I'M BACK

I've been finishing my Master's thesis. I should've posted here about my absence but I couldn't stand to look at how long I've been gone.



It appears that it's over.



Right now I'm excited about the summer 2008 opening of VOLT restaurant in downtown Frederick: http://www.voltrestaurant.com/

Presentation looks nice - for content about the restaurant, check out the blog link, accessible on the above page or here: http://blog.voltrestaurant.com/



I'm also excited about the numerous farmers' markets that are opening in May and June.

For Maryland, organized by county: http://www.mda.state.md.us/md_products/farmers_market_dir.php



For the Frederick County Virtual Farmers' Market site, which includes info on the new Tuesday market: http://www.discoverfrederickmd.com/farmersmarket/html/detail.htm?cat=115&store=1078

Using the Demiglace - Pan Sauce for Steaks

I came up with the following because I wanted to taste the demiglace in a relatively simple sauce.

Pan Sauce for Two Steaks
2 cooked steaks (grilled, pan-fried, or broiled)
3 tablespoons (shot glass) cognac
1/2 cup no or low salt veal or chicken stock (see previous post for veal stock recipe)
1 tablespoon homemade veal demiglace (see previous post for recipe)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
salt and black pepper to taste

Add cognac to pan on medium-high heat and reduce by about half. Add stock and reduce by about half. Add demiglace. Whisk in butter, one tablespoon at a time until incorporated. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with steaks.

Taking Bourdain's advice - Making Demiglace

I've made white chicken stock numerous times, using Julia Child's old-school classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but had never roasted bones and/or tried another main ingredient. I used the following recipe for veal stock from Gourmet magazine, adapted from Bourdain's buddy, Michael Ruhlman (also check out the Las Vegas episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations):
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/105520

I bought the veal bones at Wagner's Meats, aka the Mt. Airy Meat Locker.
http://www.wagnersmeats.com/

Roasted bones and vegetables make the house smell great and the stock is rich, flavorful, and salt-free, making it perfect for reducing into a demiglace. The high amount of gelatin in the veal knuckle bones makes the stock gelatinize when refrigerated.

For the demiglace recipe, I used Bourdain's list of ingredients and combined several recipes I'd found. I used the following:

Veal Demiglace
4 1/2 cups veal stock (from the above recipe)
1 cup dry red wine (I used a cabernet)
1/2 cup finely chopped shallots
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf

I reduced it until it coated the back of a spoon, which yielded a 1/2 cup. Tasted straight, I felt it was a bit heavy on the shallots and black peppercorns but I've been very pleased with it in sauce for steak.

Cooking like a professional chef

from Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain


Important ingredients that professional chefs use:

shallots - Use in sauces, sauté items, and dressings.

butter - It's the first and last thing in the sauté pan. Sauté in oil and butter and then finish sauces with it.

roasted garlic - Sliver thinly for pasta (like in Goodfellas), use a mix of fresh and roasted garlic in Caesar dressing. Avoid burnt, old, and jarred garlic, as well as garlic that was cut too long ago. Don't use a garlic press.

chiffonaded parsley - Thinly sliced washed, dried parsley (flat leaf, I assume).

stock - "the backbone of good cooking"
Roasted bones, roasted vegetables, and water, then reduce, strain, and freeze.

demiglace - Combine stock, red wine, shallots, fresh thyme, bay leaf, and peppercorns. Slowly simmer and reduce until it coats a spoon. Strain and freeze in ice cube trays. Make sauces with demiglace and finish with butter.

fresh herbs - Throw out your dried herbs. Use fresh herbs to cook and garnish. Garnish suggestions:
* chervil - chicken breast
* basil - pasta
* chives (uncut) - fish
* mint (with whipped cream and raspberries) - desserts

Lucky Corner Vietnamese - Frederick, MD

November 16 and 30, 2007


In my nearly ten years in the Frederick area, I've seen Vietnamese restaurants come and go (my wife and I still miss Old Town Saigon on Rt. 40). Lucky Corner, on the corner of N. Market and 7th Street, has been our go-to Vietnamese place for a few years now. On both November visits we started with the grilled lemongrass beef appetizer. The small stuffed beef rolls come topped with fried scallions and chopped peanuts both of which are more than just a garnish. The rolls, topping, and dipping sauce nicely bring together the classic Southeast Asian flavor combination of sweet, sour, spicy, and salty. One inconsistency we saw in both visits was that some rolls were moist and some were a bit dry on the outside.

One of my favorite things about Vietnamese cuisine is the combination of Asian and French elements. Sometimes when I order, I seek out such dishes. On the 16th I ordered the Saigon beef stew, which brought together East and West. I chose rice noodles to accompany the dish (egg noodles were an option) and the stew was what I hoped for: chunks of beef and carrots in a sauce but with Vietnamese flavors, including the usual accompanying condiments to pho, such as bean sprouts, lime, cilantro, chile pepper, and srichacha. This dish would be perfect for one who had never had Vietnamese food and was skeptical.

On the 30th, I ordered another special, the fried tilapia. This dish was perfect for someone who was dragged unwillingly to a Vietnamese restaurant - this, however, does not describe me. It was a plate of fried, golden-brown food: fried fish with potato croquettes. Rounding out this highly conservative, very Western dish was a salad with a decidedly non-Asian vinaigrette. The croquettes and salad were fine and uneventful but the fish was another story. It was crispy on the outside and moist on the inside, executed well and simply. The fish was accompanied by the only real nod to Vietnamese food, a piquant dipping sauce. The problem with the fish was that the tilapia was unlike any tilapia I've ever had. If it was indeed tilapia, the fish must have been raised in a horribly crowded "farm." I would've been justified in sending it back, but hungry and admiring the crispy crust and moist white meat, I told myself it was fried catfish and ate most of it. After a review of two entree specials in two weeks, I might return with a review of regular menu items. Check back later.
Rarely daring, my wife got the caramel pork in hot pot, which is what she gets every time. One time it was better than the other, owing that to less salt. The dish is fine but it was better at Old Town Saigon, which is what my wife ordered. Always.

Perhaps Lucky Corner's finest attribute is the service. The restaurant is small yet they are always extremely accommodating to our two small children. The service is exceptionally friendly and polite; they seem to honestly care how your dining experience was. They'll gladly steam some plain broccoli (off the menu) for my picky daughter and are there in time to offer me another Singha (Thai lager).



Lucky Corner Vietnamese Finest Restaurant
700 N Market St
Frederick, MD 21701
301-624-1005

Metropolitan - Annapolis, MD

Saturday, October 20, 2007


Metropolitan is a sleek, modern, multi-floor restaurant on the recently revitalized West Street in Annapolis. I had high expectations based upon what I had heard as well as what the online menu offered. The website proclaims its "pride in ingredients foremost" favoring local organic farmers while "technique and presentation are secondary." The menu, however, bares modern touches like a "strawberry-vanilla air" (accompanying pan seared foie gras) as well as beet and tomato "carpaccio." A restaurant whose mission statement follows Alice Waters' mantra with a menu that bares influences from the likes of Grant Achatz and Michel Richard? Count me in.

The meal got off to a strong start. We were welcomed by an amuse bouche of shot size glasses of a warm spiced cider, which was a nice beginning to a fall evening. Both the sunflower seed bread and focaccia were tasty and were served with orange butter (good) and parsley butter (unexciting, as it tasted like parsley and butter). My brother and sister-in-law enjoyed their well-made cocktails (martini and Manhattan, respectively) and my wife and I were pleased with the selection of Belgian beers (Hoegaarden and Duvel, respectively).

The table decided on the five-course tasting menu, which provides both surprise and opportunity for food discussion. No one got the wine pairing, which seemed expensive for a small amount. Our first course was angel hair with grilled shrimp, tomatoes, and shaved parmesan. It was fine but tamer than I expected. Little did I know that it would be one of the best of the five courses. The second dish was clams on the half-shell with tomatoes. The shells were creatively placed on a bed of rock salt; based on the taste, the rock salt was more than just presentation and was the theme of the dish: very salty. The clams were pummeled by salt and tomato; I didn't finish the course.

Course three: more seafood. The spice crusted monkfish was flavorful and was cooked perfectly. Though three straight seafood dishes were a bit much, the chef knows how to cook the seafood - none were overcooked. The quinoa salad was dominated by parsley (it appeared the chef was proud of the presumably fresh and organic tomatoes and parsley on this night!) and overall the course left me feeling like I had ordered a specifically low fat dish - this not what I'm looking for in a multi-course tasting menu.

The fourth course was one of the better dishes, a lamb stew with baby seasonal squashes. Rich, brown and flavorful, I liked the rustic quality of the dish, however, my wife complained that this was the second of four courses that suffered from a heavy hand with the salt.

The fifth course was a white cake with fruit and white chocolate. It was perfectly passable but it felt like, "Hey, the tasting menu table needs a dessert. Quick, grab something off the dessert cart!"

The service was a young, knowledgeable, polite, and attentive staff. After being asked, however, about the clam dish I did not like, our waiter's enthusiasm sank for the remainder of the meal as if he feared any further criticism. To his credit, he said that he would tell the chef about the dish. It was my mistake that I didn't tell the waiter why I didn't like it.

The meal had its highs and lows but suffered from a lack of cohesion and, at times, execution. The courses were also disappointingly conservative compared to the more ambitious menu. If I ever return to Metropolitan, I'm ordering from the menu (and I'll be getting the pan-seared foie gras with strawberry-vanilla air). $75 was too much for this meal. The multi-course beer dinners at Brewer's Alley in Frederick are better - and for about half the price.


Metropolitan
169 West Street
Annapolis, MD 21401
410-268-7733

www.metropolitanannapolis.com

Barley and Hops - Frederick, MD

Friday, November 2, 2007


On a busy Friday evening, the whole family dined at the Frederick brewpub Barley and Hops. My wife and I started with the classic Maryland appetizer, crab dip. The dip suffered from some of the same problems as many other unimpressive crab dips: too much sour cream and/or mayonnaise and not enough crab. The dip was served with slices of warm, soft, salty, rich pitas, which were a bit much considering the richness of the crab dip. While I'm no stranger to rich and decadent, why must so much typical appetizer fare in basic "American" restaurants be so leaden? The appetizer wasn't bad - hungry, we certainly ate enough - but the dish wasn't memorable.

For my entree, I ordered the smoked meatloaf with garlic mashed potatoes. My individual meatloaf arrived with a barbecue sauce. It was what I wanted: flavorful, moist, well seasoned, and with a nice amount of smoke. The barbecue sauce was sweet and tomato-based and tasted like commercial brands, possibly with a bit of oil or butter added for a pleasantly silky texture. The potatoes were flavorful with garlic and the bits of red skins added color and a chewy texture but the potatoes were slightly gluey (whipped by a mixer instead of mashed perhaps?). At $11, however, this is by far the least expensive entree, and overall it works.

The salads are fine - we appreciate the lack of iceberg lettuce (what a worthless lettuce) and we both love the sweet and spicy honey mustard dressing. We had a little problem with service, however. Our salads never came until we asked. Because my wife ordered the soup and salad, well, this is sort of a big deal. The mistake was made a bit worse when our server blamed new employees who were doing the prep work. While that might have been true, that's not my problem. The server is the face of the restaurant for good or ill and an apology without an excuse would have been the better thing to do.

My wife got the tomato-based Maryland Crab Soup with her late salad. She said the crab soup has a decent amount of crab as well as some heat, which too many restaurants seem afraid to do with their MD crab soups. I tasted it and I agree. She's tough on crab soups but is a fan of this one.

On the brewing front, everything seems fine. My Annapolis Rocks Pale Ale was well hopped yet with a nice malt background. My wife said the Tuscarora Red was nice and malty as usual.

Our daughter got the make-your-own pizza, which is a great idea for young kids. She enjoyed it as usual (and left off the pepperoni this time). The large open dining room, which is both helpfully noisy while providing some privacy in the booths, is great for families.

This wasn't the most solid trip to Barley and Hops but we will return.


Barley & Hops 5473 Urbana Pike Frederick, 21704 Phone: 301-668-5555 Fax: 301-668-5550 Open Sun 11-10 Mon-Thurs 11-11 Fri-Sat 11-midnight