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September 26, 2007
Fake Empire_fd1091b8fe_bI find the trick to bringing food to picnics is either making absolutely no effort (i.e. the sopressata and French bread variety of contributing) or to go full on Betty Crocker. But go halfway, like say, by presenting some lukewarm hanger steak to a picnic and you will be upstaged by a bucket of KFC. This is a fear that I fret over quite a bit. So, on the last picnic of the summer, I opted to bring some good ol’ fashioned fried chicken. I also wanted to do something very American for my visting English friend Daniel who adores American food and pop culture. (During our year abroad in England, Paul and I took Dan to an American-like chain-like restaurant for his birthday and then to see a movie (not a film) at the only multiplex movie theater in Leeds.) On his first night here, I took him to eat the biggest burger I could find, given the circumstances.
Img_3609Regarding the chicken, I wasn’t just being considerate. I love any opportunity to deep fry. Once I get started deep-frying, I find it difficult to stop. I start eyeing the pen cups and loose change to see if I can submerge them in oil. I managed to find some almonds to dip in batter and fry. Delicious. Eminently snackable. Deep fried lime slices added some color to the brown palette.
_57f1d3d5cd_b_2We sat in the middle of Sheepshead Meadow in Central Park and it started to rain. Fortunately, by then people had eaten most of the chicken, as well as two competing tortilla espanolas, a black bean and couscous dish, and a fennel and watermelon salad. Eventually, we were the only ones in Central Park silly enough to continue sitting in the rain. We played nerf baseball and Frisbee but mostly we just sat and tried to pretend it wasn’t raining. After a couple hours, someone got the idea to move the group under a tree. We packed up not long after we found shelter. Some of us got a glass of wine to warm up in the West Village. And then Daniel and I went to get a burger at
Corner Bistro, a requirement during his visits.
_f58df_bHere is the chaotic version of what I did to the chicken: For the marinating, I marinated one batch in yogurt, paprika, salt and chili pepper. I threw the other batch in yogurt, ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander, garam masala, pepper and salt. Another batch I marinated in milk, salt, cumin, pepper and cayenne. For the batter, I dipped some of the chicken in a flour/cornmeal/paprika mixture, some in plain flour, and some in a flour/paprika mixture. I fried the chicken, nuts and lime in a corn oil/peanut oil mixture. I didn’t use a thermometer to heat the oil – things went in when the oil seemed dangerous. The drumsticks are done after 10 minutes or so. The chicken breast strips are done after a few minutes.
September 26, 2007 |
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cumin and coriander fried chickenSeptember 19, 2007
Mâche and MashImg_3726“I’m so over the whole bistro thing,” I said once and my friend Dan laughed. As silly as it sounds, I still hold by that statement (only referring to 48 contiguous states, though). I never want to eat salmon on a bed of mashed potatoes at a restaurant again.
Yes, I still end up at the occasional bistro - I live in New York after all. On the rare occasion I do end up at one, I’ll eat something I can’t easily make at home, such as the duck confit at
Balthazar or an African-influenced dish at
Les Enfants Terribles.
Paradou used to make this amazing duck confit topped with foie gras in a fig/balsamic sauce during the winter, but I can’t bear to enter the meat-packing district anymore. I do still crave a good salmon/ mashed potato dinner – when I make it at home. It’s just so much more satisfying to make yourself, as opposed to in an loud, dimly lit room, swimming in butter, overpriced, tasting the same everywhere.
Also, at home you can make a mâche salad to go along with it. Mâche, also known as lamb’s lettuce, is a tender, pretty green which is still not widely available, despite many
people working hard to make it the next arugula. From what I've gathered, although it is hardy, in the sense that it can grow in the cold, once plucked it is extremely perishable. Not an easy thing to ship for a country as large as ours. In France, it’s as prevalent as romaine lettuce, pre-rinsed and mass packaged in those plastic bags. I never eat lettuce from those plastic bags here, because Diana had told me a long time ago never to eat packaged lettuce. Years later,
she was on the news in her laboratory during the whole spinach e.coli outbreak saying “I’m trying to find THE BUG.” But, somehow in France, the packaged mâche seems safer, because most things in France seem safer. Even smoking 3 packs of cigarettes a day and talking about death seems healthier there.
Img_3729At the West Village Citarella, the mâche comes in these mini plastic greenhouses tucked into little sand bars. I bought the ingredients and went over to John’s who lives nearby. John and I cook well together. He doesn’t mind my tinkering in his spice cabinet and using every dish he owns and I am respectful of his organizational skills and expertise with Euro stuff. He taught me how to make a perfect risotto in college and I made it so much I haven’t made it in years. For the night’s dinner, he was in charge of sautéing the corn and making the mashed potatoes and I made the salad dressing for the lettuce. I used kitchen scissors to remove the small leaves from the sand and gave them a little
rinse.
John didn’t like the texture of using the Yukon Golds, he prefers Red Bliss, but I thought they were fantastic. He added a little butter and 1/3 cup olive oil that had been sautéed with minced garlic, instead of using milk for the potatoes. I threw some salt, lemon, pepper, Dijon mustard, olive oil and coriander powder on the salmon and we cooked it on the pan for 10 minutes.
Mâche Dressing
5 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon
1 teaspoon chopped shallot
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Salt/pepper
September 19, 2007 |
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mache,
vinaigretteSeptember 12, 2007
A Breadier Kind of LifeImg_3737So my office has moved 8 blocks. Gastronomically speaking, the new location is a nice change but the gains are bittersweet. Now, I am just out of reach of eating everyday in Chinatown, my psychic center if there ever was one. But a new door has opened, albeit an Occidental one - I am now able to eat and shop at the culinary strip of Bleecker and 6th Avenue. Hello, Murray’s Cheese Shop, Wild Edibles, Amy’s Bread, Faicco’s Pork Store and Ottomanelli & Sons Prime Meat. I just wish
Shopsin’s was still on Carmine so I could watch the family play ping pong during their strange off hours. And then there are the Western reaches of Soho - Once Upon a Tart’s tuna and dill sandwich and the rosemary flecked Pizza Bianca at Grand Daisy Bakery.
The sandwich pictured above is the Iberian sandwich from
Murray’s. For $7.95, you get a long roll filled with Iberian-like ham, made from white pigs fed on acorns and forced to do yoga twice a week. (I’m only kidding about the yoga.) There’s portabello mushrooms, piquillo peppers and gooey La Serena cheese from Spain in there too. Murray’s also has the best chicken and avocado sandwich I’ve eaten in a long time. The chicken tastes like it’s been fed fresh nuts too and it hasn’t been grilled to the standard deathly dryness.
BologneseTo get my Asian fix, I will have to rely on Noodle Bar on Carmine. When I first went there a couple years ago I went home and googled "Hunan pork bolognese" to find the recipe. Of course, I was being silly - they created it there. The dish itself is not very complicated. It's just shredded pork cooked down in a simple tomato sauce, topped with lotus root chips and lying on a bed of udon, but the simple tweak was just enough to freshen up the tired bolognese. On subsequent visits, the dish doesn't always turn out great, but there are plenty of other things on the menu. Beef brisket salad with mango and papaya. Cold duck soba.
So, there are a lot of good lunch options in my new location. But I do miss Chinatown so. I mean where else can you get a double meat lunch, full of juicy tea-colored barbecued chicken and pork topped with minced ginger for $4.25? At OK 218, you can.
Ok218Murray’s Cheese
254 Bleecker St
West Village
New York, NY
(212) 243-3289
Noodle Bar
26 Carmine St
West Village
New York, NY
(212) 524-6800
OK 218
218-220 Grand St
New York, NY
Chinatown
Phone: (212) 226-8039
September 12, 2007 |
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Iberian ham,
roast porkSeptember 10, 2007
Okrafest Continues...6245_bbc8c93cbd_bOkra is so plentiful and pretty right now. There are the wild looking purple okra of the farmer's markets. And then there is the produce vendor by the Q train that sells okra for $1 per pound! I feel like a positive thief when I buy it from them. So, here I have to offer you another okra recipe. This time, free of politics and
rivalries. I've gone indie on this one.
Okra with Zaatar
1 pound okra (washed, dried with paper towel and tops chopped off. I sliced them into disks on the diagonal but you can keep them whole)
1 1/2 tablespoons zaatar
1/4 teaspoon aleppo pepper or red pepper flakes
2 cloves garlic
4 tablespoons pine nuts
1 small onion minced
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 sliced sundried tomatoes
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt
1. Heat up oil at medium high. Add onion and garlic. When onion is starting to brown, add sundried tomato and pine nuts. Stir. 1 minute later, add okra. Stir. Sprinkle with zaatar,cumin red pepper and salt to taste. Serve with rice.
September 10, 2007 |
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