Hey, you guys! Long time no see, and this is totally my bad. I've been drowning at work (and subsequently drowning in chardonnay at home) which leaves little time for taking Food Pictures or writing Blog Posts About Food. But I'm back and want to catch you up on some food I definitely cooked this fall but haven't actually recapped until now. Let's do this!

Like all White Girls Of Privilege, I overuse "literally". But bear with me -- I was inspired to make this dinner literally in August. J and I sadly had to attend a wake on a Friday afternoon and headed to a very early happy hour afterwards. We headed to one of our favorite Upper East Side places, T-Bar. It's a steakhouse on 73rd and Third, has a great bar, and a rollicking elderly Early Bird crowd.... with whom we dined the night in question.

We sat at the bar, ordered some drinks, and chose their Vietnamese Shrimp Roll to nosh upon. It was cool and crunchy and the dipping sauce was salty, rich, and absolutely to die for. By the time we finished the app and our drinks, we had decided to snag a table for dinner - it was probably ten minutes to 6 pm. Glorious!

The biggest inspiration from our impromptu night out? The rosemary olive French bread. Their bread basket has a broad selection of carbs, but the olives in focaccia directly lead to that recipe. We each had filets, doused bite after bite in their immaculate au poivre sauce, and filled in the blanks with their sautéed corn and feta casserole.

Days later, I realized I wanted to re-create all of the deliciousness. The menu had two main parts and a side dish.

Part 1: Vietnamese Shrimp Roll 'salad'
- 1 lb cleaned, deveined, tail-on shrimp
- 2 medium carrots
- 1 medium cucumber
- fresh mint
- 1/2 box Annie Chun's maifun rice noodles (not a paid endorsement, they're just skinny and delicious!)

Hoisin lime Sauce:
- juice of one lime
- 2 T hoisin sauce
- 1 T rice wine vinegar
- 1/8 tsp Chinese five spice
- squeeze of sriracha
- 1/3 cup canola oil

First, I boiled some water and poached the shrimp for about 3 minutes, reserving them into a colander and squeezing off the tails. Then, I cooked the rice noodles in the shrimp poaching liquid (cooking with the tails on add a TON of flavor, FYI). Then, I shredded the carrots and cucumbers in my food processor. I mixed the hoisin lime sauce, chiffonaded the mint, and then tossed all of the ingredients together.

Part 2: Schezuan Peppercorn Steak Au Poivre
Inspired by our filets mignon with au poivre sauce, I took a cue from the Vietnamese salad and chose Schezuan peppercorns.

First, I generously coated the steak with the peppercorns. They're a little spicier than regular black peppercorns. Imagine the faintest red chili pepper flavor in the background of that big, bold, spicy black pepper flavor. It's so fabulous.

I seared the steaks in a skillet - it looks like tuna, right?? - and weighed them down with a cast iron pan on top to be sure that the peppercorns really baked in. Once seared, I transferred them to a baking dish to finish cooking in the oven.

For the 'au poivre' sauce:

1/3 cup beef stock
1 cup heavy creap
1 T Dijon mustard

I poured the beef stock into the same pan where I seared the steaks to soak up all of that delicious peppercorn flavor. I then melted the mustard and whisked in the heavy cream.

Woo! Are you still with me? I also re-made T-Bar's corn and feta side dish. I cut kernels off of a fresh ear of corn. I love this tip I've seen on TV -- put a tiny bowl in a big bowl, stand the ear of corn on the tiny bowl, and when you slice off the kernels, they fall into the big bowl. Easy peasy.

I heated the corn in oil, seasoned with a pinch of salt and a few twists of cracked black pepper, and mixed with about 1/4 cup of crumbled feta cheese. Sweet and tangy perfection.

I will say this -- there are few things on this planet that I love more than dining out at a fancy Manhattan steak house. There is nothing like it. That said, this 'knock off' meal was a hit! For a Saturday night at home, each piece of this was so sublime and tasty. The steak? Perfectly cooked with that super spicy peppery flavor. Full disclosure: the whole peppercorns will probably break your teeth out of your jaw, which I learned after my first bite, so I ended up scraping most of them off and relying on the mustard cream sauce. But the searing process sealed in so much of the peppery flavor so taking off that rock solid crunch was a good thing! The Vietnamese shrimp noodle salad? Holy cow. There were a lot of leftovers of this that I brought to work for lunch. It is perfect served room temperature. The soft, tender noodles paired perfectly with the nice bite of shrimp, and the spiciness of the sauce mixed beautifully with the sweet carrots and cucumbers. Oh, and corn + feta is math I can do. The whole meal was a home run!

Meatballs with Fava & Lemon + Shiso Pesto Japanese Eggplant

Today’s post is long, but it’s worth it. I make pesto with a mysterious herb! I grill skinny eggplants! I make scrumptious, juicy meatballs and cook them in a light lemony sauce! I reference Silence Of The Lambs!

Seriously, this food is yummy. Please read on. To entice you, I’m posting a picture of my final plate.

Taking a full week off between jobs in the middle of August meant a mid-morning trip to Union Square to stock up on farmers' market goodies. I bought a TON of stuff - most of it was very carefully planned, but a few were pure impulse buys after browsing and squeezing and smelling. One such impulse buy was shiso.

The signage at the particular vendor said that shiso has a cinnamon/clove smell and a basil flavor with spicy cumin aspects. The smell was definitely spicy/sweet, but still very herbal. I took the advice of the woman who rang me up and made a basil-shiso pesto.

My friend Timothy spent almost a year in Japan teaching and 99% of his emails that year ended with, 'There is still no cheese here'. The 1% of emails included, 'I found cheese - it's over $20.' As a tribute to his dairy-less experience, I kept this pesto cheese-free as well.

I included:

- 2 packed cups red shiso
- 1 packed cup basil
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1/3 cup hazelnuts (you could use any mild, creamy nut that you’d like, but I had hazelnuts in the pantry)
- 1/4 teaspoon fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- sesame oil is included in the picture, but I decided not to use it, worrying the flavor would be too aggressive

Why fish sauce? I wanted something that would replace the salty bite of cheese in standard pesto. A little goes a long way with the stuff, but 1/4 teaspoon worked perfectly. I zapped everything together in a food processor. And then took a picture of the final product in my dining room because I had natural light available.

I live for pesto, particularly non-traditional pesto flavors, and this one is really unique. The shiso really brings a spicy flavor - it’s more zing than hot heat, but it is very bold. I liked the saltiness from the fish sauce, the brightness of the rice vinegar, and the mild crunch of the hazelnuts. I only allowed myself a few sample tastes before popping this in the fridge.

A second market impulse buy led to the other half of this meal - fava beans. Silence Of The Lambs is one of my all-time favorite movies but I've never eaten favas in my entire life. I saw them and grabbed a handful. On the subway ride back uptown, I recalled a recipe from Jerusalem for a meatballs and fava beans dish. I Googled it on my way to the store and grabbed what I could - you’ll see that I left a handful of things out (mostly herbs and spices).

Behold: these are fava beans.

You start out by blanching them and removing skins? There's a very complicated paragraph in the recipe about this. No skins came off of mine. So basically, I took the beans out of the shells and I quickly blanched them and added them into the sauce later on down the line. I simplified. A lot.

As I've mentioned before, I love all of the recipes I've made from Jerusalem, but they without fail take a long time and are usually made from tons of different ingredients. This dish was no different. I'll post a full list of the official recipe’s requested ingredients at the end of the post, but here is what I used:

For the meatballs:
- 1/2 lb ground sirloin
- 1/2 lb ground lamb
- 1 small onion
- 1 tablespoon chives, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon mint, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- lots of fresh black pepper
- 2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/8 teaspoon ground coriander
- 2 shakes cloves (very technical, I know)
- 1 teaspoon chopped capers
- 1 egg, beaten
- breadcrumbs added until desired consistency (so exact)

I mixed up the meatball ingredients by hand and rolled them into ping pong-sized balls. I seared them in oil on two sides.

For the sauce:
- fava beans, removed from shell and quickly blanched
- 2 thyme cubes
- juice of 2 lemons
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1 1/2 cups sauvignon blanc (because what else do you do with wine received as a gift that you don't like to drink? also I ran out of stock)
- more chives, with a rougher chop

I melted the thyme cubes, then added the stock only to the pan. I also noticed at this point that the recipe called for green onions/scallions, audibly cursed, and threw in the rest of the chives I’d purchased. They’re in the onion family.

I really need to read recipes start to finish before I start. Or, maybe, before I go shop for ingredients.

Anyway, cover and cook for 10 minutes. Then, add in the meatballs, the lemon juice and wine, cover again and simmer. The recipe says to cook for 25 minutes - they also made twice as much meat as I did. Around 15 minutes, I took a temperature reading and the meatballs were perfect.

While the meatballs simmered, I brought the shiso pesto back out from the fridge. I know, remember the pesto I made? This is a long freaking post so if you’ve made it this far, (A) thank you (B) feel free to take a stretch break. I tried to stay within the same Japanese theme as the pesto and put it on top of grilled Japanese eggplant. The skin on Japanese eggplant is much thinner than ‘regular’ eggplant so these cook a lot quicker. I bought two at the market, halved them, scored them, and heavily salted them for about 20 minutes or so.

I took zero photos of this on the grill. You understand what grill pans look like, yes? One grilled, I spooned some of the shiso pesto all over the top.

And I plated (bowled?) up the meatballs, fava beans, and delicious, lemony, herby sauce.

And then, actually using plates, plated up dinner.

Yum, yum, yum. This was rich but light at the same time. It was just the perfect bite. Juicy meatball, tender eggplant, and the bright flavors from the lemon sauce and shiso pesto. This was a Happy Tummy meal for me.

And yes, Mom, you can see in the blurry background of this picture - I did serve fava beans with a nice chianti.


The actual full list of ingredients from Jerusalem:

Not Green Goddess Flank Steak

I have no idea what to call this marinade.

It's super duper green - cilantro, jalapeño, tomatillos, lime juice, scallions - but it's certainly not your standard Green Goddess blend, which veers sharply down the chive and parsley route. The similarities are the same, however, in that both have a creamy component and an herb component and both began as salad dressings.

I found the original inspiration for this dressing while sliding contentedly down a crock pot recipe rabbit hole. I added my own twist and used these ingredients:

1 cup 2% Greek yogurt (eyeballed - I spooned out about half of the 17.5 ounce container)
2 medium + 1 small tomatillo ('small' was golf ball sized, 'medium' were lemon sized)
1 massive bunch of cilantro
1 large garlic clove
juice of 3/4 of a lime (the other 1/4 was previously sacrificed to the Vodka Tonic Gods)
1/4 jalapeño, seeds and ribs removed
6 scallions (dark green tippy tops removed and discarded)

I zapped these in a blender and used it, initially, as salad dressing on some nice crunchy hearts of romaine. It was good - tangy, very mildly spicy, super flavorful from the lime and herbs. But really, romaine was born to be a vehicle for Caesar dressing, and this dressing was born to be a marinade for steak.

Think about it: herbs, acid, heat, garlic, onion. That's the general basis for any overnight meat marinade I'll ever use. I poured all but the few spoonfuls I used as salad dressing into a large Ziploc with a little over a pound of flank steak. Since this cut is from the tummy of the cow, marinating it can help break down any toughness. I let the meat marinate for 24+ hours in the fridge.

Since I did all of the heavy lifting - putting ingredients into a blender, hitting "on", and pouring them into a bag - I enlisted J's superior grilling capabilities for this meal. He thought it was only fitting that he had a cameo on the blog.

Yup. That's just his hand. It was the least blurry picture of the bunch that I attempted while he carved this gorgeous steak.

Love you, honey.

You can just barely see the remaining green marinade in this shot. I like my beef on the rarer side, but if you prefer yours more fully cooked, I'd highly recommend getting a meat thermometer. Our original one died recently, rest in peace, and our replacement ingeniously printed meat doneness temperatures on the side.

This whole plate is just a fancy steakhouse dinner done at home with the roasted cauliflower and crunchy greens - I told you that romaine needed Caesar dressing, right? The marinade just brought such a bright, vibrant punch to the steak. I'm glad I took the seeds and ribs out of the jalapeño - they hold all the heat - because the whole mix would have been too spicy otherwise. It was one of those mild, creeping heat sensations. You initially taste the cilantro and tomatillo and scallions. They're zingy and forward and catch you right away. Then, that little creep of spice comes in from the pepper. It's really a winning combination and would be even more delicious on an outdoor grill. Ever the fan of Leftovers As Breakfast, I sliced up some remaining slices of this with eggs a few days later and they absolutely rocked. Creamy scrambled eggs with juicy steak and a spicy kick? That is a glorious way to start the day.

Grilled Peach Salad

Peaches and other stone fruits (fruit with pits) are a win/lose for me - they're some of the only fruit I truly LOVE to eat and they're some of the only fruits that cause my throat to swell and tingle and close up. While it's a huge bummer for me each spring and summer that I can't simply dig into a fresh bowl of cherries or take a big bite out of a plum, I've learned that my allergic reaction isn't triggered if I cook the fruit. That should mean I have free reign to make fruit desserts all spring and summer, right? I wish. For a healthier way to eat them, enter: grilled peaches.

If you haven't had grilled fruit before, I highly recommend you try it. The sweetness gets caramelized where the grill hits the fruit and it is both a flavor and texture that you have to try. I sliced up a fresh peach into wedges and drizzled them with a small amount of canola oil (grapeseed would work great here too - you want to go for a lighter flavor so it doesn't compete with the peach).

Sprinkle on a little salt and pepper - they won't be salty, it just helps bring out the flavor - and pop them onto a heated grill or grill pan. I've even done them with a little bit of cayenne or paprika - just enough heat to gently play with the sweet peach flavor.

I left them on for about 3 - 5 minutes a side, just to get some really nice grill marks all over. I tossed them into a bowl of baby spinach with a handful of hazelnuts. I went with a sweet and spicy dressing to highlight the fresh fruit flavor but contrast with some heat.

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon sriracha
1/2 cup olive oil
Pinch of salt

I actually did the peaches after I cooked a steak on the grill pan as well. I lightly wiped out the pan and grilled the peaches while the meat rested. Especially based on how I cut the beef, this ended up being such a striped plate!

This was a Something For Everyone salad. There were the sweet, tender peaches, the crunchy nuts, the fresh spinach, and the tangy semi-spicy dressing. All of the flavors worked beautifully together and I did dip a few bites of steak into the remaining dressing on the plate - it was so good.

This salad is a great addition to any outdoor grilling menu you have planned, especially for dessert options after burgers and dogs! Grilled peaches, or whatever other fruits you like, would also go great with ice cream. I love pitted fruits so much, I might even grill some up and add a different punch of flavor to a sangria pitcher! The possibilities go on and on.

NYC Local: Five Mile Stone + Brussels Salad

A few Saturdays ago, J and I took a nice long walk through Central Park. After Mile 5 or so, our tummies started to growl and we made our way to a new-ish (opened in 2014) restaurant on the Upper East Side for refreshments. Five Mile Stone is a dressed-up beer bar with a killer menu to boot. Their name comes from some fascinating NYC history, as well.

J chose the Allagash White while I tipped my hat to some maternal family history and went with the Bronx Pale Ale. Mine had huge flavor and a wonderfully sharp, bitter aftertaste. I really enjoyed it.

Though impressive-looking, we weren't in the mood for heavy brunch plates. We opted to split the lamb sliders and a shaved Brussels sprouts salad. I am beyond glad that we did.

They were INCREDIBLY delicious. I loved this food so much that it inspired two posts. Today's focuses on the crunchy, sweet, and fresh Brussels salad and tomorrow I'll focus on the lamb. It's worth the wait, I promise.

The salad as delivered to us is composed of shaved Brussels sprouts, apple, toasted hazelnuts, shaved pecorino cheese, and an apple cider vinaigrette.

I loved the burst of fruitiness from the apples and the big crunch of the hazelnuts. A few nights later, I tried to create my own version of it.

I thinly sliced a bunch of Brussels sprouts, soaked the slices in water while I prepped everything else, then drained them before adding to the bowl. I chose dried cranberries as the fruit here instead of fresh apples. I added 1/2 cup each of the cranberries, blanched hazelnuts, and crumbled feta cheese (I like the salty balance to the sweet & tangy cranberries).

I also made my Favorite Vinaigrette OF LIFE. It's a Smitten Kitchen creation and I love it on so many things. I have it written down to keep it close by in the kitchen.

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons wine vinegar (I usually use red, but have used champagne vinegar)
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon honey
1/3 cup olive oil

For this Brussels salad, I swapped maple syrup for the honey and canola for the olive oil to let the other flavors shine through a bit more.

I served this with a pretty simply seasoned steak (just salt and pepper, then cooked on a cast iron skillet). I also reduced 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar down to 1/4 cup and drizzled that over the steak.

So, let's get back to this salad, shall we? Thank you, thank you, thank you, Five Mile Stone for the inspiration. You have two great crunchy aspects with the fresh Brussels and the hazelnuts, sweet and tangy from the dried cranberries, plus salty and creamy from the feta. Topped with a maple Djion vinaigrette, this salad is one of my new favorites.

I didn't forget about the gorgeous, juicy lamb sliders - in fact, I still dream about them weeks later. I planned an entire meal inspired by them that I can't wait to share with you tomorrow!

Marinated Hangar Steak with Peppers & Onions

One Solo Dinner night when J was away, I was feeling very much in the mood for some red meat but didn't want to throw down for a whole London. Lo and behold, a little 1/2 lb hangar steak was perched in the butcher's case waiting for me to take it home! I made a quick marinade of Worcestershire, low sodium soy sauce, olive oil, salt and pepper.

While the steak marinated, I sliced a yellow onion and a red bell pepper into long strips. I cooked them in a splash of oil on medium heat until the peppers just started to brown a bit on the edges. The onions were a bit softer, but both still had great texture to them.

Since my hangar steak was very thin, all I needed was a quick sear on each side, maybe 4 minutes a side tops. I poured the remaining marinade over the top after I flipped it and it cooked down beautifully as the meat finished. To plate, I simply topped the veggies with the steak and dug in.

Do you see that? That is a perfect bite of steak. Sear on the outside with a delicious glaze, deep pink in the center. Not a single bite remained!

Slow Cooker Soy Short Ribs with Sugar Snap Peas

I have loved Real Simple magazine for many years and finally subscribed after the honeymoon. I have a digital component to my subscription and love my new monthly tradition of curling up in my big white armchair, my iPad mini, and a hot cup of tea and perusing the beautiful 'pages'. I also can simply screenshot anything I want to go back to later, including recipes.

Their Soy-Braised Short Ribs caught my eye in the February 2014 issue. I love soy and beef together in any iteration. Mostly, I loved that the prep work was, essentially, "Add ingredients and mix together."

The ingredients are:

1 medium onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
3 pounds short ribs (preferably flanken) (I used English style)
2 cups white rice
1/2 pound snap peas, sliced

I had a spicy-averse diner to consider when I made this, so I really kept true to the flavor measurements relating to spice. I did NOT follow measurements with the fresh ginger. I love it and used the entire 2-inch knob you see below, featuring one of my favorite kitchen tricks.

That's right - use a spoon to peel garlic. The skin is very thin so you don't need anything too sharp. Plus, no slippery knife accidents (which have of course never happened to me...)

Measure out all of the ingredients and add everything except the rice and peas to the slow cooker. Toss to cover and then cook on low for 7 - 8 hours or high for 5 - 6. Serve over rice and toss with the fresh snap peas. I tossed some roasted asparagus into the mix as well.

It was delicious. In the future, I would definitely up the heat factor and squeeze lime juice over the final bowl for some freshness after the slow cooker did it's work. All in all, the meat simply fell off the bones and the sauce was excellent - sweet, salty, zingy, and rich at the same time.

Slow Cooker Boeuf Bourgignon

My wonderful husband celebrated a milestone birthday at the beginning of March. I won't get all sappy here about the truly endless list of good things he's brought into my life, but I will say that we fell in love over food. Since the beginning, we've loved cooking with and for each other, trying new things, and working as a team. One of the ways we like to celebrate birthdays is with a special meal prepared with love.

The next three posts are going to share the food I made for his birthday! Today is dinner, tomorrow is birthday cake, and Friday is the food served at a birthday brunch I hosted for him and our friends. Let's get to it!

I took off a Friday from work to prepare for brunch, bake a cheesecake, and coordinate his big birthday surprise. I wanted to make something fancy and decadent for dinner, ideally something by Julia Child, but knew I had to simplify or I'd drive myself crazy. I turned to the slow cooker.

The Kitchn has a slow cooker boeuf bourgignon that totally fit the bill. Her version requires:

8 ounces thick-cut bacon (5-6 slices)
2 1/2-3 pounds beef chuck roast, round roast, or other similar cut, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 cups good red wine (I chose Pinot Noir)
2 medium-sized onions, thinly sliced
3 medium-sized carrots, diced

3 stalks celery, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme

1 bay leaf
1 cup chicken or beef broth, plus more if necessary
1 pound white button mushrooms, sliced

In a cruel twist of fate, I completely forgot bacon. The bacon is mainly used as the flavor-and-oil vessel for searing the meat, but I had to slum it with plain old olive oil. Anyways, season your beef heavily with salt and pepper. Once your oil starts to shimmer, add the beef and sear on each side.

Then, these go into the slow cooker.

Deglaze the pan with a splash of the wine.

What is deglazing? Basically, you use a liquid to loosen up all the delicious bits of food that stuck to the bottom of the pan while you seared the meat. It's full of flavor and once you deglaze, pour the wine and unstuck flavorful bits on top of the seared meat.

Next up, cook your veggies. The vegetable mix used here is traditionally referred to as a mirepoix - carrots, onions, and celery. Soften the mirepoix in a pan and then add the garlic and tomato paste. Once they're done, also add to the pot. Then, add your mushrooms to the stovetop pan and cook them until they're golden brown. Put these aside - you'll add them to the mix right before you serve.

Pour the rest of the wine plus one cup of stock over the meat and vegetables. I also added 2 bay leaves and a bunch of fresh thyme sprigs. Cover and cook on low for 6 - 8 hours. Right before you serve, toss in the mushrooms and stir around to bring them up to the same temperature.

In the words of the inimitable Julia, BON APPÉTIT! I served this over rice and broke out our china for the occasion. The meat fell apart, the vegetables were soft and flavorful, and the broth was rich and delicious. I would definitely make this fancy-looking fancy-tasting easy-to-make meal again!