Author: katherine-cox

Charlottesville is getting kind of famous for its poshed-up versions of city staples: the black tie gas station (R.I.P., Fuel Co.), the break-the-bank gym membership, the luxe condos for students, and now Hamdingers, Patrick Critzer’s gourmet food cart on the Downtown Mall. There is one major difference in Critzer’s approach, though—Hamdingers doesn’t charge a fortune for its soul-satisfying cuisine; in fact, it’s quite affordable, and with offerings like the coconut potato curry with ginger spinach, it’s downright irresistible.

You say potato, and you say coconut. Add to that some ginger spinach, and you’ve got to-go curry to die for.

Critzer notes that the potato curry "is a good side, or you can add meat to make it a stew-type main dish," and he recommends serving it with cinnamon rice, olive oil-soaked flat bread, not-too-dry white wine and minty whole milk yogurt with cucumbers. Um, yummy. He’s also on the lookout for a local lamb source to round out the meaty nosh on the cart, plus salmon cakes and soba noodles for the less farm animal-inclined. Catering is a big part of the biz, too, and you can get in touch with him over the phone, 977-4648, or check out the website, http://hamdingerscart.com.

Hamdingers’ Coconut Potato Curry with Ginger Spinach

1 Tbs. olive oil (or your favorite fat, says Patrick)
1/2 cup minced mix of ginger, garlic, jalapeño
1 cup chopped onion
Meat of choice (optional)
1/2 cup mix of fresh ground cardamom, coriander and mustard seeds
3 lbs. potatoes, diced
1 lb. spinach
2 cans coconut milk
3 cups stock (meat or vegetable)
Green peas or cooked lentils (optional)
Salt and pepper

Saute ginger, garlic and jalapeño in a little of your favorite fat, remove and reserve. Then saute the onion, and if you want to add meat, do it now. Cook until lightly browned; add cardamom, coriander and mustard seeds. Let it get sticky, then add potatoes and spinach. Put the earlier mixture back into the pan. Stir in coconut milk and stock and cook until potatoes are tender, add salt and pepper to taste and some green peas or lentils if you like.

The classics don’t get enough credit: Something like the old-time chicken salad recipe, which millions of people eat every day, has held up for over a hundred years. Andreas Gaynor at Kiki learned how to whip this one up by watching his grandmother, peeping over her range top when he was a hungry, lanky kid. The current incarnation at Kiki is served on toasted pita bread with lettuce, tomato and red onion, though he notes that it’s great as just a salad, or a side dish.

Chicken salad the Kiki way is a product of direct grandmotherly advice. How can you go wrong?

If you’re one of those folks that likes to play with your food, though, there are countless additions that can be made to this recipe to punch it up a bit. Grapes, slivered almonds and mustard creates a sweet/savory counterpoint with a nice crunch, and there’s another mustardy version with hard-boiled eggs, artichoke hearts, olives, pecans, onion and olive oil that boasts a kind of niçoise-like flavor and needs no additional accompaniment. For salt lovers, there’s the bacon and water chestnut option: Crumble up some cooked bacon and chop a can of water chestnuts, add it to the original recipe, and mix with a bit of chopped parsley, some lemon juice, and a dash or two of Worcestershire sauce.—Katherine Cox

Kiki’s Chicken Salad

6 chicken breasts
2 stalks of celery
¾ cup mayonnaise
salt and pepper

First grill your chicken breasts, I do mine with a mesquite smokey flavor, then chill. Dice celery and add a teaspoon each of salt and pepper, cut cooled chicken into small pieces and mix with celery and dry ingredients. Add 3/4 cup mayo and mix well.

If your usual forays into Mexican cuisine are heavy on the rice and beans, it’s time to branch out. Guadalajara offers a perfectly refreshing and tasty solution: seviche! On its own, it’s a power snack—raw fish always makes me feel like I can run a marathon, not to mention the nutrient kick from all the raw veggies—but the garlic and jalapeños stimulate the appetite if you’re ready for more. Plus it pairs very well with beer (making it an excellent choice for Friday night: High energy plus beer buzz equals dancing until three in the morning).
Once you’ve acclimated your palate to the white fish variety, tour through some other Central and South American seviches: In Ecuador, it’s made with shrimp, a bit of tomato sauce and popcorn on the side. Panama heats it up with some scotch bonnet pepper, preferring white sea bass for flavor, and Cubans like mahi-mahi with habañero and a bit of allspice. Shark, marlin, octopus, squid, mackerel and conch are other options, especially if you’re looking to wow your dinner guests, and serving it in a martini glass with crackers makes for an impressive first course.

Guadalajara’s Seviche

12 oz. fresh tilapia, chopped
1/4 of an onion, diced
1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
2 fresh jalapeños, diced
2 tomatoes, diced
1/2 clove garlic, minced salt
5 limes, juiced
6 tostadas
optional: sliced avocado

Mix first six ingredients well. Add salt (to taste) and lime juice, mix. Let sit, refrigerated, for four hours to allow lime juice to “cook” the fish. Serve on tostadas, with avocado slices if desired. Serves six.

Cupcakes! Come on, you know they still give you a little glimmer of glee. If you haven’t had one in a few decades, Mudhouse is looking to remedy that by instituting Cupcake Fridays, on which they fill the entire baked goods case with assorted cupcakes at noon. They aren’t sticking to your garden variety, either, though the vanilla cupcake recipe below is moist and delicious—Tiramisu, Chocolate Mint and Pumpkin Square cupcakes have spiced up the mix.

There is some freakish and awe-inspiring stuff going on in this country regarding cupcakes. Their customizable nature has earned them a sexy reputation in cities as the new candy-gram, while the super high sugar and fat content inspired schools to try to ban them (and actually incurred legislation on the matter in Texas!). Plus, I have read the word “cupcakista” several times in the media, which leads me to the same conclusion to which I come every morning while reading the paper: America needs to get a grip on the whole trend-explosion thing. Nothing against cupcakes, of course, for they spread joy and sugar-induced happiness everywhere…maybe I’ll send one to that cute boy at the office.

Even looking at Mudhouse’s Vanilla Cupcakes can put a smile on your face, but that’s just a prelude to the joy and the sugar in the actual taste.

Mudhouse’s Vanilla Cupcakes

1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
 
Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, cream the butter until smooth. Add sugar gradually and beat until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add dry ingredients in three stages alternating with milk and vanilla. Incorporate ingredients after each addition but do not overbeat. Making sure ingredients are well-blended first, carefully spoon the batter into cupcake liners filling about 3/4 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
 
Icing:
1 cup unsalted butter
5-6 cups confectioner’s sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
 
Place butter in large mixing bowl. Add half of the sugar, then milk, then vanilla. Beat until smooth and creamy. Gradually add remaining sugar, one cup at a time, until icing is thick enough to be spread consistently.

Fresh figs are almost a forbidden pleasure, considering that they’re one of the most expensive fruits on the market. If you’re only going to sample a few this season, be sure to ravish them like they deserve on your first tasting: Stuff them into your mouth, unadorned, and let the juice stream down your face before catching it and licking it out of your palms like an animal. Once you’ve gotten that out of the way, try this bruschette at the Downtown wine bar enoteca; with just a few ingredients carefully chosen to amp up the fig flavor, it’s mouthwateringly savory and sweet.

Fig-ure it out: Bruschette according to enoteca’s recipe is the savory way to go.

And let’s clear up the whole pronunciation thing, once and for all: bruschetta (which is the singular form of bruschette) does not have a “sh” sound in the middle—the Italian sounds more like broo-skeh-tah. It’s toast drizzled with olive oil, plus salt and pepper (and often rubbed with garlic), and toppings range from white beans, tomato mixtures, spicy peppery spreads, sometimes even meats. The fig recipe’s particular virtue is that it pairs smashingly with wine; enoteca’s Marisa Catalano recommends Tenuta S. Anna Prosecco Frizzante, a vini spumanti, or La Cappuccina Soave “Fontego,” a 100 percent garganega varietal.

enoteca’s Fresh Fig Bruschette

6 fresh Mission figs, stems removed
1 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
6 slices ciabatta bread
extra virgin olive oil, to drizzle
salt
fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup crumbled Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 handful baby arugula
extra virgin olive oil, for garnish

Cut figs into thick slices. In a small mixing bowl, combine fig slices, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. With a fork, mash ingredients together until it reaches a chunky consistency.
Drizzle sliced ciabatta with extra virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill on a panini grill until lightly golden and crispy.

To assemble bruschette, smear the fig mixture on a slice of the toasted bread, top with some of the crumbled Parmigiano-Reggiano and some of the baby arugula. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil right before it is served. Serves six.

Given that it’s one of the world’s predominant food staples, you’d think rice would have its own massive chapter in every cookbook. But no. What you usually get is Spanish rice, saffron rice and jambalaya, maybe a casserole or two if you haven’t updated your library for a couple decades. Foods of All Nations recently had a rice dish demonstration to nudge us along, and included in their repertoire was this slightly sweet coconut basmati—a perfect addition for those who love to make grilled seafood, curry, barbecue or jerk chicken.
Actually, it’s kind of fascinating to note how many cultures offer the coconut-rice combination: South Indian, Thai, Jamaican, Burmese and East African cuisines serve it alongside meat or veggies, though the Wali wa Nazi in Zanzibar is rich and creamy as opposed to Kingston’s dry, fluffy, pigeon pea-speckled concoction. Moreover, it’s a ferociously popular dessert when made with lots of coconut milk and sugar. Vietnam and Cambodia, the Philippines, Cuba, Hawaii and Mexico each has its own take on how to sweeten it up. They’re all pudding-like, with the exception of the Hawaiian haupia, which is similar to gelatin and served in blocks. Truly, a food of all nations.
   

The folks at Foods of All Nations sure know how to spice up the usual rice fare—in this case with coconut milk, as well as other goodies.

Foods of All Nations’ Coconut Basmati Rice
 
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups canned unsweetened coconut milk
2 tsp. (packed) brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 cups basmati rice, well rinsed, drained (about 13 ounces)
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut, lightly toasted
 
Combine two cups water, coconut milk, sugar and salt in a heavy large saucepan. Bring to simmer, then stir in rice. Cover, leaving slight opening for steam to escape. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 12 minutes. Cover tightly, remove from heat, and let stand 10 minutes. Transfer rice to bowl; sprinkle with toasted coconut.

Sometimes the whole plate is just right, sides, sauce and all—and that’s the case with Orzo Kitchen and Wine Bar‘s pan-seared halibut, caponata and mashers combination. Fresh veggies plus flaky fish plus buttery potatoes equals total satisfaction, and now that I’ve tasted it, I wouldn’t prepare it minus any of its components. It’s not even that much work! But if you’re just not in the mood to dice, swing by and enjoy chef Ken Wooten’s handiwork on Orzo’s covered patio, with its summery fragrance of fresh herbs. (Note: They’ve got 30 wines by the glass, so perhaps you should take the trolley there.)

Go to Orzo right here in town instead of going all the way to Sicily for seared halibut.

Caponata offers a tremendous range of play, despite its "classic" status as a Sicilian staple; even in Sicily, there are more than 37 varieties that claim authenticity (and probably deserve it). It can be cooked, raw, chunky, saucy, smooth, hot, cold, served as an appetizer or used sparingly as a condiment, and there is no end to the number of ingredients it can have. The Sicilians, however, use big green olives, and smash them with a blunt object until they leave their pits behind, simultaneously preparing them to soak up oils and flavors.

Orzo’s Pan Seared Halibut with Sicilian Caponata & Mashed Potatoes

Sicilian Caponata:

1/2 green pepper, small dice
1/2 red pepper, small dice
3 heirloom tomatoes, small dice
1/4 cup toasted almonds, finely hand diced; do not use Cuisinart
1/4 cup mix of chopped kalamata olives  and capers
1/8 cup chopped parsley
1 lemon, zested
2 Tbs. of fresh lemon juice
1/8 cup olive oil

Mix prepared ingredients together, set aside.

Mashers:

2 lbs. Yukon gold potatoes
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cube butter, or more to taste salt & pepper

Cook Yukon gold potatoes with salt until soft. Add potatoes to mixer and blend with milk, butter, salt and pepper. Keep warm.

Fish:

olive oil
2 lbs. fresh halibut filet

Heat oven to 400°. Cut halibut into four filets. Heat an oven-proof sauté pan until very hot. Add a bit of oil to the pan and then add fish, flesh side down. Sear halibut for two-three minutes until nicely browned. Flip halibut and finish cooking in the pan in the oven for six-eight minutes, depending on thickness. The halibut should be flaky and thoroughly white.
 
Serve halibut over the mashed potatoes and generously serve caponata over halibut. Serves four.