Skip the Food, Pass the Guinness

From Another Cook in the Kitchen

I don't make it a practice to venture into Maryland, which will sound hilarious to anyone living outside the D.C. Metro area. For all of you in the know though, you understand the horrors of the words Beltway traffic. Interested in grabbing a bite to eat between two different workshops I attended for my job on the same day and completely adverse to the idea of trying to drive back to Virginia only to have to turn back around immediately, my friend recommended that I try The Irish Inn at Glenn Echo in Maryland.

Perhaps the cutest little Irish place in the world, the outside of the Inn is a large, beautiful, almost shabby chic yellow house that anyone with a right mind would love to live in. The place is so spacious because in actuality, it is two places in one. Once you enter, you can choose either the pub door or the restaurant door. In a rush, I chose the pub.

From Another Cook in the Kitchen

My friend had pumped me up for the Kildare Melt, real ham, tomatoes, caramelized onions and Irish Cheddar with Guinness mustard. Unfortunately, that menu was unavailable, so I got to eat off the proper dinner menu. Not wanting to break the bank (especially since it's not my bank, it's my job's), I ordered the Irish hamburger. Also topped with Irish cheddar and Guinness mustard, I figured it was the next best thing.

From Another Cook in the Kitchen

I'm sorry to report that I can't say I was wowed. It was a burger, totally standard. The mustard was good, but difficult to detect among all the different flavors, and I didn't really taste anything all too special about the cheese. The fries were pretty good though, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I love all fries more than all burgers. However, if this place has anything, it's atmosphere. As soon as you walk in the pub, you can forget about that cute little yellow house you just saw outside. This place is full of "My Goodness, My Guiness" posters and is basically only a small bar and a bunch of tables, no pretenses.

The regulars were greeted by name by the staff, and the people watching was great. I sat down next to an old man (I believe English, but I don't have all my accents down) that was sharing a few drinks with an American friend, and perhaps coworker. When the bartender asked them if they wanted a food menu, I got a kick out of them saying, without any sense of humor, "No, we're just drinking today."

The American, a downtrodden middle-aged man, freely called any woman any of his friends were married to "bitches," praised aloud his gratefulness about not being a father and referred to one particularly annoying friend's wife as a "red-headed," I believe stout, woman. Seeing a stranger sitting down at not even close to the end of the day with a friend, sharing a few pints of Guinness and Irish coffee and talking about the dangers of women and money tickled me completely.

I'll depart with a few words of wisdom from the man next to me at the bar. When I asked for my check, the Englishman bent toward me, showing his yellowed bottom teeth has he said, "How was the hamburger?" I replied that it was alright, but that the mustard was interesting at least. It had Guinness in it. "The mustard really has Guinness in it? Interesting. I usually avoid the food at this place." Spoken like a true regular.

The menus for the Irish Inn can be found at its Web site, http://www.irishinnglenecho.com.

I'll be back at some point to review Georgetown's Tackle Box lobster shack and hopefully give you the downlow on how to make a pesto this weekend!

Food for Thought

I haven't made it all the way through yet, but there's a pretty good NY Times magazine article up on their Web site about how the notion of what cooking is has transformed in America. Parts of it are making me wish I was in a kitchen right now (The first time I successfully flipped a Spanish tortilla in the air, I cried out a loud, unrestrained, "Yes!") and the other parts are making me realize that I sadly don't cook enough (hello, rotisserie chicken in my fridge right now). It's worth the read for anyone that enjoys back to basics cooking:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/magazine/02cooking-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

In another note, if you're in the D.C. area, you can see Julia Child's kitchen in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. It's worth it!

Keep Cool the Florida Way: Key Lime Pie!

I think it's fitting that my first recipe post is key lime pie. I grew up in Florida and lived in the state for 13 years, so I'm very familiar with the food. And of all the places I've been on vacation, Key West stands out in my mind the most.

A refreshingly cool dessert, key lime pie is traditionally made with key limes, which are basically impossible to find in stores. Much smaller than regular limes, I hear that (should you be able to find them) it takes between 20 and 25 limes to get the juice needed for this recipe.

I based my recipe off the one at Joe's Stone Crab, actually located in Miami. (The restaurant is a favorite of Bobby Flay, who claims the place's stone crabs are one of his all-time favorite dishes.) I've never eaten at the place, but I have had the key lime pie at Sloppy Joe's on Duval Street, possibly the most famous restaurant on what is definitely the most famous street on the key. Served way colder than what you'll find labeled key lime pie in your grocery store, the following dish is sweet, tart and most importantly refreshing.

The ingredients:

From Another Cook in the Kitchen

For this dish, you will need:

1 cup of lime juice (6-8 limes)

zest of half a lime
2 cans of evaporated milk, unsweetened (I used half fat free to make the dish a touch healthier)

5 egg yolks

5 tbsp. butter

10 graham crackers

1/4 cup sugar for the crust

1/2 cup sugar for the filling

whipped cream (optional)

The supplies you will need include:

knife

microplane zester

fork

whisk

plastic bag

rolling pin

two bowls for mixing

12-inch pie tin

sheet of wax or parchment paper

cooling rack

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

I'd recommend starting the dish by zesting 1/2 a lime and then juicing the limes, since this can be fairly time consuming if you don't have a juicer. Rub the rind of the lime against the microplane until you get 1/2 of the outside of one of the limes into one of your bowls. You might have to use a finger to get it off the zester, since limes are so moist.

The best way to get the most juice out of a lime is to nuke it in the microwave for 30 seconds and then massage the fruit against the counter to get the juices flowing. You can also ensure you're picking a juicy lime at the grocery store by taking the limes that seem heaviest for their size.

From Another Cook in the Kitchen

Once this is done, cut the limes in half and squeeze over a measuring cup. Limes are so small, you can actually get almost all the juice out by turning the fruit halves inside out and squeezing out even more juice. And actually, wouldn't these make really cute little shot glasses for Cinco de Mayo? They sort of look like little sombreros.

From Another Cook in the Kitchen

Using this method, it took me only 6 limes to get 1 cup of juice. Set aside your juice and your bowl of zest for later.

Now take your 10 graham crackers and place them in your sealable plastic bag. Then take your rolling pin and basically beat the hell out of your bag of crackers! By the end of the process, your baggy should be full of delicious graham cracker crumbs.

From Another Cook in the Kitchen

As you are beating up your graham crackers, you can place your clean bowl (without any zest in it) in the microwave and melt the butter completely. Then pour the cracker crumbs into the butter bowl and mix with your fork until all the crumbs are slightly moist. Then add 1/4 a cup of sugar to the mixture and stir until uniformly distributed.

Pour your mixture into a greased 12-inch pie tin. I found the easiest way to press the crumbs into a crust shape is to place wax or parchment paper over the pile and press with your hands into the tin until the crumbs are creeping all the way up the sides of the dish. (Make sure to press on a flat surface or your pie crust could go flying!)

Put the crust into the oven for 8 minutes. The graham cracker crust should slightly change color during that time.

Meanwhile, take your bowl of zest and put in just the yolks of five eggs. (You can separate out the whites into another dish if you wish to use them immediately for another dish or you can let the whites go down the drain.) Beat the yolks for a bit with the whisk until they look a little aerated and bubbly. Then pour in the two cans of milk, 1/2 cup of sugar and cup of lime juice, whisking as you go.

Once the crust is finished cooking, pour in the filling, making sure not to overfill the dish. (This will make it EXTREMELY hard to maneuver the uncooked pie around.) If you want to avoid having a potentially huge mess on your hands, I recommend placing a cookie tin on the bottom rack of the oven and the pie tin (using your bare hands is easiest at this stage, I promise) on the top rack above it. This way, if it drips or if you spill at all, you don't have a disgusting oven. Cook the dish for another 10 minutes.

From Another Cook in the Kitchen

Now this is the hardest part of the entire dish: Ever so carefully, take the pie (which should still be fairly watery) out of the oven (oven mitts this time, since it's hot) and place it on a cooling rack. If you don't spill, pat yourself on the back, because I sure did! If you do, a little napkin to clean the tin (and the counter) makes the pie look the same once it's done.

Let the pie cool until it is room temperature. Then--get this--put it in the freezer! I was majorly skeptical of this step. The closest thing in consistency to this pie that I've made before is my mother's coconut custard pie (delicious), and that condensed milk dish requires way more cooking and absolutely no freezing. But think of your key lime pie as a cold treat on a hot day and stick it in the freezer! It takes about two hours to solidify. Take it out to thaw just a bit, for about 15-20 minutes, before serving.

The result: a delicious summer pie!

To plate it, I placed some whipped cream I had in the fridge on top and placed a slice from one of my left over limes and some zest on top.

From Another Cook in the Kitchen

In my next blog, read about my dinner adventure at The Irish Inn at Glenn Echo, Maryland.

Washington D.C. Restaurant Week is Upon Us

While it seems the official dates for this summer's restaurant week in D.C. were leaked last week, today is the offish day for all the info to come out.

Expect some more activity sometime today at this link: http://www.opentable.com/promo.aspx?pid=68&ref=298&m=9

Hotel Food, Savannah Style

Being able to travel for your job is an unbelievable perk: the flight, the hotel and the food, all free. However, it does require that a lot of your meals are more about eating on the go wherever you can fit it in your schedule. For my trip to Savannah, that meant breakfasts at the Hilton DeSoto on East Liberty Street and a lunch at the Westin on Hutchinson Island.

I must confess that Southern food is not my favorite style of cooking. Not a lover of sweet tea and a firm believer that gravy is brown, I just didn't grow up with foods reinforcing the region's take on food.

That being said, food is usually done best when it has a home field advantage. Just like how you wouldn't order Italian in an Irish pub, I see little point in stomping my feet for brown gravy in the South.

Breakfasts at the Hilton ($11 all you can eat and free for those with Hilton Honors Rewards) are perfect for travelers. Way better than what you'd get at a standard continental, the buffet had tons of fresh fruit, lox, capers, cream cheese, brie, muffins, bagels, oatmeal, cereal, french toast, you name it. The servers will even bring you eggs any style, omelets and pancakes if you ask.

Since this is the South though, I opted for biscuits and gravy, grits, bacon, home fries and some fruit to balance it all out.

From Another Cook in the Kitchen

The meal varied from day to day depending on how long ago the buffet was refreshed. On day one, my home fries were hard and a bit stale and the biscuits also hard and overcooked. However, on day two they were fluffy and more like what I'd expected. I still maintain that white gravy is a little creepy, but I think I may have been won over by this classic breakfast combo.

The grits were, well, gritty, but I must say that they were way better than any grits I'd ever had before. In college, I'd get them for midnight breakfasts at the student union (like sand thrown in a watery mush) and I've sampled them in Charlottesville, Va. before (like sand creamed into butter). The mixture for these was stiff, but not watery, and the texture actually didn't seem like sand at all (high standards, I know). I didn't flavor them with anything, but perhaps if I did, I would understand this dish way more.

My last on-the-go hotel dish in Savannah was at the Westin's restaurant. Aqua Star. And I must say, this place was a steal (so glad I didn't get the concession stand crap I ate at the conference and went here instead). For only $11, I ordered the most refined meal I'd gotten yet in Savannah.

From Another Cook in the Kitchen

I ordered the crab cake sandwich, served on a cheese-infused biscuit with crispy onions, tomato, lettuce and a very mild tartar sauce. Not only did this thing look amazing, it tasted great too. The crab was in that same Savannah style that I've tasted time and again on my trip, and the biscuit was perfectly moist. The onions were a little difficult to taste with all the other flavors that were happening on the plate, but they added to the texture a bit.

From Another Cook in the Kitchen

One of my favorite things about this dish though was that skewered through the toothpick holding the sandwich in place was pickled okra. I'd only ever had fried okra before, but I thought it was unbelievably clever to use okra instead of your standard pickle. Just in case you forgot where you were (and how could you with the telltale Savannah trio of crab, biscuits and cheese), the okra was there to remind you. Savannah is even able to put its special touch on what is usually the hotel food battle of the bland.

Now that I'm home, check back for a post later this week on finally making that key lime pie.

Candy Kitchen Makes Savannah the Real City that Never Sleeps

From Another Cook in the Kitchen

As a child, I was never exposed to the movie Willy Wonka, so I have no bizarre emotional attachment to notions of golden tickets, oompa loompas or chocolate rivers. So when I finally got around to watching the movie at 21 or so, I was more thoroughly creeped out than enchanted. But walking through Savannah’s Candy Kitchen on the historic waterfront made me realize what it is that draws children generation after generation to that bizarre movie: the candy of course!

On our last night in Savannah, we walked into the Kitchen in search of some post-dinner gelato. These little shops serving the icy Italian concoction seem to pop up every few blocks in Savannah. Though certainly not a regional dish and not traditional either, it makes total sense amid the humidity and heat of thick Southern night air. If anything, a tiny plastic spoonful of the stuff is exactly what you need to relax after the sun goes down (and I bet the extra sweet creaminess gelato offers gives it an obvious edge over ice cream for the local waistlines).

I had the good fortune of getting in line a moment after approximately 10 children, likely all between 8 and 12 and oddly all parentless, decided the best way to spend their night was to sample every flavor the store had to offer. While this was mildly annoying, it was also the perfect sight. Seeing all those kids huddle around shouting for their favorite flavor instantly set the mood to what might be the most impressive candy store spread I’ve ever seen.

From Another Cook in the Kitchen

I got a small half-pannacotta half-pistachio cup, the pannecotta practically indiscernible from sweet cream flavored straciatella I’ve ordered during past gelato runs. The Candy Kitchen has both flavors, so it’d be interesting to taste test them next to each other. The pistachio half might have been the best gelato decision I’ve ever made. The complex nuttiness of the dish gave a bold edge to what could have easily been a fairly standard cold dairy confection.

Gelato in tow, I could now wander around the rest of the store. This is where the Willy Wonka side of things steps in. Machines shooting out roll after roll of taffy into giant bins, wheels churning velvety vats of what will turn into fudge, 10-foot-long trays of caramel and pecan treats, this place has enough sugar in it to keep a kindergarten class on a week-long bender.

From Another Cook in the Kitchen

What might be the most impressive sight in the entire store are the trays of candied apples available at another counter toward the middle of the giant store. In fact, calling anything else a candied apple after seeing these teeth rotting monsters almost seems silly. Apples bigger than softballs, The Candy Kitchen dips and decorates them in numerous types of caramel and chocolate. Some are even studded with M&Ms.

From Another Cook in the Kitchen

And if your caffeine fix isn't through by the time you've devoured the store's chocolaty treats, the store also has a few prepackaged items, including Paula Deen's brand of coffee.

In all, The Candy Kitchen proved to be not only delicious but necessary for making it through the hot night air back to our hotel.