Turnips, Mushroom Bourguignon, Pierogies, and Apple Tart

Or, the Perils of Dating a Food Writer/Cook.

So I met this guy, we hit it off, and I’m basically crushin’ on him really hard. To be honest, the whole dating thing is really difficult for me. I’m terrible at selling myself, especially if I like the person I’ve met. In order to mask my acute insecurities and myriad personal inadequacies, I decided to seal the deal by making him dinner. Thank god for gourmet food goggles.

The first course was a simple plate of raw Hakurei turnips sprinkled with some fennel-citrus salt. Hakureis are really sweet (for turnips, anyway) and are just perfect as a snacking vegetable. If I had a mandoline, I would have sliced them thin and served them like sashimi, but I don’t have one. And also, it’s not the ’00s anymore.

I served Smitten Kitchen‘s vegetarian mushroom bourguignon as the main course. I was kind of a cheapo and used organic white button mushrooms instead of portobellos or criminis, but it didn’t make a big difference. Since I got a cute little bag of chervil in my CSA share this week, I chopped up a bit of it and sprinkled it on top.

The pierogies are filled with a mixture of dino kale, Yukon Gold potatoes, caramelized onions, and more Hakurei turnips. Mushroom bourguignon is a nice departure from the traditional pierogi accompaniments of sour cream or applesauce, too. All I ever want is savory, savory, savory anyway. My date, who pretty much wiped his plate clean, seemed to agree. <3

Lastly, I served up Jacques Pepin’s apple tart for dessert. The crust, a pate brisée, turned out so flaky and crispy that one could probably eat the whole thing without silverware. The dessert was kind of a butter explosion, but it just tasted so good! Especially with fresh CSA apples. I’m not sure what variety they were, but they worked really well in this dish. (Sorry, I’m useless.)

Birthday Dinner at Piccolo

For my birthday this year, my wonderful friends Ali and John took me out to a restaurant that I had been admiring from afar for pretty much its entire existence: Piccolo! I first encountered Chef Doug Flicker’s food at February’s Gastro Non Grata event, wherein he sent out an amazing pork meatball that totally threw everyone into a feeding frenzy.

But I had actually heard of him a lot earlier, from Jon Radle, a chef with whom I was interning in the winter of 2010. He said that Flicker was one of the best chefs out there, and that everyone could learn a lot from him. So I was just hysterical with anticipation when I finally sat down at Piccolo yesterday.

Bittman’s Baguettes

Hey, it’s been a while, guys. A lot has happened since I “shut down” the blog 4 months ago! And yes, this means that I’ll be updating it again. Good news for… no one in particular?

<LIFE UPDATE>

I’m still a professional cook, but at a different restaurant in the Twin Cities. I’m also still writing for Heavy Table, but Eat Me Daily is, unfortunately, currently defunct.

I got a haircut. UHHHHHHH

</LIFE UPDATE>

My little sister is coming into town today, so I’ve been buying and cooking up snacks for her to eat while she’s here. I can’t remember what she likes, though. Eggs? Everyone likes eggs! Shit.

I have no bread for toast! I haven’t baked anything for months! And fuck that, I’m not buying the Rustica hype and getting my bread from them! (I think their bread is fine, but I’m kind of over the whole “this purveyor is the Jesus of purveyors” BS. If you do it at home, it will probably be better.)

Mark Bittman’s recipe for French bread is great because all you really need is a functioning oven and a food processor. Mine, a modest 4-cup Cuisinart, couldn’t really deal with Bittman’s original proportions, so I halved the recipe and made two fucking hipster skinny-jean-sized loaves. There are four ingredients in this! Including water! Will the wonders never cease?

Goodnight Blog

I’m putting the old mare to rest, and moving on up.

It’s been real.

Eggplant Parmesan

Eggplant slices dipped in egg, flour, and herbed panko bread crumbs. After I fried them up, I plated them with some angel hair pasta and cabernet tomato sauce. I don’t get to cook at home as often as I used to, so when I do I trend toward more complicated things to make up for it.

More Writing on Eat Me Daily!

Hey guys! Missed me? Sorry that I’ve been remiss lately. The good news is that all of my food bloggy energy has been distributed to Heavy Table and — drumroll! — Eat Me Daily!

My first piece for EMD, a short analysis of a scene from Agnes Varda’s The Gleaners and I, will be published this afternoon. The series I’ll be working on will be analyses of “food scenes” from film and television. The pieces will be going up every Wednesday from now on, and I hope you guys’ll check em out!

<3 <3 <3

Oven Fries & the February Blues

Rosemary, fresh-ground black pepper, and kosher salt are all I needed just now. Dang. For those of you in more idyllic climes, we poor chumps in Minnesota have been experiencing some crazy low temperatures this week, and, frankly, it’s been getting me down.

Last night I was feeling real whiny, but this morning I decided to do something about it! I cleaned my room (even took some pictures for posterity), walked to Eastside co-op to buy some pantry essentials, and spent way too much time browsing apartment therapy for decorating ideas for my next place. Oh yeah, and made fries.

I don’t know why people and publications are always claiming that oven fries are a difficult thing to do. Or maybe my standards are way too low? All I did was slice up some potatoes, coat them in olive oil and seasonings, and popped them into the oven for a while. Flipped them over after 20 minutes and then forgot about them. When I finally remembered, they were done!

One month until spring… right? I can’t wait for picnics, bike gangs, farmer’s markets, late night carousing, swimsuits, asparagus…