Grasshopper Pie

Should you find yourself still in the spirit to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, or need some pampering in its aftermath, I would like to suggest the slightly boozy Grasshopper Mousse! Perhaps McDonald's is no longer serving its recently reclaimed Shamrock Shake! Whatever the sitch, this creamy, 70's-elegant dessert is a delight anytime. I had written about Grasshopper Mousse before, prepared for one of my Derby parties back in 2013, but I felt the recipe should stand on its own as well in this particular post. It really is fantastic and so easy to prepare.

A heartfelt thanks to Leah Tinari of the sorely lamented Fatta Cuckoo restaurant in Manhattan who supplied me with her mother's treasured cocktail party staple recipe. Do enjoy!

Grasshopper Mousse
Ingredients
2 large boxes of vanilla pudding mix
6 cups heavy cream
3/4 cups creme de menthe
1/2 cup creme de cacao
Package of Oreo cookies

Method
Whip pudding and heavy cream together and gradually add both liqueurs. Whip until mousse-like and desired consistency is reached. Give it a taste and add a tblsp or two more of liquor for a stronger flavor. Place in a container and chill. Crush Oreo cookies in food processor.

Assemble
Place some cookies crumbs in bottom of martini glass. Add grasshopper mousse, top with whipped cream and sprinkle on more cookie crumbs.

And We're Off! Derby 2014

And we're off, once again! This year marked 20 years of going to and throwing Derby parties--and I don't mind telling you, my my, how a party can wither one. This was rather more the warhorse of the roses. We didn't have a huge crowd this year, there were just about ten of us but among the usual Benedictine sandwiches and tomato and biscuits and fabulous pimento spread (that a wonderful guest brought), while trying to make my shrimp and grits, one of our guests fainted quite away and then I discovered an unexpected, climbing army of marching ants on the bedroom wall that had to be attended to as well. I was so distracted I forgot to put the bacon that I had already cooked and crumbled in the shrimp and grits! After receiving the delivery from Fresh Direct, I prepped all day on Friday doing what I could ahead of time including setting the table and as much as I had done I never had much of an opportunity to sit down on Saturday and enjoy my own party. My calves still hurt from standing for the last two days. This year's event is also sort of a Bon Voyage: Baby is going to Chicago for work for a month before we go to Spain to celebrate our one year anniversary of marriage in Barcelona and Sitgez on the beach. We're taking my mother for her 80th birthday and we'll also visit my niece as she is studying abroad in Valencia.

A colleague sent me this mint julep recipe below from Southern Magazine (now defunct). It took some time to make the mint extract and simple syrup before it commingled with the bourbon and rested in the refrigerator overnight. I should have climbed in with it. A large Mason jar was our charming vessel and we made just the right amount. Warning though, it is a strong drink! As I've always maintained, a mint julep is the wicked mistress of the South, that will coddle you through an afternoon and then beat you into submission by midnight. But oh, such sweet blindness!

We made Grasshopper Mousse and a guest brought Derby Pie for dessert. In a wild fit of pique Baby and I made a version of classic Rice Krispie Treats that we called Kellogg's Kaos Bars, using all six little boxes of the Snack Pack cereals that we had on hand that added up to the six cups needed for the recipe: this included Cocoa Krispies, Corn Pops, Froot Loops, Apple Jacks and Frosted Flakes. After melting the requisite marshmallow minis in butter, all the cereal went into the mix and then cooled before we cut our amalgam into bars and stacked them on a platter. It sounds ghastly perhaps but our guests delighted in making short work of them indeed. The regular Rice Krispie recipe is here.

This years roses, delivered by a kind friend (who couldn't attend) on Friday!

So, off we go and cheers then! 

Derby 2013

Derby may have left the gates and galloped past this year, but I do believe the memories will linger, at least for me. We had a real humdinger of a party--and behold the beautiful lilacs in the waning afternoon light!

And no, my horses didn't win. Orb ran fleetingly by Falling Sky and Slim Shady. 

Of course, there were mint juleps! We actually froze them this year and served them right out of the blender and they were marvelous. Equal parts bourbon and simple syrup (2:1 water and sugar boiled with lemon wedges and cooled). A fistful of mint went into the blender filled with ice and we topped each individual icy pour with dark rum. Biscuits and tomatoes along with Benedictine cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches were sampled shortly thereafter, once our guests were duly situated. I took advantage of seasonal ramps and shallots this year, substituting both for yellow onions, to quite good effect. The more traditional recipe is here and the picture is below, our Pepperidge Farm thin white bread having been shorn of its crust, stuffed, sliced and stacked on a vintage cake stand.

The annual shrimp and peppers served over grits made their annual appearance, courtesy of Martha Stewart's Menus for Entertaining.

Grasshopper Mousse for dessert, laden with creme de menthe, was right out of a 70's dinner party. I wrested the recipe from the Leah Tinari, the owner of Fatta Cuckoo in Manhattan. Her mother was kind enough to pass on her secret. Our friend was kind enough to make it and bring it over. She said it's so easy and everybody loved it--and the recipe makes a ton! She also made Crack Pie, that is similar to Chess Pie, and served at Momofuku Milk Bar in our fair city. It was beyond. But that's a different post entirely.

Grasshopper Mousse
Ingredients
2 large boxes of vanilla pudding mix
6 cups heavy cream
3/4 cups creme de menthe
1/2 cup creme de cacao
Package of Oreo cookies

Method
Whip pudding and heavy cream together and gradually add both liqueurs. Whip until mousse-like and desired consistency is reached. Give it a taste and add a tblsp or two more of liquor for a stronger flavor. Place in a container and chill. Crush Oreo cookies in food processor.

Assemble
Place some cookies crumbs in bottom of martini glass. Add grasshopper mousse, top with whipped cream and sprinkle on more cookie crumbs.

Our rosy centerpiece for the table!

Soundtrack: XTC, Skylarking; Sippie Wallace, Sippie; Atlantic Blues: Piano; Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sun Sea and Sand Favourites

Next Magazine - The Year in Dining

My top restaurant picks for 2012!

(Clockwise from top left; Alison Eighteen, Armani, Angolo Soho, Sushi Masaru.)

These dining rooms are as diverse in cuisine as they are in location, spread all over town and filling both intimate and soaring spaces. Our favorites were found in grand hotels, a designer emporium on Fifth Avenue, pauses through the Flatiron District and a little place on the Lower East Side.

Loi (208 W 70th St, 212-875-8600, RestaurantLoi.com) is filled with exploratory, fantastic fare in a soothing oasis that summons the Mediterranean. Slurpy spoons of creamy sea urchin are drizzled with fragrant olive oil, moussaka is slowly cooked with minced meat in béchamel sauce, and buttery Dover sole with charred eggplant, yellow peppers and zucchini is utterly captivating.

Dining in the beautiful Isola (9 Crosby St, 212-389-0000, IsolaSoho.com) at the Mondrian Soho hotel is nothing less than enchanting. Executive chef Victor LaPlaca mainly pulls inspiration from the Amalfi coast, serving porcini-stuffed ravioli love notes embraced by a heartbreaking veal ragu and a ravishing sirloin to be slowly savored like an indecent caramel.

Every Japanese dish presented by executive chef Masato Shimizu is a gift at 15 East (15 E 15th St, 212-647-0015, 15EastRestaurant.com). Cold soba noodles float in a rapturous pond of caviar, salmon pearls and sea urchin; sea urchin makes a poignant risotto with sumptuous matsutake mushrooms; foie gras and miso duck terrine borders on the obscene.

As the Olympics played on, we were thrilled to discover that Alison Price Becker returned victorious with Alison Eighteen (15 W 18th St, 212-366-1818, AlisonEighteen.com), offering velvety vichyssoise, lobster salad with citrus and yellow-curry-tinged yogurt sauce, hickory smoked Berkshire pork chops with peach-fig jam and outrageous polenta with wild mushrooms. Alison 18 scores an 18!

Housed in the Iroquois hotel, Triomphe (49 W 44th St, 212-453-4233, Triomphe-NewYork.com) is a classic New York supper club, led by forward-thinking chef Jason Tilmann: plump chicken livers with sherry-braised onions, scallops with melted foie gras butter, and richly red Chateaubriand with mustard laced béarnaise sauce to start; delectable chocolate croissant bread pudding with caramel toffee gelato to finish.

We swooned over the lobster at La Piscine (518 W 27th St, 212-525-0000, Hotel-Americano.com) this summer on the gorgeous rooftop at the Hôtel Americano. The crawling creatures from the grill are done to perfection, with a drizzle of fruity green olive oil. In between dips of hummus, tzatziki, baba ghanoush and taramosalata, take a dip in the pool.

During a torrential downpour, we lingered inside the starkly elegant Armani/Ristorante Fifth Avenue (717 Fifth Ave, 212-207-1902) over several glasses of excellent wine that prefaced tender stalks of white asparagus in silky chervil zabaglione and smoky duck carpaccio; sweet foie gras and duck agnolotti with sage and white butter sauce and olive-crusted lamb loin; ending with pristine orbs of white peach sorbet.

Grilled, moist quail at comfortable Angolo Soho (331 Broadway, 212-203-1722, AngoloSoho.com) certainly suited the fall season, so rich and full of warming spices, perched atop rugged, chewy faro and handsome dates. The pork chop was a meaty beauty, brilliant and of epic proportion, sharing the plate with caramelized fennel and heated cherry peppers.

We flew into Fatta Cuckoo (63 Clinton St, 212-353-0570, FattaCuckoo.com), having rescheduled reservations after Hurricane Sandy. A Pee-Wee’s Playhouse setting meets the Lower East Side with wonton-wrapped seasonal vegetable ravioli, juicy brined and battered fried chicken and a host of scrumptious desserts such as grasshopper mousse, made by owner Leah Tinari’s mother.

Owner and chef Henry Yang helped close out the year, transforming Chelsea’s Alpha into Sushi Masaru (169 Eighth Ave, 212-627-8887, SushiMasaru.com), a civilized dining room with the feel of an art gallery, befitting the beautiful plates of seared scallops with XO cognac and truffle oil, foie gras with supremed oranges, tuna tataki and fluke with seaweed and marinated rice.

First published in part in Next magazine. Photo credit: Gustavo Monroy.