Upstairs on the Square Aztec Beer Dinner

I have been to plenty of wine pairing dinners but Tuesday night was my first ever beer pairing. Sponsored by BeerAdvocate.com, I believe. The event took place at Upstairs on the Square, a restaurant that always presents a surprise with each meal. Tuesday was no exception.

The meal - both beer and food - had an Aztec theme. Each dish incorporated an ingredient (or two or three) that was part of the Aztec culture (that the Conquistidors so rudely eliminated upon their arrival in the Western Hemisphere). A beer was chosen to bring out not only the flavors of the meal but also for how the meal transformed the beer.

The first course was a seafood ceviche with avocado, lime & cilantro, paired with a Negro Modelo. A bite of radish and a sip of beer - they both transform into something sweet!
Second course: Duck prosciutto salad with white bean puree, honey roasted squash and pepitas. Paired with a bragget. Not really sure what that was, technically. But the pairing was tremendous. First, duck prosciutto? Fabulous. Had no idea duck had been a big part of the Aztec diet. The white bean puree was fantastic, especially with the drizzle of honey that really elevated all of the dish's ingredients. And the beer was really well-paired with it all, especially the honey. The beer's sweetness really came out.
Third course: Spiced chicken with a mole and corn spaetzel, paired with a German urbock that has been made the same way since 1400's. The beer company dries their hops the old fashioned way apparently - with fire and smoke. So the beer has a smoky aspect to it. On first sniff, my companions all said "where's the campfire?" Smoky beer with spiced chicken? It worked. The breast of chicken was so succulent, skin still on surprisingly. And the corn spaetzel - little balls of corn yumminess. Loved it. Couldn't eat it fast enough.
Dessert: A chocolate bread pudding paired with a chocolate beer. I knew it was coming up, so I saved a bit of my smoky beer to taste with my chocolate bread pudding. I wanted to see if I could conjure up a smores feeling. A little, but more appropriately, the beer they chose went extremely well with the dessert. Leave the pairings to the experts.
I left:

• feeling full, but not stuffed - just the way to appreciate food
• slightly tipsy
• with a greater knowledge of Aztec foods and culture
• with a greater conviction that beer is a meal in a bottle
• assured in my opinion that Upstairs on the Square is one of my top places for a consistently outstanding meals in Boston

asparagus lasagna

To go along with the glitz and glam of the Oscars, Jennifer made asparagus lasagna. We've been tuned into the Food Network lately, and this recipe is from an episode of Giada's Everyday Italian. Billed as an elegant restaurant-style lasagna, she certainly was correct. Unlike several of the previous recipes we've put together, we actually had all the ingredients for this one. The prep was fairly involved but working together it all came together fairly well. I'd wash the basil and rinse the jars of sun-dried tomatoes then Jennifer would make the pesto. The process really did click along.

Lasagna without meat or sauce - who knew it could be so good? The dish was prepared with layers of sun-dried tomato basil pesto, noodles (no crazy version with thinly sliced eggplant here), an asparagus-ricotta mixture, diced turkey bacon (ok, it called for pancetta but a good-quality turkey bacon was an excellent substitute), mozzarella and parmesan. I originally suggested omitting the pancetta. What a disappointment that would have been! The bacon gave the dish an occasional taste of smokiness - not in every forkful, just now and then, and each time I noticed it, I thought 'oh, there it is, I'm so glad we didn't leave it out.'

The recipe calls for four bunches of asparagus. We looked at the mound of washed asparagus in the sink and immediately wished we had a more accurate measurement, like cups or pounds. We put in probably three of our bunches, and that was just fine, we didn't need any more than that. Unlike conventional lasagna, this felt lighter. But it was still a hefty meal and we served it with a warm baguette. Yum.

De-Lux

Working from home, I don't get out of the house much. So when Jennifer said she was meeting co-workers for after-work drinks at Clerys in the South End, I came along. And I was also tempted by a possible chance to grab a quick dinner on the way home.

Clerys an Irish-style sports bar on Dartmouth, was particularly full last night. We did meet for drinks but also shared a platter of nachos. What can I say, it was just a plate of nachos. They were pretty good and at least we had the good sense to not get them soaked with beef. It was a nice beginning for what I had been looking forward to: the De-Lux.

From the outside, it looks like a dive bar. The indoor decor doesn't change that opinion much. The walls are filled with old record sleeves, graffiti fills the bare spots, and a velvet Elvis and all the trappings makes up a permanent memorial over by the bar. Not far away is a bar-top Christmas tree that holds its spot year-round. It's a small place, maybe 15 small tables. It's always filled whenever we go. It's an interesting crowd - messengers, artists, old locals, hipsters, and people who love good food.

This is one of my favorite spots to grab a quick and delicious meal. And it's affordable. I've never had a bad meal. The menu changes about ever six weeks, but they do have some permanent items, like the grilled cheese that's to die for. I wish I had a menu on hand to rattle off some other items. You'd expect a dive bar to have iceberg lettuce salads. Not here. Last night we had the spinach salad special with candied walnuts, gorganzola, grape tomatoes, and a fresh vinaigrette. We also had the gnocchi with fresh tomato sauce. The gnocchi were excellent, homemade, very fresh. The sauce, honestly, didn't have time to develop flavor. It wasn't a jar sauce, you could tell it was a can of whole tomatoes with added stuff in it, but maybe they had a run on sauce and put together another batch quickly. Maybe another 1/2 hour cooking would have helped it develop deeper flavor.

The De-Lux - it's fabulous. Don't let the dive bar facade fool you.

grezzo

When my friend Deb first asked me to try a new raw restaurant - Grezzo - that just opened in the North End, I thought sure, I'm not the biggest shellfish fan but I'll give it a go. Raw bar and raw restaurant are not the same thing, believe me. Luckily I informed myself of the differences before I arrived for 8pm reservations and was prepared for the raw food experience. Grezzo is 100% vegan and as organic as they can get. And, none of the food has been heated to more than 112F. So, the entire menu is, in essence, raw.

First, Grezzo has a lovely, warm feel as you enter. Colors were nice and the paintings of fruit and vegetables very appropriate. It's a small space with big thick-backed chairs. Squeezing into my close-to-the-wall chair was made more difficult by the patron behind my chair not acknowledging my presence and scootching in like she should have.

The later at night I begin my dinner, the less I eat. So I had just a soup and an appetizer. And I nibbled a bit off of others' plates. One of our party asked the waiter which soup she recommended, the parsnip or the Japanese pumpkin and butternut squash, and the waitress answered the parsnip was one of the most interesting soups she's tasted. I have a policy that if a dish is described as "interesting," I stay away from it. Now, remember, nothing is heated beyond 112F, so the soup was not a bowl of warm steamy goodness on what turned out to be a bone-chilling night. That said, the pumpkin butternut squash soup was pretty tasty. Jennifer had the parsnip soup, and that turned out to have an almost minty taste to it. Not sure that was in ingredient. and it was a good deal cooler than my pumpkin soup. I took a couple of nibbles of the "cheese" on Deb's salad. Their cheese is actually made from nuts - totally not sure how they do it. Deb's cheese was formed to look like a hunk of goat cheese. It has some nice flavors to it, and the texture, while not completely smooth, was acceptable. It's not cheese, so I'd pick another name for it.
I then had the gnocchi appetizer. Not sure what was actually in there, you can probably check out their menu online and read up on it. The plate consisted of about 20 little beige balls covered with a light drizzle of 'cream' sauce and some peas, I think wasabi peas but not so hot. They were mostly hard, whatever form of pea they were. Again, the plate was room temperature or cooler. I enjoyed the flavors. The portion, for me, was just perfect for my entree. The texture was slightly pasty. Meaning, when you chewed, your teeth separated as they would after biting into a peanut butter sandwich - like a prolonged sideways movement of the jaw. I don't know, it's something I noticed, maybe it wouldn't be a big thing for others. But I like the flavor, don't get me wrong. My plate also had a sprinkling of sprouts and gave the dish a nice needed crunch. Jennifer' ravioli was tasty, too. Again, not sure what was in it.
They had two dessert options - a chocolate cake and a cheesecake. Deb really liked her chocolate cake. I thought it had a texture too much like halavah and was a little dry. The cheesecake was not cheese but looked like cheesecake. Again, some sort of nut paste thing I'm sure. Not smooth but it was surprisingly tasty. And with fresh raspberries on top too. And the plate was drizzled with a lavender agave sauce. I definitely approved of that. Call it nut-paste cake.
The tea was the one exception to the not-heated rule, and was steaming hot and very delicious. I can see going here again in the spring or summer, when room temperature food would be welcome. Overall, it was a meal I'm glad I experienced.

turkey burgers

My last posting was about Monday night's meal, but that doesn't mean I haven't eaten anything since then. We've both been busy - I had a networking event at Pho Republique on Tuesday and Jennifer was on call on Wednesday - so we didn't plan any major meals. I grabbed a few hors d'oeuvres - yummy shrimp and chicken filled dumpling thingys - at Pho, while Jennifer made one of our fall-back meals: turkey burgers. Not sure what she actually does to them. It varies from batch to batch. It's not just meat. She adds things like diced red peppers, jalepeno peppers, onions or scallions if we have them. She also gives them a touch of flavor with cumin, chili powder, salt & pepper. No bun - that's really unnecessary carbs rights there. Just a slice of cheese melted on top. And a side of roasted broccoli (Tyler's recipe I mentioned a few days ago). And that was Wednesday night's meal too. Quick and satisfying.

Tomorrow's posting will be more interesting. We are headed to Grezzo, a new raw restaurant in the North End for dinner with friends. 100% organic and vegan. I'm not exactly sure how raw it is. I'll let you know.

quick vietnamese & indian-spiced chicken

this is my first opportunity to talk about eating out. it only took a week. jennifer didn't have to work yesterday on president's day, so we took the opportunity to see a matinee of 'there will be blood.' excellent acting, by the way. afterward we grabbed a quick late-afternoon snack at Pho Pasteur in chinatown. we made up our minds quickly (shrimp spring rolls and seafood rice noodle soup) and waited longer than i'd expect to place our order, considering only four other people were seated. but the food came quickly, along with a plate of sprouts, basil, and some other add-ons. the spring rolls were fresh and tasty with a light dunk in the peanut-soy dipping sauce. and the soup was better than i thought it would be - lightly spicy, not too brothy, and the noodles were firm and fresh, too. in all, a good snack.

dinner was a dish we saw on "good deal with dave lieberman" - we've kinda been hooked on the food network since football season ended. he had an episode all about home-made take-out, and the indian spiced chicken looked yummy. we both love indian but haven't heard the best news about the local indian restaurant. so we decided to make it ourselves. cubed chicken breast marinates in a thick yogurt marinade spiced with curry, coriander, paprika, red chili flakes, fresh ginger and garlic, cardamom pods, honey, salt and pepper. we substituted ground cardamom. it sits in the fridge for an hour. meanwhile sweat some diced onions, add a little tomato paste, and 2 cups half-and-half. add the chicken and marinade and cook until the meat is not pink but tender. serve over rice.

ok, so, it was a good meal and a very good first try at indian. 2 cups half-and-half is about 3/4 cups too much. or 1/2 cup too much. the dish was too soupy and cooking longer to let the moisture steam off would over-cook the chicken. the spice mixture was tasty too. we didn't know the ground equivalent of 8 cardamom pods so i added 1 1/2 tsp. that may have been 1/2 tsp too much.

surprisingly, the house doesn't smell like indian, which is a good thing. the clothes i cooked in do, but that's fine. in the laundry they go. and my fingertips are only slightly yellow from washing the pots.

you have no excuse to not cook indian. give it a try.

weekly shopping

yesterday we did our weekly grocery shopping. we look through the weekly circulars to see what meats, fish, and veggies are on sale, figure out our individual schedules for the week, and then try to make a rough plan of what to have for dinner throughout the week.

this week's meals will include salmon, chicken breasts, and ground turkey. we also bought romaine, red & sweet onions, grape tomatoes, parsley, cilantro, lemons & limes, yogurt, soymilk, eggs, jarlsberg cheese. we already had 1/2 a head of cauliflower, broccoli, red peppers, potatoes, hummus, and etc. we did by something in a bag or box: baked tortilla chips.

i like to stick with one store rather than splitting up the shopping. and though shopping at whole foods for meat and produce would be nice, their prices are a bit expensive. we buy our store's version of natural meats. and i did real Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, so i do think about where all my food is being shipped from. it's a lot to think about, a lot of important factors - oftentimes conflicting factors - to weigh with each purchase. and i'm sure i'll post about that in the spring when my community garden plot starts producing.

two items i don't have to worry about are my sausage and potatoes. i got them from my family's farm. i was raised on a potato farm on long island (yes, a farm on long island). i rarely buy potatoes. my family's potatoes taste better. i can taste the dirt from our farm in the thin skin. from working on the farm as a kid i am sure i ingested a ton of dirt, so when i taste the potatoes, i'm uniting some of what's in the potato with what's in me.

the sausage - it's amazing stuff. my brother raises some livestock for family use, and my father has a special recipe for the sausage. my sister and i bought a pig from my brother this past christmas, and about 1/2 of my 1/2 is sausage. i'm not sure if it's technically organic but the pigs are raised on food from the farm. it's delicious. when my friends gather for a weekend party, it's expected i bring a couple of packages.

in fact, i'm about to cook up a couple of patties for myself.

porcini and white bean stew

i had clipped this recipe from an issue of Martha Stewart Living a few years ago and never made it. considering the foul weather we've had here in boston recently, a stew seemed like the perfect thing to make for dinner last night. a meatless stew, and it's delicious.

i had forgotten to buy the three tomatoes it called for, but had a pound of grape tomatoes that i used instead. cutting each one in half took a while, and gave the stew the appearance of having lots of tomatoes. and my sprig of rosemary had gotten a little fuzzy in the fridge, so i substituted about 2 tsp of crushed rosemary. and i used 4 oz of pre-sliced baby bellas instead of the white mushrooms.

it's a surprisingly quick recipe. prep all the ingredients beforehand, and sweat the onions and mushrooms while the porcinis soak. then everything just falls into place. my version was much darker than the one pictured in martha's recipe. its probably due to the darker-than-usual chicken broth i used for soaking the porcinis (kitchen basics brand). the resulting porcini liquid was a deep dark brown with a savory, earthy fragrance. the combination of this earthy broth and the rosemary was perfect.

one thing that's missing in the recipe is salt. taste the stew while it's simmering and be sure to add a bit of salt while it's still cooking. i added about 2 tsp or so. and a couple of turns of the pepper mill.

crusty bread is a must for this! it soaks up that yummy juice, and gives the meal a good chew. we also made roasted cauliflower, which is one of the easiest and simplest side dishes you can make. it's one of our favorites.

double this recipe because you'll want to eat it for days.

slippery shrimp

jennifer made slippery shrimp last night, a recipe from the "reader's favorite restaurant recipes" section of the march 08 bon appetit. a reader had requested this recipe from an asian restaurant in LA. full disclosure, we did not have the dish with the suggested steamed rice. instead, she made mango couscous, which we both absolutely love. a morroccan and asian pairing, strange, i know. but the flavors did match well.

two things we both didn't appreciate about the slippery shrimp: the addition of cornstarch to the tomato sauce base, and the overall sauciness of it. yeah, i know, the rice would have soaked up some of the sauce. but still, the shrimp itself was coated in sauce. and the cornstarch made it a thick coating. i found myself carefully placing the fork of shrimp into my mouth so i wouldn't get the sauce all over my lips. sounds weird, but it was sloppy shrimp, as well as a bit slippery.

i'm not sure forrest gump's list of shrimp included the slippery variety.

flour ink? what's that?

it's a play on words. i have another blog - flower ink - that takes its name after my garden writing business. this is about my cooking exploits. i can see where the two would intertwine now and then. but that's probably a few months off when the garden starts producing.

so, the inspiration for flour ink happened just a few minutes ago. i finished the prep work for a curried butternut ginger soup and was washing up while setting the soup to simmer. and i thought "note to self: when grating ginger, use the box grater, not the nutmeg grater."

i've pulled out the nutmeg grater tons of times to grate ginger, and i'm disappointed every time. nothing but a sloppy blob of ginger that doesn't come free of those horribly sharp micro-plane teeth. an old-fashioned box grater does the trick. but i never remember.

there's five minutes until the timer goes off. so i'll tell you about the soup. it's delicious. butternut squash, apples, ginger, potatoes, apple cider, chicken broth (it calls for veggie broth but i haven't found a brand that i like), and some curry. and salt to taste after pureeing. that's it. it's the easiest soup out there. i should say the easiest, best tasting soup out there.

what else? hmm. no sides, just soup for dinner. keep it simple. my god, the weather has absolutely sucked today, and it's totally a soup-for-dinner kinda night. we'll probably eat the whole batch while watching the news. seriously, the weather was horrible. about 4 inches of snow last night then rain all day. so, with the rain melting the snow, we had twice as much water coming out of the snow then the amount of rain going into it. misery. but hey, that's new england for you.

10 seconds left until the timer. thanks for reading.