The Ironic Mullet :: Lee Ann Westover

Travel Cooking: what to bring?

Last summer we rented a house in the NC mountains with friends, and we are doing the same thing this July. The M.O. of the entire trip is to eat, drink and nap as much as possible. There isn't much opportunity for anything else.

To eat, you need to cook. Most rental houses come with little more than a crappy frying pan and a Mr. Coffee, so I tend to travel with a few essentials:

-A good knife (rental house knives are always impossibly dull)

-Herbes de Provence

-Sea Salt

-Pepper Grinder
  (those previous three alone can make scrambled eggs a masterwork)

-10" Cast Iron Skillet (if I am driving)

-Whole Bean Coffee, usually Fairway's Habana Decaf ( I can't handle caffeine anymore!)
-Coffee Grinder
-French Press (I am an anti-drip coffee snob)

This year I may need to add driend guajillo peppers and a food mill, just to be ridiculous

What's on your list?

The Kitchn has compiled an excellent list of their own here

Rhubarb-Anise Upside Down Cake Batter....and Cake

The other day at Diner, I had a delicate lil' rhubarb upside-down cake. A few days later, I was due for dinner at a friend's house. I was responsible for dessert and salad.

My father is visiting...as I was eating the batter, I said to him "If this turns out the way I want it to, it's my new favorite thing." It did turn out...deeee-licious!

Epicurious' Rhubarb-Anise Upside-Down Cake

It's a checkerboard!

Before we even had dinner, we had eaten about a quarter of it. After dinner, her husband had a  food-aggressive dog moment. I remember him trying to physically pull the plate out of my hands. He snarled and won.

GOOD ONE EPICIURIOUS

Uptown Delights: The Savoy Bakery

I often have the opportunity to head uptown to Spanish Harlem for my day job. I always get really excited when the day comes, because it means that (A) I will have tacos at Tu Casa for lunch (B) I can stock up on tomatillos and dried chiles at La Costenita Grocery (C) I will probably have a Corona at The Duck and (D) BWAHAHAHA OMFG SPONGE CAKE at the Savoy Bakery.

The neighborhood around the 110th street stop on the 6 train is one of my favorites in Manhattan. The denizens are mostly latino, which comforts my Texan heart. There are a billion dollar stores, a bustling hardware store full of local characters running in and out, and grocery stores full of some serious delicacies.

I can never stroll up 110th without stopping in at the Savoy. It represents to me the best of what is going on up in Spanish Harlem. From the outside, the Savoy is modern and clean - all new NYC. Once inside, though, it's obviously a part of the real neighborhood. The girls behind the counter are always giggling on some sort of sugar high and up for a chat. Work-a-day stiffs come in for their morning coffee, and layabouts trickle in throughout the afternnon. The Savoy bursts with a familial, friendly vibe that is every bit as addictive as the treats they sell within.

One of these days I mean to try the ham and corn danish, but for now, I always get the sponge cake. It's made in a muffin tin, but each cup is first lined with parchment paper, so the cake rises high and golden like an almond topped trumpet. It's light, sweet and egg-i-ly resiliant. Everything I need. 

At $1.50 a pop, I can have 20! It's a good thing I don't live closer.

Homemade Enchilada Sauce: WHAT A PAIN, but so worth it!

Y'all know I have a problem. I live very very far away from Duran's Pharmacy in Albuquerque, NM - home of the best enchiladas on EARTH. I have set my sights on learning how to make great enchiladas at home. The first and most necessary step is the sauce.

Some lady on the Food Network makes hers with peanut butter. (blech) Canned sauce can be oily or very salty. A real New Mexico enchilada sauce is light and delicate. The only ingredients are chiles, garlic and salt.

I brought home a huge bag of guajillo peppers from the superiorly rocking Mexican deli at East 112th and 2nd Ave. Dried chile's aren't too hard to find anywhere, if you keep your eyes open. New Mexicao chiles aren't so common though, so I had to go for a good alternative. Anaheim peppers made a bitter sauce, but a quick consultation in said Mexican deli pointed towards guajillo. They are mild, and a gorgeous dark, dark red in the dried state.

 Enchilada sauce:
-->   A big bag of dried guajillo peppers should be boiled until they are soft.
-->   You can then dump the peppers in a blender with one or two cloves of garlic and some salt.
-->   To enable the blending, add a little of the cooking liquid.
-->   Blend til smooth-ish, then strain (that part sucks).
-->   BE FOREWARNED: everything the sauce touches will be irrevocably stained orange. My batch filled about 2 large yogurt containers. Mine looks nothing like Duran's, but DANG it is good.

For enchiladas:
-->   Follow the recipe for homemade tortillas below, then fill with shredded, cooked chicken.
-->   Arrange the tortillas in a baking dish or skillet, then pour over tons of sauce. The more sauce you can get in, the better.
-->   Cover with a thin layer of grated cheese, and bake at 400 for 1/2 hour or so...til bubbly.
-->   Shove in face.

Make it Today: Roasted Tomatillo Salsa!!

It has recently become clear that I will probably never move back to Texas. As a result, I have decided that I need to master the making of several good Mexcan dishes. These tacos with roasted tomatillo salsa is one of my favorites!

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa: IT'S SO EASY and it's good on everything!
-->  Roast a jalapeno over a burner on the stove, then remove seeds and ribs (if you want it not too spicy). Chop it
-->  Grab a big bag of tomatillos, take off the outer papery husk, and wash them well under the tap.
-->  Slice em chunky, then put them under the broiler (at about 2 inches) for 2-3 minutes a side - til there is some nice blackening.
-->  Dump them in a blender with the jalapeno.
-->  Add one clove of garlic.
-->  BLEND et voilà!

Chicken Taco Filling:
-->  I sautéed chicken chunks in olive oil and come cajun seasoning.
I then dumped in some frozen spinach and some frozen corn, a little oregano and cumin, and stirred it around. This be the filling.

Homemade corn tortillas are easy:
-->  2 cups masa harina, 1 1/3 C water. Mix it with your hands till soft and it sticks together nicely, then make a bunch of golf ball-sized chunks. Between plastic bags, squash em in a tortilla press ($20 at any mexican grocery) then cook on a dry griddle. Sometimes,just to be crazy, I add a little dry cocoa to the mix. It's a little molé-ey!

Cojita or Cheddar Cheese and tomatillo salsa make this lunch ridiculously yummy, and not really bad for you at all! I often just mix up a few handfuls of masa harina with some water - just enough for 4 tortillas!  It seems like a lot of steps, but you can do it all very quickly.

The most beautiful thing in the world: Pâte à Choux.

 A week ago, I was in Winston-Salem, NC. After drinking away a fair part of the afternoon at Swaim's, I wobbled off to the bathroom. As I emptied the tanks, my camera fell out of my pocket onto the pretty tile floor. This happened three times, I think. crash.crash.clatter.

As a result, the shutter button popped off and rolled under something, ne'er to be seen again. My camera is unusable, so you may notice that I have had to start holding things up to my Mac's camera to get a shot. Let's call it arte de circumstance. The other shots are Blackberry. Let's hope the bf pities me and gets me a nice picture-taker for my B-day! hint hint

Yesterday, I bought RATIO by Michael Ruhlman. I read The Soul of a Chef last week & loved it, so I felt secure ponying up $27.99 for this one (worth it!). Ruhlman loves good food and the process of making it as much as my girl Ruthie. He's also a bit of a populist, as he relishes in sharing the secrets of the professional kitchen with us amateurs.

Watch and love: http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m3G89VVK53YPXK

On the subway last night, I read about Pâte à Choux. I have a longstanding love of profiteroles and Beard Papa, but I never thought I could make a puff on my own.

Ruhlman corrected me in the first paragraph of Part One, Section One, Chapter Six:

Pâte à Choux is one of the coolest flour-and-water preparations in the kitchen. It is easy to make, delicious all by itself, can be a pedestal for any number of sweet or savory ingredients, can be cooked in the oven, in water, in oil (with each type of heat creating different and wonderful effects), and can be featured at virtually any part of the meal. In spite of these features, it's not typically a part of the home cook's repertoire. Why? I have no idea, and I hope it changes.

Such encouraging words, no? I had all the ingredients on hand, so I took a stab at Gougères this morning. (CHEESEY POUFS!!)

I brought 1 cup of water to a boil with 1/2 tsp salt and 1 stick of buttah...all in a lil' enameled Dutch oven. Once boiled, I lowered the heat to a simmer, added 1 cup of flour, and stirred. Wonder of wonder! before my eyes a thick shiny batter formed. I took a taste...so smooth and rich!

I turned off the heat and let the pot sit for a minute while I prepped my cookie sheet. I am not fancy enough to keep parchment paper on hand, so I just gave it a lil' spray with Pam (olive oil). I also preheated the oven to 425 Fahrenheit.

I turned back to the pot, and added 4 eggs that I had previously cracked and beaten slightly...a little bit at a time...constantly stirring. WONDER OF WONDER! The eggs cooked in the hot batter, making it even shinier and richer than before! The texture became positively silky, sensuous and sexy. I shit you not. I was also gently overwhelmed that I could create something so gorgeous and took a moment to wipe away a solitary tear.

To make the dough into Gougères, I added 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese (as we Americans like to spell it) and about a tablespoon of badass herbes de provence the a friend of ours had brought for me from France itself.

A quick stir and I was ready to go.

I plopped lil' golf balls of batter on the cookie sheet, smoothed down peaks with wet fingers, as my boy Ruhlman instructs.

12 fit on my sheet...

I baked them for 10 minutes at 425, then turned the heat down to 350 for another 15.

And the end result? I would let you taste but they are all gone.

Just kidding! Take one!!!!
<--see my tiny-ass kitchen in the background?

I think next I'll tackle veal consommé! 

Go buy the book and start experimenting...my boy Michael Ruhlman would get mad at me if I typed all the ratios out here. We cant have that. He would never invite me for pizza.

Holla Mike! I am free Sunday!

Eatin' la vida blog-a: The Treats Truck and Shake Shack

I do a lot of blog reading in my spare time - to sort out my top 5 fantasy places to eat, places to travel, places to travel to and eat and things to eat. Yesterday I had an accidental run-in with on object of much curiosity on my part: THE TREATS TRUCK.

For those of you who don't know, The Treats Truck is a mobile dessert unit that parks in a different, semi-random spot every day - in NYC. This mobile dessert unit is reputed to sell the awesome-est desserts ever. I recognize that a new source of delicious cookies could be a real danger to my heart-health, so I have not gone out of my way to seek it out. Yesterday, as if to thwart me, the Treats Truck was parked right in the middle of my trajectory. I was strolling down 5th Avenue, and BLAMMO. She appeared right in front of me at 20 something street.

When confronted with an opportunity to realize one's dream, I feel like one should do everything in their power to do so. Keeping that in mind, I sauntered right up to the window to peruse my options. The friendly baker behind the counter had set out tiny brownie samples on a tray. I plucked one up and popped it into my mouth.

Oh joy. Oh wonder. Oh miracle of miracles. The Treats Truck's owner/baker had managed to create a better brownie. I couldn't identify what she did to make that brownie bit so damn good, but she certainly got the butter/sugar/angel-sparkles ration just right.

After my little seizure of happiness, my eyes naturally wandered over to the cookie selection. I was elated to find that she had a quartet of oatmeal cookie options to choose from. I love oatmeal cookies, but I hate raisins. Oatmeal cookies, therefore, have been a source of much pain for me. The baker had made three of the four options without them!! She had Oatmeal with raisins <gag>, oatmeal with chocolate chips and oatmeal with jam - raspberry or apricot. I selected the apricot version, although $1.25 for a normal sized cookie seemed hefty at the time.

I had a little trouble walking the next few blocks, as my eyes kept spontaneously rolling back in my head. I also had to stop every few steps for a shudder and deep breath. Damn that baker lady. That was the best oatmeal cookie I have ever had. So buttery, yet firm. Bready, yet moist. Jammy, yet not gooey! Yes. It's worth $1.25. A little chunk of love like that is a BARGAIN at $1.25.

Check out their website for the Treats Truck's location calendar: http://www.treatstruck.com/

Look at it in the sunshine. It's beautiful.

After my appointment in Madison Square, I had planned to get a burger at the Shake Shack, a much lauded source of beef for NYC journalists and bloggers. I had to abort the mission, however, to pick a friend up from the doctor's office. I feel like I might be shooting myself in the foot for telling you this, but that legendarily long Shake Shack line is nonexistant in the winter time. A wait for NYC's most delicious burger (yes it is and don't argue with me on this point) is only about 10-15 minutes.

Tip for the serious: on a rainy day or during a snowstorm, the wait is less than three!!

Sooooo, sadly I had to leave before I could order due to bad planning on my part. If I had stayed, I would have photos of my shiny, juicy burger, and of an order of cheese fries made of yukon gold potatoes and homemade cheese sauce. zomg. I'll have to go back, now.

Not for me...but for you. That's just the kind of person I am.

Frit-ta-ta.

It's very very cold out, and my B.F. took the car to L.I.

I didn't have nuttin for dinner!

Or did I?

I used to rock the frittata when I lived in Italy. The simplest definition of a frittata is leftovers, skilleted, with eggs.

The literal definition for the word frittata is "a fried".

I sautee'd a bunch of garlic in my trusty 10' iron skillet.

I added 1/2 a leftover roasted chicken breast, 1/2 c leftover home-madey tomato sauce, 1 c steamed broccoli florets and 1 lil roll of soba noodles. 1.5 c maybe?

Then I beat
3 eggs + 3 egg whites (a small attempt at being healthy)
+ 1 tbsp herbes de Provence
+ salt and peppy

Stir the yummy solid bits around in the (oven safe 10") skillet, pour the eggs on top, and spread it all out all even.

Cook over a medium-low flame until it is nearly set on top, then pop in the broiler for a couple minutes. Should be toasty brown on top. There is a secret magic crunchy crust on the bottom too - provided you use iron.

It's even more awesomer with cheese. Or hamburgers.

Macaroni and cheese party! YAYAY!

So last night, the Macaroni & Cheese dinner went off so very very well...

Our hostess made a delicious goat cheese/sausage version stuffed with turkey, while our other friend made a salad. The salad, thankfully, followed the carb-on-carb theme by including potatoes.

I rather think I outdid myself last night.

I ended up using this recipe: John Legend's Mac and Cheese as told to Martha --->

It is supremely easy, and doesn't take a lot of technical know-how - which is important when consuming mass quantities of wine.

I did doctor the recipe a bit - I didn't use the seasoned salt or the garlic powder, I used cellentani instead of macaroni and I baked it in a large cast iron skillet. I preheated the skillet in the over before putting the mac into it. As a result, I HAD BIG DELICIOUS BURNEY CHEESE CRUST IN EVERY SERVINGGGGGG. omg. *dead*

I would also like to announce the following:

mac-n-cheese + 1/2 bottle of wine = sleep like a damn baby, all night long.

pasta photo lifted from RecipeTips.com, btw

More Cool Weather Delicious-ness

What with all the cool weather in the Northeast this week, my friends and I are having a Macaroni and Cheese party.

I plan on making this one without the mustard and red pepper flakes or this one WITH the sage. No need to mess up perfection! (Unless the mess is then called a Benny Mac)

This time of year is when I start the descent into a 6 month long binge of sloth, pasta and wine. In an effort to stave off the impending chub, I have been looking for some pasta-alternatives. These two look amazing.

Anyone want to place a bet, though, on whether i will choose to serve said fake pasta on a buttered hoagie?

RICOTTA SAGE AND PINE NUTS ON SPAGHETTI SQUASH [thekitchn.com]

ZUCCHINI "PASTA" with yummy stuff on it [NY Times]

[PS (2:32 pm) I think that THIS is that I really want...]