Quarantine Cooking Chronicles — Part 3
I had these grand plans of keeping this series up to date given how much I’ve been cooking lately, and life just got in the way. The world is on fire, I started a new job in July, and this blog fell by the wayside. So this one will be a double digest; here are some of the best things I cooked (and ate) in May and June and where you can find the recipes.
I saw a tweet that extolled the virtues of Smitten Kitchen’s crispy crumbled potatoes. They take a bit of pre-planning because you need to fully cook and cool the potatoes before you fry them. So get started at least the day before you want to make them. I boiled my potatoes and stored them in the refrigerator until I was ready to use them (about three days later). I used my crispy potatoes to make a loose interpretation of a Lyonnaise salad with blanched green beans, bacon, a poached egg, and Dijon vinaigrette.
Get the recipe at Smitten Kitchen.
Early on during quarantine, yeast was a hot commodity and really hard to find in the grocery stores. This quick bread gets lift from baking powder and beer. The beer flavor is prominent, so pick one that you really like drinking. I tossed a couple handfuls of shredded cheddar in mine.
Get the recipe at Gimme Some Oven.
Beef stroganoff is one of my favorite dishes, but I had never been able to master it at home. This recipe is the best I’ve ever made AFTER I read the comments and halved the amount of stock. Then it was just right.
Get the recipe at Bon Appetit.
This olive oil cake originated at popular NYC restaurant Maialino, and I heard about the recipe on the Top Chef RHAP Up Podcast. I was intrigued by the idea of switching up the liqueur, zest, and juice to match my mood. My version had orange zest, fresh squeezed orange juice, and triple sec, but on the podcast they mentioned making it with lemon zest, lemon juice, and limoncello. I also topped mine with a couple of Amarena cherries. Go wild!
Get the recipe at Food52.
I got a set of pasta attachments for my birthday: a roller and two cutters, one for spaghetti and one for fettuccini. One of my favorite dishes is pasta carbonara. My version isn’t traditional, but it is delicious, especially with homemade pasta. Gimme Some Oven makes a repeat appearance here, because I use her fresh pasta recipe as my base. Sometimes, I experiment with different ratios of flours (all-purpose, 00, semolina), but the overall proportions always remain the same. And she gives you instructions for making by hand, using a food processor, and using a stand mixer.
Get the recipe at Gimme Some Oven.
My friend Allison Robicelli creates all kinds of amazing recipes for The Takeout, and when she posted these cinnamon rolls, I knew I had to try them. The recipe starts with toasty brown butter crumbles made by mixing powdered milk into brown butter, which are the base of the cinnamon filling. Now these aren’t quick, but they are delicious. Make sure to read all the steps before you start and you’ll have a buttery, delicious breakfast treat.
Get the recipe at The Takeout.
I promise that I do eat vegetables, and I’ve even been known to have a salad or two. My friend, Aaron, over at the Hungry Hutch wrote about this salad, which was made famous by Northern Spy Food Co., a popular NYC restaurant that closed in 2016. This kale salad with roasted squash, cheddar, and a sharp lemon vinaigrette was one of the most popular items on the menu. Aaron worked there, so take tips from him and make this salad at home.
Get the recipe at the Hungry Hutch.
Now this is a bit of a franken-recipe. My friend Kathy made milk bread on her Instagram story, and I wondered if I could use milk bread to make pork buns. So I cobbled together four different recipes to turn this out. One recipe to braise the pork, one recipe to turn that pork into cha siu (Cantonese barbecued pork), one recipe to make the milk bread, and one recipe to shape and fill the buns. The result was extremely delicious, but I did make it over several days. Here’s the playbook if you want to try it.
Get the milk bread recipe at NY Times Cooking.
Get the red cooked pork recipe from Leite’s Culinaria (pork part 1).
Get the cha siu pork (step three) recipe from The Woks of Life (pork part 2).
Get the bun shaping and filling method from Tasty (watch the video).
Someone on Twitter (can’t remember who) said that the King Arthur Flour Cheesy Pan Pizza recipe was the best homemade pizza recipe out there and they had made it weekly since the start of quarantine. That was good enough for me. I tried it out, and I’ve made it multiple times since then. You have to start the day before, but the method is pretty simple. I top mine with ground beef, bacon, and thinly sliced onions, but the possibilities are endless.
Get the recipe at King Arthur Flour.
