Look to the Rainbow (Salad)

Please forgive if you received an email from me that you couldn’t open! Something zigged when it should have zagged and a post went out in error.

In other news, Happy Pride! 

To honor the month of Pride and all its colors, Baked by Melissa created a Rainbow Kale Salad in an exciting collab with Royal Greens and online site Wonder, the self-proclaimed “new kind of food hall.”  Wonder is a genius idea, gathering a host of restaurants together in one place. Order a steak from Bobby Flay and finish it off with a cheesecake from Junior's!

Wonder offers food delivery in locations across the country, but I thought to throw open the net so you could try the Rainbow Kale Salad wherever you happen to be. 

Collect your ingredients! You’ll need chopped red bell peppers and tomatoes, shredded carrots, roasted corn and broccoli, sliced cucumbers and purple cabbage, and crispy quinoa. Arrange beautifully on a bed of roughly chopped kale and drizzle with Melissa’s miso vinaigrette, below. 

Miso Vinaigrette
Ingredients
1/3 cup olive oil
2 lemons, juiced
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup white miso paste
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 garlic cloves, grated with a microplane
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method

Whisk together all ingredients in a jar or bowl until emulsified. 

 

Savor Borgata's Taste of American Classics

Behold Bobby Flay!

Baby and I went to Atlantic City last weekend to cover the Savor Borgata food celebration which also included, perhaps not so incidentally, several extracurricular activities. We stayed at the lovely and totally fun The Water Club at Borgata hotel and apart from having a drink spilled on me from a balcony high above at MIXX nightclub, trying a dreadful cheesesteak and an egregious Italian Special at the legendary White House on the Boardwalk, wickedly bruising my thumb that got caught in a door, and not winning a dime in the casinos the whole weekend, over all I had a most delicious time. Although I realize that what happens in AC is supposed to stay there, I still would like to share.

We tried our collective hands at gambling on Friday evening before tossing about a few martinis and stuffing ourselves full with Porterhouse steaks, asparagus with hollandaise sauce, and creme brulee at Old Homestead. Guest chef Bobby Flay indeed threw it down over an intimate Lunch & Learn cooking demonstration Saturday afternoon at Bobby Flay Steak, in the adjoining Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. He instructed us on how to make a sumptuous, down home three-course dinner which consisted of: shrimp and grits with bacon and scallions; chicken cutlets with Kentucky ham and arugula enveloped in an American triple creme cheese; and a bourbon praline profiterole with buttermilk ice cream for dessert. It was fantastic and naturally there was wine too. These recipes may be found in Bobby Flay's Bar Americain Cookbook.

After having a Mai Tai or two in Geoffrey Zakarian's Sunroom located in the hotel (and a dip in the pool!), we went to meet the man himself Saturday night at Savor Borgata's Taste of American Classics in the event center featuring a host of Borgata's chefs. He started us off with a Short Ribs Sloppy Joe with Gingered Cole Slaw, then we delved into the following and washed it all down with a few sips of Raspberry Juleps made with gin and even a plastic cup of good old Michelob brew. Here are the other tasting delights that the Borgata chefs prepared:

Marc Vetri (Vetri Ristorante) - Seafood Fritto Misto with Clams, Fluke and Squid
Michael Schulson (Izakaya, A Modern Japanese Pub) - Maine Lobster Roll with Celery, Tarragon and Brioche; Classic Chicken Pot Pie w/ Mushrooms, Peas and Puff Pastry
Romeo DiBona (Old Homestead Steak House) - American Kobe Beef Hot Dog with Apple Slaw and Beef Chili; Maine Lobster Mac & Cheese
Michael Mina (Seablue) - Cioppino with Dungenous Crab, Clams, Shrimp, Black Bass, Thyme-scented Oyster Cracker; Chillen Kumomoto Olive with Tabasco Emulsion, Crushed Avocado, Mussel and Crisp Bacon shooter
Wolfgang Puck (Wolfgang Puck American Grille) - American Wagyu Beef Meatloaf with Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Onion Rings; Shrimp Pasta with Spicy Tomato Sauce
Bobby Flay (Bobby Flay Steak) - Mustard-Molasses Glazed Pork “Chop” with Green-Chile Apple Butter and Sour Mash Sauce
Stephen Kalt (Fornelletto Cucina & Wine Bar) - Sausage and Pepper Hero; Arancini; and Eggplant Parmigiana; Cannoli

Here's master Wolfgang Puck serving up the masterly pasta in rich, classic red sauce:

Raise a glass and a fork to Savor Borgata--and thanks to the wonderful folks at Nancy J. Friedman PR for all!

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?