I thought I would have more leftovers from Thanksgiving to make a week’s worth of lunch. But everyone in the house liked this sandwich so much, I was able to make them only two times before we ran out of leftover turkey. The sourdough and the porcini mushrooms were extra ingredients from the homemade stuffing I made. I ended up clearing our fridge out before the holiday weekend was over.
Ingredients:
leftover Thanksgiving turkey, sliced, heated in the broiler
4 slices of bacon
4 porcini mushrooms, chopped
sourdough bread, sliced, toasted
For onion relish:
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1/8 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup red-wine vinegar
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1. Make onion relish. In a saucepan, boil the onions in water until soft. Remove from heat and drain. Return to the pot and add brown sugar, red-wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar. Simmer in low fire until liquid is thick–I had this simmering until I was ready to assemble the sandwich. Stir occasionally.
2. Cook bacon. Using a skillet, cook about 4 slices of bacon until crisp. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate. Set aside.
3. Using the fat in the skillet rendered from the bacon, sauté mushrooms over medium heat until soft, about 4 minutes.
4. Assemble sandwich! Lay toasted bread halves on a chopping board. On one half, spoon the onions and top with the turkey and onion relish. Top with the other half and hold together using a toothpick.
I’ll take pig any time over a turkey but this year, I thought I’d tackle most of our Thanksgiving menu because it was the first time our family was complete since my brother permanently moved out of the States. My new sister-in-law and our favorite adoptee, Cameron, joined in the festivities. With the homemade stuffing and gravy, I combed through the many turkey recipes online and decided to put two recipes together from Bill Telepan and Alton Brown. Here they are in one, tested with love.
The young twelve-pounder bird cost me almost $40 from Whole Foods so there was no room for mistake: for three days I carefully planned and participated in my first ever brined and roasted Thanksgiving turkey. I made the brine in a large glass pot where the turkey also fit; the glass pot fit in the refrigerator to brine for three days. You can definitely make your brine in a non-aluminum stockpot and just transfer it to a large container where the turkey can fit (also non-alumininum pail or basin) and just store, covered, in a cold place if it doesn’t fit in the fridge. New Yorkers who don’t have a basement can store it on their fire escape. On the day of cooking, give yourself at least five hours to prep and cook the turkey.
Ingredients:
1 12-pound young turkey, unfrozen
1 stick of butter
For the aromatics:
1 apple, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 bunch sage leaves
1 medium red onion, quartered
For the brine:
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup salt
1 tbsp black peppercorns
1 tbsp juniper berries
1 tbsp allspice berries
1 small knob of ginger, peeled, crushed, chopped
1. Three days before serving, prepare the turkey in brine. Combine all brine ingredients in a large stockpot with enough water to submerge the whole turkey and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Set aside.
2. In the meantime, wash the turkey inside and out with cold water and let sit in a colander to drain.
3. Transfer the brine into a large non-aluminum container and submerge the turkey in the brine. If the turkey is not submerged fully, just make sure that you turn the turkey over 24 hours later to marinade the other side.
4. Early on the day of cooking, remove turkey from the brine into a colander to drain in room temperature for at least 30 minutes. Heat the oven to 500º while you wait with the rack on the lowest slot.
5. Prepare the aromatics. Combine the ingredients with 1/4 cup of water in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Set aside.
6. Move the turkey to a chopping block and pat the turkey dry with paper towels, inside and out. Tuck back wings and drumsticks. Using your hands, rub butter and a palm-full of salt all over and inside the turkey. Add the microwaved aromatics inside the turkey. Transfer the turkey on a rack in an aluminum foil-lined roasting pan.
7. Set your alarm for these steps so you don’t forget: Roast turkey for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover the turkey with thick aluminum foil and continue to roast for 1 hour, lowering the temperature to 350º. Remove from oven and carefully turn over the turkey to cook the other side. (I used the aluminum foil as potholders to turn it by hand.) Cover again and cook for another hour. Remove from oven a third time, uncover, and return to the oven for another 30 minutes to brown that side.
8. A total of three hours cooking time later, remove the turkey from the oven, stick a meat thermometer in the thigh and make sure the thickest part of the bird is perfectly cooked. (My thermometer said turkey is 180º.) Set the turkey, still on the rack, on a chopping block and let rest for up to 30 minutes before carving and serving.
This was a last-minute addition to my Thanksgiving menu this year. I’ve been cooking for three days but forgot to plan for a carb–I didn’t know Cameron was going to bring homemade biscuits–so I made my brother run an errand to buy buttermilk and corn at the grocery store in the morning. Cornbread is easy enough to make, but I was intrigued by this recipe because of the spiciness. I didn’t really know how it would translate to bread form.
The final product tasted like regular cornbread–mine came out paler because I used white sugar–but the kick in the end was a nice surprise. It even made my dad cough the first time because it was so unexpected.
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups fresh corn kernels
1 tbsp red pepper flakes
1 cup white flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
2 tbsps butter
1 1/2 tsps salt
1. Preheat your oven to 350º with the rack in the middle slot.
2. In a medium glass bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk the buttermilk, egg and corn together. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and stir until just combined. Set aside.
3. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the red pepper flakes and cook for 1 minute. Pour into a square baking dish. Top with the cornbread batter and level with a spatula. Bake for 45 minutes or until the edges are golden and the center is set. Remove from oven and let rest for up to 10 minutes before slicing into squares.
178 Broadway, right under the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn
718/387-7400
about $350 for five, with a bottle of wine, with tip, cash only
♥ ♥
Our waiter spilled porterhouse juice all over my sister-in-law’s hat. She wasn’t wearing it at the time, but it still sucked when she realized it outside. It was windy and 30 degrees.
I’ve been to Peter Luger several times and like most New Yorkers, I go for the porterhouse and not for the service. Being old school is one thing but the restaurant staff can really use some manners. Our waiter was brash: he grunted and interrupted whenever we had a question and he splashed sauce and fat on our table whenever he served. The attitude could be part of the draw that makes Peter Luger “authentic”, but after paying over a thousand dollars the last six years, you’d think it would at least buy politeness.
The food also hasn’t changed. It’s still the best place to get porterhouse in New York City even though they push every customer to get more than they can eat. (We watch a group of four novices at the next table fall for their bit and order three steaks for two. Their bill was already guaranteed to be $240 before ordering any side dishes or wine.) The bacon is still to die for and the creamed spinach still a good match to a perfectly-cooked piece of meat.
Maybe when I return two years from now, I can finally tune the staff’s attitude out and just eat my steak in peace. For now though, one less heart from the last review.
Since I’ve been mentioning gift ideas with sausage and cheese in the same post recently, I can’t ignore Di Palo’s new online store, Di Palo Selects, as another option for the holidays. New Yorkers and die-hard Italian tourists know that they can get the best of Italy from the Di Palo family on Grand Street, but now they can get the same products without spending money on airfare. The Web site is powered by iGourmet.com but it’s less confusing because they’ve trimmed down the content to Lou Di Palo’s favorites. While there are the useful related items cross-sells, descriptions are not as overwhelming. I love the glossary page and the Ask Lou feature: you get both in person when you visit the store, which is the main reason why wait times are usually longer than my allotted lunch hour.
Some of my favorite meats and cheeses that I buy regularly from Di Palo’s:
– Piave
– Truffle cheese
– Crucolo
– fresh mozarella
– Prosciutto de Parma
– Prosciutto de Coto
– one of the sausages hanging from the ceiling
– spicy soppressata
I also restock on Di Palo’s olive oil, those glass-jarred tuna, marinated olives and artichokes, as well as Illy coffee. Lou’s brother, Sal, is my favorite. He sounds like Raymond from Everybody Loves Raymond and he makes sure that I always leave with a free treat. When it’s your turn at Di Palo’s, it’s really your turn and no one else’s. Now you can go online and every good thing is just a click away.
Di Palo’s Fine Foods is at 200 Grand Street corner of Mott in Little Italy, New York.
At my last job, I ate lunch with a big group of people almost everyday. You can imagine how difficult it was to agree on a place that everyone liked, so one of the developers wrote a quick script where we could sort out our list of lunch places downtown and picked one for us with a click of a mouse, slot machine style. (We started with a pair of dice and each total was assigned to a restaurant, but we turned classy.)
It’s not technically food or drink, but a deck of City Shuffle’s downtown and Brooklyn Diner’s Deck came in the mail this week and I couldn’t stop showing them off because it reminded me of that story. The idea is that when you can’t seem to decide where to eat, you leave the decision-making to the cards. Each deck features fifty-two of the staff’s favorite restaurants. My deck included the ones below 23rd Street in Manhattan and some from Brooklyn. There’s also a Manhattan ($29.95) and a Bar and Lounge deck ($19.95).
They’re sleek and nicely-designed with the restaurant’s info including very useful cross streets. The best thing about it? Each card is also a $10 coupon you can use at the restaurant after you spend a minimum of $30 before alcohol, tax and tip. If a restaurant has closed, you can “swap” the card by sending it back to City Shuffle and you’ll get a replacement card to another eatery of their choosing.
They’re great as a stocking stuffer or a corporate gift to your employees.
212 Lafayette Street off Kenmare
212/925.9322
$40 for two, with 2 drinks, without tip
♥ ♥
Everything Serge Becker touches turns into the next place-to-be. (You’ve seen La Esquina and The Box in the news, right?) A 1pm lunch date with my friend at the bar started gloomy: we were meeting to drown our sorrows about the grim economy and the prospect of losing our jobs. But by the time I was halfway through my Swiss Lagrein wine and he was done with his Stella beer, we were celebrating the fact that it’s still an incredible city to live in. People around us were drinking bottles and eating as if they have all the time in the world even though the giant Rolex clock above us ticked. (Hey, maybe they’ve lost their jobs already!) Sharply-dressed men waited for their equally beautiful partners to show up. We heard French and some other indistinguishable language behind us; ah, must be Euros taking a break from shopping.
I opted for the comforting elbow pasta with ground beef in brown sauce and it came with applesauce on the side. It was weird, but if the Swiss say they go together, I believe them. It was an unusual combination I couldn’t stop eating. The bratwurst was smooth and the rösti, or Swiss potato pancake, added good texture.
I couldn’t help but love the red and white check table napkins. It’s only one of the details that make the place whole. A diner-style bar displays the ready-to-eat breakfast items like yogurt and muesli. The small room in the back seemed like the perfect place to rendezvous with someone while the chef’s table in the kitchen would be a good place to get some friends together. The dungeon-like storage room behind the kitchen includes a mezzanine you can rent for a private party–what New Yorker doesn’t like access to “secret” places?
Dave drove the group to Dae Ga on Lemoine Avenue in Fort Lee, New Jersey where it was dark and, well, out of business. We didn’t have a Plan B even though the surrounding streets were peppered with Korean signs, so Dave called his brother-in-law who seemed to know all of the Korean bars and restaurants in the area. Without hesitation, he told us to keep driving to Palisades Park where it is now more Koreatown than Flushing, Queens and eat at So Moon Nan Jip.
The place was buzzing at 6:30pm on a Sunday night but we only waited for five minutes before we were seated in the back under a silver hood. Banchans were laid out and the hot coals were brought out for our barbecue. We were enveloped in smoked as we hungrily ate the kalbi with steaming bowls of white rice and discussed what our last meals would be if we were in death row. (Lamb chops for the Dr.; my dad’s Filipino sinigang for me) We also ordered the daegu muhri tang, a satisfying cod fish head stew. The bowl of naeng myun, or cold noodle soup, didn’t pass Dave’s test, but the grilled kalbi bones were a hit. A bottle of soju and OB beers were opened and shared.
I don’t go to New Jersey too much but now I have more reason to: Korean food across the George Washington bridge is so much better than the city’s.
So Moon Nan Jip is at 238 Broad Avenue in Palisades Park, New Jersey. Call them at 201/944.3998.
I broke the strap of my goggles so swimming after work was out. What does one do on a Friday night alone? If you’re me, then you’d also be on the 6 train to Grand Central Terminal to visit the new Murray’s Real Salami store. Rob Kaufelt, the owner of Murray’s Cheese, is now selling cooked and cured meats from artisan producers like Creminelli, Larchmont Charcuterie and Niman Ranch.
The staff, though not like the Di Palo family members who can recite the history of a cheese or cured meat off the top of their heads, was helpful and excited about letting you try almost anything you want. The Creminelli sausage was perfectly salty with some spice in the end, while the $99-per pound Ibérico de Bellota was naturally oily with some velvet in your mouth (must be all the acorns those happy pigs ate). Just try getting a sample of that at Despaña.
The venison paté was superb with apricot and hazelnuts. The pheasant was rich and had pistachios. Both were perfect on their own or on fresh baguette. I ended up buying with everything I tasted except for the Iberico, plus some bresaola and cornichons. I also took home a bonus package of Niman Ranch bacon because I spent more than $25 during opening week. Across the aisle was Murray’s Cheese where I picked up slivers of Ombra, Pecorino Ginepro and Le Chevre Noir. Back home, I saw no reason to stop: I opened a 2005 Chateauneuf du Pape bottle to go with everything.
There should be more Friday nights like this.
Murray’s Real Salami is inside the Grand Central Market, 212/867.7202. They are open until 9pm during the week.
After a full week of craving salty foods, I woke up Sunday morning eager to bake something sweet. I’m not a big fan of too much sweet, though, so I opted for an easy apple cake recipe minus half a cup of sugar. When I took out the baking pans from the oven, I saw an old muffin pan I’ve only used a few times. From there, I just decided to make muffins instead of cake so I can transport them easier to work the next day.
Ingredients:
1 red apple, peel on, chopped in small chunks
2 cups flour, sifted
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted, plus a little extra to grease the muffin pan
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tsps cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1. Preheat the oven to 350º with the rack in the middle. Butter and flour a muffin pan.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, sugar and salt in a large bowl. In a separate smaller bowl, whisk together the eggs and the buttermilk, and then the melted butter.
3. Pour the buttermilk mixture over the flour mixture. Fold in the apples. Stir until barely combined. Try not to over-mix so that it’s not too sticky.
4. Spoon a small amount of batter into each muffin hole so that it’s only halfway full. It will rise and will need the extra room later. Bake for about 15 minutes or until muffins are just set. Lower the oven temperature to 275º and bake for another 10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from a gentle poke. Turn off the oven and leave the muffins inside until the oven cools back down. The muffins will continue to cook in the remaining heat.
Funny how Korean food is my crutch cuisine after a night out of excessive drinking. If not a hot, spicy soup before going home, it’s kimchi fried rice topped with a fried egg when I wake up. Korean food can lead you to too much drinking, but it sure does help you recover from it.
A fried egg is perfect with this fried rice. When you crack the half-cooked yolk and let the yellow ooze over your rice, you’ll forget about that banging headache, too. Mmm, I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.
Ingredients:
leftover cooked white rice
kimchi
1 egg
oil
1. In a heavy skillet, heat some oil and add rice. Fry and cook by stirring and tossing until the cold rice is warm and free of clumps. Add a small amount of kimchi and stir. The rice should be red-orange, but you don’t want it to be too moist. I try not to add too much of the kimchi juice. Remove fried rice to a bowl.
2. Using the same skillet, heat some oil again and fry the egg. Serve on top of the fried rice.
12 East 22nd Street
212/228.7557
$90 for two, with 2 glasses of wine, with tip
♥ ♥ ♥
We’ve driven by Almoncello on Montauk Highway only to stop at Townline BBQ for lunch instead. This summer I told myself, okay, I’ll definitely eat there next year. But now that their Manhattan branch has opened, I don’t have to keep empty promises anymore. Closer to me is homey French bistro food good enough for a no-hassle night out with friends.
After a stiff and stress-relieving dirty martini at the bar, my friend and I sat down and ravaged the appetizers list. We couldn’t get enough of the fruits de mer with curried mussels, octopus and a delicious scallop and fennel ceviche. For $15 it was a steal, though I would gladly give the rest up for more of the ceviche.
Almond excels at the duck confit. It was my favorite dish among the few that we ordered. The polenta ravioli and the mac and cheese were too rich for my taste, but that was probably because I was already at my limit after the frogs’ legs with the puff pastry. My friend, whom I convinced to eat frogs’ legs for the first time, loved them and went on raving about them to her husband when she got home.
For a last-minute decision to eat out in the Murray Hill area, I think Almond is an economical and good choice. I doubt that it will be as empty in the weeks to come.
Post to be updated as soon as my friend sends me the photos.
