Winter produce doesn’t have to dreary. With recipes like this one for rich roasted parsnip and sweet potato soup from Karol Lu, a competitive cooking veteran, you can dine like a king, even in the coldest months.
Recipes
After all the holiday feasting and feting, who couldn’t use a little pick-me-up to get through the work week? Here’s a cocktail from the folks at Kings County Distillery and Marlow & Sons restaurant in Williamsburg that’s just right for our we’d-rather-be-baking-cookies-than-sitting-at-this-desk mood.
Our former photo editor Michael Harlan Turkell spent the past year photographing rustic Italian dishes with the wonderfully talented Sara Jenkins, chef/owner of both Porchetta and Porsena restaurants in NYC. The result is a gorgeous app for iPad packed with recipes for simple, delicious food that’s easy to make based on 16 basic pantry items, plus loads of beautiful photography (why are we not surprised?).
Ask an Italian about the Feast of the Seven Fishes and you’re likely to get a lot of blank stares. But ask them what they eat on Christmas eve and the answer will be a resounding, “Seafood!” This meatless meal varies from family to family and village to village, but as per tradition, there is always a lot of fish.
This cocktail calls for beet kvass, a slightly fizzy, naturally fermented drink from the Old World. Find it at Zabar’s made by Brooklyn-based company The Gefelteria.
As an enlightened eater, going out for sushi–once a weekly indulgence–has become a guilt-inducing task I try to avoid. Gone are the days of blindly consuming shrimp tempura and eel avocado rolls. Spicy tuna? Forget it. But this week, with a little help from my local Greenmarket, we made a sushi feast even a locavore could be proud of.
Thanks to all our sandwich-loving poets for entering!
Woo-eee…we knew we should have laid off the latkes at last night’s Fourth Annual Latke Festival at BAM after, oh say, the 15th one, but they were just so good!
Brrr…it’s cold outside. We’ve barely started on our lunch, but already we’re dreaming about what to put in the oven for dinner tonight. Here’s a recipe that will do just fine: rich and creamy 5-cheese mac and cheese from Home Cooking with Jean-Georges: My Favorite Simple Recipes (his wife, Marja, actually created it).
Wowza! When we put out a call for entries into this year’s latke festival where amateurs will spar with chefs to see who has the best potato pancakes around, we were expecting something…well, amateurish. But this year’s nominee, Micah Fredman, simply blew us away with his recipe for Yucca and Sweet Potato Latke with Apple Plantain Sorbet, Queso Fresco, Pickled Onion, Cilantro and Spicy Green Hot Sauce.
With holiday parties looming and menus to plan, we thought of this rich, frothy punch by mixologist Casey Van Heel of Rye Restaurant in Williamsburg. Light as a feather, yet decadent thanks to the upstate milk, this cocktail is more dessert than drink and perfect for filling guests’ glasses at winter gatherings.
Out in the Midwest, Thanksgiving is well under way. We’ve finished the 5K Pilgrim Run, the turkey’s in the oven, the pies are resting on the table and the rolls are rising in the warmest spot in the house. Three dishes left to make and we’ll be ready to chow down.
