Beet Salad

For some, beets are an acquired taste. I, however, grew up eating them. My Grandma's beet barszcz was one of my favorite foods, and I never turned up my nose to jarred pickled beets. But red beets have that distinctive earthy flavor that can be hard for some to take. Other colors of beets can be milder - I've had orange beets that were as naturally sweet as candy, without the dirt flavor. The same goes for chioggia beets.

When raw, chioggias have alternating red and white concentric rings (which earned them the nickname "candy stripe" beets). Cooking turns them a fairly uniform medium fuchsia-pink. Their flavor is sweet and fruity, with little of the dirt earthiness of standard red beets. (Your palate may vary.)

The sweetness of beets makes them a perfect pairing for salty and tangy flavors, like vinegar, mustard, feta cheese, and olives, and an ideal salad ingredient. I like to add toasted walnuts, too, for a bit of buttery crunch.

Chioggia Beet Salad

2 beets, 2" - 3" in diameter, tops removed
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
generous pinch of salt
pinch garlic powder
pinch ground cumin
pinch ground paprika
4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
greens of your choice (arugula is nice, but so is plain old romaine)
feta cheese
green or black olives
toasted walnuts
fresh dill and mint (optional, but nice)

Scrub any dirt off the beets and place them in a saucepan with water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the beets are easily pierced with a knife. Turn off heat, remove beets from water, and allow to cool to a temperature comfortable enough to handle. Peel off and discard the skins. Slice the beets.

Place the orange juice, vinegar, mustard, and salt into a small bowl and beat well with a fork. Add the spices and beat again. Drizzle in the olive oil, beating constantly, until the ingredients are emulsified. Taste for seasoning and add more of whatever you think it needs. If you prefer a sweeter vinaigrette, whisk in a few drops of honey or agave syrup.

For each serving, place a handful of greens on a serving plate. Top with half the beets. Drizzle with a few spoonfuls of the dressing (whisk again if it has un-emulsified). Top with crumbles of feta, some sliced olives, pieces of walnut, and dill and mint.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Mason Dixon Master Chef Tournament 2013 Has a Winner!

 The Mason Dixon Master Chef Tournament, a live, local, interactive culinary competition concluded this week after 15 events and eight weeks of competition.

Sixteen chef teams have been competing in this single-elimination tournament since mid-June to determine who would take the title of 2013 Mason Dixon Master Chef Champions. Last night in front of a sell-out crowd at the Mari Luna Bistro in Mt. Vernon it was decided – Bond Street Social took the title!

Bond Street Social and Iron Bridge Wine Company competed in last night’s Final Championship match “Battle New York”, which featured products from several sponsors including Kobe beef products from AMBriggs, Buttermilk Blue Afinee and Vermont Butter from Emmi Roth USA, prepared Horseradish from Tulkoff Foods, and Pecans from Azar Nuts. Teams were required to use all featured products in their dish creations.

Both teams had previously won three matches to earn the right to compete in the final, and each prepared dishes that the expert judges (Chef/Owner Marc Dixon of Bistro Blanc, Chef/Owner Ted Stelzenmuller of Jack’s Bistro, and Mitchell Platt of Woodholme Country Club) described as the best they had seen in the summer-long competition.

The Iron Bridge Wine Company team (Chef Christopher Lewis, Sous Chef Lee Marziale, Jr., and Chef’s Assistant Tyler Skinner) wowed with an appetizer of WAGU TARTAR (red onion, horseradish, hollandaise, everything bagel chips), entrée of ROASTED WAGU STEAK (roasted parsnip puree, buttermilk onion ring, local apple, baby vegetable, red wine demi, roasted marrow blue cheese foam), and dessert of PEANUT BUTTER CHEESECAKE TRUFFLES (toasted pecans, cherry reduction jam, peanut butter powder).

Bond Street Social (Chef Neill Howell, Sous Chef Valerie West and Chef’s Assistant Adrienne Burratta) prepared an appetizer of WAGYU and FOIE GRAS DUMPLING (star anise, lemongrass and sesame broth), entrée of BLACK PEPPER RUBBED WAGYU HANGAR STEAK (caramelized cipollini onion, blue cheese and bacon butter, duck fried pomme nuef potato), and dessert of OLD SCHOOL STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING (pecan brittle, brandy cream, toffee sauce).

The winning Bond Street Social team received $1000 cash from the organizers, $1800 in culinary prizes from sponsors, a Wisconsin cheese making trip with sponsor Emmi Roth USA which includes an overnight trip with behind the scenes education and tours of cheese making facilities as well as a beer brewery tour (valued at approximately $2000), the official Chef a la Mode Championship jacket, a plaque for the winning restaurant, and of course bragging rights as the 2013 Mason Dixon Master Chef Champions! The First runner up also receives culinary prizes from sponsors valued at close to $1000.

However, the biggest winner of the night was charity partner Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland, who received a check for $2,500 from the organizers at last night’s event.

The organizers would like to thank all of their sponsors, the chefs and restaurant participants, the expert judges, and everyone who came out to support the event over the summer. People interested in finding out about next year’s tournament or chefs interested in applying to compete should visit the web site at www.MasonDixonMasterChef.com to sign up for updates or fill out the online chef application.



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Noodle Charm

We've enjoyed many a tasty dinner at Thai restaurant Spice & Dice, on Joppa Road, so we were excited to learn that they were opening a sister restaurant next door. So excited, we visited Noodle Charm on its very first day of operation. Yeah, yeah, we know better than to judge a restaurant by its first day, but we couldn't help ourselves.

Noodle Charm is decorated similarly to Spice & Dice, with boldly patterned upholstery and goldenrod walls with randomly-placed and -themed artwork. It's a bit smaller - only 12 tables - and the menu is less-expansive as well. There are only four appetizers, including fried fish balls. Yes, that sounds weird, but they were quite good. Assorted blobs of fish paste are battered and deep fried and served with a sprightly sweet chile sauce spiked with smoky roasted dry chiles and nubbins of peanut. Crunchy and tender at the same time, the fish balls' mild flavor is really perked up by the sauce.

The name might give a clue that the restaurant specializes in noodle dishes, and most things do come with noodles. Three dishes are labeled "authentic Thai," and there are seven noodle dishes that can be ordered "your way." This includes choosing from three kinds of rice noodles, egg noodles, and clear noodles, with or without broth (in broth or broth on the side), and small or large bowl servings. There are four vegetarian dishes, and three rice-based options as well, for those folks with some strange aversion to noodles.

On our first trip, Mr Minx opted to try the Bangkok peanut noodles from the "authentic Thai" section. The menu describes the noodles as being soba, which are thin Japanese noodles usually made from buckwheat flour. Here, they are referring to the size of the rice noodles used in the dish, approximately the same thickness as soba. They were topped with a creamy peanut sauce not unlike Thai saté sauce, and garnished with veggies, crispy fried shallots, and cilantro, and pieces of chicken.

I went for a rice dish because it sounded intriguing. The 48 hours pork shoulder stew was very similar to Chinese red-braised pork. It had a strong star anise/five spice flavor, and was served over a bed of rice and garnished with a hard-boiled egg and some pickled mustard greens. The dish also came with a saucer of chile garlic vinaigrette to add a punch of heat and acid to the mild dish. I liked dipping alternating pieces of meat into the vinaigrette and eventually poured some of it on my rice. The flavors of this dish all went together very well.

On each table is a set of four jars containing granulated sugar, fish sauce, chile vinegar sauce, and some of those smoky toasted dry chiles. These are for personalizing one's soup broth to their exact liking - a nice touch. We got to utilize these on our next trip to Noodle Charm; this time we waited several weeks before trying it again.

We tried two more of the appetizers, the curried potato fried won tons with a sweet and sour dipping sauce, and the "starter fried," which included tofu, taro, and corn fritter-like corn cakes, all fried of course, with a tamarind dipping sauce. They were both pretty good, especially the potato won tons, which were crisp, greaseless, and rather addictive.

The two of us went for "noodles your way." Mr Minx chose the chicken noodle soup with egg noodles. The broth was pale but hearty and very aromatic. His didn't need any help from that condiment dish.

My duck soup had a darker brown broth flavored with star anise, but it was fairly neutral. I added both chiles, a pinch of sugar, and some fish sauce to customize it the way I like it - spicy, a little tart, and nicely salty. Both soups were "big bowl" sized and indeed they were generously portioned, with a nice amount of both meat and noodles. I ended up doggie bagging almost half of mine.

We had a friend accompany us on this trip, and she opted for one of the vegetarian dishes - a tofu version of the peanut noodles that Mr Minx had on our first visit. Hers was served in a bowl and was a much larger portion of food than the dish on the original trip, but the herbal peanut sauce was the same.

So far, everything we've tried at Noodle Charm we've liked a lot. Now we need to get more people to dine there - our second visit was on a Saturday night and there was only one other table occupied. I'm hoping that once the Towson University students come back to town, they'll realize they can go to Noodle Charm for a lot of good food for relatively little money - those big bowl noodle soups are only $10, and one can get extra protein for another $2.

Noodle Charm
1220 East Joppa Rd
Towson, MD 21286
(410) 494-8424





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Birthday Cake

Mr Minx had a birthday recently, and I made him a chocolate cake. Chocolate cake is his favorite kind, preferably plain, un-iced, unadorned. I usually default to a bundt cake, since that looks the nicest when served naked, but I never use the same recipe from year to year. Why? Because I usually forget which one I've used. Certainly it's always one that requires cocoa powder and sour cream or yogurt because we always have those two ingredients in the house. If the recipe calls for buttermilk, forget it. Buttermilk almost always comes in quarts, if one can actually find it, and neither of us are going to consume 3 1/4 cups of buttermilk. Yes, I know I could make fried chicken, but as I've never made fried chicken in my life, I'm not about to start doing it now just to use up a quart of buttermilk.

Sour cream is always the best answer.

I used this recipe this time, and it turned out very well. The cake was moist and chocolate-y, took exactly 45 minutes to bake, and popped out of the pan easily. And so I don't forget which recipe I used, I'm documenting it right here, right now.

Happy Birthday, Mr Minx!



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