Recently in Recipes Category

After months of waiting, and untold journeys to Sweet Melissa Patisserie for sugar fixes, The Sweet Melissa Baking Book hit my kitchen the other week. I immediately cracked the spine at the index to search for my favorite  treat ... and there it was: "madeleines, chestnut honey, 62-63." If you have never had a Sweet Melissa madeleine, then you need to get up immediately, scrounge $1.25 in change, and proceed straight to the bakery. Forget Proust, from  henceforth when you think of madeleines, the name you'll murmur will be Melissa.

Madeleines are cookies that are also cake. This should be an adequate explanation for the necessity of their existence and of the dire urgency for eating one at the absolute earliest. Could pages 62-63 do justice to these sublime little shells of baked goodness? With my boyfriend's birthday just coming up, I decided to forego the cupcakes (so 2007) and try out her recipe.

After a $30 stop at A Cook's Companion for madeleine molds, a ten minute wait at Sahadi's for hazelnuts (also called filberts, FYI), a tense deconstruction of 6 eggs (ok, actually 8 but that is only because I am terrible at separating egg whites), and two hours of refrigeration, the madeleines were ready to bake. Fifteen minutes later 24 perfect chestnut honey madeleines lay cooling on the kitchen counter. Moist, sweet, and perfect for dusting with sugar. Though my version was not quite as good as the one Melissa makes in her bakery, I place the blame squarely on my shoulders. Her recipe was clear and easy, and the cookie/cakes were believably baked by a pro.

To get your own copy of the book (and maybe one or two madeleines) swing by her book party at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, 2 April at the Park Slope location.

I will not bore you with my newfound love of the tart yogurty deliciousness that is Pinkberry, since it is not currently available in Brooklyn. If you are ever in Chelsea, the 30s, the Upper East Side, or L.A., however, you MUST try it. I'm not sure how they get the crack into their product, but it's there and it will make you happy. My quest for Pinkberry and the trip down the early 90s yogurt lane led me to another new yogurt phenom, Yolato (pictured above) that's currently open in the Village and Upper West Side. As the name suggests, it's a combination of yogurt and gelato, and, according to the website, a location is opening on Smith Street in the 3rd quarter. Nothing, of course, will beat the deliciousness that is Court Pastry's Italian ice, but I'm wondering how Yolato stacks up to Pinkberry. Oh, and if you cannot wait and refuse to go into Manhattan for Pinkberry or Yolato, check out this great site that tells you how to make a Pinkberry approximation yourself.

Made this Hot Spicy Shredded Beet recipe tonight and it was delicious, although strangely enough it was only hot in temperature and not at all spicy (it was actually rather sweet). Since we didn't get very many beets, I basically cut the recipe in half ... and I think I used more wine than water--always a good rule of thumb in cooking, no?

I also recommend steaming or sauteeing the beet greens, and make sure you include the stems. I found the greens tender and sweeter than chard. I made the dish by sauteeing some onions and garlic, adding some water, the greens, a touch of agave syrup, and put a lid on the pan and steamed until the water had reduced and the greens were tender. Yum!

This weekend we had a few friends over for a grill fest. During the lull between rain storms we managed to get the grill started and cook a whole buncha burgers. Despite the gloomy weather, the guests cheered up when served these delicious patties.

*Tip, use a potato masher to mix everything quickly

Form into patties. 1lb ground beef should make 3 to 4 patties.

So, ABrooklynLife spent some quality time at the grandparents' this past weekend, and was naturally stuffed with all manner of good-but-bad-for-you foods. Five kinds of homemade cookies, pies, tiramasu, ice cream, chocolate, lasagna, roast pork, pork ribs, veggies swimming in butter, all amazingly good but none of it conducive to that trip to Mexico we're taking in a month (hello bikinis and swim trunks in February!). So, in some attempts at caloric responsibility we've been attempting moderation at dinner. Here's a stir fry recipe we whipped up the other night. Oh, and if you really want to be healthful, you should serve it with brown rice, which requires about 45 minutes cooking time. The key to good brown rice is the proper amount of water--too much and it's a mushy gross mess, too little and it's like eating a Crackle bar. So measure the water amount carefully and keep the temperature low and steady.

Inspired by our favorite pesto from Caputo's, ABrooklynlife set out to create a cilantro-jalapeno pesto worthy of our classic Osterizer blender. Here is our recipe, amalgamated from the best recipe site ever, Google. If you've never made your own pesto, rest assured, it is one of the easier more satisfying "cooking" experiences and requires little or no talent.

1 bunch of cilantro
3 garlic cloves
1/2 cup (or more) olive oil
1/2 cup (or more) Pecorino Romano cheese
1/4 to 1/2 cup toasted walnuts
1/2 tsp salt
*2 jalapenos

Put 1/4 cup oil in food processor, pile the rest of the ingredients on top. Pulse the processor to chop ingredients, keep adding the oil. When the mixture flows, you've added enough oil. Keep tasting to get the right mix.

Cut the jalapenos lengthwise in 4 sections, remove the pith and seeds. Add one at first, then check if the pesto is too hot. If not, add the other toward the end.

We served this with farfalle but it would also go well with tortellini: Use you imagination, whatever has nooks and crannies for the pesto to hang onto. Top with a little cracked pepper for extra zing.

We thought some shrimp sauteed in garlic and lemon might go well with this, too, though it has yet to be tried.

Went through the A Brooklyn Life archives last night and re-made the Thai shrimp dish I posted about in the spring. I must say that the shrimp marinade is divine and should be made posthaste. We got our shrimp from Fish Tales on Court Street at Congress Street, and while it's expensive ($13.99 for the "jumbo" midsizers), they were super fresh. Plus, there's something very quaint about getting fish from a fishmonger. For the entire recipe, go here.

SHRIMP MARINADE
1/3 cup Thai fish sauce
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons finely chopped peeled fresh lemongrass
2 garlic cloves, minced
32 large shrimp, peeled and deveined (about 1 1/2 pounds)

We grilled the shrimp, but you can also cook them in a broiler.

Plucked one of my two tomatoes from the garden this evening and made a very sweet but simple summer salad.  Chopped the tomato, added fresh basil (also from the garden) and several mini fresh mozzerella balls from Caputo's Fine Foods on Court Street. Then, drizzled lighly with olive oil and topped with fresh cracked pepper. Yum!

So in a fit of experimentation, I tried New York Magazine's reproduction of Tia Pol's strange asparagus and shrimp recipe (that you cook in a paper bag). Quite tasty and really not that hard. Plus, how cool is it to use a stapler--on purpose--in your cooking? The best was walking into a bodega and asking them for just a paper bag. Other strange things people do with asparagus: skirt,  beetle, glass, hat.

Whew. Totally behind in postings. I think it has something to do with the mini crisis that hit me when I turned 29, that, and the hangover that followed. So now that I've recovered (at least physically if not mentally), I wanted to share my Valentine's Day adventure. On Sunday and Monday I attempted, for the first time ever, to make a cake--and not one from the box.  Of course, being the glutton for punishment that I am, I decided to make what seemed like the most complicated recipe ever: the Black Pearl Layer Cake from Epicurious.com. It involves a ginger-wasabi ganache, a homemade vanilla-ginger syrup, three layers of chocolate goodness, plus a ginger whipped cream frosting.

I wanted to make this cake for two reasons. The first could be construed as selfish: I wanted my cooking whiz of a husband to respect my creativity and talent in the kitchen. The second was, of course, that I wanted to make him something--instead of buying something--to counter the overly commercial nature of the manufactured holiday.  I hadn't considered that to make the cake I'd have to buy a few things, actually a lot of things, more than $60 worth of things in all. Yes, the pressure heated up a bit after my trip to Whole Foods. Would you believe that all $60 worth of ingredients fit into one bag? This is not a cake I wanted to mess up.