Flashback Friday - Pesto Mac

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on July 20, 2012.
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I had leftover roast chicken. I had pesto. I wanted to make something interesting, inspirational. Fabulous at the very least. Something worth blogging about. But my brain just wasn't cooperating. I almost made a risotto, only I didn't have any short-grain rice. I did have a box of cavatappi, that fun spiral pasta that's like a conga line of elbow macaroni, and realized there was plenty of cheese in the fridge, so my lazy brain went there.

Mac and cheese. But with pesto and chicken. Not exactly a life-changing dinner, but it was very good, and rather easy. I used Alton Brown's Stove Top Mac recipe as a guideline, switched up some quantities, and added sauteed onions for more flavor. You could skip the onions to make an even quicker version.

Macaroni with Pesto and Chicken (adapted from Alton Brown's Stove Top Mac-n-Cheese)

1 cup onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound cavatappi
4 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
2 5-oz cans evaporated milk
6 ounces milk
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
16 ounces shredded cheese (we like a combination of sharp cheddar, Swiss, and pepper Jack)
3/4 cup pesto (home-made or store-bought)
1 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken
Handful of fresh basil leaves, roughly torn

Cook onion in olive oil over medium heat until very soft and starting to brown around the edges, about 8 minutes. Set aside.

Cook the pasta to al dente, according to package directions. Drain water, return pasta to pot, and add butter.

Whisk together the eggs, milks, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and mustard. Stir into the pasta and add the cheese, the onions, and the pesto. Cook over medium heat until cheese melts and pasta is well coated. Stir in chicken and fresh basil and taste for seasoning, adding additional salt and pepper if necessary.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Spicy Cauliflower Mac and Cheese

I have always been a fan of cauliflower. Even as a kid, I could eat an entire head of it for dinner. Just slather it with butter and add some salt and I'd be happy. But I was never a picky eater. My brother, on the other hand, was. The only way he would ingest cauliflower (or broccoli) was if it had been smothered in gloppy cheese sauce. Fortunately (or not), Green Giant produced such a concoction in plastic bags that could be reheated in a pot of boiling water. Mm mm.

So it didn't seem like much of a stretch to put cauliflower in macaroni and cheese. With the veg standing in for some of the pasta, it could even lower the calorie count of the dish a tad. Just a tad, because, you know, cheese sauce. That isn't ever going to be lo-cal and taste good at the same time.

You could omit the onion, garlic, and peppers from this dish to make it plainer for your picky kid who will only eat mac and cheese and chicken fingers. Or, you could make their undiscriminating asses that garbage from a box that you usually feed them and cook this much tastier version for yourself. It might look and smell so good, the rugrats will beg you for a taste.

Spicy Cauliflower Mac and Cheese

1 medium onion, chopped
Olive oil
Salt
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded or not, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small head cauliflower, separated into small florets
2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
1 6-oz can evaporated milk
1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
1/2 cup shredded mild cheddar
Pinch smoked paprika
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan
3 tablespoons panko

Preheat oven to 350°.

Cook the onion over medium heat in a tablespoon or so of olive oil and a pinch of salt. When the onion is translucent and starting to brown a bit on the edges (about 8-10 minutes) add the jalapeno and the garlic, stirring frequently until pepper has softened. Remove from the heat.

While the onion is cooking, bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt generously. Cook the cauliflower until just tender. Remove from the water with a slotted spoon and set aside. Bring the water back to the boil and add the pasta. Cook until al dente, about five minutes. Drain the water from the pot, leaving the macaroni in it. Add the cauliflower and the sauteed onion mixture to the macaroni and stir to combine. Turn the heat back on under the pot, about to medium, and add the evaporated milk and the pepper jack and cheddar cheeses. Stir until the cheeses have melted. Stir in the smoked paprika and taste for seasoning, adding more salt if necessary.

Pour all into a buttered 9" x 13" baking dish. Top with the Parm and panko. Bake for 20 minutes until heated through and bubbly. If not browned on top, put the pan under the broiler for a couple of minutes to get the crumbs nice and toasty.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Alewife

I've been to Alewife more than a couple times in the past few years, yet have never written about it. Full disclosure: Chad Wells, the chef at Alewife, has helped us out with more than a few recipes for our books, as well as information on invasive species in the Chesapeake for the upcoming one. He's a smart guy with a lot of passion for fishing and food, and is a fine chef to boot. And...he makes one of the best crab cakes in town--no lie--with actual local blue crab (Alewife is True Blue certified).

I work about two blocks from Alewife, and I love craft beer, yet I manage to avoid the place at lunchtime. (It helps that they're not open for lunch most of the week.) This is not to say that I haven't occasionally had a liquid lunch, but most often I go to Alewife to chat with Chad. Recently, however, I've found occasion to have dinner there. Twice in a month. Alewife just happens to be the most interesting restaurant within short walking distance of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, a great place to have a beer or three and maybe a burger or something more exotic before taking in a game.

On my most recent trip, Mr Minx was my dining companion. He had never been and was eager to try a few beers and maybe the wild boar sliders or blue catfish tacos. Unfortunately for us, the restaurant had been hit by packs of rabid eaters and drinkers during the week, sucking most of the taps dry and devouring many menu items. "I'll have the [insert brewery name here] IPA, and she'll have the [insert other brewery name here] porter," was met by, "oh, sorry, we're out of that," more than once until I asked our waiter to just tell us what of the rather voluminous list of brews was still available.

Eventually we received our beers (Right Brain Fuzz Face peach ale for me, Union Perfecta pilsner for Mr Minx) and ordered some food: Thai peanut wings, brussels sprouts, egg rolls du jour, and a smoke burger to share.

I'd been craving wings and liked the idea of ones bathed in a spicy Thai-style sauce. These were good--well-cooked, not overly saucy or messy, and not overly spicy. Marinated carrots were a nice twist on the usual celery sticks, and a cilantro Sriracha sauce stood in for bleu cheese. I would have loved a handful of finely chopped peanuts on top, but  maybe the dude with the peanut allergy at the next table wouldn't have appreciated it.

Chad told us the eggrolls that day were filled with his mac and cheese, Buffalo-style. Sold! They were great--perfectly fried, with a filling of Chad's super creamy Palmyra cheddar, Gruyere, and Grana Padano-sauced rotelli pasta and little nuggets of hot-sauced chicken. They reminded me a bit of my friend Don's glorious deep-fried mac and cheese. Loved the Parm-tinged dipping sauce on the side, though the creamy eggrolls didn't really need it.

The Smoke Burger, an 11-ounce patty of local Roseda Beef topped with smoky stuff like applewood bacon, smoked Gouda, and chipotle aioli, plus Gruyere and caramelized onions, was perfect for sharing. It deserves every accolade it's received as the Best Burger in Baltimore. The meat was tender and juicy, perfectly medium, with just enough toppings. Even the brioche bun, which we usually hate because they always fall apart, worked perfectly. The accompanying duck fat fries dusted with rosemary were crisp and lovely. A great burger and fries combo.

We also had the tasty Brussels sprouts, simply pan-roasted with some bacon lardons and balsamic vinegar.

A few weeks earlier, my brother and I had pre-game nibbles that included the pork belly fries. Like the mac-and-cheese stuffed eggrolls, this is a perfect dish for someone planning to have more than a few drinks. The restaurant's customary duckfat fries are topped with mac-and-cheese, braised bbq pork belly, and pickled collard greens to cut the richness. It's a somewhat insane combination, but one that works very well, even for folks who aren't hitting the sauce.

We had the shrimp and grits (which is more like an app than an entree). Loved that the grits came in the form of crispy fried cakes. Also had the snakehead cakes, kinda like an invasive species version of Baltimore's famous coddie, served with a corn and bacon salad and dill avocado puree. (Somehow I deleted that photo. I'm sure it was blurry.) All delicious. (And if you want the recipe for the snakehead cakes, it'll be in our next book!)

All this rambling to say...wish it hadn't taken us so long to sit down and enjoy a full dinner at Alewife. Food's great, beer selection (when it hasn't been decimated) is really nice, and Chad's great, too. Go check it out, even if you have to buy Os tickets or see something at the Hippodrome (across the street) or Everyman (next door) theaters to give you an excuse.





Posted on Minxeats.com.

Pesto Mac

I had leftover roast chicken. I had pesto. I wanted to make something interesting, inspirational. Fabulous at the very least. Something worth blogging about. But my brain just wasn't cooperating. I almost made a risotto, only I didn't have any short-grain rice. I did have a box of cavatappi, that fun spiral pasta that's like a conga line of elbow macaroni, and realized there was plenty of cheese in the fridge, so my lazy brain went there.

Mac and cheese. But with pesto and chicken. Not exactly a life-changing dinner, but it was very good, and rather easy. I used Alton Brown's Stove Top Mac recipe as a guideline, switched up some quantities, and added sauteed onions for more flavor. You could skip the onions to make an even quicker version.

Macaroni with Pesto and Chicken (adapted from Alton Brown's Stove Top Mac-n-Cheese)

1 cup onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound cavatappi
4 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
2 5-oz cans evaporated milk
6 ounces milk
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
16 ounces shredded cheese (we like a combination of sharp cheddar, Swiss, and pepper Jack)
3/4 cup pesto (home-made or store-bought)
1 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken
Handful of fresh basil leaves, roughly torn

Cook onion in olive oil over medium heat until very soft and starting to brown around the edges, about 8 minutes. Set aside.

Cook the pasta to al dente, according to package directions. Drain water, return pasta to pot, and add butter.

Whisk together the eggs, milks, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and mustard. Stir into the pasta and add the cheese, the onions, and the pesto. Cook over medium heat until cheese melts and pasta is well coated. Stir in chicken and fresh basil and taste for seasoning, adding additional salt and pepper if necessary.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Macaroni and Cheese

I have a confession. I grew up in a macaroni and cheese-free household.

Well, not entirely - my grandmother, who lived downstairs, often made Kraft Dinner for my Uncle Frank, and occasionally I'd snag a few forkfuls of it. I honestly don't have any memory of my own mother making mac and cheese before the mid-80s, by which time I was an adult.

Something changed in my mom after we moved from our apartment in Fells Point to bigger digs in north Baltimore. In the 70s and early 80s, she was all about the Shake 'n' Bake, Prego, and canned green beans. (Canned asparagus too. I didn't know the stuff even existed in a fresh state until the 80s.) From the mid-80s onward, however, she made tomato sauce from scratch and became rather adventurous in the kitchen. One dish she made fairly often was macaroni and cheese, which she usually threw together when there was a surplus of cheese in the fridge. (It happened more than occasionally. We are a family of cheese lovers.) Mom always baked it in a round glass casserole dish that had to be 14" in diameter, so it held a helluva lot of cheesy, carby, deliciousness. And between the three of us (Mom, my brother, and me), we usually ate about 3/4 of it before realizing we were pigs and putting the remainder in the fridge. If Dad was lucky, he got some. Maybe.

One of mom's innovations to the classic breadcrumb topping was to add thinly-sliced tomatoes as well. In the heat of the oven, they would dry out, become slightly chewy, and intensify in flavor, adding a little bit of fruity goodness to an otherwise completely guilty dish.

Mac and cheese doesn't have to be completely fat-tastic though. We only ever have 1% milk in our house, and that makes as fine a cream sauce as any. Reduced-fat cheese is ok to use too, just not the fat-free stuff because it won't melt properly.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

1 cup onion, diced
olive oil
pinch salt
1 pound dry elbow macaroni
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
3 cups milk
3 cups shredded cheese, preferably a mix of cheddar, swiss, jack, and whatever else you have on hand
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
pinch freshly grated nutmeg
3 tablespoons Italian-style bread crumbs
1 large tomato, sliced thinly, or 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large saucepan over medium-low heat, cook the onion in a bit of olive oil and a pinch of salt until softened and light brown in color, about fifteen minutes. Remove onions to a bowl.

In a dutch oven full of boiling salted water, cook the pasta to al dente. Drain and return pasta back to the pot.

While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter in the pan used to cook the onions. Make a roux by adding the flour and whisking to make sure there are no lumps. Slowly whisk in the milk and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat (to prevent boil-overs) and cook for five minutes or so, until the mixture thickens and coats a spoon. Stir in the onion and about 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Pour over the macaroni in the dutch oven and stir well to combine. Put macaroni mixture into a 9 x 13 baking pan, and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Top with crumbs and sliced tomatoes.

Bake for 30-40 minutes until browned and bubbly.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Gypsy Queen Cafe

The latest food truck to hit the University of Maryland Baltimore area is the Gypsy Queen Café, run by the fine folks who brought us the late Helen's Garden in Canton. If you watch the Food Network, you might, as I did, recognize Chefs Annemarie Langton and Tom Looney from their appearance on Chefs vs. City.

Mac and cheese topped with bacon "bling" in a waffle cone is probably one of the more outrageous lunches out there. The mac is rich and creamy, of the old-school American cheese variety, modernized by a chunky, onion-rich bacon jam. The waffle cone is...an actual waffle cone, ordinarily found sporting scoops of ice cream. Honestly, it works best if you just don't eat the cone.

The truffle sliders feature three plump and juicy little beauties served on a toasted squishy bun with subtly truffle-flavored mushroom duxelles. While I might like more truffle flavor, I have to say the burgers themselves are pretty delish.

I also tried the black pepper chicken kabob, made from nicely peppered chicken breast with a slight sweetness, well-cooked, accompanied by a side of hash-brown-like potatoes. The dish also included a handful of undressed but otherwise slaw-like shredded cabbage and raw red and green onion.

The chai caramel donut - with bacon! - was of the "honey-dip" variety, coated with a spiced caramel sauce, bacon bits, and a dollop of whipped cream. Evil, but I think a cake donut would have worked better.

Prices are a bit high for lunch, and tax is not included, but if you like variety, and maybe even some weird stuff, check out Gypsy Queen Cafe when it rolls into your neighborhood.

ETA: Gypsy Queen is going taco crazy! The tacos al pastor, with Mexican chorizo and pineapple on a corn tortilla, are messy but delicious, as are their new Mission Bay fish tacos, with crisply breaded fish on a soft corn tortilla.

Meatless Monday - Mac & Cheese with Chocolate

When Mr Minx and I visited Jack's Bistro last month, we were most intrigued to try the Mac & Cheese & Chocolate. It was as odd as it sounds, and the very mild mac and cheese topped with shaved chocolate seemed neither appetizer nor dessert.

While the concept is weird, we thought that we could create a version at home that would work better. Perhaps if the cheese were more noticeable, and if the dish were spiced like a Mexican molé, the chocolate and cheese would have better integration.

We bought several varieties of cheese from the new Safeway on York Road, making sure that at least one of them had some sort of strong flavor. Because the original version of the dish had a vague smokiness, I knew I wanted to use a smoked gouda, and definitely some smoked paprika. I always loved when my mom put Swiss cheese in her baked mac, so we did that too. And we added a fourth cheese - chevre - for some extra zing. A quick consultation with Rick Bayless (in cookbook form) gave us some ideas for the spicing. And there you have it - Mac & Cheese & Chocolate.

Minx Mac & Cheese & Chocolate

1 pound small shell pasta
4 tablespoons butter
6 ounces evaporated milk
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon powdered jalapeno
1 teaspoon ancho chile powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
4 ounces shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
4 ounces shredded Swiss cheese
4 ounces shredded smoked Gouda cheese
2 ounces goat cheese
1 ounce dark chocolate, grated

In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente and drain. Return to the pot and melt in the butter. Toss to coat.

Whisk together the milk and the next 11 ingredients. Stir into the pasta and add the cheese. Over low heat continue to stir for 3 minutes or until all of the cheese and chocolate has melted and is well-combined.

Makes way too many servings.
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So did it work? Of course not.

We tasted the dish before adding the chocolate, and it was fine - cheesy and slightly spicy. After the chocolate - weird. Chocolate simply has no place in a bowl of macaroni and cheese. At least not dark chocolate. The flavor is so distinctive, so bitter, it stands out as an incongruous note, rather than part of a whole. Maybe milk chocolate would work better? You are welcome to try that out for yourself. As for me, I'm going to stick to macaroni with cheese, period. Why mess with a good thing?

What's New from Kraft - Giveaway

I'm going to guess that most of my readers grew up eating that particulate matter in the metallic green cylinder, the pasta product in the blue box, and the bright orange rectangle of an easily-melted substance. I'm talking Kraft Parmesan, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, and Velveeta. You probably also ingested Kraft Singles, Kraft Mayonnaise OR Miracle Whip (but never both), and Cool Whip. Me too. Our house was always full of the various products that currently fall under the Kraft Foods umbrella (and they are legion, after mergers with General Foods in 1989 and Nabisco in 2000). One of my favorite treats as a kid was Philadelphia Cream Cheese on Ritz Crackers, and my Aunt Stasia made outstanding lemonade by adding Tang to her fresh lemon juice and sugar. While we didn't eat Oscar Meyer hotdogs (Grampa's employer, Esskay, was the only brand allowed in my house) we almost always bought Oscar Meyer bacon.

While I've graduated to freshly grated Parmesan on my pasta, home-made mac & cheese, and real cheese in my grilled cheese sammies, I still consume my fair share of Oreos, Nutter Butters, and Grey Poupon. Crystal Light Pink Lemonade replaced Tang in my diet sometime in the mid-80s and it's still a favorite summertime beverage of mine. And I love Triscuits but I never buy them because I'd eat the whole box in one sitting (and then pay the price).

Recently I received a selection of complimentary Kraft Foods products, new-on-the-market items, and I'm here to tell you exactly what I think about them.

• New KRAFT HOMESTYLE DELUXE Macaroni & Cheese Dinner: My late Uncle Frankie loved Kraft Mac & Cheese and I'd eat it when Grandma made it for his dinner (two boxes). Mr Minx was partial to the stuff as well, but I've broken him of the habit.

I'm not sure why this new Homestyle Deluxe version exists. It involves packets of "seasoning" and breadcrumbs, plus a packet of Velveeta-like ooze. One has to not only cook the pasta, but also to cook the seasoning with milk in a separate pan, then mix it and the cheese and some butter with the drained pasta. Sorry, but home-made mac and cheese involves one fewer pot. And it tastes better. This stuff was too salty, too gooey. Twice as much macaroni probably would have worked better with the amount of cheese provided. The bread crumbs were far too uniform in texture and served only to add a granularity.

I suppose people who already buy Kraft Mac & Cheese products will buy this one too, but I don't think it has anything to offer the new customer. Stick to the blue box.

• New KOOL-AID FUN FIZZ Drink Drops: I drank Kool-Aid all the time and preferred when Mom used the sugar-added version because I never felt she added enough sugar to the unsweetened version. However, these Fun Fizz Drink Drops are quite sweet. The directions call for adding one tablet to 8 oz of water. Grown-ups don't drink 8 oz of anything, so I first tested it in 16 oz of water and produced a beverage that was puh-lenty sweet. The good news - the sweetness does not come from either sugar or HFCS. The maybe not-as-good news - it comes from a battalion of artificial sweetners including Aspartame, Sucralose, and Acesulfame K. Hey, but it has only 5 calories per serving!

• RITZ CRACKERFULS Filled Crackers: When I was a kid, I thought that Ritz Crackers were the only kind of cracker in the world, because that's all my Mom ever bought. Then a box of Chicken in a Biskit surreptitiously arrived in my Grandma's kitchen and ruined me for Ritz.

As for the Crackerfuls: I guess the cheese was Cheddar-y, it was cheesy at least. And the crackers were not Ritz-like at all, but crisper, less-flaky. Pretty good. Made a nice mid-afternoon snack with a glass of Kool-Aid.

• New DIGIORNO Pizza & Breadsticks: I don't understand the concept of eating pizza AND breadsticks in the same meal. Isn't the crust enough starch? I'm sure there was tons of marketing research done to produce this product, so what do I know? Anyhoo...I was a DiGiorno virgin before I tried this pizza, and I haven't eaten frozen pizza in decades because the stuff is usually so nasty. However, I think this one was pretty darn good. The crust got nice and crisp, even though I cooked it on a baking sheet rather than putting it directly on the oven grate, as directed. It had a biscuit-y quality to it, which I much prefer over the doughy mess found on most delivery pizzas. The breadsticks may have been the same dough, but they were a bit thicker and seemed breadier. The accompanying marinara dipping sauce was a bit too sweet for me though.

• OSCAR MAYER Deli Fresh Shaved Meats: We used our coupon for the roast beef. It tasted like supermarket deli roast beef. I'm not a supermarket deli meat kinda gal, so that's really all I have to say about this product.

• New KRAFT 100 CALORIE PACKS CHEESE BITES: I used my coupon for the Mozz/Parm/Cheddar combo. 100 calories worth of cheese isn't much, you know? But it's a fine size for a snack. And you all know what cheese tastes like. Cheese.

So basically everything tasted just fine. It was all pretty much of the quality expected from Kraft. My biggest beef with these products was the shameful amount of landfill-ready garbage it produced. Both the Kool-Aid and the cheese came in a plastic pouch full of other small pouches. The Crackerfuls were individually wrapped and each pack included a waxed cardboard insert. The Mac and Cheese comes in a bag rather than a box, and there were three foil-lined pouches inside. I hate that "convenience" means "bad for the environment."

If you've read this far, you're probably thinking, "ok, now where's the giveaway? You mentioned a giveaway in the title and I want free stuff, dammit!"

The Giveaway Portion of This Post

In addition to my lovely selection of samples, Kraft Foods has generously provided one gift basket filled with samples of New KOOL-AID FUN FIZZ Drink Drops, New KRAFT HOMESTYLE DELUXE Macaroni & Cheese, and RITZ CRACKERFULS Filled Crackers, along with free coupons for New DIGIORNO Pizza & Breadsticks, OSCAR MAYER Deli Fresh Shaved Meats, and New KRAFT 100 CALORIE PACKS CHEESE BITES.

To win, please leave a comment and tell me what is your favorite Kraft product. (You can find an alphabetical listing here.) I will choose a winner via random drawing (putting all of the names in a mixing bowl and picking just one). Please make sure to leave your e-mail address in your comment so I may contact you if you are a winner.

The fine print: This promotion is not linked to Kraft Foods, and Kraft Foods is not responsible for conducting the promotion or for selecting the recipient. All opinions expressed in this post are that of the author and not of Kraft Foods.

Entrants must be 18 or older and located in the US or Canada only.

Contest ends Saturday June 26th.

Baltimore Restaurant Week - Meli

For our third and final Restaurant Week feast, I thought Meli would be a good choice. The choices were extensive - it was their regular menu - and we had never eaten there before.

I'd say the meal was, for the most part, successful, particularly the appetizers.

Mr Minx ordered Meli's Lobster Mac & Cheese which had aged Cheddar, applewood smoked bacon, lobster, and was topped with panko and crispy onions. It had an old-fashioned, home-cooked, baked mac & cheese flavor. We enjoyed it but agreed that there might have been too much crumb topping.

MinxBro ordered the Shrimp & Grits BLT. I expected it to be stacked, since the grits came in cake form, but it was kind of sloppily arranged on the plate. The shrimp were nice and spicy, full of that iodine flavor I love, and there was a cheesy sauce on the grit cakes that kept the dish from being dry.

I went for the seared diver scallops, because I am a sucker for scallps. The two medium-sized specimens came atop come very creamy polenta, with a green apple relish and a pancetta honey vinaigrette. The scallops (which were slightly overcooked) had a crispy sweet topping, almost as if they had been bruléed. The polenta was mostly for texture, because I couldn't detect any flavor. But the green apple bits were delicious and their tartness, coupled with that of the vinaigrette, made the dish.

For his entrée, Mr Minx chose the "duo of duck" which included a confitted leg, duck bread pudding, and honey wine-poached pears. Although the dish was quite delicious (at least the bites I had - the bread pudding was fantastic) Mr Minx didn't quite feel satisfied and he didn't like the sweet sauce at the bottom of the plate. I think the problem was: too much pear, not enough duck.

There were two striped bass dishes on the menu and MinxBro went for the crispy fried whole version. It was served with an endive salad and roasted fingerlings. It was rather awkward to wrestle with the fish, which curled during frying, but the meat was tender and not overcooked. The coating made it taste a bit like fried chicken. My brother seemed to enjoy it, but I felt it was pretty bland overall.

I had the Flintstonian-sized braised lamb shank with butternut squash mash and Brussels sprouts. The lamb tasted like someone's grandma cooked it - it was very homey, subtle, and soft as buttah. I would have preferred the mash to be chunkier and not hidden beneath the meat so much. An overall un-summer-like dish, but the barely cooked sprouts added a welcome green crunch.

Dessert was the least successful part of the meal. The cake in Mr Minx's chocolate trifle was rather leaden...

...there was no lightness in MinxBro's vanilla napoleon...

...and my serving of galaktoboureko was huge. Ok, that's the worst thing I can say about it - I rather liked it, particularly the bite on which the orange had rested. However, it was too heavy a dessert after my entrée. My fault, I suppose.

Honestly though, the desserts were no better than those found in any Greek diner. They had a bit of commercial flavor, which was at odds with the homey-ness of the rest of the meal. And for a place that refers to itself as a patisserie. I expected much better, particularly after Elizabeth Large's initial Baltimore Sun review.

Overall, we enjoyed the meal and thought the atmosphere was pleasant. I'd go back again for a couple rounds of appetizers, and the lamb shank would make a perfect dinner for a blustery winter's night.

Meli
1636 Thames St
Baltimore, MD 21231
(410) 534-6354

Mac and Cheese

We had several odds and ends of cheese in the fridge (Jarlsberg, chipotle cheddar, mozzarella, white cheddar), so I thought I should use it in some mac and cheese for Saturday's dinner. Although I wanted a baked mac, I just made my usual stovetop mac using Alton Brown's recipe because I was too lazy to make a white sauce (plus we didn't have enough milk).  

Because the chunk of chipotle cheddar was sizable, I wanted to emphasize that Tex-Mex vibe. I sauteed half a chopped onion with one Mexican chorizo and added that to half of the prepared mac and cheese (the other half I tucked away in the fridge for future use).  I also added three scallions, chopped, a handful of chopped cilantro, and topped the dish with some crushed Garden of Eatin' Red Hot Blues spicy blue corn tortilla chips.

After 15 minutes in the oven at 350F, I got this chewy, cheesy, purple mac.

It's not as custardy as baked mac and cheese should be, but it had a texture very similar to my mom's (the gold standard), and she used a roux and fairly al dente macaroni.  Mr Minx and I thought it was delicious, and I might just add this tasty dish to my regular repertoire.