Endless Simmer - A Food Blog

While DC will never achieve the greatness of New York/New Jersey pizza, it does produce a quality wood-fired version at Sette Osteria. The restaurant, with floor-to-ceiling windows facing busy Connecticut Avenue, is a good choice for those craving Italian carbs. Its version of bruschetta is more like a salad, with heaps of arugula and cherry tomatoes piled high on one piece of grilled bread, which makes this usually sharable appetizer difficult to split. That’s okay, though - it’s too good to split. Arugula salad with shaved fennel and pecorino shavings, tossed with lemon vinaigrette, is large enough for a light lunch with a refreshing crunch. Ai peperoni e melanzane, a pie topped with smoked mozzarella, eggplant, and roasted bell peppers, will satisfy your needs for a savory, smoky, slightly charred pizza.
For: Getting your Italian fill on this side of the Atlantic.
Entrees: $9-$19. 202-483-3070. 1666 Connecticut Ave, NW

Originally in the Onion - AV Club / DC local edition

Photo: Sette Osteria

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Like I said in my first Passover post, I wouldn’t be getting any timely recipes to you. And as the holiday ended yesterday I’m just getting you a little something.

Now I have to say, this wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever eaten. But the below video will surely excite you.

The fairly common Matzah Brie (fried matzah) is like our answer to french toast. The matzah is torn in to pieces, soaked in water to soften, then the water is drained out as much as possible. Next, mix the matzah with eggs and milk. A lot of people make this sweet like french toast and add cinnamon and nutmeg and once fried, cover in *kosher for Passover* syrup. But I like my breakfast on the savory side: I seasoned it with salt and freshly ground black pepper and when it was fried, I topped it with cream cheese, raw onion and lox. I based it on this recipe.

The tricky part though, is flipping this creation so the top side is equally cooked and browned.

Check out DAD GANSIE as he flips the shit out of our matzah brie. This is best watched with volume.

Camera Works: gansie

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Through my work with Express, I’ve become a sell-out. I’ll explain. I’m in bed with the PR folks. The PR folks will host a “media dinner” I will then eat for free and in return write a *totally non-biased* review. I swear.

Anyway, at my latest comped meal Angie and I ate our way through a deliciously free meal at Restaurant K by Alison Swope, which I then reviewed.

As you’ll see, we tried the tamales. As Angie is from Texas and has a Honduran mother, she knows her tamales: even knowing the difference between the Tex-Mex and Central American versions. So while she clearly knew what to make of them, I am still sorting my way through the technicalities of the dish. Which made me totally laugh when I saw the following thread during Tom Seitsema’s WaPo chat.

one / tom is sure one hot tamale

Ashburn, Va.: This may sound stupid, but I have never ordered tamales at a restaurant just because I have no idea how to eat them. Do I pick them up, or do I eat with a fork? What do I do with the stuff covering them? (And what IS that? It’s not edible, right?) Do I put sauce on them? Please help end my tamale illiteracy!

Tom Sietsema: Tamales, which involve corn meal dough (typically) wrapped around cheese, vegetables or meat, are bundled in husks, which must be removed before you dig into the steamed filling. I eat tamales with a fork. Sauce is optional.

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Tamales. ..: true story. I’m an adventurous eater. My first time at Red Sage some years ago, I saw tamales on the menu. Having never had them, of course I ordered them. I didn’t know how to eat them so I ate them all. It took me some months before I figured out why the waiter had such a quizzical look on his face when he removed the plate.

Tom Sietsema: Funny!

I’ve admitted in this forum that I, too, ate my first tamale — part of it, anyway — with its husk on. Decades ago, I should add.

gansie: like i said before, i’m not so familiar with the tamale (read the review - i compare the dough to a matzah ball!), although i should be - it’s quite delicious! and i can’t lie, i’ve absolutely tried to eat the husk before.  and one more thing, does anyone know where the phrase “hot tamale” came from?

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I’ve never been a ginormous fan of yuca. I’m not sure why, it just hasn’t come up that much. The only time I really ever see it on menus is as a side at Hispanic restaurants, but there’s usually a choice between that and either plantains or french fries, so I don’t think I’ve ever ordered it. No disrespect to the yuca, but that is some tough competition.

However, last time I was down in D.C. we all went to dinner at Mayorga Cafe, where there were no plantains or french fries at all, and the yuca fries were the only fried starchy goodness to be had. And let me tell you, they sure made me forget about french fries for the evening. Golden-crispy, not too oily, and with just a little more actual taste than spuds, I was hooked.

So even though I had NO idea how to cook with these, I grabbed one on a whim last time I was at the food co-op.

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Editors Note: By now, you may have noticed the comments by the former *lurker* miked. It took him a while to come around to the whole blogging thing, even though his woman, Edouble, is an ES contributer. So while miked will talk to me about recipes and now gChat about recipes, maybe one day we can get him on the blogging tip. You can spy on our virtual convo about omelets below. And, Maidelitala, don’t be mad miked stole your omelet thunder.

miked: have you every had a fluffy omelet?
i just made one and Maidelitala made them yesterday morning. i told her she should do a post.
1) separate yolks and whites
2) whip up whites till they get sort of fluffy/bubbly
3) pour fluffy whites into pan
4) pour yolks (if you like them) on top of fluffy whites.
5) put other omelet stuff there
gansie: yum! interesting…i never get that complicated w/ my omelets
miked: it doesn’t really take much longer—as long as you have the yolk-separating skills—you just do it while veggies, etc. are sautéeing.
gansie: and then for the omelet part
do you flip it to cook the other side or just put the filling in the runny-ish center?

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I know ES has been heavy on the veggie/vegan train lately (I promise, we’ll get back to our red meat and pig roots) but I couldn’t not post about this redic job requirement: vegetarianism.

San Francisco video-game company, Bigfoot Inc, published this internship description

A vegetarian-owned and managed emerging sports games startup in San Francisco is looking to hire vegetarian software development interns for summer 2008 (and potentially beyond) who are interested in entrepreneurship and promoting vegetarianism.

And as my full-time job demands I promote diversity in the workplace, I cannot advocate for an entire staff full of non-meat eaters.

Quotas can be a good thing.

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I’ve mentioned this before, but Sunday night is not THE big dinner night over at our place. I know big, cooking, homey Sunday Dinners maintain a long tradition in many cultures (especially my Italian friends growing up) but I’ve always considered Sunday to be order-in night. Ask DAD GANSIE, he’ll concur.

As such, this past Sunday, after a trip to see my sister play rugby in PA (yes, BS, Alex, 80P, SAG, Morgansm and I all tailgated for this monster event) and party at my cousin’s Bat Mitzvah, we ordered in Mr. Chen’s Organic Chinese Cuisine. Now, Chen’s has gotten some love from District residents, but I really don’t see it.

Last time I ordered there I got the Rice Noodles with vegetables. And I didn’t like it. But of course, I totally forgot when I ordered this past Sunday, and ordered it again. (Rice noodles are the kind you get with Pad See Eaw, a dish I do love.) I was craving thin, long noodles and what I got were those thick, wide noodles. I mean, who doesn’t love twirling noodles on a fork? Or fumbling with chopsticks?

After I finished eating, I marked a “NO” next to its name on the menu; but that still didn’t alleviate the immediate problem: leftovers.

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Last week’s Who Cooked It Better aroused quite the display of passion in you folks, finally giving America’s pissed-off vegans a chance to vent their frustrations against that scourge of vegans everywhere, Anthony Bourdain. This was Endless Simmer’s most popular poll to date, and with 800 of you weighing in, Hezbollah Tofu crushed Anthony Bourdain, 83 to 17 percent. Many congrats to HT on a truly winning original recipe.

In a shameless ploy to hold on to our newly expanded vegan readership base, we’re continuing with the “hold the bacon” theme for this week’s Who Cooked It Better, a search for the ultimate veggie burger. But before you meat-lovers tune out, let’s remember that grillin’ season is just around the corner, and if you expect to keep your veggie friends around for the summer, you better have a good faux-burger recipe. And don’t say, “Oh, I already know about Boca Burgers,” because when your vegan friends respond “that’s so considerate of you to think of me,” what they really mean is “Great. I can’t wait to eat this same store-bought patty every weekend for the rest of the summer. By the way, I’m a vegan and this has cheese in it.”

Seeing as how veggie burgers are kind of an anti-establishment thing anyway, we decided to go all-blogger for this challenge. Our first cheftestant is Swell Vegan, whose tasty-looking seitan burger (top left) is accented with chopped sesame seeds, red pepper and carrots. In a twist that could have you choosing this over steak at your next BBQ, Swell Vegan mixes chimichurri sauce into the veggie patty, and tops it off with more of this savory green stuff, along with tomato, onion, and tofutti cheese. SV says the recipe is still a work in progress, but this one already looks like a winner.

Moving to the top right, Eat Air is hoping to take down yet another meat-worshiping TV star with their veganized version of Paula Deen’s Big Mike Burger. The Big V replaces Paula’s butter burger/pecan burger double patty with an amped up seitan burger that includes shittake mushrooms and vegan cheese, along with a tempeh-pecan patty complete with maple syrup and liquid smoke (!) Complete directions here.

On the bottom right corner is a beautiful pic from 101 Cookbooks, whose use of eggs may turn off you vegan voters, but these garbanzo bean-cilantro-sprout burgers are so tasty looking we had to include them. Most originally, 101 C loses the bread buns altogether and uses her two patties as the buns, filling the inside with avocado slices, cipollini onions, and more. Full recipe over at 101 Cookbooks.

In the bottom-left corner is a great-looking burger from The Accidental Vegetarian, which looks most like a real burger of anything we could find, even though instead of fake meat, the AV goes for a mix of eggplant, zucchini, onion and garlic, kicked up a notch with an inventive almond paste concoction. Full recipe here.

Your votes and thoughts please…

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ps - did we miss any of the best? Let us know!

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Why are eggs only offered as breakfast? Do you know how many times I’ve been hung over at work and walked to about six different “cafeteria” type places asking if they could make me a fried egg and cheese sandwich for lunch?!?! (For the record, Au Bon Pain will serve a fake egg sandwich during lunch time).

I just don’t get it. Eggs are delicious. Eggs are nutritious. Eggs are malicious. Fine, they’re not malicious, but I have this weird thing that I have to write in threes so that was the first word that came to mind that rhymed.

Anyway, the reason this nomination came up was that I worked from home today. And besides the embarrassment of watching TRL for a half sec and seeing Heidi Montag or whatever try to freestyle while Nelly provided background beats, I loved emailing in bed. But of course my favorite part of working from home is that I get to cook my own lunch. Now sure, most days of the week I bring in something that I had previously cooked, but it’s not the same. I love leftovers. But it’s not the same.

So although the above isn’t some culinary masterpiece, I was thrilled to eat some homemade eggs for my noon meal. I got to think about what I was craving (always eggs) and make it on the spot. Not just the usual of having to psych myself up for whatever leftovers are sitting in the fridge.

I therefore officially nominate eggs to be a required dish for lunch or, alternatively, to import breakfast-all-the-time Jersey diners to every corner in every city in every country.

Egg Scramble Pita Pocket

Place whole wheat pita in a 200 degree oven to warm through. Sautee mushrooms in some extra virgin, then add diced roasted red peppers and keep on low heat until sufficiently hot. On a plate, crumble feta cheese. Push the mushrooms and peppers to one side and crank up the heat. Add butter to the empty side and crack two eggs. Scramble just the eggs and when 75% done incorporate the veggies and then crumble on the cheese and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pull the pita out of the oven and cut down the middle, creating pockets. Pry open the pita and pour in the scramble. If you’re me, take pictures before eating.

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