Howdy friends. The other day I was watching one of the Cuomo briefings and he said it was “day 44” of this madness. Day 44?! That feels like an insane amount of time, but also like no time. What are you doing to maintain your sense of self?
I am loving my zoom Shadowbox workouts, sunny afternoons and little projects like a new cat bed I sewed for Trixlet. I’m also working on stock piling some nice liquors because if I can’t go to the bar, I’m bringing it home. Follow @traviscollings on Insta for inspiration. H/T to Maya for the tip.
So, how are you?
Last week in Maison Izzi it was Bon Appetit week.
Pssst – subscribe if you’re not already. Protect and cherish print media! I considered experimenting with a plain and simple Molly Baz week. However after doing some research it became clear that was not feasible! So this post features recipes from Molly, Alex Delany, Sarah Jampel, Chris Morroco and others. I know that this sort of cooking looks daunting, but I specifically plan which recipes I’ll undertake based on what ingredients I already have so I only need to buy 2-4 items per recipe, or things I’d be buying anyways. Then these meals last me about 2 weeks with some eggs and salads and such.
I kicked off BA week with my favorite meal of the week – Molly Baz’s one pot gingery chicken with rice and peanut sauce. I’d say this was a bit more advanced than your average chicken and rice dish. Searing the chicken pieces on a cold dutch oven went against my instincts (to cook the meat in a oiled/hot pan) but it turned out really tasty.
I made extra peanut sauce for later and may or may not have been known to use it as a dip for french fries. I will definitely add this to my regular meal rotation.
Next up was tagliatelle with prosciutto and peas by Chef Evan Funke, owner of “pasta temple” Felix Trattoria in LA. As you can tell, that is not tagliatelle. But a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, and this is a god damn pandemic – the store didn’t have tagliatelle. This was good and super easy but quite heavy. I would never make this again for one, but if I were having friends + a large salad, this would be nice. In terms of portion size, I ate this for two meals and froze half.
In keeping with the Italian theme, I paired my tagliatelle… ahem perciatelle… with Alex Delany (yung apertivo)’s Amaro Spritz aka the Lil’ Ripper. I didn’t know what to expect, but based on a description of the amaro and rave reviews by my friend Maddie, I knew I’d like… and I do! It’s not sweet, plus a little bubbly.
Does it have umami? Not sure exactly what that means but I’m going to say yes.
For the sweet thang I decided to bake something I’ve been jonesing for: the earl grey yogurt cake by Molly Baz. I have some fancy loose leaf earl grey from my last trip to London and was v excited to use it! This cake was moist, fragrant but not overwhelming and overall delightful! You could serve this for dessert or an over-indulgent breakfast. 10/10 would recommend.
Next up I went with Chris Morroco’s french-ish onion soup. Friends, I’ve been daunted about french onion soup in the past and YOU GUYS (!!!) am I glad I found this. It was beyond easy and the flavor was complex. The hardest part was thinly slicing 7 onions without my eyeballs drying up from the onion fumes. If you’re craving french-ish onion soup, make this.
Last but not least is Sarah Jampel’s just-keeps-getting-better lentil salad. The reviews on ba.com are rave. Reader, they were not wrong. This salad is a slam dunk and is indeed better 3 days later. You might be able to tell, but I had to make some swaps. I couldn’t find black, or french green lentils so I used regular goya green lentils. Rather than boiling them for 26 mins, I only cooked them for ~10. My feta also went bad so I could only use 2 ounces instead of 5. Sad. 😦 As you can see from the above pic, I used scallions from my personal millennial scallion farm, inspired by David Chang like every other coastal young person. Who else is growing scallions? Are yours slimy?
Until next time, my friends. Next week look forward to Indian-ish by Priya Krishna and her mom, Ritu Krishna.
Girl Seeks Bagel 