Despite the fact that I am kinda paralyzed with embarrassment because of this stupid joke I forgot to edit out of my food article, I am very psyched on the new issue of Midtown Monthly. The cover looks great, and all the articles are really interesting. Best issue yet. Rachel G. really harshed on the True Love, but I agree with her assessment of all the coffee houses I've been to. I loved OMF's thing on Little Joes. It almost made me want to try it again sometime. Almost. Pay close attention to MH's wine picks. I've had both of them and they are both good enough to make baby angels cry. No Soriano thing, though? I miss that. I want to know what the recession is going to do to all the development plans, and I want Soriano to explain it to me.
I finally got to do some cooking this weekend, which made me really happy. I cooked a LOL (leg of lamb) from a recipe by
Simon Hopkinson (not sure if this book lives up to the hype but I really like it). The recipe called for me to stab the leg with a small sharp knife, stuff in half a garlic clove, half and anchovy, and a sprig of rosemary, and repeat twelve times. Then I rubbed the leg with a butter, anchovy mixture, poured half a bottle of white wine into a roasting pan, and put the whole thing in the oven. Unfortunately, the timing on the recipe was completely wrong, so the first time I pulled the leg out it was raw, and I ate a bite and got a bite of total lukewarm raw bloody meat in my mouth. I'm still kind of recovering from that. The real revelation was the brussel sprouts recipe. Corti brothers had some beautiful brussel sprouts with small, tight heads (sounds dirty). Here's what I did:
saute yellow onion of shallot in some olive oil for two minutes on medium heat
throw in brussel sprouts (halved), salt and pepper and saute for four minutes, until browned
throw some water in the pan, enough to just cover the bottom
put on lid and cook for about 6 minutes, still on medium, keep checking to see if the water has evaporated, if so add a teeny bit more
when done, squeeze a half lemon over the top. I picked a meyer lemon from my neighbor's tree and used that.
the recipe called for apple cider vinegar, but mine had some disgusting huge clot of mold in it. does anyone else have this problem with vinegar? do you keep it in the fridge? mine always goes bad before I can use it more than once.