...and we're BACK! Fancy Radish - a plant-based meal to remember

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Two and a half years later, we're back! We sincerely apologize for dropping our blog like a hot potato, but we are excited to return with restaurant reviews from the constantly evolving DC food scene, recaps of our travel, tiny dinner party menus, and new recipes. 

As we make our way back, we will be asking ourselves (and you), are blogs still relevant? We're not entirely sure, but for about four years this was a wonderful creative outlet for us, and we are thrilled that our lives have once again allowed us both the time and energy for this little corner of the Internet. We hope you'll share your reactions and thoughts with us too.  To former readers, welcome back. To new readers, we hope you enjoy :)  Also- check us out on Instagram (we so 2018).  

Since I was flying solo this weekend (update: I got married last month!), Liz invited me to join her, her boyfriend (Adam), and his visiting sister (Rachel) at the new-ish H Street vegan fine-dining restaurant, Fancy Radish. Guys, vegan?? I was skeptical, but after talking to a co-worker who recently had been, she assured me I would love it. I joked that I was going to eat a pre-dinner, but she warned me not to. I am so glad I listened to her advice! 

From the minute we walked into the restaurant, we were very impressed. After checking in with the host, we were immediately taken to a table at the back of the restaurant near the open kitchen. It's like they knew the way to our hearts.  We also appreciated that they honored the reservation time -- too many restaurants seem to treat that as a rough suggestion without regard for the diner's plans.  

We sat down and quickly perused the innovative and adventurous cocktail menu. We quickly realized we had no idea what half the cocktail ingredients were! After some quick Googling and discussion with the waitress, Adam ordered what was essentially an old fashioned - that was served in the world's cutest tea cup, and Liz opted for a mezcal cocktail that the waitress compared to a negroni. I went for a safe choice, wine (rose - duh) as none of the cocktails appealed to my palette (give me all the vodka cocktails). 

After dying over the fact that Adam's drink was served in a tea cup, we all took our first sips. Adam's drink was as promised, but Liz's cocktail was extremley bitter, much more than a negroni. The drink wasn't a hit at first --cringing form the bitters -- but it got better as the ice melted and it watered down a bit.

Next we talked food with the server. Liz and I are very particular about tapas-style meals, and Liz asked the server if she would be able to pace the meal for us. After a sarcastic comment about 'having done this a few times before' I caught on that she was kidding. And she didn't lie - the meal was timed perfectly, like clock-work. Light to heavy, with just enough time between plates to breathe and be excited for the next dish coming our way. 

 
We started with the "fondue" - which was actually a puree of rutabega (a root vegetable) and served with pickled veggies and bread. The fondue was made with nutritional yeast and miso; and if you hadn't told me it wasn't cheese, I would have never guessed! It had both the texture and umami notes of melty cheddar cheese.  I coudn't believe it was totally plant based.  The bread was similar to a pretzel and made for the perfect dipping vehicle to enjoy the fondue. The pickled veggies were delightful as an acidic off-set to the rich fondue; I only wish there were more.

Next up was undoubtedly my favorite dish of the night. A BLT. I wish I could send each of our lovely readers this dish. The bread was perfectly crunchy, topped with a basil spread and a thick-cut heirloom tomato. The most impressive part of this dish was the "bacon" made from shiitake mushrooms. Again, if you had blind-folded me and told me I was eating mushrooms, I would have laughed. The amount of flavor packed in such a simple dish was impressive. I am still dreaming of it today.

The stuffed avocado and Peruvian potatoes made an appearance next. The avocado was served with cauliflower rice, a crispy rice chip, and a romesco sauce. The group felt this was the least favorite dish of the night. It turns out we are avocado-purists.  There was nothing wrong with it, the other dishes were just that good. The Peruvian roasted potatoes were cooked to a perfect crisp and paired nicely with the zesty sauce - similar to the sauce that would top Peruvian roasted chicken.

The trumpet mushrooms were one of Liz's favorite dishes of the night. Shaved paper thin, the mushrooms took on the texture of pasta. They swam in a savory broth of olive oil, roasted tomatoes, and basil - which we all were scraping off the bottom of the bowl with our spoons.  It only could have used bread to dip in that broth! 

Adam picked the summer squash, but wasn't overly impressed with it. I enjoyed zhoug, which is a middle eastern version of chimmichurri - and the pistachios it was accompanied by - you all know I love a good sauce!

The final two courses were Rachel and Liz's choice. The dan-dan noodles and the ramen. Liz has a thing for dan-dan (typically made with ground pork and chili oil), and has (unsuccessfully) searched high and low in DC for an acceptable version. While the vegan appropriation wasn't quite as good as the real thing (sometimes you just need meat), Liz still loved this dish, as did the rest of us. The texture was enjoyable and the spicy sichuan pepper lended as good variety to the earlier, cooler dishes.

The ramen noodles were also quite good, but the title of the dish was a little misleading. Though the noodles were ramen style, this dish was far from ramen in my mind. The carbonara sauce (minus the egg) was spot-on and gave diners a clue what they were in for.

Well before the end of the meal, all of our beverages were nearing the bottom of their respective glasses. Though overall the service was impeccable, I did find it odd that the waitress never offered to refresh our drinks.  In fact, our server cleared my glass before I was been able to finish my final sip - a huge pet peeve.

Drink-less, we moved on to dessert. I'm a sucker for s'mores and quickly landed on that option. It did not disappoint, though Liz complained that the texture was a bit too gummy for her. I think this is an inherent quality of s'mores and was impressed at the deconstructed version of the dessert. The graham cracker ice cream was a high note for me.

We also tried the carrot cake cup. I am not a huge fan of carrot cake (fruits and vegetables do not belong as part of dessert IMO), but this take on the classic cake was well done. I did have to sort of dig my spoon in to be able to enjoy all the layers as part of one bite though. 

Overall, I was highly impressed with Fancy Radish. The service was spot-on, the food was creative and incredibly flavorful, and the ambiance was enjoyable. I can't wait to go back and in the meantime, I am telling everyone I know to get there ASAP.

Avocado, Feta, and Citrus Salad

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Well it looks like spring is FINALLY here. I don't know about you, but as soon as it gets warm I just want avocados all the time. This year winter seemed to last forever, and I started dreaming up summertime salads while watching the snow fall in late March. This salad is amazingly simple, refreshing, and healthy.  
 
The flavor combination is the perfect balance of acid from the light citrus dressing, creaminess from the avocados, salt from the feta cheese, and crunch from toasted almonds.  

The ingredients for a salad for two are:

1 bag of washed spinach or arugula (or mix it up by adding in some kale)
1 avocado
1 lemon
1 naval or blood orange 
1/4 cup almonds
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
cracked black pepper 

On a hot summer day, the last thing I want to do is spend a lot of time in the kitchen.  This recipe will take 5-10 minutes max.  First, peel and slice the orange horizontally into round discs. 

Split the avocado in half and pull out the pit.
Slice the avocado into thin wedges and sprinkle with a little bit of sea salt. Next, take the slivered almonds and toss them into a dry pan over low to medium heat.Watch these closely because they will toast in just a minute.  Take them off the heat when they start to turn brown.  Next, make the citrus vinaigrette.  In a small bowl whisk together 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, the juice from one of the orange slices, the juice from one lemon, a squeeze from a lime wedge, and a pinch of sea salt and cracked black pepper.

Lastly, assemble your salad! I started with a bed of spinach, then topped it with the sliced naval oranges, avocado, a sprinkle of feta cheese, a couple of toasted almonds, and finally a drizzle of the dressing.

Homemade Whole Wheat Fettucine & Mushroom Ragu

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One magical Thursday a mystery package arrived at my front door.  A very generous [and awesome] family member, aware of my penchant for pasta, shipped me an authentic pasta machine.  Needless to say, I was ridiculously excited and had to try it out immediately - as in that night. 

Incidentally, I happened to have all of the ingredients on hand to make whole wheat pasta and a somewhat bastardized version of Mario Batali's mushroom ragu.  

What I learned is that, once you have the pasta maker, the recipe for pasta is incredibly simple. It requires two ingredients: flour and eggs. 

To make 1 1/4 lbs of pasta you need:

3 1/2 cups of flour [all purpose, whole wheat, or a combination] 
5 large eggs 

First place a mound of the flour on a large cutting board. 

Make a dent in the mound of flour and crack all five eggs into the center of the mound. Then take a small whisk or a fork and whisk the eggs together. 

Start working the outside of the mound of flour into the center to form a dough. Keep pushing the dough up against the wall of the mound. You'll need to knead the dough for about 10 minutes to get it to the  "doughy" consistency.  

 Once the dough is fully incorporated, form it into a ball.

 Wrap the ball in plastic wrap and set aside for 30 minutes. 

While the dough is resting, start making the mushroom ragu.  To simplify things, I started with a jar of tomato sauce and "improved" on it by adding the ragu ingredients. Here's what you need:

• 1/2 yellow onion 
• 1 pint of mushrooms, I used oyster mushrooms, but you could use shiitake, porcini, or any other mushroom of choice 
• 1/2 cup of red wine (the golden rule is to pick a wine you want to keep drinking throughout the meal)
• cherry tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter 
• parmigiano-reggiano cheese 
• a pinch of crushed red pepper
• salt & pepper 

First clean the mushrooms by wiping them with a damp cloth. Although there is a fair amount of debate on this subject, I am from the school of thought that believes: whatever you do, do not run them under water to clean them. 

Dice the onions into tiny little pieces and saute them in 1 tablespoon of olive oil. 

Once the onions are softened and have turned a golden brown color, add the mushrooms and cherry tomatoes into the pan and saute until they are softened and slightly shriveled. This will take about 8-10 minutes.  

For the tomato sauce base, Mario Batali recommends you make his simple tomato sauce. Since it was a weeknight, I decided to use Trader Joe's Arrabiata sauce, which has a little bit of a kick.  

Add 1 cup of the tomato sauce, 1/2 cup of dry red wine, 1 tablespoon of butter,  a pinch of crushed red pepper, and a sprinkle of salt.

Bring the sauce to a boil and then simmer until it reaches it reaches a thick consistency. 

Right about the time the sauce is done, the dough should be ready to turn into pasta.  Take the dough and roll it out with a rolling pin as flat as you can.  Or you can improvise with can of salt ...totally okay.  

Your pasta machine should be set to the main roller.  Take a little bit of flour and dust the machine so the dough doesn't stick. 

Slide the dough through the two rollers in the pasta machine to further flatten it.

It took about 5 times through the rollers, as well as various adjustments to the machine to reach the desired thinness of the pasta. 

We broke the pasta into several smaller pieces to make a couple of very long flat sheets.

The pasta machine comes with several attachments to make various pasta shapes, including spaghetti and fettuccine. Once you switch the attachment, it's very easy to slide the sheets of pasta through to cut the pasta into fettuccine. Now is also a great time to bring a pot of water to a boil to cook the pasta.  

Once the water is boiling, drop the fettuccine in and cook for 3-4 minutes. Then, use tongs and stir the cooked pasta into the mushroom ragu to evenly coat it in the sauce. 

We served the mushroom ragu with simply steamed green beans and topped it with flakes of fresh parmigiano-reggiano cheese.

Even though this wasn't the quickest meal (it took about 1.5 hours start to finish), I thought it was well worth the effort. Next time, I'll probably try a mix of whole wheat and all purpose flour, but I wouldn't change a thing about the sauce. It was absolutely delicious! 

Tortilla Espanola

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While living in Spain, I was lucky enough to have a wonderful home-stay family.  Pepe and Margarita were two wonderful individuals who had welcomed foreigners into their home since before I was born.  As it was my first time in a foreign country, they were also respectful to my sometimes sensitive American palate.  When they served me sardines with bones in them, they immediately understood my petrified look and never offered them to me again.  I am an adventurous eater, but I can absolutely not tolerate bones in my fish.  That being said, Margarita consistently prepared some of the best Spanish food I've ever eaten.  One of those dishes was a traditional Spanish dish, tortilla española.  

To make this dish you will need:  

• 3/4 Cup Olive Oil
• 3 medium Russet potatoes
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 6 eggs

To begin, peel the potatoes.  This can be a time consuming task if you don't have a proper vegetable peeler, but my mom is an expert.  She peeled the potatoes so fast we were having trouble snapping a picture of her in action!

Next, finely slice the potatoes.  For this step, you can simply use a knife and cutting board, but we were lucky enough to use a mandolin for the first time!  I must say, this is an awesome kitchen tool and highly recommend it after seeing how easy it made slicing the potatoes.  It would have taken us ten times as long, at minimum, to accomplish the same task using a knife.

Once the potatoes are prepped, set them aside in a large bowl.  Next, peel the onion and slice it into thin slivers.

Now you are ready to begin cooking.  Heat the olive oil in a large and deep frying pan.  When it is sufficiently hot, add the potatoes and onions to the pan.  Continuously mix the potatoes and onion, ensuring they are cooking evenly, about 20 minutes.

When the potatoes are almost done cooking, beat the eggs in a bowl until they are a pale yellow color.  Transfer the potatoes from the frying pan to the egg mixture using a slotted spoon.  Keep the remaining oil in the frying pan. 

At this point I want to emphasize the importance of the egg-to-potato ratio.  The mixture should be egg heavy, with a fair amount of potatoes.  As you can see in the picture above, we had more of a potato-egg bath situation going on.  Truthfully, we should have used half the amount of potatoes that  the original recipe suggested.  You will see the result of this misstep below.

Back to our regularly scheduled program.....

Return the mixture to the frying pan and cook uncovered until the bottom is golden brown.  

The next step is where the tricky part comes in.  You have to remove the tortilla from the frying pan so you can flip it and cook to the other side.  To accomplish this, we flipped the frying pan onto a strong flat surface (baking sheet, plate, etc). An expert like my Spanish mom could do this in her sleep and make it look like a piece of cake.  In our case, it took three of us to accomplish this task....and we still weren't totally successful.

Once the toritlla is on the flat surface, add a tablespoon more olive oil to the frying pan and return it to the frying pan. Let the dish cook thoroughly, another 3-5 minutes.

When you are done, slide the tortilla out of the frying pan onto a plate and slice to serve.  The photo below is what this dish should look like when complete.

Photo courtesy of Saveur

As you can see below, the shape of our tortilla ended up being somewhat less perfect. Actually, it looked kind of like a scrambled tortilla española! But we promised to share our kitchen success and failures with our readers.  For perfectionists like Liz and myself (OK, mostly me) this was a tough hit to our cooking egos. Although it wasn't in the perfect form, the flavors were still perfect and it was truthfully one of the most popular dishes of the night!

If you try this recipe, let us know if you have more success in getting the proper shape than us!  What was your biggest cooking fail?