Writing With My Mouth Full

Risotto Taleggio Cakes

As with my other worldly possessions, I get obsessed with kitchen and food-related items until I run them down. With Nigel Slater’s cookbook, I’ve marked a lot of the photos with scraps of paper to remind myself that there is another recipe that I must try. One of the best photographed dishes in the book is of the taleggio and parsley cake on page 366. I’ve been using taleggio lately–what with the grilled press I picked up on a whim–and wanted to continue before the smell of autumn turns into the smell of winter without warning.

I’ve changed the name of this dish because I also cooked my first-ever risotto. I didn’t have white wine in stock, so I used Japanese sake instead. I’m not quite sure if I made the risotto Lisa’s Italian father would approve of, but it was perfectly fluffy for these cakes. I couldn’t believe how presentable they looked after the small effort I put into making and frying them. I would love to make smaller versions for the next dinner party I throw.

Ingredients:
1/4 pound of taleggio cheese, sliced, rind discarded
a handful of parsley leaves, roughly chopped
a small block of Parmesan cheese, grated

For the risotto:
2 cups arborio rice
1 cup sake
chicken broth
1 small white onion, roughly chopped
1 tbsp butter
oil

1. Make the risotto. SautÃ© onions in olive oil and butter. Add rice and stir with a spatula. Add sake, 1/2 cup of the chicken stock and salt. Keep stirring. Cook until all liquid is absorbed. Continue to add stock in 3/4 cup increments and cook until each successive batch has been absorbed, stirring constantly until rice mixture is creamy and al dente.
2. Mix in parsley leaves and cheese when risotto is cool enough to handle. Scoop out a spoonful, pat a chunk of taleggio cheese on it, and then pack it in with another spoonful of risotto, making a small ball.
3. Using a large skillet, heat some butter and oil. Fry risotto cakes over medium heat. Using a heat-resistant spatula and a large spoon for support, gently turn over to cook the other side.

Spiced Cream Chicken

I really think I must have been either an Indian or a Middle Eastern girl in one of my past lives because it’s quite insane how I crave curry several times a month. I just made a wonderful tagine last week, so I wasn’t really in the mood to be in the kitchen for too long. I wanted to make a small and easy dish that didn’t take too much time but still involved my favorite spices. Nigel Slater sautéed some chicken thighs with some fennel. I copied his recipe, but I made use of the baby bok choy in the fridge.

Ingredients:
6 chicken thighs
1 pound baby bok choy, thoroughly washed
1 cup heavy cream
a handful of cilantro, roughly chopped
4 green cardamom pods, minus the husks
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp whole-grain mustard
3 cloves of garlic, minced
peanut oil
salt, pepper

1. Rub the chicken thighs with salt and pepper and brown them in some hot peanut oil using a large skillet. They should take at least 25 minutes over medium heat.
2. While chicken is cooking, make the spiced paste. Using a mortar and pestle, crush the cardamom seeds and the cumin. Add the turmeric, the chili and the garlic, and continue crushing, mixing in the mustard and some peanut oil as you go.
3. Remove the chicken thighs from the skillet when golden brown. Reduce heat to low and spoon out the oil and add the spiced paste to the skillet. Using a heat-resistant spatula, scrape off the chicken bits from the bottom of the skillet and mix them in with the paste. After a minute, remove the skillet from the heat to keep the paste from burning and add the heavy cream. Return the chicken and add the baby bok choy, plus the cilantro. Cover and let the steam cook the greens for about 5 minutes.

Cafe El Portal

174 Elizabeth Street between Spring and Kenmare
212/226.4642
$32 for two, without drinks, with tip
â™¥ â™¥ â™¥

Good Mexican food is hard to come by in New York City, so when I find a place I like, I try to go back whenever I crave Mexican food that’s more filling than one taco off the street. I’ve been going to CafÃ© El Portal for several years now. I’ve known it as the “blue underground place” because of the lively paint color outside and the way you have to take small steps from street level to get in. They have since repainted the faÃ§ade a more somber washed-out red, but the food remains as satisfying as ever.

My favorite is their huitlacoche quesadilla, essentially a corn mushroom that grows within the individual kernels of a corn, disfiguring the ear and turning off any one who wants to eat a perfectly good cob. Oh, but it’s delicious when it’s cooked, sweetened with onions and flavored with epazote, a Mexican herb with the distinct taste of anise. CafÃ© El Portal adds soft goat cheese with it to cut through the overwhelming taste of the mushroom. I can never pass on this dish whenever I’m eating there.

If I am, however, in a taco mood, I go for their salty chorizo tacos, served with both beans and rice on the side. They’re not cheap on the crumbled chorizo either–two are perfect with the accompanying green salsa. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. While you’re there, make sure you order the mango or the strawberry margarita to push all that heavy lunch down.

Pamplona

37 East 28th Street between Park and Madison Avenues
212/213.2328
$180 for five people, with drinks and a lot of comps, with tip
â™¥ â™¥

I can’t say that I remember much of our night in Pamplona, but when you dine with four other women, you’d bill forgetfulness as a good thing, too. I was half an hour early, so I sat at the bar for a glass of wine. Being Filipino and alone, I’ve gotten used to being approached by men with the “Are you Philippine?” line. The older man next to me was such a gentleman, I couldn’t refuse his offer to recommend and buy me a glass of Spanish white wine. Of course, it turned out that his daughter-in-law is Filipino. My friends arrived and more rounds of complimentary drinks followed.

When our new friend left to catch his Knicks game, we were finally seated. We’ve made enough ruckus in the front of the restaurant that Chef Alex UreÃ±a stepped out to introduce himself. We were famished and ordered the entire appetizers menu to share, and later, the chef sent out several other plates with glasses of sparkling wine to end our night properly.

Some of the memorable dishes included the asparagus salad with thinly-sliced chorizo, topped with frisÃ©e and baby greens and dressed with pimiento. A meatball dish with eggplants disappeared quite fast, too, with a semi-sweet sherry sauce. I’m not a big fan of shrimps, but the Manchego rice made them fuller and beefier. A suckling pig dish was described by one of my Dominican friends as something better than Christmas pork.

One of the things that makes Pamplona irresistible is the fact that the chef serves the dishes he is familiar with, albeit, minus the foam that he learned at El Bulli and experimented with at his first restaurant, UreÃ±a. Nothing is complicated on the menu, but most of the dishes were straight-up delicious. Tapas fans will also be glad that the prices won’t break the bank and critics will appreciate that the previous interior design has been stripped to make the space more intimate and inviting.

Autumn Tagine with Meatballs and Squash

I asked my parents if ever a balloon popped in my face when I was a kid. I like balloons just fine, but the possibility that one would pop makes me wince. I had the same reaction when I started to use the tagine cooker I bought in Tunisia. (Don’t get me started with a pressure cooker!) The potter told me that because there’s a pinhole on the top of the cover, that it’s safe to put on top of a stove. Because it’s also not decorated and had already been fired, it would be all right to use as both a cooker and a serving bowl. To make sure, though, I first boiled some hot water in it with a small drop of oil. There was no popping–I stayed far away from the kitchen–and the water didn’t turn blue or anything, so I deemed it safe to use.

Today was the first day it felt truly like autumn and I wanted something comforting for dinner. This recipe takes a lot of prep work, so it’s advisable to make the meatballs and roast the squash ahead of time. The end product, though, is totally worth all the time you put in.

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash, halved
1 large carrot, peeled, chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsps cumin
2 tbsps cinnamon powder
5 saffron threads, soaked in 2 tbsps hot water
a handful of parsley, roughly chopped
juice from a small lemon
2 cups chicken stock

For the lamb meatballs:
1 pound of ground lamb
1/4 cup of cilantro, finely chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp cumin, grounded
1 tbsp paprika
salt, pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350Âº. Season butternut squash halves with salt and pepper and drizzled some olive oil on them. Roast for about 45 minutes, or until squash meat is tender. Set aside and let cool. When squash is cool enough to handle, score and scoop out the meat into big chunks.
2. In the meantime, make meatballs by forming golf-sized balls with your hands. Brown meatballs by frying them in a skillet with hot oil. Set aside.
3. In a tagine cooker, or a large Dutch oven, sautÃ© garlic and onions. Add carrots, chicken stock, cumin, cinnamon and saffron. Cover and cook carrots until tender. Add browned meatballs and roasted squash. Cover to cook for another 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Mix in lemon juice and parsley. Turn off the heat and keep the cooker covered until ready to serve. Serve with couscous.