Pinkies Up! - Come Sail with Me!

Ahoy! The Anchor bar is aptly titled as it indeed has been firmly anchored in Soho for over six years now. Savvy nightlife folks Gunther Bilali and Jason LaGarenne are the smooth operators, offering up a revolving roster of punch bowls that really pack a wallop! Look to vodka-based Spring St. Punch, the Anchor Power Punch with high octane rum, and perhaps for something a little kinder, the Sea Shanty Punch with fizzes of Champagne.

I think however that the Murricane, named after regular Bill Murray, is requisite. Sail away to The Anchor or set a course for adventure and make it at home!

Murricane

Ingredients:

2 oz fresh watermelon

4 or 5 basil leaves

1.5 oz bourbon

3/4 oz fresh lemon juice

3/4 oz St-Germain elderflower liqueur

Directions:

Combine the watermelon and basil leaves in a mixing glass or shaker and muddle. Fill the shaker with ice, add the bourbon, lemon juice and St-Germain, and shake with vigor. Strain into a highball glass and garnish with freshly cracked black pepper and a juicy watermelon wedge.

And here's a pic of the punch--all aboard! 

The Anchor is located at 310 Spring St (b’twn Hudson/Greenwich Sts) in New York City. TheAnchorNYC.com.

Pete's Dish - March 28

What's going on in and about town! 



Grab a smart jacket, get your fancy hat, leaves your troubles on the doorstep and head to Eleven Madison Park as they host their 6^th annual Kentucky Derby Party on Saturday, May 3^rd. The most exciting two minutes in sports and one of my favorite days of the year! This year, the Park has partnered with Esquire magazine, Woodford Reserve and Nat Sherman among others as they all partake of some mint julep tippling, Derby dishes and live music. Go to MadeNiceNYC.com/events for tickets immediately—I’ll wager they go fast.

Pinkies up! From May 9^th- 13th, the fifth anniversary Manhattan Cocktail Classic will get thing shaken in Manhattan. High spirits with prevail over five days in three boroughs. Apart from all the boozing there will also be educational seminars and pig roasts, lunch and dinner travails and a cocktail party at the New York Public Library. Please knock it back with kind consideration for others and heed these words of wisdom: behave and keep your legs crossed. Get your tickets at ManhattanCocktailClassic.com.

 

Entrepreneur Miki Agrawal (WILD, THINX) has partnered with fellow restaurateur Walid Hammami (former owner of Café Rafaella, Angelina and Atlas Cafés) and together they are set to open a new farmhouse-chic location of her gluten-free pizza and Italian specialties restaurant concept at WILD in Williamsburg to form a triptych with the other locations in Manhattan’s West Village and Las Vegas, which are already serving healthy and farm fresh fare. Forage for black quinoa and kale salads as well as spinach and artichoke pizzas, comforting gluten-free pastas dressed a la vodka, and wild chicken Parmesan entrées. Don’t forget about the homemade, vegan kale cupcakes for dessert. So stick a fork in it! WILD is located at 340 Bedford Ave, 347-599-0699, EatDrinkWild.com. 

Pete's Dish - March 25

You must believe in spring! To help kick off the season, Manon announced their after work special and bar menu. What a lark to receive 30% off all beverages from 5:00pm - 8:00pm daily at the gorgeous main bar! The whole multi-leveled space is an absolute enchantment and the new food menu includes smoked duck on buckwheat, bar crudite, blue cheese and white chocolate crab cakes (imagine?), braised pork sliders and a duo of beets. Manon is located at 407 W 14th St, New York, NY, 212-596, 7255, Manon-NYC.com.

Now, despite the fact that spring hardly has sprung, Easter will still be hopping along soon (April 20^th to be exact). Ken & Cook has an appropriate basket filled with a prix fixe for Easter Sunday. The three course menu will include an appetizer, pasta or entree and dessert for $45 per person—and live jazz! Expect such things as earthy beets, homemade ricotta, radishes, pistachios, lobster ravioli with asparagus sauce, wild mushroom risotto, sauteed wild mushrooms with truffle oil to flood the table with a final flourish of vanilla creme brulee. Ken & Cook is located at 19 Kenmare St, New York, NY, 212-966-3058, KenAndCook.com. 

The Orale MK concept was the mind-child of NYC restaurateurs Alex Mendelsohn and Louis Alvarez. And now, with Beyond Restaurants Group, Cristina Castañeda is on board to translate the former Café Frida space into a new Mexican spot on the Upper West Side. Orale Mexican Kitchen brings Mexican-inspired cuisine to a hipster scene alongside agave-based cocktails. Try the trio of guacamole among signature dishes, as well as bocadillo bites, tacos and a range of platos principales. We look forward to the Mexican Mac & Cheese! 60 seats are most accommodating and a 30-seat courtyard patio is soon to open as well—do you get the sense I can’t wait for spring? Orale Mexican Kitchen is located at 768 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY, 212-749-2929, OraleMK.com.  

The owners of Surya (sadly closed) present Savoury, a new modern Indian restaurant opening March 26th that also happens to be on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Chef/owner Lala Sharma’s cooking is influenced by Western and Southern Indian cooking with the fragrant aroma of spices floating over the intimate lounge, cocktail bar and dining room. Appetizers include warm sprouted lentils tossed with rice puffs with mustard seeds and fried curry leaves and crispy cauliflower in garlic tomato sauce. Yogurt-marinated baby lamb chops, scallops in tamarind-coconut sauce, vegetarian cooking and tandoor cuisine are also among the house specialties. Of course there are requisite biryani rice dishes and crispy, puffy breads such as garlic naan. Why not sip on a lime-green Tandoori Sour with Strawberry Stoli, Midori and sour mix while at it? Savoury is located at 489 Columbus Ave, 212-875-1400, SavouryNYC.com.

Au Revoir

 

Our neighbors are moving only across town but I'm still fairly devastated. In all the years I've lived in New York, I've never been so close to folks down the hall where we have each other over to our respective apartments for dinner constantly, rap on our doors just to say hi (or return borrowed plates and glasses!) or go out to dinner together and eat, eat, eat! Needless to say it was requisite to give them a proper send-off so I composed a dinner reflecting both of their backgrounds. G is from Mexico City (with a touch of French) and S is British. My thoughts simmered as I wondered how to combine the two influences while setting the table a day in advance. Don't you love the Cherry Brandy rose bouquet?

I began to assemble a simple relish tray in my mind composed of sausages, pickles and bleu cheese we had on hand to get things started. Baby helped me roll up these adorable napkin nests from Perfect Table Settings by Denise Vivaldo. Naturally we placed carved wooden birds on them.


Pork Pies from the British import shop Myers of Keswick in the heart of the West Village were a must as the anchor for dinner, both standard and pungent Stilton-stuffed varieties.

 

Goya Spanish yellow saffron rice was a wonderful side. I added in sliced chorizo sauteed in Bonne Maman apricot preserves (I thought of it as a nod to classic British apricot and lamb pie).

Heinz baked beans in tomato sauce was out of the can and also from Myers of Keswick.

Noting G's French heritage, I also made Green Beans Almondine!

Plated!

S & G also brought over a sizable Pandoro via Pasticceria Perbellini Ernesto in Bovolone, Italy--sort of a spongy bread-like cake with essences of rum, orange and vanilla. It was perfect to go with our Haagen-Dazs dulce de leche ice cream and British Curly Wurly candy bars!

Farewell, dear friends. Although you will not be across the hall from Baby and me, you will always be in our hearts--and we'll see you back here soon and now, across town!



Tonight's Menu
Appetizers
Relish Tray
D'Artagnan Venison and Pork Sausages
Saltines
Pepperoni
Sour Dill Pickles
Point Reyes Cheese

Entree and Sides
Pork Pies
Green Beans Almondine
Spanish Rice with Apricot Chorizo
Dulce de Leche Ice Cream and Curly Wurly Candy Bars
Pandoro

Sountrack: Fun personal party mix with Blondie, The B-52's, Hugo Montenegro, R.E.M. and Henry Mancini!

Armani Lasagnetta

I loved my evening spent at Armani/Risorante Fifth Avenue when I reviewed it and am even more pleased to be able to make this recipe at home!

LASAGNETTA CROCCANTE

Con Funghetti di Stagione e Speck dell’Alto Adige DOP

Eggplant, Tomato and Scamorza Cheese-Layered Lasagna over Parmesan Fondue

Yields 4 Portions

Ingredients:

Dough:

½ lb double-zero, pizza, or all-purpose flour

8oz egg yolks

Filling:

4 medium-size Italian eggplants

4 medium-size beefsteak tomatoes

1 cup reduced tomato sauce

12 oz smoked Scamorza or Provola cheese, roughly grated (divide into 16 portions)

1 cup bechamel sauce

2 cup Parmigiano cheese, grated (divide into 4 portions).

6 basil leaves, julienned

¼ cup dried oregano

¼ cup dried thyme

½ cup garlic-infused olive oil

Sauce Ingredients:

1 cup heavy cream

4 Tbsp Parmigiano cheese, grated

Preparation:

Dough:

1)                  Mix together flour and egg yolks and knead into a dough. Leave to rest in the refrigerator.

Filling:

2)                  Peel and slice eggplant into ¼-inch rounds

3)                  Peel, slice, and remove seeds from tomato, slice into ¼-inch rounds

4)                  Place eggplant and tomato on separate parchment papered baking sheets, brush with garlic     oil and season with salt and pepper, thyme leaves.

5)                  Bake separately: bake eggplant at 350*F until golden brown (approximately 20 minutes), and eggplant at 210*F until slightly dried (approximately 2 hours)

6)                  Roll out very thin sheets (1/16-inch thick) of dough, use a mold to cut sixteen 4-inch rounds of dough. (4 per lasagnetta x 4 portions = 16).

7)                  Quickly blanch rounds of dough in salted boiling water (approximately 10 seconds), then cool in iced water to stop the cooking process. Place them on a paper towel to dry.

8)                  Once dry. Place four rounds on a oiled baking pan. Begin layering tomato, eggplant, a spoonful of tomato sauce, grated scamorza cheese, julienned basil, a pinch of dried oregano, and a teaspoon of beschamel sauce. Repeat three times, (to make a total of four layers on each lasagnetta), topping the final round of dough with grated parmigiano cheese. 

9)                  Bake in oven at 350*F for approximately 15 minutes.

Sauce/Plating:

10)              Meanwhile, prepare the sauce: boil heavy cream until reduced by half, then add the remaining parmigiano cheese, stirring continuously until dissolved.

11)              Divide and spoon the sauce evenly on the center of 4 pre-heated flat plates.

12)              Remove lasagnetta from the oven, using a spatula, move each lasagnetta to the center of the plate, in the center of the sauce.

13)             Serve immediately while hot.

Beef Ramen Noodles!

 

My submission for the Blue Apron contest was accepted! Here is the entire submission...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlQeoTJKT2s&feature=youtu.be

And in a Where's Waldo moment, here I am interspersed with some of the other contestants:

http://blog.blueapron.com/?p=3667

Hilarious!

Exotica!

A trip to exotic locales—right in Manhattan!

  

Junoon (27 W 24^th St, 212-490-2100, JunoonNYC.com) presents a perfumed excursion through a modern Indian spice market with a hefty price tag. Do attempt the Tandoori Tequila concoction featuring mashed tropical pineapple, curry leaf redolent of damp earth and insinuating pippali pepper poured over crushed ice. Go for crispy slices of baby eggplant chaat with chopped red onion and tamarind to begin. Aloo paratha crepes with a thin layer of mashed potatoes and cilantro are a fine accompaniment to daal makhni, a gingery dish of black lentils, red kidney beans, split chick peas and lots of clarified butter. Coconut rice pudding with bruléed bananas is a must try.

Take off your shoes (mandatory), submerge yourself in the floor and settle into some fine, elevated vegetarian Korean food at the very Zen-like little cavern Hangawi (12 E 32^nd St, 212-213-0077, HangawiRestaurant.com). The avocado stone bowl rice is fairly essential; the avocado bending beneath the fork to create a sumptuous mash, mixed with vegetables and tofu over rice dressed in a miso sauce—served in an actual stone bowl! Check out hot pot lunch specials or the Emperor’s Tasting Prix Fix with four dinner courses. There’s a gluten-free menu too. Whatever your path, you still have to remove your shoes. 

Sharing plates and serious cocktails fill the “dining car” at Orient Express (325 W 11th St, 212-691-8845, OrientExpressNYC.com) with the lure of exotic train travel from yesteryear and the swinging sounds of Ellington, Porter and the Gershwins floating over the sound system. The signature drink list summons up tales of espionage, suspense and murder at the hands of Agatha Christie and James Bond, with a cognac-laced Leopold, a gin-based The Agatha and a vodka-fueled From Russia With Love as blinding evidence. The staff may serve with simmering indifference, but try the tarama plate of rich red roe with briny Kalamata olives and fruity olive oil or the thinly sliced Turkish cured beef with wonderful fresh oranges and a pomegranate-balsamic drizzle.

 

Bento box-sized Hakata Ton Ton (61 Grove St, 212-242-3699, TonTonNYC.com) has a whole lot of Japan going on. Simmering, at first unnamable aromas wafting about reveal garlic fried rice with pork and Hakata’s motsu hot pot with a stunning broth flavored by Kobe beef motsu, otherwise known as…intestines! Sesame chanpon noodles are a requisite accompaniment.

Lotus Blue (110 Reade St, 212-267-3777, LotusBlueBar.com) offers flavors of the Yunnan region (sandwiched somewhere in between Tibet, Vietnam and Burma) found in its verdant forests and ponderous streams. Now, for a trip to this transporting TriBeCa cuisine, go for the Melon Breeze (shown), a Perfumed Basil Affair cocktail, a salad of chrysanthemum greens, bamboo pith mushroom soup and chicken cold noodles. Do enjoy all of it in the inviting room that is warm and glowing, with suspended, tasseled lamps, the color of lychees.