Friday Meetings: Leek and Gruyère Tart

Just about every Friday I make food for about a dozen guys in what I'm pretty certain is a clever team-building scheme for their company. These guys are the best guinea pigs in town, and I try out all sorts of appetizers, finger foods and generally party-friendly concoctions with them as diligent taste-testers.

I really want to blog about the results and share with you some of the better recipes, but you will have to understand one thing: I pretty much never get a picture of this food! I start shopping and prep in the afternoon on Friday, and even hen I think I'm on track for delivery it always ends up being 3:50 p.m. and I am just scooting out the door. To see what these recipes look like, you will have to try them yourself!

First up, leek and Gruyère tart. The basic recipe is below, and the quantity makes two large tarts which I then slice, pizza style. You can easily halve it for smaller groups, but in my experience when I open a box of frozen puff pastry I may as well use it all! I baked the two tarts simultaneously, but you could easily prep them both then pop one in the oven while the other is being devoured by your guests.

Leek and Gruyère Tart

Handful AP flour

1 box frozen puffy pastry

olive oil

6 leeks, white and pale green halved and thinly sliced crosswise

2 tsp thyme, chopped

1 lb Gruyère, shredded

6 oz bacon

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 475 F

1) Roll out the slightly thawed pastry dough to two large rounds (13"-14") folding the corners to a pretty finish. Place on baking sheets and pop in the frig.

2) In a large skillet, lay out the bacon and cook 'til just done, but not wholly crisped. Remove and break into large pieces.

2) In the same skillet add a few glugs of olive oil if there isn't much bacon fat (or if you prefer to pour off the bacon fat, do that and add olive oil). Add the leeks, thyme and season generously with salt and pepper. Stir occasionally, letting the leeks soften (5 minutes).

3) Remove the pastry from the frig and sprinkle on the cheese. Top with the leeks and bacon then sprinkle on some salt and pepper.

4) Bake until golden, about 20-30 minutes. Slice and serve!

Urban Spoon

I don't get to use the Urban Spoon app much in Moscow. With a handful of restaurants in a given category, most of them Mexican, there just isn't a whole lot of culinary depth to be plumbed. On our recent trip to Annapolis, D.C. and Baltimore, respectively, I got to try some practical applications.

Thing is, I think I am Urban Spoon incompatible. Yes, it pulls up a bevy of nearby restaurants; yes, you can sort by neighborhood, cuisine, and price; and yes, you can read reviews. In a metropolitan area there are too many restaurants to easily sort through, too many dated reviews, and it is too hard to find a restaurant when you don't have specific neighborhood or cuisine hankerings - you know, when you just want something good.

We were booking for parties of six, typically, and each meal needed to be something special. If I were a local and just looking for a random eatery decision in a pinch, Urban Spoon might be a fun magic eight ball approach to the matter, even if I had been on slightly more familiar ground, like Seattle; but the reality is that when traveling in an unfamiliar city and booking meals for myself, family and friends I am way too particular for the level of variables Urban Spoon dishes up.

On the upside, Urban Spoon made it dead easy for me to make multiple reservations - and then cancel them.

Baltimore: Chameleon Cafe

On what we thought was the last night of our stay (that story is for a blog on travel disasters!), we went out with Rob, Bonnie, and the Kadan elders to Baltimore's Chameleon Cafe. After a few culinary near misses trying to find a dinner spot with Urban Spoon (a generally great app, it served up a dose of fail this time around) I finally got my MacBook on some WiFi and searched for Baltimore+best+chef. The name that came up most often was Jeff Smith, which settled things for us, off to Chameleon.

The specials were actually, well, special. I started with their pork rillettes, artfully prepared in the French tradition and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Think creamy pâté, the process purportedly takes weeks when done just right. I definitely appreciated the effort, it was fantastic.

Chameleon Cafe knows how to do a menu right - brief and focused. Their regular menu changes seasonally, and if the online version is to be trusted the handful of appetizers and seven or so entrees have already changed since our visit two weeks ago. We took a cue from the rillettes and Adam ordered the house made charcuterie for his starter. The staff were incredibly enthusiastic about the food, and rightly so. The sausage, pâté and terrine were all delicious. I had the leek wrapped confit of halibut for my main, which was wonderful (and yes, I have a halibut problem).

We have a bit of a travel policy for food that stipulates we only get one "repeat restaurant" each trip. There will be a lot of votes going to the Chameleon Cafe!

(photo courtesy of Rob Sentz, 2009)

Washington D.C.: Oyamel

Early on in our trip we went with the family to D.C. for a day of museums. Of course, we couldn't help but make the focus of our day a trip to Oyamel, which we had seen on No Reservations. Touting "small plates" and traditional Mexican food, my mouth was watering before we were through the National Gallery.

Our experience there was outstanding. Alex, our waiter, was helpful and the rest of the staff were like culinary ninja deftly clearly plates and making new delights appear in a marvelous dance. One of the highlights was lengua guisada, or beef tongue taco. Delicious - it was like creamy beef. Ok, it is hard to describe, I just encourage you to not be annoyingly stodgy and go all "eek, tongue!". You should not avoid something that is outright delicious!

Completing the fun: Alex told me I was sitting where Anthony Bourdain sat during the filming for No Reservations, and he didn't seem like the fibbing type. So, Anthony, I sat in the chasm left by your butt in the booth by the ceviche bar.

Mmm, lengua guisada! (and some cochinita pibil con cebolla en escabeche on the left)

Just as memorable as any lengua was the guacamole, and below is our best recapturing of the magic. It was made tableside, and in a rather peculiar portion (1 1/2 avocados?) so I went ahead and doubled the effort.

Oyamel Guacamole

(servings: never enough)

4 tsp red onion, diced fine

4 tsp serranos, diced fine

2 tbs cilantro, chopped

3 avocados, pits removed

1 lime, juiced

4 tbs tomatillos, diced

2 tsp salt

2 tbs queso fresco, or cotjia, grated fine

1) Mash the onions, serranos and cilantro to a rough paste

2) Add the avocados and mash to desired consistency

3) Add the lime juice, tomatillos, salt and fold. Top with the queso fresco.

Travelers and Meatballs

At the end of May we took a trip to Maryland to visit with family and generally tourist it up. We made an effort to have some culinary adventures, and I will break them down in coming posts by location. In the meantime, here is a truly awesome, hearty, recipe that is bound to make everyone you feed it to very happy. I hope my Dad isn't reading, because I plan on tricking him into realizing the awesomeness of lamb with this recipe next time he visits! I served it with a minty chickpea salad.

Lamb Meatballs with Chickpeas
(Serves 6-8)

3/4 c piquillo peppers (roasted red peppers, jarred)
2.5-3 c chicken stock
3/4 c plain yogurt, plus a few tbs for serving
2 lbs lamb, ground
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 rounded tbs garlic, minced
1/4 c flat-leaf parsley, minced, plus a handful for garnish
1 tbs thyme leaves
2 tsp paprika
3 rounded c chickpeas (canned, drained)
4 tsp kosher salt
few glugs olive oil or veg oil

1) Puree the peppers in a food processor, then move to a bowl and whisk in the yogurt and broth.

2) Combine the lamb, eggs, garlic, parsley, thyme, paprika and salt. Mix, and divide into sixteen meatballs.

3) Heat your largest skillet and bring the oil to a simmer. Cook the meatballs on medium-high heat until browned.

4) Push the meatballs to the sides of the pan and add the red pepper mixture as well as the chickpeas. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to medium-low. If you like, mash a few of the chickpeas up for a creamier sauce.

5) Simmer for about ten minutes, season the sauce to taste, and transfer meatballs and their sauce to a platter. Top with parsley with yogurt on the side!

Chickpea Salad

I love chickpeas, and I love the fresh meaty-ness of this salad. The brightness of the mint and lemon with the salty feta and the warm chickpeas just make for a perfect lunch, snack or dinner salad on a summer evening.

Chickpea Salad
(Serves 6)

1 small red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 red chillies, deseeded and thinly sliced crosswise
3 handfuls red and yellow tomatoes, grape and cherry
2 lemons, juiced
evoo
sea or kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 can of chickpeas, drained
handful of mint, chopped
handful of basil, torn
5 oz feta

1) Put the chillies and onions in a large bowl, then chop your tomatoes (halves and quarters) and add them with their juice.

2) Add the juice of the lemons and a few glugs of olive oil (to taste), then season.

3) Heat the chickpeas in a pan, mushing up some of them. When they are nice and warm add to the bowl.

4) Allow to sit for a few minutes while you prep other components of the meal, they flavors come together nicely at room temp. Add the mint, basil and feta just prior to serving.

Black Bean Quesadillas

I owe you all a few recipes, and I may as well continue on the Cinco de Mayo theme before blogging the amuse bouche I made last week! This black bean quesadilla takes about fifteen minutes from start to finish, and the ingredients are cheap. It is best topped with some salsa, and to save time I just buy Salsa Mendez from Rosauers (sorry, non-local types, this is produced by an area family so buy your equivalent of homemade, store-sold salsa?).

It yields about 4-6 servings for a meal, and tons more if served as an appetizer with more treats like guacamole. If you are cooking for only a few, just fill as many tortillas as you want and save the mix for the next day's lunch.

You don't have to mash half of the beans if you are feeling adventurous, but not only do I like the variation in texture between the mashed and non, it acts as a glue that keeps the quesadillas tidy. Without the mashed beans, things tend to sort of fall out and go all roly-poly.

Black Bean Quesadillas

(4-6 servings)

2 cans black beans, drained and one can mashed

8 oz "taco cheese"

1 c cilantro, chopped

3/4 c white onion, chopped

10 flour tortillas (10")

veg oil

1) Heat grill pan over medium heat

2) Combine beans, cheese, cilantro and onion.

3) Divide the mixture evenly over half of each tortilla, then fold tortillas in half.

4) Brush the grill with some of the veg oil, then grill the quesadillas, turning once. Takes about 2 minutes each side.