Posts for category ‘Food’

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog posts due to illness. My sinuses are so clogged I feel removed from myself; kind of  like the omniscient narrator of my own life.

Danielle stumbled into her kitchen after a day of work, searching for something edible. She stared into the cold light of the near-empty fridge with glassy Muppet sized eyes and sneezed for the umpteenth time. Being sick sucks, she thought, and chicken soup is overrated. Her taste buds had the strength of  a Sprint cellphone signal so she decided on something intense, spicy and garlicky. While the fridge offered little more than a few cloves a garlic, ginger root, tofu, and a handful of mushrooms, the freezer held a pleasant surprise–a bag of frozen shrimp. Finally, a bottle of Sriracha sauce offered spicy salvation.

Oddly enough, this thrown together meal was one of the best I have cooked in a long time. The ginger and garlic opened up my palate, allowing me to really taste the shrimp and mushrooms which lightly caramelized and added more flavor to the pan. Even the tofu tasted good! Because I am a heat fiend, I Jackson Pollock’d the Sriracha sauce over all the ingredients before giving it all one last stir. Next time I’ll toast some sesame seeds to top it. But for now, here’s my simple recipe to blaze through an early spring cold.

>> Click here to get the full spicy garlic ginger shrimp recipe. >>

I’m getting more into cooking, thanks to your site, and I’m noticing a lot of recipes that call for unsalted butter. Why should I be using this instead of salted, which I usually buy?

I’m glad you’re inspired to take on new challenges, and that you’re paying attention to recipes. Salted butter exists for the same reason that other mouthwatering ingredients like ham, beef jerky, gravlax, and cheese do—salting is a time-tested method of culinary preservation.

These days, with omnipresent refrigeration, there’s less of a need to worry about whether you, Ma, and Pa will have enough dairy products to make it through the winter on the prairie. However, because modern salted butter will still keep longer than its unsalted counterpart, even the generic unsalted butter at the grocery store will be fresher than the salted version.
>> But there’s another important reason to choose unsalted butter when cooking. Read on. >>

The first time I had a chickpea I believe it was dumped over an iceberg lettuce salad and called a garbanzo bean. It wasn’t terribly good. But lo and behold, chickpeas have become one of my favorite pantry staples.  They’re packed with nutrition: protein, iron, fiber and potassium and therefore an ideal ingredient here in the dregs of winter. Chickpeas are an incredibly versatile (and inexpensive) little legume, so here are a few good ideas for you to try at home.

• Pasta e ceci. After learning about this dish in Arthur Schwartz’s Southern Italian Table, I’ve been making it at least once a week. Although the traditional preparation calls for a type of pasta called lagane, you really can use any flat or loosely curled pasta. (Barilla’s Campanile work perfectly.) Start a pan with 3 or 4 tbsp of olive oil, 2 crushed garlic cloves, and red pepper flakes. Once the garlic starts to brown, dump a can of chickpeas, water and all, into the pan and let it cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes. Next take the bottom of a mug and smash half of the chickpeas. Add the drained, cooked pasta and mix well. Once a big heap is on my plate, I’ll often add a swirl of a high quality olive oil, Cafaggio being my favorite, and a little grated cheese.

>> Read on for 5 more ways to use chickpeas. >>

It’s almost masochistic, as I sit here under layers of blankets inside a house surrounded by walls of snow, to remember this drink’s origins on a meltingly hot August afternoon in Manhattan. Plodding up Hudson St. in the Village, looking for a beverage in the shade, Dan and I stopped into the recently-opened Employees Only.

There we discovered the West Side, a lemon-and-mint cocktail that was born for sipping on outdoor terraces on an 80-degree day. After that revelatory moment, and because we have the idyllic shaded backyard that Employees Only lacks, we appropriated the recipe as our home’s signature summertime drink.

But all good things must end—or at least cycle out of season. Last year, when winter took my mint and turned it into a brown, brittle husk, I was forced to revise that feeling of summer-in-a-glass and make it a little more appropriate for the indoor imbibers.

Enter tarragon, an herb that features a variety specifically known as Mexican marigold or winter tarragon because of its ability to withstand harsher temperatures while keeping the same anise spiciness that we know and love. (Sadly, my tarragon didn’t make it to February this year, so the illustrated herbs are the usual variety of French tarragon, brought to you by the grocery store.)

And the sweet fragrance of Meyer lemons, which just happen to be in season during the darkest months of the year, replace the traditional summery brightness of regular Eureka lemons. (Ah, winter citrus. Without you, I’d be lost in January and February—or at least be afflicted with scurvy.)

My recipe calls for Zubrowka vodka, which frankly was first purchased because it had a bison on the label, and as a Bucknell graduate, I couldn’t resist. Those of you with similarly wonky college mascots understand.

But the vodka is actually distinctive and tasty, flavored with Polish bison grass (!) that adds warm cinnamon notes to the winter version of the drink. If you don’t have bison-grass vodka in your liquor cabinet, feel free to substitute citrus vodka.

For those of you feeling flush, add a float of Prosecco on top of the drink. Or just splash in the seltzer as usual, and you’ll be none the less pleased.

The Wintergarden West Side
Makes two drinks

• 3 oz Zubrowka vodka
• A small bunch of tasty tarragon leaves
• 3 oz Meyer lemon juice
• 1 1/2 oz simple syrup
• Prosecco or citrus-flavored seltzer

Muddle the vodka and tarragon leaves in a shaker. Add ice cubes, lemon juice, and simple syrup, and shake for at least 30 seconds. Pour into two coupes or martini glasses and top off with Prosecco/seltzer to taste.

Like our New Year’s Eve tradition, our annual Super Bowl parties have picked up so much steam over the years, they’re now barreling down the mountain without brakes and making me use bad metaphors. What started as an excuse to eat a whole casserole dish of seven-layer dip has now become a full-blown event for as many people as we can stuff around the TV. I know, I know—I do it to myself.

For this coming Sunday’s Colts-Saints matchup, it seemed way too easy to simply go with the richly varied Cajun and Creole delicacies of New Orleans. I had to give myself a challenge and represent the good people of Indianapolis as well.

So I did what any good 21st-century reporter does: got on the interwebs. It’s funny how, through my research, I saw patterns of overlapping ingredients and dishes throughout each region’s cuisine. Biscuits are omnipresent, corn used for Southern grits pops up throughout Indiana—popcorn or on the cob—and instead of roasted or bbq’ed pulled pork shoulder, Hoosiers have a thing for breaded and fried pork tenderloin sandwiches. Oh, and of course, there’s fried chicken.

And did you know that Indiana’s state pie was officially named the sugar cream pie a year ago? It bears a strikingly similar flavor and texture palate to the traditional Mardi Gras king cake, which is a sweet, bready dough wrapped around a cream cheese filling. I’ll be making my sugar cream pie with cherries to break up the texture and add some brightness, but I’ll be doing my king cake straight-up with cinnamon and cream cheese.

all hail the King Cake in its sugar-glazed glory