2018 D.C.-Chesapeake Kitchen Notebook
An in-depth look at some of our favorite dishes and cocktails from our time on the ground in the Chesapeake Bay.
The Best Chicken Nugget Ever
Hot damn, fried morels! At Maple & Pine, Chef David Dunlap combines his Pacific Northwest upbringing with some Inn at Little Washington training and a little down-home Richmond love. For one of his small plates, he stuffs morels with a traditional French chicken-morel mousse. Steamed through to cook the mousse, the mushrooms take a dip in a three-step panko breading before diving into a 325°F fryer for five minutes. The crispy nuggets sit atop some buttered (what else!?) Frank’s Red Hot and freshen up with shaved Virginia asparagus. It’s a soigné presentation that doesn’t forget its roots. If only you could get a 20-piece at the drive-thru.
Katsuobushi, Richmond Style
Far far away from Kagoshima, the birthplace of katsuobushi, just outside Richmond in Bon Air, Virginia, Chef Craig Perkinson is making Southern-style katsuobushi … with pork tongues. Specifically, he’s sourcing Ossabaw/Berkshire hogs from Autumn Olive Farms in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and applying a koji cure. (We’re pretty sure Perkinson is the originator of #kojiwankenobi and is known to have #slippedthekojiin.) He vacuum-seals the tongues in salt, sugar, and koji for three weeks before hanging them for two months and finishing the tongues with a light smoke over Virginia cherrywood. He makes it rain pork tongue katsuobushi over an earthy Whitestone oyster from nearby Hayes for a funky, porky, smoky accouterment that’s also made its way onto eggs, into stocks and soups, and even on top of desserts.
Drop Those Tweezers and Infuse That Shit
You’re growing something back there, right? Or in the windowsill, or on the roof? Maybe they’re nasturtiums or bronze fennel, or just basil. And while your lovingly tended herbs and flowers can’t make it onto every plate, there is a way to max-out your garden’s impact on diners: by using them at the bar. At Longoven in Richmond, Barman Danny McDermott makes his home garden pay dividends for his beverage program. In his Summer Martini variation, Dolin dry gets a little R&R with papalo, bergamot herb, lavender flowers, and sage flowers for a week before straining. He combines the now summer-ed vermouth with equal parts koji-infused Bloom Gin and a dash of Regan’s orange bitters for a super clean, light, complex cocktail. For fall, the Improved Genever combines Bols genever with sandiita cordial and roselle oil—the latter two elements made from botanicals persevered from an earlier harvest.
Ham of the Sea
Heirloom restaurant is situated less than a mile from the Delaware Bay in historic Lewes (founded in 1631), and the ocean permeates Chef Matt Kern’s menu. For his house charcuterie board, he takes tuna chain—“sinew, tasty connective tissue, and all”—and transforms the oft discarded cut into tuna conserva. He cures the chain for 24 hours in salt, brown sugar, black pepper, coriander, cumin, and local fish pepper powder and then cooks it sous vide for one hour “until it becomes the ham of the sea and melts in your mouth,” says Kern, who leans new school when it comes to charcuterie making. “Recipes hold you back. You have to craft your own versions to grow as a chef.”
