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Baked Egg Gratin
2008-03-11 19:43:00
I was supposed to post this a month ago, but clearly I forgot about it. After my weekend trip to NYC, where I had not one but two brunches with my friends (one of which was in fact at Five Points, and at which I indeed ate baked eggs and drank morning punch), I remembered this old post…***Brunch is an institution in NYC, and I have discovered that it’s not so much a big deal anywhere else. I suppose it has a lot to do with the fact it’s so easy to just hop on the subway and meet your friends within a half hour, regardless of where you’re going and regardless of the weather. But even if it weren't so easy, sunny Saturdays were definitely made for brunch and pavement pounding. When I woke up today, the sun was streaming through my windows and the sky was perfectly blue, and it reminded me of my weekends in NYC – I definitely would have met my friends at Five Points on a day like this and then, having been fueled on baked eggs and morning punch, roamed the East Vi...
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I'm still here...
2008-03-06 17:27:00
...I just haven't been up to any new cooking lately.My parents came down to Baltimore this past weekend and my mom stayed here to hang out with me for a few more days. I've been doing my fair share of cooking, but I haven't made anything new - I wanted to make my mom some stuff that she had seen on here! And I'm going to NYC this weekend, so I definitely won't be doing any cooking for the next few days.(I totally love this photo of light graffiti on the Brooklyn Bridge)This is what I've been up to in the kitchen:Sunday: Pizza bianca with portobello mushrooms and taleggio cheese (yes, it was this month's Cooks Illustrated test recipe) and a deconstructed blueberry cheesecake (from Elizabeth Falkner's Demolition Desserts - I totally love her work and I love that book)Monday: banh mi chayTuesday: my mom made an awesome South Indian dinner for me, my bro, and the bf - she made dosai, sambar, coconut chutney, vada, dahi vada, and bhel puri (not South Indian, but whatever).(Thes...

Spanikopita (Spinach Pie)
2008-02-29 22:24:00
My mom claims that my brother developed a love of spinach because of his childhood obsession with Popeye. I don’t have any such stories, but I also am a huge fan of spinach. Especially when it’s baked with cheese in a flaky phyllo crust. And especially when you haven’t slathered every layer of phyllo dough with butter, so you don’t feel so bad about eating one more. Spanikopita are traditionally Greek, but I’ve seen them at Middle Eastern restaurants, too. I guess everyone has their own variation on the theme (the Italians have the spinach and cheese calzaone). I suppose my version isn’t totally authentic, what with the mozzarella cheese in there, but I didn’t have enough feta so I had to add what I had on hand. Also, I don’t add dill to mine, as many people do, because I seriously hate dill. So add dill to yours, use all feta cheese, add other herbs or cheeses – whatever floats your boat. I’m sure it will turn out great. Spanikopita(makes 6) ...
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Green Rice
2008-02-28 05:25:00
I made this rice to go with the enchiladas I made the other night. I used to just make plain rice with enchiladas, but this is way better and is what is always served with enchiladas now. This starts out being made like risotto but ends up like regular rice: I sauté onions and garlic in oil, toast the rice, and then add the hot cooking liquid – all of it at once – and then I cover the pot and leave it alone over low heat. And yes, I’ve tried making this without heating up the cooking liquid before adding it to the rice, but it ends up taking more time to cook and the rice comes out more separate. Yeah, it’s a little more laborious than plain rice, but not that much more so if you do some prep in advance. Besides, it’s way better than plain rice and therefore totally worth the extra effort. Green riceServes 4 1 large poblano pepper1 small Serrano or Jalapeno pepper1 cup vegetable broth2 handfuls cilantro leaves, chopped (I have small han...
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Kiwi Cupcakes with Lime Frosting
2008-02-26 18:06:00
Although I’m not really a summer person (I can’t stand the heat!), one of the things I love about summer is the wonderful fresh fruit that it brings: peaches and berries of every variety are abundant and are perfectly juicy and sweet. Unfortunately, fruit in the winter tends to be limited to apples and bananas – blah. However, it’s summer in the southern hemisphere right now, which means that kiwis are plentiful and cheap, to boot. I recently bought a ton of kiwis with a new cupcake recipe in mind. Unfortunately, my first attempt at it was a bit of a failure. Kiwi s have a lot of water in them, and their flavor is really subtle, so my addition of a healthy dose of kiwi puree resulted in wobbly cupcakes with a fair amount of kiwi flavor. I decided that the solution would be to reduce the kiwi puree so as to get rid of a lot of the water and intensify the kiwi flavor. The cupcakes came out great the second time around, and the kiwi flavor is present, but it’s just ...
More About: Lime

Great Tastes
2008-02-23 01:49:00
I'm such a procrastinator - I was supposed to post this a few days ago...Tomorrow is the Great Tastes Expo. It's taking place at the Tremont Grand Hotel in downtown Baltimore, and it features lots and lots of food - vendors, demos, and panels. At 3 pm, a panel of Baltimore food bloggers (I'm one of them!) will convene to discuss...pretty much anything we want (so long as it's related to food).Joining me will be:John of The Baltimore SnackerXani and Erin of Black Coffee and a DonutDara of Dining DishRachel of Coconut & Lime and Food MavenAndrea of Kitchen GoddessKit of Mango & GingerMeg of Pigtown PigoutDan of The Hungover GourmetJake of Unique Culinary AdventuresIn addition to all of the great food (I'm really looking forward to sampling stuff from Cinghiale and Dangerously Delicious Pies), there are tons of beer, wine, and spirits available for tasting (I should probably hold off on that until after the panel...) as well as demonstrations (I'm avoiding Warren Brown ...

Sanguine Salad (Roasted Beets, Blood Oranges, and Pomegranate)
2008-02-19 13:44:00
I made this last week as part of dinner for Valentine’s Day because, although it is red, it is comprised of a variety of components that are all a deep, bloody shade of red – perfect for a dinner made by someone who hates Valentine’s Day! This salad is stunning for the senses: visually, it’s an arresting amalgamation of the deep reddish-pink of roasted beets, the juicy maroon of blood oranges, and the radiant ruby of the pomegranate seeds; on your tastebuds, the combination of earthy, sweet, tangy, tart, and acidic works wonderfully. It’s a dish with looks that could kill and a taste that thrills the palate – an awesome combination for Valentine’s Day or any day of the year. Sanguine Salad (Roasted Beets , Blood Oranges , Pomegranate )(serves 4) 2 medium beets3 blood oranges½ cup pomegranate seeds½ small red onion1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses3 tablespoons high-quality extra virgin olive oil1/8 teaspoon sal...

Jalapeno Cheddar Buttermilk Cornbread
2008-02-16 16:56:00
I’m on the fence about cornbread. When it’s good, it’s soft, fluffy, and slightly sweet, and I totally love it; when it’s not, it’s grainy and dense and I really have no desire to eat it. That being said, I really like cornbread with chili, and I’ve always made a jalapeno-cheddar version to go along with it. However, I’ve never been really thrilled with the cornbread recipes I’ve used – they’ve all produced a dense and crumbly cornbread that, while tasty, wasn’t quite right texturally. So, of course, I had to come up with my own, and I think it worked out great – the cornbread come out soft, fluffy, just slightly sweet, a little tangy, kinda cheesy (in a good way!), and slightly spicy – cornbread perfection! Jalapeno Cheddar Buttermilk Cornbread(makes one 8�x8� square) 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour ¾ cup yellow cornmeal 1 tablespoon sugar2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt 2 eggs ¾ cup butter...

Vegetarian Three-Bean Chili
2008-02-13 05:29:00
I don’t know why people can’t make chili without meat. Seriously, what’s so hard about it? Something must be, because the very few versions of vegetarian chili I’ve had weren’t so great. They were basically a flavorless concoction of every vegetable known to man thrown into a pot – I’m sorry, but that’s not chili, it’s some sort of tasteless vegetable stew. So because I can’t find chili that bears any semblance to the version that is loved by carnivores, I had to resort to making my own. The first version of this came about a few years ago, and, over the years, the list of ingredients has grown to include chipotle peppers and dark chocolate (to evoke the taste of a mole sauce). Don’t be daunted – this is seriously the easiest thing to make. Serve it with some jalapeno cheddar cornbread (recipe forthcoming) for a really easy and totally comforting meal – perfect for a cold and icy night like the one we’re having here in Baltimore. Vege...
More About: Vegetarian , Bean , Chili

Perfect Red Velvet Cupcakes
2008-02-08 22:57:00
I hate red velvet cake. It looks totally creepy, what with it being a scary shade of deep red, and it doesn’t really taste like very much – I know there’s cocoa in it, but its flavor is rarely discernible. I made some red velvet cupcakes over the summer because they were requested for a party, but I was not satisfied with them – they were not even remotely chocolaty, the color was frightening, and they were a bit dense. A few days ago, I wanted to make cupcakes and since I was being stared down by the carton of buttermilk in my fridge, I decided to revisit red velvet cake, albeit with a few revisions in mind. I added more cocoa than is normally used, I added the red color with a light hand, and I made sure that they came out light and fluffy by using both baking powder and baking soda and by adding the baking soda and vinegar at the end. The result: fluffy, soft, kind of chocolaty, and not-so-scary-looking cupcakes that I can’t resist. Turns out red velvet cake isnâ...
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Love and Death by Chocolate
2008-02-04 02:43:00
Love and death: a weighty theme for this little food blog of mine, isn’t it? Don’t worry, I promise it will lead to a recipe.Love and death are a popular and enduring pair: amongst their many appearances are their unbilled star turn in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, in Sara Teasdale’s poetry of the early 1900’s, and in indie rock from the early 2000’s (in particular, on the debut album of one of my favorite bands, The Stills). It’s fairly easy to see how these two are linked; some people will do anything for love (just look at what Juliet did).So what do love and death have to do with food?Let me digress first by pointing out that Valentine’s Day is coming up soon. Every year at this time, we are, without fail, assaulted by a barrage of all things pink, red, heart-shaped, and chocolate; combinations thereof range from the drugstore variety to the haute, because apparently any combination of pink+hearts+chocolate = love. I tend to hate Valentine’s Day because of it...
More About: Love , Chocolate , Death , Death By Chocolate

Dark Chocolate Glaze
2008-02-04 02:12:00
This glaze is part of Love and Death by Chocolate .Dark Chocolate Glaze(makes approximately 2 cups)¾ cup heavy cream8 ounces semisweet chocolate2 teaspoons light corn syrup***************In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a boil, the reduce the heat and let it simmer for 2 minutes. Put the chocolate and corn syrup in bowl, and pour the hot cream on top. Let the cream sit for 3 minutes, then stir well until all the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.
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Chocolate Mousse
2008-02-04 02:09:00
This chocolate mousse is a part of Love and Death by Chocolate , but it's also great on its own.Chocolate Mousse(makes approximately 1 ½ cups)2 ounces semisweet chocolate1 teaspoon butter½ cup heavy cream1 egg white2 teaspoons sugar***************Place the chocolate in a small bowl and microwave on low power for 3 minutes, stirring every minute. Set aside.Whip the cream until it holds peaks that are not too stiff (but past soft) about 1 minute.In a stainless steel bowl, whip the egg white until it holds soft peaks. Continue whipping and add gradually add the sugar, whipping until the mixture holds stiff peaks.Add half of the whipped cream to the chocolate and fold to combine. Add the chocolate mixture and the remaining whipped cream to the egg white and fold to combine.

Cocoa Meringues
2008-02-04 02:01:00
This meringue is piped into discs for Love and Death by Chocolate. You can also pipe it into small spirals to make meringue kisses.Chocolate Meringuesadapted from Cook’s Illustrated(makes 8 discs and approximately 15 kisses)¼ cup + 2 tablespoons sugar1 teaspoon cornstarch2 egg whites¼ teaspoon vanilla extractPinch of salt1 tablespoon cocoa, sifted**************Heat oven to 225° F. On a large piece of parchment paper, trace 8 2 ¼� circles. Turn the paper over and place it on a baking sheet.Sift the sugar and cornstarch into a small bowl.In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites, vanilla, and salt at high speed until very soft peaks form – this will take 30-40 seconds. Reduce the mixer speed to medium, and slowly stream in the sugar mixture down the side of the bowl. Once all the sugar has been added, scrape down the sides of the bowl, then beat on high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 40 seconds.Transfer the meringue to a pastry ...
More About: Cocoa

Pink Peppercorn Ganache
2008-02-04 01:54:00
This ganache is a part of Love and Death by Chocolate.Pink Peppercorn Ganache(makes about 2 cups)¾ cup heavy cream2 teaspoons pink peppercorns, crushed12 ounces semisweet (70%) chocolateCombine the cream and peppercorns in a small saucepan. Bring the cream to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 2 minutes.Put the chocolate in a stainless steel bowl and pour the cream through a sieve onto the chocolate. Let the cream sit on the chocolate for 3 minutes, then stir well until all the chocolate is melted.
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Fudgy Brownie Rounds
2008-02-04 01:35:00
These brownie rounds are part of Love and Death by Chocolate. You can also pour this batter into a small pan, or double the recipe for an 8"x8" pan.Fudgy Brownie Rounds for Love and Death by Chocolate(makes 8 two-inch brownie rounds)2 tablespoons unsalted butter3 ounces semisweet (70%) chocolate2 tablespoons flour4 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa¾ teaspoons espresso powder½ teaspoon baking powderPinch of salt1 egg1 egg white¼ cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar2 tablespoons dark brown sugar½ teaspoon vanilla extract2 tablespoons sour cream1 ounce semisweet chocolate chunks***************Heat oven to 325° F. Lightly butter 8 muffin cups, place a parchment paper round in the bottom, and butter the parchment.Place the butter and unsweetened and the chocolate in a small glass bowl. Microwave on low power (3) for 3 minutes, stirring every minute.In a small bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, espresso powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.Put the egg, egg white, sugars, and ...

Earl Grey Cake with Kumquat Marmalade and Almond Meringue Buttercream
2008-01-30 06:29:00
My brother celebrated his birthday last weekend, and, of course, I offered to make him a cake. He loves Earl Grey tea, so he requested that the cake somehow incorporate this flavor. After some brainstorming, I came up with the idea to flavor the cake itself with the tea. I like to make my cakes such that they have some sort of fruit filling and, if it works, some sort of nut on top of a flavored frosting. For this cake, I picked kumquats because their tart citrus flavor would complement the bergamot in the tea, and almonds for their mild nuttiness.My brother celebrated his birthday last weekend, and, of course, I offered to make him a cake. He loves Earl Grey tea, so he requested that the cake somehow incorporate this flavor. After some brainstorming, I came up with the idea to flavor the cake itself with the tea. I like to make my cakes such that they have some sort of fruit filling and, if it works, some sort of nut on top of a flavored frosting. For this cake, I picked kumquats b...
More About: Cake , Almond , Marmalade

Butternut Squash, Leek, and Chickpea Stew with Lemon-Parsley Couscous
2008-01-28 19:07:00
This past weekend was another one that found me away from Baltimore. The bf’s friend invited us to his parents’ cottage in PA to go skiing, and, seeing as how I had never been, we jumped at the offer. We drove to PA Friday night, skied in the morning and afternoon, drove to DC in the early evening to go to my brother’s place to help him celebrate his birthday (for which I made an awesome cake which will be posted here in a few days), and then back to Baltimore late Saturday night. Not only did I not cook this past weekend, but I ate horrible food on Saturday – a frozen personal pizza for lunch and trail mix and Combos for dinner. Gross, I know. I can’t wait to get back into the kitchen this week and make some food that is not only real, but also really good.I made this stew a few weeks ago – it was inspired by this recipe that a friend of mine had made a few weeks back. I wanted my version to be more hearty and less gratin-like, so I decided to add chickpeas and l...
More About: Lemon , Couscous , Squash , Leek

South Indian Baby Eggplant Curry
2008-01-24 18:56:00
I don’t think I need to reiterate my love for eggplant. My mom has been making this dish for many years, but I never bothered to learn how to make it. When I was home this past weekend, I noticed some small eggplants in the fridge and my mom told me to take them with me and make this curry with them. I had never made it before, but she assured me it was incredibly easy to make. She was right – the whole thing took under 20 minutes to make, there was minimal cleanup (courtesy of microwave cooking), and the best part is that it tasted exactly like my mom’s version of it. South Indian Baby Eggplant Curry (serves 2-3) 10 small egg-shaped eggplant2 tablespoons canola oil1 tablespoon sambar powder1 tablespoon chickpea flour1/8 teaspoon turmeric powderDash of asafetida3 tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut*1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste1 teaspoon tamarind paste * I use frozen shredded coconut, which is available at Indian grocery stores.***********...
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Linguini with Vegetarian Puttanesca Sauce
2008-01-23 16:34:00
I had no idea that last post would generate such a strong reaction! Maybe I should just stick to posting recipes… I was in NY this past weekend visiting my parents (and celebrating my brother’s birthday), which means that I came back to Baltimore with some of my mom’s awesome food, which also means that I’m not doing much cooking this week. So I’m posting something I made a week and a half ago and saved for a time just like this (i.e., when I’m not doing much cooking).I absolutely love salty food: I adore olives, I think capers should be in just about everything, and firm salty cheese absolutely needs to be grated on top of pasta. So of course I love puttanesca sauce – it’s packed with olives and capers is also slightly spicy, which I also love. But the problem is that puttanesca sauce is always made with anchovies, which clearly do not fit into my vegetarian diet (I think that anchovies creepy regardless of whether or not I eat animals). If I wanted to part...
More About: Vegetarian , Sauce

An unfortunate cupcake incident, or, how do you turn down bad baked goods?
2008-01-22 20:42:00
Those of you who know me well know that I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. Most people (myself included) find that odd, considering that I love to bake. I have always been this way – my aversion to sweets is definitely not something that I developed as an adult in order to avoid calories. On those rare occasions I do eat something sweet, it is something that is amazingly good - chocolates from Jacques Torres, homemade cakes and cupcakes, or confections from Citizen Cake or Pix Patisserie.Now that you know that about me, let me tell you a little story…Today at work, we belatedly celebrated the birthday of a coworker. Our office manager brought in some cupcakes: a tray of 12 supermarket cupcakes, of which half were vanilla, half were chocolate, and all of them were topped with crusty plain American buttercream frosting that was airbrushed with fluorescent color (I'm not kidding) and topped off with pastel confetti sprinkles; and 12 homemade chocolate cupcakes (and by home...
More About: Baked , Goods , Incident , Turn

Review: Pazza Luna
2008-01-20 22:29:00
The bf and I have been meaning to go Pazza Luna on a Wednesday night for some time now. Why a Wednesday night? 1. Wednesday night is pasta night: you can choose from 4 different pastas and it's only $10 per plate (as opposed to the regular cost $15-$20 per plate). They offer two from their regular menu as well as two specials. 2. Every day from 5-6:30 is happy hour. They offer discounted drinks (including $2/$3 beers and half price wines by the glass that regularly cost $8 or $9), and $4.50 special appetizers or $5 appetizers from the regular menu. The only catch is that you have to sit at the bar, which only seats 8 people, so you can't get there too late. Last week was not the best for me, so the bf suggested that I take a night off and that we go out to dinner, and we made a reservation at Pazza Luna for 6:30 on Wednesday. We got to the restaurant at 5:50 and the bar was almost full – there were only two seats available, and they weren't next to each other...
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Goodnight Rose Cupcakes (Pistachio Cardamom Cupcakes with Rosewater Meringu
2008-01-15 06:05:00
I was kind of bored the other night and decided that I was going to make interesting cupcakes despite the fact that my beloved KitchenAid mixer has been dead for the past month and its replacement is nowhere in sight. I’ve been on a bit of a rose water kick lately, so I decided to use a combination of flavors that are very common in Indian and Middle Eastern sweets: rose water, pistachio, and cardamom. Because the flavors are so delicate, I decided on a chiffon cupcake, but coming up with the recipe took me a while because I couldn’t find anything decent on which to base mine. After much scientific analysis (ha ha, not really) and studying of other recipes, I came up with these. (The cakes are best within 2 days of baking them – their texture is very delicate and light but they start to lose that quality after a few days.) These might be my favorite cupcakes that I have made to date - the silkiness of the floral meringue buttercream beautifully complements these del...
More About: Cardamom , Rose

Bánh Mì Chay - Vegetarian Vietnamese Sandwich
2008-01-14 16:54:00
One of my favorite places in NYC is Nicky’s Vietnamese Sandwich es. It’s a tiny storefront in the East Village and they only serve bánh mì, which are awesomely delicious Vietnamese sandwiches. Banh mi are traditionally made with pate and pork, but Nicky’s makes a few other versions using different meats, including a vegetarian version with marinated portobello mushrooms. I used to get one about once a month, sometimes eating it in the tiny store at one of the two small tables, sometimes taking it home with me to my apartment just a few blocks (and later, a few subway stops) away. They were so simple, but so so so so good – the combination of a crunchy baguette, pickled carrots, cilantro, and magically marinated mushrooms was divine. Sadly, I haven’t had one in the year and a half I’ve lived in Baltimore – it isn’t quite the culinary mecca that NYC is (although I recently learned that Red Emma’s, which is just a block away from my building, has a veg...
More About: Vegetarian

Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes
2008-01-10 09:13:00
My supervisor at work - who is awesome for many reasons - gave me a sweet holiday present last month – a jar of wild Maine blueberry jam that she had made in August while she was vacationing in Maine with her family. I didn’t want to just put it on toast; I was saving it for something really good. Last weekend, I came up with it: super-fluffy pancakes. I haven’t made pancakes in years, and I recall that my previous attempts were flat and kind of blah. I know that I’m much better in the kitchen these days, so I decided to revisit them. I love using buttermilk when I bake – the end result is always seriously moist and fluffy – so I decided to use it in my pancakes, too. And, as I had hoped, the pancakes turned out exactly the same way. Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes (makes 4-5 pancakes – serves 2) 1 cup flour2 tablespoons sugar1 teaspoon baking powder¼ teaspoon baking soda¼ teaspoon salt1 egg1 cup buttermilk1 tablespoon butter, me...

Highbrow Cocktails (my own and my love for others')
2008-01-08 16:05:00
Although they were one of the big trends of 2007, I have always liked creative handcrafted cocktails. I think the infamous Milk and Honey in Manhattan’s Lower East Side was the first place to offer such libations, and, because I’m sooo cool, I used to have their phone number and have been there a few times – of course, this was a number of years ago, before they got really popular and started changing their number like every month because people were posting it on the internet. The owners of M&H then opened Little Branch, for which you don’t need a phone number to get in, and, although I’ve only been once, I think it’s just as good as – if not better – than the original (probably because it is stripped of all pretenses). There are now a handful of other bars in NYC that specialize in such cocktails, but I think my favorite handcrafted cocktail bar of the moment is Bramble. It’s in Edinburgh. Scotland. I read about this place in some magazine I found on ...
More About: Love , Cocktails

Spicy Black Bean, Corn, and Potato Soup
2008-01-05 21:05:00
This is totally one of my favorite soups – it’s insanely easy to make but stands on its own as a meal. I first made this for my parents a few years ago, and they both loved it. But I think the best testament to how good this soup is is the fact that my friend Rick, the world’s pickiest eater, likes it. ‘Nuff said. Spicy Black Bean , Corn , and Potato Soup (serves 3-4) 2 tablespoons canola oil1 small white onion, finely chopped1 small jalapeño pepper, seeds and ribs removed, finely chopped (about 1 tablespoon)1 teaspoon cumin powder1 teaspoon coriander powder1 clove garlic, minced1 medium Yukon gold potato, cut into ½� chunks1 quart vegetable broth1 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed1 cup frozen corn kernelLarge handful of cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped (about ¼ cup)½ lime, cut lengthwise into wedges½ avocado, cut into chunksA few handfuls of blue corn chips***************Heat the oil in a pot set over medium heat. A...

Linguini with Mushroom Carbonara Sauce
2008-01-04 13:43:00
I've never heard of or seen a vegetarian version of carbonara sauce, which is really strange to me - how hard is it to just leave out the bacon? I guess the bacon is the main element, but it seemed pretty obvious to me to replace it with mushrooms, which are frequently used as a substitute for meat. I first made this a few years ago as a little experiment and clearly it worked. And since I was desperately craving it last week, I decided to make it last night. I won't lie and say it's good for you, but it certainly does make you feel good when it's freezing cold in your apartment!Mushroom Carb onara(serves 1) Scant ¼ pound dry linguini2 teaspoons butter½ small shallot, minced1 small garlic clove, minced¾ cup sliced crimini mushrooms (I used 4 large criminis and 1 chanterelle)¼ teaspoon chopped fresh sage2 tablespoons dry white wine1 egg yolk2 tablespoons heavy cream2 tablespoons (packed) freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheeseLarge pinch of sa...
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Israeli Couscous with Kale, Butternut Squash, and White Beans
2008-01-03 05:01:00
It's very obvious that I haven’t been home much in the past few weeks. Between going to my parents’ house for the weekend of Christmas and then back up to NYC the following weekend for New Year’s Eve, I’ve barely been home. And that means that I haven’t gone grocery shopping and that I kind of sort of have the same things in my fridge that have been there the past two weeks. (Thankfully such things last a long time in the fridge.) I came home from work tonight and realized that I had slim pickings in the fridge, but I refused to order food because I’ve been eating out for the past 5 days and I couldn’t bring myself to do so yet again. I remembered I had an unopened box of Israeli couscous in the pantry that I had bought too many months ago, and, because I really only had vegetables from the pizza I made a while back, I had no option but to revamp said pizza into some sort of Mediterranean warm salad type thing. (This is what happens when you're cooking for one!...
More About: Beans , White , Couscous , Squash , Kale

Mushroom Risotto
2007-12-27 23:41:00
I was in a blah mood yesterday – the cold, gray, rainy day certainly didn’t help – and I wanted something creamy and comforting for dinner. What I really wanted was linguini with mushroom carbonara sauce (hold the bacon), but I was out of eggs and had no intention of going out into the rain to more. I had my mind set on something creamy and mushroomy (and no, cream of mushroom soup was not even close to what I wanted, I've never even eaten the stuff), and then it came to me: risotto! Risotto is totally easy to make, it’s just a little time consuming because of the slow addition of the liquid to the rice, which is why I think people are afraid of it. Normally I wouldn’t make risotto for myself (I’m really lazy when it comes to cooking for myself and frequently resort to frozen veggie burgers and strange foods which I dare not mention on here for fear of sullying my good name), but it was the perfect comfort food for a dreary day. Mushroom Risotto(serves 1) ...