April 11, 2012 | 4:46 pm

The Rest of Passover—Fifth Night [RECIPE]

Posted by Rob Eshman

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When you’re searching for how to create dinners during Passover that avoid all the no’s, you can’t go wrong sticking to vegetables, fruit, fish and meat—and that leaves a lot of possibilities.

Today’s menu is as simple as a trip through the Farmer’s Market.  Spring means fresh parsnips, fresh artichokes (our front yard is full of them) and fresh greens.  You can go vegetarian, even vegan, by omitting the grilled chicken.

Roasted Parsnips
Italian Dandelions
Lemon and Olive Oil-Roasted Artichokes
Grilled Chicken Breast

[RECIPES]

Roasted Parsnips

3 pounds super-fresh parsnips, peeled and cut in 1-inch slices
olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.  Toss parsnips with other ingredients.  Roast until very crisp, turning occasionally.

Italian Dandelion

1 pound Italian dandelion (or other green), very well washed
4 cloves garlic, chopped or sliced
olive oil
salt and pepper

Bring a large pot of water to boil.  Boil dandelions until tender.
Drain and squeeze dry in a dish towel.  Chop dandelions.

Heat a skillet.  Add olive oil and garlic, and saute until garlic is golden.  Add chopped dandelion, salt and pepper, and saute until heated through, about 5 minutes.

Lemon and Olive Oil-Roasted Artichokes

▪ 4 medium or large artichokes
▪ Juice from 1 medium-large lemon (about 1/2 cup)
▪ 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
▪ Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
▪ Fresh thyme
▪ 3 cloves garlic, peeled and quartered

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Remove tough outer leaves from artichokes. Cut top of remaining leaves at the point where the green and yellow come together. Dip cut end in the lemon juice. Cut off bottom tip of stem, and peel away green layer of stem until white inner layer is exposed. Cut the artichokes in half and remove the inner fuzzy choke and any small prickly leaves. Slice in half again and toss with the lemon juice.
Pour the artichokes and lemon juice in a casserole dish, drizzle with the extra virgin olive oil, season with the salt, pepper and thyme and add the garlic. Stir and place in the preheated oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, stirring once during cooking.

Grilled Chicken Breasts

4 chicken breasts
1/4 cup white wine
3 cloves garlic
juice from 1/2 lemon
1 T fresh chopped thyme
1/4 c. olive oil
salt and pepper

In a bowl or Ziploc bag, combine all ingredients.  Let marinade 15 minutes to an hour.  Drain.
Preheat grill.  When hot, spray with olive oil, add chicken and grill until cooked through, about 4 minutes per side.

April 10, 2012 | 3:26 pm

The Rest of Passover Cooking- Fourth Night

Posted by Rob Eshman

It’s coming up on Dinner #4 in the “What to Eat the Rest of Passover” series. Are we even at the hump yet?  There are still a few days of Passover left to go.  This is no time to fall back on hackey “cheese ‘n matzo pizza” recipes that pop up every time you Google “Passover cooking.”  Stick to great, fresh food—plenty of it around this time of year. So, for tonight:

Asparagus Milanese “Biffi” 
Avocado Salad “Garga”
Bubbie’s Passover Rolls

Tonight’s menu (minus the Passover rolls) comes from a trip we took to Italy in 2008.  Biffi is a classic Milanese restaurant in the Galleria Vittoria Emanuelle II in Milan.  Great for people- and Duomo-watching, it caters to tourists but mostky of the Italian variety.  Asparagus Milanese is, to break it down, asparagus with a fried egg and parmesan cheese. Works for breakfast, lunch, dinner, whenever. 

Garga is the Florence Italy version of de Struisvogel: family-run, instantly warm and welcoming.  Whereas de Struisvogel reflects a more sedate Dutch propriety, Garga can be wild, a place of spontaneous partying and joyful noise.  This is their classic salad, which uses exotic—for Italy—avocado.

[RECIPE]

Garga Salad
 
INGREDIENTS

6 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
8 cups baby arugula
1 pound tomatoes, diced
4 stalks canned hearts of palm, sliced into rounds
2 medium avocados, peeled, diced
1 2 oz. wedge Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted

Whisk oil and lemon juice in small bowl to blend. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper.
Combine arugula, tomatoes, hearts of palm and avocados in large bowl. Add dressing and toss to blend.
Using vegetable peeler, shave Parmesan cheese into strips over salad. Sprinkle with pine nuts.
Serves 4.

Asparagus Milanese

4 extra large eggs
1 pound asparagus
salt and pepper
1/2 pound (approx.) Parmegiano-Reggiano
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven broiler.  Heat a skillet and add some olive oil.  Add asparagus, some salt and pepper, and cook over high heat until cooked through and still bright green, about 5 minutes.  Remove from pan and divide among four ovenproof plates or place in a shallow casserole.  In the same skillet, add some more olive oil and fry eggs until just set.  Place on top of the asparagus.  Grate parmesan on top, then place under broiler for JUST A FEW SECONDS until cheese is melted.

Serves 4.

with, of course, Bubbie’s Passover Popovers

Bubbie’s Passover Popovers

(adapted from Ruth Levy and Joan Nathan)

1/2 cup vegetable oil, plus more for baking sheet
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup matzo meal
(or half matzo meal, half matzo cake meal) 
1/2 tablespoon sugar (or, to taste)
4 eggs
 
Directions:

1 Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2 Brush a baking sheet with oil; set aside.
3 In a medium saucepan, bring oil, 1 cup water, and salt to a boil over medium-high heat.
4 Stir in matzah meal (or matzo meal/cake flour) until sticky, remove from heat and let cool completely.
5 Add sugar and eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6 Fill a large bowl with water.
7 Dip your hands in the water and then form dough into a ball about the size of a tennis ball.
8 Place on prepared baking sheet.
9 Repeat process until all dough has been used.
10 Transfer to oven and bake until popovers are puffy, about 15 to 20 minutes.
11 Reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking until golden brown, about 40 minutes.
12 Serve immediately.

For what to expect tomorrow, click here.

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April 9, 2012 | 2:31 pm

The Rest of Passover—Third Night

Posted by Rob Eshman

This week I vowed to supply you with a Passover’s worth of dinner ideas beyond the seder.

Today’s Passover recipe comes from a rainy July night in Amsterdam.

It was pouring, and we were hungry.  There was a café near our bed and breakfast, Inn Old Amsterdam,  in the Nieumarkt district, but we wanted something warm and filling and, you know, Dutch.

The owners of Inn Old Amsterdam sent us to de Struisvogel, a cab ride away.  From the moment we walked down a quick flight of stairs into the small, subterranean space, I knew it was going to be a good night.  The small place was packed.  The signs, the menus, the clientele were all Dutch, Dutch, Dutch.  Bottles of jenever and beer and wine studded the tables.  It was Bruegel with Polo, and without the threatening undertones. 

It had, instantly, all the attributes I want in a restaurant: just like eating at home, but much better.

de Struisvogel means “the ostrich,” and there is ostrich on the menu.  I don’t know why.  The men and women sitting next to us, a loud and friendly table of World War II vets and their wives who gather every year for a reunion (“until there are none of us left”) directed us to the fish.. and the jenever.

The menu is small, and prix fixe.  But you can choose from a fish, beef or, of course, ostrich.  There are Dutch dishes, like lamb stew, roasted potatoes, local blue cheeses, but plenty of Italian influence: risotto, carpaccio, etc.

The family that runs the place is just welcoming.  Everybody is drinking, every body is speaking over everybody else, the temperature inside stays warm as rain pounds away outside.  When it’s time to go, after a superior apple crumble, you’ll feel like you’re leaving home. 

Here’s a Passover-friendly dish from de Struisvogel:

[RECIPE]

Grilled fillet of Sea Bass with Sauce Antiboise

You make sauce vierge (virgin sauce) with virgin olive oil, basil, garlic,  tomatoes and perhaps some anchovies.  Antiboise sauce, ostensibly from the Antibes,  uses cilantro instead of basil.

4 sea bass filets (or halibut, snapper, cod)
1/2 lemon, grated zest only
      1/2 orange, grated zest only
½ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
2 shallots, very finely diced
      2 clovew garlic, crushed
1 cup coriander leaves, chopped
2 large plum tomatoes,chopped
          2 T capers, chopped (optional)
black pepper
lemon juice, to taste
Arugula and watercress leaves

1. Place the sea bass fillets in a large, shallow dish with the lemon and orange zest ¼ cup olive oil for 1 hour in the refrigerator.

2. Place the remaining olive oil in a heavy-based frying pan.

3. Add in the shallot and garlic and fry very gently until translucent. 

4. Add the coriander leaves and cook gently a minute or two.

5. Add the tomatoes and warm gently, then add the capers. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper and the lemon juice.

6. Preheat a grill until very hot.

7. Remove the sea bass from the marinade and cook on the hot griddle, skin-side down, for 3 minutes, then turn and cook for 3 minutes on the remaining side.

8. Spoon the tomato mixture onto four serving plates. Top each serving with a griddled sea bass fillet, then top with a few cress and arugula leaves. Drizzle with a little olive oil and serve at once.

I like to serve with Passover Popovers—more roll-like than plain matzo.  Of course, these they didn’t have at deStruisvogel.  The recipe is below:

Bubbie’s Passover Popovers

(adapted from Ruth Levy and Joan Nathan)

1/2 cup vegetable oil, plus more for baking sheet
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup matzo meal
(or half matzo meal, half matzo cake meal) 
1/2 tablespoon sugar (or, to taste)
4 eggs
 
Directions:

1 Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2 Brush a baking sheet with oil; set aside.
3 In a medium saucepan, bring oil, 1 cup water, and salt to a boil over medium-high heat.
4 Stir in matzah meal (or matzo meal/cake flour) until sticky, remove from heat and let cool completely.
5 Add sugar and eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6 Fill a large bowl with water.
7 Dip your hands in the water and then form dough into a ball about the size of a tennis ball.
8 Place on prepared baking sheet.
9 Repeat process until all dough has been used.
10 Transfer to oven and bake until popovers are puffy, about 15 to 20 minutes.
11 Reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking until golden brown, about 40 minutes.
12 Serve immediately.

For what to expect tomorrow, click here.

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April 6, 2012 | 12:34 am

The Rest of Passover Cooking [RECIPE]

Posted by Rob Eshman

The food challenge of Passover is not the seder.  It’s the seven days that come after.

After all, you know what to make on seder.  Torah and tradition are right there by your side, cooking: matzo, charoset, chicken or brisket, kugel if you’re Askenazi, something people actually like if you’re Sephardic.  It’s all preordained. God is your sous chef.

But then the holiday of Passover is over, and you’re facing seven days of elaborate, seemingly all-encompassing food restrictions.

Not only are the usual non-kosher food off limits, but so is all bread, pasta, beans, rice, and, of course, beer.  The idea is to avoid not just leavened bread, as it says in the Torah, but anything that can or will be used against you to harbor leavening.

Sephardic Jews are a bit more lenient. They get to eat beans, seeds and rice. Observant Ashkenazic Jews ar the most exacting—I’ve passed evenings arguing whether it’s okay to serve fresh green beans.
Where do I fall on the spectrum?  During Passover, I go full Ashkenzi.  I’m not sure why—the rest of the year I have a very expanded and convenient idea of what kosher means to me. (OUTSIDE our home, I hasten to add.  Inside I am under rabbinical supervision).

But during Passover it feels right to forego the weightiness of flour and starches and legumes.  It’s liberating.  The rabbis who developed these arcane rules perfectly understood that spirituality begins with what we eat.  By spending a week free of the heavier stuff, I really do feel lighter, more free. The Exodus continues, just in my stomach.

But… it ain’t easy.  Thinking of menus that don’t involve bread, pasta, beans rice, but excite you, satisfy you—that takes some doing .  As I said, anyone and their grandmother can give you a matzo ball recipe, but what about dinner on Day 5?

Here’s how I solved the problem this year: by looking at iPhoto.  We traveled to some great places this year, and I’m one of those people who takes photos of food and menus, and keeps notes.  I went back through my photos and found favorite dishes that happen to be Passover friendly.  They are mostly from restaurants in Amsterdam, Barcelona, London and Milan, with a few local places, including my home, thrown in. Many involve fish, and there’s a lot of vegetables.  The flavors are strong.  The ingredients are fresh.  My pet peeve are those prepared Passover foods, like brownie mix and cereals, that completely subvert the spirit of the holiday, if not the law. These recipes are springy: herbs, fresh vegetables, fresh fish.

Check back here each day next week. I’ll post at least one main dish recipe each day during the intermediate days of Passover, along with a bit about where I ate it. 

It’s a long holiday, but I promise, you won’t go hungry.

I’ll start with the last recipe, for Chef Micah Wexler’s Roasted Beet Salad with Grilled Haloumi Cheese.  Micah is the chef/co-owner of Mezze on La Cienega Blvd., and many of his Levant-inspired dishes are Passover friendly.  This one uses garbanzo beans in the original—boiled and fried, if I remember correctly.  But you can leave them out.  If you’re Ashkenazic.

Here’s what’s on my non-seder Passover menu the rest of the week:

Cod Gratinée with an Artichoke Mousse “Café de l’Academia” in Barcelona

Lemon and Olive Oil-Roasted Artichoke “da Toni” Venice

Sole with celery puree and roasted cherry tomatoes “Arcana” Barcelona

Sweet Potato and Soft Goat Cheese Gratin with Spring Herb Salad “Struisvogel” Amsterdam

Seared Trout with Berber Spice and Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette (okay, this one is mine)

Asparagus Milanese “Biffi” Milan

Padron Peppers “Santa Catalina” Barcelona

Cauliflower, Courgette, Mint and Ticklemore “Great Queen Street” London

Potato Cake, Bell Onion, Romesco and Fried Egg “Great Queen Street” London

Grilled Fillet of Sea Bass with sauce antiboise “Struisvogel” Struisvogel

Roasted Beet Salad with Grilled Halloumi Cheese, “Mezze” Beverly Hills

RECIPE

Roasted Beet Salad with Grilled Halloumi Cheese

3 baby red beets
3 baby gold beets
3 baby striped beets
1 block halloumi cheese
1/2 cup greek yogurt
1 tbsp dried mint
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup sherry vinegar
1 tsp sea salt

Trim the beets of their leaves and stems. Place each type of beet in a separate foil packet with 1 tbsp EVOO, 1 tsp sherry vinegar, and some salt. Place the three packets on a roasting pan and roast at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until tender.

Remove beets from oven and allow to cool. Using a dish towel, rub the beets to remove the skin and discard the skin. (Please use a towel you don’t care about - the beet juice WILL stain it.) Cut the beets in halves and marinate in a quarter cup of EVOO and 2 tbsp sherry vinegar.

Cut the halloumi into cubes and fry in a pan with oil until golden. Mix the yogurt with the lemon juice, dried mint, salt, and a quarter cup of EVOO.

To dress, place the marinated beets in a bowl, and garnish with the yogurt dressing and fried halloumi.

 

 

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April 4, 2012 | 11:11 pm

Sex and the Single Chicken

Posted by Rob Eshman

The New York Times is late to the backyard chicken trend story, which has appeared for years in every paper from The New Yorker (three years ago) the Petersborough Examiner (4 days ago) to the Intermountain Jewish News (this week).  Google News lists 302 results for “backyard chicken” stories in 2012 alone.

But The Times story makes it official: everybody’s raising chickens in their backyards. 

What amazed me about the story is the comments section.  Times readers are the elite, right?  They’re not stupid, they’re smart, right?  And yet even they don’t understand where eggs come from.

This comment from “jdpolicano from East Hampton” was typical of many:

One of the most delightful experiences of my life was visiting my uncle’s country place in New Jersey 50 years ago and feeding (and being fed) the eggs and (gasp!) the chickens. But is it practical for me to raise some on a one acre lot in what is really a subburban setting in East Hampton? Won’t the rooster drive everyone crazy? Do I even need a rooster? ... Tell me if it can be done and how to go about it. Thanks so much.

Do you even need a rooster?  To be fair to JD and his fellow rooster-curious commenters, when people visit my backyard hens, they invariably ask the exact same question.  Smart people. Doctors even.  All f them stare like kindergartners at my birds and at some point, “Don;t you need roosters?”  Which is essentially like a grownup asking, “Where do babies come from?”

No, I explain, you don’t need a rooster to make eggs.  Eggs are not nature’s little abortions.  They are the result of unfertilized ovulation, the end of a chicken’s menstrual cycle.  To be graphic, humans have live birth, so unfertilized eggs come out in a period.  Chickens give birth in shells, so that’s how theirs’ comes out.

It’s even cooler than that: Google chicken anatomy and you’ll see how all this plus more—pee and poop—emerges from one chute, the cloaca, and yet the eggs come out clean and sweet-smelling.  You’ll be amazed how they pull off that trick.

Did I know any of this before I began raising chickens, 22 years ago?  Nope. I learned about the cloaca the hard way.

One evening Naomi and I came home to find one of our chickens listless.  We called my sister, who’s a veterinarian. Sometimes, rarely, an egg gets stuck.  If you don’t pull it out, the chicken will die.  It’s called egg bound. Lisa said we should try to massage the lump out, but if that didn’t work—it didn’t—one of us had to stick our fingers into the chicken and pull the egg free.

“Nomi,” I said, “you have smaller fingers.”

We sat in our yard, the chicken on Nomi’s lap, and began to search for the exit hole.  Lisa said, “There’s only one.”

“Only one?”

I watched Naomi’s face as I said this, and the implications struck her immediately.

“It’s called the cloaca,” Lisa said. “Naomi will want to put some oil on her fingers.”

Naomi lubed up and poked gently around, and slightly into, the cloaca.  The chicken hardly moved. Both of us squirmed like crazy.  A lot of “ews” passed between us.  It was like some demented Lamaza teacher’s idea of a dry run.

Lisa explained that the chicken had been sick when we got to her, and despite our best efforts, it wasn’t surprising we couldn’t save her.  Up until then I had eaten hundreds if not thousands of chickens.  That was the first time I understood chickens actually died. We think we know the birds and the bees, but we don’t.

The fact that we don’t know how eggs and baby chickens are made is just another sign of how divorced we are from the sources of our own food.  But there is a cost to our ignorance: if we’re not clear on where our food comes from, how can we know what’s in it?

In the same Times issue, April 4, Nicholas Kristof wrote a column entitled, “Arsenic in Our Chicken?.”  ( I know, it always seems awkward when he poaches on Mark Bittman’s beat.  How would Nick feel if Mark started interviewing Sumatran sex slaves?  Is Kristof next going to write a Maureen Dowd-like snarkumn comparing Mitt Romney to Pete in “Mad Men?”  Aren’t there lines over there?)  This column was about a recent set of studies that show our factory-farmed chicken contains arsenic, Benadryl, caffeine, antibiotics and assorted other drugs.

“The same study also found that one-third of feather-meal samples contained an antihistamine that is the active ingredient of Benadryl” Kristof reported. “The great majority of feather meal contained acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. And feather-meal samples from China contained an antidepressant that is the active ingredient in Prozac.”

Anyone who eats factory-farmed chickens or meats is playing Russian roulette with their short- and long-term health.  It doesn’t take long to learn how chickens make babies, or where to find healthier sources of meat, or how to forego meat altogether.  We don’t all have to start a flock in your backyard—though I do recommend it—but we do have to open our eyes.

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March 29, 2012 | 5:09 pm

Drinking with the Booksteins

Posted by Rob Eshman

Rabbi Yonah Bookstein and his wife Rachel stopped by our house last week bearing two perfect pre-Passover gifts.

The first was a bottle of Shirah Wines 2009 Power to the People, a Syrah blend from Santa Barbara county grapes that The New York Jewish Week picked, out of 200 wines, as the Best Kosher Wine at its tasting this year.

It was exceptional.  It made me not want to stop drinking it, ever.

The second bottle was even more special.

The Booksteins spent several years in Poland helping revitalize the Jewish community there.  We started talking about how Israel feels like a “homeland,” but Poland just feels like home.  The food, the people—it all feels so familiar to us Ashkenazi Jews who are, at the end of the day, only a couple generations removed.  Of course I was going on about the vodka and slivovitz, and that’s when Rabbi Yonah reached into his magic bag and pulled out Mosby—an artisinal kosher slivovitz produced for the first time this year under his rabbinical supervision.

We toasted with it and oh….my….God. 

Forget the tongue-searing stuff they put out in shul after services.  Forget the swill your relatives let you sip that made you want to vomit. Mosby is made from wild plums collected in Medoc County, CA.  It is distilled by people with drinking in mind.  It is smooth, deeply flavorful ( I mean, strong and alcoholic—this isn’t plum wine, it’s plum grappa).  I’ve poured some glasses for people who won’t touch grappa or slivovitz—they made all gone. 

It’s expensive—around 50 bucks a bottle (like the Shirah Wine).  It’s hard to get.  (See below).  But after a long good dinner, it’s nice to have around.

Below is a press release I just received from Rabbi Bookstein about Mosby.  The smiling rabbi in the hat on the label?  That’s Yonah Bookstein.  Probably after a glass or two.

CALIFORNIA HAND-CRAFTED PLUM BRANDY KOSHER FOR PASSOVER 2012
Enhance Your Passover With Award Winning Slivovitz

Plum Brandy aka Slivovitz is making a comeback and was recently discussed in a major article in The Forward.

California is blessed with some of the best plums in the country, which have gone into making Mosby Slivovitz. Harvested from a small orchard in San Benito County, California. These perfectly ripened plums were artfully fermented and distilled by Bill Mosby under the careful Rabbinical supervision of Rabbi Yonah Bookstein.

This exceptional brandy was awarded a Silver medal at the 2010 International Review of Spirits, and a Bronze medal at the San Francisco Chronicle spirits competition.

Damson Plum:$55, Wild Plum $75

For more information and to order contact Rabbi Yonah Bookstein rabbiyonah@gmail.com

 

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March 26, 2012 | 4:36 pm

Frank Bruni Diets for Our Sins [RECIPE]

Posted by Rob Eshman

Something is happening in the food world when Frank Bruni is a hijiki frond away from going full vegan.  In his Friday New York Times column, the paper’s former restaurant critic declared that due to a recent diagnosis of gout, he has completely reformed his diet.  Gone are the beef filets larded with foie gras, the multiple bottles of red wine and the cold-and-colder running martinis.  Now Bruni drinks seltzer and eats mostly vegetables. He still allows himself eggs and cheese and the occasional glass of wine— but clearly the days of 40 ounce porterhouses are behind him.

It’s happening everywhere.  At our Shabbat table over the past month, our friend Helene announced she had gone vegan.  This, from the daughter from a Boro Park butcher for whom heaven was brisket and roast chicken.  She lost 30 pounds and just completed a 100 mile bike ride.  My brother, an investment banker whose celebratory meals in Manhattan usually meant steaks, announced he was no longer eating meat or chicken. He’s doing Cross Fit and at 53 looks like he’s on a high school track team.  Mind you these are the people we know.  Celebrities like Zooey Deschanel are high profile public vegans, as out as Ellen.

The same is happening in restaurants. In Santa Monica, there’s a 40 minute wait AT LUNCH, for True Food, the restaurant partly owned by the health guru Dr. Andrew Weil.  You can order meat at True Food (sustainable, local, mostly lean, and a lot of fish), but the menu is focused on vegetables. The same with Mendocino Farms, whose location in Marina Del Rey always has a line out the door.  There you can get Vegan Tortas with seitan in BBQ chipotle sauce.  Yes there’s pulled organic pork and grass fed beef banh mi, but most of the menu is about pushing vegetables.  Mendocino Farms is expanding, Tender Greens is growing.
If anything, Bruni is a bit late to the party-pooping.

Of course, he didn’t choose his new diet as much as beg for it.  Gout is painful.  The build up of uric acid inflames the joints to the point where simply standing up feels like childbirth. “All I know is that when gout pays a visit to one of my feet,” he writes, “I can’t stand on it or put a sock on it or even place a thin sheet over it; pretty much all I can do is stare at it, swear at it and bang my fist on the nearest hard surface while waiting for the industrial-strength anti-inflammatories my doctor has prescribed to kick in.”  Bruni would have started eating nothing but lawn clippings and sawdust to stop it.

What happened to him is a neat summary of what happened to the generation of Boomers and yuppies departing middle age. The food pendulum has swung.  They have indulged enough.  They let Emeril convince them that the more bacon they ate, the better.  They followed the trends to upscale steakhouses. They explored cigars and cocktails and lardo and foie gras.  Bruni did it better and to greater excess and with a fatter expense account and far greater eloquence than the rest.  When they dared not stuff themselves with one more marrow bone, they could read his accounts of Mario’s salumi.  When they couldn’t possibly take another bite, he did it for them.

So now, the kale-colored writing on the wall.  First for Bruni, but really for all of us.  It’s time to pull back, to try to eek out a few more years of disease-free living by tossing the meat and booze overboard.

I wonder why we always, as a culture, seemed condemned to swing between the extremes. We overdo it, then we overreact.  Instead of knowing from the start what seems obvious—enjoy a little of the rich foods, a little of the alcohol, but balance it with lots of the green stuff, and plenty of exercise. Instead, we go all out, then pull all the way back.

It’s not unlike the debate over atheism: the first wave of modern atheists, the Sam Harris/Richard Dawkins/ Christopher Hitchens z”l volley, tried to completely dispose of God and religion.  But that didn’t appear to move the needle on faith and belief. Now come people like Alain de Botton, with his new book, Religion for Atheists, presenting a kind of Athiesim 2.0, that acknowledges the important things that faith and religion bring into one’s life, while still leaving room to question it.

That’s not a bad rule of thumb for looking at our food choices.  You don’t need to go full carnivore to enjoy meat, or full vegan to live healthfully.

Meanwhile, I hope Frank Bruni feels better.  I’m one of those people who has avoided indulging (well, maybe except for the red wine part) partly because I could live vicariously through his descriptions.  Writers like him and Jonathan Gold do such a good, Liebling-esque job relaying the far excesses of consumption, I’m full by the time I’ve turned the page.

That way I can go about eating, well, sensibly.

For example, this Gnocchi with Italian dandelion and parmesan I made last night for my daughter and myself.  You can go semi-vegan and serve without the parmesan—sprinkle on porcini mushroom powder instead.  Or you can live what now seems positivey dangerously and have a bit of cheese.

Mr. Bruni, this one’s for you: thanks for the memories.

[RECIPE] Gnocchi alla Bruni

1 ½ pound Russet potatoes
1 large egg
1 cup all purpose flour, approximately
salt and pepper
Parmesan or Porcini Mushroom powder
2 bunches Italian dandelion (6-8 cups chopped raw)
3 cloves Garlic
¼ t. red Chili flakes
½ cup Olive oil

Place a large pot of salted water on high heat and bring to boil.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and dust with flour.
Boil the potatoes until very soft.  Drain water then cook potatoes in hot pan until they appear dry, just a minute or two. As soon as you possibly can, peel the potatoes.

Mash potatoes in food mill or with a hand masher, or in mixer with whisk attachment.  Add egg, salt and pepper.  Blend well then add flour, about a cup to start.  When dough comes together into a rollable but still soft mass, roll into ropes about 3/4 inch thick.  Cut ropes into ¾ inch pieces.

Transfer to the baking sheet lined with parchment paper an dusted with flour.

When the water boils, add dandelion.  Boil until tender, about 5 minutes.  Remove with a slotted spoon to a cutting board and chop fine.

Meanwhile, heat a large skillet.  Add olive oil and, when hot, add garlic.  Fry a couple minutes until fragrant, then add red pepper and greens.  Saute for several minutes, then reduce heat to low.

When the dandelion water returns to a boil, add gnocchi and cook, stirring occasionally, until cooked through, about 5 minutes.  Remove with slotted spoon into skillet with greens.  Gently stir until the gnocchi are coated with the greens.  Add parmesan or mushroom powder.

Spoon into shallow bowls and serve with additional parmesan or porcini mushroom powder.

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March 21, 2012 | 4:09 pm

Passover at Street [RECIPE]

Posted by Rob Eshman

STREET restaurant is offering a second night seder menu for April 7 that looks… delicious.  Not exactly sure what seder and street food have in common, except, well, the Israelites probably just had time to grab a bite before they made their hasty exodus. 

So in that spirit, chefs/owners Susan Feniger and Sasha Alger are offering a traditional and a vegetarian menu, served family style, at $55 per person.  Menu and my commentary below.  There will be a seder plate on each table.  It is NOT BYOR (Bring Your Own Rabbi).  Chef Alger’s very own rabbi (check back for the name)  will lead a STREET-friendly seder. 

No it’s not kosher. 

Doors open at 5 pm, the food service starts at 6 pm. Which answers the ancient Jewish question: When do we eat?

Here’s the menu:

• Fava Bean Besara, with Rosso Brunno tomatoes and minted onion [This is an Egyptian fava been puree… my recipe below]


• Smoked Fish and Potato Bimueolos, spicy pepper sauce and pickled cauliflower [Bimuelos are fritters, like churros.  But these are savory.]


• Matzo Ball Soup


• Warm Halloumi Salad, grapefruit, tangerine, and grilled Treviso with fresh thyme vinaigrette [This sounds great.  Mezze restaurant uses fried halloumi in its salad too. And they sell it as “grilling cheese” at Whole Foods.  Food trend for 2012?]


• Morroccan Lamb or Morrocan Vegetable Tagine, with Matzo Crepes or Jeweled Rice


• Eggplant Hummus


• Spiced Apple Cake, with honey and date crumble

WHEN: Saturday, April 7th  
             
RESERVATIONS: 323.203.0500

[RECIPE] Fava Bean Bessara

Ingredients:
2 cups fava beans, soaked overnight
1 onion
4 garlic cloves
1 c. packed parsley leaves
1 c. packed fresh cilantro
1 c. fresh fresh dill
1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
Salt and pepper, to taste

Roast cumin seeds in a hot dry skillet until fragrant, then crush. (or use good quality cumin powder).

Put all the above ingredients into a saucepan. Cover with water and bring to boil.  Boil gently until beans are soft, about 40 minutes, careful to add more water if dry.

Let cool slightly, then puree in food processor or good blender until creamy.

You can top with caramelized onions, and serve warm or chilled with pita.

Serves 6

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