EVENT: Cooking For The Rents’ Friends, Live-in Catering to Earn My Keep
VENUE: Phoebe’s Parents’ Beach House, Martha’s Vineyard
PARTY SIZE: 6
TYPE: Casual Summertime Dinner Party
MENU: Corn Cakes with Lemon Chive Crème Fraiche; Moroccan Bouillabaisse; Cous Cous; Mixed Greens; Peach-Blueberry Pie
When I left my job at the beginning of August, I decided to delay reality a bit by joining my parents on Martha’s Vineyard for the remainder of summer. It had been a while since I took…
Moroccan Bouillabaisse
Makes 6 servings
Read the original post here.
Ingredients
8 plum tomatoes (about 2 ¼ lb), seeded and grated (skins removed at end)
1 large onion, grated
3 garlic cloves, chopped
4 cups fish stock
1 lb potatoes, peeled and cut into ½ inch cubes
1/4 teaspoon crumbled saffron threads (optional)
1 tbsp ground cumin
1/2 tbsp sweet paprika
1/2 tbsp ground ginger
1/2 preserved lemon, peel only, thinly sliced
1/4 cup…
I warn you: this is going to be a snobby post from beginning to end. Something about Francophilia, even if pastry related, gives you that haughty edge. But even though we’re no Freedom-Fry eaters, Phoebe and I really rarely do cook from the French tradition-give us Italian, Greek, Moroccan, or Thai over French any day-and so I figured we get a pass for this near faux pas.
This bout of French affection is, of course, pastry related, but it’s not about any of those weirdly unsatisfying Napoleon-type…
It’s after Labor Day, and it’s more or less official now that summer is over. I’ve put away my white linen shorts and begun stock-piling tinted body lotion to remedy my imminent paleness, but so long as the farmer’s market is still dishing out bright colored herbs and veggies, I’ll keep the spirit of the season alive in my kitchen by steering clear of a different kind of white—the pasta, rice, and potatoes that will soon become a staple of my fall diet.
For now, this means crab cakes.…
DISH: Grandpa Salad with Potatoes and Cheese
MAIN INGREDIENTS: Tomato, Cucumber
All summer, my family eats an easy salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, chopped red onion, and olive oil. When the tomatoes are good, the cucumbers crisp, and the onion not too abundant, there’s almost nothing I’d rather eat. For unknown reasons, we call this salad “grandpa salad,” though it wasn’t invented by any grandpa I know, and it’s not any more geriatric-tasting than the next thing. It is, like an old man, kind of crotchety, and by…
DISH: Fried Multicolored Tomato BLTs with Basil-Chive Mayo
MAIN INGREDIENTS: Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato
Growing up, on days when a turkey club just felt like too much work for my jaw, I tended to downgrade from the triple-decker to a plain old bacon sandwich with one lettuce leaf and a sizable slather of mayo. At age 11, when I made the personal ruling that tomatoes were indeed a vegetable instead of a fruit, I transitioned from turkey entirely and began a lifelong love affair with the BLT.
I’ve found over the years that my favorites in the…
It feels like just yesterday the six of us gathered to kick off what would become our favorite eating ritual: Magazine Club. Back in August 2008, Julie had just moved into a new apartment, and we joined to warm her new digs with Kate’s spicy tostadas inspired by Eva Mendes’ steamy cover of W magazine, Phoebe’s Go Green! Pretentious Pesto Pasta fueled by a 30-pg Thomas Friedman article in New York Times Magazine, and Leora’s Caprese salad, more or less a constant in the year of collective potluck eating, though there has yet to be an argument made for its importance.
This dish is modeled after one I enjoyed during a leisurely three-hour lunch on my last day of work, where my (ex-)coworkers and I managed to polish of two bottles of Prosecco among the three of us. Now, granted, anything would taste pretty good after that much Prosecco. But it was the image of this dish that stuck with me: an elegant, beautifully fried polenta steak piled high with delicately shaved summer squash, fresh corn kernels, and julienned basil. Normally I’m not a huge fan of combining a piping hot protein straight out of the oven with a cold,…
Romesco Sauce
Adapted from The New Spanish Table
Makes about 2 cups
Read the original post here.
Ingredients
1 small red bell pepper, in a coarse dice
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2/3 cup mixed nuts: use almonds, hazelnuts, and/or walnuts
4 slices dried-out baguette, cubed
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 large tomato, as much of the skin off as possible, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon paprika
pinch of cayenne
2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
salt to taste
Cover the pepper and hot pepper with about 1/2 cup…
Caramelized Corn
Serves 6
If you make one recipe from end-of-summer fare, make this one. Again, a technique pioneered by my mother, the long, slow saute brings out the sugar in the corn, making it sweet, toothsome, and rich. Read the original post here.
Ingredients
10 ears of the best fresh corn
2 teaspoons butter
salt
Cut the kernels off the corn. Put them in a large saucepan with the butter. Cook over medium-low heat for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Sprinkle with salt and serve immediately.
Cooking For Others: In Mixed Company