Lost and Found

 

Three years ago this week, I lost my recipe book. Coming apart at the seams from overuse, it was held together with elastic bands and love. A yellow cab drove off with my suitcase in its trunk never to be seen again. Going through all my belongings in my head, I realized with horror that after 15 years of writing and annotating, my recipe book was gone.

 

Good fact for fellow New Yorkers, if you have the time and exact location of your cab ride, 311 can locate your car by GPS and help you find the owner. Bad fact, this only works Monday to Friday during business hours. Naturally, I lost my suitcase on a Friday night.

 

I eventually found the owner of the cab and offered a ridiculous reward just for the book. I imagined his wife swathed in my cashmere and assured him that I only cared about the book but he swore blind that nothing had been found over the weekend and I had no choice but to believe him. I know I sound ridiculously dramatic about a recipe book but I took it everywhere with me and it was full to the brim of handwritten, edited recipes.

 

One recipe I was particularly sad to lose was my paternal grandmother’s recipe for marrow. I’ve never been able to find marrow in the US – it looks like an oversized zucchini but tastes more like a squash. When we were younger, my brother and I would see my wonderful Hungarian grandmother on the weekends and she would make us the same meal every time. We started with a clear chicken soup, which was followed by Wiener Schnitzel, mushrooms fried in breadcrumbs, and marrow with dill and sour cream.

 

My mother, knowing how much we loved the marrow, would ask my grandmother for the recipe, getting a slightly different version from her each time. Eventually she asked her why she wouldn’t give her the real recipe and my otherwise overly generous grandmother replied that it was the one thing she offered that we couldn’t get anywhere else and she wanted to keep it that way.

 

When she died (at the impressive age of 97), I somehow thought the closely guarded recipe would appear in her will but sadly it was just gone. Years later, my father and I spent a wonderful afternoon trying to recreate it by searching through old Hungarian cookbooks. We did a pretty good job of simulating it and I faithfully transcribed it into my (now lost) recipe book.

 

Recently, I decided that if this recipe could be lost and recreated, as it had once before, then there was hope for all the others. So after mourning my loss for about 2 years (pathetic, I know), I started again. I bought the exact same Il Papiro notebook and began the long process of remembering, testing, and rewriting my many recipes.

 

On my next trip to London, my father and I set about recreating the marrow. Once again, we were pretty successful. I know I should have the instructions to these dishes all typed up and digitally stored but there’s something comforting about taking out my old fashioned blue book. I also love the idea that it will one day be passed on to be enjoyed by another eager cook. And when I think back to my former book, I begrudgingly hope it is being used. I still imagine a taxi driver’s wife wearing my favorite green cardigan and cooking my grandmother’s recipes – better that than it languishing in the lost and found department of some taxi depot in Queens.

 

Get the Recipe: Spaghetti Squash with Sour Cream and Dill



Keeping it in the Family

 

As we say goodbye to summer, I find myself missing Italy and especially my morning visits to our local town, Gaiole in Chianti. It is my favorite part of every day there. There’s one long piazza that has everything you could ever need including a shop that sells everything, which we have imaginatively dubbed “The shop that sells everything”. I love working my way from the butcher at the top, past the bizarrely restored Mussolini quote, to the green grocers at the bottom.

 

 

“Who is not ready to die for his faith is not worthy to profess it” – Mussolini

 

 

Bistecca alla fiorentina from Macelleria Chini, needs nothing but a hot grill and some salt and pepper.

 

They all ask after my father and brother and how long I’ll be staying but I’m ashamed to admit I knew very little about them until this year. I should know more about these wonderful men who have hacked enormous Florentine steaks and carefully selected plums for me and my family for over 40 years. Finally, this year, I got a little further than the basic “your peaches are excellent this year” and “last night’s porchetta was incredible!”.

 

This year, I found out Gaiole is made up of brothers; the butchers are brothers, the green grocers are brothers and even the baristas at Bar Centrale (that make the most delicious coffees that I have to allow myself one a year even though I never drink coffee) – are brothers. There are sisters too at the restaurant Lo Sfizio Bianchi – their parents used to make my birthday cakes every year. The bakery on the outskirts of town, which has no name, but you can smell your way to, is also made up of a mother, father and son. There is something so reassuring about seeing the same faces year after year and I pray that the next generation continue to keep it in the family. There’s a reason Gaiole in Chianti was voted No. 1 on Forbes list of Europe’s Most Idyllic Places To Live.

 

 

The butchers: Vincenzo (left) and Cesare Chini. Their family have been raising pigs since 1682!

 

 

The greengrocers: Angiolo (left) and Mario del Lungo

 

 

The bakers: The Alpi family

 

At Many Kitchens, we are thrilled to keep the family tradition alive!  We are working with two brother and sister teams.  Jen and Jeff Martin of Pipsnacks and Ken and Toan Huynh of The Saucey Sauce Company.

 

 

Jeff and Jen Martin of Pipsnacks

 

 

Toan and Ken Huynh of The Saucey Sauce Company

Beauty in Simplicity

 

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest I was spoiled. I was hand-fed Dungeness crab as a baby and got to pick my own sun-ripened blackberries near our favorite swimming lake each weekend. It seemed as if nature was there just for me to eat.

 

I remember one particular instance of tasting the most tantalizing beach grilled, wild caught salmon. This meal will forever live in infamy. See the thing is when you love food it is not just the bites you take; it is the entire sensory experience of eating. That’s why so much of food is linked to sense memory.  We all have these meals in us that resonate and bring us back to a specific moment with our closest friends or family where life seemed better. Like in the movie Ratatouille where the harsh critic is transported back to his youth in the French countryside and his expression changes from a grimace to a radiation of joy. Food has the power to move us well beyond the confines we adhere to in our day to day.

 

So, back to that beach off the cooler side of the Pacific. It wasn’t a perfectly cloudless day- it was the Pacific Northwest. It was overcast and a bit blustery and us kids had been flying kites on the cliffs and racing about all day. Lucky for us, my father had caught a magnificent chinook salmon and was grilling it on one of the charcoal grills dotting the beach. His adornments were simple: fresh lemon and dill along with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper. I swear in over ten years I have never tasted a salmon as delicious or as perfectly cooked. So here is to the joy of simplicity.

 

The Perfect Beach Grilled Salmon

Ingredients

1 whole side of wild sockeye salmon (deboned but with skin)– King, Coho, and Chinook are also quite lovely

2 tablespoons of butter

Fresh dill sprig

1 lemon

Salt and freshly cracked pepper

 

Method

1. Heat up grill to a medium heat.  To increase flavor, you can add in aromatic wood like cedar or alder to coals.

2. Rub Salmon with butter then place skin down on the grill with the thickest side towards the inside of the grill.  This will allow for even cooking.

3. Cook entirely on the skin side.

4. Place the dill sprig across the salmon and cook until the flesh turns opaque (it will be a delicate pink color with a slight bit of translucence in the center).  The perfect moment to remove is just as the flesh starts to flake.

5. Once you remove the salmon squeeze fresh lemon juice over top and season with salt and pepper.

The perfect sides are grilled asparagus, an herbed cous cous salad, a crusty loaf of french bread and assorted cheeses, and a big bold red wine.  Or you can go for a crisp rueda if you feel strongly that fish must be served with white wine.  I personally don’t.

Then sit back with friends and family and dig in!

(Pictured above: Aurora and her fly fishing Uncle Bill– infamous for his skills in catching magnificent salmon)

Tagliolini al Tartufo


This recipe is so simple it takes 5 minutes to put together. It is both delicate and decadent as well as being delicious. You should be able to find all the ingredients in a good Italian delicatessen and hopefully soon on Many Kitchens!

 

Tagliolini al Tartufo

Makes 4 servings


Ingredients

1lb of fresh tagliolini

1 (3oz tub) of Truffle Butter (either white or black)

Parmesan

Tiny amount of black truffle, shaved thin

 

Method

1. Bring a large pan of heavily salted water to the boil. 

2. Meanwhile, melt the tub of butter in a large saucepan being careful not to brown. 

3. When the water comes to a rolling boil, add the fresh pasta and cook for 3 minutes. 

4. Before draining the pasta, reserve a cup of the salted water.

5. Add the pasta to the saucepan with the butter and gradually start adding the water to loosen the sauce. The finished sauce should be creamy not runny.

6. Serve on warm plates and top with grated parmesan and a few shavings of truffle.

 

 

The Perfect Tomato Sauce

 

WHY THIS ENGLISH GIRL’S CUP OF TEA

IS A BOWL OF PASTA

 

Growing up in England, it seemed like someone somewhere was always putting the kettle on. Major life events from childbirth to funerals seemed to always solicit an offer of a cup of tea as if that would somehow make everything ok. Having an Italian mother, my childhood version of a cup of tea was a bowl of pasta. If a friend was mean to me or later if a boy broke my heart, a steaming bowl of spaghetti would always make things seem a little better. And it was always spaghetti with tomato sauce. I must have watched my mother make that sauce a thousand times but when I grew up and moved into my own place in NY, I could never get it to taste quite the same. But I finally figured out where I was going wrong. The trick to a good sauce is that it MUST leave an orange ‘sheen’ of oil on your plate after you’ve hoovered up the pasta. The answer was simple; more olive oil…. A lot more olive oil. So here’s the basic recipe which can then be used as a base for a hundred different dishes from Bucatini all’Amatriciana to meatballs and which I hope to package and one day sell on Many Kitchens.

 

Spaghetti al pomodoro 

Serves 4 people


Ingredients

5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

1 (28oz can) of plum tomatoes

2 garlic cloves

1 teaspoon sugar

pinch of oregano

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper.
1 lb pasta (feeds 4 people as a starter)

 

Method

1. Use a bigger saucepan than you think you’ll need (splattering is key!), heat the olive oil.

2. When hot, add the tomatoes so you’re essentially frying them. It’s just as important to use a good brand of tomatoes as it is to use a good brand of pasta. I can blind taste the difference between Barilla and De Cecco in a second. For tomatoes, I like to use Cirio or Mutti and for pasta, De Cecco or if you’re going artisanal, then pasta from Gragnano is the best. As sacrilegious as this may sound, I think dried pasta is better for this dish than fresh.

3. Next, add garlic cloves cut in half, sugar, oregano, bay leaf and generous amounts of salt and pepper.

4. Turn up the heat and let it splatter away. This stage can take as little as 15 minutes or you can leave it as long as 40 mins having reduced to a very low heat.

5. Discard the garlic pieces and the bay leaf. I then use a potato masher to smooth out the sauce but if you don’t have one, the back of a wooden spoon works too.

6. Boil plenty of salted water (my mother’s friend, Anna del Conte, says it should be as salty as the Mediterranean) and cook spaghetti according to packet. I estimate 5ozs per person (we still insist my mother cooks at least 7ozs per person as there never seems to be enough). Always scoop out a cup of the salty water before you drain whenever making pasta, it can be used to rehydrate leftovers or, more likely, second portions.

7. Now the important part is to add the spaghetti to the sauce and cook for another minute or two so the sauce begins to infuse the pasta.

8. Serve on warmed plates and then at the table, add all the extras; tear some fresh basil, grate some fresh parmesan and then pour some good olive oil to ensure you get that special orange sheen!

 

Spaghetti al Pomodoro

 



Spaghetti al pomodoro 

Serves 4 people


Ingredients

5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

1 (28oz can) of plum tomatoes

2 garlic cloves

1 teaspoon sugar

pinch of oregano

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper.
1 lb pasta (feeds 4 people as a starter)

 

Method

1. Use a bigger saucepan than you think you’ll need (splattering is key!), heat the olive oil.

2. When hot, add the tomatoes so you’re essentially frying them. It’s just as important to use a good brand of tomatoes as it is to use a good brand of pasta. I can blind taste the difference between Barilla and De Cecco in a second. For tomatoes, I like to use Cirio or Mutti and for pasta, De Cecco or if you’re going artisanal, then pasta from Gragnano is the best. As sacrilegious as this may sound, I think dried pasta is better for this dish than fresh.

3. Next, add garlic cloves cut in half, sugar, oregano, bay leaf and generous amounts of salt and pepper.

4. Turn up the heat and let it splatter away. This stage can take as little as 15 minutes or you can leave it as long as 40 mins having reduced to a very low heat.

5. Discard the garlic pieces and the bay leaf. I then use a potato masher to smooth out the sauce but if you don’t have one, the back of a wooden spoon works too.

6. Boil plenty of salted water (my mother’s friend, Anna del Conte, says it should be as salty as the Mediterranean) and cook spaghetti according to packet. I estimate 5ozs per person (we still insist my mother cooks at least 7ozs per person as there never seems to be enough). Always scoop out a cup of the salty water before you drain whenever making pasta, it can be used to rehydrate leftovers or, more likely, second portions.

7. Now the important part is to add the spaghetti to the sauce and cook for another minute or two so the sauce begins to infuse the pasta.

8. Serve on warmed plates and then at the table, add all the extras; tear some fresh basil, grate some fresh parmesan and then pour some good olive oil to ensure you get that special orange sheen!

Pipsnacks: Meet Jeff and Jen


An Interview with Jeff and Jen Martin of Pipsnacks


What lead you into the artisanal food business?

Jeff: Jen discovered the special variety of corn that we pop a few years ago while she was living in Chicago. The first time we made it together I said, “We should sell this!” We were both doing other things and the timing was just not right. After a few years of flirting with the idea, we decided to go for it 100%. We were on a road trip together from LA to New Jersey when we started to develop the idea and brand that became Pipcorn! So that’s pretty much the story, some special popcorn kernels, a few years and a road trip. That is our randomly awesome recipe!


What makes your product unique?

Jen: Pipcorn is a mini, hulless, non-gmo popcorn. We hand pop it in small batches using extra virgin olive oil. It is just Jeff and I doing everything, expect for the days we are really busy and our mom comes! I think the fact that it is us popping it on a stove gives a level of quality control and care that is unique in the terms of snack foods. We love what we do and I think that goes into the product!


What is one of the best uses of your product in a recipe?
Jen: If the recipe is for a good date night, I would say some pipcorn and a movie is all you need! Maybe some hot coco to seal the deal.

Jeff: Inappropriate, Jen.

I’ve never used Pipcorn in a recipe, but I think it’s a great idea. I’ll play with some things and get back to you on this one!


Do you have any guilty food pleasures/weird snack concoctions of your own?
Jen: Hmmm I used to really like toast with butter dipped in applesauce: / … I didn’t think it was weird until my brothers teased me about it. Now I just really like green smoothies that don’t actually taste good.

Jeff: Jen’s is weird, right? I would say it’s more of an obsession than a guilty pleasure, but I eat Chipotle more times per week than I’m overly proud of. Other than that, I would probably say soda. Jen has been trying to get me to stop drinking soda for a while, but now that she’s living in New York, she’s really been on my case to stop. It’s all a good thing because I really shouldn’t be drinking the stuff, but occasionally I’ll find myself sneaking a Diet Coke or two.

So I guess that’s an example of something that was a pleasure becoming a guilty pleasure because your little sister is bullying you into stopping.


Where do you draw your inspiration?

Jen: We draw inspiration from our family, our most popular flavors are flavors we grew up eating. I think also just playing around, taking suggestions and not being scared of coming up with something that is so, so bad. Because at the end of the day, we always tweak it until we get something up to Pipcorn’s standards! Like Jeff for instance created a flavor in the beginning that was quite a doosey, we thought it worked at first but then at a party neither of us wanted to eat it, that is when we realized it might need to go.


What are your geographics and demographics?

Jeff: We currently sell in New York, Connecticut and Philadelphia. We’d love to be easily accessible for everyone sooner than later and are working hard to make that a reality! As far as demographics, I think we are very fortunate to be able to market to a huge number of people. One beautiful think about Pipcorn is that we’ve been able to create something brand new and exciting that people have been eating their whole lives.


What’s great about where you live, besides you of course?

Jen: I would say Smorgasburg and Hot Bread Kitchen; the most inspiring people, doing great things, surround me. Even beyond their greatness, I think the best part is simply that, people are doing things they like to do. There is this hustle and happiness that everyone has that is so enchanting, it is such a community, and I am so grateful to be a part of it!!

Jeff: What Jen said


What is the best part of your job?
Jen: The best part of the job is definitely working with my brother. We are best friends and think everything is funny! We are so incredibly busy and always running around and the more tired we get, the funnier things become. Also the more tired I get, the more likely I am to have a melt down and Jeff is who I would normally call, but now he is right there so its super convenient!

Jeff: I agree wholeheartedly. The last few months of my life have been the absolute best for many reasons, but most of all because I’ve gotten to work with Jennifer. We have such a great time and laugh literally all day long but we also get a huge amount of work done and we can be insanely creative together. There is absolutely nothing I’d rather be doing right now than what I do day-to-day. It’s crazy at times and we sleep very little, but I wouldn’t change a thing. Not a thing.

Thai Prawn Curry with Poppadoms


Thai Prawn Curry with Poppadoms

Ingredients

1 (14oz can) of unsweetened coconut milk (whisked to blend)
2 Teaspoons red Thai curry paste
1 large red bell pepper, cut into 1/3-inch-wide strips
2 cups of sugar snap peas
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 pound King prawns (shelled and deveined)
1 ½ teaspoons of palm sugar (or brown sugar if you can’t find palm sugar)
1 tablespoon fish sauce (nam pla)
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
Chopped fresh dill

 

Method

1. Bring 1/4 cup coconut milk and curry paste to boil in large skillet over medium-high heat, whisking constantly. 

2. Add bell pepper, sugar snap peas and onion; sauté 5 minutes stirring frequently. 

3. Stir in prawns, remaining coconut milk and sugar. 

4. Cook until prawns are cooked through, stirring often, about 3 minutes. 

5. Stir in fish sauce and lime juice and cook for a further minute. 

5. Plate over Jasmine rice and sprinkle with fresh dill. Serve alongside warmed poppadoms.

 

Note: poppadoms can be brushed with oil and microwaved between paper towels for 40 seconds.