Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Apologies and a dinner recipe

It seems that in the past few weeks we've been abandoning the blog.  I promise that it isn't so.  After a week of being incredibly busy, my son contracted what I have been referring to as "The Plague", but is rather less extreme.  It starts with a fever, (pink eye in my son's case), and moves on to become a stomach flu.  

Want to know what makes you want to write about food less than having your toddler come down with the stomach flu?  Well, getting it yourself.  That's right, after spending a week in quarantine with my son, I spent another week in solitary confinement bed myself.  Thankfully, my husband and fabulous friends made my life substantially easier.  Finally, we are healthy again, and ready to start eating.  But, since my ability to eat out has been severely cut back this past week, I am going to share a recipe I have been meaning to post in any case!

Recently I found myself searching for a good white bean soup recipe, due to a large amount of leftover dried white beans from an earlier project.  I opted to go a modified version of this recipe from Williams Sonoma.  The first, and biggest, difference between mine and the Williams Sonoma recipe is the use of dried, rather than canned cannellini beans, but I also added white wine and replaced the chicken with veggie broth, but I would have used fresh chicken stock in a heartbeat, if I had had some at the time, and I played with the veggies and pancetta a bit.  Instead of serving it with the tapanade and croustini that they suggest, I went for kale, after two friends mentioned that their children had wolfed down these kale chips.  But I did have some bread to use, so, clearly, that was destined for garlic bread.


WHITE BEAN SOUP

INGREDIENTS
  • Olive oil, as necessary
  • One package pancetta, chopped (I take off the big fatty bits because we're trying to reduce fat in our house)
  • One yellow onion
  • Three carrots
  • Three stalks of celery
  • 6 garlic cloves
  • 1 1/4  pounds of dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight and rinsed
  • one box vegetable broth
  • ½ c white wine
  • thyme
  • salt
  • pepper
  • ½ c Parmigiano-Reggiano 

·      INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Cook the rinsed cannellini beans in unsalted broth until tender.  Set aside.
  2. Chop onion, carrots, and celery.    Mince garlic cloves.
  3. Saute pancetta until crisp, then add onion, carrots, and celery and continue to sauté until the vegetables are starting to soften.  Add garlic, and sauté one more minute.  Add to the beans.  Add wine and thyme.  Bring to simmer and  cook for 10-15 minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
  4. Blend about ½ - ¾ of the soup until smooth, depending on how chunky you want it.  Add blended soup back in, mix it, and keep warm until serving.





KALE CHIPS

INGREDIENTS
  • Kale
  • Olive Oil
  • Salt
INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Set oven to 300 degrees. 
  2. Wash kale.  Remove center stem and cut into 2-3 inch pieces.  
  3. Toss until lightly coated with olive oil and add a bit of salt (it doesn’t take too much).  
  4. Spread evenly in one layer on cookie sheet (you may want to line the sheet with parchment paper) bake until crisp, usually between 15-20 minutes.  
  5. Remove chips and try not to eat them all before dinner!




GARLIC BREAD

INGREDIENTS

  • Crusty bread, sliced
  • ¼-½  c Olive oil
  • 6 cloves Garlic, minced

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. In a small saucepan, heat olive oil and garlic.  Remove from heat as soon as it starts to sizzle, before garlic browns.   
  2. Set oven on a low broil.  
  3. Lay bread on cookie sheet and toast one side of the bread, watching to make sure it doesn't burn.
  4. Remove bread, turn over the slices on the cookie sheet, and brush with the garlic and olive oil.  
  5. Place back in oven and, watching carefully to make sure it doesn’t burn, broil until golden on the edges.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Review: Copper


My first brush with Copper came shortly after moving here, when we began our search for a good Indian meal (yes, I will get back to Mexican, but let’s move around the world a bit).  I was sick, and my husband discovered that you can, indeed, carry out from Copper, so he brought us some food, which was fine, but not great, considering the prices.  That was well over a year ago.

Then, driving through Dilworth on New Years Day, we passed by the lovely homey building that is Copper and decided to stop in for dinner.  It was terrific.  We had some amazing food, lovely service, and a great time.  Our son came with us, and was not the only toddler in the room (mostly he’s pretty well behaved at restaurants).  Shortly afterward, I began Charlotte Food Talk, and after the Living Social deal became available, my husband and I were excited to revisit that meal.

Then last week, we did.  And were we disappointed.  Not really with the food.  Well, ok, maybe with the food.  After eating at some amazing Bengali restaurants in the largely Bengali neighborhood of Jackson Heights in New York this past weekend, the meal at Copper fades quickly in comparison.  Why, you might ask?  Read on.

We started with the gunpowder prawns, which were good, but not worth the price.  Then we continued with some relatively traditional dishes, murgh tikka masala (Chicken in creamy tomato sauce) and goat cheese-vegetable “roasted koftas”.  We also had some naan on the side, because who can resist tandoori breads?  It was good.  Just…  Good.

Maybe, however, it would have been better had the service improved.  But it didn’t.  After sitting us down at a table our server pretty much ignored us, and was absolutely uninterested when he finally came around to give us water.  My son never got his water (at our last visit it was served with grace and good humor).  The time between the water service and anyone coming to take the drink order, let alone the food order, was interminable (at one point we did ask someone else to get our server).  When the waiter finally did come around, I ordered a cocktail, which he warned me was very strong.  I would not normally find this annoying; I am a bit of a lightweight when it comes to holding my alcohol.  However, this, coupled with the rest of the service, set my hair on end. 

By the time we had finally finished with the food, we were more than ready to leave.  Forget dessert (disappointingly, because their dessert menu looked great), I wasn’t ready to face our server again.  Even with the $40 voucher from Living Social, we still managed to spend $30, including tip. 

So, we decided that Copper is, unfortunately, a bit of a hit or miss.  Frankly, if you were looking for a place to have a really good, classy Indian meal, I would suggest making the drive to their sister restaurant in Ballentyne, The Blue Taj, where I have yet to have a bad meal or bad service.  And yes, that review is coming soon.

~Aurora

Copper Restaurant
311 East Boulevard
Charlotte, NC 28203
704-333-0063

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Zink Giveaway Results!

Apologies for the late notice! I've been busy with a trip to New York and a fun time getting a crown at the dentist (aren't you jealous? at least half-jealous?)

Ok, so, the moment you've all been waiting for:  The winner of our gift certificate to Zink is Lisa C, random.org number 7!  Congratulations Lisa!  I'll be in touch with you shortly.  Enjoy your dinner!