Chocolate "Gold Coast" Globs

After a foot of snow blanketed Colorado last week, shutting down businesses and schools and with the arrival of snow and sleet, accented by a few cracks of thunder in New York City today, I suggest: Soyez prêtes! ('Be prepared!'). 


In kitchenese: mis en place (pronounced: meeze ehn plahsuh) 


So, when it comes to the baking of these fantastic globs that fall somewhere between a brownie a cookie and a "chunky", the situation is that everything you're going to need is pre-measured and ready, like you had an imaginary apprentice doing all the dirty work while you were in make-up getting ready for the shoot.* 

*You can't tell me that you never forgot something like the sugar or,say, doubled the butter and not everything else (as I just did - I'm serious).


Stay warm and dry. Eat a little chocolate. And wherever you go, "soyez prêtes"! 

Chocolate “Gold Coast” Globs

Adapted from Judy Rosenberg’s Baking book by Blue Heron Kitchen

Here’s another great recipe that I’ve added a couple of my own twists to that originates from Judy Rosenberg’s All-Butter (etc.) Baking Book. I’ve learned from her publicist that she’s about to come out with a new book soon. I can’t wait to get my hands on it!

It is CRITICAL that you allow for the chocolate and butter mixture to cool sufficiently or else you will wind up cooking your eggs.

Use excellent quality chocolate. It matters. I use Scharffen berger unsweetened chocolate and Jacques Torres’ dark chocolate discs, chopped, for my ‘chocolate chips’. These links are suggestions. You can purchase Scharffen berger chocolate in better stores, such as Fairway Markets and Jacques Torres has his own stores in NYC - in DUMBO, Chelsea Market and other locations too. Look for these products and discover your own chocolate treasures in your own necks of woods. Or go online and order through Amazon.

I have used both walnuts and pecans, but you can stick to one. If you love one and hate the other, knock yourself out. Today, I burned my walnuts, so my cookies had only pecans and they were pretty great.

Always toast and cool your nuts before you bake. Toast them at 350º F. for about 6-8 minutes, until you can just smell them. Watch them carefully. If they burn, they’re toast. You can play around and try a combination of chopped chocolate, nuts and even some dried fruit.

The globs freeze very well. So, if you’re starting to panic about Thanksgiving, you can bake these now and freeze them between sheets of parchment or wax paper (I love wax paper) in plastic containers, tins or freezer bags. (For anyone with a chocolate kupf, they’re stupid good frozen.)

Ingredients:

5 oz. semisweet chocolate (Scharffen berger or another good quality chocolate)

3 oz. unsweetened chocolate (same as above)

4 oz. 83%, European style butter, at room temperature (Plugra brand is a good one)

¾ c. all-purpose, unbleached flour (King Arthur or Bob’s Red Mill are fine examples)

1 tsp. baking powder (I use Rumford - sans aluminum!)

½ - ¾ tsp. kosher salt (depending on how much salt you want with your chocolate)

2 eggs, size large, at room temperature

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract (I use Baldwin’s vanilla – always)

1 Tbsp. instant espresso powder

¾ cup granulated sugar

¾ c. semisweet chocolate ‘chips’ (or chopped excellent quality, such as Jacques Torres discs)

1/3 c. chopped pecans (first, toasted and cooled)

1/3 c. chopped walnuts (first, toasted and cooled)

Procedure:

Here is where the mis en place brings you great satisfaction.

Carefully measure out all of the ingredients for this recipe.

You’ll just dump one thing in after another and this recipe will feel like you ripped off the box top of like, a box of Ghiradelli Ultimate Fudge Brownies.

1.                     Put the semi and unsweetened chocolates and butter in a stainless bowl, large enough to accommodate them; and set it atop a barely simmering pot of hot water. Take care that NO steam or hot water gets jiggy with the chocolate/butter mixture. Stir and melt. Remove to COOL.

2          Preheat oven to 325º F. and line 3 baking sheets or ½ size sheet pans or jelly roll pans with parchment paper. If you don’t have parchment paper (you should get some), grease the sheets with melted butter or brush them lightly with vegetable oil. Set aside.

3.         In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

4.         Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs, vanilla and coffee powder until blended.

5.         Add granulated sugar and blend until thick. 1-2 minutes.

6.         Add the cooled , melted chocolate/butter mixture and blend another minute or two. Scrape down the bowl as necessary. (If you have a silicone beater blade, this won’t be necessary!)

7.         Add the flour mixture, mixing on low speed, until just incorporated. No more than that, please. Fold in the chocolate ‘chips’ and nuts by hand or with the mixer, on low speed.

8.         Drop the dough by rounded spoonfuls (I use a small measured scoop), leaving a couple of inches between, onto the prepared sheets.

9. Bake, rotating the sheets,  between the racks, turning them too, about 10-13 minutes, until they rise slightly and form a thin crust. Immediately remove the cookies from the sheets (you can leave them on the parchment) and cool on a rack.       

Yield: 24-36 cookies, depending on how globular you go                 

Cranberry Bread (with ginger!)

Cranberry Bread

Blue Heron Kitchen

            After comparing at least six cranberry bread recipes, I left one out for reference.  That one was Bernard Clayton, Jr.’s Complete Book of Breads.  I’m always happy that I own this book. The original is out of print, but you can get used copies for $.01. Not a bad price.

            Orange is a natural with Cranberries, which are also called Mossberries (I learned that from Bernard). Use organic Valencias (at room temperature, you’ll get a good squeeze out of them). If you don’t have fresh oranges on hand, use store bought OJ. But for gmo’sake, buy organic. Bob’s Red Mill whole-wheat pastry flour is great. If you want to go all out whole wheat, get yourself a five-pound bag of King Arthur’s White Whole Wheat. It’s my new favorite flour. Just be sure that when you measure out, you scoop and level with a light touch. Don’t pack it in. European style butter (83% butterfat makes a difference. It trumps American butter in every way. Look for Plugra or Cabot brand.  In the New York Metro area, find them at Fairway or better markets.  You can use French butter, but it’s a fortune. Save it for the sablés.)  Be confident in your butter. If it’s not fresh, it will ruin your baking. Ask yourself this: would I spread this on toast I’m serving to my convalescing best friend? If the answer is “no”, throw it out. (Truc: freeze butter.  Keep it away from other things in the fridge. Or, pretend you’re European and just leave it on the counter. Nobody’s dead in Europe from leaving his or her butter out.) 

I used pecans and candied ginger in this loaf.  You can use one, both or neither. Try other nuts or other dried fruit. Toast your nuts first (most often in baked goods – it allows the oils to surface and alters the product and taste … really.) Spread them in a single layer and toast them in a preheated oven at 350º F. for about 8-10 minutes or until you can just begin to smell them. Be vigilant when you toast nuts. If you burn them, you’re really out of luck.  Cool them before you chop them. If you toast a larger quantity than is called for in the recipe, store them in a jar. They’re delicious.

Wash and dry the cranberries thoroughly, discarding any funky ones.  I never look forward to chopping them by hand because they’re unruly.  Put them in the food processor and give them about 8-10 quick pulses and you won’t have to go chasing escaped cranberries rolling all over your counter and floor.  Use a medium grate for the orange rind. Microplane Zester has a really high-end box grater.

This recipe uses almost one full bag of fresh cranberries. You’ll have some leftovers.  You can freeze them or throw them into your food processor or blender with a piece of fresh orange, rind and all, (about ¼ to ½  of one), some nuts, currents or raisins or dried cranberries and sweetener (Agave syrup or stevia) for a quick little relish.

Ingredients:

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour or King Arthur’s White Whole Wheat Flour

1 ¾ cups granulated sugar

1/4 tsp. orange oil, optional

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. ground ginger (if you’re adding candied ginger – if not, it’s your call)

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract (I use Baldwin’s. always)

2 tsp. kosher salt

4 oz. unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and frozen for about 10 minutes (or longer)

1 ½ c. freshly squeezed orange juice (no need to strain – but remove any seeds)     (approximately 4-5 juicy oranges will render enough juice)

2 Tbsp. orange zest (zest of one large orange – just the rind, not the white pith)

2 eggs, size large, room temperature

1 cup chopped, toasted pecans

½ cup candied ginger, organic preferred

2 cups (approx. 8 oz.) fresh (or fresh/frozen) cranberries, coarsely chopped

Turbinado sugar for sprinkling on top of loaves (optional)

Procedure:

PREPARE:

Brush 2 large or 1 medium and a mélange of ‘other’ sized loaf pans with melted butter, vegetable oil, or a combination of the two. For an easier release, dust the pans with some flour. Be sure to give a good zetz (do it in the kitchen sink) to remove all flour that isn't lightly clinging to the butter or oil that you just used to prepare your loaf pans. You can do this step last once you see how much batter you have. But do have pans available and at hand so that you can get the batter into the oven asap. Once the dry meets the wet stuff, the rising agents will be activated. Think about how much you hate sitting in the waiting room or how great you looked when you boarded the flight.

1. Preheat oven to 350º F.
2. In the bowl of a food processor, coarsely chop the cranberries (or chop them by hand if you’re adventurous.) Set aside.
3. Chop the candied ginger into ½” pieces and mix with the chopped pecans. Set aside.
4. In a separate bowl mix orange zest into the measured out sugar. If you’re using the orange oil, add that too. Set aside.
5. In a large liquid measure cup, measure out the orange juice and crack the eggs directly into the orange juice. To this, add the vanilla extract. Whisk together. Set aside.
6. In the bowl of a Kitchen Aid mixer, or in a large mixing bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground ginger (if using) and sugar that has been infused with orange zest (and if you’re using it, orange oil).
7. With the paddle attachment (or using two knives or your fingers) add the very cold butter and mix until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.
8. Dump in the orange juice/egg/vanilla extract mixture and mix only until the ingredients are wet.
9. Add cranberries, nuts and candied ginger all together. Mix, either by hand or with the paddle attachment, folding in very quickly, until just incorporated. Less mixing means better cake.
10. Pour a little more than ½ way into each prepared pan.
11. Bake anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending upon the size of your loaf pan and the heat of your oven, until a wooden toothpick or a metal cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
12. Cool on rack before releasing from pans. You may have to run a sharp knife around the edges.
13. After releasing from pans, cool completely and wrap well.
14. Try to wait until the next day to eat these. The flavor will develop and improve.
15. These refrigerate and freeze well.

Happy autumn!

peace and love,

jane

Apple Cake

Apple Cake

Adapted from Judy Rosenberg’s Baking Book by Blue Heron Kitchen

This cake recipe is for my son and his fabulous friends and colleagues at Oxford University. The apples, now available at the farmers market in Oxford and here, in the U.S., are peaking now. 

You can bake it in a tube pan, but it works as a loaf too. I’ve even made it in a fluted deep-dish quiche pan. Just be sure to bake it all the way. It’s moist and it freezes really well. It'll keep for weeks in the fridge, but it won't last long. It's far too good.

Use firm apples. 

Cheers!

Ingredients:

3 c. all-purpose flour (or 2 c. all-purpose and 1 c. whole wheat pastry flour)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. kosher salt

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

¼ tsp. mace (if the only kind of mace you keep is for self-defense, you can use some nutmeg.)

¼ tsp. allspice

8 oz. unsalted butter, room temperature (European style, 83% butterfat is best - try Plugra or Cabot brand.)

¼ c. vegetable oil (canola oil is good)

2 cups granulated sugar

1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract

3 eggs, size large, room temperature

1.5# apples (4 cups), or about 3-4 large, peeled, cored and cut into ½-inch cubes

cinnamon-sugar or even better and simpler: plain Turbinado or "raw" sugar for topping (1 tsp. cinnamon, mixed with 1 Tbsp. sugar) (double this and use lots - and if you have leftover, use it on other things.)

Procedure:

1.         Lightly grease tube pan or ‘other’ pans with melted butter or vegetable oil. Preheat oven to 350º F.

2.         In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, spices, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

3.          In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter, oil, sugar and vanilla on medium speed until blended. Scrape down the bowl, as needed.

4.         Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix on medium speed after each addition, until blended and creamy. Scrape the bowl each time. Mix again for fun.

5.         Add ½ the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just incorporated. Scrape down and add remaining dry ingredients until just incorporated. Don’t overbeat.

6.         Add the apples with a few turns of the mixer’s paddle, or by hand, folding them in with a wooden spoon.

7.         Spoon the batter into the prepared pan(s) and sprinkle generously with raw Turbinado or cinnamon sugar.

8.         Bake in center of pre-heated oven until the top of the cake is firm and golden and a tester (wooden toothpick or wooden skewer is best) comes out clean). For a tube pan – close to an hour, perhaps. But, this depends on your oven and your pan and the density of your apples and how you measure out your flour.

Recipe claims to serve 12-16 (portions are not my forté)

peace, love and hope to meet y'all for cheesy chips soon!

jane    

Wow, it's almost 5772!

This is the most unorthodox and delicious honey cake I've made to date. This year, I baked 'regular' honey cake (I threw in toasted hazelnuts and recommend this addition!), pumpkin bread; and a new/old apple cake (I'll share it with you later. It's really good and really easy.)

Before the knaidlachs drop on Wednesday night, I'll share this cool recipe with you.

Originally from Molly Katzen's "Enchanted Broccoli Forrest", I played around, and loaded them with "Chunky" ingredients. (These are silver labels. For gold label, big spender, you'll need pecans.)

These aren't Bubbie's honey cakes. You'll find a great traditional recipe if you click on the above link to 'regular' honey cake.

CHOCOLATE "Chunky" HONEY CAKE

Adapted by Blue Heron Kitchen from Mollie Katzen’s The Enchanted Broccoli Forest

Baking cakes with honey can be tricky, so you have to take extra care that the texture of the finished product has “enough crumb.” To achieve this, Mollie Katzen whips the honey separately at high speed with an electric mixer until it is opaque. A few minutes is usually enough time. Her claim is that this incorporates air into the honey, increasing its volume, and drying it out some. Don’t skip or skimp on this step. 

The “Chunky” version of this was created in Blue Heron Kitchen for Rosh Hashanah, 2011. You don’t have to make this for a holiday. Holidays come and go, but cake is good all the time.

I used Scharffenberger (unsweetened squares) and Jacques Torres chocolate (his baking disks are inexpensive and are great!). The better quality your ingredients, the better your cake.

A “Chunky” used to cost a couple of cents. This cake’s going to cost you more than two cents.

I bake these at a fairly low temperature to insure they don’t burn, dry out or overbake. Bake it until ‘just’ done. Mine are slightly ‘molten’. Once cooled, wrap and refrigerate them. They’ll turn into candy.

To those who celebrate this upcoming holiday, "L’Shanah Tovah". 

Don’t let 5772 be the year that destroys unions and continues to rob this country of its backbone, the middle class. (Us.) Vote smart. Keep the senate democratic. Obama may not be what we all imagined, but consider the alternative. I’ll take his “Choot-spa” any day. (Go ahead … click on it.)

peace, love and chocolate

jane

Here's the recipe:

Nonstick spray for the pan
1 cup canola oil or 8 oz. softened butter (I use 83% European style butter – Plugra, by Hotel Bar, is a good choice and is fairly easy to find.)
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate (see Scharffenberger link above)
1 ½ cup light-colored honey (Golden Blossom brand is great, or Gunter’s “Golden” is another good choice)
4 eggs, size large, room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract (Try Baldwin’s in West Stockbridge. You’ll thank me.)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. baking powder
12 oz. chocolate chips, or any chopped chocolate (I like dark chocolate – Ghiradelli or Jacques Torres’ baking disks, available at his stores or online.)

OR:
For “Chunky”: 7 oz. chopped dark choc., 6 oz. dark raisins, 3 oz. walnuts (pecans, if you’re thinking ‘gold label’).

1.    Preheat oven to 325°F  Spray 1 large or 2 smaller sized loaf pans with release spray, or use melted butter or brush them with some vegetable oil.  

2.    In a medium-sized bowl, sift the cocoa into the dry ingredients and whisk together. Set aside.

3.    Melt the butter and chocolate together in a small ball, placed over barely simmering water. Don’t let any water or steam get into the melting chocolate. (If using oil, melt the chocolate alone, then remove from heat and stir in the oil.) COOL.

4.    Place the honey in a medium-sized bowl, and beat at high speed with an electric mixer for about 2 minutes. It will start to look creamy. Add the eggs, and beat well. Stir in the vanilla.

5.    Beat the melted chocolate/butter (or chocolate/oil) mixture into the honey-egg mixture.

6.    Add the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated. Fold in chocolate chips (or the mixture of chopped chocolate/raisins and nuts.)

7.    Pour into the prepared pans, filling them about 1/2 to 2/3 full.

8.    Bake 30 minutes or more, depending upon size of your pan, until a tester or knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

9.    When cool enough to touch, release from pans and finish cooling on racks. Wrap well and refrigerate to achieve ‘candy’ texture.

Stir-Fried Carrots with Cumin and Lime

Carrots are all over the farmers markets now. Nutritionally, carrots are rock stars. Buy multi-colored ones because they're beautiful.

The hard copy of this recipe is from Suvir Saran's great cookbook, Indian Home Cooking. It's one for your basic library. His new book, Masala Farm, will soon be available. I pre-ordered mine on Amazon. Suvir's cookbooks are written in his voice; and when working within any one of his books, you feel as if you get to know him. I have great memories of times I spent, years ago, with Suvir. But what you should know is that he is a superb chef. His generosity of spirit, warm and loving heart, humor, humility and energy are transmuted into his work and his recipes. If you aren't already familiar with any of his books, have a look at American Masala.

You can buy the spices ("masala" usually refers to roasted spices, but loosely translates to 'spice') at good markets (Fairway, Whole Foods), at any Indian/Pakistani market or, a great resource, is Patel Brothers online.

L-R and bottom to top: Whole dried red chile, cumin, fresh green chile, cumin and kala jeera, curry leaves, julienned fresh ginger

Stir Fried Carrots with Cumin and Lime
From Indian Home Cooking by Suvir Saran and Stephanie Lyness, adapted by Blue Heron Kitchen


Ingredients:
1 1/2 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Tbsp. black mustard seeds
2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and cut into a fine julienne
1 fresh hot green chile, minced
5 whole dried red chiles
1 1/2 tsp. whole cumin seeds
1/2 tsp. kala jeera (optional)
15 fresh or 25 frozen curry leaves, torn into pieces (optional) (substitute Thai basil or if you can't find Thai basil, regular basil, for this fantastic ingredient.)
2 1/4 pound or approx. 11-12 cups shredded carrots. (Grated on large holes of grater or using the shredding disc of the food processor)

1 tsp salt, or to taste
Juice of 1 lime (or, if you hate lime, use a lemon)


Combine the oil and mustard seeds in a large wok, frying pan or kadai (a beautiful Indian wok), over medium to high heat. Cover it, or you'll have flying, hot mustard seeds all over you and the kitchen; and you'll never want to cook with mustard seeds again. This would be tragic, because mustard seeds are phat. 


When you hear them crackle for about a minute or two, uncover them and add the ginger, fresh and dried chiles, cumin, optional kala jeera and curry leaves and cook, uncovered (don't worry, it's safer now), stirring until the ginger crisps slightly. 

Masala in the kadai

Add the carrots and cook, stirring constantly over medium-high heat, until warmed through, 3-5 minutes. Add salt and lime (or lemon, sour puss) and adjust salt to taste.


Serve hot, warm or cold.


Serves 6-8

Like a dish at the Automat!

Bobby Blues

Call me a slouch, but it's been a busy summer. Click on this link for an old fave that I put together tonight. I'll bring some down to Philadelphia to thank the fine people at Philadelphia Hospital who have taken remarkable care to save my father's life.

Dad loves blueberry muffins. He can't eat yet, but I baked these in his honor. Buy organic berries - always. Whole foods has had some great blueberries on sale. They freeze really well. If you don't feel like baking, throw them into the blender with a cup of non-fat or low-fat kefir, some vanilla, cinnamon and stevia, and you'll have a killer probiotic breakfast (girls, add a Tablespoon of flax seed oil for some lubromega action).

I like little financier-shaped muffins. Round can be so square.

Love you, Dad!

Bobby Blues

The Prince of Foods

Rick's Horseradish (Chrain d'Rick)

Chrain d'Rick

Last week, I met Joy and Matt, a great and shining young couple who are engaged to be married. I met them at their engagement dinner, thrown by my friend Rick. I had no business being at their party because I wasn't invited and I'd never met them. I was there was because I volunteered to make desert for this huge dinner and although I wanted to just deliver it and go, Rick made room for me by sharing his seat with me and I got to taste the best thing I ever tasted: Rick's chrain.

I'd just learned some great news about a biopsy I'd had, and I was in the mood to do a pastry dance. My lucky news was transformed into a croque en bouche, a conical tower of pâte a choux pastry, filled with pastry cream, glued together with caramel, sprinkled with candied almonds. It was (mostly) a joyous project (working with caramel can be a bitch). So, the croque en bouche transmuted my lucky news into dessert for 40 people and the opportunity to meet lovely people. And I got to eat Rick's chrain.

Here's the croque en bouche:

Croque en bouche for Joy and Matt

The chrain (Yiddish for horseradish) that Rick served with his perfectly cooked salmon was so good, I told him that I'd eat it all over my kamut puffs.

I made Rick's recipe with some miso paste and a very small amount of olive oil because I'm trying to keep my fat intake on the lower side and I think that miso could be a good thing to use as a binding agent in place of, say, cream cheese, mayonnaise or oil. But, do use olive oil and as he indicates, tofu spread (I guess he means 'tofutti', that fake cream cheese - he made this for vegan people. But miso is vegan, isn't it?). His was good enough to spread on anything ... salmon, trout, grilled shrimp, or use it to help bind your tuna, or egg TVP salad.

The miso paste made it a little sweet.  

If you want to make it pink, add some beets and serve it with a nice piece of gefilte fish.

Rick is a natural and talented chef with a honed and sophisticated palate. He's a no-nonsense person whose cooking reflects his warm nature and hamisch personality. He's no newcomer as a guest blogger to BHK. Click on this link for Rick's Molly Kugel . It isn't Passover without this great matzo-apple kugel.

And from now on, it won't be kamut puff fish night without Rick's Chrain.

Step 1-Get a shillelagh of horseradish.

Me, I found mine at Eataly.



Step 2-Grate that root

It's filthy, wash it, peel with a vegetable peeler (easier than it looks) and cut it into 1" cubes.

Put it in a food processor with some white wine vinegar and salt. Process. After a little bit, add some cheap-o olive oil, it moderates the heat.

Step 3-Make the sauce

Take about half of what you had and put it in a jar in the fridge, covered with oil. It'll live to fight another day.

Leave the remainder in the food processor, add about equal amounts of some sort of soft tofu (I used tofu spread, that's all they had in the store), add a little more salt, hit it for a couple of seconds and you're done!

Easy as croque en bouche!

-Rick Bernstein 

Mushrooms and Noodles, Eataly and The Bronx

Eataly, in New York City, is ugly beautiful. Cuccinaglam is distracting, but, don't let the TV Food Network energy ruin it for you. Eataly is a serious market. It’s a great place to spend a few hours wandering, eating and shopping and if you'd like, drinking. Resist the glitz, the precious packaging; and remember that you can buy many of these items at small, independent, family owned and operated grocery stores. You remember before Obama became a Republican, he kept talking about the moms and pops, about "Main Street"? (The ones who got him elected?) Barack's golfing with Boehner, but let's keep shopping on Main Street. We promised, so that makes one of us.

Outer Boro suggestion: Arthur Avenue in the Bronx:

Calabria Pork Store, Arthur Ave., The Bronx
(Walk with Pride)

Teitel Brothers, Borgatti’s and Casa della Mozzarella. Half Moon Pizza. The indoor market! The Calabria Pork Store. Oh … go eat at Roberto’s – but try to go during the week if you don't want to wait. It's so good, but bring money.

For some, the Bronx is a whole other situation. I love it.

Pour yourself a glass of wine and spend 10 minutes with this:

Back to Eataly:
I was lucky to get a cook's tour of Eataly from a friend who loves everything about food. From his small NYC kitchen, Rick regularly prepares sit-down dinners for 30. He’s taught me that you don’t need many ingredients to make great eats. In a recent letter to me, making fun of paraphrasing my personal email signature, he closed with: Care, live well, work for peace and when there's nothing to make in the house throw a little pancetta from the freezer into a sauté pan with some oil, boil up some pasta, throw a bunch of rosemary sprigs in at the end and call it dinner.

When you go to Eataly, even if you’re not going to buy anything, grab a shopping cart. They’re fun to push, well designed and they're made of recycled plastic bottles. These are the Ferrari Smart Cars of shopping carts. (Uh, Whole Foods, attenzione.) 

Okay: northwest corner for dried pasta and if you hit the jackpot, you’ll meet Nick Coleman, the market’s own olive oil guru. He guided us through an interesting tasting. 

Go to: fresh fish, butchered meat, and produce. 

photo Rick Bernstein
liver makes me gag, but these veal shanks look pretty sharp

In produce I found: mushroom varieties of high quality, great prices and both made me a happy shopper.

There are pretty packages and very beautiful bottles to admire but why get 'em when you can snap a picture?  

photo Rick Bernstein

The book shop stop (near the bathrooms!) is a good idea – it’s always fun to look before you go to Amazon.  Next time, I want to visit the newly opened beer garden on the roof. 

Here’s what you don’t want: Italian beer for $49, an entire department of Alessi gadgets I know they’re sponsors, but these housewares make it feel more like Ikeataly – so, Mario, why not kick it up a notch? Pepper grinders with ears aren't fun anymore.

I wanted the breads to be over the top, but they looked just “ very good” – (which isn’t so bad).

Truth is, I can’t wait to go back. 

Eataly

200 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 (map)
newyork.eataly.it

Mushrooms and Mushroom Noodles

Mushrooms and Mushroom Noodles
Blue Heron Kitchen

A recipe for a MEvening, inspired by a trip to NYC’s Eataly, noodles and cheese from the Bronx, and the brilliant coping strategy, as modeled by my beautiful daughter, Captain Kitchen

Mushrooms from Eataly and noodles from Borgatti’s on Arthur Ave. in the Bronx. I’m devoted to this store.

Borgatti's is about as far from Eataly as you can get. Beyond distance, it's simple, unpretentious and inexpensive. Open the door and walk in: the smell of the store is worth the visit. Go.

Noodles, not pasta. Noodles are personal.

Ingredients:

Sliced, mixed mushrooms (I used Maitake, Shitake, Cremini and plain, old, White Buttons)

Grilled Asparagus (if you feel like it and I did)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Excellent quality anchovy fillets (don’t tell me you don’t like anchovies.)

Fresh garlic

Freshly chopped rosemary

Freshly chopped sage

Freshly chopped parsley (for serving)

Red wine

Parmigiano Reggiano, grated, to taste

Coarse salt and grated black pepper, to taste

Procedure:

Pour yourself a glass of wine.

If you’re adding asparagus, grill them chop them up and set them aside.

Slice the mushrooms.

Chop together: anchovies, garlic, rosemary, sage

chopped anchovies, garlic, sage and rosemary (scratch and sniff)

Have some water coming up to a boil for your noodles. You’ve cooked noodles before, so you can do this. Make sure to put loads of salt in the water. Don’t overcook the noodles. You didn’t plan a GRievening.

Have the Parmigiano and ready to Microplane Zest (grate), or, if you’re a mis-en-place-r (no judgment), you can pre-grate.

Put some olive oil in a sauté pan and warm it.

Add the chopped anchovy/herb mixture and sauté for a few minutes. (the aroma is Creed-worthy)

Dump in the sliced mushrooms and turn heat to medium high, stirring until mushrooms

   begin to lose liquid. Keep heat at medium/high.

Add some red wine (to the pan and to your glass) and continue to cook.

Throw in chopped asparagus.

Keep it hot and high, cuoco fantastico.

Remove from heat when you like how it smells, looks, feels and tastes. Don't let your stufato di funghi go zoppicare. (try google translate)

By now, your noodles are cooked and waiting.

Add (generous amounts of) grated Parmigiano and lots of twists of freshly grated black pepper and coarse salt.

Garnish with some freshly chopped parsley.

And finally, if you haven't already spent an hour and half reading this and aren't completely annoyed, here's a little opera from a gorgeous market: Mercado Central de Valencia in Italy.
peace, love, noodles and music ... tutti in buona salute,

jane