grapefruit salad

a much prettier food picture, and more forward looking as well. i'm headed off to belize later this week (crazy, right?!) and can't wait for the tropical fruit salad breakfast to commence. in the meantime, i've been keeping myself busy with a visit from my baby brother, and in the middle of all this new-york style eating (pizza, wings, ramen, crack pie), this fresh, homemade salad looks like a beacon of the spring to come. i actually made it a couple of weeks ago, when the weather was even more dire. the bursts of grapefruit, coupled with the smoothness of the fresh goat cheese was like a burst of summer, and made my cold night seem very misplaced. oddly enough, the peak of grapefruit season is from january through april, so scoop them up while they're still good. this salad is a tasty way to reintroduce your taste buds to bright flavors after the long, dark winter, just like i'll be trying to reintroduce my skin to the concept of sun when i'm in belize. bring on the sunscreen!!

spinach salad with grapefruit

serves 4
4 1/2 cups spinach
1 whole ruby red grapefruit, peeled and cut into segments with a sharp paring knife
2 ounces fresh goat cheese (herbs optional)
sliced almonds

french vinaigrette
1 teaspoon dried herbes de Provence
5 tablespoons white wine vinegar
5 tablespoons olive oil
½ small clove garlic, grated
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon salt

put all ingredients in a jar (if you're going for consistency with the french theme, those bonne maman jelly jars are great for this) and shake it up. dancing while shaking is highly encouraged too.
assemble spinach, crumble goat cheese, dole out the grapefruit, sprinkle almonds, dress with vinaigrette, and eat.

cost:
spinach: $2.50
goat cheese: $4
grapefruit: $1
sliced almonds: $2.00
total: $9.50
per serving: $2.38
for a quick trip to springtime, i'd say close to $3 isn't bad.

burgers i have known

we had a visitor for a couple of weeks this february/march and wanted to make something special to celebrate his arrival. since his last name is burgerman, we naturally wanted to make some special fancy burgers, but in a cruel twist of luck, we discovered he is a vegetarian. maybe his vegetarianism is borne out of a deep concern with the over-commercialized meat industry, or the growing negative effects raising cattle has on our environment, but it could also be fear of not being able to fully live up to the name "burgerman". being a vegetarian just seems easier, i guess.

with a lack of traditional options to choose from, we knew this was the right time to attempt the "BURGERCAKE". friends, i deeply, deeply, regret not showing this to you sooner. it is the pride and joy of this blog and was truly the best burger i have known. (jon, you're a close second!)


after doing loads of online research on burgercakes, we settled on the following items to represent the traditional burger ingredients:

bun: yellow cake, 2 large layers (one bigger than the other)
sesame seeds: puffed rice- rice krispies would have been fine, but since our co-op doesn't carry scary GM food, we had to settle for the hippie variety.
meat: chocolate cake, we only used one round for this, and cut it in half with dental floss. also, carefully cut along the edges of the cake to create the rough, meat-y, look.
mayo: white icing, from a can. i didn't see any other burgercakes with mayo, but grace is from the south, so that means mayo on everything. i'm happy to oblige, because mayo is damn good.
ketchup + mustard: dyed white icing. we used gel dye from wilton. the colors were very rich, but we did use quite a bit of red for the ketchup.
lettuce: dessicated coconut dyed with a bit of green food coloring- i think it's an amazing resemblance!
cheese: if you know me, you know i think a burger without cheese is worst than no burger at all, which is why this burgercake has large slices of mango sandwiched between the two faux meat patties.
there was also quite a bit of chocolate frosting hidden between the layers, because, well, why not?


here is my cheeseburger CD case beside the burgercake so you'll have an idea of scale, i would say it was about 1:4. also, i'd tell you how much it was, but since it was a gift of sorts, it would be a little uncouth. what i can tell you is that the amount of sheer pleasure i got at opening the fridge to this mega-burger was worth at least 10 times the cost.

chocolate croissants + jojo's

if you live near a trader joe's and you like chocolate, you are going to be very glad you read this blog. way back in august, my tito (tito is the diminutive of tio, which means uncle in spanish. the only equivalent word in english is for the female version- auntie. i guess maybe unk?) javo (are you still reading this blog?!) randomly surprised me and my brother with some gift certificates to trader joe's. he also mentioned in passing some frozen chocolate croissants that he loved. i gratefully pocketed the gift certificates and then promptly forgot all about them until this past week. walking home from an impromptu dinner at momofuku ssam bar with grace, we noticed that the usually mobbed trader joe's near union square was suspiciously empty looking. so we stopped in to use the gift cards- and i thankfully remembered about the chocolate croissants! they had them in stock; packs for 4 for about $4 each. i would be ashamed to say to say we got five boxes, but after eating them i realize that it was actually a brilliant move.

coming out of the frozen wrapping they look like nothing special. but if you leave them out at room temperature overnight they transform into these huge clouds of dough. both grace and i were shocked to the point of laughter by how huge they got- like those plastic dinosaurs you get in chinatown that expand almost indefinitely when submurged in water. i was so tempted to poke the soft dough to see if it would deflate, but for the sake of my breakfast, i controlled myself. after about 25 mins. in the oven, we were rewarded with these flaky friends:



oh, and while you're at trader joe's picking these babies up, make sure to get a box of candy cane joe-joes. i'm super late to the delicious train on this, but i've just learned of the crazy goodness that is the joe-joe. a cross between a thin mint and an oreo, with none of the girl scout/nabisco guilt, these totally hit the spot just about any time. a cup of tea and an handful of these did wonders for my sore throat today. or maybe i'm just imagining that?

el quinto pino + craftbar

usually i stay away from restaurant reviews because they're so subjective. i like my food a little more salty than most, love anything cured, and am a sucker for a jelly doughnut. grace loves things i would never order (scallops, for one), and i'm not a savvy enough eater to judge high quality no matter my preference. i'll always prefer in-n-out over this place, for example. but once in a while i come across a dish really extraordinary and immediately i know i've found something that transcends my biased palate. this was the case recently with the two items below:

spanish chicharrón at el qunito pino
i can describe it no better than this flickr description of "bag o' bacon." warm, melty fat sandwiched by salty, crunchy skin; it must be what angels eat to watch movies. because only in heaven could you eat this and not immediately fear for your shortened life expectancy. okay, maybe you'd expect me to like this, but trust me, like doesn't even start to cover how i feel about these friends.

house-made ravioli, goat cheese, medjool dates,
hen of the woods at craft bar
there is no meat in this dish, and i still ordered it, which is usually a sign something might be extremely good. (oh, hen of the woods are mushrooms! confusing, right?) while looking at the menu i kept thinking "goat cheese + mushrooms= good, goat cheese + dates= good, mushrooms + dates= yuck, what is going on here?!?" i am happy to report that what is going on is great. the sweetness of the dates plays off the earthy flavor of the mushrooms, and the goat cheese ties it all together with tang. friendly for vegetarians and meat-eaters alike.

tortilla inspiration

despite always knowing it, i've only recently come to really realize how much attitude plays a part in overall contentment. in the last two weeks, i've felt pretty down, and not just physically. but none of my circumstances had changed, so it was a mystery to me why i was so uninspired and bored. after days of being sick and watching bad tv, i decided to take matters into my own hands. i've started a great new book, nicole krauss' the history of love, read lots of poems, made comfort food, and spent time with friends, all of which have made me feel much more lively. and which i could have done two weeks prior!


my attitude is much improved, and so am i. and of my home-grown remedies, i believe my friends had the most impact. having people around you who stretch themselves gives you the water you need to start growing again. one of those people is my friend miguel.


a while ago, in the midst of his "mex in the city" project, miguel invited us over to have homemade tortillas. having never had homemade tortillas, i was naively thinking they were going to be something akin to those white disks you get at the grocery store. they are not even close. for one, the grocery store tortillas are vegetarian. yes, my meat-loving friends, the secret to excellent homemade tortillas (as this mexican housewife told me) is lard. lard adds richness and lightness and produces an above-par tortilla. and if you're doubting how healthy it is, check out this article in food and wine titled lard: the new health food?

anyway, i don't actually have the recipe, because since i already blurted out the secret ingredients i'm probably not to be trusted with these family recipe heirlooms. but, in looking at these pictures, i do have some much needed inspiration, and a renewed desire to embark on my own projects.

deluge

oh hello again friends. i hope you're having fun on the internets without me. with this wild election season, the onset of fall, and craziest of holidays, halloween, there are many other ways to procrastinate online other than caketime. like maybe watching this painful but endearing video? or checking out this delicious recipe? or indulging yourself by playing this over and over? (maybe that last one is just me) however, without caketime, you'd never have this:


i guess i named this blog right, because here's yet another cake. the cake is via my best cooking lady, nigella lawson, but the decorations are inspired by my love of eyeballs. i'm only a little ashamed to admit i was up way later than i should have been crafting these candy eyeballs. who knew what some colored frosting and halloween candy could do?! fyi, i plan to request this cake at every subsequent celebration i am a part of, if only for the sheer joy of getting to make bloodshot eyeballs out of marshmallows.

old fashioned chocolate cake, via nigella lawson

cake:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup cocoa
1 1/2 sticks soft unsalted butter
2 large eggs (i used three medium eggs- you'd be surprised how much that matters!)
2 teaspoons good-quality vanilla extract
2/3 cup sour cream

frosting:
6 ounces good-quality semisweet chocolate, broken into small pieces
3/4 stick unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon good-quality vanilla extract


preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

put all the cake ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, cocoa, butter, eggs, vanilla, and sour cream into a food processor and process until you have a smooth, thick batter.

divide this batter, using a rubber spatula to help you scrape and spread, into the prepared tins and bake until a cake tester comes out clean,which is about 25 mins. remove the cakes, in their tins, to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes before turning out of their tins. don't worry about any cracks as they will easily be covered by the frosting later.

to make this icing, melt the chocolate and butter in a good-sized bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water. go slowly- you don't want any burning or seizing.

while this is melting, put the powdered sugar into the food processor and pulse to remove lumps.

add the corn syrup to the cooled chocolate mixture, followed by the sour cream and vanilla and then when all this is pour this mixture down the funnel of the food processor onto the powdered sugar, with the motor running.

spoon about 1/3 of the frosting onto the center of the cake-half and spread with a knife or spatula until you cover the top of it evenly. sit the other cake on top, normal way up, pressing gently to sandwich the 2 together.

spoon another 1/3 of the frosting onto the top of the cake and spread it. i used a star tip to make the crazy swirlies, and then a variety of candy and dyed royal icing to make the eyes. candies used included: mini m&m's, malt balls, gummy lifesavers, flavored tootsie rolls, dots and marshmallows.


oh, and if you made it this far, i'm planning on a deluge of posts in the near future, so hopefully i'll get back on your procrastination roster in the near future. besides, what are you going to do after election day?!

nyt chocolate chip cookies

i've sung my mother's praises here before- she's often the inspiration, if not source, for many of the recipes seen on this blog. growing up, she was a diligent and often ambitious cook. she cooked dinner 6 nights a week, and there was equal likelihood that it would be spaghetti or beef wellington. and my mom is filipino! i've always admired her willingness to take risks in the kitchen; since she's very meticulous and good at time management, she'd take on recipes i wouldn't dream of doing. salt, drain, roast, puree and strain eggplants for soup? no thanks, but my mom is already planning what to serve for the main course. around the time i left for college she started seriously baking, which, in retrospect, i'm surprised she hadn't done earlier, considering her fidelity to recipes. for a baker, a recipe is much more mysterious set of instructions, requiring you to follow in blind faith until many mintues later when you can finally determine if your product is edible. my mom will test a recipe 3 times, changing the amount of the most seemingly insignificant ingredients, in order to come up with the very very best version. she should be on America's Test Kitchen.

so when she called me super excitedly about the new york times article on chocolate chip cookies i knew she'd be a good judge of the recipe. unfortunately, since she lives in california and i live in ny, i wouldn't be the recipient of all her testing. but i'm sure my brother and dad are happy. can you guys please find a way to ship me some?



nyt chocolate chip cookies, revised by my mom

45 minutes, plus 36 hours’ chilling

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons cake flour

1 2/3 cups bread flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt

2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups light brown sugar

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract

1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate (60% cacao) chopped

sea salt

sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. set aside.

using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

when ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. set aside.

scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. eat warm, with a big napkin.

yields 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies.

in full swing

summer's upon us now and while this weather would be much more becoming in, say, bermuda, i'm enjoying taking advantage of all the perks of hot, sticky days- like ice cream. if you're in brooklyn, you should check out a new place in prospect heights called blue marble. the sweet-tart strawberry flavor deserves its endearing name.


in the past month, i've discovered my love of flowers, re-painted a room, learned how to sew, and planted what probably amounts to a jungle of tomatoes on my fire escape. a productive month, i suppose, but it somehow it still feels on the precipice of something. there are only a few more days to go, so we'll see what they bring.


in the meantime, in addition to these lovely flowers, i wanted to share with you one of my newest little secrets. i've made mention of my dislike of breakfast before, but this spring it was getting dire. often, i would not eat anything until lunchtime, which obv. didn't bode well for my poor co-workers who asked me anything before noon. in search of a palatable breakfast that involved minimal work and was marginally healthy, i stumbled upon this NPR article with nigella lawson. in addition to the avocado bruschetta, she describes the most ingenious breakfast idea-homemade granola bars. since, grace and i have made these practically every week- each time a little bit differently. in addition, poor planning on my part led to an accidental wonderful discovery- the original recipe is much improved if you use granola instead of oats.


if you, like i, need a little help getting into the full swing of your day, having a homemade breakfast bar studded with dried fruit jewels will most definitely give you a hearty push.

breakfast bars, adapted from nigella lawson

1 can condensed milk
2 1/2 cups granola
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup dried fruit (i usually use cranberries or cherries, but what about pineapple?!)
1 cup mixed seeds (i usually use flax seeds, pumpkin and sunflower)
1 cup nuts (slivered almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, walnuts are all good)


preheat the oven to 250 degrees and spray oil a 9- x 13-inch baking pan. warm the condensed milk in a pan. meanwhile, mix all the other ingredients together and add the warmed condensed milk, using a rubber spatula to fold and distribute. spread the mixture into the oiled pan and press down with a spatula or, better still, your hands (they will get really, really sticky!) to make the surface even. bake for 1 hour, remove, and after about 15 minutes, cut into four across and four down, to make 16 bars. when cool, these keep for a week and a half and are amazing.

cost
condensed milk: $2.50
granola: $3.50
coconut: $1.50
dried fruit: $3.50
nuts: $3.00
seeds: $3.00

total: $17.00
okay, so it is a little expensive, but when you consider you get 16 bars out of this, it amounts to a little over a dollar a bar. this is about 40 cents more than what you'd pay at the grocery for a bar that's probably 2/3's bigger and much, much tastier. i'd say it's worth it.

Hakata Ippudo, or ramen real style

last night i was telling my brother about the ramen at Ippudo and he started laughing. "ramen?" he said incredulously, "like maruchan? you ate that at a restaurant?" that exchange alone is the reason why places like Ippudo are so necessary.

ramen, as known in the majority of the united states, is notoriously maligned as the rock hard brick of dried noodles with the mysterious "flavor" packet. most american kids have had this at one time in their lives (or for my brother and me, many, many times) and forever associate ramen with this semi-edible astronaut-like food. like many other things in life, the real deal ramen is very very different and so much better than the cheap facsimile. (don't get me wrong though, there are times when i crave the fake stuff too.)

real ramen is japanese comfort food, similar to what mac and cheese is to americans, and adobo is to filipinos. it is different in every household, but, like mac and cheese, always has the same basic components: a very flavorful broth, chewy noodles and a smattering of vegetables. there is often also sliced pork. different regions of japan have different specialties, mainly differing on ingredients that make up the broth. in nyc, there a couple great ramen places, but almost all of them match the hole-in-the-wall, night-after-drinking, vibe of the typical ramen places cluttering japan's main metropolises. other than momofuku noodle bar, Ippudo is the only place i know of in NYC where ramen in served in a more upscale setting, hopefully introducing ramen newbies to the deliciousness that is pork broth.


shown here are the two options for ramen at ippudo: the paler broth is the white pork based ramen, Shiromaru, which is smoother and less assertive, while the darker "red" broth, Akamaru, is the bolder, porkier flavor. each bowl came with some heavenly slices of tender, fatty pork. seriously, if you like pork as much as i do, just those slices are worth the visit. i also had an appetizer of larger, cube-like slices of fatty pork, which i will forever fail to describe the deliciousness of. a pork-lover's dream, i'll tell you that much.

apparently, the genuis behind Ippudo is Shigemi Kawahara, also known as the ramen king in japan. he's won numerous prizes for his ramen, and treated with the reverence fit for a king there. and one other tangetial bit of information: the momofuku restaurant chain was named after the inventor of the modern instant ramen, Momofuku Ando.

new york city ice-cream round-up

thanks jessie for the pic from sundaes and cones

it's daffodil time now, which is a sure sign that summer is around the corner. i'm looking forward to the hot summer days, when eating ice-cream at all hours is socially acceptable again. i'm not looking forward to getting fat, but hey, i'll walk around a lot, right? here's my round-up of ice-cream places in new york city, plus a little fun for my buddies in the bay.

1. brooklyn ice cream factory
a tourist destination since brooklyn became a new hot spot, it's still worth braving the bus loads of people for fluffy, creamy, ice cream in homey seasonal flavors. the peach is studded with real peaches and the blueberry is rightfully a light blue. the waterfront view of lower manhattan and the brooklyn bridge, plus walt whitman's words inscribed in the railing of the promenade (it's from "crossing brooklyn ferry" and always makes me teary eyed) makes it a must-visit on a warm summer night. you'll be glad you live in new york and the other's are just visiting.
brooklyn ice cream factory
1 Water Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201

2. sundaes and cones
if you, like me, are a fan of banana ice cream, this is the place to go. while the more traditional flavors are good, it's the unique flavors that make this stand out as a worthwhile ice-cream destination. the lychee is superb- bright yet creamy, as is the banana. and i can't wait to try the black sesame, wasabi and corn. also a favorite is the fun purple taro flavor, which is almost mousse-like in its texture and a great balance of sweet and starchy that is hard to come by in taro-flavored foods. (taro is a purple yam, also called ube, and is similar to a sweet potato in taste)
sundaes and cones
95 East 10th Street, between 3rd and 4th
New York, NY 10003


3. uncle louie g
if you grew up on long island, you're probably well-acquainted with the uncannily creamy uncle louie g's ice. ice's aren't popular on the west coast, so for those of you confused: ice's are similar to sorbets, but can be made to resemble almost any ice-cream flavor in a low-fat way, peanut butter chocolate is one of their best. i had a chance to speak to the owner (who isn't louie g, btw, but who had an uncle named louie g) about his success and he expressed the most pride over how similar his ice's were to regular ice cream. i also asked him what his favorite flavor of ice cream (uncle louie g's also serves regular ice cream) is and he responded with chocolate fudge brownie, which i promptly ordered. if you're looking for a "takes me back to childhood" treat, complete with the sticky hands and messy mouth, this is it.
uncle louie g
various locations

4. il laboratorio del gelato
ciao bella's gelatos and sorbets are all over grocery store shelves now, but the original founder (who sold ciao bella when he was 19!) decided he was unhappy with the quality and opened his second ice-cream endeavor, called il laboratorio del gelato in 2002. they are open very odd hours (basically business hours) and operate out of a very small storefront, so it is challenging to actually try the ice cream. but with flavors like lemon basil sorbet and honey lavender gelato, it is worth the effort. extra bonus for the tenement museum around the corner, which i highly recommended.
il laboratorio del gelato
95 Orchard Street, b/t Broome and Delancey
New York, NY 10002

6. shake shack
not a typical ice-cream only destination, danny meyer's ridiculously popular burger stand in madison square park also serves up some of the best frozen treats in the city. the concretes, which are a take-off on DQ's blizzard, give you the option of adding in valrhona chocolate chunks, a definite departure from the DQ options. in addition to the everyday frozen custard options (just like soft serve ice-cream) there is also a cast of various rotating flavors through the summer months. this april, passion fruit pineapple, salted caramel, and lemon verbena are among the offerings.
shake shack
Madison Sq. Park and 23rd Street
New York, NY

for my friends by the bay, check out these ice-cream parlors, which i frequented when living/visiting there.

1. mitchell's ice cream
a long line outside a tiny storefront almost always means good things inside, and the long, long, long lines outside mitchell's are no exception. but flavors like buko (young coconut), passion fruit, and mango are rare, and standard flavors, like chocolate caramel crackle, are done right. a fun adventure for a lazy afternoon.
mitchell's ice cream
688 San Jose Avenue (right after it changes from Guerrero) and 29th Street
San Fransisco, CA

2. fenton's creamery
my brother took me here for a christmas present and one look at the old-fashioned seats, the homemade ice-cream and the over-sized toppings bar, told me my brother knows me very well and loves me very much. we split a banana split half the size of my body and i have photographic evidence to prove that we indeed finished the entire thing. i hope to make fenton's a yearly tradition, although maybe we need to order more manageable portions?
fenton's creamery
4226 Piedmont Ave.
Oakland, CA 94611

nutella sandwiches

enough of the boring stuff, what about eating?! we all must be rewarded for enduring the blah blah blahs about money. and what better reward than that true food of the gods, nutella? i don't know how they got it to be that good; i have suspicions of semi-illegal ingredients hidden in the jar, but never mind. it's the closest you can get to crack at the grocery store. let's just be grateful.

back in my school days, the preferred nutella vehicle was just a big spoon, or maybe if you were really daring/lazy, your finger. now, we're all adults and while we still can't break our addiction we can at least indulge in more sophisticated methods. although, to be honest, the method below is hardly sophisticated- all the ingredients can be bought from your local grocery store and assembled in about 10 mins. dress it up with some home-made raspberry sauce and you've got the dreamiest, creamiest, most luscious sandwich ever. maybe i'm groveling a little to make up for the last posts, but you can't say i'm subtle.


nutella sandwiches

1 pound cake; Sara Lee frozen is good.
nutella

slice pound cake 1/4 inch thick. spread with nutella and cover with another piece of pound cake. using a grill pan and a heavy skillet, or a sandwich press, press together until warm on the inside and slightly crispy on the outside.

you can also use good french bread and a little sea salt. i've also seen nutella used as a filling in deep fried ravioli, using pre-made wonton wrappers (thanks giada!) i'm sure you can put nutella on broccoli and it would be amazing. more experimenting with nutella to come...

mashed spiced sweet potatoes

here’s a little secret: grace cooks a lot too. in fact, she is a great cook and often tries out recipes i’m intimidated by: fried chicken, homemade pasta, pies. i’m good at more forgiving recipes and i have real knack for making lemonade out of lemons. i mean this both metaphorically and literally, but mostly metaphorically. inevitably, something goes horribly wrong in the kitchen and next thing you know there are plumes of smoke rising from the oven, or the top wasn’t screwed on tight enough and –oops!- there is more than enough salt in there, even for me. more often it's the “hey it's time for dinner and all we have is....tuna?” dilemma. when these things happen, i usually take over. the results are never as bad as i think they’ll be, but there are few and far between that are actually good. these sweet potatoes are great.
it started out innocuously enough. i wanted to make roasted sweet potatoes, as per my easy roasted vegetables recipe. what i didn’t count on, but i know now, is that the high sugar content in sweet (duh!) potatoes makes them much more unpredictable than regular potatoes, and thus they cannot be given the same treatment as their starchier cousins. not knowing that at the time, i coated them in olive oil, sprinkled them with salt, and roasted them. at the end of the allotted time, i opened up the oven and to my shock, saw this:



now as anyone who has had a disaster in the kitchen knows, the first instinct you have upon discovering a disaster is to throw the whole thing out and order chinese. i was on my way to doing that when i realized, upon picking up the sweet potato, that the interior was soft. hey, i thought, what if i just scrape out the inside and mash them a little? i did just that, adding some cream, spices and sugar. oh man, it was good. creamy, sweet, and warm, it would have been perfect with some pork chops. maybe next time...

here's another, better recipe than my own- amended to add the same spices
mashed spiced sweet potatoes , adapted from america's test kitchen

2 pounds sweet potatoes (3 medium) peeled, quartered lengthwise and sliced 1/4 inch thick
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into four pieces
4 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch cumin, nutmeg and cloves
salt and pepper to taste

combine all ingredients in a large sauce pot. cover and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes fall apart when poked with a fork- about 40 minutes. remove pan from heat and mash potatoes with a masher until smooth. you won't have funny burnt alien potatoes, but you'll still have a delicious creamy dinner.

franny's

amazingly, down the block from my apartment just happens to be one of the best casual places to eat in all of new york. and i'm not alone in this assessment either. in the past month, i've been to franny's three times and each time the menu was almost entirely different, due to their commitment to farm-fresh produce, but it was consistently very thoughtful and delicious.

while it is billed as an upscale pizza place, i don't often order pizza. it is good pizza, of course, but nyc has lots of great pizza to offer and i'd rather go to a place like grimaldi's or difara's if i want the real pizza experience. also, i'm not a huge pizza fan. what is really remarkable about franny's are the smaller appetizer dishes, which are unique and inspiring.

recent dishes i've ordered: (just paraphrasing here- the menu sounds much fancier)

salad of bitter greens with an anchovy vinaigrette
potato croquettes (the server explained that they looked like dunkin' donuts' munchkins!)
beets with peppers, walnuts and cheese (which i'm attempting to re-create at home)
coddled egg on crostino with bottarga (bottarga is dried fish roe shavings)
homemade pancetta on crostino with french butter
vanilla panna cotta with saba (like an italian flan)

yes, all of it was lovely, even the salad. i'm not a fan of bitter foods, so i was surprised when i liked this. the only downside to franny's is that it is a little expensive for my budget- around $30 per person for a meal.

last time i was there was on a six-person excursion (as the party liked to call it) and we had a hell of a time figuring out the bill. below was our attempt. one of the worst feelings is going out to dinner with friends and feeling like you paid more than you should have. this elaborate tally, however dorky, ensured that no one had to feel cheated.

Franny's

flushing food court

one of the greatest things about new york city, and i’m sure any major city in the world, is that there are small microcosms within that conjure up an entirely different time and place. main street flushing is one of those places. within its 15 square blocks you almost exclusively surrounded by the sounds, and sights, of mainland, urban, china (well, minus the increased car chaos). this is very different from what it is like in a “chinatown”, primarily because flushing does not care about tourism and selling those ubiquitous red lanterns you see in every chinatown shop.

grace and i go to flushing pretty often and one of our stops is almost always a tiny stall in the flushing mall’s food court. for $4 you can get a roasted pork ramen with hand pulled noodles. and by “hand-pulled noodles” i don’t mean some quaint style of pre-prepared noodle. i mean “pull off a chunk of dough and stretch it multiple times until it is as thin as spaghetti right before your very eyes”.
dropped in a pool of hot broth, the noodles are ready in a couple minutes and served garnished with your choice of meat or vegetables. i prefer roast pork and cilantro.

the only downside to the whole experience is that i cannot speak any language other than english. it is embarrassing, to say the least and, my father will never cease to remind me, extremely short-sighted. even though one of my resolutions this year is to learn spanish, it will still get me nowhere in asking for hand-pulled noodles. usually i just point and motion, but on this particular trip there was no one in sight with my preferred meal and i ended up trying to explain what i wanted through many misunderstandings. so instead of hand-pulled noodles, i got hand-sliced noodles, which was equally fascinating. a great log of dough was brought out and a sharp knife was used to slice thin sections off the log and into the broth.

in addition to the ramen, we also got some pork buns, cream buns and bubble tea. all in all, a successful day for eating.

Flushing Mall

korean fried chicken

brunch rut is a common phenomenon in nyc; there is a rotating cast of restaurants you like and frequent for brunch. and then, one day, you hate them all. they are boring, have long waits, have nothing you want to eat and are completely and totally uninspired. it was on one of those days a couple weekends ago that i discovered what may be the most delicious food in the world.

because there were no appealing brunch places in park slope, we piled into the car, picked up some friends, and headed to that wonderland of ethnic food, queens. if you live in nyc and you ever experience brunch rut, the fastest remedy i can prescribe is a trip to queens- a place you can find a halo-halo, sag paneer, bahn mi, and cannoli all within 70 blocks.

on this particular trip we were headed to the flushing mall, for some hand-pulled noodles. we had also decided to make a brief stop in the korean part of queens to sample the craze of korean fried chicken, which, being the fried chicken lover i am, i was embarrassed not to have already tried. luckily we had brought our friend jen along, who not only is korean, but also frequented this part of flushing quite a bit growing up. this proved to be a very wise move on our part.

upon arrival to the korean fried chicken place, the first thing i noticed was the high-design concept; multi-colored plastic chairs, an adorably mistranslated mural, and bright, bright colors. the second thing i noticed was that it was empty. this combination, frequently found in sub-par thai places, made me immediately skeptical. looking at the menu i was surprised to discover only two varieties of chicken. in my mind, i had envisioned more permutations that KFC, probably because, as national crazes go, americans like variety. jen took the lead and ordered us a large basket of half regular, half spicy chicken. immediately after taking our order, we were served two dishes: one of shredded cabbage with a thousand island dressing, and another of pickled radishes. this reminded me of why i love korean food so much in first place (in fact, it is my *favorite* cuisine)- the free banchan- little savory dishes that come before your main meal. this was a particularly lucky break for us, because hope, the other friend on this excursion, is a vegetarian and couldn’t eat the fried chicken. but she does love a radish.

soon, the fried chicken arrived. i am not kidding you when i say that i literally took one bite and a goofy grin broke across my face. you can ask my friends. i was totally, immediately smitten. i’ll break it down for you:

1. the chicken pieces were smaller, so there was a higher skin/meat ratio
2.the skin was deep fried to a thin, crispy perfection while the meat was still moist and juicy
3. the spices in the skin were not the bland ones you come to expect from normal fried chicken, instead there was a slightly sweet soy-garlic flavor explosion somehow infused in the skin

everyone knows that the true appeal of fried chicken is the crunchy skin/moist meat combo. by essentially doubling that experience with smaller pieces, this chicken also introduced a whole new element to my previous fried chicken experiences- flavor. i think this is why i like buffalo wings so much- the addition of flavor- but these were much, much better. and as much as i liked the regular flavor, the spicy was even better. only for people with a serious love for spicy foods- jen being one of these people, grace couldn’t handle it- these are *really* spicy, although still retaining flavor and not just deadeningly spicy. we must have eaten the bucket in 5 mins. flat. from now on, this is my new favorite food- hands down.

after washing up (boy, was i a mess!), we attempted to find directions to a korean grocery that jen had mentioned on the way into queens. after finding it and buying much more food than anyone needs (it all looked so delicious! and there was no way i could find this stuff in brooklyn!) we headed over to the flushing mall.

Kyedong Korean Fried Chicken

Han Ah Reum Grocery

doughnut plants

when i was in high school, my mom started a habit of going to the gym in the morning. after her workout, she'd pass by the local bakery and bring home doughnuts for me, my father and brother. i don't know if it was a way to fatten us up so that her resulting weight loss would be even more pronounced, or if it was just a misguided attempt to please her breakfast-hungry family, but either way, i grew up eating ,and loving, doughnuts.

naturally, when i moved to NY i was excited by the ubiquitous dunkin donuts, but soon found their doughnuts stale and too sugary. since, i've moved on to greener pastures.

a round-up of my very favorite doughnuts:

1. doughnut plant
old time doughnuts re-created loving by hand by mark, who uses his grandfather's recipe from the early 1900's. he used to deliver them by bicycle all over the city, but has since opened up a tiny storefront in the lower east side. the history is cute, but the doughnuts are unreal; meyer lemon, valrona chocolate, pomegranate, peanut butter and jelly. there is a place near my work that stocks them and whenever i have a bad day, i pick one up on the way home and inhale it before i get to the end of the block. sometimes, if the day is really bad, before i even get to the front door. this is probably the main reason i'm not getting any skinnier.
(i just checked the website and they just opened a new location in seoul, korea. seemingly random, i feel this is my personal calling to move to korea, having just discovered the revolutionizing joys of korean fried chicken this past weekend.)
Doughnut Plant
379 Grand Street
NY, NY 10002

2. craft
its a little clichéd in the foodie world to mention craft, tom colicchio's flagship restaurant, especially since he is now known as "the bald guy on top chef", but i actually really love the food. i love the entire restaurant; the soothing rothko decor, the heavy copper pots and the sweetly delivered breakfast treats wrapped up to go at the end of the meal (last time it was a chocolate chip scone). and for dessert they have doughnuts: airy, light, warm, sugar-cinnamony (is that a word?) little balls served with various jams and dips. what's there not to love?
Craft
43 East 19th Street
New York, NY 10003
Other locations in LA, Atlanta and Dallas

3. peter pan
i found this place by accident when grace was picking me up in the car from greenpoint. we were driving by and i saw a sign for doughnuts. i yelled at her to stop and i hopped out, shortly returning with a creme-filled one that cost me less than a dollar. (thanks grace for all your patience with me!) little did i know this was a well-known and celebrated place. i found out shortly after i ate the doughnut, because things this good are never secrets.
Peter Pan Bakery
727 Manhattan Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11211

4. krispy kreme
it would be wrong to omit this from my list just because it is controversial; some people hate it because it is too sweet, mushy, etc etc. but if you've ever had a hot one right off the conveyor belt, you know this is pretty close to doughnut nirvana.
Krispy Kreme
Various Locations

5. jelly filled doughnut in vieques, pr
i was in puerto rico last year and right by the main ferry on the tiny island of vieques was a hole-in-the-wall bakery that had all sorts of delicious looking goods, as well as jelly doughnuts. i don't know if it was because i was in a tropical paradise, or the salty air, but this doughnut was divine. i have a very embarrassing picture of me eating it looking CRAZY. i guess that's what i look like when i eat...?

spritzers

my favorite drink to order at bars is a shirley temple. i don't usually drink alcohol and a shirley temple is a festive alternative to water, which i occasionally ask for as well. however, it is getting annoying to always be looked at little funny whenever i order one- as if the only legitimate reason i'd want one was for my kid. hey, it's not my fault the most popular mixed non-alcoholic drink was named after a child star! i'm always so grateful when bars have a menu of non-alcoholic drinks as well; i feel like mixed juices are so underrated.

at home, i'm always experimenting with different combinations. i guess these are technically called "mocktails", but i hate that word. and anyway, these are not a mockery of anything; in fact, they are often more delicious and unique than regular cocktails. let's agree then, to just call them spritzers, which evokes a kind of country-club languor that we could all use a little more of.

spritzers

my standard: concord grape juice and lemon-lime seltzer

holiday: pomegranate juice and lime seltzer, garnished with a twist of lime

summer: pureed cantaloupe, muddled mint and soda water

morning: pulpy, fresh-squeezed orange juice with a dash of pomegranate juice

exotic: lychee syrup with pellegrino, garnished with a candied ginger slice

lemonades: you can use homemade, or doctor store-bought
--muddled (mint and strawberries)
--with mango nectar
--with passion fruit nectar

if you have time: you can make your own grenadine, so that you can have your shirley temples right at home!

(the picture above is from a restaurant in tivoli, ny. i had a blueberry mint lemonade and grace had a watermelon lime punch)

roasted

due to the park slope food co-op, i'm in the lucky position to always have fresh, cheap, organic vegetables at my disposal. i've had to be adventurous and creative in order to take full advantage of this abundance, coming up with recipes like asparagus lasagna, or putting radishes in every salad. (thanks to emily's mom and hope for the inspirations!)

sometimes though, i'm just lazy, and whenever that happens i have a fool-proof method for putting something delicious, homey and attractive on the table. at first, i thought it was too boring to share, or too simple- but that's the best kind of recipe, right?

roasted squash and cherry tomatoes

heat oven to 425F.
cut 3 small yellow squash into halves, cross wise and then cut each half into approx. 8 matchsticks. cut 1 pint of cherry tomatoes across the middle.

toss both in large bowl with 3 tablespoons good quality extra virgin olive oil, about 5-7 grinds of black pepper and 1-2 teaspoons salt (i like my food salty!). i also use about 3-4 sprigs of fresh thyme leaves- i think it makes all the difference.

lay out on a foil covered baking sheet, arranging vegetables in one layer.

roast for 30-40 minutes, just until the tomatoes begin to burst.

jewel cookies

i think magazine subscriptions are really great gifts- they're relatively cheap, more than a one-time gift, and, if they're a cooking magazine, provide endless inspiration. i recently started subscribing to Gourmet and the holiday issue was truly inspirational. in addition to the raspberry and mint lollipops and the peppermint marshmallows there was a recipe for these jam-filled shortbread cookies. since one of my favorite cookies are the pepperidge farms verona's, the strawberry jam filled butter cookies i would eat in a circle, saving the jam part for last, i figured these would be a winner in the taste department. an added bonus was how pretty they were in the picture, like little jeweled ornaments for a christmas tree.

make up a batch for christmas, or anytime, actually. i'm going to make them again soon.

jeweled trios

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
three different kinds of jams, i used golden fig, raspberry and blackberry

make dough:
whisk together flour and salt. beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, about 4 mins, then beat in egg and vanilla. at low speed, mix flour mixture in 3 batches just until a dough forms. divide dough in half and form each piece into a 6 inch disk, then chill, wrapped in plastic, until firm, about an hour. you can chill it for up to 3 days, if needed.

assemble and bake cookies:
preheat oven to 350F with rack in the middle. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
roll three separate level teaspoons of dough each into a ball, then flatten each ball slightly with your fingertips. arrange them in a triangle with the edges touching. using the non-spoon end of a wooden spoon, press an indentation onto each of the three flattened balls. fill the teaspoons with jam, but do not overfill. bake until cookies are baked through and golden brown on edges, about 13 mins. in my oven. cool on baking sheets for five minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely. store with parchment sheets between layers of cookies.