Queen of Sheba Cake

"What on earth is a Champagne party?" I exclaimed to Baby as I read about the Queen of Sheba cake (The Hundredth Show) in Julia Child’s The French Chef Cookbook. She scribes, “The Queen of Sheba is a dessert in itself, or can be the main attraction at a tea, coffee, or Champagne party.” Who has Champagne parties these days and what’s more, what do you serve? The answer began to appear quite readily, when an extraordinarily generous friend gave Baby and me 250 grams (roughly 8 ounces) of caviar as a gift. That’s what you serve at a Champagne party! I tried my best to spoon my way through the tin, but it was evident I was going to need some help!

We made the cake of rum, almonds, and chocolate on Friday. It was definitely labor intensive and a little tricky trying it for the first time (we experienced a snag melting the chocolate, not trusting ourselves) but the results were well worth the trouble. As it baked, we started plotting out the menu and calling people to come for brunch on Sunday. For starters, we knew to dress the central caviar platter with toast points, chopped red onion, capers, lemon wedges, and blini (buckwheat pancakes). This particular blini by the way, another gift that accompanied the caviar, was news to me. Unlike the blini that I’m familiar with, that are about the size of a Sacajawea dollar and topped, these pancakes were rolled out like elegant parchment, to be gently folded and filled.

Amidst the outreach of invitations, I was suddenly struck with the memory of a Martha Stewart gathering that she had mapped out in her book Menus for Entertaining, the chapter entitled, Come for Champagne and Caviar. So, I guess I had heard of that sort of party before, but it’s an old book, and I’m older still. We plucked out the recipe for Beet Horseradish sauce, as piquant as it is pleasantly pink, with sugar snap peas for dipping. I also made the Salmon Rosettes with Dill & Mustard Sauce, on pumpernickel rounds.

Baby loves making his potato pancakes, and offered to make them (and you won’t find any better, believe me). This time he topped them with a marinated, fine dice of tuna tartare and drizzled a blend of Stonewall Kitchen wasabi cream and sour cream, and placed them on a tray over a bed of parsley. The Reader’s Digest Secrets of Better Cooking supplied Stuffed Eggs with Caviar. Spoonfuls of the most buttery, delectable miso-glazed cod were passed around, I also futzed some smoked salmon with the dill and mustard sauce and tossed in a few of the blueberries that our friend had brought. That’s right, salmon and blueberries—try it.

We freely poured both Champagne and Mionetto prosecco, with offerings of juice, such as blood orange, grapefruit and Fuji apple (and the lightest splashes of elderflower-scented St. Germain liqueur) and watched the spread disappear as our guests came and went, having shared with us this most lovely afternoon.

Et voila, mes dames et monsieurs, a perfect Champagne party well suited for a Queen of Sheba cake!

Soundtrack: Great British Bands Play the Music of Noel Coward; Evil Under the Sun soundtrack; Sinatra Sings Cole Porter; The Great American Composers – Cole Porter

Next Magazine Review - Scarpetta

Scarpetta
355 West 14th Street (@ 9th Avenue)
212-691-0555
scarpettanyc.com

2:15 a.m., somewhere around 1996: I’m drunk at The Village Idiot. Flash forward to 2006: as 14th Street gentrifies with its neighboring sisters in ‘mo town, the lowly gin joint upgrades to Gin Lane, a fashionable big boy’s club. When my steak arrives, it’s only adequate. Dale DeGroff’s drinks are better. But everything is overpriced and I’ve the sneaking suspicion that the boys in question are really just playing dress up. Gin Lane goes down quicker than an olive in a blisteringly dry martini. Cut to present day: the marvelous Scarpetta has newly taken residence, and Scott Conant (Alto, L’Impero) is the master behind the Italian fare.

My foodist friend and I were seated in an intimate cozy corner, and from the onset we were simply agog. We ordered fine Classic Negronis ($12) straightaway, made with Bombay gin, vermouth, and Campari. Wholly traditional, it’s a delight to see Negronis popping up on menus all over the city. We are mad for them! Soprasetta bread arrived with extraordinary mascarpone butter, as did luscious eggplant and tomato caponata.

Vibrant Raw Yellowtail ($16) was duly enhanced by a drizzle of olive oil and sea salt. Fantastic! Tuna “Susci” ($16) with preserved truffles was also highly festive fish. An order of Burrata ($15), that staggering orb of mozzarella and cream with a soft middle was wonderfully paired with marinated eggplant.

We split our gloves applauding the supple pockets of Duck & Foie Gras Ravioli ($25), served in an unlawful butter sauce. The simple Spaghetti ($24) was also incredible, a perfect coil of homemade pasta with tomato and basil.

News struck that they had run out of the Hampshire Pork Chop ($28)! We opted for the Moist-Roasted Capretto ($28) instead, with peas and fingerling potatoes and an order of Creamy Polenta ($15) with truffled mushrooms. My pal loved the stewed goat more than I did, but as she pointed out, it was a much quieter dish than what we’d just experienced and naturally might seem a come down. However, we were in total agreement about the divine polenta, as well as our love of Scarpetta.

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Praise The Pearl - Blue Smoke's Blood-Orange Margarita

I have to admit, I've been a little ahead of the blood orange curve, having created a drink of my own, the Bloody Good Screw (email me or post a comment if you'd like the recipe). Perfect for brunch! Just today when I opened New York magazine, I dropped it almost immediately and ran to get a pen to write down the ingredients for Blue Smoke's Blood-Orange Margarita and then ran further, out the door, to purchase them. I didn't even look to see what Adam Platt was up to. The recipe is below (it's delicious!), with my suggestions and comments in italics.

Blue Smoke’s Blood-Orange Margarita

FOR THE BLOOD-ORANGE PURÉE:

4 blood oranges, peeled, segmented, and seeded

1 tablespoon simple syrup (combine an even ratio of sugar and water in a bottle and shake until sugar is dissolved) I use a 2:1 ratio of water to sugar, it's too sweet otherwise for me. I also boil it all until melted together, and let cool by an open window while peeling the blood oranges.

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

FOR THE MARGARITA:

1 lime wedge and coarse salt I suggest Morton's Coarse Kosher Salt for rim

Ice

2 ounces puro blanco tequila I had a convenient nip of Don Julio Blanco Tequila on hand

1 1/2 ounces fresh lime juice (approximately 2 1/2 limes I don't think this is true, I used a half of a big juicy Persian lime)

3/4 ounce orange liqueur I used Cointreau also on hand, I wonder what using Patron Citronge might be like

1/2 ounce simple syrup

3/4 ounce blood-orange purée

1 lime wheel (optional) I didn't do it, I just used a lime wedge.

1 blood-orange wheel (optional) I didn't do that either.

FOR THE BLOOD-ORANGE PURÉE:

In a blender, combine the orange segments, simple syrup, and lemon juice and purée until smooth. (Cover tightly and refrigerate until ready to use; the purée will keep for up to two days.) Oh, just drink it straight away!

FOR THE MARGARITA:

Moisten the edge of a rocks glass with a ¼-inch wedge of lime. Sprinkle a good amount of salt on a plate and press the outside rim of the glass into the salt. Chill glass in freezer for a few minutes. Fill cocktail shaker and glass with ice. Add the tequila, lime juice, orange liqueur, simple syrup, and blood-orange purée to the shaker and (1) shake vigorously. (2) Strain into glass and (3) garnish with orange and lime wheels.

(Adapted from Mix Shake Stir, Little, Brown, 2009.)

What they don't tell you is how gorgeous it looks too!

Praise The Pearl - Klee Brasserie's Spaghetti and Caviar Carbonara

M.F.K. Fisher wrote vibrantly, wickedly, about love, death (and stew) amongst the molluscs in her seminal tome Consider The Oyster. In tribute to the great lady, I propose to humbly submit Praise The Pearl, in which I take the opportunity to post this sidebar to Evenings With Peter, simply lauding a culinary element that for one reason or other, I find to be fascinating. The posts may occur over the course of any given number of days, but one thing remains steadfast, on my part at least—the earnest hope that you enjoy reading them. So here's the first then, about Klee restaurant in Manhattan, and a dish that I'm quite taken with.

Daniel Angerer, of Austrian descent, is wildly busy helming the European American Brasserie Klee, with his sublime and gracious first mate Lori Mason right on deck. Angerer took Bobby Flay to the mat on Iron Chef in 2008; the rest of us are just lucky enough to visit his restaurant in Chelsea. His list of daily specials travels “through the foods of Europe (and America on Sundays)” but the Friday special is a particular favorite of mine. As I seem to be obsessed with carbonara at the moment, I am delighted with Chef Daniel’s entirely clever Spaghetti and Caviar Carbonara (although I could go on about Thursday's utterly mad Orecchiette and Escargot). Traditional pancetta is part of the plan, yes (house-made, by the way), but that's where tradition pretty much ends. He tosses in a bit of cream here, a little bit of carrot there, but there are no eggs involved, as tradition would have it anyway, and that’s no yolk—no, the divine fit of inspiration here concerns the coral-colored, precious orbs of rainbow trout caviar. Would eggs by any other name so shamelessly burst forth in the mouth with such a delectable salt?

Next Magazine Review - Best Mac Daddy

The Mac & Cheese ($14) from The Half King (505 W 23rd St, btwn 10th/11th Aves, 212-462-4300, thehalfking.com) puts mozzarella, cheddar, and American cheese together at their cheesy best and tops it with parmesan. Bacon absolutely seals the deal, and little chunks of tomatoes and broccoli florets are thrown in for a healthy touch. It’s a huge portion, perfect to share.

Ditch Plains (29 Bedford St @ at Downing St, 212-633-0202, ditch-plains.com) shamelessly offers Ditch Dogs (2/$12), featuring two fantastic, smoky hot dogs in a basket with thick shoestring French fries and scrumptious mac n’ cheese on top, made with gruyère, American and parmesan cheeses. We swore to split only one cheese-laden dog, but both ended up going down our respective hatches in a feeding frenzy. Utterly delicious and appalling at the same time.

With our ginormous (no, reaaally) Burger ($10) from Nolita House (47 E Houston St, btwn Mulberry/Mott, 212-625-1712, nolitahouse.com) we loved the side of delicious Macaroni & Cheese ($6) with tight spirals of gemelli pasta in a variety of four cheeses baked with bread crumbs. The place is always so fun but the Bluegrass Sunday Brunch in particular literally rocks.
Zemi (130 Ninth Ave @ 18th St, 212-924-6950) tops my favorites list once again with their Macaroni & Cheese ($10), an excellent, homey, creamy dish, with extra sharp cheddar, Parmesan and a little added Asian flair from the baked Panko bread crumb crust.

Although groovy cocktails might seem to be the main attraction at Tillman’s (165 W 26th St, 212-627-8320, tillmansnyc.com) such as an ultra-smooth U’luvka Martini ($15), you have to try The Mack ($9), just fabulous, with apple smoked bacon, peas and heady, fresh sage in a combo of sweet mascarpone and parmesan cheeses, with a topping of perfectly browned bread crumbs. And by all means, keep the cheesy-goodness going on with the scrumdidiliumptious French Onion Soup Grilled Cheese ($14).

I'm in mourning for the Mac & Cheese Kroket from bamn! (erst of 37 St. Marks Place @ 2nd Ave, 212-358-7685, bamnfood.com), as they very recently closed. It was a secret combo of cheeses deep-fried with macaroni. That’s all you needed to know at 3 o'clock in the morning, or anytime, really. And also, it was only $2. Requiesat in Pasta.

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Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Buon Giorno! When Baby and I went to Italy last summer, apart from sipping Negronis and visiting various ruins, we also ordered a carbonara pasta in the three cities we visited: Venice, Florence, and Rome. Although the classic dish arrived on our plates in different variations, our hands-down favorite was at the Taverna de Romana, on the via della Madonna in Rome. Not only was it dirt cheap, it stayed the closest to tradition and didn’t incorporate an overly creamy sauce, mimicking an alfredo as so many places tend to do here in the states.

We had traveled with Baby’s sister-in-law and wily nephew, whom I shall affectionately refer to here as Mama Bear and Baby Bear (Baby’s brother, Papa Bear, doesn’t like to leave the country). They live in Los Angeles but just came to New York to check out a few colleges, as Baby Bear enters into his freshman year this fall. Children grow up so quickly, don’t they?

So they were coming for dinner and we decided to make an Italian dinner as a reunion of sorts. We knew we wanted to make carbonara of course and Baby had a recipe from his McCall’s Cooking School binders that are comprised of recipes he’d received monthly in the mail back in the 70’s. I thought of pizza too, as a starter, but didn’t want to be cliché nor did I want something so heavy to impede upon the carbonara. I’m not really too interested in making my own dough, and as we had a tube of Pillsbury pizza dough in the fridge that I wanted to use, I stuck with my idea and began to construct a pizza plan, lightening it up with a lot of vegetables. Instead of a tomato sauce, I chopped an onion, the white parts of two leeks, and two garlic cloves and sautéed the lot in olive oil. When it had all wilted, I deglazed with balsamic vinaigrette, threw in a few grinds of salt and pepper and made a quick jam by adding a few tablespoons of honey. When the mix had cooled, I spread it on the pizza dough. After salting and draining shavings of zucchini and yellow squash (either a mandoline or a vegetable peeler will work) in a colander for 30 minutes, I dressed the pizza. The topping was grated Gruyere cheese; the whole thing went in to a 425 degree oven for 17 minutes, as the Pillsbury package dictates, perhaps a little longer to thoroughly roast the vegetables with a nice color. It was gorgeous all around.

Now here’s the weird part about the tomato flan and in order to explain it properly I have to go back a few years. Baby and his old pal, Boho Gal, went to Florence in 2000 and discovered the marvelous Cibreo restaurant where they served tomato flan, instead of butter to go with table bread. Back in New York, they happened upon Pepolino just below Canal Street and remarked on the tomato flan that they also served. The waiter overheard the conversation and immediately told them that he and one of the managers had come from Cibreo to open Pepolino! When Baby and I went to Florence last summer, he was anxious to revisit Cibreo, where we had a most incredible meal, where yes, they still served the tomato flan. When we told our friends over dinner at Cibreo about the Pepolino story, the owner overheard us and fled to our table to impart her story of how she had gone to New York to help her coworker friend open Pepolino. Extraordinary! The capper comes with this dinner for Baby’s family, when I was looking through a collection of clippings I had amassed years ago (probably around 2000), trying to find something to make and found—a recipe from the New York Times, the recipe for Pepolino’s tomato flan that I had completely forgotten about and had never made. It’s just delicious and impossibly easy. I want to serve it all the time, as Cibreo does, to be slathered on country bread instead of butter.

I tore up green and red leaf lettuces and tossed them with olive oil and salt to serve with the carbonara, which came out great, but I didn’t follow the McCall’s recipe entirely. The recipe is sort of faulty anyhow and I don’t think that making the pasta first, as is suggested, is wise. You have to heat it up again and rinsing the pasta with hot water only strips it of its starch and the eggy dressing doesn’t cling to it as well. I also used pancetta instead of bacon and a blend of shredded cheeses (parmesan, asiago, Romano) instead of just parmesan. I meant to temper the eggs with some of the pasta water but draining a steaming vat of pasta is so immediate and intense, it’s often easy for me to forget to reserve a cup of the liquid. The cheese coagulated too, the McCall’s recipe suggests adding it too soon: it really should only be added in at the very end.

Gourmet magazine came through again, just in time, this month offering a rustic Ricotta and Polenta Pie (the link is gone; I offer this pdf) which was a perfect way to end the meal. It wasn’t difficult (I used prepared dough here too), we just had to soak apricots and tart cherries in a dry white wine the night before assembling the pie.

And as the glasses of Gavi flowed and the Peroni was poured, Baby Bear and I rocked out to Van Halen and AC/DC into the night and we didn’t even need an air guitar as I had just given Baby a ukulele in honor of our anniversary.

Soundtrack: Lou Reed, Transformer; Tom Waits, The Heart of Saturday Night; Neil Young, After the Gold Rush; Van Halen; AC/DC, Back in Black.

P.S. We were so taken by the tomato flan that we considered its possible variations; we wanted to make a flan out of everything the next day. First up was asparagus, with roasted shallots and a blend of lemon and olive oils, but the flan fell flat, as we were remiss in our exclusion of something acidic, like a little red wine vinegar. Up next is winter squash that we look forward to make with orange, rosemary, and roasted garlic. Below is the original recipe for tomato flan adapted from Pepolino that I had clipped from the New York Times.

Tomato Flan

1 8-ounce can Del Monte or other tomato sauce
12 large basil leaves
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for garnish
4 teaspoons unflavored gelatin (about 1 1/3 envelopes)
Salt and fresh black pepper to taste
Vegetable oil
12 slices country bread

In a blender or food processor, combine tomato sauce, 6 leaves basil, garlic, ¼ cup olive oil, gelatin and salt and pepper to taste. Blend at high speed for 2 minutes.
Lightly oil 6 small cappuccino or other cups. Divide tomato mixture among cups. Refrigerate 20 minutes.
To serve, dip bottom of each cup in hot water to loosen flan. Unmold onto 6 plates. Garnish with a basil leaf and a drop of olive oil. Place 2 slices bread on each plate.
Yield: 6 servings.

Next Magazine Review - Good Stiff Ones

On at least several occasions we’ve all had a liquid lunch or drank our dinner. Lord knows I have. Here’s where to do it in stuporous style.

Good Stuff Diner (109 West 14th St @ Sixth Ave, 212-929-2555) makes a good and stiff Singapore Sling ($7.95) with its hefty pour of Bombay gin, cherry liqueur and lime, and we love it the way we love our men: strong and fruity.

Commerce (50 Commerce St, @Barrow, 212-524-2301, commercerestaurant.com) pours the best Negroni ($12) I’ve ever had! Masterfully prepared with Hendrick’s gin (itself an infusion of rose petals and cucumber), Campari and Carpano Antica sweet vermouth, it’s certainly a strong drink and may take some getting used to, but here its graced by sheer perfumed divinity and Commerce is a wonderful place to be initiated.

The Spiced Vanilla Mojito ($11) is listed as “something cool” on the menu at Smorgas Chef West Village (283 West 12th St @ West 4th Street, 212-243-7073, smorgaschef.com) but for me, this fantastic mix does the trick any time of the year. Muddled limes, ginger and mint dosed with Bacardi over crushed ice is indeed coolly refreshing, but the perverse addition of cinnamon, nutmeg, cracked black pepper and vanilla also makes me want to grab one to go and snuggle with my baby by a roaring fire.

We reveled in the hand-crafted concoctions served from the sprawling bar at Chinatown Brasserie (380 Lafayette St @ Great Jones St, 212-533-7000, chinatownbrasserie.com) while seated at our half-moon banquette underneath whimsical, overblown red lanterns. The Frozen Mai Thai ($10) with Meyer's Platinum Rum, pineapple, lime, orgeat (almond syrup) and a whiskey-soaked cherry is pure, frosty genius.

One of the classic cocktails that Elettaria (33 West 8th St @ MacDougal St, 212-677-3833, elettarianyc.com) lists on its delirious drink menu is the Zombie Punch ($14), circa 1934. I am just wild for it although not terribly familiar with most of its ingredients, to whit: Appleton’s VX, Brugal gold, 151 El Dorado Demerara Rum, lime, Velvet Falernum, and Absinthe 14. But it’s served in a tiki cup with a big straw. Further questions?

nextmagazine.com/eats