Another in the easy summer salad series! I must be getting supremely lazy. I’m not going to bother listing any measurements for this salad. I’m going to assume that you can figure this one out as most of it is to taste anyhow. (Clearly, no one is going to be banging down my door to write a cookbook anytime soon since I’m not really good at this whole recipe documentation thing.)
Cook up a box of orzo in boiling water spiked with a touch of olive oil and some salt. I picked up some great-looking yellow and green beans from the Tompkins Square Park farmers’ market on Sunday, along with some cucumbers the size of my thigh. While the orzo is cooking, wash and trim the beans, wash and dice some cucumber – but not a whole thigh’s worth. These will be your crunch. Chop up some red onion, kalamata olives, and tomato for color and salt. As the orzo has right around 3 minutes left to cook, add your trimmed beans and blanch them until the orzo finishes – they should be brightly colored and still have that nice crunch. Drain the orzo and beans and toss in a large bowl with more olive oil and some lemon juice, the rest of the veggies, and a generous amount of crumbled feta. Refrigerate immediately and serve cold.
Filed under: Cook, Eat, Go | Tags: appetizers, Asian, easy, Hanoi, pho cuon, recipes, sauce, Vietnam
Has anyone in NYC found a Vietnamese restaurant that serves pho cuon? I haven’t found a single place outside of Hanoi that offers this delectable rolled pho dish (as my friend Thanh calls it) to its customers. This is New York City. Isn’t there some Northern Vietnamese place in Queens or something that y’all can direct me to? Anyone?
I first discovered pho cuon on the northeast side of Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi. Thanh, a Hanoi native and then-classmate of mine in Seoul, wanted to take us around to some of the local eateries to sample Hanoi cuisine. I don’t think I’ve ever been as happy as that day at Truc Bach Lake (the seafood shack later also helped). We stopped at a nondescript roadside stand, no one spoke English, and before I knew it, a glorious plate of pho cuon sat before me.
Pho cuon is simple. It’s just a sheet of Vietnamese rice noodle rolled up around some slightly sweetened sauteed beef, fresh lettuce, and cilantro; served with a dipping sauce composed of what tasted mostly like fish sauce and vinegar with carrots and onions (and possibly daikon). So simple, yet I find myself dreaming about it still.
After a quick search on the web, I found this post on the Wandering Chopsticks blog and nearly wept for joy. Now I can make pho cuon at home! Further, she even posted a recipe for the dipping sauce, nuoc mam cham ngot. I guessed most of the ingredients correctly above, though I missed the sugar (duh – I should’ve caught that).
See ya. I’m off to the Asian grocery now.
Filed under: Cook, Eat | Tags: appetizers, cantaloupe, easy, hors d'oeuvres, melon, prosciutto, recipes, summer
The combination of salty ham and sweet fruit makes for a delightful summer appetizer. It’s also probably the easiest thing you’ll ever make for a party (with the exception, perhaps, of dumping a bag of tortilla chips into a bowl) since it requires absolutely no culinary skill whatsoever besides knowing how to cut up a cantaloupe and wrap meat around it.
Well. I guess there’s no real need to go through the motions of writing out a recipe. Buy prosciutto (or other salty cured ham – sliced paper thin), buy a cantaloupe (or other melon – but honeydew is usually a little too sweet), cut up melon into chunks, wrap prosciutto around melon chunks, and serve. If desired, you can add a dollop of mild goat cheese, a fresh mint leaf, or fig. Totally up to you. If the other ingredients won’t stick to the melon, hold them in place with some toothpicks. The world is your hors d’oeuvre.
Filed under: Cook, Eat | Tags: buffet, cilantro, corn, easy, Kewpie mayo, potato salad, recipes, red onion, southwest, summer salads
Potato salads are great for summer gatherings because they are so easy and inexpensive to throw together, they’re quite filling so that’s great when there are lots of guests, and you can make everything ahead of time and chill overnight – no mad rush to cook after work or as guests are arriving.
The key to a great potato salad is threefold:
- Use Yukon Gold potatoes. They are less starchy than baking potatoes so they taste creamier and hold their shape better when boiled.
- Use good mayo. I like to use Kewpie Mayonnaise
, usually found in Asian/Japanese groceries. I think they use more yolk as it’s more yellow than most American grocery store mayos. It tastes eggy with a touch of tang to me, which is something I really enjoy. I use it sparingly, just enough to keep the potatoes moist and lend some of that creamy, tangy flavor. The worst is an over-mayoed potato salad. Ick.
- Add something crunchy. This way, your potato salad will not taste like cold mashed potatoes with mayonnaise.
Recipe after the jump:
Filed under: Cook, Eat, Love | Tags: 7th St, Butter Lane, cupcakes, East Village, French buttercream, vanilla
Martha Stewart Show
I was walking down 7th St. in the East Village yesterday and I heard a gentle whisper in the breeze: “Eat me… eat me… I am a delicious cupcake… eat me…” When I looked up, I saw Butter Lane looming overhead, like a beneficent, sugary angel sent from heaven to ease my shopping-induced hunger.
I think vanilla gets a bad rap. I hate it when people say, “That’s so… vanilla,” like vanilla is a bad thing. I’ve got news for you vanilla-haters: vanilla can be awesome, and I’ve got Butter Lane to prove it.
I’ve tried almost every cupcake combo at Butter Lane, and still I can’t resist the seemingly simple combination of the vanilla cupcake with the French Vanilla frosting. (The French Vanilla is different from the regular Vanilla because it’s made with egg whites instead of whole eggs.) The cake is so soft and moist and subtle, and the frosting is rich and light and so vanilla-y. I dare you to try it and tell me vanilla is boring.
After I devoured my first cupcake, I bought another one of the same. French vanilla on vanilla. I’m so gangsta.
I asked if Butter Lane was teaching people how to make the French Vanilla frosting during their cupcake classes, but
it turns out they are just teaching cupcake lovers how to make the American buttercream frostings. However, they did tell me to check their website under “Press” because the owner was on the Martha Stewart show demonstrating how to make the chocolate cupcake with French Vanilla frosting. So I went and got the recipe for you from the Martha Stewart website.
Butter Lane French Vanilla Frosting
Ingredients
Makes about 1 quart
- 7 extra-large egg whites
- 2 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 vanilla beans, halved lengthwise
Filed under: Cook, Eat | Tags: Antigua, barbecue, Cafe Habana, corn, Cuban, glutinous corn, grilled, Guatemala, Mexican, summer
When I think of grilled corn on the cob, I think of summer and barbecues and I get all warm and fuzzy inside. So it follows that as I wandered the streets of the beautiful colonial city of Antigua, Guatemala, I found myself drawn to the Mayan woman selling corn over a steaming hot grill in the square near La Merced.
The corn shown here is different from the sweet yellow (and white) corn we find in the US. It’s denser, more glutinous; chewier, and not as sweet. It is very similar to corn on the cob that I’ve tried in Korea and other parts of Asia, a varietal that brought memories of night markets flooding back for my mother. Here, it was served simply with a dollop of salt on the side and some lemon.
Every culture has its version of corn on the cob, and my personal favorite to date is the preparation I’ve had at Cafe Habana (SoHo/Brooklyn) and in Mexico City (similar flavor combinations, but with the kernels removed and stewed in a pot with spices). Below is a grilled corn on the cob recipe that fuses these flavors.
Grilled Corn on the Cob (Yields 8 appetizer/side dish servings)
Ingredients:
- 8 ears of corn in husks – I prefer sweet yellow corn, but this is a matter of taste
- 2-3 limes, quartered into wedges
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup butter, unsalted
- 1/2 cup grated cotija cheese or queso blanco
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt – If you use cotija, salt to taste at the end as cotija is inherently salty
- 4 teaspoons chili powder
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Optional – If you like richer flavoring, feel free to add a squirt of Kewpie (or other) mayonnaise. In Mexico City, they added a huge dollop of mayo at the end, along with chopped cilantro. Obviously, sans mayo is healthier and cleaner in terms of flavor, but this is up to you.
Preparation
- Peel back the husks of the corn without removing them and remove the silks, then recover the corn with the husks.
- Soak corn, husks on and silk removed, in large bowl of cold water for 30 minutes.
- While the corn soaks, prepare garlic butter by combining minced garlic with softened room-temperature butter. Combine cheese, salt, chili powder, paprika, and cayenne pepper on a tray and mix well. Pre-heat the grill to medium or medium-high.
- Remove corn from water and shake off excess.
- Peel back the husks and pat corn dry, applying a moderate coat of garlic butter to the kernels, reserving a third of the butter for service.
- Close up the husks and place the corn on the grill. Close the cover and grill for 15 to 20 minutes.
- Unwrap corn and slather with remaining garlic butter – mayo optional.
- Roll in cheese and spice mixture and serve hot with lime wedge(s).
Buen provecho!
My friend David lives in the relatively unspoiled and supremely fertile Tasmania, and it allows him access to a wide variety of fresh organic produce from all over the world that is grown locally.
He sent me the following note some weeks ago:
Hey you! Try this: Hard boil some free range eggs and quarter them lengthwise. Lay them side by side on a long dish. Dris them in Tamari, Japanese mayo, dots of wasabi and then sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and toasted granuated garlic. I think it looks as good as it tastes! Ciao!
His is definitely a Japanese “deviled” egg. I only just got around to testing out my own version based on ingredients I had on hand, and I am admittedly lacking in my presentation skills so it didn’t turn out nearly as nicely as I imagine David’s did. Not only do I lack imagination, I lack counter space, and I also lack photogenic dishware and a camera with a decent low-light sensor. Forgive me.
It tasted great, though. Like an Asian deviled egg, though I didn’t remove the yolks and blend before returning them to the whites, so it’s “deviled” with bunny ears, not actually deviled. Recipe after the jump. (more…)
Filed under: Cook, Eat, Go | Tags: Asian, Cannes, chicken, citrus, France, ginger, guinea fowl, Jean-Luc Pelé, MIPcano, pâté croute, recipes
One of the best things about cooking in France is the abundance of farmers’ markets. Within 10 minutes’ walk from our hotel in Cannes, there were two farmers’ markets: the Marché Forville and the Marché Gambetta. On our last day in Cannes post-MIPcano, we stayed with a friend at his apartment, and he graciously allowed us free reign of his kitchen. After two weeks of rich food heavy in cream and fat, we were all feeling the need for something lighter. Dave suggested that we try to make something Asian, so with that in mind, I headed to the market.
Although the Marché Gambetta food and textiles and other wares, the Marché Forville has only food – freshly baked bread from neighborhood bakeries, house-cured saucissons and homemade pates from area boucheries, fish caught that morning in surrounding waters, and just-picked fruits and vegetables by local farmers. The produce is fiercely local, with a veritable bounty of beautiful and various kinds of asparagus, artichokes, and strawberries, but not so much in the way of snow peas, bean sprouts, Chinese broccoli, or the like.
After some perusing, I decided to go in the direction of making ginger and citrus marinated chicken legs with a side of gingered veggies. We already had soy sauce, honey, and sesame oil at the the apartment, so I picked up chicken legs, ginger, an orange, a lime, and green onions for the chicken itself, and green beans, onions, and carrots for the side of veggies.
Ingredients for Ginger Citrus Chicken (serves 3):
- 3 chicken skin-on, bone-in chicken quarters, legs and thighs attached
- Juice (and pulp) of half a large orange
- Juice of half a lime
- 4 plump cloves of garlic, minced
- 4 ounces of ginger, peeled and grated
- 2 tablespoon of soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons of honey
- 2 tablespoons of orange marmalade
- 2 half-tablespoons of sesame oil
- Sea salt to taste
- White pepper to taste
Directions for Ginger Citrus Chicken (serves 3):
- Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
- Rinse chicken in cold water and pat dry.
- Rub chicken with a little sea salt and white pepper then set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients above except chicken and one half-tablespoon of sesame oil and mix well. Have a wee taste. Do not be alarmed if the marinade seems very spicy (from the ginger) or very garlicky (duh – from the garlic) – these flavors will mellow out with cooking. In fact, you might even want to add a little more for that extra zing. If you desire more sweetness, add more honey. If you want more tartness, add more lime. If you want more saltiness, add more soy sauce or a pinch of salt.
- Once satisfied with your marinade, arrange your chicken quarters in a baking dish.
- Pour the marinade onto the chicken quarters, and with your hands and/or a spoon, separate the chicken skin from the meat, and make sure the marinade gets all up in there.
- Slice green onions into long strips and scatter atop the chicken. This is purely aesthetic. I just liked the splash of green.
- Slice up leftover orange and lime for garnish. Waste not, want not! Marinate in refrigerator for two to eight hours, but remove from refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature before baking.
- Bake chicken in oven for 40 minutes.
- After 25 minutes, remove chicken from oven briefly and drizzle tops with remaining half-tablespoon of sesame oil to crisp up the skin.
While the chicken was cooking, we enjoyed some of our other market goodies: charcuterie!
This monstrous loaf is called “Pâté croute de pintade fermiere aux morilles” (or for you non-French speakers: “country-style crusted pâté of guinea fowl with morels.” It comes in the shape of a loaf, and consists of myriad different preparations of myriad innards of the guinea fowl with pistachios and morels, all rolled up and baked in a rich, buttery crust. This pretty baby cost 27.80 euros per kilo (but this thin slice only set me back 4 euros or so).
As the chicken was about to finish cooking, I sauteed slivers of onion in sesame oil until translucent, then added green beans (trimmed), and strips of carrot. When everything was just cooked through but still crisp, I added a little soy sauce and some Tabasco (for a kick of spice and vinegar).
Mmm… Then it was time for dessert, and for this glorious occasion, we had picked up a vanilla creme brulee and a chocolate mousse topped with chocolate pop rocks (they were explosive – never had anything like it!) from the best chocolatier in town: L’Atelier Jean-Luc Pelé.
It was a sweet end to a sweet week, and we slept like babies that night… at least until we had to wake up at 3:45 am to catch a cab to the Nice Airport. Until next time…
Treat yourself: L’Atelier Jean-Luc Pelé. 36 rue Meynadier. 06400 Cannes, France. +33 (0)4 9338 0610.
Filed under: Cook, Eat | Tags: artichoke, Cannes, carpaccio, Pastis, recipes, vegetarian
As a New Yorker, I should probably be familiar with Meatpacking brunch mecca Pastis, right across from the Gansevoort. I’ve never been there.
But I did have an opportunity to dine at the Pastis (who knew it was a chain?) on the Rue Commandant Andre in Cannes, just north of the Croisette, and I had an epiphany. An artichoke epiphany.
One of the featured starters is an artichoke carpaccio. So simple, and so elegant. Hearts of artichoke are thinly sliced and scattered about a plate, drizzled lightly with good olive oil and a squeeze of fresh lemon, sprinkled with sea salt and freshly ground pepper, and generously topped with paper-thin slices of aged parmesan.
Golden Globe Artichokes. Photo credit: Seedfest.co.uk
Heaven! Would be absolutely perfect for a summer dinner party out on a patio or rooftop somewhere. I would recommend adding a little color with a parsley and tomato garnish, though both are really extraneous, or even coarsely chopped sundried tomatoes and basil. Capers would also add color and salt, but I am not a huge fan of capers, so I’d rather have a plain-looking artichoke carpaccio. If you are an unapologetic carnivore and you must have meat in every dish you eat, artichoke carpaccio is also often served with beef or tuna carpaccio. The dish can be made uber-luxe with some caviar or truffle oil, or it can be enjoyed in its glorious simplicity.
If you’re using a fresh artichoke, make sure to have several on hand as each heart only has so much meat in it. I actually have no idea how to prepare a fresh artichoke, so this is going to be my next project when I get home. I confess, I use artichoke hearts from a jar whenever a recipe calls for artichoke. In my defense, I don’t think I’m the first cook to be intimidated by the spiny, many-layered flower/vegetable. After reading about artichokes for the last hour or so, though, I’m feeling pretty brave. I’m going to cook a few whole and eat the leaves with a lemon Kewpie mayo based dip, then use the hearts the next day for the carpaccio! Maybe one day I’ll even get to be as advanced as the folks over at The Artichoke Blog.
Filed under: Cook, Eat, Think | Tags: Cannes, culture, France, French, La Farigoule, lunch
I have always known that the French don’t do doggie bags for some reason or another. I always assumed they felt it undignified or otherwise lowly, for the peasants. Yesterday, I realized it was something different altogether. It’s just not a part of their culture of freshly prepared food in modest quantities; food is to be consumed as and when it has been prepared.
Sara and I went to lunch at La Farigoule, one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants in Cannes where Lillia will show you the heart-shaped freckle on her breast and then chastise you for looking at her decolletage and owner Patricia will offer you a complimentary shot of blood orange liqueur (or several) as an after-dinner cordial. We’re not talking fine dining, but rather home cooking, but always tasty. Their prices are fairly modest for Cannes (three course menu for 16 euros), especially during convention times when most restaurants double their menu prices to get the most out of the conventioneers. We had the spaghetti carbonara and the spaghetti aux moules (with mussels) for 10 euros each, and both were hearty and totally hit the spot after a long plane ride and the lugging of very heavy stand supplies.
The carbonara was chock full of fatty bits of ham in a rich cream sauce, served with an egg yolk on top to be mixed in for extra ooey goodness.
The mussels were fresh, plentiful in a very seafood-y saffron cream sauce.
However, the portions were very hefty (especially for France) and neither Sara nor I could finish. It seemed such a waste of perfectly good food, so I dusted off my high school French and asked sweetly, “Est-ce que nous pouvons les emporter, madame?” I think that translates into something like, “Is it that we can bring these?” – which was good enough for Patricia. She said, “Bien sur!” and took our dishes away. When she returned with our leftovers, she handed us a plastic bucket with my pasta on the bottom and Sara’s pasta on top, separated by a piece of aluminum foil. The bucket bore a Foie de Poulet label on top, which indicated that this was not actually intended to be a to-go container, but rather, it had been meant to house wholesale quantities of chicken livers.
We were greatly embarrassed for having asked for the to-go container because Patricia had clearly gone to a lot of trouble to (a) find us a suitable container and (b) clean it out for us and (c) had not been able to find a second container.
We won’t be asking for doggie bags any more, though we do strongly appreciate Patricia’s willingness to find us one.
Today, we went to the Carrefour supermarket to pick up some groceries for the work week so we can make ourselves dinner at home a couple times this week since the apartment we rented has a fabulous kitchen. I wanted to make some pasta salad and some gourmet salads for our group so we could eat during the day because the food at the Palais is absolute crap, and overpriced crap at that, and we never have time to leave the stand and go out to pick up lunch elsewhere. The ingredients here – the dairy and the cured meats and the fish – are SO good here!
We wanted to find some individual plastic tupperware, but there was none to be found. I thought they were out, but Sara said she wasn’t surprised that they didn’t have any since the French don’t make extra food in order to have easy-to-reheat leftovers for lunch at work the next day. They go to work, then break for a home-cooked lunch, then return to the office, and then go home (or out) for dinner. They don’t eat hurriedly, stooped over their desks, shoveling food in their mouths with one hand while typing with the other. Meals, even lunch, are to be eaten little by little at a leisurely pace, sprinkled generously with conversation, every moment savored.
Very often, I wish I were French.
Eat: La Farigoule (Cote D’Azur) 82 Rue Meynadier, 06400 Cannes, France. +33 04 93 38 94 95. Ambiance: cozy and familial, tiny space with red checked tablecloth, outrageously friendly staff, heartwarming food.
