A Night at Silver Spring's Sligo Cafe

by Rachael Bender, special to EdibleDC

When you don’t like your lunch options, what do you do? Open a restaurant, of course. “We’re a neighborhood business,” said owner and former music exec David Galinsky, who discussed how he built out the space for the recently opened Sligo Cafe in Silver Spring. While not in the most picturesque part of town, the eatery is walking distance from metro and the interior design makes you forget about what’s going on across the street. The industrial office space is transformed with purple and silver decor and rotating artwork from Margery Goldberg’s Zenith Gallery. And the big windows open up to the sidewalk patio so everyone can enjoy the weekly live music featuring local artists.

But patrons really come for the food from head chef Corey Locker. One of the creative dishes on the menu is the Signature French Onion. More than the traditional broth soup, it’s topped with a mac and cheese gratin. The inspiration for this combination came when Locker was eating with his nine year old son and decided to marry their two dishes. It’s a good match, with the gooey cheese melting into the crevices of the elbow macaroni that already soaked in the beef broth and caramelized onion flavors.

The cafe is planning to go to a small plates concept in the next few weeks, so you can enjoy more flavors in one sitting. That’s great news considering the slew of appealing options on the current menu. From the Beeting Hearts Salad, with peppery arugula mixed with creamy goat cheese, hearts of palm, and beet sauce topped with a pistachio finish to the crispy brussels sprouts with bacon and lemon vinaigrette, there are several can’t miss dishes.

The bar overlooking the kitchen seems always bustling, featuring draft beer from local breweries, wine and signature cocktails. The “what-a-melon” champagne cocktail special had fresh watermelon juice, lemon and an entire sprig of fresh thyme to wake up your palate. The watermelon gin rickey is for those who want a stronger drink, but equally as refreshing.

Save room for dessert too, including plates that incorporate Moorenko’s Ice Cream, which is headquartered down the road. No matter what you order, Sligo Cafe is giving the Silver Spring community a place hang out with friends, eat with your family and enjoy a good meal.

---

Rachael Bender enjoys cooking as much as dining out, particularly when she can use harvests from her home garden.  A regulatory attorney by day, she caught the travel bug and looks forward to sampling local cuisines while visiting all 50 states with her husband. 

Goat Cheese and Blackberries, A Summer Love Affair

Words and photos by Sara Axelrod, special to Edible DC

French chef Jacques Pepin once said, “If you have extraordinary bread and extraordinary butter, it's hard to beat bread and butter.” That's how I feel about blackberries this summer. They have reached the peak of their growing season right now and have been exceptional, standing up to the heat, plump and sweet. The epitome of the perfect summer berry, blackberries are the perfect accompaniment to both sweet and savory dishes.

The recipes here really showcase blackberries at their peak. Simple ingredients, unassumingly prepared, coming together to create a delicious dish that tastes the way summer should.

Warm Goat Cheese and Blackberry Salad with Honey Thyme Vinaigrette

This salad pairs the sweet and complex berry with creamy warm goat cheese medallions perfectly accentuating the summer’s best ingredients. (Serves 2.)

Ingredients

Goat Cheese Medallions

- 1 large egg white

- 1 teaspoon of water

- 4 (1/3 inch thick) medallions of soft goat cheese (keep the log in the

refrigerator until ready to cut)

- 3 tablespoons of dried breadcrumbs

- 1 tablespoon olive oil

Honey Thyme Vinaigrette

- 1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar

- 1 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice

- 2 tablespoons of extra virgin-olive oil

- 1 teaspoon of honey

- ½ teaspoon of fresh thyme, finely minced (dried can also be used)

- Salt and Pepper to taste

Salad

- 4 cups of mesclun greens or an assortment of summer greens

- 3 spears of hearts of palm, sliced into ¼ inch coins

- ¼ cup of thinly sliced sweet onion

Instructions

Whisk together egg white and water. Dip cheese rounds in egg wash, evenly coating. Shake off the excess then dredge in breadcrumbs, pressing lightly to adhere. Chill 15 minutes.

Whisk together vinaigrette ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in small skillet on high heat until hot but not smoking. Place cheese medallions in oil and sear evenly on both sides until crisp and golden brown. About 30-40 seconds per side. Remove from heat and set aside.

Assemble the greens, hearts of palm rounds and onion slivers on a plate. Gently place goat cheese medallions on greens. Drizzle with vinaigrette and serve.

Note: The easiest way to cut goat cheese into perfect rounds is with a piece of unflavored dental floss.

Goat Cheese and Blackberry Grilled Cheese with Basil and Summer Greens

Accompanied by a simple summer green salad, this is the perfect treat for a lazy afternoon. Look for firm, plump berries at your local farmers market. The goal is to choose berries that are firm enough to hold their shape when surrounded by melted cheese—so that when you bite into the sandwich the berry juice bursts in your mouth. (Makes 2 sandwiches.)

Goat Cheese and Blackberry Grilled Cheese with Basil

Ingredients

- 4 slices of your favorite bread (I prefer the Seeduction bread from Whole Foods)

- 1 small log of fresh goat cheese- with herbs or without based on your preference

- 1 pint of blackberries

- High quality butter for spreading

- 5-6 leaves of fresh basil

Instructions

Spread one side of each slice of bread with butter and place bread, buttered-side down, in a pan over medium-high heat. Top each slice with crumbled goat cheese, roughly ½ tablespoon-1tablespoon depending on the size of the bread slices. Cover pan. Slice blackberries in half and set aside. Chiffonade the basil so you have very thin strips and set aside.

Once the bread has the beginnings of a nice golden crisp and the cheese is beginning to melt, top each slice with the halved blackberries (roughly 4-8 halves depending on the bread) and top with the basil to your own taste. I prefer a light layer of basil, about 5-6 pieces per sandwich.

Combine the 4 separate tartines into two sandwiches. Cover and continue to cook over medium heat for another minute being careful not to burn the bread. Flip the sandwich and sear the other side. Remove from the heat and leave covered until the cheese is melted.

Slice in half and serve with a simple salad of summer greens.

Summer Green Salad

Ingredients

Salad

- 3 cups of assorted and available summer greens (arugula, dandelion greens, spinach, purslane)

- ¼ cup of shaved pecorino

- ¼ cup of sweet onion thinly sliced

Dressing

- ½ teaspoon of finely grated lemon zest

- 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice

- 1 teaspoon of honey

- ½ teaspoon of mustard seed

- ¼ teaspoon of fine sea salt, or to taste

- 3-4 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil

- Ground white pepper to taste

Instructions

Wash greens and set aside to dry. Combine all dressing ingredients and stir vigorously until combined. Toss dressing with greens and garnish with pecorino and onion. Serve alongside Goat Cheese and Blackberry Grilled Cheese with Basil.

[hr]

Hawaii/Colorado native and DC transplant, Sara Axelrod is a frequenter of farmers markets, vegetable enthusiast and constantly lusts after the perfect French fry. When she is not cooking or exploring DC’s thriving restaurant scene, she works at the DC-based public affairs firm, The Glover Park Group, as a communications professional on the Energy and Sustainability team, with a focus on food policy and sustainable agriculture.

Taste the Studio! Studio Theatre's New Event Debuts August 1

This summer, held in conjunction with Midcity Dog Days, Studio Theatre is debuting a new event—Taste of Studio—to be held on Saturday, August 1 from 4:00 to 7:00pm. It's a fun twist on the Studio Theatre's annual Garage Sale which provides an opportunity for Studio fans to purchase a "part of the season" in the form of costumes, props, and even set pieces. Taste of the Studio expands the event to include a multi-floor food and beverage experience featuring neighborhood restaurants and bars, along with live entertainment and a behind-the-scenes look at Studio's production shop.

This multi-floor food and beverage experience will highlight the cuisine and cocktails of the vibrant 14th Street neighborhood, as well as entertainment and unique theatrical elements to reflect Studio’s adventurous spirit.

Taste of the Studio opens up Studio’s landmark, three-building, four-performance space complex like never before and the event will feature bites and sips from:

B Too Posto Birch and Barley Churchkey Bluebird Bakery Ted’s Bulletin Daikaya And more…!

Plus: • Performances by the cast of Silence! The Musical • Mini-workshops and demonstrations from the faculty of the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory • A behind-the-scenes look into Studio’s state-of-the-art, in-house Scene Shop with the Technical Staff

Ticket information:

• For just $15, enjoy the first-floor Taste of Studio Beer Garden, including access to Studio’s memorabilia sale and one complimentary beverage. (Open 12 noon to 8pm.)
• For $90 you can enjoy the first-floor Beer Garden as well as the second- and third-floor tasting rooms where you can enjoy sample-sized bites and sips from neighborhood restaurants. (Open 4pm – 7pm.)
• For $135 receive access to the entire event, including the 4th Floor Mixology Suite, featuring the 14th Street corridor’s favorite bartenders and their signature cocktails.

Buy your tickets for this great event HERE!

10 Things We Learned from Hugh Acheson

You won't believe Hugh Acheson's strategy for making crème fraîche. He combines buttermilk and heavy cream, covers the mixture with plastic wrap, and lets it sit above the fridge where the temperature tends to be 80 degrees. After 24-36 hours, the mixture should have thickened up and developed the bacterial cultures that make it so tasty.

This is just one tip we learned from the celebrity chef with restaurants in Athens and Atlanta, Georgia. You also know him from countless appearances on Top Chef as a judge. What you may not know, is that Acheson makes his way to DC quite often because of his passionate work in food policy. Specifically, Acheson tells us he is working on a a new initiative to rework home economics curriculum to be more current. He shared that on recent visits he dined (and loved) Rose's Luxury, Toki Underground and Zaytinya.

We joined Acheson's cooking class at Lake Austin Spa Resort on June 18. An intimate group of spa-goers learned to make three recipes from Acheson's new cookbook, The Broad Fork: Tomato salad with crisped farrow, purslane, arugula, and roasted tomato-miso vinaigrette; pan-roasted chicken breasts with creamed corn, lemongrass and crisp shallots; and raspberry cobbler with drop biscuit topping. The goal of the vegetable-forward cookbook is to help home cooks not waste anything in their CSA baskets and gain more confidence in the kitchen.

In addition to a unique approach to making crème fraîche, we also picked up the following pointers:

1. It's important to let meat rest before you serve it because it allows the liquids that have retreated to the center to "repopulate" all areas of the protein before serving it. When resting meat, Acheson says it's best to use a grooved cutting board.

2. Don't be afraid to add fresh herbs to finish off a dish, that includes dessert. Basil in particular goes well with berries.

3. When buying arugula, avoid the kind with the jagged edges because that tends to be a sign the lettuce variety is mass-produced. Head to the farmer's market to look for smooth-edged arugula, which Acheson calls rocket.

4. Fermented foods are your friend. Acheson says it's a very good thing that Americans are becoming more adventurous when it comes to trying foods with the right kind of rot. The miso in his tomato-miso vinaigrette is a good example.

5. Everyone should know how to make a basic vinaigrette. Mix together three parts oil and one part acid and then add anything you please. He recommends putting dill pickles through the food processor and adding the result to the oil and vinegar mixture.

6. Home cooks should have at least two levels of olive oil: a refined $20 olive oil for finishing dishes or using in salad dressing and a $9 or $10 bottle for cooking that should still be extra virgin.

7. Don't be afraid to cook chicken slowly. Acheson says we have a tendency of want to cook chicken as quickly as possible. For best results, make sure a chicken breast is salted and dry before it hints the pan, fatty skin side down. Allow it to cook there (on medium heat instead of high) for as long as possible before letting the other side kiss the pan.

8. Before you get started, read a recipe all the way through! Then get organized, pre-measuring ingredients so yo can really move.

9. Every time you cook, you should extract one major skill that can become a foundational block of your cooking abilities. Once you've followed the recipe to learn how to properly cook farro, for example, don't be timid about adding to a recipe using what's in your fridge.

Check the Lake Austin Spa Resort website frequently because they hold "Culinary Experience" weeks quite often, and bring in top talent. In August, for example, Acheson's Top Chef judging colleague, Gail Simmons, will be at the resort leading cooking sessions (August 15-16).

Culinary Experiences at the resort are a great way to get face time with movers and shakers changing the face of food today. Just be careful because they often stay at the resort, meaning you could end up huffing and puffing next to someone like Acheson on the treadmill.

Laura Hayes is a frequent contributor to Edible DC. She is a DC-based food writer and photographer who also contributes to Thrillist, Arlington Magazine and Washington City Paper.

Unplugged Performance by The Bacon Brothers Delights Crowd at City Blossoms

Photographs by Christine Halsey, words by Susan Able

Kevin Bacon, his brother Michael and their band, The Bacon Brothers, held a musical pop-up on Saturday afternoon and surprised a small crowd of volunteers and gardeners at City Blossoms' Girard Garden in Columbia Heights. City Blossoms is a D.C, nonprofit that uses gardening, food and art to develop creative kid-driven green spaces and it is just the kind of small, "hidden gem" cause that Kevin Bacon loves to support through his own nonprofit, SixDegrees.org, whose goal is to make doing good a regular part of pop culture by connecting celebrities with causes--and he uses his own band to promote that kind of connection.

In the area for a concert Saturday night at the Birchmere, Kevin Bacon and The Bacon Brothers did several "drop bys" in the Alexandria area to support various charities and causes, but their stop at Girard Gardens was their only pop-up stop in D.C. The Bacon Brothers performed a short set for forty staff, volunteers and kids from the neighborhood. According to SixDegrees, the experience was a great one for all: "Judging by comments like "this is homemade music" and mesmerized stares at the accordion, we're guessing that the surprise unplugged performance by The Bacon Brothers at City Blossoms community garden in DC was a first on many levels for kids in the neighborhood. What a great nonprofit and a great time!"

After meeting the City Blossoms team and young gardeners, Michael Bacon said, "Having grown up in Philadelphia and spent time in New York, this is the kind of work I've been wanting to see happen. The flower you plant is so much more important than the one you pick. The work you're doing is amazing and important."

Timea, 8 year-old who has been participating at Girard Garden for over two years was equally impressed with their visitors. "The Bacon Brothers are awesome. The garden is amazing and I think everyone should come"

For more information on City Blossoms, go to www.cityblossoms.org. For information on SixDegrees, go to www.sixdegrees.org.

July is Paella Party Season

By Christina Brown, special to Edible DC Don't let the summer heat fool you. July is a perfect time to sample some of the city's interpretations of this famous Spanish dish! Do you have leftovers from your July 4th BBQ? They might be a perfect addition to your paella pan.. Just take it from Chef Quim Marqués, a childhood friend of Chef José Andrés and this year's guest chef for the 2015 Annual Paella Festival, which will be held from July 13 to July 26 at all three local Jaleo locations. Chef Marqués’ barbeque paella was inspired from time the chef spent in Texas, and he is sourcing the bellota sausage and pork ribs from local farms.

Or, for a more classic take on Spanish paella, look no further than the caldero de arroz flamenco, a soupy seafood version of the dish that includes clams, cockles, cuttlefish, and head-on shrimp. It’s not bad with a side of red or white sangria, either!

For our vegetarian or vegan friends, you can create the delectable and intensely flavorful paella de verdura, or vegetable paella, using the recipe below. And if you'd like to channel your true inner Spaniard, you can shop alongside Jaleo Executive Chef Ramón Martínez at the FRESHFARM's Penn Quarter market on Thursday afternoons, where he purchases fresh local vegetables used in this dish such as chanterelle mushrooms. He adjusts the recipe according to what is freshest that day, so don't hesitate to experiment yourself!

The perfect way to finish your Spanish feast is with Jaleo’s helado de aceite de olive con pomelo, which places a delicious and savory olive oil ice cream above chilled, tangy, grapefruit texturas.

Paella de Verduras

Vegetable Paella

Serves 4 to 6

 For the alioli:

Makes 1 cup

1 small egg

1 cup Spanish extra virgin olive oil

1 clove garlic, peeled

1 teaspoon sherry vinegar or fresh lemon juice

Sea salt, to taste

Add the egg, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, the garlic clove, and the vinegar or lemon juice to the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade.

Process the ingredients at high speed until the garlic is fully puréed and the mixture becomes a loose paste. While processing, slowly begin to add the remaining olive oil drop by drop. If the mixture appears too thick, add 1 teaspoon of water to loosen the sauce. Continue adding the oil and the sauce becomes rich and creamy and light yellow in color. Season with salt, to taste.

For the sofrito:

Makes 3 cups

10 ripe plum tomatoes, sliced in half

1 ½ cups Spanish extra-virgin olive oil

4 small Spanish onions, finely chopped

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pimentón, or Spanish smoked paprika

3 bay leaves

Place a grater over a mixing bowl and grate the open side of the tomatoes down to their skins. Discard the skins.

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the onions, sugar, and salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and golden brown, or caramelized, about 45 minutes.  Add a ½ teaspoon of water to the onions if they begin to burn.

Stir in the tomato purée, the pimentón, and the bay leaves and cook over medium heat until the tomatoes have broken down and deepened in color, and the oil has separated from the sauce, about 20 minutes. Discard the bay leaves and store the sauce in the refrigerator, covered, until ready to use.

For the paella:

 ¼ cup Spanish extra-virgin olive oil

1 bunch spring onions, thinly sliced

1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces

3 cups spinach

1 teaspoon minced garlic

2 ripe plum tomatoes, diced

¼ cup sofrito

1 cup dry white wine

Pinch of saffron

3 cups flat mineral or filtered water

1 cup Spanish Bomba or Calasparra rice

Sea salt, to taste

Fresh thyme sprigs, for garnish

Alioli, for serving

Heat the olive oil in a 13-inch paella pan over medium-high heat. Add the onions and sauté until soft and lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Add the asparagus and garlic and cook for 2 minutes more. Stir in the plum tomatoes and the sofrito and cook for 1 minute. Pour in the white wine and let it reduce by ½, about 2 minutes.

Crumble the saffron into the pan and pour in the mineral water. Increase the heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil. Let the mixture boil for 2-3 minutes, then add the rice and peas and stir until well combined. Reduce the heat to medium-high, season with salt, to taste, and cook for 4 minutes. Do not stir the rice again, as this can cause it to cook unevenly.

After 4 minutes, reduce the heat to low and cook for another 7 minutes. Remove the paella from the heat, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and let rest for 5 minutes. Garnish with fresh thyme sprigs and serve with the alioli.

About the author: When she is not exploring or photographing the city, Christina Brown is the marketing manager at The SEED Foundation, which oversees the SEED network of public, charter boarding schools. She is currently on a mission to find barbecue that can satisfy the craving she brought with her from Memphis, TN.