Wrote on cooking, food & travel including for NY Times, Washington Post, Bittman Project, Heated/Medium, HuffPost, CN Traveler & Daily Meal. Now taking it easy.
Mara des bois strawberries from @norwichmeadows at today's Dag Hammarskjöld @GrowNYC. Incomparable heady perfume. It's early in the season, so these were a special treat.
Watch the official trailer for WILD INSIDE, the remarkable true story of Flaco the Eurasian Eagle-Owl, world premiering in Central Park on July 29. Coming to select theaters July 31, starting with the @IFCCenter in NYC.
Our dinner was new-season potatoes and dill, eaten buttered, with a side of sour cream. The remainder of our meal was a few ultra-tender fava beans that didn't need to be skinned. All the produce (no surprise) was from our nearby Dag Hammarskjöld @GrowNYC farmers' market.
edward.schneider
Delicious duck breast from Hudson Valley Duck Farm at yesterday's @UnSqGreenmarket@grownyc farmers' market. Also - and this is a big deal for us - the season's first new potatoes, from the fine growers @HalalPastures.
Ecco la primavera! No peas or favas yet, but, in the meantime, tonight's springtime risotto was, well, springlike: asparagus, zucchini/courgettes and sweet spring onions. And tarragon, too!
Some would say that lasagne improves with reheating. While it's easier to handle once it has congealed, I don't agree that it's actually better. Still, day-old lasagne is a great thing, and I'd be very disappointed to have made only enough for a single meal.
It was chilly in New York today, but that's not entirely relevant: We'd have had this meal in any weather. It's a faux cassoulet made with beans cooked a few days ago, confit pork belly, good sausages, rich stock, plus - and this was key - toasted breadcrumbs sprinkled on top.
It was time for last week's excellent asparagus from @SamascottOrch (at the Dag Hammarskjöld @GrowNYC farmers' market) to make way for next week's. An asparagus-forward stir-fry did the trick - and made a terrific gingery dinner.
Tonight's dinner was paella-like Bomba rice with mild, fruity dried chilies from Basilicata; previously cooked beans and pork belly; and a handful of asparagus (totally overwhelmed by the other ingredients and thus entirely superfluous).
Plan A: spinach, pine-nut, anchovy, garlic, breadcrumb mixture as a stuffing for the squid. But laziness dictated a Plan B: Quick sauté of squid, with the ex-stuffing as a condiment. (Plan A wouldn't have been as good a dinner as Plan B turned out to be.)
One of those unbeatable springtime combinations: Room-temperature asparagus coated with vinaigrette. And a side of cooked ham - along the lines of a jambon de Paris.
Ramps don't give me a thrill - except as a harbinger of other spring produce such as asparagus and, later, peas. But ramp leaves, cooked and combined with sheep-milk ricotta and parmesan, make a really grand pasta filling, as in these agnolotti.
Earlier today on another website I gushed over our first local asparagus of the season, from Samascott Orchards at our nearby @grownyc market. We ate ~75 per cent of it for dinner: Steamed and served tepid with a nice vinaigrette, and topped with sieved HB eggs: asparagus mimosa.
Ragù tonight! With a slight twist: about a tenth of the meat is cotechino removed from its casing and fried along with the vegetable soffritto. The theory is that it will add a gelatinous quality to the texture. We'll see at dinner time.
With a little thought, you can make a delicious and harmonious soup/stew out of seemingly disparate leftovers: What the French might call a fourre-tout (hodgepodge). In fact, if (heaven forfend) I were writing a restaurant menu, I might include a Fourre-Tout du Jour.
A couple of dinners ago, we had delicious beef shin. We ate some of the leftovers just now, broken apart (not really shredded), and spooned onto a dish of fairly plain carnaroli rice. Very satisfying.
Last night a very good dinner at @francescocook's Mezzogiorno in the @CorinthiaLondon. A snacky highlight was: pipi cruski (peperoni cruschi) - sun-dried, quite mild Calabrian peppers deep fried to long-lasting crispness. With lemony mayonnaise to dip them in. Not to be missed!