FOOD SKETCHES is an illustration project by Erin Jang in which the designer creates abstract drawings of food eaten and enjoyed in NYC.
Above: Food Sketch 19: Bubby’s Sour Cherry Pancakes
Had a lovely Sunday brunch with old friends and ordered these Martha Washington Sour Cherry Pancakes from Bubby’s (the President’s Day special).
Australian stylist and art director Sonia Rentsch created a delicious set of still life compositions that give cutlery a human shape, from the roaring twenties to the sixties.
Tonight’s dinner was an adaptation of an adaptation… the original from The Meat Free Monday Cookbook. My adaptation came from Pure Wow’s Sicilian Cauliflower Pasta which, clearly calls for a hearty helping of Cauliflower.
The issue was this; I needed to use up the block of tofu I had cut into a few days prior, and the grocery store happened to be out of cauliflower tonight. My brain went to work and I concocted my very own Sicilian Tofu Pasta, a vegetarian dish featuring gluten-free pasta. And it was so, so SO delicious!
INGREDIENTS:
1-2 tbsp olive oil (I used Trader Joe’s garlic-infused oil)
1 yellow onion
2 gloves of garlic
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
3/4 package of extra firm tofu
a handful of sesame seeds
1 bay leaf
2 tbsp tomato paste
1/3 cup tomato sauce of your choice
1 fresh tomato, diced
1/2 box of quinoa spaghetti noodles
lemon juice
A sprinkling of parmesan cheese
DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large skillet, warm the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened but not brown. Add the garlic and red-pepper flakes and cook for 1 minute longer. Add the tofu and sunflower seeds and continue to cook until lightly toasted, about 2 minutes.
2. Bring a saucepan of water to a boil and add the pasta. Stir often, keeping an eye on the noodles as they can become a bit sticky and clump together.
3. In the skillet add the tomato paste, tomato sauce and a touch of water to the skillet. Throw in a bay leaf and leave over medium-low heat as the noodles cook.
4. When the noodles are cooked, drain and transfer to the skillet with the tofu sauce.
5. Add the lemon juice and stir to combine. Thin the sauce with some of the reserved water if needed. Season to taste and serve with the Parmesan.
We tweeted about this last week and tonight’s the night! Having tried our hand at pizza-making not to long ago, we are itching to get the down and dirty tips on creating a cheesy slice of heaven.
Mamma Mia SaltyCouture made a pizza… and it was kiss-your-fingers-like-an-Italian good! I’d just like to thank the creative genius of Alexandra’s Kitchen, who dreamed up this delicious combination of Nectarine, Basil & Balsamic Reduction w/ricotta and goat cheese.
Firstly, because it would have taken an extra 2 hours (and Josh and I were heading out to a Blood Orange show), I cheated a teensy bit and used a frozen ball of dough. And well, I definitely could use a lesson in rolling and tossing (hah!) but it worked out in the end.
Actually, it worked out amazingly. This pizza is sooooo delicious! And luckily I made not one but two since my oven pan couldn’t hold the entirety of one large pie. It took all our strength to pull away from the table and save the second pie for the next day. (I had it for breakfast I was so excited for more.) Even pepperoni-loving Josh adored it.
What you’ll need:
- olive oil for greasing
- your cheese of choice. I used ricotta, goat and a sprinkling of mozzarella
- 1-2 nectarines, sliced thinly but not model thin ;)
- shavings of fresh Parmigianno Reggiano
- fresh basil
- 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
- pre-made dough (or follow Alexandra’s DIY recipe here)
How to do it:
- Place balsamic in a small sauté pan at medium high. Let simmer until reduced and noticeably thick then remove from heat — keep your eyes on it. Burnt balsamic is very bad news. Alexandra suggests erring on the side of under reduced since it continues to reduce a bit as it cools.
- Preheat the oven to 450-500ºF. (depends on the dough!) Line a sheetpan with parchment paper and grease lightly with olive oil. Place rolled out dough onto paper and drizzle on a little olive oil on it and coat evenly.
- Cover the dough with your layer of cheese then arrange a layer of sliced nectarines over the cheese. Sprinkle the fruit layer with fresh Parmigiano Reggiano. Place pizza in your very hot oven and bake for about 10 minutes or until the crust is slightly brown and the cheese is melting.
- Remove from the oven and sprinkle with fresh basil or arugula. Drizzle with the reduced balsamic. Slice and serve..
Pretzel Nachos
One of my favorite quick and easy snacks to share at home. It’s just two ingredients and five minutes of prep. If you want to get fancy go ahead and add sour cream, salsa - even guacamole.
OR, take it to the other extreme and pour on a little hot sauce and blue cheese to make a firey buffalo dip creation.
Mary Had a Little Cow is a beautiful editorial photographed by Erick Le Strange for Lebanese fashion magazine PLASTIK* (issue 14).
The combination of fashion and food thrills us at SaltyCouture!
Other noteworthy people:
Creative Director: Eli Rezkallah
Fashion Editor: Ryan Houssari
Model: Georgina Howard
One of my biggest challenges when cooking for two is the issue of excess. It always starts with solving for leftovers. How long is it safe to eat, can I freeze it (not eggs!), do I have the right packaging/seals to keep it fresh… and so on and so forth.
But what trips me up most are excess ingredients. I never seem to find a second use for the tub of ricotta cheese eager to spoil in my fridge or the orphan stalks of cilantro destined to wilt and wither away. Somehow this pains me more because, these poor guys never even got a chance in the kitchen. They didn’t get to show off their flavor and wow me atop of a homemade pizza or baked within an enchilada.
Poor, unfortunate excess. That is, until today. Thanks to wise folks at Whole Living, I’ve found a home for leftover herbs, bread, even wine!
For Herbs: grab an ice tray and pack it half full with your chopped up greens. Fill the remaining half with water and freeze. When you need that cilantro for your next dish, pop out your cube and let it defrost into the recipe! I recommend labeling your trays if you have several herbs in the ice box ;)
For Bread: Pulse stale slices in a food processor and make breadcrumbs. Or if you’re feeling adventurous, soak torn pieces in eggs and cheese and bake yourself a breakfast strata!
For Wine: Leftover red wine (as if that’d happen in my house) makes a great marinade and pan sauce substitute. White can even be transformed into vinegar (whoa!) by mixing three parts wine with one part live vinegar (WL suggests Apple Cider Vinegar) and letting it sit for a month in a warm, dark place.
What are your tips for conserving food? Tweet them to @saltycouture!
My Momofuku Misfit.
It’s not easy to be an impostor. Especially when the science of baking plays a part in the scheme. Yet I attempted anyway and tried to replicate the chocolate chip cookie cake from the Momofuku Milk Bar recipe book. Unfortunately, there were several little hiccups along the way. The first being that I didn’t quite have cake flour, but pastry flour. I thought that might suffice. But then I also thought it would be okay to use walnut oil instead of the suggested grape seed oil. And, it’s possible that I wasn’t using a big enough sheet pan in the oven.
It’s hard to pinpoint exact what set the cake over the edge (literally) but it happened.
I was warned that this would occur if I walked the line of the baking instructions. It was just a few compromises here and there, but it really did a number on my oven.
Luckily, I was able to salvage the middle of the cake - the part that hadn’t yet run over the edge of the cookie sheet. I carefully transfered those forgiving ingredients into a cake pan, and created a modified chocolate chip layer cake. The chips had, at this point, blended into the batter and there certainly was not enough cake to create two layers, so it became a single layer marble cake.
I decided to make the graham cracker frosting from a different recipe in the book because, frankly, I was liberated from the way things were meant to be at this point. I was creating my own misfit cake, and it would have to learn to fly on its own.
It did just fine. In fact, it was completely gone in under two days.
