isabelcooks

[isabelcooks]

Salad-in-a-jar: Vietnamese edition

Like so many dumb sheep humans, I made a promise to myself to be healthier in the new year. That includes working out in my room and eating healthier. (I’m normally pretty okay at both, but a concussion in September brought the working out and then the holidays murdered my healthy eating habits.) 

Both are going pretty okay (thanks for asking), but the best manifestation of my unoriginal resolution has been a salad-in-a-jar made with kale, mint, cilantro, and roasted veggies with a nuoc cham (Vietnamese dipping sauce)-style vinaigrette. Oh yeah, with a soy egg for protein. 

The whole thing was inspired by a recipe for veggies with the vinaigrette from Lucky Peach’s “Power Vegetables” cookbook. It’s supposed to be a side, but I thought it would be the perfect base for a grab-and-go lunch. 

Honestly, it was so delicious. Even though it was (basically) vegetarian, the umami of the fish sauce in the vinaigrette and the egg, along with the punch of kale, really kept me full. The mint and cilantro really livened up the greens, and the roasted veggies were v tasty. Highly recommend. 

                                             RECIPES

Salad-in-a-jar: Vietnamese edition, adapted from the “roasted vegetables with fish sauce vinaigrette” of Lucky Peach’s “Power Vegetables.” Makes 3 jars.

Roasted veggies

3/4 pound Brussels sprouts, halved

3/4 pound cauliflower (1 small head), broken into 1-2″ florets

3/4 carrots (4-5 medium), cut into 1-2″ pieces

2 T olive oil (recipe calls for grapeseed but my Brooklyn kitchen does NOT have that lol)

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees. 

2. Put veggies on 1-2 baking sheets (make sure they’re in a single so they actually get nice and roasty instead of soggy), drizzle with oil and salt and pepper. Pop in the oven for about 25 minutes, until they tender but not soft. 

3. Toss veggies with a little of the vinaigrette (recipe follows) and set aside.

Fish sauce vinaigrette (pretty similar to nuoc cham, the sauce that comes with Vietnamese bun noodle dishes)

1/4 cup fish sauce

1/4 cup water

2 T rice vinegar

2 T lime juice

1/4 cup sugar

1 garlic clove, minced (I used the equivalent amount of a shallot bc that’s what I had, to good results)

1 t sambal olek

Combine everything and whisk to dissolve the sugar.

Soy eggs, adapted from Lucky Peach’s “101 Easy Asian Recipes.” Recipe can be found here, all the way at the bottom.

PUT IT ALL TOGETHER

kale

mint

cilantro

1. Pour the vinaigrette between 3 wide-mouth mason jars. Then distribute the veggies between the jars, you want each jar to be about halfway full. Then add a soy egg to each jar, sliced in half. 

2. Wash, de-stem, and tear up the kale into small, manageable pieces. Then massage the kale so it breaks down a little-- I find this step crucial for kale salads. Otherwise you’re just chewing on tough leaves. I can’t give an exact amount for the kale, but you’ll want enough massaged leaves to fill up the rest of the jars. 

3. Chop up the cilantro and mint, then toss with the kale. Stuff the greens into the jars, close, and stash in the fridge. When you’re ready to eat, shake vigorously and enjoy!

[isabelcooks]

Hot choco happiness

Hot chocolate. Thick, rich, chocolatey, bittersweet hot chocolate. With homemade whipped cream. It’s one of my favorite treats in the world. It’s also a foolproof way to feel kind of ill. But I can’t quit it. Sometimes the happiness is worth the pain. 

I used to make hot chocolate with cocoa powder, until I found the recipe from Buvette. It’s a revelation. And unlike most things in the book, it’s super easy and you probably have all the ingredients. (I’m looking at you, oxtail marmalade.)

Jody Williams recommends using coarsely chopped semi-sweet chocolate, which you then whisk into hot (but not yet simmering) whole milk. Also, you add a touch of cornstarch to make it extra rich and creamy. Freshly whipped cream tops it all off. 

It. Is. So. Good. And why pay $4+ for a cup of fancy hot choco when you can make it at home? Just do it. Suffer through the stomach ache. It’s worth it. 

A note about the chocolate: the Buvette recipe calls for semi-sweet, but I use unsweetened and then add sugar to taste because I like to control the sweetness. Actually that’s kind of a lie, the first time I made this I only had unsweetened. But then one time I used semi-sweet and found I liked my way better!

Another note: cookbooks like to tell you to “only use the finest chocolate, here’s my favorite brand that costs a million dollars a pound.” Fuck that. I use Trader Joe’s unsweetened baking chocolate and it’s totally delicious, thank you very much. I really hate it when cookbooks do that. Normal people are not going to buy European-style, $10/pound butter to use for baking. Stop.

                                               RECIPE

Hot chocolate, adapted from Buvette’s “Chocolat Chaud.” Serves 1, easily multiplied. 

1/4-1/2 cup heavy cream, depeding on how much you love whipped cream (I go 1/2)

1 cup + 1 T whole milk

1 t cornstarch

2 oz unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped (or semi-sweet, but omit sugar) (Buvette calls for 3 oz/serving but I found that 2 is plenty rich)

sugar to taste 

pinch coarse salt

1. Heat 1 cup milk on low heat until bubbles just begin to form around the edges. This will take about 5 minutes. 

2. While the milk is heating, whip the cream into soft peaks. I add a little sugar and vanilla. Also mix the remaining milk with the cornstarch and set aside. 

3. When milk is hot, turn off the stove and whisk in the chocolate and salt. If using unsweetened, this is when you add the sugar in. I start with around 2-3 T, then add more depending on my mood. Next, whisk in the cornstarch/milk mixture. 

4. Pour into a mug and top with whipped cream. Slurp with a good book. 

[isabelcooks]

Spatchcocked chicken and the best toast ever

Last week, we started a new tradition: monthly family dinners with my cousins in Brooklyn. I actually live with two of them, but we all have such busy/different schedules that we rarely see each other. So we decided: the first or second Wednesday of each month, we’re all going to get together (SOs welcome too) for a home-cooked family dinner.

I chose to make spatchcocked chicken roasted over bread, roasted butternut squash, leeks in vinaigrette, and a simple green salad. Mostly, I knew all of these things would be 1) crowd-pleasers and 2) pretty cheap. Also, cooking a whole chicken comes with the benefit of being able to make stock — more on that later.

Spatchcocking is a super easy yet seemingly impressive way of preparing chicken. The only thing it really requires is a bit of fearlessness when handling the raw bird, as it involved cutting out the backbone and splaying the chicken out flat. If you are one of those people who doesn’t relish the idea of attacking raw poultry, all I can say is that it’s worth it. 

The chicken cooks more evenly, plus you get to do this amazing thing where you cook the chicken over buttered bread, making the most heavenly toast you could ever dream of. Seriously, the crispy-chewy, chicken-fat saturated toast was the hit of the night. 

The rest of the meal also came together easily: I had pre-cubed the squash, after the slightly tedious task of mincing two shallots was done (but done very well thanks to my sister gifting me a knife skills class for my birthday!) the leeks/salad were a cinch.

The whole din! A for effort in presentation, B- for execution, D for photo skills. 

Like I said, one of the best reasons to cook a whole chicken is to make your own chicken stock! Or bone broth, whatever. It’s literally the same thing. And once you have the chicken carcass, it’s super easy. You just toss all the bones and extras into a big pot, add some veggies & herbs, and viola! The best base to any soup. 

Now, to have a stock that’s any good, you have to cook it at least 6 hours. I have found it’s nearly impossible to do this on the same night I’m cooking the chicken, so I came up with a little trick: while I’m cooking the chicken, I chop up all the veggies and put them in my stock pot. Then at the end of the dinner, I add all the bones. I put the whole thing in the fridge and THE NEXT DAY I cover it with water and put it on the stove as soon as I get home from work. By bed time, it’s stock time!

Finally, my mom (the one who fostered my love for cooking and is my kitchen mentor) just sent me two new cookbooks: Lucky Peach’s Power Vegetables and Everything I Want to East by Squirl’s Jessica Koslow. I can’t wait to start making my way through them. 

                                                          RECIPES

Leeks + vinaigrette can be found here. (Scroll alllll the way down.)

Spatchcocked chicken with lemon and herbs, adapted from Martha Stewart’s “One Pot.” Serves 4 to 6. 

1 whole chicken (3 1/2 to 4 pounds)

about 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, very soft (important!!)

chunky sea salt (or Kosher salt if you’re not fancy like me)

8 slices rustic bread (or whatever fits in your roasting dish)

1 lemon

mint and basil leaves (about 1 cup total) (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 425. With chicken breast side down, start at thigh end and cut along one side of the backbone. Turn chicken around and cut along other side. The backbone will be great in the stock you should make. Flip chicken over and press firmly on the breastbone to flatten. It should crack a little! Rub with 2 tablespoons butter and season with salt. (This is when the soft butter is crucial....if it’s too cold, it will harden up on the chicken and be impossible to spread.)

2. Arrange the bread so it fits snugly in your roasting dish. I use a basic 9x12 Pyrex and it works beautifully. Liberally spread butter on the bread slices, then lay the chicken on top of the buttered bread (butter to chicken). Roast until golden-brown, about 35-45 minutes. If you have a thermometer (which I do not), you want it to reach 160, not touching the bone. I usually just cut into the chicken at a thick point, which kind of messes up the presentation but oh well.

3. Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes. Scatter with herbs and squeeze lemon juice all over the chicken. Wait 10-15 more minutes, then carve chicken and serve with bread. It will be amazing. 

Roasted butternut squash, my own, serves as much as you make. 

whole butternut squash (I used 2 medium-sized ones for 6 people)

olive oil

salt + pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400. Then prepare the squash: peel the whole thing, then cut the body from the neck. Scoop out the seeds and guts from the body and cut in half through the end, then slice these into half-moons. You can leave these as is, or keep slicing into cubes as I usually do. Then slice the neck into rounds, and cut these up into sixths, or pieces that are about as big as your other cubes. If this doesn’t make sense, I’m sure a quick youtube search for “how to cut butternut squash” will solve all your questions. 

2. Spread cubes out on a baking sheet so they’re crowded but not touching. This might take two sheets, depending on how much squash you have. Drizzle liberally with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Use your hands to make sure every piece is covered.

3. Roast for at least 20-30 minutes, until the pieces are nice and soft and have shrunk a good amount. They should smell sweet. I give them a few shakes/turns with a spatula over the course of the cooking, so they brown evenly. This makes for an excellent carb component of a mason jar salad. 

Chicken stock, my own, makes approx. 9 cups of rich, flavorful stock.

chicken carcass

2 onions

3-4 carrots

3-4 stalks of celery

oregano

bay leaf

rosemary

garlic cloves 

thyme

any other herbs you think might taste good

salt + pepper

1. Roughly chop up the vegetables and toss them in a large stock pot with the carcass of one roast chicken. Add herbs, salt, and pepper. If you’re doing this the night before like I recommend, at this point cover the pot and stick the whole thing in the fridge. 

2. Add water, at least enough to cover the contents of the pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook for at least 6 hours. I hear you’re supposed to skim off the fat and scum, but I don’t bother. 

3. Turn off heat and let cool for a bit. Then strain the stock. VERY IMPORTANT: PUT A POT UNDERNEATH YOUR STRAINER. YOU DO NOT WANT ALL THAT DELICIOUS STOCK GOING DOWN THE DRAIN. IT IS TRAGIC. 

4. Ladle the stock into large jars. If you’re freezing them, make sure to leave some room at the top! I fill to the top line. You do not want exploding stock jars in your freezer!!

Use the stock as a base for soups and stews. I particularly like adding cooked bacon, kale, pasta, and a boiled egg for a simple yet delicious + comforting meal. 

[isabelcooks]

Malaysian pancakes

I found these in my trusty Asian cookbook, Lucky Peach’s “101 Easy Asian Recipes.” Called apam balik, they’re described as Malaysian street food, crepe/taco hybrids with a filling of creamed corn and brown sugar (and traditionally chopped peanuts, but I passed on those). 

I was drawn to 1) how easy they seemed and 2) how delicious the food-porn pic looked. I was handsomely rewarded for my decision. I ate these every day last week as either a post-work afternoon snack or a dessert (or both). Today (Saturday), I had two for breakfast. 

I will say... the cookbook kind of failed me on this one. It only calls for 1 cup of water, which made kind of a dough, instead of a thin batter. My first attempt at a pancake was hilarious. But I added about 1/2-3/4 cup more water to the batter until it was nice and runny (much like a crepe) and it cooked up beautifully. You can see the evolution of my apam baliks below (clockwise from left). 

                                                          RECIPE

Apam Balik, adapted from Lucky Peach’s “101 Easy Asian Recipes.” Serves 8-12, depending on how big you make the pankcakes. NOTE: needs at least 1 hour of chill time. 

Pancakes

1 1/3 C flour

1 1/3 C rice flour

3 T cornstarch

2 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

3/4 C sugar

1/2 t salt

2 eggs

1 t vanilla 

1 1/2-3/4 C water

Filling

brown sugar

melted butter

creamed corn (optional, I used)

chopped roasted peanuts (optional, I did not use)

1. For the pancakes, mix together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Whisk eggs, vanilla, and water in another bowl. Pour the wet into the dry and whisk until smooth. Cover and chill for at least an hour, up to 24. 

2. Heat a 6-8 inch nonstick pan (I used 6″) over medium heat. Heat a little butter on the pan, and when hot pour in a ladle of batter, swirling the pan to coat the bottom. As it sets, sprinkle the peanuts and sugar, drizzle some melted butter, and spoon over the creamed corn. When it’s mostly cooked through, fold in have and serve. Repeat! 

Notes: I kept the batter and creamed corn in separate containers in the fridge for almost a week, making a pancake or two a day. It kept beautifully. 

[isabelcooks]

Really weird tacos

You know when you’re really hungry but don’t really have any food in the kitchen but REALLY don’t want to go out and buy anything? That happened to me a few weeks ago. 

I opened my fridge and stared at if for a while. I really didn’t want to go out. My eyes landed on my corn tortillas, bacon, sauerkraut, and salsa. Ok. The most inauthentic tacos in the world it is. 

Mmmm bacon. Really, how wrong could this go. 

The answer is: not wrong at all! I cooked and then chopped up the bacon, warmed up the sauerkraut (found at the end of this very long post) in a pan, threw it into a couple of warmed tortillas with some salsa, and dug in. 

They. Were. So. Good. 

I immediately cooked up the rest of the bacon and made two more tacos. I could have had another six. Weirdo-leftover-fusion at its finest. I hope someone actually does make this. I promise you will not regret it! Then let me know your thoughts.

                                                   RECIPE

Really weird tacos, my own invention. Serves as much as you have. 

bacon (you need at least 1 strip per taco, 2 is better)

sauerkraut (make your own or buy it)

corn tortillas

salsa (I used regular chunky red)

1. Fry up the bacon. I don’t like mine super crispy, so I keep a close eye on it. Once cooked, chop it up. 

2. Warm sauerkraut, then tortillas in a pan. I didn’t use the bacon fat pan BUT PERHAPS I SHOULD HAVE. Just thinking of this just now.

3. Assemble the tacos before everything gets cold. Top with salsa. Devour.

[isabelcooks]

Homemade(ish) ramen

Aye yai yai it’s been a long time since I posted something. I will blame that on a hectic (but fun!) work schedule and several packed weekends in a row.

So I’m going to duck into my TARDIS (I wish) and write about the ramen I cooked up a few weeks back! I felt bad putting “homemade” in the title because as you’ll see I didn’t totally make it from scratch..but oh well.

I decided to make ramen because the weekend before, I had gone up to my aunt and uncle’s farm, Longhaul, for their biannual “Workation.” I weeded, chatted, and got some quality time with the family. I promise this is connected to the ramen...but first, a picture of my baby cousin on the farm.

So cute amirite?!!?

Anyway...the ramen! So a big group comes out to these workations and part of the deal is my aunt and uncle feed everyone in return for their hard manual labor. This time, they had an abundance of grilled chicken leftover, and my aunt asked if I wanted to take it home. Um, yes. I never turn down free food. (She also gave me a pan of cornbread, the subject of a future post....suspense!)

With my glut of chicken, I decided to tackle a recipe form Lucky Peach’s “101 Easy Asian Recipes” I had had my eye on: rotisserie chicken ramen. I’d always wanted to make my own ramen but always been daunted, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Chopping scallions, watching TV, dirty dishes in the sink...what else is new. Sidenote: I came back to Girls this season after a couple years away. It was so good.

The recipe is pretty straightforward: you make a broth from the leftover chicken and you add soy sauce eggs and other ramen toppings of your choice. Fresh (not dried) packaged ramen noodles make it, well, ramen.

It was really good! Not anything transcendent, I feel like that would have taken a lot more time and ingredients. But very good!

                                             RECIPE

Rotisserie chicken ramen, adapted from Lucky Peach’s “101 Easy Asian Recipes.” Serves 4. 

1 rotisserie chicken, whole or leftover (thank you Jocelyn!)

4 scallions

1 piece (1″) fresh ginger, thinly sliced

1 small carrot (optional) (I did a few)

1 dried shiitake mushroom

3 slices of bacon

12 c water

4 portions ramen noodles, preferably fresh

8 t soy sauce

2 cooked eggs (for garnish, I made soy eggs, recipe to follow)

1. If you’re using a leftover chicken, pick off any remaining big chunks of meat. If you’re using a whole chicken, save the drumsticks, slice off the breast meat, and pick off any other big pieces. This will go in the ramen when it’s done.

2. Break up the chicken carcass and put it in a stockpot. Chop up the scallions, adding the dark green parts to the pot and reserving the white/light green for garnish. Add the ginger, carrot, shiitake, bacon, and water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat “from a rolling boil to a rollicking simmer” (love that wording) and skim off any froth that collects on the surface during the first 10 minutes of simmering. (The cookbook author SWEARS this is super important for the taste of the broth and I indulged him.)

3. Cook until the liquid is reduced by about one-third, about 2 hours. Strain the broth. (MAKE SURE to have another pot or bowl under your strainer! You don’t want all that hard work literally going down the drain.) Save the shiitake to slice and garnish, but toss the rest. You have what you need from it. 

4. To serve, bring the broth and the chicken meat to a simmer and cook the ramen noodles according to the package. (Probably some form of “boil for X minutes.”) Drain the noodles very well and portion them out. Top with broth, scallions, chicken meat, shiitake, egg, and whatever else you want. My boyfriend added sambal olek, cuz he likes da spice. 

Note: I ate this for lunch by portioning out everything the night before into a big, wide-mouthed mason jar and bringing it into work to be microwaved. It was really tasty. 

Soy eggs, adapted from Lucky Peach’s “101 Easy Asian Recipes.” Makes 6 eggs.

3 T soy sauce

2 T rice vinegar

1 T brown sugar

1 T water

1/4 t chili flakes

1 point star anise (optional)

1/4 t black peppercorns

6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled

Combine all ingredients except eggs into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Add the eggs, making sure they have some room to roll around. Swirl the eggs gently so they’re covered with the sauce until they’re tan and infused with the soy, about 5 minutes. Remove and let cool.

Note: My aunt said she added hon mirin, a sweet rice wine, to hers and they tasted super yummy. So try that if you have it!

[isabelcooks]

Katrin’s Austrian torte

My mom is the master of turning on a dime and whipping up something so insanely delicious you’d have thought it had taken her all day. Sometimes she does spend all day cooking a fabulous meal, and those are obviously amazing too. But this dessert, this is for when you have just enough time to make something homemade but that one extra step like a frosting or a “chill 20 minutes” will break you. 

Enter: Katrin’s Austrian torte. I’m not sure if it’s a traditional Austrian dessert, but my mom got the recipe from her grad school friend Katrin, who hails from Vienna. So Austrian it is! Plus it makes it sound special and exotic. 

A couple weeks ago, I attended my second book club gathering. The club is a really great group of women, and my first time I brought two packs of store-bought cookies. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! But I like to make things, and I like sharing those things, and if I’m being honest I like showing off my mad skillz a bit too. 

We read “Fates and Furies” by Lauren Groff (B- from me, found the second half much more interesting but this is a cooking blog not a literary musings blog so let’s stop there), and one of the characters is always making scones or a frittata or a cobbler or something, so I felt a little extra inspired. Couple that with the fact that I got home with 45 minutes to spare, and voilá! I texted my mom for the recipe, picked up the ingredients at a bodega, and scurried home. 

The torte is a delicious, dense-yet-tender vanilla cake that has one of the best textures I’ve ever had. The way my mom makes it, you fill the center with whipped cream and fresh fruit. You can use any fruit you desire, but strawberries were on sale at the bodega, so strawberries it was. 

Probably the trickiest thing about this torte is having the right pan. I just looked it up, and apparently it’s an “Obsttortenform.” As you can kind of see in this picture, the cake is about an inch or two thick with fluted sides and an indented middle. The one in that link is pretty darn close to what I have, which I inherited from my grandmother. The “Mary Ann” pan looks sort of similar, but a lot deeper, so I can’t vouch for its effectiveness with this recipe.

While the cake cooked and cooled, I sliced up a bunch of strawberries and made the whipped cream. I usually add a touch of vanilla and sugar to my whipped cream, just to make it taste extra delicious. I packed everything up into the picnic basket my mom recently gave me and headed out to book club. 

Pro tip: bring your own utensils for whatever you’re bringing. You won’t have to bother your host and you’re guaranteed to have what you need. 

The cake was a hit! It ended up being a small group, so we only ate about half the cake-- although I’m pleased to say it got very nice reviews. I had another slice the next day for breakfast (ha!) and brought the rest in to work at WNYC on Friday, where it was also well-received. 

One more picture, because I worked kind of hard at the strawberry design. 

                                                RECIPE

Katrin’s Austrian torte, recipe from my mom, serves between 6-12, depending on how small you slice it. 

1 stick butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup flour

1/2 t salt

1 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Melt butter and let cool. Mix with sugar, then add eggs and vanilla. Mix in flour and salt. Bake in heavily buttered flute pan (or obsttortenform) for 30 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes. Carefully unmold onto plate. Fill indentation with whipped cream and seasonal fruit. 

Tada! I told you it was easy.

[isabelcooks]

Actually easy weeknight pasta

Thursdays, I play soccer. That means I get to run around and have fun (especially if we win) and it also means I usually get home after 9pm. 

This is just a nice picture of the field where we play. Moving on...

I like having something ready to go for dinner, so I can just come home and heat it up and take a shower and go to bed. But of course, that doesn’t always happen. Like this Thursday. 

Luckily, I had the makings of my actually easy weeknight pasta. 

The entire meal comes together in the time it takes a pot of water to boil and then cook the pasta, about 15 minutes. It’s pretty healthy too! Just pasta, kale, an egg, and whatever extra toppings you might like. My boyfriend likes spicy things so he adds sambal olek (chili garlic sauce) to his. 

I’ve been making this since college and it’s very on-trend with the whole “meal in a bowl” thing that’s been going on. Plus, it’s just really tasty. I had the rest of it for lunch the next day, with some of the leeks I made the week before.

                                                  RECIPE

Actually easy weeknight pasta, my own recipe, serves 2 for dinner and 1 lunch the next day

pasta (I used spaghetti, a handfull with the diameter of a dollar coin)

kale, half a bunch

eggs (as many as you would like on top)

butter

toppings (optional): lemon, parmesan, sambal olek

1. Put a large pot of heavily salted water on to boil. 

2. Meanwhile, de-stem the kale and tear it into small-ish pieces. 

3. When the water boils, cook the pasta and the kale at the same time. 

4. While the pasta and kale are cooking, fry up a couple eggs in butter. I like to try to time it so the eggs are just finished cooking when the pasta is done. I think a little in the runny side is nice for this dish, so the yolk coats the noodles.

5. When pasta is done, drain and put back in the pot and add a tablespoon of butter to make it nice and silky (and tasty). This time, I was lucky enough to have some leftover chicken fat/lemon wedges from last week’s braised chicken, so I dumped that in too. It was amazing.  

[isabelcooks]

On the virtues of a simple guacamole.

Today I was walking home from a soccer game and was super tired and hot and realized there was only one thing I wanted to do with the rest of my afternoon: make a lot of guacamole and eat all of it. And because I’m an “adult,” that’s exactly what I did.

Now everyone probably has their own opinion about how to make the best guacamole. But this is MY blog and so you get to hear MY opinion! Which is this: keep. it. simple. 

The guacamole my mom has always made has exactly four ingredients: avocado, lime, salt, pepper. That’s it. You don’t need onions, you don’t need cilantro or spices, and you CERTAINLY don’t need tomatoes. Keep the tomatoes in salsa where they belong. 

Since avocado is basically the best thing ever, why cover it up with a bunch of other stuff? I texted my mom about the origins of this recipe today, and she said her and my dad’s good friend from college made it that way. So thank you, Michael Holland!

I ate my simple guacamole with blue corn chips and a Snapperhead IPA. It was absolutely gorgeous out so I sat out on my fire escape and got a sunburn. It was awesome. 

                                                      RECIPE

Simple guacamole, from my mom.

Literally could not be easier. For every avocado you have, use 1/2 a lime. I like it limey. Mash avocado, but don’t overdo it-- chunky is good. Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy the best guacamole you have ever had. 

[isabelcooks]

Is this thing on? And other lame first post title ideas.

Welcome to my cooking blog! Ahh!! Here I’m going to document my adventures in cooking and eating in Brooklyn.

I cook to save money, I cook because I love to eat my own food, and I cook because I love to cook. 

On Wednesday I made braised chicken with potatoes and lemon from “One Pot” by Martha Stewart, sauerkraut and leeks with vinaigrette from “Buvette,” and Chineasy cucumber salad and beef and celery ragú from Lucky Peach’s “101 Easy Asian Recipes.” If you just want the recipes, scroll to the bottom. 

I like cooking with others, but often I’m cooking alone. And if I’m cooking alone, my work station usually looks something like this:

Lots of things happening, a cookbook or two (or three) open, Netflix or a podcast on. Not pictured: my cooking uniform, aka PJs and slippers and the apron my mom made me. Also, I’m getting back into Psych. It’s delightful. 

One thing I’ve started doing in the past year is cooking a lot of food at one time, at least two different dishes I can eat for multiple meals. I’ve found I’m more likely to (almost) always be eating something home-cooked if I have several dishes prepared in the fridge so I’m not eating the same thing every meal, and honestly, I just really enjoy it. That, and I can usually go almost a week without major cooking again. 

For the braised chicken, I had to get fresh green Cerignola olives. They didn’t have pitted ones available at the market, so I intrepidly decided to pit them myself. Like any good millennial, I looked it up on Youtube!

I used the knife method because I don’t have a meat pounder (see: millennial) and to be honest, I did not smack my knife like the very brave and capable woman does in the video. Afraid of slicing my palm open, I merely pressed all my weight down on the olive until it kind of worked. You can see my mixed success below. 

While the braised chicken was in the oven, I made the sauerkraut (which is SUPER easy, it just involves pouring boiling water over sliced cabbage, draining, and stirring in a pickling mixture) and prepped everything for the leeks and ragú. Aka, lots of chopping. 

Above is everything for the vinaigrette for the leeks. Very fragrant, the shallots made me cry. I also chopped up a whole bunch of celery and minced some ginger for the sauce. 

I cooked the chicken dish in my trusty cast-iron dutch oven, one of my absolute prized possessions. It was my grandmother’s, and I’ve brought it to college and packed it in my carry-on when I moved to New York. I use it almost every time I cook. Sometimes twice, as the case was Wednesday, when I used it for the ragú as well. 

Here’s what the chicken looked like! One of the skins got messed up :( I think because I need to re-season the dutch oven, which was promptly wiped down and filled with ground beef. At this point, I got the water boiling for the leeks and while the sauce reduced I made the cucumber salad, which turned out really delicious. 

That’s it! Clockwise from top left: sauerkraut, a bowl of the chicken + potatoes, Chineasy cucumber salad, leeks + vinaigrette, beef and celery ragú. 

I’ll eat the chicken with arugula for lunch, and chicken with leeks and the ragú with udon and the cucumber salad for dinner. The sauerkraut is for adding to salads, quesadillas, and scallion pancakes (which will definitely be the center of a future post). Yum!

My meal from Thursday, where I sliced up some chicken and potatoes and threw them in a pan with some of the sauce and lemon and olives and threw THAT on a bed of arugula with a little leftover vinaigrette for a “warm” salad. It was v. good. I had the same thing Friday, but all cold, with a little sauerkraut, layered in a large mason jar. 

My snack today: cucumber salad and a beer. On the roof. IN A T-SHIRT. Not like I’m excited or anything. Disclaimer: within 30 minutes the wind picked up and I went back inside. :(

I really strive to be economic and cost-cutting. For these 5 recipes, I spent $59 BUT I will say that $17 of that was for my new black rice vinegar (yes I probably could have gotten cheaper in Chinatown than in my Park Slope bodega) and I’ll have that for a really long time. I also got a box of arugula to stretch my lunch meals. I’m estimating I’ll get about 10 meals out of everything so $6/home cooked meal isn’t too bad. I’d like to do better! 

                                                     RECIPES

The good part! This took a really long time to type. Next time I probably won’t do so many. Lesson learned.

*A quick note! I freaking love these cookbooks and HIGHLY recommend them. My mom got all three for me because she’s the best and a cookbook fanatic.

Braised chicken with potatoes and lemon, adapted from Martha Stewart’s “One Pot.” Serves 4. 

6 bone-in chicken thighs, about 2 1/4 pounds (I got 4 for the same approx. weight)

coarse salt

1 T olive oil

1 1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth

12 oz fingerling potatoes, or halved new potatoes

5 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled

1/2 cup large green olives, such as Cerignola, pitted

1 small lemon, cut into wedges

6 sprigs thyme

1 t cornstarch

1. Preheat oven to 450. Season chicken with salt. In a large, heavy oven-proof skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Add chicken, skin-side down, and cook until browned, about 5 min. Flip chicken and push to side of skillet. Add 1 cup broth and 1/2 t salt. Add potatoes to liquid, and bring to a boil. Add garlic, olives, lemon wedges, and thyme and return to a boil. 

2. Transfer skillet to oven. Roast, stirring potatoes halfway through, until potatoes are tender and chicken is cooked through, about 30 min. 

3. Return skillet to stove. Remove chicken and potatoes, then mix cornstarch with remaining 1/4 cup broth, and stir into pan. Bring to a boil to thicken sauce. Serve immediately. (Or much later, with arugula!)

Chineasy cucumber salad, adapted from Lucky Peach’s “101 Easy Asian Recipes.” Serves 2. (I doubled.)

1 T chinkiang (black rice) vinegar

1 t sichuan chili oil (I used sambal olek)

1 t sesame oil

1 t turbinado sugar (I used brown sugar)

1/4 t salt

3 Persian or Kirby cucumbers or 1 English cucumber

1 t toasted sesame seeds

2 T crushed roasted unsalted peanuts

2 T cilantro leaves

Note: I omitted the last three ingredients. The sesame seeds and the cilantro, because I couldn’t justify buying them for such small amounts. The peanuts, because I hate peanuts. I’m sure it would have been even better if I’d added them. 

1. Whisk together the vinegar, chili oil, sesame oil, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl until the sugar dissolves. Set dressing aside.

2. Halve the cucumbers lengthwise. (If using English cucumbers, removed the seeds with a small spoon and discard.) Set them cut-side down on a cutting board and lightly smash them. Cut the abused cucumbers crosswise into 3/4-inch-thick half-moons. (Note: bc I used English I cut them in half again.)

3. Toss the cucumbers in the dress and top each serving with sesame seeds, cilantro, and peanuts. 

Sichuanese chopped celery with beef, adapted from Lucky Peach’s “101 Easy Asian Recipes.” Serves 2. (I doubled.)

kosher salt

2 C diced (1/2″) celery

1 T neutral oil (I used olive)

4 oz ground beef

1 1/2 T doubanjiang or gochujang (spicy chili-bean paste)

1 1/2 T finely chopped ginger

1 t soy sauce

1 t chinkiang (black rice) vinegar

cooked fresh wheat noodles, rice noodles, spaghetti, or rice. I used udon. 

1. Bring a few cuts of salted water to a boil in a saucepan. Blanch the celery for 30 sec, then drain and rinse in a colander under cold water. 

2. Heat a wok or cast iron skillet (you know what I used!) over medium-high heat and coat with oil. When the oil is shimmering, add the ground beef and stir-fry until cooked through, using a spoon to break the meat into small pieces. Add the chili-bean paste and continue to stir until the fat in the pan has taken on the color of the chili paste. Add the ginger and stir-fry until fragrant, just a few secs more, then add the celery. 

3. Continue to stir-fry until the celery is hot and coated with sauce. Finish with the soy sauce and vinegar. 

3.5 My change, which is totally optional: to make it more sauce-like and less stir-fry like, I added probably about a cup of chicken broth and let it cook down for about 5 min. I think it helps it coat the noodles. Do what you wish!

Leeks in vinaigrette, adapted from “Buvette.” Serves 4. 

coarse salt 

1 bunch leeks, white and green parts only, well washed

1/2 C vinaigrette (recipe follows)

1 t Dijon mustard

1 t whole-grain mustard 

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil an salt it. Add the leeks and cook until soft, about 15 min. A knife should be able to go through the leek with barely any resistance.

2. Transfer leeks to a plate (or cutting board, in my case) and let cool to room temperature. Meanwhile, whisk together the vinaigrette and mustards. (I didn’t have whole grain, so I doubled-ish the Dijon.)

3. Cut each leek lengthwise, then cut the halves in half crosswise. Place them on a platter (or in a tupperware...), cut side up, and cover with the vinaigrette. Let the leeks sit for at least 10 min before serving so that the dressing has a chance to find its way between the leeks’ layers. 

Vinaigrette, adapted from “Buvette.” Makes 1 cup. 

2 large shallots

1 t fresh thyme

1 small garlic clove

3 T sherry vinegar (I used about 5 T apple cider vinegar)

1/2 C olive oil 

1 T water (I omitted)

pinch sugar

1/2 t coarse salt

a few grinds of black pepper

Finely chop everything that can be chopped. Then whisk everything until they’re well combined. Will keep for a month in the fridge.

Sauerkraut a la minute, adapted from “Buvette.” 

Slice half a green cabbage, put it in a large bowl, and pour boiling water over it. Let it sit in the hot water for a min, then drain it. In a separate bowl, whisk together 3 T white vinegar (I used about 4 T apple cider vinegar instead) with 3 T water, 2 T sugar, 1 t salt, and a few crushed juniper berries (I did not have these). Pour this mixture over the barely wilted cabbage and stir to combine. Let sit for at least an hour before eating. Like I said earlier, I use this in salads, in quesadillas, and on scallion pancakes. And as just a snack.