Happy 2008!

Brie and Berry Bites
Originally uploaded by paghababian

Happy New Year to all my readers. I hope you have plenty of good eats to go with your champagne tonight, and lots of new and exciting culinary adventures in the coming year.

La Voile, Back Bay

There's something about studying abroad that makes you feel so connected to your temporary home. Thoughts of Tuscany, especially Siena, bring back good memories for me. I can only assume that my friends Melody and Zina have the same feelings about France, where they studied. I know I can always suggest French food with them, so they were the perfect people with whom to try La Voile.

La Voile is one of the newest additions to Newbury Street, and it has had rave reviews. The staff is almost entirely from Cannes, and the atmosphere feels very much like a French brasserie. I was greeted by the maitre'd and the owner (?), who checked off my reservation, took my coat, and offered to seat me. I opted, however, to wait at the tiny bar, where I had a glass of wine and some lovely fried balls of goodness - pate chou with herbs and maybe a little cheese. They were wonderfully salty and really whet my appetite.

My friends arrived, and we took our table, where we spent a good chunk of time pouring over the menu. Another amuse buche was brought to us, this time consisting of wonderful salami, gougeres, and the most perfect Caprese I have ever had. The little bites left us wanting more. We were also given French bread to go along with this, which was served in a little cloth bag - a "bag"-ette, per Melody. (See, I told you you'd get a quote ;) )

We shared a goat cheese salad, but the dressing on the greens outshone the rest of the dish. I could easily eat a big bowl of that salad, which included a variety of greens and plenty of pine nuts.

Luckily, my meal came with more of the salad (this time, without pine nuts). I ordered steak and potatoes, with herbed butter. The steak was a great red shade, but not bloody, and was not too chewy. The potatoes were very tasty and included tomatoes and mushrooms (I hate mushrooms, but these were really good!). I tend to prefer frites with steak, but this was a good alternative.

Besides fantastic food, we also had great service. As I mentioned, the host/owner/manager (I couldn't tell exactly) was very friendly and was overseeing the restaurant and giving tips to our waiter. Our waiter, apparently the only American working in the place, was personable and helpful with the menu. I even got a phone call the next day to follow up with our meal, and the manager was particularly interested in what they could improve. More restaurants should pay attention to the customer in this way. I hope La Voile succeeds, because I'm sure I'm going to want that meal again sometime soon.

Met Bar and Grill, Natick

The Natick Collection, basically an extension of the Natick Mall, opened a few months ago. It has more upscale shopping, and with that comes more upscale eats. I hit the Met Bar and Grill, a satellite of the Metropolitan Club in Chestnut Hill, with some friends prior to a screening of I Am Legend.


There are two menus at this restaurant: a regular menu, with appetizers, salads, and main dishes, and a burger menu, with different burgers as well as a design-your-own option. There is a lot to choose from here, from standards like cheese and bacon to more out-there options, like kimchi and truffle oil. It took me forever to decide on a combination to suit my mood, but I doubt anyone would have trouble finding something.

The best part is that they offer more than just burgers. Besides a regular beef blend, they also offer a Kobe burger, a turkey burger, a veggie burger, and grilled chicken breast.


We shared a bowl of onion strings while we waited for our meals. They were crispy and delicious, with not too much batter or oil. They would be perfect on one of the burgers, and in fact, they are an option on the long list of topping choices.

I finally decided on grilled chicken on a wheat bun with arugula, feta and tzatziki. The chicken was plump and juicy, and the feta and arugula were filled with flavor. The tzatziki, however, was someone uninteresting, and I would probably opt for a different dressing next time. The sandwiches are reasonably sized, not so large that you feel overly full afterwards. They come with a small serving of fries, but again, not too much to make you feel like you've over eaten. Overall, the food was tasty and the serving sizes were perfect.

Service, however, was terrible. Our server was slow and kept forgetting parts of our order, and we had to chase her down to give her our credit card. Once service problems are cleared up, though, I think this will be a great option for dining - whether you're already shopping at the mall or not.

A Gluten-Free Test Drive

Movie night with the girls has changed a bit over the years. In high school, my regular dates with my best friends consisted of whatever bad (or awesomely bad) movies and junk food we could find. The night we watched Excess Baggage is still talked about to this day. Since college, though, we've toned it down a bit... foodwise. For our latest gathering, we had fresh Maine shrimp (since the season's so short), nachos, plenty of wine, and some gluten-free goodies as per one friend's diet.

Now, I've never worked with specifically gluten-free products before. Sure, I've made lots of stuff without wheat, but using GF flour, etc, was different. I had a hell of a time tracking some stuff down, and I gave up on the xantham gum (apparently an important ingredient) when even Whole Foods didn't have any. All in all, my efforts weren't too bad. I managed to make some kind of chickpea cracker, mini quiches, and these awesome mint bars. My GF friend took all the leftovers home and fed them to everyone in her family over Christmas. Hell, I would even make these on a regular basis for myself, gluten-free or not!

Gluten-Free Mint Bars

Crust:
1 stick unsalted butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
1/2 tsp GF vanilla
1/2 cup GF flour (I used Bob's)
1/2 cup almond flour
pint of salt
Mint icing:
1/2 stick unsalted butter
2 cups confections' sugar
2-6 Tbsp heavy cream
1-1 1/2 tsp mint extract
Glaze:
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
2 Tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 9 inche square pan.

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and blend. Stir in chocolate and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients, blending well. Pour into pan and spread evenly. Bake for 15 minutes and cool completely.

For icing, cream butter and sugar. Add mint extract and just enough cream to make icing thin enough to spread. Spread over cooled crust.

For glaze, melt chocolate and whisk in butter. Spread over icing. Allow to harden before cutting.

Chocolate Salt and Pepper Thins

Another day, another batch of cookies to give to my friends and family. For my friend Liney, I wanted something unique. And I knew exactly what ingredient I wanted to incorporate - black pepper.

During college, Liney would put black pepper on just about anything in the dining hall. We'd always share french fries covered in pepper and ketchup (and while I've grown away from the ketchup, I still use pepper on my fries). There are many foods that are very "college" to me, including lychees, but pepper is the only "college" spice I can think of.

So pepper cookies. I was going to go with a jazzed-up pfeffernusse for Liney, but her mother lived in Germany for a while, and I was sure any recipe she had was going to be better than what I could make. Luckily, an old Martha Stewart magazine knew what I was thinking and offered up a recipe that I tweaked a bit.

I call them chocolate salt and pepper thins. Now, that might sound kind of disgusting to some, or like a savory cracker to others, but really, it's a fantastic and delicate sweet cookie. The cocoa and espresso work together for a really rich background flavor, while the salt on top kind of explodes with flavor. You don't taste the pepper right away, but you recognize it after a moment, and if you eat more than one, the flavor intensifies.

Chocolate Salt and Pepper Thins

1 1/2 sticks butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 tsp ground black pepper
1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp instant espresso powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
black pepper for sprinkling
coarse fleur de sel for sprinkling

Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Mix in egg and vanilla. Add flour, cocoa, salt, black pepper, espresso powder, and cinnamon and mix to incorporate. Turn out dough on a piece of parchment paper and roll into a log, about 2 inches in diameter. Wrap in parchment and freeze at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350°. Let dough soften at room temperature about 5 minutes or until sliceable. Slice into 1/4 inch thick rounds. Place rounds on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Sprinkle each cookie with pepper and fleur de sel. Bake about 10 minutes, until there is slight resistance when you lightly touch the cookie centers. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool.

Stained Glass - It's Not Just for Churches

There are some cookies that are baked because they taste great. Others are baked for their looks. The Stained Glass Christmas Tree, in my opinion, falls into the looks category. It's a simple sugar cookie recipe that's jazzed up by crushed hard candy. Nothing revolutionary, but the results are impressive. My cousin requests them for our family party, and who am I to disappoint?


Stained Glass Christmas Trees

1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
crushed Lifesavers (lighter colors only)

Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and mix until smooth. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder until combined. Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 325°. Roll out dough on a floured surface until 1/8 inch thick. Use large cookie cutters to cut dough. Transfer to parchment-lined cookie sheet and cut out interior tree using a smaller cookie cutter or a paring knife. Fill centers with crushed lifesavers, making sure not to get any candy on the dough itself. Bake until candy has melted and cookies begin to turn golden. If the candy starts to bubble, pull them out right away. Let the cookies cool briefly to harden, then move to wire racks to cool completely.


Tips:

• The darker colors (like green and purple) turn too dark and muddy in the oven. If you know a way to make that not happen, let me know!


• I had great luck crushing the lifesavers individually in their wrappers using the flat bottom of a metal measuring spoon. Make sure you keep the different colors separate.


• You can either reroll whatever gets cut out of the center of the tree, or you can make minature stained glass trees. Instead of triangles or tree shapes, though, I just cut a small circle. In fact, I liked the smaller size better; it was just the right amount of cookie and candy.

Rosemary Shortbread

I'm a big fan of unusual cookies. I'm also a big fan of rosemary. So when I stumbled across this recipe a few years ago, my cookie-loving heart found its match.

These cookies are buttery and delicious, and they are neither too sweet nor too savory. They have a great crumb to them and would be perfect with a cup of coffee.

Rosemary Shortbread

2 sticks butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
pinch of salt

Cream butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Mix in egg and vanilla. Add in flour, rosemary and salt until combined. Halve dough and shape each half into a log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap in parchment paper and freeze until firm, at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 375°. Cut dough into 1/4 inch thick rounds. Place rounds on parchment-lined cookie sheet, and bake until edges are golden, about 15 minutes. Do not let the cookies brown, just look for hints of color at the edges.