Mango & Tomato

8/22/10

Postcard from Seattle: Pike Place Market

I flew back from Seattle last night and have quite a bit of house cleaning, laundry and grocery shopping to do, not to mention paying a visit to the gym! Sigh.

In the meantime, I am posting this postcard from Seattle's Pike Place Market, which has amazingly gorgeous flowers, fresh seafood and produce: Enjoy!

I will try to do my best to get back to posting recipes very soon.

Question: what do you think about the watermark signature I added to the photos?

8/20/10

Cork & Fork Family dinner courtesy of Foodbuzz

Earlier this month I received an email from Foodbuzz letting me and other Foodbuzz members know that they've paired up with Columbia Crest Wines and were looking for proposal projects for Cork & Fork entertaining soiree.

I decided to apply. Below is my proposal, which got accepted!!!

Here's the background story: after I joined Foodbuzz, I told my twin sister Anna to join too! And she did. She blogs here: www.snackinginthekitchen.com She lives in Seattle, WA while I live in Arlington, VA. Despite the entire country between us, we chat all the time, travel together, and share many hobbies/interests such as FOOD, salsa dancing, crafts, etc. One of the differences between Anna and me is that she prefers red wine, while I prefer white wine. When I saw the Cork & Fork "challenge," I thought this would be perfect for my upcoming trip to Seattle to visit Anna and our family. And so the name for this would be Red vs White Wine Cork & Fork Twin Cook-off. Anna will make one of the red wine pairings, and I will make one of the white wine pairings. We'll invite some of our closest friends and depending on the weather have the meal outside or inside: sorry, with Seattle weather you can never tell! At the end of the party, the guests will choose the winning menu.

And so, this Tuesday Anna and I set out to make a family dinner for our parents and brother. Anna chose Shiraz, and I chose Pinot Grigio. Luckily, the weather was absolutely perfect for a dinner outside.

Here's a view of the table with a few of the dishes. Scroll below to see what we cooked.

For her appetizer, Anna made a bruschetta with fresh tomatoes, onions and basil on top of a grilled ciabatta bread.

For my appetizer, I made a pear salad with blue cheese and spiced pecans. The recipe called for roasting the pears, but it was too hot for that. The pecans were toasted in butter, sugar and a bit of cayenne and gave a bit of a punch to the salty blue cheese and the sweet pears. The dressing for the salad included reducing two cups of orange juice to two tablespoons: I just did not have enough patience for that and only reduced it to about quarter of the cup. Still, a success.

I also made steamed mussels. Instead of using poblano peppers as the recipe called for, I used roasted red peppers. The broth also contained onions, garlic, clam broth, coconut milk and white wine. I absolutely love mussels, but neither my brother nor my dad tasted a single one of them. Fine, more for the girls in my family :)

Anna chose to make grilled lamb chops with balsamic honey glaze and mint pesto. The mint pesto was absolutely awesome and also went well with bruschetta. It smelled fresh like summer!

To go along with the lamb, Anna and I made grilled baby potatoes by first cooking red and white potatoes in salted water till they were tender and then drizzling them with some olive oil (thank you, Misha, for doing that) and seasoning with salt and pepper before putting them on the grill.

Anna grilled the lamb till medium rare and everyone enjoyed it with shiraz. Everyone other than our dad, who has very strong dislike for lamb (and also cilantro).

There was too much food to also make a dessert, so we ended up choosing a watermelon as a finale for our dinner.

Thank you Foodbuzz and Columbia Crest for sponsoring this dinner with my family. As far as who the winner is, my mom's favorite dish was the lamb, and my brother liked bruschetta. My dad liked all the food, other than the lamb and mussels ;) He's diplomatic like that.

8/18/10

Fresh oysters in Seattle

Sunday, Anna and I went to the Bainbridge Island, an hour away from Seattle by ferry, and spent time with our brother and his girlfriend. After we got back to Seattle, I decided it'd be fun to get some fresh oysters. Why not? It was super hot, and I just wanted the cool, smooth oysters flavored with a bit of lemon juice and horseradish.

We decided to try out Elliott's Oyster House at Pier 56.

It was fun sitting at the bar, sipping cold water (it was too hot for anything stronger), and deciding on which oysters to order, because this restaurant had quite the variety:

We were also able to see the shucking of the oysters performed right in front of our eyes:

And the anticipation was building up when I saw that Elliott's had won a trophy :)

Elliott's offers oysters from Washington state, Canada, Europe, and even Japan! Since both Anna and I spent 8 years living in Seattle while in High School and college, and since our family is still in Seattle, as are Anna and Misha (I'm the only sibling living away from my family), we decided on the sample of a dozen Pacific Oysters.

It's crazy to think that it takes about 20 minutes to get the oysters to the table, but only a few minutes to slurp them up.

Instead of the typical lemon and horseradish, Elliott's serves their oysters with a frozen concoction that you put on top of your oysters before slurping them.

Anna and I got three oysters each of the following types: Eagle Rock, Totten Inlet, Eld Inlet and Dabob. It was incredible to actually be able to differentiate the taste in oysters that were harvested (?) in different areas.

Both Anna and I agreed that we liked Eagle Rock and Totten Inlet oysters the most. We also agreed that we could have easily had another dozen oysters each. Alas, at $23/dozen, this was not an inexpensive little snack.

Stay tuned for a few non-restaurant adventures from Seattle.

8/15/10

Dupont Farmer's Market in DC

Morning, dear readers.
I'm in the surprisingly sunny and warm Seattle. So far, so good!

Today I am sharing with you a photo essay of produce from Dupont Farmer's market from Washington DC (aka I-haven't-had-time-to-photograph-any-real-recipes-yet). Enjoy :)

8/13/10

Brunch at Blue Duck Tavern

As I'm getting ready to fly to Seattle to visit my family and friends (go salsa dancing, take some photos, cook, blog, and try not to get bitten by too many bugs), I'm leaving you with a brunch I had at Blue Duck Tavern a few weeks ago as part of my staycation.

I've imagined Blue Duck Tavern as a fancy expensive restaurant, only fitting for special occasions. I'm sure it's wonderful for special occasions, but turns out it's also great for a casual Sunday brunch after a stroll through Dupont Farmer's market (more on that later). The restaurant is gorgeous: open kitchen, beautiful wood tables, exposed walls, comfortable chairs, pretty white dishes...I could go on and on. I love pretty things and appreciate when restaurants put a lot of thought not only into the food and service, but also the decor (speaking of which, I think bathrooms should be just as glamorous as the rest of the restaurant).

Since the weekend was already filled with beer tastings and cocktails, I decided I might as well continue drinking, something I actually don't do that often. I chose a kumquat mojito and really enjoyed it. It was refreshing, sweet and pretty.

Since we could order anything we wanted from the menu, I decided to splurge and get a few of the fresh oysters with mignonette. These oysters were huge and fresh and I could have eaten at least another half dozen, but I resisted: my entree was coming.

Quick note on the interesting decor of Blue Duck: they have these two large panels covered in quilted fabric hanging on the wall: aren't these impressive? I took the photos especially for my friend Jenny who quilts and made me my own personal birthday quilt this year. (You see, Jenny usually makes quilts for her friends who are expecting children, but since I'm far from being anywhere near that stage in my life, I got one for my birthday.)

Ok, back to food. For my entree I chose Short Rib Hash with olive oil poached egg and horseradish sauce. The meat melted in your mouth; the potatoes were tender and the horseradish sauce added the needed punch to the dish. Did you know you can add horseradish to your mashed potatoes? I learned that from my friend Paige. Give it a try!

As if cocktails, appetizers, main course and croissants weren't enough, we decided to order Blue Duck's famous hand cut triple fries. OMG, just thinking about them makes me salivate. They were crispy, tender inside, not at all oily, and oh so very good!

And just when we thought we were done and ready to head back to our regular lives, we were presented with dessert!

Belgian waffles with mountain huckleberry preserve: I usually don't order waffles (I like savory things for brunch), but these were airy, crispy, and I particularly liked the not-overly-sweet huckleberry preserves and the whipped cream, which you can't see in this photograph.

The apple pie: Blue Duck is known for their apple pie. Apparently, the architect of the restaurant tasted multiple versions of the pie before settling on this one (if I have the story wrong, please correct me). I have to be honest: I did not love it. The concept was definitely interesting as it was more of a pot pie than your typical apple pie, but for me there was just too much dough. Not to worry, there were many more dessert options on the table.

I'm sorry, but I can't remember what this was. I think it's a cheesecake with berry puree on the bottom and a crispy cookie made with pistachios. I just remember it being really delicious!

Key lime blueberry tart with white chocolate cream and a citrus crisp. Just look at the presentation! Luckily, the taste was just as grand. The filling was smooth and slightly tart and the crust was buttery and crumbly.

This was one of my favorites: a simple dessert any home cook can make: warm blackberry and nectarine crumble with creme fraiche. Seriously, go to your farmer's market, pick up in-season fruit and make this dessert for your family this weekend: they will love you.

So, if you are looking for a great brunch, definitely check out Blue Duck Tavern. Have a great weekend, and I'll blog from Seattle next week.

8/11/10

One skillet shrimp, tomato & garbanzo beans dinner

There is a bit of a story to this simple meal. You see, last night I came home with the full intention of going to a spinning class at the gym and then making a quick dinner of tomatoes, garbanzo beans and shrimp: ingredients I had in my cupboard and freezer. Unfortunately, I felt light-headed and was afraid of passing out at the spinning class. So instead, I made this meal and then went to the gym.

There is no exact recipe for this dish. I simply chopped some onions, sauteed them in oil, then added a bit of Spanish paprika. In went a large can of tomatoes and its juices, a drained can of garbanzo beans and a few large spoons of canned jalapeno peppers.

After all of the ingredients had some time to hang out in the skillet and get to know each other, I added a few dollops of cream cheese to make the sauce creamier and to take the edge off the heat that jalapenos brought with them. I then nestled defrosted shrimp into the tomato/beans sauce and let them simmer till they were heated through. Be careful not to overcook your shrimp.

This is such a perfect one pan/skillet meal. You can have it for lunch or dinner. You can have it by itself or serve it with French bread or over some rice, pasta or even potatoes. I added some fresh arugula on top.

See, healthy and filling meals don't have to start with a recipe from a cookbook and don't need to take an hour worth of chopping, stirring and a zillion steps. No, they can be simply prepared from just a few ingredients, flavorful and satisfying.

In other happy little news: I now own www.mangotomato.com domain! So you no longer have to type blogspot in the address. I feel so grown up now.

Question: what are your quick and easy no-recipe weeknight meals?

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