recipes

(How to) Eat Your Veggies

2008-07-11T12:34:00.001-07:00

[A recap of all the good food Sudip made this week using delicious, freshly-farmed veggies. Enjoy!)

Good friends of ours who have bought CSA (community-supported agriculture) shares just happen to be away for a month this summer. That means that we're getting their vegetables, shipped in from a nearby organic farm every Tuesday. Given that I'm at the local farmers' market every Sunday anyway, my kitchen is just filled with amazing produce, all of it organic, much of it heirloom: beautiful little fingerling potatoes, knobby white baby carrots, jewel-like golden beets, purple kohlrabi, fennel, green garlic, sorrel leaves, purslane (my new favorite salad green), Romanesque broccoli (as gorgeous to look at as it is to eat), and of course the ubiquitous zucchini and yellow squash.

Anyway, the best thing you can do with produce like this is not to mess around with it too much. That means, for me, no fancy sauces, no complicated cooking process. A little coarse sea salt, a few lashings of black pepper, a touch of lemon or sherry vinegar, the best olive oil you can afford, and heat--what else do you need?

The dishes I made this week aren't recipes so much as they are wonderful combinations of ingredients that I wanted to share: fingerling potato and purslane salad with knobs of ripened goat's cheese; baby golden beets, fingerling potatoes, and baby white and orange carrots roasted together with olive oil, pepper, and sea salt; spaghetti with sorrel pesto; a soup of Spanish lentils, sorrel, baby carrots, and green garlic; roasted beet, fennel, and goat's cheese salad; and finally, Romanesque broccoli soup with purple onions and green garlic, topped with a quenelle of goat's ricotta. So delicious.

Ramps, Part Deux

2008-05-01T07:35:00.001-07:00

[Now, what to do with aforementioned ramps. Chefdip is on a roll!]

Earlier, I wrote about the glories of pickling ramps. Tonight, I decided to use the ramps I pickled over the weekend. Luckily, I still had some wonderful ingredients from Saturday's farmers market: asparagus, new potatoes, and scallions. So I made a warm salad. I quartered the new potatoes, tossed them with olive oil, coarse sea salt, and pepper and put them into a hot oven to roast. When they were nearly done and getting caramelized, I add the asparagus and scallions, which I cut up in small pieces. I have some thyme growing in my kitchen, so I tore off some sprigs and added them as well.

When the vegetables were caramelized and tender, I took them out and squeezed a lemon into them, then added the zest of that lemon--and a handful of pickled ramps. Some more coarse and salt, and I had a wonderful warm spring salad.

For our main course, I took baby swiss chard (which I'd also bought at the market) and wilted it in olive oil, then set the greens aside. I made a sauce by mixing creme fraiche with the strained pickling liquid from my ramps, plus salt and pepper (you whisk it and gets wonderfully foamy). Then I seared off six sea scallops, which I'd seasoned first, adding some butter after turning them initially, then basting the scallops with that delicious brown butter.

I put a bed of swiss chard on the plate, topped with a couple of sea scallops, put some pickled ramps on the plate, and spooned on the sauce. The dish was absolutely incredible and tasted like the essence of springtime.

I'm out of produce. Tomorrow I'm ordering a pizza.

Ramps? Pickled? What?

2008-04-22T06:50:00.000-07:00

[This comes to us from our dear friend Chefdip. I've never had a ramp, and I've certainly never had one pickled, but he takes it there, and makes the rest of us look bad in the process. Shad roe? Shaved asparagus? Sorry, I'm busy with my Betty Crocker yellow cake over here.]

Springtime seems to bring the most delicious things to the farmers markets:
fava beans (which are worth the great trouble involved in preparing them), earthy morel mushrooms (best eaten when cooked gently in butter), the most delicious asparagus (which I both roast and eat raw, shaved in a salad), and tender, young salad greens. And of course, the shad are running, and that means shad roe, which I look forward to each year with an anticipation bordering on lunacy.

Ramps are also in season. Americans have been eating these wild, garlicky little leeks for ages, but only recently have they become a flash item in restaurants. They're only available for a short time in the spring, they grow wild in parts of Appalachia, and they're highly perishable. But they're intense and delicious. I like to eat them with shad roe and capers, in a soup with new potatoes and thyme, pan-roasted with chicken, oven-roasted with scallions--just about any way I can.

But because they go bad so quickly, I like to pickle them, to extend my ramp season. I can then add these pickled ramps to a braise, to salads, to a sauce for soft-shell crabs, to frittatas.

Last weekend, I pickled my ramps in two ways. Both involved a base of 1 cup of white wine vinegar and 1 cup of sugar. To the first batch, I toasted some mustard seeds, coriander seeds, black peppercorns, and bay leaves and added this mix to the liquid. I blanched the ramps for just a minute or two, then put them in a sterilized jar and poured over the pickling liquid. In the second batch, I toasted off about 4 tsps of the Bengali spice mix called panch phoran (five spices): nigella seeds, fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, fennel seeds, and cumin seeds--the aromas in the kitchen were unreal--and added this to the brine. After about three days, you have a truly wondrous thing.

Not Raw Enchiladas

2007-08-23T12:35:00.000-07:00

One of my friends has a bi-weekly potluck at her place. I take a lot of pride in going there and blowing away the competition with whatever I'm making that week. Some people might say that a potluck is not a competition. Well, for me it is. I can't stand knowing that someone else made better food than I did. "You're food is soooo good" might be a good enough compliment for the less competitive, but the only comment I want to hear is "your food is the best thing here". That is why I was so angry last night when my friend took herself out of the running completely by allying herself with my old nemesis: The Raw Food Diet.

For people who don't know me, this requires some back story. A while ago, before Uzy moved from left coast to right coast she mentioned to me that she was going to start doing the Raw Food Diet, the rules of which are that one can only eat fresh, uncooked fruits, vegetables or nuts. I, being a sensible person, told her that just because food was "raw" doesn't make it any more healthy, and that there's no evidence that a diet of raw fruits and vegetables will make any more healthy than an average rabbit, whose life expectancy is about 8 years. We argued about the raw food diet until I finally told her that I'd do it along with her, the point being to disprove all of the raw food nonsense. To make a long story short, Uzy quit after five days admitting that she was no healthier than when we began.

And now the Raw Food Diet was back, ruining my chances for potluck glory. Sure, I got plenty of compliments from other people there, but I don't value their opinions the same way that I do the opinions of my friends. Why even bother going to this potluck if my friend won't even taste my food? Anyway, these Enchiladas were a big hit amongst people who were not on the Raw Food Diet. It was a victory, but an empty one.

I got this recipe from Tyler Florence. I added ketchup to the salsa, for no reason other than that I add ketchup to everything.

Roasted Tomatillo Chile Salsa:
1 pound tomatillos, husked
1 white onion, peeled, sliced, quartered or whole
4 garlic cloves
2 jalapenos
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1/2 lime, juiced

Enchiladas:
Extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 medium onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups chicken stock, storebought
Chopped cilantro leaves
1 deli roasted chicken (about 3 pounds), boned, meat shredded
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
10 large flour tortillas
1/2 pound Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
2 cups sour cream
Chopped tomatoes and cilantro leaves, for garnish

Guacamole, optional

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

For the salsa: On a baking tray, roast tomatillos, onion, garlic and jalapenos for 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer the roasted vegetables and any juices on the bottom of the tray to a food processor. Add the cumin, salt, cilantro, and lime juice and pulse mixture until well combined but still chunky.

Enchiladas: Meanwhile heat a 2 count of olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft and caramelized - this should take 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cumin then cook for a further minute. Sprinkle on the flour and stir to ensure the flour doesn't burn then gradually add the chicken stock to make a veloute. Continue stirring over a low simmer until the flour cooks and the liquid thickens. Turn off the heat, add half of the roasted tomatillo chile salsa, some additional fresh chopped cilantro and fold in the shredded chicken meat. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Change the temperature of the oven to 350 degrees F and begin assembling the dish. Take a large baking dish and smear the bottom with some of the reserved tomatillo salsa. Now take the flour tortillas and briefly flash them over the stove-top flame (or put them briefly under the broiler if using an electric stove). Using a shallow bowl, coat each tortilla lightly with the reserved salsa mix. Put a scoop of the shredded chicken-enchilada mix on top of the tortilla followed by a sprinkle of the shredded cheese. Fold the tortilla over the filling and roll like a cigar to enclose it. Using a spatula place the tortillas in the baking dish and continue to do the same with all the tortillas. Finally pour over some more of the salsa and top with the remaining shredded cheese. Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes until bubbly and cracked on top. Garnish, cilantro and tomato.

Jambalaya / Measuring is for losers

2007-08-09T12:26:00.000-07:00

I needed to make a dish for a potluck that would rock people's socks off. This jambalaya totally did the trick. There wasn't a sock to be found by the end of the party.

This recipe is courtesy of Rachel Ray, who is one of my least favorite food network hosts. The girl can cook though.

I made a couple of changes to this recipe to make it a little more how I'd cook. First off, I don't like to measure ingredients while I'm cooking. My measuring cups are by far the least used things in my kitchen. Measuring always makes me feel like I'm doing science, and that's not why I cook. I like to just feel it out, use the force. As such, the recipe is really more of a guideline for me. So, included with this recipe is how I went about measuring the ingredients in the dish. In general, my rule for spices is to put what looks like how much the recipe calls for, then put a little more.

The other change that I made was that I put some of my secret ingredients in there: Ketchup and Tabasco sauce. I have yet to find a recipe that this won't improve.

2 cups enriched white rice (a little more that half a pound, and about a 10 count of water)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, once around the pan (once around the pan)
1 tablespoon butter (more than I'd put on bread)
1 pound boneless, skinless white or dark meat chicken
3/4 pound andouille, casing removed and diced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
Several drops hot sauce or 2 pinches cayenne pepper (or? both!)
2 to 3 tablespoons (a handful) all-purpose flour (a few shakes of the packet)
1 (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes in juice
1(14-ounce) can or paper container chicken stock or broth (half a box)
1 teaspoon (1/3 palmful) cumin (a shake or two)
1 rounded teaspoon (1/2 palmful) dark chili powder
1 teaspoon (1/3 palmful) poultry seasoning (i used a bouillon cube)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (i probably used way more than that)
1 pound medium shrimp, raw, deveined and peeled (ask for easy peel at fish counter)
Coarse salt and black pepper
Chopped scallions, for garnish
Fresh thyme, chopped for garnish.
(four squirts of Ketchup)

Cook rice to package directions.

Place a large, deep skillet over medium high heat. Add oil and butter to the pan. Cube chicken and place in hot oil and butter. Brown chicken 3 minutes, add sausage, and cook 2 minutes more. Add onion, celery, pepper, bay, and cayenne.

Saute vegetables 5 minutes, sprinkle flour over the pan and cook 1 or 2 minutes more. Stir in tomatoes and broth and season with cumin, chili, poultry seasoning, and Worcestershire. Bring liquids to a boil and add shrimp.

Simmer shrimp 5 minutes until pink and firm. Remove the pot from the heat and place on a trivet. Ladle jambalaya into shallow bowls. Using an ice cream scoop, place a scoop of rice on to the center of the bowlfuls of jambalaya. (I just added it to the Jambalaya and mixed it up) Sprinkle dishes with salt, pepper, chopped scallions, and thyme leaves.

The Delicious

2007-07-25T11:46:00.000-07:00

More than a year ago I made up this dish for breakfast. We had eggs, we had the makings of lox and bagels, but I kinda wanted both, and I thought, "Hmm, perhaps THIS would be good." I asked Jared, hesitantly, because I thought for sure he'd think it yuck, but he was all for it. And so we made THE DELICIOUS.

It's really pretty simple, and actually, I must be honest, I've since seen a similar thing on a menu. So maybe I didn't make it up entirely but actually pulled the vague memory of this from the dark recesses of my brain.

It goes:

Eggs, scrambled
cream cheese, generous amount
lox, cut into bits

and on the side, a bagel, toasted and buttered.

Other variations include getting triple-onion cream cheese or including shallots or chives seperately. One could also add capers or a dash or red wine vinegar.

This is incredibly easy to make, but it's all about timing:

Just make scrambled eggs, as you normally would, with a healthy dose of salt and pepper.

Then, when the eggs are about 65 to 75 percent cooked, put in about 3 to 4 spoonfuls of creamcheese. Stir, fold, chop, whatever, just combine in whatever way you want to make sure that the cream cheese melts throughout the eggs. Otherwise you'll just end up with kinda melted cream cheese and a few big cream cheese chunks. No good.

Then, at the last minute, when the eggs are entirely cooked and the cream cheese is melted, add the lox and distribute evenly. You don't want to leave them in too long, because they'll cook. (Again, no good.) So, maybe 30 seconds or less should be fine.

Serve on a plate with a side of bagel.

(In planning to write this post I've discovered that it's very difficult to take a good photo of eggs. Use a flash, they come out yellow but washed out. No flash, they come out dark and grey. So, while this may look less than appetizing, I promise, it lives up to its name.)

And now, I'm finally a man

2007-07-17T17:52:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't heard, summer is all about grillin'. That's right "grillin' ". No "g" at the end of the word, not if you're a real man at least. And, thanks to Costco's Tuscany outdoor grill, I'm much more of a man than I was a few weeks ago. Thanks to my new purchase, all of my laundry smells like fire and meat, the essence of manhood. If this blog is getting a little too "Home Improvement" for you, I don't care, because it's going to continue like this for a while. That's how we men do it.

Just getting the grill to it's resting place was an endeavor. It required borrowing my roommates pickup truck, going to Costco, and somehow getting a 300 lbs grill up three flights of stairs, to my rooftop patio. It wasn't easy, but then again, greatness never is.

After preliminary experiments with the standard bbq fare, my old buddy Tyler Florence showed me a sweet recipe for a Chicken Kebab salad. This dish isn't really like anything that I've ever made before. It's basically chicken and sausage kababs, that are then put into a big bowl with romaine lettuce and tossed with a ceasar salad dressing. There's two things about this recipe that I like:

The first, is that it's a meaty salad. My dad always makes salads with meat in them. Usually, it's not just chicken. My dad has been known to top his salads with steak, sausage, or pork. It's a good way to stick it to vegetarians by defiling their most precious of food, The Salad.

The second thing I like about this dish is the way that french bread is used on the kebab. You skewer the food on the kebab alternating bread - chicken - bay leaf - sausage - bread etc. I would have thought that the french bread would burn when you put it on the grill, but it soaks up all the juices from the chicken and the sausage while they cook and doesn't get very burned at all.

When I made this dish, it tasted like my dressing had too much garlic. As a result, my breath smelled for two days. If I do it over, I'll make it with less garlic and maybe some more anchovies. Also, Tyler's recipe calls for fresh, not dried, bay leafs. Well, maybe in Tyler Florence's fancy supermarkets they carry fresh bay leaves, but in mine they sure don't. I used dried bay leaves, then squeezed lemon juice over the whole kabab as a replacement.

Without further wait, here is the recipe:

For the kebabs:

8 links sweet Italian pork sausage
1 crusty baguette
2 to 3 medium, boneless, skinless chicken breasts
12 fresh bay leaves
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 lemons
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the salad and dressing:
2 anchovies
2 cloves garlic
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 egg yolks*
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus shavings for garnish
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons water
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 heads romaine lettuce, chopped
Flat-leaf parsley, for garnish
2 lemons, cut into wedges, for garnish

Special equipment: 4 large foot-long skewers, metal or thick bamboo work best, soaked in water for half an hour if using bamboo or wood.

Preheat grill to medium-high heat.

For the kebabs:
Slice chicken thinly, cut the baguette into 1/2-inch rounds, and cut the sausage links up into chunks, alternating cuts at 45 degree angles for nice triangular shapes.

Now prepare the kebabs. Take the skewers 1 at a time and begin threading the components alternately. Start with a piece of bread, then chicken, bay leaf, sausage, and bread; repeat this 3 times to fill the skewers, ending with bread.

Lay the prepared kebabs out on your board and drizzle liberally with extra-virgin olive oil. Squeeze the lemon juice all over and season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place the prepared kebabs onto preheated grill and cook for about 7 to 10 minutes per side, or until cooked through.

While kebabs are roasting you can prepare the salad. In a blender combine the anchovies, garlic, lemon juice, egg yolks and grated Parmesan. Pulse a couple of times to combine, then add the water and blend again. With the motor running, gradually pour the oil through the feed tube and continue to blend until emulsified. Season, to taste, with salt and some freshly ground black pepper.

In a large mixing bowl add the chopped romaine. When the kebabs are done, remove from the oven and slide the kebab components off the skewers directly into the bowl. Add some dressing and gently toss to combine.

To plate, garnish with parsley leaves, shaved Parmesan and fresh lemon wedges.

Pasta Mia

2007-07-16T13:02:00.000-07:00

Pasta Mia is one of those restaurants that has rules, probably set in place by Mama Mia (you'll know who she is if you go). You must obey the rules in order to eat at Pasta Mia without a) being embarrassed or b) starving to death while you wait. And wait. And wait some more for your dinner.

The rules are:
1. ONLY COMPLETE PARTIES WILL BE SEATED. This means you better coordinate well if you're supposed to meet someone there. If I were meeting someone and it was my turn to be seated and they hadn't shown up yet, I wouldn't hesitate for a second to dine alone. When it comes to Pasta Mia, it's every woman for herself.

2. NO SUBSTITUTIONS WILL BE MADE. Don't even think about ordering the Linguine with Clams with a butter/garlic sauce instead of a red sauce. They've perfected their dishes, thank you very much, and they don't appreciate your tampering.

3. CASH ONLY!!! NO CHECKS OR CREDIT CARDS. Luckily there is an ATM right around the corner.

And then there are other rules, which aren't written but ARE absolute.

4. GET THERE EARLY. VERY early. Pasta Mia opens at 6:30 p.m. (closed Sunday and Monday). By 6:00, there is a line outside. You're pushing your luck if you get there later than 6:15, and trust me when I say that if you do not get seated in the first wave of people, you should just go next door to the Mexican restaurant or something. You will be waiting for AT LEAST one hour.

5. THE SERVICE IS SLOW. DEAL WITH IT. Don't complain or you'll get the Mama Mia smack down! I do suggest, if you're feeling antsy, to avoid Pasta Mia on Friday and Saturday and shoot for a Tuesday through Thursday visit. They are (sometimes) less swamped on the weekdays so are a little more attentive.

Jared, Lo, and myself went to Pasta Mia on Friday, followed all the rules, and had an excellent dining experience.

My dish: Fusilli with eggplant. Delicious with red sauce and large pieces of mozzarella cheese melted throughout. I get this every time now.

Lauren's dish: Fusilli with Sausage. VERY SPICY. They went a little nuts on the red pepper flakes with this one. Still, very good, if you like a kick.

Jared's dish: Tortellini al Ragu. The tortellini is filled with cheese, and the meat sauce is delicious, with a really interesting flavor that makes me think they use quite a bit of wine. I think this is the best dish (that I've had) on the menu. I myself don't order it because it consumes my faux-vegetarian's soul with guilt. But you can bet I sneak a few bites from Jared.

And, to top it off, delicious espressos, cappuccinos, and this:

Tiramisu. So good, it rivals Biramisu.

Not only that, but the prices are reasonable (generally $12 a dish) and the three of us had two snacks and an entire meal with the leftovers. That is not an exaggeration. The portions are huge.

Anyway, go to Pasta Mia, but be prepared!

Billy Hot Chocolate...Cake

2007-07-05T19:13:00.001-07:00

This is my friend Billy Hot Chocolate:

He does a radio show from his house in Riverdale. He also does wrestling at the UCB Theater. His wrestling show was recently reviewed on Gothamist, where the reviewer said about the show, "W.T.F." Billy was psyched about that.

He came to visit last weekend and we went for a walk in my neighborhood. At my favorite coffee place, Java House, they sell slices of this enormous chocolate cake, like Bruce Bogtrotter size. Everytime someone orders a piece, everyone looks at them with a mixture of envy and disgust. I had a really great idea to order a slice of this cake, plus an espresso milkshake. So gluttonous, so decadent...this prospect excited me much more than it probably should have. In my head it became this return to childhood, where all you want to do is eat an entire cake and you've never heard of calories or sugar or fat or being responsible. So really, it wasn't ONLY wanting to eat a big fucking slice of cake. It was more than that.

I thought Billy would be a good person to share the cake with:

(You can also see a tiny sliver of the espresso milkshake on the left hand side there. Honestly, if cake isn't your thing, go for the espresso shake at Java House. It's awesome.)

And he was, and it was super fun and yummy. Fin.

Komi

2007-06-13T06:59:00.000-07:00

We went to Komi last night for Jared's birthday. It was incredibly delicious and incredibly pricey, but Jared's gift was the food and it was totally worth it even though the money thing has me feeling guilty and vowing to eat oatmeal for lunch for the next two weeks to save. BUT regardless of that, the food was amazing. Not a single thing was meh. Everything was special and the whole evening was utterly decadent. We talked to a sommelier. We had wine. And beer. There are no salt and pepper shakers on the table, and really, how could you even think of a-salt-ing (HAAA!) chef Johnny Monis' food with such common condiments?

There were, I suppose, four parts to the meal, the first part being the most fun and complicated -- the "Mezzatakia," which is just several tiny plates of things that they bring you one after the other. We had some really good sparkling white wine called "J," then Jared had a Smutty Nose beer which was delicious and I had some South African Rose.

The courses for that were as follows:

1. An olive, in olive oil, with sea salt. They brought this out as the first plate of the Mezzatakia and it was, hmmm, an olive. But this olive was firm, not all soggy and over-olived. I mean, it was still just an olive but it was definitely the best olive I've ever olived.

2. A small piece of fish, cut carpaccio style. I believe it was yellowtail, topped with olive oil, sea salt, tiny baby chives. A fave for a while.

3. A radish, cut lengthwise in half, with creme fraiche and salmon roe. Kind of weird.

4. A grilled jalapeno pepper, which was so fresh and good and not scary spicey, with a shot glass of gazpacho. I've never had gazpacho before because I don't generally like tomato soup or cold soup, and gazpacho has always seemed to me a glorified cold tomato soup, but this was really good. It almost tasted fruity. It also had some tiny greens on top that I can't identify but looked sort of like sprouts.

4. Okay, this was delicious, and complicated: It was a tiny bed of lentils, with a thin slice of avocado over it, with a quail egg yolk over that, with a side of chopped grilled octopus. It was fucking awesome.

5. Then came the corn ball -- a ball of corn meal filled with ricotta cheese, then fried, atop a really delicious saffron creamy spanishy zingy sauce. Jared said he would have ordered a dozen of those as his main course if it were possible.

6. Next was tiny sandwiches: Mine was filled with mushrooms and Jared's was beef cheek or something weird. But they were very good, wrapped in a tiny slice of house-made pita bread and with a nice shmear of creamy cheese.

7. The last of the mezzatakia was a watermelon cube, with a dollop of whipped feta cheese on top, then a hazelnut on top of that. Refreshing.

That was the most fun part. Next came the pasta. I had goat cheese stuffed raviolis with chopped almonds and pears. There was no sauce except for olive oil. The portions were tiny but by the end of the evening I was stuffed, so no complaints. Jared had some papardelle, which is a sort of wide flat noodle, with a "milk roasted baby goat ragu" says the Komi menu -- a tasty creamy cheesy red sauce. Very delicious.

Then was the main course. I got a mediterranean sea bass with a rapini side. They brought the whole fish out to me before they served it to ask if I would like to eat the "cheeks." The fish was covered in some sort of bread house (and this is where we all realize that I have no authority to talk about this food whatsoever). No but seriously it was in like, a little adobe shell of bread or something. I guess they baked it like that? Anyway they asked about the cheeks, took it away, and brought it out to me again a few minutes later, freed from the bread house. They also removed all the weird fish parts that remind you you are eating something that used to swim around, so I was just presented with two lovely white delicate creamy amazing strips of this bass. THEN they brought out another plate with the fish head on it, for the cheeks. I ate those too, and they were also delicious. The rapini was delicious and bitter and perfect for the fish. I ate every bite.

Jared got the charcoal grilled lamb chops, of which I had a piece and they were amazing. I don't really know how to write about lamb but this was very well cooked and tasted awesome. They were accompanied by fennel and ramps...I have no idea what "ramps" is. I just read that off the menu. You can ask Jared if you are really interested.

Then dessert -- They had many options, but I went for the flourless chocolate cake with olive oil ice cream. It. Was. RICH. And yummy. The olive oil ice cream tasted very slightly of olive oil, but mostly it seemed like vanilla to me and was overshadowed by the chocolatiest chocolate thing ever. Jared got something that I forget the name of, but it was basically three tiny doughnut beignet sort of things with a marscapone coffee mouse on the side. It was, I think, better than mine. There are these filipino doughnuts that I love called malasadas and these were like mini malasadas. MMMMMM.

With the bill, they brought out saffron lollipops. And then we left, tipsy, full, and happy. MMMM.

Pesto Pizza

2007-04-23T12:14:00.000-07:00

I made this Pesto pizza for my roommate's going away dinner. She's leaving for three months to go work on a television show that is, apparently, Road Rules + The Biggest Loser. What this had to do with Pesto Pizza, I don't know. I always wanted to make pizza, and i felt like this was a good start.

It's easy to make, especially if you cheat like I do and buy the roll-out Pillsbury Pizza Dough. I suppose you could also buy pre-made Pesto, but where's the fun in that?

Pesto Sauce:

Ingredients:
Pine Nuts
Fresh Basil
Olive Oil
Parmesan Cheese
Lemon
2 Cloves Garlic

Basically, just put all of these in a food processor. Like always, I didn't measure anything. I used a big handful of Basil, a small handful of pine nuts, about a half cup of olive oil, and a small handful of cheese. Squeeze half a lemon into it. Add some salt and pepper to taste.

Pizza:

Ingredients:
Pesto Sauce
1 Pillsbury pre-made pizza dough
Parmesan, Romano, and Mozzarella cheese (shredded)
1/4 Red Onion
Zucchini
Eggplant
1 Romano Tomato

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Chop into small pieces the zucchini, onion and the eggplant. Slice the tomato to make little circles. On a greased baking sheet, roll out the pre-made pizza dough. Spread the pesto sauce on the pizza dough. Cover the pesto with your three cheeses, then top that off with pieces of the onion, eggplant, zucchini, and tomato. Stick it in the over for 15-20 mins, and you have your pizza. Serve with a side of love.

Cowboy Caviar

2007-03-13T17:13:00.000-07:00

Perhaps that picture looks unappetizing to you? I assure you, Cowboy Caviar esta mui bueno. This is my grandma's recipe and I've brought it to several pot luck functions. It's pretty cheap to make and kind of impressive. You can also add to and take away whatever you want since you don't have to cook anything.

Behold:
1 can corn, drained
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 avocado, chopped
2-3 roma tomatoes, chopped
green onion, chopped, 3 Tish
cilantro, chopped 2 tish
2 T. Red wine vinegar
hot sauce, about 2 t.
salt
pepper
garlic, 2 cloves minced
2-3 T olive oil

Combine the olive oil, vinegar, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and garlic in a large bowl. Stir. Add avocado and toss to coat. Add everything else. When I do this in tupperware, I put the lid on once everything is in and just turn it upside down a few times to coat without massacring the avocado.

Taste it and see if it needs more salt or hot sauce. I usually end up adding more of both.

Enjoy with those mini-scoopy tortilla chips.

Haman's Ears

2007-03-13T17:09:00.000-07:00

Hamentaschen are the traditional cookie eaten at Purim, the best religious holiday ever for the following reasons:

1. It honors a woman, Esther.
2. You make a lot of noise.
3. You eat these cookies.
4. You dress up.
5. You are required to get drunk.

We hosted a Purim party and I think it was at least 50 percent motivated by the fact that we'd get to make cookies for it. I looked online for recipes and a standard complaint about Hamentaschen is that they are too dry. I also noticed that many of the recipes didn't have any butter in the dough. Cookies without butter being too dry? IMPOSSIBLE.

So I got this recipe from Gale Gand, who I was unfamiliar with but who hosts a show called "Sweet Treats" or something. This recipe has an apricot filling, but the filling for Hamentaschen is traditionally: 1) Poppy or 2) Prune. First, both Poppy and Prune seemed a little gross to me and second this apricot concoction in the recipe was a little too involved. So we improvised an Frankie and I used raspberry jam, apricot preserves and semi-sweet chocolate chips for the filling, all of which were very successful and delicious.

Other notes:
1) These are supposed to be triangular, so just think about triangle pockets when you're pinching the cookie into shape. Making little flats circular dough into triangles was totally blowing my mind.

2) The orange zest was VERY prominent in the cookie. It was good, but I would maybe use less next time.

Recipe for dough as follows:

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold unsalted butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg white
1/2 orange, zest grated
Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a food processor. Add the butter and pulse. In a small bowl, mix together the sugar, egg, egg white, and orange zest. Add it to the processor and pulse to mix, being careful not to over mix. Divide into 2 disks and chill 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Roll out the dough on a floured work surface to 1/4-inch thick. Cut out 2 1/2 to 3-inch disks. (You can re-roll the scrapes to make more disks.) Place a disk of dough down and place 1 teaspoon of filling in the center. Pinch the disk in 3 places to form a triangular shape with the filling still showing in the center. They will look like 3 cornered hats. Place 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Continue until all the disks are made.

Bake for 12 to 14 minutes.

Ultimate Meatloaf

2007-03-01T08:49:00.000-08:00

So, maybe a year ago I was at my parents house for the weekend. I woke up Sunday morning just starving for breakfast. Rather than get out of bed, I turned on TV and the Food Network was on. Tyler Florence, better known as the host of Food 911, was just coming on and he started making meatloaf. Rather than getting up to get myself some food I watched Tyler make meatloaf, and ever since I've been craving that meatloaf. Now, about a year later, I finally made that meatloaf.

This recipe has two great things about it:

1. The milk soaked white bread gives the meatloaf a really creamy texture. I know that a lot of people know this trick for meatballs or meatloaf, but back home, when my mom made meatloaf, she never used this trick.

2. Ketchup and Worschester sauce. I use at least one of these ingredients in almost everything that I make. Tyler knew all about it. That's what caught my eye about this recipe.

This recipe has two parts: The Sweet Relish and the Meatloaf. Start out with the relish, then add some of it to the meatloaf and save the rest to serve with the meatloaf.

Tomato Relish:

Extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves
2 red bell peppers, cored, seeded, and finely diced
2 tomatoes, halved, seeded, and finely diced
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 (12-ounce) bottle ketchup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Meatloaf:

3 slices white bread, crusts removed, torn into chunks by hand
1/4 cup whole milk
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 pound ground pork
2 eggs
Leaves from 2 fresh thyme sprigs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Coat a skillet with a 2-count of oil and place over medium heat. Saute the onion, garlic, and bay leaves for a few minutes to create a base flavor. Throw in the red peppers and cook them for a couple of minutes to soften. Now add the tomatoes; adding them at this point lets them hold their shape and prevents them from disintegrating. Stir in the parsley, ketchup, and Worcestershire; season with salt and pepper. Simmer the relish for 5 minutes to pull all the flavors together. Remove it from the heat; you should have about 4 cups of relish.

Place the torn white bread in a bowl and add the milk to just barely cover, swish the bread around in the milk and let it sit while you get the rest of the ingredients for the meat loaf together.

This is where you get your hands dirty! In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground beef and pork with 1 1/2 cups of the tomato relish, the eggs, and thyme; season with salt and pepper. Squeeze the excess milk from the bread and add the soaked bread to the meat mixture. To test, fry a small "hamburger" patty of the meatloaf until cooked; the patty should hold together but still have a soft consistency. Taste the patty for seasoning.

Lightly oil a cookie sheet. Transfer the meat mixture to the center of the cookie sheet and form into a log about 9 inches long and about 4 inches wide. Coat the top of the meatloaf with another 1/2 cup of the tomato relish.

Bake the meatloaf for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until the bacon is crisp and the meatloaf is firm. Remove the meatloaf from the oven and let it cool a bit before slicing. Serve with the remaining tomato relish on the side.

Tyler also used bacon that he put on top of the meatloaf, but I'm not all about that so I didn't do it. Additionally, you don't have to use beef and pork. You can also substitute ground veal, lamb, chicken or turkey for one or both of those. For me, the supermarket didn't have any ground pork, so I used beef and veal. In retrospect, I probably should have used turkey.

I've been eating this meatloaf for days. It makes great leftovers, especially on a sandwich.

Product Review: Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Covered Raisins

2007-02-27T15:40:00.000-08:00

(So I realize this pic is for milk chocolate covered raisins, as you eagle-eyed viewers can doubtlessly see, but I stole it from the internet and considered myself lucky that someone else thought to so perfectly illustrate the dilemma I have with this product, mainly, that I can't stop eating it and so am soon left with an empty plastic container.)

These are DELICIOUS. Like, so good. Like I can't stop eating them even though I feel sick from the sugar. I eventually had to put them in the communal candy corner so that someone besides me could devour them. I recommend only purchasing if you will be consuming them in the company of many, many others, because you won't be able to stop eating them and soon you will be bloated with dark chocolate and raisin goodness and all you'll have left is a sad plastic container.

Curry Lentil Soup: A Lunch Staple

2007-02-27T15:30:00.001-08:00

I often make a big pot of this, then eat it every day for lunch for a week. It's really yummy and filling, and I am only kind of sick of it even though it's been a regular part of my menu for at least three years now. I have considered switching out the lentils for split peas and the potatoes for yams but I have not yet done it. ANYWAY:

Lentils, dry, 3/4 cup
Water, 4 c.
Veggie Bouillon, 2 cubes
1 potato, cubed
2-3 carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
curry powder, 2-3 T.
cumin, 2-3 T.
red pepper flakes, 1 t.
garlic powder, healthy dosing
salt, about 2 t. maybe more to taste
cilantro to garnish (optional)

I put the lentils, water, bouillon and spices into a pot on high heat while I chop up the veggies, then toss those in as I finish chopping. Then, once everything is in and it's gotten to a healthy boil, I put the lid on and lower the heat to about medium. Let it sit and cook, bubbling but not freaking out, for about 30-45 minutes.

I also reccomend tasting it at about 15 minutes to check the salt and spice content. I actually never measure anything and just toss a large amount of curry and cumin in, so it could be more. And I love salt, so....

mmmmm.

Salmon: Two Ways, One Sauce

2007-02-26T13:33:00.000-08:00

I am notoriously, debilitatingly indecisive. I like tapas and ordering two appetizers instead of dinner because then I don't have to be so definitive. I torture friends and family with "What would you do in my situation?" about anything from where to eat dinner to what I should get a graduate degree in. Whenever I can soften the sharp edge of making decisions, either by having someone else do it or giving myself lots of options, I do.

Saturday I made salmon. One was "Blackened Salmon," lightly breaded and seasoned, and the other is "Salmon-baked-in-foil" which was simpler and a reliable recipe that I use to cook most meats. Then I made a simple and flavorful dijon sauce, which, of course, I left on the side (because pouring it right on the fish would be too grand a commitment.)

BLACKENED SALMON

Salmon filets
grated parmesan cheese, 1 T.
Bread crumbs, about 1/2 c.
Oregano, 1 T.
Basilm, to taste
Old Bay (crucial!), 2-3 T.
lemon (squeeze)
salt
pepper
Thyme
Olive Oil, 3 T.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a small bowl. Then, add the olive oil and toss in the salmon. Coat both sides in the crumby mixture.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Meanwhile, in a non-stick pan, add about 1 T. olive oil (and sesame chili oil if you're feeling feisty). Pan cook the breaded salmon for about 3 minutes each side. Then put on a cookie sheet (or something) and bake for another 6 to 9 minutes in the oven, depending on how rare you like it. Voila! The old bay and lemon are very crucial, so don't skimp! Go nuts! Enjoy with the dijon sauce (recipe below), or not.

FOIL SALMON

Salmon
Shallot, chopped
Olive Oil
Lemon
Salt
Pepper
Garlic, crushed, chopped, or minced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Salt and pepper salmon filets on both sides. Place in center of foil and smother with olive oil, crushed garlic, lemon, and shallots. Wrap up the foil tight. Cook for about 15 minutes, then check on it.

Super easy Dijon Sauce

Equal parts good quality dijon mustard and white wine
Shallots (maybe 2 T?)
Butter, 1 T.

Put butter in non-stick pan. Saute shallots in the butter. Add the mustard and the wine and cook for about three minutes. Careful not to overcook! For the sauce the recipe says to use a pinch of paprika, but I didn't have it (not sure if it would have made a difference). Also, I used a sparkly and incredibly sweet white Israeli wine comparable to manischevitz, which was impossible to drink but made the sauce really nice. Makes me think the sauce could be good if made with champagne.

Enjoy!

Adventures in Beeramisu

2007-02-15T15:14:00.000-08:00

So I made Beeramisu for dessert last night. I used the same recipe, made no alterations because I'm not comfortable changing dessert recipes...who knows what could happen! Explosions?! Strange growing things?! Terrible, bad-flavored things???!!!

I did halve the recipe and put it into three glasses rather than one large pan. Because of this I had to do some shoddy measuring and cutting of the lady fingers to fit into each glass, but it worked out okay. I tasted one of the glasses the night before V-Day, after it had been sitting about three hours, just to see if it was a flop or not. It wasn't -- at all! -- but it was a little runny. I worried -- maybe I hadn't whipped enough cream? Maybe I hadn't "folded" the ingredients together properly (because what the hell does "fold" mean when you're talking about whipped cream and liquid sugary marscapone)?

The next day all my fears were put to rest when Jared took his first spoonful and said "Oh my god." The ladyfingers had layered appropriately, the creamy stuff had taken an appropriate texture -- "Like fluffy pudding," I decided -- and the dusted chocolate had liquified. You couldn't really taste the beer but it definitely didn't matter. Heaven.

(A little too much Heaven. I ate only half of mine.)

Summery Scallop Salad

2007-02-15T07:56:00.000-08:00

I bought scallops to cook for valentine's day because I know Jared likes them, but I was at a loss as to how to actually prepare them. I've only ever used them for Fra Diavolo (recipe to come later) which lends no particular focus to the craft of scalloping. I was perusing recipes and found scallops with cream sauce, breaded scallops, cheesy scallops...all of which I had no interest in. So I kept it simple and invented a dish, because I'm a culinary genius.

6 to 8 large scallops
olive oil
garlic
lemon juice
(optional) dusting of Old Bay seasoning
salt and pepper

Sautee the garlic in the olive oil, then sprinkle each side of the scallops with salt and pepper and a little bit of Old Bay. (If you're not familiar, Old Bay is sort of an Allspice-ish blend of stuff that has a slight cajun flavor. It's salty as hell and I love it.)

In the meantime, the salad:

Fresh washed spinach
6-8 cherry tomatoes, halved
Girard's Champagne Vinaigrette
Avocado

Toss! Coat with dressing! Put cooked scallops on top! Yum!

This might have been my favorite part of the meal. It was light, healthy, and made me forget that there was about eight inches of snow outside because it was so darn summery. The lemon juice is a big part of that, so make sure to squeeze some on there while they cook!

Better-Than-Uzy's Spaghetti

2007-02-14T16:21:00.000-08:00

I just moved into a new house. To christen the kitchen, I decided to make my favorite food: Spicy Spaghetti and meat sauce. It's pretty much the first meal that I learned how to make, and probably the dinner that I make most often. It has won its share of Spaghetti showdowns, although when it was a day old it lost a controversial split decision to Uzy's Vegetarian Spaghetti (poppycock!). I'll still take the Pepsi Challenge with it vs any other Spaghetti sauce out there. The "secret ingredient" here is Ketchup, which I think really brings it all together. Here's what you need:

1 Box Spaghetti
1 30 oz can Crushed Tomatoes
1 15 oz can Tomato Sauce
1 lb premium Ground Beef
1 Yellow Onion
4 Cloves Garlic
1 Bunch Curly Parsley
1 Bunch Italian (Flatleaf) Parsley
1 Cup Red Wine
Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
Worschester Sauce
Ketchup
Tabasco Sauce
1 Bay Leaf
Salt and Pepper
(makes about 8 servings)

Start out by browning the beef in one pan. In a separate pot, start by cooking some Onion and Garlic in olive oil over low heat. When the onion and Garlic are a little translucent, add about a cup of red wine to the sauce. Then dump in your cans of tomato sauce and crushed tomatoes. Turn the heat up to medium. Finely chop or put in a food processor the bunch of curly parsley. Then throw that in the pot. Put a pinch or two (or three or four if you like it extra spicy) of Red Pepper Flakes. Also put in the bay leaf, and just about half a teaspoon of salt and a little pepper. By now your meat should be browned, so throw that in the pot as well. Bring the flame down to a simmer, then cover it and let it cook for about 30 minutes at least, stirring regularly.

After about at least 30 minutes, chop the Italian parsley. Throw a handful of it into the pot. Put in a few tablespoons of Worschester sauce, and some Tabasco (again, depending on how spicy you like it: just a shake or two if you don't like it spicy). Then put a few big squeezes of ketchup in there. Let it sit simmer for about fifteen more minutes, stirring regularly, and serve over the cooked pasta.

Welcome to Sassy Molasses

2007-02-09T10:43:00.000-08:00

Hello! Welcome to Sassy Molasses, our new blog created to celebrate, discuss, and salivate over food. We'll include restaurant reviews, our favorite recipes, new recipes, and other food related discussions. We hope you're interested, but if not, at least we'll have a place for the recipes we try and restaurants we visit recorded in the tubes and cogs of the Internets for all of time. Please enjoy!