GASTRONORMOUS

Clothilde over at Chocolate & Zucchini writes about her experiment with molecular gastronomy; she makes roasted flour sablé cookies (recipe included!)

There is a story at the Diner’s Journal that discusses the culinary dishonesty (at best–at worst, plagiarism/copyright infringement!) of Cindy McCain (wife of John McCain). It seems she word for word copied recipes from the Food Network website, but represented them as her own “family recipes.” Whoops. The page has been taken down, but shh, you can look at the cached page here.

A soup of stinging nettles [via The Kitchn]? Admitting I have never eaten nettles (though I have been stung by one!), I can’t imagine it is worth all the effort. Reminds me of the fiddle-head ferns I once prepared. Those look like hairy, curled up asparagus, and are toxic unless thoroughly looked. I found the flavor to be indistinct, and not worth the expense, bother (de-hairyizing) and stress (of worrying that I might poison myself if I didn’t cook them properly)!

I have never watched Gossip Girl (well, I sort of tried to once after hearing so much about it, but it bothered me to see 16 year-old characters acting like 30 year-olds), but I will take the sandwich apparently inspired by the show any day. It costs fifty dollars, but just look at it! [via Grub Street]

I love butterscotch! Luckily, Michael Ruhlman does too.

The first time I visited New York (before moving here a year later), an Ex-Pat New Yorker I worked with had given me suggestions of things to do. One thing he told me I had to do was go to Florent in the Meatpacking District. But, he told me, you have to go at 3:00 in the morning. That is the only time to go. This was fifteen years ago, back when the cobblestone streets were still bathed with blood from the industry that gave the nabe its name. Food from Florent was the only thing other than sides of beef and whole pigs being peddled in the area at the time. I followed his advice, and I remember thinking, sitting there eating frites amongst drag queens and strung-out rockers in the middle of the night, “this is the coolest thing I had ever done.” Ha! Sadly, Gothamist food blog reported about Florent closing, but they are going out in their own quirky fashion.

This stainless steel and non-slip plastic self-balancing tray manages to somehow be both absurd and brilliantly practical. The website asserts that using this “allows you to open doors, shake hands or serve the contents of the tray”—all without slopping beverages around! Oh, it really is such a bother to carry party drinks on a conventional tray whilst opening doors, etc.

Still, I am not sure I could bring myself to break this out when hosting a party. Unless maybe it was a garden party. But of course we have servants to pass beverages at those. [$60]

Saturday morning the Hubs and I got out onto the street at the crack of noon to go shopping for a bunch of new-apartment needs (storage, repair, and organizational items, mostly), and on the way to the subway we stopped by the Green Apple Cafe for a country (aka Sunshine [carrot, etc.]) muffin, a cheddar scallion scone, and two iced coffees [$8.50]. The pastries were delicious and I wondered if they were baked on premises (the place was tiny, so I kinda think not). I had my iced coffee black and found it a little bitter, but with milk and sugar it was fine. The service could not have been friendlier! I only wish they were open when I go to work in the morning!

After a looong day of shopping, we ordered in Indian food for dinner from Amin. The food was just okay in my opinion, except for the Mottar Ponir, which was awful. I wouldn’t rush to order from them again.

More shopping for the apartment on Sunday. We stopped by the Brooklyn Flea, hoping to have for breakfast some of the delicious waffles we had been hearing about while perusing the furniture and other goods. Unfortunately, no dogs were allowed, and we had our little one with us, so no waffles for us! Instead of waffles, we decided to go for an even healthier breakfast option: pizza!

We got a slice to share at Mario’s in Clinton Hill [$2.25]. A sign outside proclaims them “The Best Pizza in NYC!” That, I assure you, it is not. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t anything better than your average corner slice joint. The crust tasted it like it might have once been frozen. A bit later, we shared a second slice from the comically named Not Ray’s [$2.50]. It was better than Mario’s, and better than your average corner pizza place, but still not as good as some of my favorite pizza places, like L’Asso. The crust at Not Ray’s was chewier and fresher, and the sauce was saltier than the sweet sauce Mario’s employs. Not a bad slice.

At the end of our big errand-running walk, we stopped by Gnarly Vines to pick up a bottle of wine. We chose Cline’s Zinfandel, and big, rich, chocolaty-fruity red. If you like big reds, this is a good inexpensive one [$11.00]. Gnarly Vines has a friendly staff and pretty good selection (and a few more less expensive options than nearby Green Grape and Thirst). A bonus: they will enter the wines you buy in a databse (if you want them to), so you can keep track of those wines you buy and enjoy but never can remember…

For dinner, we went out with the Hub’s cousin to Luz, which bills itself as “Nuevo Latino” food. The food was pretty good (though the salads looked like they had been dressed an hour before they arrived at our table–a bit on the soggy side), but the service was unreasonably slow. We weren’t in a rush, but even so, there was way too long a wait before the first course between courses, and then again before the bill. Plus, two of our entrées arrived a good ten minutes before the third. If they work out their service issues I would consider going back, but in the meantime there are many other restaurants to patronize…

All in all, not the healthiest weekend, but we had fun exploring the food offerings of our new neighborhood! Soon, very soon, I will get back to cooking for myself.

Because I love an alliteration, Feeder is now on Friday.

Chocolate & Zucchini has a post about keeping greens and herbs fresh in the fridge. This is a problem that plagues my kitchen, so I was glad to see these practical tips.

Husband: (holding sponge an arm’s length away) Ew! Gah. This stinks! Grr. Yuck. (throws in trash.) Seven minutes later, Wife: (picking up sopping wet new sponge left in bottom of sink by Husband) Sigh! (wrings out sponge and places on sink ledge.) The Kitchn: Suggests microwaving your sponges to kill the germs that eventually make them stink!

Oh my gawd. The fact that I am not Jewish certainly wouldn’t keep me from enjoying Chocolate Toffee Matzo! (Also from The Kitchn.)

I nearly started crying looking at the delicious photos of the Dessert Truck’s offerings. Wasn’t there something I needed to do at 8th Street and University Place? Yes, yes, there was something I needed to do there. And then, ah, maybe, you know, maybe I can stop by the dessert truck afterwards. Tonight. (from Ed Levine’s New York Eats)

Here is a really wonderfully funny article by Henry Alford from the NY Times Magazine, with a great bonus: a recipe for a yummy-looking Madeline Cake!

Enjoy!

Pancakes II: Pancakes for your Face is equal parts catchy music, fun stop-motion animation, and slightly obtuse humor; sort of like Peter Garbriel’s “Big Time” video crossed with a Mentos commercial. And that can’t help but be sort of awesome.

(The video shows how to make what the British call pancakes, but the Americans and French call crêpes–finally, something we agree on!)

I love this serving bowl with its own trivet–it is so modern, clean, and beautiful. Though for the kitchen-storage challenged, this bulky two-fer might not be the best buy. But I can just picture this in the center of my table, with a fluffy soufflé billowing out of it! [$42]

As I have mentioned, I just recently moved (rendering me too busy to post, apparently). For all the miseries that changing abodes brings with it, there is one inevitable positive: the housewarming party! I love entertaining, and so am already thinking about the menu for ours.

One of my favorite appetizers cannot be accused of being sophisticated, but it is always a big hit at parties, and has long been a staple at family gatherings. It is my grandmother’s recipe cheese ball, tweaked just a bit.

Grammy’s Cheeseball

2 8 oz. packages of cream cheese (full fat–seriously, low fat does not work)
7 oz. of sharp cheddar cheese*, very finely shredded
1 heaping TB minced onion
1 TB drained and finely chopped pimento
1 TB finely chopped green bell pepper
1 TB Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup roasted and chopped walnuts or pecans

*Use orange cheddar, which gives a nicer color than white. My grandmother only used Cracker Barrel cheese–gold label–and only used about 5 oz. More adds a pleasant sharpness. In general, I am a fan of extra sharp cheddar, but here it overpowers.

Mix together all ingredients except nuts in a big bowl; Grammy always used her hands to do this, but I usually use a big wooden spoon (I imagine a pastry cutter would work well too). Dump the entire contents of the bowl onto a piece of wax paper and using your hands form a ball. While you can serve it immediately, at this point it is best to wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and let chill for a few hours or overnight.

Roll the cheeseball in the chopped nuts immediately before serving.

[This was not posted on its regular Monday as I was busy moving!]

Gothamist reports that Pamplona has a new dessert masquerading as a molecular gastronomic concoction. The dish is actually more closely related to fried ice cream from El Torrito than it is to anything Ferran Adrià has dreamed up, but despite that, it look delicious enough to try. Soon.

The Amateur Gourmet proves his mettle by interviewing Anthony Boudain on his hatred of the Food Network. I should clarify that this interview is posted on the Food Network website as part of the FN Dish series that Amateur Gourmet’s Adam Roberts hosts. Despite being approximately 1.7 sheets to the wind, Bourdain waxes brilliantly acerbic on all things FN. Though I do sometimes watch the FN, I agree with all his criticisms. Especially now that the entirety of America is foodie-fied, they can afford to aim higher.  Roberts fills in the bleeped portions of the interview, and their varying degrees of humor and horror, on his blog here.

I admit I love deviled eggs, though I have only made them once and accidentally over-salted them. But I love eating them, anyway, and Cooking with Amy has a recipe for wasabi deviled eggs that looks fantastic. I am definitely bringing these to my next picnic!

Grub Street assembles a panel to taste test the new Tabla 4-minute meals from Fresh Direct. Not surprisingly, the chick pea masala survived mass-production, refrigeration and shipment better than the meat dishes, most of which the panel seemed to rather intensely dislike.

I love this. The NY Times Dining section challenges Eric Ripert and his pastry chef from Le Bernardin to create a 3-course meal with only $40 worth of groceries. The catch? The ingredients must be purchase from Jack’s 99-cent store. They meet the challenge with mixed success. Ripert notes that one dish tastes okay, but are “a little bit Olive Garden.” Do I take that to infer he has actually eaten there?