Pork Chops & Chicken

Toro and Coppa, Boston

            

Visiting with Toro recently, it was my first time eating there. I can't believe it's taken me this long to get over there. We're working with Toro on an upcoming beer dinner. This was organized between me and Jen Fields, the general manager. We're old pals in the restaurant industry from back in the Charlie's Kitchen days. Awesome chick who loves beer and asked us to come in, try the food, and hopefully do a beer dinner with them. I contacted her later on with an idea I had about filling the summer with a series of beer dinners hosted all over the city.

BeerAdvocate presents Things We Love: Summer of Beer @ Toro

So, now that it is happening, time to put the food to the test. These are Ken Oringer restaurants, so we knew they would be phenomenal. But what we didn't know, was just how laid back and cool these places are. So relaxed and inviting, you could just hang out there all day drinking and eating small plates.

We stopped by Toro last week for a quick bite to eat first. Please forgive my iPhone pics in a dark restaurant.

Coppa (pigs neck charcuterie) and house made liverwurst. Locally sourced meats with head-to-tail philosophy.

 

That coppa tasted so amazing. And the liverwurst was super fresh and delicious. Simple foods, no fluff to to them, but insanely delicious.

 

Pork wrapped dates stuffed with Marcona almonds and salt cod fritters with fried lemon peel and squid ink aoili.

 

 

Braised short rib and Spanish-style grilled corn elote with garlic aoili and cheese and lime.

 

The dates seem simple, bacon wrapped dates is not entirely original but it's the quality of the pork and dates. Not to mention Marcona almonds. It's the perfect bite. The salt cod fritters were excellent. I love salt cod. The lemon peel looks like an onion ring. It ads the right amount of lemon and sweetness of all tings, from the rind once it's been fried. The squid ink aoili was nice, but a little bit much. I only say that because I am a hot mess and end up wearing it versus eating it. I escaped this time time, but my table wasn't so lucky.

Short ribs are one my favorite things on Earth. If you can nail that knife-not-required softness of the meat, then you are winning. This is was super rich and flavorful. It was also a nice sized portion of meat rather than a huge hulking piece. You don't need massive portions in a restaurant like this. Especially with the corn!

Aye aye aye! That corn was amazing. Super garlicky, zesty, and fattening with all that aoili and cheese on top. It was so amazing, and my stupid iPhone just didn't do it any justice by way of pictures. Pair this corn with their Spanish cider that drinks exactly like a sour lambic or gueze and you have an unbelievable combo.

 

Two days later, we headed back to Toro for lunch and power meeting about the upcoming beer dinner. More coppa, more dates, and now a chicken sandwich and white bean gazpacho.

Milanesa Bocadillo: Fried chicken sandwich with Oaxaca cheese, avocados, chipotle mayo, and refried black beans.

Chilled white bean puree with lots of garlic, cumin, and olive oil, sprinkled with some edible flowers.

 

 

Later that day, we stopped by Coppa for a quick drink. we had time to kill before meeting some fellow chocolate lovers for a drink at Max Brenner. But before that we must go back.

Two days before we had dinner at Toro. We were then told to go to Eastern Standard for Jamie Bissonnette's birthday drunk-a-thon. I call it that now because that's what happened to every single one of us who attended this. I brought Todd to come meet Jamie, thinking these two would get along famously since they are both homegrown Boston punks who are the top of their games professionally. Turns out they already knew each other from a long time ago. This is where the trouble began though. Catching up on old times and slamming back expensive shots of bourbon and Narragansett's, Todd and Jamie got tanked. Jamie was walked out by two friends and left speaking a whole other language and Todd left speaking his famed Toddinese. That's an unintelligible form of drunk speak, Blurb, glarg, nahhhhrrrrr, that I have to try and decipher while putting his ass in a cab.

The Toro people just laughed at us when we came in. But when we went into Coppa, Jamie looked like he was still hurting. So this is how he paid us back. "Oh you guys just had a bit of lunch at Toro? You're kind of full? Well, here's some whipped lardo, and some summer pasta. Load up kids, you don't want that going to waste." Damn you, Jamie! Damn you!

 

First thing's first. Walking down to Coppa, we ran into our buddy Phil, who works at the South End Formaggio Kitchen. SEFK is directly across from Coppa. He told us to swing down and get a Merman. A summer Italian-style shandy with Hell or High Watermelon wheat from 21st. Amendment. It's all about the glass and this quote from Zoolander:

Larry Zoolander: I just thank the Lord she didn't live to see her son as a mermaid. Derek Zoolander : Mer-man! [high-pitched cough]  Mer-man!

 

 

Testa, pig's head terrine with tomato tapenade. Baccala, salt cod crostini.

 

Effing fantastic. Look at all that fish on the salt cod crostini. And best of all it's pretty cheap. Both at Toro and Coppa, everything was reasonably priced. These two small plates could have easily gone for $15 or higher. And it's so good people would pay it.

 

"Hey guys, thanks for getting me so wasted at ES, have a little Whipped Lardo. I will be back in the kitchen while your heart begins to beat slower and gets clogged."

Whipped Lardo with pickled gooseberries and Coda di maiale, wood oven-roasted pigs tails with mostarda glaze.

 

Yummy, greasy, sweet, fatty, salty pigs tails. Pick them up and eat them with your hands. Deliciousness in all ways. That whipped lardo though, this is what the restaurant refers to as "meat butter." It's whipped up pork fat and balanced with a tart, vinegary, pickled gooseberries and served with rosemary crostinis. We may have thought Jamie wanted to kill us, but then we tasted it and we fully understand how delicious it really was even if we did begin to feel our hearts beating at a much slower pace.

And then as if our pant buttons weren't about to pop off at any second, this gets sent our way. Maybe he really did want to kill us. Death by expanded bellies... i.e. Big Trouble in Little China.

Oricchiette con Verdure, house made pasta with blistered cherry tomatoes, zucchini, escarole, and garum.

For me, this was all about the garum and the zucchini. Garum is a fish sauce or condiment used to flavor dishes like this. Such a simple, yet so rich and such a hugely flavorful dish. I am in love with it.

 

Todd and I both, can't believe it took us this long to venture over to these two awesome places, but now they won't be able to get rid of us. And the upcoming beer dinner at Toro is going to be EPIC!!! Spanish food and beer. It doesn't get any better than that.

 

New York By Way Of Food

 

 

I just spent a spectacular weekend in New York. Did some pretty awesome food touring. I did bring my good camera down with me, but unfortunately there were some technical issues with the camera and I wasn't able to get high resolution images. I did have my iphone with me though. Sadly it's first generation and it just doesn't do any of these places justice. But we will get through it as best as we can.

 

 

A quick flight from Boston to NY and we took a tour of Union Beer Distributors as our first stop. One of the largest warehouses for craft beer. Then we were whisked off to grab a quick lunch at this amazing taco joint near the warehouse. Los Hermanos. A tortilla factory in Bushwick where they have begun to include making some tacos, quesadillas, and tortas.

 

A little carnitas and pollo tacos. These were delicious.

 

 

Then we went to the Astor Center for a quick class on cocktail infusions with oils and hydrosols and some distillation demonstrations. Taught by Dave Arnold, Director of Technology, FCI and Audrey Saunders, Mixologist and owner of Pegu Club.

This was a fun class to taste how you can distill flavors into alcohols like peanut flavored bourbon, and assam tea flavors with chocolate, and blue cheese flavors infused. To the instructions of how oils are to be used in cocktails and what exactly are hydrosols. Johnny Iuzzini, the Executive Pastry Chef of Jean Georges and from Top Chef: Just Desserts came and sat in on the class as well.

I thought Audrey Saunders was extremely knowledgeable and gave a great presentation. Dave Arnold was a crack up. Trying to focus on talking to the class while maintaining his distilling device. Shows how much I learned I can't remember the devices proper name.

 

We skipped the mingler after the class and went straight to Momofuku Noodle bar. All I am going to say is that we were treated very well here. The food is amazing. It's a ramen noodle bar with some off centered offerings that don't exactly fit with a noodle bar theme but still rock non the less.

 

 

Jars of pickled veg and kimchi.

 

 

Hamachi and Arctic Char plates.

 

 

Amazing beat salad with bacon and a yuzu yougurt and chicken wings.

 

 

The greatest thing on planet Earth. Pork Buns Momofuku style. Two pieces of pork belly with pickles and sauce wrapped up like a taco with a steamed bun. Un-fucking-believable. Trust me.

 

Spicy sausage and cashew ramen and Momofuku house ramen with pork, nori, fishcake, and poached egg.

 

The aftermath. We decimated our food. Great hospitality at Momofuku and amazing food. For some reason I didn't take pictures of dessert, but yes we did have some. Apple pie cake truffles, and pecan pie ice cream with spiced pecans at the bottom. Salty pecan pie ice cream was amazing, and the apple pie truffles were pieced of pie, battered and deep fried. Once again, simply amazing food.

 

Katz's Deli.

 

 

Saturday afternoon at Katz's Deli in the Lower East Side is a fucking mad house. It must said. It's organized chaos of rude, fat, pushy assholes all cramming in for a sandwich and a knish. But it's a classic iconic place and once you get a bite of that hot pastrami on rye, you would soon rather kick a kid in the eye just to get back inside and grab a sandwich. The place is legendary.

And yes it's the place where Meg Ryan had her orgasm scene in When Harry Met Sally.

 

 

 

 

 

Psssht. You betta ax somebody. Hot pastrami on rye with mustard. Matzo ball soup and a sweet potato knish.

 

Sunday Morning we took an awesome tour of an underground train system found in Brooklyn to be the oldest in the world. Amazing tour and a great way to say you know Brooklyn inside and out. This was us going into the tunnel by the Trader Joes on Atlantic Ave.

 

After this we went to Prime Meats in Brooklyn for a late brunch.

 

 

 

Punch of the day and house made warm pretzels with butter.

 

 

 

Poached egg on mushrooms with bratwurst and toast, spaetzel and mushrooms.

 

Steak and frites and grilled German Leberkäse with eggs an frites. Note the orange yolk color of these beautiful farm fresh eggs.

 

 

Thick cut bacon.

 

 

Red cabbage and celery salad.

 

 

 

Prime Meats Manhattan. Probably the best Manhattan I have had in a while. Even Sara Hougaboom would approve.

 

 

 

A little Underberg never hurt anyone.

 

 

 

And some chocolate cake and creme brulee. And despite all this food, we didn't feel gross or weighed down after the meal. That's how you roll in Brooklyn. Full bellies full of fine food and amazing drinks. And then you are ready to rock it for the night.

 

Monday comes along and it's time for a radio interview on Cathy Erway's show Let's Eat In. Shane and Todd took the reigns for this one.

 

 

And since the radio station is at Roberta's, we stayed for some banging pizza.

 

 

 

And that is a fine way to eat through New York. One thing that is missing from this post is a special trip to Manhattan to Sushi Yasuda for some of the best sushi in America. That deserves it's own post though as there are so many pictures of the most delectable sushi I have ever had in my life.

Life Is But A Bowl Of Cherries

Red, juicy, delicious, sweet cherries. Just playing around with my camera and taking pictures of cherries for when I made Chocolate Cherry Ice Cream. I love the colors and I love my new camera.

 

Bourbon Pecan Chocolate Cupcakes With Bourbon Hot Fudge Frosting

I love chocolate, I love Bourbon, and I love cupcakes. Why not combine all three? This is what happens when I have cravings at midnight and I have to do something about it right away.

This won't be another one of my tl;dr (too long, didn't read) posts. Just a simple recipe with a few a additions and viola, Bourbon Pecan Chocolate Cupcakes.

First thing you need to to know is that this is the very best chocolate cake recipe of all time. I don't mean fancy fuck-all cakes that have no flour, added coffee, or blah, blah, blah added to them. This is for straight up chocolate cake. Now, I did tweak the recipe for the cupcakes, but you need to know that this recipe is makes simply the best chocolate cake in the world. Super moist, and super chocolate-y.

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup Hershey's cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup of milk
1/2 vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
*1 cup boiling water

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.

VARIATIONS:
ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.

THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.

BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.

CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.

What a Hershey's recipe? Yes! Hershey's unsweetened cocoa is actually world class. Only snobs will shun it because it's from Hershey's. Eff them! You don't have to use Hershey's if you don't want to, but certainly follow this recipe. I used Droste because it was on sale when I bought it. You know how expensive Whole Foods is and when they put stuff on sale, it's a jump at moment.

What I did to change the recipe was, I added one cup of chopped pecans to the cake batter. I found that after they were baked they tasted amazing, but next time I will probably roll the frosted cupcakes in chopped pecans instead. It's up to you. Either way its still delicious.

Instead of boiling water, I heated 1 cup +2 tbls Buffalo Trace Bourbon. Add one cup to a sauce pan and heat. Add the 2 tbls of bourbon to the batter itself. Do Not let it boil. Just heat it up to the point before it boils and add it to the batter.

Bake as recipe calls for.

 

For the frosting I just tweaked another classic recipe I found for a chocolate butter cream that calls for hot fudge.

Chocolate Fudge Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 cup hot fudge topping
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

Directions

1. Cream together the butter or margarine with the shortening.
2. Sift the cocoa with the confectioners' sugar and add to the creamed mixture. Mix together adding 1 tablespoon at a time of milk to keep mixture smooth. Don't add more than 1/4 cup of milk.
3. Add the hot fudge topping and the vanilla extract. Blend until smooth and creamy.

I simply subbed the milk for the Buffalo Trace Bourbon. I added little bits more at a time if the frosting was too thick.

And there you have it. Super moist, very decadent, bourbon-y, deliciousness in the guise of a simple cupcake.

Dinner @ Green Street

I realize this is my second post on dinner at Green Street, but I can't help it. It's my neighborhood bar and restaurant and I love this place. This is what a typical dinner at Green Street is like.

Braised short rib with citrus on a bed of creamed cabbage.

There was no bone for the short rib which was fine with me since it only gets in the way at presentation time anyway. The meat was so soft and rich. You barely had to use your fork to cut a bit out of it. This should be an entree portion. It tastes so amazing. And the creamed cabbage was so soft and delicious. The orange added a good little pop to the dish.


House made franks and beans.

Oh man this was delicious! The beans were good and sweet. The franks were nice and soft and flavorful. The mustard added a nice tangy kick to balance the sweet from the beans. Not to mention mustard is classic with franks.

And now one of my favorites.

Chicken Schnitzel with brown butter, mashed potatoes and greens.

This is my absolute favorite. It's pan fried chicken schnitzel with brown butter perfectly fried and juicy. The potatoes are delicious and creamy underneath the chicken. And the greens with a light vinaigrette, cherry tomatoes and fennel add freshness to the dish. God I love the chicken schnitzel.


Macaroni and Cheese with bacon and tomatoes.

The mac'n'cheese is awesome. It's a bit pricey for mac'n'cheese, but its really creamy, rich and delicious. Plus it has bacon in it. Bacon makes the whole world go around, and makes something like this fantastic. It's so rich and delicious that it's hard to finish it all. But that's worth it to me. I want a meal that makes me satisfied and is filling. It's a great adult version of a kids classic.

After dinner, the owner Dylan Black surprised us with a rare beer offering.

A Russian Imperial Stout from Brouwerji De Molen in the Netherlands. 11% abv with a strong Belgian influence in nose and steel-y malty taste. Very big and rich but drinkable. Notes of toasted malts, vanilla, caramel, and chocolate. Nice little night cap from the dinner above.

Clearly you can seen why I keep writing about Green Street.

Drink of the Summer: Chronic Iced Tea

Earl Grey iced tea, Germain-Robin brandy, Bärenjäger (honey liqueur), and lemon.

Brought to you by the lovely folks at The Green Street Grill in Cambridge, Ma.

Update: I originally posted that this was made with St. Germain Elderflower liquor. When I went back to order another one of these drinks I found that it called for Germain-Robin Brandy. Quite a different thing. But you can see where the confusion came in with the name. Not to mention everyone is using St. Germain now on their cocktail menus.

Mississippi Mud Cake With Bourbon Espresso Glaze

(This is an older picture of the cake. Smoother bundt pan.)

I live for this cake and crave it on a regular basis. I make the best regular chocolate cake. Simple, no guffs about it super moist chocolate cake and chocolate frosting. But every once in a while I need a kick to the cake. I found this recipe ages ago. I don't even remember what I was looking for at the time I think it had to do with bourbon. It doesn't even matter now.

This recipe calls for bourbon two times. In the cake and in the glaze. I am all about it.

Mississippi Mud Cake With Bourbon Espresso Glaze
Via Bon Appétit, July 1999




Ingredients:

Cake

2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, cut in to pieces
6 oz unsweetened chocolate or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup brewed espresso, or very strong coffee
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup bourbon (Buffalo Trace)
4 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Glaze

6 tbls. unsalted butter, cut into pieces
6 tbls. packed brown sugar
2 tsp. instant espresso powder
6 tbls. whipping cream
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 tbls. Bourbon (Buffalo Trace)

Make cake:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 12-cup Bundt pan. 

*Use a rounded bundt pan over the novelty pans. I used a novelty in this example of making the cake because it's all I had on hand, but I find that the smoother pan is better.

 

Mix flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl.

Combine butter, chocolate and brewed espresso in heavy medium saucepan. Stir over low heat until chocolate and butter melt (mixture may look curdled). Remove from heat. Add sugar and bourbon. Whisk until sugar dissolves and mixture is smooth.

Using electric mixer, beat eggs and vanilla in large bowl until blended. Gradually beat in chocolate mixture. Add flour mixture and stir just until blended.

Transfer batter to pan; smooth top.

  

 

Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean and cake begins to pull away from sides of pan, about 45 minutes. Cool in pan on rack 15 minutes. Invert cake onto rack; cool completely. 

From the older images.

For glaze:

  

Stir butter, golden brown sugar and instant espresso powder in small saucepan over medium heat until butter melts. Stir in cream. Simmer 1 minute. Remove from heat.

* I forgot to snap an image of the bourbon going in the glaze, but it is in there.

Gradually add powdered sugar, whisking until smooth. Mix in bourbon. Cool slightly.

 

Place cake atop rack on baking sheet. Slowly drizzle glaze over cake, allowing glaze to run down sides of cake and cover as much of cake as possible. Spoon any glaze drippings from baking sheet over cake. Let stand 30 minutes. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Cover with cake dome. Let stand at room temperature.)

* I do not drizzle the glaze on the cake over a rack. I did that one time and wound up wasting a ton of glaze. I do it right on my cake container and let the glaze drizzle where it may. Once you do that, you get nice little pile ups that you can spread on your cake slice when you cut into the cake. Not the prettiest thing you can do, but tastier.

Dear God,

Would you make it possible to bring back the McRib to Massachusetts? If you already have them in the state, could you bring them to Cambridge please?

I need one, must have one, want to swim in the sauce...... Please bring them back.

I can do nothing to stop this obsession. Even the fake ones at 7-11 will not suffice. There is just no comparison to the sauce, and they put no pickles and onions on it. It's just not the same.

I know you understand my pain in dealing with this absence. Please do the right thing and make a miracle happen.

Love,

Scandalous Candice

[Images via Houstonfoodie.com and Foodfacts.com]