City Bakery Night of Knitting and Hot Chocolate

This is the stuff I came home with, both from the goodie bag and the snacks that I brought home for Todd.

Sofia came across this great event and she, Olivia H, Rena and I all ended up going.  This night which brought together two yummy things - yarn and hot chocolate - was part of The City Bakery's month long hot chocolate festival.  This all you can eat and drink event exceeded expectations and really provided fantastic food and drinks in unending quantities. 
Each of the knitting establishments involved in the event conducted a "hot chocolate" inspired knitting how-to workshop.  Each workshop provided a list of materials and also sold kits, but you didn't need to purchase anything in addition to your entrance ticket or participate in anything beyond the plentiful food.

The workshops were:
Marshmallow Man (Brooklyn General Store)
Yarn Spinning Demonstration (Downtown Yarns)
Hot Chocolate Mug Cozy (Gotta Knit)
Marshmallow Hat (Knitty City)
Chocolate Bar Coaster (Purl)
Knitting 101 (Wool and The Gang)

Sofia and Olivia did the Knitting 101 workshop and picked knitting up really well!  They each came finished the night with a couple of inches of knitted fabric.  I was really impressed!

  

Rena and I did the marshmallow man workshop.  The sample marshmallow man (on the right) was adorable, but mine came out a little wonky.  I think the eyes need to me closer together and the blue thread really works.  And I think the legs on my guy need to be under him more.  Oh well - it was fun!

  

Best Fried Chicken Ever!

Our 7th dish from last night got postponed because it needed to be refridgerated overnight, but it was absolutely worth the wait.  Incredibly moist.  You can smell the buttermilk.  The batter fries up perfectly and is not too thick.  Perfectly seasoned.  We're not big on fried chicken, but this could change things.  Todd thinks this could have done with out the salt, but I think it's just right.

We didn't want the chicken to be lonely, so we tried two more recipes:

• Not-so-dull Dal
• Cumin- and Cardamom-scented Rice

Not-so-dull Dal lived right up to it's name.  Todd thinks it's too salty as well, but I don't.  The chilies have a rich flavor, not just spice, and leaving the peas slightly under-cooked gives the dal a satisfying texture. 

The cumin- and cardamom-scented rice called for basmati, but I gave it a try with short-grain brown rice instead.  It picked up the flavors amazingly well for brown rice and turned out to be very fragrant with grassy and earthy notes.  Needed to be salted after fluffing. 

Olivia's sidebar: for whatever reason, this was the dish that called out to me when I was perusing the glossy pages of the cookbook while waiting for lattes in Ohio.  The building I was in was like a little town complete with cafe that made fantastic lattes and weirdly sold this cookbook.  I was there for a week, and after three days of pouring over the cookbook I knew it was right up Todd's alley and that I'd have to make the fried chicken.

Beverage: Dogma from Brew Dog.  Brew Dog continues to live up to its reputation for drinkable experimental beers.  This is a beer I'd purchase again.  It's got honey, kola nut, poppy seeds, and guarana in addition to the normal beer ingredients (barley, yeast, water, and hops, generally).  You can definitely detect the kola nut.  It has an aroma a tiny bit like a Coke that's very short and lively.  I'm not sure I can taste the other ingredients individually, but the combination works well.  I'd be interested to try this beer again in a year or two when the flavors have aged a bit more.

Re-claiming Valentine's Day: The Final Product

Whew.  See tasting notes for details.  The house smells fantastic.

Morning-after breakfast:

Valentine's Day Menu Tasting Notes

Dish #1: Toasted-cumin guacamole.

Tasting notes:  Wow!  Seriously:  wow.  This was supposed to be a quick appetizer while we worked on the real dishes.  Guacamole is guacamole is guacamole, right?  Wrong!  This recipe has taken guacamole to a new level for me.  We chose firmer avocados than usual, which fortuitously worked better with the recommended presentation of this version.  It's not a creamy guacamole, but a chunked version like salsa.  The proportions were really perfectly balanced in this recipe, and I hope it's a harbinger of the next six as well.  The piece de resistance (ooh la la!) for Dish #1 is the freshly toasted cumin seeds, which we then ran through our coffee grinder to powder.  We used at least five times the toasted cumin that the recipe called for and still just got a hint of it.  We also upped the jalapeno proportion by half.  And now it's perfect.
Suggested pairing:  papadum.  It gets soggy quickly, so plate and serve immediately.

Dish #2: Shrimp Borchao

Tasting notes:  This is delicious and reminds me of Moroccan flavors.  Everything is stewed and reduced to build an impressively intense flavor of charred fruits and spices.  In fact, this is probably too spicy for most people's palates.  The shrimp are meant to be thrown in at the last minute and plated on the bruschetta pieces.  But because we gorged ourselves on the mind-blowing guacamole we left this to stay warm on the back burner and the shrimp were overcooked.  Even so, this was my favorite dish.  The jammy consistency of the reduced tomatoes and onions is just perfect for the crispy bread.  To be honest it overwhelmed the shrimp and probably requires some really flavorful shrimp to match properly.  There's a nice balance to the tomatoes and vinegar and spice blend.  If we do this again I would get the best jumbo shrimp I could find, add extra water, and let it simmer for a while on the back burner while everything else is being prepared.  The shrimp I would throw in the at the last minute so they're just barely cooked and plump. 

Dish #3: Peas (Doodh Walee Matar)

Tasting notes:  This came out ok.  It's definitely the least exciting of the recipes we made, but it's pretty hard to make mind-blowing peas.  It definitely needed more salt than the recipe called for, because it was bland at first tasting.  The toasted cumin and other spices are prominent and the cream is understated.  The peas could have been less cooked less for extra poppiness to counterbalance the heaviness of the cream sauce.  The spices are abundant in this recipe and really make up a surprising proportion of the final product.  Every bite has lots of visible flecks.  The spice palate of this recipe is well-crafted, however, and I think we'll use it without the cream for future concoctions.  It leaves a mild tingling on the tongue without being overtly peppery.  There's just enough chili powder and other tangy spices, and the asefetida gives a slightly musty aroma that compliments the earthiness of the peas well.  I actually think I'd try this recipe again with cauliflower and it might work better.  Note to self: figure out what to do with a 6 ounces of asefetida.  As far as I can tell every recipe calls for 'a pinch'.  6 oz. is a lot of pinches.

Dish #4: Goan Shrimp Curry

None of our pictures do this justice.

Tasting notes:  This is one of the most intense flavors I've ever experienced.  It's definitely not something I can adequately describe.  There is an initial burst of pungency and toastiness that is quickly balanced by the light milkiness of coconut milk and then moves on to other flavors.  The broth is thick and the shrimp add a good chewiness to the texture.  (The shrimp came out well in this one for us, since it was the last dish to come off the range.)  Because of the way the shrimp are marinated and prepared there is a pleasant brininess to the broth that lingers on your tongue far after the last bite.  The cilantro is subtle, though there's a lot of it in here.  This curry should be the central point of the meal because I don't think anything can really stand up to it.  Not even a fatty roast or intense citrus could could really compete with the power of this curry.  The texture is excellent.  Visually it's stunning, with vibrant greens, reds, and oranges.  This dish will be made again shortly and is definitely the most memorable of the day.  We need to figure out a way to tone it down a bit, because it's almost too much.  I think it might be best to put this over rice to spread out the flavor.

Dish #5: Citrus Salad

Tasting notes:  Wildly refreshing.  Not overpoweringly sweet, despite the sweet fruit assortment and added sugar.  Mint is well balanced.  We added more cayenne pepper for extra kick and it was a great decision.  The vinegar helps to cut the sugar profile.  We also zested a whole lemon, which is about double what it called for.  Excellent.  This will have wide appeal looks lovely when plated.  A great discovery.

Dish #6: Masala Fried Chicken

Tasting notes: Postponed since it needed to be refrigerated overnight.
Dish #7: Pistacio-Cardamom Pound Cake with Meyer Lemon Icing

Tasting notes:  (I am so full.)  We took liberties with the recipe because it called for a ludicously small amount of cardamom and we both love cardamon.  We overdid it.  Olivia thinks it works better this way, but I think it needs to be toned down and overpowered the other ingredients.  The cake itself is quite tasty and stayed moist when baked.  On its own the cake is a little underwhelming, but the thin layer of frosting packs a punch.  Lots of lemon and lots of cardamom.  I would tone down the cardamom and lemon if made again and add baking powder for a fluffier pound cake, just because I prefer that texture.  But we definitely learned that lemon and cardamom go well together.

Bonus Dish (#8): Cantillon Bruocsella 1900 Grand Cru (sour ale)

Picture courtesy of Thom's Beer Blog

Tasting notes:  This is an authentic kriek that is rarely found in America.  Not recommended for anyone who doesn't love sour beers, because it's extremely sour.  Krieks are made with wild yeasts and are generally very lightly carbonated or not carbonated at all.  True krieks are aged for three years, so the flavors are mature and mellowed.  I had this same beer in Toronto a few months back and it was just as good the second time.  There is very little risidual sweetness, but the sour taste here is much more interesting than your normal sour ale.  There are hints of citrus, pineapple, and a strong musty scent.  Tastes like it's been aged far longer than 3 years.  It's also unfiltered, so there are floating bits all throughout.  This was a great choice for our meal, because the tartness helped clear the palate of all the spices.  This should be paired with food because it's a bit too intense on its own. 

Re-claiming Valentine's Day: The Adventure Begins

Olivia and I had the same idea for Valentine's Day this year: stay at home and cook. If Christmas has become overly commercialized then we need to invent new 'extreme' adjectives to describe the atmosphere on Valentine's Day. It sucks. Single men and women feel left out, lonely, or just apathetic. Coupled men feel tremendous pressure to conform to some inexplicit gift standards, and coupled women feel....well, I don't really know how they feel. But I imagine there's some pressure to be surprised and excited or extra-in-love or something. There's just more pressure than necessary all around, and I think everyone recognizes it. And in NY there's always a rush to make reservations ahead of time and to find the perfect romantic place. So it made me happy that Olivia also wanted nothing to do with it this year and we're taking advantage of the alone time to do something together that we both love.

(I couldn't resist a tiny bit a surprise, however, so I did sneak out of bed early and pick up a pretty little arrangement for the table. I told myself that the dinner would be lacking without it. And I'm a sucker for baloons.)

So the plan for today is to finally crack open a cookbook Olivia brought me from one of her Ohio business trips. After the impromptu extravaganza that the Momofuku cookbook brought about we thought we'd dive right into another one and make everything that looked good. Well, actually we're making everything that looked really great and could possibly be squeezed into one day. Everything looked good.

American Masala is the brainchild of Subir Saran and his years of making Indian-influenced American cuisine and American-influenced Indian cuisine for family and friends. The writing is not as snappy as the Momofuku cookbook, but the recipes are no less inspired. And every recipe comes with its own story, which is what I love in a cookbook. My favorite recipes in general are always ones that were tied to a special occasion.  When that happens I can often remember the exact smell and taste and often even the exact dialog at the time. Maybe I have a taste-based memory, but food really makes memories come alive, as does beer and wine and spirits.

In between Gabriella's christening and dinner with Luke and Linda we stopped at Kalustyan's on Curry Hill yesterday to pick up some of the more exotic ingredients. Try finding asefetida at Stop & Shop. As usual we had a great experience and found everything we needed, though nothing is ever as cheap as I expect it to be at that place. And I was happy to discover that they have expanded to the north by about 50%, so there is a lot more space for everything now, and less crowding.

Here's our entire oversized kitchen table full of ingredients for tonight's adventure. Whew. We're in for quite an evening.

The Menu:

Toasted-Cumin Guacamole
Shrimp Balchao Bruschetta
Pineapple/Mango/Grapefruit Salad with Chili-Lime Vinaigrette
Goan Shrimp Curry
Masala Fried Chicken
Doodh Walee Matar (Peas in a spiced cream sauce)
Pistachio-Cardamom Pound Cake with Meyer Lemon Icing

Our New Web Address

It's time for a little change.  This blog is not just about me anymore - it was about me for like a minute (ok a month).  So gingerknittingkitty.blogspot.com is now toddandolivia.blogspot.com.  It will pretty much chronicle the random thoughts and goings-on of our family - exactly like it used to, but now at an address that Todd isn't embarrassed to tell people.  (Ok, ok, I admit that gingerknittingkitty was girly and, I'm told, vaguely dirty, but it was just a silly play on my cat's name.)

Gabriella's Christening

My cousin has an adorable and happy baby, and this weekend we went to her Christening.

At the church the ceremony was conducted by a priest who was very engaging and charismatic and really engaged not just the parents and godparents, but the whole congregation.

After the ceremony we attended a beautiful reception at a hall nearby.  The decorations included carousel horses and someone had the bright idea to take pictures of Gabriella on one.  Gabriella was skeptical, but it made fun pictures.

Here we are taking a turn meeting Gabriella.  She is such a happy, easygoing baby and we played with her for a bit until she started to look for her mom.  Then my dad held her and she was happy again.

It was really nice to see some of my father's family, whom I don't get to see much, and what better occasion to celebrate with them than a new baby!

We got these really cute and extremely tasty cookies as favors. The picture is edible! (which is a little weird)

Happy Dog

With Pyrs, a little goes a long way.  Pyrs have a reputation for being stubborn 100 lb beauties, but a little bit of carmel topping goes a very, very long way.  So does a little structure - she definitely had to do "come," "sit," "down" and "stay" to get that tasty morsel.  She has come quite a long way since we adopted her nearly eight months ago!

Super Bowk Ski Trip 2010 - Killington

Three years ago Todd and Clint started an awesome Super Bowl tradition: skiing.  It started out fairly serendipitously - we wanted to do a ski trip and we tried to find a weekend everyone was free.  Super Bowl weekend is a weird American institution; nearly everyone knows when it is and either throws a party or goes to one.  We were in the weird middle ground where we didn't really care either way about the Super Bowl, but now we do and it's because we look forward to a ski trip every year.

This year we chose Killington as our mountain which is conveniently located near the Long Trail Brewery.  They have a nice operation there with good food and interesting beers.  The have a self guided "tour" where you can stare at their equipment.  Sadly they don't fill growlers - evidently it is a different license that they don't own.  On the first night I decided to do something that we'd done on the first trip, which was to chase people around and take mug shots, then make a slide show with an info slide per person and add pictures from the rest of the trip.  It's fun because the group on this trip is a mix of Todd's family and friends, Clint's friends and Sofia's and my friends and family.  Consequently there were people on the first trip that had never met each other, but the group on this trip is a great group and I really look forward to seeing everyone.

 

Here we are bundled up and ready to go out on the mountain.  

  

The view was amazing from just about everywhere on this huge mountain.  

  

Here Esteban and I take a short break from our morning runs. 

  

And in the afternoon we managed to catch up with Sofia and some others.

Just about everyone managed to stay awake for the Super Bowl this year. Congratulations, all!

  

On Monday we packed up all our stuff and headed home.  Dakota kept trying to escape from the picture and explore.  

 

Here we are in front of the cabin on our last day. 

Momofuku Leftovers - Day 2

One would think that Momofuku leftovers for three days in a row would be overkill. One would be wrong.

On the third day after our Momofuku adventure we had mostly pickles left over and a little bit of steak.  Weirdly enough both went really well with tamales.

Momofuku Leftovers - Day 1

The day after our big Momofuku adventure there were still plenty of leftovers so we added a little Caesar salad and like magic we had a tasty meal.

Momofuku leftovers are the best kind of leftovers.

Pickles!

Momofuku slow-poached eggs

Ahhh...Momofuku.  How we love thee.  When choosing recipes from the Momofuku cookbook for our last cooking marathon we didn't choose any of the recipes that called for their slow-poached egg method.  But Clint had already talked it up and I desperately wanted to make them anyway, so I made a few just to try it.  Ours were cooked with the heat a little too high, but still came out pretty well.

The basic procedure is to cook the eggs in a water bath at a very low temperature (140-145 degrees F).  They end up looking like the top-left egg in the picture below.  They can safely be eaten right from the shell, but we chose to fry them because of this description from David Chang.  Man, did they come out looking weird. 

"Slow-poached eggs make for fried eggs with perfectly runny yolks and creamy whites, bookended by crispy brown sides.  They're shaped like hard-boiled eggs that have been lightly run over by a car."

Here we have a snack of brown rice with slow-poached eggs and quick-pickled cucumbers, along with Olivia's Sour Cherry Something for dessert.  Delicious.