Creamed Mushrooms on Toast

When I'm home alone and making dinner for myself, my standards change dramatically. If Craig's there (and he usually is), I know he has certain expectations about what constitutes a dinner. That's fair, because most people do. But alone? My standards go out the window and I just improvise a meal with whatever I have on hand. And the other night, while Craig was in London showing his movie at the Raindance Film Festival, I happened to have the following on hand: mushrooms, thyme, cream and bread. That's why I decided to make something I'd never made before, something I wasn't even sure constituted a proper dinner. That something was creamed mushrooms on toast.

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Tags: cream, Molly Orangette, mushrooms | October 7, 2009 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments

What's Good?

The waitress, who we loved, responded to our request for a pasta suggestion with enthusiasm. "Get the ravioli," she said. "It's amazing."

I was with my mom last night at the new A Voce in the Time Warner Center, and our waitress was solicitious, funny and helpful. And when we asked for her advice, she gave it with zeal and genuine enthusiasm. But it was only when we were eating the ravioli, which she so heartily recommended, that I began to question the wisdom of asking the server's advice on what to order.

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Tags: A Voce, dining, service | October 5, 2009 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments

Locanda Verde

My parents and I often get into a quibbling match over the Italian food that they like and the Italian food that I like. The Italian food that they like is the food found at what's typically called "a red sauce joint" with dishes every American who's been to EPCOT or an Olive Garden can rattle off: Chicken Parmesan, Chicken Scarpiello, Shrimp Scampi (a tautological phrase since scampi means shrimp), and so on. I'm not against this food--sometimes, I really enjoy it--but my parents LOVE this food and put it on a higher pedestal than the food you find at the Italian restaurants I love, restaurants like Babbo or A Voce. When I try to explain that the latter food is more authentic, my parents are incredulous: after all, their favorite Italian restaurants are owned and managed by Italians who moved here direct from Italy. So what is the difference? Maybe it's not a question of authenticity, just a question of quality. Either way: the subject was ripe as we sat down this weekend for dinner at Andrew Carmellini's brand new restaurant in TriBeCa, Locanda Verde.

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Tags: Andrew Carmellini, Italian food, Locanda Verde, my parents, octopus | September 30, 2009 9:44 AM | Permalink | Comments

The Burger at Lure Fishbar

For years, I've walked past Lure Fishbar in SoHo. You can't miss it, really: there are portholes for windows and the restaurant, which is below ground, is styled like a yacht.

I can't say I was dying to eat there, but then word on the street was that their burger was one of the best below 14th street. That's what William Tigertt claimed on Eater, and then Adam Kuban echoed it on A Hamburger Today: "This burger really is all that Mr. Tigertt describes."

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Tags: burgers, Lure Fishbar, SoHo | September 29, 2009 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments

Orecchiette with Broccoli & Pancetta

Here's something for you to cook this weekend, something from the archives. It comes from The River Cafe Cookbook, a book I no longer own, but no matter. It's an easy enough recipe, I have it memorized. So easy: I can squeeze it all into this paragraph. Boil a pot of water, add salt. In a large skillet, add cubed pancetta--about two big slices worth. Add a splash of olive oil, raise the heat and let the pancetta start to brown. When it's getting closer to brown than not-brown, add broccoli florets--about two heads worth--to the salted water. Add 2 or 3 cloves of slivered garlic to the pancetta and some red pepper flakes. (Watch the garlic: don't let it burn.) When the broccoli is just cooked, but still al dente (1 or 2 minutes) lift with a spider into the skillet with the pancetta and garlic. Now drop a 1 lb box of orecchiette into that same salted broccoli water; stir it all around so the pasta doesn't stick to itself. Lower the heat on the broccoli and if the pan is too dry, add some pasta cooking water. Keep it on the lowest flame while the pasta cooks. When the pasta's just al dente (9 minutes later) add with the spider to the skillet with the broccoli and pancetta (it's ok if some pasta water gets in, it helps make the sauce). Toss all around until everything's coated and the pasta's totally cooked through and then, off the heat, add copious amounts of Parmesan cheese and one final drizzle of olive oil. Magnifico! There you have it: Orecchiette with Broccoli & Pancetta.

Tags: broccoli, orecchiette, pancetta, pasta, River Cafe | September 25, 2009 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments

How To Make a Chocolate Souffle

One of the highlights of making our Amateur Gourmet show for Food2.com, was the day we got to visit the kitchen of Le Bernardin--one of the nation's, if not the world's, great restaurants--to learn how to make a chocolate souffle from revered pastry chef (and blogger!) Michael Laiskonis. What follows is the video we made, with step-by-step instructions that result in a chocolatey souffle that's as ethereal as it is delicious. Hope you enjoy! [For the full typed-out recipe, click here.]

Previous Episodes:
How To Cook Fish (A Musical)
How To Make Pasta From Scratch
How To Make the Perfect Steak
How To Cook an Omelet

Tags: chocolate, Food2.com, Michael Laiskonis, souffle, videos | September 23, 2009 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments

My Secret Cookbook Gems

After yesterday's cookbook slaughter, I thought I'd steer the blog to sweeter waters and talk about a subject I've never addressed on the blog before: my secret cookbook gems.

No, I'm not talking about books that I actually cook from. Those would be my favorite cooking cookbooks and you can find those on the lower right hand corner of the page under the heading "The Amateur Gourmet Recommends." These books, my secret cookbook gems, are the ones with the most sentimental value: the ones that I cherish the most, the ones I'd grab first if the apartment was on fire.

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Tags: Alice B. Toklas, Anita Bryant, cookbooks, Ferran Adria, FN Dish, France, gems, Jon Robin Baitz, Liberace, Marais, Shirin Keen | September 22, 2009 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments

The Great Cookbook Purge of 2009

Nobody likes moving. It's a daunting process: first you have to find boxes, then you have to find packing tape, then you have to put all your stuff in the boxes and then you run out of packing tape and then you find you have more stuff and you need more boxes, etc, etc. It sucks.

Which is why, a few days ago, I found myself staring at my cookbook collection. I was on the couch and there it was, across the room. Six giant Ikea shelves of cookbooks, collected from five and a half years of food blogging. And like a bolt of lightning, a thought singed the inside of my brain: "Do I really need all of these cookbooks? How many do I really use, really?"

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Tags: Amanda Hesser, Bouchon, cookbooks, moving, Ryan Sutton | September 21, 2009 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments

Late Night Lemon Mousse

After a long day on Tuesday of editing a video for Food2.com, I called Craig and told him to order a pizza. When I came home, he was editing a video with his friend Alena. There's a lot of video editing going on in our lives. And so we all snarfed down that pizza, they returned to their editing, and I--like the sophisticated, highbrow person that I am--watched "The View" on Tivo. At around midnight, after Alena left, I got a hankering for dessert and decided, at 12:15, to make a lemon mousse.

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Tags: late night cooking, lemons, mousse | September 17, 2009 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments

My Name is Potato

Since I already put up one video today, I can't think of a good reason not to post this crazy music video from 1977 called "My Name is Potato." Tell your head to get ready to have a song stuck in it. [via Metafilter]

Tags: Metafilter, music videos, potatoes, YouTube | September 15, 2009 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments

A Cheap, Easy Knife Sharpener

[Apologies, for the annoying squiggle in this video podcast: my computer is getting old, people.]

If that video made you desperate for a link to that cheap and easy knife sharpener, here it is: AccuSharp 001 Knife Sharpener. I can't recommend it enough.

Tags: AccuSharp, knife sharpeners, knives, Korin | September 15, 2009 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments

Back to the Big Apple

Big changes are afoot, loyal followers of my blog. For three years now I've lived in Park Slope, Brooklyn--steps away from Franny's (one of my top three favorite restaurants in New York)--and pretty content with my BK lifestyle: brooding with the other writers at Gorilla Coffee, skirting over to Key Foods for catchy 60s ditties as I buy vegetables wrapped in plastic, and traipsing over to Grand Army Plaza on Saturdays for the weekly farmer's market. Content, that is, except for one major factor: our heat. It went out repeatedly. Last year, it went out so many times our landlord bought us two space heaters--one of which almost set our couch on fire. So, suffice it to say, when our lease came up again I put my foot down and decided not to renew. This started an epic quest on Craigslist to find a new apartment, but little did we know that this bold decision--a decision that gave us only four weeks to find a new place to live--would lead us to the apartment of our dreams.

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Tags: dishwashers, moving, Park Slope, West Village | September 14, 2009 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments

Pasta alla Norma

Eggplant is a funny vegetable. It’s not a vegetable that inspires passion, the way that asparagus or ramps do in springtime. It’s not a vegetable that anyone would put on a short list of favorite foods. If the farmer’s market held a prom, I’m pretty certain eggplant would be sitting by itself on a bench, chatting uneasily with a turnip, and waiting—hoping—someone might just ask it to dance.

Well, eggplant, here I am in my tux: waddya say we ménage a trios with some tomato and basil? No, no, silly eggplant, we’re not going to make love—sorry—but we ARE going to make something better: Pasta alla Norma!

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Tags: basil, eggplant, Mario Batali, pasta, Pasta alla Norma, tomato | September 9, 2009 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments