Gastronomist Economist, Issue 88: Trying something new
A new format for a new season
Hello friends!
I'm trying a new format to the newsletter to better and more concisely feature what I'm writing, the cookbooks I'm reading, and the recipes I'm making and then to share thoughts in a longer narrative form. Let me know if there's anything else you would like to see!
What I'm writing
Passover appetizers and sides and mains in the Detroit Jewish News
You'll have to stay tuned to the JN for recipes for desserts before the holiday
What I'm reading
Flavorama - I really enjoyed this book to learn more about the science behind flavor, and it includes recipes to demonstrate different concepts.
The Flavor Equation by Nik Sharma - this book also focuses on the science behind flavor and includes related recipes.
Where I'm eating
Supra (DC) - Great Georgian food. I went for brunch and had the morning pkhlovani (khachapuri with sulguni cheese, spinach and fresh herbs, two sunny-side eggs, and green ajika), mushroom khinkali (dumplings with creminis, tarragon, dill, parsley, and white wine vinegar), and potatoes (roasted baby reds on a green sauce of ricotta, mint, dill, tarragon, cilantro, lemon, and salt). Everything was excellent.
Venue by 4M (Ann Arbor) - I had been before for lunch and brunch, but this was my first time for dinner, and the first time I tried their pasta. I had the goat cheese ravioli (rosemary, lemon, goat cheese, Riesling cream reduction, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese), and it was an ample portion and also delicious. For dessert, the vacherin (meringue, espresso ice cream, chocolate sauce, toasted almonds) was great, especially the espresso ice cream.
BO's Bagels (Ann Arbor) - We finally have NY style bagels in Ann Arbor! I tried a sandwich of a sesame bagel, chive cream cheese, gravlax, and the flavors of everything were exceptional. My only critique of the bagel was that, untoasted, I thought it was overly chewy. I also tried a bialy (toasted), and that was great as well.
What I'm cooking
Nik Sharma’s chickpea salad with date and tamarind dressing - I enjoyed how the sweet and sour date syrup and tamarind dressing adapted substantial depth to this salad of canned chickpeas, cucumber, tomato, and shallot. I thought it was great with crumbled pita chips on top for some added crunch. I also thought this would be good to serve for company, though I will warn you that the longer it sits, the soupier it gets from the tomato juices.
Salt and pepper noodle kugel - it was only relatively recently that I learned that we had a family tradition of eating savory noodle kugel in soup, and I was eager to try it out. I used an internet-based recipe for this iteration, but added an egg, and used a few tablespoons of canola instead of non-dairy butter. I appreciated how the kugel adds noodles, egg, and seasonings to the soup in a way that adding only noodles would not be able to. Next time, I'll use my mother's recipe, which I've subsequently obtained.
Melissa Clark's Peruvian roasted chicken with spicy cilantro sauce - the chicken is marinated in a soy-sauce-based marinade and served with a sauce of cilantro and jalapeno. I don't know that I necessarily tasted much of the marinade, but I really enjoyed the sauce, both on the chicken and roasted potatoes. I also used leftover sauce on roasted salmon, and that was a great application as well.
Minimalist Baker’s vegan raspberry chocolate ganache tart - the recipe involves making a date-based crust, but I made mine out of chocolate cookies instead, using the amounts here but following this procedure to bake the crust for 10 minutes, though I could have gone for a little more crust. For the raspberry filling, I used sugar instead of maple syrup and found that the internet suggests many different substitution ratios. The chocolate ganache layer involves cashew cream and chocolate, and it was a first for me to make my own cashew cream and use it in this way. Overall, I enjoyed it, but I felt that the flavor of the chocolate didn't come through as much in the ganache as I would have liked, and I felt that the balance of tart and sweet between the raspberry and ganache could have been improved. I also used gluten-free and dairy-free chocolate cookies for the crust, and I 'll say that I don't think I enjoyed the flavor as much as some other chocolate cookies I've had.
Adeena Sussman's freekeh salad with roasted grapes - this was my first experience with freekeh, which is roasted and rubbed green durum wheat. In this salad, the cooked freekeh is combined with roasted grapes, toasted walnuts, and a lemon dressing. I appreciated the smoky flavor of the freekeh, though I'm not sure it's for me. If I were to make it again, I would use more grapes and less lemon zest.
Alexa Weibel's creamy spicy tomato beans and greens - I saw that this NY Times recipe went viral and wanted to try it out. Personally, I would increase the tomato paste and sundried tomatoes and/or decrease the cream. Tasting the beans, I thought they could use some more acid, but they get that from the arugula salad topping. I ate the beans on toast, topped with the salad, with more salad on the side.
Ina Garten's French toast bread pudding - The dish bakes for a long time - about an hour and a half - in a water bath, but I think it's worth it because it produced a lovely smooth custard texture. I added less orange zest than the recipe suggests because I'm not the biggest fan, but I thought it was a nice addition. I also used sugar instead of honey.
Carolina Gelen's creamy sundried tomato pasta - As a sundried tomato lover, I thoroughly enjoyed.
Deb Perelman's Passover thumbprints - In preparation for Passover, I continue to adapt this recipe to conjure the Manischewitz jelly top cookies of my youth. I followed my notes from last year's iteration - I used finely ground almond flour instead and a 1:1 substitution of refined coconut oil for the butter/margarine, used about 1 tablespoon less matza meal, strictly measured only one tablespoon of dough per cookie, doubled the amount of jam, and flattened each cookie to my desired thickness. Next time, I would skip rolling into balls as a separate step and just flatten into discs, but I also hope to experiment with different procedures for a more streamlined process to make a more uniform cookie. I might also decrease the matza meal used in favor of more almond meal.
Jesse Szewczyk's oven-grilled honey-mustard chicken - I've made this before, and enjoyed it again. I made only half the marinade for the chicken, and that was still more than enough, so next time I would make only a third. I would also double the dressing and serve with 10 ounces of arugula as I really enjoy the salad component in conjunction with the chicken.
Thoughts
The last few months have been especially hectic for me, running from one project and place to the next, and it's all been very draining, but in a satisfying way. While the brunt of that is over, April will be a lot in its own way, with another grant proposal and Passover, but I'm optimistic that May will be calmer and lead into a fun summer. I'll leave you with this quote from Brianna Weist that has been resonating with me:
Temporary. Everything. All of it. Even the best of it, especially the best of it. We only have so many years to know human love, and do human things. Love them, all of them, even the painstaking ones. They, too, will not last. They are the experience. The insecurity? The experience. The heartache? The experience. The confusion? The experience. The joy? The experience. There is nothing lost if we learn something from it. Your willingness to fail is proportionate to your potential to gain, and to grow. The timer never stops running. All you will regret is not reaching harder for the things you actually wanted, while they were still in front of you.
Until next time,
Joelle