fork this

My City Kitchen

2011-08-31T10:33:00.000-04:00

While looking for my first apartment in New York City, one of the many brokers I met offered the following pearl of wisdom:

There are three real factors to consider when choosing your apartment and you will have to sacrifice at least one: price, size or location.

He obviously didn't know me at all or he would have included "The Kitchen." City kitchens are often tiny, cramped spaces with undersized appliances and poor lighting. Counter space? Why bother? I was amazed at what was sacrificed in order to make more room for the rest of the apartment. One place I saw had a tiny corner with a sink, 2 burner stove and single cabinet. The refrigerator was 4 1/2 feet high by 2 feet wide and was tucked into the closet outside the bathroom.

How do you make magic happen in a kitchen like that? The kitchen should be the place where everyone congregates at parties. Where affectionate hugs and great conversations just happen. Where serendipity or creativity lead to new culinary inventions! I wanted all these things to happen in my kitchen. I wanted room to chop and mix and knead!

After a long search, I moved into a 400 square foot studio with my boyfriend for an outlandish price. We didn't know it at the time, but the location turned out to be good. My kitchen, however, was great considering what I was up against. It was a cute little L shape with lots of cabinets and space above them for storage. I painted the ceiling and trim blue and brown. I added a freestanding cabinet (not pictured,) which gave me even more storage and another work surface. I lined up all my cookbooks in a row, next to the few bottles of booze that made up my home bar. There was still room for my red stockpot and dutch oven, plus my collection of Saveur & Gourmet magazines. The microwave fit on top of the fridge with room for a large roasting pan and wok to go on top. The spice rack went up over the stove - which was convenient, but for the record, is not the best place for spices because of the heat!

We lived in that apartment for two years. I made cola-glazed ham for Easter and a startlingly perfect turkey for Thanksgiving - think Norman Rockwell. For my boyfriend's birthday, I made his favorite dessert from scratch: chocolate cream pie. I learned how to poach the perfect egg. We squeezed our friends around our table for dinner parties and sat for leisurely brunches with the crossword puzzle and the cat. In the end, the apartment was just too small, but I did love my kitchen. Everything had it's place, and nothing was out of reach.

The great thing about living in a big city and squeezing yourself into a tiny apartment kitchen is that you are forced to be innovative with your space. I am always amazed at what people do to make their kitchens workable. If you have a city kitchen you want to share, or know of one, please send an email and let me know about it!

The 6th Annual Great Hot Dog Cookoff - A Doggone good time

2011-08-10T10:00:00.002-04:00

Unbelievable!

photo by Wendy Ploger

We totally rocked it again this year! Despite the sweltering heat and humidity, twenty-one chefs, five fancy judges, more than fifty volunteers and almost six hundred (!) hungry hot dog lovers came out to Kelso Beer Company for the 6th Annual Great Hot Dog Cookoff!

I have to admit, I had my doubts that it was going to work. As a co-organizer for the third year in a row, I was sweating it - literally. The temperature on the forecast for our set-in-stone event date kept rising and the whole week leading up was hotter than heck. There were severe weather alerts advising against prolonged exposure outside. And we were asking our chefs to yes, please come outside and oh, by the way, stand next to a six-foot grill filled with hot coals all day.

We had conference calls. We brainstormed. We bought a sprinkler and crossed our fingers. How would we make our goal for our charity? Would the oppressive heat keep people away? Apparently not, because as the big day approached, the tickets kept selling.

On the morning of the cook-off, slathered in sunscreen, I arrived on the street in front of the brewery ready to make the best of it. As the volunteers began to arrive, I noticed...a nice breeze! And shade! This isn't going to be so bad, I thought. Now if only everyone shows up...

I'll just cut to the chase and say, Hooray! You did show up! You did drink and eat hot dogs and laugh and dance in the street - and then you ate more hot dogs! You had smiles on your faces all day and you definitely didn't pass out from heat stroke! You ran through our sprinkler! You sampled ice cream and soda and condiments! It was awesome.

What can I say about the chefs? My amazing chefs! This year the bar was raised. These people put thought and care and creativity into their work and then executed on-site to delicious results. Plus, they showed up! My eternal thanks.

photo by Wendy Ploger

Our expert judges had a lot of tough choices to make, but this group knows hot dogs for sure. We had butchers Sara Bigelow from The Meat Hook and T.J. Burnham from Marlow & Daughters, Rich Crosby of Bark Hot Dogs, Pnina Peled, a chef and Chopped champion, and Scott Gold, food writer and author of The Shameless Carnivore. Trust me, this groups knows a thing or two about hot dogs.

photo by Wendy Ploger

It wouldn't be TGHDCO without our charming and entertaining MC, George Duran, and our amazing DJ - Rabbi Darkside. The two had the crowd laughing and dancing all day.

photo by Wendy Ploger

Of course we couldn't have done it without our amazing group of volunteers and sponsors - both our loyal friends from previous years and our new friends who volunteer with the Food Bank for New York City. Again, props for just being there, and kudos for the hard work. (By the way, that's my mom in the hat. Thanks for coming, mom!)

photo by Wendy Ploger

Please remember to visit our sponsors and try their products - you won't be disappointed. Kelso served up thirst-quenching beers all day, Applegate provided their aptly named Great Organic Hot Dogs, Sodastream and P&H Soda teamed up again to offer sodas and there was ice cream from SoCo Creamery. Folks enjoyed samples from our condiment crew: My Friend's Mustard, Sol Sauce and Rick's Picks. Lovely raffle items and prizes came from: Wustof, Le Creuset, Bulldog Gin, The Brooklyn Kitchen, Illy Coffee, Crif Dogs and Olivino Wines.

Did I mention that we raised $12,000 for the Food Bank? That's right - all the hard work and contributions of the chefs, volunteers, sponsors and organizers go towards our goal of supporting organizations that work locally to combat hunger and provide nutrition education and advocacy for the food impoverished. We weren't sure we'd hit our goal, but we did - more than double from the previous year! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

photo by Wendy Ploger

We come together once a year for the love of hot dogs, beer, music, fun and fundraising, of course, but there's also the element of competition. Our chefs all concocted amazing hot dogs, but at the end of the day, some tough decisions had to be made. So here are this year's ribbon winners, but of course you are all winners in my recipe book!

Judge's Awards:
Blue Ribbon (Best in Show): You're Going to Need a Bigger Boat - David & Danielle Estorino
Red Ribbon (2nd Place): The Dustin Dog - Tailgate Joe & Sal Caluccio
Yellow Ribbon (3rd Place): The 8 Fat Fat 8 Lucky Dog

Audience Awards:
Blue Ribbon (Top Dog): Southwest Harlem Corn Dog - Adam Nalawajek & Carolyn Gamanos
Red Ribbon (2nd Place): Seoul Thriller - Sung Lee & David Kim
Yellow Ribbon (3rd Place): Zia Dog - Marcos Salazar & Paul Smalera

Here are photos and write-ups to keep you busy for a while. Are there any pics of you? Are you dancing? Running through a sprinkler? Shoving a hot dog in your face? Awesome! Thanks for coming and see you next year!

The Great Hot Dog Cookoff on Facebook
The Great Hot Dog Cookoff Official Photographer - Wendy Ploger
NYT - The Local
Donuts 4 Dinner
Brooklynauts
The Hot Dog I Ate
Local Bozo
Kelso's Cookoff Video
The Brooklyn Paper
Brooklyn Exposed

Rhubarb & Ginger Sparkler

2011-08-03T08:30:00.008-04:00

I've been thinking a lot about homemade soda lately. I happen to own a SodaStream - a simple device for making fizzy water at home. Of course, you can add more than lemon to your home-bubbled H2O like we did at the Hot Dog Cookoff using P&H's delicious and natural soda syrups in Ginger, Lime, Hibiscus and Cream flavors.

It's also easy to make your own flavored syrups. Dave (of Dave's Kitchen) has a good post about using summer berries here.

I was inspired to make a rhubarb and ginger syrup after getting a bunch of rhubarb in my CSA share. I had a bottle of Bulldog gin just begging to be made into a stiff summer drink, so it was an obvious pairing.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Rhubarb's come and gone already. Well, you are mostly right, but I actually saw it for sale this week at The Garden in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Plus, some of you, like me, might have some tucked away in the freezer. Rather than save this recipe for next June, here it is now - feel free to adapt it to by subbing in a more seasonally-appropriate fruit - how about a peach & ginger syrup that you mix with Bourbon? Yum!

Rhubarb Ginger Syrup
Makes about 2 cups
2 cups chopped rhubarb
1 cup sugar
6-7 1/8" slices of ginger
1 1/2 cups water

Put all ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until rhubarb is very soft, about 25 minutes. Allow to cool for a bit, then strain through a fine mesh sieve into a clean glass jar or bowl, pressing on the solids to extract as much liquid as possible.

You can save the the rhubarb solids to use like jam (seriously - spread that jam on hot buttered toast!!) or mix into yogurt - just be sure to pick out the ginger.

For the sparklers:
Pour about 2 ounces of syrup into a glass with ice, add fizzy water and a twist of lemon. Taste, add more syrup if you like it sweeter.

Boozers:
You know what to do. Add a jigger of gin or vodka to the sparkler above for a grown-up drink. Enjoy!

Orzo, Feta & Kalamata Salad

2011-07-25T09:00:00.001-04:00

I want to pretend that I made this refreshing pasta salad myself on Sunday, but the truth is that I was hung over and sunburned from the previous day’s festivities at The Great Hot Dog Cook-Off. The thought of another hot dog, or for that matter anything actually hot, set my stomach churning. My roommate came to my rescue with this delicious Greek inspired pasta salad.

By the way, don’t confuse orzo’s fun shape for rice. It’s really pasta. The word orzo means barley in Italian. In the United States, though, it’s pasta. Are we clear, here? It’s shaped like rice and means barley, but it’s pasta. Ok. Moving on: this is a quick and easy salad that is infinitely variable. Use good kalamata olives and feta and throw in some veggies along with a basic vinaigrette. My roommate used roasted red peppers, red onions and spinach, but tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, fresh bell peppers or scallions would have been great, too.

Orzo, Feta & Kalamata Olive Salad
recipe by Kristine Goldy

1/2 lb orzo
1 cup kalamata olives, coarsely chopped
1 cup chopped spinach
1/2 red onion, diced
1 roasted red pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
juice of one lemon
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

Cook the orzo in salted boiling water until just tender, drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking. Add olives, spinach, onion, red pepper, garlic and feta. Combine olive oil, lemon juice and vinegar separately, then toss all ingredients together. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Chill for an hour to blend the flavors.

The Great Hot Dog Cookoff Returns!!

2011-07-06T09:30:00.003-04:00

Think you've seen all that a hot dog can be? Think again. The Great Hot Dog Cookoff at Kelso Brewing Company on July 23rd will showcase 24 amateur chefs serving up their most inventive versions of this iconic American treat. No dirty water dogs here - instead expect creative topping combinations inspired by ethnic cuisine like Korean or Caribbean, and unusual buns or no buns at all, like 2009's hot dog ravioli.

Early reports indicate that there will also be a lot of hot dogs arriving "in the style of" other foods. Not to give anything away, but we're talking inventions like "pizza dogs" - maybe the wiener is wrapped and grilled with pepperoni then served with marinara sauce and mozzarella on an Italian hero. I just made that up, but doesn't sound bad, right? Expect much better, because the chefs this year are going to blow your mind with their hot dog masterpieces.

You'll need something to wash down all those hot dogs you're stuffing your face with and Kelso Beer Company will keep the suds flowing along with pop made on-site by P&H Soda using SodaStream. Try locally made condiments by My Friend's Mustard, Rick's Picks and more, and don't forget dessert: SoCo Creamery will be dishing out samples of their amazing ice cream.

George Duran, hot dog-lover and host of TLC's Ultimate Cake-Off, will MC the event, while DJ Rabbi Darkside spins sweet summertime tunes. Even in broad daylight, this annual cookoff has turned into a dance party by the end of the afternoon on several occasions, so bring your I-just-might-dance-even-though-I'm-totally-stuffed shoes.

Best of all, the event is a fundraiser for the Food Bank for New York City. Each ticket entitles the bearer to an afternoon of hot dogs and beer, great music and a chance to vote for their favorite in the Audience Award category. All proceeds from ticket sales after expenses go to the charity, so you can feel good about helping fight hunger while eating great food and drinking great beer!

Did I mention that Applegate Farms is sponsoring the hot dogs this year?! Amazing! They're organic and they taste great!

Tickets are going fast - grab 'em here: TICKETS

The Great Hot Dog Cookoff
July 23rd @ 2 pm
Kelso Beer Company
529 Waverly Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11238

Grilled Chicken Legs - Cheap & Tasty

2011-07-01T08:00:00.002-04:00

I have a produce problem. I know I'm not alone. I go overboard at the farmer's market or grocery store, buying more than I can eat before some of it goes bad. It looks so good, sitting there being all healthy and fresh. I want to take it home with me. There's always a plan for each handful of snap peas or pint of berries, but inevitably some lovely recipe doesn't get made and the innocent veggie ends up in the trash.

In an attempt to control my produce habit, I steeled myself before entering Trader Joe's on my last trip and swore to leave with only my TJ standards - (frozen berries for morning smoothies, flax seeds/oil, unsweetened cranberry juice, stevia) and meat. I wasn't sure what was at home in the vegetable drawer, but I knew that to satisfy my urge to buy, I needed to point myself towards proteins.

I skipped the relatively expensive steaks and tenderloins and found a package of organic chicken legs. I know it's not the prettiest thing to look at, but the proof is on the label: 1.7 pounds of legs for $3.36! Plus, TJ's claims that these are free-range and raised without antibiotics.

Back at home, I decided to cook the chicken on my gas grill. I also have a charcoal grill, but for legs, the gas grill works really well because of the longer cooking time. I made up an easy spice paste and slathered it all over the legs and under the skin.

While the chicken cooked, I went to the vegetable drawer on a rescue mission. I found bibb lettuce, red pepper and scallions and put together a big side salad. Once the legs were charred to perfection, I sat down to a simple but satisfying weekday supper. The two legs I ate cost about $1.50 and the salad was money already spent that wasn't going to waste. (Maybe about another $2.50 worth of food.) Overall, a lot of flavor without breaking the bank and the satisfaction of using up some of my produce.

Recipe: Grilled Chicken Legs with Spice Paste

For the spice paste:
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon cayenne (add more if you like it spicy)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 1/2 - 2 pounds chicken legs with skin
Lemon wedges for serving

Preheat grill with all burners on.

Mix up all ingredients for spice paste and rub over chicken legs and under skin. Refrigerate until grill is ready.

Turn one side of grill off completely. Arrange legs on cooler side of grill and close the lid. Leave for 10-15 minutes, then turn each leg over. Close and cook for another 5 minutes. Move chicken to hot side and grill until nicely browned on all sides, about 4-5 more minutes. Be sure to keep an eye on the chicken while browning - move it out of flare-ups and keep turning frequently. Serve with lemon wedges and something green and fresh.

Bad kitty!!

2011-06-16T15:41:00.000-04:00

Two great things that go great together: Popcorn & kittens!

From my new fav ~~time killer~~ tumblr blog: Cats. Where they do not belong.

Garlic Scape & Goat Cheese Crostini

2011-06-13T09:30:00.009-04:00

Garlic scapes are at the farmer's markets right now and they are a pungent little slice of heaven. You can saute them in olive oil, add them to stir fries or process them raw into a pesto. I picked up a handful at the Union Square Greenmarket to make into the topping for these crostini. I also found fresh peas which I thought would be a nice way to slightly cut the garlic intensity and picked up some goat cheese from Lynnhaven Farms. A bottle of roasted red peppers and a baguette from Whole Foods (I was too late to score any at the market - dang!) and I was all set to make my crostini.

Garlic Scape & Goat Cheese Crostini

For the topping:
3/4 cup garlic scapes, diced
1 cup shelled peas
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

For the crostini:
1 baguette, sliced diagonally to 1/2" thickness
olive oil for brushing on the sliced bread
8 - 10 oz. goat cheese
3-4 roasted red peppers, rinsed, patted dry and cut into strips

Lightly saute the garlic scapes and peas in butter until softened. Transfer to the bowl of food processor. Blend the scapes, peas, 1/4 cup of olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper until fairly smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Brush each slice of bread with olive oil and grill or toast under the broiler until lightly browned. When cool, spread with goat cheese, then top with the garlic scape and pea mixture. Lay a few strips of roasted red pepper across the top of each. Sprinkle with sea salt & ground pepper.

Tasty Licks Barbecue - A fork this field trip

2011-06-01T21:57:00.002-04:00

Some hot sauces are intended for a mature audience only.

People are passionate about the food they love, and barbecue enthusiasts are an especially excitable bunch. Upon meeting Fred of Tasty Licks Barbecue Company, it was apparent that I was in the presence of a True Believer. His barbecue supply emporium is impressive not just for the quantity of stocked items but for the breadth he manages to cover in a relatively small space. Rows and rows of hot sauce are flanked by grills of multiple types. Peppers hang to dry in the front window and bags of imported Italian flour line the shelves in back, along with pizza stones and peels. One row over are the the wood chips, chunks and planks. There are 'cueing tools, turkey fryers, rib racks and beer can chicken roasters.

Fred sells his own products, too, including barbecue sauce, rubs and seasonings. I grabbed a bottle of his Secret Sauce - Sweet & Tangy Barbecue.

But wait - head towards the back of the store and hang a left - oops - now you're in Fred's Music Store! That's right, it's not just a clever name - Fred, or "the smokin' guitar player" is also a music dude! It's a pretty cool store and definitely unique - which might just be our favorite thing about it.

Nah, it's Fred.

If you can't make it to Shillington, PA for a visit - which I do recommend - check out Tasty Licks online store - you can order just about anything barbecue related from their site.

Fred and I had to get a pick together:

Silly.

Fred's Music and Barbecue Supply

212-214 W. Lancaster Ave.

Shillington, PA 19607

800-677-2882

www.fredsmusicandbbq.com

Vegan Black Metal Chef makes Pad Thai

2011-05-11T12:17:00.001-04:00

Who says Fork This doesn't support the vegans? I made them a pie and everything! And today I saw a tweet about this vegan instructional cooking video and had to check it out. Confession: I watched the whole thing. It's long, it's pad thai and it's totally metal! My favorite part happens right around mile marker 5:15. Enjoy!

Blueberry & Pecan Chewy Granola Bars

2011-05-05T12:46:00.001-04:00

Did you know that you can make your very own granola bars at home? Not those hard, baked ones, either. You can make chewy, gooey, any-kind-of-filling-you-like granola bars any ol' day of the week. I whipped up this batch using dried wild blueberries (from Trader Joe's) and toasted pecans. Stored in an air-tight container, they will keep for longer than you'll have them around. And guess what? With just a little effort to seek out the right products, you can make them gluten-free. Substitute agave syrup for the honey and shazam! Vegan!

Stupid Easy Blueberry & Pecan Chewy Granola Bars
recipe adapted by Jennie Gustafson from a recipe by Alana Elliott of Nonuttin' Foods. Please note: our adapted recipe is not allergen-free.

Makes 16 4"x1" bars

1 3/4 cups quick-cooking oatmeal
1 1/4 cups crisp-rice cereal
1/4 cup toasted chopped pecans (toast in a dry skillet over medium heat for 4-5 minutes until lightly browned, allow to cool and coarsely chop)
1/4 cup dried blueberries
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup honey

Mix together the oatmeal, cereal, pecans and blueberries in a large bowl and set aside.

Combine the brown sugar, oil and honey in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Cook until sugar is dissolved, stirring frequently.

Add liquid to oatmeal mixture and stir well to thoroughly coat and combine all the ingredients. Pour mixture into an 8"x8" pan, lined with parchment or wax paper. Press down into an even layer. You can a use an extra piece of parchment over the top and press gently with the bottom of measuring cup or the side of a coffee cup. Use your fingers to get into the corners. Allow to cool to room temperature, then lift out of the pan and onto a cutting surface. Cut into 16 4"x1" bars - or whatever shape you like. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.

≤15% - a delivery man gets revenge on bad tippers

2011-05-03T16:34:00.000-04:00

The never-ending debate about tipping gains a new platform over at Gawker-noted blog 15percent.tumblr.com. A 20-year-old bike delivery guy started posting pics of receipts from crappy tippers as a way to out the worst of the worst.

The biggest offenders? Film/TV productions or company lunch orders - one snapshot shows a bill for nearly $90 with a $3 tip. Ouch!

I have to admit, I've always thought that tipping on deliveries required a lower percentage than in a restaurant. But this guy makes some good points and the comments (with his responses) are keeping things interesting.

Some folks have complained that they shouldn't have to tip a delivery person for just doing their job. Seems legit, right? But many people don't realize that tipped positions in the service industry are often paid less than the standard minimum wage - there's actually a separate tipped minimum that can be as low as $2.13 per hour! The expectation is that the employee's tips will bring them up to at least the standard minimum wage. How lame is that? The restaurant gets to keep it's profits by having customers pay it's labor costs. So maybe tipping isn't optional, since New York has a "tipped minimum."

My biggest take-away from perusing the posts on ≤15% was this: tip your delivery driver well, especially in bad weather, because he or she will remember if you don't!!

I love you, olive oil.

2011-04-25T16:48:00.001-04:00

I had a revelation last week while sitting down to my regular lunch salad. I was spooning out olive oil from a plastic portion cup that I'd filled upstairs in the company cafeteria when I thought to myself, "I should bring in my own olive oil." It was that simple. For some reason it had never occurred to me to buy a nice tasting olive oil and keep it at my desk. Duh.

On Saturday morning, I found myself at The Garden, a food market in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. I needed to pick up some grainy mustard for my braised Easter rabbit and right next to the mustards was a lovely selection of oils. I scanned the shelves and picked one based on it's size (small,) it's price (affordable,) and it's container (convenient.) I liked that it came in a tin, but just 500 ml not a giant 5 liter size. It was a Sicilian olive oil and the tin specifically mentioned that it was "Top Quality" and would have a "Fruity Taste."

Perfect.

When I sat down with my salad today for lunch, I reached for my tin of Partanna Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I popped up the plastic pour spout and drizzled a reasonable amount over my salad of kale, parsley, bibb lettuce, orange bell peppers, kalamata olives and sliced steak. The nozzle of the pour spout let out only a thin, controlled stream of oil and didn't drip! I keep kosher salt and a mini pepper grinder at my desk so I seasoned my salad with both of those and then took the first bite. Yum! Fruity, grassy and herbaceous - it was a huge improvement over the dull, vaguely olive-flavored oil I'd been getting from the cafeteria.

I did a quick Google search, but didn't find much about Partanna other than where to buy it. Then I went to their website, which was in Italian. I hit the Translate button, and here, for your enjoyment, is a little snippet of what I found:

Twelve reasons to use olive oil
Do not make you fat, it helps the harmonious development of children, facilitates the intestinal absorption of vitamins, aids digestion and regulates the amount of cholesterol in the blood.These are just some of the properties of olive oil, the 'king of the Mediterranean diet.

If you're interested, the full 12 reasons are listed here.

Out to Lunch: Cha Pa's

2011-04-20T11:19:00.003-04:00

I'm always on the lookout for phở joints in New York City. So when I heard about Cha Pa's opening in my work neighborhood, I put it on my lunchtime to-do list. A good bowl of phở within walking distance of my office would be a great find.

I asked Leila from our e-Strategy group to come along. I don't know her that well, but she's a winker and I like that. Wink, wink!

Before I started pushing my agenda, I asked her if she had any favorite places for lunch. She turned the question back to me, and when I mentioned that I usually go out for Asian food she jumped all over it. She said she basically has never had Vietnamese and very little Thai food. Her only experience with Asian is Chinese food - which of course, is everywhere in NYC, but usually of questionable quality.

So Cha Pa's was on. We had a little wait for a table, and then we got down to business. A Tasting Table email had mentioned a rich Vietnamese stew, bo kho, at the affordable price of $4.25 for an appetizer-sized bowl. We also found banh mi on the menu, so the trifecta was complete: my standby - phở, a treat - banh mi, and the bonus of something new to try - the beef stew. We agreed to split everything.

I decided to break my no caffeine after noon rule and ordered us each a ca phe sua da - literally translated: big glass of coffee deliciousness. Actually, it's a French-style drip of strong coffee over condensed milk, which you stir up and pour over ice. Yay, culinary colonialism!

The stew arrived. You know how you book an amazing hotel for your vacation and then you show up and it's kind of a shithole? Yeah, the stew didn't look anything like the photos in the brochure. It was actually pretty tasty, but very greasy and not nearly as rich and luxurious as advertised. Or maybe Tasting Table just went on a better day?

The phở arrived. We had asked for an extra bowl, but some considerate cook did us a favor and split the order into two separate servings. I appreciate this, because it would have been kind of a pain in the ass to try to split up all the noodles and meat. A bowl of phở is a personal experience - you start with the same base of noodles, broth and meat, but add in sprouts, basil, hoisin, chili sauce and lime to your liking. Detailed phở-eating info here. Cha Pa's had a nicely flavored broth and the noodles were a good thickness and cooked just right: still slightly firm when served so they didn't end up mushy by the end. In this photo I haven't added anything yet or stirred up the noodles:

Did I mention that we also ordered a banh mi? It was pretty good, but we were both getting full. Leila really loved the phở and the meal in general - success!

Over lunch I pestered Leila with lots of questions. Here's what I learned about my co-worker that I didn't know: She moved to New York from the Dominican Republic 10 years ago with her husband Emmanuel and her daughter, Maria, who is about to turn 12. They live in the Kingsbridge neighborhood in the Bronx. Leila likes to cook at home, and she usually makes things like chicken, beans and rice, plantains, salads and vegetables. She told me that she often uses a pilón - basically a mortar and pestle - to mash up garlic with salt and oregano for flavoring meat. You can also use it to mash green plantains for mofongo, the pork and plantain dish from Puerto Rico. Fun!

Thanks for a nice lunch, Leila!

Cha Pa's Noodles & Grill
314 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019
212.956.9300
www.chapasnyc.com

Two-Week Detox Diet: I made it!

2011-04-04T10:00:00.000-04:00

Whew.

I made it through the wilderness... Somehow I made it through-oo-oo!

That's right, as of today, my two-week detox, cleanse, diet, plan, whatshamacallit is officially complete. I needed to do this because I've been on an eating bender. Imagine that - a food lover loves to eat food. A lot. I wish I was one of those high-metabolism, skinny foodie girls who seem to be able to eat and eat and never gain a pound. Just doesn't seem fair, but I am what I am. If I want to sample all the glorious food this world has to offer, I have to work at staying, well, not gigantic. I'll never be thin - I've just got the wrong genetic makeup.

By the way, I lost 8 pounds! Hip-hip-hooray! I know, it's easy to take off the first 10, but still, let's celebrate life's small victories. Those 8 were making it hard to button my jeans. Today? Jeans buttoned. They're big jeans, but goddamn it, they're buttoned.

The detox diet is something I've done in varying versions before. In 2008, I did a very strict two week "Fat Flush" from a book my mom gave me about detoxing the liver and lymphatic system, a side effect of which happened to be weight loss. Nice, felt healthy, too, not just low-cal. Even earlier, I tried a 5-day detox that nearly killed me - in addition to the usual suspects, I completely gave up both salt and caffeine. If you are addicted to caffeine I don't recommend going cold turkey. The two-day migraine was almost unbearable. And I didn't have my other best friend, salt, to comfort me! In fact, my diet was supposed to be 7 days, but I couldn't imagine foregoing coffee on the weekend. I hope that I never face a life-threatening need to give up my morning joe. After quitting cigarettes, can't I at least have this one vice? Thanks.

For this iteration of my semi-annual detox, I went with a version of the Fat Flush Plan that I did in 2008, but modified to allow me to a.) continue my 4 days/week workouts and b.) didn't drive me crazy with denial. You can do anything for a limited amount of time, right? Wrong. See above under "caffeine addict." So I modified my plan to ensure success. Here's a partial list of my self-imposed "dos and don'ts":

*no sugar
*no dairy
*no alcohol (my cheat here was red wine - I had one glass on each of the two weekends)
*no wheat, potatoes, corn or rice
*no beans
*minimal salt & olive oil
*yes flax oil
*yes unlimited veggies
*yes lean proteins
*limited eggs
*tofu once/week
*per day: 1 cup of 100% cranberry juice diluted into two liters of water, sweetened with stevia
*2 servings of fruit/day

Does this seem sort of intimidating? It's a lot of work, but I never felt starved. I did have some carb cravings around the middle of the second week, so I satisfied the urge by treating myself to some oven-baked sweet potato fries and that did the trick.

Daily meal plan and recipes after the break:

My weekday ritual went like this:

Breakfast: frozen berry smoothie (recipe below)

Lunch: Salad w/lean protein - usually some combo of greens, yellow or red bell peppers, cucumbers, red onion, a few sliced olives and fresh parsley or dill. The protein was usually either tuna or left-over chicken breast or steak and I'd dress the whole thing with a quick drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.

Dinner: Some favorites: Spaghetti squash with ground turkey pasta sauce, homemade chicken & vegetable soup, stir-fried chicken and bok choy, lamb burger lettuce wraps, steak w/sauteed mushrooms and onions

Snacks/dessert: usually an assortment of dried fruits from Trader Joe's like white peaches, mangoes, apricots, raisins, or apples

On the weekends, I skipped the morning smoothie and made eggs - the first weekend I just did some scrambles with mostly whites and veggies. The second weekend I made a hash with diced sweet potatoes, sauteed greens, onions and mushrooms and topped it all with poached eggs.

Here are a few recipes that worked for me. Most were really tasty, but also versatile - leftover steak from dinner went into my lunch salad the next day, or roasted chicken became soup.

Breakfast Berry Smoothie (from the Fat Flush cookbook/detox plan thingy)
I make this at night and store it in a mason jar to take with me to work the next day. I'm not a morning person, so the less I have to do before heading out the better. The smoothie will settle overnight. Just shake it up again.

1 cup cranberry water (see above for dilution ratio)
1 cup frozen berries (I typically use a mix of strawberry, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries)
1 scoop protein powder (vanilla or strawberry)
A dash of stevia powder
1 tablespoon flax oil
Blend all the ingredients in a blender until smooth.

Lamb Burger Lettuce Wraps
I bought my ground lamb at the McCarren Park Greenmarket. It was a bit fattier than what I used to get at Steve's C-Town in Park Slope, i.e. even more delicious. I like to go with Middle Eastern flavors for lamb and just sort of wing it on the quantities. After I mix it up, I fry a tiny little burger to check the seasoning and adjust as necessary. Plus, that little guy is cute!
Makes about 4 burgers

For the burgers:
1 lb. or package ground lamb
1 egg
onion, finely diced (about a 1/2 cup)
garlic powder
onion powder
ground cumin
ground coriander
cayenne pepper
salt - just a little

For the wraps:
butter or leaf lettuce - washed, dried and divided into leaves
red onion, thinly sliced
dill pickles, thinly sliced
Dijon mustard

Combine lamb, egg, diced onion and spices in a large bowl and mix with your hands until blended. Heat a large cast iron or heavy-bottomed frying pan over medium heat. Shape a tablespoon of the lamb mixture into a small patty and fry until browned on both sides. Eat this mini-burger to test for seasoning and adjust the rest of the mixture as needed. Shape into approximately four patties. Fry patties in the pan to desired doneness, about 4-6 minutes per side.

To serve: I put a burger on my plate next to a pile of lettuce leaves, red onion, pickles and a dollop of mustard. Then I just throw a bit of each into a lettuce leaf and chow down. It's a bit messy. You can substitute or add other fillings, of course: tomato, avocado, scallions, mushrooms, etc..

Quick and Easy Chicken Soup
I picked up this chicken the same day as the lamb at the Greenmarket. I could see that it still had the skin, but didn't realize it had been de-boned. Either one should work for this recipe.

4 cups low-sodium chicken stock, or homemade
1 skin-on chicken breast (bone-in okay)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
cayenne pepper
salt - just a little
1 cup hearty greens (kale, chard, mustard greens) or bok choy, chopped into thin strips (optional)
1/2 - 1 cup whole canned tomatoes (or diced)

Cook the chicken stock and chicken breast in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. If the stock starts to boil, reduce the heat so it comes to an even simmer. While the chicken cooks, dice up your veggies. After about 10-12 minutes, check the breast by cutting into the thickest part with a paring knife. If it still looks underdone, throw it back in for a few more minutes. When done, remove the chicken and allow it to cool. Add the garlic, onion, celery, carrot, cayenne pepper and salt to the broth and bring it back up to a good simmer. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove and discard the skin. Shred it into bite-sided pieces with your fingers and return to the pot. Add the tomatoes, breaking apart over the pot with your fingers, if using whole. I tend to use closer to a cup, but use as many as you like. Add the hearty greens if using and cook until tender, about five more minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired. You could add in some chopped fresh parsley or thyme, or a squeeze of lemon juice to brighten the flavors.

Out to Lunch: Joe's Shanghai, Midtown

2011-03-10T14:14:00.015-05:00

There's something about the chaos of Manhattan's Chinatown that I find both exhilarating and maddening. You have to fight your way through the Canal Street crowds, hold your breath past the fish stalls and side-step the knock-off vendors. For your troubles, you can reward yourself with a hot bowl of pho or a fresh banh mi, a heaping take-out container of bbq pork, a whole Peking duck or a plate full of hand-pulled noodles. Joe's Shanghai on narrow, curvy Pell Street is a restaurant worth the trip off Canal and the wait for a seat at a large, round communal table. It's bright, bustling and noisy - but you've staked out your space and it's time for a cheap, satisfying and tasty meal.

Does the intensity of the location add to the experience? I'm going to have to say yes. While I was excited to discover the Joe's Shanghai in midtown near my office, I just couldn't imagine that it would be as fun as the one in Chinatown. On my first visit, not only was the environment disappointing - it was dark, quiet and empty - but my soup dumplings arrived as sad, deflated sacks - the rich, salty broth had boiled out from overcooking. They were still tasty, but they were just steamed dumplings with dense pork.

I didn't write off the place for one bad batch, but it took me a while to go back. Chinese New Year rolled around, and I had dumplings on my mind. I asked around the office, but no one was up for it. I was especially surprised by my co-worker Ryan, who was definitely not interested in dumplings or Chinese food at all. This shocked me. I mean, who doesn't like dumplings?? Take some form of dough, stuff it with a savory filling and boil, bake, fry or steam it to perfection. What's not to love? So I got it into my head that I had to get Ryan over to Joe's and feed him soup dumplings and blow his mind, like mine was the first time I had them.

Well, that didn't happen. Let's just cut to the chase. I did eventually convince Ryan to come out to lunch with me and another co-worker, Jen. We did go to Joe's and we did order the famous crab soup dumplings. I usually get the pork-only version - a habit left over from a minor seafood allergy that doesn't seem to bother me much anymore. (Can allergies go away?) The dumplings arrived fat and still nice and juicy. Ryan was a good sport and followed my instructions on how to place one carefully on the back of his spoon and poke a hole in the bottom with his chopstick and slurp up the broth. The flavor just wasn't that good - it was overly fishy and not very rich. The filling was okay, but could have used some ginger or scallions or something to cut it's uniform flavor and texture.

The big hits at the table were the scallion pancakes and the Singapore Mei Fun. The pancakes were crisp and hot with just the right amount of scallions and a good dipping sauce on the side. The Mei Fun was a great surprise because it's not something I'd usually order. Ryan jumped all over it because it was the one dish he knew he'd had before and liked. The waiter was unable to communicate what made the Singapore version different except to say that it would be spicy - which we knew thanks to the little chili pepper icon next to it on the menu. Okay, bring it on. The noodle dish arrived with a distinct yellow color and a familiar smell that I don't associate with Chinese food - curry! I could specifically taste turmeric and cumin and I'm pretty sure there were Szechuan peppercorns, because I got a little bit of that tingly, numb feeling in my mouth. We also had Kung Pao Chicken, which is a classic Szechuan dish, although most people associate it with Westernized Chinese food like General Tso's. This was somewhere in the middle, with a bit of heat and lots of bell peppers. I prefer water chestnuts in mine, but I've found that I usually have to make a special request to get them.

The restaurant was busier and bustlier than my previous visit and the waiter was equally as brusque as those at the Chinatown outpost. Still, it felt a bit like an island off the coast of the mainland - isolated from the sights, sounds and smells of Chinatown it just didn't deliver the same experience. I don't know if it would have made a difference to Ryan to go out to eat in the heart of it all, but he was obviously not convinced about dumplings. Then again, these dumplings were sub-par. Unfortunately, that's two strikes against the midtown location's version.

Despite my dumpling failure, lunch was a success. Ryan and Jen both work in the marketing department. Ryan is engaged to a deaf woman and is fluent in ASL. Jen got married last year and spent several weeks in India traveling with her husband. She mentioned that they like checking out new food carts and ethnic restaurants around town and off the beaten track. We talked about the recent changes at work due to layoffs and the crappy economy. We tried, but couldn't finish everything, so we waved down the waiter to get the check. We took the rest of the Mei Fun and Kung Pao with us, but left the dumplings behind.

Joe's Shanghai Midtown
24 W 56 Street
New York, New York 10019
(between 5th and 6th Aves)

A Very Special Supper Club... with Amanda Hesser

2011-03-06T21:59:00.017-05:00

Guess who came to dinner last Thursday night? Or maybe the title of the post gave it away?

Here's how it went down: Kara asked me to help out (as sous chef and stuff) at another Ted & Amy Supper Club and Amanda Hesser was our very special guest. Amanda recently published a little book of recipes you might have heard of - The Essential New York Times Cookbook. This weighty tome represents more than five years of Amanda's life spent sifting through and testing a century and a half of recipes published in the venerable New York Times to find the best of the best. And then we asked her to sift through all the recipes in the book to put together a menu for us to make for a group of strangers in Kara's home.

I'm going to confess that we were a teeny bit nervous cooking for Amanda. Not just because she's a Very Important Well Known Food Person, but also because these are recipes that she has made herself - that she edited and tested and will darn well know if they're not done right. On the other hand, we weren't nervous, because the point of the Ted & Amy Supper Club is less about showing off mad cooking skillz and more about bringing people together around a table in a casual and comfortable environment; the food would be good (at the very least!) and there would be a lot of wine, so everyone would be in good spirits.

Any concerns we may have had went out the window once she arrived. Amanda is charming and gracious. She wanted to know if we had any feedback on the recipes and was amazed at how calm and organized we were. We had the appetizers (stuffed fried olives, Florentine dip with crudités and Parmesan crackers) arranged in the living area and at the end of the long dining table, set for 14 guests with flowers and tea lights all along. Over by the kitchen, we had a bar area set up for the cocktail of the night - another recipe from Amanda's book, Gin Rickeys. The puntarelle for the salad course was soaking in cold water and the stew - braised beef in a tomato and herb sauce, was bubbling away on the stove. We were ready!

Once all the guests had arrived and had their rickey or glass of wine in hand, Kara introduced Amanda, who gave a brief run-through of the menu. I was pretty impressed that she knew the era and author for each recipe. I imagine that over the course of her research she must have immersed herself not only in the recipes, but also in the changing food culture and the personalities and quirks of the writers who came and went over the years. Later, I learned from her husband that Amanda had done all of the recipe testing for the book in their home kitchen, with just one assistant. Mind-boggling, really - did you see the size of that book?

After the formal introductions were out of the way, we started in on the appetizers and the rest of the evening was standard supper club schedule - lots of food and wine, good company and conversation. I'm afraid I revealed my lack of thorough knowledge of The New Yorker magazine while talking with Tad Friend, Amanda's husband and writer for same. He was very gracious, and listened to me blab on about blogging and watching Californication and other fun nonsense.

As usual, all the guests were fun and interesting and everyone seemed to have a good time. We finished the night with dessert served from the kitchen, so everyone could mingle again and maybe talk with someone who had been at the other end of the table.

In my opinion, the best recipes of the night were the apps and beef stew. Oh, those briny fried olives! And the Florentine dip is a more sophisticated version of your favorite, addictive packet-mixed-with-sour-cream dip. In the stew, the braised beef is fall-apart tender with a wine, tomato and herb sauce that you ladle over oven-broiled bread rubbed with fresh garlic. The bread softens in the sauce, but you get a taste of the garlic here and there - just enough to keep you searching around for more.

To make the recipes from our supper club, look for an upcoming post on The Local. Also, be sure to check out Amanda's cool site: Food52

Out to Lunch: Taam-Tov

2011-03-02T10:21:00.009-05:00

I barely leave my desk, much less my office, for lunch. I usually have some sort of salad and a bowl of "what I made to eat this week." Lately it's been Thai fried rice, made from the extra little cartons of white rice left over from Chinese delivery and whatever veggies/protein I have in the fridge. If I don't bring my lunch, there's always the cheap company-subsidized cafeteria in our building.

I don't often go out for three main reasons:

A. I'm cheap - calculate the cost of homemade food and you will totally reconsider that $10 salad or sandwich from your local deli chain store.

B. I'm trying to eat "healthier" which doesn't include the roast pork noodle soup or Five Guys burgers I end up scarfing down when I go out.

and 3. It takes too damn long and my boss sits in the cubicle right behind me and never, ever leaves for lunch.

The thing is, I love to go out to eat. I have long lists of places I want to try - garnered from blogs, books, foursquare, twitter and friends. New York is just brimming with amazing food from high brow to down and dirty. So I decided to start whittling away at my list on my lunch break - plus I need to get my ass out my desk chair and breathe some of that fresh NY air. Ahh...

To kill two birds with one stone, I thought it would be great to ask co-workers to come along. I barely know anyone I work with and there's nothing like breaking bread together to forge the bonds of friendship. After several weeks of work-related delays, I finally headed out with Rob, a Product Development Analyst who works a few rows down the cubicle farm from me in a different department. We decided to try Taam-Tov, a glatt kosher restaurant featuring dishes from in and around Bukhara, Uzbekistan and located in the Diamond District. What, you may ask, the hell does that mean? I had no idea, so off we went to find out.

Turns out (I'm geographically challenged so I had to look it up on Google maps) that Uzbekistan is firmly nestled in among the other 'stans you may be more familiar with, like Afghanistan and Pakistan to the south and Kazakhstan to the north. More 'stans on the east and west borders, too. This puts the food squarely into that unfamiliar-to-me category of Middle Eastern meets Asian. It seems that Bukhara has long had a population of Jews, hence the kosher angle. I wasn't sure what to expect, other than hummus and kebabs. I accidentally left the yellow sticky on which I'd scribbled a number of interweb-recommended dishes on my desk. Rob and I decided we could wing it, and headed down to 47th Street, where, amid a sea of sparkling diamonds, we found the entrance and climbed two flights of stairs to the bustling restaurant. A few minutes later we were seated and focused on the paper take-out-style English menu. The regular menus were either in Russian, Uzbek or Tajik, but I certainly couldn't tell which.

We ordered a good variety of dishes:

Samsa: A sesame topped dumpling stuffed with beef and well-cooked onions. Not bad, but a bit dry.

Manty: One source I found suggested that despite the filling being very similar to the samsa, it was worth it to get both. I really liked the manty - not the prettiest things to look at, but the filling was well seasoned, the wrapper was soft and not gummy and the cilantro on top added a fresh note that the samsa was missing.

Lamb rib kebabs: We wondered how ribs would be kebab'ed and were surprised to find that they had been cut into tiny, bone-in squares and threaded onto the somewhat scary metal skewers. These skewers are seriously heavy-metal! The lamb was salty, hot, fatty and smoky from the grill. I liked it, but fair warning - it was greasy and a bit gamey - in a good way. Oh, and the fries were awful. Yes, I still ate them, because they're fries, after all, but ugh. They were under-cooked and tasted like a freezer, not at all like the review I read that said they were well-crisped and thick-cut. Maybe they had run out of their regular potatoes and resorted to the year-old back up supply in their reserve freezer.

Lepeshka: Bukharian homemade bread. I liked it, but along with the two dumplings and the fries that came with the kebabs, this was some serious carb-loading (see reason B for not going out to eat often, above.) I tore off pieces and dipped them into the juice on the salad plate.

Israeli Salad: we almost didn't order this, but went for it, since there were no fresh veggies to be had in our other dishes. I'm so glad we did - it was a refreshing and generous salad of chopped cucumbers, onion, green peppers and tomatoes with a light vinaigrette.

Rob was a great lunch companion - he endeared himself to me immediately upon sitting down at our table by saying that he liked to share dishes so we could try a bigger variety. He was up for pretty much anything on the menu - except dessert, which was listed on the menu as "Cake of the day (with Nuts.)" Rob surmised that the cake of the day was probably the same everyday. With Nuts. Of course, now I wish we'd tried it, just for the novelty...

Over lunch, Rob and I found out that we both are from Pennsylvania and both went to Penn State University. We are both single with ex-boyfriends who are still part of our lives. Rob lives in New Jersey and he and his ex run a catering company there together, although business has slowed recently. Rob says that he's not very interested in getting into another relationship and feels happy on his own. He and his friends recently made an alcohol-fueled pact to buy a house in Florida together and be The Golden Boys when they retire. I'm guessing Rob would play the part of Dorothy. He doesn't seem like a Blanche type and he's too smart to be Rose and too nice to be Sofia.

At the end of lunch, Rob surprised me by picking up the check. Isn't that just the nicest thing?! It was so fun to try a new (and unusual!) restaurant and get to know my coworker better!

Our neighbors at the next table were enjoying themselves:

Taam-Tov
41 West 47th Street, 3rd Floor
NY, NY
212-768-8001

PS. This is just the cutest thing and makes me seriously love this amazing, diverse, crazy city I live in: on the menu from Taam-Tov the following hours are listed:

M-Th: 10am - 9pm
Friday: 10 - Two Hours Before Sabbath
Sunday: 11am - 8pm

Two hours before Sabbath - I just love it!

Cake Pops!

2010-11-06T16:07:00.000-04:00

I made these wicked little sugar bombs for the Taaffe spacE art auction and fundraiser and they were a huge hit! The possibilities are endless, as you'll see on both the blog and in the new book from cake pop sensation: Bakerella. Her stuff is really amazing, and I didn't even try to emulate her crazy cool designs.

I knew I wanted to sell some kind of food that seemed artistic - and I think the color theme fit in with Halloween right around the corner. But not only do these cake-on-a-stick treats look cute, they taste downright decadent. I had several people swear to me that they are big time chocolate snobs, and that these were the best thing ev-ah!

While you could just buy one and eat it on the spot, I also picked up plastic treat bags and wrapped them for easy portability. A big Styrofoam round kept them upright and nicely displayed.

If you want to try making these, please go to Bakerella's site or pick up her book. I will warn you that there's a bit of labor involved. Here's the basic run down:

Purchase all the materials you'll need:

Cake (box cake mix works just fine)

Frosting (canned - also fine - this is food on a stick, folks!)

Chocolate melts - available at craft stores like Michael's or in NYC at New York Cake & Baking Distributor - this is a fun place to visit if you're into baking.

Decorating items - jimmies, sprinkles, glitter, edible pens, etc...

Candy Sticks - I got mine at Michael's

Treat Bags - ditto

Styrofoam blocks - ditto

Parchment paper

Start your engines:

Bake the cake and leave time for it to cool completely

Process into crumbs in a food processor

Mix in the frosting

Roll into balls

Insert the sticks with a bit of melted chocolate on the tips

Chill in the fridge for a while or the freezer for less time

Dip into melted chocolate to cover completely - this takes a bit of practice and just the right ball temp. Too warm and the balls will fall off the sticks. Too cold and the chocolate will crack as it hardens. Decorate with sprinkles or jimmies before the chocolate cools completely.

Stick into the Styrofoam blocks to let harden completely, then wrap up in the treats bags.

My flavors were red velvet with cream cheese frosting and chocolate with vanilla frosting. I used brown and orange chocolate melts to cover the balls and decorated using little squeeze bottles.

Taaffe spacE - Art Auction & Fundraiser

2010-10-22T09:17:00.005-04:00

I'll be here on Saturday night, serving up champagne jelly shots in homemade flavors like lychee, lime and ginger. There's no cover and drinks are just a few bucks. Come have a look around and maybe buy some cool art to benefit a great cause!

Strawberry Riot Crostata on Brooklyn Based blog

2010-10-08T14:44:00.008-04:00

I'm writing a series of posts for Brooklyn Based - the awesome email newsletter covering all things Brooklyn. My posts will be about recipes shared by local food lovers/cookers/makers/growers and eaters. They will be the kind of thing a chef cooks for him or herself on their one day off. Or maybe they feature a local product or something plentiful right now at the farmer's market or flea.

The first one comes from Kara Masi - my friend and cohort in The Great Hot Dog Cookoff. We spent a lazy afternoon at her apartment making this tasty, simple crostata using Anarchy in a Jar's Strawberry Balsamic jam. You can get the recipe and article right here. Find out where the jam is rocking out right here.

Secret Noodle Truck at Maker Faire!

2010-10-05T11:48:00.004-04:00

I get a lot of invitations to foodie events that I can't possibly afford. For me and most of my friends, big ticket dinners and food happenings are for special occasions only. There were a ton of events at this week's Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival that I wanted to attend - but many of them were over $200 each!

Not having the big bucks to spend on fancy food events doesn't mean that a food-lover need go without, though. New York City is teeming with great food that won't break the bank. I even managed to find some of it at last weekend's Maker Faire.

Imagine the thrill of learning (to preserve the mystery, I won't tell you how,) upon arrival at the 2-day geeky, freaky and crafty festival, of a secret food truck, serving noodles for donation only! That's right - your choice if you want to pay or not! I put finding the truck at the top of my list and headed into the festival fray.

Following the convoluted directions I had been given, I eventually arrived at a fenced off area that looked like a loading dock without the dock. There were five or six guys in reflective vests lounging around on four-wheelers or sleeping on stacks of construction materials and a long row of vehicles. I didn't see anything that looked like a food truck, but the guys pointed towards the back when I asked. The truck was your basic box truck - there was no serving window and no signs other than a black & white printed sheet taped to the front door that said something about a Night Market. I walked around to the back where I was greeted warmly by a woman with a funny hat, colorful knee-highs and a white flowing top.

"Would you like some noodles? Please, come sit. We're still getting ready, but have some tea."

I climbed up a rickety stepladder and into the transformed truck. The interior had been turned into a makeshift communal noodle counter. 6 guests sat at either side with long narrow tables and an area in the middle for the servers. The chef was bustling around in the back where 4 burners with large stock pots were clustered next to stacks of bowls and cooking utensils. I felt like a special guest at a cozy party.

The tea arrived in bright orange mugs, steaming hot, with a hint of lychee flavor. We were offered a choice of noodles - Hong Kong style egg noodles (my favorite for kao soi) in a red curry broth or udon in miso. Both came with a kitchen sink assortment of veggies and condiments: watercress, pickled daikon, bean sprouts, mushrooms, white onions, dried tofu, vegetarian ham, half of a hard boiled egg, napa cabbage and yam. I ordered the red curry broth along with 3 other of the 12 guests in our seating - the first of the day, and while we waited, at least 8 more people stopped by hoping for a seat. "Come back in a half hour!" the chef yelled from the back of the truck. Everyone seemed excited and wanted to chat. The servers kept asking what we were making for Maker Faire. We made conversation. We didn't go around in a circle and introduce ourselves, but somehow we learned a few things. There was a chef and his wife, 3 NYU students, a couple on vacation and a festival worker who kept his reflective vest on throughout the meal.

The noodles were ready. The chef brought a bowl to each person, put one hand on their shoulder, made eye contact and declared "Welcome. Here are the noodles I have prepared for you as you requested. Thank you for coming, I hope you enjoy them."

We all giggled and a few of us might have blushed. Then we got down to it - the way you have to with a big bowl of noodle soup - I reached for sesame oil and soy and then with my spoon in one hand and my chopsticks in the other, dove into the hot broth with great abandon. The noodles were perfect, the broth was rich and flavorful, but needed the salty touch of the soy that I had added, and the fake meats were surprisingly welcome chewy bits among the veggies. I'm not a big fan of egg in my Asian soups, but I ate it anyway. Conversation lulled as we all slurped away happily.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I ate the whole bowl. Then, as my dining companions began to disperse, I slipped $7 under the bowl, thanked the chef and headed back out into the mayhem of the Maker Faire. Not a bad price to pay for a unique experience and a satisfying meal.

IFBC - 2nd Annual International Food Blogger Conference - Part 1

2010-09-04T21:55:00.006-04:00

This month marks the five year anniversary of my move to New York City. To celebrate, I returned from whence I came for a week's vacation: Seattle! I know that I put it on a pedestal, but Seattle really is a glorious place to live. It also just so happens that every time I go back for a visit, the sun comes out, the birds sing and Mt. Rainier shrugs off it's perpetual foggy blanket to make an appearance, as if just for me. True to form, the day after I left, the weather turned to overcast, cold and rainy. And back in Brooklyn, it was 97 and humid. Dang.

My trip was scheduled around the 2nd International Food Blogger Conference, but it was great for many reasons. I know that for the blog I should stick to the food parts, but I just want to say that other highlights included finally meeting my bff's boyfriend, seeing other friends just returned from a year of traveling thru India and southeast Asia, a new tattoo(!) for me, and seeing the miraculously recovered kitty, Minnie, who recently lost a leg after a vicious dog attack. (She's doing very well! Poor girl.) You can't really tell from the photo, but her right front leg was amputated six weeks ago.

Ok, on to the food blogger conference:

I'm still reeling from the weekend of fun at the IFBC. I went because I knew it would be a great networking and learning opportunity, but I also got a never-ending supply of amazing food, a chance to hear some really inspirational people speak on my favorite subjects: food, writing, photography, science and social equity, and a parade of friendly fellow bloggers. I should also say that it was a pretty mind-blowing example of social media frenzy, with everyone a-twitter, all the time. I occasionally had to close my laptop and focus on the speakers instead of reading all the tweets flying around like crazy.

Friday night's opening reception included an appearance by Morgan Spurlock, who spoke candidly about food politics and the power of bloggers to affect change, inspire and educate people. I spoke with him afterward and mentioned that I lived in Brooklyn, too, in an area between Williamsburg and Bed-Stuy, very near Bushwick, which I call Bedwickburg. He thought that was funny and came up with a new name for my neighborhood: Bedwick Point. He then proceeded to mercilessly mock my nearest subway line, the G Train. We talked about the lack of decent food available in poor urban areas (like my neighborhood) and he basically challenged me to do something about it. Hmm.... The Hot Dog Cookoff was pretty great, but I am inspired to do more... We'll see, Morgan. I'm on it!

Saturday started bright and early at the conference location at Theo Chocolate. They are the only organic and fair trade certified chocolate factory in the US. Check this place out if you find yourself in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle anytime soon. They have a retail store and offer tours of their factory including lots of great samples.

Saturday's sessions included Amy Sherman of Cooking with Amy, Dianne Jacob, author of Will Write For Food, Kristine Kidd, a former food editor at Bon Appetit, Kathleen Flinn, author ofThe Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry, folks from Foodista.com, UrbanSpoon.com, WordPress.com, a few specialty food producers and some nerdy lawyer types who spoke on Law & Ethics in food blogging. This included blogger and attorney Robin Goldstein, who gave a presentation entitled "Recent Advances in Bullshit Reduction." He was hilarious, and based on the tweets I caught during his panel, pretty much charmed the hell out of the lady bloggers in attendance. And maybe some of the men. Hidden behind a tweet, people can be very bold!

We cleared out of the room for cocktail hour - a fun pairing of four sherries with little appetizers, presented by The Secret Sherry Society. I thought it was fun. I talked with Robin a bit and he's super nerdy, smart, and funny in person, too. Pretty much adorable.

Then, I spotted my idol. James Oseland. Editor in chief of Saveur magazine. Why is he my idol? Well, mostly because he has risen to the top of his field in both writing and photography. I spoke with him and mentioned my blog and he said, "Oh, yeah, I know of it." I totally lost my cool. I really wanted to be casual and collected, but I sort of jumped up and down a little. I gushed for a few more minutes and then luckily the Foodista people walked up and I was able to make a polite exit. I'm sorry to James for cornering him and acting like a food groupie, but I guess I am.

At dinner, James was the keynote speaker. He lauded bloggers for their contribution to food media and gave a presentation about his experience in the food world, along with a slideshow of his photography. I was totally awed and inspired by his story and images. Already a fan, my admiration was reconfirmed after learning more about him and his work and hearing what he thought of the changing world of food writing.

And then there was dinner. I collected five plates of food and found a seat with the SoCal bloggers who were gracious enough to let me into their circle. I chatted with a writer from the LA Times and enjoyed the assortment of dishes, along with some wines from Rodney Strong. The California bloggers invited me on a field trip to find gelato, but my hometown crew was waiting for me to meet them and I felt torn between wanting to bond with my blogger friends and hang with my Seattle homies. I decided to call it a day and headed home to pet Minnie the tripod and have some wine around the table with my old pals while they had dinner.

Coming up: The final day of the food blogger conference - the gluten-free gang! food trucks! doughnuts! food photography! and more!

Two dishes from lunch:

Beef Tartare by chef Daisley Gordon of Campagne

Marinated Octopus with Chickpeas, Preserved Lemon and Chorizo Vinaigrette by Chef Shannon Galusha of Bastille

Homemade Pizza

2010-08-19T23:07:00.028-04:00

Ok, I cheated. I bought the dough at a pizza place. Here's how it happened:

My friend Kara and I were s'posed to hang out, but we both needed to get some shit done. I had this pizza project started because earlier in the week at the farmer's market I was talking to my tomato guy, (yes, I have a tomato guy - he's awesome and is at the Rockefeller Greenmarket every Thursday through Labor Day) and I mentioned that I picked up some of Millport Dairy's garlic and herb cheese.

"Oh, I used that to make a great pizza," the tomato guy's son tells me. Actually, I guess I have two tomato guys, cause they're both always there. So Sonny Tomato (James) volunteers to give me the recipe.

"Um, ok, yeah, that would be cool," I say as I try to figure out where to write it down and with what.

"Use the voice recorder on your phone," he tells me. Him farmer, me blogger. Uh, duh.

So he recorded his home fashioned pizza recipe for me, stressing over and over that the key is the sauce and that I should put the sauce on top, "Grandma-style." I don't know much about this grandma and why she doesn't want gooey melted cheese on top, but I agreed to try it.

Next Papa Tomato (Cosmo - I swear to god, that's his name,) tells me how to make the tomato puree and insists on giving me a few "too soft" tomatoes that he has off to the side for free. I buy a few more and happily head back to my demoralizing day job.

That night I follow his instructions for transforming tomatoes into tomato sauce. How have I never done this before? So simple and easy. (See below for steps.) I end up with just over 1 pint of plain, very tomato-y sauce.

Flash back to my lady date with Kara. I know I need time to make the pizza dough. It needs to rise twice. Kara has stuff at her house to do. Hmm... Then I remember something I read in food blogger Cathy Erway's book - The Art of Eating In - she started making pizzas using dough from neighborhood pizza places. Of course, there is no shortage of those here in Brooklyn. So I ran out to my backyard to pick some rosemary and basil, threw my jar of sauce and some cheese into my backpack and hopped on my bike.

At a pizza place in Clinton Hill, the guy behind the counter assured me that my "weird request" was, in fact, quite commonplace. He slid a lightly greased, giant ball of dough into an aluminum tin, wrapped it up and handed it over.

"This will make an 18" pie," he said, pointing at the pizzas on the counter. I was pretty sure those were about 3 feet wide, but I didn't argue.

Once I arrived at Kara's house, I set to work: wash and dry the herbs, dice up some onions and garlic, play with the dough. Kara didn't have a pizza stone, so we just went with a half sheet pan well coated with olive oil.

Here is the transcribed recipe for the Homemade Grandma-style Pizza:

Of course he didn't give any measurements so this is fast and loose. Adjust to your liking!

preheat the oven to high heat

dice up some garlic and onion

brown them in a pan with olive oil

add your tomato puree - see below for homemade, I used 1 pint for my giant pizza

add fresh herbs: lots of basil and oregano, chives, rosemary, thyme, black pepper, salt to taste

whole wheat dough - I used white from the pizza joint

coat your pizza pan well with olive oil

stretch out the dough and put it in the pan

bake for 8 minutes, remove and cool for a minute or two

add three grated cheeses: mozzarella, garlic and herb, sharp cheddar

melt in the oven for a minute or two

add the pizza sauce on top

bake for another few minutes

The result: not bad at all. I think I need to get better at stretching the pizza dough. It was pretty thick. I also think I'm more of a fan of cheese on top. The pizza sauce was absolutely delicious though. I really think making the puree from tomatoes at the peak of summer ripeness was the key. Or maybe it was the fresh herbs? Or the fun of making and eating it with a friend? Aw... friendship pizza.

Here's the Homemade Tomato Puree instructions:

Wash and core some good ripe tomatoes. I used about 5 big ones. Cut into chunks and puree in a blender. Pour into a big heavy pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and cook down for about 2 - 3 hours. At first the whole mess will be pink and watery. It probably won't taste good. Patience, friend. Just check it every so often and give it a stir here and there. It will reduce by more than half. Maybe even 75%. Once you've achieved the desired consistency, you can add herbs or salt and pepper. Or just pour it into a jar and save for later. I didn't add anything to my puree until I actually cooked the pizza.

The Great Hot Dog Cookoff 2010 - A Great Success!

2010-08-02T22:03:00.008-04:00

I want to yell it from the mountaintops: They loved it! The chefs! the volunteers! the media! the audience! Hot dogs, beer, ice cream, sodas, and MORE HOT DOGS! Yes! The 2010 Great Hot Dog Cookoff and Fundraiser was a weinerific time for all. The weather was perfect, the dj was delightful, the mc was magic.

Ok, I'm prone to hyperbole, but really, there WERE people dancing in the streets by the end. At a hot dog cookoff, no less. As one of the three organizers, I'm pretty pleased with myself with how it all went down. We increased ticket sales by 50% this year, brought in product samples from P&H Soda using SodaStream and ice cream from Adirondack Creamery, teamed up with Kelso Brewery, and garnered prize donations from Le Creuset, Wusthof, the Brooklyn Kitchen, SodaStream, Early Bird Granola, Olivino Wines and Sigg. We found a kindred spirit in our MC for the event, Mr. George Duran, who did a great job. In the end we, raised almost $6,000 for City Harvest, New York's only food rescue program. Did I mention that Hummel Brothers generously donated all the hot dogs for the competitors?? How awesome is that?!

I wish I had some great pics of the truly creative and inspired hot dogs of the day. But I was running around like a crazy person making sure the trash got emptied, the grills had charcoal and the chefs had beer. I didn't snap a single pic until the after party at nearby Hot Bird (which is a pretty cool place!) So allow me to direct you to some of the great slide shows and write-ups I've found out there on the interwebs:

Epicurious Blog

MetroMix

Edible Manhattan

Time Out NY - The Feed

Bella/Bello

The Hungry Ferret on flickr

The Feed

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone who came to the event! See you at TGHDCO 2011!

Costa Rica - Casado

2010-06-25T12:22:00.000-04:00

The first thing I did when my mom told me our family was going to Costa Rica for vacation was research the local cuisine. When I say research, of course, I mean that I went to google and typed in "Costa Rican food." I was disappointed to quickly learn that nobody thinks it's very good. The best seafood is exported and is otherwise expensive. Same for the coffee, although I was assured that it would still be good, no matter where I went.

We flew into San Jose, the noisy, crowded buzzing city in the center of the country. We rented a car and piled in. The Avis rep talked my parents into a "marriage saver," aka GPS. Thank god! As the polite, calm voice of the navigation system guided us through the city to our hotel, I started to get excited. It occurred to me that I didn't care if Costa Rica was known for it's food or not - no matter what, it was going to be a new experience, a way to learn about the culture.

That night for dinner, we asked the hotel for recommendations within walking distance. They directed us to a nearby "soda," which is sort of like a diner, sometimes with a small bar and often open to the breeze. This one was called Soda Isabel. Sodas serve comida tipica - typical Costa Rican food - and one of the most common dishes is casado. It's sort of a combo plate of rice, beans, a vegetable mixture, fried plantain and whatever meat you like. At Soda Isabel, our casado plates also came with a beet salad. I ordered mine with pork, and my mom got hers with fish. Both were fried - which I wasn't expecting for the pork, but were pretty darn good.

I put some of the pickle from the jars on the table into my rice & beans and scary as it looked, it tasted even better, with a little kick from some chiles in the jar.After dinner, my step-dad picked out an ice-pop, but it had suffered a bit from freezer burn. He ate it anyway. Not a bad start to our vacation.

The Great Hot Dog Cookoff 2010 - Save the Date!

2010-06-08T10:29:00.011-04:00

Fork This is proud to be an official sponsor of the 2010 Great Hot Dog Cookoff!! Whatever that means, we like it! Because we love hot dogs and we especially love raising funds for City Harvest! This year's event promises to be bigger and better than ever. More chefs, more tickets, more dogs and more beer! And more exclamation points!! Why not?!!

Here's are the important things to know right now:

Event date: July 31st

Chef sign-ups open now through June 30th - and get this: Hummel Bros. is sponsoring the event by providing the hot dogs for the chefs to cook! Amazing! We love Hummel!!

Tickets on sale July 1st

Volunteer meeting: Tuesday, June 15th, contact jennie@thegreathotdogcookoff.com for info

I highly recommend voluteering with the cook-off for the great sense of satisfaction you will feel contributing to a organization that rescues food and feeds the hungry. Plus, you get to eat a lot of hot dogs. Cool!

Hotdogs

Fork This on the TV!

2010-06-06T22:06:00.000-04:00

People, this is big news! Fork This will be on the Cooking Channel tonight at 9 pm Eastern! (With 8 repeats at all hours of the day - Click here for the schedule.)

Many thanks to Matt Timms for inviting me to compete as a cheftestant in his super rad special edition Smoker Takedown, filmed live at the East River Bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I had a blast - the producers and crew were awesome and my fellow chefs made some really kick-ass food. I couldn't have done it without my amazing sous chef, Erin of The BLD Project. She stepped it up with great ideas, nerves of steel and best of all, a Zip-car membership!

I think our segment will totally rule! Please tune in!

My Perfect Bloody Mary

2010-04-27T23:51:00.005-04:00

I'm the person at brunch who waits for someone else to order a bloody mary first. Not because I want to see who the drinkers are, but because I want to try before I buy. Bad ones are pretty darn bad. It seems like they always have too much of something. Too much horseradish. Too much ground pepper or celery salt. Too much vodka - yes - there is such a thing. And of course some people think that the spicier it is, the better it is. Don't get me wrong, I love some heat, but too much and you can't taste the flavors.

I took on the Bloody Mary Project just in time for a potluck brunch at my friend Jennie's house. Determined to transform this often offensive libation into morning drinking perfection, I started my search by reading a slew of recipes. I found that the core ingredients were in almost all of them. The differences came by adding one or two unusual items, like chipotle peppers or cilantro.

I wanted to come up with a good basic bloody, so I started experimenting with different proportions of the base flavors. The recipe that follows is the end result of my tests - and received unanimous praise from the brunch crew, who all swore they were being objective and not just saying so to be polite.

Perfectly Good Basic Bloody Mary

Be sure to use a quality tomato juice and put it in the fridge so it's nice and cold when you mix this up.

Serves about 8

6 cups tomato juice
1 1/2 cups vodka
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons drained bottled horseradish, minced fine
1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1/2 teaspoon finely ground fresh pepper
1 tablespoon olive juice (olive juice, too!)

Garnish: green olives, celery stalks, lemon wedges, cornichon, etc...

Stir everything up together, taste and adjust seasonings. Add more tabasco - it's your bloody mary now - make it perfect for you! Serve over ice.

Carrot Cake

2010-04-13T10:00:00.002-04:00

If a cake could kick your ass with deliciousness, this one would be wearing a world championship belt. It is outrageously moist and perfectly sweet. My friend Sara tweaked a favorite recipe of hers and in a stroke of genius added crushed pineapple. Wowsers. Ever since she made it for me for my birthday I've been begging for it again. Then I realized that if I just asked for the recipe I could have it anytime I want!

Instead of closely guarding this yummy secret, I've decided to share it here for all the internets to have and make and love. My little gift to you. Enjoy!

Carrot Cake

print recipe

Cake:

1-2 tablespoons unsalted butter (for greasing pans)

2-3 tablespoons flour or breadcrumbs (for pans)

1 cup yellow raisins

4 cups (about 1 lb.) shredded carrots (skins left on okay- just scrub well and cut tips and bottoms)

2 cups minus 2 tbsp sifted all purpose flour (sift, then spoon into cup and level off)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

4 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 1/4 cup vegetable, corn or canola oil

1/2 cup crushed pineapple- drained (the small 8 oz cans with all the liquid out)

Frosting:

16 oz (or two packages) cream cheese, room temperature

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 to 3 cups sifted powdered sugar, to taste and thickness

chopped pecans (optional - for decoration)

Preheat oven to 350. Use 2 or 3 cake rounds (you can split the 2 cake rounds for a very dramatic cake, or leave as is. Here, I used 2 8"x8" Pyrex.) Melt a few tablespoons of butter and spread with a brush or paper towel on all sides of pans. Line the bottom with parchment or waxed paper, and butter the tops of the paper. Dust the pans with bread crumbs or flour.

Steam the raisins for 10 minutes, then chop coarsely.

Grate the carrots with a metal grater or in a food processor until you get 4 cups, firmly packed. Set aside.

In a separate bowl sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda, salt, cinnamon and cocoa. Set aside.

In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs until blended. Beat in the sugars gradually- first the granulated and then the brown. Beat in the vanilla and then the oil. On low speed add the flour mixture until JUST incorporated. Stir in the raisins, carrots and pineapple with a spatula or wooden spoon.

Pour or spoon into the pans. Smooth if necessary. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the tops spring back and the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pans.

Let stand on racks for a couple minutes. Invert onto the racks to cool- leaving paper on until it is time to frost. When cool, brush off excess crumbs and put layers in the freezer for about 1 hour so that they don't fall apart when they are handled later.

To make the frosting, beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy on med to med high speed. On low speed add the vanilla and sugar, and then turn the mixer up to high for a few minutes.

To frost the cake, lay pieces of waxed paper on the edges of a serving plate. Lay the first layer on the plate and spread the frosting on the top evenly. Repeat until all layers are in place. Next, take knife-fulls of frosting and turn the plate to smooth onto the sides. Frost the top of the cake next, letting some frosting go over the sides. Smooth out the sides last. Taking handfuls of chopped pecans, press into the sides of the cake. (I skipped the pecans for the cake above - obviously!)

Refrigerate cake until ready to serve.

Fork This on Mind Kitchen!

2010-04-06T21:21:00.000-04:00

Check it out! My radio debut on Matt Timms' Mind Kitchen! Awesome good fun with Keavy Landreth of Kumquat Cupcakery and Amber Marlow Blatt of The Amber Show! Listen through to the very end for a special surprise...if you dare!

Nanny Rolls

2010-03-30T11:12:00.005-04:00

My sister's in-laws make these rolls for holidays meals. I'm pretty sure "Nanny" was someone's grandma and not a child care provider. Flavored with mace and slightly sweet, their family loves them so much that they make a quadruple batch to ensure there are more than enough for everyone. Sliced in half and stuffed with leftover turkey or ham they make for an excellent sandwich.

Nanny Rolls
Makes 16 rolls. Be sure to leave enough time for 2 risings and a rest after shaping. The recipe didn't indicate how long for each rise, so I went about 90 minutes for the first and 45 minutes for the second.

1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
8 tablespoons butter, plus 1-2 tablespoons separately melted
3 eggs, beaten
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus 2-3 tablespoons for dusting
2 packages instant yeast
2 teaspoons ground mace
1/2 teaspoon salt
2-3 tablespoons confectioners sugar

Scald milk. Add butter and sugar and stir until melted/dissolved. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

In a large bowl combine flour, yeast, mace and salt. Add beaten eggs and warm milk mixture. Stir until well combined and shape into a ball. Brush top of dough with melted butter, cover and let rise. Punch down dough and let rise again.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, mix 2-3 tablespoons of flour with equal parts confectioners sugar. Dust work surface and rolling pin with sugar-flour mixture. Divide dough in half and roll or pat out into an 18" circle. Brush top with melted butter. Cut into 8 wedges. Roll up each wedge starting at wide end, curl ends in to make a crescent shape. Place on baking sheet and cover with a towel. Let rise until doubled in size.

Bake for 13-15 minutes or until golden, switching top and bottom baking trays halfway through baking.

Vegan Chocolate Cream Pie

2010-03-26T10:08:00.011-04:00

We all know how annoying vegans can be. What with their not eating animal products and all. I mean, a vegan can really throw a wrench into your baking plans. I wanted to make chocolate cream pie for a double birthday party, but one of the birthday boys happened to be a vegan. What to do, what to do? Well, of course, I love a challenge. I consulted the internets and I found a few recipes that seemed promising. Then, at yet another birthday party, I met a real live vegan. I told her about operation vCCP and she had several great ideas - she wrote down a recipe she liked and suggested some brands that were vegan-safe.

Armed with this information I put together a plan and purchased the animal-product-free ingredients. The results were pretty amazing. Good chocolate flavor, super creamy texture with no grittiness and a decent crust. My intention was to buy a tub of (non-dairy) Cool Whip to use for the topping, but when I got to the store I discovered that they only had it frozen. The label said it had to be slowly defrosted in the refrigerator for 4 hours. You don't want to rush the defrosting of whatever space-age polymer it's made of or it turns watery and weird. Since I didn't have the 4 hours to spare, I just skipped it. The vegan didn't seem to mind.

Vegan Chocolate Cream Pie:

Crust
5 oz. Mi-Del Chocolate Snaps, broken into pieces
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons canola oil

Filling
1 can coconut milk
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon vegan chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup sugar
pinch salt
8 oz Tofutti non-dairy cream cheese

For the crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pulse cookie pieces and cocoa powder in a food processor for about 15 1-second pulses, then run until evenly broken down into fine crumbs, 15-20 seconds. Transfer to a bowl and add canola oil, stir to combine evenly. Press the mixture into a 9" pie pan. Use the flat bottom of a 1/2 cup measuring cup or glass to press it firmly and evenly across the bottom and up the sides. Refrigerate for 20 minutes, then bake until fragrant and set, about 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

For the filling:
Shake the can of coconut milk before opening. Add the cornstarch to about a 1/4 cup of coconut milk and whisk until there are no lumps. In medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the cornstarch mixture, remaining coconut milk, vanilla and sugar over medium heat. As it begins to warm, add the chocolate chips and bring to a simmer, stirring frequently. Cook until the chocolate has melted and the mixture has thickened to a pudding-like consistency.

Pour into a large bowl and add the Tofutti cream cheese. Stir thoroughly until completely incorporated. Pour into the cooled crust and refrigerate overnight or for at least 5 hours or so. Serve as is or with a non dairy topping.

No-Knead Rosemary Olive Bread

2010-03-14T13:20:00.011-04:00

I've been reading my blogger friend Cathy Erway's new book, The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove. She and I first met at a supper club in Brooklyn a few years ago. As I read, I wasn't surprised to learn how much we have in common food-wise. In her book, she mentions this revolutionary technique for home bread baking first published in a New York Times article in 2006. The concept came from Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery and swept like wildfire throughout the blogging and baking worlds.

A home bread-baking uprising (pun intended) was taking place and where was I? Years ago, I had tried to make rustic loaves and French baguettes with disappointing results. It was bread, but it wasn't light and airy with that perfect crusty crust and chewy interior. I did a little research, and tried some of the tricks - like putting a baking pan at the bottom of the oven and pouring in a cup of water right when you put in the bread to simulate the steam-injected ovens used in professional bakeries. Still, not the results I wanted.

I'd heard about this new technique, but never got around to checking it out. Reading about it in Cathy's book got me excited again - why not give it a try? In fact, why not make my favorite: Rosemary Olive Bread? After a quick look around the web, I settled on the America's Test Kitchen version. Their recipe called for a slightly different ratio of ingredients but the basic principles were the same. The genius of the no-knead technique is two-fold:

1.) Let it sit for a long time instead of kneading it - a minimum of 12 hours, best at 18 or more.
2.) Bake it in a hot, covered pot in the oven to simulate a professional oven.

Check out this video from the NYT to get the inside scoop from Mark Bittman and Jim Lahey. My favorite part is at the very end when Lahey says of the no-knead recipe: "Let's make sure that everyone has access to it." I love that he wants to spread the bread-baking gospel throughout the land! This is what gets me excited about food and blogging! Learning new things and sharing them and hopefully inspiring others to get into their kitchens and make their own creations.

Here's my dough from the Almost No-Knead America's Test Kitchen recipe after sitting for 17 hours:

And here it is after a very brief knead (about 15 times, which is fun):

A week after I made this, I also tried the basic Lahey recipe. Both times I found that the bottom of my loaf came out too dark. I'm not sure exactly why that is since my oven runs pretty close to accurate temperature. Twice bitten, thrice shy, though. Next time I'll set the oven 25 degrees lower and see how it fares. If I lose crumb structure or crustiness, I'll try some other options.

Otherwise, the loaf was amazing. The crust was crisp, the interior was chewy and stretchy and had a great flavor. I might skip the Parmesan cheese from this recipe, since I don't think it's really essential. I just love getting a nice salty olive in a good bite, and the rosemary flavor is great. I intend to try new flavors and different types of flours, like whole wheat or rye. There are a ton of recipes on-line and the technique delivers a really incredible result. Even if you've never baked before, I encourage you to give this a try.

Happy baking!

P.S. I also made my own butter for my first loaf! Shake up some heavy cream in a large, chilled glass jar for about 20-25 minutes. You might want to trade off shaking duties with a friend. The liquid in the jar will appear to solidify into a giant block of whipped cream and won't seem to be shakeable, but keep shaking! Eventually you will shake the buttermilk right out and chunks of yellow butter will clump up in there. Shake until you have lots of chunks and a thin liquid. Drain that off (into a clean container) and then put the solids in a bowl. Smash the butter against the side of the bowl with a spatula to squeeze out the rest of the buttermilk. Get it all out, because otherwise the butter will taste sour. You can save the buttermilk for pancakes or biscuits if you like. Add some kosher or sea salt and get ready for a damn fine serving of bread and butter.

Motorino and Roberta's - The Pizza Crawl

2010-03-04T10:01:00.017-05:00

My friend Rachael (of The Night Way) is moving to Germany in a month. While I fully encourage great life adventures, I am also firmly opposed to my friends leaving New York. This puts me in a great conundrum of trying to be supportive while secretly wanting to throw a big tantrum with threats, pleading and tears. Usually I manage to contain myself.

Like most people on the verge of leaving New York, Rachael has a list of places to go and things to do that she somehow hasn't gotten around to while living here. Of course she recruited me for the restaurant portion of her list and I gladly stepped up to the challenge. While I cook at home more than the average New Yorker, I also like a meal out on a regular basis.

We decided on pizza. Rachael had been hearing a lot of buzz lately about Motorino, especially since they opened their second location in the East Village spot where Una Pizza Napoletana had reigned. I was leaning towards Roberta's in Bushwick, where I had twice had great pies, a hearty bowl of linguine carbonara and rustic roasted chicken from their brick oven.

For some reason, I was having a really hard time letting go of my Roberta's idea. I guess I wanted to impress my friend with this unique restaurant. After all, Roberta's is much more than a pizza place. Not only a hipster hangout, it is virtually a temple of the local, sustainable food movement. Just off their cozy back patio are re-purposed shipping containers, now used as a home for the Heritage Radio network - an internet radio station hosting food related programming. And on top of the containers is a "rooftop" greenhouse, providing the restaurant with ultra local produce.

As we haggled back and forth, I had a burst of inspiration - why not go to both? Motorino in Williamsburg is just a block or so from the Graham stop on the L train and Roberta's is 3 stops away at the Morgan Ave exit. Genius! Gluttony! Glory! A pizza crawl - something only a food lover would want to do.

We got to Motorino at about 7:15. There were plenty of seats available and we scored a cozy two-top back near the big brick oven. We decided to go simple and ordered just one Margherita pie: a simple trio of tomato, basil and fresh mozzarella cheese. About 10 minutes after ordering, a man came to our table holding a small plate with two sugar-crusted rounds of fried dough. The waitress ran over and redirected him to a neighboring table.

"What was that?" I asked, sort of awed, "Was that...doughnuts?"

The man came back. "Sorry about that, yes, those are our house-made doughnuts. One is filled with a fruit jam and the other with our home-made vanilla custard."

If we didn't have to save room for our next stop we definitely would have ordered them for dessert. Luckily, shortly after this sweet tease, our pie arrived - fresh, hot, and very juicy with fresh olive oil drizzled over the top. The crust was nice and chewy with the requisite char. I mopped up the olive oil left on the serving plate with torn bits of crust. We settled up and headed out to the L train.

After a bit of a fiasco with what should have been a quick subway ride, we arrived at Roberta's at 8:30 pm and waited for another friend to arrive. He was crucial in our dining plan as we were both feeling more full than expected after only 2 slices of thin crust pizza each. We needed his appetite so that we could order another pie! For true comparison we should have ordered another Margherita, but this was more about getting to experience two different places than judging which was better. So we got a pizza the menu called "The Good Girl," a promising combo of kale, taleggio cheese, pork sausage and garlic. We also ordered a simple Bibb lettuce salad with a dried cherry vinaigrette, gorgonzola and roasted walnuts.

I wanted to try a lot of the other things on the menu like their sauteed Hen-of-the-Woods mushrooms or the pan-fried sweetbreads. There was also a cavatelli special and a pork chop that arrived at a neighboring table already carved into glistening, medium-rare chunks with lovely charred edges. Pork, chopped.

I couldn't talk Rachael into having any of the salad. "Just one slice of pizza," she insisted.

"What about a drink?" I suggested, sipping my (way-too-much-to-pay-in-Bushwick, Brooklyn,) $11 glass of red wine from a small mason jar.

"Yeah, maybe." But we had already ordered dinner and the drink subject didn't come up again.

The pizza arrived. It was dark green from the crisp kale leaves that covered it from edge to edge. There were little juicy chunks of pork sausage hidden throughout, and pools of super gooey and pungent cheese. I had sort of forgotten what taleggio was until I bit into it and remembered, "Oh yeah, it's that cheese!" The flavors went well together, but the amount of kale was sort of overwhelming. A major plus for me at Roberta's is the little bottle of olive oil with crushed red peppers on each table. I can dip my crusts without a special request to the server for oil.

This pizza was cut into five slices as opposed to Motorino's four. After we each got through our first slice, I longingly eyed the two remaining. But I was so full! It just doesn't seem fair that there's only room for so much good-tasting food in one night.

I think Rachael enjoyed the pizza crawl, and I'm glad she got to cross two places off her list. I'm even more pleased that she overcame her squeamishness after reading the recent New York Times article about a rabbit butchering class held in Roberta's parking lot.

But most of all, I was just glad to spend some time with her before she heads off to Berlin and leaves me here to deal with all this pizza on my own.

For Rachael's take on the evening, please visit The Night Way.

Motorino
319 Graham Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11211
718-599-8899

Roberta's
261 Moore Street
Brooklyn, NY 11206

photo via Roberta's

Potato Skins with Bacon & Cream Cheese - a Food Obstructions Cook-off Winner!

2010-02-10T19:10:00.008-05:00

The Food Obstructions is a cooking challenge hosted by Cathy Erway of Not Eating Out in New York and Karol Lu of Billiardsburg. The idea is that each chef brings a dish of any kind made with five obstructions to it's creation. This past Sunday, I entered the third of these clever cook-offs - the first for me, although I had attended once as a guest. The fun part is seeing how each chef approaches the five obstructions - and the very different results.

Un/fortunately, depending on your state of mind, this event was scheduled for the same time as the Super Bowl. (Or the Puppy Bowl - again, depending on your inclination.) Not a big sports fan, I wasn't too worried about missing any of the action. I was, however, pretty stumped about what to make - especially because I didn't decide to enter until the night before. The five obstructions were:

-Cannot contain onions or garlic
-Must contain hearts (of palm, artichokes, celery, an animal, candy hearts… you name it! Just don’t say you simply cooked it “with heart”)
-Must include an ingredient that is red
-Cannot require utensils to eat
-Must include an ingredient that is rumored to be an aphrodisiac

As you can probably tell, this cook-off was Valentine's themed. But instead of making something heartfelt (haha,) I instead opted to make something that one might find at the average Super Bowl party: potato skins. Artichoke hearts seemed the most sensible heart to include with my tater skins and roasted red peppers fulfilled a second requirement. After a quick internet search, I discovered that rosemary is associated with the goddess Aphrodite - that would work for my aphrodisiac. By using baby red potatoes, I was able to avoid any need for utensils - each half potato was it's own bite-sized portion. As for the onions and garlic, I didn't want to leave them out, but I did. Finally, I decided to add bacon. It's a natural for potato skins and would made the perfect garnish for the top of each little guy.

With my ingredients settled, it was just a matter of what binding to use for the filling. I went with cream cheese. Sour cream would have been a good choice, too, but the acid from the artichoke hearts and roasted peppers seemed like enough of a tart/sour flavor.

Once I got to the cook-off, I assembled all the pieces: I filled each little potato cup with a good scoop of the filling, and topped each with a square of crisp bacon. The other entries looked amazing: one couple made an octopus bruschetta on double-heart shapes cut out of pita. There were crostini topped with ricotta, basil and pomegranate seeds, a puff pastry with artichoke spears (phallically delicious!) and lavender chocolate truffles rolled in crushed conversation hearts. In the end, we were all winners - but my Super Potato Bowls edged out Mike O'Neill's yummy and lovely crostini by just a vote or two.

Super Potato Bowls
makes about 40

20 baby red potatoes, washed and dried
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary, divided
coarse salt & fresh ground black pepper
12 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 lb bacon, cooked until crisp
1 can artichoke hearts in water, diced (discard any tough outer leaves)
1/4 cup diced roasted red pepper (rinse & pat dry before dicing)
fresh ground black pepper
pinch cayenne pepper
salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut each potato crosswise. Toss potatoes in a bowl with olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon of rosemary, salt and pepper. Arrange cut side down on a baking sheet and bake until tender, 25-30 minutes. Allow to cool.

Meanwhile, put the cream cheese in a large bowl. Cut about half of the bacon strips into 40 3/4" squares, set aside. Crumble or dice the remaining bacon (you'll have about 1/2 cup,) and add to the bowl with the cream cheese. Add the diced artichoke, red pepper, remaining 1/2 teaspoon rosemary, ground black pepper and a pinch of cayenne, more if you like it spicy. (You might add a dash of your favorite hot sauce instead of the cayenne, if you prefer.) Mix well and refrigerate.

When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut a thin piece off the rounded end of each so they will sit upright. Using a spoon or small melon baller, scoop out the insides and reserve for another use. Arrange on a baking sheet and set the oven to broil. Broil the potatoes until lightly browned, 3-4 minutes, checking every minute or so. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly. Fill each potato bowl with a generous scoop of the cream cheese mixture. Top each with a square of bacon and serve warm. (You can wait until just before serving to broil the potatoes and then fill and serve. Or you might just like them at room temperature, too.)

Pear and Cardamom Bread Pudding

2010-01-15T15:42:00.001-05:00

As promised, here is my adaptation of the Bon Appétit bread pudding from the January 2010 issue. I made their recipe for Christmas dinner, as well as an improvised cranberry sauce. My mom usually makes a pretty traditional cranberry sauce with orange zest and juice. She didn't have any oranges at home though, so we decided instead to use pears, fresh ginger and cardamom. Everyone really loved the pears and the flavor combo seemed to work well.

Back home in my Brooklyn kitchen, I married the two recipes and the result was a success. The pears and cardamom go surprisingly well with the maple syrup (be sure to use the real deal, of course.) I didn't use any ginger in this recipe, but I imagine it would be a great addition.

As the bread pudding cooled on a wire rack, I whipped the remaining heavy cream with a touch of brandy and maple syrup to make the perfect topping.

Pear and Cardamom Bread Pudding

Custard

6 eggs

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1/2 packed dark brown sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons brandy

1 loaf rustic bread, crust removed, cut into 3/4" cubes (6 to 7 cups)

Pears

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 1/2 lbs firm but ripe pears (about 5,) peeled, cored and cut into 1/3 to 1/2" thick slices

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

Topping

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon brandy

1-2 teaspoons pure maple syrup, depending on sweetness desired

Custard

Whisk eggs, maple syrup, brown sugar, vanilla, cardamom and salt in a large bowl. Add milk, cream and brandy and whisk to combine. Add bread cubes and stir to moisten completely. Place a glass pie pan or heavy plate on top of the mixture (with a weight on top, if necessary,) to keep the cubes submerged. Soak for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees with a rack positioned in the bottom third. Butter a 9x5" glass loaf pan with deep sides. (I used an 8x8" square pyrex pan, which was not perfect but worked - I did lose a few slices of pear as it puffed way up in the oven.)

Pears

Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add pear slices and sauté until they begin to soften and brown, about 9-10 minutes. Stir in maple syrup and brown sugar. Simmer until sugar dissolves and mixture thickens slightly, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.

Stir half of the pears into the bread cube mixture. Pour this into the buttered pan. Top with the remaining slices, overlapping slightly. Drizzle any remaining syrup from the pan over the top. Place the loaf pan on a baking sheet and bake until the pudding is browned and puffed, about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Cool for 45 minutes to an hour - the pudding will deflate significantly.

Just before serving, whip cream with brandy and maple syrup until soft peaks form. Serve pudding in bowls with generous scoops of whipped cream.

Goodbye Gourmet, Hello Bon Appétit

2009-12-30T17:29:00.001-05:00

At a recent panel discussion on food writing, the moderator implied that we were all in deep mourning for the passing of Gourmet magazine. Being the contrarian that she is, Julie Powell (author of Julie & Julia and the newly released Cleaving,) brought us back to earth by pointing out that Gourmet could, at times, seem snooty and out of touch with it's modern audience. I love the two viewpoints - on one hand we want to idolize the institution that Gourmet had become, on the other, it was just a magazine - and one that catered to the privileged epicurean, or those aspiring to be.

My view on Gourmet runs the full spectrum. I will miss the lovely covers and photography by Romulo Yanes and many talented contributors. I will miss Ruth Reichl's editorial influence - if anyone straddles the worlds of the caviar-and-champagne set and the cash-strapped home cook, it's her. I will miss the recipes. I won't miss the parts I tended to skip over anyway - travel stories about epicurean vacations at spas and resorts so far out of my price range as to be in the realm of fantasy. Or front-of-the-book items like crystal paperweights that you could use as a fancy fruit bowl - for only $500 dollars.

I've still got subscriptions to Saveur and Cook's Illustrated to fill some of my cooking magazine needs. And in place of my Gourmet subscription, I am now receiving Bon Appétit. Thank you, Condé Nast.

While I wanted to hate it, I tried to keep an open mind when the first issue arrived. I picked apart the design and photography immediately. I liked some of the images, but some I found oddly old-fashioned, with weird, spotty lighting and heavy shadows. I suppose food photography is somewhat like fashion - what was old is new again. Open mind, open mind, I reminded myself.

A food magazine is many things, but superficially, it is a source for new recipes. Maybe I'm not the average reader, but I expect the recipes arriving on a monthly basis to my mailbox to be carefully written, use quality products (no can o' soup sauces,) and be well-tested for home cooking, as well as beautifully photographed and presented. A tall order indeed. So I set about to make the first recipe from Bon Appétit with a critical mindset. I decided to make one of the desserts - Apple and Maple Bread Pudding. It was a huge hit. I brought it to Christmas dinner along with a good vanilla ice cream and it disappeared quickly. The cousins raved. The uncles came back for seconds. I stashed away a small portion to have for myself later.

As far as the recipe goes, I'd say the only flaw was that I had difficulty getting the apples to a "deep golden." They were starting to get mushy before browning, so I divided them into two fry pans and had better luck. For the finished product it didn't seem to matter. Overall, it was a successful recipe.

My verdict: I will definitely give Bon Appétit a chance. I'll need to try more of the recipes and get to know the writers and the regular columns. I'm going to miss Gourmet. No doubt. But I can't wait to see what Ruth Reichl and the gang do next. There's so much going on in the food world these days, I'm sure whatever it is will be exciting.

My version of the Bon Appétit bread pudding to come in the next post.

Chili Five-O - Hawaiian Heat

2009-12-01T10:21:00.000-05:00

OMG. It finally happened! My third chili cook-off and for the first time - a big fat win! Not third, not second, but first place! What happened? Did I get better at making chili? Did I think more positively? Did I have a better sign? I'm not sure, but whatever it was, it worked!

In the planning stages, I had a few different ideas. One was to replicate a chili a friend made years ago for our annual New Year's Day chili party. It was so simple - chunks of pork simmered in a sauce of puréed tomatoes and chipotle chilies - and totally kick-ass. Every time I thought about it, I was reminded of my favorite tacos al Pastor, which combine pork and chili heat with sweet grilled pineapple. I was also interested in Texas-style chili, which gets back to basics by forgoing the beans entirely. After much internal debate, I decided to do a combination of beef chuck and pork shoulder for the meat, and grilled fresh pineapple for the sweet. My final inspired idea was to add bacon, which is of course, rather obvious, but undeniably tasty.

The judges were skeptical about my grilled pineapple angle - and with good reason. Too much sweetness would kill what should be a savory, spicy mouthful. These were my thoughts, too, so I used restraint - and a whole lotta spice. For the 12 pounds of meat (to have enough chili for the sold-out Takedown without adding beans or extra veggies) I used one fresh pineapple. After giving it a good char on the grill, I blended part of it with the chipotle chilies and diced the rest into small pieces. I added the pineapple slowly, tasting along the way for spice to sweet ratio. The recipe below is my best guess at quantities for a single pot of chili.

My fellow competitors' chilis at the Takedown were all over the map. My nearest neighbors in the chow-line offered up a veggie pumpkin-mole chili with toasted, spiced pecans and cheddar cheese and a pulled pork chili served over an arepa and topped with coleslaw. Nice folks, darn good chili, and the legendary Matt Timms. What a nice way to spend the afternoon.

(Award-winning!) Chili Five-O, Hawaiian Heat

Make this a day or two before you want to serve it for best flavor. Also, if you want to use the whole pineapple, just increase the spices for the rub. It's delicious fresh off the grill, or you could use it in a salsa or sandwich. I wonder how chili-rubbed grilled pineapple would taste over chocolate ice cream?! Yum.

For the pineapple:

1/4 fresh pineapple, cored and cut into spears

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 pinch cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon red chili flakes

For the chili:

1/4 lb thick-cut bacon, diced

3-4 lbs beef chuck roast, coarsely ground or cut into small cubes

1-2 lbs pork shoulder (or loin, if you can't get a small amount of shoulder)

1 large onion, diced

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

1 6 oz. can tomato paste

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons ancho chili powder

4 teaspoons oregano

4 teaspoons ground cumin

1 tablespoon sweet paprika

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 of a small (7 oz.) can of chipotle chilies in adobo, including sauce

1 24 oz. can diced tomatoes

1 tablespoon diced pickled jalapeño

1 tablespoon liquid from picked jalapeño

Optional condiments:
grated sharp white cheddar cheese
finely diced white onion
fresh cilantro leaves

Grilling the pineapple:

Start a charcoal grill for high heat grilling. Toss the pineapple spears with the chili powder, cayenne and red pepper flakes. Lightly oil the grate. Put on the spears and grill until slightly charred on all sides about 6-8 minutes total. Set aside.

For the chili:

In a large, heavy bottomed pot, cook the bacon over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until browned. Remove with a slotted spoon to paper towels and set aside. Pour off and reserve all but about 1 tablespoon of bacon fat from the pot and increase heat to high. Working in batches, add just enough meat to the pan to cover the bottom without crowding. Cook until browned, 4-5 minutes per batch. Add bacon fat or vegetable oil between batches if necessary.

Set aside cooked meat and add enough bacon fat or vegetable oil to the pan to have about 1 tablespoon. Reduce heat to medium-high and add onions and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally until beginning to soften, about 4-5 minutes. Add tomato paste, oregano, cumin, paprika and cayenne and cook for 3-4 minutes.

Purée the chipotle chilies with adobo sauce and 1/3 of a spear of grilled pineapple in a food processor. Add this to the pot, along with the bacon, meat, diced tomatoes, pickled jalapeños and juice, and 4 cups of water. Dice the remaining pineapple and add to the pot. Bring to a boil, then reduced heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally for 2 hours or until the meat is tender.

Cool and refrigerate overnight. Reheat over medium heat. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Serve with grated sharp white cheddar, diced white onions and fresh cilantro.

Other posts about the Chili Takedown:
Edible Manhattan
Metromix
Chili Takedown - official site
Amateur Foodie Adventures

Chili Takedown #3 - Sunday!

2009-11-20T13:13:00.003-05:00

I'm entering my third Chili Takedown this Sunday at the Bell House in Brooklyn. I've haven't won a prize for my chili yet, but this one is going to RULE! I picked up some super special secret spices from Penzey's last night, the meat can't be beat, and there will be some amazing toppings...

You can buy your tickets in advance here.

Start fasting now, because there will be a LOT of chili to sample on Sunday. Hope to see you there!

Curried Pumpkin Soup

2009-11-18T11:00:00.000-05:00

Pennsylvania in the fall is a beautiful thing. It was definitely something I missed during my years in season-deprived Seattle. My family has land in the Reading area, a permanent home-base that has been there my entire life. At the center of what used to be my grandfather's dairy farm is a 175 year-old farmhouse on 150 acres of rolling hills and pastures. There is a large barn and several smaller buildings referred to as "the butcher house" and "the spring house" - built over an actual spring and where the milk was stored to keep it cool. My 92 year-old grandmother still lives in the farmhouse, with a tenant and daily visits from hired home aids.

I went for a visit this past weekend, staying at my mom's house - built on her part of the family land. Saturday night we had a typical big family dinner - including uncles, aunts and cousins we had 12 around the table. These events are raucous affairs. Our family loves to talk and most of them are somewhat deaf, which means everyone has to yell to be heard. They also like to all yell at once. It's fun, but chaotic. The food is usually simple, vegetarian or close to it, healthy and plentiful.

In keeping with the season and the surroundings, I decided to make this pumpkin soup. I used a small sugar pumpkin and a "white pumpkin" (if anyone can further identify this squash variety let me know in the comments) that I purchased from a neighbor's roadside stand (in his driveway) for 50 cents. I think that comes to about 10 cents/pound. Gotta love the country.

Curried Pumpkin Soup
adapted from Gourmet

I have made this using both brown and yellow mustard seeds, both were good. Use a high-quality coconut milk like Chaokoh or Thai Kitchen.

2 small pumpkins or half a larger pumpkin (3 1/2 cups after roasting, save any extra for another use)
olive oil
salt & pepper

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large onion, chopped fine
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup water
4 cups low sodium chicken stock
1 can coconut milk
1/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons mustard seeds

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut pumpkins in half, remove seeds and pulp. Lightly coat with olive oil and season with salt & pepper. Place face down on a baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes or until flesh is soft. Allow to cool. Remove and discard skin.

In a large heavy bottomed pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add onions and cook, stirring, until beginning to soften, about 4-5 minutes. Add garlic and ginger and cook for 1 or 2 minutes more. Add cumin, coriander and cardamom, stir and cook for another minute. Add salt, red pepper flakes, water, chicken stock, coconut milk and roasted pumpkin. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to low and simmer for about 15 minutes. Blend soup in batches or use an immersion blender.

Heat olive oil in a small pan over medium-high until hot but not smoking. Add mustard seeds and cook until they begin to pop. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes, then add to soup. Stir to combine. Taste soup and add salt as needed.

Tea-Smoked Chicken & Spinach Casserole - or How I Nearly Burned Down the Test Kitchen

2009-11-04T20:52:00.015-05:00

I love my cookbooks and culinary magazines. I collect them for the recipes and photography and try to keep them from getting splattered in the kitchen or tattered in a tote bag on my commute. Inevitably though, the most loved recipes are on pages dotted with red sauce, gritty with flour or warped from getting wet in the midst of my cooking whirlwind. These unsightly stains are sweet reminders of past kitchen endeavors and I wouldn't trade them in for pristine copies if I could. Except maybe this April 2004 issue of Cook's Illustrated that I accidentally caught on fire while making béchamel recently. Oops.

The béchamel comes from a great recipe for Spinach Lasagna. I wasn't making lasagna though. I was creating a pasta, chicken and spinach casserole for the 5th Annual Brooklyn Casserole Crazy party, hosted by the lovely and talented Emily Farris. Emily is the author Casserole Crazy, Hot Stuff for Your Oven, which you should run out and buy right now. Tis the season of the hot dish, after all.

I had already made the CI Spinach Lasagna a few times and it was a crowd pleaser. I wanted it's lovely creaminess for my casserole - after all, dry is the mortal enemy of the casserole, and I didn't want to resort to the can o' soup technique. I traded the no-boil lasagna noodles for cavatappi, a spiraling tube-shaped pasta. I also decided to add chicken - smoked right on the stove top in about 20 minutes.

It was during the smoking process that I made the mistake of setting down the magazine on the front burner so I could read it while I whisked flour into melted butter for the sauce. The top of the magazine snuck under the wok with the chicken and quickly caught fire. Luckily, I noticed right away and was able to put out the fire without much harm done. My guests seemed more amused than frightened and an hour later were happily scarfing down the finished casserole. Based on that test and their feedback, here's the recipe I came up with:

Strong to the Finish Spinach and Smoked Chicken Casserole

Chicken:

You will need a wok or other large pan with a lid, and a flat round rack that will fit in the wok a few inches above the bottom. I used a metal trivet that I randomly found at Pearl River, right when I needed it.

8 tablespoons white rice
8 tablespoons light brown sugar
8 tablespoons green tea leaves
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts

salt & pepper

Pasta, Spinach & Cheeses:

1 lb. cavatappi

2 8-ounce bags frozen organic chopped spinach, thawed

8 ounces cottage cheese

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (about 2 oz.)

8 oz. whole milk mozzarella cheese, shredded

Béchamel:

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus 1 tablespoon for the baking dish

1 medium yellow onion, diced

5 medium garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 1/2 cups milk
2 bay leaves

3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 oz.)

Breadcrumbs:

2-3 thick slices of good quality white bread

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Put a large pot of well-salted water on to boil for the pasta.

Line the bottom of your wok with aluminum foil. In a medium bowl, mix together the rice, brown sugar and tea leaves. Put this mixture into the wok, then the trivet or rack on top. It should sit a few inches above the mixture. Pound out the chicken breasts to an even thickness of about 1/2" and season with salt and pepper. Place the chicken onto the rack and cover with the lid. Heat over medium high for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat, but leave the wok unopened for another 5 minutes. Check for doneness. If the chicken isn't completely cooked through, put it back over medium high with the lid on for another 5 minutes. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, shred it into bite-sized pieces with your fingers or two forks. Set aside.

Meanwhile, add the pasta to the boiling water and cook until not quite al dente. Rinse with cold water to stop the cooking, drain well, and toss with a small amount of olive oil in the cooking pot. Set aside.

Remove as much liquid from the thawed spinach as possible. You can use cheesecloth or a clean dishtowel. Just wrap it up and squeeze like hell over the sink.

In a blender combine the cottage cheese, egg and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Process until smooth, about 30 seconds.

Put an oven rack in the middle position and preheat to 425 degrees.

Melt 5 tablespoons butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat until foaming. Add the onion and garlic and cook until beginning to soften, about 6 minutes. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly for about 1 1/2 minutes; do not brown. Whisk milk in slowly. Increase heat to medium high, bring to a boil. Add bay leaves, nutmeg, cayenne, salt and pepper and stir to combine. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Discard bay leaves, stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan.

Add the spinach to the béchamel and stir well to combine, breaking up the lumps. Add to the pot with the noodles, along with the shredded chicken and stir.

Tear bread slices up into a food processor, pulse until pieces are about the size of a pea. You should have about a cup of breadcrumbs. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a heavy bottomed skillet over medium high heat. Add breadcrumbs, garlic powder and salt and cook, stirring, until lightly browned. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Grease a 9 x 13" baking pan with remaining 1 tablespoon of butter. Add 1/3 of the pasta mixture, top with Parmesan. Add another 1/3 of the pasta mixture and top with half of the mozzarella. Add the remaining pasta mixture and pour the blended cottage cheese over it, spreading it out with a spatula. Top with the rest of the mozzarella. Scatter evenly with breadcrumbs. Cover with a sheet of aluminum foil sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for 10 minutes then remove foil and continue baking until cheese & breadcrumbs are lightly browned, about 10 more minutes. Use the broiler if not browned to your liking. Remove from oven and cool for 10-15 minutes. Serve.

While I didn't win, I was one of guest judge and local butcher Tom Mylan's top three pics from his group of casseroles to try. The verdict? Not enough salt. Which was my gut feeling, too. I had increased the salt level from the test batch and have increased it again for this recipe. As Tom pointed out, it's important to create layers of seasoning, so be sure to salt your pasta water, season the chicken before you smoke it, and add salt to the béchamel. The water you cook your pasta in should taste like the ocean - that's more salt than most people use, if they add it at all.

My casserole is the 2nd one, right after Karol Lu's

yummy and inventive Corndog casserole!

photo by metromix

Other words & pics about the Casserole Party here:

theambershow.net
metromix

Casserole Crazy

Sub Rosa Vodka - The Madrid Mule

2009-10-25T17:11:00.006-04:00

sub-rosa, adjective:
Designed to be secret or confidential; private.

In a world being overtaken by sameness, i.e. Walmart, McDonalds, Starbucks, etc., it's nice to know that regional producers are alive and kicking. I heard about Oregon-based Sub Rosa Spirits and their infused vodkas a few months ago, right before a trip to the Pacific Northwest. Their distillery makes two culinary-inspired infusions: Tarragon Vodka and Saffron Vodka. Produced one batch at a time, each bottle is hand stamped with the year produced and the batch number.

I snagged a bottle of the saffron version in Portland before heading out to the coast and an amazing beach-front rental with some girlfriends. For our cocktail hour post hot-tub and pre-dinner, we took inspiration from the traditional Moscow Mule, which combines vodka with ginger beer, lime juice and simple syrup. My Michigander friends were excited to find Vernor's ginger ale at the local grocery store - surprise! - so all we needed was a bit of sugar and some limes. The flavor of this cocktail is pretty unusual. It's refreshing, spicy and tart. The saffron flavor comes through, but with a hint of the other spices Sub Rosa uses for this blend, like toasted cumin and coriander.

Sub Rosa is currently only available in a few western states, Chicago and Washington, D.C. Internet orders are available from a few distributors, but expect to pay for the privilege. Doesn't that just make it extra special though?

The Madrid Mule
Substitute ginger beer for the Vernor's if necessary.

1 1/2 oz. Sub Rosa Saffron Vodka
1/2 tsp. simple syrup
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
Vernor's Ginger Ale
lime wedge or mint sprig for garnish

Combine vodka, simple syrup and lime juice in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake it up. Strain over ice in highball glass and top with ginger ale. Garnish with lime or mint.

Jones Soda Company's Halloween Mini-cans

2009-10-14T16:59:00.001-04:00

So. Freakin'. Cute.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to...Target? Yes, Target! Seattle-based Jones Soda Company has their adorable (and scaaary,) 8 oz. cans available in Target stores just in time for Halloween. I haven't had any of these flavors, (Lemon Drop Dead, Spooookiwi, Candy Corn and Buried Pomegranate,) but Jones is known for pushing the envelope in soda-land. One year my friend's mom bought her the Thanksgiving pack, one bottle each of these holiday meal flavors:

* Turkey & Gravy
* Brussels Sprouts with Prosciutto
* Cranberry
* Wild Herb Stuffing
* Pumpkin Pie

About five of us sat down for a tasting. My friend poured a shot sized portion of the Turkey & Gravy soda into each of our glasses. We all took a sip... and blech! Nasty stuff! It just got worse...we had to set up a spit bucket. I can't even describe the awfulness of Brussels sprouts flavored soda. At least the Halloween flavors will taste good! Look for new flavors for Thanksgiving '09 and check out more Jones products here.

Eating New York

2009-10-05T09:04:00.001-04:00

I've fallen off the eating well wagon. Or in other words, I haven't been cooking - I've been going to restaurants, ordering delivery, or getting fed by friends. Not that these can't be reasonable indulgences in an otherwise healthy diet. Just not all in a row for a month.

Why the wagon? A few years ago, I was 15 pounds heavier than I am now. One year ago, I was about 10 pounds lighter than I am now. I'll give you a minute to do the math... It means that I lost a whole bunch of weight and I've started to put it back on. People have all kinds of ideas about how to lose weight. Irritatingly, almost all of them involve eating less. This is frustrating, because of my life-long devotion to food and the eating of it.

How did I lose the weight back in 2007? I usually refer to it as the break-up diet, or nature's way of preparing me for a dip back into the dating pool. When I was heartbroken, I actually couldn't eat. This phenomenon has rarely occurred in my life. I subsisted for several weeks on frozen grapes (side note: delicious if you freeze really crisp, sweet red grapes,) and yogurt, which I forced myself to eat. Once my appetite came back, I was feeling skinnier and sassier, and I wanted to stay that way. I started cutting out dairy, carbs and sugar and eating more protein and whole grains. Yawn.... Oh, sorry I just bored myself to sleep. The thing is, I'm a hedonist at heart and I want to eat delicious food and do things that feel good. My brain says no most of the time, but it's ultimately not the boss of me.

I'm pretty sure this recent happy binge of eating whatever and wherever is because of a dude. See, over the past 8 months or so, I sort of gave up on dating. I had been dabbling in Internet dating and found that aside from some great stories, it was pretty much a waste of my time. I know lots of people have great success with this, but it was not happening for me. I decided to stop trying and see what the universe would throw my way. Dear Universe, I'm sending back all the gays, the married guys and the young'uns.

Back to the dude. One silly night of hand-holding, squeezes, giggling and a few kisses. It wasn't love. It wasn't sex. It just felt good and sort of scandalous - but in a good way. It made me want to feel good all the time. Suddenly I found myself skipping the salad bar in the cafeteria and heading out to Hing Won Express for roast pork noodle soup - salty, fatty and satisfying. The next day I went to the Jamaican Dutchy cart for jerk chicken over peas and rice with cabbage. That weekend, I dined at Motorino with some friends where we had a festival of meat, cheese and bread. It felt good to say yes to what I wanted. Yes, yes, yes.

Some other highlights from the binge:
The Brooklyn Cheese Experiment - I didn't actually make it to the cook-off portion of this event, but I did come to the after party where I ate a large amount of cheese and the best butter ever: Vermont Butter & Cheese Company's salted cultured butter. Amazing and decadent.

Szechuan Gourmet - 242 W. 56th St, NY - the best, BEST Kung Pao Chicken I've ever had! It had a perfect balance of spicy and sweet with an amazing smoky flavor, tender chicken pieces and crisp water chestnuts. The mini steamed pork buns and the shredded beef with spicy Asian green chili leeks were both good, but the Kung Pao, oh my!

Pho V858-8 - 858 8th Ave @ 51st St., NY - bad name, decent pho, overpriced - but, hey, it's pho in midtown!

Buddha Bodai -
5 Mott St, NY - All vegetarian, kosher Chinese food. The General Tso's "chicken" was so good we ordered a second one - crisp, sweet, tangy.

Huaraches at the Brooklyn Flea - Not the sandals, the double-plate tacos, as my friend calls them. They're not tacos, but in the same vein - long oblongs of masa, too big for one plate, topped with your choice of meat, lettuce, onion, salsa and cheese. It was hot that day and I sat on the steps behind all the food vendors, ate every bite and licked my fingers.

Kegs & Cluckers at the Queens County Farm Museum - Tom Mylan, Brooklyn's indie butcher, made 40 beer can chickens slathered in bbq sauce for this camp-out and party event. There was also chorizo cornbread, potato salad, corn on the cob and baked beans. Oh, and pie by Sweet Deliverance!

Joloff Restaurant - 930 Fulton St, Brooklyn - I was excited to try Senegalese food for the first time, but I was disappointed. The food seemed bland and greasy, sort of like the African version of diner fare. It may just be that I need to try it again, so I'm withholding further judgment.

Fonda - 434 7th Ave, Brooklyn - An off the map venture by a well established chef, Roberto Santibañez, the former culinary director of New York's Rosa Mexicana restaurants. I was ready to be blown away, but I was barely blown at all. Granted, my group only ordered entrees and sangria. The guacamole that went to almost every other table looked tasty but who knows?

**********************************************************

Of course, you can't say yes all the time, right? Romance failed to bloom for me from that encounter and after almost a month of indulgence the scale is shouting NO! I'm back to salads and fruit and cooking at home. I'm interested in the connection between food and sex and dating, so we'll see what happens next. I'm hoping to find that happy middle ground, but so far it's been peaks and valleys. Stay tuned and I promise to share all the juicy details!

Cucumber and Avocado Soup

2009-09-15T14:00:00.002-04:00

My mother makes an avocado soup almost everyday for breakfast as part of her raw food diet. She uses chard or kale and other green vegetables like zucchini along with the avocado. Because she's my mom, and she's trying to get me to eat it, I automatically dismiss the soup as "gross." Yes, I'm still a surly teenager at heart.

Trying to grow up and keep an open mind, I did try mom's green soup. It wasn't bad. Avocado helps all the healthy stuff go down easy with it's rich, buttery flavor. When a recipe for cold cucumber and avocado soup arrived in my inbox from The Splendid Table, I decided to give it a try.

This recipe uses a balance of lemon juice, cucumbers, avocado and jalapenos. I tweaked it a bit because I wanted more of the avocado thickness, but because I used the optional cilantro I ended up with more of a guacamole-like soup. For something a bit more refined, use watercress or arugula instead.

Cucumber and Avocado Soup:
Adapted from a recipe by Anna Thomas' Love Soup: 160 All-New Vegetarian Recipes from the Author of The Vegetarian Epicure, excerpted by The Splendid Table.

2 lbs. cucumbers, peeled, seeded and diced
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 cup cilantro leaves (or 6 oz. watercress or arugula)
2 cloves garlic, peeled & roughly chopped
1 small jalapeno, seeds and pith removed or to taste
2 avocados, peeled and cubed
salt & pepper to taste
1 tomato, diced
olive oil

Put half of the cucumbers and half of the citrus juices into a blender and puree to a liquid. Add the rest of the cucumbers, the cilantro, garlic, jalapeno, avocado, salt and pepper and blend until smooth and creamy. Taste and add more salt and pepper, lemon or lime juice as needed. Chill the soup and serve with the diced tomatoes and a drizzle of olive oil over the top.

The Brooklyn Cheese Experiment

2009-09-11T09:17:00.004-04:00

This is going to be an amazing cook-off. The theme is Cheese. Yes, capital "C" Cheese. Every contestant will be making a cheese-based dish of either a savory or sweet nature and then you, the ticket-buying audience, get to taste every one. But wait, there's more! You also get to try the home brewer's best beers. Once you've munched and sipped your way around the room, vote for your favorite in the audience-choice category. There will also be a panel of celebrity judges bringing their discerning taste buds to bear on the range of entries. Expect intrigue and drama at the awards ceremony, as chefs are honored for their cheesy creations with fabulous prizes and glory.

Nick Suarez and Theo Peck's last event, the Brooklyn Beer Experiment sold out, so get your tickets now for this fun and filling event.

The Brooklyn Cheese Experiment
Cheese Cook-off and Homebrew-off
Date: Sunday, September 13th, 2009
Place: The Bell House 149 7th St., Brooklyn
Time: Event 1-5 pm
After party in front lounge immediately following event!

Kegs & Cluckers - your Labor Day destination!

2009-09-03T16:10:00.013-04:00

On the top of my list of things to do this weekend:
Revel
Eat
Drink
Sleep in a tent
Capture the flag
Make out with a stranger (optional)

How can I accomplish all these goals? Hey, I know! - Kegs & Cluckers at the Queens County Farm Museum! It's a party - bluegrass, a DJ and dancing, a camp fire, fun games, and fabulous food, including bbq pulled chicken prepared by local butcher Tom Mylan. Did I mention the ticket price includes beer all night from Brooklyn Brewery? And there's biscuits and Bloody Mary's for breakfast in the morning.

There's a lot of buzz about this event so get your tickets now!

Buzz:
FIPS
Serious Eats
SkimKim
Brooklyn Based
Tom the Butcher

Strawberry & Peach No-Bake Pie

2009-08-31T12:55:00.006-04:00

Ok, the weather has gotten cooler this week, but when I made this pie with my baking-prone friend, Sara, it was hot as the dickens. And humid! We met at the Carroll Gardens farmer's market in Brooklyn on our bikes and ogled the piles of peaches, nectarines, tomatoes, corn and peppers. Sara had done some calculations involving oven temperatures, the angle of the sun, the percentage of humidity in the air and her apartment's lack of A/C and come to the conclusion that a no-bake pie was in order. We found perfectly ripe peaches and fresh mint at the market and then hopped on our bikes for a sunny, sweaty ride to her place.

It's Too Hot to Bake Peach-Strawberry Pie
recipe by Sara Dierck

By using a graham cracker crust that hardens up in the freezer, and a stove-top filling, this pie won't make the kitchen and house unbearable when the temperature climbs. For a final touch, we whipped up some heavy cream with Grand Marnier and a bit of sugar. Don't skip the mint - it's cool and fresh!

Graham Cracker Crust:
1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (from 1 cellophane package plus about 2 full crackers)
6 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 sugar

Fruit Filling:
3 peaches
4 tablespoons butter, divided in half
1/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons lemon juice, divided in half
3 tablespoons Grand Marnier
1 pint strawberries, washed and hulled
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt

Make the crust:
Have a 8 or 9 inch pie pan ready. Pulse the graham crackers in a food processor until fine. Combine in a small bowl with the melted butter and sugar, and mix with a fork until incorporated. Press into the pie pan with your fingers, evenly distributing, smoothing out with the bottom of a glass if you'd like. Put pie pan in freezer until ready, or for at least 20 minutes.

Make the filling:
Cut the peaches into slices. It's okay to leave on the skin. Melt half the butter (2 tablespoons,) in a skillet over medium heat. Add the sugar and 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Add the peaches to the pan and stir to coat. Add the Grand Marnier and stir occasionally until the peaches are cooked, about 5 minutes.

Strain the peaches in a sieve, reserving the liquid. Set the peaches aside to cool.

Pat dry the strawberries if wet, and cut any large ones in half. In a food processor, puree the berries.

In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch, sugar and salt. In a saucepan, combine the cornstarch mixture with 1/2 cup of the reserved peach liquid. Add the strawberry puree with the remaining 2 tablespoons each of lemon juice and butter.

Stir constantly over medium heat until the mixture reaches a simmer. Continue stirring for one minute more.

Pour a third of the strawberry filling into the chilled graham cracker crust. Arrange half of the peaches on top. Add another third of the filling, and follow that with the rest of the peaches. Pour the remaining filling into the crust, smoothing the top. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Serve with whipped cream and a small bit of mint.

photo by Sara Dierck

Summer in a Salad - Corn, Tomato & Feta

2009-08-25T09:44:00.004-04:00

For a precious six weeks each summer, the NYC Greenmarket comes to Rockefeller Center - a mere block away from where I toil at my nine-to-five. At the height of the season there are overflowing piles of fresh sweet corn, heirloom tomatoes, purple and white eggplant, beans, and a rainbow of peaches, plums and berries. There is local honey. The Amish stand (or maybe they are Mennonites, because if they're Amish how do they get here?) has fresh eggs, cheese, beef jerky and baked goods. There are pretzels and bread and apple donuts and enough jams and jellies for days. I go almost every day and sometimes make my lunch by picking up a roll from one stand, a tomato from another and then convincing the cheese people to sell me just one thick slice.

If I didn't exercise some kind of self-control, I'd buy something from every stand to take home. Recently, I found myself trying to think of a good summer salad to make with the two most obviously ripe and ready stand-outs: the corn & tomatoes. My thought process went something like this:

Wow, I'd really like to eat some corn. And tomatoes. Hmm...what if I put them together? So if I buy the corn today...wait, I have that thing tonight so I won't have time to do any cooking... that means they'll have to be refrigerated... but I'd rather eat them super fresh... maybe I should buy them tomorrow...

So, I went back to the office with just my lunch fixings... and found on my chair the food section from the New York Times - with a recipe for corn & tomato salad. The next day I bought all my ingredients and made the salad. And then licked the plate clean. It was so delicious and fresh and everything I wanted. It was summer in a bowl.

I wanted more. I made plans to cook with a friend. The NYT version of this salad is made with bacon. My friend is a vegetarian, so I suggested that we replace the fat from the bacon with cheese. Mozzarella would be good, but I wanted something that would go well with cilantro and lime juice. Feta came to mind - specifically my favorite variety - Valbreso feta. This is a French feta made with sheep's milk. It has the characteristic saltiness of traditional Greek feta but is very creamy. Unfortunately, the store I knew carried Valbreso was closed (first day of Ramadan?) but there was another store a few doors down that had something I had never tried - Bulgarian feta. The shopkeeper advised me that it was nice and creamy so I went for it.

The final touch to our vegetarian version of this salad was to use a smoked salt that my friend had in her pantry. Her's came from Whole Foods and it added a light touch of smoke to the finished dish. I plan to make this salad until the last of the good tomatoes and corn are gone for the season. It's easy, simple and super fresh.

Summer Corn & Tomato Salad w/Feta
adapted from a recipe by the New York Times

Note: I used a "corn zipper" to remove the kernels from the cob. You can also carefully cut along the ear with a sharp knife. Also, adjust the amount of chili pepper to your liking - the seeds and pith hold most of the heat so remove them if you prefer.

2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 small red onion, chopped
4 ears of corn, kernels removed
2 cups diced tomatoes
1 avocado, diced
1 small chili pepper, seeded & minced
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
juice from 1 lime
1 cup crumbled feta, Valbreso or Bulgarian if possible
fresh ground pepper and salt to taste (smoked salt if available)

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium high. Add the onion and cook until beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the corn and cook for another 5-7 minutes, stirring regularly. Remove from heat and allow to cool somewhat.

In a large bowl, combine all other ingredients. Add the corn & onion mixture and stir gently. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary.

Souper Douper Sandwich Cook-Off

2009-08-19T09:46:00.007-04:00

Nothing makes an indie cook-off more delicious than when it raises money for charity. (Hot Dog cook-off, anyone?) This souper event for the Greenpoint Reformed Church’s soup kitchen had an added twist - the winner will be volunteering for a day making their dish again - this time for the homeless and hungry in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The proceeds from the cook-off will go towards the cost of food and anyone who signed up (or is interested) will provide the labor. Thanks to the generosity of the 12 chefs who participated, there will be another day of yummy soups & sandwiches, this time for those in need.

Despite the heat, a rather serious mandoline injury, and some car problems, the chefs presented quite an array of creative and inspired soups and sandwiches.

Cook-off regular Mike O'Neil brought a classic tomato soup with a tasty grilled cheese crouton. Jonathan Schnapp made a happy marriage of salty and sweet with his creation, The Naughty Jew - a French toast and bacon sandwich with maple syrup. Recent world record achiever, Adam Pollock of Fifty Bucks A Week, took a Spanish style tortilla to new sandwich heights with his Tortilla Española Outta Controlla:

Nick Suarez made his Sullivan St. Seven Grain bacon & Swiss grilled cheese on the spot with his usual flair:

Lacey Tauber's refreshing gazpacho:
A surprisingly delicious Peanut Soup:

The big winner of the day was both the audience favorite and the judges 1st place by Jui Shih - Asian Porchetta Sandwich and Chilled Tomato Consomme:

Jui's big win meant two coveted prizes provided by Le Crueset. Other great prizes that went to runners-up included copies of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and Julie & Julia, gadgets from Oxo, and tote bags from Just Food and The Brooklyn Kitchen. These prizes were awesome, and I found myself regretting that I didn't have time to make my own entry, but what really got me was the amazing trophies made by Noah Berland who co-sponsored the event with Cathy Erway of Not Eating Out in NY. Aren't these awesome?!:

Other posts on this cook-off:
Not Eating Out in NY
Just Emily
Dave's Kitchen

World Record Appreciation Society #8 - Food!

2009-08-14T09:49:00.010-04:00

On Wednesday night, the URDB (Universal Record Database) hosted an event in New York City unlike any other I have personally witnessed. A group of yellow-blazered young gents measured, timed, and verified a multitude of world record attempts live on stage - all somehow related to the subject of food. But these were not your average greatest-number-of-hot-dogs-eaten type records. Oh, no. There was the longest chain of straws assembled to drink a soda (over 12 feet,) the most crustless PB&J sandwiches made by 7 people in 1 minute and of course, the most tortillas frisbeed - directly into the crowd - in 30 seconds.

Calling themselves "the definitive site for human achievement," the URDB has had appearances on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, including this amazing one involving Cameron Diaz snuggling bunnies:

Before the record attempts, Thu Tran screened a scene and a trailer from her show Food Party which debuted this summer on IFC. I'm not sure how to describe this show or why it's so hilarious - but Thu is just as funny and endearing in person as on her show. Check out clips on her blog and the IFC site.

Many of the night's record attempts were made by people involved in food and food media, like my friends Rachel Kramer Bussel and Nichelle Stephens of Cupcakes Take the Cake, Adam Pollock of Fifty Bucks a Week and Harry Rosenblum of The Brooklyn Kitchen. I was excited to see Sasha Wizansky of Meatpaper - a lovely food magazine with a very specific theme - claim the record for Most Pig Parts Tasted In One Sitting.

Some highlights from the event:
Fastest Backwards Rendition Of Alphabet While Balancing Egg On Head And Spoon On Nose - Adriana Yugovich

Longest Cupcake Kebab - Rachel Kramer Bussel & Nichelle Stevens of Cupcakes Take the Cake and Nora Vetter of Nibbles by Nora

Fastest Time To Spell “I ♥ PICKLED HERRING” Using Pickled Herrings And Then Eat It - Adam Pollock of Fifty Bucks a Week

Most Cherries Pitted In One Minute - Harry Rosenblum of The Brooklyn Kitchen

Most Crustless PB&J Sandwiches Eaten By 1 Person In 10 Bites - Jake Bronstein

Got your own world record to set? Join the party at URDB.

Soup & Sandwich Cook-Off

2009-08-13T12:02:00.006-04:00

Ladies & Gents, another foodie cook-off fundraiser:

flier by Patrick Moberg

Word on the street (Cathy told me while we were standing on the street last night,) says that organizers still have a few openings for contestants. If you are interested in competing, check out the details on Cathy's blog and then email souperdoupersandwich@gmail.com

The Great Hot Dog Cook-Off Much Belated Recap

2009-07-29T23:16:00.006-04:00

I had a great time volunteering for the 4th Annual Great Hot Dog Cook-Off. I don't want to gush too much here, but the lovely ladies who organized and helped out were just fabulous, generous and fun. At the end of the day, we raised $4,000 for City Harvest and sent many people home full of hot dogs and plenty tipsy.

I was the appointed chef wrangler and grill mistress. This meant that I had to get everything set up for the chefs, get them onto and off of the grills and to their serving stations. I found myself running inside for beers, wiping up all sorts of messy toppings and flinging handfuls of (hardwood) charcoal onto the six-foot long grills.

I was very impressed with the creative dishes our valiant chefs prepared. There were major departures from the traditional hot dog, like a homemade ravioli stuffed with hot dogs, and a "veggie" dog that was a grilled banana topped with marshmallow fluff, chocolate chips and peanut butter. One contestant made her own hot dogs, others added bacon, salsa, jam, peppers and pickled cabbage. Unfortunately, I was too busy during the day to try very many of the contestant's dogs or get pictures of them all. Luckily for me, there were several photogs and bloggers running around so I can refer you to a few sites. I did manage to snap a few pics and for a full list of winners be sure to visit the official web site.

Recaps & photos here:
NYT Fort Greene Blog
Time Out New York

Not Eating Out in NY
Sharing Food
Dave's Kitchen
Forking Tasty

A few snaps I managed:

Grilled Lamb Burgers

2009-07-16T17:02:00.004-04:00

I love lamb. I really do. Especially since I discovered that a local grocer sells it ground and ready for burger-making. Lamb is flavorful and juicy, and works well with traditional Middle Eastern flavors like cumin. Fresh garlic and a bit of cayenne pepper keep things interesting.

Grilled Lamb Burgers:
1 lb. ground lamb
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
salt & pepper

Set up your grill for a two-level fire: hot on one side and cool on the other. With charcoal, this means putting all the coals on one side. For a gas grill, after preheating, turn off one of the burners to create a cool area.

Mix the lamb gently with cumin, coriander, cayenne and garlic. Form into 3-4 patties. Season both sides with salt & pepper.

When the grill is hot, start the patties over the hot side and grill, turning once, about 2-3 minutes per side. Move them to the cool side and put the lid on the grill. Cook for another 4-8 minutes depending on their size and how well done you prefer your meat. I used the hot side of the grill for some onions while the burgers finished cooking. Fresh goat cheese would be a great topping for these. I usually eat mine with mustard and onions.

Beer Braised Beef with Horseradish Mashed Potatoes & Guinness Gravy

2009-06-29T14:41:00.008-04:00

I've been promising this recipe for a while now. Honestly, I feel tired just thinking about it. Not because it's particularly challenging, but because I made it for the Brooklyn Beer Experiment and had to serve 350 "bites." That's a lot of beef and whole lotta potatoes, trust me. So in the month since I've been recovering, I haven't felt much like rehashing it for the old blog. But a promise is a promise, and I've got pictures to post so I might as well get down to it.

The cook-off theme was food made using beer, and my path was shaped by practical considerations as well as some research into beery recipes. The idea of a roast appealed to me because I could make it fairly easily and it would keep well over Sterno for a few hours during the contest. Same for the mashed potatoes. I experimented with a few smaller cuts of beef and found that an ale worked best for the braising, while Guinness gave the gravy a deep, stouty richness. Use your favorite mashed potato recipe here and add just enough horseradish to give it a little bite. Don't skimp on the butter & half-n-half.

Stout! Stout! Let it Ale Out!
Ale-braised Beef with Horseradish Mashed Potatoes & Guinness Gravy

For the roast:
1 3-4 pound beef roast
coarse salt & freshly ground pepper
4 slices thick cut bacon, cut into 1/2" pieces
1 large onion, sliced
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 12 oz. bottle ale (I used Brooklyn India Pale Ale)
2 cups beef stock
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 bay leaf

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Pat the roast dry with paper towels and season with coarse salt & pepper on all sides. Place a dutch oven over medium heat and add bacon. Cook, stirring frequently until fat is rendered and bacon is getting crisp. With a slotted spoon, remove bacon to several layers of paper towels. Pour off (and save,) all but about 1 tablespoon of bacon fat from the dutch oven. Add the roast and cook until browned on all sides about 10-12 minutes total. Remove the meat to a platter.

Add a bit of bacon fat to the pan if needed, along with the onion and mushrooms. Cook, stirring occasionally until slightly browned and softened, about 6-8 minutes. Return the roast to the pan along with any accumulated juices. Add beer, stock, coriander and bay leaf and bring to a simmer over high heat. Cover and cook in the oven for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, or until a fork slides into the meat with little resistance.

Remove the meat to a platter & tent with foil. When cooled a bit, strain the braising liquid into a glass measuring cup and reserve the solids.

For the gravy:
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup flour
1 cup Guinness
braising liquid from the roast (plus extra beef stock depending on how much gravy you want)
reserved solids
salt & pepper

Combine the braising liquid and Guinness in a pan and heat until boiling, then reduce heat to low. In a separate heavy bottomed saucepan, melt the butter over medium-high heat until foam subsides. Add flour and whisk until completely incorporated. Cook, whisking constantly for a minute or two. Begin adding the hot liquid from the other pan in small amounts, whisking constantly. Cook for about 5 minutes stirring frequently until thickened. If you want your gravy to be exceptionally rich and thick, process some of the reserved solids in a blender with a little bit of stock. Add this to your gravy until you achieve the desired consistency. The ground coriander and mushrooms will really give a nice flavor boost.

To serve: slice the roast and layer over potatoes. Top with the Guinness gravy and if you like, a squirt of this horseradish mustard sauce from Chow.com.

The Great Hot Dog Cook-Off!

2009-06-24T15:48:00.007-04:00

Mark your calendar and grab your wienies! It's time for the 4th Annual Great Hot Dog Cook-Off! Sponsored by the Ted & Amy Supper Club and Kelso of Brooklyn, this cook-off is a fundraiser for City Harvest.

The $25 entry fee gets you samples of the most creative and inspired hot dogs you'll have all summer and as much of Kelso's beer as you can handle. Vote for your favorites and hang out all day as the dogs come off the grill and into your life.

Think you have what it takes to wow the crowd with your own dogs? There are still a few spots available for contestants. Visit The Great Hot Dog Cook-Off site to sign up.

Saturday, July 18th 1-6 pm
Kelso Brewery
529 Waverly Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11238

Khao Soi: My Kick-Ass Curry Wins Again!

2009-06-15T20:43:00.007-04:00

I know I promised a beer-braised beef recipe. It's on the way, I swear! But first, big exciting news: My signature Thai curry noodle dish won another cooking competition!

When I heard that Matt Timms was hosting a Curry Take-Down I hesitated for a minute about whether or not to make this again. You might recall that I made a similar dish for last year's Ramen-Off hosted by The Brooklyn Kitchen. I thought about it and decided to go for it. After all, Khao Soi is my signature dish. I make it all the time at home and it's a huge crowd pleaser. Rich, spicy and satisfying, the thick curry and coconut milk broth clings to skinny egg noodles and sliced chicken. Pickled mustard greens and onions add a tart crunch against the heat. Every bowl can be customized with traditional toppings like scallions, cilantro, crunchy fried noodles and roasted chile oil. So what if I'd entered it once before? I'd bring it back bigger, better and bolder than before! Curry on!

To make this now two-time award winning dish, I adapted a recipe from Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. I use a quick-pickle recipe that I learned from a friend who owns a Thai restaurant in Alaska. (Yes, Alaska.) He also recommended the brand of coconut milk that I use, Chaokoh. It's the real secret to a superior khao soi - lesser brands result in watery, separated broth without the flavor and incredible mouthfeel of a great curry that you want to pick up and drink down in great gulps. I'm serious, it's so good.

Here's a link to the recipe from my previous post. Instead of ramen noodles, I used fresh Hong Kong style egg noodles. I boiled them for about 2 1/2 minutes and then rinsed them with cold water to stop the cooking. Then I tossed them with a drizzle of sesame oil to keep them from sticking together.

There are some awesome pics over at the Chili Take-Down site by Natasha Ryan of Metromix. These will also explain why at the spur of the moment I named my dish "Meow Khao Soi." (Hint: the apron.)

Finally, the sweet side of this spicy Take-Down was to raise money for the Women's Education Project. Check it out! Get involved! Eat curry!

Curry Take-down!

2009-06-10T12:01:00.007-04:00

Another Take-down! I'm excited about this one! I'm going to bring back my award winning curry for another battle. Better yet, all proceeds from the ticket sales go to benefit the Women's Education Project. Will I see you there?

Buy tickets through the Chili Take-down site here.

Sunday June 14th @ 1PM
Loki Lounge
304 5th Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(718) 965-9600

Espresso Vivace - new location

2009-06-09T10:42:00.005-04:00

Whew! I'm exhausted. It seems like there hasn't been a break since I went to Seattle for the IFBC (International Food Blogger Conference.) It was a whirlwind trip and I was right back to work when I got back. This past weekend I entered the Brooklyn Beer Experiment cook-off and it was a lot of fun, but took days of testing, shopping (pack-mule style, like we do it without cars here in the city,) and slaving over a hot stove for hours! I took a bunch of pics and will post the recipe later this week for my non-award winning, but much-loved entry: Ale-Braised Beef with Horseradish Mashed Potatoes & Guinness Gravy. Finally, last night was the opening night of Celebrate Brooklyn, a series of free concerts at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. I'm bartending there this year and went straight from the office (my day job,) to work another 7 hours slinging beer at happy concert-goers. The season opener was David Byrne and he was AWESOME. Seriously people, this man is a professional. He delivered a solid set with four encores - the grand finale was Burning Down the House. But the best part was heading out after the concert to a local bar and running into him there. He was just hanging out, enjoying himself and chatting with all the folks crowded in from the show. Fun.

So until I have a moment to myself to edit some photos and write up that recipe, here's a little tidbit from my Seattle trip: my much beloved Espresso Vivace has moved from it's longtime home by the park on Denny Way all the way down Broadway to a newly constructed condo building. I'm not sure how I feel about the exterior, but the interior felt just like old times.

From their web site:

Espresso Vivace has survived the eminent domain seizure of the Roasteria, which closed forever on July 17th 2008, by opening a new Gran Bar at 532 Broadway Ave East. The new coffee bar is 2000 square feet and features our signature curved Italian stand-up bar done this time in Caffe Forest Brown marble. This design reflects Vivace’s 20 year history on Capitol Hill and the design combines elements of our Roasteria and Sidewalk Bar. Personally, I am very pleased with the look, feel, and easy flow of this new bar.

There's just nothing like a latte by Vivace.

Espresso Vivace
532 Broadway E
Seattle, WA 98102
www.espressovivace.com
(206) 860-5869

Another Food-filled Weekend: Hapa Kitchen BBQ & The Brooklyn Beer Experiment

2009-06-02T12:21:00.007-04:00

The lovely ladies of Hapa Kitchen (A Supper Club,) present Hapa 'Cue at The Yard. What's not to love?: Free admission, music, beer for purchase and a menu of Asian-influenced barbecue treats. A recession-busting seven bucks gets a choice of entree and all three sides. Rest assured, the meat you eat here comes from the humanely raised and pastured animals of Tamarack Hollow Farm. Save room for The Dessert Truck, which will be parked on-site. You can't afford not to get your Q on here.

Saturday, June 6th 6 - 9 pm
BKLYN Yard
388-400 Carroll St.
Brooklyn, NY (Gowanus)

**********************************

Cook-off compadres Nick Suarez and Theo Peck join forces to do it their way - with beer! This Sunday at the Bell House in Brooklyn (duh) over 20 amateur chefs will bring their best beer-based recipes to vie for audience and celebrity-judge awards. There will also be a home-brewed beer contest. Two cook-offs for the price of one! And beer! Tickets are $18 (includes one free beer)and can be purchased in advance on their site.

Sunday, June 7th 1-5 pm
The Bell House
149 7th Street, between 2nd & 3rd Avenues
Brooklyn, NY

Boat St. Cafe, Seattle, WA

2009-05-19T16:27:00.010-04:00

If you follow me on Twitter (or read my tweets in the sidebar here,) you know that I was in Seattle last weekend for the International Food Blogger Conference. It's hard to believe, but after this trip, I feel more nostalgic than ever for the years I lived there.

I moved straight from college in Pennsylvania and immediately took to the rainy Pacific Northwest in flannel and Doc Martins. I didn't know anything about food, other than what I needed to be a restaurant server. After a summer in Alaska slinging overpriced crab legs at cruise ship seniors in a hotel dining room, a friend told me about a job in a small restaurant at the south end of the University District. It was Boat St. Cafe and it was a food revelation. During my brief stint there, I learned that simple, quality ingredients could be surprisingly elegant and satisfying. During lulls in service, I would help the cook make cream-baked chicken breasts for sandwiches, our summery onion, tomato and fennel soup or the decadent blackberry cobbler. I discovered smoked mozzarella. I whipped up batches of mayo flavored with lemon and basil or cayenne and red pepper flakes. My favorite snack on the weekend brunch shift was our simple oven-roasted baby red potatoes split and topped with creamy house-made hollandaise sauce and scallions. I gained a few pounds.

I had heard that the owner during my time had sold the business and that they had relocated closer to downtown. There had been a lot of buzz about a new young chef and a sexy new dinner menu. Several of my friends reported that they had gone and loved it. So when I walked in for lunch last week, I was surprised to find so many familiar touches. The interior is bright and white everywhere. Not in a modern plastic way, but whitewashed and cool with wood and stone and slate. I saw one of the old lunch standbys being delivered to a table: melted cheese over baguette halves, topped with tomato and fresh basil.

On the menu were variations of the dishes I had learned to cook - first at the restaurant and then for myself at home. Even though there were plenty of new additions, the voice of the former Boat Street was clearly still the same. I asked the server and learned that the new chef was running the dinner kitchen, but the original owner was still there running the lunch kitchen. "And she is still crazy," our server added. I remember that part, of course, but mostly I remember the food.

Boat Street Cafe
3131 Western Ave
(between Bay St & Denny Way)
Seattle, WA 98121
(206) 632-4602
www.boatstreetcafe.com

Macaroni & Cheese - simplified. This was pasta & melted cheese. Nothing creamy about it, but the flavor was still delicious.

Betsy waits patiently for me to take a photo of our artichoke sandwich. I'm pretty sure the artichokes were canned - strange, because they are in season and there was a whole raw one in a glass on our table for decoration. Still - great flavor, very creamy and on a ciabatta roll that was not too dense or chewy.

Lovely, seasonal rhubarb sauce over vanilla ice cream. Sigh.

Not pictured: The signature Amaretto Bread Pudding with rum butter cream and golden raisins. Topped with heavy cream. Not for the faint of heart.

Tofu Take-down!

2009-05-12T11:25:00.003-04:00

This past Sunday Matt Timms made Take-down magic happen by featuring not chili, not bacon, but glorious Tofu at the most recent of his much-lauded culinary challenges. Being rather tofu-challenged myself, I decided to participate as a taster instead of a chef at this event. Although the tofu came disguised in many ways, I was disappointed in the ratio of savory to sweet dishes. The multitude of desserts meant that the savory dishes really stood out - and several took home the biggest prizes. Which is not to say that the desserts weren't delicious - both versions of Tiramisu were yummy, and these little cups of lemony goodness were executed with both flair and flavor:

I loved the "General Lu's Tofu," by Karol Lu and Mike O'Neil's Spicy Ginger Tofu. My vote went to Karol, but I was torn between hers and the Ethiopian Empanadas, by Sara Morrisson. Her made-up creation had a lovely, flaky dough wrapped around a slightly spicy tofu-studded filling. I went back for thirds. My only wish was that they could have been warmer - but even at room temp they impressed enough to take home both the judge's top prize and the audience award.

A Plate of Tofu dreams:

The judges (Cathy Erway & Akiko Moorman,) gave out a lot of prizes, including one for worst presentation - a horrible gooey green mess of "green tea brulee." For a complete list of winners, check out Matt's Take-down site.

Pickle's Progress

2009-05-06T13:20:00.008-04:00

I wasn't sure that I was going to post about the making of my pickles for the recent Park Slope Pork-Off. I got the recipe from David Lebovitz and he got it from the book Arthur Schwartz's Jewish Home Cooking. Now that I am blogging about it we will reach complete recipe redundancy. BUT! These were so easy and delicious that I can't resist sharing. SO! Here we go:

Arthur Schwartz's Homemade Kosher Pickles adapted by David Lebovitz and Melissa Sands:
The basic idea here is that you make a brine, pour it over little cucumber guys packed into glass jars with spices and then put them (without lids) into your cupboard. Magically, after 3-5 days, you suddenly have a butterfly instead of a caterpillar. Wow.

David made whole pickles and spears. Since these were specifically intended to go with my Spiked Pulled Pork Sliders at the Pork-Off, I wanted chips. I had picked up two different kinds of cucumbers - small, bright green babies at Trader Joe's and short but thick "regular" ones from a grocery store. I sliced the thicker ones on a mandolin and chopped the others by hand. It seemed safer for my fingertips. I used fresh bay leaves, coriander seeds, whole allspice and fennel seeds for my "pickling spice." I also filled the jars with sprigs of fresh dill and smashed garlic.

For funsies I also thinly sliced two tomatillos and one red onion to pickle together. I changed the recipe a bit for this mixture, adding dried Thai chilies for spice. Here are the beauties after 24 hours:

They definitely weren't done yet, so they went back into the cabinet. I tasted them each day until it had been 36 hours - at that point the thinner chips were definitely pickle flavored. The onions had mellowed and taken on some spice, so I put them in the fridge, too. The smaller, thicker chips tasted a little bitter and didn't seem to have picked up the flavors from the brine. I wasn't very hopeful for them because even at 24 hours the thin chips had a nice flavor. But an extra 24 hours did the trick - the next taste was all about salty, garlicky, dilly dills. The liquid had gotten cloudier and the chips themselves seemed saturated.

Pickled Cucumber Recipe:
2 quarts water
3 tablespoons kosher salt - do not substitute table salt or sea salt
12-15 Kirby or small cucumbers, cleaned & sliced as desired
1 bunch of fresh dill, washed
1 teaspoon each: coriander, allspice berries, fennel seeds
4 bay leaves
4 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly crushed

In a large pot, heat water with the salt until dissolved.

Sterilize two 1-quart jars by running them through the dishwasher or filling them with boiling water and dumping it out.

Put two or three bushy sprigs of dill into each jar. Pack in the pickles, layering in each jar: 1 1/2 teaspoons spice mix, 2 bay leaves and 2 smashed garlic cloves.

Carefully pour in the brine to cover the cucumbers completely. Cover each jar with cheesecloth and secure with a rubber band or kitchen twine. Store in a cool, dark place for 3-6 days. When they have reached the desired sourness, put on a lid and refrigerate.

Pickled Red Onions and Tomatillos:
Follow the basic recipe above, but use 2 tomatillos and 1 red onion, thinly sliced and layered into a pint-sized mason jar. For my pickling spice, I did a mixture of coriander, allspice berries and mustard seeds - about 1 heaping teaspoon total. I also added 2 small, dried hot chile peppers to give these a little kick and left out the fresh dill. They were a perfect crunchy, tart topping for the pulled pork sandwiches I made with my Pork-Off leftovers.

Ramps for Breakfast

2009-04-27T15:03:00.004-04:00

Ramps, ramps, ramps! That's all I've been hearing for the past couple weeks as spring gets itself sprung here in New York and the first fresh green things hit the farmer's markets. I missed these last season, and I don't think I'd even heard of them before then, so I was determined to get my hands on some. Fort Greene Farmer's Market to the rescue. An impromptu bike ride in the unseasonal 80 degree weather got me there in no time. The ramps were expensive, but I played it off like no big deal when the handsome young man at the stand told me 10 bucks for two scallion - sized bunches. "They're foraged, you know," he said. Ah, foraged = $$.

Ramps are native to North America and are also known as wild leeks. Their flavor is somewhere between onions and garlic. I decided that breakfast was in order. Since I'm always looking for different beds for my favorite breakfast staple, poached eggs, I decided to saute them along with some Swiss chard and Vidalia onions I had on hand. I used an entire bunch in this single serving and I found it totally delicious, but feel free to alter the proportions with your other greens. Also, some sort of breakfast potato would put this over the top awesome-wise.

Sauteed Ramps & Chard with Poached Eggs
2 eggs
1 tablespoon white or cider vinegar
1 teaspoon salt

olive oil (I used 1 teaspoon bacon fat that I had left over from the insane amount of bacon that I cooked for the Bacon Takedown.)
1 bunch ramps, cleaned and trimmed
2 large leaves of chard
1/2 small onion, diced
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
salt & freshly ground pepper to taste

Put the water for your poached eggs on over high heat. Add the vinegar and salt.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium high. Cut the leaves off the the ramps and into 1 inch slices and set aside. Dice up the stalks like you would with scallions. Do the same thing with the chard, setting the leaves aside with the ramp leaves. When the skillet is heated, add the onion and the diced stalks of the ramps and chard. Cook, stirring until softened, about 6-8 minutes. Add the sliced leaves of the ramps and chard and cook until wilted another 2-3 minutes. Add the pepper flakes, vinegar, salt and pepper and stir to combine.

Meanwhile, once the water is boiling for the poached eggs, add them gently, turn off the heat, cover and set a timer for 3 1/2 minutes. Pile the sauteed ramp mixture onto a plate. Check the eggs when the timer goes off and if the whites look done enough for your taste, carefully remove with a slotted spoon and place atop the greens.

Grilled Tri-Tip Steaks

2009-04-22T22:06:00.010-04:00

Holy wowsers. This tri-tip steak knocked my socks off and into the laundry. (I heard Paula Dean say that on NPR recently!) They turned out tender and juicy and were really easy to make.

When I picked up an inexpensive package of three small steaks at Trader Joe's I wasn't sure what to expect. I've never made tri-tip before. Raised by vegetarians, meat was the exception in my house growing up, so I didn't get exposed to cooking techniques or the multitude of different cuts available. So after a quick internet search, I decided to wing a spice rub and throw these guys on the grill. I didn't measure anything so use your judgment based on the number of steaks you are using. The salad is made with mesclun greens from the greenmarket tossed with a flax seed vinaigrette, sliced red peppers, mushrooms and scallions.

Spice rub:
One part each: ground coriander, ground ginger & garlic powder
1/4 part: cayenne pepper (or use ground sichuan peppercorns, if available.)
salt & ground pepper to taste

Put the steaks in a plastic bag with the spice rub, turning and massaging the rub into the meat. Refrigerate. When the grill is ready, put the steaks on over the hottest part. Cook for a few minutes on each side, then move to a cooler part of the grill. Cover and cook to desired temperature. (Poke the meat with your finger, if it gives easily it's rare, if it's hard it's well done. I prefer medium or medium rare. Practice touching your meat (haha) every time and eventually you'll know by feel when it's where you want it. Also, don't forget that the meat will cook a bit further once you take it off the grill.) Remove and let the steaks rest for 5 minutes. I sliced mine against the grain to eat with my salad the next day. Best enjoyed outside.

Underground Food Collective Spring Dinners

2009-04-17T12:33:00.004-04:00

Curses! & Drat! I'm going to be in Seattle for the International Food Bloggers Conference for every one of these Celebrate Spring dinners! The Underground Food Collective from Wisconsin is back in Brooklyn and joining forces with local meat maven Marlow & Daughters, and foraged food fanatics Wild Organic. The dinners will feature multiple courses paired with local beers. Tickets are reasonable and seats will sell out quickly. Buy them here: link and then make me jealous after you go.

May 15 - Rooftop Dinner, $65
May 17 - Urban Farm Dinner, $80 (This dinner is a benefit for Added Value)
May 18 - Scratch Kitchen Dinner, $65

Sausages with French Green Lentils

2009-04-11T15:06:00.006-04:00

I'm excited to post this soul-satisfying recipe from Saveur, one of my favorite food mags. Despite the arrival of spring, it's still chilly outside and I was craving warmth and goodness. From the bleak and wintry mountain region of Auvergne in France, this dish is designed to combat the wind and cold from the inside out. Although I couldn't find the saucisses d'auvergne (fresh pork country sausages,) I did look for the recommended substitution of sweet Italian links at the Union Square Greenmarket. I guess it was too late in the day, because everyone was sold out. Whole Foods across the street had links that were surprisingly affordable. I paid just under $6 for four nice wieners. All in all, this is an inexpensive and hearty meal.

Italian Sausage with Lentils
adapted from Saveur Magazine
note: I used green lentils from Whole Foods, but they fell apart when cooked for the time suggested in the original recipe because they were much starchier then the Lentilles de Puy that should be used. I have used the smaller French version for cold lentil salad with shallots and they are delicious. David Lebovitz has a nice write up on them here. If you substitute regular green lentils, keep an eye on them and turn off the heat once they are softened.

2 strips thick cut bacon (I used Niman Ranch Applewood Smoked bacon, available at Trader Joe's)
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 small carrot, finely chopped
1 rib celery, finely chopped
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
4 sprigs flat-leaf parsley
4 sprigs thyme
2 fresh bay leaves
12 oz. French green Puy lentils, sorted and rinsed
salt & pepper to taste
4 sweet Italian sausages
1 cup white wine
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

Cut the bacon into into small strips. After I did this I turned around to find that my roommate had decided to make a statement:

Fry the bacon in a large saucepan until the fat is rendered, 5-6 minutes. Add the onion, carrot, celery & butter and cook until softened, about 12-15 minutes.

Tie the herbs together with kitchen twine and add to the pan along with lentils and 5 1/2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until lentils are tender. Depending on the type of lentils this will take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour or so.

Meanwhile, in a separate skillet, bring the sausages, wine and 1 cup of water to boil over high heat. Cook until most of the liquid is evaporated, turning sausages occasionally. Reduce heat to medium and add oil. Cook, turning frequently, until sausages are browned, 6-8 minutes.

When the lentils are ready, remove and discard the herb bundle. Stir in mustard, vinegar, salt & pepper. Top with sausages and serve.

This picture will last longer

2009-04-04T16:35:00.006-04:00

Sometimes I feel sad when I get to the end of something delicious. Today while eating brunch, I thought, dear god, I don't want this magic to end. So I took a photo to remember the glory that is a toasted bialy with cream cheese, smoked Alaskan salmon, capers, white onion and fresh ground pepper. I submit, for your enjoyment, the following food porn:

Bacon Take-down!

2009-03-30T22:13:00.016-04:00

Last week it was chowder, this week it's BACON! Matt Timm's brought "meaty" back with another wild Take-down, this time at a bigger venue and with a limited number of tickets sold - still a staggering 300. The line at Radegast Hall & Biergarten in Williamsburg wrapped around the corner and was sold out 10 minutes into the event.

Here's a quick interview I did before the event for urban culture mag BOMBIN's blog: link

Matt's Take-downs have been garnering quite a bit of buzz lately. I don't know which little birdie tipped them off, but Good Morning, America was there to film a segment that aired Monday morning. Check it out here. (My interview didn't make it onto the air, but my entry made it to the studio, where Diane Sawyer and her co-hosts were enticed into tasting super-meaty samples from the Take-down.)

Making enough food for 300 people was a really daunting task. I knew that there would be a crispness factor to consider as well as transporting all that pork product. I decided to riff on my latest favorite combo of bacon and chocolate and made bacon turtles. Turtles are a candy that uses 3 or 4 pecan halves as the turtle feet with caramel to hold them together and chocolate on top. I re-imagined them as a smaller, layered bite. I started by filling a foil cup half way with chocolate then a drop of caramel, a few pieces of spicy, candied bacon and more chocolate on top to seal it up like a truffle. Then I stuck a toasted pecan half on the very top. This turned out to be a really challenging project. The quantity, technique and required assembly put it over the top. But on the plus side, I now know how to temper chocolate, make candied bacon, and boss around an assistant when I'm in the weeds. (Sorry, Krystal - you rock!)

Once again, the competition was fierce! My neighbors at spot #13 also brought the bacon chocolate in the form of spicy chocolate truffles rolled in salty crispy bacon pieces. They were like hot shots in their tiny little clear cups. Our station was pretty exciting and action packed. (note: this is the only photo that has my turtles in it - oops. They're in the bottom left corner)

There were so many creative dishes:

Bacon Tamales!

Bacon Cupcakes!

Bacon....Um...chunks?

But who is #1 according to the 300 votes cast at the end of the meaty buffet line?
Mike O'Neill!

Mike made a heavenly Bacon Bourbon Ice Cream that knocked my socks off. He was planning to serve this amazing creation on top of candied bacon waffles, but electricity problems meant ice cream only - and that's all he needed to impress the crowd. I've heard rumors that there are waffle making parties going on in his neighborhood this whole week...

Of course, no competition would be complete without this guy taking home a prize.
Nick Suarez did it again, tying for 2nd place with Theodore Peck - who also seems to dominate the winner's circle in the world of local competitive cooking. These two have raised the bar for all of us - both with their delicious food and their creative presentations!

It was the most exhausting take-down for me, but well worth it for the fun and food and, of course, the reward:

For a complete list of winners and future Take-down news, check out Matt Timms' blog.

Chowder - SLAMMED!

2009-03-23T16:08:00.023-04:00

How much fun was had at Jimmy's 43 in the East Village this past Saturday? Gallons & gallons! A fundraiser for the New Amsterdam Market, the event offered each paying customer the chance to sample and vote on a dozen or so chowders made by local cheftestants. The chowders were also judged by a panel of experts including Jimmy himself, along with two lovely ladies from the Martha Stewart food empire. Turnout was great and the back room was hopping by mid-afternoon.

The man behind the Market, Robert LaValva, serves chowder to the masses:

My entry was a traditional creamy chowder base with smoked salmon instead of clams. The salmon came from my Aunt Charlotte who sent it from Juneau, Alaska. If I may say so myself, it turned out awesome. I didn't win any prizes, but I definitely have a great new recipe that I'll make again (see below.)

Update: according to NEOINY, my chowder was the favorite of Village Voice food critic Robert Sietsema. That's cool.

Other entries included Karol Lu's Happy as a Yam chowder, made with three types of yams, apples and shrimp, and Shana Wright's vegetarian chowder that had a surprising seafood flavor - the secret was a broth made from "sea vegetables," whatever those are!

And the winners are:

Land Chowder - Silence of the Clams by Theodore Peck:

Sea Chowder - Scallop Chowder (not sure of the name of the name of this one..?) by Rachel Graville:

Finally, the People's Choice, (sigh,) goes to (yet again) Nick Suarez for his "Pigs Can Swim" chowder made with duck fat, bacon, corn and lobster.
This guy wins a lot. But his stuff is pretty tasty. And he's very nice. Plus, he'll be bringing more bacon to the take-down this Saturday.

My chowder was very good, people. Here's the set up before the madness began:

Recipe: Sockeye It To Me Salmon Chowder
Note: you can't use a cold smoked "Nova" style salmon here. It must be hot smoked, ie. cooked and flaky like they do it in the Pacific Northwest.
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large onion, chopped small
1 cup celery, chopped small
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons brandy
2 cups clam juice or fish stock
1 lb red potatoes, diced medium
1/2 cup flour
3 cups half & half
1 8-10 oz package smoked salmon, flaked into pieces
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
1/8 teaspoon cayenne powder
1 cup heavy cream
salt & pepper to tastegarnish: finely diced chives, oyster crackers, hot sauce.

Melt 6 oz. of the butter in a large heavy bottomed pot over medium heat. Add onions, celery & garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 8 minutes. Increase heat to medium high, add brandy and cook 2-3 minutes. Add clam juice and potatoes. Simmer until just tender, 6-7 minutes.

To make the roux in a separate pan, melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter over medium. Add flour and whisk until incorporated. Cook for 3-6 minutes, whisking frequently, until the roux has browned slightly and is smooth. Add some liquid from the other pot into the roux and stir until smooth. Pour roux into soup and stir until soup thickens.

Add half & half, dill, cayenne and salmon. Bring to a bare simmer over medium heat. Add cream, heat only enough to warm through. Taste and add salt & pepper as needed. Serve with chives, crackers and hot sauce.

Chowder will be best the next day! Reheat gently without boiling.

All gone!

Chowder Slam - Saturday

2009-03-19T14:36:00.005-04:00

If you love soup like me, you'll love this Saturday's fundraiser for the New Amsterdam Market at Jimmy's #43. Or if you love me, you'll love to see me ladling my heart and soul into every creamy bowl from my giant kettle of chowder. That's right - there's love in every spoonful.

I heard that there will be beer there, too!

Check it out:

$20

Date:	Saturday, March 21, 2009
Time:	12:00pm - 5:00pm
Location:	Jimmy's No. 43
Street:	43 East 7th Street
	New York, NY

New Amsterdam Market is a local organization promoting our region's agriculture and building a new community of purveyors, whose common goal is to pioneer environmentally and socially responsible food production.

Update: Quoted by Cathy Erway in her post about the Chowder Slam - link

Twizzlers vs. Red Vines

2009-03-05T14:28:00.007-05:00

Not since Pepsi challenged Coke, Big Mac squared off against The Whopper, or Almond Joy went nuts about Mounds has there been such a frenzy to compete for sweet domination in the world of snacking and fast food related products. Ok, maybe not a frenzy, but people do get pretty passionate about it. At the "fork this" day job, the office is divided - some prefer chewier, longer-lasting Red Vines while others lean towards softer, sweeter Twizzlers. Is this a regional thing? A matter of personal taste or die-hard loyalty to youthful memories? Let me know in the comments where your vote goes. And maybe you can answer the age-old question: which is "waxier?"

vs.

Winter Is Not Over Yet - Purple Potato & Parsnip Soup

2009-03-02T18:28:00.014-05:00

As I sit to write this, the wind is whining against the windows and forcing a chill through my poorly insulated A/C unit and into my room. It's soup weather for sure. As I mentioned in the previous post, the selection of vegetables available at the farmer's market in February is very limited. There are an abundance of apples and potatoes and the regular baked goods, meats and dairy products, but not much else. On a side note, I picked up one of the lovely deep red tomatoes available from a hydroponic farmer and was very surprised to smell an actual rich tomato smell. Has anyone tried these? Are they any good at all? I haven't bought a fresh tomato since September and I'm a skeptic...

On my last trip to the Union Square Greenmarket, I impulsively picked up some parsnips and thought to myself, "Self, what would go nicely in a soup with these?" The bins of potatoes beckoned. Waxy fingerlings, thin-skinned reds and round Yukon Golds spilled out of their wooden crates. The purple beauties were plump and long, and I pictured a lovely lavender puree with the white parsnips.

When I paid for the parsnips and potatoes, I noticed a woman with much smaller parsnips that I hadn't seen. When I got home and looked up some info on them, I found out that smaller is better because they grow a fairly woody core when they get large. So be sure to cut it out. I also read that parsnips can get soggy when boiled so I solved that by filling a steamer basket first with the cubed potatoes and enough water to almost cover them, then I placed the 'snips on top of the taters. That way they steamed while the taters simmered. Probably not really necessary, since I was making soup, but I wanted to try it out. A final cooks note: I used three potatoes to the 4 parsnips pictured above.

Pureed Purple Potato and Parsnip Soup
4 large or 8 small parsnips, peeled and cored (if necessary) and cut into chunks
3 large purple potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1" piece of ginger, peeled and chopped (Or 1 teaspoon dry ground ginger)
1 onion, diced
3-4 cups chicken stock
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 cup half-n-half or whole milk
salt to taste

garnish:
8 oz. sour cream
1/2 cup flat leaf parsley leaves

As mentioned above, fill a steamer basket in a pot with cubed potatoes, fill with enough water to almost cover and top with parsnips. Cover and cook until parsnips and potatoes are soft. Meanwhile, in a large pot, heat olive oil over medium high. Add garlic, ginger and onion and cook until softened. When pots & snips are ready, drain them well and add to the big pot. Add enough chicken stock to cover by about a half inch or so. Add cayenne & white pepper. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer until veggies are very soft. Use an immersion blender to puree soup. (Or puree in batches in a regular blender - be careful with hot liquids, only fill half way.)

Add milk or half-n-half slowly, stirring as you go, until you have reached the desired creaminess. If the soup is too thick, add a bit more chicken stock. Reheat over medium low and add salt to taste.

For the garnish: puree sour cream and parsley in a food processor until well blended. Drizzle over soup for a striking color combo!