Flashback Friday - Memorial Day Tapas

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on June 01. 2009.

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I don't know why I got it my head to make tapas for Memorial Day. Not exactly traditional, is it? I thought it would be a good excuse to get out the grill and cook up the leg of lamb that's been in our freezer for a while. Not that lamb needs excuses. Nor is tapas the most popular way to accompany it. But once I get something in my head....

Since Mr Minx had to fiddle with charcoal and all that, I thought it would make it worth his while to toss some chicken breasts on it too, to eat later in the week. Then I invited my brother, which killed the leftovers idea.

The spread consisted of grilled chicken and lamb (mingling on the same plate, both marinated in lots of garlic and soy, with tomato paste on the chicken and brown sugar on the lamb), grilled shrimp, potatoes and chorizo (from José Andres' tapas cookbook), endive salad with bleu cheese, tomato and herb salad (herbs freshly-plucked from the freshly-planted garden) with goat's cheese, marinated mushrooms, and "crab" balls. There was also some red pepper mayo for dipping, bread, and Marcona almonds. Oh, and a pitcher of sangria!

Cheap sangria: 1 bottle Sutter Home "white Cabernet Sauvignon" ($5.99), 1 orange, 1 lemon, 1/4 cup leftover cheap brandy, 1/4 cup cheap Triple Sec. Fruity and boozy and a fine accompaniment to my selection of eats.

I tried to get a good combination of textures, flavors, and temperatures going and think I was pretty successful.

The endive salad was pretty basic: sliced Belgian endives, bleu cheese crumbles, balsamic vinaigrette. I usually add walnuts, but bro is allergic to them, and anaphylaxis is a real buzz kill. The tomato herb salad had pineapple mint; sweet, Thai, and variegated basil; French tarragon; chives and chive blossoms; and some store-bought cilantro (it refuses to grow in my garden). And a couple gobbets of goat's cheese. The tomatoes were the "on the vine" type, which I've been having roaring success with recently. Don't know where in the world they were grown (nobody will ever accuse me of being a locavore) but they have been juicy, red, and sweet.

The potato recipe called for Spanish chorizo, which I could not find at Giant. Go figure. However, I always have Mexican chorizo in the freezer so used one of those. Being raw, they have a very different texture, and are flavored primarily with annatto. Unfortunately, the pimenton called for in the recipe was quite masked by the annatto. The potatoes were tasty anyway, but I will endeavor to make them with the proper chorizo next time.

The marinated mushroom recipe came from a little tapas cookbook called Tapas Fantasicas that I got for Christmas a couple years back. Sherry vinegar is very...pungent...so I was worried that the mushrooms would be too tart. I used a combination of baby bellas and shiitakes, and it really was quite delicious. I'd make them again.

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Marinated Mushrooms

1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced
2 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
2 T sherry vinegar
2 T water
1/2 t dried tarragon
1/2 t brown sugar
dash Tabasco
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a small saucepan over low heat. Add garlic and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, or until softened. Add mushrooms and stir to coat with oil. Continue to cook for another minute or two. add vinegar, water, tarragon, sugar, Tabasco, salt, and pepper. Cover pan and simmer on low for 5 minutes, stirring once or twice.

Remove from heat. Cool mushrooms in marinade. Eat at room temperature.

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As for the "crab" balls.... Remember the fish tacos I made earlier in the week? Weirdly, after I washed and dried the fish, my hands smelled like crab meat rather than fish. So I saved a piece of the cooked fish, for experimental purposes. I flaked it, added crab cake ingredients (Old Bay, bread soaked in milk, mayo) and made three small balls which I fried up for tapas. They fell apart, as my crab cakes usually do, but they tasted reasonably crabby. Because it had been sauteed, he meat was a little tough; if I try something like this again, I think I'll poach the fish so it stays soft.

Gotta admit - Mahi from Trader Joe's is far cheaper than crab meat, and it's no less crabby than the flavorless non-blue-crab "jumbo lump" they sell at the supermarket.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Tortilla Espanola

You might remember a few weeks back reading about our boxes of various Calbee snacks. Rather than just eating them as they were, I thought it might be fun to use them in recipes. First, I employed shrimp chips as an extra-crisp crust for fried tofu; for this post, a bag of potato chips was transformed into something both simple and elevated.

Ok, mostly simple, but elevated in that the recipe is a riff on a dish by famed Spanish chef, Ferran Adria. The omelet-like tortilla espanola is a popular tapas dish made with fried potatoes and eggs. Adria simplified the dish by using potato chips in place of sliced and fried raw potatoes. His recipe called for Serrano ham and pequillo peppers; I omitted both and added simply sliced green onion in their place.

Now when the recipe calls for a "small" skillet, that means 8". Any larger than that, your omelet will be a pancake. If all you have is a 10" oven-safe skillet (as was our issue), lower the cooking time a skotch so your tortilla won't get dried out.

Potato Chip Tortilla (adapted from Ferran Adria in Food & Wine)

5 large eggs
2 cups coarsely crushed Calbee Hot and Spicy potato chips (about 2 ounces)
1 tablespoon finely sliced green onion
Freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
Salt

Beat two eggs in a medium bowl and add the potato chips. Let stand until slightly softened, five minutes or so. Beat the remaining eggs in a separate bowl, then stir into the potato/egg mixture. Add the scallions and season with pepper.

Heat the olive oil in a small non-stick ovenproof skillet. Add the egg mixture and cook over medium high heat until the bottom is golden brown, about 3 minutes. Broil for about 2 minutes more, until the top is golden and the center is just slightly jiggly.

Slide onto a plate, cut into quarters, and serve with a nice salad or bowl of soup. (Gazpacho would be perfect here.) Depending on the saltiness of the chips used, you may or may not need to add a pinch at the table.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

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.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Strawberry Gazpacho

I love gazpacho. There's nothing more refreshing on a hot summer's day than a bowl or mug full of chilled vegetable puree flavored with a bit of acid and garlic. And it's pretty easy to make, if you have a blender.

We bought one of those mega-packs of strawberries a couple weeks ago and I was worried that we might not be able to eat them all before leaving town for a few days. Then I got the idea to substitute strawberries for the tomatoes usually found in gazpacho. It looked pretty much the same, but the soup had a lightly sweet and definitely strawberry flavor. And boom! No more strawberries in the fridge.

Strawberry Gazpacho
If your strawberries are very sweet, you might not need to add any additional sweetener.

1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks
1 pint strawberries, hulled and cut in half
1 red bell pepper, roasted, peeled, seeded and cut into chunks
1 small clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
Superfine sugar, to taste
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Combine cucumber, strawberries, pepper, and garlic in a blender and puree. Season with the vinegar and lime juice, adding sugar, salt, and pepper to taste.

Transfer soup to a bowl or resealable container and refrigerate at least two hours until the flavors have had time to blend.

Serves 2-4.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Be AMAZING!

Here's an upcoming event for a very worthy group. The $50 per ticket will not only get you some yummy food from places like Clementine and Bosphorous Bistro, you'll also assisting I Am O'Kah with empowering youth toward economic independence.

I Am O’Kah!’s Be AMAZING! Awards Gala May 17 To Support Youth 

Entrepreneurship in Baltimore

Baltimore children and their families who are fighting against socio-economic barriers to success will be beneficiaries of I Am O’Kah! Inc.’s Be AMAZING! Awards Gala and Silent Auction. This Creative Black-Tie preferred celebration will take place Saturday, May 17, from 7:00 to 11:00 PM, at the Maryland Historical Society (201 W Monument St., 21201).

This year’s theme is “Unlock Your Inner Art,” in honor of local champions who have shown their commitment to creativity in their service to the community. With over 300 guests expected, the event will feature live interactive art, music by Marc Avon Evans and VOR Music Group, cocktails and food tastings by Clementine, Tapas Adela, Plates, Diablo Doughnuts, Pho Towson, Bosphorous Bistro, Land of Kush, and Dessert Fantasies as well as a silent auction and guided tours of Maryland Historical Society exhibits.

Hosted by Brandi Proctor of Baltimore's FOX 45 & Walter Maxfield Jones of the Sweet Spot, an awards
presentation will recognize the following honorees for their innovative approach to serving the community:

▪Outstanding Community Leader of the Year - Joseph Manko of Liberty Elementary School
▪Outstanding Woman of the Year - Kate Williams of the Downtown Baltimore Family Alliance
▪Outstanding Man of the Year - Teddy Coates of Black Professional Men
▪Outstanding Educator of the Year - Deana Frank of Elijah Cummings Youth Program
▪Outstanding Organization of the Year - Sarah Hemminger of Incentive Mentoring Program
▪Outstanding Artist of the Year - Brian Kirhagis of Brik Art
▪Outstanding Entrepreneur of the Year - Taharka Brothers Ice Cream Co.
▪Outstanding Student of the Year – Lindsay Bottos, MICA

Tickets at $50/person and event sponsorships can be purchased online at www.iamokah.eventbrite.com. All event proceeds will benefit I Am O'Kah'!'s Financial Rockstar Academy and the Kahdine Ann DaCosta Scholarship for Excellence in Leadership.

For more information about the Be AMAZING! Awards Gala or I Am O’Kah! Inc., contact the foundation’s executive director, Aisha DaCosta, at 443-468-6402 or aisha@iamokah.org, or visit www.iamokah.org.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

The Arthouse

Before the holidays, we'd been hearing some buzz about a new pizza place in Hampden. No, not Paulie Gee's, which was scheduled to open last summer but instead encountered a snafu with their imported pizza oven. It was The Arthouse, an art gallery-cum-restaurant located a few doors down from Golden West Cafe. Last fall, the owners got a beer and wine license and switched their focus from wall art to table art in the form of crisp-crusted brick oven pizza, salads, and other nibbles.

On our annual pilgrimage to see the lights of 34th Street, we stopped at The Arthouse for an early dinner. The place opens at 4pm, and by 4:30, it was packed by what appeared to be a large family gathering that took up all of the tables that were adjacent to and behind the bar area. Luckily for us, the front tables were still free, so we grabbed one and perused the menu.

The pizzas at The Arthouse are fairly esoteric, with toppings like duck confit and snails. Those were the most intriguing to us, so those were the two we ordered.

But first, we shared a grilled Caesar salad, topped with homemade croutons, plenty of Parmesan cheese, and two fresh anchovies which had been marinated in vinegar in the style of the traditional Spanish tapas called Boquerones. If you hate the typical anchovy, those strongly fishy and hairy creatures that live in cans, but you like fish in general, you should give these boquerones a try. They had a much fresher, less-fishy flavor than the usual Caesar topping, and we enjoyed them quite a bit. Our only critique of the salad is that the dressing could have used a bit more acid in the form of lemon juice.

Our pizzas looked quite similar, but were extremely different. Mr Minx chose the version topped with duck confit, "black bean sauce," arugula, and crema. It was...odd. While waiting for the pizzas to arrive, we weren't sure if the black beans would be more Latino or Asian in character. They turned out to be the latter. Rather than a sauce, the strongly salty beans were scattered over the pizza along with shreds of duck meat and pickled red onion. The duck flavor was non-existent, as overpowering as the other elements proved to be.  

My escargot pizza was quite a contrast, with far more subtle flavors. The crust was the best part, and I suspect my pie was baked naked, as even the tip of the very last piece was still crisp. It was like a great focaccia--you know, when they're brushed with olive oil that sinks into the outer crust, giving it both a light sheen and a buttery crunch. I am obsessed with that crust. Oh, and I liked the toppings, too--a smattering of mushroom-like escargot, a tiny bit of cheese, and a blanket of arugula. (I looove arugula.) Oh, and garlic butter, which oozed off the pizza and formed a pool on the pan underneath. The Arthouse cleverly puts their pizzas on screens, so the bottom crust is elevated from the pan and can't steam. And that makes it easy to drag slabs of pizza crust through that butter puddle.

Mr Minx's crust was tasty too, of course, but the bottom was a bit softer because of the toppings. Get rid of those beans and it would have been far more successful.

Despite one weird pie and the plethora of children in the place (who, to their parents' credit, were amazingly well-behaved and surprisingly quiet), we liked The Arthouse quite a bit. It was an attractive space, with interesting art (for sale) on the walls, a long wooden bar that looked like a fun place to hang out, and there was garlic butter and arugula on the menu. I'm already looking forward to our next visit.

The Arthouse
1115 West 36th Street
Baltimore, MD 21211
(443) 438-7700





Posted on Minxeats.com.

Demi at Crush

I was quite excited when I read that Daniel Chaustit of Crush was opening a new restaurant....within Crush.

Click to enlarge

Located in the lower level of the Belvedere Square restaurant, by the now-open kitchen, Demi serves small plates. Not really tapas-style dishes - think of it more as a selection of appetizers. That works for me, because I tend to find the appetizer selection in most restaurants to be more enticing than the entrées.

I wanted to celebrate Mr Minx's completion of 50,000 words during NaNoWriMo and thought Demi was a perfect way to do just that. After perusing the short menu, we each chose three dishes.

Fingerling Potato, Romaine, Haricot Vert, Yuzu Caesar Dressing

This was quite unusual - the potatoes were not quite crunchy, nor were they soft, and they had a pleasing spice flavor (Mr Minx likened it to Indian food). The fried potatoes were nicely balanced by the crisp Romaine lettuce and haricots verts, and the Caesar dressing was both sharp and slightly sweet.

Ahi Tuna, Sticky Rice, Sweet Soy, Sriracha Aioli

I don't normally order tuna appetizers, but I was in the mood. This dish, with a surprise hint of orange peel in the tuna's seasoning and a lovely crunchy rice cake bed, was delicate, subtle, and lovely.

Spice-crusted Beef Carpaccio, Truffled Mushroom Emulsion, Pear Salad

This dish was so prettily red and Christmassy! The truffled mushroom emulsion tasted like a rich, earthy mayo and the pear salad, while relatively flavorless, provided a crunchy counterpoint to the melt-in-your-mouth carpaccio. While I loved the tender beef and slightly tangy sauce, I think it would have worked better on toast rounds, because the taste of water crackers is so distractingly distinctive.

Six Minute Egg, Cauliflower, Asparagus, Parmesan, Toast

Who knew that cauliflower purée and eggs would go so well together? Six-minutes is the perfect middle ground between snotty-textured soft-boiled and dry-yolked hard-boiled eggs. Like an over-easy egg, but still in egg form. It was rich and delicious, and I particularly appreciated the Parmesan crisp for its much-needed textural contrast.

Pappardelle, Truffled Ricotta, Confit Tomato, Aleppo Red Pepper Broth

While ordering pasta in restaurants isn't my thing, I loved Mr Minx's pappardelle dish. The sauce was rich and creamy with just the right amount of spiciness, and the fresh-looking tomatoes offered up a buttery confit-ed surprise. I could have eaten a big ol' bowl of this stuff.

Maple-glazed Pork Belly, Hoisin Spaetzle, Snow Peas, Sesame Seed

The slab of pork belly reminded me of a boneless spare rib - tender shreddy-textured meat with a coating of fat and skin. Mmmmm! The crispy little spaetzle were wonderful.

Flourless Chocolate Cake, Vanilla Ice Cream, "Heath Bar"

As a token of the chef's appreciation, we were both brought a dessert. Flourless chocolate cake is always best served warm, while it still has a bit of lightness. This was a classic example of the genre, gussied up with the crunch of buttery toffee bits.

Overall, I thought it was a very good meal - both flavor- and presentation-wise - and I look forward to going back to taste the rest of the menu.

Demi
510 East Belvedere Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21212
443.278.9001

Talk About Talara - and a Giveaway!

Recently, MinxEats received an invitation to partake in a complimentary meal at Talara, a Nuevo Latino tapas restaurant and Batimore Happy Hour hotspot located in Baltimore's burgeoning Harbor East area. I've mentioned several times that we're big fans of the whole small plates craze so we were more than happy to pay them a visit and sample the seviche (that's pronounced seh-vee-chay).

When we arrived, we were greeted by managing partner Nick Rizzo who gave us a tour of the menu, first the drinks, then the food. While he was explaining the various items, we ate, drank, and were merry. It was hard not to be merry with the Latin music in the background that made me want to jump up and dance. Lucky for Mr Minx, his wife did not make a public spectacle of herself. Not by dancing, anyway.

Nick started us off with two classic cocktails - the Mojito and the Capirinha, both offered for $5 during Happy Hour. The former has become familiar to most people, a simple but flavorful rum concoction redolent of mint and lime. The Capirinha is a Brazilian cocktail made with even more lime, sugar, and the vaguely tequila-like cane liquor, Cachaça. Both were excellent, but of the two we preferred the fresh mintiness of the Mojito.

With our drinks came three of the $5 Happy Hour tapas specials: mini-tostadas with blackened chicken breast; an Asian Tartare of salmon served on thin nori-wrapped sushi rice rolls and topped with white truffle oil, wasabi mayonnaise, Tobiko caviar, and fried lotus root; and a Chorizo-wrapped diver scallop over a roasted corn and goat cheese polenta with tamarind bbq sauce.

From the descriptions alone, one can tell that Talara likes to play with their food. Although billed as "Nuevo Latino" the food's cultural influences are many. While I do enjoy authentic food, I'm happier when food just plain tastes good, and Talara gets high marks all around. The mini-tostadas were like posh nachos, and the tartare was very fresh. I really loved the whisper of truffle oil on top, an interesting pairing with wasabi's kick. The scallop was perfect - dense, moist, with salty chorizo and a creamy but hearty polenta. Even Mr Minx loved it, and he's not big on scallops.

Next up came a sampler of three of the seven varieties of seviche available. Seven preparations, that is, with several types of raw and semi-cooked seafood with which to mix-and-match. We had the avocado and corn with crab, served with fresh malanga chips; the "Fire and Ice" which is a traditional lime-marinated seviche spiced up with habanero and cooled down with a wee bit of shockingly fuchsia prickly pear granita; and the Tiradito, which is a Peruvian-style sashimi with chipotle paste and a bit of jicama and calabaza slaw. I think the Fire and Ice was my favorite - I loved the explosion of hot/sour/sweet/cold served on a Asian soup spoon and meant to be slurped in one shot. Mr Minx was pleasantly surprised that the smokiness of chipotle went so well with raw tuna (which was extremely fresh and luscious). And what's not to like about avocado, corn, and crab?

With the seviche, we tried a blood orange Margarita made with Sauza Tres Generaciones Anejo Tequila and a glass of the Argentinian house white, an Alamos Torrontes. While the margarita was fine, tasting mostly of the high quality tequila, I was more impressed by the wine. Not your typical glass of acid that many places use as their "house" wine, the Alamos was crisp and bright, with low acid and a very nice guava/passion fruit quality.

We then tried two "mid plates" so called because while they are larger than tapas, they are smaller than entrées. More like very generous appetizers. But with some seviche and a tapa or two, they are plenty. I was intrigued by the crabmeat chili relleno because my attempt at that dish just didn't work. Also interesting was the idea of lamb ribs. Both dishes were terrific. The lamb ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender, very much like pork baby backs, and brushed with the tangy tamarind bbq sauce that came with the scallop, along with more of the same terrific polenta. As for the rellenos - they were like mini Maryland-style crabcakes that just happened to be wrapped in a poblano skin with some crispy tempura batter on the outside. Traditional, yet new. Loved the twist on the traditional rice and beans accompaniment: a timbale of saffron rice studded with black beans.

Finally, we had dessert: tres leches cake and sopapillas with small scoops of lemon and mango sorbets and Tahitian vanilla gelato. Either one would have sufficed for the two of us, as the portions were large. The cake was positively huge, two big chunks of super-moist, super rich yet fluffy cake with a garnish of strawberry sauce and strawberries. The sopapillas were crispy mini versions of the fried pastry found in several Latin countries and New Mexico, somewhat like airy cookies. We ate all of it. (Won't have to eat for days now.)

Honestly, I loved everything at Talara. And you know how hyper-critical I can be. The only thing I can complain about is the "Miami Vice" faux deco font used in the restaurant's logo. And maybe the blood orange in the margarita wasn't orange-y enough for my tastes. But other than that...I got nothing.

So...yes, we did get our meal comped, and yes, free food always tastes better, but I would have happily forked over my hard-earned cash to eat at Talara. And I'll put my money where my mouth is by going again and paying next time. I'm curious to try the other varieties of seviche, the mole de pato, the wild mushroom flatbread, and several of the other drinks (although I'll be limiting myself to only one per visit next time!). And I'm kinda embarrassed that we've never bothered to eat there in the past. We tend to treat Harbor East as a destination, with our usual dining spot being Roy's. No more - we are branching out. Harbor East, here we come! After we eat at Talara a few more times, that is. :)

The Giveaway

If you're interested in trying Talara for yourself, I can help you along. I have one $50 gift certificate for one lucky MinxEats reader! All you have to do is leave a comment with the name of the Talara dish you would most like to try. You can find the full food menu here (scroll down) and the drinks menu is linked on that page as well. Please make sure to leave your e-mail address in the comment so I can contact you if you are a winner.

The prize is provided by Talara, but Talara is not a sponsor, administrator, or involved in any other way with this giveaway. All opinions expressed in the post are my own and not those of Talara.

Winners will be chosen by random drawing from the pool of comments received on this post.

The contest deadline is Monday June 21st at noon.

Talara
615 President Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
(410) 528-9883

Gotta Chuckle

I just finished reading a City Paper review of Centro Tapas Bar.

Back in May of 2007, former Sun critic Elizabeth Large commented that changes at Pazo might indicate that the tapas craze has peaked. At that time, Pazo was probably one of a handful of Baltimore-area restaurants serving tapas-style small plates. I thought the comment was ridiculous because from my ongoing observation of the NY restaurant scene, the small plates movement was chugging along, and if it's not peaking in NY, it's nowhere near peaking in a relative backwater like Baltimore. And of course more and more restaurants serving both traditional Spanish-style tapas and otherwise-ethnically-inclined versions on the theme are popping up regularly.

Personally, I love the idea of small plates. I enjoy when my palate is stimulated by several different flavors in the same meal, which is why I'm such a big fan of dim sum, the rotating sushi bar at Kyodai, Pazo, Korean panchan, and order multiple appetizers in place of a single entrée at dinner. How about you? What do you think about eating small tastes of several items as opposed to one big plate of food?

A Tapas Feast

The last tapas feast I prepared was so successful, I decided to do it again, this time in honor of my brother's birthday. Once again I made the potatoes with chorizo (this time using the proper Spanish chorizo) and the marinated mushrooms:

I also made a orange and red onion salad (top left), a simple endive salad with chopped scallion and a fig vinaigrette (top right),

a tomato and avocado salad (top left) and some roasted purple potatoes (top far right). Then I got ambitious and baked up some empanadas...

...and made romesco sauce.

Ordinarily, romesco is made with vegetables roasted in olive oil and bread fried in olive oil. At least by José Andrés' recipe. But I put together a batch that was as easy as tossing stuff in a blender by using pre-roasted veg. It tastes amazing, so I can't imagine my changes violated the spirit of the sauce in any way.

Romesco Sauce

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 with next seven ingredients and purée, drizzling in olive oil until a thick sauce is formed. Add salt to taste.

Yield: 2 cups of sauce.

As for protein, we had boneless leg of lamb, pork tenderloin, and shrimp skewers, all marinated overnight in some variation of soy, Worcestershire, vinegar, garlic, and mirin. Mr Minx cooked them over charcoal and wood chips and the results were pretty fine - tender, juicy, smoky, and garlicky. Can't beat that combination.

Oh, so you want the empanada recipe as well? Hmmm...well, I just tossed stuff together to make a kind of picadillo. I used a pound of ground pork, chopped onions, chopped dried apple (in place of the usual raisins), chopped green and black olives, and garlic, seasoned with pimenton, cinnamon, and S&P. For the crust, I used Wegman's house brand all-ready pie crusts (I tend to avoid Pillsbury brand anything because it all has a very distinctive Pillsbury flavor. Generic doesn't seem to have that problem.) which I cut into squares and filled with the picadillo and some chopped scallions, brushed with an egg wash, and baked for about 25 minutes at 350F until nice and golden brown.

They were a huge hit and were just as delicious eaten cold on the train on the way to New York a few days later.

Although this was quite a bit of work, I spread it out over three days so it wasn't so intense. And it was worth it to see my family gobble everything up and ask for doggie bags of empanadas and chocolate chip cookies (which we baked instead of a cake). I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Memorial Day Tapas

I don't know why I got it my head to make tapas for Memorial Day. Not exactly traditional, is it? I thought it would be a good excuse to get out the grill and cook up the leg of lamb that's been in our freezer for a while. Not that lamb needs excuses. Nor is tapas the most popular way to accompany it. But once I get something in my head....

Since Mr Minx had to fiddle with charcoal and all that, I thought it would make it worth his while to toss some chicken breasts on it too, to eat later in the week. Then I invited my brother, which killed the leftovers idea.

The spread consisted of grilled chicken and lamb (mingling on the same plate, both marinated in lots of garlic and soy, with tomato paste on the chicken and brown sugar on the lamb), grilled shrimp, potatoes and chorizo (from José Andres' tapas cookbook), endive salad with bleu cheese, tomato and herb salad (herbs freshly-plucked from the freshly-planted garden) with goat's cheese, marinated mushrooms, and "crab" balls. There was also some red pepper mayo for dipping, bread, and Marcona almonds. Oh, and a pitcher of sangria!

Cheap sangria: 1 bottle Sutter Home "white Cabernet Sauvignon" ($5.99), 1 orange, 1 lemon, 1/4 cup leftover cheap brandy, 1/4 cup cheap Triple Sec. Fruity and boozy and a fine accompaniment to my selection of eats.

I tried to get a good combination of textures, flavors, and temperatures going and think I was pretty successful.

The endive salad was pretty basic: sliced Belgian endives, bleu cheese crumbles, balsamic vinaigrette. I usually add walnuts, but bro is allergic to them, and anaphylaxis is a real buzz kill. The tomato herb salad had pineapple mint; sweet, Thai, and variegated basil; French tarragon; chives and chive blossoms; and some store-bought cilantro (it refuses to grow in my garden). And a couple gobbets of goat's cheese. The tomatoes were the "on the vine" type, which I've been having roaring success with recently. Don't know where in the world they were grown (nobody will ever accuse me of being a locavore) but they have been juicy, red, and sweet.

The potato recipe called for Spanish chorizo, which I could not find at Giant. Go figure. However, I always have Mexican chorizo in the freezer so used one of those. Being raw, they have a very different texture, and are flavored primarily with annatto. Unfortunately, the pimenton called for in the recipe was quite masked by the annatto. The potatoes were tasty anyway, but I will endeavor to make them with the proper chorizo next time.

The marinated mushroom recipe came from a little tapas cookbook called Tapas Fantasicas that I got for Christmas a couple years back. Sherry vinegar is very...pungent...so I was worried that the mushrooms would be too tart. I used a combination of baby bellas and shiitakes, and it really was quite delicious. I'd make them again.

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Marinated Mushrooms

1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced
2 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
2 T sherry vinegar
2 T water
1/2 t dried tarragon
1/2 t brown sugar
dash Tabasco
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a small saucepan over low heat. Add garlic and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, or until softened. Add mushrooms and stir to coat with oil. Continue to cook for another minute or two. add vinegar, water, tarragon, sugar, Tabasco, salt, and pepper. Cover pan and simmer on low for 5 minutes, stirring once or twice.

Remove from heat. Cool mushrooms in marinade. Eat at room temperature.

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As for the "crab" balls.... Remember the fish tacos I made earlier in the week? Weirdly, after I washed and dried the fish, my hands smelled like crab meat rather than fish. So I saved a piece of the cooked fish, for experimental purposes. I flaked it, added crab cake ingredients (Old Bay, bread soaked in milk, mayo) and made three small balls which I fried up for tapas. They fell apart, as my crab cakes usually do, but they tasted reasonably crabby. Because it had been sauteed, he meat was a little tough; if I try something like this again, I think I'll poach the fish so it stays soft.

Gotta admit - Mahi from Trader Joe's is far cheaper than crab meat, and it's no less crabby than the flavorless non-blue-crab "jumbo lump" they sell at the supermarket.

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