Being burglarized is not fun. You come home, find out someone’s snuck in through your window, pushing around your tomato plants on the fire escape to steal your stuff inside. I lost my Macbook Pro, and a camera. No, not fun. But what they didn’t steal were my plants, my food, my goshdarn enthusiasm for all that, and a crusty laptop tucked in the closet, going seven years strong.
I’m not sure why tomatillos aren’t as popular as tomatoes around the world. They’re as easy to grow as tomatoes, and they’re even covered with a natural, papery husk to protect from bruising or the need to even rinse dirt off. Yet tomatillos don’t appear to be as well integrated into cuisines outside of Latin America, which is too bad, because I love their intense tanginess, and thick, jammy consistency when cooked. So I’m using them as a base for … Read More
Some like it smoky. If you’ve been cooking out a great deal this summer, perhaps you’ve grown fond of the lingering woodsmoke scent in your hair and clothes (designer fragrance idea: “Campfire”) and that bitter, mineral edge on slightly burnt food. You can embrace this essence when cooking indoors as well; I especially like it on eggplant, and to reinforce that smokiness, with a hint of chipotle, too.
Things are looking sunny side-up in Brooklyn. First a month of rain, then a scorching week of heat, now it’s clear and mid-seventies, and the first ears of sweet corn from local farms have arrived. All of which inspired this rather hearty breakfast (and, of course, the inspiration of huevos rancheros). But the secret ingredient of stinging nettles in the sauce, and the incredible eggs, were sourced from a grocery delivery startup new to NYC called Good Eggs. Read on … Read More
It’s too hot to eat hot soup, but cold soups might benefit from a certain sort of heat. That’s what I figured when I set out to make a smooth, creamy puree of shelled English peas. Chilled soup is a great fix for a hot summer day–light and refreshing yet satisfyingly tasty. Then I recalled the taste of another favorite application for peas: those crunchy, wasabi-glazed snacks.
If you have an egg yolk, oil, and a splash of something acidic (lemon or vinegar), you can make mayonnaise. But while you’re undergoing this effort at home, why just make plain old mayo? Adding garlic and good olive oil, you can make aioli–and if it’s spring or early summer, why not add green garlic, the mild, sweet, early-stage allium that can be found this season?
It’s slightly warm, but it’s a salad alright. The peas are still crisp but have deepened in color. The carrots are infused with a hint of ginger to bring out their sweetness even more. And the little, white turnips? They taste so much better than the raw, rigid slats after being tossed quickly in a hot pan. That’s the easiest solution that I can offer for an ingredient that’s been puzzling a lot of people I know.
I had a spectacular tapas dish a long while back, of chorizo braised with cava, a Spanish sparkling wine. The key ingredient was really garlic — loads of it — which, in combination with the spicy sausage links enveloped the whole room with its pungent aroma. I don’t have cava around today, but I’ve noted that many similar tapas make use of Spanish hard cider (or sidra), another common effervescent alcoholic beverage. So I brought the whole thing home by … Read More
I was really thinking of bringing potato salad to a party this weekend. This would be a simple, easy-to-store solution for my day of having to schlep around Brooklyn before getting there. Potato salad is always a welcome crowd-pleaser at summer parties. But last Memorial Day, four people brought potato salads to a party. They were all delicious and quite different, but still, four people brought potato salad.
I love the idea of popping a whole fish in the oven, to roast until sizzling sounds are heard, and the flesh is juicy and opaque. But I don’t love the idea of just plunking the whole fish down on a baking sheet, as it’ll stick to the pan, becoming slimy and weird. The fish’s natural juices will get totally wasted while cooking, spilling onto the abyss of a blank sheetpan that you’ll have to scrub well soon. So I … Read More