outer borough dining adventure

A few years ago, my friends Stash and Lani and I formed an outer-borough dining club.  Sadly, our gastronomic gang was short-lived as both of my fellow dining adventurers moved away (to Los Angeles and Toronto, respectively -- the nerve!), but my wanderlust did not move with them.  As previously documented in this very blog, I have had a lot of fun eating my way through the nooks and crannies of Brooklyn.  But let's face it, who hasn't these days?  Brooklyn is the gateway borough for an outer-borough diner.  For a real adventure in an uncharted territory, you need to go farther than that hipster-filled enclave and a few weeks ago I rounded up my accommodating husband and fellow-adventurers Ann and Brian for dinner in just such a location: Staten Island.

The aforementioned outer-borough dining club had made it to that large mysterious island once before disbanding, for dinner at Enoteca Maria in the Saint George neighborhood.  The restaurant is conveniently located within walking distance of the Staten Island Ferry Terminal and has a rotating cast of Italian grandmothers who create and cook the menu on a given night.  I remember thinking it was good, not great, and had sort of forgotten all about it until "the nonnas" showed up on the Today Show last week. Maybe one day I'll give it another shot.

A former co-worker and Staten Island native, with whom I had discussed my trip to Enoteca Maria, had recommended another Italian restaurant on Staten Island: Trattoria Romana on Hylan Boulevard.  Specifically, she had told me about a pasta dish they offer called the "Bandiera Italiana" - pasta served with three different sauces: marinara, alfredo, and pesto, all arranged on one plate, just like the Italian flag.  I had to have it.  And so on the Friday night before Hurricane Sandy blew into our area, Judd, Ann, Brian and I met there for dinner.

The restaurant, which doesn't take reservations for small parties, was quite crowded when Judd and I arrived around 7:30, and yet they seated us even though our intrepid dining companions hadn't yet arrived (we were early since it took less time to drive over there than I thought it would) -- just try getting a Manhattan host to do that!  (Perhaps having a protruding pregnant belly helped?) Immediately after we were taken to our cramped table, a fleet of waiters descended on us with bruschetta, plain bread, and fried polenta cubes.  After Ann and Brian arrived, we ordered a frito misto and a Caesar salad to share - both perfectly fine.

While there were many tempting menu offerings that caught my eye, I did settle on the Bandiera with linguine since it was technically the reason we'd shlepped out there in the first place.  I really enjoyed all three sauces, especially the bright, garlicky pesto. And despite my large appetite, I did end up with some leftovers.  Judd and Brian each ordered veal dishes and Ann got a very decadent "straw and hay" pasta (egg and spinach noodles with cream, sausage, and porcini mushrooms), each of which I sampled -- thumbs up all around.

I don't know how Trattoria Romana is doing in the wake of the hurricane, but I do know that Staten Island in general took a pretty big hit.  If you'd like to do your part to help bolster their local economy, I highly recommend a trip out to Hylan Boulevard for your very own outer-borough dining adventure at Trattoria Romana.

a bun in the oven

I have some very exciting news to share (for anyone who reads SSH whom I haven't talked to lately): Judd and I are expecting a baby girl on or around December 30th! I am quite certain she is going to turn our lives upside down, but we can't wait to meet her and bring her home in about ten more weeks.

I've had a pretty easy time so far - no morning sickness or any major complaints - but I do miss eating some of the foods that I've been advised not to eat, including Boar's Head deli turkey (why!!??? it's so innocent!) and raw tuna. It also took a while to adjust to the severe reduction in my caffeine and splenda intake, and don't even get me started on how much I miss wine. (I haven't gone this long without alcohol since I was a teenager.)

I haven't really had any strange food cravings, either, though I've gone to the Palm often enough that I joined their frequent diner club and will order macaroni and cheese, or anything covered in cheese for that matter, anytime I see it on a menu. So you can guess how plump and round I look by now, notwithstanding the 3-pound baby in my abdomen.  Last week, I decided to connect with my inner tourist and stopped by the famed Carnegie Deli (it's only a few blocks from my office) for a corned beef sandwich on rye. And I ate the ENTIRE thing.

Anyway, I intend to keep food the focus of SSH, but it may sometimes be of the pureed fruit and vegetable variety.

my favorite vinaigrette

Several months ago, my friend Steph suggested I do a blog post about salad dressing.  Excellent idea! I made a mental note to take photos and notes the next few times I made salad.  And somehow, nearly three months went by before I got my act together to share a very simple recipe for my favorite go-to salad dressing, which I particularly like with bibb lettuce. It tastes very French to me, and the shallots are mild enough that they don't overpower the delicate mustard-lemon balance (I generally don't like raw onions or even scallions, so if you can't find shallots, look for a sweet onion, like a vidalia).

Here's what you'll need:

1/2 large shallot, finely minced
1 heaping tablespoon dijon mustard
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup + one tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients together, season with salt and pepper, and toss with lettuce.

zucchini windfall

On a recent Friday night, we were up in the country, getting ready for dinner, when we heard a knock at the front door.  At first, I thought it was just our very friendly neighbors from across the street, coming to say hello, as they are wont to do (I guess it's a country thing?).  But it turned out to be our next door neighbors, who we later learned have a thriving garden (in addition to cows, pigs, chickens, and horses), with an enormous basket full of oversized zucchini for us!  Since we were literally getting ready to sit down dinner (grilled steaks and scallops with summery corn risotto and an arugula salad with grilled portabella mushrooms and pine nuts), it was too late to include any of the 7 zucchinis in our meal, but the very next morning I cracked open my recipe binder and set about finding recipes to make use of our zucchini windfall.  (For anyone wondering, we decided *not* to sign up for a CSA this year because of how much weird lettuce we got last year.)

First up:  zucchini cornbread from the July 2012 issue of Bon Appetit.  I had seen this recipe last summer and was determined to make it eventually, so I happened to already have some of the more unusual dry ingredients (e.g., whole wheat flour and ground cornmeal) in my cabinet.  The finished bread, a delicious combination of sweet and savory, tasted most obviously brunchy, but was also nice with a cup of soup at lunch time and I can imagine including it in a meal featuring Mexican flavors or with a bowl of spicy chili.

Here's the recipe:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 large zucchini (about 10 ounces)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup medium-grind cornmeal

1. Position rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.  Grease/butter a 9x5x3 loaf pan (I used cooking spray).

2. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Continue cooking until butter solids at the bottom of the pan turn golden brown, about 3 minutes.  Scrape butter into a medium bowl.  Set aside and let cool.  Whisk in eggs and buttermilk.

3. Trim zucchini ends.  Thinly slice five 1/8" rounds from 1 end and reserve for garnish.  Coarsely grate remaining zucchini and add to bowl with butter mixture.  Stir until well blended.

4. Mix both flours, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and cornmeal in a large bowl.  Add wet zucchini and fold to blend (mixture will be very thick).  Transfer batter to greased loaf pan and smooth top.  Place reserved zucchini slices down center of bread batter (see photo above).

5. Bake bread until golden and a tester inserted into the middle comes out clean, about one hour.  Let bread cool in loaf pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Next up: a savory zucchini, herb, and rice gratin from Deborah Madison's classic "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone," (courtesy of my former colleague and vegetarian, Larissa).  This summery vegetarian dish makes a great main course (with salad) or side dish (with grilled or roasted chicken?) and is fairly easy to make, with the exception of draining the grated zucchini.  Deborah Madison's version uses white rice and a lot of marjoram; I used brown rice and a combination of chives and thyme.  (I'm not sure I know what marjoram even tastes like, but I didn't have any and I did have thyme).  This could also be a great way to use of leftover Chinese food rice.

Here's the recipe:

3 medium zucchini (about 1 1/2 pounds), coarsely grated
1 cup uncooked long or short grain brown rice (or about 2 cups cooked rice)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 small onion, finely diced
2 cups whole milk
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup grated parmesan, gruyere, ricotta salata, or pecorino cheese
freshly grated nutmeg, to taste.

1. Preheat the oven to 375 and lightly oil a rectangular baking dish (I used cooking spray).

2. Toss the grated zucchini with 1 teaspoon of salt and set in a colander to drain.

3. Cook the rice according to the instructions and set aside.

4.  Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and cook the onion over medium heat, until softened.  Squeeze the zucchini to get rid of any excess moisture and add to the onions, cooking until the pan is dry and the zucchini has begun to brown, about 10-12 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.

5. In a separate saucepan, melt the butter and add the flour, stirring and cooking until you end up with a golden brown paste (a rue!).  Add the milk and whisk until smooth.  Cook over low heat until milk mixture begins to thicken.  Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.  Stir in chopped chives and thyme leaves.  (You have just made an herbed bechamel sauce.)

6. Combine the rice, zucchini, and half of the herbed milk sauce and pour into greased baking dish.  Top with grated cheese and remaining milk sauce and bake until golden, about 25 minutes.  Serve warm.

yankee doodle dandy

A belated happy July 4th to all SSH readers!  I celebrated our nation's independence up in the country with my mom and husband and our new charcoal grill.  It was too hot and muggy for sitting outside in proper barbeque fashion, but it felt very summery to be eating grilled hot dogs (since nothing is more all-American than German sausages, I had stopped by Schaller & Weber on 86th and 2nd before driving out of town on Tuesday to get some knackwurst and bratwurst for the occasion), homemade baked beans, and my favorite summer side of all time, summer corn and orzo salad with cucumber-feta dressing.  As you might have guessed from the picture above, we had a lot of leftovers.

Over the rest of the self-imposed long weekend, I decided to try my hand at something even more traditionally American and summery: deep-dish blueberry pie.  Normally, I do not like to bake anything that involves rolling out a crust, but the recipe for this pie, which came from an old issue of Food & Wine Magazine, seemed simple enough. You really just need a food processor, a lot of blueberries, and several hours to let the pie bake and cool and VOILA! A pie Norman Rockwell would have been proud to paint and any allegiance-pledging (or simply pie loving) American would be happy to eat, especially with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Here's the recipe:

For the dough:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, still cold and cut into 1/2" dice
1/2 cup ice water, plus more if needed

For the filling:

8 cups fresh blueberries
3/4 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
pinch of salt

1) Pulse the flour and salt in the bowl of a large food processor.  Add the butter and pulse 5-10 times, until the diced butter is the size of peas.  Drizzle in the ice water and pulse until the dough forms a ball. 

2) Remove the dough from the food processor and divide in half.  Flatten each half into a round disc, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, at least 30 minutes.

3) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl, toss the blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, lemon zest, and salt. 

4) Roll out one half of the dough into a 13" round, about 1/8 in thick. Line a pie dish with the rolled out dough and pour in the blueberry mixture.

5) Roll out the second half of the dough the same way and lay across the top of the pie filling. Press the edges together and trim the overhanging dough. (I tried to also create an attractive "crimp" pattern, but I think as long as the top is sticking to the bottom, it doesn't really matter). Lightly brush the top with water and sprinkle with sugar (~1 tablespoon seemed right). Cut a few slits in the top crust for steam to escape.

6) Bake the pie until the filling is bubbling and the crust is golden brown, about 2 hours. Let cool for 5 hours at room temperature before serving. 

restaurant review: Do Hwa

As I have previously mentioned, I subscribe to BlackBoard Eats, which means that at least once a week, I get an e-mail coupon offer for up to 30% lunch and/or dinner at some NYC restaurant.  I always get excited when the offer is at a restaurant that I'd been wanting to try and a few weeks ago, Judd and I headed down to the West Village for dinner at Do Hwa with our 30% coupon in hand.

Do Hwa, on the corner of Carmine and Bedford Streets, describes its menu as Korean home cooking.  I'm not sure I know the difference between Korean home cooking vs. Korean restaurant cooking since the only Korean food I'd ever had was at Madangsui in K-Town, a bustling and ambience-less restaurant where the food is cooked on the grill in the middle of your table and served by actual Korean people (they looked Korean at least -- I didn't check any passports to confirm).  Do Hwa, on the other hand, has a sleek, and fairly contemporary decor with a dark, L-shaped bar and a more brightly-lit dining room.  Only four of the tables have that trademark grill-it-yourself feature, and we didn't get one of them, which is fine with me since I'd prefer to have someone else do the work and smell like a barbeque if I'm going to pay for the food, even with a 30% discount.  Also, unlike the servers at Madangsui in K-town, each member of Do Hwa's ambiguously ethnic and androgynous wait staff had on loose-fitting black tee-shirts and black pants; our unshaven waiter donned a knit cap and geek-chic glasses to complete his Williamsburg hipster look.

I had checked out Do Hwa's menu ahead of time, but still had no idea what to get when our waiter casually stopped by to take our order, so we asked for his recommendations and STILL had trouble narrowing it down.  I knew I wanted kimchi (a traditional Korean condiment made from spicy fermented cabbage), something barbecued, and bibimbop (a rice dish with many ingredients and spicy chili sauce in a hot stone pot).  As a result, and as is often the case when we have a 30% off coupon, we ended up ordering far too much food for two people, almost all of which I am delighted to report, was excellent.

To start, we shared mandu gui (pan-fried beef dumplings), kimchi pajun (kimchi scallion pancake), and mak gooksu (cold buckwheat noodles with sesame kimchi).  The dumplings were the least exciting of our three appetizers -- despite being crispy and fried (a combination I almost always enjoy), they didn't have much flavor, so I ended up drowning them in the salty dipping sauce.  The kimchi pancakes, however, were amazing.  Crunchy and still soft, with big pieces of kimchi throughout.  I was surprised that the vegetarian pancake was so expensive compared to the other appetizers ($9.50 when the dumplings were only $8 and the noodles were only $7), but we had the coupon, so they were only $6.33 to me.  The cold buckwheat noodles were a refreshing temperature and texture contrast to our two fried selections, and I was glad to sample a different flavor of kimchi.

For our entrees, we shared classic bibimbop with beef and a fried egg and deji bulgogi (spicy pork barbecue with chiles).  When the bibimbop arrived, our waiter stirred it all together with the chile paste, turning a bowl of rice topped with multiple exotic looking ingredients into something resembling fried rice.  I honestly am not sure I could tell you what was in there besides the rice, egg, beef, and sauteed vegetables, but I am now officially a bibimbop devotee, despite its extremely silly name (no disrespect, Korean speakers).  
    

The barbecue, which I don't think was actually barbecued on any kind of coal or flame, was a hair greasy for my taste (perhaps because we selected pork?) but nonetheless quite delicious.  It arrived sizzling on a cast iron skillet, not unlike a fajita, and was served with fresh lettuce leaves, sliced chiles, and miso sauce.  I love the idea of wrapping things in lettuce, but it is always such a messy endeavor (lettuce can't withstand heat and tears so easily) that I usually don't bother.  The barbecued pork was also served with more kimchi and an assortment of "seasonal side dishes," many of which I suspected could contain fish or fish parts, so I steered clear of those.

My one complaint about Do Hwa would have to be their chopsticks.  Think longer thinner knitting needles.  It was quite a challenge/nearly impossible to get rice and slippery buckwheat noodles into my mouth using such thin round chopsticks.  I almost asked for a fork, but feared the dirty look our hipster waiter might shoot my way.

Overall, I really enjoyed Do Hwa.  I am glad I strayed outside of my French-Italian-Mexican comfort zone, and I even spotted a reality TV star, known to many of this blog's readers as my old friend Charlie, and his handsome fiancee in the process (all the cool kids hang out downtown).

**

Details:

Do Hwa
55 Carmine Street
New York City
(212) 414-1224

Korean home cooking for two: $80 (pre-30% discount)

Tagine cooking

I bought Judd a tagine for our wedding anniversary in March. It was something he had suggested we add to our Williams-Sonoma registry before we got married, but that I had opposed given the size of our kitchen and how infrequently I thought we'd use it.  Three years later, he was very excited to unwrap a tagine of his very own, along with cookbook I'd found to accompany it: "Tagines & Couscous: Delicious recipes for Moroccan one-pot cooking."

In case you are not familiar with them, tagines are shallow, round cooking vessels with a conical lid designed to lock in moisture. They are commonly used in Moroccan cooking, which The word tagine is also used to describe the stew cooked inside the tagine. I bought Judd's at Sur la Table since the Williams-Sonoma at the Time Warner Center no longer carries them (I suspect other shoppers had also wondered how practical they were . . .). Ours is made by Le Creuset and has a cast iron bottom, which makes it appropriate for stovetop or oven cooking, and a glazed earthenware lid. (I actually have a feeling that a Le Creuset dutch oven might work nearly as well as a a tagine for cooking tagine recipes.)

Judd recently took a stab at a vegetarian tagine with carrots and chickpeas. The list of ingredients is quite lengthy, but most of them are probably already in your spice rack, with the exception of rosewater. The tagine turned out really delicious and I'm sharing the recipe with you, which I think you might be able to pull off, with or without an actual tagine.

spicy carrot and chickpea tagine with turmeric and cilantro

3-4 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
1-2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon honey
4 carrots, peeled and sliced on the diagonal
2 14-ounce cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1.5 tablespoons rosewater
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves

1. Heat the oil in tagine over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute, stirring until soft. Add turmeric, cumin seeds, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, black pepper, honey, and carrots. Pour in enough water to cover the base of the tagine and cover. Cook gently over low heat for 10-15 minutes.

2. Add chickpeas. Check to make sure there is enough liquid left in the tagine, adding a little more water if necessary.  Cover and continue to cook over low heat for another 5-10 minutes, or until the carrots are tender.

3. Add the rosewater and cilantro and season with salt.  Serve with crusty bread and/or couscous, a dollop of thick yogurt (option) and lemon wedges (also optional).