Lunch For Two

Recipes for Men

Whoa. David Granger, the editor of Esquire magazine, better be careful. Alice Waters and her tribe of slow foodies are going to come after him and beat him with a bunch of organic Swiss chard if he's going to say things like this:

"I have a theory...that American restaurants have become less tasty in direct proportion to their growing enthusiasm for using meat and vegetables from local farms and wholly organic providers. Its as though chefs have come to fetishize these fresh provisions to such a degree that they are loath to work their culinary magic; they don't do anything to them, and the result is food that doesn't taste like much–and when it comes to food, tasty is where it's at."

Did you just hear the crash of 1,000 copper pots coming from the direction of Napa? (Aside from Mr. Granger's incorrect usage of the word fetishize), I think this is a really interesting salvo and I'm glad it's out there. Also, don't you think Granger may be on to something? Speaking of Esquire, they have started an amazing new feature, called Recipes for Men. Women's magazine used to run such good, creative, inspiring recipes, and in France they still do.  But here, well. Jeffery Steingarten? Really? I guess the idea is that women who care about whatever is in the pages of a fashion magazine are doing their very best not to eat, so why torture them? In any case, the premise behind Esquire's new feature, is that the recipes they feature are simple enough for a man who doesn't really know his way around the kitchen to make and they are delicious. Esquire is getting big name chefs to give them recipes (Batali, Myers, Palmer etc) and they look so good. Also, I love that they are designed to serve two, so they are all intimate-cook-for-someone-you-love-adore food.

My favorite so far is Tom Colicchio's Steak with Potatoes:

My philosophy is to keep preparations simple, allowing the ingredients to shine. This dish started as a one-pot meal at Craftsteak, but I often find myself making it at home. It just requires a beautiful piece of hanger steak -- named because it hangs down between the tenderloin and rib without being connected to a bone. There's only one, which is why many butchers save this cut for their own family. The addition of red onions, bacon, and vinegar hits the classic combination of sweet, salty, and acidic. I cut the steak into 3/4-inch pieces, slicing against the grain. Anything less and the meat will lose its toothsome appeal. --Tom Colicchio

Serves: 2

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 35 minutes

• 1 lb hanger steak
• Coarse salt and ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 6 sprigs thyme<
• 4 oz thickly sliced smoked bacon (four slices), diced
• 10 oz fingerling potatoes (Note: If the fingerling potatoes are pinkie-sized, halve them lengthwise. Larger fingerlings should be cut widthwise into 1/2-inch round slices.)
• 1 medium red onion, thinly sliced (about 1/8 inch)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 5 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1. Place 10-inch cast-iron skillet over high heat. Season hanger steak with salt and pepper. Add canola oil to very hot skillet, and when it is almost smoking (the surface will start to shimmer), sear meat for 4 minutes on each side.

2. Reduce heat to medium-low (letting pan cool down a bit) and add butter and 3 sprigs of thyme. (The pan must cool down before you add the butter or it will sizzle and burn on contact.) Using a spoon, baste steak with butter for 2 to 3 minutes, flipping it once halfway through to cook it evenly. (The temperature for a medium-rare steak is about 135 degrees.)

3. Remove meat from skillet and set aside. Discard all fat and thyme from skillet. (Wipe clean with paper towel.) Over medium heat, cook bacon to render fat and slightly crisp meat, about 5 minutes. Nestle in potatoes (cut-side down if using horizontal version) and cook until crisp and golden, about 4 to 5 minutes. Turn potatoes and continue cooking until crisp tender, another 4 to 5 minutes.

4. Add onion and remaining thyme and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion caramelizes and potatoes are cooked through, 10 to 15 minutes.

5. Lower heat and add garlic, and when you can smell its aroma, add balsamic vinegar and reduce, about 3 minutes.

6. To serve: Carve hanger steak into 3/4-inch slices and return to skillet, arranging atop vegetables.

Tom Colicchio is the owner of Craft restaurants and head judge on Bravo's Top Chef.

Tips from Readers:

Here's an interesting, extremely useful tip that came in today from Ruth:

Before scrambling, frying, doing anything with an egg rinse the pan or saucepan with cold water.  Dry.  Add fat, cook egg.  ABSOLUTELY NO STICK.  NO EGG TO SOAK IN WATER, no YICK pans left around.  Did you babes already know this?/?? I feel so naive!  My mother-in-law passed on this wisdom to me and I am grateful. 

And Nelle adds:

Here's another tip: Wash mixing bowls that have had flour based batter in them in cold water because hot water cooks the proteins in the flour (I think) making the goo harder to eliminate.


Who knew? Have any good tips for us? Send'em in.

Go ask Alice: White Bean and Butternut Squash Soup

You really have to love Alice Water's new cookbook. It's like she took Simple French Food and the New Basics, put them in the blender [I know you don't like blenders, Alice, just use them when you really, really need them] pureéd them and sprinkled a little bit of The Way to Cook and anything written by Jacques Pepin over them and served. It's kind of genius, really. This new book is great, and Alice is reaching for serious relevance with it. You can just feel the ambition bursting out of it: The Art of Simple Food wants to be on your kitchen counter, kind of like Rand McNally want their atlas to be in your glove compartment. In any case, the soup I made today which is now cooling in my fridge and will be served on saturday to my beloved guests:

White Bean and Butternut Squash Soup (with modifications in red)

n.b. I made some modifications to this recipe which I think really help it. I'm guessing Alice isn't that ethnic, and I kind of am. I like a little zing, so I added some zinginess, but anything I did I'm putting in red so that you can follow Alice plain-and-simple if you'd prefer. I, however, humbly submit that I've improved on her recipe...

serves 4-6

Soak in 4 cups of water overnight
1 cup dried white beans [I used organic Navy] such a cannelini, haricot blanc

Drain and put in a large pot with
3 cups chicken broth
4 cups water
2 whole, peeled garlic cloves
Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until the beans are tender. Alice says check after 45 minutes, but my beans were falling apart tender after 20 minutes.
Heat in a heavy bottomed pot:
2 Tbs olive oil or duck fat [3 Tbs canola oil]
Add:
2 onions [yellow] sliced thin
3 or 4 sage leaves [10 small fresh sage leaves]
1 bay leaf
Cook over medium heat until tender, about 15 minutes. Stir in:
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Cook for 5 minutes. Drain the beans and add 6 cups [all] of the cooking liquid to the squash and onions along with 2 whole, peeled garlic cloves. Add  1 tsp kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Cook at a simmer until the squash becomes tender. Add the white beans. Purée half the soup mixture. Keep cooking until the squash is very tender. Purée 1 can (15.5 oz) of cannelini beans with some of the soup, and add back to the soup. Taste and adjust for salt and pepper.
Serve in individual bowls, floating with a toasted slice of baguette that has been rubbed with raw garlic and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle chopped parsely and freshly ground pepper over bowl at last minute.

lemon ginger vodka martinis

The amazing thing about ginger is that it works in all four seasons. Ginger is a great appetite stimulant, too, which is why it is a perfect ingredient in your apertif. Of course it's great in a digestif, too. Lemon ginger syrup is easy to make and will keep in the fridge for a week, or freeze it for two weeks. I use it to make vodka martinis but you can add seltzer water to make a bubbly non-alcoholic lemonade. You can also stir it into bourbon, add some ice and top it off with club soda.

Lemon Ginger Syrup
(enough for 8 drinks; easily doubles or triples)

1 3-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups white sugar (use light brown sugar for a smokier, earthier taste)
grated zest of one lemon
1 cup fresh lemon juice

In a small saucepan, combine the sliced ginger with the water and sugar and bring to a simmer over a moderate heat. Simmer for five minutes, then let the ginger syrup cool. Transfer to a blender and puree. Strain the syrup into a glass jar. Stir in the lemon zest and juice.

When you are ready to make your martinis add 2 ounces vodka and 2 ounces lemon-ginger syrup into a cocktail shaker over ice. Shake. Strain into a martini glass and add a small ribbon of lemon peel as a garnish.

Go Ask Alice: On Roasting Vegetables

I just got slipped a free copy of Alice Waters new book, The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution. So far, I am really enjoying it. I'm especially grooving on her discussion of roasting vegetables. All you need to make amazingly delicious roast vegetables is to toss them with some oil and salt, make sure they are all roughly the same size, and cook them – this is important – at a high heat. Here's what Alice says:

"Cook the vegetables in a hot oven preheated to 400. A lower temperature will dry out the vegetables while they cook, making them leathery before they are done; a higher temperature will burn them before they are cooked all the way through. Stir the vegetables a few times while they are cooking, turning those along the edges into the center. Cook them until they are tender and nicely browned here and there. Probe a piece with the tip of a knife to test for doneness, or better still, taste one. Don't let them go too far: a little browning makes them taste sweeter, but if you let them get too dark they will taste bitter."

Alice's list of the best veggies to roast:

Brussels Sprouts
asparagus
carrots
turnips
celery root
rutabagas
parsnips
kohlrabi
potatoes
squash
garlic
broccoli
eggplant
fennel
artichokes
onions

suite: cooking is love

This weekend I'm making dinner for some friends I never get to see. Or, really, more accurately friends I don't get to see hardly as much as I want to. It makes me sad sometimes to think about how much of their lives I miss: new babies have been born, books written, jobs changed, birthdays celebrated, huge projects undertaken. In any case, I've decided to remedy this by having these folks who mean so much to me over to my house for dinner and pretending, for just a few hours, that we have all the time in the world to talk and laugh, argue and debate, tease and flirt and share jokes and most of all eat together. My first, exhausted thought, was to do one of those sneaky things and order gourmet pizza from Oven, throw out the boxes, sprinkle freshly chopped parsley over everything and serve lots of booze. But then. But then I thought how much I want to cook something luscious and intense for these friends of mine.  I'm one of those people who think cooking for someone is a way of communicating with them. So, as much as I don't feel like shopping and chopping, I'm making a real dinner. Most of what I'm making is easy to prepare ahead, not too expensive and very delicious. I've thought about the flavors and textures and seasonality a lot. Everything I'm making I've cooked at least once before, so there will be no scary, unpleasant surprises. I hope. I'll be posting the menu, my shopping list and recipes for everything in the next few days. Stay tuned...

An Early Fall Menu for Six Beloved Friends

cocktails
lemon-ginger martinis
port-laced paté with grilled bread, micro salad, and cornichons
whitebean purée crostini

appetizer
lemon asparagus soup

main course
rosemary beef fillet
salad with roasted beets, baby arugula, and capers in a walnut oil vinaigrette
assorted roast squash
garlicky roast potatoes

desert
poached pears with creme fraiche

Shopping list part I (aka do it tomorrow, girl):

1 litre vodka
1 litre port (the cheapo variety works fine as it will be used to cook with)
4 bottles red wine, 2 bottles white
1 case seltzer water
12 lemons
1 1/2 pounds chicken livers
1 pound unsalted butter
1 lb beets
2 lbs small, organic potatoes
4 heads garlic

stay tuned: tomorrow we make the ginger-lemon syrup for the martinis...

**also, filed under who knew?: peanut butter sandwiches will save the planet

Slow-Roasted Tomatoes

This is a recipe I've tripped over numerous times in various cookbooks but had not prepared until a couple of weeks ago.  The slow roasting concentrates the flavor of the tomatoes and renders them little puckered, caramelized gems.  They freeze really well, so on the bleakest days of winter I can recapture summer simply by thawing a batch.  Thus far, I've eaten them atop soup, pizza and pasta and alongside steak and roasted chicken. 

After reviewing all the recipes in my cookbooks, I have settled on this one from Deborah Madison's Local Flavors.  Plum tomatoes, because they are meaty and not very juicy, work best.

Slow-Roasted Tomatoes

3 pounds plum tomatoes
4 to 6 Tablespoons olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano, thyme, or marjoram
2 garlic cloves, run through a press

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  Lightly oil a large baking sheet that has a lip.  Slice the tomatoes in half lengthwise.  Set them cut side up on the baking sheet, then brush the tops with the oil, using about 2 Tablespoons in all.  Make a paste with the herbs and garlic, and salt and pepper to taste and put about an 1/8 teaspoon on top of each tomato. The roasting will concentrate the flavors of the herbs, garlic and salt as well, so you don't want to overdo it.

Bake, uncovered for 2 hours.  Check after an hour and drizzle a little more oil over the surfaces if they look dry.  The tomatoes are done when they are well shriveled and browned on their undersides.

Multi Soup

Any recipe of mine that causes my six-year-old to announce, unprompted, "why, this is the tastiest soup I've ever had" is worthy of publication.  That's because she is an exceedingly choosy eater and sticks to proteins and a tiny assortment of vegetables and starches.  She liked my soup so much that she also wanted to name it.  It's a very appropriate name so I stuck with it.

The soup I prepared last night utilized a versatile soup base that I came up with a couple of weeks ago after a trip to my local farmers market in Brooklyn.  I froze it and intend to experiment with several "multi soups."

Soup Base

3 leeks, white part only
1 Tablespoon butter
4 cups chicken stock
3 medium Yukon Gold potatoes
3 ears of corn

Cut leeks down center of stalk to within 1/2" of root end and wash their interiors to remove any sand, then slice in 1/8" rounds.  Melt butter over a low flame in a heavy, Le Creuset type pot and add leeks.  Cover the pot and sweat the leeks for 20 minutes, checking occasionally to make sure the leeks don't scorch.  While leeks are sweating, snap the ears of corn in half and standing them on their cut sides, run a knife down their sides to remove the kernels.  Set the kernels aside.  Uncover the pot, add the chicken stock and then, holding the corn cobs over the top of the pot, run the back of a knife down the cobs to extract all the corn milk.  Add the cobs to the pot, bring stock to a boil and then simmer, partially covered, for 10 minutes.  Add potatoes and simmer another 10 minutes.  Add corn kernels and simmer a final 10 minutes.  Remove corn cobs, cool soup base slightly and puree.  Makes about 6 cups of soup base, enough for two different soup recipes that serve 3 to 6.

For last night's soup I used 3 cups of the base and added 3 chicken Gerhard's Sausages (with basil and pine nuts) that I fried up first, 1/2 teaspoon basil, 1 can of rinsed Progresso canellini beans and salt and pepper to taste.  When I served the soup, I drizzled a little extra virgin olive oil on top.

The soup base would also lend itself to a seafood chowder preparation, or any other chowder for that matter.  Try topping it with an assortment of fresh chopped herbs, fried sage leaves or oven roasted tomatoes.  (I tried it with some roasted tomatoes that I made recently and it was delicious.  Maybe I'll publish a recipe for those next.)

Put a Little English On It

Delta Airlines has risen from the ashes and is entreating us to fly with them again.  It can't hurt that they've enlisted the help of chef Todd English to overhaul their in-flight menu offerings.  Every Wednesday from now until November 7th you can sample his food at Delta's SKY360 lounge.  All you have to do is turn up between noon and 2PM, and it's FREE!  So, to all of you trapped working in midtown offices who are, probably right now, pondering your lunch options and, perhaps, deciding between that ragged looking salad or murky mystery soup, I say get thee to SKY360.

SKY360 is located at 101 West 57th Street (at 6th Avenue)

Arugula Salad with Warm Plums and Fancy Ham

Ok, I admit it.  Martha's not so bad after all.

I have avoided using Martha Stewart's recipes for years, accepting as fact that they are not very well written.  I should have been suspicious as this "fact" was almost always imparted to me with a whisper and a sneer.  Maybe it's some sort of boomerang effect:  She behaves badly and her recipes get a bum rap.

But I've been converted.  Big Daddy recently winnowed his cookbook collection and so I was the recipient of both The Martha Stewart Cookbook and The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook.  It's true that whenever Big Daddy has me over for dinner there is invariably a Martha Stewart dish proferred, but I always just fluffed it off to serendipity.  Then I got the cookbooks and they have become part of my hallowed reference collection.  These are the books I turn to when I've come home from the farmers market with several bags of mismatched produce.  I must say that Martha always has a tasty, and usually pretty simple, sounding recipe for at least a few of the things in my bags.   This recipe is one of those that seduced me before I even tasted it.

Arugula Salad with Warm Plums and Fancy Ham

1 pound (about 8) small plums*
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup dry white wine*
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 small bunch arugula, stems removed, washed and torn in bite-sized pieces
8 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, serrano ham or speck

Slice the plums in half, and remove the pits.  Transfer the plum halves to a mixing bowl.  Add the salt, pepper and thyme.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the plum halves, cut-sides down, and cook, shaking the skillet often, until the plums release their juices but still hold together, about 10 minutes.  Add the wine and vinegar; cook until the juice thickens slightly, about 10 minutes more.

Arrange the arugula in a mound on a serving platter.  Drape the ham over the arugula.  Spoon the plums and sauce on top, and serve.

*The plum sauce should be a balanced combination of sweet and sour.  If your plums are particularly sour, use a sweeter white wine.