Last week, we launched our new (Not)Recipes: Inspired by the way you really cook—without recipes, on the fly, using ingredients on hand in the fridge and pantry, and based on what you just feel like having—it's a way to share what you're making while you're making (or eating) it: all cooking tips, all the time.
So while expert baker Alice Medrich shares precisely crafted recipes for hamantaschen, chocolate mousse, and multi-layered cakes, it's not surprising that those aren't the foods she's cooking on any given Tuesday evening.
Alice's posts on the app have shown she's just like us... well, kind of: We've already learned lots of tips, even from her simplest (Not)Recipes. Here's a look at what Alice is really eating for dinner (and dessert!)—and what she's taught us so far:
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Join in on the fun—and stay up to date with Alice's latest cooking adventures!—by downloading the app here.
- "Snipping parsley and garlic chives from the yard"—ah, to live in California! Here, Alice pre-salts her eggs, which isn't only good for seasoning: The team at Serious Eats has found that it helps the eggs retain their moisture and tenderness. (The salt prevents the proteins in the eggs from linking as tightly as they otherwise would during cooking.)
Whisk a fresh duck egg with salt. Let rest while making coffee and snipping parsley and garlic chives from the yard. Heat evoo, add eggs and herbs, grate a little Asiago or parm over all.....either fold or disturb the whole business with a spatula. Breakfast for one, quick and good. #duckeggs #breakfast
- Alice gave us 5 ways to turn plain yogurt into dessert—and here's a sixth, I.R.L! Now if she'd only tell us how to make date syrup...
Greek yogurt with bananas, tahini, date syrup....add strawberries and or toasted pecans. #DecadentSnack #SoNotSadSnack
- More flours = more flavor—that's Alice's own advice. We're counting four flours in this (Not)Recipe—and it's inspiring us to tweak our own go-to cracker.
Pumpkin seed multigrain (brown and white rice flour, corn flour, oat flour) cracker with olive oil....still working on this! #crackers #glutenfree #wholegrain
- We wholeheartedly endorse the consumption of green beans as finger food, and Alice has endorsed the prominent place of olive oil in a baker's pantry. Here, she's using olio nuovo— fresh oil from the first pressing of the new olive crop, bottled without filtering and best used within 3 or 4 months. (Alice gets her bottle from California rather than Italy.)
We also love the idea of using leftover almond dust to top vegetables (and if you make your own nut flours, you will too!).
Steamed green beans with extra virgin olive oil (olio nuovo when seasonally appropriate), fresh lemon zest and juice, sea salt. Sometimes add leftover toasted sesame seeds or almond dust that (if you are a pastry chef) might be lying around. Warm or at room temp, these are Good enough for company but frequently my #notsadlunch for one! PS when served as finger food, no need to top and tail the beans!
- What we don't know: How Alice has the patience to make all of these macarons. What we do know: She's powered by kale salad, too.
It's macaron-perfecting day today. Stopping only for bowl of Kale salad for lunch. Must save appetite for Chez Panisse Parsi New Year's dinner tonight.
- Yes, bench scrapers come in handy in the kitchen, but we'd never thought to use them like this! Clip out a small hole using a hole puncher, then wiggle your kale through so that the stems separate from the leaves.
No single purpose tools in my drawer (if I can help it!). This chocolate and pastry scraper doubles as kale de-stemmer....all you need is a hole punch. #dontbuysillygadgets #goodcooksimprovise #kalecaesar4dinner
- Reading the ingredient lists for this not-at-all boring turkey burger gave us many ideas for mix-ins—fresh mint, jalapeño, and ginger—at spring's first barbecue (or for dinner later this week...).
The makings of my fave turkey burger, Nulifer King's "Parsi Burger" from her book, My Bombay Kitchen: ground turkey, lots of fresh ginger, chopped onion, cilantro, parsley, you-can't-have-too-much fresh mint, jalapeño, and egg. I eat it with tahini sauce or harissa or siracha. Add cucumber raita and baked potato and you got the #besttvdinnerever
- It's easy to forget versatile citrus, a lifter-upper of both sweet and savory foods. Alice adds orange zest to chocolate rugelach and lime juice to a soy sauce marinade for steak.
Fig and chocolate rugelah: fill your favorite rugelah pastry with chopped dried mission figs, chocolate chips, cinnamon sugar, orange zest, tiny pinch of salt
#rugelah #baking #figs #chocolate
#rugelah #baking #figs #chocolate
Tonight's solo supper is bare bones version of my fave steak salad: escarole and treviso with garlicky (faux Caesar I call it) dressing topped with rare flank steak (briefly marinated in soy sauce, lime juice, garlic) cooked in smoking hot salted cast iron. Meat juices and a little Asiago grated over....Amen. #steaksalad #escarole
Written by: Sarah Jampel
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2 Comments
aargersi
March 28, 2016
Madhuja explains how to make the magical date syrup in her coconut crepe recipe!
https://food52.com/recipes/16975-patishapta-indian-crepe-with-cardamom-coconut-filling-drizzled-with-date-syrup
And you can clip parsley and garlic chives year round in Texas too, y'all :-).
https://food52.com/recipes/16975-patishapta-indian-crepe-with-cardamom-coconut-filling-drizzled-with-date-syrup
And you can clip parsley and garlic chives year round in Texas too, y'all :-).
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