So I bet you wonder whatever happened to Garden? Good thing you have asked, it is doing pretty well. We got a late start to planting so we went with what was still in stock at the garden center. We planted 4 tomato plants, 3 basil plants, 3 pickling cucumber plants and a bunch of flowers. I also picked up a Shiso plant from our amazing cool local Japanese food store.
Everything is going great, except for one thing… RATS! This must be one of the fun, unique urban gardening things. Instead of bunnies or deers, we got rats. They have been having a field day with tomato plants in the community garden, and our cucumber plans haven’t been spared either. Luckily it does seem like they have a taste for basil because it has been left alone.
Our basil was growing like crazy so we decided to hop some down and make pesto. Carolyn’s grandmother makes great pesto, so the bar was set pretty high. The pesto we made doesn’t come close, but having it fresh adds something to it. You can make it using a food processor or blender, I am not sure what is better. I think I overprocessed it bit because the pesto lost its bright green color. That happens when it is exposed to air, so try to blend the minimum amount needed.
We had a ton of basil, so I just scaled to recipe up. In the end we had about a quart of pesto! Some of the “profits” had to shared with Carolyn’s brother because he helped out.
2 loosely packed cups fresh basil leaves, rinsed and dried
Salt
1/2 clove of garlic, peeled or more to taste
2 tablespoons pine nut or chopped walnuts
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, or more as desired
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, pecorino Ramano or other hard cheese (optional)
Equipment:
A blender or food processor
Directions:
Combine the basil with a pinch of salt, the garlic the nuts and about half the oil in a food processor or blender.
Process, stopping to scrape down the sides of the container if necessary and adding the rest of the oil gradually. Add more oil if you prefer a thinner mixture.
Stir in the cheese by hand just before serving (although we just mixed it in)
If you haven’t figured it out by now, we sort ofthinkJoseAndresisawesome. A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to catch a talk given by Jose Andres & Vint Cerf (the guy who helped invent the internet). The talk was at Google DC, the place were Vint works, and covered everything from food policy, to the World Cup, to immigration. Having these two together on stage is really proof of how DC has transformed into a Hub for policy, culture and technology.
Google has posted a video of the talk. You should definitely watch it all the way through. Personally I think Jose represents one of the most important voices on food issues. He is intelligent and knowledgable on, but humble and realistic in a way most other voices are not. There is great bit on the Farm Bill towards the end that shouldn’t be missed. However my favorite part was the food samples we got to try after the talk…
We live in Adams Morgan in Washington, DC. It is a neighborhood better known for its bars than its restaurants. It does have one culinary distinction, the jumbo slice; which is a really large slice of pizza. Right now you are probably saying, “Hah, I have had a large slice of pizza”. Truth is though, you haven’t… these are really big slices, big enough to satisfy any drunk hunger. The pan they use to bake these monster pies is 3 feet wide.
Drunkenness generally goes hand in hand with a jumbo slice. However it is not something Carolyn and I have been doing much since Elena. Eating pizza on the other is something we are doing almost weekly. After a bit though you can hit a bit of a pizza rut though. In an attempt to spice things up we thought we would give jumbo slice a try… sober!
There is some debate on who on 18th Street has the best jumbo slice. The CityPaper and the Travel Channel have both looked into it. While it was cool to see Adams Morgan on TV, the Travel Channel show Food Wars seems to have the most annoying format possible. It is a 30 minute show that looks to settle an outstanding debate in the food world; for instance, which Jumbo Slice is better. The show seems to think it is necessary to recap what happened before the commercial break, and there were a lot of commercial breaks. I guess this is what you are forced to do when you have try and stretch a single taste test into a half-hour show. So, instead of trusting main stream media we decided to find out for ourselves.
There are two main purveyors of jumbo slice on 18th Street: Pizza Mart and the aptly named Jumbo Slice. We got a slice from each and split them. I setup a blind test so we could sample the pizza without being influenced by either of their glitzy ad campaigns.
Slice 1:
Sweet Tomatoey sauce
Thicker cheese
Extra cheesy flavor in the cheese
Slice 2:
A little tangy
A more pleasing pizza taste
Both slice started out pretty good, but by the time I got towards the end of the slice #2 remained enjoyable while the other got a little boring. That said, it is nothing a little inebriation won’t solve.
Slice #2 was from Pizza Mart, which gets the win for Flavor. However Jumbo Slice’s slice was also good, so it all depends where on 18th Street you are. The crowd outside Jumbo Slice is always a little rowdier which makes for great people watching. Factor that in and I think Jumbo Slice might win for Flava’.
(This either makes Elena look small or the Jumbo slice look huge)
While thumbing through the pretty awesome channel selection we get with our HD Antenna (Thank you PBS Create and MHZ!) I happened to catch an episode Julia Child focusing on Italian. The recipe that really caught my eye was for cornmeal currant biscotti. Cornmeal is an amazingly good addition to biscotti and it gives them a more rustic texture. The recipe is not too sweet, making them perfect for breakfast and coffee dunking.
Half the fun is baking along with Julia. It is the first recipe of the show and things get started about 1 minute in.
On a side note, if you visit DC make sure you check out Julia’s kitchen in the American History museum. She donated her kitchen and they have preserved everything just the way it was.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter pieces, and using your fingers, rub the butter and dry ingredients together until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the currants.
In a small bowl, whisk the egg and egg yolk with the lemon zest and vanilla extract. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir with a rubber spatula until mostly combined. Using your hands, knead the mixture 5 to 10 times in the bowl until the mixture is uniform and holds together. The dough will seem dry compared to other biscotti you may have made. If it doesn’t hold together, add a bit of the reserved egg white and knead a few more times until the dough holds together. Divide the dough in half and, right on the baking sheet, shape each half into a flattened log about 2 inches wide and 1 inch high. Bake the logs for 20 minutes or until the logs start to lightly brown around the edges and is firm when touched lightly with your finger.
Remove from the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F and let the logs cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet. Carefully transfer the logs to a large wooden cutting board and slice the logs on a diagonal with a large serrated knife about a 1/2 inch thick. Place the slices back on the baking sheet an bake for an additional 15 minutes. The cookies will become more crisp as they cool. Store in an airtight container up to one month.
One of my favorite dishes at Jaleo, a delicious Spanish restaurant in DC, is the pulpo a la gallega. It is a Galician dish of boiled octopus served with a generous amount of olive oil and pimenton. However, in thanks to the Soccer match predicting ability of Paul the Octopus, Jose Andres has taken octopus off the menu at Jaleo. It seems like a fitting tribute… I just hope it is not permanent!
We went to the Jaleo in DC to watch the Finals. It was a rocking party made extra crazy by the fact that it isn’t really a sports bar. Jose Andres had promised a round of champange if Spain won. We assume that happened because we had to take Elena home early and missed the winning goal by a couple of minutes. I am not a huge soccer fan, but that was the most fun I have had watching soccer… and who would have thought that that would happen at a tapas restaurant!
PS – Those rooting for the Netherlands, you can give our recipe for canned octopus a try!
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