My restaurant week update

Rainbow trout

Bastille is a small fine-dining French restaurant in Alexandria. I took the opportunity provided by the Restaurant week to try their fixed menu and was very pleased.

Unlike most French fine dining restaurants that are usually over-rated and over-priced I thought Bastille offered some great food for the price. The portion sizes were just large enough to satisfy.

We tried their rainbow trout, duck, a pork belly salad, and fried cod. We would definitely recommend the pork belly salad and rainbow trout. Dessert consisted of creme brulee and a chocolate truffle cake. You can't go wrong with either! 

Eggplant Parmesan

Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients  
Olive oil
1 large eggplant (brinjal)
1 cup parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cup mozarella cheese
Finely chopped basil (I used cilantro)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon of dried basil, 
1 teaspoon of oregano 
1 teaspoon of chili flakes (optional)

Ingredients for the sauce

1/4 finely diced onion

2 chopped tomatoes

6 small carrots

5 pods of finely chopped garlic

1 bay leaf
1 cup of water

2-3 finely chopped black olives (Optional)

1/2 cup of finely grated mushrooms (Optional)
1 cup chicken stock (Optional)

Step 1: Chop the eggplants into thin rectangular pieces, sprinkle them with some salt and pepper. Let them bake on a sheet greased with olive oil for about 25 minutes until they are soft. Keep them aside. Alternately, you could fry them lightly in olive oil.

Tomato sauce

Step 2: If you are making your own sauce, saute garlic and finely chopped onions in olive oil. Add the tomatoes, carrots, bay leaf and let it boil in some water and/or chicken stock. Add some black olives and finely chopped mushrooms, if you have any.  Add parsley, oregano and let it cook for about 1-1.5 hour until it reduces to a thin sauce.

Layers of cheese, sauce and eggplant

Step 3: The next step is to layer the prepared sauce, eggplant, mozarella and parmesan cheese, along with some cilantro or basil into a 9" baking pan.

Step 4: Let it bake for about 30 minutes until the cheese completely melts.

Step 5: You can have it by itself or with some bread and white wine!

Ready to eat

Chicken Lollypop

Cuisine: Asian Fusion

My leftovers from Momos Nepalese Food included fried chicken. I decided to put them to good use by making chicken lollypop.


Ingredients
2 tablespoons of olive oil
4 fried chicken legs
1 small red onion
4 pods of garlic
2 Tablespoons tomato ketchup
1 Tablespoon cilantro chutney
1 tablespoon tamarind chutney
1 tablespoon soya sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon of chilli and coriander powders
Chopped cilantro

Step 1: Finely chop the red onion and garlic.

Step 2: Saute them in olive oil (or any oil of your choice).

Step 3: Add the tomato ketchup, green and tamarind chutney, soya sauce, fish sauce, coriander and chill powder, salt and pepper. Add the cilantro. Saute it until it has reduced to a fine mixture.

Step 4: Add the chicken legs and let them simmer in the prepared mixture for about 10 minutes.

Small Countries, Big Flavor

Kottu Roti and Fish Curry

Shakthi, South Asian Cuisine
3807 Mount Vernon Avenue
Alexandria, VA, 22301

This newly opened restaurant in Northern Virginia is one of the only places in the DC region that offers Sri Lankan cuisine. Their menu also includes Indian and Thai dishes.

My last experience with Sri Lankan cuisine was at Sigiri in New York city. Shakthi did not have everything Sigiri offered. The ommission of the Dutch influenced Chicken Lamprais was especially disappointing, though I was told it would be added to the menu at a later date.

On a positive note, I did have the chance to try chicken Kottu Roti, a popular Sri-Lankan street dish, for the first time. It is cooked with chopped roti made of white flour and stir-fried with veggies and chicken.

Their fish curry was a bit watery but was otherwise decent. However, I did not think salmon was the right choice of fish for a South Asian curry. The rolls stuffed with goat meat and potato that we tried as an appetizer were better. They were moderately spicy and went well with the chutney.

Fried chicken momos with chutney

Momos Nepalese Food,
6304 Springfield Plaza
Springfield, VA 22150

If you are in mood to try some "momos" (spicy dumplings), Momos Nepalese Food is a good place to visit. This is a small-take out establishment in a strip-mall in Springfield. It is reasonable-priced. Their menu includes fried/steamed vegetable and chicken momos served with a delicious tomato-based chutney. I also enjoyed their goat curry and butter chicken. Definitiely worth the trip, despite the inconvenient location.