Cathy Erway – Page 64 – Not Eating Out in New York

14 Feb 2009

Heart Attack! Red Velvet Cream Cheese Frosting and Green Tea Red Bean Paste Valentine Sandwich Cookies

by Cathy Erway | posted in: Desserts, Recipes | 9

Two is better than one. That’s what I would be saying if I hadn’t just spent five hours making cookies on Valentine’s Day morning. (You could say it was a labor of love.) When I asked readers to choose their favorite heart-shaped cookie proposal from six options for me to make today, I never expected such a dramatic split. There seemed to be warring sides: traditional all the way (red velvet cream cheese frosting), and Asian-inspired (green tea red bean … Read More

11 Feb 2009

Valentine’s Day Cookies: You Decide

by Cathy Erway | posted in: Ruminations | 27

There’s nothing that represents true love on Valentine’s Day better than two heart-shaped cookies joined in sticky matrimony with a sugary concoction between them. Even us singles can still look forward to this: stacks of heart-shaped, icinged, chocolate-dipped, powdered sugar-dusted, and daintily decorated cooookies.

9 Feb 2009

Recession Chili (and the Curious Case of the Ridiculously Packed Chili Takedown)

by Cathy Erway | posted in: Cook-Offs, NYC Events, Recipes | 14

Welcome to 2009, Chili Takedown. This is no time to be splurging on pounds and pounds of beef. Sorry, heritage pork (except for your bones and spare ribs, which I’ll get to in a bit). I’m not even doing the fresh garnish doodads anymore. This is recession era chili. And I’m going back to the basics of peasant home cookery — that is, minimal amounts of meat, used for flavor mostly, cheap winter vegetables, and lots and lots of B-E-A-N-S.

6 Feb 2009

Fresh Veggie Korean Pancakes

by Cathy Erway | posted in: Recipes | 37

So I mentioned that I’m really into exploring the East right now — in food, and particularly from other Eastern cultures than the one I grew up with. So, after hiding my nose in volumes of cookbooks to piece together the esoteric recipe, and embarking on many journeys, sometimes to the farthest reaches of the city, in search of the exotic, elusive, often strange-smelling ingredients and their required cooking tools, and lastly, chipping away at the arduous cooking technique, losing … Read More

4 Feb 2009

Beards for Food

by Cathy Erway | posted in: Events, NYC Events | 4

I don’t really know where to start with this one. But I will say that the weirdest, funniest, most random things usually happen at cook-offs. I was sitting behind my cast-iron pot of beans at the Cassoulet Cook-Off a few weeks back, when a fellow approached me and introduced himself as Vince, a member of Bearduary. He’d seen my scribblings on this blog and elsewhere, and in particular, one trifling rumination I wrote about how I can never seem to … Read More

2 Feb 2009

Spaghetti e Fagioli (with some eggplant on the side)

by Cathy Erway | posted in: Beans, Pasta & Noodles, Recipes, vegan, vegetarian | 8

The problem with soaking dried beans, which isn’t a probably exactly, and wouldn’t be one in the first place if you’re a little better at stomach-eye coordination as I am, is that you’re usually left with far more beans than you had bargained for. Water plumps up the beans, sometimes creating pot overflows and dried, un-soaked portions at the top. (It’s a bit like planting a magic beanstalk, with less fees, fies, foes and fums.) Ever since the Cassoulet Cook-Off, … Read More

29 Jan 2009

Reason for Not Eating Out #28: Oh, the Places You’ll Go

by Cathy Erway | posted in: Reason of the Month | 10

And ah, the things you’ll cook, and mm, the things you’ll eat. All made by yourself, your friends, and fellow home cooking-happy strangers. When I first began “not eating out in New York,” strictly speaking, many people asked me how I would maintain my social life. My mother in particular, I think, was afraid I’d become something of a hermit, standing over a pot of risotto, stirring contentedly for hours completely lost in my own warped head, or something like … Read More

27 Jan 2009

Brisket and Cabbage Dumplings

by Cathy Erway | posted in: Dumplings, Meat & Poultry, Recipes, Sides & Salads | 14

Little dumpling, who made thee? I know who did, originally. This dumpling was featured on the menu of the notorious 20-course, $1,500 a plate dinners propelled by two of the world’s greatest working chefs, Thomas Keller of The French Laundry and Per Se and Grant Achatz of Alinea. Their dinners, billed as mentor-protégé collaborations, unfolded in New York, Chicago and Napa, at the duo’s respective restaurants. But this dumpling, shown above, was just made by little old me. And the … Read More

26 Jan 2009

Apple Dumplings with Brown Sugar Rum Sauce

by Cathy Erway | posted in: Desserts, Dumplings, Recipes | 8

Happy Chinese New Year! Thanks to all the “students” who came to the Brooklyn Kitchen last night for me and Winnie’s dumpling class. I hope you mark a dumpling party on your calendars soon. That was some tight work all around with the homemade dough — this is tricky stuff to roll out and fold when making dumplings for the first time! Be sure to check out the Brooklyn Kitchen blog and Winnie’s blog soon for her braised oxtail filling; … Read More

24 Jan 2009

Deep-Dish Chicago/Jakarta-Style Pizzas Two Ways

by Cathy Erway | posted in: Grains, Recipes | 11

Our new president is a well-traveled, well-cultured man. Just take a look at the lede to this New York Times story to scratch the tip of the iceberg: “The president’s elderly stepgrandmother brought him an oxtail fly whisk, a mark of power at home in Kenya. Cousins journeyed from the South Carolina town where the first lady’s great-great-grandfather was born into slavery, while the rabbi in the family came from the synagogue where he had been commemorating Martin Luther King’s … Read More

Author Archives: Cathy Erway