Sake Steamed Chicken with Ginger and Scallions

When I first heard it, the idea of steaming a whole chicken seemed downright silly to me, even if the idea did come from one of my most trusted sources, Melissa Clark of The New York Times. Why would I want to eat a tasteless steamed chicken, when I can just as easily eat a golden brown, crisp-skinned, roasted one?, I thought to myself, scoffing at very notion of it. And then one day, in the middle of a busy work session, I ordered it to be delivered off of a coworkers takeout Thai menu. The steamed ginger chicken seemed like a safe bet from a place I'd never eaten at, and truth be told, I had my head buried so far in a new client proposal, that I barely glanced at the menu before making a split second decision.

I think you all probably know how this story ends. When my order came, the scent of warm ginger wafted out of my little takeout container, successfully tearing me away from my laptop for long enough to pay attention to the first, tentative bite I took. And what a bite it was. Not to glorify takeout Thai or anything, but the chicken was fall-off-the-bone tender, fragrant, and perfectly seasoned. I dug the New York Times recipe up on the Internet right then and there and vowed to try this steamed chicken business asap. And here are the delicious results. Try it for yourself and see--I'll always love roast chicken, but the bones on this bird were clean as a whistle by the time we were done with it, not a leftover in sight. xo

Sake Steamed Chicken with Ginger and Scallions
From The New York Times
Ingredients:
1 3 1/2 pound chicken, rinsed and patted dry
1 1/2 cups dry sake
Kosher salt
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons mirin or sweet sherry
1 tablespoon chopped ginger root
1 large garlic clove, minced
3 thinly sliced scallions
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, preferably black

Directions:
Place a steamer basket in the bottom of a large stockpot. Pour in equal amounts of sake and water, enough to reach the bottom of the steamer basket. Bring to a boil.

Generously salt the chicken inside and out; set breast side up in the steamer basket. Reduce the heat to low and cover. Steam the chicken until the juices run clear when pierced with a knife, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Turn off the heat and allow to cool for about 20 minutes.

To prepare the sauce, in a small bowl whisk together the soy sauce, orange juice, rice vinegar, lemon juice, mirin, ginger and garlic.

Remove the chicken from the pot and place on a large cutting board; carve and set pieces on a platter. Spoon some of the sauce over the meat and sprinkle with scallions and sesame seeds. Serve extra sauce on the side for dipping.

Pasta "Timballo" with Fresh Ricotta

One place I'm dying to visit is Sicily; all the different types of cooking that vary from village to village, the lively markets, the coastline, the wineries, the fresh and simple cooking...it all sounds so perfect, doesn't it? This timballo is a classic Sicilian pasta dish that is reserved for formal occasions, but here in my tiny little kitchen in NYC, I decided that a random rainy Tuesday night was special enough to bake it up. I suggest you do the same. It's just too good to wait for.

The dish comes out of the oven piping hot with steaming heaps of warmed fresh ricotta intermixed with bright, zingy tomato sauce; it's one of the best baked pastas I've ever made (and yes, that includes my mac and cheese, which I think it's directly on par with). Invite a bunch of friends over and share it this weekend. P.S. Happy Friday. xo


Pasta "Timballo" with Fresh Ricotta
Adapted from Heart of the Artichoke and Other Kitchen Journeys, by David Tanis
Ingredients:
1 pound anelli pasta (I couldn't find anelli pasta, so I used the fun squiggly shape above)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Red pepper flakes
4 cups Tomato Sauce (my recipe follows)
1 pound best-quality fresh ricotta, at room temperature
Grated pecorino
A handful of basil leaves, roughly chopped 

Directions:
Bring a big pot of salted water to a boil. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Boil the pasta for about 1 minute less than the package instructions say; it should be firmly al dente. Drain the pasta and put it into a large bowl. Drizzle with a little fruity olive oil, and season to taste with salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes.

Meanwhile, heat the tomato sauce. Have a large, deep ovenproof platter ready. I used a 9 x 13 glass baking dish.

Spoon about half the sauce into the platter and stir half of the ricotta into the sauce, leaving it rather lumpy. Pile the pasta on the sauce on the platter, and spoon the rest of the sauce on top of the pasta. Top with spoonfuls of the remaining ricotta and sprinkle with grated pecorino. Put the platter in the oven for about 10 minutes, to heat through completely. Sprinkle with basil, and serve more pecorino on the side.

My foolproof homemade tomato sauce I've been making forever. I found the recipe originally on Goop: In a large saucepan, slowly cook six cloves of thinly sliced garlic in a couple tablespoons of olive oil for five minutes over low heat.  Add two large, fresh basil leaves and stir for a minute.  Add two 28-ounce cans of whole, peeled tomatoes along with their juice and two more whole basil leaves.  Bring the sauce to a boil, turn down the heat, season with salt and pepper and let it bubble away on low heat for 45 minutes. Cool and refrigerate.

Get Straight and Wait

My refusal to post anymore winter outfits on this blog continues with Isabel Marant! I've had this little checked shirt for weeks and I've been dying to break it out with little cut-off shorts, open-toed shoes and a few bright rope bracelets thrown in for good measure. Alas, the weather is STILL not cooperating and I'm starting to think that New York may or may not just skip spring altogether. These are dark days. Dark, dark days.

The Proenza-Schouler-esque bracelets above are a genius DIY project by my friends Elizabeth Monson and Mark Iantosca. I'm duly obsessed with them and will be wearing them all summer long. You can buy one yourself for a mere $30 at their Etsy store. Happy shopping.

I'm wearing an Isabel Marant shirt, Proenza Schouler belt, Siwy shorts, Julien Louie for Aldo shoes. All photos by Mark Iantosca. xo

Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake

Don't get me wrong, I love a fancy, pastry-chef-made dessert as much as (or probably way more than) the next girl, but I have a much stronger and more loyal affinity to down-home sweets that taste like something you ate in your mother's kitchen when you were just a kid running in from school. The nostalgia of biting into an old-fashioned banana cake, for example, or a perfectly baked fudge brownie, just makes the whole thing that much better, more comforting somehow.

This is why I love Texas sheet cake so much. It tastes like the best memories you have of chocolate birthday cakes from your grade school days, but even better, sweeter, more intense. I've baked an iteration of this cake before, but this new recipe, from The Pioneer Woman Cookbook, by Ree Drummond, really takes the cake (pun intended). I actually closed my eyes and sighed when I took my first, still-warm-from-the-oven bite. Give it a go in your own kitchen, I promise it's more than worth the (minimal) effort. xo

Texas Sheet Cake
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cookbook, by Ree Drummond
Ingredients:
Cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks salted butter
4 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder

Icing:
1 3/4 sticks butter
4 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder
6 tablespoons whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pound powdered sugar
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Stir together and set aside. In another bowl, mix the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and baking soda. Mix with a fork and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and add the cocoa. Whisk together to combine. Meanwhile, bring 1 cup of water to a boil. When the butter is melted, pour the boiling water in the pan. Allow to bubble for a moment, then turn off the heat. Pour the chocolate mixture into the flour mixture. Stir together for a moment to cool the chocolate, then pour into the egg mixture. Stir together until smooth, then pour into an ungreased jelly roll pan (or rimmed baking sheet) and bake for 20 minutes.

While the cake is baking, make the icing: Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the cocoa powder and stir until smooth. Add the milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir together. Dump in the chopped pecans and stir until well combined. Immediately after removing the cake from the oven, pour the warm icing over the top. You'll want to avoid doing much spreading, so try to distribute it evenly as you pour. Let cool for a good half hour or so until the icing is set. Slice up into squares and serve with a smile. xo

What I'm Wearing for Spring: Isabel Marant

Every once in awhile, a whole collection from a designer nails it for me, and I become obsessed with owning as many pieces as I can. This season, that designer is Isabel Marant. As much as I love Celine's cool minimalism and Stella McCartney's genius slashed, citrus-print silk dresses, Marant's easy surfer vibe is something I want to be in every single day. (Also, it doesn't hurt that her price points are slightly more accessible than la Celine).

I've already invested in several pieces like the little red bandanna shorts, the striped 70s linen shirt, and a checked button-down, but I'm dying to get my hot little hands on one of those cable sweaters and the lace-up pink shorts. Could anything be more perfect for another Montauk summer? xo

Nero Cookies (or Chocolate Mint Sugar Bombs)

This weekend was an exceptionally productive one. I went for three long runs, cleaned out my closets twice, sold a bunch of clothes at Beacon's Closet, and donated the rest. I made a lot of almost-final headway on a work project. I brunched with friends and took Suz Monster to the park a lot. I finished reading Three Stages of Amazement. I went out to the Brooklyn Flea. Twice. And I baked. I baked more in one shot than I ever have in my life. In fact, I was up 'til 2 AM on Friday night baking dozens and dozens of cookies for the Bakesale for Japan. And then up at 7 AM on Saturday putting the final decorative touches on my cookie packages and getting ready to head over to the Brooklyn Flea to work the sale. It was an awesome experience from beginning to end, especially knowing that 100% of the proceeds were going directly to Japan's rescue efforts. We ended up raising almost $5,000 that day, which made me positively giddy.

The cookies I chose to bake for the sale are a constant crowd favorite called Nero cookies. They're rich, chocolate-y, fudgy pieces of goodness with a direct hit of mint that reminds me of old-fashioned Girl Scout Thin Mints, but way, way better. Best of all, the recipe is one of the easiest in my cookie arsenal. It's the perfect thing to try out if you're looking for something that will make everyone happy, even if it's a crowded flea market packed to overflowing. Recipe below. xo

Nero Cookies

Ingredients: 

4 1 oz squares of unsweetened chocolate (I used Baker's)

1/2 stick unsalted butter

4 large eggs

2 cups of white sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons of peppermint extract

2 cups of flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/4 cup of powdered sugar

Directions: 

Melt the butter and chocolate in a large bowl in the microwave. Heat in 30-second increments and stir in between to make sure it doesn't burn. 

Add eggs, one at a time, beating at medium speed with a handheld mixer. Slowly add the sugar, vanilla, and mint extract. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Slowly add the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture beating at low speed until well blended. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Shape the dough into small balls then roll in powdered sugar. Place the balls on a baking sheet with parchment paper. Bake for 16-18 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool on a rack before digging in. 

Cold Sauce (or 5-Minute Tomato Sauce)

One of my favorite things to eat in the springtime is spaghetti. There's just something about warm weather that makes me want to make pasta in all sorts of different ways, using lots of seasonal ingredients (asparagus spears with parmesan and lemon, anyone?). Unfortunately, it looks like we New Yorkers have a long time to wait 'til we're plucking juicy heirloom tomatoes warmed by the sun from farmers' market stands to make sauce with. Damn global warming and the resulting insane weather patterns. So in the meantime, here's an excellent alternative.

This is, by far, the easiest spaghetti sauce recipe I've ever come across, and it requires...wait for it...absolutely no stove time. How, you say? Here's what happens. You combine the best quality canned tomatoes you can find, mix in some fresh basil and garlic, and stick the whole thing in the fridge overnight so that the flavors have a good long time to mix and mingle. The next day, some sort of magic has happened, and you've got yourself a batch of the tastiest sauce imaginable. All that's left to do is mix in some olive oil, salt, and pepper and pour it over freshly cooked al dente spaghetti. Don't worry, the heat from the noodles will warm the sauce right up to a pleasing temperature. I will give a word of warning, however: with a dish as beautifully simple as this one, it will make a world of difference if you use the best ingredients possible. This is the time to splurge. Make it tonight, eat it tomorrow, and dream of summer. xo

Cold Sauce
Adapted from Food52.com
Ingredients:
1 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes
1 cup fresh basil
2 cloves garlic or more
1/8 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 lb spaghetti


Directions:
Finely chop the basil. In a large bowl empty the canned tomatoes, basil, garlic, salt and pepper. Mix these ingredients together and refrigerate overnight. When you're ready to use remove from the refrigerator and add oil, stir well. In the meantime, cook the pasta al dente, drain and add the sauce. The hot pasta will warm the cold sauce. Cheese is optional.