Could you eat at three restaurants a day for thirty one days straight and blog about each meal? Hagan Blount aka The Wandering Foodie is able and willing and doing it and has invited NYC food bloggers to join him! We met on day five, meal thirteen of his 93 Plates project at the Roots Cafe in Brooklyn.
I had a bit of spare time and a lot of extra chocolate this holiday season so I started dipping and whipping up a storm of Xmas cookies. When I finally finished and I looked back at the boxes of over twenty types of goodies I’d made, the thought did cross my mind that I might need some sort of intervention. I also decided that next year, if I am feeling cookie compelled I would get some elves —if it’s good enuf for Santa… I shared them, I traded them, I gifted them and even had some hand delivered to Trinidad. Needless to say I spread them around and made a few folks very happy.
My mama learned this chicken curry recipe from Christine and Fernando, our Portuguese-Indian neighbors, on the Lower East Side, in the 60’s. When she first tasted it, she had no palette for spicy food and sweated her way through the meal. Once she got used to it, she loved this dish and we loved it too. You’ll find it’s dead easy to whip up and a real crowd pleaser.
Perfect for cooling the heat of curry or as a side dish for a BBQ. I had extra apples so I whipped up this raita recipe.
A divine, easy cookie that I made up because I had a ten pound block of gianduja (Callebaut’s hazelnut milk chocolate — like Nutella’s richer, classier and more delicious cousin) to get rid of. It’s going folks, slowly, but surely. I may weep a little when it’s actually gone.
I made these for a friend’s birthday party after the caramel layer I was planning broke and started burning and spitting clarified butter all over the stove — very unattractive. After chucking that mess, I rushed to whip these up and ran to the party leaving them behind! There is a lesson in there. I believe it is: If you forget to bring the dessert with you, you get to keep it all for yourself. YIPPEE!!!
The “blizzard: made me do it! I used a couple of tricks from my Aussie catering days to make these. Using sparkling water helps to make the scones lighter and cooking the scones close together helps them rise. Twisting the cutter is a trick from the great Australian chef, author and restaurateur Stephanie Alexander, that helps scones rise to greater heights too. The dog ate my pictures…...
These were a huge hit and look great on a platter! If you can’t find fresh water chestnuts, use canned. They are definitely not as crunchy and have a bit of a canned taste.
When life gives you chutney, you better find ways to serve it up. I made these for Thanksgiving starters to sate the guests till the turkey was ready! I had two Thanksgivings: this was a bacon Parmesan johnny cake the first day, but they were just okay, so I whipped these up and they were stunning!
Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday! I’m so excited about Thanksgiving (read: since I don’t have my chocolate cafe weighing on me like it has the last four years) this year that I’m having it twice! For the family on Thursday and on the Friday for my friends who have to work in restaurants on Thanksgiving with a sprinkling of who were otherwise occupied on Thursday. Here is the menu as it stands now. I use a combination of dishes that that are traditional with dishes I make up to use up stuff I have too much of (read: chocolate, nuts, toffee) and a couple of things that are new and fun in the starter section. Until I actually make dinner, there are no pictures. I will do my best to get some shots on the day!
We grabbed a late brunch at Cafe Mei Mei, which opened one week ago, on Court Street in Boreum Hill, Brooklyn, New York. I took a wee video of what we had.