Pheral Cook

Hello from Phoenicia. We’re up here for the week to do nothing—sit in front of the fire, catch up on our reading, eat S’mores and maybe, if it stops raining, go on the occasional hike. Scout is having a blast. 

Scout’s “15 Minutes of Frame” in Woodstock

Been enjoying it so far, ate at the Little Bear today for lunch. Floods of childhood memories. Experimenting with the S’mores (and making them perfect!), drinking wine. Blah blah blah.

 

Good S’Mores, Bad Photo

The reason for this blog is that I’m learning how to cook. I thought we’d barbeque tonight. Got some meat (I don’t even know what kind of meat to buy. The butcher talked me into beef cubes & shrimp), some vegetables. City slickers couldn’t figure out how to turn on the grill. I kid you not. Ended up broiling the meat. It was just ok. JustAwesome had a tofu dog. We abandoned her grilled tofu. We did make a lovely roasted asparagus and some mushrooms and onions. Forgot the potatoes. Everything was tasty but...not the plan. 

 

Wine and fire made it great.

For the rest of my life, when I travel I am going to pack a Feral Cook Survivor Pack: good olive oil (we like Frankie’s), a chunk of parmesan/pecorino and course salt. I think the salt would’ve been good on the S’Mores. 

Jonesin’

Before

So, we are just about entering the most exciting time of year, yeah you guessed it, soft shell crab season. There are few things that I enjoy more. Soft shell crabs rank up there with ramen, JustAwesome, potato chips and Scout (in no particular order). It’ll be a month before we start seeing them on the streets of Chinatown (and I’ll get to eat them with some regularity) but I just couldn’t wait. I headed west to Citarella to get my fix.

Fans of crabs tend not to cook them at home because it is a little gruesome, if you have a heart. I don’t, I guess. The ones from Citarella, it turned out, were already dead and cleaned (which is a huge no-no to soft shell crab aficionados). But I didn’t know this until I got home. So I cooked ’em up with a small amount of oil after dredging them in a flour/cayenne pepper mixture. And ate. Oh Lordy! So good. I can hardly wait until I get me some more. I’ll re-blog this when I kill and cook them properly.

After

Incidently, I think the crabs are about 0 WW Points each before the oil/flour.

Cooking from Bittman’s Pantry

Ok, so we didn't have all of the ingredients in our own pantry, but I ran downstairs to our local “supermarket” (really, it is a big bodega), watched the video, washed my hands and voilà. An easy, delicious dinner. Thank you, Mr. Bittman. Delicious.

We used panko instead of breadcrumbs.

p.s. We turned the extra chickpeas into a crunchy snack. A little oo, s & p, as my sister would say. And smoked paprika.

Not Your Mother’s Pressure Cooker

JustAwesome recently took a pressure cooker class at the totally awesome Brooklyn Kitchen and came home super-excited and skipping. I was less excited. What’s in it for me?

She made a chickpea curry, a lentil/veggie/rice dish, some veggie stock, a risotto and best of all, a mashed potato and kale dish without all of the bad stuff. It was all yummy. And all very fast. Great lunches and sides. People have a bad reaction when you say ’Pressure Cooker’ – apparently these were scary contraptions once upon a time. Not now.

Tonight we cooked dried chickpeas, in almost no time at all. Well, some time, but not a lot of time. Then we followed the Bittman recipe for hummus using garlic from last night’s roast fest. Smeared on some rye bread from Pain D’Avignon (from the ever improving Essex Street Market). Some course salt. How delightful to have this warm. I don’t think I’ve ever had it warm before. And the bread was really excellent.

Also exciting on the Lower East Side is Seward Park Housing’s very own Hester Street Fair, which starts on April 24-25, which is being billed as Manhattan’s Brooklyn Flea. You can thank me for the Luke’s Lobster rolls when you see me. (I told them about the Fair, for my own selfish reasons.) I’ll take payment in rolls. In the meantime, I'll be eating hummus. Warm.

Home to Roast

Apologies to fans of The Feral Cook. We just haven’t done much cooking that is interesting these days. Nothing to blog home about...

I have recently “discovered” my oven. Pretty much everyday I throw a bunch of veggies (cut around the same sizes) on a pan with a little olive oil and some salt and pepper. I've even been tossing in things that seem like they might not be good roasted. AND THEY ALWAYS ARE!

It isn’t easy going through a bag of carrots every week. Normally I wash, peel and cut half a bag of carrots at a time, so they don’t dry out, and slice ’em as thinly as I can, which seems to taste better. Store with a little bit of water in the container. A great midmorning snack (I eat all day!) — good alone or with some hummus. Lately I toss them on the baking sheet. Yum! They taste like carrots. Real carrots. Delicious!

Sometimes I make a batch after dinner, to eat the next day. Often I don't even add any more oil, the foil is oiled enough.

I’ve also been roasting mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, onions, garlic, potatoes, even zucchini! I am a roasting machine. Great snack, right off the tray. Great sides. What do you roast?

Pizza night!

One batch of dough makes 4 pizzas, which is the perfect amount of pizza for 4 people. (Unless you invite my stepmother, then you can invite a fifth). I joke that pizza night is really easy and relaxing. It kind of is for me, JustAwesome does all the work. I usually get the ingredients. The trick is great ingredients. Thankyouverymuch.

Margherita ala JA

The History of Pizza (in our house)
JA took a class with pizza legend Mark Bello, pie pro and founder of Pizza A Casa, which was held at our local Whole Foods. Usually he hosts classes in his apartment but starting on April 15, he’ll be opening a school on our block. He’ll teach you how to make great dough, in a regular house oven, as opposed to a pro oven that goes up to a bazillion degrees. You’ll never order in again. Take this class, it is a tasty and fun way to spend an afternoon and it’ll change your life.

Pizza in Thoiry, homemade peel

The Competition
JA’s whole family is really into making pizza. From Edinburgh to Thoiry, France to San Francisco, great pizza is being made. JA made a batch in France last Easter, for which Cousin Dan made a peel in his private wood shop (in about 15 minutes!). These people mean business.

YUM!

On the Menu
We always serve a Margherita — fresh mozzarella, a simple, uncooked red sauce, pecorino and finished with basil. One of the pies is often a smoked mozzarella with sun-dried tomato and a spritz of balsamic. Usually, we have one or two “experimental pies.” My favorite is a white pie of sauteed potato and leek with pecorino, rosemary and finished with truffle oil. Last night JA went all Mario Batali and threw an egg on top (and fresh oregano). It was rich and yummy tasting. We’ll be doing this again. Our fourth had fresh ricotta with basil and the “good” olive oil. The ricotta hails from Salvatore Brooklyn. You MUST try. And try their smoked version. Anne sells it.

I like to throw arugula on my slices.

Finish

Wash down with wine or beer. Chase with gelato from the Lab. (The caramel was made 10 minutes before I bought it!)

Any ideas for future experimental pies?

Where’s the Beef?

First of all, no, I’m not a vegetarian. But JustAwesome is (ok, pescatarian) and so, this is now one of my favorite, quickie meals. I know that most vegetarians don’t want to eat meat, or things that taste or look like meat, but JA hasn’t really had much meat in her life. She isn’t trying to remember or avoid its flavor. To her, this “beef” is just a differently flavored protein. With an unfortunate name. To me, it is yummy.

“Beef” and broccoli. Onions. Add more things, or don’t. Red pepper? Carrot? Garlic? Ginger? Make with kale instead of broccoli? Whatever I get in the box that I want to use up. I like this wrapped in lettuce with korean red sauce. The whole meal ends up running me about 5 Weight Watcher’s POINTS. Which means, you know, more wine.

I’m not suggesting this meal for meat-eaters, just old school vegetarians, but you never know... Truth is, JA is out tonight and I’m on my own. I could’ve had real beef. Didn’t.