Of record.

Photography by Sam Armocido

Five or six years ago, my parents’ newspaper changed, and not for the better. The wonderful, large pages got smaller, and the bylines all read AP. Now, the Associated Press is an important news source, and do a much better job at covering Washington politics and major events around the country then the small writing staff in Springfield, MA, but I miss garden writers gardening in the same weather and soil that I am and reporters intimately knowledgeable of local politics.

The local Gazette and Penny Saver, still employing staff to cover local politics, sports, business and schools, have become local publications of record. While DC’s local paper is a national paper of record, we are also blessed with smaller papers employing writers who are embedded in our city. They cover the issues that impact our neighborhoods and the people who make them special.

Last week, we had the opportunity to host a writer from DC’s Hill Rag at #testkitchen. She joined us as we refined a recipe I had presented at an American University health and wellness event the day before. Annette joined right in helping to taste recipes and suggest ingredients and, as always, many palates make a stronger dish. Look for Annette’s write up in the May issue of the Hill Rag. In the meantime, enjoy this salad, and many thanks to the students, faculty and staff at AU for tasting it last Wednesday afternoon.

Lemongrass Fennel Orange Salad

For dressing:

• 1 shallot, minced
• 1/3 cup Lemongrass or other light, sweet vinegar*
• 1 tbs honey
• 2/3 cup Avocado or other neutral flavored oil*

*This is another chance to shop online or in person at Sapore Oil and vinegar. A strong olive oil will overpower these ingredients, so use something neutral like avocado, grapeseed or vegetable oil. For a vinegar, use something light and sweet. Unseasoned rice wine vinegar is easily available. This is also a good opportunity to break out the gift bottle of Pear Chardonnay or other fruit-wine vinegar that’s aging in your pantry.

For salad:

• 1 head fennel, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup dried cherries or cranberries
• 2 heads butter lettuce, gently chopped in pieces*
• 1 orange, peeled and sectioned, sliced or chopped

*My big meathooks rough up easily bruised butter lettuce, so I chop mine gently.

Photography by Sam Armocido

Directions:

• Make dressing. Whisk together shallot, vinegar and honey with a pinch each of salt and pepper.
• Whisk in oil in a thin stream to form a creamy emulsion.
• Toss together fennel, orange and cherries. Lightly dress with 1/4 cup dressing.
• Lightly dress lettuce with 1/4 cup dressing.
• Plate lettuce, topped with fennel mixture.

The root of the problem.

Photography by Sam Armocido

A beetroot salad, in British television, seems to be shorthand for punishment or penance. However, faced with a spring   season where the calendar had gotten far out ahead of the weather, that’s precisely what we made.

Cold days had prevented the emergence of sweet asparagus or spring onions, so we sat in the test kitchen staring at winter storage celeriac, parsnips, carrots and beetroot. They seemed more suited to a fall roast tossed with thyme than a light spring salad.

Our first decision was to serve them raw, the second was a light poppyseed vinaigrette. Shaving them thin on the smallest side of our box grater eliminated thick , tough shreds  of fibrous root vegetables. With the grater already out, we grated onion rather than dairy to thicken our dressing.

Faced with several vinegars, Sam, part of our #testkitchen crew, selected a mildly acidic, slightly sweet Autumn Apple from Sapore. It was the perfect choice.  Winter never tasted so much like spring.

*Yes, this blog post title is a terrible pun. If one of you had brought me more coffee it could have been avoided.

Sam’s Root Vegetable Slaw

The beets turn the rest of the vegetables a beautiful bright ruby color.

Photography by Sam Armocido

For slaw:

• 1 cup grated beet
• 1 cup grated carrot
• 1 cup grated celery root
• 1 cup grated parsnip

For dressing:

• 3 tbs grated onion
• 1/2 tsp dry mustard
• 1/2 tsp sweet Hungarian paprika
• 1 tsp poppy seeds
• 1-2 tbs honey
• 1/4 cup Autumn Apple* or Sherry vinegar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

*Autumn Apple vinegar is available in DC or online at Sapore. Commonly available cider vinegars tend to be bitter and acidic. Sherry vinegar would be a closer match to the autumn apple.

Directions:

•  Toss together grated vegetables in a large bowl.
• Make dressing: whisk together onion, dry mustard, paprika, poppy seeds, honey and Autumn Apple vinegar with a pinch of salt and pepper.
• Whisk oil into dressing in a thin stream to form a creamy emulsion.
• Dress slaw and let rest 10-20 minutes before serving to let flavors develop. These vegetables are bold and heavy, so add a little more dressing than you would to fresh greens.
• Serve topped with grated lemon zest.

Trust.

Photography by Sam Armocido

During my Eastern Market cooking demos, I am often asked, “Do you only cook with organic ingredients?”

The answer? “No.” I prefer organic, but I put my full faith in farmers. The reality is that raising and selecting healthy food is more complicated than a single factor, like organic. There are highly toxic organic pest and disease controls. And who has certified the food to be organic, the USDA? Those standards are too broad to be meaningful, and don’t cover important health and flavor factors like soil nutrition, cultivar selection and harvest and storage practices.

Develop relationships with farmers and their food. Ask them where it was grown*. If it tastes amazing when you bring it home, go back to them and buy more. If you’ve never been to the market before, watch the locals.

At the end of the day, I trust that they are experts in growing healthy and flavorful food. Like electricity or aspirin, some chemical pest and disease controls are okay, used properly. That’s part of the expertise of farming.

My farmers sell me and my family the same food they serve their own families. Their livelihood depends on being able to look me in the eye, confident I will return healthy and happy the following week.

So, when Marvin at Long Meadow Farms told me his Gold Rush apples had stored well over the winter, that they were nice and crisp, despite wrinkled skins, I trusted him. And they were delicious.

*Sometimes I hear people complain that farmers sell produce they didn’t grow themselves. Farmers are often part of local agricultural communities. They have friends and neighbors who grow great food too. Growing everything yourself isn’t a pre-requisite for being a great purveyor of delicious, healthy farm-fresh produce.

Golden Apple Oyster Mushroom Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 tbs butter
• 2 cups chopped Oyster mushrooms
• 2 tbs brandy
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1/3 cup Blackberry Balsamic or balsamic vinegar*
• 1/4 tsp dijon mustard
• 1 tsp honey
• 2/3 cup Koroneiko or another high- quality, light, grassy olive oil*
• 1 pound baby spinach
• 2 Gold Rush or other golden apples cut in matchsticks

*Blackberry Balsamic vinegar and Koroneiko olive oil are available in Washington, DC or online from Sapore Oil and Vinegar.

Directions:

• Melt butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add mushrooms and sauté until softened.
• Deglaze pan with brandy. Cook until evaporated and season to taste with salt and pepper.
• While mushrooms cook, whisk together shallot, Blackberry Balsamic vinegar, mustard and honey with a pinch each of salt and pepper.
• When mushrooms finish, whisk oil into vinegar mixture. Taste with spinach and adjust seasoning.
• Lightly dress spinach and top with mushrooms and apples.

Stock stock.

I’m a strong advocate for homemade stock. Store-bought not only lacks the same depth of flavor, but even low-sodium versions end up too salty when reduced. The answer? Make your own.

Vegetable stock is a simple mix of carrot, onion and celery, thyme sprigs and parsley stems, bay leaves and peppercorns. Simmered for 30-40 minutes, it’s flavorful and ready just as you finish the rest of your vegetable prep, easily completed for a Tuesday night meal.

“But,” you say, “I want to make chicken stock.” Simple, just add chicken parts. If you are lucky enough to live near a market that breaks down whole chickens in to breasts, wings, legs and thighs, then you can buy backs and necks for about $1 per pound. Simmer for three hours and you have beautiful, rich stock.

“But wait,” you say,” I never have three hours to cook anything.”

I’m going to make an assumption, and forgive me if I offend, but sometime in the next, let’s say 45 days, you are going to wake up on Saturday morning just a little hungover. Your big plan for the day is to sit on the couch with a giant cup of coffee and watch Tyra Banks chew out models for 8 hours straight (or you’re just checking out the models). Either way, there is no reason that a big pot of stock can’t be simmering on the back of the stove.

We’ve posted recipes for chicken stock and vegetable stock before. Here are two stocks that we use for Indian or Asian sauces, soups and braises.

Asian Stock

Perfect for soups, stir-frys and sauces.

Ingredients:

• 1 carrot, roughly chopped
• 3 ribs celery, roughly chopped
• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 1 leek, roughly chopped
• 1 sheet kombu seaweed
• 1-2 cups Shitake mushroom stems
• 2 tbs soy sauce
• 2 tbs rice wine vinegar

Directions:

• Place all ingredients in a stock pot and cover with 8-10 cups water.
• Simmer for 40 minutes and strain solids reserving stock.

Indian Stock

This special stock adds additional richness to Indian-flavored dishes. You could also use it for soup with the addition of lightly browned pieces of carrot, potato and chicken.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbs ghee or butter
• 1 carrot, roughly chopped
• 3 ribs celery, roughly chopped
• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 1 leek, roughly chopped
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 cardamom pods
• 2 whole cloves

Directions:

• Melt ghee in a stock pot over medium-high heat. Add carrot, celery, onion and leek and cook until browned.
• Add cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. Cook for 1 minute more and fill with 8 cups water.
• Simmer for 40 minutes and strain solids reserving stock.

Sobering.

Photography by Sam Armocido

My friend Ali and I are both responsible, mature adults. However, for a brief period, before we met our husbands, she and I got together regularly for an after work cocktail or seven. We often ended those less-than-sober nights dining on what we affectionately referred to as “cheap Chinese.”

Several years ago, after a glass of wine, we returned to the scene of youthful excess, excited to once again dine on some of DC’s best Chinese food. It was an epic mistake. Rule #1 of drunken dining: don’t ever go back sober. The food was terrible.

Unfortunately, Chinese food, which can be fresh, bright and rich, often disappoints, salty, fatty and limp. Egg fu yung, is perhaps one of the worst perpetrators,  laden with a corn (starch and syrup) gravy. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Farm fresh eggs and toasted sesame oil makes this Asian omelet rich. Lightly stir-fried cabbage delivers the crisp crunch missing in mung bean sprouts, while Shitake mushrooms provide the umami depth typically derived from MSG. Our gravy, thick with cornstarch is bright with vinegar, soy and homemade stock. So sober up, and get ready for some amazingly good Chinese!

Egg Fu Yung

Photography by Sam Armocido

For Omelet:

• 6 eggs
• 1 tbs sesame oil
• 3 scallions, thinly sliced
• 4 tbs peanut oil
• 2 cups cabbage
• 1.5 cups Shitake mushrooms, slice thin
• 2 cloves garlic, minced

For Sauce:

• 2 tbs corn starch
• 3 tbs soy sauce
• 2 tbs Sherry Vinegar*
• 1 tbs sesame oil
• 1.5 cups vegetable stock or Asian stock

*For a more complex flavor with a hint of sweetness, use 1 tbs Sherry vinegar and 2 tbs of Sapore’s Serrano Chile Honey vinegar.

Directions:

• Whisk together eggs, sesame oil and green parts of scallions in a large bowl.
• On medium heat, warm 1 tbs peanut oil in a 12” skillet. Sauté white part of scallions until softened. Add cabbage and stirfry until tender but still firm. Add to egg mixture.
• Return skillet to heat, add 1 tbs peanut oil and shitake mushrooms, sauté until softened and browning on edges. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds more. Stir into egg mixture.
• Heat 2 tbs oil in skillet over medium-low heat. Pour in eggs, cover and cook.
• While omelet cooks, mix together sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and simmer until thickened. Keep warm.
• When the top of the omelet is set, loosen the Egg Fu Yung with a rubber spatula, slide onto a platter, and serve with gravy. (Or just eat it right from the pan.)

Building a pantry.

Photography by Sam Armocido

My love for cooking began, like so many long relationships, with a heated, passionate affair. I poured through cookbooks, unable to sate my newfound desire. Each new recipe, each new ingredient was a was an adventure I never knew existed. Like many affairs, it was also expensive.

Each new recipe required new oils, new spices. Each bottle of sherry vinegar, jar of cardamom and bag of arborio rice was another dollar (or $11) out of my pinched wallet. My mother, ever practical, suggested cooking with the ingredients I already had. Willful and young, I ignored her.

Eventually, I built a pantry. Using only a tablespoon per dish, that $10 bottle of walnut oil was on handwhen I needed it to toss with arugula and bleu cheese.

Getting a pantry started can seem daunting, and pricey. You can either dip a toe in the water, or jump off the deep end (which is exactly where my mother thought I had gone off). Either way, one day you will open your cupboard, delightfully surprised, and find everything right there.

Curried Fingerling Potatoes

There are a lot of ingredients here. Most of them are spices and they all go in the pan at once, simple and straightforward.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbs ghee* or butter
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic. minced
• 1 tbs mustard seed
• 1 tsp cumin seed
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• 4 cups quartered fingerling potatoes
• 4 cups vegetable stock or Indian stock (see below)
• 4-5 cups loose baby spinach
• 1 tbs Chile Oil*
• Sherry vinegar*

*Ghee is Indian clarified butter. Find it with international ingredients or other oils and cooking fats. We opened up our Sapore Oil and Vinegar cupboard, and used Merken Chile oil and Roasted Red Pepper Blackberry vinegar.

Directions:

• Melt 2 tbs ghee in a 3 quart sauté pan. Add onion and cook until edges brown. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds, until fragrant.
• Add mustard and cumin seed. Cook for 2 minutes until mustard seeds begin to pop. Add remaining spices and cook for 30 seconds longer.
• Add potatoes and stir through with spices and onion.
• Add stock, stir and cover. Cook 15 minutes until the center of the potatoes is still firm when pierced with a knife. Uncover and cook until sauce is reduced to a thin sauce.
• Add spinach and cover for 2 minutes.
• Remove top, stir through wilted spinach.
• Season to taste with salt, pepper, chile oil and sherry vinegar.

Indian Stock

This special stock adds additional richness to Indian-flavored dishes. You could also use it for soup with the addition of lightly browned pieces of carrot, potato and chicken.

Ingredients:
2 tbs ghee or butter
1 carrot, roughly chopped
3 ribs celery, roughly chopped
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1 leek, roughly chopped
1 cinnamon stick
2 cardamom pods
2 whole cloves

Directions:

• Melt ghee in a stock pot over medium-high heat. Add carrot, celery, onion and leek and cook until browned.
• Add cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. Cook for 1 minute more and fill with 8 cups water.
• Simmer for 40 minutes and strain solids reserving stock.

Eureka!

I called Joe Judge in February of 2011. “Joe,” I said, “I love my husband, my life in Washington, DC and my job. I’m 37 years old and my life rocks. What’s next?” Joe, a professional business consultant and coach said, “It would be my pleasure to speak with you more about that.”

Two years later I had the pleasure of cooking dinner for Joe. In the interim his advice and counsel had helped me discover and pursue a passion for storytelling, recipe creating, sharing the great joy of food and cooking in front of an audience every Saturday morning at Washington, DC’s Eastern Market. I had fallen in love and wanted to spend more time pursuing this passion that brought me great joy and humbled me with the opportunity to bring joy to others.

With a month to go before the start of my third season at the Market, Joe asked, “What are you going to do differently this year? How will you step up your game?” I told Joe that I was thinking it might be time for a logo, but I didn’t have a designer. Joe smiled.

He connected me with Jessie Judge, his daughter-in-law, a talented graphic designer and marketer. Over four weeks she has helped me understand that I’m passionate but not too serious. I’ve learned people think cooking with me is fun and relaxed. And I’ve reaffirmed my belief that each and every meal, no matter how simple, is an opportunity to celebrate our daily lives and the people who bring us joy.

Jessie found a way to take all of that and turn it into a logo. She did it brilliantly, with patience and insight.

I am sincerely grateful to them both.