Tag: food/dining

Fun with booze and farmer’s market

I’m running out of “drunken cherries” for my chocolate ice cream with drunken cherries. My ‘drunken cherries’ are cherries that have been soaking in sugar and vodka for 3 months. The purpose of which is to make a cherry liquor. Depending on how it turns out, because the two batches I made several months ago tasted different. One tasted more like a cherry sugar syrup, the other like a upscale NyQuil. I blame the bottle and not so tight cap (and spill) and the off season supermarket cherries.
Anyway, this time around cherries from the farmers market! And Stoli! I have two new batches waiting to sit around for 3 months. I hope to make a small 3rd batch, using the farmer’s market cherries, the organic vodka I got from Bloomingdale Liquors sometime back, and maybe some Florida Crystals, depending on how much those crystals cost.
The basic recipe, should you want to make some is:

1/2 pound of Bing cherries, unblemished and stems removed
1/2 pound of sugar
2 cups of vodka
Place cherries in quart (?) sized jar, pour sugar on cherries, pour in vodka. Cover, seal, whatever, and label. Leave on top of refrigerator for 3 months without touching or shaking or messing with.

If there are strawberries still available I will play with the idea of making a strawberry liquor. I have a blueberry liquor that I have yet to strain, and decide if it worth trying to make again when blueberries come into season.

BFM on NPR’s Morning Edition

This morning I awoke to the sound of thunder and went back to sleep. Then the clock radio clicked on, and I tried fighting not going back to sleep, and then a story caught my groggy attention. Listen to local resident and NPR reporter, Neda Ulaby’s report about our dear Bloomingdale Farmer’s Market. You’ll hear the voices of other locals Ted Mcginn, Robin Schuster, and Scott Roberts.
It is amazing how the area (though not in the TC I’m claiming it) got this wonderful market. It’s got kids and dogs and so far so good with that. I’ve said it before the market has a great atmosphere, that I haven’t experienced at some of the other DC markets. Dupont has a lot of great stuff, but OMG is it crowded. I ran into one in Georgetown it was rinky-dink, but then again it was closing down when I showed up. and the farmer’s market (this was a while ago so it may have changed) near the Department of Ag, felt lacking. And Penn Quarter’s farmers market, where I’m heading to after work, is good, but not the same.
I’m still loving the strawberries that are in season. I still have some waiting for turning into a strawberry spread, loosely based on Copper Pot‘s recipe seen on Fox 5. I halved all the ingredients, including the time but except the vanilla, and use the spread to make strawberry ice cream. The jellies Stefano Frigerio (Mr. Copper Pot) sells is firmer, more jell-y. Didn’t see him last week at BFM, so I’ll be keeping an eye out for him this weekend as his pasta sauces are wonderful.

Using Duck Eggs To Make Super Rich Chocolate Ice Cream

I blogged about how the duck eggs made my chocolate ice cream so rich it was like a brownie that melted in my mouth. Here’s the recipe:
Adapted from David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”

Chocolate Ice Cream

2 cups of heavy cream*
3-5 Tbls of cocoa powder**
5 ounces of 100% Cocao/ bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup of milk***
3/4 cups of sugar
1/4 tsp of salt****
4 Mallard Duck egg yolks
1 chicken egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Warm 1 cup of cream in small pot with 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder. Try to eliminate or avoid clumps. Get it too a boil then bring down heat to a simmer for 30 seconds, while whisking. Remove from stove and add chocolate. Here is where I had problems where the mix refused to get smooth, separating into solid and oil, so I added more cocoa powder and cream, watered down with milk. Stir with spoon to get smooth. Transfer to a big heatproof bowl.
In that same pot heat milk, sugar and salt. In another bowl whisk the egg yolks. Slowly add heated milk mix to eggs. Start with a few tablespoons of milk and whisk, then move up to 1/4 cup of milk and whisk. Then take milk egg mix and pour back into pot. Slowly heat while stirring to make a custard. When it coats the back of the spoon, remove from heat and keep stirring.
Place a mesh strainer over the bowl with the chocolate and pour custard into bowl through the mesh. The mesh will capture big clumps of custard. Add vanilla. Take bowl and put in ice bath, or in my case set on top of ice pak. When decently cooled, place in fridge.
After about 12 hours has past, put in ice cream maker and churn.

* The first cup I used cream, the cream used later was more like half and half.
** original recipe called for 3, I added more later.
*** original recipe called for whole milk, I used 2%.
**** original recipe called for a pinch, I add more to keep my ice creams from being too hard and solid. Booze is better at this, but salt is more child friendly.

Duck eggs


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Originally uploaded by creekside_sonia

Sadly there were no duck eggs at the Bloomingdale Farmer’s Market today when I showed up. They were available yesterday at the 14th & U market, but I didn’t buy any there.
So what’s the deal with duck eggs and how are they different from the chicken eggs?
When I first bought them all I was told was that bakers love duck eggs. Ok. When cooking with them, when I made scones, the only difference I noticed was they were bigger and seem to have more yolk. When I made straight scrambled eggs, I didn’t care for them. But when I made ice cream, and I primarily used duck eggs there was a noticeable difference.
The ice cream recipe called for 5 egg yolks. I used 1 chicken egg and 4 duck eggs. When separating the white from the yolk, the egg was thick like a hair gel and the white didn’t separate easily. I had to run my finger down the side of the broken shell to get the white to drop. After the duck eggs, I did the chicken egg, and it was like water. I followed the rest of the recipe and set the mix in the fridge overnight. When I took the mixture out and poured it into the ice cream maker it was like pudding. Really thick pudding. The finished product, chocolate ice cream, was like a frozen brownie that melted in your mouth.

A mix of cheap and pricey

Maybe I would make sense to a marketer, or not. I love the Bloomingdale Farmer’s Market (this week’s info at BACA Blog) and I will buy several items from the vendors there, even though they are more expensive than products I’d get at a regular supermarket. However, the quality most of the time is superior to the Giant or Safeway and neither of those places give me the experience of chatting with the producers.
On the other end, I shop at the messy and chaotic Florida Market where I get items from the Mexican Fruit Stand. I complained to my roommate that the avocado I bought there cost me a whole $1. Last week it was 50 cents. It seems that avocados are supposed to be more than $1. I’ve been spoiled. The fruit stand is where I get my onions, garlic, potatoes, pineapples, bananas, mangoes, lemons and limes. I go through a lot of lemons and limes. Sometimes I do spot organic items at the fruit stand, most of the time, not.
Where quality matters I may go with the local and organic items. When I’m probably going to boil the bejeezus out of them or they will get lost in the background of other flavors, I’ll go with the cheaper items. But the way I see it, the cheaper stuff saves me money so I can buy the higher quality items.

Lunch options in Penn Quarter

Dear Wagamama,
How dare you make me wait until 2010 for tasty ramen.
Love,
Mari

I thought I took a picture but apparently, no. Yesterday I spotted signage on 418 7th Street stating that the noodle chain I fell in love with in London will be coming in 2010. Better yet, it will be close enough and priced about right to make a regular lunch spot.

BFM and a teaspoon of Rolling Thunder


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Originally uploaded by In Shaw

Besides the bikes that a few of my neighbors have, I figured the rumbling I’d hear would be limited to them and a few of their friends. Nope.
Sunday at the Bloomingdale Farmer’s Market, where I wandered over to get pasta and strawberries, I saw a parade of motorcycles lead by the police. This is not a good picture, but back on Florida Ave is where a small portion of the bikes can be seen. It was a good bunch, men, predominately Afro-American, on shiny big bikes, waving to the people and honking their horns. Traffic was blocked for several minutes and it went on long enough to make me wonder if I could get back to the other side of Florida.
The mini parade went on long enough that as they were passing my attention went back to buying things. I really like the Copper Pot’s pasta sauces and meat filled pastas. I’ll admit, I’m not that big of a fan of the spaghetti, but I like very, very, very thin noodles. Last night I had the lamb angelico(?), the lamb stuffed pasta,with a cream sauce I made from cream, white wine, garlic, a bit of lemon juice and some sage growing out in the yard. OMG that’s good. The week before I had the rabbit pasta, which is very delicate and requires a delicate sauce. So far the lamb is my favorite.
And there were two vendors selling strawberries. Last week I made strawberry frozen yogurt with those strawberries and that very smooth yogurt found at Timor’s. That was very good and no I didn’t give any of that away, like I normally do with a lot of my ice creams. So this week, I bought some more strawberries, from both vendors and once again made strawberry frozen yogurt, and pina colada sorbet. Both have booze in them so that limits who I can give them away to.
Unlike store bought strawberries, these in season, local kind, don’t have that tasteless white center I often find. The farmer’s market strawberries are tasty throughout.

Garlicy, feta pizza

I think it was on the Eckington listserv I saw mention of Italy Pizza, a hole in the wall pizza joint at 634 Florida Ave NW. From the outside it doesn’t look like much. Honestly, it look like a greasy carry out place you just keep walking by. But looks are deceiving. There is good pizza to be had.
I picked up a portabella mushroom pie. It was a thin crust pizza with a garlic herb sauce (not tomato), mozzerella and feta cheese, portabella mushrooms, roasted red peppers and a lot of spinach. It was good. Not as great as Matchbox but a tad better than Ella’s. Looking at the carry out menu I see I could make my own stinky breath pizza with the garlic sauce, caramelized onions, red onions, white onions, fresh and roasted garlic and anchovies. When in the mood for pizza I’ll definitely choose them again.

Chickens in the City

I woke up this morning (cue blues riff), and heard a report on WAMU saying that “Officials in the mayor’s office say there is currently no law prohibiting raising chickens within city limits if residents follow guidelines on proper animal care and shelter.”
As I remember, I thought there were laws on the books that in one way or another say no to chickens. Just to make sure I checked The City Chicken, which according to it’s chicken law page says, “Washington D.C. Housing chickens here violates health laws and is not legal.”
Then I checked the online DC Code, plugging in Chicken, poultry and fowl. DC ST ยง 8-1808, says, “(d) No person shall change the natural color of a baby chicken, duckling, other fowl or rabbit.” and “(f) No person shall sell or offer for sale a baby chicken, duckling, other fowl, or rabbit that has had its natural color changed.” and more importantly:

(h)(1) Except as provided in this subsection, no person shall import into the District, possess, display, offer for sale, trade, barter, exchange, or adoption, or give as a household pet any living member of the animal kingdom including those born or raised in captivity, except the following: domestic dogs (excluding hybrids with wolves, coyotes, or jackals), domestic cats (excluding hybrids with ocelots or margays), domesticated rodents and rabbits, captive-bred species of common cage birds, nonpoisonous snakes, fish, and turtles, traditionally kept in the home for pleasure rather than for commercial purposes, and racing pigeons (when kept in compliance with permit requirements).

As I read that, I don’t interpret chickens or quail or ducks or any other fowl one may want to raise in the city as a ‘common caged bird’. And if I want pigeons, or squab, they’d have to be racing pigeons and have a permit, issued by what agency I don’t know.
So far with my limited knowledge it looks like chickens aren’t permitted, nor are they illegal.