You might remember my little flirtation with Middle Eastern cuisine this past spring. Around that time, I tasted through the portfolio of several different winemakers from Lebanon. You can see my tasting notes and reviews over at SAVEUR.com!
So, I am moving at the end of October, which means it’s time to start eating through the goods that I’ve been keeping in my pantry and fridge. This includes the boiled peanuts that my father made and sent up at the beginning of the summer and that have been sitting in my freezer ever since until the right moment presented itself. And when it didn’t, I made up a reason to enjoy them, putting together a little Southern-inspired get-together last weekend for some friends.
I discussed the menu with my mother, and together we made sure to include all the basic classics of a cocktail party, as well as to throw in a few surprises. Cucumber sammies, the peanuts, oven-fried green tomatoes, and pimento cheese were the standards (I made the latter with jalapeños, in honor of the entire Tupperware container Ben once ate at Bonnaroo), while bacon-wrapped saltines were a total curve ball for my repertoire… apparently, they were a favorite of my grandmother’s when my mom was growing up? I hardly believe it, since she’s the tiniest woman I know, but then again, they were delicious. And the coup de grâce? A few different flavors of homemade ice cream.
An almost recipe for pimento cheese:
I spent the first week of September in Chicago for a series of dinners SAVEUR put on for Rhône Valley Wines, one at Balsan in the Elysian Hotel, the other at Blackbird, a long-standing hot spot for Chicago diners.
Needless to say, it was a lot of delicious food (some highlights: fermented black bean agnolotti with roasted cauliflower and dehydrated peas, roasted leg of lamb with Vidalia onion jam and maitake mushrooms, rustic tarte flambée with Uplands cheese and bacon, and OMG those corn beignets…) with a lot more fabulous wine. You can see my tasting notes from my favorite bottle, a 2007 Vacqueyras, here and some fab photos from our amazing photographer Huge Galdones here and here and soon on SAVEUR.com.
All photos courtesy of Huge Galdones.
The beach and I have never been fond of one another. My mom recounts that, as a child, I used to carefully spread my towel around me in order to keep the sand off; I hated the feeling of it. In high school, when all my friends wanted to tan on the beach, I panicked, fearing the inevitable, painful burn that would soon result from the hours they wanted to spend in the sun. I learned to love the umbrella in order to keep my sanity, and lo, I actually began to enjoy myself! Since growing up and older, I still diligently wear a hat and put on SPF 85 every day (ok, now 50) but have learned to appreciate the occasional walk on the beach and even rarer dip in the ocean.
That was until recently, when I managed somehow to get injured amongst the waves in East Hampton. I was laid up for days with doctor-diagnosed whiplash and am only now able to sit up all day and function properly, sort of. The first night I was home, the most painful, my friend Marisa came over with her waffle-maker in tow. As I laid on my heating pad, she maneuvered her way through my kitchen, washing dishes, chopping up berries, and making the most delicious whole wheat waffles I’ve ever tasted. She would not share the recipe publicly, but I’ve been able to find a near approximation here (with the exception of the use of flax seeds).
Marisa, thank you for being so lovely to me!
My aunt Barbara is a cool lady. In reality, she’s my dad’s aunt, but she says she’s never aged a day beyond 27, and I believe her. Since I moved to New York, Barbara has been my closest relative, and I’ve had the pleasure of getting to spend weekends away from the city in her East Hampton home, where she’s lived the past 45 years. At the end of last summer, however, she sold that house and bought another, smaller place. Renovations were a disaster, leaving her stranded amongst friends throughout the construction and me without my peaceful summer getaway. Finally, she was able to move in, and I joined her for the first time in her new, almost-finished home. She’s no foodie, but she indulges me, and we always have a blast seeking out new places to “lunch” (her favorite past-time) and cooking up a storm in her kitchen with local ingredients. Since corn’s in season, we bought several ears and made a lovely little dinner for two to celebrate being together.
Corn Soufflé
Preheat oven to 450°. Butter two small soufflé dishes (6 1/2” diameter, 2 1/2” deep) and sprinkle with cheese.
Melt 2 tbsp. butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute, then add corn and cook, stirring occasionally, until corn begins to soften, 2–4 minutes. Remove from heat, season with salt and pepper, and set aside to cool.
Melt 2 tbsp. butter in a heavy-bottomed small saucepan over medium heat. Add Wondra and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for about 2 minutes (do not brown) until a paste is formed. Turn off the heat. Simultaneously, warm the milk over low heat. Whisk half of the milk into the flour mixture. Return to heat and stir in remaining milk. Cook, stirring, until very thick, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, transfer to a large bowl, and whisk in egg yolks one at a time.
Beat egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff peaks form. Add a third of egg whites to egg yolk mixture and gently fold together. Add the corn, then gently fold in the rest of the egg whites. Do not overmix. Spoon the mixture into soufflé dish, and bake until soufflé is browned, 18–22 minutes. Serve immediately.
Adapted from SAVEUR.
I have been in love with this wine for awhile, but this summer was the summer of Txakoli. I just couldn’t get enough of it and made it my goal to drink it as often as possible. See my favorites over at SAVEUR.com!
Ever since I started working in and around food publishing in New York, I have read about the short sour cherry season and how important it is to keep one’s eyes peeled for them at farmers’ market, their presence more like a mirage in the summer heat than a reality. And so, every year, I dutifully look and buy, bringing them home with absolutely no idea what to do with them.
In the past, I’ve experimented with various cakes and compotes, but given this summer’s heat, I decided to try a recipe for sour cherry frozen yogurt. It required minimal time over a stove to heat the cherries once pitted, then chill and churn for a quick and deliciously tangy summer treat. Given that I inherited a bottle of agave syrup at work, something else that I had no idea how to use, I thought this would be an ideal opportunity to try it out. Proportions of agave are slightly less than that of sugar, so when you see the measurements for sugar, multiply by 2/3 for the correct amount of agave. I also added a little Greek yogurt, whose tang I thought would nicely complement that of the cherries, as well as temper the agave, which does have its own distinct flavor profile. It’s easy to tweak the final flavor to your liking before you churn, so make sure you taste along the way!
Sour Cherry Frozen Yogurt
Stem and pit the cherries. Place in a saucepan with the agave and bring to a simmer over medium heat (agave has a lower boiling point than sugar, so keep your eye on it) until the cherries are tender and cooked through. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
Purée the cooled cherries and their liquid until almost smooth (I like to leave a few chunks). In a medium bowl, mix with the yogurt until fully combined, then chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours. Freeze in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s directions.
Recipe adapted from David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop.
One of the things I miss most about not living at home anymore is that I can’t go out into my mom’s garden and snap off a sprig of rosemary whenever a recipe calls for it. I especially hate this during the summer when I have to buy huge bunches of basil that I can’t entirely use before the leaves begin to wilt. However, I had my heart set on a caprese salad; since I had some leftover chicken in the fridge, I thought a pesto pasta main course would be an agreeable way to use up the rest of the basil.
One of my co-workers has been on the hunt for the perfect burrata this summer and recommended I try Bel Gioioso’s version. On my way home from work, I grabbed it, along with some Roma tomatoes, an ear of corn, and pine nuts. Once I washed the basil leaves and set a few leaves out for the caprese, I put the rest into a food processor and began to add a little bit of pine nuts, parmigiano, black pepper, and olive oil quanto basta, tasting as I went along until the flavor was just right.
In the meantime, I set some balsamic vinegar over low heat to reduce and put a pot of salted water on to boil. I threw in the pasta and, at the very end, the freshly-shucked ear of corn. Once I drained the water (reserving some in a separate pot to add to the pesto sauce if needed), I heated up my leftover chicken breast with the pesto and corn off the cob before tossing it all together for a delicious Italian-American feast.
I got out to San Francisco a few months ago to visit Stevie and Josiah in their new abode. We celebrated the end of spring’s bounty with some fabulous meals. Here’s a quick round up of some of my favorites:
So, it took me until the Times article came out last week to finally get myself over to Cobble Hill to sample the delicious, homemade sodas at Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Shop, but boy was it worth it! The decor, inside and out, is straight out of the 1950s, and the atmosphere was fun and energetic, full of patiently-waiting families and waitresses with their order up’s reaching across both sides of the counter.
I sat at the counter and read, while my order moved along in the queue. I watched the barbacks whip up delicious sundaes and egg creams; blend the perfect milkshakes; and mix up sodas from the syrups on hand. When my Pink Poodle finally came, I was shocked by how delicious it was. I grew up loving coke floats (but don’t get a root beer float anywhere near me please) and somehow hadn’t quite connected the dots that I had essentially ordered that, flavored with hibiscus instead of cola. It was surprisingly refreshing and delicious after the long bike ride over, and I couldn’t help feeling like kid again as I alternately sipped the soda and spooned out the ice cream. It was so hard not to drink it down in one fell swoop.
Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Shop
513 Henry Street at Sackett St.
Cobble Hill
Brooklyn, NY 11231
