noodles

J's first homemade ramen noodles! Now he can do everything, start to finish, at home. This was really good and seriously rich, believe it or not the bowl on the left is mine. I finished every last drop. We still miss our favorite place in New York, Minca, on 5th street, but wonderful Mr. Kamada missed his favorite ramen too, until he made his own. Sometimes missing things is an important feeling.

Anyone who is interested in the search for perfect ramen has hopefully seen Tampopo, my favorite movie. You can check out the trailer here.

field trip

We visited a new friend at his farm outside the city today, and came home with all kinds of goodies to show for it, eggs, morels and other lovely mushrooms, raw goat's milk and most exciting of all, raw goat's milk kefir! I love kefir, but my favorite kind, Liberte, isn't sold in the U.S. any more. Most of the kefir sold in supermarkets is interchangeable with yogurt, but the real stuff has a crazy, fizzy, tangy kick to it. Also, I got to hold lots of baby goats, and who doesn't love to snuggle with a baby goat?

puntarelle part two

Remember, oh, two weeks ago when I said I wanted to grow so much salad I would overdose on the stuff? Well, I can't believe it isn't even the end of May and I am starting to get a little behind in harvesting and eating it! Part of the issue is that gorgeous puntarelle that seduced me at the farmer's market, I've been having a torrid affair with it for the last few days, but seriously, I can't believe it, and my second, much larger, crop hasn't even reached harvesting stage yet! On the plus side, this is my first ever garden crop I can start giving away to friends and neighbours!

But speaking of the puntarelle, check out our amazing lunch from yesterday, J.'s delicious pork belly, puntarelle and awesome bread from little t., holy crap, and a gorgeous afternoon to boot.

puntarelle!

Got this amazing head of puntarelle at the farmer's market this weekend, couldn't resist, even though I'm getting a tiny bit behind in harvesting my own salad greens. This was grown by the awesome farmers at Viridian Farms. It has already provided two huge salads and shows no signs of stopping yet. The best part for eating is the sliced hollow stems or bulb like cores that make up the base of the plant, but i like eating the leaves too. The whole thing can be time consuming to prepare, especially if you keep stopping to take pictures! I put the sliced stems in ice water as I go and watch them curl up into little ringlets. It just make me salivate, thinking of the bitterness, the raw garlic and anchovies, and it makes me dreamy for Rome. . .

breakfast done right

hot black coffee and pie left out from the night before, all on a sunny morning with a few good sections of newspaper, that is a breakfast worth eating. . .

eating outside

First real dinner outside! It wasn't exactly hot, but still, worth it. I had a pretty productive day, rosemary syrup and rhubarb-pear compote/pie filling. The potatoes are sweet and yukons, layered with pears, onion, rosemary, hot pepper. I told you I've been crazy about spicy sweet potatoes lately. We went to Costco a couple of days ago, whoa, the stuff all looks so much bigger when you get it home, and it all looked so small in that absurd cart! You have to be pretty determined to put a dent in a bag of pears that big. I don't have a finished picture of the tart because we ate it, it came out pretty well though, the rhubarb stuff is on the bottom inside, and the pears soaked with vanilla, some candied orange peel and lemon juice. I need to keep working on a dough that works perfectly every time.

J. is home!

J. is home! This is one of my favorite things, vegetables wrapped in quickly seared meat and dipped in sesame oil and salt, he used to make it for me after longs nights of work on hot summer days back in Queens. We have a new set up now that we've moved, I found this Wagner's fat free fryer at the goodwill and we sit at the counter across from the stove so he can cook the meat as we go. Being cooked for is such a wonderful thing, isn't it?

A quick note on cast iron, Wagner's was founded in 1881 by Bernard and Milton Wagner, Sidney, Ohio. This was maybe 15 years after Griswold was founded in Erie, PA, but Wagner's eventually bought out Griswold and now both are owned by The American Culinary Corporation, looks like they still do some manufacturing in the U.S., but the website is a little vague. In any case, the old stuff works perfectly and only seems to get better.

then again

who can resist some good old fashioned scenic decrepitude?