Inspiration: Lupa 




Though I long ago overcame most of my childhood vegetable aversions (asparagus, eggplant, avocados, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini—oh, how I hated zucchini!), I only recently reached a conciliatory fork out to that pale, strangely textured supermarket staple known as cauliflower. And you know what? I liked it! Of course, it was no ordinary cauliflower preparation that won over my taste buds. This was cauliflower a la Lupa, Mario Batali’s crazy-popular Roman trattoria in the West Village, where we always go assuming we won’t be able to get a seat, but sometimes, miraculously, manage to snag a couple stools at the bar.

The cauliflower was pureed, creating a delicious and subtly flavored coating for their housemade pasta. In my version of the dish, I like to use orecchiette, whose concave shape is perfect for capturing bits of tasty sauce. Toasted walnuts add crunch and a welcome nuttiness; a generous sprinkle of parsley livens up the monochromatic appearance.


ORECCHIETTE WITH CAULIFLOWER AND WALNUTS

1 head cauliflower, cleaned, trimmed, and cut into florets
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 shallots, chopped
1 can low-sodium chicken broth
1 pound orecchiette
Hot pepper flakes
Salt and pepper
Plenty of grated Parmigiano (1-1.5 cups)
1/2 cups chopped, toasted walnuts
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped

Put pasta water on to boil. Sauté shallot and garlic in olive oil. Add a pinch of red pepper flakes, broth, and cauliflower. Simmer until cauliflower is quite tender, about 15 minutes. Cook pasta. Mash cauliflower mixture well with a potato masher, season with salt and pepper. If it is too watery, simmer down a bit. Toss pasta with sauce and cheese, garnish with walnuts and parsley.

Lupa
170 Thompson Street
New York, NY 10012
212-982-5089


Technorati Tags: cauliflower, pasta, cooking, recipes, lupa, mario batali

Copyright (c) 2008 Sarah Kiino, www.avenuefood.com. My RSS feed is for personal, noncommercial use only. If you are perusing this post on a site that is neither www.avenuefood.com, nor your news aggregator, the Web site you are reading has likely stolen my material, and I'd like to know about it. Please send me an e-mail at avenuefoodAThotmailDOTcom. Thanks for your assistance in this matter.

My first foray into cooking with oxtails came just a couple of weeks ago, when I adapted for my handy-dandy pressure cooker a recipe from the New York Times by David Chang, the famously meat-adoring chef of the Momofuku mini-empire. His (actually, his mother’s) Korean-style soup, hearty with chunks of daikon, was an unqualified winner, and I decided to give oxtails another go this past weekend.

This time around, I played fast-and-loose with the ingredients, and ended up with quite a different soup altogether. Not better, not worse (I don’t think), just different. I flavored the broth with ginger and star anise, and brought fresh shiitake and tofu to the party. I don’t know what it is at this point—I mean, I don’t think you could call it Korean anymore—but even if it is sort of a pan-Asian mish-mash of flavors, it did hit the spot. Oxtails make a lovely rich broth, and this soup is thick with mushrooms and jiggly squares of tofu. Put it on the menu when you're hankering for a real belly-warmer. Serve with rice, or cook up some rice noodles to go in each serving.

OXTAIL SOUP WITH SHIITAKE AND TOFU

1 oxtail, cut up (about 2 1/2 pounds)
1 large onion, quartered
1/2 pound fresh cleaned shiitake, stems separated and caps sliced
3 cloves garlic, peeled
2 slices ginger (about 1/4-inch thick)
1 whole star anise
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tub regular tofu (about 1 pound), drained and cut into small cubes
Salt and pepper
Chopped cilantro for garnish
Chopped scallions for garnish

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place onions, shiitake stems, and oxtails in a roasting pan. Coat them lightly with oil; generously salt and pepper oxtails. Roast until oxtails are nice and browned, about 40 minutes. Place oxtails, onions, and shiitake in a pressure cooker with garlic, star anise, and ginger. Add seven cups cold water. Cook at high pressure for 20  minutes, then use natural release method to release pressure. Remove oxtails, set aside to cool. Strain broth. Bring broth to simmer, season with soy sauce, salt to taste, and plenty of black pepper. Add mushrooms, cook until tender, about fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, remove meat from bones. When mushrooms are done, add tofu and meat, simmer another couple minutes to heat through. Garnish each serving with cilantro and scallions.


Technorati Tags:  oxtails, soups, recipes, cooking, pressure cooker, david chang

Copyright © 2008 Sarah Kiino, www.avenuefood.com. My RSS feed is for personal, noncommercial use only. If you are perusing this post on a site that is neither www.avenuefood.com, nor your news aggregator, the Web site you are reading has likely stolen my material, and I'd like to know about it. Please send me an e-mail at avenuefoodAThotmailDOTcom. Thanks for your assistance in this matter.

This past Monday evening, faced with a nearly empty fridge and too lazy to hop on the subway, we came close to throwing up our hands and trying our luck with one of the reliably mediocre restaurants that seem to thrive in Forest Hills. But there is one thing I hate more than eating food that sucks: spending lots of money to eat food that sucks.

So I considered the meager holdings of our pantry, remembered the pancetta I had thrown in the freezer some time ago, and cobbled together a pasta that I think will become a staple in our weeknight rotation. Sort of like carbonara minus the egg, this simple spaghetti is meaty, full flavored, and delicious. The wine adds a touch of acidity and the shallots oniony sweetness. You won't need any extra salt (except for in the pasta water, of course!) because the pancetta provides plenty.

PASTA WITH PANCETTA, PEPPER, AND WHITE WINE

1 pound spaghetti
3 ½-thick slices pancetta (about 1/2 pound total), cut into small chunks
2 minced shallots
½ cup dry white wine
Black pepper
1/4 cup chopped parsley
Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Put pasta water on to boil. In a large sauté pan over fairly low heat, render pancetta in a little olive oil until it's dark and crisp. Add shallots, sauté a couple of minutes. Add wine and a generous amount of coarsely ground black pepper, simmer for about ten minutes. Boil pasta, adding about 1/2 cup of the pasta water to the pancetta sauce and simmering a few minutes longer. Drain pasta, toss with sauce and parsley. Finish with a sprinkle of cheese.


Technorati Tags: pasta, pancetta, recipes

Copyright © 2008 Sarah Kiino, www.avenuefood.com. My RSS feed is for personal, noncommercial use only. If you are perusing this post on a site that is neither www.avenuefood.com, nor your news aggregator, the Web site you are reading has likely stolen my material, and I'd like to know about it. Please send me an e-mail at avenuefoodAThotmailDOTcom. Thanks for your assistance in this matter.

Inspiration: Murray's Cheese Shop





If you truly are what you eat, I’d wager a guess that Brian and I are each about 50% cheese. And I blame Murray’s. Murray’s is arguably the best cheese store in New York City, and it just happens to be located between my office and the station where I catch the subway home each night. I used to try to avoid stopping in more than, oh, two times a week, because I worried about spending too much money on six-dollars-per-pound artisanal pasta and consuming too many calories in the form of curdled milk products. But the allure of this brightly lit shop, with its underground caves that you can view from the sidewalk and its promises of luscious Tallegio, tongue-tingling Cabrales, made-that-day Mozzarella, and salty, complex cured meats is just too great. Now I just try to escape for under $20. (Thankfully, I’ve come to realize the six-dollars-per-pound pasta isn’t better enough than the $1.29-per-pound pasta to justify the difference.)

Did I mention Murray’s does lunch? Oh yes. Oh yes, indeed. These sandwiches are not your run-of-the-mill sawdust-esque turkey and flabby roast beef. No, these bready masterpieces are a cut of well-sliced salumi above. Like the Iberian, featuring Iberian ham and rich La Serena cheese. Murray's also sells a BLT with a twist--rather than mayo, this one uses Burrata, an Italian cheese that's basically Mozzarella wrapped around an oozy cream center. The first time I'd even heard of Burrata was last year on one of Lidia Bastianich's cooking shows. Now, not only does Murray's sell it, but I've seen it on restaurant menus, too. And it's really no wonder the stuff is catching on--it is soft, creamy, and decadent. Traditionally, Burrata is served with broccoli rabe; the vegetable's bitterness is a fantastic complement to the cheese's milky sweetness. For my home version of Murray's indulgent sandwich, I used peppery arugula and sun-dried tomatoes--though when summer comes around, I'll probably swap in fresh ones.


BBLT PANINO

Bacon, fried
Arugula, washed and dried
Cooked Bacon
Good-quality sun-dried tomatoes in oil, sliced
Fresh Burrata, sliced
Rustic country bread

Layer ingredients on bread. Proportions are up to you, but be careful to not use too much cheese (or it will ooze all over the press). Grill in a panini press.


Murray's Cheese Shop
254 Bleeker Street
New York, NY 10014
212-243-3289


Technorati Tags: murray's cheese, sandwiches, burrata

Copyright © 2008 Sarah Kiino, www.avenuefood.com. My RSS feed is for personal, noncommercial use only. If you are perusing this post on a site that is neither www.avenuefood.com, nor your news aggregator, the Web site you are reading has likely stolen my material, and I'd like to know about it. Please send me an e-mail at avenuefoodAThotmailDOTcom. Thanks for your assistance in this matter.