Thank You! July, July, July, Oh My!

Another exciting evening to celebrate the seasons!
This time we were fortunate enough to have an amazing kitchen to work in and we took full advantage of this! It definitely was able to accommodate our largest group yet! Thanks to Holly & Fred for your home, Kevin and Jackie for your kitchen love, Aileen for your photo magic and Jeff and Ballast Point for the awesome session beers!

F really outdid himself with this one. We had thrown out the idea of cooking some meat underground and he absolutely ran with that idea. It took 160 bricks and lots of elbow grease during the 4th of July weekend for this new appliance to be in place.

The pit began warming in the early morning hours around 7am by throwing about 20lbs of charcoal in there. The pork was marinated and then wrapped in banana leaves, placed inside a roasting pan, and layed down in the pit. It was then cooked in the pit for about 4 hours where it reached temperatures of over 500 degrees. The pit was then covered by a metal plate and soil thrown above it to ensure no air sneaked in.

The real deal...dug with love and stacked with passion! It's no wonder the pork tasted so amazing ... shouldn't we all construct an underground pit in our backyard?

Grilling is always a summer favorite with too high of temperatures to operate an oven inside. It's absolutely worth it to buy mesquite charcoal...not briquettes!
The corn with its protector, was grilled with the husk which achieves the same texture of the kernel as boiling would, but with a smokey grill flavor.
The peaches were grilled with branches of rosemary thrown into the charcoal to give an herbal smokey taste...

When July takes over the kitchen....

To begin: Tomato consommé
See our post here about how it was made.

1st: Crispy zuchinni flowers stuffed with ricotta & mint served with a spicy peach chutney paired with Avery's 16 saison.

The ricotta cheese stuffing had lemon zest and red peppers that brought out the saison's zesty aroma and its light effervescence. The peach chutney added some balance on the sweet side and brought it all together.

2nd: Pibil inspired Pork served with Berry Beer Baked Beans
paired with Port Brewing Co. Hot Rocks Lager

It was no coincidence that this underground course was served with a beer that practices the same methods in preparation! The berry beer baked beans were baked for hours with a raspberry lambic. The beer's malty sweet characteristics cut through the pork's flavorful fat and the marinade's rich flavors.

3rd: Grilled Peach Salad with Prosciutto and a Creamy Dressing
paired with Marin Brewing Co. Stinson Beach Peach Ale
As always, we love to offer the greens in between the meat and the sweet. The spicy arugula and the saltiness of the prosciutto balanced perfectly with the creme fraiche and goat cheese in the dressing.
Simple and cleansing in preparation for the sweet.

4th: Warm Strawberries with Pimm's and Vanilla Ice Cream
paired with Bayerischer Bahnof's Berliner Weisse served mit schuss style with
Castle Brewery's St. Louis Framboise
Of course everyone loves dessert, but this one had dessert in the beer, too. The handmade crumbled shortbread cookies with the broiled strawberries, essences of vanilla and ginger and handmade ice cream paired beautifully with the tartness of the berliner and the framboise kicked in to balance the sweetness.

Thanks to everyone for a beautiful evening under the July sky!

Szechuan Pepper....What???

On the last night of our dinner at Woodberry, we had the pleasure of experiencing the Szechuan peppercorn at its freshest. The peppercorn had just been picked and the farmer brought it by to see if the kitchen was interested in cooking with it. Our server came out and told us what he had just tried and said that it was something that we had to do if we were interested in having a culinary adventure.

How could we pass it up? After dinner, there were 2 peppercorns that perched on a small white plate. It should also be known that the server explained this feeling after biting into the peppercorn as an "acid trip for your mouth".

The peppercorn is beautiful and looks like a mini sunflower, except that its gentle and lovely apperance is deceiving. Once you put it into your mouth get ready for a numbing and salivating experience on your tongue. At first bite you start to feel a tingling sensation, then the tingling lingers away while the numbness goes into effect and before you know it your mouth is as dry as a desert and salivating like you have never experienced. The sensation lasts for more than a few minutes and it goes from an intense and long stage to a gradual decrease.

Quite a deceiving little beautful flower! and what an experience to conclude our "charm city" visit!

Tomato Consommé

It's the middle of summer and what better way to showcase one of its beautiful offerings, tomatoes. We had so much fun with this one. Usually, when you think about tomato consommé you think of broth, but what gives this one its clarity are the hours in between. You'll need lots of cheesecloth, if you are making it for 40 people.

Being the huge bloody mary lovers that we are, when we saw this recipe we knew it would be a proper way to start the afternoon. This recipe comes from one of our favorite chefs, Jamie Oliver. We both love his free spirited and confident way he approaches the kitchen.

Our Tips:
The color is absolutely incredible and worth the wait
I used about 1/2" thick slice of beet
More cheesecloth is better than less because you'll need it to tie the corners
It's worth it to find some sort of hook...it makes the hanging a lot easier
It's true, if you squeeze it, it gets a lot of the tomato meat in the broth, which affects the color
It's worth the wait, be patient and leave it alone
You can't mess up, just follow your tastebuds

Ingredients:
serves 6
a large bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks reserved
4 1/4 pounds really nice tomatoes
1 x 2-inch piece of fresh horseradish, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 a clove of garlic, peeled
1-2 tbsp good quality red wine vinegar
a couple shots of vodka
1 slice of beet ( for color)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

"First of all, pick out the tiny inner basil leaves and put them in a bowl in the fridge. Then put all the tomatoes, basil leaves and stalks, horseradish, garlic, vinegar, vodka, beet and a good pinch of salt and pepper into a food processor or blender (you may have to do this in batches) and whiz until you have a kind of slush. It smells great! Give it a stir, have a taste and season with salt. As horseradish varies in strength, you may need to add a little more - I would say it's better to slightly over-horseradish it - and whiz again.

Line a big mixing bowl with a double layer of cheesecloth and pour the tomato pulp into it. Gather up the corners of the muslin and carefully, but securely, knot them together so you can lift the bundle up by the knot. Hang from a butcher's hook over a clean bowl to collect the juice that drips through the muslin and place in the fridge or a cool pantry. The liquid will be the most incredible crystal-clear rose-colored essence.

Taste a spoonful and adjust the seasoning with sea salt only - don't use pepper now or you'll get little black bits in your lovely clear juice. Stir, season, taste until you feel you've got perfection - be confident, as now is not a time for blandness! One of the background tastes should be a subtle acidity from your red wine vinegar - add a little more if you like, but not too much. You could also swig in a little extra vodka at this point.

It will take about 5 to 7 hours for the juice to drip through. (If you think this sounds like a long time, you can gently push the cheesecloth to force the juice out over the course of a minute, then let it drip for an hour or so from there. The longer you can let it drip naturally though, the clearer the consommé will be.) You'll know when it's done because you'll have 4 to 6 large ladies of juice in your bowl and the muslin pouch will be reasonably empty - discard what's left in it. Chill the soup in the fridge, along with your serving bowls.

When you're ready to serve, divide the soup between the bowl and sprinkle with the reserved basil leaves and a few small drips of quality extra virgin olive oil. Absolutely incredible!"

- Taken word for word from Jamie Oliver's "jamie at home, cook your way to the good life"

Time is the essence. You definitely need to let it do its thing.

The sheer beauty of tomatoes and time.

4th of July at it's east coast best

After staying up til 330 from Ally's recommendation to follow up our Woodberry Kitchen experience with the Mt. Royal Tavern and waking up to a headache, we reluctantly got up at 9am and made our way towards Centreville where the wedding party was. The wedding was held at Content Farm. The place could not have been anymore charming and it was Americana at its best.

The entrance and driveway up to Content Farm.

Here we are ready to party down. We had been driving all day so we were all about relaxing in the barn and enjoying the Italian feast!

Matt and Steph, our PIC's (partners in crime).

The bluegrass band killed it!

The barn was turned into this beautiful space with colorful old French vases and old cart wheels serving as chandeliers. Beautiful evening for a charming couple and done right on the 4th of July!

Woodbery Kitchen....we miss you

Woodberry Kitchen rocks!
Baltimore was great upon arrival, but this sealed the deal our first night when we found this amazing farm to table restaurant.
I can honestly say they didn't miss a beat!

The brick oven in the photo is used to cook the majority of their meals. It heats up to the 700 - 800 degree range when they use it for dinner and then in the early dawn hours when it cools down to around 400 degrees the pastry chefs use it to bake all of their breads and pastries.

To say that the service here was impeccable is an understatement! From the greeting at the door, to the knowledgeable staff, to the vibe of their teamwork and most importantly to the servers who love what they do and will sit down and talk to you without any rush. Without a doubt, they know exactly what they're doing and are fully aware of what they have created.

We were in awe!
If ever in Baltimore, it's an absolute must see!!!

We started with this snack of fresh Kohlrabi, Cucumber, & Scallions sprinkled with cumin, lemon, and sea salt.

My first drink was "Plantation" a single barrel bourbon, smoked honey, California port, and whiskey barrel bitters. Farra had the Gov't mule, which is probably the only thing that we found was not as good as what we had tasted before... Starlite's mule is better.

With our hunger and amazement at the menu, needless to say, we ordered way too much. After the snack we had Ladyfinger popcorn, which is a heritage corn. We split the Truckpatch spinach salad, goat cheese, strawberries, almonds and maple.

Here is my grass fed Roseda KC strip on a bed of cheesy mashed potatoes, summer squash, scallions, with a spring garlic butter. Yes, I did eat all the fat!

Farra's local (West Virginia) Stuffed Rainbow Trout with chard, mushrooms, skillet potatoes and green garlic aioli paired with a local Seyval white wine.

In complete glutton mode, we agreed to let the server choose a dessert and pair a drink with it. By this time, we both still had our cocktail to finish, our glass of wine to finish and now another drink was on its way. But what's dessert without coffee?

With 3 drinks in front of us, Ally, the barista comes over with 2 french presses from Counter Culture - single origin coffee from Burundi....why stop there? Marco, the general manager, then tempted us with our, now, 5th drink of local made rye whiskey...

Our surprise dessert pairing: Dessert was Summer Pudding with blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and whisked goat cheese....complete decadence!

Thank you to everyone at Woodberry Kitchen who made our stay in Baltimore so memorable!
Thanks to Sophie and Ally for the awesome service and insider info!

Baltimore and the iphone

Farra and I took a mini trip to Baltimore for our friends' wedding last week. We were able to really appreciate what the"charm city" had to offer.

We rolled in Thursday and had the unfortunate mishap of forgetting / losing our camera on the airplane so these pics were all taken with the clutch iPhone.

Being that we are a bit food obsessed I researched for restaurants and found this great farm to table one called Woodberry Kitchen...saving this for a post by itself :) This place is located in the Woodberry area of Baltimore. Back in the early 1900s it used to be a huge milling area that now houses townhomes, condos, art gallery, and the Woodberry Kitchen. They did a nice job of incorporating the old buldings and putting a new twist on it.

This is the inside of the old milling factory, which now serves as the parking garage for all the residents.

The pool sits at the bottom of what used to be the basement. This reminds me of a hotel in Puebla, called La Purificadora, done by famous Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta and his son.

We fell in love with this district and ultimately fell in love with Baltimore.

goodbye, goodbye, goodbye July!!!

Thanks to everyone who helped make this evening such a pleasure

Next up, see you in September in honor of Mexico's Independence
(Mexico's Independence Day is 9/16, but we're celebrating a little early)

September 6, 2pm

All dishes for this pairing will be Mexican-inspired

Live Jarocho music

RSVP to: farragood@gmail.com
seating is limited and please only RSVP if you are sure you are able to attend

j u l y j u l y j u l y - oh my! we're full...

See you this Sunday...

4 courses, with beer pairings at 3:00pm on
SUNDAY, JULY 12, 2009

Donation: $45

Tomato Consommé to sip before sitting...

1° Crispy Zucchini Flowers Stuffed with Ricotta and Mint served with peach chutney paired with 16 Anniversary Saison Ale from Avery Brewing Company

2° Pibil inspired Pork with Berry Beer Baked Beans
paired with Hot Rocks Lager from Port Brewing Company

3° Grilled Peach Salad with Prosciutto di Parma and a Creamy Dressing paired with Stinson Beach Peach Ale from Marin Brewing Company

4° Grilled Strawberries with Pimms, Crushed Shortbread and Vanilla Ice Cream paired with Bayerischer Bahnof's Berliner Weisee mit SCHUSS: Himberee style with St. Louis Framboise from Castle Brewery