The Garden Apartment

A terribly cruel post {grilled peaches in butter-rum sauce}

Its a very cruel thing to tempt your readers with fruits that are (mostly) out-of-season. But I can't help myself.

I'm not normally this unfair, but this time I simply can't help it. You see, these end-of-summer peaches were terribly delicious.

But peach season is more or less over.

Sorry.

If you are lucky enough to snag some very end of the season peaches, I recommend giving them this treatment on the grill.

Peaches are a perfect fruit for the grill. Their rich flesh caramelizes from the flames jumping up beneath them, becoming even sweeter. And of course, the addition of dark rum, butter, and cinnamon only makes it all even more irresistible.

With no further ado I give you-- dear readers who are lucky enough to find peaches at market, and dear readers who are kind enough to bookmark this post until next summer-- the recipe.

Grilled Peaches in Butter-Rum Sauce

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 large peaches, quartered

2 TB butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup dark or spiced rum

toasted pecans (optional)

ice cream (optional, but strongly recommended)

Making the sauce

Melt the butter in a small sauce pan. Add the brown sugar, cinnamon, and dark or spiced rum. Stir together, then set aside and allow to come to room temperature.

In the meantime, place the peach quarters in a bowl. Pour the butter-rum mixture on top of the peaches, and allow them to soak in the mixture for about 20-30 minutes.

Grilling the peaches

Prepare your grill according to the manufacturer's directions.

Place each peach quarter, flesh side down on the grill. Important: save the extra sauce from the bowl of peaches!

Grill each side for about 2-3 minutes, until the flesh caramelizes. From time to time, brush some of the reserved sauce onto the peaches.

When the peaches are warm and nicely browned from the grill, remove them and place in a dish with toasted pecans and vanilla ice cream. Enjoy immediately.

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And for those of you who already hate me for daring to write about peaches in October, I give you one more delicious photograph:

If it's any consolation, I promise that my next post will feature apples-- which will be abundant at market through the next several months.

A tasty evening at Tallula

Charred Spanish Octopus with chick peas, pearl onions, sundried tomatoes and sherry vinaigrette

Sometimes being a food blogger has its perks. 

Last week I was fortunate to be among a group of DC food bloggers invited to a special dinner at Tallula in Arlington. 

Tallula is an American bistro known for its informal setting, extensive wine collection, and menu driven by seasonal ingredients from local farms. In April the restaurant introduced Barry Koslow as the new Executive Chef. And just recently, The Neighborhood Restaurant Group (of which Tallula is a member) welcomed Wine Director Juliana Santos on board.  

Most recently, Chef Koslow served as the Executive Chef of Mendocino Grille and Wine Bar. During his tenure, the restaurant was listed on the Washingtonian's 100 Very Best Restaurants list three years in a row. 

Wine Director Juliana Santos brings both culinary and sommelier experience to the Neighborhood Restaurant Group. Santos is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York and a certified sommelier from the Court of Master Sommeliers. She has worked as a meat chef at Restaurant Eve in Alexandria, and most recently hails from City Zen, where she worked under sommelier Andy Myers.

The four course dinner was meant to showcase Chef Koslow's creativity and versatility, as well as Juliana Santo's ability to pair each course with the perfect wine. 

To sum it all up: every bite was memorable. Each dish included an inventive or unusual element-- such as the halibut encrusted in lentils and smoked bacon complimented by the sweet spiciness of a curry sauce. In each course, creativity met with positive results. The flavor combinations were well balanced and very pleasing to the palate. 

Perhaps the most impressive dish was the octopus. Previously, I have eaten octopus mostly to prove my adventurousness with food. Each octopus experience was memorable just because it was octopus, and also because its texture was so rubbery.

Chef Koslow's octopus was a different experience altogether: tender, flavorful, and wholly enjoyable to eat. 

To finish our dinner experience, we were served chocolate-toffee brownie cake with pistachio ice cream. The description "brownie cake" doesn't do the dessert justice. It was more like one large piece of decadent candy-- finished off with a a 10 year Tawny Port.

Delicious.

And as if that wasn't enough, Chef Koslow surprised us with nutella beignets as a final hurrah. 

I left satisfied, a little happy from all the wine, and ready to come back to Tallula very soon.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

For more about executive chef Barry Koslow, check out the District Domestic's interview with him here.

Happy at the Falls Church farmers market {and grilled eggplant, beans, and shitake mushrooms in an Asian marinade}

Our move to Falls Church is finally over, our boxes and bags are unpacked (well, mostly), and we are settling into our new neighborhood. I spent my weekend exploring my new farmers market, and grilling up some fresh vegetables in an Asian marinade. Read on to hear about the market trip, or scroll down for the recipe.

After many busy Saturdays of hosting friends and relatives at our home, I finally took some time for myself and visited the Saturday morning Falls Church City Farmers Market. 

Nothing quite makes me feel at home like discovering my neighborhood farmers market. And lucky for me, the Fall Church Farmers Market is a real gem. Set near a quaint park and historic buildings on Park Street, the market is open year-round and hosts around forty vendors during the summer season (dropping to about fifteen vendors during the winter). The variety and quality of products available is outstanding, with many of my favorite farmers and producers participating.

Strolling through the market, here are some of the things I found:

Locally grown and milled flour from Moutoux Orchards in Loudon County 

Locally grown wheat is very difficult to find in our area. Moutoux Orchard is now selling rye flour, wheat flour, wheat berries, oats, and barley at the Falls Church Farmers Market, the Arlington Farmers Market, and the DuPont Circle Farmers Market. I bought a bag of the rye flour, and am looking forward to making some homemade rye bread soon. 

I was delighted to find seckel pears, each pear fitting snugly in the palm of my hand.

Tree and Leaf, a farm utilizing sustainable and organic farming practices, had a wonderful variety of produce including these late summer tomatoes . . .

and these interesting long purple beans called "asparagus beans."

Sunnyside Farm and Orchard had these adorable Hungarian eggplants, which I would have mistook for tomatoes, had I not read the sign. 

Toigo Orchards still had some of their delicious peaches. I snagged several with the hopes of introducing them to my grill, a little butter, and some rum.

And finally, to make the boys in my household happy, Cibola Farms was at my service with their buffalo meat products. As fate would have it, a few buffalo patties would also be making their introduction to my grill in the form of a family burger night.

In fact, the grill seems to be the main method of food prep in our new house. Perhaps after years of living in an apartment where grilling produced more hassle than pleasure, we are catching up on lost time. 

One of our friends gave us a vegetable grilling basket as a housewarming present. After picking up a load of fresh veggies, I wanted to try grilling vegetables in a sauce I would usually use for stir-frying. For the stir fry, I selected two skinny Japanese eggplants with pale green skin. I know these to be particularly mild, absent of the bitter flavor eggplants sometimes have, and possessing a flesh which becomes very creamy when cooked. I tossed the eggplant with long purple asparagus beans, some red onion, and a large cupful of shitake mushrooms.

While the grill was heating up, I sliced the vegetables and then tossed them in a marinade of garlic, ginger, lime juice, fresh basil, chile paste, soy sauce, and sesame oil. They marinated for about thirty minutes, then sizzled in the grill basket, transforming into a tasty concoction perfect over a bit of Jasmine rice. We prepared this as a vegetarian dish, but it would also be delicious with chicken or shrimp.

Grilled eggplant, beans, and shitake mushrooms in Asian Marinade

Serves 2 as a main course

Vegetables:

1 Cup beans (I used asparagus beans, but green beans or sugar snap peas would work well)

2 small eggplant, preferably Japanese 

1/2 red onion, sliced

8 ounces shitake mushrooms, sliced in half

Marinade:

1 clove of garlic, finely minced

1 tsp fresh ginger, finely minced chiffonade

1 TB fresh basil, cut into a

1/4 tsp red chili paste

2 tsp soy sauce or tamari

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

1/2 tsp sugar

zest and juice of one lime

1 tsp mirin or rice wine vinegar

3 TB canola oil

For serving:

soy sauce

lime wedges

fresh basil 

Directions:

Prep the vegetables and set aside.

Prepare your gas or charcoal grill.

In a large bowl combine all ingredients for the marinade, except the oil. Slowly whisk in the oil until the mixture is well combined. Add the vegetables to the bowl, and toss thoroughly with the marinade. Allow to marinate for 30-60 minutes, mixing often.

Place the vegetables in a lightly oiled grill basket, or on a grill grate lined with aluminum foil. Grill for 10-15 minutes, tossing often. Vegetables should be slightly blackened and beginning to soften.

Serve over rice with soy sauce, lime wedges, and fresh basil.

As you can see, we were a bit anxious and did not wait for the grill to cool down before throwing the veggies on. Some of our vegetables were more than adequately blackened. Fortunately, they still tasted delicious, and we finished every last bite.