Writing With My Mouth Full

Angelica Kitchen

300 East 12th Street off Second Avenue
212/228.2909
$33 for two without tip; BYOB
♥

It couldn’t have been the quinoa because it was light and fluffy. Could it have been the creamy cauliflower sauce lathered in the mushrooms? Or the tempeh in balsamic? Because it definitely wasn’t the roasted beets nor the steamed broccoli. I was hot, full and feeling bloated and all I wanted to do was get out of there. What was it about Angelica Kitchen?

There was so much going on around me and on my plate, I couldn’t appreciate eating at New York’s oldest vegetarian restaurant. I tried not to complain about the tempeh, but eating it is like dipping a granola bar in sauce and calling it dinner. I like texture in my food just fine, but I’m not a big fan of too-grainy and too-chewy. If you look at Angelica Kitchen’s menu, you’ll notice that they cram a lot of stuff on one plate. I’m not sure if it’s to make up for the lack of meat, but I would vote for less ingredients done well over lots done poorly any time. It also seemed like there was so much effort spent in making the cauliflower sauce that the cook just gave up on the greens because my dish was accompanied by unseasoned steamed broccoli–perhaps the most boring thing you could ever serve anyone.

My biggest qualm about Angelica Kitchen is that it gave too much of the vegetarian community vibe. I can’t pinpoint exactly what it was–or what that exactly means–but I didn’t feel comfortable hanging out while we ate. It wasn’t my scene and the diners weren’t my people. I knew it; they knew it. The A/C didn’t seem to work properly and the 93-degree weather outside made me very uncomfortable. We shared the big table next to the kitchen with other guests, but no one seemed to feel as warm as we did–and they didn’t even have cold, tall beers like us!

I tried, and I’m not sorry I didn’t like it.

Leg of Lamb with Sausage Crumble

Jenny and Steve from Los Angeles were flying in at midnight and I knew they were going to be hungry. I warned them to save their appetite and skip the junk food in the plane and just go straight to my apartment in Harlem for a very late dinner. I had a few hours to prepare this dish after work, so there was no mad rush to finish until I received a text message that they were on their way from the airport.

This seems like an overload of meat because the lamb could stand out on its own, but when you already have sausages in the fridge, why wouldn’t you put them together? A mixed green salad or roasted vegetables would make good matches too, but pork would probably make your guests happier. (I added roasted thyme-potatoes here.) It did mine, and they were off to a good start in their New York City vacation.

Ingredients:
1 small boneless leg of lamb, trimmed, rolled and tied
salt
pepper
oil
2 Italian pork hot sausages, casing removed, crumbled
1 shallot, thinly sliced
1 tomato, diced
half a fennel bulb, diced
1 small carrot, diced
1/2 cup sherry vinegar
a handful of basil leaves, julienned
a dash of red pepper flakes

1. Preheat the oven to 375º. Season the leg of lamb liberally with salt and pepper and place on a roasting rack that fits inside a roasting pan. Transfer the lamb to the oven and cook until an instant-read thermometer registers 130º for medium rare, about 45 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, tent with foil and allow the lamb to rest while you make the sausage crumble.
2. Heat a large skillet with some oil. Add the sausage and cook over medium-high heat until cooked through and browned, about 10 to 12 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the sausage to a plate, leaving the fat in the pan. Add the shallot, tomato, fennel and carrot to the pan and sauté until tender. Add the sherry vinegar and scrape any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the sausage back in with the basil and red pepper flakes.
3. To serve, cut the leg of lamb into 1/2-inch slices, divide among plates and top with the sausage crumble.

Counter

105 First Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets
212/982.5870
$80 for two, with one cocktail, with tip
wheelchair patron may dine al fresco or wheel in
♥

I picked Counter as the first vegetarian restaurant to visit for my special project with Erin. She had sent me links to several restaurants she liked after she requested for me to start reviewing more vegetarian restaurants on this site. We made a three-night date in one week to ensure that I would actually do it. Sure there was some apprehension–I do love my meat–but I can never say I’m open to eating anything if I don’t even give tempeh a chance.

Counter had the most exciting menu that wasn’t Asian-inspired. If I was going to eat vegetarian food for dinner for almost a week, I didn’t want my meals to be regular meat dishes without the meat. Because what would have been the point of that? I could eat almost anywhere and just pick out the meat. (Sad.) I also signed up for this eating project because I wanted to see what vegetarian kitchens in the city can do besides the misconception of slathering tofu with soy and sesame oil.

Counter’s tofu with kale and barbecued peaches on a bed of jalapeÃ±o polenta didn’t disappoint. The combination of textures was interesting: the tofu was very firm without being rubbery while the kale was crunchy and hearty. The polenta had that roasted taste that only green peppers have and gave the dish the depth it needed. I could easily see these Counter accoutrements with a flank steak in another restaurant that serves meat. (Harold Deiter’s Perilla, for example.)

I also had Erin’s grilled seitan with Swiss chard in red wine-reduction sauce. Though I thought her dish needed some more salt, I liked the autumness of the entire plate since it could easily have been a braised short ribs dish. The seitan held its own without any beef support and took to the red wine really well.

However, our server forgot we were there. Erin changed her mind about getting a cocktail and she had to keep her eye out for our waitress in the almost-empty restaurant. We were pretty much left alone at our table except for the occasional diners hovering over us to check out the 3D art hanging on the wall behind me and the busboy who was relentless in refilling our water glasses.

All in all, I liked Counter for not looking like a vegetarian-only restaurant and for serving tofu and seitan with a creative spin. I was pretty satisfied by the time we got our bill, too, and even packed our leftovers to go.

Related post/s:
Perilla is in the West Village

Speck-Taleggio Panini

I’m sorry to gloat, but I’m like a proud Mama Bear who just had her cub: I just harvested a second handful of mizuna greens from my terrace garden! I’ll be heart-broken when the plant is no more, but I’m going to milk it as much as I can. I’m also getting ready to plant a second round of salad greens for autumn which is fast approaching; hopefully, they’ll survive as the weather gets colder.

This sandwich needed bitter greens because of the speck’s fatty composure and it needed to stand up against the spiciness of the mustard. Almost any salad green will do like arugula or mache, of course, but mizuna complemented the stinkiness of the taleggio cheese. If you can’t find speck, good-quality prosciutto will also work.

Ingredients:
a couple slices of taleggio, rind removed
8 pieces of speck
6 mizuna leaves
whole-grain mustard
1 whole wheat panini bread, halved
a small knob of butter

1. Assemble your sandwich. On one half of the panini, layer the taleggio evenly. Top with the speck and then the greens. On the other half of the panini, spread a dollop of mustard and then place on top of the first half.
2. Melt half of the butter in a large skillet and heat the panini. Press with an iron grill press. After about two minutes, turn the sandwich gently with a spatula. Add the rest of the butter and distribute it around the sandwich while it melts. Press again for another minute and remove to a chopping block. Let it rest before slicing in two and serving.

Related post/s:
Taleggio is great for sandwiches

Tempura-battered Green Figs

I was surprised to find green figs at the fruit stand downtown where I work. Even Whole Foods only sold the black figs. What I like about green figs is that they’re less sweet than the black ones even though they look like they would be rindy and bitter. The ripes ones are actually pretty soft and they easily give when sliced in half.

You can use tempura batter here if you have access to an Asian grocery store, but the recipe that follows uses the flour you already have in the pantry. Any yogurt would do, too, but the plain Greek kind has that whipped texture that’s great for chopped fruits. I also find the Greek yogurt less tart and does not compete with the natural sweetness of the figs. My personal preference is the Total Classic kind from FAGE (pronounced “fa-yeh”).

Ingredients:
fresh green figs, washed, dried with paper towel
1 cup of flour
ice bath
one egg
oil
Greek yogurt

1. Make the tempura batter. Beat the egg in a bowl. Add ice water. Add flour in the bowl and mix lightly. Do not overmix.
2. Heat a deep skillet with some oil. Just right before frying, drench the figs with the tempura batter and gently add to the hot oil to fry. When batter is light brown, spoon battered figs out using a slotted spoon and remove to a wire mesh colander on a plate to let the excess oil drip. Do not use paper towels as to not make them soggy. Serve with Greek yogurt on the side.