Foodie Field Trip

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I loved field trips in school. The excitement of it all–boarding the bus, riding into Houston to visit the zoo or the Natural Science Museum (they had shrunken heads!). Having money for snacks and souvenirs. Extra opportunities to be with my friends and study the behavior of boys in a new environment. In his hometown of Huntsville, Alabama, Bill took many field trips to the NASA Space Center, which was great because he loved the huge rocket, the lunar landing video game (before there were video game arcades), and the freeze dried ice cream.

Now we are grown up and we take field trips to restaurants and bakeries. In Drogheda. And we love it.

Last Saturday, we joined a crew of food bloggers to meet Jeni and Reuven, owners of Eastern Seaboard  to learn about their successful restaurant as well as their two new ventures, The Brown Hound Bakery and Mo’s To Go.

We assembled at the Brown Hound where Jeni and Reuven invited us into their delightful bakery.  Jeni and Reuven worked with New York baker Craig Thompson to develop the recipes and train the staff at Brown Hound.  Many of the offerings are inspired by Thompson’s grandmother’s recipes, and I have to say, Thompson must have the most elegant grandmother ever.

I can’t imagine entering the Brown Hound without expressing a few Wows. A mix of art gallery and Victorian parlor, the interior positively gleams with glass and chrome illuminating piles of scones,  towers of cookies, and cakes and pies topped with exquisite meringue and icing.  The cool metals are warmed by painted cake stands and platters and the most comforting of all sights–baskets of beautiful bread. Surfaces not covered by enticing edibles feature glassware by artist John Derian, or bottles of olive oil (which are art in themselves).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jeni and Reuven were so kind to gift us each with a box of bakery samples, tied with a Brown Hound ribbon. I’ve heard that these treats did not last long for anyone. There’s a particular buzz about the chocolate banana bread and I have to join in that chorus. It’s moist, perfectly sweet, with huge chunks of delicious chocolate. We also bought a brown butter cake with lemon curd–beautiful to gaze upon, great texture, nicely tart lemon curd. I like that many of the cakes come in several sizes, including cupcake. We picked up a bottle of that gorgeous olive oil as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next door to Brown Hound is Mo’s To Go, a takeaway featuring some choices from Eastern Seaboard as well as an item of extreme interest to the Americans in the group–corndogs. Along with hush puppies and fried whitebait, sides of cold spicy noodles and tabbouleh, this is not your average chipper. Jeni told me that Mo’s is named after her mom, who supports her and Reuven in so many ways, including frequently leaving food for them to find when they get home. The idea of food as gift is embodied throughout all three of Reuven and Jeni’s eateries, through attention to ingredients, preparation and presentation.

After gawking over Brown Hound and Mo’s, we settled down for the best part of the evening–dinner. Eastern Seaboard has been open in Drogheda for a few years and has developed a loyal following. I mentioned to a Laytown friend that I was meeting some foodies in Drogheda for dinner. “Oh, are you going to Eastern Seaboard?” he guessed,  “You’ll love it.” Our seating was a 6:00 and the restaurant was already busy. Our end of the table decided to order several starters to share. An extremely good idea as we got to taste tons of things, including perfect calamari, a luscious pig’s cheek terrine with celeriac slaw, crab cakes, garlicky crab claws, and a butcher’s board featuring pork rillettes and an amazing black pudding, chorizo and pistachio ballotine.

For mains I had the sea bream special with lemon salt and pea shoots. I chose Asian slaw and sweet potato wedges for sides. The fish was delish, especially the skin, and my sides were two great tastes that taste great together. The vinegary sesame flavor of the slaw was particularly refreshing. Bill’s rabbit was outstanding, tender and luscious with sides of perfect spinach and balsamic-laced lentils. The rabbit loin was char-grilled and topped with a smoked bacon and rabbit “ragù.” The smokiness from both the grilling and bacon perfectly complemented the tender rabbit.

For dessert a I had the coffee jelly with ice cream, on recommendation from Clare of An American in Ireland. Clare grew up eating coffee jelly (aka jello) in Japan and was thrilled when she found that Reuven, also Japanese, had included it on Eastern Seaboard’s menu. I absolutely loved this light, flavorful dessert, and am a bit obsessed with it at the mo. Bill’s Little Pots of Warm Chocolate Heaven were exactly what it says on the tin, and included chocolate pop rocks, if you can believe it.

 



Reuven told us they opened Eastern Seaboard to provide a casual dining option. “Casual Dining” has a black mark in the US for its association with the proliferation of chain restaurants, but the idea that dinner should not require high heels or a bank loan is a good one, and welcome in Ireland. I love the food first attitude at Eastern Seaboard.  But don’t think they don’t let the atmosphere suffer! (I swear their smoking lounge is going to encourage more people to start smoking. You have to see it.) It’s so obvious that these guys care, and I’m thrilled to have spent an evening in their world.

Many thanks to Clare for organizing, and to all the other food bloggers for your stellar company:

Caryna’s Cakes

Daily Spud

Smorgasblog

Kuchennie

Gracie Bakes

Dinner du Jour

Katz Miaow

It is truly fun to dine with the food obsessed!

Um, Can I bum a cig? Don’t want to leave this smoking lounge!

Frito Pie, followed by a Fit of Genius

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Food longings are a part of expat life. Put a group of expats together and they start talking about foods they miss. They don’t have to be expats from the same country. Someone can tell me they miss eating yellow mangoes fresh from their back yard, and I’m like, Ah I know, I miss breakfast tacos!

Really, food longings are a part of regular life. Anyone who has ever moved to a new state and not been able to find Green Goddess salad dressing, or thinks about those oysters from that vacation in Florida, or misses her grandmother’s pecan pie knows food longing.

My expat food longings fall loosely into two categories. I miss my food routines–kitchen staples,  restaurant favorites–but I also miss foods that I rarely ate, but the fact that I can’t find them in Dublin intensifies the longing.

Fritos are in the absence makes fonder category. If you’ve never had a Frito, a Frito is a bit like a thick corn nacho chip. They’re a little greasy and a little processed and yet, you’ll eat the whole bag because munch a bunch of Fritos go with lunch. In the South* we might put chile and cheese on a pile of Fritos and call it Frito pie. Frito pie is a common festival food, served right in the Frito bag.

Bill and I were talking about Frito Pie one day and along came the longing. So I put Fritos on the list to bring back from our Texas trip, and recently Bill made chili and we had Frito Pie.

 

It was good.

In fact, Bill’s chili was great and perhaps a bit too elevated for Frito Pie. Chili is one of the few things I know how to make, and my recipe involves cooking garlic and onions, browning beef, opening a variety of cans–whole tomatoes, tomato paste, pinto beans–and adding plenty of chili powder and cumin. Makes a passable chili.

This is what Bill did:

First I soaked some ancho, pasilla and guajillo chiles in hot water for about 30 minutes. Then I whizzed these up in the food processor with a can of tomatoes, an onion and a few cloves of garlic. I passed the chile mixture through a fine strainer and then simmered the strained chile sauce until it was thick and brick-colored.  Next I browned a pound of beef mince and a pound of my homemade Mexican chorizo together and transferred it to a strainer over a bowl to drain. I separated the fat from the liquid and added the liquid to the chile sauce. The fat I used to fry a chopped onion and some minced garlic. When the onion was translucent I added a can of roasted green chiles, cumin, ground coriander, cocoa powder, some umami-bombs (marmite, maggi seasoning and soy sauce), the chile sauce, chicken broth and the browned meat. This simmered for a couple of hours before I added some masa harina to thicken it a bit and some chopped cilantro (coriander). My chili is normally not this complicated but I had fun experimenting.

The next day all the Fritos were gone and Bill had the genius notion to serve chili on roasted sweet potato wedges. Ladies and gentleman, this was fantastic. Chili should be served on sweet potato wedges at least 65% of the time. Not all the time as that would limit chili’s potential, but 65% is my recommendation.

Read an NPR Hidden Kitchens story about the masa origins of Fritos here.

*I never realized Frito Pie was a Southern thing until I tweeted about it and a fellow expat from the Midwestern US didn’t know what Frito Pie was, so I looked it up on Wikipedia and sure enough, Southern. Does seem Southern when you think about it.

Picnic Dining–Terrine and Deviled Eggs

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Picnic dining is my specialty. For me, a picnic meal is an excuse to wander through a lovely food shop and gather pâté, salami, cheese, pickles, chutney, olives, grapes, crusty bread and if a nice deli is available, perhaps some roasted veggies and chicken salad. (Central Market almond apricot chicken salad if you’re really lucky.) And of course picnic dining is my thing because I’m more of an eater than a cook.

But we reckoned some cooking was required for the Irish Foodies Picnics & Parties Cookalong. It’s not called a Shopalong after all. We started thinking about a nice terrine like the chicken and lemon terrine from On the Pig’s Back, but as Bill explored recipes he was attracted to an Eggplant/Auburgine Terrine from Saveur. The picnic was also the perfect opportunity to make the deviled eggs from Orangette I’ve been dreaming about, and I’d also get to use my egg plate!

The terrine is a bit involved and took a couple hours to roast the eggplant, make the custard layer, and assemble the terrine. Bill noticed the terrine recipe didn’t say to puree the red pepper, but it wouldn’t have matched the photo otherwise. He used a loaf pan as we don’t have a terrine pan. Bill made the terrine Thursday night, and we ate it for lunch Saturday along with some dressed greens, Parmesan cheese, olives and fantastic deviled eggs. The terrine is a perfect summer lunch; it makes plenty for several people. We were wondering if the custard layer is absolutely necessary, but it may help adhere the goat cheese, and it is an additional texture layer. Bill used St. Tola’s cheese which was delicious. Also, Bill was reminded that slicing and roasting eggplant is a very easy step, and it tastes great on its own, so we’re going to keep that in mind this summer as markets are bursting with the purple beauties.

Now back to the deviled eggs! My egg plate is one of the few things I smuggled under my skirts on the boat ride to Ireland (okay, it was a suitcase and an airplane). No Southern girl should be without one. Molly of Orangette cuts her eggs crosswise and removes a small slice on the bottom so they stand upright, which is a cute and clever approach, if you don’t have an egg plate! Bill is annoyed at the food processor that came with our apartment (moving soon hopefully to larger kitchen where a new food processor will join the family), so he made the short-cut aioli with a mortar and pestle. I loved the topping of aioli and fried capers on these eggs. Using the aioli instead of mixing basil and garlic in with the yolks highlights the different flavors, and the capers are a great salty crunch against the rich mayonnaise. I was really happy with how these turned out and just have to ignore the fact that I’ll probably eat five whole eggs by the time this day is through.

 

 

 

 

 

Panzanella with feta and olives

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My apologies for the crappy photo–I had already tasted the salad and couldn’t take the time out from eating for a proper photo.

Man, is this good. Panzanella is a Tuscan salad of bread and tomatoes. It’s a great use for stale bread, and tonight I happened to have some stale homemade wholemeal focaccia.  It’s best in the summer when the tomatoes are the tastiest, but cherry tomatoes are fairly good all year. It would be sublime with juicy, ripe garden tomatoes. The bread soaks up the tomato dressing so the salad is fairly dry. The feta and olives try to take it away from Tuscany in the direction of Greece but the basil keeps it firmly in Italy. This is adapted from a recipe published in the July 2011 issue of Cooks Illustrated.

Ingredients

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp Red wine vinegar
Salt & pepper
4 cups solid, crusty bread torn into 1-inch chunks
400g cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cucumber, peeled, cut in half, seeded and sliced thin
1 shallot or small red onion, sliced thin
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 215 C (425 F). Toss the bread with 2 tbsp of the olive oil and 1/4 tsp of salt. Spread in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Stir it once or twice if you don’t have a fan oven. When it’s lightly brown and toasty remove it and let cool.

Meanwhile, toss the tomatoes with 1/4 tsp salt in a large bowl. Dump in a colander and let drain over the bowl for 15-20 minutes.

Whisk the vinegar and remaining olive oil in the bowl with the juice drained from the tomatoes. Add the bread and some pepper, toss and let sit for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the remaining ingredients and toss. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 2.

Hints

You must use a really solid bread here or it will turn to mush. Sourdough from La Brea (available at SuperValu and sometimes Tesco) or Soul Bakery would be great.

Use the best olive oil you can afford. It makes a huge difference.

Leave out the feta and/or olives if you don’t like them.

Along the Tapas Trail

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On the wall at Havana on South Great George’s Street, a TV screen displays waves crashing and caressing a sunny beach, beckoning you to come away to a chilled-out place where time is measured by the tides. The people gathered here on Saturday afternoon were ready for a relaxing adventure, to seek out the sun, if only in the spicy flavors along the Tapas Trail. The group of five men and thirteen women sat along the bar and at small tables as dark-haired waitresses served platters of tapas: a pinxto with spanish tortilla, a slice of jamon, and an olive anchored to a piece of tomato bread with a wooden pick; a spicy chicken spring roll; prawns nestled together in a citrus garlic sauce. The platters passed by twice. And to drink, a glass of ruby wine, a Rioja.

At one point a man in a tight t-shirt got up from his laptop in the corner and took the hand of the woman behind the bar. They began to twirl around the small open space, silkily running their hands along each other’s shoulders and hips. There was a slight pull to join them, but only one glass of wine had been consumed and the guests were still shy.

This gathering at Havana was the first stop on a tapas trail sponsored by Campo Viejo on Saturdays and Wednesdays during June. At the same time across City Centre, tapas trekkers were gathering in the four other stops on the trail: Port House, Bar Pintxo, and the Andrews Street and Parliament Street locations of Salamanca. The five regiments would crisscross city centre, led by a guide in a Campo Viejo golf shirt and red apron, armed with a radio–“Bar Pintxos, come in. Are you ready for us, Bar Pintxos?”–and some Dublin trivia along the way. Before departing Havana each person received a ticket to be stamped at each location which would serve three tapas and a glass a Campo Viejo Rioja. The price for each participant, a mere €20.00.

The Havana contingent moved next to The Port House and were directed upstairs to a room lined with wine bottles and candles, cozy and cellar-like despite its first floor location. The furniture looked messily pushed to the side, as if the previous group had been desperate to dance, but these visitors stood along the walls as the manager told the history of the restaurant and described that tapas that would be served–a paella, Pinchos Morunos (chicken marinated in smoked paprika and oregano on a skewer) and patatas (potatoes) mojo . Traditionally cooked in sea water, the potatoes are boiled until the water evaporates leaving a sparkly salt coating and are served with a deep red sauce made with ground chiles, garlic and almonds. The serving of paella was generous and the smoked paprika flavor was delicious on the grilled chicken skewer. Finishing these treats, the trekkers started to realize that the €20 investment was better than a value, it was a steal.

Heading from The Port House to Salmanca, the group traipsed through the streets feeling that combination of self-consciousness and sense of purpose in being, or at least acting, like a tourist. Stopped outside the Dublin Tourist Centre in the former Church or St. Andrew, the guide talked about the Irish 5th Brigade that fought in the Spanish Civil War . She passed out lyric sheets to Christy Moore’s Viva La Quinta Brigada and led the tapas choir in song, although it was not apparent that anyone knew the melody. A survey with a very small sampling indicated that no one had even heard of the song. That did not stop the guide from starting again at the beginning (On the radio “Five more minutes, okay!) and setting a poor example for some passing tourists of Dublin’s busking talent. Later one participant pulled up a video of Christy Moore’s version on his phone. “It sounds more Irish when he does it,” he said.

At Salamanca, the crew stood around a few tall tables and were served adorable mini pork burgers with a teriyaki mayonnaise, Russian salad with smoked salmon, and another take on paella adorned with Dublin bay prawns. After a pause to appreciate a young woman dancing Flamenco, it was on to Bar Pinxto, a sister restaurant to The Port House, for a grilled pork sandwich, chicken marinated in garlic and a stew of chickpeas and black pudding. Finally, a short walk through the bustling streets with just a sprinkle of rain brought the group to the second Salamanca location. The tapas were served here buffet style–a fried prawn, beef skewer and a seafood stew with Calamari served in a scallop shell. At this last stop, the diners relaxed in a nook of tables while a gentleman played Spanish guitar.

Along the way it was revealed that three Spanish citizens were among the group, although the guide was unsuccessful in persuading either woman to sing or dance. Later it was further revealed that the small Spanish woman with long blond hair is a Spanish cook, as her friend started handing out cards and testifying to her friends cooking talents. “This is good,” the blond woman was heard to say a few times, “But when I do, better.”

Possibly true, but for this crowd, Dublin’s tapas offerings made for a perfect Saturday afternoon.