July 2004 Archives

I should hardly put this under the "recipes and cooking" category, because it's more of an assembling kind of thing. I love cake and ice cream together, but custom seems to dictate that it's only served at children's birthday parties (which is one reason we're having a child - not only can we throw him our own, but we'll hopefully get invited to a few other parties).

So this week I made an ice cream cake, layers of the two frozen together. I'm ashamed to say I used a pint of Ben & Jerry's vanilla fudge swirl (which was not the most attractive choice) and a box cake mix I picked up off the giveaway table at work. I discovered the assembly of such a concoction is a much more scientific process than I thought. I made mine in a loaf pan that happened to be a bit bigger than the cake pieces I used, which resulted in kind of a mess. Tasty mess, though.

Made the cake mix in a 9 x 9-inch pan, then cut it in half to make two long strips (I contemplated halving it horozontally, but it was too thin). Lined the loaf pan with plastic wrap, then put the first layer down. Softened the ice cream on the counter for a while, then spread half of it over the cake, then added the second layer. Topped it with the rest of the ice cream, then sprinkled toasted walnuts on top. Put it back in the freezer for a couple of hours.

I wanted to do something nice for Todd, nostalgic, so I decided to make sloppy joes. We used to buy a can or packet of mix or something and have them for dinner, but this time I made them from scratch, from a recipe from Rachael Ray, which was really good.

Brown a little more than a pound of ground sirloin in oil (I think Fresh Direct charged me for sirloin and gave me chuck, though, because I had to drain off huge amounts of fat and the meat was more pink than red), then add 1/4 cup brown sugar and stir a bit. Add half a diced red bell pepper and half a diced onion. Cook for about 5 minutes, until soft, then add a tablespoon red wine vinegar and Worcestershire. Finish with a regular size can of tomato sauce (15 ounce-ish) and a couple tablespoons of tomato paste. Spoon onto buns and eat. I like to scoop up the stuff that falls out with those thick olive oil potato chips.

There's a reason I called this entry what I did, though. I had been mercifully heartburn-free up until the sloppy joes (it's a common pregnancy ailment). I didn't even recognize it at first, never having had it before. Now I can't eat the food I've been craving throughout, tomatoes in any form. This child is going to know what he put me through! (Just kidding)

Since its churros and hot chocolate were reviewed somewhere last winter, I have wanted to go to Noche. The pros and cons kept see-sawing me, though. The reviews weren't so good. It's just down the block from my office. It's loud, dance-clubbish, not my kind of restaurant. It serves a cuisine I love. It's in Times Square. It's right in front of me when I desperately need to use the bathroom and am kind of hungry, too.

The last one finally drove me into Noche Thursday night with Todd, and I'm glad it did. Gotta say, Todd was not thrilled when he looked at the menu. There's a ton of seafood on the menu and a whole section of ceviche, which limited his choices a lot. He doesn't like corn, which narrowed it even further. He was going to have mole chicken (doesn't really like mole) when I directed him to the braised short ribs over a sweet corn arepa. Whew! What a relief when it arrived. The ribs were a fully-2-inch thick slab of tender, flavorful meat over a few crosswise bones.

With my tiny stomach capacity I just ordered an appetizer, skewers of shrimp, steak and chorizo (which Todd also loved). Two of each, with just a couple bites of steak and chorizo and one jumbo shrimp per skewer. There were greens in the middle of the plate, but they seemed to be drenched in oil, so I skipped them (and why eat greens when you can have meat!). Also ordered yucca fries, which came in thick slabs topped with chimichurri sauce. They were kind of like potatoes, if potatoes had a grain like a piece of wood. But not really fiberous. I actually craved them again this morning.

And we finished the meal with the churros I had wanted for so long, warm, long, grooved doughnuts that were fried in a loop and coated with cinnamon and sugar. The chocolate dipping sauce was dark and rich, and the dulche de leche, while lighter and thinner than I thought it would be, tasted so good, almost creamy, with the cinnamon.

Everyone was super-nice (because it's Times Square?), especially the waiter who answered all my pregnancy food-safety questions without a hint of annoyance. He actually acted interested in the eating habits of pregnant women. The place is huge, with at least three open upper floors and a winding staircase (but also an elevator). Seemed a good place to accommodate a large group.

This was a recipe from Food and Wine, but they served the succotash over mesclun and I just did away with the greens, which I'm not the biggest fan of anyway. I think they said that corn and soybeans together make a complete protein. It's a pretty mixture.

Make the dressing by mixing the juice and zest of a lemon with salt, pepper and thyme, then whisk in as much oil as you like in your dressing (I usually go pretty light on the oil). Then saute about 1 1/2 cups corn, 1 cup soybeans and a diced red bell pepper for a few minutes, until everything is heated up but still kind of crisp. Toss it with the dressing and a few halved cherry tomatoes.

I've been making lots of smoothies for breakfast to try to get in some calcium, protein, etc for breakfast, and this one was one of my favorites. Whenever our bananas are starting to get overripe, I peel them, break them in half and put them in the freezer so they're ready for smoothie-making.

For this one, I blend half a frozen banana to break it up, then I add about 1/3 cup plain yogurt, some milk, a couple tablespoons of almond butter and a couple squirts of honey.

I've been making lots of smoothies for breakfast to try to get in some calcium, protein, etc for breakfast, and this one was one of my favorites. Whenever our bananas are starting to get overripe, I peel them, break them in half and put them in the freezer so they're ready for smoothie-making.

For this one, I blend half a frozen banana to break it up, then I add about 1/3 cup plain yogurt, some milk, a couple tablespoons of almond butter and a couple squirts of honey.

One of my coworkers has raved to me about how fantastic pizza on the grill is, and I've always wanted to try it, so when the IMBB challenge (on Too Many Chefs ) this time was grilling, I was inspired to do something similar. Since all I have is a cast-iron grill pan, I settled for flatbread. Once I found a recipe on Food & Wine for Moroccan-spiced tomato jam and shrimp I was ready to go. We took the shrimp off the skewers and ate this like a sandwich (I was really proud of Todd for eating - liking? - the spicy-sweet tomato jam, but he's become incredibly adventurous).

I made the tomato jam the day before: Sauteed 2 tablespoon grated fresh ginger and 1 big clove minced garlic in butter in a small saucepan until fragrant, then added 1/4 cup cider vinegar and a cinnamon stick. When that started to thicken, I added a big can's worth of peeled, seeded tomatoes (drained off the juice and broken up a bit with my hands), 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tablespoon cumin, 1/4 teaspoon chipotle powder (the recipe called for cayenne, but this was all I had) and 4 whole cloves. Let that simmer for about an hour, then turned off the heat and added a squirt of buckwheat honey and some salt and pepper. I removed the cinnamon and cloves and divided the jam into two food-storage containers, one big (to marinate the shrimp) and one small (to use as a condiment).

So today I mixed 1/2 pound cleaned medium shrimp into the marinade and stuck it in the fridge while I made the flatbread. Then added 1/2 teaspoon dry yeast to 1/2 cup warm water and let it sit for five minutes (mine never got bubbly, but it didn't seem to affect the final product; not sure 5 minutes is enough time for the yeast to get going). Mixed in 1 1/3 cup flour, 1 tablespoon oil and 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt, then kneeded for a couple of minutes and put it in a greased, covered bowl in a warm spot to rise for 30 minutes. While that was working, I threaded the shrimp on skewers and heated the grill pan with some oil.

Divided the dough into four portions, then flattened each portion to 1/8-inch thickness by patting and pulling. Grilled each one 2 minutes on each side. Then grilled the shrimp skewers 2 minutes each side. We ate the shrimp with the reserved jam in the flatbreads, kind of like tacos. It was good: the bread's kind of chewy and warm and the jam is mostly sweet, with a little bit of heat left over when you're done.

Last night I started on tonight's dinner, pasta with roasted tomatoes. I cut five plum tomatoes in half lengthwise, then crosswise, and tossed them in a baking dish with olive oil, salt, pepper, a coarsely chopped onion and a large minced garlic clove. Baked it at 350 degrees for about an hour, then let it cool and put it in the fridge.

Tonight when I got home I just popped it in the oven again to heat it up (about 10 minutes) and boiled some penne and dinner was ready. And it was so good. The tomatoes get sweet, with an intense, almost caramelized flavor. You have to toss the pasta with the tomatoes and all of the juices, which, with some Parmesan gratings, is all it needed.

Last night I started on tonight's dinner, pasta with roasted tomatoes. I cut five plum tomatoes in half lengthwise, then crosswise, and tossed them in a baking dish with olive oil, salt, pepper, a coarsely chopped onion and a large minced garlic clove. Baked it at 350 degrees for about an hour, then let it cool and put it in the fridge.

Tonight when I got home I just popped it in the oven again to heat it up (about 10 minutes) and boiled some penne and dinner was ready. And it was so good. The tomatoes get sweet, with an intense, almost caramelized flavor. You have to toss the pasta with the tomatoes and all of the juices, which, with some Parmesan gratings, is all it needed.

Hooray! There's another Is My Blog Burning, which I've been itching for ever since I made my way back to the kitchen. I was kind of sad to have missed so many, especially the rice one.

This one's theme is grilling on July 18, and Too Many Chefs is hosting it. I have a grill pan, but I'd like to track down someone with a real grill to let me give it a go. Good luck in the city, though.

Hooray! There's another Is My Blog Burning, which I've been itching for ever since I made my way back to the kitchen. I was kind of sad to have missed so many, especially the rice one.

This one's theme is grilling on July 18, and Too Many Chefs is hosting it. I have a grill pan, but I'd like to track down someone with a real grill to let me give it a go. Good luck in the city, though.

The only reason I call this posole at all is because the original recipe I was using was for posole. I ended up substituting so many ingredients, though, that it was a different animal altogether (good, though).

Substitution number one. When I originally wanted to make the recipe I couldn't find Anaheim chiles, so later, when I was ordering from Fresh Direct I checked to see if they had what I needed. Problem is, I didn't remember correctly what I had been looking for and ordered six poblanos. I broiled them until they were black, then put them in a bowl in the fridge, covered with plastic wrap, until I was ready to use them (in the meantime I "borrowed" about half of a small one to chop up and put in an quesadilla I made for my dinner; just plain jack cheese and roasted poblano, but it was really good; I get a good char on my quesadillas just in the pan).

Substitution number two. Food Emporium (which is the grocery closest to my office; I've lost my stamina for running all over the city looking for ingredients in the heat and humidity with my growing belly) doesn't carry pork shoulder, just lean pork loin. I found some really meaty pork ribs, though, that did the trick quite well.

Substitution number three. This was the most detrimental one, the one that makes this really, really NOT posole. Couldn't find hominy at FE, and Todd didn't feel like running around looking for some (I don't blame him), so I put a can of garbanzos in at the end. It was OK, but hominy would have been 100 times better.

Brought 4 cups water to a boil then added the pork ribs and cooked for 10 minutes. Then added the chiles, which I had seeded, peeled and chopped, a chopped onion, three minced garlic cloves, a teaspoon each cumin and oregano and a tablespoon ancho chile powder. Simmered that for 2 hours, then removed the pork (it was falling apart by this point), shredded it and removed the bones, then put the pork back in. Added a big can of drained garbanzos and heated through. I served it with lime wedges, toasted tortilla strips and pickled minced red onion (just minced a red onion and added salt, oregano and white vinegar to cover).

It made tons, with good, spicy, deep flavor that contrasted well with the pickled onion and lime. I'd make this again, definitely, but next time with the all-important hominy.

We went to a new place near Todd's office last night, HK, over on 9th Avenue near Port Authority. It brought up a couple of questions I have about NYC restaurants.

Why skimp on the pita? We ordered an appetizer of dips, hummus, tzatziki and baba ganoush, and when we got it there were ample portions of the dips but just four little triangles of pita. This is not the only place this crime has been committed. I was eating the baba ganoush with a fork because it tasted so good to me, really eggplanty if eggplant were sweet.

Also, what's the appeal of eating dinner alfresco along 9th Avenue? The stretch from my office at 50th down to where we were last night is always clogged with honking, exhaust-spewing angry drivers trying to get to the Lincoln Tunnel. This place has a wall lined with something like glass garage doors so they can open the whole place up to the side street, where trucks continuously rumble by. I've got to say, though, that there's something lovely in the sight of New Yorkers basking in the fumes and noise while enjoying a bowlful of mussels or a salad.

And why tout that you're serving Haagen-Dazs on your menu? In Kim's fantasy world, every nice place would have industrial ice-cream makers to churn up their own. I used to hate that restaurant desserts always featured ice cream, but I find that it's often my favorite part. Chefs manage to get such fabulous flavors in there. Of course, I still ordered some of the Haagen-Dazs. It's not transporting, but it's still yummy.

This is not to say I didn't like eating there. It was noisy and seemed a little more focused on decor than food, but what we ate was tasty, and not too pricey. I had seared tofu with spinach and mushrooms in a mushroomy sauce, and it was pretty good. We'll probably go back since it is so close to Todd's office.

We went to a new place near Todd's office last night, HK, over on 9th Avenue near Port Authority. It brought up a couple of questions I have about NYC restaurants.

Why skimp on the pita? We ordered an appetizer of dips, hummus, tzatziki and baba ganoush, and when we got it there were ample portions of the dips but just four little triangles of pita. This is not the only place this crime has been committed. I was eating the baba ganoush with a fork because it tasted so good to me, really eggplanty if eggplant were sweet.

Also, what's the appeal of eating dinner alfresco along 9th Avenue? The stretch from my office at 50th down to where we were last night is always clogged with honking, exhaust-spewing angry drivers trying to get to the Lincoln Tunnel. This place has a wall lined with something like glass garage doors so they can open the whole place up to the side street, where trucks continuously rumble by. I've got to say, though, that there's something lovely in the sight of New Yorkers basking in the fumes and noise while enjoying a bowlful of mussels or a salad.

And why tout that you're serving Haagen-Dazs on your menu? In Kim's fantasy world, every nice place would have industrial ice-cream makers to churn up their own. I used to hate that restaurant desserts always featured ice cream, but I find that it's often my favorite part. Chefs manage to get such fabulous flavors in there. Of course, I still ordered some of the Haagen-Dazs. It's not transporting, but it's still yummy.

This is not to say I didn't like eating there. It was noisy and seemed a little more focused on decor than food, but what we ate was tasty, and not too pricey. I had seared tofu with spinach and mushrooms in a mushroomy sauce, and it was pretty good. We'll probably go back since it is so close to Todd's office.

So I haven't had many food aversions lately, but I finally found one: lamb sausage, but mostly cooking it (not eating it). We had sandwiches the other night, from a recipe in Real Simple, with lamb sausages, sauteed onions and mustard on toasted ficelle, and it was good stuff. I just can hardly think about cooking up the rest of those sausages; it makes my stomach churn.

So I haven't had many food aversions lately, but I finally found one: lamb sausage, but mostly cooking it (not eating it). We had sandwiches the other night, from a recipe in Real Simple, with lamb sausages, sauteed onions and mustard on toasted ficelle, and it was good stuff. I just can hardly think about cooking up the rest of those sausages; it makes my stomach churn.

Is anyone addicted to Serendipity 3's frrrozen hot chocolate? I've had it before, but it's actually hard for me to forgo the other delights they offer and have it when I'm there. But I went to a book launch there this week and they passed small servings (a relative term) of it around on trays, and it was suddenly the perfect thing for a summer day. Richly, deeply chocolatey, with this wonderful slushy coolness of ice. I kind of regretted the sundae I had just had (I don't care what the pregnancy police say; baby loves sugar - although I try to limit myself to one sweet a day).

They sent us home with the mix they sell, and we made it last night. It's just 1 cup of milk, the packet of mix and 3 cups of ice in a blender. It's so good. I can't even tell you that it's not quite as good as the restaurant's, because I couldn't tell much of a difference. The packet says serves two, but it's so rich you could easily get four servings out of it.

The packet just contains sugar, nonfat dried milk, dextrose and cocoa, so maybe it's reproducable at home. I wonder if the recipe's in the dessert cookbook for the restaurant that they just released?

We had some things to celebrate last night, so we went to Stella for dinner. I think the biggest draw for that place, and their smartest move, is all the snacks they bring out before you even order. We got olives, cured meats, thin little snappy breadsticks, focaccia, bread and a pizza-like thing. My coworkers love to drink in the bar because you get the same assortment of snacks as long as you have a drink in your hand. The place is huge, so there's more likely to be room, too.

After all that we split a fritto misto, which was fine. They have a lot of salads, carpaccios, pizzas. But my entree was really fantastic: rosemary and lamb tortelli with pine nuts and prunes. It's not a very big plate, but it's full, and the dish is so rich that they could really get away with giving you about half. I chose that over calves liver with polenta or porcini pappardelle.

We didn't get to dessert because we were both stuffed. (The lamentable thing about the growing uterus is the crowded belly; I reach this sudden wall where, oops, I'm full, and I can't even fit in a spoonful of gelato. It usually happens at dinner, after I've grazed all day.) It looked like the usual suspects, though: tiramisu, a panna cotta, berries, etc. That's not to say it's not good. (It also reminds me of that lovely buttermilk panna cotta I made once, which would be perfect for the hot weather. Yum.)