Comfort Foods and Indulgences

Wait, you fried WHAT??? (featuring Fried Soup, AKA Ribollita “da delfina”)

mozzacookbook My family is pretty loosy goosy about the holidays. We’ve reduced the mania to a few key factors- a great night together with some Christmas carols, a $50 Secret Santa gift, and a fantastic meal. It’s simple and perfect. My dad is normally responsible for cooking the dinner –which is never a disappointment because he is a fantastic cook. This year, however, my folks had overbooked themselves on Secret Santa day and asked me to take care of the meal. I was thrilled because I had found a few recipes I was dying to take for a test drive and I knew my family would be eager guinea pigs.

I have not yet had the pleasure of eating in, Nancy Silverton’s restaurant in Los Angeles but that didn’t stop me from buying the cookbook as soon as it was published. Nancy Silverton has the same passion and dedication to the joy of cooking and eating without being a foodie douchebag that I hope to achieve some day.

Her recipes are always inspiring to read. When I say this, I mean that as a chef I read her recipes and am automatically designing menus that will blend with and promote the flavors of the food she is describing. She makes it easy because she understands how simple flavors can be intertwined to create something delicious.

Needless to say, when The Mozza Cookbook arrived in my household I spent hours devouring it, bookmarking so many pages that the book is bloated with post-its. When the opportunity to cook for my family showed up, I knew my Mozza moment had come. Almost everything from this menu is from that cookbook.

Baked Crab & Almond Dip

Even though dip season is officially over (I designate Halloween to Super Bowl official dip season), there is no reason to miss out on something really yummy. Who doesn't love an easy appetizer to throw together, especially one as rich and creamy as this one.

Let's face it, dip is an essential source of pre-dinner sustenance for hungry guests. And while I made this dip using white wine, it also pairs beautifully with red wine too.

While fat adds richness, not to mention deliciousness to food, fat can also put up a barrier to wine. Fat coats the taste buds, making it difficult to perceive delicate flavors. Rich fatty foods need wines with enough acidity to cut through the fat and announce themselves. Wines with good acidity, such as ours, can cut through fat like a squeeze of lemon on fried fish, making the food feel less rich and heavy. When wine doesn't have enough acidity, the combination collapses under its own weight. Just by knowing how fat and acidity combine will help you make choices with food and wine that work more often than not.

Lamb Burgers with Feta and Pickled Red Onions

lambburger It's time to pull out the grill! The official start of grilling season is this Memorial weekend. The weather is finally warm, making it the perfect occasion for a large celebratory gathering. And what would a backyard barbecue be without the ubiquitous burger? After all burgers are part of the American tradition. They're easy to make, relatively inexpensive, and easily please a crowd of family and friends.

Everyone knows beef burgers, but what about lamb burgers? OK, they're not the most traditional for Memorial Day, but they're really good. And who said we can't try something new? I can't forget the famous lamb burger at The Breslin, April Bloomfield's British-style pub. The burger I had there was perfectly cooked and juicy, thick and full of flavor. This burger is my attempt at recreating it at home.

This recipe has a bit of a Mediterranean feel, almost Greek. The lamb burgers are topped with salty feta and tangy pickled red onions. The feta complements the burgers very well, adding a tangy, salty flavor. The onions cut right through the rich flavor of the lamb. I like to serve all my burgers on toasted brioche buns, which absorbs the meat's juices. This is the way to enjoy a burger, pure and simple.

Dark Chocolate Espresso Pudding with White Chocolate Whipped Cream

The beginning of a new year continually fills me with a sense of renewal, a longing to de-clutter my life and an overwhelming desire to live more simply. My effort and elbow grease spent on creating and implementing holiday meals are behind me now and it’s time to move forward with new plans, goals and ideas for the future.

I am not one to make too many New Year’s resolutions but this year I have vowed to get back to basics in the kitchen; emphasizing fundamental kitchen techniques such as grilling, sautéing, braising and finally perfecting that “good white sauce”. These are just a handful of skills I feel all good cooks should be able to carry out with ease.

Cupcakes Instead of Birthday Cake

It must be something in the air, I’m not sure what it is. Cupcakes. Cupcakes instead of cake. First Heather Mangrum (confession– about to be my step-daughter-in law, engaged to my stepson Alex) who wrote in about her and Alex’s adorable (and sensible and charming) decision last week to serve cupcakes at their wedding instead of cake. And the test they ran to choose them, buying cupcakes from bakeries all over New York City, adding a kind of individual flourish to an already elegant and stylized yet slightly modest event. The best kind.

Comfort Foods and Indulgences