Korean-style Pork Meatball Tacos

The flavors of Korea and Mexico work well together, disparate though they may be. Cuisines that seem more similar, like Indian and Mexican, which share the use of strong flavors like cumin and cilantro, are almost never combined. Have you ever seen a chicken tikka taco or vindaloo burrito? Why not? But there is a proliferation of bulgogi burritos and tacos garnished with kimchi in the current culinary world. And they work.

I've fallen in love with making my own corn tortillas, so tacos are a common occurrence in our house. Ground pork called out to become meatballs, and because we had a tub of the Korean red pepper and soybean paste called gochujang in the fridge, they fell into the whole Korean-Mexican melting pot. While I also flavored a bit of sour cream with some gochujang, sesame oil, and sugar to make a sauce, the rest of the elements, avocado, cilantro, and roasted corn salsa, were more likely to be found in a traditional taco. And they all worked deliciously together.

Korean-style Pork Meatballs

For meatballs:
1.15 lb ground pork (amount approximate...some packs may weigh slightly more or less)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3 scallions, white and green parts, chopped
1 tablespoon gochujang
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon agave syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
Vegetable oil for frying

For glaze:
1/4 cup ketchup
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon gochujang
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds

To make meatballs: Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Form 30 small meatballs.

Heat about a tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan. Add meatballs and cook until browned on all sides and cooked through, about 10 minutes. Remove from pan and drain on paper towel-lined plates. Wipe out frying pan.

To make glaze: Place ketchup, vinegar, soy, sugar, and gochujang in a sauce pot and bring to a boil. Stir to make sure sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in sesame oil.

Place drained meatballs into cleaned pan. Pour over the bbq sauce and stir well to coat. Heat over medium heat until sauce coats the meatballs like a glaze. Sprinkle sesame seeds over and toss to coat.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Red Quinoa Salad

Sometimes I don't know where my mind is. We went out to eat one Saturday, but I completely forgot that the next day, Sunday, even existed. So I certainly didn't have anything planned for dinner. Consequently, we didn't have anything much in the fridge for me to work with.

This is where having a well-stocked pantry comes in handy. I try to have several kinds of grains on hand, plus canned beans, sturdy vegetables like carrots and onions, and copious seasonings. The freezer is usually stocked with sausages of various types, chicken thighs, and frozen vegetables. I was feeling vegan, so opted only to use a box of kale from the freezer, which I combined with some red quinoa to make a salad. There were a couple of cara cara oranges in the fridge, which I had purchased weeks ago on a whim. Although I love oranges, I seldom eat them out of hand, so when I buy them, they tend to languish. I thought a nice orange vinaigrette, punched up with some lemon juice and champagne vinegar, would be a nice dressing for the bland kale and quinoa. I didn't want to waste the lovely pinkish orange flesh of the oranges, so rather than wring the juice out of them, I borrowed some of Mr Minx's orange juice (he likes to drink it with breakfast, while I prefer grapefruit juice).

Our chive plant was growing nicely (the only thing in our garden being productive besides a lone strawberry plant and a pack of ginormous, knee-high, dandelions that have taken over our cherry tomato planter) so I grabbed a handful, including the pretty lavender flowers, to add a bit of extra onion-y savor to the salad.

For something I made up as I went along, it was pretty damn good. I mean, really. It'd be a great dish to take to a party of vegetarians/vegans, and would be fantastic alongside a pork chop.

Red Quinoa Salad with Kale, Carrots, and Orange Vinaigrette

For vegetables:
1 cup onion, diced
Olive oil
Pinch salt
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup julienne carrots
1 box frozen chopped kale, thawed and squeezed dry

For quinoa:
1 cup red quinoa
2 cups water
Pinch salt

For dressing:
1/4 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
Pinch cayenne
1 teaspoon superfine sugar
Splash champagne vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste

To serve:
1 orange, cut into supremes
2 tablespoons snipped chives + whole  chive blossoms

To make vegetables: Cook the onion in 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a generous pinch of salt over medium heat until translucent. Stir in the garlic and the carrots. Add the kale and stir well to combine. Cover and cook for 5-7 minutes, until carrots are slightly soft and kale is warmed through.

To make quinoa: Combine quinoa, water, and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil over high heat, then turn the heat down to a simmer. Cover the pot and cook until all water is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Remove quinoa from heat and allow to cool. When cool, transfer to a large bowl.

To make dressing: While quinoa is cooking, combine the orange and lemon juices, olive oil, cayenne, sugar, and vinegar in a bowl and beat vigorously with a fork to combine. Taste for seasoning, add pepper and salt to taste, keeping in mind that the dish will be served at room temperature or cold, so it should be well-seasoned.

To serve: Add vegetables to quinoa in bowl. Pour dressing over and mix well to combine. Taste for seasoning and add more salt and pepper if needed. Toss in the orange supremes and chives. Eat at room temperature or cold.

Serves 4-6

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Oven-Roasted Tomato Sauce

For the second issue in a row, I found a recipe in Martha Stewart Living that I simply had to make. It seemed pretty easy: toss tiny tomatoes with some oil, vinegar, and seasonings, and roast in a moderate oven for an hour. I planned to make it one Saturday afternoon, but then I got called away on...fun.

At about 4pm, realizing I wouldn't make it home in time I put the sauce together before our usual early dinnertime, I called Mr Minx. I was at an animal rescue, you see, petting fuzzy puppies, and couldn't drag myself away. I eventually did, and Mr Minx had the sauce in the oven when I got home. All I needed to do was start the pasta.

Super easy. And the taste? Delicious. The tomatoes were soft but not mushy and had an intensified flavor from being in the oven. The olive oil, vinegar, and brown sugar combo was the perfect sauce. And there were leftovers, which were combined with anchovies, capers, and olives to make an equally delicious puttanesca sauce.

Oven-Roasted Tomato Sauce (adapted from Martha Stewart Living)

1 pound cherry or grape tomatoes
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon Kosher salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Put tomatoes and garlic in a glass 9" square baking dish. Combine oil, vinegar, brown sugar, and salt in a bowl and drizzle over tomatoes.

Bake until tomatoes are softened and caramelized, about 1 hour. Toss with your favorite pasta.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Aggio Popup at Artifact Coffee

Bryan Voltaggio, owner of Volt and Family Meal in Frederick, Range in DC, and Aggio, an Italian restaurant within Range, is opening a second outpost of Aggio in Power Plant Live! here in Baltimore sometime early this summer. To introduce the restaurant to locals, Spike Gjerde hosted a two-night Aggio pop-up at Artifact Coffee. We managed to snag a table for the first seating on the first night.

First appearances are important, and Aggio hit all the right notes there with a generous bread plate that included ethereal grissini and heartier foccacia. They were served with two dips, one an intensely salty whipped goat ricotta with lemon and olive oil, and an unusual whipped mortadella. At this point, we were pretty happy campers and looking forward to the rest of the meal.

The first of four courses were equally successful. I chose the chioggia beets. Voltaggio likes to play with textures, and in this dish, the naturally sweet beets were presented in both chunks and paper thin slices. I didn't really taste the charred rosemary component of the dish, but really enjoyed the fishiness of the tonnato sauce (made with tuna) and the bottarga (an Italian salted fish roe). It was an inspired combination.

Chioggia beets, tonnato sauce, charred rosemary, pine nuts, bottarga, arugula

Mr Minx's impeccably fresh raw tuna served with orange was also a nice combination of flavors. And because the house lights dimmed dramatically a little while earlier, Mr Minx wasn't sure what he had on his fork at any given time. He enjoyed the little game of "is it orange, or is it tuna?"

Tuna, pistachio, castelvetrano olive, blood orange sugo, citrus pith, radish

For the second course, Mr Minx chose the asparagus and I had the shrimp and polenta.

Asparagus, fava and pea ragu, wild herbs, smoked pecorino, almond

The asparagus was a big disappointment. While the stalks were nicely cooked and juicy/tender, the only flavor in the dish came from the smoked pecorino. It was perhaps a bit too subtle.

Prawns, polenta from buckwheat and yellow corn, sauce fra diavolo

Also too subtle was the prawn dish, a homely festival of brown. I felt it was bland and uninteresting and lacking the promised heat and flavor of the fra diavolo. Clearly the Washington Post's Tom Sietsema, who gave Aggio three stars, was served a different dish. "The seafood choices include a raft of grilled prawns adrift in a dark orange froth of shellfish stock, tomato paste and red chili flakes. 'Too pretty to eat' comes to mind. Ignore the thought and dive in. Beneath the tender seafood is soothing buckwheat polenta."

On to the pasta course, which was much more successful. We passed on the spinach pasta with crab and buttered popcorn to try the whole wheat lumache with lamb ragu and the spaghetti alla chitarra with meatballs.

Lamb ragu, whole wheat lumache, oak smoked pecorino, mustard leaf pesto

The ragu was rich and delicious, with a hearty lamb-gamy flavor. A perfect dish to cozy up with on a cold winter's night.

Meatballs braised in ragu pomodoro, chittara, basil, parmesan

I am not Italian, so I like my pasta drenched in sauce (IMHO, the reason to eat the pasta in the first place). Voltaggio's spaghetti alla chittara was cooked properly al dente and was coated with a rich tomato sauce. The terrific meatballs were fluffy and soft, and according to Sietsema, are made with a portion of mortadella. In other words, they were full of baloney.... 

Dessert was hit or miss. Mr Minx had the cookie plate, featuring lemony "taralli" and chocolate biscotti. Despite the incorrect nomenclature (taralli are crunchy ring shaped crackers, and these were pillowy soft cakelets, more madeleine than cookie), Mr Minx enjoyed both. The "taralli" were especially tasty.

Cookie plate, Meyer lemon taralli, chocolate almond pistachio biscotti

My pistachio and olive plate tasted of neither. The kumquats were the star, as far as I'm concerned, sweetly bitter and bursting with citrus flavor. I wanted the sorbet to be more tangy, and the soft cake to taste like...something. But Voltaggio's textural contrasts are always fun and almost made up for the lack of pistachio.

Pistachio in olives, olive oil cake, pistachio cream, cara cara orange sorbet, crispy pomegranate, kumquats

We're eager to visit Aggio in its eventual destination downtown, realizing that part of the inconsistency of this meal may have been due to the tiny kitchen space at Artifact. It will be interesting to see how well the restaurant does in Power Plant Live!, which is still the Brokerage in my mind (a lame place, even when it was popular).

Posted on Minxeats.com.