March 6, 2012 · 2:30 am

Flop

Guys, I did it again. Messed up a recipe. This is twice in two weeks, I want you to know. The first flop was when I thought I could make risotto without chicken stock. It was pretty disgusting. Not only did it taste bitter and weird, it came out a sick milky-purple color from the red wine I thought I’d try and use to flavor it up. This last mess up was bright green: usually attractive in a pesto, gross and bitter (once again) from lack of salty flavor. The risotto debacle was the result of me trying to “make do and mend” with items I already had in my house. The pesto travesty came from a shoddy recipe (or from someone who REALLY loves the taste of watered down arugula juice*).

The (lovely and patient) BF tried to force down both dishes, but in the end I think his response was, “I don’t know if I can eat any more of this…” I feel like I have some serious mac-n-cheese-ing to do to compensate for these lost meals.

In any case, the shrimp in that above dish were INCREDIBLE so I’m including the recipe here. Totally worth trying with a regular pesto recipe or your standard tomato sauce.

On the menu:
Garlic fried shrimp
Serves 2

1 lb. raw shrimp, deveined and tails removed
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
2 Tbsp olive oil

In a small bowl, mix together garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Make sure shrimp are rinsed clean and patted completely dry. Sprinkle seasoning over the shrimp. Place shrimp in a plastic Ziploc bag, add flour, and shake to coat. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Shake excess flour off of shrimp and place in the hot skillet. Cook on each side for around 3 – 4 minutes, or until they are no longer gray and translucent.

Add to pasta and sauce and grate cheese over the top.

*In case you’re interested, the sauce in question was arugula pesto: 6 oz. of arugula, 1 garlic glove, 1/3 cup of asiago cheese, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/3 cup heavy cream, all blended together.

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February 22, 2012 · 10:19 am

A Cave of Food

If you are a fan of weirdo humor, you will like this. If you are not a fan of weirdo humor, then not only will you not like this, but I also do not want to be your friend no more.

 

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February 21, 2012 · 12:54 pm

Pork Loin with Pear and Ginger Chutney

Pork Loin served over mashed potatoes

A long, long time ago I bought a pork loin. Okay, not THAT long ago, but for the purposes of creating a dramatic atmosphere without the benefit of music, let’s just say it was a long, long time ago.

Ahem.

Anyway, I had grand plans for this pork loin. Then I kept seeing recipes with instructions like “marinate for 3 hours” or “slow cook” or “cook in oven for 2 1/2 hours.” I just… well, I just don’t have that kind of time. So I threw it in the freezer and thought, “Another day.”

Then I got broke. $6-in-my-checking-account kind of broke. Nothing like poverty to make a girl resourceful. So with that giant hunk of pork in my freezer (get your minds out of the gutter, you dirt bags) and a jar of homemade pear and ginger chutney in my cupboard, I decided this was the weekend to finally tackle the pig.

On the menu:
Pork loin with pear and ginger chutney
Serves 2, Adapted from Epicurious.com

1.25 – 1.5 lb pork loin
1 cup white wine
3 cloves garlic, peeled and halved
1 cup pear and ginger chutney*
2 Tbsp dried thyme
3 Tbsp olive oil

In a small bowl, mix together the white wine, 1 Tbsp of olive oil, garlic, chutney, and thyme. Place pork in a shallow bowl and cover with the wine mixture. Use a spoon to distribute the mixture all over the pork so it is well covered. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap (I put mine in a Pyrex dish and put the lid on it) and let it sit at room temperature for an hour, or in the refrigerator for 3 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Heat the remaining 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a large oven-proof skillet on medium/high heat. Brown your marinated meat on each side, 2 minutes each side. Pour wine marinade over the pork and place the whole skillet in the oven. Cook for 20 minutes, or until the pork registers around 140 degrees on a meat thermometer.

Place pork on the cutting board and cover with a foil tent. Let rest for 5 minutes before slicing into rounds and serving. Pour pan juices over the pork once plated.

*You can use any kind of chutney you want. Apple and pear work best with pork, and this particular chutney was a KNOCKOUT. The BF kept saying, “It’s so… soft.” And it really was ridiculously tender. This dish takes almost zero culinary knowledge and is a great recipe to make for someone special on a date night. It looks super fancy, tastes incredible, and will get you major props.

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February 14, 2012 · 2:30 am

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Lauren E. here wishing you a very happy Valentine’s Day! The photo below is from my super romantic pre-Valentine’s Day dinner with The BF on Friday night at Tournesol. We like to celebrate early to avoid the ridiculously overpriced (and often disappointing) pre-fixe meals that plague every restaurant in New York on actual V Day. Need a last minute gift for your sweetheart? I suggest whipping up a quick batch of these (dye the batter pink if it suits you!) or these (with pink frosting!), or if you’re feeling particularly outgoing there is always Engagement Chicken.

Just kidding… don’t make that.

Beignets (like donuts) with yogurt, blueberries, strawberry sauce, and crispy honey sugar on top

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February 13, 2012 · 2:30 am

Chocolate Therapy


Ever have one of those days? You know what I mean. THOSE days. When anyone who crosses your path is gonna get an earful whether they asked for it or not? That was Saturday. I blame the phases of the moon.

In any case, here’s a recipe for one of those days. This recipe is surprisingly healthy, compared to store bought muffins. If you’re craving something sweet, these definitely fit the bill without completely desecrating your diet.

On the menu:
Chocolate muffins
Makes 24 muffins

2 2/3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup sour cream (I used reduced fat)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk (I used 1%)
1 apple, shredded
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt. In a different bowl, beat together the eggs, sour cream, water, milk, apple, and vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients just until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.

Line each cup of the muffin tin with a paper liner. Fill each cup 2/3 of the way full with batter. Bake 20 – 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let sit in the tin for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

*Note: this recipe originally had vegetable oil instead of an apple, but I find most recipes use oil to make cakes moist. Apples will do the same thing with none of the fat! You can also use 1/2 cup apple sauce. The only downside to this substitution is that the cake might stick to the liner… but that’s what your teeth are for.

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January 30, 2012 · 10:38 am

Pucker Up


I have a confession to make: every once in awhile, I totally flub a recipe. I muck it up. Ruined from start to finish. Saturday night as I was tending to The (sickly) BF, I got the urge to bake cookies. “Chocolate chip?!” he asked eagerly. “No chocolate chips,” I told him. “That’s okay, I like the batter even without the chips! The vanilla, the brown sugar…” And that gave me an idea. Brown sugar cookies. I searched for a recipe, found an easy one, and went to work. The problem? Frozen butter. ‘No matter!’ thought I. ‘I will nuke it!’ Wrong. Oh, so wrong. What I got was a melty bowl of the most delicious smelling batter you’ve ever smelt. Yes. Smelt. But when I went to bake them, what did I get? Crispy, crunchy, flat, greasy disks that had the consistency of peanut brittle with burnt edges. Do you have any idea how disappointing it is to have your whole apartment smelling of delicious buttery brown sugar and nothing to show for it? Nothing in your belly to satisfy that tantalizing scent? Okay, so we ate some of those greasy, sugary disks anyway. WE PRACTICALLY HAD TO.

Which brings me to the next piece of the story. Lemon cookies. I’ve had this recipe chilling in my “recipes” folder in Gmail for some time, and figured I would follow the recipe to the T, let the butter soften, measure each ingredient accurately, and give the recipe the respect it deserved. And what happened? Imagine that. Incredible cookies.

On the menu:
Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Makes around 3 dozen cookies
Adapted from WhipperBerry.com

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp fresh lemon zest
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream butter and granulated sugar together until blended. Add egg, vanilla, lemon juice, and zest and blend until totally combined. Add salt, baking soda, and flour and mix with a spoon until combined.

Put powdered sugar in a shallow bowl. Scoop up batter by heaping teaspoons, roll into a ball, and roll in powdered sugar until lightly coated. Place on baking sheet 1 1/2 inches apart and bake for 12 – 14 minutes, or until the bottom edges are brown and the tops look matte (not shiny). Let cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rake to cool completely.

Note: Because I am always interested in whether or not a cookie comes out chewy or crispy, these are the chewiest of the chewy! Soft in the center, crisp at the edges. In other words, perfection.

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January 20, 2012 · 11:28 am

City Grit

I’ve found lately that I haven’t really been eating out at many fantastic restaurants. I’m not sure if it’s the cold weather or the lack of funds, but I don’t really have a ton to tell you about by way of must-visit-spots. Until… last night.

CityGrit Presents Jim ‘N Nick’s: City Grit is a “culinary salon”, part supper club part experimental pop-up restaurant. Chef Sarah Simmons and Jeremie Kittredge, the brains behind the brilliance, wanted to provide a unique culinary experience for discerning New York diners by hosting weekly dinners at an old school in Nolita, occasionally catered by chefs and cookbook authors from all over the country. The menu and wine list are always changing, and for a reasonable ticket price, anyone can attend. It’s haute cuisine with a Southern flair, served to the masses with a warm and welcoming hug-from-your-mama vibe about it. Who could ask for anything more?

Barbequed shoulders and roast loin with stone ground grits, braised greens, cracklins, and smoked onion and tomato relish

From Jim ‘N Nick’s, and preparing the meal for the Thursday, January 19th dinner was Chef Drew Robinson. Chef Robinson opened the evening by addresses the 82-person dining room with a quick speech about the importance of pig (you don’t have to tell me, Chef) and the Southern mentality behind preparing it. One of the things that struck me most about this dining experience is the intense passion and love of food that the people involved put into their meals. You may as well be at your grandmother’s kitchen table for all the love that goes into these dishes.

Company salad

On the menu:
Hickory roasted pork belly with tomato chutney aioli
Homemade Berkshire ham and sausage with pickled okra, pimento cheese, and Saltines
Company salad: romaine with pickled vegetables, parmesan cheese, and homemade buttermilk dressing
Barbequed shoulders and roast loin with stone ground grits, braised greens, cracklins, and smoked onion and tomato relish
Bourbon pecan pie
Corn bread mini-muffins

Hickory roasted pork belly with tomato chutney aioli

Verdict: Do I really even have to say it? This meal was incredible. I was literally spreading pimento cheese on pickled okra, coating my corn muffins in pecan pie filling, closing my eyes to savor the deliciously sweet and tender pork… this is BBQ done right, my friends. It’s not haughty or pretentious, just freaking delicious.

PS… can someone please buy me a camera? Kthxbye.

Bourbon pecan pie

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