Brooklyn Food Bitch

Grocery Porn: Net Cost Market in Brighton Beach

2009-03-16T15:14:00.000-07:00

Bow down before the sausage!

My first look at the Russian food mecca named Net Cost. It was a bit overwhelming. They had a huge selection of everything edible from land, sea and air. Luckily I came with two friends that helped me navigate the aisles, translate the labels, and whom also introduced me to the Wall of Meat!

I'm a woman of excess, so when I faced this sausage fest you can just imagine how difficult it was not to grab all the sausage I could press against me. I was really confused by the abundance of baby faced logos on all the meats. I suppose nothing says tender meat like supple baby flesh, just like precious veal.

Hell, they even had baby cheese! Don't ask, don't tell folks.

Next up were long crimson, golden and green chiles that despite their formidable looks turned out to be mild when I cooked them later that day.

Of course as a virtuous blogger I couldn't resist some Amish butter.

There's no end to the possible seafood diving.

Plus the condiments to go with it like an array of olives...

salads...

Fresh breads...

Spreads...

Desserts..

And ... something to wash it down..

Netcost, where caviar nights...

And pelmani dreams come true...

Pollo for the December Soul

2008-12-12T13:09:00.000-08:00

Winter is here. I wake up in the dark. I watch the sky turn pink and gold behind the bridges and smoke stacks of the Harlem River as I ride the Metro North train in the morning. At night, crows blacker than the sky gather in the trees by the White Plains platform. By the time I get home, I want a warm and heavy meal to comfort me through the long night.

Unfortunately, by the time I get home, I’m also a little too tired and a lot too hungry to make the kind of slow-cooked winter food I’m craving: coq au vin or maybe a lamb tagine. Pollo Verde to the rescue!

Pollo Verde — Green Chicken — is essentially an Arroz con Pollo with lots of green stuff. As in Arroz con Pollo, the chicken, vegetables, and rice all cook together in a big pan, making rich flavors and easy cooking. The Verde comes from tomatillos and lots of cilantro. The doodle above is on the recipe I copied from my mother, but lately I’ve adjusted that recipe, trading the onions for plenty of garlic, adding hot pepper to brighten the flavor and tomatoes just to mix it up. Luckily, Mama’s recipe book says there are as many recipes for Pollo Verde as there are cooks in Mexico, so that’s all allowed.

Ingredients:

6-8 tomatillos
1-2 cups cilantro
1-2 hot peppers (I like thai peppers or scotch bonnets)
6-8 cloves garlic
Optional: 1 tomato, in thin wedges (or a handful of halved grape tomatoes)
3-6 Chicken pieces
1 1/2 cups rice
Salt and Pepper
Olive oil

What To Do With ‘Em:

1. Heat a dry cast iron skillet on highest heat. When it’s hot, place tomatillos in the pan and burn them a little on several sides. You’re not trying to cook them all the way, just get some nice fiery flavor. (A tip of the tongs to Mamacita, who taught me this trick with her miraculous salsa recipe, which she should really post here.)

2. In a food processor (or with better knife skills than I have), mince the garlic and hot peppers. Add tomatillos, blend to liquid, and then add the cilantro and blitz.

3. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a deep pan with a lid. (If you have a dutch oven, you can use the same pan for the tomatillos.) When the oil is hot, add chicken pieces and brown on both sides. Remove chicken from pan. (This recipe makes a LOT of rice. If you want to serve rice with a full piece of chicken for each plate, use 6 pieces of chicken. I usually make just 3, serve rice with chicken for dinner, and eat just the yummy rice as a side dish for another meal.)

4. Add dry rice to hot oil and fry for a minute or two, stirring so it doesn’t burn. Add black pepper and salt to taste.

5. Return chicken to pan. Pour blended vegetables over chicken and rice. Arrange tomato pieces on top. Cover, and turn heat down low.

6. Cook on low for 30-40 minutes, until the rice is soft. Check occasionally and add water if necessary.

Brooklyn and Beyond Bites

2008-10-18T14:42:00.000-07:00

The latest food news from the gals at BFB:

Mamacita has become a weekly correspondent for the completely edible Midtown Lunch. She is now covering Happy Hour deals in Manhattan. The latest can be found here and here.

Both SweetTea and Mamacita are now regular correspondents for Gowanus Lounge. We will be covering everything Brooklyn (even things outside of the edible). Food worthy stories include:

Please send us any tips on stories at brooklyn.mamacita at gmail

Thanks everyone!

Think Fast! Panamanian Day Eats

2008-10-11T10:33:00.000-07:00

What are you doing RIGHT NOW? Stop it. Go to Eastern Parkway and Classon, and get yourself some tasty Panamanian eats. For your sakes, I'm losing the tamal-sharing battle with Roving Eye.

There are empanadas and roast meats, pig feet souse (not the rather yucky meat pudding I knew in the South but a mix of meat, spices, and cucumbers that smells delicious and is apparently a great accompaniment to drink), beans and rice, lemonade, fish cake, and doubtless other temptations.

R.E. and I recommend the tamal from this stand at the end of the block.

We also enjoyed their fish bacalar.

Pesto É Besto

2008-10-03T19:49:00.000-07:00

Ah, Fall: season of mists, mellow fruitfulness and, this year, economic apocalypse. October invites us to slow our pace, savor the waning sunlight, and pluck the last fruit from the vine before spiraling into the Great Depression. What better time to make pesto?

Pesto is an ideal recession special: it’s shockingly cheap to make and it’s full of comforting carbohydrates. It’s fast to make and tough to mess up, and it freezes well. Now, while fresh basil is still in gardens and farmer’s markets, is the time to stock up for winter.

A Few Notes:

Yes, you absolutely have to use fresh basil. If you only have dried, make something else. You can use other fresh herbs in place of or in combination with the basil if you’re feeling frisky. In these pictures, you can see that I threw in some Thai basil along with the Italian, ‘cuz I’m all multicultural like that.

If yours is the kind of household that keeps multiple kinds of olive oil in stock, now is the time to use the good stuff. The charming and talented Fran Guinan (Steppenwolf Theatre Ensemble Member, late of August: Osage County) insisted the first time I met him that I had to try Trader Joe’s Unfiltered olive oil. He was right. That stuff is the bomb. And the TJ’s on Atlantic and Court is now open, so I don’t have to brave Union Square to restock.

I’m not the biggest pine nut fan in the world (unless we’re talking about the town in Best Of Show), so I substitute pecans and/or almonds. Almost any nut you like the flavor of will work here, though peanuts sound gross to me. Depending on how oily your nut of choice is, you may need to adjust that last pour of oil.

I loooooove garlic. If you don’t, use less. Heretic.

Pesto is the kind of recipe Cuisinarts were born to make. A blender will do in a pinch. If you don’t have either, take comfort: neither did the folks who thought this stuff up. Use a fine grater for the garlic and cheese, a stout knife for the nuts. Feel authentic and virtuous.

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1/4 cup nuts (half pecans, half almonds is my usual)
1 1/3 cups washed basil leaves (no stems)
1/4 parmesan cheese (not the green can kind, okay?)
1/2 lb pasta, cooked

What To Do With ‘Em:

1. If your cheese isn’t already grated, use the grater disk on the food processor, then a quick pulse with the regular blade. Set aside.

2. Combine in food processor garlic and 1 Tablespoon oil. Pulse about 5 seconds. Add salt, pepper, and nuts. Pulse again, about 20 seconds.

3. Add basil leaves and pulse until just mixed. Don’t overdo it. If the basil is over mixed, it gets bruised and black and unappealing.

4. Add 2 Tablespoons oil and cheese, pulse until just mixed.

5. Toss over pasta or freeze in small amounts. If you freeze it: pour a layer of oil on top to prevent freezer burn. Defrost at room temperature — don’t microwave it (cooked pesto = not so awesome).

West Indian Parade Tamale

2008-09-13T01:35:00.000-07:00

Riding on Sweet Tea's coat tails I'll post just a few pics and one of a lovely, delicious find from the West Indian Parade. Let me introduce you to my new greasy friend, the Caribbean Tamale.

Hell yeah, it looks good huh?! The maza tasted like there was some potato in it and there was definitely a lot of pork fat involved and that did not deter me one bit! Once I dug in I was a little disappointed at the ratio of fat to tender pork in the chunks of meat, but the green olives and heavily spiced sauce made it a unique find at the parade. So where did I get this? Well, where do you usually get tamales? From a older lady selling them on the corner from a cooler. Yeah, in L.A. you get them from a shopping cart, but nevertheless they were homemade and great! Wait, let me read that again, am I saying I'd rather have them from a shopping cart? Well, you can take the girl out of the barrio but you can't take...... well you know the saying.

I also had the crab and cabbage, but it was dry, overcooked and utterly unremarkable, which was a shame because I'm a sucker for crabs.

Lastly, a lovely drug store shop with an old and beautiful sign. Bye bye kiddos.

There Was More To Eat, But I Couldn't Eat It: Sweet Tea Hits The West Indian Day Parade

2008-09-12T17:04:00.001-07:00

Where I grew up, school started in mid-August, so I never understood the big deal about Labor Day. Now that I teach in New York (where school begins on the traditional Tuesday) and live in Crown Heights, Labor Day marks not only the great funeral feast of summer but also the culmination of a week of parties and concerts and merry uproar celebrating the Island roots of many of my neighbors. No one in the neighborhood gets much sleep that week, but we have a good old time before the winds grow cold.

There’s better music at J’ouvert, but for

gossamer costumes,

stilt-walkers,

vendors

of

uncommon

wares,

freelance pray-ers,

folks

dressed

as flags,

and food,

food,

food!,

…you can’t beat the Labor Day Carnival parade, Brooklyn’s Mardi Gras.

Flags

and feathers

are out in force, and just as Fat Tuesday Catholics prepare for Lent with a proper gorging, we lucky parade-goers stuff ourselves silly in expectation of the next 364 days of relative depravation. Mamacita and I both hit the parade this year, though we never did find each other among the 3 million or so revelers. She’ll give her report separately; here’s mine:

I hit the parade on Island time, which is to say that I told friends I’d be there at noon but in fact shouldered my new boulevardierre bag at about 1:30. Roving Eye and I arrived at Bedford and Eastern Parkway hungry for doubles, a magical Trini chickpea sandwich and my favorite Carnival food.

When it became clear that finding doubles would take some doing, we agreed it wouldn’t be prudent to undertake the search on an empty stomach.

First stop: Roti.

Let’s face it: unless you’re tied by blood loyalty to another of the islands, it’s hard to argue that anyone’s food at the parade is better than the Trinis’. Trini food combines the Native American, European, and African elements common to much Caribbean food with Indian, Lebanese, and Chinese flavors and techniques. The result is sublime. I like a good Bahamian conch salad or Bajan fried flying fish as much as anyone, but if you have to choose only one flag to eat beneath, make it this one:

Although this stand

was out of doubles, they had chicken and goat curry roti, as well as plenty of fresh nuts and fruit.

The young woman who served us said she ordinarily works a shishkabab stand but wanted to learn roti. She may have been new at this, but whoever was doing the cooking knew their way about all right. Roving Eye and I found a spare patch of curb to sit on, having not mastered the art of eating roti while walking.
Roti is essentially a stew burrito, a savory meat curry wrapped — bones and all — in a chewy flatbread. Before the first bite, it looked like this:

…And after the first bite, it looked like a hot mess. Oh, but it was delicious! The bread is soft and chewy but not so absorbent as to become soggy in the curry. The chicken was tender and spicy, and the curry itself studded with perfect, slightly flakey potatoes. Neither of us could get the way of taking a bite and then extracting the bones neatly from our mouths, though I’m keen to practice more.

Our vigor renewed, we set off on our doubles mission once more, but I couldn’t resist stopping at this fruit stand, which was selling sugar cane.

We kids used to buy slender, 8-inch lengths of cane from the molasses-making exhibit at the state fair. We’d carry them around all day, chewing the stalks for the sake of their juice, spitting out hunks of masticated fiber. These folks were selling whole canes, thicker than those of my childhood recollection, but they agreed to sell me just a foot’s worth for $2, and they chopped off the shiny exterior. Ah, sweet nostalgia!

One of the magical things about the parade is that the vendors aren’t limited to established restaurants and catering businesses. Seems like everyone with an idea and a kitchen gets in on the act, using whatever is at hand. Roving Eye bought delicious pink lemonade from a man with a huge tupperware-esque file box balanced on a grocery cart. His other customer looks pretty unimpressed with me:

We walked a few more blocks, but found no doubles. But we did find a woman selling Bajan fish cake!

Fish cake is little fried nuggets of salt fish and flour and spice. The insides are fluffy and surprisingly dry, rather like hushpuppies:

I wasn’t sure how much more I could eat, but I rallied when we found, at long last, DOUBLES!, sold by J&K Halal Food for $2. I was distracted by delight, so some of these pictures are by Roving Eye:

Don’t let the piles of fried chicken and french fries fool you — I’m sure they taste fine, but there are better things here to fill your stomach.

By R.E.

Doubles is (yes, is — “doubles” is the singular and plural, as in “I’d like a doubles”) the perfect street food. First, take two pieces of yeast dough, seasoned and yellowed with tumeric, and fry them in 4-inch circles. These are the “double” part.

Then, make a sandwich using the fried dough, with channa for the filling. Channa is a spicy mix of chickpeas — tastes very Indian. The chutneys that accompany the channa vary by the cook. Sometimes they are very spicy, sometimes cooling mint plays off peppers. In this case, the chutney was sweet with whole tamarinds. You can see a tamarind in the middle of this picture:

The result is a perfect balance of protein and fried satisfaction. This doubles is a bit more oblong than the standard and bigger, which may account for its being served in a dish rather than wrapped in foil for eating on the go. Just as well, since spitting out the tamarind seeds made it less than easy eating. But oh, so tasty.

By R.E.

Someday maybe I’ll try this recipe.

I regret to admit that by then I was too full for shark & bake or pholourie or anything else besides the snow cone I bought off a stoop on Bedford. But there’s always next year -- I have faith that summer will come again.

Park Slopes First Annual Restaurant and Food Tour

2008-09-04T13:55:00.000-07:00

Yes, you heard me right...but wait there's more! It's Free!!

Park Slopes First Annual Restaurant and Food Tour
Thursday, September 18th
Starting at 7:00pm

A chance to sample (for free!) food from the many 7th ave and nearby establishments. According to Buy in Brooklyn:

Restaurants will have hors d'ouevres, wine shops will have tastings, food businesses will have samples, and other creative glomming-on-businesses will think of other brief things to delight and entice you. The idea is to allow you to saunter through a wonderful Movable Feast, and let you discover, sample and try things you never even new existed!

Freeloaders: Mark your calendars and be sure to have a light lunch!

Business owners: Think swarm of locusts and prepare accordingly.

Restaurants participating will be:

Barrio Restaurant 210 7th Avenue, 718-965-4000

Big Nose Full Body 382 7th Avenue, 718-369-4030

Grab Specialty Foods 438 7th Avenue, 718-369-7595

Miracle Grill 222 7th Avenue, 718-369-4541

Moim 206 Garfield Place, 718-499-8092

Naidre's Cafe 384 7th Avenue, 718-965-7585

NoNo Kitchen 239 7th Avenue, 718-369-8348

Park Slope Fitness Collective 366 7th Avenue, 718-499-1849
Free fitness class, time TBD

Pizza Plus 359 7th Avenue, 718-768-5327

Russo's Mozzarella & Pasta 363 7th Avenue, 718-369-2874

Second Helpings 448 9th Street, 718-965-1925
Serving butternut squash chowder

Sette Enoteca e Cucina 207 7th Avenue, 718-499-7767
Serving Grandma Nonna's beef & veal meatballs

Slope Cellars 436 7th Avenue, 718-369-7307

Tonio's Restaurant 306 7th Avenue, 718-965-4252

Sweet Tea's Almost Healthy Fried Okra

2008-08-31T11:58:00.000-07:00

Late summer, and a Southern girl’s thoughts turn to okra. O, O, Okra! Most succulent vegetable, and most maligned! How fleeting your tender youth, how woody your old age!

Okra came to the U.S. From West Africa and claims a seat in the pantheon of Southern cooking , but is often misunderstood and derided by those who didn’t know it growing up. It’s the grits of vegetables. Like grits, it can be cooked badly but is easy to cook well, and worth the little effort.

A Few Okra Tips:

Buy it fresh if you can; frozen isn’t good for much but gumbo. There's terrific okra at $4/lb. at the Grand Army Plaza Green Market; for some reason the okra at the Food Coop is not so hot. Chose young, small pods. Older pods can be quite tough, though some varieties stay more tender. Try to avoid ones with dark scratch marks showing age. (Okra can be very prickly when raw, so careful as you sort through the bin.)
Okra gets slimy when its insides get wet. This is good if you’re making gumbo, but if it bothers you, try stir-frying whole pods with garlic, ginger, hot peppers, and other spices you like.
If you're cooking okra wet (for stews, etc.), add it late in the game. Over-boiled okra is not a good thing.

The most famous use for okra is gumbo — the word gumbo actually comes from the Bantu word for okra — but nothing says summer to me like fresh, salty, fried okra. Unfortunately, nothing says “bad news” to me like the cardiology ward. Fear not; I’ve found a delicious middle ground:

Sweet Tea’s Almost Healthy Fried Okra

Ingredients:

Corn (1/2 - 1 ear per person)
Okra (small handful per person)
Tomatoes (1 big one per person, or equiv.)
Onion/Scallion (1/4 c onion or 1/2 c mild scallion, diced small)
Fresh Mint (1 tablespoon, minced)
Cornmeal
Baking powder (optional)
High-temperature oil (canola, peanut, etc.)
Kosher salt
Black pepper

What To Do With ‘Em:

1. Roast or Grill the corn. DON’T SHUCK IT. Just put the whole ears, still in their husks, into the oven or onto the grill. The husk acts as a natural steamer, keeping the kernels crisp, juicy, and sweet. Plus, corn silks pull right off the cooked corn in a sheet without sticking and clinging the way they do when raw.

Corn Porn

Cook in a 350 degree oven or on hot grill for 35 minutes. When you squeeze the top of the cob through the husk, you should feel the kernels almost break. Let cool somewhat before shucking.

2. While the corn is cooking, cut up the other vegetables. Dice the onion fairly finely, mince the mint, dice the tomato (or quarter cherry or grape tomatoes), and cut the okra crosswise into pieces roughly 1/2 inch long.

When the corn is cool enough to handle, cut the kernels off the cob and break them up a bit. You don’t need to separate every kernel; some variation is nice.

3. Fry the okra. (Disclaimer to my fellow Southerners: this won’t be the kind of fried okra you get at buffets and family-style restaurants, with the thick, puffy breading, but it’s fresher tasting.)
Dredge the okra through a mixture of cornmeal and black pepper. I like to add a little baking powder when I fry, to help the crust along, but to tell the truth, that’s more important with flour-ier frying (like chicken. Mmmm…..). If you like your okra more thoroughly covered, add some white flour to the cornmeal.

You want the okra to be a tiny bit damp so that the cornmeal sticks a bit, but not so wet that the slime gets really going. If the cornmeal isn’t sticking enough — it doesn’t need to be perfect — spritz the okra once or twice with a spray bottle.

Heat a small amount of high-heat oil in a heavy skillet. You’re not deep-frying; a couple tablespoons should do it, depending on your pan size.

When the oil is shimmering hot, toss in the okra. Don’t stir it around right away — the idea is to let the cornmeal cook and stick a bit, not to stir fry. Don’t be afraid of burning it; let it cook for a minute between each stirring until it’s done all over.

There Will Be Smoke

When it’s done on all sides, cool on a cookie rack or paper towels. Sprinkle liberally with kosher salt. (And we all know how liberals love salt.)

4. Combine all ingredients except the okra in a bowl and mix somewhat — it’s okay for each bite of the salad to have a slightly different proportion of ingredients.

Top the salad with the okra, crouton-style. Serve. Repeat as needed before winter comes back.

Green Produce Bags on Shoestring Bazaar

2008-08-30T15:07:00.000-07:00

Hey, ya'll. In a fit of hyper-bloggery, I've also started a crafty blog, called Shoestring Bazaar. Here's a food-related project: reusable produce bags to replace the endless stream of plastic ones I have a hard time reusing. It's an easy project and very forgiving of mistakes.

Tried them out at the infamous Park Slope Food Coop (which really does has the best produce for the best prices within miles of my Crown Heights apartment) this morning. No injuries reported.

Free Eats: Safe Haven's Opening Night

2008-08-22T08:59:00.000-07:00

It’s widely known in my household that I’m pretty ghetto, and when it comes to anything free I’m the first in line. So when I heard that Safe Haven, the new bar and grill on 6^th ave and 20^thst, was having a grand opening party with free southern food and $5 Six Point Craft Ales, I put on my walking shoes.

This space recently held the beloved Bar BQ where young and old liquored up on weekly specials like $2 Bluepoints, free bourbon, and an inexhaustible supply of live bluegrass, country and rock. Safe Haven hasn’t changed much of the inside of this joint. The bar seems to have been cleaned up a bit and the floors have a new coat of polish, but all in all it still has that friendly neighborhood vibe that attracts the locals and there were plenty of them last night!

The bar was packed and the restaurant area was standing room only when we arrived. Despite having what seemed like only one bartender and one waiter we were quickly able to secure a glass of Six Point Emasculator, because after all, with a name like that it has to be good. It had a dark rich color and deep malty flavor. With a 7.4% ABV I can fully see how Emasculator can put any guy or gal in their place! All beers were served in what I can only describe as a tall goblet, which led me to wonder if all the beers that night were full pints. Humm curious… but I digress. With beers in hand and wide grins on our faces a waiter placed before us a basket of catfish fingers.

They were scrumptious. Outside of each hot chunk was a crunchy cornmeal coating with a definite Cajun spiciness. Inside there was a tender and moist hunk of wonderful catfish. On the side came a unique house made tartar sauce. It had the tangy relish of your typical tartar but creamier and speckled with bell pepper, almost reminiscent of a ranch dressing. It complimented the catfish wonderfully.

Our next trip to the bar yielded a couple of glasses of the Belgium Rye. Once again, you can’t beat a locally made brew, it was slightly sweet with a nice hoppy flavor and deep amber color. Back at the table the friendly waiter offered us a basket of hushpuppies, how could I say no?

Each small ball was fresh out of the fryer and looked delicious, but looks can be deceiving. I broke into one only to find an extremely salty crust and an awfully boring center. There was obviously some chives mixed in the batter but the end result left me not wanting another bite. It came with a side of a similar dressing as the tartar sauce but a little less tangy. I tried dipping another one into that to see if it would help, but alas it did not so the basket went largely uneaten. This really says something, because I never turn down free food. Hell, I even disappointed myself. Did I mention I’m cheap and I love free stuff?

The place was getting even more packed and I was hungry to we left soon after. The beers are excellent, but I’m not sure if they will exclusively carry Six Point or if that was only for the opening. The catfish is solid and their seemed to be some corndogs and fritters being passed around, though I didn’t get a chance to catch any of those. I’d certainly go back to try the full menu and some of the pork I hear rumors about. All in all, I still miss Bar BQ but I’m looking forward to seeing this bar develop and grow its niche. Hopefully adding in some of the happy hour specials and great music that helped make the last bar so memorable.

Safe Haven
689 6th Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11215