Watershed's great chocolate-chip cookies. Photograph by Scott Suchman

At Watershed, the new seafood-centric restaurant from Equinox co-owners Todd and Ellen Gray, one of the best dishes is also one of the most simple: the chocolate-chip cookies. The baked-to-order rounds, which are slightly thick but still soft, come with a cold glass of milk for dipping—straight-up childhood comfort food.

Pastry chef Tom Wellings, who worked briefly at Restaurant Eve in Alexandria, says he based the recipe on one he used at the Ritz-Carlton in Tysons Corner when he cooked at the now-closed Maestro in that hotel. Adding milk chocolate—in addition to the more-bitter Valrhona chocolate—"gives the cookies a little extra gooey texture," Wellings says. To add another flavor dimension, Wellings recommends sprinkling some sea salt on the cookies right before baking. Other tips for replicating his dessert: Be careful not to over-mix the dough, and know your oven—if it's hotter on one side, be sure to rotate the tray halfway through baking. His preference is a "light golden-brown color and a chewy center." Based on our experience with those cookies, we'd go with his advice.

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Photograph by Emma Patti

Sometimes the simplest preparations make the best dishes. Michael Hartzer, chef of the new Jack Rose in Adams Morgan, experimented with several kinds of cole slaw before the booze-focused restaurant opened a few weeks ago. After testing versions with purple cabbage and fresh herbs, he settled on a straightforward yet surefire formula with crunchy savoy cabbage, a rich olive-oil-based mayo, and hint of oregano. It makes a light side dish for grilled meats, such as Jack Rose's Baltimore-style pit-beef sandwich (available on the roof-deck menu).

For a more dressed-up slaw, Hartzer says to improvise with such ingredients as thin-sliced shallot or red onion for crunch, or fresh mint and basil for summery flavor. But given how easy Hartzer's version is, it's tempting to stick with the original.

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A wonderfully messy sandwich from Ray's Hell-Burger.

If there's one meal to make for Fourth of July weekend, it's burgers on the grill. And if there's one guy who can do it right, it's Michael Landrum. The Ray's Hell-Burger and Hell-Burger Too owner has built a local mecca for hamburger-lovers that serves everyone from college kids to President Obama. For replicating Ray's burgers at home, here are Landrum's tips.

DIY Meat
For maximum flavor and juiciness, Landrum swears by grinding your own burger meat. Any Cuisinart food processor or simple hand-grinder does the trick. The golden ratio is 80 percent fattier chuck-eye steak from a market such as Whole Foods—you can pre-order a whole portion from a chuck roast—and 20 percent leaner flank or skirt steak. Always use whole cuts, not scraps or pre-cubed meat.

Landrum says it's important to keep both the grinder and the meat cold so the fat doesn't melt out. Cube the steaks and freeze the beef and tools for about 20 minutes, or until a layer of ice spreads across the meat. If using a processor, pulse it quickly for a rough chop—avoid the puréed texture of grocery-store patties—or guide it through the grinder without pushing. The coarse texture will give the burger what Landrum calls a "meatier, more primordial satisfaction."

Proof's crispy cauliflower. Photograph by Erik Uecke

When chef Haidar Karoum was growing up, his Lebanese-born father always brought the same dish to potlucks and parties: crispy fried cauliflower topped with tahini sauce and chopped fresh mint.

"People loved it and asked for the recipe," Karoum says. "It was always the dish that got finished first."

We also gravitate toward the bowl of caramelized cauliflower, a standout on Karoum's menu at Proof.

While the recipe calls for a fryer or heavy pot and thermometer, you can also use the oven. Karoum says to toss the cauliflower florets in a tablespoon of olive oil, spread them on a sheet pan, and roast at 450 degrees, shaking the pan once or twice, for about 12 minutes.

"It's the difference between fried and roast chicken," says Karoum. "They're different, but both are delicious."

Onion blossoms look a lot like dandelions and have a mild onion-like flavor. Photograph by Phoebe Connelly

The ingredient: Onion blossoms. These green-and-white dandelion-like flowers come out in late spring. Farmers cut them off the tops of onion plants to encourage growth in the bulb underground. The flavor is similar to an onion, but milder. They should be available for two or three more weeks.

Bayou's barbecue shrimp. Photograph by Erik Uecke

When it comes to recipes for New Orleans-style barbecue shrimp, there’s no single formula. Bayou chef Rusty Holman scoured many cookbooks—including volumes from expert Cajun chef Paul Prudhomme and Cooking Up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found From The Times-Picayune of New Orleans—before concocting his own version of the Louisiana favorite. The key common denominators for the dish—lemon, Worcestershire sauce, spicy seasoning, garlic, and of course, plenty of butter—combine to form a zesty, silky sauce for the plump Gulf shrimp that Holman sources.

The base for Holman’s sauce is essentially a quick shrimp stock, so make sure to buy quality crustaceans (Holman recommends Whole Foods), and save your shrimp shells after you’ve peeled them; they provide lots of flavor. If the sauce gets over reduced or too pungent, Holman says to add a little liquid such as water or chicken stock to thin it out. He also advises making sure your butter is cold and sauce is hot when whisking the dairy in, otherwise you risk breaking the sauce. Overall, though, it’s not a delicate procedure, so crack an Abita beer and take a relaxing cue from the Big Easy.

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Strawberry-rhubarb (top) and honey-lavender-cream (bottom) pops. Photograph by Erik Uecke

With the scorching temperatures already plaguing Washington, popsicles are an ideal frozen treat: make-ahead, portioned desserts that won’t weigh you down in the heat. We asked Brian Sykora and Roger Horowitz, co-owners of the food truck Pleasant Pops, for two of their seasonal favorites, and they came back with a creamy honey-lavender version and a refreshing strawberry-rhubarb pop, inspired by Sykora’s favorite fruit pie from his grandmother.

If you don’t have a popsicle mold, check Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, or Amazon.com, or substitute small paper cups. Because molds typically come with lids, be sure to tent the cups with plastic wrap after inserting popsicle sticks if you’re going to use cups. To remove the popsicles, Sykora says to dip the container in lukewarm water for a few seconds until it slides out. Leftovers are okay in the freezer for up to two weeks for the honey-lavender, and up to a month for the fruit-based pops.

Once you get the hang of it, Sykora encourages experimenting with local fruits and ingredients like he and Horowitz do at Pleasant Pops.

The key is good flavor. “They might not look pretty the first time around,” says Sykora, “but as long as you have the ingredients right and they taste good, that’s what counts.”

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