Lamb Charcuterie - Sponsored Post

I grew up eating ham. My maternal grandfather worked for Esskay, a Baltimore-area company that produced hot dogs, sausages, and various other meat products. Even after he retired, the company continued to send us a ham for Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas until Grandpa's death in 1979. Ham deli meat (imported, please, chipped into the thinnest shards) between slices of rye bread with iceberg lettuce and Thousand Island dressing was my regular childhood lunch (with a side of Funyuns). By the time I was a teenager, I was honestly sick. of. ham. 

Now that I'm firmly into adulthood---tbh, on the slippery slope to old age--ham is very rarely on the menu. Certainly not for the holidays. A ham has never been in my oven (not a euphemism). 

Sure, I buy fancy ham sometimes, the raw stuff like prosciutto or Serrano. It's nothing like the flabby, water-logged, ham of my youth. I figured if I never ate pre-cooked ham again, I'd be ok. 

And then I discovered Lamb Ham. Aussie Select's Agave Rosemary and Tikka Masala hams, to be specific. This woman-owned business, based in Marietta, Georgia, was kind enough to send me samples of both products, and I have to admit I was blown away. I honestly had no idea that tender and lean Australian lamb could be turned into a ham-like product. It tastes very much like pork ham, but it's also unmistakably lamb. Unlike most sliced pork ham products, Aussie Select's hams have what I would call gentle flavor. In other words, they're not salt bombs. I used slices of the Agave Rosemary(my favorite) on both a charcuterie plate and in a grilled cheese sandwich, and was pleased at the way it stood out against the various saltier elements.

I thought I'd use the Tikka Masala ham in a completely different way: as a wrap for fresh asparagus. Typically, a dish like that would use a stickier and stretchier ham product like prosciutto, or one that is overall sturdier, like a deli ham (which is more of a Franken-meat, made of patched-together pork pieces). Lamb is a more delicate meat than pork, so my slices fell apart during the process of wrapping the asparagus. No worries (mate!), I simply did not turn the asparagus in the oven to prevent the ham from falling off. Eventually, the ham shrank to fit, and I had no problems getting the asparagus off the baking sheet and onto a plate.

I wanted to emphasize the Indian-inspired flavor of the ham by using a little bit of a sweet glaze, but opted instead to make a post-oven drizzle of mango chutney and mayo. And because I enjoy ALL the textures, I made a nut topping. This dish had it all--sweet and juicy fat asparagus, a lovely cured lamb with intriguing spices, a sweet and creamy touch, and something to crunch. I think this would make an elegant appetizer, but we Minxes enjoyed it as a main course.

Lamb Ham-wrapped Asparagus

For the asparagus

6 slices of Aussie Select Tikka Masala Lamb Ham

12 fat asparagus spears, tough ends snapped or cut off 

Extra virgin olive oil

Freshly cracked black pepper

Kosher salt

For the sauce

2 T mango chutney

1 T mayonnaise

A squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Salt

For crunchy topping

3 T chopped toasted nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, cashews - I used hazelnuts)

1 T hemp seeds

1/4 t nigella seeds (also known as kalonji, charnushka, or black cumin, a tiny, vaguely oniony-tasting, seed and one of my favorite seasonings--optional)

To make the asparagus: Preheat oven to 425F. Line a large baking sheet with foil.

Carefully tease apart the slices of ham; they will tear. Divide the slices in half as best you can--not only will they tear, they'll tear unevenly. Wrap each half slice around an asparagus spear and carefully place them on the baking sheet. Make sure the spears aren't touching. Drizzle a bit of olive oil over the asparagus and ham, and sprinkle a tiny bit of salt on just the asparagus. 

Place the tray in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. You will not be able to turn the spears, as the ham will fall off. But after 20 minutes, the ham will shrink and cling somewhat to the asparagus. If the asparagus still seems too crunchy, and the ham isn't too brown, you can leave it in the oven for an additional 5 or so minutes (I like tender asparagus).

To make the sauce: While the asparagus is cooking, combine the chutney and mayo in a small bowl or ramekin. Add a bit of lemon juice to taste. You want to be able to drizzle the sauce, so thin it out with a little bit of water...a couple teaspoons-ish. Taste again to make sure it still tastes like chutney. Add the barest pinch of salt and taste again. It should still seem sweet, with a hint of lemon. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

To make the topping: Combine the nuts and seeds in a small dish. Set aside.

To serve: Using tongs, remove the spears to a serving dish. Drizzle with sauce and sprinkle with nuts. 

Serves 2-3 as a side or appetizer.

* 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!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Spring Has Sprung at Seasons 52

Seasons 52 opened in the summer of 2014 as one of the new shops and restaurants in Columbia Mall's outdoor extension. A national chain in the Darden Restaurants group (which also owns Bahama Breeze, Capital Grille, and Olive Garden, plus a few others not in the Baltimore area yet) Seasons 52 is all about "what's good now." Their food is seasonal (but not necessarily local) and designed not to bankrupt anyone's calorie budget for the day/week/month. That's not to say that they serve diet food - not at all! But you won't find a deep fryer in the kitchen, or french fries anywhere on their menu. Instead, entrees tend to include something starchy and something vegetal and average around 580 calories or so.

We were invited in to Seasons 52 to sample selections from the spring menu, with wine pairings; the multiple courses of deliciousness were a treat.

As we waited for the rest of our party of local food bloggers to arrive, we sampled two of the restaurant's seven flatbreads. New for spring are the lobster and fresh mozzarella (with roasted sweet peppers, scallions, and lobster sour cream) and the crispy prosciutto and asparagus (with Camembert and chervil). They are true flatbreads, with a very thin and crisp crust, and not just oddly-shaped pizzas. Toppings are generous and flavorful, with the lobster flatbread's creamy drizzle having a particularly pleasing lemony kick.

With the flatbreads, we enjoyed a Chartogne-Taillet Cuvee Sainte Anne, a lovely floral champagne.

Once we were seated, we received a spoonful of an intensely flavored chilled asparagus soup with lemon chantilly cream, paired with lightly effervescent Aveleda Vinho Verde.

Next up was a spinach salad dressed in a white balsamic vinaigrette, tossed with spring strawberries, toasted pine nuts, nuggets of Gorgonzola, and fresh pea tendrils, and drizzled with some 15-year aged balsamic. I felt the delicate greenness of the pea tendrils (also called pea shoots) was lost in all those assertive vinegar flavors, but sweet strawberries + toasty nuts + funky cheese are one of my favorite flavor combos.

(The salad was huge, and at 250 calories, when paired with an under-500-calorie flatbread, the combination would make a lovely lunch for two. Just a suggestion!)

With the salad we enjoyed a Tilia Torrontes redolent of jasmine, honeysuckle, and rose.

We then received two appetizers. The first, Meyer lemon ricotta ravioli with brown butter, roasted peppers, and English peas, was an actual appetizer. With it we drank a Robert Sinskey Los Carneros Pinot Noir, the earthiness of which worked well with the rich brown butter and overall sweetness of the citrussy ricotta filling.

The second "app" we sampled was actually an entree. Six handsomely-sized scallops with lemon risotto, English peas, and roasted asparagus won me over. I've complained many a time about the insane cost of scallops in a restaurant. You're lucky to get three puny ones for $30. Seasons 52 serves six big babies, perfectly cooked, for $23.50. The accompanying risotto was delightfully creamy and Mr Minx and I found ourselves fighting for the last morsels on the plate.

With the scallops we drank a Mer Soleil Chardonnay, which, while delightful on its own with its unusual almost-sweet butterscotch and apple flavors, didn't work so well with the scallops. The wine made them fishy on my palate. YMMV, of course. The wine is generally recommended for seafood.

We also sampled two entrees, the Asian-glazed Chilean Sea Bass with organic black rice, snow peas, shiitake mushrooms, and micro wasabi. I loved it. The somewhat sticky black rice positively oozed with heavenly brown butter flavors, and the fish was ultra fresh and very moist. The sauce, which could have erred on the too-sweet side, was just right to my palate. Mr Minx and I also finished every last drop of this dish, along with the accompanying Selbach-Oster Kabinett Reisling, apple-vanilla sweet with nice lime-y acidity.

Our last savory dish was the wood-grilled rack of lamb with spring vegetables (including English peas, asparagus, fiddlehead ferns, pearl onions, carrots, and mushrooms), Yukon Gold mash, and shallot jus. The chops were cooked to a juicy and well-rested medium-to-medium rare, and all the veg were crisp-tender. With them we drank a smooth Cab blend from South Africa, the De Taren Fusion V, with flavors of berries, licorice, and spice.

But wait kids, that's not all! We were also served desserts. Just about all of them. As part of Seasons 52's reasonably caloried meals, desserts are wee parfait-style treats that range between 220 and 370 calories (and if they have that many calories, just think of what a full-sized slice of pie a la mode is worth!). We sampled pecan pie, strawberry cannoli, key lime pie, Belgian chocolate s'mores, mocha macchiato, chocolate peanut butter torte, and a tiramisu-style concoction that came with a pipette of amaretto. All rich and tasty; the cannoli, chocolate peanut, and key lime concoctions were our faves. We had another nice Selbach-Oster Reisling, a Bernkasteler Badstube Auslese, with dessert.

It was an excellent meal, all said, with the strawberries, pea shoots, asparagus, and fiddleheads adding happy hints of spring here and there. Seasons 52 is certainly worth a visit, not only for the lovely food, but also the great selection of wines. (The 52 in the restaurant's name indicates the 52 wines available by the glass. One hundred are usually available by the bottle.) Just don't fall in love with any of them, because, as is almost always the case for us, few if any are available in local stores (the Mer Soleil being an exception).



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Fennel Marmalade

Fennel marmalade seems so hipster-ish, doesn't it?

--Kathy

This post was originally published on July 28, 2010.
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Fennel Marmalade

During the latter part of the week I usually start to mentally go through the contents of our fridge and attempt to plan the weekend's dinners. This past week, I knew it was going to be too damn hot to take an impromptu walk to the grocery store, which meant I needed to utilize the ingredients on hand. Luckily, we had plenty of goodies in the larder: fennel and asparagus in the fridge and several kinds of meat and fish in the freezer.

For Saturday, I settled on making something with the fennel and pork chops. Fennel marmalade came to mind. I don't know why, but I want to make jam out of everything these days (see  Jam, Bacon and Jam, Red Curry).

It was pretty simple and turned out very well.

Fennel Marmalade

olive oil
pinch salt
1 small onion, cut and half and sliced thinly (about 3/4 cup)
1 fennel bulb, sliced in half, cored, and sliced thinly (about 2 cups)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
grated zest of one lime

Heat oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat Add onion, fennel, and salt. Cover and cook until onion and fennel start to wilt, about 10 minutes. Stir in 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Pour in the orange juice and reduce heat to the lowest setting. Simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the mixture starts to seem dry while the fennel is still on the crunchy side, add a few more dribbles of orange juice. Do not let the mixture burn.

After 45 minutes, add the rest of the brown sugar and raise the temperature. The mixture should bubble and caramelize. When most of the moisture seems to have evaporated, take the marmalade off the heat. Stir in the lime zest.

Place marmalade in a jar or a covered bowl in the fridge until ready to use. Makes about one pint.
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I served it on top of simple sautéed pork chops that had been marinated in a bit of soy and crushed garlic for a couple of hours. On the side, I made a bulghur salad with asparagus, red and yellow tomatoes and a green cayenne pepper from our garden, scallions, mint, lime juice, cumin, goat cheese, and olive oil.

In hindsight, polenta might have worked better with the pork chop, but I thought the combination of hot pork chops and hot corn mush might be too much for this humid weather. Mr Minx thought it the cold salad was fine, so what do I know?



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Fennel and Asparagus Salad

Some people consider "salad" a pile of leafy greens topped with cukes and tomatoes and glopped with dressing. And ok, that's a very American-style salad, but it's just one of many. I consider pretty much anything bound together in a vinegary sauce and eaten cold to be a salad, whether it involves, grains, pasta, or meats in addition to veg and fruit, or even all of the above.

Poke around in your fridge and cupboard to see what you have on hand. I almost guarantee (almost, because you might be one of those people who keeps nothing but beer and yogurt in the fridge and cereal in the cupboard) that you have the makings of a salad.

We always have some sort of veg, and even if we don't have anything fresh, there's always frozen green beans and corn and a can of at least one kind of beans in the cupboard. And I'm a vinegar fanatic, so salad dressings are a snap. Vinegar + mustard + oil + seasonings in any combination you like makes the perfect dressing for you. I also like to add a bit of sweetness to my dressing, particularly if the vinegar I've chosen is very pungent, like the sherry vinegar in this fennel and asparagus salad I made one night when we had both in the fridge and needed something green to go with dinner.

Fennel and Asparagus Salad

1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Pinch garlic powder
Pinch smoked paprika
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 bulb fennel, cored and sliced very thinly
8 spears asparagus, trimmed and sliced thinly on the diagonal
5 chive blossoms

Combine first seven ingredients in a small bowl and beat vigorously with a fork to combine. Put the sliced fennel and asparagus in a bowl, pour over the dressing, and toss well. Tear apart the chive blossoms and add to the bowl. Toss again before serving.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Oven-roasted Asparagus

My new favorite way to cook asparagus - oven roasting.

I do the same thing with broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts.

Preheat the oven to 450F.

Trim and rinse asparagus. Pat dry. Place asparagus on a foil-lined baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and a healthy pinch of salt. Slice a couple of garlic cloves thinly and scatter the slices on the asparagus. Toss with your hands so everything gets a nice coating of the olive oil.

Roast for 5-6 minutes, turn spears with tongs, and roast another 5-6 minutes. Serve as is, or with a drizzle of lemon mayonnaise or hollandaise.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Red-braised Chicken

I recently obtained a copy of Fuchsia Dunlop's latest Chinese cookbook, Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking. Honestly, the recipes are quite simple, only partly because we have most of the more exotic ingredients on hand already (chinkiang vinegar and shaoxing cooking wine, for example). Flipping through the book, I found several recipes I want to make, including a couple of cold chicken dishes that would be perfect for a summer supper, especially if there's leftover rotisserie chicken in the fridge. Dunlop also includes a recipe for red-braised pork, which is also in her Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province. I remember it being quite tasty and while contemplating making it again for a weekend dinner, I thought, why not use chicken, instead? There are a plethora of boneless, skinless chicken thighs in the freezer, and that seems like the perfect meat for red-braising.

I've eaten red-braised beef, and made red-braised pork more than once. Red-braising is a Chinese cooking technique that involves stewing meat in a mixture of soy sauce and spices like cinnamon and star anise. The resulting dish is subtly flavored, and more of a brownish--rather than reddish--hue. Chicken proved to be an even more subtly-flavored protein, so I upped the amount of soy sauce and star anise from Dunlop's recipe. The chicken cooks gently at a low temperature for a fairly short amount of time, leaving it very tender. I served it simply over steamed jasmine rice with sides of piquant smashed radishes (also in Dunlop's new book) and some asparagus that I roasted with garlic. Delicious.

Red-braised Chicken (adapted from Fuchsia Dunlop's recipe for red-braised pork)

1 tablespoon canola oil
2 scallions, white part only
1 thumb-sized chunk of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into 4 slices
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into thick slices from end to end
2 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons shaoxing cooking wine
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 whole star anise
1/2 cinnamon stick
salt to taste
chopped scallion for garnish

Heat the oil in a large saucepot (I used a 3-quart lidded pot). Add the scallions and the ginger slices and stir fry for a few moments. Add the chicken pieces and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally (it's ok if they get a little brown in spots, but we're not looking for browning here). Dump in the stock, wine, soy, star anise, and cinnamon stick and bring to a boil. Cover the pot and turn the heat down to medium. You want the liquid to be lightly simmering, but not at a full boil. Cook for about forty minutes, stirring occasionally, and skimming and discarding any foam off the top. After the cooking time has elapsed, test a piece for doneness. The meat should be supple and tender; if it's still a little tough, cook for an additional 10 minutes or so, but don't cook it so long that the meat starts to fall apart.

If the meat seems a little bland, add a bit of salt. Serve with rice, garnished with scallions. The stock is delicious, so use it as a sauce to moisten the rice, or eat it as a soup.

Marinated Radishes (adapted from Every Grain of Rice)

10 radishes, cleaned and ends trimmed
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sambal oelek
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

Smash the radishes with the side of a cleaver or a heavy chef's knife. You just want to make them splay out a bit, not break them into pieces. Put them in a bowl and toss with the salt. Allow them to sit in the salt for about half an hour, then drain the liquid that has collected in the bowl, rinse the radishes under cold water, then drain them well again. Mix the soy, sambal, sugar, and sesame oil together in a small bowl until sugar dissolves. Pour over drained radishes and stir to combine.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

RisOATto

I used to hate oatmeal. Hate it. I didn't much see the point of eating sweetened wallpaper paste, so I avoided the stuff. Then I discovered steel cut oats. They have a completely different texture from rolled oats and while they soften (a bit! not entirely!) when cooked and form a goopy porridge, I don't find it to be at all unpleasant. What I do find unpleasant, however, is the long cooking time and the fact that it tends to boil over a bit, even when I make it in a rice cooker.

While I have issues with hot oatmeal, I've always loved cold oatmeal - aka muesli. While the oats soften in cold milk, they never achieve the gluey texture I dislike so much. Eventually I realized that the reason for this is because the oats in muesli - once combined with milk, spices, dried fruit, and nuts - remain undisturbed. That is, there's no stirring. So I tried that trick with cooked oatmeal - I brought salted water to a boil, added rolled oats, and turned of the heat. After 10 minutes or so, the oats had absorbed all of the water, became soft, but didn't release any of their yucky mucilage. With a little brown sugar and cinnamon, or a spoonful of Nutella - yum. It's what's for breakfast just about every weekend.

Now that I'd figured out how to make fast oatmeal I actually enjoy, the can of steel cut oats became neglected. That is, until I decided that starchy oats might work in a risotto-type preparation. I cooked them up exactly the same way, first toasting the grain in a combination of olive oil and onion, then adding stock a bit at a time. The end result, while not an exact replica of risotto, was very very good, and a nice change of pace.

Oatmeal "Risotto" with Roasted Vegetables

2 lb assorted vegetables such as asparagus, fennel, cauliflower, carrots, edamame, brussels sprouts - trimmed, cleaned, and cut into approximately 2" pieces (edamame and asparagus can be kept whole, brussels sprouts halved)
olive oil
salt
5 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 cup steel cut oats
grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 400F. Place vegetables into a foil-lined 9 x 13 baking dish. Drizzle with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a generous pinch of salt and toss vegetables to coat. Place pan in oven and roast for 60 - 90 minutes until all vegetables are tender and caramelized. Every 15-20 minutes, use tongs to rearrange vegetables (move ones on the bottom to the top). As vegetables become cooked, remove them from pan and set aside (for example, asparagus will be cooked after 30 minutes or so).

About 30 minutes before veg are finished, place chicken stock in a sauce pan and bring to a simmer.

In a large skillet or sauté pan set over medium heat, cook onion in 2 tablespoons of olive oil until onion is translucent. Add oats and stir to coat with oil. Cook, stirring frequently, until oats start to smell toasty, 4-5 minutes. Turn heat up to medium-high, add a ladle-full of simmering stock to the oats and stir until most of the stock has been absorbed. Proceed as for risotto, adding a ladle of stock at a time and stirring frequently until stock is absorbed. After about 15 minutes of cooking and stirring, the oats will not have any more starch to release, so you can start adding stock by the cupful and covering the pan. By the time all of the stock has been added and most of it absorbed, the texture of the oats should be tender with a slight chew. At this point, stir in a couple tablespoons of Parmesan and the butter.

Ladle oats into a shallow bowl and top with a portion of the roasted vegetables.

Makes 4 servings.

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10th Anniversary Dinner

Originally I had the idea that we would go to New York and celebrate our tenth anniversary with a big dinner at Per Se, but then I calculated the cost of train fare, hotel, and dinner. Eek! Considering we had a great meal at Volt a few weeks ago, plus a 6-course meal at Bluegrass Tavern the night before, we decided that a somewhat fancier-than-usual home-cooked meal would be just the thing.

I fell in love with the smoked trout salad we had at Clementine a couple weeks ago, so I thought if we could find smoked trout at Neopol, I'd make a version to serve as an appetizer.

smoked trout salad and celeri remoulade on Atwater's ciabatta

While at Belvedere Market, we picked up a giant sirloin from Ceriello. They didn't have arborio rice but they did have orzo, so I my original idea of risotto became a wild mushroom orzotto.

I concocted a pan sauce with the steak's drippings, some red wine, leeks, mushrooms, and the soaking liquid from the orzotto's mushrooms and steamed some asparagus. While the steak and sauce were very good, the orzotto stole the show - it was very easy, very delicious, and much quicker to make than risotto.

Orzotto (adapted from Kelsey's Kitchen)

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2 shallots, minced
1 ½ cups orzo
3 cups chicken stock
1/2 oz dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in 1/2 cup hot water for about 1/2 hour
¼ cup heavy cream
2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

salt and cracked black pepper to taste

In large sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and shallot and cook until fragrant and just starting to brown. Add the orzo and stir to coat each grain with the oil. Toast the orzo for about 2 minutes, stirring often. Drain mushrooms and add to pan along with the stock. Bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and cover the pan; simmer for about 8 minutes, then turn off the heat and cover the pan (the orzo will continue cooking in the residual heat and absorb the rest of the liquid). Remove from heat and stir in cream and cheese. Season with salt and pepper.

Fennel Marmalade

During the latter part of the week I usually start to mentally go through the contents of our fridge and attempt to plan the weekend's dinners. This past week, I knew it was going to be too damn hot to take an impromptu walk to the grocery store, which meant I needed to utilize the ingredients on hand. Luckily, we had plenty of goodies in the larder: fennel and asparagus in the fridge and several kinds of meat and fish in the freezer.

For Saturday, I settled on making something with the fennel and pork chops. Fennel marmalade came to mind. I don't know why, but I want to make jam out of everything these days (see  Jam, Bacon and Jam, Red Curry).

It was pretty simple and turned out very well.

Fennel Marmalade

olive oil
pinch salt
1 small onion, cut and half and sliced thinly (about 3/4 cup)
1 fennel bulb, sliced in half, cored, and sliced thinly (about 2 cups)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
grated zest of one lime

Heat oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat Add onion, fennel, and salt. Cover and cook until onion and fennel start to wilt, about 10 minutes. Stir in 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Pour in the orange juice and reduce heat to the lowest setting. Simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the mixture starts to seem dry while the fennel is still on the crunchy side, add a few more dribbles of orange juice. Do not let the mixture burn.

After 45 minutes, add the rest of the brown sugar and raise the temperature. The mixture should bubble and caramelize. When most of the moisture seems to have evaporated, take the marmalade off the heat. Stir in the lime zest.

Place marmalade in a jar or a covered bowl in the fridge until ready to use. Makes about one pint.
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I served it on top of simple sautéed pork chops that had been marinated in a bit of soy and crushed garlic for a couple of hours. On the side, I made a bulghur salad with asparagus, red and yellow tomatoes and a green cayenne pepper from our garden, scallions, mint, lime juice, cumin, goat cheese, and olive oil.

In hindsight, polenta might have worked better with the pork chop, but I thought the combination of hot pork chops and hot corn mush might be too much for this humid weather. Mr Minx thought it the cold salad was fine, so what do I know?

The Brewer's Art

Although The Brewer's Art has been around for a number of years, Mr Minx and I had never had the opportunity to dine there until now. Friends from out of town, the very drole Cliff and his partner Doug, was going to be in Baltimore for a few hours en route to D.C. Originally we were going to eat near BWI (giving us very few choices) but when Cliff mentioned that they planned to take the MARC to their final destination, I realized that eating in Baltimore would open up our field of possibilities considerably. The Brewer's Art is less than three blocks away from Penn Station, so it seemed like the perfect destination for the occasion. Plus the current menu, listed on their Web site, had several choices that piqued my interest.

We were extremely early for our reservation and had to cool our heels in the shockingly noisy bar with a couple of the house brews. Eventually we were led to our table in the much quieter dining room. I was a bit worried that the noise would carry, considering there was no carpet or drapery to dampen the sound, but it was not a problem at all.

Once seated, it didn't take very long for us to make up our minds about dinner.

Doug had the chilled asparagus soup with house-smoked Scottish salmon tartare. I didn't get a taste but Doug seemed to enjoy it very much.

Mr Minx chose the house-made artichoke ravioli with Meyer lemon butter and pistachio-mint pesto. The butter sauce was outrageously good - rich and luscious and completely decadent over the tender pasta. One of those things one wants to pour over everything - chicken, vegetables, people....

Cliff and I both chose the roasted Berkshire pork belly on a sweet potato biscuit with grilled spring onion-fig jam, strawberry-basil salsa, and natural jus. While the individual elements of this dish were excellent - the pork was succulent, the salsa was tangy, the jam was pleasantly figgy - serving it assembled as a sandwich in a pool of jus made the soft biscuit soggy and somewhat difficult to eat. It was a bit large for an appetizer portion as well. Personally, I'd deconstruct the dish with mini biscuits, swap out the jus for a thicker, drizzle-able, reduction, and serve a dollop of the jam on the side. Keep the flavors but alter some of the textures.

On to the entrées. Cliff had the rabbit pot pie which contained the braised leg and roasted saddle in a Madeira-thyme velouté, wtih fava beans, morels, heirloom carrots, country ham, and buttermilk mashed potato, all topped with a puffed-pastry bunny "lid." I didn't get a taste, but judging by the way Cliff hoovered up the dish, I think it was a smash hit.

Because my app was so large and meaty, I went vegetarian with my entrée and chose the nettle and ricotta gnocchi with asparagus, fava beans, spring greens and Fontina cream, topped with bread crumbs and pickled spring vegetable salad. Light as air but as rich as sin, I could only eat about half of this decadent creamy concoction. Not having eaten nettles before, I wasn't sure what they were supposed to taste like, but I am happy to report they did not sting. The bits of asparagus and greens added some texture to the fluffy gnocchi, and the pickled salad of salicornia (sea beans) and onion added some tangy zing to the dish. The topping of stemmy watercress, however, was a bit awkward to eat.

Both Mr Minx and Doug chose the Ozzy-brined Giannone chicken with hash of caramelized fennel and fingerling potatoes, green olives, grilled Meyer lemon, and a Limoncello sauce. The chicken was perfectly roasted with a delicately crisp skin, and the sauce was richly chicken-y with a hint of lemon. Mr Minx was momentarily worried that the Limoncello might make things too sweet, but that was not the case at all.

Unfortunately, I don't have the full descriptions for our desserts. Doug went for the chocolate rum cake...

Mr Minx had the chevre cheesecake, which despite being a sweet cheesecake had a nice savory aspect from the goat's cheese. I enjoyed my bite and really should have sneaked another one. Or two.

I chose the coffee pot de creme. The first time I ever had a pot de creme, it was a baked custard, and that's what I expect every time I order it. And every time I am disappointed by something the consistency of pancake batter. This was no different. Under about half a cup of sweetened whipped cream I found an equal amount of coffee-flavored glop. This is not pot de creme, people. It tasted fine and the crunchy chocolate biscotti (which weren't really biscotti-textured) helped, but I was still disappointed.

Not bad to have only one disappointment in the evening, huh? Cliff thought his meal was "astonishingly good," which is quite a high compliment. I agree that overall it was a very fine meal and that my quibbles are pretty minor and really only based on my personal preferences. And the service was terrific - quiet, prompt, unobtrusive. I'd eat there again in a heartbeat.

The Brewer's Art
1106 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
410-547-6925

Easter Feasting

As usual, the Minxes hosted Easter dinner. Because the weather was supposed to be so nice, I thought it would be a good opportunity to break out the grill.

I originally planned to make lamb, but then Dad the Lamb-Hater said he would be in attendance. I thought about it, decided that lamb was still on the menu, and added pork chops.

Here's the lamb (left) and pork chops (right) plus grilled asparagus.

The whole boneless leg of lamb was marinated overnight in a bath of 1 cup soy, 6 cloves crushed garlic, 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, 1 teaspoon Korean red pepper flakes, 1 tablespoon gochujang (Korean chili sauce), and a couple glugs of canola oil.

The 4 bone-in center cut pork chops got a marinade of 4 stalks of chopped lemongrass, 2 cloves crushed garlic, 1 tablespoon Thai chili basil sauce, 1 tablespoon sugar, 2 tablespoon soy, and a couple glugs of canola oil.

Both were excellent. The lamb was melt-in-your-mouth tender, and cooked to a perfect medium-rare. The chops were more well-done, cuz Dad likes most proteins cooked to death. But they were really really good. I'm going to have to try pork tenderloins in the same marinade. Despite all of the Asian ingredients, the meat didn't have obvious Asian flavors.

Because we're Polish, we had to have pierogi. I used America's Choice brand, which are pretty good. First I microwaved them, then my brother helped me pan-fry them, and finally they were smothered in the onions I had cooked to a flavorful mush earlier in the day.

In addition to the grilled asparagus (which had been tossed with olive oil and s&p before grilling), I marinated some in a vinaigrette of red wine vinegar, brown mustard, olive oil, and tarragon, and sprinkled it with grated Parmesan before serving.

Last, but not least, I made a salad of Belgian endive with bleu cheese and walnuts.

For dessert, MinxBro provided an assortment of pastries from Yia Yia's (including mini eclairs, a wee lemon meringue tart, an almond croissant, and very rich slices of tiramisu and cheesecake), which saved me from having to contemplate yet another dish.

What did you serve for your holiday meal?