Summer Tony Party

Cater time! In the bold tradition of food porn, I’m sharing what I made last night for my mom’s Tony party (yes, my mother has parties to watch the Tony Awards. They also bet on the winners, although not for money, and that just told you everything you need to know about my mother). The food was really good! And I’m trying to get the extra crab salad for lunch tomorrow.

Menu:

Appetizer:

• Fig-ricotta-mint on pumpernickel.

I got these little pumpernickel toasts and piled them with fresh ricotta cheese, mint leaves and pieces of fresh fig (they’re in season! Go guy some!). Soooo good – the ricotta-mint-fig combination is one of my favorites, and also constituted my sandwich for lunch today. Next time it could do with less heavy pumpernickel toasts though – the flavor worked but the bread was so dense that it got to be a little overwhelming.

Main Course:

• Roasted butternut squash
• Sweet pea-corn crab salad
• Orange-fennel-parmesan salad on mixed greens

Squash: Sorry, no pictures of the roasted squash! But – just cut those babies in half, scoop out the seeds, put them on a pan face up, fill the middles with olive oil, crushed sage, beer (yes beer! Usually I use butter and vegetable broth but 1) there was a vegan coming and 2) I didn’t have any broth, but I did have a negro modelo. It worked well!), salt and pepper, cover with tin foil and roast at 400 degrees for 30-45 minutes. Then cool, scoop, mash and serve. Mmmmmm.

Sweet pea and corn crab salad: Sooo loosely based on a Mark Bittman recipe that was in the times a while ago, but I added/changed some stuff. I used: ¾ of a large red onion, 2 small red peppers, one orange pepper, 4 ears of fresh corn (cook it, then cut the kernels off and add), 2 avocados, about 1 lb of sweet peas, shelled (no actually I’m making that up and have no idea how many I used. But it was a bunch. Take them out of their shells and poach them in saltwater for about 30 seconds before using – otherwise they’re not so sweet), and three 8-oz containers of packed crab meat. Dice everything that doesn’t come in bite size pieces, and make a dressing out of olive oil, lemon salt and pepper. Oh! And also chop up some basil. Mix everything together and eat.

Orange fennel parmesan salad on mixed greens: get mixed greens. Wash them. Put them in a salad bowl. Chop fennel. Add it. Chop orange slices into bite size pieces (no pits! This can be difficult actually if you don’t know how to do it – I learned from Jamie Oliver). Add them. Shave parmesan on top. I forgot the dressing for this so used Newman’s own, but think some kind of lemony-dijon thing would be nice.

Dessert:

• Thyme-Fruit salad and Frommage Blanc.

Fruit salad: Blueberries, chopped nectarines, bananas. Make a dressing out of the juice of 3-4 limes, and a few tablespoons of honey and the leaves from like 6 fresh thyme sprigs. Mix. Yum.

Sauteed Cabbage -- yes, it's delicious

So, it all started the other week when I was in San Francisco, staying with my friend and “tele-commuting” from this cake café in Berkeley. It got to be lunch time and I was hungry. The only thing not covered in chocolate or filled with cream was a polish pastry filled with… cabbage. Now I’m not sure about anyone else, but for me cabbage brings up memories of smelly soups and old babushkas forcing gushy sour mash down my throat. But, I was hungry, and so gave in and got the pastry. And it was… delicious. This sweet savory flakey pastry thing that crunched and was juicy and absolutely amazing.

Since that was my only good experience with cabbage, I wrote it off as a fluke. That is until I was on the flight back to New York, reading the Real Simple magazine I’d bought in a moment of weakness in an airport newsstand. In the back of the magazine there was a great recipe for none other than... for sautéed cabbage. The sweet butter mess brought back memories of that juicy pastry I’d had a few days ago, and maybe it was the five hour flight with nothing to eat but salted cashews and potato chips, but I swear I started to salivate. It was then I decided: I was looking fate in the eye, and my fate happened to taste like cabbage.

So, after confronting every fear I ever had (that it would taste awful, that I’d smell bad after cooking it, that simply the act of making the cabbage would age me 30 years and I’d start walking with a cane and wearing scarves on my head) I bought a head of cabbage. I also bought a yellow cooking onion and some green apples, and if I’d been less broke (or thinking ahead properly) I probably also would have bought some walnuts and maybe raisins. I sautéed it up, loosely using the recipe from the magazine and anything else that looked appealing, and it was… delicious. My theory is that there are a few keys to making cabbage that doesn’t taste like old socks – cook it with things that get sweet (like onions and apples), caramelize everything, and use butter. Recipe below – I’m planning on adding some veggie sausage to it and eating it for lunch tomorrow, but you could use real sausage, those elusive walnuts or eat it plain. I bet you could also wrap it in dough and make some mean pierogi, or maybe even wrap it in flakey pastry dough and make that amazing cabbage pastry that started the whole thing. Anyways, all I know is this – thank you San Francisco, for helping me channel the polish grandmother I never knew I had.

Need:

• ½ head cabbage
• I small yellow onion
• 2 green apples
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• ½ tsp Garam Masala
• 2 tbs Olive oil
• 2 tbs Butter
• Salt
• ¼ cup vegetable broth (optional)
• 1/3 cup crushed Walnuts (optional)
• ¼ cup raisins (optional)

Cookware:

• Sauce pan and lid
• Big sharp knife
• Paring knife
• Cutting board
• Measuring cup and spoons

Directions:

1. Chop the onion into slices and sauté in butter and olive oil.
2. Peel and chop the apples while the onion is sautéing

sauteeing the onion... and chopping the apples...

3. Add the apples, mustard seed, garam masala, a pinch of salt, and cook for about 2 minutes on medium heat. (also add walnuts here if using)











Adding the onions... mustad seed!










... what it looks like all together

4. Chop the cabbage into strips.










one head of cabbage is... well.. a shitload of cabbage. Use half.

5. Add cabbage and 2-3 tbs vegetable broth (add raisins here if using).
6. Cover until the cabbage begins to soften.
7. Uncover and sauté until lightly caramelized, about 20 minutes.












my final product... and no, it's not part of the recipe -- the Bulleit Bourbon is my solution for jet lag. It did pair nicely, however.

8. Add sausage or veggie sausage here, if using
9. Eat, and save some for later – this makes a lot.

*Note – you can use less butter or no butter if you want – it just won’t be as delicious. You can also use more butter – a lot more butter – and only olive oil if you want an even more delicious (and unhealthy, but really, what tastes good that isn’t bad for you even a little bit, and besides butter has calcium and protein) meal…

**Other Note – I have no suggestions as to what you could do with the other half a head of cabbage. You can double the recipe, make coleslaw or maybe soup? Or possibly a salad. If I think of anything, I’ll let you know..

Moroccan Red Stuff

My best friend is Moroccan, and in college, she was famous for putting Tabasco on everything she ate. I never understood why until she made me this: the one ‘authentic’ recipe that was passed down to her from her grandmother. Similar to what’s called Harissa in stores, she’d always just refer to this as “red stuff” (I’m guessing because of the color). A condiment, it’s good with a number of things: on toast with a soft-boiled egg, in a bowl with rice and beans, alongside hummus and pita, mixed with yogurt and eaten with chips. It stores really well – put it in a jar or something else, it will keep for weeks.

Ingredients:
4 lbs tomatoes, peeled OR 2 large (24 OZ) cans whole peeled tomatoes
4-5 cloves Garlic
2 green bell peppers
4 small green hot peppers OR 2 tbs dried crushed chili peppers
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp tumeric
½ tsp salt
4 tbs olive oil

Utensils:
1 saucepan
1 garlic press (optional)
Paper towels
Plastic bag

Recipe:
Peppers: Turn on stove burner. Take bell pepper and place directly onto open flame, turning occasionally, until as much of the outer skin is blackened and blistered as possible (use a fork or a shishkabob skewer to avoid burning your hands). Once entire pepper skin is blackened, wrap pepper in damp paper towel and then wrap in plastic bag. Repeat for second pepper. Let sit for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, mince the small green peppers (or crushed red pepper) and add to saucepan. Take the peeled tomatoes and crush them with your bare hands into the sauce pan. Add the 4-5 cloves crushed garlic. Place saucepan over medium-high heat, and cover. Stir often, making sure mixture doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Cook about 20-30 minutes, until mixture is no longer liquidy but is thick.

While the tomato mixture is cooking, take the bell peppers out of the plastic bad and paper towels. Run peppers under cold water and remove all burnt skin, until all you’re left with is the flesh of the pepper. Take a knife and slit the pepper open: cut off the very top, being sure to remove the seed, heart and veins along with it. Slice pepper into bitesize chunks.

Once the tomato mixture has thickened, turn down the flame and add all spices. Mix thoroughly, then turn off heat and add the oil and bell peppers. Mix thoroughly again, cool and serve.

Vodka Tomato Soup

This recipe first started as a half-hearted attempt at a tomato vodka sauce. Somehow, somewhere, it turned into a soup. The Vodka adds a sweetness, that along with slow-cooking the tomatoes and a hell of a lot of veggie broth, makes for a downright pleasant meal. Also, using canned tomatoes and little else makes it cheap…

Ingredients:
1 small can (~16 OZ) whole peeled tomatoes, preferably organic OR 4-5 whole fresh tomatoes
2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup vodka
2 basil leaves
3 tbs olive oil
Water
Pinch salt
Sour cream or goat cheese (optional)

Utensils:
Sauce pan
Can opener (duh)
Measuring cup & spoons
Blender
Sharp knife

Recipe:

If using whole tomatoes:
Fill saucepan full of water and put on stove over high heat.

While waiting for it to boil, take a sharp knife and make a shallow “X” in the bottom of each tomato’s skin. Place each tomato in the boiling water for about 20 seconds, or until the skin starts peeling away from the flesh of the tomatoes. Remove tomatoes from boiling water and peel off skin. Repeat.

If using canned tomatoes:
Open can. Drain liquid. Take out tomatoes.

Either Way:
Cut tomatoes open and remove seeds. Add to saucepan along with the broth, oil, basil leaves, ½ cup water and ¾ cup vodka. Bring to a boil, then quickly reduce to the lowest heat possible and cover. Let simmer for 45 minutes, or until tomatoes look like they are about ready to fall apart. Remove from heat and let cool for about 10 minutes. Remove basil leaves, and pour rest of the mixture into a blender. Puree entire mixture until smooth. Add liquid back into pot, along with the salt and the rest of the vodka. Cook for about 10 minutes more, remove from heat and serve, with goat cheese or sour cream if you want.

Variation: add one smoked chipotle pepper (from a can). It will add heat but still be great.

Variation: add only one and a half cups vegetable broth and no water to make a mean, yet thin, vodka sauce. Perfect for ravioli or lasagna.