Le Diplomate (Washington, D.C.)

Good buzz is the stuff of new restaurant dreams, and Le Diplomate has it in abundance.

The large Logan Circle bistro has been the talk of the town since opening a couple months ago. On a recent early Sunday evening the place was already packed, making me glad we had reservations.

French cuisine used to be the pinnacle of exciting restaurant food, but it's lost stature as Medterranean, pan-Asian and now farm-to-table have moved in to dominate our collective palates. So that the hottest new place on 14th Street--itself a pean of hot new eateries--is serving traditional French bistro fare instead of new wave Thai or super-seasonal modernism represents a risk that's clearly paying off.

The restaurant, located on a prime 14th Street corner, is a beautiful and generously apportioned space, with several dining rooms and a large patio.

The infamous Le Diplomate bread basket.

All visits here begin with Le Diplomate's extraordinary bread basket, featuring a perfect baguette with light, chewy crumb and a crispy crust. Also delicious are the cranberry-walnut bread and warm peasant bread with a slightly sour taste and thick crust. In an age where restaurants increasingly charge for things like bread or chips-and-salsa, it's amazing that such a standout item is provided gratis. It's a generous offering and a great way to begin the meal.

From there we moved on to fresh vegetables. Radish crudité is prepared simply: a variety of radishes sliced in half served with large-flaked sea salt, toasted brioche and chive butter. if you like butter, this place is for you, as just about everything is either cooked, spread or garnished with it. Salade verte features fresh lettuce dressed simply with a bright red wine vinaigrette, green beans and radish slices. The radishes were perhaps a little too plain, but the salad was satisfying.

Our entrees were mostly quite good. I loved my half roast chicken, which was quite flavorful with herbs stuffed under the nicely crisped skin and a wonderful rosemary-flavored jus de poulet ("sauce" for you non-French speakers). I also enjoyed the potato puree, although I suspect it was more butter than potato.

Steak frites

Steak frites features a pan-roasted hanger steak with crispy browned frites served with a side of mayonnaise. The steak was nicely seasoned but, although we ordered it medium-rare, it came out fairly tough, which is not uncommon for hanger steak, but I was hoping for something more tender. (Frankly, I'm ready for restaurants' hanger steak obsession to end. Can't we go back to ribeye?)

Our dessert was absolutely delightful: a dark chocolate napoleon constructed with a bottom layer of almond dacquoise, planks of dark chocolate and columns of dark chocolate mousse with a delicious side of chocolate ice cream and a little pool of caramel. I'm definitely looking forward to coming back and seeing what other artful treats pastry chef Naomi Gallego can create.

Dark chocolate napoleon

I found the wine list a little perplexing. I know it's expected that French restaurants' menus are written in French, but if the wine list's subheadings would've been in English I probably wouldn't have accidentally ordered a half-bottle when I wanted a full-size one (thankfully I noticed the mistake before our server opened it).

Speaking of which, our server was delightful, friendly and attentive. Sometimes the food seemed a bit slow to arrive, but hey, isn't that kind of French? And, as I mentioned, the place was hopping.

What you won't find at Le Diplomate: a celebrity chef, a trendy menu or molecular gastronomy. What you will find: delicious classics prepared well and served in an energetic setting that's a great space for spending a couple hours.

Le Diplomate, 1601 14th Street NW (at Q Street), Washington, D.C. (Logan Circle). (202) 332-3333. Reservations: Open table.

Baba Ghanoush (Roasted Eggplant Dip)

While I love hummus, I'm increasing also a fan of another mezze dip. Baba ghanoush is roasted eggplant dip that originated in the eastern part of the Mediterranean (the Levant). It's smoky flavor is one of its best attributes, and if you have an outdoor grill, roasting the eggplant over charcoal will help impart that flavor. If you make it indoors, like I did, using smoked ingredients like paprika, olive oil and smoked flavor will compensate adequately.

The eggplant roasts for quite a long time at a very high temperature. They are large vegetables after all and you want them to be extremely soft on the inside when you scoop them out. The skin of the eggplant should look darker, turning brown from its purple shade, and get sunken looking.

Like hummus, baba ghanoush can be served with bread or vegetables for dipping. I like to cut pitas into  triangles, brush them with olive oil and sprinkle them with za'atar seasoning before lightly toasting them under a hot broiler.

Baba Ghanoush

2 medium-size eggplants
Olive oil
1/4 cup tahini
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tbsp. smoked olive oil (or regular extra-virgin olive oil)
2 tsp. smoked paprika
Pinch of chipotle chili powder
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2 tbsp. fresh chopped parsley
Toasted pita bread or cut vegetables (for serving)

1. Preheat oven to 500 F. Pierce eggplants all over with a fork and brush or spray lightly with olive oil. Roast until skin has darkened and the eggplant is very soft and sunken looking, about 30-45 minutes. Split eggplants open and scoop out contents. Discard skins.

2. Place eggplant in a food processor and pulse a few times. Add tahini, lemon juice, garlic, smoked olive oil, smoked paprika, chili powder and salt. Turn food processor on and process until smooth. Transfer to a serving bowl and top with fresh chopped parsley.

Making a Mezze Meal

"Mezze" refers to small-plate dishes typical of the Mediterranean and Middle East. Because many of these types of dishes can be made ahead, mezze works well for entertaining. Throw together enough of them and you'll have a great meal, which is basically the concept behind José Andrés restaurant Zaytinya.

All this week I'm featuring recipes to make a great mezze meal, which also just happens to be vegetarian. That I didn't miss the meat is a sign of how satisfying a varied dinner made of these dishes can be.

Smoky-smooth hummus

Hummus is an essential mezze dish. I've already featured two recipes for it: a basic recipe and a more involved smoky-smooth version (the extra work is worth it, in my opinion).

This week, I'll have recipes for baba ghanoush, quinoa tabouleh and yogurt kuku, which is basically a frittata. Some other dishes that would well in a mezze dinner: chickpea patties, reconstructed hummus salad and Mediterranean salad.

Nice Rickey Cocktail

Last week, the Washington Post Food section's spirits columnist Jason Wilson announced his retirement from the paper. For the past 6 years, Wilson has been a wonderful source of information about spirits and cocktails. I'll miss his regular columns but am glad to hear he's still writing for his website, Table Matters.

In his final column, Wilson offered two parting recipes for the rickey, the official cocktail of Washington D.C. Both recipes were based on previous cocktails Wilson had written about. My favorite of the two was the Nice, a rickey version of the Antibes.

Although I'd been dissatisfied with it in Gin & Tonic, I thought I'd give Columbia Distillers' made-in.D.C. Green Hat Gin a try in this drink. Thankfully, D.C.'s homemade spirit tastes great in its official drink.

Nice Cocktail
By Jason Wilson, Washington Post

2 oz. gin (I used Green Hat Gin)
1 oz. Benedictine liqueur
2 oz. fresh grapefruit juice
2 oz. sparkling water (I used club soda)
Lime twist


Fill a cocktail shaker halfway with ice. Add the gin, Benedictine and grapefruit juice. Shake until cold, then strain into a highball glass filled with ice. Top with sparkling water and stir. Garnish with a lime twist.

Pressure Cooker Spring Risotto

When I was a kid, my mom sometimes cooked with a pressure cooker, and I was always thankful the kitchen was still intact when she was done. It was a noisy scary thing, with a little metal top that jiggled constantly like the whole thing could burst at any moment.

Fagor Duo 10 Quart pressure cooker. It's a lot less scary than old models I remember from my childhood.

My pressure cooker, which I got for my birthday this year, is nothing like that. The Fagor Duo 10-Quart pressure cooker is quiet with no movement apart from a gentle flow of steam. The instructions assured me there are multiple safety features to prevent an explosion. All in all, it feels quite safe and I was quite pleased with its inaugural dish: a spring risotto.

Getting the texture of risotto just right is important, and I was skeptical whether a pressure cooker could do it. The grains of rice need to be al dente, like pasta: cooked through but still chewy. After sweating the aromatic vegetables and briefly toasting the grains, would I open the device a few minutes later to find mush?

Thankfully no. The texture of the rice was spot on. It was really quite good. And instead of stirring the broth in over the course of half an hour or so--stirring frequently--the cooking time once the liquid was added (all at once) was just 7 minutes, less than a third of the usual time.

As for selecting a pressure cooker, I chose mine for several reasons. I opted for a stovetop model over an electric one, since it allows you to use the pot for sautéing and browning, whereas an electric model requires a separate pan for that. I chose a 10-quart model since a larger pressure cooker is more versatile (I could do canning in this one if I chose to). America's Test Kitchen also highly rates Fagor.

Pressure Cooker Spring Risotto

3 oz. pancetta, diced
1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium (or 2 small) yellow onion, diced
1 fennel bulb, cored and diced
Salt, to taste
2 cups arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine (I used Vitiano 2012 verdicchio/vermentino blend)
1 cup frozen (or fresh) peas
2 cups loosely packed baby spinach leaves
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup grated pecorino-romano cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives (half reserved)

1. Heat pressure cooker pan over medium heat. Add pancetta and cook until lightly browned. Remove from pan. Add olive oil. When hot, add onion, fennel and salt and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add rice and cooked until lightly toasted, about 5 minutes more. Add wine and stir until absorbed, a couple minutes.

2. Add peas, spinach and broth and stir to combine. Close and lock the lid. Set the cooker to high pressure (15 PSI). When the pan reaches pressure, lower the heat and cook for 7 minutes (follow your pressure cooker's instructions for achieving high pressure and setting the temperature, as they may vary by model and will vary depending on whether you use a gas or electric range).

3. Use a quick-release cold water method to subside pressure and open the cooker. Stir in the grated cheese. Serve in bowls topped with fresh chives.

The Feed: May 8, 2013

The Feed is my weekly round up of interesting food-related stories from newspapers, magazines, blogs and websites.

Washingtonian: “The Meaning of Local,” by Todd Kliman.
When it comes to food, “local” is the new “organic.” It’s what a certain food-conscious consumer is looking for. It’s what high-end grocery stores make pains to point out for certain products. It’s what certain restaurants tout on their menus. But what does it really mean? As a descriptive word, it’s about as useful as “natural” is on food packages. In D.C., where many farmers markets sell produce that’s trucked across two states to get here (and let’s face it, in our densely populated region, “local” probably has to be a fairly flexible term), what does it mean to buy or offer “local?” Kliman offers a thoroughly researched piece on the subject, talking to farmers, chefs and others, discussing the changing nature of the term and the seemingly elusive ideal it implies. It’s a long piece but worth the read and is even at times funny (I wonder if he had to struggle to keep a straight face when speaking to the young restaurateur who used the phrases “über thing” and “touch point”).

Bloomberg Businessweek: “Whole Foods Local Forager Elly Truesdell Is a Grocery Tastemaker,” by Claire Suddath.
Following nicely on the themes in the Kliman story is this profile of a “local forager,” a new position at Whole Foods Market. The forager, Ms. Truesdell, visits farms and food producers in her region looking for potential products for the grocery store chain. The company started the effort in response to criticism from Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma over the market’s use of large-scale organic vendors he viewed as problematic as their big-agriculture counterparts. Her role includes not just finding the products but also helping the suppliers made adjustments to be able to offer their products in the store, which may include needing to increase their output volume.

Time: “Beepocalypse Redux: Honey Bees Are Still Dying—and We Still Don’t Know Why,” by Bryan Walsh.
I’d heard the honeybees were in trouble, but apparently the situation is getting worse, as recounted here by Time. More than half of the 6 million honeybee colonies that existed 60 years ago are now gone. A certain pesticide is suspected, although still in use, since it’s not been proven to be the culprit and other factors could be at fault, including bacteria diseases and parasitic mites. If you think the loss of honeybees would only mean the loss of honey, consider that we rely on bees to pollinate many of our crops. Their loss would be far more devastating to our food supply.

Hunter Angler Gardener Cook: “My Olympic Medal,” by Hank Shaw.
For a food blogger, rubbing elbows with chef/TV personalities like Sara Moulton and Chef Kevin Gillespie at the James Beard Awards, during which said food blogger wins an award (and they do not) must be a rather surreal experience. Hank Shaw, winner of this year’s individual food blog award for Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, recounts his personal experience of the evening (“I felt like I was levitating as I went to the stage, and Ted went to put the James Beard medal around my neck”). Congratulations Hank Shaw!!! (all the 2013 James Beard Award winners here.)

Washington Post: “Serve a better-looking plate,” by Lisa Cherkasky.
Food stylist Cherkasky offers tips for plating food to make it more visually appealing. She shows how three dishes traditionally served at table look better if plated in the kitchen with a few touches to add color and interest. Love the accompanying graphic with sliders to move between the “before” and “after” shots.

Gnocchi with Ramps and Sausage

I stopped by the Penn Quarter farmers market one recent afternoon hoping they would have ramps. I was in luck! I picked up two bunches of the seasonal wild leeks with their red and white bulbs and wide leafy greens. They're like scallions but with style.

Ramps resemble scallions with reddish bulbs and leafier greens. 

The first time I ever had ramps was 3 years ago during my first visit to Birch & Barley. As part of the tasting menu, we had gnocchi with rabbit sausage, ramps, fennel pollen and ricotta salata cheese. I loved the dish and always planned at some point to try to re-create it. As soon as I saw those ramps at the market, I decided that night would be the night.

I found this recipe on Tasting Table that was quite similar to what I'd had at Birch & Barley, apart from the speck. So with a few adjustments to that recipe, I had just what I was looking for. I made one additional modification: during a recent visit to Graffiato, we had their ramp pizza, which featured a ramp pesto as well as a generous sprinkle of raw ramp greens, which provided a nice contrast of flavors.

Gnocchi with Ramps and Sausage
Inspired by Birch & Barley and adapted from a recipe from Tasting Table

1 lb. gnocchi (potato or sweet potato, make your own with this or this recipe, or buy at the store, but be sure you get good quality)
1/2 lb. mild Italian chicken sausage
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
1/4 lb. ramps (two bunches, about 20-25 ramps)
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 tbsp. fellen pollen
1-2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup shredded ricotta salata cheese

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add gnocchi and cook until they float to the surface, about 4-6 minutes. Drain and set aside (recommend making the gnocchi at the same time as the sauce, as you don't want it sitting around).

2. Remove chicken sausage from casings and brown in a large sauté pan over medium heat, breaking up with a wooden spoon as it cooks. Remove from pan and set aside.

3. Separate ramp bulbs from the greens. Finely chop the bulbs and cut the greens into 1-inch pieces. Add 2 tbsp. butter to pan. When melted, add the chopped ramp bulbs and sliced garlic. Cook about 2 minutes (the ramps and garlic should not brown, turn the heat down a bit if necessary). Add chicken broth and simmer over medium heat for 7 minutes. Turn off the heat. Add fennel pollen, half of the ramp greens, the cooked sausage, and olive oil. Stir to combine, add cooked gnocchi and toss to coat. Serve gnocchi in shallow bowls with a sprinkle of ramp greens and some shredded ricotta salata.