The month that’s been has been mostly uneventful. I managed to keep a number of my longstanding promises in this newsletter, from getting back on the croissant path to finally trying out the cascatelli. My kitchen renovation is still in a holding pattern while I find a contractor. I visited Arizona for the first time as part of a work trip, though didn’t have a chance to try any Mexican or Southwestern food.
The cascatelli that I got as a birthday gift (and which then took many months to arrive) is almost too good. It clings to the sauce so well, it was hard not not to let one portion of pasta swallow up my whole batch of sauce, which could easily serve four people.
Is it worth hunting down or paying black market prices for? Probably not. But if you have a chance to try it, I’d definitely recommend it for a thick, chunky sauce.
I paired the cascatelli with a Bolognese-style ragù, albeit my fairly rapid weeknight version.
After a summer hiatus, I had another run at making croissants. I still haven’t cracked the code, it’s fair to say. The end product was wrong enough, I couldn’t even bring myself to take photos. I’m guessing that it’s now too cold in my kitchen, and so I effectively didn’t give the croissants enough time to prove after shaping and before they went into the oven. Next time, it’s in the oven with a bowl of boiling water for heat and humidity.
The first batch was always going to be the trickiest. On previous attempts I realized that jump starting the dough with off-cuts from the previous batch makes a huge difference. Now that I’ve done a batch, I can start the cycle again. It’s also become very clear to me that speed with PLF is key, and trying out the end cutting technique definitely helps.
Cooler weather also pushed me firmly into soup territory. For lack of time more than anything, I didn’t have a chance to restock my supply of Rancho Gordo beans. Which was a problem when I decided I wanted to do a black bean soup. Fortunately I discovered that one of my favorite lunch places also happens to sell good quality dried beans. It’s hard to say whether they’re as good as Rancho Gordo, but they’re certainly more local, and they’re definitely better than the generic beans at my friendly neighborhood Whole Foods.
I suppose I could’ve styled it with a few choice leaves of cilantro, a drizzle of olive oil, and some thinly-sliced radishes. Indeed, that’s how I ate it. Still, I think we need to accept that black bean soup is simply not the most photogenic dish. I’ll leave that up to your imagination.
I managed to pick what was probably the warmest day for the rest of the year to make enchiladas. Anything that requires cranking up the oven and baking feels like something for the cooler months. I’ve finally found a reliable source for tomatillos, so I can do real enchiladas verdes.
My only real failure (excluding the mediocre attempt at croissants) was not noticing that I had also exhausted my supply of Puy-style lentils. I bought everything to do a salmon with lentils and roasted leeks, only to realize I had to cut the lentils, possibly my favorite part. Though the vivid chartreuse of the heat-blasted leeks do make for a nice photo.
On a trip to the local Eataly for good canned tomatoes, I discovered they finally had good polenta in stock again. Paying $8 for a bag of fancy poltenta made from organically-farmed corn does smack of the performative slow food types I found irritating in Berkeley last month. Though I can’t deny it’s a lot better than the generic cornmeal from the supermarket.
My trip to Scottsdale, Arizona was a surprising one from a food perspective. I didn’t have the presence of mind to take any photos, so you’ll have to enjoy this view of some cacti instead.
I had it in my head that, being so close to Mexico, there would be an abundance of Mexican food. Instead, the highlight of the trip was surprisingly good Neapolitan-style pizza. To be fair, I was in Scottsdale, a well-kept but not especially diverse, cosmopolitan, or forward-looking conurbation. There was an opening to try something more adventurous on my own, but the trip wore me out to the point it was difficult to stay awake, let alone muster the energy to venture into the unknown for dinner.
Looking forward to the next month, I’m going to be making my first trip to New York since the pandemic broke out in early 2020. I’m slightly afraid how many of my favorite places have gone out of business or still haven’t managed to reopen.
We’re also inching into holiday territory, which for me this year is mostly motivation for continuing to refine my croissant-making abilities. In 2019, I managed to light my parents’ (gas) oven on fire when butter leaked out of the laminated dough and onto the heating element. Fire extinguishers make more of a mess than I would’ve imagined. Obviously in 2020, I didn’t have much of an “audience” at Christmas and my croissants were still middling anyway. After a year gap, I hope I can redeem myself and be memorable for good reasons.
Thinking of food rather than cooking, moving into winter means good blood oranges. I don’t know why I love them so much, but there we are. Last year I did some nice candied blood orange peel to go with an olive oil cake.
On a more tactical level, I’m in the mood for a nice lemongrass chicken. Perhaps delayed regret over not being able to eat at The Slanted Door last month in San Francisco. The recipe for masala hake in a recent Ottolenghi column in the Guardian also looks very appealing. It’s on my list to try in the next month.
I’ve been struggling to come up with other ideas, and actually found last year’s newsletter archive very handy. I’m consequently going to try doing more fish cakes, which I remember being good. Keeping with the seafood theme, I’m dying to do another Sicilian-style fish stew. It’s not an especially heavy dish, but has the sort of warmth one wants as the weather cools down.
There are certainly dinners I’ve repeated more than once in the last 12 months. I’ve done pizza more than a few times. Repeating a few dishes from last November still feels like enough variety to me.
On the sweeter end of the spectrum, I’m going to make an effort to hunt down the requisite ingredients to finally try Nigella Lawson’s vegan gingerbread from last year’s Cook, Eat, Repeat. That’s now been officially published in the US, which should make it easier for most of you to find. If I’m not completely overwhelmed with the butter in several runs at croissants, these BCBG (brioche cookie bien gourmande) look amazing, and don’t look too difficult to reverse engineer.
Then, of course, there’s the looming excitement-horror of my kitchen renovation. Over a year since I kicked the project off, it really would be nice to have it done sometime in 2022.