Lunch!  vegan chipotle sausage and spinach cooked in a reduced carrot soup with pecans over crisp batard

recipe and a history lesson!  this dude scott is pretty sweet.  i’m hungry.  i just found a reblog button.  result:

scottspizzatours:

Montanara at Forcella in NYC.

Yes, you read that correctly. Fried pizza is real and it’s comin’ to getcha. Imagine a sweet, innocent pizza walking home one night only to be cornered in a dark alley by a dangerous deep fryer. Sounds terrifying, but the confrontation actually results in a flavor mashup the likes of which few tongues have ever tasted. It combines the danger of oil with the familiarity of typical pizza toppings. New York pizza is currently experiencing its first real dose of the deep fryer, but what exactly is it and where does it come from?

I became a big proponent of fryers when I bought one in college. We had parties on Friday nights in which friends would bring over anything they wanted to fry. Yes, we did call it FriedDay. People brought anything from chicken and fish to cookies and Hostess cupcakes. We formulated different batters for sweet and savory items and eventually bought a second fryer to accommodate both genre. Come to think of it, I don’t remember cooking anything else when I was in college - those fryers were pretty much it!

Suffice it to say, I was into frying almost as much as I was into pizza. So when my friend Jeff called me in 2003 to tell me there was a place doing deep-fried pizza in Brooklyn, I jumped on a train from New Jersey and met him at Chip Shop in Park Slope. What we got was a lackluster slice from the pizzeria across the street battered abused by the deep fryer. We could still taste the briny residue from the day’s orders of fish and chips. It was totally gross.

New York Post article about Forcell’s Montanara. The media loves it.

Luckily, the fried pizza hitting NYC today is a completely different animal. I remember hearing about it from Keste’s Roberto Caporuscio, but Giulio Adriani was the first to pull it off at his Williamsburg pizzeria Forcella. The process begins with a stretched piece of dough, opened in the same way a dough would be stretched for pizza. The one major difference is that the dough is punctured at several spots inside the outer rim. This “docking” process eliminates gas pockets that would normally expand when met with extreme heat. The dough is then placed into the deep fryer, where it puffs up and forms a bread bowl that is both light and crispy. After pulling the dough out and drying it for a few seconds, toppings are applied and the whole thing slides into the oven in a small metal dish so the oily dough doesn’t make contact with the brick hearth and send smoke throughout the space. After a quick dip into the oven, the cheese is melted and the sauce is cooked. The result is a complete departure from pizza baked solely inside an oven.

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Real talk: borscht is delicious.  When I was a kid my dad would buy beet soup.  It came in a jar like juice does, and I knew it was disgusting cause we all know that soup comes in cans and is never purple.  One helpful reviewer on epicurious.com suggested that since beet soup is gross you should just try minestrone, instead.  I suggest that we all remember that I was an idiot when I was a kid, and also that we read fewer “comments” on websites in 2012.

With borscht you can go Whole Hog (which would require beef, actually) or you can do it this way.  Much faster; fewer cows.  I’m sure it’s not *quite* as good as your Ukrainian gramma used to make, but you don’t even have one of those, so shut it.  Also.  I made like a gallon and a half of the stuff, most of it is in my freezer.  If you didn’t just pick up 20lbs of veggies/you don’t have eleven children to feed you can safely cut these proportions in half.

Borscht

3T olive oil

1 1/2lb potatoes, peeled and chopped

2 1/2c chopped green cabbage (I used savoy cabbage, great texture)

1 large onion, chopped

6-8c broth/stock of choice (I used a beef base for more “authentic” “flavor” but if you have a favorite just throw it in there—but not yet! we haven’t started)

2 large carrots, peeled and chopped

4 large (3” diameter) beets, peeled and chopped

1c drained chopped canned tomatoes

1t cracked pepper

a lemon or two

Fage yogurt (or sour cream…if you’re into that sort of thing)

Heat oil briefly in large(st soup pot you have) over medium heat.  Add potatoes, cabbage, and onion, stirring while the cabbage softens (5-10min).  Add beets, carrots, tomatoes, pepper, and stock.  I like thick soups, so I added stock just to the level of the veggies in the pot.  You can do the same for now.  The choose your own adventure part comes in a minute.  Bring the pot to a boil, cover, reduce the heat, and simmer til the veggies are all tender, a half hour or longer.

When everything is cooked through, blend four cups of the soup and then return the puree to the pot.  If the whole thing looks too thick to you, add some broth/stock a little at a time.  Stir in 1-2T fresh lemon juice, add a dollop of greek yogurt, and voila!  Something tasty.  

Delicious cold weather pasta!  The sauce was pretty easy to make, and very tasty.  A great way to finish off the bag of carrots otherwise wasting away in the drawer of the fridge.

Pasta with Carrot Sauce and Roasted Asparagus

For Sauce:

1/2 onion, diced

6 medium carrots, peeled and chopped

1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped

3-4 sundried tomatoes, sliced

1T olive oil

2-3 garlic cloves

1t salt

1t cracked pepper

1/2t herbs de provence

parmesan rind

3/4c white wine

1/4c coconut milk (or real milk or heavy cream)

The rest:

1lb pasta

1 bunch asparagus spears

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan.  Add onions and saute until soft.  Add sliced carrots and sweet potato, cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add sliced sundried tomatoes, pressed garlic, salt, pepper, and herbs (I gave an extra shake of thyme for good measure), and stir til combined.  Add parmesan rind and wine, reduce heat, and cover.  I made sure the rind was sitting atop a couple carrot slices so I wouldn’t have a cheesy block stuck to the pan, later.  Cook until potato and carrots are well done.  Remove rind and transfer to food processor or blender with milk (or “milk”) and puree.  You can adjust this liquid level if need be (blender requires more liquid) with more “milk” (or milk) or vegetable stock.  Or water.  Or wine.

Cut the woody ends off of the asparagus.  Drizzle asparagus with olive oil and coat.  Arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet, dust with salt and pepper.  Roast 15-20 min at 400.

Boil pasta like you’re supposed to.  Drain, but save a cup of the cooking water (this will be Too Much).  Add carrot sauce to pasta in a large bowl and toss, adding cooking water if needed/til the pasta is evenly coated.  Add your (now chopped) roasted asparagus, and serve with grated parm and…chopped toasted almonds?  Yes.

These are pretty.  And sweet!  And spicy!  Found an errant beet and sweet potato, and made breakfast.  More color = better.  All the time.  I dunno if this qualifies as a recipe post or a gloat post, but here it is.

Home Fries+

1 small onion

5 keuka gold potatoes

1 sweet potato

1 beet

three jalapenos (I seeded half of them)

three or four sundried tomatoes

a clove of garlic

Sauteed onion a few minutes, added sliced potatoes and beet cooked over medium heat, pan covered for a few minutes, stirred every so often so that most things had a chance to brown a little.  Added soy sauce (1t, 2t?) heat on low, and covered so that the potatoes could cook.  Added sliced jalapenos, sundried tomato chiffonade, pressed garlic, sauteed with heat a little higher and then done.

God, I love breakfast.  I hope this feeling never goes away.  

Step one: Delicious Bread Alone nine grain bread, a fresh, sweet, mildly tart tomato sliced thin (courtesy of the one and only Jesse, thanks!) and a toaster oven.  Step two: This roasted garlic vegetable gravy is my fave, and it’s totally worth it to make the stock from scratch.  Huge difference.  You could cut the soy sauce down a mite if you usually skimp on salt.  Pro tip: don’t start making the gravy when you’re hungry for breakfast.  Also great on biscuits.  And we’ll find out in a few days, but I think it’ll be good on IKEA meatballs.

I’m just gonna come right out and say it: these cookies are pretty damn good.  I found a sugar cookie recipe online and then I…didn’t really follow it.  I mean, I kind of did.  I had all this bosc pear/black tea puree in my freezer left over from the summer (don’t we all?) so I replaced half of the butter in the recipe with that (much like people use applesauce in place of shortening) and then I discovered that the all-purpose flour situation in my kitchen was dire, so…well, that also got a tweak.

PDG Cookies

1c all-purpose flour

1c wheat flour

3/4c unsweetened finely shredded reduced fat coconut (that you have in your pantry cause of that caramel bread pudding with jameson sauce you made two years ago that called for, like, 1/4c of the stuff…)

1t baking soda

1/2t baking powder

1/2c butter, softened

1/2c pear puree (or applesauce, more likely)

1 1/2c sugar

1 egg

1t vanilla

cinnamon

Turn your oven on to 350, if you please.  In a small bowl, combine flours, unsweetened coconut (mine actually says “finely shredded for baking” on the package), baking powder, baking soda, and some amount of cinnamon if you’re feeling randy.  In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar.  Add applesauce and mix well.  Beat in the egg and vanilla.  Mix the dry ingredients in a little at a time.  I decided to leave out about a quarter cup of the dry ingredients, cause I thought the cookie dough looked done, so pay attention to the texture you’re getting as you blend.  We’ve all eaten raw cookie dough before, I think you can figure out when it looks right (if you’re not sure, use your gut—literally).

I dropped smallish spoonfuls on an ungreased cookie sheet.  About ten minutes in I sprinkled the top with cinnamon and sugar (easiest if you have a dedicated shaker for it, like every home I have ever lived/will ever live in) and then put them back in for a few minutes.  Take them out when the bottom starts to brown.  They stay soft and um, awesome.  Several of the other CSA volunteers last night went to far as to call them “perfect” so…you know.  That’s all.

Born of a combination of neglect, inspiration, obsession, and convenience:  my new favorite fancy-ass bourbon thing.  Basil, ginger, curry, bourbon, and pear come together to create a sweet/spicy/herbal cordial that I’m gonna hold onto for a while.

The Kipling

To make individually: 

Add to a cup several fresh basil leaves and a dash of curry powder.  Muddle to bruise the leaves, but not to shred them.  Add 1-2 teaspoons of ginger syrup (my obsession: The Ginger People’s organic syrup), 2oz bourbon (I used Evan Williams, i don’t think you need to get too highbrow), 4-6oz pear juice, and shake.  Shaking helps to incorporate the syrup and also reduce the thickness of the pear juice, which can sometimes be a little…heavy.  Sometimes icemelt is functional!  You might want more syrup than that, or less, depending on how much you like ginger, how sweet the pear juice you’re using is, and probably other reasons as well.

The Kipling Party Kit:

2T ginger syrup, 1/2t curry powder, some basil leaves (I bruised them between finger and thumb), and 8oz of bourbon.  Shake it up a little, and stick in the fridge overnight.  Bring to party with a bottle of pear juice.  Best to shake each one for reasons of texture and the sometimes reluctant miscibility of liquids of different densities, etc, but lack of a shaker during my experimental phase didn’t reduce individual consumer enjoyment as far as this lady could tell.

Note: I hate posting flash photos, but now that it’s basically dark by 4pm it would probably bode poorly for my mental health if I were taking photos of bourbon cocktail creation sessions in broad daylight.  Alone.  In my apartment.  So, be heartened by my crappy photo.  And go make this!

PS: props to Kimi for the name.  I’m terrible with names.

PPS: The first time I made this, it was with homemade bosc juice, and I used black tea to blend the pears before straining, but at that point the curry powder wasn’t part of the equation.  I might add tea back in next time to see what happens.  Tea infusions are easy: Two or three tea bags in a liter bottle of high proof liquor for two hours, pour into a different container rather than squeezing the tea bags out of the bottle to avoid some bitterness.

Sometimes when I post about food I made, it’s less about sharing a recipe with you and more about bragging.  This was terrific.

Roasted Eggplant Sandwich, Shaved Carrot Salad

I roasted the eggplant for maybe a half hour at 400.  I like to slice it thin and distribute a mix of a couple tablespoons of olive oil with crushed garlic, sea salt, and pepper on each slice, and then kind of push it all back together.  Time consuming, but consistently rewarding.  Other than that, there’s awesome red oak lettuce from my CSA, a Chimay cheese that I practically proposed to, and a chiffonade of sundried tomato.  

The salad was awesome, because I tossed it in the roasting dish, so it was slightly warm and dressed with olive oil and roasted garlic.  Awesome way to eliminate guilt associated with washing perfectly good olive oil out of a roasting dish.

All I ever want to do is cook breakfast.  Ever.  I’m not sure this one warrants a recipe, per se.  

Beet Greens and Caramelized Onion Omellette

The trick to caramelizing onions is patience.  They were cooking on med-low in olive oil in a skillet for like 15-20min before I added the greens and cooked it all for 5-10min more.  Add garlic with the greens or it’ll burn.  I used to do something yummy where I’d push the onions til they were almost crispy and crack an egg over them, so the onions were all up in the egg white.  That’s also a good idea.  Anyone out there hiring for a breakfast brainstorm?  My rates are pretty reasonable.