Bastille Day

You are probably expecting something French, no? Non! Instead of cooking dinner I attended the opening of a show at Lane's gallery, Greenberg Van Doren.
It's called Introductions, and features the works of Tim Davis, Barry Ratoff, and Emi Avora. Following that was a lovely dinner at Augusto Arbizo's place. Agusto is a curator at Greenberg Van Doren. He has a gigantic kitchen -- I could do a cartwheel between the stove and the dishwasher. And he has a beautiful garden with purple hostas, sweet woodruff, standard roses, multiple seating areas, trees, and room to grill. While everyone snacked on hours d'ouvres of cheeses, artichokes, roasted peppers, and dips, I risked spoiling my appetite sampling one of his homemade double chocolate cookies. Dinner was grilled herb-crusted steak, pesto riso with a French feta (there's your Bastille Day), mixed greens with shaved Parmesan, and a salad of heirloom tomatoes and watermelon with balsamic vinegar, which I will definitely copy at least once this summer.

Riso, by the way, is a small pasta similar to orzo. Both are similar in size and shape to aborio rice.

Burgers and beans (green)

Hamburgers with calamata olives on rosemary cibatta rolls, green beans

Lane makes the best hamburgers. He came up with the idea of adding chopped olives, which make the burger even more juicy, savory, and salty. So I gave his burgers a try myself this evening. I added about a cup of finely chopped calamata olives to about two pounds of beef, along with one egg, 2t salt, ground pepper, and 1t cumin. In small doses cumin adds a pleasing, almost subliminal extra bit of umami. Or unami. However you spell it.

Anyway, because the hamburger patties will shrink a bit during cooking I make the patties very flat and wide. The amount made two gigantic patties, two kind of big patties, and two little bitty patties for Jasper. Just like the three bears, only without the long walk and the intrusive blonde. Even though I used nice grass-fed beef and the batch of beef probably all came from only one cow (have we all read Fast Food Nation?) I cooked Jasper's little patties thoroughly (so rest easy, Mom).

I served the hamburgers on these great rosemary cibatta rolls that soak up a lot of juice so the burgers don't fall apart. It's too much bread for me and I usually end up picking off half of the roll bit by bit. But still good. I used a very mild and tangy cheddar, Applewood smoked Derby. It's got a little paprika. And I added some more of that midsummer tomato, some mixed greens, and sweet spring onions. They are from nearby Hepworth Farm, a great source of organic and hierloom foods. These onions are so mild I don't have to wear my ski goggles to chop them. The coop sells these onions by the bunch -- 4 bulbs. So now I need to find some way to use the other three. I like my burgers with Dijon mustard (because I'm a pretentious little priss) and mayonnaise, but no ketchup. I don't like ketchup.

I just boiled the green beans and served them coated in butter and salt. There's a lovely recipe in an issue of Saveur a few years back that puts green beans with mint, garlic, and lemon juice. But given the company (hamburger) and that I was already pushing it with the yuppie embellishments I decided to keep my side dish simple.

And that was dinner. It was raining this morning, so Jasper and I made our first visit to the Brooklyn Children's Museum. They have a toddler section called Totally Tots (do you smell the 80's) which is totally fun. There's a pond with toy dolphins and boats, a pillow-filled reading section, a crafts center, lots of carts and trucks to push around, and a big, soft nest for babies to roll around in. I especially liked the little shopping carts with plastic food. You could even put a doll in the child seat and pretend that he keeps kicking off his sandals and then squirms and whines to get out and then gropes you and yells BOOBIES and then demands to be nursed in the middle of aisle three. You know, like a real trip to the grocery store.

Tuscan steak and salad

Steak in herb-infused olive oil, panzanella

I remember reading about Tuscan steak in the NY Times Magazine a few years back. You sear skirt steak for a few minutes on each side, throw it onto a metal plate, and then pour herb-infused olive oil over that. And I thought, yes, this is how I should eat all the time. THAT is a good idea. I made it with beef from my favorite butcher's shop, Staubitz, in Carroll Gardens. It sent me to heaven, but for some reason I haven't made it again until today.

There was no skirt steak at the coop, so I bought some top round steak and sliced it lengthwise to create a thinner cut. I heated some olive oil with a couple sprigs of rosemary and savory from my garden and some dried culinary lavender. After salting and peppering the meat I seared each side for a couple minutes, threw the cuts into a cast iron pan, and then poured the oil, herbs and all, right over that. I let it sit for a few minutes while I emptied the dishwasher and set the table. When I served the steak I pulled it out of the oil.

My panzanella is pretty simple. I cut some stale sourdough (I use whatever bread I have on hand) into cubes, added two large tomatoes cut into chunks about the same size, and then added some diced red onion. I tossed these together and let them sit for about half an hour or so. I added some fresh, torn basil and chives from my garden. And just before serving I drizzled olive oil and balsamic (a tiny amount. lest it upstage the other flavors) and lots of salt.

Both salad and steak made me very happy. The tomatoes I used were prime mid-summer beauties, fleshy and flavorful. And I added a lot of herbs, so everything just sang together. I loved the steak, too. I think if I were to do it again I would strain the oil before adding it to the steak, and then I would serve the steak still with the oil. I think one should make every effort to soak up as much of that oil as possible, but I'm a hedonist. Something to note -- the seared bits of steak soaked up more herbal flavor. I like my beef practically raw, and I believe this dish is supposed to be on the rare side. But maybe the next time I make it I'll cook the steak just a little bit longer.

After that I felt that a chocolate torte was in order. But alas, all I had on hand were Newman's O's. So I had two with some milk. You take what you can get.

Today Jasper and I went to Pier 25 near Battery Park City for its beach lite: a large sand box with sprinklers. The sand box is big enough for about 100 kids, and there's a shaded area with a few chairs for adults. The sprinklers are small and simple, definitely geared towards toddlers. Pier 25 also has a promising-looking hot dog stand, some mini golf, fishing, weird little sculpture garden, and batting cages. Anyway, the beach lite was pretty fun and we practically had it all to ourselves. I don't know if I'll make a habit of going out there all the time since we have great sand boxes and fountains here in the Slope. But it was a nice dress rehearsal for the beach. We came home, had lunch and naptime (I rearranged the furniture) and then went to our favorite playground before starting dinner. Jasper was in an especially good mood this evening, maybe because it's really cooled off here. He was just giggling and charming. AND he went to sleep quickly. Delicious dinner and a no-fuss bedtime. I really couldn't ask for more.

Vaguely Thai, vaguely vegetarian stir fry

Stir fry of tofu, snow peas, bok choy, mango, mint, and cashews over jasmine rice

stir fry is a pretty easy dish to riff on (off?). You can vary the basic sauce and ingredients 100 different ways. Today I whisked together about 2 T soy sauce, 1 T fish sauce (dried anchovy extract), 1 T mirin, and 2 t corn starch. I tossed cubed tofu (firm, about 14 oz) and let marinate while I did the rest of the prep work. Then I chopped up three baby bok choys and added that, and cut up two mangoes and put that aside.

The snow peas I bought, from a cooperative farm in the Fingerlakes District, were thicker than the usual and curved slightly -- almost like Fritos only much tastier. In fact, I'm tempted to buy them again and use them with a dip because that's what they'd be perfect for. But today I just pulled off the stems and broke them in half.

I learned a garlic shortcut from Nigella Lawson on one of her Food Network shows. Instead of mincing the garlic you can just grate it, and you'll still get all the juices. So after heating about 1/4 c peanut oil (works well with high heat -- sesame oil is too delicate and will lose its flavor) in my wok I grated in the garlic, softened that a little, and then added the snow peas. I stirred those around until they turned a darker green and then added the tofu and bok choy mixture. I think I fried the mixture for another 10 minutes or so and then removed the wok from the heat. Then I added the mint (spearmint) and the mango and allowed the mixture to heat both. If you cook the mango with everything else it'll disintegrate. You want to be careful with the tofu as well, for that matter. It can really come apart if you stir too vigorously or heat for too long.

To serve I added some fresh lime juice and crushed cashews -- roasted and salted. I also wanted to add some chopped scallions, but the coop was out of them. (Supplies are often low on Mondays at the coop, as not all of the post-weekend deliveries have arrived.) The bok choy releases a lot of water, so if you have the time and inclination you can remove all the veggies from the wok, and then turn the heat back up again, stirring occasionally, for another 5-10 minutes. The sauce will reduce and the corn starch will help it thicken.

Today was more routine than the last few days. We spent time at the playground. I cleaned up some hideous dust that flew into my bathroom window from my upstairs neighbor's renovation. Did some laundry. Went grocery shopping. Read some back issues of Nest.

A correction for yesterday's post -- Joey didn't die this year, he died 12 years ago. But this year his father finally made captain of the giglio lifting team, which is a very big deal.

Sausage, linguini, and a giglio

Basil garlic linguini with roasted pepper sausage, red bell pepper, chantarelle mushrooms, thyme, and asiago

I bought the fresh linguini from The Ravioli Store. Lane chose the sausage (chicken and turkey by Applegate Farms) and the pepper, and I added the chantarelles. I cut the thyme from my rooftop garden. I was going to roast the pepper my usual lazy way, by holding it over the gas flame to blister the skin, keeping it in a paper bag for a few minutes, and then rinsing the skin off. But Lane had already cut up the pepper for me. So I softened the pieces in some olive oil (which also infused the oil with its flavor) with garlic, then added the sausage.

Fresh pasta makes me nervous because it takes so very little time to cook. I have made many a gloppy noodle dishes with fresh pasta. This time my plan was to cook the noodles just long enough to add the chopped chantarelles to the sausage and pepper mixture. Then I would drain the pasta and by then the mushrooms would be just heated enough. But I realized too late that the colander needed to be washed -- I scrubbed it quickly and then drained the pasta, which still turned out all right. I mixed the sausage and peppers with the noodles and the thyme and topped it all with some asiago cheese. I loved it, though as usual I had to pick out the mushrooms in order to taste them. That's the frustration with chantarelles. You can bring out the best in them with risoto or polenta, but it really does seen to have to be just the mushrooms and a starch. The best chantarelles I've ever had are at L'Impero. They make a mushroom fricasse that makes me just want to weep it's so delicious. But again, paired with just some creamy polenta. Hmm, something to think about. How else to exploit the chantarelle...

Today is my son Jasper's 18-month birthday. He's a year and a half! We had an exciting day and as usual he was a great sport and enjoyed it all with us. Happy birthday, Jasper!

We rode our bikes into Williamsburg and met our friend, Monroe, to see the giglio and feast at Our Lady of Mount Carmel. A giglio is a 50-foot metal steeple decorated with paper mache lilies and images of the Virgin and Son and of the patron saint of Nola, San Paolino. The Parrish was founded in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, by the Nolani. I believe today is the first day of the feast, which culminates next Sunday with another procession of the giglio.

Some 112 men hoist the giglio, carrying a brass band, singer, MC, and priest as well. They sway and jump to make the giglio "dance." The men wear kerchiefs or hats decorated with white, red, and green carnations, and they grin and grimace through the strain of lifting the steeple. They dedicated the day to an 11-year-old parishioner named Joey Jr. who died this year. As the band played "Rainbow Connection" I couldn't help being a sap and crying a little, holding up my own son. Jasper was transfixed by the whole thing. After the giglio passed us we walked a few blocks over to get our bikes and saw the other part of the procession, a boat with a Turkish Sultan and his pages in iridescent robes. To find out what a Turkish sultan has to do with the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel click on the link above.

We retired to Monroe's cool, art-filled loft for an hour or so before riding home for dinner on our rooftop deck, where we watched the sun set over another beautiful Sunday in Brooklyn.