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T: Original Recipe! (Kind of) - Homemade Basil Walnut Pesto with Tortellini, Peas, and Asparagus

Recipes:

For the pesto: 2 cups fresh basil ½ cup parmigiano reggiano, pecorino romano, or mixed cheese ½ cup-ish walnuts 3 cloves garlic Lemon juice Salt & Pepper EVOO - put chopped walnuts in toaster oven at 200 degrees until slightly brown (can also do in a dry pan) - either way they turn quickly so keep an eye on it - in a food processor, grate cheeses if they aren’t already. Set aside - put basil, walnuts, garlic, and few table spoons EVOO in food processor - grind till combined - add cheese and more EVOO until it looks like pesto - salt and pepper to taste

For the pasta 1 package cheese tortellini (we used Wegmans) 1-1 ½ cups frozen peas (I love the Trader Joe’s) 1 bunch asparagus (cut in to 1-2inch pieces) ½ cup-ish pesto - bring a giant pot of water to boil and then salt liberally - put in tortellini according to package directions; when there is 1 minute left on the tortellini, toss in the asparagus - in a large glass bowl, put pesto and add a scoop of pasta water; stir to combine - strain tortellini and asparagus into bowl and add frozen peas; stir to combine - can squeeze some lemon on top but honestly don’t really need to

 We had the pleasure of visiting my aunt in the suburbs the other weekend. She and her family have taken on some awesome hobbies during the quarantine, including creating a meditation garden in her backyard (see picture below), caring for saltwater fish, and gardening. She was always an avid gardener but the time at home has really led to an abundance of produce that I am always happy to take off her hands :) Time with family has been so important during the quarantine especially since most of our family lives a plane ride away. I can’t explain how relaxing and refreshing it was to hang out with my little cousins and get some delicious home cooked chicken curry (guest post coming soon, maybe?).

Just before coming back to the city we headed out to the backyard to grab some basil, jalapenos and cucumbers, and the next day I was excited to get started on my pasta. The reason this is “sort of” an original recipe is because I can’t say I made it from scratch; I googled a bunch of pesto recipes that were largely the same and looked at comments and reviews to come up with what I posted. Much of it was personal taste too, like being generous with the cheese/garlic and appreciating the squeeze of lemon that’s not necessarily standard with pesto. I love pine nuts but daresay I preferred the walnut flavor in these, and nice that walnuts are cheaper and easier to obtain. I did a very rough grind on the chopper which allowed for a bit of the crunch of the walnuts to remain which I liked in the dish. I used half for the pasta dish and froze the other half for a rainy day. I also left myself a bit of the basil with stems in a clear jar of water in the windowsill. The leaves around the blooms are supposedly less flavorful but very pretty!

The pasta was SO easy and fast - it took longer for the water to come to a boil than it did to put together. I love tortellini for a quick filling meal (in fact, in residency, I was known to have a meal of tortellini, EVOO, grated parm, black & red pepper). Quickly blanching the asparagus with the tortellini is convenient and the salted water flavors both ingredients. The starchy, salty pasta water mixed into the pesto makes for a sauce that spreads evenly over the ingredients. And everything is plenty hot to heat the tiny peas even from a frozen state. The high ratio of veggies to pasta made for a great mix of veggie crunch, cheesy pasta and herby pesto in every bite.

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A: Smashed Burgers

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/03/ultra-smashed-cheeseburger-recipe-food-lab.html

Modifications: I ground some USDA Prime Picanha and mixed it in with the store-bought 80/20 ground chuck. Added my own special sauce, and used a small saucepan as my smasher of choice.

The quest to make the perfect home cooked burger is not one that can be taken in haste. As someone who has enjoyed hamburgers in all shapes forms and sizes for years, I can pretty strongly detail the changes my burger taste has gone through. 

As a young’n, it was all about McDonald’s and Burger King. I hated ketchup (still do kinda) but on these I’d slurp it down because they nailed ⅔ of the most important factors

1. Fatty

2. Salty

3. Crusty

#3 is the most imp…. well tough to say that. But it’s one of my favorite qualities about a hamburger that my young pallet simply just didn’t know about. 

Then, high school. Taco Bell took over as my most common fast food outing because, well, Taco Bell is pretty damn good. However, this is when I discovered the backyard burger. Often underseasoned, but juicy, slightly charred, and a slice of American cheese would usually make up for the lack of salt. Plus, in the sleepy and wealthy suburbs of New Jersey, everyone has a grill. Sometimes a pool and a grill, but always a grill. A gamechanger moment for me was when my friend Chris was making a burger and he doused the thing in Goya Adobo before putting it on the grill. I was apprehensive, but after one bite, my taste buds were changed forever. 

Finally, you move to New York. One of my favorite things about New York is the high average quality of a burger. I would say the average burger at all restaurants in New York is a solid 7/10. And in the upper range, you have a lot of stylistic differences. The big fat dry-aged patty with some fancy schmancy cheese, the custom short-rib brisket blend double-smashed burger, and of course the unusual “half lamb half pork half beef half ostrich” monstrosities. At this point, my taste buds and my research had pretty much convinced me that the griddle takes the cake over the grill. A more even crust, a more juicy (no science to back this up) inside, and the cheese melted by steaming/covering it simply can not be beat. And the best part of course, is that you can recreate the results from a griddle at home with ease using your favorite heavy-bottomed pan. 

Today’s creation: Kenji/Babish/The Burger show’s smashed burger. Super easy: 

1. Make balls of fatty ground beef. I used some chuck and a little USDA Prime Picanha that I happened to have in my quarantine freezer ground fresh in my food Processor.

2. Season with salt and pepper. 

3. Smash into as-hot-as-you-can-possibly-get-it Stainless Steel Pan with NO OIL. I use a small saucepan with a piece of parchment paper underneath it for easy and clean smashing. Cook for 60 seconds, flip using a metal spatula scraping as much of that beautiful crust as you can, add cheese and you’re done. Note: If you’re like me and only have one small stainless steel skillet, not to worry. Just keep any other skillet/griddle/hot surface on medium heat nearby, and park the burger there after you flip it.

But A, you use cast iron for everything else, and you don’t shut the fu*k up about how much you love your cast iron skillet(s). Why not for this? I’ll tell you.

MEAT DOES NOT STICK TO A WELL SEASONED CAST IRON SKILLET. 

For almost every other cooking application, this is a good thing. But for a Shake-Shack style burger, you simply will not get the same beautiful brown crust with a non-stick pan. Your burger will still be delicious, but will max out at an 8/10. 

Check out the crust on this guy:

That’s on a stainless steel skillet. Now here’s what you get on a less sticky seasoned cast iron skillet:

Still by all counts delicious, but the speckled black crust has nothing on that golden-brown sheet on the former. 

As far as the buns, I swear by Martin’s Potato Rolls. They soak up the juice like no other and have a nice sweet touch. Toast them on a frying pan with butter until they are as brown as you like. I dress my buns with special sauce (recipe, if you can call it that, below), pickles and onions. 

No proportions because you should make this how you want it to taste. Add extra mayo at the beginning so you can keep tasting it as you add things to it.

Mayo Diced jalapenos Jalapeno pickle brine (normal pickle brine is fine too) Diced shallot Garlic powder Smoked paprika Cayenne pepper Celery salt Freshly ground black pepper Hot sauce

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T: Chicken, Sausage & Shrimp Jambalaya

https://louisiana.kitchenandculture.com/recipes/virginia-willis-seafood-and-chicken-jambalaya

Modifications: I deglazed the pan with white wine, used bone-in chicken thighs, and doubled the quantity of veggies, garlic, and creole seasoning. Don’t be fooled by the soupy look of this pic - it was GREAT!

I have a number of friends who are obsessed with New Orleans. One of them hosts a July 4th party every year. His 4-story townhouse with a back porch is perfect for exploring and enjoying the summer sun, and the roof is perfect for seeing no less than three different sets of fireworks across the city. Food, drink, and entertainment - the guests are mostly comedians - are in abundance. But the piece de resistance is his Jambalaya. He spends hours leading up to this party painstakingly and lovingly crafting a regular and vegetarian jambalaya for his guests. Somewhere around day 30 of quarantine, I was antsy and craving something both comforting and new. I also happen to have some of the “holy trinity” veggies (onions, bell peppers, celery - I learned this from Emeril Lagasse) lying around from other recipes. So after much searching I found a recipe that was relatively straightforward. I don’t know much about Virginia Willis, but she has quite the pedigree so it was easy to trust her. It obviously didn’t measure up to my friend’s, but it was solid. I deglazed with my favorite white wine to cook and drink with (Joel Gott Sauvignon Blanc, recommended by one of my favorite comediennes Nicole Byer) I ended up doubling the veggies just because, and maybe didn’t add enough extra liquid to balance it out so the rice came out a little al dente, but I��m not mad. Plus oven cooked rice is just weird no matter what. Due to the pandemic-related phenomenon of grocery store being out of random things, I used bone-in skin-on chicken thighs instead of boneless skinless - I (well, my boyfriend) deboned the chicken after the first round of oven cooking but we left the skins on and I think it added some extra flavor and fat. They didn’t have Andouille sausage so I just got a smoked beef sausage. To account for the regular sausage, extra veggies, and my general personality, I doubled both the garlic and creole spice. All in all, this was a keeper- very simple ingredients and cooking procedure, and a delicious comforting final product. 

Oh, and the aforementioned friend has a great homemade hot sauce business. They are excellent and made with just as much love as his jambalaya! Follow Trust the Sauces here.

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Inaugural Post - A&T: Halal Cart Chicken

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/12/serious-eats-halal-cart-style-chicken-and-rice-white-sauce-recipe.html

T:

Modifications: I added a squeeze of mayo to thicken the sauce a bit; otherwise pretty by the book. I skipped the refrigeration step of the browned chicken because I was hungry and didn’t want to wait. For the hot sauce I had jarred harissa to which I added a little lemon juice and water to make it more spreadable. I wish I had rinsed the rice before I cooked it because it was a little gummy. 

Welcome to our blog! After many conversations with each other where our partners watched agape as we talked for HOURS about nothing but food: what to cook it, how to cook it, what to cook next, what we wish we were cooking  RIGHT NOW - my brother, A, and I decided to each try the same recipe and then write about our experiences. Following this post, we may not always make the same recipes, but we will cook with gusto and report back via this website. We hope to be able to share with our family and friends what we would normally share with each other via long FaceTime conversations. 

I was born first, so naturally, I tried this recipe out first. It was the very beginning of COVID19 lockdown and I was still excited to try to cook different things at home in the absence of restaurants and many takeout options. Starting with this recipe was a no-brainer. There is nothing like cart chicken and rice. I like to turn it into a health food by paying the extra $1 to get pita AND rice. I lived in two cities famous for their food trucks before recently moving to a food desert (not really, I’m being dramatic lol) that, despite having about 1 million colleges, lacks food trucks. Anyhow, I missed New York and since I use food to connect me with people and places I love, was inspired to try this recipe, and it was a BANGER. The rice was tasty and reminded me of goya yellow rice; the chicken was incredible, tender and flavorful; and the white sauce, while didn’t really strike me as very similar to cart chicken and rice, was delicious and went nicely with the chicken and rice. I stuck with tradition and served it with shredded iceberg lettuce, chopped tomato, and (unnecessary but delicious) pita. Overall, I think the real winner was the chicken. It had a great crust from the cast iron pan and the style of marinate, dry off, then add reserved sauce worked really well. Don’t be shocked by the amount - it makes about 3-4 tablespoons of marinade, and you’re expected to use only half to marinate pounds of chicken and then theother half as sauce - but it ends up perfect. I think my only suggestion is that I’d make more all at once because I ended up having to make more to finish up the rice and sauce.  It’s a technique I may try again in the future (for example, with fajita-style chicken). 

A: 

Modifications: Took some thoughts from Thrillist’s Halal Guys White sauce and added cornstarch because ain’t nobody got time for Xantham gum. added crushed up chilli arbol to the store-bought harissa.

“Hey Google, play Lupe Fiasco on Spotify”. That’s how I’ve been starting my cooking sessions these days. There’s nothing like a Hazy IPA, some good rhymes, and getting lost in the pots, pans, knives, and smells of the kitchen. What’s on the menu today? My sister texted me that she found a SeriousEats article on Halal Cart Style chicken. I was shocked, not only that the article existed, but that I haven’t come across it during my toilet-top perusing of everything J Kenji Lopez-Alt has ever written. I had often thought about making halal cart chicken at home, and had even done homemade cart-style gyro using my rotating spit from Amazon, but never got close to the real-deal Halal Guys taste.

My sister said it came out perfectly, and the only issue was that she needed more chicken. I was skeptical – not because my sister has bad taste; she doesn’t. But because I have always been the supreme fast-food fatass of my family. Sure, make your “homemade burger” with lean ground beef and no crust cooked at low temperature (ew). I spend hours and hours trying to recreate Five Guys down to the T – even looking for the crappy artificial ingredients that make it what it is.

 The rice recipe – looks solid. Toast the rice for a bit with oil and Turmeric, then let the chicken stock penetrate and flavor. Can’t imagine the Halal Guys recipe being that much difference. The Chicken – I need to pick up a few ingredients (Coriander seed? Do I need to call my mom to ship a Thali of Indian spices?).

 The sauce – half yogurt, half mayo, a splash of Vinegar, and Parsley? Sounds delicious, but there’s no way it’s that simple. You see, when I was a super studious Rutgers student, we used to pile into my friend D’s SUV at 1 AM, and drive to New York. Not to hit a bar/club (we were broke) or even to visit anyone – we wanted HALAL GUYS. And typically I would come home with a chicken over rice, a lamb over rice, and an entire bottle of the white sauce. This would be used over the next month to add flavor to eggs, boneless wings, quesadillas, and pretty much anything else I could think of. Needless to say, I was a Halal Guys White Sauce fanatic – and was certain that cracking the code wasn’t this easy.

 I did some more research – Thrillist had a recipe pretty much scientifically breaking down the white sauce, adding things like sumac, caraway, things that you wouldn’t typically have in your spice cabinet. It seemed like they were a little more focused on recreating that sauce. So I combined the two recipes – the “half mayo half yogurt” and a splash of Vinegar concept from Kenji, and the spices and Xanthan Gum (yeah I definitely wasn’t about to buy Xanthan Gum, Cornstarch sufficed as a thickening agent just fine.)

 Hot sauce. The HALAL GUYS HOT SAUCE IS THE HOTTEST SAUCE. I’ve seen plenty-a-fratboy get both their face and butt destroyed by this stuff. A tiny bit goes a long way. Kenji’s recipe called for a Harissa style hot sauce, but I was hard pressed to find a Harissa paste that nearly matches. But I had to be thankful that the grocery store at the foot of my building had Harissa at all – especially given the quarantine situation. The other thing the grocery store has that is otherwise hard to find: Mexican dried chilis. A couple toasted Arbol Chiles mashed up into the Harissa paste (with a mortar and pestle because I’m not a plebian) gave it the needed heat.

 So I made the chicken marinade – some oil, spices, other stuff – interestingly the shocking part was the small volume. There was probably about 3 OZ total of marinade, and the recipe calls for reserving half of it. I confirmed with my sister that I didn’t mess up the numbers.Brown the chicken until cooked through, take it off the pan and refrigerate. Interesting – rarely do you see something outside of French fries where it’s preferred that you double-cook. My wife made the rice – I hate making rice. In any case, I followed the recipe and boy, she’s a beaut (see picture above). 

 Interesting, the rice was bright highlighter yellow. More what you would see at a random Astoria halal cart as opposed to the true blue 53rd street meat slingers. I re-read the article and something struck me – this was not a HALAL GUYS copycat, but a halal cart copycat. And boy did they nail it. It tastes exactly like the cart outside of my old Grand Central office.

We ate this every night for 3 days and we still wanted more. This is one for the books team.