Steamed Sweet Potatoes with Tahini

I had the pleasure of discovering Zou Zou’s delicious roasted sweet potato with miso butter-tahini and Egyptian dukkah when I happened to stop by the chic Mediterranean restaurant for a quick bite. It was such a taste sensation, with exotic flavors bursting out of its skin. Although relegated to a side on the menu, I felt this uber root tuber creation could have been brought to the fore! 

When New York Times Cooking posted the following recipe for sweet potatoes with tahini butter, I hastened to make it straightaway—the list of ingredients brought me right back to my experience at Zou Zou. Carla Lalli Music, the creator of this dish, insists upon steaming the sweet potatoes however, instead of roasting them. She suggests that steaming imparts a flavor roasting can’t compete with and notes that the process also makes your sweet potatoes as fluffy as clouds.

Try the method, taste for yourself, and do enjoy!

Sweet Potatoes with Tahini Butter
Recipe from Carla Lalli Music
Adapted by Samin Nosrat

Ingredients
Yield:4 to 6 servings

2½ pounds sweet potatoes of any color (about 4 medium), washed
6 tablespoons unsalted butter (¾ stick), at room temperature
¼ cup well-stirred tahini
2 to 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice, plus lime wedges, for serving
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 clove garlic, finely grated or pounded smooth with a pinch of salt
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons white sesame seeds
Flaky sea salt, for serving

Preparation
Step 1
Bring a few inches of water to a boil in a medium pot fitted with a steamer basket or footed colander. Place sweet potatoes in the steamer. Cover, reduce heat to medium and steam until potatoes are completely tender, 35 to 40 minutes. (Use a skewer or paring knife to check for doneness; the potatoes should be soft all the way through.)

Step 2
Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk butter, tahini, lime juice, soy sauce, sesame oil and garlic until smooth. It might seem as if the butter and liquids will never fully combine, but they will — just keep stirring! Taste, and adjust seasoning with salt, pepper and more lime juice as needed.

Step 3
Set a small pan over medium heat. Toast the sesame seeds, swirling the pan continuously, until seeds are golden. They’ll give off some oil and start to clump together, so if needed, stir with a wooden spoon to keep them moving so that they toast evenly. They’ll turn a nice deep-golden shade just as they dry off a bit, about 4 minutes. Transfer seeds to a small bowl to prevent them from overcooking.

Step 4
When the sweet potatoes are tender, use tongs to transfer them to a large plate or platter. When they are just cool enough to handle, split potatoes in half lengthwise, and season with flaky salt. Spread tahini butter generously onto the flesh, and top with sesame seeds. Serve immediately with lime wedges.

 

Ricotta Gnocchi with Roasted Tomato

It’s time for tomatoes! An August tomato is like a lover you’ve been waiting for all season to embrace you at last with a kiss as ripe as summer.

Take advantage of the bounty this month when tomatoes are at their ready-to-burst best. This recipe calls for plum tomatoes but I think you should seek out farmer’s markets for huge heirlooms in all their infinite shapes and glorious colors. Then roast them for a summer-sweet sauce to pour over your golden brown, plump and pillowy gnocchi. Use fresh ricotta, if available!

As a part of my summer rotation for years now, I love this dish from my head to-ma-toes.

 

Ricotta Gnocchi with Roasted Tomato

From epicurious.com
Makes 4 (main course) servings

Ingredients
2 lb plum tomatoes, trimmed and halved lengthwise
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
3 large eggs
1 (15-oz) container ricotta
1 cup all-purpose flour

Preparation
Roast tomatoes:
Preheat oven to 400°F.

Put tomatoes, cut sides up, in 1 layer in a 13- by 9-inch baking dish. Dot with 2 tablespoons butter and season well with salt and pepper. Roast in middle of oven until skins are wrinkled and beginning to brown, about 45 minutes. Cool in baking dish.

Make gnocchi while tomatoes roast:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

Beat together eggs and ricotta in a large bowl with an electric mixer until blended. Stir in flour, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper until combined. (Batter will be soft.)

Use 2 teaspoons (flatware, not measuring spoons) to form gnocchi: Scoop up a rounded teaspoon of batter, then use second spoon to scoop mixture off spoon and into boiling water. Make 9 more gnocchi.

Simmer briskly until gnocchi are just firm in center and cooked through, about 5 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a platter and cool, covered with damp paper towel. Continue making gnocchi in batches of 10.

Make sauce and sauté gnocchi:
When tomatoes are cool enough to handle, peel and seed them over roasting pan. Slice tomato flesh lengthwise 1/4 inch thick and put in a medium saucepan. Scrape skins, seeds, and any juices from roasting pan into a fine sieve set over saucepan with tomatoes and press on solids in sieve to extract juices. Discard skins and seeds.

Stir 1/4 cup water into tomatoes and bring to a low simmer over low heat. While tomatoes are coming to a simmer, melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderate heat, then cook gnocchi, turning gently, until heated through, 4 to 5 minutes.

Season gnocchi with salt and pepper and serve with warm tomatoes.

BOOK/A TABLE - Davey's Cheesecake

My fella had a birthday recently, but we’d been celebrating here and there with scattered presents (a backgammon set, a dan dan noodle kit!) and a few special dinners since June. We figured looking forward to a birthday celebration in August results in leaving the bulk of summer too swiftly behind. But you know what? The summer flew ferociously past us just the same.

I surprised David with a table at The View in Times Square’s Marriott Marquis, the only revolving restaurant in Manhattan. They reopened several months ago after undergoing extensive renovations and we felt as though we’d booked passage on a Cruise Ship Time Machine dialed back to the 1980’s. Now, we loved the retro-ness of all of that (and the food is decent, by the way), but the real surprise was that most of the other patrons seemed more interested in their cell phone screens than the view of the city landscape unfolding below.

We also went to D.C. for a long weekend where we caught up with old friends, visited Julia Child’s kitchen at the Smithsonian, and bent elbows at The Willard. 

And then we came home to cheesecake!

I’d been thinking of making a cheesecake for David’s birthday since the spring when I borrowed my mother’s copy of Murder By Cheesecake. It’s a cozy mystery by Rachel Ekstrom Courage based on The Golden Girls series. I prefer the television series frankly, but the recipe for cheesecake with a lingonberry drizzle (in honor of Norwegian Golden Girl Rose Nylund) in the back pages of the book is a sweet touch. It also served as a lovely finale for all our festivities.

“Then Rose spent the afternoon making enough cheesecake to feed an army. She’d invented a new recipe infused with the traditional flavors of her beloved hometown to celebrate the lovebirds. Saint Olaf’s Kiss was a creamy vanilla cheesecake surrounded by an almond-and-graham cracker crust and topped with a sweet lingonberry drizzle.”

There needn’t be any particular celebration in order to make this cheesecake, though—sitting down with a nice drizzled slice to watch an episode of The Golden Girls is reason enough!

Murder by Cheesecake with Lingonberry Drizzle
Recipe developed by Sandra Ekstrom and Rachel Ekstrom Courage

Crust:
2 c. graham crackers (about 12 full-size crackers), crushed
½ c. slivered almonds
½ c. melted butter
⅓ c. sugar

Filling:
4 8-oz. pkgs. cream cheese, room temperature
1 c. sugar
1 T. flour
1 t. vanilla extract
4 whole eggs, room temperature
1 egg yolk, room temperature
½ c. cream

Lingonberry Drizzle:
1 jar lingonberries
Water (as needed)
Sugar (as needed)

Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray or butter a 10-inch springform pan.

Crush graham crackers and almonds in a food processor until fine. Add melted butter and sugar, processing until combined. Press mixture evenly onto the bottom and up the sides of the prepared pan.

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, and vanilla until smooth. Gradually beat in eggs, egg yolk, and cream until fully combined. Pour filling into the crust. Bake for 15 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 250°F and bake for 1 hour.

Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

To prepare the drizzle, slowly heat the jar of Lingonberries in a saucepan over low heat. Add water, one tablespoon at a time, to thin the sauce to the desired consistency. Add sugar, one teaspoon at a time, to achieve the desired sweetness. Gently spoon the sauce over the cooled cheesecake. Refrigerate to set.

To serve, dip a knife in water and wipe between cuts.

Enjoy your Murder by Cheesecake with a tangy and sweet lingonberry drizzle!

 

Pete's Dragon Bowl

Oh! How I used to love getting a Dragon Bowl from Angelica Kitchen! Chockablock full of vitamins, it wasn’t just a healthy meal after going for a run—it was also such a simple treasure to eat, rooting through all the tasty vegetables and seaweed dressed in a delicious tahini sauce.

Angelica closed some years ago, most unfortunately. While I realize that things must change, I nevertheless mourn the loss of my favorite Manhattan places (along with the memories they held), especially when they are replaced by something less memorable.

While the recipes for my beloved chimichangas from Bandito’s and Croque Monsieurs from Café de Bruxelles have been lost to time, I did find the recipe for the Dragon Bowl they used to serve at Angelica.

Be inventive and use your favorite greens, beans, and root vegetables to fill the bowl. I hope you enjoy this little time capsule! Per usual, my comments below are in italics.

Dragon Bowl

From the kitchen of Jules Dirsa originally adapted from a recipe in The Angelica Home Kitchen by Leslie McEachern.

Ingredients
1 bunch of steamed greens (ex: collard greens, mustard greens, kale, Swiss chard, or bok choy)
1 cup rice or other grains
1 cup beans or tofu (adzuki beans or garbanzo beans, pinto beans, etc.)
4 cups root vegetables or seasonal steamed vegetables (ex: carrots, beets, summer squash, rutabaga, parsnip, or zucchini)
1 oz or 1 cup sea vegetables (arame, sea palm, or hijiki, etc)
2 tbsp. tamari (wheat-free) or shoyu (brewed soy sauce)
1/3 cup julienned carrots
1/3 cup of onion sliced into thin crescents
4 cups of water

For the Dressing
1/2 cup firmly packed fresh parsley, washed, dried, and chopped
1 whole scallion/green onion, rinsed and sliced
1/4 cup tahini

1 tablespoon umeboshi paste (can be hard to find, also expensive; try subbing with brown rice vinegar or red wine vinegar with a dash of salt)
1/2 cup of water

Method
1. Prepare the rice and protein of choice, steam the greens and veggies. 

2. If using sea veggies: Soak for 30 minutes, then simmer in water for 25 minutes with julienned carrots, onion, and tamari. 

3. Assemble the bowl by layering each component into a colorful pile. 

4. Combine all the ingredients for the dressing in a blender and puree until smooth. 

5. Pour dressing on top of assembled dragon bowl.

BOOK/A TABLE - Hector's Chicken Enchiladas

In The Vile Village, the seventh book from Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, those woebegone Beaudelaire children encounter Hector, an enchilada-loving boy who wishes to make his favorite bubbling cheesy dish for them. He says, “How about chicken enchiladas? That’s a Mexican dish consisting of corn tortillas rolled around a chicken filling, covered with melted cheese and a special sauce I learned from my second-grade teacher.” 

Unlike Hector, I had no such teacher to inspire any sort of enchilada creation. Rather, I spied a recipe in The New York Times just the other day and set to work myself. I have little preamble here except to say that Rick Martinez’s gooey enchiladas were excellent enough to make Hector proud—and as proof, my husband asked that they be put on the list of must-make-agains.

Trader Joe’s helped with much of this: instead of buying a rotisserie chicken, we bought a package of roasted chicken strips and found our delicious, perfectly spicy enchilada sauce there, as well as our corn tortillas and vegetables. 

Although the recipe doesn’t suggest it, use any of the remaining tomato and onion mixture to top your enchiladas before serving!

Chicken Enchiladas
By Rick Martínez
Yield:6 servings

Ingredients
¼ cup vegetable oil

12 (6-inch) corn tortillas
½ medium white onion, chopped
1 medium poblano or green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 large tomatoes, cored and finely chopped
Kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
2 cups cooked shredded chicken (from a roast chicken or rotisserie chicken)
2 ½ cups enchilada sauce or from 2 (10-ounce) cans
12 ounces (3 cups) sharp cheddar, shredded
Pico de gallo, for serving (optional)

Preparation
Step 1
Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Using 2 tablespoons of the oil, lightly brush both sides of each tortilla. Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium-high and, working in batches, cook tortillas until lightly browned and just starting to crisp but still pliable, 45 seconds to 1 minute per side. (This will prevent the tortillas from completely falling apart while cooking.) Set aside.

Step 2
Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium-high and cook onion, poblano, garlic, tomatoes and juices, and 1 teaspoon salt, stirring and scraping up any browned bits, until most of the liquid has evaporated and tomatoes begin to stick to the skillet, 9 to 11 minutes. Stir in chicken, ½ cup enchilada sauce and ½ teaspoon salt until combined and just warmed through; remove from heat. Taste and season with additional salt, if necessary.

Step 3
Pour ½ cup enchilada sauce into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish, spreading to cover the bottom. Working one at a time, arrange a scant ¼ cup of chicken down the center of the tortilla, roll to secure the filling and place seam side down in the baking dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas and chicken, making sure they’re nestled right up against each other.

Step 4
Pour the remaining enchilada sauce over the tortillas, then scatter cheese on top. Bake until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese is just beginning to brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve warm topped with pico de gallo, if desired. For leftovers, divide remaining enchiladas into portions of 2 or 3; wrap each portion tightly in plastic wrap or place in a freezer bag, squeeze out the air, seal and freeze for up to 3 months.

 

The Corn is Great!

Wondering what to do with all that fresh summer corn? Got a grill? Neither do I. 

Here’s what to do instead: preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Line an oven-ready tray with heavy-duty tin foil and lay your corn, still in the husks, down upon it (probably four ears at most, at a time). Drizzle a good fruity olive over it and and use a brush to make sure your corn is thoroughly coated, turning as you brush. 

Wrap the foil around it and fold over the top to create a loose seal. Put the corn-lined tray in the oven and just leave it alone for about 45 minutes. 

Remove the tray (careful, contents will be very hot!) and let sit further for another five minutes. 

When the corn is ready to be handled, slowly and carefully pull back the husks to reveal the tender, soften golden beauties inside. 

Grab a seat, slather with butter and sprinkle with salt.

Thanks to Lancaster Farm Fresh for the gorgeous corn via Fresh Direct!

BOOK/A TABLE - The Bronx Cocktail

 

The Mondrian hotel in Miami Beach used to have a vending machine in their soaring lobby where, with the swipe of a credit card, you could readily purchase various sundries such as an engagement ring, an intimacy kit—or for somewhere around $75K, the keys to a brand new Jaguar or Porsche (I don’t remember exacty which)!

My dealings with that machine were of a more humble nature. I purchased an attractive copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise and brought it home where it then sat on a shelf for years along with my best intentions of reading it. I was so glad I finally did. It’s beautifully written, often stunningly so in its depiction of the callow Amory Blaine as he tries to sort out things (anything!) in the world of the Lost Generation. I’m guessing Holden Caufield might have found his roots here. 

It’s extraordinary to think that Fitzgerald was only 23 when he wrote this debut novel with such incredible inventiveness of the form—incorporating poems, playscripts, songs, and of course, a fair amount of liquor. 

In one late-night scene, Amory and a bunch of his friends ditch Princeton and head to the Jersey Shore. (None of them, by the way, have so much as a dime on them.)

“They strolled along the boardwalk to the most imposing hostelry in sight, and, entering the dining-room, scattered about a table.
‘Eight Bronxes,’ commanded Alec, ‘and a club sandwich and Juliennes. The food for one. Hand the rest around.’
Amory ate little, having seized a chair where he could watch the sea and feel the rock of it...”

Ever had a Bronx cocktail? Instructions below. Cheers then to a lovely sip for summer and the Great F. Scott!

Bronx Cocktail
Adapted from Liquor.com

Ingredients
2 ounces gin
1/4 ounce dry vermouth
1/4 ounce sweet vermouth
1 ounce orange juice, freshly squeezed
1 dash orange bitters (optional)

Steps
Add the gin, dry and sweet vermouths, orange juice and orange bitters into a shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled.
Double-strain into a chilled cocktail glass.