Recipes & Cooking: July 2003 Archives

A group of people are trying to break the Guiness record for the largest picnic this Sunday, August 3, from noon to 2 in Bryant Park. The current record, according to the group, is 1,059 people, which I would think gets broken every Monday night when they show those films in the park (shows how adept I am at estimating the size of crowds). I think I read somewhere that you have to bring two food items for lunch, plus a drink, to qualify as a picnicker, and you have to register when you arrive at one of the booths. There'll be live music, too, and City Harvest will also be there collecting donations. Here are some links:

www.theunbelievable.com
www.bryantpark.org/calendar/aug.php

Given my affinity for picnics, I can imagine no better way for me to have my little moment in the history books (using a very loose definition of "history"). Now I just have to figure out what to bring food-wise.

I bought a pint of blueberries and 1/2 pints of raspberries and blackberries on Saturday to make a summer pudding and then decided I didn't want to use all those beautiful berries in one place, so I used 2 1/2 cups-worth to make mixed-berry sorbet (the rest I'm working on, but I mashed some raspberries with sugar to top my yogurt this morning, and ate some more, plain, with lunch).

The recipe was simple, and the results were fantastic: creamy and smooth, a pretty red color and bright berry flavor. First I pureed the berries with 1/2 cup water in the blender, then I strained the mixture to get out the seeds and skin (I had about 2 cups puree). Mixed in almost a cup of sugar, juice of 1 lemon and 1 tablespoon Cointreau (I think the alcohol actually helps the texture by keeping the mixture from freezing solid - just a theory). Chilled the mixture, then froze it in the ice freezer, where it really did become an eatable consistency. Then I put it in a plastic container to freeze further.

Todd and I get together with a group of friends on a regular basis to cook, and last night our theme was Greek food. We each take a recipe or two, and all the needed ingredients, to one person's house, and then we prepare a meal together. Last night we had haloumi, a Greek salad, spinach pie, meatballs with bulgur, baklava, ambrosia, lemonade, coffee and the only dry Greek wine at our local wine shop. I made the lemonade and meatballs.

I had to partially prepare the meatballs ahead because the mixture has to sit for at least an hour, and up to four, before you form it into balls. I think it's because you add 1/2 cup dry coarse bulgur to the mixture, and the bulgur needs time to soak up moisture from the meat and other meatball ingredients. (I bought the bulgur bulk from a little place I found last week across 9th Ave from Port Authority. I think it's called International Food Shop or something like that, and it has all kinds of bulk bins of spices and grains in addition to olives and a load of other stuff, cheap.)

To make the meatball mixture, I combined 1 pound total ground sirloin, pork and veal with the bulgur, 4 finely minced small scallions, about 1 cup parsley, minced, 2 minced cloves of garlic, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 beaten egg, 1 teaspoon cumin and salt and pepper to taste. That's what has to sit in the refrigerator for an hour.

Then you form them into meatballs (mine were a bit bigger than 1 tablespoon each) and put them back in the fridge while you make the sauce: Sautee 1 onion, cut in half and sliced into half-moons, until their soft and getting brown. Add 2 chopped cloves garlic and stir a bit, then 1/2 cup dry red wine, letting it bubble for about a minute. Then 2 cups "grated" tomatoes (this was a great trick; you grate the tomatoes on the large holes of a grater, and you only get the pulp and seeds, not the skin) and 1 cinnamon stick. Add the meatballs, bring it back to a boil, add 1/2 cup water, and simmer 20 minutes until they're done. The note on the recipe said they'll still be red when you cut into them, and mine were pink in places (I think I read somewhere that it has something to do with a chemical in the onions?).

The recipe didn't say anything about letting them sit off the heat for about 10 minutes, but that's what I ended up doing last night (the baklava was being assembled on the dining room table, so we had to wait), and I think it was key to the flavor. When they were first done cooking, they were kind of bland and sitting in quite a bit of the sauce. I salted them up a bit and left them to sit. When we were ready to eat, they had soaked up a lot more of the juice and the flavor had improved dramatically. Sprinkled parsley on top so it'd be pretty.

Lemonade was easy: Simmered 1 1/2 cups each water and sugar until sugar dissolved, added 2 cups lemon juice (took me about 12 lemons) and a thinly sliced lemon, and then added cold water to taste.

It was all good, and we even had a little taste of walnut-honey heaven to bring home with us and snack on today.

This is the fresh parpadelle I made.

Yesterday I took a basic fresh pasta class at the Institute for Culinary Education (formerly Peter Kump's) on 23rd Street between 5th and 6th Aves. It's the second cooking class I've taken, and the first at ICE. I took a From the Greenmarket class at the New School last year, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The New School class seemed more like a bunch of people getting together to cook a huge meal from ingredients at the farmers' market; the class I took yesterday seemed slightly more like being in cooking school. They have big kitchens with multiple stainless steel tables and professional-ish equipment, and we each got to make our own batch of fresh pasta. Yesterday we were left to our own devices to a greater degree, which is a little annoying when you've got a time limit in an unfamiliar kitchen, but is kind of nice, too. It's like they have a little faith in our abilities.

Anyway, making fresh pasta is definitely something I'll try to do again here at home. You start with 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour. Then, using a fork, beat three eggs with 1 teaspoon salt. Make a well in the flour and pour in the egg mixture. Then, using the fork you used to beat the eggs, continue to stir the eggs, incorporating more and more of the flour until it starts to resemble dough. Then start grabbing and kneading it with your hands, incorporating as much of the flour as you can. Turn it out of the bowl and continue to work it until it feels smooth and dry, almost a little rubbery. You'll be amazed at how stiff and dry the dough is; you can add water if necessary, but I didn't need to (I kept thinking I needed to, but when I broke the dough ball open, the inside was still a little sticky). Then you have to leave it alone for at least half an hour, wrapped in plastic in the refrigerator.

We made chicken ragu, a 4-cheese sauce, a tomato and basil sauce and, my favorite, ricotta ravioli with sauteed Swiss chard and arugula. The filling consisted of 2 cups ricotta, 1/4 cup grated Parmesan, 2 tablespoons minced flat-leaf parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. Then you sautee garlic in oil and add Swiss chard, arugula, salt and pepper and cook until the greens are wilted.

Each group made all four sauces, so all four of us at my table were racing around at this point, trying to get all the sauces done in time. After the sauces were completed, we used pasta machines to roll out the dough and cut the shapes, flouring the pasta and putting it on a floured rimmed baking sheet when it was finished. For the ravioli, you roll the pasta out into sheets, make mounds of the filling along one long side of the sheet, brush the top of the other long side of the sheet with beaten egg, and fold it over, pushing out the air as you seal the top layer of pasta around each mound of filling. Then cut into rustic ravioli squares.

Then you cook it up in boiling water, toss it in a saute pan with one of the sauces, and voila! We didn't learn how to hand-roll pasta, which is what I'm going to have to do (too bad, because using the pasta maker was pretty easy and it seems like hand-rolling it is really impractical). It's so satisfying, though, to make your own pasta, and fresh pasta is such a different taste and texture than dried.

I love, love, love that Nick's is our local pizzeria, although I can't imagine taking it out. I'm sure it's fine once you've carried it home from the restaurant, the cheese cooling and congealing, the crust getting flabby, the sauce getting cold. But it's a transporting experience dining in. There's always a moment, when Todd and I are about halfway through inhaling a small pie, that we look up, interrupt whatever we're talking about, and smile around our chewing. It's good to be alive.

Nick's pizza is one of those thin, crispy, burnt on the bottom crust, just enough sauce and cheese, and fresh strips of basil sort of pizzas. We start with a green salad, which is coated with a great vinaigrette and comes with four cherry tomato halves and a generous grind of fresh black pepper. When the pizza comes to the table, it's just barely cool enough to eat, and there's a moment a few minutes later when the pizza's the perfect temperature, and every bite holds a hint, a sweet tease, of oregano.

I'm ashamed to say, from beginning to end, we don't really linger; we gorge. We can be in and out of Nick's in 30 minutes. But it's a happy 30 minutes, and the glow can last hours.

They've apparently opened a new restaurant in Manhattan (upper east side?) and serve pasta there. As long as our Queens outlet doesn't change, that doesn't bother me.

This one's from Martha's Everday Foods. Can't say that I'm 100 percent sold on the crust, which is delicious but much too crumbly. (I suspect it might have been a problem when they were testing it, too, because there's a note on the recipe that says something about the crust materials seeming crumbly but coming together just fine once you press it into the pan. Hmmm.)

Anyway, to make this overly crumbly crust, pulse 5 graham crackers, 1/2 cup toasted nuts (recipe said pecans, I had walnuts) and some sugar (2 tablespoons). Add some melted butter (3 tablespoons) and process until combined. Pour into 9-inch pie plate and press to the bottom and sides. Bake in 350 degree oven for about 8 minutes.

To make the filling, mix 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk with 2 egg yolks, then mix in 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice and pour it into the cooled crust. Bake for another 15 minutes, then let cool. Refrigerate for an hour.

The crust is tasty, nutty and buttery, but, as I mentioned before, too crumbly. The filling, though, is great: smooth, cool, the tang of lemon balancing the sweetness.

Instead of going for the snap peas or cherries at the farmers' market this weekend, I bought these beautiful little bok choy, which inspired me to stir-fry last night, which is something we used to do all the time but haven't had for a while. First I stir-fried sliced tender, inner celery stalks, diced red pepper and carrots shredded with a peeler. Then I added the bok choy and cooked it for a couple more minutes. Removed that from the pan, added more oil, then added cut-up chicken, stir-frying it until cooked. Then a tablespoon of Thai chili sauce with garlic, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar and a glop of honey (I never measure honey - too messy). Stirred in the veggies, then 1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved into 1/2 cup chicken broth. Let it all thicken, then served over rice.

Still have more bok choy, so I'm going to try it raw next, maybe with a peanut or ginger dressing.

We went to the Cloisters yesterday, a beautiful, sunny, breezy day, and had a picnic in Tryon Park, which is the rambling, rocky park visitors must walk through to get to the museum.

I packed sweet-tart, ripe plums and smoked turkey wraps with provolone (mine had apple-cranberry chutney; Todd's had mustard). We ate sitting on a park bench watching a boy try to learn to catch a baseball, then walked around the museum for a while. My favorite part of the Cloisters is the edibles garden, where they have fig, quince, pear and olive trees, as well as lots of greens and herbs. Got some ice cream from the truck at the entrance to the park, then took the subway down to the Union Square farmers' market. It was a perfect day.

This recipe was from Martha Stewart Living, and it only has three ingredients and is the simplest ice cream imaginable: a 15-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk, 1 1/2 cups half-and-half (it works out to be equal amounts coconut milk and half-and-half) and 3/4 cup sugar, mixed together and then frozen in an ice cream machine then transferred to another container to be frozen for hard-pack style.

I found the half-and-half kind of rich, with a little bit of that feeling that the roof of my mouth was coated with it when I was done, but not in an entirely unpleasant way. It was a little icy, too, but that may be because of my ice cream machine: It's the kind with the cylinder that needs to be frozen, then you hand-crank it every 4 or 5 minutes for about half an hour. Done! I think I need to try a custard-based ice cream, though, to see if the texture is a result of the machine or the recipe I use.

Todd and I were walking around the flatiron district last night, looking for a place to eat, when we noticed a great big clog of people on the sidewalk up ahead. It looked like they were filming something. There was a thick, red carpet to the front door of a resaurant, and lots of very attractive people milling around outside, guarding a velvet rope.

Is the velvet-rope feeling what that new show, The Restaurant, is going for? I guess the sight of all those well-heeled young people guarding the gates of an exclusive new restaurant sort of deflated me about the whole concept of the show. I thought it was going to be more of a gritty, what-goes-on-behind-the-scenes kind of thing, not a look-at-all-the-beautiful-people-and-their-dramatic-lives kind of thing. I don't even know if I'll watch it now. (Although I think I will - maybe it'll be both.) Is it going to be about the food at all?

I bought a focaccia at the Union Square farmers' market Monday on my day off, and last night Todd and I had some pretty good pressed sandwiches with some of the leftovers from our feast on Sunday. Todd had mozzarella, roasted pepper and proscuitto, and I had eggplant, squash, mozzarella and proscuitto.

I wasn't sure it would work, but the focaccia got really crisp and thin. I heated my cast-iron round grill pan for a while (cast-iron is a slow conductor of heat, I've heard, so I knew it would hold the heat for long enough to cook the sandwiches). Then I heated my round nonstick skillet, put the sandwiches in, topped them with the hot cast-iron pan and pressed down to compress the sandwiches. The cast-iron pan fit perfectly inside the other pan and both the top and bottom of the sandwiches got toasted at once.

This dessert was so easy to make, and very pretty (it's kind of hard to tell with the white-on-white, but it was so soft and silky looking, and such a pure white). My first time with unflavored gelatin; I don't really like jello but this has an entirely different texture.

Sprinkle one packet (about 2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin over 2 tablespoons water and let it sit for 10 minutes for the gelatin to soften. While that's doing, put 1 cup whipping cream and 7 tablespoons sugar in a saucepan, then, over medium heat, get the cream hot and dissolve all the sugar into the cream (don't let the cream boil). Add the gelatin mixture and stir until it dissolves. (I still had a few lumps, but it doesn't matter at this point.) Let that sit for about 30 minutes to come to room temperature, then add 2 cups buttermilk and 3/4 teaspoon vanilla. Pour the mixture through a strainer into a 4-cup measuring cup with a spout, then divide the mixture between the various custard cups and ramekins you have available (I used 3 custard cups, 3 mise-en-place bowls and 2 ramekins). Refrigerate at least 6 hours. Unmold by dipping the cups in warm water for 30 seconds, then loosening the edge with the tip of a knife. I had to push the knife in a little further along one side to get it to release.

I served it with macerated strawberries; it's wonderful stuff, creamy, tangy, rich and cool. Todd said it almost tasted like lemon, and it did even though there wasn't any lemon in it.

Some friends came over for lunch yesterday with their new baby, Sofia, who is just shy of 1 month old. She mostly slept through the afternoon, only waking for dinner around 3 or 4. While she was asleep, we had our own meal.

I had roasted some zucchini, squash, eggplant, green beans, onion and a variety of bell peppers the day before, then tossed the beans and onion together. The other veggies were topped with balsamic vinegar and capers. We also had mozzarella balls with garlic and parsley, pickled veggies, cornishons, proscuitto and cheese, a baguette, and two "salads" that I prepared: gingery marinated garbanzos and a vegetable couscous salad. The garbanzos were made the day before and marinated in a mixture of red wine vinegar and oil with minced garlic, red onion and ginger and seasoned with salt and pepper.

The couscous salad was a recipe from The Naked Chef, and it used an interesting technique for the couscous. Make a lemon vinaigrette: 5 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper. Mix in 9 ounces of plain couscous, then add 1 cup cold water and let it sit for 10 mintues. Meanwhile assemble the other ingredients: chopped bell peppers (the recipe called for roasted, but I used fresh since we were already having a platter of roasted veggies), 2 chopped tomatoes, half a small red onion, diced, half a diced jalapeno, seeds removed, torn-up basil leaves, the juice of a lemon, a couple tablespoons of red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. You have to let this mixture sit for about 15 minutes, and then you add the couscous and mix it all together.

I also made a buttermilk panna cotta, which I'll write up separately.

Last night we went to a gallery opening (the photography exhibit was called Enchanted Evening, and a lot of famous photographs and well-known photographers' works were on display) on 22nd and 10th and then took the bus over to Bread Bar at Tabla. We had been to Tabla in January and I was kind of disappointed, although the dessert I had was fantastic (a Meyer lemon souffle with sour cherry compote). At Bread Bar, which has a lot of small dishes that you share tapas-style, Todd panicked that he wasn't going to get enough to eat so we ended up ordering way too much food, all of which was pretty good. The chutneys really made the meal, though.

Part of the reason Todd panicked is because we ordered a summer vegetable frankie, which turned out to be spicy summer vegetables (mostly summer squash) wrapped in a thin egg pancake and served with a smooth mint chutney, which managed to be spicy and cooling at the same time. He ate the egg and gave his veggies to me. We also had quail with chunky kumquat chutney and microgreens, aloo parantha, which is a puffy bread like naan that has chunks of potato, and onion rings. The aloo parantha was my favorite; we ordered a spicy tamarind chutney to accompany it. The onion rings were made with chickpea flour and they had a substantial, dry crunch that made them kind of different from traditional crispy onion rings. They were served with a homemade ketchup that was very good.

Alas, we were too full for dessert. But I definitely want to go back and try some things we didn't get to have, like the lamb sausage with mint and ginger and the saag paneer pizza.

It actually wasn't bratwurst, it was spicy beef sausage, but we were going for a German theme, so I'm calling them brats. We had some aged Cheddar cheese, beer and a nice potato salad from Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals 2. To make it, I boiled red pototoes cut in chunks, then tossed them while hot with diced green pepper and red onion, salt, pepper and red vinegar. Once the potatoes absorbed the vinegar I added oil and chopped leafy celery tops. It sat around for about an hour before we ate, allowing the flavors to develop nicely. Just broiled the sausages, so it was a pretty easy meal, and kept me out of a hot kitchen, which is always a goal these days.

It's one of the first things I make when the weather gets too hot to turn on the stove: a salad of white beans, canned tuna packed in oil and diced red onion. Using some of the oil from the tuna, I make a vinaigrette in the bottom of a big bowl, then add the above ingredients and some rubbed sage. Had it over lettuce Monday night, in a pita for lunch yesterday and on crackers for lunch today. Obviously not single serving, but a small enough amount that it's gone and I'm not utterly sick of it yet.

This recipe sort of comes from Gourmet. It was an appetizer recipe in there, served on little mini arepas, but I modified it to be a main course and use the ingredients I had available. The recipe took up a whole page, but broken down over the course of 24 hours it didn't seem that labor intensive.

Saturday night I cut a red onion in quarters and sliced them into thin quarter-rings. Then I tossed that with 1/2 cup vinegar, a diced jalapeno and some oregano and salt and left it all the fridge. Sunday around noon I diced up some garlic, mashing it with salt to make a paste, then added cumin, oregano, allspice and pepper (I'm not giving amounts because I think I should've added more--maybe a good tablespoon of each?). Mixed it into equal parts orange juice and vinegar in a baking dish, then added three 3/4-inch-thick pork chops and put it in the fridge, covered with foil, to marinate. A couple hours before dinner I popped it in a 325 degree oven.

To make up for no arepas, I mixed up cornbread batter and spread some in the bottom of this inane muffin-top tin I picked up off the giveaway table at work. I added a layer of shredded mozzarella and then topped it with more cornbread batter. Baked it for 10 minutes in 425 degree oven after I took the pork out to make these big, flat corn cakes (the muffin-top tin does have another use!). While those were baking I shredded the pork in its baking dish and mixed it with the remaining liquid in there. We ate the corn cakes topped with shredded pork and the pickled onions. I would've liked more spice, but the bite of the vinegary onion was a good contrast to the subtlety of the other flavors. And I really liked the technique for the shredded pork.

We went to our friends' apartment in Brooklyn to watch the East River fireworks from their roof. (I was skeptical about their view until I got there, and then I decided it was one of the best rooftops I've been to: When you're in Brooklyn or Queens, the Manhattan skyline is the backdrop for the fireworks display, which beats the big neon Pepsi sign that you see from the Manhattan side any day. Plus, it's one of New York's best kept secrets, so there's no jostling 40,000 other people and trying to wheedle your way past vigilant doormen trying to put the kibash on July 4th roof parties.) Our host made some great salmon burgers and a cherry granita from Martha Stewart that I'm definitely going to have to track down (it was almost chewy from the cherries, with a beautiful deep red color and a vibrant cherry flavor).

I took a panful of brownies from a recipe I cut from Cooking Light. These really are fantastic, fudgy brownies. One of the best things about this brownie recipe is that all the ingredients are things you probably have in your kitchen already (except maybe the espresso powder, but that's a good baking staple to have).

Set the oven for 325 degrees. Then you beat 1 cup sugar and 2 eggs with a mixer on high until it's pale and thick (about 5 minutes). Add 2 teaspoons of espresso powder that has been dissolved into a tablespoon of water, 1/4 cup melted butter and 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and mix until combined.

Next mix 1 cup flour, 2/3 cup cocoa powder and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Add that to the sugar mixture (the batter's really thick), and spread it in a 9-inch square baking dish coated with nonstick cooking spray. Bake for about 25 minutes, checking at 20 minutes to see if it's cooked through. They're fudgy so they may never look "done," but the center should start looking a little dry like the outer edge. It's hard to describe what I mean, but it's probably better to undercook them a little rather than overcook them.

We went to our friends' apartment in Brooklyn to watch the East River fireworks from their roof. (I was skeptical about their view until I got there, and then I decided it was one of the best rooftops I've been to: When you're in Brooklyn or Queens, the Manhattan skyline is the backdrop for the fireworks display, which beats the big neon Pepsi sign that you see from the Manhattan side any day. Plus, it's one of New York's best kept secrets, so there's no jostling 40,000 other people and trying to wheedle your way past vigilant doormen trying to put the kibash on July 4th roof parties.) Our host made some great salmon burgers and a cherry granita from Martha Stewart that I'm definitely going to have to track down (it was almost chewy from the cherries, with a beautiful deep red color and a vibrant cherry flavor).

I took a panful of brownies from a recipe I cut from Cooking Light. These really are fantastic, fudgy brownies. One of the best things about this brownie recipe is that all the ingredients are things you probably have in your kitchen already (except maybe the espresso powder, but that's a good baking staple to have).

Set the oven for 325 degrees. Then you beat 1 cup sugar and 2 eggs with a mixer on high until it's pale and thick (about 5 minutes). Add 2 teaspoons of espresso powder that has been dissolved into a tablespoon of water, 1/4 cup melted butter and 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and mix until combined.

Next mix 1 cup flour, 2/3 cup cocoa powder and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Add that to the sugar mixture (the batter's really thick), and spread it in a 9-inch square baking dish coated with nonstick cooking spray. Bake for about 25 minutes, checking at 20 minutes to see if it's cooked through. They're fudgy so they may never look "done," but the center should start looking a little dry like the outer edge. It's hard to describe what I mean, but it's probably better to undercook them a little rather than overcook them.

Once I buy any kind of bakery bread, it's like a sprint to finish it off before it's rendered inedible by the passage of time. And this weather always makes me feel like gnawing on a baguette and some fruit and cheese instead of preparing something more elaborate. I guess it's just that, to me, that type of meal feels like a picnic, and it's been picnic weather lately.

So I've been eating on a baguette all week, culminating with bread salad last night.