summer picnic at home

in ,

One of my favorite meals of the summer was this cold picnic dinner party feast. I made the NYT’s Tandoori-Style Chicken, served cold with some of the unused marinade as a sauce. Then three salads: this Corn-Fregola Salad (from Bon Appetit, without the haloumi but with feta); an amazing Panzanella salad (with anchovies and capers) from the cookbook In Season (by Sarah Raven) and a Zucchini Salad with Herbs, Lemon and Ricotta from Milk Street Magazine.

The joy was making everything ahead of time and just leaving out on a table (indoors) until we were ready to help ourselves and eat (outdoors).

day 7: no rest for the chef

in , , ,
Photo from the New York Times

Photo from the New York Times

Washing dishes this morning for the nth time in days I realized how much my kitchen feels like a restaurant. I basically don’t leave it for large parts of the day—cooking, eating, cleaning, repeat. So today I wrote some specials on the chalkboard: egg tacos for breakfast, cauliflower soup for lunch (there was actually some left!), and plant-based bolognese with spaghetti squash for dinner. I also badmouthed some recent customers who asked for and then didn’t eat a buttered bagel—and then left a lovey on the table. Unfortunately the same customers are coming back today, and tomorrow, and…

Last night I dug into the forgotten drawer of weird asian noodles and seaweed that I don’t really know what to do with but they never go bad. I found a package of dried shiitake mushrooms and reconstituted them in some water to make a recipe I made years ago and still had in my Paprika app: The New York Times version of vegan MaPo Tofu. I prefer the meaty pork version, I think, but this is way healthier and did I mention that Michael recently became a vegan? (We were trying to eat more plant-based and then he saw the movie Game Changers and boom, he hasn’t had meat or dairy in over a month. It’s a bummer.)

Anyway, I used dried instead of fresh shiitakes and a fermented black bean paste that I had from Hmart, along with a little Gochujang It was tasty and filling, and I served it over quinoa just to hippy-ify it even more. We ate it with wine in front of candles—and a laptop on which six of our friends were having their dinner and wine. A Zoom dinner party! The new normal.

day 5: shrimp & grits

in , , ,
images-1.jpg

Okay, I’m ready for this whole thing to be over already. My kids are driving me crazy. I’m bored and depressed and out of shape. So tonight I’m making a fancy dinner, a dinner party recipe, inspired by our trip to New Orleans. A taste of something fine and foreign.

It’s funny how this new reality is forcing us to both be in our extreme comfort zone, and leave it. I’m spending more quality time with my kids than I usually do—going on walks, doing writing projects, seeing films. Today I got out the bike that was my my mother-in-law’s and took a 2 hour bike ride on the path that runs though Westchester. I made it from Ardsley to Hartsdale. I’d never normally do that.

Tonight’s recipe however is not new, I made it a few weeks ago when the world still seemed like a steady place. But I learned a couple tricks so tonight’s version will be simplified. It’s shrimp and grits but I’ve tailored it to be able to be mostly made-ahead.

Quarantine Shrimp and Grits

Ingredients

·       5 3/4 cups chicken broth divided

·       1 pound large shrimp, shelled (shells reserved)

·       3/4 pound mushrooms chopped up

·       1/4 teaspoon baking soda

·       1/4 teaspoon cornstarch

·       1 cup grits, preferably stone-ground

·       1 cup grated cheese

·       4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed and divided

·       4 slices bacon, diced

·       1 medium shallot, minced

·       2 medium cloves garlic, minced

·       1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

·       1 tablespoon fresh juice from 1 lemon

Directions 

1.    In a large saucepan, combine 5 cups stock with reserved shrimp shells. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Strain and return stock to saucepan. Trash shells.

2.    Whisk grits into stock, set over medium-high heat, and bring to a simmer, whisking frequently. Lower heat to a bare simmer and cook, stirring and scraping bottom frequently with a wooden spoon, until grits are fully softened and cooked and have thickened into a spoonable porridge, about 1 hour. Stir in 2 tablespoons butter and cheese until fully melted. Season with salt and pepper and keep grits warm. (A piece of parchment pressed against the surface will help prevent a skin from forming.)

3.    In a large skillet, cook bacon until crisp then move bacon to towels to drain. (Bacon is optional; you could just add some oil to a pan). Add mushrooms and cook, stirring, until mushrooms release their liquid, about 3 minutes. Stir in shallot, garlic, and cayenne and cook for 2 minutes. Add baking soda and cornstarch and ¾ cup stock. Cook until thickened. Whisk in butter until emulsified. Add lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. (At this point you can turn it off and reheat it right before serving time.)

4.    Right before you want to serve, quickly salt shrimp and cook in a little oil in a frying pan, then add them to the hot gravy to finish cooking.

5.    Serve grits in a bowl with shrimp and gravy on top. Finish with herbs if you want to get fancy.

 

 

theater party

in , , ,
Theatrical Bruschetta

Theatrical Bruschetta

I volunteered to make party food for the Irvington Theater’s season-kick-off benefit party this weekend. It’s a lovely organization that I’m excited to be a part of—and excited to be bringing some exciting stuff to this often-sleepy town.

I wanted to make a range of finger foods that had some theatrical color and variety and came up with a spread of different bruschetta. There’s an artichoke and parmesan; beet and goat cheese; red pepper and goat cheese and one with plum chutney and prosciutto.

The decision what to make was based, as usual, on what was on hand—and started with those weird green plums we got from the CSA. They were small and sour and no one was eating them so I boiled them with with some sugar, wine and water until they were pulpy and mushy. That’s basically what chutney is. I paired them with their opposite— salty crispy proscuitto fried in a pan and added a thin layer of the goat cheese mixture (goat cheese mixed with cream cheese for extra spreadability) below it all to soften the blow.

The beets were also CSA remnants, which I roasted in tin foil then peeled and mixed with some cider vinegar and salt. The red peppers were even easier—a bottle of roasted red pepper from Costco that I diced and mixed with red wine vinegar, garlic, sugar, pepper flakes, and teaspoon salt. Those also went over the goat cheese spread, although a whipped feta would work too.

Left: Costco bottle pureed vs. right: Cook’s Illustrated recipe

Left: Costco bottle pureed vs. right: Cook’s Illustrated recipe

Finally the artichokes—I used a Cook’s Illustrated recipe that pureed canned artichoke hearts with basil, garlic, olive oil, lemon and parmesan but after realizing that the artichokes I bought in bulk were already swimming in an olive-oil mixture—I tried just pureeing the chokes with a bit of the liquid from the bottle and that worked too (a little more acidic than the original but definitely delicious—and since this version was extra I combined it with some sour cream for a dip I was asked to bring to a Friday night dinner party.

IMG_1125.JPG

I rounded it out with rosemary roasted nuts that I always make for Thanksgiving, crudite with a green goddess dip (made with all the herbs that were beginning their goodbyes in our garden) and a puff pastry cracker. Plus a couple basic cheeses and olives, all of which cost me a total of less than $100 to make. If it weren’t such a lovely non-profit, I would have quoted a much higher price.

simple shwarma

in

My new favorite easy dinner party recipe, which I've now made three times, is Sam Sifton's recipe for oven roasted chicken shwarma. It's easy to make and serve and all three tries have been huge successes. The basic idea is to marinate chicken thighs, bake them until crispy, then cut them in pieces and serve on a big tray with a mix of any of the following: couscous, greek salad, feta, olives, parsley, humous, pita, tahini, yogurt sauce, etc. I also serve it with my secret special sauce which I adapted from something called "white sauce" and is supposedly Turkish. 

secret special sauce

  • 1/2 cup mayo
  • 1/2 cup greek yogurt
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup chopped parsley
  • salt/papper

    Whisk everything together and chill. 

grape and olive crostini

Americas (null)
in

I made Smitten Kitchen's grape and olive crostini as one of the eight courses of New Year's Eve dinner and am obsessed with this recipe for easy roasting of olives and grapes. It's amazingly simple but tastes complex because the grapes break down and crystalize around the salty warm olives. I will definitely make again—maybe next time as a side or platform for meat instead of on crostini.