Katya4me

We went to Alias Vint Hill last night for a special occasion. We sat at the Chef's Counter and were curious so one of us got the vegetarian menu while the other ordered the regular menu. We also decided to try the cheese course. Neither of us are real wine drinkers, so skipped the wine pairing. For drinks, he got the Tequila Honey and I tried the mocktail, Cherry Lane and both were very good. We did arrive early, as requested and enjoyed a glass of champagne and 2 starters before the first course listed on the menu. The first was a small disk (I think plantain) with I believe 6 layers on it: a sweet and spicy sauce (aji amarillo and something else), something else and for the regular menu, a slice of skipjack tuna on top while the other had I believe cured vegetables and then curls of green onion and a drizzle of sauce on it. We shared everything throughout the meal and both of these were very good. The tuna was more substantial but I liked the combination of flavors on the vegetarian version. The next was another nibble in small scoop shapes, waygu beef in the one, and I'm blanking on the vegetarian version's topping. For each course, they brought out the silverware for that dish and then cleared it along with the plate before the next dish came out and this was a nice touch. The first course was the same for both menus: Potato & Leek Soup with Garlic Bread Crumble, Buttermilk Sorbet, the difference being that the regular menu included a topping of Osetra Caviar instead of Scallions. We did ask for the caviar on both bowls because it looked great and glad I did. The contrast between the hot soup and the sorbet was perfect, along with the garlic crunch. Next out was their version of Parker House rolls with soft salted butter. My husband took his first bite and made happy noises. There were 2 for each person and absolutely wonderful. After this was the second item on the menu: Roasted Turbot, stuffed with Scallops and Tarragon, with Dandelion Puree, and Sunflower Sikil Pak or Wild Ramp & Potato Tortellini with Sauteed Mushrooms, Leek Beurre Blanc for the vegetarian menu. The fish was very good but I think I have to give the nod to the tortellini for this course. After that was the Whiffletree Farms Chicken with Turnip Cream, Basil Scallion Trapanese and Grilled Wild Morels or Sweet Potato Pave with Turnip Cream, Basil Scallion Trapanese and Aged Gouda Mornay. The chicken was everything chicken should be and rarely is: flavorful, moist and tender. It was so enjoyable and the sauces just added to that. The Pave was made with Peruvian purple sweet potatoes and was visually very attractive. The Gouda Mornay and the Turnip Cream were excellent accompaniments. The fourth course from the menu was Grilled Iberico Pork "Pluma" with Fabada Astariana, Spicy Wild Ramp, Red Pepper Adobo Puree, and Grilled Fiddlehead Ferns or Grilled Blonde Morels stuffed with Roasted Date Mole, on Sweet & Sour Chili Agrodolce, and Pickled Shallot. My husband is not normally a fan of pork, but he said if I can make it taste like that, he'd enjoy eating it. This was a first time for both of us having ramps and fiddlehead ferns. Loved the bite from the ramps and the fiddleheads are very visually appealing. The morels were good but I think the mole may have been too intense of a flavor contrast for that dish. For this course, the knives provided had the name ALIAS on the blade and it was subtle but a great touch. Before the final menu course, there was one last extra course. It was a sunchoke puree with cacao nibs, nuts and a scoop of a sorbet on top. It was cool, sweet and savory and unexpectedly delicious. Bringing the menus full circle, the final item for both was Tres Leche Cake with Black Pepper Chantilly, Strawberry Sorbet, Strawberry and Rhubarb. The black pepper provided the perfect contrast to the cake and fruit flavors. For the Cheese plate, there were 4 cheeses, a Housemade Onion Jam and Housemade Crackers. The cheeses included a mild Bleu cheese, a brie, a Swiss cheese and one more hard cheese that I'm blanking on. I shared the Bleu with my husband but he preferred the cake for his final course. I enjoyed both options. After this final course, everyone was presented with a to-go box of 4 cinnamon rolls to take home and enjoy, perhaps for breakfast. This was the perfect conclusion to the meal. If you are looking at restaurants with a prix fixe menu, I would definitely recommend Alias and we enjoyed sitting at the counter and seeing the assembly throughout the meal.

Dinner last night was these spicy salmon rice cups. I didn't plan ahead, so ended up cooking the rice while working on the salmon. The spice blend called for made no sense to me, so I went with a tablespoon of Penzey's sate seasoning instead with a sprinkle of paprika for color. Made the sauce and cut up the avocado while the cups baked. We had 3 cups each and happy with the seasoning choice. I added a bit of last night's salad to my plate for some veggies.

Dinner was this crunchy salad. Forgot to defrost chicken but we had some super firm tofu and grilling cheese in the fridge, so marinated those instead. For the salad, we went with chopped cashews and pistachios instead of peanuts. Really tasty and happy with all the substitutions. Also happy that if it's providing crunch and the flavor is overwhelmed, hubby is onboard with raw cabbage in a salad.

Lunch today was this very tasty Spicy Japchae. I had fried tofu and extra mushrooms, so I skipped including the fish cakes. I might add a few more noodles next time but I enjoyed this twist in the traditional recipe.

Thursday night was an unusually beige meal for us. I got home late and was staring in the fridge at options. I grabbed the remaining bacon and started frying it while I cut up a remaining defrosted chicken breast. I also saw a packet of chicken flavor seitan that was near it's expiration date, so tore that up as well. Took the bacon out of the skillet and tossed the chicken in to cook. Once it was mostly done, I added the seitan and a handful of matchstick carrots. I made some Parmesan couscous for the starch and called it done. Worked out well but probably should have added some more veggies. Friday night was this Chili Crunch Tofu & Spinach dish. It was supposed to include rice noodles but I ended up doubling it and didn't have enough noodles for that, so made Korean black rice instead. I also should have pressed the tofu more than I did as it has too much moisture to crisp up like it was supposed to do. Ignoring that though, the sauce was good and it used up all of the spinach, which was a goal. I do have 1/2 a can of coconut milk sitting in the fridge to use for something. Last month, this recipe for Chicken & Carrot Kade Paan caught my eye and we made it for dinner last night. The bag of rolls I found was a 36 count, not 18, so this recipe got doubled. I skipped the egg wash, and we were fine with that. No chili tomato sauce here but rummaging around I decided to do a mayo based sauce instead. I went fusion instead of closer to authentic. Mayo with some aji amarillo paste, basil paste, S & P and that was good for us. We are 4 each and put the remainder in the fridge for future meals. I liked them but I really need to work on getting more filling inside, I'm terrible at that and the finished rolls did seem a bit more hollow than they should have been.

Dinner tonight was this awesome avocado, bacon, and chicken salad. I added cucumber and carrots because I like those and despite putting it on the grocery list, I forgot to buy feta cheese. We have an assortment of cheeses in the drawer so went with a smoked Gouda and something else. Everything worked really well and I probably could skip the chicken and still really enjoy it.

I had 2 cactus paddles in the fridge so decided to make nopales with ground beef for dinner. I've had piquin peppers lingering for a long time so was very happy that this recipe called for them. It's a bit brothy but I really like the broth and it went well over rice. I might serve it with beans next time.

Playing a bit of catch-up here on this past week's cooking. Tuesday: I had some enoki mushrooms so decided to make this wrap recipe. I had 150 grams of mushrooms so divided it into 9 sections and increased the sauce accordingly. I had a package of fried tofu sheets, took out 9 sheets, and rehydrated them in the microwave with some water. I've still got 1/2 a package of the sheets so need to do something else with them. We had it over jasmine rice. Flavor was very good, just have to be aware that some of the mushrooms will want to get caught in your teeth. Wednesday: We had Drunken Udon Noodles. Right on the edge of too much heat but just delicious. We doubled the recipe, bumped up the amount of baby corn and Chinese broccoli and tossed in 2 sheets of thinly cut tofu sheets. Thursday: Addictive sweet potato burritos, we've been making these for years. Great for an easy dinner, fantastic for freezing and having for a future lunch. Friday: Using the leftover rice from Tuesday, made Sambal fried rice with chicken. Didn't have any shrimp paste, so decided to use broad bean sauce instead, not trying to replicate the flavor but thought that might taste good. We also had 1 green bell pepper left over, so included that. This was a bit too spicy for me but tasted very good, just needed to top up my water glass a couple of times. Yesterday was leftovers of the burritos and fried rice.

Went to an Easter celebration yesterday and planned to bring a side dish or two. I had some leftover wheat berries from cooking a double batch and some canned chickpeas so that was my starting point. I settled on this wheat berry and everything else recipe as it did not look boring at all and turned out really well. While I was shopping for ingredients, I saw some tamarillos and remembered this recipe, so I picked up 3 of those (forgot I needed 4) and had everything else for that recipe. I did realize after I got home that I was out of normal pesto, so I made a bit of a mishmash that worked for the dish. My BIL made delicious beef tenderloin and twice- baked potatoes, so I was glad I had the salads to balance them out. Then we had cheesecake and tiramisu for dessert. 😋

Last night for us was fish, specifically salmon. Hubby picked this spicy salmon bowls recipe and other than removing the skin, was super quick to make. Since there weren't measurements for the spices, I just eyeballed and used Penzey's Bangkok seasoning instead of chili powder in the seasoning mix. We had leftover jasmine rice so I added some vinegar seasoning to it instead of making a batch of sushi rice and that worked. I have a jar of red Caviart that I've had for a while and it's almost empty now. It works well for sushi dishes, but I just saw that they have a lot more options I need to try.

I had some butternut squash and pomegranate molasses in the fridge so made this wheat berry and butternut squash salad for dinner. I didn't have pomegranate seeds so I chopped up some dried dates instead. I'm a fan of all of the elements in this recipe and so happy I've got leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

I had some veggies in the fridge and glass noodles in the pantry so made a bastardized japchae last night. I had no spinach, so skipped that and used fresh shiitake mushrooms instead of fresh. For veggies, I included: 1 zucchini, matchstick carrots, 1 yellow onion, snow peas, 1 orange bell pepper, and 1 jalapeno. I had a package of beef flavored seitan in the fridge, so I sauteed that with a bit of sweet soy sauce and then added it to the bowl. I would have liked to have had greens in it but it helped clean out the fridge and I always like japchae.

This weekend, I was looking for an easy recipe and this Fennel, Lentil and Smoked Trout Salad fit the bill. I'd never used canned lentils before, but definitely would again. I'm not a big fan of dill, so I used the fennel fronds instead. I think slicing the fennel thinly was the only part that involved much effort and the flavors were strong but well-balanced.

Dinner tonight was chicken zucchini meatballs in a red curry sauce. I got 1.5 instead of 1 lb of ground chicken so just scaled the recipe up accordingly and added some bread crumbs since I had some leftover. I'm not a fan of frying meatballs so I did them in the oven, 20 minutes at 400*F. Got the rice started then started the sauce. I had a can of coconut milk and some leftover heavy cream and used that combination instead of 1.5 cans. Came together well and super easy. The breadcrumbs were leftover from last night's dinner, which I think is my absolute favorite version of a fried tofu sandwich. I did 12 slices from the tofu block instead of 18, but those were still very thin. Really liked the taste of the breading and fried up very well. I had a chipotle garlic spread that I used for my condiment, topped with some pickle slices and lettuce. We had for 3 meals actually, and one time I did a tahini artichoke dip instead of the garlic spread and that worked well too.

Didn't feel like going out in the rain to go grocery shopping so poked around in the pantry and freezer to come up with dinner. From the pantry, I found a bag of star shaped fideo and a can of Caribbean seasoned black beans. From the freezer, 1/2 lb of freezer burned ground chicken and 3 Italian sausage links. I settled on fideo seco for dinner. Had a can of diced tomatoes, so used those instead of fresh Roma tomatoes and put the onion into the blender for the sauce. I defrosted and cooked the meat separately, then added it at the end. Had some queso fresco in the fridge, so topped with that and served the beans on the side. I've got another bag of the fideo in the pantry still, so I'm keeping this recipe to make again.

Last night was a rather random pizza but tasty. Homemade dough, habanero BBQ sauce, sauteed enoki mushrooms, diced tofu marinated in the BBQ sauce and frozen corn warmed with pesto. Topped with mozzarella and baked at 505*F for 13 minutes. Delicious 😋

I did a brisket this week as well, 3 lbs flat top. I rinsed it and then sprinkled Cajun seasoning on the fat before doing sous vide at 155*F for 26 hours. Seared on cast iron for dinner and served with mashed potatoes. Really good. To answer your question, I'm in complete agreement on The Kitchn. Every once in a while I wander in there and wonder why I did that. It doesn't work for me at all.

Dinner last night was Vegan Beef Pepper Lunch. I've seen beef pepper lunch recipes a few times and while they look good, I didn't feel like allotting that much time and effort at lunchtime. So, dinner instead. I think I could have cut the tofu into even smaller pieces than we did. I had a 16 oz block and cut it into 18 pieces and I could have halves those pieces. Good flavor and it came together nicely.

Today's lunch was tofu enchiladas, recipe by way of Australia. Definitely not a traditional recipe, but I liked it. Used canned crushed tomatoes for the canned tomatoes and skipped the cilantro. I'd up the amount of cheese next time and maybe top with some chopped avocado for serving. It says 4 servings but we both thought 1 enchilada was enough for lunch. We ended up filling the pan with 9 tortillas and then poured the remaining filling over the top.

I saw this recipe for Celery Root Steak Diane on WashPo last week and it looked weird enough that I wanted to try it. Got 4 slices out of my celery root, skipped the brandy and bumped the mushrooms up to 16 oz. Really tasty and very easy to make. Didn't have anything else with it but I could see a green salad going well with it next time. Or continuing with the steak theme, perhaps some creamed spinach since I still have plenty of heavy cream to use up.

The other night, we made very tasty Chili Crunch Tofu Bowls. We had a 10 oz package of extra firm tofu, so scaled the rest of the recipe accordingly. Came together very easily and the organization of the steps made it easy to work on one element while another was cooking. My only complaint, and it's a small one, is that it uses a decent number of pots, pans and bowls in the preparation.

We had a bunch of things in the fridge that needed to be eaten before they went to waste. So, looking around, this rice salad with pickled daikon looked like a great starting point. We had basmati rice in the fridge along with a whole bunch of veggies and Thai basil to use instead of cilantro. I had a bag of pickled daikon radish, so chopped that into bite size pieces. Matchsticked some carrots and cucumber and tossed in a handful of baby spinach. I still had some leftover peanut sauce so I thinned it with some garlic chili crisp and tossed cubed extra firm tofu in it and let that sit until the salad was ready, then added it in as well. Mixed all together, made for an excellent meal and great way to bring all those ingredients together.

3 nights ago, I made this spicy sheet pan tofu with green beans and had it over brown basmati rice. The peanut sauce was really good, but as is frequently the case, the recipe mad way too much of it. So last night, I was poking around in the freezer and fridge and decided to use it before it sat forever and got thrown away. I defrosted some chicken thighs, and sliced them up, along with 1 red bell pepper and 2 carrots. Those went into a skillet along with a good grinding of black pepper. I had some fresh udon noodles in the fridge, so cooked those up as well. Once the chicken was cooked, I tossed in 2 green onions to cook briefly. I added the noodles to the skillet and poured some of the peanut sauce over it. Once warmed, I sprinkled on the last bits of broken cashews from a container and declared dinner served. I'd definitely make it again.

For lunch the other day, we made vegan rice paper dumplings. Super easy to assemble, most time consuming part was letting the moisture cook out of the cabbage. We skipped cooking the dumplings, so only did 1 paper and 2 dumplings each. I would probably do a peanut sauce with it next time though.

We did pasta last night as well but we did vegan, creamy pasta with miso and mushrooms. I think it could have used a bit more seasoning, maybe I didn't use enough thyme, but otherwise very good and easy to make.