Malaysian Chicken Curry

Adapted from The Daily News

Ingredients:
1 pound of boneless chicken, cut in small pieces
2 potatoes, peeled and boiled for 5 minutes, quartered
1/2-inch lemongrass stalk
2 chilis
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 small piece of ginger, crushed and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups coconut milk
salt and vegetable oil

1. Mash the chilis, shallots, ginger and garlic into a paste using a mortar and pestle. Sauté in a heated skillet with hot oil.
2. Add the chicken and stir to coat with the paste. Add lemongrass, potatoes and coconut milk. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until chicken is cooked. Stir frequently to prevent sticking. Add a little but of water if necessary. Add salt to taste.

The Modern – The Bar Room

9 West 53rd Street at The Museum of Modern Art between Fifth and Sixth Avenues
212/333-1220
about $150 for two, with two drinks, without tip

I haven’t been back to the new MoMA ever since it reopened in its grand, newly renovated space in midtown Manhattan. The twenty-dollar entrance fee is a little too steep for a lazy Saturday afternoon but when Esquire magazine named Danny Meyer’s The Modern restaurant of the year, I knew I had to make a return trip. It also just recently received one star from the Michelin and that’s a very big accomplishment considering it just opened a year ago.

I made dinner reservations at The Bar Room to make our Wednesday night a little less formal than if we were in the main dining area. It’s busier and more crowded. The buzz all around makes you think it’s a Friday night somewhere in the Meatpacking District. I also prefer the small-plate way of eating. This way, my friend and I can taste more than three things from the menu and really get an idea of what the chef is trying to bring out from the kitchen. In this case, it’s Gabriel Kreuther’s skills from Alsace honed while doing a stint at the Ritz-Carlton.

The menu is adventurous that even if it guides you to order one from each section — from a small portion to a medium one onto a full serving — I still ordered a medium, a large and another large. I could not help but try the baekeoffe, an Alsatian stew slow-cooked in an earthenware pot. Instead of beef, The Modern version consisted of lamb, conch and tripe. A very interesting dish indeed with scrumptious baked crumbs on top, perfect with a glass of Cotes du Provence. The scallops and oxtail were served in two ways: a lone seared scallop on top of shredded oxtail on the left and another scallop next to it wrapped in oxtail meat shaped to look like, for lack of a better word, a huge testicle. This dish would have been rich enough to end the night (rich because of its flavor, not because of the testicle allusion) so I immediately regretted ordering the next dish. The pork cheeks were braised in sauerkraut and ginger jus which was even better as a leftover lunch the day after.

If I had any more room in my stomach, I thought the tagliatelle with escargots, hen of the woods and basil was as tempting as the olive-crusted lamb loin with chanterelle ragout and butternut squash and roasted celeriac. Thankfully, my friend was watching her weight so she had a reason to excuse the bland grilled shrimp with cabbage and gruyére salad or the swordfish served with eggplant mush.

Our waitress worked like a zombie and ruined our dining experience with her expressionless manner. I can excuse tasteless seafood but unexciting service means one star less for The Modern.

Sweetwater

105 North 6th Street between Berry and Wythe Streets, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
718/963-0608
$150 for three, with three drinks, with tip

Nothing on the menu tops twenty dollars at Sweetwater and that’s a very good thing. Even for dishes under that price, portions are generous and we wonder why we do not go to Williamsburg more often. (Of course, walking down the street later and seeing the boys who looked and dressed alike reminded us of why we don’t.) The potato gnocchi was very light; even the decadent sauce did not make the dish too hearty.

The roasted hen was served with mushrooms and it smelled perfectly of autumn but fowl is still fowl so the meat dries up easily when slightly overdone.

The grouper was tender, served with clams and kale in tomato sauce. I thought the kale was perfect for this because its slightly bitter flavor gave way for the tomatoes.

My friends and I chatted the night away and after dinner, our waitress offered us complimentary coffees to make up for the long wait we endured while cooking the hen. What long wait? She was so attentive we didn’t even think it took that long and so we appreciated the gesture. Service as good as Sweetwater’s doesn’t come easily in Manhattan so why don’t we go to Brooklyn more often again?

Whiskey and Honey-Marinated Pork Tenderloin

Adapted from a cooksrecipes.com recipe using bourbon

Ingredients:
2-pound pork tenderloin
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup whiskey
1/4 cup sherry vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
half an onion, chopped
2 tbsps honey
4 cloves of garlic, crushed and minced
2 tbsps ginger, crushed and minced
2 tbsps fresh sage, chopped
1/4 tsp paprika
salt and pepper

1. Combine oil, whiskey, vinegar, soy sauce, onion, honey, garlic, ginger and sage in a bowl. Mix well. Put the tenderloins in a dish and pour the marinade over. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator overnight, turning the meat several times.
2. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 450°. Remove meat from the refrigerator and let stand at room temperature for 1 hour. Remove from marinade, pat dry; season with salt, pepper and paprika. Reserve the marinade.
3. In a deep skillet, brown both sides of tenderloin in hot oil. Place in a rack and roast in the oven about 15 minutes per pound, basting 2 or 3 times during roasting with the reserved marinade. Let the roast stand on a carving board lightly covered with foil for 20 minutes before slicing. Serve warm or cold.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Pancetta and Sage

Adapted from a Gourmet Magazine recipe using kabocha squash

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash, halved and seeded
1 cup vegetable oil
20 whole fresh sage leaves plus, 1 1/2 tsps chopped fresh sage
1/4 pound sliced pancetta, coarsely chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 1/2 cups chicken broth
3 1/2 cups water
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
salt, pepper, olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 400° and roast squash, cut sides down, in an oiled roasting pan in middle of oven until tender, about 1 hour. Set aside to cool. When cool enough to handle, scrape flesh from skin.
2. Fry sage leaves while squash roasts. Heat vegetable oil in a deep saucepan and fry sage leaves in 3 batches until crisp, about 3 to 5 seconds. Transfer leaves with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain.
3. Cook pancetta in a 4-quart heavy pot over moderate heat, stirring, until browned. Transfer pancetta with slotted spoon to paper towels to drain. Add olive oil to pancetta fat remaining in pot, then cook onion, stirring, until softened. Stir in garlic and chopped sage and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add squash, broth, and water and simmer 20 minutes to blend flavors.
4. Purée soup in batches in a blender, transferring to a bowl. Return soup to pot and reheat. If necessary, thin to desired consistency with water. Stir in vinegar and salt and pepper, to taste. Serve sprinkled with pancetta and fried sage leaves.