the itis

Still eating...

2011-09-28T18:09:00.001-04:00

PB and bacon sandwich from Eisenberg's

Ricotta pancakes with blueberries & brown butter at Roberta's

Fried Chicken at The Dutch

Roast chicken, creamy mashed potatoes and other good shit by Ryan

Full English at Chip Shop

The goodness from Sky Ice

Grilled Haloumi salad with grilled lemons

Brunch at Egg. WHY DOES HE DO THIS TO ME??!

Profiteroles and creme caramel at Bouchon

Tamales at Calistoga Farmer's Market

After all this bullshit I've only gained 5 lbs since November. Feels like 20 though. Fall: the best time to get back to running. HELP.

In case you're wondering...

2011-07-05T18:53:00.001-04:00

Hill Country, 11pm

Olive & Vine after putting in an apartment application

Brunch at Milk Bar with Robyn after viewing an apartment (now mine)

'ino Antipasti plate

Roberta's Bee Sting pizza at MSP

Anchovy spaghetti by Ryan and fennel-zucchini salad by me

Bensonhurst Sandwich from Olde Brooklyn Bagel Shoppe

Dinner at Franny's post beach

...I'm still eating

breakfast massacre diptych

2011-04-25T09:22:00.001-04:00

breakfast massacre diptych, originally uploaded by sgoralnick.

I love Steph Goralnik's photos.

Lots of feelings

2011-03-27T23:05:00.001-04:00

Roberta's
261 Moore St, Brooklyn (Bushwick sick)

Self-imposed late pass. My first time to try Roberta's. I went with Mimi and her roommate Thom this weekend - Caturday was sunny and nice, so we biked out there and shared a bunch of pizzas.

There was a 40 min wait so we had some drinks at the bar. The bloody marys are pretty damn good - it's not just straight up warm juice from a can diddled in some ice cubes. This is mixed well with Tabasco, horseradish, etc etc and served with a pickled jalapeno in a mason jar.

This is the Bee Sting, with soppresatta and honey (get it, bees). The honey was unexpected but not too sweet. I used to hate pizza for the longest time. Mostly because all I ate was Domino's (college days) but also because it's so much melted cheese! This had the perfect amount.

Millenium Falco, with Berkshire pork sausage. I dunno, that's kind of like making a burger out of filet mignon but it was pretty damn tasty.

We also ordered a calzone with prosciutto and pesto inside. My first calzone ever! Now all future calzones will have to live up to this one. If I wasn't trying to be polite I would've skipped the knife/fork and just doublefisted it into my mouth.

Most Neapolitan style pizzas (thin crust) get soggy. At Eataly they will warn you of this. At Roberta's there are no excuses. Because they don't need any. No sog, and I actually tried to eat all of my crusts. THAT MEANS SOMETHING!

Anyway if you can stand the wait this place is definitely worth the trip out to Bushwick. Just look for the string of sparkly stilletos and sneakers hanging from a wire. You'll know you're home.

Decadent lunch

2011-02-06T16:51:00.000-05:00

Choice Greene
Greene @ Grand (Clinton Hill)

This is a neighborhood favorite of ours. Yesterday we went to Choice Market at Lafayette and Grand for breakfast. Alex got pastrami hash with a fried egg and salad ($5.95) and I got a bagel with lox, cream cheese and the works ($6.50). We sat at the communal table with some other locals and enjoyed our meal.

Today for lunch I went to Choice Greene, which is one block away from Choice Market. I got two sandwiches:

Smoked duck breast with fennel and peach-rosemary spread on a baguette

Bufalo mozzarella, sundried tomatoes and walnut pesto on rosemary foccacia

We each split a sandwich and finished off the red cabbage/red onion salad I made last night.

I also got a quarter pound of smoked Ridgewood ham, made by Herve at Ridgewood Smoke Shop. The guy helping me mentioned that they're looking to partner up to produce some seasonal charcuterie together, first up some tasty cured pork from a rare breed of pig, the Mangalitza. Check it out - a pig in sheep's clothing! I was really happy to hear this news as Choice is one of my favorite spots in the neighborhood to grab some quick quality snacks.

Monday night she-na-ni-gans

2011-01-24T23:19:00.001-05:00

Gahm mi ok with L18, originally uploaded by lazysundae.

Gahm Mi Oak
Korea town

I haven't been here in a long time - last time was birthday sul long tang with Ryan, I think.

Tonight I went with a small crew from work, Sam, Andrew & Jonathan. Sam had been talking up "sundae" which is korean blood sausage made with sweet potato noodles. "Hug in your mouth" he said. "WTF" I replied. Then I dipped it in a bit of chili salt and stuck it in my mouth. What ensued was warm, meaty, huggy goodness. It fills your mouth with a rich softness - I've never eaten anything like it.

Pictured is the large pork plate we shared, blood sausage on the top, pork knuckle at the bottom, pig ears, liver and cheek in the middle.

We each had a bowl of sul long tang as well, that comforting beef bone soup with noodles and rice. I wish I had an umma for sick/cold weather to make me this every night.

Next narf fest: breakfast at the Breslin with Mimi, Andrew & Sam. We get fat at work. It's how we do.

I am the Mayor of Terakawa Ramen

2011-01-16T23:05:00.000-05:00

Terakawa
18 Lexington Ave @ 23rd St (Flatiron/Gramercy)

Ricky told me about this spot, which opened just last year. It is much newer than Ippudo but they have somehow managed to make it look like it has been there for years, a dirty Tokyo ramen stall in the middle of the Flatiron district.

It's a short jaunt from work, and it's quick enough for me to be able to lunch out of the office. The first time I went I had the Mayu Ramen, which had roasted garlic oil. On the tables are sesame seed grinders, fried garlic shakers, chili powder, white pepper...

The broth was delicious and the noodles just the right amount of chewy.

We also ordered gyoza which appeared to be housemade. Perfect little dumplings with paper thin skins and juicy meaty insides.

I went again later that week with Seanpatrick who was in town for the new year. I had the Tantan Men, slightly different but still delicious. Ground beef, bean sprouts, scallions and curly noodles.

There's nothing better than a hot bowl of tasty ramen on a cold day.

Lazy Sunday dinner

2011-01-16T22:56:00.000-05:00

Lucky you, two posts in one day. I made this chicken recipe tonight. It's pan-seared chicken with beer-mustard sauce. You pan sear the chicken first - I did it in my cast iron skillet - then roast it in the oven. Then with the chicken fat, you make a roux and add shallots, beer, chicken stock, mustard, maple syrup, thyme... The recipe calls for oil when pan searing the chicken but I left that out.

Served it with rice and kale braised in chicken stock, balsamic vinegar and meyer lemon juice.

Really good, not that much of a pain in the ass, and enough for lunch tomorrow.

Scotch eggs for breakfast

2011-01-16T11:09:00.001-05:00

Scotch eggs for breakfast, originally uploaded by lazysundae.

It's been a while.
New job, very busy.

I first had Scotch eggs at The Breslin. It's a British dish, here's my rendition:

1. Add egg to hot water and bring to a boil. After about 2 mins, turn heat off and leave eggs in the hot water.
2. Meanwhile take spicy Italian sausage out of its casing and set it aside.
3. Prep your dredge baths: egg, scrambled; panko bread crumbs; flour.
4. After 5 minutes in the hot water, take the eggs out and run them under cold water. Peel them.
5. With both hands, flatten out the insides of the sausage and wrap them around the eggs, making sure all sides are covered.
6. Heat oil in a deep saucepan, about 1" deep.
7. Dredge the egg-sausage in flour, then the scrambled egg, then panko breadcrumbs.
8. Fry in the oil, turning so that all sides are cooked, about 2-3 mins on each side.
9. Drain on paper towels.
10. I served mine with a salad of arugula, pickled zucchini and ricotta salata - something acidic and slightly spicy-bitter to cut the fat of the sausage.

Lazy Sunday

2010-12-17T00:04:00.001-05:00

It's been a long time.

Last Sunday I made my own ricotta and tossed it into pasta with edamame, lemon zest and scallions.

Serious Eats had a too-long article about it with all the scientific details but here's all you need to know: LOOK OUT FOR THE BOILING MILK. It will start to boil, then once you turn your back it will freak out and bubble over the pot and make a huge mess. So don't turn your back. And here's how to make it:

1 part heavy cream
2 parts whole milk
1 Tbsp white vinegar (per 1 part)
Salt

1. Boil milk and heavy cream, add salt.
2. Let it simmer for a bit, then turn off the heat and add the vinegar.
3. Stir it once or twice then let it stand for about a minute.
4. In the meantime, take a double layer of cheesecloth and dampen it, then line a sieve and place it over a deep bowl.
5. When the mixture has curdled, pour it into the cheesecloth-lined sieve and let it drain.
6. Let it stand at room temp for about 30 mins

It's so good and fluffy - tonight was just a test run but I will definitely be making more.

I can't do it...

2010-11-30T06:59:00.000-05:00

Breakfast tacos by Sweet Fine Day, posted on The Kitchn
Photo by Jenna Park

Yesterday Alex made these for dinner with homemade salsa, chopped avocado and the pickled onions. Delicious! And the best part, I'm eating the leftovers right now as migas:

Heat some oil in a skillet, add torn up bits of tortilla. When they start to crisp, add some scrambled eggs then the leftover sweet potato. Top with the salsa, avocado, sour cream & pickled onions.

So good I had to eat it twice.

I cannot, however, handle being vegetarian for the whole day. There isn't enough protein in that diet to satisfy Stomach Monster.

The Turkey Day Vegetable

2010-11-23T22:59:00.004-05:00

Alex and I were at the Vanderbilt earlier this month for a celebratory dinner. On the menu was a brussels sprout appetizer that just read "honey and Sriracha."

We didn't end up eating it but I decided to try making it tonight:

1. Trim ends of brussels sprouts and cut them in half.
2. In a deep pan, heat up some bacon fat.
3. Once pan is hot enough, put brussels sprouts in, cut side down. Season with salt and pepper and leave to cook and get dark underneath - be patient!!
4. Add a dash (1 tbsp, approx) of soy sauce and start to toss the sprouts.
5. Add a good squirt of Sriracha sauce and give a good toss.
6. Lastly, mix honey with a little bit of water to loosen it up, then add it to the pan and toss the sprouts one last time.

You get salty, sweet and spicy all in one bite - so good.

If you are wondering what we were celebrating, it's my new job. In a nutshell, I'll be doing and learning way more, for a few small startups. I'm really excited for the opportunity - two of the startups deal with wine so stay tuned for more on that!

Right now, trying to focus on Thanksgiving. With most of our friends out of town or doing their own thing with family, we are having a small dinner with a grilled Tuscan (lemon-garlic-rosemary) chicken instead. Some roasted potatoes and a couple of simple vegetable sides - easy, simple, chill Thanksgiving.

One whole month and...

2010-11-09T07:26:00.000-05:00

Beer & oysters for breakfast at Swan Oyster Depot in San Francisco, CA

Porchetta sandwich by Roli Roti at the Ferry Terminal farmer's market (there is prepared food on at one end)

Michoacana Mexican ice cream in Sonoma, CA

Back in Brooklyn, lunch at Fairway by the water. A turkey-artichoke panini and lobster roll

Then dessert at Baked, a pumpkin cheesecake and sweet-salty (chocolate-caramel) cupcake

More. Freaking. HNH.

Cheddar Apple Scallion Waffle...

Smoked Salmon Creme Fraiche Caper Waffle....

...and Aecht Schlenferla Rauchbier at Beer Table
If you have trouble with the beer and Justin is working, he will never steer you wrong.

Huge portions of TexMex at Mole in the Lower East Side

An easy, fast Monday night dinner of fennel-apple-arugula salad and pasta with marinara, fresh mozzarella and basil chiffonade (that's fancy for thin strips)

Beef: It's what's for Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

2010-10-10T10:19:00.001-04:00

This is why I am vegetarian during the week. We started it off on Friday. I started a friendly competition with Alex to see who could come up with the tastiest, healthiest and cheapest dinners. So far, on Wednesday I did Heidi Swanson's Brown Butter Tortelli recipe. I used Spinach-ricotta ravioli instead and it was delicious ($10.65). Then on Thursday I did roasted chicken thighs with carrots, potatoes and a small side salad of leftover arugula ($16.00+ because I bought ice cream).

This allowed me to splurge for Friday's dinner, a grilled porterhouse steak, bindhi masala and mushrooms cooked in sherry and butter:

I didn't do anything to the steak. I just rubbed it in olive oil and seasoned it with fresh black pepper, kosher salt, rosemary and some garlic powder. Cooked it on an extra hot cast iron grill pan for about 4 minutes on each side for a perfect medium rare. The trick with steak is that you have to cook it at room temperature so that the meat will cook evenly.

The next day at the Flea, I wanted to get a shrimp roll from the Red Hook Lobster Pound. They were nowhere to be found. So I headed for Mile End's booth, where I was about to order a toasted sesame bagel with cream cheese, heirloom tomato, onion. But the power went out and the toaster wasn't working. I tried really hard to not eat more beef! But HNH BBQ's brisket sandwich was in the stars for me:

They know us by name already, which is kind of sick and awesome at the same time. We got a couple of brisket bones to gnaw on as well - they can't sell them but there's a lot of meat on them. Now that they've let dogs into the Flea (a REALLY bad idea in my opinion) we really have to watch our food.

After biking all over the city, we ended up at the Park Avenue Armory. We decided to head back downtown to the West Village to Corner Bistro for some solid bar burgers. I didn't get to snap a pic but here's an old one from about a year ago:

Oh man...

Le Grand Fooding, Toronto

2010-10-04T22:23:00.000-04:00

I went to Toronto for a semi work-related trip and stayed with Andrew. He knows what I like:

Large charcuterie plate at The Black Hoof - all made in house

Roasted bone marrow at The Black HoofNot pictured - fluke carpaccio, sweet breads with succotash

Dim sum at Crown Princess. That shumai has foie gras and caviar on it! Also pictured: har gow, pumpkin congee, Buddhist delight (taro, king mushroom, pumpkin), chicken-peanut-veggie dumpings, octopus legs

Rice noodles with sirloin

Homecooking - red and green kale with oyster mushrooms, topped with the most delicious, rich poached eggs

Roasted fennel (my contribution)

Spicy grilled wings

Brunch at Hoof Cafe - this is pig tail with cheese grits and a poached egg

Tongue grilled cheese (we really did nose to tail even if it was two different animals)

Franks & beans
Fried donuts with bone marrow and strawberry jam

Kuro-kuro rock

2010-09-27T09:21:00.002-04:00

Hide-Chan Ramen
248 E 52nd St (Midtown east)

This is a long overdue post. We ate at Hide-Chan about a month ago, before seeing Blondie at Nokia theater. I'd heard about the Kuro Ramen, which had a flavorful black (roasted) garlic oil. Kuro means "black" in Japanese. On the menu you can choose the doneness of your noodles, from al-dente to soft. You can also choose the heaviness of your broth. If you look closely you can see floating globules of FAT in my broth. Delicious and tasty but after realizing this, a little sickening. I should've opted for the light broth.

The garlic flavor was strong but not overpowering. Slightly sweet and very salty. So salty in fact that I left there parched. I would like to go back one day to dry the modifications mentioned above. The noodles were very well done, slightly chewy with a bit of a snap to them.

This is Alex's ramen, the spicy Hakata. Since he will probably never update this post, I can say that after eating mine, then tasting his, it was a little bland. Not to say it was tasteless, but that's just another testament to how salty mine was.

I definitely want to try their pork buns next time.

Umami

2010-09-03T09:22:00.000-04:00

"We know sweet, sour, bitter and salty tastes. Umami was introduced to describe the qualities of a meaty taste, the same taste induced by monosodium glutamate. My research traced the first use umami as a fifth taste to the marketing of MSG when it was manufactured as a flavor enhancer after Professor Kikunae Ikeda of Tokyo discovered the flavor enhancing properties of glutamic acid in 1909. The manufacture of monosodium glutamate (MSG), made at the time from wheat gluten, was patented by the Ajinomoto Corporation of Japan in 1909. Interestingly the name Ajinomoto means essence of taste. The Ajinomoto company promoted the idea of Umami, the fifth taste. to market MSG. MSG was not well-known in the U.S. until it was marketed as the flavor enhancer Accent after the second world war. The FDA rejected umami as the fifth basic taste in the 1950s, categorizing it as a flavor enhancer."

From John Rowley via Michael Ruhlman

Interesting piece about one of my favorite words: u-ma-mi!

Stuff I ate last weekend

2010-08-11T20:04:00.001-04:00

Friday dinner at the General Greene. Consistently good at this time of day, brunch not so much. They've changed their format a bit, from smaller plates to a more traditional appetizer-then-entree type menu. While everything was delicious, it was a little pricey for what we got. For example my mussels - for the same price I would've gotten three times the amount at The Vanderbilt. You can crucify me about quality/cost of ingredients etc. but if it tastes the same for less elsewhere, I'm probably ordering it elsewhere next time.

Salad from Brooklyn Grange and brisket sandwich from HNH. Oh the fatty goodness of moist brisket. The salad and other veggies and herbs were grown on a rooftop in Queens. This was the very first salad they had ever made. I stopped to order one and the guy behind the table was shoveling salad greens into his mouth. With his hand. He put together my salad (did he wash??) and the girl in charge instructed him to offer me cheese, which I accepted. He then broke off a piece and dumped it in my salad, to her horror, as she was holding out a microplane grater. He seemed confused, plucked the cheese out, gave it a go at grating, then gave up and tossed the cheese back into my salad. It was fine. It tasted like salad. The brisket sandwich, however, was salty-fatty-delicious in my mouth. No BBQ sauce needed or wanted.

This weekend, Andrew and Katie are coming from Toronto. Andrew hasn't been here since 2008 around this time. Back then he was still in culinary school. He's since staged in different kitchens and worked at a small butcher shop, to learn how to break down whole animals. Now he has opened a new restaurant with his friend called Lardon, which is pork-based. Of course we will be eating. Of course.

Like This Drink? Drink That Wine - From Serious Eats

2010-08-09T12:42:00.001-04:00

Like This Drink? Drink That Wine:

So you like lambic beers? You might also enjoy a sparkling rose. [Photograph: Maggie Hoffman]

I started out as a drinker of cocktails, never a moment of uncertainty about my gin-based Aviation. But when I reach for the wine list instead of the cocktail menu, sometimes it's still a challenge to figure out what I might like best. If that's you as well, here's a cheat sheet based on other beverages to help navigate wine picks.

If you like: Gin-based cocktails
Drink: Sauvignon Blanc. It's also clean and crisp and can have botanical notes, like gin.

If you like: Iced tea
Drink: Pinot Noir. The light-bodied red wine has some tea-like tannins.

If you like: Espresso
Drink: Shiraz/Syrah, or Malbec. If you like your coffee dark and strong, these equally dark, robust, bold wines will please.

If you like: Pina coladas
Drink: Viognier. Lush, perfumy white—but no umbrellas, please.

If you like: Corona or other lighter beers
Drink: Torrontes. White wine from Argentina that's light but flavorful and not too sweet.

If you like: Whiskey
Drink: Nebbiolo/Barolo/Barbaresco. Just as many whiskey drinkers thrive on savoring a wide range of aromas and flavors, the same challenge exists with this full-bodied Italian red.

If you like: Lambic beers
Drink: Sparkling rose. A growing number of sparkling winemakers offer rose versions, which give a bit of fruity aroma and taste to a crisp and carbonated tipple.

If you like: Pellegrino
Drink: Cava. Sparkling, dry, crisp, and refreshing.

About the author: Kara Newman has written about wine and spirits for such publications as Wine Enthusiast and Sommelier Journal magazines, and is the author of Spice & Ice, which explores 60 tongue-tingling cocktails.

Lamb Shank Pie with Rosemary and Red Wine

2010-08-04T09:33:00.000-04:00

Lamb Shank Pie with Rosemary and Red Wine:

Image © Katie Quinn Davies

Last weekend we had some friends stay with us from Melbourne and seeing as it's rather chilly here in Sydney at the moment, I thought it might be a nice idea to make a particular pie which I've wanted to try my hand at for ages but I've never got round to it. I think after seeing Donna Hay's Lamb Shank Pies in one of her cookery books years ago - the presentation was so beautiful I've hankered to make one ever since.

So I grabbed myself 6 lamb shanks in my local butcher, a big handful of gorgeous, fresh rosemary and a good bottle of gutsy Aussie red and made Anna Gare's Lamb Shank Red Wine and Rosemary Pie. The result was superb and everyone raved about how tasty and successful it was, so much so when we had other friends for dinner on Monday night I made it again. Mainly out of ease but also due to my husband's insistence I make it again. I will admit I added a few extra ingredients into the mix - at stage 6 in the recipe I included a good glug of Worcester Sauce, 2 tablespoons of good quality balsamic and rather than add 5 fresh tomatoes, I used 2 large fresh and a tin of chopped tomatoes. I also added a whole bottle of red instead of just 3 cups.

I love making food like this - chopping up all the veg and sautéing in a big casserole pot then adding all the meat and a big bottle of wine and simmering to get all the juices from the bottom of the pan, before slow cooking for hours in the oven. It's real comfort cooking and as an extra bonus it fills the house with amazing, home-style cooking aromas :)

I served the pie with creamy mash along with minted peas and broad beans.

I love this blog by Katie Davies - the photography is always simple and delicious-looking. And check that first pic with the shank bone standing straight up! It's like a steamy, yummy lamb trophy. I definitely want to make this.

Stuff we ate this weekend

2010-07-26T20:09:00.000-04:00

We've been slacking and I haven't even shown you what I ate in Kenya! Soon I promise. Meanwhile, take a look at some of the things we ate this weekend:

Roasted beets, smoked sardines, dill sour cream at Beer Table

Beef and pork chili at Beer Table

Butterscotch pudding with sea salt & apricot at Beer Table

Pie for breakfast - stone fruit cobbler at Four & Twenty Blackbirds

Black and blueberry pie with fresh whipped cream at Four & Twenty Blackbirds

Fried green tomatoes at Michael's

Burgs for 2

2010-06-19T09:40:00.002-04:00

Ryan is getting married in 3 months and I'm poor as hell but we decided to have dinner out anyway at Minetta Tavern this past Wednesday.

We sat at the bar after a 45 min wait and started with one of their salad specials. Dandelion greens topped with a light vinaigrette with a medium boiled egg, pork sausage, mushrooms and ... black truffle?? It was super delicious like a breakfast salad.

The highly-lauded Black Label burger, made from a special blend from Pat Lafrieda. We got this as is, no condiments or cheese. It came with caramelized onions on it and that's all it needed.

It was super flavorful and juicy - I was worried it was going to be very rich like the Irving Mill burger (beef cheeks and fat back!) but it was all pure dry aged beef.

They have Innis & Gunn in bottles here and it went really well with the burger. If you haven't tried this beer yet you must! Caramel-y and scotch-y.

We also ordered the Minetta Burger to share, topped with cheddar. This one was also very good but nowhere near as juicy. In fact after tasting the BLB I wanted to throw this down on the floor. The cheese is unnecessary - I ended pulling about half of it off.

The bar scene. The couple next to Ryan was this sweet old couple who shared a gigantic NY strip (they completely destroyed it, then picked it up with their hands and gnawed at the bone) and then a big ass chocolate souffle for dessert, which you can see in the pic.

Definitely worth the hype.

I'm back

2010-05-25T11:09:00.002-04:00

And I'm ebaying like crazy again! I love this Dansk enamel chafing dish with stand! It looks like a chubby crab. We have been eating off the coffee table lately because the dining table has become a dumping ground for mail and general crap.

You might be wondering what we ate in Kenya - I will write about it as soon as I get my head around my other posts.

Stay tuned!

Another lazy Sunday in the crockpot

2010-04-25T21:36:00.003-04:00

After poring over my saved recipes I decided I didn't want to stress too hard over dinner tonight. So around noon I left to grab some red wine for dinner...

The starting ingredients for crockpot coq au vin - sliced carrots, baby bella mushrooms, diced onion, minced garlic.

But first: chop and saute some bacon! This is my new Catherineholm 10" skillet that I got from eBay. There is a damage spot on the lid (on top, purely cosmetic) and also inside the skillet but after the hazing I gave it today I think it will hold up for a while.

While the bacon is cooking, rinse some chicken thighs in cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Season with salt and pepper, then coat with flour. Do this on both sides. Brown them in the skillet once you've cleared the bacon out to drain on paper towels.

Once the chicken has browned, start cooking the mushrooms. Once they have turned brown on the edges, deglaze with some sherry (optional). Add the carrots, onion, garlic and about half a cup of chicken broth. Cook until the other vegetables start to soften.

Lastly, fill the crock pot with the vegetables and top with the chicken. Sprinkle the bacon on top of the chicken, and top with fresh thyme. Add about a cup and a half of red wine to the pot and set it on low. And then you wait... Most recipes say to let it slow cook for about 6-8 hours but 4 hours did us pretty well. A little longer and the chicken would've been a little softer, but I just didn't have enough time.

I served this on top of couscous because it's lighter than rice or potatoes but you could certainly do those options as well.

This turned out super delicious and hearty! And we had a lot of leftovers so guess what's for lunch. This is the type of meal that's better with time, because the flavors of the sauce get to soak into the chicken and vegetables more. Definitely going to keep this in the rotation.

More fun at the Ace Hotel

2010-04-22T08:59:00.004-04:00

No 7 Sub
Broadway btw 28 & 29 (Flatiron-ish)

Ryan and I got sandwiches to go yesterday. I'd been to Tyler Kord's No. 7 in Fort Greene for dinner so I was expecting some zany sandwich combinations. It was quite crowded at 12:15, prime lunch time. We waited about 10-15 minutes for our sandwiches, not bad. I mean, it ain't Subway, thank goodness!

We got our stuff to go then walked up to Greeley Square to eat. Ryan's Eggplant Parm, with yellow squash, pickled jalapenos, BBQ chips and fontina cheese. Quite filling for a veggie sandwich.

I got the Roast Beef sandwich, toasted and then topped with horseradish, pickled endives and fried scallions. The scallions were a nice surprise and the bread held up to all the meat filling. Not once did it fall apart.

Lunch in the sunshine - it was so nice outside! In the future, I think half a sandwich and a bag of chips would do me right. We'll be back to sample more so stay tuned!

From Google Reader...

2010-04-21T10:05:00.000-04:00

Thomas Keller’s money-saving cooking tip: "

Bouchon Bakery sliders. Photo courtesy of the slashfood blog.

Brooklyn foodies are praying Thomas Keller is serious about opening a Bouchon Brooklyn, which reminds me of a cooking tip the famed chef once slipped me that you don’t need to be a swell to try. So maybe it is a little hard to believe that the man behind Per Se’s $275 prix fixe menu is a penny pincher, but in a magazine interview I did with him two years ago, he cited cost as one reason never to cook with a common ingredient that may surprise you. I haven’t cooked the same since. “Don’t cook with olive oil,” he says. “It’s such an expensive product and heat ruins it because it has a very low heat tolerance. Cook with canola or grapeseed oil instead and use olive oil as a condiment at the end.” So now you can have your Frankies 457 EVOO and justify the expense by pouring on a few drops at the end instead of dumping it into the pan.

We’re not a cooking blog (lucky for you), but other out-takes from the Keller interview include these three ideas for springy / summery desserts that are really easy to make but sound delish:

- Apricots with almonds and ice cream: Mix Ben and Jerry’s ice cream with fresh peeled apricots, top with toasted slivered almonds on top (buy them raw and toast yourself)

- Toasted pound cake with lemon curd

- Toasted country bread: “Grill some country bread, slice it, put a little bit of butter and sugar on top, throw it on the grill, chop up some fresh figs and mis with orange blossom honey and spread it over grilled bread. It’s really good.”

Okay–one more Keller tip. Be a flexible enough cook that if a recipe calls for plums and the pears look better, swap them in. Go by what’s ripest at the grocery store/greenmarket, not what the recipe says. “Shop with the season and your nose,” Keller says. “If the raw product doesn’t taste good, the finished one won’t taste good either.”

Please join me in summoning Keller to open a Bouchon in Brooklyn!!

Overcome by kawaii

2010-04-19T14:03:00.004-04:00

I work in Herald Square. While the temptations of K-Town call to me on a daily basis, the thought of elbowing my way through the tourists and bag hawkers gives me hives. I bring my lunch at least 3-4 times a week and today I happened to catch this bento site from the UK called Bento & Co, via JustBento.

Mayo & ketchup to-go tubes!

Onigiri boxes, good for snacking. I love how the designs are animal behinds. There's a bigger compartment on top for the onigiri, then a smaller one underneath for other food - maybe some meat or edamame?

To-go mugs. This is just the right size, less than 6" high

Stacking bento boxes; you can use 1, 2 or all 3. Comes with a set of chopsticks as well.

Another stacking bento set, this one has its own case.

I am making myself wait for now but these are definitely on my list! I figure if I have a nice lunch box I'll be more inspired to use it every day. It's expensive around here!

Ropa vieja my way

2010-04-18T23:31:00.006-04:00

So I decided to make ropa vieja for dinner. I found this recipe online and tried to follow it but once I got to the store I realized there was no mojo marinade to be found. Stupidly, I didn't read what the ingredients were so I asked Sean, who said to use tomatoes, cumin, annato, garlic.... Once I got home, I realized that it was basically a cilantro sauce, of which there was PLENTY at the store. So I improvised. Here's my marinade:

2 vine ripe tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup chopped cilantro (stems included)
juice of 1 lime - my lime was dry as hell so at this point, I didn't care anymore since my marinade was being improvised. So I just cut it up and tossed the whole thing in
1 large jalapeno, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
salt, pepper
tiny dash of cumin
2 cloves of garlic, minced
about 1 tbsp ground coriander (dried cilantro)
1/4 cup cider vinegar
* NOTE: Unless the ingredients are actual single pieces of fruit/vegetable, I just estimated the above measurements. I know it's frustrating but I just add a dash of this and that until it tastes right to me.

Place all these ingredients in a mixing bowl. Meanwhile:

Heat some oil in a saucepan, then add a few annatto seeds. Cook for a few seconds until the oil turns yellow-orange, then discard the seeds. Add about 6 oz tomato paste and whisk, adding water as needed. Once the mixture is well incorporated, mix this into the other marinade ingredients.

Set the crockpot on high, put your beef in. I used London broil. Pour the marinade over the steak and cover the crockpot. Once it starts to bubble, keep an eye on it. After about 2 hours, set it on low and keep it cooking for about 4 more hours. When it's ready, take 2 forks and shred it. DUUUUDE!

When you're ready to eat, prepare Spanish yellow rice according to package directions. For the beans, I diced 1/4 red onion and sauteed it, then mixed in a diced jalapeno and some diced red pepper. Then I added some drained & rinsed canned black beans and sauteed the mixture til it was hot, adding a bit of salt and pepper.

Plate it up, serve with cold beer. We made mojitos.

The meat would be good as leftovers to use in enchiladas or just to eat in some tortillas with some avocados & fresh tomatoes. Of which we have plenty!

Scout's hunger

2010-04-15T10:23:00.002-04:00

While poring over travel details and itineraries for my upcoming trip to Kenya, I can't help but worry about the food situation. I'm sure everything I eat will be fine, but it's the in-between times that I'm worried about. For one thing, I get very grouchy when I'm hungry. I also have a weird blood sugar thing where sometimes I'll start shaking - I'll break out into a cold sweat and then I feel like fainting. Nothing's been confirmed by my doctor even with multiple blood tests but I'm thinking I should come prepared with some healthy snacks just in case. I'll make a batch of these bars and hopefully I'll be good. I like this because it doesn't have any peanuts. I may add some slivered almonds for a some added protein. Generally when I feel my blood sugar drop, some Craisins will do the trick so I'm hoping these bars will help me over there - especially if we'll be building schools!

Recipe and photo from The Kitchn.

La Superior is Super

2010-04-14T22:19:00.003-04:00

La Superior
Berry near S. 2nd (Williamsburg)

I met Aaron here for dinner after a 3-year friendship hiatus. Due to circumstances beyond our control, he had fallen off the map and now that he's resurfaced we managed to finally catch up over spices and meat.

I'm super skeptical of eating "good" Mexican food in NYC - it just doesn't exist! But I'd heard good things about this place from friends who are from California so I figured they could be trusted.

We started with this salsa sampler. I have to admit, I gravitate towards the green sauces so I didn't really try the red ones. I liked that mint green one at 10 o'clock. The yellow-green one at 5 o'clock wasn't that tasty. And the one at 1 o'clock I never got to....

Because my tostada came! This is the Tostada de Pata, a fried corn tortilla topped with greens, pig's feet, fresh cheese and pickled jalapenos. Just a drizzle of that green salsa and it was good to go. All the nubby, fatty bits of pig's feet that I love so much, without having to deal with foot bones. It's the little things in life, you know.

Some tacos - lengua (tongue) on the left and steak on the right. The lengua taco was just okay. I like the one at Tehuitzingo better as it's tastier and juicier. This was a little dry.

A side of pinto beans, simple and rich at the same time. Cooked in rendered bacon fat, mind you. I could tell because there were big chunks of bacon in it and it was slightly smokey but not too salty. I was always scared to eat pinto beans because I only knew them in their refried form. In this way they resembled the contents of a baby's diaper and never looked appetizing to me. These were the complete opposite and we ended up ditching the serivng spoon and eating straight out of the bowl like savages.

Fish tacos! These were the best thing that we ate - the fish was super fresh and the sauce and spices had a bit of a bite but just enough to tickle the tongue. Slightly tomato-y - I'd order these again and again.

This is my medal, hand-drawn by Aaron for being the only friend of his to finish Song for the Blue Ocean by Carl Safina. It's a great read - highly recommended for fish eaters, fish enthusiasts and environmentalists. It's factual without being preachy and ends on a hopeful note.

So yeah - I'd go back! The table next to us ran out and got a couple bottles of beer so I think they are BYO. Otherwise they have Mexican sodas and aguas frescas - watermelon, lime, pineapple and prickly pear.

Flea eats

2010-04-11T21:10:00.003-04:00

This weekend the Brooklyn Flea came home to Bishop Laughlin in Fort Greene. It was a sunny Saturday and it was PACKED:

Montreal bagels, cream cheese & lox from Mile End. Unfortunately I didn't get to try any but will be there next weekend to see once and for all what the damn hype is about Montreal bagels!

Porchetta reserves! I got there before Alex and wanted to make sure they had enough. They brought three of these pork loin-belly beauties with them, stuffed with savory sage-y goodness.

I'd been wanting to try this. You can't see the third option but it's cucumber-lime-sea salt. At $4.25 for a small (12 oz?) it's pretty expensive. We tried the grapefruit-jalapeno-honey which I liked. They'll start selling growlers and bottles soon as well.

Homemade soft pretzels from Sigmund Pretzelshop! We got Gruyere-paprika but there was also classic sea salt, cinnamon raisin and poppy. There were also peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips and hard pretzels. AND homemade dipping sauces - wholegrain mustard, beet-horseradish mayo and others.

We also got our usual Mexican corn and watermelon juice from one of the Red Hook vendors. These lines continue to be the longest, as well as the lines for Asia Dog. Surprisingly, Porchetta's line was nearly non-existent.

It's amazing how many bread products we consumed but for mobile food, it's the best vessel. CARBOLOAD!!! I'll be there next week to sample different foods yay!

2010-04-04T22:46:00.002-04:00

Bark
458 Bergen @ Flatbush (Park Slope, BK)

We walked over to Bark for dinner, arriving at around 7pm. It was our first time there - you order at the counter and then they call your name and/or bring the food out to you. Everything is sourced as locally as possible and trash receptacles are labeled to make for easier disposal. For them, anyway.

Though they are known for their hot dogs, we got their burgers which they have recently started serving. We also ordered a side of gravy fries:

Topped with Grafton cheddar, Bark sauce, red onions and bread & butter pickles, these didn't need much else. The bun (I'm guessing Pepperidge Farm, per the tent cards on each table that lists all their sources) was chewy and held up to the juices. The burger itself could've used a bit more salt. The fries were a bit soggy but the gravy was very good, reminiscent of the schnitzel mushroom gravy I had in Frankfurt.

I'd head there if I was back in the area I guess, I do want to try the hot dogs and pork sandwich. One funny thing, we didn't tip the cashier and we noticed that she brought everyone's food out but ours! She yelled out Alex's name and placed our tray on the side of the counter. If that's the price we pay for not tipping, who cares! You showed us.

The Migas Touch

2010-04-04T16:44:00.001-04:00

Migas for brunch, originally uploaded by lazysundae.

We have a ton of tortillas leftover from taco night as well as some chorizo from another night that I made soup. So Alex suggested migas for brunch, which I have never eaten, much less cooked. Migas means "crumbs" in Spanish and refers to the fact that leftovers are typically used. So here's how:

1. Scramble some eggs with salsa (we used green) and set aside.
2. Tear up some corn tortillas, dice a white onion.
3. De-pulp a tomato, dice. Dice an avocado, chop a handful of cilantro. Set these aside.
4. In a heavy skillet, heat up some butter with olive oil and cook the onion til translucent. Add the torillas and cook until a bit crisp. We added some potatoes also, and when these had cooked some we added chorizo and black beans.
5. Add the egg mixture and scramble. Add salt and pepper as necessary.
6. To serve, plate the scramble mixture and top with shredded jack cheese, tomatoes, avocado, sour cream and cilantro.

You can add whatever you want to this - chilis, ham, turkey, cheddar, whatever you want. I wouldn't mind having this more often!

Don't Google Hothouse

2010-04-04T09:07:00.005-04:00

Peaches Hothouse
215 Tompkins Ave @ Hancock (Bed-Stuy)

This week I read about Peaches Hothouse on Brownstoner and immediately hit up Ying, who loves the existing Peaches on Lewis Ave. We drooled over the menu for a bit then decided to have dinner there this weekend with some friends:

Fried green tomatoes with some sort of aioli dressing, arugula and thick cut bacon. These were crusted in cornmeal and fried just right. They're not on the online menu but since they just opened two weeks ago they are still trying things out. I've only had this once before when I was in Kentucky, and these were much better.

BBQ shrimp with fried grit cakes. I wasn't expecting the grits to look like tofu but the consistency was good - still mealy and soft on the inside but very crispy on the outside. I was expecting grilled shrimp but these came sauteed in a tomato-y BBQ sauce and looked very Asian.

Nick & David ordered the hanger steak, which came with hand cut fries and a grilled vidalia onion.

Ying & Laurea ordered the Low Country Rice Bowl which came with blue crab and corn. I tried some of Ying's - it could've used a little something. Maybe a touch of citrus salt.

I ordered the Six-Hour Beef Cheeks & Grits. This came topped with shitake mushrooms and slivered snow peas. The cheeks were meaty, fatty and soft. Definitely hoping they keep this on the menu. It's deceptively filling!

Alex & Angel ordered the fried chicken with mac and cheese. The chicken came piled high on a piece of buttered, toasted Texas toast. The mac and cheese was more like a macaroni salad which I liked, and the fried chicken was very crisp and juicy. And slightly spicy!

For dessert there was strawberry shortcake and peach blueberry pie, which I only had tiny bites of. There was vanilla cream on everything, which made up for the lack of ice cream.

For now they are BYOB because they are waiting for their liquor license to come through. Beer and wine only! I would suggest a sparkler like Cava or Champagne to break up the greasiness of the fried foods. Delicate reds like merlot of pinot noir would not work here - go with big fruit!

Gnocchi-doke pt. 2

2010-03-30T11:51:00.002-04:00

Potato gnocchi with smoked mozzarella, plum tomatoes, green olives, originally uploaded by lazysundae.

I saw this recipe in a newsletter I get from Cookstr - there were 10 different pasta recipes and I picked this one because it's similar to a pasta my old boss used to make (penne-tomatoes-fresh mozzarella-basil).

This one used smoked fresh mozzarella and green olives, as well as marjoram, an herb I've never used before. It's a little thyme-y. It's a Mario Batali recipe and can be seen here.

It came out super delicious - gnocchi is kind of hard to cook with because it goes gooey so fast. They were not by any means overcooked, but I feel like they can't really stand up to a good pan fry, to get the toasted outsides like I wanted.

I used the Whole Foods brand frozen gnocchi, which were okay. Would definitely make this again, perhaps with homemade gnocchi.

Keepin you guessin

2010-03-28T08:29:00.003-04:00

I'm scared this spot will become too crowded so I won't say where it is outright - it's in Flushing, Queens, and D & L took us there a couple of weeks ago. It's super modern and clean, and there is also a sauce station where you can mix your own, and get your own rice.

There are about 8-10 different broths on the menu including a duck and kimchi option, but we opted for chicken...

...and super spicy. We asked for it to be super duper extra spicy. Here's the misconception about Szechuan hotpot - Szechuan peppercorns aren't really spicy! They make your mouth tingle, which makes you think your mouth is on fire. But if you calm down a sec, you realize it's not really, it's just numb.

We ordered plates of fresh veggies, Shanghai noodles, pork, cuttlefish, fishballs, short ribs, wood ear mushrooms... Everything was delicious and fresh - no freezer burn, no wilted anything. Very impressed.

For dessert we going to split some shaved ice but our server told us they'd make a party-sized one with everything on it. Well here is almost everything (I would've loved to have ice cream and lychees as well!). Sorry to say, it ain't pretty but it sure is yummy! You're looking at sweet red beans, mung beans, taro, and other goodies.

Flushing is definitely a trek but you can make it worth it - go early and do a little shopping, then stop off at Corner 28 for some $1 Peking Duck buns. Or have dinner after watching the Mets (hmm...Ryan!!)

We were a party of 7 and all the food, the big dessert and beer came out to $31 per person including tip.

There's no sangria at Saraghina

2010-03-28T08:05:00.005-04:00

Saraghina
435 Halsey St (Bed-Stuy, BK)

I planned a Bed-Stuy date for us yesterday. We started out on the B25 headed east on Fulton St, disembarking at Malcolm X. There's a lot more out that way on Fulton, so we'll have to venture out more often - roti shops, Jamaican restaurants, tons of tshirt and hat shops, a basement record shop...

Our first stop was Brooklynite Gallery where we checked out a new exhibit and spoke to the owner Ray for a while. He's a native Brooklynite and a really nice guy. The gallery space is nice as well, small but with an outdoor space for installations.

We had an hour and a half before Saraghina opened for dinner, so we walked around the neighborhood then stopped in at Peaches for a drink at the bar. The hostess was a witch but once seated, the bartender took care of us. I had the Holla Back, which was basically a jalapeno margarita. It was a little sweet and had way too much lime! I wanted more jalapeno spice and tequila. Alex had peach-blueberry infused bourbon and we shared a small plate of buffalo wings. Those poor buffalo!

We headed to Saraghina at 6pm, which is when they supposedly open, but there were already a few parties seated! It's made to look like it has been there forever but because of how the neighborhood looks around it you can tell it is new. It's a weird feeling but it's very well done and looks awesome inside.

If you can see behind me, the walls and exposed beams and all structural woodwork are white, and all the tables and chairs are vintage and mismatched.

Since we had an appetizer at Peaches, we jumped straight into the pizzas. I wanted to try the burrata or grilled octopus, so maybe next time. They take their cue from the newer Neopolitan pizza joints and only offer six pizzas but they are different enough to elicit a struggle in decision making.

This is my pizza, the Capocollo. I love salumi baked on a pizza! It gets slightly crispy and oily and gives each bite a smoky saltiness. Delicious but I wouldn't say it's the best pizza I've had. Much better than Lombardi's or Grimaldi's though. The crust held up pretty well and the San Marzano tomato sauce was mild and fresh tasting - not too much garlic.

Alex's pizza, the Prosciutto e Funghi. This was good as well but I think we were both expecting the cured prosciutto. This needed a bit of salt.

For dessert we decided on tiramisu. They misunderstood and brought us one each (oink oink!) but it was delicious. I don't know if you can tell, but there was a lot of cream on top. Every time I scooped up a piece, the cream filled the void. It was very rich without being too heavy or sweet, but I could not finish the whole thing.

So two pizzas, two desserts, a half carafe of house wine and a shot of espresso ran us about $66, not including tip. Not too bad but not Bed-Stuy prices either. The service was very friendly and prompt. Would love to go back to try more of the appetizers!

Not just for tea

2010-03-26T07:32:00.002-04:00

While perusing my feeds on Google Reader, I came across this recipe that used ground chamomile flowers in fried pork chops. I'd been searching for more uses for chamomile, as I bought a giant jar of it on a whim.

Basically, you grind up the flowers in a bean grinder and mix it with flour, salt and pepper. Then you dredge your pork chops in the mixture and fry them.

I served ours with collards braised in bacon fat, sherry, shallots and chicken broth with a little balsamic vinegar.

A squeeze of fresh lemon really brings out the light floral flavor of the chamomile.

Cows have four stomachs

2010-03-26T07:22:00.004-04:00

Socarrat Paella Bar
259 W 19 St (Chelsea)

Sophie's back from her travels, and that means girls night pig-out. Sophie, Erin, Jonna & I decided on Socarrat paella bar, located in Chelsea. On a Tuesday night there was an hour+ wait at 7:30pm, so we sat at the bar and had wine and tapas to start.

Jamon Iberico, with one lone piece of pan tomat. I could've eaten this all night. I'm a huge advocate of fatty and salty.
Another winner were the croquettes, tiny nuggets of pureed chorizo, mushroom and potato fried to a deep brown - surprisingly good and crispy on the outside.
We also ordered a giant sirloin empanada and sardines.

This is the Paella Valenciana, with rabbit, snails and pork ribs. It was good, especially the bits of burnt rice at the bottom, but a little greasy for me.

The Fideua, using short noodles instead of rice. With lima beans and seafood, this had the potential to be really awesome but again, a little too greasy. I'd never had paella this way before so this was a nice change.

Vanilla flan - tasting very faintly of vanilla. The custard was just right, not too dense.

Chocolate beignets, their take on churros con chocolate, I'm assuming. The outsides were crisp, and insides hot and moist with MELTED CHOCOLATE.

I'd definitely go back but not for the paella. Tapas and dessert are winners here.

Gnocchi-doke

2010-03-22T10:06:00.002-04:00

Homemade carrot-yam gnocchi with roasted broccoli, originally uploaded by lazysundae.

This is one of my food resolutions for 2010 - homemade gnocchi. Using this as inspiration, I tweaked the recipe somewhat and made my own version.

I used carrots and garnet yams in the gnocchi, then tried to pan fry them to get a crisp outside. The problem with this is that the gnocchi started to fall apart, so some of it stuck to the pan and i had to scrape it off. I also added roasted broccoli (LOVE THIS STUFF) and topped it all with marinara sauce and grated parmesan cheese.

It turned out very good - surprisingly filling and a little sweet-salty. I have to work on my gnocchi-rolling technique because these were quite ugly. Next up, spinach-ricotta gnocchi in a prosciutto-cream sauce!

Girls just wanna have fun

2010-03-19T07:55:00.004-04:00

The Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt @ Bergen (Prospect Heights, BK)

Dinner this time. If you haven't signed up at Blackboard Eats yet, you're missing out! They offer coupons for different restaurants, usually 30% off your bill but also, like The Vanderbilt, a free appetizer or bottle of wine. So worth it, for restaurants you already love and also as incentive to try others. We've used coupons at Hill Country and Braeburn, and last night my coupon for the Vanderbilt was set to expire so Mike and I headed there to meet Alex for dinner after the opening of Ryan McGinley's newest gallery show.

The Blackboard Eats deal was a free charcuterie plate portioned out for each member of the party. This included pate on toast, lardons on garlic crostini, house cured bacon and some strips of fatty, salty duck confit.

Alex: This place hasn't disappointed yet. I'm glad to have a reliable spot in the neighborhood (well close enough at least) for a solid meal.

As another appetizer we tried the Oreilles de Christ (Ears of Christ), which were basically pork rinds served with personal eyedroppers filled with a super spicy pineapple-chili sauce. It wasn't bad, but I don't think I'd order it again as it didn't really do anything for me. Pork rinds = pork rinds, basically.

Alex: The actual pork rinds were pretty bland, but the sauce was spiiiiiiiiiiiicy! Whew, I'm sweating just thinking about it.

Alex's dinner, duck confit atop pan-fried spaetzle. I'm not a huge fan of spaetzle but I tried some and these were really good, a little crunchy on the outside.

Alex: I loved this dish. Usually duck is too fatty for me (I know, I know, I'm a weirdo) but this was just right. The meat was cooked to the just-before-it-got-dry point, so it was firm but still moist and flavorful. The waiter said they serve almost tapas style plates, but this was a whole lot of food.

Mike's dinner, the hanger steak with potatoes and blue cheese wedge.

My dinner, steamed mussels in coconut milk with basil and chili. As most of the dishes were quite small, I was surprised at how many mussels came in this order.

Here they are all undressed.

They suggest 2-3 plates per person but with what we ordered, it was more than enough. If you wanted to do an hors d'ouevres-sized dish and a "main," I think you'd be set, with enough room for dessert:

Spiced donuts with pistachio ice cream and apricot-orange blossom coulis. A little disappointing as these were cake donuts, which I'm not a huge fan of. Flavor was great, but I wasn't feeling the texture. The donuts were a little crumbly.

Alex: Unfortunately, I didn't think this dessert was that great either. My feelings were just the opposite of Alexis'. I thought the flavor was bland considering all of the ingredients. Nothing really stood out.

So far this spot has been great both times we've eaten here. One big plus is that the staff really makes the effort to give good service. They're friendly, they're all very helpful, and our we never saw the bottoms of our water glasses.

It's the little things, folks.

Weird ears & Ed Levine

2010-03-08T16:12:00.004-05:00

I'll let those photos sink in for a bit.

The much-awaited Pies n Thighs finally opened last Monday, much to the surprise and excitement of the hipster community. It was housed behind Rockstar Bar at S. 5th and Kent, a tiny outpost consisting of a tiny kitchen and outdoor seating area that could fit about 12 people.

This new spot is a full-on restaurant at S. 4th and Driggs, complete with Formica tables and mismatched chairs. A fairly large group of 7, we were sat after a 20 minute wait on a Saturday afternoon at 2pm. We even beat Ed Levine there - Ken spotted him meandering around outside after we were seated.

We all ordered with Chicken & Waffles or Fish & Grits. The Fish & Grits tasted like they had in the past - a crisp cornmeal crust and buttery, almost cheesy grits. Topped with a sauce that was almost Tabasco-like (not as spicy and much thicker), it was as I expected it to be. I was only able to taste a bite of the chicken skin and none of the waffles, sadly, so I will have to take a trip back there for another brunch and also for dinner. And for more pie. What is it with Americans and not sharing food?? It's very strange to me - what's the use of ordering different things if you can't taste it all?

The pies. Do you see how tiny they are? $4.50 for those tiny slices. The apple pie left much to be desired. As I'm not a fan of it to begin with, I wanted the trademark flaky crust and warm, gooey inside. What we got was a cold chunk of congealed apples in an almost soggy crust! How disappointing. The key lime pie fared much better, tart and creamy in a graham cracker crust. The edges of the crust were baked so that they were buttery and crispy - super delicious, but also super tiny!

Has anyone else eaten there yet? Do you think there are kinks to work out? Tell me what you think. I will be back, definitely, especially during blueberry season.

Good day for a white wedding

2010-03-03T09:54:00.003-05:00

No photos because we gobbled it up too fast. Last week I made Italian wedding soup for dinner. Here's how:

1. Ground meat (I used beef, you can use pork, turkey, chicken...) - in a bowl, mix it up with milk, a handful of breadcrumbs, dried parsley, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, garlic powder. Mix mix mix mix mix, keep adding milk until the consistency's right. It should be wet but not gooey. Like if you're making a meatball, it should hold its own and not fall apart or flatten out.

2. Chicken broth - I like College Inn's chicken broth a lot. It can get a bit salty, so as you're heating it up, add some water. Bring it to a light boil and add the meatballs in.

3. Meanwhile cook your pasta in another pot. Use small pasta such as ditalini. I used mini shells. If you like you can cook your pasta in the chicken broth but the starch from the pasta will make the soup thicker and a little cloudy. I prefer to cook it separately until it's al dente, then rinse it under cold water.

4. Spinach - I like to get the big bag of spinach. You could use baby spinach but I used the regular kind and just cut it up with scissors into big chunks. I think it holds up to soups and reheating better.

5. Once the meatballs have been cooking for about 5-8 minutes, taste the broth and adjust to taste. Add the pasta in and cook for another 2 minutes, then right before serving, add the spinach. Serve immediately and top with freshly grated parm. Garlic bread on the side would be awesome.

In the Heights

2010-02-27T22:07:00.003-05:00

The Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt Ave & Bergen (Prospect Heights, BK)

I've become pretty jaded on going out to brunch - it's always the same thing wherever you go - a riff on Eggs Benedict, some omelettes, huevos rancheros, French toast, etc.

Today Alex decided to take us out to brunch and we picked a few places that looked good in Prospect Heights, which is just south of us and within walking distance.

I'd been to The Vanderbilt before, for cocktails. The cocktails were designed with help from their neighbors across the street at Weather Up (whose bartenders were trained by Sasha Petraske) and were interesting at best, but not exactly delicious.

The space is cavernous with two separate bars to eat at, one at the actual bar and one by the kitchen, diner style. There are high top tables in the front and regular ones in the back. Being on the corner, there is also a lot of natural sunlight which is a rare commodity in New York.

Several things on the menu caught my eye but we decided on:

Blistered shishito peppers with lemon and pimenton salt... These were delicious to start and not too filling. They look a little scary but they were not spicy at all. Perfect for whetting your appetite.

Duck rillets with apple conserve... This looks very small but it filled me up - not to the point of bursting, but I felt just right after eating this. You spread the rillets on the toast, then top it with a bit of apple spread. Very delicious and not heavy or too fatty at all, which I was expecting.

Grilled hanger steak with eggs and rosti rosemary potatoes... This is like the ultimate breakfast. I am a huge fan of potatoes and this crispy-on-the-outside-creamy-on-the-inside, herby potato pancake was simply delicous. I wish I'd gotten an entire side of this. The steak was tender, as hanger steak surprisingly is, and the Hollandaise appropriately creamy.

I wish we'd saved room for beignets, which I'll remember for next time.

The service is cordial and attentive without being overly so, and the servers are very knowledgeable about their dishes. I also liked that they placed our dishes with the appropriate person without having to auction them off at the table. There's no dining boner kill like a server showing up and saying, "Okay, who's got the...."

Cocktails were just okay. My bloody mary was a little thick and had to be chewed and Alex ordered the "Vandy Shandy" which is a pilsner, ginger, lemon-lime soda and bitters.

I was very pleasantly surprised with this spot - I'm hoping it continues to do well so we can keep coming back here. I'd definitely do brunch again, as well as dinner. Game?

Lazy Marian

2010-02-15T11:49:00.002-05:00

At BK Flea this weekend I finally got to try one of Milk Truck's gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. Outfitted with about 4-5 panini presses, their booth boasts classic grilled cheese, ham & cheese and my pick, fresh mozzarella and fried piquillo peppers in a white bun.

It was so delicious I got ingredients to make my own at home (no panini press). Instead of the white roll I found panini bread at Whole Foods and some jarred roasted peppers. I have a cast iron grill pan, which I used to cook the sandwich, and to weigh it down I placed my cast iron skillet on top.

The bread grilled up beautifully and the cheese was good (just a drizzle of olive oil inside) but next time I will take the time to roast my own peppers. The citric acid just destroys the taste.

3 months til Kenya

2010-02-09T09:49:00.002-05:00

And this morning, I found some posts about Kenyan food in Google Reader, via The Kitchn!

Sukuma wiki, noun: This Swahili word literally means "stretch the week," but it usually refers to a simple dish of cooked greens like kale or collards.

Mandazi [mahn-dahz-ee] noun: Fried doughnut or roll served as dessert or a warm teatime snack all over Kenya and East Africa.

Ugali [oo-gahl-ee] noun: In Kenya, ugali is the name for the most common mealtime starch: a thick, stiff porridge made from white cornmeal or red millet.

Irio [eer-ee-o], noun: In the Kenyan tribal language of Kikuyu, irio just means food. But it usually refers to a simple, plain dish of mashed potatoes, maize, and peas or greens.

I can deal with this, easily!

All images via The Kitchn.

TK

2010-02-09T09:32:00.003-05:00

From the blog Almost Bourdain:

An excerpt from the book "My Last Supper" by Melanie Dunea. She wrote to 50 great chefs and asked them to describe their ideal last meal:

- Thomas Keller -

Who would prepare the meal? I would like all the chefs from the French Laundry and Bouchon to prepare my final meal.
What would be your last meal on earth? I would begin with a half kilo of osetra caviar, followed by some otoro. I would then have a quesadilla, followed by a roast chicken, and finally, brie with truffles. For dessert I would choose to have either profiteroles or a lemon tart.
What would be the setting for the meal? I would want to eat my last meal at home in Yountville, California, and in New York City.
What would you drink with your meal? I would start out with a 1983 Salon champagne, followed by a Ridge Lytton Springs zinfandel. I would end with a twenty-five-year-old Macallan scotch.
Would there be music? I would listen to the compilation of music that is played at Ad Hoc, our restaurant in Napa Valley.
Who would be your dining companions? Lauran Cunningham, my brothers, my sister, and my father.

And you, readers, what would your last meal be and where and with whom would you eat it?

What I ate on my birthday 2010

2010-02-03T14:18:00.002-05:00

In contrast to last year's opulence, this year we stuck to comfort food:

Sul Lang Tang from Gahm Mi Ok

Pulled pork by Alex

Keeping it low key this year. This weekend, Chinese at Amazing 66. I hope we have an amazing time...

Full metal douchebag

2010-01-30T08:31:00.002-05:00

Last night I met Alex at The Dove for some drinks before watching a movie. We had some wine and then I noticed that they added a new winter cocktail to their menu, the Holly & Ivy. It's bourbon muddled with cranberries, basil & sugar, the shaken with lime. It's dangerous because a) it's bourbon and b) SUPER DELICIOUS. Would love to try this at home.

After the movie we went to 'ino. I've been coming here since I moved to New York going on 7 years ago and coming here is like coming home. The prices have gone up a bit, and they take credit cards now. Instead of a single piece of heavy paper for a menu they now have a shiny, tri-fold menu with explanations of ingredients, in case you've never had capicollo or taleggio before.

I got the usual antipasti platter, which comes with 2 kinds of cheeses, a hard one and a spreadable goat cheese with fennel fronds. Roasted garlic, gaeta olives, caponata, sweet balsamic onions, 2 kinds of salami, roasted red peppers, pate... It's been this way, with maybe a few seasonal variations, since my first visit there.

So I was sitting there enjoying the atmosphere, company, food. I glance over at the bar and notice an overweight, balding man with glasses staring in our direction and I nearly spit my wine out.

Five years ago, I was sitting at the same bar by myself eating some bruschetta and enjoying some wine. I was by myself so I had a magazine. Open. In front of me. This same man was a couple seats down. He decided to strike up a conversation and after a few short answers (which I thought would hopefully end the conversation) he decides to open up a full on barrage. He's been to Japan. Korea. They LOVED him there. Uh huh. He's an editor at Newsweek. Science section. Okay. Then comes the bombshell. "Do you like to kiss?" What? He repeats the question. I try to think fast. "Yes, it's one of my favorite bands. Can I have the check please?" I pay as fast as I can and leave so fast I nearly fall off the stool. I accidentally on purpose drop the business card he gives me on the ground outside. I get on the train home feeling nauseous, dirty, slimy, semi-violated.

I pretended not to see him or recognize him last night.

"Something Asian again...."

2010-01-24T17:41:00.003-05:00

Homemade Niu Rou Mian, originally uploaded by lazysundae.

It's a running joke between me and Alex, that I always want to eat Asian food. But when there are so many different cuisines from Asia, can you blame me?

This is a recipe from Noodle Fever that I spotted on FoodGawker the other day. It's the perfect weather for warm, spicy noodle soup.

I had to make a few substitutions in the recipe as my grocery store, though it is trying very hard, didn't have some of the ingredients: Szechuan peppercorns, spicy chili bean paste (I used sambal olek, which they had) or beef shanks (I subbed oxtails and london broil...). They had star anise but at $8 for a container of about 10, I passed and bought a big jar of Chinese 5-spice instead for $2.50

What really got my mouth watering was the spice paste. As the soup base in the big pot is starting to simmer, you heat vegetable oil in a small saucepan and add sugar (I used dark brown) to caramelize. To this, you add grated ginger and a whole HEAD of minced garlic. Also some of that sambal olek and also the optional cayenne pepper. It smells so delicious. I want to make just that again and try it on different things - meats, noodles tossed in sesame oil... You get the idea.

Making the noodles wasn't too complicated, just really messy. The key, as noted in the instructions, is to use a LOT of flour to avoid sticking. Seriously - keep flouring! Flour as your roll up the dough, flour as you unroll and stack the noodles up... It helps a lot.

I am going to make this again, and next time I will add the beef tendons.

If you're a follower of mine on Tumblr you're going to see this photo twice...which is okay because it was that yummy.

Okay we are nerds

2010-01-18T02:52:00.004-05:00

Melba's
W 114th St & Frederick Douglass (Harlem)

Chicken & waffles at Melba's, originally uploaded by lazysundae.

We saw this on Bobby Flay's throwdown show (ahh the days of cable!) and have been wanting to try it since. Finally, this Saturday we went on a big Manhattan adventure that involved tea shopping in Chinatown, vinegar sampling at Puro Chile, chorizo and morcilla tasting at D'Espana, and finally the trek up to Harlem to the famed Melba's for chicken & waffles.

I've only had CX&WF once, at Buttermilk Channel so I guess that was my point of reference for this one. BC's chicken is super crunchy on the outside, juicy on the inside. With chewy cheddar waffles & a balsamic syrup, I think my hopes were too high. Or my tastebuds spoiled.

Melba's has eggnog waffles with strawberry butter - interesting. Our plates came out within 5 minutes of ordering them so I'm guessing they had these at the ready because they're the most popular dish.

The chicken was decent but the waffles left me disappointed! They were like lukewarm waffle cakes. I wanted crunchier waffles and warm enough so that the strawberry butter would be melting on the way to the table. Not to say that they didn't taste good, just a personal preference. The cinnamon-nutmeg spice blend in the waffles was a nice touch but it didn't really give the chicken a chance to shine.

Need to try making this at home. Alex - you can get that waffle iron you've been wanting now.

Oh and check this blog out, The Waffleizer!

Easy breezy breakfast

2010-01-18T02:41:00.002-05:00

Pan con tomate for breakfast, originally uploaded by lazysundae.

1. Chewy, crusty bread. Toast or grill.
2. Meanwhile, grate tomato (minus skin) in box grater - biggest holes.
3. Rub bread with garlic.
4. Drizzle olive oil.
5. Top with tomato pulp.
6. Sea salt, fresh pepper.

Repeat until full. Also eat with manchego, jamon serrano, olives, a fried egg.

Yup.

"Apply blubber here..."

2010-01-13T23:24:00.007-05:00

The Breslin
16 W 29th St

To celebrate Ryan's engagement, Kim & I decided to take him out to dinner. Located amidst a strip of cheap jewelry and perfume stores in a non-neighborhood between the Flatiron and Koreatown is The Breslin, housed in the Ace Hotel. Having just opened in October of 09 by April Bloomfield & Ken Friedman (The Spotted Pig), there was a 20-30 minute wait when we got there at 6pm on a Wednesday night. Not bad at all, considering.

We were seated at the chef's table, in full view of the open kitchen. We were warned that they'd be seating other parties with us but for the length of our stay, we remained alone at the head of the table.

Deciding to forego any wine or one of the $12 cocktails interestingly named with album titles, we decided to delve right into the food.

We started with a nice surprise that wasn't on the online menu (yes, we perused thoroughly before arriving, coming up with different combinations of appetizers and entrees, always ending with the pig's feet). These are Hog Island Sweetwater oysters from San Francisco, my favorite oyster. Served simply with dill sauce, I could have eaten a full dozen of these sweet & briny treats by myself.

We then had the Scotch Egg, which is a soft-boiled egg wrapped in pork sausage then breaded and fried. This is one of those foods you want to just pick up and grab to stuff in your mouth.

About the size of a baseball, this appetizer is deceivingly filling. The onion soup with bone marrow parmesan toast sounded delicious, but I was glad we opted out.

The exalted stuffed pig's foot, as big as my forearm. Stuffed with more pork sausage then slowcooked and FRIED! Served with braising liquids, soft roasted shallots and brussel sprout leaves.

I hacked off about a quarter of the foot and took a careful bite - salty pork and sticky, crunchy skin!

We bravely soldiered on but were only able to eat barely half of the dish. Kim and I split the leftovers and then decided to save our stomachs for dessert.

Ryan ordered the lamb burger which came on a plancha, served with huge, thick cut fries and cumin mayo. Having a few bites of the meat, you could taste the juicy fatness.... which seemed like light eating after consuming the rich pork. Wish I'd gotten a better photo of the actual burger!

For dessert we decided on the sticky toffee date pudding with vanilla ice cream, poached pear and Turkish coffee. So delicious with the crunchy surprise bits.

We needed a moment to rest after all the food...

In general a great dining experience, especially since we were lucky enough to sit right by the kitchen. The service was a little spotty, with an overly enthusiastic waitress who called us "Darling" and had Madonna arms... But if that's the price I have to pay to be put to death by pork, bring it on.

Because you know what, they serve a full English breakfast at brunch (and at breakfast during the week). Rashers and mushrooms and fried eggs oh my!

The Breslin - NOT FOR THE FAINT OF STOMACH. Or vegetarians.

New year, new foods

2010-01-11T10:22:00.004-05:00

In my goals for this year I've included a few things I would like to try to make. I've picked 12, one for each month. We start tonight, marinating the chicken for the first item:

Filipino chicken adobo - I've asked my mom countless times for her recipe but as she cooks the way I do, there is no set formula. I've found one that sounds good and hope to perfect it before she visits in March.
A vegetable terrine! Finally, something besides roasted veggies to serve my non-meat eating friends at parties. Because this is usually the bane of my party planning.
Liver pate - I love eating it but hate buying it. I know how I want it to taste and it never tastes the way I want!
Panna cotta. I need to get some ramekins for this!
Chocolate covered potato chips, matcha chocolate, chocolate with almonds-thyme-lavender-sea salt-pepper. I hate chocolate but I'll eat these!
More bread.
Lemon curd. Something I saw in Saveur's latest issue.
This fish sandwich.
Homemade gnocchi.
Pizza dough from scratch.
Homemade chicken broth. I've roasted a chicken and used leftovers in chicken salad and soups, and also made gravy from the giblets. What's left to make is the broth.
Some sort of bloody mary from scratch. As much as I love this brunch cocktail, I've never made it! I'm thinking tomato water, jalapeno ice cubes and....?

So friends in NYC, be prepared to be my test subjects. Lazysundae is trying not to be so lazy in the kitchen.

Waffleburger

2010-01-09T19:36:00.000-05:00

Waffleburger: "

Waffleburger: a cheese-covered beef patty and freshly made bun, all cooked in the waffle iron."

WHAT!!! I want to try but I don't want to buy a waffle iron.

Happy new year, happy tummy

2010-01-01T12:45:00.003-05:00

Hainan Chicken Rice - NYE 2009 Dinner, originally uploaded by lazysundae.

This is Hainan Chicken Rice, a traditional Chinese-Malaysian dish. I was in Malaysia for about two months after graduating high school and ate this a lot. It's healthy and delicious and pretty easy to make:

Boil water and add salt and peppercorns. The pot should be big enough to cover an entire 2-3 lb chicken in water.
Meanwhile, rinse and drain a whole chicken. Cut off the excess fat and reserve, then stuff the cavity with sliced ginger and scallions.
Once the water has started boiling, put the chicken in breast side down and reduce to barely a simmer. You just want it to poach, not boil. If necessary, turn off the heat about 20 mins in. Cooking time for the chicken should be about 45 mins.
Once the chicken is done, remove from the cooking liquid and immediately submerge in ice water for about 10 mins. Remove and let drain at room temp. Save the cooking liquid!
Rinse your rice (jasmine) til the liquid runs clear.
Using the chicken fat, render it in a pot or deep saucepan (I used the one I'd cooked the chicken in as it's pretty heavy on the bottom). Throw a few cloves of chopped garlic in, followed by the rice. Sautee for about 5 minutes and then add the chicken's cooking liquid. I used 2 cups of dry rice and 3 cups of the liquid. Bring to a simmer and cover, with heat very low.
At this point you can make your chili sauce - fresh lime juice, a little sugar, some garlic mashed in salt, grated ginger, and Thai Sriracha sauce. Slice up some cucumber.
To serve, cut the chicken up into small pieces (see photo). Serve with the chicken rice, cucumbers, chili sauce, and a side of soy sauce.

I took all the skin off my chicken to make it even healthier - so delicious!

Cook everything in bacon fat part 2

2009-12-29T10:36:00.005-05:00

Duck fat is best but bacon fat is easier. I haven't roasted a duck in a while so my supply of duck fat has been dwindling...

It's hazy from the steam but you get the idea...

1. Soak cannelini (dried) beans overnight. I didn't have overnight - if you don't either you can put the beans in boiling water and boil for 2-3 minutes. I used about a cup of beans. After boiling, turn the heat off and let the beans sit in the hot water for an hour or two.
2. In another pot, COOK SOME BACOOONNN! I cut up some bacon into small dice and cooked them til crisp. Remove the bacon and save... reserve some fat in the pot to cook your garlic (2-3 cloves, roughly chopped) and diced onions. Cook for about 30 seconds, then add a few sprigs of fresh rosemary. When these have all softened, discard the rosemary. Scoop the garlic and onion into a blender or food processor.
3. Scoop the beans and about half their cooking liquid into the blender/processor and pulse until smooth.
4. Add roughly chopped kale to the pot with the bacon fat. Braise with some of the bean liquid. Once softened, add the bean puree to the kale, as well as some tomato paste, about 2-3 Tbsp. Add more cooking liquid from the beans and keep adding this to regulate thickness. Simmer. I had a parmesan rind in the freezer that I'd been saving so I added this to the soup as well - it adds flavor and thickness.
5. Meanwhile cook some short pasta - I used mini shells. When these are all dente, add to the soup. Season everything with salt and pepper. Let the soup simmer for another 10 mins or so. If it gets too thick, keep adding the liquid from the beans or regular water.
6. During this time you can make garlic bread. Just slice some good crusty bread and toast it. Once it's nice and brown, drizzle with olive oil and rub with a garlic clove.
7. To serve soup, sprinkle with reserved bacon and garnish with some fresh rosemary. Sop with garlic bread. We didn't have any wine last night but I think a nice Soave would've gone well.

Cook everything in bacon fat...

2009-12-29T00:46:00.002-05:00

I MEAN IT.

This is braised kale I made a couple nights ago:
1. Chop bacon into small pieces and cook in a big heavy bottomed pot. You could use a sautee pan I suppose but with the amount of kale you may be using a pot might be a better option.
2. Meanwhile prep your kale - hold each stalk by the end and using a chef's knife, lightly hack the leaves off, slicing away from you. I used more than half of one bunch. Roughly chop the kale so you still have some big chunky pieces. Also cut up some asparagus.
3. Once the bacon has cooked to desired crispness, remove from the pot. Pour out some of the fat, reserving about 2 Tbsp inside. I save my bacon fat in the freezer - you can cook veggies, eggs & make cookies with them.
4. Add the chopped kale to the pot and little by little add a bit of water to braise it. Once the kale starts to soften, add some balsamic vinegar. Add the asparagus to the pot then season with salt and pepper.
5. Meanwhile roughly chop some dates. Add these and a handful of craisins to the pot of kale, continuing to add water or balsamic vinegar little by little.

To serve, top with the bacon you cooked earlier and some roasted, salted sunflower seeds. Great as a side but I ate mine as dinner.

Hambone

2009-12-27T11:19:00.003-05:00

Macaron Cafe
36th St & 7th Ave

Can't say enough how much I like this place. The staff is always friendly and helpful and the owner manager is usually there to help out too. Last week I went in for lunch and ordered the Paris sandwich, which came on a chewy French baguette and had finely marbled French ham, thick slices of Gruyere, homemade mayonnaise and some cornichons.

I also ordered the Earl Grey French Blue tea, which sits in a giant tin on a shelf with all the other teas. As he spooned it out into the personal cast iron teapot for steeping before serving, he beckoned me over to get a whiff of the tea. "It's a beautiful tea, non?" He said.

Indeed. And a beautiful sandwich as well.

5 Piece Chicken Dinner

2009-12-14T18:21:00.001-05:00

Saturday night roast chicken dinner, originally uploaded by lazysundae.

We were craving some roast chicken so Saturday night, I got the fixins:

1 whole chicken
3-4 medium Yukon gold potatoes
2 medium red onions
3-4 large carrots
1 lemon
Fresh rosemary (we already had some)
1 head garlic
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger

1. Rinse the chicken inside and out with cold water. REMEMBER TO REMOVE THE BAG OF GIBLETS!! Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Peel the carrots and reserve the peels and tips/butts. Halve an onion and reserve the skins and 1 or 2 outer layers of flesh.
3. Fill a small saucepan 3/4 full of water and bring to a boil. Add carrot peels, butts/tips, onion discards and giblets. Simmer.
4. Meanwhile, halve a lemon and insert one halve into the cavity of the chicken, along with the ginger cut into thick slices, about 4-5 cloves of garlic smashed, some fresh rosemary. Halve the other red onion, then quarter the half and shove those inside the cavity as well.
5. Make a simple rub with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, rosemary, garlic powder and lemon juice. Rub it all over the chicken, then truss the legs together with some cooking twine.
6. Halve the potatoes and cut the carrots into big chunky slices. Place these along with the halved red onions at the bottom of a heavy bottomed pot with oven-safe lid. Add more fresh rosemary and whole, unpeeled cloves of garlic. Season with salt and pepper.
7. Place the chicken on top of the vegetables and cover. Place in the oven.
8. Now you can get to work on your gravy - once it reduces to about 1/3 or 1/2 of its original liquid, turn off the heat and remove the giblets. Reserve these. Discard the onion and carrot bits.
9. Mince the giblets - everything, including the neck meat. This will fall off the bone if you use your fingers. Be careful that you discard all of the neck bones. Set these aside.
10. After about 45 mins, check on your chicken - scoop out some of the chicken fat from the bottom and add to a small pan, along with some butter. Put the chicken back in the oven, uncovered.
11. Heat the chicken fat and butter in the pan, then add about 2-3 tablespoons of flour. Cook through and then add back to the giblet broth. Reheat to a simmer and stir until well combined. Then add the minced giblets and season with salt and pepper.
12. After 20 more minutes, check the temperature on your chicken. Internal thigh temperature should be about 160-170 degrees (F).

Once it's ready to serve, remove the chicken from the pot/baking dish and carve. Serve with vegetables and gravy. Serves 4.

You can make homemade chicken broth with the leftover carcass - just stick it in a large stock pot with water, carrots, celery, onions and whatever herbs you want - parsley, oregano, rosemary. Sim-simmaaah!

Since it was just two of us, we had some leftover meat. I made a chicken salad with mayo, Rick's Picks Mean Beans, red onions, salt, lemon pepper and garlic powder.

The Itis indeed!

2009-11-26T23:36:00.003-05:00

I've been talking about this Thanksgiving porchetta for weeks. About a week and a half ago, I called The Meat Hook and reserved my meat, asking for a 4 lb. pork shoulder butterflied, with skin on. Alex went to pick it up on Tuesday and snapped this photo:

That's Tom Mylan and his crew breaking down a whole pig! Excellent. Later that night I came home to marinate the pork. I unwrapped it from the butcher paper... I used Mario Batali's recipe as a basis but then winged the rest of it.

I slathered the inside and outside with olive oil. Then on the inside, lined both sides with chopped garlic, fresh rosemary, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper and lemon juice. Then I placed it in a large Ziplock bag with some red wine and left it to stew in the fridge til today.

Today at 3pm I took it out of the fridge to let rest at room temperature for a while. Meat cooks better at room temp because it cooks more evenly. In the meantime, I prepared the stuffing. Sauteed onion and fennel with more rosemary and garlic, lemon rind, and ground pork. I used sage sausage that I took out of the casing. As it cooled I added chopped fennel fronds and then slathered it on the inside of the pork.

I had Alex help me tie it up, then roasted it in a glass baking dish atop halved red onions. One recipe I saw said to put water at the bottom to sort of steam it from underneath so that's what I did.

Two and a half hours later........

PORCHETTAAAAA!!!

AAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!

This is the spread. Braised red cabbage-apples-onions; baked cannelini beans with bacon, a porter beer, molasses, balsamic vinegar and dijon mustard; smashed Yukon gold potatoes, herb salad with kiwi, orange, grapefruit; honey-glazed carrots; broccoli rabe; the porchetta.

Everything turned out exactly as I wanted it. Including the appetizers I made (sundried tomato-walnut pesto palmiers, stuffed mushrooms), I made a total of 9 dishes. OOF! All of it was cooked out of the oven thanks to slowcooker and toaster oven.

The porchetta came out better than I expected, with the skin sinfully crisp and fatty. Nom nom nom nom nom! Some of the meat was still a little pink but as long as it doesn't have that scary "raw" look you're good to go. I tried to go pretty light on the sides since the pork was so rich and fatty and ended up with a lot of different flavors - sweet carrots, bitter broccoli rabe, tart red cabbage.

Thankful.

Ayiyiyiyi

2009-11-24T21:14:00.005-05:00

We had leftover shredded chicken and a ton of tortillas left over from last night. The tortillas were left over from a couple weeks ago when I made a southwest salad. I'm not into wasting food so I made tortilla soup:

Heat up some chicken broth in a pot. Add some water to thin it out a little.
Meanwhile, prep your toppings - red onion, cilantro, avocado. Set these aside.
When the soup starts to simmer, add the shredded chicken.
Add some crushed tomatoes and their juice, or crush some whole canned tomatoes up in your fingers.
Simmer simmer simmer.
Meanwhile heat some oil up in a pan and fry up your corn tortillas. I cut mine into strips, then salt them as they're cooking. Drain these on a paper towel.
Add other bits into your soup. I had leftover black beans and corn niblets from the salad I made so I put those in. Simmer simmer simmer.
Season your soup. I just did cayenne pepper and freshly ground black pepper.
Spoon it out into bowls, top with cilantro-red onion-avocado. Some fried tortilla chips. Some cotija cheese.
Do a squeeze of lime just before eating.

Easy easy easy!

Form like Voltron

2009-11-23T23:10:00.003-05:00

I gotta admit, I wasn't the biggest fan of enchiladas. All that melted cheese... blech! But we decided to make these anyway, with some tomatillo salsa... No real recipe, we just went from Alex's memory.

What you need:
Corn tortillas
Chicken breasts, de-boned, de-skinned
1 Jalapeno, diced
1 small red onion, diced
some achiote
vegetable oil
1 10 oz. (ish) jar tomatillo salsa (medium spice)
Jack cheese, shredded
Cotija cheese

What you do:
Prep the chicken - simmer it in water or chicken broth. I used water tonight, with a little salt thrown in and some bay leaves. Preheat your oven to about 375-ish.
Meanwhile, heat some oil in a pan and add the achiote until it colors the oil. Toss the achiote and saute the onions. When they start to get aromatic, add the jalapeno and saute til softened. Remove from the heat and set aside.
In the same pan, heat more oil, enough to cover the bottom of the pan and then some.
Add a corn tortilla. After it starts sizzling a bit on the edges, lift it up and place another tortilla underneath. You don't want them to crisp up, this is just to soften them so you can roll them up later. Repeat until you've done the desired amount of tortillas and place them on a plate to drain on a paper towel.
By now the chicken should be cooked. This is where teamwork comes in. One person should shred the chicken while the other assembles the enchiladas.
In each tortilla, place a little Jack cheese and salsa, then add some shredded chicken. Roll it up and place them in a baking dish. Repeat until the baking dish is full.
Spoon more salsa on top, sprinkle some Jack and cotija cheese, then spoon more salsa over it.
Top everything with the sauteed onions and jalapenos, then place the dish uncovered in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Looks good right? It was. I made a side salad with greens, black beans, corn and red pepper. Just a little salt, lime juice and olive oil as a dressing.

If you make a big enough batch of enchiladas, you could possibly freeze them in individual batches for later use. I'll have to get back at you on that one because we only had enough for a batch of leftovers for each of us.

Repeat recipe for sure!

I'm so glad our grocery sells the cotija cheese. Now all I want to do is make Mexican corn. ALL THE TIME.

2009-11-20T08:20:00.003-05:00

Aldea
31 W 17 St NYC

Alexis: This year for our late anniversary dinner (3 years wooo!) we had reservations at Aldea. Modern Portuguese and housed close to Union Square, Ricky recommended this spot and spent a good portion of an afternoon with me poring over photos from other bloggers...

I started with the Shiprock cocktail, which was Plymouth gin with sage, orange blossom water and lemon. Very aromatic and mixed really well - herby and refreshing. They brought around a tray of bread after we ordered, from which I selected some thick and chewy olive bread.

Alexis: For my appetizer I had one of their "petiscos" (small bites), the sea urchin toast. Served on a folded napkin, this was a wafer-thin piece of toast topped with cauliflower cream, sea urchin and tiny bits of hidden wasabi.

Alexis: Alex ordered the Jardin (that's Fronchy for garden) which was a salad with root vegetables, pear and country cheese. Port wine dressing.

Alexis: Alex's dinner, the hanger steak with tamarind, red-wine shallot and fall bean salad.

Alexis: This is my entree, the Arroz de Pato. Paprika-spiced rice with chorizo, black olives and pieces of duck leg confit topped with duck skin cracklins and slices of duck breast. It looks deceivingly small but this was really quite filling. The smear of apricot puree on the side was very mild tasting - didn't really do anything for me. I'm also not a huge fan of the duck confit because it's dry and chicken-y. I'd definitely order this again tho, especially since Alex ate all my confit chunks. Spicy, fatty, salty, delicious.

Alexis: By the time dessert rolled around we were pretty much too stuffed to want anything so we opted for the sorbet trio. From the top: coconut, concord grape, green apple. All a bit too sweet for me.

Alexis: On top of all that, they gave us some petit fours before leaving! Little pear jellies, fudgy chocolate and a mini pastry that was kind of crepe-like in texture. I wish I hadn't been so full. Damn you olive bread!

For wine we had a Chamine, which is a red table wine. Fruity but not too sweet, and slightly smokey. Perfect for the duck.

Alexis: ****

I'm obsessed with the possibili-teas

2009-11-18T10:09:00.003-05:00

As a treat to myself I sometimes go a little out of my way on my way to work to stop at Macaron Cafe, which has delicious freshly baked French macarons (today: rose petal, honey lavender, lychee, vanilla, dark chocolate, mango, white chocolate, pistachio...). I get a tartine with butter and jam (usually apricot, they never ask). Today I tried their tea for the first time. They carry Mariage Freres, which I have never heard of elsewhere. I ordered the Earl Grey French Blue which they steeped in a little cast iron pot for a few minutes before pouring it into a to go cup. Earl Grey has always been my favorite tea and until now I've been drinking Revolution's Earl Grey Lavender tea. This is similar but the flower aroma is a little more delicate. It's delicious with my tartine. I've since spent the rest of the morning searching for it online. Take a gander at some other yummy-sounding teas:

From Market Hall Foods:

Mariage Frères Casablanca: a fine marriage of green tea with Moroccan mint & bergamot-flavored tea

Mariage Frères Bouddha Bleu: Green tea, sprinkled with blue cornflowers. The delicate floral aroma recalls a traditional Buddhist offering to the monks of fresh fruit, flowers, and tea.

Mariage Frères Eros: A blend made for those in love, flavored with hibiscus and mallow flowers

I'd be pretty happy with any (or all) of these in my Xmas stocking!

Too hot (it's too hot)

2009-11-16T09:23:00.004-05:00

Grand Sichuan International
Canal between Chrystie & Forsyth (Chinatown, NYC)

Alexis: For Laurea's early birthday we went to Grand Sichuan International in Chinatown for some body-warming hot pot. I have not had this since I was in San Francisco about five years ago. There is a spot in the Sunset that is all you can eat hot pot. They provide the broth and then you get up and get your meats, veggies and sauces at the buffet. It is awesome.

At Grand Sichuan we were seated downstairs in their private room, which looked like it was set up in someone's bedroom/living room/studio apartment. There was a bed and some cabinets. OKAY! We ordered hotpots with "two flavors." That is, one side with regular chicken broth and the other side teeming with scary red hot peppers.

The hotpot menu is pretty extensive and we started out with pickled cabbage, beef tendons, wheat noodles, scallops, fish balls, bokchoy, black Chinese mushrooms (rehydrated, I might add, for that extra sliminess), lamb, beef, dumplings... As well as a couple of sauces.

Most Westerners when eating Asian foods expect to only order for themselves. They'll order a plate of lo mein or fried rice and that's all they eat. NO NO NO NO NO!! Asian food, especially Chinese food, is meant to be eaten communally. Try eating a traditional 8-course Chinese banquet and you'll see! This is why all tables have lazy Susans, so you can share everything!!

That said, I think people were a little freaked out about putting their food into the pot with everyone else's. But that is how it's done. All the different flavors will meld together in the pot and create a richer and richer broth as the night progresses. This definitely isn't for picky or squeamish eaters. Lots of elbow jostling and double dipping - it was a really fun time.

Afterwards we went on a hunt for a big and chill enough bar to accommodate our large party and after several tries we ended up at Whiskey Ward, which was great.

I'm already craving more hotpot!

Nice weather for soup

2009-11-11T23:03:00.003-05:00

I love having an actual fall season right now. Usually it comes and goes in a wink and we're frozen stiff in the midst of cold cold cold. Fall is my favorite time of year because of the changing leaves and mostly because it's the start of soup weather!

I made a delicious soup tonight, on the fly:

Butternut squash, peeled and diced (from Urban Organic delivery)
Cannelini beans (canned - drained and rinsed)
Spinach, chopped roughly (big chunks) (from Urban Organic delivery)
Chorizo, diced
Shallots & garlic, minced
Chicken broth, low sodium
Canned tomatoes (I used marinara sauce in a jar because that's what I had)
Paprika, crushed red pepper

In a heavy bottomed pot, heat some oil. Add the chorizo and cook lightly. Chorizo is already cured/smoked so you don't really need to cook it. Just flavor the oil with it. Remove chorizo and place in a bowl. Add bacon or duck fat to the pot. When it melts, add the cannelini beans. The pot should be hot enough that the skin peels off pretty quickly and the outsides crisp up. Remove the beans and set aside with the chorizo. Add a little more oil, then the shallots and garlic. Sautee lightly then add the squash. Season with salt and pepper. Add enough chicken broth to cover the squash and bring to a low boil. Simmer for a few minutes, slowly adding more and more water. Add paprika and crushed red pepper. Keep adding broth slowly until you reach the desired amount in the pot. Add canned tomatoes or marinara sauce (not too much - I used two big spoonfuls of the sauce). Once squash is softened, add the chorizo and beans back to the pot. Season with salt and pepper to taste. When you're ready to serve it, turn off the heat and add the spinach. Stir to incorporate, then serve in bowls with some garlic bread.

So nice Alex had to eat it twice.

So good soba

2009-11-05T23:22:00.004-05:00

Sobakoh
309 E 5th St (bet 1st and 2nd Ave)

Ricky has been talking this place up to me, saying that it's better than Soba Totto, Sobaya and Matsugen. I trust him with most food choices so a couple weeks ago I came here with Sophie, Erin & Jonna...

In the front of the restaurant, a chef rolls the noodles out. He starts with a piece of dough about 4 inches thick!

Octopus carpaccio with onion dressing. I liked this a lot - very tender and simple.

Seared duck appetizer with ponzu and sesame sauces. Served cold - I love duck this way the best.

Uni (sea urchin) ikura (salmon roe) soba. With shiso leaf and nori. Super rich, creamy, tasty. Do you eat uni? You need to. I avoided it my whole life until last year because of its resemblance to the inside of a baby's nappy. But if you can get past that part, you will love it - creamy and slightly briny! The noodles were very firm and fresh. I can't say they were better than Totto or Sobaya (haven't tried Matsugen yet) because these are on another level.

The choice of soba, both hot and cold, is pretty extensive. Must return to try them all!

Easy breezy

2009-11-05T23:17:00.003-05:00

No photos! I made a really easy and delicious dinner tonight - can't say I can take credit for the recipes but I managed to add my own touches...

Skinless chicken thighs - cover in salsa (I used green tomatillo) and bake in the oven.

Meanwhile skin and dice sweet potatoes (I used ruby yams) and roast in the oven as well.

Make a dressing using olive oil, garlic, jalapeno, lime juice, salt, and cilantro. I didn't have fresh cilantro so I used dried coriander. Whiz in a blender/food processor.

When chicken is done, layer thin slices of fresh mozzarella on top and put back into the oven.

Add the roasted sweet potatoes to some baby spinach and toss with the dressing and a few cranks of fresh black pepper. Serve beside the chicken, topped with the now melted mozzarella.

Super delicious and pretty healthy too!

We are monsters

2009-10-28T00:41:00.004-04:00

That's right. You are seeing FOUR fried eggs on that plate! This was Eros's breakfast this past Sunday. Mario & I ate the same thing but with one egg. Spam, eggs and garlic rice is a typical Filipino breakfast - can't tell you how many times I've eaten this growing up.

The Spam's gotta be cooked right - crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside. Then you make the garlic rice, with both minced garlic and garlic powder. Serve with the fried egg on top, then break the eggs into the rice.

It's not for the faint of heart. I also like dipping the Spam into a bit of Datu Puti, which is the scary Filipino white vinegar in a giant bottle with chilis and garlic floating in it. THAT'S THE STUFF.

Comfort food on a nasty rainy Saturday

2009-10-26T11:39:00.003-04:00

Buttermilk Channel
524 Court St at Huntington, Brooklyn (Gowanus-ish)

Alexis: Eros & Mario were in town for the weekend and we had dinner at Buttermilk Channel, who managed to squeeze us in after our party went down in size. It was a terrible, rainy Saturday and trains were jacked but we made it down there in once piece. After having brunch here this past spring, Alex & I have been anxious to come back and try dinner.

To start we ordered some small items - sweet potato/goat cheese croquettes, home-cured pickles and pictured below, maple-bacon almonds.

Alexis: This was my dinner, the fried chicken with cheddar waffles and cabbage slaw. First of all the chicken was really good - super crispy skin, not greasy at all and the meat was juicy and tender. The syrup tasted of balsamic vinegar reduction, which I was thankful for because I didn't want it to be too sweet.

Today I have some left over, which I am eating cold for lunch with some spicy Tabasco ketchup. You jelly?

Alexis: This is Alex's dinner, the short rib special. I wish I'd gotten a better photo of the meat because it was so tender and soft. I'll let Alex tell you about it.

Alexis: Eros's dinner, bacon-wrapped trout with fig & shallot jam, baby turnips. This was my second choice but am so happy I went with the chicken. It's the meal that keeps on giving.

No dessert - afterwards we went to Legion in Williamsburg where the beer & whiskey were flowing freely. Needless to say I was pretty useless the next day. But I managed to cook SPeggs, for breakfast. Photo to follow, once Eros lands in LAX.

Fall Ball 2009

2009-10-16T10:21:00.003-04:00

Alex and I had our second housewarming last weekend. We moved upstairs in the building to a much bigger space and he had been hard at work painting, fixing and cleaning. So we had a few friends over - the usual suspects plus a couple of newcomers Megan and Cassie. I got pretty busy and didn't get to take photos of the main courses but here are some of the appetizers I assembled:

These are Mean Beans from Rick's Picks wrapped in finnochina. Deliciously spicy and salty. I also marinated some mushrooms ahead of time.
Just quarter some white mushrooms and mix in a marinade of olive oil, lemon juice, a capful of red wine vinegar and chopped parsley. I also added a bit of thyme, which goes wonderfully with mushrooms. Salt and pepper before you serve them and then you're good to go. These can be made up to 4 hours ahead of time and then kept in the fridge.

This is just a baguette sliced thinly and topped with Calabro fresh ricotta cheese and pear butter.

I also had cured lamb and smoked ham from Ridgewood, Queens as well as Appenzaler and Midnight Moon cheeses. Two of my current favorites.

I made a sweet potato salad using Mark Bittman's recipe, which included black beans and red peppers, as well as a jalapeno sauce. The recipe called for fresh cilantro to be mixed in but I pureed them into the sauce instead. Colorful and delicious.

I also made Nigella Lawson's maple chicken n' ribs, which were very good but I wish I had basted them with the sauce as they were roasting. Her recipe forgot to include this little detail.

Everything was a success and we had no leftovers, save for some rich and sinful red velvet cake from Chikalicious, care of Laurea & David:

We have no idea who Lauren is! The icing was the best part - most cream cheese frosting is really thick and sticky but this was silky and not too heavy. Tangy and delicious!

My next project is to attempt to make porchetta. I'm waiting on a response from Tom the Butcher on procuring the correct cuts of meat so stay tuned!

Lambda lambda lambda

2009-10-08T22:07:00.003-04:00

This is Ridgewood cured lamb. I bought it at Choice Greene last Sunday - it's made by one of their customers and he also has ham (one of our favorites) and smoked duck. Below are a few ways to use it:

I made an antipasto platter with fresh hand-dipped ricotta, Appenzaler, an Australian blood orange, some Granny Smith apple slices and wonderful crusty sourdough bread.

The next day I made butternut squash soup, recipe below. Delicious delicious delicious.

Then the next night I made this stuffed chicken with parsley-shallot cream sauce. The best part is, I cooked the chicken in the toaster oven. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
Chicken breasts, skinned and butterflied
Spinach
Sun dried tomatoes (I buy the kind stored in olive oil), julienned
Cured lamb (you can also use prosciutto, ham, etc), sliced into small pieces
Heavy cream
Shallot, minced
Fresh parsley, chopped
Flour and butter, enough for a small roux

1. Preheat the toaster oven to 350. For each portion, use half of the butterflied breast - it's thin enough to roll up. Starting at one end, pack a little bit of spinach, sun dried tomato and lamb, then roll the chicken up. Secure with toothpicks.
2. Salt and pepper the outside, then place into the toaster oven.
3. Start on the cream sauce. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and sautee the shallots. Add about a tablespoon of flour and cook for about 30 seconds. Add about a cup of cream and keep stirring.
4. Lessen the heat, then season with salt and pepper. I noticed at this point that it needed a little zing so I added just a drop of orange oil. WRONG MOVE. Some zest would have been better.
5. Turn the chicken.
6. Add the parsley to the sauce just before you're ready to serve. Spoon it over the chicken after removing the toothpicks.

Easy and yummy (will use zest next time!). I steamed carrots, red bliss potatoes and brussel sprouts as well for a healthy side.

I still had more for a FOURTH dish. So last night I made a fake alfredo pasta using the fresh ricotta. Super easy and simple - just sautee some sliced scallions in a pan and add the ricotta. Add your cooked pasta, using some of the pasta water to thin out the ricotta and make it a sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Top with fresh parsley and the cured lamb (or prosciutto, or bacon..) and a tiny drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. NOM.

Buttasoft

2009-10-06T23:29:00.001-04:00

Pumpkin Pile (Vertorama), originally uploaded by Panorama Paul.

You know why I love fall? Because it's soup weather.

Last night I made an easy soup using a few ingredients:

Butternut squash - peeled, cubed
Shallot - minced
Garlic - minced
Chicken broth
Heavy cream
Canned tomatoes - diced, canned juice reserved
Local cured lamb (bacon or ham will do)
Goat cheese
Cannelini beans - 8 oz
Fresh spinach - roughly chopped

1. Sautee garlic and shallots in some olive oil.
2. Add squash and sautee. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Add enough chicken stock and water (about half and half) to cover the squash. Bring to a boil then simmer for 10 mins.
4. Add canned tomato juice, simmer.
5. Add diced tomatoes.
6. Add beans.
7. Add heavy cream - just a little bit, no more than 1/4 cup. Simmer.
8. When the soup is ready (broth tastes right, squash is softened), turn off the heat and add the spinach. I did about 2 huge double handfuls. Stir.
9. Spoon into bowls. Chop cured lamb/ham/bacon etc and garnish. Top with crumbled goat cheese.
10. Enjoy with garlic bread - toast some crusty sourdough or country bread, rub with garlic and drizzle with olive oil. Toast again for about 30 seconds.

Enjoy.

Umi Nom is BYOB

2009-10-03T13:03:00.001-04:00

Feast at Umi Nom, originally uploaded by lazysundae.

Umi Nom
Lafayette @ Taaffe Pl (Fort Greene)

Kuma Inn's new sister restaurant in our neighborhood doesn't disappoint. For those not in the know, the restaurant names are a play on Tagalog words: kumain (pronounced kuma in) means "eat" and uminom means "drink." Decorated simply in red-stained wood and bamboo light sculptures by house chef (and formerly of Cendrillion) Perry Mamaril, the spot is clean and inviting.

Umi Nom is BYOB for beer, wine or sake. The menu has some Thai and Vietnamese inspired dishes, such as spicy beef with peanuts atop spicy pickled vegetables, as well as pad see ew and pad thai.

Standouts included the BBQ ribs which fell off the bone, as well as the air dried beef tapa (they call it jerky there) served with their version of spicy XO sauce. The crispy calamari is simple and well-done.

It's a much needed addition to the area and, in my opinion, better run than Kuma Inn.

New Amsterdam Market

2009-09-13T17:05:00.003-04:00

Today was the first day of the New Amsterdam Market, held at the Seaport in front of the old Fulton Fish Market. Purveyors, farmers, restaurants and wineries from all over New York were there to represent and hand out samples of their wares. There were a lot of Brooklyn Flea regulars like Liddabit Sweets (beer pretzel caramels), Consider Bardwell Farms (cheese), Saxelby Cheesemongers, People's Pops (organic fruit popsicles), Rick's Picks (pickled green beans, beets, okra, etc.).... It was very crowded but not overly so. Below are some highlights:

The lovely, shining porchetta of Porchetta in the East Village. They ran out of pork by 2:30. I've never made it to their spot but now am convinced.

The mini porchetta sandwich. Lots of juicy fatty bits as well as crispy skin. All on a hard little roll - so delicious.

Freshly shucked oysters at Stella. This was my first and last stop. That's right, I hit this sucker twice.

Other delicious things we ate and drank: marinated goat cheese from home/made, ricotta ice cream and nectarine sorbet at The Bent Spoon, various cheeses, pickles, mead... There wasn't as much in terms of food service, which I was expecting but it was a good place to see and buy goods. Now that I know what to expect I'll come back ready to shop for produce, cheese and bread.

Treasures from my toaster oven

2009-09-08T16:03:00.002-04:00

I love eggplants and tomatoes. But mostly tomatoes. I've been gorging myself on them because soon tomato season will be over. Soon we will have nothing but memories of the sweet, juicy fruit we ate this summer. So like I said, I've been gorging on tomatoes.

I made this in my toaster oven. Just drizzle the pan with olive oil, arrange your vegetables in a single layer, drizzle them with another coating of olive oil (I am using Fairway's DOP extra virgin) and then season everything with fresh ground pepper and sea salt. Bake at 375 (F) until the eggplant starts to cook and soften...

Then arrange it on a plate. I garnished mine with freshly chopped mint and feta cheese. Mint keeps for about a week in the fridge if you store it carefully. I picked all the leaves off the stems and placed them in a paper towel-lined airtight container and they've been happy in the fridge ever since.

Yum yum, so pretty. It didn't last long looking like this as I gobbled it all up with a small glass of Tempranillo.

Summer time and the eating's easy

2009-08-26T10:40:00.003-04:00

This is Korean "kook soo," an easy and tasty noodle dish. My friend Seanpatrick turned me on to this. He showed me his photo on Flickr and then gave me these instructions:

I go egg simple -- little dab of sesame oil goes a long way. put black sesame seeds if you like. a little sugar. i put turmeric instead of food coloring, but you obviously dont need to. scramble with some milk. i like to do it in paper thin layers then scrape off pan and repeat, but no need. just scramble and julienne.

the meat is also super easy. however you like. I like with rehydrated shitake, sugar, soy, and lots of sesame seeds and some sesame oil. i go fatty ground beef and partially drain.

both these things are flexible of course to your taste.

as i told you before and you now know, you need to wash the tits off the noodles. so they will be warm at best. i just put a little broth on the bottom to keep things moist. basic chicken stock-- ill sometimes throw an old onion in while its boiling, and some cilantro bottoms...

if you can get both good kim chee, AND good cucumber kim chee + the beef, egg, scallions, w/e else you will be loving it. Little bits of each thing-- pretty to look at too.

Easy enough. Got my favorite somen noodles from Sunrise Mart on Broome Street as well as some radish kimchi (an accident as I wanted the traditional Napa cabbage kind) and some mini cucumbers. Alex procured the rest of the ingredients.

Before starting anything, I sliced up one of the mini cucumbers and lightly pickled it in the fridge with some sesame oil, salt, crushed red pepper and rice vinegar.

1. Simmer chicken broth (we used boxed Swanson's) with big chunks of garlic and chopped scallions.
2. Meanwhile, thinly slice shiitake mushrooms and sautee in some olive oil. Add ground beef and cook. Add citrus ponzu, salt, pepper. I forgot fresh ginger but luckily (?) I had the powdered version.
3. Scramble an egg and add milk and some sugar. Cook it in a thin layer. I didn't have black sesame seeds so I did without. They would have looked so pretty in the eggs! Slice thinly.
4. Cook zee noodles! Then rinse well in cool water.

To assemble, ladle a bit of broth into a bowl. Don't pick up any scallions or garlic. Add the noodles, then top with kimchi, egg and beef. Garnish with the pickled cucumbers and some of the scallions from the broth boil. Slurp and enjoy!

This is a great summertime dish because it's not too heavy but still very filling. It takes some prep and cooking but it is worth it.

Thanks, SP! Next time I will make this when I'm not starving out of my mind and hopefully take a better photo.

Mellow gold

2009-08-15T10:26:00.004-04:00

This morning for breakfast I made a Croque Madame, which is a French sandwich. It's basically a grilled ham and cheese sandwich topped with a fried egg. I had some leftover pesto I made earlier this week so I diluted it with more olive oil and it became a pistou, the French pesto.

Assemble your sandwich - don't use too much ham and cheese. About one slice of cheese and two slices of ham should do. Heat up a skillet, melt some butter and cook the sandwich on both sides til the bread is toasted and the cheese melted. Fry the egg, put it on the sandwich and then drizzle with the pistou.

Watching the yolk spill over the ham and cheese is like magic!

P.S. I've been using my new (vintage) Marimekko Pfaltzgraff plates. I got half the set on Etsy and the other half on eBay. Phew!

Summer salads pt. 2

2009-08-11T12:05:00.004-04:00

At over 90 degrees yesterday, there was no way I was turning the stove on. This is a riff on an old favorite, the caprese salad. I added peaches, (per The Minimalist's suggestion) to this salad of campari tomatoes and lightly salted fresh mozzarella from Murray's. Topped with a handful of fresh basil, Fairway's DOP extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of coarse sea salt and fresh pepper, this was super delicious and easy to make. The tomatoes were juicy and sweet and the mozzarella was creamy and rich. The addition of peaches added some sweet juice to mix with the olive oil. I shaved the skin off because I don't like eating fuzz but I guess you could leave it on if you're not bothered by it.

Getting really good tomatoes makes a big difference. I'll be eating them like there's no tomorrow now, as summer is ending. I've been buying from my crappy local grocery, who refrigerates all tomatoes that come packed in a box. No no no no no!!!

Please, do yourself a favor and make yourself this salad. On the side I had a glass of cold Pinot Gris and some mixed olives.

Baked Brooklyn

2009-08-09T22:34:00.002-04:00

Baked
359 Van Brunt St (Red Hook)

Today we spent the afternoon in Red Hook. Our first stop was Baked, where Alex got a S'mores bar (ganache, homemade marshmallows and a graham cracker crust) and I got a red velvet cupcake with cinnamon buttercream and an iced tea - Kingdom of Heaven (white) and mint mixed together.

First of all, look at the perfect cloud of icing topped with a Red Hot. Normally I am wary of icing like this because it's gooey, sticky and thick. But this was more like buttersilk than buttercream. Now I do love my red velvet with cream cheese icing but this was a nice change, and you could really taste the Valrhona cocoa in the cake. The cake part was just right, not too cakey and not too moist. If you've ever eaten a Crumbs cupcake you will know what I mean. Those are not edible.

Will be back to try the Sweet & Salty (Dark chocolate cake infused with a salty caramel, caramel chocolate ganache and topped with fleur de sel) as well as the Coca-Cola Bundt cake (chocolate cake infused with Coca-Cola and topped with chocolate icing). Actually, scratch that. I'll keep coming back til I've tried everything.

Follow them on Twitter!

Summer salads

2009-08-02T14:09:00.002-04:00

This is a salad I just threw together - Mark Bittmann published one of his famous 101 recipe lists this summer, for 101 summer salads.

8. Chop or slice radishes (or jicama, or the ever-surprising kohlrabi) and combine with chopped or sliced unripe (i.e., still crunchy) mango, lime juice and mint or cilantro.

My take: 4 radishes, julienned. 2 semi-ripe mangoes, handful of chopped fresh parsley. A sprinkle of sesame seeds and crushed red pepper.

For the dressing: about a tablespoon of honey, a teaspoon each of extra virgin olive oil, soy sauce and rice wine vinegar and just one tiny drop of sesame oil. Whisk together, toss with the salad and let it sit for a couple of hours. So refreshing for a picnic at the park.

Another summer salad I love to make is this great potato salad my friend Katie made when she visited a couple of years ago:
California/Yukon gold potatoes - cooked, cooled & cubed
Red grapes - rinsed, whole
Cilantro - fresh, rinsed, chopped
Red onion - diced
Salt & pepper

Toss the ingredients together in this dressing:
Mayonnaise
Lemon juice
Red wine vinegar
Minced garlic
Cumin - one tiny dash
Paprika
Tumeric
Garlic powder
(I winged all this, not remembering what was in her dressing exactly...just taste as you go)

Some exciting (for me) developments

2009-07-27T10:34:00.003-04:00

So our new apartment has been coming along. Alex bought a new kitchen island to replace our old wobbly one. This one is all bamboo with a half bamboo/half granite top and with a cabinet and shelves underneath. He also gave the stove a good cleaning and spraypainted the hood and front of the oven to make it look like new. It feels much better cooking in there now.

So some things I want to try this year:
1. A cooking show on Youtube. This might prove to be difficult because I don't think the cat would make a very good DP. In fact she is quite useless. And Alex would only be able to do it on the weekends. I might try to coerce Mike and/or Seth to help me - free meal for free filming.

2. Supper club. Still working out the logistics (i.e. we need a table and chairs) as well as pricing, advertising and timing.

I just really want to get back to cooking regularly again. I haven't really been posting because I haven't been cooking! I've been assembling salads and pasta for dinner and eating spam musubi for lunch. The lack of dinner parties this year has also not helped very much. So stay tuned for more in the near future. Probably when it stops being so damn hot.

Ici = here

2009-07-19T21:31:00.003-04:00

I have been wanting to try to make my own baked eggs at home for a while now. We often enjoy them at Ici, where they are called "Shirred Eggs." There, they are baked with fatty bits of bacon, spinach, cream and cheese. Bubbly and crusty on top, loaded with goodness.

For mine, I used small tapas pans I bought at BB&B, which are about 6" across and oven safe. I completely winged this recipe but here are the basic directions. You can use whatever you want/have lying around.

1. Grease pans with unsalted butter, leave about a teaspoon-sized pat of butter in the pan.
2. Break 2 eggs into the pan.
3. Julienne some baby spinach, about 2 handfuls. Julienne about 2 sun dried tomatoes and 2 shiitake mushrooms. Sprinkle them evenly over the eggs.
4. Add a small handful of crumbled feta cheese.
5. Season with some coarse sea salt, fresh black pepper, crushed red pepper, oregano.
6. Add a bit of heavy cream - not too much, less than 1/4 cup.

I baked this in the toaster oven at 350 degrees until the eggs were cooked and the cream started bubbling. I have no idea how long this took, probably about 10-15 minutes. It's not a set formula, just check on it every now and then.

Gonna have to say this was better than Ici's. Thank you very much. Not as greasy and more flavorful for sure. The sun dried tomatoes added a tanginess that was missing and the feta crumbled nicely into little melty bits. It wasn't greasy at all. The heavy cream thickened into a nice sauce and the mushrooms added some meatiness. If you wanted to make this a big brunch/breakfast you could probably cook up some hash browns and sausages/bacon too.

One caveat - these are non-stick pans so you want to be careful eating out of them. No scraping with sharp objects!

Babbolicious

2009-07-13T11:40:00.002-04:00

Babbo
110 Waverly (W Village)

Alexis: Alex's birthday. We've been wanting to eat here and for lack of planning we decided to take our chances and try for a walk-in table. We walked in at around 6-ish and scored the last free one - yeah! The tasting menu looked delicious but it was too much food. So we split an appetizer, pasta dish and then got our own entrees.

You may be wondering why I enlisted a 3-year old to draw our food. Well it was dark in there and I didn't want to be rude and use the flash on my camera. The "food" setting was too dark...the photos looked ugly! So this morning I drew them in MS Paint:

Alexis: Greenmarket verdure on toasted bread with goat ricotta. So fresh and delicious.

Alexis: Beef cheek ravioli with squab liver and black truffles. This was my favorite part of the meal - the ravioli was cooked perfectly al dente and the beef cheek filling was silky and almost sweet. I could've eaten about 3 more servings of this.

Alexis: Alex's entree, the porchetta topped with lardo and served with pickled vegetables and fava bean salad.

Alexis: My entree, Two minute calamari served Sicilian lifeguard style. A spicy tomato broth with caper berries and olives. Super simple and delicious - the broth was great for soaking up with bread.

Alexis: ****
Flavors and presentation were excellent. Service was a bit strange - who is that guy in the black suit? Why did he take our order?

I wouldn't mind being a HERB

2009-07-04T00:12:00.006-04:00

herb garden, originally uploaded by kzeromancer.

We've moved. Woowoo.

I mostly hate the new apartment right now. There is less counter and cabinet space in the kitchen. Tonight I made a measly salad for dinner and everything was too spread out - I have to find a better way to arrange things. There's no light in the kitchen - if I want to cook at night I am basically screwed. The drawers stick, they're tiny.......

BUT. There is a ton of natural light in the front of the apartment, perfect for growing herbs. Finally finally. I killed my thyme and basil plants in our first floor apartment because they only got about an hour of sunlight each day. I'm really excited that they will be able to thrive in our new place. Even if I won't!

Definitely basil and rosemary - they grow like crazy in the right conditions.

I've been buying my herbs at the store and to make them last, it's been a constant trial-and-error process. I've finally figured out how to stretch the shelf life of some fresh herbs:

Basil: Rinse all the dirt off and wick off any excess water in a salad spinner (thank you, Alex!). Let the leaves completely dry. In an airtight container, store them in single layers, alternating with sheets of paper towels. They will last in the fridge for up to a week at least.

Rosemary: Rosemary is a hardy herb. Just throw it in the fridge and it will be good for a couple of weeks.

Cilantro: Whack the bottoms off the stems and place them in a glass of water. DO NOT refrigerate them or they will wilt. Should be good for at least 5 days, give or take.

Parsley: Parsley's fine if you just leave it in the produce bag you put it in when you buy it. Just stick a paper towel in there to soak up any excess moisture. Should be good for at least 5 days.

Those are the main herbs I use on a regular basis. If anyone has any advice for dill or thyme, send it my way!

More praise for Choice Greene

2009-06-24T10:14:00.003-04:00

No pics because I gobbled it up so fast but the sushi at Choice Greene is actually really good!

Months of no seafood had my body screaming for fish. Then talking about it with a friend made me crave it even more! So I ran over as soon as I got off the train. There is a fish station in the back and the fishmonger makes the sushi right there. I got a combo box with salmon, maguro and hamachi nigiri, 3 salmon avocado rolls and 3 California rolls. Normally I hate California rolls but these were delicious, even with the imitation crab. It was pulled apart and actually looked legit, instead of a solid block of haddock colored orange. The wasabi they use is actually spicy and the soy sauce is thicker than normal so you don't need a lot of it. Pickled ginger wrapped separately in the plastic grass. White, not pink.

Repeat as necessary.

Also, in the meat and cheese cases, you have to try the fresh ricotta from Calabro Cheese in Connecticut. It totally trumps Salvatore Brooklyn's. It's light and fluffy and almost buttery. There is also a smoked ham made locally in Ridgewood, which comes from one of their regular customers. It looks like a cut of prosciutto where it is drier on one side and striped with fat on the other but it isn't cured so it is still a little like sandwich meat. I was skeptical at first but am now a big convert. The staff is knowledgeable and can suggest different things for you if you give them some guidelines to work with.

Dutch dutch baby

2009-06-22T08:07:00.005-04:00

I've been wanting to make this brunch for Alex. It's called a Dutch Baby but it's basically a German pancake. With berries, which are some of his favorite fruits. I got the recipe from Food & Wine and with the warm weather the time was perfect.

Bascially:
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees (this is the only thing that's not summer-friendly)
Whisk 3 large eggs, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp lemon zest and a pinch of salt.
Add 2/3 cup flour and 2/3 cup whole milk. Whisk til smooth, then add a cup each of the berries.
In a 10" cast iron skillet, melt about a tablespoon of butter. Pour the batter in and smooth into an even layer. Bake the skillet in the center of your oven for about 20 minutes, until the sides are brown and there are some brown spots in the center. Cool on a trivet/rack and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

I served it with a side salad of romaine, parsley and white mushrooms dressed with lemon, dill and extra virgin olive oil. Also some spicy sage sausage, which we buy in a big log and slice up as thick as we want. The best kind! Sorry for the blurry photo but Alex was in a big hurry to eat :-P

Definitely easy and delicious though I would add more lemon zest next time. It also holds up til the next day - right now I'm eating some with a cup of Darjeeling tea. I just put it in the toaster oven at 350 for about 10 minutes.

Alex: I had to wait 2 weeks for my surprise brunch because it got bumped. The wait was well worth it. I love fruit, i mean looooooooooove. This was right up my alley. I was surprised to see the thing puffed up so much in the oven. It looked absolutely delicious and I couldn't wait to dig in. At first bite I didn't know what to think. Almost like a pancake but not really. It isn't as dense as a pancake and there wasn't any need to soak it in syrup, although it did need a touch more powdered sugar to satisfy my sweet tooth. Baked berry goodness. After my second helping I confirmed this was a big hit. Can't wait to wake have this one again.

Ramen weather?

2009-06-22T07:51:00.006-04:00

Tsushima Wednesday Ramen Special
47th St between Lex & 3rd Ave

I met Ricky here on Wednesday for the Japanese KitKat handoff. First time for both of us. They opened the doors right at noon and by 12:20 the place was packed.

Most people ordered the ramen special. But a lot of others were also ordering sushi rolls. Why??

For $13.50 you get a salad and big bowl of shio ramen with lots of julienned scallions, bamboo shoots, a giant scallop, thick soft pieces of pork.

The noodles were slightly chewy, very delicious. The broth, though clear, had a lot of depth to it. I hate saying crap like that as it sounds pretentious, but it's true. It was meaty-seafoody-tasty-delicious but not so pronounced in any one of those, except the tasty & delicious part. I could not finish the entire bowl, shamefully. I drank as much of the broth as possible, and though it wasn't that salty I got very thirsty.

They served quite a big bowl of ikura (salmon roe) don (over rice) on the side. Obviously I couldn't finish this either but it was very fresh and, as Ricky speculated, probably cleaned in-house. When they have sat around for a bit (if you've ever bought them at Sunrise Mart you'll know what I'm talking about) they are a little sticky.

On Fridays they have a shoyu ramen special, which is my favorite kind of ramen. Will definitely have to come back and try it out. And I'll be using Chikubu as my standard! Cry cry cry...

We're not in Brooklyn anymore, Toto

2009-06-19T15:23:00.005-04:00

Zenkichi

N. 6th and Wythe, Williamsburg

Ryan and I got to the Asobi Seksu show 2 hours before they even went on so we decided to grab a bite at Zenkichi. If you don't know what to look for it can be a little confusing, as the entire corner is covered in wood. Once inside, you're no longer in db-filled Williamsburg. We were seated in a private booth with a curtain, and to summon your server there was a small buzzer on the table. Bam!

Tako Wasabi. This is basically raw octopus brined in wasabi sauce. Firm and squishy at the same time - one of my favorite things in the world.

This is Berkshire Pork cut shabu shabu style and served with a sesame sauce. It was good but needed a little kick - more salt? Throw it on the grill? You get the idea. It was too delicate. If that's what they were going for though, congratulations.

Anago (fresh water eel) and cream cheese tempura. We saw this on the menu and had to get it because it sounded so disgusting. But it was actually pretty good. I preferred it with the wasabi salt over the tempura sauce. The bigger pieces were a bit soggy though which was disappointing.

Summer rice balls with peas and corn. From left to right - topped with miso, grilled with shiso, umeboshi flakes. Delicious! And tiny. I'm used to eating a whole hand full of onigiri, not this finger food.

For dessert, a no-bake cheesecake topped with Nigori sake jelly and strawberries. Smooth and creamy though the top reminded me of Jello shots.

Good food and service. It was pretty much spot on for Tokyo but I'm gonna go ahead and blame the prices on location. I'd go back, If I was in the area.

Inspirations

2009-06-01T11:31:00.005-04:00

Watching Food TV this weekend I got inspired by a Barefoot Contessa rerun. In it, Ina Garten makes fettunta and a grilled Tuscan chicken, as well as a grilled panzanella salad. I used the episode to inspire our snack and dinner:

Fettunta. Traditionally, it's just grilled bread rubbed with garlic and drizzled with olive oil. On the show, Ina used smoked mozzarella, prosciutto and parsley but on ours, I spread a delicious ricotta cheese from Connecticut (the name escapes me but will update once I get home and check the package - I got it at Choice Greene), prosciutto di Parma and baby arugula. The bread was also from Choice Greene, a long sourdough loaf that resembled ciabatta but was much airier and chewier. I think this will be my go-to bread for the summer, so delicious.

For dinner I made this grilled Tuscan chicken. It's ridiculously easy and leaves your hands free to prepare other things like side dishes. In our case, more of that cilantro-habanero-garlic corn and a salad of greens, tomatoes, feta, mushrooms and cucumber.

First, cut the backbone out of the chicken. Then cut a slit in the front and flatten it out, taking the breastbone out as well. Liberally salt both sides and place it in a heavy dish just big enough for the chicken. In a bowl, mix the marinade: lemon zest, lemon juice, rosemary, garlic and a little red wine vinegar (I tweaked her recipe a bit). Pour it into the dish with the chicken, making sure to flip it around and make sure everything gets covered. Refrigerate for a few hours - I let it sit for about 5-6. When ready to grill, place the chicken skin side down first. Weigh it down with the marinade dish so it can cook evenly, about 12-15 minutes on each side.

When the chicken is done, let it rest before cutting. Meanwhile you can grill some lemons, which act as a sauce with great smoky-sweet flavor.

Delicious, especially as leftovers!

Dressed

2009-05-29T12:47:00.002-04:00

Just a quick post - I've been making this lemon-dill salad dressing this week, inspired by a salad that Alex's stepmother made while we were in El Paso. She used a Knorr seasoning packet and though the ingredients were listed in German, I could taste the dill & garlic. So here goes:

Fresh lemon juice
Dash of white wine or champagne vinegar
A little Dijon mustard
Dill (fresh or dried - I used dried)
Extra virgin olive oil (I've been using Fairway's Mexican Mission)
Garlic powder
Salt and pepper

Add ingredients together and whisk to taste. It's really light and refreshing and the mustard helps to bind everything together. It's great on cucumbers and white mushrooms sliced thinly!

Tuloy po kayo!

2009-05-24T09:02:00.004-04:00

Kuma Inn
113 Ludlow, LES

Alexis: After Alex's basketball game at Anna Silver we decided to stop in at Kuma Inn for dinner. The other choice was Black Iron Burger but having just come from TX, he decided we'd had enough burgers for a while. So Kuma Inn it was - mostly Filipino dishes served tapas style.

It's a tiny restaurant, seating only about 30 at the most, with bamboo and rice paper sculptures all over the walls and covering the sconces. A Tribe Called Quest quietly playing on the soundsystem. Sadly they do not have a liquor license but you can bring your own beer, wine or sake, with a corkage fee (!) ranging from $1 per bottle of beer to $5 per 750ml bottle of sake or wine. No booze, but bring your own. And pay us for the privilege! Sounded like pure nonsense to me so we didn't bother. No matter, as they had a small list of in-house non-alcoholic drinks. Alex got a Thai iced tea and I got a glass of kalamansi juice. They came in glasses too small to justify their $3 price tag but hey - maybe it's im-por-ted.

Alexis: We ordered 4 dishes and an order of garlic rice (sinangag). The first was sauteed Chinese sausage served with a spicy green sauce and Thai sticky rice. Can't say much about this dish - I guess it is Thai in inspiration. I've never eaten just plain Chinese sausage like this; even at Srirapthai it was tossed with tomatoes. A "meh" dish to start us off. The green sauce was a good addition but I wouldn't say it "elevated" it in any way.

Alexis: Pancit bihon with wood ear mushrooms, more Chinese sausage and vegetables. To me this is a more acceptable use of the sausage. It's also good in fried rice. This was very good, and a larger-than-tapas sized portion. However it was very salty and I needed some kalamansi or at least lime to squeeze over the top.

Alexis: Lechon kawali with atchara and spicy chile-soy-vinegar sauce. I think this was my favorite. Deep fried pork belly with the skin on and sweet pickled papaya! There are few things better in the world. Each piece was crispy, salty and juicy. My only gripe is that they brought this and then no other food came for about 15 minutes, not even our garlic rice. The chef was too busy trying to impress the loud table next to us with free food, I suppose. They were already eating when we were seated but by my count, they received about 5-6 free dishes while we were there, including pork two ways (it looked like kawali and lechon), some sort of corn on the cob dish, and a dessert trio, proving that in NYC, it IS all about who you know.

Alexis: They were out of the PEI mussels in coconut curry broth but I wanted something with a sauce to eat with the rice. So we decided on one of the specials, spicy green beans in a coconut-curry broth. It might've had a little bagoong in it as well. Delicious and spicy!

Alexis: Overall, the food was very very good. My only gripes are the timing of the food, as mentioned earlier. Also the corkage fees for alcohol are not too appealing, and the a/c was a-crankin! I had to pull out a shawl halfway through dinner and was afraid the food would get cold too fast. I'd definitely go back. The food is delicious and not so far removed from the traditional preparation that it will satisfy my homecooking cravings in a delicious way. One caveat, if you'd call it that - CASH ONLY.

Alexis: *** - work on your timing and I'll throw another star in there. Otherwise food and service are enough to carry you for now.

Southwest Grubbin

2009-05-22T10:48:00.002-04:00

A smattering of food from our southwest trip - El Paso, Santa Fe, and Williams, AZ. Click on the photos for more descriptions.

Smoked chicken by Papa Grammer. Also grilled brats, garlic mashed and a tomato-cucumber-mushroom salad with dill dressing.

Chicken fajita torta in downtown El Paso

Alex's T-Bone at Cattleman's

The remains of my sirloin

Combo platter at Little Diner - tamale, gordita, taco

Whataburger

Bread basket at our B&B in Santa Fe, Dunshee's

Breakfast at Dunshee's

Green chile cheeseburger at Bobcat Bite

Enormous plates at Fire Rock Casino in NM

Canyon Burrito at Grand Canyon Coffee & Cafe in Williams, AZ

Single order at Chico's Tacos

Up up & away

2009-05-06T16:38:00.001-04:00

Send your photos of airplane food to airplanefoodtumblr@gmail.com and look out for them here!

South of the border

2009-05-02T19:34:00.002-04:00

A lot of inspiration comes to me on the toilet. Mostly because I have some Food & Wine and Cooking Light magazines in the bathroom! Today is a big day for sports - the Kentucky Derby, the boxing match & Game 7 of the Bulls-Celtics series. So I decided to create a South American feast for us:

My sangria. Some cheap red wine, cranberry juice and brandy. Combine in a big pitcher with apples, lemons and oranges and serve over ice. Nothing easier.

These recipes came from Food & Wine's May 2009 issue.
Chicken wings marinated in Peruvian marinade
The marinade consists of lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, white wine vinegar, tumeric, cumin, lots of garlic and hot paprika. Which I didn't have so I did regular paprika and cayenne pepper. This is wonderful and zingy - I am keeping the marinade and getting chicken thighs for later this week.

Chilean tomato-onion salad
Really easy and refreshing. And so pretty! Soak thinly sliced sweet onions in red wine vinegar with salt and pepper. Mince jalapeno and chop cilantro - combine with extra virgin olive oil and season with salt & pepper. Arrange tomatoes on a plate, sprinkle with onions and drizzle dressing.

Empanadas - I switched up the filling, leaving out the fresh tomatoes and red peppers and adding instead potatoes and green olives. I also didn't have enough all-purpose flour and ended up using half all-purpose, half whole wheat. I have a ton of filling left over so I'm going to save it and eat it with garlic rice and a fried egg, Filipino style.

Que delicioso! You should see my kitchen - love is a battlefield.

Celebrating the sun with strawberries

2009-04-25T20:57:00.004-04:00

I got this recipe from Cooking Light. I modified it a bit but it turned out delicious! The recipe was for Stuffed Chicken Breast with Strawberry Gastrique. It isn't online yet. Here is my rendition:

Gastrique
Chopped strawberries
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
few glugs balsamic vinegar (not quite 1/4 cup)
a splash of sherry
sugar
ground coriander
Place all ingredients into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer until reduced, about 30 mintues, stirring occasionally. The recipe said to strain out the strawberries but I left them in.

Chicken
Gorgonzola cheese
chopped prosciutto (di Parma)
fresh thyme (I used dried)
Chicken breast
salt and pepper
Mix the cheese, prosciutto and thyme in a bowl. Cut a slit in the thickest part of the chicken. Spoon in the mixture and season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper. Cook on each side for about 5-7 minutes each. Spoon the gastrique over the chicken.

The salad was just arugula, very thinly sliced red onions and julienned radish and Macintosh apple. For the dressing I whisked together extra virgin olive oil, white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey and a tiny drop of orange oil. Season the finished salad with coarse sea salt and fresh pepper. So refreshing! The orange oil is really great for salads with fruit. I made the purchase after reading Padma Lakshmi's Tangy, Tart, Hot & Sweet. It's a great little something to keep in your kitchen. I find myself using it a lot, and since you only need a drop it lasts a long time.

This is a great spring/summer recipe that looks impressive but is really simple to make. Great way to impress your friends.

For dessert, a S'mores brownie from Hot Blondies Bakery that I purchased today at the Flea. Super gooey, chewy and delicious.

Homemade char siu bao

2009-04-19T20:26:00.002-04:00

I found this recipe online. Not from a traditional source but it seemed easy enough. I've been trying to expand my cooking talents into more Asian territory. I've got some Japanese dishes down but since I am Chinese, these are a must. The recipe is from Cooking Light and can be found here.

Rolling out the dough. This dough was fun to work with because it was springy and elastic.

The filling. I did not have any 5-spice nor could we find it at any grocery store in the neighborhood so I used my own. Carraway seed, black pepper, cinnamon, ground ginger and cloves. The hoisin sauce really helps to make it sweet.

A short steam and YUM! Delicious. Grandma would be proud.

We had these for dinner and I made an easy salad of cucumber, blanched sugar snap peas and radish. The dressing is just extra virgin olive oil, rice vinegar, a few drops of sesame oil and about 1/4 tsp. miso. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and toss - so refreshing.

I'd definitely make these again. I found another recipe for char siu here at My Kitchen that seems really easy. Also leeks and pork would be good to stuff inside. I'll keep thinking of variations on fillings - this is fun!

Not so Famous Sichuan

2009-04-09T15:34:00.003-04:00

Famous Sichuan
Pell St, near Bowery (Chinatown)

Last night I met Deb for dinner at Famous Sichuan in Chinatown. Located across from Joe's Shanghai, it was much less crowded (but much more delicious). After looking through the extensive menu we picked the Chengdu Mungbean Nooles. Thick and short with a spicy sauce, these were served cold. Deliciously salty and good for whetting the appetite.

This was an interesting item - Peppers with Shredded Potato. Fairly mild tasting but great with the fish, pictured below. This is something I've never seen in a Chinese restaurant so we decided to try it.

String beans with fresh bamboo shoots and pickled cabbage - this was a great veggie side. I'm used to seeing canned bamboo shoots. These were delicious and fresh. The textures of the two vegetables were a good contrast as well. The pickled cabbage added great flavor. I didn't realize I could buy it at the store! Putting it on my list for next time, not that I'll know what to do with it. Maybe braised ox tail?

Braised tilapia in Sichuan Chili Miso Paste. This was not like any tilapia I'd had before. It was steakier, almost like grouper. The sauce was delicious and not spicy at all. Very flavorful and as mentioned earlier, great with the potato.

A close up of the fish's face. Poor little bugger! He had no idea he'd end up dead on a plate smothered in yummy sauce.

I can't believe we ate the whole thing! Well except for the head but by that point we were too stuffed to try.

All in all, delicious. And cheap! Very comparable to Spicy & Tasty (the chef used to work there). So if you are in the mood for some great Sichuan and don't want to go all the way out to Flushing, this is a great option.

After leaving we looked at the people lining up at Joe's Shanghai and shook our heads. That's what you get for reading the Zagat guide!

Home, home on the stovetop

2009-04-07T14:12:00.003-04:00

Sunday night dinner: Galbi, fennel and orange salad, mushroom and parsley salad

Galbi: Marinate beef short ribs in equal parts white vinegar and soy sauce (I used some of the Korean variety, can't tell you the name because I can't read Korean), both white and brown sugar, minced garlic and onions, black pepper, crushed red pepper and a little sesame oil. Try to let them sit for at least 2-3 hours. Heat up a grill and cook over medium heat. YUM.

Fennel and orange salad:
Thinly slice a bulb of fennel. Slice and quarter an orange (I used a Florida orange). Toss with greens, parsley, salt, pepper, extra virgin and red wine vinegar.

Parsley and mushroom salad (from Giada di Laurentis):
Thinly slice white mushrooms. Chop a handful of parsley. Toss with generous amounts of extra virgin, fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper. The mushrooms soak up all the dressing - super refreshing.

Banchan would've been nice but this was a last minute inspiration and I didn't want to spend money getting all the ingredients.

Monday night dinner: Torta & sinangag

Torta, a childhood favorite. Basically a giant omelette with tomatoes, onions and ground chicken. Traditionally it is made with ground pork and shrimp but I wanted the healthy option and none of that was available in my grocery. I also seasoned it with fish sauce. Just a dash - not too much! It's delicious with Tabasco ketchup, made by Heinz :)

Sinangag (garlic rice). Day old rice is the best for frying. Lightly brown some garlic in a pan. Add the rice, then season with salt and garlic powder. Cook til hot.