A great cobbler recipe will serve you all spring and summer long. Photograph courtesy of Shutterstock.
From a culinary standpoint, this time of year rules. Great produce floods the market, patios become a second—and far superior—dining room, and invitations to backyard barbecues start showing up in your inbox. To get you inspired, we’ve collected 20 excellent recipes for spring and summer fare, all of it courtesy of Washington restaurants and shops. There are fancy popsicles from Pleasant Pops, amazing grilled chicken from Estadio—even instructions on how to properly booze up a watermelon. It’s all in the service of making this your tastiest spring and summer ever, so go forth and make something wonderful.
A Washington classic: hearty beef chili from Clyde’s—keep this one in mind for Super Bowl Sunday.
It’s been a particularly eventful January—what with the inauguration and everything—but with winter weather settling in and February on the horizon, it’s the time of year that most of us have to get creative in order to keep our energy up. One of our favorite ways to ward off the SAD: cooking great comfort food. Here are 20 homestyle dishes devised by local restuarants like Founding Farmers, Vidalia, and Lyon Hall.
New New Year's Eve tradition: This simple cake from Ripple pastry chef Alison Reed. Photograph by Andrew Propp.
This festive confection from Ripple pastry chef Alison Reed is easy to make but, thanks to decidedly adult flavors like pistachio and olive oil, will feel sophisticated enough for a New Year feast. At the Cleveland Park wine bar and restaurant, Reed serves it with pumpkin ganache, dried cherries, and candied pumpkin seeds.
Olive Oil Pistachio Financier
Yield: 32 mini muffins
Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup ground almond flour
2 ⅔ cups confectioners sugar
16 egg whites
1 cup olive oil
½ cup ground pistachios
This lovely lamb shoulder with olives, apricots, and almonds from Food, Wine & Co. executive chef Michael Harr is extra-festive thanks to a garnish of glazed prunes.
Braised shoulder of lamb, glazed prunes, olive, apricot, and roasted, crushed almonds
Serves 2 to 4 people
Ingredients
Lamb
1 two-pound lamb shoulder
½ cup butter
8 garlic cloves, crushed
1 cup onions, finely diced
1 tablespoon ginger, grated
1 teaspoon saffron
1 cinnamon stick
1 thyme sprig
1 quart chicken stock
1 cup dried apricots, chopped
¼ cup Marcona almonds, roasted
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon mint
1 teaspoon parsley
Glazed Prunes
¼ cup prunes
1 cup red wine
1 cinnamon stick
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Booze balls: They contain everything you need to get through the holiday. Photograph courtesy of Crunkcakes.
“I’ve put booze in baked goods for a long time,” says Crunkcakes co-owner Faith Alice Sleeper. Along with partner Raychel Sabath, she create confections that are a far cry from precious.
The recipe for these alcoholic cake balls is pretty straightforward, though Sleeper did offer one helpful tip: You’ll want to add the frosting a half cup at a time to the crumbs to make sure the mixture won’t get too moist, which makes shaping the balls harder (a stint in the fridge or freezer will also help firm them up). Happy cooking, and happier eating.
Elegant, with gorgeous contrasting textures, this appetizer from chef Sebastien Archambault is a party showstopper. If you’ve never served raw tuna before, fear not. Just make sure you buy the very best fish: The market at BlackSalt is a great source for sashimi-grade seafood. Call first to make sure it’s in stock, and order ahead if you plan to serve the dish for a party.
If you feel like getting creative, try (gently!) skewering cubes and radish slices with a stick, then drizzling with the passionfruit coulis, or arranging ingredients on an hors d’oeuvres spoon. But no need to get fancy: The tuna cubes look great arranged on a platter atop the radish, too.
Sebastien Archambault’s Tuna Loin With Black Radish and Passionfruit Coulis
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients
¼ pound grade-1 tuna loin
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 leaf nori seaweed, dried
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 pinches cayenne pepper
1 black radish, about 5 inches long
3 passionfruits
1 teaspoon sugar powder
1 pinch espelette pepper
1 pinch sea salt
In Sweden, glogg is the common term for a spiced punch, usually with a wine base. Bartender Todd Thrasher (PX, Restaurant Eve, TNT Bar, the Majestic) shared his own version of the aromatic, warming concoction. Combining three fortified wines with Malbec, brandy, and plenty of spices, it’s festive and special-occasion-worthy, making it a great fit for any holiday gathering. Plus it will make your house smell like heaven.
Ingredients:
Makes 6 to 7 servings
1 cup ruby port
1 cup Malmsey Madeira
1 cup Amontillado sherry
1 cup Malbec
5 cloves
5 cardamom seeds
1 star anise pod
1 small stick of cinnamon
1 cup light brown sugar
½ cup brandy
¼ cup dried cranberries
¼ cup dried almonds
A great holiday cocktail party features surprising but easy to love (and to eat) hors d’oeuvres. This simple shrimp dish from the Bombay Club’s Nilesh Singhvi—whose career includes a long stint with India’s famously luxurious Taj Hotels chain—is the perfect thing: It’s simple to make but features surprising pops of red pepper and fennel, plus a cardamom-infused mango chutney for dipping.
Nilesh Singhvi’s Shrimp Malabar
Makes 16 to 20 shrimp
Ingredients
Shrimp
16 to 20 shrimp with tail, peeled and deveined
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon curry leaves, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon red chili pepper
½ teaspoon black pepper, ground
1 teaspoon fennel seed, ground
1 tablespoon oil (for cooking)
Chutney
1 cup mango, diced small
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cardamom, ground
½ teaspoon salt
Directions
Make the shrimp: Combine all ingredients except oil in a large bowl, stirring ingredients gently to mix. Allow to marinate for 2 hours. In the meantime, prepare the chutney: Place all ingredients in a saucepan and warm over low heat until mango is soft. Add cardamom and mix well. Take the saucepan of the heat and allow to cool. Just before serving, heat oil over medium heat in a frying pan and add marinated shrimp. Cook until shrimp are translucent, remove from heat, and serve hot with mango chutney for dipping.
We’ve been looking forward to checking out Todd Gray and Ellen Kassoff Gray’s first cookbook since we first learned about the project last year. Now the collection of more than 125 recipes, The New Jewish Table: Modern Recipes for Traditional Dishes, is set for a March release, but you don’t have to wait that long for one of the tastiest-sounding dishes: blintzes made with sweet port wine and dried figs, perfect for your Hanukkah table.
Like others in the book, the recipe marries Todd’s seasonal approach to cooking that has been Equinox’s signature over the years with a love for Judaic cooking—discovered when he met and married Ellen, who comes from a Jewish background. You won’t find fresh figs in season at local markets, but as Todd notes in the book’s introduction to the recipe, that isn’t a bad thing.
From the book: “The recipe calls for dried figs (black mission, but Turkish browns are fine, too), because of their concentrated flavor,” says Todd. “Moreover, fresh figs might make the filling too wet, causing a soggy blintz. Another advantage of using dried figs is that they make the recipe suitable for any time of the year. When fresh figs are available, though, I garnish lavishly with them—they certainly add an extra dimension.”
There is nothing quite like a cookie. The classic mood-elevating, yes-you-are-special food gets its due every December 4, also known as National Cookie Day. To celebrate, try one of these five recipes. Too tired to bake? We suggest you head immediately to Teaism, home to perhaps the best cookie in town.
If you’ve been searching for the perfect chocolate chip cookie, look no further than this recipe from pastry chef Tom Wellings. It’s based on the one he used when cooking at the now-closed Maestro at the Ritz-Carlton in Tysons Corner.
The toughest thing about a trip to Northside Social coffee shop in Arlington? Trying to resist great baked goods like these chocolate-gingerbread treats from former pastry chef Rob Valencia.
Love sugar cookies? Here’s a recipe from Blue Duck Tavern.
Sub green or red food coloring for orange in this homemade Oreo recipe from Bayou Bakery, and the Halloween cookie becomes instantly appropriate for the current season.
Looking for something a little healthier? Try these blueberry-almond-flax breakfast cookies from our fit pals over at the Well+Being blog.
