Brooklyn Home Cooking

So the truism is that New Yorkers don't cook, and I have to admit that having a small kitchen, having to carry my groceries, and being without my own cooking equipment (and sometimes having very little time) has made me more likely to rely on convenience foods, or what I like to think of as the college student diet (tuna-eggs-rice-beans-yogurt, in various combinations).

After I joined the Park Slope Food Coop last fall, though, I started cooking more, or at least eating better at home. Here's a salad I made for Thanksgiving - salad greens and goat cheese that anywhere else I'd consider a luxury are affordable at the coop.

And as with most things, the generalization "people don't cook in NY" must be a bit of an exaggeration for a diverse city of almost 8.5 million people.

Actually, one of my favorite food scenes in a movie takes place in a Brooklyn neighborhood not far from where I live now. Do you remember the egg frying scene in Moonstruck?

Why is it so fun to cut a hole in a piece of bread and crack an egg into it?

Cookbook Experiment: The Moosewood Cookbook

This week's foray into cookbooking is The Moosewood Cookbook (1978), which is hand-illustrated and written by the author. An unimaginable feat today, though apparently she's still working in the same method.

It's a classic early vegetarian cookbook, but a lot of the recipes are either reliant on cheese or suspiciously "ethnic" in a way that seems less than authentic by today's standards. As usual, I found refuge in the desserts.

Ukrainian Poppyseed Cake

Nori Chips

This recipe for nori chips from Mark Bittman has been in my "to try" file since I first saw it last fall. Finally got around to making the chips, and I agree - if you like the taste of seaweed, these are a good snacking alternative. I'm enjoying the taste more on day two than the day I made them, and they're just fine without the sesame oil.


I don't think I had seaweed until college - which was when a friend from California finally introduced me to sushi. Now I like it in a number of different forms, and I think it has also increased my appreciation for other seafood, like raw oysters, that really taste of the sea.

With buckwheat soba for a light lunch.

Cookbook Experiment: Cusines of Mexico

Number two in The Cookbook Experiment is Diana Kennedy's Cusines of Mexico (1972). Well, number three really, because number two should have gone to Ann Clark's Fabulous Fish, but I forgot to take a picture. It happens sometimes.

Cusines is a fairly intimidating book, and I flipped through it for a while trying to find a recipe that looked simple enough for me to prepare without too much extra shopping or prep. Finally I settled on a cold squash salad, or ensalada de calabacita, garnished with pickled onions called cebollas encurtidas.


The recipe called for zucchini and also a chayote squash, which I'd never cooked with before. According to Kennedy, the light green ones that we see most frequently are also the least prized of three different varieties of chayote.

The pickled onions, with oregano

A three-sisters dinner: corn tostadas, pinto beans, and the salad, with queso fresco
(and carrots from the farmer's market)

Closeup!

The salad was ok, but I'm still working on my taste for chayote. It's certainly an expressive vegetable, though.

DIY Banh-Mi

A few weeks ago, I had professionally-prepared banh-mi, but I found myself wondering if I might be able to make my own at home. After doing some web research, I assembled my list of ingredients and set out to get everything necessary.

The sandwiches are already multicultural - French imperialists left behind their bread baking skills in Southeast Asia, so the sandwiches require a crusty bun.
Where to turn but the local panadería?

Can I tell you how excited I am to have good crusty bread in the 'hood? These bolillos are fab.

The veggies: daikon from the Asian supermarket, pickled carrot/daikon in sushi vinegar, chopped scallions, and a tomato for good measure

Daikon is my new favorite vegetable. It doesn't hurt that I always think about this.

And a very important garnish: cilantro (also added lettuce)

I also added mayo and hot chili paste, and chopped up eggs and shrimp for the innards. After doing this a second time, I recommend pulling out excess bread from the inside of the bun, and making a paste of the mayo/chili/onion/pickled veggie that marinates for a while before going on the sandwich.

A bit more involved than a pbj but worth it for a weekend lunch.

The Cookbook Experiment

I'm temporarily living with my mom, which has given me access to her library of cookbooks, a small selection of which you can see in the picture below. She has been collecting cookbooks since her own young adulthood, and even has a few from my grandmother's generation. It's an astounding collection of recipes, tips, and other food-related wisdom.


In an effort to get to know these books better, I'm starting a semi-Julie/Julia inspired project to make one recipe from each of these books. Along the way, I'll rate the recipe on various factors (ease of preparation, availability of ingredients, tastiness of results, etc.)

First up, Paris Home Cooking, by Michael Roberts. I was wanting to make vichyssoise, never having had it but thinking leeks and potatoes would make a good midwinter soup, for an unusually cold and wet Austin February. Well, apparently the soup isn't French in origin, but I did find a hot potato and leek soup (not pureed).


It turned out well - even without the bacon the recipe called for. I had to make some substitutions for other ingredients: didn't use the exact type of wine called for; improvised an herb bag - not having cheesecloth - with a tea strainer; green onions rather than chives. Otherwise the recipe was fairly simple and ingredients not unreasonably exotic.

Ease of preparation: A- | Availability of ingredients: B+ | Taste: A

Chocolate Atole

Despite Texan roots, there are plenty of things I don't know about the great cuisines to the south of here - in Mexico and Central America. Atole, a thick, hot drink that incorporates corn meal or corn starch, is a dish I had heard about but never tried - until recently.

This recipe, from the late Matt Martinez, Jr. 's cookbook, uses Mexican chocolate (which already has cinnamon in it), as well as an additional cinnamon stick...

...and masa harina, mixed with milk and water, and boiled for a while.

Add whipped cream and cinnamon, and voilà! A thick, delicious hot chocolate.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with all that leftover masa harina!

The Perfect Hostess - Part 2

As promised, here are the results of the baked egg in tomato recipe from The Perfect Hostess.


The recipe is a bit vague, as older recipes can often be: scoop out the innards of a tomato, crack an egg into it, cover with breadcrumbs and bake at 350 until the white is firm. Cross-referencing with a recipe from the JOY I decided to forego the breadcrumbs and instead topped the egg with a little butter, salt and pepper.


Thirty minutes later, I pulled the dish out of my toaster oven and enjoyed it with buttered, toasted English muffins. Unfortunately the pictures are not very appetizing - you'd probably have to bake 50 of these to get a pretty one. But they are tasty.

Baking Again

Nothing heralds the arrival of fall like the desire to start baking again after an incredibly long, incredibly hot summer.

In the last few weeks I've fired up the oven several times. Muffins are a favorite.

Adding lemon zest to blueberry muffins

Breakfast! Snack! Dinner! I'm always relieved to have my own "quick breads" around because the ones you buy at the store are either a) flavorless or b) needlessly expensive. This may be one instance where "making your own" is not a good way to maintain a healthy diet, though, because when there's no competition for baked goods they all go in one belly: mine.

Irish soda bread with raisins and caraway seeds. Basically a giant scone. It came together in about 5 minutes (30 to bake). I was shocked.

Baked Stuffed Poblanos

I don't usually post recipes on here because most of the stuff I make is from other people's recipes. But I made up this baked poblano dish this past week (after researching baked peppers, rice pilaf, and Mexican rice) and I was so dang proud of how they turned out I thought I'd share.

INGREDIENTS:
2 lg poblano peppers
3/4 of a large white onion
2 scallions
2 lg cloves garlic
1 lg carrot
2 c. vegetable stock
1 c. canned chopped tomatoes (1/2 can)
1 c. long grain white rice
1/3 c. chopped toasted walnuts
1 c. shredded jack cheese
chopped parsley to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Roast poblanos and set to steam
3. Chop vegetables (I made mine pretty small). Put large saucepan over medium heat; add oil. Let it get hot, then add the onions and garlic. Saute for a minute or two, adding salt to taste. Add the rice and carrot and cook for a couple more minutes. Add a little more salt, especially if your veggie broth is unsalted. Then add 1.5 cups of the vegetable stock and all the tomatoes. Cover and cook the rice until done (about 10 minutes after it boils). Then remove from the heat, fluff the rice with a spatula, and let sit covered for 10 more minutes. Stir in the cheese, walnuts, and parsley.
4. Peel the poblanos, cut off the tops, and make a slit down the side. Remove seeds and ribs.
5. In a 9x9 baking pan, lay down a layer of the rice mixture. On top of that, lay the poblanos, which you can stuff with the remaining rice and reclose. Pour the remaining 1/2 c. veg stock into the bottom of the pan. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 35 minutes.

Serve with black beans and or as a taco/burrito filling. Serves approximately 4.

Mommie Mack's Fruit Salad

I recently had the opportunity to make my grandmother's fruit salad for a potluck. Mommie Mack's fruit salad, which shows up often at family holiday gatherings, can be varied depending on taste and what looks good in the market.

When I was younger, I thought it was all canned - thus I imagined 1950s cuisine. But when I helped MM make it for the first time I realized that it consisted of more fresh fruit than canned. This helps explain its deliciousness.

Canned pineapple, neatly placed in its container

(The salad also contains canned tangerines)

All the fruit together: kiwis, red grapes, bananas, apples, canned tangerines, and canned pineapple

And yes, whipped cream and marshmallows

All assembled

Making the salad put me in the mind of family gatherings past, and maybe it was because I was listening to Beethoven's late sonatas, but I got nostalgic and a bit sad. Food can do that can't it? Jonathan Safran Foer has a great article in the NYT Magazine this week exploring some of the same feelings.

Potato Zucchini Pancakes

Potato pancakes, or latkes as we sometimes called them when I was growing up, were one of the first things I learned to cook when I left home. The recipe I have, typed and sent by my mom to me at college, is spattered with oil. I always loved latkes, both because they're kind of like a glorified French fry, and because they have the same name as a great Andy Kaufman character.

I haven't made latkes so much in recent years, mostly due to the amount of oil involved in frying them. And the fact that frying is tedious and messy, especially in a small kitchen. But recently I decided to try pan frying--and it worked pretty well. These are very simple--grated potatoes and zucchini, egg, and seasonings. Even better with a little cheese melted over the top...

Coconut Milk Bread Pudding

An excess of coconut milk and a desire for cinnamon rolls collided recently in the form of this bread pudding, made from a modified "New Orleans Style Bread Pudding" JOY recipe (1 cup of sugar instead of 2, coconut milk instead of regular milk, and no bourbon sauce!)

The coconut milk I'm referring to is not the kind that comes in a can--this is a new product from So Delicious that has appeared at the grocery store recently, and that is being marketed as yet another milk substitute (along with soy, almond, hemp, etc.).

My question: can it be used in baking, and if so, will it leave evidence of its pleasingly faint coconutty flavor?

The bread pudding turned out fine, but lacked the coconut flavor. However, warming it with a little coconut milk poured over the top did the trick.

Happy Bastille Day (week)!

Tricolor crepes with blackberries, yogurt, and raspberries

Tofu with Lemongrass

Lemongrass is such a wonderful flavor--not really lemony or grassy, but fresh, tart and fragrant. It has been a favorite of mine since I first had stir fried tofu and lemongrass at the neighborhood Vietnamese restaurant many years ago.

Lemongrass stalks, with long, luxurious tops

I never tried to make the dish until a couple of years ago, but was fortunate to find a recipe that is reasonably easy, and also quite healthy, with onions, garlic, and turmeric. Chop everything up, marinate the tofu for about an hour, then throw it all in the pan to stir fry. Peanuts go on as a garnish and provide a satisfying crunch.

FYI, the Asian market in North Austin has much prettier lemongrass than the sad, dried out specimens at Central Market.

Fish Tacos, Home "Assembled"

I'm not going to be doing much cooking this summer, with a less-than-frosty AC and 103 degree days... But these tacos didn't require too much heat in the kitchen. Mostly assembly--I used frozen fish fillets, which could be heated in the toaster oven. Store bought tortillas and chips (not that I ever make those).

Not bad, but the next time I'll have some kind

of creamy sauce on them as well.

Taco!

I was especially proud of the cabbage slaw, having never made anything with cabbage before. This was green cabbage, cilantro, onion, lime, and salt. I think I put a little honey in with the lime juice too. It was really good when first made. Next time I'll ask for a quarter cabbage instead of a half though--a little goes a long way!

Edamame Spread

After seeing edamame spread at the Steeping Room last week, I decided to see if I could make it at home. I almost always have edamame in the freezer, since they are so quick and easy to cook and are good for a snack or a meal. 

I guess it's not actually cooking them--just reheating since they come pre-cooked in the package. But still.

Cooked edamame in their pods

Shelled edamame

The finished product

I used a recipe from Martha Stewart--first hit on Google. It was a little too garlicky but I think with some tinkering this could be a nice substitute for hummus (and more colorful).

BLT for vegetarians

One thing most former meat eaters seem to have in common is a slightly perverse lingering fondness for bacon. I myself had this, at least for about the first 5 years after going meatless. Now it's not as strong, but the smell of bacon and coffee in the morning is still enough to bring a tear to my eye.

Not to mention all the dishes that are made with bacon, especially the sandwiches... BLTs, club sandwiches... I had just about given up hope that I would ever enjoy anything close again, when I came across this smoky tempeh product in Wheatsville about a year ago. It's actually a pretty good substitute for bacon, especially when sandwiched between mayo-enhanced toast, lettuce, and bacon.

Don't let its good looks fool you

The only drawback is that a fairly small package runs about $5. But for a once in a while treat, it's worth it. Still working on a replacement for the turkey and ham in a club... 

Leek Tart (Flamiche aux poireaux)

Some time back I was inexplicably overtaken by the desire to make a pastry crust from scratch. I don't know where these whims come from. But this is the product: a leek tart, from a JOY OF COOKING recipe. 

I like leeks but don't cook with them often. They are associated with St. David and the country of Wales. 

This was good right out of the oven (after that painful 10 minute "settling" time), and again a few days later heated up in the toaster oven. Not as good cold. 

Serving suggestion