Happy New Year!!

It has been quite a holiday season. Instead of allowing myself to slow down these last days, things seem to have only picked up! My parents have come to town and I LOVE being with them (they are like my best friends), but I gotta say we've been doing far to much lifting and running around. A turn of the century highboy is now in our living room, as is a Knoll mid-century settee, and a Spanish tiled end table. They are beautiful. I feel so lucky to live with these new beauties, but I am pooped having lugged them to our top-floor apartment.

I made a wicked hummus, a roast chicken, garlicky mushrooms, lentils and preserved lemons, and a cranberry apple tart for a special potluck upon my parents' arrival. For Christmas - and for my step-grandfather who doesn't get much home cooking - my whole family teamed up to prepare garlic and rosemary roasted leg of lamb, minted mashed peas, roasted veg - including tons of shallots and the sweetest tiny carrots! - caramelized turnips, parsnips, potatoes, and an exquisite pan jus. And yesterday we endeavored a fab butternut squash risotto with toasted walnuts and shaved parm, and a  raw celeriac-haricot salad with grain mustard vinaigrette. Just the right amount of creamy butteriness and bright, crunchiness.

What's on the menu for New Year's, you ask? I haven't got a clue. But, I'm sure I'll figure something tasty out. In the meantime, these sweets and bites may make an appearance while I catch up to myself...

Crunchy Bacon-Wrapped Potatoes with Thyme Mayonnaise
Serves 6-8

For the mayonnaise, I used a good, prepared mayonnaise to make my life easier. In a mixing bowl, squeeze juice from half a lemon onto 3/4 cup mayonnaise, and add leaves from a good bunch of fresh thyme. I like the peppery taste thyme imparts, so feel free to use as much as you like. Season with s + p to taste and stir the mixture to combine. Spoon into a dish and set aside.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (F). Take 20 small potatoes (I used Yukon Gold) and give them a good scrub under cold water. Slice 10 pieces of good bacon in half and wrap around each potato, securing with a toothpick. Place all in a roasting pan and put into oven to bake. After 10-15 minutes the kitchen will smell of heavenly bacon and the crackling, sizzling sounds will drive you crazy. Turn each skewer for even browning, and repeat the process after another 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven when bacon has cooked through or to your liking, a half-hour or so. Set on absorbent paper to cool, and then place on a serving platter with sauce to devour with friends.

Pear & Dried Cherry Tartlets
Makes 6 tartlets
6 peeled and cored bosc or similar firm pears, chopped into 1/2-inch chunks
1 1/2 cup dried cherries
1 cup Calvados or other spirit
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup cane sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp heavy cream

For the pastry
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp sea salt
2 sticks cold butter, cut into small cubes
1/4 cup ice water, or a little more if necessary

For the pastry, pulse the dry ingredients in a food processor until combined. Add butter and pulse until the mixture looks like a coarse meal. Drizzle ice water in and pulse again, until dough just starts to come together. If dough is too dry, add a tiny bit more water and pulse again. Empty out onto two sections of saran wrap, separating into two mounds. Gather each into a ball and then flatten into disks, wrapping loosely in the plastic. Give each a once-over with a rolling pin in each direction, and refrigerate until firm, about an hour.

Dress the pears in juice squeezed from a couple wedges of lemon and set aside. Put the cherries in a small bowl and pour liquor over. Let sit for 1/2 hour or longer so that the cherries may absorb the liquid (they should plump up nicely). Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Roll out first disk of dough to 1/8-inch thick and cut out 6 rounds using your tartlet tins as a guide. Drape the dough across each tin and press into the bases with the back of your index finger. Refrigerate until firm. Roll out second disk and do the same - these will serve as the top crusts. Using a small cookie cutter, perforate 3 of the dough rounds in an off-center pattern. You can paint a little water on the cut-outs to re-affix onto the dough surface if you like, echoing the original cut-out pattern. Refrigerate again.

Toss the cherries and liquor in with the pears and add the spices and sugar. Mix well to combine. Spoon the mixture into the pastry shells, mounding it in the center. You can add a few dots of butter if you like, but I didn't this time around and they turned out just great. Lightly beat the egg and cream together, and paint the wash along the edge of the tart shell. Place the top crust over and press gently around the edge to seal the two together. Be careful of thin lines in your perforated design: remove from the fridge and allow to warm slightly so that when you drape it over the tart filling, it does not tear. Paint surfaces with egg wash and chill again. Place on parchment-lined baking sheets and bake for 35 minutes or until crust is golden. Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes and then using a pot holder or plate, invert to release from tart tins.

Everyone needs a good bubbly to celebrate with, and we are blessed enough to rely on the expertise of our friend Leigh. Her lovely little wine shop, Picada Y Vino in Brooklyn, showcases great and unusual finds like this biodynamic and crisp (with notes of strawberry!) sparkling rosé. We bought a few bottles to give as gifts, and we are excited to stock a few more for ourselves. :-)

Salmon Roe and Quail Egg Blini 

Serves 6

12 blini 

3 oz salmon roe

12 quail eggs

2 tbsp crème fraiche

2 tsp dijon mustard

6 tarragon stems

7 chives, minced

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees (F). Warm the blini for 5-8 minutes on a baking sheet. I bought mine from this wonderful deli called Russ and Daughters - a Manhattan establishment open since 1914 - but you can certainly make yours from scratch if you like! Mix the crème fraiche, chives, and mustard in a small bowl and set aside. In a cast iron skillet or stove-top griddle on medium-high heat, fry the quail eggs sunny side up. Transfer to a plate when cooked through, keeping the yolks soft. 

Place the blini on a platter and spoon a little crème fraiche onto each. Top blini with a quail egg and then spoon a little salmon roe onto each yolk. Garnish with tarragon, and celebrate!

Lastly, amidst this sweet revelry, I would like to wish you all a prosperous, loving, peaceful, and just 2012. Let's embrace our loved ones and empower others in creating a more just world for us all to live in, for our children and our children's children. 

Happy New Year!!!

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Birthday Celebrating

Now a little while ago already (where does the time go??), I made sure to celebrate my birthday this year properly, by making trips to two of New York's most fantastic and specialized markets, back-to-back! Smorgasburg on Saturday, and The New Amsterdam Market on Sunday, my special day. Smorgasburg was with my dear friend D. In the sultry sun, I didn't want to make a big deal of taking pictures so the series is shot completely on my iphone. Sunday was with my sweet man, and he was kind enough to be the official camera chaperone when I didn't feel like shouldering it. :-)  As you'll see there was lots of good eating to be done between the two. I am so lucky to call New York my home with this incredible bounty of interesting foods.

The most incredible avocado ice cream (really!) from La Newyorkina

 

Neill with the goods at Bon Chovie

The lawn, looking out onto the East River

Toothsome organic pastas from Flour City

The impressive menu from I8NY - seriously tasty

It was a bright, sultry day

New Amsterdam Market, at the old Fulton Fish Market in lower Manhattan

 

Heirloom fruits at Flying Fox Fruiterer

We took home a wonderful sunflower rye loaf from Nordic Breads

 

Stone Barns' vegetable harvest

The Dumpling Diva and her poffertjes

poffertjes, with a smear of butter and confectioners' sugar

Pour-overs from Blue Bottle Coffee

The ice block at People's Pops

Sampling the hay (earthy, honey, yummy!) and basil ice cream from Early Bird Cookery

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Satisfying, Simple Eating

I am a big fan of throwing food together in a matter of moments. Sure, I love to go all out with pies, roasts, and other feats in the kitchen, but it is the simple creations that sometimes make time stop in its tracks with their small brilliance. This dish is exactly that. BIG on satisfying flavor, while - after the prepping of the artichokes - taking only a small effort to execute.

Artichokes are one of the esoteric vegetables, right up there with kohlrabi. That isn't to say that I don't enjoy it (because I adore it!), I just mean that I have to prepare with a capital "p" when I want to incorporate it into any dining plans. When I was a child, my mom would make steamed artichokes with an "aioli" for dipping. As part of the new wave of nutrition-minded mothers, she made our aioli out of yogurt, lemon juice, and a touch of store bought mayo. Not bad, actually. I remember relishing the ceremonial aspect of eating this strange & prickly vegetable: layer-after-layer, eating the flesh off the edge of each leaf, and all the discarded leaves piled in square metal saucers my mom would provide. Then came the dramatic finale of digging out the hairy choke so we could indulge in the tender heart. It was certainly eating with deliberateness.

In my recipe I have left the ceremony to the enjoyment of many elements together, like you with your beloveds and some good red wine. I've used baby artichokes (with some modification, you can use regular ones), and after trimming some of the tougher exterior parts and then braising them, you can eat the whole thing....yum!

 

If you like artichokes in any way - from your mother's cooking or recipes of your own - then make this! You will love it. And when all you have left is the braising liquid, use it as a sauce over pasta or add it to your favorite marinara or stew. Every element contributes new bounty - now dig in. :)

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The Art of Simple Eating

If it's one thing the Japanese can do it is to make food shine, simply. My belief is that what they leave to simplicity in ingredients, they more than make up for in their methods of packaging, something special all unto itself (read: another post on that one!). Not that there aren't elaborate displays of food - believe me, I experienced that too - but that in general I found a more elemental approach to food on a plate. Food undisturbed. One evening, we were treated to an izakaya dining experience. My friend repeated, "they don't try to make the food look pretty - it's just good food". This is a no-frills place - simple benches and small wooden chairs provided respite for diners and drinkers fresh from work. Lengths of aged-looking paper lined all of the walls, describing menu options. There was a din of smoking, laughter, and conversation. It felt like a measured carnival and we were happy to be along for the ride.

As we were still putting our belongings aside to settle in, an older lady who served as waitress to the entire place presented bowls of small cooked shrimp dressed in a spicy roe mixture. SO tasty. We began with beer and sake, let our hosts order, and eagerly anticipated what would come next.

Many things followed...

After two plates of incredilbly juicy sashimi, our waitress brought an oyster-cabbage stew; ham + tofu stir fry; chicken bits, tofu, and greens in flavorsome broth (came with it's own side sauce); coconut encrusted oysters on shredded raw cabbage with a dollop of hot mustard + mayo...

the broth, served with its side sauce

  

These two courses proved for the more adventurous - slices of fish liver served over shredded daikon in sauce, and turban shell served with a savory broth, in its shell.

salary women taking a needed break; our dear host slurping the last bits from the shell

My favorite course was ochazuke, which was like a savory rice porridge. The small bits of salmon, the confetti of nori, the warming flavors of the tea broth - it was wonderful.

There were other things I did not capture, like the fiddlehead fern tempura or the pieces of red snapper tails. I can assure you however that each and every thing placed in front of us disappeared quite quickly, and we left pleasantly full from those many small plates and our fill of beer and sake. Out to explore more of Ginza - our izakaya neighborhood - and to see what else the night had in store.

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