D.C. Sustainable Food: Breaking Down the Dish with Firefly's Daniel Bortnick

February 19, 1:28 PMDenver Sustainable Restaurants ExaminerWill Sullivan

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Denver Sustainable Restaurants Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Firefly dining room (photo courtesy of firefly-dc.com)

Breaking Down the Dish is a feature of the D.C Sustainable Food column in which we highlight a single dish from a local restaurant, and investigate the inspiration and local/regional producers behind it.

This week’s Breaking Down the Dish:

Firefly - Roasted Organic Chicken with Medjool Date Stuffing, Swiss Chard and Brown Butter Turnips
 

Just south of Dupont Circle, Firefly has become a mainstay in the D.C. restaurant scene and a leader in the farm-to-table movement taking off in the region and around the country.

Executive Chef  Daniel Bortnick (born and raised in Rockville, Maryland) has seen the sustainable food movement grow exponentially in recent years.

"The Internet, the accessibility of information has led to people really getting to know the folks behind these hundreds of local, small family farms."

Firefly's menu emphasizes "contemporary American comfort food made with local ingredients," and provides a list of local producers at the bottom of its menu.

Chef Bortnick pays a great deal of importance to educating his staff about the sustainable principles the restaurant employs, but doesn't feel the need to over communicate the restaurant's eco-conscious ethos.

"We’re happy to educate customers about it if they inquire" Chef Bortnick said. "But in the end, it’s not about getting business because you do it - it’s about doing it because you believe in it.’

Firefly's roasted chicken dish is one of D.C.'s best. The chicken is incredibly flavorful and moist; it's skin crispy; the seasoning balancing well against the sweetness of the dates and the savory richness of the turnips in brown butter.

Beyond the dish itself, Firefly's use of local, sustainable and organic products should make it a "must try" on your list this restaurant week, and in the future.

Organic chicken: (Eberly Poulty, Pennsylvania)

• It's very important to use organic chickens," Chef Bortnick said. "I really like that I can see first hand what they’re doing, what they're feeding the chickens, and how they're treated."
  
  This dish uses a half chicken with the bone, leg and wing removed, leaving the breast and thigh. They then brine it, wrap it in caul fat to keep it closed, and the stuffing inside, without having to tie it. The caul fat melts away and also keeps the chicken moist during cooking.
  
  Firefly breaks down its chickens in house and uses the entire bird in various parts of the menu.  The legs and wings are prepared for the staff meal, they use carcasses to make stock for the matzah ball soup, the chicken livers for the chopped chicken liver appetizer, all fat is saved, and they confit  some of the chicken thighs with the leftover fat for the chicken pot pit. Firefly uses some of the breasts in their Cobb salad, and, at the very end, they compost any remnants of the bird.

            Eberly Poulty - where to buy?
 

Medjool date stuffing

• Bread (made from house-made hamburger buns), mire poix, Medjool dates dates and chicken stock

Swiss chard ( Tuscarora Organic Growers, Pennsylvania )

• Sautéed in garlic, salt and pepper, olive oil and vegetable stock.

Baby gold ball turnips ( Tuscarora Organic Growers, Pennsylvania )

• Finished with a sage brown butter.

To get a closer look at the chicken dish and Firefly's other menu items, go here.

Firefly Executive Chef
Daniel Bortnick

Firefly
Address:
1310 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: 202.861.1310
Fax: 202.293.2476