Rehoboth weekend

Big hat tip to Rehoboth Foodie, whose diligence in reviewing and reporting on the food scene in Rehoboth Beach provides a very useful resource. We had a great weekend there and food was one of the highlights.

It got off to a good start by stopping at the Red Hook Lobster truck on the way out of town. It was parked in Bethesda at Woodmont and Norfolk and when we got there at 1, there was virtually no line. It was very convenient because we could sit outside at the tables in the little triangle called Veterans Park. The lobster rolls are really delicious. I still prefer the warm lobster with drawn butter. The rolls, the chips, even the soda are all top quality and it just set the right culinary tone for the weekend.

Our favorite Rehoboth restaurant, The Back Porch, wasn't open yet, so we went the first night to a relatively new place, The Henlopen City Oyster Bar. It was top-rated in Trip Advisor and got very favorable comments from Rehoboth Foodie. It is tucked into a modern building and fairly noisy, but very light and with enough decor to create a nice buzz and ambiance. There was a short wait, but we barely had our drinks from the bar when we were seated. I split a dozen Turtle Cove oysters and they were delicious -- fresh, briny, very cold. It had been a while since I'd had raw oysters and these tasted especially good.

For a main course, I went for the grilled wreckfish, since I'd never had a wreckfish before. The waiter explained it was a mild, white fish from off the coast of the Carolinas, and it had a nice sweet taste. I got purreed rutabaga as one of the sides and that went really well with it. The other dishes all got rave reviews, too, and only the spirit of adventure kept us from going back there the second night. I split a 22-oz. Dogfish Head IPA to accompany; the advantage of the big bottle is that it tastes really like draft beer.

To try something different, we went to Planet X Cafe the second night. They had a wedding shower party so we had to sit in the bar area, but the service was great and the food was fine. I had a crispy roasted pork shoulder, which, typical for their menu, had a vaguely Asian flavor. The signature dishes, a Thai shrimp curry and stacked eggplant, appeared to be excellent. Both restaurants claim to use locally sourced organic ingredients so it is forgivable that the waiter came back and said they couldn't fulfill our orders for Caesar salad.

Lunches were also great. The first day we made the trek down to Bethany to get our favorite cheesesteak subs at Surf's Up. The second day, I got fish and chips from Go Fish on Rehoboth Ave. This was the real deal, with fresh, moist cod and a lovely crisp beer batter. The fries (British chips) were not so great but someone else had some Thrasher's fries and they went really well with the cod.

We also enjoyed sitting at The Coffee Mill, located in a tiny passage off Rehoboth Ave. The owner entertained us with the story of how he had acquired the business a couple of years ago to keep it from closing. They have a great selection of coffees and pastries and we incorporated it into our morning routine.

Duck ragu with pasta

This recipe from Molly Stevens using duck legs complements the previous duck breast dish after Broad Branch Market unexpectedly offered duck parts in its meat counter.

Trim extra fat and skin flaps from 4 duck legs, pat them dry and salt and pepper all around. Put them skin side down in a hot skillet or braising pan (no need for fat since they quickly render fat) and brown them for about 7 min. Turn and brown flesh side for just 3 or 4 min. and remove. Pour off the fat, add 1 Tbl olive oil, and braising aromatics (1 medium yellow onion, 2 carrots, 1 celery stalk -- all cut into 1/2-in. pieces) and saute over medium heat for 7 or 8 min. Add 4 thinly sliced garlic cloves, 1-1/2 Tbl chopped rosemary, and 1/4 tsp ground allspice and cook for another min. Add 2/3 c. white wine and reduce for 6 min., then add 3/4 c. chicken broth and reduce again for 6 min. Add chopped tomatoes and juice from 14-oz. can and simmer for 3 or 4 min.

Return the browned duck legs to the braising pan, tuck in 2 bay leaves between the legs, cover with parchment paper, pushing it down to nearly touch the legs and overlapping the sides of the pan. Cover tightly and put in preheated 325-degree oven. Check within first 30 min. that is not simmering too vigorously and let cook 2 hours altogether. Remove from oven and let cool in braising liquid for 20 min. to 1 hour (or overnight in fridge). When ready to serve, bring pasta water to boil, remove the duck legs and take off the skin, break up the meat into bite-size chunks with your fingers, and return meat to sauce (skim fat off sauce if needed). You can either cut up the skin and add to sauce or cut into 1/2-inch pieces and fry 6 to 8 min. in a separate skillet and remove to drain to make cracklings. Boil the pasta (we used perciatelli, a tubular spaghetti they have been selling at Whole Foods), drain, and serve some ragu on top of each portion, with cracklings on top of that.

This has everything we like -- braised meat, flavorful sauce, pasta -- so it was a big hit. It's nice to be able to add duck to a more workaday repertoire.

Duck breast with apple sherry

Our little Broad Branch Market has a nice meat counter with a consistent array of very good beef and sausages and occasionally other things. For the first time yesterday, I saw duck -- breasts and legs sold separately and both at reasonable prices. (I've been buying a fair amount of duck lately and had a good idea of what the market was.)

So we ended up having duck breast for dinner and using this simple recipe from Susan Loomis's Cooking at Home on Rue Tatin, which I haven't had much occasion to use until now. The "apple sherry" she refers to is pommeau, a mix of apple juice and calvados. She lists tawny port and semi-dry sherry as substitutes.

You heat up you skillet over medium heat and put 2 13-oz. duck breasts skin down and cover for 8 min. Then turn over to flesh side and cook another 2 or 3 min. Remove duck and drain all the fat -- there's a lot of fat rendered, which is why you don't need any other oil. Return the duck to the skillet skin side down, reduce heat to low, cover and cook another 5 min. or so. Loomis emphasizes that you don't want to overcook the breast, which should remain fairly rare, or it will start to get tough.

Remove the duck and pour in 1/2 c. pommeau or substitute, and 2 Tbl of cider vinegar. Reduce 5 to 7 min. until syrupy, remove from heat, stir in a cut up 1 Tbl of chilled butter, swirl till dissolved and pour over duck breast, sliced on the diagonal. I served with rice and Greek salad.

There was not much in our liquor cabinet. Tawny port was gone. An old bottle of Amontillado sherry tasted a little dubious, and some very old Marsala looked a little vile. The white port, which has a tawny color and is semi-dry, seemed OK, so that's what I used. The duck was delicious and tender, but I was not thrilled by the sauce. It would be worth trying again with pommeau, if I ever come across that.

Braised pork chops and creamy cabbage

Just when you thought it was time to put the cold-weather cookbooks downstairs, along comes a cool spring day that makes a nice braised dish seem very appetizing. This recipe from Molly Stevens' All About Braising is simple enough for a weekday and tasty enough for an out of town guest.

Pat 4 1-in. thick bone-in loin pork chops dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper on both sides. Dredge the chops in flour (shaking off excess) put them in a skillet with 3 Tbl of hot olive oil without crowding (I did them in two batches). Don't move them for a good 4 min. so they form a crisp brown crust, then turn them over for another 3 to 4 min. Remove and set aside.

Melt 2 Tbl of butter in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add 1 tsp. caraway seed and 1 tsp. yellow mustard seed and saute for 1 or 2 min. until the seeds start popping. Add 2 thinly sliced medium shallots and cook for 2 min., then add 1/2 of a small cabbage (about 1 lb.), shredded, and turn heat down to medium-low. Stir and let cabbage wilt, not brown, for 10 min. Add 1/2 c. white wine and simmer for 1 or 2 min., then add 1 Tbl cider vinegar and 2/3 c. water. Stevens also adds a chicken bouillon cube to boost the flavor. Place the chops into the simmering braise, overlapping if necessary, cover and cook for 20 min., turning the chops halfway through.

I worried my chops were too big to cook just 20 min. and blithely let them sit there longer while we waited for our guest, so they got a bit overdone. Take Stevens' word for it, 20 min. is enough. Remove chops, turn up heat and add 1/4 c. heavy cream and let it boil away for 5 min. or so until the sauce thickens and the cabbage gets all creamy. Spoon the cabbage over the chops. We served with wild rice.

Spit-roasted chicken

Warm weather means outdoor cooking. I put the rotisserie extender onto the Weber and prepared one of the the Jamisons' options for spit-roasted chicken -- just rubbing herbes de Provence onto the chicken with some olive oil. I also sprinkled salt over the chicken and into the cavity, and just for good measure, put a couple of lemons a la Marcella Hazan into the cavity with some sprigs of thyme.

I followed two Jamison directions I haven't paid too much attention to in the past. One is to loosen the skin -- not to put something underneath it, but apparently just to get it to crisp up better. It certainly worked. The other was to tie the chicken more tightly using their criss-cross twine method (take 4 ft of twine, bind the legs with the middle of the piece, then criss-cross around the chicken, being sure to bind the wings, up to the neck). I roasted it to 170 degrees in the thick part of the thigh.

This time I used one of the Amish chickens from the co-op. It costs more, but it had a really nice flavor, stayed moist, etc. The innards, which I sauteed separately, were also delicious. Whole Foods has started carrying no-name own brand chickens, and while I know they are always boasting of their high standards I've been a little skeptical since I read that their 365 extra virgin olive oil did not test very well.

The kale also looked very good at the co-op, so I got it, even though neither of us cares that much for kale. It is supposed to be super-healthy, so I found a recipe in Deborah Madison's Local Flavors that combined it with red beans, cilantro and feta cheese. Even starting at 1 p.m. I was able to soak 1/2 lb. Rancho Gordo pinquito beans for 4 hrs, then cook with 1/2 c. chopped onion and 1/2 tsp thyme leaves for an hour or so, until tender. Madison says to add salt at the beginning, but I still prefer to add salt at the end of cooking beans.

Separately, you trim 1 bunch kale leaves away from the tough stems, chop into 1-in. pieces and cook in several quarts of boiling salted water for 5 to 7 min. and drain. You take another 1/2 c. of chopped onion and saute that in 2 Tbl of olive oil with 1/2 c. chopped cilantro for 10 min. Add the kale and beans w enough of the bean cooking juice to make sauce and simmer it all together for another 10 min. Finish with sprinkling of 1/4 c. chopped cilantro, 3 oz. crumbled feta cheese and a drizzle of olive oil. It was a very nice recipe and of course you don't even taste the kale. Can't beat those Rancho Gordo beans.

Roast fresh ham with a honey-whole-grain-mustard glaze

This really nice recipe from the Washington Post Food section turned into a great Easter dinner when we paired it with some classic sides -- old-fashioned scalloped potatoes and buttered cabbage.

Since we always celebrate Passover with Andrea's family, Easter is kind of hit and miss and this year's little celebration was totally serendipitous. I no longer subscribe to the Post but someone left a copy behind Wednesday when I was at Starbucks so I brought home the Food section, which had this recipe. Then by coincidence I was shopping at Whole Foods for Thursday dinner and they had several nice-looking fresh hams in the meat case. So I got one, planning to cook it for the two of us and eating leftovers for a couple of months. But we ran into friends on Saturday who had made no other plans for Easter, so they said they'd join us and we turned it into a full-fledged Easter dinner.

I'm not sure I've ever eaten fresh ham before and fairly certain I've never cooked it. This was simple and tasty and gave us a, well, fresh perspective on ham. It is neither cured nor smoked, so probably closer to pork roast than what we think of as ham. It is, however, the cut that is used to make ham -- the rear leg. The Post headnote says there is the meatier butt portion, from higher up on the leg, or the lower shank portion. WF labeled their cut "sirloin," so either I was looking at the wrong sign or they goofed. This was clearly the butt portion and weighed in at 7-1/2 lbs (the recipe calls for 10 lbs but they must use bigger pigs). It had a lovely layer of white fat around the top half and was tied with just two strings.

One or two days beforehand, you make a crisscross pattern in the fat (I removed the string and re-tied afterwards), rub salt and pepper (4 tsp salt and 2 tsp freshly ground pepper) over the whole ham, then mix up a rub of 2 Tbl olive oil, 1 Tbl chopped rosemary, and 3 chopped garlic cloves and rub that over the whole ham. Put in a big Ziploc bag and refrigerate, taking it out 45 min. before roasting.

To roast, you preheat the oven to 450 degrees, put the ham in a large roasting pan, and cook for 20 min., until browned, and then turn oven down to 325. Rotate the ham front to back once or twice and cook for 2-1/2 to 3 hrs, reaching an internal temperature of 150 degrees. During the last 2 hrs of cooking, apply a glaze made of 1/2 c. honey, 1/2 c. whole-grain mustard (I used Dijon), 1 Tbl white wine vinegar and 1 tsp chopped rosemary. The ham develops a lovely dark crust. I pulled it out after about 2-3/4 hrs when temperature was reached and just let it sit for an hour so with a fold of aluminum foil over it. It was still just a bit warm when I carved and sliced and tasted really excellent that way. You put some more whole-grain mustard on the table.

We found the recipes for the sides online and they were the perfect foils in their classic simplicity for this fresh ham. We also baked some drop buttermilk biscuits and had some of Andrea's super-duper dark chocolate macaroons for dessert. A very smooth and mellow Malbec was a great accompaniment.

Supermarkets

Various things about Whole Foods have been frustrating me lately -- their increasing tendency toward "Giant"-ism (pun intended), the growing array of pre-cut and packaged fresh fruits and vegetables, the indifference and arrogance even toward customers.

I was annoyed this week when a few things I bought there before were no longer available. Bear with me on this. It sounds petty in detail but it's to make a larger point. I know there are people with real problems and this is not one of them, but this is a blog about food and it is my hobby.

So I ran out of sea salt. LOL, I know, but I am one of those people who thinks they can taste a difference in flavor between sea salt, kosher salt and regular old salt. The brand I've bought twice at Whole Foods is Celtic Sea Salt, which is coarse and grayish and comes in a 1 lb cellophane package. I like it, I've gotten used to how "salty" it is so I can dose dishes properly, etc. No longer there. Ditto for the bulk coarse sea salt WF used to sell. Now they have something called Real Salt, which claims to harvested from ancient seabeds in Utah or someplace. May be good, but I hesitate to buy it because it will probably not be around when I run out again. It seems to me a year or two ago there were half a dozen coarse sea salts on offer, and now I don't see any.

The other two things I could no longer find were smoked oysters and bouillon cubes, two supermarket staples since time immemorial. Very occasionally I like smoked oysters as an hors d'oeuvres, so when I ate my pantry can last week I put a replacement on my shopping list. Gone. In that row were six identical cans of sardines, but not a single can of smoked oysters. (Yes, I asked; it was not a temporary absence, they no longer carry it.) Bouillon cubes, of course, are borderline politically incorrect (salt etc.) but Molly Stevens called for it in recipe as a flavor booster and why not. No sign of them. Instead there was a row of "Better Than Bouillon" -- jars of vegetable-based goop with artificial chicken and beef flavors. Guaranteed they won't be there in six months.

I decided to finally make a long-planned trip to investigate the Harris Teeter in Adams Morgan. Could it be the combination of WF and Safeway that would make one-stop shopping possible and worth the extra distance? HT was a perfectly nice little supermarket, perhaps a notch above Safeway, but not different enough to go the extra mile and certainly no replacement for WF. (For the record, they had the smoked oysters and bouillon cubes, but no sea salt; and they were all very friendly.)

Which serves to remind me that even if by some miracle a Wegman's were to be located at a convenient distance there will never be one-stop shopping and that I should welcome the diversity of multiple providers. By consistently frustrating me, WF has reminded me that I should routinely shop at the myriad other vendors available, none of whom can ever provide one-stop shopping. I go to Vace and ACH in Bethesda far too rarely. I can get more of my bulk food and produce at the Grubb Rd. co-op. Safeway is not great, but it is very convenient for the normal supermarket offerings (betting they have smoked oysters and bouillon cubes, too) . I can look more carefully at the limited offerings at Marvelous Market, Addie Bassin's, the Fishery and other places that stock gourmet foods along with their main products.

So, thank you Whole Foods for being the increasingly crass commercial operation you are and reminding me that the perfect supermarket is, well, a grand mirage.

Monkfish roasted with herbs

"Lotte" was always a good choice on a French menu, usually cooked to perfection and smothered in a buttery sauce. Once called the poor man's lobster because it was cheap, but not any more. Monkfish sounds more prosaic and anyone who sees a picture of the whole fish will have trouble eating it. But I like the dense texture and nutty flavor.

This recipe from Mark Bittman, however, was not a  great success. It's full title, oddly, is "Whole monkfish tails roasted with herbs." Oddly because all the recipes are just for tails and he calls for fillets in this recipe just as he does for his other monkfish recipes, so there's nothing particularly whole about them.

This is where the trouble starts. Bittman says 4 to 6 fillets of monkfish tails, about 1-1/2 lbs. He must buy his monkfish on another planet, because a single fillet I got at the Fishery weighed 3/4 lb. It was definitely a fillet as he described it, because there was no bone down the center.

But for the first time ever I'm inclined to let some of the blame fall on the Fishery. These may have been extraordinarily big monkfish. In any case, the texture was more fibrous than I'm used to -- the "denseness" was missing. I suppose it was reasonably fresh but the flavor was not great.

One can always assume that my execution was not perfect, and fish are always tricky, but this is a fairly simple straightforward recipe. Remove any of the gray membrane remaining -- easier said than done and I was surprised that something from the Fishery still had a considerable amount. Dredge the fillets in 1 c. flour, mixed with 1/2 c. chopped fresh herbs (parsley, basil, chervil, tarragon, rosemary, chives, etc.) and salt and pepper. Brown in 3 Tbl. olive oil in a flameproof baking dish (I won't go into what happened with my Emile Henry oven dish, but it behooves you to make sure the dish is flameproof). Add 1 c. any fish or chicken stock (or white wine, or water, or mix) and put into preheated 450-degree oven for 20 to 30 min. Serve with rice or bread, pouring pan sauce over the fillets.

It wasn't horrible, but it lacked the finesse of other monkfish recipes I've tried. Bittman says he came upon it in a restaurant and this is his effort to duplicate it, but I suspect he hasn't kitchen-tested it that thoroughly. Oh well.

Rosa Mexicano

There's two things I don't like about Rosa Mexicano. The first, and bigger, is that it is so blatantly commercial, kind of like a Starbucks version of a Mexican restaurant. It is brassy, designed, loud in a way to give it an artificial buzz, efficient in an amateurish way. It is not pleasant to be inside and a good restaurant experience is always about more than the food.

The second thing I don't like, however, is the food. It's not bad. There is a reasonable approximation of some Mexican flavors and dishes, but again in a sanitized and commercial way. The quesadillas are like from cookie cutters and you do find yourself wondering how many of these dishes arrive at the restaurant in a package. We got the starter of 3 vegetable quesadillas, including one with huitlacoche, which we grew to like in Mexico. The mole I had (it was a special and I don't recall the details) was OK. I'm not saying it came out of a jar, but you had to wonder when and where it was made. The portions are relatively small and prices are relatively high.

The chain recently installed its third DC restaurant in what for a long time was a sleazy Brazilian restaurant, so it's bound to be an improvement to the neighborhood. But I won't rush back. I find the food at Surfside better and the atmosphere more congenial, and I'd make a return visit to DF Centro before RM. Oyamel even on a bad day, per our last visit there, is an overall better experience.

I think it's probably impossible to find good Mexican food this far east. I don't expect to have Mexico City or San Miguel quality here, but we do have the feeling that there's probably some hole-in-the-wall Mexican in DC that would be a better eating experience than RM. What we really need to do is go to Oaxaca!