BLT Sandwich

Being upstate with my mother always sends my mind (and stomach) wandering down memory lane, remembering the tastes, textures, and times of my childhood in Los Angeles. My parents are both wonderful chefs in their own right but my father was the one that predominantly held court over the kitchen. Whenever she cooked Dorothy would delight my brother, sister, and me with classic American fare derived from the notebooks and index cards left by our grandmother. She also whips up an incredible Indian spread that takes three full days to prepare, a real treat when it happens. Of the many dishes that evoke home and my mom’s cooking, BLT and grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup are high on the list. I remember tons of lazy weekend lunches composed of a half sandwich and a small bowl of hot soup enjoyed on a rainy Sunday for example. Even though BLTs are incredibly simple to prepare, my mother’s were always the best, loaded with crisp bacon, fresh romaine, sliced tomato, and mayo. What could be better? I woke up yesterday craving bacon and decided to have an early lunch of BLTs and limeade. I recently discovered limeade and man is it good but that’s another story. I used fresh rye and caraway bread that my mom made to give my BLT a gourmet element and tons of bacon cooked well-done. Before I knew it I was enjoying a fantastic sandwich while remembering the meals of my youth. It is important to have foods that remind you of home, family, and friends and this simple sandwich is one of those nostalgic dishes. As always, I encourage you to enjoy and share delicious food and home cooked meals with yourself and others!

Sliders & Cupcakes Upstate

Easter is a holiday best spent in the company of family and friends; an excuse to get together and just laze about whether decorating eggs, eating and drinking, or going to church. Valerie and I decided to drive up to my mother’s charming place in the Catskills dubbed Red Hen Farm for a long Easter weekend. It is wonderful to spend time up here, getting out of the urban bustle of the city in favor of the tranquility of the picturesque countryside. This is truly the perfect place to celebrate Easter, profit from the beauty of early spring, and of course enjoy delicious meals. Last night was our first of the long weekend and I was a little shocked though excited about the menu she had planned; sliders with onion rings and red velvet cupcakes. My mother made little patties out of ground chuck for a dinner party recently and had a few leftover in the fridge that she thawed and pan seared. She then laid out an array of sliced vegetables, condiments, and cheeses so that each person could prepare his or her own slider. The first slider I had, photographed on the left, was topped with Jasper Hill blue cheese, romaine lettuce, ketchup, and stone-ground mustard. The zestiness of the blue cheese reminiscent of French Roquefort paired well with the beef and mustard, a really tasty burger if I may say. My second slider had curried mayonnaise, (a dip my mother has been making for decades which is one of the best things ever), sliced tomato, farmhouse cheddar, and red onion.

Onion rings are another bar or diner classic that I love though I have never attempted to make them at home so I was excited about watching my mother fry them up. These onion rings and fried cauliflower were light and crisp with an airy batter which browned up nicely in vegetable oil. The batter was almost like a tempura batter with few ingredients and a lot of air to evenly coat the sliced onion and cauliflower florets. The problem I have with crappy onion rings is that the onion inside overly dense batter gets soggy, losing the characteristic bite and texture of fresh onion. These onion rings were delicately crisp on the outside and just cooked through inside, addictively good dipped in a little ketchup or curried mayonnaise. Now I know that delicious onion rings can be pulled off at home with a little know how and the bravado to do so.

The dessert, as if we needed one after all that fried food, was red velvet cupcakes. My mother whipped these tasty dark red confections from scratch, following Paula Dean’s recipe from the Lady and Sons cookbook. Her frosting was a classic cream cheese and melted marshmallow blend spread thickly over the crown of each cupcake then topped with toasted coconut and a white jellybean. The little Easter cupcakes resembled a bed of straw with a freshly laid chicken egg, both festive and delicious which my mother accomplishes in spades. More to come from Red Hen Farm over the next few days and as always, I encourage you to enjoy and share delicious food and home cooked meals with yourself and others!

Stormy Monday Breakfast

Poached eggs are a delectable treat indeed though they seem somehow beyond the reach of an amateur cook or home kitchen. This was in fact my view of the light, beautifully cooked, delicate clouds that are poached eggs. I recently made a French bistro classic with frisee, crispy lardons, and a poached egg which prompted me to discover how to poach at home. Like any self-respecting twenty something raised in the technological era, I began to madly Google away. I quickly compiled twelve separate links to detailed how-to-poach sites and experimented with a few different methods. I had it nailed after three eggs after trying to achieve the right runniness for my frisee salad last week. I woke up this past Monday to a stormy early spring haze of rain and dense humidity spliced with the occasional thunderclap. I knew it was going to be a breakfast of whatever I had in the fridge and thankfully there was ample bread and my mother’s farm fresh eggs. I am not saying that I am already a pro, but let’s just say that I had two large eggs poached to airy bliss in a matter of minutes. Here is what I suggest if you want to perfectly poach an egg at home: Set a deep skillet or wide mouthed pan filled with 3 inches of water to a boil, covered. When the water boils, remove lid and add white vinegar and salt. Crack the eggs into individual teacups then submerge the lip of each individual cup into the water, letting each delicately flow out. Cover immediately, turn off the heat, and let stand for 3 minutes.

To complete my stormy Monday breakfast, I placed two perfectly poached eggs over two large pieces of French country bread and cracked my most recent Internet find for a taste. I was surfing online culinary magazines and daily email sites two weeks ago and stumbled across a gastronomic oddity that people were raving about; bacon jam. Jam. Made from bacon. I was impressed and definitely had to try it. I ordered myself a little tin of bacon jam, which they claim is delicious on pancakes, and could not wait to try it. My Monday breakfast was the ripe moment to taste the delicious yet bizarre pork condiment full of bacony flavor, nice smoke, and a mellow spiced sweetness. It was especially good spread liberally on the toast supporting one of the eggs; a nest built for a queen in my opinion. As always, I encourage you to enjoy and share delicious food and home cooked meals with yourself and others!

A Moroccan Style Meal

Last night I invited a few college friends that live in the city over for dinner and drinks. The past two weeks have been very nostalgic due to a sudden wave of college buddies passing through New York. Last night was very much in this vein, an especially wistful evening because my friends Shawna and Jessica had not seen each other since graduation. I was so pleased to provide the forum for their reunion and thrilled for the opportunity to finally cook for Shawna. I thought it would be interesting to present and serve dinner Moroccan style with dishes shared mutually mirroring the food I encountered during my travels around North Africa. When I was fourteen I went on a ten-day tour of Morocco with my two best friends and our mothers. It is hard to imagine three women touring an Arabic country with three young boys without a male escort but we did just that and had a great time doing it. We ate wonderful dishes like tagine and couscous, pastilla, and whole-roasted goat perfumed with all sorts of spices and native ingredients. The first of the trio of appetizers I prepared inspired by my time there was herbed ricotta with olive oil, oregano, parsley, and chives. Creamy fresh ricotta has a mild flavor that pairs excellently with flavorings, condiments, and seasonings like fresh herbs. The second appetizer was Italian hummus or white bean puree. Cannelloni beans are absolutely amazing blended with olive oil and garlic into a smooth puree with a luscious texture. The third was a blend of French and Tunisian olives symbolic of the culinary links between North Africa and France, one of the many lasting effects of colonialism. I served the three small dishes with tons of crispy crostini; a baguette thinly sliced and baked in the oven.

The main course was also inspired by the pungent and exotic flavors characteristic of Moroccan cuisine. I roasted a boneless leg of lamb stuffed with garlic and seasoned liberally with salt, pepper, and a touch of turmeric. To add another dimension of Moroccan flavor I made a yogurt dressing with ground cumin and chopped mint drizzled over the sliced meat; a refreshing sauce that dimmed down the gamey flavor of the lamb. The first side dish was a black radish slaw tossed with Dijon and cider vinaigrette boasting a powerful kick reminiscent of horseradish and hot mustard. The second side dish was French lentils simmered with shallots and beef stock intended to deepen their woody flavor. Overall the meal was quite a success though the white bean puree was the clear favorite. The plan was to reconnect with old friends and the Moroccan style presentation reinforced that commensal vibe. When you have people that you have not seen in a while a central plate is exactly what you want; good food shared communally with good friends. As always, I encourage you to enjoy and share delicious food and home cooked meals with yourself and others!

Bistro Classics

I have no idea why but I have recently been reminiscing a ton about France. This may be because I have not visited Paris in a few months or the fact that the price of Roquefort will be skyrocketing soon. There are a lot of things to miss about France, though I think the food and the magic that is Gallic commensality top my list. I sheepishly admit the all-to-frequent cravings for a gritty bistro steak au poivre, as cliché as it sounds, with an over dressed salad and stale baguette. Ah yes, the timeless bistro grub found across the octagon from the smallest village to the capital herself. A tall glass of vin du jour usually makes the meal go down a little easier and you simply cannot recreate the café life of Paris though many restaurants strive to. Steak au poivre can be ordered, eaten, and enjoyed in any self-respecting French restaurant and other classics can be pulled off with relative ease in the hands of a capable cook. At times when I feel nostalgic it is fun to cook up some truly froggy dishes that transport me to the smoke filled (this is a dated vision of the city of lights) café or bistro. While riding the train back up to my apartment earlier this evening I was struck by a sudden vision of a crisp frisee salad packed with lardons, topped with a poached egg. I set about realizing my epiphanous dinner at once, using bacon instead of the French lardons which are a bit harder to get a hold of. Lardons are small pieces of pork fat that taste like glorified bacon. They add a distinctly rich, salty flavor to food and are also used to lard meat in a roast to help keep it moist throughout cooking. I would say that I hit the mark with my frisee salad, effectively voyaging across the Atlantic for a fleeting culinary moment through this bistro favorite. As always, I encourage you to enjoy and share delicious food and home cooked meals with yourself and others!

Frisee, Lardons, And Poached Egg Salad
Serves 4

1 Large head of Frisee (about 4 C.), separated, washed, and drained
1/2 C. Lardons or 6 strips of thick cut Bacon
1 Tbs. White Vinegar
4 Eggs
1 Tbs. Whole grain Mustard
1 Tsp. Sherry or Cider Vinegar
2 Tbs. Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

1. Place frisee in a large bowl. Set a deep skillet or wide mouthed pan filled with 3 inches of water to a boil, covered, over high heat.
2. Heat a medium skillet over medium heat and render lardons or bacon until crispy. Remove from heat, drain well, and set aside.
3. Whisk together cider and mustard until emulsified then drizzle in olive oil while stirring vigorously. Season vinaigrette with salt and pepper and set aside.
4. When the water boils, remove lid and add white vinegar and salt. Crack eggs into four individual bowls, teacups, or ramekins. Submerge the lip of each individual egg dish into boiling water, letting each egg delicately set in the water. Cover immediately, turn off the heat, and let stand for 2.5 to 3 minutes.
5. While the eggs are poaching, quickly toss frisee and bacon with vinaigrette and arrange on individual plates. Top each salad with a poached egg and serve immediately.