Scouting: Global Table

July 25, 2014 by Laura Messersmith in Scouting

Global Table UWS | Image: Laura Messersmith — **Global Table UWS** | Image: *Laura Messersmith*

It only took a few weeks of living on the Upper West Side before I came across the Amsterdam Avenue location of Global Table and it quickly became one of my window-shopping destinations. After passing countless times – always glancing in to see what new temptation would be displayed – I finally had a moment cross the threshold.

The shop is deceptive - practically everything is visible from the door, yet there are still surprises and discoveries to be made. Light and airy it’s surprising how many treasures are arranged on the long, low tables and tall shelves. Good thing my afternoon was wide open because I spent more than an hour exploring the beautiful linens, brightly colored porcelain vases, and imaginative tableware.

Nathalie Smith established the first location of Global Table in Soho in 1996, the UWS location followed in 2011. When I talked with her described it as the place where her “love of food and fashion converged.” She grew up in New York and credits her French mother’s great taste, “she always set a beautiful table,” and wonderful cooking with her enthusiasm for entertaining.

She further developed her eye by working as a fashion editor and stylist for magazines like Glamour and Elle. While traveling the world for photo shoots she noticed that her fellow editors would often stash great tableware finds in their suitcases and bring them back as souvenirs. When she was ready to leave the world of fashion the inspiration for her next venture was inspired by the experience.

Nathalie says she looks for clean lines, natural textures, and simple shapes eschewing anything too “design-y.” She tends to shy away from most patterns, although she says she’s becoming more open minded, and wants the pieces she offers to be both functional and beautiful calling herself “a very practical person.”

Whether apartment space is constrained or not that’s an M.O. I can get behind 100%. Any of the items in Global Table would look beautiful displayed as décor, but can also be pulled down off the shelf and pressed into service. No lilies of the field here!

I had a hard time walking out empty-handed and brought home a beautiful charcoal colored bowl with a periwinkle blue interior from the store’s Middle Kingdom line. I’m already plotting my next acquisitions and future wedding, house-warming, and birthday presents. After all, I’m just taking Nathalie’s lead by “buying what I would like in my home.”

Global Table | Soho: 107 Sullivan Street, NYC | UWS: 471 Amsterdam Avenue, NYC | Hours: Mon-Sat 12-7 pm, Sun 12-6 pm

Lemon Chicken

July 23, 2014 by Laura Messersmith in Cooking with the Contessa

As inspiration for more adventurous culinary efforts I’m following along with Ina Garten, aka The Barefoot Contessa, in my tiny New York kitchen. Let’s see if I can keep up with the Contessa!

Episode: “Cook Like A Pro”

The Set-up: Ina’s sharing really simple recipes with high impact from chefs and restaurants so we can summon our inner kitchen god(dess) and impress our friends.

The Menu: Lemon Chicken, Sticky Toffee Date Cake, Baked Fontina

0:52 – First up: Lemon Chicken a blast from Ina’s past life when she owned the Barefoot Contessa specialty food shop.

1:17 – Ina explains that the dish takes about five minutes and includes garlic, lemon, thyme and white wine. She definitely has my attention. Tell me more!

2:04 – We also learn that in addition to cooking the chicken this recipe also makes a sauce – efficient.

2:55 – Pro Tip #1: always zest the lemons before squeezing the juice! Also, microplane rasps are the bomb.

3:26 – Pro Tip #2: lightly crush dried spices to release the oils before adding them to the sauce.

4:07 – The sauce is done and Ina recommends putting it in the bottom of the baking dish (versus pouring it over the top) so that the chicken skin browns nicely. Good call!

4:48 – A short soliloquy on the merits of boneless, skin on chicken breasts for entertaining. Ina has the butcher prepare them for her and trust me when I say it’s probably the only way to get them considering it’s tricky to find anything other than boneless skinless these days. Lingering evidence of the low-fat 1990s.

5:14 – Final step before they go into the oven – Ina cuts a whole lemon into eighths and nestled the wedges in between the chicken. I bet that sauce is so so good.

6:39 – The chicken is out of the oven and it looks awesome. I have a feeling that this is going to be the recipe I make….

7:21 – Ina makes some serving suggestions: basmati rice or couscous to soak up the lemon garlic sauce and a green vegetable like steamed string beans. A woman after my own heart – all meals need a green veggie.

10:16 – We’re back with Ina and her friend Laura Donnelly. Ina reminds us that learning to cook isn’t a solitary pursuit, so she’s implored Laura to come and show her how to make one of her specialties: Sticky Toffee Date Cake.

11:27 – Ina and Laura have just finished chopping the most massive pile of dates. Good Lord.

12:34 – Laura doesn’t look anything like the Dowager Countess, but something called Sticky Toffee Date Cake just screams Downton Abbey, right?

13:03 – Oooh, that’s interesting. Dates are acidic, so when Laura adds the baking soda to the water they’ve been boiling in it fizzes up. A good thing because air = fluffy cake.

14:19 – Second cake fluffiness factor: 3 ¼ tablespoons baking powder. If you do much baking you’ll note that’s equal to a metric butt-ton of baking powder.

14:56 – Laura is a pastry chef so I’m trying to extend trust here, but she seems awfully laissez faire about the parchment paper in the cake pans.

15:11 – We get a quick toffee how-to in Laura’s restaurant kitchen and the process seems pretty similar to caramel except it calls for brown sugar instead of white.

16:25 – Cakes are out of the oven and are tapped out of the pan successfully. My trust has been rewarded!

17:43 – Ina and Laura poke the dickens out of both cakes with toothpicks, which looks really fun, but served the purpose of making little spaces for the liquid toffee to soak in. Gardening analogy alert: it’s like aerating a lawn to allow water/fertilizer to reach the roots.

20:51 – Next, Ina’s visiting The Red Cat in Chelsea to learn about making Baked Fontina. It looks like fondue and the cheese from a well-seasoned pizza hopped into a cast iron skillet together.

21:40 – I think I was right. The recipe is essentially: diced Italian Fontina + olive oil + thyme + rosemary + slivered garlic + salt & pepper.

23:16 – Ina gets a little meet & greet love from the chef/owner Jimmy Bradley and they bond over their love of melted cheese.

27:05 – Ask Ina Time and she’s turning the tables and asking restaurant chefs for their tips on how to cook like a pro. Paying close attention here…

27:11 – Kevin Penner (1770 House) says: make your own stock and Daniel Boulud (Daniel) offers a recipe for making your own Light Mayonnaise

28:10 – Ina retakes the reins and answers the age-old question: what makes really good olive oil? She suggests tasting several and looking for a round, non-bitter, full olive flavor.

28:32 – Really getting down to the essentials with question 2: the difference between salts. Ina uses three in order of ‘saltiness’: Kosher salt for cooking, flaked sea salt and fleur de sel for finishing.

29:13 – Final question: how to keep vegetables bright green? The answer: blanching and shocking. I really need a pun here but I’m at a loss….

Final Thoughts:

Making note for the future that Lemon Chicken that can be made almost entirely in advance. Hello, dinner!

Hmm, I really never thought that carefully about salt other than just using Kosher salt for everything. This may require further study…

Still waiting for a ‘blanching & shocking’ joke to occur to me… Let me know if you think of one!

Lessons Learned:

I’m not such a huge fan of dates, and baked fontina, while delicious I’m sure, doesn’t really appeal during hot summer months. And, okay I really just wanted to make the Lemon Chicken – you got me!

This recipe is really, really simple, requires minimal ingredients and easy techniques. Honestly, the hardest part might be sourcing the boneless, skin on chicken breasts. I can usually find split chicken breasts with the skin and then with a little willpower/chef’s knife finagling separate the meat from the bones. It doesn’t always look super pretty in process, but it can be done and I’ve noticed that (like with many things) I’m improving with practice.

Do follow Ina’s advice and put the sauce in the bottom of the baking dish, chicken on top so that the skin browns. Even if you don’t intend to eat it, it’s still much more appetizing with a little color.

Small Kitchen Friendly?

Yes, definitely. I used a 9x13 baking dish, a small sauce pan, one chef’s knife, a microplane grater (these really are awesome and take up so little space), a pastry brush, and two cutting boards (one for the chicken prep and one for the garlic, etc.), a liquid measuring cup and spoons. I also found tongs and a rubber spatula helpful, as well as a large serving spoon.

The Verdict:

Mike and I were both very, very happy with the way the Lemon Chicken turned out – it was super flavorful and tender. The flavors of the sauce reminded me of steamed Mussels in White Wine, which is usually paired with crusty bread to soak them up, so I decided to serve it with slices of fresh French baguette compliments of Levain Bakery and (green vegetable alert!) Roasted Asparagus.

This is a perfect recipe for an easy summer dinner that requires almost zero slaving over a hot stove. Cooking the asparagus in the oven during the last 10 minutes makes it even easier.

Roasted Asparagus (serves 4 ppl)

Ingredients:

1 pound fresh asparagus

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 ½ teaspoons Kosher salt, plus extra for sprinkling

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400° F.

Cut off the tough ends of the asparagus (about ½ inch) and, if stalks are especially thick, peel them.

Place the asparagus on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with Kosher salt and ground black pepper then toss to coat the asparagus completely.

Spread the asparagus in a single layer and roast in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until ‘al dente,’ tender but still firm. Time will vary depending on thickness of asparagus stalks; test with the tines of a dinner fork to check tenderness.

Cherry & Blueberry Buckle

July 21, 2014 by Laura Messersmith in Cooking

The theme of red, dessert-related treats continues today mainly because I over-did it a little on the cherry related purchases last week. They were just so gorgeous looking that I bought a giant bag, so here we are with more cherries to eat. Thankfully, we were invited to a brunch party over the weekend, so I volunteered to bring the coffee cake and thus had a perfect excuse to make Cherry & Blueberry Buckle.

I was inspired by a recipe I found on Seven Spoons, and I knew immediately that it would be the perfect stand-in for a traditional coffee cake. I’m not entirely sure what a pastry chef would consider the difference between a buckle and a coffee cake since both involve fruit and a streusel topping, so I just decided to go with it.

Seven Spoons’ recipe was loosely adapted from this Blueberry Buckle recipe by Salt Water Farms for Bon Appétit. Coincidentally, SWF offers an entire class on fruit desserts entitled Cobblers, Buckles and Grunts. Doesn’t that sound like heaven? Maybe this is my opportunity to go to Maine and learn about the entire spectrum of fruit-related sweets….

Just in case Maine isn’t in the cards this year we can still channel a summery, New England treat at home. I partially followed both recipes noted above (my adaptation below) and the results were delicious.

I promise I’m not tooting my own horn here – Mike and my partners-in-brunch can corroborate that it was pretty awesome. Sweet, fragrant, and packed with fruit it was especially good served still warm from the oven.

I have future plans for this recipe involving other fruits: apricots, perhaps? or tart cherries? I’d love to try it in muffin form or perhaps with the addition of a scoop of vanilla or blueberry ice cream? The possibilities seem endless….

Cherry & Blueberry Buckle (yield: one buckle, serves 6-8 ppl)

Sugar & Spice Topping Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/4" pieces

Buckle Ingredients:

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) room temperature unsalted butter, plus more for pan

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoons kosher salt

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup whole milk

6 ounces (1 ¼ cups) fresh or thawed blueberries

10 ounces (2 cups) pitted, roughly chopped black cherries

Special Items:

9” spring form pan

parchment paper

Sugar & Spice Topping Instructions:

In a medium bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and salt. Add diced butter and combine with your fingers until mixture comes together to form a texture like damp sand; refrigerate until needed.

Buckle Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°. To prepare the pan butter the inside of a 9” spring form cake pan and place a disk of parchment paper cut to size in the bottom. Butter the parchment paper and dust the interior of the pan with flour. Tap out any excess flour.

In a medium bowl, whisk baking powder, salt, and flour.

In a separate medium bowl, beat sugar and room temperature butter using an electric mixer on high speed until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla just to combine, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add dry ingredients in stages, then milk; mix just to combine.

Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in blueberries and diced cherries. Don’t be stingy with the fruit, if you have a few extra berries or cherries – add them in! Spoon batter into prepared pan, smooth top, and place pan on a rimmed baking sheet. Evenly crumble sugar and spice topping over.

Bake until top is golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 75–90 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool before unmolding and serving.

Small Kitchen Friendly?

Yes, to a degree. The recipe as written calls for three medium bowls, an electric mixer, measuring cups & spoons, a spring form pan, and a cookie sheet.

However, if bowls are limited it would be easy to switch the order of prep and re-use the dry ingredient bowl to make the topping. If a fancy presentation isn’t essential – and this is a rustic type of cake – then using a regular cake pan or muffin tins would be a solid option too.

And, don't forget Food52's genius cherry pitting DIY - I used it again, still works!

Minty Fresh Scouting: Hillside Farms

July 18, 2014 by Laura Messersmith in Scouting

Hillside Farms, Shavertown, PA | Image: Laura Messersmith — **Hillside Farms, Shavertown, PA** | Image: *Laura Messersmith*

Everyone needs a summer project; a goal to work toward over the hottest months of the year; a plan that will give meaning to an otherwise lazy series of days. I considered this question carefully and arrived at the most obvious answer: visit as many ice cream shops as possible in search of the best Mint Chocolate Chip Ice cream.

Why Mint Chocolate Chip? Mainly, because it’s my all-time favorite flavor, but also it seems like most shops offer an option that combines mint and chocolate. I’m willing to consider gelato, novelties and sorbet, but ice cream is really what I’m after. If you have recommendations on places I should try I’d love to hear them!

My third stop in my quest for the ultimate cool, minty creation was The Lands at Hillside Farms in Shavertown, PA. Hillside Farms is more than just an ice cream shop, to paraphrase from a 2013 magazine article:

“Originally established in 1881, The Lands at Hillside Farms became a non-profit organization in 2005 devoted to sustainable life choices. Located on 413 acres in a magnificent valley; the goal of the farm is to use the landscape as a backdrop for educating the public about healthy life choices. […]

The dairy store offers farm-made milk in glass bottles, ice cream, butter and produce among many other wholesome products. The animals on the farm are treated humanely and are fed old fashioned diets while living as their ancestors did over a century ago.”

Some Thoughts on Ratings:

The five criteria are Flavor and then the four “Cs” - Color, Creaminess, Chips, and Charm.

I like a dash of kitsch with my high-quality ingredients, so my preference is for pale green ice cream with intense mint flavor and deep dark chocolate shavings. Yes, I realize that this doesn’t make them ‘chips’ per se, but then they’re more smoothly incorporated with the ice cream. I’m giving extra points for a whimsical setting or special experience.

Mint Chocolate Chip by Hillside Farms, Shavertown, PA | Image: Laura Messersmith — **Mint Chocolate Chip by Hillside Farms, Shavertown, PA** | Image: *Laura Messersmith*

Hillside's Score:

Flavor – refreshing, well-balanced mint (5 of 5)

Color – medium green, but a touch too bright for my taste (3 of 5)

Creaminess – very smooth and dense (5 of 5)

Chips – miniature dark chocolate chips (4 of 5)

Charm – historic, functioning gentleman’s farmstead. Talk about local, I can see the cows! (5 of 5)

Total Score: 22/25