Ingredient 10 – Forbidden Rice

This week I decided to cook forbidden rice because I have long been intrigued by the name and felt it was time to acquire some knowledge on the subject.  In ancient China, black rice was considered the finest grain, and its consumption was reserved for the Emperor, hence the name, forbidden rice.  Today Forbidden rice is a registered trademark of Lotus Foods.   

Black rice gets its dark color from its high concentration of anthocyanins.  Like brown rice, black rice is high in fiber and has a nutty flavor.  However, black rice has a chewier texture than white or brown rice.  Black rice can be substituted for other types of rice.  Though several of the food blogs I read recommended black rice for salads and desserts.

Because it is still gaining popularity in the United States, my Google search did not return a plethora of black rice recipes.  I opted to make Ellie’s Krieger’s black rice risotto because I was looking for something to pair with salmon; Whole Foods had a great deal on wild salmon over the weekend. 



Black Rice Risotto
Serves 2
3/4 cup black rice
3 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 medium onion, diced
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 tbp fresh basil, chopped
1/2 tbp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground pepper

Begin by chopping the onion and basil.
 
   

Next, heat the chicken broth in one saucepot, low heat.  In another saucepot, heat the olive oil, medium heat, and cook the onions until soft.  Once the onions are soft, add the rice and cook for one minute, stirring continuously.
 
  


Once the minute has elapsed, reduce the heat to medium low and add the white wine.  Stir until the wine has been absorbed, 2 to 3 minutes.  Once absorbed, add a ladle of the warm chicken broth and continue stirring until mostly absorbed.  Repeat this process until all the broth has been added.  This will take roughly an hour.  Con someone into helping you stir the pot; your arm will get tired.




While Dave took a turn stirring, I prepared the salmon.  I opted for a simple preparation, salt, pepper, butter, and lemon slices.  I always cover my salmon to keep it nice and moist while baking. 



Once the last of the chicken broth has absorbed, stir in the salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese.  Plate the rice and garnish it with additional parmesan and chopped basil.



The risotto was pretty delicious.  The rice was chewier than regular rice, but the chewiness wasn’t unpleasant.  I thought the rice had a slightly earthy flavor which was nicely complimented by the sweet and anise (licorice) flavor of the basil.  The risotto would be a nice accompaniment for scallops or chicken, but I don’t see it pairing well with pork or beef.       

Overall grade: B+.

Ingredient 9 – Black Eyed Peas

Did you know black eyed peas are beans, not peas?  This tidbit didn’t really surprise me, but I never really gave the subject much thought.  Originally cultivated in West Africa, the black eyed pea was brought to Virginia in the 17th century.  The black eyed pea became popular across the South after the American Revolution and its consumption on New Years’ Day is thought to bring prosperity in the coming year.         

I decided to cook this week's ingredient in my Crockpot.  In my humble opinion, the Crockpot is a glorious invention.  During winter months, I routinely use mine to make copious amounts of chili.  I love coming home from work to a warm meal that is ready for my immediate consumption.  



Black Eyed Peas and Ham
1 lb dried black eyed peas
1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 ham steak
3 cups water
1 medium yellow onion
1 jalapeno pepper
1 clove garlic
2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
3 bay leaves
Fresh ground pepper

Begin by soaking the peas for approximately 6 hours.  In the spirit of full disclosure, this was the first time I had ever soaked my own beans and it was embarrassingly easy.  To soak, rinse the peas in a colander and place in bowl.  Cover peas with two inches of water and place in refrigerator.  Once in the refrigerator, go do something fun.  I went and saw Argo.    
        


Once the 6 hours have elapsed, wander back into your kitchen and remove the beans from the refrigerator and gather your ingredients.  Fry the ham steak in a touch of butter, 3 minutes per side (medium heat).

 

While the ham is cooking, chop the onion, jalapeño, and garlic.



Next, cut the ham into bite sized pieces.  Place the ham, beans, diced tomatoes, chopped vegetables, and water in the Crockpot.  

 

Add the cumin, cayenne, salt, and pepper and gently stir with a spoon or spatula.  Once combined, place bay leaves in pot, cover, and cook on low for 7 hours.
 


My Crockpot switched from low to keep warm about the time I left for work on Monday.  When I returned home the contents were warm but not dried out.  A few weeks prior, I made a Crockpot sweet potato breakfast casserole that was a real pain to clean up after, so I was happy to discover an easy clean up was in my future.



I served cornbread and steamed spinach with my peas and ham.  The peas had a fair amount of spice.  You could reduce the cumin and cayenne by half, if spicy dishes aren't your thing.  If you need more heat, Tabasco sauce would be a good addition. 



I am looking forward to another bowl of this hearty dish tonight.  Overall grade: B+.               

Ingredient 8 – Duck Eggs

Asking me to name my favorite food is silly.  I can't pick.  And if you do wrangle a decision out of me, don't expect my answer to be the same two weeks later.  However, if you ask me what my favorite meal is, the answer is brunch.  Good Lord, do I love brunch.  Savory and sweet in one meal and champagne cocktails, yes please.  Brunch is not just a meal, it provides a small dose of Zen to my week.  It is a vacation from my weekday breakfasts, typically inhaled in my cubicle or en route to the metro.

Ok, now that you know how much I love brunch, it should come as no surprise that I made Eggs Benedict this week, a brunch staple if there ever was one.  My benedict was no ordinary benedict, it featured the luxe ingredient of duck eggs.  I was considering preparing an ostrich egg, but one ostrich egg is equal to 2 dozen (24) chicken eggs.  Be warned future house guests, there may be ostrich egg in your future.

Duck eggs can be substituted for chicken eggs in nearly any recipe.  However, there are a few things to keep in mind.  Duck eggs are larger and have higher fat content than chicken eggs.  The yoke to white ratio is higher, good if you love yokes.  Duck eggs also have thicker shells which increase their shelf life.  
 

 

Duck Eggs Benedict

Serves 2 to 3

2 English muffins

4 slices Canadian bacon 

4 eggs for poaching

1/2 tbp white wine vinegar

 Hollandaise Sauce  - Recipe adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

1/2 cup of butter (room temperature)

3 egg yokes

1 tbp lemon juice

1 tbp water

1/2 tsp white pepper

1/2 tsp salt

Begin by making the Hollandaise sauce.  Separate and beat three egg yokes.  Place water, lemon juice, and yokes in the top pot of a double boiler.  Fill the bottom of the boiler 1/3 full with water and place on low heat.  Note: I don't have a double boiler so I improvise by placing a Pyrex mixing bowl on top of a saucepan.  Mix ingredients in top half of boiler and place on top of lower half of boiler. 



Slice butter into 4 even pieces.  Place one piece of butter in top half of boiler and gently mix ingredients until the butter has dissolved.  Once dissolved, add a second piece of butter, repeat process until all butter has been incorporated.  When all the butter has been incorporated, stir mixture for an additional 3 minutes.  During this time, the sauce will start to thicken.  Once the 3 minutes are up, remove the top half of the boiler from heat and stir in white pepper and salt.



I was worried that the Hollandaise sauce would be tricky, but the instructions provided in the cookbook were spot on.  The recipe suggested adding 1 or 2 tablespoon of warm water if your sauce comes out too thick.  The cookbook didn't make any mention of the mini panic attack you might suffer when adding a entire stick of butter to the sauce.  During my mental freak out, I pondered the hours of exercise it would take to burn off a stick of butter.  I am not really sure how long it would take, but trust me, don't go down that path.  Hollandaise sauce is ridiculously delicious, period.    

Once the Hollandaise sauce is complete, start poaching your eggs.  Fill a large skillet with water and place on medium low heat.  While the water is heating, crack eggs into individual small dishes.  Once the water is just below a light simmer, add the white wine vinegar.  Keep the water at this temperature, do not let the water come to a simmer or boil. 

My cookbook instructed me to gently pour the egg into the pan by placing the lip of the egg container as close to the water as possible.  One food blog suggested stirring the water to create whirlpool and pouring the egg into the whirlpool.  I tried both of these techniques with less than picture perfect results.  I had the most success when I used a cookie cutter as a mold for pouring the egg.  Regardless of pouring technique, cook the eggs for 3 to 4 minutes.
         


While your eggs are cooking, toast your English muffins and warm the Canadian bacon in a skillet, 2 to 3 minutes on each side (low heat).



To assemble, place piece of Canadian bacon on an English muffin half, top with poached egg and desired amount of Hollandaise sauce.  I served steamed asparagus with my Eggs Benedict.



As for taste, the duck eggs didn't disappoint.  They were very rich and flavorful.  Not surprisingly, the Hollandaise sauce was also very rich.  I thought the sauce was good, but could have been improved with a bit more salt and some additional spices.  Together, the eggs and Hollandaise were almost overwhelming.  Overall grade: B+. 

FYI, I have one duck egg left and am looking forward to cooking it this weekend.  I will let you know how it comes out.

Ingredient 7 - Cornish Game Hens

I selected Cornish Game Hen for this week’s ingredient because I find their petite size adorable, well adorable for poultry.  Also, Dave and I elected to celebrate Valentine’s Day over the weekend.  Thus, I thought I would make something a little special.
 
Cornish hens, also known as poussin, are not actually game birds.  They are small domestic chickens.  Regular chickens are raised for 42 days, Cornish hens are raised for 28 to 30 days.  By definition, Cornish Hens weigh less than 26 ounces.

I had no trouble finding a plethora of appealing recipes for roasting these adorable birds.  I looked at 20 to 30 recopies before deciding on Emeril Lagasse’s Apricot Glazed Cornish Game Hens with Italian sausage Rice Pilaf.  Emeril’s recipe calls for stuffing the hens with the pilaf.  However, stuffing a bird significantly increases the cooking time, and I didn’t want dinner to take over 2 hours to prepare.

Hens
2 Cornish game hens (1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds each)
1/2 tbp olive oil
2 tsp salt
2 tsp black pepper
2 tbp Dijon mustard – my addition
2 cups apricot jam
1/2 cup fresh orange juice



Pilaf
1/4 lb loose Italian sausage
2 tbp olive oil
1/2 cup diced onion
1/4 cup diced carrot
1/4 cup diced celery
2 tsp chopped garlic
1 cup long-grain white rice
1/3 cup raisins
2 tbp toasted almond slivers
1 tbp chopped parsley leaves
1 1/2 tsp chopped thyme leaves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 cups chicken stock



Note:  To make this recipe less stressful, get all your ingredients together ahead of time.  Prepare the veggies, herbs, and spices before you start cooking.  The pilaf demands a fair amount of attention.       

Begin by lining a roasting pan with aluminum foil and brushing the foil with olive oil so the hens don’t stick when roasting.  Place oven rack in middle position and pre-heat the oven to 360 degrees.



Next, prepare the hens and the sauce.  Remove hens from packaging, rinse exterior and cavity with cool water, and pat dry with paper towels.  Season both sides liberally with salt and pepper.  Once seasoned, truss with kitchen twine and place breast side down in the roasting pan.



To make the sauce, combine apricot jam, mustard, and orange juice in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring frequently.  The goal is to reduce the sauce by half, this takes roughly 10 minutes.  Once reduced, spoon 1/3 to 1/2 of the sauce on the hens and place in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes.




To prepare the pilaf, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a 2-quart saucepan (medium heat) and add the sausage.  Cook the sausage for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring frequently.  Next, add the onion, carrot, and celery and cook until the onion is translucent, roughly 3 minutes.  Add the garlic and the rice, stirring continuously for 3 minutes.



Add the chicken broth, raisins, almonds, parsley, thyme, cinnamon, salt, and pepper and bring to a low boil.  Once boiling, reduce the heat to low, cover the pot, and cook for 30 minutes.  Stir the mixture every few minutes to keep it from burning to the bottom of the pot.



Once you have covered the rice, check your hens.  If the 25 minutes have not elapsed, spoon more sauce on the hens and wait out the timer.  If the 25 minutes have elapsed, turn the hens, breast side up, spoon on more sauce, and return to oven for 20 minutes.

Once the 20 minutes have elapsed, remove the hens from the oven and check the temperature of the breast with a meat thermometer.  The thermometer should read 160 degrees.  Once fully cooked, let the hens rest approximately 10 minutes before serving.



I served steamed green beans with my hens and rice.  However, steamed broccoli or a simple salad would also complement this meal nicely.



The chicken and rice both came out really well.  The pilaf had had plenty of flavor and the chicken was not in the least dry.  The only downside to this recipe, messy hands from the delicious sauce.

FYI - I used my leftover hen meat to make chicken salad, it was mighty tasty.           

Overall grade: A-.

Restaurant Week – Blacksalt

Last Sunday afternoon Dave and I went to lunch at Blacksalt for Restaurant Week.  With three course $20 lunches and $35 dinners, I love me some Restaurant Week.  I always try and make reservations at the luxe establishments I am less likely to try on a whim.   FYI, I have been trying to get a Restaurant Week reservation at Rasika for the last three or four Restaurant Weeks.  That place is Fort Knox.     

Blacksalt is a seafood market and restaurant in the Palisades neighborhood of D.C.  The food was really terrific.  I made a point to be picky so I could provide a helpful review but all the dishes were on point.  I will be going back at some point in the future.

Lunch began with fresh fruit salad with mint.  Admittedly, I am not big on fruit salad.  I have some weird fruit phobias.  However, it the spirit of being open, I had some.  The fruit was very fresh, always a treat in February. 



For the first course, I selected the Rhode Island Calamari with Chipotle Remoulade and Dave chose the House Cured Organic Salmon Gravlax.  Both were great.  Dave and I ended up switching appetizers after a few bites.  He loves calamari and I can’t get enough smoked salmon in my life.
 


I selected the grilled Mahi Mahi with Roasted Root Vegetables and Kale for my entree   The fish was light and had a wonderful smoky flavor.  The root vegetables were perfection.  They were cooked with a touch of bacon but weren't too fatty.  I had a half glass of white wine with my entree   The waiter provided a recommended but the variety is escaping me at the moment.
 
Dave got Addie’s Mussels, Shallot, Garlic, Tomato, and Lemon.  I only tried one, but it was good, very fresh.



Dessert didn’t disappoint.  I ordered the house made ice cream, pistachio and chocolate.  It was served with fresh berries and a crispy wafer.  Dave ordered the Chambord Chocolate Torte. It was served with a raspberry sauce and whipped cream. 

Both desserts were fantastic.  The wafer that came with my ice cream was much better than I would have guessed.  It was crispy and had a wonderful caramel flavor.  It was closer to a piece of brittle than a cookie.  The chocolate torte was the perfect dessert to cure a serious chocolate craving.



If you like seafood and want to celebrate a special event or enjoy a nice meal out, check out Blacksalt.  The food gets an A and the service gets a B+.