Inspiration Outing: Grand Central Market

Don't all of the great cities of the world have beautiful food markets?  The food at Grand Central Market is only part of its allure.  Maybe it's the lighting or the stroll-friendly layout or the fact that it is embedded in this glorious specimen of architecture.  I have been traveling through Grand Central Station for as long as I can remember.  I grew up off one of the Metro North Railroad stops and as a young art student I travelled into Manhattan regularly to see gallery and museum shows.  Even now, as a Brooklynite, I pass through this magnificent New York City attraction on family visits, which they love also since it is mostly Italian like them.

The most impressive selection of any food category at Grand Central Market for me is cheese.  Murray's cheese has quite the spread and I always discover a type of cheese I had not heard of before.  I also enjoy the suggested pairings of jam.  I picked up a lovely rose petal preserve that I would probably pair with a milder cheese.  

At either end of the market is Greenwich Procuce, where the pickings are both seasonal and exotic. 

My mother often asks me to bring her meyer lemons on my visits. They are a bright yellow orange.  The kind of color you might find on a Spanish tile.  They are much sweeter than your average lemon but a taste still unique from an orange.

The colors speak for themselves, don't they? 

Cereillo has every cut of beef you can dream up and it has been aged for 30 days.  They also have a great selection of charcuterie.

Don't get me wrong, this market isn't cheap and for the most part I am a frugal cook.  But sometimes it is just worth the splurge.  For a full listing and description of the vendors go here.

Dinner.  For a new twist on roasted beets I made a glaze with olive oil, rose petal preserve and meyer lemon.

Musings of a Home Cook

Nothing like a six week sinus infection that kills your sense of taste and smell to re-examine your relationship with food.  That's were I have been this winter.  Now the air is clearing, the weather feels milder and I have returned to my blog.

Functioning at about seventy-five percent of my normal gusto has changed my routine.  Or should I say slowed it down.  Normally, when I get home from work, I have 2 to three hours before my husband gets home when I tackle my daily/weekly task list.  Tasks including drawing, art projects, design work, household chores or just answering emails.  Then I start dinner.  Not feeling 100 percent means I have to pair down on some of what I get done after work.  Surprisingly, what I did not change was my cooking routine.  We could have ordered pizza. Albeit, take out every night would be an expensive and less-than-healthy option, I am not entirely sure that those reasons were the ones that motivated me to return to the stove every evening.

If asked in conversation what motivates my interest in food and cooking I would respond by referencing the impact our food industry and our personal food choices have on our health and the environment.  The agriculture, production and distribution of food affect the living and working conditions of many people around the world.  Eating better can mean living better.  And if that isn't enough, I LOVE to eat!  It is one of the greatest sensory pleasures.

I would heavily emphasize that last point.  What I discovered these past weeks was that even with my senses of taste and smell impaired, I was still not willing to forgo my cooking routine.  When I felt I could no longer concentrate at my desk, my inclination was to gravitate toward my cutting board.  I realized that that is the place were my thoughts are released and my hands and senses take over.  Taste and smell excluded, there is comfort in the tactile rhythms.  The comfort of being home is slicing through a cool, crisp vegetable and hearing the sound of the sound of the knife tapping on the cutting board.

Although I must say that I am happy to have my other senses back.  The other night after having dinner at a wonderful restaurant in Williamsburg called Barberry, I spent some time chatting with part owner and chef, Diego, about the subtleties of salt and the joys of making food from scratch.  In that conversation, Diego eloquently expressed what I will paraphrase, "how often we forget a face but the memory of smells and tastes last forever."

Community Table: Belated Valentine Cupcakes

What can I tell you about the very few posts I have made this New Year?  I don't mean for it to be habit nor do I want to give excuses, but I only want to put the recipes on hear that I am genuinely proud of.  I have been plagued with a nasty sinus infection that is paired with a loss of my sense of taste. This has made knowing whether or not I can be truly proud of my recipes challenging.  So, is it too late to show you my Valentine cupcakes?  I never celebrate Valentines on the actual day anyway.  That's just me.

These were made by my friend Naomi and I for a dinner that was being held tonight at our local soup kitchen in Greenpoint.  I mentioned in an earlier post that I have been trying out some more sophisticated cupcake recipes.  This is Cupcake Challenge number 4.


Chocolate Cupcakes with Coconut Buttercream



Coconut Lime Cupcakes







 We are messy bakers!


From Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" with minor adaptations:

Coconut Buttercream

4 tablespoons coconut milk
2 tablespoons millk or heavy cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (optional)
4 cups confectioners sugar
1 stick of butter

In an electric mixer, add butter and cream.  Alternately start adding sugar and heavy cream/coconut milk.    Beat on high until fluffy.

From Shelly Kaldunski's "Cupcakes" with minor adaptations:


Lime Curd

4 egg yolks
6 tablespoons lime juice
1/2 cup of sugar
1 teaspoons lime zest
pinch of salt

In a saucepan, whisk together the ingredients and cook over medium high heat.   When it is thick enough to coat a the back of a spoon it is ready.  lay plastic wrap over the curd and chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Coconut Cake

1 cup all purpose or cake flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup shredded coconut roughly chopped
1 egg plus one egg white

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and make sure your cupcake pan has is prepped with paper liners.  In a bowl whisk your dry ingredients including the coconut.  In an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar for 2 to three minutes.  Add egg, egg white and vanilla and beat until smooth.  Add flour in three addition alternating with 2 additions of coconut milk.  Beat on low and scrape down ten sides of the bowl.  Divide the batter into the cupcake tins filling 3/4 of the way up.  Bake 20 to
25 minutes.

Chocolate Cake

2/3 cup all purpose or cake flour
2 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 oz bittersweet chocolate chopped
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
3 large eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon  vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and make sure your cupcake pan has is prepped with paper liners.   In a bowl whisk your dry ingredients.  Put butter an chocolate in a heat proof bowl and set over simmering water in a saucepan; stir frequently.  When it it is melted completely  remove the bowl and let cool for 10 to 15 minutes.  Add egg and chocolate mixture to dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon.  Add vanilla. Stir and fold over until completely blended.  Divide the batter into the cupcake tins filling 3/4 of the way up.  Bake 20 to 25 minutes. 

Dinner on the Fly: Warm Brussels Sprout Salad

How many times can I cook brussels sprouts with pancetta?  I am not saying they are not good.  What doesn't taste good cooked in pork fat?  But what else goes well with brussels sprouts?  This was my Wednesday night challenge and here is what I came up with...

Cut brussels sprouts into quarters and toss with olive oil and salt in an oven proof baking dish.  Roast at 350 degrees until tender.  Toss with pecans, blue cheese and a very sweet balsamic glaze.

Dinner on the Fly: Chickpea Flour Pancakes with Leeks and Orange Beet Salad

Ho hum.  Blue-Gray January, as much as I marvel at your bright white and icicle touches, I can't help but say I feel a little blue-gray myself.  I try to remind myself of how little I have to be melancholy about when I see the pattern of graceful branches outside our office window.  Although they are beautiful, I still just want to do nothing more than curl up under my furry blanket with a steaming mug of tea and a good book. It isn't as though the running list of would-be/could-be project ideas and to-do lists are escaping me.  But my cold weather lethargy has made it difficult to motivate myself.   Maybe the first on my list of New Year's resolutions is to find some inspiration.


I have spent a lot of time at trend shows this month looking for inspiration for new designs for the coming year.  I went to the MOMA and spent some time with the NY Abtract Expressionist paintings, and saw the "Counter Space" show on kitchen design. (I am utilizing that MOMA membership I got for Christmas, thanks Mom!)  Next I need some cooking inspiration.  It wouldn't hurt me to follow a recipe once in a while and learn from someone else.  What great cook should I turn to?  What can I make that I haven't made before?  Tonight it will have to be enough to be inspired by the colors of my simple dinner.

Orange Beet Salad

Orange, Clementine or Tangerine

Black Radish

Cooked Beets

That is pretty much the whole salad with a little drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt.  Talk about minimalist.  

Chickpea Flour Pancakes with Leeks

1 cup white all purpose flour

1 cup chickpea flour

water - I never really measure this out.  Add your water slowly a little at a time. If you want a thicker pancake add more water, less if you want it thinner.

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

freshly ground black pepper to taste 

1 chopped leek

olive oil

Mix all ingredients except the leeks until there are no lumps.  The leeks should go in last.  The trick is to use a skillet and keep the heat on medium low.  This way your olive oil gets hot enough for a good result but not too hot that it is smoking.  I use a ladel-full of batter for each pancake.

Dinner!  I served this with some chevre.  It went perfectly with the salad.

The Classics: Frutti Di Mare

At least for me this is a classic.  Frutti di Mare is my family's traditional dish for Christmas Eve.  It is essentially fish stew over linguini.  Not complicated to make but time sensitive because it involves a fair amount of shellfish.  You don't want to start this dish too early or cook the seafood a little too long.  There is nothing worse than rubbery little mollusks.  Which means you are starting your cooking right after your guests arrive just to make for the start of a hectic holiday dinner.  The up side?  It is worth it!  Every last bright tomato and seafood bite!

This year I had been wondering about why we Italians have the seafood feast on Christmas Eve.  I never questioned it before because, well, why question a good thing?  The origins come from the Roman Catholic Church where, like on Good Friday (despite this overly optimistic name, it is the day when Jesus was crucified) observant Catholics do not eat meat.  With a little research I found a few possible answers as to why there are seven fishes served for Christmas Eve although none confirmed as true.  The number seven reoccurs in Catholicism.  It took seven days for Mary and Joseph to travel to Bethlehem.  God created the universe in seven days.  The Catholic Church has seven sacraments.  Mortal sins are summarized in the Catholic religion by the following seven: pride, envy, lust, gluttony, greed, sloth and anger. 

Religious or not, if God (or anyone else) says I need to eat seven types of fish on any day of the year I will not argue. Though preparing one meal with seven fishes is not an easy task.  We are usually shy one or two.  This year we were missing one because a family member is allergic to lobster.  Frutti di Mare is a great way to get as many as you can in one pot.  I am going to recommend a recipe from the Epicurious site that I have used two years in a row.

Details, Mistakes and Good Little Cakes: Butter Rum Cupcakes

Butter Rum Cupcake topped with Pecans

Life never ceases to remind me of the importance of small details.  I feel as though all of my efforts seem to go to managing and remembering numerous seemingly small facts that make up perfecting a larger picture.  Honestly, this can often overwhelm me. Of course it also makes me better at the things that I do.  I am determined, therefore, to continue onward in my quest for perfection and find new ways to collect techniques and adjust small details in cooking and designing and other aesthetic pursuits.

I feel I have more control over cooking than many other aspects of my life sometimes.  Cooking is never out of control.  There are always things that I can be sure of.  For instance, I know that if I slow cook onions in fat they will melt into a sweet, aromatic translucent deliciousness.  I know if I stir arborio rice for an hour it will release starches and become a creamy, base with pearls of rice to absorb whatever flavor you add to it.  These I have learned over many years of trial and error cooking.  

Baking, on the other hand, is a newer experience for me and one that requires a lot of exacting details.  Let's face it, there is no turning back once you have forgotten the baking powder.  However, most of the time forgetting an ingredient while cooking is not cause for ruins.  There is something to be said for the ability to improvise and learn from the step you have forgotten.  So goes the adventure of my Butter Rum Cupcakes.

Nick and I were visiting our friend, Janice, in Beacon for her birthday.  She was throwing her own birthday dinner and the least I could do was bring the birthday dessert.  I am not yet up to the task of baking a whole cake, mind you.  There is no sensible reason why.  I am just intimidated.  I am working up my nerve.  What better way to do that than to bake cupcakes?  Essentially miniaturized versions of cake. That might not mean that they are less of a challenge but it seems that way.  Besides, this was my third attempt at cupcakes and, since my first two were relatively successful, I figured it can only get better.  I am having fun with the idea of making a really good cupcake because, in all earnestness, they are not my favorite dessert.  Yellow cake and not-so-chocolaty chocolate frosting doesn't light my flambe`.  I would like to recreate this cutie dessert with more interesting flavors and textures.  Maybe it will appeal to a more sophisticated palate than the second grade classroom birthday party.  If cupcakes are mini cakes, why can't they be strawberry shortcake, molten chocolate or even lemon meringue.  Well, this sweet-toothed girl can dream, can't she?

The final result was something I call a Butter Rum Cupcake.  I say final result because the end result strayed from my intended recipe.  The original recipe was from a book on fanciful cupcakes and was called a Tres Leches Cupcake.  It involved preparing a mixture of heavy cream, condensed sweetened milk, evaporated milk and rum, ahead of time with which to soak the cakes when they came out of the oven.  It seems that I had confused evaporated milk with dry milk (no, in fact, they are not the same thing) and the result was not only ineffective in creating a soaking agent but downright distasteful.  The dry milk was a powder and essentially soaked up all the other liquid ingredients and, to make it worse, the whole thing smelled like baby formula.  Ick!  Maybe, I wondered, this time I can skip this step.  Next, I took on an unfortunate and dreaded task that is harder for me to face than all other culinary tasks.  I threw it out and moved on.

Now for the cake, sans leche.  This recipe is a adapted from Cupcakes, by Shelly Kaldunski.  I doubled the recipe for the amount of guests that would be at dinner and replaced half of the vanilla extract with rum since there is no longer a rum soaking liquid.  This cake is very spongy and I would definitely be willing to try soaking it in a rum mixture another time.  Lucky for me, it was flavorful enough with a not too dry texture to hold its own without drowning it in milk and rum. 

Rum Cake Sans Leche  (makes 22 - 24 cupcakes)

2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 eggs 

1 cup milk 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon dark rum

Using a bowl and whisk or a kitchen mixer, mix together flour, sugar baking powder, and salt.  Then add eggs, milk, vanilla and rum and mix until all ingredients are blended.

Line your cupcake or muffin pan with paper or foil liners.  Fill them two thirds of the way with batter.  Bake at 350 degrees.  Make sure your rack is positioned in the middle of your oven.

Buttercream is one of those classic icings that if is done well, can be amazing and if it isn't just tastes like sugar.  So buttercream was something I wanted to know how to do from scratch and to do well.  Besides here is where I was really going to get my butter flavor to validate the name Butter Rum for my cupcakes.  The first recipe I tried for buttercream used egg whites.  I am not sure what part of the recipe didn't work honestly.  I combed through it a few times and could not find the step I missed or misinterpreted.   I meticulously whisked the egg whites and sugar in a heat-proof bowl over a low simmering pot.  I transferred that to my mixer and added the butter piece by piece along with the exact amount of rum. Still, it fell flat and began to separate.  Despite the recipe saying to put in under the mixer on high if such occurs, I could not revive it.  I did the unthinkable for the second time that day.  With a heavy heart I threw it out and started again, all the while hearing the chiding voices of my parents reminding me of starving children all over the world.

Trusted Mark Bittman to the rescue again.  His recipe was much easier and got a much better result.  It had that real butter taste that married perfectly with the rum.  I could have kicked myself for not trying it sooner.

It is hard for me to accept I have made a mistake that I can't fix.  My early New Year's resolution is to shrug my shoulders and start from scratch.  Something might just turn out better that way.

Rum Buttercream Frosting  (adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything)

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter

4 cups sugar  (The original recipe calsls for confectioners sugar but I was out.  I probably will try it that way next time to see the difference.)

6 tablespoons milk

2 tablespoons dark rum

Cream the butter and add sugar and milk alternately.  Add more milk if frosting is too thick.  Stir in the rum.