth, Fazzini's was a mythical restaurant. I would hear their radio ads on the old WHFS and cringe at the bad jokes, but the food sounded like heaven to a pasta maniac like me. Years later, when I started dating the Minx, her brother would talk about how great Fazzini's meatball pizza was and his alarming weight gain was a testament to how addictive their food was. Still, Cockeysville was a little out of my usual stomping grounds and I never went. It wasn't until years later that the Minx and I actually ate at Fazzini's and the food was...okay. Maybe we should've ordered the meatball pizza.

Recently, Fazzini's Italian Kitchen ditched their old location and their old-school menu and moved into new digs on York Road. They also brought in a new chef with a more refined menu to create Fazzini's Taverna, so it seemed only fitting that the Minx and I would bring along her brother and father to check out their updated style of cuisine.

The new building used to house Piv's Pub and Fazzini's chose to keep the dark-wood decor pretty much the same, adding some nicer tables and banquettes to smarten up the look. The waitstaff is also more formal and were quite attentive if perhaps a bit frazzled during our time there. I would chalk that up to working out the kinks while dealing with crowds who were equally curious to see the new place.

Fazzini's has jumped on the small plates bandwagon with a menu of snacks, hot appetizers, and cold appetizers to compliment the pizzas, pasta, and entrees. We chose to order a few appetizers and two pizzas for the table. Our first dish was calamari and hot pepper misto. We were disappointed that the ratio of calamari to peppers favored the peppers, which were pretty darn hot. I have to think that many old Fazzini's customers would be put off by such a spicy dish. The calamari, while tender, were sliced into thick rings that were too large (some were undercooked) and the coating was quite pale. Smaller pieces may have fried up faster and provided crispier bites. 

Albondigas con almendras, or pork and beef meatballs, were good if maybe a bit too charred on the outside. I like a good sear on my meatball, but these were black on the outside. I liked the fact that they used toasted almonds in the tomato and red wine sauce, however. It added a surprising crunch to what would normally be just soft meatballs in sauce.

The prawns in garlic-parsley butter was my favorite of the appetizers even if I only got one since there were only four prawns in the dish. Fazzini's obviously has a sizzling grill because the prawns had a powerful grill flavor and, of course, you can't go wrong with garlic and butter, although Minxy would have liked more garlic. Some toasted bread was provided to sop up the excess butter. We also ordered pappas bravas or wood fired chunks of potato covered in a smoked paprika aioli. The potatoes were crisp and the aioli was thick and eggy like crab imperial without the crab. And without the smoked paprika.

The waiter thoughtfully brought the pizzas out one at a time so we could enjoy each one without having to wrestle two large platters on our table. The first, a sausage and pepperoni pizza, had the familiar flavors you would expect from this traditional pie. I prefer crumbled sausage over the sausage slices on this pizza, but there was plenty of cheese and just the right amount of sauce to create the appropriate balance of flavors. As for the crust, it was thicker than a New York style pizza, but not soft like a fresh dough pizza either. In fact, it's possible the dough was either overworked or not allowed to rise long enough because it was entirely too tough. Good thing the pizzas are small because we suspect that if anyone tried to eat a leftover slice the next day, it would become impossibly dense. 

We were particularly interested in trying the Anytime Breakfast pizza. Sausage, bacon, potato, and a runny egg layered on top of mozzarella is supposed to make you think of a hearty breakfast in each bite. Trouble was, it didn't make me think of breakfast at all. Perhaps it was the mozzarella or whatever sauce they may have put on underneath, but it just seemed bland and greasy. Also, with only one slimy egg in the middle, the flavor of egg was mostly missing. 

I left Fazzin's Taverna feeling not only disappointed but concerned. Clearly, they must have known that such a radical change in menu would lose them a fair chunk of their regular clientele, and while I applaud the bold move from traditional red sauce Italian joint to upscale Mediterranean bistro, there were too many errors in execution to deem any of the dishes really exceptional. This is particularly critical when a restaurant is charging upscale prices. I hope that some of the cooking miscues will be worked out over time so that Fazzini's can firmly establish itself in its new incarnation. Otherwise, they may become stuck as neither pesce nor pollo and never find an audience.



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Gato

When planning a trip to New York with Mr Minx, I determined that we had to dine at Bobby Flay's newest restaurant, Gato--especially after reading GQ critic Alan Richman's glowing review.

The Greenwich Village restaurant is dark. It's a high-ceilinged space with with lots of brick and dark varnished wood, so my photos are less than perfect. (I had to Photoshop the hell out of them to get the colors to show.) No matter...the food was pretty close to perfection, so even if we didn't get to eat with our eyes so much, our palates were quite happy.

We ordered a lot of food, starting with a trio of small plates from the "bar" section of the menu: eleven layer potato with caramelized shallots and fried sage; wild striped bass salsa torres; pequillo filled with raw tuna, saffron sauce. Each dish was bursting with flavor and we were sad that the portions were small. Those tuna stuffed peppers would make a fab party snack, and the bass would be lovely in an entree-sized portion. And how can one go wrong with a stack of tender potato slices touched with the sweetness of shallot?

I'm all about carrots, so when I saw the charred carrots with parsnip chips, harissa, mint, and yogurt, we had to get them. The carrots were indeed charred to blackness yet were still crisp-tender on the inside. The charcoal-y coating gave the carrots an interesting flavor that bordered on the medicinal. In addition to the carrots and crunchy parsnip chips, there were tender sweet chunks of beet, making this dish a showcase of the range of flavors and textures found in humble root vegetables.

We had just seen Flay make octopus in an episode of Iron Chef, so ordering his roasted octopus with sour orange, bacon, and oregano was a must. I'd never had octopus that was so tender before. Honestly, it could be cut with a fork. And the bacon lardons and orange sauce added just the right amount of salty and tangy flavors. We definitely could have done with several more tentacles....

Instead, we moved on to entrees. Mr Minx had the porterhouse pork chop topped with romesco over polenta. The huge chop was cooked to medium, and was juicy and well-seasoned. The polenta was smooth and creamy but not overly rich. And the chunky romesco was good enough to eat directly from the bowl with a spoon. Had they offered us a bowl of it and a spoon....

Knowing that we were slated to eat an all-fish luncheon at Le Bernardin the next afternoon, I passed over the menu's fish selections (halibut, orata, fettucine with prawns) and ordered something completely uncharacteristic for me: the rabbit. I haven't much liked rabbit in the past, finding its occasional gaminess unpleasant. But this rabbit was wonderful. A full leg portion and the tiny loin were served with a pile of fregula (a Sardinian pasta similar to Israeli couscous), fresh peas, chanterelle mushrooms, and a carrot hot sauce. The meat was tender and chicken-like without actually tasting like chicken, and I loved the textures and flavors of the fregula. I liked Mr Minx's chop, too, and really can't say which I enjoyed more.

At this point, we were stuffed, but ordered a dessert to share. The Meyer lemon tart must have been filled to order, as the crust was crisp all the way through and the tangy filling with its characteristic lemon/tangerine flavor was still slightly warm and a bit loose-textured, like freshly made lemon curd. We also loved the whipped cream, which was heavily flavored with pistachio and topped with a crumbled pistachio brittle.

As if that wasn't enough, we were brought a complimentary plate of wafer-thin biscotti and glasses of cream sherry. I had overheard our server tell the couple at the table next to ours that their sherry was to celebrate the male diner's birthday. We weren't celebrating anything, so I think we got the sherry because we're so darn cute. :)

Overall, an excellent meal. Everything was big and bold--no wimpy flavors on these plates! Proteins were cooked and seasoned perfectly, as were all accompaniments. I know some people don't care for Bobby Flay, but the man can cook. And as we saw him there in the kitchen, on the line, actually cooking, we know that he had to have personally touched at least a couple of our dishes.

Here's to many successful years for Gato.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Caponata

We planted our first in-the-ground garden this summer. Well, it's a raised bed, but it's not our usual container garden. Besides a plethora of tomatoes, we put in eggplant, jalapeno and frying peppers, green beans, zucchini, cucumbers, okra, collards, brussels sprouts, strawberries, and nasturtiums. While the plants are flowering like crazy, we've gotten only one eggplant and four cucumbers--surprisingly, not a single zucchini--thus far. And tons of tomatoes.

So what to do with one eggplant, one frying pepper, and some tomatoes? We happened to have celery and onion in the fridge, and eggplant + celery = caponata. Caponata is an Italian vegetable dish with an agrodolce flavor that comes from vinegar and sugar. We had those, too.

Though the eggplant was fairly small (fist-sized), combined with the other vegetables, it produced a overflowing cup full of sweet and sour relish. While the stuff would have been great on toasted bread, bruschetta-style, I decided to serve it over some mahi mahi. Any other mild while fish would work, too.

Caponata

extra virgin olive oil
1 cup diced onion
salt
1 large stalk celery (or two smaller stalks from the inside of the head), cut into small dice
1 Italian frying pepper (or half a ripe bell pepper) cut into small dice
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small eggplant (about fist sized), unpeeled, cut into small dice (or about half a regular eggplant)
pinch of red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon capers, drained
1/4 cup chopped olives
4 teaspoons brown sugar
4 teaspoons champagne vinegar
1 tomato, cut into small dice
salt and pepper to taste

Heat a sauté pan and add a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Add the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 6-8 minutes, until onion is soft and translucent and starting to brown a little on the edges. Add the celery, pepper, and garlic, and cook another 4-5 minutes, until vegetables start to soften. Add the eggplant and red pepper flakes next, and cook for about 7-10 minutes more, until the eggplant is tender. Add more olive oil at this point if the eggplant starts to stick to the pan.

Stir in the capers, olives, brown sugar, and vinegar. Add the tomato and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook another minute or so more, just to warm up the tomato. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.



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A Trip Around the Mediterranean

Beef kebabs with shakshouky, tzatziki, and tomato and cucumber salad, on pita.

It seems traditional to drag out the grill on Memorial Day. While many people are content with burgers and hot dogs, I think if Mr Minx is going to go to all of the trouble to fiddle with charcoal and have a dirty grill to clean afterward, the food had better be a bit more interesting than the usual.

I've been enamored of ground meat kebabs recently and decided to make two types - lamb and beef - based on recipes from Silvena Rowe's Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume: Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean. Pictured above are the beef kebabs, flavored with cumin, paprika, allspice, and cinnamon, (this recipe, minus the herbs, fruits, and nuts, plus 1/2 teaspoon cumin). The lamb kebabs were based on this recipe, minus the cumin and pistachios.

To accompany the kebabs, I made four sauces/dips that I like to make, and it struck me that they came from different countries along the Mediterranean Sea. There was Romesco from Spain, Tzatziki from Greece, and Shakshouky and Hummus, popular in various North African countries. I also chopped up a seeded hydroponic cucumber and a pint of cherry tomatoes, dressed it with salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar and called it a salad, and there was feta cheese, too.

The recipe for shakshouky is linked above, and there will be a post next week on the hummus. The other two sauce recipes follow.

Romesco Sauce

I cheat when I make Romesco. Rather than roasting the vegetables myself, I use jarred roasted red peppers and canned fire roasted tomatoes. Here's the recipe I usually use. I didn't have almonds in the house, so I used 2 tablespoons of Trader Joe's almond butter instead. Worked like a charm.

1 small onion, chopped
2 jarred roasted red bell peppers, torn into chunks
1 15-oz can chopped fire roasted tomatoes
3 cloves garlic, crushed
¼ cup blanched slivered almonds
1 ounce white bread, toasted, crust removed
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon pimentón (Spanish sweet paprika)
olive oil
salt

Sauté the onion in a bit of olive oil until lightly browned. Place in blender or food processor with the next seven ingredients and purée, drizzling in olive oil until a thick sauce is formed. Add salt to taste.

Makes about 2 cups of sauce.

Very Simple Tzatziki

1 hydroponic cucumber
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 clove garlic, minced
kosher salt

Cut the cucumber in half and scoop out the seeds. Puree the flesh in a food processor, then dump it into a tea towel and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Put the cucumber back into the food pro with the yogurt and garlic and puree until well combined. Season with salt.

Makes about 2 cups of sauce.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Kitchen Sink Chicken

Ever look in the fridge and find jars with half a roasted red pepper or three olives or a teaspoon of capers? How about finding half an onion and three wilting stalks of celery in the crisper? This happens all the time at Casa Minx. Every once in a while, I have to concoct something that uses these odd bits and bobs. I empty the fridge while filling the recycle bin.

The fridge isn't the only storehouse of partially-full packages. The cupboard revealed a bag with three dried apricots in it and another with a handful of sundried tomatoes. There was also approximately 1/2 of a home-made preserved lemon in the fridge. Thus armed with a selection of fruits and vegetables, I set to work, basically chopping everything and tossing it into a pot with a bit of olive oil. Hey - no matter what the fancy French chefs would have you believe, saucemaking isn't rocket science.

A couple of the items - the olives, the lemons - were salty and tangy, so I added a bit of brown sugar for balance. But if you have a couple of tablespoons of hot pepper or even raspberry jelly languishing in the fridge, that would work just as well.

I popped some chicken thighs into the sauce, because I always have some in the freezer, but you can cook the sauce separately and serve it over fish (swordfish would be terrific). Or replace the chicken stock with veg stock and use it as a vegetarian sauce over some chunky, frilly pasta like campanelle or farfalle. The sweet and sour + celery flavors are very reminiscent of caponata, a Sicilian eggplant dish with a distinct celery flavor, so if you cooked the sauce down enough (or add less stock), you could even serve it as a side dish.

Mediterranean Chicken

1 cup sliced onion
1/4 cup chopped celery
olive oil
salt
2 cloves minced garlic
2 cups roughly chopped tomato
1/2 preserved lemon, diced, or zest of 1 lemon
1 roasted red bell pepper, diced, or 1 fresh pepper, diced
6 sundried tomatoes, sliced
1/4 chopped black and green olives
3 tablespoons finely chopped dried apricot (prunes or cherries work, too)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
4-6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
salt and pepper to taste (if you use a lot of olives and preserved lemon, you won't need salt)
chopped parsley or green onions for garnish

Put onion and celery in a large skillet with about a tablespoon of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Cook over medium heat until onion is translucent. Stir in the garlic and cook for about a minute before adding the tomato, lemon, sundried tomatoes, olives, and apricots. Mix well, then stir in the tomato paste, chicken stock, brown sugar, and paprika. Bring mixture to a boil, then add the chicken thighs. Lower heat to a simmer and cover pan. Simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, until sauce has reduced and thickened and chicken is very tender.

Serve with your favorite starch. (I used black rice.)

Serves 3-6

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Lamb unKebabs

My favorite flavor palettes come from China and Thailand and I find myself using them pretty frequently in my weekend dinner-making. Despite the vibrancy of seasonings like Sriracha, star anise, and Thai basil, eating similar flavors over and over can get, well, boring. So one recent weekend, I mixed things up a bit and prepared a meal with origins in the Mediterranean. And I don't mean Italy or Greece - Turkey's there too, along with Egypt and Syria, Albania, and Bosnia.

Lamb is a popular protein in that part of the world, and it is often flavored with what we might otherwise consider "sweet" spices. You know, the seasonings most familiar to us in pumpkin pie - cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Combined with cumin and paprika, these sweet spices both camouflage and accentuate the characteristic "gamy" flavor of lamb.

These rather sausage-like lamb patties, borrowed heavily from a kebab recipe found in chef Silvena Rowe's Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume: Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean, would be perfect skewered and cooked on the grill, but they were also quite tasty when pan-fried and served with a sprightly salad of tomato, feta, and olives.

Lamb unKebabs (adapted from Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume)

1.5 lbs ground lamb
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/4 cup coarsely chopped pistachios
1 tablespoon finely minced fresh mint
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
pomegranate molasses (optional)

Mix all ingredients except molasses thoroughly. Form into eight small patties. Refrigerate on a covered plate for at least one hour and up to overnight to allow flavors to meld.

Cook patties in a bit of olive oil in a hot pan until browned on both sides and cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Serve with tomato salad and a drizzle of the pomegranate molasses.

Tomato Salad

2 ripe tomatoes, de-seeded and cut into large dice
1/4 cup chopped black and green olives
1 tablespoon minced chives
splash balsamic vinegar
splash lemon juice
splash agave syrup or honey
pinch salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup cubed feta cheese

Combine first seven ingredients in a bowl. Allow to rest at room temperature for at least half an hour so flavors can meld. Add cheese when ready to serve.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Cypriana Cafe

There are currently two branches of Cypriana Cafe, one in the Sun Trust building on East Baltimore Street, and one in the University of Maryland Medical Center. According to the Web site, both share a menu of salads, paninis, pita sandwiches, pita melts, and rotisserie chicken. I've been going to the UMMC restaurant - really just a counter at which one orders and pays, and then waits for one's food before finding someplace to eat it - for several years now and have been generally happy with everything I've tried.

Not too lady-like, all spread-eagled like that, eh?

The "Big Fat Greek Pita" can be had with chicken, lamb, beef, or gyro meat. While lamb is my usual choice, the chicken version is good, too; even though it features chicken breast, it's quite moist. The best part about the sandwich though, is the "Cypriana dressing," a creamy concoction strongly flavored with tarragon.

The dressing is also the star of the Greek Salad, along with mounds of creamy feta. The salad comprises iceberg lettuce, onions, green peppers, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, kalamata olives, and pepperoncini and can also be had with a more traditional oil and vinegar dressing. But why bother - the tarragon dressing is so good, you'll be tempted to slather it on your mouse pad and eat it.

My biggest gripe with Cypriana is that it has the word "Greek" all over the menu, but uses the flat Middle Eastern-style pocket pita for everything and not the soft, fluffy, non-pocket pitas that normally come to mind. But the pitas they do use are always fresh and do the trick well enough.

Cypriana Café at UMMS
22 S Greene St
Baltimore, MD 21201
(410) 328-2227
www.cypriana.com



Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Quality Control - or Lack Thereof

When Donna Crivello opened her eponymous coffee bar at Madison and Charles Streets in 1992, I was working at an auction house on North Howard Street. I loved that I could walk there on auction days to pick up a hot latte and a baked good to get me through the day. Back then, the coffee was good. Her business partner, Alan Hirsch, ran a TCBY outlet at the Rotunda Mall when I worked at the bookstore there. He was already plotting a coffee bar idea, and would often ask me to test drive new flavors of brew.

The good coffee lasted for a few years - my Dad and I became habituées and needed our daily dose of Donna's (usually their flavor du jour). It was strong and rich and a good way to start a morning. Then, suddenly, the coffee went downhill. I think I remember something about losing their original distributor/roaster, or something like that. Currently, Donna's coffee is weak swill, like a brown crayon dipped in hot water. I refuse to drink it at all these days. And why should I, when Starbucks is a block in the opposite direction? (Now there's a place that understands quality control and consistency are keys to a successful business.)

Donna's isn't just a coffee bar though - they have served food of some sort at just about every location. The Madison Street outpost is a full-service restaurant that became a semi-regular hangout for my friends and me in the early 90s. My favorite dish was the roasted vegetable salad, and their bread pudding was to die for. I haven't had the pudding recently, but I have had the salad. And that's where the title of this post really comes in.

The Donna's at the University of Maryland Medical System has been the only decent non-ethnic sit-down restaurant near work for a long time. Our group has the occasional celebratory lunch there, and sometimes I go with a vegetarian friend who is in the neighborhood for a doctor's appointment. Every once in a while I order the roasted vegetable salad, for old time's sake. A month or so ago, it was stellar. The sweet potatoes and beets we well-caramelized and sugar sweet. The potatoes were tender, and all of the veggies were still warm. The balsamic vinaigrette was the same as ever. It was a perfect example of how good this combination of vegetables and baby greens can be.

Then I had a salad recently. The white potatoes were still crunchy, the sweet potatoes were gritty, as if they hadn't been properly washed, and the beets were basically still raw. There was at least half a cup of under-roasted red onions that were from the outermost layer, making them tough. The eggplant was completely over-roasted and mushy (I don't think roasted eggplant in a salad is a particularly good idea to begin with. Maybe in a sandwich.) and the dressing was too tart. It was awful, and I couldn't finish the salad. A shame, because the portion of roasted vegetables was very generous.

It's been a while since I've eaten at another Donna's location. My husband and I had dinner at Cross Keys a few years ago, and while it was far from perfect, it was pretty good. Maybe the lack of care taken in roasting the vegetables is limited to the UMMS location? The staff does seem to have more attitude than customer service skills, with too many people behind the counter doing seemingly nothing, and the disaffected waitrons counting the minutes until their shift ends. I know the chain has a general manager-type who roams from branch to branch, but maybe she just skips this one? I don't know what the problem is, but there's really no excuse for such inconsistency.

Happy Anniversary to Me

Yesterday was our fifth wedding anniversary, so we wanted to dine someplace special. We decided on Pazo, the latest venture by local restaurateur Cindy Wolf.

For my birthday in 2003, we tried out her Charleston. It was meh. After hearing so many wonderful things about the place, we thought we couldn't go wrong. But the staff was so everpresent as to be suffocating, the dining room was too brightly lit, we were too close to the open kitchen that was even more brightly lit, and the food was...ok. I was extremely disappointed with two things in particular: my "salad" of wilted spinach that turned out to be a huge pile of cooked spinach without much else. I was anticipating mostly raw spinach that had been tossed with a warm vinaigrette, but no, this was cooked all the way through. Spinach has an astringent quality to it that comes out at a point about mid-way between wilted and cooked-to-death, and this pile of dark green leafiness was highly astringent. The second thing that turned me off was the extreme gluey quality of the sauces. They tasted fine, but our lips were still prone to sticking together hours after the meal.

Despite that, we tried Ms. Wolf's second restaurant, Petit Louis. We liked it so much we've been back three times. The food is wonderful (apart from the occasional gluey sauce) and the whole francophilic atmosphere is charming.

Now to Pazo. We figured it could be hit or miss for us, but how badly could they screw up the myriad small plates that make up Spanish tapas? No screw ups at all, as far as we could tell. We were a bit overwhelmed by the menu, which offers sixty-nine items in eleven categories (not including a dessert menu, which we did not see), so we wimped out and took advantage of "Pazo's Grand Table for Two," a steal at $49. We received eleven dishes: eggplant dip, whole wheat fougasse, shrimp with garlic & tomato, romaine hearts, grilled swordfish, pinchitos andalucia, slow-cooked lamb, pane di ceci, grilled mushrooms, fresh mahon, and crème catalan. This was washed down with a bottle of Bobal/Tempranillo, Rozaleme (Requeria) 2003. The eggplant dip was pure heaven - smoky roasted eggplant pureed to an ethereally smooth texture and flavored with a touch of cayenne and extra virgin olive oil. The shrimp with garlic and tomato featured small but flavorful shrimp in a highly garlicky sauce, what every "shrimp scampi" aspires to be. The pinchitos were skewered bits of cumin-scented pork with a red pepper aioli and the slow-cooked lamb was as tender as pot roast and served with the worlds most garlicky mashed potatoes drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. The grilled mushrooms were smoky and unusual, redolent of rosemary, and bedded with chopped arugula in a tart lemony dressing. The pane di ceci was a chickpea pancake, cooked in such a hot pan that it had a flavor akin to the Chinese "wok chi," and was topped with a banyuls onion marmelade. Oh, so wonderful, but I must confess that chickpeas hate me and my digestive system both. The creme catalan was our dessert, a lemony custard with a bruleed top, the tangy lemon and the burnt caramel making sweet music together in my mouth.

But enough about the food. Go try it. The prices are shamefully cheap, including those on the extensive wine list (there are bottles listed for $16!). The decor is extremely hip and trendy, dark and clubby with Spanish/Mediterranean influences. It gets noisy, so go early if you want a quiet romantic dinner. If you like noise, go late in the evening, when the first floor lounge is transformed into a dance floor.

Pazo
1425 Aliceanna St
Baltimore, MD 21231
(410) 534-7296