Tricks of the Trade -

by gansie

Ask Tom, Answer Gansie: Stop the Bitchin’

A semi-regular feature where gansie gets to pretend she knows as much about dining as the Washington Post food critic.

D.C.: Dear Diners,

We want to make you happy, we want to provide you with great food, great service and have you leave us satisfied and content. That being said, we also like to minimize any potential problems (make them invisible). So when you arrive for a table and the dining room looks “half full” and we ask you to wait for a moment it may be that a server has just been triple sat (three tables at once) and we need to make an adjustment in the seating to give you a table in another section or maybe someone in the kitchen just dropped a tray of prep items, or passed out or well, just about any and everything. Please try and understand we are not trying to make you day any more difficult or harried, we are only making last second adjustments to make everyones experience better. And yes sometimes we fail. We’ll try and do better. Ciao!

Tom Sietsema: Hear, hear. Thanks for shedding some light on what goes on behind the scenes. Tell us where you toil!

gansie: <Relief> Wow. I absolutely love this confession. Well, maybe that’s the wrong connotative interpretation. I love this gossip. Even though I worked as a waitress, I never learned the art of hosting. It’s a practice in politeness, mathematics, politics and patience. I too am guilty of being all pissy when I see empty seats and the host tells me it’ll be a few minutes. With the calm of a dining room staring me in the face it’s easy to disregard the backstage craziness and perform an under-the-breath huff of frustration. Here is a lovely reminder: chill the fuck out or go home and fry yourself an egg.

by Maids

Bean-a-holic

I’m going to let you all in on an open secret: I’ve been told I have a way with beans. I know, what a glorious claim to fame. But I have to admit that I LOVE beans. I NEED beans. All kinds of beans, prepared in all sorts of ways (as long as they aren’t refried…. I don’t do refried). I’m a particularly big fan of chick peas/garbanzos, black and red beans. I cook some kind of bean dish about once a week. My Romeo complains on occasion. He claims his at-times, ahem, flatulent tendencies are a result of my overuse of beans as a staple food in our diet. Whatever, my stomach is not affected thusly and beans are good for your heart, right? Romeo should be thanking me! I know, I overshare! But, the cabal of smarty-pants USDA scientists do recommend that American adults consume at least 3 cups of beans a week to promote health and reduce the risk of colon cancer, etc. My friends, I’m totally beating the curve!

Another secret: if you soak beans overnight and then rinse them, cook them for a while, and then rinse them again you can eliminate most of the sugars that promote gas formation. In the wise words of one of Bart Simpson’s chalkboard etchings: “Beans are neither fruit nor musical.” (BTW- shouldn’t the Simpsons creators convert the chalkboard to the much maligned, but now ubiquitous, dry-erase board in the newer episodes? Who’s with me?)

Now, I prefer to make some bean dishes from canned beans (especially when I’m making a bean-based puree like hummus). When I have time, however, I like to cook the thin-skinned beans (navy beans, black beans, red beans) the long way. The difference in taste and texture between dry black beans and canned beans is really worth the planning and work that goes into cooking them. But, ladies and gentleworms, cooking dry beans does require time. So do feel free to take the following recipe and use it with canned black beans instead of dry black beans.

My Amazing Black Bean Recipe after the jump

by tvff

Gansie is Rubbing Off on Me

The day job brought me down to D.C. last week and I had the opportunity to put a face to the pixels, as gansie and I grabbed a hot chocolate at Artfully Chocolate | Kingsbury Confections. It was a very nice hot chocolate — semi-sweet chocolate infused with lavender — and I really liked it despite the fact that I felt slightly ridiculous ordering a “Liz Taylor.” The conversation was quite enjoyable, too, but I’m afraid that I came down with something while I was there.

Yep, I think I have the “egg on top” virus, and I’m pretty certain I caught it from gansie.

You can see the latest manifestation of this in the picture above. That would be my first pass at huevos rancheros. Normally, my attempts at cooking Mexican dishes are as good as my ability to speak Spanish. In other words, they suck. But if there is something I’ve learned from gansie, it’s that an egg on top of anything makes it better. A note on the picture: Not the best quality…you can see why Mrs. TVFF and I are on the market for a digital SLR…but I was so happy with how perfect the yolk looked on top of the tortilla that I had to take a picture.

The runny eggs were darn near perfect, and it worked well with a simple salsa (made from scratch) and fried corn tortillas. I’m still kicking myself for not picking up some queso blanco and maybe some sort of beans (black? pinto? refried?), but I guess that just means I’ll have to try it again sometime soon.

Although this dish features a couple of fried eggs, it’s poached eggs that I’ve been messing around with lately…

in Breakfast / Drinks / Eggs 14 comments

by gansie

Red Delicious, White, and Blue

Editors Note: Okay, so everyone’s getting a bit Americana sappy this week here at ES. Evo Diva spins a tale of patriotism, apple sauce and canning to finish our week of gloating. But that’s not to say it won’t roll over into next week.

I felt something this week that I’ve never felt before in my life: a profound sense of patriotism. So I donned my red, white, and blue on Wednesday and wandered around my town like a tourist seeing everything for the first time. In a sense I was seeing something new, and enjoyed absorbing America’s renewed spirit. It’s compelled me to want to do things that are “American”: drive cross-country, volunteer, read up on U.S. history. But what’s more American than cooking apples and blogging about them?

I had joined the ES crowd for some apple picking a few weeks ago. I made apple sauce with all those apples and then I CANNED it – that’s right, Ball jars and all. The prospect of canning these apples was an overwhelming task in my mind – which is why I procrastinated for three and a half weeks! (The apples were still crisp in the fridge after all that time) But the canning process turned out to be super simple.

First of all, I had no idea where one might procure these jars of lore – especially when not in close proximity to farmland USA. I got mine at a local hardware store. It’s SO much cheaper if you buy a whole case (12 jars in a case ~$12-$15). But I only needed a few and wanted a variety of sizes. So I spent 20 bucks on 5 jars.

I had picked a bunch of different apples not really knowing what I would do with them. I can’t remember what kinds I got but I know I picked a bunch of the “York” variety, which are described as: “Tart, great for baking, unique lopsided shape, keeps the longest.” (What luck that I picked the procrastinator variety!) I peeled and sliced the apples and put them in a pot with about ½ cup of water and then cooked them on low, covered, for about 45 minutes. Then I mashed them, added some sugar and cinnamon to taste and voila! I mean, eureka! Um, yee haw?

in Recipe 1 comments

by gansie

In Praise of Global Warming

In years past, many farmers’ market regulars couldn’t wait for October’s bounty. By then, they had their fill of roasted eggplant, grilled zucchini, and caprice salad—the foods that transform summer’s heat into a satiable experience. When a chill hit the air, seasonal cooks would normally turn to hearty greens and silky winter squashes. But a change in the earth’s climate has altered kitchen plans, forcing many cooks to find new uses for the abundance of summer crops creeping into autumn.

“Go global warming!” shouts Jaci Arnold, the self-described “biatch” of Richfield Farm in Manchester, Md., while selling produce at the Mount Pleasant Farmers’ Market. Somehow, heirloom tomatoes have found their way to 17th and Lamont Streets, NW in mid-October. “We should have had a frost by this time,” Arnold says. “Everyone complains about global warming, but they’re still happy to have a tomato in October.” Although she doesn’t cook extravagantly, Arnold has heard some pretty strange ways people use up the never-ending warm-weather vegetables, most notably a yellow squash ice cream. In fact, funky desserts seem to be the standard among this particular group of farmers and sellers in Mount Pleasant.

Zachary Lester, owner of Tree And Leaf farm in Loudon County, Va., transforms his quick-to-wilt purple basil, Thai basil, and Italian basil into an herbaceous ice cream. Robert Audia, of Carroll County’s Audia’s Farms, says his wife upped the ante at this year’s annual squash festival by presenting a squash cheesecake. Tia Sumler of Truck Patch Farms in New Windsor, Md., meanwhile, suggests a labor-intensive tomato granita: She blends a few tomatoes, sugar, and cherry bomb hot peppers until smooth; places it in the freezer; and every 30 minutes (for a few hours) scrapes and stirs the mixture to create an icy, crystallized treat. Sumler acknowledges it’s a pain in the ass, but “If you’re home anyway, it’s well worth it,” she says.

in Veggie 4 comments

by gansie

Banning Ricotta, Sorry Giada

I’ve made a whole bunch of pasta salads in the past few years, each of them slightly different. Some with a pesto flare, others dressed in extra virgin, dijon and lots of veggies. And many variations in between, although never including mayo.

This most recent pasta salad was during my friend Julie’s wedding weekend, where one of the nights was dedicated to a grill session in her HUGE backyard. I also realized I sucked at badminton, but that’s another story, just ask 80.

Earlier in the day I stopped by a farmers market in Jersey and picked up squash and zucchini to be grilled for the pasta salad. (Okay, now I was chatting with someone about this but we never found the conclusion, I’m hoping someone out there can help – zucchini is a squash, right? And if so, why don’t the yellow squashes have their own name. There are tons of other squashes with proper names – butternut, spaghetti, acorn…Why not the yellow squash?)

Okay, so I have the veggie, but I still haven’t decided on the sauce for the salad. I automatically think to use feta, but decide to go to the grocery store and see what hits me. I’m in the dairy aisle picking up sour cream for DAD GANSIE (my mom accidentally heated up his container in the microwave) and I stumble upon ricotta. I’m not super familiar with the cheese, expect for in lasagnas, and every time I watch Giada’s show. I dial up my chef-on-call, BS, and ask if he thinks ricotta will work in my dish. We all know BS is game for anything, and without hesitation, he said to try it.

Now, the rest of the post is not meant to knock BS or anything, because he surely didn’t know about the massacre that I would soon create with the cheese he just gave the go-ahead.

in Cheese / Veggie 9 comments

by gansie

Hott Links: Summer School

As much as I’d like to become more of a “reader,” I’m a pretty slow reader and therefore, I don’t finish the hott books until at least 2 years post their prime. Which, actually can suck: I finished The Da Vinci Code mere weeks before the movie hit theaters, resulting in my hating the film even more than the average viewer who finished the book, idontknow, four years before.

Anyway, I just finished My Life In France, Julia Child’s own tale of how she moved to Paris and started being really fucking anal about measuring. I mean, whole months of her life were dedicated to figuring out exact amounts of different ingredients. Of course, Julia’s my girl, and I’m in awe of her humility, but boy would she hate our nonchalant paradigm of cooking at ES.

This summer, though, I have a few books on my list as I plan to spend time out of the kitchen <gasp> and out on the Jersey Shore.

The Apprentice: My Life In The Kitchen [Jacques Pepin]

If you only watch one cooking show for the rest of your life, make it Jacques’ current show, Fast Food My Way. Jacuqes is an adorable, older, Frenchman. He is so funny, so talented and so entertaining to watch. And, he is a remnant of a soon to be gone generation, not just in the food world, but of a population that grew up during World War II. In a very selfish way, Jacques reminds me of my grandmother. I find comfort in him, his warmth and his excitement for food and life. I’m currently reading his memoir.

in Personal 9 comments

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