Dinner Tonight: Garlic Scapes

Wandering through Union Square Greenmarket this past weekend it seemed as if every stall was selling the hyper-seasonal ingredient of the moment: garlic scapes (screw you ramps, you're so three weeks ago). Having never tried them, I picked up a pound-- intent on making garlic scape pesto.

Photo courtesy of gongar

Once I figured out the best way to prep the scapes, the pesto was really easy (as pesto tends to be). The further down the stem, the more fibrous the scapes get, so break them off while they're still soft then chop them up. I also toasted some pine nuts and added them to the food processor. After tasting a piece of the scape, I knew I would need to add something else to mellow it out a bit. Luckily I had some flat-leaf parsley in the fridge. With some harissa, lemon zest and juice (and s&p) the pesto was bracing and slightly spicy.

For my next two meals I ate the pesto with linguine and bacon then spread on a toasted baguette and topped with roast beef. Both were awesome.

However, tonight I wanted to make something slightly more refined.

Dinner Tonight: Messing With Leftovers

I had some goodies left over from my parents' visit last weekend: pastrami lox from Russ & Daughters,  'nduja from Boccalone and fresh ricotta from Murray's. Having eaten all of my bread, I whipped up a batch of Mark Bittman's olive oil matzoh recipe, rolled out a couple of pieces and threw them under the broiler.

I had no cream cheese to eat with the pastrami lox, so I just laid it on the matzoh and sprinkled the oily slices with chives, sesame seeds and salt. Pretty tasty, but next time I'll add some type of creamy lubricant.

Conquering Dan Dan Noodles

Wait... did I just make the best dan dan noodles I've ever eaten? I wasn't sure, so I took a second bite, feeling the numbing sensation envelop my lips. A third bite confirmed that these noodles were killer. Yet, I still couldn't quite believe that I had just made what was long my favorite Sichuan dish. It took minimal effort, in my own kitchen, far from the streets of Chengdu where this recipe originated.

Fuschia Dunlop's Land of Plenty contains two dan dan noodle recipes (pp. 88-89). One is oily and uses black vinegar, while the other, "Xie Laoban's," is thickened and made "saucy" by the addition of sesame paste (I used tahini, which Dunlop says is an acceptable substitute). The latter is by far my preferred version.

The prep is amazingly simple. For the sauce, all I needed was fresh-roasted, ground Sichuan pepper, light and dark soy sauce, tahini and a bunch of chili oil (I found a flavorful version from Sichuan Province). The meat topping called for ground beef, preserved vegetables and dried chiles. I didn't have ground beef, but there was a piece of pork shoulder sitting in my freezer that I defrosted then ground up in the Cuisinart. Before I ground the pork, I took some fat off the shoulder and rendered it for the mushrooms (see below). I also need to make another trip to Chinatown to find the proper "heaven facing" chiles. I just substituted some generic dried red chiles.

The preserved vegetables I had bought earlier that day had a strong salty kick, so I rinsed them off (as recommended) before adding them to the pork sauteing in my skillet. Due to the saltiness of the ingredients, this dish needed very little added seasoning, and I only sprinkled a little salt over the pork (no other salt was added and the dish turned out perfectly salty).

Ghetto mise.

With the prep completed, all that was left was to cook the noodles and assemble the ingredients. I used "Twin Marquis" brand fresh flat wheat noodles, which sounds like a type of Detroit-made car, but these noodles are actually common in Chinese markets. They only took three minutes to cook, and once they were finished I combined them with the sauce and meat mixtures.

In The Land of Plenty, The Man Who Wings it is King

Per my usual method of jumping into something headfirst with great enthusiasm, but without fully having an idea of what I'm doing (cooking only, never legal), I found myself wandering through Chinatown markets on a sunny Monday afternoon in search of common Sichuanese pantry ingredients. While browsing shelf upon shelf of indecipherable bottle, I decided on a whim I wanted to make Mother Chen's pockmarked bean curd, more famously known as mapo tofu. I had just started reading Land of Plenty, the Sichuanese cookbook by Fuschia Dunlop, and I was eager to cook some of my favorite dishes at home.

I spent what seemed like 20 minutes comparing the merits of various types of chile-bean paste while the counterwoman eyed me nervously. I eventually settled on a jar entitled “Pockmarked Grandma's  Bean Curd Seasoning.” Turns out I chose fairly well, as broad beans (aka fava beans) were the first ingredient, rather than soybeans (which Dunlop recommends to avoid). It was also made in Sichuan Province. I’m not completely sure, but I think it's just chile-bean paste with ginger and garlic added. I couldn't find fermented black beans (didn’t look hard enough), but I also picked up some Shaoxing wine, green onions and a package of firm tofu I found in the refrigerator section. Typically (and consistent with my lack of planning), I immediately passed a long line of people waiting to buy fresh tofu from a vendor. Next time dumbass.

I feel the need to digress before continuing. I dig this book, and plan on cooking a lot of the recipes inside. Plus, I have a food blog, so it seems only natural that I would document the process. BUT, I know what you are thinking, and I will be the first (and most vocal) person saying that I am NOT Julia & Julia, NOT French Laundry at Home, and NOT Momofuku for 2. Whatever the merits of these cookbook-dedicated-blogs (clogs? blookbooks? coo-de-blogs?), I have absolutely zero intention of turning into the "Land of Plenty at Home" Guy. This blog is called Law & Food, and I swear I will start writing lengthy legal posts about the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act before I do that (this scenario assumes that enough people would be interested in me as the Land of Plenty Guy in the first place, which I sincerely doubt).

Sorry I needed to get that rant out of the way before I could proceed.

Once I got home, I prepared my mise en place for my first official dish from Land of Plenty.

Not bad right? Not great either.

A little improvisation was required. I added bok choy to give make it heartier (and I didn’t want to make rice). The recipe also called for ground beef, but I’d overloaded on it during the weekend. I subbed in some leftover mushrooms to approximate the umami taste. I also only had birds-eye chilis, which Dunlop says are too spicy, so I only used a small amount. What I ended up missing most were the fermented black beans, which are what usually elevates mapo tofu for me (I also like it with a sprinkling of peanuts for some crunch).

Dinner Tonight: Minimalist Matzoh

I just realized I haven't written a cooking post in awhile, and of course I didn't want to deprive anyone reading Law & Food of my masterful cooking skills that will blow your mind with it's originality (I'm actually very humble).

As all Jews (and therefore the rest of NYC) know, Passover is in full effect (if you can call it that after the first two nights). So what does that mean for me?  Well... in the past few years a conservative Passover regimen has descended into a Seder and not much else (a total reform move).

However, I love matzoh, especially this time of year (obviously). For the most part, I just cook matzoh brie, or fried matzoh as we called it at my home (and nowhere else apparently). That's for another post.  Yet with matzoh on my mind I was intrigued by Mark Bittman's Minimalist column from last week, where he wrote about a Sardinian flatbread, similar to matzoh, and made with just flour and olive oil.

Dinner Tonight: Roasted Chicken

I love making roast chicken, especially because I like to get the skin as crispy as possible. Plus, this blog post by Michael Ruhlman really sums up how easy it is to make and is pretty much the way I cooked it (except I turned the heat down to 425 30 minutes in).

Tonight, I made a (more Ruhlman) compound butter with harissa, honey and garlic. I massaged the butter as far deep under the bird's skin as possible, and then seasoned the skin heavily with salt and pepper. It came out really well, with the harissa mellowing out and gaining sweetness in the oven. The carcass of the bird is now simmering in a pot with some other aromatics.

I also made dal. I used red lentils, they cook much quicker. While I spice the dal differently every time, I usually like it with a lot of heat and a hint of sweetness (coming from the caramelized onions). See this Mark Bittman article, or check out this or this recipe from Indian Snacks for more options.

Dinner Tonight: Menchanko-Tei Ramen

I braved (ok, I walked a block and a half) the Great Blizzard of '10 to get some Hakata ramen from Menchanko-Tei. The broth was good, very rich and with that nice creamy taste that Hakata ramen is known for, it was even better with a bunch of togarashi. The noodles were packed separately and had congealed a little by the time I got home, but eventually broke up when put in the hot broth. The slices of pork were the only bad part, gristly and flavorless. I also got fried squid "legs" for some reason. They consisted of chunks of 2 tentacles a piece, and were well-fried, except they were lacking sauce (only a lemon was provided).

I didn't take a picture, but this is from Midtown Lunch:


Menchanko-Tei
131 E. 45th St. (btw Lex & 3rd)
212-986-6805

Dinner Tonight: Salmon Neck and Rice Balls

Two fatty broiled salmon necks with a slice of lemon for $4.99 from Dainobu, a Japanese grocery store in midtown. I also got a couple of soft-shell crab rice balls. Murray the cat loved the fattiest bits off the bone.

(There are better pictures of him, I swear).

Dainobu
129 East 47th Street (btwn 3rd and Lex.)
(212) 755-7380

Dinner Tonight: Pork Belly and Baby Bok Choy

I got a pork belly at a market in Chinatown a few days ago (only $4!) that I've been itching to play with. I used the Momofuku recipe with a few tweaks, like adding some heat to the cure. I let it sit in the fridge over night then cooked it, let it cool, and sliced it up. The fat was crunchy and porky... It was so good my roommate and I ate the best fatty parts in silence right out of the oven.

To cut the fat of the belly, I sauteed some baby bok choy (in the run-off pork belly fat... so much for that idea) with garlic, rice wine vinegar and my hot spice blend of ground szechuan peppercorns and thai birds eye chili. Simple dinner with very little effort, all while allowing me to stuff my face with pork fat.