Fresh off my trip to New York City, and completely guilt-ridden over the amount of money I spent, this past week I tried to eat as much food from my pantry as possible. One evening I made a quick, spicy tomato sauce with chickpeas over orecchiette with parmesan shavings. It was comforting.

I didn’t use the whole can of Roma tomatoes or chickpeas, so the next morning I was trying to think of what I could use them for, when I recalled the recipe for “eggs in purgatory” I had read in the March issue of BA. The recipe calls for artichoke hearts, which I didn’t have, but I had everything else and figured chickpeas would make a fine replacement.

This recipe couldn’t be simpler. First I diced the potatoes and boiled them. Meanwhile I sautéed onion, then garlic and thyme, then added the tomatoes, covered the sauce pan, and cooked it for ten minutes. After that, I added the potatoes and capers and cooked for a few more minutes. I estimated all ingredients as I was just cooking this for myself but also wanted to use up all my tomatoes and chickpeas. 

I transferred the sauce to a small baking dish and cracked an egg in it. Two eggs would have been better.

It cooked at 375F for twelve minutes.

Then I hit it with Parmigiano-Reggiano.

What a delicious and hearty breakfast. I loved the acidic zing of the capers. Artichokes would be a nice touch, though it was plenty flavorful and substantial without them. You could easily make the sauce ahead of time and whip this dish up in less than fifteen minutes, twelve of which are inactive so you could go take a shower, watch YouTube, make coffee…you get the point.

Bon Appétit Series Background Recap: I was tired of reading the magazine each month, saying, “Oh that looks great, I’ll make that”, then the magazine ends up in the cupboard or trash, never to been seen again. Never more! Now I’m holding myself publicly accountable; each month I will cook at least one recipe from Bon Appétit and post it on here.

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The small gap between dreamy, pillow-like gnocchi with a creamy interior and lump, dense, potato bombs is the epitome of the dichotomy between simplicity and perfection that exists in Italian cooking. Traditional gnocchi are potato and flour, shaped into a dumpling, and boiled. Definitely sounds easy.

But just like pasta, gnocchi is an Italian art form, a deliberate process all the way through. It’s easy to make bad risotto. It’s even easier to make crappy gnocchi. My suggestions for making decent gnocchi are the same as I would offer for risotto – respect the process. Keep the potato mixture light and don’t overwork it. Add flour until the dough is that perfect balance of workable and sticky. Take great care to not under or over cook the gnocchi. And keep at it. Similar to pizza dough, pasta, or risotto, I really think an experienced hand makes a difference, and I need much more gnocchi experience. I think my next purchase will be a ricer to get even lighter potatoes. Have you tried making gnocchi? Any good tips you’ve accumulated along the way?

I started by cooking my russets in an oven, then I scooped out the flesh and pushed it through the food mill attachment of my food processor. Avoid gummy potatoes (read: NO stand mixer) at all costs. Then gently mix in the potato with the egg and flour using an fork.

After kneading the dough for as little time as possible, I started forming my gnocchi. I highly recommend purchasing a dough scraper for this part if you don’t have one. You can buy a board to form the impressions on each gnocchi, or just use a fork like I did.

An industrial baking sheet really comes in handy sometimes, even though this guy doesn’t fit in my oven. It’s perfect for holding dozens of dumplings.

Prior to forming the gnocchi, I made the mushroom ragu, sans the pork because of a particular vegetarian. The sauce would have been much more savory and balanced with the slow simmered pork, but the addition of the porcini and crimini mushrooms made it a nice variation from a simple marinara.

I plated it with an obligatory sprinkle of parmigiano-reggiano, from @timthecheeseman, of course.

The gnocchi? Not the best ever. More on the dense side than the mushy side. I need a lighter dough, more uniform sized gnocchi (for even cooking), and to probably boil them even less than I did.

Enjoyably, each moment spent in the kitchen is an education, every new experiment an edible work in progress.

As soon as I saw the recipe for this month’s post, I ear marked the page and knew this would be the recipe I’d make. I’ve been wanting to deep fry an egg for a while, well, because I love deep frying, and I love eggs. Double bonus that this recipe comes from Jeremy Fox, chef at Ubuntu.

I started by soft boiling the egg in lightly simmering water.  Like a dumbass I didn’t gently lower the egg into the water, I dropped it in there, and it cracked when it hit the bottom. Instead of cooking another egg I just let it go, curious if it would still work. The egg spilled out of the shell slightly, but cooked instantly and created a seal in the opening. After plunging in the ice bath, I peeled the egg, and though the egg is shaped funny in the bottom, it all worked out.

For the bed I quickly sautéed some kale and turnip greens.

Then breaded the egg in the panko/flour mixture. Instead of semolina, I used Korean potato starch.

The egg didn’t get quite the exterior that is shown in the recipe photo, so perhaps using the exact instructions will provide that more even and rich coating.

The remoulade was easy and tasty. I didn’t have mayonnaise so I quickly made my own using a method I found online last year. Crack one egg in a tall, plastic measuring cup, add 1 Tbsp of cider vinegar (lemon juice is often used, but I didn’t have any – any acid will do), 1 tsp of Dijon mustard, and a pinch of salt. Then stand up a hand held immersion blender in the cup and pour in 200mL of olive oil. Mix until it’s whipped into mayonnaise. Easy.

Note – I didn’t add cornichons, tarragon, or hard boiled eggs to my remoulade because I didn’t have some of that stuff and it seemed a bit tedious for a sauce that tasted great without them. Though, this recipe comes from a restaurant, and that’s one great thing about restaurants – they take the time to do things I’m too lazy/busy to do.

How did it taste? Fantastic. Deep fried eggs, with a creamy yolky center, spiced up with sriracha…that one is quickly being added to the super easy yet cool repertoire.

Thanks to my brother Thomas for the chopstick/plate/spoon set seen in these photos.

This month I cooked the Pickled Shrimp out of December’s Bon Appetit. I’m two issues behind, but I have done a BA post once a month since November of 2008. That’s dedication, homes.

I had pickled GA white shrimp at Abattoir, and it was rockin’, so when I saw this recipe, and my roommate brought back some shrimp from Savannah, I was on my way. It’s a relatively easy process, but it was slightly time consuming. Peeling shrimp sucks.

After peeling the freezing cold shrimp, they were cooked in the boiling mixture. I didn’t have celery seed or whole mustard seed so I cut that out. Personally I think having 6+ spices in a boiling mixture is a farce. There’s no way that after cooking the shrimp, then pickling them, that you’re gonna say “oh, is that a hint of cardamom?”.

The recipe says to boil for 2 minutes, but I think the shrimp were ready after just one minute. Like a goon I let them go another minute though. Why am a slave to instructions???

While the shrimp were chilling out (get it?) I put together the pickling liquid.

…and added the shrimp.

I refrigerated for about 4 hours, which is longer than the 3 specified, but shorter than the 6 hour max window. I’m guessing they get a bit stringy or mushy from the vinegar after 6 hours.

They were tasty, nice flavor, and I enjoyed it with the paired prosecco, but they were missing some of the “snap” of the pickled shrimp I had at Abattoir. I think less cook time and possibly less pickle time could help with that. As these shrimp were previously frozen, that could have something to do with it too. Also, this recipe took a bunch of time, so not sure I’m eager to do it again. I think pickling is more gratifying when the labor is rewarded by the fact that you have tons of picked stuff you can use for a long time, but in this case, you have a 3-6 hour window.

BONUS POST!!!

I made French Onion soup because I was reading about it and craved it afterwards. My soup was loosely based on the Thomas Keller recipe. Here we have a bunch of onions cooking for forty minutes.

Then deglazed with white wine.

Then I used the rest of my Ad Hoc beef stock and added the garni.

Then broiled it with cheese and crouton. Good snack.

I started by soaking beans. I go with the quick soak method, whereby you bring the beans to a boil then remove them from the heat and let them sit for two hours. This is quicker than letting them soak in cold water overnight.

After the soak the beans are cooked until tender with garlic, sage, pepper, and olive oil. I really don’t think this imparts much flavor on the beans, but the cooking liquid will be used later in the dish, so I guess it helps out there.

When that was done I cooked the sausage. Rather than just slicing it up in the casing, I removed the casings and tore the pieces into various sizes. I got the idea from the wonderful soup I had at Bocado.

I broke up some canned Roma tomatoes by hand and added them to the pan with sage and a cup of the bean cooking liquid.

Then add the beans.

The beans will thicken up the sauce.

And done. Very good, simple, and rustic.

I’m jumping all over the place in the Bon Appétit series – I recently posted by November issue post (sourdough stuffing), but now I have to jump all the way back to September, and October’s post will be coming up in a few days.

The recipe for today, Citrus Arancine, just happens to be from Cakes & Ale in Decatur. At the time that I first read this recipe, I had never been to C&A, but fried risotto stuffed with cheese just had to be tasty. I decided this was the perfect recipe to cook from this BA issue, because I could taste test my results against the actual dish served at their restaurant.

By the time I actually cooked the Arancine, I had eaten them twice at Cakes & Ale, and the bar was set high. For just a few bucks they serve up five or six arancine, served in a cone lined with butcher paper. The arancine were smaller than I imagined, but just as delicious as expected. They weren’t overly greasy, the panko breadcrumbs were a good choice for the breading, and the small size makes for a good risotto to cheese ratio.

When I was eating by myself at the Cakes & Ale bar one night, I told the bartender I had just seen the recipe, and she said a few people told her they had tried it, with not so great results. Challenge!

I was cooking another recipe that day which called for fennel, so instead of using the fennel pollen the C&A recipe calls for, I used the leaves of the fennel (the part on the top that is similar to dill). 

The recipe also calls for cooking fresh risotto, but then they say to cool it completely, so I don’t really understand why you can’t just use leftover risotto, which is what I did. I mixed up the citrus and the fennel leaves and was on my way.

I got my stations ready – risotto, egg, and panko. Does anyone else ever notice that every time the ingredient panko is mentioned in Bon Appétit, they also use the asterisks to denote a footnote that says “Panko is a Japanese breadcrumb available at blah blah blah”. After five years of this, c’mon, yeah, I’m familiar with panko.

I didn’t have the sheep’s milk cheese specified, so I used some fresh mozzarella. If you cut your cheese into the size specified in the recipe, your arancine are going to be too large. I recommend cutting the cheese cubes in half before you stuff each arancine.

I was running low on oil so I just pan fried them instead of a full on deep fry.

Just a few minutes each side, hit ‘em with some salt, and they are ready to eat.

Well, yeah, of course they were good. Fried risotto with cheese. Duh.

But how did they compare to Cakes & Ale? Yeah, they fell a little short. Mozzarella doesn’t have nearly as much flavor as the Greek sheep’s milk cheese specified in the recipe. The citrus and fennel flavor was apparent though. I’ll definitely make them smaller next time, and with a little practice, maybe I’ll give C&A a run for their money.

To only make matters worse, I’m going to give you a Thanksgiving post, as if you haven’t seen one of those lately.

But at least I’m knocking another recipe out in the Bon Appétit series – Sourdough Stuffing with Sausage, Apples, and Golden Raisins. Not sure if I mentioned in on here before, but after my last Bon Appétit post, a publicist who works for BA/Condenast emailed me to tell me they were keeping up with my series, which is obviously flattering, and provides a bit of motivation to keep it up. And if Bon Appétit is reading this post and wants to put one of my dinner parties in their magazine (you know, one of those spreads where everything looks perfect and everyone has that Stepford wife smile?), just click on the “Contact Me” link to the right of this post.

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This recipe is very easy, so I’ll burn through it quick. Cut up sourdough and toast it slightly in the oven.

Cook the celery and onions as your brown the sausage.Then peel the apples (I used three Granny Smith), cube them, then sauté the apples in the sausage fat.

Mix up the bread with the onion, celery, cooked apples, and sausage.

Cook the herbs in the fat for a few seconds, then add them, plus all the fat, eggs, and chicken stock to the bowl and mix thoroughly.

I forgot to add the raisins and realized it after I had already put the stuffing in the oven. I ended up just sprinkling them on top which resulted in quite a few burnt raisins.

The raisin mistake made a big difference as it made the stuffing very bitter on the top layer. But other than that, it quite satisfying. The apple was close to the color of the bread, so each apple bite was an unexpected sour and sweet surprise.

The best part was the leftovers. I like leftover stuffing better, once the whole deal is really soft. I decided a stuffing omelet was in order, featuring gruyere. I think omelets are way too underutilized when it comes to leftovers. There aren’t many Thanksgiving side dishes that wouldn’t be at least decent in an omelet.

I would eat an omelet with any of the following fillings: cranberry sauce, turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, pearl onions, and mac ‘n cheese. I guess carrots and green beans don’t sound like the best mix, but you get my point.

This omelet was awesome by the way. Almost as good as my leftover chili omelet today.

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Per usual, I’m about a month behind in my Bon Appétit series. This recipe for Summer Tomato and Bell Pepper Soup and Fig, Prosciutto, Gorgonzola, and Arugula Pizza are both from the August issue. I’ve still seen some real tomatoes out at the markets, but I don’t think it’s going to be much longer, as summer feels like it’s fading fast. I wanted to ensure I got one last fresh tomato dish in before it does, and I’ve been cooking a lot of pizza lately with my family, so these two recipes made sense as the selection.

The tomato soup recipe was part of a “no-cook dinners” section, so this recipe used all raw ingredients like a gazpacho. I was a little put off by the use of jarred roasted red peppers and plain old tomato juice, but I stayed true to the recipe and used the specified ingredients.

One 1lb heirloom tomato was enough to meet the specified 1 1/3 cup of chopped tomatoes.

I don’t really have many other process photos because this recipe was so quick. I mixed the chopped tomato with the olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, chopped roasted red peppers, and the tomato juice. I only had creamy horseradish in stock, not prepared horseradish as specified, so I added 1 tsp of whole grain mustard as a substitute. Then it went in the fridge and for roughly two hours of ingredient intercourse.

Here I have plated with halved cherry tomatoes, basil, and Sweet Grass Dairy soft goat’s cheese. That cheese is insanely smooth, creamy, and earthy.

The soup was good, but I couldn’t help but think I would have liked it better with freshly prepared tomato juice and red peppers. I cut back on the amount of tomato juice by about 1/3, and it was still plenty thin. You could easily get the juice/flesh/seeds out of some other tomatoes and use that as the liquid. There are lots of uses for the extra tomato exterior you would have on hand, namely pico de gallo. That being said, when I got a bite with the goat cheese and the basil, this soup was delicious.

On to the pizza. Here I’ve sliced the figs, roughly four vertical slices per fig.

I didn’t prepare dough ahead of time, so I purchased some Publix dough (shame!). One problem I’ve often had with Publix dough (and Trader Joe dough as well) is that the dough recoils and will just not get very thin. A lot of times you can leave it out for thirty minute after you first stretch it to let the gluten relax, then you’re able to get it a bit thinner, though often times still isn’t thin enough. Luckily my dad picked up a trick from Diner’s, Drive-Ins, and Dives that works really well.

If the dough won’t stretch out thin and recoils, sprinkle a generous amount of cornmeal all over the surface of the pizza then stretch or roll it out again. It works. The dough won’t recoil at all. If it does, give it a bit more cornmeal. Below you can see the before and after with the cornmeal.

You may be wondering, as I did, how the cornmeal affects the taste. Well, I couldn’t even tell it had been hit with cornmeal, and I’m am dough snob. Perhaps it affects the ability for nice bubbles to form, but the trade-off is worth it; too me a thin and crispy pie is much better than a thick and doughy one.

You can see how I thin I got it by the “window-pane” I created below.

Another benefit of using the cornmeal is that I was able to use one Publix dough ball twice. Below is the 2nd pizza from the same dough ball. The second time I tried the BA recipe, I added some of that goat cheese, which turned out fantastically.

The recipe calls for fig balsamic vinegar to use for marinating the figs, which is stupidly expensive and you will use it twice and forget about it in your pantry. Instead, I took five slices of figs, 1 Tbsp of sugar, and about 1/2 cup of regular balsamic and reduced it by half. There ya go, fig balsamic.

First the pizza is cooked with just the cheese. Then remove it from the oven and add the prosciutto.

Then the figs and throw it back in the oven for 1 minute to heat up the figs.

Then the whole deal is topped with arugula which has been tossed in a balsamic/evoo dressing. The arugula looks like crap below, because it was crap arugula. Whole Foods didn’t have a single decent looking bag of arugula that day.

The fig/cheese flavor combo was killer, though the pizza with the goat’s cheese was even better. The blue cheese can be strong and the creamy Sweet Grass cheese really helped smooth it out. The prosciutto was nice but I wish I hadn’t cooked it even the one minute. It firmed up the beautiful (and expensive) prosciutto di Parma. The arugula could be left off, there’s enough going on here without it.

I drank a 2007 Domaine Rosier sparkler with this. This wine is from Limoux, a region where sparkling wine actually predates the sparklers of Champagne. There are sparklers documented from the 16th century in Limoux. Suck it, Champagne.

This Mauzac/Chardonnary blend is a good value at $17 (Whole Foods Buckhead price, can be found online for much cheaper), especially when compared to decent Champagne. Despite the current economic catastrophe and oversupply, the prices of Champagne aren’t really budging. Eric Asimov of the NY Times wrote a good article on this a couple of weeks ago.

Yes, it’s September, but I’ve yet to post my meal from the July issue of Bon Appétit. I actually made my first meal from that issue over a month ago, but I didn’t have my camera and the photos from my phone were too awful to post, which is saying a lot from me. Initially I made the Shrimp and Green Onion Pancakes, Field Greens with Red Chili Dressing, and a simple galbi recipe, which they don’t have online for some reason. It was all very good, I’d recommend it.

But I wanted to actually post some photos, so I chose the Indian BBQ inspired Cheese-Stuffed Potatoes with Yogurt-Spice Paste and Sesame Seed Crust. As a side dish I cooked the Curried Cauliflower and Chickpea Stew from the May issue. On to the photos!

First I started making the yogurt paste by mixing coriander, cumin, salt, smoked paprika, garlic, and ginger in the food processor.

Next, I added the yogurt.

I used the full fat Fage, which is ridiculously thick. And fatty. And good.

Now I have my paste ready to go. This stuff is awesome. I would use less salt than they recommend, but this sauce is definitely getting added to my repertoire for future BBQ. I’m thinking Indian kabobs.

Meanwhile my potatoes have been baking for over an hour. I scored them then scooped with my 1970’s ice cream scoop.

Done.

Then I prepared the rest of my filling – cilantro, scallion, serranos, sesame seeds, butter, and cheese.

Then mix in the potato, mash, and fill yer potatoes back up. Perfect fit! Go figure.

Then cover your potato with the paste (top and bottom) and roll the potato on a plate full of sesame seeds. I then threw them on the grill while I worked on my stew. The grilling directions are all sorts of complicated, I suggest ignoring them. Just grill them on low and plate them on the top rack so they aren’t directly in contact with the heat.

On to the stew…I never use cauliflower, but I dig it.

The stew was really easy – sauté onions, add curry powder, add cauliflower, add beans, add tomatoes/chiles, add coconut milk, then simmer.

Once the chickpeas and cauliflower are soft, you are ready to rock. Season with salt and pepper. Finished pictures below.

I highly recommend the potato dish, really just for the yogurt paste. The potato is fine, but all I could think of was all the potential applications for that spicy yogurt. The chickpea stew was ok, but it had no kick and had to be heavily seasoned. This has potential, but definitely spice it up more if you make it .

In a relatively amazing showing of consistency, today’s post is the seventh Bon Appétit dish that I’ve completed. The time goes by so fast, it really is easy to quickly browse all the cookbooks and magazines I buy, and never cook a single dish from them. I’m glad I didn’t skip the June issue, because I found a wonderful cold soup for summer – Asparagus Vichyssoise with Mint.

Vichyssoise is a soup traditionally made with leeks and potatoes as the vegetable foundation, but similar to gazpacho, a quick search will turn up countless variations of the dish – heavy cream, no cream, carrots, arugula, green garlic, and of course, asparagus. Unlike a gazpacho, a vichyssoise is a cooked soup that is subsequently chilled, whereas a gazpacho is prepared raw and uncooked. Knowledge!

You get this party started by chopping the asparagus into 1-2” pieces, slicing the leeks, then cubing the potatoes. There are a very small amount of potatoes in this recipe compared to most vichyssoise. There also isn’t any heavy cream incorporating during the cooking process, though we add a cream garnish/topping at the end.

Sauté the leeks and potatoes in butter. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the aroma of leeks in butter > shallots in butter. And I love shallots in butter.

After a few minutes, add your chicken stock. I still have some homemade stock left from the last time I fried chicken.

The top goes on and the veggies cook for a few minutes, then add the asparagus. I cooked these thin asparagus for five minutes.

The soup is transferred to a blender in batches and pureed until smooth. It took me three batches to complete.

At that point, your soup is ready to chill. If you need it to chill quickly, break the soup down into a few bowls and throw it in the freezer. If you have some time like I did, you can put it in the refrigerator, but it will take a couple of hours for the soup to get to the appropriate temperature.

When you are ready to serve, it’s time to prepare the cream. I minced some mint and whipped it up with heavy cream and salt.

I probably whipped it a little thicker than intended, but I actually liked the thick texture, and it helped to hold up the asparagus tip garnish.

I drank a Hitachino Redrice beer with the soup. I already mentioned this beer after my visit to Repast, but it deserves another shout out.

The soup was better than expected. While the color isn’t exactly pleasing to me, the texture was spot-on, and the asparagus/leek/potato flavors were perfectly in balance. I could taste the contribution of each individual component, though none were overpowering. The mint cream brightened up each bite, adding just a hint of depth, while still maintaining a healthy edge over the often cream-heavy traditional vichyssoise.

Also deserving of a shout out from this meal – my mom. The salad I made before I ate the soup had some quality ingredients that she brought back to me from Europe. The vinaigrette had some olive oil from Italy and Sichuan pepper mustard from Paris, and I added a few drops of 25 year balsamic vinegar, also from Italy, to my final plating.

May you never get so old that you parents stop bringing you “toys” back from their trips.