Joe's Burgers

One reviewer says it's the best burger in metropolitan DC after Ray's, but who knows. It's a very good burger, and a very good bun. Fries are good and the sweet potato fries are divine, served with a buttermilk ranch dressing to dip them in -- and they are served hot, straight out of the frier. The BLT is also very tasty, with a layer of ripe avocado added to the traditional ingredients.

Joe's is a cozy little restaurant in McLean, on Old Dominion Drive, just off Chain Bridge Road. It has a bright, freshly painted interior with some old retro signs to give it a whiff of the roadside diner. Burgers are cooked from scratch, so it's not fast food. There are about a dozen different burgers to choose from, including the Millionaire's Foie Gras Burger for $26 with a seared New York foie gras in it, and burgers made of turkey, lamb and ostrich. (My Joe's Classic was $9.50, without cheese but including fries.)

I didn't have any onion rings but probably put on a couple of pounds just watching them go by to other tables -- big, fat rings with puffy crust fresh out of the frier.

The meat for the burgers comes from the Organic Butcher of McLean next door. This is another bright interior with a great butcher case displaying open cuts and some packaged specialties like wild boar shoulder, duck breast and fresh rabbit. They get some beef and regular deliveries of chicken from the Polyface Farm featured so prominently in Michael Pollan's Omnivores Dilemma. Much of the meat is local, they say, though some is not. It's all fairly expensive, of course, with pork chops at $13.99 a pound and steaks above $20 a pound.

It's a little far for us for regular visits. If I was going to venture across the river for a burger, I'd probably just go to Ray's. But a good butcher is hard to find and it is on the way to the Tyson's Corner malls.

RIS

Ris Lacoste's new restaurant is terrific. Food, atmosphere, service are all great, and it's not so expensive that you can't indulge on a regular basis. We had appetizers, entrees and a bottle of wine, but you can also buy the hamburger -- which will probably be our next trip.

We started out with gnudis -- a trendy new dish that apparently is the stuffing from a filled pasta without the pasta. Described in the menu as ricotta dumplings with eggplant and tomato fondue with spinach and crisp prosciutto, it was a very tasty starter, with the fondue cooked to almost a tomato-paste intensity of flavor. We also had the asparagus and gingered grapefruit salad with miso and sesame vinaigrette, which was an elegant and refreshing seasonal dish. The asparagus was not undercooked, remaining ever so slightly crunchy but also very tender, while the flavor combinations were, as always with Ris, fresh and well-balanced.

What stole the show was the lemon salt crusted soft shell crab, served with fava bean purree and onion jam. The crabs, fried to perfection, burst with flavor in the crust, including a whiff of cayenne pepper that lent it a little fire. The crabs were good-sized and the entree portion was quite ample. The accompaniments, which also included spinach in the entree portion, softened the sea and fire with some sweet vegetable notes. I had an excellent North Carolina grouper from the "Fish on Friday" menu, served with a lemon and sweet pea risotto and a tomato fondue that, in contrast to the one with the gnudis, was light as a feather. The fish was pan-seared and one of those thick, meaty fillets that only restaurants seem to get. We had a very nice and moderately priced white Burgundy (Aligote, Domaine A. and P. de Villaine, Bouzeron, 2007) with the meal.

Ris, who waited a long time to get her own place, seemed very happy that the restaurant on 23rd and L translated her vision of a place that was informal but very fine in its dining choices. As sous chef for Kinkead, she mother-henned a whole group of cooks who have gone on to start their own restaurants in DC and elsewhere. As executive chef for 1789 in Georgetown, she hosted Julia Child's 90th birthday party in 2002. For the last several years, she has raised money and made plans for this restaurant.

The decor is serene and welcoming. Some of the Zagat reviewers described it as bland, like a hotel, but they haven't spent enough time in hotels, because each detail in RIS -- the lamps, the chairs, the tables, the plates, the silver, even the restroom -- is carefully chosen and elegant, not ordered by the gross. It is not an echo chamber designed to create an artificial buzz -- you can actually conduct a conversation while eating.

The menu has some of the old standbys from the Kinkead days, such as the signature lamb shank, but as the crab dish shows, it will evolve with new creations from Ris's talented hands. It's definitely a keeper for us.

Meatless Monday

I have no problem with Meatless Mondays, as long as the goal is not Meatless Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and so on.

I think Americans in general do eat too much meat and that the industrialized meat industry is pernicious. But I don't agree with animal rights activists who eventually would like to ban all slaughter of animals for food. As for the nutrition argument, I think the "health" opposition to meat, and particularly red meat, will turn out to be as much of a fad as opposition to butter, eggs and whole milk.

Jane Black's piece in the Washington Post Food section this week doesn't delve into the arguments for or against eating meat but rather chronicles the efforts of activist groups to promote Meatless Mondays and the meat industry's counter-measures.

Ever since I had my first gout attack at the tender age of 30 while I was on the protein-rich Atkins diet, I've consciously tried to limit my consumption of meat (proteins contain purines, which lead to the formation of uric acid crystals that cause gout). I probably have at least one, if not two, meatless dinners a week (not so sure about lunch).

A campaign to scale back meat consumption could have several benefits. It would encourage people to eat more vegetables, and it might encourage them to buy the more expensive locally grown and butchered meats in the remaining meals. But it also runs the risk of co-opting people into the notion that meat is bad, an unnecessary and harmful indulgence. Meat has always been a part of the human diet and Michael Pollan discusses some of the reasons in his Omnivore's Dilemma.

I have no problems with vegetarians or vegans who out of personal conviction refrain from eating meat or animal products, but I'm wary of a campaign like this getting hijacked by extremists on a mission to proselytize the rest of us or to impose their standards through government guidelines.

I have not yet read Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals but it has obviously become a major voice in this debate. I'm in favor of any effort to enlighten us about the issues of industrialized food production, and a significant reduction in meat consumption might convince the industry to begin altering some of its practices. The unavoidable fact is that we cannot continue to eat as much meat as we do now and produce that meat in a humane and environmental fashion.

A slogan like "meatless Mondays" is probably helpful in a campaign like this, especially with institutions, but I think that personally I will continue to let my meatless meals fall where they may. Having grown up with "meatless Fridays", I'm not ready for the regimentation of a new religion.

Maine shrimp risotto

Making a fish broth from scratch and then cooking a risotto is a "quick-cook recipe"? Actually it is quite doable on a weeknight. The only time-consuming step is peeling the fresh shrimp.

Sara Jenkins, a chef in New York, and Mindy Fox, a food editor, helpfully characterize the recipes in Olives and Oranges: Recipes & Flavor Secrets from Italy, Spain, Cyprus & Beyond as quick-cook and slow-cook.

I would not normally buy a lavish, hardback cookbook for more than $30, but I ran into Loren Jenkins at a book-signing event a few weeks ago and the proud father made a compelling case for his daughter's book. Loren, now at NPR, was a foreign correspondent for many years, and his stories about Sara learning how to cook at the elbow of local Italian homemakers made the book sound appealing.

One of the things I always appreciated about Marcella Hazan is that she did not hesitate to include the simplest recipes, like some of her tomato sauces. Jenkins subscribes to the same school of thought, and her Bistecca Chianina, our favorite dish at Dino's under its alternate name of Bistecca Fiorentina, is really more a simple technique than a recipe.

The Maine shrimp in this recipe are available in December, so I had to use the "large" shrimp available at the Fishery. You are supposed to get them with the heads on, but in our squeamish society, the guy at the store made clear to me, I was lucky to get them still with shells, minus heads. So I got an extra quarter pound, per recipe instructions, to make up for the heads in the broth.

You peel the pound of shrimp for the risotto and use the shells and heads if available for the broth. You sautée the shells for 3 to 4 minutes in 1/4 c. EVOO until they become opaque and then add the cut-up vegetables -- a celery stalk, a carrot, an onion, and a small fennel bulb -- along with a bay leaf and sautée them for 6 minutes. Then you add 1-1/2 Tbl of tomato paste mixed with 1/3 c. wine and let the wine evaporate for a couple of minutes. Then you add 1/4 bunch of parsley, 5-1/2 c. water, 1/4 tsp. saffron and 1/2 tsp. peppercorns, bring to a boil and let simmer a half hour. Turn off the heat and let steep a quarter hour, then strain. That was easy, and you get a dark, rich broth that smells like every Mediterranean dish you ever ate.

For the risotto itself, you sautée a diced onion in 3 Tbl. EVOO for 5 minutes until translucent, add 2 c. of rice and continue cooking for another 5 minutes, add 2/3 c. wine and evaporate in a minute or so, and then add the first cup of simmering broth to start the risotto process. Continue adding broth a half cup at a time until the rice is al dente. With the last quarter cup of broth, put in the peeled shrimp and 1/4 c. chopped chives, stir a couple of minutes, turn of the heat, cover and let it sit for 5 minutes.

It's a sure-fire method to keep from overcooking the shrimp. Even my so-called large shrimp cooked through with this method, but remained moist and tender. The risotto itself was redolent of a lavish bouillabaise and a nice change of pace from the cheesy, creamy risottos I usually make.

Jenkins (I think Fox is mainly a ghost writer for the chef) is very chatty about ingredients, and this is an added plus for the book, I think. For instance, she specifies Carnaroli rice for this risotto and explains in her page-long introduction to her short risotto section that she prefers Carnaroli to the more common Arborio because it makes a more luxurious and creamy risotto. I used the Arborio I had on hand, but will look for Carnaroli when I shop.

Not that I'll have much luck with that. I could not even find chives in three Chevy Chase stores. As the Magruder's guy explained to me, it comes in small packages, doesn't keep very well and they don't have much demand for it. Chives! So I used spring onion greens in a somewhat smaller portion. Stores are simply getting too scientific about what they are willing to stock, serving themselves instead of their customers.

Salmon with pink peppercorn citrus sauce

My current approach to a new cookbook is to look at the pictures and pick the first recipes on that basis. Right there on p. 16 of Entrée to Judaism: A Culinary Exploration of the Jewish Diaspora by Tina Wasserman was a tantalizing photo of this dish and I bit.

Simple and delicious, exotic with ginger and the pink peppercorns, this is a winner. It's an easy week night dinner because it's simply a vinaigrette over grilled salmon fillet. The only work is to section the four citrus fruits -- grapefruit, orange, lemon and lime.

Wasserman, a Dallas-based cookbook author, explains that oranges and other citrus fruits were traditionally cultivated by both Jews and Arabs around the Mediterranean, so that citrus is often found in Jewish cooking.

For me, the novelty of this dish was the pink peppercorns, which I used in cooking for the first time. By now, of course, you can get a variety of peppercorns in the supermarket, and you see some dishes with "mixed peppercorns." They are not interchangeable. The pink peppercorns are peppery, but also have a tart flavor in the direction of pomegranate seeds or juniper berries.

The basic vinaigrette consists of 2 tsp each of sherry vinegar (which oddly I could not find in two supermarkets), soy sauce, 2 pink peppercorns and julienned ginger, along with 1/4 tsp each of ground ginger and salt, 1/8 tsp each of celery seed and hot red pepper sauce (I used Cholula), and 1/4 c EVOO.

Just before serving you add the sectioned, diced fruit and 2 Tbl chiffonade of cilantro to the vinaigrette. To section the fruit, Wasserman explains in one her helpful little "Tina's Tidbits" boxes, you cut off the top and bottom peel so you can see the fruit, then cut off the sides to expose the fruit all around. Then you slice along the membrane on each side of a section so it falls out. The idea, of course, is to have the pure fruit, with no peel, pith or membrane. A serrated knife works best for this, I think.

The combined sauce has a great balance, is refreshing and perfectly complements the grilled salmon. I just used regular old farmed Scottish salmon.

As a side, I got some nice green asparagus from New Jersey -- not California or Chile -- and used another Tina Tidbit from a recipe that happened to be on the facing page of the salmon recipe. She suggests holding the stalk by the middle and the end and bending. The stalk will break naturally just where it becomes tender. This worked great and the asparagus was perfect.

On the recommendation of Sara Jenkins in her Olives and Oranges: Recipes and Flavor Secrets from Italy, Spain, Cyprus and Beyond, I've started using sea salt instead of kosher salt in cooking. I got a chunky Maldon sea salt at Whole Foods and used it both in the vinaigrette and to toss the asparagus with olive oil. Have to say, it really seemed to make a difference, especially in the grilled asparagus.

The salmon recipe was the second one we used from Wasserman's book. The first was the chocolate chip cappuccino brownies we served after the burgoo for the Kentucky Derby (see previous post). It, too, is pictured but we actually tasted a sample at the book signing Wasserman had in DC, which sold us on the book.

Burgoo

This traditional Kentucky stew with lamb and many other good things gets served on Derby day and that's what we did. I was flying a bit blind, because I've never been to the Kentucky Derby and on my one trip to Owensboro to visit my aunt and uncle I was served salmon my uncle had caught in Alaska.

A couple of our stew cookbooks had versions that quickly emerged as not quite authentic after some Internet research. While everyone says that like cassoulet there are many versions, there was a fair consensus on the ingredients. It includes lamb as a surrogate for the mutton that they use in western Kentucky, where they have a lot of sheep. I would like someday to cook a burgoo with mutton, but many people find it a bit gamey and it's hard to find anyway. Every recipe also included chicken, and then either beef or pork. In olden days, it would be whatever varmint was at hand -- squirrels, possum, venison, whatever. All versions included potatoes, corn, okra, tomatoes and carrots. There was some heat -- from chiles, hot sauce or cayenne. Some included Worcestershire sauce and other flavoring ingredients. It became clear that burgoo has to cook a good 12 hours, whereas the cookbook recipes just said 3 or 4.

It was hard to know from the different recipes just how soupy it was supposed to be, how much tomato or how spicey. YouTube answered the soupy and tomato questions (it is soupy and tomato-ey), but couldn't really help with the spicey question. Maybe someday they'll figure out how to get taste on the Web.

After considerable research, I settled on a version by Chef Susan Goss of Zinfandel in Chicago as a master recipe. Her recipe served 14, so I doubled it. She had lamb, chicken and pork, but I also used beef since so many recipes called for beef. So I used about 3 lbs lamb shoulder, 3-some lbs of chicken parts, scant 2 lbs pork shoulder, and 2 lbs beef shank. I cooked these for 2 hours Thursday in beef broth, chicken broth and water. I removed the meat from the broth and when it was cool enough, took out all the bones, gristle, fat I could and loosely shredded the meat, which was falling apart anyway. Everything in the fridge overnight.

On Friday, I skimmed off the layer of fat from the broth, put the meat back in and added around 2 c each of diced potatoes (I used red bliss), fava beans (fresh), red and white onions, corn (frozen), green peppers, carrots and 1 c of celery, which Goss didn't have but most other recipes did. I did not use the ancho chile she called for; store was out and nobody else used it that I saw. I did put in some cayenne pepper and some salt and pepper and simmered all this for 3 hours.

At that point, I added the okra (fresh), tomatoes (canned), cider vinegar, lemon juice, bourbon, Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce, and simmered for another 6 or so hours. I added some tomato sauce and chicken broth as it simmered. Back into the fridge overnight.

On Derby day, it remained only to warm it up, chop the parsley and serve it with cornbread and rolled oat biscuits (prepared by the marvelous baker in the family). It was preceded by mint juleps during the race, and accompanied by a couple of very nice bulk wines. Everybody seemed to like it. Dessert was out-of-the world grasshopper squares (brownies with a layer of white chocolate-creme de menthe ganache and a layer of chocolate ganache) and some very delicious capuccino chocolate chip brownies.

I think probably this burgoo, though delicious, was not soupy enough, but too stewy. In Kentucky, it is served with a barbecued mutton sandwich. It probably needed to be a little spicier as well. I may have a chance to stop and visit my cousin in Owensboro on our road trip in August and taste the genuine article. Then I would be ready to cook Burgoo II next May!