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).

strata with spinach and peppers

My sister got a great cookbook a few years ago, The New York Times Country Weekend Cookbook, which has become a valuable resource during all of the weekends I've been spending up in Dutchess County.  I recently tried a recipe for "overnight strata with spinach and peppers" for Sunday brunch and it was a big hit. And super impressive looking since it got quite inflated in the oven. I used all of the leftover basil and pine nuts to make pesto.

As the name suggests, the overnight strata, (think a savory Italian bread pudding), is supposed to be assembled the night before. But I was too tired to cook on Saturday night and assembled the entire thing on Sunday morning. Also, the original recipe called for 1 entire pound of brie cheese, which seemed far too decadent, so my version has less, but by all means you should go full cheese if you're up for it.

Here's the recipe:

1 large onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for pan
1 each: red, yellow, and orange bell peppers, seeded, cored, and chopped
1 large loaf of challah, brioche, or egg-based bread
2 small bunches spinach, washed, chopped, and stems removed (pre-washed baby spinach would probably be easier)
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
1 cup julienned basil leaves
8 eggs
1 quart milk
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
8 oz brie, sliced
2 cups shredded fresh mozzarella cheese
salt and pepper

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) Heat olive oil in a large pan and cook onions and peppers until softened. Add spinach leaves and cook until spinach has wilted down completely. Season with salt and pepper.

3) Blend the eggs, milk and garlic, and nutmeg in a blender. Season with salt and pepper.

4) Oil a large baking dish. Slice challah into 3/4" slices and arrange half of it into the bottom of the baking dish. Distribute half the onion, pepper, and spinach mixture onto the top of the bread, top with half the pine nuts, and pour over half of the egg mixture, pressing in the bread so it absorbs the liquid.  Top with half of the shredded mozzarella and sliced brie. Repeat with the remaining bread, vegetables, pine nuts, egg mixture, and cheese.

5) Place baking dish on foil lined baking sheet (in case of overflow) and bake for ~60 minutes, or until bubbling and cooked through. Cool slightly before cutting.

restaurant review: The Leopard at Des Artistes

Sometime during the late summer of 2009, Cafe des Artistes, the landmark French restaurant on tree-lined West 67th Street, quietly closed its doors.  At first, the sign on the door announced that the restaurant would be closed for a month-long vacation, but as the weeks went by, facing rising losses and a union lawsuit, the owners of the mural-clad institution decided to permanently shut the place down -- another victim of the global recession.

I had only visited Cafe des Artistes a few times. Once, for a lovely and memorable lunch with my mother and her cousin during summer restaurant week during the late 1990's.  Later, after I moved to the neighborhood, a friend turned me on to the small parlor bar across the lobby from the restaurant, where we spent an evening drinking wine paired with a cheese plate and perfect french fries. And finally, only a few weeks before it closed, I enjoyed a very pleasant restaurant week dinner with my friend, and fellow Upper West Sider, Steph, in the elegant and dimly-lit dining room. Business did seem slow, but summer in New York City usually is.

In early 2011, I was delighted to read that the owners of Il Gattopardo in Midtown had taken over the space and were reopening it as The Leopard at Des Artistes (gattopardo means leopard in Italian). Don't let the name fool you -- the menu is decidedly Italian, Sicilian in fact. And those famous murals, featuring Howard Chandler Christy's "Fantasy Scenes with Naked Beauties," have been cleaned up and reframed in the sleeker dining room.

I first stopped by in July of 2011 for a fancy drink at their bar with my sister and West 67th Street native, Catherine. We were treated to a plate of piping hot aranicini - a rich, greasy, and crispy compliment to a glass of full-bodied wine. I had been meaning to go back for dinner ever since, but the menu looked a hair too pricey for a non-special occasion meal. This spring, I am pleased to report that I had two wonderful special occasion meals at The Leopard: our third wedding anniversary and Easter with my family, and I am officially smitten with this new kitten on the block.

On our wedding anniversary, Judd and I shared a special pasta appetizer as our first course. The noodle was similar to a rigatoni, and the spicy tomato-based sauce included large chunks of lobster meat and fresh fava beans. It was really delicious. For my entree, I selected meatloaf, which Sam Sifton had described as "phenomenal" in his August 2011 NY Times review.  I happen to love meatloaf, and I was excited to try the Leopard's version with veal, beef, prosciutto, pine nuts, and peas. It was served smothered in a tomato sauce with a pile of spicy broccoli rabe and pureed potatoes and, true to Mr. Sifton's praise, it was outstanding. Judd ordered veal medallions braised in their own juice, dusted with fennel pollen. Also very tasty. We finished our celebratory dinner with a pleasing mascarpone panna cotta.

We returned for Easter with my mother and sister, (so did Howard Stern and his wife -- they were a few tables away), and had another fantastic dinner. We each enjoyed specials from the holiday menu to begin, including a spring vegetable soup and a room temperature pie made with seasonal greens. I had another order of the decidedly phenomenal meatloaf; Judd had homemade pappardelle with rabbit ragu and mushrooms; and my mother and sister both ordered the lightly breaded swordfish, simply dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, oregano, and parsley.  Everyone was very happy with their selection.

We finished our meal with the panna cotta and zabaglione with fresh berries. The zabaglione, made table side (which I always hate) by our slightly awkward waiter, was the only low note in our otherwise lovely dinner. Too warm, too soupy, and too boozy. And too expensive at $16.

And speaking of expensive, while most of the entrees are priced well into the $30+ range, the pastas, which could certainly be eaten as main courses, remain affordable. Also, the noteworthy meatloaf seems like a bargain at only $26, so you can dine at the Leopard without going too far over the top. And I recommend that you do, because the Leopard is an elegant and delicious addition to the Upper West Side.

***

Details:

The Leopard at Des Artistes
1 West 67th Street
New York City
(212) 787-8767

Special occasion Sicilian dinner for two: ~$200 (but we sort of saved money because we could walk home!)

fun with fondue

A recent e-mail from Tasting Table turned me on to the fondue and raclette room at Cafe Select in SoHo. While it's been a fairly mild winter here in NYC, I still got excited about an evening of Alpine cheesy deliciousness. So I enlisted my fondue-loving friend Kate and made us a reservation in their "once secret back room." (FYI - they very annoyingly require a credit card number to reserve table for two and threaten to charge a $20 fee if you don't show.)

To find your way to the fondue and raclette room at Cafe Select, head straight to the back of the main dining room, proceed through the tidy looking kitchen, then walk down a few steps, and you'll finally end up in the dimly-lit, windowless room with only 12 seats, a disco ball, and lots of christmas lights. I am not sure I would described this is this as traditional Swiss decor, but it did make the room feel cozy, in a strange way.

All of Cafe Select's fondues are made with their "special" (and undisclosed) mixture of cheeses, white wine, and kirsch (a fruit brandy, traditionally made from cherries), and served with cubed bread, raw vegetables, cornichons, and pickled onions. While the back room menu offers a variety of cheese fondues, including white truffle oil, "south of the alps" (fresh tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, and olives), and fresh herb (a special available when we were there, at least), we opted for the traditional "select house" fondue for two ($40), two fairly lackluster salads (field greens for me, arugula and shaved fennel for Kate), and some heavy red wine.

Despite the spotty service, quirky surroundings and EXTREMELY skimpy glasses of wine, I really enjoyed my cheese-based dinner at Cafe Select. The cheese mixture itself was really rich and tasty and it is a lot of fun to dip little pieces of country bread and tangy pickles into a vat of bubbling cheese with a long thin fork! Our waitress was happy to bring us more bread and pickles when we ran out, but I didn't have the nerve to ask for more boiling cheese, even though je l'aurais beaucoup aimé. If you find yourself hankering for cheese fondue, I highly recommend you check out Cafe Select yourself.

chimichurri

My photographer friend, Kathi Littwin, recommended a cookbook after she and her husband, Gil, got back from their honeymoon in Argentina: Seven Fires, Grilling the Argentine Way. Kathi posted gorgeous photos from their trip on her blog, and the food looked so amazing that I had to buy the book and try out some recipes myself.

This weekend, while I threw some hanger steaks on a hot grill pan, Judd took a stab at the book's recipe for chimichurri and it was amazing! Bright, spicy, and salty -- a perfect accompaniment to grilled meat. And it's so light! I was imagining an oily sauce akin to a traditional Italian pesto, but the end result was like a thin green salsa, which led me to use it less judiciously than I had planned. I highly recommend you give chimichurri a try.

Here's what you'll need:

1 cup water

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 head of garlic, separated into cloves and peeled

1 cup fresh flat leaf parsley leaves

1 cup fresh oregano leaves

2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

freshly ground black pepper

1. Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the salt and stir until it dissolves. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

2. Chop the garlic, parsley, oregano, and red pepper flakes in the bowl of a large food processor. When the herbs and garlic are chopped, leave the food processor on and add the vinegar, olive oil, and cooled salt water through the feed tube until all ingredients are well blended. Remove the lid and mix in some freshly ground black pepper to taste.

To go with the steaks, I made some oven-roasted asparagus with lime juice and baked sweet potatoes. The whole dinner took less than an hour, and I have lots of delicious chimichurri leftover, which will keep in an air-tight container for up to three weeks in the refrigerator.

baked fontina

I made the most delicious and decadent pre-dinner snack on New Year's Eve this year with our friends Catherine and Peter: baked fontina. And it was so simple! You just need a healthy amount of Italian fontina cheese, olive oil, fresh herbs, and garlic. Everything goes into a cast iron skillet, and after a few minutes under the broiler, you end up with a pan full of very flavorful melted cheese to spread on crusty bread. Add a glass or two of wine, and you'll be on your way to preprandial bliss!

The recipe, which originally comes from The Red Cat in Chelsea (one of my very favorite places), is featured in the lunch chapter of Ina Garten's book, The Barefoot Contessa How Easy is That?. I myself would find it very hard to have a productive afternoon if I ate this much melted cheese in the middle of the day, so I recommend serving it as a first course.

Here's what you need:

1.5 lbs Italian Fontina Val D'Aosta cheese, rind removed and diced into 1-inch pieces

1/4 cup olive oil

6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves

1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary leaves

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 crusty french baguette

1. Preheat the broiler and position the oven rack 5 inches from the heat.

2. Spread the cubes of fontina evenly around a 12-inch cast iron pan. Drizzle olive oil. Combine the garlic, thyme, and rosemary and sprinkle it over the cheese and olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and place the pan under the broiler for 6 minutes, until the cheese is melted and bubbling and starts to brown.

3. Serve the baked fontina right out of the oven in the cast-iron pan, with crusty chunks of bread for dipping.

best and worst from 2011

Readers - the last quarter of 2011 was action-packed, and I apologize for the resulting shortage of new content on "She's Still Hungry." In the last week of September, we bought a country house in Dutchess County, where I have been almost every subsequent weekend. Then my previously very healthy mother-in-law had emergency open heart surgery in November, and we spent a very tense Thanksgiving with her in an ICU in Colorado Springs. Finally, in the end of December, I left my job of nearly four years as a state charities' regulator to join the legal department of a New York not-for-profit corporation. In any event, it seems as though the dust is finally starting to settle, and I am have some time to belatedly tell you about my favorite and least favorite places from 2011.

Places I recommend you try in 2012:

Spiga (200 West 84th Street): a cozy dining room overlooking a sleepy side Upper West Side street, with exposed brick and wooden beams -- the perfect setting for a rustic and reasonably-priced Italian meal. I particularly enjoyed the large selection of homemade pastas.

Madangsui (35 West 35th Street): my first foray into Korean barbeque and the bar was set high. Everything we had, from kimchi pancakes to marinated ribeye and short ribs, perfectly balanced grease and flavor. And they take reservations!

Peasant (194 Elizabeth Street): a satisfying Italian gem in NoLiTa that I finally tried for the first time last year (I think it opened in 2000). Only delicious things came out of their big open kitchen with its wood-burning brick oven and large rotisserie, including an enormous roasted leg of lamb, which could hardly be described as peasant fare.

Prime Meats (465 Court Street, Brooklyn): Frank Falcinelli and Frank Castronovo, of the eponymous Frankie's Spuntino chain, teamed up again for this Carroll Gardens new American tavern with a farm-to-table menu influenced by "Germanic alpine cuisine." I loved every decadent thing we ordered, including the pork schnitzel, herb and gruyere cheese spatzle, and house-made pretzels. But I could have passed on the hipster waiters in vests and suspenders.

Sad news: BLT Market (1430 Sixth Avenue in the Ritz Carlton), Laurent Tourondel's fancy country cookery which I planned to include on this list, has CLOSED as of January 1st!? Not a huge surprise since ownership of the entire BLT group has been the subject of dispute since Chef Tourdondel (the "LT" in the "BLT" brand) split from his business partner two years ago.

And places I suggest you skip in 2012 and beyond:

Paptzul (55 Grand Street) - displeasingly greasy and uninspired Mexican food in SoHo, in a dining room so loud I could barely think straight. No es bueno.

Thalassa (179 Franklin Street) - underwhelming and very pricey Greek food in TriBeCa. I really wanted to like this place, but it hurt to pay close to $20 for a greek salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, feta), and more than $30 for "Seafood Thalassina" - diver scallops, gulf shrimp, and PEI mussels steamed in white wine over orzo - all of which was flavorless and overcooked.

Frankie's Spuntino (17 Clinton Street on the Lower East Side and 570 Hudson Street in the West Village) - I realize this is a controversial addition to a list of stinker restaurants since everyone and their mother seems to be fawning over "the Franks" behind this chain of causual Italian eateries (and Prime Meats, see above). But I thought both Frankie's 17 and 570 were overpriced ($4 for one little crositini?), not very tasty, and, in the case of the LES outpost, uncomfortable - the tables are WAY too close together! I may or may not try the original Frankie's Sputino in Carroll Gardens, which I've heard is the best of the bunch, but the two Manhattan locations have done nothing to inspire me to spend 45 minutes on the subway.

Blue Ribbon Sushi (308 West 58th Street) - I was thrilled when I figured out there was a Blue Ribbon Sushi within walking distance of my house, in the little-known Columbus Hotel. However, my delight quickly turned to disappointment during an unnecessarily long (terrible service) and expensive ($6.50 for a cucumber roll!? is that a joke? do you know how many cucumbers you can buy for $6.50?) dinner.