Who is Steve? I know you’re wondering. Well, I’ve assumed he is the maker of my new favorite ice cream (although apparently these days the operation is run by a guy name Dave). Recently Brad and I discovered his ice cream at the Park Slope Food Coop, and it is, as modern dance legend Judith Jamison would say, divine. We’ve tasted Strawberry Ricotta Ice Cream, Small Batch Bourbon Vanilla Ice Cream, (you drooling yet?), Mint Coconut Creme with Cacao Chips, and our favorite thus far, Mexican Chili Chocolate Ice Cream.
I just came across this behind-the-scenes slide show of their operation on the Serious Eats blog. If you haven’t tasted Steve’s yet, get yourself some. Oh, and Steve, we like your website.
The makings of a fancy night at Chez Thomason. Vino e dolce!
On a slightly related and also delicious note, we had lunch today at a neighborhood haunt with our friend Allan (ciao, Allan!), where I favor homemade tamales and horchata, and we all sipped on a spicy, Oaxacan hot chocolate for dessert. Mmmmm!
And so we enter into the weekend after a bit of a grueling week. Tonight Brad and I whipped up a meal with what was left of the greenmarket booty. We made pesto with a root of basil that I kept in glass of water all week (like fresh flowers in the kitchen, but edible!), which we tossed with some roasted new potatoes and cherry tomatoes and paired with pan roasted chicken and grilled radicchio.
As usual, I’ve been scanning the interwebs all week for recipes, but by far the most unique one I’ve come across has been this recipe for grilled English peas on the Simple Recipes blog. I repeat, grilled peas. Do you know I have peas on the brain these days? Recipes to come…
We’re off early tomorrow morning for a Pennsylvania family reunion. I’m dreaming of Amish farmers’ markets en route home, while Brad has his heart set on (vintage modern) antiquing. Sure enough we will find good food and I will return tell about it.
On our recent trip to Italy, Brad and I spent a few magical days on the Ligurian Coast. Everywhere we went, we experienced local versions of ragu or sugo di pesce (the unglamorous English translation would be fish sauce). I’m not talking about bouillabaisse, nor the spicy, tomato-based, party-of-sea-creatures type of sauce you might be served over spaghetti. I am talking about the most delicate yet silky, sings-of-the-sea fish ragu that would accompany either a fresh, cut pasta or a fish ravioli.
These dishes were revelatory, each one unique and yet they all achieved the same simple perfection. I want nothing more than to be able to make a pasta dish such as this.
So I did some internet research. A google search for “fish ragu” turned up very little. A search for “ragu di pesce” turned up some promising recipes in Italian, but still none of them where what I was looking for. So I read a few, compared notes, called on my memory and decided to give it a try. The one thing I was certain of was that the fishy essence of this dish would rely on a sparing use of wine (not the generous amounts called for in the recipes I was seeing) and a homemade fish stock.
That's me, giving those Sea Robbins the old fish eye
I headed to the greenmarket fishmonger, Blue Moon, and asked if they might have some fish heads if I came early enough next week. But the woman who helped me told me people don’t make enough soup in the summer to make it worthwhile to transport them, so no. We discussed what I might do instead, and I eventually purchased 2 Sea Robbins (at a whopping $1.50/lb, they cost me $2.00).
At home I set to gutting them and removing the gills*, sliced off some little fillets which we treated Francine and Turtle (dog and cat, respectively) with later that night, and into the stock pot they went.
*If you can teach me how to really clean a fish – I’m talking guts, scales and gills, and I’d like to fillet it well too, I will cook that fish for you and it will taste good. ‘The Joy of Cooking’ is a good teacher, but I certainly lack artistry and it takes me FOREVER.
A scallop, the first contender
For the actual ragu, I chose scallops. I needed a firm fish (and in the afternoon my selection was limited), and I thought the sweetness would be the flavor I wanted. Eventually, I set to making the sauce. Without time for making fresh pasta, Brad recommended we use an awesome dried pasta we often use for winter pork ragu for this test run (good in theory, but in the end it was all wrong). I’ll spare you the details from here, except that I failed.
Not miserably, as the flavors where delicious, but that saucy silky magic? I just didn’t get there. I’m thinking next time I’ll use a bit less firm of a fish, maybe monkfish, I’ll cook it slower and lower, add more broth, and maybe a swirl of butter in the end. We’ll see.
On the upside, I’ve now got a freezer full of fish stock for a summer of experimentation. Ragu di pesce, I will have you yet.
Brad and I own a graphic design studio. Which means we spend pretty much all day, everyday, together. Call me crazy, somehow it works.
For the first 3 years, our studio operated from an outpost on the majestic Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. After a brief stint in DUMBO, we recently settled in to our new studio. It is conveniently located on the top floor of the building we live in. (Go ahead, get jealous. This was one of those lucky timing, plus 5 years of a great relationship with a great landlord, almost impossible to find New York City opportunities).
There are many pluses about the new studio space and the way the proximity has improved our quality of life, but one stands out above them all. We now go home from work to cook and eat lunch.
Last night's kale salad and herb'd new potatoes? Put a fried egg on top and call it today's lunch!
I seem to be able to whip up pretty much anything using the previous night’s leftovers with some salad greens and maybe some goat cheese. Throwing a handful of fresh herbs into any dish gives it new life. And seriously, is there any food that doesn’t taste good with a fried egg on top?
Now you know what to do with that leftover kale salad.
Remember when I said I often have the urge to make photo captions based on the song lyrics running through my head? Try this one on for size: “Yeah baby I like it raw”.
Kale Salad, I like it raw
Seriously, a few years ago I started seeing recipes for raw kale salad, in Gourmet magazine (RIP), in the NY Times, everywhere… And I kept thinking, “now, how good could that be?” If only I had known I’d be eating it, no, craving it once a week. I serve it to guests, often at dinner parties, and everyone says the same thing as they ask for more, “Is that RAW kale?!”. Yeah baby, you like it raw.
My friend Christine recently wrote her own ode to kale salad on her blog. The two of us were dining together with our men at the most awesome Roberta’s, when we first tasted the salad that would change us. She gets all Super Food on that shit and adds raw beets and walnuts. Me, I like to keep it classico with pine nuts, a hint of chili and some good Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Although, I’ll make that salad with anything I’ve got on hand, any time I need to feel all is right in the world and in my digestive system (it’s just got to be good for that, right?). The salad pictured below has Ricotta Salata and Pepitas (pumpkin seeds), cause that’s what was stocked at the time.
Don’t matter how you do it, just as long as it’s raw.
RIP, ODB.
The Making of a Kale Salad with Ricotta Salata, Pepitas and Chili
Kale Salad (my way)
1 bunch lacinato (or Tuscan) kale (but use any kale you want, curly kale works just fine)
1/4 cup olive oil (the trick is to use a lot, you may use as much as 1/2 cup)
1 lemon, juice and zest (if your lemon isn’t that juicy, use 2)
…if you don’t have a lemon, I like to sub about 2 tablespoons white wine or sherry vinegar
1 dried chili of your choosing, crumpled
Salt and pepper
Pine Nuts, a handful, toasted if you please
1/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated (add more as a garnish if you’d like)
Stem and wash the kale, then cut it into very thin strips. In a large salad bowl, combine olive oil, lemon juice and zest, chili, salt and pepper – whisk to combine. Then add the kale, nuts and cheese (this is where you can improvise with with any dry cheese and nuts of your choice) and toss well to combine. If the greens don’t seem like they’re good and coated, you can add some more olive oil. Garnish with some additional grated cheese and serve.
The second trick is to make the salad first and then continue prepping dinner. It gets really tasty after the kale marinates in all that flavor for a bit.
It doesn’t keep that well, but I find that leftover salad made at dinner time tastes damn fine with a fried egg over it at breakfast.
Last July I agreed to cater our friends’ film shoot in the Catskills. I would feed 18 people 3 meals a day for 4 days. I know, crazy. It was a ton of work, the meal and ingredient planning alone had me wondering what I had gotten myself into. Brad wouldn’t let me hear the end of the fact that my commitment was his too, as I would obviously need his help in the kitchen. So I shopped – half at the Park Slope Food Coop and half at Bradley Farm in New Paltz en route to the location, schlepped everything up there arriving late at night, unpacked and prepped what we could in anticipation of the days ahead.
It was a lot of work, but you know what? It was also a blast. Even Brad had a good time. And after the first lunch big lunch, during which the crew was surprised and appreciative to be served home-cooked, family style* food, we had motivation to carry on knowing we had an audience that was hungry for more.
*Why the asterisk? Well, I didn’t know any better, so when feeding so many people I planned meals that would consist of 5 or 6 dishes and put them all out on the big table to be served and eaten family style. They crew members wandered in a few at a time, eying the set-up and hesitantly sitting around the table. Apparently there is typically a buffet of food that is served in pecking order (director and DP first, and the lowly PA’s last), and then everyone goes off with their plates to eat where they wish. By the end of the weekend, the crew would all be hovering around the table waiting for the food to be served, politely waiting for everyone to join before digging in, and we had more and more offers to help set the table (which were partly excuses to peek in the kitchen and see what was cooking).
Starting our last dinner with so much beautiful produce and sausage (and sunflowers!)
And so the days and cooking went on. The food was good, the crew was well-fed and happy. And by the end of the long weekend everyone was sentimental and making toasts as we enjoyed out last meal together. I was flattered to learn that some people thought catering was my real job – one of the crew members even contacted me a few months later asking if I’d cater his birthday party. But the biggest surprise to me was that my food was described by many as “healthy”. I mean, I know we eat a lot of vegetables, and I didn’t serve any 4 cheese mac and cheese or too much bacon, but still. I just made menus of the dishes I usually cook, the crowd-friendly, sorta easy ones that I could manage to make 6 of, for 18 people, in the time between lunch and dinner.
Here is one of my standby “healthy” recipes. We eat this all summer, swapping the sugar snap peas for the next beans that will follow in season. Soon it will be fava beans, then lima beans and edamame, at some point in the summer the cranberry beans will arrive. Hard to pick a favorite as I love all the summer peas and shell beans. Use the herbs you like most or have on hand, and adjust the bean cooking time depending on which ones you’re using. It’s also great with fresh corn instead of beans. I have a feeling you’ll come back to this one as often as I do.
Sugar Snap Peas and Quinoa with Mint
Quinoa with Sugar Snap Peas and Mint
3/4 cup quinoa
1.5 cups water
1 lb sugar snap peas
3-4 garlic scapes – Cause I had ’em. They added a nice garlicy spice, but feel free to omit.
2 tablespoons good olive oil
1 lemon, zest and juice
Handful of fresh mint, chopped – I also like cilantro and chives in this.
Salt and pepper
Rinse the quinoa and combine with water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce to a simmer. When the quinoa is cooked (about 15 minutes) remove from heat and let it rest covered. Meanwhile, set another saucepan of salted water to a boil. String the beans and slice into thirds (I like to cut them on the diagonal, because I’m fancy like that.) Slice the scapes into 1/4 inch pieces. When the salted water is boiling, cook the beans and scapes for 2-3 minutes until crisp tender, drain and rinse under cold water.
When the quinoa is ready, toss with the blanched beans and scapes, olive oil, lemon zest and juice, mint and salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot, or allow to rest and serve room temperature.
Get fancy, cut those sugar snaps on the diagonal!
I pair this most often with grilled chicken. If you’re wanting to make more of a menu, try starting with this curry squash soup (it’s great chilled as the weather heats up). A dollop of tart yogurt goes well on the side of all of this. The quinoa is dinner party friendly, as it tastes great prepared in advance and served room temperature. If you’ve got leftovers, serve it over some salad greens with the leftover grilled chicken sliced on top – or roll the quinoa and shredded chicken up in a wrap with a leaf of lettuce and a touch of plain yogurt.
This weekend I experienced a wonderland of culinary goodness all within a 4 block radius of my Brooklyn apartment.
I headed to the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket on Saturday afternoon. It was later than usual and most of the crowds had died down, so I strolled leisurely around searching for ingredients for the week’s cooking and photographing the bounty. I’m happy to announce that the blueberries and raspberries have arrived! I saw a few cherries here and there, which means they’ll likely be everywhere next week – time to hunt for some new cherry recipes.
I picked up some supplies from the fish vendor in order to take a first pass at making a Liguria-inspired fish ragu (more on this later) and spent the evening shelling sweet peas, making stocks (veggie and fish), and eventually dinner.
First Blueberries of the Season
Tello’s Eggs, Inspected and Beautiful
Garlic, So Fresh and Stinky
Eat your greens!
*Click the thumbnail images to view larger!
On Sunday Brad and I convened with friends back at the Grand Army Plaza to taste our way around the Food Truck Rally, an awesome new monthly event where a bunch of the city’s great food trucks park themselves where the Saturday greenmarket vendors set up. There were long lines of happy, hungry people everywhere.
Our crew finally got to taste the much-talked-about Kimchi tacos (and damn are they good) as well as some sweet, satisfying “watermelonade”, Rickshaw dumplings (chicken and Thai basil with peanut dipping sauce – mmmm!) and some deliciously tart frozen Joyride yogurt. I snagged some cookies from The Treats Truck for later, and then we all went on with our days.
Kimchi Tacos!
The Dumpling Line
The Kimchi Taco Exchange
Buzzed Frozen Yogurt and Berries
Earlier that day, when Brad and I were out walking Francine, we wandered through the 7th Avenue Street Fair – an annual event that we never seem to remember is happening until it’s right outside our door – and spied some seriously incredible smelling BBQ being tended in a smoker just a few blocks from our house. So post-Food Truck Rally, a few hours later with renewed appetites, we headed back to get us some.
The Pitmaster told me “Your timing is impeccable. This is the last Brisket of the day and it’s been in the smoker for 29 hours (!). I’m serious, this is gonna blow your mind.” My disappointment that they were already sold out of pulled pork instantly vanished as soon as I bit into the sandwich (topped which homemade BBQ and hot sauce). The Pitmaster watched us, confidently anticipating of our approval, and then he petted, kissed (I thought we were the only ones who did that!), and gave Francine a handful of brisket.
The Pitmaster and The Smoker
Damn Good Brisket, the Last One of the Day
Brad and a Big Bite of Brisket Sandwich
Francine Post-Brisket, and a Lemonade
3 new fans walked home happy and smacking our sticky lips in satisfaction.
I’m having one of those when-it-rains-it-pours moments in terms of my social calendar this week – 3 nights, 3 parties, which means 3 nights out of my kitchen and I’m running on a bit less sleep than I’d like at 2 days and 2 parties in. On Wednesday night my friend Corinna (who is also one of my teachers at Scuola Italiana, one of my favorite places to be in NYC these days) hosted a fundraiser event to raise money for the charity she and her husband are planning to run for in the New York City Marathon. Corinna is Roman and invited us for a Serata Italiana with food and wine. Let me just tell you that the menu she and her friend Maria cooked made one of my dinner party menus look like an overture. The food was incredible. (thanks Corinna and Martin!)
Last night I took Mrs. Daughterfish as my wingwoman to the launch of the Crave NYC book, which I’m excited to be featured in. Crave promotes female “entreprenesses” and is a great network of cool and inspiring women. Hosted in the knock-your-socks-off Upper East Side home of Philanthropy is Beautiful designer Joan Hornig, the evening was more about the great views (from a stunning veranda) and great company than food, although the passed hors d’oeuvres where quite tasty!
Tonight I’ll be going as my mom’s date to a wedding of an old family friend. I was just invited last week when it turned out my dad will be otherwise engaged celebrating his retirement (congrats Dad!), and I’m really looking forward to partying with the 3 King sisters and their mom Janie, who I love.
So… all this activity has kept me out of my kitchen, but I’ve been busy surfing the interwebs and Twitter for inspiration. Tomorrow is greenmarket day, so if you’ll be heading out to stock up on some beautiful local produce, here are a few highlights I’m hoping to try myself:
Green Pea Soup from 101 Cookbooks: Love the idea of the curry-like ginger-garlic paste. Although I’ll of course make this with fresh peas and I think I’ll serve it chilled with a dollop of yogurt
Creamy Mussel Stew With Peas, Fennel and Lemon: Brad spotted this one in the NY Times and I absolutely cannot wait to try it! Crossing my fingers that our fish vendor will have plenty of mussels at tomorrow’s market.
Rhubarb Fennel Fizz: Swoon! And not to mention the photo… The Year in Food might be my new favorite food blog. But if a liquid diet isn’t your style, you could try my Rhubarb, Goat Cheese and Arugula Tart
Happy Eating!
Let's call this "Rhubarb Improv"
Rhubarb, Goat Cheese and Arugula Tart
I spotted this recipe for Savory Rhubarb and Chipotle Goat Cheese Pizza early in the week and made a simple rhubarb compote (rhubarb, ginger, sugar, water), which I stuck in the fridge figuring we’d eat it over ice cream if I never got around to the pizza. The next night, around 9pm, I pulled out the compote and improvised. Pizza dough became puff pastry, I used plain goat cheese and a generous grinding of black pepper, topped the whole thing right out of the oven with a pile of baby arugula I had on hand, and hit it with a drizzle of good balsamic vinegar.
Try the pizza or try the tart, and let me know if you love it too.
*If you want a more specific recipe for the compote and tart, hit me up in the comments.
The new favorite Bad Feather pastime is food photography. Since we finally launched this website we’re trying to brush up on our skillz. Brad is forever chatting up our friend Etienne (who is a super talented Brooklyn photographer who took most of the pictures on the Bradley Farm website) for tips. I know 2 ladies, Shawn and Emily, who could probably show us a thing or two. And if my sister-in-law would just move to Brooklyn already (hi Amanda!), she seems to have a real knack for making my food look good in photos. But alas, we are stumbling forward working out our own methods. Here are a few things I’ve discovered over the past few weeks:
It’s all too easy to take gross pictures of food you think looks delicious
Taking pictures of dinner while you’re making it will double your cooking time
Natural light makes for good photos, florescent kitchen light, not so much
And so we come to the caption. Sometimes when I’m editing photos I have to fight the urge to insert song lyrics as captions. Like this photo up above (strawberries were gorgeous, lighting could use some work) – when I look at it I can’t stop hearing that Depeche Mode song “Just Can’t Get Enough” (stop what you’re doing and watch this video), probably because we’ve been consuming insane amounts of strawberries. In a few weeks when I’m munching on cherries and the strawberries are long gone until next year, it’d be awesome if I could have the Boyz 2 Men song “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye” ringing through my brain.
Brad and I frequently work late. Too many nights we find ourselves sitting in our studio when one of us says “Sh*t! It’s almost 9:00, we’d better go home.” And while irrational hunger and fatigue will occasionally force us to give in to the ease of NYC take-out, I try to motivate myself to make dinner as usual.
I spotted some good looking stuffed pasta in the freezer of our food coop last week and snagged them for a night such as this. Add some asparagus from the greenmarket and some good Parmigiano-Reggiano, which I always have on hand, and presto! dinner in 20 minutes. Which also happens to be the perfect amount of time to have your after work cocktail while cooking.
*Certain sauces and ingredients are best paired with fresh pasta, which I love to make but rarely have the time for. If you’re in Brooklyn, Union Market carries fresh pasta from Rafetto’s – these West Village peeps are the real deal, as in, been in the fresh pasta business since 1906. I also like the pasta from Russo’s on 7th avenue near 10th street in Park Slope. If you’re in NYC, I’d also recommend you make a pilgrimage to heaven on earth, otherwise known as Buon Italia in the Chelsea Market, where all your fresh pasta and Italian ingredient dreams will come true.
Asparagus puree, save the tips for flair!
Cheese Sacchetti with Asparagus Puree
1 package (1lb) fresh stuffed pasta of your choice (I used these awesome cheese sacchetti, otherwise I’d look for a good cheese tortellini or raviolini)
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces, tips reserved
Good olive oil
Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Set your pasta water to a boil with a generous amount of salt. Set another saucepan to a boil with salted water*. Cook the asparagus pieces (remember to trim the tips and reserve) in the saucepan of boiling water until tender, about 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to a food processor and puree. Meanwhile cook the tips in the boiling water for about 2-3 minutes until crisp tender. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop cooking.
*You can prep the asparagus while the water comes to a boil
Cook the pasta as directed (fresh pasta will only take about 2 minutes, but if it’s frozen, more like 5. They’re usually done when they float to the top), and reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water before draining and returning to the pot. Gently toss the pasta with the asparagus puree and 1/4 cup of the reserved water (add more if needed – you want it to be smooth and saucy without being too liquidy). Add the asparagus tips, a good splash of olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Give it another quick toss or two and spoon into dishes. Top with generous grating of cheese and enjoy!
*Variation: the asparagus season is fleeting, but soon the sweet peas will be here! The idea for this came from this recipe by Giuliano Hazan which I made last summer. I’d simplify based on my recipe above: In lieu of asparagus, blanch the fresh shell peas, puree 2/3 with some lemon zest and a splash of juice and save the remaining 1/3 to stir in whole. Try it with good, fresh tagliatelle. Riff on this, just go for it.
