Next Magazine - Bottoms Up!

The lyrical poet Ogden Nash once wrote, “Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.” With that in mind, I’ve amped up a few childhood favorites, perfect for a grown-up cocktail hour or just a time out.

Pomegranate vodka subs for grenadine and the fizzy stuff replaces ginger ale for a decidedly adult Shirley Temple.
My Name Ain’t Shirley
1 ½ oz chilled Pearl pomegranate vodka
Chilled Champagne or prosecco
Pour vodka in a tall flute and top with Champagne or prosecco. Garnish with a lollipop pilfered from the famous “good ship” bearing the same name.

Skyy Infusions come in a variety of fruity flavors that make drinking even more fun. With their cherry vodka, a Lime Rickey from a soda shoppe surely pales in comparison.
Sublime Rickey
1 ½ oz Skyy cherry vodka
4 oz lemon-lime seltzer
Splash of Rose’s Lime
Pour over rocks in a highball glass and stir. Garnish with a maraschino cherry and a lime wedge.

Say “bye-bye” to Grape Nehi with this treat. Tastes grape!
Knee High
1 ½ oz Skyy grape vodka
4 oz Sprite
Mix ingredients in a double old-fashioned glass filled with rocks. Stir well and get high a kite. Please fly responsibly.

nextmagazine.com/eats

In The Kitchen With Ralphael Arabrante

Chef Ralphael celebrates authentic Greek cooking at Thalassa with a particular emphasis on classic and modern Greek seafood dishes. A native New Yorker, Chef Ralphael learned to cook from his mother and grandmother. His passion for seafood and contemporary Greek cuisine developed early on in his career. His starting position at Thalassa was sous chef when it opened in 2002. In 2007, he was promoted to Executive Chef. He has consistently infused Thalassa dishes with his personal signature: a love of seasonal ingredients and a fundamental respect for the freshness and simplicity integral to the Greek palate. At Thalassa, he offers a modern twist on classic Greek recipes. Here's how to make it at home. Thanks Ralphael!

Thalassa Scallops Wrapped in Kataifi

4 extra large sea scallops
1/3 lb. kataifi filo
2 Tbs melted butter (for drizzling on filo)
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups balsamic vinegar
1 medium shallot, sliced
1 tsp fresh thyme
8 oz white wine
1/2 lb butter chips that have been thoroughly iced (for wine sauce)
1 tomato, diced
1/2 cup sliced scallions
Dill

Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Begin with the balsamic reduction: Take balsamic vinegar and reduce until syrupy, about 45 minutes over medium heat; set aside
During which time:
Wrap scallops with kataifi filo and drizzle with melted butter
Place on a baking sheet and bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes
Make the white wine sauce:
Cook shallot, thyme and wine until completely reduced (i.e., no liquid left)
Add the iced butter chips and whip continuously
Salt and pepper to taste
To assemble:
Cut cooked wrapped scallop in half and place in the center of the plate
Cover with white wine sauce
Drizzle with balsamic vinegar reduction
Garnish with tomato and scallions
Top with dill and delight!

Recipe first published in Next magazine.

The Last Meatball

I posted several things about meatballs over the summer, which I bitterly refer to as the wettest of all seasons. Whatever you choose to call it, weather-wise, this summer was a definite wash out. Perhaps this will be the last post concerning meatballs, but I can't promise. Baby and I were just given a side of venison and all sorts of ideas of what to make with it have sprung forth. For all I know, venison meatballs may just be in our future, to fuel us in the cooler months.

Sadly I have to accept the fact that we may only have a few days of Indian Summer left over, so before I let it go, I'd like to reminisce for a moment on how we dispensed with some of our leftovers (including meatballs) over the summer before I put a cap on the whole damp thing.

George Carlin made a joke, as another witty friend reminded me, about leftovers and why they make you feel good twice: first for being thrifty, and again when you save your life by throwing them out.

But we didn't throw our leftovers out! In our own home, our perhaps Top Chef-inspired Kitchen Challenge was to make dinner from ingredients we already had on hand, which included some leftovers that of course, were still fresh or frozen and perfectly good.

Shrimp Pesto Pasta was created from a bag of frozen jumbo shrimp that we first thawed in a quick rinse under cold water, then grilled on our All-Clad panini press (yes! it's not just for panini!) with a little olive oil. We further poached the shrimp in a pork stock that Baby had made and froze from some of the borczek left over from our Eastern European dinner earlier in the summer. We also could have just subbed chicken or fish bouillon for this. Whole wheat pasta staring at us from the cupboard was tossed with pesto (we already had the pine nuts and olive oil, I just grabbed a fistful of basil from the roofdeck communal stash). Borczek made another appearance, thawed, cubed, sauteed and tossed in. It was delicious.

Another evening this summer, we had made Marian Curcio's Meatballs and we made so many that we had some leftovers--five fine, juicy orbs to be exact. We were in a quandry of whether or not to freeze them (they are great to freeze, by the way, if not even better, we discovered after heating up a more recent batch) for a later date, but decided just to eat them a few days later. But what to serve with? I considered the zucchini from a friend's city garden that would have perished if we didn't use it soon. Pillsbury Crescent Rolls were in our fridge, still in the tube, so I knocked it on the counter to free the dough and spread the whole thing out on a cookie sheet, made an onion and garlic balsamic jam (sautee onions and garlic in olive oil until yellow and softened, deglaze with balsamic vinegar, turn off heat and add honey to thicken) to spread on the dough, topped with shaved zucchini (let drain in a colander first for 30 minutes) and placed it in a 425 degree oven until browned (about 17 minutes or so) to make zucchini pizza. If you have any petulant cheeses lurking about, such as gruyere, grate that on as well before baking.

As there were only five meatballs left, we each had two. When it came to seconds, naturally I let Baby have the last meatball.

Recipes Of Our Mothers - Anne Weil DiMonte's Potato Salad

Submitted by Regina DiMonte Freedman:

"As interesting and complex my mother was as a person, that definitely wasn’t what she was as a cook. Meat, potatoes and bacon fat ruled the days of the week. Saturday's lunchmeat sandwiches, potato salad, pickles and beer graced our Formica kitchen table. Sundays were reserved for my grandmother’s cooking. Looking back, I would have to say that I loved Saturday dinners because of my mother’s potato salad. I have served many types of potato salad in my day and I appreciate them all, even the Russian kind that is purple but whenever I make my mother’s recipe, I get the most compliments. Sometimes simpler is better. I remember my mother saying, 'you don’t need to put any extras in your potato salad to make it taste good...the same goes for having too many extras in life.' I tend to agree with this sentiment so here is a simple potato salad recipe I would like to share with you special readers of Evenings With Peter. I wish you the simple good life."

Potato Salad Recipe
4lbs. Yukon Gold potatoes
Place unpeeled potatoes in a large pot of water. Bring to a boil and keep the heat high boiling them until they are soft.
As they are cooking, dice 4 celery stalks and 3/4 of a yellow onion. Make sure the diced pieces are very small, no large chunks please. Do not use a food processor.
Once the potatoes are soft, place them in a colander and run cold water over them as you peel off the skins.
Place them in a bowl and smash them with a fork or use your hands.
Add Hellmann’s mayonnaise, don’t skimp. No diet stuff, no other mayo either.
Add diced celery and onion. Add salt and pepper if you like.
Serve yourself and anyone who is lucky enough a warm plate as soon as it is done.
Cool in the refrigerator. Keeps for a few days if you can refrain from sneaking spoonfuls in the middle of the night.

Everything But The...All-Clad Reduction Pan!

Williams-Sonoma is my Tiffany's. You know, when in Breakfast At Tiffany's, Holly Golightly blissfully asserts that nothing bad could ever happen there, and that they've got the most charming employees, etc.? That's how I feel when I enter Williams-Sonoma. I become sorta fuzzy all over and exhilarated at the same time by being around all the pots and pans and dinnerware. I lovingly stare at the Breville kitchen equipment and Japanese knives crying out to slice and dice a tomato with the precision of a culinary Ninja on olive wood cutting boards, and oh! something, anything from the heartbreakingly gorgeous, prohibitively priced Ruffoni hammered stainless steel collection wrought from workshops in Alpine Italy, and yes! the sturdy Mauviel copper pots, all the while musing that, "One day...this...will be mine!" Sometimes I do go a little overboard when I find a brilliant set of glasses, a particular table cloth or dish towels, herb snippers, or a fine mesh sieve that I must have. I wait though. At least a day. Maybe longer. I feel that if I make the trek back then it truly must be something I really want. I do that with most things when shopping. My credit card company loves me.

As you go along in life, whatever your passion, one of the great passages it seems to me is the importance found in replacing old, merely functional items in your kitchen or wherever, with solid, better quality items that will last forever, things that are more satisfying to use. For me, I started chucking out stuff sometime in my 20's and over the years, it's all been replaced, one Le Creuset pot, All-Clad pan or Henckels knife at a time.

The All-Clad Reduction Pan is a gem. Baby makes his stock, I make my reductions. This pan actually assists with both in the most marvelous, stainless-steel way: measure marks are etched inside the pan in cups and liters! When a recipe calls for a sauce or a stock to be reduced to say, one cup, just read between the lines.

In The Kitchen With Chad Carns - Scallop Ceviche with Hot Chile Oil

Chad Carns recently published The Gourmet Bachelor: Global Flavor, Local Ingredients. This wonderful cookbook inspired by the fresh flavors of Greenwich Village is very user-friendly, featuring everyday cooking techniques and wine pairings highly suited for each recipe. The Gourmet Bachelor himself was kind enough to share a spicy recipe with me here on Evenings With Peter. Thanks, Chad!

Scallop Ceviche with Hot Chili Oil

Ingredients

1 chili, thinly sliced

2 T peanut oil

6 large scallops, cut into 1/4-inch slices

1 t sugar

2 T lime juice

1 t sea salt

1 t black pepper

1 t lime zest

1 radish, thinly sliced

1 T scallions, thinly sliced

Directions: Gently cook chili in peanut oil on medium-low heatfor 5 minutes. Spread scallops out on a serving platter. Mix sugarand lime juice in a bowl. Pour over scallops. Flip scallops. Top with sea salt, black pepper and lime zest. Spoon chili oil over scallops. Garnish with radish and scallions.

Wine Pairing: Sauvignon Blanc, France

Taking Stock

Baby borders on near obsession when it comes to making stock. His passion, I think, is wrought from a meditation on the slow simmering of a collection of ingredients overnight, a comfortable bounty that serves as a base of so many dishes and reductions--as well as a tribute to family and the things that they taught him along the way, growing up, even if he was merely observing, peeking into a pot.

For me, I've never tasted better. As Baby tirelessly teaches me patience, here, in honor of kitchen and kin, I offer the wealth of good, patient stock; a guideline and an encouragement to make several different kinds, to either be used with a sense of immediacy or to freeze and have on hand at a later time, when occasion requires.

Chicken Stock
2 lbs. chicken wings
2 rotisserie chicken carcasses (reserve the meat to make chicken soup later with noodles)
1 large onion with skin, quartered (root bottom removed)
2 large carrots, broken in half
3 ribs celery with greens, broken in half
1/2 leek, well rinsed to remove dirt
1 turnip, halved
1 parsnip broken in half
10 whole black peppercorns
Salt to taste

Place all ingredients in an 8-quart stock pot (except for salt, add at the end). Add cold water, covering ingredients by one inch. On medium low flame, bring to a simmer (never boil) and continue to simmer for at least three hours, skimming fat and foam off of top as you go. Drain through a colander to remove large pieces, strain through a fine mesh sieve to remove smaller bits. Add salt and pepper (if needed) to taste. Cover and let cool. Refrigerate overnight. The next day, remove hardened fat from the top to reveal the golden gelatinous goodness beneath. The more gelatinous the better! Stock may be reheated and used for your favorite soups, or frozen for up to three months. If space in your freezer is an issue, stock can boiled and reduced by half to be reconstituted at a later date.

Beef (or Veal/Lamb/Pork) Stock*
8 lbs. of marrow bones (beef, veal, lamb or pork bones, depending which stock you're making; leg bones are the best to use) and 1 lb of bones with meat on them (such as rib meat)
1 large onion with skin, quartered (root bottom removed)
2 large carrots, broken in half
3 ribs celery with greens, broken in half
1/2 leek, well rinsed to remove dirt
1 turnip, halved
1 parsnip broken in half
10 whole black peppercorns
Salt to taste

*If you like, for the beef stock, a tablespoon of tomato paste may also be added.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place bones in baking dish or cookie sheet in a single layer. Cook for approximately one hour until bones are nicely browned. Place bones in an 8-quart stock pot. Add remainder of ingredients (except for salt). Add cold water, covering ingredients by one inch. Over medium low heat, bring to a simmer, and continue to simmer for six hours, or as we do, place over lowest flame overnight. Drain, strain and refridgerate, and as with our chicken stock, proceed as you may.

For tips on a Maine Lobster Stock that I improvised, intended for a bisque, click here.

And of course, I turn to the great lady herself for a classic lobster stock, with my comments in italics:

Julia Child's Lobster Stock from The French Chef Cookbook
For about 1 cup
Lobster shell trimmings and debris (I've sauteed them in a skillet first until fragrant or put them under the broiler)
A stainless-steel or enameled pan
1/3 cup each of celery, onions, and carrots (I've used just onions, doubling the amount)
1 cup dry white wine or 3/4 cup dry white vermouth (I go for the wine)
1 bay leaf
6 sprigs parsley (I've used dried parsley)
1/2 tsp dried tarragon (Try Penzey's Shallot Pepper, which is laced with dried tarragon)

Chop the shell debris into 2-inch pieces and place in pan. Add the vegetables, wine, herbs, and water to cover. Boil slowly for 40 minutes, strain, then boil down until liquid has reduced to about 1 cup.