In an East Village apartment building trick-or-treaters are scarce so in general I celebrate Halloween by pumpkin alone. One of the great things about being a liberated adult is that you can admit that carving is important even if you are too busy to get your act together in the days before as originally planned, and proceed on your own schedule.  

I’m going to carve a pumpkin tomorrow, a day late for Halloween.  The secret to hosting a good pumpkin carving party is threefold:
1. Insist with dictatorial severity that everyone present carve, no too-cool-for-school shuffling about
2. Roast a turkey breast, cook up some butternut squash soup, and have a soup and sandwich buffet because people like food at a party and the smell of roast turkey puts even vegetarians at ease
3. Serve boozy cider punch

To make my boozy cider punch for four, combine 1 cup Laird’s Applejack, 1 cup dark rum and 1 quart mulled apple cider. This will give you around two drinks per person, enough to get spirited without risking cuts while you carve. 

I mull the cider with the juice of two lemons, some smashed cinnamon sticks, some fresh peeled ginger cut into coins, and any other mulling spices on hand (cloves, allspice, cardamom) in small quantities. Combine all this in a pot and simmer for at least 15 minutes. 

I have been known to serve boozy cider hot, but usually after mulling I chill the cider. I find everyone gets less muzzy-mouthed and more festive when they enjoy a cold boozy cider.

Carve Vel Intereo!

Friday was a day of rain and gloom, honest Fall weather. Snug in the cozy confines of the restaurant prep kitchen (so dry, so cozy, so fragrant) I learned that creamed chestnuts were being added to the menu, and although I’m not clear whether it was a temporary measure or in practice for our Thanksgiving menu, I was happy to prepare them.

They were lovely and rich, sweet and nutty, the sort of food the Little Princess would eat in one of the secret feasts in her garret.

As always I’m reluctant to put someone else’s recipe out there directly, I thought I’d abstract it by researching other creamed chestnut recipes. I learned two things: creamed chestnut recipes published online are scarce, and the Times’ complete archive being available online means getting to read the recipes included in the turn of the century “Drama/Society/Music” section of the paper.

In October 1910 the Times published a piece on “Delicious Sandwiches” as well as the timely hints of the title of this post. October, it turns out, is the month of the chestnut dating back at least to the Edwardian era.  

This reading was a perfect activity for an equally gloomy, damp Saturday morning. A cup of coffee steaming under my nose, chestnut possibilities unfolded before me: a luncheon’s first course of hollowed out crusty rolls stuffed with buttered chestnuts, sherried chestnuts served hot in the center of cottage pudding for dessert, and marron glace as easy to make at home as it was expensive to import. 

Though this Month of Chestnuts may be almost over, the season of chestnuts will live on.  I can make roasted chestnuts in the toaster oven and candied chestnuts on the stovetop. And I’ll be serving these creamed chestnuts over something grainy and intense - buckwheat groats? barley? - with a simple, crisp roast chicken and sauteed bitter greens just as soon as the cook crush accepts an invitation for dinner.

Creamed Chestnuts

• 3 cups shelled chestnut meat
• 3 tablespoons sweet butter
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream, plus more for adjusting texture 

1. Shell chestnuts or buy shelled chestnuts. To shell them, score them with a knife and roast in a single layer on a sheet tray at 350 degrees for ~20 minutes, until shell edges peel back.  Cool and pick off shell, rubbing off the papery inner peel. Understand that the chestnuts are still pretty raw at this point. 
2. Boil the shelled chestnuts in a large sauce pan of salted water for about 1o - 15 minutes, until tender (knife can poke in and be easily pulled out). Drain, roughly mash (leave some big pieces) and set aside.
3. Melt the butter, then whisk in the flour and salt to make a blond roux. Slowly add the milk and cream to the mixture. Stir constantly and simmer over low heat until the sauce is thickened and smooth.
4. Cook 2 - 3 minutes more, stirring constantly, to cook off the flour. 
5. Stir in the chestnuts. Adjust the texture with cream. Eat a spoonful and swoon. 

Thanks to Tanya Harvey for the picture of the edible chestnut.

For all intents and purposes I’ll be celebrating Halloween this weekend - who knows what Wednesday itself will bring, but I have a couple of excuses to dress as Angus Young on Saturday night, and plan on carving a pumpkin on Sunday. Ghoulishly festive!

What snack is tastier than pumpkin seeds? I like them plain salt roasted best, but sometimes mix it up by either adding a pinch of cayenne pepper and some brown sugar or a bit of curry powder.

They have tons of zinc and are high in protein and delicious.

I could say that I’m linking to the Bruni Blog because he makes the following true observation about dining out:

“That’s the thing about restaurants. You never know. You really don’t. The most fervently recommended place in its prime can leave you heartsick; a place to which you bring relatively low expectations can delight you, and not just because your expectations were restrained.”

Blah blah, I tend to like Bruni’s reflections more when they are not in the context of an “official” review. Being delighted, expectations, yes, yes. 

But really I’m linking to send a not-at-all couched signal to a certain cook who may or may not be reading this, about a wager with severe financial and gustatory implications.

If a certain restaurant is NOT reviewed formally, in the Times, by Bruni (or his Times replacement should he lose a knife fight with some other Italianophile over who loves Italian things more) by March ‘08, I get dinner at the restaurant most recently awarded 3 stars in the Times.

I could be wrong - that’s what makes gambling sexy, no? - but I believe that his latest unofficial review increases my favor, odds-wise.

Hell, I’ll even raise the stakes a fourth star.

As a mark of my full employee line cook status, I was left in charge of family meal tonight, and given a bag of chicken wings and whatever vegetation I could find in the walk in to execute.

I was worried that in order to make a tasty meal I’d have to fry, but I grilled them after marinating them in lemon zest, tons of chili flakes, garlic, S&P and olive oil for an hour. The key was letting them sit on the grill forever, much longer than I would have had they been breasts or thighs of comparable size. Skin side down for at least 10 minutes, then flipped for a couple.  They came out toothsome and crispy.

I served them up with roasted sweet potatoes, sauteed brussels sprouts, and a salad with a buttermilk bleu cheese dressing and pancetta crisps. In all a healthified (relatively) wing experience. And cheap!

I have apparently alarmed my parents into thinking I’m a wreck because of my heartbreak sandwich post.

I’m fine.

The guy I’m dating (see, still using present tense!) got upset because I found out which eleven secret herbs and spices he uses in his fried chicken batter. It got a little intense, I may or may not have threatened to publish the recipe on the blog, and now we’re taking a little breathing room.

But I still have hope, and if all else fails, can really hook up some mean breasts and thighs.

Love,

The (maybe!) future Mrs. Colonel Harland Sanders

I’m still working through my supply of Massachusetts apples. When I got to the project management gig hungry today, I remembered that I had one in my bag and that the best thing to do would be to get some peanut butter and dress that apple as a full-fledged snack. Thing is, no peanut butter. Where at the intersection of 23rd and Park could you dash in and grab some peanut butter that wasn’t largely a tub of whipped corn syrup?

I decided that the GNC was my best bet, as the Walgreens was unlikely to stock anything beyond Skippy. In fact they do have peanut butter at GNC, and it is very expensive, and I got it anyway because it is, according to the label, a Nutritional Powerhouse!

Power PB is “the perfect high-performance food that combines high quality protein, essential fatty acids, healthy fiber, antioxidants, fundamental carbs, and delicious flavor”. In short, it has powdered egg whites and flax seeds mixed in. This may sound gross, and I’m not particularly for honest foods being tinkered with to boost and enhance their nutritional hoo-hah, but I was willing to give it a try if only for research, and I’m glad I did - it tastes normal, has an interesting crunchy texture, and comes in well below regular pb when WW points are calculated.  Aside from the crunch, the only oddity to it is that it needs refrigeration and more salt.

I don’t think I’ll buy it again, but now I know I can get something unsweetened when I need pb in a pinch at Penn Station or something.

I hope that I don’t begin to look like Joe Piscipo as I continue to eat it. 

A while ago I posted a recipe for Heartbreak Sandwich, and although my heart isn’t aching, it ain’t soaring. Great dates are sometimes followed by crossed wires when you are a girl on the go in NYC, but rather than fully giving in and ingesting all that buttery creamy stuff only to feel as though my gall bladder might pop, for dinner tonight I’ll be making a twist on the Heartbreak Sandwich that Big Boss Lady presented at the Gourmet Institute demo she led this morning.

Bánh mì with pork, chicken or fish has become popular in NYC over the past couple of years, but I’ve never seen an ovo Bánh mì prior to executing her recipe at today’s event. It was delicious and easy once I had the ingredients together, and it will have just enough punch from the peppers to keep me from giving up on nice boys forever.

I don’t want to breech confidence by giving out someone else’s recipe, so I’ll be general:

• Make a dressing with lime juice, fish sauce, rice vinegar, water, chili flakes, a little sugar, a garlic clove, and some minced ginger. Let your taste buds be your guide but start with 3 limes and roughly equal parts of the liquids.
• Toss a grated carrot and a grated cuke with some of the dressing. Add a tablespoon or two of the dressing to some beaten eggs. Scramble the eggs in butter.
• Smear a butterflied, oven-toasted baguette with hot sauce and mayo. Top with scramblies, grated veg, sliced hot peppers (jalapenos or whatev) and lots of cilantro and mint leaves.
•  Eat, watch Simpsons, sigh a few times, go to bed early and get over it.

The loaf:

The squash:

Really, I consider myself to have well-honed time management skills but I should have been in the shower an hour ago. I have to get to the freelance gig so that I can jet off to AC this eve to see the Sands Casino implode, and if I had just finished the Serious Eats Meatloaf Roundup last night instead of going on a (dreamy, I dare say chart-topping) date I would have time to post properly about the meatloaf I made this weekend.

Instead, I’ll offer the following observations and then get my ass in gear:

Although fancifying meatloaf with sage, carmellized squash and pancetta is delicious, it is no more delicious than the simple onion-and-garlic loaf mom makes.

If you live around the corner from a very nice butcher and you smile at him, he will grind specific pieces of chuck and pork for you. My butcher is an old school Polish guy and I feel super savvy supporting a food craftsman and getting a superior product for much less money than I would at Whole Foods.

One pound of meat with one egg and whatever mix-ins you see fit to add results in a loaf that fits perfectly in your average toaster oven.

Checkout Serious Eats for more meatloafery and tell ‘em Old Stove sent you.