Wintry Deliciousness

Butternut squash is a versatile vegetable and a fall superstar to boot. It is currently showcased on the menus of hundreds if not thousands of restaurants in one or more of its various incarnations. Whether gnocchi or soup, stewed or steamed, baked or fried, butternut squash is a tasty treat that I welcome every fall. November and December are slim pickings at the farmer’s market though there is a veritable surfeit of root vegetables, apples, and gourds of all shapes and sizes. I love butternut squash and have strived to perfect a home cooked version of the nutty, creamy, bright orange soup that heralds Thanksgiving time. I invited a few friends over for dinner, one of which tends to lean towards vegetarianism, for a wintry feast of soup and wild mushroom risotto. Butternut squash has such a wonderful sweet flavor of its own, which I tried to highlight with the addition of chicken stock for richness and a few spices to kick it up. I served the soup in a little mug with a side of sliced degorged cucumbers tossed with olive oil and Sichuan pepper for color and freshness.

The second course was a wild mushroom risotto topped with grated
Parmesan. Risottos are very makes the best and most authentic Italian risottos that serve as a base for a whole slew of possible dishes. Add your favorite meats, vegetables, or both and experiment with possible combinations. In this case I used dried morel and fresh crimini mushrooms and more of the chicken stock I had used for the soup. It was a delicious winter feast that was thoroughly enjoyed by all before we sat down to watch the second season of “Twin Peaks”. Even the vegetarian was happy. As always, I encourage you to enjoy and share delicious food and home cooked meals with yourself and others!

Wednesday Farm Supper

My father, the Frenchman with exceptional culinary prowess, recently came to pay me a visit on his way to Los Angeles. It is always nice to have his company and we usually end up sharing the majority of our time surrounded by delicious food and wine. As I have mentioned in previous posts, my father has been a major influence and inspiration on both my cooking and my sense of taste. Ever since I was old enough to safely handle a knife and work with hot pans, I have been helping him in the kitchen. I have mostly served as his sous-chef by prepping ingredients and letting him take the reigns when it comes to crafting and presenting dishes. We got a chance to cook together recently one rainy fall night for a couple of friends, Valerie and Mike. My father is a big fan of farm fresh seasonal produce, for good reason and has thankfully passed down his love of farmer’s markets. I like to think that I have also inherited his improvisational style in the kitchen that I credit to jazz notably Thelonious Monk, Coltrane, and Davis. We have spent many summers with friends at our country house in central France cooking with the bounty of the garden while listening to his massive collection of jazz albums.

His preference for seasonal organics and improvisational style were both showcased at our recent dinner. My father had bought a sack of Chinese eggplant from the Union Square farmer’s market that morning and I bought two beautifully marbled grass-fed rib eye steaks from Oppenheimer meats. My father made an Asian eggplant dish by roasting the halved eggplants with a Mirin, soy, and sesame oil glaze. He finished them with chopped cilantro and scallions. They were crispy, tender, and infused with Asian flavors, a big hit with everyone.

I simply grilled the steaks on a hot cast-iron skillet for about 5 minutes a side, searing a flavorful crust on the meat, which remained nice and pink on the inside. We had several delicious bottles of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo and a side salad of arugula, olive oil, and pecorino. We ended the meal with a French cheese course featuring Mary Cantin cheeses from her boutique in Paris though I will save that story for another post. It was great to see my father and critique the many meals we had around the city most notably Soto and Market Table. We also had the chance to cook together, catch-up, and reminisce while talking about food and wine, two things we certainly have in common. As always, I encourage you to enjoy and share delicious food and home cooked meals with yourself and others!

Brunch Munch Munch

Brunch is one of those magical meals that always piques my palate and sends me running to grab an eggy delight. Brunch heralds the arrival of the weekend and is characterized by a dynamic interplay between sweet and savory, tradition and innovation, and of course breakfast and lunch. I rarely cook brunch though I have begun experimenting with using eggs in interesting ways paired with other flavors and ingredients that would not normally find themselves together. Poached eggs with braised kale and pecorino and baked eggs arrabiata are worthy alternatives to weathering the lines at brunch hot spots around town and have been big hits with my friends and family. This baked egg dish is very easy to make at home and can be made in big batches to accommodate a large crowd. The yolk stays runny, which adds richness and mellows out the acidity of the tomato, and the whites get slightly browned to a crisp. For those that like hot sauce with their eggs, the red pepper in the sauce adds a welcome kick. I usually serve them with some thick sliced country bread and some of the myriad jams and preserves I keep in the fridge or pantry. A simple side salad and some thick slices of smoked bacon or crispy pancetta are a welcome accompaniment to round out a complete meal. I have slowly been learning that brunch can be a breeze; you just get creative and experiment because you never know what you will come up with. I cheated with Scarpetta marinara sauce with some added red pepper flakes and a shot of habanero salsa though this recipe is even more delicious with fresh homemade tomato sauce. As always I encourage you to enjoy and share delicious foods and home cooked meals with yourself and others!

Baked Eggs Arrabiata

8 Fresh Eggs
1 Jar of Marinara or Arrabiata sauce
1/4 cup Parmesan
Black Pepper

Preheat the oven to 4oo. Line a heavy baking dish or casserole pan with Tomato sauce and make 8 holes large enough to break an egg into. Break each egg into its respective hole, being careful not to let too much white spill out onto the tomato sauce. Season with cracked pepper and cook for about 10-15 minutes. Check every now and then to make sure that the eggs cook through though remain tender. Top with a generous shake of parmesan and put under the broiler for about a minute to achieve a crispy crust. Serves 4 or 8 depending on the array of sides and the appetite of the group. Enjoy!

Saturday Supper at the Farm

I recently spent a lovely weekend with Valerie and my sister up at my mother’s farm in upstate New York. The weekend was full of household chores and work on the property though in compensation for the manual labor we ate extremely well. My mother did most of the cooking, which is always a treat, and invited a few friends over for Saturday supper. As I have mentioned in past posts my mother is an unbelievable cook who truly loves to entertain and share her love of food with others. I am blessed to have inherited a rich culinary legacy from both of my parents. My father has passed down his love of food and eating out at the best and most refined restaurants of Europe and the United States. I attribute my critical judgment of food and wine as well as my love of French Haute cuisine to him, a true gourmand and wonderful chef. My mother hails from a much different culinary tradition having grown up in the Midwest. She is a master of classic American cooking with an impressive arsenal of my grandmother’s recipes at her disposal. My mother is also a big fan of Julia Childs, which has imbued her food with a rich sense of elegance and subtlety.

We ate very well throughout the weekend, snacking on the delicious homemade breads, pies, and cookies that my mother whips up from scratch. The highlights were a butternut squash soup, the porc au prunes, apple pie, and egg salad sandwiches that were to die for. She also made a couple of loaves of bread, I could not believe it when they came out of the oven looking and smelling fantastic! Porc au prunes is a dish that my father made quite often while I was growing up and my mother makes a version that rivals his. It consists of pork tenderloin browned and then braised in the oven with stock, potatoes, prunes, and cippolini onions. It is basically a one-pot meal cooked for an extended period of time in the oven. The end result is tender slabs of pork with prune flavor running throughout and a jus that serves exceptionally well as a sauce. The one dish I contributed to the Saturday supper was a beet tartare using beautiful beets from a local farm stand on the side of Route 28. I have had a couple of vegetable tartares at various restaurants in the City and have been meaning to try my own version using roasted beets. The red of the beets resembles beef and the finished plate looks remarkably like steak tartare. The meal was a big hit and we all ate far too much before sitting down to an episode of Twin Peaks. That David Lynch is a crazy cat. Enjoy and as always, I encourage you to enjoy and share delicious foods and home cooked meals with yourself and others!

Red Beet Tartare with Chevre
4 large red beets
1 package of micro greens
1 small log of chevre
a handful of chives
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste


Clean and wrap beets individually in aluminum foil with salt, pepper, and a splash of olive oil. Roast at 350 for about an hour and a half or until fork tender. Peel and mince or pass through a ricer into a large bowl. Prepare a basic vinaigrette with the Dijon, olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Pour half over the beets to marinate and reserve the rest. Place a layer of the beet mixture on the bottom of a ramekin and top with a layer of room temperature chevre, careful not to disrupt the beets. Top with a second layer of beets to completely cover the chevre. Press in with the flat of a spoon to remove all air between the layers and tap out onto a small plate. Toss the micro greens in a bit of the vinaigrette and surround the tartare with small leaves. Top each tartare with chopped chives and drizzle with remaining vinaigrette. Serves 4.

The Dinner Party

Nothing is better than a group of good friends gathered around a feast. I recently had a few of my very best friends in the world visit me from Los Angeles, Ithaca, and Boston respectively. It was a long weekend to celebrate Columbus Day and a chance to catch up with one another. My apartment was so packed it felt like I was back in the hostel in Amsterdam, having to squeeze my way to the fridge in the morning to grab a glass of juice on my way to work. We had decided to cook dinner one night and spend the rest of the time enjoying New York food culture, trying some of my favorite places in like Momofuku, Momoya, and Dim Sum Go Go. The three are trendy and truly delicious Asian restaurants running the gamut from Korean Kimchi and Triggerfish sashimi to shrimp and chive dumplings. I thought my friends would enjoy the hip vibe and interesting usages of local seasonal produce prepared in traditional Asian fashion. All three were a big hit among my weekend guests, particularly Momofuku though I have yet to meet someone that has not genuinely loved the food David Chang has to offer.

My friends and I ate out quite a bit though we ended up cooking a bit more than expected. Our lazy Saturday and Sunday mornings were spent preparing breakfast or brunch at home depending on what time we woke up and when the hangover relented. The first night, after everyone had landed and cabbed it over to the Walk, we cracked a few bottles of wine and began cooking. Thankfully I had sent out an email to my guests earlier that day urging them to buy groceries and Risher had the intuition to go to the Union Square farmer’s market. He came home with a big tote bag, which he mysteriously had packed in his suitcase, full of fresh produce including a massive head of purple cauliflower. Roth purchased some Gourmet Garage spicy Italian chicken sausages, a baguette, and some earthy smelling goat and sheep’s milk cheeses. I had a bag of lettuce and some burst tomatoes in the fridge, which added a touch of greenery to the spread. The highlight was the purple cauliflower gratin that I improvised though the butternut squash Risher roasted with a bit of maple syrup, brown sugar, and butter was out of this world. Roth’s tomato and romaine salad with Dijon vinaigrette and toasted pine nuts was not half bad either. I would highly recommend this creamy cauliflower dish that can easily be substituted with myriad vegetables with low water content. The purple cauliflower is just for show, the flavor is virtually the same as the yellow or white variety but the color is striking plated. Enjoy and as always, I encourage you to enjoy and share delicious foods and cooked meals with yourself and others!

Purple Cauliflower Gratin
1 large head of Cauliflower, in medium sized florets
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup grated cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Blanch the cauliflower florets in salted boiling water for 2-3 minutes then shock with cold water to retain the bright color. Drain and set aside. Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat then remove from heat and stir in flour with a whisk. Return to heat and cook for about two minutes, whisking steadily. Remove from heat and whisk in milk, return to heat and bring to a light boil. Add cream, a pinch of nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Whisk continuously and cook until sauce comes together and achieves desired thickness. Layer a buttered baking dish with the Cauliflower and pour Béchamel sauce over to coat. Shower generously with grated cheese and cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes and then brown for 2-3 minutes under the broiler. Serves 4-6.