May 11: Compound Butters of All Persuasion

I have been just a little boring lately, I know. I am finding being unemployed just a tiny bit more taxing than I anticipated. I know, poor me, right? But there's all these great meals to cook, though, and suddenly I have time to do it. I've been baking bread. I've been doing all of the running-around that had to be worked around somehow when I had a job; including quitting the bank that I have loathed for the past almost-three years and finding a new one, getting all of our accounts switched around. The upshot of all of this activity is that I am thoroughly exhausted by 9 PM. And no, I'm not pregnant, so as it turns out, all I am is a very old lady.

I will say this though: today, for Mother's Day, we went to Eamon's in Old Town Alexandria. And I ate two battered, deep-fried sausages for lunch. And they were just as good as you would think that two battered, deep-fried sausages would be. Better, even. And I don't even care how fattening they were. They were fricking amazing.

I meant to write more about compound butters yesterday, but Blogger ate my post. I hope it was delicious.

A compound butter is not complicated, but it's a thing of beauty. Fat, which is mostly what butter is, is a great vehicle for flavor. Fat picks up flavors easily and transfers them to other things. Also, fat tastes good. Compound butter is butter mixed with other things.

Compound butters are great on almost anything. Vegetables, steaks, fish, pasta, even popcorn. That one from yesterday, that cinnamon-honey butter? On a waffle? Oh mama. A lot of high-end groceries like Fresh Fields and Whole Foods are selling their own compound butters now, and they're excellent, but you don't have to be limited by what they have available.

All you need for a compound butter is softened, room-temperature butter (I like salted butter for compound butter, just because the salt makes the other flavors pop a little) and some other ingredients of your choice. Here are a few compound butters and some suggestions for what to do with them.
Here are a few of my favorites, and my favorite ways to eat them.

Compound Butter

1 stick salted butter (or 1 stick unsalted, and 1/8 teaspoon table salt), softened to room temperature
Other ingredients of your choice (see below)

Beat the butter with a fork until it's light and fluffy, then work in the other ingredients until incorporated. Store the butter in a small, tightly covered container in the refrigerator, or roll it tightly into a log in plastic wrap, store it in the fridge, and cut off rounds as needed.

Sour Cream & Chive Compound Butter
1/4 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons finely chopped or snipped fresh chives
Great on baked potatoes

Cheddar-Bacon-Scallion Compound Butter
1/8 cup finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese
3 tablespoons crumbled, crisp-fried bacon
2 tablespoons finely chopped scallions (white and light-green parts only)
Potatoes of any kind--especially in twice-baked potatoes

Basil-Red Pepper Compound Butter
1/8 cup chopped roasted jarred red peppers
1 tablespoon fresh chopped basil
Tossed with cheese tortellini

Garlic-Herb Compound Butter
2 cloves garlic, pressed through a garlic press
2 tablespoons fresh finely chopped herbs of your choice--try parsley, thyme, and sweet basil
Spread on toasted country bread for easy garlic bread

Chipotle Compound Butter
1 chipotle pepper in adobo
1 tablespoon adobo sauce (from chipotle can)
Spread on outside of chicken quesadillas before grilling

Cilantro-Lime Compound Butter
4 tablespoons lime juice
4 tablespoons finely-chopped cilantro
Melt over grilled fish--mahi-mahi, grouper, and red snapper would all be good

Lemon-Pepper Compound Butter
4 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon coarse-ground black pepper
Tossed with angel-hair pasta and sauteed shrimp

Gorgonzola-Worcestershire Compound Butter
1/8 cup crumbled gorgonzola or other strong bleu cheese
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
Melt over grilled steak

Sun-dried Tomato-Parmesan Compound Butter
3 tablespoons oil-packed, finely minced tomatoes
4 tablespoons finely grated parmesan cheese
Spread on white bread for grilled cheese sandwiches
Or, tossed with roasted broccoli

Now Accepting Reservations

Has anybody heard of this place Talula's Table? It's a gourmet single-table restaurant and probably the toughest reservation to get in America (watch out, French Laundry.) They accept one reservation per day, one year prior to the day. (For example, if you are planning on dining there tonight, you'll have needed to call on April 25, 2007.)

This isn't the kind of place that's in my budget for anything other than a substantially special occasion, at $90 per person, without wine, tax or gratuity included. But scamper on over to their website, and read their sample menu, and like me, you'll be saving your pennies, gunning for a promotion at work, and setting your alarm clock for the 7 A.M. call to their reservation line, as well as planning a roadtrip to Pennsylvania.

February 20: Chicken Enchiladas With Tomatillo Sauce

I love great Mexican food. I even love sort of mediocre Mexican food, when it's pulled off. What I don't love: Taco Bell, Chi Chi's, or any of those other sorry fake Americanized Mexican restaurants with fishbowl-sized ultra-sugary margaritas (I was actually offered a pineapple-banana margarita recently, and I think I may have laughed right in the waiter's face) or bowls of melted Velveeta and Old El Paso salsa mixed together.

Enchiladas are the ultimate in horribly abused food. I've seen awful things done to what should be great Mexican street food, or at worst, sort of a comforting, Tex-Mex version of lasagna or manicotti. I love a simple cheese and onion enchilada with red chili sauce, or if I'm feeding some non-meat-eating friend, a spinach-and-mushroom enchilada sauced with a simple cheese sauce made from just a little butter, flour, milk, and Monterey Jack.

This is a great recipe, modified from America's Test Kitchen. If you haven't tried making your own enchilada sauce, do it. This is a simple dish that really benefits from fresh flavors and great-tasting ingredients, and the difference between this and a canned enchilada sauce is big. You won't be interested in boring restaurant versions of this dish ever again.

Simplify: use leftover chicken, either from a grocery store rotisserie or one you cook yourself. You'll want about a pound of chicken total. I like to double this recipe and have the leftovers for dinner the next night. Occasionally I made Mexican rice for a side; more often, I just make a big, crunchy salad with salsa vinaigrette.

This makes 10 enchiladas, and this is not a dish that freezes well without modification. If you're interested in freezing it, email me and I can send you some suggestions.

Chicken Enchiladas With Tomatillo Sauce

Sauce
2 teaspoons vegetable oil or corn oil
1 medium onion, chopped fine (about 1 cup)
3 medium cloves garlic, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1 tablespoon)
3/4 pound small tomatillos , husks and stems removed, each tomatillo quartered (about 1 1/2 cups)
3 large jalapeño chiles , seeded and coarsely chopped (about 1 cup)
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt

Filling
2 teaspoons vegetable oil or corn oil
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
16 ounces cooked chicken, cubed or cut into thin strips

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated (2 cups)

Tortillas and Toppings
10 corn tortillas (six-inch)
Vegetable cooking spray

3 ounces grated sharp cheddar cheese (3/4 cup)
3/4 cup sour cream
1 avocado , diced medium
5 leaves romaine lettuce , washed, dried, and shredded
2 limes , quartered

1. FOR THE SAUCE: Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat until hot and shimmering but not smoking, about 2 minutes; add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, tomatillos, jalapeños, sugar and salt; cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add 1/3 cup of water and bring to a simmer; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, until tomatillos are softened, about 8 minutes. Transfer mixture to blender and puree until smooth, about 30 seconds; set aside. Rinse out saucepan.

2. FOR THE FILLING: Heat oil in saucepan over medium-high heat until hot and shimmering but not smoking, about 2 minutes; add onion and cook, stirring ocassionally, until beginning to soften and brown, about 3 minutes, then reduce heat to medium and continue to cook until browned, about 3 minutes longer. Add cumin and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Add chicken and cook, stirring frequently, until chicken is heated through, about 2 minutes. Transfer chicken mixture to large plate; freeze for 10 minutes to cool, then combine with cilantro and cheese in medium bowl and set aside.

3. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 300 degrees.

4. TO ASSEMBLE:

Smear entire bottom of 13 by 9-inch baking dish with 3/4 cup sauce. Place tortillas on two baking sheets. Spray both sides lightly with cooking spray. Bake until tortillas are soft and pliable, about 4 minutes. Place warm tortillas on counter-top. Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees. Place 1/3 cup filling down center of each tortilla. Roll each tortilla tightly by hand and place in baking dish, side by side, seam-side down. Pour remaining chili sauce over top of enchiladas. Use back of spoon to spread sauce so it coats top of each tortilla. Sprinkle 1/4 cup grated cheese down center of enchiladas.

Bake enchiladas on lower-middle rack until heated through and cheese is melted, 20 to 25 minutes. Uncover and serve immediately, passing sour cream, avocado, lettuce, and lime wedges separately.

A.W.O.L.

I missed a day. Dan and Max and I are spending the long weekend in Virginia Beach, VA., in an oceanfront suite that really is six steps off the sand, and we're having so much fun and eating so much great food that I have to admit that I missed a day.

We found this weird little dive called Jewish Mother where we had breakfast yesterday. It's a live music venue at night, but the rest of the day, it's a purportedly Jewish deli where, mysteriously, they serve bacon and sausage and ham. Dan had corned beef hash, and after briefly considering a Jewish Mother omelet (fresh avacado and mushrooms), I ordered a hot corned beef sandwich on Russian rye bread with swiss cheese and cole slaw, and a side of fries. Max had a hot dog, as he often will when left to his own devices. It came to the table as two hot dogs on a piece of homemade French bread, which was light and crispy and apparently buttered lightly with a touch of black tar heroin, because I haven't stopped thinking about that bread since yesterday. The hot dogs were amazing, those killer kosher deli ones with the casing that snaps when you bite into them. Yummy. And don't get me started on the pickles.

We ate dinner at a pizza place called Shorebreak that was recommended to me as particularly family-friendly. Tucked between three different military posts, it was jam-packed to the gills with soldiers on a Saturday night and their families. Itresembles a Hooters, based on the waitresses seriously skimpy outfits and the myriad of TVs showing sports around the room. We ordered a thin crust sausage-and-mushroom pizza and despite it not being made from particularly remarkable ingredients--canned mushrooms, for example--it was delicious. Great sauce, great crust, great everything. The game room was overcrowded and there wasn't any chance that we were going to get a shot at playing skee ball, but the noise level wasn't unreasonable and I appreciated the fact that it wasn't a tourist joint; that they didn't seem to be out to soak us for as little bad-tasting food as possible for as much money as they could squeeze out of us. We ran into that situation multiple times in Ocean City, Maryland.

Last night I asked Dan at dinner, "How is it that we keep going on vacation to places I feel like I could live at?" It's really true. It is beautiful here and it seems to be a place where people really live, as opposed to a place where people only visit. I highly recommend Virginia Beach as a vacation destination. If I could get away with not having a job, I would live here happily. Unfortunately, I have a job that I love that will not easily travel from Washington D.C. to Virginia Beach, and I am not yet willing to give up expensive cheese or buying kitchen gadgets at will.

I will return later with two recipes, one for yesterday and one for today. I promise to think of something wonderful, too, as the only cooking we are currently doing is sandwiches in the hotel room.

February 5: Cheddar Soup

One small administrative note: Dan and I stopped at a small Italian restaurant in a strip mall in College Park tonight. It failed miserably in atmosphere and fell far short in service. However, it had by far the best pizza that I've tasted in years. I promise to review Mamma Lucia's in more detail later this week, but I am just really mezmerized by American Idol right now.

Great cheddar soup is silky, elegant enough for company, and rich. This is a great lunch with a loaf of good bakery bread and a big crunchy salad and some kind of a fruity-berry tart for dessert. The bad news: this isn't a soup that holds well. The good news: it's simple and delicious and also, it's ready in 20 minutes.

This is plenty of soup for at least four as a centerpiece. You might stretch it to six for a starter.

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, minced (about 1 cup)
1 medium carrot, minced (about 1/3 cup)
1 small rib celery , minced (about 1/4 cup)
1 medium clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 1/2 cups half-and-half
1 bay leaf
pinch cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons dry sherry
12 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (about 3 cups)
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves
Table salt and ground black pepper

1. Heat butter in large heavy-bottomed Dutch oven over medium heat until foaming; add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 4 minutes. Add carrot, celery, and garlic; cook until garlic is fragrant, about 1 minute. Add flour and cook, stirring to coat vegetables, until mixture begins to brown on bottom of pot, about 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in chicken broth and half-and-half and add bay leaf. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to boil; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until vegetables soften, about 10 minutes.

2. Off heat, add cayenne and sherry; cool soup for 1 minute. Slowly whisk in cheese and thyme; season with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

Restaurant Review: Shane's Rib Shack

Dan and I don't go out to eat that much anymore, mostly because Max is at a stage of his development where his behavior in public can best be compared to a rabid ape of some kind. There is screaming and chest-thumping, and throwing of food, and refusals to act in a manner befitting anything other than a two-and-a-half year old, which makes sense as he is, indeed, two and a half.

But we live around the corner from a shopping center with a few chain restaurants: an Applebee's and a Three Brothers and a California Tortilla. It's painless to take Max to most of those places; there are things he will eat readily, they are family-friendly and casual, if a little boring. Also: Dear California Tortilla: there is no such thing as a chicken caesar salad burrito. Stop it. Love, Molly.

There is also a place called Shane's Rib Shack. Restaurant.com, which if you don't know about, you should, had a deal and I was curious. My husband and I got married primarily because I found a place to hold our reception where he could have barbecued ribs with a side of fettucine alfredo, so I knew he'd go for it. I'm exercising a small amount of hyperbole about why we got married, but he did go around for months before our wedding saying, "I'm having barbecued ribs at my wedding reception! Oh, and I'm getting married."

Okay, I have to backtrack slightly to Restaurant.com. Go to this website. Go on, I'll wait. Just come back when you're done.

Back? Great. How awesome was that? $10 for a $25 gift certificate, or less, to a restaurant in your very own zip code. I got the Shane's one for $6. They run these sales--sign up with them, they'll send you deals all the time in your email.

Dan and I tried it a few weekends ago and were very pleasantly surprised. I am kind of fussy about barbecue--I don't want a puddle of sticky sauce, and I want meat that's meat, not a big tangle of chopped fat. I like barbecue to be smoky and tender, but with texture. I want it to still taste like pork, or beef, or chicken. And I live in Prince George's County, Maryland: this is soul food central. I've had some wretched barbecue since we moved here.

Dan ordered the small sampler platter: 1/3 rack of pork ribs, 1/4 pound of chopped pork, and 2 chicken fingers. Chicken fingers? Hardly authentic for a barbecue joint. It came with two sides, and Dan asked for macaroni and cheese and greens.

Being a little cautious about barbecue, I ordered the chicken fingers with mac and cheese and cole slaw. Max had a kids' meal with chicken fingers and fries. The staff was friendly and easy-going, knowledgeable about their products, and worked with a sense of urgency, something we always appreciate with a toddler to feed.

You order at the register, pay, and take a seat at surprisingly comfortable booths. There was medium-loud but very good music playing (Jack Johnson, Van Morrison) and wide-screen TV's with college basketball. The staff brought out our food: plastic baskets lined with paper, styrofoam dishes of sides, plastic squeeze bottles of sauce.

The chicken fingers were big strips of whole breast meat, tender and perfectly cooked, not over-breaded. The breading tasted a little floury, but was well-seasoned (read: not too salty) and they tasted like chicken, not binder or chemicals. Gorgeous, really, some of the best I've ever had. Chickien fingers for grown-ups.

Dan's chopped pork was wonderful--smoky, really lean and without a hunk of fat or gristle to be found, well-seasoned. It was served without sauce, but like I mentioned, there's plenty on the side. His ribs were masterfully made: perfectly tender, toothsome, delecately smoky and seasoned, with just a little crust on the outside from the grill. Wonderful.

And the sides: the greens were some of the best I've ever had, a little sweet, a little tart, not skunky or boiled to a fair-thee-well. The mac and cheese was creamy and rich without being overly so, with perfectly-cooked al dente pasta. And the cole slaw was great--not too sweet, not too mayonaise-y. They were beautiful complements to delicious centerpieces.

Tonight we ordered chopped pork and chopped chicken, and split them both. Dan ordered Brunswick stew as a side, as well as the greens, and I stuck with the mac and cheese and cole slaw. The Brunswick stew is a tomato-based mix with corn, pork, green pepper, and some other things I couldn't immediately identify--in this case, spicy and rich, really big flavor. Dan traded me for my mac and cheese; he hadn't realized that the dish had green peppers, which upset his stomach. The pork was as good as it had been the first time. The chicken was even better: lean, juicy, deeply smoky, tender, and perfecly prepared, piled in a bowl with Texas toast on the side, unsauced, like the pork. There wasn't a bit of skin or bone or sinew to be found. Passing my plate back to Dan after I'd eaten half was rough, I tell you.

Two visits to Shane's, two two-thumbs-up. We're thrilled to have Shane's in our neighborhood. I can see it becoming a serious addiction.

The details:
Shane's Rib Shack
Laurel
13600 Baltimore Avenue (Route 1)
Corner of Route 1 and Contee Road
Hours: Mon - Sun 11 AM - 10 PM
Phone: 301-725-2020
Take-out and catering available
Website: http://www.shanesribshack.com/
Other locations: Nationwide