#4: Southern Traditions

Last weekend we hosted our fourth You Pick Two event.  We invited a good friend of ours, Chris Keller.  He is co-owner of a salon on U St. in DC called Parlour.  I admire him for the risk he took in starting his own business.  I hope to someday strike out and start up my own business, but it's a scary thing to go out on your own like that.  He and his business partner Rebecca have established a thriving business in a bustling part of town.  Chris is also a close friend of mine and we have been through a lot together over the past decade or so.

Chris brought his boyfriend, Tyler Mains.  He's a young artist who is a visual manager at Bloomingdales in Chevy Chase, MD.  I was with Chris when he met Tyler last year during DC's Gay Pride event.  You could tell from how they chatted that it was a good match. He's very talented and has been able to make a living in the art world, which is not easy.  They have been dating almost a year now and I am very happy for both of them.  Tyler brought two friends and co-workers from Bloomingdales, Gail Viraldo and Adebimpe Abanishe.  They were both very nice people and a pleasure to have over for dinner.  Gayle is a cook herself so I was very happy that she enjoyed the meal.

Hummingbird cake.

For food, I wanted to choose something that Chris would enjoy.  Chris, for lack of a better word, eats terribly.  That's a little harsh, but somewhat true.  He loves rich food and can make some of the best midnight nachos, purely from things you can find at any CVS.  He's also very thin, which is not fair if you ask me.  He came by for dinner several years ago and Kevin made one of his favorites dishes, Chicken and Peaches; it involves butter, canned peaches, and Bisquick.  Chris loved it.  Kevin is from the south so I wanted to play on that and I decided to do a traditional southern meal. 

After talking with Kevin, I thought because it is the south, I had to do something fried.  I've made fried chicken before but it just that didn't seem special enough for this - so I made chicken fried steak with sausage gravy.  It was very rich and incredibly good.  The sides consisted of southern staples black-eyed peas and collard greens, both modernized a little bit.  And to top it all off I made a hummingbird cake.  Red velvet is a little more expected, so I wanted to branch out and try something else.  Hummingbird cake is called that (supposedly) because it is so sweet that it could attract hummingbirds.  This one was sweet, but fantastic.  I will be posting the recipes from the menu below over the next couple weeks. 

MENU

Southern Traditions

March 15, 2014

Cocktail

Orange Mint Julep

Bulleit bourbon, orange bitters, simple syrup

Starter

Cheese Wafers

Cheddar cheese, salted butter, cayenne

Main

Chicken Fried Steak

Bottom round steak cutlet, sausage gravy

Sides

Collard greens

Organic greens, smoked ham, red wine vinegar

Black-eyed peas

Pork kielbasa, aromatic vegetables, chicken stock

Sweet

Hummingbird cake

Three-layer cake, cream cheese frosting, toasted pecans

Guests

Chris Keller

Tyler Mains

Gail Viraldo

Adebimpe Abanishe

Pasta time

I have to confess something: there is nothing I love more than a fantastic pasta dish.  In particular, a handmade, fresh pasta dish.  So for my tribute to our trip to Italy, I wanted to make a fresh pasta in a shape native to the region and with a sauce you would find there.  Using Lidia's book as a guide, I found something that I think everyone agreed was their favorite course of the meal.  The shape native to Umbria is called strangozzi.  It's basically like a thicker, shorter linguine or spaghetti (or a shorter fettuccine basically).  What's really interesting about the dough is that it has no eggs.  Zero.  I have only made pasta a couple times, but each time it required an egg.  And contrary to what you may think, the pasta was light with great chew and did a fantastic job complementing the herby, tomatoy, bacony sauce.

Fresh marjoram

The  key for the sauce, I have to say, was the fresh marjoram.  It gave that kind of other wordly, unique edge that I was looking for - it reminded me a lot of the food we ate while in Italy.  If you can't find fresh marjoram, then substitute with dried, but only use about half as much.  I started the sauce earlier in the day and just let it simmer for a while.  Making the pasta takes a little time, but it's not hard.  You kind of develop a knack for it as you hand roll and cut the strangozzi.  Kevin and I did it together and it was just a nice way to spend an afternoon.  PLEASE try this.  I can't speak highly enough about it.

Strangozzi with Tomato Bacon Sauce

Strangozzi
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (or double 00 if you have it), plus more for working the dough
1 3/4 cups fine semolina flour, plus more for working the dough
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 cups ice water, plus more as needed

Directions
1.  In the bowl of a food processor, place the flour and salt, cover it with the top.  Pulse a few times to blend and aerate the dough.
2.  With the motor running, slowly add the ice water through the funnel.  The dough is ready when it begins to gather around the blade.  It will be slightly sticky to touch.  It should form a ball easily.  Add more flour or water (if it is too wet or dry) as necessary.
3.  Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface, knead by hand a few times until it's smooth, soft, and stretchy.  Nigella once said it should feel like a baby's bottom - and she's right it kind of does.  Form it into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and let rest for about a half hour at room temperature.  You can refrigerate it up to a day or freeze up to a month.
4.  Cut the dough into six equal pieces.  I cut the disk in half, then cut each half into thirds, with a lightly floured bench scraper.
5.  Using a pasta roller (I use and recommend the pasta roller attachment for the Kitchenaid mixer), began to roll out each piece.  Pass each section through "1" setting two times.  Then pass each one through the "2" setting once, and the "3" setting once.  That should do it.  If using a different roller, then you want to end up with the sheets about 1/8" thick.  Place each strip on a lightly floured surface or a sheet pan and cover each one loosely with a kitchen towel.  Let them dry out under the towel for about 20-30 minutes.
6.  Now it's time to form the strangozzi.  Lay a strip in front of you, trim the edges to make it an even-ish rectangle of sorts.  Roll up the sheet from the short side, almost like forming like a jelly roll.  If your machine forms wider strips, you would then roll up from both ends and meet in the middle, forming a long scroll of sorts.
7.  With a sharp and lightly floured knife, cut the jelly roll into pieces at a 1/4" interval.  Once done cutting a roll into pieces, using your floured hands, shake out the rolls so that they become long strands.  Place the cut strangozzi into six nests or piles (one for each sheet of dough) on a floured half sheet pan.  Cover with a kitchen towel and let rest for about another 10 minutes.
 8.  Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil.  Cook two nests at a time: place both nests in the boiling water and stir gently.  When they are done they will float to the top.  It only takes a few minutes (5 minutes at most), be patient.  Scoop the cooked strangozzi out of the water using a strainer or wire spider and put them into a waiting, large skillet that has 2 cups of heated tomato bacon sauce (recipe below).  Toss everything together over low heat and serve in warm bowls with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and some chopped fresh parsley.

Tomato Bacon Sauce
Ingredients
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 medium carrot, roughly chopped
1 medium stalk celery, roughly chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled
4 slices of thick cut bacon, diced
3 tablespoons of olive oil
two 28-oz cans of San Marzano tomatoes, crushed by hand
3 tablespoons loosely packed fresh marjoram, chopped finely
1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes (peperoncino)
1 teaspoon of kosher salt

Hand crushed San Marzano plum tomatoes

Directions
1. Place the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic in a food processor, cover, and process until finely minced.
2. Heat a large dutch oven over medium heat for a few minutes.  Pour in the oil and then add the bacon slices.  Cook the bacon, stirring occasionally, until all their fat has been rendered.
3. Add the minced vegetables and stir everything together.  Cook out the liquid in the vegetables over medium heat for about 6-8 minutes.  Sprinkle in the peperoncino.
4. Once the vegetables start to stick to the bottom of the pan, add the crushed tomatoes, their juices, the marjoram, and the salt.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce heat to maintain a steady simmer.  Cook the sauce, uncovered, for 30-45 minutes.  You want a lot of the water to evaporate and to make a sauce that will cling to the pasta well (basically the consistency of a jarred marinara sauce).

Cocktail and aperitivo

We have sort hit on a tradition that our cocktail for these events includes bubbly in some way, in this case it was prosecco.  This cocktail came from Martha Stewart and was very easy to make - it tasted like a very sophisticated and light ginger ale.  Delicious. You basically make a 1-to-1 ratio simple syrup and let it steep with some diced or finely sliced ginger root for about 15 minutes.  Chill the syrup overnight and add a few tablespoons of it to a slim highball or champage flute and fill the rest with bubbly.  Trust me, these will go down quickly.

Zenzero frizzante ("Sparkling Ginger")
Ingredients
(makes about 6 drinks)
1 bottle of prosecco or sparkling wine of your choice (something dry and not sweet)
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of water
2 inch piece of ginger root finely diced or sliced (no need to peel)

Directions
1. Put the sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Stir to dissolve the sugar.  Bring almost to a boil.
2. Once solution almost comes to a boil (you will see small bubbles around the edges of the pan), throw in the sliced ginger, turn off the heat, and cover.  Let the ginger steep for about 15-20 minutes.
3. Pour the mixture through a sieve into a measuring cup or glass to strain out the ginger.  Let it sit in the fridge, covered, overnight.
4. Add 3-4 tablespoons of the chilled syrup to a tom collins glass or large champagne flute, fill the rest of the glass with chilled prosecco.

Umbrian lentils

To go along with the cocktail, I served a crostini topped with a tomato-lentil mixture.  It came from the Lidia book I mentioned in the previous post.  I think it's a good idea for a dinner party where you are having guests that you don't know that well to make an appetizer or first course that can sit out at room temperature for a while since you never know if the guests will be late.  In this case, our guests were quite late so it worked out great.  I made the lentil topping in the morning and just re-heated it right before the guests arrived.  In fact, you could make this a few days ahead.  The night of the dinner, slice up a baguette, drizzle a little olive oil over the toasts, and then generously top with the lentil mixture. Easy. I used Umbrian lentils I ordered off Amazon, but any lentil that holds its shape when cooked (such as french puy or green lentils) would work here as well.  I would not use red lentils.  I loved this recipe and would definitely make this again in the future.

Crostini con lenticchie ("Crostini with lentils")
Ingredients
1 cup small lentils
2 medium stalks celery, with leaves, finely chopped
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced or chopped
2 bay leaves, preferably fresh
2 cups of canned whole tomatoes, drained and crushed by hand (San Marzano are the best, reserve the liquid for another use) – 2 cups was basically all the tomatoes in one 28 oz. can.
2 teaspoons kosher salt
¼ teaspoon of red pepper flakes (pepperoncino)
6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 medium baguette, cut into ½ inch thick slices (approximately 10-12 slices total)
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, optional

Directions
1. Rinse and drain the lentils. Place the lentils in a 3-quart saucepan with the chopped celery and bay leaves, add 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until lentils are mostly cooked (about 20 minutes).
2. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium heat for several minutes, when hot, add 4 tablespoons of olive oil, the chopped onion, and the garlic. Sprinkle the onion with a pinch of salt to prevent it from browning. Saute for 5 minutes, or until the onion is translucent. Add the pepper flakes, crushed tomatoes, and a teaspoon of salt. Bring to a simmer and cook uncovered for about 10 minutes; the sauce should be noticeably thicker, if not, continue to cook it for another few minutes.

The sauce cooking separately from the lentils.

3. Add the tomato sauce to the mostly cooked lentils in their saucepan. Stir to combine. Return the sauce to a simmer and cook partially covered until the lentils are done, about another 10 minutes. Remove the cover, add a teaspoon of salt, and continue to cook until lentils are very tender and all liquid has evaporated.
4. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put the baguette slices on a large baking sheet. Put the pan in the oven and cook for about 7-8 minutes. Remove pan and turn the slices over, put the pan back in the oven, and cook for another five minutes or so – basically until the slices have browned nicely. You could also broil the slices for a couple minutes on each side, making sure not to burn them.
5. Drizzle each cooked toast with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil (approximately 2 tablespoons total). Scoop the cooked lentil mixture onto the crostini generously. The topping is best when served warm or hot. Sprinkle a little parmesan cheese and chopped parsley over each crostini, if you feel like it, and serve.