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0 June 15, 2014 Cookbook

Book Club: Ample Hills Creamery // Peanut Butter and Fluff Ice Cream

The Book: Now that we’re in the thick of ice cream season (although, who am I kidding, it’s always ice cream season in my house), it’s time for me to share the first of this summer’s crop of ice cream cookbooks – Ample Hills Creamery. Ample Hills is an ice cream shop in Brooklyn, where the owners, Brian and Jackie, churn out whimsical flavors like Breakfast Trash (Cereal Milk and Froot Loops), Drunken Thanksgiving (Pumpkin Bourbon with Molasses Cookie Bits), and “I Want to Marry This!” (Maple with Chocolate-Covered Bacon Bark). Like the flavors, their new cookbook is playful, filled with cartoons of the three Ample Hills mascots, hand-lettered picture annotations, bright colors, and even bingo boards and instructions for drawing Walt the Cow (one of the mascots). The end result isn’t corny at all, just fun and well-integrated into the overall design. Brian and Jackie’s story is also woven into the pages of the book, and it’s an inspiring story – they took a big risk, followed their dream, and are now enjoying huge success. And their ice cream flavors are great. I love ice cream (like, really love it) and you’d be hard-pressed to find a flavor in most shops that I wasn’t excited about, but some of the inclusions in this book have me just itching to clean out the ice cream that’s already in my freezer to make room for more. There are also recipes for homemade cones, toppings (mmm whiskey butterscotch!) and mix-ins like brownies and cookie dough.

The Food: Most of the recipes in Ample Hills use a basic sweet cream ice cream recipe (called “Walt’s Dream”) as their starting point. This base is different from others I’ve used, as it includes skim milk powder, which apparently helps keep the ice cream creamy by reducing the water content you have when using regular milk, and ultimately allowing you to use a lower cream to milk ratio. I followed all the instructions, even buying the (pricey) organic cane sugar and (pricey) organic skim milk powder that it called for, but I can’t say the base turned out more creamy than others I’ve tried. Before freezing, the base was very thin, and even after churning it was pretty soupy and needed a solid 24 hours in the freezer to firm up. They do recommend using a hand crank machine, as they get colder faster, but that seems like a lot of extra work to me. Personally, I think I prefer using base recipes with more egg yolks and cooking them to the point of a custard. So, I’m not sure if I’ll use the base recipe again, but I’ll certainly be using the flavor combinations as inspiration for future batches, as they go above and beyond in an effort to cram as many delicious ingredients as possible into one flavor. Our first batch was called “PB Fluff’n’Stuff” – a mix of peanut butter ice cream, nutter butters, and fluff. I opted not to make the homemade fluff (after all, the home of fluff is right here in Somerville… so it’s local?), and oh man is it good. This stuff will not be lingering in our freezer. There’s nothing subtle or elegant about this ice cream – it’s the kind of flavor that would be the highlight of the day at a seven year old’s birthday party, hitting you over the top of the head with simple sugary sweetness, It’s delicious, all sweetened creamy peanut butter, crunchy cookies and airy fluff. If you like peanut butter desserts, you will love it.

Recipe Shortlist: Raspberry Blonde (White Chocolate Ice Cream with Raspberry Jam and Malted Blondie Bits); Sweet as Honey (Sweet Cream with Honeycomb Candy); Monkey Bread; Daddy’s Sundae (Bourbon Ice Cream with Brownies and Salted Fudge Caramel); Salted Crack Caramel; Four More Years (Beer Ice Cream with Honeycomb Candy)

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Disclaimer: I received a review copy of Ample Hills Creamery from Stewart, Tabori & Chang, but I was not otherwise compensated and all thought and opinions are my own.

Peanut Butter and Fluff Ice Cream

Recipe from Ample Hills Creamery. Makes about 6 cups of ice cream.

3/4 c. organic cane sugar
1/2 c. skim milk powder
1 2/3 c. whole milk
1 2/3 c. heavy cream
3 egg yolks
1/2 c. natural peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
12-oz. box of peanut butter sandwich cookies
3 c. marshmallow fluff (store-bought or homemade)

Prepare an ice bath in a large heatproof bowl. Set aside. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, milk powder, and whole milk. Whisk until smooth, making sure the skim milk powder is fully dissolved. Stir in the cream.
Place the saucepan over medium heat and heat the milk mixture, stirring often, until it reaches 110°F, which will take 5-10 minutes. Once it reaches this temperature, remove it from the heat.
Whisk the egg yolks together in a medium bowl. While whisking, slowly pour 1/2 cup of the hot milk mixture over the eggs, beating them vigorously to temper the eggs. Repeat with another 1/2 cup of hot milk, then pour the eggs back into the remaining milk mixture, still whisking to prevent any scrambling. Return the pan to heat, and cook until it reaches 165°F and forms a thin film on a wooden spoon, about 5-10 minutes longer.
Remove from the heat and stir in the peanut butter and vanilla, then pour the ice cream base through a wire mesh strainer into a bowl, and cool in the ice bath for 15 to 20 minutes. Chill the ice cream base in the fridge for at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight, until it is completely cold.
Churn the ice cream according to your ice cream maker’s directions. While it is churning, break up the peanut butter cookies into bite-sized pieces. Transfer the churned ice cream to the storage container, and quickly but gently fold in the cookies and the marshmallow fluff. Don’t overmix, or the fluff may dissolve. Freeze ice cream for at least 4 hours before serving.

1 June 13, 2014 Meat

Guava-Glazed Grilled Ribs

Hi friends. This one’s a guest post from my better half, who’s the grill-master in our relationship. I did do some quality testing though, so I can confirm that these are worth making. And definitely worth eating if someone else makes them for you!

Growing up, ribs were something my father worked on perfecting over infinite summer afternoons. Along with your other excellent suburban traditions, early morning soccer and football in the backyard, grilling was a must during weekends in the summer. We’d absolutely crowd the grill with racks and racks of market-cut beef ribs, trimmed up and spiced with an ever-improving rub. It was always, and still is, an eternity to wait for ribs to be done perfectly. So we’d stand in a circle on his porch and make giant indian smoke signals every time the grill cover came off, checking on coals barely glowing through the supreme pile of meat. Dad would admire the Boston skyline, just visible from his back porch in the neighborhood-on-a-hill, and I can remember needing to sprint around the yard, just to diffuse my excitement. I’m personally ready to eat ribs at the first sizzle of meat on grill, and to this day, I’m not entirely sure how long it took to cook those massive cuts. But in the end, I’m grateful it helped stretch out those Saturdays in summer.

Both my brother and I had our roles in the process; I’d tackle the sauce, while Andrew would handle the rub, and we’d trade off working on sides. My dad would trim up the ribs and handle the art/science of developing the long slow fire, which got perfectly smoky when the fat started dripping. The smells are incredible, and tasting the tenderest bite through a layer of crunchy, smokey caramelization to me is unparallelled. The result was always a consistent, falling of the bone, sweet tender and smokey feast.

I recently spent a very nice long weekend with my dad and my brother and my stepmom, in my dad’s own childhood hometown for a family reunion. Over a bottle of Noah’s Mill and a fair few cigars, the men got down to a little reflecting. Andrew is great in the kitchen and regularly cooks from this website (often providing unsolicited feedback). My stepmom and dad are vegetarians and super accomplished crossfitters, and stronger than I’ll ever be. But, we equally enjoyed those memories of summer Saturdays, and we each were sure it was perfect.

At any rate, now that Katie and I have a grill, I’m making my own attempt at perfection. With the old tricks still fresh in my mind, I’ve been working a rib recipe that’s good enough to share. I’m definitely using some non-traditional flavors, but the philosophy is the same. So this probably isn’t the final product, but I think it’s a pretty good effort, and a good place to reflect on the way.

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Guava-Glazed Grilled Ribs

A Katie at the Kitchen Door original. Serves 2-3.

Note: Ribs are like an art project. All times, ingredients, implements and instructions are approximate. This is simply what has been working for me.

1 rack untrimmed pork or beef ribs, about 4-5lbs. (increase cooking time for larger racks)

For the rub:

2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 Tbsp sumac
2 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp garlic powder

For the sauce:

14 oz guava paste
½ cup soy sauce
¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup water
1 Tbsp Sriracha
salt and pepper to taste

Trim any loose bits from the inside and edges of the rack.
Mix together all seven rub spices in a bowl. Completely cover the rack (and trimmings) with the rub and refrigerate for at least 3 hours and up to 12.
Light grill, maintaining medium heat (300-350°F). Sear ribs on both sides for 5-10 min a side.
Move ribs to the perimeter of the fire and grill for about 2.5 hours, flipping every 30 minutes.
While the ribs are cooking, mix together all the ingredients for the sauce, until smooth. If the guava paste is lumpy, heat sauce gently over medium heat while stirring to help smooth it out.
Just before you are ready to take the ribs off the grill, brush the ribs liberally with the sauce, then allow the ribs to cook for 2-3 minutes a side, monitoring carefully to ensure the sauce does not burn. Remove the ribs from the grill, let rest for 5-10 minutes, then serve.

5 June 9, 2014 Dessert

Chocolate Stout Affogato

We currently have a very large supply of beer in our house. Six cases plus four extra 22-oz bottles, to be exact. And it’s all a very dark, very fresh, very rich Russian Imperial Stout that we brewed ourselves at a place in New Hampshire called Incredibrew (their tagline is “Make beer, wine, and friends!” And they mean it, the other customers are the friendliest). My parents went there years ago with friends, and this year their Christmas gift to Trevor was a gift certificate to cover one batch of beer. It took us several tries to schedule a time where all four of us could go (my parents made their own batch, so we could swap some bottles after), but we eventually made it a few weeks ago. It’s a really fun little operation, very well organized and a pretty good deal. You pick one out of dozens of recipes to make, gather your ingredients, get assigned to a copper kettle, and then they walk you through the brewing process. It takes about 2 hours, then your beer sits around for 2 weeks fermenting before you come back and bottle it. The fact that you’re carefully supervised means you end up with very good results, and I never realized how much more flavor and zing really fresh beer has.

So it’s really good, but like I said, we have a lot of it. And while we’re excited to be pouring out something so high quality when friends visit, I got Trevor to agree that a few bottles could be spared for cooking projects. Part of the reason I wanted to go with a stout is that it’s a great beer for cooking and baking – the sweet chocolatey undertones can really amp up the flavor of a batch of brownies or braised ribs. I have a long list of recipes that I’m going to make with it, but first, I wanted to share a really quick and easy cocktail/dessert from Winter Cocktails – a Chocolate Stout Affogato.

This is a very adult dessert. Besides the fact that it has all kinds of things you’re not supposed to give to kids in it (espresso, beer, liqueur) the flavor is rich and mature, not overly sweet and certainly not simple. Both espresso and stout are strongly flavored and have a fair amount of bitterness to them, and when paired with the simple and syrupy sweetness of chocolate liqueur and coffee ice cream, it’s a gorgeous mix of sweet and bitter, with the coffee and chocolate undertones of all four ingredients connecting all the flavors together. The temperature and density contrasts – hot thin espresso, cold creamy ice cream, cold frothy beer – add another element of complexity, at least for the first few bites, before it all melts into one delicious mixture. Since the effort in throwing this together is absolutely minimal – brewing a pot of espresso is the most time consuming task – these are the perfect dessert to end your next dinner party. I promise, they’re so elegant and delicious your guests will have no idea that your copping out on hours in the kitchen to bake that perfect layer cake.

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Chocolate Stout Affogato

Adapted from Winter Cocktails. Serves 1.

1 scoop coffee ice cream
1 shot (2 oz.) hot espresso, freshly brewed
1.5 oz. chocolate liqueur, such as Godiva Mocha
1/2 c. stout beer, preferably chocolate stout

Place the ice cream in a glass. Pour the espresso, chocolate liqueur, and stout over the top. Serve immediately.

1 June 7, 2014 Food

Arugula Salad with Burrata, Shaved Mushrooms, and Truffle Oil

This is my favorite salad, and I have a difficult time imagining the salad that will ever replace it as such. It’s something I order every time I go to Via Matta, an upscale Italian restaurant near my office in Boston, and I’ve gotten many of my coworkers addicted to it as well. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to share it with you – I’m sorry to have been depriving you all this time. The only excuse that I can offer up is that I only recently acquired my first bottle of truffle oil – the key ingredient. During my quick business trip to Rome a few weeks ago, I loaded up on Italian food products that are really pricey in the states and only sort of pricey in Italy: Myrtle liquor, candied kumquats, truffle sauce, dried squid ink pasta, and a treasured bottle of truffle oil.

Something about the mix of the ultra-rich burrata, zippy arugula, super thinly shaved mushrooms (that are almost creamy in texture), salty capers, and pungent truffle oil in this salad is absolutely intoxicating. Trevor thinks it’s just the fact that anything made with truffle oil and/or burrata (a super luxurious cream-filled fresh mozzarella, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it) is delicious, but I maintain that this is a special combination. The raw mushrooms soak up the truffle oil so that it’s almost like you’re eating a truffle itself when you bite into them, too. I really can’t get enough. I should note that a little bit of truffle oil goes a long way – you only have to use one or two teaspoons of oil per salad – so although it is certainly rich for a salad, it’s not over-the-top indulgent.

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Arugula Salad with Burrata, Shaved Mushrooms, and Truffle Oil

Inspired by Via Matta. Serves 1.

2 or 3 large handfuls of fresh arugula
3 mushrooms, shaved or sliced as thinly as possible
1 TBS very finely chopped red onion
2 tsp capers
2 oz. fresh burrata
2 tsp truffle oil
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt

Toss the arugula, shaved mushrooms, red onion, and capers together in a large bowl. Place the piece of burrata on top of the salad, drizzle with truffle oil, and sprinkle with sea salt. Serve immediately.

1 June 5, 2014 Food

Monthly Fitness Goals: June // Chickpea Crepes with Grilled Curry Chicken and Mango Salsa

Even though January, February and March felt never-ending, I find myself very surprised that it’s already June. Is this what it feels like to get old, the weeks seemingly disappearing into months like it’s nothing? Oi. It’s not a bad thing, but my life feels full, in a good way, and time is flying by. Given that I might have to spend the better part of August and September in Malaysia for work, I feel like I really have to make the most of summer in June and July, including, of course, sticking with my monthly fitness goals – it is bikini (or at least one-piece?) season after all.

I did a good job with exercise in May, even though I had a ten day, three-stop business trip that could have potentially thrown a wrench in my workout schedule. Not only did I complete my May goal of getting 180 minutes of strength training in (although it came down to the wire, with my last Nike Training Club session just squeezed in on the 31st), I also kept up with the running, clocking over 55 miles at an average pace that was 6 seconds faster than April. I feel good, and now I just have to maintain both components even as the weather gets hotter and working out becomes a sweatier proposition.

However, I did not do so well with my eating habits last month. Business trips are rarely good for my eating habits – too many three-course meals paid for by our hosts, an especially difficult thing to turn down in a world-class food city like Rome – but even when I was at home, I found myself eating out or resorting to cheese and crackers for dinner all too often. This month, I want to be better organized and prepared, bringing healthy lunches to work whenever I can, planning ahead for wholesome dinners, and, if I can really commit myself to this, kicking the daily latte and muffin/cookie habit I seemed to have developed over the past month (it used to be a less frequent habit, but I have somehow slipped into a pattern where I run downstairs to grab one on a daily basis now). Besides planning ahead, I want to rely more on fresh fruits and vegetables for my meals, especially since we’ve finally arrived in the season where a variety of local New England produce is available (beyond radishes and rhubarb, that is). So, the official goal? Have at least one serving of fruits or veggies at every meal (ideally fresh, but I’m not going to fault myself for having a bowl of vegetarian chili at dinner or lightly sauteed spinach in my omelets). I’m also going to try and make most of my afternoon snacks fruit or veggie based – replacing cookies and pretzels with apples and crudités. We’ll see how that goes in practice, but I swear I’ll try.

In that vein, this month’s recipe is packed with flavor, color, and freshness, while still being filling and balanced. I recently received a review copy of Golubka’s The Vibrant Table, and the very first night I flipped through it, I ended up making the Chickpea Crepes with Mango Salsa for dinner. Of course, once I’m inspired, just leaving recipes the way they are is very difficult for me, so I tweaked this and that and ended up with a recipe that’s a perfect dinner for me. The biggest change is obviously the addition of grilled chicken marinated in a curry yogurt sauce – I felt like I needed some more bulk to make this a stand-alone meal – but I also swapped out some of the flavors for a more Indian profile (cumin seeds instead of sesame seeds in the crepes, mint and basil instead of cilantro in the salsa), played with the consistency of the crepes to make them more pliable, and added a bunch of sweet red pepper to the salsa for even more color and freshness. The resulting meal is bursting with flavor, and just the kind of thing I need to get me excited about eating fresh vegetables.

Past Fitness Challenges

January: 10 Visits to the YMCA; Recipe: Gluten-Free Olive-and-Feta Corn Muffins
February: One vegan meal every day; Recipe: Pakistani Chickpea Pulao with Sweet-Hot Date-Onion Chutney
March: Run 40 miles in 20 days; Recipe: Chocolate-Dipped Almond Butter Cookie Bites
April: Walk 8,000 steps a day; Recipe: Herb-Flecked Spring Couscous
May: 180 minutes of Nike Training Club; Recipe: Warm Arugula Salad with Maple Mustard Dressing

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Chickpea Crepes with Grilled Curry Chicken and Mango Salsa

Inspired by The Vibrant Table. Serves 4.

For the chicken:

1 c. plain Greek yogurt
2 TBS olive oil
2 TBS curry powder
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 tsp sea salt
4 medium boneless skinless chicken breasts

For the crepes:

2 c. chickpea flour
2 TBS whole cumin seeds
2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp sea salt
2 1/2 to 3 c. water
1 large egg
vegetable oil for frying

For the mango salsa:

1 large ripe mango, peeled, pitted, and diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1 red bell pepper, cored and diced into 1/2 inch pieces
1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1/3 c. very finely chopped red onion (from about 1/4 of a large onion)
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely minced
juice from 1-2 fresh limes
1/2 tsp sea salt
small handful of mint leaves, sliced into chiffonade
small handful of basil leaves, sliced into chiffonade

To make the chicken: Mix the yogurt, olive oil, curry powder, crushed garlic, and 1 tsp of salt together in a large bowl until evenly combine. Add the chicken breasts and rub the curry marinade all over them to fully coat. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, and up to overnight.
To make the crepes: Whisk together the chickpea flour, cumin seeds, turmeric, and salt. Add the water 1/2 cup at a time, whisking until as smooth as possible between batches. Resulting batter should be runny but not watery. Add the egg and whisk to blend with the batter. Cover the batter bowl and let rest for at least 30 minutes, and ideally 1 hour.
To make the salsa: Mix together all salsa ingredients in a medium bowl. Taste and adjust seasoning (lime juice, salt, jalapeno, and herbs) to your taste.
When you are ready to eat: Fire up your grill and preheat. Grill the chicken for 6-8 minutes on each side, until cooked all the way through with no pink left in the middle (grilling time may vary significantly depending on the temperature of your grill and the thickness of your chicken – always check that they are cooked in the middle before serving!). Set cooked chicken aside.
Heat 2 tsp of vegetable oil over medium heat in a large frying pan. Once hot, add half a cup of the crepe batter and quickly swirl the pan to allow the batter to run into a large circle. Cook crepes for 30-60 seconds on each side, until golden brown and bubbly, then flip. Stack cooked crepes on a serving platter. Slice cooked chicken and serve over the warm crepes alongside the mango salsa. Serve as soon as possible after cooking, although leftover crepes can be wrapped in tinfoil and stored in the fridge if necessary.

0 June 2, 2014 Asian and Indian

Book Club: Thailand, The Cookbook // Drunken Noodles with Pork

The Book: I want to open this review with a statement that’s much stronger than those I usually make in these posts: if you like Thai food (and who doesn’t), and you like to cook, you should buy a copy of Thailand: The Cookbook. With 500 traditional recipes, absolutely stunning photography, and the gorgeous design typical of Phaidon books, I already know it will be one of my favorite books this year, even if I mostly use it for daydreaming about the jungles and coasts of Thailand and colorful plates of Pad Thai and Papaya Salad. I wish I could let all of you flip through my copy, because I’m having a difficult time communicating how gorgeous the pictures are. They are certainly given pride of place, taking up full pages and even multi-page sections, and are drenched in rich colors that show up beautifully on the luxe matte paper. It’s mostly food photography, and an impressive portion of the 500 dishes are represented, but the landscapes and portraits are jaw-dropping. There’s not very much in the way of narrative here, but the recipe section is encyclopedic and decidedly authentic, meaning you will find, in all likelihood, hundreds of new-to-you recipes – I certainly don’t have any other cookbooks with recipes for Fried Crickets with Herbs or Spicy Dried Buffalo Skin Salad. Recipes within sections are often variations on a theme and are organized in a very logical progression, for example, moving from Spicy Vegetable and Fish Soup to Spicy-and-Sour Tilapia Soup to Spicy Eel Soup to Spicy Shrimp Soup. Given this, I’d imagine that if you cook enough different recipes from this book, you would develop a sort of intuition for Thai cooking and flavors.

One of the beauties of Thai cooking is how fast it is. Sourcing the ingredients will easily be the most time consuming part of preparing most of these recipes, with many prep and cooking times under 15 minutes total. Many of the recipes are also scaled to serve 2 or 3, which is convenient for a couple like us. There will definitely be recipes that are impossible to make outside of Thailand – I doubt I’ll be coming across banana blossoms or giant water bug eggs in my local market – but don’t let that scare you away from this book, as there’s more that’s accessible than inaccessible, especially if you have a good Asian grocery nearby, or even a well-stocked Asian Foods aisle in your Wholefoods/Kroger/Shaw’s. In short, for anyone with a love affair with Thailand and its sweet and spicy food, this book is a must buy – personally, I’m so excited to finally have an authentic Thai cooking resource in my collection.

The Food: The first recipe I tried out from Thailand: The Cookbook was Drunken Noodles with Pork, because, well, who doesn’t love drunken noodles? I was looking for a recipe for lunch that would be filling but not too heavy, quick to prepare, and for which I could find the ingredients at the small specialty butcher around the corner, as I only had about an hour before we needed to leave the house. Whipping up these noodles was dangerously easy – a handful of chilies and garlic pounded into a paste, a few thin strips of pork tenderloin, a bowl full of Chinese broccoli and mushrooms, and a quick sauce of soy sauce and sugar, stir-fried one at a time over high heat, and in 10 minutes I had a steaming bowl of sweet and spicy noodles, just as good as the ones from the takeout spot down the street. These noodles are definitely going into my “quick and craveable” dinner rotation. I’ve barely cracked the surface of this book, but after my first foray into authentic Thai cooking, I’m even more excited to delve further into these recipes.

Recipe Shortlist: Thai Pork Fried Rice with Fried Eggs; Chicken Curry Puffs; Thai-Style Hot Pot; Dragon Fruit Frappe; Spicy Strawberry Salad; Chicken and Coconut Soup; Beef Massaman Curry; Green Chicken Curry; Grilled Duck with Tamarind Sauce; Coconut Custard with Fried Shallots; Sesame and Sugar-Coated Peanuts; Jasmine Flower Flan

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Disclaimer: I received a review copy of Thailand: The Cookbook from Phaidon, but I was not otherwise compensated and all thought and opinions are my own.

Drunken Noodles with Pork

Recipe from Thailand: The Cookbook. Serves 2.

Note: There were a few items I had to substitute based on what I could find at the store – 2 serranos for the bird’s eye chilies, broccoli rabe for the Chinese broccoli, chopped red pepper for the baby corn, and baby shiitakes for the straw mushrooms. I tried to keep the substitutions very close in flavor profile to the original ingredients. I’ve included both the original ingredients and my substitutions below.

7 oz. flat rice noodles
2 TBS vegetable oil
3-4 cloves garlic, pounded to a paste
5-7 red and green bird’s eye chilies, pounded to a paste (OR substitute 2 serranos)
3 1/2 oz. pork tenderloin, sliced into thin strips
5 oz. Chinese broccoli, stems removed, leaves chopped into 1 1/2 inch pieces (OR substitute broccoli rabe)
7 baby corn, halved lengthwise (OR substitute 1/2 c. of chopped red bell pepper)
5 straw mushrooms (OR substitute 1/2 c. baby shiitakes)
2 TBS soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 handful of Thai basil leaves

If the noodles have been kept in the fridge, wrap them in cheesecloth and steam in a steamer for 2-3 minutes until warmed through. Alternatively, heat in a microwave for 1 minute. If noodles are dry, prepare according to package directions. Set aside.
Heat vegetable oil in a wok over medium high heat. Add the pounded garlic and chilies and quickly stir-fry for 30 seconds, until sizzling and fragrant. Add the pork slices and stir fry for 1 minute, or until cooked through. Add the broccoli and baby corn and stir-fry for another 1-2 minutes. Add the prepared noodles, soy sauce and sugar, and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes until the noodles are soft and fully flavored. Remove from heat, stir in the basil, and serve immediately.

6 May 27, 2014 Food

Crispy Sea Salt and Vinegar Potatoes with Goat Cheese and Chives

I just have a quick little side dish recipe for you today, but I promise, it’s a good one. I made these crispy salt and vinegar potatoes the same day that I saw them in Bon Appetit, and I’ve since tweaked the recipe to get them just how I like them. I used to find salt and vinegar chips to be too strong, but now I find the combination addictive, and this recipe embodies the combo well. In order to get creamy-on-the-inside, crispy-on-the-outside potatoes, you boil them until just tender and then pan-fry them until golden brown. Served hot and dotted with fresh goat cheese and chives, they’re a very satisfying and craveable side dish. Or, if you’re the kind of person who considers a bowl of potatoes to be a perfectly acceptable dinner, like I am, they make a very satisfying dinner.

In other news, I’m on the second-to-last day of a 10 day business trip, and I have to run out and enjoy the generous free afternoon I’ve been given to explore Rome (!). If you want to follow along, come join me on Instagram, but be warned, I’m doing my best to make everyone I know jealous. I swear I’m going to make up for it by doing lots of real work on the plane tomorrow, though. I’ll be back with another recipe at the end of the week once I’m home – I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day Weekend!

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Crispy Sea Salt and Vinegar Potatoes with Goat Cheese and Chives

Adapted from Bon Appetit. Serves 3-4 as a side.

2 lb. small Yukon gold potatoes, quartered
1 cup distilled white vinegar
1 TBS sea salt
2 TBS butter
1 TBS malt vinegar
2 oz. goat cheese crumbles
1 TBS chopped fresh chives
flaky sea salt, for finishing

Place the potatoes, vinegar, and sea salt in a large saucepan, and cover by one inch with cold water. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Keep at a gentle boil until potatoes are just tender when poked with a fork, about 20 minutes. Drain.
In a large frying pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add potatoes and saute, stirring occasionally, until they are golden brown and crispy on all sides, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in malt vinegar.
Serve the potatoes sprinkled with goat cheese, chives, and flaky sea salt. Serve hot.

7 May 23, 2014 Food

Back in Ecuador // Pan de Yuca with Guava-Chile Butter

I’m back in Ecuador this week for a quick business trip, so I thought now would be an appropriate time to start sharing some Ecuadorian recipes. I wrote about the things we did on our trip in detail (see: Quito, The Amazon, Banos, Cotopaxi), but I haven’t shared any Ecuador-inspired recipes yet. To be honest, I haven’t had any meals in Ecuador that have really blown my mind, but they do have some solid recipes that are worth sharing. One of my favorites is locro, a creamy potato soup, often served with large chunks of boiled potato and an entire avocado sitting on top. I also love the traditional drink canelazo, a mixture of sour orange juice, cinnamon, and aguardiente, served piping hot to warm you up on cold mountain nights. And the fresh juices made from every fruit imaginable are an amazing addition to the breakfast table.

This recipe for Pan de Yuca with Guava-Chile Butter is actually not something I’ve tried while in Ecuador, but when I saw the recipe in the Ecuadorian section of Jose Garces’ book The Latin Road Home, I wanted to give it a try. Although I can’t say from personal experience whether this is a particularly common recipe in Ecuador, all the ingredients – yuca, queso fresco, guava – are very typical. These rolls are a tasty little snack, salty and savory from the addition of an entire pound (!) of queso fresco to the dough. Served with the sweet guava paste, which is tempered by the deeply savory flavor of black vinegar and the spice of sriracha, it’s a new and interesting way to dress up your pre-dinner bread and butter.

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Pan de Yuca (Yuca-Queso Bread)

Recipe adapted slightly from The Latin Road Home. Makes 16-20 rolls.

1 c. yuca flour (yuca starch)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp granulated sugar
1 lb. queso fresco, finely grated
1 large egg, beaten
2 TBS whole milk
1 TBS unsalted butter, melted
Guava-Chile Butter (recipe below)

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and sugar until evenly mixed. Add the queso fresco, egg, milk, and melted butter and knead with your hands until thoroughly mixed and fairly smooth. Form the dough into 16-20 small round balls. Place on the baking sheet (with space in between, they will spread out as they bake). Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Serve warm with guava-chile butter.

Guava-Chile Butter

Recipe from The Latin Road Home. Makes 4 cups.

One 21-oz can guava paste
1/4 c. Chinese black vinegar, such as Chinkiang
1/4 c. sriracha sauce
2 TBS salted butter, at room temperature

Put the guava paste in a bowl or stand mixer and beat until it is smooth and has lightened in color (this will take some effort if doing by hand!). Add the vinegar, sriracha, and salted butter and beat in until evenly mixed. Store the butter in the fridge in an airtight container.

2 May 19, 2014 Cookbook

Book Club: Frenchie // Grilled Lamb with Fava Beans, Sweet Peas, and Mint Chutney

The Book: Despite the title, Frenchie is not about French food in the classic sense, so anyone looking for a great Boeuf Bourginon or Chocolate Mousse recipe will likely be disappointed. Rather, it’s a collection of recipes from Marchand’s restaurant Frenchie, which with main ingredients like mussels, duck breast, and quince, are certainly influenced by French cuisine, but are not in and of themselves particularly French. Many of the recipes have ingredient combinations that push the envelope even for today’s creative restaurant norms – pairings like blood sausage, burrata, and apple; beef, beets, and horseradish; and quince, chestnut, and chocolate. Certainly not classics, and perhaps a bit unusual sounding at first, but definitely intriguing. There’s lots of page space devoted to the evocative photography, with most recipes getting at least 3 pages dedicated to pictures. Like the recipes, the pictures are not traditional, and are more oriented to the process than glossy shots of the finished dishes. To be honest, some of the appeal of restaurant cookbooks is lost on me when I haven’t had the opportunity to visit the restaurant itself. Frenchie doesn’t have me rushing to the kitchen, but the recipes are solid, creative, and impressive while still being relatively easy to execute at home. It’s not a huge investment in today’s cookbook market, so if you’re a fan of the restaurant, you’ll likely be happy to snag a copy of this little book. Since it’s a slim book, with only 32 recipes in total, if you’re not familiar with Marchand, take a glance at some of the recipes first, to make you see a few things that catch your eye.

The Food: Since we’ve been giving our new grill a pretty good workout since we purchased it a few weeks ago, we decided to continue putting it through its paces with the grilled lamb recipe from Frenchie. It’s a very spring-appropriate dish, with lamb, peas, favas, mint, and tiny new potatoes all on the ingredient list. Most of the preparation is fairly straightforward – a lemon and rosemary marinade for the lamb, a quick blanch for the new potatoes and favas, a butter sauce for the veggies – but the twist comes in the mint chutney used to dress everything. The chutney has faint Indian accents from the toasted cumin seeds and green mango, and really elevates the otherwise staid pairing of lamb and mint to something unique, not to mention delicious. We loved the meal, and also loved how quickly and easily a very balanced dinner came together. I was pleasantly surprised by both the ease and flavor of this recipe, and would certainly make it again, especially for company or a special occasion.

Recipe Shortlist: Wild Garlic Broth with Fresh Crabmeat; Grilled Mackerel with Cauliflower Farrotto and Trout Roe; Smoked Trout with Avocado Puree and Marinated Cucumbers; Bittersweet Chocolate and Wild Strawberry Tart; Spanish Ham, Corn, Bell Peppers, and Kaffir Lime; Pork Braised in Milk with Marinated Fennel; Poached Quinces with Chestnut Cream and Chocolate Shavings; Blood Sausage with Burrata and Apple Chutney

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Disclaimer: I received a review copy of Frenchie from Artisan, but I was not otherwise compensated and all thought and opinions are my own.

Grilled Lamb with Fava Beans, Sweet Peas, and Mint Chutney

For the lamb:

1 rosemary sprig
2 garlic cloves, crushed
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon crushed black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 pieces boneless lamb leg or loin (about 8 ounces/225 grams each)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the vegetable garnish:

16 tiny new potatoes
Coarse sea salt
Olive oil
1¼ pounds (600 grams) sweet peas in the pod (about 1 cup/160 grams shelled peas)
1¼ pounds (600 grams) fava beans in the pod (about 1 cup/160 grams shelled favas)

For the mint chutney:

½ teaspoon cumin seeds
1 small green mango
1 bunch mint
½ bunch cilantro
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter
Piment d’Espelette
Salt
Fleur de sel
Crushed black pepper

The lamb marinade:

Combine the rosemary, garlic, lemon zest, crushed pepper, and olive oil in a baking dish. Add the lamb, turning to coat and rubbing the marinade into the meat. Cover and marinate for at least 4 hours in the refrigerator.

The vegetable garnish:

Meanwhile, put the potatoes in a large pot of cold salted water, bring to a boil, and cook for about 15 minutes, until tender: the tip of a knife should enter the flesh without resistance. Drain the potatoes thoroughly, transfer to a bowl, and add a drizzle of olive oil. Set aside at room temperature.
Shell the peas and refrigerate. Shell the fava beans.
Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Blanch the fava beans in the boiling water for 30 seconds, then drain and immediately transfer to a bowl of ice water to cool. Drain again and peel off the outer skin.
Refrigerate.

The mint chutney:

Toast the cumin seeds in a dry skillet over low heat until fragrant, about 3 minutes; be careful not to burn them.
Peel and pit the mango and cut enough of the flesh into 1⁄2-inch dice to make 1⁄3 cup (the green mango will bring acidity to the chutney without darkening its bright green color); reserve the remaining mango for another use. Remove the leaves from the mint and cilantro stems.
Combine the cumin, mango, and herbs in a blender and blend until finely chopped, while drizzling in about 2 ½ tablespoons olive oil. Season with salt and refrigerate.

Cooking the lamb:

Remove the lamb from the refrigerator about 1 hour before cooking. Fire up an outdoor grill.
Season the lamb with salt and pepper and grill it for about 5 minutes or so on each side, depending on the thickness: when blood starts to bead up on the surface, the lamb will be cooked to medium-rare. Transfer to a plate and let rest for 10 minutes.

Finishing touches:

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large skillet over low heat. Add the peas and cook for 1 minute, then add the potatoes and favas and heat, stirring and tossing the vegetables, until the potatoes are warmed through. Remove from the heat and toss with 1 tablespoon of the chutney. Add a pinch of piment d’Espelette and season with salt to taste.
For the most tender meat, slice the lamb crosswise against the grain.
Divide the vegetables among four plates and add a spoonful of mint chutney to each plate. Arrange the meat alongside and season it with fleur de sel and crushed black pepper.

2 May 16, 2014 Drink

Cheers, It’s Friday // Roman Holiday Cocktail

Hey! It’s Friday! And in honor of Friday, I have a nice fizzy cocktail for you. Actually, it’s a riff on a cocktail I had on Monday (because starting the week is as hard as ending it is relieving) at Coppa, where I enjoyed Trevor’s birthday dinner while he died of allergies across the table from me. I couldn’t recreate the duck prosciutto or the liverwurst platter for him to try with renewed, allergy-free tastebuds, but I could make him another lemony Italian cocktail.

This drink is made from amaro, honey-lemon-rosemary syrup, and a good splash of cold prosecco. I first discovered amaro only a few months ago, but since then I seem to be noticing it on cocktail menus all over the place. It’s an intensely flavored, dark, semi-sweet Italian liqueur that is great when mixed with lighter alcohols and flavors. Trevor said this was the best drink I’ve ever made for the blog – it falls right in the category of dark, not-too-sweet, fairly strong drinks that he likes best. It’s easy to whip up, so get to it – happy hour is almost over.

Roman Holiday Cocktail

Serves 4.

juice from 3 lemons (about 3/4 c. total)
1/3 c. honey
1 sprig rosemary
4 shots (1.5 oz) amaro
1 bottle chilled prosecco
more rosemary, to garnish

Mix lemon juice, honey, and rosemary together in a small pan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then immediately remove from heat, stirring to dissolve honey. Let sit 5 minutes, then refrigerate until chilled.
To make each cocktail, add 1/4 c. of the lemon-honey syrup and 1 shot of amaro to a tall glass. Top off with prosecco, garnish with rosemary, and serve immediately.