I’ve made pâte a choux before. I followed a recipe in Gourmet magazine earlier this year for gougeres, and the result was a tray of puffy, airy, cheesy, golden, adjective-filled pastries. I was awfully pleased with myself for tackling such a difficult and traditional recipe, and to great avail.
So when I realized that making pâte [read more ...]
CSA, or community-sponsored agriculture, is all the rage. It seems that everyone I know is signing up to receive boxes of local farmers’ bounty. Fellow New York City-based food blogger, The Feisty Foodie, even writes a weekly round-up of her CSA goodies.
Well I haven’t jumped on the bandwagon yet, but my mother’s visit brought something [read more ...]
When I walk into the classroom on Tuesday, the first thing I notice is Daniel, cutting butter into his flour with a sense of urgency. I’m confused; we’re making genoise cake today, not tarts.
“WE ARE MAKING ZEE APPLE TART TODAY,” Chef yells to me and the other few students who’ve arrived early. ”You do NOT [read more ...]
My mama is coming to visit me in the big city this week. I’m so excited – I even have plans to make a real, French Culinary Institute-inspired meal for her and my sister tomorrow night.
But I need your advice! Should I make:
a) braised lamb shanks
b) fish with grenobloise sauce or
c) steak with béarnaise sauce
Time’s [read more ...]
A version of the following will appear in this week’s Syracuse City Eagle.
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It’s Thursday night, and we’re supposed to be cooking eggs. We’re supposed to be making omelettes, poached eggs, baked eggs and boiled eggs. We’re not. It’s 10:30 on Thursday night, and Chef has decided that he’d rather we make pastry dough for Saturday’s [read more ...]
Later that night, after he’d left, I lay on top of my sheets with the fan an inch from my face.
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I listen only to the motor, a consistent sweeping sound, and hold an ice cube in my right hand. My body is sticky from the heat, from walking outside, from opening and closing the [read more ...]
My Aunt Patricia is a good person. She’s a good person in the way that, I regret to say, I, along with many, many of us, am not. She is a kind, caring, patient person – all adjectives, I realize, that in our youth we use to describe people we like (later, when we grow [read more ...]
In keeping with my tour of top-secret Manhattan bars, I visited Apotheke last night. It’s a sleek, sexy-cool place in Chinatown that boasts healing cocktails. I loved that the drink list was broken up into ailments – stressed? Feeling ugly? Want to get laid? Apotheke has a cocktail for that. The drinks are good, albeit [read more ...]
I like to anthropomorphize my food. I wrote once about a Rogue Clafoutis – the thought of a quiche-like dish having bad boy tendencies just tickled me to the core.
I’ve gone and made another clafoutis – this time with lavender and nectarines. Shall we name it together? I’ve got a few ideas, but want to [read more ...]
Last night, at FCI, we made beef pockets stuffed with ground pork. Why this is a necessary part of the curriculum is beyond me; when have you ever gone into a French restaurant and said “I’d like a chewy piece of beef, pounded to a thinner, longer piece of chewy beef, then wrapped around dry [read more ...]
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