I have a new favorite cocktail and it's old, like real old. Named after the longest running Broadway show of its era, the Adonis has been around since the mid-1880s. It's so old that no one knows the original recipe (we know the break down: dry sherry, sweet vermouth, and orange bitters) but no one knows which dry sherry they originally used. So everyone just uses their favorite.
I've spotted the cocktail (or something similar) at a few different spots in DC. It seems to be a regular feature at Barmini and Mockingbird Hill (where I also learned about the drink's history). Every time I order it, I love it (then bore everyone around me with a rambling speech about how great sherry is). Sherry is really great, guys.
Stuff
1 part dry Sherry
1 part sweet vermouth
few drops orange bitters
orange peel
Steps
Mix sherry, vermouth, and bitters over ice. Serve straight up. Garnish with orange peel.
I have a cold (boo), but that means it's definitely soup season (yay)! I love mushroom soup but I sometimes find it to be a bit meh... mushrooms have that great unami taste but they don't always hold up that well in soup. I find the soup often needs something to bulk it up. Something to give it that extra creamy warmness, you know, the thing that makes us hold steaming soup bowls between our hands on crisp fall days, so excited for the bowl of delicious warmth we're about to devour.
So there I was, standing over a bowl of mushroom soup, thinking to myself 'what can I add to this?' And it struck me that cashews would be perfect. They're creamy, nutty, and not too strong. I threw in a handful of cashews and I've never looked back.
I now soak the cashews in water overnight (or for a couple of hours in advance) and use the water they're soaked in for the broth. If I forget to do this (which happens all the time), I still add them, the soup just isn't quite as creamy. This recipe is vegan but if you're not, you can use butter to sauté the shallot and garlic and I'd highly recommend adding a big dollop of crème fraîche to your bowl of soup.
Stuff
1 packet of mushrooms
handful of cashews (soaked overnight in water)
1 shallot
2 garlic cloves
few sprigs of thyme
handful of parsley
2 quarts vegetable stock
a big splash of sherry
olive oil
salt & pepper
Steps
Dice the shallot and the garlic. Heat olive oil in a pot on a medium heat. Sauté the shallot and garlic until tender.
Roughly chop the mushrooms and the thyme. Add to the pot, season everything with salt and pepper, and stir. Cook for 5 - 6 minutes or until the mushrooms begin to soften.
Add sherry and turn up the heat. Let the alcohol burn off then add the cashews with the water they were soaked in and the vegetable stock. Bring the pot to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.
Simmer for 20 - 30 minutes then blend with an immersion blender until smooth and creamy. Taste and check for seasoning. Roughly chop the parsley.
Serve with a dash of olive oil and sprinkling of parsley.
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Despite dodging Hurricane Joaquin (or did Joaquin dodge us?) there was still a shit ton of rain this past week... so much so our little basement flooded on Tuesday night. Don't worry, we're fine! The apartment is fine and the cats are fine (in fact, they had a blast playing/nesting on the pile of sopping blankets in our hall). But after the place dried out and we picked up some sandbags to prevent future disasters, all we really wanted to do was spend the weekend indoors, sheltering from the rain, playing Settlers, drinking wine, and watching West Wing.
It also seemed like a good opportunity to eat as much fall food as we could fit in our fat little mouths. So my roommate pulled an apple pie out of the freezer, I made a mushroom soup, we drank some pumpkin beer, spiked some apple cider, and I got really excited about parsnips.
I adore roasted parsnips. They're a little peppery, a little nutty, and go perfectly with sweet apples and spicy chorizo. Bring this to a fall potluck or think of it as an alternative side for your Thanksgiving spread? Honestly though, I'll eat this by itself topped with some crumbled goat cheese. Vegetarians can skip the chorizo and add some paprika to the apple sauce.
Stuff
2 lbs parsnips
2 shallots
2 apples (gala or another sweet variety)
6 oz chorizo
pour of maple syrup
good pour of apple cider vinegar
pinch chili flakes
olive oil
salt & pepper
Steps
Preheat the oven to 400F. Wash and chop the parsnips into 2" sticks. Toss in a baking tray with the maple syrup, olive oil, chili flakes, salt and pepper. Roast in the oven until tender (approx. 50 minutes), stirring half way through.
Peel and dice the apples, shallots, and chorizo. In a saucepan on a medium heat, sauté the shallots in olive oil for 3 - 4 minutes, add the chorizo and the apple. Cook for another 4 - 6 minutes. Add the apple cider vinegar and turn up the heat. When the apples start turning soft and the liquid has reduced, remove from the heat.
Mix the shallot, apple, chorizo sauce with the parsnips. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
I'm on a sandwich kick at the moment. There's just something so satisfying about looking in the fridge at the end of a long day and saying, 'fuck it, I'm having a sandwich for dinner.' In addition to my goatcheeseaddiction, I also have a salmon obsession and a weird need to eat green leaves with most of my meals--so I tend to keep those things in the fridge. I also eat a bag of lemons every week.
The point is, this sandwich came about because it combines all my favorite foods in a delightful (classy, even?) pita pocket. I eat it for lunch almost every Saturday and it goes down a treat with a midday glass of wine and a handful of kettle chips.
No one really needs a recipe for a sandwich, but I wrote one anyway. YOU'RE WELCOME WORLD.
Stuff
pita bread
smoked salmon
goat cheese
cucumber slices
arugula
mustard
lemon wedge
salt & pepper
Steps
Cut the pita in half and toast each half. Cut open each half and spread one side with goat cheese and the other side with mustard. Layer in the salmon, cucumber, and arugula. Squeeze the lemon wedge over everything and season with salt and pepper.
A while ago someone bought homemade pickles to a BBQ pot luck and I was like 'get outta town, you made pickles.' Everyone at the BBQ went fucking nuts. So I asked her for the recipe and she shrugged and just said 'water, vinegar, sugar, time'. And that's pretty much all there is to pickling. So when now whenever I have an abundance of cukes or jalopeños, I pickle them! (I also take them to potlucks and people love them. Trust me, it's a great life hack: bring pickles to a potluck).
This isn't a great recipe if you want your pickles to last forever (if you want that, you need to make the water vinegar ratio more 1:1 and also add like a cup of sugar or something.... ). But this recipe will pickle your pickles fast, they'll be ready in just 2-3 hours and will last about a week or so. For jalopeños, I add fresh cilantro and skip the chili flakes. Feel free to play around with different flavors and ingredients, depending on what you're pickling and what you like. This is just a basic recipe to show you how wonderfully simple pickling can be.
Stuff
1 medium cucumber
2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
2 tbsps brown sugar
a few black peppercorns
a few coriander seeds
pinch chili flakes
Steps
Add the cider vinegar, water, sugar, peppercorns, coriander seeds, and chili flakes to a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then remove from the heat.
Cut cucumber into discs. Add discs to a jar/s and pour in the pickle mixture. Make sure all the cucumbers discs are covered with the mixture before sealing the jar. Store in the fridge for up to two weeks.
Summer vacation is over and I'M BACK! After one hell of a summer spent hoping about between Boston, Vermont, Norway, the Outer Banks, New York, Montreal, and the swift Potomac, I am settled back in DC and ready to face plant into fall.
Here's the thing, when the season starts to change I have an urge to begin cleaning and sorting... It doesn't happen in spring (why would you clean your entire house when you're about to spend every waking moment outside)? But fall starts and I begin going through my wardrobe, clearing out the fridge, and cooking as if the apocalypse is nigh.
While I was on a fridge cleaning mission, I found a couple winter brews from last year (my roommate and I have a thing for seasonal beer and last year we maybe went a little overboard...) I figured I better use them up before they hit the shelves again in a couple of months. Plus, in my freezer was 2lbs of pork shoulder that had been sitting there since April. I thought surely there's a way to use the beer and the pork, clear some fridge and freezer space, and have delicious lunches all week? So Christmas Beer Pulled Pork became a thing.
I reckon you could do this with another beer, you'd maybe want one that was on the sweeter side or was spiced similarly to winter ales (I bet fall beers would work a treat). You could also do it without the beer, for a more traditional pulled pork dish.
Stuff
2lbs pork shoulder
1 seasonal beer
2 tbsps brown sugar
1 tsp hickory salt
1 tsp chipotle chili
1 tsp black pepper
pinch coriander
apple cider vinegar
maple syrup
hot sauce
Steps
Preheat oven to 300F. In a small bowl mix together the dry ingredients. Line a baking tray with foil. Score the skin of the pork, but not the meat. Season the pork on all sides with the spice rub. Place in the tray skin side up. Pour in the beer and roast for 3 - 4 hours.
Once cooked through (internal temp 160F), remove from the oven and remove the crispy skin. Shred the pork, mixing in juice from the pan and bits of the crispy skin as you go.
Season pork with apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, and hot sauce to taste.
Fun fact: I pickled the pickles for this sandwich and I'll share that recipe shortly!
