Veggies from the States Around Us

In the two states that surround us here in New York we are able to get a pretty decent amount of fresh vegetables. I was able to procure Shiitake mushrooms from New Jersey and Asparagus from Connecticut which was picked yesterday morning!



My laziness won over and I pan-seared some skirt steak to accompany the spring vegetables. In addition to the shiitakes and the asaparagus I also sauteed some ramps. All of the above were sauteed in olive oil and butter.

All of the vegetables were incredible. I've never had such delicious shiitake mushrooms before. After Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen it's as if New Jersey finally got something right! Bravo!



As an accompaniment I opened this bottle of 2006 Ridge. I found this back in January after looking for it for over a year. Sadly it was only after opening it that I read on the back that for best flavor it should be consumed in 2014. Oops. It was still pretty damn good though.

For dessert we waded through a swarm of tweens to get some ice cream at Longford's Ice Cream. Jen had the mud pie and I had the Butterfinger blast (or some other nonsense name). Jen's father denounced this place as overpriced and terrible on his last visit to the neighborhood. We, however, after two trips have declared it fantastic.

Unless you have no taste for annoying pre-teens, in which case you may want to steer clear of this establishment.

24 Carrot Disappointment

This week was marked by a number of get-it-out-of-the-fridge inspired meals.



I made this orange and lemon zest flavored roast chicken from the freezer along with some fennel purchased for Easter (it had a long life) and some other assorted roasted vegetables. This included some local Jersey asaparagus. This was convenient because a recent study shows that asparagus helps double your ability to metabolize alcohol. And by "recent" I mean one of those studies that pops up once a year as if on a timer. Like the one about red wine being good for you, or about scientists figuring out what really killed the dinosaurs.

I was going to need this asparagus to help me metabolize the one beer I planned on drinking for dinner that night.



I was looking forward to trying the new Narragansett Porter. I don't know that it is actually new but it was knew to me. Being from Rhode Island I can't legally say anything bad about this beer but I will leave it at this: it was not my favorite. I think I may stick to their original lager.

If scientists find out a vegetable that can double my ability to metabolize a taste I may pair it with this porter and try it again.

I love Narragansett Beer though! Please buy a lot of their products!



Having roasted too many vegetables I used up the remainder with a nice chunk of cod loin which I pan roasted. I also wilted some fresh baby spinach and served that as an accompaniment the following night.



Jen had found this recipe for Gajar Ka Halwa, a dessert made with shredded carrots, sugar, nuts, and condensed milk. While traditionally it should be served with cashew nuts we opted to use pistachios as we had some sitting around in the cupboard.

It's easy to make, that is if you don't break your food processor and end up having to grate the carrots by hand (which I did). After the carrots are grated it's as simple as throwing everything in a pot and simmering it for an hour-and-a-half.

We were excited to try this and thought that it would be the most delicious dessert we'd ever had. Our mutual love of carrot cake is what fueled this excitement. We were sad to discover that even after adding all those nuts, all the sugar, and a huge amount of condensed milk, and cooking it for over an hour it tasted almost exactly like some shredded carrots. It was really quite remarkable. I don't think I can recall any single food ingredient that I've ever added so many additional ingredients and so much cooking time to that changed so little.

It's not to say that it's gross or anything, it's just not what we'd hyped it up to be in our mind.

Instead of the greedy, overindulgence we usually experience when there is dessert in the house we have gone through a new routine with this dish. Every night for the past few nights we've finished dinner then sat in front of a small plate of Gajar Ka Halwa, looked at each other, and dutifully eaten our servings. The disappointment was so severe that we didn't even discuss it the first few times we ate it, being sure not to make eye contact with the other in hopes that we could continue to pretend it was the best thing we'd ever eaten.

After three nights there is still a lot left. I'd say about 60%. If you're dying to have some after the wonderful picture I've just painted please stop on by. I'll give you a double-serving.

Oh, Fiddleheads!

Here's the thing about fiddlehead ferns. Are you ready? Because I'm going to tell you.

They're not that good.

Sure, they look cool. They look like something that may have been enjoyed, long ago, by hungry dinosaurs. They look like they might even be dinosaurs themselves.



Like their seasonal cousin, the ramp, they are only available during a very brief window during the Spring. For that very reason they are held in an almost mythical light in the foodservice business. I can remember my restaurant days where the chefs would all cheer at their first days of availability through our produce supplier. We would order them in and serve them up to all of our customers who marveled at their exquisite rarity.

Fiddleheads are not bad. They're just not very good. They have an odd, slightly displeasing texture and not a lot in the way of their own flavor. After spending the better part of two decades trying to understand their allure I think I've resigned myself to the fact that I just don't like them very much.

The problem with a vegetable that's only available in any regularity for 3-4 weeks a year is that that gives you 48-49 weeks to forget all of that and fool yourself into believing that have been longing for them all this time. Even though I forget about them every year for that entire time until I'm reminded of them when I see them crop back up at the market. Then I fall into their slowly plotted trap once again. As Jen stated before dinner tonight: "I think I like the idea of a fiddlehead fern much more than the fern itself."

Ramps, on the other hand, are delicious.



I got some nice sea scallops so I decided that if I rendered some bacon, seared the scallops, added in a little butter and olive oil and tossed the leftover fingerlings and fiddleheads that should make the ferns a little more appealing. It turns out I was right. What would have made this dish even more enjoyable would have been substituting something else for the fiddleheads. Maybe asapargus or a dark green such as kale or chard. However, I do not wish to throw away food, particularly rare food such as this peculiar fern.

What is it that they say? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me fifteen times, shame on fiddlehead ferns. I think that's how the quote goes.

Only 51 weeks until I'm fooled again.

Late Night Lamb

Ah, Spring. It's a time for cleaning, flowers, flings, and boards. Some of my favorite things! It's also a choice time for a variety of green vegetables that all have an extremely small window of opportunity to acquire.

With Jen working late and us having dinner at 11:00 PM I had to slightly modify my dinner plans. However, I was still able to make something that captured the season somewhat. It might have been a little nicer accompanied by daylight but I substituted leftover Mingo from last night instead. If the wine with the silliest name in my rack can't make it better, nothing can.



Kale, luckily, is not one of those ingredients. I continued the recent obsession with making kale-related salads. This one I made with golden beets, lemon, feta cheese, and tomato. If you let kale marinate for long enough in some citrus it is actually quite palatable. Nate at 19 years old, who was cutting his teeth at Christopher's Restaurant would disagree. However, he was kind of an idiot. He also went to culinary school yet made himself a box of Velveta Shells & Cheese every night for dinner.

Every. Night.



For dinner I used a number of wonderful Spring ingredients. Sadly they were only 1/3 local and/or sustainable. I made New Zealand lamb sirloin steaks with fiddlehead ferns from Florida, and fingerling potatoes from Long Island. In the time of Kintaur Rosenbaum New Zealand would technically be considered local to New York as the Galactic Federation had spread humanity from here to Trifid Nebula.

For that reason I'd like to imagine tonight's dinner was a wonderfully local experience. At least the kale wasn't from Tragon IX!

Nate's 10 Minute Meals

Rachael Ray has 30 Minute Meals. Not all of us are fortunate enough privileged with that much free time. Some of us rush home from work, go to the grocery store, go to the Apple Store to get their display replaced, then pick up their wife from the train station. That leaves us with:

Nate's 10 Minute Meals!



I reached into the fridge with one arm and unearthed some leftover avocado, tomato, hearts of palm, and artichoke hearts which I combined with red leaf lettuce, lemon, and olive oil.

At the store I found some thinly cut pork sirloin steaks which I smeared with sweet-hot mustard and bread crumbs, seared, then finished in the oven.



While it finished I poured out some of this wine. It's called Mingo. That's a ridiculous name.



Jen had the idea to use some of her leftover angel food cake with mango, chocolate sauce, and coconut. I was skeptical. This was the opposite of every night where I try to make something and Jen is skeptical. Like Jen's skepticism mine was unfounded. It was quite good.

With only 10 minutes spent on making dinner there's plenty of left to clean up the dishes in the kitchen.

But how can we do dishes when there's a fresh new DVD of True Blood that came in?

A shape-shifting dog? You've got to be kidding me!