I'm Engaged!!

Jamie asked me on my birthday! We had an amazing dinner at 11 Madison Park and he asked me right before dessert, and the entire restaurant started clapping and cheering and the waiter came over and sabered a bottle of champagne. When we left, they gave us a little glass box with the cork and the beautiful champagne flutes that we drank out of. And I had to drop my beautiful ring off to be resized and I'm missing it like crazy. I'm so happy and already knee deep in wedding planning. So crazy!

I love you, Jameball!!!

White Wine Braised Chicken Thighs

Last week there was a particularly cold and blustery day so I was craving something warming, and on the cheap side. I settled on braised chicken thighs. I spent $8 at the grocery and it fed me and Jamie dinner and lunch the next day. The white wine broth has a great flavor and the turnips get really soft and sweet. Great quick version of a braise (the whole thing takes about 45 minutes).

Ingredients:
5 chicken thighs
1 large yellow onion, roughly chopped
5 gloves of garlic, crushed
3 carrots, peeled and cut into 1" pieces
2 turnips, peeled and cut into 1" pieces
1 sprig thyme
1 sprig rosemary
A bunch of baby red potatoes (I used 9)
1 cup white wine
1 cup chicken broth
Olive oil and butter
Salt and pepper
Snow peas, cut in half

Adobo-Braised Lamb

This lamb will make your apartment/house smell amazing. Definitely go through the effort to find the chiles. Toasting them gives them an amazing aroma and brings out all of the flavors. The adobo sauce has a  mix of ingredients that make a rich, beautiful red sauce. I loved the flavors of the peppers. When it has been in the oven a few hours, it falls off the bone incredibly easily and shreds into a beautiful taco or enchilada filler. We did tacos and had chopped white onion, cilantro, avocado, radish, jalapenos, and salsas so everyone could make his own. A very luxurious taco.

Spicy Pineapple Salsa

Of course, I'd made this one as our friends were arriving and I was rushing to finish up so I could get out of the kitchen and be social, so I forgot to take pictures! This is a very quick salsa to throw together and is a real crowd pleaser. Everyone loved it. It's bright and spicy and sweet. It was delicious on chips, and would be great with fish or pork or chicken, anything really.

Ingredients:
1 cup diced fresh pineapple
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh jalapeno chiles, including seeds, or more to taste
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
3 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice, or more to taste
2 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
1 1/2 tsp sugar, if you need it (I didn't use any)
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 small red onion, minced


Directions:
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Season to taste with additional chile, lime juice, sugar, and salt.

Roasted Cherry Tomato Salsa

This is a beautiful salsa and has a mellow sweetness from the roasted tomatoes and a mellow heat from roasting the jalapenos. The garlic and lime provide a fresh bite. This is a perfect salsa to make for winter because cherry tomatoes are easy to find and are usually still pretty good in the winter. Even if they're not the best, once they're roasted it doesn't really matter. These little roasted tomatoes are fab. Also, we learned that when you skin them it's a treat to just pop the skins into your mouth as you go - yum.

Ingredients:
1 pint red cherry tomatoes
1 pint yellow cherry tomatoes
2 fresh jalapenos or serranos, stemmed
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice, or more to taste

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa with Toasted Chile Powder

This salsa is unbelievably good. I've actually already made it twice this week. It's pretty simple, too, and has such a good combination of flavors. The tomatillos become syrupy and sweet while they roast, melding perfectly with the smoky, sweet heat of the chipotle powder and the bite of the garlic.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb tomatillos, about 5 or 6 medium, husked and rinsed
1 garlic clove, peeled
2 tsp chipotle powder
1 tsp kosher salt

Homemade Tortilla Chips

Usually, when I make my own chips, I toss them with oil and roast them because it's a bit healthier, but for the Mexican Feast, I wanted to do the real thing. It's really easy to do, and they chips are crispy and thicker than store bought chips. Perfect for complimenting homemade salsas.

To make 64 chips

Ingredients:
8 yellow corn tortillas
1/2 cup-1 cup vegetable oil
salt

Directions:
Pile the tortillas on top of each other and slice down through them so that each tortilla is in 8 equal pieces. Poke the tortilla pieces with a fork to avoid air bubbles when you fry. Heat the oil to about 375 (or until a chip sizzles when it hits the oil). In batches, fry the chips for about 30 seconds each side. Drain chips and toss liberally with salt on a paper-towel-lined plate. Continue with the rest of the chips, then put them in a bowl and eat!

Chilaquiles

For the hors d'oeuvres for my Mexican Feast, I made chilaquiles. These are the predecessor the the modern nacho. It's super tasty, and apparently is great with eggs for breakfast. The sauce has a touch of cinnamon in it which is an unexpected but great flavor. And the fresh toppings are a great contrast to the saucy chips.

Ingredients:
2 cups Ranchera Sauce (recipe to follow) or cooked green salsa
1 cup water
about 64 tortilla chips
1/3 cup finely chopped which onion
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/3 cup crumbled queso fresco or ricotta salata
2 tbsp Mexican crema, or sour cream thinned out with water

Mexican Feast from Truly Mexican by Roberto Santibanez

Jamie got me an amazing Mexican cookbook for Christmas - Truly Mexican by Roberto Santibanez. We decided to try it out this weekend and have a few friends over for a Mexican feast. It was great! And in the process, I found the coolest spot to source all of the harder-to-find Mexican ingredients (dried peppers, corn flours, big, ripe tomatillos...) It's a stall in Essex Street Market called Viva Fruits and Vegetables. I went a little overboard and bought a bunch of things, including masa tamale flour and lard, so there may be tamales featured on here in the not so distant future.

We had chilaquiles to start along with freshly made tortilla chips and three great salsas - roasted tomatillo with toasted chipotle powder salsa, roasted cherry tomato salsa, and spicy pineapple salsa. For the main course, we had an adobo braised lamb, shredded up perfectly for tacos. It was delicious.

Scalloped Potatoes and Turnips with Horseradish

This is not a light side dish, but boy is it tasty. The addition of turnips lightens it up a bit and adds a slight difference in texture. I accidentally poured the potatoes into too big of a dish, resulting in a really thin scalloped potatoes, but it was great! More crispy crust on everyone's plate. The horseradish is barely noticeable, but it gives the dish a little more complex flavor. I would make this again any time. It's so great.

Serves 6
Ingredients:
3 large Yukon gold potatoes, sliced about 1/8" thick
2 large turnips, sliced about 1/8" thick
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup half and half
5 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp kosher salt
a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme
1 tsp whole black pepper corns
1 bay leaf
coffee filter
3 teaspoons jarred and drained horseradish (scoop it out of the jar and press it through the tines of a fork to drain it)
1-1/2 cups finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese

Schiller's

One of my very best friends, Alice, was celebrating her birthday last weekend on the Lower East Side at Home Sweet Home (super fun and great dancing music). Another one of my besties (Kara) and I decided to grab dinner beforehand at Schiller's. I hadn't been in a while, and even though it's not new or anything, Schiller's is always fun and always hopping. I ran into two other friends eating there and the atmosphere was buzzing. We were a little late to the reservation because of traffic on Houston, so we grabbed a drink at the bar while we waited a few minutes.

One of my favorite things about it is their wine list, divided into three brief sections: Cheap, Decent, and Good. We went for a "Decent" red. They bring it over in a clear glass bottle with little glasses.

Prune-Stuffed Gnocchi with Foie Gras Sauce

This is another one from Barbara Lynch. She wrote it up as being kind of hard to do but worth it for special occasions. For my New Year's dinner, I wanted something special and had the luxury of time for making these. It is a lot of work, but if you have a free Saturday and have friends coming over, this is a very indulgent appetizer (or entree if you give everyone a few more gnocchis). The dough is extremely light and fluffy, the prune filling is tart, and sweet, and the earthy, rich foie gras sauce is amazingly decadent. The crunch of the almonds on top is also a nice contrast. Yum!

I had to make a few changes because it's really hard to find 8oz of foie gras, so I used a foie gras spread which worked fine. This has also inspired me to try stuffing other things into gnocchi. Any suggestions? Maybe a pureed bitter green?

Serves 6
Ingredients:
For the Gnocchi:
22 pitted prunes
1 cup Madeira (or Vin Santo, but Madeira's cheaper)
2-2 1/4 lb Idaho or Yukon Gold potatoes (I used 2 Idaho, 1 Yukon gold) unpeeled
1 1/2 - 2 cups all purpose flour, plus more as needed
2 large eggs
kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

For the Sauce:
8 oz foie gras spread
1 stick butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup finely chopped shallots (about 2 large)
15 sprigs thyme
15 black peppercorns
15 coriander seeds
2 cups Madeira

Locanda Verde

Charlie and Kirby with the duck and scallops

I went to Locanda Verde last night with some friends. I'd been dying to go and one of my friends had to give up her reservation so I got to steal it with four of my friends. (It's super popular, so you need to book like a month in advance.) It was great! The food was amazing and the atmosphere is really cool and well designed. Two of us got there first so we went to the bar for a drink. I had the pear sgroppino - it was so tasty. It definitely had some ripe, pureed pear in there and just tasted fresh and like the perfect bite of pear. Not too sweet. When our friends got there, we were escorted back to our table. The atmosphere was fun and lively and the music selection was great, all without being too loud.

To start, we had two orders of burrata. (If you haven't had it, it's basically fresh mozzarella filled with a mix of cream and more mozzarella - amazing.) It was creamy and rich but the richness was offset by the sweet and sour peperonata agrodolce and the bitter dandelion greens and fresh herbs. As you can see, we cleared the plate before I had a chance to snap a picture. It was also served with some really light and fluffy bread with a thin savory layer of melted cheese on top.

Roasted Butterflied Leg of Lamb

This year for New Year's we decided to have a few friends out to Southampton for the weekend for a low key celebration. To make it special, I wanted to make a really great dinner. I started with Prune-Stuffed Gnocchi with a Foie Gras-Madeira Glaze and then for the main, Michael Psilakis' Stuffed Lamb recipe and some green beans. For dessert, we did a make your own ice cream sundae - always a big hit. It was a delicious and special dinner and a really fun night. The lamb was savory and had great Mediterranean flavors. The spread you make to rub into the middle of the lamb is extremely tasty - I could have eaten it straight. If you have the time, definitely do it the night before and let it air dry in the fridge. It makes such a great, crispy sear. Also, the broth under the lamb as it roasts smells heavenly.

Serves 6-8
Ingredients:
For the stuffing:
1 1/2 cups large sundried tomatoes, roughly chopped
1/4 cup oil-cured black olives, pitted
1 tsp minced rosemary
leaves from 3 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 tsp dry Greek oregano
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
10 cloves of garlic, mashed into a paste
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp fresh ground pepper

Happy New Year!

Happy 2012!

Lots more recipes to come this year. I hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve and at least a little bit of a vacation!