QUARANTINE COOKING GUIDE // How to stretch your food supply, reduce waste & make nutritious (even delicious) meals

So, here we are. Never thought I’d ever have to cook this way (and we will for sure cherish the next time we can shop, cook, and eat the way we did before). But these extraordinary times call for a new way to think about food.

Your grocery runs are limited and you have to lean more on pantry staples. You may have to feed more people, for more meals. And you’ll either have more time at home, or less time with the demands of family and other challenges raised when you’re all cooped up.

Like all of you, I’m still learning as I go. Here are some tips as you navigate this new way of cooking. I’ll be updating this post as I refine my techniques, so save this page and keep checking back!

COOK SIMPLE > COMPLEX

Set yourself up for leftover success. For example, start with separate preparations of rice, beans, and roasted vegetables. For the first meal, create a grain bowl with your favorite vinaigrette. Next time, use the rice to bulk up a soup. Puree the beans into a dip. Add the veggies to a frittata. Finally, mix the rice, beans, and vegetables with chili powder, cumin, and tomatoes (fresh or canned/jarred) for a Mexican-style dish. Notice — if you started with that last dish, you'd be way more limited with your leftover layup. Start simple.

CASE STUDY: Lemony Brown Rice Bowl with Shrimp

The bulk of this is made with long-lasting pantry ingredients — brown rice, lemon, red onion, feta, olives, and frozen shrimp. The fresh ingredients are there, but I’ve purposely pared back. I used just three mini cucumbers, a handful of grape tomatoes, and about three stems of dill (a side salad for me in better times, but times have changed).

The tough bottom inch of the dill stems, along with the onion skins, were saved. I’m freezing these with chicken bones from another night. Once I have enough scrap ingredients, I’ll make stock.

The olive brine flavored the rice, almost like a vinaigrette would (think: salt, fat, acid, umami). Feta brine would also do the trick.

MIX FRESH WITH SHELF-STABLE OR FROZEN 

If you’re anything like me, you like lots and lots of veggies. Problem is, you’ll run out sooner that way. Better some fresh ingredients, for longer, than no fresh ingredients, sooner. 

Add mushrooms to your boxed mushroom soup. Add cabbage to your frozen dumplings. You’ll stretch your fresh ingredients + boost the nutrition of your shelf-stable products.

A CARROT SAVED IS A CARROT EARNED

Reexamine your recipes and  ask yourself:

• Will this ingredient satiate me/ fill me up? (rice, beans, pasta, etc)

• Will this satisfy me/ make me happy? (chocolate, cheese, etc)

• Will this offer important nutrients? (kale, raw veggies, etc)

• Is this ingredient critical to the taste of this dish?

Sadly, something like carrots in a stock doesn’t make the cut. The flavor is too subtle, and you’re boiling away all the nutrition. Save these ingredients for dishes where they will shine — in terms of taste, nutrition, and impact.

If you can’t bear to be without your classic mirepoix, use scraps in your stock — carrot peels, the base of your celery, onion skins and ends — items that would normally get thrown away.

BE FLEXIBLE WITH INGREDIENTS

The other day I made too much corned beef. So the next day I made split pea soup, then fried rice — both using corned beef as you might use ham. In more mobile times, I’d probably buy ham, but for now we use what we have.

EXTRACT AS MUCH FLAVOR AS POSSIBLE / NO WASTE

The rinds of your lemons. The bones of your chicken. The brine in your pickle jar or feta tub. These are great flavor enhancers that don’t require an extra trip to the grocery store. Before you throw anything away, think to yourself, how can I use this? 

Additionally, we are accustomed to prepping our food a certain way. But many of these components are edible. Consider: the leaves of a cauliflower, the stems of soft herbs, the knobby end of zucchini, the broccoli stalk. In some instances, you will have to shave off the fibrous part or cook for a little longer, but otherwise, these vegetable parts are totally edible.

CASE STUDY: Kale, White Bean, Vegan Sausage Soup

The stock was made with not just a chicken carcass, but also the skin. Skin is not always added to stock, but I couldn’t throw it away. Skin adds a “roasted” taste, along with salt and fat — all components that ensure this soup isn’t as austere as its modest ingredients imply.

Use the stems of the kale. Just boil them a little longer than the leaves.

Did you know you can freeze bread? Just slice it (if it’s not already) and freeze. Oftentimes, I get little broken bits in my frozen bread bags which make them too small for normal bread usage. Here, I used them for cheesy crouton floats, and added the crumbs in the bottom of the bag into the soup itself (actually many of your favorite soups contain bread — ribollita, gazpacho…).

Got a parmesan rind? Drop it in the broth. You know how it goes by now. What’s normally thrown away can add fat, salt, umami — FLAVOR.

USE FRESH WHEN IT MATTERS, SHELF-STABLE WHEN IT DOESN’T 

For example, right now I have fresh onions and I also have dried onion flakes. I’ll save the fresh as a taco topping, where the freshness is important. I’ll use the dried in a stew or soup, where the onions will melt away anyway.

LEAN ON INGREDIENTS THAT COUNT

When you’re making a meal, you’re assembling a team. Skip the wallflowers and go with the jacks and jills-of-all-trade. Sausages (meat or vegan) are great because they offer a trifecta of flavor — fat, salt, spice. When used in a soup, you can even get by using water instead of broth — it’s that flavorful. Other MVP ingredients — strong cheeses, bacon, ham, anchovies, fermented black bean paste, miso.

LET YOUR TECHNIQUE ADD FLAVOR

Improve your dish — without dipping into your food supply. Cut your ingredients small so you have the satisfaction factor in every bite. Brown the sausage, toast your bread, broil your cheese. The Maillard reaction lends complexity and depth by virtue of heat and time (ie: something you have in unlimited supply).

MAKE LESS FOOD 

Of course, use food that’s about to go bad, but otherwise, try not to cook more than you can eat/ can tolerate eating day after day — especially if the dish doesn’t freeze well or you don’t have room even if it did. If you’re stress baking or cooking, halve recipes. You’ll get the same amount of stress-relief, with less waste.

How are you cooking differently these days? Share any tips, questions, or comments below! 

Apple Cider Char Siu Pork - My Greenwich Wine & Food Festival demo

Whew! I just got back from the Greenwich Wine & Food Festival. It was a crazy whirlwind and a complete blast — so many amazing food vendors, talks, games, and music… all set on the beautiful waterfront. Check out pics on my Instagram here and here.

Though I’m pretty beat, I just had to jump on here and give you my recipe for my apple cider char siu pork, the dish I cooked on the demo kitchen stage. Shame on me for not having it ready!

As I mentioned in my demo, I developed this dish for three reasons:

1) It’s a variation on the dish I made when I was first eliminated on Food Network Star. My dish was good, but my presentation didn’t impress the judges. So this was my chance for demo redemption … if only for myself.

2) I wanted to do a home-cooked riff on traditional char siu pork, a dish that perhaps you’ve had but never thought to make for yourself.

3) Char siu ingredients — cinnamon, star anise, cloves, ginger — are very much in line with the flavors of fall. Add apple cider and you’ve got a Chinese-Autumn dish that’s perfect for the season.

Traditional char siu pork is usually something you’d buy because it requires a special oven and esoteric ingredients. I’m pretty happy that this home version comes really close to the original, uses basic ingredients, and swaps out the typical shoulder or belly for lean and fast-cooking tenderloin.

I also call for something called “apple cider molasses”, a fun ingredient you can make at home. Did you know pomegranate molasses is simply reduced pomegranate juice? That was my thinking here. When you reduce the apple cider, you get a deeper, sweeter, thicker liquid that’s gives great flavor and body to the glaze. The concentrated sugar content also helps give the pork that sticky-sweet-and-spiced yum factor.

You can even make a bigger batch of molasses and use it like a syrup or sweetener. Try it in a vinaigrette, or a pop of flavor in your seltzer, or even a topping on yogurt or ice cream. Once you have the apple cider molasses, this dish only takes 30 minutes.

RECIPE

5 cups apple cider
¾ cup soy sauce
¼ cup hoisin sauce
6 garlic cloves, smashed
2-inch knob of ginger, peeled and sliced
3 tablespoons annatto seeds (optional — adds some of the red color characteristic of char siu pork, but very little flavor)
5 cinnamon sticks
½ cup star anise pods
1 tablespoon whole cloves
¼ cup honey

2 boneless pork tenderloins — 2-2 ½ lb in total
1 tablespoon 5-spice powder
1 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil

Add apple cider to medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower to simmer and reduce until 20% of volume, about 1 hour. You will have about 1 cup of reduced apple cider “molasses”. This can be done up to 3 days ahead. 

Preheat oven to 425°F. Line baking sheet with foil, making sure it is entirely covered. 

Dry pork loin with a paper towel and cut each tenderloin into two halves, so you have four pieces total. Rub with five spice powder and salt. Bring large skillet to medium-high heat and add oil. Sear the pork loin on all sides, 3-4 minutes on each side. 

Place pork pieces on baking sheet and place in the oven on the middle rack. Roast for 15 minutes. 

While the pork is roasting, add apple cider molasses, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, garlic, ginger, annatto seeds, cinnamon, cloves, and star anise to a saucepan. Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer. Simmer for 15 minutes, then remove from heat. Strain glaze and add honey. 

Remove pork from oven and turn oven to broil. One by one, place pork pieces in a medium bowl and spoon glaze on top, making sure the entire surface is coated. 

Place pork on top rack and broil for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to rest. Serve with remaining reserved glaze. 

Smoked Lamb & More - A Father-Daughter Feast & Giveaway! (closed)

Make sure to read to the end for an amazing giveaway offer! — NOW CLOSED

We had a plan. My dad would make one dish featuring the amazing Hestan Nanobond 11” skillet at my parents’ house, and then I’d do my own interpretation of the dish at my own home.

Yes, the skillet came in a set with a saucepan and saute pan, I said. You can use those if you want, but they’d just be extra. There’s no need.

So I got to my parents’ house for part one of this post, and guess what?? He had developed a whole menu using all the components of the set.

So extra!! What about the original plan??

And yet… I couldn’t get mad. When it comes to food, my extra-ness didn’t come from nowhere. It came from my dad.

So that’s how I ended up being sous chef to my Dad, just like when I was growing up.

First, a note about my Dad before we get into the recipes.

1) He’s a doer. My childhood house is filled with his projects — everything from handmade birdhouses, to a waterfall spout in the bathroom, to an entire house addition that he designed and built basically by himself.

2) He thrives on experimentation. When it comes to food, he’ll spend months or even years trying to perfect his macaron or lasagna or smoked ribs. He’ll try various tools and gadgets and when he finds something he likes, he will stick to it forever. (Which makes shopping for him a very high-stakes gamble since he will either love it or never touch it.)

And that’s what brought us here — a compulsion to create.

The star of the dinner was a rack of lamb. Our goal was to develop flavor in two ways: sear on the stove for major Maillard reaction, and then infuse with that extra something in the smoker. The Hestan Nanobond skillet was amazing at this because it can withstand temperatures of up to 1050˚F, creating a super-savory crust on the range. Then, off it went into the smoker. Even though the skillet looks fancy and luxe, it’s an absolute workhorse that can go into the smoker without looking any worse for wear (super-hard and non-porous titanium surface FTW).

The key is to sear all sides of the lamb chops. Get in every nook and cranny. Tilt your pan if you need to! You want the hot hot heat of the skillet on the meat.

I know lamb can be quite controversial (my mom won’t touch the stuff), but I think the smoke rounds out the gaminess of the lamb, giving it a fullness that’s less aggressively LAMB.

The rest of the meal continued in other Hestan pieces…

Taishan cauliflower is common in Taiwanese cooking and is a more delicate yet fuller-bodied cauliflower. Any member of the cruciferous family benefits from browning, and here the Taishan gets even sweeter and nuttier.

We also used the saucepan to make garlic-infused butter. We spread that on some baguettes and then threw them in the smoker. Why not?

And last, once the lamb was done, we had to do the extra credit thing. When we have family time and a new, high-performing cookware set ...  this is our go-time.

We cleaned out the skillet and made a clafoutis. Was it extra? Yes of course. That was the point.

Father’s Day is coming up and if your Dad is anything like mine, he won’t want a gadget or a tool or a tie — he’ll want a piece of versatile cookware that will serve him well for all types of cooking exploits — from the stove to the grill to the smoker and beyond.

• Nanobond can handle heat up to 1050˚F for high heat searing, and is lighter, faster to hear, and easier to maintain than cast iron. F

• NanoBond skillets have 20% more surface area than traditional stainless steel skillets for optimal browning/flavor development.

• The molecular titanium bonded stainless steel creates a non-porous surface that's 4x harder than traditional stainless steel, making it scratch/stain resistant.

• Nanobond cookware cleans up like new, even after being directly on the grill and smoker

Check out the Hestan Nanobond 11” skillet here and the full 5-piece set here!

---

GIVEAWAY - CLOSED & WINNER ANNOUNCED & CONTACTED

I’m teaming up with Hestan Culinary to give one lucky winner an 11” skillet (a $280 value)! Gift it to the Dad in your life or keep it for yourself… I won’t tell. :)

Here’s how to enter:

1️⃣ Follow @jessica_tom and @hestanculinary on Instagram
2️⃣ Tell me what you’d sear in the Hestan Nanobond 11” skillet
3️⃣ Tag two friends

Winner will be chosen at random. This giveaway ends Sunday, June 16, 11:59 EST. Good luck and can’t wait to hear your searing ideas. 😋

This post is sponsored by Hestan Culinary, a company that makes incredible cookware I use daily even in my non-sponsored life.

SMOKED LAMB RECIPE  

2 lb rack of lamb
Salt
Pepper
3 tablespoons grapeseed oil

Trim the fat on the lamb and liberally season with salt and pepper. Allow to come to room temperature.

Prepare and set your smoker to medium heat.

Heat skillet on stovetop on high. When a drop of water immediately sizzles and evaporates, add grapeseed oil. To see if the oil is hot enough, use the chopstick test. Submerge the chopstick tips into the oil. If oil immediately bubbles up, the oil is ready.

Gently add the lamb onto the skillet and sear, about 3-4 minutes on all sides.

When the lamb feels firm to the touch and is evenly browned, dispose of excess oil and bring to smoker. Smoke the lamb in the skillet for 25 minutes. Remove from smoker and allow to rest. Carve and serve!

BLUEBERRY SKILLET CLAFOUTIS RECIPE

2 ½ tablespoons butter
½ cup sugar
½ cup flour
3 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 ½ cup berries of your choice

Preheat oven to 375˚F.

Gently melt butter in skillet. Add the sugar, flour, eggs, and milk. Whisk to mix.

Lightly coat the berries in flour (this is to prevent them from sinking). Add berries to skillet and gently incorporate.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the center is just set. Remove from oven and serve warm with ice cream.

Lunar New Year Eats - Long, Long Life Noodles

Towards the end of any Chinese banquet -- a wedding, birthday, and most definitely Lunar New Year -- you will get a giant platter of noodles.

You’ll reach for your serving but the noodles won’t stop. They’re long and tangled. You look for a knife, but of course there aren’t any knives at a Chinese banquet table, just chopsticks. Not that your grandma would allow you to cut them. Aiya, do you want to cut your life short?

So you pull and pull and before you know it, your small chopstick pinch turns into an entire plateful.

These noodles aren’t just any noodles, they’re longevity noodles -- uncut and extra long. The long life symbolism and somewhat comical way you eat them got me thinking… what if all the ingredients in Longevity Noodles were long and uncut?

And so I added long beans, flat Chinese chives, enoki mushrooms, and bean sprouts. No stunted peas or diced anything -- we’re looking for length! I gave the veggies a little trim but otherwise kept them at full length.

When it comes to a long life, might as well quintiple down, right?

RECIPE

Note: Stir-fries are easy and very adaptable. All the work is in the prep. Cooking happens in a matter of minutes. The key to stir-frying is to time your ingredients and know how they cook. For example, of all the vegetables in this recipe, only the long beans and Chinese chives sear quickly. The mushrooms and bean sprouts are very watery and will steam before they brown, if they do so at all. So you have to decide what you want to sear and what you want to steam. If you want your ingredients to brown, you may have to cook them in batches so they have room to expel water and brown. Or, you can do as I did and only sear a couple of ingredients, and then add the rest of the watery ingredients to steam all together. This is technically more of a stir-fry/braise, but is equally delicious and a whole lot faster than a true stir-fry.

½ lb longevity noodles (Or any Asian wheat noodle. I like thinner noodles, but they are more prone to breaking which kinda happened here 😬)

1 ½ tbsp oyster sauce
1 ½ tbsp hoisin sauce
3 tbsp soy sauce
½ tsp white pepper
1 tsp sesame oil

1 tbsp grapeseed oil
⅓ lb long beans
½ lb Chinese chives
⅓ lb bean sprouts
⅓ lb enoki mushrooms

Cook noodles according to package instructions. Remove from water when very al dente, since they will continue to cook and absorb water once they’re re-added to the stir-fry. For fresh noodles, this means you could be cooking the noodles for as little as a minute.

Wash, dry, and trim all your vegetables. Mix the oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, white pepper, and sesame oil and set aside.

Heat the wok on high until a drop of water sizzles immediately. Add grapeseed oil. When the oil shimmers, add ginger and stir until fragrant, about 15-30 seconds. Add long beans and stir-fry until the beans start to get some color. Season the beans and other vegetables as you go. Add Chinese chives and continue to stir-fry until they take on color.

Add the mushrooms and bean sprouts. Stir-fry until wilted, about 2-3 minutes. Add the noodles and oyster sauce mixture. Mix gently so you don’t break the noodles.

TIPS & TRICKS

A wok is ideal for stir-fry because its shape is conducive to the browning/steaming method I described above. The ingredients on the bottom sear while the ingredients, piled on top like a bowl, are cooked with steam. (As opposed to a skillet where everything is basically level.) It’s also easier to mix ingredients in a bowl shape. Of course, the classic way of using a wok is to put all ingredients in contact with the wok, ensuring even browning. You control the heat level by moving the ingredients up or down the sides of the wok.

The standard for Chinese chefs is a carbon steel wok, but they can be hard for the beginner or casual cook since they require a somewhat onerous breaking-in process, consistent seasoning (maintaining the oily surface that keeps the wok nonstick-like), and can’t be used with acidic ingredients. That’s why I use the Hestan Nanobond Wok, which combines the best of all worlds. It can be heated to extremely high temperatures like a carbon steel wok (and unlike a non-stick pan), but the titanium coating is non-porous, meaning foods easily release without seasoning or a chemical coating. And unlike cast-iron, the Hestan wok conducts heat quickly, meaning you can cook in a flash. That’s the spirit of stir-fry!

Lunar New Year Eats - Lion’s Head in the Grass Meatball

If you love Thanksgiving, you’re bound to love Lunar New Year too. The holiday is all about family, beloved traditional dishes, and copious amounts of food.

I’m not here to start beef with Thanksgiving -- as far as I’m concerned, we should have a big eating holiday every month -- but Lunar New Year has a couple extra things going for it.

(I’m writing from a Chinese perspective, but countries throughout Asia celebrate with their own traditions.)

For one, when you’re a kid, you get hongbao or lai see, red envelopes filled with money. You receive them from all the married people in your family and at a big party, you can make quite the killing. (This is fun in a different, more expensive way once you’re married.)

Second, Chinese culture is filled with food symbolism. Noodles are a symbol of long life. Fish is good luck because the word is pronounced the same as the word for abundance. Dumplings symbolize gold ingots. The more you eat, the richer you’ll be in the next year. Win-win.

I invented Lion’s Head in the Grass as a way to merge two symbolic powerhouses. We are entering the Year of the Pig, so pork is a must. Pigs are lucky animals and eating pork is said to bring strength and prosperity.

And with its plentiful leafy greens, cabbage represents wealth. This is why you’ll find jade cabbages in many Chinese households. Just make sure you point them inwards, or according to feng shui, your money will fly right out the door.

Lion’s Head Meatballs are Chinese steamed or braised pork meatballs. Stuff that flavorful pork mixture inside a head of cabbage? Lion’s head in the grass.

RECIPE:

MEATBALL
1lb ground pork, 80% lean
½ cup garlic chives, chopped (if you can’t find, can also substitute scallions)
1 tbsp minced ginger
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp grapeseed oil
1 ½ tbsp soy sauce
1 ½ tsp Xiaoxing wine
¼ tsp white pepper
2 tbsp salt
½ tsp sugar

1 medium head of cabbage
1 tbsp sliced ginger

Mix all the meatball ingredients together. Stir until just incorporated, making sure not to overmix, otherwise the meat will be too dense. Set aside and let the meat mixture come to room temperature.

Remove the core of the cabbage using a paring knife. Continue cutting into the cabbage, carving out pieces of cabbage. Once you begin seeing the layers of the cabbage, and you have enough room for leverage, use a spoon to scoop out the inside. Make shallow cuts into the cabbage with the paring knife, then remove the excess cabbage with a spoon. Continue until the outer shell of the cabbage is ½ inch - ¾ inch thick.

Fill the inside of the cabbage with the pork mixture. Pack lightly, making sure there’s still some airiness inside.

Boil a full kettle of water. You will need this as you replenish your steaming liquid.

Place a round pan grate in the bottom of your wok. Pour hot water to the level of the grate and add sliced ginger.

Place stuffed cabbage onto the grate, cover, and simmer on medium for 50 minutes. When the water gets low, refill with the water in your kettle. Serve in a bowl with your steaming broth.

TIPS & TRICKS

If you don’t have a wok with a domed lid, you can use a wide skillet and then cover with a foil tent. You can also use a lidded pot.

Ideally you should use a wok. I use the Hestan Nanobond Wok, which is wide and flat at the bottom (as opposed to narrow or rounded), which means better contact with my range’s flame. When compared to a flat lid, the domed lid fares better with moisture retention and air circulation. Plus, a domed lid is high enough to clear a whole head of cabbage. :D

Food Network Star Episode 2 Dish: Yellow Chicken Curry with Spaghetti Squash

The challenge: make a dish in the shades of your spatula. The options were: red, yellow, purple, green, and red. Which one would you want?

As I mentioned in my Episode 2 recap, I was pretty happy with yellow. You can go sweet: mango, pineapple, oranges. You can go savory: curry, turmeric, spaghetti squash, corn, yellow squash, endives…

the dish as it appeared on Food Network Star

In the end, my teammate Adam and I chose to go savory and made a chicken meatball in a coconut curry with crunchy spaghetti squash and pickled corn. What I love about this dish is the different textures. Oftentimes, curries or stews suffer from sameness syndrome -- an unexciting monotony because everything kind of blends into each other. We tried to avoid that, building flavors and textures from top to bottom, including an al dente spaghetti squash, a creamy curry with bell peppers, a pillowy flavor-packed chicken meatball, bright and fresh pickled corn, and toasty coconut.

I’ve slightly adapted the recipe from what we did during the competition, and made it more suitable for a single person to cook in a home kitchen. For example, here the meatballs are smaller and simmered in the curry, rather than pressure cooked. On the show, I used a method of blanching, salting and squeezing the spaghetti squash (described here), but that’s a bit labor intensive with all the other components so I left that out here.

Also, since this was a team challenge, I’m not exactly sure what Adam did. So… I filled in the blanks with what I know and love.

RECIPE
Yellow Chicken Curry with Spaghetti Squash

1 2-lb spaghetti squash

Curry
1-inch knob of ginger
1 large onion
3 cloves garlic
2 yellow bell peppers
1 lemongrass stalk
1 can coconut milk (reduced fat or full, whatever your preference)
2 oz yellow curry paste

Meatball
1 lb ground chicken or turkey
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
3 tbsp dried chopped onion
1 tsp black pepper

Pickled Corn
½ cup water
½ cup white vinegar
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3 ears of corn
½ tsp grated ginger

¼ cup grated coconut

Slice the spaghetti squash and remove all the seeds. Microwave for 15 minutes.

Prepare your curry ingredients. Mince the garlic and ginger and dice the onions and bell peppers. Heat a large pot to medium-high and add olive oil. Add all the ingredients and season with salt. Sweat until onions are semi-translucent, about 7-10 minutes. Add the coconut milk and curry paste. Slice lemongrass into three large pieces and add to pot. Simmer for 5 minutes.

To make meatballs, mix all ingredients until just incorporated. Do not overmix or else the meatballs will be too dense. After the curry has simmered, make small, loosely-packed meatballs and gently place them into the curry. Simmer with the lid on for 10 minutes.

To make the pickled corn, add the water, white vinegar, sugar and salt to a small saucepan. Heat on medium-high until sugar and salt have dissolved. Take off heat. Slice the corn kernels off the corn and add to pickling brine. Add grated ginger. Let sit for at least 10 minutes -- the more time, the better!

Toast the coconut in the oven using the broiler, or use the toast setting on your toaster oven. Remove when golden brown.  

Scrape the strands out of the spaghetti squash. The interior strands should still be crisp, like biting an apple. Remove the lemongrass from the curry. Place the spaghetti squash on the bottom of the plate, then add curry and meatballs, pickled corn, and toasted coconut.

We got some flack for our plating, so if you have a better presentation idea, let me know :P.  

TIPS & TRICKS

• Don’t worry about browning the meat or onions. The curry has so much flavor, that it would overpower any browning flavors anyway. Plus, brown would ruin the yellow look!

• The microwave can be your friend! I love it for vegetables because it heats the existing water in the plant -- unlike steaming or blanching which *adds* water, resulting in a potentially waterlogged or diluted end-product.

• I’m a fan of adding chopped dried onions into my meatballs. They act like bread crumbs -- absorbing the meat juices, adding texture and lightness -- but also bring a lot of flavor.

Italo-Asian Mushroom Melange

I’m an inefficient shopper -- and I’m okay with that. I’d like to think I shop in the French style, but with a twist. 

When the French shop, they don’t head to the megamart. They get their baguette at the boulangerie, meat at the butcher, cheese at the fromagerie, and produce and fresh flowers at the farmer’s market. 

Talk about #grocerygoals! But I’d venture to say you can do something a little different. Nowadays, I bop around with my groceries, but with ethnic markets. I get my spices, herbs, and rare mangoes from the Indian grocery store. I get much of my produce -- especially fruit, mushrooms, and chilis -- from the Korean grocer. I get my olives and pastry fixes at the Greek grocery, tomatoes and corn from my Jersey Local farmer’s market … you get the idea. 

I love Wegman’s and Whole Foods as much as the next girl, but their “international” sections can be a little underwhelming. Why limit yourself to 1/16 of an aisle when you can have the whole store? 

This Italo-Asian Mushroom Melange is an example of what multicultural shopping can get you. I got these adorable mushroom pasta shapes and Calabrian chilis from an Italian specialty market. I got fresh mushrooms from the Korean grocer. And dried morels from a long-ago French vacation. You might be tempted to make one Italian dish out of all Italian ingredients, but that’d be like wearing head-to-toe of one brand. You can do better! 

Is this an efficient way of grocery shopping? Absolutely not. But it’s a lot more fun and horizon-expanding. 

RECIPE

Serves 4-6 

1 shallot
2 lbs fresh mushrooms -- I used a combination of baby portobello, oyster, white beech and shiitake
1 oz dried morels (optional but a lovely touch) 
¼ cup dry white wine like Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio 

2 cups pasta -- This is a fun mushroom shape that actually tastes like mushrooms because of dried porcini in the dough
1 ½ tablespoons butter
1 heaping teaspoon crushed Calabrian chili (if you don’t have this, feel free to use red pepper flakes) 
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
Olive oil
Salt

If using, rehydrate morels for at least 10 minutes in lukewarm water. Save the soaking liquid. 

Dice shallot and wash and cut mushrooms. Place two frying pans on the stove on medium heat. Once hot, add olive oil, season shallot with salt then saute until translucent. Add mushrooms to both pans, season, and saute until mushrooms are browned, about 4-5 minutes. Deglaze both pans with white wine. 

Fill large pot with water and liberally salt (it should taste like the sea). Bring to a boil. Cook pasta until slightly underdone, about 6-7 minutes. Do not rinse the pasta because you want some of the starchiness in the final dish.  

Consolidate the mushrooms in one pan. Add the soaked morels, butter, and pasta. Add ¼ cup of the pasta water and ¼ cup of the morel soaking stock (if you didn’t use dried mushrooms, add more pasta water). Stir until butter is melted and the pasta is fully cooked. Add more liquid if the dish seems too dry. 

Right before serving, add parsley and Calabrian chilis. Stir. 

TIPS & TRICKS 

• It might seem fussy to use two frying pans, but you don’t want to overcrowd the mushrooms. Mushrooms contain a lot of water and if they’re packed too tight, the water will steam-cook the mushrooms, rather than brown them.

• It’s okay if your pasta isn’t totally ad dente. A softer pasta will mimic the texture of the mushrooms, making for a more blended bite. The fun of this dish is that the pasta seamlessly meshes with the mushrooms.   

• When you add the butter with the pasta water and mushroom stock, you’re creating an emulsion. An emulsion is two unlike ingredients (like oil and water) that are suspended together. The pasta water is key because the starches create a sort of “scaffolding” where the butter can hang out. Think of roux in a mac and cheese -- the flour stabilizes the cheese. In this case, the starch in the pasta water stabilizes the butter.

Pork Shrimp & Chive Dumplings

Some people run. Others doodle. I like to make dumplings. 

To me a stack of dumpling skins is like a yoga class -- no distractions, just a moving meditation while you focus on spoon, fold, cross, pinch and repeat. 

While dumplings aren’t strictly weeknight meal-material, they are easy weekend projects that set the groundwork for easy weeknight meals. Though if you’re reasonably nimble with your hands, you could knock out 50 dumplings in 40 minutes and if you have a helper, half that! Pop some veggies in the oven and roast them while you prep. You can have dinner on the table in an hour or so. 

This is what a weeknight meal typically looks like for me: a small amount of meat, a small amount of carbs, a cooked veg and a raw veg. I also try to make enough for my husband and I to eat for lunch the next day. See? Small weekend project, big weekday payoff. 
 

RECIPE 

Makes 50 dumplings

1 lb raw, peeled, deveined shrimp
1 lb ground pork
½ cup of chopped garlic chives, flowering chives, or scallions
1 egg
1 teaspoon shaoxing wine or dry sherry
1 teaspoon white pepper (black pepper also works) 
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons salt
1 12-oz package of wonton skins 

Finely chop the shrimp so it is almost paste-like (but not quite). Mix with the rest of the ingredients, except for the wonton skins. Br careful not to overwork, otherwise the meat will be tough. I recommend using your hands! 

Set up your station: a sheet tray (for your finished dumplings), a bowl of water (to seal the dumplings), your meat, and the wonton skins, covered by a damp paper towel to prevent drying out. 

Spoon about 1 heaping teaspoon of meat into the center of the wonton skin. Fold your dumpling like the image below, using water to seal the triangle and the “arms”. When done, place on the sheet tray, careful not to overlap the dumplings. Repeat until all the wonton skins are done.   
 

To cook: Bring water to a boil in a wide saute pan. Drop dumplings into water and cook for about 5 minutes, or until meat is cooked through. If boiling from frozen, boil for 6-7 minutes.

To freeze: Place baking sheet filled with dumplings in freezer. Freeze until just-frozen, about 1 hour. Then place in a freezer bag and save for a weeknight meal!

Serve with a dipping sauce of soy sauce and rice vinegar. Proportions are to taste! If it’s still too salty for you, add water.

TIPS & TRICKS

• If you want to experiment with adding more flavorings to the filling like cabbage, water chestnuts, etc… don’t. You only have 1 teaspoon in each dumpling so they’ll come at the expense of the meat.

• You can pulse the shrimp in a food processor, but be careful not to overdo it. You still want the shrimp to have texture (think salsa and not tomato sauce).

• It might seem like the meat mixture has a lot of salt, but remember that the salt will leach out into the boiling liquid/broth.

• You want to use a wide saute pan when boiling the dumplings so they cook in one layer. If you boil in a pot, the wontons will knock against each other not only side-to-side, but also top-to-bottom, potentially ruining all your great folding work!

• Make an easy broth out of the boiling liquid. Add a couple slices of ginger and soy sauce to the water. Then add dumplings and cook. The pork/shrimp/chive mixture will add flavor and the wonton skins will add starchy body. Serve with sliced chives.

• If you have extra meat after you’ve used all your wontons skins, fry it up with a little oil and deglaze the pan with black or rice vinegar. This creates an extra-savory topping that gives a hint of what’s inside (think spiced chickpeas on top of hummus).

Cooks vs Cons Round 2: Korean Beef with Toasted Quinoa, Quick Pickles & Miso Egg Emulsion

Round 2...candy! Oh boy. I don't know about you, but I've never cooked with candy before. As Bruno and Geoffrey Zakarian pointed out, it's hard to know how candy will cook. Will it melt? Hold its shape? Curdle? 

I once tried to brûlé gummy bears and it was a disaster. The heat seems to toughen the gelatin, making an impossibly tacky bite. 

So instead of opting for licorice, gumdrops, or  jelly beans, which contain mysterious ingredients with unknown properties, I used clean and simple lollipops. Sugar, flavoring and coloring. Not ideal, but not horrifying either. 

We weren't allowed to make desserts (too easy), so my mind immediately went to Korean food. Korean food is actually pretty sweet, but it's tempered by salt, spice and funk. No one-note sweetness here. I called on my go-to flavors: miso, soy, ginger, garlic and sesame (the same flavors that are in one my most popular recipes of all time). I chose pink lemonade and lemon lollipops, thinking that citrus flavors were better than, say, cherry or grape (gag). 

Once I knew how I'd feature the surprise ingredient, I worked from there. What works best with sweet and spicy marinated beef? 

Bibimbap! Concepting the rest was easy. I'd adapt the classic Korean rice-and-veggies dish with my own spin. A quick pickle added some brightness and crunch, toasted quinoa with nori contributed an earthy, umami base (and mimicked the delicious burnt rice in the bottom of a stone bibimbap bowl). I also made a miso-egg emulsion, a hollandaise-like sauce that nods to the raw egg that is traditionally stirred into bibimbop. 

The recipe below is sequenced for a tight 30-minute cook. There's no wasted time waiting for things to cook. But if you want a saner experience, then you can always make each component one by one.

RECIPE:

Beef: 
1/2 cup of sugar -- ground-up citrus candy or actual sugar
1 small onion
8 cloves of garlic
1 ping-pong-ball-sized knob of ginger
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 Scotch Bonnet chili 

1 lb thinly sliced top sirloin 

Toasted Quinoa: 
1 cup red quinoa
10 sheets of roasted seaweed

Quick Pickles:
4 radishes
3 baby cucumbers
1 tablespoon salt 

Miso Egg Emulsion:
4 egg yolks
1 heaping teaspoon miso paste
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
½ teaspoon chili powder
1 tablespoon butter 

2 tablespoons black sesame seed
¼ cup chopped chives

Rinse quinoa and place in pot with two cups of water. Bring to a boil on high, then cover and simmer on low until nice and fluffy. The "tails" of the quinoa should be sticking out. (This didn't happen during my episode... perhaps because the stove was so hot the water boiled off too quickly and/or the quinoa was old and took longer than normal to "bloom".) 

For the marinade, blend the onion, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil and chili. Place in saucepan and reduce on medium-high. 

For the miso egg emulsion, blend the egg yolks, miso, rice vinegar, chili powder and butter. 

For the quick pickles, slice the cucumbers and radishes with a mandolin on the thinnest setting. Salt and let rest. 

Slice the beef and place it in the reduced marinade. While the beef is cooking and picking up the glaze, toast half the quinoa in a frying pan with a teaspoon of olive oil. Add the other half of the quinoa, add sliced nori and reserve. 

Assemble your plate. Squeeze out the excess water from the pickles and place. Add the toasted quinoa with nori and Korean candy beef. Pour miso egg emulsion on top, or serve on the side. Add chopped chives and black sesame seeds. 

RELAX because that was an intense 30 minutes of cooking.

Cooks vs Cons Round 1: Polenta Gnocchi with Creamy Corn Soubise

When Geoffrey Zakarian announced we had to make pasta for the first round of Cooks vs Cons...I wasn't very excited. 

I'll occasionally eat pasta when I'm out to dinner, but I rarely make it at home and when I do, it's always dried pasta or sometimes pre-made fresh ravioli. I know I must make fresh pasta. This has been ingrained in me after years of watching cooking shows. 

But I do have one pasta recipe up my sleeve: gnocchi. With some adjustments, I thought I could make it a 30-minute version, with some extra time for a dynamic, complex sauce. 

My first trick was adding polenta to the dough. Usually pasta dough needs ~30 minutes for the gluten bonds to form, but I had no such luxury. So I added instant polenta, which creates instant dough "glue". Bonus points because corn is the surprise ingredient and of course polenta is cornmeal. 

My second trick was to make an onion soubise. I first had soubise at Momofuku Ko, in a now-iconic poached egg with caviar and potato chips dish. A soubise traditionally calls for softened onions and cream or bechamel. But what about using corn as a not-too-rich thickener?? I gave it a try, and it worked! 

And finally, corn and pasta are both soft and starchy. Where's the pop? So I added chipotle puree to the dough, along with ground annatto seeds for color. I swapped the traditional Parmesan with Mexican cotija, to keep with the Mexican flavors. I also added some tortilla chips and popcorn for texture. 

This was a tough round, especially since I don't really make or eat pasta. But these gnocchi may make it into my everyday rotation...

POLENTA GNOCCHI WITH CREAMY CORN SOUBISE RECIPE

Gnocchi: 
¾ cup ricotta cheese
3 tablespoons grated cotija cheese
2 tablespoons potato flour
1 ½ tablespoons instant polenta
1 ½ tablespoons flour + extra for rolling
2 tablespoons chipotle puree
1 tablespoon ground annatto seeds
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
semolina flour for gnocchi dusting
salt 

Soubise: 
2 tablespoons butter
2 large Vidalia onions
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
¾ cup heavy cream
1 cup of corn
salt / pepper

Garnish:
cilantro
tortilla chips
popcorn
sumac
chili powder 

Sandwich the ricotta between four paper towels to soak up excess water. Salt your pasta water and bring to a boil. 

Melt butter in a saute pan. Slice onions and add, along with cumin, oregano and salt. (If you want to do this under 30 minutes, I recommend using a mandolin to sweat the onions faster. Slice the onions directly over the pan.) Sweat the onions until semi-translucent, about 7 minutes. 

Mix the ricotta, cotija cheese, potato flour, flour, polenta, chipotle puree, annatto and eggs. Form into a dough. Roll into snakes a little wider than your finger and cut into 3/4" slices with a bench scraper. 

Add the sauteed onions to a blender and add the cream, corn, white wine vinegar and salt to taste. This is your creamy corn soubise.

Add the gnocchis to the salted boiled water. Remove with a spider or slotted spoon when they float at the top for about 30 seconds. 

Place gnocchi in a bowl and add onion soubise plus cilantro, sumac, chili powder, more corn, sumac, crushed tortilla chips, and chili powder. Or not! The judges weren't fans of all the fixins, and I kind of agree. But at home, it's up to you. 

Spiralized Zucchini Noodles with Peanut Sauce

This is for those times when you don't want your zucchini noodles to taste like diet noodles. The key is really cooking the noodles down in the sauce. The noodles become the vehicle for the fatty flavor of the peanut-sesame sauce. It's a beautiful thing. 

Another key: some brightness in the form of lime, ginger, and cilantro. You don't want to feel like you're eating straight peanut butter (save that for eating straight peanut butter). 

RECIPE: 

Spiralize 4 zucchinis on the largest setting. Slice 1/3 of a cabbage into 1/4-inch ribbons. Add cabbage and zucchini in wok with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Saute on high uncovered for 3 minutes until fragrant. Turn stove to low and cover for 5 minutes, to sweat out the veggies.

In the meantime, make peanut sauce and the veggies you don't want to overcook. Mix 2 heaping tablespoons of peanut butter, 1 tablespoon of sesame oil, 1 1/2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar, and 1 teaspoon of chopped ginger. Chop two bell peppers and spiralize one carrot. Add veggies and peanut mixture to the veggies. You'll have to break up the peanut butter. Resist the urge to water it down because there's plenty of water in the wok. You don't want the sauce too watery. 

Simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Add juice of 1 lime, cilantro, and toasted peanuts before serving. 

Friday Links | 5.8.15

Happy Friday! This weekend I'm seeing my family for Mother's Day so there will be a lot of cooking, eating, and perhaps a visit to the zoo or a garden (Tom family traditions). I'm also seeing Ex Machina tonight. I think it's funny that Ava, the AI woman, is a Natalie Portman lookalike (though isn't played by Natalie Portman). I have a theory that all sciencey guys are in love with Natalie Portman. 

Anyway, on to links! 

Mariah Carey starts her 2-year Caesar's Palace "residency". Jon Caraminica of the New York Times basically describes her show as a case of morbid rubber-necking: a train wreck you can't take your eyes off. Yikes. In college, I saw Celine during her Caesar's residency and it was magical. I hope Mariah can bring it! Surely she has it in her. 

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about my friend Andrea, the co-inventor of the LuminAID inflatable solar light. Well, now her former professor has a Kickstarter with a very similar product called the SolarPuff. WTF, right? I know a little about this, but I don't feel equipped to comment on this very serious intellectual property issue. Not to mention student-teacher ethics. So I'll just quote from the comment board, where people have not been shy about calling the project out: 

Like others in the comments below, I have given $1 only in order to help shed some light (pun intended) on the backstory of this project. I was once a student of Alice's, (and later a collaborator and co-teacher) and I was a student in the studio Alice taught in which she claims to have asked students to work with inflatable lights - this never happened. Anna and Andrea began to develop the LuminAid from their own independent research, LuminAid was completely their design and Alice started presenting the idea of the SolarPuff as her own only after Anna and Andrea made it clear that they would continue to develop LuminAid beyond their initial work in the studio. Its unfortunate to see that this misrepresentation has continued and the SolarPuff is being passed off as something it is not - there is certainly room in the world for many great designers to be working on behalf of the public good - but this seems like a good old fashioned case of intellectual theft and crafty marketing. It should be fine for a teacher to admit being inspired by their students without having to rewrite history to claim influence for the work of others. 

The other day, I posted my interpretation of April Bloomfield's whole-roasted cauliflower -- and she commented on it! I'm not one to get too starry-eyed when a "brand" engages with you (that's what they're supposed to do these days). But I had a major fangirl moment here (I also believe that April Bloomfield does her own social media, but I could be wrong). 

From McSweeney's: 13 Creative Writing Exercises for Women. "Write your greatest fear on a Post-it note. Place the Post-it at the corner of your eye before applying liquid liner, to create the perfect cat-eye." Ha! 

This article describes the lifestyle-office-crafting of Brad Sherman, who has designed offices/event spaces/Instagram stages for startups like Casper, Sakara Life, and Food52. I've been to the Food52 office -- it's basically like a Hamptons beach house meets a professional kitchen -- and I can see why he's in such high demand. 

And, related to the pic above. This goop-exclusive Spiralizer makes me laugh. It's very, very similar to the basic model, but 60% more. Why? Someone please enlighten me.

And, last, here's the recipe for the dish above. This is a true got-home-from-work-wanna-make-something-really-fast recipe. On days like that, I'm not making my own sauce and meatballs. This has a bunch of pre-made stuff, plus some stuff to round it out and make it fresher. 

RECIPE: 

Sautée 3 shallots, 4 garlic cloves, and 3 chopped carrots until sweating. Add 5 pieces of chopped turkey bacon. Add chicken meatballs. (I like Aidells Caramelized Onion. I also like to halve them because I like to spread out the meat more.) 

When everything is browned, add a can of crushed tomatoes and half a bottle of jarred sauce (I like Rao's). Add 3 glugs of soy sauce for extra umami. Simmer for 45 minutes. Add spiralized zucchini. Let them wilt, about 5 minutes or more, depending on how limp you like them. Serve.

Whole Roasted Cauliflower with Tomato, Capers & Beluga Lentils

Or, in praise of the mushy vegetable. 

It's not in vogue to eat mushy vegetables. They must be crispy and seared. Fried or pickled. They must snap, appear vibrant green rather than murky olive. But, can we admit that mushy vegetables are kinda good? 

I'm talking good in an nostalgic way, sure. The way mushy green beans taste like your summer camp in the Catskills. Or how mushy, underseasoned peas take you to the time you licked your baby brother's spoon clean. 

But also good in an objective way. Cruciferous vegetables are unequivocally stinky when they're cook to oblivion -- but isn't that the whole point? Sauerkraut, boiled cabbage, collard greens and ham hocks. All overcooked, the opposite of al dente, all delicious. 

Leave it to April Bloomfield to take the cliché of the greenish-gray British veg and turn it into something delicious. This recipe is adapted from her excellent new cookbook, A Girl and Her Greens: Hearty Meals from the Garden. 

I made one modification out of necessity. I was cooking for vegetarians and someone allergic to fish, so anchovies were out of the question. In went capers, lentils, and some caramelized onions to give this some brine and body. I served this as the main course -- like a whole roast chicken and leg of lamb -- and carved it tableside. No knife needed though. The cauliflower was soft and I used a serving spoon. 

RECIPE: 
(adapted from April Bloomfield's A Girl and her Greens )

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Trim and core cauliflower. Heat olive oil in a cast-iron pot (I used a 7-quart Le Creuset) and sear the cauliflower on all sides. Remove cauliflower and add 3 diced garlic cloves, 2 tablespoons of capers, and 3/4 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary. Stir until fragrant, then add 1 28-oz can of peeled plum tomatoes (cut the tomatoes before hand), 1/4 cup dry white wine, 3 large pinches of chili flakes. 

Return cauliflower to pot and baste with tomato liquid. Simmer for 5 minutes until the tomato mixture is thickened, then cover and place in oven and roast for 30-45 minutes, depending on your preferred mushy level (I did 45 minutes for peak softness). Every 10 minutes, baste the cauliflower with the tomato liquid.

In the meantime, cook 1 cup of beluga lentils in a separate pot (rinse them, cover with 2 cups of water, bring to boil until water is at surface, then cover and simmer on low until lentils are tender, about 20 minutes). Sauté three sliced onions (pearl onions are fun, too) in olive oil until golden brown.

When the cauliflower is ready, mix the lentils and onions with the tomato sauce and serve. 

Broccoli Rabe & Bison Meatball Sub

This dish was a result of a couple what-ifs. What if you didn't have to deal with meatballs rolling out of your sub? What if you could make a meatball out of bison -- juicy and flavorful, but also lean? What if you could get a Philly cheesesteak the way you actually want it -- more veggies, cleaner meat, and just a sprinkling of cheese?

And so this broccoli rabe and bison meatball sub was born. This is seriously one of the best things I've ever made. There's the bitterness of the rabe, the sweetness of the onions, the umami of the bison meatballs (and the soy sauce and ketchup inside them), and the oomph of the cheese. But I'd say the real revelation is the baguette end. Go out of your way to get the real deal -- crusty, with that addictive bready je ne sais quoi. Those baguette stubs are game-changers.

RECIPE: Meatballs (adapted from this Whole Foods Recipe): Mix 1 lb ground bison, 1 tsp pepper, 1/4 tsp sea salt, 1/2 tsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp ketchup, 1 tsp oregano, pinch cayenne pepper, 1 cup Panko, 1 egg. Roll into 1-inch balls and bake in an oven preheated at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Broccoli Rabe and Onions: Dice 1 onion and 6 garlic cloves and saute on high for 3 minutes. Add 1 bunch of broccoli rabe, trimmed of stems (stems are great, but can be a bit cumbersome in a sandwich) and continue to saute for another 7 minutes, until everything is wilted and the onions are browned.

Final Steps: Cut the baguette into the sizes you want (go for the stubs first). Toast. Sprinkle mini cubes of provolone of any other sweet/musty cheese on the rabe and onions. I used Tome de Vache Basque. Using tongs, stuff the baguette with meatballs and veggies, alternating until stuffed 'til the brim.

Baked Panko Falafel with Cucumber Fennel Raita

I won't make this a healthy eating thing. They're baked! They've been lightened with panko, not bread crumbs or flour! That doesn't really tell you how delicious they are. There are few foods I love more than deep-fried falafel on a plate of cold mezze, but when you're in the mood for something different, there's this.

With baking, you'll get a cookie-like texture similar to a French sablé, not the crackling outside and supple inside of a fried falafel. Plus, panko takes out the guesswork of lightness. A falafel lives and dies by its lightness. Too much flour or breadcrumbs, and the thing turns into a matzoh ball (which is fine, but not what you're doing here).

Bonus brightness comes from lemon and sumac. Who knew that falafel tasted good a little a sour?

RECIPE (adapted from how sweet it is): Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. In a food processor, grind 2 cans of rinsed chickpeas, 6 garlic cloves, 4 scallions, 1 egg, the juice of lemon, 2/3 cup of soft herbs (parsley, cilantro, dill, mint), 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of pepper, 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin, 1/2 teaspoon of aleppo pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of sumac. Process until you have a 50/50 mix of chickpea chunks and a hummus-like mixture. Add 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of panko crumbs, enough to get the dough to cling to itself. Form into patties and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, until golden.

For the raita, slice and salt cucumbers and fennel. Drain. Add yogurt, salt, pepper, and olive oil. You can add cumin and red pepper flakes, but I prefer to keep the raita pure when paired against something so aromatic.

Zucchini Meatballs with Sumac Yogurt

When I worked in Bushwick, everyday I passed a mysterious wholesale furniture business that sold things like wooden eagles with ten foot wingspans and golden camels with marble hooves. I never saw a customer go in or out, only workers sitting outside smoking and grilling, no matter the season.

I usually stayed on the other side of the street or sheepishly rushed past them. I think they were Turkish, and their rumbling chatter echoed through the warehouse-lined streets.

I left that job two years ago this month. I must have been carrying a lot of stuff back, or maybe I had a sentimental look in my eye. But on the last day, the guys outside the shop gave me an oblong-shaped meatball right off the grill. It was so flavorful, still hot enough that the juices played close to the edge, prone to drip at just the slightest pinch.

I know you're not supposed to take food from strangers. But sometimes, those bites are the best.

RECIPE: adapted (and lightened) from Jerusalem by Yotam Ottololenghi & Sami Tamimi

Finely julienne or mandoline/slice 2 zucchinis. Chop your pick of herbs -- mint, parsley, cilantro. Combine 1 lb ground turkey, 1 minced onion, zucchini, 1 whisked egg, 2 cloves of crushed garlic, 1 teaspoon of ground cumin, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne. Shape into patties or balls or footballs. Fry for 4 minutes each side, or bake for 40 minutes.

Mix one cup Greek yogurt with 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon sumac, 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Serve with meatballs.

Turkey Chili (with coffee & cocoa)

Great chili has soul. You might come across chili recipes that boast extreme prep times, like some miracle 30-minute workout. These recipes are roll calls of cans and ready-made mixes: Goya, Ro-Tel, McCormick. The flavors are shallow, merely the sum of their parts and nothing more.

You can't get soul in 30 minutes. You can, however, get soul in an hour and a half and with two guest stars -- coffee and chocolate.

I've made the mistake of thinking that meat and beans were enough. They aren't. I've tried to compensate with corn and chorizo and sweet potatoes. Not quite. It's rather hard to make the leap from slurry to stew.

Coffee and cocoa powder are miracle workers. Call them the Instagram filter for your lackluster chili. They smooth out the edges, they boost the main players, they blur out the imperfections.

In a perfect world, you'd cook this low and slow. But this recipe is no floozy. She's got enough soul to last you bowl after bowl.

RECIPE: Boil 1 1/2 cups of dried beans and soak for 40 minutes. In a Dutch oven, sauté 1 onion, 2 large carrots, 4 celery stalks, 1 cup of bell peppers (I like a combo of red, yellow and green) and 5 cloves of garlic, all diced. Add 1 tablespoon ground cumin, 2 tablespoons chili powder, 1 tablespoon paprika, 1 teaspoon ground coriander, and 1 tablespoon of salt. When the onion is translucent, add 1 pound of ground turkey meat. Break up the chunks with a wooden spatula and cook for 5 minutes, until some of the turkey is browned. (If you're using a fattier meat, I would cook the meat first so you can cook the veggies in the fat. Ground turkey breast will just dry out if you sauté it too long and is better served by steam and stewing.)

Add one 20 oz can of pureed tomatoes, one 6 oz can of tomato paste, and one 32 oz carton of chicken broth. Add the par-cooked beans and 1 cup of the bean water.

Add one tablespoon of instant coffee (!!) and one tablespoon of unsweetened coca powder. Simmer, partially covered, for 90 minutes or more.

Flax Fish Sticks with Special Sauce

It started with a baseball game -- hot dogs, popcorn, soft serve, peanuts, fries. The whole works.

This time I had a taste of tater tots. The last time I had tater tots was in elementary school, when fried potatoes were still considered your daily vegetable.

They weren't really tasty. Or well-executed. They were definitely from a an institutional food services company. And yet they were so good. Perfect, really. A perfect snapshot of me 20+ years ago, buying a $1 red-and-white paper boat of tater tots with money I saved up just for the occasion.

And so this dish came from another long-ago memory. The Big Mac and its Special Sauce. Special sauce is probably a model recipe, a perfect representation of the salty-fatty-sweet trifecta. Even if I never eat a Big Mac again, I'm sure it's engineered to stay in my memory until I die.

My sauce breaks down the McDonald's recipe and translates the ingredients into something cleaner. The fish sticks are covered in flax seed meal, which give it a texture and nuttiness not unlike fried breading

Would you ever eat Flax Fish Sticks with "Special Sauce" at a baseball stadium or fast food restaurant? Never. But for a moment, you can be transported there, guilt trip not included.

RECIPE: 

Cut one salmon filet into dunkable pieces. Air dry on a plate, so the surface will toast rather than steam. Preheat toaster oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Meanwhile, in a blender mix 1 cup cottage cheese, 2 tablespoons ketchup, 1 teaspoon paprika, 1 slug of vinegar, and a pinch of onion powder. Add salt to taste. Remove the sauce from the blender and add 1 heaping tablespoon of sweet relish. Set aside.

Sprinkle flax seed meal on the fish plate and coat pieces thoroughly. Cook in toaster oven. Your time will depend on the thickness of your fish. I made them thin and cooked them for about 7 minutes.

Chorizo Scallop Cabbage Pouches

Anything that requires wrapping is not an everyday food. Growing up, we only made "shambosh", a curry-beef samosa, on holidays. Grandma's yearly zongzi-making is reason enough to visit. From dumplings to spring rolls, tamales to tortellini, wrapped things are the stuff of special occasions.

But wrapped foods are a warm, loving gesture. Dim sum, after all, means "touches the heart." But with the right recipe, you can get the same effect ...without taking an entire day to get there.

This dish is simple, savory, and clean. Stuffed cabbage is another homey Grandma thing, but here the inside is simplified and purified.

I think in some cases, it's noble and grand to sacrifice your time and labor to feed someone. And in other cases, I think it's better to take it easy on the cooking so you can spend that time with that someone.

RECIPE: Separate 10 leaves from a small cabbage. The cabbage must be small because the leaves are more supple and the leaves fit the scallops better. Simmer them in a pot with 1/2 cup of chicken broth. Cook until they're translucent and pliant, like a swath of thick cloth.

Chop chorizo and add to one cabbage leaf, along with scallop. Fold the sides first, then the top, then bottom part, where the leaf met the base. Lay into a pan. When you've wrapped all your scallops, add the broth you used for the scallops. Cover and simmer for 5-8 minutes.

Season with sea salt and paprika.

Mushroom Shirataki Alfredo

When did you stop eating alfredo sauce? Maybe when you stopped eating mayo. Or started gutting your bagel before putting on your cream cheese.

Alfredo sauce seems like a vestige of a white bread, white sauce time. The last time I had pasta with alfredo sauce was at the Rainforest Cafe some 20 years ago. It came out over-sauced and semi-congealed, and since then alfredo has never been a must-order for me.

But somehow the memory has stuck. I eat shirataki noodles, but they're quite literally nothing. They have no calories, no nutritional value. All sensation and no sustenance.

Enter Alfredo. The sauce here is laughably dietetic compared to what alfredo sauce really is. But I think you'll find it's plenty creamy. The shirataki noodles just need to be caressed, not clobbered.

So the sauce is -- and I'm bracing myself for some alfredo purist backlash -- a blend of cream cheese and fat-free cream cheese. I mean, it's good. Slightly tangy, lusciously thick, and mercifully light in calories.

Mix it with some sauteed mushrooms and you have a dish that's an umami powerhouse. Enough to make you an alfredo eater again.