Golden, Brown and Delicious - fried chicken and doughnuts. I might give myself a heart attack, but sure, let's try it out. From the owners of Birch & Barley, this casual restaurant located in Dupont Circle focuses on a simple, Southern-inspired menu with a trendy, "cafeteria-type vibe" dining area.
I visited GBD for lunch and sampled their Drum & Thigh Lunchbox with a side of the Kohlrabi cole slaw and the Mumbo dipping sauce.
The chicken itself was good, crunchy and buttery like fried chicken should be. The Mumbo dipping sauce was a nice accompaniment with the chicken, tangy and rich with a bit of heat to it. Better than a standard BBQ sauce and it didn't overpower the chicken. The creme fraiche biscuit did not disappoint. Doughy and delicious, with a light salty finish, it was excellent.
I was disappointed with the Kohlrabi cole slaw, nothing really inventive and tasted like it sat in the vinegar sauce too long. It needs a fun addition to bring out the flavor (maybe another ingredient to give it some texture?). This was sort of just BLAH.
I was smart enough to save room for dessert and ordered the chocolate pudding doughnut. Sweet, rich and chocolately (and topped with chocolate rice krispies!), this dense doughnut was a tasty treat.
Overall, GBD is a good, solid fried chicken and doughnut joint... and probably highly addictive after a night out at the bars at 2am.
Squash and zucchini. Zucchini and squash. It shows up by the boatloads in summer and I am always trying to come up with different ways to cook it and serve it so that SOMEONE, ANYONE will eat it. Haven't had much luck.... until now.
Introducing Roasted and Marinated Summer Vegetables!
A simple and zesty recipe for all those cats and dogs vegetables that find their way into your home during the summer harvest. You can change up the recipe with whatever kinds of vegetables you have on hand.
The vegetables have to sit in the marinade for a bit, so you can make it at your leisure and serve it up later for dinner or as a light snack. Based off a recipe from Bon Appetit, these veggies will keep for up to three days (mine were gone in two!).
Ingredients
2 squash
1 zucchini
1 eggplant
1 pepper
1 onion
7 leaves of basil (about 1/4 cup)
4-5 cloves of garlic
5 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
Preparation
1. Slice vegetables into 1/2 inch thick slices or strips, lay on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with 1 tbl of olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper.
2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Put vegetables in the oven and roast for 20 minutes, flipping once halfway through the roasting process.
3. While the vegetables are roasting, chop 3 leaves of basil. In a large bowl, mix the chopped basil with 4 1/2 tablespoons of oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, and 4 whole leaves of basil.
4. Remove the vegetables from the oven, allow to cool slightly and add to the bowl with the marinade. Toss to coat. Let sit for at least one hour. To keep longer, cover and chill and then bring back to room temperature before serving.
It's HOT. Which means, I need some light and cool food to enjoy and snack on for dinner rather than investing time and energy in a full dinner. Here's a refreshing and simple salad to serve for a light dinner with some pita bread and hummus.
Ingredients
1 cucumber
4 small, hothouse tomatoes
2 tablespoons of dill
2 green onions
a splash of red vinegar and olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Preparation
1. Cut your cucumber in half and then in half again, length-wise and cut into chunks.
2. Cut the tomatoes in to 8ths so you have little crescent moon shapes.
3. Chop the dill and slice the green onions (white and green parts).
4. Combine in a bowl and add a splash of red wine vinegar and olive oil (equal parts). Season with salt and pepper.
5. Cover the bowl to marinate and blend flavors overnight. Or you could put in canning jars and give one to a friend as a gift (I gave one to my mother-in-law as opposed to money for watching my eldest, which I'm pretty sure is an even trade, right?).
I dig my CSA share from Waterpenny Farm -- you support local, sustainable farming practices and come to appreciate the flavors of seasonal produce. This 'warm & fuzzy feeling' is coupled with the element of surprise.. like ooh, what was ripe enough to harvest this week? And then... every once in a while... comes the big "HUH?"
You know what I'm talking about. You find at the bottom of your bag, some random piece of produce that creates the follow reaction: "WTF is this thing and what am I supposed to do with it?!?!" That instance happened this week.
Kohlrabi.
I cut a piece off and ate it. Hmmm... crunchy, light and reminds me of cabbage. So I pulled out my Larousse Gastronomique (a culinary encyclopedia) and found out more. Apparently, it's "a vegetable of the cabbage family (SCORE, got that right!) whose fleshy stalk swells at the base like a turnip. Tender when young, kohlrabi is prepared like a turnip or celeriac and may be eaten raw or cooked." Well, okay. I sort of assumed it could be cooked.
So I dug around more to see what people do with it. It apparently, can be roasted and is used in some Indian dishes. But what really caught my eye was that some folks have pickled it. I thought that would be a perfect way to build on the crispy-ness of the kohlrabi. So, here it is - a recipe for pickled kohlrabi.
PS. Is there anything that you can't pickle?!?
Ingredients
1/2 of a kohlrabi
1 cup of water
1 cup of white vinegar
2 cloves of garlic
4 tsp of salt
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp of pickling spice
3-4 stalks of dill
Preparation
1. Slice the kohlrabi into 1/2 inch slices and then cut into thirds to be about the width of 2 inches.
2. Stuff a canning jar with the kohlrabi slices, two cloves of garlic (peeled), and dill.
3. Combine water, vinegar, pickling spices, salt and sugar in a small pot and heat over medium-high heat until it boils and the salt and sugar dissolve.
4. Pour liquid over kohlrabi in the mason jar.
5. Place lid on top and screw on cap. Allow to cool and then place in the refrigerator to chill. Serve the next day and can be kept up to one week.
Summer is here! Well, not technically HERE, here. But here nonetheless. It feels like summer and schools let out next week so I'm going to go ahead and say it's summer.
In my mind, summer is about salads. Light, refreshing salads that you can enjoy outside at a picnic or on the beach that are substantial enough to refer to as dinner. And don't require a whole lot of 'heat' to create because who really wants to turn on the oven on a 90 degree day with 100% humidity.
Here is a great recipe for a traditional chicken salad with some added spice (of course, you knew I was going to add spices, I just couldn't help myself!). I add apples and raisins because I like the crunchy texture and the sweetness balances out the spice... but you can leave them out if you prefer. I ususally serve this on pita bread or an english muffin. Enjoy as lunch, dinner or snack at a winery....
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups of chicken, cooked and shredded
1/2 an apple
2 celery stalks
2 green onions
2 tablespoons of raisins
1/3 cup of mayo
3/4 teaspoon of curry powder
1 teaspoon of cider vinegar
1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
salt and pepper
Preparation
1. Dice apples and celery.
2. Chop green onions.
3. Combine chicken, apple, celery, onions, and raisins in a bowl. Set aside.
4. Combine mayo, curry powder, vinegar, and cayenne pepper in a small bowl. Mix together and season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Add the mayo mixture to the chicken.
6. Stir until blended and all the chicken is well covered with mayo. Refigerate for an hour or so to let flavors develop.
This week, we got our first CSA share of the season. Our share of seasonal vegetables comes from Waterpenny Farm, out in Sperryville, VA. They have lots of great vegetables and some seasonal fruits which are both delicious.
One of the items that came in our first delivery was a bunch of kale. I'm going to admit it, I am not a huge fan of kale. It is really tough and I find it to be too chewy in a regular salad. I've used it in soups, and that works out well. But I definitely struggle with what to do with kale as a side dish.
But now I've found a way to make it into a snack - spicy kale chips. Using one of my favorite ingredients, chili oil. Light and crispy, these kale chips are *gone* the same day I make them.
Ingredients
1/2 tablespoon of chili oil
1 tablespoon of olive oil
6-8 stalks of fresh kale
salt
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees.
2. Rinse kale and pat dry. Remove ribs from the center of the kale and cut leaves into 3 inch pieces.
3. Place kale in a bowl and add oils, toss to mix. Sprinkle with salt.
4. Lay kale in a single layer on a baking sheet.
5. Cook in the oven for ten minutes and turn kale over. Cook for another 10 minutes until crispy.
6. Remove from oven and place on paper towels to cook and remove excess oil. Enjoy as a yummy snack!
This spring, I planted a vegetable garden along with some herbs in pots. My veggies are still growing (nothing ready to harvest yet), but my herbs are looking fantastic!
So I decided to use one of my herbs, sage in a pork dish for dinner. This is a simple and quick weeknight dinner recipe for pork chops with a light sauce. You can serve over mashed potatoes or rice (or probably quinoa, but I'm still trying to work with that 'grain' before I start throwing it in to everything) with a side salad for a complete meal.
Ingredients
2 pork chops
salt and pepper
1/2 tablespoon of olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons of sage
1 shallot
1/3 cup of chicken stock
1 tablespoon of butter
Preparation
1. Sprinkle pork chops with salt and pepper and let stand for 10-15 minutes.
2. Dice shallot.
3. Chop sage leaves -- stack in a pile, roll and chop cross-wise.
4. Heat a shallow skillet over medium high heat and add olive oil. Bring oil up in temperature and add pork chops to the skillet. Cook on each side until lightly browned (about 3 minutes per side).
3. Remove pork chops from pan, lower the heat to medium and add 1/2 of the tablespoon of butter. Add the shallots to the pan and saute until slightly tender, about 3 minutes.
4. Add the sage to the skillet and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
5. Deglaze the pan with the 1/3 cup of chicken stock by bringing up the heat to medium-high, allowing the stock to boil, and then bringing down the heat to medium to lightly simmer and reduce sauce to about half (about 10 minutes).
6. Add pork chops back to the pan to warm and coat with sauce. Add 1/2 tablespoon of butter to the pan to richen. Salt and pepper to taste.
7. Remove pork chops, spoon sauce over pork chops and serve!
