Recession Special Vacation

I don't know about you, but a long, relaxing summer vacation just isn't in the cards for me this year. After being laid-off and living on unemployment for several months, I still haven't made up for all the money I lost, and I'm still figuring out how to afford health insurance on my own now that I'm freelancing. Then again, I've gone for years without a real vacation, but this year I feel I need (and possibly deserve) it more than ever. While exotic destinations and romantic European tours are clearly out of my reach, it seems the airlines have been feeling my pain. While some companies and publications peddle "stay-cations" in light of recent economic crisis, those of us that have already spent plenty of time at home are looking for something to take us away.

It's just my luck that several airlines have caught on and are offering special deals on flights to major cities like Washington D.C., Chicago, and Atlanta, hoping to entice the bank poor such as myself to book a flight. Since I am more than happy to hit a city just to try the food, fares that low make it possible for people like me to book a few nights at a cheap hotel (or on a friend's couch) and take a culinary vacation (my favorite kind). While I won't be feeling the soft white sand under my toes or the glare of warm Mediterranean sun on my cheeks, I'll be plenty satisfied in my ability to sleep in and skip the continental breakfast, knowing that I have early lunch reservations at a fabulous new restaurant instead of an exhausting tour of monuments, ruins or a museum ahead of me. Not to mention the late dinner at that other critically acclaimed restaurant I'll have reservations for, only after a leisurely afternoon of coffee and tea at the city's latest bakery/tea house/cupcake heaven. If I'm lucky and not destitute by that point I can cap off the evening with a concert or late show, not that I'll care because I'll get to sleep in again the next day and continue to take in the city like a four star meal--at the slow and deliberate pace in which it should be absorbed.

I sound pretty convincing now, but surely the first mention of a co-workers vacation to the Maldives will eventually set me off into a depressive fit. But for now, rest assured that I will find a way to take a vacation from my stove, my job and my rapidly thinning wallet, to explore all that food has to offer within the confines of our wonderful nation (at least until round trips fares for international flights drop below 100 bucks). I don't quite have a time or destination picked out yet, but any food adventures of note will of course show up here. I'd love to hear any suggestions on where to to go and where to eat around the country by you, my fellow foodies. Will any of you be forgoing traditional beach vacations for a culinary tour, or other mini-vacations? Please do share, I'd love to know that I'm not alone! 

-Laura  

Recession Special Recipe: Pork Buns

It's difficult to avoid repeating myself, but the truth is, I can't help it. David Chang is the guy in the restaurant scene these days. Ferran Adria, arguably the world's best chef (or so it says on his book jacket) comes to New York, and who does he call to show him the town? Not a classic French chef like Eric Ripert, or one of the new school Italian guys, or even a fellow molecular gastonomist like Wylie Dufresne. He calls David Chang, humble but highly rated chef and owner of Ko (from two Recession Specials ago), Momofuku Noodle Bar, Milk Bar, and Ssäm Bar, all located within a few blocks of each other in the East Village. He loves that neighborhood and shows it by not only working there, but eating and playing there too. The food at Ssäm bar is elegant and seasonal, but also accessible and reasonably priced for the quality. It fits right in with the neighborhood, yet manages to elevate it just so.

Some of the dishes at Ssäm Bar are straightforward, while others involve a bit of fusion, and still others are re-imagined or updated versions of more common international fare. A good example are the pork buns, a treat that many eat seated at the bar (where it's easier to get seated), or in the back room and bakery, Milk Bar, while they wait for a proper table. Traditional pork buns are usually light, airy buns filled with roasted, pulled pork, and covered in some kind of sweet and sour barbecue sauce to keep the meat moist. The buns at Ssäm Bar come in the same traditional bun, but are filled with two juicy slices of pork belly, fresh, thinly sliced cucumber (to cut that fat!), scallions, and a drizzle of hoisin sauce. They pack a more complex and satisfying flavor punch than your average bun, but at a heftier price. Sure, $9.00 is ultimately not that pricey for one, but when the original is less than $2.00, and you can make 8 of the updated version at home with minimal effort for about $10.00 total, you start to wonder if they're worth making for yourself.

The answer is yes, they certainly are, and they're just as tasty. While the popularity of pork belly has caused the price to skyrocket (a few years ago it was practically free), you still get a lot for your money because a little of it goes such a long way. A 6" x 2" chunk of pork belly is all you need and shouldn't cost more than 6 or 7 bucks. A package of Chinese buns is $1.50 and a bottle of hoisin is about 2.50 at your local Asian market, and rest of the budget goes to cucumber and scallions. The belly is smothered with soy sauce and spices and simply roasted in the oven for 35-45 minutes and needs little-to-no attention (I left the room and didn't come back until it was done). If you have everything else chopped, all that's left to do is steam the buns, which can easily be done while the belly is resting (they only take 2-3 minutes to steam). Once it's all put together, the cucumber really cuts the fattiness of the belly while adding a little bit of textural crunch since the dish overall is fairly soft. The scallions bring subtle onion flavor and the hoisin sauce adds a little sweet and sour punch. It's a delicious dish to make when you're feeling decadent, or when you encounter a lovely piece of pork belly. And for now, I'm done stealing David Chang's ideas, and I promise to move on to another chef and restaurant. But, in the meantime, if you're interested in making these for yourself, here's the recipe.

Pork Buns

1 6 x 2 inch piece of pork belly
1 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp Chinese five spice
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp ground coriander seed
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
8 frozen Chinese sandwich buns, defrosted
16 thin cucumber slices
1 scallion, finely sliced
3 tsp hoisin sauce

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine Chinese five spice, paprika, coriander, and pepper in a bowl and set aside.

2. Sit pork belly skin side up and carefully poke with a thin, sharp knife so that the top is studded with slits (this will keep the skin from shriveling and shrinking). Rub pork on all sides with soy sauce and spice mixture. Place on a lightly oiled baking sheet and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes until top is crispy and meaty portion is cooked through.

3. Remove pork belly to a plate and cover lightly with foil, about 5-10 minutes, then thinly slice. Meanwhile, steam buns until cooked through, about 2-3 minutes.

4. When meat has rested, thinly slice it into 1/4" thick slices. Slather inside of buns with hoisin and top with cucumber, pork belly and scallions. Enjoy!

-Laura

Recession Special Recipe: Pasta with Sausage, Greens and White Beans

Today we have a nice treat in the second installment of the Recession Special: a super tasty restaurant recipe that is as affordable as it is easy to make. During a recent trip to Mia Dona (chef Michael Psilakis and restauranteaur Donatella Arpaia's place), one dish on the rustic Mediterranean menu sounded plain but just seemed to scream "winter". It was a simple pasta dish of orecchiette, kale, sausage, and white beans. There was no particular sauce, nothing gloppy or saucy to overpower the lovely pieces of the dish. Instead, it was all held together by the sum of it's parts: fresh ingredients working together in perfect balance. The sausage was spicy, but not overpowering, and the kale was cooked perfectly, providing a little toothy bite. The white beans were unexpected in pasta, but sweet and delicious, adding a lovely contrast to the heartiness of the kale and the heat from the sausage.

The trick to mastering this dish is taking advantage of an old restaurant trick that hasn't translated to every home cook quite yet: pasta water. Every chef-authored book or novel I've read so far has touted the many uses of pasta water in a restaurant kitchen. It quite literally becomes the glue that holds any noodle based dish together. The advantage in a restaurant is that the same water may be used over and over, infusing it with the wonderful starchy qualities that make it indispensable. It's also nice and salty, so seasoning is a cinch. The best explanation as to why we should never strain pasta and always remove it with tongs (for long noodles) or a slotted spoon or spider (for short pastas) that I've read is in Bill Buford's excellent book Heat. He explains the entire history of how we got into the habit of straining pasta and letting all that tasty, useful liquid go right down the drain. This is a very, very important trick for recreating any restaurant pasta dish. A truly great restaurant pasta dish is always light and fresh, even when it involves a cream or tomato sauce. Using the pasta water and the fat of your choice (olive oil, butter, etc...) to your advantage is the first and most important step towards making any restaurant quality pasta dish at home.

This recipe in particular is very accessible because the ingredients are fairly interchangeable to suit your needs. For example, you don't have to use kale if you can't find any or don't like it--any hearty green will do. I used rainbow swiss chard for added color in my dish, and just made sure to leave it a bit al dente to replicate that bite. As far as the sausage, the important thing is that it have a bit of spice. I used a spicy chicken and apple sausage, just to up the winter ante. A cheapy can of cannellini beans and your pasta of choice round out the dish, which shouldn't cost you more than 10-12 dollars total to feed 4. And since the dish is not sauce heavy, any noodle of your liking will do. Here's the basic recipe I came up with, so take it and make it your own!

Pasta with Spicy Sausage, Greens and White Beans

1 box dried pasta

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

3 large spicy sausages (removed from casing if fresh, sliced if fully cooked)

4 cups hearty greens (kale, swiss chard, mustard or collard greens)

1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

extra virgin olive oil

salt

pepper

1. Cook pasta according to package directions, reserving pasta water when done (about 2 cups).

2. Heat olive oil (about 2 tablespoons) in a very large non-stick skillet and add sausage. Cook until browned, then add cannellini beans and a pinch of salt, cooking about 2 minutes until heated through.

3. Add pasta to skillet, tossing to coat. Add 1/2 cup pasta water, butter, parmesan cheese and the greens (in batches) until just wilted. Toss to coat and season the entire dish with salt and pepper. Add more pasta water as necessary until the dish is moist but not runny. Top with parmesan cheese and enjoy!

-Laura 

Recession Special Recipe: Miso Risotto

Welcome to the first installment of the Recession Special Recipe. As I mentioned in a previous post, I'll be taking pricey and delicious dishes from restaurants and deconstructing them so they're easy, and above all affordable for all of us to make at home. The first recipe is my version of a dish served at David Chang's newest offering, Ko, the twelve seat restaurant said to be revolutionizing the food scene. I recently splurged with a meal there, and have to say that it's one of the best I've ever had. There are no favors at Ko, where reservations can only be made at 10 am via computer, and every seating is booked by 10:01. Luck and determination are the only things that can buy you a seat that's (in my humble opinion) well worth the effort. Twelve lucky folks are sat for a 3 to 4 hour lunch, as are another twelve for dinner. Fortunately, all twelve seats are arranged around the open kitchen so that in between courses (all 17 of them) you're able to sneak a peek at how each of three chefs makes a dish. There are no waiters or busboys and each dish is served via chef, crossing the threshold from kitchen to table. The kitchen is quiet as the meal is made, all swift motions and silent communication among chefs. The atmosphere however, is anything but austere as a combination of classic and modern rock blares over speakers while the hostesses refill water glasses with ninja-like stealth.

Although there were many dishes worthy copying, this one was by far the simplest served that day, packed with flavor and perfectly balanced. It also had the least expensive ingredients and seemed the easiest to replicate. It was a miso risotto topped with crispy guanciale and grilled maitaki mushrooms. The miso was extra creamy, with a smooth sweet-and-salty flavor that contrasted really well with the crunchy texture of the guanciale (an unsmoked bacon-like cut of pork from the jowl). The guanciale's smoky flavor was only enhanced by the pillowy soft, lightly charred grilled mushrooms. I decided that to bring the price point down on the dish, the guanciale should be replaced by thick cut bacon. After all, the point is to provide that smoky pork goodness, a little fat, and lots of crunch. The only real sacrifice of ingredients here is in replacing the maitaki mushrooms with another type. I used regular button mushrooms, but almost any kind will do. An excellent replacement would be oyster mushrooms, which are also somewhat pricey, but are actually a little cheaper this time of year, so if you feel the urge to splurge, that's where I would do it.

Figuring out the recipe (or my closest approximation) was surprisingly easy. After some research I found out that Ming Tsai (one of my favorite East-meets-West chefs) has already done an excellent miso risotto, and his recipe answered some of my main questions about how exactly to go about making the rice (do I stir in the miso paste at the end? Do I use miso broth?), my only real point of confusion. After that I just dry grilled the mushrooms on my grill pan (it's no open flame like in the restaurant, but I tried), and rendered the bacon, which I cut into nice chunky pieces. After I assembled it all, I drizzled the dish with a little bit of rendered pork fat, because I figure, what's better than a little fat during these lean times? Here's the recipe I came up with, I hope it feels like an indulgence, it certainly did for me. 

Miso Risotto

4 cups warm low sodium chicken or vegetable broth

3 Tbsp light miso paste (shiro miso)

1 1/2 cups arborio rice

1 shallot, finely diced

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 cup shiao hsing wine or sherry

2 Tbsp malt vinegar

2 button mushrooms, sliced

4 slices thick-cut bacon, sliced

3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 Tbsp butter

1. Dissolve the miso paste in hot broth and set aside.

2. Heat oil, shallot and garlic in a large non-stick skillet and sweat until softened. Add rice and toast until white and opaque. Add wine and vinegar, cooking until absorbed.

3. Add enough broth/miso mixture to just cover rice (about 2 ladlefuls) and stir until absorbed. Repeat until rice is cooked through and creamy.

4. Meanwhile, heat a grill pan or small non-stick skillet and grill mushrooms until browned and charred. Remove to a plate and set aside. Cook bacon in the same pan until crispy. Remove to a plate and reserve pan drippings. 

5. Plate risotto and top with bacon and mushrooms. Drizzle with 1 teaspoon of the reserved bacon drippings and serve. Enjoy!

-Laura

Get Thee To A Restaurant

I've been torn as to whether I should mention this on the blog, but I feel in light of the economy that I must. I've always meant to encourage people to cook at home whenever possible, and rarely share accounts of restaurant dining or restaurant reviews, which I initially planned on doing quite often (the one review I've done is still my most often read post to date). I like to think that I can encourage everyone to make delicious and restaurant quality meals at home for a fraction of the price they'd cost at any restaurant, but recently I've had a minor change of heart, having read of not only how restaurants are suffering, but how they're even having to close their doors due to lack of reservations and profit loss. 

I'm not sure how the rest of the country restaurants has been affected, but here in New York (home of an already volatile restaurant scene) we've seen dozens of closings, including high end establishments that, up until recently, were packed to the gills. This article in yesterday's New York Times informs us of some of those closings, and details many of the deals put forth by restaurants with once hard to come by reservations. The city's best chefs and restaurateurs admit to taking a different approach with potential customers, eschewing the snooty attitudes of old, and welcoming each possible diner with open arms (even if it is only out of necessity). They're also creating more affordable dishes, prix fixe menus, and lowering prices all around.

It's in light of these troubling times, and the loss of some great restaurants that I implore us all to visit our favorite establishments and take advantage of these deals. If we don't support our restaurants, where the best culinary ideas are born, their dishes will never become the inspiration for our dishes as they trickle down the food chain. After all, what begins in the restaurants eventually becomes a trend, making it into a cookbook, onto cooking shows, and eventually onto our table at home. Without a platform to create new and exciting dishes, it's not just the habitual restaurant consumer that suffers, but those of us seeking inspiration in our home kitchens. I'm not asking that we all drop our wooden spoons and go charging for take-out every night, but I would like to suggest taking one night a week, a month, or as often as you can reasonably afford to, and experience eating out and supporting your favorite local chefs and restaurants. Otherwise, the next time you plan to splurge with a night at your favorite haunt, it may be long closed. 

Websites and blogs are detailing "Recession Specials" all over New York and updating on an almost daily basis. Having taken advantage of a few myself deals myself, I can tell you that they're well worth it (and this is coming from someone that's been recently laid-off and unemployed for the 3 months). I've started thinking of these mini-splurges (24 bucks for a three-course Jean-Georges meal? Sign me up!) as an investment in improving my own culinary repertoire. I can try it once in his restaurant and use it as inspiration for an affordable and delicious version that I can make at home. That's why I'll be starting a new series here on the Olive Tree called the "Recession Special Recipe". I'll take a delicious dish I've had at a restaurant recently, take it apart, and find a way to make it easy and affordable for you (and me!) at home, without compromising flavor. Look for these recipes maybe once a week, and in the mean time, please go out and support your favorite restaurants. Below I'll link you to a few sites listing where recession special deals can be found. And for those days when you're feeling frugal, keep checking back here for delicious recipes to keep money in your pocket and delicious meals on the table!

Grub Street: "The Recession is Your Friend"

Eater: Recession Specials

-Laura