The Bitten Word

Tuscan Kale with Shallots and Crisp Salami

Fine Cooking (June/July 2010)

We were extremely happy with the other two dishes we'd made from the "Greens Guide" in Fine Cooking's June issue -- the Rainbow Chard with Pine Nuts, Parmesan, and Basil and the Quick-Sautéed Collard Ribbons. Both of those were unique, delicious ways to cook some of the early-summer greens that'd been piling up in our fridge.

But we were most excited about this Tuscan Kale with Shallots and Crisp Salami. Why? Well, obviously because of the salami. We loved the thought of adding a salty cured meat to kale, and the idea of cooking it a little to make it crispy. As longtime Bitten Word readers know, we think just about any dish can be improved by adding meat (although we're still tweaking our recipe for Rib-eye Chocolate Chip Cookies).

Anyway, in short, Fine Cooking had us at "crisp salami."

Turns out, though, we actually may have liked this even better without the meat.

Spice-Crusted Grilled Pork Tenderloin

Cook's Country (July 2010)

We were instantly skeptical when we spotted this recipe in Cook's Country. The photo of their finished pork (which you can see below) has an amazing crust on it.  The spices are clinging to the meat for dear life, as if they've been fused together by some magical force. 

Surely, we thought, this image has been altered. We were certain that if we made this at home, the spice crust would fall off while on the grill, leaving our poor tenderloin exposed.

Turns out we were terribly, terribly wrong. Leave it up to the geniuses at America's Test Kitchen to come up with a way to fuse spices to meat so that it comes off the grill perfectly seasoned, with a beautiful crust.

Good Bite Interview: More About Zach and Clay Than You Likely Want to Know

GoodBite.com reached out to us a few weeks ago, asking if we'd be willing to let them profile us on their site. Head over there to read their Q&A with us, including DC restaurant suggestions, our food raves & rants, and some suggestions for a Fourth of July menu.

We're also thrilled to be mentioned today in the DC edition of Thrillist, a daily email about happenings in our nation's capital. The call-out is in reference to our contribution to 55 Knives -- a cookbook collection of recipes from food bloggers. You can check out the book or get your own copy here!

Chocolate Sabayon With Sea Salt and Olive Oil, and Homemade Nutter Butters

Last fall, our friends Drew and Ralph spent a weekend in Chicago. Drew and Ralph are both big-time foodies, and they asked us for any food recommendations in the Windy City. We had a few (Ann Sather, Rick Bayless' Frontera Grill). 

And we knew the perfect person to ask for more ideas: one of our readers, Rina. She'd sent us numerous great recipe ideas before, and we knew she was really plugged in to the Chicago food scene. Rina was happy (we hope!) to oblige, and she sent a terrific list of good restaurants for Drew and Ralph to try.

At the top of Rina's picks? The Bristol, a new gastropub in Chicago's Bucktown neighborhood. Rina raved about its creativity and constantly changing menu. And when Drew and Ralph went there for brunch, they fell in love with the place.

All that brings us to this: When Zach was in Chicago for work a couple weeks ago, he knew he had to make time for dinner at the Bristol.

Dinner was outstanding: An appetizer of charred spring onions tossed with crispy goat belly, topped with a light mustard cream sauce. The entree was a crisp-skinned sea trout on a bed of fava beans and flageolets. Perfection!

But then it was time for dessert.

The server came over to tell Zach the three dessert options that evening. "First," she said, "we have a chocolate sabayon, sprinkled with a little sea salt and drizzled with olive oil, and that's served with a couple house-made Nutter Butter cookies. Second, we have--"

"I'm sorry," Zach interrupted. "I'm going to stop you there. There is absolutely no need for you to continue. I have to order that."

After eating the dessert and blacking out for a while over how good it was, Zach came to. And he had a singular mission: recreating this dessert at home.

Grilled Steak and Arugula Salad with White Beans and Shiitake Mushrooms

Fine Cooking (June/July 2010)

We're not picky eaters.  There aren't really any foods we won't eat.  Oh, Clay's not a huge fan of dill. And Zach's still learning to love raw tomatoes. And neither of us really enjoys mayonnaise or sour cream.

But there is one strong food aversion in our household: Zach doesn't like mushrooms. At all. Cooked or raw, there's just something about them that he just can't stand.

However.

This amazingly tasty salad just might be the first step on Zach's road to mushroom redemption. 

Quick-Sautéed Collard Ribbons

Fine Cooking (June/July 2010)

We're still loving Fine Cooking's "Greens Guide," a lengthy feature on new ways to prepare early-summer greens. Seriously, it's one of those features worth ripping out and tacking up on your fridge all summer long. We were extremely pleased with the Rainbow Chard with Pine Nuts, Parmesan, and Basil we made earlier, and we were eager to try these Quick-Sautéed Collard Ribbons.

Collard greens are actually a very familiar sight in our kitchen. Our CSA hands them out by the armload this time of year, and we both grew up eating them at home.

Now, we've extolled the kitchen skills of Zach's Granny many times already, she of the Fried Okra, Chocolate Gravy and Apple Stack Cake. And if you went to her house for dinner, you could almost always count on Granny serving collard greens (or, as she'd call them, "a mess a' collards"). 

Granny was a very, very fine cook, and we're sure the collards she made were excellent. But she always prepared them in a very old-school Southern way -- sautéed in pork fat, salt and vinegar and then cooked down to within an inch of their lives. By the time they ended up on your plate, Granny's collards were a brownish mushy mound of limp, stewed greens.

With all due respect to Granny, we think we've found a recipe we like better. With just a few little innovations, these Quick-Sautéed Collard Ribbons from Fine Cooking rescue Granny's greens from an overcooked, over-salted fate.

Chicken Burgers with Spicy Peanut Sauce

Food & Wine (June 2010)

Flipping burgers on the grill is a quintessential rite of summer. And while we'll never tire of the classic taste of a nice grilled burger piled high with fresh fixings, it's fairly easy to fall into a burger rut.

Which is why we were so excited to make these chicken burgers. They sounded like they'd be light and summery, and we were already salivating at the thought of that spicy peanut sauce.

As it turned out, these burgers were delicious -- but they need a few tweaks.

Grilled Butter Lettuce with Buttermilk-Chive Dressing

Fine Cooking (June/July 2010)

For years now, one of our go-to dinner-party dishes has been a grilled Caesar salad. 

We originally found the recipe in Young & Hungry by Dave Lieberman, an excellent cookbook from the former Food Network host. When we were just beginning to get serious about cooking, Lieberman's books were a primary resource for us, especially when it came to entertaining. He has great ideas for party food (including some seriously delicious crostini) and little snacks. His recipes are perfect for beginner cooks: uncomplicated, crowd-pleasing dishes. 

But there were two of Dave's recipes that really blew us away: Braised Hoisin Short Ribs (by far our favorite short rib recipe to date) and a Deconstructed Pan Grilled Caesar. 

The short ribs are a "few times a year" kind of affair. The salad, however, is a reoccurring staple at our table. We've served this salad at least 20 times to guests. And though it's very simple in its execution, it consistently gets raves. Our friend Ralph once said he thought it was the best salad he'd ever had -- a high compliment. 

Grilling a salad is a great dinner-party trick: It's fun to dress it in front of your guests, sprinkling it with Parmesan, lemon juice, parsley and anchovy oil. (If you make the salad, don't skip the anchovy oil, even if you're feeling squeamish about using anchovies -- it really makes the dish.)

We'd honestly never thought about grilling other salads, but after we saw this Grilled Butter Lettuce in the most recent Fine Cooking, we tried it the first chance we had. 

Cherry Cobbler

Everyday Food (June 2010)

We often buy ingredients having no idea what we'll end up doing with them (hopefully we're not alone!).

Such was the case last weekend when we picked up a bunch of fresh cherries while browsing the market. They were so beautiful and wonderfully red, we just had to have them. 

So we brought them home, plunked them into fridge and there they sat. We had a handful of them, but we wanted to do something special with them. The problem, it seemed, with having such beautiful fruit is that you want to do something equally beautiful with it.

We think we did pretty well by the fruit with these cherry cobblers. 

Rainbow Chard with Pine Nuts, Parmesan, and Basil

Fine Cooking (June/July 2010)

Our CSA is giving us lovely spring greens each week, to the point that our refrigerator is almost literally overflowing with kale, collards, and rainbow chard.  

Fine Cooking must be peeking inside our fridge, because their "Greens Guide" feature in the current issue is just what we needed!