Restaurant Review: Sotto Sopra - Baltimore, MD

  I like going out to eat.  I like going to Baltimore and going out to eat with my cousins.  It's fun.  Kills two birds with one stone; going out to eat and spending time with the cousins who I don't see all that much anymore.  Today Jon, Janina, and I went to eat with the cousins to Sotto Sopra.  Thanks Danae for recommending the place.
  "Sotto Sopra is a slick, hip, stylish contemporary Italian restaurant located in the cultural district of downtown Baltimore. The historical 19th century townhome is back drop to great Italian cuisine. Enjoy monthly Opera Nights."  I stole that from their Facebook page.  Now I'm going to come right out and say it, I'm not too fond of Italian restaurants.  Let me explain, I like Italian food.  But it seems like every other restaurant nowadays is Italian.  People that aren't even Italian open Italian restaurants.  Why?  Because people like Italian food and by jumping on that bandwagon there is a good chance the restaurant will attract people.  But there can be a problem with that, these wannabe Italian places tend to be cheesy.  So unless you have an authentic Italian restaurant, I would rather not go there.  All that to say, Sotto Sopra is an authentic Italian place.  From Italian people working there to authentic decorating and, sticker for me, Italian spelling on the menu.
  Sotto Sopra participated in  Baltimore Restaurant Week and although that ended last week they extended their restaurant week menu for a few more days.  So that meant we could order a three course meal for $30.  Good deal.  For the first course, appetizer, I ordered polenta with escargot.  Very creamy polenta...and the snails.  Yum!!  Second course I ordered, I don't even remember what it was exactly, salmon with arugula and set on some sort of beans.  It was amazing whatever it was.  Third course I ordered Chocolate Pots de Creme.  My goodness.  So good!  Oh and before all that we ordered a cheese platter.  Three different kinds of cheese drizzled with honey and served with crusty bread.  Don't ask my what the cheeses were.  I forget.  All I remember was two of them were good and the third not so much.  The plating and the designs on the plates were quite good.  Very nicely plated and attractive.  Good to look at, even better to eat.  It was a bit pricey, spent $43 for everything, tip included, but it was well worth it.

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Restaurant Review: The Black Sheep - Richmond, VA

The other week I was in Richmond with Janina and Austin.  When I was trying to decide upon a place to eat lunch I was thinking about The Hill Cafe, did some research on it, and then noticed that people were bragging up The Black Sheep.  Not until after I decided we were going there for lunch did I realized that they were featured on Man v Food.  Check it out on Youtube here.  Their "battleship" sandwiches really settled it for me, we were going there.  Now they name these sandwiches "battleships" for a reason, they are no ordinary subs.  They are so big that they are no longer subs, they are battleships.  Two foot long toasted French baguette loaded with yummy goodness.  The first thing you will notice about The Black Sheep is that it is small.  Looks almost like a little house when you drive by.  The dining room is very small as well.  Their menu is not small, however, as the battleships attest to.  Check out their Facebook page here for their menu.  Janina ordered a half USS Brooklyn.  Jerk barbecued chicken, loaded into a toasted french baguette with shredded cabbage, roasted banana ketchup & peach chutney.  Austin and I split a full USS Congress.  Chipotle roasted pork shoulder simmered in a tomatillo barbeque sauce with grilled pineapple and a Mexican style pickled pepper and cabbage salad, loaded into a toasted french baguette.  My goodness it was great!  Anything with pork is going to be good.  The grilled pineapple made the sandwich.  So good!  The USS Brooklyn was a bit too hot for Janina.  Jerk seasonings will do that.  So Austin and I gave here a bit of our battleship and we had some of hers.  My goodness that was amazing too!  You didn't realize how hot it was while you were eating it because the roasted banana ketchup and peach chutney balanced the heat.  Then after a few bites you were like, "Yea, this is hot."  But it was so good!  It's probably a good thing I don't live in Richmond because I could easily see me frequenting this place at least once a week and spending money that I don't really have.

Now I usually don't take pictures in restaurants but this had to be an exception.  Take a gander at this.

Yea.

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Roast Beef

We have put ourselves on somewhat of a weekly schedule for our healthier eating.
Sunday = vegetarian
Monday = meat night, chicken or beef
Tuesday = vegetarian
Wednesday = fish night
Thursday = vegetarian
Friday = vegetarian
Saturday = pizza, and that usually includes meat
Sunday = vegetarian

Today is Monday so that was meat night.  I made a beef roast.  Now I'm going to come right out and say it... I'm not a big fan of roasts.  They are usually dry and then you smother it with gravy.  Not my choice of eating meat.  I would much rather have a steak cooked medium-rare.  But then again, roasts are easy to make, and we have some in the freezer, so that is what was made.

First I seared the roast on all sides in an iron skillet.

Then I put it the the crock pot with a mierpoix (50% onion, 25% each carrot and celery), some Worcestershire, a bit of red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and water.  Set it on low overnight because it was still frozen.

This morning I took it out of the crock pot and let it cool in the fridge before slicing it.

I made gravy with all that yummy juices left over in the crock pot.  Added salt and pepper, a bit of thyme, a bay leaf, and balsamic vinegar.  I experimented and used ground up oatmeal for the thickener instead of flour.  A slurry of flour and water tends to make it too thick and clumpy for me.  The oatmeal worked, I just had to let it simmer a bit longer and then strain it.

When it was close to dinner time I sliced the roast and re-heated it with gravy on top.  Made mashed potatoes and heated up green beans with a bit of corn.

That is Boston Iced Tea in the background.

It was good, I guess.  Everybody always raves about my mashed potatoes.  I don't know why.  All they are are mashed potatoes with the skin on, milk and/or cream, salt, and pepper.  This time I added sour cream. 

I'm still not a big fan of roasts.

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Veggie and Tofu Stir Fry

Today for lunch after church I used the beloved wok and made some more stir fry.  Just used stuff we had sitting in the fridge.  Bok choy, tofu, onion, carrot, celery, and purple cabbage.

Mise en place

First I heated the wok and stir fried the onion,

then added the carrots,

celery,

cabbage and bok coy,

and lastly the tofu.

Sprinkled soy sauce over it all along with salt and pepper.  Let it cook for a bit then added a bit of cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce a bit.  Ate it over brown rice because brown rice is healthier than plain white rice.

Not much to look at but it was quite good!

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Broiled Whiting with Sweet Potato Crust and Vanilla Cream Sauce

A part of our new year's resolution to eat healthier includes eating more fish.  The other day I made an interesting fish dish, Broiled Whiting with Sweet Potato Crust.  First I made the sweet potato mixture; sweet potatoes mashed with lemon juice, orange juice but I substituted tangerine juice, butter, salt, and ginger.

The crust was made with Tryphena's home made graham crackers, roasted walnuts, and melted butter.

The fish.

I covered the fish with the sweet potato mixture and sprinkled on the crust.

It was interesting.  Good, but different.  I think the whiting was too mellow for the robust vanilla cream sauce.  The fish by itself was good, but the sauce kinda drowned it out when eaten together.  Oh well, wasn't bad for something different.

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Red Beans and Rice

Our family has a new year's resolution to cut out all foods with MSG, high fructose corn syrup, and hydrogenated oils.  So that leaves us with more healthy foods to eat.  This is good, but it can be a bit challenging to decide what to eat.  It is a good thing to eat complete proteins at least once a day.  Meat is a complete protein, but we have also decided to cut down on our meat consumption.  So that leaves us cooking vegetarian most nights.  Beans and rice is good and combined they make a complete protein.  We haven't had much success in finding a good recipe that everybody loves.  So I did a bit of research and found two.  The other day I tired one of them.

Mise en place

First I sauteed the onion, garlic, celery, and bell pepper until it was soft.

Then I added red beans, tomato sauce, Worcestershire, red pepper, salt, and pepper.

Let that simmer for a while until it was heated thoroughly and it was done.

It turned out almost like a red bean soup because of the tomato sauce.  It was good though, served over rice.

Not much to look at but it was good!

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Posole

I've been kind of slacking in my blogs lately, so I'm going to be catching up with a few blogs here.

I made Posole a while ago, Christmas eve actually.  We have a tradition of having soup every Christmas eve for dinner.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pozole Go here if you don't know what Posole is.

First I cooked the pork.  Rubbed it with cumin, garlic powder, paprika, salt, and pepper.  Layered on sliced onions, put a bit of water in the dish, covered it with foil and cooked it for approximately 5 hours.

When it was cooked and fork tender I strained the juices and shredded the meat.

Then it was on to making the soup.

Mise en place

Sauteed the onion and garlic until softened and translucent.

Then added the diced tomatoes.

Cooked that for a bit longer then added chicken stock, pinto beans, hominy, reserved pork juices, and the shredded pork.

Simmered that for 15 minutes or so and it was done.

We ate it with cheddar cheese, cilantro, lime wedges, and tortillas.

Garnish

It was oh so yummy!

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