What We Ate for Dinner :: Black's Bar & Kitchen

As a belated dating anniversary and Valentine's Day dinner, we went to Black's Bar & Kitchen. The food is contemporary American with an emphasis on regional ingredients (Virginia and Maryland).

Appetizers (shared):
Cornmeal-crusted Fried Oysters <-- I believe they only use Maryland oysters
Kale Salad with Sweet Potato Custard, Caramelized Walnuts and Bacon

Main Dishes:
(Daily Special) Short Ribs (husband)
Fried Chicken (me)

Black's Bar & Kitchen
750 Woodmont Avenue
Bethesda, MD 20814
301.652.5525

What I Made for Dinner :: Noodles with Flank Steak, Bok Choy, and Black Bean Sauce

Sometimes I need a good dose of protein and a quick recipe for dinner. Enter Noodles with Flank Steak, Bok Choy, and Black Bean Sauce. I didn't use the BBQ grill, just a grill pan and it was quite easy to make. My flank steak was a bit uneven in thickness so one side was more rare than half of us liked it. I solved that by slicing the meat (after resting, of course) and then putting it back on the grill pan. Smaller pieces, faster cooking time. 

Our one complaint was the noodles. I did not pick the right kind of noodles from the Chinese market. I'm going to have to research that a bit more. Rice would've sufficed. 

What I Made for Dinner :: Cod en Papillote

We don't eat a lot of fish at home even though we all like fish. I think it's mostly because it stinks up the house. But in order to get away from a meat-heavy diet I need to incorporate more seafood into my meal planning. 

En Papillote is an easy way to cook fish and get a good serving of vegetables in. You can use tin foil, but I have on occasion accidentally punctured holes in the "envelope," so I prefer to use parchment paper for the papillote. 

I seasoned the cod with salt and pepper, placed a bunch of thinly sliced vegetables (onion, green onion, peppers, asparagus, enoki mushrooms, and cilantro) on the fish, and then drizzled soy sauce, sesame oil, and sake over it all.

It took 20 minutes or so to cook in the oven at 400 degrees, but it depends on the thickness of your fish.

The beauty of en papillote is that you can use almost any kind of fish and add almost any kind of vegetable with any kind of fat (olive oil, butter, sesame oil, etc.). And the prep work is really pretty easy.

What I Made for Dinner :: Seafood Stew

Seafood Stew (I modified a recipe by Hugh Acheson)

As much as I love octopus, I didn't have the energy to deal with prepping it so I opted to omit it this time. And to continue with Cheater Mode, I went with frozen seafood and clams, mostly because I wasn't sure when I was going to make the dish.

The recipe also calls for veggies I'm not a huge fan of: fennel, celery, and butternut squash. So, instead, I used carrots, baby bell peppers, and a sweet potato I had lying around the kitchen. That's the beauty of stew; for the most part you can easily substitute the vegetables.

I also discovered that I like farro. It was my first time eating (and cooking) it, actually, and it reminded me of barley, which I love. It's nice to mix up the grains every once in awhile.

What I Made for Dinner :: Crunchy Sesame Chicken Wings

 
I am not a fan of football by any stretch of the imagination, but we have two boys in the house so our weekend TV-watching is often dominated by sports. I am thrilled that Super Bowl Sunday = the end of football season. There's nothing like celebrating the return of TV-watching for the girls than a chicken wing party masquerading as a Super Bowl party!

I make a different chicken wing recipe every year, and for the last few years I've focused on baked wings. (I tell myself it's because they're healthier, but I'm not fooling anyone.) I found this year's recipe -- Crunchy Sesame Chicken Wings -- from the Splendid Table, but it's originally from Mad Hungry: Feeding Men & Boys by Lucinda Scala Quinn, a cookbook I have at home.

This recipe comes together easily and quickly because there's no huge prep work, marinating, or drying time in the fridge (although the idea intrigues me). Although it's an inefficient use of space to put whole wings on the baking sheets, it really cuts down on prep time. (Have you ever had to break down 20+ wings? It's not too difficult but it's time-consuming, and when I did it a few years ago, my hand ended up hurting from cutting through the joints.) Also, the drumette, wing, and wing tip cut apart really easily after the wings are done baking. I also liked that, besides the wings (which I got at Costco in freezable packs), I already had all of the ingredients at home. I used panko instead of regular breadcrumbs and they turned out great. And the name of the recipe doesn't lie; the outside of the wings end up crunchy and quite tasty.

I will definitely make this again, keeping these points in mind:

• Don't overcoat the chicken with the dry ingredients.
• Flip the wings when you increase the temperature of the oven.

This is to make sure the coating browns and crisps up evenly. I'm speculating that because I had two baking sheets of wings in the oven at the same time and I didn't flip the wings, I got some wings that had patches of white (i.e. uncooked) coating. I had to keep baking those pieces, flipping every once i awhile, to make sure the outside wasn't floury (yuck!). I'm also wondering if using the convection setting on my oven would help with this.

My one regret is that I made too many. It's a strange regret since I like them, but I'm guessing these don't hold their crunch very well after refrigeration. I'll be eating these leftovers all week so I'll have to experiment with various reheating techniques. I'll post an update if I can.

What I Read for Fun :: various picture books

• Journey by Aaron Becker: 2014 Caldecott Honor book
• A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin by Jen Bryant & illustrated by Melissa Sweet: 2014 Schneider Family Book Award (for children ages 0 to 10) and 2014 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award
• Niño Wrestles the World by Yuyi Morales: 2014 Pura Belpré Illustrator Award
• Year of the Jungle: Memories from the Home Front by Suzanne Collins & illustrated by James Proimos: 2014 Charlotte Zolotow Honor book
  
• The Tortoise and the Hare by Jerry Pinkney
• Toys in Space by Mini Grey

What I Made for Dinner :: Beef Stew

Yeah, yeah, I know I made stew yesterday too, but it's cold again today! 

The Pioneer Woman's Beef Stew

Don't be lazy. Brown the heck out of the meat in small batches. 

I cut the onion in two different sizes, hoping the bigger pieces would survive the two hours of cooking. No luck. Next time I think I'll add half of the onion part way through the cooking time so the onions don't all disintegrate. 

My recipe for mashed potatoes is similar to the Pioneer Woman's. The kale was simply sautéed in olive oil with some garlic. I used the lemon pepper from Trader Joe's to season it at the end.