Just finished The Fruit Hunters by Adam Leith Gollner - great book. Now I'm scouring Whole Foods (and, more successfully, Chinatown) for all the strange fruits I've never tried before. So far on my list:
-jackfruit (in a shake): tastes kind of pineapple-coconutty.
-guanabana (aka soursop) in a shake: a little sour but good.
-kumquats
-kiwiberries
-real kiwis
-atualfo mangoes
-asian pear (underripe - yuck)
-longans
-lychees
update:
-rambutans
-cherimoya
-dragonfruit
update 8/3/09:
Just went to the produce place in Chelsea Market. For $22 ended up with:
-goldenberries (aka Cape Gooseberries) - delicious, citrussy. Related to tomatillos.
-passionfruit
-ugli fruit (tastes way better than it looks - reminds me of a clementine)
-fresh figs (a little underripe, I think)
-guava (maybe not quite ripe? kinda bland and grainy, but not bad)
-golden kiwi
-pepino melon
-fresh almonds
-starfruit (aka carambola)
-prickly pear fruit (I think?)
-quenepa (aka mamoncillo) (not much there to eat, and really slimy texture, but tastes good)
plus some blueberries & plums. Excellent spot for good, cheap produce.
Will keep this list updated as I try more.
This is kinda cool, while we're at it: http://fruitspecies.blogspot.com/
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Leftover Soup
Next up in Easy Recipes I Like:
Pappa al Pomodoro
At its simplest, this is an easy, cheap, delicious soup and a good way to use that stale bread that you'd otherwise throw out. If you wanna get fancy, it's a catchall for all your leftover bits and pieces. The basic recipe comes from my semester abroad in Italy; the variations are whatever I ate the night before.
-Stale Italian bread, sliced thin
-olive oil
-butter
-onion
-garlic
-chopped herbs (marjoram, oregano, parsley, basil, whatever)
-chicken broth
-canned tomatoes
-salt & pepper to taste
-pinch o' cayenne (optional. but then isn't everything?)
-grated parmeggiano or romano cheese.
1) Chop the onion fine and saute it in oil and butter til it's translucent. Add the garlic and saute til it smells good.
2) Rip the bread into small pieces and add it to the pot. Swirl it around until it's soaked up lots of oil and garlic.
3) If you've got crushed or diced tomatoes, pour them straight into the pot. If they're whole, chop them up first. Add a cup or two of chicken broth, the herbs, and cayenne.
4) Let it cook, stirring occasionally, until everything's nice and mushy. Add the cheese and S&P to taste. To smooth it out, put in in the blender or a food processor, put it through a potato ricer, use an immersion blender, or try a potato masher. Or just eat it lumpy; that's good too.
Variations:
After blending, add:
-cooked pasta (for extra carbs)
-cooked rice (ditto)
-cooked ground beef/lamb/turkey/pork/whatever
-cooked sausage or little meatballs
-leftover meat, chopped up
-the juices from said leftover meat
-spinach
-white beans
-other veggies
-and/or whatever else you need to get out of the fridge
Pappa al Pomodoro
At its simplest, this is an easy, cheap, delicious soup and a good way to use that stale bread that you'd otherwise throw out. If you wanna get fancy, it's a catchall for all your leftover bits and pieces. The basic recipe comes from my semester abroad in Italy; the variations are whatever I ate the night before.
-Stale Italian bread, sliced thin
-olive oil
-butter
-onion
-garlic
-chopped herbs (marjoram, oregano, parsley, basil, whatever)
-chicken broth
-canned tomatoes
-salt & pepper to taste
-pinch o' cayenne (optional. but then isn't everything?)
-grated parmeggiano or romano cheese.
1) Chop the onion fine and saute it in oil and butter til it's translucent. Add the garlic and saute til it smells good.
2) Rip the bread into small pieces and add it to the pot. Swirl it around until it's soaked up lots of oil and garlic.
3) If you've got crushed or diced tomatoes, pour them straight into the pot. If they're whole, chop them up first. Add a cup or two of chicken broth, the herbs, and cayenne.
4) Let it cook, stirring occasionally, until everything's nice and mushy. Add the cheese and S&P to taste. To smooth it out, put in in the blender or a food processor, put it through a potato ricer, use an immersion blender, or try a potato masher. Or just eat it lumpy; that's good too.
Variations:
After blending, add:
-cooked pasta (for extra carbs)
-cooked rice (ditto)
-cooked ground beef/lamb/turkey/pork/whatever
-cooked sausage or little meatballs
-leftover meat, chopped up
-the juices from said leftover meat
-spinach
-white beans
-other veggies
-and/or whatever else you need to get out of the fridge
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
What I ate yesterday
I'm unemployed. It's cold out. I'm bored. Hence, I cook. In an effort to keep track of some of the more delicious things I've made (let's be honest, who reads this thing but me?) here's the first in a series of tasty things I've made.
Iranian Pasta
Probably not Iranian at all, but vaguely Middle-Eastern, and "Iranian Pasta" sounds good. You don't like it, get your own blog.
2 cloves garlic
1 small onion
1/3 pound lamb
garam masala*
half a zucchini
half an eggplant
half a cucumber
plain yogurt
feta cheese
1/2 box of spaghetti or any other pasta
cayenne pepper to taste
1) Chop the onion and garlic very fine and saute for a minute in olive oil. Add the lamb, a generous amount of garam masala, and some salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the lamb is no longer pink. urn off the heat and let sit until you've finished everything else.
2) While the lamb is cooking, put the pasta on to boil.
3) Also while the lamb is cooking, slice the eggplant thin, salt it, and set it aside. Slice the zucchini thin, salt it, and grill it. I used a George Foreman oiled with olive oil; a real grill or probably even a hot skillet or toaster oven would work. When the zucchini's done, grill the eggplant the same way. Chop it all up into chunks.
4) Peel the cucumber and chop it into small pieces.
5) When the pasta's tender, drain it and put it in the serving bowl. Add a few dollops of plain yogurt, a handful of feta, the veggies, and the lamb. Mix it all up until the pasta's coated with the sauce. If you want more sauce, add more yogurt. Add cayenne and salt to taste.
*Garam masala is (roughly):
1 tbsp cardamom seeds
1 2-inch stick cinnamon
1 tsp cumin seeds
3/4 tsp black peppercorns
1/4 of a nutmeg
1 tsp cloves
Grind it all together in a (clean!!) coffee grinder until smooth. Or just buy a packet at the store.
Iranian Pasta
Probably not Iranian at all, but vaguely Middle-Eastern, and "Iranian Pasta" sounds good. You don't like it, get your own blog.
2 cloves garlic
1 small onion
1/3 pound lamb
garam masala*
half a zucchini
half an eggplant
half a cucumber
plain yogurt
feta cheese
1/2 box of spaghetti or any other pasta
cayenne pepper to taste
1) Chop the onion and garlic very fine and saute for a minute in olive oil. Add the lamb, a generous amount of garam masala, and some salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the lamb is no longer pink. urn off the heat and let sit until you've finished everything else.
2) While the lamb is cooking, put the pasta on to boil.
3) Also while the lamb is cooking, slice the eggplant thin, salt it, and set it aside. Slice the zucchini thin, salt it, and grill it. I used a George Foreman oiled with olive oil; a real grill or probably even a hot skillet or toaster oven would work. When the zucchini's done, grill the eggplant the same way. Chop it all up into chunks.
4) Peel the cucumber and chop it into small pieces.
5) When the pasta's tender, drain it and put it in the serving bowl. Add a few dollops of plain yogurt, a handful of feta, the veggies, and the lamb. Mix it all up until the pasta's coated with the sauce. If you want more sauce, add more yogurt. Add cayenne and salt to taste.
*Garam masala is (roughly):
1 tbsp cardamom seeds
1 2-inch stick cinnamon
1 tsp cumin seeds
3/4 tsp black peppercorns
1/4 of a nutmeg
1 tsp cloves
Grind it all together in a (clean!!) coffee grinder until smooth. Or just buy a packet at the store.
And they say we don't have an "American Cuisine"
Not sure if this site makes me hungry or nauseous.
http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/
http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Some neat sites
I recently came across these two sites and thought they were worth sharing. Appetite for China is a blog (mostly) about Chinese food, with recipes to go along. I'll be trying their Sichuan Cucumber salad today. TasteSpotting is "visual representation of something delicious," gorgeous food-porn photos linking to the stories and blogs where they came from. Both are definitely worth a look.
Monday, January 12, 2009
I <3 Sausages
There's been a lot of talk around about Dogmatic Gourmet Sausage Systems, the sausage place that opened up about a month ago right near Union Square. After two lunches there, I'd say it's deserved - this place knows their dogs. A sausage, poked into a hollowed-out baguette and doused with sauce is $4.50, a damn good deal for just about any neighborhood.
The first time I was there I had a lamb sausage with sun-dried tomato-feta sauce. I'm happy with just about anything that's got feta in it, but this went beyond just satisfying my Greek cheese fetish. The lamb was flavorful without being gamey; the sauce was a reminder that before sun-dried tomatoes became a '90s cliche they got popular for a reason; and the bread... they should win awards for that baguette (baked at "artisanal bakeries such as Pan D'Avignon," according to the website. Fresh, hot, crusty, chewey, carbiferous goodness. The one downside was that, while the hollow-out-a-baguette-and-stick-a-sausage-in-it design means that when you take a bite out of one end, all the sauce-covered insides don't squirt out the other end - they squirt back towards you, dripping orange gunk down your coat as you walk through Union Square. So consider yourself warned, and take some napkins.
On my second visit I ordered the pork sausage with truffled gruyere sauce. I was less impressed this time around - the pork was a little hot-doggy, and the gruyere sauce added a lot of richness but less flavor than I would have liked. Still, it was hot, gooey, and filling, so I'd say I got my $4.50 worth.
Also on the menu are tortilla chips (with your choice of the same sauces that come with the sausages), handmade sodas, and some frozen desserts. I tasted a sample of the chocolate soft-serve and found it too sweet for my taste, but the ginger soda ($2.50) was great, with a recognizable ginger taste and a little bit of kick. Mmm. I'll have one of those with my dog any day.
Dogmatic Gourmet Sausage Systems
26 E. 17th St (just west of Union Square)
eatdogmatic.com
The first time I was there I had a lamb sausage with sun-dried tomato-feta sauce. I'm happy with just about anything that's got feta in it, but this went beyond just satisfying my Greek cheese fetish. The lamb was flavorful without being gamey; the sauce was a reminder that before sun-dried tomatoes became a '90s cliche they got popular for a reason; and the bread... they should win awards for that baguette (baked at "artisanal bakeries such as Pan D'Avignon," according to the website. Fresh, hot, crusty, chewey, carbiferous goodness. The one downside was that, while the hollow-out-a-baguette-and-stick-a-sausage-in-it design means that when you take a bite out of one end, all the sauce-covered insides don't squirt out the other end - they squirt back towards you, dripping orange gunk down your coat as you walk through Union Square. So consider yourself warned, and take some napkins.
On my second visit I ordered the pork sausage with truffled gruyere sauce. I was less impressed this time around - the pork was a little hot-doggy, and the gruyere sauce added a lot of richness but less flavor than I would have liked. Still, it was hot, gooey, and filling, so I'd say I got my $4.50 worth.
Also on the menu are tortilla chips (with your choice of the same sauces that come with the sausages), handmade sodas, and some frozen desserts. I tasted a sample of the chocolate soft-serve and found it too sweet for my taste, but the ginger soda ($2.50) was great, with a recognizable ginger taste and a little bit of kick. Mmm. I'll have one of those with my dog any day.
Dogmatic Gourmet Sausage Systems
26 E. 17th St (just west of Union Square)
eatdogmatic.com
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