Adventures in Food
This week we've had some interesting and yummy food.
On Wednesday night we had a wonderful meal at Pigalle with she_ragroupie and Nick. The first win of the evening was parking--as we turned on Piedmont Street, Jason noticed that one of the visitor spots was open, just big enough for a Mini. From there it was just a block to the restaurant, where our dinner companions were waiting at the bar. Somehow I had been sure the reservation was for 7pm, when it was actually 7:30, but they were able to seat us before we had finished our cocktails. I had the Milagro de Poire--tequila, pear liqueur and simple syrup--that was pretty biting at first, but mellowed as the ingredients mixed. Jason's Pigalle Lemonade--vodka, lemon, etc.--was ??? Once we were seated the conversation was so engaging that it took us a while to focus on the menu and then there were so many tasty options it was hard to decide, but we did eventually order. Dana had the chilled tomato soup with cured salmon, pesto and tomato jelly and the grilled tuna with a potato cake, succotash of green vegetables and basil sauce. Nick tried the roasted beet salad with confit potato, Granny Smith apples, walnuts and horseradish vinaigrette, which he enjoyed enough to press a bite on Dana, who still doesn't like beets. His main was the grilled pork chop with mustard sauce, herb spaetzle, peas and carrots, of which he said the spaetzle was really the star. Jason started with a really incredible salad of arugula with crispy bacon, shaved parmesan and fingerling potato chips and then had the salmon with wild rice, ginger confit, baby bok choy and miso broth. It took him a while to get into that, but in the end he was quite happy with it. My starter was a "martini" of tuna sashimi with a really lovely seaweed salad, spicy crème fraîche and tobiko roe, which was smooth and interesting and very tasty. For my main, I picked the steak frites with herb buttter and the steak was marvelous, while the frites were very generic.
For dessert the boys both had the vanilla crème brûlée with very light, fresh biscotti, while Dana took the cookie plate (brownie, chocolate chip cookie and one other I didn't try, all of which were tasty and warm) and I had the coconut panna cotta in strawberry soup, which made a wonderful contrast of flavors and textures.
All in all, Pigalle continues to be one of my favorite places for Restaurant Week. Their usual prices are just more than I can stomach, but they're a real bargain for a prix fixe.
I had never been to Jer-Ne, in the Ritz-Carlton around the corner from the Loews Boston Common, so I was excited when gilana suggested it for lunch on Thursday. They had just two options in each category, so we got to try them all. She started with the charred tomato-eggplant bisque with brioche crouton and basil essence, which was very intense, while my salad of baby iceberg with crispy shallots and a medley of heirloom tomatoes in a blue cheese dressing was surprisingly delicious--the shallots added a sweet note that took it to a higher level than I expected. Our conversation was so absorbing that I didn't hear anything about her salt-roasted striped bass sandwich on a toasted ciabatta roll with bell peppers, arugula, grilled corn, and house-made potato chips, but I noticed it disappeared pretty quickly. My own basil-scented Provencal chicken with red wine butter, haricot vert, Pont Neuf potato (lightly fried thick-cut fries) and garlic aioli was good, but the ratio of meat to accompaniments was too high and it failed to be as exciting as my salad. Sadly, Gilly's chocolate moelleux cake was very dry and even the praline chantilly and crème anglaise couldn't really make up for that, while my angel food cake with macerated berries was lovely and the accompanying strawberry shooter made a light, fruity finish to the meal. We splurged on glasses of Caymus Conundrum, which upped the price of our meal quite a bit, but were a very nice pairing and always a treat. I think in that neighborhood I would probably choose blu over Jer-Ne, but if someone wanted to take me there, I would cheerfully go back.
After all of that, I was excited to cook and to use up some of the tasty veggies I had picked up at the Arlington Farmers' Market on Wednesday. So we ended up having a dinner of odds and ends that went together reasonably in the end. First I stuffed squash blossoms with herbed goat cheese and prosciutto and fried them up. Jason ran a sample down to my folks, who'd never tried them, and then we snacked on the rest as I put together a salad of baby spinach and fresh heirloom tomatoes in some crumbled goat cheese with olive oil and balsamic and fried up some chicken with prociutto and garlic and made a balsamic glaze to go with it. Oh, and there was also fresh corn and it was so good!
Ever since my birthday dinner at Clio, I've been intrigued by the idea of making tomato water, especially once I looked up recipes online and discovered that it's not actually difficult. At the farmers' market on Wednesday the vendors were saying that their field tomatoes were not as solid as usual, due to the heavy rain we've been having, but very flavorful and that sounded perfect for my purposes, so I bought six pounds of them. Today I put them in the food processor with some salt, poured the puree into cheesecloth and hung it over a pitcher, tied to chopsticks. It was seriously that easy. I poured off some of it after three hours--you're supposed to wait "at least eight"--and it was pretty salty, despite my having not used as much salt as the recipe suggested. I am hoping that the salt tends to leach through first and the later juice will not be as salty, but if it is, I figure I can always run get more tomatoes and add them without salt to even out the flavor. Even too salty, it has the right, incredibly intense tomato flavor, and the correct texture. It's not completely clear, as Clio's was, which is probably the result of a fairly thin layer of cheesecloth. If I remember to pick up more before we devour it all, I may try running it back through before serving. I'm looking forward to trying Crystal Mary's :)
On Wednesday night we had a wonderful meal at Pigalle with she_ragroupie and Nick. The first win of the evening was parking--as we turned on Piedmont Street, Jason noticed that one of the visitor spots was open, just big enough for a Mini. From there it was just a block to the restaurant, where our dinner companions were waiting at the bar. Somehow I had been sure the reservation was for 7pm, when it was actually 7:30, but they were able to seat us before we had finished our cocktails. I had the Milagro de Poire--tequila, pear liqueur and simple syrup--that was pretty biting at first, but mellowed as the ingredients mixed. Jason's Pigalle Lemonade--vodka, lemon, etc.--was ??? Once we were seated the conversation was so engaging that it took us a while to focus on the menu and then there were so many tasty options it was hard to decide, but we did eventually order. Dana had the chilled tomato soup with cured salmon, pesto and tomato jelly and the grilled tuna with a potato cake, succotash of green vegetables and basil sauce. Nick tried the roasted beet salad with confit potato, Granny Smith apples, walnuts and horseradish vinaigrette, which he enjoyed enough to press a bite on Dana, who still doesn't like beets. His main was the grilled pork chop with mustard sauce, herb spaetzle, peas and carrots, of which he said the spaetzle was really the star. Jason started with a really incredible salad of arugula with crispy bacon, shaved parmesan and fingerling potato chips and then had the salmon with wild rice, ginger confit, baby bok choy and miso broth. It took him a while to get into that, but in the end he was quite happy with it. My starter was a "martini" of tuna sashimi with a really lovely seaweed salad, spicy crème fraîche and tobiko roe, which was smooth and interesting and very tasty. For my main, I picked the steak frites with herb buttter and the steak was marvelous, while the frites were very generic.
For dessert the boys both had the vanilla crème brûlée with very light, fresh biscotti, while Dana took the cookie plate (brownie, chocolate chip cookie and one other I didn't try, all of which were tasty and warm) and I had the coconut panna cotta in strawberry soup, which made a wonderful contrast of flavors and textures.
All in all, Pigalle continues to be one of my favorite places for Restaurant Week. Their usual prices are just more than I can stomach, but they're a real bargain for a prix fixe.
I had never been to Jer-Ne, in the Ritz-Carlton around the corner from the Loews Boston Common, so I was excited when gilana suggested it for lunch on Thursday. They had just two options in each category, so we got to try them all. She started with the charred tomato-eggplant bisque with brioche crouton and basil essence, which was very intense, while my salad of baby iceberg with crispy shallots and a medley of heirloom tomatoes in a blue cheese dressing was surprisingly delicious--the shallots added a sweet note that took it to a higher level than I expected. Our conversation was so absorbing that I didn't hear anything about her salt-roasted striped bass sandwich on a toasted ciabatta roll with bell peppers, arugula, grilled corn, and house-made potato chips, but I noticed it disappeared pretty quickly. My own basil-scented Provencal chicken with red wine butter, haricot vert, Pont Neuf potato (lightly fried thick-cut fries) and garlic aioli was good, but the ratio of meat to accompaniments was too high and it failed to be as exciting as my salad. Sadly, Gilly's chocolate moelleux cake was very dry and even the praline chantilly and crème anglaise couldn't really make up for that, while my angel food cake with macerated berries was lovely and the accompanying strawberry shooter made a light, fruity finish to the meal. We splurged on glasses of Caymus Conundrum, which upped the price of our meal quite a bit, but were a very nice pairing and always a treat. I think in that neighborhood I would probably choose blu over Jer-Ne, but if someone wanted to take me there, I would cheerfully go back.
After all of that, I was excited to cook and to use up some of the tasty veggies I had picked up at the Arlington Farmers' Market on Wednesday. So we ended up having a dinner of odds and ends that went together reasonably in the end. First I stuffed squash blossoms with herbed goat cheese and prosciutto and fried them up. Jason ran a sample down to my folks, who'd never tried them, and then we snacked on the rest as I put together a salad of baby spinach and fresh heirloom tomatoes in some crumbled goat cheese with olive oil and balsamic and fried up some chicken with prociutto and garlic and made a balsamic glaze to go with it. Oh, and there was also fresh corn and it was so good!
Ever since my birthday dinner at Clio, I've been intrigued by the idea of making tomato water, especially once I looked up recipes online and discovered that it's not actually difficult. At the farmers' market on Wednesday the vendors were saying that their field tomatoes were not as solid as usual, due to the heavy rain we've been having, but very flavorful and that sounded perfect for my purposes, so I bought six pounds of them. Today I put them in the food processor with some salt, poured the puree into cheesecloth and hung it over a pitcher, tied to chopsticks. It was seriously that easy. I poured off some of it after three hours--you're supposed to wait "at least eight"--and it was pretty salty, despite my having not used as much salt as the recipe suggested. I am hoping that the salt tends to leach through first and the later juice will not be as salty, but if it is, I figure I can always run get more tomatoes and add them without salt to even out the flavor. Even too salty, it has the right, incredibly intense tomato flavor, and the correct texture. It's not completely clear, as Clio's was, which is probably the result of a fairly thin layer of cheesecloth. If I remember to pick up more before we devour it all, I may try running it back through before serving. I'm looking forward to trying Crystal Mary's :)