As much as we must applaud restaurants that update their menu to reflect seasonal ingredients or new experiments by the chef, it’s always a disappointment when a favorite dish disappears. This happened to me at Tallula, a favorite brunch spot of mine. Sadly, they no longer serve their short ribs and cheesy grits on their brunch menu.
So when the meat guy at the Arlington Farmer’s Market was offering, among other things, short ribs, I decided that the only accompaniment could be cheesy grits. Though my recipe doesn’t precisely invoke Tallula’s (it’s less spicy, for one, and doesn’t feature any green tomatoes), it has a rich, full-bodied flavor and provides the same kind of comfort that my former favorite brunch dish did.
Bourbon Spiked Short Ribs
6 short ribs (from Farmer’s Market)
flour
salt
pepper
2 cloves garlic, crushed
some bourbon (a half cup or so)
oil
white pepper
beef stock (you need almost one of those refrigerator-sized cartons)
thyme
red wine (just a little)
handful of chopped carrots
2 red potatoes, chopped
handful of cherry tomatoes (from Farmer’s Market)
some chopped parsley
Season short ribs with salt and pepper and dredge with flour. Brown in olive oil. Deglaze pan with bourbon. Add all ingredients except broth to a casserole. Pour broth over casserole just below submerging point. Braise for 2.5 hours.
Cheesy Grits
1 cup polenta
1 cup heavy cream
5 cups water
salt
dash of tabasco sauce
1 cup shredded aged cheddar (from Farmer’s Market)
Combine water and polenta in pot. Bring to boil, then simmer for twenty minutes. Add a generous amount of salt. Stir in cream, cheese and tabasco. Heat through.
Serve ribs over grits. I added a side of steamed spinach.

Our Supper Club themes are usually thoughtfully chosen, for reasons like, “Well, soon Mab is getting married, so let’s surprise her with a bridal shower, and while we’re at it, why don’t we make it a gourmet brunch? I’ll make the scrambled eggs, you bring the caviar,” or “It’s cold outside–let’s melt a whole bunch of cheese!” This time our theme was “Jocelyn just bought a new table, and it looks vaguely Asian–hey, have we done Thai yet?”
Here are some (but by no means all) of the highlights from Supper Club Thai:
Heather’s Green Papaya Salad
1 green papaya (tip: buy your papaya at a Chinese grocer, and make sure it is labed “green papaya” )
1/2 cup honey-roasted peanuts (or plain roasted)
approx. 1 cup bean sprouts
1 to 2 tomatoes, cut into long thin strips
1 red chilli, diced (seeds removed if you prefer a milder salad)
3 spring onions, sliced into long matchstick-like pieces
1/2 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped if leaves are large
DRESSING:
1/2 tsp. shrimp paste (if vegetarian, substitute with 1 Tbsp. vegetarian fish sauce, or soy sauce)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. fish sauce (if vegetarian, use vegetarian fish sauce)
2 Tbsp. lime juice
1 tsp. honey
PREPARATION:
Prepare the dressing by mixing together all ingredients in a cup. Make sure shrimp paste dissolves fully. Set aside.
Peel the green papaya, then slice it in half and remove all the white seeds.
Using the “fattest” grater you have, grate the papaya (or you can use a potato peeler to create ribbon-like strips). Place in a large bowl. Add the sliced tomato, spring onion, chilli, bean sprouts, and most of the basil. Add the dressing, tossing to combine.
Add the peanuts. Toss again, and do a taste test. If you’ve used honey-coated peanuts, the salad should be sweet enough (if not, add a little more honey or brown sugar, as desired). If not salty enough, add a little more fish sauce. Turn onto a platter, and sprinkle with remaining basil leaves. Serve immediately.
Kristen’s Coconut Sticky Rice with Mangoes
3 cups sticky rice
2 1/2 cups coconut milk
3/4 cup palm sugar
pinch salt
4 ripe mangoes
Soak the rice overnight (or as long as you’ve got time for) in half a cup coconut milk and enough water to cover the rice. When you’re ready to start cooking, steam the rice in a rice-cooker. Meanwhile, heat the coconut milk over medium heat, and stir in the sugar and salt. When the sugar is all dissolved, and the rice is cooked, stir one cup of the liquid into the rice. Let it sit for a while so all the flavors meld. Peel the mangoes and cut into big slices. Place the mango slices on top of the rice, add the rest of the coconut milk, and serve. The leftovers are fabulous – hot or cold – for breakfast the next morning.
Jocelyn’s “Tom Kha Gai” – Coconut Lemongrass soup w/ Chicken
1 lemongrass stem
4 lemon leaves (I couldn’t find these, so I didn’t use
them)
1 piece galanga (available frozen in most Asian
supermarkets)
8 oz mushrooms
2 tomatoes
1-2 ts chilli paste
1 lb chicken fillets
13 fl oz coconut milk
4 tb lemon juice
4 tb fish sauce
Cut lemongrass into 3 cm long pieces, fold lemon leaves, wash galanga and slice.
Cut mushrooms into half. Dice tomatoes.
Slice chicken fillets. Heat coconut milk and add lemongrass. Simmer coconut milk for two minutes.
Pour in 3/4 l (1 1/4 pts) water and heat. Add chicken, mushrooms and tomatoes and simmer for five minutes.
Season with chilli paste, fish sauce and lemon juice.
Remove lemongrass and lemon leaves before serving.
Oh, and one other thing–if you’re throwing a Thai dinner party at your house, and your a/c breaks, just remember, Thai food is supposed to be served in a tropical locale! Just turn up the music and pretend you planned it that way all along.

Various events are hosted through “MeetinDC” , the local chapter of the larger social group “Meetin.org”. I recently hosted a “Mine & Yours” event through the group. The concept behind the Mine & Yours events is that one or two people demonstrate a favorite recipe, and the other participants do the same at a later date. I demonstrated a version of my family’s Argentine-style beef empanadas.

I use pre-made dough, and prefer to bake the empanadas. I use the La Salteña brand of empanada dough because there is plastic between the layers of dough, making the individual pieces of dough easier to separate. The La Salteña empanada dough is imported from Argentina, and is available at local Latin Markets, including Euro-Latino Grocery in Arlington, where the product is $3.49, and includes 20 pieces of dough.

I use a Pocket Gourmet Dough Press to seal the dough, but you can use a fork to seal the edges. I purchased the Pocket Gourmet at an As Seen on TV store in New York, but the one in the Ballston-Common Mall does not carry them. A google search for the product will come up with various places you can order your Pocket Gourmet, which generally includes three different sizes of dough press.

Jason’s version of Argentine-style (baked) beef empanadas:

• 1 lb. chopped sirloin
• A small amount of oil to sauté the ingredients
• One small yellow onion
• ¼ cup dark raisins
• ¼ cup green olives stuffed with pimentos, cut in half.
• One coarsely chopped hardboiled egg
• Salt, pepper, and ground cumin to taste. I probably use about 1/8 of a teaspoon of both cumin and ground black pepper
• One package of La Salteña brand empanada dough. Get the version intended for baking. You can buy the version intended for frying, if you prefer to fry your empanadas.

Sauté the chopped onions until they are translucent. Add the chopped meat, salt, pepper, and cumin, and sauté until it is browned evenly. Add the raisins, olives, and hardboiled egg. Refrigerate the mixture until is it cool or the dough will not retain it’s shape while you are trying to stuff it. I sometimes make the filling the day before. Use 2 or 3 tablespoons of mixture per piece of dough. Keep a cup of water handy, and dip your finger in the water, and then touch the inside edge of the dough prior to sealing. Moistening the inside edge of the dough will help the dough stay sealed. Then close the empanada (into a half moon shape) and use a fork to press down all around the outside edge in order to seal it. This will form a pattern of lines going away from the empanada.

Place the empanadas on an oiled cookie sheet, and bake at 350 degrees until done, which should take approximately 20-25 minutes. You should turn the empanadas over when one side is brown, maybe halfway through the cooking time.
The empanadas are either served with a salad, or as appetizers.

Euro-Latino Grocery
2700 Pershing Dr. (at Washington Blvd.)
Arlington, Va.
703-524-6800.
Hours: Monday-Saturday: 9 am. to 8 pm. Sunday: 9 am. to 1 p.m.

-JAY

Vegas marriages, loud parties in a small apartment building, and raw, unpasteurized milk. All of these are things with a finite lifespan. The milk in particular needs to be imbibed within two or three days after squirting out of the cow, before terrible terrible things happen to it… and to your insides.
If you’ve already drunk all you can of that sweet sweet white stuff, here’s what to do with the rest.
Flan (inspired by Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything)
2 cups milk. If you really are using unpasturized, scald it first (heat to small bubbles form around the edges), otherwise get super organic 2% or whole milk from a natural foods store. It makes a difference. really.
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
grated zest of 1/3 lemon
2 large eggs plus two large egg yolks
1/3 – 1/2 cup sugar, according to taste
First make the caramel:

1. In a heavy frying pan heat 1 cup sugar over medium heat, stirring occasionally but mostly just leaving it alone until it liquefies and turns a warm brown (caramelizes). This takes about 10-15 minutes.
2. Pour or spoon a small quantify of caramel to cover the bottom of about six porcelan ramekins, tilting each cup to help spread the sauce. Do NOT touch the caramel or you will get a bad burn. Set aside.

To make the flan:

1. Preheat oven to 300. Have a baking dish (a small lasagna pan is perfect) large enough to hold all the cups and deep enough to bring boiling waiter to within 1″ of the top of the cups. Boil some water and keep it handy.
2. Heat the milk in a sauce pan with the nutmeg and cinnamon over medium until it begins to steam but never boil…or even simmer. Keep warm over low heat.
3. With an electric mixer beat the yolks, eggs and sugar until thick. Add lemon zest.
4. A skin will now have probably formed over the warm milk. Take a fine strainer and slowly pour the hot milk through the strainer into the egg mixture. If someone else is around it helps if they are mixing the eggs and milk as you strain it. Or mix it now yourself.
5. Place the ramekins in the deep pan. Ladle some mixture in each cup.
6. Very carefully pour the boiling water into the pan without letting a drop get into the cups. Use a funnel if you have to.
7. Bake about 45 – 50 minutes until firm when lightly jiggled.

When done remove pan from oven and the water bath. You can chill, but they are lovely warm or at room temp too.
To serve: take the point of a sharp knife and run it all around the edge of the ramekin. Quickly invert the ramekin over a small dish. The caramel will have formed a lovely sauce and the flan will be upside down. You will still have a lot of solid caramel in the cup which won’t come out. Wait till no one is looking and lick it. To wash to cup just add a 1″ of water and let it soak. It will dissolve in about an hour or two.

Chicken, that is. I was camping and canoeing on the Lumber River near the North Carolina / South Carolina state border with some friends from Savannah, Georgia. One of them had brought a bag of Butt Rub with her. We rubbed it into the chicken, cooked it over the fire, and I’ve been craving it ever since.
Butt Rub can be bought online through a variety of ‘rub dealers’. It’s a meat seasoning that you can rub in, massage on, or add to a marinade for your meat of choice. I prefer chicken. Here’s an easy recipe that I have probably made 4 times in the past two months. I love a good butt rub.
All you need for a tasty Butt Rub Chicken:
Chicken breasts / Meat of Choice
Butt Rub
Kraft’s Zesty Italian dressing
I marinate the chicken in the dressing for an hour or so, then just put the chicken & dressing in a glass baking dish. Then, rub in some Butt Rub. (Or sprinkle on it you don’t like the spiciness). Then, bake until done! Enjoy!!!
OR, you can just rub in the rub to whatever meat you want, skip the dressing, and grill!
Tonight, I’m making some Butt Rub Chicken with stuffed red peppers (stuffed with corn, feta, mushrooms, olive oil and vinegar). I’m drooling already.

There are people out there who use work for something other than gmail and Fark.com. They do exist, but I’m not one of them. No, my employer’s precious dollars pay for me to sit on FUD looking through the visitor search logs.
Why are you all looking for Pepper Spray recipes?
It’s our number one search, as far as I can tell. I mean, are the people of DC really so desperate for personal defense? Alright, scratch that. But really folks, we got mace the seasoning, not Mace the illegal burny stuff.
Anyway, just because it makes me sad to think that all your searches have been in vain, here you go. It’s a little complex- don’t try it unless that stalker is getting really persistent.
The recipe:
In a blender, puree until completely smooth 15 Habanero peppers and 1 quart of 200 proof Ethanol. You can get it in a hardware store. Let the mixture sit at least overnight, or longer, at room temperature. Strain the stuff through cheesecloth and stick it in a large glass Pyrex container.
Now here’s the tough part. Bring it to a slow boil…but do not use naked flames! That would be bad! Make sure you are on one of those silly flat heating element stoves. Keep it there until about 90% of the liquid evaporates, then remove it and let it cool down.
What you’re looking for is the red oil floating on the surface. If it aint there, boil again. Now separate it out by sticking the mix in a long thin water glass (throw it away after) or a test tube if you have, and draw off the oil with an eyedropper.
That’s it. You wanna use it in a spray, mix with isopropyl alcohol, at a ratio of 1 to 9, and stick it in a very very very secure spray bottle. Or you could plop down the 15 buck and just buy a can. Incidentally, researching this lead me to also find a simple recipe for tear gas. That’s Great.

Since it has been SO HOT in DC lately, I have been trying to recall recipes my mom used to make on hot summer days. One of my favorites was her Summer Pasta Salad. It’s quick and easy. Just make it a few hours before eating, or the night before a picnic, work lunches, or a party.
Ingredients:
1 Box Tri-Color Rotini Pasta
1 can of Tuna (optional)
Some Mayo
Salt
Directions:
Cook pasta until done, and drain
Add can of tuna
Add mayo (to your desired consistency)
Add salt (to your flavor)
Chill in fridge until cold & serve!
Optional:
You can also add diced tomatoes, black olives, feta, sub chicken for tuna. Be creative

Today’s Haiku:
Today I’ll eat lite
Just one burger and some fries
before breakfast time
Today’s Lunch spot:
Thyme Square in Bethesda– Service can be a little (really) slow but it’s about worth it for the local produce and organic pizzas and chicken and things.
Today’s recipe: Chilled Minted Cucumber Honeydew Soup
Alright, this is just turning into a series on cold soup. bear with me here.
1 cucumber
2 Cups honeydew melon
8 oz plain non-fat yogurt
1/4 cup mint leaves
2 Tablespoon fresh lime juice
Cut cucumber into 1-inch pieces. Combine cucumber, honeydew, yogurt, mint leaves and juice. Puree mixture for 30 seconds, and season with salt and pepper. Cover and Chill at least 2 hours, garnish with mint.