Pizza

There's little I enjoy more in the world of cookery than making either bread or neapolitan pizza at home.  On Thursday, I started some pizza dough following Jim Lahey's no knead recipe,which is here.   

To be honest, the only difference between his recipe and the one I've commonly used is the long, warm, rising time and the proportion (or ratio, if we're channeling Michael Ruhlman) of water to flour.  Of course, aside from that, how's the play, Mrs. Lincoln? Those are the building blocks of true breads and doughs (i.e., ones that aren't littered with seeds and grains and nuts and raisins). 

The resulting dough is extremely difficult to handle (as Lahey himself says).  It is wet, and shaggy, like a ciabatta left to soak in a light mist.   But it produces some amazing flavor - really amazing flavor.  And yes, as the menu as Co., Lahey's pizzeria, says, "our pies are not always round."

Now if I could only get my oven and stone above 550.  

UPDATE: Yes, the picture stinks.  Blackberry, and it's rotated.  I'll fix it later.

UPDATE 2: Cheese is buffalo mozzarella.  Sauce is canned italian cherry tomatoes, garlic, basil.  None of it cooked. 

Cooking method - on a baking stone in an oven cranked up to the max for an hour prior to baking.  You are trying to duplicate a 900 degree Italian pizza oven, or at least get as close as possible.

The debate

Beyond all the anti-Cheney fear mongering, the debate between the President and former Vice President Cheney is actually very good substantively. One wishes, perhaps, that it had happened earlier.

Per Se

I have a one sided feud with Ezra Klein as it relates to food (see here and here and here and here) which can be summed up with the observation that I think he understands nothing about food or cooking or agriculture or anything at all related to eating. Underneath it all, I suspect it is my jealousy that his (I'm sure deserved) platform in political writing lets him babble nonsensically about food.

Anyway, the latest episode is here, wherein I comment on Klein's ridiculous "review" of Per Se.

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I think people’s problem with this review is not that Per Se can’t be criticized or that it can’t have an off night or whatever. Of course, a $275 meal is to be held to the highest standards, and you are free to dislike a Per Se meal.

The problem with this review is that its criticisms aren’t particularly credible. Sentences like the following, for example, do not build confidence: “My cheese course came with cold potatoes and haricot verts that tasted like something you pick up at Whole Foods and bring to a picnic”.
Well, no. There may well have been something to criticize about that dish, but that the garnishes tasted like something from Whole Foods is probably not it. It is no good to say in response that that’s how it tasted *to you*. If so, then you are either wrong, or someone had snuck me into Per Se to cook that night.

Or how about this sentence: “One of my tablemates complained that my dessert tasted like a car air freshener (I didn’t think it quite that bad — but I thought it bad)”. Again – really? That’s just not a plausible description of a Per Se dessert. It’s like someone writing that cutting taxing (sic) always produces more tax revenue and then being puzzled when people disagree.

Sietsema about Frank Bruni

I asked Tom Sietsema about Frank Bruni in a web chat. I think he's said this before, but here's the exchange in any case:

NYC: As we New Yorkers quiver gelatinously in anticipation of the new New York Times critic, do you have any valedictory words for or about Frank Bruni?

Tom Sietsema: I'm friends with Frank. He's just as funny/clever/smart in person as he is in print, and I'll miss reading his food prose. On the other hand, I can't wait to see what he has in store for us in the Times' Sunday Magazine.

Credit Card Woes

I noticed this article explaining that credit card companies may start squeezing good customers (good, meaning customers who don't use a lot of credit and who pay their bills) in order to recoup profits they're losing by being more fair to everyone else.

I understand the impulse, but this is an extremely stupid idea. Note to credit card company people - those good customers, who have cash for all their purchases but just use credit cards because it is in fact a good deal? Umm, they'll pay with a debit card.

Co.

I took a quick lunchtime trip to Company, Jim Lahey's (of Sullivan Street Bakery) pizza restaurant. I sat at the bar and had a sad little cup of water, as I am busy at work and could not afford to impair myself, and ordered the classic Margarita - tomatoes, basil, buffalo mozzarella.

The pizza is terrific, and like most people I liked the restaurant (Bruni, for example). Most important, the dough is fantastic. But if put to the question, I'd say that Motorino in Brooklyn is better, or at least I enjoyed the pizza more. What I can't tell is whether that's because Motorino has a more generous spirit (Co.'s pizzas are so small as to be a little off-putting) or because I prefered the puffier Williamsburg product, but that's my initial impression.

One pizza is not enough for lunch, although that is what I had. $14 with tax pushes the limits of acceptability.

The essential problem

This video bloggingheads discussion (between, I should note, a clear leftist and a center rightist) essentially sums up the distinction between Europe and the United States economically.

In short, in the position I am in now, I'd rather live in Europe and enjoy my leisure. But only in America would I have been given the opportunity to get where I am now.

I know that some parts of the left try to take issue with the second part of that equation by arguing that social mobility is better in Europe. I'm sure you can engineer some metric that shows what you want on social mobility. But whatever that metric shows is of little practical relevance to me. The question is simple - would a middle eastern immigrant of my skills rather compete to get into Harvard Law School or ENA, in France? Where would you rather open a jewelry store? Where would you rather be the first in your family to go to college? The answer is America, without doubt.

Yes, there is a group of people for whom France or Europe is always the answer. People in what I guess we can call the lower middle class, who have no ambition or ability or desire to do more. I'd rather be a middle manager in a French bureaucracy than a middle manager in an American corporation. But that doesn't a good society make.

Bruni leaves

The big news in the New York restaurant scene is that Frank Bruni, the current critic, is leaving soon.

Interestingly, the norm of anonymity has become so entrenched that most of the well established critics who could take his place are disqualified, because they are well known. It's almost like the Supreme Court nomination process - if a candidate is too notorious, they're passed over.

It will be interesting to see where this goes. Of course, I am available for the job. Heh.

Changing norms

It occurred to me yesterday as someone was raving in the subway that I was far more struck and offended when he used a slur for gays than when he used the f-word. I promise you that ten years ago, my reaction would have been completely differet.

This is a sort of pseudo-baguette I made the other day. I knew it wouldn't come out perfectly, because the dough was really too dry to give me a proper crumb, but it still tasted delicious.

This was made with some leftover (uncooked) dough from a pizza a week ago to add flavor, a mix of bread and all purpose flour (not a scientific mix at all), and lots of fermentation time. I did not knead.

Asparagus and Morels with Pommes Maxime

I realize that this doesn't look like much, but we enjoyed this last Saturday. It's an asparagus puree (asparagus with lemon and cream) with sauteed morels and pommes maxime.

Yogurt recipe

Part of the reason I've posted less recently is that I'm overwhelmed by the number of other food sites I read to keep up with the scene. One of my favorites is Tom Sietsema's "Table", since it's the closest I can get to a daily chat with a major food critic.

Anyway, I note that he recently mentioned my favorite comfort food, pasta with yogurt and garlic, on his discussion board. I, posting as my email address "imrit", had suggested it as a favorite solo meal.

Dinner last night

Dinner last night was a simple meal inspired by Jacques Pepin - poached salmon (poached in nothing more than water and lemon) with a sour cream and chive sauce.

Poaching truly is the simplest of all cooking - simply bring the water and slices of lemon to a boil, drop in the fish, and wait till it boils again. Keep at a simmer until it's cooked (there's no magic here - just pull apart the flesh and check if it's cooked).

The sauce is sour cream mixed with chopped chives. That's it.

Busy, busy

I've been busy with a number of projects recently, which has eaten up my blogging time. An example of one of these projects is illustrated by the following discussion with a mortgage broker (yes, yes, we're considering becoming home-owners):

Mortgage Broker: So, I have two options for you. $X payment per month, or $Y per months ($800 less than X).

Me: wow. Y sounds good. Why is it less?

MB: Oh, it's just broken out into two different loans, a jumbo, and another one.

Me: Neat. So what's this other one?

MB: It's just another loan. It lets me put together a package cheaper.

Me: Well, money doesn't magically cost less if you just package it in some other loan, right? How exactly does it work?

MB: Well, it's all pretty technical, but it's an interest only loan, basically.

Me: An interest only adjustable rate loan for a substantial sum, adjustable off the lowest rates in the history of man (almost?). Sounds stupid, no?

MB: No, no, it works fine.

Me: Let's see an amortization table.

Mb: (Reluctantly) ok.

Me: (15 minutes later). Soo. It turns out that this number next to "balance" keeps getting bigger on this supposedly innocuous second loan. Doesn't that sound like a massively bad plan to you?

MB: Well, it gets paid off eventually.

Me: {click}

Oprah and grilled chicken

I see that some people are complaining that Oprah's grilled chicken promotion (as I understand it, it involves getting free "Kentucky Grilled Chicken") is somehow hypcritical or wrong more generally because KFC feeds people industrially raised chickens.

Let's just get something totally clear here - whatever one thinks about eating KFC's chicken themselves, our agriculatural system will simply not work if, as the complainer says, KFC starts selling free range chickens (and by free range I mean actually free range, rather than industrial free range, whereby the chickens theoretically could go outside if only they knew how to get there through the small hole in their coop). Real free range chickens cost at least $12, and more like $20 a bird. As tasty and delicious as they are, as amazing the difference is between them and an industrial chicken, the existence of the industrially raised product is the only thing between us and a two tier world where the wealthy eat meat, and everyone else dreams about their once a week or month roast.

Maybe that's a good world, in a lot of ways. But it ain't going to fly today.

Beacon

We had a disappointing experience at Beacon yesterday, a normally very good American chophouse which both of us have enjoyed before. Yesterday, though, although the food was quite good (I had a well made tuna nicouse salad, with quail eggs and seared tuna), our service was very slow and badly paced. It really put us off.

Further, I am less happy about the value proposition the more I think about it. Beacon is doing 20% off everything on its menu, and yet main dishes are still more than $25. In fact, even my nicoise, just a plain old salad, was $23. That's a hefty toll when other very good restaurants indeed, with a little more ambition, are about the same price.

I think Beacon is a real value in its set meals, whether we're talking about the mammoth Sunday dinner for its prix fixe. I'm less sure now about just ordering a plate.

Pommes Maxime

I've been trying to figure out pommes maxime since my visit to per se in January. They're not that complicated, honestly - just thinly sliced, layered potatoes crisped perfectly. (here's a picture of pommes maximes made by per se). I loved them then, and I especially loved that they're a sneaky way of smuggling potato chips into haute cuisine.

I started by trying to bake the thin slices of potato just as is, but I quickly realized they needed to be weighted down to get the flat effect per se manages. So I baked the potatoes, after tossing in olive oil, with another sheet pan on top. That worked somewhat, but wasn't reproducing even close to the even browning I was hoping for. The oven is sort of the sledgehammer of cookery - not exactly the most delicate instrument, and what it yielded was unevenly cooked potatoes, blackened here, still soft there.

My latest attempt was over the fire. I sliced the potatoes thinly and layered them as usual, tossed them in oil, and added them to a non-stick pan. Then I covered them with a layer of oiled aluminium foil, and squashed them as hard as I could with a glass milk bottle, leaving them to cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes on each side.

They flattened and browned!

I drained them on towels, and then just before serving, gave them a last crisp in the pan. They got served in an asparagus puree with sauteed morels, and they were pretty darned good.

A picture will follow tomorrow.

Mayahuel - A Spanish speakeasy on E. 6th Street

These are some notes I just posted on e-gullet about Mayahuel, a terrific new bar opened on E. 6th Street by the former head bartender at Death & Co. 

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We visited Mayahuel last night. Didn't have too much trouble getting in - the fellow at the door led us to a small standing alcove near the umbrella depository first, but quickly got us over to the bar.

I'm probably the least knowledgeable person about cocktails in this thread, but I loved the drinks. The Italian Inquisition was fantastic - to be honest, it tasted a little like my favorite standard cocktail, the martinez. Laugh at me all you like. But I have to give my prize for the night to the Whoopsy Daisy, which is outrageously good, and the Division Bell(sp?), which I got when I asked the bartender for something with more pronounced mezcal. The DB reminds me of the Laphroiag based drinks I order sometimes at D&co - almost peaty. 

We were starving, so dug into a quesadilla - although small, it was darned tasty. A nice combination of spicy and sweet (it's topped with mango,I think, though by that time I was getting a little shaky). Makes me excited to consider a more full menu. 

So, one little complaint - if you could catch swine flu from air conditioning, I swear we would have caught it sitting at the bar right under the look through to the top floor. I think the seats at the bar nearest the door don't have this problem. 

8 shots?

If I'm reading this right, the Washington Post's food critic (Tom Sietsema) drinks eight shots of expresso a day. Yikes.

Sulking Salad

I was sulking about something or other this weekend when my fiancee suggested that we have a nice, light, salad and sit outside on my porch. A quick shopping trip and some half-hearted rooting around in my fridge yielded this salad - a sort of pseudo greek take on panzanella.

There's no reason whatever for there to be a recipe, since you can just put anything you want in such a salad, but for the record, I seared some Murray's chicken breasts dressed with smoked paprika, fried cubes of stale pain au levain and soaked them in a vinaigrette briefly, tossed some asparagus and zucchini in oil, and added some dodonis feta and giant kalamata olives from Astoria (the best feta we can get easily). Toss together and munch.