Cookbook – Crystal Rivera

tender are the teeth as we speak

March 18, 2020March 19, 2020by Crystal Rivera1 Comment

I have held onto Nigel’s narrative for years. ‘Tender’ would be the perfect word to describe Tender, perhaps too tender for me to cook from in previous years, but not today. Tender are the teeth as we speak.

I decided to self-quarintine March 12th, days before social distancing was practiced around me, and before NYC schools would shut down. Here’s what I learned so far:

streets in the Upper East Side, where I live, are still buzzing with people who are not practicing social distancing. They are walking in groups, sitting in parks, treating this like a vacation. We need a mandatory lockdown. Nurses and doctors are risking their lives every day, and these people are part of the problem.
many have lost jobs. MANY. and others are forced to go in. several teachers after the shut down went in doing work on the computer that could’ve been done at home. why? my current situation with work is this: coworkers are asking me what is going on, and I have no answers because I haven’t been told what’s in store for the company. are we getting paid leave? will our small nonprofit survive this? do I assume I have no job here on out? I repeat: many have lost their jobs. many have to go in. and many job statuses are up-in-the-air. Personally? not knowing makes me sick. i’m spiraling more often than not.
we must BUY LOCAL, SUPPORT LOCAL, like never before. and for someone such as myself who has done 95 percent of my shopping at greenmarkets but is now too afraid to hop on the train or bus, there’s OurHarvest you can turn to. Farm goods delivered to you, from farms and local businesses I’ve seen at the markets. This makes me happy. Forrealz.
cooking is saving me right now but I can’t recipe-develop. I want to compile a list of pantry staple recipes for you but can’t seem to. what I CAN do is have others tell me what to do for once. I’ve turned to cookbooks I’ve owned for years but have barely cooked from. Tender, for starters. I owe this to a cookbook club on Instagram, #fearlesscookbookclub.
people are saying social media is making things worse, but it’s mostly FB. I’m making connections right now that are keeping me sane on Instagram. my community of recipe developers and food photographers and foodies are on point with the support and real talks without being too pushy. more like a physical hug i need but can’t get.

like one I haven’t received from my sweetheart and I’ve no idea when I will.

These are just some of the things I learned. If I get further into politics, I may pop a vein. Perhaps next post? Now, here’s a couple of the things I’ve made from Tender:

dark chocolate-beet cake with a crème fraîche poppyseed frosting–I don’t know how to describe this, other than it went right with everything I was feeling and needed to feel. It was downright earth-deep. Note: he doesn’t add sugar to the frosting. I did. Not mad at it.

and what he calls, A winter dish of potatoes, onions, and melted cheese (I added mushrooms, too)

has anyone else noticed how fond he is of cheese? remember when I said I’d quit it? okay maybe not during quarintine.

I’ve made other things not from books, but from watching Jamie Oliver on Hulu. This salad of edamame (from the freezer!), fire-roasted red peppers (from a jar!), grilled green olives, arugula and parmesan shavings (from the farm!) is going on rotation. Season it with salt, pepper, olive oil, splash of red wine vinegar. He uses fava beans. I didn’t have.

Please be safe, loves. Please reach out if you feel the need to. Stay home if you can.

Food Talk

A Month with Simple

May 29, 2019May 30, 2019by Crystal RiveraLeave a Comment

There have only been two cookbooks my hands have ever taken turns being attached to: Aromas of Aleppo, and Tasting India. With Ottolenghi’s Simple now being added to the list, (thank you Danny) my hands don’t even know what to do with themselves. I’ve made about 8 of his dishes within 3 weeks, and have picked up certain things from them that I can’t wait to try out in some of my own recipes. For instance,

FRIED CAPERS. Shut the front door.

On the day I came back with the first of the asparagus, purple and green, I knew I wanted to smother them with buttered, toasted almonds, fried capers, and dill. Because that’s what page 82 told me to do. Everyone at the table loved that extra touch of salt on fresh tender stalks.

The next day, I wanted to try the capers out in a cantaloupe salad, because while I crave sweetness, I tend to crave the saltier side of things a tad bit more. I’m still developing the recipe for this one but YES, it worked out pretty nicely: cantaloupe, blood oranges, green olives, sumac caramelized shallots, crispy tarragon, fried capers, feta, sorrel and radish microgreens.

ORANGE PEELS and SEAFOOD and SPICE oh my (a much-needed reminder)

My family’s favorite was this shrimp with orzo and marinated feta. It reminded me of mussels I make with orange peels and canellini beans (which is a recipe I should definitely write up!). I’ve had a similar dish, minus the peels, at MP Taverna about a year ago. It was called a seafood paella and it, too, had feta and orzo and lots of red pepper. In short, Ottolenghi had me at orange peels. And marinated feta. If you look back in the archives, I have at least 10 recipes using orange peels, and one with marinated cheese. I’m a little in love over here.

GRATED FRIGGEN CAULIFLOWER

Now on to this bright one. I adored this salad. While most of the cauliflower gets roasted (including it’s leaves, which is so very elegant and is zero-waste friendly), some of it is grated raw and tossed in with pistachios, pomegranate seeds, parsley. It added a beautiful crunch and freshness to this salad and I can’t wait to grate cauliflower into other dishes, too.

PEAS AND CILANTRO (and how it’s currently peas season so let’s play)

I took some liberties with this one by adding cumin and aleppo pepper to the green sauce, and blistered shishito peppers to the potatoes. I want to put this sauce on everything! I also want to try out other herbs and flavors, so look out for something similar by me in the near future. We are in the thick of sugar snap season!

MARINATING TWO DAYS IN ADVANCE: Chicken Marbella

When I read that this chicken can be left alone, in the fridge, with olives and capers and dates and all the things, I was happy. This meant I could spend my Thursday morning working on my blog instead of being in the kitchen, fussing over chicken, because I did all that fussing two days ago. All I had to do was pop it in the oven and go about my business, and return to a beautifully flavored meal, sticky with pomegranate molasses.

I’m not even close to spending less time with this book. My rose harissa just arrived, the very one that Ottolenghi suggests we use. There’s also tomato after tomato recipe, eggplant recipes…I’m simply waiting for the right time.

In the Garden

We just planted Black Cherry tomatoes to go along with 3 other tomato plants, and scarlet runner beans that hopefully will not find it’s way to our Sicilian eggplants’ mauve flowers. If they do, (or if the new furbaby does) well, there goes that roasted eggplant with curried yogurt my hand keeps returning to. Page 66.

Food Talk

Back to Basics

January 17, 2018January 17, 2018by Crystal Rivera1 Comment

When the new year arrived, I didn’t do the things I’d normally do, or the things I intended on doing. No lists. No thought-out resolution. In fact, while Danny and I were with his family waiting patiently for the countdown to reach midnight, like we always do! someone glanced at their phone and noticed it was thirty seconds past. We were watching a recording of the countdown happen. We all laughed, calling it a typical Frank Pizzarelli moment, but I do think it meant something.

We spent a lot of our time in New Paltz at his aunt’s beautiful home, nearby this castle. The day we were supposed to leave ended up being a snow day, one of my favorite days out of our vacation. After walking to the castle and working up an appetite, Dan and I made reservations at A Tavola Trattoria, an Italian farm-to-table that reminded me there’s a reason why Glasbern Inn’s farm food made me cry with pure joy: there is nothing better than a locally sourced meal. Nothing. There is nothing more passionate than how it is sourced, prepped, cooked, and delivered to the table. It’s all done lovingly; full of an awareness you can only get from such a place. And to share that with my best friend is beyond words. BTW: citrus-marinated olives, pickled watermelon rind arugula salad, charred brussels sprouts, and this crostini with house-made ricotta, rosemary salt, and truffle orange honey was a beautiful way to start this meal.

We weren’t charged for our cocktails (courtesy Aunt Donna and Uncle Richie, who called in from Florida to let them know two kids in love with food would be there), and they tasted of summer, garden days. Hints of cucumber, mint, house-made pineapple jam to be spooned into gin. Dan and I toasted to the year we were about to leave, and being hopeful about the one we were about to enter.

Donna recommended their Chicken Under a Brick and I can see why. Served with fingerling potatoes that were clearly roasted with the chicken, and charred escarole, we were in heaven. The lemon flavors popped. I was obsessed with the charred greens soaked in all that lemony goodness from the beautifully cooked chicken.

The town itself seemed as if it was tailored to my dream lifestyle and dream kitchen. There’s a Handmade shop that has beautiful wooden spoons, cheeseboards, handpainted pottery BRIE BOWLS, Y’ALL. I could cry just thinking about all the things I could’ve gotten, but didn’t, simply because I don’t have my own space to fill in such a way that is Me. But I will get there, of course. This year, I’m carving out the path that will get me closer to home.

In the meantime, we are hoping to return between our birthdays, just in time for strawberry season and spring blooms and spring menus. I’d love to visit the local farms, and spend the warmer months hiking. All we can think about is eating in New Paltz again. At this farm-to-table and their one-and-only Indian restaurant I wrote about in a previous recipe post.

Much gratitude to this beautiful family who I love making cheese platters for BTW. As soon as we arrived, Frank said, “you doing a cheese thing with some meat and maybe a tomatuh?”

One thing I know for sure for 2018–there will be plenty of cheese, bread, and jam. Strawberry jam from what we pick with our own hands in New Paltz. Fig jam for Aunt Donna, as a thank you for the warm stay but also an apology for devouring the fig jam she left in her fridge. There will also be way more bread and other baked goods.

I started reading from this recipe book I purchased from our trip when we got back, and that’s when I decided that I must begin the new year by strengthening my relationship to flour and the preservation of every season, with the intent of eating better and feeling better. I also need to drink way more water. Basically, I need to go back to basics. Take a tiny step back in order to move forward more fluidly.

The first thing I baked this month were these Orange Cardamom Crumb Muffins, inspired by a recipe in Toast & Jam.

I paired them with a fig and orange jam Lori bought me from New Paltz. It’s the most delicious thing EVER. The next day I toasted them, buttered them, added more jam and ate them with chunks of cheese. They are wholesome. My favorite thing about these muffins was watching my young niece work a bite of one in her mouth. She looked unsure. But then she said, more, after a brave gulp and I knew I made a worthy muffin.