December 2008
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
« Nov   Jan »
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  

Month December 2008

Entries 5 Total

Squash and Potato Gratin with Manchego Cheese

Dec 15, ’08

I missed it when The Times first reported it last week: the Maya Schaper Cheese and Antiques store in the upper west side is going to be replaced by a coffee shop because of soaring rents. Good thing then that the Dr. and I stopped by today to buy some cheese. The Dr. picked up a beautiful stinky blue cheese while I walked around gasping at the prices of the Rococo-style plates I’d very much like to afford and own. I tasted the cheese he bought and got my own sliver, and I also picked up a Manchego because I wanted to use the butternut squash that has been sitting on my window kitchen sill since the last Supper with Strangers. (It was still good.)

I like baking gratins because they’re so easy. They’re a nice addition to a dinner setting: you get your starch and in this case, your vegetable, too. I love the hint of salt and savory in this recipe even though it’s a creamy baked dish. It went perfectly well with a pork shoulder roasted for three hours.

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash, peeled, chopped lengthwise, sliced thin
2 sweet potatoes, peeled, sliced thin like coins
2 cups Manchego cheese, shredded
1 pint heavy cream
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsps fresh thyme
a small knob of butter
salt, pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400º. In a saucepan, bring cream and garlic to a simmer. Remove from heat and set aside, stirring occasionally to keep the top from gelling.
2. Butter a 9″x13″ shallow baking dish. Spread the sliced butternut squash out in a single overlapping layer. Sprinkle with some of the salt, pepper and thyme and then about a third of the grated cheese. Top with half of the sweet potatoes, building a new overlapping layer. Again sprinkle with some of the seasonings and another third of shredded cheese. Use the last of the potatoes to make one final layer and top with the remaining cheese. Pour over the garlic cream mixture, distributing evenly.
4. Bake the gratin. Cover the dish with foil and bake on the middle rack for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, move the gratin to the top rack of the oven and bake, uncovered, for an additional 20 minutes. The top should be nicely browned and the vegetables soft. Remove from oven and let cool for 30 minutes before serving.

Related post/s:
A recipe for a simpler gratin
Sign up for 2009 Supper with Strangers

Comments (0)

Anthos

Dec 10, ’08

32 West 52nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues
212/582.6900
$200 for two, with wine, without tip
♥ ♥

By the fifth time someone asked us if everything was okay, I paused and looked into the waiter’s eyes and told him, Really. We’re okay. I like good service as much as anybody else but there’s a fine line between being attentive and annoying. Our waiter swung by a few times to see if we needed drink refills (our wine glasses were still more than a third full), a couple of busboys tried to clear our plates away while we were still working on them and two other waiters whom we’ve never seen before also came by to ask if we were okay. I looked around the restaurant to see if we were holding up our table for too long, but it was fairly empty at 8pm. Were the servers just bored?

When we had uninterrupted minutes to ourselves, we were able to enjoy the food. The kitchen started us off with a lamb sausage amuse which my dining companion didn’t eat because she is quasi-vegetarian. I thought it was odd that no one ever bothered to ask her. I figured that they probably assumed we both eat meat because we were at a Greek restaurant.

The smoked octopus with fennel and mushrooms in lemon confit was so fragrant while the salad of Brussels sprouts and beets was so beautifully presented. The mullet and sweetbreads combined with bitter greens were a good mix in terms of texture, although I wasn’t a fan of the bulghur wheat that came with the roasted mushrooms and hen’s egg. By the time the quail and the tuna tartare were served, I was already full. My friend, skipping the meaty dishes, had room for the cotton candy with petit fours and the rich chocolate tart with ice cream.

We were really more than okay.

Related post/s:
Kefi is also from chef Michael Psilakis
Nobu 57 is a few blocks down

Comments (1)

Biscotti Di Vecchio

Dec 9, ’08

Here’s a stocking stuffer for your discerning friends: Biscotti Di Vecchio. These traditional twice-baked Tuscan cookies get a twist from Danielle Di Vecchio, who works the dough by hand using her grandmother’s original recipe.

From the savory, at $7.95 per dozen:

The sun-dried tomato with basil and cheddar cheese was awesome with a glass of Malbec because of its saltiness. It was flakier and more floury because of the cheese. It smelled good, too, even though the basil taste was barely there.

It was hard for me to tell the difference between the black pepper Asiago Parmesan from the rosemary and thyme walnut because I was eating them one after the other, but the black pepper was definitely present when I ate it separately. It remained my favorite savory flavor after everything else.

For the sweets, at $16.95 per dozen:

The cranberry in the cranberry orange zest added a good chewiness to the biscotti’s texture, but it was the zest that lingered and made an impression. I thought it would have been great with some peach or apricot-infused tea.

The pistachio chocolate chocolate chunk, according to my mother, was like eating a dark chocolate bar in a biscotti. (Twice the chocolate in the name!) She had no complaints. The white chocolate macadamia had a subtle vanilla taste. I wanted a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows with it. The simplest one, toasted almond, was the most biscotti of them all, and just comforting with a cup of hot barley tea.

I think my favorite was the cayenne cherry chocolate chunk. The flavors came in stages: the chocolate was strong at first, followed by the faint tartness of the cherry; the spiciness gradually hit my tongue and then slowly settled in. I loved the unexpected combination and I think any recipient will be surprised.

All in all, Biscotti di Vecchio biscottis are not tough like the ones you buy in stores. They remained pleasantly crunchy even after a weekend in their plastic packaging and I was able to keep the leftovers fresh just by putting them in a resealable container.

I think these biscottis make classy gifts especially during these tough times. If you can’t decide which flavor to give, there is a sweet and savory gift combination for $44.50.

Related post/s:
Biscotti di Vecchio ship 3-5 business days after confirmation.

Comments (0)

Lamb Shank in Ras-El-Hanoot

Dec 5, ’08

I am so sick of turkey leftovers that I’m going to gag if I think about it one more time. After the gym tonight, I stopped by Whole Foods to pick up one lamb shank from the meat department. Surprisingly, one piece came out a little under $7.50 versus the exorbitant Whole Foods price I always tsk-tsk at.

This recipe is from Janna Gur’s beautiful cookbook, The Book of New Israeli Food. She’s well known as the editor of Israel’s leading food and wine magazine, Al Hashulchan Gastronomic Monthly, so I thought the recipes would be hard to make. I was surprised at how easy to understand they were even though I’m not familiar with Jewish customs.

Ras-El-Hanoot, or “Top of the Store”, is a Moroccan spice mixture used to season meat. Apparently, every spice vendor has his own secret formula on how to make it. In this version, I’ve eliminated 1 tbsp of aniseed because I just didn’t have any, so I doubled the fennel seed measurement instead. You can certainly substitute aniseed with one star anise plus a pinch of allspice powder.

This lamb dish is one leftover I wouldn’t mind having again and again.

Ingredients:
1 lamb shank
1 medium carrot, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
5 sprigs of parsley, chopped
1 quart chicken stock
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
2 thyme sprigs
salt, oil

For Ras-El-Hanoot mixture:
2 tbsps paprika
2 tbsps fennel seeds
1 tbsp turmeric
1 tbsp coriander seeds

1. Make Ras-El-Hanoot mixture by crushing all the ingredients together using a mortar and pestle. Set aside.
2. In a large Dutch oven, heat some oil over medium heat. Rub salt all over the lamb. Add the lamb shank and brown on all sides. Remove from pot when done.
3. In the same pot using the remaining oil, sauté garlic until brown and onions until soft. Add carrot, celery, parsley, bay leaf, thyme and the Ras-El-Hanoot mixture and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Return the lamb to the pot and bring to a boil again. Lower the heat, cover and cook for 1 hour. Turn over the lamb and cook for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the meat is almost falling off the bone. Uncover the pot and cook for another 15 minutes to thicken the sauce.

Related post/s:
Buy your own copy of The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey from Amazon.com

Comments (0)

Boqueria SoHo

Dec 3, ’08

171 Spring Street between West Broadway and Thompson
212/343.4255
$70 for three, with drinks, without tip
♥ ♥

I felt like I got the gist of Boqueria SoHo after I stopped by for “dessert” with my brother and sister-in-law during its second weekend. We walked in around 5:45pm to eat an early dinner but were turned away because the bar was full. The maitre d’ refused to seat us fifteen minutes before the official start of dinner service. It seemed like a ridiculous rule only a person with a clipboard would impose, so we went to Snack around the corner instead for a better dinner.

My companions really wanted to taste some Spanish wines, so we returned after dinner to try and score seats at one of the long tables in the middle of the restaurant. We were seated immediately by the beautiful pata negro and a few spots away from a swollen-looking Bobby Flay.

We started with beers on tap before we moved on to the full-bodied red wines. Because we were only there to pick and taste, we shared the Garrotxa goat cheese, the Valdeon blue and the Idiazabal, a smoked sheep’s milk cheese. A smattering of salchichon was thrown in the mix for a few extra dollars. The Brussels sprouts with sausage was a favorite, as well as the roasted green peppers I learned to love while I was in Barcelona.

Two years ago, I said the food at the first Boqueria needed to be more inspired. It’s more refined here in SoHo, but the attitude need not match the neighborhood.

Related post/s:
The original Boqueria, uptown
No, the real original boqueria is in Barcelona
Boqueria in Barcelona photos on Flickr

Comments (3)